N - Halloween & Joel Turns 3

I don't remember this from when I was a kid but it seems as though Halloween has stretched into a weeklong holiday now. We took Joel trick-or-treating 3 different times - once at the OC dorms, once in the neighborhood and a third time at church during the Fall Carnival. If you have a sweet tooth, we still have plenty of candy so come on over!

Mary did a great job making Joel's costume. He was the Big Bad Wolf. Clay was a little pig and a very cute one at that. Here is a picture before the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

I'm sure every parent says this a million times but it seems like just yesterday that Mary and I took Joel home from the hospital and he's already 3 years old! Joel had a big birthday party at Chuckie Cheese. I don't know how much the adults enjoyed it but Joel had a really good time with his all his cousins and several of his friends. On his actual birthday, we let Joel choose the meal (pizza) and we served up an ice cream sandwich "cake" with a birthday candle. This was no comparison to the amazing cake my mom made him for his party but he enjoyed blowing out the candle nonetheless.

Clay took his first steps on Sunday evening, November 7. Although crawling is still his primary modus operandi, he's gaining confidence on his feet.


Here's one last picture that I thought was funny. We don't play hide-and-seek often but the other night Joel decided all on his own that he was going to play. (I think it was an attempt to avoid bath time.) Usually kids love to be found more than they love to hide but he stayed like this for a good 5 minutes even with me "looking" very hard for him throughout the room.

N - Bedtime Story

Here is a video of Joel "reading" one of his current favorite books.

N - Vacation cont.

This post will be mostly pictures with little narrative. OK, you can stop cheering now. Seriously, I'm standing right here!

We enjoyed all the shows at Sea World but our favorite might have been the Azul show. Here is a picture of one of the dolphins from that show.

Here is a picture of Joel checking things out at the Alamo.

If you know Clay, you know he has a good time just about any time and any place.

We took Joel to the Kiddie Park in San Antonio. It turned out to be a great local find. The only problem was Mary did not want to leave the helicopter ride.

We saw this Mexican Elvis all over town and finally were able to take a picture of him.

Joel had a good time at the Houston Zoo and especially in the water play area.

N - Vacation day 1 & 2

We loaded up the family truckster on Thursday with San Antonio in our sights. After a brief respite in Arlington with Mary's Uncle David and Aunt Karan, we arrived in Dublin, TX Friday for lunch and a tour at the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling company. Although I'm not necessarily a fan of the Pepper, I happen to be married to someone who is. They actually rename the town Dr. Pepper, Texas for one week a year each June. Here is a picture of said Dr. Pepper fan with the city limit sign.

The tour was interesting and we enjoyed the break from being in the car. We drove the Texas Hill Country backroads from Dublin to the thriving metropolis of Luckenbach, Texas made famous by Waylon Jennings. This is probably my 2nd favorite Waylon Jennings song. Any guesses as to the first? The Dukes of Hazzard theme song of course! But I digress . . .

Here's a picture of Joel, Clay and I in front of the Luckenbach General Store. As Mary was taking this picture she got stung by some sort of bee or wasp. It left a huge stinger in her leg. All three residents of Luckenbach were very concerned for her and suggested several questionable remedies including holding a raw onion on the sting. It must have worked because she has survived although it is still red and a bit swollen.

Saturday brought day 1 at Sea World. We were really looking forward to Joel getting to see the whales live and in person. He's been watching the videos online for several weeks. From the pictures below I think Shamu did not disappoint.

We plan to go to church tomorrow morning with some SYC friends and then day 2 at Sea World. I'll post some pictures of the Shamu show and the very impressive Azul show as well.

M- Splash Park

Joel loves splash parks. He had a particularly good time this day with Aunt Dana, Noah and Katie.

M- Clay's first day of Bible class

Wednesday night was the first time I left Clay in Bible class. I asked his teachers to take a few pictures, and I ended up with about 25. It looks like he and the teachers had a good time. We are so blessed to have such a great children's ministry at our congregation. Thank you Brenda and all the teachers who influence my boys' lives toward Christ. I am so very grateful.

I'm pretty sure he's drooling all over his Bible to get back at Melanie and Jen for putting a bird on top of his head.

N - Clay Sitting Up

The boys are growing up fast. Clay will be 6 months old next week. Just in the past few days he has gotten really good at sitting up on his own. Here is a picture. He's kind of proud if he does say so himself.

All of the Ferguson cousins came to visit several weeks ago. We had a great time playing in the water and celebrating several birthdays.

N - Boys getting down and dirty

Lately we Ferguson boys have found a variety of ways to get messy. Since the weather turned nice, Mary has been taking Joel and Clay to the OKC Zoo once or twice a week. There are several animals Joel likes to see but his true favorite is playing in the kids water park area. A change of clothes is a must.

I couldn't let the boy top me so I set the bar a little higher and competed in the Warrior Dash this past weekend in Forney, TX. If you're otherwise unfamiliar, think of it as 5K run meets obstacle course with lots of mud and a couple of fire pits. Here is an "after" picture.

Clay has a knack for making messes as well but seeing as how it's not really appropriate to take pictures of THAT, we had him pose in Daddy's Warrior Dash viking helmet and medal. We told him to make his meanest, nastiest warrior face. This is the best he could do. Scary huh?

M - Yes, I know they look alike

Clay at 2 months

Joel at almost 3 months

M- How Time Flies

Our lives have been pretty crazy over the last couple of months. I didn't realize how crazy until I decided to try to catch my blog up to date. So, here are a few highlights since Clay has been born.

When Clay was two weeks old, we had to check back in to the hospital. He got RSV, a respiratory virus that's pretty dangerous for infants to get. Luckily, he has a strong immune system and was able to fight it off quickly. Below is a picture of him in the hospital with an IV in his head. Supposedly, that's the best place to give those to babies because they aren't always tugging at it and it's a big vein. I can't help but feel sorry for him when I look at this picture though.

Another one of Clay in the hospital

We've had to keep a close eye on Joel because he loves his baby brother a little too much at times. What once started as me telling Joel to "be soft" while touching Clay's head, has turned in to a sort of game for Joel. He now thinks Clay "is soft" and loves to rub his head. Poor Clay, one day he'll be able to defend himself. Until then, he'll endure a lot of high fives and noogies (I have no idea how to spell that word). At two months, Clay weighed 11.6 pounds (35%) and was 22 inches long (10%).

Here are a few pictures of what he looks like now:

Clay with Grandpa

Clay with Granny

For spring break, Joel, Clay and I went to Kingwood. We caravanned with Jill, Michaela and Nick from Allen. The boys were real troopers in the car. Neither one complained too much. We went to the Houston Zoo, the Aquarium, had an egg hunt and picnic. Joel and Nicholas had a great time together. It was really sweet to see them interact with each other. Unfortunately, my camera was dead at the time, so I don't have any pictures to share. Luckily, Jill and my mom took some, so hopefully I'll get those soon.

Joel has really been loving his friends Dax and Jack lately. We try to go to the Science Museum or to the Zoo with one or both of them as often as we can.

Joel on the playground at the Zoo

Joel and Jack at the new Children's Zoo area

Dax, Jack and Joel on the lion statues

Jack, Joel and Dax at the Science Museum

N - Clay Andrew Ferguson

Mary was scheduled to be induced on January 13, 2010. She hoped Clay would come on his own on January 9, her Grandpa Emmitt's birthday. I hoped Clay would come on January 10 or January 11 so that he would be a "binary baby" (01/10/10 or 01/11/10). Go ahead and say it, Neil you are a dork. OK now that you got that out of your system . . .

Alas Clay was not ready so January 13 was the day. We had to be at the hospital at 5am. It is a weird thing knowing that you are going to have a baby the next day but we managed to get a little sleep. They started Mary's labor around 6am and Clay made his arrival at 11:57am. Mary did GREAT. Of course it helped that his 9lb 6oz big brother helped pave the way for him.

Clay tipped the scales at 7lb 13oz and was 20in long. We both think he looks a lot like Joel, especially when he is crying and he curls his lower lip. Here is a picture after they cleaned him and up and gave him to momma.

Clay has quite a bit of dark hair and dark eyes although he's quite the sleeper and doesn't show his peepers very often. Here is a picture of Clay snuggling with Mary.

Big Brother Joel wasn't real interested in the baby yesterday but warmed up to him today. He played "Where's the baby? There he is. I found him." for awhile this afternoon. Here is a picture of Mary with her boys.

We've enjoyed being taken care of and seeing visitors here at the hospital but are very much looking forward to going home tomorrow.