Father Christmas

So in the few minutes I have on a computer that will upload pictures to this blog, enjoy:

 

Anna, Buxton and I went out Sunday to get our Christmas tree, and while there met Father Christmas. Buxton wasn't so sure about him at first, but he warmed up. By the end of the afternoon, the boy was telling everyone about seeing Santa Claus. 

 

I found out about this particular tree sale when I started working in Lake Wylie. The River Hills Lions Club has been holding it for years and years. The prices are reasonable to quite good, and all the money goes toward Lions charities. Anna and I get our tree here every year. 

  

The Lions even help cut and load the tree, and would deliver it free in Lake Wylie. It's an all-around great group. And we got a big, full tree that I'm sure Buxton will try and form tackle countless times this holiday season. 

 

It took Buxton a little while, but... 

 

And, yes, for whoever might here this story later, I did randomly lie to my son right before bed and tell him there was a boogie monster living in the tree who would jump out at him. I know, I'm a terrible person. I cleared up the matter with Buxton this morning.

Horses and Pumpkins

So this time last year Buxton wanted absolutely nothing to do with riding a horse. This year he won't shut up about it. We see several horses on our ways too and fro each day, and he loves them. He was pumped about getting to ride horses at the greenway during their fall events.




 And when he couldn't ride (he rode three times), the boy just wanted to watch the horses. Until his grandmother told him the horses were going to chomp his head off like an apple. Not really. He still watched them even after she said that.

 They also had several hay bales made into mazes. This boy is a human GPS. He certainly didn't get that trait from me.

 If you didn't know they were cousins...

Afterwards we stopped by a pumpkin patch. Buxton added the word "orange" to his repertoire. Usually he says pretty much everything is either red or blue. 

And, just to prove the "blessing of the pumpkin" shot last year wasn't a fluke...

I Suppose It's Official

Handy Buxton

In honor of my favorite cartoon, Handy Manny, I thought I'd clue everyone in on how to be a world class handyman. First, you have to get dressed for the part. Remember, safety first.

You can't be too careful with the eyes. Thanks Uncle Ian for the big boy gear. 

There, that ought to do it.

Oh, I almost forgot the old cabeza. Hey, is it getting foggy in here?

Now that you're all practiced up, it's best to go and find a real handyman to help you tackle that next big project. Since I don't have one at my house, we took a trip to Florence to see Papi.

Boy do I love hammers!

I got this Papi.

Don't forget, it's always good to take a break every now and then to go clean the yard. It's not going to clean itself!

Did I mention I sure do love me some hammers?

Fine, Papi! You can help too.

Time to inspect the handiwork. This time, a birdhouse. Here's one that I prepared earlier.

Pretty cool, huh? You'd have thought I'd done this before!

Finally, time to show off the goods. Thanks Papi and Gaga! I had a blast visiting! See you again this weekend! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONKEY!!!

The undoubtedly best two years of all our lives, with so much more to come!

 

We love you Buxton!!!

How To Make The Hospital Fun

So hopefully there'll be many more pics from our England trip, but something that happened before our trip was just too good not to share. It was just a couple of days before we boarded the plane, and Buxton had his second ear tube surgery.

Buxton loved the gown.

Anna loved holding Buxton, even if it now takes anesthesia to to recreate that "baby boy feeling."

But the best part had to be the before and after video. Try and tell at what point he received the good stuff:

Our Visit to England

We had a great time visiting family and friends in England a few weeks ago. We took almost 4,000 pictures. Here are some of my favorites from the trip that I have access to right now.

Buxton had tons of fun running around and playing in the fields at Auntie Joan's house on our first day there.

The first few days of our trip we stayed in Chester.  Here we are outside Chester Cathedral.  Buxton is sitting on an elephant statue (not sure why it was there). 

And here are Buxton and I at Chester Zoo on our last day where we found another elephant statue for him to sit on.

We then went up to the Northeast of England.  Here are my parents with my brother and his daughter Brooke, along with Buxton and I.

We went to Crimdon Dene and Seaton Carew beaches (the temperature was a lot cooler than at the beach over here in the summer).

The last week of our trip, we stayed in Buxton (the town I was born in and named Buxton after).  The house that we stayed in was on the same road as the building where I was born.  Here are Buxton and I outside of Corbar Hall.

Buxton enjoyed drinking out of a natural water well.

We had a great trip!  There were lots of people we saw and other things that we did.  I promise we'll post again as soon as we can.

The Children Shall Lead Them

So I'm a sports nut, and to make the World Cup more fun I got some family involved in a pick 'em style game I thought would be fun. Basically you pick every game in the group stage win, lose or draw for one point each, with one game as your Golden Goal Game of the Day (worth two points for a win, minus two for a loss). Then the top eight scores will advance to the knock out stage, where based on points each person will take turns picking who they think will win the whole shebang. Whoever picks the winning team wins.

Yes, I made it up entirely.

In any case, the reason I share this information here is an interesting peculiarity I noticed in tallying the scores yesterday. Through the first weekend of play (8 of 48 group play contests), the editorialized standings are as follows:

+4 Eve (at less than three years old, 2-for-2 in Golden Goal games)
+3 Buxton (less than two years old, picked his games by pointing)
+3 Carol (I won't say how old my mom is)
+1 Kayne (flip flopped with me in points every day)
0 Anna (only cares about England; wasn't happy)
0 John (the only person who truly cares)
0 Harrison (rebounded nicely with +3 Sunday)
0 Lindley (+3 on Sunday)
0 Dewayne (+4 Sunday, only he and Eve did so)
-1 David (on a +2 streak)
-1 Steve (also a +2 streak)
-2 Connie (tied for first before the Sunday games)
-3 Matt (picked all ties)
-4 Baba (golden goal games hurting the cause)
-5 Holden (tough start)

So as you can see, the clearest path to victory appears to be pointing and saying the second name in a series. Good luck to all. A special, international soccer prize awaits the winner.

A Day At Work With Daddy

Way too many pictures for words. Enjoy.