Father's Day

We had a great first father's day for Stan with the Smoodge.

In the morning we had a yummy hash brown casserole.

Stan is such a great father and Cole adores him.

I love having a husband my son can look up to!

Genealogy!

I've committed myself to working on our family history this year.  This is a relatively new area to me. My mom was the family genealogist, but now that she is gone I've taken it on.  The biggest hole in our family tree was on my maternal grandmother's side.  Her parents both died by the time she was two and she went with her father's side of the family.  Very little was known of her mother aside from her name and that she was from Mississippi.  I had been feeling like I should contact the last living relative from that side of the family - my great aunt Evelyn.  She is 86 years old, but fortunately is very sharp.  I had been putting off calling her for months - busy with other things, wondering what I would say as I couldn't remember ever speaking to her before, etc.  I finally felt prompted to do it immediately so stopped putting it off and called. She was delightful to talk to.  I asked about her mother's side of the family and she said she only knew that she was from Grenada, Mississippi and that she heard from a relative that she and her sister (my grandmother) had two half siblings named RT and Pearlie that she had never met.  They had been sent back to their mother's parents shortly after Evelyn had been born.

I had very little to go on, but felt like I was being guided to pursue this so I hopped on the internet.  I got a couple of leads from a cemetery listing and my great grandmother's death certificate (which listed her parents names), but couldn't find a record that had her parent's names at all, let alone those siblings.  I went to bed that night with a few ideas, but nothing firm.  That's when the haunting from the other side began : ).  I couldn't stop thinking about it so I got up and sketched some ideas of possible connections on paper.  Then I tried to go back to sleep.  I was restless again and then had a clear scene play out in my head that there was an error on my great grandmother's death certificate - that her father's name was incorrect.  The recorder had written M. C. McClellan, but what had actually been said was "Him Seab McClendon".  I had found records for a Sebron (Seab) Mc Clendon that matched some people buried near someone named  RT, but couldn't find anything like M.C.  I just knew this was right (total inspiration - how on earth would I have come up with that otherwise!). In the morning I went to the temple and prayed that I would be guided to the tie this information together.   I went to the library and miracle of miracles I found in the 1930 census a record with all the right family names including Sebron and his grandchildren RT and Pearlie!

It was such a joy to call Evelyn and tell her I found her family.  She was overjoyed. She said she knew she belonged to somebody!  She had tried a few times over the years to find out more - even asked a school teacher her to help her write a letter, but no one wanted to help her and discouraged it.  It turns out that her brother RT died that same year as the census at age 7.  I haven't found Pearl or other living relatives yet, but thanks to the census I now have some names to look for them.

And so the spirit of Elijah turned the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers lives!  I'd love to find some living relatives before Evelyn passes so the race is on!

Beach Fit Blues

Last week at the beach Cole got upset because I took some beach crud from him that he was trying to put in his mouth.  He threw a small fit which ended in him very dramatically flopping himself forward on the sand with both hands out and mouth wide open (envision child's poise but less peaceful). What a surprise it was for him as he quickly yanked his head back up with his nose, eyes and mouth full of sand. Gena and I couldn't help but laugh at his utter shock and dismay as we tried to scoop all the sand out and off of him. Poor kid was covered.  A few days later we were back on the beach and a similar scene ensued.  It got all the way to the fit, when as if in slow motion, Cole caught himself mid flop, shut his mouth and barely missed burying his face in the sand again. He remembered!  I was impressed that even though all this was overly dramatic he learned his lesson.

June 2011 with the Mabees!

 Farrells Ice Cream Parlor

Discovery Science Museum

Aliso Beach

Weenies and Smores

Legoland

Summer Fun with The Mabees

As soon as their school year ended, my sister Gena and her boys Marshall and JaKobe came for 2 weeks.  We had a great time playing and relaxing.  Gena and I were very close growing up and it was neat to have time to grab our kids and each day figure out something fun to do with them.  We spent many days at the beach, playing at Legoland, swimming, Discovery Science Museum, Sea Life Aquarium, Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor and playing games.  Marshall wrote his own Mad Libs that were really fun and created a card game called Land Sweeper. Kobe tackled boogie boarding for the first time and was a natural.  We also got to visit our friends the Shaddys that we grew up with in San Jose. Collages of festivities to follow!

Beach bum

We are taking full advantage of being near the beach.  By summers end Cole may be so dark that we need to change his name spelling to Coal!  Our friend Eric came into town so Cole decided to show him how we do it in the OC.

Babies Do Say Ga-ga

Cole is a very happy baby.  His motor skills are very impressive and his verbal expression is just starting to come along.  He makes baby sounds and can say mama and dada, but doesn't distinguish or associate them with us yet.  He has created his own happy sounds of communication.  In his world the higher the pitch and changes in intonation indicate joy. Our favorite is ga-ga.  He starts with a low sounding drawn out ga sound then adds a high pitched second ga to the end.

First Steps

On June 1st Stan came home from work and said that he felt like that night was the night Smoodge would walk.  I chuckled - yeah right - but agreed to sit in the floor and give it a try.  What do you know? - Smoodge took his first four steps! Since then he hasn't done much solo walking - he's in the "what I'm standing - let me sit immediately" phase.  I know life will be a bit more crazy when he's all on his own so I'll wait til then and enjoy the preview he gave us.

Playing at the Park

Smoodge loves to park.  Pretty much every facet he enjoys - swinging, playing in sand, slides (usually trying to climb up) and most of all if there is a tube of some sort to climb through.

Naps

Smoodge and his daddy love to nap - here's another great moment captured!

Cruisin Into Church

The Smoodge likes to be stylin like his daddy when he walks into church.  This is from the end of May 2011.

We're back

It's been a long time since I blogged! Too long!  This weekend I'm committed to catching up so here we go!