33 Weeks and Growing

Laura is now 33 weeks along and feeling great...well, big and great. We can't wait to meet the new little guy. We can hardly believe it is just a few weeks away! CJ is very excited about the idea of having a baby in the house. He loves the neighbor's, the Monks, little baby Clayton. Sure, maybe it's because they share the same name, we are hoping he just likes babies! CJ is still a little puzzled with Laura's big belly. He lifted her shirt up the other day to see what was under it and realized...its just BELLY! When we ask "Where is our baby?" He points to Laura's belly, but we just aren't sure how much he really understands....but for now - it works and we are all getting excited. Now...if we can only finalize a name for the little man, we will be set.

WIND....What Is It Good For?

President's Day came around with not a cloud in the sky and a stiff westerly wind, so the ClayWardCrew decided to put that wind to use! With a quick trip to Walmart, and a small glance at some assembly instructions, we set off for the soccer fields and put our Oklahoma wind to work. With this being our first experience with a steerable kite, and with "Danger" being our middle names, the natives fled for cover as the Ward Crew Wonders zoomed overhead.

Snow or Ice anyone?

The Big Ice and Snow storms here in Oklahoma did not stop or hinder the Ward family from playing....oh no! CJ wouldn't stand for it...we were all outside bundled up playing on the snow, slipping on the snow and even eating the snow. We were shocked to see how much snow and ice CJ ate - he ate more than he played...but, don't worry, we made sure to steer him away from the yellow snow or ice (or at least we tried!)

Icy Fun!! (I See Fun!!)

CJ had fun over at Zach & Ty's house in the afternmath of 'The Ice Storm Of Doom!!!'. They had fun sliding down the driveway on cardboard boxes and various other implements of danger (Those boys Live For Danger!)

Yeee Haaaa...Cowboy

I think these pictures pretty much speak for themselves... while in Dietrich, CJ had a great time dressing up as a cowboy.....yee haaa. These pictures were just too cute not to share!

Reunited for Christmas

On Christmas Eve, after having been separated for a week, the Clay Ward Crew was reunited in Idaho, or paradise, as Clay calls it ... however, coming from the Caribbean - Laura had a little different opinion as to what Paradise really was... but, nonetheless we were happy to be together again!

We had our own version of the Christmas story, narrated by Grandpa Stan Ward and enacted by CJ (the shepard), Evan (Joseph), Taylor (Mary), and Maydin (the angel). The kids did a great job. We had to take the picture quick because the costumes didn't stay on long!



Here we are Christmas Morning in our new Christmas PJs. If it looks like we just woke up... well we did! CJ's all perky, I'm not quite sure about Clay and Laura.




Here is the Family...Stan, Amy, Grand dad, Janie, Joslyn, Rhein, Leslie, Josh, Clay, Laura, CJ, Maydin, Kastin, and Kelly. (from left to right, starting with the top row)












Clay was very excited to be in the snow again and couldn't resist hitting the slopes while we were in Idaho. So, Matt (Joslyn's boyfriend), Joslyn, Janie, Dad, Patrick (Clay's long time buddy), and Clay all went to Pomerelle and skied until they couldn't stand up any more. Thank goodness there were no casualties, well, except for Dad's new camera...oops.

To the Caribbean and Back

On December 15th, CJ and Laura strapped on their packs and headed to New Orleans where they met the Smith Clan, boarded the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship and headed off. CJ had a great time not only packing around his back pack, but Mommy's too! What a man! That's what I call "Gentlemanly Like Behavior!" (for all those Pride and Predjudice nuts).


Laura and CJ had a great time hanging out with the Smith Clan for a week - the cruise was just an added perk!!




They went swimming, watched dolphins, met the natives, ate fabulous food, met one of the original Monkeys (the drummer, I think!), went snorkeling, etc. What a tough life.

From the report, Laura and CJ had a blast, but next time Laura said she is going to exchange Clay for CJ and have a RELAXING vacation.

Christmas Time

Well, it's been a busy few weeks in the Ward house. Laura and CJ headed off to New Orleans and met the Smith crew where they all boarded the 'SS Caribean Cruise Ship'(or something like that)and from last report are having a great time out in the Gulf, hanging out in Mexico, swimming with dolphins, parasailing, and doing whatever else goes on out there. Clay, in te meantime has been very busy with flight training back in Oklahoma. His flight commander was really pushing him and three other guys in his unit to finish their Navigation Checkride before Christmas (The Nav Checkride is the last really big hurdle to get through before graduation). So in other words that meant that Clay would have to forego the cruise for training. The unfortunate thing was the weather came in this week right before the checkride and cancelled all of Clay's sorties(flights)for the rest of the week. Needless to say it's been a lonely week or so without Laura and CJ, and since training was halted, it's been a really slow week. Neighbors have taken pity on Clay (he's been invited to dinner about four of five times this week) and helped keep him company. Clay, Laura, and CJ will all meet back up in Idaho on Christmas Eve and spend a week or so with the family. I'm sure CJ and all of his cousins will have a blast over the holiday, and it will be nice to get back home after being away for over a year.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

With our 75 degree weather days in November, Clay was a little worried that he would have to wait until our visit to Idaho to experience snow. To all of our surprise, Clay didn't need to wait after all, last week....snow came to Enid! (just after a 75 degree day too...weird). Not just a trickel either...we got about 12 inches! Clay was excited beyond words. (PS..no we did NOT get a dog...it's the neighbors!!)

Clay was especially excited to get CJ outside and experience the snow. After an hour or so of dressing CJ, he was finally ready to meet the storm. (Laura demanded that he wear at least 20 layers! Just kidding.) But, after all that work, we stepped outside and CJ started screaming. It was still snowing and blowing - right in his face and well... let's just say, he wasn't too happy. So, the first outing was a short outing. But, we ventured out for outing number 2 the next day when the sun was shining but there was still plenty of snow on the ground. CJ was much happier!
It was so nice to have a couple of days as a family where we were snowed in and all we could do was play, play, play. Clay even got a couple of days off (now that doesn't happen very often!)

Enid's Annual Christmas Holiday Kickoff

It was the first time that we had ever seen a fireworks spectacular on the day after Thanksgiving, but then again it was our first 'day after thanksgiving' in Enid, Oklahoma. It was Enid's annual Lighting up the Plains. Like many other towns it was the event where all of the downtown businesses turn on all of their Christmas lights and the town gathers for a peek. But Enid tops off their festivity with an awesome fireworks show right in the middle of town. There were some pretty good fireworks that we had never seen before. In all honesty, the downtown Christmas lights weren't all that good, but the fireworks show made the trip more than worth it.

Turkey and Taters and Yams, Oh My!

This Thanksgiving the ClayWardCrew headed to the other side of Oklahoma to the cousins, Matt, Stacy, and Quinton, in Tulsa. It was a lot of fun seeing them again, especially since it had been three or four years since we last saw them. The food was the typical thanksgiving day grub.....awesome. However, the cleanup was a little bit more difficult than in previous years, thanks to fireman CJ, who was constantly either trying to hose down the house with the water spigut(I think that's a word) or turning the water off all together.
The next morning (commonly referred to as Black Friday) Stacy motivated Laura to head out of the house at 4:30am for the annual 'Running Of The Holiday Shoppers'. No good deal was left untouched as Stacy, Laura, and everybody else in Tulsa (except for Matt, Clay, CJ and Quinton) went to meet the Christmas sales with open arms.

Halloween Happenings

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to do a test run on the POOH costume. CJ hated it! He screamed the whole time it was on and kept trying to rip off the hat. Oh boy… When Halloween finally arrived, we were all a little nervous about how the whole costume thing was going to go over….but to everyone’s surprise and enjoyment, CJ gave Winnie a second chance! He loved it!

When it came time to take it off for baths, he didn’t want it to come off. What a difference…whew. CJ had a great time trick-or-treating with his buddies, Ty, the spider and Zach, superman. We went to Clay’s squadron building and then just to a few select houses on our street. It was sooo cold that Mom was ready to go in before CJ. CJ was so fascinated with the candy he would have gone to every door if we would let him. We brought CJ inside where it was warm and he had fun greeting all the visitors at the door and passing out candy. He was soo funny, after the kids chose their treat, CJ always had to dip his hands in the candy and choose one for himself too!

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin?

Well here are our first snapshots of the little guy/girl. From the Doctors initial report everything looks good so far. He estimated Laura as being about 14 weeks along and pretty much dashed Clay and CJ's hopes of twins (they're coping the best they can).

I'm A BIGger KID NOW!!

About two weeks ago CJ made the switch from the crib to the bed. We were wanting to free up the crib for 'baby #2', and do it early enough that it wouldn't be a big shock for CJ. We were thinking that it may take some time for him to transition to the Big Boy Bed, but we were pleasently surprised. Right from day one he has loved it. We were also thinking that CJ's new ability to get out of bed on his own would present a problem with him 'staying' in bed when he goes down. We also lucked out on that one. He occasionally comes out after we put him down in order to inform us that he wants to "Rock" a little more in the rocking chair, but for the most part he stays in bed for the duration.

Bath-Time Buddies

Click on an image to make it bigger!

Last night CJ had lots of fun with his two buddies from across the street...Zach and Ty. They were hammin it up pretty good in the tub; water, bubbles, all that stuff.
The picture tell the stories better than I can.

Fall Festival

Thursday was Fall Festival on Base. It was a lot of fun with different booths that were set up, free food, K9 security forces dog demonstrations, and play areas for the kids. CJ really liked the blowup cages, so much that when it was time to get out, dad had to go in after him and fish/herd him out (Dad was hoping for an excuse to go in there!).

The Oklahoma City Memorial

Clay had the day off on Monday for Columbus Day, so the claywardcrew decided to take a trip to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. It was quite a humbling experience going to that place and remembering what happened there in 1995. Next to the memorial was a museum that takes you step by step through the events before, during, and after the bombing. It makes you grateful for the things that you have and makes you realize how precious life is; as well as how quickly your lives can change.

Just outside the museum is a chalkboard sidewalk where kids can draw and write their feelings about the memorial.