Can you hear me now?

It is getting closer, we have 5 weeks until Clayton's new baby sister will be here! Clayton knows that a baby sister is in mom's belly, and we tell him that he has a sister on the way. I just don't think he understands what that means. He has become used to being the one and only.



I know he will be a good big brother! I for one can't wait to see baby Vivian! Yup we have settled on a name for the new baby girl. Anji's great grandmother Vivian is the name sake. My mom will be name sake for the middle name (Elizabeth). Can't wait for the day for Vivian Elizabeth Marx to arrive!

Playing in the leaves

With the change in weather it is time to spend time outside gathering leaves. Clayton is such the little helper, he has his own rake and he is constantly telling his dad where to put the pile, how to rake and telling me that I am doing a good job. He hangs out with his mother too much...



Clayton sees his father with the camera so often that you would think he wouldn't bat an eye. The opposite is true. He often hides when I get out my camera, making it a game of don't take my picture. The best time to get him is when he is playing. Of course I think that is the best time to get pictures of any kid!



Of course just cuz you are playing doesn't mean that you don't need to watch out!



Yup that photo ended the session as I had to clean my lens which got mud (mixed in with the leaves) Clayton plastered me with. I will say it was worth every minute of it!

Clayton's sand box

Playing a little catch up...

I have repeatedly mentioned how Clayton loves to play in the dirt with his trucks. When we moved, one of the first things we did was we went out and purchased the little man a plastic sand box. I was pushing for building a sand box, like what I grew up with, but my wife wanted a sand box we could cover up when he isn’t playing in the sand. She claimed cats would use the sand box for a litter box.

This is an old photo that I have been wanting to share for some time.



I resisted at first but finally relented, and I am glad that I did. There are a lot of cats in our neighborhood, as is evidenced by the piles of cat feces that we find all over the yard (yes it is cats, little dogs can’t jump our six foot fence to get to the back yard).

Jade-O Potat-O

I was looking through my photos, and noticed a slight trend. It seems that I am making more photos of things. I mean landscapes, macro, etc. When I first started, it was all about Clayton, and from there my photography morphed. I really began to want to take nice photos of family and friends (now I don't care who it is). That is where I left off for a very long time. Not long ago I found a love for landscape photography, so I began to experiment, branch out.

I guess it is time to go back to the roots, to what first got me picking up the camera over and over again.

A couple of weeks back, we went to the Union Station at Ogden (I know three times in a row now). Papa wanted to see the cars and trains. Clayton loves both of those so we thought it would be fun to go. Last minute we had an unexpected surprise, Lynn was coming too. OK so we all know we don't care a Nat's eyelash about Lynn, but he brought his little girl Jade (or like we all like to say, Jade-O potato).

Clayton hasn't gotten to know his cousin that well. I remember for Christmas I was putting photo-books together for the Grandparents of the Grand kids. I looked through the millions of photos I had captured, and found I did not have one single photo of Jade.



Well it is about time that I get a few photos of Jade!

There are so many fun things to do at the Union station for these little people (I think Clayton's favorite was actually the model trains inside). We could mostly just relax and let them do their thing.



They liked the fountain too.



At first Jade wasn't sure about me (being a near stranger to her, though I am her only bald uncle, and the funnest guy she will probably ever know). She eventually warmed up to me...





Jade, glad to get to see you. Clayton had a blast, and we can't wait to do it again. Clayton will never get bored of the train station!

Loving little boy

There is one thing about Clayton that is different from most two year olds (soon to be three). He is very loving, and affectionate. What I mean is that the little guy likes to hug, hold hands, and be held. He gives the best hugs and kisses.

He was that way as an infant and hasn't ever changed. Most children are too busy wanting to be held only so they can look around. When Clayton was an infant he liked to study his surroundings, but he was just as often content to put his head on your shoulder and cuddle.

We are some very blessed parents…



HUG!

Clayton visits the Hogel zoo

I am sooo far behind on the events since we moved. There are a billion things that we have done that I want to share so I will have to keep things short and sweet for a while. A couple of weeks back A month ago we visited the Hogel zoo. We met my parents, my sister and brother in law (Becky and Troy); of course they had their little ones, Clayton's favorite cousin Jordan and little Brody.

So you understand how uncrowded the zoo was... There are something like 2 million people living in the state of Utah and every single last one of them went to the zoo the weekend we did.

First thing we met for some food (at the very crowded zoo) and Brody managed to put his hand through Anji's ice cream cone. You can forget how fast those little ones hands can be (I was amused).

Jordan was excited to see all the animals!



You might ask, what was Clayton's favorite part of the zoo? Why of course the train ride!



Can you guess who was more excited for the ride???



There is little Brody with Grandma!



A few more pics of the kids...









OK the last one was not a kid.

Clayton and Grandpa...



We will visit the zoo again (when it is not so crowded). Clayton is going to miss his cousin Jordan...

But he calls me George?

My Dad told me about a talk he had with his granddaughter Jordan a while back. Jordan was telling Grandpa how much she loved her cousin Clayton (my son), and how he was her favorite cousin. The conservation went something like this…

Jordan: “I love Clayton”

Grandpa: “You love Clayton?”

Jordan: “Yes”

Grandpa: “Why do you love Clayton?”

Jordan: “He is fun to play with, he is my favorite cousin”

Of course this gives Grandpa warm fuzzies.

At this point in the conversation Jordan gets a puzzled look on her face. She looks up at Grandpa and says “but he calls me George?”. Of course she manages to say it with the innocence that only a 2.5 year old can. You can read the question in her face, unsure what to feel about being called by the wrong name, and by her favorite cousin no less. Jordan is unsure whether to be hurt, but Clayton is still her favorite cousin. I often am so amazed at these little people, so innocent and wonderful. We big people could take lessons from our little ones on how to love...



Clayton does get lazy sometimes when he calls for Jordan. Her name comes out as "George". He is being a boy and totally oblivious, unconcerned calling his cousin the wrong name (a big no-no in the book of boy-girl relationships, even if you are cousins). Caught up in the moment, toys and playing are what is most important (a boy to the core). He wouldn't give a second thought to Jordan calling him by the wrong name.



Even at that young age boys are boys and girls are girls. I hope he figures out that it is important to call girls by the right name. We might have to work on that one. It is a lesson he needs to learn before he starts dating or there might be trouble...

First day at the new church

We recently moved from our Bountiful town home we lived in for 5 years to our new home. We no longer live in Bountiful but now live in Westpoint (Sad, but we now have a home we can live in for years to come). We bought an 80s rambler that sits on a corner lot (the house is a story for another day). Moving means new neighbors, learning where things are etc. We may have only moved 35 miles from where we lived previously but still it is an area we are not familiar with.

It was Sunday morning and we trying to get ready for the first meeting at our new church. We had just dumped all of our worldly possessions on the garage floor late Saturday afternoon, as such finding things to wear was as much of a chore as anything else we could have done that morning. We got Clayton ready for church first, then proceeded to get ourselves ready. We were running late when we were finally ready to leave.

“Get the kid, we gotta go now, were late” what a surprise when we found Clayton. We bought him markers to go with his easel during our last trip to IKEA. I am sure he had fun drawing on the easel for the first 5 minutes he had his markers, but the last 10 minutes were when the real “ART” happened.






With that color of marker one might guess that we had an albino aborigine on our hands. No, that’s my boy!



Yes he colored walls also, but the color on his arms, shirt and face went with us to church (we decided to just go to church tattooed son and all). With a son covered in red marker, we fit the white trash stereotype to the letter. To top it off we walked in during the middle of the sacrament prayer. Yes our entrance was very much the grand entrance we didn't want and I am sure very exciting for our new ward that doesn’t see much change in membership. I am sure we have made a lasting impression on the members of our new church.

Moving Clayton's cousins

We recently helped my sister and her family move to Payson. Sadly I didn't think to take a shot of the home but I did manage to capture a few photos of the kids. All of Clayton's first cousins live far enough away that visiting any of them is a real treat. Jordan is a real hoot and Clayton loves to hang out with Jordan.

When he gets lazy he sometimes calls her Jorge (it's an affectionate thing).



Of course Brody is still too little to play with but he manages to keep himself entertained...



Clayton though is growing like a weed lately. He really is starting to look older every day. He has lost all that baby fat!

Of course Jordan has always been ahead of her time.



I wonder what Brody is going to be like?



His sister is a little dare devil!



It is exciting to see Becky move (my sister). We are going to have to do a sleep over some time! Clayton will love the chance to hang with his cousin Jorge... uh Jordan.

Spring is coming!

The snow is melting and it is warming up outside. We have had temperatures in the 50 degree range. I know it sounds a bit chilly but it is oh so nice. I was able to go out and play with Clayton the other day. We have been cooped up in our town home a bit due to everyone being sick. Nothing like the freedom of the beginnings of spring!

Here was a magic moment. I laid down to get that better angle and Clayton decided to do the same. It was picture perfect!



I know, it is spring but there is this wall next to Clayton in most of the photos (I like the wall for the depth it adds). Clayton found that he could play in the dirt as it was dry in this spot (south facing wall). We gotta get the kid a sandbox!

Clayton in a box

We have been packing up boxes of our stuff in anticipation of selling our townhome and buying a "real home". Really, we are growing out of the town home and want something with a little more room, garage and a yard to call our own. Sometimes I think about all the things that we think we need and I can't help feel that we are so spoiled. We have so much and it seems so little is expected from us.

I digress, back to the topic. As I mentioned we have been packing up boxes so we have quite a few empty boxes lying around. One box just happened to be sitting empty and open on the couch, but low and behold it wasn't really empty, a little boy had crawled in. Boo, there is a Clayton in the box!

Clayton's chair

This Christmas Nana (Clayton's Grandma) gave Clayton a brand new chair that is just his size. He loves his chair and he often will remind us that it is his chair. He knows that the chair has his named stitched across the back rest and will often rub his fingers across it and say letters in a random order. In his mind I am sure the letters he is saying spell CLAYTON. Sometimes he is so cute I could just squeeze him!



The chair is his favorite place to sit and relax and watch a movie like Cars, his favorite. Sometimes he wants to sit in our laps which we love.

His favorite show and toys lately are all about Thomas the Tank Engine.



Here he is showing off his latest toy Bertie the bus. It is so cute to see him play with these toys. He will have them talk to each other and they have some interesting conversations (his toys do). Often the conversation will end up with a crash and then apologies go around amongst the toy cars and trains.





Doesn't Clayton make some of the cutest faces? Man I can't believe how much I love this little guy sometimes. There is nothing in the world better than being a dad!



One of my next goals is to take some more creative photos of Clayton and all the things he does. It is hard to think of ways of showing his personality as he doesn't really like to hold still for dad and his camera.



I want to capture the things he does in such a way that in twenty plus years when he is married and starting to have kids of his own, Anji and I can sit down and laugh at the funny little boy and cry over how he has grown and changed. Plus it will be fun to say "you used to do that" when he complains about his son getting into some sort of mischief.

December means snow!

We all know that the big guy in red is coming (Santa Clause). With him comes that white blanket that just really makes things look clean and well, lets face it Utah snow is the best to play in! Last year Clayton was too little to enjoy the snow but this year is going to be the bomb! Sledding, snowman building, snow ball fights, and all the other snow games you can play.





Clayton's hat may look big, well it is. That is actually dad's hat but he thinks he is big and that is what he wanted to wear. He didn't want to wear his hat as it is too "little".



The cold made his little nose and eyes water. He is a tough little dude and handled it like a champ.





The snow is fun! Clayton loved how everything was covered with snow!







What we need to do is get the little man some real snow gear. After a while the snow got to him and he just couldn't handle it any more. Some good gloves, boots, snow pants, are in order!