The Converse Family

Christmas 2011 (my pictures)

2011-12-29T15:58:00.000-06:00

These are my pictures from Christmas. I didn't take any Christmas morning so I'll wait to get Pops' and then I'll post those too.

Making biscuits - a tradition at Gami's house. Aunt Feather is passing on the know how.

CJ took these next portraits.

Look at my gorgeous 80something year old grandmother, Oma(I won't give her full age away).

Stockings at Gami's.

Christmas Eve slumber party.

On the way to Aunt Jennie's. CJ wore this for 2 days straight and I'm surprised it hasn't been every day since.

Oma's great grandchildren (except Audrey who was having a rough night).

Oma's family!

Seth and new baby Cruise.

Pictures from the budding photographer, CJ

2011-12-29T15:47:00.000-06:00

He loves Granpaw and his MSU football outfit.

Decorating and attempts at a picture of all 4 kids

2011-12-18T10:47:00.000-06:00

Attempt #1 - No, Camille is not drunk.

Attempt #2...wait CJ, wait CJ

Attempt #3....oh well.

CJ's Christmas program

2011-12-17T09:38:00.000-06:00

Too Many in the Manger from Mamie Converse on Vimeo.

Can you tell this is the last song of the program???

We Wish You a Merry Christmas from Mamie Converse on Vimeo.

Socks in the bath

2011-12-13T17:38:00.002-06:00

Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do with a 2-year-old.

Santa

2011-12-12T18:37:00.002-06:00

Not surprised

2011-11-21T06:59:00.002-06:00

You just never know what you'll find in the fridge.

Katie's 12th birthday

2011-11-15T10:03:00.000-06:00

Opryland Hotel, here we come. Clark and I took Katie and 5 of her friends to spend the night at the Opryland Hotel. We had so much fun.

The view from our balcony into the Atrium.

Pink and green cupcakes at the restaurant. Their waitress (and all the other staff) we so great.

Ahh, the Converse tradition.

Ellie got paid back.

Wating for the boat ride.

The plan was to go swimming in the indoor pool, but it was closed due to a nose bleed earlier in the pool so they got in the hot tub outside. Clark and I watched from inside because it was COLD outside.

Saturday morning consisted of shopping and then lunch at the pizzaria.

We had a small family celebration on our porch Saturday night.

After a weekend of JJ and Pops and Katie's birthday activities CJ was wiped out Sunday night.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T10:23:00.000-05:00

We started with Fall Fest at the church Saturday.

The vampire and Thomas the Train.

Pac-man and Inky

2 vampires

Sunday we went to the Ford's Family Fall Fest.

We carved 4 of our pumpkins....2 faces, 1 football and 1 BOO.

Monday we went trick-o-treating around the neiborhood.

CJ getting a hug from Ellie (one of his favorites of Katie's friends). Katie was sick so she didn't trick-o-treat.

CJ had fun, but was ready to just sit on the porch with Daddy and hand out candy while Camille and kept on.

Finally back home with 2 worn out kids.

Pumpkins

2011-10-24T17:25:00.002-05:00

We went ahead and harvested all the pumpkins regardless of color. We ended up with 20, but only 19 made the picture because 1 had rotted on the steps. If we planned on keeping the vines I think we would have more, but I think I'm done with the garden for the season.

Air Show

2011-09-28T19:27:00.000-05:00

Clark and some friends took CJ and their kids to an air show. CJ had SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun. I love this first picture

CJ and his friend Charlie.

Pickles and Pumpkins

2011-09-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

We have harvested over 100 cucmbers so we decided to pickle some. We made 12 quart size jars!!

The first pumpkin to turn orange.

Different shapes.

This one is starting to turn orange.

The Garden at 9 weeks.

2011-08-24T18:48:00.001-05:00

We have no idea how to tell if the watermelon is ready so we picked one.

Guess what? It wasn't!!

This is what we found in the first ear of corn we harvested. We had fun watching the worm.

It has overtaken the space!

The first pumpkin. I guess I thought they started out orange.

None of the corn is edible, but it was fun to grow.

This isn't the garden, but Camille and CJ did get hold of the camera. This first one is a self portrait.

CJ's new ride

2011-08-13T17:22:00.002-05:00

Clark came home today with this for CJ because he ALWAYS wants to drive.

The first harvest

2011-08-10T20:15:00.000-05:00

We harvested 20 cucumbers tonight!! There are still tons on the vines so we are going to be doing lots of things (pickling, etc) with them including giving them away. It was really fun to pick one from the garden and then come in the house and eat it.

1st day of school 2011

2011-08-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

This year Katie is in 6th grade and Camille is in 4th. Clayton will be in 9th, but is going to a different school now so he doesn't start until Friday. Click the links below to see the previous years.

2010 school year
2009 school year
2008 school year
2007 school year

Sports and "The Man"

2011-08-07T15:33:00.000-05:00

Clayton and CJ love to play like brothers do.

Camille is getting fierce.

And CJ is just taking it all in stride. Doesn't he look so grown up??

The Garden at 6 weeks

2011-08-07T15:27:00.001-05:00

The garden is getting HUGE and we are finally seeing some "fruits" of our labor. Click here to see the garden at 4 weeks.

Cucumbers - we counted about 20.

This is the one watermelon we've found so far. It has already doubled in size over the last 3 days.

CJ's time with grandparents

2011-07-26T19:47:00.000-05:00

CJ stayed with Gami and JJ and Pops while we were on the cruise. Here are some pictures of time with Pops.

Check out that swing!!

Professional pictures from the cruise

2011-07-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures we bought while on the cruise. Again, not many of Clayton, but the boy had fun - that's all we can say. Be sure to click on "older posts" at the very bottom to see all the pictures from the trip.

Cruise to Cozumel!

2011-07-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

We decided to take a cruise to Cozumel as our family trip this year. We left Brownsville Wednesday afternoon and at about 2 hours out of Brownsville Clark asked me if I remembered the birth certificates. Ooops......we turned around and headed back. In the meantime a friend went to the house, got them and met us in Memphis so it ended up adding only 2 hours to the drive instead of 4. We spent the night in Jackson (MS) to leave CJ with grandparents and then headed to Mobile the next morning.

I really can't remember why I didn't get my camera out until dinner (maybe it was in my suitcase?), but here we are getting ready to go to our first dinner. You will see lots of pictures of Clark, the girls, and me because we didn't see Clayton much. The kids had different "clubs" they could attend and Clayton made several friends quickly. It felt like we were back home when the girls got kicked out of their room (the kids had a room and we had a room) so Clayton and his friends could hang out.

This is our room. I felt like it was a good size. Our window looked out the back of the ship.

Headed down the hall to go exploring.

The view from our window the next morning.

As you can tell by Camille's area, we all took advantage of the buffet.

Dolphins swimming by the boat. There were about 10 of them and this was a mom and baby.

In line for the slide.

2011-07-25T20:32:00.001-05:00

They had putt putt on the top deck. It was VERY windy up there.

I caught Clayton walking by and made him stop for a few pictures.

Another view from our window. There is a HUGE barge way off in the distance.

Getting ready to watch a comedy show in the freezing theater.

We got up early on Saturday to watch the sunrise.

Clayton played basketball while we waited for the sun to come out from behind the clouds.

Cozumel! It was overcast in the morning and sprinkled a little, but it cleared up.

2011-07-25T20:19:00.001-05:00

Waiting to get off the ship to head into Cozumel.

We chose a snorkle/beach party excursion. We are waiting for the Catamaran to pick us up.

Camille took some pictures with her underwater camera so maybe I'll be able to post some snorkling pictures later. It was AMAZING!

Headed to the beach party. This was a private beach.

Camille is on the Rock-it and Clark and either Katie or Clayton are on the jet ski in the distance on the right.

Dancing on the Catamaran on our way back to the dock.

Lunch at Senor Frogs.

2011-07-25T20:13:00.001-05:00

Yummy. This is my Chimichanga.

Camille (very hot) got fries and Katie got chicken fingers and fries.

Clayton got buffalo wings (the kids weren't willing to try new stuff) and Clark had fajitas.

Clark ran across the street from some shops to get in the beautiful water.

Live birds in one of the shops.

We were crammed in a taxi on the way back to the ship.

View from our window at the Cozumel dock.

Leaving Cozumel.

About 30 min after we left Cozumel we had to turn around. They announced that a crew member needed emergency medical attention so boat came out to us and took the crew member off the ship. We all wondered what would have happened it is was this critical in the middle of the ocean.

Ice sculpting.

Thousands of jelly fish by the ship.

My favorite towel animal.....a stingray.

Camille singing karaoke.

Clark assisting a really amazing magician.

Our last breakfast before we left this morning. It was such a great trip. We can't wait to go on our next cruise!

The garden at 4 weeks.

2011-07-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

The garden is really taking off. The carrots never did anything. Oh well. Click here to see the garden 2 weeks ago.

Another bath?

2011-07-15T10:41:00.001-05:00

CJ decided his bath this morning wasn't enough. He climbed in with Camille......shoes and all!

More camp pictures

2011-07-08T20:26:00.003-05:00

Here are some more camp pictures my friend Mike took.

My girlfriends and I stayed up WAY too late everynight playing dominos.

Sliding down Abram's Gullies on the conference side.

I love this one.

The garden 2 weeks later

2011-07-07T09:44:00.001-05:00

The corn was the first to come up.

The ones on the far right are cucumbers, the middle is watermelon and the last 2 are pumpkins.

Click here to see the first garden picture.

4th of July Parade

2011-07-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

A nearby neighborhood has a 4th of July parade every year. We've been in FL the last two years so this is our 1st parade. We had so much fun.

Bratton Green 2011

2011-07-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

Katie, Camille, CJ and I headed to camp to staff another session this year. Katie and Camille also went as campers this year so they got 2 weeks of camp. We had a BLAST!

The girls are so good about being big sisters.

Staff brat movie time. There were about 6-7 other staff brats there too.

I love this sweet picture. Camile caught a frog and was showing it to CJ.

2011-07-02T16:37:00.001-05:00

We thought this was hilarious with his hands on his hips!

Katie and Harper watching at the ropes course. Click here to look at Katie and Harper (and Camille and Whit) in this picture in 2008 at camp.

Playing in the rain.

The girls were "evil trolls" in the skit.

I took CJ out in a canoe and then we swam in the lake. He loved it.

Amber and I were pregnant with Sadie and CJ the last time we staffed this session together and look at them now.

Garden attempt

2011-06-24T19:15:00.000-05:00

Camille and I are attempting a late garden this year. The row to the far left is corn, the next row is carrots, then there are hills for cucumbers, watermelon and pumpkins. This was on 6/22/11. I'll post updated pictures every couple of weeks.

Art in the Backyard 2011

2011-06-24T19:12:00.000-05:00

Katie and Camille took art classes again this summer from our neighbor, Amber. Camille took the painting class and Katie took the sculpture class.

2011-06-24T17:31:00.001-05:00

Tie-dying "boring" white panties.

Parade

2011-06-24T13:12:00.001-05:00

A girl in the church office sent these to me. CJ's class went on a parade.

Go Rockies

2011-06-23T18:21:00.002-05:00

CJ in his Rockies hat and shirt using his Rockies bat. Notice he is a leftie like Seth.
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The girls and I got feathers in our hair today.

2011-06-16T11:30:00.002-05:00

Camille at Bratton Green

2011-06-13T14:52:00.001-05:00

This is Camille's first time to go to camp as a camper. She took her friend Rebecca with her.

Hanging out in the grandparents bed.

2011-06-12T09:03:00.001-05:00

All boy

2011-06-08T17:26:00.001-05:00

Such innocence

2011-06-04T10:06:00.001-05:00

Watching a rolly polly

Bishop's BBQ 2011

2011-06-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

2011-06-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

Stinkin' peanuts

2011-05-27T12:19:00.001-05:00

Camille wanted to be tested again for peanuts because we haven't done it in about 5 years. The hive on the left is the neutral test spot and the one on the right is PEANUTS. Needless to say, she is still highly allergic.

Handsome in pink?

2011-05-25T18:53:00.001-05:00

This is what I found when I went to pick up CJ.

8th grade graduation

2011-05-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

Clayton graduated from the 8th grade last week. It's hard to believe he'll be in High School in the fall!

2011 Recital

2011-05-23T20:10:00.001-05:00

Gami helped the girls get ready.

Katie's tap

Camille's ballet

Katie's jazz

Camille's tap

Katie's ballet

Awards

Clayton took flowers to his sisters.

CJ in action

2011-05-23T19:55:00.000-05:00

Pops and Grandpaw took some great pictures of CJ this past weekend, but I wasn't able to download Grandpaw's. Do you think CJ likes sports and to be on the go?

Go Lucy Go!

2011-05-23T12:39:00.001-05:00

Some friends and I participated in a 5K in Covington, TN this weekend to benefit a little girl, Lucy Krull, and LeBonheur hospital. They raised over $25,000. Here we are with Lucy and her mom. Read more about her story here: http://www.erikandkatekrull.blogspot.com/

Methodist vs Presbyterian Softball game 2011

2011-05-15T20:19:00.000-05:00

This is SERIOUS stuff. As you will be able to tell from my pictures, I did a lot of CJ wathing vs game watching.

Tea Party

2011-05-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

Camille and Allison were invited to a tea party birthday party. They had so much fun getting dressed up.

CJ's field day 2011

2011-05-10T21:10:00.001-05:00

CJ's Field Day 2011 from Mamie Converse on Vimeo.

The eggs were hotglued to the spoons!

Only Clark's son would be talented enough to pick his nose and run a relay race at the same time!

Big boy underwear

2011-05-08T18:55:00.001-05:00

We are making the brave move from pull ups to real underwear. Wish us luck!

CJ's 1st time in the pool this season.

2011-05-08T16:10:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning fun

2011-05-07T10:55:00.001-05:00

Lifeboats

Muffins with Mom

2011-05-07T10:50:00.001-05:00

Camille's first piano recital

2011-05-03T19:00:00.000-05:00

Camille's 1st piano recital 2011 from Mamie Converse on Vimeo.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

Easter weekend started with a church Easter egg hunt. We closed the kids in the garage while we hid the eggs so it was crazy when we let them out.

CJ has been carrying his basket and his eggs from his school egg hunt everywhere so we knew he was going to love this. We were VERY wrong. He would not pick up a single egg and when Katie tried to help him and put some in there he threw them on the ground. Oh well.

Camille had no problem searching for some eggs.

2011-04-24T20:41:00.001-05:00

A good old-fashioned sack race......

Until the adults got involved!!

The Grays had ducklings!

Easter morning.

The Easter bunny hid eggs in the side yard and those were all found.

However, the eggs in the backyard were never found......except by Dudley before we went outside. You can be sure that dog stayed outside all day since they were real eggs.

The most special and exciting part of the weekend was Katie getting confirmed! We are so proud of her.

Spring Break 2011 in New Orleans

2011-04-16T17:25:00.000-05:00

Katie, Camille and I went to New Orleans to see Aunt Feather for Spring Break! We started by going to Cafe du Monde and the French Quater Market the first night. The next morning we went to Riverwalk for the IMAX theater and the Aquarium. Unfortunately, it wasn't Heather's Spring Break, so we only got to hang with her at night. We were excited for that time, though. CJ found ways to entertain himself while we were waiting to get into the IMAX. The Aquarium was great! This is a window in the floor. CJ thought it was so cool to lie down and look at the fish.

2011-04-16T17:15:00.001-05:00

The Insectarium had so much cool stuff to explore! A streetcar ride to end the day. The next morning was a trip to Storyland. I realized how many stories I haven't told or read to CJ. Then we headed to the zoo before driving back to Jackson. Monkey Hill.....the kids were upset we didn't bring bathing suits. It didn't stop CJ or Camille.

Camille's 9th birthday!

2011-03-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

Camille has started sewing so Gami gave her a sewing basket that she made for her grandmother, Mamie. So now she has something that was her great, great grandmother's!

Spa party

2011-03-20T21:18:00.001-05:00

Camille wanted a spa party this year so we headed to Chez Amies salon. Gami made tropical flip-flops for all the girls!

They made tropical necklaces and bracelets while the other girls were having their treatments.

2011-03-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

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What a fun cake! Thanks Gami!

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The girls had a great time pretending to give the manicures.

2011-03-20T21:08:00.001-05:00

Beautiful toes!

Silly girls - good friends!!

Clayton's 14th birthday

2011-03-20T21:07:00.000-05:00

I am so very late in posting this, but Clayton's 14th birthday was February 18th. He had a bunch of guys spend the night then Clark took them to Memphis to play putt-putt and laser tag. They had a great time, but with him being 14 these are the only pictures I was allowed to take!

Happy 2nd b-day little man!

2011-02-11T10:16:00.002-06:00

CJ's birthday morning started with being able to stay home because of snow, powdered donuts, chocolate milk and Sesame Street! Click here to see pictures from his 1st birthday party. (Click on the other posts on the right to see all the pictures.)

One of his favorite games, squeeze somewhere I can't really fit.

He wanted to play Life with us. He had more fun just playing with the cars and little people.

2011-02-11T10:10:00.001-06:00

We went to McDonalds for dinner.

How perfect that his Happy Meal toy was a truck - good fun.

2011-02-11T10:09:00.001-06:00

McDonalds is fun and all, but there is a truck outside!

Then home for cake and presents.

2011-02-11T10:06:00.001-06:00

Finally, the Converse tradition. He wouldn't do it in the actual cake and it took him a little while to do it with his piece!

2011-02-11T09:29:00.001-06:00

Gami made him a pillow using his baby onsies. He wanted to play "bed" on his floor and then he wanted to sleep with it.

Snow day and cake for CJ's birthday

2011-02-09T15:13:00.001-06:00

We are out for snow today and tomorrow is CJ's birthday so we made his red velvet cake today. He doesn't know yet that it is his favorite cake.

Camille's 1st race!

2011-01-12T20:44:00.001-06:00

I was going to run the 1/2 marathon in the MS Blues Marathon and Camille signed up to do the kids' 1 mile run. I had to drop out, but she still wanted to run her race. Clark, Clayton and Pops were at the Annual Father/Son hunt and Gami was in San Francisco, and Katie had to cheer in Brownsville so JJ, Grandpaw, Ali, CJ and I were her cheering section.

She got Elvis glasses (with sideburns), blow up guitars and a harmonica in her race bag.

It was COLD!!

The race was on Elvis' birthday so he was there to run with the kids.

2011-01-12T20:43:00.002-06:00

Starting the race

Thanks, Grandpaw, for the finishing pictures.

Her first medal!

I think she was most excited that I let her have a cup of coffee when she finished!

SNOW (January 2011)

2011-01-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

CJ wasn't exactly what he thought about the snow at first!

Camille made a snow angel.

Now he likes it.

They ran around for a while then we collected enough to make some snow cream!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-10T20:53:00.000-06:00

We started out Christmas at Gami's.

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Then Santa came to JJ and Pops the next morning.

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2011-01-10T20:45:00.001-06:00

Then we went to Aunt Jennie and Uncle Curtis' for my mom's family.

Seth and Lindsay gave CJ a Colorado Rockies ball and bat (and hat and shirt). What a perfect gift.

2011-01-10T20:40:00.003-06:00

All the great grandchildren. Click here to see last year's picture of them.

2011-01-10T20:38:00.001-06:00

The next day we went to Grandpaw and Ali's. I had the stomach virus, so I didn't take very many pictures.

MS Children's Museum

2011-01-10T20:24:00.000-06:00

When we were in Jackson for Christmas we went to the new Children's Museum. It was AMAZING and ALL the kids had a blast. The older kids were able to run around more while I followed CJ, so he's most of the pictures.

2011-01-10T20:20:00.001-06:00

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Such a good big brother!

2011-01-10T20:17:00.001-06:00

2011-01-10T20:14:00.001-06:00

The velcro wall was so much fun. We were crying from laughing so hard.

Katie's Cheer Competition

2011-01-10T20:05:00.000-06:00

Katie has been taking cheerleading classes this semester and they had a competition in December. This was our first cheer competition and it was crazy to see it all happen.

Waiting for Katie to cheer!

There's our girl!

2011-01-10T20:02:00.001-06:00

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Katie's 11th b-day

2011-01-10T19:48:00.000-06:00

For Katie's 11th birthday Clark and I took the girls back to Memphis and the Peabody. We started with dinner at Huey's.

Went for a carriage ride. Our driver was GREAT. She told the girls they each had to remember a history fact and tell it back to her at the end of the ride.

Running across the bridge that lights up.

Back to the hotel room after swimming in the indoor pool.

2011-01-10T19:44:00.001-06:00

Katie made matching shirts for all the girls.

Waiting for THE DUCKS!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-30T21:27:00.001-05:00

We were a little late carving pumpkins this year, but finally got around to it today after my 1st 10K (woo-hoo) and Camille's last soccer game. This is how nice and calmly it started out.

Then the carving began, CJ was upset I was putting a knife in his pumpkin, grabbed it, cut his finger and we ended up at the ER because we couldn't get it to quit bleeding. Luckily they only had to glue it.

Camille was a skeleton bride so this is her "dead" face.

Camille and Katie went to Ellie's house for the annual Halloween party and then I took CJ to the festival at the church.

2010-10-30T21:22:00.001-05:00

"Really, I get to keep these?" He was so funny. He kept shoving them in his mouth . I think he thought I didn't realize what was going on. He's never had that much candy!

Friends from school.....Izzy

Hooper

2010-10-30T21:18:00.001-05:00

Josie

Then we went home to help Clark and Clayton pass out candy. I bought a lot more candy this year and we still ran out (by 6:45!)

The group from Ellie and Sam's party.

2010-10-30T21:16:00.001-05:00

Katie's pumpkin

Camille's pumpkin

CJ's pumpkin (designed by Katie)

Clayton's pumpkin (designed by Camille)

CJ's trip to the pumpkin patch

2010-10-09T16:58:00.000-05:00

CJ had a very pumpkin rich fall break. JJ and Pops took him to this pumpkin patch and took these fabulous pictures. Gami took him to the Farmer's market and he was spoiled rotten. They fed him plums, showed him the forklifts, etc. and let him choose his own pumpkins to take home. He was quite distraught the next morning to see a varmit had taken a bite out of his pumpkin!

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