Winter Is Coming

Ok, ok. I know it's been a while. For that I apologize. To make up for it, I bring you a few gifts in the form of adorable photos of Max & Camille. Aunt Caitlyn has been busy helping take care of Camille while I'm still working on the road. I should know because I get daily updates in the form of the latest cute pose that Camille has learned. Trust me, there are a lot of them! I've had some time here and there to be home, but it's never much and never enough. When I AM home, I try to make the most of it. Sometimes I keep Max out of school so we can hang out and go to the "ice cream store" (I hope Mommy isn't reading this ;-). Coming up on Christmas break will give me a month to be home (as the schedule currently stands), so hopefully I can play catch up as best I can.

Our Thanksgiving break consisted of traveling back to Alabama to see Courtney's family in the Birmingham area and then onward to the Iron Bowl (that was fun) in Tuscaloosa. We decided to take our camper out for it's first real weeklong journey. I gotta say, we all had a blast. It was rather cold weather most of the time, but a few tanks of propane, electric blanket and campfires kept us warm and we had plenty of room to run around with Max and Lucy.

Mille getting closer to standing

It's never too early for roasted marshmellows!

We're ready to work

It's also never too late for roasted marshmellows

These three amigos crack themselves up

Play hard. Sleep hard.

Lucy got in on the action by finding the largest "stick" on the campground

We found some great BBQ in Mississippi on our way back home

Who loves his sister? 

Never a dull moment with MaxMan

Thanksgiving was blast. It was awesome to see some family followed by an incredible Bama game. Always a good time. As soon as we got back though, I had to immediately hit the road for work again. However, the episode we are currently shooting is in College Station, TX and I had a chance to drive back home to see everyone on my off day. It was short lived, but I did manage to capture Mille's teeth that have come in. Just look between those gigantic cheeks!

Smile so we can see those chompers!

Mille loves her some "Aunt CayCay"

Still on the road...

His favorite activity is turning on the faucet.

...but I'm always close to home. Courtney keeps me updated with regular FaceTime dates and photos of the kids. The next episode of my show takes me from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, so I tricked my line producer to let me stay the night in Dallas in order to see Courtney, Max, and Lucy; even if only for a few hours. I just landed in Joyzee, where this will be the beginning of my last episode of Catfish. After that, I'll start immediately on Big Rich Texas in Dallas. It'll be nice to be working in DFW for a while. Below are a few samples of the kind of pictures that keep me sane while away from my family.

Bathtime!

He always seems to be naked.

It's not a mess, it's art.

Another semi-naked eating shot

Brother and Sister sitting side by side

A typical "work smart, not hard" moment

Feeding the vacuum cleaner

And then there's this video that I got today. Very exciting!

Travelling the Southeast

We weren't quite sure of how the new family would travel once we actually got on the road.  Lucy has always had the whole backseat, and she used every bit of that real estate to go from window to window to keep an eye on everything outside the car.  With Max and a parent now taking up the backseat, Lucy has been demoted (or promoted, depending on how you look at it) to the trunk.  On top of that, she still has to share that space with Max's stroller and other junk.  She's actually done pretty well with it though.  Her main priority is to make sure she's in the car so she doesn't get left.  She's always the first one in and the first one out.  Max is a pretty good rider.  He just sleeps 90% of the time and poops the other 10%.  Very little crying and very little playing.  So we made it to our destinations a little quicker than we anticipated, which was great.  More playtime for all of us!

ROAD TRIP!!!

A road trip doesn't have quite the same ring as it once did it college. Sure, jumping in the car with two roommates with few plans and even fewer responsibilities is fun. Why wouldn't it be? But when you take the guys out of the equation and add a wife, baby, and a newborn, it's a whole different road trip. Not really in a bad way, just a different kind of fun. For instance, instead of picking up a guy on the interstate and taking him back to his house to get a tire iron is no longer an option...mainly because we have no room, but also because we spend our downtime looking for large areas of grass with no cars around and dog-friendly hotels. If we aren't driving, we are sleeping. If we aren't sleeping, we are trying to soothe Max. If we aren't trying to soothe Max, we're giving Lucy some leftover love. You get the picture.

We are on our way to Bruce, MS to visit my Mee Maw, Aunt Donna, Aunt Angie, and my cousin Chris. We had a chance to FaceTime with Angie and Mee Maw a couple weeks ago, but obviously it's a little different in person. After an overnight stay there, we'll head down to Daphne to see both of our immediate families. My Dad and I are going up to the Bama-Arkansas game on Saturday, where the Razorbacks will be thoroughly dismantled without regard, and we'll have Max's baptism at Courtney's home church on Sunday. We'll stay for a few more days before we make our trek to Jacksonville, FL to visit Courtney's sister and her husband, Ryan and Rebecca, as well as head down to Gainesville for the Bama-Florida, where another SEC for will incur the wrath of Coach Saban and his minions. Eventually we'll make it back to Dallas sometime that week, probably around October 5thish (However, if any thieves are reading this, we are actually at home, fully armed). So basically two weeks away will give us a chance to get away without really getting away at all. I mean c'mon, who wouldn't want this?

Location:Grenada, MS