Saturday, January 31, 2009

Happy 13th Birthday to my niece, Faith

I've been meaning to post these and forgot! My niece, Faith, turned 13 a couple of weeks ago and these are some pictures from her party. Those of you that know Faith know that she is not an ordinary 13 year old. She is the size of a 4 year old (her and Elijah are very close to the same size) and is developmentally delayed, doesn't talk but signs some, and we love her for it! My sister threw her a HUGE 13th birthday party! She is a sweetheart and here she is...




Faith with her mom, my sister Kristi


Fortress was totally decked out for Faith!


Here we are at the party

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Guess Who

Guess who is 9 months old and only in the 4th percentile?!?!

This little runt!

We went to the doctor today for the 9-month checkup and Judah weighs 16 1/2 lbs, apparently that is very small for his age. Dr. Elliott was a little concerned until he spent some time around Judah. He then determined after I told him how early he started crawling, how active he was, and how well he ate, that he was absolutely fine, just petite.

He is one happy kid about 95% of the time!


Guess who loved his first time in a park swing so much that he nearly fell asleep!



Can you guess what mommy absolutely loved these 5 minutes???


Guess what two brothers are enjoying playing together more and more each day!





I am LOVING watching my boys interact with each other - it is PRECIOUS! It melts my heart to see Elijah's compassion for his baby brother, and Judah's face just light up when his big brother walks into the room. What a privilege to watch their love for each other grow!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

FYI

Cell phones don't flush down the toilet. Ever. They get stuck in the U part of the toilet clogging it up and making them nearly impossible to get out.

Unless you remove the toilet, as seen here, and stick anything you can possibly think of up in the hole.


Finally, after hours of doing this, you stick your hand out just hoping by some miracle that it will fall out on its own.


Or you give your 4 year old son a sledge hammer and let him smash the toilet to pieces in order to get the phone out. Kidding. But he thoroughly enjoyed smashing things outside with the sledge hammer.


No, after a couple of hours of digging and shaking, finally the cell phone will come out. And there will be much rejoicing!


Remarkably, the battery and SIM card were still working, and only the phone itself needed to be replaced. This isn't my phone either. Any guesses who accidentally flushed their phone down our toilet? Give up? My mother. After using our toilet and already pushing the handle down to flush it, the cell phone "jumped" out of her pocket and was swept down the toilet in like .02 seconds flat.


After you get the toilet back in place with a new wax seal, you'll need some weight to push it hard against the seal so that it doesn't leak. This works well.

And that was how part of our MLK holiday, aka Jason's last day before school started today, was spent. Hey, at least we know how to remove and reinstall a toilet now!


-----------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Mom, do you like my squinty-eyed smile? It's my new favorite thing to do."


"I can pretend I'm a lion while doing it. "


"And do funny things with my tongue too."


"I just crack myself up!"

Friday, January 16, 2009

Milestones

2009 is going to be a big year for our family. Here is a glimpse at our upcoming year as well as some things happening right now.

This stinker will be starting kindergarten in August.
I can't believe that we went to visit our first potential school this week and filled out some paperwork to get his name in the attendance lottery. Please be praying with us as we find just the right school for Elijah. I am not happy with our assigned public school and we can't afford private school so we are exploring some other options. I cannot believe that we're already on this journey...it is difficult for me to think about but he is so excited!
He is the most inquisitive child I've ever met (unless you've already had a 4 year old :-). Yesterday on our way to school he asked me why ladies wear makeup. I told him it was to make their faces a little prettier. He said, "Not boys. Boys don't wear makeup, they eat carrots. Carrots make boys' eyes prettier." You'll appreciate that one, Aunt Laur-Laur!

Judah got this walker for Christmas and has been pushing it around the house ever since. He just gets better and better. I am just waiting for the day this year when he begins walking! I'm betting it'll be before his first birthday that we will celebrate in April.



We are also deep into the exploration of solid foods. He has 4 teeth now and is really enjoying starting to feed himself. He loves Gerber puffs, Cheerios and small pieces of banana that he can pick up.



Next Tuesday, Jason begins his last full semester of school. He is expected to graduate in August after a couple of summer classes. This is a milestone we have been waiting years for! The month Jason finishes school is the month that Elijah will start school...I guess it never ends! Please be praying for our family this semester - he is taking 15 hours and it is going to be rough. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel helps tremendously though. We will thoroughly enjoy our 3-day weekend before he hits the books yet again!

We would also appreciate prayers as we seriously start to explore mission work this year. Our desire has always been to be involved in full time missions when Jason finishes school. That has always seemed so far away, but 2009 is the year it will happen and therefore we are ready to start down that road.

Thank you for your interest in our lives and prayers for our family as we make some big decisions.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Anniversary & Arkansas Recap

Updated: Found a wedding photo below

This is my favorite photo from the trip that Jason's mom took. It is so precious. Our boys just adore their daddy and what a great daddy he is! I have had the privilege of being married to this man for 7 years this past Monday, Jan 5th. What an honor having him by my side. Who knew that 7 years later we'd have the most precious boys to share - a little bit of me and a little bit of Jason in each of them. Happy belated Anniversary!


Us on our wedding day: January 5, 2002. Jason seems to have changed a little bit! :-)



Okay, back to our trip: Jason & Judah with Pappa Mac & Jill


He really looks like Jason to me a lot, especially in this photo


Do you see the resemblance?


Attacking mommy and pulling her hair


Playing with Grangoat


Soon-to-be Uncle Matt with Judah


The ever crazy Aunt Lauren & Elijah - these two are hard to keep under control together!


Lauren & Matt got a Wii for Christmas and Elijah loved it!


Jason with his Wii character


Elijah with his Wii character


Elijah captured this photo of Pappa Mac and I thought it was really artsy


Elijah was a nut as usual when he has an audience


Beautiful blue eyes


Oh boy, I get this eye roll A LOT at home - glad someone finally captured it on camera


He loves apples!


We had a great time in Arkansas as always! This random picture was from Six Flags with my family. My sister took it and I just got it from her, but it's a great group shot of all of us. If you don't know my family, from left to right is: me, Judah, Jason, brother-in-law Dale, sister Kristi, niece Faith, Elijah, niece Katherine, nephew Jonathan, nephew Kristopher, mom Kathy, nephew Andrew with his girlfriend Lindsey

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Tagged

by Jennifer

4 things I did yesterday
1. Laundry, laundry and more laundry!
2. Unpacked the rest of our things from our trip to Arkansas
3. Took the boys to Pump it Up (a jumping place) and met some friends there
4. Had a really fun girl's night out with friends from church (we do this once a month) - we ate and went to see the movie Twilight - it was REALLY good, and I just finished reading the books.

4 things on my wish list
1. To have all of my pictures organized and in picture albums - ha!
2. Figure out where Elijah's going to kindergarten next year and feel peace about it
3. Be a part of a mission team in the future
4. Purge our entire house of things we don't need and get rid of them!

4 restaurants I like
1. Bangkok Thai food
2. Red, Hot and Blue
3. Red Lobster
4. Genghis Grill (where we ate last night)

4 TV shows I like
1. ER
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. American Idol
4. Alias - duh!

4 People I tag
1. Lauren
2. Julie
3. Leilanni
4. Stephanie (yeah, right!)