Hurricane Ike

OK, for those of you wondering how our families are doing, since they were in Houston when Ike came through, this post is for you.

AJ's family is OK...his dad has a generator and they're running some stuff off that, so they're in decent shape with that. Sounds like there was a fair amount of damage done in their area with trees falling on garages, etc, but they're OK, and only had some branches down and such.

My parents had a couple of trees fall on one corner of their house, but didn't seem to damage the house structurally or let in rain or anything, but it did knock down the phone lines...didn't sever them or anything, but they're on the ground. My dad also bought a generator, so they're running necessary things like AC (part of the time), TV, refridgerator, deep freeze, etc. lol...
They also have some guests...

Which brings me to my sisters and their families. Missy went into labor on the 11th and had Josiah early on the morning of the 12th. Mom, Dad, Jenny, Aaron, and Sophia spent the night in the hospital with Missy and Nate, but got kicked out around noon when the hospital went into lockdown for the hurricane. So Jenny and Aaron went to their house and got things set up to weather the storm, and then went to Mom and Dad's for the night, since they had the generator. I talked to Jen today and she said they had a tree and a huge branch from another tree fall on their house, but sounds like it didn't cause any leaks or anything, so just have to fix the roof or whatever (didn't get very detailed news, as she was watching both Josiah and Sophia by herself at the time, and the phone line didn't want to stay working), and they're still at Mom and Dad's.

Missy and Josiah got discharged from the hospital on Saturday afternoon, and decided to go to their house for that night, and I assume there was little to no damage, but haven't heard anything from them, so don't know for sure. On Sunday, they went to Mom and Dad's as well, so there's just a huge party at their house apparently! Everyone is still out of electricity, but hopefully soon they'll be able to go back to their homes, as I know they miss their privacy, especially Missy and Nate with the new baby. I'll do a welcome post for Josiah when I get some pictures I can post.

OK, so that's pretty much all I know for now. Please pray for everyone who lived/worked on the west side of Galveston Island, as it is pretty much destroyed. And really for everyone who got hit by it. There's a lot of destruction, even if you don't hear too much about it...like you do about the hurricanes that hit Louisiana. Interesting, isn't it...

OK, I'll post more another time...

Josh praying at bedtime

OK, so hopefully this syncs up right on here...if not, it's still cute, and I'm sorry!
This is Josh praying at bedtime. SO CUTE!!

Happy Birthday, my little son!

I just want to talk a little about my kiddo. He's just amazing! He has his moments of demonic behavior, of couse, as does every child, but he's just so sweet and loving and sunshiney! He's always been a good kid, and fairly laid back, considering who his parents are!

I wanted to share with you all about one of the really awesome rewards we've recently reaped of being parents, and in particular for me, a real reward for being a stay at home mom/wife. I know a lot of people look down on those of us who do this job, and quite honestly, I have days when I think what was the point in even going to college, I never even got to teach or anything. I sometimes feel like I'm doing nothing with my life, and while I'm very dedicated to the idea that kids shouldn't be raised in daycare day in/day out unless it's necessary, there are days I want to go get a real job and have a paycheck, and a concrete reminder every month in the form of a paycheck as to why I do what I do. OK, all that rant to say, there aren't always a lot of really noticable rewards all the time. However, we have recently started having Josh repeat prayers after us, at meals and bedtimes. This is our reward. To hear that sweet little voice talking to God, and trying so hard to please us in this, we feel that every temper tantrum is totally worth it. Every sleepless night, illness, grumpy morning, bad behavior, whatever. That is why I want to stay home with my kids. I love to think that we've had that influence on him already, that he loves to pray. It's also a scary responsibility, but we're so excited to see what kind of amazing child of God our little boy grows into. I love that responsiblilty, and respect all of you who have had that kind of influence on a child or children, even if they weren't your own.

OK, that was a kind of long sappy rant, but lately Josh has seemed so much more grown up, and it's a little scary to think how fast he's growing up.

Anyway, now for the pix. On Josh's birthday, we woke up, and unfortunately, since AJ had to go to work early, Josh and I went alone to pick up donuts for his birthday breakfast. This is a tradition we had in my family when we were growing up that I loved, and I wanted to try to continue it with our kids. Josh also loves donuts (he calls them nonyuts), so he was pretty happy about it. He ate around 10 donut holes that morning...wow!



We had to light the candle again...


He loves to blow out the candle!
Notice the proud look on his face...it took him about 10 tries to get it out, but he thought it was hilarious when it would sputter, but not go out.
Happy sugared up child...what was I thinking???

That afternoon when AJ got home from work, and Josh got up from his nap, we pulled out the presents from Great-Mamaw, GG (my Grandmom), Grandmom/Grandad, and Aunt Missy/Uncle Nate/Cousin Josiah. I was so glad to get these gifts in the mail so he had something to open on his birthday! Thanks all of you!!

He loves his "Melmo" slippers from Aunt Missy and Uncle Nate!

He also loved the free cars that came with one of his shirts from Grandmom and Grandad.His lace up shoe and froggy book from Mamaw

Baby "Melmo" upup...that's what he says. "Elmo up up" and you pick him up and he says thank you or something. Josh likes him...this is him giving Melmo a kiss.Josh's Elmo's play day book and stuffed Elmo...loves this one too!

The day after his birthday brought his present from Nana and Grandpa. He loves his lawnmower, thank you! He took it outside to the porch to "mow" while AJ was outside mowing the backyard, and Gus went with him. I went to check on them, and here's what I saw. So cute!
Josh watching Daddy mow. He really loves his mower, and he knows where it goes, too. In the garage...unfortunately, he decided to "put it away" in the garage while AJ had the garage door open, and Gus got out and ran away. AJ found him a couple of doors down with some kids who had found him and grabbed him. Very nice of them to keep him for us! Nice to have neighbors who aren't scared of our giant obnoxious dog.
Anyway, Josh loves all his presents, and has enjoyed playing with them so much. So much that my floor is NEVER clean!! Oh well...

So that's Josh's birthday...I can't believe he's already two...seems like a few weeks ago he looked like this...

Can't wait to have another little tiny one, but I'm so excited to see what Josh learns every day! God has really blessed us so richly.

Josh's Birthday Party!

OK, these have been WAY too long in coming, but here they are at last. These pictures are only from Sunday at his party. There are too many to post all the birthday pix on one post, so hopefully you've read the other one, already.

OK, so we invited a couple of our friends, as well as the neighbors across the street, who have an almost-two-year-old little girl named Sidney. Unfortunately they weren't able to come to the actual party, but they stopped by that afternoon on their way to church to visit and bring Josh's present over. They were a little wary of each other at first, but by the time they left, here's what was going on.

These trucks were in the present they brought for Josh. He loves them! Incidentally, the picnic table was a gift from us. He seems to like it pretty well!
Opening presents at the party...this fire truck was from Jeff and his girlfriend. We've really missed hanging out with Jeff, who is a friend from pilot training.
Josh's "woo-hoo" from us...he loves his train!
His Ernie Knex from Kevin and Trish (a friend and his fiance...Uncle Kevin, if some of you remember that story!)

One of two adorable puzzles Josh got from his "Aunt" Courtney and "Uncle" Galen. Thanks, guys!
Blocks from Mommy and Daddy.
He so loves this fire engine...these are the couple who bought it for him...as you can see from this pic and the one above, he really likes pretty blond girls!!
Josh's cake. I baked two funfetti cakes and AJ cut it in the shape of a 2. I frosted it and put lines and cars on it...Josh really liked it!
Josh being sung to...not quite sure what's going on.He blew out his candle with no help!! He's such a big boy!!
Attempting to eat cake with his fork...it didn't go too well. That's Uncle Kevin next to him.
As you can see, the fork didn't last too long. He decided it was much more expediant to use his hands and just cram it in his mouth.


He really enjoyed it, though!! Look at that big cheesy grin!Then he had a bath after our guests left and we got to use his new penguin towel. He loves to put his hands in the mitten pouch things and flap his arms (fapfapfap!) like a penguin. So cute!
Happy sleepy boy before bed chilling on the couch next to Daddy.

Overall, I think it was a successful party, but hopefully next year he'll have friends we can invite. I felt a little bad that there weren't any other kids for him to play with, but it did make it easier, since there was no competition over toys and stuff.

The house

OK, I know everyone's been bugging me about pix of the house, now that we're moved in and all. We actually have the majority of the boxes unpacked and broken down, even...not in our bedroom, of course, but the downstairs is pretty much all out of boxes and waiting to be further organized when I have time/energy to do so. Now, I don't want anyone to have any illusions that I'm Super-Unpacking-Woman or anything...at least not this time. We would still be wading thru boxes and stuff if it weren't for my AMAZING husband! The squadron gave him 8 days to "settle in", and he has spent every day, from waking to sleeping unpacking, organizing, setting things up, installing electronics, etc. Well, actually, I guess once we got the new flat screen TV on the wall and satellite hooked up, he spent a little time enjoying that, especially in the evenings, but he's still been working CRAZY hard to get this place livable! THANK YOU, AJ!!! I LOVE YOU!!
OK, so here's the pix I've downloaded so far...they're from a few days ago, so it looks much better than this right now, but I haven't downloaded the new pix yet, so you'll have to make do with these!
Helping Daddy inspect the fireplace.

What's up there, Dad?
Our bedroom
Josh eating his pizza like a big boy in his new house.
Re-discovering old toys...how he loves his zebra!
The living room after we had it set up, more or less...still looks pretty much like this
Josh playing with something...don't ask me what. Looking very cute!
Josh and AJ on the stairs our first day...right after closing.
Josh playing on the stairs.
Our living room a few days ago.
Kitchen on the first day, after the movers left.
The Library a couple of days ago.

OK, keep checking, I'll be posting probably pretty much every day since I'm so behind on things, so I'll be catching up as well as posting new things the next few days.

What Tropical Storm Hanna blew in...literally!

As you probably all know, we were hit by Hanna this weekend. Nothing much happened here, at least not anything too dramatic, but we did have some guests! We found a little colony of birds out in our yard yesterday afternoon, and had to get some pix. SO CUTE! We had so much fun watching them.

Josh and his doggie

This is a video I took in Altus of Josh and Gus playing with our friend Chris. They had so much fun!