December 2008 Pictures

One day we'll get October and November pics up, but here's the latest.

Dec 9-Em training for the triathalon she's planning to do with Aunt Anya

Em in her piggy tails

Dec 8-Josias and Emily

Dec 8

Dec 7

Dec 5

Dec 5-Josias at 3 months old

Dec 5-Josias at 3 months old

Dec 4

Dec 4

Dec 4- Emily and one of her playmates from church.

Dec 2- Emily and Josias ready for Christmas *<]:-)

Josias cheesing ...

Emily cheesing...

Why is it that you can never get them to smile at the same time?

Adventures in the Air

Our journey from Point A to Point B this past weekend proved very eventful. I was very anxious going into the trip. Trying to imagine myself toting two small children and dragging luggage through four airports and onto three airplanes did not sound like much of a vacation.


Our adventure started Saturday afternoon as Shane took us to the airport. We arrived at the South terminal approximately 20 minutes behind schedule (because no matter how hard I try, I have yet to be anywhere on time since Josias' arrival, God help me!). We drag children and luggage inside the airport to find that my airline, Delta, has its ticketing counter in the North terminal. So, we drag the children and luggage back out to the van to drive to the other terminal to check in at the correct counter. At the north terminal, we once again drag the children and luggage inside to locate the ticketing counter. Once at the Delta ticketing counter, we find a vacant post. Not one soul is within 50 feet of the counter, with the exception of the stuffed grizzly. Wondering how this could be, I finally look at the itinerary to find that it is a Delta flight "operated by Alaska Airlines". At this point, I just wanted to shoot someone. Why not just call it an Alaska Airlines flight? Sooooo...we drag our two little popcicles and 50 pound bags back out to the van to drive, once again, to the south terminal to arrive at the Alaska Airlines kiosk approximately 1 hour before takeoff. Of course, the kiosk does not allow me to check in, wasting yet another five minutes. The folks at the desk finally get us checked in and we get in line to go through the metal detectors.


Now, I don't know how many of you have flown lately, but they now have you take off your shoes and put them on the conveyor belt. In addition, you cannot have any amount of liquid/gel over 2 ounces, and you have to send DVD players, camcorders, and cameras through the x-ray machine separately. Oh yes, and if you have a stroller, that has to be x-rayed as well. So as I'm trying to get all of this stuff onto the conveyor belt, Emily is wandering away as the security guard stands there looking at me like I'm crazy because I'm not watching her. Hello! Get off your tail and herd her back! There are five other guys standing behind you that can catch the handicapped woman behind me if she tries to run through the metal detector!


Thankfully, we made it through security without losing anyone. I think my heart stopped for a moment when I could not find the tickets which the man at the counter had told me would put an abrupt end to our trip. They had been tossed in with my shoes as I was chucking stuff into those gray x-ray bins. We made it to the gate as the stewardess was calling the last seating zone.


We soon found ourselves seated in the middle and window seat beside a middle-aged German-American man. I cannot say he would have been my first choice of travel partners; however, he proved quite helpful and very patient with our children who whined half of the five-hour flight. About an hour into the flight I smelled "something". Sweat started beading upon my forehead as I thought of all the scenarios of how I would change a dirty diaper in a restroom the size of a shoebox (after all, airline restrooms do not come equipped with changing tables). Short of sitting the toddler in the sink to cleanse her, I was at a loss. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm. I told the man beside me that he should get extra flyer miles for putting up with us!


Our first layover was good. We found our gate then backtracked to get some pizza. The flight boarded on time, then we sat...for an hour. Emily slept most of the five-hour flight. She slept around 3 hours in the seat, scrunched up in various positions. I finally just had her get in the floor for the last hour and a half of the flight since she kept kicking the lady by the window. She seemed to sleep well down there. I think she moved once. The flight went very well until the very end. I now wonder if Emily was sniffing jet fuel fumes down there in the floorboard because just as we were about to step out of the seats to leave the plane she showed me her hand. Full of the last meal we had eaten. Yum! Of course, my first response is to put out my hand to catch the results of the second heave. Now we both have a handful of this chunky goodness as she starts to cry and other passengers stare at one another with puzzled looks upon their faces. How she managed not to get reconstituted pizza all over herself, I do not know! A helpful co-passenger finally handed us a plastic bag to empty our hands into, and we managed to clean up the rest with one of the complimentary blankies (yes, the little blue ones people fight for when they get on the plane) and a few wipies.


We exited the plane to find that we had missed our next flight, so we proceeded to find the counter to get a new flight to our final destination (in the process calling my parents to let them know we were not going to be walking off the airplane in a half hour). Of course, we weren't the only ones who missed their connection, so we waited in line once again. We finally got our new flight assignment to find that it left in about an hour and a half and that it departed from a different concourse from a satellite terminal. So we huffed it to an elevator to take the train to another elevator, so we could walk another half a mile to get there. We found our new gate fairly easily, so it seemed practical to get a bite to eat and let Emily run around while we waited to board. So she ran and ran, and we ate (er, well, I ate so as not to repeat the last flight's highlight moment) until it was time to start boarding the plane.


We arrived at the gate approximately 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. The stewardess had not yet started calling people, so we sat down to prepare to board. After about ten minutes of waiting, I wondered why they hadn't started boarding yet, so I went to the counter to see what was going on. The man behind the counter informed me that the flight had been moved to a different gate...on a different concourse...at the other end of the airport! AAAAHHH!


Prior to the trip I hadn't imagined myself dashing through the airport with a three-month old strapped to my chest while pushing a stroller with a screaming two-year old tightly strapped in the front while trying to keep the baby's head from flopping around like a ragdoll! We ran to the elevator to take the train to take another elevator to the correct concourse. Once on the concourse, we darted to the last gate a half a mile away bowling through the crowd of unsusupecting travelers while yelling "Excuse me! SORRY! Excuse me!" Huffing and puffing, we rolled into the boarding area as the stewardess was making the last "last call". Whew! We made it without losing or killing anyone!


An hour and a half (and one DVD) later, Emily ran to Mamaw smiling with arms outstretched screaming "I see her! I see her!" A sweet ending after a night full of adventure!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow. Guess it's been a while since we've posted anything. October pictures will be coming soon, but I'd like to go to bed some time this evening, so it's not going to happen tonight. I hope you three people who read this had a great Thanksgiving. We stayed in-house and celebrated with Shane's classmate and her family. For a total of 6 1/2 people, we had quite a spread. I sure enjoyed catching up with them since we hadn't really seen them much since we moved here. I told them I might borrow their kids (grades 1 and 2, I think) some time to entertain Emily while I get stuff done around the house. They played with blocks and babies. They also played hide-and-go-seek and follow the leader. Emily led, they followed. Emily had them worn out by the time they left.


We decided to get bold and venture out shopping on Black Friday. I had planned on going alone since Shane had to meet his classmate to talk about research/school stuff. Surprisingly, he got home early and volunteered to go with us. I almost passed out. Not every man is crazy enough to volunteer to go shopping with his wife, especially on the worst shopping day of the year. I told him he earned major kudos on that move. We stopped by the fabric store for about 45 minutes. The cutting lines were so long that I pulled number 91 when they had just called the number 43. I decided to abort mission and just get the patterns and poinsettia I had in hand. Our visit to the new Target was even less productive than that. Of the three things I had on my list to purchase, they had ZERO. I suppose you have to get to the store before 2 pm to get a deal!



As far as the everyday:

Emily is coming along on potty training. She's weird though, because she'll play around on the training potty but will go right away if I just hold her up on the big potty. She's still not telling me when she needs to go most of the time, but will try and is usually successful if I take her when I go.


Unfortunately, she's becoming more finicky about what she eats. Less open to trying new things. Yes, we lie to her and tell her every meat is chicken, bologna, or meatballs. If all else fails, she'll eat it if she can dip it in catsup or bbq sauce.


She's learned a few letters and their sounds and can identify around seven different colors. Not too bad at 25 months! She started singing songs by herself about a week ago. She sang the first two verses of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".


Bedtime has become an interesting adventure. She's starting to do everything she can think of not to go to bed. It's usually "Me go potty" first. After that comes "I hungry". If all else fails, she'll tell us "Come here!" or "Water" And of course, when all this proves unsuccessful, she'll throw a fit until she realizes she may as well go to sleep.


Josias is getting chunky now. I call him Chubby Bubby. At his appointment at the beginning of November (at roughly 9 weeks of age), he weighed in at 12 pounds, 6 oz (I think :-p ). He's staying awake for longer periods of time during the day now and is sleeping through the night most of the time. (Thank you, Jesus!) Emily's getting better about not assaulting him. However, I think her favorite method of assault (when she does attack) is pink, plastic princess teapot to the forehead. For this reason, poor Josias spends most of his time in some form of cage: pack-n-play or swing protected by playard. I know it probably makes for very boring scenery for him, but it's better than having Snow White permanently imprinted on your skull!

Halloween

On Halloween, October 31, 2008, we attended the fall festival at church as a blond Dorothy, a tiny cowardly lion, a not-so-scary scarecrow, and a deranged cowardly lion. The evidence follows.

Emily's favorite game was the duck pond. Of course, she couldn't have cared less about the ducks. She just liked playing in the water. At one point, she grabbed a beanie baby robin she had wond and chucked it in to watch it splash. FYI: she did not need a bath that night!

Emily and Olivia's two "mane" men.

Daddy and his girl.

Good thing I didn't wear a hat!

Josias the Ferocious

Us :-)

Zoo, grandparents, buckeyes, and yes, poop :-)

Here are some more pictures from the last two months. Sorry it's been so long in posting more. We've finally gotten back to "normal" (i.e. no company). It now takes me roughly 2 hours to leave the house in the morning. May as well forget about getting anywhere before 9 am. And that pushing it! Most of the time, we just stay home. Emily is still potty training. Momma could probably be more consistent in this arena. To make good use of potty time, we recite Bible verses and attempt to learn numbers, letters and colors. Yes, we know, very nerdy. I plan on posting more tomorrow. We'll see if it happens :-)

Hmmm....I ate that kernel and that one....which one should I eat next?

Oct 1, 2008

His little cheekies are chubbing :-)

Oct 1, 2008

Papaw Ed, Emily, and Olivia (oh, yes, and a yak)

Sept 30, 2008

Emily and Papaw Ed at the Alaska Zoo

Sept 30, 2008

Ta-Da!

Sept 30, 2008

Mamaw Karen and Josias

Sept 25, 2008

Papaw Ed and Josias doing what they do best :-)

Sept 21, 2008

Yes, here's evidence that the ol' man can still climb. Even with a bum knee!

Sept 21, 2008

Kiddie camo.

Sept 16, 2008

He couldn't have hit her more accurately if she'd had a bullseye on her!

Sept 16, 2008

A bunch of nuts!
Sept 13, 2008

Our little glowworm

Sept 11, 2008

Pop, GG, Olivia, Shane, Josias & Emily
Sept 10, 2008

Little Josias

Sept 10, 2008

Shane, Olivia, Josias & Emily
Sept 7, 2008

Sorry, the picture won't turn.

Sept 10, 2008

Pop & Josias

Sept 9, 2008

GG, Josias & Emily

Sept 7, 2008

The Yardsale

So Mom, the kiddos, and I came home on Saturday to a funny story. Shane and Dad had been having a yardsale at our house as we were out and apparently some ladies had just left. Shane had said the ladies were laughing about an incident as they shopped in our driveway. They asked Shane and Dad if they had checked all of our boxes because some lady at a previous yardsale had come across some adult media as she was rifling through a box. She said the man having the yardsale was dumbfounded as the lady pulled a movie out of the box and asked if that was supposed to be in there. She said he fumbled around then took the movie. The lady told Shane that the woman shopping looked a little further into the box, looked back at the man, laughed and said, "There's more!" She said the man's face was all red as he put the items for sale into a new box.

To put the icing on the cake, after Shane had told us his story, I giggled then looked at him and said:

"It was ME!"

A few more pictures

September 10, 2008 (6 Days Old)

Emily holding Josias by herself for the first time.

Emily loves to pull off his hat, mittens, and socks. She also likes to climb onto the side of the pack and play to see him. "Baby see! Baby see!"

September 9, 2008 (5 Days Old)

Shane, Olivia, Josias, and Emily

Larry (Shane's dad) and Josias


Josias around 10:30 pm. He used to kick me at about that time every evening, go figure!

More Pictures

Sept 5, 2008 (1 Day Old)

Future Air Force?

Our little burrito

Sept 6, 2008 (2 Days Old)

Josias in his "Superstar" bring-home outfit

Josias with the hiccups :-)

September 7, 2008 (3 Days Old)

GG, Josias, and Emily

Our first night home with baby Josias was a restless one. He got up every hour between 11pm and 7 am wanting to eat. Diapering has proven to be an adventure in itself. If I'm not using 2 diapers per change, I'm doing a wardrobe change. I think we may go broke buying diapers and laundry detergent! I guess it was a sign of things to come when they placed him on my chest just after delivery and he christened me in yellow :-p

Josias

Josias Edwin was born 8lbs, 20 1/2". Apgars 8/9.

Olivia was happy. While the labor was as fast as last time (90min from arrival to hospital) they had in house anesthesia, so she got an epidural and stated the difference in with and without epidural was remarkable.


Josias after Dad gave him his first bath (which he did not care for).

Josias (Edwin) received his name sake's melon attributes. To the amazement of his nurses, his head circumference was the same as his chest circumference (ie. hoghead). Thanks Ed! If he has Ed's appetite too, I'll need some help with my retirement funding.

Looks like another strawberry blonde. He did enjoy having his hair washed.

Josias just after birth (and hungry). Looks like he may have Ed's appetite afterall.

CLICK PLAY FOR VIDEO!! He cried for quite some time, but then settled down and began to explore our faces while we were up close. He certainly seemed to identify with familiar voices.