Flashback Fotos

Reader Julie asked for some pix of Josh (at the same age as Ellie). Below are lots of pix of Josh I scanned this morning from just one box. I have tons. They are not all the same age as Ellie is now, but some are. Thanks for asking Julie so I'd have a reason to look back through my pix of my little man!!

Josh was 21 months old here, so just a wee bit older than Ellie. We had taken him to Dollywood for Labor Day weekend. I think it was the trip that caused my friend Stoney to stop going anywhere with us (ha!).

Posing at Dollywood - 21 months

Notice Daddy and Josh are wearing a stretchy chain thing -- Josh was a fast one, wanted to walk and we were certainly NOT letting him get loose.

This is Josh with Santa, I THINK, it was December 1999, when he had just turned two.

Eating popsicles outside. Josh would have been right at 19 months in this pix,

so this is pretty close to Ellie's age now.

Josh playing soccer.

If I had to pick my Top Ten Pictures of Josh's life and could only keep 10, this would be one of them. I don't even think I took the picture; I think another mom took it and emailed it to me. This was the game where Josh hit his first GRAND SLAM in baseball. It was in Ashland City. He was SO proud and his coach gave him the game ball. This was his first year to play baseball and Coach Bumpus was his HERO!! I love this picture and this memory.

Kirstin and Josh at a soccer game. Gosh they were so little.

Josh and "Santa DeeDee". I still have this picture framed and in Josh's room. He and DeeDee were inseparable at this age and this year they both dressed up as Santa. Josh LOVED to dress up as Santa and pass out presents at Christmas. If mama still has this costume, I may see if he'll dress up this year for Ellie. What a hoot!!

Again, Josh and DeeDee, inseparable!! I'm thinking Josh was closer to three in this photo.

Josh's professional two-year-old photos - November 1999.

Happy 18 Month Birthday, Ellie!!

A year ago, we were celebrating Ellie's 6 month birthday from afar. Fast forward to a year later and it just all seems so distant. Amazing what a year will do.

Looking so grown up today!

Flouncing

Today was Ellie's 18 month doctor's appointment (I have to make them on her birthdays so I can remember them -- sad, huh?). She did SO well and I was SO proud of her. She only cried a wee bit at her shots, but more on that later.


All of a sudden today she looked so grown up!! We went to the doctor and she got a glowing report. Her stats are:


Height: 30.25" (14th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs, 10 oz. (6th percentile)
Head: 46.1 cm (38th percentile)



We were, um, encouraged, yes, that's the word, to take her off her bedtime and nap time bottle. We'll see. I have six months. He talked to me about beginning disciplinary measures such as time out to combat inappropriate behaviors (has he been living in our house??), and we talked about potty training.



Seems Dr. H. is contemplating a missionary type/medical trip over to K'stan. He met recently with some friends who have been working there, so we talked a bit about that. I'd love for him to have that opportunity!! I think E. might be his only patient from K'stan.


Mama was prepared for the shots this time. I had a sucker open and handed it to her when she laid down. She cried for just a bit when she got the shots but then was quickly fascinated by the purple band aids. In fact, she was very upset with me when I put her tights back on because she couldn't see the band aids!

This is her very shortly after her shots -- not a tear to be found. What a brave girl!!

This is what she looked like about five minutes after we left the doctor's office.

Some cute facts about Ellie:

• When you ask her for a kiss, she makes a kissy noise and gives you her cheek. Ironically, she'll KISS the animals, but not us.
• Kisses and pats her "babies" in her crib each night
• "Reads" books
• LOVES the kitties and doggies (still)
• Stomps her foot on command as if she is dancing
• Loves to dance around
• Signs accurately for: eat, more, banana, milk, cookie, dog, cat, mama, daddy, all done, fish, cereal, bird, and baby. We've not worked on signs as much lately, because I can't find the second DVD. Must look.
• Says (few words, but coming along a lot lately): hot, cat, dog, shoe, duck, mama, daddy, (sometimes) Joshua, hi. My parents said they have heard her say DeeDee and key.
• Waves bye bye (all the time) but not hi. Blows kisses, claps, pretends to be an airplane.
• She knows what to do with a key and will put it in the door or (scary) in the car
• She likes to pretend driving with anyone who will let her sit behind the wheel
• Her hair is finally long enough for better piggy tails
• She likes to have her toenails painted and has become quite girly loving shoes, purses, jewelry and "makeup" (lip balm smeared over her face by her brother- yay!)
• She walks around in any one's shoes she can find, but LOVES my heels and flip flops
• She LOVES playing hide and seek with brother. He hides, she finds and squeals with laughter as she jumps on him. She loves for him to chase her around the house, she runs and squeals with laughter
• She will eat anything ALL THE TIME. The girl is a bottomless pit. Dr. H. says she is burning it off though so it's ok.
• She still loves her blanky and has given up the paci except at bedtime and she MUST have it then.
• She naps between 30 minutes - 3 hours a day -- there is no formula of what makes her do either.
• She now brings us a diaper, hands it to us and gets up on the couch to be changed. I think it's time to start potty training. Yay.
• She likes to write with pencils, pens, crayons and chalk. She prefers to write on paper, even.
• She likes to wash her hands and dry them AND wipe her face. Hmmmm.
• She likes to "talk" on the cell phone -- holding it to her ear, smiling and making NO sound.
• She LOVES being outside. Most of her tantrums are thrown when she can't go out or go across the street to see Mr. Terry and his doggies.
• She continues to really, really like Barney and Elmo.
• She seems a smarty party to me, but I'm prejudiced.
• She drinks from a straw very well and eats with a fork and a spoon (and her hands sometimes too!!)
• She LOVES her shoes and wants to wear shoes ALL the time. She is really fond of squeaker shoes. The dog, however, is not.
  

We are just thrilled with how well she is doing (and with her)!

Lots ...

Yesterday Josh's team beat uber-rivals, the White House Devils with a final score of 28-20. This was the last "big" game to cinch the division title. While they still have three more games, based on the other's teams' records, it is strongly thought we will win against them -- who knows though? Anything can happen. Then, play offs start!! Yay!



















My parents were able to come to the game yesterday and watch Ellie and watch Josh play. Afterwards we got to spend some time together at Wendy's. *smile*

Then, today we called the A/C folks to come out and look at our unit. I'm going to say this: If our family made a million dollars a year, I would still have a problem with the fact that when a unit is still under warranty (keep in mind, a unit we paid $5K for just two years ago), that warranty does not include the labor to replace what is broken. *sigh* So, $159 later we had a service call and a drain cleaned. THAT, however was not the problem. There is some "board" that has to be replaced. That part will be covered, but they don't have a CLUE how much the labor will be on it and will call us back tomorrow. Great.

Tomorrow is Ellie's 18 month birthday -- HOW did that happen? Stay tuned tomorrow for some pix (I'll have to take some, of course) and an update of what all she is "into" now.

Josh is currently at the doctor. They've been there for 2.5 hours. Actually, I just got a call from Kevin that the doctor said he does tested negative for the flu, but the tests were 50/50 and so what he does not "have the flu NOW, he probably got it sitting in the office". Great. They are also tested him for mono but that was also negative. He came home with a headache, stomach ache and body aches and exhausted. In fact, he fell asleep on the way to the doctor's office. Those who know Josh understand this doesn't happen. He went to bed at a good time last night and so, I'm not sure what it could be. Granted, it could be a viral thing that just isn't the flu. Yay. Tomorrow he'll probably be fine. The doctor went ahead and gave him a school note and tamiflu prescription -- just in case. Kids.

On the job front, no news today. Kevin is hopeful to get a follow-up call this week from a company that called him last week. Prayers always appreciated in that area.

Not Again ...

Refer back to this post back at the end of April when we had a service call because our air wasn't working properly. Well, today, we noticed it was getting warm in the house and Kevin checked and LO! and BEHOLD! the A/C is not working again. Thank goodness the nights are cool. We've thrown open some windows and cranked up the fans until Monday because we refuse to have a weekend service call. Kevin has checked everything he knows to check -- nada! The bad part is the until is about a year and a half old -- maybe nearing two, but still!!!!

Stay tuned to see if animals have taken up residence THIS time in the vents. :-0

Braiden's Football Game

Today Josh's football game was rained out. As the day wore on, the sun came out and we decided to go watch Josh's friend Braiden's team play. It was a sludgy, muddy mess. I took my camera so I could get some pictures of Braiden playing and then ended up taking some of all the kiddos too. We had such a good time just hanging out with our friends, the Robertsons!! Emily, Kirstin, Josh and Ellie had fun playing on the playground while Braiden was out having some serious fun in the mud!!

Pony Up!!

My friend Jennifer knows exactly what the title of this post means as she had to use it on me several times during our trip to Kyrgyzstan. So, Jennifer, this post title is for you!!

I found a cowgirl hat for $1 at Deals yesterday and knew that it was perfect for Ms. Ellie. Now, keep in mind, as a rule she hates hats, so I was a bit fearful this would be a bust, but for $1 it was ok. I got it because I wanted to take some pix of her dressed up as a cowgirl. Well.... let me just say it was a HUGE hit and it was hard to get her to take it off last night. The problem with getting pictures of her in it was that every time she wore it she started dancing and stomping her feet -- why???? So here's what we have -- for now. Oh, and notice in some she has her cheerleading pom poms. What a combination. Maybe she's going to grow up to be a Dall*s Cowb*ys cheerleader? UGH - I hope not (not that I have anything against them, I just really hope for something a little different for her, I suppose).

Toward the end, Josh even got in on the cowboy hat action.

On the Job Front

Today was Kevin's "lay-off-iversary" -- one week he's been off. He posted his resume to seven positions online this week and got his first call from one of them today. He will hear more from them next week when the person in charge returns from vacation. We are excited that he's had a response so quickly.

Please continue to pray. EVERY SINGLE DAY we feel your prayers and concern for us and EVERY SINGLE DAY God blesses us. Today, Kevin got chosen for a research study that pays $100 for a couple of hours. If anyone is interested in these types of studies here in the Nashville area, click over to 20/20 Research. But, it was another indicator that God continues to take care of us every day and will until Kevin has another job. We will continue to update you on his progress until we can report that God has blessed him with another job. We know it will come -- in His time.

Anyone Care to Guess....

.... what this is (ignore the pretty window drawings courtesy of Josh and Ellie -- they are so pretty I hate to take the time to wash them off!!)???

I will allow you to ponder what the white thing to the top right side is before going on ...

Are you ready? Imagine you are sitting at the computer at the table which faces out the back door. It is night time (11:00 or so) and you see something white swaying back and forth by the door. You look up and stare because you can't imagine what you are seeing and how it could be.

It's TOILET PAPER and apparently it is hanging from your second story bedroom window placed there by your *NOT SUPPOSED TO EVER BE IN MY BATHROOM AGAIN BECAUSE YOU PAINTED THE SINK WITH MY FINGERNAIL POLISH, LEFT THE LID OFF AND DRIED THE BOTTLE OUT AND INSTIGATED A BABY POWDER STORM TO COVER EVERY SURFACE IN THE ROOM* 11-year-old-son.

Why???

Because, as Kevin told me, "he's an eleven-year-old boy". Oh. Yeah. Right. I'm off to remove it from the back of our house before someone sees it.

I can't wait until he grows up, gets married and has kids just like him. As my mama said, "I'm gonna' laugh."

Josh Flashbacks

Josh handed me a photo album tonight to "put up" for him [since his hands were obviously broken]. I looked through it and found some cuties of him. I only scanned a few [read: lack of time after reminiscing through all the pictures], but think I'll try to scan a few of him every so often so I can include them in "the book" as a kind of look-back at Josh's life while we follow along with Ellie's.

Josh when he was 11 months old -- taken by my mom at her house

This picture hangs in my bathroom. It's Braiden, Kirstin and Josh from Easter 2002. It seems like just yesterday. Here they are now:

How did we get here so fast??

Now THIS picture cracked me up. Every year in K-4, they had a Thanksgiving feast and all the kids dressed up as either an Indian or a Pilgrim. Josh and Braiden split the choices and each went as one -- and the one each of them went as was perfect for them!! Aren't they sweet??