Meet Emma Jayne - our little niece

WOW! This has been a roller coaster 2 weeks for us. It all started 2 weeks ago when my sister, who is pregnant, went to the ER thinking she was having a miscarriage. The ER doc told that she was, but the next day she went to her regular doctor and he said no the baby is fine and she needs to rest. She will be having a followup ultrasound on Monday. Please pray everything continues to be OK.

Monday this week my brother and his wife had their little baby girl. Emma Jayne was born Monday afternoon weighing in at 3.8Kg (about 8 lb). A few hours after the birth, Melanie (mom) had a drop in blood pressure and was hemorrhaging. She was unable to recognise my brother. 36 hours later she is OK and the doctors are a little puzzled at what might have caused her to have such a reaction. They have since said they think it was a drug interaction. Mom and baby are doing well now and are at home resting.

We don't need no stinkin' directions!

Last week while Josiah and I were out shopping we bought a gingerbread house kit. All week he has been asking if we could eat the candy in the kit. All week I have been trying to prepare him for the fact that some of that candy was going to go on the house to decorate it. We even talked about the story Hansel and Gretel and how the gingerbread house was so pretty and decorated. So we decided as a family that tonight would be the night to take on the project.
We unpacked all the parts to the house. Josiah kneaded the icing to get it ready to use and Daddy trimmed the edges of all the pieces. After the icing was good and ready, I piped the icing needed to hold the house together. Josiah and Daddy put the pieces together to make the house. Right after putting the house together we proceeded to decorate. Josiah ate more candy than he put on the house, I think. Each time I looked at him his mouth was full and he was saying, "I need that kind of candy next!" He really surprised us at how accurate he was at putting candy on the house. I thought he might need more instruction, but he did a great job. Josiah loved the icing too and I had to keep telling him not to lick it off the roof. After we were all done decorating Greg and I realised that the roof was drifting south - right off the house. So with a 3 year old, an Engineer and a Therapist working on this project - who needs to read the directions - right! It turns out that we were supposed to wait at least 30 minutes after construction before decorating. No problem here - I built support beams out of Josiah's Lego's to hold the roof up until it dries. Only time will tell if it holds up to gravity.

Spiderman, Spiderman...goes wherever a spider can!

I haven't posted in a while because Josiah and I have been sick and computer time was not at the top of my list of things to do. We are all feeling much better now and are having fun again.

Josiah has been learning about halloween at school and has been telling me for months now that when he grows up he is going to be Spiderman. So last night we made his wish come true - at least for a few hours.

After nap time Josiah got dressed in his Spiderman outfit that Granny gave him last Christmas already. After dressing he sat on the bathroom sink while I painted his face. It was difficult to do because he wanted to watch in the mirror the whole time. Just as a side note - that face paint gets into and onto everything. After getting ready we went to Miss Amy's house to see Nate, Emory and Audrey. Nate was Batman, Emory a cheerleader and Audrey the cutest little lady bug. One of the families in our neighborhood was hosting a party so we walked over to their house to let the kids play for a while. They had a bouncing castle, drinks and candy. The kids had a great time. After hanging out there for a while, Greg, Josiah and I went to Wendy's for a quick dinner and then to church. The church also had a bouncy and lots of games for the kids to play. Josiah came home with so much candy I have to hide some of it. We all had a fun evening and Josiah decide that trick or treating is a lot of fun. He is already thinking about what he is going to be next year.

WHY GOD MADE MOMS (Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions: )

(I found this on a bulletin board that I read and thought it was priceless. I just had to share it here.)

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the be st spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time. 2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside, she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Dye it. You know, her hair. I'd dye it, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Sweet Reunion

For the past month Josiah has been wanting to know when he can see his friend Nathan. We told him we would be there in October. On Oct 1st he came home form school and asked if we could go to Nathan's house when Daddy got home. So, for the past few weeks we have been crossing off the days on the calendar. Thursday last week finally arrived and off to Wisconsin we went. All day Josiah kept saying things like, "I don't need to go potty now, I will do it when I get to Nathan's house" and "I will eat when I get to Nathan's house!" We had a long day in the car. We got to Wisconsin about 5 minutes before Nathan's school bus arrived so we walked to the stop and met him when he got off the bus. The two boys ran up to each other and hugged. They had the most fun all weekend.

The rest of the weekend was filled with wedding plans, decorating, dinners and lots of baby sitting for Greg. The wedding was beautiful. Debbie looked wonderful and Peter is a great guy. I am so glad we finally got to meet him. We look forward to seeing them in Boston in December.

A day off for having fun!

Yesterday and today Jefferson county schools had the day off so we took the opportunity to go to the Louisville Science Center for the morning. My friend Amy and 3 of her kids, Nate, Emory and Audrey went with Josiah and I. We got there at 10am and the place was empty. The kids had so much fun running around looking at all the fun exhibits. At 10:45 we went to the Kids Zone, a fun place for smaller children to play and explore. We stayed there until lunch time and then met Greg for lunch at Humana. Here are some pictures from our day.

The Apple of my Eye....Picking Apples

WOW! We had a ton of fun today. We got up at the usual time and we were out the door by the crack of 9:30am. We drove up to Starlight, IN to Huber's Farm. Josiah was a little grumpy about going since he wanted to play at home. As soon as we got there he had changed his mind and was loving it. Last year when we went, we spent the day at the farm and family restaurant section. Today we went to the winery section.

Once there we bought tickets to the children's petting farm. We spent most of the morning there. So, we drive all the way to Huber's and the first thing Josiah wants to do is play on the playground. It took us about 20 minutes to convince him that he really did want to look at the animals. After he chased the ducks right out of the farm, we went over to see the goats. Josiah thought that it was too cool to feed them and have them lick his hands. He laughed and giggled so much that it was fun just watching him. After the goats we saw the rabbits and lamas. We petted the donkeys and looked at the cows. Josiah and I had fun racing across the fields to see the next animal. He always won because he would get in front of me and then zigzag while calling out, "serpentine, serpentine!". He says he learned that from Lightning McQueen.
We spent some time in the corn maze. While in the maze we got some much needed relief from the sun and a cool breeze. Josiah is very much into super heroes these days so he thought it was fun to run through the maze pretending to get the "bad guys". After finding our way through the maze we stopped at the giant jumping pillows. First time up, Josiah got bounced a little too much. After several of the BIG kids got off he tried again and liked it much better the second time around. The big slide was next for Daddy and Josiah while I took pictures. Before lunch Josiah rode the little tractor. I had to help him steer a little or he would still be riding in circles.
We had a very expensive hot dog and brat with fries lunch. Josiah was so thirsty he drank an entire bottle of water by himself and then 1/2 the bottle Greg and I were supposed to share. We bought several more bottles of water and some slushy lemonade. Boy were my boys happy campers! We finished off lunch with some very yummy pumpkin donuts.
After lunch we rode the wagon out to the apple orchard to pick apples. If you could pick a highlight of the day for Josiah I think the wagon ride would be it. Once in the orchard we filled our bag with apples and then sat under one of the apple trees to wait for the wagon ride back. Josiah ate an apple while we sat waiting. He has had so many apples today I thought he would get a stomach ache. The wagon picked us up. We went back to the farmers market, paid for our apples and then off to the car.
Before we left Huber's, Josiah did the pledge of Allegiance for us so I could video it. He had been practicing all the way to Huber's in the car and was finally ready for his video session. See the link under videos. We were all exhausted. I was convinced that Josiah and myself would drift off to sleep in the car. No! Josiah has sworn off naps. He stayed awake all the way home and then watched Cars movie on my bed for his quiet rest time. We had a fun family day. We should have more like this one.


P.S. Greg just informed me that the three things that made it into Josiah's prayers tonight were:

• pumpkin donuts
• riding on the wagon behind the tractor
• picking apples