9.29.2008

Jeff and Becca's Baby Shower Guests Got Talent!

Each team had ten minutes to come up with a song with the words: Jeff, Becca, baby, burp, doctor, hospital, labor, boy, and belly. The parents-to-be judged and the winner is below (you can find the rest at http://www.youtube.com/hoostos and, as always, you can click on "watch in high quality" on the bottom-right part of the youtube video and get a little better detail . . . like, you can then tell, for instance, that IS in fact Emily May's mom, Anna with the mic in her hand.)



We had a great time: lots of desserts and laughter and great advice for the parents to be. Way to go Jeff and Becca!

9.23.2008

4 Bandaids

She looks like a happy one-year-old in this picture when she decided to hop a ride on the bus. But after 4 shots, one in each leg and one in each arm, along with a finger prick, she's not so happy today. But she is a giant...in the 97th percentile in height now, still 50% in weight. More birthday party shots later after this cute pobrecita gets some rest.

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9.18.2008

One Year...

At 8:00am a year ago, I remember gripping the edge of our dining room table riding out a contraction, not-so-patiently waiting for the doctor's office to open up so I could finally hear the nurse tell us to get to the hospital. After a whole day's worth of excitement, we finally got to meet this little (surprise!) girl at 7:35pm.

With 365 days of new and fun things in between, at 8:00am today, we got to do this...







And then a bit before 7:35pm tonight, we got to eat her favorite blueberry pancakes, birthday candle included.


Happy ONE YEAR birthday sweet girl! "And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30). We're so thankful God made you, and that He made us your parents. We love you yesterday, today and tomorrow too.

9.17.2008

beach video

watch in high quality if you can . . . you might have to go to youtube to get that option.

9.16.2008

Preview

We had a blast last week at Emerald Isle. I know our blog audience is eagerly awaiting pictures. Justin created this great video last night with our favorites, but it doesn't seem to want to upload. And my technical assistance is now sleeping off his morning shoulder surgery adventure, so you'll have to settle with these preview pictures until he's available. Surgery went well.

Our almost one-year-old will now throw a ball back and forth with you, added "Jackson" (ja-shhh) and "John-John" (ja-ja) and "May May" (much like mama but definitely different) to her vocab this week at the beach, and now knows where her own bee-bo is, in addition to her hair and toes. Only two more days until the big first birthday!



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9.02.2008

She loves...

...the new baby doll grammashu and great mamaw got her for her upcoming birthday. (I mean, she really, really loves baby. She smiles when she sees her, rocks her, puts her in her stroller, talks to her, and tries to eat her face.)
...waving to Kanga (pictured below) in her toy bin when she wakes up from naps.


...to walk pushing her new push toy (thanks Amy!)
...her "new" squeaker shoes (thanks cousin Avery!)


..unloading things (pictured here in grammashu's tupperware cabinet). Other favorite unloading spots include toy bins, drawers full of neatly folded clothes if left accidentally open, dirty clothes hampers, and dishwashers.


...crawling on hands and knees now instead of scooting, or on hands and feet if the terrain is rough.


She also loves...
...eating food off of a fork and handing it back to us to help her load the next bite.
...pulling up on everything in site, almost just as if to prove that she can pull up on it.
...strangers; for the most part she now smiles and waves.
...waving hi and bye with just a hand and not her whole arm. She especially loves to wave at stuffed animals and dogs and cats.
...throwing her head back, taking in a deep breath, and looking up when you say "up", and looking down but keeping eye contact with you when you say "down". She also looks up when you say "where are the lights?"
...sniffing woobis (these are blankets for those of you new to the term). She sniffs her own, her mama's, her baby doll's, and basically any other blanket/towel/article of clothing in the house. If it's cotton or knit, when she picks it up, she sniffs it. I can't imagine who taught her to do this.
...turning pages in books...fast.
...blueberries and zucchini.
...to babble. All the time. And often very, very loudly.
...saying "dada"! (Mama, dada, necklace and amen. Four funny words.)
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A month of reunions

This past weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. Go Apex Cougars. The funny thing about it is that we are still great friends with everyone from high school. I don't think it's common, but it just so happen that most of us stayed in Young Life as college leaders, and the majority of us either went to NC State or the other (blue) school. All of my college roommates were my best friends from high school. And even funnier, Justin is friends with everyone as well. So the high school reunion was just a good excuse for us to try to pile all of our babies onto one couch. I'm not sure why we thought we'd get a good picture of this many little ones. But they sure were good sports about it, until they started crying and squirming. There were many more funny pictures, but at least here, you get a decent shot of one half of the couch and then the other. Thanks Kivetts for hosting the mayhem for lunch!



Notice Grayson here holding down John's head. She's obsessed with it. We've taught her to "pat pat" things, like Maggie and stuffed animals. Whenever she sees John's head, she pat pats it, and he smiles.


Grayson was lovin' snuggling up with her two handsome potential future husband choices (John Boone on the left, Oak Fischer on the right).


And here are the girls at the country club later that night, all dressed up and mom-purse free. If I had more time, I'd hunt down a high school picture and scan it in. But, in reality, we mostly look the same except for a few changes in hair cuts (way to go ladies!).
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