Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Parrot

Jonah is a parrot. No, he's a tape recorder. Or a video recorder. Whatever..he remembers EVERYTHING we say, and the tone we say it in, and so conveniently or inconveniently uses it on us at the most convenient or inconvenient times. If he sees a movie a few times, he has half of it memorized. I am not challenging him enough. I feel bad about it. He should be memorizing more scripture. He goes up to cabinets and says "Hello gorgeous. Wow..we hit the motherload!" (from the Chipmunks) in this perfect imitation of one of the chipmunks.
This is too funny. While driving with the boys last week, we heard a Vincent Mortgage commercial and Ray did his famous voice and got to the end of the commercial where he repeats his phone number over and over eight three nine, ninety nine ninety nine. Well hear goes Jonah..."eight three nine, ninety nine ninety nine" in his perfect Ray Vincent voice. Then Jude starts saying "nine nine nine nine", also mimicking the nasal sound.. I cracked up! That kid is really smart.
We are beyond broke right now..nearly Jeff Foxworthy rolling pennies for gas broke. If it's not being consumed (food or paper goods) or worn, we are not buying it. However, Jude dropped my phone the other night on a concrete phone and cracked the glass front. It's working for the time being, but once the glass falls out, it won't work or even be safe to use. In truth, I haven't been in love with the phone. People are always complaining that they can't hear me on it. I do like the color and design. It is a great size, candy bar style (which I love..I'm always afraid a flip phone would get broken) and I have gotten used to texting and other things on it and am generally comfortable with it. It's light, has a decent battery life, etc. It has a camera on it..which I didn't really think was such a big deal when I purchased it, but I have come to use that feature daily with my boys. I never seem to have my camera out when they are doing something that I wish to photograph, but my phone is attached to my ear, so it's really handy! Soooo.... I started googling camera phones and came across the Sony Ericsson C905. It doesn't seem to have been released to the general market yet, so I have some time to save my pennies. It looks AWESOME! And it has an 8MP camera on it!!! Yes, 8!! That's incredible! Think of all the great photos I could take on it to upload for our church building project, church events, of my boys, etc... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWuYQw2kl64 I'm just afraid it's going to cost a million dollars. Perhaps it will be reasonably priced. It will be a the perfect replacement. Pray people, pray. This image is me thinking optimistically about the new C905 phone.



This image of Lesh is the expression he'll give me if it's expensive. HEHEHE! I actually have this as the wallpaper for my existing phone. Just a lovely expression to stare at everytime I pick up my phone. He's either cheezing for the camera, or scowling. No happy medium.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

December 2007 - images from my phone

Jude with his little friend Ryleigh
The guys reading Cars with Jonah in his classic pose

I love these house shoes..Anita picked them out for him from the church for Christmas. Jonah received the Mater version.

Jonah "vegging" out.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Independence Day 2008


This picture was taken on my cell phone so it's not the best quality, but the boys went to the Independence Day Parade in Wentzville dressed in their flag t-shirts and camo cargo shorts..they were so cute. They waved their little flags around until the parade participants started throwing candy out. Their little cheeks got some sun. Oddly enough, most of it faded by this morning! Their skin must be more forgiving than mine. I'll post parade pictures later..check back.

jonahandjude.com transfer complete


Finally all the data from jonahandjude.com is transferred and complete.


This is what the front page of the original site looked like. Jude was just a wee one. :)


Jonah, Jude, Courtney and Shaeley, November 2007

Jonah cheesing and Jude needing sunglasses.
Mom's flowers still look like that..they grow on until it freezes.
My sweeties. Praying you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! God Bless!
Shaeley, Courtney, Jude and Jonah. & Callie.
These are Jonah and Jude's best buddies..Courtney and Shaeley. Courtney looks like a model in this picture..the perfect smile. She gets lots of practice because her mommy loves taking pictures of her sweeties..maybe I need to pull the camera out a little more often! hehe
We couldn't get Jude to keep his fingers out of his mouth. He's ALWAYS teething.
The boys.

Oh Lookie! Jude doesn't have his fingers in his mouth! And they are both smiling at once..lucky mom.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Jake and Charlann's 40th Anniversary Celebration

We surprised Jake and Charlann with a 40th Anniversary party in October and this is a family picture of us all. Ken and Lisa and their children Victoria and Grant were adopted in long ago. From left to right: Jake, Rachel (Kent's wife..they were married this past March!), Kent, Charlann, Lesh, Jonah, Jude, Victoria, me, Lisa, Kenny, and Grant.

Being that it was their ruby or 40th Anniversary, we celebrated with lots of red.

The entry table..we had actually started tearing down and then remembered we had not taken pictures of that table, so we threw a few things back on it! :) It was a crazy day.


The cake was italian creme with cream cheese icing. Delicious.

November 2007 - Jonah-3 and Jude-1

November 2007 - Jonah-3 and Jude-1
What a busy fall season we have enjoyed so far! We had our church ground breaking ceremony, a trip to Louisiana for to throw a surprise party for Lesh's parents, (we also got to visit with dear friends in Louisiana too: Pastors Terry and Junelle Bushnell and Pastors Kenneth and LaRae Hasty and family.), our Annual Harvest Party, a visit from some great friends from North Carolina, and this week, our Ladies Fall party. Things don't seem to slow down for us, so we snuck away for two days to Branson this week and enjoyed them..all except Jude being sick! Thankfully, Monday evening he started feeling better and we were able to sleep all night Monday and Tuesday evenings...thank you, Jesus.Jude is verbalizing more and more and can understand most of what we say to him so that is helpful. His vocabulary isn't extensive, but he pokes out a new word every once in a while. He can say "no" quite well when he needs to. He also understands when I tell him I'm going to spank him...he grins and laughs and stares..almost as if he's waiting for me to chicken out in a game of chicken. I can see him mentally saying, "now..hey..you wouldn't do that to me. I'm too cute." Ha! He also refers to me as "DaDa!" He refers to Lesh as "DaDa" too, so I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me. heheDon't ask about Jonah and potty training. He does it when he wants...end of story. On the toy front, he's been carrying around the same "little red truck and little brown jeep" (that's what he calls them too) for nearly two months now. To say that he is obsessed with them would be an understatement. He sleeps with them, takes them to church, out on errands and plays with them constantly. And watch out if Jude gets his little paws on them. Is this normal? Does it mean that he is insecure and we are bad parents? hehe!! Maybe it is separation anxiety delayed..and with cars instead of parents..because parents aren't as cool as toys. (I'm already getting that "Don't talk to me in front of my friends" look occasionally. He also refers to me as "Mom" now. I guess it's preparation for what is ahead. Nevertheless, his Hotweels are peeling paint because he's handled them so much. Both he and Jude have a million toys and end up playing with the same 8 or 10 Hotwheels..I'm ready to ship all the other things out! :)

Jonah and Daddy driving "The Duck" in Branson on Lake Taneycomo.
































Jonah looking "baby-ish" to me. I think Lesh is more excited about driving this boat/truck than Lesh is. :)











My very handsome and sweet husband. We're celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary this month. Being married to him has been a fun adventure.









Me and the snuggler. He loves to play with my hair while he sucks his fingers.