Family

Walking, talking, playing, splashing, loving, and reading.  All words that describe today!

My nephew is here!!!

And my sister and brother-in-law, and they aren't chopped liver by any means, but seeing Elliot in person is just so awesome.  He's totally different than I had in my mind from the computer screen I'd seen him on.  From the first moment I saw him he was smiling and just sooooo happy.  He's so cute and cuddly and I've gotten to hold him many times already!  He and Zane are really different from each other too.  They move differently and have different actions and Elliot's voice is lower than Zane's!  Isn't that strange (neat)?  We caught them playing together and they were doing great.  Amanda got a video that I'll have to get of them.  I'm so happy about today and am looking forward to more days with them!  I'm so glad all three of them are here!

Cousins meeting!!!

My beautiful sister-so brave to come over the ocean with a baby!!

Eating a snack.

With Elliot!!

Playing together!!

Zane with his Aunt!!

Thanks for dropping in, Uncle Travis!

Zane got to spend a few hours with his Uncle Travis today.  There was so much laughter and squealing going on.  Just to clarify, Zane did the squealing and they both did the laughing.  There was even singing, but no videoing was allowed during that time.  :)

 

Meow!

This video is dedicated to Grandma Janie, who loves cats!  :-)

Pears

My parents have an old pear tree that is giving them tons of pears.  My dad asked if I wanted a sack.  Sure!  I was thinking a Wal-mart sack full.  Well, mom showed up with two FEED sacks full of pears.  One I could hardly lift, the other was about half full.  We had pears pears and more pears.  I gave some away, made a not good pear cake, and decided to make pear sauce with the rest of it.  I can use it to make pear pancakes for Zane, or add to other recipes.  Canning is not recommended on my stovetop, so even if I wanted to, it wouldn't be a good idea.

I believe he thought they were balls!

 

A huge thanks to Jeff who volunteered to help me peel and process these!  They would still be on the floor if it weren't for him!

Outside

Earlier this week, we went outside after lunch and Zane got to look around.  He likes to pick up pieces of grass and whatnot and carry them around.  :)

Jeff moved the little loquat to the big pot!

 

He's a curious boy...

Zane likes to follow me around and check out whatever I'm doing.  Today I took clothes out of the dryer and put them in his room, and heard a click click click sound.  Here's what I found him doing.

Breakfast with Zane

We just had a lovely morning together.  He is so fun and happy!  After breakfast, we read tons of books.  I would sit on the couch, he would bring me one, read it, then I'd set him down and he'd go put it back on the shelf and get another one!  After that, we drank milk, then vacuumed.  And he loves the vacuum.  He's always right there by it, doing a little side step to get out of the way.  :)

Cheese!

Happy Birthday Sweet Elliot!

Little baby Elliot!

Happy 1st Birthday!!

Yesterday was my nephew, Elliot's birthday!!  He is a big one year old now!  I love you Elliot!  I can't wait to see you!

Our Zane

I just have to write a post about what Zane's been up to and what he's been doing.  He's such a good little guy and I'm really a proud Mama.

I went into his room the other day to get him up from his nap and he was just sound asleep sucking his thumb.  I just had to take a video of it because he's getting really big and I want to remember it!  Also, last week I decided to start putting a blanket on him at night.  He didn't have anything in his crib because I was so worried about him having SIDS, but after he turned a year, I decided he needed a little friend in his crib, so I put a birthday present, a sock monkey in his crib.  Last week, I gave him a blanket.  The funny thing is, one time, just a couple days after I started covering him, I laid him down to nap and he pointed to the blanket!  He wanted to be tucked in!  It was soooooo sweet.  I tucked him in and he just lay there smiling.  Tonight, he was going to bed and he pointed again to the blanket and just absolutely loved being tucked in!  I can even stand there and talk to him telling him I love him, etc and he just lays there!  Of course, after I leave, he gets up and roots around, but he wanted his blanket!

We are still working on sounds.  We're trying to teach him a cat, but it hasn't quite come out yet.  However, he surprised us with the monkey sounds (ooo ooo)and today, before church when he was eating, he actually did the motion for a monkey!  It was so surprising!!  He can also do a turkey, duck, sort of a chicken, dog, lion, coyote, loves the sheep-it might be his favorite, cow, pig, and fish. 

Oh, this is a little embarrassing, but at almost 15 months, I've discovered that Zane for sure has a birthmark!  I've noticed this mark on his hip once or twice fairly recently and thought it might be a birthmark, but also thought it could be a light bruise.  Well, it's definitely a birthmark.  He had a hurting diaper rash so we let him run around outside sans clothes on a blanket and I got a good look at it.

He's back into the "don't want to leave Mama" stage.  I thought that it was only around 9 months, but it's back!  And he's getting heavy!!  I don't mind it really, because I love his hugs and neediness, but it's hard to walk around with someone grabbing your legs!

Zane loves playing with his little friends.  It is so great to see him interact with other kids.  I can't remember if I wrote this on the blog, but one of my friends at church has a little girl and she got to bible class before Zane did and Zane had to have a diaper change before he got in his chair.  The teacher told my friend that Briley was doing great and then Zane came and it was like confetti fell out of the heavens!!!  :)  Isn't that funny?  I am so glad that he has little friends.  He had a little boy buddy in Bible class today.  :)  This week, he gets to meet Aunt Amanda, Uncle Andre and cousin Elliot!!  I'm so excited to see the boys play together.  It is going to be so much fun.

He's on a roll of cutting his lip.  He did it again outside the other day when he fell!  This one wasn't as bad though, but I still don't like seeing blood.  And I still do the wrong things when trying to help.  Hopefully he won't give me more practice.  Enough is enough! 

That's all the news I can think of.  I'll leave you with a cute toddler sucking his thumb. 

Happy Fall!

MeMaw's Pecan Pie

Come and see us this fall and I'll make you one of these!  :-)

Young Mother's Luncheon

Today we had our second luncheon for young mothers at church.  It was so great to spend time with them and actually be able to visit.  When you are at worship services, you really don't have time to visit.  So, to be able to get together and chit chat was encouraging and uplifting! 

Joy, Angela, and little Briley

Getting to visit with everyone.

Joy and Nia

Nia, Archana, and Carlie

Taking care of the baby

Zane gave Cole lots of hugs!  They are buddies.

All the kids playing so nicely.

Zane's saying, "There's my mom!"

Briley and Annabelle

Trinity, Zane and Artie Rose looking at butterflies!