Josh & Natalija

Happy 2nd Anniversary Josh & Natalija! I made a cake for you. Wish you could have a piece. We'll think of you whenever we eat it. =) Hope you had a great day.


This is my last cake for course one. A formal cake. The roses are not blue. I took bad pictures that even iphoto could not salvage! The roses are actually a lovely shade of purple. I added some glitter dust to them to make them sparkle and look like they have dew on them. Roses are tricky to make. Mine certainly aren't perfect. Before I added the leaves they looked more like pine cones. But I'm happy with the finished product. Now I just need lots of help eating it!

24 Hour Difference

The video of Josiah from yesterday is outdated already. Apparently all of his crawling brain neurons connected overnight. He did nothing but crawl and crawl and crawl today. All over the kitchen and living room. Nothing stopped him! So funny what a difference a day makes.

Also, we have a table that we will be getting rid of if someone local is looking for a table. It is round/oval. It comfortably seats six when 2 boards are added. It is quite small when the boards are removed. We still need the chairs so the table comes alone.

Josiah--7 Months

Two hands on the sliding door. I think he could see his reflection. He was laughing and talking.


My mobile guy. In the pantry, the computer area, Aliza's toys. He's everywhere and I can't turn my head.


Josiah is 7 months old today. The above (third) picture is a video of him crawling. He does 2 or 3 good hands and knees steps and then lunges, army crawls or inchworms. Then he is up on his knees again. He has already crawled to me across the living room, but that doesn't happen all the time. However, he can get anywhere he wants to go.

He also has a tooth and his language is a bit more complicated. We are saying lots of mama's and dada's to him. He's down to 4 bottles and 3 (large) meals. Today he didn't finish his afternoon bottle so maybe we will be down to 3 bottles soon. We'll see.... He's growing up SO fast!

Pocomoke River Church

Tonight (yes, Saturday evening) was the first public meeting of Pocomoke River Church. This is a church that my father pastors and my mother co-pastors. It has met in his house for several years and he has finally taken the plunge to meet publicly.

It was not a huge group, but more than usual and some new people. On the surface it may not have seemed that anything extraordinary happened. But I know that one person in attendance usually spends his Saturday evenings at the bar and the person who invited him didn't think he would show up. But he did. I'd say that counts in the extraordinary category! And someone else engaged Dad is a conversation on salvation. Two checks in the extraordinary category and those are only obvious ones!

It was really nice to see Dad "behind the pulpit" again. Looking forward to next week....

Faithful Blog Reader Mystery

Jeremy's 8pm Facebook Status Message read as follows: Jeremy wonders who keeps searching for Carla Sheats Heslop and goes to his site everyday to get to carla's Blog.

Does anyone want to solve his mystery???? Just leave a comment!

Life Long Project

A long time ago, when I was in Jr. High, Mom decided that my sister and I needed a constructive project to do. So she allowed us to pick out cross stitch quilt blocks. I labored over which design I liked the best and what size bed I thought I might have in the future. Without realizing the consequences I also picked a design that connects on each quilt block. The flowers in each corner make a small square when the blocks are laid together. Janell, on the other hand, picked a pattern where she could actually add strips of fabric between her blocks allowing her to cross stitch fewer blocks. Her quilt has been finished for several years.

Mine is long from finished. In fact, Grandma Rhoda said on one of her visits that she suspected I would be 50 before I finished my quilt! Recently I've been inspired to work on it again. It's a good thing to do while listening to presidential speeches and debates and scrapbook webisodes. I think I have 9 finished. That is about a quarter of the total needed for the quilt! Hopefully the inspiration will stick around for awhile!

Kids and Cake #2

He is so cute!!! Aliza thinks so too. She gets up in his face and says "Awwww, you're cute!" I think she's heard that a couple times. Who would have guessed that a rubber spoon would entertain him today.

How did that toothbrush sneak out of the bathroom, down the stairs and outside???


The blanket is now irrelevant. I may as well just sit him on the grass and let him go.


This is cake #2. I liked how it turned out. Aliza has been playing with the clown heads so this "clown cake" is highly anticipated. I was thinking of her with writing "C is for Clown."

Battle Wound

Saturday morning is my morning to get up with the children so that Jeremy can sleep in. Usually I have a really bad attitude about this, but this morning I tried really hard to be in a good mood and got up quickly so that Jeremy wouldn't be disturbed. I was still really groggy so I agreed to let Aliza watch a Dora episode and I laid on the couch.

After Dora was over I still didn't feel like moving and carrying on an animated conversation so Aliza crawled up beside me on the couch. She was squirmy and at one point she sat up and threw herself back. She thought she was going to land on the pillow, but instead she connected squarely with my head. My forehead right above my left eye. I should add that I was sitting up the same time she was coming back so we connected with momentum on both ends.

We both started crying. My initial thought was that my 2 year old just broke my skull. I picked her up and carried her upstairs. I woke up Jeremy. He took one look at me and sprung into action. I had a huge goose egg on my head. Aliza settled down quickly. I was still crying. It took an hour for the "fog" to clear. I now have a rather large purple spot developing on my head. Should be lovely as the bruise moves down into my eye area.

Good news though. We picked up Jeremy's car tonight. It was an electrical problem. Now he can continue his quest to 300,000 miles! And I don't have to drive a minivan....yet.

Jumping Bean

I got out our jumpy thing today and Josiah loved it. He played with the toys and liked the music and jumped to his heart's content. I had my hands full keeping Aliza from ruining his joy, but I still got to enjoy him.


This is what happens when little boys don't take long enough naps!

Not Too Bad

This is my first decorated cake. I didn't think it turned out too bad. Everyone did this version of a sunflower. It was really fun to do something different and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening out. I learned that this icing is a little tricky to work with. My icing turning out really stiff. I'm hoping that next week it goes a bit more smoothly.

In other noteworthy news, Jeremy's 1991 Honda Accord with 291,000 miles on it was towed away yesterday. I felt a little sentimental when it was loaded on the trailer. It's transmission has died and we can't see putting that much money in a car with so many miles on it. We are sitting here this evening researching loans and cars. Looks like we are down to a Honda Pilot or a Honda Odyssey. I'm sure we'll test drive them both and luggage space will most likely be the deciding factor. I'm secretly (well...not so secretly) hoping that I like the Pilot because I'm simply vain and don't want to return to my 16 year old days of driving a mini van!

Beach and S'mores

Josiah and Grandpa

Jeremy's parents came for a visit this weekend and we had lots of fun. Aliza was so excited that whole time they were here that she could hardly sleep! So here are some pictures in no particular order since Blogger confuses me on picture order. I really wanted this text before the first picture!! And at the end of the post is some big Josiah news!!!



Yes, Aliza found out that the sand is soft to fall in. She was rolling in it.


My very favorite family picture.


Getting ready for s'mores. We made a bonfire in our backyard.


Josiah ready to taste sand.


Aliza and Grandma doing the hokie pokie.


Playing in the sand.

Josiah has a tooth now AND he is crawling. This weekend he was so very, very close and today he has some really coordinated hand and feet movement.

Also, we spent the weekend thinking about Jeremy's brother Josh and his wife, Natalija. They live in Houston in the area where Hurricane Ike hit. They were under mandatory evacuation and so far don't know what the status of their housing is. Natural disasters are not only hard on housing, but also on income when you can't work. So say a prayer for them!

Stay Tuned

First of all.... Josiah had his 6 month check up today. He weighs 18 lbs. 11 oz and is 26 3/4 inches. He's ahead of the 6 month developmental milestones since he is sitting up and getting ready to crawl. And, yes, he eats well....very well....we'll be moving on to Stage 2 baby food and introducing some solid foods like Cheerios and bread and the dissolvable puffy things.

Dr. Alvarado also gave me a very interesting insight (for all formula buying Moms who feel guilty about not buying "name brand" formula for your baby). Parents Choice (Wal-Mart brand formula) and Similac are the exact same formula recipe made by the exact same company. Apparently Wal-Mart approached Similac and asked them to make a formula for Wal-Mart to sell. Similac didn't want the expense of developing a new formula so they sold their own recipe to Wal-Mart and agreed to manufacture it. Doesn't make any sense from a business perspective. Enfamil and Similac at Wal-Mart cost $24.95 and Parent's Choice costs $11.84.


Meghan, Chrissy and I have embarked on a new adventure. We are taking a cake decorating course this month. We had our first class and bought some exciting supplies. Last night we learned how consistency of icing affects cake decorating and how to fill and ice a cake.

Each week we have to take a cake and icing and then in class we decorate it. So I'll post a picture. I don't have high hopes for the end product, but we'll see how it goes! It's exciting to learn something new and I'm happy for something different to look forward to each week.

Potty Training Mommy

Ok, so two posts in one evening is a little over the top. Clearly I don't have a life!

Aliza and I have had one failed potty training attempt. I've been to the Dollar Tree to pick up some rewards, but I haven't purchased the training potty. Planning to stay home for a week to do this doesn't entice me at all and I just haven't risen to the challenge yet. But there are some moments, like tonight, when I'm reminded that the time is most likely upon me to do this.

Here's the story. Frequently Aliza wants to sit on the potty....for all of 15 seconds....mostly so she can wipe and flush. It was almost bath time so Jeremy took off her diaper, let her sit and since she was headed for the bathtub I said she could run around bare for a couple minutes while I folded laundry. She ate a couple grapes and while at the table said, "No poopy on the floor!" I said, "that's right. Go to the potty if you need to poop." Wrong response. The right response would have been to hightail it over to her and sit her back on the potty. You guessed it. A minute later an accident. She knew she had to go. She held it for a minute and I totally missed it!!!! I am seriously the one that needs to be trained.

From My Front Door

Is it time for leaves to be falling already? On Saturday leaves were pouring off the trees. We had mild wind and good rain from Tropical Storm Hana and so many leaves fell. I like fall colors and smells, but seeing the leaves fall makes me feel a little sad knowing that the long drab days of winter are coming. I always remind myself that another spring will come and bring with it new leaves and lots of green!

Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Hale

Jeff and Janell finally received their wedding pictures so now I am free to post wedding pictures. I probably got a little carried away, but there were so many good ones I had a hard time choosing. If you want to see lots more they are at www.jahphotography.com

Janell was absolutely gorgeous. Here her train was used as the backdrop.

Jeff and Janell



Jeff and Janell had all their pictures taken before the ceremony. This is Janell walking up the aisle to see Jeff for the first time.


My sisters and I: Laura, Linda, Janell, Carla

Aliza was a happy flowergirl before the wedding.


Bridal Party


My Family


Janell and I


It's a good thing Aliza held my hand to walk up the aisle. Judging by her expression I don't think she would have made it by herself. The wedding was at 2:00 (the middle of her naptime) so she was pretty tired by this time.





My Dad performed the ceremony. He always does a really good job.


On the way to the reception we went to the grounds of a mansion and took more pictures.


For the first time in public...


And when they left it was raining....actually hailing....as Jeremy pointed out very fitting for Mr. and Mrs. Hale's departure!

Now I have a cool new brother-in-law who loves my kids, plays golf and watches movies with my husband and isn't afraid to invite himself over for pizza!!!!