Christmas time is upon us!!!!!

Well the holidays are here and Jeremiah and the rest of the family have all been busy getting ready. We decorated the tree (quite an interesting feat with Jeremiah's help - he wanted all the ornaments below 4 feet. So far he has been pretty good about not pulling things off but he checks everyday to make sure the tree is still there.

We visited the mall this past weekend and told Santa Claus what we wanted. Can you guess what it might have been???? When Santa asked him what he wanted he said "Chocolate cake and a Diego book!!!!". If we had only known we could have saved ourselves a lot of shopping!!!!!

The last two days haven't been very pretty here - overcast, foggy and cool so we took the opportunity today to make Gingerbread House (compliments of a kit from Walmart). He did pretty good - only wanted to eat the Christmas tree that came with it but finally decided the house needed a Christmas tree and abstained (I was proud of him!). Hope everyone out there has a safe, happy and healthy holiday - photos of Christmas party with Great-Grandmother will be the next thing we post!!!

Is it just me or is he too handsome for words???!!!!!

Yes he's ours and we're prejudiced - but can you blame us???!!!!!

More photos

Sorry folks but I had to make a second entry for the birthday photos.....as you can see from the first picture Paw-Paw is Jeremiah's buddy!!!

Halloween and Birthdays!

Jeremiah was sick at Halloween time this year with a sinus infection and ear infection so we elected not to go out trick or treating because of the weather and since we are "in the country" and not in a subdivision we don't get trick or treaters so we went to the church activity Fall Festival (where my camera died). I have a couple of pictures of him in costume (he absolutely loves Diego and now calls himself Diego Jeremiah).

My Dad celebrated his birthday on November 5 and our friend Betty B joined Jeremiah and myself and Jeremiah's Granny in celebrating at the Olive Garden. I am adding some pictures of Jeremiah "helping" with the cards and cake. Happy Birthday Dad/Paw-Paw!!!! We hope you have many more for us to celebrate!!!!

School pictures

We have been waiting for the proofs and have had trouble getting them delivered to our email, these were made in June but they are the latest professional pictures we have of Jeremiah.

The last one over to the right is my favorite but the photographer said there wasn't a bad one as far as he was concerned because Jeremiah was smiling in all of them. Don't you just want to squeeze those little cheeks???!!!!

Hot fun in the summertime

We have been enjoying the summer months together and we are seeing more and more of Jeremiah's personality as the days go by. He loves to laugh and be tickled and will come to you and say "Tickle Monster" which means that the tickle monster is supposed to come out and get him. He is tickleish all over and I love his laugh. Its a combination of shrieks and huh huh huh's that is too cute for words!

He weighs 37 pounds and is about 39 inches tall and seems to have 2 hollow legs. We are thinking of buying stock in one of the grocery store chains. He eats pretty much everything but bananas which he just doesn't like.

He loves to spend time with my Mom and Dad and will ask to go to Maw-Maw and Paw-Paws. He spends every Friday afternoon with them and I don't know who has more fun.

He is getting along well at Mom's morning out and even seems to have a girlfriend there. When I took him in this morning a little blonde curly top came running over screaming MiaMiah MiaMiah and do you he turned into such a guy right in front of me?! He looked at her and rolled his eyes and said very quietly "hey" picked up a toy and walked off. Talk about playing hard to get....

I am posting some miscellaneous photos and I am still looking for the adapter so we can load some video. He has one where he is "Shaking his Booty" that is pretty darn cute!!!!

Summertime

Well Jeremiah is enjoying the summertime life. He is swimming in the pool, playing in the backyard and just living large as the saying goes. He seems like he grows overnight literally and he is talking more and more. We hear lots of interesting things these days. He changed Mom's Morning Out locales recently and our little man is struggling with making the change but he seems to be acclimating and enjoying it. We went to Old Navy today and had a little bit of a shopping spree I am posting pictures of his new hat.

P.S. I have also attached photos of Jeremiah wearing my old Crocs (note that he put them on the wrong feet). He loves to put his Dad's shoes and my shoes on and clomp around the house in them. He is wearing a size 9 shoe now so he has a while to go before catching up with either one of us.....

Latest and greatest

Jeremiah spent yesterday afternoon entertaining the folks at Charlotte Healthcare (where Great-Granny lives). It was their annual family outing and he had a hotdog with all the trimmings. Then to everyones thrill balloons were passed out and everyone got to let them go on the count of "3". Jeremiah thought this was great and since it made him so happy several of the residents gave him their balloons to release. What a sight - a sky full of red, white and blue balloons!!!!!! After spending time with those folks he went to spend the afternoon with Granny and Paw-Paw and at some point in time he learned a new phrase. Granny tells me he was watching "Martha Speaks" and someone on there said "Hey! Wait a minute!" and now all we are hearing is "Hey! Wait a minute!". Just for added thrills I have taught him to point his finger when he says it and its pretty funny. I am trying to find the cables so that I can add video to our site and you can have a demonstration of this. Be on the lookout - I hopefully will have it by the time the weekend is over!!!!

Say a prayer!!!

Well everyone its official! A week has gone by and I can't deny it - I'm another year older! I had a wonderful birthday followed by a great Mothers Day!!!! I got to spend time with my wonderful son, my Mother and my Grandmother (who is 86!). You know it is wonderful to have a reason to celebrate Mothers Day - I look at him everyday and thank God for him in our lives. We have been visiting a very nice church and we believe that this may be where God is leading us to join so that we can finally have a dedication ceremony.

Jeremiah is growing everyday and is talking more and more. When I picked him up at MMO yesterday the teachers told me that he had been singing Deep and Wide all morning. He is also saying the alphabet (well not by himself but he follows along with us). We are also making animal noises as well - we hear Moo!, Quack Quack!, Arf Arf! and Meow Meow! pretty regularly. I guess that is why I have mixed feelings about this post. I have a job interview today. It does sound promising and would allow me to work from home within a short period of time (something I have really prayed for!). I think it would be wondeful to get up in the morning and be able to get Jeremiah ready and walk him the two doors down to my Mom and Dad's home and come back and go to work. I could walk down and have lunch with him and then at the end of the day walk down and pick him up. Of course entire days spent with him would be over except for weekends but I would know that he is in the best and most loving of hands (other than mine and Avery's . So I am asking everyone to please say a prayer that God's Will is done in this and to allow me to have peace over it.

Thanks again to everyone who came and shared GOTCHA day with us! More later!!!!

We celebrated Jeremiah's GOTCHA Day this past weekend. We had to delay a weekend due to illness but everyone was happy and healthy this past weekend and we all had a wonderful time. Jeremiah enjoyed playing with his friend Jessica and eating cake and ice cream. He has grown so much this year I can't believe the changes in him and he is talking more each day! He is also singing (his favorites are Twinkle Twinkle, 3 Blind Mice and Deep and Wide). See if you can tell from the photos how much he has grown!

Happy GOTCHA Day!!!!!!

One year ago today at exactly 6:07pm one of the most magical and wonderful moments that has ever occurred happened in our lives. We stood on a street corner in Guatemala City with many many people passing all around us - there were young men from all over the world there for the Olympic Boxing tryouts and the city was bustling. For us though the world stood still as we watched a woman walking towards us carrying the most precious gift we were ever to receive. We held our breath as she walked towards us with him in her arms and suddenly he was there....he was in our arms smiling and patting our faces. The family he had known for 14 months handed us a little package with one toy and a baby bottle in it and they walked away from him forever. He never cried or fussed - it was like he had been waiting for us and knew he was going with us. I will always remember the walk back to our hotel with Avery carrying him and Hector chatting with us about what to expect at our embassy appointment - I don't think I heard a word.

One year later I look at our son - he is in the terrible twos now and very much making his personality and bids for independence known. He is a source of constant joy and occasional frustration as he tries to tell us what he wants to so much but just hasn't gotten the words down yet. He has grown 7 inches and is in the 75th percentile on height, weight and head circumference. It is again my privilege to have time to spend with him and we are spending our days reading books and walking in the sunshine exploring the yard and all that comes with it in the spring. The fruit trees are blooming and they smell so wonderful - we have apple, cherry, pear and peach trees in our yard and the apple blossoms are wonderful. Jeremiah loves apples and I can't wait to be able to take him out and let him see the apples as they grow. He wants to know what makes everything work and I am sure trying to figure out the mystery of fruit growing on a tree will be interesting for him. So despite the fact that I worry about a job I am trusting in God to provide and thanking Him for again having time to spend with our son.

We are going to celebrate GOTCHA day with family and close friends this weekend and I will post pictures then. Thanks again everyone for all your thoughts and prayers!

Jeremiah good times

Well our bout with sinus infections etc. seems to be waning. We are all three happy about that! It is an answer to prayer!!! We had snow this past Monday and Jeremiah was completely blown away! He took one look and said ....."Juice" we don't know why, My last day on my job was this past Friday so the timing was perfect - we got to play in the snow and have a blast and not feel guilty for not going to work!!!

I went to the grocery store yesterday and when I got home Jeremiah helped me put up the groceries! This was so cute - he would bring me a bag and say "Here go Mama" to which I would reply "Thank You" and then he would say "Welcome". Now honestly - where else would you get help like that?! Since then he has been busy helping us eat them!

So its official I am now job hunting and as everyone knows the economy is so bad just please pray for our family - we have put our trust in God that He will lead me to just the right job for me! Also please pray for Avery he is competing this month in the driving rodeo and this is something that is very important to him so please everyone pray that he does well!

One more note about Mr. Jeremiah - they must be singing 3 Blind Mice at daycare because most nights now when we put him down we hear him in his room humming it! It is too funny for words because he does it over and over!!! He loves music and loves to dance! Do we have a future Lord of the Dance on our hands???!!!!

The Terrible Twos

OK OK - everyone said it was coming but I didn't believe them. It was true though - we have entered the TERRIBLE TWOS!!!!! We went to dinner Saturday night and Jeremiah wanted to take one of his toy trains in to the restaurant and was told "No". He then proceeded to throw himself down in the parking lot, the restaurant and out of the chair at the table! His Dad finally took him outside to cool off and once he apparently figured out he wasn't going to get his way (and the food was at the table) he pointed back into the restaurant and said "Mama" and pulled his Dad along and into the restaurant. He had another episode on Sunday when he didn't want to leave his cousins Chris and Heather and his Uncle and Aunt Tony and Lesa. It is quite something really - to see someone so small get so mad! We are getting multiple pieces of advice on how best to handle this - please feel free to submit anything that you feel is pertinent!

Welcome to our Blog

We finally have a blog and hopefully can now start adding new pictures and video. Jeremiah has turned 2 and is growing like a weed! We just found out he weighs 32 lbs and stands 36 inches tall! He is in the 75th percentile!



Life is exciting in our house as he is learning new things everyday and is so inquisitive! He seems to like toys that allow him to build - LEGOS are a favorite (except for Mom and Dad who seem to end up picking them up frequently). We are working on that though and he is getting to be pretty good about picking up his toys each evening.



I have been put on notice that my job will be ending March 9th - so we are praying about that a lot at our house. For now we have no plan other than to put it in God's hands and see where He leads us in this next adventure. I enjoyed the time off I had with Jeremiah so much last year I am actually looking forward to having some more quality time with him.



We went out to dinner last night and its so much fun to watch Jeremiah - he is going to be a politician I do believe. When we walk in to a restaurant he waves at everyone and tells them "Hello" and when we leave the restaurant he waves at everyone and either blows them a kiss or tells them "Bye Bye".



He had an ear infection and is recovering from that but otherwise he seems to be happy and healthy and we are blessed. A year ago I could not have imagined this is what life would be like!