Thursday, January 22, 2009

Old Pictures

I recently found these pictures of Ziva. They were on the hard drive of my camera. I believe they are from November. Maybe her 10 month bday. I loved looking at them and wanted to share. I love seeing how much she has grown in 10 months as well as how much she has grown the two months since then. The pictures aren't perfect because by the time the pictures were taken Z was crawling and couldn't be still.






Under the Weather

Let me say first that Ziva wasn't and isn't "sick sick." We have had several friends whose children have been seriously ill. It has been a tough time on the children and rough and taxing on the parents. Our prayers go out to you, Cates and Floyds, as well as anyone else who we were unaware of. This month has been stressful for everyone in one way or another. May we all continue to seek endurance and mercy from the Lord.As for us much of our stress has been a result of selling our house, Jason's new job and finding a new rent house. These are all good things but all have taken a lot of our attention and time. We praise the Lord for these stresses.

Back to Z being "sick." Though we kicked off the new year a little ill, now we all seem to be healthy. Last week Z started cutting at least 3 teeth if not more and at least one of them is huge and in the back. What is unusual is that the back molars usually don't come in this early. Either way she has had a hard time struggling with these.

She also had her 1yr shots. We were told that the older the child gets the harder the shots are on them. I really didn't think to much of this until this last round of shots. Ziva had a rough time. She even ran a low grade fever for a while. I think this is from the chicken pox vaccine (which I don't totally support). So between these shots and the teething Z has been a little fussy, lethargic and way clingy. She has bounced back now and is doing great.

Below is a picture of her zoning out in her chair and watching Wizard of Oz. She didn't want to do anything but be held and we did that a lot. Still we had to take care of other things. This is where bringing the chair out of her room came in handy. She actually sat in it for a while. It was cute but sad to see our little busy body baby so slow.

My Baby Loves her Ice Cream

Unknown to me at first, my mother allowed my child to finish off my dip cone. I had eaten it down past the top and I was finished. I had sat it down on the kitchen counter and walked away. I just didn't plan to give it to Ziva. Below is what I saw when I came around the corner from the bedroom a few minutes later. I let her continue to eat the cone. I am so weak.



Christmas Cookies

I have this new obsession that I have no time for...cutout cookies and the decorating of them. My first run was over Thanksgiving. I had leaves (turning colors), trees (turing colors), pumpkins and squirrels (not sure what is so fallish about a squirrel). I loved it but I needed more of a challenge and let's just forget the side obsession with finding the best tasting cookie recipe.

My second try turned out better than the first but I am still not satisfied with my "work." I did want to show off what the Christmas ones. Mainly so later I can compare and contrast my work. I guess that is what you get from someone who has a BSA. What is sad is that I complain that I don't have time for my art work but these took hours upon hours. You can't eat paintings though.


I should have taken the time to put ornaments on the Christmas Trees.

I did want these cutout boys to have the light lime green and red contrast look on their outfits. Instead, these poor guys look like they went to my high school. Once again I was too lazy to lighten the blue icing and didn't even take the time to make the lime green icing.

I wanted the blue on these to be much lighter but I was just too lazy to remix it. You can only go through so many 2lb bags of powdered sugar in a day without feeling bad about yourself.

These snowmen would be my favorite if I had any. They had the most detail but of course the picture is blurry.
These are not sloppy but "free form"...that's artist speak for sloppy.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Having my daughter mock my behavior has come as a slap in the face. Not that any of the behavior she is mocking is bad, its just that I was not ready for that. I have already started the self audit that I suppose most mature adults take of themselves when their kids start mimicking them. I wonder though is it for her good or mine?

Ziva has started talking on her cell phone. It's cute, especially when she chooses a non cell phone to talk on. In the picture below she is not only on her toy cell phone but her water bottle cell phone as well. In the next picture Ziva picked up my Diet DP bottle up that I had sit next to her car seat. What surprises me about this is that she knew to "drink" from it. She doesn't just "drink" from anything so she had to have been watching me. OH...I'm not ready for this.

On a side note...my child was not actually drinking the Diet DP. The lid was on.

Ziva on her phone.




Just what the Dr. ordered.

Friday, January 9, 2009

A Season of Change

Things have been changing for the Browns. Some good, some not so good. It has been an exciting ride these past months.


First...We finally closed on our house on Friday. We are no longer home owners. Yea!!!!...sort of. After a year and half of waiting, the Lord blessed us by selling our home to a family that seem really nice. We believe that they will take good care of our home. We loved our home and were blessed when we lived there. We hope the family that bought it will enjoy it and have as much fun as we did.



Second...Jason has changed jobs! The job came out of the blue but it is a very good opportunity. He is very excited. It is in specialty medical sales. He is actually in Cleveland at training this week. I know he is going to do great! More about this soon.



Third...We are moving into Savannah. Only 20min south. This is also a welcome change. We are going to rent for a year or two. We are looking for a house in a good neighborhood that isn't too expensive. This has already proven to be a bit of a challenge but I know the Lord will lead us to the right place.



Lastly, over the holidays Frankie, our husky, was stolen. We are very sad about this. I will forgo the details but we are very sure she was stolen. We are hoping and praying that a good family took her and she has a great home. It happened on Christmas eve so we are thinking she was a Christmas present. We feel so sorry for our dog sitter. She left the dogs out during the day like we told her to and when she came back from work Frankie was gone. We know it wasn't her fault but she still feels real bad.



That's pretty much it for now. Thank you all for praying with us about the sell of the house. Please join us in praising the Lord for His great blessings in the sale of the house as well as growing us in to more mature Christians as we waiting on His timing. Thank you again for all your prayers and support.





PS...if you never got to see our recently sold home or the renovations you can see it at :http://1022southgreenwoodave.blogspot.com/ . We are still very proud of all that we did and all the fun we had.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Group Pictures

We did snap a couple of group pictures. I am finding the older I get that A) these are harder to take because of the addition of children and B) the older I get the less I like how I look in these pictures. Regardless, I love these pictures. They are pieces of history of these fleeting moments I call a life. I can't wait to get really old and look back and these and enjoy the memories we all made together. Hopefully then I'll be too old to see how bad look in the pictures.



The Walkers and us.
My Family - The Ivys

The Canards and us.

Mmmm...Birthday Cake

First let me say that I want to and will post an update of Ziva's milestones soon. I'm not sure if any of you want to read that. I just want to share. But I will do that later. I have been working on this blog and posting stuff for hours now. I need a break...and Jason needs to get on the computer.

Now the cake. This was my favorite part of Ziva's party. I couldn't wait for this.


Before



After


Say Cheese



You want some?




What a Mess!

Bath time for the Birthday Girl.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Party People!!!

We had a great crowd for Ziva's party. Not that she cared, but we've already established that. Jason and I, on the other hand, enjoyed all of you and felt so blessed to have to celebrate our daughter's birthday with us. All of you mean so much to us and many of you traveled a long way to see us. Thank you! We had such a great time if only we could have visited longer!


Jason and Craig Canard





Olivia Purifoy...she ran security for the party.



Jaxon getting into his goodie bag.





Aunt Katy doing what she does best...smiling!




Little Miss Princess Mia Noel Walker




Becky and Kate Walker




Julia Kate was ready and waiting for the party.




The Birthday Girl in tutu number three.

Party Prep

In celebrating Ziva's birthday we went all out...correction...Jason allowed me to go all out. I know it was a bit much, especially for a first birthday. I just couldn't help myself. I love parties especially ones that involve decorations!!! I would do the same for you if I had the budget. It's hard for me not to send all of you bday cards with confetti in them. How fun would that be!?!?! Especially for you clean freaks. Anyway, Ziva's birthday was beautiful. Thank you, Jason, for allowing me to go crazy with it. It may have not mattered to the bday girl but I had fun!











The birthday girl getting ready for the party.

Christmas in OKC

Our third and last Christmas celebration happened on New Years Day. It wasn't much for us to wait. It was a bit hard on Jaxon. He couldn't wait to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Like all the other times we had fun seeing what everyone got and opening our own gifts. We will spare you the repeat pictures of opening presents, playing with bows, etc. We'll just hit the highlights. This doesn't mean this Christmas wasn't as good, we thought we were getting a little tired of seeing Ziva do the same thing in different outfits in different houses.



Ziva and Jaxon getting into the presents before it was time. To Jaxon's defense Ziva started it.

Julia is ready to open presents.



The Christmas Story (the real reason for Christmas) told by Pops.



Ziva chewing on her puzzle.
Gran Jan found these puzzles with extra large handles for easier grip. Well, they're about the size of a passie. Ziva noticed this and walked around sucking on them the entire time. It's time like these when later that night in bed when you are talking over the day with your spouse that you share a laugh about the situation and your child. Then you stop and wonder if your child will grow out of this "cute" behavior or will they be one of those "weird" people when they are older. Ziva reminds us of the "Katy" character in Horton Hears a Who. Hmmmm...not so sure about that. But we love her!



So we did a bad job taking Group/Family pictures this year. First we didn't take the time to do it most of the time. Maybe it's because there are so many babies "running" around...who knows. Secondly, when we did take the time the kids just wouldn't cooperate. Take pictures below for example. These are the only Family Christmas pictures Jason and tried to take this year and these are the "best" and I use that word loosely.



Ziva actually almost jumped out of Jason's arms. He just barely caught her right before the camera snapped the picture. It is some kind of new trick of hers.

Brown Time

We got to stay over a week with the Brown's in OKC. Amy and Julia got to stay too. All those people and babies in one house for that long can be overwhelming at times, but oh my goodness it was so awesome!!! It was the first time since April that Ziva got to spend that much time with Jan and Marty. Now they can say that they have spent at least a total of two weeks with her. It was good because we got a chance to hang out in formal and relaxed situations getting to know each other better. After all of it was can still say we love those Browns...and the Carlsons!

The first night the kids watched Wizard of Oz together. They were so into it that we "adults" got a little down time.




Baby it's Cold Out There!
The first couple of days in TX and OKC it was warm. I was fussing that I had wasted time and money buying warm clothing (that we don't normally wear here in the Deep South) for the occasion. Well a couple of days later the Lord taught me to be careful what I "wish" for. I now remember why I hate the cold...Jason remembers why he misses it.


Lil' Man Jaxon. Look at those eye lashes!



Here's Lookin' at You Kid.

A chip clip hair clip.



Aunt Katy and Cousin Julia Kate



Ziva's First Towel Turban


Jason and the Brown Girls




Jaxon helping wash Ziva's hair.



Tutu number two. This is Ziva's New Year outfit. I did NOT go out looking for a New Year outfit. I bought the outfit and then had to figure out some way to justify it. Hence calling it a New Year outfit. Jason wouldn't have "bought" it any other way.