Dear Meredith...

Dear Meredith,


I'm so excited to get to see you on Friday! I made this video for you... I miss you!!!


and...


I LOVE YOU!!!

Dear "Uncle" Brendon...

Dear "Uncle" Brendon,

I sure do miss you! Mommy and Daddy have been reading your emails that you are sending from Uganda. Have you seen any wild animals in Africa? Did you see a giraffe? What about a monkey? - you know, my Mommy LOVES monkeys. She decorated my room with them and buys me any shirt or pajamas with monkeys on them!

I think God brought you to Uganda for very special purposes. (That's what Mommy and Daddy say.) But, don't get attached to Uganda because I want you to come back here and play with me!

I weigh 10 pounds now...can you believe it? And I'm 4 inches longer than I was when I was born. Today I am 11 weeks old. That's 77 days! Maybe Mommy and Daddy will have a party for me when I'm 100 days old - Daddy likes to do fun things like celebrate 100 days, or 1,000,000 seconds of life. He's so much fun!

I've been working on my tummy time. I'm still not a big fan of it - that head of mine is so stinkin' heavy! But, Mommy and Daddy say I need to practice so I can lift my head up one day and do something they call "crawl"...whatever that is! I guess I'll find out. Mommy made this video for you last week. She caught me smilin' at you.

I love you, "Uncle" Brendon! Take care of yourself and hurry back to see me - but not before God finishes in you His purposes for you there in Uganda! God bless you!!

- Josiah

last long trip, Josiah, we promise!

So, we returned from Louisiana Friday night and got on a plane, headed for New Hampshire Saturday morning...Josiah's last big trip for at least a month. He was a FANTASTIC traveler. He didn't seem to have any problems with the plane rides and he only got fussy once when we were on our 2nd plane of the day on our way there. On our return flight, he was an angel the whole time!

Now, there is something exciting that happened on the way there...umm, exciting? Maybe not exciting. Let's just say eventful! We were sitting on the tarmac, 10th in line for take off and all of a sudden Josiah starts to poop. He hadn't pooped in a couple of days at the time, so not only did he poop that one time, it was followed up by two more poops. Well, I won't go into too much detail, but basically we had to change his diaper in our laps since we were in line for take off (yes, we asked the flight attendant to go to the bathroom, but he insisted that we stay in our seats.) Well, I knew it was going to be bad...and it was! Poop on his feet that kicked my sweater, poop on the blanket underneath him, and...poop on our hands. His diaper was exploding and thankfully we had a ziploc to put it in, but we got pretty messy in the process of cleaning it all up!

We arrived in Boston and drove about an hour to the Livies' home in New Hampshire. It had snowed almost 2 feet in the previous week, so it was pretty exciting to see all of the snow around! This was almost all of the Audis first time to meet Josiah, so there was a mad rush to the door when we got there. Josiah lasted for about an hour, and then he completely lost it - not so much because there were 20+ people wanting to meet him. It was mostly the fact that we had woken up at 4 a.m., been on two flights with a 3 hour layover in Chicago and had driven another hour from the airport to get to our final destination. He had had it! And, he let me know that night! It took a solid 2 hours to really calm him down that night, but whew... after that long night, the rest of the time there was really pleasant. His 8 cousins loved cooing at him.

Isabella (4) kept saying, "He's cute. I just can't stop saying that, 'He's cute!'" She's a cutie! Julia came in the room the night Josiah went balistic and sang to him, "Quiet down, quiet down, quiet down little baby!" Again, so cute! She called him "Hosiah." Did I mention that the cousins also love Daniel??? This is Gabrielle and Julia.

We opened Christmas gifts with the family. Daniel and I got matching UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND t-shirts. Aren't we cute?!?!....and cheesy!!

Josiah got a University of Maryland onesie and a REDSKINS onesie. All of the Audis are big Redskins fans, having grown up right outside of DC. This is Josiah's cousin Michael sporting his Redskins shirt with Josiah.

There were plenty of activities planned for the week. Josiah and I mostly stayed at home - too cold for him to get out. Plus, it was nice to have some down time for him. Nathan and Michael thought it would be funny to throw and snowball at me...it actually turned out to be a great picture!

And for the final blog picture... I guess sometimes you never grow up, huh, Daniel and Steve??

back to Christmas posts - Road Trip #3: Christmas in Ruston

Our Christmas gift came early this year...it came November 8...isn't Josiah a great gift?!!! We think so!!

And his Papa thinks so too - Papa got TWO presents...2 grandsons for Christmas!

Our family grew this year...we went from 7 to 9!!

me, Daniel, Jenny, Meredith, Brian, Mama (Gran Gran), Brannon, Daddy (Papa), and Josiah

on the road...AGAIN! We had a different Christmas this year in Ruston. Christmas morning as we knew it didn't come on the 25th...it came on the 26th, and I spent the morning of the 25th in the hospital, visiting my Granny. She will be 90 years old February 20, and she fell and shattered her lower femur the week before Christmas. As of today she is still in the hospital but the doctors are amazed at her progress. For a woman whose diet consisted of coke, toast with a heap of butter, and Tootsie Roll Pops, her body is actually incredibly healthy and is proving to be quite resilient despite being 90 years old, overweight, and unable to put any weight on that leg for 10 weeks! Really, the Lord has been so gracious to my Granny.

Back to Christmas.

Jenny, Brian, Meredith, and Brannon arrived on Christmas evening and we all went to Mamaw and Papaw's...we were 30-ish people at their house!

Throughout our childhood, our Papaw would always dress up in his Santa suit and greet children at the bank where he was a board member. We still ask him to get out his old suit for old times' sake!

Papaw and his girls.

Mamaw, "Santa," and their great grandchildren: Sydney, Meredith, Abby, Brannon, Trigger, and Josiah ("little Santa")

Like I said, our "Christmas morning" actually came on the 26th. Brian and Daniel think Jenny and I are ridiculous, but on Christmas morning we always had this rule that you can't look in the den at what Santa brought before the other one. So, we'd have to go together. Every Christmas morning, I'd ALWAYS wake upbefore Jenny, go in her bedroom, wake her up, and we' go brsh our hair (for the pictures, of course), and brush our teeth, and walk into the den together. And...we still do pretty much the same thing! Even at ages 32 and 29 there's still something magical about being a child at heart on Christmas morning, something magical about keeping traditions. And now something magical about spending Christmas with each other and with our children.

beautiful Meredith

matching cousins

Merdedith got a John Deere tractor....such a great country girl!!

interruption of the Christmas posts...part 2

Just when you think you know your son...

Well, I initially only posted the video in the post after this one, but I decided I HAD to include this video as well...usually he likes the "roar" but when I got the camera out to try to catch him on the video smiling at the roar....

interruption of the Christmas posts...

I was gonna finish out the travel posts with Christmas posts, but I'll have to get back to that. Josiah has become quite animated lately, and I wanted to show off his sweet coos and smiles!

***disclaimer on the "roaring" noise I'm making. We watched Prince Caspian the other night and made lion noises at Josiah and he's loved it ever since. Pretty funny!

Josiah makes more new friends

Josiah met Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and the Wise Men at the children's Christmas performance at Temple in Ruston.
He met Angie and Sarah Kate there too!

That day he also met Mr. Bill and Mrs. Iwilla, a precious couple at Temple who I've "adopted" as a 3rd set of grandparents. Mr. Bill is hilarious and Mrs. Iwilla is just precious. They love Jesus deeply and tell me regularly that they pray for me. They always ask my parents about me and Daniel and I always make sure to visit them at church when we are in town. They've just been moved to a nursing home, so Josiah wanted to meet them and visit them.

Mr. Bill gave Josiah a candy cane. He said it would help him stop crying when he needed it! ;-)

Josiah finally got to meet Anna Banana when we went home for Christmas.

And, he got to meet Kristin. Kristin is a few years younger than me and has been my friend since I was in high school. She's now pregnant with Georgia Kate who will make her grand entrance in April!

Tessa's blessing for Josiah

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

our Fort Worth family

Our small group...oh how we love them! We have been 9, and for the next 5 months we'll be 8 as we meet together. Brendon moved to Uganda on the 2nd of this month. He'll be there for 5 months. What an adventure he is on and we're already missing him, but we know God has GREAT THINGS in store for him in Uganda. We got together right before Christmas to have one last evening together before he left. It was a really sweet time.

the ladies with Tessa, Craig and Nikki's daughter. the men with Josiah and Jesse, Craig and Nikki's son.

date night...at the house

So, the Friday before Christmas Daniel and I decided it was time to have a real Friday night. Granted, we weren't ready to leave Josiah with anyone yet, so we had to make do at the house. What did we come up with? Well, since our TV completely died a week before, Daniel rigged up the laptop at the foot of the bed.

We watched Serendipity, always a good holiday flick...

And we drank hot chocolate...

And the 3 of us snuggled in bed...

And lived happily ever after! Ahh...it really was so nice to feel like we had a date - a different kind of date than we'd ever had before, but none-the-less, movie and hot chocolate must = date, right?

road trip #2 - Josiah and Mommy go to Ruston

The week before Christmas Josiah and I took a road trip to Ruston. The purpose? To see Jenny, Meredith, and Brannon for a few days. Jenny starts back to part time work next week, so it was our only chance to spend some extended time together. Meredith is at a really fun age now, and she seems to havereally taken to Josiah. When they got to Mom and Dad's Meredith looked around for Josiah, sat down, put her arms out and said, "Josiah, lap." So cute!

I brought Josiah's floor play gym and the 3 little ones hung out together! Meredith laughed at herself for pretending to be a "baby" with the boys!

Our cousins came over with their girls, and life got even more fun - 3 toddlers and 2 infants and 4 adults. You'd think we had a pretty good ratio...but it was a bit crazy still. Laura took Josiah and helped him get to sleep so I could play with Meredith and Annie. Thanks, Laura!

We enjoyed a couple of days together - Mom and Dad had to work so we just hung out together and visited with our grandparents during the day and saw Mom ad Dad in the evenings. Daddy gets to finally enjoy not being quite so outnumbered!!

the HOOD gang

Our 2nd annual family picture, taken at Thanksgiving, for Mama and Daddy's Christmas card. We added 2 to the picture this year! Brannon is 6 weeks and 4 days older than Josiah. Meredith turned 2 on November 6.

Josiah meets my best friends.

Heather, Anna, Molly, and I have been best friends since high school. Heather still lives in Ruston and is married and has a daughter, Hannah, who is 3. Molly lives in Alabama and is married and has a daughter, Audrey, who is 1. Anna Banana lives in Florida and has a serious boyfriend. Josiah got to meet Heather and Molly and their families at Thanksgiving. He didn't get to meet Anna until Christmas.

me with Hannah, Heather, and Josiah

Hannah wasn't too sure what to think about Josiah at first. She really has taken to me in the past and talks about me to her mom all the time. But this summer when I was in town for a baby shower, she would have absolutely nothing to do with me and the round ball that protruded from my belly. Since Josiah was born, Heather said when they would go shopping, Hannah would always want to pick out a present for baby Josiah. And when she finally got to meet him over Thanksgiving, she was so shy...at first. After we visited for about an hour or more and Hannah had begun saying to her parents, "It's time to go home," I asked her one last time if she wanted to hold baby Josiah. She grinned and nodded her head. I sat him on her lap and she glowed with excitement to hold a real baby! Then she said to her mommy, "It's not time to go now." ....so cute!

Hannah, smitten over Josiah

Molly, Brandon, and Audrey came over to meet Josiah as well. Audrey wasn't too keen on her mommy holding another baby - afterall, she's only one and SHE'S still Mommy's baby, right?!?! But, she let us take a picture with switched babies! :-)

me with Audrey, Molly, and Josiah

road trip #1 - Thanksgiving in Ruston

Josiah met lots of new people at Thanksgiving - all of my mom's family and all of my dad's family...probably 35-40 people in all...and he was only a wee 3 weeks old!

Granny and Josiah

Jenny with Meredith and Brannon, Josiah and me, and Laura with Annie and Allie

Papaw and Josiah

Mamaw and Josiah

Aunt Liz and Josiah

The cousins and our babies - Garson & Trigger, Jenny & Brannon, us

All the new babies...and Meredith

Brannon & Josiah: matching cousins...arent' they cute?

Josiah's travels

Josiah has been quite the traveler in his 8 weeks of life. He's gone to Ruston 3 times and flown to New Hampshire...not to mention the trek he did in Nepal while only 15-17 weeks in my womb! I'll try to catch up on the holidays in the following posts...

But, what's a post without a picture?!?! Here's our precious boy at 3 weeks of age: