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: