Saturday, February 23, 2008

Josiah's Portraits

We had portraits made of Josiah a couple weeks ago and we finally got them back. I'm posting them, plus I played around with a lot of them, enhancing the colors and cropping and such, so that's why there are so many of the same poses sometimes. I feel like I'm rambling and not making sense, it's midnight here on Saturday night, and I've been up for hours playing with these things since Joey went to bed. Earl has duty tonight, so I'm spending my time playing with these pictures when I should be getting some sleep.
Anyway, here they are and if you want copies of any of them, just let me know which ones and what size. The photographers we went to on base gave us the disc to reprint as much as we want, so I'll get some printed from Walmart or Snapfish or wherever they are cheapest, if you let me know what you want.






























I love the pictures. He's my little cutie! And he'll be 19 months old in a few days! He's climbing on everything. He climbs up his changing table and sits up top to play, so I'm going to have to get that packed away. He's putting together more words at a time. Instead of just "nack" (snack), it's "more nack." No complete sentences yet, but he's really talking so well. Just another week until Angie gets here! Yay! And a month till Earl leaves. Boo hoo.
Okay, I really have to get in bed. Joey went down a little early since he didn't take a nap today, so I have a feeling he'll be up by 6am.
'Nite!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Dreadful Countdown

It's getting very close to when Earl leaves for Iraq. Next month he'll leave for 7 months or so.
:-(
We hate it, but are trying to make the best of the time we have right now. We went to New Bern's Harley Davidson last weekend to see the motorcycle Earl is hoping to buy soon. It's called the Crossbones. Doesn't that just sound like a name Earl would like? LOL He made me take pictures of the thing:




I have to admit, it looks pretty awesome. And pictures don't do it justice. I can see why he's yearning for it.

We finally got to meet up with some friends one day while the guys were at work a week or two ago. I left my camera here at Michelle's, so that's why I'm just now updating the blog.


Christina with new baby Landon, Bonny with BRAND NEW baby Abbey, and Michelle with new baby Adam. :-)

Angela with Michelle's baby boy.


Joey likes to spill out whatever he's drinking onto the high chair tray and sip it up like a cat or dog.

He likes letting the girls drive. :-)



We are very very very excited that Angie, my sis, will be on her mid-tour leave from Iraq soon. She should get to my house around the 2nd of March. Joey's been practicing his kisses on her picture. :-) I think she gets around 2 weeks here stateside, so we'll try not to hog her the whole time and will let her briefly visit Asheville while she's here. :-)
Also, my step sister, Jennifer, is getting married March 7th- CONGRATS JENNY and KENNY! So we'll be in town for that short weekend for the wedding.
Soon after that, Angie will be leaving to go back to Iraq and Earl won't be far behind her.
I had Joey's portraits taken recently. We are just waiting for them to come back. I'll post them when they come in. They were pretty great! Well, he is sooo cute, so how can they not be good? he he

Saturday, February 2, 2008

While Earl's Gone...

Me and Joey have been sick while Earl's been in the field. Today we are finally starting to shake the cough and runny nose! I had a couple Joey stories I thought I'd share.

When Joey disappears and gets quiet for more than a couple minutes, I come into the dining room and usually find him up on the computer desk like this! He's a crazy climber. There's a picture on our computer of us 3 right now (you can see it in the above photo on the computer screen). Joey gets really excited when he sees a picture on the computer and he likes to name who he sees. Well, he saw this photo and screams "Da da, Ma ma, Me!" I have no idea where he learned 'me' from. I've not intentionally taught him that. It just popped out of his mouth yesterday. He surprises me with how smart he is! I made him say it a couple more times and he even pointed to himself calling it 'me' so I think he really knows what he's saying.


Today it was quite nice, so we played before nap. ^


Joey is very into using door knobs right now. To open and close the door. He seems to like challenging himself. In the above picture is the view from inside his room. One day last week I had to stand there for over 10 minutes while we played this game: Joey closes the door, with the door knob which he can barely reach and has to stumble backwards on his tip toes to do, and says 'bye bye.' I say bye back to him and let him close the door. Then he knocks from the outside and I knock from the inside. Then he opens the door, with the door knob and peeks into the room and says "HI!" I say Hi back to him, then he closes the door and starts over. 10 minutes of that. That doesn't seem like a long time, but it is. Trust me.
He's adorable! LOL



This is Joey working on Daddy's Camaro (Joey says "mare") today. He found Earl's screwdriver in the driveway and immediately starts working.

Another story about Joey's smartness: He has books of animals that he loves looking at. He knows the sounds for most all of them too. One page is a squirrel and I didnt know what sound to make for that, so i copied the picture of the squirrel eating a nut, and put my fingers up to my mouth and made smacking sounds like I was snacking. I tried to teach Joey that, and he'd just smile at me and turn the page, not interested. I gave up a few weeks ago on that. Then we went to the zoo last weekend and there were squirrels. We got to feed one and I showed Joey "see, he's snacking" and redid that little gesture with my hands. Joey just laugh. We haven't revisited the squirrel issue at all, then last night, as he's flipping through his animal book, he yells 'squirrel' (i cant remember how he says it) and throws his hand up to his mouth and smacks his lips! LOL This is too funny to me. How did he remember that from over a week ago? I'm pretty sure he's a genious. He he he, Just kidding. But he's very smart. Much more so than I usually give him credit for, I think.

I tried to write down all the words he knows now, but I'm at 100 and I keep thinking of more. And these are just the words he can say on his own and recognize on his own, without being told to say it. His newest words are "cheek" and "chin", he loves to tell the dogs (or me) to "move." He knows "draw" and "burp," too.

Also, sometimes when I tickle Joey, I like to build up the anticipation, by counting "one, two, three" and then tickling him. Recently, I've made him copy me and count the numbers also. He won't say "one" but when I say one, he says "two" and then I say two and three and he'll say "three." But the funniest part is sometimes while I'm tickling him he says "Three, three, three" in between giggles. LOL

Okay, I dont have any more new pictures right now, so I'll stop rambling. Earl should be home from the field Sunday night. Yay!