Post-cake

I forgot I had taken this birthday bath pic =)

Eating Cake!

Opening presents on birthday morning:


Judah's cake pics: I hope you enjoy it as much as he did =)

Beautiful, wonderful year

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet baby Judah. I am sad today to have to say good-bye to this first year. Part of me feels like he is just growing faster than I can possibly keep up with and savor. The silver lining is looking forward to all of the growing and learning that Judah will do in the future. He is as sweet today as he has ever been. I am continually surprised that I love him more and more every day. Thanks to all of you who have shared in our joy over the last year!

One year ago today:

(I'll post cake-eating pics/video as soon as I can!)

We thank God for our beautiful, healthy, wonderful, wonderful boy!

It's October!?!

I can't believe we're almost half-way through October! It doesn't feel like fall at all here in Jax. Ok, I'll admit to being happy it is only in the 80s during the day instead of the high 90s, but come on! Where are all the turning leaves and the jacket/jeans/warm boots sort of days?

We did have some really nice weather while we were on our trip in the Northeast! DC was beautiful for most of our time there, which made our whirlwind tour of the sights even more enjoyable. I also have to say, although who expected any different, that Judah was a total trooper and did great even as we hauled him around for hours on end. We toured the Capitol and the Library of Congress. We visited the Supreme Court (but unfortunately they weren't in session), the Natural History museum, and the National Zoo. We saw almost all of the monuments and memorials. The relatively new WWII memorial is really beautiful. We also saw Barak Obama's motorcade and actually saw John McCain in his SUV as he pulled into the White House for the emergency meeting about the bail-out plan that President Bush called. Apparently not much progress was made at that particular meeting, but it was exciting for us nonetheless.

The US Capitol

Forrest and Judah with Reflecting Pool in the background

Of everything we saw in DC, what moved me the most was President Lincoln's second inagural address that is inscribed on the wall of the Lincoln memorial. His humility, reverence for God, and love for his countrymen is deeply inspirational. If you have a couple minutes, it's definitely worth the time.

After we toured DC (thanks to the Granges for a wonderful place to stay in DC!) we headed up to Bryn Athyn, PA. It is a tiny town outside of Philidelphia where Forrest's mom spent much of her childhood and where she and my father-in-law went to college. We went for our cousin Maren's wedding and saw a bunch of other family as well. It was wonderful to visit a place that means so much to people I love. I kept imagining Mike and Lynne walking along the streams and exploring the forest together falling in love =) We had perfectly cool, misty weather surrounded by hills that were each greener than the one before. It was really beautiful.

On our drive home we saw old friends! Amanda hosted us in DC for another night on our way through. Adam, Sarah, Kathryn, and soon-to-arrive Elizabeth welcomed us in Norfolk, VA, and we saw Elaine and sooner-to-arrive Caleb in New Bern, NC. It was great to see them, but it also made me sad that we live so far apart now. I think I've been having a little "good-friend" hangover this week: the reminder of how easy it is to be with old friends makes my new friendships here seem like more work than I realized before. Worth it, but work. On the other hand, I also was reminded of the fruit that can be harvested from keeping in touch with those old friends even when they are far away!

And now we've been home for a week already! How the time flies. I've been thinking a lot about Elaine this week as her pregnancy goes on beautifully and we all wait expectantly for beautiful Caleb. I've also been thinking about Casey and Los who are road-tripping on their move across country. They aren't moving quite far enough across the country for my taste, but they will be closer to us than they are now =) And Beth O'Sullivan, come home already! =)

A quick look at Judah's newest tricks:

Juggling!

Judah's monkey impression (don't believe the look on Forrest's face, Judah can hang all by himself really well)!

He did it!

Happy 11 month birthday to Judah! In celebration, he walked today! He has been taking a step or two and then falling for about a week now so we've been watching him closely. Today we were at Beth and Will's for a play-date and all of a sudden Judah picked up a ball and walked about four feet while trying to shove the whole ball in his mouth. I think the distraction helped =) I will try to get a video of this newest trick as soon as I can!

Today was also good because Judah and I were saved (from having to deal with car trouble) by our friend Phillip! I drove over a piece of a downed limb in our neighborhood thinking it was much smaller than it really was. Luckily it didn't do any damage! It did however get wedged in the undercarriage, unbeknownst to me until I was running errands and it started to sound like we were dragging something. I pulled into a grocery store parking lot near our house and, sure enough, there was a LOG under my car! I can do many things, but there are things in my life that I choose to delegate. Car problems are on the top of that list, usually to Forrest, but really any capable male will do. And just at the right time Phillip comes walking out of the grocery store, innocently thinking he was just making a quick run for chips when actually he had been sent by God to get the tree out from under my car =) He was super gracious about helping and was even polite enough to pretend like I wasn't crazy when I started talking about having to delegate certain things in life and being capable and not wanting to get my cute new pants dirty... He got the log out, and I got home in time to put Judah to bed before major meltdown, and the car is fine. Yay! and thanks Phillip!

We're off on vacay tomorrow to visit DC and go to our cousin Maren's wedding in Philidelphia so we'll catch up on the blog when we get back.

Makeup and pearls...

I realized again tonight that although I live in Florida, I am still definitely a Northwest girl. I went to a ladies' night at a neighbors house and showed up in my cutest jeans and flip-flops and my favorite sweater (yes, it is in the high 60s tonight) and I was seriously under-dressed. When I think about going somewhere, the idea of wearing a dress doesn't cross my mind unless it is an event held at a church: wedding, funeral, maybe a church service if it is a special occasion. Not that I don't like dresses, because I do. I just like my jeans more. I need to learn to err on the side of formality, but honestly that just rubs me the wrong way. Why would you put on a bunch of makeup and pearls to go to your neighbor's house? I don't get it. At least I wasn't wearing a Goodwill t-shirt I suppose, but maybe I will next time =)

Chickenpox! maybe...

Since I last posted we've had lots of fun:

We had Forrest's whole family in town and spent the week in a condo at the beach. And I mean IN the condo, since Tropical Storm Fay decided to visit too and brought bad weather with her. We (and by we I mean Olivia, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, which explains why Bethany is also featured) got some cute pictures though =)

B & Judah playing "Gopher Bash"

Have you been drinking?

I knew he was being too quiet!

The whole fam! (From the left: T, Av, Mama, me, Amber, Eli, For, Papa, B, & Olivia)

At the end of the week of visiting with the family, my in-laws left on their move to Africa! They are in Botswana where Mike is working with UPenn at the national hospital there as an attending and will start traveling to regional medical clinics starting in a few months to help the docs there. Lynne is being wonderful help to everyone, as usual, and currently trying to get their life in Gabarone all set up. We miss them but it has been wonderful to be able to e-mail and Skype!

After the fam left, we got a great but short visit from Casey and Carlos. They are moving to Corpus and stopped by on their way home from house hunting leave. We love them!

Judah got to try sour cream for the first time while C&C were here. We were trying to keep him entertained through dinner, and he loved it!

After all that excitement, our next visitor was the shingles. Yep, right on my side, itchy as hell, but going away already which is a relief. And, to top that off, Judah woke up yesterday with what looked suspiciously like a chickenpox on his little face! I was pretty sure of my home diagnosis (thank you google images) until today when he has yet to show any more pox. I know I should be happy that he isn't sick, but mostly I feel a little annoyed at myself for keeping both of us home yesterday from church and this morning from my first MOPS meeting. For those of you who know me very well, it was a big step for me to join MOPS. Now I'm sad that I missed the first meeting and mad that I'm sad about MOPS! Argh!

For a little perspective, I went and read my father-in-law's blog and while it didn't make me feel much better, it helped me to whine about it a little less =)