Ch-ch-ch-changing churches and babies

We've been in the process of looking for a new church. Although we absolutely love the services and minister at Southland, we felt led to find a smaller church at which we could become a true part of the church community. It's quite a daunting process. After a lot of discussion and prayer about different churches in Lexington, we decided to try Hill-n-Dale Christian Church. We were overwhelmed by the positive response we got upon visiting HND. We were introduced to 3 of the 4 ministers during our first Sunday visit, the nursery workers are awesome with Elizabeth (even though she had missed her nap and was teething), Jonathan has really enjoyed the youth ministry so far, plus David and I even started singing with the choir the first week. Not to mention, they gave us a home-made loaf of banana bread just for visiting the first Sunday! We really feel like God has led us into a wonderful new Church community that our family can become an active part of. We're excited to get Jon involved with the youth group, plus there are several little girls right around Elizabeth's age that we will enjoy watching her grow up with.

We're still waiting on Elizabeth's top 2 front teeth to come in. There are big bulges there and she's been really cranky lately, so we figure it will be anytime now. On top of that, she's had a stomach bug all weekend, which she managed to pass to me last night. Ahhhh....the wonderful smells of vomit and toxic diapers. Is that the "new baby smell" everyone raves about so much? :) Fortunately, she's doing better now, because I'm about to leave town for 3 days for a work seminar. Let's just hope David doesn't come down with it while I'm gone!

Speaking of changes....diaper changing has become an Olympic sport at our house. Elizabeth thinks there are way too many better things to do than lie still for a diaper change. She has mastered the "alligator roll" - where she uses all her tiny might to try to roll over while she's being changed. It's amazing how strong she is!



We often have to give up and try to change her standing up. That can get quite interesting!



But, ultimately, she forgive us for the "torture" of diaper changing. As soon as we put her down, she's off and running (or crawling) again!

Dog show

Jonathan participated in a dog show with his mom's dog Boo over Spring Break. He did a great job and won several ribbons!





He's also doing a great job taking care of Lyra here at home. She's lost a lot of the extra weight she had when she first came to live with us. And, he's taught her several new commands. My dad even said she was the best behaved dog he had ever met when he kept her a few weeks ago....shhhhh...don't tell Pepper!

Elizabeth has learned the sign (opening her mouth and panting) and the word for "dog" now....although her word comes out more like "Doh!"...and we're not sure how to teach her it's not attractive when she makes the sign for "dog" while her mouth is full!

Spring is here!

This week, spring hit the Bluegrass State in full force, and it has been beautiful! Elizabeth loves the outdoors, so she's really enjoyed being able to swing in the front yard, go to the park, and go for long walks with the rest of the family (including Lyra!).

We celebrated by putting together her new wagon. Here's a picture of her testing it out:



And, here she is chilling in her wagon on our walk:



Mommy even pulled out her baby carrier, which Daddy has labeled the "Squid carrier" because of its long straps, for more walking fun:

Happy Easter!!!

We went to our church's Easter service on Friday night, so today we spent a relaxed morning eating Daddy's french toast and playing at the park. Now, we're headed to Granny Pat's for brunch. Yum!!!

Family pictures

Yesterday, we took the entire family to get our pictures made. We quickly realized why this should only be a once/year tradition. Our sanity couldn't take it any more!

When we made the appointment, we carefully planned the appointment time around Elizabeth's 2 well-established naptimes. However, this week, after visiting Cousin Brooke, she decided that she was a big girl and only needs one nap....which just so happened to correspond with our original appointment time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after they closed the night before, so we had to call them in the morning and try to get a new appointment time.

The pictures weren't the greatest, but they managed to get some decent shots, especially when you consider they had to try to get the baby *plus* the 12-year-old to smile at the same time (I'm not sure which was the hardest!). And, they had a special running that allowed us to get a CD with all of the pictures on it for pretty cheap. That way, we can take them somewhere else to get them printed for much less. Woo hoo!

Here are some of the pics. You can check out all of them here.

Coloring Easter eggs

Our Easter eggs may not be the prettiest ones in the baskets, but we ended up with a dozen yellow, green, pink, blue, purple, and brown (yes, turns out you get brown when you keep combining all the colors....) eggs!

Oh, and one smiley face egg - and smiles and giggles all around!

Elizabeth's cousin MaKayla

While we were in Mississippi last week, I was able to see my brother Jason. This is a picture of his daughter MaKayla and Elizabeth sitting in the grass. MaKayla loves babies so she was glad to see Elizabeth.

We're not in Kansas anymore

I am currently working storm duty in Gallatin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. A nasty tornado decided to run through the middle of the town, and our company has called in our structural engineers to look at damaged buildings. In case you have any misconceptions about storm duty being fun, let me tell you just how unglamorous it is. It involves working from sun-up to sun-down; going from one damaged building to the next until they all start to run together; crawling under houses, into attics, and onto roofs; getting sweaty, dirty, and covered in insulation and cobwebs; then getting back to the hotel room and having to start writing reports about what you looked at, despite the fact you're bone-tired. However, at least I can say it's not boring!

I do feel blessed to have the ability to be able to help some of these poor people. If nothing else, my being there provides some hope to them that they may at some point be able to continue on with their lives and rebuild their homes. In a strange sort of way, this is almost like a mission field. It's encouraging to see how many people take solace in their faith in God, even though all their earthly possessions are destroyed.

It's also amazing to see how powerful a tornado can be. Here are some pictures from the subdivision I was in today. 4 people were killed on this street.





One lady pointed out this glass breakage in the shape of an angel at her house.



After I saw where she and her family were standing when the tornado went through, I told her there definitely was a guardian angel watching over them. They were very blessed to be alive!

Weekend with the Hobbs family

David, Elizabeth and I spent a long weekend in Atlanta with Aunt Erin, Uncle Brad and cousin Brooke. We had a blast watching the 2 cousins play together. On Friday morning, we went to the park with Brooke's playgroup.

Elizabeth had fun playing on the slide...



...swinging...



...and even riding the choo-choo train with Mommy.



Brooke and Elizabeth had a great time playing together all weekend. Brooke is toddling everywhere now, and hardly ever stays still. Elizabeth had a hard time keeping up with her, but she sure tried!

We found that they didn't need the houseful of toys to keep them occupied. Empty boxes and bags worked just as well:



Still, Elizabeth loved trying out all of Brooke's toys.



She also loved playing outdoors in the wonderful Atlanta weather. And she got a big kick out of playing with Aunt Erin's windchimes.



Elizabeth also found that food tastes better after Brooke has dropped it on the floor:



Brooke loved having another baby around. She even gave Elizabeth a few hugs and kisses.





Of course, Elizabeth wasn't sure what to think about that!

Erin and I had a great idea to dress the girls up in matching dresses and take some photos. What we didn't take into account was the fact that Brooke does not sit still for anything, especially pictures. So, while Elizabeth sat around eating leaves,



as soon as we set her down, Brooke was off and running:



All in all, a great time was had by all. Can't wait until the rest of you get to see these two cuties together!!!

Have baby, will travel

Short Version: Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We've been quite busy!

Long Version: It's been a whirlwind 2 weeks for our family. Two Saturdays ago, we got a call that David's father, who was in a nursing home with Parkinson's, was doing very poorly and we needed to come right away. We loaded up the family and headed to Mississippi. Fortunately, his father is now much better. In the meantime, David and Elizabeth stayed in a hotel in Meridian for a week while David helped his mother get his dad through surgery and moved back to their house with hospice help. Jonathan and I drove back to Lexington to go to work and school. Adding to the hectic pace was the end-of-the-month invoicing for my office (our busiest time of the month!), as well as a large deposition that I had to testify in for a case I worked on in 2001. After those were over (3 grueling days later), Jon and I returned to Mississippi to reunite the family, then Jon went to his mom's for Spring Break, and David, Elizabeth, and I went to Nashville for a conference I had for work. The plan was to stay 2 nights in Nashville, then head to Atlanta for a much-needed vacation. But, we all know what happens to the "best laid plans..." Our plans were thrown to the wayside when a huge storm system accompanied by several tornadoes hit Kentucky on Sunday night. With visions of storm-duty dancing in my head, we had to pack up and head back to Kentucky instead. Fortunately, we did get to spend an evening with cousin Robyn in Nashville before we hit the road again. Now, after a couple more long work days (which were supposed to be vacation days!), we're trying to sneak out to Atlanta today for a long weekend with Aunt Erin, Uncle Brad, and cousin Brooke before we pick Jonathan back up on Sunday. Wish us luck!!!

So, we've been living out of suitcases for the past 2 weeks:



On the babyfront, Elizabeth got her first tooth last week! Unfortunately, it was when David had her alone in the hotel, so he had a few very sleepless nights. We think the 2nd tooth is on its way in too.

She's also gotten VERY mobile, and quite squirmy! Diaper changing could be an Olympic event in our house. She's learned several new sounds, which are obvious precursors to talking. She also makes these sounds *constantly*, which leads us to believe that once she starts talking, she will never stop. One of these sounds also may mean "meow", although if it does, she's a little confused, because she says it to the dog too. She's pulling up and standing quite a bit, particularly if she wants to reach mommy, daddy, or the cat.



Her absolute favorite toy right now is her doll, LouLou, who has to go everywhere she does. David thought he looked quite stylish carrying his dolly...er, Elizabeth's dolly...throughout the hospital!



And, needless to say, she's just the most wonderful baby in the whole world. She made it through the past 2 hectic weeks without a hitch, other than keeping mommy and daddy up all night in the hotels with her loud sleeping!