The day after Thanksgiving, which happens to be Jon's and my six-year engage-iversary, my brother, Josh, proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley. Yes, my brother is marrying an Ashley. That means her married name will be what my maiden name was. Weird.

At the post-engagement party at her parents' house.

Jake and his new and future Aunt Ashley!

Jake and Granna partyin'.

Jake and his great aunt Emily!

Ashley's cousin's daughter drew this for them. Super cute.

My brother made the ring. Yep.

They like each other.

The fam.

Jake had fun at the party too.

He and Uncle Josh wore matching shoes.

It's hard to get a non-goofy picture of them.

But we got two good ones!

With my new sister-in-law!

Posted in: Jake, the fam, weddings on Saturday, November 27, 2010 at at 10:38 PM 3 comments    

We left Tuesday right after school to head to Fort Worth. We stopped in Texarkana to eat and was invited to eat with my friend Sarah and her parents.

They didn't have a high chair or booster seat, so Jake sat like a big guy.

This is how Jake looked when we finally got there...
at almost 11:00pm.

He decided to go with the sideways-sleeping.

Apparently we didn't do anything important Wednesday because I have no pictures from that day.

Thursday morning we watched the parade.

He was a little more interested than last year.
And had a little bit more hair.

He did a little Belly Button Book reading with Grandude.

He thought it was funny to not sit still for a picture of his shirt.

He checked on Granna's progress in the kitchen.

He felt Grandude's whiskers.

He put on his bib from Mimi and was ready to eat!

All done eating, he had a full belly!

We then got changed into our gear for the big A&M game.

I don't remember what he was doing, but it was hilarious.

Gig 'em Ags!
This picture is terrible, but it's the only one in the
overalls where he's looking at the camera.

This is how Jake would look as a Duggar.

Friday we didn't go ANYWHERE!

We took a nap.

(His head isn't as wedged as it looks.)

Saturday we went shopping at this new awesome shopping center in Arlington. We saw this "Texas A&M" sign thinking it would be an A&M store. It was nothing. I don't know why it was there.

We ate at Jason's Deli. Mmmmm...

Jake wore his HOWDY shirt that I found at Gymboree on clearance.

Posted in: Fort Worth, Jake, Thanksgiving, the fam, travel on at at 5:47 PM 1 comments    

Posted in: Jake on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at at 9:35 PM 0 comments    

Jack does not give fist bumps like Daddy does.

Jack does not give high fives.

Jack does not make funny noises when you run
your fingers over his mouth like Mama does.

Jack does not appreciate Monkey like Jake does.

Posted in: Jack, Jake on at at 9:28 PM 0 comments    

I'm stopping this at age 2. Are we there yet? I'm tired of it.

20 Months Old

I didn't take a "his foot and my hand" picture because
I forgot, but you can tell it's big by perspective.
I bought him size 7s the other day.

Jack wanted in. Jake wanted out.

Smile, everybody!

Posted in: Growth pictures, Jack, Jake on at at 9:20 PM 0 comments    

This is for one of my very best friends, Gillian Nichols. We were roommates in college, in each other's weddings, blah, blah, blah... She and her husband left this morning from Houston, where they live, to go the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. They will be there for about a week for her to get loads of tests done to see what's wrong with her.(Sorry if I get these details wrong Gillian...)
She's been having vision problems her entire life and has had NINE eye surgeries in the past few years. Her lenses keep falling out and she's having a wealth of other eye problems and pains. When she was pregnant with her now-four year old, she was on complete bed rest nearly the whole time because she had extreme endometriosis. Shortly after the baby was born, she had a full hysterectomy at age 26. Now she is having extreme pains in her hips to the point that she is in a wheelchair most of the time because she can't walk.
Somebody recently realized that there is a possibility that these problems are actually all related to some kind of tissue-connective problem. I'm not even going to pretend that I understand it. They were able to get into the Mayo Clinic for some way-smart doctors to try to diagnose her and get her better.
Gillian is amazing. Her faith through this entire ordeal has been completely unbelievable. I don't know how she does it! This past week, she sent out a list of prayer requests for their trip:

Would you be an intercessor for with me and join me in praying for one, some or all of these needs:
-Foremost*** For God's will to be done in our lives.
-That the Lord would use this condition/situation for HIS glory and that we can be good witnesses through this!
-That if it is in His plan, we get clear answers as to what my condition is, for the connective tissue disorder and for the new found edema in the hip bone marrow.
-That whatever info is found, we can translate that back home to Houston.
-That the Lord would provide a team of docs at home that can carry out our findings.
-That Leelah (their daughter) would not fret about us being gone for so long, but that she would have fun on her sleepovers and enjoy herself!
- a minor note: that the plane rides wouldn't be too painful as my pain has increased a lot and it hurts to sit for long
-And all the praise to Him for the way He has paved the path thus far, for the opportunity to be able to go to Mayo, for all the people that continue to be the hands and feet of Christ for our family!
-Praise for his future provision in all things.
God has blessed me through you all. I am so thankful for all of you in my life.
Thanks for your prayers. And please remember, I'm already healed!
love you all,
Gillian


Their church (2nd Baptist in Houston... you may have heard of it :)) has this awesome thing called a Prayer Pager. The person carries it with them, and anytime someone prays for them, they call the number and it pages the person to let them know they are being prayed for. If you could even pray for her one time this week and let her know, that would be awesome. Her prayer pager number is 713-200-0069. The prompt when you call tells you what to do.

If you care, (and are still with me) she has a blog that they will be updating all week with what's happening. She and her husband are hilarious and they are taping a video "doctormentary" that they will be posting each day. It should be funny.
They posted their first video tonight and it was great...



Thanks so much for interceding for my friend! It means so much to us both!

Posted in: friends, roommates on Monday, November 08, 2010 at at 10:43 PM 1 comments    

I LOVE Target. I especially love Target the day after (and week after) holidays. The day after Valentines, the day after Easter, the day after the 4th of July, the day after Halloween, the day after Christmas...
Well I didn't make it to Target until Wednesday this week, but I stocked up on a little bit of 50% off candy and a few other 75% off things. Most things I didn't want to spend as much as they still wanted on them. Plus I figured I could get cheaper candy at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart had almost no candy. Boo! So, I went back to TWO Targets on Thursday to find some candy. Brand new Target: Not ONE bag! My usual Target: three full aisles of candy left!
Today, I wanted to go back one more time to see if the percentages had gone up... CLEARANCE! Candy was 75% off and everything else was 90% off! Score!
So now I present, the first picture of a receipt that I've posted because I bought a lot, but...

I got some toys for my prize box at school for 10 cents per package, some gifts for people, just some junk, and more CANDY! They had packages of peanut M&Ms for 67 cents each, and there was a coupon attached for 50 cents off now! Seventeen cents baby! So yay Halloween sale!
Now, I'm off to take down my Halloween decorations and put up Thanksgiving stuff. You know? Thanksgiving? That poor forgotten holiday that comes between Halloween and Christmas? It's in two and half weeks. Don't forget!

Posted in: awesomeness, candy, cheapness, Halloween, Target on Saturday, November 06, 2010 at at 2:52 PM 0 comments    

It's called Banana Hair.
Why? Because it happens when you eat a whole
banana and keep rubbing your hair while doing it.
A-Like so:

Posted in: Jake on Thursday, November 04, 2010 at at 10:39 PM 1 comments