Talkin' Up a Storm

This is my first attempt at using video editing software, and what I have access to is limited. I'm liking the end result considering it's my first go at it. Hopefully in time I will get better. I'm sure I'll look back at this one day and laugh, but you have to start somewhere. You should hear various words such as no, book, ball, and bye. The sound quality isn't the best, but in person you can tell the difference between all the b words even though they sound very similar on the video. I'll keep trying to catch some of his other words on video. I also added on a dance sequence of his and his insistance of being a big boy when going down the stairs. Enjoy!

games, critters, potty seats, and ringing phones

I'll use some pictures to show you what we've been up to lately.

Our good friends gave us the game Apples to Apples. (best game ever!) We had some fun a couple of weeks ago and played with our high school small groups. We had some good laughs and enjoyed ourselves immensely. N and I went to the zoo last Friday with several other moms and kids. We enjoyed getting to see several baby animals including the orangutan pictured below. It was also a lot of fun to get to know some other moms and kids better. N really seemed to enjoy how close he could get to the polar bear. I'm not sure he realized it wasn't a dog though. He still seems to think any animal is a dog. The last picture in the zoo group is neither, N nor animal related, but it's very A-ish. I like it a lot.


They say the earliest a child is ready to potty train is 18 months. Well, we're there tomorrow. N absolutely loves sitting on the potty. He actually will go in the bathroom and let you know he wants to sit up there. I'm not pushing the training very hard at this point. I just want him to be familiar with sitting there for when we are ready to train. He's actually had some success already! Yay for him!!!!Yesterday day was my day of the year. What more could a girl want on her day than her two favorite guys. B took some time off work, and we had some family time. It was great. The phone rang a bagillion times, and all the calls were for me! It was wonderful! We're planning on a trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday. Be sure to check back for pictures. I'm sure to take a ton!!!!

and now for something completely different (-mp)

Warning: Seriousness Below

Meet Matt.

Matt is my younger brother. He and I were best buds all through childhood. He's now married and has a son. Matt joined the Navy as a civil engineer a few years back. After a couple of moves, they've been living peacefully in North Carolina for the past couple of years.

Most, but not all of you, probably know this already, but I found out about 3 weeks ago that Matt is going to be spending a year in Afghanistan. He's set to begin training in November (in Virginia and North Carolina) and head overseas in February '08. We weren't completely caught off-guard with this news. He'd let us know to expect it soon.

In the weeks that have passed since receiving the news, I've been through just about every emotion regarding the situation. Denial. Anger. Scared. Confused. More denial. Right or wrong, I try not to let myself think about it too much. I try to comfort myself with thoughts that he's a civil engineer and not a combat soldier or whatever. The problem comes though at night. Thoughts about it creep into my head as I lie in bed waiting for sleep. My mind travels everywhere as I think about it.

Truth is, I'm scared beyond comprehension about my brother, my best bud growing up, being sent to a country where war is life and reality. (tears flowing)

My mom was told to look up and pray Psalm 91 by someone at Christ Lutheran. Mom passed it onto me, and all I can say is God is good. He know how to bring comfort when it's needed. He holds us tight when we fear our deepest fears. He loves us completely and unconditionally. He gives us his Word to reassure us of all of this.

It's 16 verses and will probably take up quite a bit of space, but I ask that you read it also. Please. Pray it for Matt.

PSALM 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge -
then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, " I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

I would ask that all of you would from now until Feb. '09 remember Matt in prayer. Remember Lindsay. Remember Will. Ask that God would hold this family close together in his almighty hand regardless of the miles between them. Pray that God would continue to comfort all of us with the knowledge that he is with Matt in all things, at all times.

Thanks . . .
-a

Football Fix

After getting in touch with slide.com, they're not sure what's going on with my slideshow only showing 6 of 20-some pictures. They've got their engineers looking into it. In the meantime, I've changed the look of it, and that seems to have made the difference. So . . . if you interested, you can scroll down to the slide show and now see all (okay, narrowed down from more than 50) the football pics.

Can you believe the little guy will be a year and a half next week?!?!?

for the love of the game

Last year I really wanted to have some fun with N when he got his Razorback shirt. I put him in the grass, propped him up on the football, and began snapping pictures. What I ended up with were some of my favorite pictures of him. That being said, I decided to do the same again this year. I found a great spot in the neighborhood adjacent to ours. Despite the horrible mood he'd been in prior to getting to the park, he turned on the charm once we were there. I've picked out two favs from last year and two I like from this year. (The very bottom one is my favorite from this year's attempt.) Still happy and smiley! Lovin' life and lovin' football.
Still contemplative and thoughtful. You have to study football to be any good at it.

I'm absolutely in shock of how much he's changed in just 13 months! And he just keeps on growing!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Jibber-Jabber

I'm not exactly sure when she started to ask me, but I always drew a blanks. "She" is N's pediatrician, and she would ask how many words N was saying. I'm not sure why I'd draw a blank, but I would. Maybe it's because I wasn't sure what the right answer was. How many should he be saying? What is the magic number she's looking for? I don't know why I would fret over this. I guess it's just that habit every mom has about wanting her child to be keeping up with the pack. Anyways, I've been working on a list so that when we go for N's 18 month appointment in 2 weeks, I would have definite answers. Here's where we stand so far:

1. ball
2. dog
3. mom
4. book
5. milk
6. no
7. get it (we say this when we throw the ball for the dog, or when n's being lazy)
8. shoe (we call both socks and shoes this)
9. trip (the neighbor's dog)
10. block (still working on this some)
11. pat (we pat-pat-pat the dog)

These are the ones I hear on a regular basis. Sometimes you hear something, such as he said "amen" once, but I'm only counting what's consistent. Most likely if you came to visit you would think I was crazy by hearing all these words. Most of them aren't perfect, but I know what he's saying. It seems to be that most of the time only the parents can understand the child for a while. It's so great to know what he's saying. I am absolutely loving the communication. It seems to be that we are getting a new word every 5 to 7 days right now. I'll keep everyone posted on anything new he starts saying.

Hope you're having this happy of a Monday!

Monumental Occasions

Today was a huge day for N. He brought home his first "school" artwork from Mom's Day Out. I'm such a goober-ish-ly proud parent! I thought he did good job trying to stay on the basket with his coloring. And, I'm sure that he had good reason for gluing the red apple on sideways . . . .

Vroom! Beep! Beep!

Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend out and about. We actually were home very little this weekend. It was fun to have so much going on, but it sure did go by too quickly. N got to spend the weekend with his grandparents. The county fair was happening and that's quite a big deal to a small town. B and I went down Saturday to check out the fair and see the parade. (It was also good for this momma to see her baby boy.) N actually was given some candy in the parade. I'm sure that in the coming years, after some good training, he'll be walking away with bags-ful. (I might need to ship him up to Julian for some intense parade candy getting training. . .) N's favorite part was sitting up on the tractors and playing with the steering wheel. Right now, anything with a steering wheel is the best. The sweetest thing is when he passed out on Grandpa's shoulder from complete exhaustion. Next year he'll be all about the rides.

No comments on football results other than: Who's ready for next weekend?

A Hog in a Corn Field

Watch for me on ABC tonight at 7 central time. I'll be the one person at the game wearing Arkansas red rather than Husker red! I'm sure it'll be easy to spot me. . .

Wooo Pig!

Go Big Red!

less like a baby, more like a boy

It's definitely fall around here. From the weather to the schedule, it all is screaming fall. The high today is only 60! (a low of about 39 is predicted for tonight) N and I have also begun to get back into our busier fall schedule. We have something going on outside of the house Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Football has also managed to take back over our lives. It seems to dictate what happens when on the weekends.

I've also been busy this week setting up a Facebook account. I've actually had it for close to a year, but I never really got around to setting it up. It's still rather new to me, but I like having another way to stay connected to people. If you have a Facebook, let me know, and I can add you to my friend list.

The big news of the day is that N got his hair cut this morning. I had trimmed by his ears once before, but this was the first real cut. Despite my nerves, I did do it myself. B stood in front of him trying to keep N's head still and faced forward. Most of the cutting happened in the back since the front hasn't grown quite as fast. Overall I think it went alright. I've already noticed a few spots to go back and touch up, but I'll get around to that later. Here's a before and after shot.

Dressed for Success

As I'm sitting here watching Fashion Rocks on CBS (no, Brad's not home, how'd you guess?), I can't help but think how adorable our little guy looked today. I tried really hard to get a good picture of him, but he refused to cooperate. Go figure. Everything he had on today was a steal. The brown polo was $5 at Gap, the jeans were on sale at Target this week for $6, and the brown shoes came from Old Navy for $3 or 4. Not too bad if you ask me. Wish you could see the shoes; they're too big still (so was the polo and the jeans for that matter), but they tied the outfit (yes, Matt, outfit) together. (Tori, I think they're the same shoes you wanted me to get him this spring, but I said they didn't have them small enough. Didn't stop me when on sale!) I just wish I'd been able to get some better pictures!

Picture Update

I have just finished updating our Snapfish pictures. I added to August and started a September book. Feel free to go check it out. I should have email you a room code a couple of months ago. Let me know if I need to send it to you again. Enjoy!

theknorrs.snapfish.com/snapfish

Any show will do when it's this big!

I'm posting this picture to go along with the picture of my newphew, Will, that Lindsay put on their blog. What is it about these gigantic tvs?? Nate only asks me to turn on the tv first thing in the morning at home. Yet while at my Mom and Dad's house he was continually pointing at the huge tv and wanted me to turn it on. In this picture Diego and Baby Jaguar were larger than life. I think for now we'll stick our big enough, but not ginormous, tv that N tends to ignore.

Job Opening

Seeking: Substitute Stay-at-Home Mom

Job Description: Entertain, feed, and change one adorable little boy while keeping him generally quiet due to real Stay-at-Home Mom's miserable head cold. (stuffy nose, sinus headache, sore throat, sneezes, blocked ears, exhaustion)

Looking to fill position immediately.

Apply at front door, ready to start. (Don't ring the doorbell though, my head can't take it.)

Photo Shoot

These pictures are from a photo shoot my mom and I did while in LR. I'm planning on getting a couple of them framed. I would appreciate knowing which are your favorites; you can use the image numbers that are below each photo. (Jenni - Amara's chair pictures inspired me to try this with N.) I've narrowed it down to 24 (I did the best I could to cut some),maybe you can help me get it narrowed down some more.

Growing and Learning

N has been quite busy lately developing new skills and tricks. His personality and independence seem to be popping up in new and different ways each day.

• He shakes his head both yes and no now. He doesn't always seem to use them correctly though. He also has begun to say nuh-nuh-nuh when shaking his head no. It's still cute for now. . .


• Bibs are the ulitmate evil right now. He throws and absolute fit over having to have one on. I need to find a place to get some cute ones that tie on. He's learned that if he pulls long enough and hard enough, he can get the velcro to come undone.


• He is understanding more and more of what is said. He will actually follow simple commands such as, go find your pacifier and go get your drink. There are several more, but my mind doesn't seem to be thinking of them right now.


• He loves to throw the ball for Maggie and then tell her to "get it".
• All food, from Cheerios to ice cream and everything in between, is potentially very hot and must be blown on. I guess he's seen me trying to cool off his food a few too many times.

Everyone tells me that it just keeps getting more and more fun. It's great being able to communicate with him more and more even if we seem to have differing opinions on certain things.

Caught 'em again

It's those toes again. I just can't resist taking pictures of N's adorable little feet. I think I just love how little they are. There are some cute shots of more of him from this photo shoot my mom and I did, but I'll put them up after having more time to choose my favorites.

Under the Water, Over the Water

We're still here in LR. Couple of days here. Then a few more in Fayetteville. Then it's home sweet home by Friday. I never like it when B doesn't get to make these trips with us. I guess that's just something I'll have to get use to with time.

N and I are enjoying our time here. We were glad for the weekend when everyone was home. Saturday we got to go swimming with Ginny and Camryn at the Maumelle pool. N had a great time and could have stayed forever. He loves being out in the deep water, and he was much more adventurous in with walking around in the shallow water. We'll have to look for a pool close to home to join next summer. I doubt the baby pool will cut it after see all the pool possibilities.

It was great to get to go to Christ Lutheran for worship on Sunday. It's amazing how people age so quickly when you hardly see them. It sure would be nice to see the sanctuary packed again like it use to be. . . After a yummy roast we headed down to the river to walk the Big Dam Bridge. (I'm not making that name up - www.bigdambridge.com ) We ended up doing a 3 mile walk which was more than enough for my out of shape self. It was amazing to see how many people use the bridge!

Today N and I are suppose to meet Shaun and Wyatt for lunch and playtime. Hopefully the two little guys will have a lot of fun together. If nothing else, the girls will have fun catching up on things.

I promise pictures as soon as some get loaded to the computer.