Story

"Once upon a time there was an owl watching a mouse while the sun shone down on him. The mouse had a bow around his neck, and the sun wore socks. The owl used a rope to catch the mouse, but the mouse used an axe to cut the rope.

Then an astronaut came floating by and ate a piece of apple before the alligator could eat it. The alien chased the alligator into the robot's hands. The robot went into a big boat and a monster jumped out and scared him. A snake came up and wrapped the monster and squeezed his ring off. A snail climbed up and slimed the ring. The rain came and washed the snail away.

A monkey was there watching an airplane and a hot air ballon racing in the sky, and he got wet so he put some mittens on to keep his hands dry. Then he ate pizza. It was his birthday, so he had a birthday cake, but before he ate it, he went to get some hot chocolate. The pig ate whole the birthday cake before the clock struck midnight. Then, while the clock rode away on a bicycle, a singer was singing the Hallelujah Chorus. She got so tired she drank milk and had a lollypop. She shared her milk with the kittycat. The cat ran off and chased a butterfly who was wearing shoes."

Elizabeth and Grandma played The Storybook Game. One person looks at a card with an object on it to start the story. The next person repeats that part of the story and adds the object from the next card. With very little prompting, Elizabeth remembered the story with 33 items (In bold above)!!! I was very impressed! Now if I could just get her to remember where she puts things :-)

Christmas Card Photo

So, I've been a VERY bad blogger, but even worse with communication in the "real" world. We had big news to share with the world about this past year, and I didn't get out one Christmas card or even New Year's card this season. I'm not really thinking it's going to happen now either. And since you all know everything I would say anyway, I'm just going to post the pics I would have sent out....and a few more! :-) Cause that's all you really want to see anyway, right?

We have a family tradition with my mom and dad of having portraits taken around Christmas each year. This year we went to Portrait Innovations, and even with it being CRAZY after the holidays, we were rather pleased.

This is the picture I WOULD have sent out. (If you actually do want a copy of this one, let me know. I will send it to you :-))

This photo is a tradition. Now with Josiah home, there's a new tradition...

So from our family to yours, a belated Merry Christmas! And Prayers and Hopes for the New Year! God is going to be doing AMAZING things!!!

Quick Holiday Note

We hope everyone has had a very blessed Christmas. We've been spending lots of time with family and friends. We'll get some pictures posted when things begin to settle.

Our house has had quite a few showings now. Thank you for all the prayers in helping us get through the selling of our home and beginning our transistion.

NO!

...This is a word we hear quite frequently in our house right now. Before we heard "uh-uh" quite frequently, but in the last few days, Josiah has REALLY gotten the hang of using the toddler NO! Thankfully, he is one of the most polite toddlers I've heard using it. He doesn't yell it. And I can usually get him to say No Thank-you. :-)

(BTW, another showing today. We went househunting, too...FUN!)

Two more showings!!!!

Tonight we had another two showings! On a Wednesday evening??? We'll take what we can get!

The first visit, our Realtor emailed yesterday to see if she could bring someone over at 4pm today. That gave us time after Elizabeth's school part to get the house a little more cleaned up....it's always nice to have advanced warning.

We went out to dinner early since our eating schedule was messed up. Our Realtor called and said the client liked the house (he was mostly interested in it structurally). He is planning to bring his wife by to see it! We'll take that as a good sign!

We drove around the neighborhood for the kids to see the Christmas lights. We arrived home and saw a figure in the window. Hmmm... Apparently someone called five minutes after our Realtor left, but of course I left my phone home. They liked the home as well, especially the realtor. And it was very fortunate that we did take the little extra time to drive around.

The best news of all was that we got the new carpet in yesterday. The installers did a pretty good job. Just nicked our freshly painted walls a little bit. The color also works well with our paint. It just goes to show, God's timing always works out.

So when you ask God for something to happen quickly....

...make sure your seatbelts are fastened!!!

We are trying to prepare ourselves to wait for our house to sell due to market conditions. There have even been some changes allowing David to transition to working in the new office possibly several days a week instead of full time right away. So we're feeling comfortable with some wait time.

But we've been praying for our house to sell quickly.

Thursday, David put the house on a list at work. That evening already someone called our Realtor. She was shocked! Our house finally was put online Friday night. Pictures are not even online yet, and a Realtor called Saturday at noon to do a showing an hour later. We panicked! Our bathrooms were not clean and the closets are still stuffed. Then today, we received a call from a neighbor wanting to come see our house. So, we've not had offers yet, but we're amazed at having so much interest in such a short time in this market. Thank You, GOD!!!

We're strapped in now and ready to soar!!!

Three Months

Josiah has been home three months today!!! It wasn't much of a celebration day for him, as David and I have been painting and trying to get the house ready. He and Elizabeth did get to play at the McD's playplace. Josiah climbed all the way up to the top by himself for the first time! My boy's getting so big!

I have to share this Elizabeth story from bedtime: She has quite an interest in China lately. She pretends she is speaking in Chinese and has told me several times she wishes she was from China. Tonight she started listing places she knows, then asked me if there is a country called India. I told her there is, and told her Ms. Reba and Mr. Soni are from India. We started talking about people we know at church who are from different countries. She was pretty excited! Then she said, "But no one is from where I'm from." Not understanding, I said, "Maryland?" "No, Mommy. Your belly!" I had to agree. No one else came from my belly ;-)

Hope you have a great night! Off to bed so we can paint and clean some more tomorrow.

Just some pics

Can't think of much to say, so here are some pics :-)

The kids had a lot of fun playing with Grandpa Smith...and his glasses. Grandpa was a "bear"!

We bought season tickets for Maryland Women's Basketball! Daddy and Elizabeth have made it to three games so far (one they did as special daddy/daughter date!), and Mommy and Josiah have joined them for two games. The kids both seem to enjoy it.

Really, he does like it! :-)

Now off to cleaning and drinking my Gatorade :-p

If you've been wondering...

Dun dun da dah....Yes! Our big prayer request has been about moving! Some of you are super sleuths and guessed it right away! Kind of a big build up for not that exciting news, but it is pretty exciting for us. What!?! You have more questions? I'll try to answer a few.


Yes, we will still be close enough to visit friends! We'll be in the same state, just 85 or so miles away.


No, David is not changing companies. He'll be working at another office within the same company. We're not sure of his exact start date yet. That's something he's working out with his current and future office. Probably around the beginning of the New Year.

Yes, we know this may not be the best time for a move. Our biggest concern and prayer request, is bringing Josiah through such a change again already!

Yes, we know the market is not kind right now. Our other big concern is preparing and selling our house. (Who knew five years could be so tough on a house?) Thankfully, we don't have to be in a rush to sell the house. Though a two hour drive each way is not ideal, David can do that until our house is sold.



We are asking God to fully lead this process! We've been desiring to move for a while, and we absolutely believe that in God's design, everything can work out incredibly. We are asking God to prepare Elizabeth and Josiah's hearts. David and myself, too! Even if it's what we want, it's not easy to leave what is comfortable.

It started out as a great day

I know it's been a while since we've posted...and look now, two in one day! We've been a little busy--trying to get the house ready, talking to Realtors, Josiah meeting Great Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Aunt Demarie for the first time, Mommy and Daddy being sick, Thanksgiving, cousin AJ spending the night...and so on!

Today we had a fun day! We woke up and drove to a gorgeous house to have breakfast with three BCS families adopting from Ethiopia! The kids had fun playing, and we bored people with our trip photos for the first time (amazing that it's just now happening!). It's exciting to meet the future families of precious children, and we're glad to be able to follow along their journeys!

On the way home we stopped at Chick-fil-A because it's been just ages (maybe a month??) since we've been to one. Can it be true??? Elizabeth was such a great big sister helping Josiah climb up the playplace! He is really starting to love slides!

We came home to find our Netflix movies in the mailbox. YAY! We settled in to relax and watch Kit Kittridge...Elizabeth loved it!

Unfortunately, our great family day hasn't ended on such a positive note. In the middle of the movie, Mya started the most heart-wrenching crying. Thankfully she was in the back of the house, away from the kids. Based on the situation, David took her to the emergency vet. Elizabeth was a upset at first but has been okay. We'll see how she does at bedtime. Josiah did ask where Mya was a little bit after David left. Mya joined our family the day after Thanksgiving last year, and left our family two days after Thanksgiving this year. We're sad to have lost such a fun sweet kitty.