My Son Is Here!

ISAAC JOEL FORD

Born: 1-29-09 at 11:34am / 6 pounds 11 ounces / 20.5 inches

The Story: The short version is that we had an induction planned for 1/28 and a little less than a week from then, we moved it to 1/30 so we would have a couple extra days to get our new house in order before the baby came. Well, Tami was feeling some pretty strong contractions about 3-6min. apart early Thursday(1/29) morning as I was getting ready for work. After a call to the doctor and an hour of strong contractions, we were off to the hospital. After checking her out, we were told that today was the day. We didn't get 'our' doctor because he was off, but the doctor we had turned out to be fantastic. We were very pleased. The nurse said it was a perfect natural birth. Tami is doing super along with Isaac. Olivia has really enjoyed Isaac and has been a great big sister. Praise the Lord! God is good...ALL the time!

A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quick "let you know"....

We are finally moved into a house as of last Monday for Justin and Wednesday for Olivia and I!!! It's been a huge PRAISE THE LORD.....more details will come later...

And another fyi: Boy Ford (name will be posted after birth when one is decided on...) will be coming this Friday the 30th...unless he decides he wants to see us sooner!

Keep us in your prayers!
Thanks!

Puking 101

Ok.....so here's a question:

What do you do when you are driving down the road, with your 1 1/2 year old, 20 miles from home (which is still far from anything), and she pukes all down her front, has a puddle she's sitting in, and is crying?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well, I know it's a little late, but here's a few pictures from Christmas. We traveled from TN to Centerville Ohio to St. Louis MO to Milan MO to Macon MO to St. Louis MO and back to TN. We were zonked when we got home and Olivia followed up with a cold/congestion...which we are still trying to conquer. We had a great time though and Olivia got to play with lots and lots of cousins.

Yes, Olivia got up super early to see Uncle Will off to work!

We got everybody to smile!

We played the Wii in Ohio and ending up getting it as a Christmas present in St. Louis. Thanks Nana & Gramp!

Olivia was so excited when she opened all the rocks Aunt Tara & Uncle Will got her!

Check out the feet....always nice to have an extra hand when opening presents!

Sharing a snack with cousin Karsen.

Carpet on the stairs was sooo nice...Olivia learned how to slide down backwards thanks to Karsen!

Nate, Olivia, Cara, & Aleah. Sweet.

Did I mention they became good buddies?

This is Princess.....Justin's sister's dog. She lost all her teeth so her tongue hangs out like this all the time. Too funny.

Some of the Fam that showed up at Grandma Blankenship's house.

We managed to see Nana one day in St. Louis.....she had the shingles and didn't get to spend all of Christmas vacation with us.

Justin helped Nate put together a cool car when we watched Katie's kids one evening.

I got to help color!

Olivia LOVES her new stroller for her babies! Thanks Aunt Katie & Uncle Greg!

Olivia was reading to her babies on her cool new couch she got from Grandma & Grandpa.

KABOOM - SPLASH! KABOOM - SPLASH! WooHoo!

I was 'duck' hunting and ended up getting a couple geese to go along with my two ducks. It's been over 15 years since I've gotten a goose, so I was pretty excited. Geese periodically visit the lake and this time a flock of about 15 or so flew directly over my blind and I downed 2 with 2 shots. Definitely a highlight of the season so far. Limiting out with 6 ducks in about 30 minutes during my first hunt was pretty sweet too. You can see those pictures in an earlier post. Luci hasn't been hunting with me yet. I haven't trained her and I'm not certain she could sit still or handle the cold weather and water not having any fat and so little hair. Here are my prize geese....they make a lot bigger splash than ducks do! Hehehe!

Awww....Is She Cute Or What?!

Olivia decided to crawl in with Luci one evening. They're good buddies. One of her favorite toys is Mr. Potato Head. This is one of her many creations. She loves playing under the table too.

Duck Hunting!

Aaaaahhhhh yes, it's that time of year again. Cold breeze, sunrise, water, nature, my shotgun, and ducks. Can't beat that. Ok, so it's not the typical duck hunt....I have about a 2 minute (OK, 1 minute) walk from the house to get in my blind which is on the pond in the back of the house (you can see the pond behind me in one of the pictures).....ok, ok, and the ducks aren't afraid of people either. It's not my fault they don't get scared even when I yell to get them to fly. The fun part was that I hunted some ducks that you don't see in Missouri; redheads, buffleheads, and hooded mergansers to name a few. The redheads were by far the prettiest and largest. I ended up with 6 the first morning in a record 30 minutes time. It was a 'blast'. A couple days later I got 3 more. I fried up several and Tami's mother, Rita, baked a couple this past weekend. Yum, yum!

I'm cleaning a redhead.

Thanksgiving #1 - Dacula, Georgia

We drove down to Dacula, GA where Justin's Aunt and Uncle live. We arrived to a full house after 4 1/2 hrs of driving...thanks to a few wrong turns. The first of which was about 30 minutes from home; ugh! The trip home took only 3 1/2 hrs thanks to good navigation and no traffic. That was the first time we got to see Justin's immediate family since leaving Missouri in July and his extended family in many more months. We had a great time - even though it was only for about 24 hours. We'll be able to spend more time with them for Christmas as we travel to Missouri unless the baby tells us otherwise.

Cousins: Cara, Cameron, Chad, Cristen. Nieces/Nephew: Andrea, Aleah, & Nate.

Teeth of a Two Year Old

Ok....so I don't have a "Teeth" picture....but we went to an 18mo doctor visit last week. He was suprised to see Olivia's mouth. Apparently she has the teeth of a two year old! How cool. She weighed 21 lbs.(15%ile) and was 29 1/2 inches long (5%ile). She's so big, yet so small. Today was another first....she said the word "no". (I know...hard to believe, but she usually just shakes her head) At lunch Justin told Luci "No!" so she would stop begging. Olivia repeated it and said it over and over and over again. It was way cute, but now she knows the word NO. As long as she doesn't use it to tell us no....we'll be ok. :-)

We carved a pumpkin...a little late. Olivia did not like her hands in it, but really enjoyed seeing it lit up outside.

We made carmel apples too. This she liked!

Hocz visit

My friend Kristen came down from Ohio with her son Garrison for a quick visit. We made it to Gatlinburg for an afternoon lunch and shopping trip! We had some sleeping issues, especially the first night, so it was challenging to do everything that we had hoped for. It was still great to see them!

Olivia REALLY enjoyed having Garrison around...she even shared her pink car seat with him for our trip to Gatlinburg!