A Growing Vocabulary

From Mommy and Daddy, to milk, to making monkey noises... Jolie is learning to talk more and more every day. It's soooo much fun watching her!

Lots and lots of Christmas...

JON AND HIS NEW TACKLE BOX

JOLIEBEAN OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

MOMMY AND JOLIE ; )

JOLIE AND TAELOR PLAYING WITH BOWS

JACOB, GRANDMA & JOLIE

Well... three down, one to go! Last night consisted of a gift exchange at Jerry's house. I'm not sure what the exact number of people that were here was, but it was close to twenty. Children and crazy adults everywhere! Jolie found a little boy about her age to play with. They ran up and down the hall screaming at the top of their lungs. But it was a happy scream. One of those screams that hurts your ears but you don't want to tell them to stop because it's so cute. The kids opened their gifts first. Jolie got some yellow pajamas. Soft and cuddly ones. Then we did the gift exchange. We ended up with an M&M desk lamp... not my first choice unfortunately. However, Jerry's mom was kind enough to give us the blanket I was after : ) That ended well.

Next, we headed to my house. Lots of presents. Jolie made out like a bandit. Complete with a guitar, monkey weights, a new wardrobe, and a toy that blows balls into the air. Jerry left my mother's decked out in Dallas Cowboys gear. My favorite part was the stockings. My family is BIG into scratch tickets for Christmas. So, all of us sitting at the table scratching away... I ended up with about $80 in wins. Yay! It was ten o'clock when we headed back to Jerry's for the night to play Santa. We didn't even make it around the corner and Jolie had fallen asleep. We made it back here and everyone put the kids' Santa presents together while I put the finishing touches on Jack's (Jerry's dad) blanket. That damn thing..... my fingers hurt from hand-sewing all of it. But the blanket was a hit. He's been napping in his chair with it all morning.

This morning we were all up and opening presents by 8. I've never been at a present opening that took three hours... paper and boxes everywhere. Kids tired of opening presents. Wow...

But now, Jolie is napping, others are eating or sleeping. Tonight will be Christmas dinner and more presents with my grandparents and cousins. Then another dinner at my mom's. Gotta love that holiday food.

Daddy's First Trip to the Doc

I learned a few things today. First of all, when Amanda says "make sure to bring the diaper bag with you," she means it. I found myself sitting in a small room with nothing except a lamp to turn on and off, and a trash can to beat as a drum, for thirty minutes. My idea of 'hey, lets lean back and take a nap' was nowhere near Jolie's top ten list of things to do. Also, I'm a smart enough guy to have forgotten Jolie's blanket. Another one of those, "don't forget to always take this with you" items.

All in all though, I think Jolie and I did pretty well on our first visit to doc. I think she understands I'm on a bit of a learning curve and she takes it easy on me. Reason 326 that I love Jolie- She's patient with me.

The one part that didn't go so well was verifying her medical history. By time I got to my 30th round of 'I'm not sure' and 'I don't really know', the nurse was looking at me like maybe Jolie wasn't supposed to be with me. I'm thinking, 'Great, now I'm going to have to call Amanda and explain why the outpatient clinic has custody of our daughter.' As it turns out though, its a common thing that dads don't know what meds their kid is on, or what they weighed two months ago. I'd have looked more suspicious if I did know.

More after Christmas!

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

Twas the morning of Christmas Eve, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, except my brother's spouse.
The stockings all hung, in the living room with care,
Amanda and Jolie have been added up there.

The nieces and nephews, all snug in their beds,
While visions of tomorrow's chaos danced in their heads.
Now my love is at her house, and I am at mine,
But this evening we share Christmas, for the first time...

So Amanda and I are sharing our first out of many holiday seasons together. I think of all the days, Christmas Eve is what I'm looking forward to most right now. Dinner and a gift exchange tonight will be a fun time, but it's after the kids have gone to bed that I'm waiting for. In my parents house tonight we are craming: my mom and dad, brother, sister, sister-in-law, 5 year old nephew, 5 year old niece, 2 year old niece, 1 year nephew, and just shy of a year old niece. Additionally, I get to have Amanda and Jolie here tonight. So 13 all together in a four bedroom house.

And I don't mind the cramp quarters at all. After all the kids have racked out, we get to stay up and set up presents and stockings, drinking egg nog and telling stories of Christmas Past. And then waking up tomorrow morning! The way Jolie's eyes light up watching Christmas lights, I can't wait to see her in the morning with presents, stockings and wrapping paper every where. Can't wait for the next couple days, going to be a lot of enjoyment.

Side note: I'm not completely naive, I do know with that many children 5 and under there will be a good amount of not so fun chaos, but when it's all over, I think that will even be a bit of fun.

Merry Christmas All!

Amanda here... I'm probably going to be the one behind the camera, so it's doubtful that I'll be in many of the pictures and videos. Let me tell you, all of these little family moments we get to have, make my heart happier than I could ever describe. I'm thankful that I get some of them on video : )

This evening, Jerry was "working" on my computer. It kind of looks like he's doing more work on getting Jolie to share her cookie with him. And the answer to your question is: no. My computer never got fixed... but watching this made that alright.

The Beginnings- Jerry's Story

I had given up on finding someone to share my life with. I was in and out of relationships of all kinds. Healthy ones, disasterous, boring and outright taxing. I had also come to the conclusion that I'd never be able to trust any partner while I was in the military. Soon as I'd leave for duty, even for only a short while, I'd lose the person I was with. Then I deployed.

With all the time I had on deployment, I enjoyed a lot of self reflection and personal time with God. I prayed for the impossible. The perfect mate. Someone that I could laugh and love with. A woman I could trust without thought. One that I could share memories with until we were old and gray and unable to remember anything. A wife that would be my perfect vision of a mother to my children. A partner I could depend on in my worst moments, that I could show my weakest sides to without fear of losing her. A friend that I could sit with on Saturday afternoons and travel with on misguided adventures.

A vision of beauty that would hold my undivided attention. A muse that would inspire me to always put my best foot forward and never grow so comfortable that I felt I had won and no longer needed to woo. A Juliet who possessed the passion to accept my over-the-top romance. Stable enough to steady me, but spontaneous enough to stay on her feet and follow the flow. She would love me, without idolizing me. Respect without fear. And these are just the beginnings of what I was praying for.

Reading all that reminds me how impossible the task I asked of God. When I got home, He delivered. To my amazement, not only did I find this eluvise perfect woman for me, she was in the same spot I was. Tired of the sport and games of dating, and looking for one man to fit the bill.

I didn't want to meet Amanda when our mutual friend Jeremy first starting insisting I come out for a drink. She was beautiful, and even if I did stand a chance, I knew she had a daughter and more to lose than I did. I didn't trust myself to not let this friend of a friend down. I knew my intentions, and as a soldier returning from Iraq, it's not difficult to guess what those were. But he finally convinced me, and I knew after a short conversation and small kiss, that night was the start to what I'd always asked for.

Amanda and I have one of the most important ingredients to a healthy relationship, in addition to our shared faith: communication. We have discussed at length what we desire and what we fear. We agreed to not fall into our old traps that had been the ruin of so many other attempts at happiness. And now we share a wonderful life and look forward to the future. I love Amanda and her daughter, Jolie, as my own.

Through our postings we hope to share our lives as an example to others, and also just to post a bunch of pictures and videos and stories of happiness and laughter. To quote a great song, " God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you." Hopefully, we can leave a map here for others, and more importantly, a map back home for us should we ever stray. So here's to the future!