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Interesting Airline Announcement

Southwest Airlines really is entertaining....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lZV_828OA

A New Task

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Peyton's mobile!

So Peyton took over six steps on his own yesterday. Wow! It's gone too fast, at least from a mother's perspective!

He's been cruising around tables and the wall and the fridge for a few months now, but unlike before where he would take a step and just fall back on his bottom, now, he proceeds very cautiously with his hands out beside him for balance. Sooo cute. Such a precious site.

I've been a terrible blogger since Peyton has been born, so now that he's 10 months old, I figured I would write some things about him (I don't want him to think that just because I haven't written as much that I love him any less!).

Peyton is such a sweetheart. Last night for example, I woke him up at 10:00 pm to nurse him, and afterwards, he played in bed with me and Shane for about 40 minutes. He LOVES to play peek-a-boo and pull the blankets off his head to find us. He also loves to rough-house. I guess he has to be this way since his sister is tackling him all the time, but he sure loves it with us. He will climb all over me and Shane and grab our hair, our noses, our ears, whatever. He is also VERY ticklish and just has the sweetest little laugh about it. He definitely likes to play with people and to laugh A LOT. Such a joy.

Peyton is also very content to play with his toys. He likes to know we are around, but unlike Elizabeth who wants us there watching her while she plays, Peyton is content just to know we are around somewhere. He will go from toy to toy to toy and will be content to do this FOR HOURS!! It's wonderful to have a baby like this because I can get other things done when I'm with him. Don't get me wrong, he loves that F2F interaction, but he also loves to entertain himself and discover all the new things he sees, most of which happen to be pink wands, princess shoes, purses, and the like. :)

He also really likes trains and cars. Shane and Granbarry built Peyton a train table for Christmas (it's amazing!), and Peyton will play at that thing as long as he can. If I could find the thing to download my pictures, I'd post some. Hopefully soon. Finding the missing camera was the first step.

Peyton is also a really good eater, just like his sister. He is a bit underweight (only in the 10th percentile), but he still likes to eat. His head is still a normal size, so we aren't too worried. Anyway, he likes all "colors" of foods, including Mum-Mums (thanks, Robyn!), Cheerios, peas, sweet potatoes, white meat chicken, and anything else he can eat with his hands. He never really liked baby food and since he had teeth at 5 months, he was eating finger foods early on. And as Granna observed, he could pick up food with his pincher fingers from an early age. Very coordinated (unlike his sister).

Peyton is also very smart (like his sister). He is more engineer-smart, though, if you know what I mean. He can figure things out and put things together in ways that surprise and please me. We'll see what he decides to do when he grows up.

I'm still nursing Peyton, except during the day. I made it longer with him than I did Elizabeth, and I'm actually quite proud of myself. Am I allowed to boast on here?!! I just went down to two feedings a day the week Pawpaw (Shane's grandfather) died, which means that Peyton still clings to his Mommy and wants me (or my chest) whenever he sees me and is hungry. It's no hello or anything. It's just lean to the left and try to get the milk (even when I'm fully clothed). We get big laughs out of this.

Well, we love sweet Peyton and are so glad that he is apart of our family. I know that some of this may come across as boasting. Well, you know what? So be it. We are proud of our children and we like their traits and personalities. Of course there are (and will be) other posts where they don't come across as so angelic, but this is one that may. Have a good one.

What I love

So, after reading my sister Kellee’s blog post today about LOVE, I’ve decided to end my hiatus from blogging and make a post similar to hers about some of the loves in my life at this moment in time.

Here are some things I LOVE:
1. I LOVE my husband. After six plus years of marriage, he is still the man I love. Even though we are different people now than we were then, we have grown together in this journey. Going into this marriage at 25 years old—an independent and strong-willed single woman, I would have never thought I would be the person I am today. So much of who I am today is because of him and who he is. Our conversations about God, life, people, and ministry have impacted and changed my own views on these areas. His way of seeing the world and the kingdom of God have made me want to be a part of that vision more than anything else. I love that my husband has committed himself to a life of ministry, even though it can be challenging, draining, and discouraging. I love my husband more and more every day. He teaches me things. He shows me love and compassion and forgiveness. He keeps no track of wrongs. He is loyal, and he is oh so very smart. I adore my husband. And he’s just so doggone good-looking.

2. I LOVE my daughter Elizabeth. Sweet, independent, stubborn Elizabeth. So like me and so like Shane. She tells me she loves me over and over throughout the day—verbally and by showing me the sign. She has a mind of her own, and even when I try to re-direct her, she usually wins (not because I’m not being stubborn with her either!). And I love that about her. She loves to play. She loves her babies—fake and real (Peyton). I love listening to her sing: “I love my Peyton Poe. I love my Peyton Poe. I love my P-E-Y-T-O-N-P-O-E.” Clap. Clap. Clap. I love how she loves church and people and having people over. I love her hugs and kisses and how excited she gets when we get excited. I love how she treats animals, especially our new puppy Shiloh. I adore her eyes and her smile.

3. I LOVE my son Peyton. What a joy Peyton has brought to our lives. He is so sweet and kind. He’s happy ALL THE TIME (except when he’s hungry or when his big sister is tackling him, but who can blame him?). I love how smart he is in figuring things out and making sense of his surroundings. I love how he loves me. I love how his eyes fixate on mine whenever I walk into the room and how he wants to come to me above all other people in this world (sorry, Honey, but you know it’s true!). I love how he flirts with anyone and everyone and how he’s always ready to flash a smile.

4. I LOVE living a life in ministry. It’s hard, but I love it. I don’t want to be doing anything else but loving God, loving people, and living a life formed by the Cross. I love that I get to do ministry with my husband and am so glad the Lord placed me alongside someone who has such a clear picture of what we are doing.

5. I LOVE my sisters. Kim and Kellee are very special to me. They are mature, godly women who teach me so much through their words and actions. They are women whom I look up to and admire and strive to be more like.

6. I LOVE my job. I love teaching students—not just about my subject but about the world as well and how they can use writing to impact and affect the world. I also love researching and creating new knowledge. I LOVE it!

7. I LOVE my parents. My mom and dad are examples to me of sacrifice, love, and forgiveness. They will never know how much they mean to me. I also love my in-laws and how they have welcome me into their fold from the beginning. Both sets of parents are examples of what it means to be godly people seeking to live more like Jesus. And I love how much they love my children. What a blessing.

8. I LOVE the evenings. After both kids are in bed and Shane and I can spend time by ourselves. I love this time of day most of all.

9. I LOVE that Jesus came to this earth and showed us how to have life more abundantly. I love that I'm journeying towards that life.

Although today is Valentine’s Day, I hope I show the love of Christ to those around me throughout each and every day. All the year around.

Waco Art Fest

This weekend the family headed to Downtown Waco for Waco's annual Cultural Arts Festival. I've wanted to go since we moved to Gatesville, and it was nice to finally go since we live in Waco now. They had a lot of fun things to do for the kids, and what's best is that all of it was free. What an amazing community event! Elizabeth painted art on canvas and she and I both painted masks. What a great way to get out into the community and be artistic. Here are some pics from our enjoyable time.

Shane and Elizabeth at the "paint table."

Our little artist at work.

Of course pink was the first color she chose.

She also wanted to write an "E" for her name. It didn't last, though. She covered it up with another color paint.

Here we are watching E paint.

She did this all by herself. She requested a color and Shane went and got it for her. What fun!

The finished product and the proud artist. This piece is now hanging in our dining room.


And here's sweet little Peyton. What a wonderful smile!

If you live in Waco or the nearby area, you should definitely try to make it next year. Fun for the whole family.

My Day

Well, I have about 30 minutes before my graduate class and decided to come here and post a blog. My family is all gone today to Strawn, Texas, where Shane is performing a funeral for his great aunt on his mom's side. She died during Hurricane Ike when a tree fell on her home and she had an apparent heart attack. Shane's parents went, too, and they took the kids because they wanted to show them off to some family they'd never met before on his mom's side. I have my graduate class tonight from 4-7 and am excited because we are talking about multimodality and literacy and they get to compose an essay in a medium other than the alphabetic print traditional research essay, which is (sadly) the only medium most of them have ever composed in (yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. Who cares?!).

I've also been invited to play Bunko tonight by a friend of mine at Robinson (Jennifer Paltjon--For those of you who went to ACU, it's Jason's wife, not his sister, though they do share a name). I'll be getting there a little late since my class lets out so late, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played Bunko since my 8th grade birthday party. Yes, I had a Bunko party back then. It was my mom's idea and we ended up having a lot of fun. I'm anxious to see if I remember how to play. Maybe I'll even win something!