Emily and I frequently talk about going up to visit Franklin and Tracy, my brother and sister-in-law, and their family up in Omaha. It seems that with other scheduled plans, and not wanting to go up there when then the weather could be bad, we haven't made it up there recently. In fact, the last time we were there, our nephew Fischer was about to turn one year old. We decided now that our other nephew Garrison was about to turn one, it would be a good time to visit. So, last week, we hit the road and headed North.

After an overnight stay in Tulsa, we drove to Omaha on Saturday. Needless to say, after 8 hours in the car with a two year old, we were ready to arrive! Esther actually did pretty well on the way up there, despite sleeping for only 30 minutes or so the whole trip. Franklin, Tracy, Emily, and I enjoyed an evening out while Grandma Judy and Grandpa Fred watched the kids.

Sunday began with us going to attend church at Southwest, where Franklin is the Youth Minister. After attending services, we headed for Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. We spent several hours at the zoo and I know all the kids enjoyed it. We were impressed that Fischer was up for walking most of the time. Esther preferred to ride (in Fischer's Sit-n-Stand), but when we got Fischer to hold her hand, she decided it was okay to walk for a little bit!

Monday, we didn't have much planned, but that worked out okay as Esther came down with a stomach bug that had gone through the rest of the Omaha bunch prior to our arrival. By Tuesday (at 3:30 in the morning) she was raring and ready to go again. Tuesday was spent with Franklin's family as well as Tracy's parents going to Vala's, which Tracy described as the "Six Flags of Pumpkin Patches" - and she wasn't kidding! We spent all day there walking around, going on rides, and taking pictures. It also just so happened to be the perfect day, weather-wise. We ended up the night by celebrating Garrison's first birthday.

We were really sad to have to go, but we felt like we got to enjoy some quality time with our family. Our ride home was pretty uneventful, as Esther decided to take three naps (and I think Emily took at least one too!). I hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

--John

Both Families on Sunday Morning:


Esther and Fischer:


The Zoo Crew:


Emily & Esther:


Anyone want to buy them?


The Girls:


Esther & John:


Trick or Treat!:


The birthday Boy:


And yes - I'm a map nerd, so this is how we got there and back!:

View Omaha - September 2009 in a larger map

As most of you know, we bought this house and immediately caused ourselves much anguish by tearing it apart and then putting it back together. Now, well over a year after moving in, we continue to work on projects as we can get to them.

My latest project was a little more on the fun and entertainment side, which is nice to do once in awhile. Back in June or July, we bought a new TV for our bedroom. It was a nice upgrade to move from what I believe was a 14" TV to a 26" - you can now actually tell who people are on the TV! Since then, the TV has just been sitting on the dresser, but I had had some plans to change that, and the last couple of weekends we put the plan into action.

Last weekend, Josh came over and helped me install a wall mount for the TV. I ended up using a Peerless brand mount. It was a little bit more expensive, but had very good reviews on Amazon. I didn't want to take a chance on the new TV dumping into the floor!

We still had been using plain rabbit ears antenna on this new TV until this weekend, when I completed part two of the plan. Friday night after work, Justin came over, and he and I crawled around in our attic. After what I can only describe as an acrobatic move that was probably disturbing to watch (ask Justin), I ended up over where the TV is mounted. We ran both a network cable and coax cable for antenna down to behind the TV.

For the final piece, I connected to the network cable an Xbox 360 that I just bought. I didn't buy the Xbox as a game console, but because of how it works as a Windows Media Center Extender. A few updates later, we are now able to watch live and recorded TV off of our media center computer in the living room! Anyway, like I said, this was more of a "fun" project, but I'd like to think that at least some of the networking I'm adding to the house makes it a little more "updated" in case we decide to sell it sometime in the future.

Now just a note for you crazy kids out there: I didn't go buy this stuff on a whim - we actually saved for quite awhile before buying, so yes, we are trying to stay with the Dave Ramsey principles.






--John

Well, tonight was the big night! Several weeks ago Emily and I agreed to be the children's education ministry leaders at church. After several weeks of planning and learning, the new quarter started and we were "officially" on the job.

I have to admit that we didn't want the job the first time it was mentioned to us, but figured out soon that our ability to organize (to a point of it being a sickness?) may actually be useful. So far our abilities have served us pretty well, as have all of the friends at Church who have offered kind words, advice, and lots of help.

So here's to one night down, and many good ones more to go! And since we are speaking of Bible Class, here is a picture from the archives of Esther attending her first Bible Class.




- John

As usual, I am well behind on my posting. I just seem to get so busy anymore playing with all my toys and just enjoying life!

I turned two recently and I have changed in many ways! I talk a lot, I sing, I count to ten (except I leave out nine). I also find new ways to entertain Mommy and Daddy; for example, I now can reach the light switches. I also watched Mommy and figured out how to unlock the storm door!

This Summer seems to have gone by so fast, but I am looking forward to the Fall. I think I will enjoy the State Fair more this year and I am looking forward to visiting my Nebraska cousins, Fischer and Garrison, in a few weeks.

Sadly, due to my busy schedule, all good things must come to an end. I am going to give up the life of an author and just try to be a full-time toddler. The exciting news is that Mommy and Daddy want to write about me and several other topics as well! Maybe, just maybe, they will be able to update you more than I have. Very shortly, my website will begin forwarding to their blog, but until then, you can begin accessing it directly. They hope to have new stories posted soon and the good news is that all of my old posts will be there too! The address is http://johmily.blogspot.com . Hope to see you there!

Me and Grandpa Mike at Roaring River:


Visiting Uncle Jace and Aunt Randy in Arlington:


My birthday party with my friends:


My friends party included swimming!


Lots of presents at my family birthday party:

As I mentioned in my last short post, things are busy around here! Most recently I have been on a vacation to both the lake (twice) and Tulsa. Last weekend we had a visit from Uncle Jace and Aunt Randy. Uncle Jace helped Mommy paint cabinets in the kitchen while Aunt Randy kept me busy (or was it me keeping her busy?). In any case, I think I wore her out good!

I am continuing to say more and more words. I say a few phrases and like to sing songs upon request (as long as it is Mommy or Daddy doing the requesting). My favorite song to sing on my own is Twinkle,Twinkle/ABC's, which may as well be the same song since they are in the same tune, right?

In a little over two months I will turn TWO YEARS OLD! Can you believe it? I can, and if you ask my my age, I say "TWO" (and I've been saying that for several months).

Starting this week, Mommy started teaching and I started attending Mother's Day Out for the Summer. I enjoy getting to spend times with other kids and the teachers always write nice notes about me.

Well, I better go for now, I hope you enjoy these pictures and the video!

This is a nice picture, and yes, those are my shorts on my head:




Lounging at the lake with (Great) Uncle Harold:


Here is a kind of long video of me changing my baby's diaper, I hope you enjoy it!

Friends,

I had this video ready long ago, but life is busy! Here it is to tide you all over until I add more updates soon - me and my friend Jordyn playing dressup:

I am very excited to let all of you know that I now have my own puppy! As you can guess from the title, her name is Stella. Stella is a Beagle and we got her just before she turned 8 weeks old. She has very pretty colors and is a lot of fun to play with, even if she gets a little excited sometimes.

Stella has taken up a lot of our time the last few weeks and so I don't have a lot of extra things to talk about. Today I did go to the Doctor and checked out just fine. The Doctor said I was a short kid, but I think he was just being funny because I am in the 97% range for height. I had to get one shot, but I didn't even cry!

Within the last couple of weeks, I have started using the ending "k" sound, which has added a lot of words that I can say - fun words like YUCK and TRUCK! Sometimes I don't know a word, so I spout off 30 seconds of my own language instead. I also like to watch the trash truck and school buses go past my window each day.

Well, that is all for now, I hope you enjoy the videos and yet another presentation from "Old Timey Esther"

I've enjoyed my year quite well so far - it all began with some friends coming over to celebrate New Years with us (ok, I'll admit, I didn't QUITE make it to midnight).



I've also enjoyed other visitors this month: My friend Jordyn has visited a couple of times, and we had a lot of fun. Grandpa Mike also visited to help us build a fence (You know what that means? A new doggie for me soon!). I tried as best as I could to help him, but mostly I ended up falling over into the mud. Last week, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Jamie, and Camryn visited me. Camryn is getting around really well now so we were able to play quite a bit!







Today it was very cold outside. Daddy got to stay home from work and this afternoon, we even got to go outside and play in the snow. I didn't stay out for very long, but I enjoyed the time I had. I thought I would share my time outside with you in a video (Daddy had a lot of fun making the video). I hope that you enjoy it and I hope all is well with everyone.

Dear Friends,

Last I posted, it was October and since then, I have had two great holidays together with family. Just before the Holidays, I got my very first haircut!



At Thanksgiving, I spent a lot of time with Daddy's family, including Uncle Franklin, Aunt Tracy, and my cousins, Fischer and Garrison. It was great to get to see everyone. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I got to spend quite a bit of time with Mommy's family too! They came to hang at my house, so I didn't even have to get out!









Christmas was great as well. I spent several nights with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lynn. I really enjoyed this because I also got to spend a lot of time with several dogs, which was a lot of fun. We visited all of Mommy's family in Tulsa and I enjoyed helping my cousin Camryn celebrate her first Christmas. As you can see, the Holidays have kept us very busy, but the gifts sure made it a lot of fun!







I hope that all of you had good holidays as well and I wish you a happy new year!