Thanksgiving in KC!

We had lots of fun at Aunt Andra and Uncle Bruce's house for Thanksgiving this year. They smoked a local hormone/antibiotic/preservative-free turkey and had to check it every half-hour. Their efforts were well-rewarded with a beautiful feast!

We gathered with Bruce's family too, and Jonathan had the opportunity to play a guitar from WWII that Bruce's 100-year-old grandfather brought back. The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to the Plaza to meet up with Uncle Stephen and Aunt Kristen. Glad to have another KC girl in the fam so we see each other more!

Snakes in the drain?

Recently I emptied an old glass of water into the kitchen sink and spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Jonathan and I joke that I have "spidey vision", because I can almost always catch a spider--big or small--trekking across the ceiling, floor, wall, windowsill, etc. I looked toward the movement and saw camouflage in motion. My first thought was, this is some huge spider! But upon second glance, I realized there was a snake on the kitchen counter top. The following few seconds are a blur to me--all I know is I went from standing next to a snake to standing on the other side of the kitchen island, phone in hand. At some point I must have retrieved my cell phone from the living room but I honestly have no recollection. I called Jonathan and told him there was a snake in the kitchen. He said he was on his way and I said, "But call someone else too!" There was only one thing I knew my husband to be squeamish about: snakes.

It was a long 3 minutes that I forced myself to stare at the snake while Jonathan drove home from the church--I was not going to let that sucker out of my sight! The guys he called for help were unavailable, so we had to settle for the senior pastor--another city boy. Once I got Ross safely strapped into his swing in another room, the three of us discussed our game plan for capturing the snake. I held a pillow case because I thought whenever you see snake handlers, they seem to transport them in cloth sacks. Jonathan held a hoe and a long pole, thinking he could either get the snake to coil around the pole, or just whack the thing with the hoe (on the counter top). Randy (the senior pastor) held nothing in his hands because they were safely tucked in his pockets. When I suggested Jonathan use the pole to scoot the snake into my pillow case, Randy said, "I hate for you to have to do that but I don't want to get bit." We clearly called the wrong number for help. :)

Jonathan decided we should try to scoot the snake with the pole into an open cardboard box on the floor, then we could throw it outside. I argued in opposition, thinking the snake could easily slither right out of the box. I was overruled. I jumped onto a chair, pillowcase in hand, while Jonathan used the pole to persuade the snake. At first, the snake turned around and tried to go down between the base cabinets and the refrigerator. At this point I started screaming, "NO, NO, NO, DON'T LET IT GET ON THE FLOOR!" Randy chimed in, "Put the pole in there and catch him!" Jonathan obeyed and was able to force the snake back up the cabinet and off the counter top into the box. He and Randy quickly closed it with their feet and Jonathan bravely carried the box, snake enclosed, outside. He dropped it, stepped back, didn't see any movement, approached it, kicked it, then watched the snake slither off into someone else's yard. Had Randy not been saying, "Poor snake," as it exited the box, I'm sure my husband would have had a "hoe-down" with the thing.

These past couple weeks since the incident have been uneventful. I prayed to not have nightmares about snakes and so far the only snake dream I've had was one where I had a friendly pet snake that protected our bed from other varmints. In fact, I had all but forgotten about the creature until just a few minutes ago when I heard Jonathan reading Ross' Jungle Babies book to him. When he got to the snake part he read, "I'm a baby snake. I like to slip and slide. In the grass and leaves is where I like to hide." Then I distinctly heard him add under his breath, "and in your kitchen."

8 Months!

Well, the time is just flying! Our little 8-month-old is sporting 6 teeth, calling us Mommy and Daddy, and rocking on all fours with occasional scootching in reverse. It is common for us to retrieve him from under the couch, side tables, etc.! More squirmy than ever, Ross is clearly an active little guy and, in turn, we are actively pricing out baby fences.

When Ross turned 8 months last Friday, his cousin, Eloise, turned 6 months to the day. Here they are sharing a little tummy time and smiles. Here are the rest of the cousins, sans Malachi, plus a couple of daddies.

Our Little Croc

Our neighborhood gets a lot of traffic on Halloween. We invited the junior high and senior high youth from church over to play costume bingo and pass out candy. Jonathan and I dressed as the Irwins (Crocodile Hunter and wife), and Ross went as our crocodile. He was uber-cute, per usual. I'd like to add that our town celebrated on the 30th this year because the "powers that be" decided we couldn't have trick-or-treating on Sunday night due to church services. So Anna allowed trick-or-treating from 5-8pm on Saturday. One more thing to add to our "this town's a little bizarre" list.

Pumpkin Patch!

While in St. Louis, we visited the Midwest's oldest and largest pumpkin patch. Ross and his cousin, Layla, were kind enough to let us take advantage of photo opps. There were so many pumpkins and so much to take in! I know Ross will be excited for next year when he can run around the patch with Layla.

Animal lovers should go to the zoo

Since Ross has shown such enthusiasm toward animals, we decided to visit the zoo on a last-minute trip to St. Louis. He had a great time and especially loved the bears, the penguin/puffin house, and a random duck quacking at us through a fence. As fun as the zoo was, it seemed his most favorite animal was Grammie's dog. We've never heard more giggles!

Grandpa's Visit

Grandpa recently came to visit and to help Jonathan work on the exterior of the house. He and Ross have more in common than the blue eye thing: fishing hats!

We packed a lot into the weekend, including Ross' first time in a public highchair. He had fun sitting in his own seat, but it was a challenge keeping him from chewing on the table....

Ross' friend, Drake, celebrated his first birthday and it was exciting to get Ross' first party invitation in the mail and to go wish Drake a happy one.

Drake's house had donkeys and between those and playing outside with our cats while the guys worked on the siding, we realized Ross really likes animals.

First Family Pics

Our friend, Jaime, who has a photography business, recently took our first professional photos with Ross. She specializes in capturing people as they are--just hanging out between poses. Since Jaime shoots on location, we stopped at several places including a ball field, a hay field, a pumpkin patch, a random spot off Hwy 51, and Ross' crib. All of the new scenery left Ross with more "investigative faces" rather than his typically smiles. But we had fun and were pleased with the outcome. Here are a few of our faves.

Mommy Mondays

Since Jonathan currently works at least 3 nights a week this fall, he has decided to come home early on Monday afternoons to spend time with Ross. He calls it "Daddy/Ross Day" and I call it "Mommy Mondays" because it gives me time to work, take a much-needed nap, catch up on laundry, or all of the above. Their various activities so far have included baseball games, football games, grocery shopping, checking out camping gear, and just being silly at home.

More Firsts

This fall, Ross got to experience his first concert and first parade! Christian artist, Danen Kane, came to town and did a concert in the park for us here in Anna. We met Danen in Charlotte when we had him come and lead the music for Oxygen. A few years later now, he's still making good music and working on getting his name out there.






The homecoming parade was another exciting time for Ross. He watched as the bands, floats, firetrucks, and queen contestants went by. We had fun watching his face and seeing him take in all the sights.

First Half-Birthday!

Happy 6 months to Ross today!!! Every day with this little one is such a joy. Our time with him is just flying by, so I'm already trying to prepare myself for the day he introduces us to his future bride and leaves our nest! But for now, we enjoy the six month mark and would like to use this opportunity to share some fun things regarding Ross:

Ross' 6 month stats

~Ross weighs in at a hearty 18 pounds now

~He is wearing size 3 diapers at night (Happy Heinys during the day!)

~Ross can now sit up on his own

~His feet and legs are barely fitting into his 6-9 month jammies

~He has 2 teeth

Ross Talk

We're pretty sure Ross still doesn't know what he's saying when it sounds like real words...so we don't count any of these as his first words--it's just fun to hear them.

~mmmmmmmmmMMMMOOOOMMMMMMM!

~dadadadadadadadadadadadadada

~and the other day on the changing table, he looked deep into my eyes with foot in hand and said, "God." That's it. Just "God." :)

Mommy and Daddy's nicknames for Ross

~Rossy

~Ross-man

~Little One

~Nug

~Baby Bean

~Munchkin

~Baby Ross

~Blue Eyes

~Smiles

~Smiley McLaugherson

~Rotisserie Ross (when Jonathan spins him around while gnawing on his ribs)

~Ross-a-roo (when he's in his Jumperoo)

~Ross-a-walkie (when we take walks)

~Rompified Ross (when he's wearing a Romper)

~Ross-a-munch (when we're eating or he's chewing on something)

~VelociRoss or VelociRosster (when he screeches or screams)

Love love love this boy!

First Family Vacation!

We recently got back from our first vacation with Ross. We were able to take a whole week to escape to a cottage on the Black River in Southeast, MO. The house was located 2 miles in on a gravel road and nestled in a forest of trees... in other words, in the middle of nowhere. It was such a treat for Ross and I to have Jonathan to ourselves for the week, and especially in a location where there was no cell phone service! We had a fantastic time. Here are just a few pics from our adventure:

Johnson Shut-Ins

Elephant Rocks State Park

Go Wildcats!

We recently attended Ross' first football game. The AJ Wildcats (the local high school) had a fantastic season opener. We were able to walk from our house to the school, pushing Ross in his stroller. He was interested in taking in all the sights and sounds of a high school football game. Kids from our youth group make up part of the football team, cheerleaders, and marching band. So we saw a lot of friendly faces that were excited to see Ross out supporting them. The little guy almost made it to half-time before falling asleep, at which point we began the trek back home.

Cribin' it

We finally put the crib together! Ross has been sleeping in his Pack n Play until now because that's what fit in our bedroom. We planned on waiting to put up his crib until the upstairs of our house is finished and Ross has his own room. But with the Pack n Play starting to bow, we realized we needed to make room for the crib in our family bedroom downstairs so Ross could have a nice mattress to sleep on. Jonathan put it together in about an hour, then we got Ross acclimated. He likes the fact that his bed is the same height as ours so he can peek at us through the rails when he's ready to get up... and we enjoy seeing his smiling face as well! :)

The County Fair

Well, we just took Ross to his very first 4-H County Fair. The Union County Fair was held here in Anna and we were able to stroll Ross around and see everything in about an hour. Quite the opposite of the Elkhart County Fair to say the least, but still a fun experience. Plus we shared the best elephant ear I've ever eaten (or maybe I was just tasting the sweet memories of childhood). Either way, it was a good time!