Family Vacation to Texas March 2-12, 2009

We all had a chance to visit my snow-bird family at the beginning of March. We played outside the majority of the time, played board/card games, went fishing, went to Sea World and Charlie and my 2 Uncle's had the opportunity to go hog hunting. Thank you Neva for making that happen.

Emily and I had the chance to travel with Mom to visit Mark, Randa, Jack and David while in Texas. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to see their beautiful new home. Of course, if we ask the cousins they'd probably say their favorite thing was playing in the bathtub or sharing popcorn before bed.





This is a stray cat that found his home at the "big house" and Emily naturally gravitated to him, even after an episode where Emily accidentally stepped on Pewter's paw and he scratched her foot. Today in Ohio while talking about our neighbors cats she recalled when Pewter scratched her foot and said "it's ok, God healed my foot".
This is a picture of one of the newly born calves on the farm of the very nice gentleman that gave us the gate key in order to fish in his fishing hole. I think this belongs on Pioneer Woman's site. hee hee
Emily's first fishing lesson. She was more enthralled with the bobber.

We had a great time at Sea World. Emily could not take her eyes off of Shamu. (More pictures from Sea World to come.)



Like Father, like Daughter.....check out the tongue while concentrating on the lawn.

Pro-Life Speech

I found this video of a 12 year old. Everyone should take the time to watch it!



More information can be found here

30 months old

Oh what a ham, but it doesn't last long. She says cheeeeeeeese one time and then she's finished. I'm guessing that's typical of a 2 year old though, always going and moving on to the next thing. I thought the heart dress would be appropriate for this month. This is just one of the many dresses we received from the Richmond's that go to our church. Their little girl outgrew a lot of her dresses and clothes and they wanted to pass them down. We're so grateful.

This month Emily broadened her drink horizon by trying something other than her regular drink of choice which is water. Charlie persuaded Emily to try orange juice and after she finally took a sip, she decided she really liked it. She also realized that she really likes almonds and that usually ends up being our mid-morning snack.

Emily can sing her ABC's now and loves to read. She's particularly fond of this first grade reader we found at my parents house called "That Fat Hat". We read it almost every night before bed and even a few times during the day. She has now started asking if she can sleep with the book. What will she think of next.

The Real Wedding Dress

As mentioned in an earlier post, there's been lots of wedding talk around our house and Emily periodically "tries" on different dresses from JoAnn Fabric flyers to night-nights wrapped around her waist. Well, Kristen found the actual flower girl dress last week and took a picture so the family could see. Of course she won't be wearing a red shirt underneath and the petals in the dress will not be coral and peach.

Miller's Furniture Commercial

Joan Rivers

No, I am not aspiring to look like Joan Rivers. Long story short....about a year and a half ago I connected with a local talent agency mainly out of mere curiosity to see if I could make any extra money in print and commercials. I took it one step at a time through each doorway praying that if the Lord did not want me to continue that He would shut the door. Since then I've been blessed to have had 2 print jobs and 1 commercial (Miller's Amish Furniture). The picture below is for my Mom so she could see what I looked like for my Nationwide audition today which suggested I dress and act the part of Joan Rivers.

Without sounding like the folks accepting the Oscar award, I am thankful to God foremost for giving me the ability and the gumption to pursue something like this and I am also so thankful to my family and friends for their encouragement.

Random hilarities around the Groff house

Recently there's been quite a bit more talk of the Groff/Byers wedding as the timeframe approaches and Emily has picked up on it. The other day she stands in the doorway to our office while I'm working on the computer and I hear her say "I got married". When I turn around I see her grinning from ear to ear sporting a very fashionable JoAnn Fabric flyer as her gown. Watch out Vera Wang.....you've got competition.

Girls and their "dolls". It brings a smile to my face when I think of how God created and wired girls different from boys and how it can be seen even as young as 2 years old. Girls just naturally have the desire to nurture and tend to the needs of their "babies". Emily brought her buddy Panda to me and said "Panda pooped. I need to change him." So I retrieved one of Emily's newborn diapers and of course having changed her diaper I don't know how many times she knew exactly what to do. Then it became a game to take the diaper off of one buddy and put it on another.....

.....Pippy the Penguin was next.

Daddy, Emily and Panda bonding on the couch while watching Max and Ruby.

29 months old

Welcome to 2009. Emily has already started our year with lots of laughter and is still quite the little mimicker. We believe in spanking, but we also have times where Emily has to sit on the stairs quietly. I can't remember actually calling it "time-out", but evidently I did at one point because the other day she picked up her M&M beanie baby and proceeded to place it all by itself in her rocking chair and said he was in time-out because he was being mean to Aunt Kristen.

She is also quite the listener and picks up on our words. Yesterday Charlie and I were cleaning up our upstairs hallway and pulled out an old cot that folds in half. The cot was leaning up against Charlie's chest of drawers and made a nice little hiding spot for some golf balls that were also found in the hallway. Emily was entertaining herself by strategically placing the golf balls inside the fold of the cot. At first she was wondering how she might go about getting the golf balls out and then when I unfolded the cot, her wonder changed to excitement because she saw her golf balls. She immediately shouted "oh my golf balls, praise da Lawd, praise da Lawd". Oh how I wish I'd had the video camera on hand.

Still no signs of an interest in potty training. I think that is one of the many aspects of toddlerhood that helps the parent develop the virtue of patience whether you pray for it or not.

Brrrr

New Year's with the Groff's

We had the chance to go to PA for New Year's this year and visit with the entire Groff family. Gimmy and Pappy Groff flew Holly in from Montana as a Christmas gift and Gommy and the whole Mitchell family were there as well. We had lots of laughs, ate lots of food and played lots of games. We even survived a game of SPOONS without any major injuries, although Kristen did get quite a few scratches on her hands.

We're not quite sure if Emily will be a reindeer trainer, a monkey trainer, a princess, a nurse or an actress when she grows up, but one thing is for sure.....she will definitely be a Penn State fan.

Christmas with the Marshall's

This Christmas was a time for quite a few firsts in our family. First year Emily and I made a birthday cake for Jesus, first year to experience Christmas with the Beeter's and the Clay's via web cam and first year experiencing the Festival of Lights at Oglebay.

28 months old - Dec. 16

Meet Emily.....my shadow. Recently Emily has become much more curious of her surroundings and also of what everyone is doing. If you've not been asked, be aware, there might be a little toddler lurking around the corner ready to spring the question on you...."ud you doin?"

Her favorite "toys" these days are her hair "qwips" (clips) and any bank that she can dump out and then put money back in.

She has had a lot of fun spending time with her friend Micah who has shared his favorite movie with her....Madagascar. She's especially fond of jumping to the song "I like to move it, move it."

Thanksgiving 2008

This year we had the opportunity to spend a full week in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Fun was had by all. We had many hours of laughter, lots of fun in the snow and lots of food.

While Pappy and Charlie were fishing on 20 Mile Creek, east of Erie, PA.... (this is Charlie's first steelhead) ....we were having fun playing with playdough.

Emily was introduced to a "big bed" while listening to Gimmy and Pappy read bedtime stories. Although she didn't consider this her real bed, it did give her a glimpse of what's to come.

Being goofy

Reading with Gimmy Preparing to go play in the snow

Emily enjoyed the snow and sledding a lot more this year than last year. After the first couple of times with Charlie or I in the sled, she wanted to go down by herself. While Charlie was building Emily an igloo, she decided to taste test some of the snow.

Then came the incident that brought laughter through the rest of the week. One particular sled ride with Emily and I was going well until we went out of control and ran smack dab into Gimmy's legs knocking her off her feet. She fell to the ground and ended up landing with her head in the igloo door. As we're all laughing we hear Emily start to cry and we think it's because she's concerned for Gimmy. As it turns out she's muttering amidst her crying "Gimmy broke my igloo". You can see Emily's not-so-happy face in this picture.

Family picture

In the loft with Cousin Sammy

Uncle Wally experiencing dress-up time

Elk at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort where Pappy works

Pappy showing Emily around Nemacolin