Pictures of the Girls

A Real Trooper

A couple of Saturday's ago Katie Jo had a little accident. From what I could piece together since I didn't see it Katie Jo was trying to carry Georgia down the hall to her room. She lost her footing and fell forward knocking the side of her face on the stair banister. I actually heard the fall and the cries after but thought they all belonged to Georgia. So, of course, I ran to scoop up Georgia and looked over at Katie Jo to see a stream of blood running down her face. She had a pretty nasty gash but not so bad to warrant a hospital visit. I was by myself and was quickly trying to decide how to handle it if we did have to go to the hospital. What a mess we would have been in. Katie Jo only cried for about two minutes and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly so I knew it wasn't too bad. I couldn't believe what a trooper she was. If it had been me I would have been so foul from the pain but once the initial hurt wore off she was fine. By now it has almost completely healed and we're ready for our next fiasco!

Granddaddy Byars

Jay's granddad, Lex, passed away last Friday night. He was 86 years old. He lived a long full life and left behind a wife, four children, thirteen grandchildren, and seventeen great grandchildren. We went to the upstate this past Sunday through Tuesday for his services. We had the rare opportunity to visit with several family members who we don't see often enough. It was sad to say goodbye but nice to celebrate his life along side family we love so dearly.
Jay's granddad was a man of few words but I had a couple of memories to share. When Jay and I first started dating we decided to take a trip to Florida. Jay's dad lived there along with his Grandmother and Granddaddy. We went to stay with his grandparents in West Palm Beach for part of the trip. I remember Jay's granddaddy watching Westerns on tv most of the time we were at his house. He kept calling each one a "good un (good one)." Ever since that trip I have never been able to pass a western on tv without thinking, "there's a good un."
The other funny story was when Jay graduated with his masters from Georgia. His grandparents came along with several other family members for the ceremony. His granddad was notorious for only hanging around for a small bit of time and then heading to the car. On this particular day we all went to make pictures after the ceremony and Granddaddy headed to the car. He had the window rolled down and was smoking a cigarette. I went over and started talking to him. While I was in the middle of whatever I was saying he started to roll up the window with a smile on his face. I pointed my finger at him and said, "Don't roll that window up while I'm talking to you." The window never came back down but he kept a smile on his face the whole time. That was a classic moment!

This is Granddaddy with our dog, Baby.This is Granddaddy and Grandmother with their children, Mickey, Linda, Jim and Joan.
Here is Grandmother and Granddaddy with Katie Jo.
Here are some pictures of our time the past few days with family.

This is John Paul. He Jessica's (Jay's sister) youngest.

This is Aidan (Jessica's oldest) and Georgia.

Aidan, Georgia, John Paul and Sara
Katie Jo, Justin, Aidan in the red, and John Paul in the blue
Grandmother, Katie Jo and Mickey.
Me, Jay, Mema, Joni, Jim (Granddaddy), Austin, Jessica, Jason and Kim


Starting in the front and working our way to the back left to right is Ben, Joni, Nathan, Jessica, Liz, Jay, Anna, Carey and Lee. These are Jay's sisters and cousins (minus Scott) that he grew up with.

Here are all the cousins playing a very loud and fast card game.
Jay, Grandmother, Jessica and Joni
Jay and his sisters, Joni and Jessica
Joni, Me and Jessica

Grandmother and Georgia. Every grandchild and great grandchild has been rocked in this rocker by Grandmother.

Granddaddy, Joni, and Georgia
Granddaddy with John Paul, Georgia, Katie Jo and Aidan Aidan
On our first night in the upstate Jay's cousin, Ben came to crash on Jay's mom's couch. That night Georgia woke up crying multiple times waking up everyone in the house. Poor Ben will never want to have children after that experience. He was still very nice to Georgia the next day and even came back the next night again. Thankfully she only woke up one time and didn't wake anyone up. She redeemed herself so hopefully Ben will one day forget what happened. I had to get a picture of Ben with his favorite girl, Georgia!

Here is a slideshow of all our pics. This is for the die hard fans!

Waving video

9 Months Old

Miss Georgia turned nine months old on the tenth of this month. She is as much a joy now as she was a month ago! She is faster than ever with the crawling and pops up to a standing position before you can blink. She has her appt later this month so we'll put out her stats then.
She loves to laugh and especially enjoys her sister laughing along with her. She is starting to fight back when Katie Jo tries to take a toy away from her and sometimes gets dragged around in the process. She is a very determined little baby. If she wants something she will get it and if it means being moved across the room multiple times she will still crawl back to it every time. She especially loves the phone and remote. She has also started eating some table food. She loves bites of bread, noodles, and veggies. She's not eating meat yet. The bottom two teeth are her only ones still. We've used the sippy cup some but she enjoys chewing more than actually drinking. She is still nursing and takes a bottle at night. Her sleeping is better and she usually only wakes once to nurse and then back to bed. She's becoming a better napper with one long and one short. Sometimes we still squeeze in a late afternooner but that one is definitely phasing out. This past month hasn't been with out the scares. She rolled down our steps from the hall to the bonus room landing (four of them) but recovered after a couple minutes of frightened tears. She also choked on some playground debris a couple of weeks ago. I think a leaf must have swept across the back of her throat. I was about one back slap from 911 but thankfully she coughed up whatever it was. So I've decided the pacifier isn't such a bad thing after all. She has reduced her paci use though and now only has it for playground time and sleeping. She started waving a few weeks ago. It usually takes some prodding but she gives the sweetest little hand flap. She loves to play and I don't remember Katie Jo ever playing by herself as much. Georgia will spend time just going from basket to basket checking out what's hiding in there and playing with each thing a few minutes. Most things make it to her mouth so we obviously had cleared out any small parts that went with Katie Jo's toys. Her favorites are the wooden blocks and anything that makes noise when she shakes it. She also loves balls and knocks them around only to chase after them. She makes lots of cooing and talking noises. She says ma, da, and na so far. She uses the ma ma sound with me so I think we'll count that one! I can't imagine why since she only hears it a billion times a day from someone else! She is a definite Momma's girl. She can have her back to me and I'll call her name only to watch her turn her head 180 degrees to find my face. She also is starting to not like being held by other people when I'm in the room. Her hair is starting to come in and so far it seems to be light brown. Her eyes are definitely blue and shine so bright when she smiles. She has two tickle spots on her sides under her arms. She almost always laughs out loud when I poke her there. She's such an observer and can just sit in a room of people and watch. She especially loves watching children play. When she gets really excited she puts her hands above her head and starts bouncing on her bottom. She is a really funny little girl.

Camping Out

The other night Jay and Katie Jo decided to camp out. There was no chance of rain and the temperature was going to be in the mild 60's. They set up the tent making sure all parts were accounted for and assembled correctly. Then they gathered their gear: stuffed animals to sleep with, the futon cushion and pillows to sleep on, a fan to blow air, and the laptop to play a movie! Talk about "roughing it." They watched 101 Dalmatians and then settled in for the night. Jay said the next morning that it wasn't the best night of sleep he'd ever had but it wasn't so bad. I think a new tradition has started!

Spring Flowers

Pop's 60th birthday

The girls and I traveled to the upstate last week to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. This is also Katie Jo and Georgia's Pop. He didn't want a big lavish affair or a party with friends. Nope. All he requested was having his girls around for his big day. He was happy to have his children and wife along too! I'm sure it would have been ok if Jay came, but someone has to work! We had a big meal of country style steak, sweet carrots, yeast rolls, fried okra, rice, fruit salad, and birthday cake all courtesy of Mama (my dad's mom). So we spent an evening over at mama's and papa's and tanked up on all the tasty food. Katie Jo loved the cake Mama made and took everyone to the sewing room to show them where it was hiding. Pop let her help blow out the candles and she hasn't stopped talking about birthday's ever since!

Upstate Trip

Last week we went to the upstate for a few days to celebrate a special birthday which I'll blog about next. While there we packed in some serious visiting. My cousin Sara came over with her sweet girl, Sophia. We got lots of baby holding time in and it was great to catch up. Katie Jo wouldn't let Gran hold Sophia without her close supervision.

This was a sweet picture of Georgia admiring the big truck across the street. She is getting big so fast. She's already standing up and starting to let go. She's not even nine months!

We also got to visit Caroline. Her mom worked with Gran and lives just up the street. The girls had a good time together and I hope we get to do it again soon!