August 2005 Archives

Myra had a lot of fun today acting out the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. She even got her face painted to help her get in the mood. When I picked her up from school she said, "Look Daddy! I got WHISPERS on my face!"

Here's one of Miss "I'm Four" (what she tells everyone whether or not they ask) and Mr Jaden Taylor Higgs. Jaden's mom and I have been friends since junior high. Myra is about 5 months old in this picture which makes Jaden about 7 months old. I still think it looks like he is trying to bite her head off. I was assured by Elizabeth, though, that he was just giving kisses. Yes, we do start our kids early, learning all the important things in life: beer making, kissing, etc.

It's barely over a month until Joshtoberfest 3 and we're getting pretty excited! This weekend, we bottled the brew that will be used to toast another year in Joshtopia (AKA our back yard). As you can see from this video, brewing is a family affair, and that's why SAS beer tastes so good. There is love in every gulp. Click on the pic to view a little teaser for the How-to Brew video that is in the works.

You can keep up with our progress by visiting our sister site Joshtoberfest.com.

Last night was a big step for the little man's growing independence.
For the first time ever, he fed himself....with utensils!

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I think I got a little tear in my eye as I thought to myself, "My boy is now a MAN!" Sure, he's been shoving fistfulls of Cheerios in his mouth for a long time now, but THIS, this is different.

Last night, he ate pizza off of a fork that he was
holding all by himself--without jabbing himself in the eye. Of course, Mommy was still helping him out a little bit. She would cut the pizza and stick it on the fork, then lay it on the table beside him. Every time she laid it down, he would first reach for the food on the end of the fork, but then--with a lot of mental effort--redirect his hand to the other end of the utensil. He got so good at it that he soon grew impatient with Mommy. She had to rotate two forks to him to keep him happy.

With these new found manners, he can eat a meal and not have to
take a handy-wipe bath afterward. Now we can send him off to a dinner with the president without fearing that he'll embarass us with his barbarian eating style.

Yesterday, we had some special visitors join the 2005-06 Davis Day Care group. Lili and little brother Zeke (and Mommy Melissa) stopped by for a couple hours to play. Even though they only live a short 30min drive away, we don't see each other very often. As a matter of fact, it's been five months since we last got together. Lili and Zeke have both grown so much! Lili was Miss Talkative, a 180 degree turn from how she used to be, using Dora the Explorer as her English professor and Zeke was Mr Smiley. Noah and Hannah weren't as interested in the visitors as Mommy/Auntie Chris (who was too busy playing to take more than a couple pictures). They spent a majority of the time playing in, on and around Zeke's car seat. I must admit, he had some really great looking toys. All in all, it was a great visit.

Here's Lili washing her hands before making a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. It was so good, I had THREE servings!

And here's Mr Smiley himself. Too cute!

It looks like Myra has been offering her "cleaning services" at school. We're so proud of our big helper!

I know, we just had a photo of the week. Well, considering we haven't actually been doing them every week ... consider this us catching up.

This is what the Davis Family refers to as a "ONE wipey mess".

This is what the Davis Family refers to as a "THREE wipey mess".

You gotta love those pizza wedges.

"Josh and Christina Davis of Ft. Worth, Texas announce the birth of a daughter on August 18, 2001 at 1:42p.m. in All Saints Hospital. The infant weighed 6 lbs., 1 oz. and has been named Myra Lynnette Davis."
-Stroud American
August 30, 2001

(Myra Then)

(Myra Now)

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! We love you!

Yesterday was my first day with students this year. It was a very sad day indeed. However, on the bright side, I am now teaching Algebra II which means one thing: NO FRESHMEN! I had forgotten just how great life can be when you don't have a classroom full of 14 year old hormoniacs. These kids are mostly juniors and they seem to be quite a bit more mature than the juniors and seniors I taught way back when at Eastern Hills. I've noticed that I've taught about half of them before at one time or another. They have changed a little since then, though. In general, the boys have gotten taller and the girls have gotten fatter. I've only noticed a couple of returning knuckleheads so far. I assume this number will climb. As a bonus, they've moved me into a lot nicer room this year, as well. Check out my new digs:

Who has a pre-schooler in their house? WE DO! WE DO!

This past week was Myra's first week in pre-school. She LOVES it! The first day, we all loaded into the car to take her to school. I thought there might be a few tears when we left but there wasn't. When we went to pick her up, an excited voice said "Mommy! It's my mommy!" followed by a little whiny voice begging "Can I come back tomorrow? Pleeeease?" I'm glad she had fun. Here's our little EMS-ISD Developmet Center Cub now.

And here she is with her teachers Ms Becca (right) and Ms Danielle (left).

She's been making lots of new friends that she can't remember the names of but I'm sure she'll learn. She's also been making lots of art projects. She even has her own special clip on the refrigerator to hang her most recent masterpiece(s). Here are just a few.

When our baby girl was born, everyone told us "Cherish this time you have with her because they grow up so fast." They never said it was this fast. We are so very proud of our big school girl.

Cameron is the baby girl of some friends of Aunt Doo-doo. She is around Hannah's age and she came over last Friday while her parents were attending the new teacher in-service. She was the cutest little thing and was all smiles when she was dropped off early that morning. Noah wasn't too interested in her until he noticed that she wanted to play with HIS stuff. After that, he wanted to know where she was at all times so he could keep her from playing with his toys. Eventually, he mellowed a bit and the little ones had some fun playing TOGETHER! Luckily, I was there to help Mamma document it all.

"See! She gets ALL MY STUFF!!!"

Food is scarce around Noah

"I guess playing together can be fun, too!"

Noah's hair has been growing like crazy lately and since he was starting to look like a hippy, I ordered his hair to be sheared (don't I sound like a king?). Chris was a little apprehensive about doing it, but I pushed and prodded her until she agreed to play the barber. We popped some Baby Einstein into the DVD player and the little man was set. He didn't seem to mind at all. He now has a buzzcut just like me (but a little longer). He kind of reminds me of Skylor with his new "do". What do you think?

We've been having some technical difficulty the last few days. Our internet connection is kaput and SBC is taking their sweet time fixing it. We've got some GREAT updates but we just haven't been able to post them yet. We should be back online early next week. Have patience--cuz we're running out!

Today was a special day. Hayden, Kenzie, and Skylor arrived from Stroud for a few days of Texas fun. We didn't tell Myra they were coming, instead opting to surprise her at the pool. It sure was a lot of fun! The boys occupied themselves making underwater movies with the Gode's fancy camera while the girls splashed and swam. Noah had a lot of fun chasing the beach ball around the pool even though he never could quite pick it up. Afterward, we retired to Casa de Gode for some S'mores. Hayden and Skylor took turns whoopin' me at ladder golf. Kenzer came home with us to stay the night and right this minute the girls are watching Beauty and the Beast on the couch. Ain't they cute?