So MANY!

Renae got to chat with Sydney on skype the other day. I think they like each other! :)

Lately we've taken a bunch of pictures. And sooo many of them are great! :) Renae is getting better and better at sitting up on her own.


She can even sit in the bathtub moderately well now.

Renae now has two options when it comes to playing with her musical table!


She stands pretty well, and she of course eats like a champ. I was hanging out with a friend today and she was amazed at Renae's eating skills. :) She really likes broccoli, acorn and butternut squash, peas, green beans, sweet potato, and carrots. And she's had some spinach, too. Blended in with everything else!

AND--Renae has just started using a sippy cup! She is not great at it, but she knows what it's for! :)


Renae likes waking up Daddy!


Especially on Saturday mornings. Usually Dad gets her out of her crib and they sit on the couch together and play PS3. :)


My favorite picture...she is sooo cute!

I'm nearly 100% certain Josh and I have found our church home while we are here in Atlanta. It's right up the road which is convenient, and we've met some amazing people already! They are so welcoming and willing to share life with us. It looks like it's going to be alot alot alot of fun.

Also, we finally got our treadmill! :) It doesn't work quite yet, we have to do some electrical adjusting in our garage, but it's here! We are excited to use it!

Lately. :)

You can hear her laugh...kinda. We still haven't really gotten a good video of her laughing...she's a tough nut to crack...but she likes to swing!

Answers!

Here's answers for the quick Army lingo quiz:

1. What makes the green grass grow? Blood! Bet you didn't know that did ya. Actually, the correct response to this question is "BLOOD MAKES THE GREEN GRASS GROW DRILL SERGEANT!"

2. What happens when you are smoked? If you get smoked, that means you are doing some sort of physical activity as punishment for a mistake. For example. Just this week a soldier let a particularly smelly fart go in Josh's office. So Josh made him do double his age in push ups. I guess that's more of a goofy example, but usually if you get smoked it involves you messing up and then getting an extremely loud 'talking to' while doing push ups, wall sits, sit ups, pull ups, etc.

3. What is meant by repeating the word blasie three times fast? (pronounced Blah-zie) It basically means etc. etc. Another equivalent: blah, blah, blah. Try to use it, it's hilarious.

4. Josh is the Group S4 right now, what is a Group, and what is the S4? A Group is another name for a Brigade. Army structure from small to big: team (a handful of soldiers)
squad (6-10 soldiers (2 or 3 teams))
platoon (made of 2-4 squads)
Company (several platoons)
Battalion (several companies (600-1000 soldiers))
Brigade (or Group) (several Battalions sometimes 5,000 soldiers)
then Division (10-15,000)
then Corps (a lot)
then ARMY! :)

Josh works in the Staff shops...which is the admin side. Each level I mentioned, (company and above) has "S-shops".
S1 Personnel
S2 Security
S3 Operations
S4 Supply
S6 Signal (Tech stuff)

apparently there are 9 but some of them fell by the wayside over the years.

Cow Killer

Aloha! Josh here. So, as most of you now know, Erin, Renae, and I moved to the Atlanta area last month. Yesterday, we were mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, and trimming bushes. Not a big deal...until I saw this beast:


Officially, it is known as the Red Velvet Ant or "Cow Killer". This picture is of the female, who bite is said to be very, very painful (painful enough to "bring down a cow"). About the size of an adult pinky, from the first knuckle to the tip of the nail (seriously). And it hissed loud enough for me to hear from a couple feet away when I was trying to kill it. Erin can vouch for that. Sooooo, it was probably unwise for me to have allowed this insect to crawl on my shoes during lawn maintenance day...with my foot inside! The male version has wings and resembles a colorful--albeit hairy and disgusting--wasp. Fortunately, the males do not sting. So the half dozen or so that are flying around our front door are not to be worried about. The female is the one that has me lying awake at night!

Can't be as bad as what we lived with in Augusta. Nothing like BBQing some chicken on the patio and finding these nasties all around you:


Can't wait to see what's in store for us next year when we move to Savannah...

Quick Quiz

Here's a quick Army lingo quiz for you:

1. What makes the green grass grow?

2. What happens when you are smoked?

3. What is meant by repeating the word blasie three times fast? (pronounced Blah-zie)

4. Josh is the Group S4 right now, what is a Group, and what is the S4?

Pictures of our new House

Here you go Marth- and everyone! :) We really like our house! It fits us really well!



Also, for your enjoyment....look how much Renae enjoys peas! She ususally doesn't get this messy...sheesh. But that's what I get for feeding her to keep her awake longer.

Fun Packed!

Our 4th of July weekend was extravagantly fun. (is that a word?!) We visited some friends in Augusta for two days, went to Fort Gordon's fireworks show--it was great (Renae loved it!), came back to Atlanta, continued church hunting, and went to the pool, and topped it all off with having breakfast with a great family friend who lives here in Atlanta. Here's some photos to prove it!















ALSO- the house pictures are coming! We have them nearly completed. That post is next!

July?!

This promises to be the most random post in a long time.

-My brothers are the same age for two weeks, starting yesterday (Happy 24th Ofan!)

-Renae and I went to check out some shopping this morning and nearly hit a deer on the way home. SLAMMED on the brakes and thankfully Bambi hopped just out of reach. Yikes!

-A couple weeks ago Josh went swimming with our car keys in his pocket. After several minutes we saw them on the bottom of the pool, and after determining that it wasn't a snake or any live creature, he went down to get them. Power lock buttons still work! Yeah Pontiac!

-I got on and off the phone with AT&T this afternoon in 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure that is a world record. They have the worst waits for customer service. The shortest we've ever waited was 35 minutes...any longer and we usually hang up.

-I made baby food yesterday under the direction of Marth. I made sweet potatoes, acorn squash. Carrots coming soon! Renae ate acorn squash yesterday, it was her first non-rice cereal baby food. She really liked it! She was really messy afterwards.

-Renae had to get some hip x-rays done last week, to make sure that she is developing correctly after being breach for the entire pregnancy. She was hilarious- watching the light on her tummy. Josh and I had to hold her still and she thought that was awesome with mommy and daddy entertaining her.

-We got to see our friends Reid and Scarlett before they flew off to Germany! We had a great time, eating good food and hanging out! :)

-Here are so me pictures from recently you might enjoy!






-This video is Renae enjoying her jumpy seat. :)