RDU is Cool

My brother, Robert, is a Raleigh Firefighter and we like to take Josh by the station to see his "Dude" when we go to town. Josh likes visiting Dude at work. He spends time testing out the fire trucks and asking LOTS of questions about what this does and what that does and why that thing is round or red or moves. He likes playing with the weight lifting equipment at the station and gets a new RFD tattoo out of the visit. :) Robert is so patient and takes time explaining how everything works and lets Josh "drive" the trucks and turn the lights on. Josh is very blessed with awesome Uncles (and Aunts!). :)

Dude & J-Dub

Robert has a friend who works at the fire department at the airport. He made a call and got permission for us to visit that station. It was really neat. I had never been that close to airplanes before (besides being in one) and Josh was fascinated with all the equipment. We visited the observation deck at the airport so Josh could see the planes taking off and landing. He really enjoyed watching them come in and go out.

They gave us a ride in their special fire truck and we got to spray some water on one of the runways. It made a loud noise every time right before the water came out and Josh jumped every time. :) He said "That scared me! Do it again!"

After a quick trip on the insanely huge fire truck they have (seriously, I've never seen a firetruck that big) the firefighters got word that the plane carrying the University of Miami's football team would be rolling by soon. They were coming into town to play UNC. They invited us to hang out and wait so we could see it. Some of the guys had never seen a plane that big in all the years they've worked there.

It's so hard to believe something that big can fly in the air! I don't remember how wide the wingspan is but it's impressive.

Playing catch-up

It's been a loooong time since I gave my pitiful little blog any attention. I think it's been about 10 months. Yikes! So much has happened in those 10 months there's no way I could catch up on everything. I'm terrible about remembering things we do. I have very little childhood memories. It's kind of sad, actually. I'm just no good with the details. David will talk about somewhere we've been or something we did and I'll have no recollection of it. I need to start writing things down more. And taking more photos. I usually post Josh's little sayings and conversations to facebook so I'll have them "written down."

Josh is three now! He started a new "school" several months ago and while there was some transition time, he handled it really well and loves his teachers and classmates. He is even claiming to be in love with Ms Evie, his teacher. She's been so good to him and he has been spending his nap time just laying and staring at her. Silly boy. :) He has learned so much while there and comes home singing new songs and telling new stories. His speech has improved greatly. He never really had an issue there but has started saying his S's and L's and even some R's here and there! He sounds like a big kid now and I love the conversations we have. He is curious about everything (what toddler isn't) but sometimes he throws me off with the seriousness of a question. He's deep. It's weird. :) I've always called him an old man. He really does have grown up conversations sometimes. Little Grandpa!

I'm getting 2 nephews very soon...like weeks from now! Both of my brother's wives are expecting baby boys around the first of September. Our family is super excited about the boys and it's fantastic that they'll be so close in age. I know Robert, Kate, Matt & Megan are excited to finally see and hold Holton & Jackson but I just cannot wait. I cry just thinking about them finally being here. We're blessed to live within driving distance of each of my brothers but at times like these (and even not times like these) I wish we lived even closer.

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately. It's been fun and I've enjoyed it. I've made curtains, crib sheets and crib skirts for both nephews. It will be so cool to see their nurseries decorated with things I've made. I made a nursing cover for both Mamas-to-be and a reusable tote bag for the boys. I even added their names to the bags. :) I hope they'll get a lot of use. I made my first quilt! It's only about a yard long but Josh seems to like it. I'm in the process of cutting out pieces for my newest quilt project and only have about 50 or so left to cut. I need 256 total! I've also been asked to make a t-shirt quilt for a friend. I've gotten the layout done and it looks pretty neat. I have to find interfacing and backing next. I don't have much room in our tiny apartment to work on big projects (the t-shirt quilt takes up my entire living room floor) so that may be the most challenging part. I'm hoping to make real progress on it next week.

David is doing well. He is working hard, as usual and has started taking classes online. He has about 2 years of school left (with no breaks, bless him!). He's done so well at juggling work, school, church and our little family. I know all this hard work will pay off for him in the end. It will be a good thing for him to have a more specialized degree.

My Grandpa & Grandma Hand got an Ipad!!! They also joined Facebook!!! I'm so excited that they'll be able to see all of the photos and videos I post of Josh. We can even facetime with them so we can "see" each other more often.

My Granddaddy Hall is a published author! I can't wait to read his book. It's titled "The Joy of the Harvest" and is an autobiography and the story of his ministry. 

We had a fabulous family vacation a few weeks ago. My cousin and her new hubby were able to join us and my cousin who lives in NY came down and announced he and his wife were expecting this winter! Our family is growing by leaps and bounds these days. :)

Please be in prayer for us Whites over the next few weeks. Specifically next Tuesday afternoon. ;) We're keeping the details quiet for now but next week could bring some big changes for our family and we're cautiously optimistic.

Bevell's Hardware Train Display

I was blessed with having the week between Christmas and New Year's off of work and Josh and I spent the whole week between Great-grandparent's and Poppa & Grammy's. David got most of the week off, too so we had lots of family time. It was a good little vacation.

While we were visiting Poppa & Grammy's, they took Josh (and I tagged along) to the model train display at Bevell's Hardware in Blackstone, VA. It was amazing! I don't even know how many hours are spent setting up the display every year (yes! They take it down and put it back up the next year!!) Josh loved it! And the adults enjoyed it, too. Here are some photos and a video from our trip.

The drive-in display. There was really a movie playing!

Baseball game! Josh really liked this one.

Part of the military scene

The circus scene. This was one of my favorites (although he could have left the clowns in their boxes) :)

 The display is in a hardware store so after checking out the awesome train display, we looked around and found a bear! (Well, half of a bear). Josh really like the guns and ammo and asked what just about everything was. Luckily by this point I had passed him off to his Grammy and she had to answer all his questions. ;) I was just letting her enjoy his curiosity. No need to keep it all for myself. ha!

Request for Suggestions

A friend and I have been throwing around the idea of putting together a Bible study/small group for ourselves (and a few other friends) and need some help with deciding what "curriculum" to use (should we decide to use some). I thought that along with our own research, it would be nice to hear from other ladies who may have used certain books, etc in the past, either on their own or in their group, with suggestions on a few good options. One of you out there may know of something fabulous that we don't happen to run across on our own. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance. :)

Prayers

We've been letting Josh ask the blessing at dinner for a long while now. They say grace at school before Breakfast, Lunch and even snacks and say the standard "God is great, God is good…" prayer. It's easy for the kids to learn and teaches them to praise and thank in a prayer, which is important (in my opinion) ;) Josh will say the prayer but all he gets is "God geat, God geat, Amen." Several weeks ago I explained to Josh that when we pray we need to thank God for many things, not just our food and I know he is old enough now to say his own "real" prayers. It's been interesting for sure (it always is when he's around!) and we've gotten to hear some very authentic prayers. I haven't written all of them down (but am going to from now on) so here are some I remember and some I've written for remembering.

"Thank you for our families, for our friends, for our Jesus, our food. Amen"

"Thank you for my mommy, my daddy, my Will, my Jesus, my food. Amen" (Our friend, Will was over for dinner that night.)

"Thank you for my mommy, my daddy, my Jonathon and Sara, for Jesus, my food. Amen" (Jonathon and Sara are good friends of ours. We've become fast friends and Josh LOVES his "wiends"!!)

"Thank you for us families, for Mrs Tanya, MacKayla, Torrey Brown, Marquis, Anthony, our food. Amen." (He prayed this the first day back to school after a week long break for Christmas. Mrs Tanya is his teacher. Anthony is her husband, Marquis is her son (and Josh's favorite name, as he wants to name every new baby Marquis. MacKayla is the other child at his school and Torrey is a former classmate.)

"Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Gammy, Poppa, Gammy, Jesus, us food. Amen" (He prayed this while at Poppa and Grammy's house. Grammy was happy she got mentioned twice! ;) )

J's end of year interview

I took the idea from my friend, Jennifer, to interview J at the end of 2011 and record his answers to compare to next year and those after that. I wrote down exactly what he said and translated as needed. ;)

1) What is your name?: Josh David White (He always leaves off the "ua" in his first name)

2) When is your birthday?: Next year

3) What is your favorite color?: Brown

4) What is your favorite toy?: Opto Pime (Optomis Prime)

5) What is your favorite food?: Chicken

6) How do you like to spend your time?: Pay (Play)

7) What is your favorite Holiday?: Monkey

8) Who is your teacher?: Mrs Tanza (Mrs Tanya)

9) Who is your best friend?: MacKayla (She's the other child at his "school" and they really are good buddies)

10) What is your favorite song?: Baby Jesus (Away in a Manger; he has always requested this song at bedtime)

11) What is your favorite book?: Baby Jesus (The Nativity Story as read by Grammy on his recordable book from Hallmark)

12) What was your favorite part about last year?: Mines bike

13) What are you looking forward to for this year?: Mines shield (Uncle Matt painted a sword and shield for him for Christmas)

I enjoyed hearing his answers. It will be interesting to see how much his answers change over the years. He also kept asking me what I was doing. Why you ask me dat, Mommy?! :)

Chicken Pot Pie the way my Mama makes it.

This recipe is a family favorite from way back. In fact, I can remember Mama making TWO batches of this dish so there would be enough for the 5 of us. Once you start eating it, it's SO hard to stop! ;)

CHICKEN POT PIE

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breast or tenderloin

I use 4 or 5 tenders and 1 or 2 breasts depending on the size. Also, if you're in a hurry you can use 1 large can of shredded chicken.

2 cans mixed veggies

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth

I buy the big thing of broth and use the empty soup can to "measure".

1 stick butter

Paula Deen would be SO proud. ;)

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

In a small saucepan heat the soup and broth until warm and well blended.

While the soup mixture is "cooking", add the shredded chicken and veggies to a 9X13 baking dish.

This is when I put in a little salt & pepper.

Add the soup mixture to the baking dish.

Melt the butter in a mixing bowl, and add the flour and buttermilk.

Sometimes I use the piping hot saucepan to help melt the butter instead of microwaving it.

Stir mixture until well blended. The topping should be thick but easy to pour.

Pour evenly over veggies & chicken.

Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes.

You want to be sure the topping is done on the bottom so you may have to go a little longer.

Turn the broiler on for a few minutes at the end to brown the top. 

Serve and enjoy!

Disclaimer:::: This dish stays HOT for a LONG time. Be very careful when serving it! I always plate it before we're really ready to eat.

I hope your family likes this. Monster J loves it (mostly, he loves the topping...and who can blame him?!) but he does eat the veggies, too. ;)