We'll Miss You Grandpa

It's been a whole week and a half since my wife's Grandpa passed away. It happened on December 6th and his loved ones were all in the room with him when he went home. With how crazy it's been, it has been a pretty traumatic experience for all of us but we are going to make it through. It's going to be especially rough during the holidays because we'll miss him so much.

James Carlton Miller was one of the nicest persons I've ever known. He always told the corniest jokes and I was usually the only one laughing at them because I would have told the same joke myself. He loved to tell stories. He would take the opportunity to share with you what he thought about all kinds of subjects, including his Sooners and his faith. He was the kind of person that if He heard or saw that you (or even strangers) had a prayer need, He wouldn't let it go another minute before bringing the request to God. I just don't know hardly anyone else like that, even some of those in the ministry.

I was a lot closer to him than I was to both of my grandpa's. Maybe because when I had the chance to be close to my own, I was too immature to realize how precious the time with them would be. I wish now that I could have that time back. Even though I didn't know Kimi's Grandpa for years upon years, I truly enjoyed the time I was able to spend with him. I would sit and talk with him long after the family left the dinner table when we would come to visit. He always had something to talk about. He was a Godly influence on numerous lives and was extremely influential to his family. Papa truly lived his life by this quote: "Don't count the days but rather make the days count." He exhibited this, especially in the last few years.

We had his funeral a week ago today on the 11th at his church. It was a celebration of his life here and it's impact on the world. My brother-in-law Ben spoke from his heart about his Grandpa and did a great job. The main eulogy was done by Brad Kendall, the pastor of Grandpa's church. He did an incredible job, capturing Grandpa's impact on everyone's lives for so many years. From there we went on out to the cemetery in Jones. We were led by 2 police officers on motorcycles zooooming to the next intersection and yelling at people that wouldn't stop for the procession to go by. I enjoyed that probably a little too much b/c I kept laughing at the motorists' faces when the cops threatened them when they wouldn't stop. Anyway, the graveside service was short and sweet and honorable. Something that the pastor noticed when we got there was a tower just past the trees outside the cemetery. Apparently the mascot for Jones public schools is the "Longhorns". Isn't that ironic? A fanatic Sooner fan being buried in the land of the "Longhorns". So wrong...

I just want to say thank you to everyone who gave their thoughts and prayers to our family during this time. And for those who were able to visit Grandpa in the hospital, thank you for your support. I especially want to thank the Pastor for him being there through ALL of it... in the ER... the days in the hospital... the funeral. He was a constant positive presence and respectably offered up his advice when asked. He was a warrior in prayer for Grandpa and all of us. Thank you Pastor Kendall for following God's call and being a pillar of Godly strength for us during this time. I pray that God would bless you and your family for this kindness you have willingly bestowed upon our family. Thank you.

Christmas is in one week from today. It's going to be a madhouse running around Oklahoma and Texas trying to make it to all the family Christmas parties. I pray that God would keep you all safe as you travel. Cliche Alert: Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Please let Him impact your life this Christmas. Don't fight with your family but rather cherish them and the time you are allowed with them. Tell them (and SHOW them) you love them before you don't have a chance to.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Jason

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS

I am writing to ask for anyone that reads this to stop right now and pray for my wife's grandpa. His name is James Miller and he had a freak accident last night that unfortunately has left him in a coma with a grim outlook. We are asking God for a miracle and beseech you to do the same. If any of you want to offer a note of encouragement, you can make a comment on this blog and I will pass it along to Kimi's family. Thank you all and we'll keep you guys updated. God bless from The Miller Family and Ours.

Jason and Kimi

And She Slept Through The Night

Thank goodness, the day has finally arrived. Both Kimi and I slept a full 7 hours last night with Makenna's belly being full of rice cereal. When I awoke this morning, I thought I heard angels singing but I'm not sure. We started Makenna on cereal on Friday after we went to the baby doc for Makenna's 4 month check up. She now weighs in at 14.3lbs and has grown to 25 1/2 inches! For her weight she's in the 55th percentile but in height she's at 90th percentile! Still tall and skinny. :) I just wish she didn't have to get all those shots every time. It's so sad b/c she's in a great mood and then *WHAM*, she gets stuck with 5 needles! She's a trooper though. But that just started off the long weekend for her. As you can see from the pic, she isn't quite getting the idea of taking the cereal off the spoon and keeping it in her mouth. The first meal pretty much ended up on her shirt which was quite funny.

On Saturday, Kimi, Makenna and I with my Dad and Brenda went down to Lawton to see the leaves changing and to capture some really cool photos. My dad's never been down there before (and neither has Miss Mak either, at least outside the womb!) and we thought it would be a great experience. It was SO beautiful. There was the bluest sky I've seen in a long time, the air was crisp but perfect, and the trees were all hues of red, yellow, and orange. We drove up Mount Scott, climbed the trail to the Castle, and made our way through the 40 foot Hole canyon. It was so peaceful. Makenna had a great time there as well but boy did she get heavy while we were climbing up and down those trails! We each took turns but I still feel it in my back today!

Funny Story Numero Uno: Last week, Kimi, Denise and I went to the mall to see the movie "Facing The Giants". It's a christian flick with a great story line. (I might have come close to shedding a tear but I won't admit that in person.) Anyway, on the way out of the mall, we walked by a LensCrafters store and there was caution tape across the whole window. Kimi turned to us and said "Do you think they put up that tape to keep people from walking into the window?" We were like huh? Then I looked down and realized the floor was under construction. I mentioned that to Kimi and she said, "Oh I thought since people were there to buy glasses that they might not have been able to see the window as they were walking out..." Denise and I died laughing. I just kept picturing all the nose smudge marks on the window from the semi-blind soon-to-be surprised patrons colliding with the plate glass full force. Haha, that brings a smile to my face.

Funny Story Numbero Dos: Also last week, while I was at lunch, I called my wife while I was heading over to Target to take back some Halloween Candy (I overspent by about $30 dollars... oops). Kimi was telling me about this clean and hygienic little girl that she's working with right now that has a case of lice. Apparently lice is more attracted to the well-kept rather than the dirty haired but who knows. Anyway, right after Kimi had helped this girl, the teachers came up to Kimi and told her she might want to wash her hands b/c that little girl has lice! Kimi was like "Oh great!" So we started our discussion about lice just in case Kimi did get it in her hair. (She didn't by the way but its funny to watch her scratch b/c its in her head - not literally though... haha). As I was walking into the store, me, not knowing a lot about lice, said a little too loudly to Kimi, "So, is the only way to get rid of it is to shave it?" I was referring to her head but apparently those people around me didn't know that. Literally 7 people stopped and turned around and stared at me with disgusted looks on their faces. I didn't realize why they were staring at me at first but then I thought about what I said last and I cracked up laughing out loud. I was so embarrased but really there was no way to explain it at that point. I just made my way into the store quickly and got out of there. I can only imagine what they were thinking. Too funny...

Back to the updates. This past Sunday, Kimi and I, along with our family, went before the church and dedicated Makenna to the Lord. It was such a neat experience. Of course, Makenna was a perfect angel, taking the time to smile at her daddy and the preacher. She wore a pretty (dry clean only) dress picked out by her Great Grandpa Miller and only slobbered a little. :) The church gave us a story bible and a certificate, which was cool. As we were walking out, the pastor said that the vase at the pulpit was for us to take home and keep. I went to the front and all I saw was this HUGE BOUQUET of red carnations and thought wow, that's a lot of flowers but okay, that sure is nice of them... As I was walking out of the church, he came up to me and said, "WAIT, I didn't mean that vase! That is for the Veterans! I meant the one on the other side." I looked down there and sure enough, there was a small vase with one tiny flower in there. I was so embarrased, I almost walked out of the church with all those flowers. But the pastor was laughing with me (or more likely at me) and so was Kimi. All in all, the day was a great day.

I would like to ask all of you to pray for Kimi and I that we can uphold our promise to raise Makenna to know the Lord. We made a promise before God and His people and we realllly desire to become more steady and frequent in church. We would also appreciate some prayers for Kimi's Grandpa Miller (the one that picked out the dress for Makenna). He is having a procedure done tomorrow on his heart and we want to ask you all to pray that God would take care of him during this time. He's had a rough time with his health lately and we hope and pray that this procedure will help aleviate his pains. Thank you all so much for the prayers. It is invaluable to us.

Thanks for putting up with the long update. There are many more pictures from this past week on our Flickr site so check it out when you get a chance. I hope your week is an awesome one.

Until the Cows come home,

Jason

PS. I want to welcome the newest addition into our family. AUTUMN DONELLE GANDY Born 11-8-06 at 4:40pm, she is 6 lbs 1 oz and is 19 inches long. Welcome Autumn! I can't wait to meet you at Thanksgiving!

Where ya been Fox?

First off, I want to apologize for not updating this blog in over a month... A MONTH! There has been SO much that has happened and I just haven't found the time to sit down and write on here. The biggest reason though has to do with me being occupied building a website for a friend of mine that is starting up his photography business. My friend, Andrew Coloney, asked me in the beginning of October to build him a website, named PatriotPhoto.us, to help him establish his online presence. I've been working pretty much non-stop in my free time trying to get all the details just right for how he wants it. Whew! There are several general pages for his business but the crowning achievement was creating an online viewing section for his customers to view their photos from their event. I also made these galleries password protected so their pictures can only be viewed by them. The site should be operational in a week or so after the final touches are added. Good stuff if you ask me. :) Anyway, that's where I've been. Hopefully you all have had a chance to keep up to date with our pictures on Flickr in the mean time. Now, on to the updates!

Little Makenna just turned 4 months old this past Sunday! It's absolutely amazing how much she has grown in just these 4 short months. She's wanting to stand all the time now. Her neck control is almost complete. We see her baby doc in a week or so and after that she gets her first taste of something other than formula! She's decided to become good at drooling... haha ... and she's starting to want to chew on things too. Mostly she's interested in chewing on hers and my (clean and washed) fingers. She's clasping her hands all the time and bringing them to her mouth on a regular basis. And her eyes are still soaking up everything. Just check out the pic above. Her eyes are just captivating...

And as you all know, Tuesday was Halloween! And look who was the cutest pumpkin ever! This picture was taken by Nonnie (aka Grandma Brenda). If you head to our Flickr site you can see a lot more pictures. Being that it was Makenna's first Halloween, Kimi couldn't help herself and went out and got her 2 outfits and a sleeper. I'm totally serious! Little Miss Mak had her choice of being a Pumpkin or Tigger. So we dressed her as Tigger for the morning at Grandma's house and as a Pumpkin for Trick or Treatin' that night. We made a few stops at different houses in the neighborhood and also at Kimi's Grandma and Grandpa's house and at Dad and Brenda's (I mean Poppy and Nonnie's). We would have done more but it was SOOOOOO cold and we didn't want Makenna to get sick or to freeze to death. Besides, next year she'll be running ahead of us yelling "twik o tweet" and we'll be trying to catch up. :) We can't wait. When we visited my Dad's house, he had a wig that was left over from his costume from last year. I don't know what got into me but I threw on the mullet wig, put on the sleeveless flanel shirt and grabbed my Dad's guitar and set myself up for some embarrasing pictures! I even answered the door for him and told the kids to "rock on ya'll". What was I thinking again? Brenda and Kimi thought I looked like Billy Ray Cyrus... :)

Speaking of Kimi, well guess what? My lovely wife and I recently celebrated 3, THREEEEE, years of marriage. Not to make it sound like that's a long time or anything but well, three years went by realllly quickly. I guess its true then what happens to time when you are having fun. :) Haha To celebrate our anniversary, I took Kimi to a cute little Bed and Breakfast in Purcell called JMarie's B&B. It was very reasonabley priced (compared to others we've been to) and was very well accomidated. It was in a three story building that was built at the turn of the century. When we walked in, there was a long hallway dimly lit by chandeliers that led to a staircase that rose up and up. We looked at each other and thought, "Oh No, what did we get ourselves into...". We made our way up the creaking staircase past the 2nd floor where the old ballroom with hardwood floors and 20 foot high ceilings was in complete darkness... Wait, is that another set of stairs over there... yes, and theres a room at the top... So we trekked another flight upward and saw... one of the most beautifully decorated rooms we've ever seen. The room was made to look like a New York City loft apartment complete with a faux brick wall, hard wood floors, a jacuzzi tub, and more. Quite the delightful surprise from our earlier impression. We would recommend this charming little place to anyone, and for the price, you can't beat it. Stop by her website and check it out yourself. They've been in business for less than a year so it's not perfect yet but the breakfast the next morning was to die for, just ask Kimi. :)


The other part of our anniversary gifts included going to Texas for a clothing shopping spree for Kimi to get some new outfits and Kimi to surprise me with purchasing a guitar for me. As you saw from the pictures above, I'm extremely good at playing guitar... yeah, right. But we got a great deal on a Fender Accoustic and I'm going to start learning how to play so I can lull Makenna to sleep at night while she's growing up. It's a good plan. If only I could figure out how to tune it... Anyway, while we were in Texas, we were blessed to be able to meet the newest addition to the Fox family in Caden William Fox. He was 3 weeks old at the time this picture was taken and he was very alert and well behaved. :) Look how huge Makenna is compared to him. Brent and Elizabeth (Cadens parents) were shocked at how fast she's grown and were saddened at the same time b/c little Caden would be growing up that fast too. We shared our vast wisdom of parenting with them (it took about 2 minutes) and scheduled a play date for the Fort Worth Zoo in the spring.. lots of fun!

The last thing I got Kimi for our anniversary was tickets to see the Audio Adrenaline and Mercy Me concert. It was Audio Adrenaline's Farewell Tour and they are Kimi's favorite band of all time. We also invited my Mom and Scotty b/c Mercy Me is my mom's favorite band of all time. (When I bought tickets, I was thinking two birds, one stone...)Audio Adrenaline has been around since the early 90's and one of their biggest songs (and kinda annoying after so many years of hearing it) was "Big House" that if you sang it, it was requisite that you do the hand motions too. So there was Kimi at the concert singing at the top of her lungs doing the motions to Big House with no remorse. It was great! And of course, my mom cried when Mercy Me was singing. It was a great concert and well worth the money of going. Adios Audio Adrenaline... We will miss you...

I hope you all enjoyed the update (finally!). Did anyone have any cool Halloween stories they wanted to share? :) I know there has to be some good ones so don't be shy!

Miss Mak is 3 Months Old!

Yesterday, Makenna had her 3 month birthday. She's growing up so quickly, it's amazing. She smiles at us all the time now, as you can see from the picture. Her eyes light up when she sees Kimi or I and recognizes us. Some days when things get rough at work, all I have to do is think back to that morning when little Miss Mak smiled at me... and my problem doesn't really matter anymore. Lately we've been practicing with Makenna to hold her head up steady, though we aren't there yet. Believe it or not, she's even keeping her legs straight and putting weight on them when we hold her up. I bet Kimi the other day that she's going to be walking by the time she's 10 months old! But I may be getting a little ahead of the "schedule". :) We took this video last night of Makenna. She had been laying there quietly and I came over to see if I could get her to mimic me. Watch the video when you get a chance. It's about a minute and a half long so enjoy!

Now after you enjoyed that video so much (haha), I've got some good news. My cousin Brent and his wife Elizabeth had their son, CADEN WILLIAM FOX, this past week! He was born on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 5:43pm. He weighed in at a healthy 8.6 lbs, and 21.5 inches. Both mom and baby are doing great! Brent sent me some pictures and they look so happy and proud of their new son. His eyes are wide open already! That's one of the coolest things in the world, the first time your baby looks at you. Good times. :) Kimi and I are going to be down in Texas in a few weeks and that is just too long until we get to meet Caden. I'm so proud and so very happy for you guys. Congratulations on your handsome son!

Last Saturday, one week after the Oregan-OU debacle, I was given tickets to the Middle Tennessee State University vs OU game and decided to ask my dad to go with me. He's never been to a college or NFL game before so I thought this would be a good game to cut his teeth on. And it was SUCH a good game. Yeah, it was a complete blowout but sometimes those are so exciting and enough to restore your faith in your team after a sad loss. Poor MTSU, OU took out their anger on them. And my dad loved every minute of it! Before the game Kimi and I and Makenna got all dressed up in our Sooner shirts and Cargo pants and snapped a few quick pics. Makennas cargos are a little too big but she was a doll nonetheless.

Funny Story Of The Week: I was driving to work the other day at 6 am in the morning. Its dark outside, the sun was just starting to come up. There is construction near the entrance where I take so I had to drive the back roads to another entrance. I'm heading down the hill and all of the sudden this raccoon runs across the road. There was a car coming on the opposite lane so I had to just keep on driving. WHAM! I felt a twinge of guilt but there was nothing I could do. Odd occurance, but it happens. What doesn't happen all the time is what happened the next day. I was driving to work on the highway in the dark again, about to take the off ramp, when out of the corner of my eye, I sense something moving. I look left just in time to see ANOTHER RACCOON dodging traffic and sprinting for my suv. WHAM! Two suicidal raccoons in two days. Geez! If this keeps up, I'm going to start making notches on my bumper next to a little raccoon picture just so I can keep track! Some day I might share another CRAZY raccoon story that happened on a camping trip a few years ago. It's hilarious!

I'm sorry it took so long for me to write. Hopefully I can keep up with this. I'll make sure I add pictures often so you can at least keep up with Makenna. Speaking of Makenna, on the right side of the page I added a new popup link with the latest Makenna video slideshow. Just click on the link and push play. :) Hope you enjoy!

Until the cows come home,
Jason

Day of Reflection

Today marks the 5 year anniversary since the attacks on the US happened on that plain and normal morning of Sept 11th. I was at my dad's house sleeping in bed after staying up all night. I was between jobs, having just finished working at the Christian bookstore and as the Youth Minister at my old church. My best friend, BJ, called me and said "Jay, you've got to get up and turn on the tv! There's been something terrible that's happened!" With it being 5 years ago, I don't remember our exact conversation after that because of the sheer shock at seeing the first tower in flames. When the 2nd plane hit, I broke into tears of anger and sorrow. I didn't know what was happening, who was attacking us, where the next attack would happen at... then my heart sank when the first tower collapsed and I witnessed thousands of people lose their lives. The TV was saying there was up to 50,000 people in each of those towers, though we now know there weren't nearly that many. After the 2nd tower fell, it just broke my heart and I was furious and full of despair... all I could do was pray and keep watching. Kimi and I recently saw "Flight 93" on dvd. I would recommend it as a good movie to watch. Its long in some parts but the end leaves your heart in the pit of your stomach holding your breath. I guess I want to say that if I were in a situation like that, I would hope I would have the courage to do what they did to make sure the bad guys didn't succeed, even if it meant my own life was to be lost.

With it being such a somber day, it's hard to talk about anything else but we've got some news about Makenna! :) Our little daughter, at just over 10 weeks old, now weighs 11.2 lbs and is in the 60th percentile for her weight. She is also now 23 inches long which puts her at the 90th percentile for her height! Translation: She's tall and skinny! Haha! We went to the baby doc for Makenna's 2 month check up in hopes that we would find out that we can give her cereal now to help her sleep longer but alas, the advice given was that we wait until she's 4 months old so she doesn't develop allergies. :( So sad... Anyway, she had to get 5 shots in her legs and it was just terrible holding her down while she was screaming at the pain! She did good though right afterward until the evening time when her little legs got so sore and she couldn't fall asleep b/c they hurt. She eventually tuckered out from crying and slept for most of the night (a good side effect!). All in all, she's doing great and the doc confirmed that Kimi and I are still fit for parenthood!

Quick funny story: The night shifts for feeding times are terrible on getting a good nights sleep. By Friday, Kimi and I are basically zombies. A lot of times, we find we're holding Makenna in the rocking chair and we'll start to fall asleep and catch ourselves before we actually do. Last week, I was so tired I brought Makenna into our bed and put her on the "Magic Pillow" and was holding her bottle for her. Well, Makenna and I both fell asleep almost right away and I started to dream. I thought our dog, Sadie, was in my arms instead and was licking my arm pits! Sadie can't hold her licker in (ie: she's always licking something!) and I thought she was licking me now! It tickled and it made me mad that she would interrupt my sleep! I woke up with an angry start... and realized that it wasn't Sadie but instead it was Makenna's bottle in my hand dripping and running down my arm pit! I laughed out loud at myself because it was so funny. Oh the joys of being a parent. You sometimes feel like you are loosing your mind! ;)

Kimi's birthday was this past week on the 7th. You'd be proud of me if you were there that morning. The night before I volunteered to take the entire night shift by myself so she could get a good night of solid sleep. During the night, I hid 4 birthday cards throughout Kimi's morning routine so she would find them as she was getting ready for work. One card was from Makenna and was in the car seat. Another was by the coffee pot along with a brand new "spill proof" PINK coffee cup. :) Another was waiting for her in her car right as she was about to head off to work. And finally the last was hidden inside her new laptop for her to find when she got to work. Oh yeah, major brownie points! I even got a gold star for my efforts! Haha. That night we went out to eat a very nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Good stuff. Kimi's big presents were getting pretty pictures made with Makenna (as you can see above), lots of clothes shopping and a new special Tourmaline hair dryer (supposed to be as nice as the ones used by Hollywood hairstylists!). And LOTS OF CHOCOLATE, a must according to Kimi.

Kimi, I hope your birthday
was a special day for you!

To end this days post, I'd like to give a hand to OU for a great 2nd half on Saturday against Washington. They were clicking on all cylindars and more than made up for the previous 6 quarters of poor play spanning one and a half games. They made me proud! I got the picture above from Kimi's grandparents this past weekend. Their next door neighbor has hired a few OU players for his business and decided to have a celebration party after OU's first win. They called up Kimi's Grandma and Grandpa to come over to meet Rufus Alexander (WLB on defense for the Sooners). Kimi's grandparents are huge OU fans, having had season tickets longer than I have been alive, and this was a great experience for them. I just hope OU keeps getting better and better this year. :)

I hope this week is a great one for you all.

Jason

Look Who's Two Months Old

Our dear Makenna turned 2 months old on Tuesday! There has been so much that has happened over the last two months, it's just amazing how fast time has gone by. For example, over the last week she's was able to have a little more control over her smile. Just this morning, when we were getting her up to get ready to go, she was slow to wake up. No biggie, we had plenty of time. I held her in my arms for a bit and softly said her name a few times. She stretttcchhed and ever so slowly opened her beautiful blue eyes and looked at me... and gave me a great big open mouthed smile, as if to say, "Goodmorning to you too daddy!" And of course my heart melted. :) It seems she's amazing us daily with something new. Kimi and I wonder how such a precious and pure person could come from us... and our answer is that she's a miracle.

We love her so much. We are trying to catch all of her special moments and cherish every minute of them. Like last night, she was SO sweet. While Kimi had to do some work from home, Makenna and I had some time to ourselves. Earlier in the evening she had been pretty fussy from being so tired (lately she has been fighting her sleep so bad b/c she doesn't want to miss anything!). So I picked her up, laid on the couch and let her fall asleep on her daddy's chest. She was out like a light! She slept that way for two whole hours before getting hungry again! It was so precious. I could feel her warm little milk-breath on my face as she drooled all over my chest. Ha! It was great! Those are the moments that I treasure. There's a country song by Brad Paisley that is called "Little Moments"... it describes pretty much what I feel about my family sometimes. It's the little moments in life that steal my heart over and over again. That was one of them.

Another big thing happened this week. Since Kimi's mom and dad weren't able to make it up this week to watch Makenna, we were scrambling to find someone to watch her or else we had to start taking her to daycare a week earlier than we thought. Just when we thought we had run out of options, my mom suggested we call up my Grandma Gandy and see if she would be able to watch Makenna this week, to try it out, and if she were able to handle it, to possibly take it on permanently. My Grandma used to watch all of us cousins when we were growing up and is currently watching my cousin Hadley so she's pretty qualified for the job. My Grandma said she would give it a try this week and see how she can handle having two girls under 1 vying for her attention. It's not a done deal yet b/c the week isn't up but Makenna seems to be loving it over there and from what we can tell, My Grandma is doing just fine with the two girls. Cross your fingers and pray everything works out because we would much rather Makenna be watched by a family member who would love her and give her personal attention than send her to a daycare where her needs would have to wait in line.

WISH-WE-COULD'VE-BEEN-THERE-NOTE-OF-THE-WEEK: Our great friends, BJ & Wendy, were able to go to Oahu, Hawaii this past week! Wendy and BJ have been through SOOOOO much this year, it'd take days to list all the crazy changes that have happened to them. I am so glad they were able to get away and go to the beautiful island of Oahu. When you get a chance, make your way over to their site and read their latest blog about their trip. One cool side note: BJ and I are involved in a long running fantasy football league that drafted the Saturday night BJ was on vacation. BJ is so dedicated, he somehow found a computer over there and made the draft from Hawaii... and then went back out to Waikiki Beach afterward! Love the dedication bro!

To end this post, I'd like to show you an assortment of videos Kimi and I took last year when we went to Oahu as well. The videos should loop so I hope you enjoy! God bless!

Jason

Kimi's New Job

I'll let you guys know up front I'm going to jump around topics today so bear with me. :)

This past Monday, Kimi started her new job as a Speech & Language Pathologist at a school 35 minutes away from our home. It's SUCH a long drive out there but luckily she gets paid for mileage, which helps. It's been an interesting week so far for her, some of it pretty rough. She met her new boss on Monday and thus began the whirlwind of action that hasn't stopped for her. On Monday the air conditioner didn't come on until the end of the day. That left the building in scorching heat that Kimi had to work in for 6 hours, rearranging furniture, sorting through notes on each student, doing inventory on the entire supplies of the SLP dept. She got to leave a little early that day b/c of the heat but we turned around and drove back that night to work for a couple more hours after the building had cooled off. Very long day for her (and me too). But the rest of her week has been steadily getting better and well, today is Friday and she should be leaving at noon which is nice. Just keep her in your prayers as she keeps her stamina up. She starts hearing screenings next week on a hundred kids so it could be another stressful week.

How about a lighter note? And yes, I know this technically is in the past and we should move on because Kimi had our baby already but I've got to share how funny my wife was while she was pregnant. She had major pregnancy brain, which means she had a hard time getting the right words out and sometimes forgetting obvious things. Two scenarios: 1st, one time we were at Walmart getting groceries when Kimi yelled to me across the store not to forget the "hotdog patties". One of the walmart employees looked at me inquizically and I said, "She meant hamburger patties. She's got pregnant brain." The walmart employee just laughed and walked away. 2nd, one night we were watching TV when she heard the answer to a Wheel of Fortune question and said, "Where is Publa City at?" I look up at the TV and said, "No sweetheart, that's not a place, its a word...publicity." I couldn't stop laughing for the longest time. We really had such a fun time with Kimi during her pregnancy but she was a good sport about all of it too. :)

My beautiful daughter is showing her Sooner Pride by sporting her newest OU outfit! I just had to slip this in here. :)

Yesterday was nice for us, we got to see my Aunt Kay and her husband Ricky with his two girls, my Grandma Fox and my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Paul, along with my brother, dad and Brenda for some good grilled food. Kimi and I weren't expecting so many of our family members to be there but it was truly nice. We haven't seen my Aunt Kay and Ricky for at least a couple of years because they live in VEGAS (CSI TOWN). There has been so much that has been going on with them, it's so sad that we can't be around them more. Aunt Kay called up my cousins Sam and Brittany and handed over the phone to me. After talking to them for a while, they both sure seem so grown up now... which reflects on how much older I am now but that's another story. SAM AND BRITTANY, if you are reading this, send me an email sometime WITH PICTURES!

My last subject for today has to do with something amazing yet disgusting. You've got to hear the story first. Kimi got into a cleaning frenzy last weekend and when she got to the vacuuming portion, the vacuum cleaner flat out broke. Wouldn't suck anything up anymore. We had only had this for 3 years and now it had broken. It never really worked great anyway. But to continue, we needed a new vacuum cleaner. We had heard a lot of good things about a Dyson. You know, that british guy on TV who always does the Dyson vacuum cleaner commercials claiming it's the best and never looses suction and he thinks things should work properly and blah blah blah? Yeah, that guy. Anyway, we did a lot of searching on the net for info on Dyson's and there was a lot of people who reviewed and said it was great, best they'd ever had. So we were about to go out and spend almost $600 on "the world's best vacuum cleaner" when we ran into Kimi's mom and she suggested we check out the consumer reports website. We were like Okay. So I signed up for their online report and clicked my way to their "unbiased opinion but we'll accept advertising in our magazine from the product companies" reviews of about 25 different vacuum cleaners. They had the Dyson's listed about 2/3rds the way down the list, which was very surprising. At the top, they had the Kenmore (Sears) vacuum cleaners, both the bagged and bagless versions as #1 and #2 respectively. Very interesting indeed.

So Kimi and I went for a visit to the nearest Sears to check out these Kenmore's and to put them to the test. When we got there, they looked just like any of the others but had a few more gadgets than the rest. They also had the Dyson's we were looking at so I decided to have a small competition. Go figure. The sales guy didn't know a thing about vacuum cleaners and was from a different dept so it was up to me to run the show. They had a dust bin full of dirt and fibers and pieces of shredded carpet to "test" out the units. I dumped the whole bin on the floor of the store and ground it in with my foot! The guys eyes went wide-eyed and he rushed over to grab the Dyson and started running it across the carpet over and over and over again. He got the big pieces up but there was still a lot of the little stuff left that it couldn't pick up and he was beginning to panic. I said, well let's try the Kenmore one. So we grabbed the Kenmore and literally it grabbed all of it up in one swipe. I was amazed, sold, put it in the car honey and let's go. Just incredible. My little show even sold the sales guy on getting the Kenmore too! Haha. Anyway, when I got home, I put it together and started it up as a test down our hallway. Now let me tell you, our last vacuum cleaner prior to frying would only get about an inch worth of dirt/doghair up after cleaning the whole house. We thought things were clean. Boy were we wrong! After just a few rows down the hallway, well, just look at the picture above. LOOOOK! Look how much dirt and doghair it got up! FROM JUST THE HALLWAY! WOW! I'm going to wait until this weekend to do the rest of the house but I'm afraid I'll have to empty the canister 10 times! So gross. We just thought our floors were clean... Anyway, we made the right choice by buying this vacuum cleaner and it was only $300, half the price of the Dyson! :)

Now that I've literally written a ton about not much at all, I'll go ahead and end this post. I did want to leave you guys with a cool thing I just put up on the site. On the right side of the page, you'll see a link that says "View Our Photo Slideshow?". If you click on that, it will pop open a window and start playing a slideshow of the most recent pictures from our Flickr photo page! Try it out, it's awesome!

Until the Cows come home!

Jason

Add Another Candle

It's that time of year again, where I gain another number onto the years of my life, where my cake becomes a bigger fire hazard by adding on another candle and the fire dept makes their annual visit to keep the whole neighborhood from burning down! You know, I've always had a hard time eating my birthday cake. Just last year I went to the doctor's office with a birthday cake problem. "Doctor, I get heartburn every time I eat birthday cake." He simply said, "Next time, take off the candles." Makes sense I guess... Anyway, I was talking to my wife yesterday about my upcoming birthday and she said "I'm giving a 'surprised' birthday party for you." I was like, "A 'surprised' birthday party? What's that?" She replied, "That's where I invite a bunch of your friends, and if any of them come, I'll be surprised!" Oh man, isn't that just mean? Haha I knew she was totally kidding because I don't have any friends. Okay, sorry, I'm kidding about that too. But at least I'll remember to take off the candles this year!

All kidding aside, this birthday got here before I even realized it was coming. Kimi kept asking me what I wanted to do and I really had no ideas. So Saturday night we went to visit my Mom and Scotty for a while. We decided to go out for a little "Birthday Dinner" at Outback Steakhouse for a big ol' steak dinner. They let me get a 9oz center-cut filet which was soooo good. We decided we'd let Makenna spend the night at my mom's house (first night away from us since she was born!) so Kimi and I could go back home and head straight to bed to get some rest. Sleep was needed so bad that we slept for 10 hours; almost half the day! When we woke up, both of our backs were hurting and it took me a minute to realize why. We were both SO tired that we didn't even move during the night and our backs were stiff in the morning! Haha

We got up, went to eat breakfast/lunch at Abuelo's Mexican Restaraunt (YUM, Chicken Chimichanga with Queso sauce and mexican mashed potatoes!) and afterward went to see the movie "Cars". Very good movie, better than I expected. Right after the movie, I took Kimi to a dayspa so she could get her feet massaged and toenails painted nice and pretty. Easy on the wallet for such a joyful experience for her. We rushed off to Ann Taylor LOFT before they closed and was able to get Kimi two shirts and a pair of lined pants for about $50 (saved almost $100 with the sale!) right at closing time. She looks so good in her new clothes and I know she loves Ann Taylor because they look classy. Good stuff. :) Afterward, we grabbed Makenna, thanked my mom for watching her, and headed home to wrap up the wonderful weekend.

And when I woke up this morning, I received a card from my dear sweet Makenna before I left for work telling me what a wonderful daddy I am and wishing me a happy birthday. She's such a good daughter, isn't she? :) And when I did get to work, my office was decorated in birthday signs and one big balloon. How nice. And tonight, to wrap it all up (as far as I know, that 'surprised' birthday party thing Kimi was talking about isn't going to happen...), we're having a steak dinner at my dad's house! Man, I love steak on the grill. It's turning out to be a great birthday, even if I didn't realize it was happening so quickly. :)

Quick past birthday memory: I've been lucky to have had some great birthday's in the past. I've visited the White House in Washington DC, DisnyWorld in Orlando, and tanned on the beaches of Cancun. And just last year I was able to go to Hawaii with Kimi's family and it was such a blast! But this year, Makenna takes the prize for the best birthday present I've ever gotten. I know she came a little early but I couldn't have imagined anything better.

The last thing I want to share with you guys today is that Kimi and I are now going to be putting up videos on our YouTube.com account. Look to the right and click on the link "View Our Videos" to see what we have available publicly. I'll add some more but the ones of Makenna I am going to reserve to just showing on our blog here. As an example, I am including a video of the first time we had "Tummy Time" with Makenna to see if she could lift her head yet. You'll just have to watch the video to see!

We're so proud of Makenna! Hope you enjoyed the video!

God bless!
Jason

P.S. If you all want to, share with me what your favorite birthday was. Any absolutely crazy or hilarious stories? Please share! :)

One Month Old

Just to show you an example of how quickly time sails on by in life, Makenna is already over one month old! Pretty amazing. She's growing heavier by the day too. She's up to minimum 4 ounces of food every meal, which sometimes goes only 2 hours between feedings! I honestly don't know where she's putting it at because her little stomach can't be hardly that big. But I know she is gaining weight because we've come up with a way to guestimate how much she weighs. She's too little to even register on our scale at home. What I've been doing is jumping on the scale and seeing my weight. Then I will pick her up and step back on the scale and subtract the difference. Last time I weighed her, she was 7.5 lbs which, though it isn't exact, lets us reasonably ascertain how much she is gaining each week. It'd be more accurate if we could get hold of a gram weight scale but this'll do just fine for our conscience... until we hear otherwise. :)

So in celebration of Makenna's 1 month birthday (and the fact that I had the weekend off work!), we made our way down to Texas for some well needed R&R. We hit the pool for some temporary relief to the scorching Texas sun and 100+ degree temps that have been pounding us for weeks now. We invited my cousin Brent and his wife Elizabeth over for dinner on Saturday night. My mother-in-law Sherry cooked up spaghetti and italian sausage with a huge bowl of caesar salad and buttered texas toast. She made a frozen strawberry pie for desert too. Mmmm, good stuff. We all sat around the table laughing and telling stories and catching up on what's been going on. My cousin's baby boy is due on October 1st and his name is going to be Caden William (I always want to call him Caedmon after my favorite band). The most recent pics had him weighing around 3 1/2lbs so he's growing quickly too! If you get a moment, please lift them up in prayer because they are about to go through an incredibly miraculous and yet unnervingly stressful time when Caden is born. I hope their delivery will be a smooth process with no complications. I'll keep you guys updated as I find out more info.

This past Tuesday was Makenna's original due date. She was 5 weeks early but she's doing better than I could have imagined. So in theory, Makenna would have been between 7 and 8lbs if she had been full term. We held her up to Kimi's belly and she's so long, we couldn't understand how she could have fit inside of her being any bigger than she was already! And to think, I was 9lbs 4ozs when I was born! My poor mom... Kimi was just over 3lbs when she was born but us Fox kids grow big inside (and outside apparently) the womb. Our next kid will probably be a C-section if he or she is any bigger than Makenna was. My poor wife...

Speaking of my poor wife, we have a prayer request for her. She is still having a lot of pain and complications from giving birth and it's been 5 weeks already. She saw the girl doc yesterday and they said she would probably take another few weeks to heal properly. She compared the pain to having a thousand papercuts opening up every time you move. Yeah, Ouch. On another front, her Grandpa Miller went to the hospital very early this morning with chest pains but started feeling better right after he got there. They are monitoring him for the rest of today to make sure everything goes alright. But please say a prayer for him as well for his health to resume. We know God works miracles and that He is always making plans to prosper us and not to harm us. If you get time today or this weekend, please pray in faith for all these requests. Thank you all so much and I hope your week is an awesome one!

God bless,
Jason

ESP... Eat, Sleep & Poop

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written a post here. I've been off work now for 3 weeks and yesterday was my first day back. It's amazing how fast those three weeks went by. It literally feels like Makenna was just born yesterday and yet this Saturday she will be 1 MONTH OLD already! Oh my goodness, time has flown by! And now I have to go back to work. I already feel like I'm missing out on her growing up just by not seeing her most of the day. I'm just blessed to be able to have spent so much time with her right after she was born. As you can see from all the pictures we've added to our flickr site, she's growing up more and more every day. Just look at those facial expressions! It seems like every time we grab the camera she's posing for us! Someone at work tells me that she probably has gas when she makes these faces but I choose to believe she's just developing her sense of humor early on. :) We'll keep trying to add new pictures to our flickr site as get them so check back often.

On July 15th, my Grandma Fox drove over an hour to come meet her great granddaughter for the first time. I haven't seen my grandma since Christmas, I believe, which has been WAY too long. We met up at my dad's house who cooked up some mean hamburgers on the grill. It is always a treat to be around my grandma because she's always so positive and such a wonderful person. She just loved the time she was there with Makenna. Just yesterday she emailed me and told me that she showed Makenna's pictures off to her sunday school class and they were all "ooohing" and "ahhhing". Made her proud. This Christmas is going to be a great one. My cousin and his wife, who live in Texas, are due to have their first child in October this year. So, as you can imagine, my grandma can't wait to have 2 little ones stealing the show this year.

The following week, on July 20th, my best friend BJ and his wife Wendy, along with my God-daughter Lilyanah, came to Okiehoma to visit friends and family. What a complete blessing it was to spend two whole evenings with them during their 4 day stay here! On Thursday night, Kimi and I opened up our house (and refrigerator to BJ... J/K!) and welcomed their company! It was so relaxing just being around them. We've been waiting for this for months so it was nice to finally have the day come! I had been marinating steaks for 24 hours prior to their arrival and had BJ help me cook them up. I also made some barbeque chicken for Kimi and Wendy as well. Topped off with fresh corn and bacon-ranch alfredo noodles (yum) and big glasses of sweet tea, it was delicious! Afterward, we put on some soothing music and just talked the rest of the night. The girls went to bed early and BJ and I stayed up talking until almost 3am! We had a lot to catch up on. It's not fair that they live so far away though, if God answers both of our prayers, they may be coming back to Okiehoma within 2 years. Now THAT would be good times! One of the best things from this trip was that Makenna got to meet Lilyanah! Though we didn't get any upclose pictures of the two (they were always sleeping!), we were able to shoot the one above that you see. I love where life has taken BJ and I since we first met in high school. We have so many great memories together. I just hope that we are able to someday be within driving distance again so we can make some more memories together, now especially with our kids being practically the same age!

On Sunday night, BJ, Wendy, Lily, and Wendy's parents came by to visit us one last time before they had to go home the next day. That night though was the live draft in the fantasy football league we are in and fortunately for BJ, I had an extra computer so he could participate! It was a blast! I think I drafted the best team but we'll see. Afterward, I showed BJ the tickets that I just bought for the Dallas Cowboys VS Indianapolis Colts game in November. Though he can't go with me, I know he will be with me in spirt, or at least watching me on TV as I cheer rabidly for the Colts! WOOO! If you click the picture you can see the big version of the view we will have from the section we got seats in. Oh so much fun! I can't wait!

That pretty much sums up the big events of the past two weeks. The last thing I want to share with you guys shows you proof that I'm a dork... but sometimes it pays off. I was dropping off two movies the other night and it was getting close to midnight which was the cutoff before being late. So I took out my camera phone and snapped a shot of the videos along with the movie store clock and dropped them off. About two weeks later, when I went into rent more videos, they said that I had two late fees for returning the movies after the cutoff time. I was mad at first because I knew I had returned them on time but I was fuzzy on the details. Then I laughed out loud when I remembered that I had the picture on my phone! I took out my phone, pulled up the picture and showed it to the clerk who promptly removed my late fees because there was no denying the proof! SO, lesson learned? It saved me $6 in late fees b/c I had the presence of mind to snap a quick picture before I returned the movies. I just thought you all would think this was pretty funny. And yes, I am still a big goob.

I hope you all have a great week!
Jason