And she's off!

Emily is officially mobile... scooting and semi-crawling her way around our home. She is adorable and just the sweetest baby. By far the most easy going baby of mine. She is just happy and if she is ever fussy she is either hungry or tired. She loves to suck her thumb and I think it is just the cutest thing. Her brother and sister adore her. We are so blessed and I am forever thankful for the children the Lord has given us.

Sophia

Sophia has recently become obsessed with clothes... all types... seems to be a common theme with my children. She loves to change clothes multiple times during the day.. in and out of pj's, regular clothes and shoes. She adores the new jammies her Nana purchased for her a few weeks ago. She wears them practically every night and even changes into them for nap time. Are they always freshly laundered? Well, maybe not. But Sophia doesn't care and they make her happy so I oblige. No, I don't give into her all of the time... actually, the majority of the time I do not despite how hard it is to tell this angelic cutie patootie no. I mean, really, could you easily tell her no?

Clermont-Ferrand Real Estate

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself so I am getting a little bit ahead of myself and researching living arrangements in Clermont-Ferrand. Maybe you can help me out. How does one fit all of the rooms described in this ad into a mere 820 square feet? And to think I thought 1500 sq ft was a small living space with 3 children. Please excuse the crude translation from French to English.. compliments of google translate since Jennifer translate isn't up to speed on her French... yet!

Oh just for fun.. here is the French version.. because it just looks cool to have French on your blog (or maybe just to me):

Au 27 rue Blatin en plein centre ville à Clermont-Ferrand, appartement F4 de 80m2 se situant au 2ème étage et se composant d'un hall, d'une cuisine équipée, d'un séjour, de 3 chambres, d'une salle de bains et de w.c. Très bel appartement, lumineux.

Et en anglais:

At 27 rue Blatin in the city centre in Clermont-Ferrand, F4 apartment of 80m2 located at the 2nd floor and consisting of a hall, a kitchen, a living room, 3 bedrooms, a hall baths and toilets Very nice apartment, bright.

It appears maybe my goal of this trip bringing us closer together as a family will occur literally as well!

Joshua Bryant

Four years ago today was the due date for my first child - Joshua Bryant Page. He actually greeted us on July 21st 2004. My OB gave us the option to induce one day early and I gladly took him up on the offer... summers in SC are not conducive to being 9 months pregnant. Excited and nervous, Freddie and I drove to St Francis hospital the morning of the 21st with no idea what to expect. The emotions before the birth of any child - and especially the first - are so difficult for me to explain. You are giddy with excitement yet nervous and maybe a little scared of the unknown. We check in to the hospital and are taken to our private birthing room. Hospital gown on, iv inserted, pitocin drip started and the induction had officially begun around 8am. The nurses asked me if I wanted the epidural now or later and I figured I will wait as long as possible.. maybe I won't even need one of those epidurals. Then, the contractions start. What a strange sensation! I remember thinking "Oh, so THIS is what a contraction feels like!". In the last month or so of pregnancy you are so in tune to your body trying to figure out if that cramp is a contraction or this twinge is your water breaking. No one can really explain to you what a contraction really feels like until you have had one. As a first time Mom, you are convinced births begin like they do on TV... with a gush and a loud "Uh Oh!" in the middle of Walmart. I wanted to avoid that at all cost. Nevertheless, I had no false alarms and we ended up being induced. With pitocin you find out what real contractions feel like really quickly. So, around 10am, I quickly found the call button and paged the nurse to please locate the anesthesiologist NOW! Praise the Lord for epidurals! In theory, epidurals will slow your labor down. Freddie and I thought that we had hours to waste so we popped in Tin Cup into our DVD player and settled in for a little movie time. Immediately I felt a wave of nausea and faintness and paged the nurse again around 10:30am. She glanced at the monitors and my blood pressure dropped really low so she decided to check to see how far I was dilated. With a look of shock, she announces I am 10cm and the dr needs to get here now. Immediately droves of people start filing into the room. The bed is taken apart. Again that frightened yet excited feeling. I had no idea what to expect. What was it going to feel like bringing another life into this world? After three pushes Joshua Bryant Page was born on July 21st 2004 at 11:22am. It was an awesome feeling! Both physically (thank you epidural man) and emotionally. It was such a surreal feeling to see this person who you don't really know, yet are so intrinsically attached and in love with. I had no idea that day how much I would grow to love and adore this person. I had no idea what it would feel like to have a little piece of my heart walking around outside of my body. Thank you Jesus for Joshua.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.

Operation France - Step One

This was our first adventure! Off to CVS we went this afternoon to get our passport photos. Without the passports, we can't complete any other documentation required for our expatriation. I thought surely I can handle this by myself with the three kids. Everyone is all cutesy - hair combed, bow in, clean and non-play clothes on, faces washed, teeth brushed (ok, maybe I missed that one... you can't smile in a passport photo so it didn't matter anyways).

You can't smile but evidently it is perfectly acceptable to frown! My little Sophia was miserable. It may have had something to do with the fact that they are totally ill-prepared for children getting passport photos taken which resulted in it taking about 30 minutes longer than expected. Surely we aren't the first family with members under 4' needing their passport photos... nevertheless, the bottom of the white backdrop hung around 3.5 feet from the ground. So, the nice man at CVS had to find a chair for my kiddos to stand on. First one, too short for Joshua. Second one worked nicely. Josh jumps in chair like a pro... stands up straight and tall... lower jaw out... mouth closed... and mugshot successfully taken! Whoo hoo.. two down and two to go. Uh oh.. Sophia embraces my legs and hides her head. Tears to follow. Cue Emily... crying and writhing in the stroller. Oh dear. Sweat beads are forming on my forehead. The patient CVS employees are giving me sympathetic looks and commenting on how sweet Sophia is... lots of "awww that is so cute". Sweet?? Cute? Ok, quickly thinking.. do I go along with that and coddle or do I somehow communicate to this precious 2.5 ft tall blonde manipulator - in front of Sophia sympathizers - that she needs to dry it up, stand up straight and tall (without me in the picture with her!) and let the nice young man quickly take her picture else there will be consequences! I give her my most serious Mom eyes.. whisper in her ear... promise to not leave her.. hold hand.. andddd snapshot. Whew! Well, she was crying and she wasn't tall enough. So, take two. She actually has pulled herself together by now. I stand behind the curtain, hold Sophia's waist and lift her a foot or so and snapshot complete - slight scowl and bow falling out of hair. Thank you Joshua for entertaining Emily with your Venom action figure. So, as if taking the photos of Josh and Sophia wasn't challenging enough. How were we to photo the baby? Why sitting on top of my head, of course!

The only thing noteworthy about my photo opportunity was my conclusion that the government is running some sort of covert operation that ensures your driver's license and passport photos accentuates your wrinkles, your desperately in need of highlights hair, and - at least in my case - a mustache. Or maybe it is that I am on the brink of 30?

I think I will leave out the photographic evidence of this excursion.

Came to My Rescue

Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high

- by Hillsong

Girls Night Out

When 13 ladies get together sans little ones, who collectively have approximately 36 children, laughter abounds and uninterrupted complete sentences are made. Megan, our hostess, threw a fabulous game night in her adorable home. Food and drink were très bon! Everyone had a great time.

Sleeping through the Night - Take Two

Emily Claire Page -Six Months

Ok, well, I jumped the gun with the whole 'sleeping through the night' dance. Because... that was short lived... like, maybe, two nights in a row. However, the little munchkin decided to give Mommy a break last night and she slept from 7pm til 7am!!! Yee haw!!!! I would appreciate any and all prayers that this wasn't a fluke and is the beginning of a new era.

Emily has also started to eat baby food like a champ. We had a slow start but she now devours peas, carrots, green beans, prunes (ick!), pears, applesauce, and bananas. Any thoughts on why Earth's Best bananas are pink? Inquiring minds want to know.

She is sitting up on her own and trying to crawl. She will get up on all fours, rock, rock, fall on tummy and then "swim". :) It is cute! She is trying to cut her bottom teeth. Well, at least that is what I am attributing to her inexplainable and inconsolable fussiness. This is #3 for me and there are still so many unknowns... I still feel like I don't really know what I am doing!

Emily Claire and Canon (cute cousin!)


And just because... the other three Pages... I love this picture!

Snakes Alive

Ok, I am like on a posting marathon or something today. Joshua and I just returned from the Snakes Alive! Twilight Tale at the library. It was SO much fun! Libraries just make me all giddy inside.... Love 'em. A somethinganotherologist gave a presentation on snakes and presented different snakes, a lizard and a turtle to the audience. He educated us on the different types of markings on snakes and what distinguishes poisonous from non-poisonous. Did you know that a snake can only strike 1/2 its body length? Little bit of trivia for you in case you ever come face to face with the enemy. Then, at the very end, the children were able to touch the snakes and even hold them if they so desired. Spidey, oh I mean Joshua, was so excited! And, yes, out of 75 or so children we were the only one decked out in our pjs. He was a big hit with the male age 5 and under crowd. Gosh I love this kid.

Memories, Like the Corner of my Mind...

Or however that saying goes.... I was browsing through my uploaded videos looking for one from our recent trip to the beach and I ran across these two videos that are just too good to keep hidden on my hard drive. Hard to believe that little baby is my Sophia. Did I ever mention that Joshua is obsessed with Spiderman?

Joshua's 4th Birthday Party

Joshua and his good friend Tomas had a joint birthday party this past weekend at Tomas' home. It was a pool party which was quite apropos considering it was close to 100 degrees that day. I think good times were had by all. Thank you to all who were able to share this special day with us.

The Birthday Boys


Daddy and Sophia

Sophie Bug

Grandma Thelma

"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also." - John 14:2-3

My paternal grandmother passed away last Wednesday, July 2, 2008. Her name was Thelma McCann Hyler. She was born March 13, 1926. Our family drove to Virginia to attend her visitation and funeral this weekend. I am very saddened by her passing but at the same time comforted by the thought that she is experiencing peace and has met Jesus. I am not exactly sure of my grandmother's salvation as we never really had any discussion on faith or the Lord. I had been praying that she would get to know Christ and I have been told she did so I am believing that I will see her again one day in heaven.

I have many happy memories of Grandma Thelma from my childhood. Many experiences stand out in my mind. There were MANY shopping excursions to Belk and Value City. That lady loved to shop! We would wake up at the crack of dawn to be at the door when the store opened. I would convince her that I needed just one more shirt or one more pair of shoes and she would not so reluctantly give in and make me promise not to tell Papa how much she charged on her credit card. He always knew though... We would go home and try on clothes and sometimes have to make returns. Again, next morning up at sunrise. The sales clerks knew us by name. I spent many summers up at my grandparent's home after we moved to Georgia because I loved it so. I remember one long trip, when I was 8 or so, where I displayed all of my shoes - one white dress pair stands out in my mind - in the back window of the Buick and practiced my entrepreneurial skills going down 85S. She humored me with purchases and returns.

Then, there was cooking. I remember making homemade biscuits with her. Flour was everywhere and we cut the biscuit dough with the rim of a glass. I also have a memory of finding joy out of popping open Pillsbury canned biscuits.. not sure when the homemade biscuits ended. Country breakfasts were a specialty. Fried eggs over easy, sausage, biscuits (maybe homemade..maybe not!), country ham and red eye gravy! And, there was the chocolate cake. She taught me how to make homemade chocolate icing from cocoa. We would cut the hot yellow cake and then drizzle the icing in the cracks and all over. It would ooze down into the center of the warm cake. Yum. I can almost taste it now.

She loved to hum. Oftentimes she would let me sit up front with my Papa and she would sit in the back seat and hum a tune. She always said she would be back in a "jiffy". What exactly is a jiffy? And we all wore britches. And she spanked us with switches... that we found ourselves in the front yard! It never hurt.. she chased us (literally) around the house swatting us with these little itty bitty twigs that Emily could probably snap in two. Really, what was she thinking sending the culprits on a hunt for the object of their demise?

I have many Christmas memories with both of my grandparents. For a long time it was the tradition to have Oyster Stew for dinner at their home on Christmas Eve. When we lived right behind them in Danville we would wake up Christmas morning at our home and do the Santa thing and open gifts then we would hike up through the path my Mom made in the woods to our grandparent's home for Christmas #2. Santa thought he needed to make a visit there, as well. They have an awesome paved driveway with two entrances where we loved to ride our new bicycles and battery powered Power Wheels. Matthew, pretending he was Luke Skywalker with his light saber, would sword fight the oak tree stumps in their front yard. As day turned to evening, we would catch lightening bugs and play hide-n-go seek. She would sit out on their patio and watch us play for hours.

I really could go on and on with the memories. She loved to watch me dance. Crystal and I, decked out in our side pony tails and Punky Brewster high tops with alternating colored scrunchie socks, would choreograph 80s dance moves to artists like Madonna, Sheena Easton and Cydni Lauper and perform in front of Grandma for hours on end. With lots of applause and admiration, she encouraged us to try out for Star Search. They took us to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. We visited south Florida when they were looking into a timeshare in Fort Myers Beach. I remember being around 5 at the beach with her and standing in the surf as the wave washed over our feet and looking down as we pretended we were moving instead of the water moving around us. I think about that every time I am at the shore. Many fond memories of my Grandma. There were many days when I cried and she comforted. She was a great Grandma.

Grandma Thelma had been sick for a long time. She was quite healthy until about 10 years ago when she began to exhibit the first signs of Alzheimer's Disease. It has been hard to see her slowly breakdown mentally... difficult to sense her frustration and fear of realizing that she had problems remembering. I could tell it frustrated her to lose her independence and probably even angered her at times but she knew she couldn't be left alone which resulted in many frightening moments for her. We lived far away and saw them infrequently as the years passed but from what I understand, she became very fearful of where her husband was... not wanting to leave his side and if she ever found herself without him would be frantic to find her support line - her life line. I always wondered how my Papa handled the huge responsibility and, as much as I hate to say it, burden, of caring for her. Day in and day out of answering the same questions over and over and over again. Never having a moment of alone time. I worried that it would simply wear him down. Why didn't he hire professional help to come in and care for her? I asked myself that many times. This weekend at her funeral was the first time I saw my Papa cry. There was an overflow of love streaming out of my Papa's eyes. He loved her. Not just love the feeling but love the action. There was never an abundance of affection in their home. From what I understand from before my lifetime and from some of my memory and experience, there were hard times and even tragic moments. But there was true love between my Grandma and Papa. In their own way they loved each other. My Papa displayed that love by taking care of his bride until the very end. The last time I saw her alive was in the hospital a few weeks ago. I spied my Papa wink at her and blow her a kiss from across the room. They kept their wedding vows to have and to hold each other for richer and for poorer, sadness and joy, in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." - John 14:27

Do A Little Dance...

Joshua has the pee pee dance and Emily does the sleeping through the night dance (on my behalf).. whoo hoo!! :)

Page Beach-o-rama 2008

We are home from a fabulous Myrtle Beach vacation.. Surfside Beach to be exact. The entire Page fam trekked to the coast of SC for surf, sand, sun and a wholelotta Scrabble. The kids had so much fun. All 4 of them. Three of them are mine plus one adorable nephew. Good times were had by everyone. Here are a few snapshots from our trip...

Emily Claire

Snurtle and Spidey

Sooo cute!

Joshua - My almost 4 year old

They had so much fun together!

June Family Fun

Not much new going on around the Page home... still getting used to the idea that this time next year we will be in Clermont-Ferrand, France! I am going to start taking French classes at Michelin very soon and am quite excited about that. We are teaching the kids common pleasantries and currently Josh thinks "hello" is "au revoir" so we are off to a great start. :) Sophia is loving life and loving the word "no". Ahh.. two year olds. Gotta love 'em, right? Nevertheless, the kid is hilarious and I love her dearly. Emily is growing up so quickly. Just turned 5 months on the 31st of May. We introduced baby food to her this week and she is less than thrilled about that. Probably because her mother doesn't love her as much as she loves Sophia and feeds her that commercial baby food instead of the homemade good stuff. Shameful. Maybe I should bribe her... you sleep through the night and Gerber is gone. Deal?