Our little man is growing up…

So I was putting Jordin to bed this week, and he looks up at me and says “Daddy Greg, I don’t want to use my DeeDee anymore – I want to save it for my baby brother” (that’s what he calls his blanket).

I asked him if he was sure, and he said yes – he handed it over to me and instructed me to fold it and put it up on a shelf in his closet to save it.

I told him that he should go up and tell Mommy about it, so he jumps up and runs upstairs.  He tells Ashley that he doesn’t want to use his DeeDee anymore and that we folded it up and put it in the closet to save it – then he says “wait, I want to ask God something”

He folds his hand, bows his head, and closes his eyes, and softly says “God, please bring me a baby brother” – Ash and I both got a little teary-eyed as she gave him a hug goodnight.

There’s a bun in the oven…

So for everyone who hasn’t heard yet, there’s a baby Gifford on the way!

Our due date is January 11, 2010 – and we couldn’t be more excited!

Ash has been feeling pretty sick lately – it’s more of an “all the time sickness” than “morning sickness”, so we’re eagerly awaiting the end of the first trimester.

Jordin is SUPER excited, and has told us that we have to have a baby brother, and that we have to name him “Spiderman”…  When we told him that Spiderman probably isn’t a good name for a baby brother, he told us the only other option was Joaquin (he’s got a friend at school named Joaquin and thinks it’s a cool name).  Joaquin Gifford… hmmm… probably not gonna happen…

Our little munchkin is a sports superstar

Ok, we’re back again, and hopefully on a more regular schedule for posting…

So yesterday’s tee ball game was a huge one…  Jordin single-handedly won the game for the whole team!  It was the team’s first win (most games end in a 15-15 tie), and it was all thanks to our munchkin…

In the 3rd inning, Jordin was playing pitcher, so he was closest to the batter.  He got 3 outs in a row by catching the ball and running to home plate to get the runner on 3rd out.

The crowd went wild, and the look on his face was absolutely priceless. He gave a big victory fist pump on one of the outs and flashed Mommy a thumbs up on another. It was quite the exciting day!

Because they’re totally everyday things to be afraid of…

So, on my way to drop Jordin off at school this morning, I look back and notice his hands are folded… Of course I ask him why, and he replies “I’m praying to God, Daddy Greg”

I ask him why, and he calmly & matter-of-factly answers “to help me not be scared”

Of course, my automatic reply is “scared of what?”

To which he answers “zombies… and aliens… and bad dogs”

Which makes perfect sense, right?

Easter Smokehouse Turkey

Still catching up on posts here… So on Easter Sunday, we were supposed to pick up Jordin from his Dad’s house after church so that we could head over to Mom and Dad’s for Easter Dinner. I got up early and got the Easter stuff together so that I could go and set up an Easter Egg hunt for Jordin. We figured that we’d just show up at Mom and Dad’s and act all surprised that the Easter Bunny had left Jordin eggs and a basket.

So I drove up to Allen around 10 am… As I got up to the door, I noticed that the security alarm was going off, and thought to myself “hm, self… whaddya think it is? Mayhap someone left the garage door open…” I unlocked the door and pushed it open, only to be assaulted by billowing smoke! I could barely see through to the back of the house from all the smoke.

All I remember at that point was that I knew I had to get their dog out of the house. I ran in, trying not to breathe… scanning around quickly to see if i saw any flames… Poor Coco was huddled down in her crate, so I reached in and grabbed her and ran out the back door. I whipped out my phone and called Dad and said something about him needing to leave church cause the house was full of smoke and most likely burning down… Then I called 911…The fire truck got there pretty fast… I told them what had happened and they opened the front door –- as soon as they saw all the smoke, they stopped and put on all their breathing gear…
After spending about half an hour searching through the whole house (including the attic), they figured out that Mom had left the giblets cooking – the liquid had all burned out and the turkey neck caught on fire, filling the whole house with smoke – luckily I showed up when I did, or who knows… maybe the whole house would have gone up in flames…
Luckily the turkey wasn’t harmed, so we still got to have Easter Dinner (sans giblet gravy). Mom and Dad ended up having to get a cleaning service do some smoke treatment to the house to get rid of the smoke smell…

Interesting side note – even though I was almost coughing out my left lung when the firemen showed up from my amazingly brave canine rescue heroics, not a single one asked me if I was ok…

At least the studly pictures of me in my “kid from the Christmas Story” days were completely unharmed (ugh)…

Seeing your kid’s skull doesn’t make for a fun night…

Again, we’re way behind on posts, so you’re gonna spend the next few getting filled in on the happenings of the past month or two… Almost a month ago, Jordin was playing in his room with his cousin Justin when he bounced awkwardly off the bed and smacked his forehead on his bedside table… He laid it open all the way to the bone…

Sitting in the emergency room waiting to see a doctor…

“don’t take pictures of me right now, Daddy Greg!”

After being wrapped up like a burrito for the stitches and yelling
“i wanna get up… I wanna get up… I wanna get up” constantly,
our big boy made it through with five stitches

And by the time he got home, he was super excited about sleeping in his hospital gown

OK, so it’s been a while since we’ve posted…

So we’ve flaked out a bit on the blog thing… but we just downloaded an offline blog editor so it’ll be easier to update, and we’re making a concerted effort to post something at least once a week… We’ve got lots of updates and pics to show, so here’s a quick update to follow up on the last post…

Jordin’s birthday party was a big success – Pump It Up was definitely a better location that Chuck E. Cheese (I’m still having nightmares about last year… ugh…).

Jordin loved the “kid sized” door into the bounce room…

Having a blast on the big slide…

Landen and Maddie from Jordin’s school

Maddie kept getting “stuck” and had to get Jordin to pull her out

Group photo just before cake and presents

It broke my heart to have to cut the Birthday Cake of Awesomeness…

Jordin loves his new bike…

…and his giant Nerf gun…

Check back soon, more updates to come soon (including pics from the scary night o’ stitches!)