The Best Day for me
This past year has been a tough year for my extended family and me. We've experienced loss in many different ways. One of the most profound ways is having three of our grandparents pass away within the same year. With all of the other changes and challenges that life has put on us, it really has made me stop and appreciate what I do have. Two things God has blessed me with that I can not get over...(1) A family that is there for me through all trials of life...(2) Fatherhood. Reflecting back on how I am now the middle generation in my family's tree and my parents, aunts and uncles are now the "senior" generation has impacted me greatly.

Only 20+ years ago, my parents, aunts and uncles were in my shoes teaching their sons and daughters how to swim, bike, hit the ball, play, laugh and love. Now, this is my greatest of pleasures. I remember how I felt curled up to Dad, reading his birthday cards, eating half gallons of Neapolitan ice cream and throwing it up because I was trying to eat as fast as him, playing basketball with him, going to church with him....and what overwhelms me now is he felt the same way as I do now with Jonathon. As hard and unforgiving as children can be (especially through the teenage years and early adulthood), may we remember that most of our parents did the best they could in their time and there is only one love like a parents love.

This video is a tribute to that. On a lighter note (thankfully) the pictures of me on the bike...Jonathon took those;-) I was so proud of him. He saw me taking photos and he wanted to be like daddy so I showed him how to do it and said "Close you eye" and of course he shut the eye that looks into the viewfinder! Still I think he has quite an angle. Please enjoy.

I wasn't able to spend Halloween with Jonathon so I decided to have fun and dress up thinking of him. I went to work this way, tried to enter a contest Friday night (we got there at 10pm but that was too late! How can that be?), and met up with Jonathon at the airport Saturday morning. As you can see, he thought it was so funny. He kept on saying, "You are man in yellow hat AND daddy". We went to Wendy's for lunch and people would say, "Hey look, there is the man in the yellow hat", and Jonathon would say, "This is daddy". It was so great to be able to do that. I don't know who enjoyed it more...him or me.

We have settled into our new apartment nicely, I've settled into my new job and Jonathon has been doing great in his daycare. He got a bike for his birthday so we have been playing around with that and trying to teach him exactly what to do. He just turned 3 in September and is still growing like a weed. We hope this post finds everyone at a great place and looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.

Until next time.

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!













Going down memory lane with Jonathon, it made me laugh to see these pictures side by side. We had such a good time with these pictures. Sears had this nice car that Jonathon loved and made the pictures much easier to take. Half way through, a lady was standing by the door and then asked if she could have her car back. The Sears people thought we brought it and I thought Sears had really nice props. Well, Jonathon didn't like that at all! So we gave him a football and he enjoyed tossing that around with me. Finally, they wanted a picture of us without the football. Right when I took it away, Jonathon, at the top of his lungs, says..."NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and started laughing. He had all of us rolling. Needless to say, that was our last picture.

We had a great time at Thunder over Louisville this weekend. We were able to view the air show on the top floor of one of the downtown buildings and that was a welcome change. Clean bathrooms, good food and great company. Jonathon made many friends of course, one being a 20 month old boy named Max and then a girl that was about Makalya's age who wanted to be his friend and kept on calling him "Cutie". She shared everything with him, including her food, so it didn't take him long to become best friends with her.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to spring and I look forward to hearing from you. Take care and God bless.

Jonathon was absolutely fascinated with this water fountain. It is an unedited version, but I think I managed to capture the pure ornery side of him! (No help from me, of course.) He was just loving getting his Daddy and his Uncle Josh wet.

About a week ago, my sister emailed these pictures of Jonathon to me from the Christmas/New Year holiday season. While it has been excruciatingly difficult for me to be away from Jonathon for this past month, it warms my heart so much to be able to listen to him on the phone while he is at his great-grandparents, seeing these adorable and funny pictures of him from someone else's camera and knowing that I will be able to see him sometime tomorrow...hopefully!

As you can tell, he is continuing to grow, learning to play with others, figuring out how things work, learning how to hug...well, actually, it is more of "learning to play with others". He was wrestling his cousins down and while the girls are closer to 4, he is just as big or bigger than they are. So any time he would "hug" them, I would say "Gentle, Gentle", and so he would give them a big hug and gently push them to the floor and he would fall too. He did this for a few days and they all thought it was a great game.

This weekend, I came in contact with this video of a father named Dick and a son named Ricky...(ironically that is the name of my dad and oldest brother). There were several things that I thought about when I saw this moving and inspirational clip.

First, I thought of the love I have for Jonathon and the love most fathers have for their sons. Secondly, I thought of it as a picture of Jesus Christ carrying us and pulling us through when we are going through our toughest times. There are times when we are "handicapped" by our choices, our attitudes or even things completely out of our control...(cancer, death, etc.) but He is there comforting us and carrying us, only if we allow him.

The last thing that came through my mind when I watched this video is that regardless what we are going through; incarceration, grief, uncertainty...basically, any kind of loss, we CAN make it through. If we just let HIM lead.

"Do I look fat?"

I have had the privilege to spend a decent amount of time with my side of the family over the last couple of months. My sister Rachele and I are two peas in a pod. We act like adolescents we're around each other and have had a running joke of "Do I look fat?". I have been organizing my photos and came across these pictures.




Like father like son:)

The holidays are finally over and things are starting to quiet down a bit so I can get back into updating this on a more frequent basis. I've finally posted Jonathon's birthday pics and some of his Christmas pictures.

Jonathon is changing so much right now. He is now 2 years, 4 months old. He has most of his primary colors down, he can sing four Wiggles songs and charm the pants of anybody...(well, figure of speech). He received a play guitar and drums for Christmas. The first day he had the drums, he played so hard that he broke the set. Luckily the guitar has been more durable. I'll turn on Guitar Hero III and he will get right there and jam with me. We have so much fun laughing and goofing around together.

I do have to say that I'm starting to feel sorry for him already...he's starting to get my sense of humor.

Enjoy the pictures!