Happy Birthday, Juliana!

Last night we had a birthday party for Juliana. Her birthday is actually Friday, but we went ahead and had the party a little bit early. It's hard to believe my baby is already 2!

This is her 2 years ago, about 15 minutes after she was born.


This was 1 year ago, at her first birthday party.


2 years old!
This was the only full length picture I got of her birthday dress, apparently. It had a 2 on the bow.

Playing on her new toy - a bouncy zebra

She HAD to give Elmo a ride


Now they're both going to ride the zebra


Decisions, decisions....


Two-year-olds and fire do not mix well. She almost stuck her finger in one of the candles, and I guess we scared her so bad telling her it was hot, she wouldn't even try to blow them out after that.

At least she knew what to do with the cake this year. Last year, it took three people to even get her to taste it, after which, she promptly made a mess!

I'm Still Alive - Really!

Hey, everybody! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated this. Life has been a little hectic around the Davis home for the last month! (and that's an understatement!) I'll try to get you caught up...On August 30, my parents came to spend Labor Day weekend with us. We hadn't seen them in almost a year, so we were excited to see how Juliana would act with them. No worries there! She met them at the door with grins and giggles and dragged them around the rest of the time they were here. At one point, when Dad was unloading their stuff, she poked her head out the door and hollered at him "I call you POP", so he has been Pop ever since! :-)

At bedtime, she decided that she was going to sleep with them - somehow I doubt they would have gotten much sleep!

On Tuesday, September 3rd, I started working full days; Vonne was having major surgery on her neck and would be spending a few weeks in St Louis, so I had to be at there house at 6:30 a.m. and stay there all day 'til the kids all went home between 4 and 5:30(it's a home daycare). Around noon I got a call from Brad's cousin, Jessica, that their Great-Grandpa, John Finney was being taken to the hospital; he wasn't doing too good, and they weren't sure if he had had a stroke or what. I kept in touch with them all afternoon, and headed over there a soon as the last child waalked out the door. I had barely gotten on the road when Brad called and told me to get there as fast as I could; Grandpa John had been asking for me and Juliana all afternoon, and the Dr. had just come out and told them that he had gone into cardiac arrest, and he had specified that he didn't not want to be revived should that happen. It's about a 5-10 minute trip from where I work to the hospital, but when I got there, a nurse met me at the door to let me know that he was already gone. He lived 93 years in this world, and was loved dearly by his children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren, and his one great-great: Juliana. He loved her so much, as you can see:

So, the rest of the week was spent planning the funeral, and trying to record the music for it. Grandma Polly and Papaw Henry wanted Brad and I to sing, and me to play the piano, but we were uncertain if it would be possible for me to get to the funeral on time, so we recorded everything ahead of time so we wouldn't have to worry about it. In the mean time, I'm still working 11 hours every day, so, needless to say, I think that the maximum of sleep I got any one night that week was 3 hours! Thankfully, the parents were able to work it out so that they could all pick up their kids at noon the day of the funeral that so that I could be there!
Brad's mom, sister, and brother came up from Louisiana for the funeral, so on Saturday we all went to the fair. Juliana loved the carousel - she rode it three or four times! Here she is with her beloved uncle 'Tent'.

The next week, we had planned to go on vacation in the Smoky Mountains, so Monday evening we headed out.

There was a kiddie play area in Dollywood that Juliana enjoyed; here she's playing in the water - notice the shirt? "Crabby but Cute"

Vacation is tiring...

Bringing home a baby bumblebee. She rode this ride two or three times!


We got to tour Dolly Parton's Bus. This was her bedroom.

A Daddy and His Puddytat

We found Roo!

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

This is what we saw when we looked off our back porch at the place we stayed

We went to the Knoxville Zoo in the way home. Juju loved the animals!

This guy wasn't feeling very friendly; he had his backside up against the glass and wouldn't move.

The next week, Patti Mahan was getting married, and I was supposed to be making three little girl dressesfor the wedding, as well as playing the piano for it. (Still working 11 hours a day... I was leaving at 6 a.m. and sometimes not getting home until 7 p.m. by the time I did stuff that had to be done in town)

The wedding was on Friday, September 19 at 6:00. I finished the dresses and sent them on their way at 1:00! Got off work shortly after 4, and them had to go buy shoes for the wedding, copy all the music and organize it to start playing between 5:30 and 5:45...I think it ended up being about 5:50 when I started but I made it (Thank God!). The wedding was beautiful. Congratulations, Toya and Patti!

Here is a picture of Andrea Truitt and Alyssa Jones in the dresses I made.

For more pictures from the wedding visit Jennifer Truitt's page

By this time, I'm ready for some rest!

The next week, about the middle of the week, Vonne (my "boss") came home, so for the last couple days that week, I didn't have to go in to work until 8:30 (Wahoo!!). Friday afternoon, after I got off work, we headed for Alabama to visit our friends, David and Brittany Fogleman. We been plaing on going to see them for a long time, but somehow it never working out, so this time we decided we were going no matter what. I didn't get any pictures, but Juliana had a great time with the boys. She still talks about them! The other day she said she wanted to kiss Carson...yikes! They're growing up earlier and earlier these days!

David and Brittany, thank you for having us! We had a wonderful time! Hopefully we'll being seeing you again very soon! :-)

This was taken Sunday morning at their church.

From Brad & Gillian Davis

That pretty much fills you in on our life for the past month. The last week I haven't had to work nearly as many hours, so I'm doing better!

Oh...I forgot to mention... Somewhere in all of that, Brad quit his job selling mobile homes and went back to construction!

Maybe life will settle down soon, but I doubt it!

So, how have you all been? :-)

I'm Back!

Sorry it's been so long!
Thanks to all of you that took time to make your presence known! I must confess, I've been to all of your blogs a time or two! :-) Please don't think I was upset because no one was signing the guestbook...just curious!
Well, Miss Juliana is now 18 months old! We went to the Dr. for her checkup yesterday. She is 33" tall and weighs almost 27 pounds! (She weighed 20 at 9 mo., 21 at 12 mo.) We had been starting to get an itty-bitty bit concerned because she wasn't gaining weight, but she made up for it! The good news-we got all the pokies out of the way for a few years! YAY! Sorry, but holding my (screaming) baby down while a nurse pokes needles in her is not exactly my idea of fun.
Speaking of screaming....she's talking!! She's been talking a fair bit all along, but in the last few day she's been yapping about everything! While sitting in the the waiting room at the Dr's office, whe was looking at her coloring book, asking me what everything was ("Wha's 'is?")and repeating it after me. We talked about boys (most of them are "bubby"), girls, bears (Boo), birds (also Boo), Starfish, Berries (sounds like bears), baskets, and hippos. When we came to a zebra, I told her it was (or course) a zebra, to which she replied 'no, horse'. Don't ask me where she learned it - I'm just her mother!!
If she falls, we always ask if she's ok, so now anytime she trips or falls down she jumps up and says " 'k! "
Today she learned to say 'Cade' (a little boy where we sometimes work), and 'cold', and 'more'. She says 'thank you' when she gives you something - and sometimes even when YOU give HER something! :-) She can sing "The B-I-B-L-E", at least the"B-I-B" part...and she can also say 'Jesus', but if you ask her if she loves Jesus, she says no. However, she doesn't love the devil either, so that's a good thing! (She does love Mommy, though.)
Needless to say, we're having fun with our little talker, and she seems to be having fun learning!
She loves to talk about and look at 'Goggies', but since Thor (our dog who is about the size of a small pony and very bouncy) tried to jump on her and another little dog tried to bite her, she's gets a little worried if they get too close to her. We're working on that! She likes kitties, too, but doesn't know quite what to do with them. (Kitties say 'wow', by the way; goggies say 'woowoo')
You're probably getting tired of hearing about all the cute things Juju says, but I'll leave you with this one. It never fails to make people laugh when someone walks out of her sight, because she always throws her little hands up in the air and says in the most confused voice, "where'd'e go?"