Our New Nephew has arrived!!

Andrew David "Drew" Bossen is here!
January 29, 2008
9:41am
7 lbs. 2 oz.
18.25 inches

We are already SO in love with our precious little nephew, Drew! He is absolutely perfect. He looks JUST like his Dad, and since we rarely heard the little guy cry he must be a "NON-complainer" like his Mom. He looks like he has blonde hair and blue eyes with tan skin. (Watch out, girls!) :)

Collin and I drove into Temple Monday night to make sure we wouldn't miss the action Tuesday morning. Janice was SO sweet to keep Avery for us overnight at our house so we could go "hands-free" and not have to deal with a toddler at the hospital. (BIG step for us too! The first time we spent the night away from Avery... and we were completely FINE! Thanks, Janice!!) :) Around 9:40am on Tuesday, little Drew was delivered via C-Section and it wasn't long until we were all gawking at pictures of him tiding us over until we were allowed to go back and meet him in person. (Thanks to my tech-savvy hubby, we were able to hook Andrew's camera up to the waiting room TV so we could see pictures of the little guy on the big screen!)





After spending the afternoon cuddling with Drew, we headed back to Big D. Just after arriving home we heard that our good friends, Andrea & Joe Mitchell, had just delivered THEIR baby boy so we stopped off at Medical City to peek through the glass at him. :) What a fun day! Happy Birthday to all!

(...presenting William Cutler Mitchell too!...)

Poage Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Dynasty

So... apparently Avery looks more like her Dad! It's so funny what I can find to do online that keeps me busy when I really should be organizing closets to prepare for the new baby. I LOVE this new toy! It took a while to find pictures that actually caused the "Look-a-like Meter" to choose which one of us Avery looks more like. For the longest time it said she looked "equally like Mom and Dad," which wasn't good enough for me. On a couple of tries, we completely stumped the meter and it just froze and never gave us an answer. FINALLY I uploaded these pictures and it said 4% in favor of Collin. (Good thing I married a good lookin' boy if our kids are all going to look like him!) :)

On a side note-- I did my parents faces with my face and I look "equally like Mom and Dad" but my sister looks more like my DAD by 8%!! That's only funny because we've always thought that Jen looked like Mom and I looked like Dad. Guess we were wrong!

Try it with your family pictures! It's fun...

A Theme Song for my Daughters

"How You Lived" -- It was about 9:35 this morning when I heard this song on the radio.

I had just dropped Avery off at Mother's Day Out and was in FULL multi-tasking mode as I was driving, returning phone calls (YES- occasionally I've been known to return some calls), searching for a place to grab a quick "on-the-go" breakfast and trying to map-out the best way to cover all my errands before 2:00pm when I go back to pick Avery up. I'm not quite sure what it was about this song that grabbed me, but I found myself laying down my phone and turning up the radio. Listening to the lyrics brought tears to my eyes, and all I could think about was Avery and Julia.

Music speaks to my heart, and to my lifetime, in ways that nothing else can. Next to knowing Christ as Lord, this song truly encompasses what I want my daughters to know about life. Sure... it'll take them a while to figure all of this out, and HEAVEN KNOWS that they won't just believe it because "I told them so..." But there are so many near-quotes of things my own Mother has said to me in this song and so many other life lessons that I'd love my girls to embrace within these lyrics that I immediately thought to myself, "THIS is a theme song for my daughters."

I'll post both the music video (by Point of Grace) and the lyrics to the song, and then I guess I should get on with my errands! ...After all, I've got one addition to the list now... To go purchase the Point of Grace, "How you Lived" CD! :)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wake up to the sunlight
With your windows open
Don't hold in your anger or leave things unspoken
Wear your red dress
Use your good dishes
Make a big mess and make lots of wishes
Have what you want
But want what you have
And don't spend your life lookin' back

Chorus:
Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
You won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you lived.

So go to the ballgames
And go to the ballet
And go see your folks more than just on the holidays
Kiss all your children
Dance with your wife
Tell your husband you love him every night
Don't run from the truth
'Cause you can't get away
Just face it and you'll be okay

Chorus:
Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
You won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you lived.

Bridge:
Oh wherever you are and wherever you've been
Now is the time to begin

So give to the needy
And pray for the grieving
Even when you don't think that you can
'Cause all that you do is bound to come back to you
So think of your fellow man
Make peace with God and make peace with yourself
'Cause in the end there's nobody else

Chorus
Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
'Cause you won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you lived.

'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you lived.

Christmas with the Poages in Canyon Lake!

We had a GREAT time celebrating Christmas together in the Texas Hill Country. The weather was beautiful and so we got to really enjoy the washers game set that Collin made! He's so handy...

The highlights of the trip for me were late-night talks in the hot tub, making s'mores from the backyard bonfire, playing (or watching others play) washers, listening to Janice read the Christmas Story from Luke, good food and great company. It truly was a Merry Christmas.

(These are some pictures I've borrowed from Kendra's camera because Collin seemed to only take pictures of the puzzle progress, so the ones on our camera are a little boring. Thanks, Kendra!!)

"Pistachio" got a NAME for Christmas!

We are thrilled to announce the name of our youngest daughter:

Julia Kate Poage

Her name means "Youthful" and "Pure." Julia is already such a joy in our lives and we SO enjoy feeling her precious little kicks each night before bed. We can hardly wait for April 28th when our household "giggles and bows" will double and we'll get to meet "Jules" face-to-face! :) Thank you for your prayers!

We hope you all had a FANTASTIC time with your families and friends as you celebrated the birth of Jesus this year! Can't wait to post pictures of our wonderful Christmas celebration with the Poages soon! It was truly an incredible time!

Hugs to all and wishing you a VERY Happy New Year!
Collin, Stephanie, Avery, Julia & Howie :)

He he he! :)

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

I FINALLY UPDATED!!

TONS of new posts... scroll down until you hit Cloudcroft if you want. After that, it's all new stuff! Sorry for the wait! We're still bloggers! :)

Got ICE??

Last Saturday, we decided the best way to spend the cold and rainy afternoon was to go inside and get... Colder??

We headed to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine to see their ICE exhibit. If you haven't heard about this, it's incredible. It's a gigantic ice-sculpture exhibit featuring sculptures of everything ranging from toys, trains and the North Pole (complete with 3 working ice-slides that Collin and my dad slid down) to a life-size nativity scene completely sculpted of ice! It was PHENOMENAL, but VERRRRRY cold. In order to keep the sculptures from melting away, they keep the temperature inside the exhibit at a chilly 9 degrees! NINE degrees. (My good friends in Minnesota are laughing at me right now that I think that's exceptionally cold, but BURRRR!!!)

It's so cold in there that they warn you that your cameras might freeze and they provide you with special coats just to walk through the exhibit. They didn't have coats small enough to fit Avery, so Collin got a 4-XL and put her inside with him. SO cute. Needless to say, it was quite an experience! What a fun afternoon.

"...There may not be snow in San Antonio, but it's a Texas Christmas to me..."

I love that song.

The weather really was weird, though! It was in the 80's the first day, down to the 30's the second day, and then back up to the high-70's our last day! So strange! But the warm weather on the first evening made for a nice boat-tour of the Riverwalk! It was such a fun time... We made some really sweet memories, laughed so hard it was almost embarrassing at points, reminisced about old times and looked forward to future Christmases with LOTS more grandkids in the mix! As Collin would say, "Fun times!"

Baby's 1st Flight!

Another milestone!! Avery survived her first airplane ride!

Two weeks ago, we packed up and headed South-West on Southwest bound for San Antonio! San Antonio trips in December were an Ellison tradition from my pre-teen years until Jen and I both got married, so it seemed very appropriate to travel to the home of the Alamo for a few days with my family to gear-up for Christmas like we used to do.

Avery did VERY well! It was wonderful to get to "test the waters" (or I guess "test the air," in this case) on such a short flight. She slept soundly until we went through security and then she woke up and didn't go back to sleep at all! She was probably afraid she'd miss something. But she didn't fuss in the air though, so that's great! We were all happy to land and start the trip.

Santa, Baby...

Too cute not to post...

'Tis the Season!

Don't you just LOVE December?! ...Well... let me re-phrase that... Don't you just LOVE December on days when it actually FEELS like December and you don't have to turn on your air conditioning? :) Ahhh, Texas. Fortunately, we've had a pretty "Christmassy" feeling month with a few freezes already and only a handful of days when we were glad we hadn't packed away our summer clothes.

But truly, there's nothing more exciting to me than smelling Christmas in the air, feeling Christmas in my heart and seeing Christmas in a brand-new way through the eyes of our precious Avery as she experiences a lot of it for the first time! This is such a magical season, and all because of a baby born in Bethlehem to save the souls of Man. It just doesn't get any better...

Here's a slideshow with pictures from a random shopping trip with "Gram," getting our Christmas Tree, partying over gingerbread houses with the girls in our Young Marrieds class, and Collin's office party! Enjoy!

A belly like a "bowl full of jelly??"

Baby bump on our Anniversary, November 15th:


Home for Thanksgiving, Jen and I saw one of my sweet childhood friends, Anne (Morris) Sellers, pregnant with her 1st baby (a boy) and had to take a picture: **P.S. Doesn't Jen look FANTASTIC to be just 2 months away from delivering?!?! Why don't THOSE genes run in the family?! Jen's C-Section has been officially scheduled!! Drew Bossen will be born January 29th, 2008!**


Me and Anne with our bumps!:


Bellying-up to Andrea (& William, coming late-January) at our Sunday School Christmas party, Dec. 14th

Hitting the highlights!

Hello again, blog-checkers! Let me start by saying THANK YOU to those of you who are actually still checking this site even though it's been terribly neglected lately. It's been MONTHS since we've posted anything here, and it's not due to lack-of-excitement in our lives. On quite the contrary, our lives have been moving at what feels like a warp-speed ever since October as I'm sure is true for most of you as well.

So, to catch everyone up on what's been going on without boring you to tears I'll hit the highlights:

• In early November we had a scare with the new baby as a screening test showed that the baby was at an elevated risk for Trisomy 18, a fatal genetic disorder.
• We had a special sonogram that gave all my doctors confidence in saying that our baby is FINE and perfectly on track developmentally! (Praise God and thank you ALL again for your prayers during that scary time!)
  
• We also found out in that sonogram that we're having a GIRL! We're thrilled!!... We don't have a name yet, but we'll announce it as soon as we do!

• Collin & I celebrated our 4 year Anniversary in November with dinner at Deep Sushi and a movie together in a theater! (That's a rare treat these days!)
  
• We wrapped up November with a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration in Austin with the Ellisons (with LOTS to be Thankful for having just received good news about the health of "Pistachio")
  
• ...And then December came!... and that requires new posts with LOTS of pictures. (Hey... I may have hibernated for a while, but it's still me and I'm still camera-crazy.)
  

Cloudcroft Pictures

Fun in Cloudcroft, New Mexico!!

We are having SUCH a blast here, 9,000 feet above stress-level in Cloudcroft!

Our good friends, Glen & Lydia Farell, invited us to come and spend a week with them and their precious baby boy, Drew! Glen's parents are so generous to let us vacation in their beautiful home that overlooks steep terrain with HUGE evergreens and sits perfectly on one of the greens of the Cloudcroft golf course. It's Heaven.

We'll be posting more pictures soon, but I wanted to put these videos on the blog for the Grandparents! :) These videos and pictures were taken yesterday when we went to the town Harvestfest to watch pumpkin races and then drove to Ruidoso for some more Fall-fest-fun! (Special THANKS to Glen for putting these together!)

BIG NEWS for the Poages!!

Collin and I found out just a few days after his 29th Birthday (in August) that WE'RE EXPECTING!... again! :)

I'm 14 weeks into the pregnancy, and the new baby (a.k.a. "Pistachio Poage") is due April 28th, 2008. We weren't exactly trying for another kiddo, but we are excited to be adding to our family. Children are a blessing and we are thrilled! I've been to the doctor a couple of times and we've seen the baby through sonogram. Everything looks great, and at Thursday's appointment the baby's heart was beating at 165 bpm. (If you buy into the "old wives tales," that would indicate another GIRL!!) ...Collin's already polishing shotguns and saving for weddings... :) Another girl would be tons of fun, but a boy would be a blast too. We'll wait and see! We will definitely be finding out gender before the birth, but we have to wait until December for that.

It's amazing how quickly my body is showing the pregnancy this time around! I have to laugh that I'm just barely in the 2nd trimester and I already look like I'm 5 months pregnant! They say that Mom's "pop" earlier with subsequent pregnancies, but this is almost hilarious. (See "belly gallery" below)

Avery and "Pistachio" will be 19 months apart, and they will be back-to-back grades in school when they start which should be really interesting! Add us to your prayer lists! :) We'll keep you posted...

Hugs,
Poages

August "belly" just after we found out...


Sisters with "dueling bellies!" Jen (& Drew) with Me (& "Pistachio") - September belly


October belly - week 14 and already "round." ...Oh, boy...

Party Pics!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, AVERY!!!

Who can believe it's been a YEAR since we welcomed Avery into the world?! It truly is amazing how time flies.

September 29th, 2006

September 29th, 2007

Avery had a wonderful 1st Birthday and got to celebrate with a party on her ACTUAL Birthday! She invited some of her pals over to play and we were amazed at how precious all the babies were! Everyone was on their best behavior!

You could tell it's football season, as we had 3 "partiers" show up in their favorite team's jersey! We had a Longhorn, a K-State Wildcat, and (of course) an Aggie! Avery wore a new dress at the party, but later when Collin gave her his Birthday gift she was definitely "Marooned-out." (You'll see in the pictures.)

Our favorite moment of the day was when the time came to sing and let her eat cake. It's always amusing how expectations can differ from reality. I expected my precious dare-devil to dive into the cake with both hands and end up sticky from head to toe! I also expected the little party hat to come off her head nearly instantaneously from the moment I put it on. Neither were true. Truthfully, she sat there in her party hat and delicately selected each bite with forefinger and thumb, chewed, swallowed, and then carefully chose another bite. (I promise I haven't taught table manners yet, so I cannot take any credit!) It was hilarious to watch because it was so different than what I thought it would be! She LOVED the cake, though! ...Of course she did... We Poages love our sweets! :)

We're so thankful for the first year with our sweet Avery and we look forward to many, many more!