Emmelia is slowly understanding that a new little person is going to be moving in and we pray that she takes to him lovingly….I think we can train her to change a diaper by December.  The little guy will be totally stoked in 15 years when he gets to hang out with all Emmelia’s girlfirends! On the other hand, Emmelia is sandwiched between her cousins Tre & Zeke and her little brother (Fransisco?) so I don’t think she’ll be hurting for attention….and Tre & Zeke can pound anybody that treats her in an unworthy manner at school  (or even looks at her wrong).

The top three names for us so far are :

Pierre

Steve

El Guapo (or El Magnifico…it’s a tie really)

Thanks for your prayers and support!

El Grove’s

Well, it has been a while since we blogged on our site….this news is prompting us to get back into it! We are expecting another baby! This baby is due November 30th, Joelle is already 3.5 months along and counting….we are so excited! We are going to find out what it is and will know in the next month or so. Emmelia is excited to be a big sister, at least to the point that she is able to comprehend it so far. She is two years old and such a joy, she makes us smile every day. It is amazing how much she is growing up and changing, we are very excited that she is potty trained…just in time to have another one in the house in diapers (one at a time to save the budget!). We know some of you already knew Joelle was pregnant by how big she already is, but we thank you for allowing us to tell you in our own time. Boy, the second one really pops out early!! We appreciate your prayers as all of us prepare for the new addition to our family. We will be updating our blog monthly until the baby comes, then we will be giving you weekly updates. So, please keep checking in with us.

Emmelia got to see her great grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary celebration. Isn’t that amazing? And, she gets to visit her other great grandmother from time to time on Sundays after church. How blessed she is to have her great grandparents here to enjoy her.  She still spends the work weeks with Grandma, Papa, Nana, and Nono. We will never be able to express our appreciation for their love and servants hearts for our little girl. The relationship that has developed between them and Emmelia is priceless.

She has been having so much fun with her cousins, Tre and Zeke. She follows them around and is determined to participate in all of the activities that they do, even if she isn’t developmentally ready for them yet! They are so sweet with her and give her kisses all the time. Check out the photos from our most recent trip to the Wild Animal Park, too funny! She loved the petting zoo and making all of the noises when she saw different animals. We hope that you enjoy looking at all of the photos we have posted, sorry again about the amount of time that has gone by since we last sent out an update. Rest assurred that Emmelia is keeping us busy and growing way too fast for us. Can anyone stop the time so we get a chance to enjoy it? Oh, one more huge announcement…..Emmelia has a new cousin in Atlanta! My brother, Dante, and his wife, Beth, had their baby son 6/13/09, Luca Teri Walter Fenolio, born at 2 (something) am, 6 pounds 10 ounces, 19 inches long. Everyone is home now and doing well. We wish we could see him in person, it is a bummer to live on opposite coasts.

Parenthood is a trip. What a challenge and what a gift at the same time. Such a tool for God to use to refine and to bless. Praise God. How amazing it is to relive this life through your child’s eyes…..to see their wonder and amazement when they see something for the first time is inspirational. How quickly we take God’s creation for granted. I love having kids, it keeps me humble, tests my patience, and keeps my perspective in the right place.

But with the changes also comes difficulties.  For example, she used to eat anything we put in front of her…but now….dinner time especially has become a challenge.  Watching your kid defiantly throw food on the floor makes you realize that your sweet little cupcake daughter is a sinner like the rest of us.  Joelle is constantly trying to figure out what to feed her and most of the time she’ll find something that works….but usually only for that night.  We’re also transitioning away from the bottle and she hasn’t taken well to that either.  She cries and screams because we put her milk in the sippy cup….but soon she’ll catch on.  After we settle that issue, we move on to removing the binky cold turkey.  That should be a fun week.

Joelle and I began going to a parenting class about a month ago (it lasts 9 weeks) at our church to seek wisdom while she is still young.  I believe that God has a means and a method to proper parenting and I’m so glad that we’re investing the time now.  The information given in this class is absolutely foundational for any parent.  Yes, the information is based entirely from the Bible….and it works.  For those of you interested, all of the content is available free online at www.parentingministry.org with Pastor Craig Castor.  We could not recommend this information higher.

Emmelias birthday dinner was a blast.  She had both sets of grandparents there with mom and dad.  We were bummed that Harry, Shannon, Tre, & Zeke couldn’t make it because they were sick.  I made pizza for everyone and then Emmelia gingerly made her way through the starberry cake mommy made for her.  It was a charming cake….complete with ladybugs made out of raspberries and blueberries.

Enjoy the photos.  Here are a couple of videos also.  One is of Emmelia playing in the sprinklers, another is us at the pool, and the other one is her first birthday (which is a long video).  Neither are hilarious, but fun to watch nonetheless.

I’m sorry….but I can’t figure out why I can’t embed the video into our website.  You have to copy and paste the link…..

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8682611439531392340&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3444846801660030785&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8097225962086683306&hl=en

Yes….it has been a long while since we’ve blogged (bragged?) about our little monster on the internet…but have no fear….the Christmas edition is here!  She is equipped with 8 teeth now, the ability to crawl at incredibly normal speeds, and a supernatural gift of reaching into octaves that Mariah Carey could only dream of. Things are changing so rapidly with her that it is hard to keep up…much less soak it in and enjoy it.  Her little outfits are so cute and tiny.  Her little giggle….holy moly…her giggles are absolutely PRICELESS.  She is a really good eater too….she’ll mow down her breakfast in less than 5 minutes and it’s not a trivial amount.  We tried to give her turkey on Thanksgiving but she didn’t take to it that well.  She does manage to grab her little puffed rice snacks and feed herself which is kinda cool….but you can’t really leave anything laying around that you don’t won’t slobbered or chewed on.

So, we got our tree up last weekend in record time.  Not without difficulty though.  Joelle had to have this 8′ noble fir tree because it was apparently mismarked as a 5′ to 6′ at our favorite Home Depot around the corner.  So, I did my best to man-handle that bad boy into the house and get it set plumb.  Getting it set plumb was the hard part as it was so stinkin heavy that I couldn’t just dead lift it straight up and jamb it down into the stand (of which is undersized for this size tree anyway.)  Keep in mind that it is set on top of a 2′ high wood box so Emmelia can’t grab it.  So then it kept tilting over and came close to crashing down a couple times….but I prevailed.  It is in….and we got a beautiful tree at a great price.

We are excited this year to have Joelle’s brother Dante and his family stay with us for awhile during Christmas.  We don’t see them but maybe once a year and our little niece Sierra is getting so big….and they’ll get to meet Emmelia for the first time

The pics below are of random events…beach day….Thnaksgiving, Joelle’s birthday, my dad’s birthday, decorating the Christmas tree, Emmelia in a pink elephant pool that I got on Amazon.com for $5….enjoy.

Merry Christmas to you….and thank the good Lord for giving us a sure hope and an incorruptible inheritance through our Saviour Jesus.

She is so mobile now….crawling all over.  She actually prefers to walk but she can’t balance herself quite yet and gets very frustrated about it….and she’ll let you know it too.  She learned how to wave last week and now has 4 teeth I think…but maybe 6.

Halloween was actually fun this year….we stayed home and passed out candy to the 125+ kids that came to our door.  We put Emmelia in her ladybug costume and paraded her around to some of our neighbors before it got dark… she had fun.  When we came home, I sat with her on our porch swing and she passed out for 45 minutes on dad’s shoulder.  I was in heaven.  To top it off, the sunset was spectacular and the weather was incredible.  Joelle’s mom and dad came over for dinner (Joelle made a yummy beef stew) and my mom and dad plus brother and his family also came over later in the evening.  It is always a treat to have loved-ones together.  I couldn’t believe how many kids came to our house though.  Last year we had about 35….which is why I severlely underestimated the amount of candy this year.  Very few kids had gorey costumes which was refreshing.  A highlight certainly was the adults of the neighborhood who dressed up…although it was probably just another reason to drink.

Get a load of these photos…she is amazing.

So, in light of our monster goin’ mobile soon, Joelle and I turned the couch 90 degrees clockwise in an attempt to ‘box’ her in the family room.  In theory this is a good plan but I think something will get lost in reality….as usually is the case.  This also means that daddy is going to have install all those annoying cabinet locking devices that are supposed to keep kids out but actually serve a much larger purpose which is to frustrate the parents (just an observation at this point).

I can’t express how much fun she is.  She is so animated and so vocal.  I am noticing how she increasingly watches daddy….she studies me.  Not only that, I see that she wants my attention.  Honestly, it is a bit unnerving to know that she will be so heavily influenced by me and mom, our actions, our conversations, our body language, our habits.  Mom and me have a lot of growing to do.  It is such a great privilege though to be responsible for loving and disciplining this little life from God.  Nobody else has this honor except us for her life.  It is very exciting.  So, Joelle and I are absolutely loving this stage in our lives and in our marriage…because we know she will one day be gone (not to mention think mom and dad are geeks).

Enjoy the pics.  The video below is Emmelia laughing at Joelle playing with a stuffed ladybug-thing.

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There are also a handful of photos for the month of September.  She moves around a lot and we’re expecting her to crawl any day now….but I’ll admit that I’m ok if she puts it off a bit longer :)  Mommy and daddy need to baby-proof the house first.

love you,

B