Uncles (and Abandonment)

Britton and Clark were down to visit recently. While here they decided to have a snack of Baby Jed. He really hated all the attention, as usual.


Speaking of Aunts and Uncles, Michael and I would like to lodge a formal squawking protest over the ABANDONMENT of our siblings for the far-reaches of the globe. This fall, every single one of our siblings and all but two of the cousins (THANK YOU Lacey and Claire!) will have left us for foreign parts. Who will fawn over Baby Jed? Whom will we invite over to dinner?

The departure of our loved ones isn't a total loss, however. For example, I am currently working on a computer cobbled together from parts in our "Stanfill Storage" basement left by Eric and Britton. Wahoo! Free computer! Well, at least until December.

Plus, we also get lots of hand-me-down food. No shopping necessary this week!

AND, we get a car! Courtesy of Emily. Yee hah. Maybe this abandonment thing won't be so bad anyway. :c)

Just kidding. You know we miss you all. Come home soon!

Weighing in at the Purple Poll

Perhaps our poll to the right of the page deserves some explanation. See, baby Jed has this pair of purple overalls with little multicolored turtles with hearts on their shells made by his Granny Zo'An. Since the first wearing of the purple overall, however, controversy rages throughout Utah Valley over whether purple is a legitimate wardrobe color for developing young males.

Vanessa's natural purple-loving reaction was: "Oh, adorable!!! What a cutie he'll be in those!"

Michael's Y chromosomes, however, were aroused in protest: "How will the child ever retain his masculinity in PURPLE??"

Since then, friends and family have weighed in on both sides of the controversy. Now it's time for YOU to put in your two cents and let us know: should baby Jed be allowed to wear purple?

Prisoners in Kentucky

My new cool awesomely fun pastime is....

Recording names from prisoners in the Lyon, Kentucky prison in the year 1900.

Neato, eh? The hottest new genealogical pastime is downloadable here onto your personal computer. Get the program, download a batch of records (each batch takes about an hour, they say), and wah-lah! Your own personal digital image of an old census, baptismal record, or some such record from antiquity. You transcribe the names, send 'em back, they get checked a few times and put here for everyone in the whole wide world to enjoy. You don't finish it? No big deal! At the end of the week it gets sent back for someone else to finish.

Oh, what fun. I've done my first fifteen prisoners (my favorite is "Bird Morgan" from Missouri) and I think I'll keep the rest 'til morning.

Happy

Two fantastic years!

Angel in the Sink

Baby lounging in the sink for a mid-morning bath. I always knew he was my little angel. Look at his halo!

Bionic Boy

Three days ago I was holding baby in the rocking chair and needed to put him down for a minute. I spread a blanket and set him on it while I went to take care of some dinner boiling over. A few moments later I returned to find my child sucking on the end of my cell phone charger... while the other end was still plugged in. "Jed, stop that!" I squawked as I rushed over in an overly-concerned first-time mother sort of way. He smiled up at me, spit oozing from his mouth and dripping from the charger onto the carpet. Yum!

Jed's learned to roll. The next day I put him in front of the couch while I put away some laundry. Five minutes later I returned to find him with one arm shoved all the way in the cassette slot of our VCR. Drool poured from the front of the slot. Giggling, he thumbed the remote.

Jed's love affair with my cell phone (he can fit the entire upper half in his mouth before gagging, gap-toothed smiling proudly at his accomplishment) inspired me to have Michael to dig out his old, old cell phone that we had pack-ratted away "just in case." Michael wiped it off and we presented it to baby as his very first personal electronic device. He looked please and immediately shoved it in as far as it would go. Michael made the phone ring, which made us giggle as the ring slowly muffled and disappeared into our first-born child's esophagus. Then we noticed--the phone's battery icon was blinking. "Battery Charging" a popup message read. Ha ha ha ha ha. Guess that phone charger really worked!

Success!

Baby Jed LOVES his little booster chair. He works every day on his "skillz" throwing things on the floor as quickly as possible. It is cheating to throw them all at once. They must be individually fingered, examined, hung over the edge, and carefully thrown as far as possible.
Here he is after another successful tray evacuation.

Jed wasn't the only one having fun...

I don't think it QUITE qualifies as idol worship, but judging by Michael's starry-eyed countenance after an afternoon helicoptering with Uncle Vern, I figure it's pretty durn close.

NessaAnn takes a spin out on Flathead Lake.

But Michael's stunts take the cake!

More MT Jed

When Jed wasn't off trying out the saddle, he was in the house, cozied up with Great Grandma on the couch. Or maybe out in Grandpa's beautiful garden.

Big Jed and Little Jed

While we were in Montana Baby Jed got to spend his time with his namesake, Great-Grandpa Perry Jed Stanfill, a Montana cattle rancher. Big Jed let Baby Jed get some quality time on his old saddle, and even let the little guy wear his cowboy hat.

Camp Ground-doggie!

Each summer, for those yet uninitiated, the Dowdle Clan gathers at our "structure" (a building whose name has caused such furious debate that we have chosen a neutral term ever after.) up in Stevensville MT for a big family reunion formally titled "The Montana Rendezvous."

When Eric and I were kids, Mom and her friend Karen would haul the kids up to Karen's cabin in Idaho for "Camp Ground-Doggie" where we would do crafts and outdoor activities, and eat til we were sick. Well, with the rising generation of young Dowdlers, Camp Ground-doggie has been re-insituted as a central part of the yearly MT Rendezvous. The camp is also occasionally referred to as "Camp Whistle-Pig," and I would like to set the record straight that it was I, VANESSA, who came up with that clever little moniker. Just in case anyone else might be trying to take my glory.

This year's MT Rendezvous and Camp Whistle-Pig drew a crowd of 25 or so. Zo'An's cookies layered a good five pounds on my already sagging waistline, the river trip turned into more of a barbaric reliving of the defeat of Rome, the puppet show made us all laugh til our sides hurt, and Paul miraculously found his wedding ring. I think the week was a hit!

ATTENDEES: PLEASE! Take a moment and leave a comment telling us your favorite MT Rendezvous and Camp Ground-doggie experience! It's easy, click on "comments" at the bottom of this post. We'll put your comments in our Ground-doggie scrapbook.


Mom 's new couch only lasted a week. The cousins sure had fun breaking it, though! QUIZ: Can you find Heber?


Cars parked at the structure. Site of the Marshmallow Shooter Massacre.


Jackson, King of the Dirtpile!


Paul and beautiful Paloma.


Three Little Pigs at the puppet show.

More Rendezvous Observations

Think these two are related?


Dowdle men are easy to pick out in a crowd.

More Rendezvous Photos

Planting the Deanna Tree.