When Jane and I started our family we wanted one boy and one girl. The order in which they came didn't make any difference. We just wanted heathy babies, one of each gender and we could have a perfect family. Seems I couldn't follow the pattern very well when it came to baby making and we had two sons, Jason and Gary. They were fine boys and I was proud as a peacock then we decided to try just one more time for that little girl. Well, to make a long story short, we had Joshua and when I held him in my arms for the first time my chest almost burst from the pride of having another "Ballard boy."

Today, as I was playing with the latest edition to the Ballard family,Maddox Elias (named after me) I couldn't help but thank God for little boys. Maddox is a cute little red head, (actually strawberry blond) and has the deepest blue eyes. He will be celebrating his one year birthday tomorrow. Grandma is in the kitchen baking him a cake and the fire hall is reserved for some serious birthday partying tomorrow afternoon in spite of it being Halloween.

Maddox is a little angel and is sweet as honey. We have a little door swing he enjoys playing on and it is a good babysitter as well as helping to strengthen his legs. Little boys are prcious and will grow to be good men. thanks Josh and Autumn for giveing us Colton and Maddox.