On the Road Again!

Just headed in the other direction!! I am so excited to be going home to see everyone! We left this morning around 5:00. We are currently in N. Georgia so we still have a LONG way to go... But so far so good. We stopped and got breakfast and Starbucks. Andon has already watched one movie. And has already asked if we are in Florida about 50 times. :)

Here are a couple pictures of the back seat passengers...



And of course the handsome driver.. :)


Please pray for safe travel for us. It is pouring where we are and visibility is awful!

Thanks so much!

~Jen

Our sweet little Juma

Last night we sat down as a family and went through the Compassion International website. Compassion International is a Christian child advocacy ministry that aids children all over the world. We have been talking about sponsoring a child forever so it was very fun to actually do it!

If you go through the website they have many pictures of children who need a sponsor. It only costs 32.00 a month to help provide food and clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, important life-skills training and most importantly they will hear about Jesus!

We narrowed it down (it is so hard to choose) to a sweet little 4 year old boy in Tanzania, East Africa. His name is Juma and he has no siblings and lives with his grandparents. The website tells you what chores they do around the house and what they like to do for fun. We can write him letters and sweet cards anytime we want!

We are so excited to be a small part of Juma's life. Even though Andon thinks he is already his brother and that we may go get him!! :)

I put a link on the side of my page if anyone is interested in sponsoring a child.

~Jen

It's Snowing Here!!

Yesterday evening when Jared came home he said it was lightly snowing outside. I looked and it really wasn't much. It already has snowed once but just a few flurries and I was freaking out! Hey, I was born and raised in Florida, what do you expect? :) Well a few hours had gone by, Andon was in bed sleeping and Jared and I just finished watching a movie. I kept hearing people outside and had to know what the fuss was all about. I looked out the window and everything was pure white!! It was so bright outside that it looked like daylight! It was beautiful! I was running around the house so excited. We had to wake Andon up because he has been waiting to be able to make a snowball! :) So we all got dressed and headed out to play for a little.

I didn't have my camera last night or I would have pictures. But, I did get it today!! Yes, I know that is very exciting to everyone reading this... Probably not, but I am thrilled to have it back before Christmas. :)

So, here are a few pictures of Andon playing in the snow today...


Here he is making one of the many snow angels he made! :)


And here he is eating the snow! Don't worry, I reminded him of the yellow stuff... :)


Andon is home today because they called off school for this little bit of snow! He can say he had his first "snow day"! :)

Rockin Out at the Show!

I mentioned in a previous post that when Jared was working the YS Convention here in Nashville, Andon and I were able to hang out one of the days. We had so much fun hanging in the booth and walking around the show looking at all the fun stuff there.

One booth was a company that does youth camps in Colorado so they had fake snow blowing out the whole time with a really neat outdoorsy backdrop. Andon brought me back to that booth four times to play in the snow. I guess he thought it was real. :) There was also live music playing just a few booths down from where we were which was so fun.

Jared's company was having a contest running in their booth and the prize was the game Guitar Hero. So in between all the people playing, Andon would grab the guitar and rock out a little. While he was playing Pam snapped this photo for me. Thanks, Pam!

He loves playing guitar and really any instrument. So for Christmas one of his gifts is a new guitar and lessons. Jared and him are going to learn together! I don't know, maybe this Nashville thing is already starting to rub off on us! :)

Pics with Santa!

A couple friends of mine have posted pictures of their kids with Santa from the last few years and I loved it! So I went looking for the pics of Andon and Santa. Trying to figure out which years I took him and actually have a picture to show!

Andon was born in November of 2003 and we didn't take him to see Santa that year so no picture. :(

I did take him in 2004 but I didn't get the picture on a CD and I didn't bring a camera so I have a really cute picture that I can't post. It is the cutest one, you know when they are screaming their heads off to get away from the crazy man!

I guess I didn't take him to see him in 2005 either because I can't find a picture and really can't remember taking him. Oh my, I can't believe I am talking about this! I know this is a big tradition with some people and you really wouldn't miss it but it hasn't really been to us. Though I will say it has been fun the last few years taking him!

Here are a couple pictures from 2006...



Here are a couple pictures from 2007...


And here is the pic from this year... We took him over while Daddy was home for the week of Thanksgiving.

I have to say, the Santa in Florida was awesome! The Santa here was very sweet but the colors of the photos and the whole setup wasn't nearly as good. But oh well, Andon didn't notice a differance.
It was so cute watching him talk to him so seriously about some Batman toy he wanted. And Santa was looking up at us saying "Oh a Batman toy, good". So funny! I don't really remember that from the years before so it was very funny to me.

On a side note, I really can't stand not having a camera around. There are so many times I have gone to pull it out. I haven't heard back from Nikon yet as to when I will be getting it. Hopefully before Christmas!!

I took Andon to his first Tae Kwon Do class today. They told us to come at 3:50 so we did and when we got there the guy said the class starts at 4:30. So he gave Andon a private lesson until the class began. We get 2 classes for free as well as the adorable uniform! And then we can decide if we want to enroll him. I think we will after Christmas vacation. It was so fun to watch him learning from a Tae Kwon Do master, I was just sitting in the back quietly watching and smiling.

Jared had the last week off and we spent a lot of time together. Watching movies, eating way too much food and getting some Christmas shopping done. The only bummer thing was the day before Thanksgiving we decided to upgrade our software from Tiger to Leopard or something like that and cleared out our internet!? It was terrible! I'm not on the computer that much but to not be able to go on it AT ALL was no fun. And it was like that for 5 days! Anyway, I'm back in business and the computer is running better and faster than ever!

Hope everyone is doing well!! All 10 of you who read this!! :)