Fun Fall Festival

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the Crosspoint Church County Fair. It was held at a local farm with all kinds of fun things to do. The kids all had a blast! Of course I took some pics of our time there.
This picture just makes me laugh. Andon loved this little donkey and it seemed to really like him too. He stayed there petting that thing the whole time we were waiting to ride the hay ride. So cute. :)

Uncle Jared and Kylie. We miss having her stinky self around.

The boys leading us through the corn maze. They loved taking turns leading us around. A couple of times one of them would lead us close to the end and then the other would get a turn and turn us back around. :)

The kids at the end of the corn maze.

My dare devil boys. :)


And he found another animal friend...

It was such a fun day at the farm. The weather was perfect and there really was so much to do. Just a week before we went there we took the boys to pick out pumpkins. They both got to pick out a face and help Jared carve it out. Their pumpkins turned out so neat and I did take a bunch of pictures but I somehow erased them of my card!! I was so bummed but at least it was just that!

My sister and her kids are now back home in FL. We are enjoying having a quiet house for the time being. :) We really do have so much going on that I can't wait to talk about. We were supposed to be headed home this weekend for Andon to have surgery next week but I am rescheduling it for December for a couple of reasons. I think we will be headed that way the week of Thanksgiving. Can't wait to see everyone! :)

Kylie's 1st Birthday!

Last weekend was my niece Kylie's 1st birthday. The whole house was decorated in pink and white balloons and streamers, it really was so sweet! I loved being able to celebrate this with her and my sister and nephew. The weather was beautiful so we grilled hamburgers and spent some time playing outside.

Here she is opening her presents, don't you love the sweet bow i got her! I almost bought two in case I have a girl but I didn't. :)

Here is her cute Care Bear cake...

And blowing out the candles with mama and her brother...

The fun part! Getting to tear up your very own cake! :) She loved it!

Posing with the boys.

She is just the sweetest little baby. Jared and I have really enjoyed having her here for the last month. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

ABC Mall Scavenger Hunt

After reading my friend Brittani's blog last week I saw that she took her kids for an ABC mall scavenger hunt. I loved the idea and had to take Andon and my nephew Cody. I went online for ideas but really couldn't find anything so I made my own list of things from an Apple to Pizza to an X-Large shirt. It was so fun running around looking for each letter and sounding them out together.

Here are some of the fun pictures I took of the boys. This is them standing under an apple. I didn't know how easy it was going to be to find an apple in the mall but as soon as we got there we saw this in the food court.

Here they are on the Escalator.

Looking so cute in these Hats.

My sister Jodie and my niece Kylie also came along. Kylie was so good the whole time, here she is with her sweet little self. :)

And here are the boys going over their lists to make sure they both got everything.

They both really enjoyed our first homeschool "field trip". When we were all done their prize was an icee from the pretzel place. :)

Matching Jammies

Just a fun post with pics of Andon, my nephew Cody and niece Kylie. Mostly for my Mom, my sister and her kids live with my parents and she is missing having them around so I told her I will try and keep the blog updated. (I'm not always the best at that :))
Here they are in their matching jammies...




The boys have been having so much fun getting to playing together and do school together. And Kylie is just the most precious thing. I have some really cute pics to post soon of her and her big grin. Too cute! :)

Rainy Week at the Cabin and Other Stuff

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately. I have had quite a bit going on and sometimes it's not always easy to write here. After my sister Jamie didn't come back to Tennessee with me I had a really hard time trying to understand all that happened with her. I am still struggling and heartbroken about it especially now knowing how long she may be in prison.

I am 12 weeks pregnant now... Today was the first day I didn't have to take the Zopran for nausea. I did start to feel sick around dinner time but once we ate I started to feel better. I would love to not have to take it but it is totally safe and since it helps so much I will if I have to. I do have a pooch I guess you could call it. :) I didn't show with Andon until around 20 weeks but this time around it's a little sooner. I don't have to wear maternity clothes or anything but my clothes feel tight. I think I will start taking some pics soon to post here. :)

We spent last week at some of our favorite people's cabin in the mountains in Georgia. It was such a nice relaxing week. It did rain the whole time we were there but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. I did take a few pics of what we were up to. Here are some of Jared and Andon putting together a Lego airplane.

Andon made a small one while Daddy was making the big one.

The finished product.

We spent a lot of our time at the different creeks and rivers nearby. One of the places we stopped had a rope swing that we couldn't get Andon off of. He loved swinging out over the river. I decided to do it also and as soon as I left the land the rope came out from under my foot and I was just hanging on! I had to hold onto this knot while I swung way out over the river and back. Needless to say I didn't do it again! :) Here is my little guy on the swing.



Here is my sweet guy just looking out over the water. :)

Now we're back home and have company once again. My other sister Jodie called us a few weeks ago and asked if she and her kids could come and stay with us for a little while. She is going through some really hard things and we are trying to help her through this. Please pray for her. I do have some fun pics to come of the kids. My sister has a 5 year old boy and a 1 year old little girl. Andon is loving having them here! We got a fun idea from my creative friend Brittani to go on an ABC Mall scavenger hunt. The boys loved it and I took tons of pics to post here soon.

9 Weeks

I still can't believe we are pregnant!! :) Our due date is April 7, 2010. It has been a long road to get to this point. But after 3 and 1/2 years God chose to bless us with another baby. I am truly thankful and absolutely amazed at His perfect timing.

Let me tell you though...

This pregnancy has already been totally different than my last! I think I got sick once while being pregnant with Andon. And with this one, I have been sick for the last 4 weeks!! It has been so hard. Not only dealing with the nausea and vomiting I also got a sinus infection and a chest cold. And then after taking a walk one evening last week I returned home and blood just started pouring out of me (sorry if that makes anyone sick) but it was pretty scary. We headed to the hospital and found out (after waiting for 6 hours) that I had a small tear in the uterus. The baby was totally fine. They said I should be on bed rest for a week or so to let it heal. Needless to say my sweet husband has been doing everything around here. I am SO thankful for him. He cooked, cleaned, grocery shopped, took care of me and Andon and all the while worked.

But the great news is that I have been feeling somewhat better the last 2 days! I even cooked dinner last night which was so nice. I actually miss cooking. weird. I have been taking Zofran and it really helps! I don't really feel normal but I feel like I can start to do things again. I had an appointment with my Dr. yesterday and she said the tear looks good and hopefully will just continue to heal itself.

Now that I am feeling better I plan to update the blog a bit more frequently. Please pray that I stay feeling better. I hope this isn't a little fluke!! :) Either way we are so thrilled.

And thank you all for the sweet comments on Jared's last post. I just loved reading every single one of them. I know so many of you have cried with me and prayed for me over the last few years and I am so thankful for you.

Love, Jen

He is Sufficient

I need to start off by saying that Jen and I are in a good place. Moving to TN propelled us headlong into a deeper relationship and understanding with each other and with God. I am not saying that everything is easy, actually everything that has happened or is currently happening is difficult. The job I have dedicated the last eleven years of my professional life to is coming to a close. As a family we felt led to serve Jen's sister with our time, talents and gifts (knowing the journey and outcome would be difficult) as well as the stress of leaving family and friends. This, oddly enough has been exactly what we needed. I will explain. Moving took away any safety net we ever had, it exposed the need to live life with no comforts of a home, not hiding in the comfort of friends and no idea what tomorrow would bring. Living this way reveals the need to not rely on anything but Him, and that's what we are doing. Jen and I often joke that today we are in TN, tomorrow we could be half way across the world and if that's what He wants then we will gladly go. Living this way also reveals where you are personally and spiritually. It forces you to take a long hard look at yourself and make one of two decisions. Either ignore what is before you and slip deeper into oblivion or face the reality willingly and be challenged to change. We chose change. It has been the drum beat of every decision, every conversation and every day. God revealed the need for us to depend on Him and grow. He also revealed that all we have is now, not our past or the promise of tomorrow but the here and now. This grants you the freedom to consider all things joy, even the things you felt you would have to do without. One of those things we had to let go of was the promise of having another child. For three and a half years we have tried and just recently let go. We accepted the idea that this might not be His will even though it is our desire. In place of that we chose Him and found He was sufficient.

Jen and I just started asking God "what's next?". With Jamie leaving we turned to Him and said, "ok, you asked us to do this with no guarantee of a positive result and we did, we served. Where else would you have us focus, who should we display love to like you have given us" and God's response was "In your family" needless to say He has chosen to bless us with another child. Jen found out that she is pregnant and I could not be more in awe and in love with God. Even as I write this I am crying with joy.

I want to thank everyone who has walked this journey with Jen and I, who have prayed for our family and the blessing of another child. Your prayers and ours have been answered.