Update

Ok, I can't believe almost a whole month has gone by since I last updated. I don't feel like I have been that busy...but then again life can get crazy at times. So here is the latest since our fall fun pics.


We had all decided on Lilly being Sleeping Beauty for Halloween, she wears a pink dress which is Lilly's favorite so this all made sense. We had the dress and I bought the crown, wand, and some fun shoes to go with it. Lilly was so excited when it was finally time to dress up she loved her costume. So she wore it one Saturday to a Fall Festival at church. The next Thursday to preschool for their Halloween Party. Halloween morning to a friend's princess birthday party. When it came time for her to dress up to go Trick or Treating that night she had decided that she did not want to be Sleeping Beauty anymore. She thought about being Ariel, then finally decided on Cinderella. Josh took Lilly out around the neighborhood and she came home freezing cold, but very proud of her bucket full of candy. We bought two huge bags of candy from Costco and I thought for sure we would have lots of candy left over to munch on. However, our new neighborhood is huge...so we gave every bit of it away. Joy was our little pumpkin and I even found a pumpkin costume for Rudy.

All the little princesses dancing at the birthday party


Look at all that candy!

Have you ever seen such a happy pumpkin?


Cinderella and her glass slipper pumpkin


Joy is thinking...What is that orange thing on the dog, if only I can touch it...

After Halloween we had a baby dedication at church. This is Joy's second dedication, so she is going to be one blessed baby. She got another little Bible and we were given a prayer partner in the church to pray over our family. We were all given flowers. There was a yellow one to represent the little baby as precious as gold, a red one to represent the mother's blood bond with her child, and a white one to symbolize the father and the purity that would be prayed for in his raising this new baby. And the greenery was to symbolize the church all around our family praying over us and helping hold us all together. I loved looking at the flowers all week to remind me of this special day. We also enjoyed a yummy dinner after church with all the other babies and their families.



Joy is now five months old (soon to be six months next week) and is sitting up on her own. She has started eating rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and she is going to try squash tomorrow. She laughs several times a day and gives the biggest smile when daddy comes home from work. She caught her second cold this month (I think Lilly picked up something from preschool, then passed it on.) So we were home sick for a whole week. Joy is fascinated with Rudy and tries to reach out and touch his ears every chance she gets. She is grabbing anything and everything within her hands reach. Joy loves to suck her thumb and fingers. The new favorite way is her first two fingers turned around backward. Lilly is starting to play with Joy more and they love to scream back and forth at each other in a way that sounds like they are speaking their own language saying the most important things to each other. These are precious moments and I am trying to soak up every minute of them.


And I will finish up this long post with a picture that says it all.....
Yes...the house is fully decorated for Christmas. Two trees, stockings hung, peppermint placemats at the table, and a wreath on the door. I know it is early, but we are going to be out of town the next two weekends and I had to find something to do being home for a week taking care of the girls...and we just love Christmas!

Fun in the Fall...

Things have slowed down a bit and it seems like we are actually finding time to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. About a month after the move, everyone (except for me :) got sick, then Josh had a few out of town conferences, so me and the girls headed to Atlanta for about a week to visit Nana and Papa. Now we are all back home, everyone is well (I pray we stay that way for a while) and we are feeling much more settled in our new town. This week we took a trip out to Gentry Farms and we all had a blast.



Halloween is such an exciting time around our house. We have out all the fall decor, Lilly and Josh have loved taking walks and checking out all the decorations in the neighborhood - there is some really spooky stuff out there, and I love the smell of the spiced pumpkin candle. I also have to say I love our Saturdays of just hanging around the house and having football on all day. I am not the most avid football watcher (I was a cheerleader in H.S. and I still can't tell you what is going on in the field most of the time), but I was watching with Josh tonight the end of the AL/TN game and all I have to say is "Roll Tide!"
But back to fall and Halloween. We just took some time this weekend to enjoy the leaves changing, the cooler weather, and just hanging out with each other. I also took lots of pictures of Joy - she is just growing so fast....but this first one of Lilly and Rudy is great. They were just hanging out in the front yard and she loved holding his leash and dragging him all over the place




Tonight we had a fall festival at church and all the kids went in costume. Lilly is Sleeping Beauty this year - her favorite princess because she wears a pink dress. Look for the next post of Lilly in full costume....

New things....

I can't believe that a month has gone by since I last updated the blog. All of my time has gone to unpacking, finding my way around a new city, meeting new people, keeping up with Lilly, and taking care of Joy 24/7. Needless to say there have not been to many spare moments to sit in front of the computer. So here is the latest:

My favorite baby thing right now is the bumbo, just look how many different ways it can be used:


Yes this is our new backyard - This is definitely Lilly's favorite spot to hang out in our new house.



There have been lots of other new things going on as well:


Lilly's first day of preschool


Joy is now four months old


Yes Rudy is still around and as obnoxious as he was before (now he likes to find random things to bark at in the house)


We have managed to do a few fun things as well (these two I actually remembered to bring my camera for)

Play Day out at Monkey's Treehouse with friends (this was the neatest place to play with all sorts of different activities in this huge room, the girls had a blast!)


Family outing to Gentry Farms - Mr. Gentry cutting a pumpkin for Lilly. This is the perfect place to find pumpkins and there is so many fun things to do out on the farm.

The big 3-0

As of today 3 is the new number at our house. We have an almost 3 month old, Lilly just turned 3 last week, Josh turned 30 in Feb, and as of today I am officially 30. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday such a special day! Our small group from church had a b'day / going away party for us tonight. Lisa made two fabulous cakes and of course everyone sang! My parents came in for the weekend to help me celebrate. Josh bought me the most beautiful flowers. I actually think I might have forgotten that it was my b'day, with all the stuff we have going on at the moment, so thanks to all of you for my cards, phone calls, and thoughtful words to wish me a Happy Day. It was great!

Happy Birthday Lilly!

I can't believe my little girl is now three! It seems like she was only born yesterday, time sure flies.....So for the party we had it at the Sprinkler Park! Lilly woke up that morning so excited and she was bouncing around all day. She kept saying "Am I really 3?" For the moment, her favorite characters are the Disney Princesses. She knows them all by names, the songs they sing, what color each princesses dress is, the names of their princes, and even the names of the mean villain in each movie.....everything there is to know about these magical girls. So of course we had princess plates, napkins, balloons, and a banner. This year I decided to make cupcakes, since we were outdoors it was the easy option. They were not your ordinary cupcakes, they were princess cupcakes of course - with princess papers, princess sprinkles (crowns, slippers, pearls, and the red apples). Each cupcake was topped with a princess ring for the kids. I had pink cupcakes with white icing and white cupcakes with pink icing - it was so girly and just perfect for Lilly! The best part of the party was watching the kids have a blast running through the sprinklers. It all ended with the princess pinata! They now have these cool string pinatas where you give all the kids a string, they pull them and the pinata opens up. They loved collecting candy and filling up the princess bags. Lilly had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it!
We ended our celebration by eating out at Red Robin (one of her favorite spots) This was the first time she had people sing to her at a restaurant. At first she was a little shocked, then she started clapping, and the best part of all was eating the ice cream sundae. So there are all the details of the day.
So now I have a three year old sound asleep, an almost three month old sound asleep, Josh is out running, and we are all in need of some much needed rest from our big weekend. It amazes me how fast Lilly changes and grows. She is full of life, energy, and bursting with emotions - some good and some bad. She loves to read her Bible and is fascinated by the stories of Adam and Eve, Jesus Walking on the Water, and the hurt man (aka: The good Samaritan). She loves to eat turkey and cheese sandwiches, strawberries, yogurt, waffles, wheat thins, and marshmallows. She is quite a daddy's girl and loves to have "Daddy Days" (on his off day.) Their favorite thing to do together is walk down to the lake and go fishing. This is a usual occurrence on most nights. They walk down there with their poles, Lilly has a pink princess pole - Thanks to Papa. The thing to fish with these days are crickets from Wal-mart. Tonight they caught 8 fish. Lilly touches the fish, then Josh throws them back in. She loves to help me in the kitchen, we make banana bread and cookies together. Lilly's love for Joy grows each day as well. She still has her moments of jealousy - I think all of with brothers and sisters still have trouble with this at some time or another. But, Lilly is a great big sister and gives Joy lots of hugs and kisses every day. I thank God for my precious three year old girl, what a blessing it is to have kids. I pray that this year brings Lilly with lots of happy moments, that a strong bond with little sister will start to form, and that her love for God will continue to grow.

Baby blessing

This Sunday was a big day at Grace Crossing. Our little Joy was blessed in several ways. The morning started with a reception for all the babies. We filled our tummies with some good breakfast and talked to the other parents. We were one of the few without familes in town to celebrate the big day. Both of our families are coming to celebrate Lilly's birthday, and apparently she takes priority over Joy at the moment....Anyways, there was a special time of the service where we were presented with a Bible for Joy and we stood before the church while one of the elders blessed our little girl. He challenged each set of parents to raise their child in a God-centered home and had the congregation agree to take a part in helping us care for these precious little ones. It was a special day. I pray for Joy each night as I put her to bed that she will grow up with a love for Christ and know how much she is loved by her heavenly Father.
All the baby girls


I love this shot!

Guess Who?

Everyone has been saying how much the two girls look alike, so I found these two pics-both of them are 2 months old. So what do you think? Which is Lilly and which is Joy?