Awards Night & Last Game

Friday night was the awards night for the end of the basketball season. Josiah came home from school that day complaining of a headache, so he was not in top spirits for the night. Poor kid.

Did I say the program was LONG? 2.5 hours long! Jacob and Callie spent much of it underneath the stairs that were next to us in the sanctuary. Sigh.

But then we got to head to the gym for cupcakes afterwards, so that helped!

Trying to muster up enough energy for a smile. Not feeling well + past his bedtime...poor guy.

I videotaped his game, so jacob actually took this picture. i was exhausted afterwards. It's always a little tricky keeping track of both callie and jacob during the games (david is a coach, so he's unavailable), and it's a tight space. Add to that trying to hold the camcorder and get decent footage, well, you can imagine. oh, and constantly pulling up the maternity jeans that keep falling down....imagine.

that's me in the jeans and red top. callie insisted on climbing all over me most of the time. this was one of the older sisters from a boy on our team - she liked trying to entertain callie for me most of the season.

this gives you an idea of what happens when you give your 4 year old the camera. actually, i didn't give it to him. he took it out of my purse, and i was otherwise occupied.

joel is our neighbor. their family knew david from memphis (back in the rock star days), and we were thrilled when we moved on the same cul-de-sac as them!!! Go figure! They have been sweet family friends to us. Their dad, Jay, coached the team, and joel and josiah loved being teammates.

Sadie turns 3!

Sunday afternoon (after the fair - it was QUITE a day!), we got to celebrate Sadie's 3rd birthday with her! If anyone has ever complimented Callie on her outfit, it's really all thanks to Sadie. She has been gracious enough to pass along her hand-me-downs to Callie, and has mostly clothed her these last two years. We have been VERY thankful! Their family are sweet friends of ours, and we wouldn't have missed her party for the world!

Callie tried on some of Sadie's new jewelry that she got....(and this is as close to earrings as her little ears will see until she's 13!!)

The Fair Came to Town!

Our children's ministry put on a "fair" for the grade school kids last Sunday. Their word of the month was "fairness", and so they did a fair after church that was free for the whole family. Because it rained, the pony rides were cancelled, but MUCH fun was had by all. We had hot dogs, an inflatable, carnival games, popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy - what could be better? We had a great time!

I LOVE these people! This is our small group. They all volunteered to serve as a class that morning - and half of the group doesn't even have kids! We were overwhelmed by their willingness to serve - and so proud of our group. We had 17 people there - and we were the lunch ladies! :) Wrapped hot dogs, made lemonade, set up tables, etc, etc. It was SO fun!

David was great - while I was serving food, he took the kids around and enjoyed the fair with them. Who doesn't love a little cotton candy!

Josiah and Jacob loved their snow-cones.

Callie liked the "rubber duck" game. She thought she was doing it like all the big kids - but really she just kept reaching in and pulling them out of the water. Whatever -she loved it!

The last day of practice

They ended practice with a scrimmage: kids vs. parents. The kids won! (David's got the ball in this one...he didn't go down without a fight!)
Callie made a slam dunk at the end...

Doing some drills with his team...

Jacob loved watching Josiah at practice...and especially loved before & after when he would go out on the court with him!

And here's Callie posing with her new purse! This is how she carried it everywhere...I swear I didn't teach her this!!!

Monday night was Josiah's last basketball practice. He has his awards night on Friday and then his final game on Saturday morning. This has been his first year playing basketball, and our first year with the Upward program. I can't say enough good things about the program - it has been wonderful!! Josiah has really loved it and has learned a lot, to my surprise. We are thrilled to be able to continue playing Upwards sports in SC - it's a REALLY great program!

Pizza Night

Here are the girls L-R: Katy, Jayne, Natalie, Sue, and Heidi
And the boys L-R: Trevor, David, Craig, Kevin, Dave

Sue & Heidi with their baby girls - Madeline and Laura

And here's our boys having their "own" game night on the Wii :)

Last Saturday night, we decided quite spontaneously to get together with our "old" small group. I really probably should say "former" small group. We met together for 3 years before David and I left last fall to start another group. With all the craziness lately, I felt like it had been forever since we'd all gotten together and caught up. So we had a "bring your favorite pizza" and let's play games night! It was lots of fun - I put Callie to bed at her normal 7 pm, and the boys were happy as clams to play the Wii with the other big boys. What a fun night!

18 Weeks!

Sorry about the glare off the picture. All my blinds are open because it's a beautiful, sunshiny day here - in the 60s! :) Next Thursday is my ultrasound - hooray!

Better

....better today, although the frustration continued last night when we stayed up late to watch American Idol only to have it be a total disappointment!!! Oh well...

Today has been better - I'm feeling slightly more in control of things. :) I had about an hour this morning when I decided against running some errands and just stayed home and got some cleaning done - vacuumed, laundry folded, put away, and more loads in. It felt good. Bathrooms will have to wait until tomorrow I think. Jacob & Callie are asleep, and I'm going to try and get my maternity clothes (which are still in tubs and garbage bags) put into the closet. Since it's time to pack away some of the regular clothes now....sad. I'll try and have Josiah take a picture of me later to post...after all, I'm 18 weeks today! :)

Frustrated

I'm going to preface this post by saying that, first of all, I am SO thankful. For so many things. For my precious HEALTHY children. For this sweet little one growing inside of me. For my wonderful husband. For this amazing job opportunity that God has brought to us. But man am I starting to feel a bit overwhelmed these days. I don't feel like I can get a step ahead at all. It's all I can do to not fall behind. Whether it's laundry, groceries, paperwork - there's just so much. Trying to keep the house clean so that it's ready to show at any minute. Struggling to balance all of my normal life stuff, watching an extra child 3x a week, church responsibilities, and yet feeling completely exhausted. It's frustrating feeling as though you need more time, and yet have got to lay down for a nap or you won't make it through the day! Knowing that we have a very busy few weeks ahead of us. We head down to SC next weekend for the official "vote-in" weekend at the church, and we are SO excited! But I know it's going to kick off a whirlwind of activity too - David's first Sunday at the church will be Easter Sunday. Which is a HUGE service to plan and is not that far off. So there's a lot to be done.

We are still praying fervently for our house to sell so that we can all move together at the same time. Otherwise, we'll be facing a period of separation while the kids and I stay here to get the house sold and David starts work down there. Something that we had decided on a few months ago, but as I get more and more pregnant every day, feels more and more daunting to me.

I don't feel as though I can even put very many deep thoughts together lately. I'm trying to focus on the main things - and unfortunately the other things are going to have to wait. I'm okay with that though! I have felt very protective over my kids recently - I think because of all these trips we've been having to make and having to "deposit" them with people. I'm just ready to be settled...but that's a ways off. It's okay though. I'm working on finding contentment amidst the chaos!

17 weeks

So you here you have it. The long-awaited, much-anticipated, first belly picture. Sigh. It was a very long day (well, they all are I suppose), so this is what you get. But I was 17 weeks along. At least still in "regular" clothes, although I have worn some maternity stuff on a couple days. My jeans are still okay, although getting tighter in the waist - especially at the end of the day. My shirts are getting a bit ridiculous - they are getting shorter and shorter as my belly is pushing them out. But feeling pretty good. Not too sick on most days, and tired (but who isn't?). It's sort of hard to believe that it's almost halfway over. It makes me sad. You all know how much I LOVE being pregnant, so to think that I'm this far along makes me a bit sad. I think I've felt the baby move once or twice, but nothing concrete yet. My ultrasound is in 2 weeks, and YES we always find out. We'll tell everyone except for those precious friends of mine that don't ever find out and drive ME crazy!!! :) (Just kidding girls - you KNOW I love you!!) I'm still running 15-20 miles a week, although I'm getting slower (by the day it feels like), and it makes it hard when you have to go to the bathroom all the time! Still running though - haven't had to start taking walk breaks yet, although I'm sure that's not far off. The last two days I felt like I was consciously aware of my stomach the whole time - either because I probably look ridiculous, or I'm just feeling the weight of it. Sad either way! No crazy cravings, although anything with red sauce (spaghetti, lasagna, etc) is always guaranteed to taste good to me. Chicken stuff sometimes can go either way - I think mostly because that time of night, the handling of raw chicken can put me over the edge with my nausea. We still are clueless with names again...a few in the discussions, but we're pretty undecided. Josiah has voted for "ben" if it's a boy, and "beautus" if it's a girl - because it sounds like beautiful, he said. Sweet boy. Callie has just learned to say "Noah" this week (there is a Noah in her biblestudy class on Weds.), so maybe that's what we should name our baby! :) Just kidding. It will come to us I'm sure.

So there you have it - my prego update!!! :)

Out with the old and In with the new!

Here's the old bag....and YES, I have washed it before....
... and here's her new bag! I just love it!

It was time. I've been wanting a new diaper bag for Callie for months now. My mom got me her other one when she was born, and I have LOVED it. She got it from Lands End, and it seriously was the best diaper bag I'd ever had. Did not wear out, had great space and organization inside - it was perfect. I specifically chose the big one because I knew with 3 kids at home (when Callie was born, I had all 3 at home with me every day still b/c Josiah wasn't in school yet), I needed room in her diaper bag for snacks and cups for the other kids too! But now that she's getting closer to 2 (good grief...), she only needs a small bag for a diaper, some wipes, and a cup and snack. Oh and the hand sanitizer of course. So I found this adorable new little bag for Callie today at TJMaxx - isn't it the cutest? Pink and green - my favorite. I wish I had one too so we could match! She LOVES it. And when I say LOVES it, I'm serious. I love that she can carry it herself!!!

Waiting

Isaiah 40:31 - "...but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength...

Here's some more nuggets of truth from Beth Moore in this week's study. This session was all about timing. How hard it is. How there's time to wait. Time to speak and time to be silent. All of that. She closed the session with this little nugget of truth, and read the scripture from Isaiah 40:31 - a verse that is very familiar to most of us. But she shared something that I hadn't thought about before. She talked about how most of us would agree that waiting is one of the most EXHAUSTING things for us - so hard, so draining, so exhausting. Yet that Scripture talks about waiting will renew their strength? Why? Because we are so often waiting on the THING (the job offer, the financial provision, the house to sell!!!!!, the baby to come, the change in schedule, whatever your THING may be) when instead we should be waiting on the LORD!!! That's the difference!!! So that's been my challenge for the last few days - that I'm going to wait on the LORD instead of the THING!

Sunday - our last day in Floriday! :(

Here's our "Barefoot and Pregnant" picture! Would you believe this is the only picture I got of me and Kelli? I know - I'm mad about it too. But I was too busy working!!! Anyways, this was Sunday afternoon after having a FABULOUS lunch of salmon, couscous (my new fave), and asparagus. We were all still puttering around the kitchen, and I pulled out a plate from the fridge with 2 pieces of leftover cake from the shower. I took 1 piece and left the other plate on the counter. A minute or two later, Kelli came along and picked up the other piece and started eating. We were DYING laughing. So that's the picture - barefoot, pregnant, and eating cake together! :) I love it!
This was so bizarre. Callie started this new thing that weekend. Everytime she'd bring her shoes or socks to put on, she'd lay down FLAT on the floor. Didn't matter if she was in the house, in the kitchen, or out in the yard. She totally laid flat out! It was hilarious!

After naptime, we headed to the beach for a little bit. It's so relaxing. I'm going to miss living so close to the beach. There's just something so peaceful about the wind and the sound of the water. It was 70-80 degrees there all weekend - totally perfect.

Beach bums! Kristen, Mom, and Kelli

Don't know why, but Callie spent about 10 minutes just dumping sand on her head. We commented that Josiah would have been appalled by that behavior and told her to stop, and Jacob would have helped her and probably bury the poor girl in the process!!

Mom saying goodbye to Callie in the airport.

The trip home was a little harder than the trip there. Our first flight left West Palm at 6:45 pm - which is practically bedtime anyways for Callie. She was already tired - it had been a LONG weekend, and we were definitely feeling it. She was a little more cranky and not as content to sit still on that flight. This was at the end when we were getting ready to get off in Atlanta. She laid down on the floor of the airplane under the seats. (I know - disgusting...) Then our second flight from Atlanta to home was delayed. So she just ran up and down the terminal for a couple hours. She was happy, but I was EXHAUSTED. We didn't leave there until almost 10:30 PM. Thankfully, she fell right asleep once we boarded the plane. We got home right at about 1 AM,and woke up the next morning to snow on the cars and grass. Talk about temperature change!!! It was SUCH a fun weekend - I would totally do it all over again and a million times more. We LOVED celebrating with you Kelli!!!

Celebrating Kelli's Baby!!!

Saturday, Feb. 14 was the morning of Kelli's shower. She chose to do it at 10 am, so it was perfect for brunch (and you all KNOW how much I love brunch foods!) Here's what our menu included: sausage brunch squares, ham croissants, fruit kabobs with yogurt dip, veggie pizza squares, cheese & crackers, proscuitto wrapped melon, smoked salmon on cucumber slices, deviled eggs with chopped pecans and bacon, and chocolate dipped strawberries. I think that's everything anyways. Oh - and that yummy punch that you make with sherbet!!! Everything was SO good! I'm SO mad I didn't take a picture of all the food!!! Anyways, we had a beautiful clubhouse that we had the shower at, and everything went so well! It was so much fun! Afterwards, we realized that this was the FIRST shower (bridal or baby) that we ALL were able to be at. It was so much fun to be together, and celebrate Kelli's baby boy that is coming in April!!!

I made Kelli a diaper cake! I LOVE doing these for gifts - they are sooo cute!

A friend of Kelli's (Melissa) helped us out with some of the plans for shower. Melissa's mom made these adorable little favors. She did little pacifiers out of lifesavers & jellybeans, and then these cute little booties that we filled with blue m&ms. I found some hershey kisses at walmart that were wrapped in blue foil and had "it's a boy" flags coming out of them. They were SO cute! We had these on all the tables - it looked really cute.

Since it was Valentine's Day, Melissa ordered a cake with blue hearts on it! :) It was yummy!

My sister Kim brought me down several outfits for Callie to wear that weekend (because we don't have any summer clothes yet - it's still 30 degrees here!!!) Kim's neighbor had sent them down for Callie to borrow, and this dress was one of them - it was SOOO cute!

Here's the "prom" picture - Kim pinning the corsage on Kelli.

Mom and Kelli

(L-R) Katy, Mom, Kelli, Kimberly, and Kristen

I tied a balloon to Callie's dress, so I could see her at any time! :) She just ran around the room the whole time, waving and talking to the ladies. Every now and then, a sister would take her to run outside for a bit, but she really did great. I think it's because she thought the party was for her! :)

Mary was in charge of handing Kelli her gifts, and she helped keep Callie OUT of the presents too!

Kelli opening some of her gifts....this blanket may be THE blanket. (You know Courtney, how every mom has a FAVORITE blanket...i remember your post about Sawyer's blanket....and this one for Kelli even has the polka dots on it too!)

This onesie says "Daddy and I agree...Mommy is the boss!"

One of Kelli's friends has a diaper bag business (Note to Kelli for when I have MY baby!!! :) ), and she made her this ADORABLE diaper bag for sweet Baby Joseph when he comes!

Kelli's husband Scott is a HUGE surfer, so someone got them this cute little tummy time mat that looks like a surfboard!!!

Thankfully, these pictures were AFTER the shower was over. We had stacked up all the gifts and stuff to take home, and Callie somehow got into the diaper cake! (no worries, I fixed it later), but she looked at us like "I don't know what happened here people!" I think she was after the brush/comb that was put in the diaper cake - she had that in her hand and was brushing her hair when she was discovered!

Here's Kelli and Melissa - they have been running/training partners for 4 or 5 years now - done countless races, half-marathons, and marathons together!

My mom & sisters and I all got her the car seat that she registered for! Very exciting!