flashback

I came across this funny photo a little while back and had to post it for some of you (you know who you are). It's not the greatest picture of any of us but it's pretty cute.

Congratulations

to our other friends as well on expecting their long awaited third baby! Many blessings to you guys too!

Pipecleaner Village

Emilee loves art and crafts. Her new found craft product is pipe cleaners. She got into a package one day and just started creating.

She now has a house complete with furniture (sofas, beds, chairs), complete with a swing set and trampoline, and an entire family of pipe cleaner people to go with it. Oh, can't forget the balloon and the rainbow for the sky. She's gone beyond her little village and started making baskets to carry things and much more. My amazing girl.

Pain in the neck sweaters

Emilee - (struggling to zip up her sweater) "What is this, one of those "pain-in-the-neck" sweaters?!?!?!?!"

God of miracles

So, my dear friend and her husband (Baby Makes Three) had a miracle baby last year after many years, prayers, and doctors. Josh is simply adorable as you can see! Well, to their surprise they found out yesterday that they are unexpectedly expecting ANOTHER BABY! Wow, was I shocked when she called to tell us last night! No doctors this time, just Almighty God who loves to bless us, surprise us, and work miracles!

Congratulations to all of you! You're going to be a big brother, Josh! Hurray!

We are so excited for you all!

(oh, and they'll have to change their blog name in 9 months! hee hee!)

FEAST!

Jon has had the stomach flu for the past four days. He's doing much better today but still taking it easy on his stomach. He has GREATLY missed food. He loves food and while sick he was talking about food all the time and how he couldn't wait to eat it again. After three days he looked like a skeleton of course. He had toast today which he has kept down thankfully. I just heard him upstairs telling Emilee a whole long list of everything he plans on feasting on tomorrow....."sausage, hot dogs, mac n cheese, pasta, muffins, ...." and on and on he went. It was SO funny! I better get cooking for this huge feast he's having!

God's many gifts

Emilee- "I'm so glad people made-up (invented) pumpkin pie so I could eat it...and things like muffins and cupcakes....you gotta love God's gifts!"

Just Two Small Questions

Emilee - "Mom, can I ask you a questions?"

Mom - "Sure."

Emilee - "Well, actually it's kinda two questions...."

Mom - "Okay, ask me two questions."

Emilee - "Can we get a boy bunny so that Callie can have babies?"

Dad (jumping in immediately to the conversation not giving mom a chance to answer) - "um, NO!"

Emilee (question #2)- "Well, then can we get a boy dog for Maggie so she can have puppies?"

Dad again quickly said "no way" and Emilee resorted to fake tears trying to work her magic on Daddy (she even was laughing in-between the fake tears) as Mom tried to explain the reasons we don't need to go into the bunny breading business and why Maggie wouldn't be the greatest mom to a herd of puppies aside from the fact that we don't have anywhere to put all these bunnies and puppies. It was difficult to convince Emilee's little heart that she would survive with just the one bunny and one dog that we already have and that it would be difficult to find people to buy all the bunnies and the puppies....and that did it!

Emilee - "You mean we'd have to SELL them all!?!?!" (and the flood gates of tears came)

All this time she thought we could keep them ALL!

Wow, raising girls really brings on the emotions. She ended up in Daddy's arms with Mom trying to console her. She quickly got over it (the benefit of fickle female emotions) and was playing "I can scare you better than you can scare me" with Dad.

Grandpa's Garden

We've been enjoying the harvest of Grandpa's garden! Yum!

Gram's Quilt

Jon's quilt at the fair....Gram won a ribbon for Honorable Mention. =0)

Fair

Grandpa and Gram took Jon and Em to the fair. They had so much fun and after a big bite of cotton candy, Jon said, "this is the life!"

Praising God for our Marriage

Thank you God, that you gave me this incredible man who loves you with all his heart. There is no sweeter sound to my ears than to hear him play and sing praise to you. He cherishes me and loves me so much. I'm always amazed at what he'll do for me. I love you so much, Buddy! Thank you for a "fabulous" weekend! The "memorial anniversary" talk that we have every year was especially treasured in my heart this year and I'm looking forward to the new goals we've set for our marriage and our family. It was so good to take time out to look over this past year and see what God is teaching us. You are an amazing man and I don't deserve you! Now, back into the reality of every day life and ministry.....God make us strong!

Reminiscent Inn

We got to go to a hotel that was modeled after the hotel that we spent part of our honeymoon at (The Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo)....and to our surprise we got a blue and white room which is exactly the colors of the room we had on our honeymoon....

Anniversary Weekend

We just got back from celebrating our anniversary over the weekend. It was an incredibly wonderful time relaxing together. Man, we need to do that more often!

Oh how I try......

Mom - "Emilee, why don't you have some french fries with your kid's meal so we can fatten you up a bit?"
Emilee - "No thanks, I'll just have a side salad."
Mom - "Emilee, how about a hot dog for lunch or a corn dog?"
Emilee - "No thanks, I'll just have a big Caesar salad please."
Mom - "Emilee, maybe you could order pizza tonight at the restaurant...it'll have some cheese for protein and some bread to fill you a little."
Emilee - "No, I really just want salad bar!"
Mom - "Emilee, do you want a yummy quesadilla for lunch?"
Emilee - "No thanks, I'll just have some crackers with cheese and some green beans please."

Zoe gets to come home today!

Celebrating with you Dave and Jenny!

Welcome home Zoe!

to us.....

even though we won't be seeing much of each other today or this evening due to your work schedule today......just wanted to get a post on here to remind you that I'm thinking about you a lot today and the significance of this day 13 years ago...... Loving you more every year, if that's even possible! xo

More proof

here is some more proof....Maggie in the yard without a leash behaving herself and not running away...never thought I'd see the day! Thanks to our friends who gave us the recommendation for the trainer!