3k Bus Trip

Caroline had her first field trip for 3k today. The kids took a bus tour of the city. The kids LOVED it! We went to the airport, the main hospital, the train station and the fire station. The kids were GLUED to the window! So thankful my job allows me to attend fun things like this with her! :0)

waiting

loving this sweet girl

amazed!

workout wednesday-week #12

WOO HOO!!!!! Since I will no longer be checking in every other week with weight and such, I thought I would post info today and then again at week 16. I weighed in this morning at 173! I started at 186 so I'm down 13 pounds!! I am thrilled! I love that I have been able to wear clothes that I haven't worn in well over a year! I also love that I "like" myself in pictures again! The weather last week and the flat tire on my jogging stroller didn't help my running but thankfully I am back on track this week. Yesterday I was able to run 2.8 miles with Caroline in 30 minutes. So I was pretty happy with that. That is the longest that we've gone together. I hope that tomorrow I will be able to complete the entire 3.1 miles with her.

I have a little over 5 weeks to get ready for my first 5k! I am so stinking excited!!!

Week #1

Week #12

Happy 10th BirthdayJack and Grace

Hard to believe these sweet kids are 10!! WOW time flies! Andy and I had only been dating a couple of months when Tomi Jean found out she was pregnant. We were actually celebrating my 21st birthday when I found out. It's been so much fun watching them grow up...they really are great kids with big hearts!

I think somebody really enjoyed the ice cream!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Hard to believe that my daddy would have been 67 today. I can't help but wonder what his life would look like had he not gotten cancer. I am sure that he would have retired a few years ago, been a full time farmer and would be loving on all his grand-babies!! But instead I am confident that he is in Heaven, celebrating and loving life!

Happy Birthday Pops!

No more wooden blocks

The wooden blocks are officially off Caroline's pedals. When she got her tricycle at Christmas, she couldn't quite reach the pedals. So we added some wooden blocks with duck tape and it worked great! Now she no longer needs the extra help...such a big girl! :-)

Welcome to the world John-Joseph

We were so excited to learn last night that Christian John-Joseph made his entrance into the world! Healthy and handsome, we couldn't wait to get our hands on him! So thankful for the miracle that he is...thankful that we get to witness God's faithfulness first hand. :0)

Loved Gracyn's shirt-Big Sister IN CHARGE!!

sweet, sweet boy

(I think I look pretty good holding a little baby boy, don't you think!!!)

sweet sister, taking it all in

Congrats Chris and Paige, we love you guys and are so excited for you!!

Sleep over fun

Our sweet friend Catherine spent the night with us last night! The girls had so much fun playing together! One of Caroline's favorite books right now is "Curious George and the Pizza Party." So I thought it would be fun to read the book and make pizza's for lunch. The girls had a BLAST!!!! Unfortunately I didn't get any other pictures of the girls time together...we are already looking forward to the next sleep over!! :0)

so fun to watch the girls...Catherine dumped all her cheese on and spread it out, Caroline placed a little bit at a time. :0)

YUMMY!!!!!!!!

Super easy idea and SUPER CHEAP!!!

weigh in Wednesday-week #11

WoO hoOO I made it, I finally ran 3.1 miles!! It only took me 11 weeks to achieve this awesome goal!! The best part was that I actually ran 3.1 miles in 34 minutes!!! (of course that was because I wasn't pushing Caroline!) Unfortnately I have only been able to run 3 days a week now that I am back in school. However, the evenings are a lot cooler now so I am hoping to get a few runs in after work...we will see.

Two weeks ago I weighed in at 179. This week I weighed in at 177...down a total of 9 pounds. Not tooo bad considering we celebrated 2 birthday's, tailgated at the game AND my female friend came to visit over the weekend! It's a new week and I am ready!

This will most likely be my last weekly post on weigh in and work out stuff. I have achieved my goal for running and will now work on my time. So there won't be a whole lot to add. I will however, continue to post a picture and weight once a month. Thanks so much for the encouragement these last few weeks. :0)

Happy Wednesday!

3 year old check up

Today Caroline had her 3 year old check up and she did SO WELL! I was super proud of her. Dr. E had great things to say about her progress and we are so thankful for that. She was excited to stand on the scales this year and loved the height chart. Crazy the little things that change over the months...

Here are her stats:

• 39 1/2 inches tall (97%) she has grown 3 inches since last years appointment
• 34 pounds (75%) she has gained 3 pounds since last years appointment

STAY IN YOUR BED!!!!!

6 months later this cute kiddo of mine is still not great at staying in her bed. there are many things that she needs to tell us or take care of once she goes to bed. we have stretches were she does really well and then not so great...we have our bible study on monday nights and the last few weeks she hasn't wanted to go to sleep while the babysitter was here. so we decided to entice her with a little something special. she got a really neat play dough set for her birthday. she received it this weekend and couldn't wait to open it. it has a lot of pieces so i wanted to wait to open it when we had some time to work with it. so i placed it on the mantle in our den. i told caroline is she stayed in her bed and didn't get up with miss jesslyn, she could play with it on this morning. guess what...she did and at 6:32 this morning she informed me that "my green light turned off and i slept in my bed...can i play with my puppies!?"

you never know what you're gonna get...

Caroline woke up in a not so happy mood this afternoon and wasn't too thrilled about getting dressed. She decided to pick out her own clothes and "dress" herself . I think she did pretty well don't you!

Football and Friends

We enjoyed a fun day of football with our friends Lia and Stacey. Caroline had a sleepover at Pop and Peeps house and was so excited! She talked about it for days...what she needed to pack, what she was going to do, etc. She couldn't wait and had a great time while she was there! So we dropped her off early Saturday morning, picked up our friends, and headed to Columbia.

We had a great day. The weather was PERFECT! About 60 degree's, a cool breeze, great tailgating weather! Andy grilled hot dogs and brats and we had more munching food than you could imagine...needless to say we didn't get hungry! The game was quite a nail biter...we definitely got our monies worth!

working hard...

LOVE IT!!!!!!!

what a game??????

So thankful for good friends and great fellowship! AND wonderful family who entertained our sweet girl while we were away! :0)

Love how God works...

As I am grumbling this morning because its Saturday morning and I am washing dishes, picking up toys, doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, sorting mail, paying bills, things I DO ALMOST EVERY SINGLE DAY...Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Every Little Thing You Do" came on...guess I need to be fulfilling my duty, job, responsibility as a wife and mother with a smile and remember to:

"Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you to do
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every little thing you do"

Gender Reveal Party

We were so excited this summer when we found out that Daniel and Claire were expecting!! Claire and Daniel decided to find out the sex of the baby and have a gender reveal party for the entire family. Even they didn't see the gender so we all found out at the same time. Each person wore their team color-pink or blue. We enjoyed some yummy burgers and sides before cutting into the cake. Peyton and Wilson cut the cake and discovered it was PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooo Hoooo, a baby girl! We can't wait to meet Mary Claire, I know she will be precious and perfect in every way!!! :0) AND she will have two really great big brothers!

it was torture waiting after looking at all the yummy treats...

getting ready...

and it's PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caroline and Aunt Jen

Children are truly a gift from God! :0) So excited to meet the newest member of our family!

workout wednesday-week #10

It's hard to believe that I have been running for 2 1/2 months. I am up to running about 2.5 miles. Saturday we headed out to the rail trail and I was able to run 2.6 miles which I was pretty proud of. Andy had Caroline in the stroller so I got to run by myself, which was pretty different. I missed the conversation that Caroline and I have while running. But it was also nice to just be me, by myself. I am currently working on a new "course" to include my 3 miles. It was super easy to create the 2 mile course but not really sure how the new one will work out. I try to avoid major roads when at all possible!! School traffic is crazy! Speaking of school, I haven't figured out how to get my run in before we head to school on M-W-F. I am hoping with Fall coming that I will be able to go in the afternoons...

Celebrating Andy and Caroline's birthday were a real challenge in the eating category. I know I most likely had one too many pieces of cake and scoops of ice cream. Although I only ate cake on their actual birthday's and haven't touched the left overs...so that is pretty impressive! My clothes continue to feel great and I am thankful to actually enjoy taking pictures with friends and family. So thankful for the confidence from losing a couple of pounds and hope to see it continue!

I made my appointment yesterday with the endocrinologist. I am scheduled to see him on November 1. Praying for wisdom and answers when I go. Hoping that maybe there is more to the situation and he will be able to give me some answers. (my hair loss, struggles with infertility, weight loss, etc.)

trip to the dentist & Mema's house

Caroline had her 2nd dentist appointment this morning. The 1st time we went, they counted her teeth, looked at her smile, etc. This time she actually got her teeth cleaned. She was such a sweet girl and did SO WELL! The dentist office is really geared for little kids and they do a great job making the kids feel comfortable. The hygienist let Caroline "play/explore" with the different instruments. She wasn't completely sure about the actual cleaning so I got in the chair with her. She laid back and that was it. She totally did what they asked her to. It was one of those moments I was so PROUD of her! (You never know how these days are gonna go...)

waiting to get started

big girl sitting in her chair all by herself

loving the "thirsty straw" and watching Dora

having fun

After her dentist appointment we went over to Mema's house. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, which I was super bummed about. She had a blast! We helped Mema clean peanuts in the back yard and sister gal had a BLAST! Within about 5 minutes, the dress and shoes were off and she was covered in dirt! Her bloomers and panties were soaked and she was having a ball! She helped Mema clean the peanuts as well as water her ferns and such. It was such a fun day...sweet memories with Great! :0)

USC vs. Georgia

We had our friends Jill, John and Tyler over to watch the VERY intense USC vs. Georgia game! Wow, what a game...Let's hope all our games aren't that close! The kids had an awesome time playing together and the adults enjoyed catching up!

Taking turns on the trampoline

ah how I have missed our time together!

The kids playing so well together. They were actually "taking care of the baby."

first Carolina/Georgia game

good friends

the boys