Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from this sweet boy...and his little sister!

big secret...

Most everyone I know that reads this already knows, but I had to share Michael's big secret he's been keeping....

After a year and a half of 'trying' for baby #2, it finally happened.  {Almost} every month, I've taken a pregnancy home test and just felt in my heart that it was always going to be negative.  But, Mother's Day, we had a pretty lazy day and I decided to go to WalMart to get another test.  For some reason, I knew this time was going to be good.  And it was!  What a special Mother's Day!!!

I cannot say that it's been all peaches and cream this time....morning sickness is for the birds.  And whoever came up with the term 'morning' lied....it last all day.  Every symptom that a girl can get...morning sickness, headaches, exhaustion, etc....I've got it.  But, I keep reminding myself that I am happy and it's all going to be worth it in the end.

So, I'd appreciate prayers for a healthy baby and pregnancy.  And thank you to all who have already been praying for this to happen in the first place.  We are extremely grateful!

where in the world???

Where in the world have I been since October?  Seriously.  It's the middle of April now.

A lot has gone on, but then again, we haven't done a whole lot.

We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas with lots of family and then over the New Years weekend, we got all settled in our new home and are loving it.  Michael is now just asking who's truck is at the 'other house' instead of who's truck is at 'our house'.  He is absolutely loving his big back yard!  We've played a lot of baseball, soccer, golf and even flown a few airplanes!

My baby turned three years old and doesn't seem like a baby to me.  He had a super fun Mickey Mouse birthday party.  His friends and family spoiled him too much.

Tax season is officially over as of yesterday so we are celebrating that.  Daddy is now moved right into "golf season"!

My sweet sweet Meemaw had her 75th birthday in February.  So, for her birthday, we (mom, Amy, Meemaw & Shelley) took her to the Women's Final Four in Denver.  We had a blast and made memories that will last a life time.

When we got back, Amy & her boys got to come to our house for Easter.  The boys had the best time together.  We played a lot of baseball, rode bikes and even got to hunt some eggs!

Last night, Grandma and I took Michael to his first concert! Sesame Street Live came to our nearest big town!  I didn't know how he'd like it because we've never watched it or even talked about the characters.    Before we left, daddy showed him a little video online of Elmo talking and that hooked him.  He was so excited!  He was pretty serious though the whole thing but then would bust out laughing randomly.

Not very exciting, but I will try to do a little better at this blogging thing again for those few random people who might look (Meemaw & Juice).  The most exciting thing right now.....26 days until summer!!!!

we went to the pumpkin patch...

Ok, so it's not really a pumpkin patch...it's more of a fruit stand turned into pumpkin stand in the fall!  But the boy didn't know the difference.  Today, we painted and modpodged and had a ton of fun decorating our pumpkins....

blessing our new home....

We asked our friends and family to send us bible verses for our new home....thank you to everyone for their love and prayers as we begin this new journey.

 (Michael had to write on his wall....)

showing off....

We got to spend the Labor Day weekend with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Maggie.  The boy had no problems showing off his stuff....

the life of a boy mom...

We took Michael to see our local high school football team play in a scrimmage the other night. The boy loved it!!

 Since then, he wants to play 'tackle' all the time! So daddy decided he'd teach him how to snap the football....

I guess he remembers watching the Indians put on their pads and Derek talking about it because he informed us the other night (while playing tackle) that he needed his pads!  We haven't talked about him having pads at all.  So, I told him that he'd have to be a good boy and we'll ask Santa!

duck pond...

I have always heard about the duck pond in our neighboring town to the south.  My friend Amy and I have talked all summer about taking the kids over there to let them feed the ducks and play on the playground.  (summer is almost over....but we finally did it!)

When we first go there, the ducks attacked our car (well, it looked like they were going to attack)!!  So we fed them from inside!!  Finally, other people came and dumped huge bags of bread out, so the ducks let us get out.