8 is GREAT!

Harrison is home.

SO wonderful to have our boy back with us. He had a FABULOUS time in FL but we sure did miss him. :)

I have to take a moment and brag on him...because I can...I'm his mom! :)

He has been such a blessing. He is quick to obey, looking for ways to help, blessing his brother and sister, doing his best, loving Jesus, surprising me moment after moment these days with his happy heart and desire to make wise choices!!!!

WOW.

I think 8 is going to be GREAT!!! There is something to love about every year with your children...something new and of course there are always some challenges. :) but, WOW have we seen some serious growing up in our boy and I am ONE PROUD MOMMY!!!

We love you Harrison and we are SO proud of the young man you are becoming! May you always have a tender heart toward God and the other people around you! We are looking forward to this year and all the years to come with you little man!!

snack time with 'buddy'

here's what happens when baby girl sneaks away to the guest room with a bag a pretzels for a mid-afternoon snack with her 'buddy' (we call her lovey bunny and she's been saying 'buddy' - - SO CUTE!).

she definitely made sure that 'buddy' had plenty of snack. the whole bag in fact.



and yet somehow it all looks so neat. if one of the boys had done this at her age there would have been pretzels ALL OVER the room!


my little stinker. love that face. love this girl!

at least it was on top of the bed. i'd hate for any of you to come and visit and have the 'crumbs in the bed' kind of feeling when you lay down to sleep. that is the WORST! i actually think the kids rolled around on an air mattress all sandy when Chris & Jessica were here one weekend and i felt horrible that Chris & Cody slept on sandy sheets (Jessica was safe in the real bed)!!! :) isn't that just awful!

i'll get these pretzel crumbs up before Mimi & Papa get here for the weekend... :)

Addison's FIRST Haircut!

Addison had her first haircut this past weekend. She had a mullet going on and I wanted to snip it off before it started looking too scraggly. She had been eating ice cream so that's why her face looks covered in dirt. :)

here are the before shots...


look at how long that was...it curls up so much you can't really tell.



here goes nothing...

all done. it looks much cuter and now it will start to grow a bit more evenly. :)

showing her the hair we cut

typical Addison response. grossed out and bothered.

"get it away mommy!"

"ok, maybe i will touch it after all." :)

relaxing in her stroller

babies. babies. babies.

it's all she plays! i love watching her play.

this time she decided she was the baby and wanted to hang out in the "stroller".

love my little stinker.

cardboard boxes

last week we had fun with some big cardboard boxes.

so fun to see the kids imagine and get those creative juices going...AND enjoying their friends

a rocket ship


a race car






another race car

love fun days like these!

spring break

i have to say i'm really enjoying our spring break. so nice to have a week to really slow down. most of the time i like to travel and pack in as much fun as i possibly can...i love that, i'm all for that, and it looks like most of my summer will be just exactly like that...but i'm enjoying this change of pace. a much slower pace and a very light schedule. time to sit, catch up, go slow, and take a deep breath. ahhhh!

thankfully Harrison is in FL right now packing in loads of fun with his Aunt Vonda and her girls. i asked him if he missed me this morning and he said, "mom (in that drawn out tone that kids do when they are kind of aggravagted you've asked) of course i miss you. BUT you said you wanted me to have fun." yes, yes, yes. i did say that and i'm so thankful that he is so close (emotionally, we're not close physically) to his grandparents and his Aunt, Uncle, & cousins that he is not thinking about getting back home quite yet. it's truly a blessing. he and i will be refreshed and ready to finish up our school year when he gets back in town!

here are a few things that have gotten me excited this week...

a storm door for our back door. just got installed today and i have been looking forward to this for a long time. it took some convincing but Anthony finally agreed and i don't think he will be disappointed! it will be so nice to have the back door open. i love sunlight coming in and i'm a huge fan of storm doors.

and this one is fancy schmancy...if you can say that about a storm door...at least it is to me. :) it has the pull down screen that is part of the top portion of the door. i'm excited to be able to use the screen in the spring and fall for a breeze as well being able to really hear what the kids are up to. :) and i won't have to worry about any children pushing the screen OUT as is what happened to our neighbors nice new door. boo.

and another thing that has really got me going is the arrival of a little house for Addison. our friends, the Barbours, had out grown this little house and offered it up to Addison. that little girl was SO excited when we got it all set up and she realized what it was...

oh how she loves it! and i love that she loves it. she fills the house with all her babies and has a ball!

and what else you might wonder??? all this excitement, could there possibly more??? :)

my cutie umbrella for our picnic table had been ripped to shreds by a little doggy we used to know. poor thing chewed up a lot of our things and i had to replace the umbrella and the water toys to Addison's water table. it was fun to get those replacements in the mail this week.

so you see, i can find such fun in the littlest of things. doesn't take much to make me happy or relaxed these days! :)

we still have most of our week left and i'm going to make the very most of it, in the very smallest ways possible!

Happy 5th Birthday Jackson!!!

Today our "little J" is 5 years old! I can hardly believe it. The time has gone by way too fast. We have enjoyed spending time making his day extra special. We started with Krispy Kreme's for breakfast! :)

He had his 5 year old check-up...I guess getting shots on your birthday is not really that great but he was SO brave and we moved on quickly! He's 49lbs and in the 90th percentile, his height is in the 95th percentile. What a big boy he is turning out to be!

aren't these two the cutest! they love each other so much!

we shopped a little and and he picked out his own Star Wars figures for his birthday. he got a Leapster from Mimi & Papa so he's been pretty excited about playing that today too!

he picked Chick-fil-A for his birthday lunch. it was fun...if only Daddy and Harrison could have been with us it would have been even better. our time was sweet today, just the three of us. everywhere we went I made sure to mention it was his birthday. he was beaming! everyone was SO sweet to him. :)



Jackson,
Mommy and Daddy love you SO much! You bring such LIFE to our family and you are always ready with a huge smile. We love your passion for enjoying every moment of every day. You love people and you try your best to make them feel included. You love Jesus and I love how you say "I've crossed Him in my heart, mommy". We love how much you love your brother and sister and how you will often think of them before you think of yourself. I love your voice and your laugh, I just can't get enough! You are such a smart boy Jackson and we look forward to seeing all you will learn this year in school. We love your determination, focus, and desire to do your very best in all that you do. What joy you bring to our family!

We are praying that you will become a mighty man of God and that you will serve Jesus with your whole heart. He has BIG plans for you Jackson and we can't wait to see all the God has in store for you. God made you Jackson and He loves every single thing about you...Mommy & Daddy do too! We are so proud of you and are so blessed to be able to be your parents!

We love you Jackson!!!

love,
Mommy & Daddy

he's leavin on a jet plane

all packed and ready to go!

Harrison was SO excited this morning...at 4:30am...to get going on his trip! They were flying on Continental into Newark, NJ and were going to go into New York City for the day. Their flight tonight into Orlando is at 8pm so they have had a WHOLE day to explore and make the most of it!

The most anticipated location they would be visiting was the Statue of Liberty. We spent some time on the computer yesterday learning fun facts that would make the whole experience a bit more meaningful for him. Harrison was excited that he could tell Mimi things that she didn't even know! :)

I've had a few calls today from him and he has been having the time of his life! Such excitement and joy in his voice. I love how much he wants to include me in the fun! I can't wait to see all the pictures from the the places they have visited today! What a blessing Mimi and Papa are to Harrison! He will never forget these special times! It's only the first day of his trip and it's been incredible so far! :)

loving on his brother

Jackson is sure gonna miss his brother this week!

they've come to take him away!

We are finally on Spring Break and we have been looking forward to it! Harrison has been VERY excited to get on out of here for his annual trip to FL!!!

Every year since the boys turned three they have had the privilege of going to see Mimi and Papa for a week. They go in the Spring and they look so forward to these trips. We don't get to be at Mimi and Papa's house very much so any chance they get is such a treat! Mimi and Papa enjoy the one on one time they get with each of the boys and special memories are always made!

Mimi and Papa flew in yesterday and spent the afternoon with us. They had a flight that was bright and early waiting for them the next morning! We spent most of our time outside playing and Papa helped the boys practice their batting.




many of the balls went into the woods beside our house so there was a lot of hitting and then hunting.






Taylor popped over to play too

We had dinner outside on the Patio...Anthony wasn't able to be there until just before we had to leave for Harrison's baseball game so we had to go ahead and eat dinner.




my BIG boy! we sure are going to miss him this week but knowing that he will be having the time of his life with his grandparents and his Aunt Vonda, Uncle Ian, and cousins - well, it makes it a little easier on his mama. :) he looks so grown up here!

now that's not ever lady like. :)



this is a little blurry but i LOVE this face she makes!






Mimi and Papa were so excited to be here for one of Harrison's baseball games. He was SO excited and played very well!