Showering baby Stella (& Todd & Laine) with lots of L-O-V-E

Yesterday was the baby shower for baby Stella (and mommy & daddy-to-be, Todd & Laine). I am so excited for them. We had the baby shower at my mom's house and Aunt Virginia and Mary Elizabeth helped host it. It was wonderful. I am so grateful for dear friends like them who helped plan, coordinate, and throw the shower. Mary Elizabeth will be next!! :) Baby Levi is due March 13th, which is not too far away. Laine looked beautiful and Tucker LOVED loving on her belly. After the shower was over, Laine put him in her lap and he just SAT and SAT and SAT and SAT for at LEAST 20-25 minutes. We couldn't believe it. He just sat there and ate the first few minutes, then just watched what was going on and started loving on baby Stella in her belly. It was SO cute. We kept telling him to rub her belly - that there was a baby in there and he didn't know what to think. After rubbing his own belly several times, he finally understood that we were telling him to rub HER belly. He started rubbing it real gently. A few minutes later, he got confused & started rubbing all over her chest, thinking he was supposed to do that, too. We cracked up because Jonathan said "how are we gonna explain this at church tonight?" Haha. He didn't do that but one time but it was so funny. I can't wait to love on that sweet baby girl when she gets here but also to see how Tucker will do with her. This will be the first little baby he will be around so ... we said he's not gonna know what to think! This would be a good time to introduce "sharing". :) Here are a few pics from yesterday..

Busy October!

We have had a lot going on over the last week. Bible studies, church friend's babies being born, preparing for Laine & Todd's baby shower, getting ready for Halloween, working, etc. etc. But what a blessed October it has been. It's already the 29th! This past weekend was the busiest. We cooked out with friends Friday night, went shopping and baked/cooked (in prep for the baby shower) on Saturday during the day, then went to Bethlehem Baptist's fall festival Saturday night (which was a last minute thing), and then had my sister-in-law & brother's baby shower on Sunday (along with church activies in the AM & PM). Woooo...Jonathan and I finally got to catch up Sunday night and just debrief about the weekend. It is wonderful to be on the go, but nice to be still & catch your breath with the ones you love the most after all is said and done <3 I am just including a few pictures from the fall festival Saturday night. Tucker loved it. Of course the first two balloons that went flying to the ceiling in Bethlehem's gym were ours! but ... what can you do :) They'll pop or eventually get them down somehow. And I'm sure ours weren't the only ones. Tucker thought it was funny! Mommy didn't! :) We only stayed for about 30 minutes ... long enough to see a few familiar faces and for Tucker to play. Then it was bedtime! We were gonna have a busy day the next day (with Laine's baby shower). Here are a few pics from fall festival. I'm sure I will be posting more after Halloween (in 2 days).

Our little Elmo! He LOVES Elmo & Cookie Monster right now .. the Cookie Monster outfit wasn't available in his size soo Elmo it is!! :)

Grandmommy & Elmo :)

Getting his first balloon of the night from the clown!

Tucker & his distant cousins/preschool buddies, Chloe & Izzy. Chloe is in Tucker's class. He started pointing to her when he saw her!

Tucker & his buddies, Weston & Griffin! Love these boys!

I just have to say ... I always see others posting publically on facebook about their husbands or children or whoever. I don't ever want to seem like I'm bragging or boasting about them so I don't usually do it but since nobody really sees this I just have to shout to the rooftops I LOVE MY HUSBAND AND SON SOOOOOO SOOOOOO VERY MUCH!! My husband is the most loving, godly, trusting, warmest, funniest, hard-working, family-oriented husband and father. I could go on and on but ... I won't... instead, I'll tell HIM. And my son is just PRECIOUS. He makes us smile, laugh, snuggle up to, enjoy, love, EVERY single part of him. He is at such a fun age right now. He is 20 months (tomorrow, actually) and he just keeps us going. He is now starting to say more and more and it is so cute. He repeats what we do. Like tonight ... I went running (SHOCKER, I know), but it had been "one of those days with work" and I needed some alone time to pray and talk to God soo ... when I got back, I was stretching and reaching up to the sky and then bending down and touching my toes and he was copying me. He was even copying me doing jumping jacks too. It just cracked us up. He LOVED it. Jonathan and I are just so blessed to have each other and we are so thankful God blessed us with the perfect gift to us, our son. I love you both (and I won't just write it, but I'll make sure to tell you, too!)

Women of Faith - October 2012

OH MY GOODNESS what a weekend! I must say that I was a little hesitant about leaving Jonathan and Tucker again since I had just gone on a Bible Study retreat last weekend, but woww am I glad I went! What a spiritually uplifting weekend. My sister-in-law, Laine, asked my mom and I to go to this conference several months ago and my mom went ahead and got us tickets. Laine's church has been attending the past several years and I am very grateful that she asked us to go. Friday morning, we met a group of about 15-20 women/ladies at Cracker Barrel and then left for Charlotte. The funny thing was that my mom and I thought the whole time that the conference was in Greensboro but when we got to Burlington and made a few pit-stops shopping, somebody mentioned going to Concord Mills (which we knew was near Charlotte) so we asked and ... YEP! We were headed to Charlotte! haha ... We got there just in time to go get a quick meal (at Bojangle's) and head to the train station to get to the arena. When we got there, the seats were AWESOME. We were probably on the 15th row and that was super close for an arena. There was a combination of speakers such as Sandy Patty (who I remember from being little), Kristine Cain (who shared the gospel in one of the most powerful ways ever - through her unique story!), and Brenda Warner (NFL player, Kurt Warner's wife - who's story was a complete tear-jerker!) to painters and dancers, and singers like Amy Grant and Mandisa!!!! Every bit of it was AWESOME! I would LOVE to go next year and take a group from Central (or at least our women's Bible study group) but we will see! I was so thankful to ride with my mom and have that time with her. I worked most of the day on Friday in the car, but on the way back Saturday, we were able to talk and share and catch up and just cry with each other. After hearing Brenda Warner's story (and I encourage you to get her book "One Call Away" if you have never heard of her), I had to get home and see my sweet baby boy (and I wanted to see his daddy soo much too - but he was at the fire station!) You will completely understand why when you read the book. I am so very grateful for my loving husband, precious child, and all my family and friends. God, you give us exactly what we need when we need it. Thank YOU! <3

Being silly :) This was just supposed to be a picture of me & Jonathan ... Tucker jumped right in! LOVE these two <3

Me & J :) Love him so very much <3

Me & the little man :) he's a MESS! <3 him to pieces, too!

Visiting daddy at the fire station! He loves big "tucks"!

Just the 3 of us <3 At Lincoln's 1st birthday party!

HIS ladies beach retreat!

HIS ladies is the name of our Bible study group that meets every other Thursday night. We meet at Charity Cooke's house across the street from the church and it has truly been a blessing to me. I got an email 3 years ago from Charity with an invitation to start coming to this newly created Bible study, but I was new to the church and thought "oh, they are just being nice and inviting me ... I probably won't go." Well, two or three weeks later when I had not responded, I got a call from Iris Woodard asking me if I was coming to the Bible study. I said, "oh, me?! I thought the email I got was just generic." She said "no, we would love for you to come." Now, I have to say ... getting a personal invitation, knowing that somebody does care about you, meant SO much more to me than anybody could imagine. I am mostly an introvert (who can be an extrovert at times), but it takes me a little while to open up. Because of that email and phone call that was sent 3 years ago, my life has been blessed abundantly with Christian friendships, girls that I couldn't imagine going through life without. So this past weekend we took a little beach retreat to Atlantic Beach. We did this 2 years ago and decided it was time to do it again. Last time I went, Tucker was in my tummy! MY, a lot has happened in two years! Anyway, I offered my grandparent's trailer again so we decided to stay there since there were only 7 of us and we could all fit. When we first got there, there were 2 huge roaches on the kitchen floor!!!! One was dead and the other one crawled away too quickly and hid from us. It wasn't so bad until ... we saw the 3rd roach and then the 4th roach. The 4th roach was crawling up the wall and we said "OK - who's really down with going to Hampton Inn?!" SO ... off we went at 1:30 in the morning. We all slept in the same room AND we got continental breakfast instead of going out to breakfast so it all evened out. It was something to laugh about and remember our trip by! We had SO much fun. We talked and talked and laughed and laughed until 4:00 in the morning!! OH MY GOODNESS!! We were soo exhausted! When we woke up on Saturday, we got showers, ate continental breakfast, and went back to the trailer to work on our craft for our husband's and hang out. We prayed for our husband's (which is so important and something I need to do more of!) and talked and talked and laughed all day again. The crazy thing was we didn't see any roaches while we were there on Saturday. We decided to take a walk on the beach and do our bible study out there. It was the calmest and most beautiful I have seen Atlantic Beach in a long time. God's creation is BEAUTIFUL! I think the bible study was intended to be short, but the Holy Spirit was there. He had other plans. We all ended up in tears, opening up, growing together and just talking about how to encourage and strengthen one another in the Lord. GOD, You are soo soo good! We then went back to the trailer to clean up, pack our stuff, and head to eat at Sanitary before we made the trip back home to our husband's and babies. We got back about 10:00. Shannon, who was 37 weeks pregnant and scheduled for her c-section October 31st, texted us on Monday and had gone in for her routine check up and there were some complications so she had an emergency c-section that day. PRAISE GOD that she is ok and so is the baby. They are all healthy and happy. And thank YOU, Lord for your perfect timing. We joked about her going into labor while we were at the beach, but we didn't realize that she was THAT close to having him :) HE IS PRECIOUS!! Thank you, God, for wonderful friends and ladies in Christ who help encourage one another and are there for one another. We definitely missed all the ones that couldn't be there but they are just as special to us :)

High School Girls Outing :)

Our high school girls have been asking and asking about having a scavenger hunt for a long time. FINALLY, this past Friday night, October 5th, we did one. We went to Triangle Town Center, ate dinner, broke up into groups of 3 (plus one leader in each group) and had one hour to complete the tasks. These tasks included things such as: Videotaping your group frantically searching for a contact lense on the floor of the mall Videotaping your group pretending to ride a tractor and serenading some people with a song about tractors, farmers, etc. Videotaping your group doing the chicken dance with other people (which NOBODY would do by the way) Videotaping a couple describing how they met (thanks Don & Susan!) Taking a picture of your girls dressed up in clothes on a mannequin Collecting as many signatures as possible Finding out how many entrances there are to the mall ETC. ETC. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY --> we had to ask someone how we could pray for them. When my group was collecting signatures, this one lady was reading over our brochure and said "who's the prayer here?" We said "any of us". She starting telling us how her brother was on dialysis and was having heart problems. She then stated to pray for her as well as she was diabetic. We prayed with her right then and there. THIS is why we do these fun things ... there are SO many people who are desperately seeking for "something, someone, anyone" ... and not everybody knows that there is only ONE solution to their problems ... JESUS!! Thank you Lord for our encounter with this precious lady. It was SO much fun! We had lots of laughs and good times and look forward to doing it again. After that, we went to sweet frogs to get yogurt and then went back and all stayed at Amanda's house. We stayed up until 3AM ... I'll be honest, I'm not as young as I used to be. I have been sick for several days now!! haha ... but I love these girls to pieces and wouldn't trade my time with them for anything!