Growing, Growing!

Noah is 5 1/2 months now. He is growing so much!See those teeth?!

Early morning play time!

And of course we have to have one of Ella!!

Really can't believe how much she's grown. I have found myself wandering through the archives of this blog looking at all the old posts. Yes, I'm a sap. I know!!

But, see....?? She was so cute!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for all of our family and friends.

Here are a few pics from our day. Enjoy!

And a silly one...because we're goofy like that ;)
My boys.

Miss Ella Grace

Thank you Lord for giving me with such a beautiful, wonderful, amazing, family. I am blessed beyond words. Thankyou for your unfailing love and the way you have always provided everything we need.

Happy

When Randy and I got married, we were given a set of couches. They were were used and had been passed down and eventually ended up at my Aunt's house. Once she was getting new ones, she decided to give Randy and I her old ones. Key word being old. ;)

We were so thankful for them and completely excited to get couches for free. As young newly weds, we were definitely in no shape to go buy ourselves news ones.

They have served their purpose well for almost 4 years. They are super comfy and great for watching movies, just not so pleasing to the eye. I have been wanting new couches for a long time. With Randy working on going back to school and being on a tight income so that I can be home with the kids as much as possible, going to buy brand new couches would be insane for us.

Well, you could imagine our excitement when some friends from church told us they were going to be getting a new set and wanted us to have their old ones. I was SO excited!

They are almost the exact set we had before, just in way better condition so they will fit in perfectly in our living room.

They just got "delivered" this afternoon and I am soooo happy.

I'm so thankful for the way God has always taken care of us and provided for us. And I'm really thankful that because we have worked hard to be with our kids and have very little debt, we are able to appreciate and treasure little things. Couches that were someone else's "trash" (not really) have become my treasure :)

It makes me smile, because I am so easily excitable with small things. Can you imagine how I will be the day I actually go pick out a brand new living room set for myself!?!

Here is an old pic where you can see the condition our old set was in.

I remember loading these pics onto the computer and cringing! Thinking, yikes we should have taken the pics somewhere else!

And now my "new" one!

I still haven't picked up new batteries yet, so I had to snag one quick picture before it died. There is a matching love seat as well.

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Turkey Day

We're trying to enjoy the last little bit of Fall before Thanksgiving passes and everything switches into "winter time". Don't get me wrong. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. But I love fall, too. Since Thanksgiving is Randy's favorite holiday, I am sworn to holding off anything Christmas-ey until after Turkey Day. I love to give him a hard time about this and call him Scrooge, but truthfully I love it that way. We get to enjoy every bit of fall and then we get out the Christmas stuff and enjoy every bit of that, too.

When I picked up Ella from school today she had made lots of Thanksgiving goodies. That is probably my favorite thing about her being in Pre-School..all the super cute crafts she brings home!! So cute.

It was sooo funny to listen to her saying, "Heyyy girl!" (as if they were her long lost BFF)to every little girl we passed heading into school. Problem was, most of them were from the 3 or 4 year old class and gave her a "who are you??" look.
This didn't phase Ella one bit. She could talk anyone's ear off. Don't know where she got that from...? ;)

Love her.

My batteries are almost completely dead. I have to get some more tomorrow.
Then I'll get a post together with some new pics of the little guy.

Noah's 5 Months!

Today little Noah turned 5 months old! Time has just flown by, yet (as I've said many times) we just couldn't imagine life without him here.

He's growing so much and just as sweet as could be. His personality is still so chilled out. He just loves to sit and watch people. He is soooo in love with his mommy and big sis which makes us feel pretty special ;)

He is rolling when he feels like it, reaching out to be picked up and grabbing everything he can get his hands on. Almost sitting up on his own, but still using the bopy or bumbo for now. His second tooth broke through this morning and they are too cute for words.

He's is pulling rank as the spoiled baby brother and manages to get what he wants from all three of us. He earned the name "Gummy Bear" while we were in TN because he is just so squishy and sweet lol.

Pure, wonderful, love for our sweet boy.

Hate that the camera strap ruined such a cute smiley picture!

Noah with one of the girls from the Daraja Children's Choir from Africa.

As for the rest of us, we are doing great. I am working again on Saturdays and really enjoying it! It's been great having some time out of the house and I have always loved my job, so it doesn't really feel like "work".

Ella is in Pre-School on Tuesday's and Thursday's from 9-12. This has been going so well for her. It was hard for me at first to get used to leaving her somewhere by herself. I have had the privilege to be home with her since she was born and I'm just used to having her with me all the time. Like my little side kick! We have both adjusted to the change and Ella is loving her time at school. She asks all the time if it's a school day or not. I'm also enjoying all the fun stuff she makes and brings home. I love crafts and I must say 2 year old crafts are just precious.

Ella's First Day of School

Ella also had a really big change come her way this past week. You see, she had still been sleeping with her paci at naps and night time. I never wanted to be "that mom" with "that kid" lol, but it was a lot harder than I thought to take something away from her that had become a huge sense of security to her. Since she was only sleeping with it in bed it didn't really seem like a big deal. Well, I knew it was time. And I had been dreading it, but after a week of preparing her with lots of talks about how babies needed pacis and since she was such a big girl now (who's completely potty trained woo hoo!) it was time to give her paci's to all the babies who needed them. I told her Sunday after church we were going to put all the paci's in the trash so that they could be recycled for the little babies (good thing she's only 2 and didn't realize that they actually went in the real trash..oops)

Well, Sunday afternoon was hard because she was so sad to see them go. Brace yourself for her sad, farewell picture below :(

The past few night have definitely been harder for her to fall asleep, but she is getting there and she hasn't been crying for it like she did on Sunday and Monday. I'm just glad to get it gone and over with. And I will definitely take it away much sooner with Noah :)

As for Randy. He is working hard and getting ready to start school full time in January. Very exciting. He has had some extra time at home with his new schedule and we have all really loved that!

Here are a couple more pics of the kiddos. Ella wanted to read a book to Noah. So sweet.

I am so happy that they love each other so much.

On The Road!!

I've been a really big slacker on the blog lately. Yet again I have to say sorry!! I am really really going to try and make time for it. I look forward to reading everyone elses blogs, so I should make sure mine is up to date, too. Right??

Well, fasten your seat belts because I have an insane number of posts ahead of us! We just got back from TN and I have lots for you to read and tons of pics to enjoy!

For starters, here are the pics from our adventures driving. We drove from Greenville to Knoxville on last Tuesday night. Left Knoxville Wednesday morning and drove to my moms. Then left her house this past Sunday night and drove to Hendersonville, NC to visit more family. Left there yesterday morning (monday) and drove home. Lots of driving, but sooo worth it!

Notice how Ella has chocolate on her face in both pics. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And chocolate keeps little girls happy :)

Fun in Knoxville..

We made a pitt stop at a friend's house in Knoxville, TN. We got there around 5:45 am and slept until 8 or so. Randy and I got to vist and have cofee while Ella made quick friends with Landon. They had a great time playing together!! I'm so glad we were able to make this stop. It was so great to see them (although we wish we could have seen James and the girls, too! Maybe next time!!) Ella held their new snake! Brave girl..unlike her Mama!

First Day at Dolly's!

We were so happy when we finally got there! Ella was squeeling with excitment when she saw her "Dolly and Aunt Lala"!!

Once we got the van unpacked, we went outside to stretch our legs and poke around. The new swing in the tree was a big hit! It was soooo fun. Ella liked to look at the horses, but was scared to touch them. They looked HUGE compared to her so I'm sure it was scary!

Ella and her Aunt Lala!

Daddy's turn on the swing!

Our "little" brother Justin

Noah and Ella hangin' with Dolly and Pawpaw

Fishing and Horseback Riding Adventures!

The boys had some fun fishing and horse back riding. Good thing they are great sports! The fish were not biting at all both days they went out. They still had fun, but I wish they would have caught some fish, too! Oh well, there's always next time. Lynsey and I had fun coming down to bug them every once in awhile :)











The pics from riding the horses came out really dark. It gets really dark out there and my flash couldn't quite keep up lol. They only rode for a few minutes because it was time for the horses to eat and they were getting pretty ticked about being ridden. They still had fun though!






Lynsey is becoming quite the farm girl. At least she still manages to look fashionable..even in her "work" boots! lol.