Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I LOVE decorating for Christmas... once we found out that we were moving and it being the end of October... I think the first thing I said to Nathan was... I'm still going to want to decorate for Christmas!  He said, "I know"  Good man ;)  He really is...  The girls were really excited about decorating the tree and it really didn't take that long either... I guess 5 people decorating the tree fills up fast!  But it is OH SO BEAUTFUL!  I didn't even move around the ornaments that the girls put on... so they are clustered but I like it that way this year :)

                               
                                 Addy was sooo excited to see Charlie! :) We miss the Brownds :(

                                                                             All done!

And here is our mantel or lack there of... there isn't a mantel on the fireplace so I had to come up with something else...  it turned out cute.  (But a mantel is going up in the next week or so :)

I might post some of our other Christmas decorations just because its fun! 

Payton's big girl bed

How did this happen?  Where did the time go?  Payton is in a big girl bed.  She is 2 years and 2 months in this picture.  With our new house and figuring out where everything is going to fit, we decided to go ahead and set up her bed.  (Taylor's old bed since we got the girls bunkbeds)  Plus its easier to store the crib than the twin bed.  Payton is doing great in the bed and only gets up a few times.  She hasn't really been a problem with it at all.  It has been really nice to lay with her too and cuddle. :) Isn't she sooo cute!

We only have one baby in a crib in our house... thats the first time in 3 years!  Just thought it was worth mentioning! lol (yes we're saving the crib for another baby... one day, hopefully :) Hopefully soon we'll only have one baby in diapers :)

Never to late for Thanksgiving...

Ok... I am really behind on my post.  I want to try and catch up before Christmas... (LOL) we'll see.  Anywho... I wanted to write about Thanksgiving.  It's never to late right...thats my matto!  So my in-laws moved to SC and bought a beautiful home.  We were excited to see them and their new house and Morning Star, the church, ministry and school that they have been going to for about 2 years.  Our family and Ben and Teresa (Nathan's brother and his wife) and their kiddos came to break in the new house!  And that we did!  We spent 4 days together and had a great time.  Their new house is beautiful and fit all of us with plenty of room to spare.  Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful but most importantly the fellowship was awesome.  We were able to see alot of friends that live there and catch up and reminice about "the old days."

Here are the kiddos at the "kiddie table." 

 I made names tags and I really don't know what I was thinking because within 1 second both Nicholas and Payton had theirs torn apart... too young! lol  But they were cute while they lasted and the older girls enjoyed them.

 Jackson playing with his Daddy

 Jackson rolling around the floor

Me and Taylor  - her hair is a mess!  She is really into getting herself dressed and doing her own hair and I am really trying to let her and let go of that control... cause it's important and it's good for her.  She loves headbands right now and she likes them behind her hair not pulling her hair back.  So messy hair it is but she is still beautiful! :)

Thankful...

I find myself Thankful this evening...  I am so Thankful for many things but today its the basic essentials that we all take for granted that I am so thankful to have.  Take air conditioning and heat for instance... we don't think twice about it when we are all toasty and warm in our homes when its cold outside.  There are homeless people sleeping in the freezing cold!  Of course something sparked these thoughts.  I woke up this morning to a freezing house and we had no power.  So I was up 7 am no HOT shower and NO COFFEE...  But we made do I decided to bundle the kiddos up (because it was 60 some odd degrees in the house) and if we are up this early might as well do something.  I had some errands to run and decided to take the girls to storytime at our library.  Don't ya know... as soon as I have everybody ready and about to walk out the door the power comes back on!  Oh well... we headed out anyways.

Another thing that I am thankful for is a working dishwasher.  I haven't done a kitchen full of dishes by hand in a long time.  It is now out of the norm if you DON'T have a dishwasher.  How did we ever survive! lol  I am glad that I don't have to find out.  I must of been in the kitchen for over an hour!  YUCK!  The dishwasher that was here when we moved in didn't work good so my in-laws had a new one installed last Thursday.  I was soooo excited!  I never had a brand new dishwasher before and didn't have a second thought that it wouldn't work right... well it is worse than the old one!  It leaves a soapy residue on the dishes. Anywho... having to do a sink full and a dishwasher full of dishes tonight by hand had me very thankful for a working dishwasher.  I am getting another new one tomorrow! (hope it works!)

Simple things yes.... but I want to count my blessings and be THANKFUL in all things! 

Bike Rides...

We now have a nice long drive way and live on a culd-a-sac.  Let me tell you how much we are lovin' this!  We have been outside everyday and now that we are in FL... well the weather is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  The girls are loving riding their bikes, walking, and playing outside.  So anywho... here are some pics of what we've been doing outside.  The girls chose to ride their bikes today.  By the way... The girls faces are yucky because of playing outside... just had to clarify. :) 

Our new house

I've been promising some pictures... so here they are.  We are so blessed to be able to live in the house that Nathan grew up in.  My in-laws built this house and raised Nathan and Ben here.  I think it is so awesome to now be able to raise our children here.  It is a large house with lots of room and STORAGE!  It's 4 bedroom/2 baths and has a huge bonus room. Here is a mini tour of the house.... the rooms that are ready that is!  Which is the kitchen.  We have lots of plans and ideas for the house.  We are going to paint just about every room in the house over time.


                                                        Here is the front of the house

 The kitchen and part of the dining room. That is the breakfast table and the open door is a room off of the kitchen/dining room and that is my craft room and Nathan's music room.  The hallway off the kitchen leads to the pantry, laundry and cleaning closet. I told you there was alot of storage!

 The kitchen and breakfast table.  Tons of cabinet and did I mention STORAGE!  Can you tell what I'm excited about! :p

Standing in the kitchen looking at the dining room and breakfast table and the craft room/ music room is the door on the left.  You can see the entrance to living room to the right of the picture.  No pics of the living room yet...

This is the hallway off the kitchen.  The first door on the left is the pantry that is HUGE, the second door is the laundry room and the door straight ahead is the cleaning closet.  I told you STORAGE!  There is a place for everything!

The pantry!!!  I just had to show this!  It is a HUGE walk in pantry with tons of shelves and space.  It is sooo NOT ORGANIZED yet... I'll get there one day.  But despite the mess I still had to show you :)  I am sooo excited about this pantry that yes I have plans to decorate the pantry (hee hee).  In the house that we moved from I had a 1/2 closet for a pantry and had to use shelves in the garage for can goods and other things... so after that... you'd be excited too!



Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.  I will update it as I finish more rooms.  Right now the pics would be of stuff everywhere.

Taylor and Addison's new bunkbeds

Well... we are at the place that we had to start stacking the kids! lol  We decided to get bunk beds mainly b/c the rooms in our new house are a little smaller and we wanted more space for them.  We found a great deal on these bunkbeds on Craigslist.  We were nervous about getting bunkbeds for them when they were so little, so we were picky about the kind that we wanted.  Nathan really wanted the kind that had stairs so it would be safer for them to climb.  Yes, Addison is on the top bunk and Taylor is on the bottom bunk.  Which is should be opposite... but Addy wanted the top bunk and Taylor wanted the bottom bunk.  So they are both happy!  So far its been fine and no issues.  There are some rules that go with the bed though.  And they are listening but it's only been a week! :) lol  In case your curious the rules are 1) no standing on the top bunk. 2) 1 at a time on the stairs. 3) They are only aloud to get on the top bunk (besides sleeping) if Nathan or I are in the room.  The girls were excited about their new bed.  We'd been telling them about it for a while now.

 Addison on the stairs

                                                            Taylor on the bottom bunk.

                                                                  Taylor on the stairs.

           
                                           Addison and Taylor, do they look happy or what! :)

Jackson 6 months old

Oct 29, Jackson turned 6 months.  (this is late because we moved Oct 30-31) I can not believe that my baby is 6 months old!  He is such a sweet and good baby.  He is very happy and mostly hangs out and watching the action going on with his sisters.  He is rarely fussy.  He loves to roll over and can roll across the room.  He isn't sitting up yet but loves his bumbo seat and entertainer.  He is eating cereal every night. But refuses to eat baby food.  Yes he clenches his mouth shut and will not eat baby food!  I've tried 2 different flavors and he did the same thing each time.  I am going to try again in a month.  Silly boy! 

The day we moved Sandy and I got some pics of the babies together.  These outfits we bought for Taylor and Charlie to match when they were babies and now we switched the outfits and have Anna and Jackson matching!  Sooo cute!

Moving a Family of 6

I tell you what we have ALOT of stuff!  I think I shocked my uncle and cousin that came with a semi truck to move us! lol  My Uncle Johny and my cousin, John-John (sorry John-John you will always be John-John to me! :) came with a 40 foot semi truck to load all our stuff in and we were hoping to fit the Honda in the back of that as well so that we could all ride in our van.  We gave away alot of stuff before moving.  We had tons of boxes and big furniture.  After loading less than half of the house we realized the Honda wasn't going to fit.  YES we filled (and I mean top to bottom, PACKED) a 40 foot semi and both of our cars.  Oh and we had to leave some stuff in GA too.  Is that bad?  I claim that we have 4 kids and that requires alot of stuff!!!!  We were mainly concerned that the Honda wouldn't make it to Jacksonville.  But we had no choice now.  So we hit the road.  I drove the van with the kiddos and packed full of stuff, Nathan drove the Honda packed full of stuff and my uncle obviously drove the semi.  Nathan and I drove until we could drive no more.  We were so tired so we stopped about 1 1/2 hours away from Jacksonville and slept in our cars it was about 1:15 am.  Well Nathan slept and I tried.  I had 4 kids to 1 of me working against my sleep!  Once the van stopped 3 out of the 4 woke up but only 1 at a time.  So by the time I got one settle and back asleep another one woke up!  At this point I was loosing sleep!  So needless to say this was rough.  We finally felt rested enough to drive the rest of the trip at 5 am.  So we got to the house at 7am on Sunday Oct 31st.  We came in soo tired and the kiddos well rested!  So we turned on some cartoons poured some cheerios on the floor and Nathan and I passed out.  I don't think I have ever been so tired.  Later that day the truck came with all our stuff and we had a ton of help to unload it all.  We appreciate everyones help sooo much!!!  Especially my Uncle Johny and cousin John.  Oh and I bet your wondering the Honda did make it and is still going! And our stuff that we left in GA.  Yes, my awesome uncle had a run to Nashville and he stopped on his way back and got what he could fit in a pick up truck.  Isn't that awesome!  And so sweet!  He must really love me :)

So that is it we moved a family of 6 to Jacksonville.  We are here and unpacking and loving seeing our family. 

I will post pics of the house soon.

Packing and Moving...

This is our last week in Cumming, Ga.  I am full of excitement, stress and sadness.  I am excited about our new season that we are stepping into, stressed because I am packing a house full of stuff and trying very hard to keep it organized and stay packed with my 3 handy helpers :p, sadness because this was our last Sunday at our church.  Pastor Mark brought us up at the end of service (I had no idea he was going to do this!) he said the most wonderful and sweet things to us and then prayed for us and our family.  I am really going to miss our Pastors and our church.  After church service we had a lunch with some close friends and that was alot of fun.  I can't believe how much time has passed by.  This move came so quick!  I have done alot of packing and sending stuff to Goodwill.  But I still have so much packing to do!  Man we've got some stuff!  I probably have 2 more trips to take to Goodwill too.

You know those POD things that people get... Portable On Demand storage.  Well for the longest time I thought those were the silliest things and who in the world and why in the world would they use them?  I always thought... ok so you are moving just pack, put it in a truck and go!  Why spend all that money!?  Well... now I get it! lol  So I have boxes everywhere and the garage is pretty full, waiting for the truck...  Whoever thought of the POD must have moved alot and knew what would make it easier.  You would just put your filled boxes in the POD and they would not be tripping us in the hallway! lol  anyway... just my thought on the geniusness of the POD.  Not that we are getting them or could afford it.  Those things are expensive!

So I have 5 more days of this packing and getting ready to move and then I'll be unpacking and settling in (I like that part though! its fun!)

Moving to J-ville, Love and See ya laters...

This has been a post that I could not wait to write... We are moving back to Jacksonville!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are so excited about this new season in our lives.  This decision has not come lightly.  There has been tons of prayer, council and tears (from me!).  I have wanted to move back to Jacksonville for almost a year now and simply asked Nathan to pray about it and consider it.  I have had the desire to raise our kids around family pretty much since they were born.  And after TONS of prayer everything has lined up for us to move back to Jacksonville.  It is clear to us that God has opened the door for us.  I can't wait to have our family in our everday lives and enjoy the holidays and weekends together.  Family support is something that I have longed for.  Having 4 kids (ages 4 and under)  this is a dream come true for me.  Ya'll get ready to babysit!!!!!  Date nights here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!  (only kidding, but not really!)

We are going to miss our church family more than words can express.  They have become our family, since we don't have family living close by.  We have the most incredible Pastors.  ALC accepted us right away (3 years ago) and has loved our kids and us so much.  We have made lasting friendships there and truly love each one and are sad to move from our church family.  We know that we will visit and ya'll know we are still going on the Marriage Retreats!!!

We have the best friends ever here and love them so much!!!!!  I LOVE YOU SANDY!!!!  I can't spend much time here b/c it's too hard.  The Brownds' have become our family, our support and our best friends. (I'm convince that I can pack you up and bring you with me)   We have had kids together and sooo many memories.  I know that we will come and crash at their house ;)  we'll see if you still love me then! lol  and they will come and visit us.  I have the beach as a bargaining chip!

So I am saying "See ya later!" not good- bye... because we will be back!  And everyone is welcome to come see us in Jacksonville! 

Jackson's First...

YAY!!!  Jackson rolled over for the first time on 09/19/10.  He had been trying for over a week and finally did it!  He had a big smile on his face.  Since then he is rolling around pretty good to get places... always off his blanket! Jackson you are suppose to stay a baby a little longer please!

Of course I was right there with my camera and caught him rolled over for the first time!

I decided to give Jackson some rice cereal b/c he wasn't sleeping through the night anymore. And Mama needs her sleep! He loves it!  He took to it and ate great like he has done it before.  (09/21/10)

                                                      Have to get a messy face shot!

                                                                 This is yummy stuff!

                                                                      Gimme' pounds!

Mommy's Helper

Payton LOVES to help me unload the dishwasher.  Payton put all these dishes in the drawer, she thinks that all the dishes go in the silverware drawer :).  CUTE!  She is a great helper!  (and I will take any help I can get!)

Father and Son (and Mommy too!)

Jackson is growing too fast.  He is such a sweet and content baby.  I am very thankful for that.  He takes great naps... he could sleep through the night though!  Since having mastitis he hasn't done that :(  working on it, hopefully soon.  He laughs at his sisters all day and loves to talk.  Daddy finally has someone to watch football with!  Nathan is one proud Daddy!

My Boys!

                                               Can't forget about me!  Mama and Son :)

He is such a cutie!