Jadon walking and talking.


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Jadon blowing his nose.


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Happy Thanksgiving! We spent our thanksgiving with Nana and Poppa in New Mexico. Kara, Jeff, Hayden, and Brylee were all there too. We had a wonderful time. Jonathan and Jadon got to ride the horse, ride the tractor, and at the end of the trip we all got to ride the Polar Express! We went up to Durango, CO. on our last evening there to eat dinner. After eating we decided to go to the downtown area to do a little shopping. When we got there we discovered that the train had just started runnning hour long rides to the North Pole on the Polar Express. Jonathan was beside himself!! He has watched and watched that movie and he LOVES trains! So we all bought our tickets and went for a ride. It was so much fun! The best part was watching Jonathan. I loved it. We even got a bell from Santa himself. We all had a great Thankgiving. I feel so very, very blessed.

Today we went on a walk in our neighborhood and took some pictures. Taking walks is one of our families favorite things to do. We enjoyed our Saturday. After taking our walk we went out to dinner and then went to Target to let Jonathan look at the toys to maybe show us what he might like for Christmas. He loves the movie Cars, so anything to do with the movie he loves. Jadon also started walking this week, so I will try to post some video of it soon. Jonathan is so proud of him. It is so cute. I love my boys so much. Although staying home with them is sometimes hard and often challenging, I get to see all the first's of their lives. They are two wonderful souls that God has blessed me with. He has entrusted me to raise them up in Him. It is sometimes overwhelming. I pray everyday that I am the mother that He calls me to be. I cannot think of anything more important than raising Jonathan and Jadon to be Godly men. When I look at them I see eternity and eternity is what I long to live for. I want them to spend eternity in heaven. Thank You God for my children. Thank You for sweet Jadon's first steps this week.

I painted our kitchen green. The color is called cedar path. When I decided to paint the kitchen, I pictured it in my head and it looked really good and I was sure of the color. I started painting about three weeks ago and I finished on Friday night at midnight. The closer I got to finishing on Friday, I started thinking I was not sure that I liked it. This made me so sad, because for me to paint anything any more is a big deal. With two kids and a husband, it is almost impossible to paint a room. So the thought of having to re-paint the kitchen almost made me cry. After I finished on Friday I looked and looked at the kitchen. I had decided that I for sure did not like it. Today, I sometimes thought I might like it, but most of the day I still did not. So I decided that I would leave it until after Christmas, and if I still did not like it I will re-paint. So let me know what you think because I need help to decide what to do.

Today I just would like to share how amazing our God is. This past week I have been praying for several "big" things. I have been in constant prayer to the point of tears and pleading with the Lord. First, I have been praying for Sarah Bergquist. She is a wife and mother of four children that we attended church with in VA. She was diagnosed with acute leukemia. This past week she suffered a stroke and went through several surgeries on blood clots in her brain. I did not know Sarah that well while we were in VA, we have boys that are the same age and I got to spend a day cooking with her a few years ago. I have been keeping up with her situation on her website. I was praising God today when I read the update - she is off the breathing machine and talking! Thank you God for Your glory and Your grace, please continue to heal Sarah! The next thing I have been praising God for today is that we found out just a few hours ago that a woman in our bible class will not face a trial for a horrible accident that killed a 10 month old baby. She will get her own children returned to her and all of the legal stuff is over after a year of worry and heartache - praise God! The last thing that I have been praying for since last night and into this morning is my sister Lynette. She called last night and said that she had started bleeding. She is pregnant with twins through IVF. I cried and prayed for a miracle. She has already been through so much with losing Devon. I couldn't sleep, every time I woke up I started pleading with God. She called after she went to the doctor at 8:00 this morning. Both babies look perfect!! The heartbeats are strong and the doctor thought she knew the reason - something about twins, IVF, and not alot of room in the uterus. It is somewhat common in IVF patients. God is so good. His glory shines in all things - I know that we do not always get the answer that we are looking for when we pray. As I sat down today I just cried because He loves us so much! He wants to answer our prayers, He loves to hear our prayers, He loves to see us cry tears of joy. Thank You God for Your glory and Your grace. I pray the we live our lives for You and only You. I pray that we live for eternity. Thank You for showing Your wonderful love this week! Thank You.

This weekend we celebrated my 32nd birthday. On Friday night Jesse and the boys took me to Chili's to eat. On Saturday morning we went to IHOP and ate breakfast (one of our family's favorite places). After IHOP we went and bought a big rug for the living room. I used my b-day $$ to buy the rug and I love it. It makes the living room so much more comfortable! On my actual birthaday Jonathan was so sweet. He would just randomly tell me Happy Birthday throughout the day. Jesse, Jonathan, and Jadon made me a big sugar cookie. Everything was really good. Jesse asked if I was sad to be 32 and I said no way. I love my life and I think back on what God has done in my life since I was 22 and I am amazed. He has been so good to me. I love being 32 and I will take it over my 22 any day! We had a great weekend. Thank you God for letting me turn 32. Thank you for your love and grace and all the wonderful blessings in my life.

Fall is one of our favorite seasons. I have been trying to explain to Jonathan just exactly what a "season" is. He asked me why the leaves on our tree in the front yard are turning red. I never realized that the different seasons is a hard concept, or for that matter the days of the week. Everything in Jonathan's world happened "last year". "Mama, remember when we ate that ice cream last year?" In realitity we ate the ice cream at lunch time. It is so sweet and cute. But back to the tree in the front yard. I have been watching it over the last week and thinking how pretty the colors of the leaves are. Jesse said today that it is the only tree on our street that the leaves are so pretty and bright red. We are not sure why. When we were in Virginia over the last four years, one of our favorite things to do was to drive out in the country and look at the fall colors. It was always so beautiful and I loved going. I have missed Virginia very much since we moved here. When Jesse brought it to my attention that we were the only tree on the block that had the bright pretty color it made me smile. God gave me a little (very little, the tree is not even a year old) piece of Virginia this week.

I have been inspired by my sweet friend Ramona to start blogging. It is such a neat way to keep up with what is going on in peoples lives. With Jonathan and Jadon changing so much, and being such a blessing in my life; I want to share our life with our dear friends and family. Now the challenge will be finding the time during the week to sit down and write this blog. The boys keep me busy, but I am going to try my hardest to keep this up. The first thing I would like to share is our fun trip to the Fort Worth Zoo this past Saturday. Jesse and I almost gave up trying to get there. It is about an hour drive from our house, but it took us two because of traffic! We were glad that we went, once we finally got there. The boys loved the animals. Jonathan would get so excited showing us all the animals and Jadon would just growl at them. So, so cute. I sometimes look at my family and I am so overwhelmed with love, joy, and happiness - it brings tears to my eyes and words cannot express what I feel. I can't believe how God has blessed me. So we had a great time at the zoo. The boys were getting tired about lunch so we ate and then came home. They slept the entire car ride home - another blessing =). So this Monday morning Jonathan, Jadon, and I have been playing zoo. Jonathan is the big scary lion, Jadon is the baby lion, and I am someone visiting the zoo with a make believe friend talking about all the animals - mostly the lions. Fun and blessed times.