My last few posts have been pretty short. It seems like I do not have a lot of time to sit down and just write. I look at some people's blog and I am amazed at how much it seems they put in to it. Maybe I am not managing my time as well - but you professional bloggers (you know who you are) amaze me :). One big thing that has been happening in our lives lately is that we have decided to change churches. We are now attending Greenville Oaks church in Allen. It is less than 10 minutes from our house. It was a really hard decision to leave Prestoncrest, but Jesse and I both feel like it is the right thing to do for our family. We have found a small group and we are excited to start a new chapter in our lives. We have already met so many great people. I am also trying to get ready for our new baby. I have plans to paint the baby's room and we have ordered Jadon furniture. Jonathan wants to feel the baby kick so bad. He is always asking me "is our baby kicking?". He seems to be getting so big so fast! I just cannot express what a true joy it is to raise him (and Jadon). Since we found out that we are having another boy, everyone is joking with me that we will have to try for a fourth baby (for a girl). I laugh and say most likely not - but a part of me is not opposed to it. Yes kids are A LOT of work and it is very hard sometimes, but they also bring me such and joy and I love them more than I could ever say. But I also feel pretty sure that if did have a fourth it would also be a boy. So who knows what the future holds. Now that it is after 11:00 and the baby is kicking like crazy (Jonathan is missing it again) I think I will go to bed - is this when the professional blogger's blog - late at night when everyone has gone to sleep? Just trying to figure it out. I am also including some pictures of Jonathan and Jadon before church this morning - all my boys (including Jesse) looked so handsome. Thanks Grannie for the matching outfits! Thank you God for a wonderful Sunday.

We took a ride on Thomas the Train on Saturday. It was our second year to ride and the kids loved it! It was so much fun! Jadon calls Thomas a T-T. When he saw Thomas he was so cute! Here are some pictures from our fun day!

We had our sonogram on Monday morning. Everything looks good. Jesse and I both were thinking that this baby was a girl - I felt so sure that I had already bought pink hangers for "her" closet. Well, we were very wrong. We are having another sweet boy! So now we are three =). Jonathan was very excited - he wanted another brother. God has blessed so much and we thank Him and give Him all the glory. Here are some pictures of my two sweet boys last Sunday before we went to church and on the bikes this past weekend.

Jonathan makes a bed in the livingroom for himself and Jadon. Then he makes Jadon lay down, he covers Jadon up and attempts to sing him to sleep.





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This weekend I attended the Ladies Retreat for our church. I left Jesse with the kids Friday afternoon and was to return home Saturday afternoon. The retreat was really uplifting. I enjoyed the speaker - her name is Devi Titus and I loved her message. I just sat here and tried to explain it in words and I feel like I do not do it justice. You could tell that she has a heart for the Lord and a heart to reach women. So I came away uplift and inspired to be a better mother, wife, and most of all a better servant of the Lord. I thank God for speaking to me this weekend thru Devi. Coming home from the retreat I was thinking how so blessed I am to have Jesse and the boys. When I got home , Jonathan was so excited to show me what Jesse had bought him - a vacuum cleaner - a real vacuum cleaner. Jonathan is always vacuuming with me with his little toy vacuum and sometimes gets upset because it will not pick things up. So Jesse has been saying that we should get him a real one - so I leave for the weekend and Jonathan gets a real vacuum. They had been vacuuming all day - it was pretty cute. We had to make Jonathan stop tonight at about 8:30. He loves it and he loves seeing everything that it picks up - and the floors are really clean :) Such fun times at our house.

More Pictures.......... Jonathan's 4th Birthday Party

It has been a long time since I have written a blog. Lots has been going on - Christmas, traveling to Lubbock, celebrating Jonathan's 4th birthday, and last (but the most likely reason for the lack of blogs) a new baby and me being constantly sick because of the pregnancy. So where do I begin? I guess I could start with us finding out that we are expecting a new baby due in July. I am currently 12 weeks. We were somewhat surprised with the news (it was about 6-12 months sooner than I had planned), but we are excited. Jadon and the baby will be almost exactly 2 years apart. I have been very sick and that has been hard. I move slower and can't seem to get anything done. I have medicine that the doctor gave me so I have to make a choice - I do not throw up but I cannot function because I am so sleepy (due to the meds) or I feel horrible. It has been hard but I pray that I am close to the end of this phase. It is very humbling to constantly feel so bad, it makes me thankful for the health that we do have and to pray that we all stay healthy. Having a healthy body is such a blessing. We will find out what the sex is. Both Jesse and I feel like this might be a girl . I guess we will know in about a month.
So now Christmas - we had our little family Christmas on the Saturday morning before Christmas day. It was a lot of fun. Then we loaded up the car and drove to Lubbock. We stayed in Lubbock for a week. We enjoyed being with my family and seeing our friends. It was a good and joyful time. Of course, Jonathan and Jadon had a great time playing with their cousins. Jonathan got an electric train from Grannie and Pop and he LOVES it. We also had a birthday party for Jonathan in Lubbock with my family. He wanted a spiderman cake and he was so excited. I cannot believe that he is 4 years old. Time is going so fast!
When we came home from Lubbock Jesse took some time off from work. We celebrated Jonathan's birthday again - this time on his actual birthday - January 8. I made him a cake and he wanted to go to Chucky Cheese. We are trying to get back into the swing of things here in Dallas. We still do not feel that at home here but we are trying. We are thinking about making some changes at church in hopes to feel more connected. We have not been very consistant these past few months because of travel and sickness. Hopefully we can get back to normal soon.
I pray that we are continually seeking God's will and that we are listening to His voice. I am so thankful for my beautiful family - for my husband who was just sitting here next to me on the couch reading me the Bible, asking me questions to make sure I was listening :). I am so blessed.

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.