A Great Surprise!

Well, it is official.. I'M PREGNANT!!
Yes, we are expecting another "wee one" in March!
Gavin and Laney are sooo excited and are for sure that this is a baby boy!
I have no sonogram pictures at this time...sorry... first Dr. appt. is Aug. 12th so hope to get a snapshot then!

Finger Painting Fun!

Gavin and Laney have been asking if they could do some painting so my first thought was finger painting would be fun.. Thank goodness I decided to let them do this outside on the front porch instead of in the house. I knew that this would be messy hence the venture to the front porch, but I NEVER knew it would turn out like this.

LESSON LEARNED: Never turn your back on a child with paint because things will get messy!

A Day At The Creek

We haven't done very much this summer.. well what I mean is we haven't been on a vacation, but we have done many fun (inexpensive) things and going to the creek was one!

We found a nice, quiet spot on the creek for the kids to enjoy. This is the first time that they have both been to the creek and really enjoyed it. We tried taking them last summer, but sand was just something that really bothered Laney at that age. This summer was great! I was able to sit in a lounge chair and get some sun while they played in the ankle deep water. We all had a blast and I hope this "secret" spot is somewhere we can continue to go every summer!

Uncle Jesse Got Married! finally :)

Here is an adorable picture I took of the kiddos at Uncle Jesse and Aunt Ashley's wedding..

Gavin was the ring bearer and looked sharp in his tux! He thought he was a stud and didn't want to take it off. The wedding and reception were both beautiful and we had a great time!

Here is a picture of Uncle Jesse right before the big "I DO" and an adorable pic of Gavin and Papaw Johnny in their tuxes!

Congrats Uncle Jesse and Aunt Ashley!

Helping the Barbers!

I am trying to get together some things/items to do a raffle and raise some money for the Barber family. If any of you know of anyone I could contact that would be interested in helping out please let me know. Nice prizes, gift cards, etc.. would be great! Or if you would be interested in donating please let me know. Just starting to get this in the works so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! -Jenny

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! PLEASE PRAY!

My heart is broken this morning! Many of you know about Emily Barber... she was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. She has been in remission for about 6 months now and yesterday found out that she now has a tumor on her spine. I'm not going to go into all the details because I don't want to get any of them incorrect. Please visit her webpage at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilybarber for all the information and details.
Her mother posts updates fairly regular about her situation.
Emily is a special little girl to me. She has been one of Gavin's buddies at Easthaven for a while now. He talks about her regularly and has been very concerned about her being sick.
It just breaks my heart for her to have to deal with this pain! Please take some time out of your schedule today and lift this family and Emily up to the Lord. Only HE can heal her and ease her pain! They need your prayers today and in the days to come!

**after posting this I went over to check on baby Stellan today and how perfect for Angie to post these verses: (I just thought they were fitting for this too!)

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will answer him;
I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation...
Psalm 91:14-16

praying for healing
-Jenny

**Pray for Baby Stellan**

If you have never visited MckMama's Blog, you should.. I enjoy checking the updates on it regularly.. I was so sad to hear about baby Stellan being so sick and in the PICU.. Please check out the blog and the updates on baby Stellan's heart condition and add him to your prayer list..
He is such a precious baby boy and I can't imagine what they are going through at this time. He needs your prayers! Stop now and lift him up to the Lord! --Jenny
http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Little Miss Independent

Here are two pics of Laney when we went fishing.. I had one of them attached to the previous post but somehow deleted it and then couldn't figure out how to get it back on...
Anyway... Of course she thought she could fish by herself and actually did a fairly good job at throwing out her bait/cork by herself..

Notice the pink/purple pole! Everything has to be pink/purple these days.. She's such a girly girl! So prissy, but wants to hang with the boys too and try to be tough!

More Fishing Pictures

Ok.. I know you are wondering what the picture to the left is... It was the best I could get. This is a picture of my poor cricket, yes still alive. When I threw it out to fish, I sort of thought it looked a little funny floating in the water so I reeled it in.. The little cricket had climbed up on top of the cork and was hanging on for dear life, trying not be eaten up! I thought it was so funny so I of course took his picture.... Trying to hold the pole up with one hand and take pic with other wasn't that easy and this is the clearest shot I got! I guess the lesson learned here is when things get bad, hang on and hope for the best! Too funny! :)



Here are a few shots of Jason and the Gavin fishing..

Fishing Adventure

Oh Boy! What a fishing adventure it truly was! One of Jason and Josh's friends, Wayne Bass, invited us to bring the kids fishing Tuesday afternoon at his pond. Of course I was thrilled because I absolutely love to fish and have been begging Jason to take me for weeks now. The kids were more excited about actually getting to see each other since they haven't been able to due to Gavin and Laney having pink eye and Josh and Jax having the flu... Glad that is all over! It was so sweet to see them all just light up with excitement when we got there and they hugged and jumped and squealed! So funny! Below is a picture of the three monkeys smiling for the camera! Gavin is 4, Jax is 3, and Laney is 2.. Hopefully it won't be long and baby Joy will be along for the fun too!
The two pics below are so funny to me.. When we arrived, once the excitement of seeing each other for the first time in a while wore off, Jax was still extremely excited to tell Gavin, Laney, and me all about the "trickets" we had to use to fish with.. I love it when he gets all fired up and excited to tell something.. He's so funny!

Well the fishing trip was rather unsuccesful... as Laney told Papaw Johnny, "Me and mommy only caught 3 trees." Ha! and that is the sad truth! :( I think that Jason and Gavin caught 2 and Josh and Jax caught a few, but Laney and I had horrible luck.. maybe due to the fact that she only has one tone of voice and that is extremely loud or could have been all the rocks and branches that got thrown in around us... not quite sure what the problem was! :)

Anyway they had a blast being together and it was absolutely hilarious to watch Jason and Josh fish with the kids mini poles since the kids were running around and not worried about fishing... should have made a picture of them.. Jason even had Laney's pink princess pole at one point - too funny! Anyway, was a great time outside together and I look forward to many more of these. Maybe we could plan a zoo trip Neisha and even baby Joy could go along on that one!

-Jenny

Peek-A-Boo!

Took these shots of the kids the other day.. They turned out too cute not to share!

Learning about his FIRST gun!

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of Gavin and his new "REAL" gun! He loves it.. I was not so wild about buying him one.. I personally think he is too little for a "REAL" gun, but Jason insisted that he needs to start learning about gun safety now so I agreed! The first picture is of Jason giving him some "pointers" on how to use a "REAL" gun... Gavin looks like he is really taking it all in doesn't he... The second picture Jason is teaching him how to aim at the target... oh and the targets were the balloons from the birthday party-ha! The third picture is of Gavin giving me the "wink" that he's got it! He was soooo proud that he could hit a balloon... well I guess this is only the beginning.. I thought it was such a great father-son experience! =)

Adorable Picture

Just had to post this picture! Gavin is such a loving child.. he hugs and kisses on everyone, but Papaw oh Papaw is his absolute most favorite person in the whole wide world! Gavin thinks that Papaw is wonderful because:

• Papaw can do magic tricks--"hocus pocus" the t.v. so he can watch Walker Texas Ranger--and other great tricks.
• Papaw teaches him such wondeful songs: "The farmer in the dell, The farmer in the dell, the farmer had a mean wife with a rusty old tail" and "Ain't gonna bump no more with no big fat woman"... some great ones huh!
• Papaw lets him do absolutely anything he wants... and wear whatever he wants! Boots and jogging pants... or stripe shirt with camo pants,etc... its so funny what they actually think matches.. :)
• Papaw lets him "kick back" in the recliner and watch t.v. for hours and hours when mommy says "enough t.v. go play".... oh and lets him watch anything.. Walker Texas Ranger, CSI, Law and Order, Big Mama's House, and lots of others that I'm not so sure he really needs to be watching....
• Papaw teaches him lots of educational thinks like what "dope" looks like, that bad people drink beer, don't smoke, and smooching on girls is a good thing! :) How wonderful right?!
• Papaw takes him hunting, riding, to McDonalds, for ice cream, wherever he wants to go....
• AND MOST OF ALL.... PAPAW LETS HIM SKIP SCHOOL EVERY TIME HE'S OFF WORK!

I'm so glad that Gavin has this wonderful relationship with his Papaw! I hope he stays this close to him for a long, long time!

Happy Birthday to Gavin!

I can't believe that Gavin is already 4 years old.. where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that I had this sweet baby boy.. and now he's growing up so fast! This is a picture of Gavin on his actual birthday (Jan. 7). We had pizza and ice cream cake at our house. Jason, Laney, and I were there to celebrate with him along with Nanny Jen, Poppy Randy, Mamaw Frankie, Papaw Johnny, Dot Dot, Uncle Jesse, and "Aunt" Ashley. He had a great time! When we sang Happy Birthday--he watched to make sure everyone was singing to him and shouted at those not singing to "Sing to Me"... was so cute! He was the "man of the day"! Jason and I woke him up singing Happy Birthday with his favorite waffles in bed--I stuck a candle in them and let him blow it out.. of course we had to re-light it and sing to Laney and let her blow it out.. She didn't understand and argued that it was her birthday too! :)


Before heading off to school we gave him his "other" gifts from us that he didn't open at his birthday party.. He got a "REAL" bb gun and a new pair of ropers! He was soooo excited.. oh and Laney got a new baby doll for Gavin's birthday!



He is a boot loving fool! I'm telling you he has more pairs of boots than I have shoes! He loves them sooo much.. He WILL NOT wear anything else but boots! I have given up on even trying!




These are two of the many pics from his actually birthday party. We had his party at the gym of dreams again this year.. It's just so much easier than taking the chance of planning a party somewhere else and the weather being too cold.. and the kids all love the Gym of Dreams so much! (also easier on the whole setup and cleanup of things!) We invited lots of kids from church and had a great turn out! Thanks to all who came and helped him celebrate! Every year I ask Gavin what kind of cake he wants.... this year he wanted an "army cake"! I have always had Annie P. make the cake and in the past we have had a 3D bear cake, 3D Tow-mater (from CARS) cake, and last year a 3D horse/cowboy cake...she does a super-duper job! Well this year I ordered his 3D army cake from her and when I called to go get it he morning of the party.... found out that Annie P. had forgot :0 (she had been pretty sick the few days before and let it slip her mind).. Anyway of course I did a good bit of crying because I didn't know what we would do, but as you can see my WONDERFUL mom pulled through--calmed me down-- and took care of it. It was not the 3D cake that I had hoped for but it was absolutely perfect and Gavin was so thrilled over it! Thanks mom--you are the bestest!
Gavin had a wonderful birthday and I'm looking forward to many, many, many more to come.. just hate to see him grow up so fast! Happy Birthday Baby! Mommy love you bunches!

Panties and Pacifiers!

Well, I'm sure Uncle Jesse would just be thrilled to know that his picture is on the "panties and pacifiers" page! ha! This is the only picture I could find (and actually get to work) of Laney with her pacifier..... I hate to say it but my baby girl is a "Big Girl" now! She is officially wearing panties and has NO pacifier.. it was much easier taking hers than it was taking Gavin's. She whined for it and asked for it for about a week, mainly at bedtime--Gavin screamed non-stop for 1-2 hours when we took his away! I'll have to say that I miss her having it too because it was much easier to get her quiet and to sleep at night.. Now she just talks and talks and talks at bedtime! ha...gets that talking alot honest though! :)
I told Jason its now time for Baby #3--no I'm NOT pregnant.. but I do have the fever again!... so we'll see what the future holds for us in that respect... Jason says I'm nuts but I'm gonna keep trying to talk him into it! Guess we'll see who wins this battle soon!

Christmas-SO much fun!

This Christmas was so much fun! The kids were finally big enough to open all their gifts on their own without my help. They had a blast. Of course they got way too much and now our house looks even more cluttered than before, but oh well.... Gavin asked for a drum set, guitar, and microphone so he could be a rock star---not so sure about his rock star/cowboy combo these days, but it's cute! Of course he got all the things he asked for. Laney didn't ask for much besides baby dolls and the things Gavin said of course.. She got several dolls, cooking utensils, etc... and an adorable little vanity. She loves it and is so funny putting on her makeup "like mommy" she says. It was hectic but well worth every minute of the chaos! Jason and I enjoyed doing the "Santa thing" this year. We put a little bit of cotton ball on the bricks by the fireplace and Gavin discovered it on Christmas morning.. He was so excited to find some of "Santa's beard" that must have gotten snagged.. Ha! It was priceless to see his face! We had to put some tape on it and let him wear it for a while. He was tickled to wear part of Santa's real beard. I can't wait until next Christmas to come up with another little "trick" like this one. If you haven't tried one you should! It was so much fun for us to watch them find it. Anyway--here are a few pics from Christmas--Hope you enjoy them!