updates

As you all well know, I have been really bad about updating our blog lately. I have a couple of excuses really. Of course my life is crazy busy, but also our computer kicked the bucket after Da uploaded all of our pictures from Christmas and our trip to Hawaii. We are in the process of trying to have them restored, please keep your fingers crossed as there were 2 1/2 years of pictures on that computer. The bad news is we had an external hard drive that we used as a backup for all our pictures, and somehow the computer fried the the external hard drive. Obviously I know nothing about computers, so its a bit of a mystery to me. However we have a very good friend who does know some things, and we are very optimistic that all will be well.
SO..... when all the pictures are restored, I will have to do some back posts. Until than, we must move on.

We have had some great and important things happen in our family as late. Da is back in the classroom, and doing well. This semester is going so much better, we are having a lot more time as a family, which we are grateful for. He has one night class that he teaches, and one day class on Tues and Thurs. He is at the church a few nights a week, but it really feels like he is at home more. We took the kids to the zoo last weekend( almost 70 degrees, it was beautiful), and have had movie parties, which include letting the kids watch Star wars for the first time. It was a big hit!

This is a picture of some new and sweet friends of ours. They are a family with 6 children, 3 of which are in first grade at Maddie's school. She is friends with all of them. I met Cathy the mom a few months ago, and as a family we have been able to have them in our home and share the gospel with them. The hard part is they had to suddenly move for a job transfer! We wish them the best of course and hope to stay in touch.
Jacob, Jack, Libby(and extra we had over one day)Christine, Austin, Sadie, Katie Beth, Maddie, and Melia. Not pictured are the babies, Kevin and Jordan. Austin, Maddie, Meleia, and Jacob. I am grateful that Maddie was able to bring our families together. She is such a sweet girl, who is growing and learning and gaining her own testimony. She is also in gymnastics now, which she completely LOVES! She is doing great in piano, and also enjoys girl scouts. She loves to ride her bike and play outside. School is going great for her too, good grades and is a awesome little reader.

Our little Kevy is 6 months old! Unbelievable! He is as sweet and precious as ever. He has been pretty sick this last week, a very bad ear infection and also RSV. We are able to do the breathing treatments from home, which he is getting used to. The first few times he just screamed wearing the mask, but now he is OK. Last night he did great, slept much better.

He is rolling over, and learning to sit up. I really have been bad about taking pictures of all the kids lately, I will try to get better about that. He loves to play with toys, everything goes straight to his mouth! Da is ready to move him to the room with Jack, but I am just holding on to this little baby and not quite ready for him to grow up even a little. We just love him! He is really enjoying his baby food, he has had squash, green beans, peas, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, and cereal. He likes it all, minus the green beans :) We had his eye checked by the specialist, and we had pretty much the same report as with Jack, all is well for now. We will go back in a year and re-evaluate.

The sweetest little smile.

Ok, my great friend Emily has introduced me to the world of yard sales and trash! I just love her and I am so glad that she moved here! I am just praying that they don't move and stay here for awhile. I have to chuckle to myself every Sat morning as I leap out of bed at 5 something, sneak out of my dark house with only my cell phone and some cash. You just never know what treasures await you. I particularly like Da's face when I come home with my treasures. I have learned that he likes the name brand nice polo's I find him for a buck, but not so much the perfect leather boots I found in some one's trash! The trash searches are hit and miss, a few weeks ago we found several bottles of perfume all roughly 100$ a bottle! Sweet score on that! You are not going to believe this area rug that we found on the side of the road to be thrown out! It is awesome, and in perfect condition and the tag on the back said 500$! It matches so perfect. Anyways, all I can say is thanks Em for helping me find my new hobby!

Ok, now about our little Sadie Jayne. This is her best friend Mackenzie. She and Sadie are just too cute and sweet together. They met at school and are in the same class and they just click! Ms. Dodder said they just gab and talk and have the best time. I finally met up with her mom and arranged for a long afternoon play date. I just love that Sa has made her very own best friend! Everyone needs a best friend. She is doing well at school too, she is a different personality than Maddie, she does everything at a slow pace, but doing just fine. I stay in close touch with her teacher and they just love Sa.

All right, I think I have covered everyone but little Jack. I don't have any recent pics of him( I know I am a loser) but he is so funny. He is really excited about his upcoming birthday(still a month away), he talks about it daily and wants star wars toys. His common phrases include "OH Yeah" I really need to get that on video because its so funny. He is a big boy, dresses himself everyday, will only wear shorts by the way, no jeans for him. Thank goodness we live in the south. :) We moved him into a twin bed in hopes that he would sleep better at night, but no such luck really. He gets into our bed nearly every night, or Da ends up sleeping in his room sometime in the night on the trundle bed. I love my husband, what a great Dad! We are taking him to the doctor about getting his tonsils out. He is such a heavy breather, and he snores and he really is lacking in pronunciation. We are thinking maybe he really can't hear that well. We will keep you updated!

Well y'all, that's all for now. :)