Moving!

We officially spent last night in our new house! Things are crazy...we are halfway in one house and halfway in another. I may not update again til Monday. Please pray that we get lots accomplished this weekend!!

I was so excited to wake up to a pony and cows outside my window this morning. Who would have ever thought?? The boys are truly at home out at the farm. So peaceful!

Also...find me on Twitter!! I can update that from my phone! :)

The tanning bed is calling my name

Really. It is. I just told my bestie yesterday how desperately pale I am. It is NOT in a Southern woman's best interest to look pasty white. Especially when the weather is warming up, and we can wear cute dresses now! Please don't judge me for going to the tanning bed. I don't frequent it too much....

I just took these pictures of Trace today. Ahhh, he's getting so big! Seriously, he's got to be over 16 pounds now. That infant car carrier is getting quite heavy!!


So on another note, I would just like to encourage those of you who read my blog to become a follower or join the new Blog Frog widget I added at the top right. I seem to be getting some substantial traffic, but I don't know who you are! So please, introduce yourself and feel free to add me!

I think I'm ready for my close-up

So yesterday was my birthday!! Birthdays are a big deal in my family; it's usually more of a week/month-long celebration than just a single day. My sweet boys sang happy birthday to me yesterday morning, which was the sweetest thing. My sweet hubby bought me breakfast and gave me my bday presents; an iPod Touch (woo-hoo!) and a gorgeous diamond necklace to go with the earrings he had given me for Christmas. Totally unexpected!

For lunch, he surprised me by inviting all of my friends to my favorite Mexican restaurant in town. Instead of Mardi Gras beads, my bestie, Kisha, got me tons of the little babies they put in the King Cakes. Haha, I know, we are weird. It made me laugh though! She also got me the most scrumptious King Cake you'll ever put in your mouth.

My friends had sent me this email the day before:
This couopon entitles you to one free afternoon and a movie with your best friends!! All details have been taken care of.
When: February 24, 2009
Where: Cinemark Theater
Time: 2:05 p.m.
Movie: Confessions of a shopaholic
We just want to honor you on the day God blessed us with you by making memories with you and enjoying laughs that help us all through the tough times. We are excited to spend the afternoon with you. Oh yeah this invitation is for Trace too. We love you a bunch!!!!!

Aren't they the sweetest?? So after lunch, we went to Hattiesburg to see the movie. It was too cute! We loved it! This video is from my favorite part. We grabbed some Starbucks (which was an adventure in itself...) and headed home. My family and I ate a quick dinner together, and then I had to go to the coast for worship team practice. I was expecting to practice with the vocalists, like usual, but surprise! I was practicing with the band. Ha. This is totally a new thing for me, so I was a little nervous, but I actually did really well. Kinda proud of myself!!

Anyway, we are MOVING THIS WEEKEND! Finally! So I'll be moving/celebrating my bday with my family/going to Brayden's soccer game...you know, a normal weekend. :)

My bday is tomorrow...

that's all. I'm excited. :)

Long Weekend

Bear with me, I've been behind! Sooo, let me start out on Tuesday. I went to go get my hair cut at 1:00 and left Trace sleeping at the store with Jeffry. I didn't really know what kind of cut I wanted, so I left it up to Eddie. He razored it, and I LOVE it! I was really uncertain at first of whether Jeffry would like it or not, but he did! And it takes no time to blow dry it in the mornings, which is super important when I'm trying to get all 5 of us out the door by 7:15.

However, when I got back to the store, the excitement of my haircut was quickly diminished by the fact that one of our employees (and close friend of Jeffry's since elementary school!) just found out his grandfather was killed in a head-on collision. And Jeffry was the one who had to break the news to him. Needless to say, things were rough around the store that afternoon. It just broke my heart for him. Please remember him and his family in your prayers!

We were planning to leave for our hardware show in Birmingham on Thursday, but we were waiting to hear what the arrangements would be. In the midst of all this, I had to make Brayden a bald eagle costume to wear to school for the "America Parade" on Friday. Of course my child wants to be a bald eagle! Bray and I went to Walmart, gathered all the supplies, and spent a quick hour and a half hot gluing feathers to the wings we made! It looked great! I need to take his pic in his outfit. Anyway, we ended up attending the visitation Thursday night, eating dinner with some of Jeffry's old friends, and then driving on to Birmingham. We got to the hotel around midnight.

Friday morning we woke up late, got some breakfast, and headed to the show. We got a lot accomplished and got some new ideas for the store. Jeffry even let me buy the cutest birdhouses! I can't wait til we get them in. After the show, we went to see our friends, Rory & Ginny, and their new sweet baby, Hayes. He's adorable! Then, we had dinner for my early bday with Jeffry's mom and dad at this great Italian restaurant, Brio. Yum! We spent Saturday morning at the show, had lunch at PF Chang's, did a little shopping, and then drove home to see our boys. Church on Sunday was incredible; God just keeps showing me new things and taking me to new places with Him. In all, we've been busy, but it's been great!! Hope you guys are all good!!

Wordless Wednesday

My Valentine's gifts from my sweet hubby. I'm easy to please. I'm one of the few who still loves flowers and chocolates. FINE chocolates!! Please do yourself a favor and go order a sampling from John & Kira's. I can't tell you which flavor is my favorite because they all are; they use only organic farmers for their ingredients.

Kari Jobe in Concert!!

My best friends and I were fortunate enough to get to see Kari Jobe in concert on Sunday night! I was very last minute in deciding to go, but I was so excited to get to go!! My sweet husband volunteered to keep the boys so I could go child-free. And it was INCREDIBLE. We actually got great seats considering we got there about 15 minutes before it started. I was able to truly worship during this concert and got on my knees before our great and mighty God! If you haven't heard of Kari or gotten her new CD yet, I highly recommend her!! She can definitely lead you into the throneroom of God!
I feel so thankful to know that my best friends are girls who are as passionate about Jesus as I am! Just to get to worship our sweet Saviour together, draws us closer and unites our hearts in His love. I love you girls!!

Diapers.com

Have you heard of diapers.com? I love this site. They carry all the name brand diapers for cheaper than Walmart and Target. Right now, all the diapers are on sale!! I only buy Pampers and those babies get expensive!, so any time I can find them on sale, I jump on it! The convenience of having them shipped straight to home is great...you can buy in bulk and not have to lug the big boxes to your car with baby in hand. They also always have free shipping on orders over $49.00! They carry a variety of baby items besides just diapers, including formula, clothes, carseats, medicines, breastfeeding items, etc. So go check them out! And while you're at it, let me give you my referral code and you'll get $10 off your order! Just type MXRG2057 in the referral code box when you check out. Hope you enjoy! This is my new favorite website!!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, so this is not so wordless...Trace has been sick! He's been extremely congested and wheezy since Sunday. We've been giving him breathing treatments at home and using the awful nose squeegy and the cool mist humidifier at night. Monday night he and I hardly slept bc he just couldn't breathe! So yesterday, I took him to the doctor. She wanted to do a breathing treatment in the office so she could see how he responded; it went well...his blood oxygen levels rose 2% after the treatment so it helped. They also tested him for RSV but haven't gotten the results back yet.

The first two pics are from his breathing treatment at the doctors office- their nebulizer was a cute teddy bear! Ours is just plain boring gray. The last pic is from this morning. He had been coughing and coughing and finally was able to pass out. He's been so pitiful. Makes me sad.
I think he's getting a little better so far this afternoon though. Please keep him in your prayers!

Random Picture Challenge 5.0

March 2008, 5th picture from the end

This is my brother in law's girlfriend, my mother in law, and Caleb after hunting Easter eggs at my in law's house.

Trace's first cereal!

The pediatrician said since Trace is over 14 pounds we could go ahead and start giving him some cereal! Crazy...here are a few pics from the first time we tried it. He actually did pretty well! I was surprised.

Blog name ideas??

I was thinking of changing the name of our blog to something a little more creative and original. The problem is...I'm not great at thinking of titles (as evidenced by my blog post titles!!). Anyone have any cute ideas?

Babywearing 101

So baby number three made his debut in November. After the holidays had passed and the food had run out, I realized that at some point I would have to venture out to the grocery store once again. So Trace and I loaded up to go; I carried him into the store in his infant carseat carrier. It took up the WHOLE buggy! I had hardly any room to fit any groceries. I ended up squeezing in the essentials, but I had to go back a few days later to get more items. I realized the carrier was NOT going to work. But I certainly couldn't hold him the whole time...and what about when I had Brayden & Caleb with me? I started freaking out wondering how I would ever be able to grocery shop with my kids again!

I had never heard of babywearing until I read so many blogs of mothers who talked about it. I was a little clueless at first, but finally figured out what everyone was raving about! I never "wore" Brayden & Caleb, but I bought my first pouch with Trace several weeks ago. It has been a life saver! It's the only way we survive grocery shopping now. I wish I had known about these babies when my older boys were infants. I love having Trace nestled up right against me, but still being able to get things accomplished! Which is important when you have three boys! :)

There are several different ways to "wear" your baby and most pouches can be used until age 2 or about 35 pounds. My skinny Caleb is 3 1/2 and just now weighs 35 pounds...I could've used a pouch with him this whole time! Ahh, who knew!?

Brittany at 4 Little Men and Girly Twins is giving away a Meeup pouch! Go register to win!!

25 Things for my 25th Birthday!

I've been tagged by several people on Facebook and Blogger to do this post. I thought it was fun that this month is also my 25th birthday month!

1. I was born in Columbia, Missouri and lived there until I was 9. I always prided myself on having more of a Northern accent, but now my Mississippi born-and-raised husband has rubbed off on me. I'm a weird cross between Northern and Southern accents, and I'm passing it on to my children, ha.

2. I graduated highschool at 17 because I skipped the 4th grade. And no, I'm not that smart.

3. I never liked the color pink until the past few years.

4. I'm not much of a fashion jewelry person. My husband has wonderfully supplied me with many beautiful, nice pieces of jewelry that I would much rather wear than costume jewelry. Nice jewelry is just more sentimental to me, I guess.

5. I am a huge sweet tooth! I love dessert and think it should be eaten at least once a day. (That's bad I know) Jeffry doesn't even like dessert. Brayden has my sweet tooth...we're two peas in a pod; Caleb doesn't care much one way or the other. We'll see who Trace takes after!

6. I was and still am a Hanson fan. And yes, they're still around.

7. My greatest passion in life besides my family and my God is singing. I've been singing since I was able to talk. I even sing in my sleep at times.

8. I LOVE to travel and have traveled to 22 states. Also to England, Scotland, Wales, Mexico, Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Curacao and Costa Rica. I think that's all.

9. I'm not good at anything athletic except snow skiing. My baby brother got all the athletic talent in our family.

10. Movie nights at home or at the theater are one of my favorite ways to spend time with my husband.

11. I feel like I'm still trying to identify my personal style and translate it into the clothes I wear.

12. My husband and I both have fathers who were raised on dairy farms.

13. I really dislike confrontation. I hate when customers get angry with me; I usually cry after I talk to them.

14. I truly believe that some friends are for LIFE. You'll never lose that special connection no matter how little you talk to them or how far apart you are.

15. My husband first saw me singing on stage at our college's Baptist Student Union, and we were pretty much inseparable after we met that night.

16. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year! My precious Saviour's birth is celebrated! I love the feelings that Christmas conjures up, the smells that it represents to me, and the family time that is shared.

17. I never dreamed I would end up living on a 90-acre farm and not in the city or even in a neighborhood!

18. I used to referee soccer (good money!) when I was in highschool, but I never actually played.

19. My great grandfather came to America from Greece. He stowed away on a ship! I hope one day to be able to travel to Skopelos, where he was from.

20. Scrapbooking is one of my most favorite things to do, but I never make the time for myself to do it. I need to get better at that.

21. I really love my family; they make me laugh more than anyone else!

22. God has taught me things and carried me through situations in the past three years that I never thought were possible.

23. I want to sing and record songs in a recording studio.

24. Purses and shoes make me happy even though I'm not the kind of girl who changes her purse daily. I'm more of a seasonal purse changer. Shoes...are fabulous. I wish I could buy cutesy ones from Payless and Target, but my feet scream at me if I do that. I have to go the expensive route.

25. I've accomplished more in this 25 years than I ever dreamed: The man God has for me, three beautiful boys who are being raised in a Spirit-filled home, a beautiful farm and new house, a thriving business that supports several families not just ours, pushing myself in my ministry and not getting complacent, being more faithful with reading my Word than I have ever been in my life, living in the MIRACULOUS!

New Pictures!

Sorry I haven't updated about the house. We have been sick again...all weekend. Just the wife came by to see the house...I'm hoping she will bring her husband back to look at it soon! Please pray!!

Here are a few new pictures of my boys!





We are hoping to start moving this weekend if all goes well!!