No words necessary!

Please pray for my friend

My friend Lauren from childhood/teen years (her dad is actually the one who baptized me when I was 13!) just had her baby a week ago at just 25 weeks along. His name is Kynian and he is just as precious as can be!! He weighed 1 lb 10 oz and was 12.8 in long...just like a real live baby doll! They are all doing well considering all the ill effects that having a baby 3 months early can have. Go here to read her story and give them words of encouragement. God can do anything and we are praying that he heals baby Kynian! Thank you all!!

Shutterfly

I love to send out Christmas cards every year but with all the hussle and bustle now-a-days having two kiddos, my days are planned out just right. I wish part of my day consisted of enough down time to sit and write all our cards by hand, but let's face it, that's never going to happen again!!

I could go to Walmart to print them or even to Walmart.com, but why would I want to do that when Shutterfly has such good deals and not to mention the best quality prints!! I have never used them for Christmas cards but I have friends who have and I love how they look. They have such cute designs! Click here to take you to their website to pick out your favorite design I will definitely be using them this year though!! Here are some of my favorites...

I love the quality prints I get when I use Shutterfly for my regular pictures so why not use them for my Christmas cards as well!?! I'm so excited I have already started working on getting them together!!

sneak peek of our 2010 fall pictures

Oh my word!! We just had our fall family pictures taken last night and can I say how amazed I am with them! I had Lauren Ames do them this year and she just did a fantastic job! These are the only ones I have seen so far so I will post the rest when I get them.

Please pray for this family

http://lesliejoyevans.blogspot.com/ My friend text me today and told me she found my missing younger sister. I then clicked over to the blog her family has started on her behalf. This has touched my heart and has been on my mind all day. I can't even imagine what this husband/dad is going through. (you should read the whole blog to catch up. It's only like 5 posts and they are short. Just to see what this dad has been through already) This family is going to be in need of our prayers. If you can stop and say a prayer that would be great! God is so good! So I have been M.I.A. for almost two months!!! Longest I have ever been out of the blog world, but I promise to be back soon. I am just going to have to do a make up post for August and Sept...A LOT has gone on! Hope everyone is doing well! :)

UGH!!!

making it from scratch

So it just bothers me to know that I am feeding my baby preservatives in his jar baby food, so I thought I would give "making it on my own" a try! It's soooo easy and so much better for them!

I mainly try to feed him the stuff that I have made while we are at home and then for convenience reasons, I grab a jar food for when we will be out and about during a feeding time.

For the chicken, I ALWAYS buy the Smart Chicken even for us to eat.

Boil it, cut it up...

Put it in the nifty little food processor I bought at a garage sale for $5 (LOVE this thing!!) AND...

I have chicken baby food!

I then put it in ice cube trays and freeze them.

(This is broccoli)

Then after they are nice and frozen I put them in freezer bags. They are ready to go now! All I have to do is pull out however many I want and warm them up and we're good to go!

Each cube equals one oz. of food. So it's easy to tell how much they are getting!

(this is sweet pots)

I also get the bag of frozen peas and carrots and do those together.

So easy and so good for them!

a visit from Grams

My grandmother came in town to visit and came over and spent the day with me and the boys. We had such a wonderful visit together! Sterling enjoyed her company and kept her extremely busy! Grams is extremely creative (I think Sterling gets some of that from her! And how come I couldn't have inherited more of that gene I don't know!) and she and Sterling made a bug catcher like she had made for herself at home. He also kept her busy playing games, reading, and telling stories. He has quite the imagination! I know Grams enjoyed every minute of it!

And, of course the, day wouldn't have been complete without playing play-doh for about an hour! Judson was getting a little fussy so she picked him up and rocked him for a just a bit and he fell right to sleep! This NEVER happens like that...must be a great-grandmother's touch! :)

The next night my mom decided to treat us girls to a movie! We saw "Love Letter's to Juliet"...perfect girl's night movie!

The 3 generations

Oh my word, it took us like a million tries to get this picture just right!! It was pretty comical! Good thing there was only like 5 other people in the theater and they were teenagers! And what night would be complete without some ColdStone Creamery! MMMM!!

She missed the silly face memo! Wait, now I missed it!

We love you Grams!!

Sunday school sweetness

Sterling cracks me up sometimes! This is what he drew in Bible class.

Let me interperet for you.

Him and his Daddy in the water with the boat next to them and the best is what he had to say! What a sweetie! :)

Look what this little fellow can do!

He did this all by himself! My days of "takin' it easy" (if there is such a thing!!) are about to be O.V.E.R.!!

Ooops!

8 months

Eight months old has proved to be a turning point in my little ones tiny life! He has started so many new things it's incredible! Here are the ones I can remember right now! wrestling with monkey! About to crawl!! sitting himself up while making the clicking noise with his tongue...quite talented!

• weighs 22 lbs
• wears size 4 diapers
• in a 12-18 mon or 18-24 mon...depends on the brand clothes
• can sit himself up from tummy
• rolls all over the place
• has learned to click his tongue
• still loves to be in his monkey bouncer
• is just about to crawl...gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth
• scoots backwards while on tummy
• starting to try and pull up on things
• what a little explorer
• gets up on feet and hands for a few seconds then drops
• still has two bottom teeth
• still loves to blow bubbles
• gets up at least once a night to eat and goes back to sleep
• has such a little attitude and is very impatient most times
• will sit and play for hours
• can be pretty mellow though most times
• loves his big brother so much
• says "mama" and "dada" while fussing but still doesn't know what he's saying
• grunts or squeels loudly to get our attention
• loves to wrestle with Daddy and brother
• has had 4 hair cuts
• when he throws fits he stiffens his whole body and sticks his arms and legs straight out and grunts really loud and his face turns bright red...little toot!
• started crawling everywhere at 8.5 mon
• claps hands at 8.5 mon
• clicks fingernail on bottom teeth at 8.5 mon

some of the fun things we did this summer

We are having such a great summer! We have stayed very busy (and my cleaning duties have gone a little out the window since) but have been having a blast! As we wrap up the summer (cause school starts in three weeks!!!) I thought I would put up some pictures to remind me of some of the fun things we did!

Sprinkler fun with friends

(Sterling is wearing a shirt because he was sunburned from the day before hangin out poolside)

Playin' in the dirt

Playing "American Idol" in the backyard with friends

the judges (how cute is that!)

Judson hanging out inside with his friend (believe it or not these two are 8 months apart!) while the big kids play outside

Hanging out pool side with friends

Jenn trying to teach Sterling to float Judson and Avery hanging out watching everyone in the pool

This is the face of the biggest water baby I have ever seen...he LOVES the water!!

Going to our friend Brad and Maria's to their annual Pope Dock party!

Brad and his friend's hilarious costume for the best costume while ramping into the lake on the bikes...too funny! Sterling and Daddy enjoying the cool lake while the rest of us roasted outside! Boy it was a hot day!

Judson enjoyed sitting on the boat putting everything in his mouth.

This is where Sterling decided to sleep for a good three weeks

...on the floor, in his fort he made

Judson is getting really good at pulling things out of drawers and off shelves...time to baby proof! You can find us a lot at this pool!! Thanks Suz for letting us come swim all the time! Kyah and Judson waiting to get in the pool

Sterling and his best friend Lexi (our next door neighbor) have started their little business of shoulder massages! Too cute! Here are Grandma and Grams getting theirs! Play dates with friends

Sterling and Josh having fun at the park

Sterling and Ethan maxin and relaxin

I have spent most my summer with these gorgeous ladies! I am so grateful for all my friends...God has put us all together at just the right time and I just love them all to death! You can also catch us at this pool hangin out with these lovely ladies!

Sterling and KB

Kyah and J-dog...she was just about to give his feet some lovin when I took this picture! SOOO precious!

We took the in laws boat out (thanks again Keith and Becky!) last weekend and had an absolute BLAST! We all were sunburned but it was worth it! A day with no kids and fun to be had is always a good thing!

And this is how most days end on our way home...I'm not even kidding!

Hope everyone has been enjoying their summer and can enjoy the last few weeks!