Hannah & Cereal

You know, once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up. (Emile - Ratatouille)

I'm back!!!

Oh my!  I knew that it had been a while since I updated this blog...but 2 months?!  I had no idea it had been that long.  There have been so many things that have happened since I posted last!  My Nathan turned 4 in October. Wow!!!  I can't believe he is already so old.

My birthday boy! =)

He is such a fun part of my life.  I love how his whole body smiles when he is happy.  For those of you that don't personally know him, when he smiles, his whole body wiggles.  He can't even help it.  He radiates joy.

Today Hannah is 6 months old!  It has gone by so fast already!  I can't believe that in just 6 short months that she will be 1!!  If the next 6 months go by as quickly as the last, it will be too fast.  She is so fun and has such a sweet personality.  She is rolling all over the place.  When you lay her down in one place, you never know where you are going to find her when you check on her next.  

Hannah eating her first bite of cereal.  Can't you see how much she loved it?

Joseph is still enjoying the 1st grade.  He is so smart!  A little too smart for his own good if you ask me. =)  He loves being the biggest brother so much.  He's getting so tall and is growing up before my very eyes.  He is turning into such a sweet Godly young man and I can't wait to see what He has in store for Joseph's life.

Joseph holding Hannah

This photo captures my children PERFECTLY!!!

C.V. Pickett

  5 days after Nathan's birthday, my grandfather went to be with the Lord.  He was a wonderful man and will be missed greatly.  For my prayer warrior friends, please pray for peace and comfort for my grandmother as she learns to live life without her husband.











James is doing great!  He is working a lot, which is nothing new.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that works so hard to take care of all of us.  He is my knight in shining armor. xoxo

James and me at Nathan's party

Anyway, that's us lately.  I'm gonna try a little harder to make sure I keep up with this thing in the future!  Blessings!

Random thoughts by Nathan

Nathan: When there is a fly in our house and it lands on our sandwich, it will poop on it.  Then we will eat it's poop.  Is that yucky?

Me: .......

What did you say?

My boys say the funniest things.  Here are a couple of recent comments to share:

Me: "Nathan, get your foot off the wall."
Nathan:  "I like to."
Me:  "Well I'm sorry you feel that way because you may not put your feet on the wall.  You will make black spots on the wall."
Nathan:  "Some people have black walls."
:-D

Dropping Joseph off at school:
Me: "I love you kiddo.  Have a good day at school."
Joseph: "I love you.  I'll miss you."
Me:  "I'll miss you too sweetie."
Joseph:  "I was talking to Hannah."
ROFLOL!

I love those little cuties!

Joseph is a 1st Grader

Before school

I can't even believe it.  My "baby" is in the 1st grade!!!  How did that happen?!  It seems that just yesterday he was learning to crawl.  *sigh*  He has had 3 days at school and so far seems to really like his new teacher.  She is a first year teacher.  At first I was kind of iffy about that, but then a friend of mine reminded me that as a first year teacher, she still likes her job and isn't cranky yet.  =)  I also reminded myself that all of the great teachers were first year teachers once.  I have noticed that he is growing up to by the "typical" man.  I have to spoon feed him to get any information.  Here's an example of how our conversations have been going after school:

Me: "How was your day?"
Joseph: "Good."
Me: "What did you do?"
Joseph: "Um. We played and ate lunch."
Me: "Did you learn anything?"
Joseph: "Learn?"
Me: "Yes. Did you learn anything when you weren't playing or eating?"
Joseph:  "Oh. Um.  We did some worksheets."
Me:  "What kind of worksheets?"
Joseph: "The kind you work on."

I give up.  I figure that if he has any news, he'll tell me.  =)

Even though Nathan isn't in school yet, he still needed his picture taken =)

In his classroom.  Such a big boy!

A time to celebrate

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
 ² A time to be born and a time to die.
      A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 ³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
      A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
      A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
      A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
      A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
      A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
      A time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 

What a great weekend of celebration!  Saturday, August, 21 was Faith Lynn's 8th birthday in heaven!  It's such a bittersweet day.  It is a reminder of her life, her death, and her eternal life with our Father.  The celebration started out on Friday when my grandparents came to town and stayed in a local hotel.  We went to visit, had fried catfish, swam, and just had a whole lot of fun!  The lighting was AWFUL at the pool, so I only have this one pitiful looking picture to share. =(

Of course I had to get one of Hannah enjoying the pool too...

Can't you see her excitement?

Saturday morning was a little difficult for me.  I was sitting there with Hannah, looked at the clock, then realized at that exact same time 8 years prior I was holding Faith.  Even though it was a tough moment, I'm so grateful for God's gift of memories.  We went back to the hotel and had a yummy waffle breakfast with my grandparents.  Hmmm...didn't think to take any pictures.

After breakfast, we caravaned to the cemetery where we met my brother and sister-in-law, their 2 girls, and my dad for Faith's birthday party.  For some people that might be weird...but it's a wonderful celebration of Faith's brief life here on Earth.

After we had our cupcakes, we headed over to our traditional restaurant and met my mom, sister, and niece for lunch.  Here's the whole crew:

Hannah

Ava, Joseph, Emma, Jill, Claire, & Brian

James & PaPa

Mom, Dad, & Nathan

Grandmaw & Lindy

Me, Grandmaw, Lindy, & Mom

All in all, it was a great day remembering our sweet Faith.  

James & Faith

Faith,

We love and miss you so much!!!  Eat some of heaven's special cake for us!  We can't wait until we get to see and hug you again.  Thank you for being our special baby girl.

XOXO,

Mommy, Daddy, Joseph, Nathan, & Hannah

  

Summer's Coming To An End

This is the last week before Joseph goes to school and is an official 1st grader.  *wiping a small tear*  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone.  I know several moms that are doing the countdown to when school starts back.  They are ready for the kids to be back.  Maybe I'm weird.  I don't want him to go back.  I enjoy him being at home.  He and Nathan have had so much fun together.  Don't get me wrong, they have had their fair share of arguments; and I have had my fair share of being totally frustrated with them.  But in all, we've had a great time.  Tonight we go to meet Joseph's teacher.  I have been earnestly praying about who he will have for this school year.  I pray that he will have someone that will love him almost as much as I do, that he/she will be able to teach him well, and that he/she is someone that he will have fun with.  We'll see tonight!

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago.  We had a whole Saturday at home to just be together as a family.  It was so nice!

Joseph being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Nathan being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Do you get the feeling that Dad is having more fun?

Me going down the slip-n-slide

Me trying to remember why I thought that was a good idea

Nathan making me feel better

Joseph and James having fun

Nathan getting ready to take a ride

What can I say?  They love their daddy.

God's artwork for us while we ate our dinner outside

And of course, Hannah after her nap