Recapping 2013 part 4

Ok, so it is the last day of January. Whew what a busy month it has been!  With school, activities, extreme tiredness, trying to get house in order, oh and the snowpocoplypse of 2014 (LOL) I just have not had a moment to sit and update the blog with the final recap of 2014. 

This week has really slowed us down (YAY!) no thanks to the snow we got this week.  The kids have been out of school, J has been out of work, we have been literally stranded at home but it has been so nice.  I will share all that fun and excitement of this week on my next post, but first I must get this recap in :)

So without further ado, here is my final recap of 2013

OCTOBER

The kids had a brief (2 day) fall break in October.  The weather was beautiful for their break.  We took them on a hike on one of the days:

The danceline I coached had a competition.  They did so good and came away with A LOT of awards.  They scored all 1's (which is the best you can get).  They also received best in class danceline and overall grand champions (which is highest award you can get in the entire competition!)  They make me so proud!

Of course, we had to carve some pumpkins:

and go trick or treating...Madi was a witch and Jack was a special ops soldier"

NOVEMBER

We started off November with an early birthday present for Madeline with a trip to the American Girl doll store in Atlanta:

We also found out that baby #3 is a boy!!!

We went out to eat with the family and let everyone cut in to a cupcake to find out that baby #3 is a boy :)  The kids loved cutting into the cupcakes

My dear friend, Kelly, took some family photos for us:

We celebrated Madeline's 7th birthday with a party at the gym she takes cheer and tumbling at:

And we celebrated Thanksgiving...so much to be thankful for this year!:

 

 

 

DECEMBER

 

 

We started off December with Madeline and the cheer squad she is on participating in a cheer competition.  It was their first competition and they came in 2nd place.  They did very good and made us all very proud!



And of course, we celebrated Christmas in December.
We visited lots of family

who had a little mini shower for baby Will

Madeline went to gingerbread house decorating party:

We went to see the play Christmas Carol:

and of course Santa came:

2013 was quite a year....a year of ups and downs.  There were several hard days, but there was many, many more days that were great and we could see God's handiwork in all of it. 

I have enjoyed reflecting on all our adventures of 2013. 

I can not wait to see what all is in store for us this year....

Have a blessed day everyone

Surprise Shower

I had intended to wrap up my recap of 2013 this morning, but I had something else I wanted to share first.  (I will share the recap tomorrow)

This weekend I thought that Madeline and I were going to have a "girls night" with some of our friends from cheer class.  Nothing formal, just hanging out and letting the girls play while moms chit chatted.  Well, I was in for a huge surprise!  As Madeline and I walked in the door everyone yelled "SURPRISE!"  It took me a second to figure out what was going on, but once I saw the decorations I realized it was a baby shower for me!  It was all I could do to fight back the tears.  I was so completely surprised and had no clue at all that this was taking place. My friends sure do know how to make a girl feel so special! 

Of course, I did not have my camera with me but there was no way I was not documenting this event so I used my camera phone to snap pictures of the big event. 

Here are a few pictures of the shower:

The yummy food:

Just me at the food table.  I told the girls I almost came in my leggings, big shirt, and hair in ponytail...I am glad now that I did not, lol

My sweet friends also planned out several fun games for us to play:

one of the games was making a diaper out of toilet paper:

the finished diapers, lol:

another was putting a balloon in our shirts (which I did not need, ha) then placed a ping pong ball between our legs and had to walk them and drop ball in to a cup without using our hands....this was so funny:

I got so many wonderful gifts!  Baby Will is going to be the best dressed and best smelling baby around:

and this is my sweet friends...they are simply fantastic and I do not know what I would do without them.  I love that our girls are all around the same age and get along so well.  These women keep me laughing and I am forever thankful for their friendship and their sweetness to have a shower for my little man.

Recapping 2013 part 3

So its been a couple days since I blogged.  Just been a little busy around here with everyone getting back into routine and on schedule.  I am still committed to the recapping of 2013.

 

So without further ado, here is part 3 of the recap.  The months of July - September.

 

JULY

 

The month of July was by far THE BEST MONTH we had in a VERY long time.  As you know, the past 11 months had been a struggle.  There were many, many dark days that sometimes just did not seem like they were going to end....but God in His faithfulness brought us many blessings and answered prayers this month.  I am just going to touch on the high lights of the month in this post, but I will share more very soon.

 

The month started off just like the previous months.  J had a few new leads on jobs and had put in many, many more resumes and applications.  His hard work was starting to pay off and he was receiving phone calls for interviews.  One interview went very well and we found out he had made the top cut....We were spending a lot of time in prayer and trusting the God already had this situation all planned out for us.

 



 

We celebrated the fourth of July shooting off a few fireworks:

My sweet babies and me on the 4th:

We built a few forts in the basement....what a fun childhood memory!

The kids attending VBS at my in laws church.  Jack had been asking a lot of questions about salvation over at least the last year.  It is something we talked to him about and let him ask questions as he felt led to ask them.  I could tell the God was really stirring in his heart.  One night during VBS, this precious young man asked Jesus to come into his heart and live forever!  Definitely the best gift a mother could ever receive.  To know that my child will spend eternity with me in heaven.  No matter what else is going in life, this is what it is all about.

We also went on vacation with my in laws.  Here are just a couple of the pictures of my little loves on vacation:
Their smiles melt my heart.

That smile and laughter are of pure happiness.  She was so proud of herself.

Jack loved the board too though he looks a little more hesitant than his sis.

While we were on vacation, J got a phone call being offered the dream job we had been praying for.  I can not even begin to tell you the deep relief, excitement, joy, thankfulness, and praise that we were experiencing.  I still choke up thinking about it...11 months of job searching was finally over!  WOW!!! 

When we returned from vacation it was band camp week so I was a very busy lady that week.  Long 12 hour days teaching my dance team routines for their half time show.

My birthday fell during band camp.  J and the kids came to visit me during the camp and brought me dinner.  How awesome are they?

My girls also organized to have a cake delivered to me.  Gosh, I just love that dance team.

On vacation, not only did we find out that J got a job, we also found out that I was pregnant with baby #3!  We had wanted to keep it a secret until my first dr. appointment, but we only lasted about a week.  On my birthday we told the kids that we were having a baby.  They were so excited!  We let them call all the grandparents.  After all the grandparents knew, we made it "official" on facebook by posting the picture below:

See what I mean???? July was an amazing month of many answered prayers and  surprise praises.



AUGUST

August was another busy month. 

Band camp wrapped up.
J brought us all candy one day to give us extra energy lol

The last day....show complete

We had pictures taken for the programs

This precious young man turned 9

I took over as PTO president at our elementary school so we had a busy week of orientations.  We arranged for our mascot to be at the kindergarten meet and greet.  We received mixed reviews.  Most kids thought it was great, but some were not too excited to see the wildcat, lol.

I had my first dr. appointment and we had our first glimpse of baby Crow.  Baby Crow had a nice strong heartbeat.  There were a few things that came up on the ultrasound which were of a concern to us, but we knew that God had a perfect plan for this new little life.  If you would like, you can read that post HERE

 

The day before school started back, I took Madeline for a girls afternoon.  I got her a pedicure because every little girl loves some pretty painted toes for the first day of school, right?



Madeline on her first day of first grade:

Jack on his first day of third grade:

SEPTEMBER

Because of the blood clot, I got to go back a little more often and see our baby.  Here is a picture of our baby at 11 weeks.  You can read that update HERE .  Baby was still doing great, strong heart beat, growing like it was suppose to in spite of the clot.  Aside from the yucky sickness and clot, this pregnancy was going just as it should

 

Madeline got to honor her grandmothers at school.  She loved having Granna and Meme come to school:

Jack tried out for a fall travel ball team.  Even though he is only 9, he made an 11 year old team.  We were hesitant at first, but knew fall ball was much more laid back and knew that it would be a great experience for him especially come spring ball.

I was in full swing with dance team.  Not only with regular practices, but with pep rallies, Friday night performances, and competitions on Saturday.  The first competition the band went to, the dance team received all superior ratings (highest rating you can receive).  I was so very proud of these girls!  They had been working so hard.

Jack enjoyed playing on a team with one of his friends from school.  They also played on an all star team together too a couple years back.

Another blessing in September was that J officially started his job!  I snapped the picture below the night before his first day.  I got to pack a lunch box for all of us.  This was such a privilege for me. And it pleased my heart so much to see all those lunch boxes lined up ready to go out the door to school and work.

We had a beautiful sunny day and went to the park to feed the ducks and play

We also had a "cooler" day and Madeline thought she needed to bundle up just to ride her bike...silly child:

So that is it for part 3 of the recapping.  Back soon to wrap up the rest of 2013.