Free Fallin!!!

Seriously guys, I love fall. I love everything about it. I love it so much that I decided to make a list of my top fav's:

1. Pumpkin Spice Latte's from Starbucks. I know that it is outrageous to pay 5 dollars for a medium sized cup of coffee, but common', it is sooooo good.

2. Opening up all the windows in the house and letting that cool air in. It's been a late fall around here, and I just did that last week. The house felt so fresh and I loved it.

3. As much as I love a good pair of flip flops, I love just as much finding a really cute pair of shoes for fall/ winter. I went to Payless a couple of weeks ago and found 2 adorable pair of flats that are perfect colors for fall! And even better, they were buy one get one 1/2 off! Can't beat that! (P.S. did y'all know that Payless sells American Eagle shoes now? I'm all about name brand for cheap!)

4. Pretty Red Maple leaves! Our climate doesn't always allow us to experience the changing of leaves, so the years that we do get pretty leaves I am so thankful! God really has blessed us with such an amazing creation!

5.Thanksgiving. Love, love, love it! I really think that Thanksgiving gets skipped every year. But Thanksgiving is such a special time for family and good food!

6. Jackson's birthday is in the fall! This just adds to the fun of this season! I'm in the process of planning a Thomas themed party for our little guy. Can't wait for that!

7. It's kind of needless to say that I love Halloween. It's so much fun to pick out costumes for Jackson and to get goodies together for all the kids in our neighborhood. (Even though we are never here to give them out personally because our church has the fall festival on the same night. grrrr.)

8. Yankee Candle Co. fall scented candles. (This isn't just secluded to fall, my house smells of fall all year long thanks to these candles!)

I've got to cut this list off at some point because I could just keep going and going. But let me share my favorite fall activity before I'm done...

8. BURT'S PUMPKIN FARM. Period. This has been the 2nd year that we have gone to Burt's to pick out a pumpkin. I know that this is going to be a cherished tradition for our family for years to come. Burt's really is special. You get to take a beautiful drive up through the mountains and then low and behold, out of nowhere there is a huge pumpkin farm! It is just a magical place. We went last weekend with Andy and Leila and had such a great time. I got up extra early and made a breakfast casserole and homemade donuts. We needed some fuel for pumpkin picking! After eating, we headed off to the farm. Jackson was just the cutest and has decided that he has a crush on Leila. He flirted with her all day long! When we got to the farm and got out of the truck it was so crisp and cool. We headed straight for the pumpkins. I only got a few pictures of Jackson head on because he was running frantically touching all the pumpkins screaming, "Punkin!" Nevertheless, I got some great shots that will be cherished for years. After looking at the pumpkins we went to the hayride. They take you all around the farm and you get to see the fields where pumpkins are still growing and they have a cute little show with talking pumpkins. After that we went and finally picked out a great pumpkin. It was not an easy decision because there are so many great ones! Ours is pretty big again this year, but we downsized. Last year was a little over kill. But anyways, I seriously recommend this place. Check it out at http://www.burtsfarm.com/ .

I hope y'all have enjoyed my list. Please take a moment to thank God for such an amazing time of year and realize all of His blessings!

Here's Jackson and Uncle Andy! Thanks for going with us guys! We loved having y'all be a part of our tradition!

Here's Jackson looking at all the "punkins"!
Here we are on the hayride!

The Croupe is just about as disgusting as it sounds

Yup, you heard it right. Jackson has Croupe. It started Thursday night and I thought he was just getting a cold. Then it just kind of lingered all weekend and on Sunday he developed a cough. Kyle took him to the doctor on Monday and she told us that it was Croupe! Seriously, I have only heard my grandmother talk about babies getting "The Croupe". I didn't know that it was still around. Please keep our sweet little man in your prayers for a speedy recovery and some peace from those rough coughs.


So on to other updates. Let me again stress how badly I stink at blogging. I think about updating serveral times a week but I just never get around to it. I think the last time I blogged I said that we were about to go to North Carolina to see my grandmother. Here are some sweet pictures of Mamaw and Jackson swinging:

The middle one is my favorite. Jackson sat on the swing with Mamaw for about 20 minutes and almost feel asleep. We had such a great visit with her. It was fun going up and surprising her for the afternoon. When we got to her house Mamaw was up in her garden pulling up bean vines. The woman is 86 years old and works harder than anyone I know that is half her age. Just about 2 weeks ago she had a pace maker put in, so she's had to take it easy. I'm sure she's hating the down time!

As far as Jackson news, he is talking up a storm now. It is truly amazing how he went from saying just a couple of words to talking in pretty complete sentences. It really has made life so much easier. He lets me know what he wants to eat and drink, what he wants to do. And he also has a huge vocabulary regarding Thomas the Tank Engine. He know all of the engines names. He knows the names of the engines that I don't even know. And trust me, I've seen my share of Thomas shows and dvd's. We bought him a Thomas coloring book with stickers in it. Here is the result:

We had a great family outing at the fair. We had a great time eating all of the junk food and riding the ferris wheel. Jackson also loved the petting zoo.

I love the picture right above. I think it shows how much Jackson favors Kyle. This was taken on the ferris wheel which cost us $12 to ride. The fair is ridiculously exspensive, but we had a great time.

It's official, I kind of stink at blogging. I will work harder at keeping updates on here! Anything exciting that happens with us is usually on the weekends, so here is a post about our last 2!

The first weekend in August, we were very busy with our garage sale. All in all, it was a bust! My good friend Leila came over and sold some stuff she had from her old apartment and we had a great time talking and selling our junk together! She sold every single item that she had brought over! I did not do as well. But, I sold some pretty useless stuff and got a little money for it. I had one sweet old man come by and buy a ton of stuff from me. I don't know why in the world he wanted all that junk, but he gave Leila and me a little entertainment for a while. The only downside of the entire day was that I didn't sell my old dining room table and chairs. Anybody have any interest? It's an antique!!! (And I'm selling it for a really cheap price!) Sorry I don't have any cute pictures to post from the sale. I wish I would have taken some!

Last weekend was a fun one! We went to our favorite restaurant in the world on Friday night, Chili's. Jackson chowed down on some chips and salsa. That little boy loves spicy food. I think that is definitely a trait from me. I craved really spicy stuff when I was pregnant with him. After dinner we went to my other favorite haunt, Target. I got a bunch of pictures developed so I can continue with my scrap booking. Saturday morning was tons of fun with a trip to Costco to get our new dining room set! We were very blessed that it was on sale for an even better price than it was before. God really does care about every little detail of our life. Here is a picture of the new table:

I reorganized the kitchen Saturday afternoon while Jackson was napping. I love the new set up of everything and I felt very productive. Don't you just love that feeling? I thrive off of it! Such a dork, I know! Then on Saturday night we had the greatest time with Megan, Jason, and Eli. We had a great dinner at Steak and Shake and then went to Chucky Cheese! The boys had a great time! Oh, and Jackson's Uncle Brian and Aunt Sara came as well. Good times were had all around. Then that night after we put the boys to bed, we stayed up until 1 in the morning playing the Wii. Sorry, again no pictures. I'm really trying harder to take more pictures and documenting our great life, so please bear with me. Since I have no pictures of these events, here's an adorable pic of Jackson in his favorite Thomas shirt. Or as he likes to call it, "Mas"!!!

Notice his haircut? That happened on Saturday morning as well! Here is Jackson sitting at the new table in his big boy seat:


God has so graciously given us such a sweet little boy. Here he is helping Mama sweep up after dinner:
Please pray for Kyle and I this coming Sunday. We are going to be teaching preschool at church. We'll be in Jackson's class for the 2nd hour. I'm very excited about it and I pray that God uses me to teach these precious children about His love for us. I'm also going to be singing in choir! So Sunday's have gotten a little more hectic for us, but I'm really looking forward to it! I will post some pictures soon from our trip we are taking to North Carolina on Saturday. Love you guys, and God bless!

Wow.

I found this on Beth Moore's blog and thought it was very powerful. I needed this today:

My Dear Sister,The God of Glory has called you. You have a ministry. In Christ, you are enough for that ministry. Never forget that showing God off is your ministry. No matter what, keep your heart in your ministry.Unveil your face and serve others with authenticity. Always remember that the power is in God's Presence. Let nothing Come between you and intimacy with God. Keep moving forward from glory to glory. Let God thin that veil. Remember, ministry is not about position. It's about people. Let name after name be written on your heart. Do not seek great things for yourself, seek a great God. As you leave this place, go in a fresh anointing. He who turns water into wine turns wimps into warriors. You have a ministry. Go fulfill it.

boys x 3

I found out that my sister is having a baby boy in December! Wow, I can't believe how many little boys are overtaking our family that used to be dominated by girls! I swear that God is making it up to my dad, who was surrounded by nothing but girls. Some of my earliest memories are of Megan and I clipping our pink barretts in his hair. We even had girl animals. So, I'm sure he is glad about all the testosterone in the family now! I am ecstatic about another boy! I can't wait to hold that little guy! I just can't wait until December!

Goings on and such!

Hello everyone! Welcome to our humble blog. I just decided to start doing this, and I apologize to anyone who is bored enough to actually read any of it!

Life has been crazy for the past month or so. I just realized yesterday that we have had something going on every single weekend for 4 weeks! First we had Andy and Leila's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful and I was so happy that our family was a part of it. Jackson had his first job as a ring bearer... and if I do say so myself, he was the cutest little guy ever. He did excellent and stood at the alter with Kyle the entire time. The wedding went off without a hitch and everything was perfect.

Then the next weekend Jackson came down with what I think was a viral infection and earache. Poor little guy. So that entire weekend was spent at doctors appointments and loving on him. Thank goodness he is all better! And wouldn't you guess it, the next weekend I got the same viral infection! I know how bad I felt and I couldn't imagine how a little bitty body like Jack's could go through it. So that weekend was also dedicated to a doctor's visit and Kyle being Mr. mom! He was so amazing and took such good care of me. I basically slept the entire weekend. But, I'm all better now as well!

And finally the next weekend was spent at the beach on a short vacation! It was such a nice long weekend and I'm very grateful that we could get away. The beach was just stunning. I don't think I've ever seen the water that clear at a beach in America! It was seriously like water in Mexico. Just much cooler!

So.... this weekend was spent at home! As much as the beach was beautiful, it was so nice to be at our house with nothing much to do and no sick people to take care of! We got the garage cleaned up, got some closets cleaned out, and caught up on family time! Sunday we went to church, which unfortunately we have not been able to go to for 4 weeks! Needless to say, Jackson had gotten out of the routine of going to nursery and didn't do too well today! The teacher said that every time the door would open he would say, "Daddy?" Poor little thing. But it was so nice to get back to church.

So, we're pretty much up to date on the past month or so! Upcoming goings on include:
1. Megan, Jason, and Eli moving back to Georgia! (Please pray for their safety and also that their house back in N.M. sells).
2. I'm having a yard sale!
3. Megan finds out the sex of the new baby! Yippee! My money's on a girl.
4. Repainting our bedroom and redecorating with the unbelievable bedspread my mom found a thrift store! My mom really has talent!