newest members of the club

I've been sneaking away on my lunch breaks at school the past few weeks to get some cuddle time in with the newest members of "My Future Son-in-Law Club". Brett and Will... aren't they crazy cute?!?Kate and Melanie are two dear friends of mine who also teach with me at Spring Hill. I've missed them terribly on their maternity leaves!!The three of us got together for lunch on Friday at one of my favorite places- The Station Cafe. It's been really neat to sort of relive the brand new baby stage with them. Makes Audrie seem so big! And reminds me of just how insane those first few months of life are. Good thing Audrie is going to be an only child.

...just kidding!

I'm actually hoping to compete with The Duggars.

songs of hope

Last week on Thursday night I was finally "done"! My final concert of the year. Such a wonderful feeling to be done performing and coast to the finish line! This concert was my middle school choir kiddos and they did a superb job. I was so proud of them. Here are a few photos that a teacher at my school took for me...

The next 18 days of school will be such a blur and I can't wait to start my summer vacation!

mother's day

I have a bunch of fun photos and updates from the past couple days, but it's been so busy around here I haven't even had time to blog (shocking, I know!). But I did want to say a quick Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mommies who are celebrating their first Mother's Day or their 50th...

And please forgive me for sharing a forward on here, but this one really touched my heart the other day...

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother,'normal' is history.

Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the first... somebody doesn't have two or more children.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery....somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten... or college.

Somebody said a Mother can stop worrying after her child gets married...somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home...somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her... somebody isn't a mother.

lookout picasso

I took these for my friend Kate (who is an art teacher)- just wanted you to know that it's not just all music around our house... Audrie is getting her art time in, too! :)
Audrie actually really likes to color and it only took us about 20 million coloring times to get her to stop eating the crayons. But now she just scribbles away and loves it.

I got her a booster seat this weekend and we're working with her to eat from a plate (plastic kids plate). She really likes sitting in her "big girl" seat and since it's been so incredibly rainy all week we've been doing a lot of coloring.

When school is out in a few weeks I have a finger painting art project planned for her. Did you see the episode of Jon and Kate plus 8 where she had her kids paint on a large art canvas? Turned out really neat, so I'm going to let Audrie have a try at her first masterpiece! (PS- I'm a little worried about Jon and Kate plus 8... LOVE that show, but don't love the latest news about them. I hope it's only just media gossip.)

anyone up for a jog?

Ok, I need serious motivation to shed some flubber before I put my body through another pregnancy. I've signed myself up to run a 10K (6.21 miles) on June 27th but instead of my usual goals of "not walking and not finishing last" I think I'm going to set an actual running time that I want to achieve. We'll see about that. But I really would like to find a half marathon to run in July but I can't seem to find one within driving distance (I guess the average sane person doesn't want to run in the dead heat of summer...)! I'll keep looking though. I really actually enjoy running... well mostly just the satisfaction of knowing that I can do it. Makes me feel all healthy and strong. (Which doesn't explain why I was sitting on the couch tonight watching The Biggest Loser and eating chocolate....) But if anyone is interested in running with me next month in the 10K I'd love some company. If I don't get any takers I guess I'll just have to call up my good buddy Matthew and see if he'll join me...

Sorry, Jamie! Love you. :)

house for sale

I know we might seem insane, but we're putting our house up for sell this week. Since the housing market is booming (ha!)... no really, we have lived in our wonderful house for 3 years and though we truly do love it here (and we adore our neighbors) we just feel like we've out grown our space here and need some room to spread out. And we are very realisitc about the fact that we may not get any reasonable offers on our house, but we thought we'd take a shot and see if we get any takers. So, we've spent the last week sprucing up a few things. This weekend Audrie helped Jamie work on the flower beds...
She was such a good supervisor- showing Jamie exactly where to put more mulch...

She was right there to make sure he did it all just right!

Jamie's also been working on the new storage shed we had put in our back yard.

After all that hard work, Jamie and Audrie took some time to recoop on the couch!

So, wish us luck on our house adventures. The worse case scenario is that our house doesn't sell and we will just be a little cramped in our house (that we love) in a wonderful neighborhood. But it really is a great house if you know of anyone looking... :)

Jamie and I are trying to plan ahead for more babies (no news yet... sheesh, you people and your crazy ideas!) so we'd really like to have one more bedroom in a little bigger house with a REAL back yard for our kids to run and play in. And also we have a few friends who are wanting to buy houses in some of the same neighborhoods that we are looking to move to- so it would be super fun to be within walking distance of some of our closest friends. Anyways, we just have to wait and see what God's plan is. But we definitely have the "new house fever"!

when I survey the wondrous cross

While Jamie and I were in New York City in March, I tried to take as many pictures of steeples that I could find. My goal is to get a couple of these framed and matted for our entry room in our house. These actually didn't turn out how I orginally pictured them in my mind, but I was still pretty pleased with them.

And speaking of churches... Jamie and I could really use your prayers right now. We really feel God is leading us to find a new church to call home and it's one of the toughest things we've been through. Leaving behind a church family that has loved us so dearly for the past six years was heartbreaking, but at the same time we're excited to see where God leads us.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." Matt 6:33

good times around our house

Just in case you ever wondered what I do in my "spare" time... (Audrie actually will "sing" her abc's if you can catch her at the right time... this was apparently not that time!) And by the way please ignore my matted dreadlocks and no make up... we had just woken up from a great nap.

This one is for my dad... (Audrie's attempt to blow on a train whistle... which looks more like she is making out with it, but I thought it was pretty funny!)

race for the cure

I know I'm still catching up from last weekend, but I wanted to share a few pictures from Saturday's big "race". Audrie and I got up bright and early to support a worthy cause- The Race for the Cure.

My sister-in-law, Kim, joined us for the big day.

Audrie LOVED seeing all the doggies everywhere... and there were lots of super cute dogs!

Audrie even got to run a little race of her own. So adorable! It was about a 20 foot dash, but they had a starting and finish line and a group that cheered the little kids on! Thanks, Kim, for these photos...

Audrie even won a pink medal that she wore around her neck. I was so proud. Baby's first race.

It was a fun morning. Supporting a cause that means alot to me and getting a ton of free goodies!

push me higher, daddy!

So in case you didn't know... Cave Springs has a park. Ok, I'm not sure it really qualifies as a "park", but it has a tiny little sign at the entrance that says "CITY PARK"... so I guess that's all it takes. But it has a swing, a slide, a merry-go-round and a jungle gym thingy. Jamie and I took Audrie there for some fresh air this weekend and she loved it.

WEEEEEeeee!!

Audrie is looking more and more like a "little girl" (and less like our little baby) every day. *sniff*

Guess that means it's time for another one...??