family friends

when we first moved here to greeneville, it was a pretty lonely time for me. we had moved from anything and everything i had ever known. we moved away from my family and friends. i am thankful we moved close to daves family but i had such a longing for new friends. it took us years really but we finally got involved in a sunday school class where we have met some really amazing families. couples with kids our kids ages. there are two families in particular that the Lord has placed in our lives and i love them so dearly. i remember growing up with friends that were the children of my parents friends and how it almost became a family. we did holidays and birthdays together and seemed to always be together. i prayed that we would find friends like this as well and i know we have. the friendships have started as i have gotten to know carrie and marcie through things like play groups, mops and sunday school. now our entire families are friends and our kids as well. i am so thankful for these wonderful christian friendships we have formed.

Brett and Carrie Koppin and their two beautiful daughters Mary Elizabeth (5) and Ada(1)
Chad and Marcie Baughman and their three wonderful kids Noah (4) Kendal (22mo) and Ella (6mo)

to see more of their family photos click here

Brenna's Third Birthday

sweet little brenna is now THREE! cant believe this. actually it has felt like she has been three for awhile now. she is just so independent and grown up it was hard for me to think of her as a two year old for awhile now. she decided she wanted to have a zebra party and that she wanted it to be a pink zebra party, so that is what we tried to do. we just had a few friends and family here and enjoyed a wonderful fall day in the backyard.
and yes, we even painted pink stripes on lily to make her look like a pink zebra! crazy i know. lily was SO good and just stood there the whole time i did it. i used washable paint and it all came right off. the camp was given this little miniature horse named reno and brenna just loves him. she takes him for walks. aunt debbie helped us out by trailering the horses out to the house and back.
i made a pink zebra fondant cake. the first one in awhile. i think it might be my last one for awhile too. just to much work with all the other little things and little people going on right now.
she opened her gifts and loved each one. after the party, we watched her new sweet pea beauty movie and had pizza for dinner. i love this picture of her holding on to one of her new gifts as she watched her new movie.
then on her actual birthday we had a little celebration lunch her at home. she was one proud little three year old. her big thing she wanted for her birthday was to get her ears pierced. she totally came up with this on her own. so on friday we went and she picked them out and got them pierced. more to come on that soon.

we LOVE you so much brenna. you are always making us laugh. you give the best hugs around the neck and you are just so precious to us. we love watching you grow up into the young lady you are becoming.

addition week 2

a lot has happened in a week.... monday they poured concrete. can you tell the sun isnt even really up yet, the cement truck still has all its lights on! my husband is crazy. he is good but he is crazy :)

tuesday they started framing...
they got the first floor entirely framed, second floor trusses up and stairs built

this is the second story floor plan

wednesday they decked the trusses and built two second story walls

this photo is of the deck that will be outside our new master bedroom.
this photo is of the new downstairs addition, this will become the new family room. the wall that is blue will be coming out and will be looking right into the kitchen.
and this is where they had to cut into the existing roof ... dave worked on sunday trying to dry it in b/c we had a lot of rain coming today. we did have some leaks but nothing to damaging.
so here's to another weeks worth of big changes.

ww- fall is here

jori 12 weeks oct 12

sweet baby is 12 weeks old already. hard to believe. i think the time goes by even faster with each child. i just love the baby stage and i feel like it is slipping right through my fingers. jori is such a pleasant and happy baby. i thank the lord for her content personality. the other kids seem so be much less content right now :)

we still have not been to the pediatrician for her exact weight and length but my guess with our own scale is about 15 lbs. she is full of beautiful rolls. i just love chubby babies.

she is holding her head up well and even has enjoyed sitting in the bumbo seat for a little while. she still doesnt love to be on her belly, none of the kids have. she is trying her hardest to roll over from her back to her tummy, it wont be long. she loves to have her hands in her mouth. she still loves her paci as well. she started sucking her thumb a little and i try to take it out right away and replace it with the paci. one thumb sucker is enough in our family :) she squeals when she is happy and is starting to talk more and more. the kids all love her so much it is hard to keep them out of her face. since they are all attending school right now, they come home with germs and i try not to be to paranoid but i am. i am really working on letting go and trusting god to protect her from the fall and winter illnesses while she is still so little. her eyes are blue like the rest of the kids, i think she looks a lot like garret but i also see some of raelyn in her too. cloth diapers are getting easier. she is still sleeping in the cradle that grandpa made for me in our room. she will get her own room when the addition is done. she is about to big for the cradle so i hope she doesnt grow to much before her room is done :) ok those are all the little random things i think of right now. we are so blessed to have little jori in our lives. we love you little girl!

i love how her top lip has that perfect little point in the middle when her lips are relaxed.

i have the hardest time capturing a smile from her. she turns it off as soon as i get the camera out. the above is one of the few i have gotten.

it has begun...

the excitement, the stress, the mess, the decisions of our addition have officially begun. we broke ground on monday oct 11. dave and i have been dreaming of adding on to the house pretty much since we have moved in 3 and a half years ago. the house only has one bathroom and two official bedrooms. the room that is our room now, is not intended to be a bedroom. we talked with banks and figured out that we can do the addition to the house and still stay within out budget and since we have a renter in our garage apartment and we sold our double wide, the pieces of the puzzle kept falling into place for us to go ahead and do it! we are excited but there sure is a lot going on here and it is a little overwhelming.

we are going to expand out the back of the house. in the picture above you are looking at the kitchen window. we are going to come out right from that wall and go two stories up. i will have to scan our plans in and post them soon. we designed and drew everything up ourselves and dave and his crew are doing all the work. before we could do anything we had to take out that BEAUTIFUL magnolia tree you see in the above picture.
dave brought home the camps tractor in hopes of digging up some of the root and then pulling the tree down. i was a bit sad to see the tree come down and even got a little teared up when he hooked up to it and went to pull it down. BUT instead of it even budging the tree, it snapped his very strong straps and we needed to start rethinking how to take the tree out. at that point it became a battle with the tree and i wasnt so sad any more.
just another view of where the addition will go.
so this giant backhoe was the answer to the tree problem. we cut the tree down and then dave rented this piece of equipment to dig deeper and then pull the tree out like originally planned.
so this is what it looks like with no more tree..... we have a few more steps in the process done now, the area is all graded out and ready for the concrete footers and floor to be poured. more pics coming soon...

camping with daddy

the kids had a nice long weekend last weekend for Columbus Day. daddy has been really busy on the weekends because there have been a lot of groups at the camp. this has been really good for the camp but it has been a little harder on the kids and i. so when we realized the kids had a few days off school we planned a camping trip. dave took the kids out to horse creek on sunday around 3, they set up camp, collected fire wood, played in the creek, and then jori and i met them for hotdogs and smores over the fire. the spot they got was AWESOME. the above picture shows the creek that they camped right next to. you can see the red tent in the middle of the picture.

the weather was just perfect. warm enough to play in the water but then really started cooling down as the sun went down.

dave at the back of his truck with this little grill cooking up some onions. he was so excited to get out all his old camping gear and use it again.
the kids had a blast! they searched for cray fish...
brenna was SO excited that she got to be a big kid too and stay in the tent...
this is one of my favorite pictures

i cant get a serious picture out of garret anymore these days. he collected this fire wood and made the teepee to get it started. he was proud.

raelyn was a trooper and collected a bunch of kindling.
and heres the whole gang! they had a great time. dave is a great daddy. i am blessed by how much he loves us all.

ww- she can do it all by herself!

help

so im bummed how all the type on the right of my screen covers up my photos. leah, can you help? can i change the width of this layout or do i need to change everything?

finding froggy

jori is 10 weeks old in these pictures... she has discovered she can use her hands for more than just "boxing". :) if we clasp her little fist around a toy for her she will play with it for a long time. she seemed to really like froggy the other day and i cant lay the baby down with out my second move being getting the camera. i just love those chubby little hands and how serious she is about "tasting" froggy and figuring out what he is.

i like the blurriness in these photos as it shows how much she is kicking and moving while playing with froggy.

8 weeks old sept 14 2010

so these pics are about a month behind. jori turns 12 weeks old next tuesday! right after we returned from florida jori turned 8 weeks! she has been sleeping great, about 6 to 7 hours each night. i lay her down around 10 and then she sleeps for a good while. she is such a happy baby, and so easy. God is good! her little cheeks keep growing bigger and bigger, she is also starting to get dark little eyelashes like the rest of the wid kids.

please no more pictures mom...