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Liam Allen Joiner

2011-01-19T15:06:00.016-05:00

Here he is...

We love him. He is such a sweet baby and gives big smiles. He hardly ever cries, he slept through the night at 6 weeks. Amazing! We love being a family of 5.

Before 2 becomes 3

2010-09-21T16:06:00.006-04:00

I'm treasuring these last few weeks with these two little ones. Yes, it's not easy being this pregnant and chasing around a 5 year old and a 2 year old, but they are so adorable and sweet. I know I'll look back on this time with fondness as our life gets even more hectic when baby #3 arrives. I'm trying not to wish the days away as being pregnant gets more and more uncomfortable. I can't believe it's just 4 more weeks!

In other news, Everett wanted me to post his latest Lego creation on the web. It's two boats in the water with a lighthouse.

Summer Heat

2010-06-08T09:34:00.007-04:00

We just returned from a camping trip at a campground on the lake outside of Augusta, called Clarks Hill.

We were there with Allen's family and some family friends of theirs...25 of us in all! 3 campsites, 3 pop up campers, 3 tents, 5 kids bikes, 7 cars, a motorcycle, 2 boats and a huge screened in area for eating. Our tent even had it's own air conditioning unit! It's definitely a site to be seen. We had a great spot by the beach and the kids had a blast. Great food, including eggs, bacon, grits, and toast for breakfast and homemade wings, fries & salad for dinner. Delicious! Allen's family has been doing this since his parents were kids. They stay for a whole week each summer. We stayed for 3 days...maybe next summer we'll stay longer but then we'll have 1 more kid in the mix!

Camille LOVED "driving" the boat!

When we got home we were unloading the car and all of the sudden I noticed a couple of cars parked on our street and a woman collapsed on the sidewalk. It was obvious she had been exercising. I called to Allen and he ran across the street to help her. Luckily, a woman happened to stop who was an EMT and had medical equipment in her car. She was able to help the woman and even give her oxygen. The woman eventually became conscious, but only knew her name. A woman from her neighborhood stopped who recognized her and was able to get in contact with the woman's daughter. A policeman, fire truck and ambulance all showed up at the end of our driveway, which was very exciting to Everett and Camille. The ambulance took her away and Everett and I said a little prayer for her.

After that excitement, we finished unloading and unpacking...

This one's for Gillian

2010-06-01T17:28:00.013-04:00

One of my friends happened to click on my blog today and I got reprimanded for not having posted in almost a year.

I guess I've been busy raising two kids and being preggo with #3. Plus, Facebook has become an easier venue for me to share thoughts and photos than the blog world. But I know my hundreds of blog friends have been so sad without me...so here's a little something:

We went on a vacation with just our little family for the first time ever two weeks ago. We went to Seagrove Beach, near Destin, FL. It was such a nice time. Allen's been traveling a lot for work so it was fabulous to have a few dedicated days to ourselves. Plus, our children wake up at the crack of dawn, which can be a problem when traveling with families whose children sleep in until 10am. What is that??? So, we were out at the beach by 8am most mornings and although our kids did miss having playmates at times, I think we all bonded and became closer. A great first family vacation.

Here are a few photos:

I'm really looking forward to this summer...going to the pool, a few other small vacations, having time to lay low with the kids. All before baby #3 arrives in October!!!

Time has flown, our garden has grown

2009-06-24T19:53:00.005-04:00

It's hard to believe that we started our garden back in April and now it's June already. Our kids are growing up as fast as our garden is. Everett is attending his first Vacation Bible School at our church this week and Camille is beginning to form a few words and has now mastered going down the stairs. We've had a good summer so far, including an amazing trip to Brazil.

And for the photos...

A view of the whole garden

Everett v. The corn

Zuchinni (we've had 3 ripen already...yummy)

Green Beans

Grape Tomatoes

Everett and the freshly picked zuchinni

Camille and the sidewalk chalk

We've also got broccoli and carrots coming up in the garden as well!

How does your garden grow?

2009-04-16T14:22:00.002-04:00

Allen and Everett dug up a small area in our yesterday to start a garden. We're going to just start off with a few veggies. We're hoping to do squash or zucchini, green beans, tomatoes and maybe one or two other things. I'm excited about having some fresh veggies this summer!

Everett is super excited about picking out the seeds and had so much fun digging in the dirt. If this small garden works out well, we're hoping to expand a little more each year.

We'll keep you posted and may be sharing some of our produce this summer...depending on how it goes.

My Top 10 Kitcheny Things

2009-02-23T15:55:00.011-05:00

1. Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Seasonings "Original Mixed-Up Salt". I love this rubbed on pork chops, chicken or steak. It's delicious in veggies, potatoes, etc. My mom always used this growing up and now I've really come to appreciate it.

2. Pasta Pot. I have a cheap one from Target we got as a wedding gift. It's just a regular oblong pot with a lid that sort of screws on. The lid has several holes in it so you can drain the pasta with the lid. I love not having to use a colander.

3. Rubbermaid Stain Shield Containers. We have a small set and I refuse to collect or use any other type of containers. I can't stand a bunch of mismatched lids and containers. (Probably need to convert to BPA free eventually but for now these will do.)

4. OXO mixing bowls. They have non-slip bottoms and handles and a pourable side and are just easy.

5. Coke Zero. It's really grown on me and I like it better than Diet Coke now.

6. Spaghetti Pie.

8 oz. spaghetti, cooked

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 lb. ground beef, cooked

2 cups spaghetti sauce

4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Toss cooked spaghetti, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Place in a 9" pie plate. Press along bottom and sides to form crust. Mix meat and sauce. Spread over noodles and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, let stand 5 minutes before cutting. 8 servings.

I make this every other week...definitely a staple. Thanks to my sister for this one.

7. OXO Locking Tongs with Nylon Heads. Got these as a gift recently from my DH and I'm loving them. They're perfect for non-stick pans.

8. Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix. Delicious and often BOGO at Publix with a coupon!

9. Baked-Crisp Parmesan Chicken.

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup red-wine vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 garlic clove, minced

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons dried parsley

¼ teaspoon ground pepper

1. Whisk together oil, vinegar, salt, red-pepper flakes, oregano, and garlic in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Add chicken to marinade in dish, turning each piece to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, and pepper in a medium bowl. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

3. Dredge each chicken breast in breadcrumb mixture to coat; shake off excess. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake chicken until breadcrumbs are golden and chicken is cook

ed through, 45 to 50 minutes. Using a spatula, loosen chicken from sheet before serving.

You can estimate the ingredients, depending on the amount of chicken you're cooking. I make this one all the time too.

10. Stretch-Tite Plastic Wrap. The best, hands down. My mother-in

-law has used this for years and when I tried it at her house I couldn't believe how great it was. It's fairly inexpensive and lasts forever.

There you go...my top 10. If Oprah can do it, so can I. You just don't get any freebies with me. I might do some other top 10 lists soon!

my boy

2009-02-06T17:26:00.004-05:00

Everett is in that stage where sometimes he seems all grown up and other times he still seems like my little baby. He's a joy to have around and is such a sweetheart. I snapped these photos of him yesterday afternoon. I love this sweater on him and I wanted to have some photos of him in it as a memory. All the poses were his idea...

She's 9 Months

2009-01-30T17:11:00.004-05:00

The Simple Things

2009-01-22T16:54:00.006-05:00

There were 3 toys in our collection that I liked a lot but they each drove me crazy because they either came apart or had little parts that would come off for no apparent reason. I finally fixed the problems...superglue to the rescue!

The little blue handles on these pliers would come off all the time, why is that? No more!

All four pieces of this ball game would come apart. It would constantly be in four pieces on our floor...never again!

This Little People Pirate Ship is so cute but the green stand and the flag both were made to take off and on. The only problem is the never stayed on. Now they do.

I know these things are small but it makes me happy to know they won't come apart anymore!

Cute Kids

2008-12-13T23:10:00.012-05:00

We've been cooped up a little lately because of rain and colder temps. Sometimes it's fun to see what kids can come up with even when stuck indoors.

We happened to have a special delivery.

When we did brave the outdoors for a short walk...the kids looked cuter than ever with their hats on.

Superman and a Butterfly

2008-11-05T16:43:00.023-05:00

We had a fun Halloween. Allen had the entire day off, which was fabulous for all of the errands I had to run...thanks babe! We went to a neighborhood party and then we each took Everett around to a few houses. His favorite candy was a marshmallow pumpkin, much to the disappointment of Allen...who can't imagine a kid not choosing something chocolate!

Camille was a cute little butterfly...thanks to Aunt Kate for the wings! :)

Everett told us about 3 months ago that he wanted to be a robot for Halloween...that is until he uncovered some of his cousin Oliver's old Superman pajamas from a stash of clothes I had. Then he wavered between a robot and Superman for awhile. Allen and I really wanted him to go as a robot because we thought it would be more creative. Plus, his Superman pajamas were missing the cape.

Alas, after a trip to Home Depot to buy the robot making essentials, he no longer wanted to be a robot. Instead of insisting that he be a robot, we settled for Superman. I went out the next day and bought material to make a cape. Allen and I put one together that night...which was no small feat since we don't have a sewing machine. All in all, I'm glad he was Superman. Half the time I had a hard time just getting him to wear his cape...it would have been impossible to try to get him to wear a whole robot costume.

Apparently Superman was popular this year. Here is Everett with two other Superfriends from our neighborhood.

keeping track of life

2008-11-03T15:27:00.004-05:00

How do you keep up with all of the things you have going on? I keep everything in a little pocket weekly planner, day timer, which I always have in my purse. I am a snob about it...it must be an actual "Day Timer", not a day runner or a day tracker or a day whatever. I LOVE IT! You keep track of your whole week on just one page, there are these little tear off corners which make it easy to keep track of what week you're on, and the planner is slim and tiny and hardly takes up any room in my purse. There have been a few panic-stricken times that I thought I had lost it but I luckily have never actually have. I have had one every year since 1998, when I was first introduced to them by my friend, Mia. It's funny to look back on the old ones and see what I had going on. It's also a great place for me to keep track of my kid's milestones. Allen's tried to convince me lately to use Google calendar, but the thing is, I don't have Google Calendar with me when I'm at playgroup or at the park, etc. I guess if I had a blackberry, that would work, but since I don't, I'll keep my day timer for now. It works for me and for our family.

Yeah for my 100th post...if you're keeping track. :)

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-01T09:27:00.012-04:00

On Monday we went to a little pumpkin patch at a church down the street. Aferwards Allen and Everett carved our pumpkin. Everett wanted to do a scary face this year with lots of teeth. Here are some photos of the evening:

Halloween post still to come...

She's 6 months!

2008-10-27T16:10:00.007-04:00

Allen is famous

2008-10-17T16:36:00.003-04:00

Allen was featured on a new blog about our area...Peachtree Corners...because he's been biking to work (9 miles) once or twice a week. I'm so proud of him!

She's so advanced

2008-10-16T16:31:00.007-04:00

Camille is already sitting up on her own...it began pretty much around the 5 month mark. Everett was almost 7 months when he began to sit up. I think this little girl is going to be quick to do a lot of things. She can already roll over both ways and she can even scoot a little bit on her tummy. I know she'll be chasing around after her big brother soon and I can't wait! My only fear is knowing what to do with the marbles, game pieces and leggos we have all over the floor once she becomes mobile! I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

On a sad note, Everett lost his blankie bear, that he's slept with since birth, over the weekend. We were on our way to Gatlinburg, TN, for a family reunion and I stupidly let him take it with him into a gas station. I think he dropped it at the little arcade they had there and none of us noticed. We called the gas station a few times but they said they didn't find it and we went a different way home. I was more upset about it than he was, mainly because I wanted it for the memory. He does have a blanket that he sleeps with too so that will have to suffice.

Here is the last photo we have of Everett and his blankie bear, in the car just before we lost him...sniff, sniff.

Working with Daddy

2008-10-08T16:32:00.004-04:00

Allen is about the most patient person I know and he's so great about letting Everett share in whatever project he's working on at the time. It's great because Everett learns so much and it gives Camille and me a little girl time. A couple weekends ago, Allen went out to work on the chimney on our roof. When he said he was bringing Everett along, I just had to break out the camera. I don't know many dads that would bring their 3-year-old up on the roof with them. It was pretty cute and not as dangerous as I thought. Our roof is pretty flat on that part of the house. Please excuse our nasty gutter...we're going to replace it soon.

i heart my kids

2008-09-26T16:24:00.007-04:00

I'm in love with my kids these days. They are both in really enjoyable phases. Maybe I'm just in a good mood because it's Friday. I love that Everett will spend an hour by himself in our backyard digging for worms. I love that he'll sit in the back of the car singing, "Black, black sheep, have you a wroll?" at the top of his lungs. I love that he will boldly ask other kids at the park, "What's your name?" and "Do you want to play with me?" and even if he's met with resistance, he will continue to have fun on his own, playing with his imaginary friends, Bingo, Monkey, or his new friend, Dinosaur. He's never met someone he doesn't consider a friend. He's so full of love.

I love that Camille will light up a room with her smile and will literally laugh out loud. She smiles and laughs even when her brother is all in her face and pulling on both arms. I love that she'll sleep on a blanket outside at Stone Mountain during the laser light show and even sleep through the fireworks at the end. She is so easygoing and handles every deviance from a schedule we throw at her. Though past 5 months with her have been a whirlwind, I can't imagine my life without her.

Having two kids is tough with the feeding battles, potty training efforts, discipline issues, lack of sleep, etc. But I wouldn't trade it.

Stinging Caterpillars

2008-09-23T15:43:00.005-04:00

Allen and Everett were working out in our yard on Sunday, trimming back our iris plants, when all of the sudden Allen sat down and felt a horrible sting on his rear end. A few minutes later he came across these crazy looking caterpillars and when Everett touched one, it made his finger sting really bad. Then Allen realized he must have sat on one. The stinging lasted for about half an hour. Allen looked them up and they are called Saddleback Caterpillars. It turns out that we had tons of them all over our iris plants, just snacking away. Who knew working in the yard could be so dangerous?

Here are some photos:

Potty Trainin'

2008-07-23T13:34:00.006-04:00

We finally decided to ditch the diapers for Everett last weekend and it's going well so far. He's had about 2 accidents a day and still hasn't gone #2 on the potty yet, but we're convinced he'll get it soon. It's definitely nice to not have 2 kids in diapers anymore!!

Everett also now has an imaginary friend named Bingo that goes around with him most of the day. Bingo has eaten lunch with us the past two days and plays games with us too. I wonder...Will I have to potty train Bingo too?

Bye Bye Home Phone...Hello Verizon

2008-07-10T10:18:00.005-04:00

In a few days we'll be canceling our home phone and begin only using our cell phones. We've had T-Mobile for years but we don't get service in our house which means up until now we've had to have a home phone. We just switched to Verizon, which has great coverage, and now we can ditch our land line.

So, if you want to reach us, you'll have to call our cell phones from here on out. Thanks!

Sleepy Baby Camille

2008-06-25T17:29:00.004-04:00

I never took many sleepy pictures of Everett. I think I was too afraid to wake him up. So, here's one thing the younger one will have that the older one didn't. I'm trying to do a good job of this since I was the youngest and therefore neglected in all of my parent's photography. :)

Camille Elizabeth Joiner

2008-06-24T16:46:00.011-04:00

Camille Elizabeth Joiner was born on April 23, 2008 at 3:28pm. She weighed 8lbs. and 7oz. and was 20 inches long. She's adorable and has been a joy and a wonderful addition to our little family. Everyone keeps asking me what it's like with 2 kids and my response is usually, "better than I thought it would be." This post is a long time coming, I know. I was already behind on blogging/posting photos before we had her and now life with a newborn has reduced my capacity for things like this. Hopefully I'll be able to post many more things in the upcoming days now that I've gotten the ball rolling. :)

Here are some photos on our way to the hospital and of her birth:

Happy Easter

2008-03-25T09:16:00.007-04:00

Here are a few photos from our Easter. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. I'm now 4 weeks away from my due date. I'm getting quite uncomfortable and I'm really ready to have the baby, I think. :)

Baby Gear

2008-02-21T16:49:00.006-05:00

Here are some photos of Everett testing out our baby gear. I got it out for our playgroup and to get it ready for the new baby too. Of course Everett can't resist playing with them.

Exercises

2008-01-31T17:19:00.000-05:00

Today Everett and I were out in the car and he saw a man walking down the sidewalk. He asked, "Mommy, what he doing?" To which I replied, "Oh, he's exercising." At which point Everett began to raise his arms up and down and count, "1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7!" (He always skips 5 for some reason.) I have no idea where he learned about exercise...definitely not from me! So, just now as we were playing blocks he began to do his exercises and I decided to capture it on video to share with you. Don't mind the mess in our playroom...after all we were playing, right? :)

I think this is some form of a jumping jack.

At the end of the video, you can hear Everett say, "Let's play blocks now, Mommy." And after I turned off the camera he said, "No more cheese, Mommy, Let's play blocks." To Everett, "cheese" means me taking his picture. So, now I'm heading back to play blocks...

Everett's First Snow!

2008-01-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

It actually snowed fairly significantly in Atlanta on Wednesday. Here is a photo Allen took of our house Thursday morning with what snow was leftover:

Here is a cute video of us playing in the snow just after Allen got home from work. I apologize for my commentary. :)

Our kitchen

2008-01-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

Per Alayna's request, below is a photo of our newly painted kitchen. I thought it turned out very nice. We don't have a lot of wall space in there so the red isn't too overpowering. We have a lot more work we want to do in the kitchen, like painting the cabinets and redoing the floors, but this was a first step towards those improvements. The rest will be done as our budget allows. After Allen finished painting this room we realized that we have now painted every room in our house and most of the the trim too!

Christmas 2007

2008-01-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful holiday this year. We got to spend a lot of time in Augusta with Allen's family. My mom came with us too, which was nice.

Then we spent some time at home. My dad and his wife, Karin, came to visit from Missouri. We hung out with them and my brother and his family. We also got to go to the New World of Coke.

Then we had several days just to chill at home, which was much needed. We painted our kitchen and did some more work on Everett's new room. We also spent a lot of time working on our budget for 2008. We are attempting to save money for a bigger car of some sort since we'll soon be adding a baby girl to our family!

Please Pray

2007-11-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Our dear friends from church, Allen and Gillian, just found out on Wednesday that their 3 1/2 year old son, Joseph, has a large mass in the back of his brain. He is having surgery this morning to have it removed. You can read more about what is happening and how to pray for them here. They also have a younger daughter named Holly. Please be praying for this family.

Why Oh Why?

2007-11-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about something a lot lately that I think has to do largely with living with a toddler, but also just deals with life in general. I've been wondering why my child always has a poopie diaper just after I've gotten him completely dressed and we're about to leave the house? Why is it that the shirt I pull out to wear for the day has a grease stain on it right in the front? Why is it that today, for instance, on my way to bible study at church, does Everett's sippy cup of milk decide to explode and leak through the cooler, through the diaper bag, and create a puddle on the front seat of the car?

Why is it that on days where where I have a ton to get done at home does Everett decide to take the shortest nap ever, but on days where I want him to just sleep for a short time he decides to hibernate for the afternoon? It seems like these thoughts can just go on and on. I know that these are all petty things but they seem to all collect and grate on me. It's amazing how these little things greatly effect my attitudes and emotions.

I was telling a dear friend about this today and she said that when things like this happen to her, she thinks, "Either God hates me or Satan is trying to attack me." She said she knows God doesn't hate her so it has to be the latter. In my bible study we're doing on Thursday mornings, there is a quote in the book we're reading that goes as follows:

"The truth is that we can trust a wise, loving, sovereign God to control every circumstance of our lives. Joy, peace, and stability come from believing that every circumstance that touches our lives has first been filtered through His fingers of love and is part of a great, eternal plan that He is working out in this world and in our lives."

I will say that my faith is really growing in this area right now. I'm being stretched to believe that God is just as much in the small things of every day life as he is in the big things. And that is encouraging to me.

Fall Happenings

2007-11-13T14:20:00.000-05:00

Everett has begun to make the silliest faces lately. I don't know how he learned this one...but it was hilarious when I caught him doing it.

We are looking forward to having my sister and her family come to stay with us next week. We'll all be together with my mom and my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. It will be great to spend some time with them. I'm looking forward to the holidays and Allen having some time off.

We found some bunk beds for Everett's new room on Craig's List and we (mostly Allen) have been working on stripping off the paint (they were white) and sanding them down and we're now in the process of painting them navy blue. We're hoping to have them put together and in the room by the time my sister and her family comes. We'll probably move Everett into his new room after Thanksgiving. Hopefully he'll enjoy the new space! It's going to have all navy blue furniture and be filled with cars, trucks, & planes. We're going to keep his old room ready for baby #2.

So far my pregnancy is going well and I'm really starting to show. Luckily I'm through with feeling nauseous, for the most part, and I've had a lot more energy. I've actually been cleaning the house again! Allen is happy about that. We'll be able to find out if we're having a boy or girl on December 4. Allen kind of wants it to be a surprise, but I really want to find out...so we'll see what happens.

Halloween 2007

2007-11-13T14:06:00.000-05:00

For Halloween this year, Everett was a fireman. We had a great day. First, a party with our playgroup in the morning and then a neighborhood party in the afternoon and then trick-or-treating! We also had fun the night before Halloween making spiders and a spider web and also carving our pumpkins. Everett sort of helped us. :) There are a ton more photos on our flickr site.

Playgroup Kids:

Our Pumpkins:

Baby #2 on the way!

2007-10-17T17:19:00.000-04:00

For those of you that don't know, we are pregnant (sorry if you're finding out this way rather than in person)! That is the main reason I've been such a slacker about blogging lately. I've felt very yucky for the past month or so. I'm 13 weeks now and hoping that it's getting better but I'm still having definite bouts with nausea. It's been much worse this pregnancy than with Everett. Everyone says that's because I have a toddler to take care of now, which I think is partly true. Sweet Allen has been such a servant to me during this time. He's really picked up the slack when I've been ill or just plain worn out. This has also all coincided with Everett climbing out of his crib on his own, which has led to him getting out of bed as early as 5:30am morning after morning! We're in the process of training him to stay in his crib until we come and get him, preferably after 7am. The past 3 mornings he's done much better. Hopefully we're moving past that, at least until the time change. :)

I have two sets of ultrasound pictures, one set when I was about 6 weeks along and one set when I was about 8 weeks. Of course with this baby, unlike with our first, I've hardly even gotten them out or showed them to anyone, much less even thought about scanning them. Isn't that horrible? Especially considering I was a 3rd child. I hope to be good about taking pictures and scrapbooking with each child though...I just figure it's important to set reasonable goals for each one, rather than go way overboard with the 1st and then totally bail with the others. I'll try to get Allen to take the ultrasound pictures to work and scan them in...not that any of you really care about seeing a black and white blob. :) We'll find out whether it's a boy or girl, at 18 weeks, which is the week of Thanksgiving. My due date is April 20.

I just have to say that right now our house is so peaceful. I've got Mindy Smith on in the background and Everett has been playing quietly by himself, which he rarely does. Normally if he's quiet, he's hiding somewhere in the house destroying something or dumping something out. My friend today called him a 'silent but deadly' kid, which I think describes him perfectly. Just this week he's dumped out a bottle of salad toppings I had in the fridge all over the coffee table and floor, he's dumped out a bag of crackers all over the steps going down into our playroom, and he destroyed one of the baby shower invitations that I had ordered for my sister-in-law's shower, etc., etc. I was asking my sister when this stage ends and she said soon...I'm hoping so!

He's also become quite the climber. Usually this is displayed at the playground, but a couple of weekends ago Allen was outside with him and Allen was blowing off our back porch and Everett was at our fence in the back of the yard, playing with our neighbor's dog. Then next time Allen looked up, Everett was climbing over the chain link fence and into our neighbor's yard. He's quite amazing sometimes.

He really is a sweet kid though and is such a joy to be around. He's got such a great disposition and is a pretty easy-going kid. I'll close with a funny story: One day when Allen was changing his poopie diaper, Allen opened the diaper and said, "How about them apples?". Since then whenever Everett has a poopie he says, "apples in there" and points to his diaper. In his MDO class the past few weeks they've been learning about apples and apple trees and how God made them. So, last week when I was changing his poopie diaper, Everett exclaimed, "Thank you God for apples!" I cracked up.

Beach Trip

2007-09-17T17:11:00.000-04:00

We got to go to Seagrove, FL over Labor Day weekend with some other families. It was a great trip and a nice time with friends. The beach was so perfect. The sand was as white as can be and the water was crystal clear. All the kids had a blast playing in the sand and in the water. While we were there Everett learned how to climb out of the pack-n-play and now he is climbing out of the crib. I'm shocked because he's never really been a climber at all and seems to be not the most physically adept kid in the world. It really hasn't been too big of a deal though. We're hoping to get him into a real bed soon. I'm trying to find a twin over full wooden bunk bed set on Craig's List. So far no luck!

Here are some photos from our beach trip:

First Day of School

2007-09-17T17:02:00.000-04:00

Everett's first day at Mother's Day Out was last Monday. He had a blast! He ran right into the room without looking back. I was so relieved. His teachers said he was happy and talkative. I can't believe that I have four hours to myself each Monday! It's wonderful and I almost don't know what to do with myself. It's amazing how quickly things go without a toddler to run after. He's at a wonderful school and every Monday he gets to do art and music, along with all the usual stuff. It's been such a treat for me and I think he really looks forward to it too.

Isn't this cooler weather in Atlanta wonderful? I love the changing of seasons. We've had our windows open since Saturday night and our air conditioning hasn't run once!

Everett's 2!

2007-09-10T13:58:00.000-04:00

Everett turned 2 on August 9...okay so I'm a little behind. August was a busy month! We had a small get together at the Peachtree DeKalb Airport. Of course it was the hottest week on record, but we still had a lovely time!

Here are a few photos:

Family Photos

2007-08-17T16:25:00.000-04:00

Here are some special photos of our family that my sister took while we were out in California. She's just starting to develop her own photography business and I think she's going to be great!

Going back to Cali

2007-08-17T15:48:00.000-04:00

We've been so busy I haven't had time to blog and half the time I don't have much creative to say. I wish I had one of those blogs that 87 people left comments on, but at least I have a few faithful readers. Sorry my writing and graphics aren't more creative. I probably should branch out more than just talking about my family and our experiences but most of the time I'm worn out out after just blogging about that.

Anyways, here is the latest update on our California trip we took the first week in August: We went out there to visit my sister and her family. It was over 5 hours on a plane with Everett in our laps. He did pretty well though...thanks to our friend, Jeanne, for letting us borrow her DVD player. We snuck in the trip just before E turned 2 so we wouldn't have to buy him a seat. There is definitely a plus side and a negative side to that.

We were so blessed to spend time with my sister's family and Everett fit right in with his 4 cousins! It was was pretty wild at times with 5 kids in one house, but it was fun to see them all playing together. One day while we were there we went to an amusement park called Gilroy Gardens. It's built for younger kids and it was so much fun. The next day we went to the beach and then on Sunday, Elliot got baptized. The other days we stayed closer to home. They live in Mountain View, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. The weather was beautiful there...highs in the 70's. I was bragging to a guy at the park there that the weather in Atlanta is pretty nice too...so far we had a pretty mild summer. Little did I know we'd come home to a heat wave and unbearable temperatures.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful sister, who is so fun to be with. I'm glad Everett knows his cousins, even though they live on the other side of the country.

Here are some photos from our time there:

Gilroy Gardens

Half Moon Bay

Elliot's Baptism

Happy 4th of July!

2007-07-05T11:56:00.000-04:00

We went to Buckhead last night with some friends to hang out and watch the Lenox fireworks. It was a great time. The weather was wonderful. The only bad part was getting home in all the traffic. Everett was a little bit scared of the fireworks, but he didn't take his eyes off them the entire time and when they were over he kept asking for more. It was definitely a 4th of July to remember.

What a day!

2007-07-03T17:02:00.000-04:00

We survived a second round of eye surgery for Everett today. He's dealt with blocked tear ducts in both eyes since he was an infant. We had his first surgery about a year ago but it was not effective. That's normal in about 5% of cases. The first surgery is just a probe that goes in and opens the tear ducts. Today he had small balloon-like instruments inserted into his tear ducts and they were inflated for a few minutes to make sure the tear ducts would no longer be clogged. Hopefully this will work. In 1% of cases they have to do a third procedure which involves the installation of tubes in the tear ducts that stay in for 3 months. Hopefully we won't have to go there.

Today's procedure maybe lasted about 15 minutes but he had to undergo anesthesia which meant he couldn't eat anything 4 hours before his surgery. Since his surgery was at 12:30pm, he couldn't eat anything after midnight and only water or clear liquids up until 8:30am. After that nothing. I was so worried about keeping him happy all morning without anything to eat or drink. He really did great though. We started off watching Sesame Street, but the theme of the day was "eating", so we didn't stay home for long. We went to the park for about an hour but it started raining. Then we drove around I-285 for awhile until it was almost time for the appointment. He took it all really well. When we got home he ate and drank a ton and has been sleeping for the past hour.

I'll be so glad not to have to constantly wipe his tears anymore. Or have people constantly ask if he's crying. It's definitely a small thing, but I'll be glad to have it be "normal".

We went to the beach with Allen's family last week. It was a great time. There are tons of new photos on our Flickr page.

Here is a photo we took of Everett after church on Sunday:

Blog Backlog

2007-06-14T13:51:00.000-04:00

Things have just been so busy lately, especially on the weekends...it's been crazy. I just posted a ton of photos on our Flickr site. Usually I'm so good about keeping up with that at least, but it's been over a month since I had posted any pictures. We went to Augusta for Mother's Day Weekend and we've pretty much been busy since and it doesn't seem to be slowing down much. We went to the beach for Memorial Day Weekend with our dear friends Trevor & Sam. My uncle was here from Indiana for my mom's 60th birthday in the end of May. Then we went camping with our Young Couples Sunday School Class last weekend. This weekend we're heading to Augusta on Saturday to see Allen's uncle. And we've got other things planned the next couple of weekends after that! I guess it's great to have all these fun things going on though.

We're all doing really well. Everett is changing so much. He's growing up, saying new words and doing new things every day. He's also becoming somewhat of a challenge with sleeping and with his temper now though. For the past month or so his wake up time changed from 8am to around 6am. The past two mornings he's done better though so I'm hoping it's changing in the right direction. His naps have been shorter and less consistent too, but yesterday he took a great nap, so who knows? I'm thinking because we've been traveling so much it's just kind of thrown him off a little bit. He's still such a joy...he's got this huge smile now that just lights up the room and makes my heart melt. He always wants to sing the itsy bitsy spider and do patty cake. He does the motions so well, but sometimes he confuses the two songs, which is funny. He's really enjoyed swimming and he's so brave in the water. He jumps off the side to anyone in the water and he's not afraid to go under water either. I'm hoping to take him swimming a lot this summer. The best thing ever is to watch him when we pray at dinner time. He holds our hands and bows his head and says, "Amen" at the end. It's so sweet and we didn't even really teach him to do it. He just learns so much from watching us. Exciting but also kind of scary. :)

Here's a photo of Everett on his first boat ride over Memorial Day Weekend. He loved it:

Everett's Organizational Skills

2007-05-10T15:25:00.000-04:00

Everett decided to rearrange our cabinets the yesterday. It was pretty cute. I think he believes in sorting into piles when organizing. :)

Lynwood Park Parade

2007-05-10T15:09:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Allen was out of town for Intown's men's retreat. On Saturday Everett & I went to Beth & Logan's neighborhood for a parade and festival. Tracey & Landon met us there too. It was a lot of fun, especially for the kids. We watched the parade and then the kids jumped in the inflatable castle and rode a ride. Everett liked the ride at first, but after a few minutes he started to cry. It was so cute though. They each ate popcorn and cotton candy and all sorts of other treats. It was very fun and a good way to spend our time with Allen out of town. We were all worn out when it was over.

Georgia Aquarium

2007-05-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium with our playgroup. It was very crowded, especially for the first hour we were there. After lunch though things were much calmer and we got to go back through a few of the exhibits and see a lot more, which was nice. It was great because we got discounted tickets through Allen's work. We had 8 moms come! Everett definitely enjoyed himself and was worn out at the end.

My 30th Birthday!!

2007-05-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

Yes, I turned 30 on Saturday. It was a wonderful day. I wasn't the least bit sad about turning 30 and I don't feel old. I celebrated big time that night with a party at Twisted Taco. Thanks to my dear husband for planning and to all of our great friends for coming. It was a blast.

Here are some of the photos:

Everett's New Jeep

2007-05-01T17:12:00.000-04:00

Papa and Mimi brought Everett a new jeep this weekend. He's really loving it so far. He's drives a lot like his mom...fast with no hands. :) He hasn't quite figured out the whole steering thing yet. It's so cute to watch him drive though and he looks so grown up in it. Now when we see a jeep on the road he says, "jeet". So cute...

Checking under the hood...

Latest Happenings

2007-04-10T14:07:00.000-04:00

I got to go to California last week to visit my new nephew, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. This is my sister's fourth child. She's amazing. He's a cutie pie and it was so fun being there. Allen's sweet parents kept Everett all week for us in Augusta and Allen was home alone! I got to spend really quality time with my sister and the kids. It's fun to be in their house because with a 7-year-old, a 6-year-old, an almost 3-year-old and a newborn, there is always something exciting going on. It suprisingly made me excited about having another baby...although I don't think we'll ever make it to four, like my sister.

Here is a sweet photo of Elliot

I got home on Friday and we had a great time celebrating Easter. We went to the sunrise service at our church because Allen was running sound for it. It was FREEZING! I ended up having to go inside with Everett because he was not a happy camper out in the cold. After church we had some friends over for brunch and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was very nice and the weather actually warmed up enough to be outside. It's been nice to just be home this week with not much to do. I'm ready for this cold snap to be over and for the warm weather to come back now!

Springtime

2007-03-27T17:12:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful women's retreat this past weekend. It was so refreshing and refueling for me, physically and spiritually. I was the co-cordinator for the retreat and things went so well and I'm so relieved. There are photos from the weekend on my flickr page. We were praying for great weather and God sure came through on that one! It was 80 degrees and sunny all weekend. Although the pollen was in full effect. My car is now completely out of windshield washer fluid. Barbara Barker was our speaker and she really made me realize how much God cares about the small things in our lives. And how important it is to fix our eyes on him in everything we do.

Allen is so great to keep Everett alone on weekends like these. It was funny because when I got home he told me that he realized that I must pick things up all day. He couldn't believe how much things could get cluttered in such a short time. The house actually looked pretty great when I got home though. He's awesome!

My sister had her 4th baby last Wednesday, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. He's adorable. You can see a photo of him on my sister's blog. I'm heading out there next week to visit them and help with their other 3 kids. Everett is staying with Allen's parents for the week. It worked out really well because Allen's mom has spring break that week and she graciously agreed to watch him, even though they are renting out their house for the the Master's tournament and staying at her mother's house. Allen's going to have our house all to himself the whole week!

I bought 6 Easter eggs at wal-mart yesterday for our playgroup's Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Everett is already loving playing with them. Wait until tomorrow when there are surprises inside! :) He's cuter than ever these days...check out new photos of him on our flickr page. Here's my favorite photo as of late:

Everett's Words

2007-03-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

Everett is adding so many new words to his vocabulary every day. It's been fun now that he is really beginning to communicate.

Every morning lately we wave bye-bye to daddy as he leaves for work in his black car. On Monday Everett and I were out and saw a black car and Everett pointed to it and said "da-da". Every black car we see now, Everett says "da-da" and points. I wonder if he thinks that all Allen does is drive around all day.

He's loving hats lately...always wearing them backwards. He's so cool. :) He loves pointing out construction vehicles and big trucks, even though he calls them cars. He also loves pointing out planes that pass overhead. He loves climbing up on his step stool to wash his hands at the sink. He loves dancing and "jumping" and clapping to any music. He loves doggies and cars and of course balls.

Here is a list of all of his words so far:

cracker
choo choo
more
car
Landon (his friend)
paper
book
uh-oh
thank you
bye-bye
da-da
ma-ma
night-night
bath ("bafpf")
shoes
socks
cheerios ("eer-e-or-ee-os")
banana ("no-na-na" with his tongue poking out)
1-2-3
snack ("nack")
teeth ("eeth")
ouch
blankie bear ("blank bear")
cookie
bottle
poopie
doggie
tiger
ball (his first word)
balloon
diaper
ice
apple
no
yes
cold
hot (with hands waving)
waffle
baby
quack-quack
go
outside ("side")
slide
swing

Warmer Weather

2007-02-27T16:14:00.000-05:00

I am really loving this weather. It's been so warm and sunny outside. I love not haivng to worry about coats and it's so nice to be able to let Everett play outside again. Here are some cute photos of him playing outside with his balloon yesterday:

No love on Valentines

2007-02-15T16:44:00.000-05:00

I thought this Valentine's Day was going to be so special and I've been looking forward to it for the past two weeks. I made reservations for us to go to Rosa Mexicano, a restaurant in Atlantic Station. Our dear friends offered to babysit for us. I was thrilled at the prospects of having a night out on the town, especially after Allen was sick all last weekend.

I awoke yesterday at 6am to work out. Then I prepared our home to host playgroup, which was a special Valentine's Day playgroup, where we decided to merge two playgroups together. It was very crowded, but a lot of fun. The older kids exchanged Valentines which was so cute. I was exhausted after everyone left and thinking about how much I was going to enjoy the evening out.

Then Allen got home and we exchanged our cards and little gifts. We packed up and headed to our friend's house to drop Everett off. We were halfway there and Everett threw up in the car. We pulled the car over and attempted to clean him up and then headed home. When I called the restaurant to cancel our reservations, I was crying. So, we got home, cleaned things up and Allen headed out to pick up a pizza to at least salvage some of the evening. While he was gone, Everett threw up again.

As we were cleaning all of that up, our septic tank overflowed into our downstairs bathroom, which made it impossible to do laundry...even though I was halfway through washing our car seat cover, clothes, towels, etc. Plus our washing machine is having issues anyways, which Allen has been meaning to fix, but alas he was sick all last weekend. So, then we had a sick kid on our hands with towels, clothes, etc. all needing to be washed and piling up. And water in the downstairs bathroom that had to be cleaned up. Yuck!

At 9pm we sat down to eat our cold pizza and then went upstairs to take care of Everett who continued to throw up through most of the night and into today. My sweet husband got up with him most of the night. It was a memorable Valentine's Day to say the least. I've gotten over it now, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed last night. I'm just hoping that this stomach virus leaves our house quickly and especially that none of the kids that were here at playgroup will get infected, as it seems Everett was exchanging more than just Valentines.

Making Progress

2007-02-09T16:51:00.000-05:00

We've slowly been making progress on our office/playroom remodel. We've pretty much got everything painted and the new room is starting to take shape. It's so exciting to see it come together. I really like the new color and it will go with our playroom rug perfectly. Now we've just got to finish up a few more areas on the painting side, switch the outlets from cream to white (the last room in the house for this...woo hoo!), install new doors on the laundry room, install new carpet, etc., etc.

Here is a cool before and after so far...

Before:

After:

FYI...Never buy the Lowe's brand primer called American Tradition Tintable Color Primer. It was horrible. We had to take it back because it was way too watery. You can see in the photo below what it did to our walls...it looked more like a whitewash. When we returned it we got Zinsser's Bulls Eye Water-Base Interior Primer & Sealer and it covered the walls like a charm and we only had to do one coat of the primer and one coat of paint.

My Adorable Son

2007-02-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

Everett has really turned into an even cuter, funnier little boy the past couple of weeks. He's seems a lot older now. He is constantly repeating things we say. He loves to dance and jump, even if his feet don't leave the floor. He tries to sing when I sing, especially the alphabet. He tries to copy Daddy when he whistles. He's almost got all of his top teeth in...the last two are poking through. He can do a lot more on his own. It's just really fun to see him growing up. He's definitely my little buddy.

Here are a couple of new photos of him playing around during one of our breaks from painting our office/playroom. On a funny note, he got the little people garage for Christmas from Mimi & Papa. It has a ramp for the cars to go down, except Everett thinks it's a slide for him to go down. I constantly see him sitting on top...too cute.

Going down the "slide"...

Office/Playroom

2007-01-30T21:08:00.000-05:00

We're continuing to make progress on our office/playroom remodel. It takes along time...especially all the prep work...caulking, drywall, mudding, etc. Now that we've got most of that behind us, the painting is definitely coming along. We've got two coats of paint on all the trim now. We've decided to go ahead and paint the laundry room too while we're at it. Allen's priming one of our walls now, but the American Tradition Tintable Primer we got seems really watery. I wasn't sure about the woman in the paint department at the Lowes where we went (she was not very happy)...so we might try to take it back. We're not sure. I wanted to have things done (things always take longer than you expect) before my next blog about this, but I've had several people ask about our progress, so here are some new pictures. You can compare with those in my previous blog if you want.

Fun with Aluminum Foil

2007-01-23T10:21:00.000-05:00

Everett had a little fun this morning while I was working on the computer. Why is it that the minute you're occupied in something they are getting into everything they are not supposed to? It was funny though to see him in the kitchen with all that shiny foil. I had to use this as a photo opportunity. It made his life kind of flash before my eyes as I thought about one day showing his wife/kids about what Everett did when he was little.

Demolition Begins

2007-01-13T15:00:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday and we're in the process of remodeling our playroom/office. Allen has taken off almost a whole wall of chair rail and about half a wall (below the chair rail) of drywall. It's good to get it started but we've got a long row to hoe. It's interesting and somewhat scary to see what's behind your walls...especially when your house is older.

On the list for our playroom is new shelving/cubbies for books and toys, new carpet and new paint. We're starting with the painting, which means patching holes in our walls and doing some drywall work first. We're trying to decide between buying shelves from Ikea or making them ourselves. I'm voting for Ikea, but we're heading there tonight to see if the ones we like online are really what we would want. We were thinking about doing hard wood floors, but now we're thinking about berber carpet, just because we're constantly on the floor playing with Everertt and carpet is just so much more comfortable.

Here are some photos of our demo work:

Also, here are a few photos of our new desk:

The best part...a cabinet that holds our towers and all our cords.

Rachel Ray

2007-01-12T16:23:00.000-05:00

I love the new Rachel Ray show. It's so much fun to watch with so many good tips, advice, and of course great recipes. I think it's really changed the way I cook. I used to make so many recipes with those canned soups. I guess I never thought there was another way. It feels so good to use more fresh ingredients now and like RR says you actually know what your putting into your food and it's so fast too. Maybe all of you out there already knew all of this but since we just have basic cable, I've never watched much of the Food Network before. I will say that the shows of RR's I've seen on the FN were really scripted and this one is so much more real. It comes on at 3pm...which is usually right in the middle of E's nap, so I usually catch it. You can't print the recipes until after 4pm and I'm usually sitting at the computer waiting to print the day's recipes...unless it has mushrooms like today's recipe did. :) Yesterday she had a ton of great recipes using leftover chili. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I'm planning to. You can get them off her website, http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/. Just check out Thursday's recipes.

Return to Normalcy

2007-01-09T11:09:00.000-05:00

I feel like things are finally back to normal after the holidays. We had a great time with my family in Atlanta for Christmas. Brian and Kate and the kids and my mom all stayed with us for about 5 days or so. We went down to Andy & Shelby's house for Christmas dinner. It was nice that Allen had so much time off over Christmas...it was a much needed break for me. Everett had a blast playing with all of his nieces and nephews. I think he's kind of in withdrawl now from all the attention he was getting. You can see tons of new photos on our flickr site.

Lindsay and Michael's Vietnamese reception was here in Atlanta last Saturday. It was fun getting to see them again and having Allen's parents stay with us. They all stuck around on Sunday because Allen got installed as a deacon at Intown. It was a nice service and I'm so proud of him. It's such a perfect fit for him and I know he'll do a great job.

We now are back to working on our house projects. On Saturday Allen and his dad went all the way to Acworth to pick up a desk we bought off of Craig's List. It is perfect and it was only $75. It's got tons of drawer space and a big cabinet on the left which holds our 2 towers. Now Everett isn't getting into all of our cords. It's marvelous! Also, we took a ton of stuff to Goodwill...no more TV's in our playroom, Kate! :)

Now we're going to finally start painting our playroom and kitchen and we'll be working on shelves for our playroom. I'm really looking forward to finishing these projects and it looks like we'll have some time the next several weekends to get a lot accomplished.

Christmas is Here!

2006-12-22T07:20:00.000-05:00

We are in Augusta right now for Christmas and it's been so nice and relaxing. We got here late Wednesday night and will be here through Christmas Eve. Last night we went on a hayride to look at a big Christmas lights display. One problem is that it started raining on our ride and we all got pretty wet. It was a fun experience though. We had a nice dinner afterwards of country fried steak, rice and gravy, green beans, and biscuits. It was delicious! Then Allen and I went out to see the new Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. It was very sad and hard to watch at times because of the struggle of the movie but it was very good too. I think it was especially touching thinking about Everett.

Here are a few photos of us before the hayride...before getting drenched:

Here we are after the rain...very soaked!

Lindsay's Wedding

2006-12-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

Lindsay's wedding was wonderful this weekend. Everything went really well. The ceremony was beautiful and so was Lindsay. We had a lot of fun at the reception too. Allen and I are exhausted after all of the events though! Since we were both in the wedding and had Everett tagging along with us we were running around a lot. It was fun though and we're so happy for Michael and Lindsay. They will make an incredible team! Here are a few photos:

Thanksgiving

2006-11-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at Thanksgiving in Augusta. We went to Allen's grandmother's house for lunch with about 35 of his relatives. It's a big group! The day after Thanksgiving Allen and his sister's finace, Michael, left for Michael's bachelor weekend. They went caving and rock climbing and saw the new 007 movie! The day after Thanksgiving Allen's mom (Deb), his sister (Lindsay) and I all went shopping at 7am! We had an adventure of our own, a more girlie adventure though. We found some good deals at Target and at the mall. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday we had a family wedding shower for Lindsay. Afterwards Everett and I drove back to Atlanta to meet up with Allen.

On Sunday we started hanging up our Christmas decorations and more than half of our lights weren't working. Major frustration. Today I went to Target to buy more and one of the strands I bought wasn't working. More frustration. Needless to say, the house is looking good and we're planning to get our Christmas tree tonight. Hopefully this will make it feel more like Christmas because right now I'm not really into it. Could be because it's still November?

Christmas is getting more and more rushed each year. What's up with that? While Allen was stringing up the lights on our trees outside he said, "I'm only doing this for Jesus." It was funny, but it did make me wonder why we really do all of this. I picked up our Advent devotional from Church on Sunday and hopefully Allen and I can go through it together so it can give us some perspective.

The Park

2006-11-20T16:51:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at the park today despite the cold weather. We went with our neighbor Rasa and her daugther, Aura, who is almost 1 year old. She and Everett get along great and always have a lot of fun together. It's nice because they live in our neighborhood, just up the street. Everett is sleeping very soundly now after playing so much this afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I got some pretty cute photos...

We are heading to Augusta this week for Thanksgiving...I'm really looking forward to the break.

Our Weekend

2006-11-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

We had a very busy, fun-filled weekend. We went to visit Santa at Lenox Mall Friday night and we also rode the Pink Pig. Everett did suprisingly well with Santa. He cried when we first handed him over but calmed down very quickly. It was fun. I know it was early to visit Santa, but it was so nice because there was no line whatsoever. We went with a big group of friends, which made it a lot of fun.

Saturday we were up early to run the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 5K. It started and ended at Turner Field, which was really cool. We ran with a lot of folks from our Young Couples class at church. We had a team of 24 runners. This was Everett's first race. Allen pushed him in the stroller. Neither Allen nor I trained whatsoever for the race so we were a little nervous. It wasn't too bad though. Allen finished in 35 min. with the stroller and with staying with me for the 1st mile and I finished in 39 min. Sad that I used to run 5Ks in around 27-28 min., but I was still happy with my post-baby time. :)

We then drove down to Columbus, GA, for my nephew's 2nd birthday party. It was a fun party and we stayed in Columbus for the day. We got back late that night. It was a long day and Allen and I were pretty sore getting out of the car after we got home. I guess that's the price we pay for not training for the race.

There are tons of new photos on our flickr page of all of these events...but here are some of my favorites:

Happy Halloween

2006-11-01T07:50:00.000-05:00

Everett's 2nd Halloween was much more eventful than his first. :) He was a lion this year which was adorable! We were surprised that he really didn't mind wearing his costume, although he did not enjoy having his face painted. We went to our neighborhood party and he actually won the ribbon for the best costume. He did look pretty cute and since he was the youngest one dressed up, I think he was a shoe-in. We discovered that he really likes m&m's...but what kid doesn't? He had chocolate dripping down his costume by the end of the night. We took him trick or treating to two houses and that about did him in. I think he had the most fun watching the other kids run around at the party. We all joked about how tame of a lion he was because most of the time he sat there sucking his thumb just taking it all in. We should have made him a lamb. :)

Here are some photos:

Pumpkins

2006-10-22T10:28:00.000-04:00

Allen's sister, Lindsay and her finance, Michael, came over yesterday to visit. Allen and I were working out in the yard...mowing, planting panies, weeding, transplanting day lilies...etc. when they arrived. The yard looked incredibly better once we were done. I'm so glad to get that out of the way. Afterwards we ordered pizza and did some pumpkin carving. I thought the pumpkins turned out pretty well. It was fun, but by the end we were all glad we were done. I roasted some seeds this morning. None of them liked the thought of eating pumpkin seeds, but we always did that growing up and I love the tradition of it. If you're interested, here's what you do:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Rinse and drain pumpkin seeds. Dry on paper towels. Spread onto an ungreased cookie sheet and salt. Roast for 2 hours stirring every 30 minutes.

Here are a few photos of our pumpkins:

Joiner News

2006-10-17T10:57:00.000-04:00

We went to Columbus this past Saturday. It was a good visit. This was one of the pictures we took on a playground there. It was a beautiful day and a good visit with my mom.

Everett has started taking more and more steps on his own...finally! On Sunday he took the most consecutive steps ever, across the kitchen with Allen and me both watching. It was about 5-6 steps. Since then he's been doing about the same. This morning he had his eye surgery, for his blocked tear ducts. While we were in the waiting area another mom asked Allen, "How long has he been walking?" It was pretty funny, because we still don't consider him a walker. It's a lot less paramount than I thought it would be. Even though many of my friends have told me this, I still expected him to take his first step and then no longer crawl from that point on. I don't know why this was my expectation...everything else with babies is a progression, especially with my son. So, I guess Everett is walking now, although he's still also crawling a lot too. :)

His eye surgery went really well. It was tough watching him go under anesthesia, but everything was fine. I'm glad it's over. He's taking a good nap this morning and should be since we had to get him up at 5:30am this morning!

Boys will be Boys

2006-10-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

I know boys and girls are different, but it sure is funny once you have your own. My two friends with girls Everett's age were talking about how they are just now having to use the word "no." I was suprised because that's a word Everett is quite aquainted with. Like now for instance, as he pulls all our books and cds off the bookshelf while I type this blog. :) I think boys are just more exploratory and like to test limits a little more. Like today at playgroup as my son climbs in and begins to stand up in a bouncy seat to which my friend (who has a girl) says, "Wow, he's such a climber...my daughter would never try anything like that."

Everett and I were just playing outside and I snapped some cute photos that I think demonstrate what boys this age are like.

Preparing my attack...

On guard...

On the move

2006-10-03T11:53:00.000-04:00

Everett has really started to love his walker the past two days. Once I get him going he takes off until he hits a wall or the coffee table or a toy, etc and I redirect him. He will go back and forth across the room at least 10 or more times. Hopefully this will help him in the walking department. Our friends lent us an outdoor ride on toy that he is really loving too.

Even though he's not walking yet, we just put a pair of overalls on him and let him crawl around outside. He's got the cutest crawl, with his left knee tucked in and dragging, he uses is right leg and left hand to scoot around. We sure that the left knee in his overalls will be completely worn out very soon, but they were only $3 at a consignment sale...so who cares! We've been putting shoes on him a lot more now that the weather is getting cooler. He's still not too fond of them, but they sure look cute. He spends all his time trying to get them off and once they're off, he loves chewing on them. He's very interested in shoes in general now.

This weekend was great. We went to the Duluth Fall Festival. We all split a funnel cake...yum. You just can't beat it. Then we went to Eats in Midtown for dinner. All that good food for cheap...you can't beat that either. Sunday we spent the whole day mowing, fertilizing and reseeding our yard, as well as planting some hostas. It was a lot of work, but Everett cooperated and slept almost the whole time. It felt really good to get all of that done.

Everett and his Toys

2006-09-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

Everett kept climbing into his toy basket this morning. I guess he wanted a more close up view of what was in there. It was too cute, so I thought I would share some photos...

Look...no hands!

2006-09-26T07:57:00.000-04:00

Everett is now standing up on his own, but hasn't quite taken any steps yet. He's 13 months old so we're hoping he'll be walking any day now. It will be so nice to get out and enjoy this nice weather without him scraping up his knees crawling around. He just got a really short haircut, compliments of his daddy. It sticks up a little in the back now, but it's pretty cute. It has had several edits over the past couple of days. I've learned that it's better to cut one's hair in the daylight. :) He can say four words now...ball, balloon, more, and mama/dada. He's a cutie, huh?

We had our two huge pine trees taken down last week and it was amazing to watch. It took them almost two full days 7am-7pm to get them down. They were really big trees. I had my first ever migraine the first day they were here...what luck! Now we are clearing away the debris, which is taking a long time and getting ready to plant some grass seed where they were. It will be so nice to have grass growing there soon! Now we have no more pine straw on our roof and clogging up our gutters. Yippee!!

Allen's summer league softball finishes up tonight but they are playing right on through to the fall season. Last week they beat the #1 team in their division 9-8. It was very exciting. It's been a fun summer but we're looking forward to fall.

The Two Trees

2006-09-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos before and after the first of our two huge pine trees was taken out...

Here is one of them chopping up the first tree...

New Photos

2006-09-06T16:04:00.000-04:00

We have a ton of new photos of Everett and our family. These were taken when Everett was 10 months old. They are on our flickr site beginning on the bottom of page 7. All of them were taken by Kathryn McElvy, who has done several photo sessions for us. Enjoy!

Latest News

2006-09-06T15:55:00.000-04:00

Everett and I had a wonderful visit last week to Wilmington, NC. We went to see our dear friends Sam and Trevor and their little girl, Maddie. They all just moved to Wilmington a month or so ago. It was a 7 hour drive with Everett, but he actually did remarkably well. I was very thankful for my new "snack trap" which you can see Everett holding in the photo with Maddie to the left. It was a lifesaver in the car. We snacked our way through many hours of driving. :) Sam and I went to Wrightsville Beach which was only about 15 minutes from their house on Wednesday. Tropical storm Ernesto hit Thursday, the day before we left. It was pretty scary and very loud. Parts of Sam and Trevor's neighborhood were flooded. Luckily their house was fine. On our way home last Friday we didn't experience a drop of rain. It was a blast and great to see them and their new house.

Although we had a great trip, it was sad to be away from Allen for so many days. It was great to come home and have the long weekend together though. We are heading to Augusta next weekend for a visit.

Everett is now great at climbing up and down the stairs...yeah! He's getting very tall...able to reach the doorknobs now...hopefully it will be a while before he figures out how to turn them. He can also say ball...his first word. He's eating anything and everything. It's a fun, yet exploratory age. Yesterday he pulled two outlet covers out and started chewing on them. Then he ripped the cable out of the wall. Then this morning he knocked over our torchere lamp and shattered the plastic top part. (Haven't told Allen about that one yet.) We'll see where he takes us next.

Everett is one!

2006-08-16T07:54:00.000-04:00

Everett turned 1 on August 9. We had his party on Saturday, August 12. It was a tropical themed party, forced indoors due to humidity and rain. We had a really great time though. We had about 20 or so friends and family over and celebrated with bar-b-que and cake. My mom and I made a palm tree cake, which turned out really cute (see flickr for a picture). Everett didn't dive into his cake much at all...he was much more tentative, as he is with most things. He seemed to like it when he tried it though. I think everyone huddled in the kitchen singing and staring at him threw him off a bit. He got a lot of wonderful gifts and has really enjoyed having some new toys to play with. We gave out a prize (a pineapple) for the best dressed...which went to our neigbors, the Wu's. They both were decked out in tropical prints and thier little baby girl was too. She was too cute!

It's nice that Everett's 1 now, mainly because we are done with formula and baby food. It's sometimes hard figuring out the next phase, but at least it won't be so costly. Maybe we can even get our budget back on track. Ha! Ha!

Now that our summer travels and Everett's birthday are over, we feel like life will calm down a little bit. We're still plenty busy though. I've got a list a mile long of things I want to get done, but mostly everything on it is constrained by time or money. Allen also has his list, in his mind. Sometimes it seems neither of our lists get shorter. I guess that's life though.

Summer Travels

2006-08-07T22:11:00.000-04:00

We're finally back from all of our travels. It started a few weekends ago with a trip to the beach (Seagrove, FL) with Allen's family. Seagrove was beautiful and we had a great time. We were there Thursday to Sunday and stayed at the Beachside Villas. Our villa had a view of the beach and we were just a short walk away from the water. We were able to take our monitor out the beach while Everett slept. It was wonderful! Everett loved being in the ocean and the pool.

Then on July 28 we headed on a long trip through Indiana and Ohio, to visit friends and family. We drove from Atlanta to Lafayette, IN, to visit my Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue. While we were there we also saw my other Uncle Joe and his wife along with my cousin's three kids and my mom's cousin and her husband. It was fun. From there we headed to Columbus, OH, to visit my two childhood friends, Trisha, and Becky. We stayed with Becky's parents in Millersport, OH, just east of Columbus. They have a beautiful old farm house and Glenda is an amazing Italian cook. It was great. Then we took off to Dayton, OH, to visit my other aunt, Sue, and two of her kids. My dad and Karin met us there too. The photo to the left is of a beautiful sunset we caught driving home from Sue's farm one night. We went from there to my dad's family reunion in Cold Spring, KY. We ended our trip there and drove back to Atlanta, driving a total of 1900 miles. It was a long trip, but a lot of fun too.

Everett Update

2006-07-10T10:05:00.000-04:00

Everett was 11 months old yesterday and now has two top teeth coming in. What's funny is it's his two side front teeth, rather than the two middle front teeth. I can tell the other two top teeth won't be far behind. I'm glad he'll be able to eat more foods now that he's getting his top teeth. He's also now able to crawl up our stairs, which is fun but also a scary proposition considering he can't yet go down. He surprises me how easily he can stand up now and how quickly he gets around.

This morning we were rolling a golf ball back and forth and he could actually throw it to me, which surprised me. When I say throw it, I mean the ball got a little air and it generally went in my direction. He definitely favors his right hand, but he could throw farther with his left. Perfect since we're training him to be the first major league switch pitcher. :) He also can finally wave although not always on command. He's eating more and more and getting so tall. His summer clothes are getting kind of small. Luckily I bought a wide range of sizes because I felt like this would happen. He's wearing some 12 month clothes, but mostly 18 months or 24 months.

We're going to be doing a lot of traveling coming up. We're heading to Augusta this Fri-Sat for Allen's sister's (Lindsay) engagement party. Then we're going to the beach with Allen's family next weekend. Then the following two weekends we'll be on a long trip through Indiana and Ohio visiting various relatives and childhood friends of mine and attending my dad's family reunion. It's going to be a busy July!

Our Pet Deer

2006-07-07T18:14:00.000-04:00

I thought after leaving Berry, where the deer to student ratio was 4 to 1, that I would never again come into such close contact with deer again. Little did I know that I would one day live in Peachtree Corners, where the deer roam free. We have evidenced deer being on our property many times due to things like all of our winter annuals being eaten and dug up throughout the winter. Also, this spring, our lilies and hostas were completely devoured down to the nubs. It was a sad morning that day. We also often spot them at night crossing our street. But today took the cake. I was doing dishes and looked out our kitchen window to our backyard. There, about 20 feet away was a huge doe. It startled me at first. We have a fenced in backyard, so it was especially odd. Allen urged me to take some photos. So, I thought it would also be worthy of a blog.

4th of July

2006-07-07T17:59:00.000-04:00

We had a great 4th of July this year. We spent the day around our house, finishing the repair job on our garage door. Then we met up with friends from church, and new Peachtree Corners residents, Chad & Tracey, and their son Landon. We went to the top Tracey's office building's parking deck that overlooks Lenox. We met up with several other friends there and had a picnic and played games until the fireworks. Turns out that a big thunderstorm came and they didn't start the fireworks until we were already in our car and were heading home. We did get to see some through the back window though. Everett did well considering we were out until almost 10pm.

Everett is really moving around now and while his cousins were here he started really pulling up on things and also started clapping. It's so cute. We've been going to the pool (Best Friend Park pool on Jimmy Carter) a lot lately and it's been really fun. This summer has been great so far. We are in the process of planning Everett's 1st Birthday Party which will be August 12. He'll be a year old on August 9. I can hardly believe he's almost 11 months now.

Pulling Up

2006-06-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

Everett just pulled up for the first time in his crib. He woke up from his nap this morning and when I went in there to get him he was standing up. It seemed normal at first and then I was like, wait a minute, you're standing up. He's so cute. Maybe soon he'll start pulling up on other things. He seems like the type that will enjoy walking a lot more than crawling. He doesn't like to crawl too much because I think he's got sensitive knees. :)

Our family arrives today (my sister and her husband and 3 kids). I can't wait to see Everett interact with his cousins.

A Very Warm Day

2006-06-10T15:07:00.000-04:00

It feels like summer! Today topped out at 91 degrees. We spent the morning spreading pine straw in our beds in the front yard and then decided to cool off in our new baby pool. It was cold at first, but we all enjoyed it after the sun warmed it up. It was a good investment off of Craig's List. We bought it for only $10. Everett loved the little slide and the sprinkler action it has. I think it will really be fun to have this summer.

10 Months Tomorrow

2006-06-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

Everett is all over the place now. It's fun. The other day Allen and I were in the kitchen and Everett was all of the way in the living room when all of the sudden we see his little head popping into the kitchen. It was so cute. He's not too fast yet. He crawls to one spot and sits up and looks around to see what he can grab and chew on. Then he crawls a bit more. So we're not having to baby proof everything quite yet, but it's coming soon!

We finished our downstairs bathroom remodel, minus a few decorative touches. We just finished painting and rearranging our den. It's looks really fresh and clean. We painted it a gold color that took the guy at Sherwin Williams over an hour to match. It looks pretty good. We didn't paint either of the paneled walls or wood trim though, because I'm hoping we'll be able to take the wall down between our den and kitchen when we remodel our kitchen, which I'm praying will happen one day. Although in our home to-do box, the kitchen remodel is in the "dream" section.

We had a wonderful time over Memorial Day Weekend going to Georgetown, SC, to Sam Mohlenhoff's parent's house. They live right on the bay and very close to Pawley's Island, where we went to the beach. Sam's parent's house is so beautiful and we got to stay in their cute little guest cottage. It was fun hanging out with Sam and Trevor and Maddie, who is getting so old now! Also, Sam and Trevor's friends, Mark and Stephanie came along. They were great.

Our awesome neighbors, Tim and Alayna, just had their baby girl, Jae Anna Wu. She's so sweet! They seem to be holding up well. I'm excited that Alayna will be home with Jae so we can hang out together. Hopefully Jae and Everett will be good buddies! Here is a link to their Flickr pictures if you want to see some pictures of their cutie pie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22413757@N00/

We're hoping to work out in the yard this weekend. The weeds seem to quickly get away from us. Hopefully we can spread some pine straw to keep them away for the rest of the summer at least. Our friend Chris is staying with us right now because he just sold his house and is looking for a new one. Then my sister and her clan will be here next Thursday and stay until the following Saturday. Life is busy, but good!

Everett is 9 months old

2006-05-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

We decided to upgrade our Flickr account to the pro status, so we now have tons of new photos uploaded to our Flickr page. There are pictures from Everett's first haircut as well as photos of him at 9 months, which he just turned yesterday. He had his well visit yesterday and was 20 lbs. 2 oz., which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and he was 30" long, which puts him in the 98th percentile for height. He's tall and skinny, just like his dad! I can hardly believe he's 9 months old now! He's gotten so big. He's happy and healthy and such a joy.

Everett can scoot around on his bottom and when he's on his belly he can move backwards, but he's not crawling yet, which is fine by mom! It's so nice to sit him down in one place and have him still be there when I get back. He has recently started spitting, which is so attractive and he's still constantly drooling although there are no signs of any new teeth. He's only got his two bottom teeth, which he's had for awhile. He loves tags on things and anything made out of paper. His favorite activity is to open the mail with daddy. He is starting to grab for anything, and is even willing to dive out of our arms. He loves to be tickled under his arms and has the cutest laugh. He's so much fun.

We finished painting our living room and dining room and it looks really great. We've still got to finish our playroom and downstairs bathroom and I'm hoping to also paint the den (a gold color). We've got to get all of this done before Everett really starts moving and getting into everything. We're heading to the beach with our friends, Sam and Trevor, for Memorial Day Weekend. We're staying with Sam's parents in Georgetown, SC. We were also there with them last year in April and it's beautiful there. I'm really looking forward to seeing Everett's first reaction to the sand and the waves. Hopefully it will be warm enough for us to go for a swim!

Enjoy all the new photos!

Easter

2006-04-19T17:17:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year and it was fun celebrating with Everett. He loved his Easter basket, especially the grass! :) He got some bunny ears and two stuffed animals. Allen and I got a lot of candy that we don't need. My mom was in town to celebrate with us and it was really fun to have her here. She was such a big help to me, especially since I've been feeling a little under the weather with sinus issues. Allen's been feeling it too, probably due to all the pollen. We went to church Easter morning and then over to a friend's house for Easter brunch, with our Young Couples
class at church. It was a good day!

It's amazing to think about how much Jesus has done for us. Easter is such a wonderful holiday to put things in perspective. Allen and I have been reading through the end of 1 Chronicles and into the Psalms. It's been really good to be in God's word together. It's gives me such an assurance that there is a plan for our lives. That we do have a purpose. That God is so much bigger than time and space. I'm so thankful for all God has blessed us with.

We are almost finished painting our living room and dining room. It's looking fabulous. The upstairs toilet is repaired. And now we're about to finish the downstairs bathroom and office/playroom. As Allen says at each step, "All we lack is finishing up." Allen's parents are stopping by this weekend and it will be really good to have them here.

House Projects

2006-04-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

Right now we have two toilets out of commission, both from our guest bathrooms. Allen is still working on our downstairs bathroom, trying his best to put up new baseboards and molding. He's doing this for the first time, so there is a bit of a learning curve. Our other toilet broke last week due to a bad gasket. We've got the part to fix it but haven't been able to make time for it yet. Our dining room has 1 coat of primer on the trim and I just went to go get the wall color for our living and dining room today. We've already painted the trim in the living room. The wall color is called Fenland, which is from Duron. Our friends have the same color in their bedroom and I liked it so much I'm copying it. It's sort of a light sage green.

We are making progress though. My lofty goal is to have the living room, dining room, downstairs bathroom and our office/playroom all done by June, when my family will be here staying with us. I would also like to paint just the walls in the den and kitchen. The outside is still keeping us very busy as well though, with weeding and tending to the grass and plants. I feel like we'll be spending the next several weekends working, but I enjoy it. Allen was just joking with me last night about how at the beginning of our marriage he would always be the one getting me motivated to work and now it's usually the other way around. Funny how roles sometimes change.

Everett is just getting over a bad cold. It was tough last week dealing with it, mainly because he was coughing so much he would gag and then throw up. Nasty stuff. He's doing much better now, except for a runny nose. He just celebrated his 8 month birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe it. He's definitely growing up. I'm still finding much more joy in being a mom. My 29th birthday is coming up soon! I can't believe that either. Allen and I have both created our own websites through Google Pages. You can check them out through the links to the right. I've put several of my recipes on my site. Enjoy!

Spring Cleaning

2006-03-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

The past two years it has seemed to happen that we get back from our anniversary trip and find that things have crowded our lives. It's interesting that our anniversary is the first day of Spring. It's kind of like a second New Year's Day for us, a chance to start over. Last year weeds invaded our landscaping beds and yard and we had to come home and attack them. This year it was the clutter inside our house, mostly mail and papers. I woke up this morning really wanting to clean things out and get things in order.

It's interesting too that I've also really felt a need to clean out my heart this week. Last weekend I went on a Women's Retreat with our church and it really impacted my life. Our speaker, Jill Hooper, the wife of one of our pastors at Intown, was incredible. She was so vulnerable about her life and her struggles and how she came to find joy even through pain and suffering. I really feel like I have a renewed sense of purpose and I am finally experiencing real joy like I haven't experienced in a long time. It was such an encouraging weekend for me. I think the thing I walked away with is that it's not about what I need to do differently, but how I need to think differently. It's so simple, but it was so big for me.

It's kind of like taking God with me throughout my day (that sounds cheesy, but I can't think of a better way to put it). One thing Jill said that really impacted me is that Satan's lie to us is that we have to spend an hour or more praying and reading the bible to spend time with God. In reality it's doing what we can to get in the word throughout the day (meditating on one scripture and putting it all through our house or reading just one Psalm a day) and thanking God as we go about our day. It really changes my attitude as I go about doing things that seem insignificant, like emptying the dishwasher. I know God is glorified through everything I do if I do it for him. I want to listen to Jill's talks again and again to really soak it all in because I know God really spoke through her that weekend. They are supposed to be up on Intown's website soon.

The warmer weather this week has been so great too. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Springing forward it so exciting. I love the extra hours of daylight and YIPPEE that starting in 2007 it will be extended to March-November instead of April-October. We are hoping to continue to clean out our house and work on our endless projects...painting and remodeling our downstairs bathroom. Here's to Spring!

San Francisco

2006-03-21T09:35:00.000-05:00

Allen and I had a great time in San Francisco. We got there on Sunday afternoon (March 19) and it was a beautiful day. This picture is one of us on the Marin County side of the bay and behind us is the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. On Sunday, we left Everett with my sister and her 3 kids and we drove from San Jose North to San Francisco. We first drove through the Golden Gate Park and over the bridge and then went to Muir Woods, which is a Redwood Forest. We then drove up to the point in this picture, looking out over the bay. It was beautiful!

We left there, driving through the Presidio, to our hotel, The King George. It's a great little hotel in the Union Square area. We checked in and then headed to dinner at a Mexican Tapas restaurant. It was a fun day! The next day (Our Anniversary-March 20), we walked around in the rain to Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, and Ghirradeli Square. We also visited the Cable Car Museum and China Town. It cleared up during the afternoon and we drove back to San Jose along the coast. We even went down to a beach in Half Moon Bay and dipped our hands into the Pacific Ocean. It was freezing!

We've had such a great time here and we're sad to leave. California is such a beautiful place and it's amazing all there is to see and do here. We're really going to miss my sister and her family. The kids are all so cute and are changing and growing up so quickly. We've got to gear up for our long flight home and changing back to our time zone. Here goes!

California Trip

2006-03-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

We are here in sunny and chilly California. We have had such a wonderful time so far. Little E did amazing on the flight over. He slept completely through his first take off and landing. He was a little worn out on the second flight after our layover in Dallas, but we couldn't have asked for a better day of traveling across the country with a teething 7 month old! The first day we were here we went for a walk around my sister (Katie) & brother-in-law's (Brian's) neighborhood where they live in Mountian View, CA. We went to their local park then came back for dinner. Allen and I were pretty exhausted.

Thursday we went on a drive to look at the neighboring town of Palo Alto and we got to take a tour of Google with one of the members of Grace Presbyterian Church, where my brother-in-law is now an associate pastor. All of the tech industries here are pretty amazing. Allen fits in well! My wonderful sister hired a babysitter for us that night and we went to an awesome Spanish tapas restaurant in downtown Mountain View. The wine and food were so delicious and the atmosphere was really cool.

Friday we went to Monterey, along the coast, to the Monterey Aquarium. It was a really nice aquarium, right on the ocean. Then we took a drive down the coast to the Carmel area, which is where the picture above was taken. It was so amazingly beautiful. We ate dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Carmel. We were all pretty exhausted by then and all 4 kids fell asleep on the drive back to Mountain View.

Today my nephew (Nick) has his first baseball game. My brother-in-law is the assistant coach. We are going to have a little more of a relaxing day today. We will go to church tomorrow morning and then Allen and I will head to San Francisco by ourselves for two days to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

Despite the fact that Everett and I both came down with colds the day we left, it's been a great trip so far!!

Young Couples Service Project

2006-03-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

Today we volunteered at the Clarkston Community Center in their community garden doing some landscaping and gardening. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. Everett even came along and enjoyed being outside and watching everyone work. We're so thankful to have such a great group from our church where we can be involved. It was a really great day. There are other fun pictures on flickr of the day. Enjoy!

Spring is almost here!

2006-03-11T05:49:00.000-05:00

Everett was 7 months old on March 9, 2006. He's had some major milestones since 6 months. The week of February 27, he really began to sit up on his own. It's so much fun to have him be able to sit up and reach for toys around him. He's getting a little more independent every day.

Then on March 6, I noticed his first tooth coming in. I could feel it but not really see it, mainly because he will not open his mouth or move his tounge. It's his bottom left tooth. It's taking it's time coming in, but it's definitely there. It hasn't seemed to affect him too much, but it's funny that his first teething session is coming right as we're about to travel to California.

We leave on Wednesday to travel to San Jose to visit my sister and her husband and 3 kids. We can't wait to see them all. We are going to be with them in the San Jose area until Sunday and then Allen and I are going to head into San Francisco for a few days to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, which is March 20! It seems to me that we've been married more than just 2 years. It's definitely been a great time together. We return from San Jose on March 21. We're really praying that Everett will do well on the flights and that we'll all be able to somewhat adjust to the time change while we're there.

The warmer weather we've had lately has really lifted my spirits and I'm just feeling wonderful. Everett has gotten so big that he's grown out of all of his winter clothes. Some of them I can't even snap. I've been going to consignment sales like crazy to get him ready for spring. He has the cutest spring/summer outfits now and I can't wait to try them all out. I took the picture above on his 7 month birthday. He's in the double stroller with Grace, the little girl I babysit for twice a week. It was a beautiful day!

Having this trip to look forward to has really be fun too. I'm also going to a Women's Retreat with our church to Amicalola Falls the last weekend in March. I'm really looking forward to it. Allen's softball games start Tuesday and into Spring we go...

Family Weekend

2006-02-25T19:51:00.000-05:00

Allen's family is here for the weekend. Last night his parents and Allen and I went to the Martini's & Imax at the Fernbank Museum. We saw the Amazon Imax movie and it was pretty cool, although it made me a little motion sick. It was a good night out.

Today we've been doing all sorts of things. Allen's sister, Lindsay just got here tonight and is newly engaged (as of last Saturday)!! The picture above is one of them taken on their spring break trip last year. She and her fiance, Michael, are getting married December 9, 2006 in Augusta. We are super excited for them. Michael is such a great guy and we couldn't ask for a better future brother-in-law! Lindsay is 21 and an accountant major and cheerleader at Georgia College and State University. She met Michael there who is getting an education degree. He will be 22 next Friday. They will both graduate in May and Michael is going to teach for a year while Lindsay gets her masters degree.

Tonight I made a Chicken Parmesan recipe that I got from Sam Mohlenhoff, which I've modified just a little bit. It's super easy. Everyone seemed to like it and Lindsay asked me to put it on our blog so that Michael will cook it for her...so here goes:

Chicken Parmesan
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded flat
1 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 egg whites
2 jars spaghetti sauce (or about that, depending on how much sauce you like)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 package spaghetti noodles (cooked and drained)

Preheat the oven to 350Â°. Mix bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese in a bowl. Dip chicken in bread crumb mixture, in egg white, and then back into the bread crumb mixture and place in a lightly greased oven safe casserole dish. Cook chicken in oven for 35 minutes (or until chicken is fully cooked). Pour spaghetti sauce into a sauce pan and heat it on the stove. Once chicken is done, remove it from the oven and cover it with sauce (to taste) and mozzarella and remaining parmesan cheese (sprinklethymee or basil on top for color). Put chicken back into the oven and cook for 5 more minutes (or until cheese is melted). Serve with spaghetti noodles and extra spaghetti sauce.

Working on the House

2006-02-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

We spent all of last weekend painting all of the trim in our living room white. I thought this was so cute of Allen feeding Everett with the paint all over his jeans. Feeding Everett was about all we took a break for but we got it all done. It was a very productive weekend. Allen's still working on remodeling our downstairs bathroom. He's got all the drywall done and is about to start working on putting up the new molding. Then we can start painting and put in the new cabinet/sink, light fixture, towel bars, etc. I can't wait to get that finished. Then we'll start painting the trim in the dining room. It seems like we're definitely making progress on the house. I can't wait until everything is painted. I think it will really seem like a whole new house. Getting all the trim painted in the living room in one weekend really gave us hope that things can all get done...one day. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, as always, and next weekend, Allen's parents are coming to visit. It's going to be really good to see them again and I know they are so excited to see Everett. He's changed so much since they saw him at Christmas. It feels like time is really flying by. I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather though.

February 9, 2006

2006-02-09T20:39:00.000-05:00

Wow! Everett's 6 month birthday is finally here! I can hardly believe it. He had his well visit today at the doctor and measured 18lbs. and 5 oz. and 27" long. That puts him at around 60-70% in both categories. He got three shots today...2 vaccines and 1 flu shot. He's such a brave boy and barely even cries when he gets his shots. He slept in the car the whole way home from the appointment and slept for over 2 hours once we got home. He's such a trooper and truly our pride and joy. He's so content and happy and such a great eater and sleeper. We're so grateful that God has blessed us with such a wonderful baby. As this 6 months has passed, I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the future.

Check out more of his 6 month photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejoiners/

February Already?

2006-02-06T12:31:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that February is already here and that Everett will be 6 months old on Thursday. Time is really going by quickly. We had a great weekend, with a quick visit to my mom's in Columbus. I got to see my best friend from high school, Traci, that I hadn't seen since the late 90's. Allen and I went over to see her and meet her husband. It was really great getting to see her again. It's weird because we both ended up working with children (she's a kindergarten teacher) and marrying men who work with computers. Funny how things turn out.

Saturday night we went to Allen's friend's 30th birthday party, his old roommate, Brian Evans. Sunday we went to see Sam and Trevor's baby, Maddie, get baptized at their church, Old Peachtree Presbyterian, and over to their house for lunch afterwards. And of course Sunday night, we went to a Superbowl party with our Young Couples group at church. It was a really great party.

Allen and I joked about how Everett went to four parties in one weekend. He's such a crazy kid.

Everett is now grabbing onto and holding things really well. He now wants whatever we are holding at the time. Yesterday in church, he grabbed the hymnal that the woman was holding next to me and wrinkled up the page! He's also gotten more into sucking his thumb. After just about every bite of his food he tries to get his thumb in his mouth so we have to constantly hold his hand down. It's pretty funny.

We're excited to find out his weight and length at his 6-month doctor visit on Thursday...we'll keep you posted.

Everett's Swing

2006-01-28T15:32:00.000-05:00

We finally put up Everett's swing. He seems to enjoy it but doesn't like to be swung too high. There are some more new photos on our flickr site too! Enjoy. :)

Busy, Busy

2006-01-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

I've felt a lot busier now. One reason is because I'm babysitting for a friend from church, Kirstin, two afternoons a week. She has an adorable 7 month old little girl named Grace. I'm also leading a playgroup on Wednesdays because the playgroup I was in got too large. If anyone is interested in joining, just let me know. We meet in each other's homes from 10am-Noon each week. Add all that to my normal things like grocery shopping, visiting friends, bringing meals to new moms, etc. and I'm feeling very busy. It's a lot of fun though!

In my spare time I'm cooking a lot of new recipes and working on Everett's scrapbook. I tried a new recipe tonight and Allen gave it a "Top 10" rating, which doesn't happen very often. It's from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (75th anniversary edition), which I got for Christmas last year. It's a wonderful cookbook!!

Tostada Pizza
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Oven: 400º
Makes: 6 servings

1 pound lean ground beef
1 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers, drained
½ of a 1½-ounce envelope (about 2 tablespoons) taco seasoning mix
1 teaspoon chili powder
tablespoono0n cornmeal (I just used flour)
1 10-0unce package refridgerated pizza dough
1 15-ounce can pinto beans with jalapeño peppers, rinsed and drained (I couldn't find pinto beans with jalapeño peppers, so I bought plain pinto beans and jalapeño peppers separately, but I think next time I'll just use refried beans instead)
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (4 ounces) (I used four cheese Mexican cheese and some cheddar)
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped
½ cup thinly sliced green onions (4)
Bottled taco sauce (optional) (I topped it with sour cream)

1. In a large skillet cook meat until brown. Drain off fat. Stir in ¾ cup water, chile peppers, taco seasoning mix, and chili powder. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.
2. Meanwhile, grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Pat pizza dough into a 12x8-inch rectangle on the baking sheet. Bake in a 400° oven for 5 minutes.
3. In a bowl mash beans with a fork; spread over partially baked dough to within ½ inch of edges. Spoon meat mixture over beans. Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes more or until crust is just golden. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 1 to 2 minutes more or until cheese melts. Top with lettuce, tomato, and onions. If desired, top with taco sauce.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I have a headache now from trying to type on our old and slow laptop and using all those alt keys. Allen's trying to work on our pc right now (he's got the whole thing torn apart). Our office looks like a tornado went through it with the bathroom torn apart and the computer torn apart. He had gum surgery on Friday and hasn't been able to work on much lately. Hopefully we'll get things together soon.

One question to ponder why do cheeses like Monterey Jack get capitalized and others don't? I could just Google that, but I'm tired. I just heard an "Alleluia" from Al, so I guess the pc is coming together at least.

A Big Mess

2006-01-11T14:51:00.000-05:00

As I was attempting to feed Everett lunch today he seemed to be making a bigger and bigger mess with each spoonful. Before I knew it, food was all over me, all over him and all over his high chair. At first I was very frustrated, but then I just had to laugh and thought it made a great photo moment, especially with his "Gerber Baby" bib on. He's definitely a good advertiser.

He's getting so big and seems to be doing new things everyday. Just when I think he's not really into his pacifier anymore, he started putting it in his mouth on his own today. I was pretty surprised. He likes to suck his thumb when sleeping, suck any number of fingers or his whole fist if possible when playing, and his pacifier too! He's a fun baby!!

All Bundled Up

2006-01-09T11:49:00.000-05:00

Everett is 5 months old today. Here is a picture of him as we were about to head out on our morning walk. Isn't he a cutie? The weather has been pretty nice lately for walks and it's great to get out of the house. We are all doing well and things are moving right along.

Christmas Morning

2006-01-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

We've uploaded all of our Christmas photos to Flickr now. Here is a photo of us on Christmas morning in Augusta.