Last of Tennessee

I have had this looming guilty feeling about not finishing with our Tennessee trip pictures. Although about four months late, here is the rest of our trip in mainly pics with a few captions :)

It snowed twice while we were there. The first time not a lot, the second time more than the first. AK was in heeeeeaven!

We finally made the trip to the Opryland Hotel!
It was gorgeous.

Can you see AK and her daddy in the pic below? Straight across the fountain in the middle

dancing with her daddy :)

AK enjoyed her first trip to Chuck E.Cheese's with her aunties

Thanks to Aunt Apple she left with a t-shirt, a puppy and a little tin box

AK made a brownie house with Aunt Apple

She enjoyed washing a mannequin's hair in Mammy's beauty salon

then she dried it's hair---totally creepy looking, I know

then she played hide-n-seek with Aunt Shannon

and acted like a crazy nut :)

AK and Elvis the bird :)

jamming out in the game/band room

getting her hair did by Mammy

my big girl getting a hair cut

Okay, and that concludes our trip. We had SO much fun and we can't wait to go back one day! Anna-Kate loves her family. We love our family. I wish we could see them more but I guess it makes our times together so memorable. It was a great trip!

Praise the Lord.

Guilt, leave me now :)

what goes in must come out

This morning while at the breakfast table AK was singing, "remember your people, remember your promise oh God. Your Grace is enough. Your Grace is enough. Your Grace is enough for me!"

Then I started thinking, "why did she just wake up with that song in her head?". Then the thought 'what goes in must comes out' occurred to me. It's true even at the tender age of 3. What she hears and what she watches will eventually come out. Thankfully her music is mostly limited to KLove and the shows she watches are geared for her age.

I want to be diligent to protect their hearts and minds. All my kids! It's not easy to do with the things going on in the world but if it's important you make it happen. And it is important.




Just listen to how sweet that is. My sweet girl. Melts my heart.

12 weeks-gender prediction from doctor

Yesterday I hit 12 weeks. I'm happy to hit this mark and I was happy to go to the doctor and hear a beautiful and strong heartbeat. Surely I'm not the only person who stays nervous until this time. Obviously something could happen at any time but 12 weeks is always huge :).

Today I went for genetic testing. I got an ultrasound and four tubes of blood taken. Whoa. Honestly, I mainly agree for these tests because I enjoy the opportunity to see my little baby :). No matter what the results turn out to be we'll carry this baby to birth.

Anyways, after the tech did her measurements and such she told me that she was going to go get the doctor and he'd be in to take a look also so they could compare measurements and what not. Before she walked out she happened to mention that he was the only doctor in the building who was able to take a looksy at the gender this early and that he'd do it if I asked. Of course I asked!!

First, I need to preface this whole story to say that my husband wasn't supposed to go to this appointment. My mother-in-law was going to meet up with me to help with the girls but he called around 9 this morning and said things were slow on his end and wanted to go. So he went!

Back to the story, the doctor came in and was looking and taking measurements. As he was closing with, "well, looks good so far" I jumped out and asked, "can you see what it is yet?!". He said, "sure we can take a look". So he gets the wand in the right position and I immediately notice it's not what I've been used to with my two girls. Then he says, "well, I'm thinking it's a boy. Here's why. You see that? I think that's the scrotum. And you see that? I think that's the penis". HAHAHAHAHA! Well then, okay! Looks like we might be having us a bouncing baby boy. We were shocked to say the least because I've been pretty convinced so far we'd never ever have a boy. Guess we'll know for sure in about 8 weeks. The nurse said he's about 93% accurate soooo...we have about a 7% chance of having a girl...I guess.

So, there you have it folks, our baby boy(??).

the little white spot on his(?) forehead is his hand

And this is his backside. Head to the right and hand waving above his head :)
What a friendly little feller.

finally, an update

I am so bummed I haven't had any desire to blog lately. I'm having this urge to totally do away with this one and start all over again. Is that crazy?

So...an update...

I am 10 weeks pregnant with #3. All is going well so far. I've been EXHAUSTED like never before and more hungry than with the first two...which makes me nervous...I don't want to blow up.

Isabelle is 14.5 months old. She's the funniest baby I know. She's quirky just like her sister. Loves to dance. Loves to laugh. Still isn't walking...and actually could careless too. She has six teeth on top and three on bottom-hehe. She tries so hard to repeat the words we say. She says uh-oh, ah-duh (all done), an ew (thank you), bye bye, hi, dadda, momma, nanna (Anna-Kate), hiiii dadda (my favorite) and I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting. When looking at pictures of her family she can correctly point to each one when asked...which is soooo adorable! She's 20 lbs of baby goodness.


Anna-Kate is four months shy of being four years old! I can't believe she's almost four. What happened to my first baby? Where did she go? She is getting so big, as in grown up. She's still my little petite squirt :). She is so smart and loves to talk and tell us things. She catches me by surprise almost daily with funny little remarks. She still loves to swim. I have taken her to the river a few times already this spring for some splash fun with her little friend and they have so much fun together every time. She has a new love for fishing poles and kites. She wants to go fishing SO bad and since she just got her first fishing pole it looks like she'll get to go soon. I hope.


In the midst of the crazy 2.5 years we've had job changes, moving and stuff we've begun to miss home. And our church. And our friends. So in that my husband has applied for some jobs back home and he has an interview THIS SATURDAY with a great company. I'm praying this is the step to getting our foot back in the door so to speak. We wanna go home :).

I hope to be back soon and I hope to be more interesting :).

we've got big news

Baby #3 due around the first of November :-D