Just the Girls

Tonight after dinner the girls got on the floor and "wrestled" around. We all had a good time together. Tonight is daddy's first night of working for UPS. He had to leave at 9 and he won't be home until around 3am! Can't wait to hear how it went!

I don't want to embarrass Jerm or anything, but he is awesome! Over the last couple of months I have seen a different side to Jeremy. He is such an amazing father to the girls. I think he has so much more confidence in his abilities as a parent since I have "stepped aside" and gone to work. I have fallen more deeply in love with him because of the way that he loves our little princesses.

My Daddy, My Hero

Hayden was playing with this magnet that Aunt September gave her last weekend. You screw the back on and it lights up. Well, Hayden took the back off and things went flying! I picked the pieces up and put it back together but it wouldn't light up. I was pretty sure that a piece went under the oven, but I couldn't get it. Hayden kept trying and trying to get it to work but it was missing the piece under the oven. When daddy was done doing the dishes (his shift any way) he pulled out the drawer under the oven, found the missing piece, put it back together and got it lighting up again! I wish you could have seen the admiration that shined in Hayden's eyes as she looked up at her daddy-her hero! I saw it alright and I said (out loud) "Dang.....I wanted to be the hero!!" As I stood in the kitchen washing the rest of the dishes I realized that the girls need many heros in their lives and daddy is definitely one of them!

Hayden is beginning to take the next step in her "mommy's little helper" role. She is now trying to physically get Layne to do the things she wants her to do! I have to watch her very carefully. I have caught her trying to pull her hands to play ring around the rosey, to drag her on the floor by her feet, and to pick her up by the neck! She does it with a smile so I can only assume it's out of love!!

Little Layner loves her new view. She is pulling up on everything.

Dora Cupcakes

Well, here they are! I did 40 Dora cupcakes for a little girl's birthday party. Hope she likes them!

Praise Him

I will never forget the day that Jeremy asked me where my savings account was. We had been dating for about 6 months and I had been teaching for about 4 months. I would pay my bills when they came in and then spend almost everything else. I may have had a couple hundred in the bank just in case. Well, Jeremy was different. As most of you know, he is a very frugal man. It took a good 2 to 3 years for me to transform into a saver, but it happened! We had everything all figured out (which works well for my personality-I am a HUGE scheduler and planner). We were going to build up our nest egg (check), survive and thrive on one income (check...sort of), have two children (check....and maybe one more), life was going to be smooth sailing (X). What!? But that was how we had it all planned out. God had a different plan for us-to rely on HIM, not our plan. And that's where this story begins. Before the girls came along we agreed that I would stay home and raise our children while he worked for the income. We also saved up a nice big nest egg for ourselves during the time that we were both working. It made us feel safe and secure-like we would be protected no matter what. We never had an easy financial road since I stopped teaching, but we always made it because of that nice big security nest egg.

Fast forward a couple years....

We had our second sweet angel, Little Layner, who was just an precious as our first. The housing market takes a terrible turn and we now have no income since Jeremy is in the mortgage industry. We travel up to Pittsburgh for Christmas and Jeremy breaks his arm snowboarding and we now have over $13,000.00 in medical bills. A tree falls on our roof. And still no income. Was God there, was he even listening to our pleas and prayers?

Fast forward just a couple months to now....

I am working part time for the school system as a students with special needs instructional coach. Hayden goes to preschool while I am working (thanks to mom, Bernie, and dad) and Jeremy watches Layne at home. Hayden is in love with all of the teachers and friends at preschool. Layne and Jeremy have the chance to bond for four hours every day. Jeremy is doing call center work from home and other odds and ends jobs that friends pass on to him. He's also going to start working for UPS in the EARLY mornings and he is going to be doing some other work for his boss. I am also baking lots of cakes, cupcakes, and cookies on the side.

All of this to say.....

God is so good! I can't tell you that this season in our lives has been all laughs and smiles but I can tell you that I have never seen God's hands in our lives more clearly than I do right now. We no longer have that nice big nest egg, but God is providing for us now. If we truly believed the countless stories in the Bible where God provided then why did we have the nest egg after all? Where we any different to Him? He has given us the answer-we are no different and He has provided and blessed us in so many ways! He has blessed us with the insurance check for the tree on our roof and friends to fix the roof for free. He has blessed us with friends that provide meals for us at least once a week. He has blessed us with family that provides clothes for the girls and me on my birthday! He has blessed me with a job and health benefits. He has blessed us with a lot of odds and ends jobs for Jeremy. He has blessed us with a stronger marriage even though we are going through a hard time-we are in this together until the end!He has blessed us with many friends and family members who have listened to us and been there for us. He has blessed us with a wonderful family and church family that constantly prays for us and passes on job leads to us. And so much more....

This "Just barely making it" way of life is not the way we had it planned, but I am continually amazed by how God is not only providing for us but also blessing us each and every day.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever." Romans 11:36

Easter Pictures

Last Thursday the kiddos had live bunny pictures at preschool. So, Jeremy got Layne ready and took her up to school so she could have her picture take too. I called Jeremy around 10:30, thinking that the photo shoot would be over by then. He was a little frustrated saying that it was way past Layne's nap time and she just fussed and cried the first time they tried to take pictures. The morning had already started off hard for me since I REALLY wanted to be up at the church for the pictures, but when I heard that every single part of me wanted to get in my car and rush up to the church. I didn't though. And the pictures turned out wonderfully for the second take! Thanks again Michele-you did an amazing job!!

Poor Bum Bum

Layne had some naked time this morning and afternoon because she has some pretty bad diaper rash. We just made a new huge batch of baby food (thanks for your help Sep!) so we are introducing new foods. I guess some foods are not agreeing with her because she is pooping a lot. Now she has diaper rash and it's painful. Poor little girl.

I don't even know what to say about this picture!

Today, Hayden decided that Layne's little sheep wanted an airplane ride. Notice the high heels that she has on. Little Ezra gave she and Layne treat bags even though we weren't able to attend his party last Saturday! She loves the shoes and gloves.

Car Seat Fun

Matt's Pictures

Matt and Jamie came over about 2 or 3 weeks ago to go baby shopping. Here are some pictures that he took while they were here. He is such an amazing photographer. He does such a great job of capturing the moments. Little Layner and her big blue eyes!

Multi-Tasking at it's Best

I guess we as mothers don't realize just how much we try to do at one time until there is a picture of it all! Please excuse the muffin top....I am working on that. I have lost 12 pounds already! I'll be ready for Florida before I know it-hopefully!

Having a great time with the fam.

Ever since we've moved the living room table we all spend more time on the floor. It's just a better place for the girls to play and hang out.

Miss Green Eyes.

Dora!

These are Dora head cupcake toppers.....40 of them! They are for a little girl's birthday party. They required lots of thinking and work. It was fun though. I hope people will be able to tell that it's Dora!!

Bike Ride Anyone?

Hayden decided to play with Uncle Johnny's bike helmet on Sunday morning.

Gotta have the glasses on too!

Pappy gave Hayden a TON of summer clothes. This is one of the new tops. All of the shorts and shirts are awesome. Thanks Pappy!!

Visit with Uncle Johnny & Aunt Nember

This weekend Uncle Johnny and Aunt September came into town for a visit. We have been having such a great time hanging out. Here's Johnny reading Hayden a book on Friday night.

Layne has had a good time hanging out with Aunt September.

Early Saturday morning (8 am! that's sleeping in for us!!) wake up call for Johnny!!

On Saturday morning we decided to take the girls and dogs for a walk. Daddy was on an over night hunting trip.

When we got back from the walk Hayden showed them her "skills" on her smart cycle. September decided to show her how it's done!

Johnny went for a nice relaxing bike ride. He loves it in Georgia!

We went to the park in the afternoon when it warmed up. Sep challenged Johnny to do 20 pull ups on the "pull up bar". Do you think he was able to do 20 pull ups for a box of fruit roll ups?

Even though it was well past Layne's afternoon nap time she was very happy at the park. Just soaking in some of that sun-hopefully!

Hayden loved to show Johnny all around the playground.

The adults even had a good time at the park!

Monkey see....monkey do!

St. Patty's Day Birthday!

Remember Ezra, well he was born on St. Patrick's Day. his mom asked me to make him a cake for his first birthday this weekend. It's a white cake with two layers of lemon cream filling and then a middle layer of lemon curd filling. I hope it tastes as good as it sounds!!

Ladies Night

Tonight there was a ladies event at the church. There was a dinner, a speaker, singer, and a fashion show! It was a fun night with good girlfriends! Here I am with Rebecca.

Heather and I decorated our table for the event. That's why I made the fashion doll cupcakes. We also decorated it with paper dolls, bangle bracelets, necklaces, and high heel shoe pencil sharpeners.

After dinner the "models" had to leave and get ready for the fashion show. Here we are before the big moment. We went to Dillards last Saturday and picked out the outfits that we were going to wear in the show. We had to be careful not to mess the outfits up since we weren't buying them. Some ladies even put plastic grocery bags over their heads so they wouldn't get makeup on the outfits....forget about the chance of suffocation-save the outfits!! Wish we would have gotten a picture of that because it was hilarious!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade.....

Well, only sort of! You see, a friend of ours updated her status on Facebook to say that she was going to "The Fastest Growing Parade in the World" in Olde Town Conyers. I had totally forgotten about it. So, we gathered the girls and all that goes with them and off we went. The parade started at 4:30 and we arrived around 4:40, not a big deal. When we got there tons of people were filing up to the pavilion. That seemed really weird to me because I knew that the parade was ending at the pavilion. We watched people continue to go up there and then decided to follow the crowd. They served drinks and cookies, but where was the parade!? We hung out for about 30 minutes and still no parade. Turns out, according to our friend that actually witnessed the parade, that if you arrived anytime after 4:32 you missed the parade! It consisted of a firetruck and a few men in kilts! As I was telling Johnny about it he said, "Are you sure it wasn't The Fastest GOING Parade!? I think they just made a typo!"

Here are daddy and Hayden checking out all of the fish in the pond at Olde Town.

This is what Hayden does on the way home from preschool almost every day!

Fashion Doll Cupcakes

Tomorrow night we have a women's ministry event at the church. It's dinner and a fashion show! A friend and I agreed to decorate one of the tables for the event. We are decorating it with paper dolls, fake jewelry, and these little cupcake dolls! These cupcakes were in the new cupcake cookbook that mom and Bernie got me for Christmas. I have been dying to try them out. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Of course we had to take a picture with the girls in their green today. We were also practicing for Thursday morning. One of the teachers at Hayden's preschool is also a photographer and she is going to take live bunny pictures with the kids on Thursday morning. She emailed me and said that she would love to take bunny pictures of the girls together free of charge!! We were so excited because we just loved those bunny pictures that she took of Hayden last year at preschool. Thanks Michele!

Ready for Work?

Hayden loves to go into my closet and try stuff on....especially shoes! She likes to get ready for work.

I think she also likes the sound of the heels because she walks up and down the hallway in those things!