Tagged: My Honey

*What is your husband's name? John, aka JP

*How long have you guys been married? 9 years, 2 months

*How long did you date? About 10 months or so.

*How old is he? He's hanging on to his twenties by his fingernails (he'll be thirty in January)

*Who is taller? He is by about 5 inches... just the perfect height.

*Who can sing the best? Hm.. He actually sings pretty well, to my surprise. I still sing better though:)

*Who is smarter? Not to borrow Amber's answer, but it does very much depend on the subject at hand. I'd say we're pretty evenly matched (just don't ask me about electronics, and don't ask him about english lit.. or shopping)

*Who pays the bills? We both make the money, I mostly pay the bills. He sometimes plays gofer, but I'm the coordinator.

*Who does the laundry? Mostly me, but he likes playing with the new washer and dryer. It's all technologically advanced and stuff.

*Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you were looking at us sleeping (which is highly unlikely), I'd be on the left and he'd be on the right.

*Who mows the lawn? John. Bless his wonderful heart!

*Who cooks dinner? We have a running joke that he cooks and I compile.

*Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? John never admits he is wrong, even when he admits he is wrong :)

*Who kissed who first? I think he finally took the hint and made the move.... finally.

*Who wears the pants? Well, literally, we all wear pants. Not necessarily "the" pants, as Tinkerbells pants would look funny on everybody else.

Fire!!!!

It's been a while, folks, but this time I actually have a good reason. We had a house fire in the laundry room on Thanksgiving morning. It started with a malfunctioning heater (even though the insurance company is saying that it's our fault). But, we were really so blessed because we were going out of town the next day, and we were going to my mom's in just a few short hours. If we wouldn't have been there, the whole house would've gone up. My studly man, JP, was trying to put out the fire ( in his underwear, I might add) with a bowl filled with water. I reminded him that we have fire extinguishers, and that accomplished a great deal more. The fire was out by the time that the fire department arrived. The house sustained very little fire damage, but lots and lots of smoke damaged. We were out of the house for 3 weeks while a restoration company cleaned the house and it's belongings. We finally moved back in on Thursday evening. It is so wonderful to be home, even though there are still boxes everywhere, and we have a ton of unpacking to do. And, to complicate matters, we had a big blessing occur...

I'm sure one day we'll understand God's timing on this, but what we've been waiting for has finally happened. We got a *permanent* placement. She has been with us for a couple of weeks now. At first she was in respite care while we moved back into our house, but now she's with us. If I don't understand the timing, I definitely understand why we've had to wait so long. I believe with all of my heart that she was meant for us. She is 15 years old, and she just fits in perfectly. She loves the kids and vice versa. I'll call her Tinkerbell here. It's just such an incredible blessing.

Well, guys, I'm going to sign off now, but I just wanted to say thanks for the prayers during this time, which has been difficult, and we'd appreciate any more that you'd throw our way as we fight with our insurance company. Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. I'm on the Taylor for Jacob bandwagon now :)

A Visit with Sophia

We spent the weekend in NC, and we got to visit Sophia. Here's the proof:

The Happy Family

Katie looks like she's been caught holding the baby!

And so Sophia meets her wacky uncle John...

... and you can see he's made a good first impression, as usual.

Isn't she so beautiful?

Any Family Resemblance?

In honor of the birth of Sophia, I've posted pics of my two babies on the day they came home from the hospital. Is there any family resemblance?

I don't know... it's just so hard to tell at that age!

New Arrival!!!

As of Thursday night, we are now the proud aunt and uncle of:

Sofia Shanti Paul

Welcome to the family, Sofia! Your uncle, aunt, and cousins love you and look forward to seeing you next week!!

Congratulations Dave and Bhakti!!

Psalm 37:4

So, things didn't work out with CiCi. It's more complicated than we originally thought, and she will most likely be staying put for awhile.

I really thought about giving up for awhile. If anybody is looking for signs in the events of the past 6 months or so, it would seem like this was just not meant to be. Discouragement plays a part in it, but I have a real desire to do what God wants us to. I felt like, since the beginning, that this is just what God wants us to do. Everytime I've thought about giving up, I've been reassured. But I've been confused. Why is this happening?

Yesterday we went to the fall foster care picnic. We looked around at all of these people with hordes of kids... especially little kids, and I felt very desolate. Having more little children around is the desire of my heart... isn't God supposed to give us that? It was so hard to hang on to the idea that this is our purpose while we were surrounded with all of these familes with their foster children, and we were the family who can't hang on to one kid for more than a couple of days. And then we found out that the one kid who really had my heart... Miss B... went home. My heart hurt.

I didn't have alot of time to dwell on the morning. We left and by the time we got home and did a couple of chores, it was time to leave again for a concert. Jeremy Camp is one of my very favorite Christian artists, and I just love him more now having seen him last night.. outdoors in the super cold weather. He talked about walking by faith... even though he lost his wife to cancer, he can still walk by faith and live God's purpose. I'm sure it's not the way he thought his life would turn out. I'm sure he had a plan. I'm sure that when he got married, he thought God had given him the desire of his heart. God had a different plan though. I encourage you to read about is life at his website, and I'll post the link below:

http://jeremycamp.com/about.htm



Guys, this is not the way I thought this would turn out. I expected to have a houseful of little ones by now. I don't know what's in store for us, but I got the message. We had decided to help teenagers, but know I know that our calling is teenagers. We may still have little ones, but I understand that this is not about the desire of my heart. This is about his desire for our ministry -- because that's what this has always supposed to be-- a ministry. I still believe he will give me the desire of my heart, but I now know that desire will change -- is changing, really. We are going to try to stand in the breech between these kids' last ditch effort and being tossed out of the system on their 18th birthday. I beg for your prayers. I am so thankful for the prayers that have been offered up already on our behalf.



Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Popcorn From My Girl

Well, the weekend went really well. We liked our 15-year-old placement, CiCi, very much. She should be back for another respite weekend this weekend, and I guess we'll go from there...

After CiCi left on Sunday, I was feeling pretty down... watching a weepy chick flick. I had just popped some popcorn for the kids, and Juli came up to me and gave me some popcorn. She said, "Here you go Mommy! It's 'cause I love you!".

I felt better.

Running

So, here's the update. The 18 year old decided to stay where she was, but on Wednesday we got YET ANOTHER call. This time, for a 15-year old girl. She's definitely coming tomorrow for respite care. If all parties are agreeable, she'll be a permanent placement. Cross your fingers, everybody!

A Change of Heart

I've been trying to start this post for a week, but somehow just couldn't. It has been such an indescribable week, in so many ways. I guess I'll start with last weekend. We had a respite care placement over the weekend; I'll call her Miss B. It started out a little rocky, but by the end of the weekend, we were all just in love with her. Really. This was totally unexpected. We hadn't even wanted any kids over 8, and she was 15. All of the sudden, John and I were forced to totally reevaluate what we were doing, and why we had set that limitation. So, to make a long story short, we both realized that having Miss B with us over the weekend had finally forced us to see that God did not want us to have a limitation. Looking back, I see the point where this was first clear as day. I had gone to a foster care training meeting called Panel Night. The current foster parents and their placements would come to answer questions and encourage the newbies (note: this was over a year ago). One of the workers asked the teenagers to tell us all why we should consider taking teenagers. While I sat and listened to these answers, I got that -- call. That Holy Spirit smack that you get and you're supposed to listen to. But, I was so concerned about what *we* wanted, that I just dismissed it. I mentioned it to JP too, but he also felt it would be better if we didn't.

And so, you guys know what a hard time we've had just starting. I think if we'd just paid attention to start with, it wouldn't have been so hard. This year with our church's youth has definitely prepared us for what's to come. You'd think that kids in church would have less problems than your average ordinary, but, at least for our church, that's plainly just not the case. We have a great support system for teenagers, and, let's face it, my husband is just outstanding with teenagers. Truly. I still haven't given up on my hopes for some little ones for my babies to play with, but I suddenly see the value of having teenagers too.

I miss Miss B still.

And so, as you might guess, the next placement was quick to come. We actually got the call on Monday. This one I can't really talk about very much, just because it's a sensitive case. Little Mama was 16. She came on Wednesday, and we had her for about 2 hours. She was supposed to be a temporary placement, although not as temporary as it turned out to be. All I can say is that the agency was not at fault here, and we were not at fault here, and nothing really "happened". It's a reminder that it's not all sunshine and roses, and we have to be very careful about the placements that we take.

Wednesday afternoon we got a call for yet another placement. We are supposed to find out on Monday or Tuesday whether she'll actually be coming. This girl is 18, and would be a permanent placement. That's really all I can tell you at this point because it's all that I know. Pray for us! Pray that if we can help this girl, that she'll give us a shot.

We've had a crazy weekend. I'll have to post about the Beth Moore retreat and the Volunteer Appreciation soon... don't let me forget.

Baby Steps

Well, folks, we are off and.. taking some baby steps. School and extra-curriculars are in full swing. Jonathan started flag football 2 Saturdays ago. The first session was utterly atrocious. Lucky for us, Jonathan has a really great coach who talked us out of taking him out of it. This past Saturday, while not without issue, was so very much better. He decided that he wants to do cub scouts also. His behavior is actually getting better all the way around. I've never given sports much credit, but I'm learning to eat my words here. We're trying to find something to get Juli into, as she's very jealous of Jonathan right now. She wants to play football!

Last Thursday we got a call from one of the other foster families in our area, and we got to babysit for their four foster kids on Friday. It was only for a couple of hours, but we really had a nice time. It felt like the first little baby step on the way to an actual placement. Well, we did get a placement today, BUT... it's temporary respite care for only four days. We'll be taking care of a 14 year old girl over the weekend. This feels like a much steadier toddler step, and JP and I feel like we've really turned a corner. Here's hoping we'll be running laps soon!

Holding Pattern

It seems like everybody is in a holding pattern lately. We're still waiting for foster care, and Amber and her family are still waiting for little Jackson to arrive. In the meantime, Juli started school, and Jonathan lost a tooth!

Here's Juli on her first day of school!

Juli has been wanting to play with these dinosaurs ever since she saw them at Jonathan's pre-K open house almost two years ago. Isn't it beautiful to see a dream realized?

My Country Bumpkin :)

My babies are all growing up!

School

Hello all! We're still waiting for a placement... still. In the meantime, we've been busy enjoying our last days of summer vacation and the first days of school. Uncle Harry and Aunt Bailey sent the kids a back-to-school present, and they were so excited. Yesterday, Jonathan started to school, and Juli had her pre-school interview. Her first day is next Wednesday. That's pretty much all that's going on. Here are some pics of the kids with their back-to-school presents.

Random Juli, Vol.2

When we got home this evening, the following conversation took place:

Juli: Look mommy, I have a scratch! (pulls down her shorts to show a red place on her hip)

Me: Oh, poor baby, what happened?

Juli: It's a timple!!

Me: A timple??? You mean a pimple?

Juli: No mommy, we don't say that.

Me: What, pimple? It's okay to say pimple... see... pimple, pimple.

Juli: No mommy, let's call it... uuuuh.... uuuummm.... Mr....... Timpleton. Yeah, Mr. Timpleton.

Me: Mr. Timpleton the Pimple?

Juli: Yeah!!!!!

One of Those Days

I guess it's just one of those days. I just feel like the stress and the minutiae of life is smothering me right now. I know that this is a temporary feeling, probably brought on by hormones and a string of irritating events, but I just feel *down*. We're still waiting on foster care, meanwhile, things at work are getting worse by the day. My kids start back to school soon, and I was so hoping to steal some time with them before it started. I dropped food on my shirt. Maybe I should go to sleep and start again...

... waiting... waiting.... forever waiting

Hello Everyone!

Sorry that it's been awhile since my last post, but things have been crazy here. I gave Amber a baby shower last weekend, which went really well if I do say so myself (check out Amber's blog for pics!). I baked 2 bathtub cakes in 4 days time! We also had some out-of-town visitors for the weekend... Harry and Bailey! They came in for Amber's shower. They were so much help... thanks you guys!!!!

On the foster care front, we have good news!! Our background checks came back last week, and we are officially, again, certified foster parents. Now we're just back to waiting for a placement. Oddly, it doesn't seem like so much of a pins-and-needles kind of wait anymore, what with all of the hurdles we've jumped and the time that it has taken. So, all of you in cyberland, thank you so much for all of the prayers. And, please pray for us some more!

That's all for now, but we're still waiting on "THE" phonecall, and I'll let you know when it happens. Here are some pics of our recent escapades:

The First Duckie Cake

Here are the kids hanging out at John's parent's pool

Here's a picture that did not go *quite* as planned

Here's my baby... snuggled up with his wittle beaw!

And... finally.... my budding actor:

Random Juli, Vol. 1

My daughter sometimes says the most random things. I thought I would share it with you...

So, while John and I were cooking on Monday, I put Sesame Street on the big TV. When we came back, Juli had lined her dolls and stuffed animals on our couch. John asked her what their names are, and she went down the line, "This one is Brady, this one is Helen, This one is Hannah, this one is (fill in random normal names here), and this one is Vitamin, and THIS one is SELFISH!!!!

LOL!?!?!?

Blessed!

Sometimes I forget to give the credit where it's due. Sometimes in the fast pace life we live, I forget who's holding our hand and keeping us afloat. Sometimes I forget that everything that happens, good or bad, is just a little part of God's plan for us. So, praise him in your successes as well as your failures. We are Blessed!

Charbroiled

Hello again all! I'm so happy to be home! We did have alot of fun, although it was also pretty irritating at times. It was so extremely hot. The last day there was a heat advisory, and it actually was supposed to be 105 degrees. I'm not sure if it actually got all the way there, but it really felt like it! And, of course, I got sunburned- charbroiled, really. The worst part, though, was missing the kids. It was a nice break for the first day, and then I just missed them so much that I could barely stand it. So - never again. From now on, if we're going somewhere, we're taking the kids with us. Lesson learned!

Drum Roll Please!!!!

Dave and Bhakti are having a girl!!!!! John and I are so excited to have a niece on the way, and the kids are excited about the idea of a new baby cousin.

Well, we are off to King's Dominion in the morning. I'll update you probably on Monday!!

We Made It!

We're back! The trip to NC went relatively well. We didn't get to see Dave and Bhakti very much, just on the evening of the 4th, but she was looking very pregnant! They are supposed to go tomorrow for their ultrasound, so I might get to update tomorrow on the sex of the newest Paul.

On the good side, Harry and Bailey were with us the whole time! They even stayed at John's parents house. We felt so much more comfortable. And, it was just really good to see them. Hopefully, we'll see them again soon.

Katie was there the whole time too. The kids had a great time with her, and we were able to take all three to the park and to lunch on Saturday. I just miss her already.

Here's some pics from the trip!

Dad and Kids riding the carousel.

You can almost hear them say, "You can't catch us! Na na na na naaaaah!"

Katie, enjoying the carousel.

Pilot #1

Pilot #2

The kids rode the train around the park. You can see they enjoyed it!

Rest before Chaos... and the Pool Incident

I'm still recovering well from my little surgery. All in all, it was infinitely easier than my past surgeries, and my husband took care of us all so well! As a reward, he's spent most of the last several days finishing up GTA IV, and I've been told that he's nearly done (Thank You Jesus!!!!). We're all trying to rest up and rejuvenate before our lives get tumbled into chaos again. There's lots of stuff going on in the next little bit, and I hope that I'll get a chance to post some pics and let you guys know all about it. This next weekend we're going to NC to visit John's family (some of them would claim me too). I'm super excited about seeing the newlyweds (Harry and Bailey), and my Katie (John's neice), and the expectant parents (Dave and Bhakti). Things are always ... interesting... with John's parents, so hopefully that'll go well also.

The week after JP and I are going to chaperone a Youth trip to a Christian Music festival. Yikes! I'm still pretty excited though, and there's going to be some great music. The kiddies are staying with Nana for a couple of days, since we agreed that they're not quite ready for 3 days in the hot sun, probably being bored. I was really torn between leaving them and taking them.. but we committed to being chaperones, and we wouldn't be much good at that with our two little ones along. Besides, this will be our last chance to do this kind of thing, since....



... our background checks should be in near the end of July. So, here's hoping that we'll have some more kiddies by then.



I promised I'd tell you the pool story, so here goes:



One of the other Youth Leader's children had a pool birthday party last Saturday. John had a lot of work to do for our Youth Gaming night, so he won the toss, so to speak, and I had to be the one to take our kids swimming while JP worked (and took pictures) on the side. So, when it was time for me to get into the pool, I responsibly went to the ladder turned around backwards, started to go down the ladder, and fell backwards into the pool. That's just so typical. Remind me to tell you about the bumper boat story sometime. Anyway, I had a couple of nasty bruises to show for it. My surgery was the following Monday, and when I pre-registered, one of the questions that they had asked is if I had fallen in the last 30 days... to which I said ... uhm, probably!?!?. I had to go in on Monday and tell the pool story to all the nice doctors and nurses. Why me?



Anyway, JP was able to document some of our pool moments :

Here are my babies: all floatied up and ready to go!

Here they are enjoying the water. You can tell that I'm thrilled about this "I'm in the water and you're taking pictures" arrangement.

I'll post again soon (and I have been doing much better about that!).

Recovering

Hey, everybody! I just wanted to let everyone know that the biopsy came back negative for cancer, but positive for polyps, which is really not that big of a deal. I had a little outpatient surgery to get those little suckers removed on Monday, and I'm still recovering, but doing better.

Remind me to tell you guys about the pool adventure, next time.

Friday the 13th lasts all week long...

If I were a superstitious person, I would never fear Friday the 13th. It's always great for me.

If I were a superstitious person, I would really fear the week after. Take this week for example. On Monday, I had to go to my gynecologist (grounds enough), and I had to get a biopsy. The biopsy is totally "for peace of mind", but it was extremely painful, and wondering about the results has made me slightly bonkers. I had an argument over the phone with a clothing company, the results for the biopsy were late, I had to hold my extremely full bladder while some lady pushed on my abdomen and took pictures (also known as Ultrasound).

And here's where my day really started to go downhill. We found out that the state auditor had a problem with our foster care application, so we have to re-do our background check, which will take 6 weeks to 3 months to complete.

So, we decided to take our sorrows to Applebee's to try to get some fresh scenery and enjoy a family evening. Juli dropped macaroni on her leg and know has a horrible burn and blisters to go along with it.

I'm just going to rent out a padded room for the rest of the week!

Update (A.K.A. Strike Two)

Well, as predicted, this placement also did not go through.

Please pray for us that we'll get the right placement at the right time.

Foster Parenting Update !!!

We got a call today about another sibling group that *may* need a home. I'll keep you guys posted, but this does not look like a likely placement.

The good news is that the placement that sticks shouldn't take long.

Foster Parenting ?!?!

People think that John and I are nuts, but we just want more kids. We have been so blessed with two happy, healthy babies who are growing up at lightning speed before our eyes... but still, we want a larger family.

I think for me it comes from being an only child. I was just so lonely growing up, and a lot of the lessons I had to learn later in life I think I would've learned earlier if I'd had siblings. And now, I've been blessed with a friend who's like a sister in every way but name (love you, Amber!!), but I'd hate to think what my life would be like without that connection. I would not rob my children of that experience for anything in the world -- not for my own comfort or theirs. I truly believe that God used those experiences to create this drive in me have more children. And not just for my kids, but for us, too. As fate would have it, it looks like we are not going to have any more biological children. So, now what?

We looked at international adoption, which is an incredible thing, but the expense is certainly a problem. Domestic adoption was never really an option for us... not in the way of having a birth mother pick you. I think for us it's always been about finding children who need a home. There's an abundance of people who want to adopt the babies. What about everybody else?

I had taken to watching "Adoption Stories" on Discovery Health, and those stories of foster parents who had adopted their children were just fantastic to me. "These are the kids who need us", I thought. For me, that was pretty much it. I started to work on John about it, but this was at the very beginning of our Christian days, and he just really wasn't that excited about the prospect. God worked on him though, and it wasn't long before he agreed. So, we started the process, but a few months later, the agency determined that we didn't spend enough time at home to qualify as foster parents.

So our goal for this last year was to be ready to try again this summer. God has blessed us in ways that I just didn't think were possible. We became youth leaders in our church. John got a promotion that allows him to pretty much set his own schedule. We moved to a house that is much larger, and is much better suited for a larger family. And God never let us forget that it was for an eventual goal -- there would be foster children in this house with us.

So, a few weeks ago, we contacted the case worker (CW), and we let her know that we wanted to try again, and that we spent a considerably larger amount of time at home. We thought we were going to have to take the classes again, and re-do all the paperwork, but we were okay with that. And let me just emphasize here, that this is now a calling for the both of us. John went from apathetic to just as excited and anxious as I am about this possibility.

So, last week we got a call from the CW. We had a referral of THREE CHILDREN!! We had 10-14 days to finish our paperwork and have our homestudy so that we could take in these three kids. So, we worked hard for a solid week to finish everything so that they'd have a place to go. Everything just went perfect.

Then, the day after we were certified (Friday), we contacted the CW, and she let us know that a relative had decided to retain custody of the kids.

And so we were introduced to the particular hardships of foster parenting. I have to say that we're still feeling a little lost right now, but I know that God has a purpose for all of this. Our youth leader said that it could be that having those kids stay in their family was an answer to a prayer. Wow. What a way to look at it, and I hope that's the case. As for us, it's back to business as usual -- sort of. Now there forever looms this chance of a phone call that can change it all in an instant.

I'll let you know when we get it.

The Wedding, Part II

Julianna and (officially) Aunt Bailey

This one is even cuter than it looks because Jonathan leaped into Harry's arms. He loves his Uncle Harry.

This is the only actual wedding shot that I took. It was a very lovely church.

This is the only picture I got of the bride and groom. The photographer nazi was always in the way. Please observe the elbow. Also, observe that awesome cake.

Just too adorable not to post.

Aren't they just beautiful?

Hey, didn't there used to be a Food Lion over there?

The Wedding

John's brother, Harry, got married this weekend in Gibsonville, NC. We traveled down on Friday to celebrate the big day. We stayed with John's brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Bhakti. We had a really great time, and the kids just loved spending time with their aunts and uncles.

The wedding went really well. All were in attendence, and the kids provided some great entertainment. At the part where Bailey said, "I will", Jonathan dramatically drew a hand accross his brow and said, "Whew!!!". As if he weren't sure she was going to agree. Juli was a little over zealous as the flower girl. She had so much fun walking down the aisle, she decided to go back and she met Bailey on the way in. I'm so glad that Bailey and Harry appreciated it for the entertainment that it was. All that aside though, the wedding was beautiful, and the reception was lots of fun. The wedding cake was really unique - a black and white paisley, and we had strawberries dipped in chocolate. John gave the toast (my husband just doesn't know how to be shy)... and it was sweet and funny. Bailey's aunt also gave a toast and called the couple Harry and Barry... to much hilarity.

After the wedding, we hung out with the happy couple awhile, and the kids got their "rewards" for being good at the wedding. In fact, as we were leaving the chapel, Jonathan announced, "Mommy, you ARE proud of me". He's a psychic. Who knew? Anyway, Juli got a new Bride and Groom barbie set, and Jonathan got the Shrek 3 Wii game. After, we had dinner with Dave and Bhakti, and John and I felt very sage as we gave advice about strollers and baby swings (Dave and Bhakti are 14 weeks pregnant, and the kids are so excited to have a little cousin on the way!). We then met back up with Harry and Bailey to play some Rock Band. We really had such a great day.

On Sunday, we had brunch with John's parents, Katie, Dave and Bhakti. Katie and Juli were joined at the hip again, and we looked at some family pictures before heading back.

Here are some pictures of our trip, and my beautiful babies, all dressed in their wedding finery.

Here are Uncle Dave and Aunt Bhakti. You can *almost* tell she's pregnant.

Jonathan's just taking a little breather.

And here's our flower girl. This picture was taken by Uncle Dave, who claims it happened only by divine intervention.

Belated Birthday Update

So, Jonathan's party was a couple of weeks ago, but I still wanted to update you. The party went well. I was rushed as always. My dear friend Amber made the cake, and it was really, really awesome. Here are some pics from the party:

Don't these look amazing? They tasted even better!

Jonathan and Carter have apparently missed each other.

It's a miracle!! My parents actually agreed to be in a picture!

The kiddie table ( I was sitting there too)

I just think this is a hilarious picture for some reason. They almost look like a group of super heroes.

The Lemmons boys eat cake!

Nathan: Our prize winner for being the first not to cheat!

Okay, that's all for now, but more to come!

One Last Request

Hey new people, please leave comments!

Getting Serious About Blogging

So, I'm going to get serious about blogging now, and I'm going to try to do it more often. I'm even going to invite some new people. We've had an eventful couple of weeks. Easter went well. The kids enjoyed their baskets, and we even got a night off from church to relax.

Jonathan and Juli woke up early to see what the easter basket brought them! Here they are looking all bleary eyed!

Here they are at church. Juli has a Tinkerbell-ish kind of dress on, but you can't tell because she insisted on buttoning her sweater all of the way up. Jonathan found the blue stuffed monkey on the easter egg hunt. He called it an electric fighting machine. We just smiled and nodded. He definitely has an active imagination!

So, we spent our easter evening napping and eating chocolate.


This weekend we had visitors from out of town: John's parents. We've not seen them in almost two years, so this was a very stressful event. Things went really well, so I'm glad about that, and we also got to see John's cousin Katie (she calls us aunt and uncle, which is cool). We had a great visit with her, and Juli especially loved spending time with another girl.




This is pretty much the way these two were all weekend. They just loved each other!

Katie and Jonathan got along pretty well, but she was pretty confused by his "all boy" behavior.

Okay, I hate having pictures taken of me, much less posting them, but this was such a rare event (the two of us actually being willing to have our picture taken), that I couldn't resist.

Here are me and my girls. Juli and I are really going to miss Katie.

This is a picture of my husband's parents with all of the children.

So, after our work week this week, we have Jonathan's birthday party on Saturday, and we'll hopefully have some guests this weekend as well.

More to come!!