Avery is 4!

Happy Birthday Avery! I love you so much!

Baby Jackson

Hey Everybody who reads this...
My sister is in the hospital tonight after she fell in her closet. Don't worry she wasn't at a high altitude, just tipsy (from pregnancy- not drinking). Mand has been having contrations pretty regularly and is staying overnight as a precaution. Just getting IV fluids right now. They are pretty sure it will all settle down within the next 24 hours. Please pray that it does. She is 33 weeks so we would all really like Jackson to settle down and stay in there a little longer. Jackson's heart rate is good and he looks great. Will update as I get more information. I just figured out how to text message her voice memos so am having a lot of fun with that! HA! It's her first night away from Maizie so pray she gets some sleep and doesn't even worry about that at all. Nini (my mom) came to the rescue and is already up there. See Mom we do need you!

MckMama needs our prayers.

Please pray for baby Stellan. Here.

Family Visits and Painting

Da Boyz!

Reece kept wearing his shoes on the wrong feet and his hat on backwards.

The only snow that stuck to the ground after a really cold winter.

Thankfully it is finally spring.

Pops with the three grandkids.

Reece and Maizie cheezin it up on the rocking chair. They are only 4 months apart and are too cute! Aren't those curls just adorable. I just want to kiss both of their cheeks.

A picture of the new furniture layout and the paint. After finding marker on the piano, I decided it was time to move it out of the playroom and into the living room.

Here is Reece saying thank you to Mimi for his handsome shirt.

Sweet

I don't know how the camera did this shot. But isn't it cool? I love this picture. Reece is trying to get away from his big sister's hugs, but she is totally content to just hang on.

Isn't it pretty?

So as you all can see Jennisa finished my blog. I LOVE IT! I highly recommend it to anyone that needs a blog makeover. She is very talented and has prices for all different budgets. I happened to find this background on a random site and fell in love with it. She was able to find the whole kit and waaalaa...fabulous. Her link is on my page "under once upon a blog". Go check her out! We stay at home moms need to support each other. She is going to work on my etsy page and once it is all set-up I will have it linked on here for you all to see.

bummer

Just wanted to let you know that I broke my camera and so it may be awhile before I get current pictures up again. I have some on the card that I am able to load to the computer but I may have to bust out the 35 mm camera for Avery's birthday. As the Backyardigans say, "UGH!"

Fireproof

Our church had a dinner and movie (with free babysitting!) for Valentine's Day and as you can see Shane and I got all decked out. We had a great time and the food was Healthy and Tasty. Thanks for letting me steal these off your website LaRae!

Pic: (Christine, Me, Jenna, Erin, Tonia, LaRae)

Fireproof is the movie that I have been talking about with the Love Dare. We are even going to show it to our homegroup this week. It was really good for a Christian, no budget, movie. We laughed and cried and thankfully I was warned and wore my waterproof mascara.

Do you notice how straight my hair is? I bought a straightener, aka flat iron. Seeing as how my hair is straight already I bought a 16 dollar one at Walmart. Shane loved it. He even noticed without me telling him about it that my hair was super straight. That's how he prefers my hair so I was glad he actually noticed it.

Answered Prayer

So some of you know that Shane and I have been having some problems on the whole baby thing. I wanted more-- he didn't. It's actually caused some pretty hurt feelings on both sides. Well, the last month I can tell my prayer warriors have been busy. We've had some pretty deep conversations. We've both laid it on the table and are healing from it. I'm also almost afraid to post this because I can't believe it, but....

Shane just told me tonight that he is now open to having more kids and we are going to talk about it in August if we will be ready to try for number three! I know this is NOT a guarantee that he will for sure want more babies, but it is a LONG way from where we were.

God has really be working on us. The last three or four months have been painful. Have you noticed there have been less blogs? It's been hard to write when I couldn't be totally honest. My heart was broken, but I was always afraid Shane would come off as the "bad" guy and I didn't want it to be that way at all. Now I almost feel set free again. (Jennisa is also in the process of "pim*ping" out my blog and I can't wait for you all to see how fabulous she is!)

So all in all, the last three months have been really painful (still plenty of good moments too), but I'm just so thankful that God is answering my prayers. I honestly was praying that he would take the desire for more kids away from me. But it seems like the more I prayed that the more I wanted another baby. Is it always that way? I can't even say how shocked I am (and trying not to get to excited) at the possibility of number three.

But mostly I am thankful for those of you that have prayed. I've felt it. Days when I would sit and cry while watching a baby story on TLC, I knew you were praying. THere were days I couldn't even pray for myself but I knew you were there for me.

Whatever the outcome Shane and I made it. There were nights that we honestly wondered if we would make it. Thankfully, we are through this storm. It was the first time that we've disagreed on a major decision in our lives. It was tough. The days that I felt so raw that I wasn't sure how to even pull myself out of it.

It's pretty amazing how God can work though. The ugly times turned into moments that may have temporarily broken us, but he put us back together...better.

I love you Shane. Thank you for fighting for US. For not leaving like most people would after some of the things I said to you. Thank you for letting God work in you and for forcing me to talk the issue out. Thank you for being sorry. You are an awesome dad and a wonderful husband. Whether we have more babies or not, I want us to be together.

The race isn't over yet...running together.

Outside fun...

Now Mandy can stop bugging me...

Confession...

I just made chicken noodle soup, banana bread, and a blueberry pie. Instead of waiting until my husband got home, I went ahead and ate. Don't judge! It was really good. Sorry Shane! Like I could resist the smell of warm blueberry pie. Oh my word, it was tasty. I only ate one piece. At least up until this exact moment that I am typing this have I eaten one piece. The next 6 hours or more until you come home? I can't be held responsible for anything after this post.