Two Favorite Blessings

Last weekend I was able to get away for an overnight girls trip to Charlotte to see two of my best college girlfriends! This particular girls trip was planned so Laura and I could meet up with our sweet friend Jamie (who neither of us had seen for 10+ years!) We were all SO excited.... giddy was actually the word we kept using! Sweet Jamo has had quite the many adventures since our college days, while Laura and I were feeling like the old maids who have both been married almost 12 years with houses full of children (okay... some houses fuller than others!) Anyway, back to Jamie.... she has spent time in India, touring with a Children of the World choir, living/ working in Jacksonville at a church, living and working in both Charlotte and No. Va, remeeting and falling in love with her hubby (more about that later), getting married, living in Malawi, Africa for a year, and this January having their first baby girl, Maryn! Whew! Tired just reading that huh... she really has had quite the adventures!

Me, Laura, and Jamie

So Laura, Jamie and I were all buddies at Liberty, while Laura and I were also buddies with Jamie's husband Daniel too, as he was in our same circle of friends, was friends with both of our hubbys, many mutual friends, etc. The funny thing is that we tried numerous times to set Jamie up with people and we tried numerous times to set Daniel up with people.... it is really hard to believe that we never tried to set the two of them up together! So fastforward 4- 5 years after college when Jamie moves to Charlotte, NC to help with a church plant that two guys from her LU and India days have started. She meets Daniel's dad one day while she is working at the church and gets to talking with him, tells him she went to LU, he tells her that his son went there, and so on.... So she gets his email and gives Daniel's dad hers, they both recognize each other from back in the day.... and the rest is history!!! So exciting! I remember the day that I found Jamie again through My Space (back in the prefacebook era!) and found out that she and Daniel were engaged!!!!

We had such a great time reconnecting with both of them and catching up on the last ten or so years of life! I loved getting to meet sweet little Maryn (Jamie, when you post those pictures of her and Maddox, I'm stealing one!) Hopefully this will be the first of many more fun girls weekends! I think there's talk of San Fran or a cruise in the future......

Upward

LOVE this picture!

Asher is playing basketball for the first time. He's playing with the Upward program which is incredible! He has practices every Monday night for an hour and then games on Saturdays. So far he is loving it and learning SO much! They really teach the boys the fundamentals and how to play cleanly, the right way.

Team huddle.... that boy #2 is Ethan and he is an UN.BE.LIEV.ABLE player!

Getting ready for them to announce the lineups

There they go....

So cute!

ACSI Spelling Bee

Last Friday I went with Asher to the ACSI Spelling Bee at Gorman Christian Academy in Durham. He had been practicing his words diligently for the past month and was so ready for this day to come.... he was excited, but also just glad he wasn't going to have to study his words anymore! He was such a confident little thing and did a great job finishing in 7th place! He made it through all the lists with words he had studied and got out on a word from the "unpublished" list! The spellers were all divided by grade to have their bees (there were seven schools represented) and the parents were not allowed to go into the rooms where they were spelling, but had to wait in the gym or cafeteria for their child to get "out". The longer we waited, the more nervous for him I got!

Waiting for the bee to start

The four first grade participants from GRACE

Landen, Katherine, Kenneth, and Asher.... we had to bribe them with ice cream to get this picture!

Out of about 30- 40 first graders they placed 11th, 3rd, 5th, and 7th!

That's more like it!

Cramming together before

Asher's teacher made up this adorable little bag full of treats and snacks for him to take and gave it to him Thursday afternoon before leaving school.

Front of sweet note from Mrs. Murray

Long overdue haircuts

I have a sweet friend who cuts hair on the side and she is always so willing to cut my boys' hair for me! Like always, they are SO shaggy before I finally get around to finding time to get their hair cut. Just not high on my "to do" list these days.... The last time Judah and Nate had a haircut was back in November (the 18th to be more specific!) I remember the date because I was starting labor with Maddox and was having contractions at Snip-Its while the boys got their haircuts! Thanks SO much Mrs. Melissa!

Judah before.....

O my! You can actually see his eyes!

Nate before.....

And after... not the best picture, but it shows the big difference

H & N

Affectionately referred to alot as H and N.... Hudson and Nate are the best little buddies. They love having play dates with each other and just play so well together. It is so much fun to see them as the older boys with their big brothers off at school. It seems like yesterday that they were the babies napping while Asher, Caleb, and Elijah had the play dates!

Lunchtime!

This was snack time I think when they were "dunking" their goldfish crackers and hamming it up!