Babies all around...

James and I have had a very busy weekend trying to get all packed up and ready for the big move in less then a week! We were lucky to get to spend a little time with friends though and see some of the cutest babies that God has created! On Friday our small group had a get together and there are two sweet new members to our group, Judah and Alice. While we were there cooking out and having a good time with friends James was able to hold a baby for the first time...I was surprised that it was his first time ever holding a baby that small but he did a great job!

Our friends Kris and Melissa also had their baby girl on Friday night and her name is Shawna Rae...she is just precious and we got to see her when they came home from the hospital today. Both James and I were able to hold her and it looks like we are becoming quite the natural baby holders...wonder how we would do with one of them all night though!

Here is a picture of the new family!

We had a hard time choosing what music to put with this post but I decided on "You Are My Sunshine" since that is the song my Dad always used to sing to me when I was just a little baby like these two! :)

Birthday Fun!

Ya know I have to say that after this weekend I have truly learned what a lucky person I am...I am so blessed to have the most wonderful friends and family that a person could ask for! James started off my "birthday weekend" by giving me a gift Thursday morning because he said he wanted to start my weekend off with a smile! It definitely did the job! This weekend Shelly and I also took a trip to Tennessee to visit the family out there and really had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. They even surprised me and had a birthday cake waiting! We had a cook out on Saturday and just got to spend some quality time together on the lake so it was great.

A picture of us all getting ready to head out on the water in Bryant's new boat. And also a picture of Brennan doing a little fishing...to bad he didn't have any worms!

Last weekend we also got to have Kyle and Tyler come over and here are a few pictures from that as well.

James and Kyle kicking back while playing some video games. As you can see Tyler became great friends with AJ as well!

Then tonight when I got back into town my great husband arranged for everyone to meet up at Outback to have dinner to celebrate my birthday. I was also able to get one of those wonderful Mai Tai's that they have there too!

Titus and Christina...making us all smile as always!

The Hines family of 3...soon to be a family of 4!

Beth and her daughter Maddie came out to join us as well!

Molly got a kick out of the singing card that Titus and Christina got me!

Afterwards we took a quick trip over to Kohl's where James got a few new shirts and Molly got a new pair of jeans...nothing for the poor birthday girl though...haha!

And last but not least I came home from a long weekend of fun to one last surprise from my wonderful husband...chocolate covered strawberries....YUMMY! I have been asking for this treat since valentine's day and he kept telling me it would come when I least expected it and he was right...good job sweetie!

Well I guess since this is my birthday post I get to choose whatever song I want to go along with it...so I chose this one because it has just been one of my favorite songs lately and one that I have really leaned on too...and any of you that know anything about my family right now you know that we have a lot to be praying for and a lot to be thankful for too!

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday a great one!

Moving on up!

As many of you know Anna and I have found a new house to call home. Our old house is on the market. This has been a whirlwind experience. It has come on quick and through much up and down we really feel like this is a blessing.
We put an offer on the house last Friday which they have since accepted.
We had the inspection and terminte process today. Everything came back good.
We are hoping to close on the house the first ten days of June or so. Right before my birthday.
Happy B-day to me!
Again we do feel blessed to have gotten this house.
We can't wait to have everyone help us with the painting party. The house is 3.5 baths, 4 bedrooms, a relaxation room, man room, office, and fomral dining room. It is 3500 sq ft. Much more house than we thought we would ever be able to get.

This is a view of the formal dining room.

These are the stairs.

This is the one of a kind privilleged few "MAN ROOM"

"This is a view from the stairs upstairs.

This is the Master Bedroom. The bathroom is off to the right. The sitting room is right behind this picture. Notice the Craford ceiling.

This is the master bath. Notice the garden tub!

This is another view of the master bed room. Notice the sitting room attached to it. This is the relaxation chamber.

This is the dining room/breakfast nook.

The kitchen is nice and big minus all the appliances and knobs. The people took all the knobs.

Here I am standing in the entry way. This has a nice hardwood flooring. The office is across from the formal dining room on your right when you walk in.

This is the backyard.

This is the living room.

Have you ever been "flushed"?

This past weekend James talked me into volunteering at our school carnival in the "fun flush" booth. We do our best to always be involved in school events but I have to say that when I got to the carnival and saw the booth I wondered what on earth we were thinking! I guess I didn't realize that it would be freezing cold hose water that would be coming down on my head! I have to admit that the first few times I got hit it was pretty bad but after that it got a lot better and I could even say that I had a good time! It was fun to see all the kids faces when they were able to "wet me"! Here are a few pictures!

James was the first one in the booth and of course I had to "test it out" to make sure it was working correctly! As you can see below...he got his paybacks!

Here we are after both of our shifts...soaked...but we had a great time!

Molly also got in the booth after us and I thought this was a pretty cool picture of her too!

The things we will do to give the kids a good laugh...

Our Latest Traveling Adventure

This past week James and I drove down to Florida to meet up with my parents and spend some time with them traveling on the boat. I was really excited to go see them since we hadn't been able to see them since Christmas time so it was a long overdue trip! We drove down there on Saturday and they met us at the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs (we left our car there) and then they took us down to where the boat was at. On Easter we were able to spend the day boating up to Tarpon and enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather. It was a very relaxing and fun trip and we even got to see a few dolphings! Unfortunately James and I didn't bring our scuba gear...otherwise we may have decided to jump in after them! Here is a picture of the boat when we got docked in Tarpon Springs and a few other pictures of our trip!


James as the self proclaimed "skipper" of the trip!

Captain Paul getting his headset on and ready to dock the boat...NOT an easy task!

There's Mom getting ready to do her docking duties as well...man she has gotten good at "lassoing" the pole!

Cody...doing his usual duties...

Here are a few pictures of one of the dolphins that we saw while we were on the trip. It just stayed right with our boat for the longest time and kept doing tricks for us...we loved it!

We also saw lots of pelicans on our trip. They kept landing on and near the boat when we were docked also and Cody did not like that one bit so he would have to run out and scare them away!

The trip was short but fun and it was really neat because we used to go to Tarpon Springs every year for spring break as a kid so I got to show James and lot of the things that we did growing up. I think he liked most of it though by the end of the trip I think he was a little sick of seeing sponges!

Enjoying Spring Weather!

We have started off with a great spring so far this year! Last Sunday we had some wonderful weather and James and I went to Cane Creek to take AJ out for some exercise and our friends Matt, Molly, and Tacori came along too! We took one of AJ's water toys to see if he wanted to go for a swim in the lake while we were there but it was unsuccessful to say the least.

A few family pictures!

AJ running away from the water when we threw his toy. He ended up getting in just a little but definitely wanted nothing to do with the idea of swimming out there to get it!

A sad Dad when his pup would not go fetch in the water. If you look closely in the background you can see a little orange thing floating in the water...yup that's AJ's toy!

After our hiking we decided to go over to Matt & Molly's and have a BBQ with them and some other friends from work. Matt grilled up some burgers, chicken, and potatos...yum!

A picture of the girls!

This past week James and I also taught intersession at our school with an underwater theme! When we found out the theme we jumped at the idea of taking some of the kids to the pool and doing a scuba demo for them. Our instructor from Neptunes Locker Diving (click on the name to check out his site!) was nice enough to arrange everything and teach the kids a little about learning to dive as well! It was really neat to hear the kids talk after the demo and hear so many of them say that when they turn 10 years old they want to lear to dive too!

James and I hanging out in the water. The kids would throw some water toys and we would race to see who could get it first...good times!

We even got to be TV stars at school also when they kept our picture up all week as the background of the clock...James and I definitely got our 5min of fame this week!

We are getting ready to leave tomorrow on a trip down to Tarpon Springs, FL to go visit my parents on the boat so hopefully we will have some pictures to update with from that soon!