Pause

While its pretty obvious I am not good at blogging anymore, I feel that I still should put it in writing that I will be taking a break from the blog for a while. It's just no longer a priority and I don't want to feel that nagging that I should be doing a new post.

Til next time readers, I hope Spring has sprung in your world and all is well.

Easter!

For the first year of my life, I did not spend Easter in Dothan or go to FBC. :(

However, we got to see my parents, Honey, Nathan, Amy and cousins for Sunday lunch in Prattville. It was neat to go to our church on Easter this year though. We also got to go to the church egg hunt which was so much fun.

Baker and 2 of his besties from school.  The mission of the day was to move this log. They were very serious about it. Why move it? It is anyone's guess.

Showing off his Easter goodies!

 The grandparents brought surprises!!

 Lining up to hunt

 Not one family picture. Easter FAIL.

However, he is still risen, he is risen indeed!

It's time..

I admit, I have not had much desire to blog. It's not that we havent had much going on, I just haven't taken a single picture with my good camera, since I got my phone and its just a lot of trouble sometimes.

I do need to post about our trip to Austin to see my friend April get married!!

This trip was awesome! Brent and I had so much fun. We haven't gotten away, just the two of us, in a long time. Not that we were alone, but it was great. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to.

Cut to this weekend, we celebrated Brent's brother Glenn, turning the big 50 with a surprise party at Jim N Nicks. Baker got a lot of good cousin time in.

We also dyed some Easter eggs. 

This picture is very delayed, but I did the Valentine's stats last year and so I decided to make it an annual thing.

Slacking

Sorry faithful blog readers. I have been absent due to lack of blog motivation. I also cannot find an easy way to do it from my phone which would greatly help. If anyone knows/has tips on this, please do tell.

I am most excited about a 2 year adoption journey that has ended in bringing the most precious boy home to his family. The college minister at my church and his wife added baby number 4 with sweet Christopher. As you can see, I am ecstatic!

 B and I got to have a date night last weekend.

 Did some duck feeding on Sunday.

 This face.

 We also went to the circus last weekend. It was a hoot. Not really to Baker though. He thought it was too loud. He would much rather wrestle in the floor.

Because I can...

Guess who joined the rest of the world?? This girl. 

I am the brand new, first time owner of an iphone. Folks, I have been avoiding a smartphone of any kind for as long as they have been around. On purpose.

I had my reasons, but the main one is that I am cheap and did not want to pay for the data package. I knew if I ever took the plunge, there would be no going back, so I just resisted as long as I could. 

I also am not a fan of the new generation of phone addictions I see everywhere. People live with their nose in their phone and I just hate to see that. I still have a fear that I will become that  person and I am making a concerted effort NOT to. Really. I'm going to try hard. 

The first week of own-age doesn't count.

A few pics from the phone. I already love instagram, which I knew I would.

 SNOW DAY 2013! Baker hated it. He inherited a cold hatred from his dad.  I was highly disappointed, but got over it since the snow melted in about an hour. BOO. We all got home by 2:00 though, which was a win.

Peace

I am not a writer. I don't really know what prompted me to even talk about this, but I just feel like I need to.

My heart aches for a child, age 3, that passed away on Christmas Eve. A child I never knew at all. The mom is a friend of my cousin, but I keep seeing posts all over Facebook entitled "Remembering Ann Reese" and my heart hurts every single time.

The truth is, I struggle way too often with the thought of losing my child. I can well up with tears at the first tiny thought of that.

If this couple were my friends, I would not have any words of comfort for them. None. They are people of faith, thank goodness, because what would you do if you weren't?

I think this situation, combined with the Sandy Hook tragedy has prompted me to hug Baker a little tighter and kiss him a million more times throughout the day because we are just. not. promised. another. day.

Thank you God for allowing me to appreciate the boring, but not boring- "Peaceful"moments of my life. There may be a time when I long for life to just be what it was and I don't want to take for granted that right now, things are "boring". I'm sure this precious family would give anything for their lives to be "boring" right now.

I just pray that this family continues to find peace in God and that every family out there that has had to experience the loss of a child continues to find peace.

It just hurts. That's all.

Christmas Eve and Day

We always have Brent's family over for Christmas Eve lunch, but every single picture I took that day was blurry, so we will have to fast forward to the night. We were sad to see Pete go...luckily he left a note.

 I was more sad to see our Christmas tree go. I have been mourning for 3 days. It just makes the living room so much happier.

 Because Brent doesn't get enough candid's taken.

 Cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer.

 Christmas morning was fun, although I expected Baker to wake up freaking out that it was Christmas morning. We had to remind him that Santa came and that he brought presents.

 So, this entire season, when asked what Santa was going to bring him, he said "a purple puppy". Umm, this was a challenge for Santa since they don't really exist except on Ebay. Of course, mom knew that a purple puppy would be hugged once and then left alone for the rest of his time at our house. This picture below is just that. I'm pretty sure this is the only time he touched him.

 The slide, however was a hit.

 Bake is serious about knocking Spiderman down.

 Zoe got a hoop baton!

 Then it was time to see the trampoline Shug and Daggy got him. It was in the garage, unassembled, but it is together now and he LOVES it. See those Stompeez? When he opened those from Grandmother, he said "I really did want these!!"

 Hungry Hungry Hippos was also a hit with this guy.

 Then we packed up and headed to Birmingham to spend the day at Nathan and Amy's and see my parents and Honey.

In my opinion, it was the perfect Christmas! So much excitement, activities, singing, joy, and family togetherness. I could not have asked for anything more.