Remember When

It seems like so long ago that I was hugely pregnant! I was going through some pictures this evening (I should be cleaning for my in-laws who arrive tonight but thankfully they come to see us, not our house so I know they will forgive me!) and came across these. It's hard to imagine our life before our sweet baby boy arrived and it was only just a few weeks ago. I have no desire to be pregnant again but do get a little teared up each time I think about this being our last baby. Who knows? Maybe there is an orphan waiting for us in Africa! I have been thinking about that lately as some friends and fellow staff members here have started making plans to move their family there for full time ministry. We hope to visit them on a mission trip in a few years and perhaps God has a plan to add more members to our family?

Many faces

Anyone need some gravy?

I've started "couponing" this past week and am so excited about it!! A friend here in Tennessee does it and says she started saving around $400 a month. It takes a few months to start seeing the savings as you build up your "stockpiles" but I scored some deals today - here's what I got!


Heinz gravy $.45 each
Cream of Mush soup $.43 each
Chicken broth $.40 each - when you use broth rather than water to make rice it is so so yummy! I learned that tip from Rachel Ray =)


Glade holiday candles $1.20 each


Cereal $1.00 each - major score!!


Crackers $1.50 each


cream cheese $.19 each - score!


roaster oven and turkey $21.56 for both - this was a good deal for me because I really wanted the roaster oven to cook the turkey in to keep the oven available for other things on Thanksgiving, it was normally $39.99.

I also got suave shampoos/conditioners for the kids at $.33 each, chili for $.30 a can, and shredded cheese $1.30 a bag.

The idea is to buy at least 4 Sunday papers each week and I am only just starting out - if I had 4 papers saved up for this shopping trip I could have gotten 3x what I did! I'm just a little excited about it - it's a rush to score the deals, a little like making a major find at a garage sale. My friend here promises to intervene if I spiral downhill and become a hoarder!!

One Month Old!

Today we had our 1 month baby check up. Here are his stats:

weight: 9.4 lbs (between percentile 10 and 25)
length: 22.5 inches (between percentile 50 and 75)
diaper size: newborn
clothing size: newborn

He is still pretty yellow from the jaundice so we took him in for more blood work today. The doctor wants to rule out a liver function problem. Most likely he has breastmilk jaundice which is more rare than breastfed jaundice - something in the milk is actually causing the jaundice but wouldn't mean he would need to stop nursing. Just that it will take longer to clear up. We should find out the results tomorrow - please pray that is liver is healthy!!

We are still waiting for the first smile and all hope to be the one he smiles at! He is such a good baby, gets a little fussy each evening for an hour or two. Sleeps next to us in his co-sleeper at night - takes his naps in his swing during the day while we do school work or house work. Loves to sleep in the car!! Eats every two hours during the day but will go 4 sometimes during the night. He is our life right now and I am trying to enjoy every second. He is very loved in this house, there is never a shortage of arms to hold him. =)

We haven't forgotten our other children...pictures of them to come!

Baby Sounds

If you love baby sounds and have nothing to do for 3 minutes...today is your lucky day! Sorry it's a little long.

Conversations with Jordyn

I have had a few amusing conversations with Jordyn that I thought were so cute - I wanted to share them!!

We always tease the kids and tell them we adopted them from another country. We tell Caden he is from China and Jordyn she is from Russia. Tracy calls her Jorboski, says it's her Russian name. He was calling her that the other night and she said, "Daddy, I know I'm not really from Russia! I've seen my baby pictures with mommy!" So I told her we faked those and she said, "You're not THAT good of a drawer!!" =) (not sure if "drawer" is a real word? She says it draw-er)

Last night as we were driving home from church, Caden was talking about how he is still not sure what he wants to be when he grows up. I told him he had plenty of time to figure it out and Jordyn said, "You should just be a priest like Daddy!"

This morning as I was holding Griffin and Jordyn was next to me, we were trying to figure out what he was looking off into space at. Jordyn thought it was Daddy but I said I thought it was the fan. She leaned over and looked into his eyes and said, "Yep, you're right. I can see the fan in his eyes!" She was seeing the reflection of the fan against his eyes. =)

I just love that sweet little girl!!


One more story...this isn't a conversation with Jordyn but a funny thing that happened this week. We had received a letter in the mail from Tracy's new insurance saying that they would be unable to add me to the insurance policy, I didn't qualify. I assumed it was because I was on Cobra but after the HR gal here called, turns out they had Tracy down as female and would be unable to cover me as her/his "wife"!!

I'm so in love...

Happy November 4th!