Louisiana Vacation

Last week we had the great opportunity to spend the entire week with Aunt Heather, Uncle Micah, and baby Lora in LaPlace, Louisiana while Tim had to travel to Texas on business. We had a great time! It was good to be with Heather and watch her with her first baby. We went to the French Quarter one day, to a plantation on another, and did some shopping while we were there too. We didn't go and do stuff all day every day because that is hard to do with a toddler, a newborn, and a pregnant woman, so it gave us good opportunity to just sit and talk. Taylor found a new passion while she was there too. Golf. She spent hours in the back yard hitting golf balls onto the course behind their house and into the pond. She loved it. Brenna, poor thing, fought allergies/cold symptoms while there, so she didn't go outside as much as Taylor. Our last night there, Micah and Heather treated us to a crawfish boil (YUM) where we sat and ate 20lbs of crawfish. Come to find out on Saturday morning, the mosquitoes enjoyed munching on us while we munched on crawfish. I am the only one who seems to have a ton of bites, thankfully the girls were spared. Kara even enjoyed the mudbugs with us. She and Taylor were eating them as fast as we could get them pealed. Taylor helped out as best she could with her one good hand, and discovered that she could pull the tails off and make a pile for me to finish pealing for her. It was nice to get to wear shorts and such for a bit, since we came home to chilly weather we had to put those away again for a few more days.

Kara playing in the chalk on Aunt Heather's back porch

The four girls outside Cafe Du Monde

We love beignets

Kara enjoying the warm weather!

Kara's Kazoo

Kara learned to play the kazoo today. I just had to share this... it is too funny.

Firsts... the good and the bad

We had a weekend of firsts in our house. On Saturday, it was SOO beautiful outside. The big girls were rollerblading on our neighbor's driveway since they are out of town and their driveway is really big. Everything was just great, then, all of the sudden... it happened. Taylor took a spill and fell on her left side. In spite of her protective gear everywhere except her wrist, she managed to get "road rash" pretty good on her left hand. Everything seemed ok, and she didn't seem to be in a lot of pain. Sacred, yes, pain, not so much. We didn't notice any abnormality in her hand, and no swelling happened that day so we thought, maybe just sprained and the scrapes. Sunday evening, the top of her little hand started swelling and she started complaining about her thumb and pointer finger hurting. We wrapped her up, gave her some Tylenol, and we went to bed. Monday morning when she woke up, it was still swollen and still painful, so Tim and I decided to have it checked out. God was so good through it all. We went to the walk-in clinic just up the road from us since our Doctor's office was slammed for the day. (They really miss RT). I prayed as we got close to the clinic, "Please God, don't let this place be packed." He is good. We literally sat in the lobby for maybe 3 minutes. They took the pictures they needed and they had the doctor on call at the main clinic (who happened to be another friend of ours) take a look. He referred us to the bone specialist, and he said he needed to see her. To make a long story shorter, by 1:00 yesterday afternoon, we had seen two docs, had x-rays, a hot pink cast, and a sucker (Taylor's favorite part of the event). We even got to come home for lunch and get a bit of school done in that time too. There are some great benefits to living in a small town.


The other fist is a short story... Kara had her first PB&J sandwich on Sunday evening. SHE LOVED IT! It may not come through on the picture so well, but she was wearing a good bit of the sandwich since she wanted to put the pieces in her mouth herself and dropped some on her shirt as well. She is talking SO much. She has her first sentence, "hold me", which she loves to say, along with a miriad of other words. She also loves to do the chicken dance! She folds her arms like wings and says "bock bock". It is really cute.

Preparing for the little guy...

We have not done too much to prepare for the arrival of our little man yet, we have about 14 weeks still. We did, however, find the perfect bedding set for him while on a trip in Springfield while mom was here. I thought I would share it with all of you since it is so cute, and we are excited to be actually buying little boy stuff

Pray for the Jeter family

Last night, a couple whose husband works for the Master's Craft (Tim's employer), gave birth, and lost their baby all in the same night. The baby had complications that the family knew about ahead of time, but in their belief in God and trust in Him, they continued with the pregnancy rather than terminating. Please be in prayer for the Jeter family as they deal with the loss of their child and continue to raise their two little girls. I can't even imagine the emotions they are going through, but we have witnessed them profess their trust in Christ through this, and know that His plan is greater than ours.

Happy 10th Birthday, Taylor!

Saturday we celebrated Taylor's 10th birthday party with a 10 pen celebration at the local bowling alley. She invited 10 friends, but only 9 could make it. We had a good time bowling, eating, and playing games. Other than not having a voice from my allergies, it was easy too! Taylor even got 4 inches of snow on her birthday!