she's 3 today

elliana grace turned 3 today. what a gift she has been to us these past 3 years. she will always be my first baby, the one that taught me to be a mama and my precious girl. i count it a great privilege to be your mommy elliana grace.elli... you are such an amazing big sister. though your brother might be bigger than you right now and will be for the rest of your life, you watch out for him and are teaching him so many things each and everyday. i love seeing your relationship blossom . i know you will be such a big help as a new little person joins our family in a couple weeks.
though i am your mama and it is my job to teach you, you are teaching me so much even though you do not even know you are doing so. the pure joy that you display daily is such an amazing example for me on how i need to live. because of our hope in jesus we have no reason to not have joy pouring out of our lives regardless of our circumstances. thank you for reminding me of that daily! you are a precious friend that loves to be in relationship with people. i love to watch you play with others and pray that you will continue to care for others as you grow.

i am thankful for these past 3 years... more thankful that you can know! i look forward to as many more as the Lord will bless us with. i might also pray that they go a little slower but i doubt that will happen!

i love to pieces elliana grace! you're 3 today!

harvest days

jed and daddy have been having a little extra quality time together these days in the combine. jed seems to be right at home next to his dad!

jed's first harvest (2010)jed's 2nd harvest (2011)
so thankful for an abundant and safe harvest... praising God for His many blessings

makin' cookies

elli spotted a cookie cutter in one of the kitchen drawers the other day and asked what it was. i told her it was a cookie cutter and from that point on she has been determined to make cookies for her friends. (i'm sure the thought of being able to eating cookie dough in the process never entered her mind! oh wait... she is related to me so you know that that was her REAL intentions!)

conquering our fear of loud appliances... she finally took her fingers out of her ears!

the best part... licking the beaters!

baby #3

so word on the street is that i haven't been staying on top of my bloggy duties. at least that's what my girls kim, danielle and kara have told me! :) i'm surprised grandpa hasn't been calling about this too! so i was trying to think, what could i even blog about?!?! and then i remembered... oh ya... we are having a baby and said baby will be arriving in 9-10 weeks!! oh and i also just happened to have some 4-D pictures taken of this child. so maybe that is a blogworthy happening! baby was a little camera shy and wouldn't take his/her hands off of his/her face so it made it hard to take a peek, but this is what we saw.

so what do ya think? boy or girl?? ya... i don't have a clue either! it will truly be a surprise!

today i tried to snap some pics of the kids "playing" with the baby... but the self-timer didn't want to cooperate. i was on the floor crawling around picking up toys and jed thought that was an invitation to hop on for a horsey ride (a favorite pastime the kids share with their daddy) i said "mommy can't give you a ride because i have a baby in my tummy!" he plopped down in front of me and pulled up my shirt to just see why in the world this baby was ruining his fun. then elli came over and said "baby want to play?"

this sweet child is going to have quite a loud, busy, crazy life awaiting it when it decides to come out! but i think it already has a clue just from the behavior we noticed on the ultrasound... hands over face, trying to get some peace and quiet!

a couple recent pictures of big sister and brother... you know... for grandpa & grandma!

branson family vacation

we had the privilege to travel to branson a couple week ago to celebrate jon's parents 40 years of marriage. we met up with his mom and dad, great grandma and all of his siblings and their families. it was a wonderful time to hang out, eat great meals together (that we took turns providing), being on the lake, take in some sights around branson and celebrating norm and bettys wedded bliss! :) with the guests of honor
sharing a rootbeer float

riding the carousel with nana

daddys pushin the babies

sweet cousins

we rode the ducks

don't let elli's face fool you... she had a good time... it just happened to be 108 degrees that day. it felt like we were in a furnace!

daddy's co-captain brotherly love

lake time

family water gun fight... even nana and gigi got into it!!

so there was our vaca in a nutshell... it was definately a wonderful week!! tons of great memories were had!

jedidiah .18 months

here you are. you are 18 months already! here are some things i want to remember about you at 18 months:you sleep like a champ or maybe more like a teenage boy... usually around 12 hours at night and take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. you eat like a teenage boy too. you are finally saying please and thank you (sometimes). you outweigh your older sister. you love kisses and hugs and snuggling with your mama. you think your dad is about it!

you like to read books by yourself. you enjoy carrying around random junk and if anyone tries to take that little junk away from you, they WILL hear about it! you are not a huge fan of the pool, you prefer to fill buckets with water and carry them around. you love any sort of ball. you love your two blankies.
your dark hair is bleaching out and almost blonde now. you have had one haircut but those curls have quickly come back and in the humidity get really tight. you love accessories... especially hats. if you spot one you have to put it on! jedidiah. we love you so much and are thankful that you are our son! we look forward to each day we have together! happy 18 months!

photo challenge day twenty nine: black and white

the second this guy caught site of daddy's tractor he wanted to get as close to it as possible! he even said "daddy tra ter" and if you know jed, he doesn't say much! i let him sit on it and when i told him it was time to go he shook his head no. i have said since he was a tiny baby that he had a black or white personality... and to this day he seems to hold true to that! its seems that tractors and things of the farm make this kid smile.

photo challenge day twenty eight: flowers

to say i'm a touch excited about my zinnias (and other rows of flowers) would be an understatement. my mom has been planting cutting flowers for a few years now and this is my first year to do it right... well kind of. i want to cut some and bring them in but they are so pretty i don't want to bother them. the row behind the zinnias in sunflowers... gasp!! to think i planted sunflowers within feet of my husbands bean field!! i better pick them before the spread or do whatever they do! i'm excited to see the other flowers pop out! i love that there are certain things that can be passed down from generation to generation and even when the person you loved so much is gone... you can enjoy that activity for years and years after. a love of flowers is one of those things that i remember my grandma kaliff just loving. her yard always looked so nice and she loved flowers... and cactus... which i do not love! my mom also shares this same love and my sister and i have both followed in their footsteps. i am in the stage of life right now where weeds do get in the way and i don't tend to things the way they should be cared for or in a timely manner... but i'm thankful that they flowers continue to grow to be that gentle reminder of grandma.

photo challenge day twenty seven: from a distance

today's challenge: from a distance. this wasn't really taken from a distance but more looking off into the distance and i actually took it today which means i at least followed part of the rules! except maybe this was yesterday's challenge. at any rate... its a cute kid!sidenote: this boy will be 18 months tomorrow. seriously. where has time gone? consider this a sneak peak... more 18 mo pics to come tomorrow!

photo challenge day twenty six: closeup

'cause they won't be like this for long...

photo challenge day twenty five: something pink... and blue

once again... i'm cheating. i have gotten behind on the photo challenge but not being one to quit, i'm just going to change the rules for myself and forge ahead which means digging in the archives.. and adding a color. pink AND blue... because i do love both!

take 1:take 2:take 3:take 4:

when you have subjects this cute they don't really need to look at the camera! there you have it... a little pink and a little blue!

photo challenge day twenty four: animal

we learned about a new animal... the goose! it started with a little trip to the marina. we had a pizza party on the deck and the geese must have smelled the pizza because they headed our way... or maybe daddy through a piece of pizza into the water in hopes they would come and visit for awhile!
elli was pretty sure they were ducks... but we convinced her otherwise! then grandpa started explaining that when there are multiple goose they are called geese... and i think he lost her somewhere between goose and geese. we are just sticking with goose for now!

look at this little raggamuffin... one ponytail somewhat in... one ponytail all the way out... and her moms frizzy hair! gotta love it!

photo challenge day twenty three: sunflare

let me tell you... sunflares are challenging!! especially if you are shooting in manual. i think it would be worth my time to study a bit up on them because i LOVE the look of them! this picture of jed was taken at mahoney state park and the only reason i got it was because i was trying to get the settings right for a family picture and i needed a subject to focus on! kids were getting crabby and i was going to just give up... then i just switched it to P and handed it to my mom! its weird that the family picture was taken after the sunflare picture of jed... the sun must have been behind the trees... anyway... i love the kids expressions... i wish ol' ma and pa looked just a bit more excited!!

i just love summer and love sunflares... i'm thankful they will both stick around for a couple more months!

photo challenge day twenty two: hands

these photos were oopsie's as i was trying to get my settings right before organizing everyone for a "look at the camera" photo! i kind of liked these oopsie's as they captured just what was happening at the time... my parents loving on their grandbabies! one of my favorite things! i know this isn't a picture of hands only but as i was looking through my pictures i thought about my parents hands and what they represent for me. those hands worked so incredibly hard to care and provide for me and my siblings... they were the hands that guided me through my growing up years, the hands that held me when i was hurting and the hands that gave lots and lots of hugs! i love that those same hands are open and willing to offer that some love to my children.

the poem mama's hands (click on the title to read the poem) is one i always think of when i think of my moms hands... that poem describes my mom almost to a tee! she has done everything from pull a calf in the cold to making christmas gifts by hand and everything in between! i love you for that mom!