"Will Walk For Food"

Emma took her first steps today! There were about 4 of them! David had her bottle and I was on the couch with her. I stood her up and she walked to David! It was so exciting. Watching the children grow and develop is always so amazing to me. They change so quickly. Emma loves Samuel and gets so excited watching him. I call her my "copy cat" and Samuel my "repeat". He will say anything! I will post more later, but I wanted to blog this part sooner than later.

Roller Skates

YAY, David is home for a little while! For those of you who don't know, David is beginning his last year of seminary. While we are so excited, the journey is not complete. He has to take classes on campus for the next 6 months, which means a lot of commuting back and forth to Kentucky. Samuel is especially delighted for our next little bit of time together. Today we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Emma loves babies; anything and everything having to do with babies she likes. So we were going to get her a new doll, but she pitched a fit and threw it out of the cart (so we left it). Samuel on the other hand (surprisingly)did very good and wanted some roller skates that David had shown him. We thought that he might enjoy it and we both had some similar as children, so we got them. Below are some pictures that I took of his first time using them. Samuel wanted David to wear a helmet too! There is also a picture of Emma...and for those who may be thinking that I am a bad mother, I do plan on getting her a new doll tomorrow! :)

Gigantic Pizza!

There is a wonderful local pizza shop that David and I love here in north Georgia. It is a new york style place, that features karaoke nights and local artists. Due to all of the traveling that our family has done recently, we decided to order pizza one night. Rico's accidentally made our pizza a 20 inch order! This was the biggest pizza I have ever seen. They didn't charge us extra, since it was their mistake. I must say, it was delicious. I hope that the pictures can help you at least get some grasp as to how large it was. Samuel could not carry the box, and I think that Emma could have fit inside!

Give that Baby some Food!

This morning I was trying to fix Samuel some cereal for breakfast and I dropped the container. Cereal went all on the floor and I was able to salvage some of the cereal. Unfortunately I lost most of it in the calamity to the floor. Instead of immediately cleaning up the mess, I poured Samuel a bowl and got him settled with it. When I finally got to the place of being able to clean up my mess, I realized that I had a little helper already doing it! Emma was in the kitchen eating the cereal off the floor! This definitely went beyond the 5 second rule. She had cereal in both hands and in her mouth. I had to take a picture, which allowed her time to rescue a few more honeycombs before being tossed outside for the birds!



Caught Red-Handed!

Where have all the good toys gone?

I love these glasses! Fun toys like these are so hard to find! Well my friend, your search may be over...Dollar General for $1! I find the best toys for Samuel and Emma there. Enjoy!

Summer Vacation

Our family went to the beach with David's mom and brother. We had a lot of fun in St. Augustine, FL. It was nice to be able to spend some time together without the stresses of school and church. We rented beach bikes which helped me train for the triathlon. I wish that I had taken a picture of the bridge that we would run and bike. It was a huge hill that was around 0.8 mile. Samuel liked the beach at first, but then he was ready to go home. However, he talks about the beach almost daily! Samuel is a home-body, not like his mother at all in this way! Emma spent some time at the beach too, but for very short periods of time. In the evenings we would look for crabs. David and Jared tried to catch some, but acted like wheenies! So of course I had to get one first so that they would be shamed in to catching some for Samuel to see! He loved it and looked forward to walking on the beach each night. Here are some pictures of the kids at the beach. There was a turtle's nest right in front of our vacation house, so I took some pictures of Samuel by the signs. Also, the chair he is reclining in was on the back porch. He loved that chair!

1:47:56! I beat my goal by 12 minutes!

June 6 I completed my first triathlon at Lake Lanier Islands. It was so invigorating and nerve racking! My stomach was in knots the whole week before as I tried to mentally prepare for the race. David and I spent a few days before with his grandparents in Monroe and then we spent Friday night at Lake Lanier. It was relaxing to be able to spend some time together without the kids because we both knew that are schedules were about to get crazy(which has started)! We woke up Saturday morning at 5:00am so that I could get my bike in a good transition spot. I was the first to get my bike in and I was able to get the spot that I had been dreaming about a couple of hours before! I was so nervous, but I finally began to calm down. Especially once my parents arrived and I could see them before the swim. The water was freezing, and I did not think that I was going to make it through the first part! I am a pretty good swimmer, but you could not tell that day! The thing that kept me going was the support team(David and my parents) that I could see up on the beach, and lots of praying. I made my way from the water and ran to get my bike. There I could hear David's mom yelling "go Jessica"! I needed a lot of encouragement. Somewhere towards the end of the bike ride, things seemed to click. I got into the groove of what I was doing and was able to finish strong. I did my best 5k time while doing the triathlon! Its amazing what our bodies can endure. Which reminds me, I was battling a terrible case of shin splints the entire week before. They were so bad that simply walking would be excruciating at times. We did a lot of praying...a lot of praying, and I had zero problems with them that day! Amazing, a true miracle! Below are some pictures of the big day; before my swim, my transition area, completion, my "tat", my new triathlete bumper stickers, and my loving family that was there to support me. This was the best birthday!