Loving Life at the Beach!

Well, we arrived to Destin, FLA in one piece... all 8 of us! We ran into some traffic, some rain, and more than one unexpected potty break (whew), but eventually arrived mid-day excited to see sand and crystal green ocean waves hitting the white sandy beaches. So beautiful. The kids were surprised at how pretty it was at first sight, and ripped into their suitcases as soon as we moved our luggage into our house to get their suits on. Here are some pics of the week so far... we went to the Crab Trap, ate some great seafood, took lots of pics, played on the beach, lost Judge on the beach - the lifeguards found him, and all has been crazy and wonderful.
More to post later. Love everyone.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Justin and I are looking forward to our weekend with the boys. We are celebrating Judge's 6th and have a weekend packed full of fun - eating birthday cake, seeing Star Trek, a Cook-out, playing outside, riding bikes, and just relaxing!

We are slowly but surely working on our new house, taking one room at a time. Excited to host Thanksgiving in the fall for the family and am having fun picking out new furniture!

Lincoln is wrapping up his Kindergarten year and got accepted into the Advanced Program for 1st - 3rd grade. Soccer ends soon too, so a summer of swimming and YMCA camp is around the corner.

Our next big adventure as a family will be driving to Florida on 6/15 for a week with all of the kiddos! We will post pics when we get back.

Love to all.

Eat. Drink. Be Merry.

Spring is Here!

C&J in the Arch.

So, it's been a while! Hi! Justin and I have settled down in our new home together and have plenty of room for our kids now. It is the perfect house in the perfect subdivision and we absolutely adore it. We are excited to spend many, many happy years making this our home. It happened quick, with the sell of my house and the purchase of this house all within 30 days. We managed well and are taking it one box at a time. Although, it's spring, and I'm ready to just start working on the landscaping since there is none in our yard. Cheers!

We are looking forward to what spring and summer will bring. Lincoln is doing well in Kindergarten. He's passing his AR (advanced reading) quizzes with flying colors and blazing through books like a champ. He finished his basketball season with Upward and is gearing up for Spring Soccer through the NE YMCA. He's taking a piano lesson on Saturdays too, but not sure he's as excited about this as he is soccer. Always fun. Kelly is growing like a weed and ready to be like his big bro. He loves his Daddy J and walks around repeating a lot of things that Big J says! It is the cutest. Of course, Justin calls the little guy "Whoopin boy" and "pigeon" because, well, he's getting his whoopins for being sassy and then always asks for "1 mo minute" before bedtime!!. ; ) Not sure why, but Kelly's got a Jersey accent. Wata (Water), Paypa (Paper)...too sweet to my ears when he's chatting & singing.

Our new home.


I found an easter egg and I'm going to open it right now!


The Fam.

Life is CRaZy!

Justin & I at Light the Night for Preston - he's doing well recovering from his Bone Marrow Transplant.


Linc & Kelly on Halloween!


October has been a busy month with both Justin and I getting settled as a cute married couple, moving him out of his apartment, and then battling overtime at work due to some extra things on our plates from the Hurricane having hit one of our major supply points. Justin - you are doing so awesome picking up the slack for the plant. You deserve the best for all of the hard work you've been doing! (yes, I am biased and love my dear husband). The boys are swell. Linc is reading books and in the Accelerated Reader program and Kelly, well, he's a sassy little booger and having to learn some things the hard way these days. He's definitely confident in his decisions, and I love that about him. Justin and I are now members of Facebook, so look for us out there. Not much else. Just dying to go running in the cold once winter comes. Houston & Darra - stay strong, we love you.

So Happy!

Just a quick blog today to let all my loved ones know we are back from our wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii. Justin kept our trip a secret up until the day of our wedding, but hinted I would need to pack little beach clothes and swim gear, so I was ready! He is spoiling me and loving me hard, and I love him hard back for all he is and does! The wedding was beautiful, our 6 kids were as cute as ever and little angels during and after the ceremony, and the small celebration was perfect. It was amazing to finally meet many of Justin's family members and I cherish each first moment with them all. Justin, thank you for making it perfect, I love you.
We are a bit busy now with Hurricane Ike creeping up to Louisville and knocking power out in many homes, with now only over 100,000 homes to go....mine included. Work provided a generator to at least give some relief with food in the kitchen and to do some laundry or whatever, but I am anxious to be back in the full swing of things and COOK my NEW HUSBAND dinner in my kitchen!! Through all things we become closer and stronger. I love ya'll and hope to see you soon. HB & DJ - you are strong and your strength provides energy and hope to everyone around you, making it all flow so perfectly. As always, thinking of you...

Getting Excited!

It's been a while since I've checked in and dropped an update on what's been going on. The job is getting better these days since upper management has decided we might just need some of those folks back that we let go earlier in the year - or new faces, either way, new people to help out with the volume. So, that helps me sleep better at night. Less work I should be bringing home (or think about bringing home anyway...because I haven't been lately). The kids are keeping me busy - and they are too funny! Linc is back into fall soccer playing in the 6-7 co-ed age group. The field is for little GIANTS and 3 times the size it was for the 4-5 age group. He loves it though. He's on a team with his fav opponent from last year, little Jack Cayson, so those too should be studs on the field. Although, some of those 7 year old girls might take them both down from what I witnessed at practice the other night. (They don't know how little they both are - barely over 40 lbs).

Linc's Kindergarten days are swimming by. He's in his 4th week already and loving it. Ready for homework soon and is just starting his little accelerated reader program at school -too cute. Fieldtrips are around the corner in fall, and he's still taking piano every other Saturday (at Mom's Music) gearing up for his electric guitar lessons beginning this fall. You have to check out Mom's Music website - it's the coolest place for little ones to rev up a rockstar career. Too dang funny to watch sometimes.

The Kellster is talking tons and pretty much imitates Linc and repeats what we all say these days. If he could, he'd say - "I want to be just like Justin when I grow up". He just adores that guy, and together they are too darn cute.

The wedding is next weekend and we are SO excited to join our lives and begin our journey. Justin makes me feel so special and is the love of my life! I am excited to walk to him and vow my intentions with him together, forever. LOVE. He's being a stinker about not telling me where we are going on our honeymoon (somewhere warm and requires beach attire). I just want to start. We will have some things to tackle when we get back, selling my house, his house & finding one together, but that will have to wait...Life is good and I am happy. Peace.

It's Always For a Reason...

Today, I officially decided, after spending 3 full days with the love of my life - the cutest, red headed freckled man on the planet, his beautiful children, and seeing his kids play with mine, that my job is not as exciting as I thought it was, nor do I really make the difference that I thought I might make there some day. Not that I don't make an impact every day, it's just that the job is getting to be too much when your boss sends you home with a lap top to continue working at night while your kids are sleeping so that you can catch up on the 250+ emails I get in the day, but can not respond to because I'm training or answering questions or whatever. Love Chevron, but the re-org in Jan. squeezed the place where I work a bit too tight. Money's okay, but I feel Burnout and Stress coming around the corner soon.... Hello Jack D and Johnny Walker. My J-O-B really is important, but at the end of the day, it doesn't give me any sense of satisfaction or happiness like what I felt this past weekend. I have WAY to many other things I'd like to move forward in my life and do, and maybe find a new job (well, i've not given an update in quite a while.....absent from the blog because of my ding dong job is a main reason). Another super wake up call has been watching my brother raise his middle child, Little P, in Kosair Hospital for the past 3 weeks. Life changer for me. Seeing Little P's fight against Blood Cancer, the strength of my brother & his wife, and their love for each other, has motivated me to possibly wander in a new direction. What? I have no clue. But something that definitely makes a true difference in the world, and makes it a better place at the same time. Okay, enough about me. Job is better, the stress level is high there, but that's life. On to my boys.

Linc has graduated from Pre-K at Kayfield Academy & was accepted into Lowe Elementary for Kindergarten. Getting him into a school outside of our cluster was grueling, but I worked my connections and signed my life away with a commitment to school based decision meetings and the like. Always wanted to do that, I guess. It's outside of the cluster of schools around my city, Jeffersontown, KY, but he won't have to bus and will be 1 mile from where I work. Kelly will turn 2 in a few weeks and is a riot. He got tubes in his ears in April and has been sleeping much better since then, can hear better, and is talking up a storm. His new thing is, instead of going upstairs and taking care of business, he'd rather crawl up onto the Thomas Train table and take a dookie and then let me know about the "poopey". Smarties are not working with this little guy like they did with Linc!!! The boys are both as cute as ever, and love their new Justin. We are just having fun this summer....nothing too exciting going on.

Wedding plans are in full bloom. We are getting married outside at White Hall on Sunday, Sept. 7th - it's a beautiful Southern Colonial White Mansion with a pretty garden to the side, adorning a long walkway of trellis after trellis. I fall asleep thinking about my walk to Justin. It will be beautiful. The flowers and the cake are almost there and we are deciding about our dinner menu. It is elegant, yet simple at the same time. Just like us. We just want a good photographer to take pictures so we can hang them all around the house! I will be taking his daughters out later this week to pick out their dresses and we won't fit the boys for a suit until closer to the day since they will grow like weeds.

Everyone I love is doing well. Little P, you are amazing and I love you. Stay strong because everyone is praying for you. Bro, I miss you but know Darra is taking care of you. Justin, I want to meet your family soon! Love you all.