4 months!

Kolson is now 4 months old! He is now getting in to one of my favorite stages. To be honest I don't really love the newborn stage so I am so excited that he is now smiling, laughing, and interacting with us. He is still the sweetest little guy. We are really enjoying our life with 3 little boys and we are so thankful for Kolson. Here is a look at what he has been up to lately!

Trying his first cereal

Oooh I like it!

Hanging the exersaucer

And getting so strong (sorry about the spit up!:)

And, if you commented on my previous post...you were all correct!! It is Kolson then Kaden and then Karter.

Would you please take a minute to say a prayer for our sweet friends, Luke and Kathryn! They just had their first baby girl, Madelyn Kate! Madelyn was born on Thursday morning and her little lungs are struggling a bit. We serve a great God and we know that He is going to heal Madelyn soon! For updates you can read her amazing blog here.

Guessing Game

Can you tell who is who???

Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?

Or brownies in this case! This where I found Karter this morning...he climbed up there while I was changing Kolson's diaper. Can I remind you that he is not even 2 yet...what are we in for in the next year??=)

Choo Choo!

**WARNING-this is a LONG post with LOTS of pitures!:)**

Last week we loaded up and headed to the home of the Chattanooga Choo-choo! That's right we drove ALL the way to Tennessee with our sweet little "k-crew". Thanks to the prayers from our sweet church family, the boys did excellent all the way there and all the way back. We had a blast visiting some old friends in Mississippi on the way there and enjoyed every minute of our time in the log cabin we rented as well as in the city.
We had big plans for our little vacation that included a visit to the Aquarium, the Children's Museum, the Zoo, and a trip to pick apples. Unfortunately we were rained out of the Zoo and our apple picking trip but that did not slow us down one bit. The boys LOVED the Aquarium and the Children's Museum! Here are some pictures of all the fun we had!

Love my K-crew!

Kaden ready to see some sharks!

Karter and Daddy touching sting rays

We loved watching the boys "ooh and ahh" over all the animals.

We got to see lots of animals up close and personal

The children's Museum was wonderful....we played instruments...

Saw Curious George...Dug for dinosaur bones...

worked hard turn the wheel...
Played golf... made a huge bubble...Doctored Kolson...
and Daddy!

And what would a vacation be without some GREAT food? After doing a little research I learned that Rachael Ray had visited Chattanooga a few years back. I looked up the restaurants she chose to visit and decided we would go there as well. Our Rachael Ray journey took us to Aretha Frankensteins...home of the Waffle of Insane Greatness...can I just tell you that is was INSANELY GREAT! Their waffles and pancakes were so good that we could have eaten them without syrup. In fact we loved Aretha's so much that we went twice...even braving the rain just for another waffle!
Since our trip to the apple orchards got rained out we decided to drive up to Murfreesboro (where we used to live) and visited our most favorite restaurant...TOOTS!

They have great fried pickles...

And Wings!

Now it's back to real life!:)

Prompted by Love...

Recently Nathan has been spending some time on Sunday Nights just reading through scripture. I love hearing him read God's word. He started in 1 Thessalonians so last week I thought I would look a little deeper into that book. I didn't have to go very deep...God started showing me something in the 3rd verse that I have not been able to get out of mind. Verse 3 says..."We continually remember before our God and father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." It was the "labor prompted by love" that got me.

I want the things that I do to be prompted by love...even if it is picking up this mess Karter made last week while trying to pour his own bowl of cereal.

Not that I should have been surprised...this is Kaden a few years ago!:)

Can I be totally honest and tell you that staying home with 3 kids is WAY different than when I stayed home with 1 kiddo. With 3 someone is always hungry, or poopy, or crying, or making a mess. There are always dishes to do and I have never, not even once, found the bottom of the dirty clothes pile since little Kolson joined our crew! There have been days when I have wanted to beg and plead with my principal to give me a job, any job! But, this verse is slowly working on my heart. I know that I am blessed to be able to stay home with my children and I want to make the best of each moment. I want them to know that I wipe their messy faces, or fold their clean clothes, or even pick up their messes because I LOVE them...not because I have to.

Our New Journey

We are offically on a new journey! After much prayer and thought we have decided to spend one more year with Kaden at home before Kindergarten. Our first thought was a three-day-week pre-k program...which would be great if it wasn't so far away. So....we decided that I would spend this year doing some "home school" stuff to help prepare him for Kindergarten. This new journey has forced this not so organized girl to get her stuff together. We have chosen to go with a curriculum that is biblically based. This week we are studying Creation. Here is a look at our first two days of "school".

Of course we start everyday with Calendar time
On the first day God created Day and Night so we did a Day and Night Sort where we sorted pictures by what we do in the daytime and what we do at night time.

Our first "sight word" is "THE" so Kaden wrote a sentence using the.
(The fat cat.)
Math and fine motor skills in one...matching the size words with the correct size clips

practicing our sight word in salt!

On the second day God created the sky and the sea...so we did some water play!

Please keep us in your prayers as we are on this wild ride! I want so bad for all three of my boys to learn and grow spiritually as well as academically through this little journey.