Handsome Hubby

Aren't they handsome??? David performed his first wedding ceremony this weekend. It was a wonderful occasion and so fun to see him delight in one of the fun duties he has as a pastor. He did an amazing job! I was so proud and wished that it wasn't an occasion where only invited guests could here him...I guess I'll just have to orchestrate some sort of family wedding for him to officiate then you all can come.

Addie Grace's 3rd Birthday

Here are just a few shots from the pink princess party. Can you tell she is all girl??? My dad snapped the lip gloss pic when she didn't think anyone was looking.

Halloween 2009

Maybe we'll be caught up to Christmas by December 25??? Below are some pics and I'm still working on the funny videos of the most excited trick-or-treater of our house...Miss Lila Pie! I think she loved the process most while the big kids enjoyed the candy for weeks later! Wyatt was loved showing his muscles as Spiderman. Addie adored her pink Minnie Mouse costume and Lila was Little Red Riding Hood. Even our ever so non-verbal third child loved her costume so much that now she'll find it amongst all the costumes and say, "Re, Ri, Ra." Not exactly close, but she's trying.

Wyatt James

Wyatt is now 5. We barely celebrated his birthday in August because I was feeling so sick. i thought about a belated birthday party, but you know by the time I was feeling better it was a few weeks away from Addie's 3rd birthday so nothing ever happened. The sweet little guy may be our biggest party goer and he got no party! My family really helped out and ended up coming to our house to celebrate on the day of, but he also had a few individual celebrations with my aunt and my sister and her husband. I think he didn't mind because he felt like he had about two private parties with special alone time to celebrate. As it turns out, I can't find one picture from his fifth birthday! I am now pretty certain that my parents must have been taking pictures on their camera so I just passed, but I'm crossing my fingers until I locate some!

Only one week later, Wyatt started kindergarten. (pictures above are from the first day of school...and no I didn't send him with a stained shirt...just water!) We are sending him to a charter school that meets two full days a week and I home school the other three days of the week. It is going really well and Wyatt absolutely adores his teacher Mrs. Garrett and loves school. He is a young kindergartner, so we really are using this year as a trial to see how well he does academically and socially and we'll decide in the spring what we'll do next year. We do like to the home school 3 days a week, away 2 days a week program but I am strongly considering my options with #4 on the way. I know my limits and this may be one of them! So far, Wyatt is probably most excited about his math program and the calendar, but he is doing really well with his letters and reading short books too! Each day is full of adventure and I'm hoping it continues to go smoothly.

Where We Have Been Since July

Well, we moved in July to a place closer to the coast and near our church. About five days after we moved I started getting sick...really sick as I was five weeks pregnant. At that point, our family kind of went into pure maintenance mode as we struggled just to keep mouths fed in between hourly visits from the throw-up fairy! Yuck. I even ended up on iv therapy and anti nasea meds via a pump similar to the ones diabetics use. So, needless to say the blog has totally taken the backseat as most things have.

By late October, I started feeling a whole lot better just in time to find out we are having another girl! Kind of scary how many girls will be in this house now. Even I am intimidated!

We've been in the usual crazy, busy fall season at the church which many of you pastor's wives can appreciate. We've vacationed, celebrated two birthdays, the start of kindergarten, and halloween all undocumented! I intend to post more photos tomorrow and return to more avid blogging which we all know might be an empty promise with the coming of the fourth child, but a girl can dream can't she! For now, enjoy a glimpse of our vacation to Santa Cruz, CA.

I have also since taken possession of the Juelfs' personal mac which should make my uploading of photos and managing the photo library one task instead of three. This just may actually mean I will blog and post photos, but again no one get your hopes up!

The kids are doing great. They are crazy as ever and certainly one can say may be causing me to be more crazy than ever, but we wouldn't trade it for anything!

You Might Consider Giving Up the Blog When...

1. the header photo is last year's christmas card picture
2. your profile photo is the christmas card picture from two years ago
3. not just one birthday ticker has expired...all three kids have expired
4. you haven't posted two of the kids' birthday pictures
5. you never bothered to mention you were pregnant again...let alone what you are having
6. you practically don't read blogs anymore

Moonshine

There is quite possibly way too much to say to update at this point, so I am not even going to try. However, here's a funny story to share. The other afternoon Addie cried out after we put her down for a nap and David went into console her and put her down again and she requested "you are my moonshine." He asked if she meant sunshine to which she replied, "yes, but I want you to sing moonshine." Strange since there is not a liquor around that is prohibited in our home:-)

What an Easter Egg Hunt Teaches

So my glasses have been missing for at least a month. I last saw them on my desk. I need to wear them everyday, but I don't which is why I didn't immediately get annoyed by the loss of them. I figured they would turn up and looked in all the nooks in crannies over the last month. I opened every glass case in our house finding pairs we never knew we had. David now has about three back up pairs! Lately my annoyance level has increased because well I pretty much can't see very well. So I decided I was going to have to buy some new glasses. This morning I went on one last hunt and thought since I last saw them on my desk, I'd look there again...on, in, under, etc. I ended up finding them under my desk tangled up in the power cords from the computer. When Wyatt saw my excitement, he said, "oh, I put those there." I asked why he hid my glasses and he said, "It was easter, so I hid them!"
Alas...I can see again!

f.y.i.

...should you be requesting his presence for this Saturday, Wyatt has informed me he will be busy building a tower for his friend Hampton.

If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's

saw this commercial when a friend posted on facebook. it's a total crackup! enjoy.

The Bunnies on Easter

Here are a few pics from our Easter celebration with our family. I will have to post more once I figure out how to get them off my phone! We dyed our eggs on Saturday morning and made sugar cookies Saturday evening. Sunday we went to church and then over to my aunt's house. Two thirds of the brood napped and then we had our egg hunt, dyed more eggs, and opened Easter baskets! We had a great time celebrating our Risen Lord!

The Man

Yesterday, David stayed home with the kids for the morning so I could have some "alone time". It's a funny concept. We had been in a habit of trying to get me out of the house for a few hours a week away from the kids so I could recoup a bit. We just fell out of the habit and a few months down the road I started to begin feeling a little cookoo. I can't describe it very well but it dawned on me on Sunday morning before we left for church that I had this frantic feeling of just needing five minutes without hearing a request from someone. Ha ha ha. So we put it back on the calendar and what do you know...it was wonderful and refreshing. I came home and David had done the dishes and folded and put away three loads of laundry! I was never unsure before this point but wow...this man's a keeper!

missed calling...

i was at the mall the other day and saw a sign. david and i were shopping at south coast plaza (kind of a snooty mall around here) because it's the closest mall with a few stores we wanted to stop in to and came across a casting call...

wanted: those interested in staring in the next real housewives of the O.C.
interviews: south coast plaza 4-6pm

you think pastor's wife, mother of three, living in a thousand square feet with no yard is depserate enough for that show???

only kidding!

My Baby Turned 1...

Lila Elaine turned one last week. We had a great celebration with family and friends. We served pie in honor of her nickname "Lila Pie." It's so hard to believe that she was born a year ago. So much has happened in one year, yet I feel like it was yesterday. Here are some pics of the sweet little baby celebrating olong with some from our visit with Grammo!

Addie's First Sleepover

Last night Addie went on her first sleepover to Memaw and Papa's house. My sister picked her up on her way home from work and Addie will be staying for two nights. We somehow orchestrated the whole adventure to be Wyatt's "idea" so he wouldn't be upset, but he still ended up in tears when she departed. Cute...you'd think he was going to miss his sister. Ah, yes it would have been cute if he was in fact missing her. He really was just devastated that it wasn't his turn for a sleepover. Anyway, she seems to be having a great time and Wyatt has enjoyed his alone time with mom and dad. I've enjoyed being one kid fewer for the day so I could get a few things done like Lila's birthday party invitation which will feature this scrumptious little love! It's amazing I actually got a picture with two fewer hands in the reaching!

Love that boy!