Work hard, play hard

Not tons to blog about, but I'll take what little I've got and go with it for fear of getting out of the habit!! :)

We (okay, mostly Rob) worked on some landscaping projects in the front yard this weekend. Lowes had a huge sale on trees, bushes, and other plants and, boy, did we take advantage of it. We bought three Cleveland Pear trees at six bucks a pop! Not bad. We also got a Japanese Maple and three Knock-out rose bushes half-off along with about a dozen small bushes. I am so excited to get them in the ground. I hope to post some pics of the progress soon. Thanks for all your hard work, Roberto!!

The Kiddos:


"Mom, please, no more pictures!"

Sadie had her six month appointment not too long ago. She's right on track with her growth and development, praise God. Can you believe she's in the 98th percentile for height? Crazy, huh? :) Another fun tidbit, our sweet Sadie is getting a little bit sassy! Up until recently William could grab a toy away from her and it wouldn't faze her a bit. Now she lets out a short, but very authoritative scream when he does it. It's not a cry, just her way of saying, "Hey, don't mess with the toy." It makes me laugh out loud to see our little girl starting to stick up for herself. :)

Will continues to crack us up. He woke up in the middle of the night this weekend and when I went to check on him, he was calling for the balloon he got at the grocery story that day. Yep, he loves that thing...too bad he had to remind me of it then!! One of his many other interests right now is motorcycles. Much like he did with the baseball bat, anything in the house can quickly become pretend motorcycle handle bars and he's "Vroom, vrooming" throughout the house...making sure, of course, to point out to me that he's driving a motorcycle.

I work three days this week, so it should be a little busier than usual. And then we're off to St. Louis for my cousin Kelly's wedding. Looking forward to that.

I started the post talking about yard work, I'll leave you with some recent pics of Will and Sadie at play...



Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Jamie

Happy Birthday Gramma Sue!!!

Wow! September is full of family birthdays! What a great month. :):) Today our birthday tribute goes out to Gramma Sue who celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. Where to start? Rob's Mom is such a blessing to our family!!! We've enjoyed several visits with her this year and whenever we get together we have such a great time!! Susan is so helpful (pitching in to help with some major parties) and a delight to talk with. I, personally, love picking her brain on many subjects, mainly parenting!! I've got a lot to learn and Susan has done a great job raising three children...especially the man I call my husband! She showers love on her grandchildren in such a beautiful way. William and Sadie are blessed by the gifts and great clothing she picks out (Gramma Sue has great taste!), but more than that, they are blessed by Gramma Sue's unconditional love and her belief in their God given potential! What more can I say, other than, WE LOVE YOU GRAMMA SUE!

Here are wonderful shots of Gramma Sue soon after the birth of each of her grandbabies:



I also love this shot of Susan and Rob together last Thanksgiving- not a afraid to get her hands dirty!!


Another fun shot of William and Gramma Sue at Christmas in Boca!


Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Auntie Katie!!!

A big shout out to my sister Katie; she turns 27 today!!! Happy birthday, sis!! We love Auntie Katie so much. She pours an amazing amount of love into the lives of her niece and nephew, Sadie and Will! Thank you, Katie, for your beautiful, giving heart! And, oh, by the way, have a blast on your cruise. Nah, I'm not jealous! :) Can't wait to see you in October.

Here's a shot of Katie with William when he was just a wee thing!

Spittin' Image

Ever since our little lady came into this world we've said that she favors her big bro. Ya think!?!

Harvest Festival

Our lovely city hosted a Harvest Festival this weekend. I heard about it a while back and thought it would be a fun little jaunt for the fam. And for the most part it was, but it also definitely had that scary, traveling carnival kind of feel. You know, rides that look like they were made decades ago and could fall apart at any minute? Uh-huh. Not to mention, the ticket prices were crazy! So, we went and, ultimately, I'm glad we did (the weather was awesome!!)...but I don't know if it's something we'll mark on our calendar as an annual event! ;) Regardless, here are some shots of Will enjoying his first carnival rides with Mom and Dad:

The Merry Go Round: Will wasn't a big fan


Daddy and Will in the spinning Dragon ride: He didn't cry on this one


The $3 dollar slide which took less than three seconds to go down


Sadie and Will in their Mini-SUV


Another shot from earlier this week:

William's motto: Pick 'til You Drop!


Have a great week everyone! :)

Five Fall Hikes

So, I joined a new gym Monday. It's a super reasonable, 24-hour operation with free child care. I couldn't pass it up. Beyond the gym, though, I want to pass on to Will and Sadie the importance of making fitness a part of their lifestyle. To help me with that goal, I found a fun article in the News and Observer which highlights five trails in our area to hike this fall. And for some reason, in my mind, blogging about this idea might make us more apt to follow through. I'm all about accountability in every area of life! Y'all hold me to this! :) Within in the next couple months I hope to have updates of our hiking adventures!

For those who live in the area, here is a list of the hiking locations and let us know if you want to join us: Shelley Lake in Raleigh, Sal's Branch Trail at Umstead State Park, White Pines Nature Preserve, Occoneechee Mountain State Nature Area, and Holden's Mill Trail at Eno River State Park. Here's to future adventures in the great outdoors!

Thoughts and Prayers

Before I post about our family's weekend, it would be remiss of me not to mention the passing of such a solemn day in our nation's history. May we never forget those who lost their lives this day six years ago. Lord, be with the family and friends of those we lost and may we continue to find hope in the fact that You are in control of all things. Amen and amen.

Will's Extreme Sport Weekend

Yep, that's my just turned 2-year-old in a tube behind a ski boat! Lord, help me. This happened Saturday when we spent the afternoon on the lake with friends from church. It was a great time! I wasn't on the boat when Will and Rob decided to have some fun, but I hear Will liked it as long as the boat was moving. Surprise, surprise. :)

Before that, Will tried out this ejection seat during an event Friday night. Future aviator? We'll see!



Sadie girl is doing just fine. She clapped for us this weekend which is a fun little milestone in my book. I remember how excited we were when Will learned how to clap. Just another way her little personality is really shining through these days.

More later...

Love, Jamie

Little Visits with Jesus

When I was a little girl, my mom used to read to us before school from a devotional called, "Little Visits with Jesus". I thought about that today as I captured a shot of William having his own little visit with Jesus as he thumbed through his Bible for toddlers. Thank you, Lord, for sweet moments like these.

Happy B-days

A somewhat belated happy half-a-year birthday to our little lady. That's right, in what seems like record time, Sadie is officially 6 months old! She's a scootin', sittin' and speakin' sweet thang! Well, really, she scoots a lot, sits a little, and her speakin' consists of "lalalala". She's so close to "mamamama" it's killing me, but we'll get there! And she's still pretty wobbly on the whole sittin' thing. She has to actually stay -still- long enough to do that and with a fast paced big brother to keep up with, who can blame her?

Here's our sweet six month old enjoying the great outdoors:



And a belated Happy Birthday to Grandpa Bob! He turned 60 years young this week and celebrated in true French style by enjoying an adventure to Panama with his brother, Dick. We have enjoyed two visits from Grandpa Bob this year for Sadie's arrival and baptism. It's -always- a treat to spend time with Rob's dad. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Will and Bob together taken back in March:

Seared Tuna

Hey everyone! It's not too often that I post here--I leave most of that up to my beautiful beloved bride--but I figured I'd post a link to tonight's dinner. I picked up a couple of nice, thick tuna steaks at Food Lion this evening, and cooked this recipe from Recipezaar. It's a pretty quick-and-dirty recipe... a few minutes to melt some butter and put some Cajun seasoning (we used "Cajun Foreplay") on the tuna, and then 3 minutes to cook the tuna (2 minutes the first side, 1 for the second). As a sauce, I served it with a mixture of mayonnaise and "Raytheon Gunpowder" (a dried jalapeno powder I got from Raytheon in Arizona), in place of the suggested wasabi sauce.

It was quite good! I've always loved how similar a good tuna steak is to a no-kidding beef steak... but better! This one's no exception. The center is still red and soft, while the outside is seared. I'm sure a wasabi sauce of some sort would be perfect.

A note: pay attention to the directions when they say that cooking it indoors will produce a lot of smoke. Cook it on the grill instead!

And--shameless plug--visit Legendary Truth if you get a chance.

God bless!