Karis and Mari-Morgan's first sleepover

Karis had her first sleepover tonight and had Mari-Morgan over and boy have they had a blast! They started off the evening playing dolls and taking a walk with their babies...talking to each other on the phone while they stood right next to each other. The rest of the pictures tell the story but they also played outside with chalk and sand, played dress-up, danced for me, went on a walk outside and swang, ate pizza for dinner (healthy I know) , took baths, made sugar sprinkle cookies, and then watched Cinderella. They got to sleep together in my bed so they were excited about that ! I will sleep good tonight!!!Then they started a fashion show for me! They dressed up as Cinderella, a princess, Dora, DUKE cheerleaders, Dorothy, and a flower. They even came to do a dance in each outfit...quite interesting moves I must add.

Mari-Morgan being a princess ballerina

Karis is saying, "GO DUKE!" I guess she is my future cheerleader!

Dorothy and a Duke cheerleader...this one is priceless since Mari-Morgan's dad is a North Carolina Tarheels fan! I love it! (oh and by the way this cheerleading outfit is a 2T because it was Karis' Halloween costume 2 years ago. I think it is a little small for both girls...what do you think?)

The girls posing for a picture

What a beautiful smile!

Going on a walk in the wagon

Watching Cinderella

Thursday's playdate

Today we met up with our friends, the Tillmans, and went to Longview Point to play on the playground and then went to the Tillman's house to play in their backyard (sorry the pictures are not in the right order..that really bugs me).

Here are the kids playing in the sandboxNathan, Mari-Morgan, Brayden and Karis at the playground

Nathan jumping out of a swing

Karis and Mari-Morgan in the truck

Nathan...how cute!

Brayden on the playground

Brayden is already driving me...how scary!!!

Our playdate at Wolfchase

Yesterday was my last day of work and now there is FREEDOM in being off all summer with my kids. I am so excited. This is just a picture of the kids I took this morning...how sweet!

Since Jay is in Washington and was seeing the White House and other fun things (I am not bitter)...the kids and I decided to go ride the carousel on our way home. We called some friends of ours, Rachel Lebo and her kids, Chloe and Caleb, and they met us at the mall. I forgot to take pictures of them on the mall playground (I know that is NOT like me). But here are some pics at the carousel.

We bought the kids matching L.L. Bean backpacks (with their names on them) and lunchboxes for Mother's Day Out next year and they were so excited when they came in the mail yesterday.

Enough

Very rarely do I get the opportunity that I have right now. I am home alone at 6:00 a.m. (Jay left at 4:00 this morning for the airport and kids are at Lolli's house). Although it is a little creepy and I don't really like it...I have the solitude of my home to spend precious time in the Word. My situation has challenged me to truly question myself to the lyrics of one of my all time favorite songs Chris Tomlin's Enough. Do I find my strength and satisfaction in my husband and kids??? Don't get me wrong, they are the most important thing to me. However they should never replace what I have in Christ. Is HE really enough for me?

Read the lyrics and see if this is true in your life. I know I want it to be my heart's desire and so often it is...however I slip far too often and allow the things and people of this world to satisfy. Is HE enough for you?

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You are my supply
My breath of life
And still more awesome than I know
You are my reward
worth living for
And still more awesome than I know

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You’re my sacrifice
Of greatest price
And still more awesome than I know
You’re the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I know

More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me

Quick update

Just a quick update...thanks for all those who have checked on Brayden...he is better today. Today is the first day that he has woken up without fever since Friday. He is still taking eye drops (which he loves JK), an antiobiotic for his ear infection and breathing treatments 3-4 times a day. However, he IS better than he was. He is slowly starting to get his appetite back and sleeping through the night again (without breathing treatments every 4 hours). The kids are at Lolli's house tonight and she said he is definitely starting to be himself again. It did break my heart when I left him this morning and my mom called me a while later and said he kept crying and saying, "my mommy come back...my mommy come back." That will break your heart!!!!

Wednesday is my last day of work until September so I am pretty stoked about that...but NOT stoked about being totally broke this summer!!!

Jay is leaving Wednesday morning at 6 for a conference with Wade to Washington DC. He will be gone until Saturday night late. I do not like it when he is gone that long. In the meantime we have my brother graduating high school on Saturday at 1:00 in Memphis and his sister graduating in Corinth, MS at 6:30 that night. It will be a busy weekend for us. We do plan to get together with some friends while he is gone.

BREAKING NEWS for all those that know me well...I am stepping way out of my comfort zone here...the Lemonds' have decided to get an OUTSIDE dog. Jay has talked me into it and he says he is getting it for the kids...pretty sure he is getting it for him! But the kids are excited about it too. We will be picking up Jackson from Corinth in the next couple of weeks. More on that later and pictures to come soon.

Pitiful...

Isn't this pitiful? This is Brayden before bed tonight. It is sad that he is not even 2 yet but he knows to sit for 20 minutes like this and not move. He just says, "Medicine." :(

My little baby boy

Having a sick child brings out the best and worst of moms and kids I am convinced. Brayden has been sick the past 3 days and it has been the best and worst of times. For those that did not read an earlier post, Brayden had pink eye, an ear infection, and had 5 shots while at the doctor. His pink eye (which he originally went to the doctor for) is now long gone, no sign of it. However the shots he got while there have given him fever for 2 days now and his asthma is acting up for whatever reason. So we are giving treatments every 4 hours (along with motrin for the fever and pain) including night time. I am exhausted beyond words yet something has hit me.

My little baby boy is no longer a baby anymore. He has grown up so much in the past couple of months that I haven't even realized it until the past couple of days. Being sick he has returned to some of his "babylike" ways and I have enjoyed it so much. When he is not whining...he has been the sweetest, gentlest little angel. He wants me to hold him and rock him to sleep, which I have done because those are few and far between, and he has been so loving. Just this morning the two of us were home alone (Jay and Karis were at church) and he was just laying back in my arms, staring and grinning at me for the longest time. He wouldn't take his eyes off of me (or me him). Then a few minutes later, I was sitting in the floor with him and he just kept reaching his arms out for me, hugging me and then would do it over and over for the longest time. The past couple of days I have been calling him momma's baby and today he crawled up in my lap and said, "momma's baby." I melted! At the doctor on Friday, he kept saying, "HOLD JU!" The doctor said, "You better do that as long as you can because one day they will be 10 and they won't let you do that anymore." I don't know where time goes but I know it has flown. I am relishing every moment...because one day I won't be the hero anymore. However, no matter how "big" he gets, he will always be my baby.

Our fun filled day

Today we went to the Hernando A-fair at the town square and it was so much fun! I had never been before and they had some great stuff! We met our friends Paige, Mari-Morgan and Nathan there and the kids had a blast.

Karis and Mari-Morgan (MO-gan as Brayden calls her)

The fun slide...oh Brayden wanted to do it so bad!

After naps, we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather some more and played outside for a while. Then the kids wanted to see our neighbor's lamb so went over there to see it. WOW it has grown since we have seen it last! You might recall the recent pics of a lamb with a diaper on??? This is the same one although it doesn't look like it.

Karis and the lamb (and Mr. Henigan...one of her favorite people in the whole world)

Brayden wanted to see the chickens (until it jumped up near the fence and he got really scared!)

When we got home Karis had the idea to eat dinner on the back porch so we grilled out chicken and had us a little picnic (kinda). She thought that was really cool. Then we had girl night and did fingernails and toe nails...the boys chose not to partake.

Please pray for our sweet Brayden. He has not felt well today and has had fever most of the day from the shots. His asthma has started acting up again and he just wants me to hold him most of the time (which I haven't minded). We have had to give him several breathing treatments. He keeps saying, "leg hurt" because of all the shots. He has been pretty puny today and hasn't had an appetite. He was exhausted after today and fell asleep in my arms. It might be a long night at the Lemonds' house. Hopefully he will be better tomorrow and if not we will be chilling at home to rest.

Zoo Membership...gotta have one!

Thanks to the kids Lollie (my mom) we have a zoo membership and can go anytime that we want...so we do! Friday morning started off not so smooth with Brayden waking up with a "yucky" eye. I made a doctor's appointment and we were there by 10:00. Bless his heart...not only did he have "pink eye" but the start of an ear infection, got his finger pricked and got 5 shots! The poor boy was not having a good day! On our way home I found out my brother's girlfriend was in town at the zoo with some friends, so we decided to go. The zoo will make any kid feel better (and motrin of course). Here are some pics...

You know they are tired when I asked them did they want to go see more animals and Brayden just said, "sit." It was about 3 hours past naptime at this point.

The gorilla was taking his nap...how funny!

Matt's girlfriend Tiffany is the second one from the right. Matt was actually not even with us because he had to work. You might also notice one of my other brothers on the top right, Allen.

The kids and I

Brayden posing for the camera..."CHEEEEESE!"

Karis at the petting zoo

For all you smart ones out there...

I received this in an email and I can NOT for the life of me figure it out and am quitting for today because my brain is so tired that I can't think anymore...give it a try.

This is a 5th grade math problem. If you can open the spreadsheet, you'll see it's a very small list of people who have gotten the correct number. This is not a trick question. This is a real math problem so don't say that a bus has no legs.

There are 7 girls in a bus.
Each girl has 7 backpacks.
In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.
For every big cat there are 7 little cats.

Question: How many legs are there in the bus?

The number of legs is the password to unlock the Excel sh eet.

If you open it, add your name and send it on to see who else can unlock it.

(I can't figure out how to attach an excel sheet to this and don't even know if it is possible, but if you want me to send it to you via email, contact me at alemonds@gmail.com and I will send it to you.)