Our photoshoot

After Mom's birthday dinner tonight, we all came back to mom's house for family pictures.  My brother Matt and his fiance' Tiffany were already scheduled to get their engagement pictures tonight and we decided to all join in and get some family pictures as well.  Todd and Tara Fleming, an incredible duo (and some sweet helpers), are amazing photographers and happen to be some friends of ours as well.  We have seen Todd grow from a great photographer to one of Memphis' best over the past couple of years.  We are absolutely amazed at their work.  They specialize in maternity pictures and wedding and engagement pictures.  Please check out their blog at www.tflemingphotography.blogspot.com. You will not be sorry!

These pictures below are not "Todd Fleming" quality and will not even compare to his, however they came from my new camera.  I can't wait to see the ones Todd did tonight, but for now, these will do!

My brother and his fiance' Tiffany

I think this picture below is my favorite one of the night!

Me and my future sister-in-law Tiffany

Thanks Todd and Tara for your work!  We can't wait to see the pictures!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Although Mom's birthday isn't technically until Saturday, we celebrated her birthday tonight.  We went to O'Charleys (one of Mom's favorite restaurants) and enjoyed lots of great food and yummy caramel pie that is to die for!  We sure did enjoy it and getting to be with all the family (except Jonathan who is in Brazil...we missed you bud!).  It is just not the same without Uncle Jon-Jon!

My sweet parents

Karis and her daddy 

Brayden...not really sure what he is doing here.

Me and my boy

Karis and her Lolli

Karis helping Lolli open presents

Brayden kissing Uncle Matt

Sweet kisses!

We love you mom and enjoyed getting to spend the evening with you.  Hope it is a great birthday!

Vacation...

Vacation in Destin...4 days and counting....

To my readers

For all of my readers that are receiving this via Google Reader or Email subscriptions...you probably haven't noticed that I have changed the look of my blog.  New hobby or call it a fascination...I have learned to design it myself!  It has been fun just playing around!

Braving the heat

We braved the heat today and headed over to Rachel's pool.  It was a nice day and in the pool it never got too hot.  We had a great time as always!

The girls Karis and Kendall

Jack

This is what a day in 100 heat will do to ya...

It has been a very busy/productive day to say the least.  We swam until mid afternoon, then I took the kids to Lolli's house where they will be for the next couple of days.  They are having a blast and I am getting some much needed stuff done before we leave for vacation.  Monday we will be leaving for Destin and I was able to go to dinner with my husband (Ahhh) and complete lots of errands tonight.  We are counting down the days and are so excited!

Angels

Mid-afternoon today Brayden was waking up from his nap and Jay went to get him and brought him to our bed.  We were playing, laughing, tickling etc. until a loud thunder sounded.  The mood suddenly changed for Brayden and he was pasted on me for about 10 minutes.  It really scared him.  So we began a conversation with him that went like this:

Mom: Brayden there is no reason to be scared because God made that thunder and remember he is with us all the time.  (We began singing a familiar song "All night...all day...angels watching over me my Lord, all night...all day...angels watching over me.")

Who made the thunder Brayden?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made the clouds?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made the trees?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made the grass?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made the sun?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made Brayden?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made Karis?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made Mommy?

Brayden: God

Mom: Who made Daddy?

And randomly his answer was: Angels!

It was so cute!  It is amazing how their little minds work.

Twins

Brayden and his daddy wore the same shoes today and it was so cute.  He kept saying, "like daddys!"  

Someone gave Mari-Morgan 2 of these dresses and one happened to be a smaller size so she gave Karis one. They wanted to dress alike today and Karis said they were "twin sisters." :)

Karis' sleepover

We survived another girl sleepover last night at our house with Ellie and Mari-Morgan.  The girls have been planning this all week and their moms told me that both girls were packed yesterday by 10 a.m. and were ready to come...however they had to wait all day until 6 p.m.  I have to say Karis was so excited she almost didn't take a nap.  But when I told her that her friends couldn't come if she didn't...she was closing her eyes so tight I am surprised she didn't get a headache!  There was lots of princess dress-up, picnics, girly movies, and lots of giggles!

The girls were having a picnic

I "think" they slept like this upstairs while watching Beauty and the Beast...although I don't think they did much sleeping!  I left them at around 11 p.m. and when I got up at 6:50 this morning they were already up and playing.

Mari-Morgan

Ellie and Karis

The American Girl dolls had a picnic too!

Three is a crowd but 4 is a REALLY a crowd...especially when the 4th is a rowdy, 2 year old brother! :)

Karis and Mari-Morgan...what a sweet picture!

Brayden and Ellie...she did tell me today that she wished Brayden was her brother and that her brother Ethan was mine!  How funny!

I know of 3 girls that will sleep hard tonight (and a momma)!!! 

The awaited allergist appointment

The kids and I made an appointment this morning that will forever change our eating habits in the Lemonds' household.  We spent 4 HOURS at the allergist...undergoing tests, results and conversing with doctors and nurses about Brayden.  We have known for quite some time that he was allergic to peanuts and possibly ranch dressing (eggs) but wanted to have the official test done so that we know how to better handle/treat his allergies.  We had lots of time to kill and knowing me...I had my camera in my purse as always...so I took lots of sweet pics with the kids because they were both cooperating with the camera (very rare).  These were all prior to the testing because afterwards he was NOT cooperating (because he had just been pricked over 50 times, had no lunch and it was 1:30 and he was ready for a nap).  Results of the allergy test will be at the bottom of the post.

The longest 20 minutes of my life....

Brayden got pricked over 50 times in his forearm as you can see below and I had to hold it in place and let nothing touch it (while he was kicking and screaming for most of it) for 20 minutes!  The doctor and nurse came in every 5 minutes to check his reactions and after the first 3 minutes and he already had reactions, he mentioned to me that Brayden had just about broken a record in the office at that point.  Most don't break out that bad in the whole 20 minutes and he had several major reactions after 3 minutes!

The initials at the top of his arm (I think) stood for T-trees, G-Grass, W-Weeds, M-Mold, O-Other (animals), and F 1 and 2-foods.  The results came back that he is allergic to lots of pollen, dust, mold, mildew, dogs (HIGHLY), cats, roaches (strange I know), and as far as foods...strawberries, eggs (salad dressings, ice cream, some noodles, cookies, cakes, waffles, mayo and so many more), peanut and white potatoes (no french fries, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes..but can have sweet potatoes).  I am definitely going to have to change some of my cooking habits for him!   He will also have to have allergy shots every week for a while until we can tell a difference.... which could take up to a year or more.  Also there are adjustments we have to make to contain dust in his room (plastic covers on mattress/pillow, cheesecloth on vents, dust 5 times a week (haha) and some others.  But all are manageable it will just take some adjustments.  I just want my baby to be healthy!

If you will notice in the below picture there is one big whelp in the middle and it is the reaction to dogs...don't know what we will do with Jackson???? We are discussing that one.

(There are two pics each with a different flash setting...I was trying to get a good picture but they are still hard to see).

God kept us safe

First of all I want to go on a tangent and say that I love Summer vegetables!  For dinner tonight we had Pepper Jack Chicken, Fried Okra and some fresh corn on the cob with butter and parsley. Oh and the kids and I picked some cherry tomatoes right off our deck in time to wash and eat them with our dinner.  We all had a busy day today so we were all looking forward to our yummy dinner.  And we did enjoy the first few minutes until the diversion...

Now to the point of this post.  As we sat down to eat, a huge thunderstorm came through our area and it was light to dark in a matter of about 5 minutes.  We knew we were under a Thunderstorm Warning and knew it was coming...quickly.  It eventually started thundering and lightning and Brayden got really terrified of the loud noises and was crying to get in my lap.  And if I were honest, it scared me too (those that know me know that I have always been terrified of storms...but as a parent now have to put on the "it's ok" face).  Besides, after lightning struck our front yard just Sunday...I was a little on edge!  So we spent the rest of our meal with Brayden in my lap and Karis in Jay's lap.  We used it as a teachable moment and began to remind the kids that God is always with us and the He created all the storms, so there is no reason to be afraid (Yea...still trying to convince myself of this!).  Karis said, "Yea Brayden you don't have to be afraid because God made all those crackers!"  She was meaning "firecrackers" because that is what Brayden thought they were.... fireworks.  Although the statement was funny, it was very sweet that she was teaching him what we have been trying to teach her.  God is good!

The ironic part of this whole story is that soon after that we sit down to all 

read our Bible story before bedtime and the title read, "God kept me safe."  God had ordained this day so that my kids would see the beauty of who He is and that He is indeed faithful.  

How beautiful!  The story was about Noah and explained how he obeyed God and how God blessed him and his family and "kept him safe" even in the midst of a flood.  Of course we wanted to stress that God is always with us rather than God keeps us safe because in reality, that is not always the case.  "Safe" to us is not always what God has in mind.  But nevertheless it was a beautiful moment when God opens up the flood gates (pun intended) of wisdom in little ones.  Soon after the story, the kids wanted to go to the window and see if there was a rainbow. We looked really hard for one and although that would be an incredible ending to our God story, we didn't see one (I still think there was one out there somewhere though).  What a lesson for me too...although God is sovereign in all things...there isn't always a rainbow at the end...and even then, God is still good! Don't you agree?