Halloween

Halloween

Every year the WHOLE family goes over to james parents house for yummy food and trick or treating. they all pile on the golfcart and go down one street to trick or treat. Jake loves to be around his 5 cousins and this year we had more family show up!...we did miss monica and her kiddos! Jake was a frog....maw-maw gave him a BIG bag full of candy, but daddy stole it and took it all to work....thank you!!!!

Jake has been HILARIOUSE lately! He really has his daddy's personality and humor! He loves when we sneak up on him and scare him...he laughs so hard! just like his daddy! he's taking his time with not quite walking yet. He will use his walking toys a lot and cruise around all the funiture so i think it will be soon. He has been so cheerful and fun, especially when he wakes up. He says ''uh-oh'' now for everything. He will drop something intentionally so he can say it. I'm starting to find his toys in the most random places....found one he put in the fridge when i wasn't looking and i hurt my foot steping in the shower on a plastic cow. It reminds me just how much my life has changed! ....James and i often wonder, what did we DO for the 5 years we were married before we had him? does anyone else remember life before kids....yet i really, really cherish those years getting to know my husband and it being just him and !. okay...i'm rambling.....here are the pics!.

Jake and Lauren

Last week we took care of Lauren aka'' bidgie'' for some dear friends while they went on a pastor's retreat. We had so much fun with her! Her and Jake got along very well and he only had a few moments of jealosy when I would hold her ;) They both LOVED going on wagon rides together, so much better with a friend! It's kinda funny that Jake was never really that big into baby einstein dvd's until Lauren came. She really likes them! So ever since she has left, he tries to go pull them down and hand them to me and will watch the whole 1/2 hour show! I must admit, It has been nice to get to hold him on my lap for an exteded amount of time or even get to do chores while he's watching them. I do try to sit with him and repeat/point out colors or animals.

Adventures under the cabinets

Here is his new discovery.......pulling out the tupperware and getting IN the cabinet.

Punkins

We went to hodges dairy farm last week and got a punkin(that is how we say it here in the south....or at least that is what the sign said ''punkins for sale''. It was fun! jake was a little stoic so not any pics of him actually smiling but he seemed to enjoy it. He liked to lick the nasty dirty punkins straight off the ground.

More vacation pics

vacation

This is what he wanted to do on the beach...eat shells.



We are back from vacation!!!!
we left for a week to myrtle beach for our little family vacation. we stayed at our family's very nice and very large beach house. Such a blessing! sooooo......no wrecks!!!! yaaahhh! The start of the vacation was kinda rough. Jake popped a molar while we were there so he was really cranky the first few days. I had to really work on lowering my expectation of what I thought the first part would be like. God is not in the business of taking a vacation from sanctifying you huh? Seems like we coulda made a little deal for that week.....lol. :) But the vacation got better as the days went by. Our hearts grew more patient and full of grace toward jake's teething/runny nose/sin issues, and he started to act better day by day. We had a lot of fun exploring other beaches and found we LOVE Pawley's Island!!! so cute!
We took a lot of walks on the beach and went to the pool/beach every day.
and THE LORD HEARD OUR PRAYERS FOR GOOD, MAKE THAT GREAT WEATHER!!!!
you see....it never fails when we go to the beach it rains like......all day! Thank you God!!!
Most of all, my favorite part of the vacation was getting not only to spend quality,uninterrupted time together as a family...with no phones or e-mails.....But getting to spend SO MUCH time with my sweetie! Every night when jake went to bed we would go on the high deck where you can see the ocean, and just talk. We brought some fun/serious questions are pastor made up a while back for couples. We'd pick 1-2 questions for each other and spend the whole night...even into the wee hours of the morning talking about them. It was really nice to talk about things other than work/babies;)
I hope I don't sound prideful when i say this ...we even were faithful to do our devotions everyday on vacation. that is definitely an evidence of grace because normally we are such slackers that we end up not meeting with the lord EVER on a vacation..... I was challenged by a quote about devotions on vacations by c.j mahaney. He says that ''indwelling sin never takes a vacation''. I really believe God used that time to consistently check our heart with our temptation to want a ''perfect'' vacation and to be more patient and purposeful with each other.
We look forward to going again next year when jake is walking and can really enjoy the beach!