Cupcakes

I don't want to jump the gun on Shelly and show all of Hayley's birthday party, but these cupcake pictures were so cute I had to share them. I love how some icing can totally brighten a child's day. Oh wait, that works on me too! These kids are so adorable, and I love them all!

Hayley, Emma and John actually all sitting down at once! It's amazing what a cupcake will do.

Icing on the face

And the advertisement for Shelly's cupcakes - "More cake?"

Gratefulness

John was gone this past weekend on the Our Father's Children retreat for the teenagers who have graduated from the Royal Family Kids Camp for abused and neglected children. While we were thrilled to share him with those boys, we missed him very much! Little John kept asking me in a tiny, little voice, "Where my daddy?" Needless to say, we were doing a little dance when he walked in the door Sunday evening. It never ceases to amaze me how I can be with him 24/7 and he still gives me butterflies! : ) Saturday night we went over to my parents where my sister was watching Ellie, who is a little friend from church. I was upstairs when her daddy came to pick her up. Due to my pregnant hormones and missing my husband I welled up when I heard her downstairs doing the most excited little "Yeah Daddy!" chant because she could not contain her joy at seeing Danny. It made me start thinking about all the precious, dedicated daddies I know and just how blessed their kids are. It also made me hope that I tell my husband often enough just how glad we are that he walks through that door every night after work. Not after making a stop at the local hangout or even taking a break from responsibilities - he just comes straight from his workload at the office to his "workload" at home. I was convicted, praying that each faithful man feels the incredible weight that his daily sacrifices carry with his family, that no decision to spend time with his babies or make a priority for his family is ever in vain, and that my job is to always show gratefulness! Every time John does something for us he could be making a different choice but he's choosing us, choosing his Lord, and changing our lives. It's always easy to see the difficulty of the job I'm doing and always more challenging to stop and look instead at what others are also working hard for. I have taught countless children over the years that gratefulness is a choice and I have to ask myself if I'm making that choice every day and modeling that for my children so that when I am teaching them that someday, they will recognize it in my life. I can't keep John's job of provider, husband, and father from being hard, but I can certainly make sure it's never thankless. Have you thanked your hubby today?

John's New Room

I have made a big step for this mommy and moved my boy upstairs to his "big boy room." Chelsea finished painting his mural on Sunday and that night he spent his first night in his boat bed. He did great! He is SO excited about his room. It is difficult for pictures to do the mural justice so you will just have to come over. If any of you ever consider doing something like this, I would highly recommend Chelsea who did a fantastic job. She is so talented. I deeply admire artistically talented people because that's a talent I have to admire from a distance since I really do not possess it. Little John points out each thing whenever he goes in his room, especially the pickup truck that Chelsea painted to look just like John's with silhouettes of the guys inside it. He told me that it was he and Daddy going to Sonic for a "cheese" (grilled cheese). He can look up at the plane when he's lying in bed which is also very cool to him.

We also had the nursery painted this week so it is officially very pink and we are in full preparations for Miss Kailey as well! I feel much more ahead of things with him upstairs and her room awaiting her arrival. Her sweet daddy has been working tonight to hang her chandelier with Little John "helping" constantly. He wants to "screw" everything with the screwdriver and climb the ladder. He loves the pink nursery and just refers to it as "pink." He'll want to "go in the pink" or he left his duck "in the pink." It's pretty funny. He makes me laugh with all his funny little ways of saying and doing things right now. Earlier he was looking at my blog with me and started to feed himself the cake in the picture of him eating my birthday cake. His imagination is certainly growing at a rapid rate!

Little John pointing out everything in his mural the first time he saw it all finished.

His "red plane" reminding us of the best reason to "go" anywhere!Another view of the mural, including Daddy's truck headed to SonicSnuggle time with Mommy before he sleeps upstairs for the first time!

Summer Fun

Here are some more summer photos. In case you can't tell, I just got a lot of pictures developed and have to share cute ones of my boy! I had been storing up 35mm rolls for a while now. I promise there will be an end to the madness. 4th of July fun with the Waltons and RidgellsEating Mom's birthday cakeBirthday kisses!Swimming lessons

Popsicles

This summer Little John had his first popsicle and then enjoyed that special treat several times over the course of these hot months. We always strip down to the diaper (at least) because clothing will not survive the drippy, colored mess that results from his slow enjoyment of the melting treat. Of course, the camera came out several times for this so I thought I'd share my favorites as the summer draws to a close.