YC2

When Evan and I moved to Louisville, plugging into a church was high priority for us. We were very excited when the one family we knew in town invited us to attend Ninth and O with them our very first Sunday. We went, liked it, and trusted Gibson and Julie enough that if that church was good enough for their family, it was good enough for ours. We joined the only BFG we ever attended, and began making friends. About a year later, Evan took on the role as class director for our BFG, taking care of many administrative type jobs involving our class. In the last four years, our class has evolved and changed in many ways...in fact, I think we are the only couple still around from four years ago! 

In four years these people: provided countless meals, spent holidays with us, let us borrow vehicles when our cars were in the shop, offered free childcare for my children, given us financial gifts, prayed for us and with us, helped us gut and dry-wall a bathroom, celebrated birthdays with us, grieved with us when my mom passed away, spent MANY late nights over dessert and/or coffee, and much, much more. These precious people have become our family. 

This past Sunday, Evan and I experienced one of the sweetest prayer times EVER, as our class spent a good part of our class time praying over us and our new adventure. Then, we received the nicest send-off lunch, complete with yummy food and even better fellowship. We left church feeling extremely loved and blessed.

YC2, now and then, WE LOVE YOU dearly! Thank you for ministering to our family above and beyond. We are eternally grateful for you and so thankful for your partnership in ministry with us! 

VBS

Last week was our church's Vacation Bible School. What fun we had on a Big Apple Adventure! Everything was NYC themed, and SUPER cute! Kendall participated in an actual class this year and experienced the full pre-school rotation complete with Bible story, crafts, recreation, music, and missions. She had a wonderful week! I "helped" in the oldest four year old class by telling the daily Bible story. (I use the term "help" very loosely because my team did most of the work this year!) We had 23 four year olds in our class, and I think Kendall's class averaged about 16. It was truly a wonderful week.

I've always thought VBS was a good thing. It's fun and a great way to reach out to the community. However, this year, VBS took on a whole different meaning for me. It became seeds that were planted in my sweet daughter's mind. She came home every day telling us about the Bible stories, singing songs (I'm sure we'll be singing VBS songs for a while!), and grasping new truths. Evan and I pray continually for the girls to come to know Christ and I'm most certain this week of VBS made a difference in Kendall. Looking forward to seeing those seeds continue to grow!

Keepin' it Real on Mother's Day

Attempts at a great mother-daughter picture for Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is not always the easiest celebration for me, as I still miss my sweet mama every single day. She was the best. While I try to focus on the wonderful years I had with my mom, it's still sometimes difficult to not be sad. Arden's arrival made this Mother's Day a little sweeter this year, and Kendall and Evan did a great job at making me feel pretty special. Kendall wished me "Happy Mother's Day" about a thousand times yesterday, and Evan invited our dear friends Rocky and Suzanne (and boys) over to grill steaks and veggies for dinner. He also spent much of Sunday afternoon cleaning around the house and doing yard work. (Probably because he invited Rocky and Suzanne over last minute, and knew I wanted/needed a nap! Love him!) :)

I am also extremely grateful for all the "other mothers" in my life. I am blessed to have many and the Lord knew I needed them. Thank you, Aunt Marva, Aunt Judy, Mimi, Sheila, Joyce, Judy, Karen, Mrs. Ann, Mrs. Carol, Mrs. Cherri, Tricia, and Dana. Love you all bunches.



Arden Abigail's Debut!

We obviously had no idea that Arden would make her appearance this week. Evan was off on Tuesday (the same day as my 37 week appointment) and had deemed that day "spring clean up" day. Evan had a roll-off dumpster delivered and made arrangements with our friend Philip (Leah Mae's daddy!) to help cut down some trees in our yard.

I had a gut feeling I needed to be prepared for Arden to come early, but still wasn't really expecting it to be this soon! At my appointment on Tuesday, Dr. Forrester and I talked extensively about doing the version since Arden was still breech. After looking at my history, he decided probably a scheduled c-section would be the better option. (Kendall was a forceps delivery, and then I had recovery complications with her.) Before scheduling the c-section, though, Dr. Forrester wanted to check my fluid levels one more time.  According to this week's ultrasound, my fluid had significantly dropped and was basically non-existent, confirming I would most definitely need a c-section!

After Dr. Forrester checked Arden's heart rate and then some minor drama trying to let Evan know what was going on (he was outside "spring cleaning" with his phone inside!), the c-section FINALLY was scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8:00. I was happy because it gave me enough time to go home and get the rest of our ducks in a row AND eat one last hoorah pregnancy meal. (Thank you Mark's Feed Store and Dairy Queen!)

Arden arrived the next morning around 8:30. It was such a different experience, but went as well as it could. The strangest part was lying there while they were finishing up. Evan was holding Arden, and all I could do was look at her. It was such a weird thing to not get my hands on her. Evan was loving it, though...getting to be the first one to hold her!

 

The first day and night with recovery was a little rough, but everything is okay now. I had some clotting issues that were thankfully resolved with medication, but gave us a little scare Thursday morning. (All is well, I promise! No worries!) We have had lots of visitors, which has been so fun! The best one was a visit from my dear friend Emily (girl in the top picture with me!) who drove last minute from Tennessee just so she could come see Arden. Such a sweet surprise...Emily and her husband Ryan are some of our closest friends from Louisville, but they moved away at the end of last summer and we miss them so! I was so glad her hubby took off work and stayed with their kiddos for the night so she could come to visit!

Right now, we are planning to come home tomorrow. I think we could stay until Sunday, but Evan and I have both decided that we will rest better at home. Too many people are in and out in the middle of the night around here, and poor Evan is sleeping on a bed that feels like bricks. Evan's mom is flying in tomorrow to help for a week and we are SO looking forward to her visit.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and well-wishes. All of your words mean so much to us, and the prayers have certainly been felt! We are more than thankful for our precious, healthy family of four!

Celebrating Arden!

I think just being from the south, it is somewhat ingrained that you don't do showers for second babies. Honestly, I've never had an issue with attending showers for the second born, as I think ALL babies should be celebrated! However, when it came time for MY second baby, I felt a little awkward about it. I don't know why...maybe because it was the second girl and we had most everything we needed already? At any rate, when the offers came for both of these showers, I made the girls promise they would be laid-back and low key...nothing major at all.

While we were in Arkansas, my cousin/BFF offered to host a baby shower at her home. One of the main reasons I agreed to this was because it would be a great way to see my family and close friends all in one place. What a special day with friends and family! My dad actually drove my Mamaw and Papaw over to Laura's house and my sister was there, too! Laura had an amazing cake made and the rest of the snacks were perfect. Arden received several beautiful little outfits and Kendall was treated like royalty with "Big Sister" gifts.

My sweet girlfriends in Louisville showered us today. Oh my goodness! I don't have enough pictures to do it justice! The decorations were absolutely precious...hand-made fabric flowers on stems, owl (my fave!) and bird cupcake toppers, and a precious name banner! I just loved it all! Arden received more sweet outfits/dresses, diapers, and I think we are pretty set on baby wipes for a while! What a precious time of fellowship with people who have literally become family to us! So very, very thankful!

I had to throw the above picture in...Kendall received the movie Tangled from her friend Emma as a big sister gift. She was soooo excited. If Kendall asked once, she asked a thousand times if she could watch it when we got home. She carried it around with her for about the entire length of the shower. So when Amber got ready to take a picture of the gift I just opened, Kendall proudly held up her movie. It was too funny!

I will admit that it's been so fun this go-around, actually opening up little girl things instead of gender neutral! Arden has received some beautiful things and I can't wait to play baby doll with her! I can't believe her arrival will be so soon! I still have a few things that need to be done--pack hospital bags, go purchase the pack-and-play, and take inventory/purchase some little things we still need. Everyone around our house is getting so excited!

Valentine's Day and Other Happenings

February always seems busy at our house. I don't know if it's because January is super slow, coming off the Christmas holiday or what, but February has been going full force and isn't slowing down any time soon.

Our church has a fantastic group of homeschool moms/kids, and Kendall and I are often invited on their field trips. For Valentine's Day, the group rented out a place called Kazoing! (which is basically a place with bounceys for all ages) and had a party, complete with Valentine exchange. It took two installments of working on them, but Kendall and I were able to make about 40 homemade Valentines for her friends and family. (We did this last year, too, but she was a little small to get in on any of the work!) We spent one Saturday morning tracing her hand on the card stock, then another afternoon glittering, gluing, and adding stickers. Kendall LOVED it all, and was so proud of her Valentines! I love this little tradition we have and look forward to coming up with fun ideas in the years to come. I thought this year's turned out so girly, which was perfect! (Not to mention that we made them mostly with supplies already on hand!)

I only took the 50 mm lens, so I had a difficult time getting the whole group shot. This is only half! HA! There was a whole section of kids to the left. Really, though, having this group invite us along is such a blessing. It's the perfect social outlet for Kendall and for me!

In other news, Evan and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on February 12. We have yet to really celebrate, but hopefully our plans for a very nice dinner out will come to fruition soon. We did get to enjoy about 35 minutes together, kid-free on Valentine's Day--our church had a Parent's Night Out from 6-9. (Evan was supposed to get off at 6:45 that evening, but ended up not getting home until almost 8.) =(  We ate a somewhat rushed dinner, then had cupcakes from the Cupcake Shoppe for dessert. I am so thankful for 6 years of wedded bliss and look forward to many more!

We are loving the beautiful weather of the last couple of days and would probably be enjoying it more if Kendall hadn't come down with a viral infection today. Stay tuned for some outside fun pictures coming soon!

I love a good surprise!

In the 7 years that Evan and I have been together, I have only seen him truly surprised one time. It was at our wedding rehearsal dinner, when his mom decided to go with a Razorback theme. The place was decked out with all kinds of Hog gear, complete with Pork Chop and Sue E. (the official mascots) who hid in the closet and jumped out to lead us all in calling the Hogs. It was so fun, and it was SO Evan. He loved it.

Fast forward to Evan's birthday this year. I was super excited, because I came up with the perfect gift: the Hogs would be in Louisville for the SEC/Big East Invitational, and I got tickets for Evan to watch his favorite team play basketball. I was super excited, because I actually did it without him knowing...gifts for him are usually tricky because he keeps such a close eye on our bank accounts. I was a little bit bummed when he guessed his present three days before his birthday and even MORE bummed when I found out I bought the tickets through Stub Hub, not Ticketmaster, making them cost more than double what they should have. So much for a great birthday gift, right?

Well, what Evan didn't know was that Kendra and I had been on the phone on those days near his birthday, talking about how fun it would be to get together. She and Brian had actually been talking about coming up for a weekend sometime, but hadn't been able to work it out. During our conversation, I got this bright idea that I would just check on some plane tickets to see how much it would cost for them to fly to Louisville on the days surrounding that basketball game. Imagine our (excited) surprise when we found out that Southwest Airlines was running the $30 ticket deal, making it cost $120 for Brian and Kendra to fly here! Book it? You bet they did!!!

So, for about a month and a half, I kept it a secret! That's huge for me, being that usually I get so excited, I just tell! Brian and Kendra got to Louisville around 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon, and we just hung out, waiting on Evan to come home from work. When Evan got home, Brian hid and had plans to jump out and greet him in the special FBC Farmington-man greeting style (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not telling! HA!) only Brian got too excited, and basically just jumped out and scared Evan half to death! It was so awesome! Evan was completely disoriented and was trying to figure out how we had worked it all out.  

We had a GREAT time with our sweet friends. Kendra and I got to do a little shopping together, and we also played dress-up in my closet. (No, really, she actually helped me put a few maternity outfits together with things I already had...SUPER!) The boys went to Bass Pro, lounged around, and enjoyed the game together that evening.

One more funny story...while Evan and Brian were at the game, Brian calls Kendra to tell her that the ESPN people were out in the stands, looking for Razorback fans to come down for some kind of competition during one of the time outs. Guess who was the brave soul to go on the court?!?! EVAN! How hilarious is that? Apparently, he was supposed to make a lay-up, free throw, and three point shot. He made the lay-up, but missed everything else. Brian video-ed it on his phone, so Kendra and I got to watch a replay after they got home. We were cracking up!

Brian and Kendra left early Thursday morning, so it was a short, but very sweet and very much-needed visit! We love you guys and are so very thankful for your friendship!

Thanksgiving

What a fantastic Thanksgiving we had! For the third year in a row, we celebrated Thanksgiving day with the Blackwell family. We truly love this family with all our hearts and are so thankful they are willing to open their home to us every year, and include even our extended family! The food was yummy and the fellowship was even better!

Evan's parents also came for a visit, and we were so thankful to have them here. We all were spoiled rotten and SO enjoyed their company. Sometimes it's so difficult to be far away from family, but I've learned that being far away makes you so much more appreciative for what you've got AND makes that bond so much sweeter.

I love Thanksgiving! Even though I don't always act like it, I have so many reasons to be thankful. Our little family is so blessed!