phone pics

I was looking through pictures on my phone the other day and remembered I hadn't ever posted these. I really wish cell phones had better cameras because it's more convenient sometimes just to whip out your phone for a picture!

At cousin Chloe's birthday party last weekend. Chloe put the helmet on Presley and told her she had to wear it when riding! ;) Then she pushed Presley around on it!

Chloe's amazing cake!

Presley brought her sheep outside one day to play and pushed it on the swing.

Modeling a new outfit that Karri bought. This kid cracks me up on a daily basis! She always wants to try on clothes and says "piddy"! And then this pose is something new & quite funny!

Trying on some cool shades at Old Navy!

Helping Daddy sort out the wood for her swing set, months ago!

Jaden on the way home Saturday. He said it was his happy hat. Silly boy!

country kids

**So before we get on to the main post, can I just gush about Presley's shirt? Isn't it adorable? Natalie from The Punky Monkey made it. She's a friend from Mommy & Me who has amazing skills! Presley has one of her play mat creations and a bird monogrammed onesie that when she was a baby was one of my favorite things to put her in! It's now hanging on her wall! :) And I'm sure this shirt is going to be in regular rotation...we both love it! Do yourself a favor and go check out her stuff!**

Ok, now to the boring stuff ;)
We went back to visit my grandparents in Mississippi for a few days this past week. It was a short, sweet, and last minute kinda trip. Just my mom and I took the kids as my dad was putting tile down in their house and Jeremiah was working. We decided last week, I think, that we were going to go! We didn't really do much of anything; The only shopping we did was at Dirt Cheap...love that place! & we went out to eat twice. Otherwise we were just lazy, but it was still nice to see them. The first morning we went to feed my Grandaddy's cows. in the rain. and rain in mississipppi = lots of mud. yuck! So we trucked it out there in the rainy mud to see them. The kids loved it! I wanted to take my camera but was too afraid I would fall and drop it. Maybe next time there will be pics! Kameron drove the tractor a bunch and of course I don't have pictures of that either. I'm a slacker aunt!

The kids LOVED the wide open spaces (anyone singing Dixie Chicks?) to run free and crazy in!

This picture cracks me up. Kole came up to me with this distraught look on her face and said super dramatically "I just don't have ANY energy left!" Ha ha!

Close up of Presley's fabulous shirt!

And one last picture of the Mississippi country.

Anniversary trip

For our anniversary this year, we decided it was time for a get away! I, well we both, really wanted to go back to St. Lucia, but it just wasn't in our budget right now. So we settled for going back to where we went on our honeymoon, Indian Shores. It's right between St. Petersburg and Clearwater. We really enjoyed going back to places that we went to 5 years before; it was pretty nostalgic!

We left Wednesday night and got there Thursday around 3:30 am I think. So obviously we slept in that morning...who are we kidding we didn't get up any morning earlier than 9!! We went to Walmart for a few groceries because our room had a mini kitchen. Which I loved because we saved money by eating lunch there a few days. But we watched some TV and movies that afternoon then went to eat at the Salt Rock Grill for dinner. It was delicious steak and seafood, even better than I remembered. Isn't this a lovely photo? Ha ha! With junk all over the bed! It was raining that night and I'm pretty sure I remember that it rained on the night we went on our honeymoon! Weird!

On Friday morning we woke up to this.

Great weather for a vacation! We actually didn't mind too much! We went to Tampa to meet my friend from nursing school, Amber. We met her at the Cheesecake Factory for some yummy cheesecake and then went shopping at the International Plaza. It's a crazy big 2 story mall that has restaurants on the outside of the mall building and they all have open seating outside. It looks like a chic nightclub...way cooler than anything Pensacola would have!

Then Jeremiah and I headed back to go shopping and eat at John's Pass Boardwalk. It's kinda like Pensacola's Boardwalk. Just a bunch of shops and restaurants. We ate at Bubba Gump's....they have the most yummy seafood! I just recently found out that there's one in Destin. Do yourself a favor and go eat there! :) I think we had seafood every day we were there! And I found the old picture of us in front of the same sign at the boardwalk!

Saturday morning we woke up to much sunnier skies. We went to lunch at Frenchy's, a little beach bum place that has the best grouper sandwich on Earth! And then relaxed in the pool and at the beach. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the beach on a nice day. South Florida sand is so much different than ours. It's like a finer grain and it kinda feels like Moon Sand that's impossible to shape! I much prefer our sugar white fluffy sand!

J at Frenchy's...I promise we actually did talk to each other on our trip. I actually think it's the most we've talked in the last 2 years! I know we'll look back on this time of hectic parenting with great memories and wish our baby was still little. But it's nice to get away with just each other and reconnect without a sippy cup flying by my head or hearing "Mommy" screamed at me 25 times in two seconds!

And of course no trip would be complete without a dessert stop! It's the Candy Kitchen and it's wall to wall sweets! My Heaven! The store is not much bigger than what you see on the right. They make their own fudge, ice cream and italian ice. They also have every kind of candy bar, sucker, cotton candy, hard candy (well you get the idea) that you could think of! So that was our treat Saturday afternoon! And then we went to see Transformers in IMAX 3D that night. I was a little skeptical especially with the $46 price tag for 2 tickets and popcorn and drinks. But it was awesome! I'm glad we splurged on it!

Sunday morning we packed it all up and headed home. We missed Presley like crazy but I'm pretty sure the feeling wasn't reciprocated! ;) She LOVES spending time at her Nana and PawPaw's house with everyone! We skyped with her a couple of times so she could see and hear us. I know she missed us, but I'm glad she didn't ever get upset over being away from us.

THANK YOU so much Mama for keeping P for us! We couldn't have made this trip without you! Love you!

Exploreum

We took the kids to Mobile last Tuesday to the Exploreum; it was Presley's first time going. She loved it! Well, they all loved it! They have special exhibits that come visit for a short time and this summer it's a space exhibit. That's right up my alley, I'm kind of a space nerd! Kameron and I saw "Hubble" on the IMAX they have there. It was awesome! They also have permanent exhibits that include a ton of hands on stuff.

Presley hitched a ride from everybody! On this you had to use a pulley system to get to the top of the pole. Some of them were really hard to do. Especially with 25 extra pounds! ;)

The three floating heads! :) Notice Presley in Jaden's picture? She was concerned about where his body was! Ha ha!

One of the exhibits was all about the body. This is the 12 foot tall beating heart. It was super cool! Jaden couldn't get over that this is actually in his body! In this exhibit you could 'perform' surgery and test your ability to jump, your strength and how long it takes to burn off a cheeseburger! It also had a station where you could push up and down on lever to 'beat' your heart...it was way harder to do than I thought. Makes me appreciate my heart a little more!

Kole loved this snake. She kept petting it. Looking at the picture gives me the heebie jeebies. I'm not a snake person at all! Presley even touched it, but my mom was holding her. Thank goodness!

My mom let Jaden, Kole and Presley play at the Wharf of Wonder while we watched the movie. It's a play area for the smaller kids and we knew that they would rather play than see "Hubble". I know they had a blast!

I'm sad that we didn't get to do a lot of the things that we had planned on my vacation from work. But at least we got to pick blueberries, eat at Lambert's and go to the Exploreum. Oh and Jeremiah and I went on a much needed anniversary trip! Thank the Lord I got sick before then! Glass half full, right? ;)

.five.

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. From the moment that I met Jeremiah, I was absolutely smitten with him. We've had a long, hard road in the 9.5 years that we've been together. I have had this on my heart for a while to write about and in light of our anniversary today, it's no better day than to tell our story. This story is an all the glory goes to God story. Nothing we have done has brought us to today. It is all of God's perfect planning that we made it. It's nothing short of amazing, our story and here it is.

On the day of our wedding, and probably for a year before that, something didn't feel right about our relationship. But I went through with it because my parents' had shelled out a lot of money, I had gone through a lot of meticulous planning, and I felt like I had to because we had been together for 4.5 years. And to be honest, divorce was always a later option in my mind. It always makes me so sad to admit that was my train of thought.

After we celebrated our first anniversary, we bought our house. I thought maybe that would fix our relationship and make us have the marriage I'd always dreamed about. It didn't. After Jeremiah got fired from a brand new job, he finally confessed that he was addicted to drugs and he needed serious help to stop.

I was completely blindsided. I was numb. I was devastated.

After thinking about our history and putting together pieces, I could completely see the signs of addiction. I didn't know what to do but kick him out of our home, so that's what I did. I had never felt so alone in all my life. The person that I thought I should know the best, turned out to be a person who I didn't really know at all. I can remember not being able to sleep one night so I went down to the gazebo on the riverwalk, where we got married. I watched the sun come up and I just cried out to God, pouring my heart out, begging him to please tell me what to do. I have been a Christian for a long time, but I think that night, at my most broken, I could hear Him the loudest. I told God that I didn't know if I could ever forgive Jeremiah for the pain he'd caused me, let alone trust him again. I truly felt God telling me, with that new sunrise, that every day is a new one, and people and relationships can be new through Him too. So I decided to trust God and stick by my husband's side.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't as easy as just saying the words out loud. Jeremiah went to rehab. Got out. Relapsed. Went back to rehab. The second time clicked for him and by the grace of God, he has been in recovery for 4 years, come November 1st. But the wreckage of our marriage wasn't just his fault. As much as he was addicted to drugs, I was addicted to myself....selfish thoughts, actions and words. I was no easy person to call a wife. We both hurt each other immensely with words and those aren't easy things to retract. We had gone through therapy before I knew about the addiction but it really didn't help because Jeremiah was dealing with a secret addiction on his own. This time we talked to the counselors at the rehab and did some work on our own with some Christian marriage seminars. But mostly we talked to each other, prayed with each other and for each other and just let God work through us. I also went to Al-anon meetings for families and bought some of their books for me to read and work through my own issues. That's when I realized what an awful person I had been. I know I'm still not perfect today, but I'm a work in progress!

Jeremiah accepted Jesus as his Savior while he was in rehab. He has turned into the husband that I never thought I would have. He loves me unconditionally and is so thoughtful and caring. He is the father to Presley that I could have only dreamed about. And I can honestly say that we would not have made it without God. I would have thrown in the towel on our marriage and Jeremiah might still be in active addiction.

So whatever you might be facing, life-changing or quite small, I encourage you to listen and trust God. He sees the bigger picture and He weaves the details of our life perfectly.

Oh yeah and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Baby! I love you!

4th fun!

Hope everyone had a GREAT 4th of July! It's one of my favorite holidays! I had zero preparation done for today because of me being sick and I thought for sure Presley or Jeremiah was going to wake up sick today too. So we kinda winged it today and it still turned out great.

We had these bacon wrapped jalapeno chicken bites that I found on Pinterest. They were pretty yummy! Walmart was out of jalapenos so I had to substitute other peppers, so I bet with the right ingredients they could be awesome! Of course, mine looked exactly like this picture! ;)

We also had fruit pizzas for dessert. They were a big hit! :)

And then came fireworks. Our town always has them over the river downtown. We used to be able to see them from our backyard, but now the trees are too tall. So we had to walk downtown this year. They scared Presley at first. I had to hold her in my lap with my hands over her ears. But she quickly progressed to sitting in the wagon by herself with no hands on the ears! She loved them! She kept saying "wow"!

All of our little firecrackers!

We're so blessed to live in a free country where we can freely worship our Savior. God Bless!

Lambert's

I started feeling a little bit better on Saturday night from my mutant strep throat. (turns out if you take your antibiotics the wrong way, it makes you suffer longer! who knew?) But by Sunday, I was bound and determined to get out of this house! So we went over to Foley and ate at Lambert's Cafe. I'm sure we were the only people left in the Florida Panhandle who hadn't eaten there yet! We've lived here close to 13 years and it was our first time going.

It was a really fun atmosphere and priced great for the gigantic portions, but I have to say it wasn't the best food I've ever eaten. I got the meatloaf and immediately wished I had gotten the fried porkchops upon seeing them served table side in a huge skillet! I would go back for lunch if shopping in Foley or if out-of-town guests wanted to go back, but I probably wouldn't truck it over an hour to go wait for an hour and twenty just for their food. But hey, to each their own! I am proud to say that our table, and by that I mean Kameron & Jeremiah, caught all 5 rolls that were thrown to us! Those things are sizzling hot flying by your head!

We tried to stay outside and let the kids play on the train at the front of the restaurant, but we were about to die because of the 9,0000 degree heat after an hour. I had the bright idea of walking over to Chick-fil-A and getting a drink and let the kids play in the cool play area. Well, that was a good idea except it was Sunday and they aren't open on Sundays! So we just went and sat in our air conditioned cars until it was time to eat.

blogging from my bed

well, my vacation has started out with a bang....I have strep throat! Ugh, it's one of the worst things. I started an antibiotic yesterday, but I think I'm worse today. My tonsils are so swollen they are almost touching each other. Nice visual huh? It's disgusting! I really hope I feel better tomorrow because we've already missed out on our fun plans for Thursday AND today. I don't think I can take another day of not eating either....I like food!

Oh and probably the worst part is not being able to be around my loves. Presley has gone over to my mom's for the last two days because I'm still contagious. But they brought my flowers and a get well card tonight. So sweet! Jeremiah said Presley picked them out in the store and then held them all the way home. :)