April showers bring......

JANUARY SURPRIZE BABY!

Horray! We are 12 weeks pregnant with baby #3. We are thrilled. For someone who doesn't like secrets I have been pretty good about keeping this one! Until now, as I pronounce it to the whole world.
To answer the most frequently asked questions in a nutshell here is the scoop. Yes, we wanted more children. Yes we wanted them sooner than later. No we didn't anticipate it happening as quickly as it did. Yes we are happy. No I'm not sick. Yes we are excited. Yes we know we will be busy. No Jeff is not getting anything snipped. No we do not have a minivan. Yes I am still nursing Adelle. Yes I feel really amazing. Yes I am tired. Yes Braxton is super into the whole thing this time. No Adelle doesn't get it. Yes we are stocking up on diapers. Yes we know how to make the best of the rainy season.
I think that pretty much covers the basics. I feel really, really blessed. We are busy and our lives are really full but we love our children so much and they each bring us so much joy that we can't wait to meet our newest addition and discover all he/she has to bring into our family.
Oh, and so you know. We are going with the whole SURPRIZE theme this time. We decided that we are not finding out the gender of the baby. So fun, or what! We have found out both times and we are ready to spice things up a bit and be really surprized.

I liked this....a lot!

"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground each morning the devil says, "OH CRAP, SHE'S UP!"

Biscuit Recipe....See picture below!

3 cups flour (I use half whole wheat flour)
4 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup whole milk

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Cut in butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk all at once. Stir just until moistened, using a fork.
We mixed fresh raspberries in this time but usually we just eat them with butter and honey.
Drop dough by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake in 450 oven for 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy!

Homegrown Goodness

One of my favorite things about summer is walking out to our raspberry patch.....

picking a bowl full of fresh berries that I know have not been laden with pesticides...

seeing the many other berries that are not quite ready but that will be delicious is days to come..

eating raspberries out of the bowl or off the bush with my two little "raspberry monsters"....

making homemade biscuits with fresh raspberries with the help of Braxton....

Yum! Hot...Homemade....Hearty...Heaven!

We love our Dads!

Happy Father's Day to my Hottie Heart-throb who is the greatest dad to our children! We love you so much!

Father's Day was really fun this year. The tradition of breakfast in bed is way more fun and exciting when your 3 year old is involved. Brax and I prepared this wonderful meal of french-toast, bacon and fried eggs and served Jeff in bed. Braxton loved every minute of it.....

especially when it was his turn to get in bed next to dad and eat his little heart out! Adelle was a champ too. She slept in which made the whole cooking and serving breakfast much easier than I had anticipated. She's so good like that.

I'm so thankful for a wonderful dad and for Jeff's wonderful dad. We are so blessed to have so many great men in our life and for the great examples they are to us.

Braxton: "And when I'm a daddy then you can bring me breakfast in bed."

Please let it be someone else serving him breakfast in bed when he's a daddy!

Life on the farm

These two crack me up! We went to the Boxx Berry Farm Berry Festival on Saturday and the kids got to ride the train and we all enjoyed fresh strawberry sundaes. I forgot the camera but thankfully our friends were there to sneak a couple shots for me (thanks April!)
I love this picture. The stern faces and scowls. You'd think they'd been workin' since sun-up or something. We had a great day!

A and B

Adelle is walking! It really happened over night. She's cruisin' now like crazy. If it's faster to crawl she will still drop to her knees but for the most part she is struttin' her stuff like a big girl. So fun to watch her concentrate so hard to put one foot in front of the other.
Good thing it's summer because this girl doesn't like to wear shoes. I don't know what will happen when it rains/snows and she still wants to walk around barefoot.

Braxton is my bud. Tuesday night I threw a shower for a friend which was great but after everyone had left, Adelle was asleep and Jeff was playing basketball with some friends I sat down in this chair and put my feet up. I was exhausted from the day. Braxton came out from getting ready for bed and pulled up the chair beside me. He rested his feet on the table too and said, "man, I'm tired, this feels good." He's so funny. I asked him if he'd sit on my lap and he did. I was cuddling him and he said, "mom, let's take a picture of us. I think we are being cute."

What a sweet boy!

The multi-tasker! Not only can she walk but she can talk on the phone while walking. Actually, she can talk on the phone while doing most anything.

Left, right, left, right...

I love the outfit she is wearing. Thanks Gramy Ashmore!

One of her new pretty birthday dresses from Great Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

We've been down to the school to practice our tennis skills. Braxton just goes and goes and goes.

He wears us out but we have a ball girl now which helps in the fetching.

Another birthday outfit from Gramy (my Gramy, Addy's Great Gramy)....and of course the cell phone.

First walking, now driving? This girl is on the move one way or another.