More Birthday

Below are pics from my birthday extravaganza! I can't believe that I had two sets of grandparents there, one set of great-grandparents, my godparents, my special yoli and chuck, and some adopted aunt and uncle friends of mom and dad's from college! I have been on a high this whole week after all that attention and excitement! Here's a shot of our living room filled with balloons, another of me with my great grandparents Joe and Georgia Means, one of us opening presents and the one with everyone at the table was the celebration that I was left out of! Everyone went to McEwen's for dinner, but it's ok, I needed to rest up for the big day.

I'm ONE! And I'm a Party Animal, atleast that's what my hat said.

Jaden's Dedication/1st Birthday Weekend

We had so much fun last weekend and felt so loved to have so many people travel to Memphis to celebrate with us. Jaden turned ONE YEAR OLD last sunday, Feb. 11, 2007! As his mom, I cannot believe it...this year has flown by and has been a complete JOY, from the highs to the lows, we are in awe of how blessed we are to be a family!

In the picture below is Ben Parkinson, one of our friends and a pastor at our church. He led the congregation in a meaningful dedication of Jaden, Evie Brantley, and Libby Bourland to the Lord. We as a couple were able to state that we trust our God with His child, Jaden Patrick Harris. Jaden's name means "Jehovah has heard" which is a great reminder for us that God truly hears and knows all our prayers and hopes for Jaden, we need not worry but trust and enjoy being his parents. The enjoying we certainly are doing (and I hope I only get better and not worse with trusting my worries to the One who's in control)! Parenting is such a funny tension between having much control and responsibility and incredible influence but also knowing that at the end of the day, we are simply not in control and cannot make everything look the way we think it should in our lives or Jaden's....this is a really good thing.

in need...

Yes, as you can see, the little man is in desperate need of a haircut. You'll be glad to know that these pictures were taken a few days ago before I attempted to give Jaden a decent cut. Soon I'll post some great shots of him with his new bowl cut, extremely attractive on all nearly one year olds!

Jaden is walking like a mad man! He really does, he kind of stomps and gets this grin as he walks across a room before he falls to his knees to really take care of business and just get where he wants to go.

This is such a fun time in our lives...Joel and I state nearly every night that we can't believe how awesome it is to hang out with our son, I have to stop Joel from storming in to wake him up to play around 9:00PM. We truly are blessed to be a family and have only God's graciousness to credit for the sweetness we are tasting together. What a joy!

We are also eagerly anticipating family and friends arriving from all over next weekend! We will celebrate Jaden's dedication at church and his first birthday! Big weekend...