Today...we're well into spring and too quickly approaching summer

Caden and Jaden

Aggie, Sophie, Caden and Jaden

Jaden, Caden and Sophie...too cute together.

today was warm!



we had a playgroup playdate at Lisa Thomas's house... she recently launched her photography business and it's about time she did, she's an awesome photographer who has a great eye for light and color, she captures beautiful images of kids and families. Check out kiralisa.com to see her work and find her contact info, you'll even find a shot of jaden in there.



anyway, she took some shots of the kiddos that turned out great, "hinies" are only cute(and for that matter, appropriate) for so long so might as well capture them while they are.



here are her images...

March recap - part 1

Kate, Joey, Will and Amanda - Joey gave us a tour of Duke

Me chewing on the Sherrard's porch. mmm.

Jaden and Dad at the Biltmore

Jaden and Pops at the Nolichucky Gorge Camp Ground

Jaden playing drop the keys on the Biltmore grounds

Looking at the ducks and geese on Duke garden's lake

Nana and I head hugging

Dad's spring break was last week and we had a great camping/friend visiting adventure. We took our inaugural family camping/rafting trip! I didn't exactly get to raft in the traditional sense of the word...on a river, but I did play on the raft and help dad clean it!





Nana and Pops chaufered me around in the motorhome, mom was so very thankful that I had a quiet place to take naps. Dad wanted to start me sleeping in the tent, but when all was said and done, he and mom slept in the motorhome too! Next time.





After camping at two great locations in North Carolina and rafting for four days with friends from Noah's and from Memphis, we were spoiled with a night at the biltmore...the inn there is gorgeous with incredible views, great service and a big bath tub. My favorite part wasn't the incredible room we stayed in but walking along the path and playing the key game...drop them, pick them up, run a few steps, repeat. It was awesome, I laughed at myself for 30 minutes till Mom and Dad finally whisked me off to bed. One of the pictures here shows me playing my favorite game of the trip.





Our last few days were spent in Durham at Kate and Joey's house. Amanda and Will were there too....they spent a ton of time talking and praying and laughing with mom and dad...but all I wanted to do was play in the front yard. Everyone loved on me and took such good care of me, can't wait till next year! One of the pictures is of me trying to eat on the Sherrard's porch.

A march recap-part 2

Jay and Jaden
Mom and Jaden
Jay, Darlene and Granny

In the middle of march, Jay (jaden's aunt) got to be in Austin for a week! We were so excited that she was in the states that Jaden and I hopped on Southwest and made a weekend stop in Austin. We had such a nice relaxing time with Gma, Grandpaw and tante Jay. Jaden also got to spend extra special time with his great grandparents and great aunt, uncle and cousin on the means side! Linda sent these pictures as I did not bring a camera on the trip.



On a side note, I got the coolest early birthday gift from Jay and Linda...a beautiful pair of real boots. I love them and have been sporting them ever since! Is it ok to wear them with shorts now that memphis is in the 80's?

what's up

Diane and Hayden Selby

this is katie and adam,

I get the priviledge of photographing their wedding in june, i can't wait! they are extraordinary people and are already an extraordinary couple.

a perk is that it's in buena vista where a few of our dear ones live: amanda, will, kim and john - can't wait to see you!

Hayden

Sweet Jaden in the daffodils

Jaden not willing to part with his comb

Jaden showing off his stair descending skills

well, besides the exciting news about our second little boy...our lives have been a whirlwind as usual, so i'll catch you up.





we are really excited about joel moving on from soulsville charter school to be a summer school principal with the mississippi teacher's corp....joel has loved working for soulsville and believes so strongly in their vision and mission, however the hours simply didn't work for our family and I think that has also been God's way of pushing Joel to move on and step into what he really wants to do. so he's applying for a scholarship to get a master's in educational leadership, he's looking at other jobs inside and outside of the field of education, we're dreaming together about what the next few years could hold...we'll keep you posted, we are excited and though joel is leaving his current job at the end of May, it has been good and he loves working there.





i am working hard on my photography :) i'll post a few of the things i have done in the past few weeks.

And baby makes four!

well, it hasn't been officially announced on the blog, but it is way past due: we are having a baby! if you know us, you know that. but you may not know that we are having another little BOY! we found out last wednesday...it is so exciting to think that the boys will be 18 months apart, they'll probably fight like cats and dogs, and be the best of friends...what a gift to our family! we are so thankful!

in addition to finding out the sex of our new little one, more importantly we found out that most birth "defects" (what an aweful term) were ruled out by the sonogram - it showed all to be looking great!

we have gotten close to picking a name, but are still not 100% sure...we'll let you know on that front very soon. Here's a shot of his face, you can see the bone around his eye hole...all the white is bone, his face is looking at us with his body going off the page to the right. I'll also include a shot where his head is on the left, he's lying down facing away from us...you can see his right arm on top of his body and then of course his spine and pelvic bones.