Hello!

It has been a while...

Here is quick update on what you have missed...

Things in our house have been busy busy busy! Summer was wonderful.  I absolutely LOVED having Philip home with me this summer.  He was still gone a lot working on Grad School but he could come home for lunch and that was wonderful :)

Joseph is also busy busy busy.  He DEFINITELY keeps me on my toes.  We have a very curious little boy!  He is all boy and sometimes I am just not sure how to play with him with out exhausting myself!  He loves to be outside and play with stick and leaves.  He just learned to say hut and then throw the football.

We had a miscarriage about four weeks ago and lost our little Zelie.  We were about 10 weeks along.  From the beginning we felt it was a girl so we decided to name her Zelie after Blessed Zelie Martin.  (read about them here)  Philip and I were just talking about it in the car last night and we both feel like a part of us is missing.  I feel a little emptiness inside of me.  Maybe I will always feel that way until I am in heaven.  For now I know that I am blessed to have one child here on earth and one child in heaven.  Even though I know this... its still hard to not feel cheated.  I wish I was still pregnant and due in April... and I wish I could hold my sweet baby Zelie.  Why is it so hard to accept Gods plan for our lives?

I am thankful to know that my mother had a miscarriage right before me so without that miscarriage I would not be here.  It helps to remember that and reminds me that God's plan is so much greater than mine.  If he had not called my older sibling home... I would not be here.

In the meantime I have this sweet little bug to hug and cuddle all the time :)

Anyway...

I am actually starting to write a blog again because we are actually in the middle of renovating our house :)  I am so excited about it all!

Here are some before pics...

Before Mudroom/Laundry Room/ Toilet in closet

We are going to knock out that closet.  Behind that back wall is our storage room.  We are getting rid of the storage room and making it the laundry room.  Then we are going to have a half bath where the orange chest is.  I cannot wait to have a half bath close to our living area for people to use :)

Looking out from laundry area into kitchen/ family room beyond

kitchen before with unused formal dining room beyond the door

We are extending the kitchen into the dining room.  We are also going to make the family room larger by moving the wall closer to the front of the house.  Our formal living room will be smaller and our family room will be larger :)

I cannot wait to have a large kitchen with a pantry in the same room.  We are also going to have a desk in the kitchen to put all our bills etc. 

Family room looking back at the kitchen

The wall on the left is the one that is moving back about 4 feet. By doing that we are now going to have an island in the kitchen where the sink is. 

In the unused formal dining room looking into the kitchen...
living room to the right

looking into living room from dining room 

This room is going to be smaller but will still be a pretty good size.  Below you can see our currently empty dining room that will be our kitchen... you won't be able to see into the kitchen from this room though.  There will be a set of pocket door on the right wall going into the family room.  

looking back into the living room and unused dining room

Guest Bathroom

And here is the bathroom that is being gutted and re-done.  I cannot wait to get rid of the matchy matchy peach floor tile/wall paper/ toilet/and tub.

Guest bathroom... bath time

I guess that's it for now... I will post some pics of the progress soon... maybe even this afternoon if I can find some time :)

ps. Sorry my house is a disaster in all of the pics... thats my life :)

An afternoon at the beach

I am not going to lie I do love living in Alabama. 

 Our family LOVES the water!  

That is definitely a "framer" SO precious!

My parents live on Mobile Bay and Philips parents just bought a house on the river so we are going to have fun wet and hot summer!! This past weekend we drove to Gulf Shores to visit so wonderful friends of ours for the afternoon.  Greg and Lizzy were friends of ours in college and I just love them so so much!  They were in Gulf Shores this weekend so we went for the afternoon and a delicious dinner made by Chef Greg.  We also got to see Ryan Brown another friend from college.  They were practicing praise and worship.  It was so wonderful to hear them all play!  It was also great to see them and catch up!  It was a little chilly this past weekend but we managed to get out to the beach anyway.  Joseph just LOVED the sand!  Here are a few pictures from our outing at Gulf Shores :)

Smiles in the sand

More smiles... I think he is smiling at Lizzy :)

Very serious...

He loved the sea shells

This one is so cool mom!

I just love the beach!

Daddy and Joseph

Family photo

So much fun in Gulf Shores!

Happy Friday! 

Mardi Gras

It was so much fun to finally be in mobile for Mardi Gras!

We had fun going to a few parades, checking out all of the floats for Philips dads organization KOR (Knights of Revelry) and going to a ball!

Philip, His Dad (Jimmy-josephs name for him) and Joseph

Standing at Jimmy's spot on the float

Joseph and Dad on the "New Dad" Float

The Farmer float

The theme of their parade this year was "Dirty Jobs" because the show Dirty Jobs on Discovery came to KOR in mobile and learned about Mobile Mardi Gras.  On the show the KOR's showed him how to fill a cow's bladder with air and paint it silver (gross I know) ... You'll see later

Jules,  Joseph and I on the float

Sweet Joseph

The front float.  A man stand in the cup and bangs the cows
bladder during the parade... again you will see...

At the Parade...

There is the dude!! And there are the silver cow bladders

And there he goes...

The butcher float

Joseph was concerned... he just clung to us
during every parade... they are very loud

The coal miner

Oil Spill clean up

New dad float... philips dad is the furthest one from us on the bottom

And here we are actually right after the ball.  The KOR ball is and afternoon ball so women wear dress suits and hats and men wear suits.

It was a very fun time and I am looking forward to next year!

Joe's Birthday

So I know I am two weeks late... but here are Joseph's 1st Birthday pics :)

WARNING... there are TONS of pics below!!

Good Morning Joseph and Happy Birthday!

A good morning breakfast consisting of sausages, oranges and fruit loops... 

some of his favorites for his birthday! 

Now time for a birthday bath!

So much fun in the tub!!

Here we are with the birthday boy before cake :)

He was a little concerned why we were all singing... 

Time for cake! He was also unsure...

He actually was not a big fan... once he got the icing all over his hands he got very upset... 

so he didnt eat any cake which I was ok with because i was 7pm...

After everyone left the birthday boy played his favorite game... Empty the DVD cabinet

He just loves this game!

Now here we are the next day enjoying leftover spaghetti...

Time for another bath... no pics though.

Here are pics of his Mickey Mouse Birthday Party...

He got mickey and pluto for his birthday :)

And here are some of the decorations I made (which are still hanging) because I am too lazy to take them down I think they are so beautiful!

Although I do love looking at how much Joe has grown in the past year!

Birthday banner and table

Mickey mouse cupcakes :)

The oreos made a mickey mouse shape on the cupcakes!

Now here is the birthday boy!!

Still concerned everyone was singing to him...

Finally grabbing the cake to try it :)

He did a little better but he is a very clean eater... 

He was upset once again when he got icing all over his hands...

Here we are again with our ONE year old boy!