Our Independence Day...

We had an awesome Independence Day! It basically started on Wednesday evening when Kelley & her family arrived for a visit. This was the first time that her husband Scott and son, Austin had been to our house {also the first time that James & Scott had ever met!}. We had planned to spend time at the pool and a little time at the lake. Well there was a situation at the pool on Wednesday night which lead to the pool being closed the entire time the Anderson's were visiting {actually the pool isn't scheduled to open back up until Thursday :( }. On top of the pool issues, the Ratliff's boat a had a glitch which meant that we basically spent time at the beach and on the dock. So Thursday Jameson & i hung out at the dock with the Andersons and Ratliffs. After we swam and played for most of the day we headed home for dinner with James. Following dinner i headed out with the Andersons to take some family pictures. It is always fun to photograph friends, especially ones that are willing to experiment with me. i'll be posted some sneak peaks soon! Friday we basically repeated the above except that the Ratliff's boat was fixed and James was off work!! Double bonus! Early in the day James & Scott put sod out onto the side yard...can you believe James would make his guest work?! {That was what all of the neighbors were saying as they drove by, Scott says he enjoyed it! Either way, thanks for helping out Scott!} Friday evening we had crab boil with a few of the neighborhood families. i personally think it was even better then T-60 {less spice!}

Saturday morning Kelley & i got up at 4 am to hit the Jockey Lot. i think she may have planned her trip around being here for a Saturday morning?! Either way it was fun to get some one on one time to catch up with each other. Friday evening it actually had struck me that as much as i love seeing her entire family and having them around my whole family, it limited the amount of time we got to catch up with each other. Which is what most of our past visits have been, mainly all of the retreats where we roomed together! So Saturday morning it was nice to get a chance to talk, even though it meant getting up SO very early! Once we got back from our shopping their family headed onto their next stop...Jekyll Island.

The rest of our 4th was spent at the Ratliff dock. By the middle of the afternoon it was obvious that Jameson was going to need a nap but he didn't want to leave the excitement. So Carrie & i headed out on the boat to nap the boy! The best part is that it worked! After returning to the dock we flooded around in our life jacket diapers for a few more hours. When the sun started to set there were 3 boats that tied up together and we watched the fireworks. Seeing fireworks over a body of water is the absolute best. And this year it was even better because Jameson wanted to snuggle in my lap (which is why there are zero pictures of fireworks from this year!). This little boy is going through a major snuggling phase and i LOVE it!

Onto other news, i've been keeping busy editing pictures from various sessions from the past couple of weeks. Be on the lookout for some exciting specials that will be offered for Jill Jarvis Photography!

Explanation of the crazy one leg in the air photo...the lining in his swim trunks is solid (not mesh like most). Whenever he gets out of the water there is usually some remaining water in them. He will sometimes do a little wiggle to make some music (it is hilarious). And other times he raises his leg high in the air (like the picture) to release the water. He is so cute!

Happy Father's Day!

We wanted to wish all of our many father's a wonderful day. We are so blessed to have each and everyone of you in our lives.

And to the father of my child, you amaze me every.single.day. Just last week while we were at the pool every child was playing with James. It was so sweet to see, tiring for him but awesome to see how much he enjoys being around kids! James we love you and don't tell you enough how much we respect and appreciate YOU!

AU Coaches on the Today's show!

I'll be back soon with a recap of our trip but for now I wanted to share this...

Ashland University Vote for Nick & Leigh!Cross Country Coaches 'in the running' for Today Show wedding!

Cross country coaches Nick Cordes '03 and Leigh Daniel are among four couples competing for a nationally televised wedding through NBC's "The Today Show." Voting will take place each Wednesday for the next three weeks. Each Friday, the couple with the least amount of votes is eliminated from the competition. Help Nick and Leigh win their dream wedding!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE ONLINE TODAY ! Or you can text your vote to 46833 (this week send 4 in the text message).

Cuddly & Trendy!

Couple quick shares for today! The first is that Trendy Straps (the company that i previously won two contests!!). They are having some awesome giveaways over the next week. Check it out here!

The second is to let you all know about this really cool thing my friend Sarah Hayes is making. They are towels that help you while you're bathing babies. Not only is it a really cool concept but they are adorable too! Check it out on etsy here!

Unplugged recap...

i've been meaning to come and post about the day that i totally unplugged. But guess what...the challenge helped me so much that i haven't been online as much overall! In case you forgot what i'm referring to, Jodified mentioned something on her blog about unplugging from the computer, internet, phone & television for 24 hours. i decided to do it on Mother's Day so i could spend the day with my boys...totally and fully connected to THEM. And guess what it was AWESOME. Not that i was surprised by that part of it. What i have been surprised by is that over the last few weeks i've been finding myself connecting more on a face to face way. Which over the last few years has seemed to have become lost a bit. For me it hasn't been so much with my guys, more with others. We can stay connected through other avenues...facebook, email, cell phones, etc. Not that i'm going to completely unplug from those places entirely, just making an effort to stay fully IN life, not just wired to life.

One more thing, this weekend at RiverTree, Greg Nettle spoke about how our DNA has wired each of us to connect with God in a different way. Such as serving others, through nature, contemplation, etc. He had 5 other people speak about how they are wired to connect to Him. It was a cool message. One exciting things about the advancements in technology, it allows me (or you) to hear the rest of this series, even once we're back home and unable to attend RiverTree. Click here for audios of their messages.

As you've probably noticed i haven't been blogging or posting much lately. This week, Jameson & i are away visiting family and friends. Lots of fun times that i'll be sharing bits and pieces of but not now. For now i'll be making memories and if the stories float around and makes it from my brain to the computer, you'll be hearing about them at that point! So what pieces of technology have you taken to but may find you have to readjust a bit?

Where does the time go???

Have you been wondering where we've been lately??? We've been actively living life and i just haven't gotten to the blog to post any updates. All good things, just not enough time in the day to blog! Here are a few of the things we've been up to...Jameson's last days of school (Miss Frances loved the bird feeder he picked out for her!), graduation program at school, i attending the student ministry event to take pictures, James has had a few important client meetings, preparing for our trip to Ohio, 4 year check up for Jameson (included 4 shots - yuck), a birthday party for our friend Aubrey, a photo session to capture this sweet boy at 5, i snapped the picture of myself in the mirror of an old truck (the angle of the mirror worked to help hind some curves!), add in that my laptop was gone for some upgrades and you get...less blogging! Here are some pictures from some of the above mentioned activities! We hope you are doing well and enjoying life!

Our day...

Such an amazing, adorable video:

Today was a bit of a crazy day for us. We woke up, after sleeping in just a bit (till 8 - yippe the boy is getting it)! Then we decided to head to Anderson to get a few things, including a gift for Jameson's teacher. Well we got ourselves all set and ready to go, drove the 30 minutes it takes to get there. Then as we were pulling into Sams i reached for my purse to get the membership card out. My wallet wasn't in my purse. Then i remembered that i'd taken it out shortly before we left to pay a bill. So we went into Sams so i could submit a photo order. On the way there Jameson asked for a pretzel and luckily we had a few dollars in the truck so we shared a pretzel. The next step turned out okay because i had gift cards for Home Depot. So we decided to get his teacher's gift from there. (She is getting a nice bird feeder and some food, i think i'm also going to make something too.) From there we headed home since we only had about .95 cents left. We did head back out once we got home but we went the other direction to finish our errands. While we were in town Jeannie called to ask if we could get together so i could help her with some scrapbooking. It turned out good that we were still in town and James wasn't going to be home until late tonight. Jameson had a blast with their itty bitty puppy, Daisy. Overall as crazy as the day seemed it was pretty good!

One more thing...read this from Pioneer Woman Photography regarding getting yourself into the pictures!

Shine 09

Today was the annual Shine project for FCC. For 3 hours on a Saturday in May we serve the community. James & i were leaders for the group that was painting the park near our house. It is amazing what 3 hours of manual labor can do to a faded park. i am so grateful for the members of our team...the park looks great now! The photos above show the before and after. It looks so much better now. Even the little ones got involved. Jameson was so excited to help out. He was actually painting quite a bit. Look at the paint splatter all over his face & clothes. Luckily I got his new shoes off before they got paint all over them too. Never too young to serve!

Mother's Day gifts!

This year I challenged myself to make all of the gifts that we gave for Mother's Day. I did it! The cards I created were fun because I decided on a color and found coordinating papers in my stash (just went to the green folder - love having my PP organized by color!). I used the cricut to cut out the butterflies. The piece that I made was creating hybrid bracelets (8 total - yes we are blessed!). I used photos of the boy and digital bits from various Songbird Avenue kits. In addition to the bracelet the mothers each received a really fun fabric wrapped decorative photo thing (that is the true technical term for it). More pictures are on facebook if you want to see some up close shots as well as the second version I made for Nana Susan with pictures of Addy. Full credits for this piece can be found at TheDigiChick (hybrid pieces from Sugarplum Paperie & Ali Edwards).

Now we're off to help with Abby & Caroline's babies. They have something at school with the big kids so Jameson & I are going to watch the littles. I told Jameson about it and he said but mom I'm not a girl so I can't help babysit. Such a funny boy.

Fun-filled weekend!

Wow have we had a fun-filled weekend! It basically started Friday, with Western Day at school! They had a horse drawn wagon, a goat named Ding-Dong, hamburgers on an open flame, stick horse races, horseshoes and best of all...cowboy hats for everyone. Look at how cute this little guys looks! Then later that afternoon James' mom (aka MC/Nana Susan) and Joe-Joe arrived. James even came home a bit early from work! We had a nice relaxing evening here at the house.

Then on Saturday we had Jameson's birthday party...at Home Depot. Oh boy was he excited! So our plan for the day was for Susan & me to get dropped off at Home Depot while the guys went to do something else. Well Jameson wanted to help set up for his party, and he actually did help! His party was all about what he is into these days...The Home Depot and Chick-fil-A. Add in a mix of friends and family and you've got his utopia. The entertainment was that the kids each got to made a wooden wheelbarrow planters. Jameson got done with his before most of his friends arrived so he was entertaining himself with a tape measure. He thought it was the best when it would fly off the end of the boards...simple joys! After everyone was done with the project we enjoyed chicken and cake. The cake was adorable and not only did it look great, it tasted even better! Jameson even wanted to cut it himself, luckily the cutting tool was just a putty knife! Overall the party was a great success and Jameson is starting to look forward to being 4. He keeps asking if he is already 4 or if he has to wait until his official birthday (Tuesday). So funny the different ways he always looks at things. And now I'll answer the question that you're probably thinking, yes we had his party at Home Depot. No they don't typically do parties there but I asked and the manager said yes. We did find out that they aren't really supposed to do it but since they had told us already they went ahead with ours. So if you have a little boy that is also obsessed with HD, you most likely won't be able to have a party there.

After the party we headed up to Split Creek Farm to check out the baby goats. Caroline & Lily were also going so Jameson had someone else his same size (a common question when we're going somewhere). Jameson thought it was hilarious that the goats would try to eat his clothes. He and Nana Susan each had little nibbles from the little goats! This photo of Jameson & Lily was right before Jameson gave Lily a kiss. They are so funny together!

The next activity for the weekend came today. The Fanello girls were all receiving their First Communion. It was nice to get to spend this special time with them and lots of extended family from Ohio. After mass we all headed back to their house to spend some time together. During mass the Priest mentioned something that I thought was very interesting. He said that in Eastern cultures women with small children will bring them to the altar for communion; and it is given to both mother and child. However in Western culture they must wait until the age of reason. The part that has stuck with me throughout the day was that this church has given the age of reason a specific age. Is it possible to set a specific age on when a child is old enough to reason? In my mind, welcoming Jesus into your heart to choose to follow him on a daily basis varies person to person.

More updates will be coming in the next few days. Jameson has his birthday celebration at school tomorrow and then we had the official birthday on Tuesday. For anyone that are on twitter, Tuesday is going to be Jesus Loves You day...join in on the challenge!

Winner!

We have a winner...Sphinx63 (I sent you an email so hopefully we can get the kit to you today)! Jameson & I were dressed as firemen. He had fun pretending to spray off things and best of all we took pictures!

The last 24 - 48 hours have been almost a blur for our family. Mostly good but just overall fast paced. This morning Jameson & I left the house at 8:30 we were on the run until about 4:30 and then after a quick change over at the house we left again and didn't get back until almost 10. In the mix we go to strawberry picking with Sarah and her kiddos. The berries are so perfectly ripe now! This evening James helped out the Carr's with their new yard. A few other friends from church stopped by and it was a nice evening with friends. The real downer the last couple of days has been that Deacon has been sick. That means lots of messed for James & me to clean up around the house. Jameson & I took him to the vet today and they gave him a shot and we're changing his food so hopefully that will fix things.

This weekend Mother Crill & Joe are coming in along with lots of other Luers family. It will be a good weekend! I'll be posting pictures sometime next week. To stay more current, feel free to follow me through the twitter box on the sidebar of the blog.

Congrats again to sphinx63, I apologize for not finalizing the giveaway until now.

The little things!

This phase of my life seems to be centered around the little things...and I love it! Here are some recent things that have happened that I don't want to forget.

• Today Jameson was going on a field trip during school time. We were talking about it as we were getting ready this morning. He looked at me and asked "well which field are we going to go visit". He is so literal at times! I told him no you aren't going to visit a field, you're going to the elementary school for story time and then to a local dairy farm. He proceeded to ask if I thought the bus could handle the field that they would be driving through. So he was still stuck on the idea of field.
• Earlier this week we met up with my friend Sarah at a local park for music in the park. It was fun to meet up with her. I am amazed at how much Layla has grown already! Sarah does an amazing job with her kiddos. At the park there were so many people that we decided to just walk around outside of the actual playground portion. I was on total sensory overload with the noise and not being able to see the kids at every moment. It was nice to be able to just chat with her and enjoy the awesome weather that is settling in these days!
  
• For nap time today he shared a few things that he wanted to pray about (I usually ask him what things he wants to add to the prayers before nap then I say the prayer). Well today I asked him and then when we were praying I said "Lord hear our prayers", instead of actually repeating everything. Jameson did not like that so he said okay God I'll tell you. Like everyday we pray that daddy will come home safely to us after work and that Jose (our compassion child) will feel God's love surrounding him. Jameson's other prayers today were that he could drive better at Monster Truck Camp (the latest make believe location) and that he could learn to play golf as good as his dad. So sweet.
  
• Yesterday we all had a wonderful day. Started out doing a little shopping at the outlets. Jameson really needs new shoes but we can't seem to find his size crocs. I did find a few fun dresses for the summer and I found a new pair of white shoes. I needed a pair to wear at the ADPi convention and the ones I found will be good for other things this year too. After doing a little shopping on our own we met up with Sarah & her kiddos. (The picture here is from my iPhone while we were taking a break and letting the kids play before heading to Chick-fil-A for lunch. We ended up being there for 2 hours. The kids were all playing so well together! Straight from there Jameson & I headed to a park new our house. The Crooks were meeting us there for me to take some pictures to celebrate Caleb's first birthday. We had such a great time. I shot 359 pictures and from what I could tell on the screen on the camera there are some really cute ones. I'll post a few here once I get them processed. Oh that little guy loves me...which makes me love him even more!
• I just took a quiz about colors. I'm all over the board but slightly lean toward red (which isn't necessarily my favorite color but the description matches). It says "Red Scrapbooker: You have a real passion for this hobby. Your pages are colorful, bold, lively and full of adventure. You may enjoy travel and have many vacation photos. You like your albums to reflect your zest for life and the varied experiences you enjoy." I was close to green, blue & white as well which all blended together does pretty much describe my scrapbooking style. Take the quiz and let me know what it says about YOU!
  
• Our weekend activities...see the pile of mulch? Need I say more except that my AWESOME husband will be spreading about 95% of it. Okay maybe more like 85% with Jameson picking up that other 10%. I don't really help, unless you count supplying food and drink. I've helped in the past but I don't seem to do it the way James prefers and because I tend to get blisters. I'll post some pictures of the updated yard once it is all spread. He does such a great job keeping our home looking beautiful!

Us!

Things have been good lately. Nothing major going on, which has been really nice. Jameson has been on a mega hot wheels kick. The other day he decided to line them all up and look at them all at once. So I of course had to pull out the camera and document it. Oh boy there are lots of them...in total 80 right now (good thing they only run about $.97 each). The really cute part is that this smarty pants can tell you where almost all of them came from...this one came from Uncle Greg's house, this one came from that girl (aka Nana), I got this one with my own money at wal-mart, etc. And for the first time this week he got two duplicates. They are the same cars except different colors. These two pairs at this moment are napping with him, he loves the idea of matching, kinda like rhymes!

As many of you know our family loves Tervis tumblers. This week I found out that the sparkly ones can't go in the microwave. It didn't even dawn on me that they were metal. No one was harmed in this error except the cup.

This other pictures is a silly one I captured of him the other night playing with his new glow stick. He was having a blast with it while watching a little tv.


Yesterday Jameson went to hang out with Jenna for a little while. My friend Sabrina came over to scrapbook. It is always nice to connect with friends through this awesome hobby. I created this page about James' great-grandma E. The day before I had started working on the mother's day gifts. Jameson was having so much fun helping me measure the fabric. Oh he is such a cutie! I did do another page but I created it for a design team call for Vintage Plum. I can't post it elsewhere until after they make the decision. I used the song lyrics from this video on you tube! I love being challenged to create things I don't know that I would have thought of before. I knew I wanted to document Jameson's obsession with Chick-fil-A but I don't think I would have thought to include the lyrics from this silly song on you tube. How about you, what has inspired you lately to create something that you wouldn't have originally done?

We're having friends over for dinner so I'm heading now to get some veggies cut up!

Making a difference...

Choosing to make a difference is something that is near and dear to my heart. Last night James & I had the opportunity to attend a dinner with our friends L.C. & Sarah. Sarah's friend Martha Marie recently joined a group called Caroline's Promise. They are bringing their ministry to South Carolina. Their mission is to spread the word about adoption.

“Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Matthew 18:14

The keynote was given from Robby Mitchell. He was abandoned at the age of 3 and lived in an orphanage for the remainder of his childhood. It was interesting to hear his story as someone who was not adopted and has succeeded in life. He started following Christ shortly after leaving the orphanage. If you'd like to help share the vision of Caroline's Promise they do have a group on Facebook or you could sign up to brown bag it ones a week to help fund this ministry.

Something else I wanted to bring to your attention. Have you heard of TOMS shoes? This is a company that for every pair of shoes that are purchased a pair of shoes is given to a child in need. So tomorrow (4/16) they are asking everyone to go without shoes in an attempt to bring more attention to their company. I'm going to go without shoes but I don't run into too many people since we don't typically leave the development. I can however spread the word through the blog. So check out their site and if you're in a position to go without shoes, do it and help spread the word about One for One.

Week prior to Easter...

Here we are the week prior to Easter. This time of year the excitement is in the air, especially at FCC. They are anticipating nearly double the normal attendance. We're doing our part by going to the early service and we're taking Greg along! I can't wait to hear the message. If you're in the area and want to join us, let me know!

In preparation for Easter I just read that Rachel Olsen is exploring the readings that Jesus did the week prior to the cross. Sounds like a very interesting study of the bible. Want to join me in this reading?

I also thought I would share another CT project that I did a few weeks ago. The kit hadn't been released yet so I couldn't post it earlier. It is such a simple little thing that I just printed out on the printer here at home and slipped into a plastic frame (the kind with the magnet on the back). It is fun to have fresh pictures on the lockers while I create in the office.

Later this week we will officially be in on spring break at our house. Jameson has one more day of school, which will consist of crazy hat day and an egg hunt. We're excited to have some extra time together. I'm planning to come up with some special activities here at the house and possibly some day trips. Does anyone have any suggestions for fun things to do with a wild almost 4 year old boy that loves car. The only thought I've come up with is to create a cool road one night after he goes to bed so he wakes up to it. If the weather cooperate we may do some day trips or something. Tomorrow it is supposed to possibly snow here. Is it really April? Okay I'm off to have dinner with some friends!