He's Here!

Well, Andrew has arrived! He is healthy and handsome and we are so grateful for God's mercy and blessing! If you want the whole birth story, give me a call. These are some pictures of the last few days.

This is before my doctor broke my water. I was actually having contractions, but still able to smile. I was trying to rest and relax at this point.

Mark was the best coach a wife could ask for. He was timing contractions and refreshing his memory with the book Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. I highly recommend this book to any pregnant lady even if you plan on having an epidural.

Here he is, just minutes after birth. Mark has some very sweet pictures of Andrew moments after birth when he was laying on my chest. But they are on his phone and not our computer.

Getting cleaned up

Our wonderful doctor.

Do I look like I just ran a marathon? It was hard work delivering that bundle of joy!

Jack and Charlie came to see us in the hospital about an hour after Andrew was born. They were very excited to meet him! Jack drew a card for him and brought it to us.

Day 2 in the hospital. Getting cuter by the minute!

Grandmother and Andrew

Mark's parents kept Jack and Charlie another night, so we could get a little more rest. When they came home, Andrew was alseep in the bassinet. They were ready to see him.

They "petted" him very gently!

Grandpa and Andrew

Jack loves to hold him. And is very good at it!

Charlie has done very well with Andrew's arrival. He has been a little more fussy, but I think that is due to things not being normal. He has not shown any jealousy towards Andrew, but he does get very upset if he thinks its his turn to hold Andrew, but Andrew needs to eat,have a diaper change, etc. And when he is holding Andrew, he studies his face, hands, and feet. He loves the baby!

Getting a diaper change.

THe Old Towne Store is our favorite place to eat lunch. Their kids' menu is named after our sons and they recently added a new item, the Andrew Special - mashed bananas $.99. How fun is that!

Weddings and Birthdays

Well, my brother was tying the knot, so we HAD to travel to St.Lucia to show our support. Here are a few pics of our overseas excursion.

Going out for dinner one night. The food we ate at every restaurant was amazing!


The beach at the resort. It was cloudy about 80% of our time there, which had its advantage of not being so hot.

Mark went sailing several times.

Relaxing on the beach.

Relaxing at the pool at the resort. This was the sunniest time we were there.

The view from Pigeon Island National Park. It was raining when we made that hike.

Posing for a pic with the groom while we waited the arrival of the bride.

The wedding site was beautiful!

What God has joined together, let no man separate. Sand is such a neat symbol of that.

You may kiss the bride.

Cutting the cake.

Having a little fun after the ceremony.

The reception site was beautiful!

Dinner at the reception was excellent! I'm so glad we were able to be there to share that time with my brother!

When we returned to Arkansas we celebrated Charlie's 2nd birthday! I gave him several pictures of cakes to choose from and he chose a kitty cat cake.

What a joy Charlie is to us! As you can see, he enjoyed the chocolate cake.

In other news,one of Grandpa's chickens started sitting on her eggs. Since he doesn't have a rooster, we had to get some fertilized eggs from a friend. So maybe in a few weeks, we'll have some little chicks to raise! Here is Charlie petting her as she sits.

Easter 2010

First some random pictures.

Jack is doing a great job riding his tricycle!

The boys after an afternoon of play with Granpa. Notice how dirty Charlie is!

Charlie making a "mad" face.

We have a friend who invited us to an Easter egg hunt at their house. There were a lot of children there, but they were divided by age groups. So they all had a fair chance at "hunting" eggs. Charlie filled his basket to the top.

Jack picked up a few in the bushes.

But he was really more interested in this rocket toy.

We had a wonderful Easter morning. We gave the boys lambs again and made Resurrection rolls. Jesus died on the cross and they placed him in the tomb (marshmellow goes in crescent roll). After three days, the tomb was empty! (marshmellow melts during baking and leaves a hollow center) Jesus rose from the dead and is alive!

When we ate them, Jack would look inside the roll and say "Where is Jesus?!" as in he is not in the tomb anymore.

Family photo at the special Easter service at the auditorium. Thank you, Aunt Connie, for the matching shirts! The service was wonderful! We took communion and our pastor showed scenes from the Passion of the Christ. It was difficult to watch the portrayal of Jesus' suffering and death. He was the lamb of God to take away my sin and I am so thankful!

Later that afternoon, Mark's parents filled Easter eggs with quarters and hid them in our backyard. The boys "hunted" them. Jack was very good about leaving some for Charlie or sharing with him.

After the hunt, Charlie was very interested in examining all the eggs in his basket.

What We've Been Up To

Packing to go on "trips"

Playing Supermen

Building castles

Reading books

Playing outside

Someone gave us a trolley, so Mark put up a rope. The boys love it!

The faster he goes, the more he likes it.

Baking bread.

Getting dressed up to go to church to worship God and serve people.

Taking bubble baths.

What a Day

Well, this day has been a very productive day. This is Mark by the way, Laura is preparing for her Sunday school class, and I have a lot to say. This morning I went to Walmart to pick up some food to feed a family after the funeral of their 92 year old mother. In my basket I had 3 tubs of Potato Salad, 2 Tubs of Baked Beans, 5 Packages of dinner rolls, 2 big bags of chips, 50 pieces of fried chicken, and in my dads cart (he came to help me get the food to my van. What a dad!) was a sandwich tray, 2 gallons of tea, and 3 kinds of soft drinks. The reason I say all this is because of the reaction I received from people. The first man said, "You must be having a picnic." I said "No, a funeral." He said, "Oh" and walked off. I thought that was hilarious. The second man walked up and said, "Y'all are having a gathering". I said "No, a funeral." He said, "Oh, well that is kind of like a gathering." And to finish it all off, the check out lady said, "Are you having a party?" I said, "No, a funeral." She said, "Oh" and looked down. All three people said their comment to me with energy and after I told them what the food was really for, their face dropped and little was said after that. It was funny.

I came home and the boys were in the backyard with Laura playing. I changed my clothes and Laura comes running inside holding Charlie, who is crying, and she told me to get a rag for Charlie's nose, which was bleeding out of both nostrils. Apparently Jack had accidentally hit Charlie directly in the face with the plastic baseball bat. The bat is about the size of a softball in circumference. After we got the bleeding stopped Charlie wanted to go outside and play some more. He continually had blood dripping from his nose the rest of the morning (which was less than one hour), but it did not seem to stop him. Laura said it looked like it hurt so bad that at first he couldn't even cry because it hurt so bad.

And then the rest of the day Dad and I worked on finishing all the firewood and we did.

Dad and I standing in front of the wood shed that Dad and I built together to put all the wood and the boys' toys. I am holding a splitting maul and dad is holding a stickler. http://www.thestickler.com/

We had so much wood, we had to make two rows inside the wood shed so it would all fit.

More Wood.

And more wood.

And my beautiful wife, who is 26 weeks pregnant with our third boy. Hopefully he won't have any encouters with the bat when he gets older.