Caleb's Karate Tournament

Caleb had his first karate tournament back in February at one of the local YMCAs. He got to perform and compete in his "kata", which is a series of punching and kicking moves that he performs from memory. It's kind of like coreographed karate. Two kids do their katas side by side and there is a judge that proclaims the winner of the two. Caleb did that a couple times, and then he also got to spar a couple times with an opponent. He had a great time and enjoyed getting to put his karate skills to use. Everyone got a medal at the end of the tournament, so that made it even more special for him. It was a long day for the rest of us (especially Judson) as we had to wait around for a few hours before his age group was finished. But it was an important event for Caleb, who has really been enjoying taking karate and learning a new skill. He also regulary practices his moves at home!

Spring Break

For Spring Break I decided to drive down to Florida with the kids (by myself) to see my family. As our trip got closer, I began to REALLY second guess my decision! What was I thinking?!? Barrett wasn't able to take any vacation time with his job yet, so I wanted to take advantage of the time we had to visit Grammy, Pappy, Uncle Heath, and Nana. Nana had not met Judson in person yet, so that was another reason I really wanted to go. The Lord was very gracious to me, and our trip there and back was nowhere near as hard as I thought it might be with Judson. He did surprisingly well for such a long drive, and the kids were great to help out in giving him snacks and his drinks. On the way down to Largo, we stopped in Niceville and stayed with our good friends, the Wards, for the night. It was so nice to see their family again, and the kids had such a fun time playing together. It is such a blessing to have friends to stay with to make the trip easier! So, after two days of driving, we finally made it to Grammy and Pappy's house.
We enjoyed our usual Largo activities which the kids love, and we had beautiful weather all week! One day we went to Largo Central Park and played croquet out in the field. Throughout the week we visited Lisa (the Macaw) at the Sand Key Shops and got an icecream, went to the "banana" park and played in the trees, and took a trip to the St. Petersburg Children's Museum (which was not very crowded). It was nice because we had a high enough adult/ child ratio to spread out with the kids and let them do what they wanted. They even had a little toddler area for Judson, which he loved. Another day we went to a nature park where the kids got to feed lots of turtles and hold a live butterfly in their hand. While at the house, the kids mainly worked on drawing and other various forms of art, as well as watched a few movies. That kept them busy between outings. Nana got to go with us everywhere we went, so that was a real blessing and the kids had a lot of fun getting to share everything with her all week. The week seemed to fly by as it usually does, and it was time to leave. On the way back we stayed with some other friends, the Sullivans, and then made a quick trip to our old church for Sunday School and to say hello to some friends before getting on the road for home. After all that driving, we were so glad to be home!

Judson in the suitcase

Pappy and Caleb went fishing and Caleb caught a fish!

Visiting Lisa


At the artist's table

Uncle Heath and Caleb playing Connect Four

At the Children's Museum- Isabelle going shopping at the grocery store

Judson "milking" the cow

Caleb sweating it up on "Dance Revolution"

Nana with her great grandchildren

Judson is walking!

Our little Judson decided to start things early in his life. He crawled at 5 months, and now he started walking at 9 months! It has been cute to see the progression in the last few weeks from his "Frankenstein" walk to a "duck" walk, and now he is getting pretty good at it and is actually faster walking than crawling. He is now getting into even more around the house, so objects on tables are no longer safe. He loves to play hide and seek and chase with his big brother and sister, and thinks he is just one of the big kids! He likes to hide in the space between his crib and the wall, which is the perfect size for him. He loves to be the center of attention and be a goofball to get everyone to laugh.

Now sporting two bottom teeth

Peek-a-boo!

Grammy and Pappy's Visit and Snow!

Grammy and Pappy came for a visit in February, and we enjoyed getting to spend time with them. They were able to see the kids "perform" for one of the school basketball games: Caleb was a "little dribbler" in a group that practiced basketball handling skills and then showed them at the half time of a few junior high basketball games. Isabelle did a Saturday cheer workshop at the schoool and then got to perform her cheer with that group at the half-time show, too. They were all really cute to watch.

Caleb and Isabelle enjoyed getting some watercolor lessons from Grammy and painting with their special watercolor sets. Judson got some cuddling time with both of them and took naps on each of their laps different mornings. My parents left warm Florida to a very cold Mississippi, and at the tail end of their visit even got to see some snow! It was very pretty to see it falling down, and it even stuck for a little while, though it really wasn't enough to do a whole lot with. The kids got to make a small snowball, but that was about it! It was the first snow that the kids saw that actually stuck to the ground, so we had to document it with some pictures.


Isabelle cheering

Caleb as a "little dribbler"

Cuddled with Pappy



Cuddled with Grammy

Snow!

View from our front porch

Isabelle's snowball

Caleb's snowball

MS Blues Half Marathon

After four months of training, the MS Blues Half Marathon finally arrived, and we were ready for it! It was tough for me to get back into shape initially after taking about a year off from consistent running during my pregnancy with Judson. However, it felt good to get back into it and I began to feel like I could go for a run and not feel close to passing out. Barrett and I enjoyed doing a lot of our training together for this race. While the weather was still warm, we would sometimes take Judson for a ride in the jogging stroller while we ran, and later when the weather was too cold for him, we hired a babysitter to keep him a few times for our longer runs. It was so nice to have someone to run with, especially on the long runs. Barrett's hip was no longer giving him the same problems as he dealt with previously, so we were thankful for that. He was able to complete the training with no major problems.
My good friend, Lisa Ward, came up to Jackson to run the half with us, as well as our other good friend, Dana Sullivan. Dana was training to run the full marathon but unfortunately became injured and was no longer able to compete. She made the trip anyway, though, to cheer us on and to visit her son who is in law school here. When the race day arrived, the weather was perfect. Needless to say, we were a little worried about the weather after the freezing cold temperatures of the race last year. This year, however, it was in the mid 30's to low 40's, and it was sunny the whole morning. We started off the race with ear bands and gloves, which we ditched at the half-way point. Very encouraging to us was our own personal cheering squad- Caleb, Isabelle, Uncle Tim, and Virginia, who stood outside Virginia's house (which happened to be directly on the running route) with handmade signs to cheer us on! The course was somewhat difficult because of all the hills, but Barrett kept me going the whole way. I didn't get a personal best time, but I was surprised at how close I came to my time from the last half I ran. I was expecting to run it much slower this time, but Barrett's encouragement helped me keep up my pace, even when I would have slowed down.
After the race, we enjoyed the many good foods offered at the post race tent, and we joked (well, it was probably true) that we ate as many calories as we had just burned off!
Having a goal to work toward was a great way to get back into running and be consistent. Now I just have to decide what my next race will be!

Barrett and I in front of the big guitar after the race

Bryanne and Lisa

Bundling up after the race (we were colder after we finished than at the start!)

Caleb's 7th Birthday

Caleb's 7th birthday just happened to fall the day before the Blues Half Marathon. So, we celebrated with pizza (his favorite food and good carbs for a pre-race meal for us!) and a chocolate chip ginormous cookie cake. It was a double decker cookie with icing in the middle. We didn't seem to have any trouble polishing it off in a few days, though. After we ate, Caleb opened his presents from our family and his big gift from us this year was a new bike. He can still ride his old one, but this is a little bigger and has more room for him to grow. He has been enjoying it, and it will be nice when the weather gets warmer and we can be outside more. Thanks to Lisa Ward, my friend who was staying with us for the race, and Tim and Virginia, for celebrating his birthday with us!
For Caleb's birthday party with his friends, we waited until the end of the month to do a double party with his good friend, Wes Fowler. We did a joint party at Pump it Up, a place where they have lots of big inflatables for the kids to jump on. Part of the party was glow in the dark, so they all got glow necklaces and got to jump in one of the rooms where they had turned off the lights and just had strobe lights on. It was pretty neat and they all had so much fun. After the jumping was over, we went to the party room and enjoyed pizza (the kids polished off every last piece of pizza after working up such a big appetite!) and then a Star Wars birthday cake. Then Caleb and Wes got to sit on the big inflatable throne chair and open their gifts. Legos seemed to be the popular gift, so he has lots to build now. Overall, it was a very fun birthday for Caleb and very low stress for us. The Pump it Up crew even handled the gift opening process and recorded all the gifts for us (which can be one of the most stressful aspects of a birthday party). Later Caleb told us that it was his most fun birthday party ever!

Caleb's ginormous chocolate chip cookie cake

Caleb's new bike

Jumping at Pump it Up

Eating pizza with Wes


Discovering that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vador's light sabers actually light up

Opening presents on the throne chair


Judson happy with a glow stick to play with

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Day this year with just our immediate family, like we did last year. We got to enjoy watching the kids open their presents in the morning and see what Santa had left them in their stockings. We had to make sure the wrapping paper went immediately into a trash bag since Judson's favorite part of opening presents was chewing on the wrapping paper! Caleb and Isabelle had fun helping him open his presents- they got him a little soccer ball and went to Build a Bear and made him a teddy bear that has a Saints jersey. They named him "Drew". Caleb and Isabelle each got their own Bible, which contains many pictures and short bible stories for them to read. They both enjoy bringing them to church and reading it on thier own (Isabelle of course likes to look at the pictures). Caleb got a new Wii game and a big nerf gun. Isabelle got a matching nightgown for her and her American Girl doll, Kit. That was the biggest hit, I think. She wore that nightgown the rest of the day and that night, and basically didn't want to take it off for about three days (I made her so I could wash it).
Later that morning, we Skyped with Grammy and Pappy and they got to watch the kids open the gifts they had sent. It was fun to get to spend some time with them, and even though they were hundreds of miles away it felt like they were right there with us! Caleb and Isabelle got their own watercolor palletes and nice watercolor paints, among other art supplies, to enhance their budding artistic talents. Then the kids got to see Grammy, Pappy, Uncle Heath, and Nana open the gifts from us, so it was neat to all be a part of each other's day on Christmas.
For our Christmas dinner, we enjoyed a Logan's Farm honey baked ham, that we got for free as a gift from one of the clinics that gets business from MEA.
Overall, Christmas day was a relaxing and fun time that were were able to spend as a family and reflect on the gift of Jesus Christ as we celebrated His birth.
The week after Christmas, Barrett's family came for a few days and we then celebrated with them and opened gifts together. Despite some really bad weather that came through the day they were traveling to get here, they made it safely. We enjoyed a traditional New Year's dinner, with Grandmamma's black eyed peas (no cabbage, though!) and then it was like Christmas morning all over again as we opened gifts with them.

Christmas morning

Getting their new Bibles

Judson's new Saints bear

Isabelle and Kit with their matching nightgowns


Christmas the next week with the Jones' side of the family (Isabelle with Kit and her new outfit)


Judson with Uncle Tim

Judson's favorite part was playing with, or eating, the wrapping paper

Granddaddy with the kids

Grandmamma and Granddaddy with the kids