Tripp Laughing...

This video takes a little bit for him to get going but he is looking in the mirror at himself. Disregard how I look and all the ridiculous faces I have to make at him. Ahh... the things we will do to get our kids to preform.

And by the way... no babies were injured due to the contents of this film. That instance where he bangs his head on the camera in no way was harmful to him as evident by the lack of crying. :-)





Here are a few pictures of the kids after church today:

God Is Good!

You know those times in your life when things are changing so rapidly and the timing is such that you know God is at work? Well, the last few weeks have been like that for us.

I am going to try and recap what has been going on lately. The first thing was that a friend of ours from church told Allen about a position with her company. He wasn't all that interested at first but the drug sounded intriguing to sell and he really thought he could do a lot to help advance it. So he submitted his resume and that started a rapid chain of events. He had two phone interviews that same week and was flown out to Atlanta the following week. They kept asking him why he wanted to leave his current company and he kept saying that he didn't necessarily want to leave because his company had been good to him but this seemed like an interesting opportunity. Anyway, they were interviewing two other people for the position and one was another friend from church. She had taken a break from pharmaceuticals and needed to get back in. It was going to be bittersweet if he was offered the job and if he wasn't. But God is so much smarter than we are. We got a call, he got the offer and had the weekend to think it over. There were a couple of resons that made it seem like the risks weren't worth the rewards for us. We ended up turning the offer down and staying with his company. In God's goodness, He presented Allen with the offer but gave the job to our other friend at church. Win, win! That was so neat to see how He could take a seemingly lose, lose situation and totally switch it.

That all happened on last Tuesday and that same Friday he got a call from his company to all reps saying that they needed to stay home on the following Tuesday and await a call... there would be layoffs. We didn't know how deep they would be and the possibility of him being cut was there. Even with this news we really felt like God had been so clearly in control of the previous situation and was still in control of this one... whichever way things came out. The results were that both of his partners lost their jobs. About 50% of his cardio-pulmonary team in Alabama was cut. There used to be 5 in the state and 3 are now gone. We are so saddened by all of our friends who are now without jobs. We are also so grateful to the Lord for showing us favor. It is undeserved and we are humbled by His goodness. His job is a huge blessing and we want to be good stewards of all that God has given us. Allen currently doesn't know what his new responsibilities will be nor does he know his new territory. All of that will be told soon and will be effective Nov. 1. Until then he will be trying to cover his entire territory and make up for the loss of his two counterparts. This means some extra nights away. Funny... I don't mind nearly as much as I used to! :)

Dance Class!

Kaylen absolutely LOVES dance class. She has tap, ballet and gymnastics. I am not sure which one she most enjoys. She likes the noise of tap, the gracefulness of ballet (I think she is liking this one the most right now because she prefers to practice this at home) and the equipment of gymnastics. It is so much fun to watch her. I wanted you guys to get a glimpse of it... so I have included photos and a video at the end.








Sweet Kaylen story: Today I took Kaylen into the bathroom at school to change into her dance outfit and she informed me that Alexis was there today (I have no idea who this is). I say how wonderful that is. She then lets me know that Alexis asked her if she wanted to be her best friend and she said sure! I told her teacher about it as we were walking out and she said that they were holding hands all day and that Alexis was new and hadn't been interacting with the kids and she thought her mom probably told her to ask someone to be her friend and she chose Kaylen. I had told Kaylen last week to make sure she was nice to the new kids since she was there last year and knew a lot of people. I am so glad she is doing that! I love her sweetness.

Update on Tripp: Guess I should say that Tripp has rolled over from front to back 3 times now. First time was right before he turned 11 weeks. I thought it was a fluke but he just keeps doing it so maybe not! :)

School Starts!

Kaylen went back to school this week. She is soo excited! She is in the three year old class and loves her teachers, Ms. Denise and Ms. Allison. All she has talked about is getting to paint. That girl wants to paint so bad! It has been a nice break for me as well. I am going to really enjoy the extra time I have during the day. This has been a crazy week with lots going on but next week should slow down and be more relaxing.

Right now Kaylen's favorite area in her room seems to be this workbench. On the meet-n-greet day she had the hardhat on and was using the screwdriver to attach things. Who needs a kitchen or dollhouse when there is a workbench!

These next pictures are our first day of school pics. She loves carrying her bookbag and lunchbox.



Kaylen and Tripp: She is loving him but I am not so sure how comfortable he is with it.

Dance Class here comes Kaylen!!!

I am not going to lie, 3 is a tough age. We have gone through a lot lately. Kaylen has had a lot to adjust to. Most days I want to cry it is so difficult. But every day is also coupled with the funniest things and the cutest faces. How can you get too mad at this face:




She has personality for days. She is so excited for school to start and dance class. We have our outfits and we are ready to go! Monday will be her first class. I will definitely be posting more on that soon!

Kaylen Swimming

Kaylen has really learned a lot about swimming this summer. I am so proud of her! At the beginning of the year she had a death grip around my neck and now she is doing this:



I couldn't get her to even get in the big pool without me. My aunt came to visit and she wouldn't get in for anything! Not only has she decided she wanted to swim but she can also do this:



It is hard for me to remember that she is only three! I hope she is always this brave.

Funny Kids

So last night during Kaylen's prayers this is what she said: Thank you, God, for Mimi and Baba, Momma and Daddy, Mamaw and Papaw and even thank you for Tripp coming out of Momma's belly but PLEASE don't let another baby come out.


And there you have it. I guess Tripp can stay but no more! ;) I think we can oblige her in this request.

I took some video's of the kids. This is of Tripp doing as much as he is doing these days. He is really a sweet baby. I am very much enjoying having him around. The hardest thing about him is that he wants you to hold him 24/7... is that really too much to ask?!?! I just wish that I could do that.




This next video is a 6 sec. video of K... I put it on here because her face is hilarious. She was smiling for a photo and the camera was set to video. Our neighbor was trying to take the picture.



Now this is blackmail for when K gets older. I was trying to get her to go to the bathroom and she is really in to this one Hannah Montanna song called He Could Be the One. So in an effort to get her to stay on the potty a bit longer, I played this song for her and this is what was going on in there:

Kaylen writes in German!

This morning on the way to church Kaylen and I were talking about how Handy Manny speaks Spanish and English. So I thought it a good time to explain to her the story about the Tower of Babel and why we all speak different languages. I told her there were many different languages such as Russian, Spanish, English, German, Chinese... and so on and so forth. So this afternoon she scribbles on a piece of paper and tells me that she is writing in German and that is why I can't understand it. I told her that I didn't know she spoke German... she said that she didn't, she can only write it and what she wrote meant love. Ha! I love how kids minds think.

Btw... her "crown" is from church. She learned all about Queen Esther.