HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON MILLEDGE!!!

My sweet baby is turning 11 today. I can't believe it! First of all, wasn't he just born last week??? Secondly, I am WAY too young to have an 11 year old child....right?
Here are a couple of pictures of him when he was a baby. I think he was the prettiest baby I have ever seen. And also a couple of pictures of him now....he is still so pretty to me. Don't tell him I said that! ;) He is such a mama's boy and it warms my heart everytime he calls my name or wants to talk to me about something....I love it when we have "grown up" conversations. He still likes me right now...oh how I hope that doesn't change when he is 14!!! He says it won't...we'll see! He is a such a funny, smart and all around good child! I am very proud of him and the young man that he is VERY quickly becoming!!!

Happy Birthday JM! We love you bunches!


Jon Milledge at 5 days old


7 Weeks old


3 Months old


Jon Milledge at the beach this year


With his 2007 baseball trophy


My handsome boy

First Day of Summer!

Today is the official first day of summer even though I feel like it has been summer here in the deep south for over a month now!! We hope and pray that all of you have a safe and fun filled summer!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the daddy's and daddy's to be! I would like to wish a special Happy Father's Day to the four daddy's in my life....Milledge, Pappy(my daddy), Pop(Milledge's daddy) and Grandy(my step-daddy).
Milledge...thank you for being the kind of strong Christian daddy that I always wanted for our children. They think you are the best...and so do I! We love you!
I thought I would include a poem here today that I gave to Milledge on his first Father's Day along with a picture of Jon Milledge and his sweet little baby footprints.

Walk a Little Plainer Daddy

Walk a little plainer daddy,
said a little child so frail.
I'm following your footsteps
and I don't want to fail.
Sometimes your steps are very plain,
sometimes they are hard to see.

So walk a little plainer daddy, for you are leading me.

I know that once you walked this way
many years ago.
And what you did along the way,
I'd really like to know.
Sometimes when I am tempted,
I don't know what to do.

So walk a little plainer daddy, for I must follow you.

Some day when I grow up,
you are like I want to be.
Then I will have a little child
who will want to follow me.
And I would lead him right
and help him to be true

So walk a little plainer daddy, for we must follow you.

Cape San Blas, Florida

We took a short vacation this past week to Cape San Blas, FL. We had a great time with my family and hated to have to leave early but we got in lots of excitement while we were there. There were 16 of us all staying in one condo....it was a really big condo! It was my mother and step father, my brother, sister in law and their three girls, my sister, brother in law and their three kids and us! WOW! The kids all had so much fun hanging out with their cousins and it was fun to watch them all interact.
We mostly just played at the beach and the pool everyday but on Tuesday we took an adventure on a boat in the bay! We anchored the boat at two different secluded beaches where we walked around and found all sorts of sea life. We saw sea urchins, sharks, sting rays, coral, hermit crabs, star fish, sand dollars and tons of neat shells. Once back on the boat we came upon a school of dolphins that were not afraid of us at all. We stayed with them for almost an hour and they came up to the boat, stuck their noses up out of the water to look at us and swam with our boat. It was amazing! I could've watched them all day but there was a storm brewing and we needed to get back. We were too late! We got trapped between the marina and the storm and there was no where for us to go. The boat was grounded in shallow water with rain and lightening all around. I can't remember when I have been that scared. We had all the children under towels and blankets in the back of the boat, the adults were trying to help navigate with no success...it was awful! Thankfully we had a radio that worked and we were able to call the marina and they sent out what they called a chase boat to bring us back in....I called it "search and rescue"! We were all drenched and looking a little like wet dogs when we finally made it back to shore(sorry..no pictures of that!). The Gilligans Island theme kept running through my head but I guarantee you none of us looked like Mary Ann after that adventure...or before for that matter!
We left everyone else there on Wednesday so that we could get back for All-Star practices. I hope they are all having a great time without us...we miss you guys! Eat some shrimp for us!

Mealtimes and Hairbows

I received a couple more gifts from the exchanges that I am in this week. The first gift came from Bren in my Ladybug group, which is a group of wonderful Christian women who are all in varying stages of the adoption process. This months theme was "mealtime" and as you can see from the picture, Bren gave me several items that will certainly be helpful at mealtimes with Ruthie since I have either thrown away or given away most of the stuff like this that I had with the boys. Thanks Bren!
Secondly, my November LID group is doing a hairbow exchange for the next few months. I send a bow and receive a bow once a month...how fun is that??! June's bow theme is "green". I received the cutest pink and green bow from Gail and her daughter Grace. Grace is almost 5 years old, is from China and is patiently waiting the arrival of her sister, Lily. Grace sent us a couple of pictures of her and two China Olympic pins for the boys...she didn't won't them to feel left out. Wasn't that sweet?! Thank you Gail and Grace....we love it all!!!

All-Stars....Let the games begin or at least continue!

The All-Star drafts have been held for all leagues in the county where our boys play baseball. Anderson has made the team for the Southern Division Pee Wee(7-8 year olds)League. And Jon Milledge has made the American Division Minor(9-10 year olds) League team. They have worked very hard to make it this far and we are very proud of both of them.
What does this mean for us?? We will probably be playing baseball for most of the summer. Anderson's practices started 2 weeks ago and his games start this Saturday while Jon Milledge's practices start Saturday and games will start the end of June. We are excited and can't wait to watch them play! We wish them and their teams lots of luck! PLAY BALL!

Our 7 Month LIDiversary!

As of today, we have 7 months of our wait for Ruthie behind us!! We just wish we knew how many more we had to go but we know she will be placed in our arms at just the perfect moment. We can't wait for that day!!

A Creature in our Midst!

I went to water my little trees that I have in urns on my front porch today and look what I found! YUCK!! I screamed and scared poor Anderson to death. Of course Milledge wasn't at home so we had to wait until after baseball practice for him to carry the thing off....luckily he was still there. I will have nightmares tonight for sure!

****Ok....I am having to edit this post for the sake of my friend Leslie. She is very concerned that I was actually outside up close and personal with our creature. She wants me to inform all of you that I was taking the picture through the window with my flash off!!! There is no way I was going out the door!

Off to Church Camp!

I took Jon Milledge to church children's camp yesterday along with two of his buddies from his baseball team. They were too funny getting their cabin all set up and deciding who was going to sleep in which bunk. We haven't heard anything from them so we are assuming that "no news is good news". I know that they are having a blast and I can't wait to hear all about it on Friday!