Dayton

Before we arrived in Memphis, me and the kids made a week-long visit to Dayton to see Jason's mom and grandparents.  While we were there we also got to see a few of our friends that live there too!  It was a great week!  The only thing missing was daddy.  He had to go on to Memphis for some job interviews.  But we were so glad and thankful to have gotten to spend a week with Grandmaw!  I am SO thankful for the relationship I have with my mother-in-law and I can't wait til we can go visit again!  Here are a few pics of the kids from our stay...

Sporting their new outfits from Grandmaw...

One day the kids pretended each room of the house was a different fast food restaurant. Lily made signs for all the doors.  Can you guess which fast food place this is?  :)

One day we went and had lunch at my friend Jill's house.  Jill is actually the person who introduced Jason and I in college!  The kiddos had a blast playing at Jill's with her little boy Anthony.  And of course the trampoline was a hit!

My boys...

I got to eat at my most favorite restaurant...Jacob Myers.  They have THE best kettle cooked chips you'll ever eat.  Ever.

The first summer we lived in Dayton (about 3 years ago) we purchased some land there at an auction.  Several months ago we decided to sell that land.  It was a beautiful lot, but we just don't really have use for it anymore.  When I went to visit it was a little hard seeing this adorable new house sitting on our land!! 





So...the stay was great!  And now, being that it's been almost 2 months since we've been, I'm ready to go back!  We are having a ball here in Memphis, but I am always missing our Dayton family as well!  Even though I grew up here, I can't get over how much Dayton feels like home to me too! 

We Moved!

Sooooo, we moved! 

 

After many months of prayer, Jason and I felt the Lord leading us to church planting.  We aren't exactly sure what that will look like yet.  Maybe we will start a church, maybe Jason will pastor a church and plant other churches through that church.  We don't know yet, we just know that God said "Go!" So we went!  We are currently back in Tennessee...whoop whoop!  We are living with my parents right now, just outside of Memphis, while we pray through what our next ministry looks like!  Jason is currently working at Chick-fil-A and eating it up...no pun intended..(ok so there was totally a pun intended). :)  And we are hoping to get our own little place here in Memphis as soon as we are able!

 I have always heard over the years of God telling people to just "GO" without the confirmation of another job and have often wondered what that looked like.  Now I know.  It does take a lot of prayer and confirmation through His Word.  We were also very blessed to have had a lot of christian counsel and people praying for us.  And through all that, you just know!  And God has been so faithful through this whole process for us!  My favorite example of His provision for us was this...April 1st was our first official day without a job.  We were on the road, with a U-Haul, and had over 500 miles to get to our destination.  We weren't super loaded with cash by any means.  God chose that day to be the day that our income tax would be deposited into our account.  That gave us money to sustain us while Jason found a job.  I am so thankful for the way God works in our lives.  I am thankful for both our parents who offered to take us in, rent-free, during this time of transition for our family.  And I am so thankful for the peace God has given Jason and I during this time.  It has truly been..."the peace of God that transcends all understanding." (Phil. 4:8).  I am thankful for these little blessings below who are so trusting of us and never worry about anything (except who touched them, or who isn't their best friend anymore). :)

And I am so thankful for the man God has put in my life to lead me and our family.  A man I can trust and follow...knowing that He is seeking our Lord Jesus and His perfect will for our lives.  All you single ladies out there reading....WAIT for that man!  He is WELL worth the wait!!  I know many other women with godly husbands who will give a hearty "amen" to that! 
So...that's a summary of our story!  I hope to be updating the blog regularly from here on out....(but those of you who read regularly know that I go in spurts).  I have lots to catch up on ranging from homeschooling our children, to our baby boy being 8 MONTHS OLD!  I cannot believe it!  Well..until next time! :)

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:8-9

Tennessee Christmas

Christmas in February?  I think so.  So for Christmas this year we took a trek down to Tennessee.  We left early Christmas morning and headed to Dayton to see Jason's family (minus Molly and Mike...we missed you guys!).  Jason's brother and his family were in from Georgia (close to Savannah), so we got to visit with them as well!  We hadn't seen them in just over a year, so it was long overdue and we had such a good time!!  Here's a few pics of everyone opening presents...

 For the first time in our 8 years of marriage, we are at least an hour from a Sonic.  We may have never lived close to a Chick-fil-A, but we have ALWAYS had a Sonic within a few minutes.  So each time we go to Tennessee, Sonic (along with Chick-fil-A of course) is a must!  Peyton is trying his very best to get his first introduction to Sonic...

 So we stayed in Dayton from Christmas evening (Tuesday) until Friday morning.  And on Friday morning, we headed to Memphis to see my family.  My one sister and her family live in Memphis, and my other sister was able to come in from Charleston, SC.  It was so much fun visiting with everyone there too!  And of course we had more presents to open...

We stayed in Memphis from Friday evening until Monday morning.  Then Monday morning we headed back to Dayton, spent Monday night there, and headed back to Maryland on Tuesday.  I think in the span of that week (Tuesday to Tuesday) we drove over 2,000 miles.  It was a long trip, and we only got a couple of days with each family, but it was so worth it.  Our kids had an absolute blast with all their cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles; and Jason and I had a blast with everyone as well.  And Peyton...wow...for a 4 month old baby to travel 2,000 miles in a week, he sure didn't cry very much at all!  Of course at each destination, he had PLENTY of people who wanted to hold him, so he rarely was put down.  Each time I think about that trip it just brings warm feelings to my heart.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families that we love spending time with!!  I can't wait til next time we are all together again!!

DC

Alright seriously, people....I need to figure out a quicker way to blog or I'm never going to keep up with this thing. Ok, so on with the post. My in-laws came to visit us last week. We were super excited to have them visit. Thursday we decided to make a trip to Washington DC. I have never been to DC before, so I was really excited to see it. It takes us about 3 hours to get there from our house, so we got an early start. Just a heads up....don't go to DC if there's a baseball game. We drove around the suburbs for somewhere between 2 to 3 hours trying to find a Metro station with open parking spaces so we could ride into the city. So our plan to get there around 10am didn't quite work...we got there around 1pm instead. But, after that adventure the day turned out to be pretty fun. We, of course, got no where near close to seeing everything, but we got to see some of the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, and theAmerican History Museum....and got to see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the WW2 Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial. We walked approximately 6 miles and had no strollers. A stroller would have made the walking a little more enjoyable with the 3 kiddies, but I must say, for them doing THAT much walking, they did very well. All in all, it was a fun day. Here's some highlights...(WARNING...LOTS of pictures)...

Austin took a little nap...he took half of it on Pappy, and half of it on Daddy...

On the Metro (that we finally found parking to be able to ride on)...

Daniel wasn't really asleep, but he wanted to mimic Pappy's every move...

I loved this picture with the Washington Monument in the background...

And here would be the kids about 3 minutes after we ate dinner (at Longhorn I might add...oh, yum)...

They were worn out! All in all, they did great with all that walking. My hips and legs did hurt for about 3 days following our adventure, but it was worth it. We plan to make lots of day trips to DC so we can eventually see everything!