Fun in the Sun

Whew, I think I am still recovering from our fun filled vacation.  We had such a blast last weekend.  This post will just give a small glimpse in our vacay and overload of some pictures, if that is ok with you…oh it is, great! 

We drove down on Saturday morning, the boys were so excited because we were in our new vehicle and they could watch their movies in there.  As soon as we got into town we went straight to my parents’ house to get kinda fixed up.  We would be taking some family pictures in about 2 hours.  Well to my surprise when we got there my parents’ air went out!  So umm yeah I was trying to blow dry my hair in about 90 degree weather, can you say frizz!!!  Before we arrived at the park where we were having our pictures made, I kinda told…ok maybe threatened a hair that they better put their best smiles on :)  They did great a little too great, Carrie who was taking our pictures asked them to act silly and all they would do was smile…opps

Woke up Sunday and had breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places…Coram’s, if you are from the PC area you know where I am talking about!  Then we headed to Shipwreck Island for a day in the sun.  The boys LOVED the park, they played really hard and never showed any signs of being tired, unlike their parents.  Their two favorite places to go was the wave pool and the “crazy” river ride as Caleb likes to call it - or you may know it as the Lazy River.  We got there soon after the park opened and left just a bit before it closed.  Fun in the sun it was. 

    

Monday we were headed to Navarre Beach to visit some really good friends of ours and their boys and ours are really close.  But first we needed to go have some breakfast, but they just opened a Bob Evans near the mall and I have eaten there before and it was so yummy!!  So we decided to give it a try, bad move should have stuck with Coram’s.  The service was ok but it was so slow!!  And what I got was not like what I had before but we eventually finished and made our way to the Platt’s.  Each time we get together with their family it is like we have never been apart and I just love that!  The boys stayed up until 11:30 and until their heads hit the pillow they were all playing hard!  Tuesday Josh and Greg went to some gun exhibit in Eglin so Linda and I took the kids to the park.  This park was awesome!  It had a really nice play set, and water pad thing that water shoots up from the ground (it was really neat!), a pier and was near the beach.  So we did them all!  I have to tell a short story about myself.  As we were walking along the pier, Linda looked over the edge to see the turtles but to her little eye she saw a snake and called the boys to come look.  Well of course it would be my son who would look over and drop his flip flop right by the snake.  So I told Linda to keep her eye out for it and I was going to go and get the flip flop, well I stand here to tell you that I did it!  Now the snake was only about this long _______________________________________________________________ but it was still a snake.  There is actually a funny story to go with it but it is too long to write.  We came back and rested a bit then headed back out to the beach that evening, and boys could not have been any happier.

Well we packed up Wednesday and headed home, the boys did not want to leave and Evan even told me he did not want this day to end L  Had a really great visit and can’t wait to do it again.  We headed back to MS but made our last stop to visit 2 of our other friends, The Gables.  Kelly has said we are now Mississippi sisters and I love that, because we are two girls born and raised in good ol’ Panama City, Fl.and MS has been quite a change for us both, so it just seems fitting for us. We had a good dinner with them just chatting and catching up.  Finally made it home around 10pm.  Whew!  Now that I am starting to catch back up, I will be heading out on Sunday to be a chaperone for our youth’s mission trip, looking forward to it but please pray for me. J  I’m sure I will be telling you all about that soon too!!! 

Whynot Friday- Birthday Edition!!

Ok so I can never make a blog in time for Whatnot Wednesday so I thought I would have a Whynot Friday cause well why not? J  I also do not have one of those cute buttons for this either so lets just pretend that there is one here.  Ok so I cannot promise this will be an every Friday thing but it will be this Friday. J Please bear with me I am kinda in a silly mood.  Well this is my birthday edition for this Whynot special. 

-         So the day of my birthday I was woke up by the sweetest birthday wishes from all of my boys.  Singing Happy Birthday to me, what a way to start my day!

-         After I got out of the shower to my surprise there were a couple of cards and some presents waiting for me!  My favorite was the cards, I don’t know why but I just love cards, they make me feel special!  Josh has gotten me a pair of shoes I had wanted but probably would not have gotten.  And my sweet SIL got me 2 5^th Ave candy bars.  I just love those things.  We had a conversation one day about our favorite nostalgic candy bars and I loved these things as a kid…who am I kidding I still do!

-         When I got to work one of my friends there Kimmons made me a very YUMMY breakfast…eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and chocolate gravy!  What you have never heard of chocolate gravy before either, yeah well one day we were talking about breakfast foods and she mentioned this and I was like WHAT?  She said it was like gravy but chocolate!  Ok can never go wrong there.  Well it was really, really YUMMY!!!

-         Oh I almost forgot to tell you about my umm first birthday wish when I got to work!  So I was sitting at my desk when I heard this noise behind me….I turned around to look, nothing.  Turned around again and something dropped, when I saw something I thought at first it was a wasp and went to go get the fly swatter.  To my surprise the wasp started climbing up the wall…wait what they don’t normally do that!  Oh that is because it was a MASSIVE ROACH!!!!  Oh how I despise these things, I quickly got a can of Raid and sprayed the mess out of that thing!  Happy Birthday to me! J

-         Well my sweet hubby took me to lunch, we went to Zaxby’s because they have this fabulous birthday cake milkshake and well since it was my birthday, he thought I needed one.  I really enjoyed getting to eat lunch with him because we do not get to do that very often and I really cherished that!  When I got back to work I had a very delicious cake waiting for me that a co-worker had make for me! Mmmmm!

-         My birthday fell on a Wednesday so when we got back from church Jessica had made me another cake!  Yes I was on a sugar high for the next couple of days…yeah I am still on one!  Well she let the boys help make my cake, which I love and they wanted to put sprinkles on it cause a cake without sprinkles is just not a cake. J  As Jessica turned around to help them Taylor had the sprinkle container turned upside down in his mouth!  Well then that just made Caleb want to do that too and before I knew it they were trying out every sprinkle thing before they put it on my cake.  I guess I should be thankful for that J 

-         So all in all I had such an amazing birthday and I can not thank everyone enough for the calls, cards and wonderful FB messages!!  Hope you have a great Whynot Friday!!!

Mother's Day reminds me how blessed I am

You know when I first found out that I was pregnant I did not know what to expect, I mean for most of my life all I really wanted to be was to be a mom.  I can remember a conversation with my grandpa where I told him how I did not think college was for me and that I knew someday I would be a mom and wanted to stay at home.  Well about 3 years later after that conversation my wish came true and I would never want it any other way.  Now at the current time I do not get to stay at home but we are working (for – remove) hard to get me back home!  Being a mom has taught me so many wonderful things about myself; although not all the time did I think they were all wonderful.  I have 3 amazing boys in my life and they bless me everyday and I feel so lucky to be the wife of one and the mother to the other two.  Now there are days I feel like I could probably pull all my hair out but when I hear just 4 words it is all wiped away…I LOVE YOU MOMMY!!! 

Poor Caleb had to be the little guinea pig while I tried to work out all of my issues and then come to find I will work on those for the rest of my life.  I don’t want to sound like every thing is perfect in our family, but I do feel so blessed.  Sometimes I wonder if this is really the life I am living!  Well I hope all you mothers out there had a great Mother’s Day and even if you are not a mom yet I pray you still had a great day!

If you do not mind I would love to tell you a bit about my weekend.  It started on Friday; I rushed home to try to make my self look decent for my date night with my hubby!  We went to one of my favorite restaurants…The Melting Pot and it was so yummy!  We went with some great friends so that made for some great birthday memories! Anyone who knows me would be very proud to know that I ate a bite of lobster and part of a strawberry…yes I said strawberry and can say that I still do not care for either one. J

Well Saturday Josh took the boys out for a daddy day! I just love that he is such a great father to them, I hope they grow up to be half the man that Joshua is.  Anywho so what would any girl do when she has about 3 hours of time to herself…watch a chick flick, take a long bath, paint my nails no rather I spent the entire 3 hours cleaning!  I put away winter clothes and went through some of my own clothes to toss out.  We went to the pond while daddy had to go to work for a little while, where Caleb jumped into the pond went all the way under and popped back up! He was very proud of himself…mommy was a tad nervous and well you should ask his uncle who was in the water with him how nervous he was J. 

Sunday morning the boys surprised me and when I say surprised I actually mean Taylor kept trying to tell me what I got and the kind of card I got J My favorite thing was Josh let the boys pick out my mother’s day card and well they decided to get me a birthday Avatar singing card!  I loved it because it is what they picked out J Oh and I finally got my flower from Taylor that he had been telling me about since last Thursday.  My 3 boys did the cleaning that I did not get to on Saturday and Josh’s dad and sister cooked an awesome dinner!  All the boys helped clean off the table.  So yes I can say I had a wonderful, amazing, blessed day!!!

Hey batter, batter, batter!

Well t-ball season has finally started and I am more excited than I thought I would be.  Monday night was Caleb's very first t-ball game and the whole family in MS went.  We actually all piled in the Expedition, I wish I had a picture of that cause we were packed from the front to the back and I loved it!  Caleb did so good actually all the kids did really well some had done this last year and it was neat to see how well they did catching and hitting without the tee.  Caleb hit the ball once with out the tee and once with it, I was so proud especially since we actually have not worked to much with him( yes I know we are awful parents  ).  He caught and threw a couple of them too.  It was so funny to see when the ball was hit all the kids would scramble to get it, at one point Caleb was getting upset cause he had not got one, it was funny seeing him pout.  But Caleb always surprises me with the sweet spirit that he has, in the middle of the game Caleb starts talking to one of his teammates, well apparently when Caleb threw the ball to the pitcher, the coach, the boy ran in front of the ball and almost got hit in the back of the head so Caleb went over there to say he was sorry! He then moved out of the way so another boy could catch a ground ball, he told Josh "I already got one daddy, I want him to have a turn".  I pray he keeps that sweet spirit!  Taylor did not get to see much of the game he was too busy EATING and saying I am still hungry mommy...and we ate dinner before the game.  That boy eats and eats and eats.  He is funny now because he now tells you that whatever he is getting is good for you.  Like he will be eating candy or something and say "Mommy candy is good for you".  I think he is getting that a bit mix up with the candy tasting good. :)

So I was excited cause I thought I was going to be the Team Mom and I don't know why but I really was excited but in t-ball drama news someone got it before I did and I have to tell you I was pretty bummed out but maybe next year.  Anywho I hope you enjoy some of the pictures, I wish I had the ones that I took during the game but I had not had a chance to upload those yet so I will post those next time. 

One of my favorite moments was the very end there was a boy who has autism and he got the chance to hit the ball, he hit it, then got to just run all the bases and seeing the joy on his face umm yeah I was crying!!  So sweet!  I pray you all have a joyful week!!

my joys before the game



I just think he looks like a natural



Taylor with the popcorn that his Pop got for him

And you always need a family photo!

5 Random thoughts from this week

Ok so it is drawing near the end of the week and I thought it would be kinda of neat to give you my top 5 things that have been on my little brain. J

1)      The other day as I was driving home from work I was listening to K-Love and I heard a quote that really spoke to me and I loved it.  It is from Louie Giglio and he spoke about this at this years Passion conference (would love to go to one of those) and he said “Why do we say small prayers to such a Big God”.  At first I was like what all these things matter to him but then when I dug a little deeper I thought about how sometimes I just give Him the small things and try to take care of the bigger things myself, does anyone else do this?  Also I thought that something small to me might be big to you and vice versa.  I was talking to Josh about this last night and he gave a great analogy he said to us driving to the gas station is not a big deal but to a 15 year old who just got his permit it could be.  So this has been something I have been pondering about.

2)      I registered Caleb for kindergarten; yep that was a big step for me.  I did feel like a bad mom when I found out that day that you could bring your child with you to meet the teachers and yeah I did not do that.  But I got there handed her my papers and forms, she just check that I had all my stuff and said well that’s it….Wait, what that is it I told her there should be something big for me cause this was a momentous thing for me J  She just smiled and said it is for a lot of moms J

3)      Do any of you deal with insecurity, surely not?  Just kidding.  But this thing with insecurity has good and bad days.  Some days I can just be positive and not let it get me down but there are others days where I just see things and it just crumbles me.  I do know that God is walking/helping me through this every step of everyday and I am so thankful that I have that.  My friend Emily posted this verse awhile back and I just try and recite this when my insecurity wears it ugly head.

4)      Four the past 3 weeks a friend of mine and me have been going to this boot camp fitness thing to help jump start us to “trying” to be more active.  Whew I really wish you all could see us we are a sight to see.  I did not realize how out of shape I was until I was asked to jog!  Man ol’ mighty!  Well this past week we worked on our glutes and can I just tell you how bad my butt is hurting right now, I can barely sit my muscles hurt so bad.  Ok so this is nothing really big just thought I could give you all a laugh J

5)  Prayer! That has been the thing I have done and needed the most. I know we are suppose to always pray but for some reason this past couple weeks it has been the thing I have needed to do the most of. And the thing is that I actually don’t know what I am praying for I am just praying. We are praying for us a house of our own. We are praying for me to be able to stay home or be there as much as I can, cause has you might have read before that I feel God calling me to be at home again or just being able to just be there for my boys more…don’t know when or how but I do feel that call. We have had several opportunities fall through and some more possibly becoming available. We want to make sure we get into the house that God wants us in, not just the first one that becomes available. Both finding a house and me hopefully getting to spend more time home with the boys are going to have to be a God thing. But he has shown us that he can do amazing things with situations that can seem hopeless. We know he has a plan, I guess more than anything we need to pray for peace in that knowledge. It’s hard to wait on someone else, even when it’s God. I am waiting to hear that small maybe big voice from my Savior!

I pray you all are having a great and joyous week, I know we are!  Things are still uncertain but one thing for sure is that I have a wonderful Savior!!! 

Bonus:  One of my favorite songs right now is from Casting Crowns “Glorious Day”, it is helping prepare my heart for Easter!  Check it out  J

"Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else” ~Galatians 6:4

What a weekend!!

Wow!  That is how I have to say this weekend was.  It was a busy one but a beautiful, joyous and just plain wonderful weekend with my family!  Saturday morning Josh had his 3^rd annual Men’s Easter Egg Hunt, and it was a big success.  I think God has just blessed Josh with an amazing ability to draw people in and make them feel so comfortable.  Well while the men folk were playing so were the kids.  They were down playing in the pond, and well starting to look more and more like boys…covered in mud J.  I went down to check on them and what did my wandering eyes see but my youngest son stark neked!  All I could think was how I wanted to get a picture for you know that folder you keep with pictures for his wife to see J But I refrained and just took one from afar.   I did happen to ask Caleb where his brothers underwear went and he pointed to the back of the woods.  I kindly asked if you could please go get them and when he came back this is how he came back with them. J

We came in for a bath cause that afternoon the boys were going to get their haircut and I really did not need the boys smelling like pond water. Hehe. Taylor and I went down for a quick nap.  We then ventured off to Wal-Mart to get haircuts, a few odds and ends and then went to go get Caleb his first pair of cleats and a glove.  As we were going checking out at Wal-Mart I slowly remember why I usually come by myself, it was not because they were bad but because we spent so much money!!!  Mercy, then on top of that we went to Hibbett’s to get Caleb’s shoes and glove, so yeah.  But I would not take back the look on Caleb’s face as he was trying on his first pair of cleats he was so excited!  We came home that night ate upstairs and watched “Tangled”.  Just love that movie!!

Sunday was Caleb’s first t-ball practice and he was beyond thrilled, he kept asking if we were going to the “real” baseball fields.  Well as we were walking to the fields Caleb was walking next to me and I really don’t know why but I really treasured that walk.  He just had this huge smile on his face and he said to me “Mama I think I am going to meet some new friends and if they are shy I will just tell them my name.”  I just thought how proud I am that he is my son, makes you wonder how proud God was for His Son.  As I stood there I just prayed that God would help lead that heart to do great things. 

So then we watched and he did really well, and then I can not forget Taylor.  That boy just flashes his little smile and he whoo’s the girls, see these are the friends he met below and he had a blast!  Such a flirt

Well after practice we thought we would celebrate and go to Ya-Ya’s, it is a frozen yogurt place and oh so good.  The boys loved getting to pick their own flavor and own toppings.  We then headed to the Grove, they were having a concert there and it was The Goo Goo Dolls!  That was a really good time, the boys just thought it was really neat.  Then we headed home to get ready for bed, lets just say we did not hear much out of the boys that night J That was our weekend, how was yours?

this is The Grove





I will be filled with joy because of you.  I will sing praises to your name, O Most High ~~ Psalm 9:2  

Prayer for Aunt Lillie

Good morning to you all, I hope today is bringing you lots of blessings!  I just wanted to write to you all and ask if you would please say a special prayer for my Aunt Lillie, she is actually my great Aunt but I am just as close to her as my Aunt.  You see about almost a year ago she found out the she has cancer and where it is they can not remove it.  They had told her she would have probably a year to two years so she was living it to the fullest well just in the past month things have progressed faster than we thought.  She is in the hospital right now and they can not say for sure but my prayer is that she will go peacefully. 
I can remember her taking me as her sidekick when I was around 10 and she lived in Panama City, she would take me everywhere with her.  We had some real special times!  I wish I had a picture for you all to show you but I am at work so I am sorry but know that she is one special lady! Thank you all!!

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. ~~Isaiah 61:3

The good, the bad and the blessed!

Whew!  That is what I have to say for the past week I had.  All last week and I do mean all last week I had that nasty flu bug and it got me down good!  It started last Sunday I just was not feeling so good and Monday I had the day off and was so excited to spend the day with my boys but we all spent it sick!  I was kinda ok with it because they were my snuggle bugs!  By Tuesday it was really bad, for both me and for Caleb.  He woke up early because he had just thrown up L poor little guy.  I was told by my hubby and MIL that I would not be going to work Wednesday.  Well Thursday I thought I was feeling a tad bit better and thought I should go back to work…WRONG!  Ughh I made it through the day but my supervisor told me I should just stay home on Friday, guess I looked that bad J.  But can I tell you as sick as I was this week, my heart was just so blessed!  You see my boys just loved all over me and prayed for me and loved on me some more J Caleb told me just about every hour how much he loved me, he also did not leave my room during the time I was sick, he said he just wanted to be near me.  Make my heart just smile!  One day I told him how special he was making me feel and he told me that is because I was special!  Taylor would come pop in my room and say “mommy I love you!” Yep I felt so blessed.  Ok I know I am doing a bit of bragging but well I can so there, hehe J.  Josh has been such a blessing too, he has taken such great care of me, the whole family really has but for my hubby it just means so much more to me!  On Thursday when I attempted to go to work I did not have the strength to hold the blow dryer to dry my hair and he was sweet enough to do it for me.  I just love that man!  I am feeling much better today and have appreciated all the prayers and calls.

Switching gears we have some big things that have happened in the Gregory household.  First thing that happened was the boys got their own beds!  And they are so excited about them.  See they have had to share a bed for the past year and it was time for them to get their own.  So one of Josh’s brothers friends(did you catch all that J) had some from when he moved into his new house and just gave us two twin beds for free!!!  We were beyond excited, what a blessing.  Well I did not know how the boys were going to react to their beds but they were absolutely excited about them and have slept so good for the past week now!

Also we got a new to us car!  We have finally got us a 2^nd vehicle it is a 2004 Ford Expedition and we are just so in love with it.  God really had his hand in finding a car for us.  We had just started looking for one and had a pretty standard price range.  Well Josh was wanting something under 10k and I told him he was crazy…guess I turned out to be the crazy one cause I just happen to be talking with one of my friends from church and she asked "yall looking for a car, what kind?" I said something like an SUV and we would really like 3^rd row seating.  She then told me I needed to talk with this lady in particular cause she was selling her car and it was under 10k!  So we went and looked at it and it was just what we were looking for.  Even better was that they were the only owners and took great care of the car.  We still knew we needed to pray about it and spend the next week praying, well lo and behold it is ours now J

This week or should I say even month has just been the month of Love, God has shown that He is in control and works things out in His time!  I hope this month has been one of just pure love!  Before I leave you I would like to ask if you could help me pray because being at home this week I felt very strongly God telling me that my time working was possibility coming to an end and that my calling to be a stay at home mommy is what would be next. So please pray as we look into this, as many of you know that is where my heart is so I just don’t want to jump the gun but I also don’t not want to do something I am suppose to be doing. 

This is from our murder mystery Valentines banquet! So much fun!



This is from our second date night in one month!!!



The boys in their new beds!!!