Collin Joseph

Mother's Day we dedicated Collin at our church. We vowed to raise him in a Christian home, teach him about Jesus and demonstrate God's love to him in all that we do. We dedicated him to God because we know he is ultimately His and we have just be chosen to be his earthly parents. We were told to choose a life verse for him. We chose the blessing that Jacob gave his son Joseph, since Collin was named after him and we pray his life will be fruitful and filled with God's blessings as he remains steady in Him. What a blessing it was to have all of our family there to share in that special day. We all had lunch at Ippolito's afterwards and celebrated Mother's Day.

"Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall...his bow remained steady...because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father's God who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above." Genesis 49:22-25

Collin's 4 grandparents and 4 Great Grandparents were there!

All the Mothers

As my Aunt Jeannie said, "Being dedicated is hard work."

I'm so thankful for my own mother!

TN in G

A few weeks ago we took a long overdue trip to Nashville to visit my bro and had a blast!! I got to spend the weekend with my four favorite males. We got there late Friday night due to the traffic right after the tornadoes. We sat for a long time on 75 with onlookers and the pictures above are an example of what they were looking at.Even from the highway, the devestation was horrible. So we arrived at my brother's house about midnight and got the boys in bed and stayed up until about 2 with P. Well the boys woke up at their usual 6 am which was pretty crazy for my bachelor bro. In fact, he lives in a duplex and said his neighbor was probably shocked since she never hears him before 11 on Saturdays and certainly doesn't hear two kiddos running around. That morning, we headed to see an incredible model train exhibit Patick had found outside at the Botanical Gardens. It was amazing and these are just a few of the pictures I took. We all loved it and Ashton was of course in his glory! He would have spent hours there I think, but I have to admit, it was really cool. Everything except the trains was made of some sort of plant or bark. The bridges and waterfalls were beautiful and there were fanous TN landmarks throughout all made of plants. By the way, my husband and brother were quite impressed that I knew what the "G" stood for in the name of the exhibit. Neither one of them knew! I have learned a lot about trains lately. I often wonder what it is Collin will be obsessed about but as my brother says, trains are definitely Ashton's beloved mode of transportation.

Looking at frogs in a pond at the Gardens.

Ashton loves his uncle P mo.

I love this of Wes and P looking (or not looking) at Thomas. Who doesn't love the number one blue engine?!

The Modern Uncle

After the trains, we met up with our cousin Heather and Matt and Maddie who were also in Nashville visiting Matt's sister.

Here is A on Sunday before church eating "bachelor style." He had asked me if Patrick had a chair for him and I told him we would be eating on the floor and having picnics since PAtrick doesn't have a kitchen table. He had looked concerned but adjusted to the idea once we got there!

Pack N Play meets Drumset.

Had to sneak this photo of Collin sleeping in. He's getting so big!!

Ashton had fun playing the drums. Both boys slept right beside it and we caught Ashton spinning a cymbal during naptime!

We love you Uncle P! Thanks for a fun fun weekend!!!

Boys on the way home. Cracks me up

First Haircut

Our little guy has been 9 months for awhile now and I need to post pics from his first haircut last month!! Lucky for him, daddy did not insist on doing it like he did for Ashton's. We took him the day before we gave Haley away so it gave us a fun outing on a sad day. Like all things in his short life so far, Collin put up no fuss whatsoever and acted as if he'd been getting haircuts for years! We didn't realize how long his hair had gotten!

Hosanna!

Ashton got tired of me trying to convince Collin to open his basket and finally helped him and said, "he's not going to do it mommy."

We had a great Easter Sunday in Augusta with church and lots of egg hunts. Collin looked so adorable for his first Easter and was such a good sport with his bunny ears. Ashton really liked the story of Palm Sunday this year and enjoyed saying Hosannah which at first sounded like Ho -Santa. We went to Wes' parents' church for Easter and it is located right beside some train tracks. on the way inside, we heard a train so Ashton asked the nursery workers, "Can we ride your freight train?" as soon as we walked in. Ashton helped me make a bunny cake for the weekend and Wes did a good job helping me with the face! All in all we had a great weekend!