Amazing Weekend with Amazing Friends!!

About a month ago, we celebrated Randi Lea's 30th Birthday and had so much fun!!! We spent the weekend in Chattanooga all together with just the girls! We stayed up too late, laughed til our sides ached, made mutiple coffee stops, sipped "fine" wine, acted goofy, enjoyed breakfast together, ate fun dinners out together, had deep uninterrupted conversations, did I mention laughed like crazy?, and most of all celebrated the sweet life and friendship that we have in Randi Lea!! She is one of the most precious women of God that I have ever had the honor of being close to! My very favorite part of the weekend was when we pampered her unexpectedly and spent time telling her how much she means to each one of us! If you don't have a "Randi Lea" in your life...go find one! I am so blessed by these friendships and cherish them deeply! I love you girls! I wish we could do this every year (maybe we should;)!

Happy 30th year Randi Lea!!!! We love you so much!!

Dinner in Chattanooga (Nicole, Kim, Randi Lea, Liz, Jenay, Me)

Lovin' on sweet Nicole!

Dinner on Sat. night (Me, Jenay, Randi Lea, Liz, Mandi, Nicole, Kim)...it was so much fun!

Randi Lea during her "pampering"...that pie was so goooood!!!

Fun Pics Around the House!

My babies!...my sweet babies.! They are growing up so fast. Here are a few pics from around the house. I have more to post on some fun weekend trips that Derek and I have had...unfortunately not as a couple. But great times nonetheless. Hope you enjoy these and thanks for sticking with us, even though it takes a little more effort to get to us now!:)


This is how we found little man one night when we went into to "tuck him in." What a joke that is! He even moves around like crazy in his bed. I love that he is using his bumper as a pillow...and yes the bumper was tied to the crib. I just love how totally chill he is in this picture...so funny!

I am posting this because I loved his little outfit! Unfortunately for him, I am posting a pic of him pooping, as noted by the look on his face. I guess it's good the blog is private now so he can't be blackmailed some day..haha!

I made Derek take this picture because I have so few with me and the kids. Not that this is a good one, but at least it is evidence of my existence! I LOVE Em's sweet smile in this picture...she isn't doing that weird "say cheese" thing. She is my cutie pie! Oh and yes, I did chop off my hair!

In Emily's words, "yoot Mommy, he's yovin on me!" Translated "Look Mommy, he's lovin on me!" Sweet little things! I love watching their relationship grow and develop! I love my brothers very much and seeing their relationship reminds me of how thankful I was for my sweet and very protective brothers growing up! I pray that they will always be each others biggest fans and encouragers! I also hope TK gets massively HUGE so that he can beat up..ahem...I mean talk to any boy that comes within 5 feet of her!:)

The Time Has Come...

I love my blog and I love going to others' blogs (chances are if you are reading then I frequent yours:). But, I have to admit that as much as I LOVE our blog and the way it connects us to family and friends, something in the back of my mind has always felt a bit strange about all that I put out there for anyone to read. I tried adding the FEEDJIT thing with the hopes that seeing where people were coming to our site from would make me feel better, but it didn't. It actually freaked me out a bit when I realized that people were coming from places where I KNOW that I don't know a soul. I also realized that it wasn't that accurate b/c it always lists us as coming from a different state than TN??? I keep thinking that if I can very innocently check out tons of people's families and pics of their kids, then who could be lurking around (not innocently) checking out mine??!!!

After some things that happened today, I felt in the pit of my stomach that we needed to go private on our blog. I figure that anyone we know who wants to read about what is going on with us and see pics will still get to visit our blog and I can feel a bit more safe about what I am putting out into the big online world. I realize it might be a bit of an inconvenience at first to do this, but hopefully it won't be that big of a deal. I am not even sure what to do go private b/c I wanted to let everyone know who visits before you tried to get on our site and it was asking for a password. If we know you, we will be HAPPY to give access to the site, even if we haven't talked to you in a really long time!;)

I will probably wait until after the weekend to go private and then by Sun. night, you will need a password or something. I am also shutting down my Facebook too. I know I could just limit my info. on FB that I share, but I still feel weird that anyone can read my conversations with other people. I will just have to go back to regular 'ole email, telephone, and the US Postal Service as way of communication:) I will miss checking in on friends that I haven't seen for a long time and the ease of communicating via FB, but I know this is a good decision for me.

And for the record, nothing crazy happened...no weirdo showed up at our door or contacted us or anything like that. No need to bother asking what lead me to do this...you would just get a really long-drawn-out-overly-detailed-Karen-Kramer-Story...and believe me it isn't worth your time:):)

Much love to everyone! I'll be looking forward to continuing to share all that God is doing in our lives and the many ways that He is changing us and blessing us...just a bit more discreetly!