Its been a little over nine years since Dan & I first met.  Our story is nothing short of a story book romance.  The Prince rides in on his white horse (white camaro in this case) & saves the Princess (that would be me).  Things happened so fast, but looking back...it all happened that way for a reason.  Funny how we can look back & things that made no sense at the time, make perfect sense now.  I can see the hand of God at work in our lives. So much has happened in the years since we first met & fell in love.  Our lives together have been a whirlwind to say the least.  After a year of taking fertility medicine & thinking we would never be able to have children, we found out we were pregnant with Colton.  It was one of the happiest days in our life.  Becoming parents was a dream that we shared from the very beginning & it was now a reality.  Our dream didn't stop with just one child though, we wanted more.  After two years of fertility meds, we finally conceived with Rainey.  Again, we were so happy & knew that we had been blessed.  When Rainey was born, our family seemed complete for a while.  When Rainey turned one, we decided to try again.  Although we weren't exactly ready to become pregnant, our past track record would indicate that getting pregnant would take a while.  After just one round of medication, to our suprise, we were pregnant.  It was so easy this time & we were in complete shock.  I wasn't ready to be pregnant again.  Pregnancy is not fun & the C-section as the means to getting the baby out was definately dreaded this time.  Funny how everything is all hunky dorey with that first pregnancy & even the second.  I really had no worries with Colton & Rainey. This third time, seemed like there was so much more to think about.  I guess the reality of how uncertain & scary pregnancy can be really hit me this time.  Thankfully, Evan arrived without complications & our family was again complete.  Now, its kinda funny how parenthood changes a couple.  It almost seemed that over night, we went from a couple who would enjoy an occational night out to dinner & movie to a family of five in the mini van at the drive through.  We often laugh about not taking our children out in public & how a night out for us is going through the drive through & parking in the parking lot for dinner.  I guess its all in the way you look at things.  If anyone knows me well, they know that I am a person who sees the humor & the bright side of all situations.  I try to laugh no matter what & I don't like to be too serious.  Its something that I have tried to teach my children.  Life isn't about what you do, or how you do it....its all about your attitude & who you have beside you.  Dan & I both feel that the best gift that we can or ever will give our children, is the gift of family.  What more can you ask for in this life, to have someone who knows you better than any other & who will always be on your side.  That is what we have given our children.  Yeah, we may not be able to afford the best for them.  They may have clothes from the Consignment shop & they may wear "Parents Choice" diapers (which I LOVE!) but they have each other.  They will have a family long after Dan & I are gone & although they may fight like the dickens, they love each other & that is what counts.  They have often been heard begging for more siblings.  Dan & I just have to laugh.   Deep down, we want a big family.  We want more than anything to give our children that stability & give them another sibling to love.  Now that Evan is two, we've often considered getting pregnant.  But again, the reality of having to take the fertility drugs & then having to have another C-Section is scary.  Do we really want to risk trying for another baby when we have been so blessed already?  Its like playing Russian Roulet.  We have our children to think about, not to mention my health.  What would having another pregnancy & C-Section do to my body.  Its not like I'm in good health as it is.  After much prayer & going back & forth, Dan & I decided to give it to God.  Ok, honestly, I've never really used birth control & the odds of getting pregnant on our own are like hardly existant....right?  We are not going to use fertility meds again & if it happens, it happens & we will be happy.  But it won't happen right????  Umm, wrong.  We found out yesterday after much speculation on my part.  That is right, we are pregnant.  LOL, what else can you do right?  That is what Dan & I did.  At first, the protector in me didn't want to tell anyone.  We'll just wait until we know that everything is going to be ok before we tell anyone.  I don't want to get the kids all excited & then have to break their little hearts when something goes wrong.  The odds of something going wrong are great you know.  So many things can happen & not all little peanuts turn into healthy live babies in the end.  Well, Dan wanted to tell people.  He says that we need all the prayer we can get & he is right.  Why not let people pray for us now, why wait until something has happened.  He is very excited & vows that after this baby, he is going to get the "sniaparoo".  I am happy too.  I've kinda known for a week or so.  If the psycho hormones & extreme sleepiness arent' enough to clue me in, it was definately the fact that I was drinking chocolate milk by the half a gallon daily & eating chicken out of the can.  OK, THAT IS NOT NOMRMAL!  So, I want you guys to know that we know how serious this is.  We know the risks.  We know all about the financial obligation.  I'm a nervous wreck just thinking about it all, but I'm a happy nervous wreck.  Please be happy for us & keep us in your prayers.  I haven't been to the doctor yet but I think our baby should be due sometime in the end of April.  This pregnancy is a blessing.  This baby is something that we prayed about & handed over to God.  Oh & Rainey says that if we have a girl, her name is going to be "Sally" Ha Ha Ha, no!

Not that too many of you knew that I was even gone...but I'm home now.  Hopefully we won't be taking any more trips for a while. 

So you are wondering where I have been & why.  Well, it all goes back to April, when Lucy gave birth to her adorable little Puggle puppies.  Nine puppies were born & are now old enough to go to new homes b/c Lord knows, I don't have enough patience for three kids & nine puppies & a husband!  So I listed them online & got five bites.  A nice lady from New Jersey, a family from Tuscaloosa & a guy & a girl from Destin, FL.  Due to the heat, the puppies were  unable to fly to New Jersey in the cargo area of the plane.  Dan & I love to see new places, so we told the lady that if she paid for our gas we would meet her part of the way in VA.  So we planned a trip last week, dropped the puppy off in Tuscaloosa, went on to Knoxville for the night & then on to Virginia the next day.  After handing off the reamaining puppies, we went back to Gatlinburg for the night.  We stayed in a really affordable place right in the middle of everything- Best Western Twin Islands, had a pool, kiddie pool & playground plus a balcony over the stream.  We went to the aquarium that night which was awesome.  The kids absolutely loved it.  Colton's favorite was the sharks but I loved the blue frog & the Sea Dragon.  I thought about Aunt Wendy & Uncle Jack a lot while we were in the mountains.  We kept running into those "biker" people everywhere we went!  LOL I guess there is some kind of "dragon" road or something up there.  Anyway. The next day we went on several nature hikes, played in a few mountain streams & headed to Chattanooga for the night.  The next day we went to Rock City & then came home. 

We were home for a day before we left for Destin, FL with the other puppies.  What can I say?  It was an excuse to take a mini vacation!  We left early, got to Destin around noon & then went to the beach for the afternoon.  Rainey has come a long way from being terrified of the sand!  It was so pleasant watching the kids play.  For once they were all laughing & playing, no fighting at all.  Rainey & Evan would giggle as they ran along the waters edge.  They love playing in the sand too.  Colton didn't care about anything but playing in the waves & getting "wiped out" by them.  Rainey & Evan totally loved playing in the ocean too but Dan & I had to hold them.  It made my heart happy watching them play, it was awesome.  Soo, today we went to Fudpuckers for lunch.  Who knew that they have a place where they do gator shows & tell about the alligators??  Had to have been fifty or more baby alligators all sunning on the decks in the gator exibit.  We even got to take a picture with one.  Dan held it ofcourse & its mouth was taped so that it couldn't bite us.  It was not a happy gator, but he sure made a good picture!  Evan held his tail in the picture.  Rainey wasn't scared to pet his back either but Colton wouldn't touch it.  After that we went on to the Bass Pro Shop in Mobile, or right outside of Mobile anyway.  There, Rainey spotted a pink rifle which she threw a fit for.  She proclaimed that she & I are going to go deer hunting with our pink guns.  We've definately got a redneck woman on our hands & I don't know how she has gotten that way!  We walked around looking at all the stuffed animals & fish for about an hour before we left & headed home.  It was really nice to have a little vacation, even though we were delivering dogs.  We never would have had the money if it wasn't for the puppys in the first place though.  So I am glad to be home.  I'm glad school is out & we can sleep late for a little while.  Wish the whole family could take another vacation like Panama City though.