The Many Faces of Judd Part II

A couple of years ago, I wrote this post about Judd. It was a fun post that showed a sneak peak into his quiet, fun-loving, gentle spirit. Just so happens, he was the only one not sick in our house on Monday and Tuesday.  I was able to capture a few more pictures of the many faces of Judd during a popsicle time out on the front porch. I love this kid! It is hard to believe that  he is 4 1/2 years old. I blinked and it happened over night!

Jackson Lake 2011

Our annual vacation to Jackson Lake was loads of fun this year. The kids made many memories with their cousins. The boys learned to ski and loved tubing. Anna Kate and Rabun shared a room this year and we all wonder what three year old girls have to talk about until 11 o'clock when they should be sleeping. Sadie enjoyed chicken and corn on the cob. Sadie's first tooth also cut through this week and took 7 steps. This was a great week.

The Whole Gang

Prior to the beginning of the official "Lake Week," and before the arrival of the whole gang we planned to take the boys canoeing down the Ocmulgee river with Papa Wayne .  The boys had a blast. We canoed a total of 6 miles. We stopped several times to let them play in the water and eat snacks. It was fun and we can't wait to go back next year.

Coming up

Drafts are started...
Posts are ready...
Updates are pending....

I just can't seem to find time to update my blog lately. Could it be vacation? Could it be 3 out of 4 kids hurling and running a fever this week? Could it be enjoying the last two weeks before Perdue Academy starts for the 2011-2012 school year? Yes, it could be all of those things...

I will catch up soon. Very soon! With a lot of pictures!

Thankfulness #326-345

326. stacks and stacks of books all over my house - while the clutter is driving me crazy, I know it's  because we are LEARNING!

327. Big Buddy and Nana coming for a short visit

328. Enjoying a sweet time of fellowship during our 4^th of July celebration at Crosspointe.

329. Kids doing fireworks and sparklers with Jim

330. Seeing my 6 year old leave to go to Nanacamp for the first time

331. I am thankful for Jake.

332. I miss him.

333. the privilege of being Jake’s mama.  

334. Jake’s dirty laundry

335. his smile

336. his grumpy times

337. his blue eyes

338. for the ways he fusses with and loves on his brother and sisters

339. his intelligence

340. his character  

341. For his love for the Lord

342. For his desire to know the things of God

343. Judd’s loving hugs

344. for Judd’s sense of humor

345. for Anna Kate’s kisses and sweet hugs 

Thankfulness #300-325

300. A fantastic day

301. The surprise $.25 cent trolley rides
302. The perfect timing and seating to see the Peabody ducks...
303. The exact perfect total at Kooky Canuck that allowed every family to eat for a total of $10 including tip!  
304. Wow- I love how God answers our prayers and takes care of us!!!

305. All of these happened during a play date to downtown Memphis with 10 adults and 25 kids.  

306. the Moby Wrap
307. a new book, The Ministry of Motherhood, just what I need to read. 
308. a house with a POOL!
309. lots of hours outside
310. playing outside until after bedtime
311. using play swords tonight during family worship. We were teaching the Heb 4:12. They loved it.
312. a cleaned out bathroom drawer
313. savoring the last summer that I will have a 6 yr, 4yr, 3 yr, and 8 1/2 month old.
313. Sadie's first steps
314. Sadie sleeping until 7:00 a.m. 
315. the friends that call or email just to let me know they care.
316. helping hands with 6 kiddos during a play date.
317. the first fruits from our garden that we are enjoying this week. Although, I am sad that bugs are eating all of our squash. 
318. watermelon for $3.25
319. studying the book of Jonah with Jake and teaching him how to underline in his Bible.
320. an 8 1/2 old baby that is still nursing even after I thought she may wean hereslf by this point.
321. new school curriculum arriving in the mail.
322. seeing Judd's excitement over "his school books"
323. a date night with my hubby
324. free tickets to see Cars 2
325. sweet friends to watch my kids today.

Marriage Questions

Saw these on a friends blog. I thought I would post my answers for posterity's sake!

How long have you been together? Married for 8 years, and started dating about a year before that

How long did you know each other before you started dating? We “knew of” each other since 1996.

Who asked who out? He officially asked me out, but I called out his name from the across the parking lot.

Did you go to the same school? Yes. We didn't meet until I got saved in 2000.

Who is the most sensitive? Definitely him!

What about pets? Skye. We got her about 6 months after we got married; we also have a cat.

Where do you eat out most as a couple? We like to go eat steak and then dessert, carrot cake or ice cream.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Mexico

Who has the craziest exes? I'll say that I definitely had one, but that's a long time ago

Who has the worst temper? Neither of us really. We never knew that we could get angry until we had kids.

Who does the cooking? Me. He can cook an awesome egg sandwich!

 Who is more social? Definitely him. 

Who is the neat freak? HIM! Although, I cannot stand clutter.

Who is the most stubborn? Me. Hands down.

Who hogs the bed? We both sleep very still. We don't move when we sleep... and we both steal the covers!

Who wakes up earlier? Usually him, but only because he has to go to work and likes to leave early. I get up at 7 a.m.

Where was your first date? Sonny’s BBQ

How long did it take to get serious? Not long. We both knew we'd found what we had been looking for.  

Who eats more? Let's just say we both like to eat.

Who does the laundry? We both do. I'm one lucky girl. :) 

Who drives when you are together? Always him!

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? Hmm. I guess we both do.

Who wears the pants in the relationship? He leads and I follow, Although, we are a good team when we put our heads together.

Who eats more sweets? We both do! We just like different kinds of sweets. 

Fun Father's Day

This year we had a great day Father's day. We went to church, ate at Casa Mexicana, presented Jim with his gifts, took a nap, and then we went on a traveling dinner mission (to be explained shortly). Jim loved the cards and Amazon gift card from the kids. I had a sign that says "Bonaire" framed for him. I saw one in his mom's kitchen and went on a mission to get one for the "Bonaire Boy."

Back to the traveling dinner...
We have joined the Summer Reading Club at the library this year. Jake is devouring books daily so I thought that it would be fun to "earn" prizes for summer reading. Upon completion of the first ten books you get a goodie bag. The goodie bag contains quite a few coloring books and several coupons for various restaurants in the area: free small fries from McD, a free soft or crunchy taco from Taco Bell, a free cookie from Subway, a free kids meal from Arby's and a free frosty from Wendy's. See where I am going with the traveling dinner? We packed all of the kids in the car and drove to McD's drive thru and ordered three free small fries. The kids ate the fries as we drove across the street to Taco Bell where we ordered three free tacos. Lastly, they ate their tacos on the way to Subway for, you guessed it, three free cookies! It was a fun time and they all laughed well, except for Sadie, and enjoyed their traveling dinner. It was just another way to make memories with our kids.

 

If I would have thought this out throughly, we would have taken pictures at each restaurant. I regret that we didn't, but we always have next year:-)

The best present of all:
As we were on our way home, Jake said to Jim "It doesn't matter what other people say "I" have the best Daddy in the whole wide world." Just as he said it I looked at Jim's reflection in the rear view mirror (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was sitting in the back the help Sadie. ) I could see the tears welling up in Jim's eyes. It was so sweet to hear the love that Jake has for his Daddy. PRICELESS!

Cell Phone Picture Update

Tonight I downloaded my cell phone pictures. It was a group of random pictures. I am sure that some of them deserve their own post, but right now I just want to have them on the blog to preserve the memories.

In April,  the girls and I took a trip to Georgia. Jim and I  decided that it would be cheaper and a lot easier if we flew down for a few days instead of driving. It was a fun trip and the girls did fairly well. Sadie did decide to scream the last few minutes of the first flight and then about 15 minutes of the return flight home. However, I would declare it a success. 

While we were down we went to see Sweet Papa's grave marker. It was really nice. Sweet, simple and to the point...just like Benny!

I can't get this picture to rotate in blogger. It is fine on iphoto...hummm!

Next set of pictures: While the girls were in Georgia, Daddy and the boys went to a Redbirds game.

Jake also lost his second tooth while I was away.  

A few weeks ago, we took the kids to go for a quick fishing trip at a friend's house. He lives on a lot of land. Our kids, including Skye, had a fabulous time. 

Thankfulness #273-299

273. boys playing Tic Tac Toe

274. a wonderful week of Pandamania VBS at Crosspointe

275. working with some of the most wonderful volunteers in the world.

280. spending some time in the pool with the family

281. W\watching all of my kiddos

282. celebrating Father's Day with the most wonderful husband and daddy to my kids

283. hearing an encouraging message for father's this morning at CPBC

284. making new Father's Day traditions this year

285. hearing my kids laugh

286. watching Jim be a great daddy

287. for a husband who is teaching my kids loyalty, faithfulness, hard work, integrity, humor and responsibility

288. for a husband who plays with his children. Thanks for being the fun one!

289. knowing that the Lord will put the perfect verse in front of my face at the perfect time. 

290. help loading the dishwasher

291. tiny cucumbers and squash growing

292. enjoying our first blue berry harvest

293. 4 growing, healthy, beautiful children that made me a mommy

294. the Perfect Father

295. for Crayola Crayons and time coloring with Anna Kate

296. Jim's dimples

297. warm summer nights

298. sweet, sweet, child care workers that are willing to love my babies at Crosspointe

299. sweet, sweet, child care workers that love my babies!

A Few Firsts

This week has consisted of several firsts in the Perdue home:

1. Sadie went swimming and loved being in the water with her Daddy.

2. Jim was given the opportunity to drive a stock car in a Faster Pastor race in West Memphis, Arkansas.

3. Sadie went from sitting, to squatting, to standing all unassisted. I was fortunate enough to capture the first time with my camera.

She is so proud. I just love this picture. *She is only 7 months old!

Thankfulness #262-272

262. A new way to make my grocery list-by aisle.
263. Anna Kate's bathing soups.
264. Judd swimming in the shadow end of the pool.
265. Anna Kate wearing gobbles while she swims.
266. An Anna Kate nap.

267. A growing garden.
268. Jake finishing his Hang Glider Book in AWANA Sparks.

269. Sadie drinking out of a sippy cup.

270. Boys who love sports, right the sport just happens to be T-ball.

271. A husband and Daddy who is also called Coach.

272. A husband who loves being a Daddy.