Joseph- 1 1/2 yrs old (or 18 months)

This boy is NOT a fan of the camera. He'd rather run, pick flowers, shake the fence- whatever. I'm sure one day he'll calm down. For now his pictures are taken on the move.

Mikayla- age 3 1/3 yrs old (or 40 months)

Halfway there!

For some reason I've been so camera-happy lately. I know I've been posting lots of pictures, but it's better than nothing, right? My dear husband took a little photo session of me and Mikayla this evening in her room. At the end, he took a few of just me. On Tuesday I'll be 20 weeks pregnant with our 3rd child. I'm REALLY showing and I'm happy about it. Just thought I'd share these in case you're wondering about my ever-growing belly.

My new favorite

How I love this family the Lord has so kindly blessed me with. This pic was taken today right before church started. I love it!

We love Grandma and Grandpa!

We have the privilege of spending a few days with Jody's parents. They are so much fun to have around. After Mikayla's bath this evening, she wanted Grandma to put braids in her hair. Grandma kindly did so. :o) What a blessing they are to us!!

fun times with daddy

Our fifth 2nd Tuesday

Hey, we missed you! I think today went very well. It sure blessed my heart to be able to spend time with so many great kids. I love children. Join us next time, if you'd like :-)

Wow, thanks!

Hi there, sweet ladies. And I do mean sweet. and thoughtful. and considerate. Thank you ALL for all the wonderful suggestions. There were some that I hadn't even considered. I appreciate you all caring and sharing ;o). A dear lady is sending me some maternity tops. I'm SO thankful and super excited. Isn't it amazing how the Lord provides?? I love it! Tomorrow is our 2nd Tuesday. Come if you'd like. We'll be:

• singing
• having a bible study on time
• doing a fun (I hope!) craft together
• having tostadas for lunch

Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics tomorrow. Lots of work to do before then!

Thanks again!

Help!

I guess I'm a pretty impatient person. or at least I'm finding that out as time goes on. I'm highly frustrated b/c I can't seem to find summer maternity shirts WITH SLEEVES. I know the average person looks great in a tank top/sleeveless/or really short sleeve shirt, but I do not. And that seems to be all I'm finding. sigh. For now I'm just wearing over-sized t-shirts which are not the most flattering, and I'm rotating them about every 3 days or so. I looked at a JCPenney catalogue with some cute shirts, but they're about 25 bucks each and then you pay for shipping... ends up being about 30 dollars for a shirt. NOT something that's affordable to us right now. Anyone know of a good, inexpensive place to shop for maternity shirts??

"A few of my favorites" collage

Look at the placement of the bubbles on the groom's face. How funny, eh? Love it!

Growth means life

The other night my husband said something complimentary about my ever-growing belly. I muttered something sarcastic back, and then stopped and said, growth means life. I'm so thankful that the baby inside of me is growing, and I NEVER want to take that for granted. Sure my tummy makes living sometimes uncomfortable, but how truly amazing that there is a life inside of me being fashioned and made by the Creator of all life. Wow.

I thought about the Christian life. What kind of fruit am I producing? or am I producing any at all? I want my Christian life to be a life of growth, of change where/when I need it (and I so often do!), and of service for the glory of God. This life IS but a vapor; I want to live with thoughts of eternity always on my heart. I want to bear fruit that is pleasing to the Lord.

I'm 18 weeks pregnant! This pregnancy has been a really neat one so far. Our children love poking at my tummy and talking to the baby and giving my tummy kisses. It's so precious. It's hard to believe this is my FOURTH pregnancy. wowzers. I feel like I've been pregnant for years now ;o) Actually, I kinda have...

I had the privilege of photographing a wedding this past weekend. Surprisingly, I wasn't as nervous as I'd thought I'd be. What a WONDERFUL family to "work" with! My husband was a huge help in the organizational part of it and in the encouragement area. How I love him! My dear parents came here and watched the kids for us. Talk about an act of love! If I ever do another wedding, I'm going to definitely need some more lighting. I had a rough time with the lighting of the church; I definitely lacked the knowledge/experience of what I needed, which resulted in more blurry pictures than I would've liked, but I think enough came out pretty good, so I was happy all in all with the results. (how was that for a run-on sentence??)

Just thought I'd finally type out a new post. It was about time, eh? Good night, friends. :o)

The newlyweds

Love these kiddos!

Since the morning was so nice we headed to Coggin Park this morning. Grace and her kids have been staying with us the past few days and we are REALLY enjoying our time with them. Don't ask about Joseph's outfit- Grace dressed him.

Super secret juicy hamburger recipe

This "recipe" is not for those closely watching their fat/calorie intake. So, here goes:

At Walmart I bought a chub (?) of ground beef for $1.88. I believe it's the 73/27 kind- the white 1 lb. one. The fattiest (yikes!) one.

After bringing it home, I divided into fourths, formed some round patties and put some beef fajita seasoning on them and some sea salt. Then I cooked them on the stove med- med/high heat until they were no longer pink, but still very juicy. I then added some American cheese. I teamed it up with a softened hamburger bun, some mayo, lettuce, tomato and a bit of raw sweet onion. DELICIOUS. With our burgers we had some baked bean and tater tots.

So, as you can see, this isn't much of a recipe. BUT, it is the way I'll be making burgers in the future. Try it; you'll like it ;o)

Had to throw in a sepia

And a few black/whites

What a cooperative bunch! :o)

This evening's photo shoot with the Shamburgers

Swimming "fun"

More from Father's Day photo shoot

This little photo session was one of my most frustrating ones EVER. The kids were pretty wild, tired, and the mosquitoes were horrible. Thankfully I still got a few good shots.

A bit from Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

I'll post soon on my super secret hamburger recipe ;o), but I wanted to share a paragraph from this book I'm reading:

"Marriage teaches us to give what we have. God has given us one body. He has commanded our spouse to delight in that one body- and that body alone. If we withhold from our spouse our body, it becomes an absolute denial. We may not think it is a perfect body, but it is the only body we have to give. "

Pretty basic, but a good reminder for me. My husband is constantly complimenting me. Oftentimes I brush aside the compliment or mutter something sarcastic in return. In reality, I'm so thankful that he finds me attractive! He makes me feel beautiful, and I love him for it.

and before I turned 30

Not to brag or anything, but I did something today that I've NEVER done before. I FINALLY made a good hamburger. Can you believe it's taken me this long??? It was seasoned well, cooked to "perfection," and so yummy and juicy. I'm thrilled. So was my husband :o) Usually my hamburgers turn out very dry and very blah. Just thought I'd share my delight with you all- knowing how much you'd care. I'm excited that I made a good hamburger before I turned THIRTY. Can you imagine turning 30 and never have made a good one? How sad would THAT be?

In other news, I had a lovely Saturday with my family. I absolutely LOVE having my husband home on the weekends. He's such a dear and such a help. Our kiddos love him like crazy. We're both teaching Sunday School tomorrow, which means that I'll have Joseph in mine with me. That always makes for an "interesting" time. ahem. Hope you all have a blessed Lord's day tomorrow. Good night.

the use of natural light

I'm not a big flash fan. Obviously there are times when I'm very thankful to have access to flash on a camera, but for the most part, I LOVE using God's natural light. I guess one reason I don't especially like flash is that I'm not very good with it ;o) So, I guess the natural light works well for me. This is Mikayla "journaling" after her bath this evening. I LOVE MY GIRL!

Can't you tell I'm busy?

I love my children's father!

I

The Lord has done great things for me

I've shared this quote from my pastor before, but I'll share it again: The greatest blessings are spiritual blessings. I wholeheartedly agree. At the same time, the Lord gives us physical blessings as well. I got one of those yesterday. Thanks to my parents and my husband, I was able to get a new camera that I've not even really "dreamed" about. I just KNEW it would be years 'til I got one. Not so! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, mom and dad! Thank you, precious husband of mine! (It's a digital SLR. Canon Rebel xsi- 12mp!) As you can see I'm already enjoying it immensely...

My favorite banana bread recipe

I think I've tried about 20 banana bread recipes in my short life. There are so many to choose from! This recipe is my favorite because...
1- it's extremely simple
2- it's very banana-y (sp??)
3- it's dee-lish!

and some in black and white

Today's photo shoot in color

A sepia kind of day

Today has been a rough day. I have those every once in a while. Jody had to mow, so I took the kids to the park this evening. There we met a little girl who told me that I have white stuff all over my nose (yes, my face is peeling horribly!) and that she could fix Mikayla's hair better than I did. Well, what a smart girl. She made me laugh. AND, she took the picture of the three of us. I asked her if her name was Olivia, and she said, no, close- Octavia. Interesting. Thankfully the day is getting better as the sun goes down. As long as there are cherries, how could I NOT be doing better?

I got one!

A double jogging stroller, that is :) My mom spotted one at Goodwill and showed me and we bought it! This morning I took it out with the kiddos and we didn't get too far. The tires were in desperate need of air, so we made our way back home. I couldn't find the air pump, so I put it away and we came back in. rats! Maybe tomorrow. after the tires have been aired up. Anyway! I'm so thankful to have one!! Without it, it's nearly impossible for me to exercise with a 1 and 3 yr old.

I'm 13 weeks pregnant today. I guess today is the start of my 2nd trimester. Yesterday I had my 2nd appt. All was well, praise the Lord. It took the dr a while to find the heartbeat (kinda scary) and he said it was a quiet one. Mikayla and Joseph both got to be in there with us, so they were able to hear their brother's/sister's heartbeat. :) at my next appt I'll have my bloodwork done. fun.

Hope y'all are doing well. I know my blog has not super exciting these days. Maybe my next one (my 400th post) will be different. Stay tuned...

Boy or Girl?

Well, right now only God knows the answer to that. We're not planning on finding out until his/her birth. But, we have decided on some names, so we are prepared for either!

So, here they are:

Boy name: Jadon Michael Dodson

Girl name: Kaitlyn Esther (I REALLY had to convince Jody about Esther. He was not (still is not really...) a big fan. He feels like an Esther should be about a 95 yr old woman. oh well. I like it and he likes me:)

On Tuesday I'll be 13 weeks, about 1/3 of the way finished. yay!!!

Ethan Henry- the stealer of hearts

We LOVE this new little guy. What a precious (and tiny!) one he is!