Valentine's Day 2013

We had a great Valentine's Day! Love, hearts, red, pink, roses filled up the house! The kids loved getting Valentines from family in the mail and Simms had a blast going through all her Valentines from school. Her sweet teacher even fixed Cope a bag of his own Valentines, which he carried around the whole day.

We had snacks all week at the preschool so Simms & I fixed them in Valentine mailboxes on V-Day..

Beautiful roses that Simms & I received from Dru. I got the red ones and she got the pretty peachy orange ones. She was SO proud of her flowers...

A Catch-up Post from Fall {finding out we were having another baby, Halloween & Thanksgiving)

Ok I am obviously trying to get my blog caught up and I can't let these things not make it on here, so here goes!

Finding out we were expecting again!

This is what I was staring at on Friday, October 26, 2012..

Did I tell Dru immediately? That would be a no..I really didn't know how to tell him, or when, or even what to say. Silly isn't it? I mean we'd just experienced a heartbreaking miscarriage in August, so you'd think I'd have been doing back flips, but I was very nervous about telling him. I am just glad that even though we may not have been anticipating a pregnancy in October, the Lord was, and He knew it was going to happen and he's always known. And I personally was beyond excited. It was just Dru I was worried about. I went about my weekend, praying and rehearsing how to tell Dru. Simms and I had that Saturday to ourselves while Dru and Cope went to Auburn to the game...

So on Sunday morning, October 28, I took another test, and got the courage to tell him before we left for church..

He was shocked. Mainly because I'd done the unsanitary deed of laying a pregnancy test on his toothpaste! Ha! No, really he was blown away and I'm not ashamed to say at this point that he wasn't exactly thrilled. That took awhile. Which may be why we didn't tell our kids until November 25. Regardless, I married a praying man, and after lots of prayer he became more open to the thought of 3 Goodwins running around our house. It takes a while to anticipate and accept change, I will give him that. He got excited and that made my heart happy! He's a wonderful Daddy to Simms & Cope and this baby will be just as blessed to call him her daddy too. And now we eagerly await little Frances Clarke to join us in late June or early July!  And our little family of 4 thanks the Lord for sweet Clarke everyday. She's going to be very loved. She already is.

Pumpkin Carving & Halloween

We didn't carve our pumpkin until the Sunday before Halloween, which also happened to be the day I told Dru about our newest blessing. It was an interesting day at our house :) These were also during our cabinet redo. Guess I should do a post on that interesting few months too. Yes..few months.

We had a great Halloween! We trick-or-treated with a bunch of friends and their fun kiddos. Dru hooked the trailer up to our Ranger and the Kirks brought a bunch of hay to sit on. Our street goes all out and it was so much fun. After trick-or-treating the Parhams had everyone over for their annual Halloween dinner. It was lots of fun and Emilie called me out immediately about being preggo. She knows I can't turn down a glass of chardonnay :)

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

We spent Thanksgiving in Columbus, MS at Becca and Grover's house. We went on Wednesday and came back the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We had a great trip and I love for Simms & Cope to get to spend time with their cousins in their town & at their house!

Our elf, Pixel, even made the trip in order to make his annual debut. He even teamed up with Lilla & Emiline's elf one night. We had a great trip and the kids maintained their good track record of long car trips going peacefully and smoothly.

A Name for Our Daughter...

After lots and lots of choices, combinations, etc. we have finally decided on a beautiful name for our little girl...

Of course I had to practice writing her name out! We think it is just beautiful and love that we are continuing to honor both of our families with her name! I had a doctor's appointment yesterday {and besides the scale not being nice} all went well! Clarke's ultrasound report looked perfectly healthy, praise the Lord! Things are just moving right along..I was 19 weeks yesterday! Simms and Cope love talking to "baby Clarke" and they feel like they must talk thru my bellybutton..silly kids! Be back soon with a Valentine's Day post!!

Our Baby will be a....

A Sweet Little Girl!!

We found out today that the Lord is blessing our family with another daughter! We are so very excited and feel very blessed! Simms and Cope are thrilled. Now if only we can come up with a name! My sweet Simms has already drawn me a picture of "us girls" as she said. She will be SO good with a little baby girl in the house!

More updates to come..hopefully a name update soon!

Cope turns 3!!

Our precious baby boy turned 3 on December 30! I just cannot believe it. Time has surely flown with this little boy in our lives! He woke up bright and early the morning of his birthday, which suited me just fine! I was ready to hug that neck and kiss those sweet lips. We did our tradition of singing on the camcorder and he blew out his 3 candles! He was so excited!

We had his birthday party Sunday afternoon. It was a very small family party. I know this is probably the last year that I can get away with that, but in all honesty, this is how Cope prefers it. He doesn't like a lot of fuss or people. I'd ordered all of the cowboy stuff a while back, and the plan had been to see about "borrowing" Sissy's MIL's ponies for riding around the yard, but it was freezing! And our cowboy theme got hijacked by Cope about a week before the party. He began telling me he wanted a DQ ice cream cake with dinosaurs on it. OK. Sweet thing never requests things so I couldn't let him down. That is the reason you will see a DQ dino cake, decorated by yours truly. And obviously so.

So excited to have his family singing to him.

Simms was so excited to finally eat a cupcake since she helped make them!

Opening some presents!

And no party is complete without the hysterics of a pinata...

Cope had a wonderful party! He was truly the happiest little boy on his birthday!

The next best thing to turning 3 was potty training! I stuck to my theory of waiting till the day they turn 3 (well did it the day before with Cope) and it has been the easiest thing ever once again! He had 2 teetee accidents that first afternoon, and that has been it! He's been sleeping in underwear since night 2, and he wakes up dry every morning! And he has done great to and from Columbus too in the car! I am SO SO proud of him! We gave him an early birthday "Cars" potty that has a gear shift on the side and really makes a Vroom Vroom noise. It is hysterical.

We also had his 3 year checkup this week. So thankful for a healthy, BIG boy. He weighs 36 lbs (Simms weighs 39 at 5, and weighed 30 at THREE years old) and he is 39 inches long. 85% and 67%. We found out one of his tubes has come out at some point over the last year. He isn't having any ear issues though so we are just going to watch it closely, and I also found out our ped (whom I LOVE and TRUST) isn't referring Cope for speech. She said she understood every word he said, so another answered prayer there!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, fiesty, one-of-a-kind 3 year old! We love you Bubby!

4 New Post Below!

Christmas Day 2012

The kids woke up right around 8 on Christmas morning. I, however, had been up since 7. Making coffee, casseroles, getting the tree on, Christmas music playing, really just ready for them to wake up :)

Santa came!!

All Simms wanted was a bike with a baby seat (well that and a pink Jeep but she started asking for it a little too late)! She got it and loved that it was purple and turquoise!

She also got the perfect sized little kitchen and she is obsessed with it! It was reallly left for both of them, but you know, she thinks it is just hers. Santa had hidden kitchen accessories behind the curtains and she loved finding those!

Cope got all things pirate and dinosaur. Both fit him perfectly! He LOVES his tent. And his tool box full of tools!

Hard to make this picture out, but that is the pirate in his tent looking through his PirateScope!

My sweet girl..so excited!

Ready for an early, cold, Christmas morning bike ride. Notice her cabbage patch twins. They ended up being girls, Stephanie and Emily.

I knew she wouldn't eat what I made for Christmas breakfast, so on our way through Montgomery Sunday we stopped and got doughnuts. She was so excited to have a chocolate glazed one on Christmas. She LOVES them!

Our pirate on Christmas morning!

It was so nice to not have to rush and pack up the car to travel on Christmas. It has been a few years since we were able to stay home and just relax on Christmas morning. We did lots of playing with our new things and enjoyed the day with just us. Later that night, my parents, Miles and Katy, and the Kirks came over for dinner and to swap more presents. It was so much fun. Once again though, just like last year, I didn't get a single pic. Ugh! We went to bed exhausted and happy! This was a wonderful Christmas season for our family. I smiled every time Cope would point to Mary or Joseph, or his favorites, the Kings, and tell me who they were. Or when I would hear Simms telling the story of the birth of Jesus to Cope. The presents are fun, but it means way more to us that they know the true meaning of why we celebrate, and I love seeing their little hearts and minds take all that in!

So glad to be caught up so far! One precious rascal turns 3 on Sunday, so as soon as I blog about his birthday I will be back tracking with Halloween and Thanksgiving. See, told you I was behind!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!