Elias is 3!

Today is my nephew Elias' birthday. I have to say that I love that kid! He is a very sweet and smart kid. He speaks so well and has an amazing vocabulary! What other 3 year old uses the word preposterous correctly in a sentence? He is a sensitive boy who loves his mom and dad and extended family. He and Katelyn are more like brother and sister than cousins. They are best friends who get along most of the time, fight some of the time, yet love each other all the time. I am so thankful Katelyn has such a great cousin! I love you Elias!

Weekend

We had a really great weekend! We started on Friday night with the preschool Thanksgiving Feast at church. Katelyn had a ball! They had tons of stuff for the kids to do. Shelly Taylor is such a blessing to our church and to our family. I am so glad Dr. Brunson brought her to FBC Jax.

They had a video of Miss Pattycake on during the meal, which Katelyn thought was the coolest thing! I know she is going to love when she comes in December. Shelly did a power point story time, during which Katelyn decided she was going to run around on the stage and play with the microphone. Then they had different rooms and games and crafts set up for the kids to do. Katelyn made a candy turkey, had her hand painted all sorts of colors to make a turkey and much more. She was completely enthralled with this blow up ball game. It took a while to get away from that. She just kept wanting to dive into the balls, face first I must add. Thank you to everyone who made that night possible. It was a blast!

Saturday was our annual Middle School Field Day at Landon MS. The forecast was rain all day and our event was all outside. Needless to say, many prayers were offered up in the days leading up to Saturday. God was awesome (as always)!! It rained while things were being set up, but before you knew you it, the sun was out and it was beautiful! It stayed that way until right after lunch (about halfway through the event). As everyone was complaining about being hot and getting sunburned, God gave us clouds and a breeze that quickly cooled us off. The rain held off until about 30 minutes before the end of the event at which time we moved into the cafeteria for the awards and wrap up. God worked everything out perfectly. We had a good turn out (though I believe more would have come if it had not been raining in the morning-but that's okay) and we had over 20 visitors. When Dan gave a short Gospel presentation, 4 or 5 kids responded so praise be to God! What a great day!

Fridays

Fridays are such a great day at our house. Dan is blessed to be able to work from home most Fridays so we get to spend a lot of time together. Katelyn just loves waking up and seeing her Daddy there and knowing he's going to be there all day. She is usually in such a good mood and is so happy (and so is her mom). Today we spent some time playing this morning and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The we took a trip to order some Christmas gifts then to the China Super Buffet (Daddy's favorite place). Katelyn ate some chicken and broccoli, shrimp, crab, and even chocolate ice cream. We came home for nap time and then house cleaning. We had a Middle School student leadership team meeting at our house tonight.

Katelyn had a date with her cousin Elias and Titi Tiff. She talked about it ALL day long. We kept telling her she wasn't going until it got dark outside. If you guys were outside at all today, you know it was a gorgeous sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. Here was a typical conversation with Katelyn today.
Katelyn: Time for E-I-E's house?
Me: Is it dark outside?
Katelyn: No. It's bright!
Me: Then no, it's not time for Elias' house. We'll go when it gets dark outside.
(repeat this conversation every 4 minutes and you get the idea!)

I'm so glad Katelyn and her cousin Elias are such great buds! I pray they stay that way!

Halloween 2008

This past Halloween we got to go Savannah to spend some time with Dan's parents. We took Katelyn to a fall festival at FBC Rincon, a small town outside of Savannah. We had tons of fun! Katelyn got to ride a pony which she thoroughly enjoyed! We also rode a hayride, jumped in a princess castle bouncy house and played lots of fun carnival games. She loved getting candy, but she wasn't a big fan of putting it in her bag. She wanted to eat it all! She may not be a big cake, cookie, ice cream person, but boy does she like candy! The next day we went down to the waterfront to the craft fair they have in downtown Savannah on the first Saturday of each month. We went to a cute little Tea House for lunch and tea. They brought Katelyn a little plate and mini utensils. She even got her own demi cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. We had a wonderful time!

Pumpkin Patch

After a few failed attempts, Katelyn and I finally made it to a pumpkin patch. Mandarin United Methodist has a really neat patch with lots of photo places. I had never taken Katelyn to a pumpkin patch before but I had always seen other people's pictures and though they were so cute! So, I was determined this year to go! We met up with our friend Misty and "Bwake" as Katelyn calls her son and had a great time. I got a little frustrated because Katelyn was not cooperating very well. She has decided she does not like her picture being taken so she won't smile, or even worse, she just turns her head. Hopefully it's just a stage!

Wow! I'm behind!

Man! It's been a long time since I've updated anything on here. Sorry about that! It's been a pretty eventful couple of months. We took Katelyn to Disney World for the first time at the end of September. She had so much fun! She loved the Merry-go-Round, Small World, the Nemo show at Animal Kingdom and the character lunch at Chef Mickey's. She was pooped (as were we) by the end of the weekend. We're planning on another day trip in December with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. That will be a blast! Katelyn and Elias are best buds so they will enjoy spending the day together at the happiest place on earth!

Dan and I have finally decided on a name for our little girl. Her name will be Caroline Dean Elkins. We love the name Caroline because it's so girly. Katelyn is our girly girl who loves lotion, lip gloss, and shoes so watch Caroline be our tomboy. Either way we are so excited. Dean is special because it is my mom's maiden name and the name of one of my brothers. We just thought it would be neat to honor my family that way.

Katelyn is a definite two year old. She is learning new words and phrases everyday. Her memory is getting sharper each day. She is also testing every boundary put out there. She is strong-willed and fiercely independent. Her favorite phrase is "No, me." She loves to help mommy and daddy cook and she always wants to help with whatever is going on. She'll carry grocery bags, put clothes in the washing machine, sweep(or at least try), and pretty much whatever else I'm doing. She's definitely mommy's little helper.

Our New Baby

Well, we just found out this morning that Katelyn is going to have a new baby sister! I told Dan that he must have prayed really hard! Anyway, we're really excited about it! Hopefully some of the clothes I saved from Katelyn will work for this new little one even though they'll be born in different seasons. We haven't decided on a name yet, but we've talked about a couple. So hopefully it will be nailed down soon. She is healthy, has all her parts and is very active! The ultra sound tech was having to chase her all around. Dan is going to try and post the pictures on his Facebook sometime today (the proud daddy wanted to take the pictures to show off at work). Please keep us all in your prayers!