good news and cuteness.

We sold our HUGE sleeper sofa that was in the office!  WOOHOO!!!  I cannot contain my excitement.  We do not have to move it and now I can get started changing that room into Quinn and Asa's room and make Quinn's room the foster care room!  

On the cuteness note, today Quinn asked me who got her this little shark stuffed animal she has(she always asks us who gave her _____fill in the blank so we get kind of tired of the question) and I said, "Your mother".  Dru asked her who her mother was and she pointed to me and smiled.  Then he asked her, "Who is your father?" and without missing a beat she said, "Jesus!"  Oh the faith of a child!

oh saturday.

Oh Saturday.  Usually Drew has to work on Saturday but today he was off, yippee!  We have had a good day-I'll tell you about some of it but before I do...

Quinn had her doctors appointment yesterday for her physical for foster care.  She is growing great (Ha!  That other doc was wrong!) She is smaller than most 2 and a half year olds but still on the charts.  The doctor said that because she eats so healthy it makes sense.  He said in our society children are fed McDonald's and pizza on a far to regular basis so to compare her to other children that don't eat well does not make sense.  I've done something right!  :)  We eat McDonald's occasionally too so please don't think I am putting on a holier then thou attitude, but in our culture today that thinks you are weird if you don't feed your children candy and grease all the time it was nice to get a pat on the back for once.  Although, here in Asheville it is a LOT easier to eat healthy than in many other parts of the country.  Other then that, she had to get her blood drawn and I was so worried that when they tied the band on her arm and stuck the needle in she would start crying and then I would too.  I am such a baby when it comes to needles I really was trying to not pass this along to my child.  Anyway, I just kept telling her what a big girl she was and trying to distract her and tell her how "cool" it was to see her blood (whatever! ).  She did sooo well!  She just looked at the needle going in her arm and then watched as they pumped the blood out into a tube.  Not my child!

Enough about that, so today...

We started off by selling a marble top kitchen island we had no use for that has been sitting in our garage for a year or more for $95!  Then we went to hang out with our friends the Masons and grabbed a bite to eat at the Lucky Otter.  Then we headed over to Porter and Prince where I have some of my work hanging and I bought bedding for Asa that I have been wanting for over a year!  We checked out some of the other small shops in Biltmore Village and then went to the Screen Door.  Now at home I am working on selling the sleeper sofa we have in the office!  I have 2 people interested, hope someone wants it!  

family days.

Quinn's first time on flat ground riding! (Or trying to at least!)

Quinn fell about 2 minutes into the riding experience and was afraid to get back on her tricycle so I jumped on the trike and started to pedal around. She thought that was so funny so she hoped on-that got her over her fear!  (Glad I didn't break the thing!)

We then spent some time swinging together... her favorite.

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Today Dru had the day off.  I love when he has the day off!  We just hung out at home this morning while he finished some design classes online and I worked on the wedding pictures from this weekend.  I have been working my butt off on post production trying to get them done quickly.  I had a photo session yesterday for newborn twins who were only about 4 and 5 lbs.  and so cute...I need to get to working on post production for that shoot too but I want to finish the wedding first.  

After Quinn's nap we went to the park so she could have a chance to ride her tricycle.  Living on the side of a mountain does not provide many chances for her to learn to ride so we have to take her to the park.  We had a lot of fun!  We came home, had dinner and then Dru and Quinn went out to the front yard to water the grass and when I came out to see what they were doing, Quinn was playing in the sprinkler.  :)  

This is a video of her first trying to pedal. The ice cream truck in the background was a great addition to the video.  :)

Playing in the sprinkler in the front yard.

our 5th anniversary.

On May 24Th Dru and I celebrated our 5Th anniversary!  We celebrated in true Dave Ramsey style by starting our morning at 5AM with a yard sale.  We had the yard sale at our friends the Moore's house because they have land on road with lots of traffic.  It was fun to sit out in the driveway and relax in the sun and have people hand us money.  :)  After the yard sale we came home and the kids took naps and then Dru and I went out on a date (have not done that in a while!) to the little shops just outside of the Biltmore and to an awesome restaurant called Rezazz!!  The food was so amazing and we had a great time taking pictures on the little point-and-shoot camera around Biltmore while we were waiting for our reservations.  OH!  and we have a WilliamSanoma here now and a J.Crew so we got to go walk around those stores. 

Here are some pictures from that day...all out of order, sorry.  

Quinn loves Cory and Shelly's little boy Miles! They sat for a photo op. in one of the chairs for sale.

Dru and I taking pictures just for fun...

I love sun flairs!  Yes, my incredible skills took this photo below without me even looking!  :)  Haha

This coffee shop was cool till we saw this sticker.  :)

Mel has the touch...Asa was not diggin' the early morning!

Quinn and daddy in Dave's tent he was selling just being silly

Dave and Quinn hanging out in the same tent...

Dave and Mel have two cute dogs that Quinn loves to play ball with when we are over there!

Again, Quinn can't resist Miles cuteness!!!

tiny puppies and people.

Asa with Emily.  My parents are keeping Emily!  She was the only girl.

They look like they are nursing Asa :) 

This is Graham licking Asa's finger.  The puppies seemed to like Asa better than Quinn even though he was flailing his arms and legs and hitting them. 

Quinn is getting so big!  No, I did not tell her to sit like that.  She has started to pose when the camera comes out.

Quinn and Emily

My mom and dad came this weekend to look at houses and spend some time with us.  On Sunday dad and I shot a wedding together and got some great pictures!  I will post some of those once I have a chance to go through them.  

Mom and dad's dog just had puppies and they are so cute.  They are only 4 weeks old so they had to bring them with on their trip here.  The dogs stayed downstairs in their whelping (sp) box the whole time. Right before they left we got some pictures on the front porch of Quinn and Asa with the dogs.  Quinn loved to hold them and we had to keep telling her to be gentle! Overall she did good.  She just can't hardly help herself when it comes to cute things weather it is a puppy, a baby, or a cute toy.  Here are just a few pictures from this afternoon.  

2 month check up.

Welp, just a quick note to let all the people who care (grandparents I guess) that I took Asa to the doctor today for his 2 month check up and he weighed 13.8 oz. (85 %) and is 25 inches long (over the 100%).  The doctor thinks he has acid reflux problems so we got some medicine.  We will find out tomorrow if it works I guess.  If not, then we have another issue on our hands.  It was pretty uneventful so that's good.  

Next week we go for Quinn and I cannot wait to ask him questions about her.  She has not been to the doctor since she was 18 months old I think!  We have just not needed to take her plus we were going to a different doctor who told me she was too small and wanted to send Quinn to a nutritionist and have a million tests done on her blood.  I have so many issues about what she based that on that it angers me- but I will not even go into it.  We will find out if that is true or not next week.  

Anyway, Asa is good and growing like a weed.  He only has 5 more inches before he outgrows his car seat!! 

warm weather is a plus.

Summer is almost here!!  Today we got out the kiddie pool and Quinn had a blast playing in it! 

She loves her new bathing suite that we got for the beach at Grammy's house this summer.  I have decided she is only allowed to wear one piece bathing suits from now on.  Last year was her last two piece year till she is MUCH older.  :)  I know, I may be overprotective but she just looks like such a big girl now.  Two pieces are much too sexy for my little princess.   Here is a picture of her after her pool fun was over. She came inside very energized and bouncing off the couches!

happy birthday allie.

So, I'm ONE day late-forgive me.  Yesterday was my baby sister's 22ND birthday.  Wow!  She is so beautiful and fun and intelligent and talented and caring and I could go on!  She just started taking pictures this year and also messing with web design and look what she has created!  She just amazes me!

Happy birthday Aunt Allie~ Love, Asa and Quinn

Here is Quinn singing to Aunt Allie... we wish we could be with you!

Knucklehead Clothing

Okay, so you will either love or hate these clothes for little boys.  I LOVE them!  If I could dress Asa in whatever clothes I wanted (basically, if I had all the money in the world) I would dress him like this! So stinkin' cute!  Check out Knucklehead Clothing.

PS- I love most of the girls clothes too but cute girls clothes are everywhere!

go apples.

Who would have thought Apple Cider Vinegar would be such an amazing product and so inexpensive!  My mom sent me an email almost a month ago and I am just now getting around to reading it.  (Sorry mom!)  We had talked on the phone about her new found love for apple cider vinegar so I knew I needed to try it but didn't really know what all it did!  So please don't wait a month like I did-check out this awesome website!!!

Here are just some of the things it does:

Gets rid of acne, lightens age spots, lowers blood pressure, weight loss

It is a hair conditioner, cleaning agent and germ killer

It is also great for your pets

(There is still so much more!)

Check it out!!!!

lucky lady.

I think we might have found the culprit for Asa's behavior.  He has been SO cranky all the time and cries a lot.  Not like a normal baby cry either.  His body would be stiff and he just seemed so uncomfortable.  After talking with a friend of mine whose baby was doing the same thing I decided I would cut all milk and milk products out of my diet. I won't be able to tell for a week but I swear after only one day he seems a little bit happier. 

Here is a picture from yesterday.  He would no stop crying so I put him in his Moby sling. He still cried but at least if I was bouncing or dancing around the house with the pacifier in his mouth he was kind of quiet.  

I have been waiting to get this picture for a while now! Two of my friends and I  were pregnant at the same time and now we have all had babies. Here they are from left to right:

Maggie- 4 weeks old

Drew- 12 weeks old

Eden- 12 weeks old

                                        Asa- 8 weeks old                                         

On Saturday we went to a cookout at our friend John and Shay's house and that is where I got these pictures.

Asa finally went to sleep on Mel's shoulder after much crying!

This picture above  is my FAVORITE right now! This is what I woke up to this morning.  I was up with Asa a lot last night so Dru let me sleep an extra hour and when he came in to wake me up this is who he lay next to me.  I think this is the first picture we have of Asa smiling. 

Quinn really loves her baby brother and is so sweet to him!

So does this mean she is genius?!  Just kidding. I walked in the playroom today and she had lined up all of her blocks by order.  She is so much fun...

quinn's kentucky trip.

Quinn got back from her 2 day Kentucky trip with CC and Granddad last night.  They went to go visit Dale's (Dru's dad) side of the family.  Last time Quinn went she was not even walking.  I doubt she even remembered the first visit but I know she will remember this one for a long time!

Quinn apparently took to Great Uncle Lanny right away. Shortly after they got to KY he took her out to see the cats, dogs and horses! 

The went to the nursing home to visit Dale's mom. Quinn had fun riding on Ma Collies lap in the wheelchair.

Quinns second cousins Jenni and Kevin gave Quinn a Webkinz frog. Apparently the whole trip his name was "Pinky" but when she came home his name changed to "Magnet Wall" (yep, you heard me right) and then to "Froggy".  I'm guessing "Froggy" will stick!

There was no shortage of presents at the Collies.  Her Great Aunt Elaine gave Quinn her first cabbage patch doll named Marley.  She eats ice cream and gets a messy face.  Quinn has played with her all morning, pushing her around in her stroller and shoving Marley in her backpack.

I was probably just as excited as Quinn to hear that she got to ride Uncle Lanny's horse!!  She has talked about riding a horse since she could talk but I never wanted to go spend the money to take her ride if she wasn't going to really like it.  I thought I would wait till she was older...I was wrong.  Granddad said she was so excited when she saw the horses and when she got on the horse she was a mixture of excited and nervous-but she did it!
This thing she does with her tongue kills me!  :)  Part of it is hereditary I've heard.  Dru and his grandma do it when they are thinking, and so does Quinn. But, she also does it when she sees a camera-its a new thing. So-I'm not sure which is which here.  I think she is just concentrating at staying on the horse. :)

Like I said, she connected with Uncle Lanny right away.  :)  Pretty special to get to cuddle a clean girl right before bedtime.  

chubby baby.

Asa felt left out of the blog so here are some computer pictures we took today.  He is the cutest chubby boy I have ever seen!  He had on 12 month clothes yesterday!  That blows me away at how big he is because Quinn can still wear 12 mo. clothes and shes almost three.  I have one extra big and one extra small child.  Maybe the next one will be "normal".  :)

My baby love....props to Chris Foster at www.fosterweld.com for making this killer belt!  You rock!  :)  

debt stinks.

So those of you who have been around me in the past two months or so know that Dru and I are doing the Total Money Makeover with Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University.  Well, I just wanted to give a little shout out to the man and program that is making our life SO much less stressful and meaningful even!  I could go on and on and in a few months when all of our debt is paid off I'm going to do so.  If you are in debt PLEASE check him out!  If you can only do two things do this...read his book Total Money Makeover (you can get it anywhere) and listen to his podcasts from his website or just on the radio!  Doing just this has changed our lives!!!!!!!  DON'T BE STUPID!  Debt STINKS!

foster care.

"It's about time!" is the first thing I think of when it comes to this post.  Dru, Quinn, Asa and I are starting the process to opening up our home to children in this area who are in need of a loving family while their mommies and daddies get their feet back on the ground.  I am SO excited (and a little nervous).  Today we met with Jessica from Grandfather Home, an amazing foster and adoption organization. I have to share one of my favorite things about Grandfather Home...they started in the 1900s and have never been in debt! How many businesses, even churches can say that??!!  So, Jessica came over and talked to Dru and I about all of the millions of papers we will have to fill out and all of the homework we will have to do.  Bring it on!  I have spent a few hours already today writing.  Tomorrow I will make some phone calls and fill out more paperwork.  I am just waiting for the first snag; I know it will come.  Everything thus far has gone so smooth.  So, I just thought I'd let y'all in on the new news-the Collie's are going to become foster parents Lord willing.  :)  This may be a long process! 

clean garage.

So yesterday Dru and I set out to do a "simple" task that I had planned on allotting 2 hours to.  Clean out the garage and get ready for a yard sale Dave Ramsey style!  Well, that "simple" project took 8 1/2 hours of straight WORK!  Quinn was SO good and played in the front yard with all of the stuff we pulled out.  One thing I thought was quite creative was she lay the slats for the bed down our driveway (which is very steep) and used them as slides.  :)  I wanted to get a before and after picture but I was too embarrassed at the before to go get the camera.  The "after" looks awesome though...man, wish I had a before.  So, all that to say, we had a fun and dirty hard working family day yesterday but you will see no pictures.  How we have so much stuff I didn't know about.  We accumulated enough stuff last night for our yard sale for the third year in a row but we don't keep buying stuff.  I think we are finally tired of all the junk taking up space in our lives that could be put to better use.  So this time around we will sell a lot of stuff that I have wanted to hold onto.  It feels good but what will feel even better is pulling the car into the garage! (What a novel idea!) Now if someone would just buy this darn house!!!  

catch up.

So it has been a while.  The whole family has been sick.  There is so much going on in our lives right now I don't even know where to begin.   Maybe that is because I got a total of 4 hours of sleep last night.  I can't even blame it on Asa, I have had insomnia.  I went to the natural medicine store today and got some medicine that should help...

But for now, here are some pictures from the past week.

Last Wednesday Dru and his Starbucks crew cleaned out the Swannanoa River.  Quinn, Asa and I went and "helped".  Really I just took pictures for River Link, the organization that the clean up was through, Quinn cried because she got mud on her jelly shoes and Asa slept in the sling I was wearing :)  Here is a picture of Dru pulling a Target shopping cart out of the river with a Sbux partner.  I think they collected about 8 carts, some tires and a whole bunch of other stuff.  This is one river you don't want to swim in!

On Saturday, May 10Th we drove up to Boone, NC (where Dru's parents, grandma, brother and sister-in-law  live) to celebrate Steves (Dru's brother) birthday and Mothers Day.  We had a cookout and a lot of fun!

This is his parents house...it was such a beautiful day.  We spent most of the day outside on the front porch and in the front lawn.

Quinn had so much fun playing with her cousins in CC and Granddad's waterfall!

And she smelled about every flower that was growing in CC's garden.  She LOVES to smell stuff...weird but cute.

I found a caterpillar next to me and Quinn had never seen one before.  She was so fascinated and thought it was so cute.  :)  She eventually got brave enough to hold it.  

We cannot wait for Meredith and Steve's little girl to get here.  Isn't Mere cute with her little pregnant belly!  We have waited so long for little "dot".  (Yes, she will have a different name when she comes out-that is her "ultrasound name".:) )

Char and Ma G made such a good lunch-and then we all enjoyed watermelon afterwards.  I love getting Quinn's silly faces she makes regularly. 

This is Quinn pulling her pants back up after daddy was spinning her around so hard they almost flew off.  :)  She LOVES to hang upside down, be thrown up in the air, jump off of really high things that make my heart skip a beat...you name a dare devil act and she loves it.  

Overall we had a great week.  Throw some cleaning in, girls-night-out, a new district manager for Dru, early mornings,  Gel group, another birthday party, photography work I didn't think I'd be doing on maternity leave, sickness and LOTS of laundry and you have one busy but fun week.

Quinn and her daddy sing all the time together...here is her favorite rendition of "You Are My Sunshine"!  She is being kind of silly so you can't really understand her that well but its still cute. (PS-she is looking at herself in the mirror-haha)

Here's to another MONDAY!