It's the most wonderful time of the year...

It's hard to believe we're already upon the holiday season. The leaves are starting to change and the air has a crisp feel to it...my favorite time of year. I've already started humming Christmas tunes. Tommy (a.k.a. Mr. Scrooge) makes me wait until after Thanksgiving to turn on the music in the house and car, but the songs are already in my heart (and sometimes in my cd player when Tommy's not around...don't tell him :) I know I may be a little premature, but when the cold weather hits, I just can't help myself!

So much has happened within the last couple of months...we are finally settled in West Virginia, and both Tommy and I are working at the church. Lots of busy craziness, but we are loving every minute of it. Karleigh is "growing like a weed." Already four months old! Hard to believe. Kolton is as silly as ever - I love the constantly talking phase he's into these days. "I do it, Mommy" seems to be his favorite :) My little Mr. Independent. Honestly, I know all you moms out there know what I'm talking about, but it is so much fun just to sit and talk to your children...he has a hilarous sense of humor, and when you start laughing at him, watch out! He goes on and on. Even at two he comes up with the funniest things!

We had his birthday at Chuck E Cheese this year, and he had a blast...Karleigh, not so much. It was too loud and too bright for her taste. Kolton's cousins came and we had a great time.

We were able to dedicate Karleigh to the Lord at church last Sunday night. It was such a special time, as my parents were able to come up for the event. It is a solemn reminder the great responsibility the Lord has placed upon us to raise our children in a godly way! What a precious gift He has given!

Kolton was in his first church program last Sunday. I watched him during practice and was a little nervous how he would react to all those people in the congregation, but he did fine. He just stood beside his little friend Stacey and sucked his thumb most of the time.

I hope all of you have a blessed day!!!

Karleigh Elaine Bartlett

Karleigh arrived on July 3 at 8:52 a.m. She weighed 7lb 9oz and was 19 3/4 inches long! I have more pictures of her, but just not enough energy to post them :) This picture was taken by the nurse while we were still in the hospital (the bow was her idea!)

The date is set!!!

Finally...the date has been set! Karleigh Elaine is set to arrive on July 3rd...unless she has plans of her own. My doctor decided that a planned c-section is necessary, because of the type of complications I had with Kolton. That's over a week away, but I've started packing already - just in case! This pregnancy has gone more smoothly than the last time, for which I'm thankful. It seems that the biggest worry I have is Kolton and how much I will miss him while I'm in the hospital! Even as I write this, I start to tear up at the thought of being gone from him 3 nights in a row!! Of course, I also cried today when I finished the last book in the Karen Kingsbury series. Boy, are pregnant women emotional! (but, seriously, those characters felt like part of my family by the end!)
As you know, Tommy is currently commuting back and forth from my parents here in Kentucky to West Virginia to work at the church on the weekends. On the days that he is here, we've been able to take Kolton on some outings. One such outing was the zoo...but, of course I forgot my camera, so no pictures of that. I did, however, remember my camera for Ripley's Aquarium, so I'm posting a few of the cute pictures I captured throughout the day.

Here, Kolton is "swimming" like a fish.
When we were at the petting area of the aquarium, I though for sure Kolton would freak out when the man stuck the...what is it? sting ray?? I can't remember, it's way too late for my brain to think clearly... anyway, stuck the "thing" up to Kolton and asked him if he wanted to pet it. Much to my dismay, my thumb sucking son reached down and touched it a couple of times before he stuck his thumb back in his mouth. It's been a couple of days since then, and Kolton seems fine, so I'm guessing no diseases were contracted from the interaction.
One of the few shots I captured of Kolton standing still.
In awe of the "Nemo" fish. He kept screaming "Meno, Meno!" "Dorie???"
Nothing completes a good day like a big plate of spaghetti!

Just Catching Up...

As hectic as our life has been recently, I haven't had much to post until now. Just this past weekend we moved our things to West Virginia in preparation for Tommy working at Maranatha Baptist Church as Assistant Pastor. Because I'm counting down the days until Karleigh (yes, we finally decided on a name!!) is born, I didn't want to change doctors this late in the game, we decided to go ahead and move our things to WV and just stay with my parents- who live close to my doctor- until she is born in July. Tommy will work part time in WV and come back to stay with us the rest of the week. Not the best set up, but anything is workable for a month, at least I hope it is! Of course, with my being eight months along, Tommy is probably happy about the arrangement!!

As you can tell by my other posts, I'm not the greatest picture person...I always either forget my camera or let the battery die or take a blurry shot...you know what I mean, but Tommy did just get me a new camera for Mother's Day, so hopefully I'll have some lovely pictures soon, but for now I did want to add some of our Easter pictures...

A rare shot of the whole family (I usually stay on the other side of the camera when I'm pregnant!) Oh, and you can tell what kind of day Kolton is having :)

Kolton enjoying his Easter treats
Kolton with his "quack quack"

Wow!

Ok, so I could give a million excuses as to why I haven't updated this in MONTHS, but who really cares when I have much bigger news to share...I'm having a girl!!! Yea!!! We are so excited!! As soon as Tommy and I left the doctor's office after finding out it was a girl, we went straight to the mall and I bought six pink dresses :) I love Kolton and wouldn't trade him for a million girls, but I've always been a little envious when I'm browsing through the few racks of boys clothing and I glance over at the hundreds of selections in the girls section...Tommy says the only reason I want a girl is so I can dress her up with ribbons and bows...and of course that's not completely true, but... :o) On the other hand, picking out clothes may be easier for us with a girl, but picking out names sure isn't. We settled on Kolton Lukas in one DAY...here we are one MONTH later with a girl and still no names on the horizon...We just can't seem to agree on anything. Katy, Madelyn, Julia, Mallory...not one can be both agree on. If this goes on, who has the final say????? I sure hope it's the mother. Anyway, hopefully I'll have more pictures to post soon. I've taken them, but since the move we just use the internet at my parents house, because there was no reason to hook it up for the few months we're living here, and I haven't quite figured out how to load them onto this computer. Until then, thanks for updating your blogs regularly, I really enjoy reading them :)

A little update

Well, we did make it to Tennessee safe and sound. It has been such a whirlwind two weeks. A couple days after we made it to our new home, we had to pack back up for a trip to Chattanooga for Tommy's cousin's wedding. We got back home on Saturday night, and had to take Kolton to the emergency room on Sunday. He woke up around midnight trying to cry, but not being able to because he couldn't breathe. I have never been so scared in my life. Thank the Lord my mom and dad were close enough to rush over to check on him. After we had him up for a few minutes he calmed down enough to breathe, but he was still really struggling, so we decided to take him on to the hospital (and for those of you who have ever seen my bedhead hair, you know what a treat those doctors were in for :0) He ended up having the flu/croup, and after a couple of breathing treatments he was okay, but they still had to keep him there for a few hours for observation. Thankfully, he is fully recovered now. Needless to say, my poor house hasn't gotten the attention it has needed...we unpacked what we needed and threw (literally) the rest of the boxes in the spare bedroom to tend to at a later date...I've gone to WalMart about 10 times buying something I know I have but can't find in the mass of boxes...although my favorite shoes are in there somewhere, and they, at least at this point,have been irreplaceable. Oh the woes of moving!

We're moving!!!

After weeks and weeks of praying and seeking God's will, it's official...we're moving! And I could not be more excited!! Now, don't get me wrong, I love my church family and will miss them very much, but after 2 long years of being 10 hours away from our family, we're happy to be getting closer (I know for some of you, 10 hours isn't that far, but it felt like an eternity to this girl!) We have known about the move for a couple of weeks, but just told the church this past Sunday ~ that is why we had to be hush-hush about it (of course, Pastor knew ahead of time). There are tentative plans for next year, but for now, we are moving to Tennessee! Tommy has a couple of classes he wants to take at Crown, and last year some friends of ours started a church just 10 minutes from where we'll be living, so we're going to go and help them out in their ministry. Best of all, I'll only be living 30 minutes from my mom :o) The only bad thing I can forsee is that I'll get used to having my parents around again, and then we'll be off to a different place. But, I'm going to enjoy it while I can! Thank you all for praying for us...and keep it up! Tommy will be needing to find a job, but since my parents are in the area, they have been keeping an eye out for one, and do have a couple of leads...just pray that one of them works out. And, as you can see from the pictures, I need your prayers during the move. For those of you who don't know me all that well, I am somewhat of a neat/clean freak (it runs in my family...if you know them, you can testify to that!) Anyway, this mess is about to drive me bananas! Kolton doesn't know what to think, he just keeps running around and around hitting the boxes and pulling out stuff that I just packed. He's even learned how to tear off the packing tape. Well, I'm now in the midst of trying to organize the chaos, so I must go...Moving tips anyone???