1001st Post-A Look Back at My Blogging Journey

(Note: Originally this post would have been the 1000th post, but since I'm a blog slacker I left it in the draft folder until the night before my son started Kindergarten and I had to use the 1000th spot for my letter to him...he's the reason I started this whole blog anyway :) )

1,001 blog entries. That blows my mind. I can't believe that I've had enough to say to fill up 1,001 separate blog entires over the past 6 years. When I saw that I was approaching this milestone number I started thinking about how I wanted to commemorate and celebrate this special event. I decided that I wanted to look back and see just how much life I've been able to witness, experience, and document through this blog. When I started my blogging journey back in March 2008, I saw this media outlet as a way to keep out of town family and friends updated on our lives. This blog, however, has become so much more. It's a personal diary, memory keeper, anecdotal treasure, and so much more. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and re-read posts I wrote in years past or how many times I've woken up to Josh doing the same thing. I love that the past 6 years are recorded forever. This blog has documented a lot over the years and I thought it would be fun to tally up all the fun memories we've had and gotten to experience. Time for a little blog rewind :)

Since starting this blog, our circle of family and friends have welcomed lots of babies into this world. I love these sweet, precious babies and watching them grow up together has been such a joy. I'm so excited to see how God is going to use them to impact this world.

Hannah-September 2008

Eli-November 2008

Grant-May 2010

Addison-May 2010

Brett-March 2012

Tinsley-August 2012

GraceAnn-June 2013

Harley Clare-August 2013

Finley-October 2013

Jameson-July 2014

There have been weddings...

Jessie and Will-November 2009

Josh and Andrea-July 2010

Allison and Spencer-October 2011

Jordan and Jim-August 2012

We've watched our baby go from staying with sitters at home to going to real school. It's been fun watching Eli grow and learn! He's so smart and I hope he continues to enjoy learning as much as he has so far! It's hard to believe that he's in KINDERGARTEN this year. OH.MY.WORD! How did that happen??

Loving on Mammy (Spring 2009)

Staying with Hayden and Ms. Ashley ( Fall 2009)

Staying with Molly and Mrs. Dara (Winter/Spring 2010)

1st year of "school" (Fall 2010)

Mrs. Cathy always took him

First year of PreK-3 with Mrs. Paige (2011)

2nd year of PreK-3 (2012)

PreK-4 with Mrs. Rosemary (2013)

Kindergarten with Mrs. Baroni (2014)

Since the blog started, we've lived in three different houses where we've made and shared lots of memories. First was the house where we became a family of three, then the rent house we lived in while we were building our dream house, and then finally our dream house. I have loved each one of those houses in their own special way, but watching the entire process of our dream house being built was my favorite for sure!

Just as we've welcomed so many babies into our little circle of family and friends, we've also had to say good-bye to some amazing people. The memories we shared and made with Tommy, Cliff, and Papaw will always bring a smile to my face. I'm thankful for the hope we have in Jesus because it means we'll see them again one day. That's a reunion I can't wait for :)

We've made so many wonderful memories together as a family and with our extended family and friends. All the birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and get-togethers we've hosted in our home have been so much fun. I pray for many more years in this house where our family and friends can gather together and celebrate all the many blessings God has given us. This is just a small snippet of the past 1,000 posts. I'm thankful that I have so many memories and fun times written down so I can always look back and remember them. The blog is a lot of work and I do sometimes neglect updating it because life just gets in the way, but it's something I really enjoy doing. I can't wait to see what happens and what memories we make in the next 1,001 posts! 

Project Backyard and Garden

Ever since we moved into our house I've wanted to have a vegetable garden. I'm beginning to realize that you can't do everything at once and we're having to do things in phases. Last year, our spring/summer project was landscaping the front yard. That was a huge undertaking, but now it's complete and all I have to do every season is change out the beds with annuals. We also threw building a swimming pool into the mix. We were pretty busy between those two projects! 

The plan this spring/summer was to focus on landscaping the backyard around the pool and near the patio and to plant a vegetable garden. We're not finished with the area near the patio, but I did buy some pots and planted some container arrangements around the pool. It's nothing fancy, but it makes the pool area look a lot nicer. 

This was how it looked when I first planted it.

Four weeks later this is how much they've grown!

Our next project was the garden. We marked off the area and killed all the grass. Then Josh and Eli tilled the area up. The worst part of all this was getting all the dead grass and roots out of the dirt. It wasn't fun, but we finally finished!

Don't ask me why my child is wearing a helmet...I have no idea.

I wanted Eli to be involved in this project from start to finish. I think it's going to be fun for him to see how those tiny seeds grow into plants that make food for us. I'm hoping it will also encourage him to try new vegetables...fingers crossed!

We couldn't decide if we wanted to make rows or just plant the seeds in the ground, but we ended up going with the rows. It's what we did when we planted a garden 10 years ago and it seemed to work great. We planted purple hull peas, lima beans, snap beans, squash, zucchini, watermelon and cantaloupe. Yummy! I can't wait to cook some fresh veggies!

Josh formed all the rows and Eli and I planted all the seeds. 

He had so much fun helping me.

May 5th

May 12th

May 25th

I'll keep you updated on the garden's progress. I'm so excited about our latest undertaking.

Boy Stuff

Eli and Josh are bonding BIG TIME now and it's so much fun to watch my little guy try so hard to be just like his Daddy. I absolutely love seeing them spend time together doing boy things and think it's cute when Eli tells me I can't join in because it's "boy stuff". (Of course, if I ever have a little girl I'll have someone to do "girl stuff" with, but if we have another boy one day then I guess I'm just out of luck.) This particular day Josh and Eli were putting together our barstools that took THREE MONTHS to come in. (Is it just me or is that a really long time for such a small piece of furniture to come in?) I wasn't allowed to help since I am a girl and "no girls were allowed", but I was cleared to take a couple of pictures of them working. 

The barstools got two thumbs up from my guys! Great job, boys!