Faith, Grace, Love, Hope, Family: Update & 4 Months

Lots of things have been happening lately and I haven't taken much of the time to write about them. We celebrated Addie's birthday at the lake with the family, which I think I had mentioned in my last post; Jared got a new job in just a matter of one day which is such a blessing for a couple reasons; one, he will be working with a guy from the church which = a much better influence of people to work with; Two, this place is right here in Concord less than 10 min away. He has been driving 30 min- 45 min with his jobs up here in the last 3 years, so he can even come home for lunch if he so desires! Three, his life is much more flexible not having to drive around all day and he actually has vacation days! Four, he is getting better pay. And five, we just feel this is a good new beginning and fresh start to our plans now and for the future. There has been some talk about a few things that may possibly happen involving ministry for us and we are excited to see where it takes us, but I am not ready to share all the details.

On another note, Jared's parents and sisters have been up from West Virginia a couple times in the last few months. Reason being, my father-in-law has been feeling like God is leading him to pastor in possibly the New England area. He has applied to some churches and has been getting opportunities for interviews and actually some preaching at the churches. This is all scary, but at the same time very exciting for my in laws. They have lived most of their whole lives in WV and this is such a change. Its funny the places God leads us to when we would never expect it. Since their granddaughters have been born they also feel a deep need to be able to be around them and watch them grow up on a regular basis, not just once a year. So they are praying, we are praying, and others are praying for God's leading and plan for this to possibly happen.

The girls have been amazing me more and more everyday. Adeline has reached her 2 year old, preschooler stage of life, and I swear it happened over night as soon as she turned 2 on the 26th! Jared seems to think that it has been gradually happening, and that is probably true, but I seriously feel like it happened over night! She is talking up a storm and learning soo much. She says please and thank you and talks to us in sentences now! She has reached some of the stage of temper tantrums, but that is to be expected. So far they aren't too bad... Here is our little spunky-spirited, silly little girl now...

Ruby is getting so big! She is rolling over back and forth now and she even had her first taste of cereal today! Unfortunately, my electric pump broke so I am using the manual one which takes quite a bit of time in preparing solids. We also don't use the bottle much, if ever, because those pumps take way too much time to get anything out of them. This has been just a tad annoying because no matter where I am I always have to find a place to nurse if we are out. It would be great to just have a bottle prepared, but I am staying away from formula this time around if I can. For one, it is way too expensive and two we've tried it and she refuses. She just gags. So hopefully I can find a way to fix the electric pump I own, or hopefully starting solids may help the span of eating time while we are out.

Anyway, sorry for babbling on so much about milk and breast pumps...More about my little baby!

She turned 4 months a few days ago! I cannot believe she is already 4 months. She is still ahead of herself because she has been trying and trying so hard to sit herself up. This isn't something that can exactly happen quite yet, but she might be getting there a little early. Here is our cute little red head now; And yes, her hair is still the same color as an orange creamsicle.