See Jeremy Preach!

From time to time, Jeremy gets a chance to preach at our church. He is such a great preacher, and many people in our church family love to hear him preach. Our church now films every service and post it on their website. Last Sunday night (Oct. 24th), Jeremy preached a powerful sermon called "Following a Familiar Voice." You can see it online at http://www.hylesbaptist.com/TalleyPublications, just click on the Oct. 24th service. The first several minutes are the beginning of the service, but then Jeremy gets up to preach (about 26 minutes in). It was a special "Team Sunday" so that's why our Preacher is in his RedSkins Jersey! :) Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - A Girl Obsessed

Happy Birthday John David!

Our Night with Mo Willems!

Last night John David and I got the chance to go to a reading/signing with one of our favorite children's author/illustrators Mo Willems. It was a fantastic adventure to celebrate his latest book Knuffle Bunny Free. We drove over an hour to Williamsburg, VA, to get a chance to be at the event. According to the event information the kids were supposed to bring their favorite stuffed animal. Right now, that is John David's Zonk from Ze Super Zeros. So we packed Zonk along with a snack, our Knuffle Bunny Passport, and brought along John David's favorite Mo Willems book, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, to be signed by Mo.

The night was so much fun, with activities, pictures, the signing, and we got to listen to Mo himself read us two stories! One of the stories was an Elephant & Piggie book called We Are In A Book. John David liked it so much that we ended up purchasing the book at the event and getting Mo to sign it too. :) Watching and listening to Mo read his work, brought a whole new life to the stories, and I don't think I or John David will ever look at his books the same way again.

Mo also took the time to answer some questions from the audience, and John David shot his hand up in the air. Luckily, he didn't ask something crazy. :) We were pretty excited when Mo called on him, and John David wanted to know the obvious... Are you gonna write anymore Naked Mole Rat books? He was disappointed when Mo said he wasn't planning on it, but excited when Mo did a song and dance number entitled "Naked" that Mo thought would be perfect in a Naked Mole Rat musical. :D Needless to say, we were all laughing, and John David's been singing the "Naked" song ever since!

We're excited - Can you tell? :)

Doing Knuffle Bunny Activity Pages ...

Stamping our Knuffle Bunny Passport ...

Patiently {ahem} waiting to meet Mo...

Finally meeting Mo Willems!!!

Mo and John David making there best monster faces

One quick picture with Knuffle Bunny before we left

This night was special for John David and I, as we rarely get time to spend together alone. We had a really great time and made some lasting memories!

Pirate Party Fun

Last weekend while my parents were still in town, we held a joint birthday party for both my boys. It was actually in between both their birthdays, but it was close enough. :) My parents, who are pros at cake making and decorating, made the boys a fabulous pirate cake, and we spent the afternoon having pirate fun with the kids, and adults!

Aaarrrgh Matey!

Luke in his pirate duds

Luke the Terrible

Captain John David Lardbottom and his friend, Zakary

What a pirate face!

Captain John and his best friend, Raymond

Our pirate feast of quesadillas and tortilla chips

Grandma and Poppy

Even the moms hung around for some pirate fun

Blowing out the candles

What pirate fun we had!

Family Day at Maymont Park

It is chilly and raining today, but last Thursday the sun was out full force, and we took my parents to a local park for some fun family time. This park was no normal park as it has a waterfall, a gorgeous Japanese Garden, and animals! By the end of the day, we were hot and exhausted from all the walking (lots of hills), but had so much fun!

Grandma, Poppy, and all the grandkids

Sittin pretty

John David thought he had to pose at every big rock for a picture :)

Isn't this a gorgeous owl?

Yeehaw!

The waterfall

The kiddos couldn't wait to get in the water!

Luke and Daddy getting their feet wet

Taking a waterfall shower!

Feeding the Coi fish at the Japanese Water Garden

It was just left over cracker crumbs, but the fish and the geese didn't care

Daddy and the kiddos decided to venture out to the Stepping Stones

This is the life!

Twisted Sister Revival

A couple weeks ago I posted about a fun night we had had at our church where we hosted a dinner and music evening with parodies of popular songs, rewritten into a Christian version. Jeremy also had a character to play that night. Along with a few of his friends, they gave Twisted Sister a little revival! Check out the video!

I think Jeremy had a little too much fun dressing up like a rocker (he's the blonde on the end), but it was so funny! What's even funnier is that two of the guys in that group are completely bald. It was definitely strange to see them with hair. :) I have a feeling we'll see that costume again on Halloween!

The boys' joint birthday party is tomorrow. It's a pirate party! I'll be sure and post pictures next week.