The Cummings Family

Anxiously awaiting....

2008-08-30T20:36:00.003-05:00

Well, we've been anticipating Anna's early arrival for 12 days now! Lacey's due date is still Sept 24th, but contractions started almost two weeks ago, and the dr. said that stage 2 labor is imminent for her! The last two weks have been filled with lots of overtime hours for Jon, many trips to the hospital and doctor office to check the progress of Lacey's labor, camp events and projects, and getting the house ready for another little Cummings! We are excited to introduce you all to our little girl as soon as she arrives! This labor is definitley going much differently than when Taylor was born, so we are being vigilant and hoping that when the time comes we will get to the hospital in time! The dr is thinking the birth will go fast --- we'll see!

Taylor still has no clue that his world is about to change in such a big way. We think he'll adjust just fine, though. We think. :) He keeps us laughing every day! His new phrase of the week is "Oops! Sorry. It's okay!" His verbal skills have just exploded over the past month, and we get a kick out of hearing him repeat things we didn't think he was paying attention to.

Here are some recent pictures, and links to August photo albums! We love you all!

Here is a link for some random August pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67674&l=65b49&id=515981054

And for an album of Lacey's baby shower!: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67669&l=dad51&id=515981054

We also finally finished uploading pictures from our Minnesota trip, so if you'd like to look at the rest of those: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62624&l=e5827&id=515981054

51 dollar ticket. It's worth the read. Trust me. This has been Jon

2008-08-09T21:27:00.003-05:00

Some of you have been asking about my bus trip and the craziness thereof.

Well, it all started with a long week of work. Got home at 3:30 on thursday, packed up and left Amazing Grace by 4. We had to find where the bus was picking us up. Eventually found it and were picked up at 5:30. Got to Kansas City by about 6:20. We had about a two hour wait for the bus to Minneapolis. I was traveling with Sunil Mohinani. I think that's how you spell his name. He's indian. Which made for a good trip.

Now, if you're a normal person . . . like I am. You look at the ticket that the unnamed travel company has given you. You see the cities listed on your ticked, and you think, "Self, that must be the cities that I'm going to go to on my bus to Minneapolis. Thusly, these are the cities I'll listen for when they are announcing the buses."

So, there Sunil and I are, sitting in the bus station, waiting for our bus, watching a small, eastern-asian man talk on his phone while crouching on a half wall looking like he was going to jump off and pounce on something and karate chop the ramen noodles out of it. You know. Normal stuff like that.

Now, I should also mention that this was both Sunil's and my first time riding a bus. You would think that because . . . never mind.

So, about 7:40 or so, some gentleman that probably mumbles if he didn't talk over a staticy loud speaker. So, he starts rattling off these cities for about three different buses. Sunil and I heard St.Paul and Winnepeg (which, for those of you geographically challenged people, is in the Yucatan peninsula or something; Antarctica maybe; i.e. not where we were going). So, me and Sunil both look at each other and give the nod of disapproval that this is not the bus we should get on. So, the whole blessed bus station empties out at about 8. So, Sunil and I go to the door we're supposed to go to and wait for them to call the Minneapolis bus. Well, 8:13 comes around, and a bus pulls out of the station and leaves. I look at Sunil and say, "Sunil, I'm not going to lie. That worries me alittle bit." He says, "Yeah. I'll go ask somebody about it."

I watched him walk to the ticketing table. Let's just say the lady that was working behind the counter acted like she had a porcupine wedged in amongst her armpits. Not a pleasant person. I could tell by Sunil's reaction to porcupine woman that the information he was getting was not positive.

Yeah, that was our bus. The winnepeg bus was our bus. There was no final call if you're going north! If you're going any where in between here and the northpole, you should be on this bus. No, there was none of that.

So, we had our choice of seats now in bus station. We went and found some and started trying to call people to see if they wanted to drive us to Minnesota, or Des Moines or somewhere on our ticket so we could catch up with our bus and hop on. I grew up in KC, but I just couldn't think of anybody that I was close enough to to ask them to drive us North. It was kind of a bummer.

So, we had to wait until 1:30 am for the next bus to Minneapolis. We were in the middle of calling our families and telling them of the conspiracy against us when a young lady got our attention. She asked if we were waiting for the 8:10 bus to Minneapolis also. We had the unfortunate duty of informing (we'll call her Bertha for sake of anonymity) Bertha the she too had missed the bus. She naturally was not pleased with that news. We told her we were trying to find somebody that could drive us north to try to beat the bus to one of the stops so we could hopefully get on. We were told this would be up to the driver's discretion if he would let us on. Bertha got on her phone and began calling someone. She said she might know somebody that would do it.

Well, it turned out that they couldn't do it, but they offered to bring us food and keep us company for a while. I think they actually were just bringing Bertha food and coming to keep her company, but we were there sitting right beside her, so they had no choice. So, Bertha, Sunil, and I watched a movie for a while until she got up and found her friends and brought them over. We ate their pizza, talked about college, talked about theology for a little bit. Most of them knew each other from the Catholic college they went to. Bertha ended up deciding that she was going to drive home and use her ticket some other time.

So, Sunil and I were left alone to our movie. Sunil was bummed that he didn't get her number. She probably wasn't.

To rap this baby up, 1:30 rolled around. Large amounts of cranky smelly people had crowded into the station. We of course were among the first in line at the door we figured out we were supposed to be at. Listened to a dumb, blonde lady insult a uniformed soldier. She had a death wish. 1:50, we finally were let out the door to get on our bus. Dumb blonde lady was shoving people out of her way to get the back seat. Sunil and I settled in for a long ride, relieved to be on the bus. 2:15, the bus still wasn't moving. Sounded like it was trying to, but it wouldn't. They unloaded us all and all of our stuff and got another bus. Dumb blonde lady ran to another bus that had pulled up. She quickly realized that it wasn't the bus she was getting on since it was FULL!!! She came running back over to where the rest of us were, but she wasn't the first in line this time. :) New bus came. I was on 8th or 9th. Got to the back row before she did. She was not pleased that I was going to take the back row. She didn't react in a Christ like manner. I didn't really care about the seat. I just wanted to make her mad. So, my purpose fulfilled, I gave her the back row, and found a row with much more leg room than any other bus row I'd ever sat in. Which, at this point, has been several. 2:40, we finally pull out of Kansas City. Random kid behind me grabs the back of my seat and begins shaking violently yelling, "TURBULENCE!!!!" I turn around and said, "Hi, I'm Jon. What's your name." He paused as if he wasn't sure of the answer. Finally said Justin. I said, "Justin, nice to meet you. If we have any more turbulence, you and I are going to have some issues. I probably won't do anything about it, but I just want to be honest with you. Alright?" "Ok." "Sweet."

Didn't have anymore turbulence. Made it to Minneapolis at noon. That's what you get for a 51 dollar ticket.

Thanks for reading my epistle.

Jon

Album updates!

2008-08-07T20:04:00.003-05:00

We just got back from Minnesota on Sunday! We had an awesome visit with Jon's side of the family, including a family reunion, picnic, double baby shower, a friend's wedding, and lots of activity!

Lacey drove up to Minnesota with a friend from the summer camp staff last Tuesday, and the trip went extremely well. Anita was a huge help in keeping Taylor entertained and happy, and passing the time on the long drive. Jon took the bus with a friend up to MN later in the week, and what a fiasco that turned out to be! He'll write his own blog post about that later...

Here are some pictures from our past two weeks:

Taylor busied himself on the trip up to MN by driving cars all over Anita's teddy bear :)

We got to spend a little time with Jon's aunt and uncle and cousin! Taylor just loved their dog!!! We like this shot b/c we're all laughing ;)

The three of us getting ready for our friend's wedding!

I finished updating our July picture album, so check out the new pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59374&l=f97f1&id=515981054

And here is the link to our August album, full of pictures from our trip to MN and lots of fun stuff: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62624&l=e5827&id=515981054

Jon had to "hit the ground running" when we got back from our trip this week. He started off his Monday by waking up at 3:30am and has been working much overtime this week - they are requiring 57 hours from him this week! Lacey is 33 weeks along in the pregnancy and Anna seems to be doing great! We are scrambling to get the house ready for another little one in time - we don't want to be caught off guard again like we were with Taylor's early arrival! :)

cool winnings

2008-07-19T21:11:00.003-05:00

I'd just like to give a shout-out to Parenting magazine for two awesome things that we got this month. First, they picked us to be one of the privileged few to test out a new 2008 toy for their yearly toy review that they publish in the magazine. A few weeks ago we got this toy in the mail and got to keep it in exchange for evaluating it and writing a detailed review. Easy! That was really fun.

And secondly, I entered one of their daily giveaways through their website last month and won an amazing (and expensive) geography/wildlife book! Thanks, Parenting, for the great giveaways and opportunities!

ps-- Taylor did NOT like the toy :) haha! oh well

Pictures!

2008-07-13T18:35:00.004-05:00

I finally found time to escape to the internet cafe and upload some pictures!

You can check out our June pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59373&l=4663c&id=515981054

And our july pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59374&l=f97f1&id=515981054

(we'll add to the July album as the month goes on)

Taylor had a great birthday last week. We had a small party at the camp with the summer staff to celebrate.

And here's the Anna-bump! This was taken at 28 weeks. I'm about 30 weeks now, and in just that short amount of time the bump has popped out quite a bit more. Or maybe it's all the donuts I've eaten. :)

Talking up a storm

2008-06-28T14:50:00.002-05:00

Sadly, we don't have any new pictures to share this week. I am working on getting some preggo pictures of myself, but both Taylor and I are in dire need of haircuts so I'm holding off until we get a chance to do that. And, I'm sure we will have many pictures next week after Taylor's birthday party! He's turning two on Sunday the 6th.

I do have a different update today, though. Taylor is finally talking more, and just like his doctor and many others told me it would happen, the vocabulary came in a flood! You can just tell that his little mind has been storing up all sorts of things, and one day about two weeks ago he decided he wanted to spill it all out. He's picking up at least one new word every day, and although there are several words and phrases of his that we can't understand, we are communicating much better now. Words like "more," "please," "thank-you" and "no thank-you" are especially helpful at meal times, which used to be the most frustrating times of the day for me (and him). Aside from "momma" and "daddy" he hasn't picked up any more names, but we'll work on that. :)
In addition to a flood of words, he also started to name off body parts (nose, hands, feet), sing along with every Sesame Street song, spell from memory, master the whole alphabet (B and V are still confusing, though), and count up to 13. He also took some steps socially and now will give a high-five or "knuckles" even to strangers.

Although these milestones are normal for a 2-year-old, I think I am so excited about it because he literally changed right before my eyes. In one day he went from being quiet and observant (as he has been since he was born) to saying all sorts of thing I didn't know he knew how to say! Guess we have to start being more careful with what we say around the house now. :)

Jon's been very busy the past two weeks. For a good while, his work had him doing mandatory overtime, but just last week they had to lay off a whole bunch of people. There is another round of lay-offs coming next week, and we would really appreciate your prayers that Jon would not lose this job. The lay-offs are due to the real-estate market crashing and the rising economy. In the evenings Jon has been helping around the camp with whatever they need.

I am almost 7 months along in my pregnancy and have been busy with a toddler, increasing doctor visits, increasing food store visits (hey, I'm hungry!), and going to occasional camp activities in addition to normal daily life.

Pictures coming next week!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T18:26:00.002-05:00

A little belated, I know :) But we do hope that all the special fathers in our lives had a wonderful weekend. We celebrated by eating mongolian bbq together!

Here are some pictures of Taylor and Jon taken Sunday morning:

Matching spikey hair for father's day :)

Ah, the after-breakfast-stretch....

....interrupted when daddy attacks with a tickle :)

New Jersey Trip

2008-06-08T17:44:00.003-05:00

Taylor and I (Lacey) took a trip to New Jersey together to visit some of my family at the end of May. Since Blogger is slow at uploading pictures, I'll just put a few on here and give you a link to the full photo album below. There should be more pictures coming as a few other people send them to me from their cameras.

We had a good time, and Taylor did really great on the plane rides. I was especially proud of him during our trip home - what a mess that was. Our flight got cancelled, which led to a LOT of waiting in lines, hopping on buses to get to other terminals, running, waiting, waiting, and more waiting! Taylor even had to get patted down and searched when we went through security.

Enjoy these pictures below, and please visit our album to see them all!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53924&l=d0bcd&id=515981054

Blessings and an introduction

2008-05-12T21:32:00.017-05:00

I'm so glad that I can access my blog again! We've been having internet trouble for a week, and although I've still been able to log into blogger, for some reason I wasn't able to post anything. We have some blessings to share that I've been wanting to tell all of you about!

*The blessing of divine appointments

Just over a week ago, I went to Walmart on a Saturday (against my better judgement) because I had procrastinated too long so we had nothing to eat left in the house. I h-a-t-e grocery shopping, or any kind of shopping, on Saturdays. Especially at our Walmart, since it is the only attraction in our small country town. With a cranky toddler in tow, I went to the store, spent two hours doing a 45-minute chore, fought intense backpain and sciatica the entire time, and was close to limping when I made my way to the check-out. There was some sort of womens' health fair going on in front of the checkouts, which cause even thicker crowds and annoyed me more, but this one table was offering free samples of applesauce - just the thing to appease Taylor as he was pretty hungry by that time. As I was trying to leave the applesauce table, I spied a free sample of Bio-Freeze at the next table. Since I was in a lot of discomfort I asked if I could have one, and found out that the display belonged to a chiropractor just one block away. So I mentioned that I was in need of chiropractic care since we had moved away from my former chiropractor in the fall, but hadn't started care with a new one because of the huge initial exam fee (usually $200 or more, not covered by insurance). The chiropractor told me that he would give me my exam and follow up-visit for $20 ($20!!!), offer me affordable adjustments and physical therapy, and accept the Care Credit program (for which I was already approved)! Amazing. I have visited their office three times already, had my exam, consultation, two major chiro adjustments, and therapy, and haven't paid a penny more than $20. What a great blessing the Lord had in store for us when He sent me to Walmart that Saturday. That is what I call a Divine Appointment. We don't believe in coincidence.

My back is not something I usually mention on here, but to help you all understand just how relieved I was to find this man, the pain in my back has been getting increasingly worse and worse. Sciatica occured frequently for several days at a time, and I was having 2-3 full blown migraines a week. In-between migraines there were constant headaches, muscle spasms, tightness and back pain. My condition isn't always that bad, but pregnancy hormones have compounded the back and joint problems, and being pregnant meant I couldn't take pain-killers. (Tylenol doesn't work.) I'm not complaining about my back --- God's grace has been good every day! Just emphasizing how happy I was to find a chiropractor that wanted to make things affordable for us, and what a truly BIG blessing this will be for me. Between the chiropractor and foam mattress, I am hoping that my second half of pregnancy goes much smoother than the first. I think it will!

*The blessing of a little girl!

My 5-month sonogram was this past Saturday, just in time for mother's day. We were excited to find out that our second baby is a GIRL! Her name is Anna Grace. The sonographer was great and put some pictures onto a CD for us to keep. The machine at the hospital was much newer than the machine that was used for Taylor's 5-month sonogram. We were able to see details of her ears, nose and lips, the size of her leg muscles, the smallest details of her vertebrae, and even the lenses of her eyes. I remember Taylor's session being much more grainy and blurry. We were told she has strong "dancer's legs," which I already knew because she kicks me surprisingly hard for a 12-ounce baby. :) We are looking to her arrival in September! Allow us to introduce you to our Anna:

*The blessing of our little boy

Taylor has been an active, funny, tired little boy these past two weeks. I believe he is learning the fine art of mockery/sarcasm, which he is picking up from his father, no doubt. :) His communication skills are steadily growing, but he is stubborn and selective in how he communicates with us. One of his current favorite activities is lining up 4 or 5 of our toiletries (hairspray, etc) on the ledge of the tub and counting them over and over again. As soon as he wakes up in the morning, I hear him counting to himself in his crib (uhhn, tsoo, geee, gour!) and then clapping. :) He also thinks it's hilarious to run into a room, slam the door behind him, and then knock on the door to be let out.

Walking with daddy back to our house.

Counting bottles!

Happy about counting!

*The blessing of cuddly things

Two weeks ago I heard a kitten crying late at night. This seemed odd to me, since I only heard one kitten, and it was 10pm, and it sounded very young and scared, and I hadn't heard it crying before. Jon found it under our trailer and brought it up into the house for a while. We fed it, named it, cuddled it, and took pictures before we put it back for the mom cat to find. What a cute little furball. This is "Fishy" :

Hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

Where did April go?

2008-04-24T22:09:00.007-05:00

I haven't updated our blog all month! It seems like just yesterday when I posted that last entry... Time has flown this April. We have been busy with life and several camp activities. Here's an update in a nutshell:

Taylor is 21 months old, runs as fast as a torpedo, tries to count to three (Uhhnnn, tsooo, eeeee), recognizes and names several letters (I, O, A, E), and graduated to 24-month clothes. This has been a month of much physical growth as well as communication growth. He still refuses to say anything on command, however. :) But, after hearing him say things like "Elmo" and "I luv u," I am no longer worried about his ability to communicate if he wanted to. He is just a very stubborn little boy. Wonder where he gets that from? :)
I am doing a little better physically the past two days since we were blessed to get a Memory Foam mattress. I think it is helping me to sleep much better and it feels like my back is supported well all night. Two days and counting that I have woke up in less pain! I am also in my 19th week of pregnancy and the baby seems to be doing well.
Jon is just as busy as ever with his full-time job at the cabinet shop and camp work. This month we had a junior retreat, fundraising banquet, and teen retreat all in a row so he was putting in many late nights around the camp. But all of the activities went well! And Jon has some sunburn to show from it. :)

Here are some pictures from the month. They are out of order, but I have been trying to post this for a whole week so I'm going to just leave them as is :)

Taylor playing in the dirt yesterday. He cleared all of the gravel out of a spot so that he had a clear patch of dirt to rub his hands in. :)
Chester, the world's greatest dog! This is the Bakers' puppy doing the "relaxation pose" with Jon.

How Taylor fell asleep this afternoon in the car - ha!

One of our hot days, we let Taylor run around in just shorts. He looked like a little buddha with his belly sticking out :)

Playing soccer outside with daddy last week.

And this is a very rare sight indeed! Taylor was definitely having growth spurts this month, and was just SO tired. He was laying on the floor in the sunshine watching Blues Clues and playing with his truck, when all of a sudden I heard him snore. Amazing! For those of you that don't know Taylor well, he is one of those kids that hates to sleep anywhere but in his crib (since he was 3 months old).

Much excitement :)

2008-04-01T14:26:00.006-05:00

Taylor's been practicing how ride his bike all week. His legs don't quite reach the pedals yet, but he gets around by pushing with his feet (Flintstone style!). We're still working on how to get off the bike without losing balance and landing on his back. Falling off frustrates him to no end, but I have to admit that it's so funny to watch. :) Below, he is mounting his bike backwards:
Clapping for himself (he's always proud of getting around on the bike):

Jon's birthday was on Monday! We've had a busy week, and a busy weekend, so it was fun to unwind and do relaxing things for his birthday. On Friday night all of the staff here at AGBC ate a big dinner together so I made a bunch of cupcakes, complete with fancy hand-tipped decorating, soccer-themed wrappers, and curly birthday candles. Of course I forgot to take a picture. :) By the time Monday came around I was so tired from busyness that I couldn't bring myself to hand-tip Jon's entire birthday cake. So I decorated with candles instead. :) It looked really cool when we lit them:

Taylor was anxious to see what we were doing with the flames. He kept pulling on Jon's leg and was really excited about the festivity:

Well, he was excited until Jon blew out all his candles, making a big cloud of smoke which scared the pee out of Taylor (literally) and sent him running! That was funny, too. :)

So for Jon's birthday, a co-worker from the cabinet shop surprised him with a small cake at work (I thought that was sweet), then after he came home we headed up to Lawrence to party. We got rootbeer floats, he went shopping with his birthday money for movies, clothes, and tools, and then we ate Mongolian BBQ for dinner. After we came home we lit the cake with Taylor, then put him to bed and stayed up late watching one of Jon's new movies and eating cake. Fun times.

First chocolate and first bike

2008-03-24T21:38:00.005-05:00

It's been a few weeks since we got new pictures up here! We were dealing lots of sickness of different kinds for quite a while. But we were all feeling better by Easter weekend, so Taylor was treated to his first chocolate candy. Here he is digging into a mini KitKat bar and a chocolate lollipop - he loved it!

Easter Sunday turned into a long day for Taylor because his schedule got so messed up. As the evening wore on he was getting restless, so we pulled out a special toy we've been hiding for a while. Nanna (Jon's mom) gave Taylor a 3-wheel tough bike for Christmas. It's still too big for his legs so we were saving it for the summer, but decided to break it out on Sunday. He had a lot of fun helping Daddy build it! :

He sat on it after it was all built, but was a little distracted by Wheel of Fortune (his all-time favorite show):

All smiles

2008-03-04T21:39:00.005-06:00

Taylor was a bundle of smiles and energy this afternoon. I'm glad I got these pictures while I had the chance, because just a few hours later he was a stinky crying mess due to an upset little tummy. He's sleeping soundly now, and I pray he will be able to sleep through the night, but it is taking my nauseous preggo tummy quite a while to get over those nasty episodes. :) Below are a few picture from playtime in his room this afternoon:

Rolling his ride-on train.

He still plays on his head, though not nearly as much as he did last year. He mostly turns upside-down to play with toys that have wheels - he just loves to watch his toys roll on the floor from this vantage point. I read that kids don't usually start playing like this until they are 2 years old, but he started at 9 months and is already phasing out of it. I need to get more pictures of him like this before he stops all together. Toothy grin :)

Long Overdue Pictures

2008-03-01T11:33:00.001-06:00

One night after we got Taylor changed into his jammies, he grabbed his sneakers and handed them to Jon and then sat down and stuck his foot up. He wanted his shoes on! Then he grabbed his coat and dragged it over to me, so I put it on him. He was so excited and chased us with his hands up, wanting to be picked up and taken outside. :) We took a picture of his late-night outfit:

A truly happy moment: Taylor is wearing his most comfy sweats, watching his favorite episode of his favorite show (Blue's Clues, of course!), and sitting on the rocking stool while his daddy rocked it for him. What a great Saturday afternoon:
Taylor was reading my "What to Expect" book and sharing some cake and berries with me (I'm still in my jammies, how embarrassing!):

"HI!"

2008-02-21T09:16:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Taylor said his first word with comprehension. And by "comprehension" I mean Jon's and mine, not Taylors. :) Our son has the entertaining toddler skill of saying many, many things in his own "language" that Jon and I can't understand yet. He will string together whole sentences of toddler-ese complete with intense facial expressions and hand gestures. Being 19 months old, he's in the common phase where he can understand very much of what we say to him but doesn't quite know how to communicate back with us. He sure does try, though, and gets so frustrated when we don't understand what he's saying.

And I guess I should say that he did learn "dada" and "ma" a long time ago, but prefers not to call us by name at this time. He'd rather get our attention in other ways.

Anyways. Yesterday, after unsuccessfully asking him to wave "hi" and "bye" to a friend that had come to visit, he waited until 5 minutes after my friend had left and came to sit with me on the sofa, then raised his hand and waved at me and said "HI!" He seemed very proud of himself and has done it many times since. I'm still trying to get a video of it for the family to see, but he doesn't do it on command. Toddlers have maddening ways of asserting independence. :)

Taylor has what is called an "observant" personality. He's the type that won't just jump in and do something new right away, but will watch you do it over and over and act indifferent. Then all of a sudden he'll do it just right on his first try. Kids with more observant personalities tend to work on their motor skills before their verbal skills, which has also been very true for him. He and Jon have been playing soccer together for quite some time, and he's surprisingly good at it! His fingers are nimble and mostly precise. He's quite good at building legos and putting together puzzles. But ask him to say "lego" and he would get frustrated, whine, and walk away. On Tuesday his dr. told me that, given his observant personality, Taylor is right on time developmentally and it might be quite a while before he starts to talk -- slightly frustrating when most of Taylor's peers already say many words clearly. Not that I would wish him to be different than he is, but I was hoping that the miscommunication tantrums would end soon. :)

That said, watching him communicate effectively with me yesterday was exciting but also slightly sad. I wonder how much longer I will get to enjoy hearing him chatter sweetly to himself in his crib after he wakes up before he starts to say "MAMA, can I get up NOW??" How much longer will we get to enjoy him taking us by the hand to lead us to the fridge when he is thirsty before he just starts to whine "I wanna driiiiiink!" The time is coming. In some ways it will be a huge relief when he can tell us exactly what he wants and needs and much frustration will be alleviated. But on the flip side, I've just realized that I haven't been journaling his milestones like I should have been and I can already feel the memories slipping. We humans always think we'll have more time than we do. So, I am determined to do better at writing down the things that we'll want to remember, and will probably use this blog to do it. He's losing his baby-ness and morphing into a full-blown boy, and I'm forgetting how cute some of his baby habits were. Since online journaling is so convenient, and since our families will want to read these things, too, let the memory blogging begin. Every once in a while I can just print off my musings and gather it all into a book.

So friends, learn a lesson from my mistake and "make the best use of the time" (Eph. 5:16) in all aspects of life. Stop procrastinating and do the things that will really count. If Christ could complete His entire life purpose in just 33 years, then by His grace I can certainly shift my priorities and concentrate harder on raising my kids in the "discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4)... and journaling the adventure!

Guy Time

2008-01-29T20:02:00.000-06:00

Jon and Taylor enjoyed veggin' out on Saturday and watching Cars together. Taylor is as good at relaxing as Jon is, as you can see by how he made himself comfortable on his dad's lap, below:

I wanted to get a picture of how he sprawled himself out. He seems to be wondering what is so important that I had to step in front of the TV. :) "Momma, move please:"

The boys play soccer together everyday after Jon comes home from work. The sofa and kitchen wall have become the household soccer goals. Here is a short clip of Taylor scoring a goal:

We Won!

2008-01-24T11:30:00.000-06:00

If you couldn't tell by the nifty widget I installed on the right margin of our blog, I love Prizey! And I wanted to give them a shout-out today because I won a great prize thanks to their blog services!

We are now the proud owners of a full one-year membership to OneTrue Media. This is a great site where you can take your own pictures and videos and make beautiful montages complete with backgrounds, music, graphics, etc! Along with our membership we also won a free DVD, so when I finish making our montage I can get it burned onto a dvd to enjoy for ages to come. :) I think I will wait to burn the DVD until after Baby #2 is born, so we can have a nice memoir of those early days when Taylor will (hopefully) shower his little sibling with love.

OneTrue Media also has some free services, so you don't have to pay for a membership to use some of its features. Check it out.

And I also would like to say thanks to Pampers for their Gifts To Grow program, where you build up points as you buy diapers and other Pampers products. Jon and I are about to enjoy our second Blockbuster gift card and have a fun date night! You can use your points to earn baby things, too, but I figured if we were spending all this money on diapers, we deserve a little something for ourselves. ;)

Hopefully some of you find this post useful, and start winning or earning some cool things of your own! Enjoy!

Bunch of Goofballs :-)

2008-01-20T14:40:00.000-06:00

Silly pictures tend to happen when we get bored on a lazy Saturday:

Making cheesy faces because we are happy about our growing family :)

What a goofball! Wonder where he gets that from...?

Taylor's new talent: carrying two playground balls at once.

Another little Cummings!

2008-01-18T12:37:00.000-06:00

Jon and I are excited to share the news that we are expecting our second child in September! We'd appreciate your prayers! We are praising the Lord for this new life and looking forward to doing the newborn thing again!

Taylor's Puzzle Skills

2008-01-04T11:31:00.000-06:00

Taylor is really starting to comprehend how to build, stack, piece together, and put away some of his toys. He does really well bulding with his legos, but this puzzle is now one of his favorite toys. At least for this week. :) You know how toddlers are. Just recently, he also started jumping up and down when he's excited. Below is a video of him showcasing his newfound skills, and you can tell he's pretty proud of himself:

At the end, you see him pick up Jon's hand and slap it back on the puzzle. That's his new way of telling us exactly what he wants us to do - he takes our hands and puts them on whatever he wants us to play with. :)

Mouse Tales

2008-01-03T13:39:00.000-06:00

Several posts ago, I mentioned that the household mouse was playing mind games with us and that we had been trying in vain to catch it. Well, we did finally catch it! My aunt and uncle in New Orleans have a pest termination business and they were giving us some tips, so when we caught it Jon wrote an email to them. I've included it below, because no one can embellish a story in such a humorous way like my husband:

"Uncle Jack,
We had a small victory last night! There I was sleeping cause I was sick and all, and Lacey starts hitting me saying she thinks the mouse is in the trash can. So, I dutifully got out of bed, and walked toward the trash in the kitchen. He near jumped out and assaulted me with a semi automatic uzi! So, Lacey came running in, and I used her for a body shield to protect myself. Actually I went in the bedroom to get my glasses so I could see. Well, the mouse was doing his best to get out of our slippery plastic trash can, but to no avail. We bagged him up in another trash can bag. Put him in a container and set him outside to become one with the frigid midwest winter. Sure enough, in the morning, he had given up in the fight and kicked as many buckets as possible. So, we're glad we're rid of one and we wait anxiously for our next battle. If you want to use some of our genius mouse catching methods, feel free. I think all that was in the trash can was an empty yogurt container. So, just thought we'd let you know and say thanks again for your help."

Did you all know that mouses can jump higher than black basketball players?! I found that out with that previous mouse episode. Well, we had another mouse intruder yesterday. Probably because we haven't put steel wool in the mouse holes yet. The glue traps that we had set for the previous mouse (that he skillfully jumped over) were still in place behind the oven, and at midnight on the dot I woke up to horrible, high-pitched mouse screams. I did my wifely duty of hitting Jon until he woke up and then going back to sleep. After he heard the racket he just said, "you've got to be kidding me, why can't you just die?" (Speaking to the mouse, of course, not me.) And sure enough, it was stuck on there. Poor Jon had to get dressed, pull the oven out, take the mouse outside in the -10 degree wind and kill it at midnight (because it wouldn't shut up). And then, not 60 seconds after he got back in bed, we heard the neighbor's farm cats making a racket outside trying to get in the trash can to get the mouse. We had a good laugh thinking that some poor cat would be walking around in the morning with a glue trap stuck to its face. :) And of course I felt bad for Jon because he was getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready for work.

While I'm griping about pests, let me also share this real-life horror story that happened two days after we moved into our new house. It was my first day alone in the house, and my first shower in our new bathroom. When I opened the shower door to step out, lo and behold a giant tarantula (or maybe wolf spider) so big that I could see the hair on its legs. Maybe it was wanting to get in so it could shave. Anyways, it was waving its fangs at me and I just about crawled the walls. At first I ran to kitchen and grabbed a mug to put over it until Jon came home, but the mug was too small (I'm totally serious). I had to use a glass salad bowl to contain the creature, and Jon could hardly believe his eyes when he came home.

So, on a final note, I'm wondering: If we are having this kind of trouble in the winter, what kind of pests will we be up against in the summer time??? I am such a city girl. All I had to deal with while growing up in NJ was cockroaches. Hope this post gave you all a good laugh at our expense. :)

Enjoying the spoils of a successful plunder

2007-12-28T12:01:00.000-06:00

Okay, so maybe we didn't plunder anyone, but looking around our house at the Christmas aftermath you would think we robbed Toys R Us this year! Taylor is the only grandkid to our parents, and the only great-grandkid to almost all of our grandparents, so he definitely isn't hurting for toys or cookies right now. :) Below, he has his new truck, lawn mower, and driving wheel and seems to be saying, "can life get any better?!"

Playing with some of his fave toys on Christmas day:

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and set aside some time to worship Christ and praise God for His wonderful gift of salvation the He provided for us on a lonely, cold day more than 2,000 years ago. Jon and I really want to ground our family in traditions that will help us remember what Christmas is all about. On Tuesday we were able to visit with several very lonely people at the Ottawa nursing home. Everybody we visited said that no one was coming to see them, and a few of them were the sole survivors of their families. It was a blessing to us to meet them and spread a little joy. Jon got to read the account of Christ's birth in Luke 2 to one lady. Taylor was a big hit and everyone just wanted to stare at him - they don't get to see babies very often. But Taylor, being a normal toddler, was scared silly when we tried to let one elderly lady hold him. :) Oh well. Otherwise he did pretty well considering he was in a lot of teething pain.

When we got home Jon and I were able to have our big Christmas meal together by candle-light in the early afternoon and relax together. So nice. In fact, this whole week has been easy and relaxing because Jon had off of work. His company is treating him well so far for a new employee and gave him all week off, and four out of five days were paid. He also will get one day of paid time off next week for new year's. Praise the Lord! It has been really helpful to me to be able to rest my back while he plays with Taylor. And since my back has been happier, I've been able to clean and cook a lot more than usual. As I type, I'm enjoying a sparkly living room and a freshly made apple pie. The husband is home to entertain the tazmanian devil, and I have chocolate at my right hand. Life is good. I mean, what more could a girl want? Am I right, ladies? :)
Taylor also took it easy this week, as you can tell by the above picture. Being doped up on baby iboprofen didn't hurt, either. :) Yes, we're definitely teething this week. Above, he is maxin' and relaxin' while watching a favorite dvd. He likes to slouch as much as his daddy does!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-23T21:28:00.000-06:00

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year as you celebrate Christ's birth and love for us!

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11.

Much love,
Jon, Lacey and Taylor Cummings

Teens Christmas Party

2007-12-21T12:41:00.000-06:00

All month we've had the privilege of planning a Christmas party for our youth group. Wednesday was the day! Everyone had a blast. We were only missing about 4 of our kids, so we had a big group and lots of fun. The highlight was our White Elephant gift exchange - some of the kids got really creative. One brought a large wood mallet (which the kids decided was a caveman video camera). Another brought a hardened puddle of melted metal from when his lawnmower was in a fire! Too funny. We all enjoyed fellowshiping, eating, and just hanging out together. Since we have a facebook group for the kids, I posted all of the party pictures on there. But here are a few pics of us from that night.

Playing with the "caveman camera" :

Since we just moved last month, I didn't put up a tree this year. So Taylor enjoyed seeing the lights on this one. Here he is pointed to them: Checking out the White Elephant packages: Danielle, Markie and me: Sarah taught Taylor how to make music on the piano, and he LOVED it! He was smiling ear to ear the whole time, and cried when we took him away from it. Maybe he'll take after me and learn to play?:

Iced In!

2007-12-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

I think I would enjoy this beautiful scenery so much more if it weren't giving me such a bad case of cabin fever. I haven't left the house for 5 days - aahh! Even a trip to the gas station is sounding like fun right now :) Jon has still been going to work, and we are thankful that his job is only 7 miles away. Yesterday the ice was thick enough even on the gravel road to send him sliding, and he lost the left sideview mirror on his car when he hit a mailbox. Thankfully, winter in Kansas lasts only two months on average. We didn't see any snow until December, so we can't complain. And, in spite of all this ice, we have not lost power - praise the Lord! There are wide-spread outages everywhere.
Can't deny how pretty this is. This is the view from our back door. All of the whiteness is ice, not snow.

The view from our front door across the neighbor's farm. They have a few horses that graze just feet from our front door, and I noticed a few little icicles on the horses' tails. :)

The mouse that haunts our house also seems to have cabin fever this week. He has been even more irritating that usual. Found him in my diaper bag on Saturday. Found a packet of oatmeal ripped to shreds behind the microwave. Found a large hole he chewed right through Taylor's clothes basket. Found droppings in dresser drawers. He has skillfully licked clean all the traps we have set without getting caught, and ignored the poison and other bait. The other night the mouse was running across the floor so Jon set up his (bb) gun and waited. No luck.

And poor little Taylor is sick as can be this week. He developed a nasty cold and cough and so he hasn't been sleeping well. Look at those tired eyes and the chapped little nose. :( You can also tell by the toys strewn all over the floor that we've just been trying to keep him happy. Here he is sitting on a comfy floor pillow while watching sesame street - that's all he wants to do today. You know he's not feeling well when he sits in one spot for almost 1/2 hour straight. Praise the Lord, there are no signs of sinus infection right now. He's teething on top of it all, so not a happy little camper. There is one sesame street dvd in particular that he wants to watch all the time right now, and he smiles and talks back to the puppets, and wiggles around and nods his head at some of the songs. :) Too cute.

Attempting a family picture...

2007-12-09T17:28:00.000-06:00

Well, it's almost the middle of December already and with all the upheaval of moving I am just now starting to think about Christmas cards. Time for a family Christmas photo! We have such beautiful scenery here at the camp, but the weather has been incredibly cold so there was no way I was going to try and pose outside. Thus we set up the lighting and tripod in the house again this year and attempted using the camera timer to take our family pic. We took 15 pictures, and this is how 14 of them turned out: Yes, he is screaming and wiggling. Such is life with a baby who has recently discovered independent mobility when he is being forced to sit still. :) We did manage to get one good picture, but I'm saving it for our Christmas cards and letters, so you all will see it later. When the pictures are being taken on Taylor's terms, he's much more cooperative:

He's also watching Nemo here, which always makes him happy!

A Big Boy Christmas wish!

2007-12-03T11:38:00.000-06:00

I think this site is the coolest. Go to http://www.redkid.net/generator/sign.php to make your own!

Thanksgiving blessings

2007-11-27T13:18:00.000-06:00

This is belated, but our internet access comes and goes throughout the day so I'm just getting to post it! We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving day. The three of us got to have thanksgiving dinner with our friends Dan and Jenn Baker and Jenn's family. Dan deep-friend the turkey - if you've never had deep-fried turkey, you're missing out!
All of us (including you) have so much to be thankful for every day. Being American citizens should be near the top of our lists because that brings with it freedom of religion and federal aid to those in need, among numerous other things. Say what you want about our govt., but don't forget that this is the best country in the world. We have several missionary friends in other countries whose lives could be in danger just for their beliefs.
Topping the Cummings' family blessing list this year would be, first of all, salvation through Christ! We are also thankful for Taylor - he is such a good baby and makes us laugh so much every day. We are thankful for each other and our awesome marriage; Jon's new job at Midwest Cabinet (and that he loves it!); being on staff at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp; our house here at the camp that is FREE; our extended families that are spread near and far; New Life Ministries; our many great friends... I could go on and on!

Among the most recent random blessings have been Mike and Laura Vaughan (above) who stopped in to stay with us on their way back from Luke Bolton's wedding in Wichita (we loved seeing you guys!). And this week alone I have already been thankful for: Walmart, windshield washer fluid, baby gates, spare change, running water (yes, it was not working for a whole day), makeup!, fly swatters, hand-me-downs, birthday presents, eggs, internet access, lightbulbs, and Pampers. God bless Pampers.

Have a great week! - Lacey

Minnesota trip

2007-11-18T17:03:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip up to Minnesota two weeks ago. It was a special treat to have a small Cummings reunion-of-sorts at my in-laws' new house in MN and see all the rest of the family there, too. Except for Chuck, who had a previous engagment with opening day of deer hunting season. We missed you, Chuck, but hope you enjoyed hunting!!!

A rare sighting of Taylor enjoying a car ride. :) We "borrowed" a more comfortable carseat that reclined for the trip because he hates to sleep in the car, so we were hoping it would help. He did really well on the trip up and slept for a while. I decided not to take any pictures of him on the trip home because all he did was scream... for 8 hours.
Taylor hangin' out with his Uncle Rick. Rick and Jon had fun all weekend doing guy stuff like building and shooting a potato gun, confiscating the TV to watch football for hours, playing soccer and football, and moving furniture. :)

Taylor and his Aunt Jen playing in the living room.

Aunt Kristin showing him how to play with the most annoying toy in the world :)

Us enjoying the huge backyard on a COLD day - it snowed while we were there! Yuck!

Grandma and Granpda Mauch with all the grandkids.

The Cummings family.

This picture was from last weekend while we were packing up our house and moving out. A wild ferocious ferret decided to come into our house and scare the snot out of me while I was busy in the kitchen. Okay, so maybe it was tame, but how was I supposed to know? I just yelled for Jon and told him something big and black was trapping me in the kitchen - help!!! :) Jon walked door to door and found the owner, so no harm done.

Well, we are getting settled into our new house here at the camp and we are 3/4 done unpacking. Jon is loving his new job and said that he is excited to get back to work tomorrow - I think that is awesome. Hope you all are doing well! We love you,

Lacey

Lacey is Having a Sale!

2007-11-09T21:17:00.000-06:00

Below is an email I sent out to all my customers advertising the sale and clearance items available through my webiste. I'd like to make it available to all our blog readers and facebook friends, too. Take advantage of the sale soon, because we are moving this weekend and I will not be selling AtHome America homewares for much longer! Read below:
Get your holiday shopping done early! Take advantage of the amazing deals in the AtHome America Attic, available ONLY through my website! Hurry, these deals won't last! Visit my website http://www.athome.com/laceyc and click on "At Home Attic" on the left-hand side of your screen. Enjoy perusing many pages of versatile, high-quality, beautiful merchandise that has been discounted up to 70%!!! Take advantage of quick shipping right to your home, and then relax - your shopping will be done and everyone will love their gifts! (Of course, you'll find several gifts for yourself, too!)

Happy Shopping!

Lacey Cummings
http://www.athome.com/laceyc

New job, moving, lots going on!

2007-11-08T10:31:00.000-06:00

Well, a lot is happening here at the Cummings household, and it's all happening this week! It's definitely time for an update!
As most of you know, Jon has been out of work for a long time. This has been an extremely hard time for our family, and very stressful as you can imagine. We have been learning the true meaning of trusting in the Lord for absolutely everything, and He has been so faithful to us even though we are not always faithful to Him. Isn't God so good? I won't go into all the details, but we have seen Him provide money for the bills as they were due and meet our other needs at just the right times, and always He seemed to wait to provide for us until we were truly trusting only in Him. Hard, hard lessons to learn, and I know that this trial is not over yet. But our faith and trust in the Lord have grown so much.
To make all these long stories short, the basic news is that:

(1) God provided a job for Jon at Midwest Cabinet Supply doing carpentry! Jon loves woodworking, so it's an extra blessing that he gets to enjoy his job :). Plus, this place is only 3 miles from the camp (where we are moving)!
(2) They want Jon to start work on Monday, so we need to move this weekend. As in, two days from now. Jon spent some time at our new place already this week, and he is there today and through the night into tomorrow trying to get it painted and somewhat repaired so we can move in.
(3) We just found out that he was hired this past weekend while we were away in Minnesota visiting Jon's family. So, you guessed it, nothing is packed. Let me help you understand: n-o-t-h-i-n-g. However, since we are only moving an hour away it's not such a big deal. Jon borrowed a friend's truck for two days and is hoping to finish moving the furniture tomorrow.
(4) Our house is still not sold. We are ready to look into renting it out if we can't sell it soon, because we so badly need the burden off our shoulders. It's a beautiful townhouse, so I'm not sure why no one wants it, aside from the fact that no one is buying any homes right now. Please, please, pray that the Lord will bring someone along to buy or rent this house from us. Until it sells, Jon will probably need to work two jobs. Also please pray that the Lord will continue to miraculously take care of us as we slowly bounce back from the crisis. He always cares for His own, and it truly has been miraculous and amazing.

We have so much to be thankful for: God's faithful provision, Jon's new job, ministry position at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp, a roof over our heads, loving friends and family. Every day is thanksgiving for us!

Taylor's Alphabet Adventure

2007-10-26T10:09:00.000-05:00

This is really cute - click the link and see what Taylor does in his exciting adventure!

http://www.myabcadventure.com/index.htm?movieid=91A88871-FFD6-47FF-AC5F-5E3218E2C0CE

Adventures at the Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-24T22:53:00.000-05:00

We were able to have a family outing today to a local pumpkin patch. It was fun! In the beginning we were freezing but by the time we left we warmed up. Here are a few pictures. Taylor had a blast walking around and exploring.

Climbing around these huge, heavy orange balls.

These balls are more my size! Can I throw one???

Picking my own pumpkin!

Getting saddled up on a cow. Or maybe a black and white horse?

Riding a horse like a pro!

Can I climb through?

Dear God, please save these nice pumpkins from being made into pie!

We're trying to get better at taking pictures together. We used to snap pictures all the time

when we were dating, but have gotten distracted in taking pictures of Taylor (not a bad thing!).

So, here we are! It was a great day.

Pumpkin Patch video clips

2007-10-24T19:38:00.000-05:00

For all of Taylor's grandparents, aunts and uncles: here are two short video clips of our adventures today. Most of you have not seen him running around, so I thought you might enjoy these!

2007-10-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

Funny Pictures!

2007-10-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

While Jon and I don't celebrate Halloween in any way, seeing these animals in little costumes made me laugh out loud! Animls are so funny! Click this link and enjoy!

http://nynerd.com/animal-halloween-costumes/

I just love the hula dog - check out the little coconut bra! Haha!

Just about the greatest day ever

2007-10-11T19:35:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post about this for sometime now, but haven't had time until now. It was alomst a week ago when this happened. I had worked a side job with a plumber all day Saturday. I had a ton of stuff to do at my parents house to get it ready for a showing on Sunday. I decided to stay at home until Taylor went to bed, because I hadn't seen him all day. After a little running through the house squeeling at the top of our lungs, I started kicking a little soccer ball around the living room. Taylor usually just laughs at me because I'm spinning around and stuff, but this time, he got up and went for the ball. It was then I saw one of the most beautiful things I had seen in a long time (coming from Taylor that is). He started walking with the ball, essentially dribbling it just like I was doing. He kicked it all the way to the wall that I had been kicking it to. I cheered him on and was exstatic to see my brand new fifteen month old son starting to play soccer. Since then, Taylor and I have kicked the old ball around several times. The game has kinda evolved into Taylor picking the ball up and walking it to the kitchen and then throwing it as far as he can into the kitchen (which he's not allowed to go into). So, maybe I need to get him a football or a basketball goal or something. Anyway, we're having a great time here, and Lacey's the most amazing wife and mother ever! She does all the hard work, and I get to come home and play with Taylor for a few hours and put him to bed.
Thanks for reading our thoughts and keeping us in your prayers. We enjoy keeping up with everyone's blogs now that we have internet at home. We love you all.

Jon

You know you're from South Jersey if...

2007-10-06T22:23:00.001-05:00

Since most (about 99%) of our blogger, facebook, and myspace friends are NOT from my hometown area, I thought I'd give you all a little crash course on South Jersey. I must say I'm a little jealous at Jon's comraderie with all his friends from home, so in an attempt to make myself feel better :) I'll show a little Jersey pride. My aunt sent me this email and it's so true:

You know you're from South Jersey if...
-You don't "go to the beach", you go "down the shore." (beaches are in florida, duh!)
-You've had arguments over cheesesteak quality.
-You've actually found the Echelon Mall.
-You don't understand why there aren't more 24-hour diners elsewhere in the country. (most everything is 24-hour in Jersey)
-You know what a Wawa is, and know the location of at least 10 of them. (and I still crave a visit to this day)
-You know that you should get out of Camden before dark... FAST. (any time of day, really)
-You know how to successfully navigate a traffic circle. ("why is there a random picture of a circle on that traffic sign?! I hate jersey drivers!!!" - my hubby)
-You pronounce "water" "wudder". (I still get teased for this)
-You refuse to call Hoagies "subs."
-You've almost fallen asleep on the parkway, turnpike, and I-295.
You've lived through hurricanes, nor'easters, and fires but have never seen a tornado, earthquake, or volcano.
-You know that ACME is an actual store, not just a Warner Bros. creation.
-You have mandatory recycling. Enforced by law.
-You've made a meal out of Tastycakes, Herr's potato chips, and Taylor Pork Roll.
-You know New Years is all about the Mummers.
-You can go bowling at 1:30 A.M. (doesn't everyone?)
-Route 206 doesn't freak you out at night.
-You know it can be -10 degrees and 70 degrees in January in the same year.
-There's a fruit and vegetable stand down the road.
-You will always say "YO", and you'll say it often.
-You go to another state and sit at a gas station wondering when the people will come out to pump your gas. (Seriously)
-You know that no matter how much they put into the Camden waterfront, Camden is still Camden.
-You think North Jersey is a different state and South Jersey deserves its own secession. (anyplace with an accent as nasty as North Jersey's should provide personal translators)
-You have season passes to Great Adventure.
-You know where Olga's Diner is on rt 70.
-You are tired of people not believing you're from jersey because you don't have a New York accent. (For real)
-You know what "jimmies" are and refuse to call them anything else. (they're not called sprinkles!)
-You have crossed all 5 bridges into Philly at one point in your life.
-You know know what funnel cake and water ice are and think something is wrong with people who refer to them as "fried dough" and "slush".
-You've driven all the way to the shore just to walk around for 5 minutes then drove back.
-You lived near a "crick" not a creek.
-You never could figure out which was the Black Horse Pike or The White Horse Pike.
-You know that a "Yield" sign is merely a suggestion, and that a yellow light means "go faster."
.-You don't think you have an accent. (I don't. You do.)
-Everything is "twenty minutes away". If you ask how long it takes to get any place in South Jersey, the person always says, "about twenty minutes". To get to a mall, "Oh, about 20 minutes". To get to the airport, "Mmm, about 20 minutes." To get from Runnemede to Philly, "Only 20 minutes". Try it. Only the shore areas take more than "twenty minutes" -they're "an hour and twenty minutes." (because of this I'm bad at estimating time to this day)
-You describe where you live in reference to how far you are from Cherry Hill.
-You would drop everything you were doing and run to the voting polls right now if you heard we were voting to make North and South Jersey separate states.
-You know all of the "back roads" to get everywhere and prefer them to the expressway.
-You can't count how many times people have asked you if you liked living in New England. (True! New England starts above New York, people!!!)

Funniest video I've seen in a while!

2007-10-04T14:41:00.000-05:00

A friend sent this video to us, and we thought it was too funny to keep to ourselves!

Here, a mom compressed all the things she says to her kids in a full day into 3 minutes, to the tune of William Tell. Gotta watch!

Fun with horses

2007-10-01T15:53:00.000-05:00

The weather was so nice today that I couldn't resist taking Taylor out for a walk. We drove to my in-laws' neighborhood (because it's so much nicer than ours!) and took a stroll. Taylor really enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, and just looking at everything. At the bottom of the development is a property with some beautiful horses, and one of them was pretty interested in Taylor! He loved looking at the horses and even talked to it a little. :) Here are some pictures of our fun:

"This is so fun!"
Is that a face like his daddy's, or what?

"Don't look now, but someone's breathing down my neck!"

Look at this - a great picture of him smiling at the camera!
Maybe our days of staring blankly at the camera are over???

Eye to eye.

(old) Birthday pictures

2007-09-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine just inspired me to post Taylor's birthday pictures on my blog (thanks, Sarah!). They were taken at Picture People, so the photographer watermark is across the image. I hadn't thought of posting them on the blog before (why?... I don't know). So finally everyone can see how cute these pictures turned out! These were taken three months ago, and this is the first time since then that I've reviewed them. Wow- he has already changed a lot since then! Enjoy!

And here is a picture I had taken 4 months ago for Father's Day:

Blog links

2007-09-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know that I removed the section of links to our friends' blogs because most of the links were outdated. We now use Google Reader to keep up with everyone's blogs, and of course FaceBook, so don't worry we are still reading your blogs. :)

The baby is now a little boy...

2007-09-25T08:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, he is getting bigger and bigger! Here are a few pictures from the last two weeks.

Can I have the camera???

Finally a good shot of the three of us!

Love this one - Taylor's acutally (half-) smiling at the camera!

The first cold morning of the fall! It happened 10 days ago, and hasn't gotten cold again since.

We can't wait for Autumn to get to MO!

Showing off his 'do!

2007-09-05T09:47:00.000-05:00

We had a blast at Anthony's 1st birthday party! Here's Taylor hanging out with Markie and Sue:
And later he made a mess big enough to match his big hair :)

A day in the life....

2007-08-25T21:05:00.000-05:00

... of Taylor! We finally had a relaxing day after a long series of full schedules. Taylor and I (Lacey) got to just stay home all day. Topping his Saturday to-do list was: eating, sleeping, playing, drooling. My list was about the same. :)

Spreading books all over the floor is totally awesome!

What drool?

Walking so well on his own!

Taylor loves to sing along with the guitar and "help" daddy play!

Singing :)

Picnic Pics

2007-08-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

The other week Jon and I brought Taylor to the New Life youth group picnic. It was fun to hang out with the kids and just chat, and then we grilled out and played volleyball. But it sure was HOT outside that day! Here are some cute pictures of my boys from the picnic:

This one is my favorite! :)

We are basking in the blessings of God tonight as we sit on our own sofa and get online in our own house!!!!!!! That's right! We finally have internet at our home again!!!! We received an unexpected tax refund last week (yes, a full 4 1/2 months after I filed my taxes) and it is just enough to pay off our high-interest debts, take advantage of an introductory internet offer :), buy some needed business supplies for my new job, and hopefully get some short-term health insurance for all of us for about 3 months. The insurance will be a huge blessing because we have been without it for over a year, and Taylor has not been able to start his vaccinations yet. Praise the Lord!

We also have yet another praise - the Northland finance office got in touch with us and informed us that we were overcharged by several hundred dollars last year for rent, which we still had not been able to pay off. So after adjusting our bill and graciously working with us, they worked our bill down to $0!!!!!!!!!

Please praise the Lord along with us for meeting our needs once again! He is always faithful!

Fun in the sun!

2007-08-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

What have we been up to?

2007-08-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

It's hard to remember all that we've been up to these past few weeks because the time just flies. Taylor is walking on his own now! Yay! and Oh No! He is only 12 months old, so I'm wondering what this means for my sanity. :) This new-found freedom has spurred him to be more aggressive, quick, stealthy, and stubborn. More all-around boy-like. :) And it has spurred me to use baby gates, grow eyes in the back of my head, and learn how to switch the laundry and load the dishwasher in two seconds flat before he gets into the toilet paper and hair gel. Which leads me to another thought... with all this running around, why am I gaining weight? :)

Tonight Jon, Taylor and I are sleeping at our friends' house because they just had a new baby today and needed us to take care of their other child. Both of the kiddies have been good so far; only a little swallowed grass, which is nothing a good night's sleep won't fix, I'm sure. We will be here all weekend, experiencing the two-children-to-take-care-of thing for the first time.

Next week, I (Lacey) am joining a company called At Home America (which you can google) with a prayer that it will generate a little income while being not too stressful. My first party is Thursday, so pray for me that God will give me the grace, time, and energy to invest in this opportunity.

Hope all is well with all of you! Much love from us,

Lacey

Update

2007-07-15T17:21:00.000-05:00

Just thought we'd let you all know that we finally got our house up on the market! It's really exciting for us - one step closer to getting out to Amazing Grace Baptist Camp and into the ministry. Taylor just celebrated his first birthday last Friday, July 6th! It was fun to have some of Jon's family come to visit and have a party with our local friends. There are some pictures below. We love you all!

Lacey

2007-07-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from Taylor's First Birthday party! It was so much fun! All his friends from church were able to come, and we had about 20 people crammed into our little house to celebrate.

Singing Happy Birthday

Talking to Papaw Sam on the phone

With some of his friends

Eating Birthday Cake

He loved this part!

Several more pictures for ya!

2007-06-28T08:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since we've put pictures on here. We've been experiencing technical difficulties. Here are some of our latest pictures.

This is Taylor and me watching Blue's Clues. A guy comes home from work and tries to spend time with his boy, and he's just not happy unless he can see a blue dog. Wierd!

Lacey spiked up Taylor's hair and got several great photos of him. I don't know if this is before or after the photo shoot. That's the patented face when he sees a camera. He could be laughing and having a great time, and then he just wipes it off and stares at the camera. Wierd!

A picture of the spikey haired one.

This is Taylor fighting off boredom as he watches his movie for the 1 billionth time.

Taylor starts getting fed up with you or his toys or something, and you look at him and wonder what he's planning on doing? Wierd!

Lacey and I are doing great. We're trying to get stuff painted before a bunch of our family comes to our house for Taylor's first birthday which is in about a week.

I'm loving being back on the framing crew again. It's got to be about the best crew in the world to work with. We have some good times.

We hear bits and pieces of info about alot of our friends and what going on, but we can't keep up with you like we would like. Please shoot us an email or post a comment on our blog. We do finally get to Panera and read them all every weekish or so.

We love you all.

Bye.

Jon

2007-05-20T15:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, we finally got some pictures posted (on the update below). I don't have much time to write, but in a nutshell we are doing well!!! The new church is going great and growing fast (visit newlifekc.org). Jon is enjoying working in construction again. I am enjoying not working very much! As soon as we get a longer chance, we'll give a more thorough update.

With Uncle Jeremy (Green).

With Momma past my bedtime!

It worked!!!!!

2007-05-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

It finally worked! I am going to make this a quick post so that hopefully I won't lose the internet connection before I'm done! Taylor is 10 1/2 months old now - here are some recent pictures:

Pot-bellied floor potato.

Walking in Grandad's kitchen.

If you englarge this one, you can see his two teeth on the bottom.

More to come!

More pictures

2007-05-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Weeeeeeellll, I was going to put pictures on here, but the computer I am on won't let me. Maybe another day. Thanks for not abandoning us those of you who still look at our blog. Hopefully our situation will change soon and we'll be able to keep in touch with everybody more.

There is much to talk about, but no time to do it.

We love you all.

Jon (Lacey, and Taylor)

A few new pictures...

2007-03-23T15:14:00.000-05:00

Here are Taylor's 8-months-old pictures; I took them just the other day. To our family, we are sorry for the delay in getting new pictures to you! We are still without a computer, and without time, too! My good friend Heather is letting me borrow her internet so I can get these out to you. And to all our blogger and Facebook friends, we love ya! Enjoy these cute snapshots:

Pictures of Taylor.

2007-03-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

After a long time, here are some pictures of Taylor. Sorry it took us forever. And sorry the pictures are such a big size. It may take a while to load the page if you have a slow connection.

Enjoy.

Jon

Another update.

2007-03-06T11:47:00.000-06:00

Well,

We thought we were just about squared away for getting on the internet and being able to keep up with everybody better. This morning, our laptop wouldn't turn on. It worked yesterday, but this morning in would not boot up. So, not only can we not get on the internet with that right now, all the new pictures that we had on there from our new camera are inaccessible. Ah, the joys of life.

Lacey and I are both sick, but hopefully we'll be getting better soon. Taylor's as healthy as a horse and eats like one too.

Thank you to those that have persistently kept up with us even though we haven't been able to reply as often as we would like. We love you all. Look forward to hearing from you.

Jon (and Lacey and Taylor)

p.s. we wanted to put pictures on here, but can't. Sorry!

Working Woman

2007-02-17T17:02:00.000-06:00

Praise the Lord, I got a job! My new position at Ann Taylor Loft starts on Monday. It is a high-end career clothing store. We are so thankful that the Lord provided us a way to make ends meet. Jon gets home from work at 1:15pm, so I will work in the afternoons and evenings while he is home. I think I might struggle a bit with working because I probably won't be able to deep up with the house and cooking like I need to, and I don't want to be away from Jon and Taylor so much. But I'm also looking forward to working and it is great that Jon and I can take care of the baby ourselves.

We are FREEEZING down here! Al Gore needs to get his brain on straight - global warming only exists on Mercury. :)

We love you all!

--Lacey

Who watches the superbowl, anyway?

2007-02-06T12:44:00.000-06:00

We didn't. Well, we watched the first half and then went to bed. Thus goes the life of people who have to get up early in the morning. :) Oh well.

I forgot to mention in the last post that Grannie and Bonnie gave us this brand new (working!) adapter for our computer. Thank you so much!

We were so glad to spend some time with Matt and Courtney Jones while they were here this week. Matt and Courtney are headed to Thailand next month to be missionaries in Bangkok. We first met them at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp. We at dinner together at Zio's last night, and Taylor managed to spill a coke onto Jon's lap :) The baby was pretty proud of himself, and Jon looked like he had a little accident. :) There is a link to the Jones' blog over there on the right, but they don't update it like they should. :) We'll miss you guys!!!

Here's a picture of my two men sacked out on the sofa :) I promise we'll get some more exciting things on our blog as soon as we get a camera that works.

Continue to pray for us, as Jon's job won't give him overtime for at least several weeks and I am looking for a part-time job that will still let me take care of the family.

Taylor is 7 months old today - wow! And other than Valentine's coming up, I think there is no more news. Speaking of Valentine's, we are going to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate! My mom gave us a gift certificate that I can't wait to use. Do any of you have special plans with your sweetie?

We love you all,
Lacey

Long overdue pictures

2007-01-31T13:46:00.000-06:00

Yay! We finally found an internet adapter that works!!!
This picture is especially for Aunt Kim, who gave Taylor this bear coat for Christmas:

And here is our little guy sitting up all on his own. He's almost 7 months old now - wow, it's flying!
Taylor is in a fun stage for us. He can belly-laugh when Jon tickles him, and he's trying hard to communicate.
I was trying to upload a little video but the connection is slow right now, so maybe next time.

We are still alive!

2007-01-26T15:59:00.000-06:00

Hi all!
Thanks for still checking our site to see how we are doing. Sorry it's been so long since we've been able to update you on anything. We did purchase a wireless internet adapter but it didn't work so well (probably because it was cheap) so we took it back. Haven't been able to afford a better one yet, so the only way we are getting online right now is at the library. That's hard to pull off very often.

Jon started his new schedule at work last week. He works from 4:45am to 1:15pm, and his two days off are Tues and Wed. So no weekends, and no sleeping in!!! He wakes up at 3am! Yikes. I admire him for that - I haven't woke up at 3 since Taylor was 2 months old.

Taylor is 6 months old! He is sitting up now and rolling all over the place. Since this isn't our personal computer, I don't have any pictures to post this time, but next time I come I'll try and post some new pics and videos.

I have been on the lookout for a job. I need one that will let me work from 3pm on, so it's not easy to find. I'm thinking the mall will be my only option because they are open late, but we'll see. Please pray that the Lord will lead me to the right job in his time.

Sorry we haven't been able to check your blogs, either! I'll take a quick look as soon as I'm done writing this. I hope you all are doing well and rejoicing in the Lord! We love you,

Lacey

A few Christmas pictures!

2007-01-02T16:53:00.000-06:00

We are so thankful for all of the gifts we received this Christmas, and especially for the gift cards. :) That's because, as you probably read below, we lost our computer last week. Praise the Lord that we were able to use one of our gift cards to purchase a new wireless internet adapter so we can now use our other laptop to keep in touch. Here are a few photos from the time we spent in Minnesota with Jon's family during Christmas weekend:

Taylor was laughing at his Uncle Rick (above) :)
Here are all four generations of Cummings men!
Jen and Chuck enjoying their nephew. Chuck was an especially good sport after Taylor "christened" his clean, nicely ironed pants. :)

We had a great time visiting Jon's family. Hopefully we will have more pictures to show you all a little later, but this is all we had on our camera. With Jon's laptop gone, which held all of our pictures of Taylor, and our camera on the blink, we don't have nearly as many pictures as we would like of these past few weeks.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years'! Happy New Year!

No more laptop. :(

2007-01-01T18:50:00.000-06:00

I wrote a long post earlier, but then the computer froze up and I lost it. So, this is a quick post to tell you all that I left my laptop on top of the car and drove away, so it is officially not with us anymore. It had all our pictures on it and my paper for my class and all my notes for the test and all that good stuff. It was also our means for connecting to the internet.

So, we won't be posting nearly as much, and we probably won't be able to answer emails quickly at all. So, pray with us that it is found and we are able to get some stuff off the hard drive.

We love you all.

Thanks for checking our blog and keeping up with us.

We'll leave some pictures when we have some to show you.

Jon, Lacey & Taylor

Merry Christmas!!!!!

2006-12-21T16:47:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it's here already? Maybe the fact that we don't have any snow on the ground here makes it harder for me to believe that it's Christmas already. Tomorrow afternoon we are driving up to Minnesota to visit with Jon's family for the weekend! It will be great - everyone will be there. Several family members still haven't met Taylor yet, so it will be fun to pass him around. We are driving back home on Sunday evening so that we can be at our own home for Christmas Day. We are excited to celebrate our first Christmas together as a family.

Jon started on-the-job training today, and kicked it off with a 4am - 12:30pm shift! Wow. We are going to need to adjust to this new schedule. He had to wake up at 2am! But he was home in time for lunch with me which was great. He will have this schedule for at least two more weeks and then it might possibly change. Please continue to pray for him, especially for safety as he drives in the dark to work in the middle of the night.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. Please take the time to reflect on Christ's coming. He was born to die for you and me... it is hard to wrap our minds around that truth. Praise the Lord for his love and mercy to us, which is what we should really be celebrating this weekend. (And always!)

Love you all,
Lacey (and Jon)

Long Time, No Post!!!

2006-12-15T12:20:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the long break in updates! Thank you to all of our friends who still look on our blog to see how we are doing! :) We are "roughing it" with no internet access whatsoever for a while. Jon has started training for his new job at the airport, and is enjoying it so far. Taylor is 5 1/2 months old now! We are looking forward to his first Christmas, it will be fun. Here are a few cute pictures I thought you'd enjoy!Taylor was so bundled that he couldn't even turn his head! :) This was during our two weeks of cold weather that we've had so far. Yes, I am bragging. The weather has been great down here. This week we are back up into the 50's again, even hit 60 yesterday. To our Northland friends, we feel your pain. :)
This huge shaggy dog is a gift from my mom and her boyfriend out in Hawaii! Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and pulled this out!! As you can see, the baby is enjoying him. :)

After Jon gets his first paycheck in January we will check into internet providers for our house, so please hang on and keep checking our site for updates! We really love to read all of your comments. Merry Christmas preparations!!!
-Lacey

Family Picture

2006-12-05T11:19:00.000-06:00

Here's our latest family picture. It was actually taken before that video that we posted of Taylor. He was in a good mood, so we set up our camera and snapped several shots. The Christmas tree was donated by my parents, so we are able to have somewhat of a Christmasy atmosphere

Taylor has a way of looking at you like you're crazy. He smiles at Lacey and I more than other people, but he has to look at your face for a while and decide if he likes it or not. He was looking at me trying to figure out what in the world I was doing. Fortunately for us, he still stares at a camera just about every time he sees one. So, pictures have been relatively easy for us.

And he has my good looks, so that just makes everything so much easier. :)

Jon

(He has Lacey's good looks too.)

Jared Leeper

2006-12-05T08:46:00.000-06:00

I forgot to put a picture of my friend Jared when he came out to visit us. Jared, I apologize.

Jared and I pretty much grew up together. We go way back.

I also found this picture. We photo copied our faces one day back in junior high or something like that. Yeah, we were wild men. ;)

Jared's getting married soon. He and his fiancee met at Bob Jones. Congratulations to the two of them. I don't have a picture of them, or I'd post that too.

Jon

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

2006-11-29T10:35:00.000-06:00

We finally got a good video of Taylor laughing. This little guy cracks us up!

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Chopper-worthy

2006-11-28T11:44:00.000-06:00

For the past two weeks, Jon and I have been noticing more gun-shot sounds coming from field behind our house. We have been calling the police and reporting them as the shots happen, hoping that the authorities will find something. We think it might be someone trying to hunt a deer, but regardless the gun needs to go. We live in a tight residential area! A few nights ago, Jon and I heard shots again so he called and reported it. The police came but said that it was too dark to go out and look that night and that they would come in morning. But about 10 minutes later, we heard a helicopter! It was pretty cool! The chopper hovered right over our house and was using the spotlight to search the field and the woods. We turned out the lights and watched everything-- and of course felt sort-of important that Jon's call got a helicopter to come! :) Haven't heard any shots since then!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day! Since Jon wasn't working, we were able to spend a relaxing morning at home. Then we ate a big thanksgiving lunch with Jon's parents at their house. Here is all of us together:

Afterwards, Taylor and his daddy watched football and fell asleep:

Then we were able to take a walk around their neighborhood and saw some horses and cows. A few of them were pretty friendly.

We are so grateful that Jon's new job with Firstline Security will start on Dec. 11!!! He will have about 4 weeks of paid training. The Lord worked all the details together with perfect timing. I also am able to start working about 5 hours a week today! My former employer asked me to do a little work for him, and I am so thankful and excited for the opportunity. For now I am going to go twice a week for about 2.5 hours in the evening after Jon gets home.
This is Taylor workin' a trendy cap. :) So cute!
This week I am finishing the Christmas decorations - I can't believe December got here so fast! I guess it doesn't seem real especially because of the 70 degree weather we are still having down here. But I'm not complaining! :) We love you all!

Showing his eastern roots :)

2006-11-22T13:07:00.000-06:00

We're Back!

2006-11-20T11:17:00.000-06:00

Taylor and I had a great time out in New Jersey visiting my family. We were there from Nov. 14-18, and were very busy trying to see everyone that hadn't met Taylor yet! I was so happy that Taylor didn't cry once on the flight to NJ! However, on the flight home, he cried almost the entire way - 2 and 1/2 hours! But he was not feeling well and was very worn out from the busy week we had. This is my Grammy and Poppy (my mom's parents) with Taylor.
Above is a cute picture of Taylor laughing at my Uncle Greg. Those two boys got along so well! Taylor just loved him.

This is my Uncle Greg, Aunt Rose, and my cousin Jessica with Taylor. They were able to come on Friday and spend some time with us and meet the baby.
Kristin and Rick were also able to come out from PA and see us for a short time. It was so good to see them again, and this was the first time Rick got to meet his new nephew! Taylor was exausted by that time, so he slept on Rick's lap for a good while. They came on Friday night and we had pizza and chatted for a while.
My mom, grammy, me and Taylor all went out for lunch on Wednesday to a great little italian restaurant. Taylor was getting fussy, so I offered him a hard bread crust. He chewed on it for a long time! He is almost ready to start eating baby cereal.

I also went to visit my Uncle Ben and Aunt Jen and all my cousins, but I stupidly forgot to take pictures while I was there. :(

Here are all four generations! How amazing! This isn't the best-looking picture of all of us, but we were in a rush trying to get to the airport that morning. :)
And here are my two men. They sure do look alike, don't they?

Saturday's finally here!!!!!

2006-11-18T10:05:00.000-06:00

Lacey's finally coming home today!!!!!!!!

Praise Jesus.

Jon

Some pictures for ya!!! Finally.

2006-11-14T21:52:00.000-06:00

Several of Taylor's grandmothers and great-grandmothers have been semi-exasperated with the lack new pictures on our blog. So, under pain of exfoliation, I have posted some more of our recent pictures of Taylor. Lacey is in NJ visiting family for a few days, so I'm sure there will be more pictures when Lacey gets back.

This is Taylor's textbook face when looking at strangers or, me or Lacey, or pretty much anything.

This is Taylor's "you want me to do what!" face.

Working on his pushups.

He's getting better at the thumb thing. The hand is either clenched in a fist, or open. I hope he doesn't run into a wall someday because his hand's in front of his face when he sucking his thumb.

He'll learn from that mistake! Maybe.

Thanks for all the comments you all have left. We really enjoy receiving them. And for those of you that have nothing to say to us, you can just write, "I have nothing to say to you." And then we'll know that's how it is. But whatever floats your coconut.

Jon

Job Update

2006-11-06T17:01:00.000-06:00

Just to update you. I got done with the isokinetic test today. It just measures how much force you exert against the machine. I'm guessing I passed it looking at some of those old ladies that are working at the airport.
I've got to pass a drug test once after this, so pray for me as I'm going cold turkey here. :) I like cold turkey. Lord willing, I'll be starting training soon. Thanks for your prayers.

Jon

p.s. Taylor's four months old today. He's trying to talk to us, be we can't understand what he's saying yet. I'm trying to get him to say soccer, but he's not quite there yet. We'll let you know.

Jon's job

2006-11-02T06:48:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update for those of you that have been praying about a steady job for me. I took my test yesterday for TSA, which is the company that does the security at airports. I passed it and am on to the next step in the hiring process. They're doing a background check and if I pass that (I don't know with my shady background), I'll do a physical fitness test, and then I should start training.

It's a little bit of a drive for me, but it pays pretty well, and has really good benefits, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm not particularly looking forward to going through people's suitcases and removing their eyedrops, but it's all about keeping you safe! ;)

Thanks for your prayers. Pray that my work schedule would be such that I can still go to church and take Bible College classes. I haven't learned when my schedule will be yet, so we'll see how it goes.

Love you all,

Jon (and Lacey and Taylor)

Marissa's Wedding

2006-10-30T13:16:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures from Marissa Bear's wedding. She is now Mrs. Gary Michel! It was a beautiful wedding and reception!!!

Big Blue Eyes

2006-10-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

Taylor is getting better and better at scooting around on his tummy. I wouldn't say he's crawling... more like pushing with his toes and smushing his face into the floor. :) He woke up happy from his nap at Jon's parents' house today:
I hope his eyes stay that color! He sure looks like his daddy in this one:

Modeling his authentic Hilo Hattie outfit that my mom sent from Hawaii:

Oh No!!! More Crazy Aunts!!!

2006-10-23T13:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, Taylor is doomed for sure. :) Above are Jon's two wonderful sisters, Jennifer and Kristin. They came down to Kansas City for a visit, and we had a lot of fun! Kristin was the matron-of-honor in Marissa Bear's wedding this past weekend, so Jennifer came down at the same time so we could all visit together. They just left today. We miss you guys, and can't wait to see you again! Jon is helping Taylor learn how to roll over. Here they are practising. :) I forsee my days of living without baby gates and cabinet locks quickly coming to an end.

Finally we got a decent picture of all three of us! This was taken yesterday (Sunday) after we all had lunch together at my in-laws' house.

And here is a picture of our lovely friend Pam! She was one of our "campus kids" while we were on staff at Northland. She's SINGLE, guys!!! ;)

Our baby bunny boy!

2006-10-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I dressed Taylor up as a bunny. But he didn't look "girly," I promise! It was so cute!

A photography studio in our mall was holding a contest, and if you came in a costume they would take pictures, give you a free 5x7 of your choice, and enter you in the contest. I borrowed my friend Heather's little bunny costume and Taylor struck some really cute poses! He started getting fussy toward the end. :) If you would like to take a peek, go here:

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?cobrand?i=01WA

Enter our last name (cummings). Choose "Lacey Cummings" when the list of names comes up. And the password is "taylor." Enjoy!!!!!

Chubby Cheeks

2006-10-09T14:49:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist the cute chipmunk-cheeks picture :) Taylor was napping hard.
It's hard to believe that our son is 3 months old already! We have been enjoying this time with him. He is "talking" to us more, and smiling and giggling a lot. He also sleeps 10-11 hours at night! It's wonderful! This is Taylor watching football:
Father and son reading the mail together:
It's been a long time since we've been able to give an update, but not much is new with us. Jon is still enjoying his class at Heart of America on Wednesday nights. We are also still waiting for a good job for Jon. There was an opportunity for Geico that seemed very promising, but we later found out that it was not what it seemed. :) So please continue to pray that the Lord will lead Jon to the right job. He has been working for his parents fixing up their house these past two weeks, so we are grateful for that. This week he will be looking around some more and hopefully applying at a few more places. But the Lord always has, and always will be, faithful to provide for us! We are looking forward to seeing what happens.

Jon's two sisters will be visiting this month and seeing Taylor for the first time! We are also planning a trip to NJ next month so my grandparents can see him.

We love you all!

Lacey

AGBC visit

2006-10-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

On Thursday we were able to visit all our friends at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp. It had been over a year since we had seen the camp kiddos - they were all so big!!! We had a great time seeing everyone one again. Here is a picture of me and Taylor with Sarah and Morgan Burton:We had dessert together in the snack shop. Taylor was watching Jon eat his icecream and giggled for us:
Jon, Taylor and Rebecca Linville in the snack shop:
It was so good to see our friends again. Hopefully now that we live closer we will be able to help at the camp for retreats and events again. We miss you guys!

No Internet

2006-10-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

Well, we've been found out. We can no longer pirate the internet off of whoever we were pirating it off of before. The only wireless networks we pick up now are secure networks that require a password.

So, for the time being, I'm working at my parents house and checking email there. So, if we don't get back to you as slowly as usual, it's because we haven't gotten internet at our house yet. Hopefully we'll get hooked back up soon.

Love you all.

Jon and Lacey

A few fun pictures...

2006-09-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

Happily for us, Taylor likes to look at the camera :)

Trying hard to keep his head up, but it's just so heavy!

With his daddy.

2006-09-25T15:44:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we had a good time with Mom Cummings - aka 'Nana' to Taylor :) - having a meal out together. We went to Chipotle's for dinner and to Coldstone Creamery for dessert! Here is a picture of us at the ice cream parlor. It was a fun time!

A video of Taylor

2006-09-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

This is Taylor trying to find his thumb. He's all over it. Sort of.

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Family Time

2006-09-18T17:29:00.000-05:00

Last week, my grandmothe r and two aunts on my dad's side came from New Orleans to visit and see the baby. We had a lot of fun talking, shopping, and sharing the baby together. They were able to stay from Thursday to Sunday. Taylor was quite spoiled by their constant attention :) not to mention the adorable outfits they bought him while they were here. He has several new fall/winter outfits and sleepers, a doorway jumpy seat, and many other little new things as a result of our "girls day out" at the mall. :) Thank you Aunt Kim, Aunt Tammy and Grannie!!!!
Here is a picture of us enjoying dinner at the Rib Crib:
I had baby back ribs - they were out of this world. So tender! I wish I could make ribs taste like that. Maybe someday :) Now that Jon and I have a deck, we need to get a grill and start cooking! Here is Jon and Taylor at the Rib Crib:
Taylor looking at his crazy Aunt Tammy :)
Taylor and Grannie exaughsted from shoe shopping:
Aunt Tammy and Taylor playing:
Aunt Kim had the magic touch with Taylor and could get him to sleep wherever we went :) At the mall, at church, at my in-law's house, at our house... he seemed so relaxed with her. You guys need to come back so I can get some cleaning done around my house! Taylor never seems to sleep soundly when I'm trying to get household stuff done. :) Here is Aunt Kim and the baby:
And this is all of us back at their hotel:
Aside from the family visit, a few other exciting things happened this week. Our gas was shut off!!! I won't ever take it for granted again! :) As it turns out, Jon and I neglected to let the gas company know that we were the new owners of the house. I just totally didn't think about it. So they turned the gas off on Saturday, thinking the house was vacant. Therefore my Sunday morning started with a hypothermic shower! It is all okay, though... we are taking "sponge baths" and washing our hair in the sink until tomorrow when they turn it back on. As soon as the water heater has enough hot water, I'm taking a real shower!

Today Jon went to Geico to drop off an application for a position there. He said the interview went really well and he liked the people there. Our friends Heather and Bill helped a lot with this one... Heather touched up Jon's resume to make it more specific to the Geico job (and advised Jon to wear a suit, which he did - he looked so sharp!), and Bill is a Geico employee so his name got Jon the interview. It seems like this would be a great job... we are just waiting to see what the Lord has for us. He will open up the right opportunity in His time. While we wait to see what the Lord has for Jon, he may also apply at the Tyson plant over the state line in Kansas and at a few other places.

Jon has been reffing soccer games for the junior teams at Tri-City, and really enjoying it. He is also loving his Apologetics class. This coming Saturday is Harvest Rally for all the teenagers at our church and in the community. Jon will be helping with this, too, doing a funny skit and being a roving emcee for the day. It should be fun! Pray for good weather, because as of now it looks like it will rain this weekend. Jon was also privileged to help with a Sunday night youth acitivity for the church youth group and will be assisting with a Saturday night bible study/activity every week. As for me, I'm busy trying to keep up with my two men and figure out how to cook dinner amidst it all. :) God is good and life is fun and busy.

Well, I'd better feed the baby. Love you all,

Lacey

Can't Comment!

2006-09-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that we are checking your blogs, but at the time we are not able to put any comments on your blogs. We switched to the updated Beta version of blogspot, and didn't know that we wouldn't be able to send or receive comments from anyone who doesn't have Beta. Big bummer. But they said they are working to resolve this problem and it should be taken care of soon.

Don't give up on us! Keep checking our blog. We will keep checking yours. And hopefully we'll be able to leave comments again soon! (Or maybe you should all switch to Beta, too!)

:)

As soon as I get a chance, I'll post pictures from my family's visit and also of our house.

Love,
Lacey

Funny Pictures

2006-09-12T15:52:00.000-05:00

Taylor was being extra cute this morning, so I snapped a few pictures. He is two and a half months old now, and starting to find his hands and suck on his fingers. He is also starting to cuddle a little more and "talk" back to me. Can't believe how fast he's growing.

This picture above was taken two weeks ago. Jon put a little spike in his hair- sooo cute :)
He was looking at me like I was crazy:)

And this is Taylor actually smiling - a REAL smile, not gas! He is usually happiest right after he wakes up.

Well as for us, we are doing well. Jon started his Bible class last week - it meets on Wednesday nights. This semester his class is "Apologetics." We are also getting ready for my family to visit - my grandmother and two aunts on my dad's side are coming from New Orleans for the weekend. They are meeting Taylor for the first time - it will be a really special visit. I haven't seen them for over two years.

Today is Jon's mother's birthday, so we are going over there to spend some time with her tonight. We are still praying for the right job for Jon. I met with our friend Heather today and she helped me refine Jon's resume. Please continue to pray that the Lord will open up the right opportunity for him in His time.

Thanks for all your comments - it was really good to hear from you!

Love you all,

Lacey (and Jon and Taylor)

This is Jon.

2006-09-02T13:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it's a good thing that our lives aren't hectic and time is filled up with all sorts of important events, or we might have to find ourselves a hobby. I think I figured that I would have more time I do. It's amazing how time gets filled up in a day.

It turns out that I'm going to be starting classes at Heart of America Seminary this September. I think I'm up for the next several years to filled up with yet another thing. These classes will be good for me. I'm looking forward to the stretching and testing times that are ahead.

I've had the privilege of working at my parents' house this past week, and also next week. I'm finishing up basement stuff. I had to rip out a wall that was full of black mold, and replace it. Got to do a little concrete work, and I've got a good bit of trim work ahead of me. I purchased a DeWALT 12in Double Bevel compound miter saw off of ebay this week. I can't tell you how excited I am to receive this tool. I've been waiting and waiting to buy one. I've got some trim work to do at my house after a while, but a chop saw is just plain useful for other things as well. Cuttin' up that summer sausage nice and thin! Chop saw goes through that baby like butter. You know how it is.

These are some of the latest pictures of Taylor. We think he's going through a bit of a growth spurt. He's getting huge.

I go to work for a little while, and Lacey starts taking the infamous naked baby pictures. At least he had his loin cloth on. Lacey says he likes baths, so that a good thing. Taylor's such an awesome baby. We're blessed to have him with us. The Lord is so good.

Thanks for keep up with us on our blog. We enjoy hearing from you. If you're one of the many , apparently, that check our blog often but never leave us any comments, please take a second and do so. If you don't know what to say, I'll help you. Say, "Hi guys. We check your blog all the time. Have a nice day." Something like that would work.

Love you all.

Jon

Long Time, No Post!

2006-08-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

Pictures, finally!!! I know there are so many of you checking our blog and wondering if we were ever going to give another update. :) Taylor is napping now, so I wanted to take a few minutes and share some pictures.
As evidenced by this picture above, we are a very sleepy family now. :) The blinds were open in Taylor's room on a sunny day during nap time, and I think he didn't appreciate the extra light. Napping, napping, napping. Taylor has been sleeping for longer stretches at night (making for a happier momma)! He is also growing like crazy.

Here is our new house! Well, the front of it. We are in a townhouse/duplex. Jon picked this house for us all by himself in May - I wasn't able to come and help him look - and he did a great job!!! I love it. It is perfect for us for right now. This is our (empty) living room. This picture was taken back in May when Jon first looked at the house. The half-wall you see across the room is hiding the staircase which leads down to our front door and lower level. Since May, the entire upper level was recarpeted in light tan carpet. We will post new pictures of our place once we get a little more settled and there aren't boxes and packing trash scattered around. :)

Jon was sick with a sinus cold last week, but was able to get rid of it in a few days with Sudafed. I caught the cold, but have been down for almost a week now because I can't take medication for it (since I'm nursing). So I've been trying to sleep as late as I can in the mornings and take vitamins to help my immune system - seems like I'm starting to get better now. I lost my voice, but it's coming back a little.

We have enjoyed getting back into our old church again. Jon has been given an awesome opportunity to run games and help with the program for a new Saturday-evening teen Bible study for the church. That will be starting in the beginning of Fall, so we are looking forward to it. I will attend and help Jon as much as I can, but the evenings tend to be Taylors hungry/fussy time, so we'll see how this goes. :) I want to at least get to know the teen girls and be able to talk with them. We are anxious to see what kind of doors the Lord will open for us.

We're also looking forward to a visit from Beth and BJ on Thursday!!! They were two of our "Campus Kids" while we were on staff at Northland, and are now dating :) :) :). They are special to us, and have kept in touch. Well, BETH has kept in touch. BJ is in lala land, I think. Anyways, they are driving down here from Iowa for the evening to see us and meet Taylor and have dinner. That will be fun! Also, my grandmother and two aunts (on my dad's side of the family) are coming for a visit from New Orleans next month - can't wait! This will be the first time they meet Taylor, too. My dad passed away a few years ago, so it is special to all of us that Taylor seems to have inherited his dimpled chin.
Here is a picture of Jon's parents with Taylor taken yesterday. Well, the baby has slept just long enough for me to finish this blog - he's starting to get hungry again. Better wrap this up.

A lot of people have told me over these past two weeks that they check our blog regularly, and I didn't even know it! If you are keeping up with our site, please drop us a note every now and then (push the "comments" link under this post, below). We really like hearing from you. With the busy schedules and long distances, this site is often our only way of keeping in touch with a lot of you. So, we hope to hear from you!!! (hint, hint)

With love,
Lacey (and Jon and Taylor)

We are still alive

2006-08-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that we did make it alive and well. We crammed a 7 hour trip to Lafayette into 13 for Kevin and Heather Burrill's wedding. (It was beautiful! Have fun in the Canadian Rockies!) Then we crammed another 7 hour trip to Kansas City into 13 and pulled up to our new house and 7:30 pm. Sunday.

I'm currently picking up a wireless connection from somebody, but we don't know who yet. So, we try to get on and check our email and get off. Hopefully we'll be legit here after a while. Thank's for all your prayers. We'll send pictures when we figure out what to do with all these boxes.

Love you all.

Jon and Lacey

Packed

2006-08-03T18:54:00.000-05:00

Well, thanks to Jarred Hallman, I was able to get the truck without paying for it. Actually, Jarred helped me get it, he had nothing to do with the fact that I took it without paying for it.

With Jarred's and Steve Sauer's help, we had the little beauty pert near all packed up by 11:30. Pastor Williams and Joel and Joy Piscina came over to help as well as Rebecca, Jarred's wife. John and Abbey Harder came over late this afternoon and graciously cleaned our cupboards and packed up more of the odds and ends for us. Roy Witherrrrrite (don't remember how to spell his name) helped me repack the back of the truck into a more concise arrangement. Taylor finally fell asleep, so he and Lacey are getting some much needed rest. There's a few things left that I'll have to throw somewhere in the morning, but other than that, we're good to go.

I'm not sure when we'll have internet again. We'll be able to check from time to time at my parents' house, so we should be able to keep in touch relatively often. Thanks to all of you who helped, and all of you who wanted to help, but didn't know we were moving or we got it packed to fast or you threw your back out brushing your teeth and couldn't or whatever. We love you all! (assuming some stranger isn't reading this)

Jon (and Lacey)

Our New Coffee Table

2006-08-02T18:33:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd let you all know that I finished our new coffee table. Almost. I haven't finished the legs yet, but I'm pretty proud of the top! I think it looks sweet! More importantly, Lacey really likes it.

Well, there she is. It'll look even better when I get the legs stained.

I'll be taking orders next week. Please allow 12 months for completion due to infant labor laws.

Thank you.

Jon

Two Days to Go!

2006-07-31T10:31:00.000-05:00

(The date at the top is wrong... not sure why... but today is Wed. August 2nd)

Only two days left before we drive our moving truck away from Northland. This is a bittersweet time for us. We have loved being back up here in Wisconsin! We'll miss our church, our friends, our workplaces. But at the same time we are so ready to be in Missouri again. Boxes are everywhere and we are living on paper plates and plastic forks right now. Can't wait to get unpacked and settled for good!

We must be kicking up some dust with all the packing and sorting - caught this picture of Taylor sneezing! :)

Jon and Taylor having some Father-Son bonding time over a game of "Worms Armageddon."

My mom was able to be here for two and a half weeks, and she packed up the kitchen and almost all of our loose belongings for us. Here she is with the baby. She flew back to Hawaii this morning.

Yesterday was Jon's official last day of work! We are down to the nitty gritty now. Our friend Jarred is going to help Jon pick up the moving truck tomorrow morning, and they will load all the furniture and packed boxes into it. I think once all of that bulky stuff is out of the way, I will be able to see the little stuff that is left and get it all packed and ready - right now the tangle of boxes is overwhelming and I can't wrap my brain around the task of packing. Abbey and John Harder are also driving up here tomorrow evening to help us clean the apartment and do last minute stuff. We have had a lot of help, and I'm so thankful! My mom did so much while she was here, and with Jarred, Abbey, and John helping us, a huge load is lifted. I haven't been able to do much of anything except take care of Taylor and take an occasional shower. :)

I learned an interesting fact this week. If you don't successfully burp a baby after he eats, he will, without fail, throw up the entire contents of his tummy exactly 30 seconds after you get him settled into his crib. However, if you do successfully burp the baby, he will only spit up half the contents of his meal onto his new outfit. Interesting....

Well, I wanted to put a picture on here of our new house, but the internet won't let me for some reason tonight. I'll try again some other time. This is probably our last post until we get settled in our new place! Pray for us as we travel and try to get settled. We love you all!
-Lacey

All Three Of Us!

2006-07-26T19:23:00.000-05:00

We tried to take a picture of ourselves, but it didn't turn out very well. Oh well. At least you can see all three of us together finally! Taylor wasn't too happy about the photo shoot, as you can see. :) Hopefully we can get a better picture sometime.

Taylor is rather fond of his daddy's thumb. I've been trying and trying to get a clear picture of Taylor's eyes. This is as good as it gets. They are so handsome... dark ocean blue. I wonder what color they will be later???

Tomorrow (thursday) he'll be three weeks old already. Wow! Many people have asked me what the biggest adjustment has been since he's been born. I usually say sleep :) and honestly, that has been a huge adjustment. (Carissa told me the other day that you can't die from lack of sleep - that's probably one the most encouraging things I've been told all month!) But the biggest adjustment for me has been that my ENTIRE day is wrapped up in the baby. Somewhere in my mind I must have been thinking that life would be somewhat normal with a baby added and that things would come easy. I must have been thinking that he would fall into a 3-hour feeding schedule naturally and that I would have energy and be able to run errands and cook and clean and be social. Ha! I'm learning. My friends with children are laughing at me now.

But look at that cute face! Being a parent is amazing. Jon and I are really enjoying everything about it. Even when the baby is crying we get a good laugh at his funny expressions and noises. It's hard to believe that this bundle of personality was living inside of me.

Well, this week my mom has been helping us by packing up books and pictures and kitchen stuff. We leave WI next week! Time has flown. It will be so nice to get settled into our new house. Please be praying for the Lord to provide Jon with the right job when we get there.

Hope you all are having a good week!

-Lacey

Thoughts from the Mushbrain

2006-07-21T11:42:00.000-05:00

Momma Mushbrain is my official new alias. I no longer possess enough brain cells to use my cell phone. My poor friend Carissa has been waiting for me to call her so she can come see the baby. Carissa, it's useless. Girl, you just stop by whenever you want because everytime I go to pick up the phone something happens. Like I fall asleep while trying to dial a number. :)

Many of you have called, emailed, or left a comment asking if Jon's eye is okay. His eye is unharmed and working just fine, praise the Lord! In the picture that he put on our blog below you only see a little tar, but from what I understand there was tar all over his face. The Lord was protecting Jon, because in a flash he could have been blinded permanently. We are so thankful for his eyesight. We have been able to laugh about it now. He looked like he was wearing mascara when he came home! :)

Here is a picture I snapped of my two men napping.

I am officially outnumbered now. Double the burping and other misc. bodily functions. :) But I love them both with all my heart. It is so fun to have a little boy. Jon and I have always wanted to have a boy first, so it was a special blessing to us when we found out that we were having a son.

Well, I still don't have a picture of all three of us yet. This is because I take most of the pictures :) but also becuase I look like a zombie and am not wanting my picture given to the public yet. But we will take one soon.

Love you all,
Lacey

2 Weeks Old!

2006-07-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well the time has really been flying by. At least during the day it flies by. During the night when we are up with him, not so much. :) We have been enjoying taking pictures of his many faces and moods. Taylor has already changed so much - he gained 2 pounds over these past two weeks! Here are a few pictures we thought you all would enjoy:

I must have been talking too loud while he was trying to nap! :)

A word about tar

2006-07-19T07:35:00.000-05:00

A few life lessons for you.

1. Don't look down the end of a caulk gun when you're squeezing the trigger. If it's not coming out, you don't know when it'll pop out all of a sudden.

2. Don't look down the end of a caulk gun, especially when you have a tube of roofing tar in it. Tar doesn't feel good in the eyes.

3. Don't use paint thinner to get tar out of your eyes. Tar burns, but thinner burns worse.

4. Your basic opthamologist doesn't know how to get tar off of your eyelids either. (but your Avon lady does!)

5. The chemicals that women use to get makeup off of their face actually will remove tar. Someone suggested Skin So Soft bath oil (Avon product) . . . that baby cut right through the tar and took it off. It's a little easier on the eye too. :)

This picture is after many chemicals and wipes had been tried and most of the tar had been removed. Nobody really wanted to try to get it off of my eyelids.

I think the general principle of safety first would apply here. So, if you do get the urge to shoot tar in your eye, Skin So Soft bath oil should take it off.

Just in case you were wondering.

Jon

Need . . . more . . . sleep!!!! Can't . . . go . . . much . . . furth . . .

2006-07-17T22:15:00.000-05:00

Well, we're about a week and a half in. The Lord has truly blessed us with the best baby in the world. I have the most awesome wife in the world who is doing most of the work. Lacey, slowly but surely, is getting healed up. Still trying to work out the whole getting ready and doing stuff amidst feeding the baby every couple hours. She's doing a great job. We appreciate your prayers for us. Maybe someday we'll get a couple minute video on here of the 37,000 and 1 faces that Taylor goes through as he's falling asleep and dreaming about whatever it is 1 week olds dream about.

Here's a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I don't know where he get's the lips from. 3rd cousins or something.

We were all roasting in the apartment, so Taylor had to get a little more comfortable. Right now he's an outie, but we're still working on the cord.

We'll send more in the future.

Love you all,

Jon (and Lacey)

I'm One Week Old Today!

2006-07-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures that I took of Taylor this morning. He is one week old already - wow! Needless to say, the week has been a blur. This time last Thursday I was being sent to the hospital with hopes of going back home after the test. God had different plans!

Just about everyone who has seen Taylor has said that he has my (Lacey's) nose and Jon's eyes/brows/forehead. It's a little hard for me to tell who he looks like. I do know that he has Jon's feet. :) What do you all think?