Braelyn making a fashion statement

Hey everyone! Happy February! We find out next Monday where we will be going for residency, so stayed tuned. So, first of all, Braelyn would like to thank all her wonderful friends and family who buy her super cute clothes!














So, thanks Steph for my onesie and Aunt Laura for my stylin' pants!
My cute toboggan came from the other Jones' in Middle TN. Mommy just wanted to dress me up for fun. I think I look ghettofabulous, just chillin'. Oh, and I'm a drool queen now. Notice the big wet spot on my shirt :). Braelyn also loved looking at these pants, she loved the pattern.



















Thanks again to Aunt Laura for this adorable little outfit. She got lots of compliments on it. And she has just enough little strands of hair to hold a little bow.

















I love my Daddy! Can you tell?

















































Mamaw came up to visit me for a few days last week. We had so much fun. We always love to have visitors. Braelyn also had a yucky eye in this picture, but praise the Lord, it is making great improvement.



















One happy family! Braelyn is now 4 and 1/2 months old. She is "talking" a lot more and smiles all the time! She is such a good baby. Just give her anything to chew on and she is happy. She just figured out how to suck on her bottom lip and make silly noises the other day.

Hope everyone is doing well. Aaron is doing anesthesiology for the next couple of weeks, then urology for the last two weeks of Feb. I am still trying to get our house, well, mainly Braelyn's baby stuff organized and pictures caught up on. I am also trying new recipes. Tonight we are having soup beans....Paula Dean's recipe.....and cornbread. I'm not so sure how they will turn out, but hopefully it will be good. I'm doing MOPS twice a month and love it, and my girls bible study weekly. I sure will miss these great times of fellowship when we move, but I'm sure God will have more in store wherever we go.
Hope everyone has a good week!

A little something to think about...

Hello everyone, well another one of my goals is to use this blog for more than just picture posting. I would like to also include random things that God brings along my path, whether it's quotes, verses, or sermons or whatever! And then share those things with you all in hopes that God will use them to encourage or challenge you in your daily walk with Him. So......first of all, I have been wanting to share a quote that I heard from one of Aaron's dad's sermons on redeeming your time. I have a copy of it on DVD, so if anyone would like to borrow it, just ask. You can also hear or watch a lot of his other sermons on their church's website. www.fbcpowell.org I think that is the link. Another one of our favorite preachers is John Piper and he has his own website called Desiring God. His website is our home page and there are always great things to read on it that change from day to day. You should check it out. www.desiringgod.org

So, first of all, the quote that I am a big fan of is.....

"There is enough time in everyday to do gracefully everything God wants you to do."
- Adrian Rogers

And I feel like God gave me a verse that goes along with this quote:
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that ALWAYS having ALL SUFFICIENCY in EVERYTHING, you may have an abundance for every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8

Isn't that so GREAT?! What an amazing promise from God. I am going to try and memorize this verse. Oh and the other thing I just read and wanted to pass along comes from John Piper's website. I copied this from the website, so I hope it works when you click on it. Let me know what you think about it. Have a good rest of the week.

This Week's Taste & See

The President, the Passengers, and the Patience of God

January 21, 2009

What does the USAir crash have to do with the inauguration?

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Four months old!

We were so excited to have family come and visit this weekend. We got to meet Joanna, Daniel's fiance. They are getting married August 1st! And we got to meed Becky, Clint's girlfriend. We had fun getting to know each of them better. Caryss and Gavin enjoyed bringing all of Braelyn's toys into her activity gym and then proceeded to cover her up with all her blankets and burpclothes. She was pretty entertained and very warm :). We enjoyed getting to hang out with Sarah and Martin for the rest of the weekend. It's so nice to spend time with family! Thanks everyone for making the trip to come and visit!









I still haven't quite figured out how to upload pictures and put the captions around them appropriately....because I like to type while the pictures are uploading, which gets it all out of order so I hope you can figure it all out :) I LOVE the pictures of her sleeping! Doesn't she look so cute and peaceful? I decided to put a hat on her because it was only about 8 degrees outside that day.








Yes, it's hard to believe, but Braelyn is four months old as of yesterday! She is growing so much and I just love it when she smiles. What a blessing she is. So I'm hoping to post a few pics of her....

We have decided our top choices for residency. First, Bristol, then Knoxville, and then Spartanburg. We will find out Feb 9th for sure if we get Bristol or something else. We had so much fun this past weekend when Aaron's family came to visit. I will be posting pics of that too. Oh, and the pink dress was a Christmas present from Uncle Clint..... didn't he do good? Thanks Uncle Clint! The other dress is from Aunt Carla and the hat actually goes to a different dress that Aunt Sarah & Uncle Martin got her! She is so blessed to have so many people who have given her super cute outfits! We really appreciate them all :) So we got a little snow today, not much really, but it was pretty to look at this morning.

Our sweet Braelyn Evangelee

So, I'm learning how to upload videos :), which means that hopefully there will be more videos to come! While I'm waiting for the video to upload I will update everyone on the Jones'. Lets see..... Aaron finished his first week back in rotations. He is doing orthopedic surgery this month. He thinks it is really interesting, but is certain that he does not want to be an orthopedic surgeon. I enjoyed my first week as a "stay at home" mom it feels like. We have been traveling so much since Braelyn was, born that I have yet to establish or learn what it's like to just be at home with her. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful that we were able to go to TN for a month and then be with family through the holidays, but it is also nice to get back into our own routine. One of my goals is to plan out meals for the week and try new recipes. I enjoy having good food to eat around the house and healthy too. I find it a lot more enjoyable to plan the whole week and shop all at once. Braelyn started herself on a new routine yesterday. She went from 6 feedings to 5 feedings and she went to bed at about 7 PM, woke up to eat at 9:30 PM and then slept until 8:00 AM this morning!!! Woohoo! I did have to get up twice to put her pacifier back in, but she went back to sleep both times. This is the latest she has slept in the morning and it was the earliest "late feeding " I had given her. So Aaron and I went to bed at 10:30 last night! And we were both very excited about it. I'm not sure what she will do tonight....I'm still not sure what her "bedtime" is. But I'm learning not to stress about it all and just pray for wisdom each day. Something God showed me the other day while I was reading something........it was talking about trusting God and God brought the verses in James to my mind about asking for wisdom and BELIEVING that God will give it to you....not doubting after you ask Him. And God just gave me a new confidence in trusting that He WILL give us wisdom about all these details of caring for and raising Braelyn. And I was convicted about praying for this wisdom and then not really expecting or recognizing that God was giving it. It's not always super clear, but I am learning to trust Him more. So...this video upload takes a long time apparently :) We made some progress on getting our house ready to sell today. We painted the front & back door and garage door. We are planning on cleaning our carpets on Mon & Tues. We are really excited to have family coming to visit us this weekend. Aaron's parents, Laura and Caryss & Gavin, and Sarah and Martin are coming too. Maybe even Daniel and Joanna, and possibly Clint! It will be a family reunion at the Jones' in Virginia!! I always enjoy having our families come and visit. Well, enough rambling for now. I plan on posting some more pics soon. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Catching up on pictures

I realize these pictures are very sporadic and out of order, but that's what happens when you wait so long to update. Enjoy...........
So, this is a picture after we were back home after Christmas. Braelyn really likes her ball that Colton and Jackson got her. She likes to try to eat it and starts yelling when it won't fit in her mouth. I just thought it was cute how she fell asleep holding it. :)
This is a best friends reunion...me and alicia with her little boy Tyler....wish we could see each other more often
Braelyn on New Years Day! Happy New Year!
These faces are priceless! Braelyn and Mattie had a playdate at Granny & Pop's. Some day they will have a lot of fun playing together.
This is our annual brother/sister picture we take. It is amazing how much our family grew this year....so many blessings. And there is another one on the way (Carla is expecting in April, another boy!!) Scott might need to pull up a chair or couch next year.
So, we had a tough time getting all the grandkids to look at the camera. Colton was half asleep, Jackson was upset for some reason, Mattie was really excited, and Braelyn was just taking it all in. Those boys love their little cousins :)
This picture went a bit better :) Caryss and Gavin are so sweet with Braelyn. Gavin wanted to hold her after Caryss did and while he was holding her she started to fall over and Gavin said "Baby falling over" AKA "help somebody!". It was cute.


A family picture taken at Arby's while we were hanging out with Steph Osborne. To the right we have Mattie, my niece, and Handy Manny. I just lover her face! Then we have another family picture of "our" Christmas in Virginia...it was short and sweet.



Thanksgiving at my Pop & Granny's. From left to right....Jackson, Braelyn, Colton(so sweet), and Mattie
This is a pic of Braelyn on her 3 month old birthday! She really likes her bouncy seat now and can grab hold of things and likes to hit them and make lots of noise!
The sweetest picture of Braelyn in her Daddy's lap. She loves her Daddy so much.
I just think this is a funny face. She really is Mommy's little joy ;)

Our Very Merry Christmas!

We are finally back home after our week long celebration of Christmas with family. We celebrated our first Christmas with Braelyn the Sunday before Christmas and then headed to TN on Tuesday. We had our "Ervin" Christmas at my Mom's house Tuesday night and then did Christmas Eve with the Jones' and Christmas Day with the Disneys and the Hastys. Then we traveled to Middle TN to do have Christmas with my grandparents and some more Hastys. I believe there were 53 people there in my Pop & Granny's house!! It was the first time in a long time that all of our family was able to be there. Christmas was so sweet this year with our very special gift of our new little girl. We praise and thank the Lord for her. And we also praise Him for the gift of our new little niece, Mattie Michelle. She is 7 months old now and so cute! And we are awaiting the arrival of another addition to our family...my sister is pregnant with her third boy and due April 28th. We look forward to teaching Braelyn all about why we really celebrate Christmas. It seems so easy to get distracted with all the gift buying and preparations for all the activities surrounding Christmas. Aaron and I purchased a book "God's gift of Christmas" by John MacArthur and hope to make it a tradition to read together as a family each year.

So now we are back in Va and getting ready to make a decision about residency. Please say a prayer for God to give us wisdom and guidance and peace about where to go. We are choosing between Bristol, Knoxville, and Spartanburg, SC. We have to turn in our choices by Jan 23rd. Also, we are getting our house ready to sell. Please pray that God would give us wisdom in selling our house. We trust that He will provide someone to buy it in His timing. We should find out where we will be going for residency by February 15th.

I will be posting Christmas pics soon. I was so excited to find this new blog background. Oh, and everyone be sure to mark your calendars for May 30th.....Aaron's Med school graduation!!! There will be a party :) Happy New Year!

New Video of Our Happy Baby!!!

Oh were has the time gone!

Well, time has been flying. We went for Braelyn's 2 month appt. today and she weighs a whole 10 lbs 2 oz! that pretty good since she was 6 lbs 1 oz at birth. She's also grown a little over 2 inches, and is now 22.5 inches long. She's a great baby. She even slept through the night last night for the 1st time!!! We've been busy with family visiting and these past 4 weeks we "moved" to Tennessee for my rotation in Bristol and Sonya stayed with her parents in Dandridge. We had a lot of fun seeing family and friends. Thanks to everyone who visited us and for everyone who made us some DELICIOUS meals! Here's a few pics to update what's beeng going on.
Halloween with Mamaw and the cousins and Aunt Carla
Braelyn with cousin Caryss and Gavin
Braelyn with her HOT mom!
Braelyn trying to eat my face! She's so cute!
She's starting to smile at us, especially in the mornings. She is just SO beautiful!
Mamaw and all the grandkids: Colton, Jackson, Mattie, and Braelyn
Always striking that cute baby pose!

Braelyn Video