Jonathan's Three Year Old Pictures

What a wonderfully fun morning we had today. We took Jonathan's three year old pictures today with Danielle Davis. I know we are a few months late, but hey, better late than never. We heard about Danielle through a couple of friends at church. I figured if she could get all three of Tenille’s kiddos in one shot, surely she could get our one child right?!? Also, Danielle had taken such beautiful shots of Baby Kate as Jonathan calls her. They were just too precious, so we decided to give her a try.

We met Danielle downtown at the Clinton Presidential Center. They have some beautiful grounds outside. We had planned to go inside, but we never did! We got plenty of great shots outside, so we just didn’t bother going inside. Which means, of course, that we STILL have not gone inside the library. Sad, I know.

Anyway, we did a couple of fun and different things for this photo shoot that Danielle suggested. We got a huge bunch of balloons at Party City for Jonathan to pose with. Of course, in my head, I’m thinking, “we could put them behind him,” or “he can hold them in his hand.” Jonathan had much better ideas. As soon as we handed them to him, he stuck his head through the middle of the bunch and starts smiling away. Danielle immediately starts clicking away! It was just a perfect shot and so spontaneous and unscripted. Got to love when stuff like that happens!

I also bought a few pink balloons. I had been thinking of a way to remember our Gracie, and this just seemed to be the way. So we took a few pictures with our pink balloon, and then we let it go. Jonathan said that the balloon was going to Heaven to be with Gracie. What a thought right? Such a precious image to think of our little girl in Heaven holding her pink balloon. So those pictures were a little bittersweet, but I know that they will be some of my favorites as time goes on. And I’m oh so thankful that my Jonathan has such a beautiful, loving picture of Heaven and of his sister.

Jonathan has a sweater that I had bought a matching hat for. While we were in Branson over Christmas, he needed some gloves. Mark found the gloves and scarf that matched the hat and sweater. He just looks so cute wearing the hat. So, I brought them to see what Danielle could do with them. Unfortunately, the sweater is still waaayyy too big. So, we ended up just putting him in a long sleeve shirt with the hat and scarf. This may be my new favorite picture of Jonathan. I just love the expression that she caught on his face. I mean, I know he is cute, but these eyes! And you wonder why he is spoiled! I mean, seriously! Look at him!!

The other thing we brought was his bicycle. Of course, that was probably more work for her as she chased him all over the place, but I’m sure she got some good shots on there too. She didn’t send us a sneak peek of that, but they looked cute while she was taking them!

Danielle spent a good hour and a half with us snapping away. I can’t wait to see the rest of the shots. Check out her website at danielledavisart.com and danielledavisart.com/blog. See Feb. 9th for Baby Kate’s pics and Nov. 20th for the Rauls’ three kiddos.

After the photo shoot, we decided to eat downtown. We saw a new restaurant that we decided to try. The funny thing was, once we got inside, we realized that we knew this place! It is one of our favorite restaurants that used to be in Benton (suburb of LR). They had moved to downtown LR and changed their name a little. Pretty much the same menu though. They have the BEST chicken spaghetti, oh my goodness! I am just so Southern, I can’t help myself but order it every time we go. Mark got a feta and pesto burger that he said was delicious. We got Jonathan cheese ravioli with marinara sauce and told him it was spaghetti. If you tell that child that something is spaghetti and it has red sauce on it, he will eat it! He absolutely loves him some spaghetti. So, lasagna, ravioli, and anything else we can think of is spaghetti. But, of course, not chicken spaghetti, because that doesn’t have red sauce!!

We came home and had a great nap. Just got to love Saturdays like this. Tomorrow, we are going to church and then going to Katie’s 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Jonathan is very excited, 1 to be with Katie & Megan, and 2 to go to CEC. He LOVES to play all the games there. Could care less about eating and even less about the big mouse, but loves the games. He is just starting to realize that the tickets from the games = prizes (candy, toys) when we leave. So, we are excited to go play with our good friends tomorrow. Of course, it seems like just yesterday that Katie was born. We had just started going to Immanuel and to the Hooten Sunday School class when Cliff and Karen announced they were pregnant. And it was right after Katie was born that Karen and I started hanging out and shopping together. Here we are six years, and another two kids later! And what a blessing the McKinney’s have been to our family. There was many a day that I have hated living in LR. But good friends, Christian friends, like Karen and Cliff have helped make this our home. Funny how things work like that, isn't it!

So, I know I skipped a good two months between Christmas and my last post about Jonathan’s doctor’s appointment. Then continued to move forward with this one! I promise that I will try to go back and write something about January and early February. This year just seemed to have FLOWN by already and I am waaayyy behind with just about everything already.

This week has been hard, very hard, so we are just so thankful for a happy weekend. A nice time to just relax some and spend time together doing something different, something fun, something happy. A time to remember the most wonderful gifts that God has given us and to say thank you.

Thanks for checking in on us! May God bless you and your family now and always.