Today's Coffee: Counterculture - Iridescent - pour over

     Enough with the promises of "I'll do better this year." I'm not a great blogger. I'm not great at stopping and collecting pictures and uploading them and then trying to have something witty and cute to say about our lives. What I can say though is that when something huge happens in our lives, I do feel enough guilt that I will sit down and write a post. And so, without further ado - something huge has happened to the Russells...

     We have moved back to South Carolina! Thomas is now organist at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia. This is very exciting because we are now much much closer to our families! It was hard to say goodbye to the friends we made in Nashville, but we will stay in touch. The Lord has been good to us, giving us much more than we could ever deserve and we will continue to glorify His name.

     It is hard to know what to type about in a blog. I never want to share too much info about our family, but I do want our friends and family to stay informed on the interesting aspects of our life... so I could talk about what it's like to have 3 kids. That's pretty amazing. I mean, Thomas and I are super tired all the time, drink coffee like fanatics, and have harmonized all the songs that you could possibly sing to children. I could talk about deciding to homeschool W this academic year through preschool. Maybe some insight to our coffee obsession and how it has transformed into a morning ritual (lasting many too many minutes) that we now rely on. Resolutions? How I want to read more, be more diligent about daily violin practice, or my desire to just be better in general? My kids and how W is almost 5 (?!?) years old, M is 2, and T is almost 9 months. How I already miss those funny little stone walls that were everywhere in Nashville, but how excited I am that in Columbia, you can buy wine in grocery stores?

     Well, all those things are true. But I can't talk about them. Because I'm not a great blogger and I don't know how to expound upon those things. So, with that said, here's a picture of the kids from Christmas Eve:

     And a couple of pics from earlier this year:

     So, there it is. Hopefully I'll blog more. Guess we just have to wait for more exciting things to happen...?

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: no coffee currently

Kids hanging out in the office. 

This post is mostly pictures again. I haven't updated this since May so some of these are several months old. In other news, I am 14 weeks pregnant. Yes, Russell #3 will be making her (or his?) appearance in late April. We are very excited, but this has been truly the worst first trimester ever. I lost 13lbs but am finally coming out of it now. Still cannot stand coffee or the smell of it, but hopefully that will change soon as well. So, the blog posts won't be telling you what I'm drinking in the morning. It's a terrible ginger/mint tea. Supposed to help, maybe it does, maybe not. 

Enjoy the pics.

My men about to cook for me. 

Swings!

She loves this elmo toy!

More swings at the zoo!

When I mow the lawn, I do it in shapes. This is a spiral. I started in the middle of the yard and from certain vantage points it looked like a crop circle. (too many x-files!)

I was watching a beach wedding at Folly. I also sang all the wedding-appropriate songs since they didn't have music. 

Our narwhal we built at the beach.

harvest of green beans and carrots from our garden

she loves camping!

since I haven't updated this since May, I never showed everyone her July 4th outfit!

This green dish had a mirror in the bottom of it and she would slowly lean over and get closer to it until she had fully lowered her head in it.

This is the most recent pic. That's a zamboni behind them.

at the Devil's Kitchen

Our little advocate for handbell choir!

Puppet shows!

M is doing a lot of standing and even took her first steps last week. (not holding anything)

This is just a cool picture. These are some of the guys from Fisk stomping on bad trombone pipes!

Ok, that's it for now. The never ending laundry cycle is calling my name. I'll try to be better about posting!

Julie

Today's Coffee: 2 French Presses of Jamaica Blue Mountain

Pictures again. Few words. 

W loves playing with M-girl. She loves him too!

Right after M-girl rolled over for the... 9th time. 

At a friend's wedding - a bridesmaid and a groomsman/organist 

I love these short stumpy goats at the zoo. I really think we need one as a pet. Bad idea?

Easter. 

W and T camped in our backyard last week. Here is W wrestling one of the sleeping pads. 

Our garden! Carrots, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers! 

W and I walking in to church to work/teach last week. He brought his helicopter. 

W saved up his quarters (from doing jobs around the house/yard) so that he could go see the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. Well, he ended up with the $3 necessary to buy his ticket and we made it... maybe 4 dinos in before we came to the ones that sprayed water at you. W lost it and jumped in my arms. He was terrified. 

A happy little girl!

W next to our peonies! 

Anyways, that's just a glimpse. 

OH!

I forgot - check out our church's new ministry:

Covenant Conservatory

Covenant Conservatory

Check out what T and I are doing at Covenant Pres. We're pretty excited about it. 

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Fair Trade something or other

Believe it or not, I don't have a lot of time anymore!

So, here's a few pictures of our household over the past several months. 

(Sorry I'm not more consistent!)

my guys - with monkeys in the background

early on saturday morning before a best friend's wedding. I was so excited about my hair, that yes, I took a picture and sent it to friends as proof. 

M-girl was baptized in March. Here she is wearing a dress that was made for her by a sweet friend, with W, and Poppi. 

Sometimes, M-girl is not always photogenic. This is one such instance. :)

Tummy time isn't a lot of fun. But, we gotta do it. Needless to say, she fell asleep on her tummy not 10 minutes later. 

Sometimes she is just so cute! Look at the romper. THIS picture captures M-girl perfectly.

Skirts. I don't like wearing them - but goodness - look at a skirt on a baby girl. PRESH!
(and chunky legs)
(my heart melts)

garden is started

Uncle Matt came and visited! W loves him so much. Even as I type this, W is reminding me how he and Uncle Matt threw rocks in the creek.

Our little family on the Duck River off the Natchez Trace.

Today's Coffee: Fair Trade Medium Roast

Hurry! My children are napping!

Write a blog post!

Ok, here we are. M-girl is 2 months old. Super healthy, gaining weight, wakes up once a night (occasionally)(she slept til 5am 4 nights in a row, now we are back to waking up every 3 hours). She is just beautiful, and is smiling so much these days. W is great with her - a little rough, but he's trying to be helpful. 

W turns 3 at the end of this month! What?! I know, right? 

There are days I don't feel old enough to be driving, let alone have children. So, there's that. 

It is still cold here. Not snowing or anything, but cold, and mostly gray. Today it is sunny. Still cold though. 

This is what it reminds me of:

**There is a cuss word at 1'04"**

I've started going to hot yoga several days a week. Loving it so far. Especially when it is in the teens outside, nothing like crankin' it up in a room heated to 100F. 

Keeping M-girl warm and cozy in her carseat!

Thomas went to a conference in January, and I decided to re-do our guest room. We never liked the color so W, M-girl, and I went to Home Depot and chose a new color 'Down Pour'. We (mostly me, but W 'helped') painted the walls...

And I hung beautiful dark purple curtains, hung these pictures that Seth took, hung some decorative mirrors and bought this lamp. Needless to say, we love it. 

I love my little kids! Who am I kidding? - Wilson is such a big boy!

We are currently doing some potty training work. And yes, it's work. 

It's hard work. 

In other news, we are going to be playing in BACHanalia - a 6 hour long concert of everything by many choirs and instrumental groups - all things Bach. :)

Look at this smile! My heart melts!

I've challenged myself to read a new book each month, and January (thru March) are The Lord of the Rings. I finished The Fellowship on Feb. 1 and am now reading The Two Towers.
Uhm, amazing!
Tom Bombadil, am I right?

Well, that's all I can type right now. Children are out cold so I'm going to grab a cupcake and do some chores. 

In Christ,

Julie