October 2009

The last few months have gone by so fast! Having two little girls is so much fun but the days are non-stop!! Basketball practice started officially on October 15th so Jonathan's schedule has gotten more hectic recently. We are adjusting to our new home and being back in Columbus. Anna LOVES her preschool and goes two mornings a week. It gives me a little extra time with Emma and time to work on my online classes (also a chance to go jogging with only the single stroller two days a week). Anna is really into playing pretend these days. It's quite entertaining to watch and often she wants her daddy and I to play right along with her pretend friends. Of course we join right in! Emma is such a blessing! She is a very happy and content baby. Thankfully she is ok with just going with the flow. I drag her around with me on all my errands, jogging, chasing Anna around, etc. and she doesn't seem to mind at all. She's so cute, I could just eat her up--she's a doll. Anna loves her too and thankfully is really sweet to her and not showing much jealously even up to this point. We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy family! Our sweet little pumpkin, Emma (4 months).
Anna dressed as Snow White; not the best picture of Emma but the only one I got with Anna smiling.
Sweet sisters!
Jonathan loving on his baby girls. He is such a sweet daddy and takes every moment he can to love on these two!! This one was not on Halloween but Anna loves to dress up like a princess :) we think she makes a beautiful one!
A rare picture of me with my babies!

Anna's 3rd Birthday

I'm trying to play catch up a little with my blog. Anna's 3rd birthday was on September 20th. She had a princess birthday party this year (that she'd been planning since last year)! We rented an inflatable for her and her friends to jump in. The origninal plan was to have her party at our house but there was rain that weekend so we ended up having it at CSU upstairs in the basketball gym. It really worked out great and since Jonathan ended up having a stomach virus that same day it was ideal not to have everyone at our house. The one glitch was that the blow up we rented was supposed to be princess but the company gave us the wrong one. We were all disappointed at first but it didn't stop Anna and her friends from jumping their little hearts out! I still can't believe how fast three years has flown by with her. She is a beautiful little girl but not so little anymore. I don't know where she gets her height but she looks more like a 4 or 5 year old. She's already outgrowing the new fall/winter tops I bought her. Not b/c she's big around but b/c she's so long in the waist. I guess if she keeps her height she'll make a great basketball player at some point :)

Anna with her cousin Sarah and a couple of friends who came to her party.

Anna (sweaty after jumping) in front of her cake.

Our sweet little angel. This was the morning of her birthday party at her pre-school.

Meet Emma!

Our sweet little Emma Kate Norton was born June 29, 2009. I'm finally getting around to posting a slide show of her. I will have to post new pictures soon since she's already 5 weeks old and of course already changing so much. She has dark hair and blue eyes and we aren't sure who she looks like yet. Anna had dark hair as a baby too so we're thinking there's a good chance she'll be blond like her sister!

Tyler Jacob Miller born June 3, 2009

My brother and his wife Abby welcomed their sweet baby Tyler on June 3rd. Jonathan and I were able to take Anna to the hospital to see him the day he was born. She was very excited about holding him; great practice for her new sister! He is adorable and we are so thrilled about our sweet little nephew!!

Creative Discovery Museum

We took Anna to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, TN a few weeks ago. We all had a really fun time! Anna's favorite part was the water play area. We went back to it several times while we were there. The pictures show all of the other fun areas we got to play in as well!

Pictures of Jonathan's Press Conference

The proud new coach of the CSU Lady Cougars!
Jonathan and his close friend (now boss/athletic director), Jay Sparks. Coach Sparks started the women's basketball program at Columbus State and was the coach for 20 years. Jonathan worked for him as an assistant for 7 years.

Our sweet little family.

More family--with Jonathan's parents. They are so supportive!

It's official!!

I'm finally able to share officially that Jonathan is now the new head women's basketball coach at Columbus State University. He will finish his contract at Berry College until the end of May and then get started with his new responsibilities. We are very sad to be leaving Rome. We've made some really sweet friends here, love our church and our home, my job, Berry College, Anna's pre-school, etc. However, we have prayed about this for quite some time and know that God is leading us to Columbus. I am so thankful for God's word and the peace he has given me as Jonathan and I have been making this decision. This will be our third move together as a couple and it's always a challenge for me to get readjusted, meet new friends, settle in a church, etc. but each time we've moved the blessings just get better and better so I have no doubt that will be the case again this time. Jonathan and I both graduated from Columbus State with undergraduate and graduate degrees so we are very excited about seeing old faces and reconnecting there again. I'm very proud of Jonathan and all that he has accomplished to get to this point. There are really nice write ups on him on both Berry's website (www.berry.edu) and Columbus's website (www.colstate.edu); both are under athletics and then women's basketball. I will post pictures from his press conference soon. I wish I had a copy of the video of that. He did such a good job of speaking! Anna did great too and sat quietly during the entire speech!! We spent all day today looking at houses. I'm exhausted!! We didn't find much but crossed several areas off of our list so I guess that is progress. Please pray for us as we try to get our house sold here in Rome and find one in Columbus--preferrably quickly since we only have 10 weeks before sweet little Emma gets here (yikes!)!!