Maddox's Baby Dedication

On Sunday, February 23, 2014 we dedicated Maddox Knight Dupree in front of our family, friends and church family at Four Points Church!  This is a very special day for us because it is Josh and I publicly proclaiming that we will raise the children that the Lord blesses us with in His name and in His Word.  It is us, as parents, saying that we will do everything to honor Jesus as we raise Maddox (and our other 3 kids that have all been dedicated) and we will pray for him to know Jesus as his personal Savior and to have a personal relationship with Him.  It was a great day and we are beyond blessed to share it with our families!

 After the church service we had our family over for lunch to celebrate with us :-)

 Kyle, Kensi and Mom

 Grandpa and Maddox Man (he was 3 month old)

 Grandma, Aunt Em and Melissa playing with the kids on the treehouse and swings

 Our kids love to have picnics!

 Melissa and Kaylee girl

 Seesha and Maddox man!

 The strawberry cake I made :-)  My amazing friend Cynthia inspired me a few years ago to bake, so I always think of her when I make fancy (and labor intensive!) cakes like this!  They're not as good as hers lol ;-)

 Pappy and his personality twin, Roman

 Boys love to climb...

3 of the 6 of us!  I love Maddox man more than I could have imagined.  I prayed for a 4th baby because I still had the burning desire in my heart to have more children after I had Say girl.  I loved not knowing if he was a boy or a girl during my pregnancy, and ever since Josh told me, "it's a boy!!" during our homebirth, I've been more in love than ever (this is not to say that I love him any more than any of our kids!!  I love them all the same...it's just crazy how your love can grow!).  I love seeing how his little personality is developing, and how the Lord made him just as unique as the other 3.  

Being a wife to a God-fearing husband who adores and loves me like Christ loves his Church, and having the Lord bless us so that I can be a mommy to 4 beautiful children is amazing and brings me to tears and to my knees in praise to the One who made the heavens and the earth.  I feel so privileged, honored and not deserving of these precious gifts.  It is our job to stewart these gifts to glorify Jesus, the One who gave them to us ("Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17).

We take that seriously, and we are in constant prayer that our children will KNOW Jesus and have a relationship with Him and glorify Him in everything they do.  We pray for strength and endurance to parent and guide them to Jesus, and pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to them.  We cannot wait for the day that we can stand by our children as they are submerged and baptized in the water, claiming that Jesus is their Savior and they have put their faith in Him!!  I will be on my knees in thanks when all 4 of our beautiful children make that decision: the decision that is the MOST IMPORTANT decision in the entire world.  This world is harsh, constantly changing and constantly a struggle, but God is constant and doesn't change.  He is only good and hates evil. He sent His son to be crucified and take on His justified wrath on sin in our place, so he paid our debt for our sins.  It's incredible, and it's the most beautiful love story ever written.  We're undeserving, but by God's grace he gave us the gift of Jesus even while we were sinners.  

If our kids understand that, if they live for Jesus, they will have beautiful and full lives.  Nothing on this earth can take that joy away, and that is our prayer.  That is how we will raise our kids, and we need Jesus' help daily to empower us to do that!  

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."Proverbs 22:6

Maddox is 3 months!

February 9, 2014: 3 months and such a happy, smiley baby!  He loves to eat and watch his siblings run around.  He starting to reach for things and coo at us...he really has me wrapped around his finger.  Josh always laughs and tells me that I baby him way too much, but he's our 4th and may be our last, and I just want to stop time and squeeze him and soak up every baby minute with him!!  Does anyone know how to do that?!  

Those dimples and those blue eyes!  His hair all fell out and now it looks like he's going to be a blondie.  Our favorite thing to do is snuggle on the couch while the kids nap...it's my favorite time!  Resting and snuggling with a sweet baby :-)

Maddox is 2 months!

January 9, 2014 came really fast - our baby is already 2 months!  Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, family outings and get togethers, those first 2 months went by in a blink.  I must say (moms out there, don't hate me!), but he's extremely easy.  He sleeps really well and does a 6-8 hour stretch.  I don't know if it's because he's my 4th and I realize how fast he's going to grow up, but I treasure the middle of the night feedings and this precious newborn time I have with him.  It'll be gone before I know it.  

 Long baby!

 Love those dimples!

He doesn't show this face that often, but it's his "I'm worried" face.  This usually appears when Saylor appears.  Bless her heart - she's a great little mommy...a little rough, but her heart's in the right place :-)

Christmas 2014

Christmas this year was crazy, but extra special for 2 reasons: Maddox man was here and my Grandma Lucy came down from Oregon for 10 days to celebrate with us!  It was kinda a whirlwind and before I knew it Christmas was over.  A lot happened in those few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas...decorating, school performances, baking, eating, doing, doing, doing...but it was fun!

But first...here are the 2 pictures I took at Thanksgiving.  Major mom fail on this one lol!

  The 4 Dupree kids...Maddox is in a choke hold, his favorite

My two littles

Nana reading the the boys sometime in November (I can't keep up with everything...what day is it again?)

Ok, now we can start the explosion of Christmas pictures :) Unless you're family, these pictures may get boring after a while, but we are a pretty interesting and cute family, so who knows...maybe you'll scroll through all of them! ;-)

O Christmas Tree

 Last year we started a new tradition to get a real Christmas tree!  It's a lot of fun to pick out your tree (not so much fun to continuously vacuum the needles off the floor, but I'm continuously vacuuming Herschel hair off our floor too and that's all year long!).

 3 little elves

 This picture captures the chaos of our family.  Aidan is smiling, Roman is yelling, and Say is trying to squeeze herself into the excitement.  

Ta-da!

The kids started doing races where they want us to yell, "on your mark, get set, go!"

 The middles

 Decorating the kids playroom tree!

 Every year the kids get to pick out an ornament.  This year the boys picked a Lightning McQueen one and Saylor picked My Little Pony

The finished product :)

Grandma Lucy is HERE!

 Shelley with baby Maddox, and Grandma Lucy holding Kensi

 Grandma with her 5 great-grandkids here in the south! 

 Nana holding her 4th grandbaby

 This is such a cute picture!  My mom with her mom and babies everywhere :)

 The chaos at our house...we love it

 Kisses from big sister!

 My sweet little "littles"

 The older boys playing with daddy

 Me and Grandma...she's an amazing lady.  

Holding her 12th great grandchild!

Cookie Day with Grandma Lucy!

 Nana helping Rome and Say roll out their dough

 So much fun

 It takes a lot of hands and help to get 3 kids to decorate cookies!

 Love this picture!  

 Maddox man slept through most of this 

 Say LOVES cookies.  

 It never seems to bother her when she has tons of stuff all over her face :)

 Grandma and Nana relaxing after a morning of baking!

 The final product!  I must admit these sugar cookies were amazing...even with the kid germs all over them ;) My mom and Grandma are amazing cooks and bakers.  I didn't inherit that gene...poor Josh.  BUT, I'm trying lol

 I love this picture.  Grandma talking to Roman...soo sweet

 This was take 6...Say wasn't cooperating

Take 89...the best one I could get!

I am SO happy my kids got to have a memory of making Christmas cookies with Grandma Lucy.  She is the best Grandma and I have memories filled with her baking cookies with us, so it makes my heart full that my kids got to have that too.  Very thankful.

Christmas Eve

 Every year we switch on who we spend Thanksgiving/Chirstmas Eve with and who we spend Christmas Day with.  This year it fell perfect because it was a Dupree Thanksgiving/Christmas Eve so we got to spend Christmas Day with my side and Grandma Lucy.  This is our first Christmas Eve as a family of six :)

 After church service the kids wanted cookies!

 I love Say's glittery, poofy dress!

 My sweet girl...we got to stick together with all these boys around!

 Grandma and Maddox man

 This boy LOVES being a big brother to his new baby brother

 "Heres ya go"

 Playing with Aunt Em

 All of my boys have worn those cute shoes

 He looks like he's smiling!

 And the presents begin...

 Every princess needs a princess castle!

 If I could read Say's mind she'd be saying, "get off mom, I got this"

 Fancy things come in pretty boxes :)

 Like Janie & Jack swimsuits and hats!  We are READY for spring and summer! Can you tell we're warm weather girls?!

 Every Grandpa needs a machete to chop down this path in the woods :)

 My baby...my sweet, sweet baby

 Merry Christmas from the 4 Dupree kids! They all blend together!

 Nima, my soon-to-be brother-in-law, holding Maddox man

 Emily & Nima!  They're getting married July 12th, 2014.  We are so excited!

 My main squeeze.  Going on 8 years strong (11 if we're counting dating!).  I'm more in love with him now then I was in high school ;)

 Our 4th blessing.  I am so in love with this little face too!

Playing with Grandma!

Christmas Morning!

 It's crazy that we have 6 stockings this year!  I actually bought all 6 of these burlap stockings last year before we were even pregnant with Maddox...I was definitely planning ahead :)

 These gifts were from us and from Grandma Faye and Grandpa Robert.

 Hands down the best picture of all 3 of them!! They were so excited!

 Priceless.

 Every girl needs a necklace and bow!

 Josh's favorite toy the boys got...a helicopter that picks up Dusty from Planes

 Mommy & Daddy's gift to the kids...

 a TREEHOUSE PLAYSET!  They love it! Josh has big plans to add additional "treehouses" that connect and a zipline....we'll see

 This baby slept through the excitement!  He was 6 weeks and sleeping 7-8 hours a night.

 Explosion of stuff

 She may love bows and necklaces, but she's a tomboy.  Go figure.  There was no hope lol!

 Precious Romie face

 Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  JESUS is the reason for Christmas.  Not gifts, cookies or the commercialized Santa that likes to steal the spotlight.  It's all because of Jesus.  We want this ingrained in our kids mind, especially when this world is trying to take Jesus out of everything.  You can't even say Merry Christmas anymore!  It's "Happy Holidays." But in our house, it's all about Jesus.  We mess up, we sin, we make mistakes, but Praise the LORD He sent Jesus to earth to be born of the virgin Mary, live a perfect and sinless life, and then die on the cross for our sins....to take OUR place...to take on the justified wrath of God for our sins and to cleanse us so that when judgement day comes (and it comes for all of us...you die, you get judged by God, or Jesus comes back, and you get judged by God...the creator of earth and of us) so that if you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, God will look at us and see Jesus, the spotless lamb.  It may sound crazy, and if you're an unbeliever then you are probably thinking I've lost it and sound like a lunatic! But it's true.  It's the only pure and true thing in this world.  Pick up the Bible (ESV is a great version!), and study it.  Try to prove this whole Jesus thing wrong, and you'll dig into God's Word and your eyes will be opened to the amazing life Jesus has to offer you, because He loves you.  Have questions?  Read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.  He was an atheist that went out to prove this whole Jesus thing wrong, and now he's a believer that wrote a book on why he believes.  It's amazing. Ok, back to pictures :)

No words. 

Christmas Day at Mom & Dad's

 4 generations of the girls: me, Mom, Saylor, Grandma Lucy and Shelley

 4 generations! Me with my 4 kids, my mom and my mom's mom, Grandma Lucy! Grandma Lucy had 4 kids too: my Aunt Sharon, the twins (my mom and my Aunt Liz) and then my Uncle Jim...she went until she got her boy!  

 Cutie

 He loves sports...he cannot wait to play football.  

 Say with her Christmas necklace and bow!  Can you tell she's my only girl?!

 Love that smile

 The kids helping mom and dad unwrap their gift from all the kids!

 We (me, Josh, Shell & Tom) got them a Keurig!  They LOVE it!

 Mom and Dad got me and Shelley beautiful gold necklaces with one of Grandma Billie's pendants on them.  It was such a special gift.

 I'm so blessed to have my mom and sister!  We're so close now that we're all grown up, and it's so fun!

 Josh and mini Josh

 It's not Christmas if mom doesn't get perfume :)

 Uncle Tommy and Say!!  

 This is cute.  Tommy and dad looking at a plane book :)

 The cooks

 Shelley and Grandma and Mom's beautiful table.  She missed her Martha Stewart calling!

 Sacked out

 Maddox man got his blue eyes from this lady

 3 out of my 4 boys

 Pappy and his Say girl

 Tommy is going to be a great dad one day!

 We survived!

Lily Pilly

 How Aidan slept all of December

 Front of our Christmas card

 Back...Maddox's birth announcement

Cute little boy!

Our picture with Santa!  

Stone Mountain with Grandma Lucy

 Grandma Lucy took all of us to Stone Mountain for the day (this was a few days before Christmas), and it was so much fun!  We ate at a really cute restaurant, went to the top of Stone Mountain, walked around and saw the Christmas parade.  

 2 peas in a pod...Roman and Pappy...NON STOP ENERGY

 They may kill me for posting this picture, but I felt like it truly captures the uniqueness of my sweet cousins!  I love them!!  And Kensi girl is so stinking cute.  Her and Say are going to be best buds!

 Grandma!  She's extremely in shape.  My goal is to be as active and healthy as she is when I'm in my 80s!

 Tommy and his favorite niece!  

 The view from the trolley thingy

 It was a little windy

 Too much cuteness

 Pappy loves his Say girl

 The train ride!  The boys thought this was so cool!  Say fell asleep.

 Twins

 Stone Mountain is beautiful at night!  I cannot even imagine how long it took someone to put up all of those lights!!

 This was where we saw the bulk of the parade!  It was so fun!

What two very tired boys look like after a long day of playing!  I feel like I look like Roman when I fall asleep on an airplane...mouth open and drool coming down, although it's MUCH cuter on a 3 year old :)

Cookie Day! 

 Every year we do Cookie Day with the Dupree's.  This year we actually did it after Christmas because everyone's schedules were too booked to try and fit it in before, and it was laid back and relaxing! 

 Kaylee, Roman, Saylor and Aidan

 Benjamin!

 Me and my Say girl!  

 Playing!  Between us and Melissa & Jimmy, there were 8 kids :)

 Figuring out what to do...cookie day can be slightly hectic since we all don't bake much haha!

 Kaylee and Aunt Em (she's trying to get Kaylee to look at the camera by enticing her with the stick of butter :)

 Josh and his mama...you can tell!

My 5 year old

Little Em and Roman!  She may be the best baker out of all of us!

Samantha imitating Joan's "egg beating" face!

I love my Maddox Man!

Sugar cookie time!

Too precious.  He loves his sister!

Before you judge...he did that to himself!  This boy hates those mittens and likes to attack his face, poor baby.

Joanie and Maddox

Hot tub time!

Say liked to jump!

Let the decorating begin.

I love how you can't even see their cookies because there is so much stuff on them!

Boys' School Christmas Program

Say looking stylish for Aidan & Roman's preschool Christmas program

Singing Christmas songs!  Aidan is the second from the left on the very top, Roman is second from the right on the very bottom.

Too cute.

Girls' Dirty Santa Christmas Party

Every year I have our Girls' Dirty Santa Christmas Party, and this year was so much fun because Jessica & Jenna got to come!!  Top row: Lauren Olds, Lauren McElroy, me, Laurie, Jenna & Lisa

Bottom row: Carol, Bethany, Jessica

Missing: Lori, Roxanne, Christina, Lisa Q, Katie, Allison, Alexis, Anna & Kristin

Saylor & Granddaddy, who's 92 :)