Jamie and John's Blog

We had a great time checking out the orchards this fall!  First, the girls and I went to an Orchard in Corbin with Gary and Lindsay's church.  We petted and fed the animals, played on the playground, rode a pony, pretend milked a cow, went down a giant slide and picked a pumpkin from the patch after going on a hay ride!  The girls loved it and we had a great time visiting with Gary and Lindsay & crew and Dana and Chuck & crew and Pappaw. Then, John took Leah on her first field trip ever to Evan's Orchard with her preschool class.  They went on a tour of the orchard, saw the cider press and had lunch and played the rest of the time.  Leah loves animals and keeps telling us all the animals she wants to have on our future farm.  :)  Maybe someday.  In other news, our sweet little Sophie Elizabeth turned 4 months old! She is 25 inches, 13.9lbs and has 2 teeth!  She can roll over, pick up toys and play in exersaucers and wa...

Sophie was baptized on August 7th, 2016 at Park United Methodist Church.  Lynn Beach baptized her with Michelle assisting.  Gary and Lindsay sang and played during the service.  Lindsay sang "Jesus loves me" while Gary played piano and then Gary sang "For this child" and played the ukelele.  It was really special to have them participate in the service.   Then, when it was time for the baptism, the kids all started losing it. Sophie cried, Emma was wiggling and trying to blow out the candles and Leah was dancing her own personal ballet recital.  It was probably the most any of us had her Sophie cry up to this point because she is normally a very calm and quiet baby, but she was too hungry by the end of the service!   It was nice having Rob and Jackie in town with us!  After the baptism, we took this family photo.  Baker + Gillispie family count is up to 21 people!  We love our family so much!  Thanks for sharing this s...

Sophie Elizabeth Gillispie arrived on June 9, 2016 at 5:02pm.   She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. Leah and Emma are excited to have a new baby sister and we couldn't be happier to have our new sweet baby girl!

Leah has enjoyed her first ballet class!  She was in a group of preschool aged girls 3-5 years old.  She danced to a song called "My Heart Does A Little Dance."  She is second from the left in the picture below. We are so proud of our little dancer!  She was so cute in her tutu and did a great job remembering her dance moves!   May 21, 2016

 Leah loves dresses and princesses and all things girly!  She only wants to wear dresses and asks us to call her by Disney princess names.  She has a few favorite toys but the ones she loves the most are a stuffed guinea pig that is pink and named Fiona and her new Build-a-Bear, also pink, named Cinderella.  She has been attending her first ballet class and her recital will be in May.  The girls have started playing together and sharing a room.  Emma loves her big sister and copies everything Leah does! Emma has starting talking a lot more!  She loves the dogs and playing outside.  Emma also loves playing on the piano.  Plastic princess shoes are her favorite thing right now but she also has a stuffed cat named Peaches that she loves.   We have had so much fun with these two and can't wait to see what is in store with our next little girl!  

Emma is 18 months and Leah is 3.5 years old.  Casharina took these beautiful pictures of the girls.  Leah was a darling angel and Emma was running around and trying to avoid the camera at all cost.  They must work it out before hand that only one child will behave during photos. Taking the girls to have their pictures made makes me sweat and my patience is usually edging toward zero before we even walk in the door. I am very impressed by anyone who can get a decent picture of a child.  Casharina did a wonderful job! We're having a great fall so far! We went to Nitro to celebrate the Grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary!  That was fun and we had family photos made with the grandparents and the entire family.  The next day we went to Gritt's Farm and walked through a corn maze and enjoyed each others company. Next week the girls and I are going to Corbin to go to the pumpkin patch with the Baker crew!

We celebrated Leah turning 3 and Emma turning 1 at our house in March.  The theme was Frozen, but Leah just had to wear her Ariel pajamas!  They had fun playing with thier cousins and friends and family.  For Easter, we went to Dana and Chuck's house for dinner and to hunt easter eggs.  The weather was perfect and the girls had a blast!  Here are some pictures of the girls in action.  John just started a new job with Coke working with Wal-Mart accounts across the state.  He will be traveling several times a month and is very excited to be out of the office and back in sales and working with a team.  I have decided to go ahead and take a few years off from teaching to stay home with the girls.  John and I have always talked about me staying home and the time seems right so we are going for it.  This is the Baker family at Holden Beach. With 6 kids ages 5 and under, it was pretty much chaos all week.  We had fun but...