Christmas in AL 2009

We left last Thursday headed to AL to celebrate an early Christmas with our family. Our flight going and coming went well and Grace did very well on the plane. The hardest thing, I believe, was just carrying all our luggage and her in the airport and to where it had to go and just toting her and our stuff walking through the airport and on the plane. We kept her occupied pretty well and it was VERY nice to be in AL in 1 hr once our plane took off!

We stayed with my mother and Gary this time. On Thursday we stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat lunch on the way to Sak's/ Anniston. We ended up spending the rest of Thursday and most of Friday in the Anniston area and did a little shopping on Friday and Grace had her picture made with Santa. We saw my Grandmother and Great Uncle and Aunt and they took us to dinner on Friday.

While at Mom and Gary's Grace absolutely LOVED spending time with her cousin Emily!! Now she is old enough to actually play with Emily and they had SO MUCH fun together. It was SOOO cute to watch them together. Emily has always loved Grace and she still calls Grace "baby Grace". She always looks at pictures of Grace on the computer that Mom has. Grace couldn't say her name correctly but called her "Emmy". She would yell for 'Emmy' constantly. She didn't want Emily to get out of her sight! When Emily wasn't there, she would start yelling for her when she saw anything that reminded her of Emily. Very cute! Emily tried to show Grace all that she could do and would 'help' us with Grace to keep her out of things. :)

Emily had a Birthday while we were there (she turned 4) and on Saturday we celebrated it as well as Emily's cousin Hannah was close to Emily's, so they had a party for both of them on Saturday morning. We ended up being able to go for a little bit that morning. It was in a gym area of their church and the kids had so much fun just running 'free' and playing. They also had a little bouncy for the kids.

We then left and went to Adam's sister's house to spend the day with Adam's family. Carey and Brandon had us a fabulous lunch and we all got to spend some quality time together. They have Kyle who is 16 and then Vann, who is about 8 months old. Grace loves 'baby' Vann! She even learned how to say "Kyle" while she was there. She mostly calls Vann 'baby', but sometimes tries to say Vann. She mainly just wanted to give him kisses!:)

Sunday, we ended up visiting my cousin Chris's church because his mother had been wanting us to come hear Chris sing some time and he was singing this past Sunday at their church. It was very good and great to see all of them that we haven't seen in a while. Mom cooked some that day and we got to exchange gifts with all of Gary's grandchildren. Later that evening, we got a call from some 'old' friends and they really wanted to get together with us somehow. We ended up being able to go see the Christmas Special "Draw Near" at our 'home' church. We met them there and sat with them and other friends. The Christmas Special was AWESOME! It was very convicting, and encouraging! I am absolutely amazed also by the talent that is in that church! It is truly AMAZING. It definitely helped us 'Draw Near' to our Savior during this very important time of year and redirects our focus! It was wonderful! We got to see a lot of our 'old friends' after church and then went to eat with Eric and Shea Johnson, Lee, and some other Singles that is in Eric's class. It is truly amazing to see how God is using our 'old friends'!

On Monday, Adam ended up meeting back up with some of his guy friends from Crosspoint. Eric, Jason, and our old Sunday School teacher took Adam out to lunch. Adam ended up spending the afternoon with Eric and having some good 'guy' time. :) Mom, Grace, and I went with Kelly and Emily shopping some in Oxford.

Tuesday, we went to Gadsden to spend the day with Adam's family some more. We saw both of his Granny's and went to Adam's parent's house. Grace took a really LONG nap that day and slept later that morning so we ended up being pushed for time to see every one. (The trip started to catch up with her:) We unexpectedly got to see one of Adam's cousin's baby and his Aunt. This was the first time Grace had met Chloe and they were cute together too. They are only about 6 weeks apart in age. We had dinner with Grace's Granny (or 'Nanny' and Papa) and later had to leave to get back for a David Phelp's concert at Mom and Gary's church. It was very good but we ended up leaving a little early just to get Grace to bed because it was late. Grace got to play with all of her little cousin's this night (My step- sister Tracey's boys and Emily) and had a blast with them!

We left on Wednesday to come back home. She was more than tired after all of this but we all enjoyed our time with family and friends!

At Louisville Airport.. on our way..

Our view...

Just arriving in Birmingham and Nana and Paw Paw to greet us!!:)

Grace 'discovered' the piano at Nana and Paw Paw's. She LOVED playing it!

We went and had her picture made with Santa on Friday. As you can see, we couldn't get a smile out of her. She wasn't too 'sure' about Santa!:)

Fun with 'Emmy' :).......

Grace gets baby Elmo for Christmas from 'Nanny' and Papa!

Fun at Emily and Hannah's Birthday party... Above my step-sister Kelly is helping Grace bounce in the bouncy and Emily is right there with her!!:)

Hannah is the little girl above with curly hair. Andrew on right and Aaron on left.. Grace's other cousins by marriage (2 of Tracey's boys). Below is John Curtis (Tracey and Stephen's other son). Not sure why it turned him sideways :)

Emily's Birthday cake

Grace's cousin Vann modeling his new shoes!! :) Papa in the background..

Sweet Vann..

Opening gifts with the kids..

My little love...

Tracey, Andrew, Emily and Kelly

Nana and Grace

Paw Paw and Emily

Grace and Emily pretending to go 'nite nite' together on the floor.

Kelly helping Grace do 'Ring Around the Rosey'

At Granny Cason's.. Grace playing with her cousin Chloe for the first time!

Cute Chloe!!

'Nanny' and Papa with Grace

Grace modeling more Christmas clothes!!:)

Playing with her new Little People Castle from Aunt Carey, Brandon, Kyle, and Vann!!

I had to throw this pic in.. we boarded our big dog 'Bud' while we were gone. They groomed him and we thought he looked FABULOUS! :) His hair has been looking very rough since being outside!:)

Here is some video snips of our fun with family.... Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics while with friends.

Excitement All Around-- Bama Won and AL bound!

Well, I guess you all know that we are very excited for our favorite football team winning the SEC Championship last Saturday and we are headed to the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP and for a promising Heisman trophy winner! This is very exciting because the last time we won a Championship was in 1992. At that time I was in Elementary school and didn't care about football so I don't personally remember winning a National Championship. We really do enjoy AL football and on Sunday Grace wore her AL dress outfit! I figure it was very fitting and she was soon going to grow out of it. After we got there, our Youth/Children's Minister's wife saw Grace in her outfit and told her husband. (They are big TN fans.) The Children's Minister was joking and saying to get Grace out of the nursery since she was wearing AL!:) He was being 'cute'!

Here is what Grace wore on Sunday........





Tomorrow we are headed to AL for an early Christmas with our family!! We are very excited about this. We are also excited and a little nervous about flying. We weren't planning on flying at first but Mom found us some amazingly cheap rates to fly non-stop with Southwest. (She gets emails with specials sent to her) They had a special going on for $25 one way!! So for both of us to fly both ways it was just $100 plus taxes. Grace can fly free until she is 2. So we figured this is a good time to go because she won't be less than 2 for long so this may be our only chance to fly with her for free. This is going to be nice because the flight is only 1 hour , as compared to 7 or more hours in the car. She does not do good on car trips. She gets very tired of the car. So a nice change!! We just wonder how she will do on the flight. We will definitely have her paci, snacks, toys, books, etc. :) This is also mine and Adam's first time to fly!! So.. fun times! :)

Thankfully, we have found someone to keep Allie at their house while we are gone and we took Bud to be boarded today. Also, a couple from our church has agreed to take us and pick us up at the airport so we don't have to pay to park our car while we are gone. For these things, we are very thankful! Our flight leaves about 9:30am in the morning.

Thank You God for all our many blessings! Thank you for family, friends, and for the reason for the Season! Help us not to forget about you dear Jesus, who came to this earth in human form to ultimately be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Help us to never forgot YOU! I Love You Lord!

Climbing!!

I don't know if I have said before on the blog, but Grace has taken a 'liking' to climbing lately. For many months she really didn't show very much interest in climbing. A couple of weeks ago or so she started wanting to climb the stairs. She has got it 'down pat' now and is very fast some times. We have to really keep the gate shut on the stairs because she will be up the stairs in no time!! We got a video of her climbing the stairs and she wasn't going as fast as she does some times because she was a little distracted....

It's Christmastime!!

Last Sunday, we pulled out our Christmas decorations and put up our Christmas tree. I didn't really know what to expect with Grace and the Christmas tree this year!:) We let her 'help' hang ornaments, and at first, she didn't understand that the ornaments stayed ON the tree. She kept wanting to take them off and play with them or bring them to us. I know she probably thought she was 'helping' when she was doing this but we quickly taught her that she can touch but not take them OFF the tree. She is doing pretty well with this now!:) She would just look at the lights at first and she LOVES looking at the ornaments!

Looking at the lights!!

These pics are dark because we turned off the flash on the camera so you could see the lights..

Adam's cousin Joanne sent Grace these adorable home made Christmas shirts and a pair of pants. She made all of them and we are very grateful for them. Here Grace is in a couple of them... including the picture above..




Nana also brought Grace this Christmas dress. She wore it this past Sunday...:)

These pics were as good as it got..trying to get a 'good' pic!:)

Last, this is a video where Grace is talking some and she points out some things on the tree..



MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

Mom decided at the last minute to come be with us during Thanksgiving. She drove up on Monday and stayed till Saturday. I had to work some while she was here but we were able to have some good quality time together. On Monday, Mom got here and Adam and I had to go to the funeral for baby Hannah so we left right after she got here. She stayed here and watched Grace for us. We got something to eat on the way home and brought Mom something back to eat. On Tuesday and Wednesday Adam worked. On Tuesday, Mom, Grace, and I went shopping at the consignment shop, and a couple of other stops and then Mom took us out to Tumbleweed to eat dinner. It was good and we took Adam some food home. On Wednesday, we went looking for a chest of drawers for our bedroom . Mom knew we have been looking for a while and we found a used one at the Peddler's Mall. It was reasonable priced and looked really good to be used. Mom was very generous to buy this for us since our other one has been caving in and the drawer face had come off of the front of our other chest. Adam was able to get help from someone at church and use their truck to go pick it up on Friday. When Adam got home from work on Wednesday night, he was feeling 'sick', had some stomach issues that lasted into Thursday (Thanksgiving). I went in to work night shift on Wednesday and slept till after lunch on Thursday. When I got up I helped Mom some with the cooking. We had a very good Thanksgiving meal but unfortunately Adam didn't get to enjoy until Friday. We also made a Gooey Apple Cake that had a caramel icing and it was delicious! It is really good served warm right out of the oven too! YUM!

On Friday, Mom and I got out pretty early for some Black Friday shopping!:) We got some really good deals on some toys, and things at Walmart. We then got geared up for the Iron Bowl that thankfully ended in our favor!:) I ended up being able to get canceled for part of my shift on Friday night so I ended up working from 7pm till about 12:30am. Mom left to go home on Saturday morning and I worked Saturday night.

Grace was 'eating up' the attention from Nana. She was still calling for her for a couple of days after she left!:)

We are very excited about going 'home' to AL a week from tomorrow for a early Christmas with our family. Christmas is even more fun this year with Grace! I told Mom I can see why you would want to over spend on your child just because there is so much cute and fun things out there that you know your child would love! We have gotten her stuff she is really going to love though! Very excited!

An early Christmas gift!:) CHEST OF DRAWERS! YAY! The wood is actually a little darker than the pic displays and Mom brought us that T.V. from her house to use so we would have a bigger T.V. for our bedroom with DVD player.

Grace with her Nana the day Nana left to go home!

Our Thanksgiving Dinner.. Nothing fancy, just good! :) And the cake.. below..

Grace eating her first real Thanksgiving Dinner!!:) Most of us didn't even get out of our P.J.'s on Thanksgiving.

We didn't really take very many pictures. Grace is getting to the stage of not really wanting to pose for the camera. ........More later on putting up the Christmas Tree!;)

On a lighter note..

Christmas is fast approaching. We were able to do a little shopping for Grace last week. The gift giving side of Christmas is even more fun with Grace this year, because she actually enjoys certain things. When we go to the store she actually has a desire for things she sees.. :) We have been wanting to get her a little 'Grace-sized' comfy chair for her to sit on in the living room. When she watches Sesame Street or Boz, etc. she would just stand in front of the T.V. the whole time. We found this cute little 'Dora The Explorer' chair. We were going to save it for Christmas but we couldn't bare the thought of hiding it for over a month when she could be using it NOW!:) We ended up giving it to her that night and she LOVES it! When we first gave it to her she would tote it around to every room she went to. She also gets SOOO excited when she comes down stairs in the morning and sees her chair. She says 'Dah' Dah' because she can't say the 'r'. She has since been trying to climb on it and every thing in between.

Before church Sunday..

Very 'focused' on watching 'Boz'!:) She was snuggled in her chair like her Mommy.. Gotta have the blanket!:)

Very Sad News..

We got word yesterday that the a couple that is in our ABF and mission group lost their baby (Hannah) yesterday afternoon. Hannah was 2 months old. I found out later that she and her older sister (who is 3) were with their Dad and the Dad (Eugene) and Paige (older sister) laid Hannah down for a nap yesterday afternoon and later found her pale and not breathing. They called 911 and the EMS told Eugene how to perform CPR over the phone while they were waiting on the EMS to get there. They rushed her to the hospital but unfortunately, she was GONE!

We have all been so heartbroken over this, and I have especially been very 'torn up' about the news. You see, this is a couple in our church who are new believers in the Lord, who have been trying to get their life on track! They have struggled in so many ways with things of the past, and they have dealt with losing jobs, Jessica (the Mom) was robbed this year on the job while being pregnant with Hannah. They have also struggled financially. I don't mean just a little bit, but seriously struggled!! I could go on and on.. but I tell you this to let you know what they have already been through.

When Jessica had Hannah, I went to the hospital to see them on my way to work one night. I felt kind of drawn to them because I knew they needed 'love' and people around them that cared! The day I saw Jessica in the hospital, I didn't get to see Hannah because she was in the special care nursery. She was born term, but had some breathing issues after birth. Her breathing was really fast and because of this she had to stay in the hospital a little longer until it slowed. When they brought Hannah home her breathing was still a little fast and it kept improving with time. Our class took meals to them and Grace and I took a meal to them that first week they were home (while Adam was working). I remember looking down at precious little Hannah with very blonde hair (like her Daddy) and blue eyes. Her Momma had her wrapped in a pink fleece blanket and she was just beautiful. Soon after Jessica started bringing her to church. I think of all the times I looked at her and was so close to her and I didn't know she was going to be GONE just like that! Her Mom had her in a sling one Sunday and she slept so peacefully during church. I also remember the Sunday before last when we had our mission group in the gym. Hannah laid in her carrier and slept the whole time until the very end and she woke up hungry and Jessica was shuffling to get her a bottle together. I remember going to get the water in the bathroom so Jessica could mix her a bottle, and helping her..

Then, I think about this past Sunday. I sat by Jessica at church and at the mission group on Sunday night. We sat right next to each other on the couch while she held Hannah. She slept some of the time and was alert some too. I remember telling Jessica how alert she is now! Her big blue eyes looked at me as I smiled and 'baby talked' to her! She was looking at me right in the eye. I gave Jessica a paci for her that night too, because she had told me that she liked the green hospital pacifiers, and I had one that Grace never used. So I gave that to her and she sucked on it this night and went to sleep while we were there.

I tell you this because it is therapeutic for me too. I couldn't sleep last night because I was replaying every thing in my mind. Once again, I was blatantly reminded that we are not guaranteed tomorrow and that my troubles are not anything compared to what others are facing!

They think Hannah died of SIDS. They are doing an autopsy to make sure. Our class is also going to be working with them to help any way we can. So we will be attending a funeral for a precious babe in the next few days! Oh,... I dread it! I have mourned and mourned.. I can't imagine what her parents must be feeling! Please pray for them!!

As I think about this.. I try to find consolation.. I think of this song by Don Moen........

Think about His love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace that's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love
So great is the measure of our Father's love

How could I forget His love
And how could I forget His mercies
He satisfies, He satisfies, He satisfies my desires

Think about His love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace that's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love

Great is the measure
Great is the measure
Great is the measure
Great is the measure of our Father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love


(this is a video I found very quickly of him singing the song, it may be a little different from the lyrics.. but same song!) I praise God that we can find comfort in HIM and HIS love!

Happy 19 months Grace!!!

To think back 19 months ago from today, I would have been in the last stages of labor right now. Grace entered this world at 11:03pm. I had no idea how my life would forever be changed. This girl is such a joy and so much fun. She is learning more and more every day and sharing it with the world. It is so fun to watch her do new things and to say new words EVERY DAY.

She is also developing into a Momma's girl! She had always favored her Daddy before. She still likes her Daddy best when it comes to play time because he is so much more fun than me and so much more 'silly'!:) When she first started saying 'Momma' the only time would say it was when she was in 'dire' need. :) When she was sick or upset! This kind of continues today because she is needy a lot of the time now, especially while she is teething. Now she calls for 'Mommy, Mommy' all day long. She wants me when she is tired, not feeling well, or just needs some 'love'! She wants me to hold her a lot of the time too. I can definitely see that I am missed when I leave her now. Adam says she will call for me when I am gone. She does call for Daddy some when he is gone too. Thankfully, she doesn't cry when I leave to go to work. She just stands at the door and waves and tells me 'bye, bye', gives me kisses, and hugs, and blows me kisses when I am in the car. When both of us get home she is very excited to see us! It is such a joy to have her little face greeting us at the door!

I can't say enough how we thank God for her, and we know that we are VERY blessed!

This is before church last Sunday.. she wasn't enthused with me getting her picture!:)

This is just one of the things Grace has been doing lately. She will say 'shhh'. She will do this to us to pretend to be quiet because 'the babies are sleeping'. (This is when she pretends her baby dolls are sleeping). She has got to where she will often tell her babies 'nite, nite' before bedtime and will say 'shhh' to us because they are sleeping!!:0) She will even cover them up with a blanket for the night in the toy box!!

More on Halloween and Festivities

On Saturday (Halloween), we were invited to Evan and Leah's house that we know mostly from Ninth and O Baptist. They were having some people over kind of as a after celebration for their daughter (Kendall) who turned 2 recently and for her daddy, Evan who had a birthday last week too. Most of the kids dressed up in their costumes and one of the couples brought their inflatable jumper and it was set up for the kids too. All the kids had a lot of fun playing outside in the inflatable jumper, on the swing set and just walking around, etc. Grace can't really jump in the inflatable but she did go inside and at first she just laughed at all of the bigger kids when they jumped up and down beside her, making her bounce up and down! We later moved inside and Leah had made some wonderful chili and hot dogs and we had plenty of candy and festive Fall cookies! The kids didn't really eat much (besides candy).. they were more interested in all of the other kids and ran around the house playing with all of Kendall's toys. This was a lot of fun!

Later that day, we went trick or treating some in our neighborhood. We didn't go very long since it was getting pretty cold. We also had a lot of trick or treaters this year and Grace LOVED going to the door and seeing all of the kids that came to our door! She would get so excited!

Later that night before bath she wanted her Daddy to read a book to her. She will say 'wead' when she wants us to read. She really LOVES books. The other night after she got out of the bath she went in to her bedroom and before we could even put clothes on her (she was naked), she sat down in the floor with one of her books and starts flipping through the pages! Very cute!

I know I have said before but blogger makes the picture quality really bad now when I upload through them.. sorry!

These two are random pics before church this past Sunday:)

On our way to Evan and Leah's ...

FUN!!

Some of the girls and kiddos...

Grace was following the little girls in the wagon!:)

Out the door to start trick or treating in our neighborhood!..

Trick or treating with Mom and Dad!..

Very sweet!!!!

18 month Fall Pics

As you can see, Grace and I have been 'playing' today. It is an absolutely gorgeous day today in Louisville. It is between 78-81 degrees, sunny, with a nice breeze. I HAD to get out in this wonderful weather. I have been thinking lately about how I wanted to get some pictures up at the seminary of some of the Fall beauty so I got an idea to take some pics of Grace for 18 months using my own camera. I didn't really get the best of the Fall colors. I had Grace by myself and we just had to make do with what we had in the pictures. My camera battery went dead on me too so I had to end my photo shoot short!:) I know Grace was disappointed!:) She actually LOVED walking around out there and exploring her surroundings. She was really just getting excited when my camera went dead! Oh well!! I think I got some pretty good ones anyway!

I am trying to attach a slideshow of the pics. I don't know why but after doing the slideshow it makes all the pictures look a little shifted to the right. I guess you get the idea. I am also upset because it is showing all of the pics I have put on photobucket before so at the end it goes in to her 13 month pics that we had gotten at the Seminary. I tried to move them to another album but I can't figure out how to right now. So I guess you all get to see the difference 5 months have made in Grace!:)