Goodbye 2009

I can honestly say it's been one of better years of my life. 2009 was a year we saw our 3rd child grow from infant to toddlerhood. We traveled and spent 6 weeks of our summer in beautiful Colorado. Alabama went undefeated for it's 2nd year in a row and is now playing for the National Championship (Roll Tide!). We saw our first child start 1st grade. We (mostly me actually) potty trained our middle child and went through many agonizing months of bedtime trauma until finally at 2 1/2 years old Ellie Kate learned to go to bed like a big girl in a big girl bed. I read 3 of the 4 Twilight books. I think I saw 3 movies at the movie theatre (sad I know). I started my own little side business and have loved it! It was the first year since 2005 that I was not or did not get pregnant. God grew new friendships and helped me sustain the old ones. Jeff and I got a few weekends to ourselves to travel to the beach and do some home improvement. Those are just a few of the highlights. Through it all God has been faithful. He has been present in every up and every down along the way. He has shown me new things about myself and shown me the areas I desperately need Him. I long for 2010 to be year of rich communion with my Heavenly Father. I am praying that He would reveal to me more ways I can be involved in His kingdom and reaching out the the poor and the oppressed (something that has been on my heart a lot lately).

God has moved in my heart and drawn me more to himself this past year through a little book called Jesus Calling. I highly recommend it. Here is some of the devotion for December 31 (remember she writes as if Jesus himself is talking to us)...

"As this year draws to a close, receive My Peace. This is still your deepest need, and I, your Prince of Peace, long to pour Myself into your neediness. My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match. I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own. I created you as a jar of clay, set apart for sacred use. I want you to be filled with My very Being, permeated through and through with Peace. My Peace, which lives continually in your spirit, will gradually work its way through your entire being."

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubles and do not be afraid." John 14:27

More of Our Christmas

First, let me just say that I must be very committed to this blog because I have been on a very sketchy internet connection (think very slow) at a hotel trying to upload these pictures and update the blog so I don't get so behind! Makes me very thankful for my nice fast internet at home and makes me wonder how I ever blogged when we had dial-up internet.

Anyway, like I said we celebrated with lots of family over the holidays. After the kids opened their presents from Santa and us...they played with their toys and we waited for Erin and Ryan to drive down from her parents so we could celebrate with them. Mom made a yummy brunch for us and an awesome dinner of Beef Tenderloin with lots of great sides for our Christmas dinner. The tenderloin was one of the best meats I have EVER put in my mouth. Seriously.

The day after Christmas we headed over to my aunt and uncles (mom's sister and brother in law) house to see them and my cousins family. It was fun to see the kids together.

We then headed over to Jeff's aunt and uncles farm house with all of his aunts/uncles/cousins and grandparents to celebrate Christmas with them. His parents and sister/brother in law were also there. We ate another yummy meal and opened more presents. It was such a great time!

Larry and Julie have the best set up. They have the cutest restored home on several acres and lots of animals! 2 of the animals they have are Llamas which Ellie Kate was very excited about seeing (one of her favorite books right now is Llama, Llama Mad at Mama). Big Papa took her right outside to look at the Llamas.

Then daddy and cousin Dustin went down to see the donkeys.

Beckham and Ellie Kate had fun on the ottoman and Abigail thought she wanted to get up there but once she got up in the noise she decided that it was not such a good idea. Ha!

On December 27th my grandparents (dad's parents) and aunts/uncles/cousins drove over to my parents house and we celebrated with them eating again and opening some presents. We harassed my cousin about even thinking of going to Auburn after she graduated and we just had fun fellowshiping with each other. I'm sad I didn't get any pics of my cousins and aunt and uncle. I think by then, I actually might have been tired of taking pictures. GASP!!!

Samuel playing in the trash was reminiscent of his first Christmas with us when all he cared about was throwing away the paper and then played in the trashcan. He hasn't changed much over the years:)

With Ma and Pa before we left for our annual Unveiled Student Conference (which is where we are now...hence the sketchy slow internet).

And now, I want to throw the computer across the room because of how long it took me to do this post. Maybe if you leave me some comments then I can smile about taking all afternoon to get this done:).

A Very Merry Christmas!!!!

It has been a whirlwind of a holiday for us!!! We have had a great time celebrating Christmas with pretty much every side of our family. It has been so much fun and we have received so many wonderful gifts from everyone. Thank you to our amazing parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles/and cousins for an awesome Christmas!!!! I have barely had a moment on the computer in several days and can't believe I'm just now getting to start the posts about our wonderful celebrations.

We started off driving to Atlanta on Christmas Eve and got to go to my home church (Perimeter Church) to attend the Christmas Eve Service with my parents, brother and sister in law. It was really good and my favorite moment was watching Ellie Kate sing "Silent Night, Holy Night" while holding her candle up high. It was seriously precious and I definitely got choked up. I am so so so blessed!!!

We then headed back to my parents house to set out cookies for Santa and read the story of Jesus coming to the world as a baby so we could remember why we do this whole celebration!

Christmas Morning at last!!!!!!!

we stay in the basement so this was the kids waiting to come upstairs to see their presents!

Samuel was so sweet when he was helping me wrap presents one day he told me he wanted to make daddy a present. So he went upstairs for awhile and then came back down and asked for tape, paper, and a bow. He took that back up to wrap his gift. Samuel was so excited to give it to Jeff on Christmas morning. He had made him some "books" which was white computer paper folded over and stapled...so Jeff could write notes in them. SO SWEET!!!!

trying out his new bike for the first time

I realize that my blog is still a Christmas theme and I will be unveiling a new layout as soon as I can!!! Just bear with me:) Also, I will post soon about the rest of our family Christmas celebrations!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a great New Years. I can't believe it's about to be 2010!!!!!!

Joy To The World...

The Lord has come!!!!!!

Luke 2:10-14
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good tidings of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

It's Almost Here!

My kids are counting down the days until we celebrate Christmas Day. In the meantime we have enjoyed some time outdoors, baking, and Samuel & Jeff even got to go to an Alabama basketball game tonight. While they were gone, I did a little photo shoot in front of the tree with the girls. Oh, and you'll notice that Ellie Kate got a haircut...by yours truly. Let's just say, I am not the best barber in the world. I can cut Samuel's hair because it's more like mine and has some wave/curl to it so you can't really tell if it's uneven. Not so much with EK. You can see every cut so I kept having to cut more and more until it ended up a tad shorter than I was anticipating. I actually LOVE it, but it's still a bit uneven. Thankfully she bounces around and rarely sits still so maybe it's not too noticeable.

And, I have posted all the Christmas Cards I did over on Uniquely Yours. Click HERE to go check them out:)

this is what Abigail was watching in the above pic...a thrilling sword fight!!!
and no Samuel was not hitting Jeff where you think he is in this pic. Ha!


presents waiting to be opened:)








the crooked whine face we've been seeing a lot of lately


And be sure to check the next post to see a cute video of our talkative little munchkin:)

Jibber Jabber

Abigail has been "talking" up a storm lately. It's too cute!!!! I captured a bit of it on video today as she was reading her book.

Don't forget to scroll down and mute the music player and I'm truly sorry for Abigail's yucky nose in the video...

Let the Celebrations Begin!

This weekend we went up to Jeff's parents house and celebrated Christmas with them as well as Jennifer and Buddy (sis/sisinlaw and brother in law). Apart from Samuel breaking Jeff's parents exercise bike, Jennifer's old barbie house, and our 5 month old Sony portable DVD player, it was a fabulous weekend!!! I'm not kidding when I say that Samuel might be the most destructive 7 year old on the planet. The boy breaks EVERY.THING!!!!!

Anyway, back to Christmas. We really did have a great time and got way too many wonderful gifts!!!!! As always...here is an unfathomable amount of pictures...

Friday night, the kids got to open 1 present each. Here they are in front of the tree:)



The hit was this little electronic hamster that ran inside of a clear plastic ball. The kids thought it was awesome...especially Abigail.

Ellie Kate LOVED playing with the awesome Nativity Set that Jeff's dad brought back from Israel a few years ago. It really was precious seeing her look and study each character. As a side note, EK listens to a children's christmas cd at bedtime now and it has been so sweet to hear her learn the words to all the awesome hymns/carols. It's amazing how many of them she knows now!



I mean, melt my heart! She loved on baby Jesus a lot...

Samuel playing with his pirate lego set. It's a good thing he's cute since his behavior was not what you would call even close to good over the weekend. He was a little hyper to say the least!




Just looks at ALL those presents!!!!














opening gifts


I just had to include this picture because it is a scene that happens about 2,459 times a day at our house



One of my favorite gifts was a Coach purse from Jennifer!!! She is a great gift giver and if I ever have any cute accessories (like jewelry or purses or home decor) 9 times out of 10 it's from her:)
Yes, I did crop this photo in because I thought I would spare myself the embarrassment of the dreaded double chin. Ha!


one of the kids favorite gifts was this wagon!!!


We also got to see Jeff's grandparents (his dad's parents) and eat a wonderful Christmas dinner that Donna (Jeff's mom) prepared. It's always good to spend time with them. They are 94 and 96 I think (can you even believe that????)!




the kids before Church on Sunday - as if we needed another picture of all 3:)

Whew! Well, that post took FOREVER. And just think...I get to do about 3 - 4 more of those in the next week!!!! Fun, fun, fun!!!!