Miscellaneous

Last week, Ellie Kate got to be star student of the day. We made a poster with pictures of herself. Ellie Kate was very serious about putting the stickers on. It was so cute. And she was so proud to take her poster into her class to share. Here she is with her best friend Neely and Abigail walking into school...

with her teacher Mrs. Curri

I love this series of pictures from a few Sunday's ago...

Birthday Fun!

Well, I turned a year older today (32)! I think most of you probably know this, but I LOVE birthdays! I love any excuse to celebrate! So, it's been a great day even though for some reason 32 just is sounding so much older to me than 30 or 31. It's like I'm really in my 30's (with 3 kids). Sometimes, I really can't believe my life! Ha!!

Anyway, the celebrations started last night when some friends and I went out to dinner together. We went to one of my favorite Mexican places with a really fun atmosphere. I love to go out with my friends! Last night, we laughed and we even cried some! My life is so much richer because of these girls and I am so thankful they are in my life!!



This morning I opened my card from the kids. Samuel was especially excited because he had picked out a card where you record your own voice greeting. It was pretty cute and I loved how excited he was about it! Jeff got me some new perfume that I had requested (he has learned to just go with what I tell him...I'm hard to buy for). The rest of the day was great...a bagel from Panera with special friends, lots of fun FACEBOOK messages, birthday cards in the mail, shopping by myself for new clothes (that are a size smaller I might add - YAY!!!), and then a yummy dinner out with Jeff followed by a funny movie.

A Project and One of Those Days

Inspired by THIS blog among with many others, I decided I needed a project. I know I know, taking care of a house, husband, and 3 kids is just not enough for me! Ha! I get these urges sometimes where I just need to re-arrange furniture and accessories (okay, well that happens quite a bit actually), but lately I have been wanting to do something fun. So, I drove myself over to Goodwill hoping for a cheap but cute table to paint white (off white really). The only room in our house that has much white furniture is Abigail's room, but I really love the look of white distressed furniture...mostly because of the above mentioned blog and others who have that look! Of course, I can't change my whole house, so I decided I could at least tackle one project.

Goodwill was actually fun. I haven't been to one in awhile. Right as I walked in there was the perfect table for my project. It was actually kind of a steep price for a thrift store, but seeing how there were no more tables in the entire store, I took the plunge and bought her for a whopping
$12.


Then I went to Home Depot and got a 50 cent sample (it was clearanced) of paint to use on the table. Score on that one!! I also bought a cheap can of spray paint primer. Anyway, my cute new off white table found a home in the living room/office. I like it:)



Since it's been in the low to mid 90's here lately, I kind of feel like a cold front has come through:) The kids and I played outside this afternoon for the first time in awhile! In the midst of 3574 fits that Ellie Kate pitched this afternoon, I actually snapped a few really cute pictures of her.


She was in the posing mood for about 2.8 seconds so I took advantage of that:). And not 3.2 seconds later, she was pitching another fit I'm sure. It's a good thing she's cute and sometimes sweet, because days like today, I just want to scream right along with her. She is growing out of her nap which is fine because she still stays in her bed for about 1 - 1.5 hours reading and singing and playing with her dolls. But when she doesn't sleep, it is hard to get through the 4 - 7 pm hour! Anyway, we did make it through and now all is quiet:). Here are some more pics...

Love.

If you can't tell by the absurd amount of pictures to follow....we are all quite taken with the newest member of our extended family!

Introducing Ansley "Davis" Hunt...

proud grandparents

the new parents with our kids and davis

beautiful.

yes, it makes me want another one to snuggle...but not be up all night with:)

the kids couldn't get enough of their very first cousin to love!

had to stick this one in here because these 2 are like twins:)

Abigail could not get enough of "baby"

Come Lord Jesus

It was one of those blogs that was heartbreaking to create.

A beloved child is gone, and friends and family needed a site for people to come for details as well as hope.

My cousin-in-law? (she married Jeff's cousin) contacted me last week about doing a blog real quick for a friend whose baby had died suddenly and rapidly. They needed a place to send people who were asking about details but also a place in the future for people to give because the parents want to give back as they mourn.

As I put together a very simple blog with pictures of a precious baby who was no longer here, my heart broke and tears streamed down my cheeks as I prayed and hurt for the parents.

I cannot even imagine. But I can't stay away from the blog because when I go there, I see HOPE. I see JESUS. I see the GOSPEL being lived out in the midst of deep deep pain. As hard as it is to read and imagine what it must be like to lose a child, it is good for me to see that praising Jesus through it can be done. I think you will be blessed to go there. If nothing else, go there...say a prayer, read the comments and even leave a comment yourself for the parents. My cousin-in-law KELI is a very gifted writer. Her words are hauntingly beautiful and she is best friends with the momma who lost the child. This blog is her way of helping as she is doing all the writing right now.

I think you would be blessed to also visit Keli's blog too. She's amazing. CLICK HERE

Click on pic below to visit the LONG AWAITED CHILD blog...

Breaking News!!!!

I'm an aunt!!!!

Ansley 'Davis' Hunt was born today around 3 pm and is perfect!!! Jennifer (Jeff's sister) did great and we just can't wait to meet our first nephew! I already told Jeff to expect some baby fever on my part when I get to see him:). I can't wait to see Jennifer as a mama. She is 3 years older than Jeff and quite the independent strong (but oh so sweet) lady and it's going to be so fun to see her as she falls in love with precious Davis. We don't get to go up there until Friday but you can expect to see lots of pictures then!

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

I give you my wacky kids:) I was trying to get Abigail talking to her babies, but of course the other 2 couldn't ignore that I had the camera out!

Some Updates

Let's first talk about school. Samuel's week could not have gone better!!! We are so thankful and proud of him! Friday, his teacher sent a really great note home. I am not naive enough to think that the entire year will be easy or that he will be perfect all year, but it looks like repeating first grade is exactly what Samuel needs. He has had such a great attitude and has really enjoyed his teacher and even doing the little bit of homework he had. And he was so proud to read this note...


I got a much needed haircut on Friday!!!! I don't know why I always wait so long in between cuts. So this time, I went ahead and scheduled another cut in 6 weeks and I am really going to just do that from now on so that I can keep this haircut (because I love it). Next time, I am also getting it lowlighted or toned again to try to get some of the blonde highlights that are showing back up again.

Also, I am now down 16 pounds. 4/5 more pounds to reach my goal and I have 2 weeks to do it (before my birthday). YIKES! I am going to buckle down and DO it! Then I am rewarding myself with new jeans. So, for fun I did a little comparison to myself now and to myself before the weight loss in February...



Last weekend, I took Ellie Kate to the AXO (alpha chi omega - sorority I was in at Alabama) alumni skit night. Rush is this week, so the girls always invite alumni and parents over to the house the night before it starts so they can practice. It was so fun!!! Ellie Kate loved it too. She said she wanted to do that when she was older:).


Lastly, we have rearranged bedrooms again. I just have to laugh at how many times we have changed bedrooms. Jeff does not think it's quite as funny. Literally, each of our children has had each of the bedrooms in the house (well, besides ours of course).

Anyway, a few weeks ago we got Samuel some bunk beds and then decided to go ahead and let he and EK share a room for a year or so (until she and Abs are ready). They have LOVED it!!! We tried them sharing a room about a year ago and it didn't work out well, but this time it has been much better. They love the bunkbeds and love going to bed together. Besides the bunkbeds, I couldn't buy anything new for the room, so I had to kind of get creative in merging a girl and boy into a room together. I decided to just go neutral and do mainly brown and white. Here is the first thing I did....


I spraypainted some black frames white and then used brown burlap as the matte and then made some 8 x 10 artwork on photoshop. I really LOVE the way they turned out! This is the only thing I have taken pics of in the room, so I'll have to take more and post them later:).

Abigail is now waking up from her nap so my random update post is ending:)

My Baby

My 3rd little baby is absolutely the sweetest thing ever. We say it all the time! I really love this age with Abs because she is learning so much so fast and yet she has such a sweet spirit, that we haven't hit the "terrible two's" yet. Don't get me wrong, she does plenty of crying, pitching small fits, and screaming at her sister...but overall Abigail is a completely joyful, compliant, and easy child. And oh how it does this tired mama's soul some good. It is so refreshing to have one of my children actually OBEY and listen to what I say:). On top of that, she is absolutely precious! Right now, she just babbles all the time. She can say plenty of normal words, but when she gets going in her abigail language, it is so hilarious! At 21 months, she is not nearly as athletic or even cognitively advanced as her sister was at this age. I admit, we don't read to her nearly as much as we should (although she LOVES to read and look and books). She's definitely the 3rd child! However, she tries to count to 10 (and can almost do it) and she tries to say her ABC's, and she tries so hard to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Amazing Grace". It's precious. She can identify maybe 2 to 3 letters, a few shapes, and a few colors.

She also loves to play with my phone, do somersaults, go outside, play with baby dolls, run around after EK and Samuel, and eat.

She still hates to be separated from me:(.

She really is the cutest and sweetest thing ever!