Weekend Wrap-up

I had an incredibly busy weekend. It started early Friday morning, as Gene and I headed to Children's Hospital in Birmingham at 6:45 am for Gracen's 6 month check-up on her kidneys. She is doing really well and hasn't had even one urinary tract infection or kidney infection since she was hospitalized back in April, so I was anticipating good news. The news wasn't terrible but it wasn't what I wanted to hear for sure. Her condition is still considered mild with a good chance to correct itself without surgery, but there are some irregularities in her kidneys that we will still have to watch closely. Her left kidney is too small and her right kidney is too big, due to the reflux of urine. A person needs their kidneys, so this situation makes me a little uneasy in my spirit, but I am taking this concern to the Lord every single day in prayer. I lay my hands on her stomach every night and pray for healing, while she looks at me like I am crazy. I want to ask you, my friends and family, to pray for her healing as well. We go back to Children's in June for another ultrasound and catheter test.

After we left the hospital, we stopped at the Galleria to Christmas shop and eat some lunch. Here is a shot of Gracen in the parking lot. She was so sweet the entire day.

After lunch, my older sister met me at the Galleria for some more shopping and then we headed to the Deeper Still event later that night, with awesome teaching from Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore, not to mention incredible worship. Gene headed home with Gracen to begin two days as a single dad...and everyone survived. He even remembered to brush Gracen's teeth this time.

This trip was a gift from my sister. She called in the middle of the last week and said her church was taking a group of ladies and they had a cancellation. I could go to the event for free.... conference ticket, hotel stay, and lunch. Thank you, Lori! We had a fabulous time, hearing some deep truths about God and spending some much needed quality time together.

Here is a picture of us in the Birmingham Civic Center on Saturday afternoon.

I want to share some highlights from each session, but I don't have time today. I have to go get ready to meet some mom friends and their children at Pump It Up. But here are a few snap shots from our very high seats.

This is worship with Travis Cottrell. This time gave me chill bumps...to hear 14,000 women singing praises to God with arms stretched up to heaven made me think of what heaven will be like as we collectively worship the KING.

Here is a snap shot of Kay Arthur as she teaches.

And Priscilla Shirer....Tony Evan's daughter

And Beth Moore

I can not say enough about the weekend. My spirit needed to hear what these women taught from God's Word in the worst way. I loved every second of it and hanging out with my sister was an added BONUS. We don't get to see each other enough.

I got home after dinner on Saturday evening, just in time to bathe the girls and be there to tuck them in their beds.

And Sunday was a full day of church.

Later in the week, I will share a little from each session, but like I said, I am headed to Pump It Up to chase after two kids for two hours...pray for me.

Until next time...

Decorating for Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. I looked forward to Christmas before having children, and now that I have two girls, I anticipate everything even more. Every activity or event is thought of through their eyes and something as simple as decorating the tree becomes a little less of a chore when their little eyes light up while pulling out each ornament. Little Gracen was tickled pink when we pulled out the Christmas tree lights and plugged them in to see if they were working. I wish I had taken a picture of her smiling and pointing at them. She kept going to them and touching each individual light.

Reagan is old enough now to actually help decorate the tree. Of course we had to move some ornaments around when she wasn't looking, but that was no big deal. Since Gene and I got married, we have always watched Home Alone while we decorate the den for Christmas, and this was the first year Reagan really watched the movie with us...we muted out the couple of curse words. She laughed at all of Kevin's antics. That was fun!

Here is Reagan decorating the tree.

Here is the finished tree. We have had this slim skinny tree for years. Our den is not very big and I just have a problem bringing in a huge, fat tree that takes up all our walking/playing space. For now, this slim tree fits the room perfectly.

Here is the entire den. With an active toddler running around, we went pretty simple. We have other things to sit around, like our 2 foot pre-lit Christmas trees that we usually put on the floor on the left and right side of the mantle, but they just felt like one more thing for Gracen to get into. So we left them out this year.

Reagan has a four foot tree in her room and here she is decorating it. She loved this!

Here is the finished tree. She wanted pink ornaments this year, so her tree is hot pink and white.

And we were trying to make the house pretty, Gracen was tearing it up. Got to love toddlers!
Gene has not decorated the outside yet. I will post some pictures whenever he finds the time to do it.

Until next time...

Our Thanksgiving in Pictures

You will remember that our family had that yucky stomach bug at the beginning of our Thanksgiving holidays. I guess it was as good as any time to be sick, with nothing to do and no where to go. Our Wednesday thru Sunday was wonderful. Gene was off everyday, we had some much needed family time, we decorated for Christmas, I did some Christmas shopping, we watched the AL/AU football game, Gene and I had a date night, and of course, we celebrated Thankgiving with all the family.

All the pictures are of my family. For the record, I love Gene's family and we went to eat with his parents, his brother, and his brother's two children on Thursday night and again on Friday night, but no one takes pictures when we are together. I always feel weird getting my camera out. I probably need to correct that during Christmas though because years from now, we will all regret not having pictures from both sides.

On the other hand, at my parent's house, everyone is taking pictures. I am actually sharing shots from everyone's camera...not just mine. Warning...there are A LOT of pictures ahead.

Our Thanksgiving Day....

My parents

Me and my sisters...I didn't get the black shirt memo!

Lori's family

My family

Lindsay's family

And random shots of the family...

It was soooo good to see everyone and just hang out together for almost the entire day. I love my family and feel so blessed that we get along the way we do....no drama....thank the Lord. Sometimes I wish we could get together every single weekend....of course, then there might be drama. (Just kidding!)

I am so excited about the Christmas season. I am going to walk through an advent devotional book by myself for my quiet time each morning, and I have one to do with the girls each day as well. I am praying for great truths to be revealed to Reagan. She is like a sponge right now...so eager to learn more about Jesus. It is a beautiful thing.

We have many family activities planned. I have a lot of Christmas movie nights planned, craft activities ready to go, and Christmas books ready to read. I am looking forward to truly enjoying the season with my little family.

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving

I think our family is on the mend. A stomach virus is not what I had in mind as I anticipated the Thanksgiving break. I had planned on some relaxing family time, some shopping, taking the girls to the zoo at the beginning of the week due to the beautiful weather, getting caught up on some things around the house with Gene off work, etc. Sometimes things just don't work out like you had planned.

If I have to focus on my blessings, we have definitely had a lot of "family time" together, granted some of that was in the bathroom, and we have all had a good bit of rest. Being sick takes a lot out you (no pun intended) and we laid around all day Monday and Tuesday and slept about 11 hours both nights. The girls even slept late on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, like 8:30 a.m., which is a gift in and of itself.

Another blessing...my washing machine and dryer. Who knew a stomach bug could produce so much laundry. Of course, some of that was my fault because I am a germ-a-phobe. If any item took a "direct hit", like a towel or a bed sheet, it got washed twice, in hot water. This was probably a waste of water, but it sure made me feel better.

Tuesday afternoon I did get out of the house to buy some groceries. I didn't really want to go anywhere and still didn't have any energy, but the trip was out of necessity. When I got home, I wanted to redeem some of our lost family time and got out the craft supplies with Reagan. We made two projects together and she had a blast.

The first project was a leaf turkey. Gene took her on a little scavenger hunt while I was at the grocery store to find the perfect leaves. Here are a few shots of the project. I didn't get any shots of her gluing the leaves down, just her putting on the finishing touches.

The second project was making a paper cup turkey. Here she is painting the body.

And again, I missed a lot of the middle steps, but here is the finished project.

Gracen was at the end of her nap during some of our art time and was in her high-chair enjoying a long snack during the rest of it. Here is a snap shot of her.

After we finished our art for the day, I read 4 books to both of the girls...two fun books and two "educational" books. Reagan loves to read and Gracen did pretty well listening to the stories too. If you are looking for a fun Thanksgiving book for young ones, Run, Turkey Run! is a really cute book that Reagan wanted me to read several times. Gracen laughed at some of the sounds I had to make while I was reading it, which made us all laugh.

Here are the two fun books, followed by a picture of the two educational books.

After reading these books, we spent some time talking about the true meaning of Thanksgiving and we each named things we were thankful for. Reagan's list was so sweet. It included things like her family, having a mommy and daddy who loved her so much, having a sister, her Gram and Pap, her Gran and Paw Paw, her aunts and uncles, her cousins, having her own room, her friends, having food to eat, Mrs. Vicky (her teacher), Jenna and Kimberly (from church), etc. I loved listening to her name different things, especially when she said she was thanful for Jesus, "her savior". That was powerful.

We finished the night with a classic movie on the air mattress.

When we put both girls to bed, Gene said that he thoroughly enjoyed the whole afternoon and evening, doing all the different activities. He said it kind of made up for all the sickness that we had endured and he was right. I treasure every moment with my family and I hope we are making memories for them that will last a lifetime.

Today, we are going to read our books again, do another art project or two, and Reagan has already asked to watch the Charlie Brown movie again.

I read a blog this morning that talked about "not being a grateful generation". I thought it was a good read and was definitely something to think about. You can read the entry here if you would like.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time...

Yuck!

Well, so much for having a nice restful week. Reagan has a stomach bug. It has been going around our church for over a week now. I had been sanitizing every one's hands and being extra cautious, hoping to miss it. We even stayed home this past Sunday when I heard that two more of her friends had been sick on Saturday. Of course, Gracen had a snotty nose and a little cough so she probably didn't need to be in the nursery anyway.

All of my precautions were for nothing. About lunchtime yesterday, Reagan started complaining of a tummy ache. Her complaints got stronger and stronger until she finally threw up around 3:30. Ya'll it took everything in me not to throw up with her. I am the type of person who runs the opposite direction when there is throw-up. I certainly do not want to be in the same room with it. From the moment she got sick, I have felt awful. The visual will be in my head for a long time.

Gene came home from church yesterday and said he felt like he had been hit by a truck. He got in the bed and slept until 5:00 or so. Neither one of us have gotten sick yet but we both feel terrible. We are running on a few hours sleep, and anticipating Gracen to get sick at any moment. If this goes through the family, we will miss Thanksgiving, and that would make me really sad.

Over the course of the night, Reagan threw up about 6 times and I do have to share one really cute thing that she said in the midst of the grossness. I had mentioned that she had caught the stomach "bug" from church and after the 4th or 5th event she said, "Momma, I keep looking for that bug and I haven't seen it yet. I guess I am going to keep throwing up until it comes out, huh?" Bless her heart...she was really looking for a bug.

Well, say a prayer for us, especially Gracen. She isn't sick yet and I am praying that she doesn't catch it. Having a sick baby is tough! Feeling sick while dealing with sick children is even tougher.

Until next time...

Reagan's Thanksgiving Program

Again, I apologize for the blog break. It is never intentional. For some reason, I find myself busier and busier with each passing week. Here lately, I laugh at the term stay-at-home-mom and long for a string of days where I can actually stay at home. I think that week is finally here.

Thanksgiving break has begun and I have nothing to do all week...except be with family, which is a good thing. Reagan is out of school all week and Gene is off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Monday morning, I do have a haircut and color appointment at 9:30, but I do not mind going to be pampered a little bit. On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we will be going to my mom and dad's house for lunch and then to Gene's mom and dad's house for supper. On Saturday night, Gene's mom asked to have the girls. She said we needed some time away, so we are going out to eat and then we will do some Christmas shopping. (We aren't exactly sure what got into her, but you don't have to ask us twice.) But, that is IT for the entire week. We are going to sleep late and be lazy. I am sooo looking forward to NOT having anywhere to be at 8:00 in the morning. Reagan is looking forward to the break from school too.

On Friday, Reagan had her Thanksgiving Program. It was outside at a local farm, followed by a "Farm Day" field trip. I took lots of great pictures and I accidentally deleted ALL of them when I got home because I hit the wrong button when I was uploading them. I just about died. Thankfully, Reagan has two great friends from church in her preschool class who took lots of pictures with Reagan in them. Thank you very much Cassandra Hicks and Megan Crosby.

Here is the class on their "stage" singing their little songs. All the kids were precious! Reagan is the second from the right.

In this picture, Reagan is in the middle of the group.


Here Reagan is right in the middle. Aren't all the kiddos cute?

And here are a few activities from "Farm Day"....face painting

The petting zoo...
Reagan with best friend Drew Hicks.

Here is a picture of Drew and Katelyn Crosby, another one of Reagan's best friends. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Reagan and Katelyn together.

The inflatable...

The parachute... Cassandra and I are standing in the back comparing pictures..... this was before I lost all of mine.

Song time... Mrs. Vicky is singing "Itty Bitty Box"...where she kisses each child as part of the chorus. Reagan loved this. Actually all of them loved this.

And here is Mrs. Vicky with the whole class. Reagan is kneeling, third from the right.

We really had a fun day. Gene and I took Reagan and left Gracen with Gene's mom. It was nice to just hang out with one child and give her our full attention. The weather was beautiful....sunny and 70 degrees. We closed the day with a picnic lunch with friends. It was a perfect day.

Until next time...