Christmas Cards & Gifts

I am so happy to say that I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping!  Most of it was finished and wrapped before Thanksgiving.  However, I do need to get all of the items I've bought in the last two weeks out of my car :)

Every year I take time to prepare Christmas photo cards for our family and friends.  I started this the year we were pregnant with Vince.  I love sharing these and also keeping the photo cards we receive each year.  I always use Shutterfly for our Photo Christmas Cards.

Two years ago I began also making photo calendars to give as gifts.  They have beautiful wall and desk calendars that are easy to make and you can also add in special dates/birthdays for your family members.  I do this for my Mammaw & Pappaw and have also started for Gran'ts Nan and our parents.  I am in the process of making those now and I love that Shuttefly lets you save your projects so I can work on them whenever I get a free moment.

If you're looking for a special gift or for photo Christmas cards I highly recommend that you check out Shutterfly.  (Here's a link to their special offers page)


*This post is sponsored by Shutterfly but all opinions are my own.

Mother's Day at the Plantation House

This year my father-in-law, Billy, treated us to lunch at the Plantation House for a wonderful buffet dinner.  The home is gorgeous and the food was really great, too.  We had time to pose for some pictures after our lunch.

 Here's our whole group!

 

This little guy keeps everyone laughing!  Nan was probably trying to get his belly.  

Our family on my second Mother's Day.  Can you tell that this little guy keeps us on our toes?

Our Christmas Card 2011

Be Jolly Christmas Card

Create personalized Christmas card designs at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Merry Christmas!  This year we decided to have Brandy take some pictures for us in November.  We absolutely love them!  We did a few outside and then went into a friend's setup garage studio.  These turned out so great and I am so happy we went inside.  Vince would not sit still to get a  family picture outside.  There was too much to explore.  I ordered cards from Shutterfly and Tiny Prints this year.  I can never decide so I just choose two designs :)  I did front and back photos and just switched them between the two cards. 



31 Days of Thanks:Day 2

Today, I am thankful to have my first draft for my literature review turned in!  I am currently working on my Master's degree in Elementary Education.  I'm in the Research class, which they say is the toughest one I'll have.   I'm glad this is the toughest one and that I'll be finished with it in December, yay!!! 

Today was a great day at church.  Lots of my Sunday school girls performed in the worhsip this morning.  They are such a blessing! 

This afternoon my wonderful husband worked around the house and cleaned up my car while I was busy writing.  I am definitely thankful for him!

Lastly, our fish fry at church tonight was a great time.  I love watching Vince explore new things and new people.  He's back in a "friendly" stage again where he'll go to most people.  He seems to especially like men.  I don't know if it's because they're funny, funny looking, or what! LOL

I'm glad I'm taking time to write these things down.  It's the small things in life that make up our life :)

31 Days of Thanks: Day 1

So today I'm linking up with the Nester and starting a 31 days series.  I am going to blog the next 31 days about taking moments in each busy day to notice the things around me that I am thankful for.  I think it is so easy to be caught up in the busyness of life that I often forget all I have to be thankful for.  I want to cherish all the cuddles and giggles with my baby, I want to get excited when my husband and I can have actual conversations!  I want to remember this time in my life and keep these memories.  I hope through this series I will also inspire some others to look around at what you're thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for time with family.  We took a family trip to Reed's Orchard to help my mother-in-law Sherry celebrate her birthday.  We had lots of fun!  Vince wore a "Bones" shirt with a light-up basketball on it.  Grant had a dancing skeleton in his college days and his parents still have it.  Its named "Bones" and now Vince loves to push it and dance with him.  You can see Vince pointing to his shirt in one of the pictures below.  We had a great time on the huge tube slides there.  They had a great incline so we went fast.  Vince rode down with each of us.  We shot out so quickly that there weren't any good pictures, but we loved it. 

See you tomorrow for Day 2!

Four years ago

Four years ago today, July 20, 2007, I had lunch with my Mammaw Eloise for the last time.  We celebrated her birthday at Catfish Dock, her favorite restaurant.  We are both very cold natured and had our jackets on in the restaurant.  I'd taken mine off for the picture outside.  I'll always remember how cold it was that day!  We laughed about never going anywhere without a jacket.  I would leave for a trip to Florida and receive word six days later that Mammaw had passed away.  The breath was knocked out of me.  It was totally unexpected and I couldn't even breathe when Grant told me.  He and mom had been talking on the phone back and forth that day.  I sensed something was up, and couldn't take it any longer.  Everything went through my head as to whether someone had gotten bad health news or a car accident.  I knew that they wouldn't be calling like this unless it was urgent. 
I've missed Mammaw constantly since she's been gone.  She was such a funny person and very easy going.  I hope I'm a lot like her.  As time goes on the pain isn't as bad, but it shows itself in new ways.  I wish more than anything that she could meet Vince.  Oh, she would just LOVE him.  I'd love to still be able to go over to her house and sit on the sofa to ask her about cooking, growing up, talk about crafting, and UK basketball.  I know she's in the best place of all, heaven.  She's getting to celebrate with Pappaw Fred and Jesus :)

Happy Birthday Mammaw!  I love you.

RSV

Vince (and many other babies in our town) was admitted to the hospital on his 9-month birthday for RSV.  He was given breathing treatments around the clock, I/V fluids  and lots of Pedialyte (non-flavored) bottles.  We stayed Wednesday afternoon through Saturday morning.  The nurses and Dr. Billie were wonderful to us and we were so blessed by our local hospital.

Vince absolutely hated his I/V.  We kept this baby sock on it to try and keep him from pulling (or biting) it.  

Toys from home kept him a little bit happier.  We took the legs off his baby i-Pad we called it.  

He got lots of balloons and stuffed animals - he loved them!

Baby Brock

Introducing the newest member of the family, baby Brock.

Brock was born June 17th - his parents 9th wedding anniversary. He is the third little boy. His big brothers Dawson & Isaiah are helping Mommy and Daddy feed and burp him. Isaiah (just turned 2) can also be caught swiping paci's if they're left out. Ha! He's been off a paci for a year, but now he wants to be a baby every once in a while.

Play Ball!

Maddie played softball this year with the Hot Tamales!

She was a great player and had lots of fun :)

I can't believe Uncle G got Isaiah to pose for the camera!

Chad & Laura

On June 13th we welcomed another Chad into our family! I forgot my camera and stole these pics from Leanne so I don't have any of the bride and groom, but this is my younger cousin by 3 weeks. I was born January 3, 1986 and she was born January 23, 1986. We've grown up together and now we've both graduated college, started jobs, and gotten married. I can't wait to see what the future holds for Laura and Chad. I know they are very blessed. We used to say they would be the next John & Kate plus 8 because Chad is Asian and Laura is blonde.... but I don't want them to lead to divorce.... but I bet their kids will be just as cute!

This is Laura with my nephews Abe and Dawson, and niece Maddie. I can't believe they were all looking and all smiling! Leanne pulled off a miracle :)

Kindergarten here we come!

Tonight was Dawson's preschool graduation. He did a great job saying his bible verse and his poem. Each child dressed up for the job they want to do when they grow up. Dawson was a construction worker. He said a poem "Construction work one day I'll do. I'll use hammers and nails to build something for you, and it won't cost that much!" He's been telling it to us for about a month!

I found out tonight that Maddie graduated from kindergarten at CC elementary tonight too. I didn't even know they had kindergarten graduations anymore! Mom & Dad went to visit her before Dawson's. I got to see both of Maddie's preschool graduations and she would always say a poem or two and sing songs. Maddie's preschool wore caps and gowns to graduation. So cute!

It's a Girl!

Congratulations to our good friends Corey & Amber on the birth of their first child! Aanmber called me Thursday to let me know they were on their way to the hospital. Friday morning when I woke up I couldn't wait to find out if Resse was here yet or not. Amber's sister Tori had emailed me her phone # to call for updates. Amber had a hard night. Around 6am she had only dilated 3cm. They gave her an epidural. Around 10am Amber & Baby Reese were under a lot of stress. The doctors decided they couldn't deliver naturally. They took Amber for C-section and Reese was born healthy! The cord was wrapped around her neck twice so it was a blessing that the doctors knew to do the C-section. Amber was upset about having to have a C-section, but I know it was best for mom & baby. I pray she heals well.

Grant and I are going to go visit them this morning in BG at the hospital. Our other friends, Nathan & Sarah, are going with us. We will have to carry on the DINKs(Double Income No Kids) status without Amber & Corey now! Haha.


Today is also a special day because my good friends Sarah S. is getting married! I am so happy for her and Josh. They live in O'boro where Sarah works at the hospital. Josh is taking a test for the E'ville fire department TODAY!!! He found out he could take it about a month ago, so they moved the wedding back an hour. He will have about 2.5 hours to get from E'villle to G'ville (about 1.25 hrs away) and get ready to get married! I'm praying everything goes smoothly for them today. I also pray God blesses their marriage the only way he can.

I hope to post pics soon! (And pics of the baby shower too!)

Painting our House

We've gotten all the ceilings painted, two coats on the living room and hallway walls, and just started working on the trim last night. I was working on a window and Grant started painting the inside of the door. To my luck Dad walked in the door about when the window was getting tricky (it didn't take long). So I got to hand over my brush to a professional and take a few pics. Here are some pics of it coming along...

Happy to be supervising :)

Long Time No Post

I would like to dedicate this post to my oldest sister Leanne. She has sent two emails and given me in-person harassment due to my lack of posting this week.

Grant and I have found a house to rent. It's actually my mammaw's rental house. The family hasn't sold it yet so we are going to rent for a while. We have started painting the ceilings and the doors. It needs a little TLC from the last renter... he enjoyed putting 3 different colors of walls in the living room! So we are putting lots of neutrals up and paint all the trim white again to makie it look spiffy! It will hopefully also improve the house for when it goes on the market.

Here are a couple pics of our picnic the other night. We had to load up a pot and grab some goodies from our "shower room" (Mom's previous guest bedroom :) )

The Makings of our first picnic

oops I guess I didn't remember to put the meat in the pic... oh well!

Here is the master of the midget grill:

Commencement

Freshman Year Roommates & Accounting Buddies

The Sharps

Vinson Family

After Graduation

Leaving Rupp with my sweetie :)

Graduation

A diploma for Mom & Dad! It's a certificate of appreciation for all the love and support they have given me to help me reach graduation!

Grant's Certificate of Appreciation

Opening up a gift from Mom and Dad... a UK Diploma frame

(only pic I have of Lelia right now... we're going to do a replay sometime soon since they got out of Rupp quick after the graduation)

Another graduation present from Mom and Dad