Pretty in Pink?

Ian and I are so excited about having a new little one in the family in May! My brother and his wife are welcoming their first little love and we are so excited that it is a girl! First grandgirl in our family and the first grandchild in her family! She is bound to be spoiled rotten and we can't wait to be a part of it!! Bring on the pink!!

Tired

It is inevitable, an instant comes up every now and then. A Christian speaks out about their beliefs on certain issues and they are shut down and hated on for it! It is down right ridiculous and frankly hypocritical. In today's world, it is okay to speak up if you are of any other religion or beliefs, but if your Christian...keep your mouth shut. It is so discouraging in a world where I want to teach my son to stand up for what he believes knowing that in a few years he will catch the same or worse ridicule for simply expressing his beliefs.

Am I a die-hard Duck Dynasty fan? No, I watch the show every now and then. I enjoy recording it and watching it when I get the chance. The thing I most enjoy about the show is the number of times the members of this country family have shown that they are believers in Christ and have lived out what that means. It astounds me that the network is punishing the family for the beliefs expressed by their patron, Phil Robertson. In an interview, he basically quoted what the Bible says about sins of various kinds, including homosexuality. He, in no way, spoke of hating anybody. In fact he talked about he loved all of humanity but believes it is a sin. That is his right to believe that and for anyone who knows anything about him and his beliefs to expect him to answer in any other way would be down right naive. That is like going in someone's home and asking them how they feel about their curtains. Obviously, they like them...they picked them out! What do you expect?

I am so tired of people thinking Christians are hateful because we do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle. Do I believe homosexuality is wrong? Yes, I do. Do I hate people that practice or believe otherwise? No, I do not. I also believe murder is wrong, I do not hate murderers. I also believe stealing is wrong, I do not hate thieves. I also believe adultery is wrong, I do not hate adulterers. The list could go on. In saying all this, I also do not imply that I am perfect and without fault. I am human, therefore I am a sinner. I have sin in my life just like everyone else, so I don't hate sinners. I hate the sin of the world. I hate the sin in my own life. I usually stay pretty quiet about these kind of things but I just got overwhelmed today when I saw it happening all over again. Please do not twist the words and beliefs I and other Christians have to mean something it does not.

Wordless Wednesday

Everything goes in the mouth!

Havoc

Look who is getting into all kinds of mischief!!!

Working hard

I like hard workers around here and I start them young!

I also start educating young! Learn those ABCs!!

 Haha! Jk, obviously. The swiffer was left leaning against the cabinet after I swept and Ian took it upon himself to make sure I didn't miss any spots!

Yummy

I had time to make and decorate cookies for Thanksgiving. I don't get the chance to do it often, but I really enjoy it. I like to imagine that I could do it all the time but it takes more time than I usually have to give. In fact, I don't know if I will get around to making some for Christmas but I definitely plan on making some for Ian's birthday party! Is it sad that I am already looking forward to that? My dear sister is a party queen and maybe she rubbed off on me a bit, because I am looking forward to decorating and everything for his birthday! Yes, I will undoubtedly be one of those crazy moms who goes overboard for a one year old's birthday...you have pinterest to thank for that! :) Anyhow here are my cookies I made. I finished off the last one yesterday!!

Celebrations!

We have been busy busy lately. It seems wrong to be so busy this time of the year. It is really the time of the year we should slow down and be thankful for the blessings that have come our way. I am incredibly blessed. I have been through a lot in the last year and a half. God called me to go through more than I ever could have imagined or thought I would go through. There are times where I just sit back and think about how different my life is. In some ways I wish things were different. It is hard at times but I am compelled to remember the great things change has brought to my life. The changes of the past months have brought me closer to God than I have ever been in my life. I had the opportunity to really live out my faith in a struggle. I hope and pray that I did that well. I tried my best to glorify God through it all and I can only hope and pray that is what happened.

I am in no way looking for personal praise because I, by no means, did that on my own strength. I did things my way for a while and it was awful. I finally let go and let God work through it all and it was the best decision that could have been made. I have no idea what life will bring me next. I have hopes and dreams about what the next big chapter in my life looks like. At the very center of those hopes and dreams is my desire to grow closer to God and glorify Him.

I love the opportunity this time of year gives us to glorify Him. I love this time of year. I love all the festive lights. I love all the sparkly ornaments. I love most Christmas movies, because honestly some are just too cheesy! I love making a mug of hot cocoa, because I am not a coffee drinker. I love thinking of what I could get for a loved one that will bless their life or bring a smile to their face. I love all of that, but more than that I love the reason for this season. It sounds cliche, I know, but it is truly such a wonderful gift. God gave us the greatest gift of all and I pray that you do not let that get lost in the hustle and bustle. It is one of the reasons this nativity scene was the first thing I put up. 

We have also been celebrating birthdays. My sister-in-law celebrated her birthday and my oldest nephew will now need two hands to show how old he is! He hit the big 6 mark!! It is crazy to think I became an aunt six years ago. I still remember sitting in the waiting room, ever so patiently  anxiously awaiting to meet him. I remember holding him and how I wanted to go see him every chance I got. I have had very little to do with his upbringing. My sister and her husband get the credit for that but I am none the less proud of him! He is a smart and caring boy who loves to make you laugh. I love to watch him ooh and aah over Ian, it makes my heart melt to see his big cousin love him so much. Thankful for my Jack and the heart God has given him!

 

And of course we celebrated Thanksgiving with the family. We hosted this year and despite the let down of not having a bouncy house (yes, we were going to have a bouncy house and it would have been awesome),we had a great time visiting with family. Ian had fun showing off his crawling skills after napping through meal time. It was a wonderful time for all.

Wordless Wednesday

For Your Viewing Pleasure

I wanted to share this link, mainly so I would have it handy for myself. But I also figured there are other Christmas movie lovers out there who would love to know when all their favorites will be on television. So click here to get a list of all those Christmas movies and pop you a bowl of popcorn!!

Wednesday Wisdom

Here are some things I have learned since becoming a mom. I still have a lot to learn seeing as how I only have a little over seven months under my belt. Shocked that I do not know it all? Me too! ;)

1. Drool is drool. It doesn't magically become cuter or less disgusting when it belongs to your offspring! Maybe for some people this is not a very big deal, but I have never been a huge drool fan. When you put it that way, who is a drool fan? Anyone? Yea, didn't think so. So while I absolutely love that my son is getting to that age where he wants to give me kisses in the form of a big open mouth on whatever he can and drool on my face...I will wipe the drool away.

2. The mundane becomes celebrated. This is something my loving father teases me about all the time. Whenever Ian burps after a meal, it is second nature to say, "Good Job!" My dad teases that nobody ever tells him that after he burps, in fact he gets quite the opposite. It is silly when you think about it. I might have to start watching that sentiment of praise, it could come back to bite me later. Oh, who am I kidding? He is a boy! He is going to love burping and all kinds of yucky stuff no matter what I do now!

3. Who needs an alarm clock? No, seriously! What parent of a baby needs an alarms clock? Now, given this might sometimes be a different story if I had to be at work by 8 instead of 9 but that is not entirely important. I have my alarm set on my phone for a certain time, depending on whether I showered the night before or need to in the morning. I set that alarm, giving myself plenty of time to feed Ian, let the dogs out, feed the dogs, and then get ready/try to keep Ian occupied. Do you know how many mornings that alarm goes off? It goes off every morning...AFTER I have gone downstairs to get Ian up, changed him, let the dogs out, fed the dogs, and fed Ian. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. I do recall the one time it did go off and I was still in bed. I jumped out to make sure the monitor wasn't broken and he was alive.

4. You learn how to fake appreciation. Ok, this one sounds bad but you quickly learn how to do this in order to survive. What do I mean by this? I mean when people you have not asked start giving their parenting advice. Now, there are times when I ask and by all means- when I ask...give it to me. But if I haven't asked you...I probably don't care what you think. Is that harsh? Maybe, but everyone has their own views about what is best for kids. And that is all fine and dandy, you let them practice those on their own children and you stick to doing what you do with yours! However, as harsh as that sounds...sometimes in an effort not to be a jerk- you simply smile and pretend to appreciate whatever nugget of advice has just been thrown your way! :) That way, you keep parenting your way, and they can go on believing their advice was helpful in some way.

5. Your heart is never empty. This is the greatest thing I have learned. There is no way I can possible describe the happiness that overflows from my heart when I go to pick my little boy up and he gets excited to see me. I will never get tired of seeing smile real big when he sees me and start kicking and bouncing to try to get to me! It makes the drool, the burps, the early mornings, and the unsolicited advice all worth the while!

Catching Up

I have been fairly busy the last few days so rather than write about it, here are some much cuter pictures!

This is how I found my child one morning in his crib! He is up with the trends and knows that off the shoulder is totally in right now!

This kid loves his monkey rattle and mom loves that it entertains him when we are out and about.

It is also great fun to scoot underneath the chair. He seriously got mad when I pulled him out.

He is really getting around in his walker and he loves being independent. He goes all over the place. He likes to be at the door and watch the dogs outside.

Just too cute!

My favorite Sunday outfit thus far. I love his little sweater, and yes- I put shoes on him before we left.

My favorite of his little pullovers. Too darn adorable!! He is looking much too grown!!

And just when you think he is the sweetest...

ROAR!!!!

Not Pretty!

Well, Saturday was game day! The Georgia vs Florida game did not come with quite the usual hype as in years past. Perhaps because we have both struggled this year and it is not like the outcome of the game is really determining anything significant. It does not, however, put a damper on how much we want to cream Florida in anything and everything. So while my sister and brother-in-law headed to Jacksonville for the game, we hung out in the condo with the boys. It was not a pretty sight, watching that game! But, in the end, a win is a win- so we will certainly not complain about that! Here are some snapshots from Saturday.

Checking out the rainy weather and hoping it goes away in time for everyone to enjoy the game dry!

Wearing my football shirt. Horrible picture but sadly, the best I got of the really cute shirt!

The boys engrossed in their leap pads, this lasted all of one hour tops!

While the boys played, Ian napped with Mema.

Jack loves to play peek-a-boo with Ian and he always gets so excited to see him. It melts my heart to see him adore his little cousin so much.

Watching Blue's Clues with big cousin Jack before bed time.

Thankfulness

Everyone is jumping on that thankful bandwagon on facebook. Don't get me wrong, it is not an awful bandwagon to be on but I sincerely pray that these people keep thankfulness in their heart all through the year, not just 30 days in November. I have so much to be thankful for in my life that it would take all year and more to thank my Father in Heaven for everything. Sure, there is plenty of negative things I could focus and linger on, but I really do not want to go through life only focusing on the negative things because that will only impact my daily attitude! So choose thankfulness each day...not just one day or thirty days in November. Ok, that little spill is over.

Now I can tell you about how Friday at the beach was much like Thursday at the beach, minus the sunrise. I opted for cuddling in bed with Ian when he woke up early again. He fell back asleep and we got a little later start to our morning. 

He eventually took over my bed and was just about the cutest thing you ever did see under those covers! After breakfast, we headed down to the beach to join the boys. This time we took the stroller and necessities to hopefully avoid needless trips back to the room. It was nice to have a jogging stroller I could get through the sand easily!

We played in the sand for a while and avoided the frigid waters, since it was colder than the day before. It didn't stop Sam from wanting to go in but we played it safe in the sand. It wasn't long before Ian opted for a nap.

We stayed out a little longer before we decided it was time to head to the pool for a while where the water was heated a little bit and swimming was a more likely possibility. I got in with Ian for a while before it was time for him to have a little lunch before napping again. I promise he did more than sleep but honestly sometimes- that was the only chance I would get to take a picture!

Taking the stroller came in handy as this gave me ample time to eat lunch as well. We didn't get back in after this but we did enjoy just sitting by the pool and watching the bigger kids swim and play. Eventually, it was time to head up to the room for a rejuvenation time before heading to dinner.

He did indeed have a loaded booty here! We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant called Sliders, with a playground. Do you catch the theme we have going? I enjoyed some yummy grilled shrimp. Then we checked out the happenings on the plantation which included a bounce house, baby alligator, dancing with live music, and a creepy waiter who would just linger around your group. Haha, a fun time was had by all and the boys broke out some serious dance moves!!

Beach Bums

Well, we are back from our trip to the beach where we got to be bums, well Ian got to be a bum. Going to the beach with a baby is anything but relaxing! Haha. It was fun though. Here are some camera pictures, the real pictures have yet to be uploaded. Just like the clothes have yet to leave the bag to be washed or put away. I am an awful unpacker!! In an effort to have something to write about for a while. I will do a brief dad to day snapshot for a while now. :) Wednesday mostly consisted of driving. We did go out to eat that night and Ian tried some pumpkin bread. He seemed to like it ok. But Thursday started dark and early. That's right...it was still dark when my little man woke up. Have I mentioned I love the time change so I won't feel like I am getting up in the middle of the night when he wakes up? Anyhow. I took advantage because I am a sucker for beach sunsets, however living on the east coast means sunrises! I am not as big of a fan of those but I will take what I can get. So I slipped out on to the balcony with baby and bottle in tow to watch the sun rise.

Naturally, my son fell back asleep for this part! He left all the waiting up to me!

And then, of course it would only be natural that he would wake up right before the best part!

I didn't hold it against him, because it was too pretty to do that!

After our lazy morning of sun watching/sleeping, we hit the pool to join the rest of the crew which consisted my nephews, brother-in-law, and friends of my sisters who also came down. The girls were at the spa so we wrangled the kids at the pool for a while before heading down to the beach. Ian did great. He didn't seem to particularly care one way or the other about the sand and ocean. As I have mentioned, he loves being outside so he was pretty content with whatever.

We did enjoy the time though, before Ian was ready for a nap and something to eat. I headed up to the room to give him a little break before rejoining the rest of the group for a little while by the pool. Ian got to sit with Rachel and help her look forward to welcoming her second little boy in late January. After that, everyone retreated for rest and preparation for trick or treating down town. Ian wore his monkey costume but we didn't collect candy. I don't need any of that stuff around me! He was perfectly content to stroll around and watch everyone in action. 

After trick or treating, we went to a favorite local restaurant down town that has pretty decent food and a playground for the kids. Ian got to hang out with Kelly there and love on her too. It was a successful evening that finished with ice cream and other treats from the fudge shop before heading back for bed time!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday, we finally got the chance to head down to the pumpkin patch a local church had set up to pick out Ian's first pumpkin. As you can tell, he was very thrilled. He genuinely is as content as can be when he is outside. He loves being outside, but he often gets distracted looking around at everything, so a smile was not in the works for us!

 We had fun snapping pictures anyway with his pumpkin shirt on and the fun fall decor. He was really watching everybody walk around.

 These are one of the two pairs of shoes that I can usually keep on his feet. The other are plaid. Too bad all his outfits don't go with navy blue and plaid! ;)

We found the perfect pumpkin for him! He could even hold it on his own with the long stem!

Please continue to be in prayer about my friend, Eric. There has not been a great deal of change. He seems to be acting like himself for the most part and seems to do things by almost habit, so we are taking that as a good sign. He is asking about relatives that have passed on though and his family is struggling with how to act and handle everything. They do not want to upset him in any way and are just struggling to make life as normal as possible.

Miracle Monday

I am far too overwhelmed with love for a sweet family in my life to bring anything other than request to you today. I am asking that you join me in prayer that God will make this Monday a miraculous one! This family is a member of our church family and this particular man, Eric, has been like a big brother to me. He is a sweet and kind soul who is always willing to lend a hand when needed. He is a family man who enjoys spending time with his two boys and his wife. He has always offered words of encouragement when I need it and been available for a hug when you need one. I have not stopped praying for him since I learned of his condition Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, Eric was going hunting with one of his boys when he fell from the ladder. The ladder had been tampered with so that when someone put pressure on it, the weight would cause it to snap. He fell and hit his head. He does not have any physical injury but suffered a severe concussion. He woke with a severe case of amnesia. In his mind, he was 19 years old. He did not have any memory of his wife or his two boys. He has been released and is home with his wife and boys now. For now, he is in a place he does not remember. His wife says he is handling everything pretty well and has regained a few more years. I can't imagine how hard this is on his wife and boys, as well as him. I ask that you join me in praying that his entire memory will come back and make this a miraculous day for his family and himself. I know that our God is certainly capable!!

Wordless Thursday?

Doesn't ring as well as Wordless Wednesday but due to actual job requirements there is no time to write today like I wanted! Crazy work...getting in the way! ;) So, instead you get to be blessed with some pictures that a dear friend, Meredith took of my sweet boy for 6 months! She also took his 3 month pictures and I was not disappointed!!