Christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas!! Lauren was so excited for days before hand. She didn't want to go to sleep at night. We started off the Sunday afternoon before Christmas with my Mom's extended family. Then we had Christmas with my Dad and Mary on Tuesday night. Lauren has absolutely loved playing with everything my dad and Mary got her, especially her doll house and Archie puppy. She also loves the puppets that her cousins, Cayden and Cobe, sent her. We then move on to Christmas Eve Morning with Jerry's side of the family. We had a great time seeing Jeremy and Ashleigh again. Lauren decided to take a nap instead of opening most of her presents that morning. She did open her purse from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Ashleigh and had to take it shopping with her on the 26th. Christmas Eve Night we went to my Aunt Ronna's (my dad's sister) to have Christmas with my Dad's family. Lauren had a blast with her princess couch and Ryan's car. Once we got home and got her castle open, I didn't think we would get her out. She also loves the lucky duck game from Granny and Poppy and the mixer from the Marcantels. The next morning was Santa had come and her reaction was great!! She walked around the corner and looked under the tree and said "OOOOHHH!!!" She found her Little Einsteins Rocket first and loved it. Santa also brought her the little people learning village, bristle blocks, crayons and sticker books, aquadoodle, smartville alphabet train, a cabbage patch and doll bed. Santa was good to her! I think that is why she peeked around the corner the next morning to see if he had come back. That afternoon she finally finished opening presents from my Mom and Jerry. She has played with her kids tupperware so much already. Steve and I are already tired of her cooking and pouring us drinks. Friday night we exchanged presents with my Mom's brother, Paul and his family. Lauren got puzzles and books and money. We had breakfast Saturday morning with my Mom's dad and opened presents again. Lauren got more money. At this point I think the kid has more money in her savings account then we do. :) As you can tell we had a busy holiday season and that is only my family. We still have yet to have Christmas with Steve's family. I had to come back to work to get a break :) It was fun though!!

Christmas Time is Here!!

We have finally finished decorating the house and Lauren is so excited. She has an advent calendar where each day is a miniature book that doubles as an ornament. She loves to put them on the tree and then take them off to "read" them. She helped decorate the tree this year, so many of our ornaments around the bottom are on the same branch. I love watching her every morning when we get up and turn the tree lights on. She is just amazed that they come on by themselves (we have a remote!). She just stares at the lights and says "oooohh!". She is also thrilled with her daddy's stocking (it is a penguin). She thinks it is so funny. We have several ornaments that she loves to look at, but knows not to touch. She goes up the tree, points to the ornament as close as she can without touching it and says "choo choo" (a train) and Mickey (Mickey Mouse ball). She is also recently enamored with my Snowbaby collection, to the point where she hits her head on the glass in the curio cabinet trying to look at them. She is growing so fast and learning so much. It is hard to believe that she is 19 months old already. I can't wait until Christmas morning to see the look on her face when she realizes Santa came to see her. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Wisdom Teeth

I am not sure why we have wisdom teeth, but it would make sense that they should not have to be removed. Anyway, I had mine out last Thursday. All four were taken out at one time, which I think is probably better than doing it in stages. Needless to say I was out of it for a few days. I did manage to take Lauren to the Fall Festival at church on Halloween for about 30 minutes. More on that later. I thought I might starve to death after having these teeth out. A liquid diet is not great after 2 days. I need more substance. I finally moved up to mashed potatoes and then chicken and dumplings. I managed to eat pasta with meat sauce last night and garlic bread. It looks like everything is on track with the healing and hopefully I will be back to normal soon. I must say that I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for my mom and stepmom. They took care of Lauren for several days while I was on some great pain meds. I am looking forward to moving on and putting this all behind me.

Tatti's Wedding

This past weekend we traveled to Atlanta, GA for my sister, Tatti's, wedding. Lauren was a flower girl and did a great job I must say. We arrived late Wednesday night to get the weekend started. Thursday night I went to the bachlorette party with all my sisters and Tatti's friends to a tapas restaurant. We had a great time catching up with each other (since we never get to see each other). Friday we all went to Chris' house (the groom) to make flower arrangements and to finish up last minute items. Saturday at 2 was the big event. Everything was perfect. The flowers, decorations, bridal party couldn't have looked better. Especially Lauren (I may be a little biased). Tatti was walked down the aisle by her father and looked gorgeous in her white gown with red sash. The ceremony was really sweet and touching with the fathers saying a pray of blessing over the couple and my brother-in-law officiating. With the vows spoken and rings exchanged it was time to party. The reception was at a community center not too far from the church. Chris did an amazing job with the lighting and Mary, Paula, and Ronna did a wonderful job decorating the tables and such. I don't know if this reception would have happened if it hadn't been for Paula. She is such a wonderful person and good friend to Mary. The bride and groom left and went to Florida on their honeymoon. All in all it was a great but tiring weekend. We miss you guys already!!

Lauren in the white dress not wanting to take pictures!

Branson Vacation

We traveled to Branson with my Dad and Mary in their motorhome. They have a class A bus type motorhome which is very nice to travel in. We arrived on Thursday, set up camp and went to get our rental car. That night we drove around town to see what all there was to do the next day. We ate dinner at Outback (Not the chain) which was very good. The next morning Dad and Steve went fishing while Mary, Lauren and I had a leisurely morning eating breakfast, playing and getting ready for the afternoon of girl adventures.

Lauren watching Little Einsteins not wanting to be disturbed.

We went to the Butterfly Palace where they have thousands of butterflies in a big open room with trees and plants. It was so neat to walk through and have them land on you. Lauren LOVED it. She wanted to touch them all.

Lauren loving the butterfly chair.

After the butterflies we went to the outlet mall and shopped for a while. Then we went to Rocky's Italian Restaurant for dinner. It was very good, except they could use a little help with making sweet tea. Saturday the guys fished again and afterwards we went to historic downtown Branson. The new mall, Branson Landing, is right on the Lake Taneycomo (which is really a river) and is very nice. Lauren loved walking around and running from flower to flower smelling them. We went back to the motorhome for a steak dinner. It was wonderful. We had a great time and can I just say that this is the only way to camp!!

Lauren with her Papaw and Mimi.

Gatlinburg Vacation

Lauren petting horses for the first time

Well we just got back from the first of our 3 trips. Gatlinburg was wonderful. We had a great cabin that was just off the main drag right as you come into Gatlinburg. I must say that Aunt Bugs is a great place to rent cabins. Our first day was Thursday and Steve and I went to the Smoky Mountain National Park and hiked part of a trail until we got to the river. We climbed out on the rocks to take pictures and really enjoyed just having some time to ourselves. (Lauren stayed at the cabin with Nana and Poppaw).

Once we got back to the cabin Lauren had just woken up from her nap so we could go shopping. After a long afternoon of shopping we ate dinner at The Peddler (a wonderful steak house on the river in the heart of Gatlinburg). Friday was more shopping and Steve went fly fishing all morning. Friday evening we drove through Cades Cove and saw several animals including 2 black bears, several bucks & does, and wild turkey. Saturday we spent most of the day at the big Bass Pro store and then on to The Christmas Place. I could spend hours in The Christmas Place just looking around. Sunday we drove home, but stopped in Nashville to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. Lauren loved it!! I don't think I have ever seen her smile and laugh so much. Our table just happened to be right beside a big monkey that moved and made noise every 15 minutes. Every 30 minutes a thunderstorm would move through the restaurant. I thought she might not like that, but I was wrong. She thought that was the greatest thing with the lights flashing and the thunder sounding. We will definitely have to stop there again. Once we got home I needed another few days just to recover, but it was back to work on Monday. We had a great time and can't wait for our next trip next week.

Vacation/Visitors

We are really looking forward to going on several vacations in the next few months. We leave for Gatlinburg at the end of August with my mom and stepdad. I can't wait to hit the outlet malls and hopefully have some cooler temperatures. Our next adventure will be in my dad and stepmom's motorhome to Branson. I can't wait to camp (a 37 ft. class A is camping to me). We are going to take in some shows and do some shopping and just relax. The next trip that we have will be to Atlanta in October for my sister, Tatti's, wedding. Lauren gets to be a flower girl. I just hope she will walk down the aisle and not eat the flowers or stop to pick up the ones that she has dropped already. I am so ready to start these vacations, but I think I may need to come back to work to rest. I'll try to post pictures and news from our trips after we return.

We also have one of my other sisters, Tonee, coming into town at the end of August right after we get back from Gatlinburg. Tonee and her husband, Kyle, have 3 boys, Grant, Pierce, and Sawyer. Sawyer is the newest addition born in May of this year. Tonee, Kyle, and Sawyer are coming to visit for a few days and I can't wait to meet my new nephew. They will get to meet Lauren too for the first time (they live in Michigan). I will try to post pictures of their visit.

Making Room

We are currently trying to make room in our house for all of Lauren's Stuff. Steve and I have been cleaning and reorganizing the office to make half of it a playroom for Lauren. We are slowly but surely reclaiming the rest of the house. This little project has taken longer than I would have ever thought. We have so much junk to sort through. I have about decided to just back a dump truck up the house and throw everything in it. We are trying to decide what stuff we need to keep and what we need to sell or throw away. I really hate having to organize and price stuff for a garage sale, but I know we could make some money off of it. So far Lauren is loving the new space we have created so far. I am hoping that we can make a great office space for Steve that he can use to keep up with both businesses. I will be so glad when this whole process is over and we can have the house in order again. Then maybe we can sell and move to a bigger house so we can collect more junk. :) Isn't that how it always happens. I'll keep you posted on the progress and maybe post some pictures when we are done.

Zoo Trip

Lauren seeing Penguins for the 1st time

We took Lauren to the zoo for the first time on Sunday afternoon. She had a blast!! Her favorite thing to do was walk through the misting stations. She loved looking at the animals and just being outside. We took her stroller of course thinking she would ride around most of the time. This was not the case. She walked almost the entire time. She squealed with excitement when she was walking and saw her shadow moving. Of course she had to give chase and squeal even more. I think we will definitely be getting a zoo membership soon. Although we did not make it through the entire zoo, we had a great time. We managed to stay for about 3 hours before she was ready to go. We were ready to go too (it was hot!!) I can honestly say I can't remember having a better time just relaxing with the family. Stay tuned for more. Our next adventure is going to be the Pink Palace.

She was waving to an airplane.

God is so good!!

So we finally traded in the volvo and get an Envoy XUV. It is the SUV with the retractable roof that makes a truck bed in the back. I absolutely love it. Don't get me wrong I loved the volvo too, but it was just too small for our needs. We finally agreed on this vehicle after hours of wandering around in the hot sun on City Auto's lot. This is the second vehicle we have purchased from there and will be going back when the time comes for a new one. They people there are great and they have the best prices and selection in town. We had been searching for a new vehicle for a while now. We had just about given up hope when I found our new XUV. We checked it over and took it for a test drive. Everything seemed to be great except for one thing, Steve had found a F150 that he wanted. We kept talking over and still could not decide. I told him I had a bad feeling about the truck (it was more mileage than we were looking for and a few things needed to be fixed). He agreed with me and we bought the Envoy. I couldn't help but know that God had it planned from the beginning for us to find that vehicle. It was everything that we were looking for and in our price range. I know God was looking out for us that day. I am so thankful that God is there to point us in the right direction. All we have to do is turn it over to him.

As for Lauren, she just cut another tooth this week and is about to cut another one. That will make 6 total so far. She is growing so fast. It seems like yesterday that she was born. Lauren is such a water baby. She loves being in the pool or even the bathtub for that matter. I went to start her bath water last night and she ran in the bathroom and hugged me as tight as she could. She knew exactly what she was about to get to do. I think she could play in there for hours if the water wouldn't get too cold. As far as the pool goes, she sits on the steps and plays with her toys for as long as we will let her stay outside. I have never seen a child love to be outdoors as much as she does. That is why we spend most of our time at either my mom's back porch or my dad's.

Steve had a good Father's Day. We went to church and then spent the afternoon with my dad at his pool.

We are loving every minute of being parents and really want to have more children in the future. I will never be able to explain to anyone how you can love someone that much that you just met. All I can say is you have to experience it for yourself. That kind of love can only be from God. Thank you God!!

New at this blogging thing

I am completely new at this whole blogging thing. I will try to keep this blog updated and see where it takes me. I just want a way to keep friends and family who aren't the myspace or facebook type to have a place to keep up with our lives and mostly see how Lauren is growing.

I can't believe it has already been a year since my sweet angel was born. She is growing so fast and learning so much. I can't wait to get home at night to see what new skill she has mastered or hear a new word that was learned. I may be a little biased, but I think she is the smartest baby.

I am working at Trinity Baptist Church, where we are members, as the receptionist/assistant to the Sr. Adult minister. I love my job because it is so stress free (most of the time). The people I work with are wonderful and have such a passion for the Lord that it is making my walk with the Lord stronger. I am currently reading novels by Karen Kingsbury (Debbie got me hooked) that are simply amazing. These books are more than just a story, they are showing how other people are walking with God and how He is helping them through struggles in life. It makes me want to become a strongerChristian.

Steve is still working for US NetworX designing websites. He works from home everyday and loves not having to get ready to go to an office. His company is based in Jackson, MS and has grown a lot over the past few years. He stays busy with our family, but also loves to fish and hunt. He goes to the park near our house at lunch nearly everyday to fish. He deer hunts during the winter and although he hasn't seen "the big one" yet, I'm sure it is just a matter of time until I get that phone call that he is bringing home a deer head for the wall.

Like I said, I'll try to keep this updated, so bear with me.