What a Year!!!

This has been a crazy, hectic, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, almost always stressful year for our family.

Here are some highlights...
We celebrated Kevin's first year as pastor of Mendenhall Church of God in January.
At the end of February, I finally finished my master's degree (it only took a little over 4 years).
I went into early labor with Allie Grace...they stopped it, but a few days later (Feb. 28), I went into labor again. They did everything they could to stop it, but Allie Grace arrived at 10:26 am on March 1.
We adjusted to life as a family of four.
Mattie Leigh was potty-trained by 2 1/2 and we only have the occasional accident.
Kevin started his 5th year of teaching (3rd year at SCA) and had a crazy schedule and way too much on his plate there.
Kevin turned 27 in August. Mattie Leigh turned 3 and I turned 27 in October.
Kevin started having to deal with a bunch of junk from people at school and we had a few tough weeks at church before Thanksgiving.
My computer crashed (consequently, I don't have the pictures from everything to post...I'm too lazy to find them all on Facebook). I got a new computer a few weeks later.
We all had a really bad stomach virus...that we gave to my nieces when they came to visit.
Kevin was told he no longer had a job at the school because they were 'making some changes'...now he's on the job hunt.
Kevin's cousin found out she was pregnant...at 20 weeks, she found out that baby Eli had a heart condition called Transposition of the Greater Arteries and 2 holes in his heart and that she would have to deliver at UMC and that he'd have to have surgery soon after he was born. She was scheduled to be induced on January 6, 2011, but her water broke this morning. Eli was born this afternoon and weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches. His color looks great and he is breathing on his own, which is a huge blessing with the condition he has.

I'm probably leaving some things out, but my brain is really tired right now. I'm looking forward to 2011 and hoping that things aren't as hectic for our little family.

so many things

There has been a lot going on in our family lately...from viruses to things that I can't really talk about right now. All I can say is that we're in a transition time and that we're both nervous and excited about the changes.

Some things I can talk about...
Allie Grace is super mobile now. She army crawls everywhere she wants to go. I've caught her in the bathroom, under the Christmas tree, behind the TV, and she's crawled behind me to the kitchen. I'm glad she's finally started moving, but I get so tired chasing after her.

We have all had a terrible stomach virus this week. A kid went to school to take exams sick and Kevin brought it home. He was soooo sick Tuesday night. I thought the girls and I were in the clear because none of us had gotten it before bedtime Wednesday. Poor Allie Grace got super sick with it midmorning on Thursday and Mattie Leigh got sick not long after. I still thought I was in the clear because I still felt fine. However, I got sick before bed...

Mattie Leigh has been such a big girl in so many ways lately. She wanted to send Christmas cards, so I quickly drew a simple design for her to color. It turned out so cute...I like homemade cards best anyway. On top of that, she keeps telling me that she wants to give some of her toys away to kids that don't have any. I plan on helping her go through them this week and doing just that.

As for the rest of the stuff, please be praying that things work out like they are supposed to. It's nothing bad...just change and I'm not a huge fan of unexpected change.