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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.

stressed out

The last couple of weeks have been tough ones for our family.  Here's a brief synopsis: we start renovating the sanctuary at church and it isn't being done on the schedule Kevin thought it would be.  Mattie Leigh starts running a fever that is higher than 102 (for the first time ever) out of nowhere and I spend hours with her in the after hours clinic waiting to be seen...turns out she had a bad sinus infection that hit hard and fast.  Allie Grace is teething and fighting with allergies and has not been sleeping well AT ALL.  My computer also died this week...which if kind of funny because I had just told Kevin that I thought I needed a new one as soon as we could get it because several things had stopped working on mine.  Those things on their own aren't even that bad...very manageable. But then out of the blue, Kevin has some pretty big unpleasant events happen with both of his jobs.  I can't go into details, but we'd appreciate prayer for both situations.

 It almost feels like someone is praying for patience for us!  However, I know this is just a growing and learning season for us.  If nothing else comes out of it, I've learned how to operate on very little sleep! Well, I've learned more than that, and I'm sure Kevin has too.  I've learned how to rely more on those around me when crises (big or small) come up.  I've learned how to better control my temper and to keep my mouth shut when what I want to say will not be beneficial, even if it needs to be said.  I'm pretty sure my amazing hubby has learned how to better exercise his authority in both of his jobs and how to speak his mind in a way that isn't destructive to others.

Our whole family is looking forward to some down time next week to celebrate Thanksgiving and to get to spend time together as a family and with our families.  We need the rest!

This Is the Day

Kevin and I noticed the other day that I was humming the song, "This Is the Day (that the Lord has made)" to Allie Grace to help calm her down and get her to sleep. I started doing it a while back without realizing what I was humming...I just knew that it helped calm her down. Since then I've been thinking about the song and how I usually felt when she was really fussy. It turns out that it has a calming effect on me too. I'm still not sure how my humming changed from my version of "Rock-a-by" that I sing to the girls, but I'm so glad that it did. I'm reminded every time I hum it now that each day is God's creation and that, while things may be a little hectic and I may have a million things to do and a baby that wants to be held, He knows what is in each day and is there to help me through them.

A Monkey Kind of Day

I'm really late with this post because I always forget to upload pictures from my camera or phone to the computer.

We had Mattie Leigh's 3rd birthday on October 2. She asked months ago if she could have a Curious George party. This was the first year that she really knew what all was going on and she was super excited. I think she asked me 5 times before 9:30 that morning if it was her party day and who all was coming to see her. The kid is super blessed and got lots of great gifts from lots of great family and friends.

Here are a few pictures to document the day.

who knew?

Who knew I'd be dealing with teenager attitude from a toddler? "I'm mad at you!" "I don't like you anymore." "You're mean!" "You're not my friend." I hear these comments and many like them from Mattie Leigh at least once a day lately. I knew I'd be dealing with the terrible twos during the toddler years, but I had no clue that I'd hear comments like these from a not quite 3 year old.

I'm hoping that she's just getting the attitude out of the way early and that she'll be sweet as a teenager...if the attitude only gets worse, she may not come out of her room until she's 20.