Two Post in One Day

Wow! I am actually posting twice in one day. It's a miracle! :)

Actually, I wanted to share some pictures of Abigail from this past weekend. She was the flower girl in her Uncle Jon's (Ryan's brother) wedding. She was so cute! The wedding was on the beach in the evening. It was a perfect day. Everything was beautiful. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I told you she was too much like me!

The two flower girls, Abigail and Hailey

The next few are some of my favorites from the day. Enjoy!

Randomness

I always say I am going to keep up with this thing and I don't. It's the same way with me and losing weight! I say I'm going to do it then turn around and eat a bag of chocolate covered popcorn! Oh well, it tasted good! :) Have you ever heard the expression, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"? Well, I would like to say that's true but I love food too much! Yes, I want to be skinny and I know it will feel so good to be so. But food tastes good! And I have little self-control when it comes to it! As the holidays are upon us, I am going to try and do two things that I have trouble doing: keeping up with this blog and losing weight. Fingers crossed people!

Our summer was crazy. We had family and friends at our house almost the entire summer. It was fun but exhausting. The first part of September we took our vacation. We dropped Abigail off with my parents and Ryan and I made the trip up to Greensboro, Ga to the Ritz Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation. It was so nice! Plus it was the first alone trip that Ryan and I have taken in over 4 years. It was great to get away. We stayed two nights and then made our way back to Graceville and spent the remainder of the week with my family. I miss them so much! Going home is always great but makes me miss them even more when we get back to Fernandina. I would love for us all to live in the same area again!

Abigail continues to amaze me! I can say that being a mother has taught me more about God's love for us than anything else! I am overwhelmed by it! She looks like her daddy the most but bless her heart she is me in personality and behavior! She has as many of my bad qualities as my good! :) For instance, I am easily irritated when I am trying to do something and it's not going my way. This child will whine and cry when it happens to her! She also has my facial expressions. She is always making goofy faces and poking her lips out! Haha. She is a well rounded person. Somedays I think she's just 100% girly girl but then she turns around and I think, "she should have been a boy," jumping off couches, trying to beat her daddy or me up, she loves balls or boomas as she calls them. But she also loves clothes, shoes, jewelry, cell phones, purses, singing, and dancing. And let me tell you, this girl knows how to shake her booty!

Now, she is whining for more juice so I better sign off here and get us both out of this house before we go crazy!

Family Time is Fun

My brother, sister-in-law, and niece have been here since last weekend and we've been having a lot of fun. Yesterday, we took the kids to the zoo. They had a blast. Abigail and Marlee both were well behaved but were exhausted by the end of the day. Abigail got a cup and a monkey as a souvenier and Marlee got a t-shirt.

Today we had lunch at Bonito's. It's a great Asian inspired restaurant downtown. The sushi was very yummy and so was the chicken Bento Box. After we came home, Justin and I continued our Super Mario Brothers 3 game. Ryan downloaded it for the Wii for me last week and we've been reliving our childhood the last few days. We wound up playing for a little over 3 hours today. We finally made it to world 8. Maybe we'll beat it tonight!

My brother is getting his tips frosted by Lori Beth, our cousin. He is so weird. He barely has any hair to begin with! Pictures to come on a later blog.

I'm super tired today so this is it for today because I can't think straight.

Ready for the Weekend

Woohoo! Today is Friday. Tonight the youth are having a video scavenger hunt around town. I've come up with a list of 25 random things for them to do and capture on video. Each item has been assigned a point value and some items even offer bonus points. They have an hour and a half to complete as many of the tasks as they can and get back to the church. When they arrive back, we will have some snacks and watch the videos. The videos will be judged on whether or not they completed the task and bonus points may be awarded for creativity. It's going to be a lot of fun. I sure hope they are ready to embarrass themselves!

Tomorrow Justin, Hannah, and Marlee are finally coming for a visit! They haven't been here since Abigail's birthday party last year! So they haven't seen our new place! We are so ready for them to get here and to have a great time.

My cousin Courtney has been staying with us for the past month and my aunt, uncle, and grandmother are coming to get her tomorrow as well. So we will have a house full this weekend. I love my family and having everyone over! But I hate to clean! lol! It's mostly done except for washing some laundry and last minute things.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend! To God be the glory, great things He has done!

It's Been a While

Hi all!

Wow! I haven't blogged in a really long time! There is a lot to update you all on. First, Hannah did have her baby! :) Marlee Brooke is so beautiful and about to be 6 months old! Boy does time fly! Justin, Hannah, and Marlee will be here this weekend for a week long stay! We are so excited to get to spend this time with them! I am so ready to spoil my niece! We are taking the kids to the zoo! I'll be sure to blog about that and post some pics!

In February, Ryan took a music minister/associate pastor position with Five Points Baptist Church in Fernandina Beach. In June, I became the interim youth "minister" there. We love our church family and are very blessed to be serving our Lord together!

Abigail is growing and changing so much every day! She is already my little "mini-me"! She is 20 months old! I can't believe that my baby will be 2 years old in 4 months!!! She is such a blessing and joy in our lives! I just love watching her take delight in God's creation. We have gone to the beach several times this week and I just love to watch her as she squeals in delight at the waves crashing on the shore or the sand between her toes! What lessons we can learn from children. We often get so busy in our lives that we forget to find the joy in the little things in life. Thank you Lord for Your amazing creation!

We have had a pretty busy summer so far. We have had a steady stream of visitors over the last month or so. It's so nice being with family though! We have also had several church and youth activities including VBS, Wacky Relay Game Day, and Cosmic Bowling. Friday night the youth are having a video scavenger hunt. These are always great fun. Hope everyone is doing great! Night all!

The Past Few Days

Let me start by saying that Hannah is still pregnant with Marlee. :( I have been in Graceville for 11 days now. Abigail and I have had a great time with our family. It has been good to be with them for this extended period of time but we really miss Ryan!

Last night, Hannah was having some pretty strong but irregular contractions but they calmed down during the night. You can definitely tell that Marlee has dropped some more. We are still hoping that she decides to make her grand entrance soon! We can't wait to meet her!

We had an awesome day of worship on Sunday! It was sooo good to hear sound biblical preaching! I did something on Sunday morning that I haven't done in two years or more...I signed. It was an amazing worship experience. I signed the song "Worthy the Lamb" by the Gaithers. Thank God that the Lamb was worthy to set us free! Dad preached on the purpose of the church on Sunday morning and the Lord's Supper, in which we took part, on Sunday night. Worthy the Lamb that was slain!!!

Monday was sort of a lazy day. Yesterday, Justin and I washed, vacuumed, and cleaned out the insides of his and mom's car. Then we had yummy fried shrimp for supper! Abigail and I spent the night with Justin and Hannah last night and today we are enjoying a lazy rainy day inside. Now, if we could just convince Miss Marlee that it's more fun on the outside!

Here are a few pictures from Sunday:

Patience is a Virtue

Today is day five of out trip to Graceville. On Tuesday night, Hannah was put in the hospital to be induced because her blood pressure was up. By Wednesday afternoon, we still had no baby and Hannah was not progressing as she should be. To keep her from having a c-section, they took her off the pitocin and sent her home. We were all a little disappointed that we wouldn't get to meet Marlee on Wednesday but God is still in control and we rest and wait in His good and perfect timing.

Abigail and I stayed with Justin and Hannah last night so that he could go back to work today and I could help her out so that she could get some rest. It's going pretty good. Today is Marlee's due date and it would be nice if she would come today. We are all so ready to meet her.

Below is a few pictures from our time here so far! Enjoy!

Uncle Justin, Aunt Hannah, and Abigail on day #2 of our trip.

Abigail and I before we left to go to the hospital on day #3.

Aunt Hannah...hopeful that Marlee will arrive sometime on day #4 but no luck.

Uncle Justin with his two BEAUTIFUL nieces, Abigail and Addison, a few hours before Hannah was released from the hospital to go home and rest.