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.

Still Waiting...

Abigail and I made it to Graceville on Sunday around 1:30 central time. We spent the day hanging out with my brother, Hannah, Heather, and Addison. Abigail and Addison finally warmed up to each other but both had a hard time sharing! Kids are too funny!

Justin and I made some breadsticks and he also made some jalepeno cheese bread. It was so yummy! Abigail especially like the breadsticks! We also played a little guitar hero world tour but at the end of the day...still no baby!

Abigail and I are staying at my parent's house and she is getting spoiled rotten. She loves sleeping with mom and dad in their king size bed! Justin and Hannah came over last night for supper and afterwards, I gave Hannah a foot massage and painted her toenails. And then gave her a back massage. I also spent some time talking to her belly and begging Marlee to come out or at the very least to break her mommys water! No luck there either.

Baby, it's extremely cold outside! We are not used to weather this cold here in Florida. Hannah has a dr's appt today so maybe we'll know a little more this afternoon. We are all very ready to see Marlee Brooke!

Abigail's First Trip to the ER

Wednesday night at our house was pretty exciting, to say the least. For those of you who know Abigail, you realize that it is not uncommon for her to have bumps and bruises. She is one independent chick! And even though she has been walking for some time now, she loses her balance easily. However, this was not the case on Wednesday night!

Ryan was getting ready to go to choir practice at church and was standing at the dining room table putting his watch on. He didn't realize that Abigail had followed him over there and was standing behind him. So...when he turned around, he bumped in to her, causing her to fall into one of the chairs. Her head apparently hit the corner of one and of course, he immediately picked her up to try and console her.

We didn't immediately notice the small gash on her forehead because as stated in the first paragraph, she falls down all the time. But when Ryan finally tilted her head back to look at what we thought would be a bump or bruise, we found a bleeding gash. At first glance, we thought it was just a small cut. Ryan had gone to wet a paper towel to clean off the blood, while I held her to inspect it. I immediately noticed that while small, it was fairly deep, deeper than I had expected. We cleaned it and put a bandaid on it and within a few minutes it had bled through.

Ryan decided to go ahead to choir practice and told me to call him if he needed to come home. After I took off the first bandaid and replaced it with a fresh one, I gave the Pediatrician's office a call. The answering service took down the information and got in touch with Abigail's dr. who immediately called me back. She said to take her to the ER because we didn't want to risk it getting infected if the cut was very deep.

Ryan came home from choir practice and we headed to the ER. For once, we didn't have to wait very long. After inspecting the wound, the ER dr. decided that it didn't need to be stitched and they cleaned the area up and put another bandaid on it.

We were very thankful that she didn't need stitches and that she was okay. Of course she had a headache and woke up often through the night but by morning she was her happy self again. Hopefully we won't be making any more trips to the ER in the near future.

Oh and my sister-in-law lost her mucus plug tonight! Hopefully Marlee will be making her grand appearance soon!