2 Toddlers+Mischievous=A WHOLE LOT OF FUN!

I would like to think we all have a little mischievous in us but when it comes to toddlers, mischievous is just another word for lots of FUN! Faith & Sissy have begun to make quite a name for themselves when it comes to finding trouble (excuse me....fun). When those two little minds come together there is no limit to what can be thought up or tried out! Now most of the time they are on the same page but sometimes the competitiveness side comes out. For 2 girls who LOVE reading books, wearing shoes, watching Dora & playing dolls, we better have 2 of everything or the claws can come out. It amazes me how they can be so sweet together having "tea" and the next minute either in destructive mode or about ready to end the friendship over who gets to wear what jacket! (Not sure if there is this much drama with little boys but it certainly keeps our lives interesting)

Altogether though these girls have had a lot of fun and it is a joy to watch them play, unless they are pumping all the hand sanitizer into cups! =) We still don't know if Brandon & Christie will be able to adopt Sissy, there are many factors that make this case a difficult one for the judge to decide. Yet, we continue to pray for the Lord's will and hope that it is for her to stay. She is such a joy to be around and I'm glad Faith has a good buddy in crime......I mean friend. =)

Faith & Sissy

The girls always have time for reading


This picture is blurry but I wanted to give you an idea of how they do everything together! They both came downstairs with (play) swords! AHHHH! WATCH OUT!

This is one of those mischievous moments~ They unpeeled all the bananas and left a trail starting at the bottom of the stairs and we found them sitting at the top of the stairs, quite content with themselves, eating whatever leftover bananas they had.

Thanksgiving~ of course, both must fit in the baby doll Pack-in-Play

Here comes the Bride....

A beautiful bride, a handsome groom, an amazing wedding, a great couple coming together as one, what more could you ask for?! It has been 7 years since Callie & Hayden first met and 4 years of dating so you could say they have been waiting for this moment for quite some time! I'm so thankful I was able to be apart of such an important moment in my sister's life. To be able to help and serve her on her special day meant the world to me! There is no way I would have been able to keep up with my old lungs so Praise the Lord for this gift. Although I was happy to serve Callie she had another helper that was RIGHT there ready to help in anyway........her favorite niece, Faith (her only niece). =)

I was so surprised how much Faith wanted to be apart of helping Callie get ready. It was as if she jumped from 2 years old to 10 in a matter of minutes. She had to be involved with every part, it was a lot of fun to watch her so excited to be one of the girls. =)

It was a beautiful wedding and we are so excited to have Hayden apart of the family! I know God has much in store for them as they begin this new journey.

I once heard someone say that on your wedding day you look at your bride/groom with so much love that you don't see their faults or imperfections, just beauty and joyfulness! That is how Christ looks at us, His bride. Because of Jesus we are that perfect bride to him, beautiful and spotless.

Congratulations Cal & Hayden! We love you!

Romans 12:12

December is one of my favorite months and like most people I have a list of all the fun holiday things I would like to do.

*Bake Christmas cookies & goodies for family & friends
*Go look at Christmas lights
*Take Faith to the Christmas store so we can buy a new ornament for the year (I have bought her one every year so that when she leaves the home she will have her a good collection to start with on her first tree)
* Buy gifts

*Pick a tree out and decorate it

and the list continues.....

I was especially looking forward to this Christmas with my new lungs and energy. I thought for sure I would be able to accomplish many things for my family and friends and do lots of fun things with Faith. Well I was in for quite a different Christmas and an opportunity to examine my heart. As many of you know December started out with my scary episode in AL but Praise God we were able to come home a week later and I thought,"OK, now we can enjoy the rest of the season". A week later my WHOLE family, extended family as well all got sick with the tummy virus! Just as I thought we were better and that I had some how missed this sickness I got the bug on Christmas Eve and so I spent it with Faith, Jason and the trash can. So, the next day we had to cram in seeing all of our different sides of the family and therefore just how it worked (not by choice) out we missed 2 of our Christmas dinners so by the time we got to my moms house that night we were tired, hungry and a little frizzled out. Faith had not been feeling well ALL day and was very cranky so before we headed to my moms we decided to give her some Children's Tylenol for her running nose and cough. I was in a hurry getting things together and Jason asked me the dose for her and either I said the wrong thing or he heard different I'm not sure but he gave her too much. We realized that she had been overdosed on the way to my moms house (Christmas Day night) so as soon as we walked into the house we had to call Poison Control and make sure we didn't have to make a run to the ER or something. Praise God she was fine and it did a good job of drying her up and she was in great spirits!

You always hear, Jesus is the reason for the season. But.....is he really the center of our Christmas? This is the question I had to really ask myself since everything had fallen apart and my joy seemed very slim due to all the things I wasn't able to do with Faith during the holidays and our plans constantly changing. It was as if He had allowed all the "traditional" things I do for Christmas to be stripped away and then pose the question..........Where does your joy come from?

It's not in the doing or giving of Christmas, it's not baking goodies (which I'm not good at anyway, hehe), it's not the decorations or how we spend Christmas, it's not even that I have new lungs (even though I am truly thankful!). Although all these things have reason to rejoice in, it should not be the center of my joy.

"Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times." Romans 12:12

I read this verse Christmas morning, I can have joy because I have hope. Hope in what? In Jesus who came to earth as a baby and grew up and chose to feel and understand what it was to walk this difficult road we call life and then lay down His life for us, sinners so that we might have hope. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead we can have the same hope that for those who have trusted Christ as their Savior we too might be spiritual raised to life and live with God forever.

Like I said before it was a strange and very different Christmas yet it was a kick in the pants that I needed. To examine ones heart is never easy and most of the time I find it quite unpleasant but then sometimes we have to allow him to clean the cobwebs so the light can shine through.

Here is a look at some of our activities in December~

My sweet cousin, Jessica was able to stop by and see us when I was in the hospital the first of December. Her two cute little guys~ Lucas & Alex

I asked Jason if I could have one of these huge blow up Christmas decorations for our house and the answer was.....No! Although I really would like one of those snow machines so we could really have snow on Christmas!

Sick & pooped out on Christmas, this was the only time she would cuddle so Papa took full advantage of that!

Hayden, Callie, Tyler & Landon

Enjoying the nice crisp weather with Nana (or Nannie what Faith has changed it too)

Love my new Dora pj's that mama & daddy gave me

The new style....a onesie, shirt, head band & boots!

Tea anyone? Love to have tea parties with my new tea set

Sweet babies, our nieces~

Nan & Lily

WOW!!!

All I can say is WOW! It has been quite the ride since we have moved back home with trying to adjust to a new place again, the holidays, the scary episode in Birmingham with my health, all of our family being sick over Christmas and just finished celebrating Callie & Hayden's wedding! I look back and think how crazy yet I also am so thankful I was able to keep up and really be apart of all the activities (I could have skipped the being sick part though).

I feel like I have so much to share with everyone since my last post so I'll try to catch up a little at a time. =) Hopefully I'll have some good pictures up of the wedding and some things we have been up too the past couple of weeks. For starters I got to work on getting my Christmas stuff down, as it has been placed on the back burner with everything going on. But HEY! my Christmas tree continues to live on! Now that is a miracle! Anybody that knows me knows any living green thing that comes into my home never stands a chance to live longer then a couple of weeks....or days!

Ok, I've rambled on about nothing but I just wanted to let people know we are still here and doing well. I'll try to update more soon....Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!