Spring Fever

loving our snacks outside

smelling (and picking) any flower we can find

wearing our lightweight spring outfits!!

wrapping up so mom can take walks (in the not so lovely weather)

and loving on our doggy....this is ALL the time :)

We are LOVING spring, but we want it to stay consistent! I feel like a terrible mother dressing my kids in shorts for school then pulling up to carpool to find out it's freezing once we open the door!! But I really shouldn't complain, as it is one of the most pleasant springs I can remember! Yes, we are having the weekly tornado watches/warnings, but all in all it is great! Until summer comes to melt us away, we are having daily picnic lunches in the backyard, playing tee-ball in the front yard, taking daily stroller AND wagon rides, blowing LOTS of bubbles, and going to every playground we can find! Needless to say, we are living it up!!

90 Days Bible Reading Completed!!

I.AM.SO.EXCITED! I thank God so much that He gave me the time (which I swore I'd never have) and the discipline (which I've failed to have the other four times I tried) to read the bible all the way through. I thought 90 days sounded crazy and didn't understand why you would want to cram so much in such a short amount of time. But now I get it. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had in bible reading. It is sad that I based my life and faith on a book that I had never read all the way through. It is something I so badly desired, yet never did. It just flowed like a novel (with some really tough parts here and there) and I honestly looked forward to reading every day. I feel like I understand so much more than I did before and it is just amazing to see how the prophesies from the Old Testament were fulfilled in the New Testament. I just never put it all together before. There is just SO much I want to learn, but I know that is all part of God's plan. There is so much in the Bible, that we could never feel that we had it down! I just pray I can do this many more times while I'm still on this side of heaven. After reading through Revelation today, I am SO much more excited for Christ's return. I would encourage ANYONE to do this. I thought this would be the "hardest time in my life" to read 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours each day, but when will it ever be easy? God didn't say anything in life would be easy, but it WILL be good. So go for it!! It also helped me to really set aside the same time everyday for my quiet time. I was having a tough time before trying to figure it out when you aren't sleeping normal hours! The next session that Amy will lead will be starting on July 11th. To find out more about it, go to the 90 days bible reading schedule. Let me know if you have any questions. I want to do it again! I'm not sure if I'll do this one or the one she will do in the fall, but I promise you won't regret it! My next goal is for Chris and I to do this at the same time. Thanks for my friends who prayed for me and encouraged me while I was doing this! Now I just pray that God will constantly give me the desire to read even when I don't "feel" like it.

Funny Kids!

I know it's been a while so I wanted to share what is going on with us. We are crazy busy with these two, but loving every minute. There is nothing exciting or new going on, but we love our little family and just take one day at a time!
Okay, Wells and Claire are really funny these days!! We are truly LOVING the 14 month gap now that they are 17 months and 2 1/2. She just does everything he does (including trying to talk all the time). I LOVE watching them play, laugh, etc. with each other. They both love to pretend read and they love to be read to. We sit in his room lots of mornings or late afternoons and just read!! We also spend lots of time outside trying to soak up the spring weather that we know is a tease! We go to the zoo, mcwane, and the library just about every week!! And because their mama is social, we spend lots of time playing with other friends!!
Here are some funny things they do right now:
1) Wells gets confused with the difference between women's chests and bellies and often asks anyone that is blessed up top, "Do you got baby Jesus in your belly?" nice...
2) We have caught him sneaking the kitchen chairs around the kitchen trying to get into the tall cabinets where his treats are (yes we know we are in trouble since he is doing that at 2 1/2)
3) He sings in bed for at least 2 hours every night before falling asleep (he's doing it now at 9:51 pm and he went down at 8). quite the night owl
4) Claire is bypassing saying individual words and is trying to say phrases. She is real good at "here ya go" and "what's that?" but everything else sounds like pure jibberish. She sounds foreign
5) Claire peers over her glasses when she is mad at us...so funny! haven't caught it on camera yet
6) Claire has my laugh...yikes! Here it is....




I'll post again when I get a chance! I'm on day 65 of reading and still loving it!! So i'll get back to more frequent posts and catching up with all of you after the 90 days! Hope everyone is great!

Lately...and more snow!

First I wanted to let all of you know that Claire's surgery went GREAT! It was a rough first two days, but she was great after that and actually started walking on Thursday, only 6 days after the surgery!!! She is so proud of herself and so are we. So thanks for the prayers and hopefully we are finished with doctors for a while! I had the flu last week as well so we are ready for health. In other news, our house went on the market yesterday! We are just going to pray and see what happens. We have LOVED our neighborhood so much and will miss being beside two of our best friends!!! We are hoping to move to Vestavia (now is the time to laugh Vestavia High School friends!!! You all knew I'd be back one day!). Last bit of news, the reading is going great! I'm on day 41 and still loving it!!

Now onto the snow. Well, since we couldn't play in the last two snow days because it was pure ice/sleet, we decided to make the most of this one! Both of the kiddos decided to wake up at 6, so we took advantage! We ate breakfast, threw their coats over their jammies and away we went to play! You definitely will not find Chris or me in any of these pictures, but the kids...of course! We stayed out for about 30 minutes and that was enough for my babies who HATE to be cold! We had a blast. Here are the pics. I think these are the first pictures I've taken since Christmas...sad! This first one is my best attempt at one of both of them.

Claire loved walking around in the snow, but she really wanted to
keep up with wells...it didn't happen!!

Notice I only have one of Wells where he is even close to me!

This child LOVES to run, climb, jump and just be a boy! He is also extremely social...

go figure! He talks to all the neighbors and knows them by name. He cracks us up!!!

The Bible in 90 Days

I've slacked a little on blogging lately, but for a very good reason! I have ALWAYS wanted to read the bible all the way through and have tried every year for the past couple of years. I always seem to fall away come April and it is so frustrating. I love doing bible studies and learning more about God's word, but there are some really confusing parts. I'm sure this is due to the fact that I don't have a good grasp on the Bible as a whole. SOOO...in light of that I decided to jump on board with http://www.momstoolbox.com/ and read with 1000 other ladies all over the country for 90 days. It started January 3rd and will END in April. Yeah!! It is NOT and I repeat, NOT a new year's resolution, but it's something I've always wanted to do. For me, 90 days seems way more feasible than a year. My cousin did this twice last year and really challenged friends and family to do this. You can read all about the Bible in 90 days ministry from her website/blog. She did not start it, but has taken the ministry to the blog mom world. Let me tell you it is AMAZING. I have never understood more about the bible than I am understanding now. Now don't get me wrong, there is always going to be tons more to find out and God is never through with us. I just finally feel like the covenants, stories, history, and prophecies are all connecting and making tons of sense! This is not a time to study the Word, just simply read it and get a good overview for when you do study it in portions. It is so much easier for me to get into the stories and let God reveal truths to me while reading it more like a story instead of in small chunks. It takes about 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours everyday. We are held accountable to our group and check in every Monday. Amy, the momstoolbox writer, coordinates it all and leaves a devotion for each day if you have time to read it. She just started it last year, but plans to do it twice a year from now on. Some moms in my group are reading it with their husbands and older children! Isn't that amazing!! Fun goal for the future. Anyways, go there to learn more, but I STRONGLY encourage any of you to do it with a group or with her in the future. I am on day 19 and truly LOVING it! Now that I've written this I know I will get more accountability and I am thankful for that. I have found the time that works for me everyday and I try not to break away from it. Therefore, my social life through blogs or telephone has become pretty much non-existent. But it's worth it. I've also found that God is truly blessing my time and showing me more creative and productive ways to use it. I am writing this post to encourage others and not to get a pat on the back because it has nothing to do with me...(I'm 31 and just now reading it through)!!! But I'm excited so I wanted to share this with others in hopes that maybe in September you can jump on board with her next 90 day reading. I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year! Ours has been awesome except that Claire is getting tubes in and adnoids out in two weeks!! oh well...it's MUCH better than last year at this time! :) Pictures will come when I start taking them again!

All Things Christmas!

Warning...this is a long post!! it's way overdue of all our Christmas fun from last week!!
It started out on the 22nd going to see Santa at a house in tanglewood (the roddams if you are from vestavia and know them) and it was SO fun! They have dancing elves, snowmen, etc and you drive through to see santa! He even gives stuffed animals to the kiddos at the end! precious!! The elves give him a heads up about the names of the children so by the time you come by, Santa is talking to them and knows them by name. Precious!!! These first pictures are when we got home...Wells slept with his reindeer for the week!

Next up was Christmas Eve night at my Mom and Dad's house. We went to a children's Christmas service at 4, then went to their house to do gifts with the cousins. So fun! Max (my nephew) was thrilled with his T-Rex and Iron Man gifts!!

Here is Wells riding his BIG FOUR-WHEELER from mom and dad. He LOVES it and rides all over the house all hours of the day. He is getting good at steering!

Claire got her own princess ride-on toy. She loves it when her brother isn't stealing it. I'm thinking she is not going to be the princess type since she squeals when football comes on the tv and she pushes trucks all over the house! My girl!

This collage is Christmas morning!! Claire's big gift from Santa was her new chair! She always wanted Wells' so santa brought her a chair too! They got a kitchen to share and Wells got a laptop (leap frog laptop...not a real one, don't worry!) They also got placemats, and some other fun things! Santa is a little more practical at our house!! :) Chris laughed that there were bandaids and glasses cleaner in Claire's stocking! Hey, needs vs. wants, right?!

The next collage is from brunch at Robyn's Christmas morning. We always go over to her house to let the cousins play and match on Christmas morning! They share their santa stories and go crazy with new toys! The only way we could get pictures of all four together was to put on a Cedarmont Kids music video (and if you've never heard of these you need them! precious and the kids could watch them 100 times over...or at least we have...they are found at Lifeway Christian store). You can see them doing the motions to "wheels on the bus" in some of the pics...even claire does them! It's hilarious!!!

Next up, was Christmas night at Chris' parents house with his mom's side of the family. We always have a blast. Uncle Kyle gave wells these awesome cowboy boots. He loves his uncle kyle and is in love with these boots! They are REALLY nice boots! He hasn't mastered walking in them yet though.

Yaz and Papa gave him all sorts of goodies, but his favorite was the Llama that he named Captain. He has a slight obsession with llamas. It all started with the "Llama, llama red pajama" book series and it carried on to "captain" the Llama at the Birmingham Zoo. Captain knows Wells since we go once a week! Thank you Yaz for our zoo pass!!! So now he sleeps with his own llama.

Claire got two different dolls and LOVES them. She says "baby" to any doll she sees and hugs/kisses all of them. These are twin dolls that hug each other. That is papa holding her.

Here is Wells with Dance Star Mickey. This is a HIT in our house. Claire and Wells push him all day and they dance right along with him. He sits on our fire place and truly gets played with most of the day!

Here is Claire with her doll that bounces up and down and giggles. Perfect for Claire! Claire giggles often! (does that remind you of anyone?!)

And of course, how could I show you all these pictures without some WHITE Christmas photos!! This is at my parents house on Christmas day. It didn't stick at our house until the 26th, but 5 miles up the hill, here is my parents' house! That cool swing set/house was just built for all the grandkids! They are pumped!!! What a fun Christmas gift for us all! I'm afraid mom and dad won't be able to get rid of all the grandkids now!

Here is our house on the 26th. Claire was still asleep and we didn't get her out in it anyways b/c of ear infections. Wells played for about 10 minutes and that was it! He said it was "too cold!"

They decided to sit in their chairs to watch the snow outside instead!

Claire was in total awe of the snow!

Then our Christmas festivities ended last night when we went to Zoolight Safari at the Birmingham Zoo. It is always so much fun! There are TONS and TONS of lights throughout the zoo. The train becomes the "holiday express" and that is the highlight for the kids. We went with Robyn (my sister), Charles and the kids. What a freezing, but fun night! Oh, and of course the petting zoo was open and we got to see Captain, our precious Llama friend....who spits!

This was an amazing Christmas! We thank God for all the many joys of this Christmas season and we are so thankful that Wells looked forward to reading about Baby Jesus every night and he loved the advent wreath! We pray each year the kids will really "get" Christmas a little bit more. We hope you had a joyful Christmas as well!

Weeks Two and Three of Advent

Sorry I didn't post last week...some little hands misplaced my pamphlet from church! I got another today so here we go!
Last Sunday was The Shepards' candle- JOY
"The Shephards' candle reminds us of the joy and celebration of the shepherds, as they shared the experience of Christ's birth. Our joy does not depend upon our circumstances, but rests in our relationship with God through Christ Jesus." Here are the readings for last week:
Luke 2:1-10, Psalm 103, Psalm 150, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 2:25-38, Psalm 100, Revelation 5:11-13

This Week is the Angels' candle- LOVE
"The Angels' candle remind us that just as the angels were messengers proclaiming Christ's birth to the shepherds, we are God's messangers proclaiming Christ's presence to the world. Because of the deep love Jesus has for us we can be messengers of Christ to others."
Sunday- Luke 2:8-14
Monday- Philippians 2:5-11
Tuesday- Luke 3:15-18, John 1:29-34
Wednesday- Acts 13: 16-39
Thursday- 1 John 1:1-10
Friday- Matthew 28:19-20
Saturday- Revelation 19:11-16

Enjoy! And I hope everyone is enJOYing their Christmas season so far! We are around here for sure! Chris and Wells go looking at lights for 20 minutes every night before bedtime and both kids are obsessed with everything Christmas! Wells tells us every morning as soon as he wakes up that Jesus is born and that he wants to see Santa. At least he gets the reason we celebrate a little bit! :) Hopefully each year they will both understand more and more. We LOVE it and are really enjoying this month. It's by far my favorite Christmas thus far. I feel like a kid again! :)