Remembering....

Today 10 years ago....I was asleep in my home when I was woken up by a blaring TV. It was Tuesday which meant that my dad, who was sick with Alzheimer's, was going to be leaving to go to Cracker Barrel with our pastor and a deacon from our church. It was not uncommon for my dad to turn to the TV up REALLY loud because he did not know how to work the remote. I ran downstairs grabbed it from his hands and went to turn it down. As I turned around and glimpsed at the TV I saw the smoke and realized that my dad was not having issues with the remote...he wanted to hear what was going on. I sat in the living with room with my dad, pastor, and deacon and watched in horror as the first tower was being hit. I remember the serious look on the three grown men faces as they watched. My dad and the deacon had both served in military so they watched with different eyes. I also remember looking at my dad and wandering how much he was comprehending and for the first time being thankful that he might not be completely understanding what he was watching.

The men stayed and watched the news for a little longer and then decided they were going to head out to breakfast. As they were walking to the car the 2nd tower was hit and I ran outside to let them know. They all came back to the house and we sat in front of the TV for the next 2 hours as we continued to watch that awful day unfold. The thing that I remember most about that day is standing in my living room watching the chaos and the uncertainty all around me but the Spirit speaking very clearly to me and saying " This did not take me by surprise. It looks like chaos but I am still in control."

I am thankful today for the many acts of bravery that we saw. I will watch and read all the stories to honor the men and women who lost their lives. I will pray for the families who lost a loved one and the sweet children who lost a parent that day. I am thankful for the men and women and who have fought and who are currently fighting to keep this country safe. I am thankful for my brother who is currently oversees and the sacrifices that his family make every day. I am thankful to be an American.

1st Day of GA Pre-K

We have officially ventured in the world of having a child in "real school". Emma Kate started GA Pre-K on Monday and has LOVED IT! She was so excited for the few weeks leading up to "big school". She is going to the same church/school that she is in last year. Her classroom is just right next door to the one she spent all last year in. The only difference is they are in "real school" from 8:00-2:30 everyday. The week leading up to her first day the kids spent 30 minuets a day in their new classroom and with their new teachers. I was very thankful they did this because it helped Emma get geared up for her big transition. She woke up bright and early her first day and picked out our her outfit. She then came to my bathroom to put on some pink glittery lip gloss because every girl needs to be fancy for their first day of anything!

I love the above picture of Jeff walking into her school. He is such a great daddy.
Waiting outside her class for the doors to open.
Our big girl gearing up for her first day.
Emma Kate and her teacher Ms. Lindsey. We are so excited that Emma has Ms. Lindsey. She seems really sweet and I am sure it is going to be a great year. I am looking forward to watching Emma Kate continue to grow in wisdom and statue this year and watch anxiously to see what all God has in store for her and for her mommy!

Home Sweet Home

As I mentioned in the June post Jeff and I moved into our new home the first weekend in June. We have spent the last month doing some renovations after the fire and now have everything complete minus some boxes left in the guest room! The house is 4 bedrooms with 2 and half bathrooms and is close to 2400 square feet. We have a great fenced in backyard and love the neighborhood pool. We have already spent a good bit of time with one of our neighbors and look forward to getting to know the couple across the street. They are around our age and have the cutest little 2 year old girl and are currently expecting their 2nd. We are hoping for a boy for a playmate for Daniel!

Emma Kate's room

This is our formal dining room which we are turning into an office. The transition is going slower then we had planned because of the fire. But hopefully we will buy office furniture soon and this empty room will turn into my home office! It is right when you enter our front door. When we moved in this room had carpet in it and we switched it out with hardwood.

The kitchen was my least favorite room and was so bad it made us almost walk away from the house. However, we changed out the flooring to hardwood and are in the process of switching out the appliances from white to stainless so it has definitely grown on me since we have done a few upgrades. The only thing we have left to do in here now is get a stainless steel refrigerator which we think we will get as our Christmas present to each other. You know you are old when you Christmas gifts start to include appliances :)

This is a picture of our living room looking in from our kitchen

Here is the other side of our living room. We have decided to only have a TV in the playroom upstairs and so far I have loved it! I don't spend nearly as much wasted time in front of the TV anymore and we have a clear divison between adult and kid space!

We are so thankful to have a "home" again and look forward to making lots of fun memories with our family of 4!

4th of July Weekend = U2 concert!

Jeff is a HUGE U2 fan so we were very excited when we learned they would be Nashville in July. He has seen them live several times but I have never had the chance to go with him. I am not a big music fan but I was very excited about getting to experience the concert with Jeff since he had been like a kid waiting for Christmas as we counted down the days. We bought tickets the same day they went on sale and my man looked forward to that concert for close to 10 months. What we did not know at the time was that I would be 32 weeks pregnant and it would feel like it was 150 degrees outside! Even though I felt HUGE and it was VERY HOT we had such a fun time. We meet some college friends (see above picture) for dinner at Cheesecake Factory before the concert and had so much fun hanging out with them and catching up with everyone. My favorite part of the whole concert was just watching Jeff get so excited every time they would play certain songs and seeing the permanent grin on his face for the 2 hours they played.

The next day we went to hang out with our best friends Dan and Emily King. Emily and I took the kids to the pool while Jeff and Dan hit the lake. I do not have any pictures because we had not bought our new camera yet :( Around 8:00 Emily and I went hunting for the boys because we had not heard from them and was worried they might have had some boat issues. As we were pulling up to the dock the boys were pulling in. Good news was they did not have boat issues they were just having to much fun knee boarding and jumping off cliffs. I told Jeff there were some things in life he did not need to give me full disclosure on and the fact that he was cliff jumping was one of them ;)

The next morning we took our time getting up and packing and then headed back home. It was such a fun long weekend spent hanging out with friends and enjoying the summer.

June

Well it looks like I am still only going to be updating the blog once a month! Despite my best intentions life just gets in the way of me being able to sit down in front of the computer. This month started out with a bang....or should I say boom :)

We moved into our house the first weekend in June. We have been so thankful for God's provision and His perfect timing in bringing us to this house. We LOVE it! It is the perfect house for our growing family. We moved in and had to wait a week before the gas was turned on. We spent the first week taking cold showers and eating out! The gas was turned on on a Thursday but I did not get a chance to cook my first meal until Sunday night. Jeff was at church leading his 9th grade guys small group and I thought I would be a great wife and have dinner on the table for him when he got home. Instead what happened was I had some fire trucks in our driveway waiting for him when he got home!

As I was preheating the oven I started to smell something that just did not seem right. I have never owned a gas stove so I thought it could be normal but called a few people to check just in case. Everyone seemed to think it was fine and more then likely was just the oven cleaner burning off. However, when the oven finished preheating and I opened it to put our food in....flames were coming up from the bottom and the top of the stove was black! I grabbed Emma and my phone and called 911 for the firemen to get here! Thankfully, there was only minor damage which mainly consisted of our stove being completely burnt and a section of our carpet with a black burn hole on it. The worst part was the MESS that was created from what the firemen used to put out the fire. We had dust EVERYWHERE!

I have never been so thankful for homeowners insurance in my life. We had a cleaning company come out that specializes in fire damage and they spent a week at my house cleaning. In the long run it was such a blessing because they pick every single item up and personally clean it. My house or the things in it will never be that clean again! Because of the hole in my carpet insurance also paid for the replacement of it. We decided to take the opportunity to go from carpet to hardwood so we paid the difference and went ahead and got hardwood all throughout our bottom floor. We also got the opportunity to get a new stove so we started the process of changing all the appliance to stainless steel. At this point the only thing we have left to switch out now is our refrigerator. The kitchen fire caused a lot of little inconveniences in our world for around a month but in the long run we got to make changes to the house that we love and would have never done so soon!

This month we also had 2 different sets of friends come visit us from Alabaster. I was still without a stove so we could not cook for them (trust me they were not sad about that :) ) but we had a lot of fun anyway. We went to the pool and just had fun hanging out at the house. At the end of the month Jeff spent close to a week in Florida with NorthPoint Student Ministry hanging out with his small group guys. Emma Kate and I really missed him but was glad he had the chance to go. They took like 1300 students which is something I can not even begin to imagine!

Jeff also received a promotion at work this month! The best part of his new role is he now will work normal hours and NO MORE WEEKENDS! We are super excited to get our weekends back and have already planned 2 different parties with friends at our house in July since Jeff will be here!

Coming soon....July update :)

Lots going on in the month of May

I am now 23 weeks pregnant and still feeling pretty good! I have lost 6 lbs but feel like I am going to catch up the next few visits because I am hungry ALL THE TIME! This past weekend we went to Lebanon for my sister's 18th birthday and go back in a few weeks to watch her graduate. We also have an official contract on a house here in Atlanta! We started the process in March but since it is a short sell it took until now to get everything in place. We had the inspection done on Friday and will close on the house the 27th of this month. The house is going to be perfect for our growing family. It has 4 bedrooms and a loft upstairs that we will use a playroom. We are in the process of buying new bedroom and living room furniture so I have had a lot of fun shopping lately! In all the excitement God's goodness over my little family has not been lost on me for a second. This past year the verse "abundantly more then I can ask or imagine" I have seen played out in my life. When I am still long enough to reflect on what the Lord has walked us thru I am blown away but His goodness and faithfulness to me.

We are having a......

BOY!!!!! We had the big doctor's appointment on Friday and found out this sweet little baby that God is currently knitting together in my womb is a BOY! We are so excited to add a little boy to our family and a bit overwhelmed about all the new things we need to get since everything we had for Emma Kate is very much girl! Emma has warmed up to the idea of having a brother and has even told me a few times that she really did not care what the baby was and is just ready to be a big sister. I think she is ok with the idea of a boy because while we were still in the doctor's office she told me " It is ok mommy you can always give me a girl with the next baby!" The doctor said everything looks great with the baby and he is measuring 10oz. I have lost a total of 6 pounds and some days look really pregnant and some days you can not tell at all. It is the strangest thing! I am officially 20 weeks and 2 days and the due date has held steady at Sept. 3rd. I love being pregnant and am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to carry this little boy of mine. I am praying that even now God plants a love for Him so deep in his heart and even from a very young age he will be mighty warrior for the kingdom.