A visit with Greatgran and Pa

Greatgran and Pa came to Eufaula on Saturday right after lunch and hung out at the house until that evening.  Grandmother (that's what I call her), had put together several fun things for the girls to do, so they got busy.  Craig and I had a banquet to attend in the early evening and Greatgran and Pa were watching the girls for us.  We got home about 7:30 and you could tell they (the greatgrands) were exhausted. 

Grandmother was really sick last week and praying she would be well enough to make the trip, and she did.  Her energy level is still down though.  So after spending the day with 3 little girls, her energy was zapped!  They all had a great time though.

Anna Claire has been sick since Thursday.  I'm hoping she is on the mend now.  She seems to be a bit better today, but man she has had two really bad colds in a month. 

Pa preached Sunday and I had to miss it because Anna Claire had a fever, but Craig said it was Wonderful.  Hate I had to miss it.  They came and ate lunch with us and headed back to the Ham.  We had great fun spending time with them and look forward to the next visit.  I was going to take a picture of them with the girls before they left, but AC was taking a nap, and I forgot!!!

When I took these pics, Pa was checking his eyelids in another room so I didn't snap any of him!

We really enjoyed ourselves at the banquet!

Sick little baby playing in the kitchen floor while mommy cooked!

Adoption

Craig and I have talked for years about the desire to one day adopt children.  We always said one day in the future we would, and that day has arrived.  We went to our first class last week, which was more just information about making sure this is what/how you wanted to do adoption.  In March, we begin taking 3 hour classes for 10 weeks.  The whole process takes a while, so it could be a year before any children were placed with us.

We will more than likely do a sibling group, because there is a greater need for them.  Many people only want to adopt one at a time.  We are very excited about how God will work things out on this journey in our life.

Right now in the state of Alabama only, there are more than 300 children up for adoption.  That is a huge number for one state.

James 1:27 says, Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Please remember our family in your prayers as we embark on this journey.  Please always remember the very Many orphans all over the world.

Friday fun!

Today was actually a long day of school.  I thought we were going to be making the long trip to Opelika for AC who has a yucky cough, but I decided to wait it out through the weekend.  She got sick on the way home from Dothan last night coughing so much.  Here's to hoping she is much better tomorrow.

After a good day of school, the big girls and I made some pink lemonade cookies.  We had lots of fun in the kitchen and they tasted pretty good too.

I spent the evening with two sweet friends.  We did some shopping for the banquet tomorrow night, had some good dinner, some yogurt, and adult conversation with no interruptions, oh and lots of laughs.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

When I got home, the two big girls were still up and playing.  They said they were staying up till midnight.  I was like, oh what the heck, have at it.  They will be wanting a nap after lunch tomorrow!!!  The kitchen was completely spotless, 3 kids bathed, and 1 in the bed.  Go awesome daddy.  Thanks for the nice night out.

We are going to clean house in the morning and wait for our wonderful company to arrive around noon.

Ramblings

• Friday night we had some friends come over for dinner and fellowship.  We had a fun time with them.
• We are doing a study on Sunday night on end times with Gary Frazier and it's really interesting.
• We are having a revival in April and I'm really looking forward to seeing God move in a mighty way here.  There has been a lot of prayer and work put into this already.
• Abby and Kyndal went to some sweet church members house Monday night with some friends to watch a movie and have pizza.  They had a great time.
• Craig and I went to a informational class in Dothan last night and are very encouraged at seeing God work in our family.
• We are having some more wonderful visitors come this weekend and we are super excited about it.
• We are having a widow/widower banquet at the church this Saturday night and I'm looking forward to that too.  They are all such special sweet people.
• My baby will be 2 in less than 3 1/2 months.  WOW
• We are having more visitors in March that I'm excited about.
• Abby is taking the SAT in March, and I hope she does very well.
• I am really enjoying cooking these days, I would rather stay home and cook than eat out (for lots of reasons).
• I'm not doing too hot on eating less (what else is new).
• I put Anna Claire on her toilet each night before her bath and she has TT'd twice.  Yeah
• I am half way through reading the book Radical by David Platt, and wow it's very convicting and encouraging.
• We had our cable cut off (for a few reasons) and it makes more time for reading which is great!
• My kid who is turning 2 in less than 3 1/2 months is a mess, I tell you a M.E.S.S.
• I'm looking forward to meeting my new nephew, Maddox in July.
• I am very thankful for the family the Lord has blessed me with.
• I am very thankful to have been raised in a Christian home.
• I am very thankful for God's amazing grace and mercy and gift of salvation.
• My almost 2 year old baby slept until 9 am Tuesday.  I guess those sweet big girls wore her out over the weekend.
• I'm lacking in some patience's this week.
• I don't like messes, and there seem to be lots of them in our house right now.
• Anna Claire loves to have her nose plunged, I know very weird!
• I have a lot I should be doing right now, so I don't know why I'm still on this computer???

She thought she was something big putting on Kyndal's shoes!

Daddy jumping with them (popcorn)!

"Someones" messy desk?!?!?!

Silly girl that's a mess.  She brought this to me and wanted me to plunge her nose, and when I didn't, she tried to herself!!!



A weekend with Ella

Ella and Aunt Rikki came on Saturday about 3 pm.  The girls were literally standing on the couch looking out the window from 2:15 until they got there and asked 8,723 times when are they gonna get here.  They had a whole lot of fun together and we are so glad she got to come and spend the weekend with us.  They did lots of fun stuff and I will tell/show with pics....

Aunt Rikki crimped their hair for their fashion show!

Read some books!

Harassed Uncle Trest!

Played on the trampoline!

They begged Uncle Trest to come out and play with them!

Wii fun! (Here, I said girls act like your playing, b/c they were in between games!  They did some great acting)

Ipod entertainment!

Played

at

the

Park

Acted silly!!!

More jumping!



Anna Claire was absolutely entertained by them all weekend.  Especially at the dinner table, she would just laugh when they would laugh.  It was cute.  They all played so well and had a great time making great memories. 

Friday Photos

Playing her Ipod

Starting out early!  A & K are sweet to share with her, they put some painting game on there for her to play with.

Love

me

some cheese puffs!!!

Making some messy creation!

Thankfully her bed lowered one more notch, I am not ready for a toddler bed yet!

Looking cute!

Sneaky!  I couldn't find her and was calling her name, then I found her under the classroom table with markers.  That's where she goes because she knows she's not suppose to play with them!

Mom talk

As I was talking with another mom the other day, she was asking how I do school with Anna Claire (being that she is a 20 month old).  I told her I do phonics with Kyndal first thing in the living room so AC can play.  However, she plays half of the time and is all over us the other half, but we make it work.  I then said she has to go in the pack and play for about an hour and a half to two hours until lunch time.  After lunch she takes a nap and we finish our school day.  I said I hate to make her stay in that thing for that long, but I don't really have any other choices right now.  The mom said, hey at least she is at home with you instead of in a daycare.  Now, there is nothing wrong with daycares, but I'm sure most all women would rather be home with their babies.  My point is, that comment actually made me feel a little less bad about her being in the pack in play so long.  Small children are like sponges anyways, so who knows what she may be learning playing in the room with us doing school and like she said, she is at her home, with her mom and her sisters. 

I may have to start putting her in it full-time because the kid loves to climb on anything and everything.  She now pulls the kitchen chairs out, climbs up on one, and then up onto the table.  I'm telling you this girl is a mess!

Recently I was in our school room and Kyndal was taking a break and she took AC to play with her in their room while I did some work with Abby.  Well Abby went to the restroom and yelled, Mom you need to come here and it's an emergency.  So when I arrived in the restroom, AC had the toilet wand (Clorox toilet cleaner) in the toilet swishing it around.  Abby said, Kyndal just left her in here.  I got it from her and cleaned up the small mess, but I thought it was quite funny and smart.  While I was cleaning the other day, she was following me around watching and she watched me clean the toilet with that.  See, she is learning, little smart baby!!!!

Valentine Fun....

We had lunch at church yesterday with the senior adults.  We always enjoy that time with them.  Both girls had co-op and had a Valentine's party, so they were psyched about that.  They ate entirely toooo much junk yesterday.  I ran a few errands and gave the baby a very short nap.  I made dinner at home since we had our Valentine dinner out this past Friday. 

Sweet girls!

We did practical gifts for the girls, so Abby wanted a kids snuggie (it's on AC here), Kyndal wanted a princess thermos, and AC got princess eating utensils!!!

Waiting to get Abby and Kyndal from class!

Abby's goodies

Kyndal's goodies

Okay, I'm also going to attach a link below that you can go to and vote once everyday for Rikki Little(sister-n-law) and Trest Richerson(future brother-in-law) as they are trying to win a free wedding.  It's easy, you just have to register (do the extra points) and vote once everyday and tell all your friends too!!!!  Thanks in advance for helping them out!

http://www.jackingramvwgiveaway.com/

I think once I post this, the link may be in a light pink or light purple and hard to see, but it's between the line  here and the paragraph right above, so just look for it and click on it!

Our Love Story

I've seen this on several other blogs, so that's where I got it from......


1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
12 years

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}
A mutual friend of our families introduced us.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}
10 years this past December

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?
We got married at Central Baptist Church in Tarrant City (the church I grew up in).  I guess it was big, there were about 250-300 attending.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
Craig calls me Allye or gator

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
He is a great husband, daddy, pastor, and friend

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?
He took me to one of his favorite places to go camping, Lake Guntersville, after school (college) one Wednesday and we walked around and did some climbing and near the water somewhere he stopped and told me how much he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and of course I said yes!!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Hmm, he does do flowers, but not really on Valentine's day.  In my opinion he does even better than flowers, he does the dishes and cooks us breakfast almost every morning.  Those are things that mean alot to me.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Movie and relax. 

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
I would love to go to Hawaii and I would love to adopt a child.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
Cooking dinner!!!

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
Well, I got a new phone and a color wonder book (I know cheeeesy, but I like them).

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Encouraging one another, communicating with one another, praying with and for one another, helping and doing special things for one another.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

A man who loves the Lord first and foremost and loves his family unconditionally!  I am blessed!

More B'ham fun

While we were in B'ham last weekend for the reveal party, we actually got to visit with all of our family, which was super nice.  We ate lunch with MeMe on Friday and Monday.  Saturday evening we got to hang out and have dinner and Yogurt Mountain with Matt and Lindy, and there "littles", oh and Aunt Rikki joined us too.  Sunday we went to church with Mom and Steve, where Eron and Marley joined us.  Off to lunch with them and GiGi.  Then we headed over to Aunt K's for a few hours.  Sunday night, Uncle Trest and Aunt Rikki came with us to The Church at Brookhills, which was wonderful by the way.  GREAT church in the B'ham area if you are looking.  It was a fun trip and we were glad we could make it.

Trying to get a picture of all 5 of them posing proved impossible!

So, this is the best we could get!

Being loud and having fun, but we were outside so it was okay!

Wyatt laughs really loud when he gets excited and it is SO funny!

Who is under that pile of "little" girls?????

Poor Uncle Trest, welcome to the family!

One exhuasted baby!

Since I'm so late on posting this, we are all caught up on sleep now, but due to summer weather one day, and winter weather the next, we have 2 girls with snotty noses and coughs.  Glad it's this weekend and not next, because we are having some exciting company next weekend.  The girls are already talking nonstop about it!!!