goodbye Greenbrier

I graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Interior Design. Although most of the classes were bent towards commercial design, CAD, and a lot of sketching, I knew I always wanted to be involved in residential design. Before graduating I had to intern to complete my degree. I only looked in Birmingham because well, that was my home but most importantly, that was where my fiance was living and I had to be near him :) So, God led me to Greenbrier Furniture and Interiors, and I have never left. Until now. My last day was July 1st! I love everyone I have worked with. You know you spend SO much time with the people you work with and I honestly looked forward to going in every day to do my job and to be with the people there. Sure, it wasn't always perfect, but we had fun! After I had Mallory I began working only 3 days and this was perfect for my schedule. I almost looked even more forward to going in those 3 days because I knew she was well taken care of and I felt like it made me a better mother the days I was at home with her and then her and Haynes. So now God is leading me away from there for the time being and I hope to return one day, whenever that may be!















I wish I could've gotten pics with everyone but these are a few of my coworkers, Tricia, Patty, and Joy, and my boss Gary.
(yes there were 2 Joy's, we were both "young and blond, and pregnant together!")















my goodbye party consisted of cookies and icecream :)















my little corner of a station
















Tricia, Joy, and Patty again

















always making me laugh!

song for the weekend

22 months

Wow, 22 months, so close to 2! That means I need to start thinking about a party!
This little girl is precious and so sweet but as I've said before, she is saucy too. She is entering that stage but here I'll just call it the "terrific twos" :)
When we say "it's time to go night night" she replies "wake up"
When we say "mallory, sit down" she says "i stand up"
Does that give you a hint?
The past few mornings she says "good morning!" as soon as we enter her room.
She is saying sentences every now and then such as:
"I miss you daddy"
"I wanna eat dis"
"dont cry baby"
"i hep feed baby"
















Today I found her coloring on tile with her sidewalk chalk (don't worry mom, it washed right off) and she was saying "cool draw! cool draw!"
This morning I also was asking her why she woke up so early and she kept saying "ummm cause, ummm cause, i wake up!"
She is still singing like crazy, mostly ABC's, twinkle twinkle little star and the itsy bitsy spider.
I have started trying potty training and she thinks its interesting but we have had no real success.
She has gotten so good at giving Haynes his paci if he needs it and still wants to hold him all the time. She talks about going to the pool a lot and loves jumping on the beds hence this pic below...

























Who you think Mallory most resembles?

our July 4th

Our dear friends, the Nix's, invited us and the Huff's, to their lake house on the 4th. Their place is on Smith Lake so it only took a little over an hour to get there. We left as soon as we could get up and going that day and enjoyed time with special friends on the water and eating some delicious food!!

5 months

this little guy figured out what a camera is! he was working it :)

where did june go?

Seriously, did I wake up from a deep sleep? Half of summer over?
I am working on a pretty long post so in the mean time I thought I would post some never-seen-on-the-blog-pics of the loves of my life!












































































Happy Birthday to Aunt She' She' (my brother's wife) who turns 28 today! Love you!

resting

First, thank you to everyone for calling, emailing, and commenting! Blogs are great networking tools and I am so thankful that people all over were praying for us. I am still thinking back to Wednesday, thanking God for the way he cared for Ash that day. As he does every day. But I do know the circumstances could have been far worse for him.

Ash had what you call a grand mal seizure. I won't go into details but it consists of violent muscle contractions and a period of unconsciousness. We got released from St. Vincent's Thursday morning being told that every test that was run came back completely normal. So I asked the neurologist, "100% you can tell me, nothing else is going on in his body that would've caused this?" He said, "well this is not a bank account, but according to everything we can look at, he is completely normal" and "we tell people, everyone is entitled to one seizure in his/her life." Crazy, huh!? I am very glad I did not have to watch it happen. Although I think if it happened again and I was with him, I would be prepared and okay. But we are believing that this was the only one ever.

His only orders from the doc are that he cannot drive for 6 MONTHS, state law. Yeah, he is not real thrilled about that but I am totally fine with it!
So, Ash has been sleeping a TON. He is sleeping right now. His body obviously needed it. Besides being tired he is back to his usual self but his arm is extremely sore. It was out of socket for almost 4 hours.

Thanks again for everyone's care and concern and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

God is Good

hey everyone. quick update. Ash is currently having an MRI. long story short, ash had a seizure this morning at work around 10. I got a call at work and made it there in time to ride in the ambulance with him. It has been the scariest day of my life, to say the least. Here is why I am SOOO thankful...
Ash is fully cognitive and feels as good as he can under the circumstances.

He was at work, PTL! bc ya'll he almost called in sick this morning. He had been fighting sinus stuff and had actually taken some nighttime sinus meds last night around 11 before he went to bed. He would've been alone at our house or maybe with the kids had he not gone into work.


He was not driving PTL!!! He took both kids to their daycare and of course if it had happened in the car, it could have been tragic.


He had many people around him at work who were able to describe everything to me and who were with him the whole time.
God is good. He loves Ash so much and we are thankful today.

He did dislocate his shoulder which could have happened during the seizure or as he fell out of his chair when he went unconscience.
We have been under tremendous stress lately, not sleeping enough and very busy. It is still our hope and prayer that these are the only factors leading to his seizure. Please pray for us, that his body would completely recover and that he would be able to have true rest. That His body is HEALED IN JESUS' NAME and that he will NEVER experience another seizure for the rest of his LONG life.

love.it.

Two of my favorites right now, all in one.

ode to daddy

As most girls do when they choose their mate for life, they think about their man as their baby's father. When I was a little girl, about Mallory's age, I was already playing "mommy" just like she does. Isn't it funny that the mommy instinct actually comes before the wife instinct? We, as little girls, tend to care for our baby dolls long before we start playing in our mini kitchens, or cleaning up with our toy vacuums, or even dressing up in wedding attire. So it didn't take me long to see that Ash was created for many things but definitely to be a dad. My first glimpse of this was seeing him with Anders (his little brother) who was only 2 when we first started dating. Of course we all can't be perfect parents but I think Ash is a little closer to that than I may be as a mom. He absolutely adores Mallie Bean and Haynes. He is patient and kind but not afraid to discipline. He is understanding and loving and always has fun with them. In church on Sunday Pastor Craig Groeschel was talking about how universally, children's first word is some form of dada. God has created in us a deep need for a Father. I am thankful that my children have Ash as their earthly Father so they will find it easy to have a deep loving relationship with the one that loves them the most, Abba Father.
Happy Father's Day Ash!

last weekend's wedding

Last weekend in review...























We stayed here right in the heart of downtown and loved it!


























Every time we get to any hotel room, Mallie goes crazy on the bed!














































downtown Saturday morning hosted a weekly farmer's market with tons of vendors





























the bridesmaid's, MOB and beautiful bride!
















sweet Grace Ann Swift!
















me and Haley

















the very happy couple!
















everyone getting down, literally
btw. where was i when everyone learned this dance, superman??!
















precious girl conked out!

21 months (almost over)

I've been meaning to post about Mallie at 21 months and now she is almost 22! Where has this month gone and is it really almost July? Gosh I feel like time is racing by faster than usual. And is my newborn really nearing his half year mark! aaahhh!























Mallory frequently has her little meltdowns which basically is some whining over nothing really. Just the other day after whining about not being able to get out of the stroller, she cried enough (with her hand in her mouth) to make herself throw up. Scared her to death. I was so sure it was some stomach bug but PTL it wasn't.

















She loves to draw and whenever she sees a pen she asks to do this and she is even telling us things she is drawing, most frequently a "floweh" or a "circul"

























We had some little swim lessons this month that more than anything just gave me some tips on what to be doing with her in the water. At this stage she is the typical first child - a little too fearful reserved.

























She eats so well by herself. Just about everything I let her do, well except soup, and a lot of times by the end of it she'll say "mommy hep mommy hep" because she can't get that last bite in her mouth.








































She loves loves loves her brother. Constantly asking to "hold baby" or "where baby go?" or "don't kie baby" It is so sweet now because when he sees her he smiles. I love it.




Favorite foods are still raisins, waffles, cracker, cookie, nanas, noodles, and rice. Her newest are hamburgers, chips, juice, tea (from Susu), wawa, cake, fries, all of which we don't eat very often. Oh and this girl loves to sing. Of course she won't sing for anyone else but many times throughout the day she is asking me "mommy abc's" or "mommy upabove" which is twinkle twinkle little star or "bible" which is Jesus loves me. And many times if Ash is there she makes all 3 of us sing together. Sometimes we catch her in the car or in her crib singing by herself and the song usually goes like this:
"inkle inkle wittul staaaw ow i wunda wut u aaar upupbuv da ul so igh wike a dube (or baby) in da di inkle inkul wittul da, ow i wunda ut yoo awe. yay!! (clapping for herself)
oh and if you ask her how old she is she shouts "two!"
not yet baby, not yet.

busy time

Lately I have found the time to upload some pics but not to really write want I would like to post about. As is the case tonight. We just returned from a fun weekend in South Carolina for a wedding that I was in. It was an awesome picture of God's faithfulness and love. Weddings have slowed down a lot for us lately, compared to the previous 4 or 5 years and now we mostly do baby stuff but this weekend reminded me how much I love being a part of a wedding. Especially the ones where you completely see God's hand on everything and where the bride and groom truly want to give all the glory to the Lord and not themselves. Hopefully I can get the pics from the weekend uploaded this week and show you a few. So, in the mean time here are some cute kid pics.

dedication

This past Sunday we officially dedicated our little boy to the Lord. We stood before our church congregation as a commitment to raise him up in the ways of Jesus. We are so blessed and humbled by the fact that we now have 2 children to raise to know, love, and serve their Creator! I know I need the work of the Holy Spirit in me to do this moment by moment throughout each day. I pray everyday that I am honoring Him as I do the work He has called me to do as their mommy.













We ate a delicious lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and celebrated with a yummy cake. Oh and mom whipped up Haynes' gown literally 2 days before the service. She is amazing!



see his cute little monogrammed panties trousers?

summer morning

we will be here for some of our day today - yay for summer !

my new favorite

meredith andrews, listen...to both!


she also has another familiar one called "You're Not Alone"
but here is my next favorite



Praise God for his invitation to us and that we can worship Him through the incredible gift of music!

baby birds

Thanks to all who commented on my last post and boosted a little blog insecurity!:) I'm not sure if 25 comments merited a blog giveaway though. Hmmm....














Well, we successfully uploaded our recent pictures on our new computer and as you can tell I have been making a few changes to the blog.

















Thanks to Amanda, via Paula, I have begun adding new fonts as well. You can find her tutorial here. I must add that the tutorial was really good, but if it wasn't for my html-knowledgeable husband, I couldn't have done it. I do pride myself at times on being able to "figure things out" but somewhere along the way on this I got stumped.


So, this is our mailbox.
























For weeks now we noticed a gathering of straw in the box below the actual mailbox and felt confident that a little birdie was making a new home. After days of checking mail, the straw didn't look too much like a nest but I think I saw a bird scatter from this location as I approached it at least once or twice.
This past Sunday I was outside with Mallie and noticed the mailbox door was open and dropped so I proceeded to walk over to shut it. As soon as I got close I heard lots of little chirping noises!! So curious me decides to look at these little creatures.
Well in order to do so, this had to happen.
























But eventually I pulled out enough straw to see this.












































4 little chirping baby birds still in broken shells, with fresh feathers, eyes wide shut, and beaks stretched out enough that I know it had to hurt. I even held Mallory up while holding the nest sturdy enough so that it wouldn't fall on the ground. She kept saying "baby birds, baby birds" with that not so perfect "r" sound.
The next day I went back just knowing I could get a pic of some progressively growing birds and as soon as I pulled out the nest enough to see it, NO BIRDS.
I was so fearful that my tampering with the nest had kept the mama bird from coming back to her babies!! But, I heard a little scampering and a few weak squeaks and noticed that they had all squirmed their way out of the nest, laying in the mailbox.
I still thought, oh no, something has happened and they haven't been fed and they are going to die here and smell up this thing and I am going to have to remove them.
Upon a whim, I decided to get a stick and gently assist the birds back into their nest. Maybe the mama bird would hear her babies from afar and return with some worms. At this point I was figuring I should stay away for a little while and let nature take its course. So yesterday as I was leaving the house I saw the mama bird fly out of the mailbox!! Yay! She had returned to save her babies!! And today as I drove up to put some mail in, that mama bird didn't even fly away. She was sitting right there in her nest with her babies, staring at me, almost making a statement to leave them alone.
I don't think I can do that though. I'll have to return in a few days with the camera so I can show you how they've grown.


















*updates on the kiddos coming soon

4 months

sugarbumpkin baby boy, he tastes SO sweet!




stats:
15lbs 13.5oz (80th%)
27 inches (97th%)
hc 16

come out come out wherever you are

Don't think you can hide! I know who you are! :)
My friend Darby recently talked about how less than 1% of her blog followers were commenting on her posts. Well she has a lot more followers than me but only about 1-2% of YOU that read my blog let me know through a comment or becoming a follower. "I was starting to feel like our friendship was one-sided... like me doing all the talking and y'all doing all the listening and that can only last for so long, ya know?"















So, please come out of your shell and let me know I have some blog friends! :) (and yes, I'm talking to ALL of my family and you too Elaina!)
If I have a good response, maybe I'll do a random drawing and send one lucky person a little goodie! :)
Have a great weekend!!



UPDATE - On Sunday May 31st, my blog was viewed by 149 of you. so, where are you?

hello I'm back

We just got our new laptop in the mail this week so very very soon I will be able to upload all of our recent pics and catch everyone up! Mostly, we are SO busy right now and for most of you readers you know why. It is one of those seasons for us where we are on the brink of a lot of change and so there is a lot of stress that comes along as well. I am casting every care and "load" that I have on my Lord because I know his yoke is easy and his burden is light! Thank you Jesus!














You know when you also have seasons where you seemed to be surrounded by a lot of pain, hurt and even death? God is reminding me how fleeting this life is and that our days are numbered. This picture above I had posted in the blog a while back. This is my friend Nealey with Mallory when she was oh so little. Please pray today for Nealey and her family who today are burying their son and brother. He passed away on Wednesday morning. He was only 27 years old. Not time for him to leave this earth. At least from our point of view.
If you have someone on your heart that is hurting today let me know. I want to add a link to the blog that takes you to sites of families that are going through very difficult times and would love to know who in your life is in need of a miracle. Thank you God that you promise to hear us when we pray and that whatever we ask for in your name, it is given us. And give us the grace to understand your words.