Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Happy Birthday, Lily!


Two years ago on November 24, 2007, I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and knew something was about to happen! We called David's mom to come stay with William and we headed off to the hospital. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I had been worried for weeks that I might go into labor on Thanksgiving, and would not be able to eat my Thanksgiving favorites (sad, huh?). I had made it through the holiday with all of my favorites and even some leftovers! This Saturday was not just two days after Thanksgiving, it was also the day of the Auburn-Alabama game. Needless to say, there was some apprehension over whether she would be here before the game. When I arrived at the hospital I was about 2 centimeters dilated. They felt like breaking my water would speed the process up and that I would have Lily in no time ( I think some of the staff wanted to get to watching the game!) . After hours of waiting and hardening contractions, I still had only progressed to 5 cm. They again, thought that in no time I would go ahead and be ready to deliver. The 7 cm mark, that I eventually reached, meant that I was close the 8 cm, which meant an epidural was almost completely unnecessary. So I waited, with no epidural, because I thought I didn't have time for one. After a few more hours of pitocin (which they also thought would only speed things up) I was ready to deliver. So were several other people. Needless to say, it was a LONG, HARD labor. After 20+ hours of labor and a couple hours of pushing, and NO pain relief whatsoever, Lily was born. She weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. She had a head of light hair and a beautiful smile. Her big brother greeted her with homemade cupcakes to celebrate her "birth-day." Mommy was just glad to be ALIVE!
Today Lily is energetic, bright, funny, and still beautiful. She loves to laugh. She loves Elmo, Pooh, milk, pizza, girly things, big brother's toys, cake, brownies, jewelry, Handy Manny, Clubhouse Disney, Word World, the piano, singing, and listening to "Uncle Regi" play guitar and sing. She also loves her family, her baby brother Jo-Jo, her big brother Bubba, her babies (stuffed animals), her pink blankets, and so much more! She has funny names for some of the people in our family-why, we don't know! Uncle Jason is "Uncle Regi," Uncle Daniel is "Uncle Do-Do," Grammy is often "Nami" or "Nana," and of course there's "Seven." Gran is often "Gram" and Papa is "Papoo."
She is a joy everyday and a mess! We love being her parents and couldn't think of a better way to spend our lives, than loving and raising her to be a godly woman.

Monday, November 16, 2009

William's First "Friend Birthday Party"

William finally got to have his very first "friend party" for his birthday. This year we had our family birthday party the evening of his actual birthday and had a friend party the next Saturday. William invited friends from church and school. He had a blast! We played games and the kids won prizes for each game they played. They also all loved playing on the swingset and just running around!








Friday, November 13, 2009

CONGRATULATIONS Uncle Jason!




David's brother, Jason, has been playing the Montgomery entertainment circuit for the last couple of years. He has also participated in a couple of competitions. His most recent one has proven to be a very awesome opportunity for his music career. The Colgate Country Showdown hosts many competitions all across the country every year to narrow winners down to a final nationwide title. Jason and Andy are one competition away from competing at the national level. They will be representing the state of Louisiana in the regional competition in South Carolina.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Happy Birthday, Uncle Dave!






HAPPY BIRTHDAY from all of us! We love you!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Tribute to Uncle Daniel

We are sorry, Uncle Daniel, that we have left you out so often. Know that you were thought of often: when your tight tuck is in a photo or when you are making a crazy face in the background of a photo. We love you and will try to mention you specifically more often.
If there are any others out there in cyber world that feel "left out" of our blog, please let us know-we will make all efforts to include you.

And now, our Tribute to Uncle Daniel...


UNCLE DANIEL


Uncle Daniel at his wedding.


Uncle Daniel and his wife, Aunt Hali.


Uncle Daniel and William.



Uncle Daniel getting ready for his wedding.



Aunt Hali, Uncle Daniel's wife, playing with Lily's hair.


Uncle Daniel looking for his crab trap.

Uncle Daniel meeting Lily.


Uncle Daniel playing with the house.



William eating Uncle Daniel.




Uncle Daniel and David at Uncle Danny and Aunt Rosemary's wedding.




Christmas family picture, with Uncle Daniel.

Uncle Daniel and William looking at Christmas lights.

Uncle Daniel and Lily looking at Christmas lights.












Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Taylor Road Treats the Town 2009

Each year our church has an event called Taylor Road Treats the Town on Halloween. The idea is to invite all of Montgomery to our church for an alternative to Halloween. We have games, candy, free food, and fun! For the past two years we have had very large crowds, but this year topped it all with over 1,000 registered and hundreds more not registered. We are very blessed to be part of a church that is so willing to minister to, or "treat," the community. We, along with Belinda our Preschool Director, organize the event with the help of our staff and members too numerous to even count!
If you're ever in Montgomery on Halloween you should definitely stop by and visit us! We pray that this year's visitors will remember the love they were shown and will recognize it as God's love. We hope to have the chance to share Christ with every person who came-we will be busy!
(Oh, and we've heard rumors of this picture making it on a Christmas card:-)
And if you couldn't tell, William is an Auburn football player (we're saying a linebacker), Lily is an Auburn cheerleader, and Joseph is dressed like the football underneath his warm clothes!

William's Birthday Dinner

William turned 5 on a Thursday this year, so we decided to have a family dinner for a party. He wanted everything to be about the USS Alabama, so I tried as hard as I could and came up with the USS William. William also insisted on having noodle bake for supper. His guests included Pop, Mimi, Papa, Mommy, Daddy, Lily, and Joseph. Grammy was sick and at home and all of the aunts and uncles and great grandparents could not be there. William had a great time opening his gifts before supper and playing with them afterwards.































William got lots of stuff for his birthday! Gran and Grandaddy sent Auburn golf balls and t's to go along with his golf bag from Papa and Mimi. He also got a huge soft cave with 7 dinosaurs living inside, from Grammy and Pop. Some other gifts were books, dinosaur shirts, a cool flashlight, and lots of birthday wishes! (Lily even got a stuffed giraffe that she named Bert!) We had a FUN night!




William's Birthday Trip to Dreamfield Farms









It just so happened that this year's K-4 trip to Dreamfield Farms was on William's birthday! This was the case last year as well. David took off to spend the day with us at the farm and had so much fun that he decided to do it again! William and Lily loved the hay ride to find a pumpkin. They picked out one pumpkin together-impressive to me that they could agree on one!
































We had a great time riding the cow train, playing on inflatables, and making butter!