Travelin'

We are going to be traveling tomorrow and I am really dreading it...and we have to do it again in about 3 weeks to come home for Christmas!  Jordan is sleeping, I am packing and Mom is helping me gather all of the mountain of baby things scattered around the house.  As usual, we are leaving with more than we came with.  I'm going to have to leave some things here!  We visited Santa today at the mall (more about that later!) and we got to go see a movie!  We never get to go out and I knew there would be no way we would be seeing Four Christmases anytime soon, so Gran and Aunt Janna took JM around the mall to shop while we went to see the movie!  It was cute and I liked it a lot.  I love Christmas romatic comedies!

I found out the weather forecast for home and I am NOT excited.  You should have seen the look I shot Jordan when he told me there could be snow or freezing rain.  Ugh.  Winter is coming too soon and I just don't want to be driving in it tomorrow.  Hopefully, we will have a safe, cry-free trip back home!  It will be nice coming home to an already decorated house!

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On a more random note:





Look at these itty-bitty teeny-weeny baby tomatoes that came out of my grandfather's garden.  I think they are precious! 

Verse O' the Day:

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

In Everything, Give Thanks!

What a special Thanksgiving this year with a little one at our table!  We began JM on sweet potatoes so that he could join in on our Thanksgiving feast.  He likes them pretty well, but he really likes the apricots that I made today!  I simply bought a bag of dried apricots and hydrated them with water and juice, then I pureed them!  Pretty easy and he liked them so much!  We ate Thanksgiving two times yesterday.  JM refused to sleep ALL afternoon but I got a nap, as I am under the weather with an icky cold or something.

All the men frying up a turkey!

[caption id="attachment_182" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Check out our new big boy sippy cup!"][/caption]

Sweet potatoes at Gran's Thankgiving table.

We had such wonderful Thanksgiving foods at both parent's houses.  It's so nice to be with family and watch them play with and love on John Michael.  This Thanksgiving I thought back to last Thanksgiving when I was still pregnant.  I could hardly sit at the table because of the smell of all the food made me sick.  I was able to eat a few bites but that was all, then I slept all day on the couch!  I guess I was about 4 months pregnant and JM was still a teeny fetus and here he is, this year with us!  It's so amazing to think back on and to realize how we can't imagine life without him!

Such a big boy at MeMe's Thanksgiving table!

MeMe's Thanksgiving table

There are so many things that I'm thankful for this year.  I don't have the time or the room to type them all but I am most thankful to God for giving us our family:

Our Little Family

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And just for fun, I thought I would share a few pictures of John Michael enjoying his freshly-made apricots!  They're too funny not to share!

Verse O' the Day:

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30

Baby You Can Drive My Car!

This little baby drove us all the way back home!  He was ready to get back to Alabama to see all of his grandparents and uncles and aunts!

Beep Beep!

We just did some shopping today at the Boaz Outlets and generally hung out.  We were all in shock this morning when JM took a 2 hour nap!!!   That is almost a record for him.  He's being pretty restless on his monitor right now, so I'm sure tonight will be interesting and long.  Hopefully not!  Jordan and I got a rare treat when Gran took JM off our hands yesterday morning and we got to sleep for 2 whole hours!  I slept so well that I even dreamed...that does not usually happen!

Tomorrow morning we will pack up and "move" to my parent's house to finish out the rest of the week, as Jordan's sister and his step-dad's children come in for Thanksgiving.  We have to move a full 8 houses up the street!  So convenient! 

 I don't have any new pictures, but this one cracks me up!  JM doesn't need a boppy pillow to prop up with, he has his own personal fluffer named Jack!

Dedication

What a wonderful Sunday we have had!  We did John Michael's baby dedication today at church and it was SO wonderful!  I was baptized at 12th Street Baptist Church, was born into this church, and Jordan and I were married there.  John Michael did wonderfully, he just looked out at the crowd and looked around and looked at the pastor, like he understood what he was saying! Brother Craig said the most wonderful things, it brought tears to my eyes.  He talked about how we and our parents had been praying for this baby and that John Michael was so loved.  I just loved the sweet things that he had to say about our families and us.  He also talked about John Michael's name; he talked about what each name meant and John and Michael from The Bible.  

The only picture that came out well!

We took so many pictures after church.  My aunts and my grandparents drove up for the dedication and our parents were there.  After church, we all came home and ate some seriously yummy food. 

Papaw and JM

Papaw, JM, and Dad.

Four Generations!

The Great Aunts!

My Two Brothers!

After church we came home and ate and ate and ate!  We had the best time visiting and John Michael got to be held by everyone.  He's going to be so spoiled when we get back home!

I can't imagine a yummier dessert table!

We have so many fun things planned for this Thanksgiving week.  I hope everyone remembers to be thankful for all of the "little" things in your lives...we are!

First Things First!

The past week or so has held a lot of "firsts" for John Michael!  He is growing so fast and I don't want him to keep growing and getting older!  John Michael had his first "big boy" bath in our big bathtub.  He is sitting up so well and he has the best time splashing around and reaching for his new tub toys.  He truly loves it!

Splish Splash boy!

Now that John Michael is sitting up pretty well, I decided that I should give the shopping cart a try.  I finally got to use my handy shopping cart cover and it worked so well.  It kept him strapped in, plus it is padded and I can attach toys to it.  He liked it and he did well sitting up while we did some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  My little baby should not be old enough to be sitting up in a shopping cart!!!!!

This is new!

Our shopping cart cover also came in handy for John Michael to sit up in his first high chair at Applebee's.  He did a pretty good job and he had fun being able to sit up and see everything.  The only problem with him sitting up is that he wants to look up at everything on the ceiling and his head kept falling backwards! 

Sittin' up!

Look how straight I sit!

My first Christmas tree experience! We're just getting started!

 And yes, even though it goes against everything that I believe in, we put up the tree.  I decided that since it's our first Christmas in our first home and it's John Michael's first Christmas, I would like to enjoy Christmas decoations for as long as possible.  My village is set up (but not all the 1,000 plugs are plugged in yet) the tree is up with tree skirt and cascading bows, lights in the windows, and wreath on the front door!  John Michael has his very own lil boy tree in his nursery that I'm going to fill with lots of fun and interesting ornaments. More about that later.  Tomorrow is Friday!

Verse O' the Day:

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10

The One With the Lightbulb Moment

So, the other day I had a huge epiphany.  I had a huge moment of "oh my gosh...I get it!"  We are doing Beth Moore's Loving WellBible Study at church on Tuesday mornings, and while I have missed a few weeks of it, I was able to make it this past Tuesday.  I really enojoyed the DVD and I learned so much from that one session.  From what I can tell, the study is all about how we have been called to love others because God has first loved us.  Not only that, but we are loved...so loved.  God really does love each and everyone of us and it's just so hard to fathom that.  It's been hard for me to realize that and to know that His love is true, real and more than we could imagine as human beings.

Back to my story.  So, JM has been especially fussy and just not quite himself here lately.  I put him in his swing to hang out for a little bit so that I could get a few things put away so my house wouldn't wouldn't look like a tornado came through.  He, of course, started fussing at me and was really not too excited about being put in his swing.  He really let me know about it when I left the room to put some things away.  I came back quickly, all the while telling him this:

"JM, I am here, I am not leaving you."

"Don't you know your Mama loves you so much and would never leave you...I'm here"

"Your Mama's not going to let anything bad happen to you because she loves you soooo much!"

While it didn't calm him down too much, it was so profound to me.  Had I not learned of my Heavenly Father's love for me this very same morning and really, my whole life in church?  Do I believe it everyday of my life?  One lady from study said that we've lost the wonder of God's love for every single one of us...I think that's true.  As I said the words aloud to JM to assure him of my presence and my love, I was in awe of the fact that by saying it aloud, I finally got it.  It's what I've been studying and what I know to be true: God loves us.  Just the night before this I read this verse that stuck out at me:

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  Heb 13:5

 I love these next few statements.  They were taken from the Beth Moore small group study guide for Loving Well:

Do you know how much I love you?  Do you know that I have never forsaken you nor will I ever reject you?  I will always be there.  I love you unashamedly. 

These are the things that we feel about our children - unconditional, enduring love - but we must never forget that we are children of God.  As His child, he feels these things for us, also.

All right, I am SO stepping off my soapbox right about now.  I won't be back on it again until something either makes me mad or something profound happens to me!  Tomorrow I'll be back to my regular posting of precious pictures of John Michael and our fluffer.

Alabama Football Is...

Since Alabama is currently ranked #1, I thought that I would write a little about what my school means to me....sounds like a 4th grade homework assignment!  I got this list from an email, but I just loved it so much that I had to blog about it!  No doubt, my family's blood runs crimson and white!

It is Bear Bryant.

It is hearing Keith Jackson call an Alabama game.

It is a houndstooth hat.

It is hearing the first notes of Sweet Home Alabama

It is the desire to beat Auburn at any competitive event that exists.

It is determining who you are going to date & marry by which team they swear allegiance to.

It is watching The Bear on the jumbotron before a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium and almost seeing him leaning against the goalpost in the end zone.

It is right behind God and family.

It is knowing how many days until the start of a season year around (Just ask my brother, Ray...he knows!)

It is getting chills up and down your entire body whenever you hear anything about the 1993 Sugar Bowl and the pride you feel because that night tradition ruled.  (We were THERE!!)

It is hearing The Bear's voice and having all the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up because you know no matter he said, it was something special.

It is purposely not wearing any clothes with the colors orange and blue.   SO TRUE!

It is the pride that a father has when he brings his children to a game so they may cherish the tradition.

It is beating LSU in Baton Rouge

It is having 12 National Titles

It is tradition

It is having 21 Southeastern Conference Titles

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I never got to finish posting pictures from our trip down to Tuscaloosa.  We made so many wonderful memories taking JM to his first homecoming and football game!

Russell Hall...where I spent so much time in nursing school.

The Gorgas House..where we got engaged!

The exact spot where we got engaged...now with JM!

The Stadium

Did I mention we had awesome seats?! We got to bring the stroller and had plenty of room.

The end-result of JM's first gameday!

I Need More Cowbell!

At church this morning we had Kelly's baby shower for Baby Harper!  Everything looked just wonderful with accents of pink and brown.  I made spinach dip and put it inside of a hollowed-out purple cabbage.  I always love spinach dip with fritos.  It's always so good and such a dependable treat to make and serve.  The food was really good and it looked so pretty set up on the tables.  The punch was especially yummy!

Coffee and water.

Kelly got so many wonderful gifts.  Baby Harper will not go without bottles, burp cloths, diapers, dresses, and other generally cute stuff!  Kelly opened gifts for about 2 whole hours!

The gift table.

Laurie helped Kelly write down all her gifts!

 I gave Harper a precious, light pink smocked dress that will be perfect for summertime.  Ginger's little girl, Alex, helped Kelly open all of her presents! She was a wonderful present helper. That's her in the far left corner looking at the dress.

A wonderful morning was had by all!  Showers are so much fun.  It's so nice to celebrate precious babies that God has given us.  No doubt, Harper will be so loved, wanted, and spoiled rotten-like all little girls should be!

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Now....to the cowbell!  Tonight is the Alabama vs. Mississippi State ballgame in T'town.  Of course, we'll be watching and eating leftover spinach dip...lots of spinach dip.  John Michael was dressed in his Alabama gear this morning ready to cheer on the Tide!

Ready for the game!

Let's hope this face doesn't forecast what's to come tonight!

We all know how John Michael's church nursery friend, Baby Wells, loves his cowbell!  I'm sure Wells will be cheering on MS State and JM will be cheering on the Tide tonight.  To be honest, I don't know why they have a cowbell or what it means, but I know Wells sure looks cute posing next to it!  They may not be friends tomorrow at church nursery.  Kacy has already warned me not to dress JM in anything Alabama tomorrow, but you never can tell what will happen during a ballgame.  IF MS State wins, you betcha Wells will be in his MS State outfit!  Mike would be so proud.  The game is on and it's a sell-out crowd of 92,000+.  I know Dad and Ray are going to have a great time!  Coach Croom and Dad played football together at UA in the '70s and still keep in touch from time to time.  Hey folks, seven degrees of seperation!  Roll Tide y'all!

So Proud

So, last night was all about Jordan.  We joined him at the Home Office for his graduation from the Dale Carnegie class on leadership, public speaking, etc.  It was a 12 week class and it last from 5pm-10p, every Wednesday.  It's quite a sacrifice from family time, not only for our family, but there were several people in the class with small children, also.  It lasted forever, but John Michael did very well. He was very, very smiley and cooey yesterday and he carried that over to last night.  He smiled at everyone and played so well and was hardly a disruption as people gave their "graduation" speeches and got their certificates.  I would never be able to take this class.  I would throw up at having to get up in front of people and speak and act things out.  Not my thing.  Most everyone with Wal-Mart has taken the class.  It's like a rite of passage.

Jordan giving his speech.

There was a potluck dinner inbetween sessions and I brought little cheesecake squares with caramel, peacans, and chocolate drizzled over the top and brownies with a peanut butter topping topped with chocolate.  I wasn't a huge fan of the brownies, but the cheesecake was good and I got a lot of compliments on it!

We are so proud of Jordan and all what he has accomplished through work.  He is such a hard worker, wonderful husband, and great father. He was just a natural at knowing exactly what to do with John Michael.  I knew what I was doing when I picked this one out of all the high school boys!  If your'e reading this today at work, Jordan, I'm so proud of what a hard worker you are and all that you do not only at work, but when you get home!  Thanks for unloading the dishwasher last night when I was too tired!

Ahhh...I love our wedding pictures. One of my fav.

Well, this afternoon we have family portraits in the fall leaves!  Yay!  They were supposed to be tomorrow but the weather may not be great, so I got the dog groomed real fast yesterday and picked out everyone's outfits, wahsed them, and ironed them and hopefully we'll look fab-a-luss this afternoon!  Wish us lots of smiles for JM and no ADHD for the dog!

What a cutie!

Adventures in Babyfood Making

Let me begin by saying:  Happy Veterans Day!  Both of my grandfathers served and Jordan's stepdad, Nat, served in the Air Force in Vietnam!  Papaw Farmer served in Korea and Papaw Maxwell served in the South Pacific. Thank you to all veterans for serving our country and keeping us all safe!

I spoke too soon when I said that we had no complications from yesterday's shots.  John Michael woke up with fever during the night.  It wasn't too high, but I had slacked off on my tylenol since he was sleeping so well.  Poor thing, he was all bundled up and we had the heat on AND he had fever.  I felt like a terrible mother.  Anyway, he's better today but we're just taking it easy.

This morning I decided to get started on making baby food.  I decided to do this a few months ago and I did my research and ordered two books on Amazon.com.  We had 3 pears in the fridge, so pears it was!  I peeled, chopped, and cooked them on the stove for about 20 minutes.

After they cooled I put them into our handy new mini blender that Gran bought for us!  Works like a charm.  I felt like I should put some more liquid in, so I put in water and pear juice.  I really have NO idea what I'm doing.  Just like all this baby stuff, I'm learning as I go.  I felt like it needed to be a little more runny for him since he's just starting out.

Yummy pears!

It made a pretty good bit, just to be 3 pears.  I've got to run to the store later today and buy ice cube trays so that I can freeze the leftovers.  Whenever I need food, I will just pop out however many "ice cubes" and thaw it out (so the books say).  If anyone has any tips about homemade baby food, please leave me a comment.  This is all very new.  We don't even own a highchair yet.  Aren't we terrible parents!

The Result......

Anticipating our first food!

Not so sure about this...

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Happy, full baby!

We'll see if he eats more of it tonight. He only ate about half of his rice cereal and the pears this afternoon.  It's so cold and dreary looking outside.  I really don't want to have to get out in it.  I'm afraid that this is going to be my attitude for the next 4 months or so.  I'm going to have to make myself get out and about and do things this winter so that John Michael and I don't get cabin fever.  It will be my third winter up here,  but I just can't get used to the cold wind, ice, and occasional snow.  I freeze constantly and my little heater from college is my constant companion throughout the winter.  Happy Tuesday everyone!

Verse of the Day:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24