Merry Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving in Tennessee this year with Matt's family, and we had a great time. On a side note, We just found out last night that one of our friends from college lost her little girl in a car accident they were in yesterday. Helen, their daughter, was two. Kristy is in serious condition with a broken back-I believe she has surgery today-...please keep their family in your prayers; I know they will need all the Strength they can get.

I say all that to say that we are SO very blessed and thankful for the time we had with our family. Sometimes it's easy to forget how very blessed we are and that we are immeasurably wealthy.



I realized after we were on our way home that I didn't take one picture on Thanksgiving day, but I also realize that the most important thing is that we experienced it together.

Moments from our week:

Bubba dresses little Ava in her Christmas pj's they gave her.

Some music time with daddy:

My two Christmas angels:

Nonni gave us the coolest pop up book: the Chronicles of Narnia.

Grayson got a big doctor's set from the Dyal's and he LOVED it....still playing with it, by the way.

Jim and Mary Ida opening her tea set we gave her.

This is my fav: love the way Grayson is looking up at his daddy....if that's not adoration, I'm not sure what is.

Gray and Mary cuddling with Nonni to watch some tv.

Love that I got a (smiling) picture with my grown up little boy...

Gray in front of the Grand Ole Opry on the night we saw the Rockettes.

Tot School-Thanksgiving Week

This week was, of course, had tot school on hold with no planning of any activities other than having fun and being thankful for all of our blessings. We were heading up to Matt's parents' on Wednesday, so our first few days were filled with cleaning, packing, cooking, and Gray's post-op checkup. He did pick a few things himself'...I also threw in a couple of what we were up to this week.

He pulled out his Dinosaur tot pack games and had fun with those one day.


We then finished his Thanksgiving "Blessings" shape book. We cut out the shape of the turkey and cut pictures to glue on the pages of things Grayson said he was thankful for.

He was thankful for....

My favorite this week:

Ava had some fun of her own:

He found his sensory tub in the top of his closet and he asked so sweetly that I gave in and let him strew pasta all over our floors before going out of town (and leaving the pasta there because there was no time to clean up).

A little fun with daddy....doing some yoga on Wii Fit....notice Grayson had to have a fit board all of his own.

Raising Rock Stars-Wise and Foolish Man

We have joined Carissa at 1+1+1=1 in her Raising Rock Stars Posts. She has based bringing up her sons and daughter in the Lord off of the verses Matthew 7, "it (the wise man's house) did not fall because it had its foundation on the Rock," and Philippians 2:15: "so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." This is the heritage I wish to pass on to my children as well.

This is, for me, somewhat of an accoutability group. It is encouraging to know that there are moms out there "raising rock stars" like I am striving to do, and this posting holds me accountable to what I am entrusted to teach my children. Plus, it's a way for me to record these memories of Grayson and Ava learning in the most important subject!

I am a little off my posting this week, so this is last week's family Bible time...we do this on Sunday nights, and everyone is involved....except when Ava's sleeping in her swing, of course!


Our Bible story was the wise and foolish man from Matthew 7. First Daddy read "The Wise and Foolish Builders, which is a poem based on the Bible story and gives a "moral of the story" at the end of the book. Grayson really seems to enjoy the rhyming style of this book.

We decided we wanted to do some kind of project during our Bible time; Grayson really learns more from doing (kinetically), and it's fun for all of us. I decided the easiest thing to do every week would be to color as a family and play some "games." Again, I just get these ideas from very smart moms out there and print it out at home. We were having technical difficulities that night, so we drew our "house on the rock" and colored it in. Daddy and Grayson colored together and I colored beside them....Ava slept. :)

Singing "The wise man built his house upon the rock..."

Glittering their rock

Then we built our own house with a strong foundation.

Daddy led us in a prayer asking that we rely on only God for our foundation and we draw our strength from him. This time is absolutely precious to me; watching Matt with my children like this only deepens my love for him in such an intense way. I love that he's raising up our children in the Lord and actively participating with us!

Around here, our art projects aren't complete without a little painting...

The finished products:

Our books for our lesson:

I look forward to posting this so we can go back and look at what we were learning about when Grayson and Ava were....(fill in the blank!) Blessings!

Flashback Friday-Vacations!

This week's theme for Flashback Friday's is "Vacations." I have to warn you, though: this is a rather lengthy post! I was only going to pick a couple of photos, but I decided that since I'm using this as a family journal, I wanted to post as much as I had the patience for. It will be nice to have these grouped together to look back at one day. If you dare, enjoy our journeys!


I must say if I had limitless funds, I would travel endlessly. Matt is the same way; we were both raised by traveling parents and now that we have our own family, we make it a point to share experiences with them as much as we can. Here's a lot of our favorite moments from the past 7 years or so.


Even though we probably wouldn't call them vacations, our mission travels to Honduras are without a doubt our favorite experiences as a married couple in Christ. Here's a couple shots from two of our trips there:


This was the first time I went in 2005, and I had a hard time leaving. This was before we passed out some toys and clothes to the a group of kids. I will say, this moment was one of the most monumental in my life. I felt God all around me, as we do when we are solely relying on Him, and at that moment, I could not imagine leaving this place...

After that, Matt and I had made plans to stay in Honduras for at least 3 months, but there were other plans in store for us....soon, we found out we were expecting Grayson.

Here is our trip from last summer...June 2008:

I just love that the picture below was us in our finest....we, the group leaders!

Looking at this picture below, it reminds me of how much I love the man that has been entrusted to me....without him, I would have never lived out my love for others in this way. I am inexplicably blessed!

My heart for the people in Honduras is limitless, but I have to admit that I can hardly leave the children I see suffering behind. Here are some of the sweeties who held my heart this trip:

Sara Sellers and me...she is such an incredible, faithful young woman. It's been such a pleasure to watch her grow up and grow in her faith. Taking this trip with her in tow was icing on the cake.

One of our nights out:

As much hard work as we do, we still do a lot of goofing off and having a blast!

Here is one of me and Matt on our trip to Hawaii in 2006. Matt had to go for work and I got to tag along...a few months pregnant with Gray. Pretty morning sick the entire trip! We have been blessed to go twice to beautiful Hawaii...the first time to Maui and Honolulu for our honeymoon and this time to the big island. (Matt is going to love that I posted one with his eyes closed...sorry honey.)

Now we start in chronological order...this is our first anniversary trip to Cancun: Don't we look so young and funny? :)

This was our first ski trip together to Angel Fire, New Mexico. I loved it, but after having had our accident, I was so terrified to fall and break a bone, that I was miserable skiing. I even strained my good leg putting so much weight on it. Matt didn't really know how scared I was, and he took me on a blue the first time up....I almost didn't make it down. He then dutifully took me down a green and it was a breeze...I should have stopped while I was ahead...I went again and fell literally into a tree.

God protected me greatly; I was about 7 weeks pregnant falling down that mountain and didn't know it!

Matt had to go to Ocala for work when Gray was about 9 months old, and we decided to make the extra 45 minute trip to spend a couple of days at Disney. Surprisingly, he loved it...there's so much to look at, he was just mesmerized the entire time. His Nana went with us and that helped mommy and daddy get to ride a couple of rides too!

Some beach trips: We usually do the beach a few times a year (this is getting less and less because I'm either pregnant or have a newborn--maybe next year we'll catch up).

Here is Grayson in May 2007 around 7 months old; he learned to crawl while we were there...it was perfect--getting mobile in condo full of breakables! :)

When Gray was 14 months old, we took a trip to Big Sky, Montana, after Christmas. Matt loves to ski (as mentioned earlier) and so does my brother. The Harris's and the Sellers' tagged along and we had a wonderful trip. That was the first time I've been in serious snow since I was a child, and it felt magical. I could hardly leave; it was SO beautiful!

Gray in the airport....he began walking around 10 months, so he was running by this time. We knew he would never let us carry him the entire time and he would definitely not stand still beside us...hence, the monkey backpack:

Matt convinced me to try skiing one more time, and I gave in under one condition-I had to have professional lessons. I didn't even know how to stop when I got off the lift with him in NM! Plus, I admit I was a little competitive and I might have taken out my frustration out on him. It was much better for our marriage for me to go with someone else. :) It turned out well....just knowing how to slow down helped! I did love it and went several days after that. I even went down the whole mountain from the top....only on greens and blues, of course! I'm not even interested in that black diamond mess!

Our hair would freeze when we would sit in our hot tub! Our cabin was on the slopes so we could ski in and ski out; it was so nice to sit in the hot tub and watch the skiing.

Doesn't Matt look so professional and handsome?? ;)

Most of our group getting ready to go down: (from L to R) Brandon Steel, Martha Sellers, Gilbert Sellers, Eden H., Ken H., Vonda H., Christy Sellers, Matt, Sara S., Sam S., and Ethan....I'm not sure where Lance or I are....as always, I'm probably taking the picture!

The view from our porch:

Jennifer and Charlie invited us to go to Watercolor beach for Labor Day of last year; we had such a good time....riding bikes, and eating great food--don't tell my trainer! :)

Doesn't Jennifer look gorgeous in this picture??

Grayson loved the bike riding; one day we road about 12 miles and he got quite a good nap!

This family shot was taken this year in January on a beach trip with Matt's family for our Christmas get together. I was about 10 weeks pregnant.

Last summer Matt and I snuck away to the beach for the weekend for our anniversary in May. My brother and about 6 of his friends wound up being there, so we spent a lot of time with them.

From our family beach trip in May the week before our anniversary trip: Grayson loves the sand!

Another monumental trip...I earned the General Incentive trip last summer for Southern Living at Home, and we got to choose between Dominican Republic and Disney....as you can see, we opted for Disney and took little man with us. We were so blessed to be able to take a free trip here and share this with our little guy. He loved every second and we did too! We are taking a trip again this next year, and I can hardly wait! Here he is at the welcome dinner dancing with Clayton, my sponsor and dear friend, Carol's little boy.

About half way through the dinner, we noticed Grayson was out of his chair. We turned around and he was collapsed on the ground....bedtime, anyone?

Our Family:

Some days we went the park with the Williams', but even when we did, we had to utilize baby swap for those rides Gray or their youngest, Raleigh, couldn't ride....here I am (alone) on the Hulk at Islands of Adventure:

Check out Grayson in this picture:

We threw eating rules (mostly) out the window....Grayson loved the frozen lemonades!

Sharing a churro with mommy:

One of Grayson's favorite parts of the Islands/Universal day was playing wet playground at the end of the day. We left his shorts on for awhile, and when they began weighing him down, we went straight to the splashers.

Sacked out after a long, hard day:

On "It's a Small World:"

We did a character breakfast at Ohana, and we had prepared Grayson (who LOVES Gickey, which is what he called Mickey at the time), but he was still surprised when he spotted him....he looks like he's just spotted Elvis:

This is the one family shot with Mickey....I love that in the middle of the picture, Grayson is leaning over to give Mickey a kiss. How sweet!

Waiting in one of many lines...

We caught a lucky break and caught Chip N Dale as we were leaving Magic Kingdom that day:

The Williams' waiting for "It's a Bug's Life" at Animal Kingdom:

The Harris's were there for part of the time we were and we met up with them at Animal Kingdom for a little while....here's Ethan and Eden with Gray:

Cool dude at Sea World:

Our sweet friends, JT and Krystal, kept Grayson for us so we could go to the Farewell Dinner minus kid. Thanks, guys!

Adult park day.....a sweet lady from Jt's church offered to keep Grayson for us so we could go to the park without him. We were so tire at this point, we went for a couple of hours (and had only ridden 2 rides) and gave up and went to see a movie in the air conditioning! Here we are with our good friends who we wished lived closer--Krystal, JT, and Parks.

We're getting close to the end, I promise! Last August, Eden and I suprised our moms with a trip to New York for their birthdays! Of course, this would not have been possible without the help (um, funds) of the dads....thanks Dad and Uncle Ken! It was a blast....we laughed the entire trip and saw a ton of neat things. Now, you would think two well travelled adults like my mom and my aunt would have taken charge on the trip, right? I just thought if I could get the trip planned, buy all the tickets, etc., then I could sit back and enjoy the trip.....no way. Eden and I hailed cabs, figured out which subway trains to take, asked directions--in our sweet southern accents, no less--and wrangled maps to walk Manhattan. It was a wonderful time; I can't wait to take Matt back there.

At Rockefellar Center:

We got a discount and were able to stay at the beautiful Waldorf Astoria...

Walking in the lobby:

One of the best parts of taking this trip was getting to take my mom somewhere she's always wanted to go and see her enjoy it. She and my dad have given me so much, so many experiences and opportunities, and even more love to go with all of those moments. It was so great to be able to see NY with her and share all of those firsts with my best friend!

Um, we kind of got carried away buying purses for ourselves, I mean, for other people.... I promise, most were gifts!

It cracked me up that store fronts all looked like this:

Aren't these two gorgeous??

This is the ball from the top of the WTC:

Getting some food from a hot dog vendor...I'm sure the coke only cost $7.

The view of Central Park from the top of the Rock:

One of the best parts of our trip was the birthday celebration night: We took our moms to Tavern On the Green in Central Park (by carriage ride) and then to see the Lion King on Broadway....it was magical!

Times Square at night:

Out for dinner one night in hidden Tudor City:

This was the ladies lounge/restroom in our hotel. Not over the top at all.

At F.A.O Shwarz on 5th Avenue before going to afternoon tea at the Plaza. Sounds so fancy!

This was our ski trip this year....in March we drove 15 hours (while I was 5 1/2 months pregnant) to Snowshoe, West Virginia.

Okay, last one! This was our beach trip in May of this year:

Look how small he looks!!

We took Gray to Shipwreck Island and he mostly liked it....I think he missed throwing sand!

Matt and I got to go to the Melting Pot for our anniversary....ignore the big belly; I was one week shy of 9 months pregnant!

My two men....how handsome!

We have been so blessed to see so many things the Lord has put on this earth....our prayer is to treasure any opportunity sent our way and share as much with our children as we can. Thanks for indulging my incredibly long post! It was fun to record these memories here!