Blessings

On this day, 8 years ago I was given the greatest blessing. A beautiful 5lb. 110z., 18in. baby girl. What a blessing she has been!! Happy Birthday Audrey Kate!! Your mama loves you more than you will ever know!!

Happy Thanksgiving

"I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high." Psalms 7:17

The Best Halloween EVER!!!

Why, you say? My mom and dad came to visit the week of Halloween!! We picked my mom up from the airport on Sunday before Halloween and my dad the following Thursday. I cannot tell you how amazing it was having them here. We ate lots of good food, watched movies, shopped, and a lot of just being together. After we dropped them off at the airport Mike asked if I thought maybe they could just move in HA!! Thank you Dad and Mom for coming to visit us!! Can't wait for the next time!!

I joined a military mom play group and made these cake pops for the Halloween party

We had a W theme this year: 2 witches and a watermelon :)

My 4 favorite girls

Mom and the girls made cupcakes and decorated with these really cool stencils. Can you see the owl?

Dad wrapped precious up and M kept calling her baby Jesus :)

Dad found these awesome costumes on clearance at Wally. They have now become their daily attire.

AK put this on and automatically asked if she could be Miranda Lambert next year.

6 months

How can this precious girl be 6 months already? What a blessing she is!!

This month:

-You sit up by yourself now

-You are rolling all over the place

-No way will you sleep all night. This is nothing new to me, your sisters were exactly the same

-No sign of teeth yet

-We have not had a 6 month well check but several sick visits. Your allergies are really getting the best of you. You had your first breathing treatment and antibiotic this month.

- You weigh, wait for it, 24 POUNDS!! I even made the nurse reset the scales and try again.

-The greatest thing of all is that you are a huge mama's girl.

I love you Oompa Loompa!! I am so blessed to be your mama!!

Can you guess who this is?

Since we've been here we have........

learned how to braid,

seen some awesome beach houses,

gone to the beach,

had lunch at a precious little pharmacy with a soda fountain,

spent many an hour on the water table,

had lunch at Hymans,

cut our own hair :(

had pirate day,

and visited daddy at work.

Charleston

What can I say? It is just as wonderful as everyone says it is! People ask me how I like it and honestly, I love it!! It's not home, but it is great!! It is beautiful, the weather is great (right now), the people are wonderful, the drs. are even better (believe me, we have already been to a lot of them), and we have found an awesome church to worship. I couldn't have asked for anything better when I can't be home.

These mums were absolutely beautiful!!

King St.

For Dida and Ernie :)

I love this!! The harbor, you can see a cruise ship at the port and a Navy ship in the background.

The road to Charleston

Honestly, I am completely exhausted even thinking about writing this post. The 3 days of driving 2 cars and one of them carrying myself and 3 children has definitely left my heart with a little build up. The first day we drove 10 hours to Searcy, AR where all of my siblings live. This is the part of the trip where I took the only pictures because really, the condition we were in the following days was ridiculous! We decided to stay 2 nights in AR just to break it up a little, mostly for the girls.

2 hrs. from our first destination

after church on Sunday

Nate spun Madelynn around over and over, it was quite entertaining :)

The guys made a tree swing with a laundry basket

We had dinner at my favorite place in Searcy, Doc's. I had to take a picture of everyone at the table and everyone's personality was captured well I might say.

The parents, as I like to call them. They keep the rest of us grounded while the real ones are not there.

Madelynn, of course always crazy

My sweet girl

Haha

Yep, that's Mike super annoyed I am taking pictures

Oh, how I wish I could have taken these from the pumpkin patch

worn out

We left bright and early Monday morning and drove through Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and ended the second leg in Atlanta. We rewarded the girls by taking them to the American Girl store in Atlanta. I am so sad I didn't get a picture but you can be rest assure they had a great time. The next morning we got up and drove the final 5 hours. I cannot even tell you how glad I was to be there and dreading the next time I had to make that drive.

Saying Goodbye............

When you are part of a military family you are taught that it is not goodbye it is see you later. I love that!! It made saying goodbye to so many people so much easier. Saying goodbye to my grandparents was a little different. My grandfather has struggled from the effects of Parkinson's Disease for years and as of lately has gotten really bad. Grandaddy has been such a huge part of my life and such an encouragement to me. He was the one who baptized me, and also married me. I made it a point to spend time with him before we moved because I knew that could be the last time I would ever see him on earth. Every time I hugged him and walked out their front door I just wanted to turn around and go back. I cannot imagine life without him. I keep wishing for just one more time. I want to hug him, and smell him, and tell him I love him just one more time.

My sweet Nana

His first great grandchild

He was so funny!! When I tried to take HG back he wouldn't let go of her :)

Random

This could be the most random post ever, but I have to tell you!! I bought a spaghetti squash at the farmers market because I thought it was cool. I am really good at that, buying food that I think is cool. Maybe one day I will actually get good at cooking those foods. One night at mom and dad's we were having spaghetti so I decided to make the squash for the fun of it. It is amazing and super easy!! Seriously, with a little butter, salt, and pepper, I could eat it all day!!

Put in a dish with water and bake.

After it has baked scrape out and serve.

Delicious!!