I did it!!!

I accomplished the first step in my weight lose goal. I have been getting up the past two mornings at 5 am to be at the gym when it opens at 5:30 am. If I go that gives me a good hour to hour and a half to get in a workout(have to be back to get the kids up and Neal off to work). Well it has paided off. I needed to get off those last few baby pounds and stepped on the scale this morning and they were gone!!! If this doesn't motivate me to keep going I don't know what will!!!

And thanks for all the prayers!! I know that God had is hand in this and without Him I would still be a fat cow!! HAHA

What a mighty God we serve!

I know how amazing God is, but he has really been showing me over the past several weeks. 3 very dear friends of mine who have been having pregnancy troubles are all pregnant. I think I hold these girls so dear to my heart not only because they are wonderful friends, but because I too know how they feel. You just get to the point were you think its never going to happen. Everyone is pregnant but you. Is there something wrong with me? Why is there something wrong with me? Then after all those months and years and hundreds of negative tests you get the two pink lines. This can't be right. You take another and another and another. Finally you go to the doctor and you are a neverous wreck until you finally hear that sweet little heartbeat. Its amazing how that heartbeat can make you instantly fall in love!

So let me say, Praise God for the wonderful blessings He has given these three families. He could not have chosen three better couples. These babies are a blessing to these parents and those babies have no idea how lucky they are to be getting these parents! Thank you God!

Remebered already!!!

So one of my more important resolutions was forgotten.
7. Get the last 5 baby pounds off and then the 20 I needed to lose before that. And all that needs to be off before my Opp and Clanton High school reunions!!! (Yes, its been 10 years already!)

New Year's Resolutions

Ok.. so let me start my first blog of the year by telling you my resolutions. I usually don't do these because I am not good at following through with them. This year I have decided that maybe the blog will help me be accountable for them and I can actual keep them this year. I also feel like I have actually made some resolutions that are important to me and my family so that will also make them easier to keep. So let the list begin!
1. Read my Bible daily. I also had this one last year and did have this one going until Ella got here. No babies this year, so I plan on keeping this one!
2. Post monthly pictures of the kids on Facebook. Silly sounding yes, but I have a good explanation. My Mom goes on my page and pulls off the pictures for her digital picture frame. She says that Daddy sits there for hours and just looks and make comments about this kids. This is for the enjoyment of my parents, so it's important to me!
3. One that I am really ashamed of so I will keep it to myself, but you keep it in your prayers!
4. To better manage my time. I had already started this by staying my butt off of Facebook all day!! With Neal now being full owner of the store, his hours are 8am to 7pm Monday-Friday with the occasional Tuesday off( Thanks L and Carla!!) I need to show my support to him by making sure the house is always clean, dinner is ready when he gets here, and all he has to do is eat and love his family when he gets here!
5. BE AT CHURCH!!! It is so hard to get two kiddos ready for church and out the door on time, but I know two people that do it with 4, so what do I have to complain about!!!
6. Be a Godly mother and wife. I really need your prayers here the most!! I have a really hard time with this, but I know that the only way to overcome it is to put it in God's hands and He will lead me through!
I had a list and lost it(imagine that!). If I think of anything I have left off I will post it later! Thanks again for your prayer and support with these resolutions!

Fab Four

Oh how I love the Fab Four. This group has changed a few times in the last 5 years, but I think this group is going to stay. It is me and my friends Lindsay, Katie and Diane. This was taken Sunday morning before everyone left. I didn't let anyone get ready because I knew we would forget to take a picture and I wanted one at my house!

I have been on them about not coming to see me. I have this big new house and the only one that has seen it is D. ( We all have nicknames. This would be Diane. DUH!) So back at the beginning of football season I checked everyone's schedule this was the perfect weekend. Alabama and Auburn were both out of town so no one had an excuse. They love coming to Opp. Why you might ask? Because when we get together you can't help but love wherever you are. We don't need to amenities of the big city to have a good time. Good friends always find a way to have fun! And this trip was no exception.

You all know how big of an Auburn fan Neal is. Well the games were on at the same time, so we watched the game inside and Neal made our Bama friends watch the game outside in the cold. (D I bet that's why you got sick. Sorry!!) But we had a great time talking and catching up and getting to see D's big fat rock!!!

I miss all of my Birmingham friends so much and I hope this jump starts visits from many of them!

Giving Thanksgiving its Due

I am going to get on my soap box for a minute, so just bare with me.

What is the rush to put up Christmas decorations? I know everyone loves Christmas and that is the holiday where we celebrate the birth of our Savior, but what about Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is supposed to be the holiday where we thank God for all the many blessings he has bestowed upon us through the year. Where we sit with family and tell old stories. We tell stories about our family that has gone on to be with the Lord and how we know they are looking out for us. We tell stories about when cousin Johnathan jumped off the roof of the house while playing kick the can. We go to enjoy Granny because you never know when it will be the last time you get to be with her. Why is everyone so quick to forget about it?

Psalms 107:1 says "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." If we skip Thanksgiving then we are skipping a chance to thank the Lord for His love and blessings!

And might I add that 75% of the people that already have their decorations up don't celebrate Christmas for the right reason! To them Christmas is just an excuse to go shopping and get presents. I am not meaning to sound judgemental or rude, but the truth often sounds that way. Lets keep the holidays the way they are intended to be celebrating. First by thanking God in November and then celebrating our Savior in December and year round!

While I'm at it lets post what we are thankful for. I am thankful for a loving husband, two beautiful, healthy children, wonderful, God fearing parents and in-laws(or in-loves as I heard a friend once say), a brother and a sister that I know love and support me no matter how crazy I am, 2 fun, sweet nieces, 4 loving, caring nephews, 3 sister-in-laws and 3 brother-in-laws that love me and my family, friends that are more like family, and an awesome God who gave all this to me and sent His only son so I may spend eternity with Him!

My Chunky Monkey

Today was Ella's four month appointment. I am proud to say we got a very good report. She weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs 2 ozs and was 25 inches long. That would be 97th and 25th percentiles respectively. I have been told time and again that each child is different and boy was that true! Don't get me wrong, both of my children have wonderful personalities and are always so happy. But when it comes to size they are in two totally different worlds. Gehrig didn't weigh 18 pounds until we went for his 12 month appointment. I forgot to take pictures today of the little chunk, so I will have to take my camera to our photo shoot with Amy Nichols tomorrow and post a few.