A Full Fall!

We are having a wonderful Fall! Here is a little preview:

I am having trouble uploading pictures and don't have time to work on it anymore right now. I have a sweet little baby who is ready for her dinner. :) Hope to have pictures of her arrival and our other fall happenings soon!

Springtime Blessings

I always forget that the pictures upload in opposite order. So, we will move from the most recent and work our way back. It has been a very blessed and happy Spring! This first picture is Annalise helping me make a chocolate cake for a potluck. We have made a couple of cakes this Spring and it is one of Annalise's favorite activities. Our potluck included a devotional with the Hispanic brethren who worship nearby. It was so wonderful meeting them, singing with them (in English and in Spanish) and hearing inspiring messages from Bryan and from Javier (both translated). It was mutually encouraging for our members and for theirs. We hope to do it again soon!

On April 27th, a terrible storm system moved through our state. Thank the Lord, we all made it through safely. Unfortunately, 236 people in Alabama lost their lives. There were over a hundred tornadoes in the system, almost all of them being between EF-3 and EF-5. This is highly unusual for our state. We usually have between EF-0 and EF-2. In retrospect, we really should have left our house and found shelter in someone's basement. Instead, we cleaned out the closet under the stairs and wore our bicycle helmets. Annalise was really excited about her new helmet! This picture was taken as an EF-3 was headed towards our house but thankfully turned East and went back into the wall cloud just 1 mile South of our house. Notice that Bryan is stuffing his face with taco salad. Nothing keeps that man from his dinner! :) We have been deeply moved by the stories of survival and loss and have tried to do what we can to help those in need. It will be a long, long recovery but the people of Alabama have accomplished more in 1 week than was accomplished in the Katrina aftermath in 3 months. Thank the Lord for generous, hard working, compassionate people.

We had a really nice Easter this year! Annalise got a great Easter basket from her Aunt Julie and Uncle Gene and she got one from us. We enjoyed our time with our family and we enjoyed the Honeybaked Ham we bought for several days following Easter. Bryan is already planning for and budgeting for the next one. :)

Annalise has really been into imaginative play these days. It is a pure joy to watch her!

I had a really nice 36th Birthday! Annalise enjoyed helping me blow out candles.

Our weather has been so nice (excepting the bad storms). We have had alot of nice days outside as a family. Annalise loves being Daddy's little helper.

March 31st we celebrated our 10th Anniversary! We took a trip in October to see dear friends in Charleston, SC and that was partly an anniversary trip. Bryan bought me a beautiful diamond pendant in an antique style setting and I have worn it almost every day since! We went to Outback the night of our anniversary and spent our giftcards from our annual Christmas family "dirty Santa" gift swap. So thank you to whichever family member we scored those from!

The most joyous part of the Spring has been carrying a precious little life within me. We have been so thankful for each week of this pregnancy. Dr. McKenzie has performed 5 sonograms to check the progress of the baby and to help put my anxious thoughts at ease. We found out at the last sonogram that the baby is growing perfectly and is indeed a baby girl! We joyfully anticipate her arrival and the joy she will bring our family. She is expected to arrive in early September. Now just to agree upon a name! Annalise called her "JoJo" for awhile and then started calling her "Ulna." I have no idea where she comes up with these names! This has been the happiest Spring I have had in a few years. The last two Springs I was recovering from miscarriages so this Spring is quite a contrast. My mind and heart have been open to the simple joys of blooming trees, warm sunshine, cool breezes, and chirping birds. I thank God that He has so graciously brought us through our valleys and has so victoriously placed us on our mountaintops. May we always bring Him glory in our lives.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Springtime, too!

Recap 2010

2010 was a good year. We had many challenges and many blessings, but our God was faithful through it all. I thank the Lord for His lovingkindness to our family. I pray we will grow in our appreciation of His grace in 2011.

Bryan started the year off by traveling to Norway and Portugal to do some preaching and encouraging. He had a great trip! In March we found out we were expecting a baby, but I had an early miscarriage. I healed quickly and we found out in June that we were expecting a baby again. We had a great summer. We went to the Grayton Beach for a family vacation, enjoyed teaching VBS (it was Annalise's first year to go to VBS and she LOVED it!), and we had a great retreat in Gatlinburg. In September, we were so saddened to learn that the baby no longer had a heart beat. We were heartbroken to lose her. We found out she had Trisomy 13, a chromosomal disorder. Most babies do not make it through pregnancy and if they are born, only live a few weeks or months. We were thankful for the Lord's mercifulness in his timing. As sad as it was to lose a baby at 16 weeks, it would have been much harder on our family to endure the loss of a newborn. As it was, Annalise never really knew what happened but she would have been so upset over the death of a sibling. The Lord provided us much comfort through the kindess of our friends and family. Though I really struggled for a few months, I am doing much better now. God is the Great Healer.

We rejoice that Annalise is a happy, healthy 3 year old! She brings us so much comfort and joy.

Annalise loved Halloween this year! She had a beautiful princess costume handed down to her but she cried every time I put it on her. So, I found a really cute, soft, pink dinosaur costume and that was the perfect costume for her! She had a blast going to the library party and trick-or-treating with her buddies from church. We celebrated her third birthday in November at the park. We had a Dora theme - Dora cake, taquitos, chips, guacamole, salsa, and Boots bananas (chocolate dipped bananas with sprinkles), Dora favors, and a pinata! It was so much fun! She was surrounded by church friends and family (Mema flew in from Ohio for the occasion, too!).

We had a great Thanksgiving in Birmingham with my family and in Chattanooga with Bryan's family. And, we had a fantastic Christmas! The first EVER recorded white Christmas in our town! We spent the week after Christmas with Bryan's family in Memphis and rang in the New Year with friends in Shelbyville, TN.

We are happy to be home now to enjoy the start of a brand new year. I haven't quite finalized my New Year's resolutions, but will post about those soon. In general, I would like to be more Christlike. I'd like to be a better student of God's word. I'd like to be more organzied at home. I'd like to start preschool lessons with Annalise and teach her some basics like cleaning her room and putting her dishes in the sink. I'd like our family to be more active and to eat more fruits and veggies - just be more healthy in general. Hope you are having a great start to the New Year! Here are just a few pictures from Christmas. I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I will try to post some more later. Enjoy!

White Christmas!


Baking Christmas cookies!

Riding the train was a lot more fun that seeing the mall Santa this year!