Sleep Tight

When I see my children sleep, I see such sweet precious innocence. I am a watcher, an observer. I love to watch them sleep and wonder what their lives hold. I love to pray for them as they sleep. I love to remember days already spent with them. I love to relax in the quiet of the moment....

"I Went to the Animal Fair"

No, we didn't actually go to an animal fair, but our daddy daughter band sure did a great job singing the song. Do you know the one...We went to the animal fair, the birds and the beasts were there, the big baboon by the light of the moon, was combing his auburn hair. The monkey, he got drunk (no, we do not promote drinking of any sort), and fell on the elephant's trunk, the elephant sneezed and fell to his knees, and that was the end of the monk...the monk...the monk.

You probably have no idea what this song is, but my children always thought it was so funny when their daddy sang it for them.

A couple of nights ago, Faith made up tickets for she and Daddy's concert. And, oh what a concert it was. Great singing and awesome instrument playing. What talent these two have!!

Just an added note...I absoltuely love seeing my sweet husband being the wonderful daddy that he is.

Goodwill and Starbucks!!

Just a quickie....

Beth and I snuck out of the house last night around 7:00 without the boys or Faith knowing, and headed to Starbucks for a nice Pumpkin Spice Latte. We decided along the way to stop in and take a quick jaunt around Goodwill and look for any neat goodies. Oh yeah, did I tell you that we were in our pjs? Beth had wet hair and pjs on and still looked cute as a bug. I, on the other hand, looked like I really needed to be shopping for clothes and not house stuff. I had on pajamas and Beth's size 9 shoes on my size 7 1/2 feet. I didn't think I was going inside anywhere so I just grabbed them from the garage. I also had to put on a bright UT Vols jacket of Beth's, that thankfully was in the car, because my pjs were not as presentable as they should have been.

Anyway...what a fun time we had. It was short and sweet, but such a memory maker. I love making memories with my kids. Don't you???

Oh, and Faith got pretty upset that I snuck off without her and couldn't understand why I didn't bring her a Starbucks back. We did, however, stop at the store and grab a box of hot cocoa to make for the rest of the family. Not Starbucks, but still good.

Warm Home and Hot Coffee

I have said it repeatedly, but I will say it again. I LOVE FALL and all that comes with it.

This morning is cccoooollllddd (that means really cold for us here in Tennessee in October). So what did I do that I love to do? I fixed me a pot of Cinnabon coffee (first time for this kind), turned on my fireplace and snuggled up in my big oversized chair. Oh how sweet it is!!

Not a roaring fire with fresh chopped wood, but a perfectly sweet fire just for us.


Can you even see the fire burning? What about my coffee cup? I'll show you an upclose look of it?

I have to tell you about my new cup and why I love it so much? It has my favorite number 9 on it. It's my favorite number because it represents Donnie, myself, Keith, Beth, Faith, our son in heaven, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. (It's also Beth's softball number)

I had to show you my white pumpkin with our last initial on it. It was old, orange and ready to be thrown away when I decided to paint it and just free hand K on it. Would have rather done a stencil, but this works for me for now.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful fall day that God has given to us!!!

Thanks Mom

I told you a few months back that my mom is now retired and loving it. Well, not only is she loving it, we are also loving it. It has been so nice to be able to see her more often (more so when school was out), but still more than we used to when she worked.



There is also another selfish reason that I am enjoying her retirement. It is because she has started sewing. She actually has known how to sew for a long time, but never had the time. Now, she has the time to pursure it more. And, I am loving her new found time and hobby. Why do I love it? Because she is sewing neat things for me. She made me curtains for my living room already and is working on making me a burlap table runner for my kitchen table. She is also fixing to start working on an awesome black and white toile tote for me. I can't wait for my new goodies.

No time pressure, mom. I can wait, and boy it's all worth the wait.

Girlfriends

Thank God for wonderful friends!!

Borrowing Ideas

Why am I posting pictures of my living room decor? I really don't know because it is certainly a step out of my comfort zone to put something out for others to see and critique. But, I have seen so many blogs lately with such neat decorating ideas that I had to try some of them. There are some majorly talented ladies out there with fantastic ideas on "fluffing your nest".

So here goes with just a couple of pictures of some recent changes I have made. Let me start by saying that I was getting to the point where I felt like I was in a cookie cutter house that was starting to look like the Kirkland's showroom. Not that I don't LOVE Kirklands, because I do. It's just that everything looked very much like NOT my ideas and that everything came from one place. I have to admit that I have loved crafting, restyling and DIYing, and making things more my own.

So here are some of my new fun changes.

Do you notice the far right candle stick is crooked? When I had my wreck this summer, that candle stick was broken and I couldn't fix it back properly, so I guess it will always be a reminder.

So there you go. Hope you enjoyed seeing where my family and I spend most of our time. I can't wait to get on to the next project. My family looks forward to it also, I'm sure. :)

Party Time

We decided to have a small birthday party for Faith on Sunday and just had a few friends over with lots of family. It was a great time and Faith loved it.

Ms. Cindy baked Faith's wonderfully delicious cake that was made to look like Faith's best friend, Chloe. It's amazing how talented this lady is.

Faith with Mamaw and Papaw. (Donnie's parents)

Keith got Faith the Hannah Montana movie and she was totally thrilled!!

Sweet Seven

This is a late happy birthday message to my sweet sweet girl, Faith, who turned seven on Sunday.

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Do you remember what I have always told you about how much I love you? Well, I love you more than the sun and the moon and the stars up above. Do you remember what I always tell you that you are? Remember what I say that God did when He gave you to me? You remember...you are my gift. I knew you would remember that. I always tell you that God gave me a wonderful gift to open one day and when I opened it, out you came. The most precious blue eyed gift that a mommy could have. You know how I love to sing to you that you are my sunshine, my precious sunshine? Well, you are my sunshine. You truly make my cloudy days brighter. You light up my life with that beautiful smile of yours. You have a way of making gloomy days a whole lot more joyful.

Thank you, Faith, for being you. Thank you for your amazing sense of humor. You make me laugh like no one has ever made me laugh. You are a character. Thank you for always being in a good mood when you wake up in the morning. You make my day start off better after I see that sweet sleepy smile. Thank you for having your own unique little style. You certainly have a great fashion sense. Thank you for being the biggest encourager that I have ever been around. You tell everyone they are pretty and you make their day. I can tell by the smile on their face how you have truly touched them. You have taught me to try to encourage people more. Thank you for telling me I look like I am 30 even though I am waaaay not 30. You are so sweet.

Thank you, Faith, for giving me a chance to be a mommy again after I thought I was done with your big brother and sister and your brother in heaven. Thank you for letting me be your mommy. I am so blessed.

Faith, I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. I know you love God and I truly believe you will follow Him all your days. How exciting it will be for your daddy and I to watch you grow up.

What a Special Day

Yesterday was a very special day for our family. Our sweet baby girl turned 7 years old and she was baptized all in one day.

It was a cloudy and rainy day, but oh how that didn't matter even one little bit. Joy filled our hearts as we walked down into that beautiful lake and took our places before God and our family and friends and baptized our sweet Faith. Donnie did a wonderful job, and how blessed I was to be able to be right out there with them.

I have to tell you how much it meant to me to have certain people there with us to help celebrate this special day. Not to get real personal, but my parents divorced a long time ago and my dad moved to Texas and married a wonderful lady there. Since they live so far away we don't often get to share birthdays and occassions like this together. As a matter of fact, this was the first of my three children that my dad has seen be baptized. Let me just tell you how wonderful it was to look up on the bank of that lake and see my wonderful mom, and my dad and Martha standing there. It was a hallelujah moment for me. I was totally thrilled to have them all there together.

There were a lot more special people who helped us celebrate, and to all of them I say thank you for helping make this day even more special by your presence. We love you all.

Not to overlook Faith's birthday, I will tell you more about that later. Fun was had by all here at the house celebrating big #7!!

HALLELUJAH!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!

Joyous Sunday Coming Up

This coming Sunday our family will celebrate our youngest daughter's seventh birthday. I cannot believe that Faith is actually going to be seven. I am holding on as long and as hard as I can to her being six for just a few more days. Can I say that I am just not ready for her to grow up? I want her to stay my baby just a while longer. I want to continue to be able to catch her when she jumps into my arms and hold and cuddle her in my lap. I want to be able to do things with her just a little longer that I can't do with my seventeen and fourteen year old children anymore. Can't time slow down just a little?

Sunday will also be a glorious day because Faith is going to be baptized that day. We are going to the lake where her daddy will get to baptize her. She has also asked me to be in the water with her. She said I don't have to do anything, she just wants me there. I love it!! I can't wait to be there by her side as she publicly declares that she has accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Let me tell you how wonderful it is to know that all three of our children on this earth are saved and that our other son is already in heaven waiting for us to be there with him someday. Oh happy day!!