2007

I can't believe it is already the end of 2007. The end of the year is always bittersweet for me because on January 1st we celebrate Eli's birthday. At the end of the year I am reminded that once again one of my boys is growing up and changing more every day. This year has been a good one. We are marking our 3rd Christmas in Alabama.

Tomorrow Eli will be six. That is so hard for me to believe. It is amazing to me how he has grown and developed. This year he is really growing by leaps and bounds. We are working on K work with school and he is doing well. He loves to draw and write. Reading is slow but I have a feeling he will be like Graham and just pick it up one day. He is really quite an artist and I hope that next year we can get him in some art classes. He is also quite an athletic. He loves to run, jump and compete in anything.

Things I am thankful for

I love Thanksgiving. I think one of the reasons is because it signifies the beginning of the Christmas season.

Things I am thankful for...

I am thankful for our family. We are blessed with four beautiful boys. Also we have a wonderful extended family. We had a scare with my father in law earlier this year. It really jolted all of us. We are so blessed that this Thanksgiving Pawpaw is healthy.

Our church has been a blessing in our lives. They are our second family and we love them deeply.

We have a wonderful home and the boys are really thriving. We are enjoying school this year and I am feeling more organized.

I am so thankful for Tim. We have been married 17 years which is almost half of our lives. I can't imagine my life with out him.

This year we were blessed to see Graham become a Christian. I can't even express what this means. To see him make this decision and then to watch him grow has been incredible.

Most of all I am so thankful for Jesus and what he has done for me. I was reminded in an email from a missionary friend of our that Jesus became a curse so that we could live in peace.


We had a wonderful thanksgiving with family and are looking forward to decorating for Christmas this weekend and next week.

Here is our first Christmas photo this year. We had the boys pictures made with Aubie Claus. We have become huge Auburn fans since moving here and the boys love Aubie.

Fall Photo

Here is the newest photo of all four boys. We had these made while my in laws were visiting. My mother in law is a photo wiz. Actually almost everyone in my family loves to take photos and takes them well but MIL gets the credit for this one.

Birthday Party

This is way over due. It has taken me this long to get the photos uploaded. This is Graham's 8th birthday party. I am having a hard time believing that he is eight. It doesn't seem like that long that we were bringing him home from the birth center.

This year he picked out a football cake and so I made the cake and decorated teddy grahams to be the players. Here is a photo of the birthday boy and the cake.

A Hectic Week

It has been hectic around here since my last post. We have had 2 more birthdays and one party. Last weekend we had a fall festival at our church. The planning and organizing of that took most of last week. This week we have been playing catch up. Today it was nice to just laze around the house and get some cleaning done. Next weekend our family will be visiting so that will be another busy week. I am hoping to get some more photos uploaded of Graham's birthday party.

In the middle of all this craziness I decided that I should reorganize my scrapbook area and clean out some of my supplies. I like the way it has turned out but I am sure that I will be tweaking it as time goes on. Now I just have to get back to scrapping. My goal is to get at least one lay out done in each of the boys books this week. I may or may not get one done in Will's since I don't think I have the film developed from when he was born. (Hanging my head in shame.) So my goal for him is to take the film to be developed (it is in my purse as I type).

I will try to post photos of my new scrapbook area this week also. I am really fortuate to have room to scrap in our dining room/computer room. This way I can work on pages at night while Tim is watching TV or on the computer and we are still in the same room. In our last apartment my scrapbook area was in a closet so this is really nice.

For any scrapbookers out there here is a neat site someone recommended for page ideas. I am just now checking it out but I like what I see so far. www.pagemaps.com

Will's birthday

God is good...all the time.

Tim shared with friends that "grief and joy come back to back in life a lot." Nine years ago I woke up to empty arms and struggled to prepare for a memorial service. One year ago today I woke up to a 9 lb blessing named William Matthew.

Last year on Josiah's birthday we refused medical induction for our baby that was 2 weeks overdue. I didn't have a problem with Will being born on 9/19 if that was God's plan, but I didn't want it to be at the convenience of the doctor. We left the hospital and came home to spend the day with our boys and wait. I went into labor that afternoon and we arrived at the hospital at 11:00 pm. William Matthew was born at 12:30 am on September 20th.

God chose to give us a visual reminder of his goodness. This morning I woke up next to this reminder. As he rolled over and rubbed his eyes, I was able to thank God for his faithfulness. I was also reminded that he pours out his blessings in our lives when we don't really deserve them.

Many times in life I am reminded of different characteristics of God but I think one that is sometimes overlooked is God's goodness. People will talk about God's love, his faithfulness, kindness, mercy and so on. Those are all a part of who God is. When we struggle with difficult times it is hard to remember that God is good. God by his very nature can not do bad. When I see things happen that I don't understand I have to remind myself that even though I don't understand the God I serve is bigger than I am. He sees eternity and has a plan. He is good ... all the time.

Job1:21b

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.