Tis the Season...

This year was a very interesting year, Luke was sick with the flu (we believe a mild case) for several days and then Daddy got it... so my household was either on the mends to recovery or smack dab in the middle of full blown flu for Christmas. It was a bummer, but we still tried to make it a special time for all and try not to get everyone sick.

My Mom DID make it to town, I was so surprised and blessed to have her here. She left Monday and went home with a horrible cold, so unfortunately she got sick too! While she was here I hardly took any pictures, but we enjoyed each others company SO much! We shopped, laughed, cried, wrapped, baked cookies, cooked together, napped and just really had a wonderful time! She helped me through the sicknesses.

This picture is from Christmas day, at my In-laws house and the kiddos about to open their presents... my camera died after this one was taken, so I didn't get good ones :)

Christmas morning, Will wanted a lot of the Lego city things... he got his wish and boy, that stuff is SO small and such a mess, but he has been in a lego city fog trying to get it all put together, he really wanted me to help him ALL the time, I tried to help as much as possible but it takes a lot of time and I think he's a little small for these things... he just can't seem to follow directions yet, but he is enjoying it and as long as he doesn't lose the pieces, he should be able to one day get it.

Luke's big thing this year was Hot Wheels... he wanted the "HotWheels Criss Cross" (thanks to Nickelodeon for showing that commercial SO much the past month), but apparently every child his age wanted one too this year, every single Target, WalMart, Toys R Us whatever place that has toys places, both in store and online were SOLD out... but he was not disappointed, I was crying Christmas eve because I knew he would be SO upset. Santa tried for weeks and just had no luck, thank God he was ok with it all. :)

My silly boy in front of the tree.... he is my full of life child, silly all the time!!

Will's snaggle tooth sweet picture.. LOVE it! I kept telling him ALL week that all he wanted for Christmas was his TWO front teeth... he got so mad at me, saying "no it's not!" He did not get any teeth because he is still my snaggle tooth little boy :)

I hope and pray y'all had a wonderful Christmas. I have had several families this Season on my heart, praying hard for families that have lost loved ones and what a hard time this must be. I have a whole new post about that this week... I mean people there are things I just don't understand, but that's blinded faith, Praise God I don't have to figure it out! Just praying hard!!

the most wonderful time of the year!!

I'm not sure if I will have time to post again before Christmas, just because life these days are SO busy!!! I never in my life thought life could get like this... but it did and well here we are, trying to savor every moment with these boys that keep growing up right in front of us. Christmas this year is bitter sweet, it will be my first Christmas without my Mom, flights are full so she's staying in Georgia and it just depresses me! So I am trying to think of fun things we can start with the boys and just celebrate with our small family, we will be with the hubs family for a little bit on Christmas...

I could NOT for the life of me scan our Christmas card because for some reason it's being scanned really small and looks so silly, so I will just post the picture I used... (not the best, but you know you do what you can do...)

Me and my most FAVORITE nephew ever! Logan is the sweetest, funniest and cutest little boy. Those blue eyes one day will get him in trouble, he is the light in my eyes, I LOVE him... I must say when he see's his Aunt Katie, he gets super excited too :)

Logan excited about waiting in line to see Santa!

My little angels in front of the tree at church (I wish my tree was that beautiful)...

Merry Christmas y'all!!! May you enjoy the most wonderful time of the year!!!!
PEACE, LOVE & JOY

Hey

I really don't have much new to post, but I've just been OUT of the blogging mood lately... I read everyone's blogs every day, but just don't feel like posting.

Nothing new has changed, I am almost done with my Christmas shopping, so that's a plus. After my Girl's Night out Christmas party tomorrow night, I will be Christmas partied out!!! Thursday is Will's school party, I am excited about that :) It will be fun for us all, well then once Thursday rolls around I will be done... I am ready to be done so I can actually enjoy this Season and not be so stressed all the time...

I heard some really, really depressing news this weekend. A girl that I went to high school with lost her 20 month old twin daughter last Thursday. Her daughter passed away in her sleep and for me, this is just unimaginable! I'm not real close to this family, but one of my best friends is best friends with them and it's just heart breaking. This is honestly a situation that I believe just isn't fair! Before the twins were born they lost another daughter when she was born and y'all, my heart aches for this family. Please keep the Harrison family in your prayers. I pray they feel the overwhelming love and support from so many people praying for them. May God wrap his arms around them during this dark time in their lives!!

I believe most of y'all know that my car has been having problems, like major problems to where we had to fly to Georgia for Thanksgiving instead of drive... well it's still having problems... I know this is a minor problem compared to what some people are dealing with, but I wish I could just find SOMEONE who knows what they are talking about to tell me what's wrong with my car... Oh Lordy!

I hope y'all are having a blessed Monday, please hug those babies a little tighter tonight, you just never know when our last day on this Earth will be!!

Christmas Cards

As I said in my previous post about Christmas cards, it is by far one of my most favorite things about Christmas. We just finalized our pictures, so they will be going out soon!!!

I am SO ready for Christmas this year, more so than most years, for not particular reason. Each year I send out around 100 Christmas cards, it is one of my favorite things to do!

There is nothing better than coming home during December and getting Christmas cards in the mail, it's so special to me and since I enjoy them so much, I will always make sure I send mine out!

This will be my first year to use Shutterfly, but I have recieved many cards each year from people that use Shutterfly and they are just adorable. Shutterfly is so easy and simple to use, plus they have the cutest cards... below is just a few of the ones that I need to make my mind up on but you can go here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards to pick out your holiday cards!!!

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When you visit Shutterfly's website, they have SO many different ideas on different things for gifts. I saw these calendars: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars and I think it woud be a awesome idea for Grandparents, teachers, Daddy, whoever you think might want more pics of our babies! I have ordered several for Christmas gifts and can't wait for them to come in!!

And, while I was visiting their website, designing my Christmas card and doing the calendars, I thought these Christmas tags: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-gift-tags were the BEST idea!!! I don't know about you but I get so sick and tired of writing out each tag for Christmas, so it's so easy to just pop one of these on each present and there ya go!!!

So eveyone get in the spirit, head on over to Shutterfly and send your loved ones those special Christmas cards, design a calendar or order so gift tags!!!

Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

SO THANKFUL....

FOR...
....my Lord and Savior's amazing love and forgiveness!!!
....the roof over my head (this is what Will was thankful for, but I am too)
....my husband, whom I was blessed to have met at such a young age and we are still so much more in love
....the 2 children God trusted me with raising
....amazing family, God really blessed us abundantly in this area
....fabulous friends near and far
....a great group of people that keep me laughing while I work
....my husband's job that allows me to be home with my boys more
....the boys wonderful teachers, we love them all so much!
....our wonderful church family
....both of our cars at the moment are out of the shop, so thankful!
....all of us being so healthy
....my Daddy moving back to Georgia, he's back home!
....the weather change, so thankful it's winter!
....my Mother loving, supporting and always unconditionally caring about me
....my Mother not dying that day when doctors said she would not make it through the night
....Wednesday night woman's group at church
....my Grandmother instilling amazing Christian values in us all
....beautiful Christmas decorations
....seeing my boys smile and laugh

Since I was gone on Thanksgiving, out of the blogging world for awhile, I thought I would let y'all in on just how blessed and thankful I feel! I thank my Lord for my cup that is overflowing with blessings!

May we all be thankful everyday!

Real Quick

We had a fan-tabulous trip to Georgia to visit family, it was a ordeal getting there and getting home, but that is a whole other post! I don't have much time to talk tonight, but here are a few pictures of our trip!!!


Here's Uncle Brandon (my brother) with his favorite little guys! It's great birth control for him!

We had great eating on Thanksgiving, then the next day we hit up the Varsity in Atlanta for some more yummy, greasy, slap yo Momma good eating! Here's DeeDee with her favorite grand boys!

We could not go to Atlanta and not stop by to see the Pink Pig... great times and 4 generations, I have the best Grandmother and Mother, wonderful role models!

AND a trip to see Santa, Luke said he wants "a hot wheels criss cross track and a train track with no train, because he has tons of trains at home, just a new track" those where his words to Santa. Will wants a "nintendo DS"... my thoughts: here come the electronic days, but I'm debating on NOT getting him into that kind of stuff, I mean he would be all obsessed and into something that is so un necessary! More on that later.....

Me and my bestest friend since birth, Brittany! She is my big sister (not really, but we say so) our parents are best friends (always have been and still are) so we were blessed to be raised together!

Hope y'all had a marvelous Thanksgiving weekend with your family and loved ones! I will update you all soon, whenever my life calms down! :)

One Week...

It's only ONE week (7 days) til we are in Georgia, visiting family on Thanksgiving!!! I CAN NOT wait!!!! It's been years since I have been with both my Mom and Dad's family on Thanksgiving, or any holiday for that matter, so now that Mom and Dad both are living in Georgia, it's going to be busy but super fun!!!


The past few weeks the devil has been attacking our family from sickness to car problems.... first it was the hubs truck in the shop for 2 days, then my car this week for 2 days... I pray we don't have to see that place for awhile!!! There is nothing more frustrating than having to spend your hard earned money on fixing your car, but it happens and thankfully it's taken care of!!

I've lost 14 lbs now from taking my medication and my body being back in order, the blood work from the doctor last week looked great too, I'm back on track to hopefully get my body working properly!


Hope y'all are having a blessed week, my Christmas decor is going up this weekend!!

finally... I know!

Girls... this post is all about girls :) Saturday I and some one my high school friends threw a shower for one of our besties Kim, Kim and I have been friends since 7th grade and even though our lives are so busy and we don't talk everyday, we both know we are always there for each other and we pick up right where we left off, each time!!! She was showered with some wonderful things and I'm so thankful we got to spend this time together and with people we haven't seen in forever!!!

Here's me with the other two hostess...

Yes we did the famous toilet paper game....my team won!!! (the one on the right...lol)

Good times... good memories!

Me and Katherine, I love me some Katherine... she's one of my bestie's too and just the sweetest thing ever... she's been through all of my craziness with me and I'm so thankful for this girl in my life!!!

I had a much needed girls weekend, it was great, so much fun! Sunday I went to a ornament party with my sister in law.... I came home Sunday night after church and told the hubs I was so thankful for him to allow me to have such a great weekend, there's nothing like some good ole girls time with some great people!!!

I do have more updates... will post them soon!

football and fall...

Our life lately has been football and fall, well actually fall just recently decided to show up, but we are enjoying this time of the year. Oh, do y'all know if we are suppose to trick or treat on Saturday or Sunday this year?? That was a discussion earlier today and I never got the final word.

Below (for some reason the pictures uploaded in wrong order) are pictures from my mini fall photo session with the boys and a picture of my sweetie playing flag football. The picture is bright and it shows he's super hot, he is because like I said, fall just showed up this Sunday, so it has been miserable during the games.. ha, but we survived!

My sweet Luke, right now he is so silly and photogenic, I'm enjoying these last few years of innocence and wanting to do everything right (Will is slowly starting to get out of this stage, Lord help me!!!)

This is Will during one of his super hot games, with his mouth piece and bird legs... but when he's running full speed, those bird legs look like fan blades, he's fast!

I love this picture, if I only knew how to make the colors in the back ground brighter.... I'm not very savvy on enhancing pictures.

Finally I let Luke be himself, he is our silly little thing. Will won't show his teeth anymore when he smiles. That is such a pet peeve of mine, but I don't blame him, one of his top teeth has been barely hanging on for about 4 weeks, now it is sticking straight forward and it's just the funniest thing, he is so ready for it to fall out, but too afraid to pull it out (I don't blame him) so for now he says he will just try to hide it... either way with it sticking out or not, he still so darn adorable!!

Fall decor pictures to follow, whenever I find time to upload pictures again... hopefully it will be this week :)

Hope y'all are having a wonderful week!!

my opinion about dates

** First I want to say THANK YOU all for your sweet comments, I am happy and blessed to have that story to share and I'm more happy to know that I am in some strange way helping other people. Thank you all, I think you all encouraged me more than I encouraged you, seriously!**

So, the hubs and I, we really don't do "dates". We should, but we just don't have the time, money, strength or knowledge to do that anymore... It takes time to plan it and time away from the kids, money because heck NOTHING is free anymore and by the time you spend money on dinner, movie, sitter it's just NOT worth it to me, it takes strength after working all week and dealing with the kids to go out and do something together and also knowledge... it takes knowledge to know what the heck your going to do. We are the kind of people that do not party, we are pretty chill, we don't like going to the bar it just isn't our thing, we like honestly like to just hang out. When we were dating, we would just go eat (because it always involved food), watch movies, go parking :), hang out with friends, whatever you do when your dating... Now days we just take our kids with us wherever we go and we are fine with that becasue before we know it, we won't have little ones around.... BUT... Sunday after church, it just fell into our lap, so we had a lunch date! Y'ALL, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!! I actually felt like we were dating again, we talked about US, about our future, about vacations we are planning coming up, about work, about our families (minus our kids, because we talk about them a lot anyways)... I mean it was un-interrupted time that we had not had in SO long. Then we did a little shopping, I honestly thought when walking out of the mall that we would be walking up to the hubs old mustang he use to zoom around town in, trying to impress me.... reality hit when we walked up to the family suv, but that's ok, because I am a fan of dates now... Oh I can't wait for our next one!!!

So now y'all know where I stand on dates, I completely understand why they are so important, we had fun together, we laughed, we remembered why we do love each other so much and for just a split second, I think we both thought we were still dating, but with so much more now!!!!

(sorry, I was so blinded by love I completely forgot to take a picture..ugh!)

GETTING REAL...

Some of you know that today is "getting real" day on Amy's site, she wants anyone to share their story of encouragement, whatever the situation might be and how God showed himself through it all!

Most of you do NOT know our exact story, because our story does not deal with not finding each other early in our lives or infertility, what I love about our story, is that so many people are not willing to talk about what I'm going to talk about. For whatever reasons I don't know but maybe for embarrassment or insecurities in themselves, I don't care what the reasoning is as to why people don't talk more about financial problems... I think SO many people are in financial burdens for that simple reason, it's not something that people talk about. I'm an open book and if my story can encourage ANYONE who has slight struggles within themselves or financial burdens, then please keep reading!

Let's back up to when I first met Hubs, he was still living at home, he had been at a job full time for several years and I was still in college. He has always been financially smart and saved for our future, years before we had ever met. When we first met, it was the one thing I didn't really like about him, he was so TIGHT about everything, my Mom did assure me that one day I would be so thankful for those characteristics that his parents instilled in him and boy was she right!

Several years later, we got pregnant unexpectedly, got married, bought a house that we were blessed to put some money down on and here I was, SO young, with a pretty healthy life and bank account too!

At that time, I was in the mortgage industry (have been for 7 years now) he was a operations manager, on his way to moving up in a small company in Collierville. After our second son was born, we were still, debt free, money in the bank, great 401k's and never EVER imagined our lives ever having a financial problem. Our first problem here was being nieve, not trusting the Lord and really not testing our faith. At this time we really felt a urge to change something in our lives and better our family, so we thought....

When Luke was 6 weeks old, the hubs and I made a decision that we would both go into business together, team up and do what I've been doing for years on our own. We had the tools, the support and money on back up for awhile if anything crazy was to happen... just 6 months later, the mortgage industry crashed and it took another 6 months to a year for my husband to find another job that would help us from what we had been under. Both people being without jobs for awhile makes that money go fast, so within a year it was gone, dried up and we were completely hopeless! We didn't even have the will to care anymore, we thought we had lost everything. A huge mentor in our life, the hubs father, he would say to us " We all are healthy, you have two beautiful children, you have each other, you still have your house and cars (which by the way we were never late on during these times, that is something I am proud of) we all so blessed" We knew that, but we also knew that before we were able to think, we felt we are on the verge of losing everything, everything we had worked so hard to keep and gain. All because we thought we were doing what God had called us to do, we were helping people get into homes, we were helping people with the American dream, but it wasn't good enough. The company we worked for went out of business, they just could not handle the economy and in return we could not either. We trusted, prayed and knew God would make what we did better because we thought we were obeying Him.

We both found jobs, the hubs has been blessed with a wonderful job (he's been there 2.5 years now) and just recently I have found a job that I know I will call my job for awhile. I am blessed to only be working part time hours so I can be home with the boys more, the past 3 years have been us trying to correct the mistakes we have made and moving on from the past. It has been a difficult road, it's been a hard learning lesson, but I know now what God has taught us and I am SO blessed he has shown us what He really meant. If it was not for the past struggles, who knows what immature, errogant people we would be today. Raising children to have whatever they want and not raising our children to love the Lord for how we know Him today. I see Him as a completely different God, I thank Him for my struggles everyday, a year ago, I was not where I am today, I was very bitter, angry, wondering why all of our friends it seemed had such a perfect life, why weren't they struggling in any area. My friends, I'm here to tell you, there is no perfect soul but the Lord Jesus Christ, He is perfect, He knew EXACTLY what He was doing while we made that decision when Luke was 6 weeks old, He knew of the struggles that would come over the next 3 years, BUT He also knew where our minds, hearts and souls would be today and OH what a special, amazing place we are at today!

I thank Him now for our savings account, it's not nearly what it was 4 years ago, but it's getting there, it is exactly where God wants it to be. I would not be thankful for that money if it were not what we had gone through, He opened my eyes to so many different things in life, oh what a amazing God we have y'all!!!


So, I was blessed to have met a man that loves me, I was blessed to carry two healthy sons in my womb and I was even blessed to go through the worst financial problems I could ever imagine, but I do know I'm also blessed to be the woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister and employee today than I was years ago!

People whatever it might be your going through, know that there is always HOPE! We now have HOPE in our future, we know our life is on the mends to such a better life! Sure we still have struggles in other areas, I was recently told it would be a miracle for me to be able to carry another child in my womb.... but I still have HOPE and I know that no matter what, God is a miracle working God and by Him, all things are possible!!!!

"The will of God will never take you where grace of God can not protect you"
(this is my quote for what we have been through, it's so perfect!)

(I pray there is no bad comments on this post, it is something that I'm not ashamed of, but before anyone judges, please look at your own struggles...)

A trip to the minor med and football!

On Saturday morning Luke woke up with a fever, just a normal fever... so I gave him some meds and the fever went down, all was good! He felt fine, just a fever. We still went to Will's football game that morning, which by the way they won! After the game we came home, watched more football, ate and put the kiddos down for a nap. Luke wakes up from his nap with a super high fever... I gave him meds again, thinking it would bring it down, a hour and a half later his fever was a 104.7, I got terrified and immediately ran out the door with my lifeless, lethargic baby and headed to the Baptist Minor Med. They checked his ears and throat which both looked fine, so they still prescribed us with antibiotic because there obviously was a bad infection. (which I thought it could be a virus, but whatever you say doc)

So he got his first dosage of antibiotic on Saturday night, by Sunday he woke up feeling great, I still treated him with tylenol just in case his fever came back and this morning he woke up again fever free! We went from Saturday night me thinking all kind of horrible things that could be wrong with him to the next day going outside to play fever free.... Oh Lordy, this parenting thing is a big, fun roller coaster of emotions, but I wouldn't trade anything for it!!

Here he is at the doctor on Saturday night, he was feeling so bad he didn't want me to hold him, he just wanted to lay on the seat :( (this was taken with my phone, so bad quality)

He did start feeling better as the night ran on, he was so funny, on the way home from the doctor, he said in this sweet child voice "Mommy, all I need is my medicine and oatmeal to make me feel lots better" I LOVE THIS CHILD!!!

The rest of the weekend was filled with giving meds, watching football, cleaning and putting up my fall decor!!!! I LOVE THIS TIME OF THE YEAR, and it is super chilly here in the MidSouth!

Y'all have a blessed Monday!

Things to be Thankful for!!!

(in no particular order, just the order that they come to my head)

1. Debt and financial burdens have made our lives hell the past 3 years, this week was a defying week in our lives and we are on track to a comeback in life and a incredible future for our children... Thank you Lord for allowing us to go through what we went through, I would never be the woman, mother and wife I am today if it were not those moments. "God will never take you where the Grace of God can't protect you!" And let me say that the Grace of God brought us out of that misery, Amen Sisters!!!

2. Fall is here and the weather decided to show up in the MidSouth. Fall will be the decor starting this weekend in our home, thank you Lord for changing seasons, not only in our lives, but also in the weather, we all needed a break from the heat!

3. My husband~ I thank God for him each day, even when I "think" I shouldn't be, I do and I swear that has changed our marriage, unconditional love is a strong key to marriage. :)

4. My sweet angel boys that I brought into this world. They have changed so much lately, it saddens me and scares me as well. They are such little men now, it's getting to be serious that we need more estrogen in our household, please Lord bless us with one more blessing!

5. My job~ I could not be more thankful to be where I am today, I got offered another position and I decided to take it, it's wonderful, I still keep my "part time" hours but with more benefits, in many different ways, thank you LORD for answering my prayers!!!

6. My Dad got promoted with Delta (he's been with them for 38 years) he will now be moving from Florida back to Atlanta (where he grew up and ALL of my family resides). I am so thankful for this blessing, we will be able to see much more of him and he will be one happy man, he is also dating his high school lover, so I am so happy for him in several ways!!!

7. I have been praying for awhile now about God to bring us in some way and child in our neighborhood for Will to play with, so many of the children around us are younger or older and I have wanted Will to have someone his age to play with. Let me tell y'all how funny God can be, as you all know, Will just started playing flag football, well Will knew one of his team mates from school and after a few practices and games we realized they live DIRECTLY behind us!!!! I mean how PERFECT is this for Will, plus he has a little brother Luke's age! So not only did God send someone for Will, he sent someone for Luke as well!! They are good Christian boys from a great family, this is such a blessing and we already have seen them every day for almost a week! I see a pattern here!

8. I have lost 10lbs now on the medication for my PCOS, to be honest, it gave me no problems like I was told it might do, it actually has made me feel so much better, but I did expect to lose more weight than I have so far, but I'm still trying and my goal is to lose atleast 20 more lbs before I get preggo again.... then I will be at the same starting weight for all of my babies!

9. The Esther bible study I am doing right now at church by Beth Moore, it's wonderful, it's blessed and enriched my life as a woman, thank you Lord!

10. As you can see, right now our lives are great, blessed and just plan busy! I could not be a happier girl!!!

Y'all have a blessed weekend, IT'S FALL Y'ALL!!!!

It's late y'all...

...it's real late and we have church early in the morning and for hours now I've been reading, commenting and trying to catch up on facebook and my blog. I do love nights like these though, I'm thankful they are far and few between, but they are fun and make me feel great being caught up.


If only my laundry was now caught up like my cyber duties, I have been on laundry strike this week. Actually, I'm waiting to see how long I will go until the hubs realizes I haven't done laundry and my clean clothes are starting to run out. Since I only wear 5 of the 100 panties I have, my strike is dreadfully coming to a end, but I do like to do things like this just to see if he will ever say anything... I kid you not y'all, I could go a month without doing anything and he would not breath a word. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen, it drives me NUTS if I don't do laundry every day, he on the other hand, as long as he has clean clothes, he is cool beans. He can CONVENIENTLY over look the fact that our laundry is piling up or our dishes need to be washed. I wish I had that same mind set, but if I did, nothing in this house would get done...ha. So, I guess that's a blessing!


Today Will's team had their 2nd game, they WON!!! He was beyond, super excited! Everyone did such a great job and yes on September 18th, I got a sunburn. Thanks to the almost 100 temps here in the Midsouth.... it's nice to have a little color though :)


The past few days I'm also trying to use nicer tones with the boys. Sometimes if I'm busy or got lots of things on my mind, I will be kind of short with them and maybe not have much patience.... (patience is a virtue, I do believe that strongly, it's so darn hard at times) but it's working y'all. I read this book, it has helped me in situations to just be more calm. My goal is to make my home more peaceful, as long as Momma is peaceful and calm, the rest of the families attitudes follow!


Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend! Sorry for the random topics in this post, just got many different things on my mind!

WAHOO

I PASSED my final exam to get my licensing for my job! This is a huge accomplishment for me and makes me super happy to have this behind me!!! Life lately is looking up so much, all I could to today was Praise God for all of these sweet, small but wonderful blessings He has placed my our lives lately!!!!! :)


Last Thursday after Will's practice, my Mom surprised us and was sitting in my front lawn when we got home. I was speechless and so excited to see her! She is beyond my best friend and going months without seeing her KILLS me, I had a mini break down last week and she had to come see me.... Thank you Lord for this woman you placed in my life, she's my Mom but she's so much more to me!!!


Friday night we took the boys to the Delta Fair. It was fun, but I can only take so much of the fair people.... I mean, I'm sorry but the fair brings out the weirdest people... "God love them" but come on, it's crazy!!!! It's a great place to "people watch"

We had a great time though and the boys were just SO excited and did so well! Here's a picture of Lukie and I on the Ferris wheel... we did the big one and I was TERRIFIED the whole time. I use to love fun crazy things, but since having kids, I can't do anything a slight bit scary, my anxiety level was high but it was fun and the boys could not believe how high we were :)

(I just noticed Luke looks a little nervous in this picture...ha)

Hope y'all are having a blessed week!!!

Just Because

It's time for some pics and just a quick update on life lately. Here's a recap, I hope y'all had a wonderful Labor day weekend like we did!!!!

Here's Daddy and Will leaving Will's recent football practice, they are in a serious discussion of how wonderfully proud of Will we are because we are shocked at how good he is in football. If only we can get him to start acting right at school, then he'd be a perfect kid.... I'm not sure what the deal is with the bad conduct reports.... UGH!!!

This is Logan my beautiful nephew, he is getting nice a chunky and beautiful, he's such a sweet little addition to our family. I'm so thankful to be his proud Aunt!!!

The boys and I after church.... Will's face is hilarious to me and my hair is a lot darker than this now... I'm really enjoying it being dark!

Will after a long day at school, poor baby tuckered out on my bed one afternoon (don't tell anyone that I slipped in beside him for about an hour, it felt so nice!)

And this is Luke with Ally and Nate, they are our sweet neighbors that just moved this week to Chattanooga! Not only are we jealous, but we miss them like CRAZY!!!! These kids played all the time together and we are still in withdrawl mode. It sucks but we can't wait to visit!!!

Hope y'all are having a blessed week! Please say a special prayer this week about my job, I'm taking a big exam and need many prayers!

It's September already

Can y'all believe it's September 2nd? I mean before long I will be carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, headed to Momma's for Thanksgiving and doing my Christmas shopping.. Oh how I love this time of the year!!! I can just smell the Holidays right around the corner.
(seriously, I'm smelling a fall festive candle right now)

I have several different things to update y'all on and it's been a week since I last blogged, so it's time for a post. So far I've lost 6 lbs with my insulin back in control, I've been on my medication 2 weeks today. Thank you Jesus!!! Hopefully that number will continue to grow!!


Will started football 2 weeks ago and he is the second best player, yes he's my son and I'm going to be bias, but he is honestly really good, plus he and his Daddy both take football VERY serious!!! He's playing flag football this year and he's not a happy camper about it being flag. He wants the full effect of football with the pads, helmet and all, but we believe he needs to start out slow, learn the techniques of football and then next year if his love for life is still football, then we will do the real thing. We are just conservative like that :) Plus, it terrifies me for him to be playing real football. He thinks he is un-hurt-able... be we all know that's untrue! The child is just shy of 7 but he acts like he's 17, SCARY!!!!! Honestly, it scares me for him to get bigger, he's starting to learn more about life and he's super smart... I'm seriously scared of my own son! ha..


I had him when I was young and still in college, everyone would ask me if I was scared or nervous about having kids, I have always said, nope it's doesn't worry me at all to have babies, but when they get older, it TERRIFIES me!!!!!!! I mean they start learning about life, right from wrong and everything in between, AND it's all OUR responsibility for them to turn out ok. That's pretty dang terrifying to me y'all... I'm just sayin! With the good Lord on our side, I think we will all be ok though, a little bit of faith is all we have in life sometimes!


At work I have been offered a really, great position that I don't believe I can pass up. I still get to keep my part time hours, keep my benefits and have a potential of more money. I am seriously still shocked to be working at a company that believes in me so much! I'm so blessed, just honestly blessed!


Alright I've got to go help Luke with his stickers... I need to make sure he is sticking them on the paper instead of on the furniture, so y'all have a blessed week and if I don't hear from you before the weekend, make it a great Labor Day weekend! Love y'all!

Straight up honesty!!

*Reminder: this is my blog, therefore I can say what I want to say :) Be nice to this sister!*

Y'all life lately has been straight.. up.. honestly HARD! We are going through historical times globally and within our family. The love that my hubs and I have for each other, has grown through these hard times, that one has shocked me, but made me a proud woman to stand beside my man knowing we will get through this and better days are ahead! The past 3 years have been hard for our family, but the past 6 months have been the hardest! Honestly, financially, physically, my health and every other aspect of being a Mom in between has been hard, what else is left??

Let's talk about my health, I have gained some weight. Too much for me and we (the hubs and I) have not noticed anything different in my activity levels or eating habits. Meaning, I'm not eating too much and I'm not being lazy or unactive. I am a working mother of 2 rowdy boys and I normally don't sit down at night until I'm going to bed at 11 or midnight. So activity is not a problem. I went to my doctor to determine what's going on or to see what she says, maybe without my knowledge I am doing something wrong. She did tons of blood work and checked all of my levels, everything came back fine besides my insulin levels... :0 So she had me come back again and get it checked and sure enough she determined I'm insulin resistance and was diagnosed with PCOS polycyctic ovarian syndrome which is one of the most common female endocrine disorders affecting 5%-10% of women of reproductive age (12–45 years old) and one of the leading causes of infertility. No, at this time we are not trying to have children, but this is good to know! The PCOS causes me to be insulin resistance, which if not taken care of properly then I could become diabetic. It makes complete sense now, my father was diagnosed with diabetes recently and both grandparents on my father's side of the family had diabetes before death and several members of my family have it on my Dad's side of the family, so it's in my genes.

I consider this a blessing to know, I am so blessed to know what is going on with me and this is going to help me monitor my health more carefully. I am on a very strong medication called metformin which will help control my PCOS and allow my body to properly function which in return will allow me to lose this weight. My doctor said no matter if I only had 1,000 calories a day and worked out like a crazy woman, I would not lose any weight, it is the way my body is processing all of my food. So here's my goal: take this medication, hopefully it will allow my body to do the proper things, continue to do my part of eating healthy and staying active and hopefully within the next 6 months to a year, I will be ovulating (oh because right now I'm not, thanks PCOS) and maybe, just maybe God will bless me with 1 more blessing, that's all I'm asking for, it's not too much is it?!?! We will see, it's all in His timing, I have no control over my life, I have realized that, so I'm just along to enjoy this ride called LIFE!

Thanks for listening to me and if you know of anyone who has this please let me know, I would love to know of anyone having similar problems. At first I was upset but I do think this is a blessing, it is always kind of upsetting to find out something is wrong with you. I also think it's such a miracle, our bodies. A few months back we knew I wasn't ovulating, but we didn't know why not? We thought it could of been my endometriosis because I've known I've had that and with my two c-sections it's gotten worse, but little did we know it was something much more serious and my body knew it was going on so it stopped all female functions, crazy huh!!!

I will not believe the odds are against me, but I will continue to do what I can do to make sure I'm healthy and that's all I can do!!!

Y'all have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Nightly Walks...

We try at night to spend as much time as possible with the boys, with school starting it is really hard due to homework, Will's 1st project due this Friday, dinner, bath time and bed. BUT I tell you nothing brings our family closer than a nice walk while the boys are riding their bikes. It is SO much fun!!! This is the boys after Luke's first time riding his big boy bike on our walks. He was so proud of himself, he kept saying "Mommy I love you so much, aren't you so proud of me?" :)

Luke if you only knew how proud of you we were, that was a special night for us! It doesn't take much in our family to really enjoy the small things in life!

This smile tells it all!!! :)

I hope y'all are having a blessed week, please say prayers for Will, he's still having a hard time in first grade. IF I didn't have to work I would SO home school my kids, I HATE this!! Don't think I haven't tried to come up with plans to make this happen :0

I miss having little bitty ones around!

This little boy was so happy to see his Aunt Katie... everytime I looked at him he grinned :)

but sometimes he did seem not to sure about what was going on, or maybe all of the noise at my house with two other rowdy boys could not keep their hands off of him...

He did give several of these adorable smiles with dimples and all!!

and I had a helper that thought he was his babysitter, thank goodness L thought Luke was pretty funny!

So sweet! We had too much fun taking care of sweet baby Logan, he's a great, laid back baby! :)

Whew..

The past few weeks, well they have been beyond crazy, but I do feel a sense of structure coming back into our lives. Tomorrow I'm off and I have the honor of keeping my new nephew L, I just CAN'T wait!!! He will be loved and kissed the whole time he's here :)

Here's the boys recently at the mall... this is a kind of weird picture of both of them, they look so silly, but they are still my beautiful babies :)

Luke the Lion :)

Summer is not complete without some slip n slide fun!

AND a wonderful lunch at our one and only FAVORITE place to eat, Chick-fil-a!

Hope y'all are enjoying the end of the summer. Temps are still in the 100's and it's just miserably hot! Will started school this year, he's a first grader now and having a hard time with that! But all I know to do is pray for him! My job is going great, I've had some obstacles to overcome this week, but they are behind me and I'm much happier!

Do y'all have a big weekend planned? We don't, thank goodness! I plan on getting my house in order and studying more for my exams. Have a great evening!

It's HOT up in here!!!

I know y'all I need to do a picture post real soon, I took some pics this weekend so I will do a whole post just on them soon, I PROMISE!!! :)

But it is hard to even move in this horrible heat wave we have going on.... the mid south is experiencing record high's this week, we had our 9th death this weekend. It's so freggin hot here, I can't even move, seriously it's too hot to move!! When I get hot I get mad, I can't stand being hot or sweating, so big Momma over here is keeping to myself and trying to keep my cool. I mean it's sad when I'm sitting at my desk, working away and I quickly get up to grab something off of the printer and my booty is damp from sweating, y'all I just HATE it!!! I pray that anyone who has to work in this heat is ok, I would NOT do it or if I had to I would not want anyone around :)

Yesterday I went to Chick~fil~A for lunch, at the one next to my work, it is always packed during lunch time. Since the line is real bad they have people outside standing there to take your order and that seems to make the line go faster, well let me tell you, I felt SO bad for the people having to stand in the heat and sun to take my lunch order, I felt guilty! No one should have to do that, I don't care how much they pay you, that's just cruel!!!

I hope y'all are having a wonderful week, it's been a crazy busy one for me. (but what's new?) This morning I went to register Will for 1st grade, I can't believe my first born is going on the 1st grade.... where has the time gone??? My Momma is driving up today from Georgia for a visit before school starts... I can't wait :) but I'm also terrified of my Mom driving in this heat, but she's hard headed and said she's coming no matter what... so please pray for safe travels for my Momma!!

Love y'all!

VBS

This week is Vacation Bible School at church and I'm teaching my 2 year olds. I LOVE this age, they are too sweet and do whatever it is you need them to do! ha... they aren't like my 6 and 4 year old who have a mind of their own now and they tell me what they want ME doing.. :)

Will lately has been very upset about me leaving him. He will be 7 in November and y'all it has had me SO upset. Anytime I am going somewhere he can't go, it consumes my mind as to how he is feeling. See, Will is my child that I worry a lot about, not that I don't worry about Luke, but Luke has the personality that he can take care of himself, he doesn't seem to require much attention from us. So Will on the other hand, I just worry about his feelings, his heart (hoping it's not hurting), other kids and him making friends and getting along with other kids. This week I VBS, I have prayed for a long time for God to heal his breaking heart and for Him to show himself and his love to Will through sweet Christian children. Will is having a blast at VBS and this makes my heart SO happy!!!!! He does get upset when I drop him off but he is so darn happy the whole time and comes running to my classroom when he's done! THANK YOU LORD FOR ANSWERING MY PRAYERS!!! I pray this week will help him from here on out!


Hope y'all are having a great week so far! I can't believe tomorrow is already Tuesday! WOW this week is going by so fast! I have a great picture post coming up, have a blessed night!

So tell me...

what you think about my new look??? Do you like it??


I LOVE it!!! Emily did such an amazing job! I know I was a hard customer to work with, I had so many different ideas and she did such a great job of putting it all together for me! Her button for her blog design page is down below... take a look at it, she will do a great job for you!!!

Now I've got to get back to studying, I'm taking my Tennessee and Mississippi state license test this week for my mortgage license.. oh Lord please give me more brain to absorb all of this info... wish me luck :)

coming soon....

Y'all I have a whole new look coming, you are going to be so shocked :) I can't wait for you all to see it and get feedback, I know your going to love it as much as I do!!!!

I will let you know when it's here, but it's not like you won't already know it :)

Hope everyone is having a Happy Friday!!!

~Katie~

Four years ago today...

On July 19, 2006 my angel boy Steven "Luke" Clements was born via planned c~section at 4:53pm. He was the most beautiful brown eyed, brown haired baby I had ever laid my eyes on. On that day four years ago I never knew how much he would change our lives, but he instantly made a special boy named Will a big brother! Luke no matter how old you are, you will always be my baby. You are so big now and you keep us laughing. We love you so much! Our lives would not be complete without you in it. When you are calling for Will, you don't say his name but say "broder" it makes my heart melt in pieces hearing that come out of your beautiful mouth. I remember the night you were born, Daddy and I stayed up all night just looking at you, we cried together, prayed together, prayed for your life and thanking God for giving us another healthy child, those are memories I will never forget with you Luke! You are an amazing child, I love you so much! Happy Birthday baby boy!!!

Here's a video of his first cry... he's a c~section baby and he was having breathing problems when he was born, so at the end they are putting oxygen over his face.... oh it's the sweetest video ever!!! (I hope it works!)