Life with my sister

My sweet sister did this on her personal blog and I thought I would do it also. What did you do in 2009 that you had never done before? I became a mother. Did you keep your new years resolutions and will you make any this year? I kept a couple of them and I will make more this year, per usual, and end up breaking most of them by Jan 15 th ! Did anyone close to you give birth? Can I claim myself? If not, then no. I have a few sweet friends having babies in early 2010 though and I can't wait. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no. What places have you visited? We visited Washington DC for the first time and loved our time there. We have traveled to some neat places but this was our favorite trip by far. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Calm. Weird , I know. With a newborn in my house you are thinking, "she's crazy!" but seriously , I am looking forward to some calm in this house this year. No new jobs, baby rooms being planned and...

8 years ago today I met this sweet man in the picture above. We met on a blind date in the Bluff City (aka- Memfrica). He and I were simply going out to shut up his stepmother and my sister, who had decided that we were meant to be together from one simple fridge photo and a dog named Abby. Little did we know they would be able to pat themselves on the back for the rest of their lives . I am so glad we both agreed to go out for that one date on New Years Eve 2001 because I have had him in my life everyday since that crazy night at my cousin Hollye's back door when he arrived to pick me up to find a baby on my hip that he thought was mine. I remember those beautiful blue eyes and how they about popped out of his head as he stood at the door wondering why no one had mentioned my child. That baby on my hip was Claire. She was 1 then and had just gone number 2 in her diaper right before he rang the bell. She had Styrofoam all over her and me from playing in Christmas boxes. Needless t...

Of course, Jesus is my most favorite thing about Christmas. Without Him we would have no Christmas and in turn, no joy. I am thankful that the following things bring me joy because of His gift to us. I jump for joy over Christmas cards. If you receive my card, you know this about me! I send out about 115 photo cards with a letter each year. I in turn love receiving them from my friends and family. I have them on my memo board in my kitchen this year and love it. I think this will be my new display place for them. The tree. I adore the tree and ornaments that go on the tree. All mine tell a story and I love that. I have worked hard to make it tell a beautiful story. We buy ornaments on all our trips, big events, milestones and we buy one for each other every Christmas. This year Henry had 7 ornaments on our tree and we had 3 new family ornaments on our tree. I love how our story is growing. I in turn buy ornaments for all the kids in our family and my BFF's kids. I want them to ...

Imagine in your minds. Christmas morning, kids standing in the hall waiting to see what Santa brought, parents getting the video camera and digital camera set to catch all the expressions on the kids faces. Kids let loose in the living room, scoping out all that Santa brought and trying to figure out which gift was for them (Santa doesn't wrap his gifts.) Looking in their stockings and announcing everything that's in them. All 4 kids announcing EVERYthing in their stockings at the same time. The noise! Then a break to eat sausage balls and to put the turkey in the oven. Back to the action. Two black trash bags ready to be filled with wrapping paper and bows(Abby wasn't there so we didn't have to save bows) kids sitting so close to each other that when they unwrap a gift they elbow a sibling. Announcements of what each child unwrapped. The same amount of excitement when underwear is revealed as when a Nintendo DS is opened. These kids, they like it all! Then, the adul...

Marmie was with us the week of Christmas. She was our only overnight house guest this year and she was a special one, for sure. Henry got lots of Marmie time. I hope the Fab Four don't hate Henry already! ha. We loved meeting Henry's 2 nd cousin, Caden . He came a few days after Christmas. He is the son of Randall's cousin, Micah and his wife, Tabby. We are hoping our boys will grow to be good buddies. Caden is 53 weeks older than Henry. Randall's Aunt Diana "Sissy" loves a baby and this means our little Henry is on her list! She is Caden's "Grams" and she came with Uncle Rick to see Henry. She had not seen him since the hospital. We were so glad to see her again. We saw lots of these sweet people, his Nana and Papa. Only being an hour away, Molly can come keep him for me while Papa goes tool shopping, etc. Papa loves a bargain and Nana loves a baby...score for them! We took Henry to their house the Sunday before Christmas to see Nana...

Because there is so much to share about our Christmas this year, I will post several things this week with photos and such so you can enjoy! Hopefully our Aunt Juju will also post about her first Christmas at home also. I know she had a blast with the kids. Instead of going to the Fort this year, we stayed at home and the Fort came to us...aka, the Marmie . It was different but magical with our baby boy. We missed all of our usual Fort Christmas company and especially our Juju and our Fab Four. My heart was exploding with gratitude for the best gift ever...Henry Patton! Daddy seemed pretty thankful too...he is in-love with this boy. It is so heartwarming, really. Yes, we had on matching pjs . We are dorks who love to start traditions. I love our faces in this picture. Randall is like," Are you for real, we are dressed alike?". Henry is looking like, "Oh dear, these are my people...help!". And I am all a glow in the magic of the moment. So fun! This is Henry...

I thought you might enjoy a look at Henry in all his Christmas gear. Christmas morning was most fun with this little Santa baby. He received the cute wrist rattles and booties in his stocking from Santa. The outfit came from one of my neighbors. She delivered it to my door at 8:30 pm on Christmas Eve. We got a chuckle out of the situation and melted when we saw what she brought. So glad she go it over to us before Christmas! This is the adorable first Christmas outfit and stocking cap Lindsey photographed him in a few weeks ago when she did his infant pictures. Melissa gave us this outfit. Her sweet Mama bought it for Drew but he was born after Christmas. She kept it hoping one of her babies would be able to wear it but no such luck. Henry was the lucky one! This is Henry with this Daddy on Christmas Eve. Henry received this cute 1st Christmas sleep sack from his Juju . I love the sacks. It makes diaper changing so much easier in the middle of the night. Henry in his "I love ...

Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you! We are gearing up for a most fun and meaningful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here at our house with our new little love. He is growing so fast. In just a week he has gone from his Christmas clothes being too big to fitting him well. Be still my heart! I hope none of you miss Christmas this year. It is my goal to experience it fully. I sometimes miss it in the hustle and bustle of the activities and refuse to miss it this year as we celebrate it for the first time with our sweet little blessing. I am reminded how Mary must have felt her first Christmas with Jesus. I hope to get just a little taste or a small glimpse of it this year. Abby

Happy Birthday to you ! Hollye is our only cousin on our Dad's side of the family. It really wouldn't matter if there were 15 cousins on that side of the family we would love her the best, she would be our favorite. Hollye has such a sweet spirit about her. You can tell when you are around her that she loves the Lord and His people. She is a nurse, a wife and a mother. A friend, a cousin and a daughter. She has enriched our lives and made us better people. We love you Hollye !!! appy Birthday!

Henry Patton had his first bath Wednesday night...his 2 week birthday. His cord and circumcision ring both fell off on this great day. He was so cute, clean and ready to go night-night. Abby

Henry has been busy wrapping presents with Mama. Then he was hard at work making Christmas candy with Mama and Daddy. It is a family tradition of ours and we were so glad to make him part of it this year. He makes all the sweet treats even sweeter! Henry and Daddy were pooped after a busy night "Christmasing" with Mama and they settled in for a long winters nap in Daddy's recliner. Abby

Today was to be a normal Wednesday. School in the morning, clean house in the afternoon, church in the evening. Not today. A friend came by this morning to deliver some much needed love and support. Because of that school was not what it was supposed to be, but just school none the less. The kids then had hair appointments. All three of the boys decided to get their hair cut like Stephens. Which is much shorter than what they normally wear, but much easier to fix. I'm super excited about their choice! Anna also got her hair trimmed. She really wants long hair, but because she is mine she cannot wear long hair and still look beautiful, so we cut it a bit. Then, I was on my way to mail a card at the post office. I had pulled over in some parking spaces and was addressing the card and the kids said "the police are behind you!" And sure enough my friend (literally, thank heavens!) the police man was behind me with lights flashing. I opened my door, stuck my head out and look...

Tummy time on the Boppy I love that little mouth Henry stayed with his Daddy for a bit today while I went for a follow up appt at the doctor and to do some shopping. Henry had to sit through a conference call with his Daddy and decided to poo poo his diaper while Daddy was on the call. I would have loved to been a fly on the wall to see how Randall changed it and stayed on the phone without interruption. Henry hates to have a dirty diaper and also hates to have it changed...and usually screams the best he can through the whole event. Randall is a good daddy, so I am sure he did fine. Anyway, It was the first time in 23 days that I had driven or been inside anywhere besides my own home, Randall's truck, the doctor's office or the hospital. Much needed time out today, but I must say this little mama is tired from the outing. I am still recouping from birthing this sweet thing you see posted above this text. The doctor weighed me today and I have already lost 25 pounds. I have ab...

Go here so see a sneak peak of Lindsey's photo session with Henry Patton. Precious!

Our dear dear friend Lindsey came to our house today to take Henry's first photos. He did very well. We think he may be a ham...like his Mama! We put him in this generic stocking because we were afraid he would not fit in his handmade stocking. Lindsey took some great pics of it with the fireplace roaring in the background. Melt. My. Heart. Lindsey also got some sweet ones of this shot. I took all these with my camera after she finished her shots. We are so excited about celebrating Christmas with this special little gift and are so thankful Lindsey could come see us and take great pictures of our baby boy. Abby

I'm pretty sure I've told you of the healing powers of Siloam Springs Camp. But let me tell you again in case you missed it. Many years ago, when Stephen and I were dating. We were counselors at our youth church camp. Abby was a high school student, it was a fun week with many memories. One memory is about warts the other memory is that Stephen wouldn't hold my hand or kiss me the whole entire week because Siloam has a no PDA rule. And he has always loved a rule. The wart memory is the best one though. Abby had these warts on her hands. I don't know how long they had been there or why. They weren't large or ugly or anything. Just a problem for her. I mean, who wants warts on your hand. Well, one morning we woke up and she said "Julie, my warts are gone!" I thought that was an outlandish statement. How does that happen! We looked on the floor, on the sheets, we shook out her blanket, we did everything looking for them. We never found them. They were gone...

Click here to see Henry's hospital photos. You will need to put in December 2nd as his birth date to view. He is pretty cute in these photos...if I must say so myself! Abby

Look at my Christmas baby! He has on his "Silent Night, Yeah Right" t-shirt, Christmas striped pants, red leather shoes and his reindeer hat. His Daddy laughed at his grumpy face and said if he had to wear that, he would be grumpy too. I think he looks most precious. We made our first Christmas memory as a family tonight. We went to the Delta Festival of Lights. We plan to make it a tradition each year. We listened to Christmas music all the way there and all the way home. Henry of course slept through the whole thing, but we had fun. Daddy bought us an ornament that they were selling so we would have our first Christmas outing as a memory on our tree. Here is my Christmas munchkin in his car seat ready to go. He had a big day with his circumcision and a family Christmas outing. I hope he rests well tonight. Now, Aunt Juju , please post something on here so it is not all me! Abby

Last night was our first night in our home as a little family unit. We survived. Mama is a bit tired, but will survive. Henry is happy, so that is all that matters. He is playing with his Daddy in the den right now. He is trying to get him to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog on the TV but Henry keeps staring at the wall. instead. It is quite entertaining to watch his Daddy deal with him. I love it. Sunday we had a group of special visitors. Our Memphis family ( I do not use "memfricia" in this post because my Aunt Babs does hate for me do it in a big way) came to see Henry. This is his Aunt Connie holding him for the first time. Connie is my Dad's wife and she sure is crazy about our baby boy. He was still on the light on Sunday when they came to visit. Aunt Babs, Claire, Hollye and Connie loved on Henry while Grandaddy, Thew, Uncle Joe and Daddy discussed the ways of the world. It was so fun to have all of them meet Henry. He is one loved little boy, for sure. Here is a...