THANKFUL!

Thankful - to be full of thanks!

Kelly and I have so much to be thankful for this year.

Our church family.... without our Sunday school class and a strong body of believers, we would be completely lost like half of this world! We feel so blessed to have found a great church family to worship with each week. We look forward to many wonderful years at Johnson Ferry, and cannot wait for Kaitlynn and our future children to grow up surrounded by the body of Christ.

Kaitlynn is more than a blessing to us! She is a precious gift from our Heavenly Father. We couldn't have asked for anything else when it comes to our daughter - she's absolutely perfect in our eyes! She has stolen our heart and given us 3 months of pure joy.

Willa Grace..... pretty much the best dog ever! She is a true companion, comforts us when we don't feel well, loves us unconditionally, and is always ready for some snuggle time!!

Our families...... without our parents & siblings, nieces & nephews, and our grandparents..... life would be so lonely! We both have wonderful families that are beyond amazing to us! Thank you for everything you do for all of us! We hope you know how much we appreciate all of you.

Our friends...... you guys are our "family." As the majority of our family is out of town, it's nice having close friends we can turn to in good times & bad! Thank you!

On another note.....

I am very thankful for my husband. He is definitely the man God created specifically for me! There is no one else out there that could love me the way Kelly does. I stand by our wedding song that we danced to - it's our life completely summed up - When God Made You by Newsong. I attached a link with the lyrics for you to check out! I will never forget dancing with Kelly to this song at our wedding. God truly knew what he was doing when he brought us together at the end of June 2007. I am so thankful to have a loving, giving, godly husband! I am blessed beyond measure to be Kelly's wife and look forward to the many years we get to spend together! I love you, Kelly!!

Wonder what Kaitlynn is watching.......

The Thanksgiving Parade!

Thursday morning, we let Kaitlynn watch her first Thanksgiving Parade

while we got everyone ready to leave for Greenville.

Unfortunately, with my sickness over the past week, it also meant that our travel plans changed a bit for Thanksgiving. We were planning on spending Thanksgiving Day with my mom, Mark, Bridgette, Elizabeth, David, Bonnie & Troy. Well, with Elizabeth & Troy being young, and David & Bonnie expecting a little one again - we had to make the decision to miss Thanksgiving lunch with them. As much as I wanted to see everyone, I couldn't imagine taking the chance and getting anyone sick! We're definitely looking forward to seeing everyone for Christmas. Even though we had to miss Thanksgiving lunch, Kelly and I still headed to Greenville for a few days. My temperature was normal all day Wednesday - Thursday at lunch time, so we packed up the car and left for my mom's house around 1:00pm. We got there after everyone had left her house. Thankfully they didn't eat all the food and we were able to still enjoy some amazing Thanksgiving traditional meals. Of course, with my stomach being weak from everything I went through on Monday night - I had to go slow with what I ate - and it was my first "real" meal since Monday afternoon! It tasted SO good......

Happy Thanksgiving, Nanabug!

Thanksgiving was very relaxing, but it was tough not getting to see my brothers, their wives and children....... It was different not being with everyone today, but we made it a great Thanksgiving regardless! My mom and I headed out to do some shopping tonight - Old Navy was actually open until 7:00pm and was having really good deal (jeans = $9.99)!! It was nice getting out of the house and doing some shopping - I haven't been shopping for myself in a while. Once we got back, Kaitlynn was still awake so we spent some time playing before she headed to bed around 8:30pm - later than normal. She did well though - she slept until 6:30am Friday morning without waking up! The Vicks Vapor Pads in her humidifier are helping with her cold at night I think.

Friday morning started early..... not too early though! While Kelly stayed home with Kaitlynn, my mom and I headed out for some Black Friday shopping around 6:30am. We headed to a few "small" places - Lifeway Christian Bookstore, Babies-R-Us, and Verizon Wireless. We were home by 8:00am - my type of shopping - and didn't run into any HUGE crowds which was nice as well. We spent the late morning hours in Spartanburg visiting my mom's parents - Pop & Jaja. Since I didn't have a fever Wednesday or Thursday, we felt confident that I wasn't contagious anymore. I was great getting to see my grandparents and they really enjoyed spending a little bit of time with Kaitlynn as well. This was just their 2nd time seeing her! They will get to see her again over the Christmas holiday in just a month!

After we got in from Spartanburg, Kelly and I took Kaitlynn over to visit with Grandmother June - my dad's mom. It was wonderful getting to see her for a little while! She loves being around babies - especially her great-grand babies! Once we got home from her house, my Aunt Tammy, cousin Halie, and Tammy's mom - Connie stopped in for a visit after their madhouse shopping trip ended at Haywood Mall. Mark, Bridgette, and Elizabeth also got to my mom's house before the three of them ended up leaving, so things were a bit crazy! Kaitlynn was pretty worn out from taking her past two naps in the car seat, so she went down for about a 1.5 hour nap! We didn't want to let her sleep too long since we were hoping to have her in bed around 7:30pm so we could head out ourselves for a date night! With Kaitlynn going to sleep earlier these days, getting out of the house before bedtime is tough. So, with us being in Greenville we decided to take advantage of her early bedtime, and my mom being at home to check-in on her! We headed out around 7:45pm and met Eric and Blythe downtown at Wild Wings. It was so good catching up with them and spending a few hours talking and laughing! All four of us really needed a night like that I think! If only we lived a little closer to each other and could do that more often!

Proud Great-Grandparents: Pop & Jaja

Aunt Tammy, and Halie - my cousin, were able to stop by the house

to finally meet our daughter. Elizabeth happened to be there too

so that got to see her again as well :)

Kelly & I packed up our girls and headed back to Atlanta mid-morning on Saturday. My mom had to be at work around 11:00am - Kaitlynn ate around 10:30am - so our leaving time worked out perfect. Once we made it home, we unloaded the car, unpacked our bags, pulled out our Christmas decorations, and put Kaitlynn down for a nap! Once we had all of our Christmas boxes out in the den, we had a phone call from a realtor wanting to show our home in the next 1.5 hours! We both looked at each other, told the realtor that was fine, and then got busy cleaning! The Christmas boxes went downstairs in our garage, and we did our "spring cleaning" routine for each realtor in about an hour! We were exhausted..... and decided to hold off on decorating our home until Sunday afternoon. We spent the remainder of our day watching football.

We headed to church Sunday morning after Kaitlynn slept for 11 straight hours!! 8:00pm - 7:00am.... pretty awesome! We took Kaitlynn to our Sunday school class for the first time - she did very well; ended up sleeping during most of it. We also were able to stay for service. We went to the Encounter service held in the Activities Center. It's pretty low-key in there. We were able to sit up top near an exit & close to a bathroom with a changing table. Kaitlynn did great - she absolutely loved the music and didn't cry during the sermon. It was wonderful getting back to Johnson Ferry for worship and we're looking forward to going with Kaitlynn each Sunday we're in town! Once we got home, we put Kaitlynn down for a nap which turned out to be a 3-hour nap! We were able to have a quiet lunch, and put up our Christmas decorations! It's so hard to believe that it's already the Christmas season. We have so much to be thankful for this year and we're both so excited about spending the holiday season with our families & friends.

*All dressed up for church*

Right before Kaitlynn crashed for a 2.5 hour afternoon nap!

*Jim Shore Nativity*

This week, Kaitlynn and I spent a lot of time at home resting! After two eventful Thanksgiving trips, we were pretty much exhausted! Unfortunately, all of us are still sick! Kelly has almost shaken his month long illness, I am now on Ammoxicillon, and Kaitlynn can't take anything for her cold :( When today rolled around, Kelly and I decided we needed to take Kaitlynn in for a check-up for her cold. Our precious niece, Elizabeth has a double ear infection and bronchitos, so we wanted to check things out with Kaitlynn. Thankfully she just has the common cold and will have symptoms for possibly another week. They did weigh her today!!

At 2 months (October 19th) - 10lbs

At 3 months (November 17th) - 10lbs. 7oz..

At 3.5 months (December 2nd) - 11lbs. 8oz.

Our precious baby girl decided to gain an entire pound over the past two weeks! Great job, Kaitlynn!

Kelly and I want our family & friends to know how blessed we are to have so many amazing people a part of our lives! We are thankful to have such wonderful parents, siblings, nieces & nephews, and great friends to share our time with. We truly are blessed......