happy birthday, rachel!

ok, rachel, i don't even know if you read my blog, but just in case you do, HAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! (i had to shout since you're so far away...) i hope you had a wonderful birthday with your new puppy (read the post below for hints on how to get that poop out of the carpet) and jazzercise. :) i miss you, and i love thinking about all the hilarious and stupid memories we had living together and braving graduate school together... and all those years at harding, too. (i was just telling brian the other day about "good ole' rach"!!!) :) i think about you when i tell a stupid joke (not sure how to type that noise...click, click?? that doesn't do it justice!!), when i hear someone say "ken" for "can", and especially when i hear that dumb prince song we use to sing while cruising in memphis in the lumina (which isn't real often, but i do get it stuck in my head sometimes). i have you to thank for shining some light on what it's like to lose a hubcap in ghetto memphis on halloween night, as well as having your brakes catch on fire in the middle of downtown. i have so many stories... but your birthday's gonna be over in 25 minutes, so i have to hurry. :) thank you for being a part of my wedding, even if it meant a whirlwind trip and then sleeping on my couch... the 5 minutes i got to see you were good ones. :) i love your servant heart... i love your willingness to do whatever for whoever, whenever. you're one of the smartest people i know, and you always made me think about things in a different light. the Lord was so good to have us meet during summer experience before our freshman year... He knew i needed a friend like you. well, i just wanted you to know that i love you, and i have this guest room just waiting for you and ryan to come visit. (just give me a day's notice to clear all the junk off the bed!!) :)

happy birthday, my friend...if i were with you right now, i'd sing...."what makes you give your last cookie away? or help me clean my room all day? why would you let me use your stereo? or save me the middle of your oreo..." (no i have still NEVER EVER heard of that song except through you, but i admit, i found proof that it IS a real song...) love you, rachada... happy happy birthday.

laundry musts for moms

ok, so who really likes to do laundry?? not me! i think my laundry basket (aka, our loveseat) is always full of laundry when my mom comes over to watch ethan... but i'm thankful to have a family that needs their laundry done. i'd much rather be doing laundry for them than to not have my sweet family!! in the last couple of months, i have discovered two wonderful, wonderful laundry helps... i'm just a little excited.

the first is oxiclean baby. it works just like the regular oxiclean, but it's dye-free, fragrance-free, etc... and does it ever make your baby clothes poop-free!!!! it is wonderful. i can dissolve some in a bowl in the bathroom, and throw poopy clothes in there to soak, and even a few days later (i know... i shouldn't leave them that long, but i just told you that i hate to do laundry!), throw them in the wash, and those white onesies are white again! the only time that i have to wash them twice is if i forget to soak them right away... another thing that works if i don't want to soak them is to just wet the clothes and rub some oxiclean on them. i haven't used the baby spray yet, but i may order some online. that would make my life even easier!! i've also been pouring a scoop into the washer as a detergent booster. with ethan's clothes, i've been rinsing them twice just to be on the safe side... but it's pretty free of everything that would aggravate his precious skin. (i was using the regular oxiclean, but i think it was too much for his sensitive skin.) anyway, i have found this the cheapest at target, though all they have is the 1.5 lb. tub. apparently, you can join oxiclean's "clean club" and get free shipping for their products. i am going to call and check on that... anything that saves me a trip to the store this time of year sounds good to me!!

a few weeks ago, i was stupid and threw all of ethan's clothes in as one load...with a few new RED outfits i'd bought (finally!! something that's not baby blue!). of course, a sock turned pink, as did most of a soft precious handknitted white blanket. i was planning on soaking them in tide (this must have been before i bought the oxiclean baby...), but my friend carrie told me about shout's color catchers. thank you, carrie! i had not heard of them, but now i see them in every store. they look like dryer sheets, and you just put them in the washer with your clothes. it soaks up all the loose dye that comes from new clothes, or whatever would otherwise become the staining culprit in your washer. they work GREAT!!! this is a great find for this mommy who loves red on her little boy.

so now laundry is more of a challenge for me... will the stain come out? how pink will that color catcher be when the load is done? i know, i'm a dork. but i'm a dork in really clean clothes!! now if i could just find something that automatically folds my clothes...

anybody have any other laundry secrets? i'd love to hear them.

God bless danny & rhema!

our friends danny and rhema are getting married on sunday... what a wonderful way for them to begin 2006! we are unable to be at the wedding, which is several states away, so i just wanted to have a little blog celebration for them. :)

danny & rhema, we are so excited for your commitment to each other and to the Lord. may He bless all the festivities this weekend!! we will be praying for you as you gather with family and friends to be united as one. marriage is such a blessing... we look forward to your visit here in a couple weeks and especially when you will be back in town with us for good later in 2006. we can't wait to spend lots of time with you then....

we love you and praise God for you!

last christmas post, i promise...

just some more captured moments of my christmas baby...









ok, i'm done. now i REALLY need to do laundry...

christmas memories

we began christmas day by worshiping with brian's family. his grandparents' church has beautiful stained glass!



ya gotta love the christmas money from the grandparents! this year, they gave out a stack of $1 bills instead of writing checks. (yes, we had 17 people in that living room opening presents...)



pappy needs to buy the christmas baby a bigger hat! :)



kristie with aunt joanie's new dog, bailey.



since uncle ryan wasn't with us, auntie kristie's finger had to do... ethan knows that holidays=feast!



ethan loves mama hawkins!



y'all are in my favorite color. :)



ethan helps uncle jeffy unwrap his presents.. he just wants the bow!




daddy says, "get your own ipod!"



texas hold 'em became the family addiction last christmas... uncle tom and aunt pam taught us how to play, and now every year, they'll have to refresh our memory... and they'll probably make up some new rules. :) we don't play for money, just bragging rights and something to do while granddaddy and grandmommy watch the gaithers!

here's brian's aunts (from left, joanie, glenda, pam) somewhat paying attention to the game... pam "didn't want to play" but then told joanie what to do on every hand. glenda got her hands on the baby, so she had no interest in playing...



here's brian and "the tominator" after a good game. brian beat the miami pants off uncle tom!! too bad you weren't playing for a dinner at ruth's chris'...he learned from the best!



thanks for another wonderful christmas, everybody! praise God for family. i am thankful to have married into a family so loving and as crazy as me. :)

3 christmas outfits, 2 grandma's houses, and a partridge in a pear tree...

so christmas day was quite a day... since our family keeps growing, we stayed at a hotel this year... so ironically, there was more room for us in the inn. :) ha. this was nice and quiet, but it made for more purposeful planning, as far as baby supplies goes. we split up our visiting between brian's grandparents, so i knew we'd be back and forth at the 2 houses all day and not returning to the hotel till bedtime. i filled two huge gift bags full of anything and everything i'd need for ethan... diapers, wipes, toys, extra outfits, blankets, you name it. then, we left one bag at each house for the weekend, in addition to 1 of 3 pack-n-plays necessary for wherever we happened to be when ethan's naptime came. these goody bags kept us from having to hurriedly pack up things as we left the hotel already late every morning... i over-planned as usual, but that's better than not being prepared, huh? (and how was i to know that ethan would not poop on 3 outfits each day, like he does at home? don't worry, he got back into the routine as soon as we got home!!)

ethan also greeted his first christmas with his very own fashion show. if there would have been an announcer and a runway, it would have gone something like this...

**insert cheesy announcing voice**

merry christmas, ladies and gentlemen... for our first outfit this morning, ethan is sporting the church look. he is wearing a white oxford shirt, khaki pants, and a red tartan tie that matches the pastor's. in this outfit, ethan enjoys chewing on his collar and squealing during the sermon to let the congregation hear clips from the manger scene in surround sound.



next, ethan gets more comfortable in his old navy fleece. this one piece would be a must for any child in the snow, but it turned out to be a bit toasty in the christmas oven (also known as granddaddy and grandmommy's house). i'm sorry to say that this wonderful ebay find only lasted about 30 minutes due to the heat.



ethan ended his first christmas donning a striped outfit that nana found for him before october. mom sure loves the stripes!



after a long day of fellowshiping with family and opening presents (oh, and stuffing our faces!!), we crashed back at the hotel. this picture pretty much says it all.... (and as you can see, that last outfit was a little on the snug side!)



i hope your christmas was as enjoyable as ours was...even if you didn't put 3 outfits on your kid that day. :)

ethan got genes for christmas

when you have a baby, everybody loves to give their opinion on who he looks like...i love to hear all the comments, especially from those who knew us as babies... as well as from people who haven't known us very long who can see ethan in us! in ethan's case, most people are pretty strong in their thoughts on this... they either think he looks SO much like his daddy or that he really looks like me... i rarely hear that he's a combination of us both.

while we were visiting brian's grandparents for christmas, i saw this picture of brian at 8 months old on the fridge...it really does look like ethan, expression and all.





i also have this picture of me when i was around ethan's age... at christmas, auntie kristie captured a shot of ethan (enamored with her foot!) that really looks more like me.





isn't God truly amazing, the way He takes two individuals and creates another being from them, holding onto characteristics and physical traits from both parents? wow. i can't wait to watch ethan grow up... to see how he ends up being like me and how he ends up being like brian. hopefully he'll be more patient than me and be as observant and smart as his daddy. he'll probably talk brian's head off as they work on rockets or woodworking. :) and hopefully he can fix my computer problems whenever daddy's busy...

2005 ornaments

brian and i wanted to start a tradition of buying a special ornament for the 2 of us each christmas (thanks for the idea, aunt susan!)...we wanted an ornament that somehow represents the past year, so i thought a family of 3 figurines would be nice, since ethan was added to our family this year... well, every ornament we found was either completely cheesy or had 2 kids with it.... i was just about to give up on the idea when i found this lenox ornament at dillards... it's exactly what i was looking for, even though i really didn't know what i was looking for!! :) it's kind of hard to read on the picture, but engraved into it is "bless this home" with the year below it. it is perfect because God surely has blessed our home this year.

we also want to buy a special ornament for ethan each year. you'd think it'd be easy to find a cute "baby's 1st christmas" ornament, huh?? well... hallmark's were cheap and plastic... and the only ones that had left were either spanish or had a black baby in it. i feel so discriminated against as a white american! haha. anyway, after dragging around the mall a few weeks ago, we finally found this precious baby boot at things remembered. we had the bottom engraved to say "ethan's 1st christmas 2005", though they forgot the apostrophe the first time... i had to give the girl at the counter a grammar lesson!! we hope to have one of these for each of our children's first christmas. it's such a cute little shoe. :)


just thought i'd share our special ornaments for 2005 as we prepare to pack them away this weekend. brian says we're gonna have to get a bigger tree in a few years..

the baby's out of the bag!!!

NO I'M NOT PREGNANT... keep reading...
ok, i can FINALLY blog about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ethan is getting a cousin!!! yay!!!!!!!! auntie kristie is having a baby!!!!!! she is due august 7, which is nana's and aunt pam's birthdays... how fun is that? we were all keeping this a big secret from the family until jeff & kristie could tell them in person at christmas. we all pulled it off... i can't believe it. we are praying that this baby is healthy and strong and that kristie continues to feel as good as she does now. praise God for His Sovereign Hand in the life of this precious child. i am way excited about being an aunt. jeff thinks i'm a little obsessed, but he's never been an aunt before.

ps- don't worry if you can't tell what the picture is. it's a baby. i promise... but it's the size of a raspberry, so there's not much to see yet. but isn't that amazing that there's a little heart beating??! God is knitting and forming this baby into His child, and one day, this baby will be a 20 pound giggling cutie-pie (most likely with his daddy's fat baby cheeks)... God is great.

ahhh...home

we just got home tonite from a few days with brian's family. they are precious, and i love every one of them dearly... but oh, is it good to be home.

we ordered pizza when we were about 30 minutes from our house, so we had a delicious dinner from our friend papa john as soon as we unloaded the car... the living room is full of presents, luggage, and baby gear. oh well... it will be just fine in our living room until tomorrow. ethan is glad to be home too.... he smiled so big as he looked around his familiar surroundings. i'm glad he likes his home. :)

i have some great pictures to post as soon as i... you guessed it... get the laundry done.

hope you all had a merry christmas.

prayers for a friend

keep my dear friends, eric and kristi, in your prayers. their family has had an amazingly hard week. kristi tells it better than i could. i'm not surprised that, through all of the heartache and pain, they continue to give glory to God. they can see the bigger picture, the kingdom of God, the hope of heaven... praise God for His peace that surpasses all understanding.

merry christmas!

hope you have a great christmas, whether you're with family, friends, or you're stuck on call at the hospital (oh, never mind, lynsay, that was thanksgiving!) :) we are headed to spend christmas with brian's fun and crazy family... it's always a blast. i'm sure i'll have plenty to blog about after this weekend. i planned on making this a sentimental, festive, christmas-y post, but i have too much packing and wrapping waiting for me... so our family picture will have to do.

happy birthday, auntie kristie!

today is auntie kristie's birthday! we thought a little birthday celebration, blog-style, would be nice. here are just a few of the reasons we love you!!

* you are a wonderful friend and sister, and have been for several years, even before we were legally sisters. :)
* you encourage me to seek God's wisdom in little, every day situations.
* you usually pick up the phone if i'm leaving you a message on your answering machine. :)
* we always find something to laugh about.
* you make beautiful cards.
* you love ethan and make him cute knitted things.
* you are such a servant.
* you cut my hair. (by the way, i reallllly need that done before christmas!) :)
* you share my love (and near-obsession) for photography.
* you understand my love for cake.

well... the list could just go on and on. seriously, though, i love you so much and am so thankful that we are family together!! those brothers didn't know what they were getting into by marrying us!!! :)



click on hoops and yoyo to hear our favorite birthday song! it's your birthday, it's your birthday...lalalalalalala....

hobby lobbying

can i hear some cheers for hobby lobby? i love this store for several reasons...

* it is a craft and decorating superstore at great prices
* it is located just one traffic light away from my house
* and most importantly, it is a Christian owned business that PROUDLY wears the name of Christ.

i found this statement of purpose on their website a few months ago, which was such a blessing to me. then, this morning, while printing off their internet coupon (oooh! another reason i love that store!), i found this message about Christmas & Easter. i am thankful that there are still businesses out there that acknowledge God's hand in their success. what a testimony they can be. these verses come to mind...

1 chronicles 29:11-13

Yours, o Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, o Lord, and You are exalted as head above all. both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. in Your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. and now we thank You, our God, and praise Your glorious Name.

1 timothy 6:17-19

as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

so as you are amid the hustle and bustle of christmas shopping, make a point to support this God-honoring business. at least you know your money is being invested in something worthwhile! i think i'll go right now!! see you there. :)

suggestion for congestion?

my poor baby is congested.... he's still mr. happy most of the day, but his little nose is taking a beating. thankfully, what's coming from his nose is clear, but i'd love to nip this in the bud. any suggestions? i've got a humidifier going for his naps and at night, we sat in a steamy steamy bathroom last night for a little bit, and i'm trying to keep him upright as much as possible. what else can i do?

clop, clop, clop

3 out of 4 of our husbands were camping in honor of danny's impending wedding, so a girls' night was definitely in order! we bundled up the kids and headed downtown for a carriage ride. it was just what i needed to hype up my christmas spirit! a dead van almost halted our girls' night, but the blue astro came to the rescue!! you should have seen us all piled in there... one more kid, and they'd have been strapped to the roof! (ha, just kiddddinggg!!!!!!!!) here's a peek into our evening...

we strolled down the street in the cool night...



admired all the festive window displays....



the boys were getting a little bored with the girly stuff...



so we found some men filling the streets with music....



the boys discussed it, and they decided it was time for that carriage ride!



there was a little wait for the ride, so we snuggled close and sang along to the christmas music blaring in the street.





we piled into the "carriage" (aka, hayride set-up with christmas music playing)...



and joseph found the big christmas tree at the civic center!



apparently, ethan had seen enough...



after the carriage ride, we went to a great cafe and enjoyed delicious hot chocolate to the tune of sinatra. the girls danced while the old men played, and the boys sat and watched the instruments strum and toot. (the instruments tooted, not the boys). :) you can see what part of the evening natalie liked the best...





it was such a great evening....maybe it can become a girls' tradition every christmas... i'm sure next year, lydia will still be saying, "horseeeees. go see 'em!"



thank you, Lord, for sisters in Christ and memories made!