Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!!

May the love of Christ reign in your hearts this season!

Thanks, Matt, for the awesome cards this year!!!!

It was hard to pick just one!!!!

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Christmas Blues

I recently repainted our Master Bath.  Something about it was just bugging me - it was plain jane, though very nice and spacious!!!  Scroll down to see the before pictures.  I forgot that new blogger actually posts pictures in the order you upload them!!!!!  I went out on a limb and chose this dark blue/green/gray color.  It actually doesn't have near the gray or green  I thought it would, but that's okay.  It's very glamorous and dramatic!!!!!  It's Benjamin Moore HC 158 newburg green.

I brought in this oriental runner from our upstairs hallway to bring out the blue in it!!!!

This little potty wash area is Wilson's faavorite part about this bathroom!  He uses it as a urinal.  The actual name of it has slipped my mind, but it's what you use to wash your bottom :) - Emma Claire gets a kick out of telling her friends that :)

I think the gorgeous tile is accented much more instead of just blending in!!!!

This little precious gem came out of our backyard.  I thought she was too pretty to get knocked over during kick ball games and would instead be put to better use holding mine and Emma Claire's jewelry!!!!

And last, this urn came out of the backyard too, and it was plain concrete which I primed and spray painted a metallic bronze!  I then cut some boxwood and filled her overflowing!!!!

And here are the before pictures!!!!! 

In other news, we are busy painting our ceilings - not the bead board ones, but all the flat ones - getting away from the stark white!  The kitchen and den are going just 50% of the wall color and the dining room is getting bronzed with Ralph Lauren Regent Metallic!!!!  I can't wait to show you!!!!

I'm also reading David Platt's, Radical, can I just tell you how much it's affecting me???  If all these projects weren't already underway, I probably wouldn't be doing them.  We are falling short, Christianity in America.  God's working on me and I am trying my best to listen and obey.  It's tough and not so fun, but I know it's for far better eternal rewards.  I challenge you to check it out!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Photo Dump

In Christ Alone

Thanksgiving kicks off the Christmas Season!  I have always been an early decorator.  I just can't help it - once I start seeing all the stores and businesses decked out, it stirs something within me!  I am excited about Thanksgiving week, excited to be off work a couple days and spend time with all my family and eat delicious foods!  I have so much to be thankful for.  Obviously God has blessed me with this beautiful house and health and a wonderful husband and 3 beautiful healthy children. But what if He didn't?  Would I still be thankful?  Would Jesus be enough?  I hope I would.  In Christ Alone is one of my favorite worship songs.  I've actually just downloaded it onto my daughters itouch that she is getting for Christmas - ssshhhh - don't tell her:)  I haven't been through many "droughts" in this life of mine, and for that I am thankful.  They will come, God says they will,  and I hope I will stand in Christ Alone no matter what. 

Take a look at what brings me joy, what I've been working at.  None of it really matters in the great big scheme of things, but it is my home and I try to make our home a place of peace, shelter from that great big scary world out there.  But without it, we'd still be a family.  And Christ would still be our Solid Rock.  Back to that itouch.  I'm new to the whole itunes world.  I downloaded my first music ever today!  I was pondering what songs Emma Claire would like on her itouch and as easy as it would have been to put popular Justin Bieber songs or Taylor Swift songs that I know Emma Claire will come to love, I decided that for now, the only music that's allowed on there are praise and worship songs.  If she's going to be influenced by this world, which she will, I want her to be drowned in words of affirmation and praise for the King. Happy Thanksgiving to you all and whether you're celebrating in a home full of pumpkins or Christmas trees, be thankful for that home and the family and friends within!

Enjoy the little peak into our home:

 In Christ Alone

 my hope is found

He is my light, my strength, my song

 This cornerstone, this solid ground

 firm through the fiercest drought and storms

 What heights of love, what depths of peace

 when fears are stilled, when strivings cease

 my Comforter, my All in All

 Here in the love of Christ I stand

 In Christ Alone, who took on flesh

fullness of God in helpless Babe

 This gift of love and righteousness

scorned by the ones He came to save

 Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin?s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

I will stand, I will stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground, all other ground
Is sinking sand, is sinking sand
So I stand

***In Christ Alone, words by Getty, Julian Keith; Townend, Stuart Richard;

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Football

Last night we took the boys to the Alabama football game!  The original plan was to take Emma Claire and Wilson and get a babysitter for Henderson. When I told Emma Claire our plans, she was a little less than excited about the ball game, stating, "all you do is SIT there" and so she opted to go to play practice and spend the night with her grandmother.  Since we had 2 extra tickets, thanks to an old friend from Dothan, who now lives in Birmingham - THANKS Amanda!!!!, we took both boys - and they were ECSTATIC!!!!!  We went to our tailgate and ate some yummy food and threw the football a little, then made our way to the stadium!  I was expecting COLD temperatures, so I packed gloves, hats, scarves, you name it - but it was actually very mild and pleasant!!!!

 I had assummed Henderson would be very "scared" once we got in the stadium, b/c he tends to be a very "slow to warm up child" in new environments.  But he didn't miss a beat.  They climbed up on the railing and started yelling ROLL TIDE to their hearts content!  It helps that we have front row seats right where the team runs out - had we been way up high, the outcome might not have been so positive!!!!

 Pure joy, I'd love to know what's really running through their minds!!!!

 Below, you can see Coach Saban's head right above Henderson's head!

 And there we have Ingram, Orr, Hightower!!!!  Yipee!!!!!

 Grandaddy Bud held onto Wilson's coat to make sure he didn't go sliding down the overhang on top of the players!!!! :)

It was truly a wonderful experience and I'm so glad my boys got to go to at least one game this year!  About midway into the 3rd quarter (9:00) I was ready to go, so I asked the boys if they were ready to go - NO!!!!  They both wanted to stay with their daddy, but I knew Will was not up to keeping both by himself.  I decided that it was time for Henderson to leave since we could tell he was getting in that "wild stage when they're so tired they just keep moving around and acting crazy so they won't fall asleep" - you know what I'm talking about.  So I picked Henderson up and carried him up the steps, all the while he is screaming "I WANT MY DADDY!!!!!" all the way.  I know the police officers at the top thought I must be kidnapping this child.  I had to put him down a second to put the backpack on my back and he took off down the stairs screaming for his daddy!!!  And it didn't get much better.  He screamed for his daddy half way to the car!  Fun times, but it was worth it - seeing the joy in their eyes and putting the love for the Tide in their hearts!!!!

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