Running the Race

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Snow Days,Warm Days!!

We have 5 adult birthdays in January and February. The last week of January we celebrated the January birthdays at our house - Will's, Bud's (Will's dad) and Di Anna's (Will's mom) - it was one of those weekends in January where the temperature peaked up into the 70's and the children played outside from early morning until well after dark - one of those times I'm so thankful to be living in the Deep South!!!!

My sister-in-law brought a strawberry cake from Edgar's bakery - YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!

Superhero attire was out in full force, as it is EVERYDAY at our house!!!!

This little guy (Henderson) is going through a funny time - he's very negative much of the time, I tend to think he's just trying to "come into his own" while watching his brother and sister dominate. I'm trying to be very patient with him and know that "this too shall pass", and shower him with love and giggles and affection. One positive thing that's happened with him is that he told me, for the first time without being prompted, that he loves me!!! Oh how that melted my heart, to hear it so innocently, "I wuv you".

Wilson is really growing up, I see him trying to imitate his father and grandfather and other men in his life and really trying to be a "big boy"!!!! 4 is a great age!!!!

Emma Claire has enjoyed her new friendship with Marion - she moved into a house in our neighborhood in November and they hit it off instantly!!!!

So, we went from flip flops one day to THIS the next!!!!

It was a magical snowfall - fluffy and thick and glistening - it was a winter wonderland!!!!!

They all enjoyed it, but the boys for only about 15 minutes - they just don't do cold very well!!! It will be awhile before I attempt to take the boys snow skiing!!!!

They just get COLD and cranky!!!!

Emma Claire LOVES the snow and could stay out all day long!!!!

My dear sweet husband gave me a wonderful gift for Valentine's Day - he had my blog printed out for me in a book!!! What a surprise!!! It's only the first 8 months, b/c that was the limit for the number of pictures, but it was such a treasure and to see the children's eyes light up when they realized it was all about them - priceless!!!! I hope to get the rest of it printed one day!!! It's given me new motivation to get back to blogging regularly - that and purchasing more storage on google for pictures!!!! If you don't hear from me for more than a week, start nagging - I've just gotten busy (or lazy)!!!!!

Now we are back to wearing flip flops and enjoying playing outside everyday and not taking naps, because who has time for naps when it's 70 degrees and sunny outside????? Let's get out and play - it won't last forever!!!!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Back from a Bloggy Break!

well, i have inadvertently taken quite a break from blogging. it wasn't on purpose, just life got in the way. things have pretty busy around here - from hosting a new year's eve party at our house to being the rep for shrimp and grits kids to just trying to live the life God wants me to live - being a mom, wife, friend, daughter, sister, employee and everything else that falls under the "Kellie" umbrella!!! life is good and i have so much to be thankful for!!!

wilson got to go on a date with his daddy to smackdown wrestling in birmingham earlier this month. let me just tell you how happy i am that it's wilson there and not me - i went with will once when we were dating - and it was quite the adventure!!!!! wilson ate.it.up - he wants to go back! most people are quite surprised to know my husband is really into wrestling, he just doesn't seem the "type", but i find he and wilson back in the sitting room watching it and "performing" it all the time!!!! wilson has become nearly obsessed with his daddy lately, which makes me a little sad, but it's in good time, he's 4 now and growing into a little man all his own!!!!

apparently "wrestling go-ers" are not very good photgraphers!!!!

in other "wilson" news, we got in to see the endocrinologist 5 months early thanks to some cancelations due to the snow/ice storm that hit our area! we talked to the 3 doctors at UAB and they did extensive lab work and an xray of his hand to determine his bone age. all the lab work came back normal, which is good and his bone age came back delayed by 2 years. now, no one seems to know exactly why this is, but the good news is that bones grow to age 16 and since wilson's bones are only 2 years old, he has 14 more years to grow instead of the normal 12 that most 4 years olds would have!!! we go back in july to check on his growth. if he has grown less than 3 cm, then he will undergo an intensive, invasive growth hormone study to determine if he is growth hormone deficient (this is an iv, 3 hour long procedure, so they only perform it if they have good reason to believe you might be deficient). i learned that in the state of alabama, you cannot receive growth hormone unless you are deficient of the hormone. (obviously i can see the reasons behind this law, but in wilson's case, i wish it were not true). so we wait and try our hardest to get him to grow - whole milk, butter, peanut butter, instant breakfast shakes, anything he will eat to load up the calories!!! Henderson is getting it all too - he's small, just not quite as small as his 'big' brother!!! Wait and see, wait and see - it's hard!!!!

also, earlier this month we had the priviledge of celebrating the inauguration of our dear friend and sunday school teacher, Dr. Robert Bentley as Governor of Alabama. his granddaughter, Caroline, and Emma Claire are dear friends and Will and I are also friends with all of his sons and their wives. it was an amazing weekend and i am regretting my decision to not tote around my big camera to every event. sometimes i just want to enjoy the moment instead of being a photographer (of which i am most certainly not). so the only pictures i got were the ones taken at the pavlick's house while we were getting ready to go to the ball. but from the prayer breakfast to the ceremony to the ball it was evident the type of christian man Gov. Bentley is and will continue to be as leader of our great state. I am proud to call him my friend.

now for the few photos

Emma Claire and Mary Alice all dressed up for the Ball - they had a marvelous time with their closest friends and it really made the night special for the Bentley family to have so many friends surrounding them!!!

they can still be silly, even dressed up!!!

mommies and daughters

you never know what you might find when you hand your camera off to someone else:)

somehow emma claire didn't make it in this one, maybe she's the one that chopped us off!!!

Happy January and soon to be February to you all - I'm ready for spring - how about you?

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Merry Memories

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was FULL of excitement and activities!!! It has flown by!!! Warning, this post is pretty much our entire month of December wrapped up in one post. Pictures will be many, words will be few!!!!

Our elves had a great time being mischievous - but on a few days they actually made cinnamon rolls for the children, brought doughnuts and even pointed to Jesus a few times - they have their priorities in order!!!!

The attempts at Christmas card pictures were many!!!!

Emma Claire and Wilson saw Santa a few times each, Henderson only saw him once - and once might have been too many, he's still terrified!!!

This is a classic "Emma Claire" look - thoughtful and pensive - I really think she thought she was supposed to just climb up in his lap, say cheese for the camera and get down. When he started talking to her and asking her all about herself, I think it caught her a little off guard!!! :)

When Santa asked Wilson what he wanted for Christmas, he responded with, "A Grinch Movie"! This brought lots of laughs from Santa and his elves!!! Then, he left Santa's lap and went to get his face painted and his request, A Grinch!!!! The girls weren't really sure how to respond, but they did their best!!!

Waiting in line to see Santa at the one event Henderson actually got close to him!!! You can see Emma Claire holding his hand, not letting him run away!!! I didn't get a picture with my camera of him sitting in his lap b/c I was so busy trying to make him smile and not cry!!!

The weekend before Christmas, Emma Claire was in the production of Winnie the Pooh, A Christmas Tail! It was a wondeful experience and such a cute cast and costumes!!!

Emma Claire and a few of her friends were surprised on the last day of school when their elves picked them up in a limosine and took them on an elfcapade!!!

They went caroling at Capstone Village, a local retirement home. And they were all really quiet and only walked and sang softly to all the elderly residents!!!!

Yeah, Right!!!! They all loved us being there, but I think they were ready for this rowdy group to leave when it was all said and done!!! School's out and Christmas 3 days away was a little too much excitement for these girls!!!! :)

This sweet man actually sang to the girls when he opened the door!!!!

The man in charge gave them a clue to go see the BIG MAN IN THE RED SUIT next!!!!

And they rode the train and posed for a group picture!!!!

Then got another clue to go make cookies at one of the girls' grandmothers restaurant!!!!

Christmas Eve and Day were spent at Will's parents house - with 7 children, it was full of excitement!!!

Santa brought my children a 4 wheeler, which they have LOVED!!!

On Christmas day, Emma Claire was playing on one of her little cousins rocking horse type toys and slipped off and busted her mouth - knocked her front tooth and lateral tooth (is that what it's called?) up into her gums and bit right through her bottom gum all the way into her chin. I took her to the Emergency Room (in the snow), then to my brother-in-laws, Stan's, dental office where she recieved 2 stitches, 3 shots, laughing gas and lost her very first tooth!!!!! Stan had to pull her front tooth and the other one is still questionable. It was all VERY exciting!!! She was very brave and never cried in the chair!!! Her lip is still pretty bad and swollen and she's talking funny and slurping alot :) She's probably the last first grader in her school to loose a tooth so she was SUPER excited about that!!! The tooth fairy is now alive and well at our house!!!! All the pictures I have of her are on my phone and I have no idea how to get them on this blog!!!! You probably would not want to see them anyways, they are pretty gross!!!!

Henderson fell sick on Monday, croupy cough like he pretty much keeps 300 days out of the year along with fever. Normally fever around here goes away on it's own in 24 hours, but Wednesday afternoon he was still running high! I took him to the pediatrician and his fever there was 104.6!!!! Wow!!! He tested negative for flu. His ears, throat and lungs were fine. No diagnosis, but we came home on a Z-pack and he woke up fever free this morning!! Halleluiah!!!!

The New Year is just around the corner and it's such a great time for New Beginnings! Emma Claire and I both have the Jesus Calling books that we are going to read together this new year! My hope is to be more intentional with my family and others this year. To not let moments slip by because I'm too busy or focused on other things, but to treasure life and the people around me, both those I'm close to and strangers alike. Lord, give me a passion for the lost and open my eyes to see needs around me and give me the strength and resources to meet those needs!!!

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Acts 20:24