Not the day for a smile:

I just love this picture!

Well, so much for my Christmas photo session today! As you can tell from above it clearly was NOT the day to put Anna in a santa hat!


Okay, I'm working on my weekend recap for y'all. Thanksgiving was full of family, friends, photos and fun!! A long post is coming soon! See you then!

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey...

Tomorrow will surely be one of Anna's favorite days... with Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Squash casserole and Rolls on the horizon.... she's sure to LOVE it!

Hope you all have a very, very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Update on Squirm-worm!

I feel I'm perfectly safe calling the Little a "squirm-worm"! That is exactly what she is these days. The only way to get her to be perfectly still is to put something on her head as you call her "Princess Anna"! No joke.. she LOVES to have a "crown" on her head and she'll be as still as she can so it won't fall off!!

Well, Princess Squirm-worm is doing MUCH better today... Alas, we are on the upside of this virus! We (all of us) slept almost entirely through the night last night and Anna's whiney little temper has decreased tremendously today. (PTL again and again and again!)
I'm convinced that her throat is much, much, much (if not all) better but she's scared to death that it's not. She still won't touch any food thinking it's going to hurt when she swallows. Thankfully, she'll take her bottle though!

AND....Thank you for all your prayers.. I'm convinced they saved us. All jokes aside, last week was crazy-exhausting and I'm so thankful to be on the upside I don't know what to do.... and I know Casey and Anna are too! So, YES... thanks for all the prayers!

Y'all have a good day and the Little Princess and I'll be back soon!

Taking this to heart...

"Molly!!!!!!!!!! -

Do you know that you are a holy one of God? You have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you ARE a saint! Well, you are! !
You are a holy vessel in the house of the Lord. You are separated from ordinary and devoted to God. You have been brought into a relationship with God and designated by Him as having a sacred purpose or special significance. God has a seal of ownership on you and you've been anoited by Him. The Lord KNOWS you are HIS... But do you know you are His? Do you treat yourself as one of His holy one's? Do you act as though you've been set apart for sacred purposes? What are you filled with? Are you the kind of container God can serve a blessing to others with? OR is satan using God's holy vessel (YOU) to toast an unholy cause?"

-That is what Beth Moore told me tonight in so many or less during Bible Study -

I've got some major things to think about because I'll tell you right now that I do NOT live my live devoted to God as it was meant to be! Satan has had some great laughs at my expense because he has totally used me to toast unholy causes... uggh! I could throw-up thinking about it. Beth informed me that not only does God have a will and a plan for my life but so does satan. That snake is always trying to make me think that I'm common and unholy and no good so I'll act on those thoughts instead of being a useful tool for God.

I realize this post may be clear as mud but I just couldn't go to bed without informing you that if you are a child of God.... watch out for how satan is using you where GOD COULD BE!!!

Okay.. I have 100 billion other thoughts about this but I'll save those for another day. For now, I'll let you go!

Recovery Road...

We hope!

Okay, so today has been a roller-coaster ride from start to finish! Thankfully, I think we are veering off onto RECOVERY ROAD! Ever since this morning (which now that I think about it...really started about 11pm last night) Anna has just been super cranky and obviously in some major pain. Casey and I took turns "soothing" her (in whatever way we could think of) until we would all just give out and crash for an hour or two.... and then we would start all over again.

We've never been so happy in our lives to see a wet diaper than we were just one hour ago! YES, Anna did not have a single wet diaper from 6:30pm last night until just around 4pm this afternoon! She woke up totally and completely dry and refusing anything she would have to swollow (including her own saliva.... oh the drool, oh the drool). Poor Little...

We did what any parent would do and put a call into the doctor. Long story short.. we ended up going to the doctor's office about 3 this afternoon thinking Anna was going to have to be admitted for a drip... Thankfully we have a little show-out on our hands! After refusing the slightest little sip of anything all day (this includes: pedialyte, juice, water, formula, ice chips, popsicles, jello and who knows what else) she decides to take five huge sippy-cup gulps for the doctor! Part of me wanted to jump up and down with excitement and the other part of me (if I'm being completely honest) just wanted to walk out the door and leave the little stinker there!

The doctor took a look down her throat again and we saw with our very own eyes why Anna is so against swollowing anything! When she said "red and blistery" throat yesterday she meant big huge red blisters all over her throat! It looked so painful! Poor thing. Our super great pediatrician prescribed some "Miracle Mouthwash" to numb her throat so she'll eat. This stuff IS a miracle drug! With it by the bedside I think we are definitely on the road to recovery!

Thank you all for your calls and prayers. A small gesture that did not go unnoticed! A special thanks to Betty for all your advice these past few days!

I'll be back soon with another update!!

It's a virus!

AND the verdict is: a very red and blistery throat more than likely caused by a virus! Looks like we may be dealing with the whiney temper (a.k.a. total melt down anytime the slightest little thing bumps her, scares her, or goes against her will) for 3-5 more days. Hopefully the fever will resolve itself with motrin!

Anna has never really been sick (with fever) before and after a day and a half of it.. I've decided I hate seeing my Little feeling so terrible! She is just absolutely pitiful. (I'm saying that with my bottom lip poked out... just so you know.) It just melts me and I'm certain by the end of the week she's going to be spoiled to the core!

I only say that because if the doctor is correct.. I've got quite a few more days of this ahead of me:



And I just can't stand hearing/seeing her go through all that knowing she has a giant sore throat!

and... No, I did not take advantage of a sick child by putting her down and snapping a flash in her face as she has a meltdown! ... This is an older "just having a normal not-getting-what-I-want-meltdown" picture... BUT, none-the-less- the meltdowns appear the same on the other side of the camera..

Okay, you all have a Sweet Thursday! I'll be back soon with an update on the patient! Please pray this is a speedy little virus attack and it won't be here for much longer!

Doctor Visit Tomorrow!

This little sweetheart has been whiny and upset all day. She woke up this afternoon with 102 fever... I'm thinking ear infection but we'll see what the doctor says tomorrow.

Have a good day!

Sweet Mondays Studio!

I've been praying and working on this for a week or two and I'm proud to announce that I've now opened an Etsy Shop!

Sweet Mondays Studio: (click here or the link on the sidebar)

I only have one item for sell at the moment but, I plan on adding a couple more this week. For now, I'm starting out selling 4"x6" crosses (custom made to your color choices). Please allow two weeks for me to ship your order. I'll ship any where in the United States or Canada!

Hope to see you over there!

Post Wedding Party, Football, Turkey Magnets, and Facebook!

POST WEDDING PARTY-



Houston's and Lacey's "wedding" party was this weekend. It was GREAT fun with AMAZING food. All the hosts and hostesses did a fabulous job! We had a great time...
AND... I took Murphy with me!!
*Murphy is my camera incase some of you are just joining in*

Here are some of Murph's party highlights:

If you know me at all you know that I spent a "healthy" amount of time in this room.... ha!





The food was absolutely wonderful. I especially LOVED the barbeque!



AND... did you see those amazing centerpieces?? Houston is a HUGE duck hunter so I thought it was super neat how they decorated the table!





AND lastly... a "kid-pic" with the two "newlys" and a family photo:



If you know Sarah at all.. you KNOW we had to have a "goofy" picture... Lacey and Casey clearly haven't warmed up to the "goofy" pictures yet..ha!





Unfortunately Anna wasn't at the party to join in on the family photo fun BUT.. she was having her own little party with one of my very best friends and her husband. I think and HOPE they had a ball! Kelly- send me some pictures if you took any! LOVE YOU- you're the best ever!!! Thanks for everything!!

FOOTBALL-

The morning after the party Casey, Anna and I woke up entirely too early to head out and watch the REBELS play. Anna didn't actually make it to the game... BUT... Murphy made it to the game!

These are some of my favorite shots:















It was a great game (for once). Ole Miss played really well and Dexter McCluster (#22) played amazing! If I'm not mistaken, I think he got National Player of the Week or something like that!! It was a lot of fun! The whole weekend was fun.

Oh.. and Cooper and Eli Manning were at the game. I zoomed up there with my camera and got a picture (but it looks a little "foggy").. sorry:







Thanks T&P for letting us stay the night with you!!!

TURKEY MAGNETS-

Remember I told you that we went to paint pottery with the "R" family not too long ago? WELL, this is what Anna painted-



"Happy Thanksgiving Magnets"... I was going to do them all nice and neat and use her toe print for the turkey body, but before I could stop her, The Little dabbled her hand all up in the paint and picked up the little magnet.... That's when it occurred to me that she could just play with it some. (I helped her pat "downward strokes" to look sort of like feathers.) We did her toe print over the body and then I outlined a "turkey" and wrote "happy thanksgiving".
I thought they turned out pretty cute.

She did three:



FACEBOOK-

I'm officially OFF facebook! YEP, I'm sorry if you've been trying to contact me for the last couple of days but from now on I'm just sticking to emails (my email is on the sidebar). Facebook is great for many things but it was not good for me. It was an addiction and I did not have good "Facebook dicsipline" SO... I just decided to eliminate the source. I have too much to do to be browsing people's pictures on facebook every time I walk by the computer! Not that I think it is bad for any of you to have facebook.. please don't take me the wrong way.. it was just bad for me.

It's like this: (I read this on a church sign last night and really liked it...)

"Give God what is RIGHT not what is LEFT!"
I think they were talking about our tithes...but I thought about it as giving what is right of MY TIME.. not what is left after I've spent all day doing what I want to do!!!

Okay.. y'all have a happy day and I'll be back with pictures of the Little.. since I'm sure that is what you were looking for in this post =)
If you want to see some.. or the rest of the party pics or football pics just click on any of the above photos and it should take you to my Flickr page!

Be back soon!

backtracking my steps this week...

Where in the world have I been and what in the world have I been doing? Well, I can't even begin to think of all that I've been doing. A lot it seems because I never found (or made) time to blog. It's not that I haven't thought about you.. I had my camera (or cell phone) with me snapping pictures just for y'all. The other day a friend called and when I told her I was running to the grocery store she asked if I had my camera..haha! I didn't have it then BUT I've had it just about every other minute of the week.. so lets see what "Murphy" has in store for us...



Visiting with friends- Friday the "R" family came to town. YAY.. They are the sweetest family ever.



I had not met Baby T



and they had not met our Little either! They've been gone just about a year. We had fun catching up, painting pottery (can't wait to show you what the Little painted). and eating mexican food!

These three would be fast friends if we all still lived near eachother.. what am I saying? They will still be fast friends.. just long distant friends!



"R" family- LOVED having you visit! It was too short... your boys are precious angels and I love you all!!!!

Next up:

Anna got a new carseat- and LOVES it.



This one we actually took back but she had fun playing none-the-less. We ended up with the Graco Nautilus and we all love it!


(Cell phone picture.. sorry)

Then:

Visiting with Zannie- My mom came to visit. It had been just about a month since Anna last visited with my mom. She absolutely LOVES her Zannie!!

They played all sorts of fun games:







Zannie- we had the best little visit with you. You are super sweet to come see us! We can't wait until next time.. so SOON too!!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Anna's favortie thing to do lately is tackle her "big bear".. she loves it!





Lastly:

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer-Anna and I made our way to the sportsplex in town to watch the local highschool boys play soccer. My friend's son plays on the team so we were really "cheering" him on.



"Go number 8".. awww.. made me miss playing! One of these days I'll have to dig out some of my old soccer photos for y'all!

Anna loved it for the most part.. she was a little antsy at times. I thought she would fall asleep in her stroller...what was I thinking? She was awake, alert, and in my lap playing "dentist" the entire time.


(cell phone again)

They won and #8 had one stink'n good "throw-in" right infront of us that turned out to be a really great goal assist! He was super fun to watch if you can keep up with him... he's speedy! I love soccer so much.. I hope I have a soccer player one day!

That pretty much sums up my week.

Oh- there are two other little things:

First- Isn't Baby T adorable? You would never know from the pictures but he has an extremely rare blood disorder. If any of you know anyone with Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia please email me (momatt412@yahoo.com). You can click on it or HERE to read about this extremely rare blood disorder. I know it would be extremely helpful for my friend to have someone who is living through it to0 and be able to ask them questions. It is such a small world I was just thinking that maybe a reader might know of someone.

Secondly- I've been hanging out some over at Solomon's Portico and it's great! If you get a chance to check out my friends blog you should. Click HERE! She is just getting started but I think the road we will travel with her will be awesome. She's got a strong heart for God and He is using her to do wonderful things.. I just know it!!

Y'all have a great afternoon and we are going to wait for Uncle Rob to pop in for a visit!!

See ya soon!

Megan!

Today is the birthday of a VERY dear friend!!



We LOVE you!!!

Megan-
We do hope you have the best birthday ever. Anna and I tried and tried to make you a "happy day" picture... but take what you get with a near 11 month old! Here are some of our "bloopers"!

LOVE YOU!!!




All this to say...








As for everyone else...I'm working on a "Where in the world have you been? Do you know your last post was a WEEK ago?" post for you! Should be up soon!

It is!

(The picture has nothing to do with the blog.. just a "left over" from yesterday for you.)

Is it sad that I just said to myself "I think I'll watch a movie" and then when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:37 I re-thought that because I might be up past 9:30... IT IS! It is very sad!!

Remember when I said I wanted to be a morning person? Waaay'll- I'm not! BUT... unfortunately I'm not a night person either. I'm a "sleep" person. Ugggghhhh- I don't want to be.. I want to be a "productive morning" person and a "relax with a movie until late at night" night pereson! Could I atleast be ONE of those??
I'm going to watch my movie and I'll let you know if I regret it in the morning =)

Have a good night!

AND thanks K&K for meeting me and the Little for supper tonight. It was a great treat.. and totally kept me from going insane with "cabin fever".

See all you blogsters tomorrow!

Feeling Much Better Today!

Anna is doing much better today. She (meaning WE) slept through the night last night (PTL). When she woke up this morning she was still a bit congested but the medicine seems to really be knocking that out. She hasn't really coughed much today-which has been the biggest difference!

Today is one of Anna's favorite days of the week... "change the sheets day". She loves to pile up on the pillows and just laugh and laugh. Today I'm washing our duvet cover so she really had a blast jumping all over the down comforter!







I really knew she was feeling back to normal when she led me straight to "Pearly" this afternoon. She LOVES her rocking horse so much. We make many trips to see pearly every day!





Thanks for all the "get well" prayers. Hopefully she'll continue to feel great this afternoon, sleep soundly through the night, and be back full swing tomorrow!

Have a good afternoon!