The guilt has set in....

I have gotten a lot of slack for not updating my blog since April. This one is going to be short. We just had a great Christmas with the family. Jeni and the kids were able to come early and Mike and mom followed along on the 22nd. We had a great visit and things were BUSY BUSY BUSY! I will go back and fill in the last 8 months-- you know Aubrey's 1st birthday, vacations, summer and oh yeah gabriella started school!
But for now you get Christmas highlights!
1. Cookies-- many cookies
2. Notes to and from Santa - making sure to tell gabriella that it is okay to listen to her mom and dad and what a great big sister she is
3. Christmas Survivor/Amazing race-- jason's mom created a day of Fun - Dang boys won
4. Grandmas rolls, corn, green beans, shrimp and yes more cookies-- snickerdoodles
5. Aubrey not sleeping- Jeni has a picture of her up at 11pm on Christmas eve
6. favorite gifts- connect 4, Leapster, baby dolls and all that goes with them, guitar-- and yes the "girls just wanna have fun" song will get stuck in your head

Overall it was fantastic. Going into the new year I will not bore you with my plans to blog weekly or update monthly-- Let's not set ourselves up for failure.
Here is what you need to know

We are happy
We are crazy
We are silly
We are loving
We are safe
We are well fed
We are warm
We are healthy
We are blessed!

Things are going pretty good. Shannon just got back from Las Vegas for Arbonne and daddy was busy. Aubrey is 8 months old and going to be crawling soon. I just had Gabriella's school forms filled out at the doctor--can you believe it!! Jason is staying busy and so am I. We are looking forward to the summer and playing outside, getting our garden started and the pool of course.

Here are the latest pictures--the ones of us all dressed up are at Easter and the others are tonight 4/23/09. Hope all is well. Love Shannon

Feb 2009

Well it is almost March.... Things are good. Jason is keeping busy, Aubrey is still sleeping through the night-- praise the Lord and everyone is healthy and happy. We are planning Gabriella's 5th birthday party. High School Musical will be the theme--OF COURSE!!!

We love Troy and Gabriella! I joined jazzercise and am working on my weight loss goals--speaking of weight loss..... i duplicated Grandmas rolls and they were pretty darn close if I do say so, but you can judge for yourself.

Nov 2008

Well I have caught some slack for my lack of updates so here you go. Gabriella was Tinkerbell for Halloween.

I was working really hard to get the Mortgage and health insurance worked out and we did!!! Jason is done working for Larry-- can you hear the angels singing????

Aubrey is 3 months already and smiles all the time at you. She is a really good baby who is sleeping through the night. I was a bit of a mess trying to get everything done that I wanted to before babysitting again and now that I have them back there is a HUGE sense of relief!

It has been going well. Gabriella was glad to get her playmates back. Here is a picture of Gabriella and Elise looking good.

Elise follows the kids around repeating everything. She speaks very well. In the car on the way to pre-school Gabriella sneezed and she said, "Oh Goodness Gabriella, Bless you, Do you need a tissue?" What 22 month olds do you know putting thoughts, phrases and sentences together?? She provides a lot of comic relief--As does Brody. I gave him breakfast the other day and he asked if i could "cut the fat off his banana?" I cracked up when I realized he meant the soft bruised part on the top-- What a trip. He has been helping Gabriella learn all her letters. He can write them all very well and knows what every word you say starts with-- I am sure he will be reading soon. And of course-- every is happy to be wresting again!

We have also started hosting a small group at church. I love having a house with plenty of room for get-togethers. Here is a picture of all the kids just sitting on the hearth. No one prompted them they were just sitting like little angels.

We will be heading to NC for Thanksgiving and will see mom, Jeni, Granny and Papaw and Kat and her family. We should have a good time. I will try to post again before Aubrey turns 1. Hey what can I say, I have been praying for God to help me prioritize and this must not be at the top.

Adjusting to life with 2 kids!!

Things are going pretty well around here. Aubrey is now 8 weeks old and has caught the cold that Gabriella and daddy had. gabriella is back in school and really likes it. Her teachers are Miss Debbie and Miss Rayann. She seems to play with the boys and is really big into Barbies and loves Tom and Jerry cartoons. The girls and I went to NC to visit Mike and Jeni and Mom --my Dad went with us. It was a great trip and it was great seeing everyone--well maybe not Perry the bird but everyone else was fun!! We listened to Gabriella's new High School Muscial CD and watched many concerts performed. -- I think we all know the words to the songs by now.

Aubrey is smiling and even laughed the other day for me. She is really looking around now and is really paying attention. Still lots of sleep and I am doing alright with my lack of--she likes to be awake for a 2 hour span at night.

I went to the Michael W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman concert last night with Caleb Wilson and it was AWESOME!!! Everyone should get a couple hours of loud rockin praise every now and again.

Jason has been busy with work--thank God and I am adjusting to the 2nd child life. I am needing to pray for God to show me what actually is a priority.

I will try to post more often but I guess we will see where this ends up on the priority list:)

Ms Aubrey Elizabeth

Pictures of Aubrey Elizabeth born 8-15-08 Weighing a big 6.4 lbs and 19 inches long

It has been a pretty good first week. We had a scare and Shannon went to the ER with trouble breathing and very swollen feet but all is well and everyone is home safe and sound.

Big sister Gabriella loves to hold Aubrey and talk to her. Granny is here helping out until next Thursday-- Jason goes back to work this week and we will see how everything goes from there.

Getting Ready For Baby

Hi
I have never done this before and just wanted to try it out to see what I thought. I know that I am not good at keeping up with pictures and what not so I thought with the new baby just 10 days away I could attempt something to keep family connected.
Now I will just have to learn how to download pictures and this might actually work!!