Celebrating New Life

My sweet friend Kathy, is expecting her second child. And as the Father would be so awesome, he's giving her a daughter!

I never thought I would want a daughter; too much drama, too much responsibility in shaping her precious self-image, too many dangers. What a load of bologna! When we found out we were having a girl, I was terrified! But the moment I laid eyes on my sweet baby girl, I understood. Girls are a different kind of gift! A daughter brings a whole other dimension of love and beauty to a family. Sophye is the sweetest surprise gift I never knew I always wanted!

So I was thrilled when Kathy found out she was having Selah! I know the joys that are coming her way, and I love that we were able to celebrate with her!

Our life group is somewhat rare, in that the ladies are big Twilight fans. I really think it's just an excuse for us to tap into our inner teenie-bopper. So of course we threw her a Breaking Dawn Baby Shower. Odd, yes. Weird, yes. But totally Kathy, yes!

I hate goodbyes

I don't like goodbyes.

Tate and I have been so incredibly blessed to be apart of an amazing life group for over 3 years. These people that are part of this life group have become our family, standing with us through joys, heartbreak and growing pains. When we joined this group, so did another couple. We didn't have much in common, they were military, newly married and yankees! But very quickly, we figured out they were hand picked for our group. Eric and Ranae have been such a light in our group, always offering wisdom and insight beyond their years. Ranae making us laugh with her quick wit and dry sense of humor! They quickly became a stable constant in our group. So when the announcement came that they too were being re-located to another state (right after another precious couple left), my heart broke. Not again. Not them. But I know my protector and Father has amazing things in store. These relationships were not in vain. As long as I keep reminding myself these goodbyes are not permanent, I'm ok.

But who am I kidding, it just plain stinks.

Love you, my sweet friend!

Out of Practice

So I'm completely bewildered that I'm so overwhelmed at trying to start blogging again. It's not like I have a huge fan base. In fact, most of my friends have probably deleted me from their blogs. Almost a year without something new is pathetic. But I am going for it. So a few updates. :)

Tate started work at Arrow Ford in October, and he absolutely LOVES it! He is one of their top salesmen and was Rookie of the Month for October! This is an absolutely AWESOME answer to our long-prayed prayers. For many years, we have been praying that Tate would find something he enjoys doing and can excel at. I love seeing him come home from work excited, not drained, and excited to back the next day!

God plopped a new and awesome friend in my lap this last spring. I was totally not expecting anything like her, we are so opposite! But my new friend, whom I will not name (you're welcome, Keri Hoes), has guided me, walked with me through lots of my baggage and inspired me to start running. I ran my first 5k in August and will run my first 1/2 marathon on December 4th. So far I've lost 42 pounds, and have 18 more to go. This training process has taught me so much about myself, that I do have self control, that I do have discipline, that I can push through pain and that I can't lie to myself anymore about what I put into my mouth! I never thought I'd love running! Running is punishment in other sports! Aaahhh!!! :D

I'll update on the kiddos later. They are gnawing on my ankles...

Thank You Friend!

Thank you to my dear friend Reyna, for updating my blog background and adding the super-cute header! Love you, sweet friend!

Christmas Family Traditions

Our family has a lot of Christmas family traditions. It's part of what I love about this time of year. And if you know me, you know I love to take pictures, and since I have 3 beautiful little people to model for me, I have a TON to take! One way I share our pictures with family is making photo calendars at Shutterfly and giving them as gifts. The grandparents LOVE them. :) I've also used Shutterfly Birth Announcements for each of my babies, and I love the professional quality and unique styles they offer. But part one of our family traditions is using Shutterfly for our family Christmas card. The website is very user friendly, I always find a great deal, and they make a great personal keepsake for each of my children in their baby books. I always order the 5x7 flat card-stock cards, and they really are much better quality than any others I've found. I know I'll have a difficult time choosing ours this year, they have so many cute designs!


Here are some of my favorite links to their site:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/holiday-cards

You'll be seeing one of their cards with our pretty pictures in your mailbox pretty soon! :)

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Whoa, has it been that long?

I know most of you are saying, "yes, Abbye. It has been that long!" Needless to say, it has been a very busy summer and fall. So I will try and update sufficiently!

Truett started Kindergarten this year. I struggled with whether to hold him back or not, but we are very pleased with our decision. He is Clyde Bulldog and is VERY proud of it! As we suspected, he has made lots of new friends, is in love with his teacher and is learning very quickly. Of course, he has brought home a few things we would rather him NOT learn, but that's life! He loves coming home to teach us what he's learned that day, and we are always surprised!

Our little Liam turned 2 this summer, and as cute as he is, has the 2 year old attitude! It took him a while to adjust to not having Truett around during the day, he misses playing with him! Liam has developed his personality, and it's a cute one. He is definitely all boy, jumping off everything, growling at anything that moves, and is an excellent grass-hopper catcher. Let's just say, that I am busy from the minute this little joy wakes up in the morning!

And, we welcomed our little princess, Sophia Belle on August 10, 2010. We knew we would love her, but had no idea how this little girl would completly steal our hearts away. She is a very happy, smiley and quiet baby, which is a nice change with my rowdy boys! Truett and Liam are in love as well. They adjusted to her a lot better than I thought.

One shocker was that she was born with lots of dark hair! I love it!

Look at those dimples and cheeks! And yes, I do nibble on them!

Tate is completely in love. I can be in a different room and I can hear him giggling and cooing at her, telling her how beautiful she is! It's so sweet to see them two together.

And this picture shows her adorable personality! She is 3 & 1/2 months old and is giggling, smiling, cooing and is very interested in everything around her. I wish I could freeze time with her. She is our last, and I know how incredibly fast it goes.

Also, Tate started a new job November 1st at CFP Group in Abilene. We had a wonderful 7 months with him at home, and really loved getting to have all that time with him. We prayed for a specific job that would be perfect for our family, our marriage, our finances and that Tate would love and excel at. God answered our prayers with CFP, and we are so incredibly thankful. Tate loves getting up every morning and going to work! What a blessing! He has a boss who loves the Lord and ministers to Tate daily.

As far as myself, I am enjoying being the mother of 3 beautiful kids. I am still trying to figure out how to be productive and figure out how to get it all done while being short on sleep, but am trying to learn to just enjoy each day. I am on some sort of journey with the Lord, it's difficult, but know He is in control. I call it my journey for joy.

So, I've updated. Now I'm going to bed.

Life, Love and New Beginnings

Well, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted anything. Let's just say life has been full and this blog got shoved out of the priority box.

Since my last blog, we've found out we're pregnant with a girl! God definitely knows what He's doing, we are so thankful we can't see it all. This little girl is more important to than we can imagine. We have decided to name her Sophia Belle (Sophye Belle) for short. Sophia means wisdom, and excellent virtue. Belle means beautiful. We are so excited to meet her!

Truett's bout with encephalitis has greatly improved. We are still struggling to get his eye to start working. He is still in glasses and we are patching his good eye to make the eye that isn't working, work. He's getting better at it, much better than I ever could have imagined!

Liam is definitely in his toddler years! He is discovering his voice, his assertiveness and his desire to play with toys that brother is playing with. Let's just say our house is a little noisy at this stage. He is battling an ongoing ear infection for about 2 months now, and we are on the last treatment before we decide to get tubes or not. I'm ready to have my healthy baby back!

The Lord has done wondrous, miraculous things this past week for Tate and I. Our marriage has never been stronger, more enjoyable and we love each other more than we ever thought possible. It's amazing how God can heal through pain. All I will say is how thankful we are for his providence and unimaginable love for us.

I will try to do better in the future on posting. We'll see how it goes!