Home Again!

Despite my mother's best attempts at convincing my dad that she could still go to Destin with a broken elbow, we didn't go. My week that was supposed to be spent soaking up rays and lounging on the beach was spent at my mother's mercy!

Mom now has a new name...Bionic Woman...since she now has a steel plate, some screws, and a bunch of wires holding her arm together. Thankfully, there is no risk of her setting off a metal detector!!! She spent two and a half hours in surgery last Saturday, and (thanks to many prayers) did very well, considering there were several risks involved. Kendall and I flew last-minute to Little Rock on Sunday so we could stay with Mom for the week and help out. Even though mom didn't get to enjoy the sand and sun like she planned, she at least had a little sunshine inside with Kendall around all week! Mom came home from the hospital Sunday evening, and was moving around by herself by Tuesday morning. She will go this Thursday to the doctor to have the staples removed and will then find out more about physical therapy. My mom is definitely the trooper!!!

Kendall and I were glad to have some good QT with my family. We spent some time with Mimi and Gran on Sunday and Mammaw and Pappaw came over to see us on Thursday. Two of my very best friends, Heather and Jill, came to visit, too, and I was happy to see them! We even got to visit with the newlyweds, Chad and Kyleigh, for a few minutes on Thursday night. (The whole reason behind our trip to Destin !) Mom and I were SICK about missing the wedding and were thankful to get a phone call from Kyleigh's mom with all the details the day after the wedding.

My Aunt Marva graciously volunteered to drive me to Nashville today (we only bought a one-way ticket to Arkansas) to meet up with Evan. I enjoyed getting to have some time to visit with her as well. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel, which is my FAVORITE on Saturday because the veggie of the day is lima beans...YUMMY! (Adriane--I know you are dying as you read this because you HAAATTTEEE Cracker Barrel and it's making me laugh as I type this thinking of your opposition to stopping there on car trips...especially when we were coming back from Gulf Shores our senior year! HA!!!) Today's lunch was Kendall's first time to sit in a high chair like a big girl and she certainly enjoyed it. She "talked" non-stop and got LOTS of looks from those around us. At one point, Evan was giving her the "Kendall...SSSSHHHH" because he thought she was being way too loud. I thought she was quite entertaining!

I have a few "funnies" from the week...maybe more funny to me than to anyone else, but blogging about it is a good way for me to remember...

*Kendall HATES green beans. HATES them!!! She gagged, coughed, and choked on them at my three attempts. I decided it wasn't worth it. Maybe she will like them when she can feed herself. She LOVES avocado. Go figure.

*My dad, bless his heart, is just as country as cornbread. (If you don't know him, you must understand this before reading on. He is not uneducated, he is just country...a good 'ole farm boy.) Sometimes I think he really believes that Andy Griffith and Mayberry is today's reality. I laughed my head off as it took my mother 20 minutes to explain the "Forever" stamp to him, only seconds after she said how long it took Mrs. Carol (my mom's good friend and Postmaster) to explain the "Forever" stamp to an elderly man in the area. Mom and daddy were going 'round and 'round about it. Hysterical.

*The other funny on my dad...He was out mowing the yard one afternoon and one of his friends stopped by to visit. (We had SEVERAL "drop-in" visitors throughout the week...one of the things that is neat to me about living in a rural area. People still do that.) Daddy and his buddy probably stood outside, shooting the bull for an hour. Daddy comes inside after his friend leaves and says, "Well, I got the yard mowed, but I didn't get to weed-eat. That's the one thing I hate about living in town, it's hard to finish something because you never know who is going to drop by!!" Knowing that the population sign of Aubrey reads less than 300, I cracked up laughing and said, "Daddy, you DON'T live in town." Soooo funny!!!

*Kendall will be crawling before we know it. She has mastered the army crawl. She's trying to get on her knees, but can't figure out how to work her hands/knees just yet. Oh, and she can now get into a sitting position.

*Last Saturday, we lowered Kendall's crib mattress. Tonight, when we put her to bed, she just cried and cried. Now that her mattress is lower (and since she can get into a sitting position) she could see us walking around (before we shut her door a bit) and she was MAD that she had to go to bed. If I timed it correctly, she cried for about 15 minutes or so before finally falling asleep. When I went in to check on her, I noticed she had literally fallen asleep while sitting up, with her body leaning over her feet and her head lying on the mattress!!! Funny kiddo!!!

Okay, that's all for now. It's bed-time. We have nursery for the first time tomorrow. I MUST get some sleep!!! My own bed will feel good tonight!

Bath Time Fun!

Kendall was having a big time in the bathtub tonight with her rubber duckie!

7 Month Birthday!

Kendall is 7 months old today!

At 7 Months, Kendall:

* sits up all by herself

*says "ba-ba" and "ya-ya"

*rolls EVERYWHERE!

*gets into the crawling position

(but can't go anywhere yet!)

*eats three solid food meals

*plays peek-a-boo

Things we love about Kendall:

*She's always joyful

*The way she rubs her eyes with her 'lovey' when she's tired

*How she lights up when she sees either of us

*We put her to bed on her back, with her head facing towards the wall and then when we go check on her, she has rolled onto her belly with her head facing the door

*How the nursery workers comment on how sweet she is

*All of her funny faces

Happy 7 months, Kendall!!!

We Love You!

On another note...

My mom fell down and shattered her elbow this morning. This comes at a terrible time, as Kendall and I were meeting up with her tomorrow to head to Destin for the week. As of right now, my mom is seeing an orthopedic doctor in Little Rock this afternoon to figure out what to do next. More than likely, the injury will require surgery and we won't be able to go to Destin. (Although when my dad called last, he and mom were arguing about whether or not she could still make the trip! HA! If you know my mom very well, you know she LOVES the beach and is DYING just thinking about missing a trip to Florida!) Soooo...I will probably be playing nurse to my injured mother next week, instead of getting a head start on my tan! :) Please keep my parents in your prayers. With everything else my mom deals with on a regular basis with her lung disease, it breaks my hear to think of her with a broken limb!

Our Week at Home

Tuesday, we went to a Louisville Bats (minor league) baseball game with some couples from our ABF. (I guess I need to start calling it that instead of SS. Those of you who aren't N&O folks, that's Adult Bible Fellowship.) The weather was actually a little chilly, but we had fun being outside. I think we made it to the 8th inning before Kendall started getting fussy and ready for bed. She, of course, had the attention of all the people sitting behind us. Below is a picture from the game. Glasses don't photograph well, huh??? I took Kendall in for her weight check on Wednesday. I was pretty nervous about the appointment, because I wasn't sure how much weight Dr. Lynch was expecting Kendall to gain. Evan didn't go with us, but he prayed with me before we went, and I found lots of comfort in that...even though I was literally shaking when I put Kendall on the scales. I am HAPPY to say that Kendall gained 11 ounces in two weeks, putting her at 12 pounds, 6 ounces. Woo Hoo!!! (Dr. Lynch was hoping for 7 ounces and was THRILLED that Kendall gained 11!)

I had an amazing conversation with Dr. Lynch about nursing (which I am continuing to do in the morning and at night) and we even got a little teary-eyed together. One of the things she said, which I thought was so true was, "As mothers, we set this goal for ourselves to only nurse for a full year and when we don't meet it, we feel like we don't get to join the 'I nursed-my-baby-for-a-year-club' and we shouldn't do that to ourselves." I found such comfort in hearing her say that! I think part of it was just seeing the human side of Kendall's doctor. Sometimes, we treat doctors as "knowing everything" and forget they are regular people, too. Dr. Lynch has a 16 month old son that she nursed for a year so I asked her, "If you saw that your son wasn't gaining weight properly from nursing, would you put him on formula?" Her reply, without batting an eye, was "Absolutely. It would have been the hardest thing for me to do, but absolutely." She is probably my favorite in the clinic and I may have to request her from now on!

Saturday morning, I tutored for a while. When I got ready to drive home, I immediately called Evan to tell him it was too pretty to spend the day sitting inside the apartment. He said, "Don't you worry about that. Just come home, change into something comfy and be prepared to be outside for a while." (Thank goodness I bought sunscreen on Friday!) Of course on the whole drive home, I was trying to figure out what in the world Evan had up his sleeve...

A bluegrass festival!!!! Oh, it was so fun! I know some of you are probably thinking, "How can you listen to that stuff?" but Evan and I love it! The festival was at a national park about 30 minutes away, and when we finally got off the interstate to get to the park, I felt like we were driving through Elkins and then going on the Pig Trail. The scenery was so pretty! We heard one group (I don't remember the name) and then the "big" group at the end--Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. (If you aren't familiar with his name, does Man of Constant Sorrow ring a bell?!?!?)

Kendall enjoyed playing outside, too. Evan and I decided that yesterday was probably the first time she has been outside for an extended period. She seemed to enjoy rolling around on the blanket and just hanging out. I think she liked the music, too.

Probably the funniest thing about the whole afternoon was once we got there, Evan and I were checking out the concessions. We were hoping for some serious "festival" food...Evan wanted a turkey leg and I was thinking more along the lines of a funnel cake. We were a little disappointed to find that our "festival" food was a little more like "concession stand" food. Evan went for a glass of tea and I went for a nice, hand-dipped, cookies-and-cream ice cream in a waffle cone. While I was trying to get the paper-cone-cover thingy off the end of the cone, somehow I accidentally crushed the cone and my ice cream went tumbling to the grass!!! Oh yes. I got two bites out of my $3.25 ice cream come. Let's just say that even though I have laughed a lot about it, I was a little hacked that I didn't get to eat any of it!!! My sweet hubby did later go buy another ice cream cone for us to share to make up for it!

Here are a few pictures of Kendall and Evan from yesterday's festivities...


I guess that is about it. I've been doing some scrap-booking after Kendall goes to bed the last couple of nights, so my house that was once clean when we came home from AR is no more. I also was caught up on laundry, but will begin that cycle all over again tomorrow!

Hope you've had a great weekend, too!!!

Big Bass

These are a couple of hawgs my buddy Scottie and I caught last Monday.
Both fish measured 22 inches long with 16 inch girths.
Unfortunately, we didn't have a scale to find out exactly how much they weighed, but Scottie is an avid fisherman and he estimated them to be at least 8 lbs.
This is by far the biggest bass I've ever caught, so as you can imagine, I was pretty fired up about it.

Fayetteville Trip Part 2

I failed to do a very good job with my camera the rest of the week, so there isn't a very big variety of pictures this time!

We spent a lot of time visiting friends throughout the rest of the week. I spent one morning at J.O. Kelly, where it was good to see all my teacher friends. I am still thankful for the 5 years I spent at that school, among such a great camaraderie of co-workers. Each time I go back to visit, I feel like I'm visiting family! Kendra and I got to have a kid-free lunch/shopping one day which was a lot of fun, too. Of course, we always enjoy our evenings with Scottie, Allyce, and Henry and are more than thankful for their friendship!

We spent this past weekend in Hot Springs for Matt and Kim's wedding. Our b-i-l, Justin, graciously let us stay at his family's condo for the weekend. We had a great time being with our family, especially seeing the cousins play together. Being with the boys this weekend showed me that Kendall is ready for some play dates. (I'll be calling you soon, 9th & O girls!) Sunday morning, Thomas and Kendall were playing in the floor and Kendall had a set of toy keys. Thomas of course wanted to play with them too, so he reached out and grabbed them from Kendall. So Kendall reached out and grabbed them back. Thomas then grabbed the keys back from Kendall. Kendall looks up at Evan and me with a look on her face like, "Would one of y'all come down here and help me?!?!?!" Graham, being the peace-maker, walks over and takes the keys from Thomas, gives them back to Kendall, and hands Thomas a block. Thomas quickly decides that he doesn't want the block, he wants the keys, and it starts all over again! It was actually pretty funny to watch!

My first Mother's Day was wonderful. Evan surprised me with John MacArthur's book, Twelve Extraordinary Women. I think he was a little afraid I wouldn't like the book, but I thought it was very thoughtful. He wrote a very sweet note inside the book that I will cherish forever! I have a very sweet husband and I am thankful for the way he takes care of Kendall and me!

My parents drove over to Hot Springs to see us this weekend, too. They didn't get to stay for a long time, but I was glad to see them and I know they were glad to see Kendall. I will look forward to spending some time with them at the end of the month!

Kendall started making a "ba-ba-ba" sound over the weekend. It's the cutest thing ever! She sucks her bottom lip in when she does it and it looks like a little old man without any teeth! ADORABLE! She is sitting up really well on her own and is rolling and scooting herself all over the place. She will be crawling before we know it!

On another note...my hometown got hit by some devastating tornadoes over the weekend. My grandparents are okay and thankfully didn't see a lot of damage, since they are about 10 miles outside of town. I think they went without power for a while (and still may be without power, not too sure) but that's it. I haven't heard from any of my friends or their families that are still in the area, but am praying they are all okay. I know it must have been a scary evening for all!

Okay, I'm sure I am forgetting a few things, but it's late and I'm tired. I was sad to leave Fayetteville this morning, but am glad to be back in our own space! I know my own bed will feel good tonight!

Here are pictures from the rest of our week!

Kendall's 6 Month Pictures

Go to http://www.normadavis.smugmug.com/ if you would like to see Kendall's 6 month pictures.

You can tell that Kendall had NO afternoon nap from the dazed look on her face in most of the pictures! Oh well! I still think the pictures turned out wonderful! Thanks to Mrs. Norma for such a great job! If you are in the Fayetteville area, you should give her a call! I know she would LOVE to work with you!

Fayetteville Trip Part 1

Evan left bright and early this morning to go fishing with Scottie, Kendall is napping, and I'm waiting on the last load of laundry to finish drying, so I thought I would do a Fayetteville trip update. Maybe this will make for a less-long post when we get back home.

Of course we are glad to be home visiting and have a had a great time so far. Friday night, we went to eat at Venetian Inn with Evan's family. We had a great visit with Uncle Larry and Aunt Loretta. We just love them so much and are always glad to hang out with them. Kendall just ate up the attention! Aunt Loretta had Kendall just smiling and laughing so big on the car trip home and it was SO cute!

Here are a couple of pictures of Evan and Kendall. She sure loves her daddy! The long-lost Razorback hat was found yesterday and Evan was pretty happy. We had been looking for it FOREVER and it was in his dad's office at church. Apparently Kendall was glad Evan found it, too! She was having fun playing with it.

Yesterday we met up with Mrs. Norma to take Kendall's 6 month pictures. We tried to do it Saturday morning, but it was very cold and windy. Yesterday was a much better day to be outside. Somehow Kendall ended up with NO nap before picture time, so she wasn't exactly full of smiles. She never really got cranky; she was just pretty dazed the whole time. I'm still anxious to see how the pictures turned out. Mrs. Norma used three cameras, one of which was a film camera, so I'm headed to Wal-Mar after Kendall wakes to get a sneak peek!

When we come home, one thing we are always reminded of is how God has certainly blessed us with an abundance of great, solid, lifelong friends. I get teary-eyed just typing about this! Before we moved to Louisville, we had about 6 couples that we did things with on a regular basis and it's so great to come home and spend time with each of them. (Two of which are on a cruise together this week, so we won't get to see them much!) Evan and I were talking last night about how we have a comfort level with these folks that just can't be explained. It's awesome!

Saturday night we got to hang out with Scottie, Allyce, and Henry. We just love the three of them! Scottie and Allyce have been our mentors and encouragement since Evan and I began dating. (Well, really before that for Evan.) They know more dirt on us and still love us the same! We got to be a part of a neat ministry opportunity with them Saturday night of which I am thankful, too. It's funny because I thought when we left Louisville, we were taking a ten day vacation from that part of our life, but not so! God is at work all the time, all around us and it's just neat to watch!

Last night, we went over to Brian and Kendra's house for dinner. Brent, Carrie, and their kids came over, too. Kendra cooked a yummy meal (and a wonderful strawberry pie that Miss Piggy here ate three pieces of!) It's been quite a while since we've seen Brent and Carrie, so Evan's eyes about bugged out of his head when he saw their daughter, Reese! He couldn't believe how big she was! Brian and Brent are twins, and sometimes I wonder if Evan got separated at birth from them because they all act JUST alike! The three of them together make me laugh so hard. I think seeing 30 year old men run around the house shooting each other with Nerf guns will do that to you!

Kadyn and Reese decided they would pretend like they were babies and get in Kendall's car seat! So funny! They just loved Kendall and could hardly stay out of her face!

It amazes me that when you get 5 kids and a 6 month old together, it takes less than 10 seconds for your house to look like a tornado hit it!!! Poor Kendra and Carrie trying to get everything picked up last night! The boys were playing in Asher's costumes and somehow Kendall ended up picking up the Darth Vader mask. Watching her figure this thing out was cracking me up!

Evan was so excited that Kendra had a Johnny Jump Up for Kendall to play in. He always wanted one for her, although they kind-of scare me. (I don't even know if they make them anymore!) She liked it for a little while, but I think having NO nap all day was really getting to her the time we finally put her in it to play! Plus, Asher wanted to "swing" her, and she didn't like that so much! :)

Well, the dryer just buzzed, so I guess I should go get the rest of the clothes! I'm sure there is more fun to come from our visit to Arkansas!

Random...

Quick story before I go eat a muffin and get ready for church...

Yesterday I was in Target with my m-i-l. We were getting ready to check out, and this very friendly girl walks past me. She smiles really big and then says, "Hi, how are you doing?" I said, "I'm good. Do I know you?" She then says, "Your face looks really familiar to me; what is your name?" I told her my name and then asked for hers. When she told me her name, I said, "Your name is really familiar to me; how do I know you?" For some reason, the next question that popped out of my mouth was, "Do you have a blog?" To which she replied yes, and we figured out that we had been reading each other's blogs occasionally! How random is that????? After sorting it all out, we finally figured out we had connected through Bonnie's blog and we both used to teach in in the Springdale School District.

So, I met my first "bloggy" friend as of yesterday. Isn't that random??? Ashley's family page is great, but what you should really check out is her painting! ADORABLE!!

first year is in the books

I took my last final this morning. I took nine hours this semester, so I only had three finals, which wasn't too bad.
Going into this week, I had high A's in all three classes, and I feel like I did really well on each of my tests, so I'm expecting to end up with a 4.0 for the year. Considering I pulled about a 0.7 my first year of college out of high school, I'm pretty proud. Just goes to show much difference actually going to class makes.