Mother's Day and Lucy's 1st birthday party

What an incredible day!  There is nothing greater than to celebrate your child's birthday on Mother's Day.  Last year, the Lord gave me the most precious gift for Mother's Day...Lucy!  So although her birthday is tomorrow, we celebrated today with family.  I can't believe she is ONE!

Each year, I do handprints for the grandmothers (and me) for Mother's Day.  I love to see how they have grown over the years.  Due to my number of children growing and the handprints getting bigger, I am running out of room on the paper!

Love this poem...

Karis picked out these flowers for me all by herself.  :)

Jay got me a personalized necklace but it hasn't arrived yet...so I will be sure to post a picture when it comes in.  Hopefully it will be here today!  :)

--------------------------------

This afternoon we celebrated Lucy's 1st birthday with family.  I was so excited to see how she would react to opening gifts and eating cake.  It was a wonderful time and she was so much fun.  Karis and Brayden were very sweet to celebrate with Lucy!

***Warning I took LOTS of pics.  SO if you don't like pics you will be bored!

My birthday girl!

Our friend from church, Phyllis, made this cake for Lucy...isn't it adorable?  And it was DELICIOUS!  We were so excited that she did it for us!

I told you she is a climber!

Lucy and Pop-Pop

Me and my birthday girl!

Lucy and Grandmother Lucy

She was dying to get into the presents!

Opening gifts...

Brayden's very own batting helmet Lolli brought him.  He was super excited!

...and this smart cycle Lolli got at a yard sale.  The kids had so much fun with this!  

Lolli and Lucy

Lucy LOVED the cake!

Our attempts at a family shot...

Of course Lucy had LOTS of help from Karis and Brayden...

Here she was saying, "MMMMMM!!!"  It was so funny! 

(There is a video of it at bottom of post.)

Lucy with mommy and daddy

Grandmother Lucy and Pinto

Uncle Hudson "Haha" and Aunt Judy "Juju"

So sweet...

Lucy and Pop

She loves to climb on top of the picnic table but hasn't quite learned how to get down!

Lucy and Aunt Jessie

At the end of the party I told K and B they could have one each of the helium balloons.  Karis decided she wanted to let hers go and put her address on it so if anyone found it they could write her a letter!  

About to let "Balloony" go...

Lucy was watching it go up, up up...

Daddy and Lucy

Below are some videos of Lucy from the party today....the cake one is so funny!

Lucy eating her cake from Amanda Lemonds on Vimeo.




Lucy opening gifts from Amanda Lemonds on Vimeo.

We love you so much Lucy!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!  As a mother myself, I know that mothers have one of the hardest jobs out there and alot of the hard work and hours are done behind the scenes without notice by anyone.  Being a mother is hard work but such a privilege and an honor!  I am thankful that the Lord allowed me to a mother to 3 wonderful children and I recognize that they are undeserved gifts to me!

Specifically, I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to 2 very special mothers:

• Lolli (my mother)-Thank you for being a mother that was there for us, available to us, sacrificed your own desires so that you could provide for us, taught us manners and respect, made God a priority in our home and made me learn responsibility at a young age.  I am very thankful for you and am who I am today because of you and dad.
• Nonnie (Jay's mother)-Thank you for sacrificing to provide for Jay, making him a priority in your life, providing financially, emotionally and physically for him, raising him to love the Lord, loving him unconditionally and raising him to the amazing man that I am so in love with today.  I am so proud of him and thankful that you raised him the way that you did!  

------------------------------------

If you'll remember from last year on Mother's Day, I was laboring and later had a baby!  Lucy entered our lives on Mother's Day and it was the best gift a Momma could ask for on Mother's Day!  You can read about it here.  Lucy's birthday post coming tomorrow!  Yah!!!!

Whew...busy day!

Today has been a very busy, productive day yet somewhat relaxing at the same time...it has consisted of:

• blogging
• playing on my new (to me) computer since my other one all but died
• Jay went to the store for me (thanks honey!)
• received flowers from Karis for Mother's Day :)
• cooked for Lucy's 1 yr. b-day party tomorrow
• washed 5 loads of laundry (does it ever end???)
• cleaned the whole house....mopped, vacuumed, dusted, cleaned bathroooms
• Jay and I cooked fish for dinner that he caught last week
• took a one hour nap...haven't done that in a LONG time...It was great!
• attempted giving Lucy milk for the first time (she had a reaction a while back...see note below)
• pulled Jay's truck out of a rut on the other side of the lake with all the kids...it was a family affair!  Jay said to me, "I told you I will make a country girl out of you before long!"
• cut Brayden and Lucy's hair
• bathed the kids

A while back when Lucy quit nursing, I gave her formula and she had a terrible reaction to it.  So I switched her to Lactose Free formula and thought she was allergic to milk.  I have been dreading giving her milk for months.  So today I decided to give it a try since she will be 1 in just 2 days.  At first I gave her just one ounce mixed in with her formula to see if she would have a reaction and she didn't.  So later I gave her a whole cup and she did fine with that also!  I am hoping she is not allergic and am relieved.  A milk allergy would be soooo hard to deal with...it is in just about everything including cheese, ice cream, chocolate, etc.  I would have to monitor everything she puts in her mouth!  But so far so good...I will continue to try it little at a time and hopefully she won't react!!!  I am crossing my fingers!

Now everyone in my family is asleep and the house is very quiet...it's kinda nice.  I have some loose ends to tie up over the next hour or so and hope to get in bed soon!  Tomorrow is a big day...Mother's Day, church in the morning, Lucy's 1st birthday party and dinner for our moms tomorrow night.  It will be a great day and look for a post/pictures soon! 

What's in a name...

This week at Kelly's Korner it is the origin of kid's names and I wanted to document them in my family scrapbook.  It is such an amazing responsibility and privilege to name a child!  We took it very seriously and wanted to name all of our children based on biblical meaning, significance and family history.

Karis Taylor

"Grace"

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

When we were pregnant with Karis, Jay was in Seminary taking a Greek class.  We loved the name Grace and it's biblical meaning but there are lots of children out there with the name Grace and for all of our children, we wanted something "different" or "uncommon."  So one day Jay was studying Greek and he mentioned to me that the Greek word for Grace was "charis."  I loved it and we immediately agreed on the name but being the teacher that I am, I changed the spelling to avoid it being mispronounced.  We just liked the name Taylor and how is sounded with Karis.

Karis, I pray that someday you will recognize your need for Christ and that God's grace is sufficient for you.  When you are weak, He is indeed strong!

Brayden James

"Brave"

"And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'' Romans 10:15

When we went for Brayden's 20 week ultrasound, we went in just as all parents do, soooo excited to find out that our baby (didn't know the gender yet) was perfectly healthy!  Much to our surprise, the ultrasound tech was being very quiet and after a few minutes, says, "The reason I was staying in this area for so long is because it looks like your baby may have clubbed feet."  I don't really know why I was surprised because Jay and I both had it, but Karis didn't have them so I guess I was shocked when they told me B did even though it is more common in males.  I immediately started crying.  I guess I was just in shock and it was hard to hear that something was "wrong" with the baby growing inside me.  I now know that his defect was VERY mild and there are so many others with MUCH bigger issues so I soon started counting my blessings.  Anyway, all that to say that it played a role in how we named him.  After the ultrasound we were looking through our Bible names book and I came across the verse above.  I KNEW it was the perfect name for our son.  Brayden..."How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news."  There wasn't a doubt in my mind that God wanted our son's name to be Brayden.  I do believe someday that He will use those feet to glorify God by bringing good news.  We gave him the middle name James after his daddy.  :)


Brayden, I pray that you would use your beautiful feet and bravery to share the good news of Christ.

(For those that are curious, Brayden did have pretty bad clubbed feet and had to have surgery at 5 weeks old to correct it and then had casting on his leg until he was 4 months old.  But it was corrected and it hasn't stopped him from doing anything!)

Lucy Madison

"Light"
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16


We wanted to give a family name to one of our children which we hadn't already done at this point.  Jay's maternal grandmother's name was Lucy and we admire her so much.  She has become like a grandmother to me as well.  We are so much alike it is hard to believe she is Jay's grandmother and not mine.  It was an honor to name our daughter after Lucy Wicks.  Karis gave Lucy the middle name Madison after a girl from church that she admired and loved, Anna Madison. :)


Lucy I do hope and pray that you are a "light" wherever you go so that others may hear the good news of Christ through you.

Nashville Flooding

I am amazed at all the pictures of the Nashville flooding...I just can't imagine!

I got these pics from a fellow Unionite's John Carroll's blog.  They are unreal!

Titan's stadium

         

Downtown Nashville

Interstate 24

(Not sure where this is)

Inside the Opryland Hotel

Mimi's funeral

It was a bittersweet day...the day we celebrated her life, yet were reminded that she was no longer with us.  She was a wonderful woman and today was a day to remember who she was and whom she represented.  She was a Godly woman and her pastor described her as the Proverbs 31 woman.

My family (minus Lucy we left her at home with a very good friend)

She looked beautiful as ever...90 years young and barely a wrinkle on her face.  But she wasn't there, just her body!

My dad and his sisters

My mom and my little cousin Sarah Jane

Graveside

She had 10 grandkids and 9 great-grandchildren and there was a rose for each one to place on the casket.

My Pawpaw died in 1995 and she will be buried next to him.

Sarah Jane...isn't she the cutest thing ever???  She is 2 months younger than Lucy and I am so glad that  they will grow up together!

Me and my handsome man

---------------------------------

The two big kids went home with Lolli so we got some special time with Lucy.  She didn't take much of an afternoon nap so she went to bed at 6:00!  I did wake her up later to feed her again but then she went right back to sleep and snuggled with me on the couch for about 30 minutes until I fell asleep!  She was OUT!  Can you tell?

Jay and I got take-out Sushi and enjoyed a date night at home.  We needed a relaxing night!