Lydia's Baby Dedication

I know...I have been a bad, bad, bloggy momma! Things have been super busy around here. We have some big news...and NO, I am NOT pregnant! Ha! I'll post all of the fun details soon, I promise. For now though, I need to post some photographs from a very special day for our family. Lydia was dedicated at our church (Church of the Highlands) on March 15, 2009. We had a great day and really enjoyed praying over our little girl's life and celebrating her. So enjoy the photographs...Lydia Adelane

Both of my babies have a thing for fingers in their mouths

I love this picture...not sure why, but I just do.

Pastor Dave praying over Lydia's life.

This is wonderful photographic evidence of my children's personalities-

Lydia is sucking her thumb and quiet as a mouse...

Anderson, meanwhile, is trying to sin B-I-N-G-O into the mike (it wasn't on-thank goodness!)

"She's touching me..."


Her invitation



The cake

The Bible our church presented her with

Anderson wore a different gown (a little less frilly), but I wanted them to have something that they both wore on those special days, so when he was dedicated I had a slip mongrammed. Then I had it done with Lydia's name and date this time. Hopefully, this will be something all of our family babies can use.


Jeff and I bought her her first cross necklace. It's also her first piece of Hudson Poole jewelry!

Our baby sitter's parents are also jewelers and made this sweet pearl bracelet for her when she was born. It even has a little ivory elephant charm. She wore it for the service.


All of the guests except Jennifer Cousins...I think she wasn't there just yet.

From L to R: My mom, my sister-Marcie, her fiance- Justin, my stepmother, Martha, My Dad, My grandparents and last but not least, my best friend Ashley and her daughter Lily Kate.

Jeff's dad wasn't feeling so well and is actually waiting to have a heart procedure, so they weren't able to come. We missed them!

Auntie M


Dad and Martha with me and Anderson and Lydia

Mom, Marcie and Justin with all of us


My grandparents at lunch

Enjoying lasagna and salad

Top O' the Morning to You...

Date night

A couple of weeks ago (sorry for the delay in posting), Anderson and I had a mommy-son double date with our good friends Lisa and David Barton. Anderson and David Barton love to play together, so we knew that a night out with them would be a lot of fun. We went to McDonald's for dinner- I know, Lisa and I are pretty cheap dates, huh? The boys really enjoyed their Happy Meal prize, a cool spiderman toy.

After that we headed over to the Alabama Gymnastics meet. Anderson is so funny because when he says he wants to go to "awabama" he means the campus not the state! Ha! He doesn't differentiate between the Quad, Colosseum, Stadium, etc...it's all "Awabama". Our friend Dana is the assistant coach for the team and was able to get us down closer to the floor with will-call tickets. We actually ended up on about the third row right behind the cheerleaders and right next to the band. It was awesome! I made Anderson take a pic with the cheerleaders, but as you can see he was unimpressed. It was nothing like the reaction he gave us when we saw the "sparkly belly girls" aka The Crimson Cabaret Dance Team. However, David Barton wouldn't even go near the cheerleaders, a point that Jeff intends to razz DB's daddy about! Ha!

We of course HAD to get some refreshments...the boys chose Dippin Dots and enjoyed every bite! David Barton ate his in about two seconds, while Anderson being the OCD child that he is, slowly lifted every individual bite to his mouth carefully avoiding any spills. It took him forever! Lisa laughed about him taking so long and being so neat...I told her it had nothing to do with wanting to stay neat. It was all about not dropping a single morsel!

The boys really enjoyed the blackout introduction complete with indoor fireworks. And of course Anderson loved hearing the fight song. They were very well behaved and hung in there for about an hour and a half before we decided it was time to get home. When we left they ran off some sugar by running in circles around the flagpole! Ha!! I really enjoyed getting to spend some alone time with my favorite little guy. He is such a little boy now- where did my baby go?? Lisa and I both reminisced about when we were pregnant with the boys and how that seemed like just yesterday. Now here are our sweet boys in polo shirts with their little gray New Balances on...where does the time go??

7 months

7 Month Stats:

18 lbs 2 oz

So, I am a little late with this post, but this has been a hectic time for us with snow, RSV, and all the other crazy stuff that goes on here! Lydia is getting SO big! Here are a few things about her for this month...

***Her weight is Skyrocketing! Even though this post is late the measurement of her weight was actually done right on her 7 month birthday...if you look back to our six month post you will quickly notice that she has gained a whopping 3 lbs in 4 weeks! Hello chunky monkey legs! Seriously, her legs are so thick and rolly! I could just squeeze and pinch them all day long! I can't wait for warm weather to come and stay so I can put her in sweet little bubbles that showcase those sweet chubby little legs! She is up to a size 3 diaper this month, but could really wear a 4. She has pretty much blown past the 6-9 month size clothes in her closet and is wearing 9-12 month items with ease. Wow, what a difference a month makes huh?

**She has not one, but TWO teeth!! We haven't noticed any fussiness or swollen gums, but on Sunday morning we went to a friend's hunting camp to take Anderson fishing and I thought I saw a little glimmer of white on her bottom gums, so I felt them and boy was I shocked to feel and see two sweet little teeth! They were pretty popped out too. I can't believe she just popped them right on out without showing any symptoms...she hasn't even really been gnawing or anything.

*** She is sitting up now and able to lower herself down to her back or tummy without bonking her head too hard on the ground. She is also EVERYWHERE! I lay out a large quilt that cover most of the center of our living room, but now she's only content to roll completely off it and play with the hardwoods. She is trying so hard to crawl, but hasn't gotten up on her knees yet. She just sort of does the army crawl or just maneuvers and rolls her body to get to something, which is pretty impressive to watch! HA!

*** She loves to screech and squeal and loves the reaction she gets from people when she does it. I think she is going to be like her momma- a talker. She loves trying to communicate. She still has the sweetest biggest smile and is always displaying it. She is such a happy baby. People comment on how content she is all the time. She truly is a very easy child with everything: eating, sleeping, entertaining herself, napping, going to strangers, etc... She is such a blessing to us and to Anderson!

Video Time for Lydia...Enjoy!

Literacy....

How, you may ask, am I planning on linking a picture of Anderson in his new Batman jammies and a pic of Lydia trying so hard to crawl she can almost taste it...Literacy, that's how!

You know we love to read at this house (former professional hazzard for me!). Anderson has also caught the reading bug, and Lydia is even enjoying a little book time nearly every morning as well! Last Monday was Dr. Seuss's birthday, which kicked off Read Across America Week. To celebrate, Anderson's school had a "read-in" where the kids could wear their jammies to school and read books...let's just say that combination put our little guy in Heaven!! He felt so cool in his Batman jammies complete with cape! How big is my little boy getting?? It's just too fast!! Way too fast!

And now for this little gem...I was preparing for the small group I am leading on Thursday nights. We are studying Beth Moore's "Esther"...and LOVING it! So anyway, I had all of my materials spread out getting ready for the meeting later that night, and Lydia rolled her way on over to my book. I just had to snap a pic! She tried so hard to crawl to it, but she just hasn't quite mastered getting up on those knees just yet. I am seriously going to send this into Beth Moore if I can find an email address for her somewhere! I know she would get a kick out of her youngest student! HA!!

S-N-O-W!

Well as most of you know we got quite a bit of snowfall last Sunday. We picked up around two inches here and some areas of the state got 3 or 4. We told Anderson on Saturday night that it would be snowing over night. Lately he has been watching this video of stunt snow skiers on our "On Demand" cable listing. The video just plays fast music and shows these (crazy) people snowing down cliffs and doing impossible jumps. He LOVES it. So all the way to bed he kept telling us when he woke up he was going to SKI! We tried to prepare him that we have not enough snow, no mountains, and certainly no skis...but he still had a bot of a freak out moment the next morning when he saw the snow and was told there would be no skiing. His mood improved, however, when we got him dressed and headed out to play in the white stuff!