Not Me Monday... Stellan Style!

Because of recent circumstances with Stellan, obviously there will not be a regularly scheduled Not Me Monday post by Mckmama, so a few of her friends got together and decided to do NMM- Stellan Style... where everything is things we did NOT do this week regarding Stellan.


If you hop on over to Natalie's blog to read some more Not Me's Stellan Style!!!


I was NOT seriously upset when I woke up and saw Mckmama's post last week about Stellan going to the hospital...

Nor was I upset to find out that it was a breathing treatment that triggered this... *sigh*

I have NOT had this precious little boy on my mind all week...

I have NOT spent countless hours tell anyone and everyone I can about his story.

I do NOT and have NOT checked Mckmama's blog a bazillion times a day just to see if there were any new tweet's or update posts. NOT ME!

I have not taken tons of pictures this week of Stellan's name, in several places, with several people, etc. (I'll add those at the bottom of this post)

I have not driven around with said pictures of Stellan's name in my front window of my car all weekend.


Here are the pictures I've taken so far... I need to email these to Mckmama to add to Stellan's name gallery soon.

These are in no particular order, with my kids, and with our group of kids at Celebrate Recovery who are praying for Stellan also!

Of dancing, rockstars, and cool spring days :)

Of dancing...

So I have a new found love for Dancing with the Stars...
Kyley and I have been watching online since we aren't often home to watch the actual show when it comes on.
By far my fave is Shawn Johnson, she's just too cute.
I really enjoy it, but it sucks sometimes how the luck comes out with which dances they do, some people just aren't good at certain dances, but I guess that's just how it goes.

Anyone else watching it?


Of rockstars...

Lately Elijah has been sporting the faux hawk... it all started with this night...
His shirt says "Daddy's Little Rock Star"
so I gel'd his hair all up and went on my way to CRY that night and Derek loved it so much he asked me to do it again the next few days



and then of course of cool spring days...


After a long week of rain, rain, and more rain- a nice sunny day was more than appreciated! Thank you God! So while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's Sunday afternoon, I took the time to snap a few pictures of the kiddos outdoors! I love spring time, the flowers are gorgeous, the wind and sun are amazing... overall it's just great (minus the pollen which thankfully mostly washed away with all the rain the few days before)
So here are a few pics from that day...

Stellan

For those of you who know me, know that I love everything about Mckmama's blog. I've been reading her blog now for months and I just adore her family.
Little Stellan is just shy of 5 months old and is in the hospital in SVT, a condition that he also experienced in utero and was in heart failure. God healed him then and I believe that God can do it again. We are praying for this sweet little boy and his family as they endure these trials.

Back when Stellan was sick before he was born, Mckmama started a name gallery for him and I took this picture on Christmas Eve to add to his original name gallery, but before I could submit it, the link had been taken down. Well, with this recent hospital stay the name gallery has been reborn. And this is mine and Kyley's contribution to it.





Please pray for him, and if you would like to add to his gallery you can click here.
Or you can go to Mckmama's page here
You can also visit the prayer blog created for him here

Rain and Mondays... (yes I know it's thursday)

Yesterday in the car, Kyley and I got into a discussion about the rain.

Well, Kinda.

She was getting buckled into her carseat so we could go pick up Matt from school and looks at me and says...

"Mommy, I hate the rain."

and I replied.

"honey, why do you hate the rain?"

to which she answered,

"well, hate is a bad word isn't it mommy, I can't say "hate""

the rest of the conversation followed like this:

Mommy: " well, yes Kyley hate IS a bad word, God loves everyone, and He wants us to love, so we shouldn't hate anyone." (I'd already forgotten "what" it wa she hated so I was just speaking in general at this point)

Kyley: "yeah, mommy hate is not nice."

Mommy: " and you know Kyley (remembering the original comment at this point) God made the rain too, so we shouldn't hate the rain either, God gave it to us for a reason."

Kyley: "well I don't like the rain."

Mommy: "well it's ok to not like the rain,Ky, but we still shouldn't hate it. Did you know that without rain, we wouldn't have water? There would be no water to drink anywhere!" (over exaggerating for my 4 yr old to understand how big it was that God made it.)

Kyley: " Mommy, I like the rain, I like to drink the rain from the sky though, not from the house."

Mommy: (laughing) "Okay, Kyley whatever you say!"

Kyley: "Mommy, did you know that ice and snow are made from water too?"

Mommy: (acting surprised to learn this) "Why, no Kyley, I didn't, where did you learn that?"

Kyley: " I was watching Jay Jay the jet plane, Mommy and they talked about it. All the ice and snow comes from water!"

Mommy: "You are so smart Kyley! I'm so proud of you for paying attention and learning things all the time."



And just like that, our conversation was over.


Fast foward a few hours, on our way home from church, Derek and I were discussing a time in our lives before Kyley was born when he worked for Movie Gallery. And I expressed that I "hated" Monday nights because I never knew what time he'd get home because he always had to reset the wall for the new releases that came out on Tuesday.

(Can you see where this is going?)

So we're just chatting, Kyley was being ever so quiet in the backseat and all the sudden blurts out....

"Mommy, God made Mondays, so you shouldn't hate them!"

Derek, obviously confused asked "What?"

and I then had to explain to him our previous conversation so he'd understand.

so... at least in her eyes, God made the rain, and God made Mondays :)

a NOT ME monday for sure....

It has been a seriously long week. So far, as I see it Mckmama won't be posting an actual NMM today, given the present circumstances. Please pray for little Stellan who is in the hospital. You can read their story here.

We had a really great time with friends this weekend that we normally don't get to hang out with, but to say the least I'm exhausted.

Today I took the kids to lunch and get some wipes from walmart, when we were getting out of the car, Kyley stuck her hand around the outside of the car and when I got Elijah out and shut his door, it caught her fingers. *sigh* So now she's in an incredibly great mood... NOT!

I'll try to upload pics from the weekend a little later! :)

Elijah's new words :)

So far in the last week the kid thinks it's fun to talk :)
He's said "hey" "sissy" "kyky" and "ball" but not consistently yet, or for the right reason I think he's just practicing saying it all :)

anyhow, I can't believe he's getting so big!

You are officially invited....

To Elijah's first birthday party!!!

mama + baby + bowling = fun

Last night I had the privilege of going bowling with my beautiful family and my bestest best friend Abigail... and while I won't show you all of the tons of pics we took, here are a few of me wearing Elijah while we bowled and played dance dance revolution haha

Update on my Aunt Judy/ Home from our mini vacation :)

Well, today we got home from our mini vacation. For those who don't know, Derek had some training in MS this week and the kids and I rode along and spent a few days in MS with him. We had fun but we're tired of driving now :) Overall the trip was great, lots of relaxing time and time to chat with each other and enjoy each other's company. The kids did wonderfully, and Kyley didn't want to come home LOL Elijah also got his second tooth while we were there!!!

On to other things...

My aunt Judy is now out of ICU and doing well. The first few days were rough, she was in a lot of pain, but they are now talking like she'll go home on Sunday! Praise the Lord!

My aunt's surgery...

My aunt had some very invasive surgery this morning, so I wanted to post an update for those of you who were interested and had asked me to let them know how she was.

As of 11:15 this morning she was out of surgery and in recovery, and it appears that everything went well. She will be in ICU for a day or two and probably a regular room after that til everything is clear.

Continue to pray for her, this will be a long recovery as it was major abdominal surgery and they also cut her aorta (was planned, not an accident just fyi) so she has a lot of healing to do.

Thanks for all your prayers!

At 11 months and 5 days old...

so today Elijah is 11 months and 5 days old....





and he FINALLY has a tooth!

Officially Freaking out!!!!

Ok someone please tell me it's ok to be nervous, even when you're giving it all to God????

March 4th

Today is a special day :)

9 years ago today- I met Derek for the first time, to spare you all the details, we were on a triple date, him with his then g/f , me with my then b/f and my best friend and her "date".

I could go into so much detail about it, but it's really useless information unless you're one of us, so I'll stop with that.

Then,

8 years ago today, Derek and I were both baptized. I vividly remember the day I gave my life to Christ several months before, and this was a huge step for me. What awesome testimony it is that even though at the time we were just friends, I shared this beautiful moment with my husband.

God did some amazing things in our lives before we were married, and He continues to do them now, and I can't wait to see what He has in store for us in the future!

To my wonderful husband, happy day I met you :)



and in case any of you want to know what he looked like when we met... :)

Prayers!!!

Oh please please pray for this sweet family!!!!

http://www.thegledhillfamily.blogspot.com/


I can't imagine what they are going through today!

Soccer, and silly boys :)

This week, we signed Kyley up for her first soccer season! Derek and I are so excited to get to go watch her play!
and the other pictures are what happens when Daddy's give their son's girl scout cookies before bed... they get HYPER!!!

Snow!!!

So today, March 1st... it snowed ... ok so that sounds likes no big deal, but here in Montgomery, that's a BIG deal!!! Here are a few pics of our "snow day" Hope you enjoy!