Catch Up Post!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We did! We enjoyed eating and being with family and friends during the holidays. I guess I need to play catch up since it has been almost two months since I have posted anything. I will post pictures in a different post of all the events that we have had.

We had Halloween and we went to some friends' house and the kids rode on a trailer and went from house to house, it was a lot of fun. And there were many birthdays in between then and Thanksgiving to celebrate. We usually always spend Thanksgiving with Dustin's family and most of the time my parents will join us since me an my brother are married in to the same family. :) But this year they opted to eat with my grandmother that lives in Grant. We had a big meal and did our yearly tradition of flipping through the sales papers to cut coupons and map out our journey for the night. Last year we shopped all night and it was a lot of fun, so we decided to do it again this year. Well let me just say it wasn't as fun. Everyone has caught on to the idea of shopping all night and it was packed everywhere we went. I only had one big item that I needed to get and that was at Dick's and they didn't open til 5. Well we got there about 5:30 and they had already sold out of the in ground basketball goals and only had one left of the portable ones, so I got it and stood in the enormous line to pay for it. We were back home before 8. The rest of the day was spent cleaning house and laying around doing nothing.

We've had many Christmas functions to attend. I love making Christmas candy and decorating for it. I put up 4 trees this year and had a fifth one to put up, but the stand was missing. I will post pics of them later. I think I made around 5-6 batches of peanut butter balls and about 6-7 batches of oreo balls, along with other candies and appetizers that I like to fix. It was a lot of work but at the same time it was fun. One of my favorite functions to attend is our church Christmas party that we have every year and this year was no exception, we had a blast! Me and Dustin both came away with great gifts. The kids went to the movies with Hilary and Daniel that night so they too had a lot of fun.

We have a tradition every year that on Christmas morning we cook breakfast at our house for our families to come over and eat. It's something I hope never changes. Most everyone was able to show up and we had tons of food, but it was all good. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and letting the kids play and then we headed up Marty's that afternoon for some games.

Monday we did brave the crowds and head to town to exchange and take back a couple of things. It was extremely crowded but we got some good deals. We saw some friends from Rocky Branch at Hobby Lobby and invited them over. They came along with another couple and we had a fun night of just talking and playing games and of course eating. :)

The kids are doing good. We had to go back to B'ham a couple of weeks ago to get Kensley's eyes checked again and we were expecting her to get glasses at that point. When the doctor told us he didn't think she needed them, we were pretty shocked. He said her vision is 20/40 and that she could see really good for her condition. He said he could see maybe in the future that she may be nearsighted, but he wasn't concerned with that right now. Even though she turns to the side to read, he said that was fine cause she was trying to correct it on her own. He said we could do some cosmetic surgery to raise her eyelid, but we aren't worried about that now. If it bothers her as she gets older we may look in to it, but for now we are just happy to hear that she doesn't have to have glasses. We are thankful for all the prayers that people have prayed for her, it is still working and we are looking for more improvements. We go back to see her rehab doctor in January and I'm hoping to hear good news there too.

I promise to try and get my pictures on here. Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

October 23, 2011

Well yesterday was my sweet little girl's birthday. She turned 8 years old. It's so hard to believe she is eight. I sometimes wish they were still small and you could just cuddle with them. Although Kensley still likes to cuddle, she loves giving me hugs and kisses and I take all that I can. She will still give me a kiss before she gets on the bus and I will try and give Konnor one but he dodges me and runs. :)

We didn't get to have a party cause most everyone was out of town last week for fall break so I told her we may have her something after my niece's wedding cause right now things are pretty hectic. We did however take her to Logan's Friday night with some family and friends. Crosby came over and spent the night with her Friday night and they were up about 4 the next morning playing. We started our day by going to McDonald's for some breakfast and then we headed over to Spoiled Rockin Kids to get their hair done. Kensley wanted the Princess hair style and Crosby wanted the Rock Star look. Here are some pictures of the finished project.









They had so much fun doing that. When then had to run back home to do something for Dustin and then we headed to town to go shopping. First stop Old Navy where I found some really good deals. Then it was off to the mall. We shopped a little and then went and ate and shopped a little more and then headed over to Catos and Payless. After there I could tell the girls were wearing down, so I said we would head home, but on the way I remembered this consignment shop that I wanted to check out so we ran by there a few minutes and then headed towards the house. They played a til about 5 and then we took Crosby home. Me and Kensley then headed to Wal-Mart and later met Marty and Kylee at Hobby Lobby. Picked up some Zaxby's for supper and headed to Marty's house to see what we could help with for the wedding. It was a fun day with my precious daughter and I can't wait to spend many more like it with her.

Sunday was her actual birthday and Higdon was giving Kylee and Erik a shower so we went out there for church that morning. Came back to Huntsville for church that night. They sang to Kensley after church and you won't believe how much money that girl ended up with. Bro. Rob even got the pan out for her to hold. She ended up with $72.00 just from church. She is really loved and it has shown.

A few things Kensley enjoys doing at this age are playing mom to her babies, playing school, playing church and pretending she has a boyfriend that she is getting married to. She bought a fake diamond ring at Claires Saturday and she keeps telling me she is engaged to Christopher (a little boy from school). I told her this morning that Christopher had to ask her daddy's permission to marry her and she said she was going to go tell him this morning....lol! I told her not to worry about it right now. She loves talking to everybody and finding out their life history. J/K. She does love to talk though and sometimes I worry that she is bugging people, but that is just her personality. I'm so thankful the Lord saw fit to let us keep her awhile longer. He has truly blessed her and I know He will continue.

We love you Kensley and wish you a very Happy Birthday!!!!

What would we do without the Lord.

Well it seems I'm always posting about the Lord watching over one of us and keeping us safe, but I don't know what we would do if we didn't have Him there with us.



As you can see from the picture above, Konnor flipped the four wheeler yesterday afternoon. He was wearing a helmet. It landed on his leg so thankfully he was able to get out from under it. He was a pretty good ways from the house and had started walking home before we found out about it. Dustin and several others rushed up there and I still didn't know until Alicia walked in that he had wrecked. I'm so thankful the Lord watched over him one more time. He has a big bruise on his leg and was pretty sore this morning, but it could have been so much worse. Thank you Lord once again for keeping my son safe. We would be lost without You.

2 years later.....

Can you believe it has already been two years since our accident? Sometimes it feels just like it was yesterday and at other times it feels like it has been a long road, but one that God has been there every step of the way. I looked at the Praying for Kensley blog and she has come so far from just a year ago. She knows that the Lord spared her life and she consistently thanks Him for it. She is a praying child. She prays about everything anything. I'm so grateful that she knows the Lord can do things she asks Him to do and that she puts all her trust in Him.

I'm grateful for all of our friends and family that stuck with us while we were away. We are so blessed to have you all and still can't thank you all enough for sticking with us during the hardest time in our life.

Last night on the way home from eating out with some of our best friends, I just got to thinking about our first night out of the hospital and started crying. It's still all so real. Once me, Dustin and Konnor got released we stayed the first night at the Ronald McDonald house next to the hospital. We were all so sore from the wreck we could hardly move. We all got down to pray before we went to bed and we just couldn't even pray without sobbing. We just hugged each other and cried. We couldn't stand the thoughts of not having our little girl there with us. It still just breaks my heart thinking about it. But what a difference she is now.

I know these milestones don't seem like much to most parents, but to us they are so great! She can now open the 2 liter drink and pour it herself. She can put something in the microwave and heat it up herself. She often says to me "Mom aren't you glad that I can pour my own drink now, I'm doing so much better, aren't I?" She truly knows the Lord has helped her up til now. She often reminds me that the Lord has allowed her to walk, run, talk and that He has opened her eye. I think the Lord knows that I still struggle with it sometimes and He uses her to remind me of all the good that has happened so far. What a blessing she is. She still has some struggles to overcome, but I know the Lord can take care of those too.

Just wanted to share a little bit of how far the Lord has brought our little Angel. She is a reminder of what God can do.

On a different note, I had the honor of hosting Drea and Chad's 30th Birthday bash. It was a lot of fun and they I think they knew something was up, but just not quite sure what. We had a big crowd with lots of food, a bon fire and a hayride for the kiddos. I'm glad I got to be part of it. Drea is not so young anymore, but she'll get used to saying the "th" word eventually. :) Hope both of you had a great birthday!

God still Answers Prayers!

Well after church last night we had some friends invite us to go eat at Cheddar's with them. This is somewhere we really never go, I think we have only been there once, so we decided we would go. We get there and it's about a 30-40 minute wait, but we wait it out and they were super slow with the service, but we had good company so it wasn't bad.

We head to the car and Dustin asked who left the light on, well I didn't remember turning it on and then he proceeds to get in the car. And I'm thinking wait a minute he just opened the door and I haven't even unlocked the car yet. So he gets Kensley in and I'm saying someone was in here! My console was opened and things were moved around and then we noticed Dustin's wallet was gone along with two very expensive pair of sunglasses one in which Konnor used his own money to buy. That's all we have found that is missing.

This is the second time that this has happened to us. The other time was at church about 3-4 years ago. We immediately call and cancel the debit card. I'm just sick at this point and feeling bad that it was my fault and poor little Konnor was so upset, but I think he was feeling sorry for me that he told me it was ok and the he would just take a cheap pair from Wal-Mart. He was such a sweetheart about it.

Of course a million things run through your mind that could take place in this situation. One they have your address and could come to your house. They had my husband's SSN and could take his identity, just all sorts of things. Konnor was scared and didn't want to sleep by himself and I was scared and pretty much got no rest, just done lots of praying which I needed to do anyway.

Well this morning I start making all the calls that I need to. I called Cheddar's to let them know if they found anything or if anything was turned in to please let us know. Well she said she would go look and let me know and I never heard back from her until about 2 this evening I got a call that the lawn care service had found his wallet and everything looked to be in place. I called Dustin and he went to pick it up from them. The debit card was missing, but I think we got it cancelled before they even used it cause there have been no transactions made. The sunglasses are still gone, but luckily no one was hurt and they apparently was just looking for some quick cash, which they didn't get from us cause we seem to never have cash.

So hopefully I can remember to keep my doors locked from all the crazies out there and Dustin needs to start keeping his wallet in his pocket from now own. Lesson hopefully learned on both our parts. Hope you all have had a better Monday than mine, although mine did get brighter when they said they found the wallet. So thankful the Lord still hears our prayers. Have a great rest of the day!

Wow!!!!!! Has it really been that long....

.....since I have posted anything. Life has just been so busy with everything lately that I can't find the time to blog. I've still been keeping up with everyone else's but just not my own. Things are really busy around our house these days, but it keeps us going. We've had many birthday parties to attend and another one this Friday night. Church, church and more church, we have really been trying to visit a lot more and it has paid off. Singings are about to get rolling again next week. Come October I think I have a shower to attend every week if not two a week. Mostly for Kylee including one at my house, so that means I have to work on getting it decorated for the fall and clean, clean and clean some more. :)

I love the fall time, the weather, the colors it's just the perfect time of year.

The kids are doing well. Konnor of course doesn't like school, but he's doing ok with it. He still loves riding the four wheeler and wants to run fire calls as if he were an EMT. A few weeks ago there was a wreck right up from the house and he had Dustin's fire pager (Dustin was in the bed with a headache I think) and he came running in the house wanting me to take him down there like he could do something for them. Of course I told him no and he was not happy, so he took off on the four wheeler and in just a minute Dustin got up and went down there and Konnor came back to find his dad gone, well that was all she wrote, he was so upset so I finally just drove him down there. He really thinks he's a fireman and do whatever his dad and Mitch do. He loves it so much that who knows one day he may grow up to be a real fireman. He likes to play and listen to music on his ipod. He doesn't like for Kensley to come up in his room and mess with his stuff it just tears his nerves up. Konnor used to not like being outside a lot, but that has since changed, he loves to have something to do and be outside until we force him to come in and do homework. He still loves to play the drums and got to play a song at the Friends singing in Big Cove the other night. He's growing up so fast, I can hardly believe he will be 10 on his next b-day.

Kensley is doing really well. She loves school. She has the new teacher this year and I was really worried cause she does have special needs and I was afraid she wouldn't know what to do. Well her wonderful teacher from last year briefed her on everything and Kensley loves the new teacher. She is doing well in school. She has accomplished learning going up and down the stairs by herself even without rails (this is how she learned to go in Konnor's room). She can walk, run, jump, hop, skip and anything pretty much she wants to do. She is still crazy about a little boy in her class, and if you are with her any amount of time she will tell you all about him. The girl loves to shop and gets so excited when I bring something home from Justice. I took my yard sale money I made last weekend and bought her some fall clothes and when I came in last night and showed them to her you would have thought I had just given her a million dollars. It doesn't take much to excite her. She loves the little things in life and I'm thankful for that. She loves playing church and knows more than I ever thought. Just last night she asked me did I know why she wanted to go to Heaven and she said it was because everything there is pretty and if you go down to the devil there isn't anything pretty it's just fire. Our kids pay attention more than we realize. She even made a comment about Bro. David. She remembers so much, I just hope it will stay with her over the years. She still likes Justin Beiber, she loves to sing and play with her baby dolls. She is growing up way to fast, but still mommy's little girl. She still loves for me to hold and cuddle her, but Konnor on the other hand well your lucky to get a good night kiss out of him. :)

Dustin is on the mend. He has been down in his back now since Sunday. He finally went back to work today, but he is still not 100%. We are looking for the Lord to finish the job. He's still same old Dustin. He has lot on his plate right now so I just want to be there for him and help him in anyway I can.

I'm still working everyday and it's been busier than ever lately, but that's the way I like it. I'm just trying to plan for showers coming up and getting my house presentable. I had a yard sale last weekend and did really well, I almost feel like I could clean out some more and have another one though. I'm ready for fall and cooler weather, not winter just fall.

Well I guess that's it for now. Hopefully I can do better with keeping up with this blog from now on.

Beach trip 2011!!!!!!!!

I'm going to try and break this down in to different post so that it's not so overwhelming when trying to read. So be sure to look at all of them. We had a great time. We arrived on Saturday and the check out day was Wednesday, but me and Dustin had already talked about staying a little longer or maybe going somewhere else. We were just gonna see what happened. Our trip consisted mostly of going to the beach and eating. Seemed like every time you turned around someone was asking what was going to eat. But that's what we were there for to enjoy the food and beach. :)

You'll read about Sunday and Monday in a different post. But Tuesday me and Dustin took all the kids to the beach, Jeremy and Melia had some errands to run. They brought us lunch back and I don't think we went back to the beach, I think we all just chilled and then got ready and headed over to the Oyster House, which was my least favorite of all, but that's ok Dustin really enjoyed it. Of course there was another t-shirt purchase that Konnor just thought he had to have and a small purchase for Kensley so she didn't feel left out. Then it was back to the room to get dressed for beach pictures. I will post them separately. We stopped and got some cookies to bake and me, Dustin and Konnor took a night stroll on the beach. It was really nice. Here are a couple of pics from that night. They aren't the greatest because they were taken with Dustin's phone.





We did some shopping on Wednesday because it was raining. We ran in to a few people we knew and talked a little and then headed over to Lambert's to eat. We had to wait awhile, but it was well worth it. It was probably our favorite meal. Then we headed back over to the outlets to finish up our shopping, where we then saw Stephanie and Stewart. We chatted for a little bit and parted. We headed back to the condo where we got ready and went back out to the beach. Oh and I forgot to mention that Jeremy and Melia headed home today and she called to see if we could have the condo for the rest of the week and the lady gave us two nights free, we were so excited. We talked them in to letting her kids stay so that our kids would have someone to play with. That night Dustin just went and grabbed us something to eat and brought it back to the condo.

Thursday the kids were wanting to go somewhere and do something so we took them to ride go carts. I don't have any pics because I was too lazy to carry my camera in. But while the boys were waiting to ride the Wild Woody, it started pouring rain, so we left and went back to Lulu's to eat and then back to let them ride. Back to the beach that afternoon and then to King Neptune's to eat supper. We had to wait forever to be seated, but I think Dustin will say that it was worth it. He had a pound of crab legs and all sorts of sides. We had been there for about 2 1/2 hours and the girls just couldn't take anymore, they laid their heads down and went to sleep.

Friday was pack-up day and head back to Huntsville. I got up early and starting cleaning up and packing things up. We headed on over to Cracker Barrell for breakfast and headed out. We probably weren't on the road 30 min and Kensley already had to make a pit stop. Once we finally got going, we were making pretty good time. We stopped in B'ham to eat some lunch and got back home around 3. Now it's back to the real world of working, cleaning and going to and fro. Have a good weekend!

Random pics from the beach!

Here are just a bunch of random pics from our trip. Hope you enjoy!

This is Kensley most of the trip, she just wanted to sit and soak up the sun.

And this was Konnor most of the time, letting the waves knock him down, which consisted of the getting shells and sand all in his shorts.

The kids trying to do handstands in the ocean.

Kensley and her dad riding the waves.

Konnor is in the wave, you can barely see him.

This was the view from our house.

Family pictures on the beach.

Tuesday evening we rode down and made some beach pictures. I think they turned out good. These are just in random order. Let me know what you think.

Pics from 4th of July...

This is the day we were probably at the beach the longest and we got lots of sun, but all worth it in the end. :) We let Kamron talk us in to going to Jake's steakhouse for supper that night and well let's just say we didn't let Kamron make any of the food decisions anymore. We came back to the condo to watch the fireworks from our balcony. We had a great view and best of all we didn't have to fight all that traffic. Here are a few from the night.

The boys sporting their new sunglasses they just had to have.