8 Days until Christmas

I am so excited to be celebrating Christmas with my family. It has been a wonderful year. Tanner celebrated his first birthday last month and it was so fun having all the family here together and rejoicing in Tanner's first year of life. Billy and I are so proud to be parents and each day we just try to do the best we can by allowing God to lead us and putting him first in our lives. Jesus is our strength. We also celebrated our third wedding anniversary in October and look forward to many more years. We head out tomorrow to see Billy's sister Elaine and our neice Rachel-Kate! We have a long ride ahead of us and look forward to making memories. We have the cameras charged and bags packed. We know there will be challenges along the way but that is all part of it. I am so grateful for all God has given US!

I love fall!!

o.k. so it is about to be my favorite time of the year. Hopefully soon we will have
cooler weather. College football starts in a couple days. Go Noles! We are having a huge garage sale in October which my mom is going to help with. I love decorating and putting up all the fall stuff. I love pumpkin lattes, it getting dark earlier, and Halloween. It is going to be so fun this year to take Tanner trick or treating. We are so excited to be a family and enjoying the gifts God has given us.

Tanner at 9 months!

We have been loving the honeymoon phase of parenthood. You know, when baby sleeps from 7pm-7am, is happy to meet everyone, eats, sleeps, laughs...

Well, we are coming to the other side of that...He is getting mo-bile, and screaming as he scoots!! What a trip. Here are some recent pics. Keep us in your prayers. Tanner has a follow up to see how his left kidney is doing on Wednesday.

God Bless

Convoy of Hope

Quiet time

Well it is 10:00 p.m. and I am usually in bed at this time but I am enjoying some me time while Tanner is asleep and Billy is watching baseball. I am just reflecting on the last few years and wondering where time went. I can look back at my life and see God in the details of everything. I mean who would have guessed I would end up in Ocala Fl with a family. For those of you who don't know Billy and I both are in recovery. Both of us are clean now and I am actually clean for 6 years on Friday and Billy has been clean for 5 and a half. What a miracle. I remember a time when I didn't think i would be able to stay clean for 6 minutes. I am so thankful that Jesus had bigger plans for me. I love where my life is and so peaceful and just so happy to be in the moment. I love having a family and always have been family oriented. I remember when we were little we were always going bike riding and my dad would take us to the park. We hung out at the ball field a lot as all four of my brothers and my sister all played sports. We were always outside and so active. I can not wait to do things like that as a family. I can not wait to go bike riding with Tanner. I love exercising these days and could not feel better. I run three or four times a week and LOVE it. Whatever it is that Tanner wants to do we will encourage him. I know God brought us through what we went through to be better parents to Tanner. I will be keen to any games when he becomes a teenager. Cause I played them all. Ha Ha Well I know that with God's strength we can get through it. I stay pretty busy these days. I pray for wisdom and need all the encouragement and love we can get. God I pray for you to put people in Tanner's life that will lead him in the right direction and pray for us a family unit and be grateful for what we do have. No room for the negative here. If I have learned anything it is to be grateful. I hope we all can be grateful in every situation. WE ALL HAVE SO MUCH TO BE GRATEFUL FOR!! Let us thank God daily for this day. Not complaining about what we aren't getting!! Help us Lord to keep our eyes fixed on you.

Tanner loves water

Tanner and I at home in his kiddie pool. This kid loves the water and we had such a good time just slpashing around. He really is growing and we are enjoying him so much. Fun weekend ahead! Alson is coming!

TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY

So I put up several pictures of our family and our summer with them so far. We are so blessed and I praise God for all our family. Tanner is getting such a personality and he looks a lot like his daddy. i see alot of both our blood lines. It is funny how God answers even our small prayers. I prayed for a little blued eyed boy before I even got pregnant and that is exactly what I got. Tanner and Billy both have gorgeous blue eyes. My two babies. Well Tanner and I have a nice routine. We go to the gym every morning except Sunday unless we have an appt. or something. Thank the Lord for my work out partner Suzanne. She has been a great friend and work out partner. I love exercising and feel it makes me a better mommy. I ran a 5k(3.12 miles) without stopping. I'd love to do a half marathon soon. Tanner is going to keep me running for the next several years so I'd better be able to keep up. Ha HaI look forward to all the years ahead. My husband is such an inspiration to me. Billy really sticks to his committments and he and I are growing in our walk with Christ. I have MANY areas that I am working on and will be until I die. I continue to ask God to help me with my patience and tolerance. I need to be kind and love. Help me to love like you Jesus. Thanks to all our family and the continued love and support you give us.