about last night when something scary happened

We have just completed week one of Foster starting to walk and last night was a doozie!  Let me start by saying thank the Lord that I was warned, by our friends and Foster's dentist, that he could fall and break his frenulum on the inside of his upper lip. 

Day 6 of walking and Foster tripped over his jack-in-the-box and fell.  OH. MY. GOSH, blood was coming out in globs and as I was holding paper towels on it, I started to feel weak and then I looked like Powder.    

I know, Mom of the Year, right?  

  I looked something like this, but not as cute.  I had blood all over my shirt.

I had to hand him over to Wood and I went to call Rayne and James.  I sent some crazy text that said, "Blood Blood!!  What do I do??"  

It finally stopped bleeding, but then started back up while he was sleeping.  That's not a pretty sight to see in a crib, but thankfully this morning all is well.  We went by to see Dr. James this morning and everything is fine.  Sometimes they might need to do something for this, but thankfully not this time.

Practicing opening his mouth for the dentist.

He really got into showing of his teeth for me in the car!  He has been in a silly mood today.

He did fine and even got a sticker and a balloon!  He liked the dentist this time and I'm so glad they are here!

I couldn't help but think how scary it would have been if I didn't know that this could happen and then hours later while he slept seeing it bleed like stink again.  So just in case this ever happens to any of y'alls kiddos, try not to get queazy like I did-  it is going to be just fine!

Thanksgiving and a time for Joy

This Thanksgiving we headed down to Foley, AL. to spend time with my Dad's side of the family. 

 Last year, Foster was just 7 weeks old at Thanksgiving and it was the first time my family from Texas and Paw Paw got to meet him.  He is much bigger this year!

Week one of walking was a whirlwind!  He has had several bumps and bruises, but he is loving it!  I on the other hand, have been a nervous wreck!

We took Foster to the beach to play in the sand and he didn't know what to think of it all.  It was so fun to watch him experience it for the first time and get to play.

I'm so thankful for this little boy, my husband, my family, my friends, my health and Jesus who gave it all.

It was funny to me that he had snowmen on his outfit while he was playing on the beach.  

The weather was so beautiful the whole weekend!

During this holiday season, I've been thinking and praying a lot about what it means to have an attitude of thanksgiving.  I want it to be more to me than a holiday I celebrate one day a year, but a continual attitude of thanksgiving.   As Ann Voskamp says, "thanksliving."

Thankfulness is an attitude.  It is a practice of letting the holy spirit rule and reign in my heart.  It is me becoming less and God becoming more.  It is being open to Him in everything.

I would always say that I was a thankful person and I was very aware of all the blessings in my life.  But now that we are in this particular season, I can see these bits of ugliness pop up in my attitude.  Things have been tough, but that is only an opportunity for me to let Christ live through me and not for me to walk out the flesh.  

I thank God for his love and graciousness to me. I am thankful that the holy spirit is here to convict me when I'm not in God's will.  

Y'all, isn't that awesome that we can always be getting better and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus!?  

Walking in the Spirit is sometimes uneasy but always good.  When I'm more generous, then I don't notice myself anymore; I do experience Joy in this Journey.  

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. -Psalms 16:11

I hope your Thanksgiving day was wonderful.  We all have so much to be thankful for.

Have a great week!

Look Who's Walking Now!

Y'all my baby is walking!  

He just started taking a few steps this past weekend and today he is just full out walking with the occasional crawl in there for some rest.  He loves it when we clap and cheer for him as he  is walking!  After he takes a few steps he looks around and starts clapping and saying "Yay!"  It is the sweetest things and I am just so proud of him!  

Check out this video of my little man strutting his stuff....

 

I hope y'all are having a wonderful Tuesday with your family!

Jam Session

The other night Wood and I were going out and Uncle Luke volunteered to babysit for us.  I'm sure it was an easy decision since Foster was going to bed within 20 minutes of us leaving.

Luke is the musical mind in our family and Foster absolutely loves to sit and watch Luke play the guitar.  It is the sweetest thing to watch!  Foster is in awe when music is being played.  

One thing I don't want to forget is from last week when Luke was playing the guitar and Foster was sitting at his feet doing the bounce. You know that cute little baby dance?  Foster quickly turned around and crawled out into the hallway.  We wondered where he was going and within seconds, Foster was back in the room pushing his xylophone!  It was so precious to watch him want to enter in to playing music too!

I hope he always has a love for music and actually has some musical talent, because his Daddy and I don't:)

Background music courtesy of Toddler Tunes.

the weekend

I took some teens on our first youth trip this weekend.  We headed out in the church bus to a small town in the middle-of-nowhere, Alabama. Good times.... 

I've heard great things about the Ramp and was excited to go.

Without any update, they decided to change things up from what they normally do.  Boo.  We weren't expecting that, but it was good to get to hang out with these guys and get to know each other better.  However, any opportunity to get to love on Jesus and worship Him is amazing!

On the way there we stopped at Starbucks and it was buy one get one free.  I didn't need two, but hey why not?  I'm a sucker for a deal.

Coffee is my favorite:)

I love these two cuties!  

They are so sweet and all of us twenty-somethings think they are pretty cool. 

 

Cute girls at lunch!

I made them all get up early and just get in the van so we could get home.  They weren't thrilled that I asked them to pose for a photo in their pj's. ha!

When I got home the first thing I wanted to do was kiss my hubby and love on my baby.  They are awesome and I miss them like crazy when I'm not with them.  Our friend Tommy has to do some auditing in town first thing Monday morning so he came over to hang out.  It's always great to see him!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

And P.S. ROLL TIDE!!  Happy Iron Bowl week too....  The SEC is awesome!

xoxo!

wordless wednesday

In typical fashion, I'm not exactly a girl of few words.

Sometimes when I see a friend crying, it makes me cry too.  That must be 

the case for babies as well.

I can't help but laugh when I look at this picture!  These little boys are a hoot!  

Do you like that expression?  Well, there is plenty more where that came from...

Happy Wednesday!

xo, Kristen

Let's Ride

Hey friends!  I missed y'all while I was gone!  No, I didn't go somewhere fun.  Life just got busy and I kinda got in a funk while being pulled in a hundred different directions, but it wasn't anything a bag of chips and dip couldn't help while I watched HGTV.  That is totally out of character for me, but I'm better now.  Not the HGTV watching- the chip eating.  

Anyhoo, thankfully God's mercies are new every morning!  I just love how God's faithfulness and His love for us just makes me want to love Him more every day AND stop being a grouch when I feel stressed.

Once again, I digress... 

Do you remember here when I said I wanted to buy a bike?  Well, I did it.  I bought it off this lady on the side of the road. It was totally random.  I was driving to run some errands one day and I saw her there, having a yard sale.  I stopped, checked it out, and bought it.  Then the errands continued.

There was talk around town that I must have been in a fender bender, because people saw me on the side of the road.  Oh, the joys of small town living...

It's a red Raleigh cruiser-  kinda like this one:

Now I'm just waiting to get this seat in the mail and this Nutcase Little Nutty helmet for Foster.

Do you have a bike?  Have you ever gone riding with a small child?

Curious George 1st Birthday {Part 3}

Okay y'all, this is the last of the party pics!  I hope you had fun looking at them!

  You can see the other two birthday posts here and here.  

Foster and his cousins.  

Is it just me or does the Curious George on Foster's outfit look just like him?!

I'm so glad we got the bounce house, or as I call it, "jump jump" for the bigger kids.  It was a lot of fun for them and kept them entertained between face painting, a baseball game and eating loads of cupcakes!

There was also a ribbon dancer;)

Foster absolutely loves Roxanne. She was another awesome helper to me the morning of the party! 

"Um, what is this thing?"  

I didn't give Foster any sugar until his first birthday and haven't since then either, so he really was thinking what in the world is this!

These pictures speak for themselves....

He loves cake!!

Sharing the goodness before I took the cake from him and prayed that he wasn't sick all night.  Thankfully he wasn't!

This is Wiley, my friend Angie's little boy.  He is so stinkin' cute!  He was mixing all the drinks together and tasting his concoctions.  Boys are so funny!

Oh my goodness!  The cuteness in this picture makes me almost die.  Can you picture these boys in their teens.  Ok, never mind, let's not do that.  Let's just look at how cute they look right now!

Foster received some awesome presents from all of his friends. He is loving all all of his new trucks!

And we will end the birthday posts with my two incredibly handsome guys.  Everything turned out to be so much fun and we loved being with friends and family as we celebrated this important milestone!

Happy Birthday, Foster!  We love you so much!

Photography Kelli Alfreds Images