The Wonders of HIS Love...

Merry Christmas everyone! I am blown away by the goodness of the Lord and how evident that has been in 2008. What a wonderful year in our family...despite the loss of my dear grandfather, we have had so many joys. We dearly miss Gang Gang, espeically in this Christmas season that he always loved, however we know he is rejoicing today and praising the Lord - what a joy to think of! In 2008 the Lord graciously allowed Jesse and Levi to come home from the hospital to be with Brian and Rochelle. What a day of rejoicing that was - and continues to be as they grow and develop according to His will.

I got to go to Nashville for a very brief stint this week and returned this morning to start working on a Christmas meal for Matt and some other residents who are coming over tonight. Matt had to work all last night and got off today around 1 - so he's sleeping before our friends come over! I do have to brag on my husband...he has worked so hard in the past six months and had to work on his favorite holiday today - but of course he maintains a great attitude. I'm so thankful for him! Also...he surprised me with this....

all i have to say is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Here are some pics of Jesse and Levi, the fam from yesterday and a couple w/ the new camera. Merry Christmas everyone!

I just want to eat them up!

Christian and Caroline in thier new hats!

Matt got a Garmin! Now he won't get lost going to the hospital...haha

Elle loves her new dog toy but wasn't so excited about my new flash!

Redneck Dirty Santa!

So - I'm officially not a great blogger...its been almost a month since the last time I wrote, so I'll try to get better. Since Thanksgiving we've been really busy. Matt had his first week of vacation (finally) the week after Thanksgiving so we treated ourselves to a "stay-cation" in Birmingham - we spent most of the week Christmas shopping and decorating our house for Christmas. Matt enjoys this much more than I do, but it was nice this year to take our time and not be rushed...it really did make me enjoy it more. Those pics are at home so they'll have to come on another post.

Last night we kicked our Christmas week off with a great start...we had a combined Christmas party with our small group from church and another group that we didn't know so well...until the games began! The food was amazing, and thanks to the Smith's my ipod was updated with some great Christmas music...and just for Mere the dog/horse was out of the house for the night!

Meredith had a great idea the week before to wrap up something from your house and bring it for dirty santa, this way no one has to spend money and you get rid of something in your house you don't need/want anymore - hence the "redneck dirty santa".
Here are a few pictures of what was unwrapped...

Jared was pumped b/c he now his apron matches his wife's!

This was a quite offensive gift for an AL fan - Marlee was a good sport though!

Don't worry Marlee...William is opening a great picture frame that will make up for your Auburn mug!

Jared just chillin' in his new apron...and I think Mere is jealous!

This is Kate picking out her FIRST gift...

She got Pyrex...which all the girls were jealous of but it was stolen...

Kate picking for the SECOND time...we won't show a close up of this one because, well, it might just re-appear at a Spann family Christmas!

Matt stealing from Kate...DIRTY SANTA!

Kate choosing for the THIRD time!

She hid this one so it wouldn't get stolen...but Taylor got it at the very end!

Meredith was so excited about her Santa spreaders...and the stellar wrapping job my husband did in the WS bag!

This is just a great picture of our tree! You can't tell here but you can barely get into our bedroom...oh the joys of being married to Clark Griswold.

Taylor was trying his hardest to get rid of his wire Christmas tree that holds cards...well, is SUPPOSED to hold cards.

Taylor is proudly carrying his Christmas tree and broken candlestick to Kate...he was number 18 so he got to pick at the end...Kate got stolen from one last time!

Thanks to everyone for making small group a blast last night - we had a great time! Merry Christmas everyone!

A Year Later

Happy Birthday to my favorite twins...Jesse and Levi turned one yesterday!

We are so thankful for what the Lord has already done in thier lives - they are alive only because of the Lord's work. He knit them together in Rochelle's womb and has provided every need for them. Thanks to everyone for praying for them over the past year. It has been a year that has grown our faith tremendously and has pointed our eyes to Jesus for everything. Enjoy a few pictures of them from last night...

They are debating on who gets the cake first!

Looks like Levi is getting a head start!

Jesse is hogging the gifts!

Go Saints!

Last weekend (Nov 9th) Matt and I got a special treat. We got to go see the New Orleans Saints play against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta. I’ve been planning on going to the game all fall but didn’t think Matt would be able to join me – fortunately he had the whole day off last Sunday so he got to come!

My friend from high school (well, and life in general) Michelle, married super star Chris Reis of the Georgia Tech jackets and they have been blessed to be in the NFL for two years now. Chris plays specials teams for the Saints and does an awesome job! I was hoping to make it down to NO this year but with weekends filling up the game in Atlanta ended up being the best way to see Chris play this year. Michelle found us some awesome tickets online – we were five rows back on the 40! It was great getting to be so close to the sidelines where Chris was because I sort of felt like we got to “visit” with him as well (even though it was totally one sided!). Chris is number 39 this is my attempt to get a good picture - but my flash didn't work so well...

Unfortunately the Saints didn’t come out on top of the Falcons but what a great experience to visit the Georgia dome and see Chris play live! I usually tape the game and watch everything but special teams in fast fwd so it was really different watching everyone play in normal speed! Here's a pic of me and Michelle - I honestly think we look the exact same as in high school...

Thanks for an awesome Sunday, Michelle and Chris! Hope we can make it to NO in the playoffs or next year! Love you guys! Here's a video of Chris playing - he's number 39...my video worked better than my still shots.

Why Tying Knots...

I thought I might explain the title of our blog due to a few questions on it and just b/c the answer is kinda funny.

Back in June when Matt started his residency his time spent quickly left the Spann house hold and transferred over to the hospital. That left me with extra time on my hands...so, I've been getting involved with a few organizations, a few new friends, and of course spending more QT with my sweet Elle. I met my friend Meredith about a year ago through a very random mutual friend Emily who I met while living in Colorado in college. Her husband is a year ahead of Matt in the same program so they have offered us much needed advice and friendship! Meredith was very sweet to teach me how to crochet...yes, I said crochet...as in what 80 year olds do.

Meredith has been making these beautiful baby blankets and I wanted to learn. The day she taught me was hilarious - I was so tense trying to hold the yarn and needle right that my toes were cramping! And I was kind of allergic to her cat so I was trying to NOT sneeze and start my first baby blanket at the same time, it was a funny picture. Anyway, after a few months of practice I have actually gotten pretty good and I'm completely addicted. Mere kept telling me that it was relaxing and sort of therapeutic - well, not at first, but now it is for sure.

So, now at night time when I'm home w/ Elle and Matt's working late I'm usually watching TV and crocheting, so that's my part of the "tying knots"...

Matt's part started around mid July when he realized that he really needed to be working on tying his own knots while he was at home so that it would help him at the hospital. He has this weird looking board thing that he uses to practice on. So, at nights he's tying knots to practice and get better in the OR and I'm tying knots next to him making baby blankets for all of my pregnant friends! Its actually a pretty funny picture - if Elle could take a picture of it I would post one, but she hasn't learned that trick just yet.

Surprise for mom!

Well, I posted that b'day shout out to my mom to continue throwing her off...I traveled to surprise her on Sunday night! It was a lot of fun - I drove into Franklin and went straight to Rochelle to help her with the twins and we took off to Em's house to surprise mom. Rochelle couldn't have gone without help, so mom thought the dinner was only going to be she and dad with Em and Jonas, so it was a big surprise to see me walk in the door with Jesse and Rochelle behind me with Levi.

Of course mom loved seeing the twins and enjoying her b'day night with them but I'm sure she was glad to see me a little bit too.

If you don't know, my sister is a FABULOUS cook - she is amazing! She was totally reminding me of Monica on friends with all her cooking endeavors this weekend. Here's the pretty table with the pretty cook...

Em cooked a mustard and wine marinated pork tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, fried zucchini (mom's favorite from Maggiano's) and rolls. She topped it off with a home made apple pie recipe from Southern Living. Everything was amazing and of course cooked to perfection - I'm so jealous of her ability! Jesse and Levi were of course angels - here are some pics of them goofing off on the couch...

Jesse's big foot...

I love how Levi is cracking up in this one, he is such a happy baby!

Had to get a pic of the birthday girl, dad and the joys of her life...

I enjoyed my very quick trip to Nashville, especially to bring a little birthday surprise to my mom. She surprised me on several birthdays with unique gifts or cakes and always made them special, so I am glad it worked out that I could surprise her this year.

Happy Birthdays

So, I feel like a bad wife...I didn't blog about my husband on his birthday. Not that he would know the difference, he is hardly ever on a computer and would never "blog-surf" but I thought it would be something I could write about. Well, October 23rd came and went and of course, no blog post from me, so sorry Matt! His birthday was on Thursday and poor thing had to work from 4 AM until 8 PM - that is a lot of hours on your birthday. He came home to a carrot cake, home made pizza, and a couple of fun birthday gifts.

I got him some sort of HD recorder thing for the TV (not sure what it does but he wanted it) and Elle got him a new golf club. He was excited about both. We had dinner, watched Grey's (I can't believe I'm admitting that) and then just went to bed. He had another early morning on Friday. Here's a picture from LAST YEAR's birthday gifts - this year there are no pictures and no documentation of his b'day because I left my camera at work - again, I feel like a bad wife!

So the title of "birthdays" is plural because I need to throw out a birthday shout out to my mom. Her birthday is tomorrow and unfortunately she's only going to see one of her kids on her actual birthday! I couldn't get up to Nashville this weekend because I was supposed to be housesitting so I told Emily she had to take charge as the baby of the family for mom's birthday celebration. They will have a very yummy meal at Em's house tomorrow night but with Brian being in Mexico (for a visit) and me in Birmingham, mom's birthday might be a little lonely this year. Love you mom - you are such a wonderful mom to us and we don't tell you enough how much you mean to us. I'm so thankful you are my mom and my friend. I'll see you as soon as possible! Happy Birthday from Birmingham!

Babysitting Weekend

So this weekend I had the honor of babysitting two of my friend's baby boys. Friday night Matt was on call so I told Meg I would be able to watch Charles if she and Ty needed to go out or had plans. Turned out they did have plans to go bowling and grab a bite, so I got to keep this cutie...

If you know Meg and Ty - he looks just like his daddy! He does have Meg's coloring though. He was perfect! Charles is really wanting to walk, so for a little bit we watched him "walk" around the living room passing from me to Ty to the coffee table, he will be on his own soon - I can't wait to see it! Charles also went to sleep like a dream! He took his bottle in like 5 minutes and was out like a light. The rest of the night I just hung out with Otis - thier chocolate lab.

On Saturday monring, I told Jenny and Zack I could keep Conner before Miss Sally (Nana) got in town to keep Conner for the day. Jenny and Zack got to go to the Ole' Miss - Alabama game on Saturday so I was happy to be able to keep Conner for a few hours. I have to say - he was SUCH a great baby! We played with all of his toys and he especially loved the bouncey seat thing (not sure what the baby lingo for that thing is yet) and he also enjoyed his choo choo train. Look at this adorable little boy:

I'm so thankful for my time with Conner and Charles this weekend. My friends have the best kids and I can't wait for them to have more.

I'm in full babysit mode (b/c Matt is working so much!) so if anyone needs a sitter let me know!

Weekend O’Fun

This past weekend was extra special b/c Matt didn’t have to work at all! What a treat! It worked well that Emily and Jonas had to be in Birmingham for a wedding shower and for work last week so we had a nice weekend enjoying them back in Birmingham. We realized how much we miss them! They also brought their four month old puppy with them so I had this going on in my living room all weekend:

Friday night we shared a great meal at Cocina Superior then took Em and Jonas over to Brad and Elena’s apt to check out their digs. After that we decided to put our real talents to work and this is what we came up with…

Spann-Nation in full effect…

Elle hates Rock Band so I had to document what she does each time we bring it out…off to her safe haven – the bed! She always blinks at the flash!

Elena has mad skills on drums AND guitar and Brad is unbelievable on guitar. Jonas fared better on the microphone and Em…well…let’s just say this was her best instrument…

Saturday was full of football and relaxation which was much needed. Em and Jonas left Sunday after church then we decided to go play golf and walk w/ our friends, the Smith’s. Meredith and I thought it would be a good idea to walk the golf course Matt and Jared would be playing – little did we know it would be a 7 hour venture to Oneonta, Al. Here are a few pics from our afternoon w/ the Smith’s…

Don't be jealous of my grey leggings...

Sunday was a perfect ending to this weekend – we all had a great afternoon being in God’s beautiful creation and enjoying some play time. Thank you Lord, for a very fun and relaxing weekend!

Entrance to blog world

I joined! After thoroughly enjoying many of my friend's blogs I decided to start my own. I'm not much of a writer but I do like the idea of having a way to remember all that is going on in this phase of life and the next. Matt and I are enjoying the recent life changes that come along with him starting residency. We are very thankful for his placement at UAB and look forward to the next five years in Birmingham.

I'm going to go ahead and admit, I have a very unhealthy obsession with my dog, Elle. I might as well go ahead and get that out of the way because her picture will be frequently added to the blog. She is our three year old Rhodesian Ridgeback that we got our first year of marriage. She is my buddy - a very loving guard dog for me! This is her picture as a baby...

This is a more recent picture of our 105 pound dog!

Like I said, I have an unhealthy obsession and yes, that is her pillow and blanket!

Ok, more to come...