Congrats Grimms!

Just wanted to shout out to Lee and Meredith Grimm - congrats on your new baby boy! Lee III was born on Wednesday at 6:30 - ish PM and weighed a whopping 10 pounds 6 ounces and was 22 1/2 inches long! Who would have ever thought Mere had that big of a baby in her tummy! She didn't look it at all!

I got to visit baby Grimm yesterday in the hospital and it was so much fun. He was doing really good - already eating and sleeping well. Meredith and Lee have a beautiful baby boy - Congrats Grimm Family! Here is a sneak peak...

Waiting on Le-A

William and Marlee are the most pregnant couple in our small group. Marlee is either going to welcome baby girl into the world this week or next Wednesday at the latest. Last night our small group got together for dinner and a small baby shower to honor the Terry's. For some reason Marlee wanted William to open all the gifts...we soon found out why...he was hilarious! William had great reactions to all the gifts and enjoyed trying to figure out what they all were. The pictures say it all....

Oh and by the way, Le-A is not the name...I'll let your imagination go to work!

Two more boys...

Congratulations to D'Arcy, Wes, Christian, and Caroline (my cousin's fam) - they will be welcoming twin BOYS into thier already adorable family this summer! Hopefully the boys will stay in the oven until the end of May - thanks in advance for prayers over D'Arcy's third pregnancy. They found out on Friday and Christian and Caroline got to announce to the family that they were BOTH going to have new brothers. I can't wait to meet my new nephews (Wes is more like a brother to me, so I consider his kids my neice/nephews)! Love you guys!

D'Arcy getting Christian's help with Levi

The new big brother and sister!

D'Arcy talking to Caroline...sorry Wes, you must not have been playing on Christmas - no pics of you! :)

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.