christmas cheer

well christmas has arrived at the whitt house! actually, we've had our tree up for a week now! nate got put the tree up last friday, and i helped decorate it! there are still a few boxes to be sorted through (maybe i'll get to those tonite!) but for the most part, our decorations are all up. and the boys are loving christmas! trace loves the tree and all the ornaments! and lucas, well he really isn't too into it. which i'm very grateful for! i thought he would be ripping ornaments off the tree left and right. but so far, he's been content to look from afar! this is one of my new fav ornaments. just b/c it's got all our names on it! we will always remember our first christmas with both the boys!

this is our tree. i feel like it is the tree with probably the most ornaments EVER! our living room is fairly small, so our tree takes up a lot of the room. we will one day have a bigger and better tree, i hope! when we have more space to put one! back in 2003, we had an ornament shower the december before we got married... so that when our first christmas rolled around in 2004, we weren't stuck with a bare tree! i LOVE all of our ornaments. there are even old ones from when nate and i were little on our tree. and now, we have ones on there with photos of the boys, and also homemade ones from trace! i love the memories, new and old! almost every ornament that i put on the tree, i remember exactly when/where we got it!

ya'll know i'm a sucker for matching clothes, especially matching PJ'S!!!! don't you love these cute pj's from children's place? well i love the pj's, but i love the cute kids wearing them even more!!! shannon and i were attempting a photo shoot. we had taken a few cute pics, but none with all 4 kids smiling and looking at the camera. then nate walked in and... wah-lah, the kids smiled! yeah! i am so happy with the way this one turned out. kenley and mason, my other niece and nephew, also have the matching pj's. so look for a pic of all 6 kiddos soon. if nate can make them all look and smile, he will be my hero! :) lol.

my photo shoot with the boys went great. i love all the pics! i love when trace smiles and his little snaggle tooth shows! that is a genuine smile of pure happiness if i've ever seen one!!

one of his fav ornaments... the basketball! i love it too, but it weighs a TON and i'm so scared it's gonna fall and break!

this one makes me wanna sing "do you hear what i hear!?!"

my sweet laughing trace car. what a blessing you are.

of course, it's this little man's first christmas! i'd say he's pretty excited!

such a poser! oh yeah, don't you LOVE their matching christmas shirts? i ordered them online, which i'm usually leery of. but they came in the mail and they are PERFECT! love love love em!

i just think lucas has the cutest expression in this pic! he was waving bye bye. but it kinda looks like he was blowing kisses! also a sweet sweet blessing!

he's checking out all the bright lights *sparkles as trace calls them!*

ho ho ho!!!

this weekend starts our christmas festivites. we have our sunday school christmas party on saturday nite. we are gonna play dirty santa. with 25-30, it should be a lot of fun!

what are your plans this weekend? oh yeah, it *might* snow a little tomorrow morning. i would LOVE to see some, even it's just a few snowflakes! it snowed on trace's very first birthday, which was so neat. but he's too young to remember it. here's hoping it snows again this year :) i mean, come one, who doesn't like snow???

giving thanks

first of all... these pics are all out of order. and it's getting on my nerves. BAD. i want to start over. but i don't have time... so bear with me! these are all pics from our thanksgiving weekend! we had a great time. thursday we went to warrior to have lunch with my granny and all of my dad's family. it was great seeing everyone! and the food was so yummy! then we drove up to huntsville to nate's grandparents house. we don't see them very often, so it was great to see everyone there too! i didn't pull the camera out til the end of the day, so there aren't a ton of pictures. we also had a great time with family in hunstville... and again, we ate way too much food! i am so thankful for the blessings that god pours out on me... and family is definitely at the top of that list!! so here's our day... in pictures!

nate and lucas hanging out

lucas watching trace try to play the gameboy at mamaw and pawpaw's house
the 3 cute baby boy cousins... from left to right: isaac- 4 1/2 mo, mason 9 mo, and lucas 10 mo.
my baby is the oldest, but the smallest. only 18 pounds, compared to his younger cousins, who both weigh 22 pounds. that's a LOT of CRAZY CHUNKY LOVIN'!
i love this action shot of trace and caden being so silly

lucas thought he was SO big standing at the door with lala and kenley

these were at the house, trace was hiding from the camera!

lucas just being silly and chewing on his bubba's blanket! what is with my boys and blankets?

he LOVES his bubba!

here's a few collages of the boys... they have matching shirts (shocker i know!) that say "big trouble in a little shirt!" i love them!lucas all dressed up for his first thanksgiving! love his little brown and creme stripes from old navy, of course!

little BLUE EYED man ready to eat!!! he LOVED thanksgiving... he had all sorts of yummy table food. a few of his favs were sweet potato casserole, corn, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, and dressing! i thought he was gonna get sick from eating so much! trace on the other hand... had nothing but SUGAR all day! wow... glad that holiday only comes once a year :)

my crazy boys... trace loves his indian headband that he made in his puggles/awana class at church. he tried to share with lucas but lucas HATES things on his head, so he promptly ripped it off!

we had an awesome thanksgiving with family. then we had 3 days of resting at the house, which i LOVE! i hate that we missed out on nashville with the rest of nate's family, but sometimes you just gotta stay home when you get the chance! god has been so good to my family, this past year especially with lucas being born. we are so blessed, and we give him all the glory for the blessings he has given us! we are blessed beyond belief for sure!

thankful

i am so thankful for all that god has given me and my family. it goes without saying too many times, but i am so thankful for my wonderful husband. is he perfect? nope. but ya know what, none of us are! and i think he is perfect for me! he is a great husband, the leader of our home. he helps me clean and cook, which means so much to me! he takes care of the boys when i'm away. he takes them to dr appts when i can't get off work. and he is just an awesome daddy to trace and lucas! he loves them like crazy, plays with them, takes care of them, is daily present in their lives. a great role model for them to look up to! and of course i am sooo thankful for my sweet sweet boys. they are such a blessing. we always knew we wanted to have kids, but nothing could have prepared us for how much we would love them! i often realize that i love them so much, it hurts! when they are in pain, or sick, or just crying b/c they got their feelings hurt, it hurts me. when they are happy, i am happy! the lord has taught me a lot about his love for us, his children, in the 2 1/2 years that i've been a mom. i know i will never comprehend how much our heavenly father truly loves us, but man, it's more than i love my boys, which is saying A LOT!

i am so thankful for the lord, who is my savior! he has given me so much more than i deserve, including my salvation! his love is amazing, it overwhelms me. he really spoke to me this weekend while i was serving at a girls youth weekend. it never fails, i go to minister to a group of kids, and they end up ministering to me! god is cool like that, ya know! he seriously is in love with me. crazy hard to believe. in all my sin, my shame, my selfish pride, he loves me! THANK YOU JESUS FOR YOUR LOVE! of course you've all heard the song "oh how he loves"... and it is one of my favs right now! not sure where this post was going, other than i am thankful for my family. and for my savior. and all the blessings he has given me that i truly don't deserve!!

"GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!" Psalm 118:1

hope everyone has a safe and happy thanksgiving! don't eat too much turkey :) i think i already have, and it's not even officially thanksgiving day yet! ha.

doubles

a lot of people tell me that the boys looks so much alike. sometimes i see it, sometimes i don't. so i found a few pics of trace back when he was 9 months, and i wanted to compare them to lucas. wow. on this first set, i kind of feel like i'm seeing doubles!

(the first pic is lucas, the second one is trace.)

i can definitely see the similarities here..... but also a few differences. although you can't see lucas' teeth, he has 7 teeth, and they are the exact 7 that trace had. crazy huh? and i'm sure you notice that trace had a whole lot more hair at 9 months than lucas did. but we are giving lucas rogaine so his should be coming in soon.

ok, so i was kidding about the rogaine! :) or however you spell it.

ups and downs

poor lucas is sick again. i took him to the dr friday afternoon, and whatdoyaknow, he has another ear infection! we skipped his official 9 month well visit... funny how we ended up there for a 9 month visit afterall. we went ahead and got the good meds right out of the gate, so hopefully lucas will be well after only 1 round of it this time! oh yeah, i'm not sure how long lucas is, but he weighs 18 pounds and 9 ounces. i'm sure ya'll are thinking that he's huge, but really, he's not! he is long and skinny!! my nephew mason, who is only 8 months, was also at the dr this weekend (double ear infection for that poor baby!) and he weighs 22 pounds 3 ounces. remember mason, who was very sick and in the nicu for 2 weeks when he was born? yeah, he's made a huge comeback! see, i told you lucas is scrawny! :)
anyways... nate was out of town all weekend serving at a boys youth weekend, so i was home alone with my babies. we had our ups and downs... even though lucas was a lil whiny, and trace was testing my patience A LOT, we had a good weekend! i do hate that lucas was sick though. so we were VERY excited to see nate when he came home last nite! it really makes me realize how blessed i am. i could not handle being a single mom for very long. nate does so much around the house and for me and the boys, and i know now that i take a lot of it for granted, or complain that he doesn't do enough. sorry about that nate! you are awesome AND i love you!! thanks for all you do!
ok...... so here was probably the best UP of the weekend... it's a video of my little man. it's from my phone, so i know it's a little blurry. but hopefully you can still HEAR what he's saying, b/c that's the most important part! he is getting so big. notice i am on the couch, with a tv tray in front of me. he pulled himself up to the couch, then almost pulled the tv tray down on top of him! anyways. listen close and you'll see why this made mama SO happy this weekend!!

so in case you didn't catch that, maybe you could read his lips and tell he was saying MA-MA!!!

sips-n-strokes... minus the sips!

so i've been wanting to go to sips-n-strokes for a while now... but i cherish my nights at home with the fam! well a few of us planned to go for my bday. we almost didn't get to go at all, but in the end, christa and i went. and it was fun!! i loved my first experience and will def go again. (for those of you who aren't familiar with it... it's a place where you can BYOBeverage of choice, and for about $25, paint a super cute pic. the instructor teaches the class step by step, and at the end of the night you get to take your painting home!) i love the cross i painted... it is now hanging on my wall at my office, since the bright pink doesn't exactly match the decor of our home :o) and just in case you wondered... nope, i didn't sip a thing. shocking right? i wanted to stop and get at least a diet mtn dew or something, but we were lucky just to make it there in time! maybe the painting would have been better had i had something, ANYTHING, to sip on. but oh well. lol. i now love my cross. at first i wasn't thrilled with my finished product, but i think it's b/c i was comparing it to the 50+ others in the room. once i got home and nate told me how good i did, i was proud! and this morning trace said my spotted painting was so pretty! of course i love praises from my 2 year old! i can't help but think of this as it relates to our spiritual walk... how we start as a blank canvas with god as our instructor. i hope i make him proud as i paint my picture in life by the way i live it out daily!

thankful tuesday

i know that thanksgiving is in 2 weeks. but why wait until then to be thankful?? i am so thankful for so many things each and every day. too many times i take things for granted, and in fact, i'm sure i complain a lot and don't sound very thankful. but i am so blessed and i thank the lord for everything he has given me! just a few things i am thankful for today:

#1- this one is a little long... so THANKFUL to god for the miraculous turn of events with baby stellan yesterday. if you don't know who stellan is, check out http://www.mckmama.com/. i've followed his mom's blog for a while now. basically, he developed svt (a heart condition where your heart beats super fast) in the womb and the drs told his parents he would never live. well he just turned a year old at the end of october! he has battled svt his whole life, but a few days ago things got very serious. he was very unstable yesterday morning, and actually flatlined before his heart ablation surgery. but the lord heard our prayers and was with the drs and surgery was SUCCESSFUL! he is SVT FREE!! i just want to shout it from the rooftops how awesome our god is! however, stellan is still dealing with a few major issues from surgery... one being a blood clot in his leg. another being a fever from an infection in his lungs. please pray for these things spefically. we know god has GREAT plans for this little man! but again, we are so THANKFUL for the healing that has happened!

#2- THANKFUL for my awesome godly husband. he is so good to me. he is supportive and loving. he is a great daddy to our boys. i am so thankful for nate. i love you and thank god for you! i know you will be serving others this weekend at vn, but we will miss you at home!

#3- THANKFUL for our 2 sweet boys. although we all have colds right now, we are very healthy. and we have insurance to go to the dr if we need to. and money to buy medicine. that is so much more than what some people have! sorry, those were other things i am THANKFUL for. but i sure do love trace and lucas. they bring a smile to my face no matter what!

#4- THANKFUL for my job. although i don't always love it, and sometimes i go crazy working with a bunch of salesmen, i am thankful for it. so very thankful that nate and i both have good jobs during this hard economic time.

#5- THANKFUL for the rest of our family. our parents, bros/sis. and nieces and nephews. and grandparents. we are so blessed! we wouldn't be where we are today without them.

#6- THANKFUL for my church. argo christian fellowship is our home. most of our family attends there, but even those who aren't really related are like family to us. god is blessing us each day and i am excited to see what he is going to do in the future!

#7- last but not least... actually it should probably go before stellan, obviously i'm THANKFUL for GOD and my salvation through his awesome grace and mercy. his love is more than i can comprehend. the ways he has blessed my life just blow me away!

THANK YOU LORD for loving a stinkin' sinner like me!

today i challenge you to take the time to make a list of what you are thankful for.