The past year!

I am going to give a quick run down of the past year and then hopefully put some pictures on later. Right after Christmas my dad got real sick. He was in the hospital the last three weeks of January. My brother and I spent the last three days of my dads life right by his side. One of us was always with him. I was holding his hand when he took his last breath and met Jesus. Those days following are a blur. So much was going on. My friends and family really took care of me and I appreciate them more than they will ever know. Mom was so sick during that time with her pneumonia. She could hardly make it through the service. Daddy was burried at the Veterans Memorial Cemetary in Montevallo. It was an awesome service. I have the flag they gave mom in a glass box to one day give to Adam. Anytime we see the sun rays shinning down from the sky Katie tells me that it is Jesus and Grandaddy look down on us. Wow!


Soon after daddy died Shannon moved to Georgia. We are still married but his job took him there. He is STILL there. We see him on most weekends and have taken many trips over to see him. Katie refers to it as daddys house. Makes people wonder :). Our summer was awesome with two trips to the beach. One was a family trip and one was a trip with friends. The first trip was to Panama City. It was a busy trip with Adam, Rachel, and Katie. Luckily no one ended up sick this time. The second trip was with four other families. We went to Navarre and it was beautiful! Nothing to do there but to relax. We made many trips to library programs and lunch with friends.


School started back and it was very tough on Katie. She cried everyday for about a month and a half. She has now gotten adjusted. We watched a lot of football this fall, went to Disney on Ice, and the pumpkin patch. Thanksgiving and Christmas were tough without dad but we did survive. We had tears and lots of laughter remembering our times with him. Katie loved Santa this year. We got to see him on the Polar Express and he came to see her at school. My brother, his girlfriend, and my niece came for New Years. We had a gathering and had a great time. Learned a few new games from Michelle! School has started back and we are trying to get into the routine again. I hope everyone has a blessed New Year!

I am back!

I have not posted in a year but I am back. I will be writing and posting soon!

December

Well I am back! Shannon gave me an early Christmas present---a new camera! I was so excited. I was lost without a camera. We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday was the Bryant family dinner, Friday was the Auburn/Alabama game, and Saturday was my dads 85th birthday. My brother drove down from St. Louis. Two weeks later my other brother flew in to see my dad. It has been a great month for family. Katie is so much fun now! She is so excited about anything that has to do with Christmas. She loves the decorations, lights, shows, everything. She was in her first Christmas play at school. She was a sheep. I smiled and cried all the way through. I can't believe she is big enough to be in a school program. Seem like yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the first time. We had an elf come to visit us. His name is ELFIE and he does funny things every night. Katie loves to wake up and go see what he has done the night before. Last night we went and rode on the Polar Express. It was our 3rd time to ride and it was as usual it was fun. Katie was so happy at first, then got really scared and cried, then when Santa left she was good again. We are very excited for Saturday morning. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus and all of the blessings He has given us. We will spend Christmas Eve at church and then Christmas day at home. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

WOW!

Time is flying by faster than I can catch it. Summer was great. Lots of time spent by the pool, at the library, and catching up with friends. In August Katie moved up to the two year old class. This was a big change. No more sippy cups, taking a lunch box, and learnign all kinds of things. She is learning letter sounds, letters, numbers, songs, and bible verses. I am so impressed with everything she is bringing home. She has started getting on the tumbleb us! This makes Thursdays very easy to get up and go to school. She LOVES IT! She loves to jump and do flips. My school life has been very trying. That is all I will say about that. Mom and Dad have moved to another house in Chelsea. No more yard and that will help them alot. We have taken our house off the market for now, but hoping to try and sell again in the Spring. Katie is wanting everything she sees for Christmas. She is still very afraid of Santa Clause...but wants him to bring her lots of toys. We took her to see Disney Princess on Ice and she was mezmorized. It brought tears to my eyes at how much she loved it. She sat still for 2 hours with a smile on her face. We have company coming next weekend for the big game. Since we are a house divided it will be interesting. Every weekend katie cheers for both her Mommy's team (AUBURN) and her Daddy's team (alabama.) Don't know how she will cheer for the big game. This is just a bunch of talk .> Trying to type while my kids are having their counseling lesson. I will update more soon.

Very Busy

Time is flying by! I really don't know where it has gone. I looked to see if the last post was Easter but it was before that. Easter was fun. We had the whole family over to our house. We ate lots of food, kids decorated Easter cookies, and of course we had the annual egg hunt. Katie was so excited. She learned quickly that the eggs had a prize. She would open her egg, take out the prize, and throw the egg back on the ground. It was hilarious.

Shannon's niece bliss got married. We threw her a couples shower and had a great time. We played the "Almost Wed, Newly Wed, and Long Time Wed" with both of their parents. It was a hoot. Katie planted her first set of flowers with her daddy. In May we participated in our annual Relay for Life. I was able to raise over 300 this year! My goal next year is 500. Our team raised over 7000. We were so happy. Katie loves going to the Relay. It is a happy and sad time for us.

Shannon and I took our first by ourselves since Katie has been born. My nephew Andrew graduate from Washington University in St. Louis. Shannon and I flew up for the graduation, Cardinals game, and graduation party. It was a very quick trip but we had a great time. Katie is moving to her new classroom next week. I am sending her a couple of days a week this summer so she can stay in some kind of a routine. We have to send a lunch box and a backpack. No more diaper bag. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. She is growing so fast. I love all of the funny stuff she does now, but miss the baby girl also. We are potty training and we have our good days and bad days. I also have a small problem. She is a bit of a streaker! She likes to show off in her words "her naked baby". Hope this does not last long. That is all for now. More updates soon.

Snow and Katie!

Katie loved the snow. She learned how to throw snowballs and loved eating it. I liked it..but now am read for warm weather. Katie is a little showgirl. She loves to sing and dance. Tonight she was very busy looking at her new dresses singing...Yes Jesus Lubs me...The Bibow Tells Me So!. It was the most precious thing ever. Here are some videos and pictures. Enjoy!

videos

For some reason the picture is not showing up. Click play and it will show the video!