Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Thoughts

February 14, 2010

I am loved.

I have so much to be thankful for today and everyday for that matter because I am loved. I am loved by my family, my friends, my husband, my child, and as hard as it is to fathom, I am loved by my God. I spent some time reading in 1 John this morning. A couple verses really stuck out to me that I'd like to share.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,

that we should be called children of God!

1 John 3:1

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God,

and God in him

1 John 4:16

We love because he first loved us

1 John 4:19

Wow. That truth is reason enough to jump up and down and celebrate. His love truly is unconditional. Thank you Lord for loving me even on my ugliest day and for continuing to show me love and in turn, showing me how to love.

I'll leave you with some pictures of my Valentines - yes, I have two this year:)

My funny valentine!

Love these boys!

It Snowed...Again

Snowed in
February 9, 2011

Well, it came again. I will say as tired of the snow as I am it sure is pretty:) We did make it out just in the nick of time for a Chic-Fil-A run. Yummy...

Here's Hudson trying to see out the front door. We were watching the snow come down and he really seemed to get a kick out of it. Haha! I ended up taking him and Riley out for a hot 10 minutes because it was just too stinkin cold. Riley of course enjoyed it as always. And Hudson seemed to enjoy watching the snow fall down from his stroller. Check it out!

I want to see the snow!!!!!!

Riley's biggest fan

What's the deal with this white stuff?


snow is super cold

And on a side, sentimental note: it was brought to my attention today that it has snowed BIG time on both January 9th and today which is February 9th. Ironic? Nope. January 9th marked the month anniversary of Evie's passing and today marks the 2 month anniversary. Thanks Evie Grace for giving us these beautiful snowy days! We love you and miss you sweet girl:)

Growing Up & Pulling Up

Good Morning!

This is how I found my baby yesterday morning.

He's growing up so fast, and starting to pull up on everything.

SNEAK PEEK

A little preview....

So we had some family photos taken a week or so ago and I just wanted to share a few that the photographer sent me. Courtney Ritchey from Chic Boutique Photography did them for us. I've used her in the past and have been pleased with her work. She is so much fun and very talented. Here they are. Enjoy!

Hide and Seek

Look who I found hiding under his crib....

Hudson started crawling towards the end of January and man is he everywhere! Mommy is quite busy these days trying to keep up with him. On this particular day I left him playing in his room while I went to cook dinner or wash bottles (can't remember honestly what I was doing) and this is how I found him. Someone discovered where I keep the extra baby wipes and diapers!

New York, New York!

The Miller's Trip to NYC
January 13-16

Here we are looking out at the Statue of Liberty

In honor of Micah getting a new job and as an early birthday present to each other we decided to take a couple days and go visit my friend, Lindsey, who lives in Manhattan. Micah hadn't been to New York since he was little so he was very excited to tour the city. For two straight days we were total tourists and we enjoyed every minute of it! It was quite a workout walking miles and miles around the Big Apple but it was totally worth it. And boy was it cold!


We started out taking the subway down to Battery Park so we could see the Statue of Liberty. I thought we got a pretty good view of her. After that we made our way towards the Financial District and checked out Wall Street, the NYSE, the World Trade Center site, and Century 21 -- which is basically like a nice TJ Maxx on steriods. Good prices and like 6 floors of shopping. Don't worry. I didn't make Micah endure too much shopping. Just enough to get a taste:)

Hello Lady Liberty!

A nice jewelry store we stumbled upon...haha!

We then jumped back on the subway and made our way to Times Square. It was a Thursday afternoon and the place was packed! We didn't make it to any Broadway shows but enjoyed just walking around and sightseeing:)

Times Square

Next stop was Rockefeller Center. We passed Radio City Music Hall on the way. Took this picture for Micah's dad. He is a HUGE Celtic Woman fan. Huge! We decided to buy tickets to Top of the Rock b/c we heard it was well worth it. I think this was my favorite "touristy" thing we did. The views were amazing and it was so neat because you basically get a 360 degree view of the entire city! So so neat. And of course before you go up to the top, you get a little history lesson on John D. Rockefeller. Micah really enjoys learning about this type of stuff so needless to say he was in heaven:)

walking past Radio City Music Hall


Best decision ever
Top of the Rock!


Empire State Bldg

Micah and Me

We spent the next day with Lindsey and her boyfriend Bryan. We walked around Greenwich Village, saw some of NYU, and then went on to shop in the SOHO district. We also visited Chinatown. Didn't buy anything though. We walked where we could see the Brooklyn Bridge and then headed to Little Italy to a famous pizza joint -- Lombardi's.

Brooklyn Bridge

Yummy delicious slice of NY pizza

Bryan (BK), Lindsey, me, & Micah @ Lombardi's

Afterward, we walked off those calories and headed to Central Park. It was so pretty with all the snow! We had high hopes of ice skating that Saturday afternoon, but as you can see it was a little crowded. Just a little. So we just watched the skaters and strolled around the park for a bit.

Busy Saturday afternoon at the park

Saturday night we were able to get together with our friends Meredith and her husband Shannon. They joined us at Sushi Samba - "a very swanky, trendy, over-rated sushi place" - in the words of my husband. I like sushi and hadn't had it in forever (I'm thinking well before I got pregnant) so it was nice to come back to that delicious treat I used to frequently enjoy. We had fun getting to visit with the Guelberts as well as Lindsey and Bryan of course:)

Party of 6 at Sushi Samba

All in all it was most definitely a great trip. I'm so glad we had the chance to go. Thanks to sweet little Lindsey for putting us up in her super cool studio apartment in Midtown. We will certainly miss The Buchanon...thanks for a memorable trip. We'll miss you New York!

Winter Weather

Hudson's 1st Snow
January 2010

Chillin' and Checkin' out his 1st snow

January = Cold Temps and Snow!

I mean, for Memphis it was a pretty COLD month. We had snow a few times, which of course meant the schools had to close. A "dusting" of snow or even 2-3 inches definitely warrants a "snow day" here in Shelby Co. Not complaining. I love snow days! And as a former teacher, I honestly appreciate them. Heck, I used to get excited as the kids.

This year's first winter weather storm was especially exciting:) Mainly because we got quite a bit of snow and because it was Hudson's first time to see the white stuff. I'm not sure what he thought about it to be completely honest. Some of his expressions were "I'm not so sure about this" kind of thing and then there was the "I'm having so much fun!" look. See for yourselves...

Not too sure about this.....

I know, I'm a bad mommy. Notice no gloves on the 8 mo. old

Mommy and buddy playing on the front porch

Riley too:)


Daddy and Hudson in the yard

Hudson's favorite thing is to be thrown up in the air by Micah

Babies, Babies, Babies

So it seems as though ALL my friends are either pregnant or have recently had babies. It's such a fun, exciting time and I'm so happy they get to experience the joys of mommyhood. There is nothing quite like that sweet blessing.

Hudson has so many new friends and

lots of friends on the way:)

New mommy Lindsey and sweet Bailey Kate

Hudson checking out Bailey Kate.

HOT mama Mekenzie and her baby boy, Jackson

Lubbock Living is the Life for Me

Christmas continued...
Dec. 26-Dec. 30
Lubbock, TX

We continued our tour of the great state of Texas driving west from Dallas to Lubbock, where Micah was born and raised. This will have made only my 3rd trip to Lubbock and of course, Hudson's first. I really love going at Christmas time. Unlike me, Micah comes from a BIG family so there's always so much excitement whenever everyone gets to come together. And just like before, it was a packed house at Mimi's...she had something like 26 stockings hanging from the mantle when we arrived. Now that's a lot of folks! And this sweet woman buys something to go into every single one of those stockings. But my favorite part about this trip is gathering around Mimi's piano and singing Christmas carols. I guess I just always wished for a big family when I was little and it's so neat to see that now, I actually have one. And they are all great. Seriously. I am incredibly blessed!

Unfortunately, I did not get to capture Micah and Zachary upon arriving at the famous Taco Villa (a nicer Taco Bell if you ask me - but don't tell them) in Lubbock. I am not kidding when I tell you this was the main focal point of all conversation on our way to Texas and even more so when we were in route to Lubbock, where the yummy delicious Taco Villa resides. Our schedule was planned around eating there and Micah even brought home a little TV souvenior - ziplock bags full of Taco Villa sauce. The man is obsessed. Obsessed.

Here are just a few pics from our trip to Lubbock

I was amazed he knew exactly what to do!

Dianna's little one, Hallie, after eating some chocolate. Her favorite:)

Granna and her buddy

Grace helping out Mimi at the piano

Micah's sweet cousin Jessica, me, and Hudson

She turned 16 on Christmas day

Happy Sweet 16 Jess!

Christmas - Texas Style

Christmas Morning!
December 25, 2010
Palmer House - Dallas, TX

Merry Christmas!

So we spent our entire Christmas in Texas this year. We stopped in Dallas first to spend a few days with Josh, Dianna, and the kids. I love getting to go visit them, we don't get to do it near as often as I'd like. Buddy did good traveling down there and Dianna was kind enough to offer up Hallie's crib for him to sleep in the nights we were there. I think that helped him tremendously:) Poor Hallie, she spent her nights in the pack 'n play in Josh and Dianna's walk-in closet!

Christmas morning we got up nice and early and waited at the top of the stairs to come down and see what all Santa brought the kiddos. That Santa, he was so organized and had piles for each of the kids. So we just basically had a lazy morning enjoying time with family and watching everyone play with their gifts.

Here we are waiting patiently to come downstairs

Hudson playing with Hallie's new 4-wheeler
He loved it!

Not only was it Jesus' birthday but also Mr. Miller's, which

hopefully explains all the ribbon and bows?!

Buddy playing with his new train.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning and later that afternoon we celebrated Mr. Miller's birthday. That night we ventured out to downtown Frisco to see Christmas lights. Such a fun and memorable time. We'll always remember Hudson's first Christmas...Texas style:)