blessed beyond measure

We have had a ton of company for the holidays, and I'm loving every minute of it. Last night was our Sunday school/small group Christmas party. Though our class name is officially the Seekers, we are affectionately known around church as the Baby Factory. As of this coming summer, God will have added to our group eight babies in two years. And we all think that is fabulous, with most of us going through the life milestones at the same time. Our kids will have no shortage of people to hang out with, that's for sure. What a precious group this is. Five years ago the group numbered four, and with much prayer the Lord has grown us to eighteen adults and six kids (so far). Brandon and I look so forward to every Sunday, every Bible study meeting, every get-together. Such wonderful friends. Last night was a blast, as always. I don't think this group is capable of not having fun. A mexican feast, some eventful games including something that looked like electrodes and a co...

Ashley's family So unfortunately I forgot the camera at this celebration, where we gathered together Christmas Eve around lunchtime with my Mom's side of the family. But it was a fun time - Trey was a little shy but opened up some once he got some food and opened a few gifts. Thanks to all the grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and cousins for everything. We were glad to see you all and wish we could do so more often. Brandon's family This is a Christmas Eve evening tradition, with as many of Brandon's dad's seven siblings and their families as can come. We'll just say this is a lively group, and Trey fit right in. It didn't take him long to start doing circles in the crowd, charming everyone, and even joining in some dancing with his great aunt Peggy. We had a great time. And as you look at the picture of Trey sleeping in the car, keep in mind that from that celebration to our house is a trip of less than 10 minutes. And he was out cold. Chris...

Yesterday my dad's side of the family gathered together to celebrate Christmas. In years past this has been done on Christmas day at Meemaw's house. We all decided to change things around this year so that the babies could spend their Christmas day in their own homes. So we all got together at Mom & Dad's yesterday, to eat a deeelicious Christmas dinner and watch Meemaw and the boys open gifts. What a fun time! Trey showed his cousin Will the basketball goal and some of his other toys. Both the boys enjoyed playing with the dogs, Dudley and Kylie. And then they took turns playing with each other's presents. It won't be long until Will starts walking, and then there will be only one word for when he and Trey get together: T-R-O-U-B-L-E. But cute trouble anyway. (Trey is showing off his moves with a dancing Santa Claus here.) And now three more celebrations to come between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We are so excited and will undoubtedly have lots o...

So here's a little of what we've been up to...getting more excited about Christmas every day. Last Sunday night Trey was in his second Christmas production at church (last year he played baby Jesus). My fears of him being uncooperative were totally unfounded, as he stayed with me and rang his little bell with all his might. It was precious! We've had our tree up for a while now, but Trey has finally gotten interested in the ornaments. We hung his and our unbreakable ones near the bottom, so the few he has yanked off and thrown across the room are OK. It's hard to tell him not to play with something that has Elmo on it. Otherwise there has just been a lot of playing with Mama and Daddy. As of Friday, both of us are off from work for two whole weeks. We are so looking forward to having time to relax together. It is so easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas, getting caught up in schedules, events, shopping, decorating, wrapping. We put so much into celebrating that w...

And the blog silence is broken! I had not intended to stay away this long, but let's just say the Christmas craziness has begun. This week, apart from our normal everyday living of jobs, Trey, and taking care of the house, we worked to get the house, food, and gifts ready for lots of company this weekend. Last night was our annual O3M Christmas dinner. (In case you don't know, O3M is Out Of Our Minds, a Christian improv comedy group that Brandon is part of.) We look so forward to this every year. It was so nice to see everyone together. The group started in 2003 and there was one kid between all of us. Since then there have been two weddings and three more kids. Praise the Lord! The damper on this year was that Ed and Tamaira were not with us. We forgive you Ed, even though you've gone yankee on us! Seriously, we pray that you all will be settled and blessed in your new home, and that you'll come to visit every once in a while. Anyway, here are some pictures f...

We took Trey to the allergist on Tuesday. After talking with us about Trey's history with cow's milk, the doctor gave us his take on where we would go from here. First the skin prick tests, then they would combine that test with a blood test from Trey's upcoming regular checkup to see the severity of the allergy, then most likely bring us back when Trey turns 2 for an exposure test. For this, Trey would drink cow's milk in the doctor's office to see if he has outgrown the allergy. Translation: no projectile vomiting, we're in the clear. So they do the skin prick test and Trey freaks out. That is until he gets to run up and down the hall during the 15-minute waiting period. (The nurse said we could!) Meanwhile we see 3 wheals forming on his back. One of them grows and grows and grows until it is the size of a quarter. Fifteen minutes passed, and the nurse takes a look at him and says, "Wow, that one's milk." The big one. In talking with th...

We had such a great time splitting our Thanksgiving day between my parents' house and Brandon's parents' house. At his Grammy and Pawpaw's house, Trey was charming and chatty, being around many people who had not seen him in a while. He gobbled up some turkey and green beans. Then our after-lunch exercise was chasing three dogs around in the backyard. It was such a beautiful day outside. Then in the evening we headed back to our neck of the woods and ate a small dinner with Brandon's family. We also took up our yearly tradition of helping them put up their Christmas tree. I had figured Trey would be fascinated by all the lights, but he didn't seem too impressed. What really got him was his Granddad's choo-choo train, with lights and sounds and everything. They had a blast together. On Black Friday, Grammy and Pawpaw came over and made a special delivery - an early Christmas/birthday present for Trey. His very own play yard! This thing is a toddler...

The climbing has kicked into high gear lately. This week, Trey managed to climb onto his Nana and Granddad's couch all by himself. Then tonight Trey found another fun activity for when his crib mattress is on the floor - not only can he climb on the mattress, he can also climb on the crib! And to round out his transformation to monkey, Trey insisted on a "nama" right before bed. It took me quite a while to figure out what that meant. He repeated "nama" several times and pointed toward the kitchen counter. Finally I lifted him up, he grabbed a banana, held it up to me and said, "nama", very slowly. Yes, it's sometimes hard for a grown-up to learn new things! As tomorrow so many of us will gather with those we love, this family wishes yours a very happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is our little monkey Trey. Our families, friends, health, home, good jobs... But most of all we are thankful for our L...

Happy Trey has returned to us! Every once in a while his twin Grouchy Trey comes to stay with us for a few days (or in this case a few weeks). That's never very much fun for anyone. We do have to cut Trey a little slack this time, as he was sick for part of the time. Anyway, playtime is in full swing again. Which translates to Trey running circles around the house at 90 mph, climbing on anything he can get one leg on top of, and finding all sorts of trouble. Such as the trouble he found when he decided one of our houseplants had too much dirt in it. Sigh. I'm so glad he's back! We are also pretty sure the little stinker was holding out on us for a long time with his talking. Trey surprises us every day with some new word or phrase we've never heard before. He's a pretty smart cookie. He can identify hot and cold, several animals and their noises, and name the people and animals he's around a lot. This is fabulous! Since we haven't posted pictures ...