April 27, 2011

We woke up the morning of April 27th to the weather radio going off. It was almost 6 am, so I told Clay to turn on the TV to see what was going on. As soon as we turned on the TV, we heard our local weatherman saying that the storm would be hitting our city in 3-5 minutes. Clay and I got out of bed to check things out. Clay went to the window in our office and immediately saw things were probably about to get bad. He told me to go get Will up and then not two seconds later he told me to get in my closet (our safe place). It was so weird. The wind was blowing so hard and we could hear tress falling all over the place. I was so scared, but it really was over in the matter of a few minutes.

We thought things were okay, until we looked out our windows and saw that there was a lot of damage on our street. Trees were down everywhere!! Clay went outside to check to make sure our house wasn’t damaged. We were so lucky but our neighbors weren’t. There are so many houses with trees on them and many houses have damage that may not be able to be repaired.

Looking out our front door.

Once we figured out that things were probably worse than we thought, we headed out to go to my parent’s to get a generator. We couldn’t even get to my parent’s house because of all the trees that were on the road. We turned back and went a checked on Kristen’s parent’s house. They had a tree on their front porch. They were also very lucky. From their house, we went to our church and saw that our steeple had blown off and the roof had some damage. We tried getting in touch with our preacher, but we couldn’t so then we started calling Ashley. When we got a hold of her, she wanted us to come get her right away. Her apartment complex was very damaged and she couldn’t get her car out.

Our church steeple.

Front of our church office building.

Ashley's apartment complex. (Not her apartment)

We spent the rest of the day surveying the damage and helping out where we could. About midday, we found out that Robby and Robbin had severe damage at their house. Their home is completely destroyed! The storm was so bad at their house that Robbin was even picked up by the wind at one point and slammed into her mantel, and then the couch fell on top of her. She has some broken/bruised ribs and had to have stitches in her hip. They are so lucky to be alive and we are so thankful that God kept them safe.

The side of Robby and Robbin's House.

Robby and Robbin's living room.

Their office on the second floor.

That afternoon, we hung around the house waiting for the second round of storms. Thankfully nothing too bad came through our area, but other parts of the state were devastated!! Places like Tuscaloosa are completely destroyed!

Again, we are so lucky and we praise God for keeping our friends and family safe. My prayer is through all of this, God will be glorified. Please continue to pray for the state of Alabama, all those who were affected by these storms, and all the people who are helping to rebuild in these areas.

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. Luke 8:24

More pictures HERE.

Easter 2011

As usual, we spent Easter in Wedowee. We arrived at MawMaw Yates’ house late Saturday afternoon. We had been in the car all day traveling back to the beach, so the first thing we did when we got there was let Will run around and play. He had so much fun playing with MawMaw and Uncle Al.

After he burned off some energy, MawMaw took us to eat at The Hub. IT was delicious as always! We spent the rest of the night catching up with them and then it was time to go to sleep so we could head to sunrise service the next morning.

Sunday morning we were up EARLY! We actually slept through our alarm, but we were able to get ready at a lightening pace and make it to church on time. I love the services at MawMaw’s church and always enjoy seeing the people who used to be our neighbors when we lived there. Also, it is really special spending the day with MawMaw and having Will and creating traditions with him.

Between church services, we let Will have his Easter basket. He got a toddler Bible and the Veggie Tale’s Jonah movie. He also got $5 and he thought that was awesome!

MawMaw prepared a great Sunday lunch! We were stuffed. We had to leave shortly after lunch to go to Roanoke to see Clay’s Grandma and that side of his family.

Clay’s cousin, Misty, hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at Shawn and Greg’s house. They had some great food and there were over 500 eggs to hunt! Will found a couple of prize eggs with money in them. He now thinks that all Easter Eggs have money in them. We always have a great time with that side of Clay’s family. We don’t get to see them very often so it is always nice to see them and catch up on what’s been going on in everyone’s life.

IT was a long day and it ended with some tears from a tired little boy, but I can’t help to step back and thank God for all He has done. We are so blessed in this life and we are so grateful that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins!

There is a tree inside our lake house!

The Friday before we left for the beach, a couple of bad storms came through the area. Nothing at home was damaged, so we didn’t think much about the storm.

The Friday that we were at the beach, we got a call that we had some damage at our lake house. The neighbor that we have there had been trying to call us all week but wasn’t able to reach us. My cousin was taking her kids down there for the weekend and when she got there, she found this…

Obviously, the tree is not supposed to be in the lake house. There were lots of trees down all over our property and we had damage to our porches and our pier.

While it is a very serious situation, we were very lucky not to have more damage and no one was there so there were no injuries. It is just stuff so we will all work hard to repair the damage.

More pictures HERE.

Spring Beach Trip

We just spent 8 wonderful days at Orange Beach. The weather was absolutely amazing. It was 80 degrees and sunny every single day. Of course the best part of the trip was spending our days with Will and the rest of our family. My mom and dad, John, Richard and Julie spent the week with us.

The guys spent most of their days playing golf. My dad even played golf for the first time in 4 years. He hasn’t been able to play due to his back, but since he had surgery in the winter he decided to try and go. He had a great time even if he was a little sore after.

The girls and Will spent time on the beach playing in the sand and reading books. I think we probably read 4 books a piece. Will had so much fun this year playing in the sand. Julie also bought him a kite and he thought that was great!

We spent our nights eating out at our favorite restaurants: Doc’s, Mikee’s, and Lulu’s. Mom and Dad even kept Will one night so we got to eat dinner and go for ice cream.

Will absolutely loved the pool. We spent a lot of time in the pool this trip. He was all about swimming like a “big boy” and jumping in. He never really swam because Clay or I were always there making sure he didn’t go under, but he did a great job and was not scared of the water at all. The condo we stayed at had a little baby pool that was only a foot deep. I thought that was perfect, but Will was did not want to go in the baby pool. He always wanted to go to the big pool! I think we have a little fish on our hands and swimming lessons will be in our near future.

On Wednesday morning, we decided to go to the Naval Museum in Pensacola. That morning it was a little foggy on the beach so it was the perfect morning to take a break from the sand. I had not been to the museum in years, so it was so interesting to see it as an adult. Will loved looking at all the planes and model aircraft carriers. They even had a little kid play set that was set up like an aircraft carrier. He didn’t want to leave that. The funniest thing happened while we were there. They had an area set up to look like a base camp during the Vietnam War. There was a little tent with a mannequin in uniform that looked like he was sleeping. Clay and John told Will the man was sleeping and I guess Will thought he needed to be awake, so he would go over and whisper “wake up, wake up” to the mannequin. He would then look at us and tell us the man is “sweeping, he need to get up!” It was hilarious!

The best part of the trip was putt-putt golf. Will has been really into golf lately, so Clay and I thought he would be the perfect age to play putt-putt for the first time.  Will had so much fun hitting the ball and chasing after it. He even listened to us so that he knew the rules and followed them 90% of the time.  After the first night we went to play, he wanted to go every night!  We went one other time and it was so fun.  Will loves golf so much more now that we are even thinking of making a small putting green in our back yard.  Of course, Clay hopes that Will continues to love golf!

It was such a great trip and I loved being able to take a week off to spend with my family! We are already planning to take a long weekend trip in September!

To see the rest of the pictures from our trip, go HERE.

Beach Bound

We are leaving tomorrow for the beach!  8 days of sand, sun, and family. 

I hope that Will really enjoys it this year, I think he will.  We plan on taking him to play putt-putt golf for the first time and Clay is thinking about taking him to the golf course so he can ride in the cart.  He will love it.  Golf is all he talks about these days.

I am excited to get 8 days to spend with my family in one of our favorite places.  I have lots of books to read and lots of nap that need to be taken!

Can't wait to get to my happy place!!

Mommy and Will Day

Saturday, Will and I had the day all to ourselves.  Clay was doing the Diamond Dash with Jordan so Will and I time to spend just the two of us.

We started the day at the MS Walk. The company I work for has a team.  I always participate because our friend, Tracee, and Clay's cousin, Tonya, have MS.  Will was a little shy at first. I think the number of people there caught him off guard because I told him we were going to the park.  I bought one of those little backpack leash things so we tried it out Saturday. Will didn't seem to mind it. It was nice to have control over where he could go without having to worry about him running off.

Will got this little plastic football from one of the vendors there, and he has carried it everywhere since Saturday!

After we left the walk, we headed over to a kid's shoe store to get Will some new tennis shoes.  We always buy the little grey New Balances.  This time we got the same shoe but I opted for the ones with laces instead of velcro.  It makes me a little sad because those are big boy shoes. Just another reminder that Will is growing up!  Will did so well at the shoe store that a little reward was in order.

There was a bakery next door, so we headed over for a cookie.  There were so many cookies to pick from and Will choose a pink Easter egg cookie.  He sat in the booth across from me and we talked while he enjoyed his cookie.  He is such the little observer, so much that he was ease dropping on the conversation two ladies were having and he was answering questions that they were asking each other! HA! 

Will ate his whole cookie and then we had to go pick up a birthday gift.  Soon it was time to head toward home for nap time. By the time we got close, Will was hungry for lunch so we opted for Happy Meals.  I had so much fun eating lunch just me and Will.  He even sat in his own chair--no highchair or booster seat!  Really when did he grow up?!?!?

We finished our lunch and went home for our nap.  I got a couple of loads of laundry done while will was asleep.  Once he was up it was time head to MA's third birthday party. Will had a great time at the party.  Gavin was there too!  The three kids had fun playing together.  There were a few meltdown moments, but that is to be expected with 3 only children.

Will ended his day by having dinner with Mawmaw and Pop.  He always asks to go to Pop's house.  That's his favorite place to go because he gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants!   I am so thankful that my parent's love having him over, it gives Clay and I the chance to get out of the house.  We went to dinner with some of our best friends and had a great time!

It was a great way to spend a Saturday!

Talking and Singing

I have been loving spending time with Will.  He is growing up so fast!! Kristen and I were talking about how just in the last month Will's vocabulary has taken off. He is putting together more and more sentences that actually make sense.  Tonight, we were going to eat with Kristen and Will said in the car "I go see Kristen and Izzy. Izzy potty outside in back yard."  (FYI-Izzy is Kristen's dog.)  It amazes how much he knows and how much he remembers.

He also has learned his first bible verse and has said it about 4 times without any help.  It the first part of James 1:17, "Every good and perfect thing is from above."  We also do our prayers every night and he lists off the people he wants to pray for.  99% of the time Gavin is the first person he asks to pray for.  Then we pray for our family and friends by name.  It really is the sweetest thing you could ever witness as a parent.

Will is really into singing right now.  Oddly, the Jack's Hamburger jingle is one of his favorites.  He also loves to sing Jesus Loves Me, the ABCs, I'm a Little Teapot, the theme song to Wonder Pets, and the Auburn fight song.  He is so funny singing all of these. 

And as most 2-year-olds do, he is repeating everything!!!  Clay and I have really had to watch what we say.  Our family and friends have become really aware of our little tape recorder so they are trying to watch what they say too. 

I am loving this stage and am so happy that we can really have these cute little conversations with Will.  I am so happy that I am his mom!  It's the best job ever!!