Over the river and through the woods

This weekend was nice. George, a long time friend of mine, has finally managed to come back to the US. He’s been stationed in Germany for the last 4+ years and during those years has managed 2 tours in Iraq. He got back from his most recent tour in October, and now he’s back for 3 weeks before he moves to his newest post – Ft. Hood, TX. Since we haven’t seen George in over a year it we made time to hang out as soon as he got home and on Sunday we all went hiking. His 3 children, (Audra, Raven, & Baine) George, me, Braden, Josh, and our dog Parker all met at Oak Mountain State Park. We had a lot of fun. We did a lot of climbing, walking, jumping, running and inevitably…tripping over things. Braden did good. He typically just got mad when Josh or I would have to carry him through the rougher terrains. Parker did great, it’s almost like that dog was meant to live in the woods. George’s munchkins were totally at ease in the woods, although Baine was happy to inform us toward the end of our hike that he was not having fun anymore. Haha!
Something fun that I found out about from my friend Gary at work (aka; Spicy)…there’s a great group here in Alabama that does group hikes every week called Wild South. They also have them broken down into beginner, intermediate & experienced “levels”. So you will have a better grasp as to whether or not you need to try a certain hike. Gary and his wife are going on their 2nd hike with the group this weekend. Here’s their website if you want to check it out: http://content.wildsouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=13&Itemid=30

Also, I have two great and exciting announcements:
1st – Josh’s newest niece Claire Elizabeth Moody is here!! Jan. 23rd…look how precious she is…
AND

2nd – My buddy Kristy has just found out that she’s having a GIRL this June!! Savannah Kay Burton…we can’t wait to meet her!

Jan. 28th 2009-Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances. -Jay Leno

All the little changes

Winter weather is finally here! I was starting to think that we'd never again have a day that it got cold enough to wear a coat! Of course, tonight's low is 8 degrees, but it could be much worse. Today the guys that work in one of our depot locations in Alto, MI (just outside Grand Rapids) started the day at -20! WOW! And they took a picture to prove it:


And there's other things that have changed. First is silly, but I'm happy it's finished...I painted my hallway over the past weekend while Josh was at drill. I know it's silly, but it was quite an undertaking, especially when you've got a 3 year old to watch AND keep him away from the wet walls. It turned out to be a nice change from that ugly wanna-be lilac color to a nice cream color. And also, while Josh was at drill he re-enlisted for 6 more years. It's official, he might as well retire from the military. You need 20 years for retirement, and he'll have 14 after this 6 years is over. Lucky for us, he's moving from the unit in Tuscaloosa to a unit in Hoover and he finally got his promotion to SGT. YAY!

Jan. 15th 2009-If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.-Anne Bradstreet

Holiday hangover

All the planning, wrapping, decorating, shopping, visits with family...are finished. We've officially survived another Christmas holiday & ushered in another new year. Lucky for us, it seems that our family is starting this year healthy & happy. Josh's brothers and sisters lost their maternal grandfather just days before Christmas and we were sorry for the loss. Hopefully the coming year will be without any loss such as that.

Kendall has officially started basketball. It's her 3rd year & as much fun as she has, it's can be quite exhausting to drive 45 mins away for the numerous games & practices. We're very excited though! She gets better every year and I'll have to share more on her season as it progresses.

Braden is what I would call officially-officially-officially potty trained (THANK GOD). We still can't make it through the whole night most of the time, but I can handle that as long as we can make it through the day and nap times. He's been doing wonderful since his 3rd birthday, but the last month has been a breakthrough. He will still have minor setbacks, but as long as we remind him when he's really busy playing & we don't let him drink as much as he wants whenever he wants, he seems to do just fine. He hasn't had even one accident at daycare in months now.

Josh & I are doing great too. A new year always brings great promise to a relationship. As always we have big plans. Josh wants to start school, I want to start BACK to school, we'd like to finish fixing & painting the house...and with the Lord's blessing, we'll be selling it sometime this year. I'm not holding my breath. I'm also trying not to stress on it too much, I'm going to leave that in God's hands. This year we'll also be reading Love Dare with each other. It's a Christian book based off of the movie Fireproof. Everyone I've talked to that has taken "the love dare" has said that it works wonders for their relationship. No matter how wonderful it already is... I'm always up for improving. If you're not moving forward, then you're moving back, there is no life without change.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and say a little prayer for our family if you think about it. We could always use it! Here's a quick video of Braden finally getting his Thomas the bridge toy from Santa that he drove us crazy about!


Jan. 4th 2009-Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still.-Patricia Russell-McCloud