Silent Auction for The Turners

Today I'm teaming up with the blog community for a silent auction for The Turner Family.  For those that have not heard the story, Matt Turner, a news anchor in Little Rock was tragically killed in a car accident a  little over a week ago.  Matt Turner was the same age as my cousin Matt who also tragically died 12 years ago. They were good friends and played football together. I remember Matt from the times I would visit in Arkadelphia.  

Matt left behind a beautiful wife, Julee and a 10 month old daugther, Preslee.

Today, I am auctioning off a $35 gift certificate to my business, The Red Thread (www.facebook.com/theredthreadgifts)

Here are a few samples....

If this auction goes over $70, I will also donate the below shirt to Preslee.

HOW TO BID:

• Place your bid in the comments section of this blog post.
• Leave NAME, EMAIL, and BID.
• All bids must be made in $1 increments. If the last bid is $9 then your bid must be $10.

Bidding will close on Friday night at 10:00pm(EST)

Highest bidder will be the winner.

Payment will be accepted via PayPal. Winner will be emailed a paypal invoice and once paypal payment has been made, I will put you in contact with the donor. 

PLEASE NOTE: Auction open to US residents only. All payments must be received by October 31, 2012. These payments are not considered tax deductible.

To see what else is up for auction - Check here:

 http://www.lifeinthegreenhouse.com

http://www.lifesweetlifeblog.com

http://www.biggest-blessings.com

http://sheshebows.blogspot.com

http://www.jennifergetts.blogspot.com

HAPPY BIDDING and thank you for helping this sweet family!

Our God is Greater...

Wow, where to begin... so much has happened over these past few weeks.
WE ARE MOVING!

A couple of months ago, Matthew started talking with a church in Arkansas.  We have been praying about the possibility to move closer to family for some time- but did not want to act out of Gods will.  Well, Gods will began to be so clear for us.  Our time in Texas right was coming to an end and He was preparing us to pick up and move. 

During this time, I have never felt closer to the Lord, or been able to see God's hand at work in a clearer way.  It has been both fun and exciteing to be in His will and see Him at work in and through our lives. 

We love SFBC, the sweet fellowship, the great people, the fun staff and so much more.  We will miss the wonderful people of SFBC, but we are so excited about the future the Lord has planned for us. 

One of our biggest concerns about the possibility of moving was selling our house.  Everyone knows how horrible the housing market is right now (at least for sellers).  We prepared ourselves that we would have to come up with money to sell the house and we were okay with that.  We placed a "For Sale By Owner" sign in our yard on July 2.  We "officially" put it on the market (in the MLS system and realtor.com) on July 10.   At 1:30 on Tuesday, July 11, I had a call from a realtor wanting to show our house (Matthew, super star husband, busted his tail to get things in boxes and make the house look the best it could possibly look.  You see, we had been trying to "de-clutter" (in the words of my realtor mom) and make closets and such look more presentable, so the house at this posint was a wreck.  I was at work in Dallas and couldn't do anything.  At 3pm the potential buyers arrived.  A little after 4pm, they finally left and by 445pm, I received a call saying we had an offer on the house.  WITHIN 24 HOURS OF THE HOUSE BEING "ON THE MARKET", WE HAD AN OFFER!!!

"Our God is Greater, Our God is Stronger..."  these words continue to play in my head.  Our God really is greater, He really is stronger.  No human could sell a house in 24 hours!  But our God can do more than we could ever ask or imagine! (Eph. 3:20). 

It is through Him that we are picking up and moving to Arkansas.  It is through Him that we have been able to sell our house (still a few things to go through, but I have full confidence that He will continue to work out all of those details).

We are excited about what the Lord has in store for our lives and First Baptist Forrest City.  To our SFBC friends- we love you and will miss you.  Please keep in touch and if you are every headed east on Interstate 40- stop by and see us!
To our new friends at FBCFC- we are excited about the future and getting to know you.  We are excited about what the Lord has in store as we continue to seek His will and worship Him!

Sorry no pics on this post-- I'll have tons of them on the next one! :)

It's My Party...

Sunday was my Birthday... last year in my 20's!  Ahhh, could it possibly be true!

Not too much going on but wanted to share a few pics from the weekend!

We traveled to Arkansas and had a nice long weekend with family.  It was a great time away and Elijah seemed to have a blast.

Elijah teaching KK that she needs to baby proof!

I think Jake likes Elijah!

Silly boy in the car!

Lovin' some strawberry birthday cake!

Elijah loves to wave and clap now!

Elijah turned 11 months on Saturday... we are celebrating his birthday early bc Matt's family will be here next week!

Way Past Due...

Okay so this post is WAY past due... we have been SO busy lately, that I haven't had time to think about updating the blog. So I may just make this mostly a picture post (mostly of Elijah of course) of what has been going on the last month or so... the biggest highlight being our trip to the beach! Elijah LOVED it and we all had such a great time!

The beach was BEAUTIFUL... Orange Beach, AL

This was when we first got to the beach... my mom and dad (KK and Papa decided they would bury Elijah's feet)

Elijah playing when we went out to eat

Matt and Elijah having fun at Lambert's Cafe

Elijah loves the water... He enjoyed the indoor pool

Having fun on the beach... yes we kept him well protected

Elijah sitting on the ledge that the waves made... look closely and you will see his name

Family Pic

Mother son pic

Playing on the splash pad

By the end of the week, the water outside finally started feeling a little better

Told ya, he LOVES the water!!!

I got the opportunity to sit the in the back several time during the long car ride... He is so fun!

A couple of weeks ago, my parents came in town for our annual church golf tournament.  We spent Friday night going to the Rangers game.  Elijah was amazing!  He had a blast, even through the 2 hour rain delay! Here are several pics from the game... the many faces of Elijah

A few more random pics....

He is into EVERYTHING!!!!

Happy 10 months on May 23

Sporting his new outfit from Lulu's in Gulf Shores



What's Not Going On?

WOW... we have been super busy lately.  Lots going on and lots to write about. First I left off last time about Elijah's teeth... the bottom two are completely through now and our great sleeper is back!  So thankful for this blessing (you should be too, because I'm a little cranky when I don't get sleep)

Elijah has had acid reflux since birth.  He started on Zantac at 2 weeks old and has been on it ever since.  The past two weeks, he started excessively spitting/throwing up.  We are talking sometimes up to 50 times/day.  He doesn't seem to be bothered by this- he is still his normal happy go lucky self-- but it is driving Matt and I crazy.  We do multiple loads of his laundry per week just to have enough burp clothes, the carpet looks horrible, and not to mention the constant need to change our clothes because we have it all over us too. 

Last Friday, we took him to our pediatrician- she was actually out, so we saw the nurse practitioner.  Elijah spit up about 6-8 times in the 30 min we were there (keep in mind he hadn't eaten in 2- 2.5 hours), which was actually a good thing, because the nurse was able to see that something wasn't right.  She called a gastroenterologist to get her opinion and the specialist referred us to go get an Upper GI done on Elijah.  Being a first time mom, this was a little unnerving. Matt and I headed to Plano to the Pediatric Imaging Center to get the test done.  They were waiting on him and we were in and out in no time!  The test was fairly simple, we stripped Elijah down to a diaper, placed him on this board, where the tech strapped him in with his arms up by his head.  The Dr. then came in to perform the test.  The tech gave him a bottle of Barium and then the Dr looked at an x-ray to see the fluid going down his esophogus and into his stomach and then as it released from his stomach.  He said that everything looked perfect!  Elijah did great until the tech quit feeding him the bottle-- he is a hungry growing boy that hadn't eaten in 4 hours-- he wanted to EAT!!!

We then got him dressed and gave him a bottle and left.  The nurse at our pediatrician office called to tell us everything was good but to go to an appointment with the specialist on Monday. 

That night Matt and I were able to go on a date to Studio Movie Grill to see Mirror Mirror.  It was so nice to be able to have a few hours to ourself-- couples/ new parents need this time!  It's crucial to marriages!  Huge thanks to Virgil and Janet for allowing us to have that time together!

Saturday was Elijah's first Easter Egg Hunt at the church-- he was in the stroller, so he didn't do much- but he sure loved chewing on the eggs.

Elijah playing with his eggs

He also got his first balloon animal hat!

So we went to the specialist on Monday and were presented with our options... she basically was a little confused by what was going on too.  She started him on Prevacid and we are to use that for a week and see if it helps.  If it does-- YAY! Although I hate for Elijah to be on medicine, it would at least give us the answer.  If it doesn't-- we will take the allergy approach.  He will come off of ALL solids (did I say we have a hungry growing boy!?!)  and he will go to a hypoallergenic amino acid based formula ($$$$$$$$)  and it will hopefully be covered by insurance.  Then we would slowly start adding things back to his diet to see what he might be allergic to.  So just be in prayer for us during this time as we figure out what's going on. 

Other than all that-- all is well!  Elijah is SO fun... he such a ham, flirts with everyone, smiles all the time.  He trying REALLY REALLY hard to crawl-- last night he was starting to do a little scooting action, I tried to get a pic but that just didn't work.  He had his little booty straight in the air and his head in the floor and then he would scoot- HILARIOUS!

We set up his pony he got from his Aunt Gi for Christmas.  It says for 9 month+, but he seems to really enjoy it! 

A little Sunday afternoon play time. He was rolling around everywhere

We have been trying really hard to get Elijah used to a sippy cup... well he would make faces like he didn't like anything that was in the cup (water, juice, whatever) Well one night I was drinking a frappucino from starbucks and just put the straw up to his mouth and he took a big suck-  I quickly took that away and decided we would try straw sippy cups-- SUCCESS... he gulped down water last night!

 

One last pic... Happy 8 months to Elijah on March 23. 

He is now 20 lb 12.5 ounces and 28 inches long

And a little bundle of joy!



Is That a Tooth I See!?!

This weekend was my long weekend... I LOVE LOVE that I am off every other Friday and we usually try to make the most of it! 

First Elijah slept til 9 am both Friday and Saturday morning... I LOVE THIS KID... a child after my own heart!

Elijah has really been a great sleeper, the past couple of weeks he has been waking up quite a bit more and we really didn't know why.  He didn't have a fever, he didn't seem sick...

Well Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, we went to get some Chinese (Matt's choice).  As Matt was getting him out of the carseat and he said, "HE HAS A TOOTH!!!"  I said, "WHAT?" So of course, being the mother that I am, I shove my finger in his mouth and sure enough-- there was a tooth! 

Unfortunately, I do not currenly have any pics, it has just broken through and very hard to get a pic of!

After eating, involved a trip to Big Lots, which included buying some easter eggs--

He LOVED the package because it made lots of noise!

Pre-eggs... showing off his St. Patty's Day Green!

The weekend started off by us meeting up with from friends Todd and Meagan Their sweet boy, Beckett was in Arkansas with the grandparents and they just really needed to love on a little boy because they missed theirs... they didn't really want to have dinner with us- it was all about Elijah (ha, there really is sarcasm in that comment) We had a great time at dinner with them, even though Meagan and Elijah had sweet tea spilt on them.  Elijah also had chips dropped on him.  But he got to ride his first horse...

He looks a little concerned because he had just woken up

What you can't really see in this pic is his adorable onesie courtesy of Meagan's parents...

It turned cooler again this weekend because we got lots of rain, so we pulled out Elijah's sunglasses...

We will be at the beach on month from Friday!!!

So, I know not too much exciting, but we love our little family of three and the time we get together on the weekends! 

Tomorrow is Easter picture day the sitter!  We are so very excited. If you are needing some pics at affordable prices, check her out... Marsha Cox Photography

I will leave you with a good laugh... here is our little bundle of joy!



I LOVE DADDY!

So not much has been going on lately... we are all staying well (knock on wood). 

We enjoyed a nice long beautiful weekend this weekend.  I was able to work from home on Thursday and then we went to Frisco to Rhea Lana, a children's consignment sale! We were able to find a few good deals and start working on Elijah's summer wardrobe.  We were also able to find a few swim outfits for our beach trip in April.

Elijah's Crocs he will be sporting at the beach

Then we spent Friday going to Canton-  we didn't buy much- but just wanted to go walk around to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Elijah having a good ole time in Canton

Elijah sporting his cute outfit from his G-Daddy and Nona (Matt's Parents)

So on to the title of this post... I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again... Elijah has an AMAZING father!!!  Matt will get up in the middle of the night if Elijah wakes up to give him a paci so that I can get sleep because I wake up so early to go to work.  He gets Elijah ready in the mornings, takes him to the sitter, and picks him up from the sitter. He cares and loves on him! He plays with him, he sings songs to him, and he gets in the floor and lets him roll around and attempt to crawl.  I am so thankful for such an amazing dad for our son! I am blessed beyond measure to have an amazing husband!

 Here is the sweetest picture from the other night... just had to share:

And one last picture of the day: 



A cool pic that our sitter took of Elijah the other day!