We love our friends!!

Playdates are so fun!! I love to watch Tori interact with her friends. A few months ago she would still just play by herself even when her friends were there, but now she has become so social. We had so much fun with the Stewart girls today! Tori refused to smile for a picture, but I still got a few good ones!! Carlee Hayes is such a cutie! Thanks for the fun day girls!!

Puppies!!

Nova(girl)

Alaska(girl)

Atlas(boy)

Luna(girl)

Attica(girl)

Apollo(boy) RIP :(

Me, Tori, and Alaska

Last night we had our first experiance making puppy mush and the puppies LOVED it! Now we have to slowly wean them off mama's milk so they can go to their new homes around the end of March

After they ate they promptly fell asleep in my lap haha it was precious!!

Bedtime Ritual

Each night before bed things must go a certain way for our little princess. We begin with PJs and brushing her teeth, then we go into her room and she will yell "DADDY I YEED A BUNNY!!" and bury her head into my shoulder saying "I gotta hide!!" Daddy then "hop, hop, hops" Bunny right into her arms. Then we let her pick 2 books; 1 for mommy to read, and 1 for daddy to read. Her favorites right now are: "The Very Quiet Cricket," "Goodnight Moon," "Baby Dear," and "Llama Llama Red Pajama." We read our books and get into bed. Then she has to kiss and hug Mommy and Daddy at least 5 times each, which is followed by her insisting that we each kiss Bunny goodnight as well. Then she lays down, I pull the covers up and sing a song, while Adam rubs her back. Then Adam leaves and she then will say "Mommy rub my back a minute?" so I stay behind and rub her back a little longer before finally saying "Mommy loves you! Sweet Dreams." and out I go. This really happens almost exactly that way in that order each and every night, and most of the time we don't mind. In a way it's become family time, rather than Tori's bedtime. Sometimes I get frustrated. Some days have been so long and I'm tired, Adam's tired and we just want to go put her in the bed and leave and finally spend some much needed alone time together. I think everyone has those days with a 2 year old. But we do it for her, no matter how we feel. Mostly I do it for those precious moments before bed, sweet yawns, hugs, kisses, and lots of snuggle time. Nights like tonight are why I do it. Tonight after Adam had left and I was rubbing her back she told me the sweetest thing. It went like this:

Mommy: "Tori, Mommy loves you so much." 

Tori: "I luz you too mommy" 

Mommy: "how much?" 

Tori: "big" 

Mommy: "big??" 

Tori: "Yea just big mommy" 

Mommy: "I love you big too"

Tori: "I gotta kiss you mommy I just gotta kiss you."

Needless to say I picked her up and kissed her 5 extra times for the night. It's moments like these that I live for. Moments that even when I tell the story it cannot be understood unless you're on the receiving end. My little girl loves me big! For me one of the most awesome things in the world is to hear my baby tell me she loves me.

Tori with Bunny

My sweet little brother

Ok so I know 2 LOOONNGG posts are overwhelming, but after these past 3 weeks it is very necessary. My brother went into the hospital at 1am Saturday morning the 23rd of January. He was suffering from severe septic shock and his extremeties were blue from the elbow down to his fingers and his knees down to his toes. He was in bad shape and doctor said an hour more and he would not have made it to the hospital alive. Apparently this had stemmed from a severe kidney infection they put him on antibiotics, but it seemed the damage was done. His kidneys began failing and they prepared to fly him to Vanderbilt where he could get better treatment. The outcome was unsure and we were all holding our breath.  Monday the 25th Adam and I held back the tears and went up to Jackson General to give my sweet brother what could have been the last kiss I got to give him. The hardest thing was not knowing what will happen and having no control over the outcome. I kissed my brother goodbye the morning of the 25th. I buried myself in my Bible and my family and I clung to this verse: 

"This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." 

Lamentations 3:21-23

Gordon has made a miraculous recovery and we have gone from "I'm not sure if he will make it" to "he is coming home soon we just don't know when." During these crazy 2 weeks God's love and faithfulness have been shown to me and my family time after time. God has surrounded Gordon and us with prayer and sweet friends to love on us. Gordon continues to improve and there is hope on the horizon as we await the discharge date. Please continue to pray for the healing of his kidneys and that his sodium will lower so that he can come home to us where he belongs!!

This is written by my daddy... there's something about hearing it from a father's perspective that makes this so much different even to me:

  A week ago on Monday the 25th as they prepared to fly Gordon to Vandy I stood and watched as his bed was surrounded by all of his nurses and his teachers who have loved him for these many years. They had come for Gordon, not for me and Susan. Gordon's life has changed and enriched theirs in ways I will never know. I rode up to Nashville as Susan and Gordon flew overhead. Things did not look good and my mind drifted to what life would be like without such a wonderful young man who has fought every day of his life. If a service was necessary, I thought about the current stage design on our church stage, "The Good Fight," that would fit Gordon's life perfectly. Two weeks later, I am blessed to not have to think about that anymore for now. God has given us back our sweet son. 

Our Unexpected Surprise

The past 4 weeks have been a crazy blur and now that I have the presence of mind to blog I have so much to say! On January 15th I realized that we had a huge problem... I was scratching my dog's belly which was a very normal thing when all of the sudden her belly kicked me... I looked at Adam and said "O crap"  and we sat there for about 10 minutes with our hands on our dog's belly as we both realized without a shadow of a doubt our dog was pregnant... Not that there were no other signs she had gotten fat and been acting a little lethargic and we talked to our vet about it over the phone and he decided that it was a false pregnancy. We have a fenced in yard and the week before thanksgiving we had to call animal control because a large aggressive male dog was after our Mya who was in heat at the time. He dug a hole under our fence and howled outside our window for 2 hours from 2 to 4am one night. Now we were pretty sure that he hadn't gotten into the fence with Mya inside and once we realized he was there we didn't let her outside without a leash until animal control finally trapped him and took him away. The problem is January 15th we realized that he most definately got into the fence with her at some point and this was not a false pregnancy. Not to mention dogs are only pregnant 9 weeks and at this point she was at least 8 weeks. So that Friday we decided call in the recruits AKA Nana(My mother-in-law Anita). It was time to get ready because puppies were coming very soon.  Anita and I did a major clean-out of our back room and made Mya's "labor bed" there... On Thursday the 21st we had a litter of 6 healthy puppies 4 girls and 2 boys. Shockingly I delivered them all without any trouble! With a little advice from a vet-in-training, lot's and lot's of internet research, and some much needed supplies(Thanks again to Nana!). They are quite precious and we are a slight bit attached to our sweet little unexpected friends. On a sadder note one of the boys made a drastic mistake by curiously sniffing his Mama's food bowl... Mya tried to reprimand him, but accidentally bit him too hard. He suffered a broken jaw and had to be put down this past Saturday. Both Adam and I are very traumatized and this was totally out of character for our sweet Mya. We removed the food and water from the puppy room so that it wouldn't happen again. I guess it was instinct... So sadly we now have 5 precious puppies and are much more cautious now. Thankfully sweet Tori can't count yet, so we haven't had to explain anything to her. Tori is perfect with them, gentle and sweet and such a little mama! She wants to kiss each one goodnight every single night... It's so very cute! They will be 3 weeks old this Thursday and they have opened their eyes and are walking and starting to play with eachother! It is adorable to hear them practice their growls and barks haha. We are hoping to sell them around the end of March(when they are 8 weeks), so if anyone wants a boxer puppy let me know!! I will post more pictures soon!

Family shot over christmas!
Her sneaky face!!!

Ok so now that our wireless is officially hooked up I am going to try to update my blog and be a super blogger :) idk how this will go but I am going to do my best!!!

Starting with my cute 2 year old.... I cannot believe how verbal she is!!! The good thing is she can tell me exactly what she wants or needs the bad thing is she can tell me exactly what she wants or needs haha. She is so spunky or "spirited." I'm told I was the same at her age so everyone pray that she will be a little more well-behaved than I was cause I gave my parents a few too many sleepless nights with my "spiritedness." She is definately challenging my parenting abilities but at the end of each exhausting day that little girl is such a wonderful blessing!!! Her sweet side is ever present and she becomes more snuggly every day. The other night she brought me her little Devotional book we read from every night and gave us a good laugh. She hugged me and said "Mommy read me my debotiabal!!" I'm finally realizing the meaning of  "Kids say the darndest things" 

Another thing! Just yesterday I found out that I am going on a 5 day trip to Lake Tahoe, California with my husband without Tori to see his brother in 3 weeks!! My mother-in-law surprised me with an airline ticket and I could've fainted!! Can't tell you how awesome it is to be married to the son of a travel agent!! :) haha.  I've never been to California before much less been away from Tori for that long... I'm nervous but very excited!! It's going to be a much needed break from the world... Thanks Anita!! Anyways there's my first update!!