Daily Living

I truly feel so blessed to look at these sweet faces everyday!  It is an awesome responsibility to shepherd their hearts, and it is also an unspeakable joy.  I love being their mommy.

Hudson is beginning to show so much of his little personality and we're loving it!  I love this picture...toy in each hand, sweet little feet propped up, big ol' gummy grin...Which on a side note, the days of the gummy grin are numbered.  Hudson has his two bottom teeth now, and the top ones are on their way in.  I can't believe it's time for that already!  His whole look is about to change.  These are the kinds of things that make me want to have another baby :)

Teri Lynn, my sister-in-law, is so generous to provide Carter with a complete wardrobe each season as our nephew Caden outgrows them (Caden is a year older than Carter).  We call them 'Caden Lee specials'.  Here is Carter in one such special that coordinated perfectly with a shirt that Josh has.  How fun to see my man and my little man looking all cute!!

Josh's sister Kecia gave Kate a game that she used to play with our niece Samantha when she was a little girl.  It's called "Pretty, Pretty Princess" and we broke it out the other day to play with Kate.  It involves wearing costume jewelry and whoever gets all their bling first, plus the crown, wins!  Check out our winner!  (Hint: He's wearing the crown!!)  I love watching Josh be such a great daddy!!

Here's our pretty, pretty princess.  She's checking out her new tutu.  And wearing socks because I made her...her preference is bare feet all the time, but wintertime with ceramic tile floors means Mommy has to enforce covered feet!

Good times around the dinner table...

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Nen and Pa

We absolutely love having visitors up here (hint, hint!) and especially love it when family comes!  Josh's parents came this week for a few days and it was such a blessing to have them here with us.

Here is Josh giving Nen and Pa a tutorial on Facebook.  We had fun looking at different people's profiles and pictures...several blasts from the past!  Can always count of Facebook for that.

James helped us with many, many little projects around the house.  Here he is with his 'helper' Carter fixing the crib drawer.  Carter has his 'Handy Manny' hammer in hand :)

Can you believe this was the first take??  Love it when that happens!

Here was Kate's attempt with the camera :)  One of four heads intact.  Oops!

We were so glad to be able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and check out Downtown Wake Forest.  We ate lunch at a local spot, Over the Falls Deli.  Hudson was having fun, as you can see.  So much so that he fell fast asleep at the table...I feel like I could do that sometimes!

James and Sheila got us hooked up with a membership to Sam's Club!  Woo-hoo!!  We took a quick spin around the store and can't wait to go back to really look around.  I think they have anything you could ever want in that store!  Cool shopping carts too...

It was our friend Justin's birthday yesterday.  We wanted to do something for him so Kate and I baked him a birthday cake.  She was so excited to give it to him and sing Happy Birthday!  My sweet girl :)

On a side note, I rarely get to see her up next to me and was taken aback to see how tall she looks here!  Good gracious time flies!!

Kate took this picture too.  Turned out a little better than her other attempt!

Our three blessings

Snow Day

We woke up this morning to snow!!  The forecast last night had called for it and they had cancelled school for the county, but we weren't sure it was really going to happen.  Glad we were wrong!  Kate and Carter were so excited about it...here they are camped out in her room watching the snow fall this morning.

Seeing everything so still and white is just beautiful.  Here's 113 W. Cedar Ave. in the snow.  Always like to get a shot when there's no footprints in the snow.  It was thick too...6 inches of powdery, perfect snow.

Kate and Josh out in our front yard.

Carter throwing his first snowball ever.  We had snow in Georgia exactly a year ago, but he was only 14 months old at the time, so he didn't do much playing in it, and doesn't remember it anyway!!

Bailey LOVES playing in snow...she had the best time!

Me and Hudson hung out together :)

We walked down to the Robinson's house to play.  The big kids wanted to have a snowball fight, so it was them against Josh and George, with Bailey and Scout trying to catch the snowballs as they were whizzing past.

Catherine working hard to build a snowman

Putting on the final touches

Love the Robinsons!

Team Reed

Christmas in Norcross

It was such a blessing to be back home for several days.  Christmas is such a special time of year!  This year was even more special to be with all our family and friends that we have missed so much!

This cracked me up.  They love to play on Mom's sidewalk because her driveway is a little too steep to ride on.  They were back and forth with such purpose that I had to take their picture.  Love the facial expressions :)

As Carter calls it, 'mugga-mugga' (aka rubbing noses)

Ah, morning time.  Love my kiddos!

Sweet Kate in her Priscilla Pig ears after riding the Pink Pig down at Lenox.  Such a fun tradition.  Josh and I both rode it as kids and now are taking our kids to ride it, although it has changed in the last 25+ years!!  Hasn't everything??? :)  

That makes me even more thankful to know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever...He is the only thing that never changes!

Here is Kate in her 'new' chair.  This is fun because it's a chair my parents bought me when we lived in Thailand.  I had it in my room as a little girl and now my little girl has it in her room at Mimi's house!

Carter in his new firetruck bed that Mimi gave him for Christmas to have at her house.  Do you think he likes it?!

Hudson has grown so much...doesn't he look like such a big boy?  He's cutting his second tooth and babbling so much.  Loves his baby food and is trying to figure out the sippy cup.  I absolutely love having a baby around the house!  He really didn't know what to think about all the Christmas activity, but he sure did LOVE being held and loved on by all his extended family!!

Here's the rest of our Christmas pics.  Too many to just post one-by-one...we'd have been here all day!  Enjoy...

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Christmas in Buford

After the whirlwind of finishing Josh's first semester of seminary and moving to our new house in Wake Forest, it was so nice to go home for a long visit with family and friends.  We split our time between Buford and Norcross (a post to come about that next!)  It was great to be back and to reacquaint ourselves with all that we have missed about being in Georgia.

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We were so excited to take part in the Jenkins' Annual Day After Christmas Breakfast!  Bowdie and Andrea have been hosting this gathering of out-of-town friends for several years now.  This was our first year to attend.  Bowdie is a pancake aficionado and we were very happy to enjoy great food and fellowship!

Here's a group shot, very nicely taken by Tori Beth Robinson.  From l. to r. Russ, Kristy and Josie Masterson; Larry and Stephanie Lyon; Becky Turner; Andrea and Bowdie (holding Hudson); Dustin, Erin and Emalyn Mattox; us; George and Catherine Robinson.  We had a blast!  

The Christmas celebration continued in Norcross.  Another post to come...

Barberito's

Our dear friends Hoovey and Stacia McGuirt have a Barberito's back home that has become an absolute "must go to" whenever we go back to Georgia.  For those who don't know what that is, 1st: I'm sorry! and 2nd:  It's yummy burritos, tacos and quesadillas.  Anyway, we have a group of friends that we've been getting together with since before any of us had kids.  We get together for Christmas every year.  This year we decided to meet up at Hoovey's Barberito's (which I jokingly call our own personal 'Peach Pit'...ha ha).  It was one of our first nights back in Georgia and was so great to just relax (as much as you can with 11 kids between the 4 families).

The McGuirts: (l. to r.) Brand-new baby Tison, two weeks old in this picture; Stacia; Claire (5); Hoovey; and James (2).  Stacia was fussing at me about putting her picture up on our blog, but she looks amazing with her brand-new baby boy!

The Mocks: (l. to r.) Christa; Will (4); Barry; Katie Beth (2).  Will Mock is one of Kate's big buddies...they were born about 3 weeks apart.  She was very excited to see him again.

The Robinsons: (l. to r.) Grace (almost 5); Lilly (3); Angie; Cory; Sarah Anne (5 months).  We have truly been blessed with sweet friends!

One family was missing this year.  The Slades usually join us, but couldn't make the trip up from Warner Robins.  Here's the annual picture of all the kids.  It's been fun to look back at these pictures from years past to see how our families are growing and the kids are changing so fast!