Tuscaloosa

We pass through Tuscaloosa every time we go to Mississippi to see family. When the tornado touched down last month, I knew I wanted to do something. We got friends from MOPS, church and work involved and started with this:

 Next, I made over 35 beauty kits with nail polish and other goodies. We also had toys, toiletries, a birthday party kit (ready to go with a candle, disposable camera and decorations) and gift cards. Our friend Jill Bender suggested that we take things to the Salvation Army at McFarland Mall, and they were happy to receive our donations.

 On a short drive through town, we took some photos (all from the car, some are a little blurry). CVS pharmacy is open, working out of a trailer.

 Check out the tree on the right.

 It's a very sad day when you cannot get to Hobby Lobby! (Stacy Nowell will appreciate this!). Seriously, the devastation was amazing. One side of the street, by University Mall, was fine and across the way it was a mangled mess.

 A sidewalk on the main drag. One month later, there is still debris everywhere because there was so much of it. Our prayers go to those working to rebuild Tuscaloosa!

Check out www.RecoverTuscaloosa.com.

Preschool Graduation

Brayden graduated from preschool on Friday! We love our daycare and he's going to miss his teachers: Natasha, Dana and Luke. The kids sang some adorable songs, got diplomas, and we had a pot-luck lunch. Kindergarten, here we come!

13 weeks old

3 months old

 Bristol is 3 months old and we celebrated her Baby Dedication at church this weekend.

 

3 sweet babies, all with the middle name of Grace! Our church has had a baby boom lately- 11 babies due/born between December and June after almost a year without any newborns. I'm looking forward to watching Bristol grow up with all of these new little friends.

Not happy about the weekly photo session, but looking adorable in a hat from my friend Alissa

 

She looks so grown up in this picture!

 

Fun Outside

Fun at the park with melting ice cream cones

 Fun at a spring festival in the bounce house with a slide

 Fun sharing a hamburger and kettle corn

 Fun riding in our first horse-pulled wagon ride (we're used to a tractor)

 Fun in a canoe with Daddy

 Fun being super cute

 Fun with friends

We've been having so much fun outside!

The Best Proposal Ever!

I heard on the radio last week about the "best proposal ever" where a guy made a fake movie trailer that was shown at the movie theater. Yes, that's lovely and sweet. But, actually I had the best proposal ever!

Kenny and I met at MSU Dance Marathon my freshman year when I was 18. He was dating someone else at the time and I stalked him waited patiently until they broke up and he asked me out. We had our first date at Old Venice and dated for two years before we ere engaged.

Kenny was working at MSU in the skyboxes and I was a student worker there as well. He had gone to Atlanta to work the SEC tournament and was supposed to be home that day in December. I was in the skybox office in the Humphrey Coliseum working and he called to tell me he had to stay an extra day. He said there were some great pictures of the event on this website and gave me an address. When I pulled it up there was a picture of him on the phone, asking me to marry him! It said "if yes, click here" and then showed him at the center of the basketball court and said "come find me." I turned around to find his co-workers, our friend Robyn and Jill, with camera and video camera in hand, following me as I tried not to fall down the stairs. When I got down to where he was, he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said "yes!"

He had done all of this work in advance getting the photos, creating a website, organizing for our friends to document it. Everything was perfect!

We were married just over a year later, January 4, 2003.

Splish Splash

Today we went to the park and had such fun playing in the water! At first, Brayden didn't even want to walk in water to cross a small puddle to get to the playground. Then he spied the lake-sized puddle and asked if we could walk through it. We rolled up our pants legs, took off our shoes and waded on it. They had such fun and ended up completely soaked!

Tonight we saw a beautiful rainbow and talked about how God promised never to flood the whole earth again by giving us the rainbow.