Mardi Gras

The Girls went to their very 1st Mardi Gras parade. We went to the parade on Dauphin Island. Jack's parents live there so we had a great place to stay and relax while everyone tried to get off of the island after the parade ended. I think the girls had a great time, they sure got a lot of good throws! Ashlyn was a little frightened at all the stuff being thrown at her! I found myself standing over them with my hands above their head while the floats went by.





Nathan was crazy with his sign. He would go right out into the road and get the attention of whoever was throwing to see the girls! He did a good job because they ended up with a lot!

A Whole Year

Here are some highlights of our 2009 year. Maybe the next post will not be a whole year later!






Our family Christmas Picture!






Moving back to Mobile, I have been re-inspired to continue with my weight loss. I'm thankful for my parents who have always had a very active lifestyle.


















I ran my first 5k Senior Bowl race in November and are planning on running in the 10K Azalea trail in March of 2010!











Picking out a pumpkin in October.






We had to live with my sister Tonia and her husband until we could get settled. Here are the girls eating some Krispy Kreme donuts at their house.



In July we moved to Mobile, AL. Here is a picture of me with my grandma and my girls saying goodbye.
Just a darn cute picture of the girls in some new dresses. Taken in June.


















We celebrated Ashlyn's 3rd Birthday indoors. We had a outdoor party planned but it rained us out.



Here we are in April. Our whole family got to go to Rome, GA for the Bates Reunion. My dad's parents finally got to meet my girls!




March 2009
Ashlyn and Hadley are at a Birthday Party here sitting on the steps of a slide.

Happy Birthday Hadley

Wow! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. I am happy because I have a healthy one year old, but sad too because I miss my little baby. Hadley was the perfect baby. I was and am so blessed to have her as my daughter. Here are some pictures from her 1st Birthday party.

Mary had a Baby Boy

Ashlyn was "Mary" in her Mother's Day Out Christmas play. I was so proud of her. She did a great job. She stood there still and quite and held her monkey, who played the part of "Baby Jesus".

"Pink"

Just look at my little girl. She did a good job putting her make up on huh?

I got the girls ready and left them to play while I finished getting myself ready before we went to chick fil a for lunch. I could hear Hadley playing in her room with a toy, but Ashlyn was quite. I started to look for her and had to call her name. She was in her room sitting in a chair in front of her mirror with a pink marker. My mouth just flew open, and this was her only word of defense "pink". I just said, "yes", "pink". She followed me to my room so I could take her picture. I had to remember this. She loves to watch me put my make up on so I guess she just wanted her own makeup on.

Family Time

In the meantime while my grandma was in the hospital my mom, dad, and sister from Mobile, Al came up to be with my grandma. They stayed with us and boy was it a nice visit. You can see that we finally got a picture with the grandparents with their grandgirls!! Ashlyn has never been one to cooperate for pictures, except for Aunt Tonia's camera. She always cheeses for that camera. Here is Tonia taking a picture of herself with Ashlyn. It's such a cute picture!

A Scary Day

It was a Wednesday morning when I was coloring with markers with Ashlyn and Hadley was taking a nap. All was quite in the house when my mom called. I knew something was up because I had talked to her the day before. She wanted to let me know that my grandma (her mom) had had a stroke and was in the hospital. She didn't know how bad it was or anything. My heart sank and I just started crying. Ashlyn looked at me so funny so I told her that we needed to pray for Nenny. So right there in the kitchen floor we went on our knees in prayer for our sweet grandma who needed our prayers. God is so good! He heard our prayers and my grandma who could not even speak that scary day gained about 90% of everything back in just 2 short days. You can see in these pictures how happy she is to see her great grandchildren. Life is so precious and can so easily be taken away before we know it. It has really made me slow down and spend as much quality time with my family as I can.