I've got mine..

I was reading a blog yesterday that I try to read daily and came across this little paragraph that made me smile..

..."We look for that ONE guy out there to fulfill all of our needs, right? One person. He’ll be strong and sensitive, he’ll smell good and he’ll listen, he’ll be funny and serious. And I’ll never have to ask him to take out the trash: he’ll just read my mind."...

The reason it made me smile is because after everything that we've been through lately I have realized that I have found my "ONE guy"...

He'll be strong-physically (he's got muscles), mentally (well most days=)), and emotionally (he's dealt with certain things better than I have).

and sensitive-our relationship and family means everything to him and when something doesn't go right, he gets his feelings hurt. He cares for people and animals in a way that is so precious to me.

He'll smell good-thanks to Degree deodorant and Axe body wash and spray, he smells pretty darn good. =)

He'll listen-he proved that for Valentine's Day and every day since we've been diligently working on our relationship.

He'll be funny-have you been around my husband? He keeps me laughing almost constantly. And during almost every phone conversation I have with my mother, she says "haha, he's so funny, I just love him". =)

and serious-at the same time that he's funny, he's equally serious. There are issues that he deals with seriously and he definitely takes discplining the kids (and Anheiser) seriously (an area that I do admit I struggle with).

I'll never have to ask him to take out the trash- yep, he does that one on his own. On top of the dishes, picking the kids up from day care, cleaning (sometimes), and cooking dinner (more times than not). All of which I overflow with thankfulness for and admittedly take for granted.

So, you see I do, indeed, have that "ONE guy".

Thank you, Lord, for Matt. He is so precious to me and I cherish everyday that I have with him even though we've both taken too many days the past 6 years for granted, we are learning because of You, how to savor every minute and enjoy everything. (Yes, even our uncleaned home) I am so thankful that You've restored his soul and made him my encouragement to get through situations and even my encourgament to get up and get moving when I don't want to. And while he may not be the most romantic man, You certainly have molded him to be pretty darn close and I thank You for that as well. I pray that we will continue to grow together in You and that we will, together, raise our children to serve You, love You, and to know the love You have for all of us. Amen.

Baton Rouge!

Matt and I took our 4th annual road trip down to Baton Rouge, LA this past weekend.

We desperately needed this trip and this time alone. We really had a fantastic time being with each other!

We got to Baton Rouge around 12:30 Saturday and Matt's request for lunch was Hooters. It was packed and there was purple and gold every where you looked!!

After lunch, we did a little shopping for us and the kids and then we headed to the hotel room for some rest before heading to campus.

We took a different way in to the stadium this year and it was beautiful! We had to circle around a lake and through the most adorable neighborhood and then down sorority row. We ended up parking where we did the first year. We were a lot closer to the stadium than we have been the last 2 times! Thank goodness! :)

We walked through the frat houses and looked at all of their homecoming decorations...this being my favorite. hahaha!! It was a goat that they had hooked up a hose pipe to and made it pee. It was priceless!

*Blackberry/walking away picture..sorry for the quality!*

We got there in plenty of time so we got to walk and not run through the crowd and I (to Matt's surprise) did amazingly well with the crowds. :) go me! And we had time to sight see a little bit. Everything about this campus is absolutely beautiful!!

We missed the band parade and the team coming through campus, but we also missed out on the major crowds so I was ok with it.

We also sat on the opposite side of the stadium from our norm. Instead of looking out at the Mississippi River, we were facing back towards the campus. This side of the stadium was amazing! They had elevators (the other side has escalators), these glass lookout spots (which I was unable to get too close to!), and we got chairbacks this year! YaY!

Welcome to Death Valley!!

We found out on the way down that we had a 30% chance of rain and it was cloudy most of the day so we were nervous about getting rained on in the cold! But in Tiger Stadium..the chance of rain is...Never!! If you looked up towards the lights at just the right time, you could see some sprinkles, but they never landed!! woohoo!

This chick..oh this chick! I crack up just looking at this picture! I'm convinced that her boyfriend was trying to get her drunk for his own gain, but I think it backfired! This was around the middle of the 1st quarter and she was out! She did rise again, but it didn't last long. ha!

We had a blast cheering on our Tigers to a 51-0 victory over ULM!! Can't wait for next year!! We are hoping to go to 2 games. First game of the season is at Cowboy Stadium in TX against Oregon and Matt has requested to go! And we can't miss out on our annual Homecoming game (and we are hoping to be able to take the kids next year!)

I am so thankful for my husband and the time that we get away together. I'm glad that we both have these interests and we are able to go and have fun doing the simplest things. Our relationship has really blossomed these last couple of months and my love for him has been overwhelming! (in a good way!)

Dove Hunt

Labor Day weekend was full of fun for our family!

The fun kicked off on Saturday morning when Matt, Mason, and I went dove hunting in Coosa County. There's really not much "hunting" invovled. Basically, you sit in a field and wait for the birds to fly and when you hear everyone screaming "bird! bird!", you start shooting.

This was my third adventure dove hunting with Matt, but only my second to shoot. The last time (and first time shooting) I went was while I was pregnant with Mahlon and killed 5! So, of course, being the competitor that I am, I wanted to beat that this year. No such luck, I walked away with 4 and a nice bruise on my arm. Oh well, it was still fun.

Hunting is something that Matt and I enjoy and it makes it even better when we get to do it together. It was so nice to spend some quality time together doing something that makes us happy. (Yes, I realize how horrible it sounds that killing something makes us happy, but I promise, I didn't mean it that way:)

While most of the birds either flew over our heads from the back or didn't quite make it to us (some people were better shooters than others), we ended up with 13. We didn't make the limit for one person, but we had enough for dinner last night! :)

Mason loved chasing the birds down once they were shot and if they weren't dead yet, he finished them off with his BB gun. He also enjoyed playing with his "cover". (The limb that Matt shot out of the tree). He was so well behaved and I think he had a blast!

I'm looking forward to more hunting trips with my husband this year!

Operation Home Improvement

We are finally under way! We have so many projects on our "to-do" and "to re-do" lists, but we are slowly but surely marking them off!!

I started really crossing things off a couple of months ago when I re-painted and put up a new light fixture in the hall bath, but over the weekend I got even more done! I took on our bedroom bath! As you may remember, my husband, my neighbor, and a friend of ours put in a new floor and I'm in love! In order for the floor to lay just right, we had to take the door off and we decided that we like it much better without the door. Upon painting, I knew that I wanted it to match the bedroom, so it would "enlarge the room" so to say. Half of the wall is tile and I painted that part brown (to match the rustic wood paneling in the bedroom) and the other half of the wall is a moss green...this with our light wood floor looks amazing! Sammie and I made a trip to Wal-Mart last night in search of a new mirror..no luck there..but we did come across this beautiful light fixture. It's a tuscan bronze wall mount...one of those with the three hanging lights.. oh, how I love it! Once I find my mirror, I can cross that ROOM off my list completely!!!

In our bedroom, I've been wanting to decorate. Right now, there's really no "style" in there, just things put places. Yesterday on my lunch break, I took a trip to Burke's (in search of a mirror for the bathroom..ha) and found two green candles and two brown funky tea light holders. I got all four of them for $10! I alternated them on the shelves of our dresser and talked Matt into throwing everything away that he didn't need or use everyday. It already looks so much better!! Only a few more things to do in there and I'll be happy.

I'm trying to get my energy up to paint the laundry room. I don't want to do anything drastic because it IS the laundry room, but I'm tired of looking at white walls and place where my husband "yanked" a cabinet off of one wall just to place it on the other side of the room...so that he could fit a freezer in there.. men! I'm planning on painting it a khaki color with a little bit of brown, red, and light blue accent...hopefully it'll be as pretty as I'm imagining!

Annnnnd...drum roll please...we got our quote on the roofing and siding last night!!! We are very pleased with the price and the amount of time he is expecting to take!! Wooooohoooo!! I know that it's kind of ridiculous how excited I am, but hey..it's going to look like a whole new house! I promise to post before, in the process, and after pictures!!!

So, in preparation for them to begin work, Matt decided to cut down ALL of the trees, bushes, shrubs, etc. that were left around the house. He did this while Sammie and I were gone to Wal-Mart and I fully expected him to still be working on the same side of the house when I got back 45 minutes later, but noooo..he was done!! My kids are strange in the way that they love to help take the twigs to the road....here's proof....

This isn't illegal, is it?

Sorry they're blurry..I took them with my phone!

Here's to finishing most (if not all) of our projects THIS year!!