Our 2007

We look back at the blessings of 2007 with such a thankful heart.
Of course, our greatest blessing was the birth of our youngest daughter, Chandler Grace, who we are all in love with! Our oldest child and daughter, Kennedy turned 4, and started preschool. She also took ballet and tap for the first time. And our only son, and second child, Jackson, turned 1! Jackson and Chandler had a lot of "firsts" this year. As for me, I have had the privilege of learning to juggle 3 children. Jordan, over the past 5 months, has lost over 40 pounds with hard work and dedication to exercising and eating healthy. We are so proud of him getting healthy to hang around and take care of all of us!
Jordan and I had the milestone of celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. I've said it before-best decision I've ever made!

The thing Jordan and I are most thankful for this year is our big family-one we have always dreamed of. It took a long time to get here! Our road consisted of 7 years of trying to have a baby, 2 failed IUI's, many procedures, a miscarriage scare and 4 surgeries. Now, looking back, we see how everything worked together to make sure we got our Kennedy, then had our Jackson and now our Chandler! These children are our everything and mean the world to us. They are our heart and make our days and year better because they are here. 2007 was a great year and we are so thankful for all of the blessings God has granted us!

Harr Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family history

Well, I'm not sure how accurate this is, but we've had a lot of fun doing it-thanks, Jodie! It has Chandler looking more like me, Jackson looking a little more like Jordan. So we put it to the test and Kennedy looking equally like us!! Jordan, Kennedy and I got such a kick out of that! We thought that was so funny! We should have known something was off when it had Jackson only looking 4% more like Jordan-I was waiting for the 100% to pop up! Still, tons of fun! Below are Kennedy and Jackson's meters.

Harr Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Vintage photos

Harr Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

Jackson 19 Months

Another special thing about Christmas this year was that Jackson was 19 months old! He is just doing so much! He is very independent and is very much a little boy! There is something about having a son! It is so neat-and so different than having little girls. He is the comedian of the family. Always cracking us up with the funny things he does-and he knows they are funny! And quite the dare devil. He's not afraid of anything. Kind of hard on Mama, but I'm getting better at it. He's also the most sensitive, sweet and loving little boy. Of course, he has all of our hearts. He adds such a unique dimension to our family and we cannot imagine it without him. Like the other 2 he was definitely meant to be! Jordan took him to get his 18 month shots yesterday (12/28) and he was a champ. He cried only a little during the shot, but Jordan said he quit right after. Jackson weighs 29 pounds! Jordan said he did great and was so excited and seemed so proud that he got to take him for a change. He adores his daddy and his daddy adores him! They are buddies. These girls adore him, too. Kennedy gets such a kick out of the things he does and says. She laughs at him all of the time. And Chandler gets so excited everytime she she's him. Of course, she gets LOTS of hugs from him! And as for me, well, I have the little boy I have always dreamed of. He's everything I wanted in a son. Happy 19 months, Jackson!

Merry Christmas!!!

We have been so excited for Christmas this year! It's extra fun with 3 little ones-especially when it's the first Christmas for 1 of them!
Christmas Eve morning, we started our Waffle House breakfast tradition! And who would've guessed that parked right next to us and coming out of Waffle House as we were heading in was Dale Earnhardt, JR!! One of the neat surprises one might get living in Nascar's Mooresville, North Carolina!! Christmas Eve night, Kennedy and I kept our tradition of baking chocolate chip cookies for Santa. Then, Kennedy got a surprise call from Santa! She was so excited! Then, we got the kids ready for bed.
The next morning we were ready to go! Christmas day was here! They came down the stairs, and Jordan captured their sweet faces on video and camera-it was priceless. Kennedy and Jackson lit up when they saw what Santa had brought for them. Baby Chandler didn't understand, but definitely enjoyed her gifts! She got the hand-me-down spring horse first gifted by Papa for Kennedy. She loved it! She also got Peek-a-boo blocks, phone, and a teether. So they each got one main gift-Kennedy got her Disney Princess cash register and Jackson got an air-tivity ball popper! Both a big hit!! Kennedy and Jackson each got giant stockings stuffed with small gifts, toys and candy. They loved it. Chandler will get hers next year!
We instituted the first Annual Silly String War that took place after all of the gifts were opened. Everyone got a can in their stockings! Kennedy was declared the winner but, Jackson may give her a run for her money next year! Then they had 2 "shared" gifts from Santa-a bean bag and one more.....After opening all of the gifts, Daddy said he heard Santa upstairs last night, so the kids ran up to the playroom and there was a Castle Bouncer just waiting for them!! They had a ball.
After settling down (a little!) we had Grandma's sticky rolls for breakfast. We had a big Christmas lunch and had my family's traditional finger foods for desert. It was nice to bring a little from each of our families traditions and incorporate them into ours.
We asked Kennedy what her favorite thing was for Christmas, and she said "My whole family". She has such a sweet heart and she melts ours all of the time with the things she says.
We enjoyed this Christmas so much. We've had a new baby for Christmas the past 2 years and that has been a blast. These kids make everything more special and definitely bring the magic to our Christmas!

10 Year Wedding Anniversary

December 19, 1997

December 19, 2007

Ten years ago, December 19th, we were married at sunset on Kapalua Bay Beach in Maui, Hawaii. I was 21 and Jordan was 20. Very young, but very sure. The day of the wedding, we went to a boutique, Women who Run with Wolves, and found 2 infinity bands. One was a size 12, Jordan's size, and the other a size 6, my size. And since we always used the infinity sign on our notes we took it as a sign. The ceremony was very romantic-barefoot on the beach in December-our fairy tale! Just what we wanted. We were still on our honeymoon and went to our first luau on Christmas Eve and spent our first Christmas together in Hawaii! We love our memory of our wedding. We always dreamed of returning with our family to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, but since that was not realistic for us at this time, instead for our 10 year anniversary, we each took $10 to get something that reminded us of being in Hawaii for our wedding. It was bizarre that we both did the same thing!! We each wrote 10 of our favorite memories. And even more bizarre was that they were the same memories-almost word for word! We both agreed that validates the 10 years! Jordan put his in a photo album-he did his on the computer with different things he copied from the internet that went along with each memory. I wrote my 10 things and put them in a Christmas tin, since, traditionally aluminum/tin is the 10th wedding anniversary gift. We ate a lite dinner that night, and when the kids went to bed, Jordan went and picked up Chinese food and we ate together, exchanged our gifts, and looked at our wedding photo album and reminisced. Even though it wasn't a trip back to Hawaii, it was nice to "re-visit" it together. We were so thankful for the opportunity to reflect on one of the best times of our life together. We couldn't be more thankful to be together, and to have our three precious children. We are truly blessed!