Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving seemed to come and go without me knowing it this year. I have so many blessings to be thankful of that I seemed to do a lot more reflecting this year than picture taking. The Davis' have been blessed so greatly that I want to list out some of the wonderful blessings that 2011 brought us before 2012 gets here. So here is my list:

1. I am so blessed to be pregnant with a healthy baby boy. Sam is named after the story of Samuel in the Bible. I have clung to God's promises since we lost our baby in November of last year. In fact, it was the week before Thanksgiving that our sweet Angel went to Heaven. So, despite the rough boughts with Hyperemesis Gravidum, I am so thankful for this pregnancy.

2. I am so thankful for Allie's health. This year seems to have been a year where so many families have lost children or have received unfathomable diagnoses reagrding their children. Though, my sweet and sassy princess can pack a punch every now and then, I love her strong spirit and her wit that sometimes surpasses my own.

3. I am so thankful that God brought Shaw to us safely. I am thankful that He protected Avery through her pregnancy, and though he came a little sooner than expected, God delivered sweet Shaw Michael and now he is growing by leaps and bounds.

4. I am thankful that God allowed me to chase what I thought were my career dreams, and then allow me to reprioritize and get back to teaching. I left teaching to go back to the place that I have always considered "my home." I have an unexplainable love and admiration for Arkansas Children's Hospital. I have always said that it is where I wanted to spend my nursing career. So, when an education job opened up on the team led by my first boss at ACH, a lady that I have the upmost respect for, I couldn't get there fast enough! I worked there for 6 months and I can't explain the reason, but my heart was not in it. The hours were longer which took away time with John and Allie, and I didn't wake up every morning ready to go to work like I had as a new grad first working there. I began praying long and hard about what these things meant. Through that process, God showed me that my Career is in nursing education, but my Heart is at home with my family. God also moved mountains and allowed me to return to Baptist, back to teaching, which I thoroughly enjoy, and back to a mommy-friendly schedule.

5. I am so thankful for our Church. We have an amazing Church with a passion for serving the Lord. I have the awesome pleasure of walking through this life with a group of believers who pray for each other and lift each other up in ways that I have never expereinced before. Our Sunday School Class is full of wonderful Christian families that we get to laugh with and sometimes cry with. I have had the pleasure of surrounding a family in need and laying hands on them with prayer, and I have had the pleasure of being the one to be prayed for. I am so thankful that Allie is growing up learning about Christ. This year, I am blessed to have my Mom join our church. I cannot say in words what Geyer Springs First Baptist Church means to me!

Obviously, there are many more things that I am thankful for like my family, my amazing husband, my own health. I could write about God's blessings forever and never say enough, so I will leave you with the few pictures that I did manage to take during Thanksgiving:

 3 Generations of Hale men

 The only pregnacy/belly picture taken thus far

 Allie loves that sweet Shaw Man!

Sweet, Sweet, Sweet!

 

Fun at Nana's

Allie's Nana lives in a small town about an hour away from us. We love going to visit Nana because we get to go four-wheeler riding and build bonfires and just have a lot of outdoor fun. Fall is our favorite time to visit, mostly because it is my favorite time of year, but also because it is cooler and we usually spend every hour of daylight outside. One weekend when we were visiting Nana, we got the idea to camp outside. Yes, that's right, like in tents! Allie's cousins Matthew and Lyndsey live next door to Nana, so we built a big bonfire, set up 2 big tents, and slept outside. ALL OF US: Me, John, Allie, Nana, Uncle Michael, Aunt Nicci, Cousin Keith, Matthew and Lyndsey. Now, to say that we stayed the "Whole" night would be sort-of a lie, but Allie and John made it "most" of the night. Me and Nana made it until about 11:00. I'll blame that on being pregnant! Here are some pictures from the Griswald Camp-Out 2011:

 Allie and Lyndsey testing out the tents

 Gotta make sure that we surround ourselves with "The Girls"

 I know that this is not a great picture....but if you know Nana, this picture is worth a thousand words! That's the boss there in the Moo Moo. Notice Keith and the other men are gracefully taking orders on how to set up a tent from The Nan!

 Loving on "Unlce John" Ha! That's what Allie starts calling her Daddy when she hears Lyndsey calling him that!

Sweet Dreams!



Halloween 2011

Once again, I find myself playing catch-up with the blog. To be honest, I felt so bad during the first half of this pregnancy, that I am playing catch-up in most areas of my life these days.

Halloween was super fun for Allie this year. This year was the first time that she looked forward to dressing up and going Trick-or-Treating. We had trouble deciding on a Character to go with, but I found this costume on the Disney website and fell in love. Here are some pictures of our Fairy-filled Halloween...

 She was so proud of how she looked.

 Here was Allie at her Halloween Party at School

 Allie and her bestie Bella

 It took awhile for Allie to decide that she and Bella didn't have to be dressed alike.

 What would a Halloween be without trick-or-treating at Miss Bridget's?

 Visiting with one precious ghost..... Baby Linlee

I was not sure how this would go, but after the first house when they made such a big deal about how pretty she was, she totally OWNED this Trick-orTreating thing! We worried that she might continue the practice even after Halloween, but so far, so good on that one!