unforgettable moments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHEN … you never don any bathing suit whatsoever … the locals are wearing uggs and toboggans … you visit the community pool and the only thing getting in is the resident frog … you are trying to find a sunny spot and no shade … you are wearing 2 pairs of pants,  4 shirts and hoods … you’re drinking coffee outside … the only thing seen on the beach is your eyes … THEN YOU KNOW you are on vacation at the beach and it is FREEZING!

WHEN … you are on vacation at the beach and it is freezing but you don’t care … THEN YOU KNOW your kids are happy and that is so what matters to you.

aunt B, uncle D and thomas

we just got back from our first just-us vacation – no parents or extra helpers. brooke, david and thomas joined us for part of the time but since they have a 2 year old of their own, can you believe they were not dedicated to our beck and call?! we loved having extended time with them and especially for the cousins to have more time to play together than they ever have. it was truly special. THANK YOU, aunt b and uncle d, for lending us your condo and making this vacation possible! we wish you could have stayed longer!

so i exaggerated a little. it was only really cold for about 4 days of our week there. those days were spent with lots of toys inside as well as finding any and all playgrounds in the area. the boys loved that! the first and last days, we did put on shorts and had some great times at the beach. we will not forget:

> experiencing the most beautiful sunsets with our children the last 3 nights on the beach  > maddox praising the Lord at the top of the hill at alys beach playground (see video)  > thomas and maddox playing with each other and not just around each other  > cora having such happy times with her aunt b  > maddox getting his clock cleaned by a slide that he whapped his head on at the rosemary beach playground. he was flat on his back and did not move for what seemed like an eternity, but was FINE about 1 minute later. whew.  > maddox running, wrestling don and throwing sand on the beach after something clicked for him and he started loving it after … um … NOT loving it back in may. THIS is what i envisioned.  > cora following in her brother’s footsteps and getting her first taste of the beach (see video)  > uncle d reading green eggs and ham  > maddox sporting cora’s pants (think tight knickers) at a playground after wetting through his. what a perk of having a skinny 2 year old who doesn’t care what he’s wearing or that it’s 50 degrees outside.

praise the lord

cora gets her first taste of the beach. [see maddox's first taste here.]

staycation

cora is napping in good hands

we had a fun filled end-of-summer which we’ll highlight in this and following posts. a few weeks ago, we had a great summer family vacation with Pops and GG. we did lots of fun things we don’t normally get to do with them.we stayed at their house,  we went out to eat, played at the great norcross playground by the huge trains, went to their amazing workout facility for 2 hours and managed NOT to workout (but we swam and relaxed! our kind of workout!), got a haircut for maddox, don and don went fishing and we grilled out. thanks for a great staycation, Pops and GG!! you babysit for us every week and you are always willing to deal with any mood or situation we or our kids decide to throw at you. you’ve been through so much with us and have given us incredible encouragement and wise guidance. we love you!

the girls!

playin in amazing pool @ lifetime fitness

strike a pose there's nothing to it. vogue.

a maternal legacy

Cora has many strong women in her family that proceed her. And she has already had the privilege of meeting them. I’m not just talking about cousins, aunts, or even grandmothers, but Cora has already had quality time with both of her GREAT grandmothers, Nana and Mimi! Here we have a pic for four generations of Alticks:

And here is Cora with my Nana:

oh, oh here s/he comes

we could not be more excited that baby T2 is coming in 2 days! since i know somewhat WHAT is required of us as parents of a new baby and i know somewhat of how i will feel about this new person, i am both more excited and more anxious than the first time through. unlike what most people say about their 2nd and beyond pregnancies, this one has seemed much longer than my first. i am absolutely DYING to know if it is a boy or girl and WHO s/he is! with maddox, i was excited, but didn’t know the magnitude of love that would occur. so, esp this last half has dragged on and on.

on saturday the 7th, i got to hold our friends katie and art’s ONE DAY OLD little girl harper. she is precious, we are very excited for them and it made us look all the more forward to ours. i have really appreciated everyone who has been encouraging and asking about us. the #1 questions are how are you feeling? and how do you think maddox will react/does he get it?

1) i am feeling very uncomfortable but good and healthy. i know the uncomfortable-ness is normal but ayayay. the pains and typical “issues” are upsetting to deal with when you are expected and want to play all day with a toddler! shout out here to dear friend courtney who annoys herself by updating her facebook status too much. ha. i know you feel me with this little answer. you have 2 more months and YOU CAN DO IT! the waiting will make it all the more sweet when larson comes to meet us all. “easy for you to say with 2 days to go” right?

2) no maddox has no idea what is about to hit him. we call the baby’s room the baby’s room, put a teddy bear in the cradle, we strapped a stuffed dog into the baby car seat, show him baby in mommy’s tummy, etc. all these little tricks! but now i just think that he thinks baby is another word for tummy. last night, however, we did get him to respond when we said “what’s the baby going to do? he might eat … he might sleep … and he might cry. what will we tell the baby when s/he cries? ‘it’s ok baby! shhh.’” so his response is now lifting up my shirt to say “hi baby” but he also pretends to cry. oh well, we gave it our best shot! i am glad though that they will be so close in age.

i was blessed to have a baby essentials shower given for me and baby T2 by my cousin melissa and sis-in-law jessica. every one of my closest friends was there and we took time to each pray God’s Word for this baby as well as for our family. it was such a special and unforgettable time.

aunt jess is always full of fun

don got baby noah to laugh for the first time! here they are with maddox.

thanks to our friends and family for your prayers for thursday at 1pm AND BEYOND. they are priceless to us and we love you!

Christmas continued

Christmas day was a whirlwind but SUPER fun. maddox liked all the hype and activity, but did not like being distracted from whatever one toy he was focusing on to open another. what a bother. we enjoyed spending Christmas eve night at GG & Pops’ house along with cousin thomas; aunt B, uncle D and nana. what a fun morning we had celebrating Jesus’ b’day (pic #3 in gallery below) then letting the chaos begin. i never knew how happy i would be seeing my kid being happy. before nap, maddox and don went out to the backyard by the river and maddox learned how to kick a ball (#6). yes, he is in his PJs!

merry christmas

then it was off to chattanooga to have Christmas on the 26th with Big Mo, Didi, Uncle Brett, Uncle Reed, Aunt Jess … Lissa, John, cousins Jacob, Sarah, Caleb and Noah … Lainey and Papa John … and great grandparents Mimi and Granddaddy!

beginning the recap

trying to catch up here before baby T2 slams onto the scene. of course, i WANT to post lots of pics and my deep feelings once he/she arrives, but judging from my record, it’s not likely.

so we had a great November. our aunt B and Pops have their birthdays and we got some great pics from those events. maddox LOVES them so much.

and beginning on Christmas… it was so fun to have maddox be involved in things like decorating (pic 2), going to Christmas parties (1) and getting hyper in the snow of ATL(3). what? you missed it? ok – well, it was fake snow at atlantic station. what a fun, free thing that was! and it didn’t hurt that it was like 60 degrees the day we went! maddox was super-hyper and we all had a great time with GG and Pops.

Santa was another story. i mean really – what 1 or 2 year old hasn’t screamed at this man? poor guy. especially ours – this is just a neighborhood volunteer! fortunately, we got a good family pic of the FOUR of us. but UNfortunately, it is now february and maddox still says HOHOHO to any man we come across with a white beard. my apologies especially to you, Mr. kind white bearded man, who we see in the kroger on johnson ferry.

TEN years ago today…

… this was the scene! >>

and here are the present-day facts:

1. it is a total miracle that God brought us two together almost 14 years ago. i could not imagine where or who i’d be without don by my side for this long. for sure i would be less funny, more uptight and more scattered. although Christ has given me my identity, He has used don to color in its lines.

2. the longer we are married, the more i love him and would want no one else. someone said, in reference to having children,  that love multiplies rather than divides  (<and that someone said it much more eloquently than that) but i feel that depth of love comes with time and commitment (kids or husband). depth does not come with certain activities or with achieving a certain thing or with romantic feeling. it is so sweet to look back on all our time together and realize i still want more. (i’m not done talking!)

3. what did we do for the past 10 years? i know what we’ve been doing the past 21 mos but the years before that are a sweet, fun, adventurous blur. the highlights were definitely traveling to peru, italy, portugal and st lucia AND working countless hours on our first and second house. if we’re good at one thing, it is working together and spending time together. that’s two things.

4. if we’ve changed so much for the better in this 10 years, i can’t wait to see who we are after another 10 years. God is really at work here and we are so thankful for that.

a beautiful thing

this past weekend was a wonderful time of celebration of reed and jessica … and of worship of the One who orchestrates and completes all good things.

lissa and i giving reed and jess their survival kit for marriage

so glad their son is now another woman’s responsibility!

and here are all the pics and captions for those who can’t get enough! fyi – these are all taken or directed by my mom who is an amazing photographer.

my little pyro

date nights are always great, but we keep coming back to our favorite one. eating dinner outside in the dark with a fire going and sitting out there for a long while. we like these nights best in the fall and winter so we can bundle up and see the stars with no leaves on the trees. we ushered fall in a little early the other night. felt brisk enough to me! we do not have a single pine tree on our property (odd for atlanta) but we have tons of hardwoods and therefore tons of dead branches that are great for fires. here’s the scene and here’s my awesome pyromaniac husband who can’t leave a fire alone for more than 10 minutes. but it was an incredible, raging fire!

almost a Rawlings

i am hesitant to start blog entries about various family members because i will inevitably not be “even” about it…will intend to write all the wonderful things about somebody… will procrastinate then forget. so forgive me in advance. ALL our family is wonderful, but i do want to take a minute to write about our newest family member. in 5 days, we’re gaining a sister-in-law! we’ve been so thrilled to spend more and more time with jessica (and reed) lately and we could not be happier that they are getting married. jessica is truly who God had in mind for my fun, spontaneous, competitive, driven, fearless, talented, full-of-life brother for all time! she is dear-hearted, easy-going and very fun as well. the first thing that endeared her to me was when she spent time with maddox when we had our family vacation at the beach. she could easily have been like “cute kid, but i’m going to lay out,” but she spent time with us and that spoke volumes, me being a quality time person. we’ve recently been to braves games, a girls weekend and they’ve been over here to dinner and to keep maddox lots. together, she and reed are going to be such a strong witness for Christ. plus, they love maddox so crazy much and that means the world to us. i am more excited about this wedding and marriage than i have been about anything in a long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!