Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

As promised in my Christmas cards, I said I would blog and update all those who are wondering on what is going on with us! 2010 has been a crazy year! Lots to update you on, and lots of family changes! And may I add....I FINALLY UPDATED MY BLOG LAYOUT!! FINALLY!!!

The biggest new is .....in August Nathan lost his job at Regions bank. To say the least we were shocked, and caught off guard. Financially we were good because we have been saving for a day like this, but emotionally we were drained because we were both so shocked and worried about the "unknown."

Long story short, after being unemployed for four months, we are celebrating that Nathan has found an amazing job with the State of Georgia, working with the Department of Community affairs. He will be the project manager for the "Hardest Hit Fund" which is a federally funded program that provides mortgage payment assistance to unemployed borrowers in states with sustained unemployment rates for the past 12 months. He starts this Thursday, and he is so excited. I am so VERY proud of him for being so optimistic and upbeat through out this process. Besides the job hunt, Nathan is still really active in our church. He is the head of the finance team, and is involved with a Men's Bible study group. He is also involved with the Jefferson Rec department and coached two seasons of soccer and basketball. It was hard at the time to look at his unemployment as a blessing, but in reality, it REALLY was. It gave us precious time to spend as a family and a couple, and most importantly, Nathan found a dream job that he is excited and passionate about!

Now on to my favorite boy.....Wesley!! FIVE YEARS OLD!! SO grown up, and the sweetest boy you'd ever meet. He has such a tender heart and a love for God. He is doing fabulous in his new school, and I am so glad we switched schools. This school has been a perfect fit for him, and I love it! He started reading a few months ago, and has caught on really

quickly. Last week he had his Christmas show at school, and played the part of Joseph,and he did great! He is still playing basketball and soccer, and is dying to play football next year. Because of his birthday, he missed the Kindergarten cutoff, but I am treasuring this time together, and love having him in half day school. I am starting to research and seriously consider homeschooling him. There are so many reasons, and I am so on the fence about it! It's a big responsibility and a big decision, so I am just praying that God will reveal His plan to me, and guide me on that choice.

Now on to my sweet and precious Allie. She is now 18 months, and so much fun. If I could keep her this age forever, I would. I can not believe how opposite my children are....but they are! Allie is fearless, funny, and SO talkative. Wesley at this age was shy, timid, and hardly saying a thing! Allie is a very easy baby, a great sleeper, good eater and pretty passive. I would hear of

these easy babies (Wesley was very schedule driven, and pretty busy) and wondered if they actually existed...but they do, and I have one! I enjoy having my girl time with her in the mornings while Wesley is at school, and I dread the day that she has to go to school! HA! Allie LOVES ELMO!!! Elmo, Elmo, Elmo is all I hear about!! She also loves her babies, and loves playing dress up. She also like to "cook" in her kitchen, and bring you things to eat. I ask myself daily what I did to deserve these two sweet kids. I feel so blessed and honored to have them. They fill me with so much joy.

I turned 30 this year! This has been a good but hard growing year for me. I feel so much more focused on what matters, and I think most importantly I have learned to separate my

shortcomings from my identity and let Jesus be the only measure of my worth. It hasn't been an easy process, I have had to get really honest with myself. I am learning though that I don't have to be perfect for people to love me....the people who really love me accept me and my shortcomings. On another side note, I have also lost 30 pounds this year! I am hoping to lose another 20 pounds this upcoming year. It's not easy or fun, but I am trying to make lifestyle changes that will help me. I am still working at my church as the children's minister, and I love it. The program is growing, and we are constantly making it better and adding new things. It's very exciting, and I am so lucky to have a job that I love and have fun with. This year we had a very successful VBS with over 50 children that attended! My Mommy friends keep me busy during the week with play dates and stuff, and we usually squeeze in a girls night once a month which is great. We have also become close friends with our neighbors across the street who have a 16 month old little boy. It's really nice because our baby monitors reach, so we had a lot of fires together this summer and Fall!

My Mom and Grandparents who live a few houses down are still doing great. This year my Aunt and her daughter moved in with her. It's a full house, but we love having them close by, and I am so lucky that my children get loved on my family all the time!!

Little old UCF is playing in the Liberty Bowl against Georgia on New Years eve in Memphis. I am so excited because we are going with my brother and my SIL!! GO KNIGHTS!!!

I am working on uploading pictures to Kodak....but here is a little slide show of our year. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!!