Merry CHRISTmas!

Well, well, here I am finally- haven't blogged in FOREVER! So sorry- we are just SUPER busy this holiday season and I simply haven't had time.

Things are going well for us. Shane's job is still going strong and prayerfully that will continue. He works really hard and often pretty late (not to mention he's there really early)- and that can be challenging- but I'm not complaining. God has blessed him with his job (and us!)

Our house is still for sale (surprise, surprise) and we will be listing it by owner soon to hopefully generate some interest with a pretty big price reduction. The market is dead - of course- but I believe in a God that can accomplish things we never thought possible. So pray for us! (Or keep praying for us I should say ;))

We are really feeling the financial pinch of carrying our mortgage- our property tax is INSANE on 5 acres and I lay awake at night worrying (despite my better judgement) sometimes about where we'll get this month's payment. But, God has been so good to us and as much as I will severly miss this place, that stress would hopefully be lessened with a sale. It has been a difficult decision to sell, when you build a home with the intention of it being your home forever- it's not a plesant experience to go through the home sale process. Not to mention pretty humbling.

ANYHOO- On to something else.

The kids are super good- Kiley started school at Concord Baptist Church in Clermont back in September and absolutely LOVES it! That's an answered prayer for sure. She has a small class with 5 boys and 4 girls- and an awesome teacher. We love you Mrs. Amy! She goes Mon-Thurs from 8:30-12:15 and would love to stay longer and go every day. Needless to say, I'm going to enjoy this phase now because I'm sure in the future that will change. She's grown up a lot in the past 3 months and sometimes I forget that she's just 4. So mature and wise she is, I've always said she's wise far beyond her years. I'm so proud of her and who she is becoming.

Tate is a little spitfire. He's still ALL BOY! Loves to play ball, kick ball, throw ball, even hit ball (with some kind of homemade bat mostly) and on occasion he's been known to play "peg sister with the ball". He seems to like doing "sportsy" stuff which means his uncoordinated Mommy is not the best one to teach him that stuff. But I try. :) He's not afraid of anything right now (that's normal right?) including jumping off anything he can get on top of, or eating anything he can get his hands on-and biting! Hopefully he'll grow out of that (right?) Overall, he is such a JOY in our lives. Happy all the time, laidback, and fun. I could just eat him up.

I hope every one of you has a blessed Christmas season and Happy New Year. Hopefully you'll find some quiet time for yourself amongst the craziness, most of all don't forget to have FUN! (Even if it does require a little eggnog (EWWW!))

Thank You, Father....

Well, I haven't written anything in exactly a month so I thought I would update this thing....:) Hmmm, whats going on...Well Kiley recently got a new puppy- a pug/terrier mix that she has since named Otis. He's a cutie and is a really good puppy overall, we are just working on getting him potty trained. ( I'll try to add some pics)

We leave for the beach in 2 weeks and I absolutely cannot wait to get away! Going this late in the summer makes it seem like we will never get there- but whenever we do is just fine with me. I think I definitely would LOVE to live near the ocean at some point in the future even if I am an old "wrinkly" retired person. :) Warm weather suits me just fine.....

We are still trying to sell our home (along with everyone else it seems)- and with only 2 showings in the last 5 months I can't help but get a little discouraged. Our realtor we are using now is the best of the best and we love her to death- so I don't feel its anything on her part- its just the economy stinks right now. (DUH, Julie) Isn't it weird/funny to think that just 2 years ago you could sell a home in a matter of weeks- and buy gas for something unheard of like $2.50 a gallon? I guess it just goes to show you how quickly things can change.....kinda scary. I just feel immensely blessed that God has blessed Shane with the job he has...I have heard some horror stories about jobless families, and that stuff is no joke, these are peoples futures, livelihood, homes, securities. Sometimes you just have to sit down and get a little perspective on things. Thank you, Father.

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is my kids. I mean, most people obviously think about their kids a lot over the course of a day. But, I received a card from someone recently and what it said really made me stop and think. In the card it said, and I'm paraphrasing, that as much as we love our children and want to protect them and do the best by them, God wants that even more for us and for them. He loves them MORE than I do.......I hate to verbalize it, but I actually thought for a nanosecond, there's no way He could love them more than I do. But He does. It's true. I don't know how many of you know this (those of you that are personal friend to us/me) But I am adopted. I never really struggled with the overall issue, but I always looked forward to the day when I would have my own "BLOOD" relatives. I know, it sounds silly and extremely shallow- and my life didn't revolve around it, but its something I looked forward to. And since Father God has SOOOO unbelievably blessed me with our 2 children who I absolutely would give my life for and then some, I sometimes try to take them back for my own and take my trust over them back from Him. Dang me and my humanness! :) But that card made me think, He loves them more than I will ever be able to, and He also loves me more than any "blood" relative ever could. WOW. Thank you, Father.

Callaway Gardens 2008

We had a GREAT time.We went with my parents (thanks Mom and Pops!) and stayed for 3 nights back in the beginning of June. I hadn't been since I was younger, but for all you families who want a fun vacation thats not too far away- this one is a great idea! I've put pics from the butterfly house on here- it was a favorite of Kiley's and a really neat place-Don't forget to check out the safari adventure while you're in Pine Mountian! You get to drive their vans thru the safari animal preserve and feed the animals- this was really neat, of course, Shane was the biggest kid of all. ( Check out Shane w/ the giraffe.....hmmm! That's great honey-now lets make out....EWW!) We had great food and there was the CUTEST ice cream shop called the Purple Cow- believe me I gained a few lbs. there :) But more than anything I think my favorite part was just hanging out with the fam. at the pool in the afternoons- Ki and I got to spend some girl time tanning thanks to Daddy (he took Tate to nap in the room) and that was such a fun time for us girls. Just hanging out talking about nothing and catching some rays! Anyhoo- summer is flying by as always. We still have our home on the market and are waiting for God's direction on that. Please pray for us in this market! Kiley and Tate are finally starting to really enjoy each other- they play a lot during the day which helps me out and I LOVE hearing how much they laugh at each other and pretend play. It's SUCH a blessing to have children. We are going away this weekend (over the 4th) . I have planned a trip for the 4 of us- to a destination that Shane has no clue about! I planned it all and will tell him where we are headed when we are headed there. This is something I've always wanted to do for him( a surprise trip)....and we'll see how he likes it. It's not somewhere far away or anything exotic, just somewhere different than home. I'll write more about it later- since I can't let the secret out yet!

Like father, like son....

So, I've written a good bit about Kiley, mainly because she's 4 and can verbalize her feelings, thoughts, etc. not to intentionally exclude Tate :) But he has his own special way to communicate with us even though his most clearly spoken words at this point are words like, "ball", "mama", "dada", "woo,woo", "meow" and so on. So as many of you parents can relate, most nights he ends up in our bed at some point. He goes to bed in his bed but rarely stays there. Well, a couple nights ago it was about 2:40am, Shanes asleep beside me and Tate had just awakened and I picked him up and put him between us. Not often does Shane snore, but he had been sick with sinus congestion and that often leads to pretty loud snoring. So Tate and I were laying there trying to go back to sleep and here Shane goes...sawing some zzzzz's. I opened my eyes because I was facing Tate (he was laying on his back with his head on my pillow) and I could see that his eyes were opened I just closed my eyes again thinking he would soon drift off to sleep despite the commotion from Daddy's side of the bed. After a few minutes of some pretty loud snoring I gently tapped Shanes leg under the covers trying to rouse him enough to get him to stop. That didn't make a dent so I decided to just ignore it -seeing he does work SOOOO hard for us and has to get up SOOOO early for work...(thank you baby!) When I did that I noticed Tates eyes were still open - at that exact moment Tate looked over at me and made this noise that sounded like he was trying to clear his throat. At first I didn't know what he was doing, but I soon caught on! Every time Shane would breathe in and snore, Tate would mimic him and make his "throat clearing" noise....It was the funniest thing! Snoring just like Daddy! :) Even funnier though, is the fact that through his own snoring, Tate's mimicing, and my "silent" laughing Shane never missed a beat......keep snoring baby....we love you just the way you are!

Out of the Mouths of Babes.....

Ok, here we go again :) Today we were leaving home to run some errands, and our big oaf of a dog was running down the road chasing a poor runner that was trying to get some exercise with her dogs. Long story short- I had to chase him down our road yelling at him like some wild country woman (ie, redneck) "Sam! Sam! stop! Get back here you idiot!" and of course he didn't listen to me at all. So the runner ran on, and Sam eventually came back to the house. When we got home from our errands, as usual Sam came running up to my side of the car to greet me. I opened my door and proceeded to say, "Sam, you are a BAD DOG! Why didn't you listen to me when I told you to come back? You are in BIG trouble!" Kiley then in her matter-of-fact voice says to me, "Mommy, you KNOW that dogs can't talk." :)

A little lighter side....

Well, in my last blog things were pretty deep and heavy- but sometimes a little break is nice. Leave it up to my precious girl to give me that comic relief. I often catch myself calling Tate , "son". For example, if he's doing something hes not supposed to I will say, "Don't do that, son!" as opposed to, "Don't do that Tate!" Well this afternoon Kiley and Tate were rolling a blow-up ball back and forth between each other, and I was sitting on the couch folding some laundry. They would roll it and laugh, and when one of them would miss or roll it too hard the other would correct them- or if it was Tate he would "babble" Kiley. Well, when Kiley rolled the ball to Tate instead of rolling the ball back he picked it up and proceeded to start biting the ball and holding it over his head. Before I knew it, my little Kiley in her "grown up" voice said, "NO Son! You roll it back to me!" Of course, he totally ignored her and kept on about his way and then she said, "Son, you better give it to me or a you'll be in the corner!" Ahem.....do you think shes heard that before? A little Mommy already! Tell him Sassy!

New beginnings.......

Today is a day of new beginnings. Everyday is , actually. As a couple Shane and I have struggles and challenges as I am sure most couples do, but because of our Savior and because we try as often as we can to go before Him in prayer we are making it. To be specifically general :) we have made some decisions that were totally and completely about us and what we "thought" we wanted. Materially, spiritually, and otherwise. And we have finally realized that doing that doesn't work. It may for a while, and you feel good for a brief period, but that fades too. You go buy that new car, you think, "this is it, this is what I have wanted since I started driving, for so long- this will fill that void, that hole I'm trying to fill." But we didn't get it. We said we were "saved" and claimed to follow Gods plan- but we were lying to ourselves. Following Him means dying to yourself everyday. Not becoming something you aren't or losing yourself and becoming empty-or some cultish mumbo jumbo- but giving up the need to control your feelings and be on that "high". By no means does that mean we are perfect or that we have it all figured out, but each day is a new beginning....a chance to fill that hole with His love, knowledge and friendship. Thank you God, for my family, friends, and our children and especially for what you have taught us- how to truly start to live.

Under the weather and outside....

Well, I got some pictures posted- although a lot of them are from '07- I'm going to work on getting some more recent ones. Today we are all at home, Tate is sick woth the coxsackie (sp?) virus- I know, it sounds pretty hairy- but it is a virus that makes sores on the inside of the throat and from what the Dr. tells me its pretty painful. It sure does sound that way! He is SOOO fussy and is not happy. Poor baby:( I hate it when your kids are sick- you feel pretty helpless. Prayerfully he will start feeling better quickly. Kiley is of course, outside with Shane helping him cut the grass. Every pretty day there is I try to take them outside because they love it so much! But since little man Tate is under the weather the best we can do today is out to cut grass :). She doesn't mind- shes with Daddy!

This is cool! Thanks Haley!

Well, thanks to Haley my sister-in-law I am officially a blogger. For those of you who do not know us, we are the Padgetts (part of them at least)- Shane, Julie, Kiley and Tate. Kiley is about to be 4 and Tate just turned 1 in February. I am a stay-at-home Mom and LOVE it- there is nothing else on this earth that I would rather be! My husband, Shane is a dental technician in Buford (we are trying to sell our house and move south if anybody's interested in living in Murrayville,GA!) and he really enjoys his job. He's been doing it about 5 years - and really likes the people he works with. Kiley is my beautiful girl- so tiny and petite, all girl for sure. Loves to pretend play and really loves anything girly. Although she does LOVE playing in the woods and running around outside with her Daddy- she's definitely a Daddy's girl. Tate is our fireball. Full of energy and raring to go all the time. He is such a cuddler- I don't know what I'll do when he gets too big for that! More than anything our family loves God and just recently have started trying to really live in His will not ours - especially financially- So for all you believers out there say a prayer for us please! It sure is true that you live and you learn! Anyhoo- time to put the kiddies to bed and watch a movie with the hubby- check back soon- I'll try to keep this thing current!