New Baby, Showers and Sweet Kisses

New Baby: This precious baby is my new niece Kinley Ann. She was born Thursday, January 21st. She was 8 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches, I think. She is such a sweetie. I stayed with big sister Kate while Kinley was being delivered because in Georgia children under 18 aren't allowed in the hospitals. It was kind of sad that Kate was the last person to see her new little sister but she seemed fine with all the different people coming to entertain her in the meantime. We are very thankful to add another healthy munchkin to our pack of girls.

Showers: These are my best friends Brooke, Megan and Mary. They are all having babies in March and I couldn't be more excited. This is Brooke and Megan's firsts and Mary's third baby. Last weekend we gave Megan and Brooke baby showers in the same day. Megan's was a brunch and Brooke's was in the afternoon. It was so much fun and slightly exhausting, I'm not sure how the pregnant girls made it through, especially Mary who has also been working on her sister's wedding. I'm sure they were all tired but it was well worth it. It was a fun weekend getting to spend time with them and helping them prepare for those sweet babies on the way.

I have to share this picture of the cake we had a t Megan's shower. Is this the cutest cake you have ever seen or what? I love it! She is having twin girls by the way.



Sweet Kisses: Our sweet Adeline has become a kissing fool. She has been giving kisses for month or so now but they have been open mouth. Last week she mastered the art of the pucker. It is precious and she willingly passes her kisses out to anyone and everyone. We just say, "Give a kiss," or "Kisses Adeline," and she puckers up. Sometimes if you just call her name she will pucker. She is even figuring out how to smack. She is so sweet and it is so funny when she puckers and waits for someone to give her a kiss. At the baby showers she was just sitting in the crowd of people in a constant pucker waiting for someone to notice her. I LOVE IT! I cannot get enough of those sweet kisses.

A side view of the pucker

Big sister showing off her pucker

Apartment Living

I thought I had given this up completely five years ago but here we sit. I will admit is hasn't been terrible. We are living with just the basics. We have very little furniture. Two chairs, beds, TVs, washer and dryer, kitchen essentials and our lovely card table and chairs for our dinning table pretty much sums up our whole place. Oh and toys. Can't forget the toys, they scatter just the same in the apartment as they did at home. We left the majority of our furniture in Dothan to stage our house. It works out fine because the apartment wouldn't hold everything we have and now we don't have to store it. We are living pretty cozy.

The hardest part is the kitchen. It is tiny but other than that there is plenty of living space. We all stay on top of each other anyway. It is kind of nice having less ground for little Miss crawling, trying to walk, into EVERYTHING to cover. We have a nice screened in porch that we will get to really enjoy in the spring and a valet trash service that picks up my trash at my door every night. Can't beat that right. On the negative side I don't like sharing a parking lot. I like my own driveway and not having to worry about my kids and other cars right next to us. The noise is an adjustment as well. My apartment is by no means noisy. My apartments in Nashville were much louder but when you move from your own house where you know every noise and don't have to hear when other people walk or close a door in their house, it is an adjustment.

I'm pretty sure Mary Selwyn thinks this is the best place in the world to live. It has nice sidewalks for us to walk on and two huge ponds with ducks who love to be fed. It also has a fun playground and pool for those few summer months we will be here. She is going to find her next house terribly boring without all this fun stuff. Adeline, of course is happy as long as I am no more than two feet from her, so we have two happy girls. Overall, like I said this is not terrible. I can definitely stand it for 7 months. The best thing is that we are all living in one place again. That part is absolutely wonderful. We forgot just how much we enjoy each other. We have had a good amount of lookers at our house in Dothan so hopefully it will sell soon and we can save a little money while living here and shop for our new home.

The apartment was big enough for visitors this weekend. Shay was out of town for meetings and my mom, grandmother and my brother who is home on leave from Iraq came to visit.

The time has come.

The time has come for me to say good-bye to Dothan. I have been dreading this day. Actually I haven't even allowed the thought to really even cross my mind. Anytime I let myself go there the tears begin to flow. I can no longer avoid it. We move Monday so here goes nothing.....

If you didn't know, I don't want to move. Nothing against the town of Madison/Huntsville. I hear it is a fabulous place to live and I have experienced its fabulous shopping. No doubt that is a great town, one I may even come to love if I allow myself. I just can't picture myself living anywhere else but Dothan. This sounds partly ridiculous because I have only lived here for 4 1/2 years, not all my life, but if you know me, you know I become attached very easily and quickly and I have a lot of reasons to be attached to this town.

After a very brief 6 month stint in Nashville when we were first married, Shay was transferred here. This is our first "home." Yes, our first house, which is going to be hard for me to leave behind but our first "home" as a new family. This is where my children were born. That alone is sentimental for me. I will miss driving by the hospital and hearing Mary Selwyn say, "Mommy, you see that beautiful city? That's where I was born and Adeline was born." It is so sweet. (I think she calls it a beautiful city because it reminds her of the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz.)

We have met amazing people here in Dothan and developed friendships that will last a lifetime. I'm so grateful for those that went above and beyond for us and really became our family. I wish I could talk about each and every person but I can't. It would take years! I do, however, have to mention the Chambers once again. We literally would not have survived the last four years without Mark and Mitzi. I believe that with my whole heart. I cannot tell you the number of times I have dropped my kids off at her house, sometimes unannounced, or the number of meals she has cooked for us. They have done so much for us and we could never thank them enough. They have loved us and shown us the utmost kindness. They are wonderful. We love them and are going to miss them more than words can express.

This town is the epitome of "Southern Hospitality." That is the best way to describe my time here. I have learned so much about hospitality, friendship, kindness and what it means to truly love others. When I say love, I mean the drop everything to be by your side kind of love. The people in this town "do" whatever they can for you. They don't just say, "let me know if there is anything I can do," they say, "I'm here put me to work," or "this is what I am doing for you." I'm thankful for the opportunity to not only be surrounded by these kinds of people but to be molded by them as well. They have changed my view of real friendship and hospitality. These are lessons that will stick with me always.

I could go on forever. I have nothing bad to say about this town. I have been completely content in our life here. I think I will miss everything and everyone! I know the Lord has big plans for us in Madison and will provide us with friends and even a new church family that is just as wonderful. It is just hard to imagine. The biggest thing I have to remember is that Huntsville will NEVER be Dothan. I will have to remind myself daily not to compare the two towns or I will NEVER be happy. So in future blogs when I talk in comparison, please remind me to stop. Shay and I were talking the other day and we both agreed that we never thought when we moved to Dothan that we would love it this much. That we would truly make it our home and want to live here forever. So I'm sure I will be saying the same thing about our new town one day.....I am very excited to have my family reunited. That is the most important thing. We love and will miss this town dearly but will most definitely be back for regular visits!

Just a few faces we will miss. Mary Selwyn's best friend Owen

Mark and Mitzi

This is the Matthews. Mrs. Matthews and Shay's Papa, Selwyn, were first cousins. When Mary Selwyn was born she saw her name in the church bulliten and called me and said she saw where we named our baby Mary Selwyn Nichols and she had a cousin from Thomasville named Selwyn Nichols. What a small world. We have really enjoyed getting to know them. We will miss visiting and spending time with them.

So this picture is really old but it was the only one I had that included some of our favorite people.

The Thompsons

The Chavers