To the Love of my Life...

Tommy.... Happy Anniversary babe!! It has been the most wonderful five years. You are the most amazing man I know. We have had a long, rough year with lots of new trials you and I never imagined we would have to walk through but we have and I think we are doing a pretty good job. You have been my rock since the day we met.  When I moments where I feel weak you are always strong, when I want to let go you hold on, and when I am ready to cry you are always there to dry my eyes. There have been days where I feel lost and scared to death not thinking I can take one more step but you are always there to take my hand and tell me we can do it. I love the fact that we can laugh together and always make each other smile. We have the most beautiful family and I am so blessed to have them and you. I love you with all of my heart..

Random Happenings..

I realize I haven't posted in a while and so I am just going to post all of what we have been doing over the last month..

Halloween 2011

The Princess, Great White Hunter, & Little Giraffe

Sweet Gracie after her November Treatment

Sweet Sisters

The turkeys we made...

Our place settings for everybody

The Newest Addition to the Martin boys Thanksgiving Tradition. Thomas & his daddy went hunting. (I will try and post a video of Thomas before they went it is so cute.)

Looking for deer with his gun. (aka foam sword)

Baby girl eating cereal.. Can't believe it is already that time

That is our November recap...

Gracie update

Today Gracie had her 5th embolization treatment and everything went wonderfully! Dr. Turner was able to shut down five more veins and from the looks of everthing there are only two more veins to shut down and we are done... Praise God!!!!! Even better news is the possibility that the veins will shut themselves down and we will not have to treat. How awesome would that be? We couldn't be more proud of our Gracie girl and all that she has been through in the last year. She is a tough cookie. Thank you for all your prayers. It means the world to us to have such a wonderful support team. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are so thankful the Lord has protected her and kept her safe through all this.

Philippians 4:4-7
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

We have learned first hand over the last year that this verse is often easier said than done. I can say that we have rejoiced in the Lord throughout this process. I wish we could say the same about not being anxious, but that is not the case. Thankfully we serve a God that forgives us as we fail and fall short everyday.

Busy Bee's

I feel like we have been on super speed alot lately. We have been going non-stop, and it isn't really that bad until you slow down and realize how tired you are and how much you have been going. I will not bore you with alot of talking just show you a ton of pictures. Enjoy...

Levi's 1st Birthday

Best Buddies

Best Friends

Gracie & Lilly doing some grocery shopping at the Museum

Thomas tasting his produce before he buys it.

Lilly & Gracie at dance class

These two girls were so stinky cute

Picnic dinner on the back porch

First time roasting marshmallows

Gracie couldn't get enough. She kept saying can I have another mallow

Bath Buddies

Lowcountry Walk for Life

The whole crew..

Making a Halloween cake with Momo

This is obviously the best part

Legare Farms pumpkin patch

Hayride

Thankful

Three great reasons to have a thankful heart today!

   This Morning I woke up with a heavy heart. I woke up this morning thinking of how much lately I have been doing nothing but asking God for this or for that and haven't been thanking him for all he has already done. Instead, of being short tempered because Annabelle was up alot the night before I need to be thankful. Thankful for her life, thankful that she is nursing and I am able to provide just what she needs. Instead of being fearful of Gracie's next treatment I need to thank God for her. She is a huge blessing. Thankful that we found out about her malformation, thankful that she didn't go into heart failure after birth, thankful she is responding well to the treatments thus far, thankful the problem will one day be corrected. Instead of always being in a hurry and having the mind set, "Just let me do it cause I can do it quicker", be thankful the kids want to do things for themselves and want to help me do things. Yeah, it may take ten times longer but that's okay.

 Philippians 4:4-7
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful singing." Psalm 100:1-2

"I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High."
Psalm 7:17

"Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

   On a side note last week we had a meeting with Gracie's surgeon Dr. Turner. He told us that something did change on her MRI we had recently since the last one we had in July. One of her jugular veins that he tried to go in and open up but had already closed off and shut down is now opening up by itself. He told us not to get our hopes up that it will probably close back off. Well, I chose not to think that way, I choose to believe that it was not just a coincidence that God is bigger then that and he had his hand on her. Pray with us for her upcoming treatment on November 2nd. Pray that the jugular will continue to open and she will respond well to this treatment unlike the previous one.  Thank you all.

My little Pumpkin

Well this didn't turn out exactly how I had pictured but it was still really cute.

Carving a Pumpkin with Momo and Allie

Pops & Annabelle

Yay.. Another win for our Tigers

This Pictures for you Uncle P.J. Good Luck with midterms this week. Can't wait for you to come home this weekend :)

My Little Pumpkin

And we are over it...