It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Our Christmas Tree, 2010

Justin and I had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday in Shelby, NC this past weekend. After a hiking trip with his friend Walter and the dogs, Justin and I met up in Shelby Tuesday night to start off a great trip home. Jillian and Phillip came to Shelby for a visit on Wednesday, which was great. We did a little shopping and had a great lunch, but most importantly, it was so nice to spend some time with them! Oh, how I miss my baby sis!

On Wednesday night, we all decided to go see a movie so Justin, Derrick and Cody went to see the new movie with the Rock in it. They seemed to enjoy it. However, Gina and I went to see "Love and Other Drugs" with Anne Hathaway and Jake Gellenhall. We both were really pumped about it. Though I really did like the story line, there were the most innappropriate amounts of nudity and cursing. I mean, they must have said the "F" word 500 times and I'm talking almost full frontals of women. It was terrible. At one point, Gina and I were going to walk out. I would not recommend this movie to anyone unless you are desiring to watch soft pornography. Looking back, we should have walked out. We pretty much covered our eyes for 1/2 of the movie.

On Thursday, we had a great lunch at Mamaw Evelyn's and then dinner at the Dellinger's. Justin's family is really big and it's always fun to spend time with them and catch up. Friday was a good "lazy day" watching football (Go Tigers I might add!) and hanging out with family. We also went to the Shelby High School football game that night with Justin's family...they're off to the state semi-finals next week! Go Golden Lions!

When we got back on Saturday, I really wanted to go ahead and decorate....our last Christmas without little ones. So we did and above you can see a picture. I am really excited because the first 2 years or our marriage we just had a little tree and this year we have a big one, with all the ornaments Gina has gotten Justin through out his whole life. Each ornament represents a different special thing in the year it represents, so that's very special. :)

Lastly, to end our Thanksgiving break with a bang, my sister called me yesterday to tell me that her and Phillip are engaged! I am very happy for them and pray God' blessings over them as they enter this new season of life!

So, now that Thanksgiving is over, it truly is ONE OF the most wonderful times of the year...

My Silly Students

I guess you could say that I have really "popped" in the last 3 weeks. I am officially 23 1/2 weeks pregnant and until about week 21, I could tell I was pregnant, but everyone else insisted that there was barely a bump. Well, Jude is definitley growing. At my last appointment, I was measuring perfectly and was right on target for healthy weight gain. Most importantly, Jude's heart beat was healthy and he's definitely moving around like crazy. You can see my stomache move and it's so neat to think about who our sweet son will become and how God is going to use him.

Any who, last week I wore a fitted shirt that really showed off my growing stomache and one of my students decided to tell me, "Wow. Mrs. D! Your baby is really growing!" It was too funny!

Jude is very low. Pregnancy has really shown just how long waisted I am. Most people by the 5th month have their belly button protruding and I'm into my 6th and it's not even 1/2 way out. Like I said, I'm measuring perfect, so it's not that I'm smaller, it's just he has a lot of room before he get's into my ribs.

I apologize for a lack of pictures. My camera broke and I'm hoping to get one at Christmas. Mom took pictures of me at 20 weeks when they visited, but has yet to send them to me. Hopefully, Jillian will take some on Wednesday and I can share then. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Birthday Jamen!

My cousin Jeff, who has always been like a brother to me and a great friend, and his wonderful wife whom I love dearly, Gerri Le, had their first son early this morning! Jamen Alan Cantrell was born at approximately 1:30 am in Athens, TN. He weighed 5 lbs and was 18 inches long. (He was 6 weeks early.) He is doing absolutely wonderful and so is Momma!

Jeff and Gerri Le, we are so happy for you. Praise God for His unspeakable gift! What a blessing! Justin and I are so excited that Jude will have a cousin to grow up with so close in age! I feel him kicking right now as I'm typing about Jamen!

Gran Deb (aka, my Aunt Debbie, my Mom's sister) and Papa Roggie are also the proud grandparents! YAY!

Happy Halloween! (Belated)

Our Jack-O-Lantern for 2010

I really enjoy the holiday of Halloween. Though I DO NOT like scary things including costumes, movies, tricks, etc., I think that Halloween can be a fun time to let children be creative with fun costumes and socialize with the community while getting candy. There is a lot of controversy about Christians participating in Halloween, but I believe that it is something that can be very appropriate and fun for kids of all ages when taught accurately.

I'm not going to lie. I was disappointed last night! Since I LOVE Halloween and seeing all the kids dressed up and such (we have a lot of great Lamb family memories from this holiday) I cannot believe we missed out on trick-or-treating in Auburn. Our first year living here, Halloween fell on a Friday and we had plans to go to the AHS football game. Apparently, there is a big shin dig for families down town on the Thursday before Halloween that I was told took the place of trick-or-treating for most families in this community. So, just to be sure on Halloween of 2008, Justin and I lit our Jack-o-lantern, turned on our porch light, and left a bowl of candy for any kids who dropped by. When we returned home, there was very little candy missing from our bowl so we assumed that people were right and the kiddos had their fun in Auburn a day early.

Last year, Halloween of 2009, we were living in a different house much closer to down town and we were told that many families will hit up the neighborhoods after the shin dig down town. (Again, the the Thursday before Halloween that fell on a Saturday that year.) So, I went out and bought a TON of candy because I was pumped to have trick or treaters. We had 2 come by our house! Talk about disappointed. Again, the light was on, the jack-o-lantern lit, and 2 stinkin' kids.

So, this year, Halloween fell on a Sunday and we were sure no one would come by our house. The "shin dig" has already taken place for Halloween 2010 in Auburn on Thursday, so we made dinner and began to carve our jack-0-lantern for this year. Nothing lit yet (we were a little late on the carving this year) and NO light on. I'm serious, we had 15 families with at least a total of 40 kids come through our neighborhood and over 1/2 of them stopped by our house. The first few we actually answered the door and told them we were sorry, we had no candy, and then eventually we stopped going to the door. What happened? Why was this year different? The one year I could have had trick-or-treaters, no one relayed the message to me that kids were doing it differently this year and I missed out. Super disappointed. Any might I add that poor Mason was mortified at kids dressing up as "strange" beings knocking on our door. Needless to say, he did a great job protecting the fort last night.

Oh well, 3 years, no luck...next year we'll have little Jude out and about ourselves! :) And, yes we've already decided, Justin is going to be Steve Erwin and Jude is going to be a crocodile!