Monday, January 28, 2008

The Whirlwind that was the Holidays!

Wow! What a crazy few weeks we had in December. It all started with a 50+ person white elephant gift exchange! Talk about wild. I was given the emcee duties and had a blast calling the shots as the wacky gifts kept coming. We also got to go to a wedding. Our new friends Chris and Amy got married in Virginia and we made the trip up for the special day. We have felt so blessed in Knoxville in that since we've been here we've been witness to so many huge life events - baptisms, babies, and weddings!

The craziness continued as my parents came into town for Christmas, so we got to spend the day with both Allison's parents and mine. We had a great time, ate some great food, and had a lot of fun going to church together, eating out, and opening presents. After that we headed down to Atlanta to see my brothers (Matt & his wife Bobby and Britt) and our nieces (Kaitlyn, Anna, and Lauren). How much fun it was! I think after all the company in Knoxville and playing a jungle gym in Atlanta Allison and I were about as spent as we could have been though!

For New Years we went to Raleigh to visit our friends (Adam & Steph Parken). People came from across the nation - Knoxville (us), Boston (Big Mike & Beth), and San Antonio (Dave & Beth) - to reunite and have a blast! We played a lot of Nintendo Wii and Killer Uno. Pair that with a fantastic meal and some awesome fondue and it was a night to remember.

And after all that Allison and I came home and passed out for a week! Ha ha. It was wild, but fun and while I don't know that we'd be willing to do it all again I know we wouldn't trade the memories for anything.




White elephant goodness.


Kely, David and myself with Chris at his wedding.


Ho ho ho!


The dads at Christmas dinner.


The whole fam!


My brothers Britt and Matt being really intelligent with me... intelligence is typically not a big part of us getting together. Those are our Christmas presents on our head.



Lauren, Anna, and Kaitlyn... so beautiful and so much fun!



New years Eve with the girls... the guys in an intense game of Wii bowling.

Babies

So... it's been a while. Allison put me in charge of this posting business and so far I've been less than consistent. So if you've been wondering what's been up with us over the past few months here comes a blitz of updates.

Firstly, we have had a few babies born in our midst. In November Jarrod and Jen Justice (ACC's college pastors) had a beautiful baby boy, Liam Enoch. Our friends Wes and Sarah Ireton also welcomed a new life into the world, a baby girl named Elliana (Ellie) Rose. It was a really cool experience to welcome these tiny miracles into the world during the season we remember that God himself was once a little infant. Personally, I had never met anyone so young! I got to see both babies in the hospital just hours after they were born. It truly is a miracle!

Here are a few pics of the little ones and their parents:

Baby Liam


Here with new Dad, Jarrod (no pics of Mom... I heard they don't appreciate post birth-giving pics too well!)


Here are Mom and Dad with Liam back in the hospital just 2 weeks later to welcome Ellie into the world!


Beautiful Ellie!