Sitting in the sun...

Last weekend, our family went to Georgia to see Steven's aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had a wonderful time! Here are some snapshots of Isaac and Steven enjoying the beautiful weather while sitting on his aunt and uncle's front lawn:

Pansies everywhere!

You may remember from my fall post that I love to plant pansies while breathing in the crisp, fall air. Well, over the past week, I've done just that. Here are some pictures of the pansies that are now beautifying our home:

Our front flower bed:


I found this beautiful pansie at Walmart! I'd never seen a "ruffled" pansie before!


Potted pansies to brighten up our back deck:

Pumpkin adventures!!!

Kati and I had a hankerin' for pumpkin seeds, so we got ourselves a pumpkin, carved it, and toasted those seeds!





Yum!!!

Early voting: been there, done that!

I voted on Thursday afternoon!

YAY! No waiting in long, long lines on November 4th for me! If you have done your pre-voting research and have an early voting location in your area, I'd encourage you to take advantage of it. The entire process took about 40 minutes for me, and the average this week has been a 1-2 hour wait for early voters. Of course, the closer we get to election day, the longer those waits will be. If you're in North Carolina, you don't even need to have your license or voter registration card, so all you need to bring is your list of who to vote for (unless you have all that info memorized!)

Isaac's First Steps!!!

In my last post I shared that Isaac met a major milestone yesterday, on his 11 month birthday... Well, that milestone was taking his first steps and starting to walk on his own!

Yes, that's right! He took his very first independent steps. After his nightly bath, Steven brought Isaac back downstairs to play awhile before bedtime, and he was crawling all around the kitchen. He then decided to cruise around the kitchen by holding onto the cabinets. Suddenly he was brave enough to let go and take a couple steps! We were so excited to be able to see him do this, along with our friend Joseph who was visiting with us last night. Isaac continued to take sets of three to four steps at a time for the next half hour, and once he even took 10 steps in a row and made a turn (which you'll see in the video below)! He started laughing and couldn't get enough of his new trick! It was obvious that he was very proud of himself, and we were beaming with parental pride ourselves. What a wonderful milestone to celebrate on his special day!

Here is some video footage where we caught some of Isaac's very first steps:

Isaac is 11 months old!

Today Isaac officially started the last month of his first year of life. In addition to becoming an eleven-month-old today, Isaac also met another major milestone... and we will be posting about that very soon, so stay tuned!

Here are some pictures of Isaac that we took over the past few days:

All dressed up and ready for church!


We think he likes tissues...


And looking at himself in the mirror, with crazy hair I might add...


Pure sweetness:


More sugar (100% sugar to be exact):


He loves those drawers!

Our home away from home...

This past weekend we took a trip to Blowing Rock, NC. If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know we love the mountains and like to take trips there every so often. This was quick one-night trip to celebrate Steven's birthday!

As always, we had a wonderful relaxing time.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

The beautiful fall foliage:


Isaac eats tomatoes, peas, and a little tiny bit of pizza at the Mellow Mushroom:


Isaac LOVES tissues:


Our little cutie:


Isaac and me at the Moses Cone House on the Blue Ridge Parkway:


The three of us on the Parkway:


Back at home in our matching souvenir shirts from the Boone Old Navy:



FUN, FUN, FUN!

Steven and Betsy sitting in a tree...

Today is our four year anniversary. Steven and I were married on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October 2004. We had dated almost 6 years before and were excited to start our journey together as a new family. We honeymooned in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida (near Miami) and started our marriage living in apartments in the southwest part of town. Since that day, God has grown us closer and blessed us with a beautiful marriage. We truly are best friends and soulmates, and we are very thankful that we are able to spend our life together.

We woke up this morning and wished each other a "Happy Anniversary" and then started chanting "Four more years, four more years..." Hmmmmm...maybe we've seen a little too much political TV recently! Seriously, though, we are committed to each other for the rest of our lives, and we are VERY excited to see the things that God has in store for our family in the coming years.

I thank God for giving me a truly amazing husband and for giving us an unquenchable joy in our relationship.

Here are some pictures to enjoy as we reminisce...

One of our engagement pictures (photo was taken by my cousin Shannon - a wonderful photographer!)


Our First Christmas as a married couple (December 2004):


Our First Anniversary (October 2005) at Cherry Grove Beach, NC:


Under the sea in Aruba (July 2006):


Our Second Anniversary (October 2006):


Our "Babymoon" in Aruba (July 2007):


Our first baby shower (October 2007):


Lovebirds, always (May 2008):


YAY - it's our anniversary!!! And YAY - no cooking and cleaning dishes for me tonight!!! :)

Betsy's latest project

My latest project has been spray-painting our front porch rockers. I chose a chocolate brown color to cover the white because it matches our front door and I just love chocolate brown. I actually mainly just love chocolate, but that's another post...

Anyway, throughout this project, I learned a few things:

1. Spray-painting is much harder than you'd think.
2. Spray-painting will make you think you have permanently paralyzed your hand.
3. Spray-painting takes a lot longer than you'd think.
4. Spray-painting in flip flops will cause your feet to turn a light shade of the spray-paint color. For a LONG time. It doesn't wash right off. So unless you want to be green or purple or red or whatever color you're spray-painting, wear close-toed shoes!!!

I really could go on with more of my spray-painting epiphanies, but I'll spare you those details. Wouldn't want my readers to think I'm completely ignorant when it comes to around the house crafts...

Anyway, here is a picture of our front porch with the 'new' chairs:


See that mum? Welcome, Fall!!!

Our little toothbrusher!!!

Isaac loves to brush his teeth! Hopefully he'll have cavity-free teeth like his Mommy (keepin' my fingers crossed!) :)

Birthday Boy!!!

Happy Birthday Steven!

Today is Steven's birthday and I want to give a shout out to him on his special day! Steven, you are a dream come true for me, and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for being the incredible husband and father that you are, and thank you for leading our family in the ways of the Lord.


Isaac and I are SO BLESSED to be able to share our lives with you!

And another shout out - to my mother-in-law Sarah. Sarah, thank you so much for raising such a genuine, honest, thoughtful, and loving son. Thank you, also, for sharing him with me. We love you and honor you on this day, the day you brought Steven into the world! Thank you!

Just a quick note...

Keep a lookout for these words to soon appear on our blog "He's taken his first steps!" Isaac is "walking" more and more confidently each day as he uses anything and everything to help hold him up. He has taken half steps on his own, but we're still watching out for those precious first few "real" steps!

Also, he is learning so quickly about how things work! In the bathtub this week, he showed us that he could take the cup (that we use to rinse him off) and fill it up with water and then pour it on himself! It was so adorable to watch!

We are heading to Blowing Rock for the weekend to celebrate Steven's birthday!!! Hopefully we'll have some great pictures to share when we return.

Birthday Girl!

Today is my birthday, and it's been a wonderful day!

It started out with spending time with my little boy, eating breakfast, cleaning the house (yes, I did clean house on my birthday... Mondays are cleaning days... gotta keep my momentum going!), going to the library, taking naps... Then Steven, Isaac and I went out to eat for dinner, which was delicious and especially wonderful because I didn't have to cook or clean up!!!

Earlier today I reflected on all that has happened in my life over the past year. It's certainly been an amazing year for me! Here is the abridged version of the list I jotted down in my personal journal:

Since October 6, 2007, I have...

- Had first baby shower EVER (10/6/07)
- Had first baby EVER (11/21/07)
- Had first baby with no drugs (I have to remind myself of this - it was a goal that I worked towards and was able to accomplish, with God's help and His strength...PLUS an AWESOME husband who was the Birth Partner from heaven.)
- Became a mom for the first time
- Resigned from my position at Premier, Inc to become a stay-at-home wife and mom
- Started to learn what it means to be a "homemaker"
- Started to actually plan meals for my family that aren't wrapped in Chick-Fil-A bags
- Learned to bake my own bread
- Watched Isaac grow SO FAST as he learned to eat solid food, roll over, stand up, crawl, babble, say "da-da" and "ma-ma"...
- Grown spiritually and emotionally like never before
- Grown physically like never before (but now I am trying to shrink like never before...)

This year has been a wonderful year of growing our family and growing my character. I believe God uses parenthood to teach us how selfish we really are, and He gives us an opportunity to let go of that selfishness by loving our children. For me, this has been a year of letting go of what is "known" and "comfortable" in order to venture into uncharted waters. Although I'm not one who adapts to change too quickly, or too well for that matter, this adventure has been more incredible than I ever imagined, and I am looking forward to what the next year of my life holds.

I thank the Lord for another year of life, and I pray that this next one will be full of His awesome plans for my family and me.

In conclusion to this birthday post, I would like to honor my parents, Glenn A. Gurley, Jr and Robin Dorsett Gurley. Thank you, Daddy and Momma, for bringing me into the world and loving me so much for every moment that I've been alive. I love you both beyond what words can describe. May the Lord richly bless you for parenting me with the love that comes from Him alone.

Boy, were we hot back in the day!

Hope you enjoy these pictures of Steven and me!



They were created on Yearbook Yourself, where you can see what you would have looked like (or did look like) in the years between 1950 and 2000. Trust me, it's worth doing, and you'll have a blast looking at all the different pictures of yourself! If you do decide to do this and blog about it, please comment and leave your blog address so that we can join the fun!

Isaac is 10 months old!

Well, a week and a half after Isaac's 10 month birthday, I am getting this post up!

Isaac turned 10 months old on Sunday, September 21st. Recently he has started doing these things:

* "clucking" his tongue (super-cute!) He will do it when we do it, as well!

* "singing"; whenever Steven and I start singing a song, or whenever he hears the our church family singing a song, he starts to let out a long "ahhhhhh" as if he's singing right along!

* standing on his own much more often

* waving "bye-bye" occasionally (and he does the backward wave right now!)

* fussing when I leave the room or leave him with someone else for a while (separation anxiety)

* "talking" a lot more; he says "da-d", "ma-ma", "mah-th" (more), "dog" (said this one for the first time yesterday!), and then he has his own babbling that we can't quite understand yet ;)

He is too active to take comparison pictures in his crib now, so we just took some snapshots of him last week:

In his pack-n-play with his pal, monkey:


Big boy in his high chair:


Our sweet little one: