{For SALE by owner}

Okay local blogger friends (aka: Amy, Emily, Kelly and Katie ha!) I need your help…we’re trying to sell our house by owner.  It is a GREAT house that has been very good to us, we’re just ready for an upgrade!  It has 3 large bedrooms, 1 VERY UPDATED bathroom, a remodeled kitchen, a basement, a carport, and an AMAZING yard!  Here is a picture of the outside.  If you know of anyone at all looking to buy a house PLEASE let them know about ours…I really want it to go to someone who will love it like we have :)

I am going to be making a blog specifically for our house, so once that is done I’ll post the site on here!! Thanks guys! :)

{Santa} Baby

This year Emery was VERY into Santa.  She would walk around saying “Tanta Ho Ho Ho”!  I knew that she would be very intrigued by Santa, so I was excited to take her to visit him.  We met up with the Dowdy’s and took her to Fantasy Land downtown.  It was really cute, but also very long for an almost 18 month old!  Most of her time was spent running up and down the steps (which, don’t worry, was appropriate because there was no one in the back of the room…I’m not that Mom).  Santa sang songs and told stories, then at the end you could take a picture with Santa.  Emery actually did like Santa, but she is just at the age where she does NOT want to be held…she wants to do everything ALL.BY.HERSELF, which is definitely indicated in her picture :) 

After Santa we went to Thelma’s Chicken and Waffles for the first time and it was EXCELLENT!! Oh and, Emily would like you all to know is not owned by Thelma Haynesworth.  And I would like you to know I don’t even know who that is because I am MUCH MUCH younger than the Dowdys :)

Christmas {2011}

Christmas was amazing this year!  I could go on and on about how fun it was to watch Emery, but instead I’ll just list out what we did :)

Christmas Eve:

- Afternoon we went to my Mom and Dad’s to do Christmas with my Mom’s side of the family

- We went to Christmas Eve service at our church with Brad’s family and my brother and his girlfriend.  Emery may or may not have yelled “HO HO HO” when Pastor came out dressed up as an old biblical character (in her defense he did have long white hair and a long white beard).  I LOVE our Christmas Eve service, and I love getting to see all of our church friends at Christmas time :)

- After church Brad’s family came back here and we exchanged gifts with them.

- MY FAVORITE TRADITION: Once its just our family left we get out the family Bible that I bought Brad as our wedding gift, and we read the Christmas story by candle light.

Christmas Morning:

- Emery woke up about 7:30, and we let her walk into the living room to see what Santa brought her…she was SO EXCITED!  I will NEVER forget her face. (Emery has on the pajamas that my grandmother, Grandbess, made for me to wear the Christmas that I was one…I had a baby that had matching PJ’s)

- We headed over to my Mom and Dad’s house to do Christmas with them, and eat my favorite meal of Christmas day…breakfast :)

- Came back home to get ready and head over to Brad’s parents house to celebrate Christmas with them and his aunt and uncle and cousins.

- Drove down to the lake to celebrate Christmas with my Dad’s side of the family.

- Came home and we were ALL exhausted!

A little bit of my {heart}

Teaching Emery to obey is exhausting.  Sometimes actually all the time it would be easier to just let her do whatever she wants to do.  The thought always crosses my mind “What is she really hurting April, she’s just a little girl”.  But, the problem is I’m not really teaching her so she will obey me for the rest of her life although that would be really nice, and make my life a lot easier.  You see, when I make her look at me, what I’m really teaching her is to never take her eyes off of her savior.  When I say, “Listen to Mommy”, what I really want her to hear is “Emery, don’t get distracted.  Get used to hearing your Father speak to your heart, make your heart sensitive to what he has to say.  Do everything you can to hear from him”.  By asking her to say yes m’am, I am trying to help her to one day say “yes Lord”.  By telling her “no”, I am teaching her to stay away from those things that are not of the Lord, hopefully I’m teaching her self control.  When I put her in time out, I am trying to show her that those things not of Him will hurt her, and ultimately destroy her.  And most importantly when I tell her I love her, even after disciplining her, I am trying to give her just a small glimpse of how much her Savior loves her, no matter what she does.  A glimpse of a love so vast that he sent his one and only child to this Earth on Christmas, to eventually hang and die on a cross for HER.  I so badly want her to know that even if she was the only person on the face of the Earth, he would have sent his son only for HER because he loves HER that much.  He loves her more than her daddy or I ever could, and he loves her so very well! 

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.”                  --  Ephesians 3:18  --

Christmas Card 2011

This year I was angry with Shutterfly because they did not send me the link for 50 free Christmas cards, so I was boycotting them…and I’m SO GLAD I did!!!  I ordered our cards off of an etsy shop called O Suzy Q Designs.  She was WONDERFUL to work with (she matched the colors in our card with Emery’s outfit, changed the wording just like I requested, and sent me several proofs until I was satisfied), I got 36 cards for about $36 including shipping, the quality was EXCELLENT, they came wrapped very cute with ribbon around them, and I got the cards within 4 business days!!  I will be ordering all of our Christmas cards and invitations and birth announcements from her!! (No I’m not ordering birth announcements any time soon!)  Without further ado…since I can’t send everyone a card here is the Collins Family Card for Christmas 2011 (with the wrong names, but you can pretend).

Here’s the link to her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ohsuzyqdesigns?ref=seller_info

Merry Christmas from the Collins Family!

Family Photos 2011

Emily and I did our annual photography swap this fall to get some family photos and to hopefully get at least one decent picture for our Christmas cards.  Luckily we got some REALLY cute ones :)  I know you have not gotten your cards yet, but I did order them (off etsy…that’s another blog post b’c I LOVED them), address, and stamp them…I just need to take them to the post office!  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

THANKS EMILY!!

What have we been up to?

I have lots to catch up on the blog about...BUT unfortunately my computer is down :( I'm just REALLY hoping that I can get all of my pictures off of my hard drive!!! Here is a list of what we've been up to
1. Emery's 15 month check up (yes I realize she's now 17 months...oops)
2. Halloween - Emery was the most adorable Minnie Mouse you've ever seen (and I just realized I don't know how to spell Minnie Mouse...I definitely had to google it)
3. Diamond Drudge 2011 (I lost my ring playing in the leaves in our back yardwith Emery and we literally looked for DAYS and HOURS with leaf blowers, tarps, UV lights, stadium type lights, weed eaters, and on our hands and knees with LOTS of GREAT friends...SHOUT OUT to Chris Dowdy who was the winner!!)
4. Playing outside
5. Layna's 1st Birthday :)
6. Family Pictures
7. I've taken several other families pictures, and I'm REALLY starting to enjoy doing it! I may or may not stalk pinterst for ideas!
8. The sweetest 8 year olds on the face of the Earth got baptized last Sunday -- I was one PROUD big sister!
9. Going to Richmond for Lindsay's (college roommate) wedding which was a BLAST!! We got to introduce Emery to some of my roommates from school and catch up with some girls we had not seen in a long time!
10. Crafting - I've borrowed Emily's cricuit :) And I'm just getting started...have lots of cute and cheap craft ideas for gifts and for decorations this Christmas...YAY!!
11. Friend Family Thanksgiving - Good food, good conversation :)

I know I've said it before, but Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday...so count your blessings this tomorrow, spend time with the ones you love, and EAT LOTS OF FOOD :)

Halloween Me-Me style

So it’s no secret that Emery’s favorite thing on the face of the Earth show to watch is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Emery refers to Minnie and Mickey as “Me Me”, and she will get the remote, point it at the TV and say “Me Me” until we turn it on for her.  Needless to say it was SUPER easy to decide what Em would be for Halloween this year…Me Me!!  We just went around to trick or treat at some of our family members houses, and a couple close friends’. 

Our idea of a good time…

A tractor ride…

A corn maze…

A shoulder ride…

Picking out the perfect pumpkin…

Good friends…

An awesome slide on the side of a hill…

Getting to spend time as a family…

This past weekend we headed down to Jeter Farm and let me just say they did not disappoint! The Jeter family did show us a GREAT time :) The weather was great, the company was even better!! Although Emery did legitimately almost lose her right hand to a cow we will be going back.  Thanks for a good time Jeter Family Farm!