Random Cuteness

Here's your daily dose of cuteness, coming to you straight from the King of Cute himself!



This is Jude and his friend Audrey...
Love his facial expressions!

I now know that first birthdays are actually fun!

Yep, my boy is one today. I know people always say "I can't believe he's one already!" but it's so true. It seems like just yesterday I was having little Jude, not getting ANY sleep, trying to figure out this new little life that is so precious and sweet (....and sometimes frustrating), all the while loving him more than I could ever imagine. Fast forward a year. We've gotten into our little groove that works for us, watching his sweet, funny personality blossom, learning about myself and how to be a good mom...being a mom truly is the greatest privilege God could ever entrust to us.

Today, we had some family and friends come out to help Jude celebrate his very 1st birthday! It was such a fun time!! I will show you some of that, but first, let's flash back to February 21, 2008 for a bit.

Just minutes old and screaming his head off!

He was such a sweet little baby!!


Now, to February 21, 2009...the morning of his birthday, just hanging out in his jammies.




Getting ready for the party. Ross thought it would be fun to suck some helium...
And then he cracked himself up with his funny voice!
Then our guests arrived!


His new favorite (cute) face...

Then, it was time for cake and singing! Happy Birthday to Jude!



He totally didn't know what to do with that little cake. He just looked at it for awhile like "I don't think I can have this!"

Some taste testing...

He finally got it when I cut him a piece. "Oh, I CAN eat this!!"

Yep, he shoveled a lot in.

The aftermath.

Then it was time to open gifts...I think we were more excited than he was.

This was so funny. I opened one of his cards and there was money inside. So, I thought I'd let him have it to see what he'd do with it and he just kept looking at it and turning it over and over. So funny! He seemed to love it as much as us grownups do. :)

The Fergus clan.
Some pictures of the family...

The Ferguses

The Vaughns, Tillmans, Ferguses, Tuell, Harrison and Martineau

And Jude got a big boy car seat!!!! So, naturally, we put him in it...

He loves it!

Happy birthday, my sweet boy. I will always cherish this first year, and all the years to come.

And of course I can't thank everyone enough for all the wonderful things Jude received, and to those few who helped make this party extra fun. I have such great family and friends! I love you guys!

Just a little cuteness...

I seriously am dying not being able to post any pictures lately. I haven't been taking any pictures because I need to buy batteries for my camera. I promise there will be some pics soon! To tie you over...

Jude thought Ross hitting the ball around was super funny. His laugh is so sweet...and I really like it when he gets to laughing hard, like in this video!

And a cute smile to brighten your day...

Well, most of you guys know, Jude is having his first birthday this Saturday! I just can't believe my baby is already 1. I am looking forward to celebrating, and seeing all the family. You know I will post pictures of that...you just wait! :)

Argh!!!

I can not seem to find a blog layout that I am satisfied with enough to keep! Don't get me wrong, these freebies I always use are so cute, and the people who make them have amazing talent. I just want a custom look....without having to pay for it. I would love, love, love to design my own, but I have no idea how...and I'm pretty sure you have to have Photoshop to do it, and I do not. Boo. So, I guess I'll just have to keep searching for that perfect freebie out there somewhere---and I'll probably still be changing the layout from week to week until that happens.

On another note, does anyone know how to put a song on their blog??? I am frustrated trying to figure this out and I still don't know how!

Thanks!

Update: Thanks to my smart friend Emily, I now have a song on my page! It's our song (Ross and I, that is), hope you enjoy!

The Infamous Ice Storm of '09

I am finally able to post pictures of that dang ice storm we had here 2 weeks ago. Yeah, the one that claimed our electricity for 10 days, in which we lived like nomads. Moving from place to place and sleeping where we could. Ok, it wasn't that bad. But, we really didn't have power for 10 days and it really was frustrating. I can't say we were the only ones. The whole city was powerless! After the storm hit, we stayed in our powerless house for 2 nights (we were able to stay warm by a gas heater we have in our laundry room---which unexpectedly heated the main parts of the house) before running to Memphis to our mommy and daddy's where they had power and heat and food. We stayed there for a few nights, hoping that by the time we got back, we'd have power. We got back the Monday after and nope, no power yet. Soooooo, I humbly called my sweet friend Lisa, who said we could stay with them. They let us crash in their spare bedroom for 4 nights. How sweet they were to do that! We are so grateful for their generosity. Here are some pics from the event...

The night of the storm. Ross was running outside every 2 minutes with the flashlight, like a kid in a candy store. I think he was just excited because something was happening.
We were trying to throw up gang signs, ha. We felt all gangsta with our skullies on.
All the trees looked like this!
The aftermath.



This tree was blocking our driveway.
This is beside our house. Yep, those huge branches are laying on a power line.

The next day, we went to our friends', The Housleys', house to hang with them since we didn't really want to stay home. It was a really sweet time. Here is Jude playing with their new daughter, Layni. They just adopted her from China, she's Jude's age and SO DANG CUTE!

Jude loves these Johnny Jump Ups.

So, what I learned from all this....

Humility. It's pretty humbling to have to ask someone to stay with them for an extended amount of time. I know our friends were glad to help, but I still felt like a burden.

I hate tv! Since we were at places that had cable, and there wasn't much else to do, I watched a TON of tv in the 10 days we were gone. I am so, so glad we don't have it.

People really are generous. I am so disheartened today by how everyone just thinks of themselves, not many people reach out. During this time of need, I was so inspired by how much people really wanted to help! I am a little shamed because I feel like we didn't help as much as we should have.

I am really spoiled. Enough said.

To lean on God, and praise Him for electricity...and even not having electricity! God taught me so much about Him and myself through this that I know it was His plan for us to wait a few extra days in getting power back.

We really didn't even have it as bad as some of the other states that got hit! I was so thankful we didn't have any house damage, we didn't freeze, and we had warm places to go to.

So, I just want to publicly thank our friends and family who helped take care of us during the hard times, you guys are the best. I thank God everyday for the wonderful family and friends He's put into my life.