Thankful...

I am thankful for my amazing husband who melts my heart and makes me laugh everyday. He still loves and surprises me after 12 years together and 8 years of marriage.

I am thankful for the "Daddy" that he is to our boys. They love him unconditionally and wholeheartedly (he is no doubt the "fun" one).

I am SO thankful that God allowed me to be a Mommy. We really struggled to get our boys here and they are such miracles. It is everything I knew it would be and more. I KNOW that He is going to bless us with another baby very soon...hopefully 2010!

I am thankful for our family. I am so blessed with awesome in-laws. I love and appreciate my family more and more with each passing day. Being away from all of them is really hard but I am so thankful for them.

I am thankful for my Church family. It took me a long time to find my place there but I have developed some amazing friendships that I know will last a lifetime.

Most importantly, I am thankful for God's mercy and grace that is new every morning. No matter how many times I let fear creep in, get discouraged or screw up (often)....He is always there.

I am Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ottomans on our tree!

Just to let you all know....we got all our "ottomans" (Gavin's word for ornaments) on our tree.

Yes we are crazy....the boys have been begging for a week to put the tree up--so we did. They have a nutcracker tree in their toy room and it will be a miracle if that poor tree makes it to Christmas because Nolen will not leave the nutcrackers alone. We have already had to bust out the super glue twice.

Also, Nolen honestly believes that stockings are "boots" and you put them on your feet. He did...and cried when I took them off to put him to bed.

I will post pictures later!

Gifford's Annual Trip to Cades Cove!

One of the things that our family tries to do every year is go to Cades Cove in the fall when the leaves are changing. We love to look at all the deer and wildlife and the leaves are gorgeous!

However, for me it is about getting good pictures of the kids!

This is how it began....it wasn't looking good.

But then, Mommy (me) started acting like an idiot. Using Nolen's little toy pirate and making up silly songs. My melodies echoed throughout the mountains. Then we got these....









This is the picture we took 2 years ago of the boys in the same spot at Cades Cove. I can't believe how big they are...sigh.

Go Team AYLA!

I am pretty much the proudest sister ever. I have been bugging--I mean encouraging my sister to start a blog FOREVER! Aside from being a fabulous writer....she has a story. Her and her husband have been through more in the last few years than most people go through in a lifetime.
They have a beautiful little girl Ayla who has cystic fibrosis. For a long time...Krista chose to deal with everything privately but now she is ready to share. She has educated herself on anything and everything having to do with CF. It is a long story....and you can read all about it on her blog--her breathing room.

http://www.thebreathingroomcf.blogspot.com/

Anyways....the point of this post, aside from bragging on my sister is to drum up support for
TEAM AYLA! Krista has joined with Great Strides to raise money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis research.

If you live in the Destin area you can join us April 24th for a Run/Walk for CF. If not...you can donate money to Team Ayla by clicking here:

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/AllisonGifford

Come on all you Knoxvillians....you know you want to take a trip to Destin, Florida in April. Who doesn't--right?

Hooray for Tortillas!!!

So....we had an interesting dinner tonight. I made a fabulous dinner out of my Pampered Chef cookbook. I worked very hard on this dinner and was very much looking forward to sitting down as a family and enjoying an excellent meal.

However, I didn't notice when I was preparing this meal that I used Medium salsa verde instead of Mild. We all sat down to dig in to dinner. The boys took a bite of their yummy dinner and then it happened, "Mommy....my mouth is burning. Mommy....it's too spicy."

Aaaahhhhh......there was no way they were gonna eat it. Luckily Daddy came to the rescue....with tortillas. Plain tortillas that he put in the microwave. Why do I even bother??

The boys were happy.....and proceeded to chant "Hooray for Tortillas, Hooray for Tortillas"!!!

Meet Tim Tebow--the turtle!!!

While we were in Florida.....Nanu (aka Mom) bought Gavin a turtle. Gavin immediately named him Lightning--totally appropriate name for a turtle. He quickly changed his mind.....and decided that Tim Tebow is a much better name for his turtle. Of course...I couldn't really argue with him--we do LOVE Tim! GO GATORS!!!



Nolen Loves Tim Tebow the Turtle. He will go up and stick his little hand down in his container (aquarium? what do you call a turtle holder?) and feel around until he finds him and take him out and look at him and talk to him and then just drop him back in.

Today, the boys had been coloring and Nolen came into the living room carrying the crayon box. He turned it upside down and out came the turtle. He was very upset when I told him that he had to put the turtle back. He cracks me up. He is not afraid of anything....it is scary!

Craft Time!

As you know if you are one of the 5 people who read my blog...Eric and I redid the boys toy room. I am still not done.....I need to finish recovering the pillows, make valances and get some stuff for the walls. I had this fabulous idea to let the boys each paint a canvas in colors that went with the room (powder blue, brown and cream) and hang them on the walls.

So, we went outside and I got everything ready. It was very messy....which I was prepared for. Nolen does not like stuff on him. He accidently stuck his foot in paint twice and it was all over his hands--he was freaking out.

I think they had fun. They didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them to but I tried really hard not to help them (I can be a control freak and this was supposed to be fun for them). Gavin's pretty much looks like a blue blob.....Nolen's actually turned out a little better.

Nolen and his yucky hands....

You are NOT pregnant!!!!

Ok....so many of you have been asking me for an update about the baby making stuff.



I think that sums it up....don't you? As much as I hate to see those words I would rather do this kind of test than the ones with the lines...I think I can see lines when there aren't any.

We tried on our own this month and did not get pregnant. I pretty much knew because I didn't feel any different. I can make myself have symptoms and I still wasn't having any so I pretty much knew. I didn't even cry this month...ok I might have had tears in my eyes but I didn't cry.

I talked to Dr. H and she said that I "have" to do fertility. Obviously, I don't "have" to do fertility. I could say "NO" but she brought up a good point. I just had surgery to increase my chances of getting pregnant. By the way, I had endometriosis on one side and some on my uterus. I also had 2 cysts....one which was completely covering the opening of my tube on that side. She removed all of it....I have pictures but I won't do that to you. So, I am fully recovered and this basically gives me a window of time where there is nothing there preventing me from getting pregnant. Hence the urgency by Dr. H. Also, I am getting "old". I didn't know that 30 was "old" but when you have fertility problems and you are "old" it makes it even harder to get pregnant.

Anyways....here we go again.

I have finally come to a realization....I really do want God's perfect timing. I also believe that He works through Doctors....I really do--our two amazing boys are proof of that. As I was praying Wednesday night in the bathtub....I said "ok God, as much as Eric and I want a baby....I really do want your will. If it is not time or you are protecting me from something then I am ok with that." Don't get me wrong....I REALLY want a baby. I know that God knows how badly we want a baby...and I KNOW that if I delight myself in Him, He will give me the desires of my heart.

So round 3 here we come!!! Please be praying with us that everything will go great and we will be blessed with miracle number 3 very soon!

Star Wars....and RAIN!!!

That pretty much sums up our Halloween. I wanted Gavin and Nolen to be Peter Pan and Captain Hook.....but nooooo. Gavin insisted on being Annikan. Nolen said he was going to be a pirate. I wanted them to both be along the same theme. So....Eric and I talked Nolen into being Yoda. Apparently, all little boys wanted to be Star Wars peeps this year. Our good friends Kevin and Jody came over with their boys who were also star wars characters. The kids had sooo much fun. They did not even care that it was pouring rain the entire time....like the kind of rain where your socks are soaking wet and your jeans are wet up to your knees. It didn't matter to them...they had fun and they got candy...and we didn't have to go to the hospital like last year. Oh and the Gators won....it was a good day!!!
Nolen getting his face painted.

Gavin was serious about being Annikan.

Little Yoda

Daddy and Yoda

Gavin, Nolen and their friends.