Finally approaching 20lbs

Alyssa is now 21 months old. When she turned 12mo. (1yr.) last April I was very concerned that she was no where close to being 20lbs. (In order to put her in a forward facing car seat she had to be one year and 20lbs.) I tried feeding her all day long, but when we went in for her 18 mo. appointment she was still only 16lbs. Our pediatrician said that she was long enough and old enough to be facing forward. Dr. Sapp said that Alyssa's weight was nothing to worry about she is small due to being a lightweight newborn and will always be a petite little girl. I have not worried about the weight since then, but have wondered how long it would be before she actually reached that 20lbs. mark. Today she was in our bathroom while I was getting dressed and decided she wanted to step on the scale. When I saw her weight I had to get these pictures.

Every girl's natural reaction to the scale...

There is a way to increase muscle weight...

Maybe a few lunge exercises will help...

Twenty Pounds? Let's just say it's a judgment call.

Always the happy girl, no matter what she weighs.

Where's your....

Just before Christmas Alyssa went to work with her Moni (Heath's mom.) She took Alyssa around the office to meet all of the people that work with her. One of the offices that they went to had a singing and dancing snowman. Alyssa, being the dancer that she is, immediatley was drawn to this snowman. She pushed the button and danced the dance everytime. The snowman sings the song "Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing yeah yeah yea!" While singing it turns and shakes it's boodie. Alyssa loved it so much that the lady that owned it gave it to her to take home. It quickly became one of Alyssa's favorite toys. Everytime someone would come to our house she would get the snowman and show off their dance.

This is the infamous Snowman...

Over the last few months we have been working with Alyssa finding all of her body parts. After her nose she caught on very quickly with her eyes, ears, hair, and teeth. Recently she found her belly button on her own and has been calling it her "baby butt." The other day we were going through the list asking her "Where's your..." After I got through all of the ones that she knows I decided to ask her "Where's your boodie?" She looked at me very confused. I knew that I had given her a new one so I decided to say it a way that she might understand. I said "Where's your groove thing." She instantly started moving her boodie back and forth just like the dance of the snowman. We have asked her this question several times since and get the same reaction every time. This is definetly something to share with all of you...

11 years and going strong...

Today, January 25,2008 is our 11th year Anniversary. Although we have really been together alot longer than that. Here is our story...







Thirty Two years ago Philip and Dalise Goodson were sitting in a meeting with there three month old first born son (Heath) was bouncing on their knees. In this meeting Ken Sumrall, the president of the college they had attended, was the speaker. During this meeting Mr. Sumrall made an announcement that his third granddaughter, Charis Gail Sumrall, had just been born. That was on December 31, 1975.






Twelve years later the Goodson family moved to the Birmingham, Alabama area. They were there to be a part of Liberty Church in Hoover. In the children's ministry at Liberty was a young girl named Charis, and she was only months away from moving up to the Youth Group. Everyone had noticed the new boys that had just started coming to Youth Group. All of the girls were talking about how cute Ricky was, but Charis had her eyes set on Heath. Heath and Charis met during a game of Hide and Seek when they were both running to hide and collided coming around the corner. Over the next few years Heath and Charis ran in the same circles with the same friends. At the age of 15, Heath dated one of Charis' closest friends and Charis was dating another boy in the youth group. When these two relationships ended they were both hurt and done with dating. Unbeknownst to either of them, they both told God, "I don't want to date again until it is the person you want for me to marry one day."

During Charis' junior year of high school and Heath's senior year of high school, Charis' mom offered Heath gas money if he would drive Charis and her sister home from school in the afternoons. Soon into the year, Angie (Charis' sister) started doing some tutoring after school. Heath and Charis started taking those opportunities to go to the library and do some schoolwork. Pretty soon because they were spending so much time together they started to flirt with one another, but both really did not want another relationship. One day at a Youth function (Putt Putt Golf) Heath asked Charis if she would be going to the junior/senior prom. They decided that they would go together. Heath and Charis spent more and more time together. Days before the Prom they decided that they really liked each other and would go to the dance as more than just friends. So Heath and Charis go to dinner with friends, then to the Prom and then back to his house with friends to watch movies, and then to a church high on a cliff overlooking the city to watch the sunrise. This was their first date. They continued a relationship through the Spring and Summer time.

One night they were talking on the phone. As they were saying goodbye Heath said "Just so you know, I don't love you." then Charis responded with "Oh, good 'cause I don't love you either." Remember they had both been hurt. In the fall, Heath was leaving for N.Y. to go to college and they decided that it would be silly to try and keep a long distance relationship going (besided college would be the place to find that special someone to marry.) For the next few months while he was gone they both tried to move on. At Christmas time Heath came back to Birmingham and over to Charis' house to talk. They decided to try the long distance thing, but to not say the words "I love you" unless they knew that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

Over the next three years, they were both in seperate states at seperate colleges and would only see each other on holidays and in the summer time. One day they were at their seperate colleges talking on the phone to each other. Heath says he has to go to get his haircut and Charis responds with "Ok. I love you." Suddenly there was a long silence on both ends of the phone. This silence seem to linger for a really long time. Then Heath cuts back in with I'll call you back, bye." For the next several hours Charis sat on her dorm room bed wondering why she had blurted that out. She knew that it was true, but was worried that he may not feel the same way. Meanwhile Heath was getting his haircut and torturing the poor hairstylist with his rantings of whether or not he felt the same way. Finally Heath calls her back. She had a huge sigh of relief when he told her that he loved her too. Later that year Heath graduated from Bible college and Charis left college with the intentions of not going back. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the two of them decided to spend their lives together and she had some emotional issues that had to be taken care of. In the late summer of 1996, Heath was working in Fairhope, Alabama as a youth pastor and brought some of the teens to Birmingham for a missions trip. While there he was able to get away for a little while for some alone time with Charis. He took her to the same cliff overlooking the city that they had gone to on their Prom night. He was standing behind her and they were both looking out over the cliff. Heath then reached into his pocket and pulled out the engagment ring that he had been trying very hard to hide from her. He reached around and put the ring in front of her face. There was a very long silence that seemed to stop all time. His heart dropped and then he looked and realized her eyes were closed. He told her to open her eyes and then she saw it. Her heart sunk and she spun around and hugged hime tightly. That was his way of asking for her to marry him and her way of say yes. Six months later they were married at the same church where they had grown up together. They knew that this was the beginning of a partnership that would last forever.

Over the next eleven years they went through many ups and downs. The hard times were very hard and the good times were very good. They had three wonderful children that are the joys of their life. Although they have met many obstacles that could have torn them apart, they always find a way to make their love stronger. That is the story of the last eleven years.

Does anyone else hear the sound of breaking glass?

The sound of breaking glass is all that I have heard latley. I know that boys will be boys, but there are only so many windows in our house. A couple of days ago, my 5year old got mad and kicked a window and broke it. This comes on the heels of both of our boys breaking 2 windows last fall. Before that a window was broken when a toy pirate ship mysteriously went sailing through it and before that a window was broken the first time that we attempted to open it after we moved in. Heath tried to replace all of the windows last Saturday, but the people at Ace cut the glass the wrong size and the glue that holds it in the frame is not supposed to be used in temperatures under 40 degrees. It was negative 3 degrees last Saturday. Needless to say we all needed to get out and do something good as a family. Since the boys were out of school and Heath (and my sister) were off from work yesterday, we decided to have some fun and go bowling.

A few things to look for in the videos.

Karston's way of aiming when approaching the lane.

Josiah's reaction to hitting the pins. He reacted like that everytime.

Alyssa was just cute. Everytime someone played a song on the jukebox she began to dance.

A family night out

Friends...

According to Merriam Websters Online Dictionary FRIEND is defined as
1 a: one attached to another by affection or esteem b: acquaintance
2 a: one that is not hostile b: one that is of the same nation, party, or group
3: one that favors or promotes something (as a charity)
4: a favored companion

To me a FRIEND is defined by a person that will support you when you are going through hard times. A person that will rejoice with you during the good times. A person that can be trusted to tell you the truth, no matter what. A person that laughs with you and cries with you. A person that shares with you the joys in thier own life. A person that turns to you when they need a shoulder to cry on. A person that will listen to you when you just want to talk. A person that is there for you whenever you call and a person that calls you whenever they need you.

With these definitions in mind, I would like to introduce you to some of my best friends. I am so blessed to have so many good friends. Some are new friends and some are friends from childhood. Some of these friends and I have just reunited in the last few years and some of these friends and I never lost contact.

These are a Few of Her Favorite Things...

Alyssa has had a great start to the New Year. She is discovering new things and her vocabulary is growing by the day. This is really good considering we have not heard any real words coming from her yet. I didn't say actual words until I was 3years old (yet nobody had a clue that I would be a slower learner than most?) so I did not expect for Alyssa to catch on for another 6mo. to a year. This is a good start.

A few new words she has started saying...

sh shoos (Shoes one of her favorite things)

petty (Pretty)

Ahofew (I love you)

O-me-o (Romeo)

et (Julliette)

No (she says it very sharp and short, almost like she has been offended)

mom or mah (mom for me and mah for her Moni)

popa (papa)

eeoow (eew, as in yucky)

babie (baby this one come out really clear and is mostly used when she sees pictures of her baby cousin Jericho)

She talks All day long but mostly to herself in nonwords. We now have to start working on those words like PLEASE and Thank you and I want to be by myself (instead of torcherous screeching screams)... that last one may take a bit longer.

Another one of her favorite things is dancing and singing. This video is her dancing with Josiah's monkey (from Dora the Explorer) but she will dance like this to any song even the ones that are just in her own head. She has some fancy footwork, so be watching out for that.

She has recently discovered praying at the dinner table and we now pray and thank God for our food AFTER EVERY BITE! This is a picture of her praying face. She is trying to close her eyes but still see everything that is going on. We call her "The Mad Prayer."

These are a few of the things that she has started doing just this month. We are excited to watch her grow and become a big girl. She has a very spunky, personality and this shows in everything she says and does.

Colossians 3:19-21

19. Husbands go all out in love with your wives...

20. Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master

21. Parents, don't come down too hard on your children or you'll crush their spirits.

...Using The Message Translation

a Heavenly message

I know that it has been a long time since I have written. Believe me I have sat down and written so many times. I have several half written blogs in my drafts that I just didn't feel it was the right time or the right words to be expressed. God has been speaking to me softly, and I have been trying to find a way to answer him.

What I have found is that at times the communication that we have with the Lord and Saviour of this world is not always an earthly way of corresponding. It is very hard to explain, but the interaction between God and his children can be a beautiful and unnatural thing to experience. Many times when I am trying to teach my children that what they have done is wrong, they tell me "I'm Sorry." I have found myself telling them over and over "don't tell me that you are sorry, show me by doing things the right way this time." It is that way with God at times too. He will talk to us, teach us, and even send us a message of revelation, but He is not looking for us to acknowledge him with our words, but rather our actions. By living our lives in a way that gives him Praise and Honor.

This is not the blog that I intended to sit down and write today. But as I read back over it, I see that He is speaking to me yet again. I hope that you are able to hear that still, small voice that is calling to you today.

Isaiah 40:31

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.

This verse has been rolling around in my head for the last few days. This verse usually brings me much comfort during times that are difficult or times that I feel like I just can't keep going. I have not been feeling weary or anything latley, actually just the opposite, so why can't I let go of this verse?

follow up on "joy in giving"

Back in November I posted a blog called "joy in giving," about the gifts that my children and I create every year for our family. As I said this year was exceptionally exciting. My family asked that we do this particular gift every year. I don't know if we can do that, but I have about 10 months to think about it. What is this incredible gift you ask?

My boys wrote a story about each family member and I illustrated them with pictures that we already had and them had them bound. Each of the kids also drew a picture to go at the end of the book so that everyone could see how artistic they are. Alyssa had fun when I was tracing her hands and feet for her picture and then she scribbled a bit on it too.

In the slide show below you will see each of the families reading their books. But we were unfortunatley unable to be with my dad and my older sister for Christmas so theirs were sent to them. There are anywhere from 13 to 18 pages in each book, putting our book at 170 pages. Everyone has said that they loved them. Karston and Josiah were also pleased with how the books turned out, but were so proud of themselves to be able to give everyone a gift that they had created themselves. May my children always know from experience the "joy in giving."