Where are your horns?

We love living in the conservative Christian south, since moving here one of the questions we are FREQUENTLY asked is, "so ya'll have a home church yet?" When we tell people that we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which by the way is a mouth full we have learned) the reaction is something along the lines of, "well that's real nice, I voted for Mitt Romney".
 Today was a little different, we had a baptist minister and his wife stop by, they were inviting us to some event at their church tonight, while talking he asked where we go to church, and boy oh boy he could just not hide his emotion from is face.  It was like he wanted to ask me to tip my head down so he could check for horns.  And just because I am sure he wanted to be wrong, he stuttered as he asked if it was in fact the mormon church right around the corner from theirs. I politely informed him that yes indeed he was right. He uncomfortably offered the invitation to join them tonight again,
I'm not thinking he got the message Billy Graham said we are not a cult.

Dad.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing these two together. He loves her so much. i can't wait to watch him become a dad all over again.

Sympathy.

So I am being induced in the morning. Naturally I cannot not sleep. As I am laying here it suddenly hits me how much it hurts to push a baby out of you. Somehow I must have forgotten. I know contractions hurt, and the whole process is really hard. But holy cow it really hurts to push. I turned to tell Jordan my sudden realization, reminding him of how long and hard it was to push for almost two hours with madilyn. His reaction? Yeah having to stand there and count to 10 over and over got really hard, I hope the nurse does more of that this time.
I try not to hold him accountable for the things he says when he is tired.

chickens.

We are now chicken farmers! The first weekend in December we went and got six laying hens.  Jordan and I built the coop during Madilyn's afternoon nap one Saturday.  We love them, madilyn loves looking out at them, and when they are all making noise when one is laying she gets noisy too.  We love getting fresh eggs, in the winter it is normal for them to lay every other day, so right now we get 3 eggs a day and in the spring we should be getting 6 a day.  We are *thinking* about getting some meat chickens in the spring too since they only take 8 weeks, but with a new baby and a crazy one year old we will to see. 

First Birthday

Madilyn's first birthday was on the 3rd of december.  We had a very low key but very fun day.  Dad came home from work early and we went and played at Hopeland Gardens.  She was so happy to be out with daddy.  Grandma Jo also took us out to lunch at our (my) favorite, Knobels! Yum. That night we had Jordan's parents over for dinner, cake, and presents.  We had Tom's enchiladas  which actually are a favorite of madilyn's.  Her presents were a nativity set, clothes, PJs, lots of books and puzzles, a baby doll, and a tractor. She was very loved by Jordan's parents and my side of the family.  Oh, she also got a front facing car seat from mom and dad, but that is not really exciting.  

Her last night as a true baby. 

 She was IN LOVE with her new carseat! 

 The owners at Knobels found out it was her birthday and gave her a cupcake. 

 These two are my favorite together! 

 Present time! she went right for Aunt Emily's first. 

 Super blurry, but obviously super excitied over her box of crackers. 

What can I saw, I love her little bum. 

She was wired from the cake and was going 100mph until almost midnight. 

Bedtime stories with dad. 

Loving her tractor from Great Grandma Bev.