A few highlights from Christmas!

So this whole post is in no order whatsoever.  I can't figure out how to move pics around so it's backwards and all mixed up.  Oh well.  You'll get the gist anyway. 

The Sunday after Christmas Jeff's girlfriend Courtney came to surprise him!  We had an amazing time with her!  She teases Jeff with the best of them = a way to a sister's heart!

It was surprisingly warm in Georgia during our stint there.  Here's Dad w/ Maddy swinging on the front porch! 

Mema & Papa stopped by on their way back home after being in Gatlinberg for a week! The dish-towel is serving as a bib :) 

Having fun with her new toys!

Santa Came!!!!

I guess our waitress got tired of refilling Dad's coffee cause she brought him this ginormous cup.  It was pretty funny!

Dad took us to Maggianos for taking down the Christmas decor in a hurry! It was sooooo good. 

Probably my BEST present: Jo drew us this picture of Madison.  She is extremely talented as you can see!

Alan bought Christie Guitar Hero World Tour for Christmas and decided to bring it up so we could play.  What can I say we're the Von Howard family singers, or maybe just musicians.  You should really click on this picture so you can see all the expressions! 

The kids outside of the Dillard House! 

Christmas Day was a little different for us this year.  It's the first time in our (the kids) lives we haven't spent it with the Perry's. :(  Alan & Christie joined us in the afternoon which is when we opened presents and then went to the Dillard House for dinner.  Maddy got the head of the table position! 

We arrived at Mom & Dad's late Dec. 14th and they surprised us with a crib! I was so happy that Madison didn't have to sleep in a Pack n Play for 3 weeks. 

2008 Year in Review

As I think back over the course of this year, I am shocked at all that it has held.  We started the year living in Cleveland trying to decipher where the Lord was sending us for seminary.  I was 7 month pregnant.  We still had a house.  I was teaching 4th grade.  Keith was attending New Orleans seminary via their Atlanta extension center and working at Truett.  Life was good and we had no reason to move except the restlessness the Holy Spirit stirred in us.  We visited 2 seminaries within 10 days and after much prayer knew the Lord was calling us to New Orleans.  

We put our house on the market and began packing our stuff.  On March 14, 2008, Madison Rachel was born.  I can hardly remember what our life was like before she joined us!  She is now 9.5 months old and blessing our lives way beyond what we imagined.  We lived with Mom and Dad for a few months after our house sold (Praise the Lord) and before we moved.  We had fun this summer just relaxing with the fam.  In June we got to go to Orlando with Keith's family and had a wonderful time!

9 of us packed up and trucked across the country in late July.  Enter us into the ghetto.  Before you make any false assumptions, I must admit that I love living in New Orleans.  It definitely offers a different perspective and it is nowhere near as bad as you think it is. Keith has another successful semester under his belt and is still hoping for a May '10 graduation.  A lot of people ask me where we are headed after that and my answer is still 'I don't know'.  There are many different ministries on our hearts and areas where we feel skilled by the Lord, but we are leaving the end up to Him.

Both sets of parents frequent NOLA, which we greatly enjoy.  Not only their company, but also their offer to take us to eat.  Have you ever noticed there aren't many cheap seafood places? (Other than Captain D's Mom).  I knew after Maddy was born they wouldn't stay away for long and I was right!  Things will probably be a little harder this semester as we won't have many reasons to come home for visits.  Keith got a job on campus, which is a huge answer to prayer, but will also limit our time away!  My cousin Andy is getting married in April, so we will be home then, but other than that, I'm not sure what our travels will hold. 

Spiritually this year has been challenging for me.  You know how you can keep convincing yourself that something will be easier when ______ happens?  Well, I guess satan is pretty good with that lie because I seem to believe it every time.  I was thinking that doing my quiet time would be so much easier when I was staying home with Madison (instead of working).  I was wrong.  It is still something you have to sacrifice for and plan to do.  Needless to say it's been an uphill battle to find that time and stick to it.  I've had the awesome opportunity to attend some seminary wife classes at NOBTS.  My favorite so far is the one I've just finished. We read through Living by the Book by Howard & William Hendricks.  I would highly recommend it!  It teaches you how to read the Bible in a way where it actually transforms your life.  It's been liberating. 

I need to wrap this up cause it's already much longer than I intended.  Happy New Year to you from the Wades!  We look forward to keeping up with you via blog, phone, email, Skype, in person, etc.  My prayer for you is the same for myself: That I will look back in a year's time and be speechless with how much the Lord has molded me to become like Christ.  

Christmas

Just a quick family pic, more will follow soon!

Real SNOW & Christmas with the Wades

The last few days....

We left New Orleans on Thursday, and it was snowing! We got

 like 2 inches in 3

 hours, we pulled Maddy out of bed and forced her

 outside, she was a little confused.  It

 was fun while it lasted and after the car was packed, we hit the road to south GA.

I'm sure most of you are aware that Keith has a huge family.  So far, there are 24 of us, and it is always crazy when the

 whole bunch gets together.  We had our big Christmas celebration this past weekend and it was so fun.  

Since Keith's twin brother & fam were not able to come down for

 Thanksgiving, this is the first time Madison has seen him since early July. (aka, she didn't

 remember him)  The poor child was traumatized :(  We aren't

 really sure why she got so upset, but when Kevin walked in the room she started screaming....she eventually warmed up to him (thank goodness), but the story is fun to tell nonetheless.   

Saturday afternoon was

 the present opening extravaganza.  We drew numbers this year, so everyone got to watch one person opening their gifts.  I thought it turned out great, I really enjoyed it.  We got just a few pics! 

After everyone else went home, we got Ashton (Kevin & Amy's son) and Madison in their PJ's and took some pics in front of the tree.  We had a GREAT time, chaos and all!

Bath time

Just a short post about the 'not so fun anymore' bath time.  I've been using the baby tub inside the big tub for a while, but it's just too small for Madison now.  Since we moved to the big tub and she can sit up, she LOVES bath time even more.  She kicks her legs and splashes in the water, however, the down side is this: Every time we take her out of the tub she screams like we've just ended her whole world.  It's really pretty funny. 

Whirlwind

Hello blogger world. We have been traveling fools lately.  The Thursday before Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad flew Maddy and me home for a few days, Keith had to stay behind for school :( He was missed.   

We hung out with the family. Christie & Erin came up on Saturday, and Jess and Tatum (long time friends) even came all the way to Cleveland to visit! We had a great time catching up!  

Later on Saturday, Jeff and Courtney (his girlfriend) came from NGU for a surprise visit.  I'm so glad we got to see them...it's hard to coordinate a weekend where everyone is home at once.  We decided while there that Madison loves to read, as you can see by the picture below. I think she looked at that book for like 30 minutes, which made my arms hurt. 

Last Monday, Mom and Dad took us to Macon to meet Keith's Mom.  Keith joined us late Monday night, or should I say early Tuesday morning? We had so much fun with his family for the week.  This is Keith's niece Shelby, she looks almost exactly like him...it's scary. 

On Thanksgiving, we got to see almost everyone in the family at some time or another.  And during our off time, we had fun perfecting our Wii skills :)  Keith's Mom has a Wii Fit, so here is the yoga portion. haha.

Mema had a doctor appt. one day so we went to the park while we waited and Maddy was thrilled with the swing and slide.  She also tried her hand at driving. (make sure you notice Daddy's expression!)

We came back to NOLA on Sunday and Keith started his last week of class before finals.  So the next couple of weeks promise stress.  We are leaving again in 9 days for the Christmas rounds.  Whew! Hopefully I'll get this blogging thing under my belt soon and start a consistent routine! 

PS. The bath picture is to show how long her hair is! I don't think most 8 month olds have to worry about getting their hair caught in bibs, clothes, etc. 

Look Mom I can Sew! :)

After making many many burp cloths, I decided I was going to attempt a purse.  However, I also decided before tackling that project I would make a diaper bag first, as a kind of "it's okay if this messes up" project.  But I am very pleased with how it turned out and it was pretty much easy to make.  So thanks Mom for trying to make me learn to sew in high school, but I guess it's one of those things you don't have to learn until you actually want to make something :) I think I'll wait until next week to start the purse, which I'm sure Keith will be happy about b/c sewing causes a lot of mess in our tiny space.  I'm including some pics of the diaper bag and some others of course.  The grandparents can't get enough pictures of Maddyo.  

It's been a while!

Life has a way of going by way too fast.  Since the last time I posted, we traveled home and back.  Keith's parents were here before we left and after we got back (they stopped on the way to and back from Texas)!  We had a great time being with them, just hanging out! Our trip home was absolutely crazy.  Every single day we had something going on, so it was no vacation.  However, we had a great time seeing everyone!  The pics are a mix of all mentioned.