Our afternoon trip to the beach

Keith worked a half day on Friday because he was already over his hours and we decided to head to Gulfport, Mississippi, for a mini afternoon vacation!  We went to the beach for about an hour, then went to the outlet mall to pick up a few things for our cruise. It was a great time away from the city.  It was Maddy's first time to the ocean and I think she (like her parents) prefers the pool :)

Playing with the menu at dinner, the kids loves menus, I think b/c they resemble books? 

She absolutely loved this water ball, I'm sure we'll make good use out of those this summer

Eww, Mom I have something on my hand, get it off! 

Right before we went to the beach and one of the few pics we got with the hat on! 

Playing peek a boo with the laundry room door

Maddy loves straws, among other things (cups, bottles, napkins, menus, the list goes on).  She chews on them, but this was a new way to manipulate it, too cute! 

Can't believe it's been so long....

Sorry to those I've disappointed, including myself, for not blogging at least a little more frequently! We've been pretty busy lately.  Keith's semester is finally over and we are home free for summer.  Woohoo! In April we traveled home to Andy & Caitlin's wedding which was wonderful! I attended my first crawfish boil at the seminary and was pleasantly surprised. It is a lot of work to get a little tiny bit of meat out, but at least it was good!  Kevin, Amy & Ashton (Keith's twin brother & fam) came to visit a couple of weekends ago and we had a great time!  We hit up all the fun places: the French Quarter, good eatin', the aquarium, etc. I'm so thankful they took time to come spend with us, it was much fun getting caught up! We seem to be on the go a lot, I feel like I live from one trip to the next, this time we made it 4 weeks at home.... We're leaving tomorrow (Tues.) for Valdosta to Keith's parents house and are really looking forward to seeing his family! 

Maddy at the Aquarium 

Kevin, Amy & Ashton at Cafe Du Monde

Maddy with Dad at the Aquarium 

Ashton & Madison playing on the sofa

With Mom at the Aquarium 

So funny. I don't think he could have opened his mouth any wider! 

My first little crawfish....he was yummy.

The fam at Caitlin & Andy's rehearsal dinner! 

Truevalue Spring Market & some other stuff!

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday night in the rain and we painstakingly searched for a place to eat that didn't have a 2 hour wait, luckily we found one! Dad left early Saturday morning to head to the hardware show downtown and Keith went to work for a few hours.  We joined Dad at the show around 11am. For those (probably most) who haven't been to a hardware show, they are pretty huge.  There are hundreds of vendors selling anything you might ever want to find in a hardware store.  So you walk around and buy stuff for your store, or in our case, walk around and see what's there, get the free stuff and eat the plentiful peanuts. While looking around, we came across the Radio Flyer booth and were looking at their stuff.  (Dad had already commented that he was thinking about getting a wagon for Maddy and I wanted to see what all they had)  So, we walk up and there is this Radio Flyer Sport Coupe that I put Maddy in cause it looked fun.  It had a handle so the parent could push the child if necessary.  I asked the salesman if I could take her picture in it and he said, "sure, in fact if you want, you can push her around in that." I was like, 'sold' and we took off.  So here are various pics of Maddy in the awesome coupe that I think we talked Pop into.  Oh, she had her monkey has her passenger, thanks to the Jernigan's for her birthday :) 

The Yummy peanuts I took a picture of for Jo Jo (who desperately wanted to come, but couldn't due to school).  Everyone had to have a badge to get in, even Maddy. And a random alligator we got from a vendor. 

After we left the show about 3ish, we went to lunch/dinner at Landry's.  It was so good, except having to look at the 'snot rockets' as I like to call them.  Dad & Keith enjoyed them though.

Dad likes to entertain Maddy with some dog-like activities! Fun for everyone. 

Outside of Landry's (the one located on the Lake, not the French Quarter). Mom pointing out the sail boats to a very tired one year old. 

Playing at home after her nap on Sunday! 

It was a fun weekend, I took Mom and Dad to the airport this morning.  Beth Moore is coming to NOLA this weekend and I got a free ticket from one of my neighbors!!! I can't wait to go! A big thank you in advance to my amazing husband for keeping Maddy while I'm gone.

Maddy turned One!

We left on Thursday March 12th for the long trip to Cleveland.  We arrived at 11:30pm, it was late, Madison was past ready to get out of the car seat.  Picked up a few hours of sleep before Friday hit.  We had the priviledge of going to eat lunch with my great grandmother in Norcross. This is a picture of Grandma Minnie with Jo and Maddy at lunch.  

We also we preparing for my cousin's bridal shower, which was Saturday morning AND making the cake for Maddy's party.  I started before dinner and finished at 1am. (When I say "I" I really mean me, Mom, Keith, Jo & I think Verona helped too, my memory gets fuzzy past 10pm).   The ONE cake was mom's idea, I can't take the credit, but it did turn out cute.  Jeff told me he wanted a TWENTY ONE in May, I laughed. 

Saturday came and Mom & me headed south at the crack of dawn (or so it seemed after my few hours of sleep) for the shower.  It was so great.  I got to see tons of family and my almost new relative Caitlin.  Another cousin Shana is about 5 months pregnant and it was so great to see her! She and Josh just found out they are having a boy and I am so excited! After the shower was over, I drove me and Nana back to Cleveland for Maddy's party.  People were already arriving and it just seems like a blur in my mind.  My cousin Tiff got engaged on Friday morning and we doubled the birthday as an engagement party too.  It was such fun to see everyone and open gifts (Cause Mad was not interested) and eat cake.  She liked that okay, but it was like eating with the paparazzi, I think like 15 cameras went off and she was like "whoa, everyone's staring at me." 

The rest of the week flew by.  We got Madison a passport, Keith took a trip to middle GA for work, got hair cuts, went to church, shopped, & hung out with the fam.  Jeff and Courtney got to come home on Friday evening and we had lots of fun with them! All good things come to an end and we took a leisurely trip home on Sunday.  By leisurely I mean it took a total of 11 hours!  We stopped in Montgomery to eat at Red Robin (can I say Yum) and decided to go to Kohls and let Maddy stretch some more, from there we went to Target and back to Kohls to purchase some luggage that was 50% off. Yay for that.  Also stopped in Gulfport to get gas and groceries.  It was a long day and our house looked like a hurricane ripped through it once we (mainly Keith, actually I think totally Keith) unloaded the car. We're getting unpacked though and settling to to a semi-normal routine before Mom and Dad arrive on Friday for the Hardware Show.  So excited about that, I'll definitely post about it. 

Mardi Gras

Okay I must admit that Mardi Gras is nothing like my preconceived notions thought it was.  It's way more family oriented to start with.  The crazy stuff happens in the French Quarter mostly. Over the course of February there are over 60 parades in the city of New Orleans, most of which are completely family friendly. There are millions of beads everywhere: on trees, in streets, etc. It is like a kids dream. It is really like a local national holiday(s). The schools are closed for a few days, most businesses shut down, I'm not even sure if the mail ran or not....It's big, I'm telling you. 

Mom, Dad & Jo came into town this past weekend for a couple of days and we had a blast. (pictures to come as soon as they email me some :)  They arrived Fri. morning and we braved the French Quarter about 11am for some poboys. There were a lot of people already in the area and also some people witnessing.  I've seen some very interesting witnessing techniques over the past few days and have even wondered what Gospel they are spreading.  On Friday we saw some guys on a corner handing out stuff, I took one to see what they were sharing, it was completely evangelical, I agreed with everything on the tract.  However, on the news, they showed all these people on the infamous Bourbon Street with huge signs. Some of them read: "Why do you love the devil?" including a laundry list of sins. Another sign said Roman Catholicism is of the devil and the like. My favorite was this guy, supposedly witnessing, who had "repent you swine" on his hat.  Effective witnessing? I think not. 

Update.....finally!

Actually the reason I haven't updated in a while is cause not too much has been going on! The only highlight I can think of is Keith's mom (Mema) coming to visit for a week.  We had lots of fun with her.  We got to hang out and eat, what more could we ask for? 

Around the time that Mema started her visit, Madison decided she was going to start waking up at 6:15 every morning and she hasn't quit :( Therefore, around 8:30 or so she goes down for a nap, it's kinda crazy.  

Other 2 items of note.  1) I decided to join the local MOPS at church and I am loving it. It's twice a month and I love the fellowship and learning time.  Most recently we had a woman talk to us about praying with and for your child.  It was awesome! 2) I got to go to our church's women's retreat.  It was totally worth it! We had so much fun and learned a lot from our speaker who was a very spunky elderly professor. 

The kid loves cups. I don't know why. I actually had to go ask for another cup at this restaurant because she started screaming when I took it out of her hands....

More to come soon...

Random photos :)

So I got tagged to do this photo thing.  (Shana, didn't know if you meant me or j. jordan, but we're going with it anyway cause it's fun!) Picture files, 4th folder, 4th photo. This was taken at Christmas 2005 at my Uncle Doug's house.  Sorry Jeff, you were smiling in the next picture....

If you get tagged, you do the same. 4th folder, 4th picture. 

Tagged: Jeff, Courtney, Sheryl, Tara & anyone else who wants to!

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!