A Way For You to Help

Some of our very best friends, seen HERE, are in the process of adopting. They have made these shirts as a way to raise support. The shirts are actually a darker gray, more of a charcoal, and they come in toddler, youth, and adult sizes. They are $20 each, and go towards an amazing cause- bringing their sweet baby home! Let me know if you are interested in a shirt, or one for every family member like we will be doing! Not only will this help them bring their sweet baby home, it will also be a way to support adoption altogether. James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

We Have a Name! And a Room!

So, we have had a few crazy weeks, a crashed computer, some traveling, beautiful weather, and 2 busy toddlers keeping us pretty busy and keeping me from blogging. That, and I have been really lazy about taking pictures. I am feeling better for the most part now. I can't seem to get rid of a head cold, but Brandon just thinks my allergies are out of control and causing the rest to stick around. My mom tells me that she kept a cold the whole time she was pregnant, so maybe that is just a gift she passed to me.
I wanted to update and say that the kids have done extremely well sharing a room. The first few weeks were pretty good, but still included spankings a few times each nap. Now, it is rare that I have to go check on them at all. Which makes planning for a baby MUCH easier for me. I think the main thing that made me worry about a new baby was thinking about the lack of space and noise and kids not sleeping. So, now she has a room! I went on a girl's fun weekend and came home to an assembled crib, with the bedding all set up. I did get her a new crib bedding set... which is pictured below. It was on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids, and was cheaper than anything I have ever seen at PBK. She is using Blake's old room, which is a really pale baby blue, so the polka dots and stripes bring out the blue that just matches perfectly! Our crib is dark wood, but when I get it all together, I will show you a picture. Just wanted to give you a little preview.
















Now, for her name... Brandon picked her first name, and we both picked her middle name. I was so surprised that he picked a name that I liked so much, and that we don't know any kids with that name, and that sounds good with Slagley. My grandmother's (Nanny) name is Elizabeth May, and I loved the idea of using one of her names. So her name is Morgan May Slagley. I was telling Nanny about naming her, and she asked where I got the name May... I laughed and said "From your name, Nanny!" And she smiled and said she just wanted to make sure. She is back home in her "independent" living, but with an aid around the clock. She is doing much better and gaining strength and some memory back all the time. I can't wait for her to meet her namesake this summer!

Chick-Fil-A Free Fries

CHECK THIS OUT! Tomorrow (March 4) is free Fry-Day at Chick-Fil-A from 2 to 4 when you mention that you are trying their new ketchup dip and squeeze. 2 to 4 is kind of a hard time when you have kids napping, but we may have to get up a little early from naps for a good snack. And, they are Medium size, so not too shabby to share!

It's Another Girl!

We are so excited to be having another girl... not to mention Kate thinks it is HER little girl. We got to take a peek at her this morning, and everything looks perfect! We don't have a name picked out yet, but we need to soon so Kate will quit getting attached to every name she says. She first wanted us to name her Rapunzel, then she stuck with Sally, then said she would settle for Callie. How am I supposed to break it to her that she will have no part in the naming process? I am not one of those people who refuses to tell the name until birth, so as soon as we know, you will too! Thanks for sharing in our excitement. For the record, I was right. I told Brandon it is just mother's intuition... :)

Kind Of Sad When...

You are so excited about a kitchen appliance that you blog about it.
But, you NEED to know how much I love this thing. It amazes me how easy it is, and how much it really does eliminate freezer burn. I am the kind of person that buys my meat at one time, then portions it out into serving sizes and freezes, so this thing is a dream come true. Like I said, kind of sad!
Brandon gave me the Food Saver for Christmas, and I wondered if I would really use it, and I HAVE! Last night, we just had leftover peppers and onions that were already sliced, but I don't need them this week, so I put them all in a bag and it shrunk the bag to about 1/3 of the original size, and got all of the air out.
If you have seen the Food Saver, and have been wondering if it is worth it, IT IS! And no, the company is not paying me to promote it. I just thought you should know about my new friend in my kitchen.

We Haven't Disappeared

I have started functioning a little better- not always feeling better- but I can accomplish a few things these days. We just moved Blake into Kate's room last week- here is a picture of the not-so-manly space he has. Somehow, all of the baby dolls ended up on his "green bed," as he calls it. Sorry for the mess, like I said, I can only accomplish a FEW things, and their room hasn't been at the top of my list. This is is first "big boy" room experience too, and they have both done great! If I had known how well they would do, I would have done it a while ago. They have even been napping in the same room. We had to remind them a time or two after we shut the door that we can still hear them and that it is rest time, not play time. It took a night or two, and now we just put them in bed, shut the door, and enjoy some peace and quiet. This will make traveling this summer easier, and give this new baby a little space of it's own. IT will be called a he or she next week!

In other news, Brandon and I got away a few weeks ago to Gatlinburg, TN, for our anniversary (which was in December). It was so nice to go relax, watch some movies, read, eat, drink coffee, eat, and relax some more. Thankfully, the kids were passed between family members who made them think that the kids were actually the ones on vacation. We were gone four days, and I wasn't even sick at all for two of those days, big relief! Since then, the sick days have gotten fewer each week.

The only thing that made it hard to be away is missing time with my sweet Nanny. We happened to be visiting her three weeks ago and she started mixing words up and acting very confused and disoriented, so I called 911, and it turns out that she had a pretty bad "insult" to her brain, and they think it was a stroke. She has been in the hospital for 3 weeks now, and it has been up and down the whole time. When I visited her yesterday, she seemed like a slightly disoriented version of herself, and it was sweet to hear her talk and see her smile. I was wearing a scarf and she told me she loved it and that you "are always warmest when you have a scarf." I don't know why it made me laugh to hear her say that. She told us that she wants to go home and that she would cry if we didn't help her, it about broke our hearts. I would love to help her leave, but she is in no health to go back home yet. Please pray for Nanny's recovery and the doctors who care for her since her condition changes daily. It is hard for anyone to make decisions when it seems like a different patient every day!

This is just a shot of what I looked like most of the last few weeks. I had some respiratory infection junk, and was down for a few days, then had no voice, etc. So- we have done a lot of snuggling on the couch! Fine with me! I think the kids enjoyed it for about one day, and then wanted to get OUT of this house! Maybe this week will be more fun for them, and me.

War Eagle (a week later)

We got to take a fantastic trip to Glendale to watch our Tigers play, thanks to Papa G and JoJo! What a Christmas present to remember!
























This was our crew, and we all fit in one Suburban to get to the game. Guess who had to sit up front to not get carsick?













We tailgated in the parking lot and ran into some of our best friends from Auburn.






























Then we went to "Tiger Walk," which was pretty lame compared to normal. This was my view behind two fences, but I guess they had to be careful, who knows what kind of crazy people were there! The band and cheerleaders walked through and the buses brought in the players.
















The jumbo tron alternated images of Auburn and Oregon logos, I just cared about seeing the AU.


















Our seats were just under the ESPN booth, so we got to see them filming, that is Urban Meyer's head on the left.

















Hey Cam! A picture of Gus Malzahn with his quarterbacks.















It was amazing to see the confetti shoot out and the players run out, flags were waving... it was great! The crowd was probably at least 70% Auburn fans, so you can imagine the excitement in there! We were sitting in the Auburn endzone, so this was the scoreboard above us with the final score!




























I am not always the first to pay attention to football games, but this game was easy to watch! I am so glad we got to go out there, and experience it all in person, but it was probably just as fun to watch on tv. We were scheduled to take the red-eye flight back home, and it was cancelled on Monday morning due to bad ice storms in Alabama, and they said they would send us home on Thursday... not going to work! I ran into some friends at the game, and when they told me they were flying home without any problems, I was determined to get home! After the game, we checked our flights, and saw that our original flight was open again, but we hadn't brought our bags. So we left the game, went straight to get our bags, and then raced to the airport. When we got there, they told us the flight was full and that we could just wait on standby. We reminded them that we were originally booked for that flight, so we should be on it, and somehow a manager let us go with "seat requests" to the gate. We had to run through the airport, because we arrived as they announced it was the final call for our flight. We made it, and I was furious, because I could count more than 20 empty seats on that plane! How many people were sitting there waiting to get home?! Anyway, we made it home, but I was feeling ROUGH! (Maybe this is TMI) On our way home from the airport, I was tired, starving, etc., so all I wanted was a biscuit, but nothing was open due to the weather. So I sat in the car with my barf bag in my lap trying not to gag the whole way home. We made it, I shoved slices of bread in my mouth and climbed into my bed. I didn't even call my mom to tell her we had made it home until lunchtime, and she was just glad it wasn't Thursday! Thanks Slagleys for making this trip happen, and thank you to my parents for watching the kids (in an ice storm) for 3 nights!