My Latest Shoot

www.crystalpeoplesphotography.blogspot.com

Check out my latest shoot of some sweet little angel girls!!! I had so much fun! I cannot thank everyone enough for helping me build my business thus far! You guys are great! I wouldn't have a business at all without you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Bubba

Last night, we went to Montgomery (Jacob and I, Wayne had to work) to say bye to my brother as he headed off to basic training. Never in a million years would I have guessed that my sister and my brother would now be in the Army Reserves, but I am busting with pride! I could not be any more proud of the two of them and the course they are taking with their life. They both have a good head on their shoulders and are extremely focused! Having gone through this with my sister, I'm already missing Bubba dearly. Poor lil man didn't want to leave him. He just kept reaching for him every time we would try to leave. I know he said "Bu Ba" a million times yesterday. Funny how they can pick up on stuff at such a young age. We went out to eat and went bowling before we had to have him at the hotel. Mom took lots of pictures, and I must say, it was nice knowing that memories were being captured and I wasn't the one capturing them. :) As soon as I get the pics from her, I will definitely have to share with you Jacob's first bowling experience.

Before we went to Montgomery, I had a shoot in Opelika with two baby GIRLS! It was lots of fun! I can never get enough of babies. They are just so precious. Funny, every time I hold a newborn, it takes me back to when Jacob was that little. Unbelievable how fast time passes! I'll have the full sneak peek up later this week! Thanks again Michelle!

Hello.

This is what lil man loves to do. This dresser is in the spare bedroom where the computer is. Anytime I come to get on the computer, he loves to get in his drawer. Yes, there is a part of me that knows this is a bad idea. But he's just too cute opening it and hopping right in.

We went out shopping today, mainly for a sweet baby girl shoot I have tomorrow and for some groceries. While we were out, I know I had close to ten people stop and tell me how cute this lil munchkin is. :) Needless to say, I am one proud Mommy. Funny, they should see him now. Little boy without nap (and it's too late now to try and get one in) = not so much fun! :) Poor guy. I wish I could make him understand that sleep makes him feel better. Although I'm sure it's hard to sleep when you are cutting four molars!

That's about all that's going on with the Peoples household these days. Wayne is working insane hours with the new Women and Infants Building opening this week at UAB, and we miss him much! Tomorrow, lil man and I are heading to Opelika for a shoot (my parents will be able to spend the day with him), and then tomorrow night we are heading to Montgomery for our last dinner with my brother before he leaves for Basic Training Wednesday morning. Please keep him in your prayers. We have already gone through this with my sister, and I already know he will be greatly missed!

Almost Time...

I've caught lil man a couple of times now with his leg trying to go over the crib. He is so close to being able to get himself out of it. I've been told that when they can crawl out of their crib, that's when it's time to move on up to a big boy bed! I can understand the reasoning behind this. Jacob can turn around and slide off of a bed easily, but I can see a trip to the ER if he's trying to climb out of a crib! Ultimately, I'm hoping this doesn't have to happen until this summer. I want him to be as close to 2 as possible, but I have been daydreaming a little bit about his big boy room. To us, a toddler bed seems like a waist of money, so we are going to a full size bed with the rails on the side. We already have the furniture, which is very lightly stained.

Pottery Barn is by far my favorite place to get kids bedding. I have looked what seems like everywhere, but haven't found anything that I like near as well. I also really like the quilted bedding. I did find some on Overstock, but still, it wasn't near as cute.

The first room I fell in love with:

I loved how all the little car sheets and train sheets went with this. You weren't stuck with any certain theme (which one thing I have learned with looking at big boy bedding is if it doesn't have some sort of theme, it's not cute). Then, I got to looking at the prices of their sheets, and decided to change my mind real fast! :) And since the sheets were really what I liked, and I haven't been able to find any more that really go with it as well, I decided this wasn't really what I wanted.

Then, this became an obsession:

We actually really liked this one. We even thought of doing a train track going around the ceiling. :) We saw the idea of it when we went to Gatlinburg, and the first thing we thought about was Jacob. I know he would love it. But, would Mama really love cleaning it? It's still an option, I guess.

I never really loved this one, but anyone who knows me knows I love red! So, I thought for that reason alone, this one was cute:

If Wayne were a fireman, this would definitely be the perfect choice. But he's not, and it just doesn't seem to fit, no matter how red it is! :)

Now, this is currently my fav:

I love the khaki and navy! And I love the elephants! Being a Tide family, we wouldn't have a hard time at all finding little elephants for the room! :)

So, this is what was on my mind for today...and a lot of days! I guess we'll just have to see what we decide on this summer. Speaking of summer...I'm not wanting to wish time away, but I'm definitely ready for some warmer weather!!

V Day

On Valentine's Day, we like to get lil man a lil something to let him know we love him! (Wayne and I have never really celebrated the holiday in the traditional ways. We try to go on dates throughout the year, and thankfully don't need a holiday as an excuse to go on one. Plus, we hate getting out when everyone in Birmingham is out!) So, anyway, here is lil man on Valentine's morning before getting ready for church.

When we got to church, I was highly anticipating a marriage sermon. In fact, I was REALLY looking forward to a mushy "Oh honey I love you so much, you are the man of my dreams" kind of sermon. That is not what we got. We got something so much better.

Br. Kevin has been preaching on the Beatitudes lately, and he stayed true to his series on this special day. Although he uses several scriptures throughout his teachings, the key verse today was Matthew 5:7 : "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." In the middle of the sermon, the Lord really spoke to me through him. I realized that I had not forgiven someone of something that happened long ago. In fact, I know it was from the Lord that I even thought of this event. I have thought for a very long time that I had forgiven, but through the sermon today I realized that was not so. And boy was I BROUGHT TO MY KNEES!! Literally. The Lord moved through me today in a way that I cannot even describe. In fact, the only word I have to even try to describe was tears. And I shed a lot of them. Talk about a Valentine's morning. And my dear husband. This is not something he would necessarily want me to share, because that is the type person he is, but he had his hand on my shoulder and his other lifted high. What a sight to behold! There is no better present than to see my precious husband praising the Lord. It was an absolute fantastic Valentine's Day sermon! I was reminded once again of how deeply I love this man! (Please note that I am in no way sharing this to brag or act "holier than thou" because I assure you I am not. The Lord can break even the most stubborn of hearts in his time. And I wanted to share with you the relief you can feel when you allow it to happen.)

On with our day. We headed to Gran and Papa's for our Sunday lunch, where we go every Sunday after church. For some reason, lately Jacob has had a fascination with her baby walker (she still has it out for my niece). In fact, he crawls in it, stands up straight, and picks it up on the sides to carry it while he walks. It is absolutely hilarious.

My sister in law showed up after a little while to introduce us to the newest addition to the Murphree family.

Needless to say, Jacob loved Miss Rosie. And he will have to love her from a distance. There will be no more puppies in this household any time soon. In fact, we will have a real life human baby before we will have another puppy. And THAT'S not coming anytime soon. At least not for another year!

I hope everyone had a blessed Valentine's Day. I know we did. I have the two most precious Valentines anyone could ask for!

Snow Continued

Let me tell you one thing I love about my husband. He LOVES to play with our son! He looks forward to doing different things with him, and the snow was no exception. Last year, there wasn't much "playing" involved when it snowed. It was more like, "let's bundle him up and run outside and snap a quick picture." :)

This year, Wayne called me as soon as it started snowing and was wanting updates on what lil man was thinking about it. I could tell it killed him knowing I was taking him out to play in the snow while he had to stay at work. So, I was constantly sending pics on my phone and letting him know what lil man thought of it. After we went out for the first time, I was given instructions to not go back out in it until Dada got home so he could build a snow man and throw some snow balls with him! And that we did. My husband is just an over sized kid. A very handsome over sized kid. :)

We rolled up a snow man....

...threw some snow balls...

...let Fritzie girl play in the snow...

...tasted some snow (he did this completely on his own...he LOVED it. With him teething, I'm sure it felt pretty good on his gums.)...

and even snapped a quick picture with Mommy!

The next morning, Wayne was up and ready for some more. I told you. He's truly a kid at heart! So out in the snow we went. We really just got wet because it was melting so fast, but boy did this little guy have some fun! He did not want to come in!

Now I'm just praying we don't get sick!

Our Morning

Precious Lady

Meet my Mama Rena.

She is my grandmother. Funny thing is, she is actually my Dad's step mother. She never had any children. My dad is her only "step" child. And she was only married to my grandad for a little over a year before he passed (I was a baby). With all of this combined knowledge, you must also know that I am by far closer to her than any of my "blood" extended family. I love this woman. She is such a sweet, caring, compassionate, thoughtful and loving lady. I cannot imagine my life without her.

We had the privilege of going to her 90th birthday party a couple of weeks ago. On Jan 28th, she turned 90 years old! It's so unbelievable! She still lives by herself, although my parents have begged her for years to live with them. We had a great time. And she always loves the chance to show off her son, grandchildren and her prized great grandson!

Speaking of the little fella, they had a rocking chair just his size! He loved it! I had one like this as a baby, and we can't find it anywhere! I'm so afraid with all of the moves it has been misplaced. I do think it's time to get little man his own little chair!

The Greatest Show On Earth!

That's right! Wayne and I took lil man to the circus last weekend! We had a blast. It was part of Wayne's birthday present, but it was also our fun and different thing to do as a family for January!

(Notice many of our pics are so close lately? My lens that lets me zoom out all the way is broken!)

Lil man had a blast! We saw really tall people.

And really short people.

And really brave/stupid people.

There were people doing all sorts of tricks up in the air. One man held a lady many feet in the air by his neck, and one woman flew threw the air by her hair!! The last one hurt me too bad to even think about a picture! These women really creeped me out. Look at the woman in the blue. See where her head is???

Jacob watched intently...

as SEVEN bikes road in this ring of steel!

When the elephants came in, he started screaming, "WHOA!"

He wasn't too impressed about the Tigers. I think it's because everything was quiet. Boy did he get antsy during this!

But one things for sure. He almost always has some extra loving to share with Mama and Dada (or Wayne as he is now calling him! Haha!)

Stay tuned for our day of fun in February!

The Most Precious Thing

Our lil man is simply the most precious thing. He warms my heart so often! This is what I found him doing in his room the other day.

He was "reading" his Bible! What a joy this little boy is! I cannot thank the Lord enough!

In other news, he said his first phrase the other night. "I go it." (I got it.) He was repeating what his dad was saying, but he knew exactly what he meant! He was in the tub arguing over wanting the bathcloth while Wayne was trying to bath him! He hasn't quit saying it since. Everything he picks up he then declares, "I go it!"

Gran is 50! Isn't that Nifty? :)

I'm a little behind as usual....2 weekends ago we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Wayne's mom! To say the least, I think she might have been a tad bit surprised (even though I know she knew it was coming!).

These crazy people even came all the way from Opp for the day just to be able to wish Mollie a happy birthday! I cannot tell you how thankful I am that our parents like each other! :)

We did have a band. When Wayne's aunt told me they played "oldies", I was prepared for "YMCA"...that's not what she had in mind. It was really old country! Everyone seemed to enjoy them though! My mom even knew most of the words to these songs I had never heard! This lady right here was with the band...

What do you think goes along with a band? DANCING! And there was a good bit of it!

These two...there are no words for them!

My poor preacher dancin' dad couldn't even break it down because of my crazy husband!

Papa Don even danced with the birthday girl!!

This kind of dancing took place too!

Grandmollie even got some lovin time from her sweet grandboy!

And we even got a family picture...sorta. This was the best one!

Grandmollie, we hope you had a wonderful birthday! You are so loved by so many people!