Betty's Birthday

On December 30th we were able to celebrate Betty's 60th Birthday. It has been years since we have actually been home for Betty's birthday. It was fun to celebrate her life. We of course went to Carlos O'Kelly's for dinner. Here are some pictures from that night!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday Betty G.

The brogans

Lots of food!!

Nanny G with Emerson

Jason and Elliott

Uncle Preston with Emerson

Nanny G getting a picture of Preston and Emerson

Nice boots Emerson!

Being silly

Great times with family!!

The Christmas Video!!

Hot off the press. Our Season of Surprises video is finished. The video turned out perfect, Preston! Thanks for all your hard work. It was great seeing the faces of everyone. These will be memories we will never forget.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a73tcbEfNyA

Playing the Wii

It was fun watching our nephew play the Wii. This is a short clip of him running in place. We thought it was rather cute.

I am going to be an Aunt again!!

So this is totally old news but I am behind on my blog :)

No, neither of our brothers are going to have a child. My sister is!!! Tammi has been my best friend since 2nd grade. She becomes more and more like my sister everyday. So, I have already been promised that her child will grow up calling me Aunt Courtney.

Tammi has known for a while that she was pregnant but she couldn't think of how to tell me. She didn't want to just call me via phone. She found out about the surprise of us coming home and decided to surprise me!! This was my surprise....

When I tried to surprise her I could tell by the look on her face that she already knew. I was like...you knew...and then she handed me that picture framed. It was a super sweet moment. I am so glad God gave us that chance to hug,cry and celebrate the new life that is forming within her. The best part is, we have it all on video!!
It will be coming soon for all to see.

Anyway, this is Tammi and Gary's first child. I am super excited to follow this life adventure with her. She told me yesterday that the little baby is the size of an apple! Words can't express how amazing this feels to know my best friend is bringing a life into this world. The world definitely needs more Tammi's and I am so thankful the Lord has blessed her with this opportunity to birth, raise and love a sweet baby. I know it's parents and if it turns out half as amazing as them, it will be good to go. I have a feeling it is going to be an amazing child and a warrior for the Lord!

Believe me when I say, there WILL be more to come on this topic.
I love you Tammi. I am SO proud of you and we will add this to the list of things we have been through together. I am so glad this is a fun thing!!

Please join me in praying for this new life and for it to keep growing strong and healthy.

Rumor has it...

Many of you might have heard a rumor about Preston and I. We were in Springfield for Christmas.
It was a surprise trip for us and so we decided to surprise our families. We were bringing back an old van and bringing down a new one. Yes, we spent 6 days driving back and forth. But to be able to see our families was totally worth it.

There were many surprises and lots of great stories. We are working on a video so you can see the trip and the reactions of our families.

One of the most exciting things was getting to meet our niece for the first time. She was everything and more than we expected. She is beautiful and has such a calm sweet spirit about her. I promise there will be more to come but I wanted to show everyone this.

This is Uncle Preston with baby Elliott (2005)

This is Uncle Preston with Emerson (2008)....can you tell they are brother and sister?!!

Aunt Courtney with Emerson

What a joy it was to spend the holidays with our families. We treasured every moment we had with them. We are now getting adjusted back down here and preparing for GIC which is right around the corner. We hope you all had a blessed Christmas and may 2009 be a year of much growth and happiness. We love you all.