The year of weddings...

This has been the year of weddings for our family. We have been to four weddings since the beginning of August. We went to Uncle Jordan and Aunt Whitney's wedding on August 7 in Alabama. Randy, Hailey and I were all three in that wedding. It was so much fun and we were able to see a lot of family, some we haven't seen in almost seven years. Then we went to Amanda Young and David Miller's wedding. Amanda is a good friend of mine that I went to church with and also went to school with. That was such a sweet wedding and an awesome reception... breakfast for dinner and a doughnut hole cake! Then there was Hillary Johnson and Kyle Vernon's wedding. I worked with Hillary and she is probably one of the best friends I have ever had. She made such a beautiful bride. Out of all of the weddings I have been to and worked, she was the most glowing bride I have ever seen! Last, there was Josh Spencer and Leslie Vannoy's wedding. It was in the mountains of Virginia and it was beautiful! Josh and I have been friends since 5th grade and he is one of Randy's closest friends and we are so happy he met the perfect girl for him. Here are some pics of the weddings we have been to...









We are so happy for our friends and excited to see how God is going to use these new families for His kingdom!

Randomness

Okay, so I decided to go ahead and write another post anyway. Hopefully the cleaning fairies will show up tonite while Randy and I are out on our date. And can I just say this date is much needed. It has been WAY too long! Okay, on to the randomness...
Ladies and gentlemen, we officially have an AWANA clubber in our house. Hailey started Puggles 2 weeks ago. I cannot believe she is old enough to be in AWANA. Nor can I believe that I am old enough to have a kid in AWANA...
-Pastor Tim encouraged us last Sunday to examine our lives and see what is one thing we can/need to get rid of and fast from it for two weeks. Mine was a no-brainer ...Facebook. After I made the commitment to not get on facebook for 2 weeks, I told Randy that maybe I should have went with a more realistic goal. But I can honestly say that I have not been on since last Sunday and it actually feels pretty good. I have spent much more time reading my Bible and it has been awesome. I have spent more time with my kids and that has been great. But most importantly, I have realized how enslaved to facebook I was. That may seem a little crazy but it is absolutely ridiculous how much time I was spending on it. While I do miss catching up with people and sharing cute photos and comments about the kids, it really feels good to not have to get on it. There. I said it. I can live without facebook =)
-All summer long Hailey has refused to wear flip flops (or "poop-plops" as she calls them.) She insisted that they hurt her feet and would not wear them. I gave in to this because Randy will not wear them either because they hurt his feet as well. Now that it is colder oustsde...guess what she wants to wear...that's right..."poop-plops." So I let her wear them...unless it's raining then she wears her rainboots, which really are her favorites.
-We are making huge strides in Hailey's fear department. For those of you who don't know, Hailey is seriously a big scaredy cat. I can honestly say I have never been afraid of her jumping off something and breaking a bone or climbing too high on something or anything of that nature. This summer she has been especially afraid of things. But I am pleased to announce that she will go down the big slide at church now. And if you take a look at the picture, you can see she has her hands in the air. HUGE! The coolest part about it is that there was no coaxing or bribing involved. One day she just decided she was going to do it, and she did it, and now she loves it. She still will not go on the swirly slide but that could possibly be because when I was pregnant the two of us got stuck in it and we didn't think we were going to make it out...but that story is for another day. Anyway, we are proud of her for giving it a try.
-Caleb is getting so big! He is such a sweet baby and is so snuggly! He has just in the last month or so developed a really cute personalty. He loves smiling and he loves "playing with Hailey.


I can't believe he is almost 5 months old! well, thats' all for now. I have a ton more I could write about but the cleaning fairies were a no-show last time =)

So stinkin' cute!

I really, REALLY need to make a new post about all that is going on in our family but I will probably have to wait until later to do it. Randy and I are actually going on a date tonite and I am so excited. But, I have a million things to do before I can even start getting ready. I just had to post this video because it is toooo cute! Caleb just started laughing this past month and he has THE cutest little giggle. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Thoughts from this mom...

Every night Randy and I sneak into both of our sweet babies' rooms to check on them and kiss their sweet cherub cheeks before we go to bed. It is one of our favorite things to do and we have done this since Hailey was first born. One night last week, after we left their rooms and were headed to bed, Randy asked me, "I wonder if God looks down us and smiles while we are sleeping just like we do to our kids?"
WOW. What an awesome thing to think about. It's funny because some days I feel like Hailey and I have had just a rotten day together. She would be EXTRA whiney, I would lose my temper, and so on. It would be one of those days where I couldn't wait for bedtime. I love her more than words can say but sometimes life is just hard for the mom of a two-year-old. But there is something about the stillness of her laying there in her bed at night that erases the day from my memory and I just want to scoop her up out of her bed and snuggle her the rest of the night.
The thought of God looking down on us while we sleep and smiling on us never really crossed my mind until he mentioned that but it reminded me of why God looks on us and smiles. No matter how rotten I was that day. No matter how many wrong thoughts I had. No matter how many unkind words I said. No matter how many times I lost my temper with my children or my husband. God still smiles down on me...because He sees His perfect Son. His Son who took the place for me and bore my sin on the cross of Calvary. I hate it when I act that way and I know it hurts God's feelings. However, I know He loves me because I am His child.
I am, by no means, a perfect mother. But I am so glad I know the perfect Father. And I am so thankful that He loves me no matter how horrible of a day I have had and that He smiles when He sees me.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Because I love him =)

Today is my husband's birthday. I love him so much but I am not very good at verbally expressing how I feel (just ask him) so I decided I would publicly declare my love for him to the cyber world =)
Thirteen years ago, I started the eighth grade at Vandalia Christian School. We were getting a new student in our class named "Cletis Titus" and we were all wondering what this redneck or possibly African-American kid was going to be like. It turned out he was a super-cute. athletic guy with a Nick Carter hair cut (those were totally in back then.) It didn't take long for me to figure out that I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure he didn't know I existed. So I went on my merry, dating way and dated 2 or 3 guys (who's counting?). I had always had a place for him though in the back of my heart. There was just something about him. He wasn't the most popular guy in our class, although most of the girls would have loved to have "gone out" with him. He wasn't a class clown but he was very funny and always had (and still does) a witty comeback or zinger to through at someone. But besides that I think what attracted me most to him was and is his character. In my mind he had so much integrity and wisdom. And I wasn't the only one that saw that in him. Not to say he never got in trouble but there was something about the way he handled things and people that I admired (and he did tend to man-handle some of the guys at school, which I also found attractive.) Anyway, thanks to my now mother-in-law and a certain sister-in-law who is about to get married herself, he finally noticed me. I had to break up with my boyfriend first but we started dating the second semester of my senior year. I honestly can't remember life without him and really don't care to.
I could not have asked for a more godly husband or a better best friend. We have been through so much and I would not have wanted to go through it with anyone else. He has taught me so much and I am grateful for his patience with me. He has been such an encouragement to me in my walk with the Lord and in the things I struggle with. He is an amazing daddy to our two precious children. Hailey adores him. She can't wait till he gets home from work everyday and loves to go on dates with him. I know Caleb will adore him also but right now his clothes tell how he is thinking =) We just love Randy so much and thank God for the blessing of a man that He put in our lives! Happy 25th BIrthday Randy!

Our sweet Caleb

Our sweet Caleb is 2 months old today. I can't believe it has been 2 months already! He is such a sweet (and fat!) baby. His Nena (Randy's mom) wrote this about the day he was born and I wanted to share it because I thought it was so sweet....




It is spring in North Carolina. The grass is as green as I have ever seen it....perhaps that is because I rarely see pretty green grass anymore. Everything is in bloom..and my itchy eyes alert me to that each day. There are budding flowers and signs of new life everywhere. New Life....nothing better. I arrived back in North Carolina on Mothers Day and just in time for the birth of our third grandchild, Caleb Joshua Titus. He is 6 lbs 11 oz of pure preciousness-sent straight from Heaven. (Think I'm kiddin'? Check out the attached picture!) He is also the spitting image of his daddy, our oldest son Randy. He is of course beautiful....and a reminder of all things new. A brand new little human miracle from God. The day he was born we also realized that there were four more new additions born on the Titus property. As Hailey (Caleb's big sister) and I were swinging on the front porch swing that evening, we noticed four little baby birds had hatched in their nest in the bush beside the front porch. We snuck over and peeked in to see four little featherless chicks just chirping away for their mommy to return with their meal for the day. (I captured the moment in an awesome picture) It was a teachable moment as Hailey and I talked about what a great God we have, the God that not only gave us Caleb out of mommy's tummy that morning, but also the God that gave us new life in the four little baby birds all snuggled up in their nest. Each day since then we always stop to sneak a peek at the growing baby birds and marvel at our great God's creation. Something so simple, yet so profound. A creator that gives us little baby Titus'es is the same creator that gives us little baby birds....and He loves and cares for us all.
This is just another rambling of one tired Jamerican.....SELAH

"God is sad. Him needs his mommy."

It has been a while since I have posted. About five months to be exact. Our sweet little Hailey is getting to be such a big girl. I was going to do another post about "hailey-isms" but her speech has gotten so good that you (or at least I) can understand most of what she is saying. I do however, need to write down the things that she is saying because there is almost nothing better than the thoughts of a 2-year-old.
This morning she and I were sitting down reading her little Bible and we were talking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and it was talking about how it makes God sad when we disobey Him. I was trying to explain it to her in a way she could understand. She sat there for a minute with a sad look on her face and said "God is sad. Him needs his mommy." I honestly didn't know what to say. Can you explain to a 2-year-old that God doesn't exactly have a mommy? And then we were doing the questions at the end of the story and the first one was "Can you think of something you have done to disobey your mom and dad." She replied after a moment to think, "Yeah...I dit out of my bed." HALLELUJAH!...she is learning! It's the little things , ya know!
As most of you know we have added a new addition to our home, Caleb Joshua Titus. He has melted my heart already. He is so sweet and cuddly. I love seeing Hailey interact with him, too. It is just so sweet. She is always telling me " Mommy, he tho thweet" and "mommy, him pwecious" and "Mommy, him twying. Him needs hith pathy." I am surprised how gentle she is with him. She is not normally a rambunctious kid but i didn't expect her to be as gentle as she is with him.
As good as she has been, I know it has been hard on her not getting as much attention as she was getting before her little brother came along. She has had her share of meltdowns but she really has been great. I have been trying to take her out once a week even if it's just a couple of hours just so I can spend some time just me and her. I have been taking her to the water park the last couple of weeks. She loves to go on dates. I'm not sure if she considers it a date when it's just me and her. She usually goes on dates with her daddy and her Beepa (my dad.) Either way I enjoy my time with her. If you take her on a date and ask her where she wants to go she will more than likely tell you she wants to go to "Chit-Lay" (Chick-fl-A.) And if you ask her what she wants to eat she has her list down pat of what she wants...." Chitten, fwies, chotalate molt, and ithe tweem." If you didn't catch that, it was chicken, fries, chocolate milk, and ice cream. Healthy and nutritious, I know. But it's a date. You're allowed to splurge on a date, right?
Last story for the day...our pastor's wife, Holly, is Hailey's buddy, and every wednesday and friday we go over to the church to see Holly and Holly gives her candy. Holly has taught Hailey about putting candy in her pockets. So now, every time she wears something that has pockets on it she thinks she needs some candy to put in it. Yesterday morning, i put a little sundress on her and it had pockets. When I got the dress on her, she immediately put her hands in her pockets and said, "Mommy, I dot pottets! I need tanny for my pottets!" Like I said, it's the little things in life =)