I am SOOO Sick of being Sick!

Once again, I am still sick! I have coughed until I feel like my lungs are on the outside of my body... and I still have shopping and things to do before Thursday. Yuck! Friday p.m. we had several friends over for a open house, and I coughed and coughed, but still had a great time! Last night, we had Christmas with Darrin's mom over at Wayne and Val's house...my nephew Carter had me so tickled! He wrote a letter to Santa asking for a dirt bike for Christmas. He received a letter back from Santa this week, which was hilarious! Santa explained to Carter that a dirt bike this year would not be good because the elves had too much to build and how getting a dirt bike would be unfair to Carter's dog Molly, because she would not get to ride with him like she does on the four-wheeler. Well, this letter did not upset him at all. On the contrary, it just "proved" to him that Santa was for real. His reaction:

"Santa must be real or else the post office has camera's set up in our houses."
Hysterical! Only Santa would know about him and Molly riding together, so he has his mind made up!

I am looking forward to a laid back Christmas this week. I urge you to take time and go to Hello, my name is God
devotion blog! This week is all about Jesus!

Christmas at The Holmes'

My den tree!


My dining room tree!


The entry tree!

The kitchen tree!

The door wreath!

I love having our home decorated for Christmas, I love the smell of Christmas trees, I would absolutely LOVE a White Christmas ( I LOVE SNOW!!), I love beautiful wrapped packages to give to family and friends! I LOVE JESUS! who btw is the only reason for this wonderful holiday!

Initially 4 U Ornaments

Dana and I debuted our new business this Thursday and Friday at the Briarwood Christmas Shop and it was so much more than either one of us could ask or imagine of God! We had an incredible time and we sold out of all our ornaments and frames and lots of our letters! We have SO MANY orders to fill! Thank you Lord for blessing this! Here are some pictures of the ornaments and letters! You can go to Initially4U for more information.

Cutest pumpkin EVER!

Raegan the "Pumpkin Fairy"! She was so cute dressed in her costume at the Halloween Party!

Fall Pictures

I Love Fall! I know I say it alot, but I really do! Here are some pictures of our recent trip to Gatlinburg with The Waldrops and The Humphryes!

It was a great trip and of course going to watch the Tide beat the vols was great too!

Indescribable!

Check out our new church blog
Hello, My Name is God!
It's a great devotion each day following a series our pastor is preaching until Christmas!

Also, the basic website for Initially 4 U is up! We still have a lot to add, and you can't pay on the website yet but it's coming soon!

Have a great day! And GO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

I can't believe it is already October 31st! I can't wait to see all the little goblins tonight, but am especially excited to see one little pumpkin tonight at our church's Halloween Fun Night! (????) I bet I have some pictures to post of the little pumpkin after tonight!

We are looking forward to Homecoming at Alabama tomorrow as Darrin, BB and I will be having a great time with family and friends...and we are excited to get to go see our own Jennifer, Ms. Crimsonnete herself, join the other former Crimsonnete's on the field to twirl her stuff!!!! If John Thomas joins her on the field, I can assure you he will be the show!!!! Bart, Cortney and Coda will be hanging with us as well!

Have a great and safe Halloween! And ROLL TIDE!

P.S. Happy Birthday Nick Saban!

Too Much!

Ever have too much to do, too little time to do it in, and too few hands to do anything with? Well needless to say, I have been there lately. So, unfortunately, my blog has been one of the things that has been neglected. Sorry! But here are some great things that I have been doing since I last posted!


Darrin, Britt and I went to Orange Beach the weekend of the 10th and were hosted by some wonderful friends, at the Caribe! This was our welcome gift! Thanks to Richard and Virginia! We had such a great time!


This is the gift we took to Richard and Virginia for being such gracious hosts!

Then, its home to a busy week of working, painting, cleaning and such!!!! The 17th I had a little time to scrap, but not near enough, didn't even get one thing finished. But, I did get a GREAT package from my Secret Santa!!! WooHoo! Cute Halloween dish towels, GREAT Halloween papers, and even some cute BooHoo bandages, which Raegan loved! Thank you Santa! Then on the 18th it was the Ole Miss game.Fun!
But, alas, one of our metal letters was stolen! How mad does that make you? It's just ridiculous when someone takes something that doesn't belong to them.

Then, on the 19th it was the Pumpkin Patch!!!! It was so much fun!





I loved getting to hang out with family and friends. Watching Tyler and Raegan was hysterical! She worships him and Britt.

Then, we left Wednesday to head up to Gatlinburg for some R & R and the Alabama game! I will post some pics later, but it was wonderful! The trees really had not hit their peak autumn colors, but all the harvest decorations were beautiful! We had a great time at Cades Cove, and the game was another W for the Crimson Tide. I did hate to come home! We needed another few days just to sit and relax! But I did love spending time with Darrin, Britt, The Waldrops, and The Humphryes!

Just Ordinary, Everyday Goings On!

I love Alabama Football!!!!!!!!!!

Cody Terrance aka "Mount Cody" at the Alabama vs. Kentucky game
He is one of the biggest fella's I have ever seen!

Shannon S, Me, and Shannon A. at the Women's Fall Prayer Dinner

Fall is such a busy time for me! I love Alabama Football and so most Saturday's are spent down in Tuscaloosa or traveling to wherever the game is! Lots of stuff going on with the ministry passion God has given me, trying to launch a new business, and helping Darrin out at the office can wear a body out! So we are headed for some R & R! Just Darrin, me, and BB! I am so looking forwarded to it!
Just a word about the prayer dinner Monday p.m....D.L. Moody said that "Every great movement of God can be traced back to a kneeling figure". Well, I can't even begin to imagine what God will be doing among us after Monday night! The presence of God was so real and so incredible! I thank God for doing above and beyond what I could ever ask or imagine! Thanks for stopping by!

Yeah Alabama, Throw em all out, and Keep Praying

How great was it to see Alabama beat Georgia? It was an incredible game and I really enjoyed it, but I really enjoyed just getting some BB and Mom time! She and I left at 11 on Saturday and headed for Athens! She drove and I didn't even have any freak out moments...although flying through Atlanta behind the Fox 6 crew made me a little nervous! We had a blast! I loved seeing Britt back in her cheer mode! She was leading cheers in our section and "loving sitting with the rowdy crowd"! Funny! Bart and Cortney sat with us! The highlight of the night was when the Britt brothers (Wesley, Taylor and Justin) were spotted by BB! Oh how she loves those boys, and when Justin Britt walked by her and Bart yelled at him and he smiled and waved, I thought she might faint! It was priceless!

Back to reality, who wants to join me in voting every member of Congress out of office? We have a group of 4th grade brats running our country and I don't care what party they belong to! If I hear one more congressmen blaming the other side, I am just going to spit! There is not a one of them worth their weight in salt. And Nancy Pelosi is the most incompetent one of the bunch! Don't preach to me about a do nothing president when you haven't done ONE thing yourself! Ugh! Throw em all out! We need another Boston Tea Party but instead of tea we will just dump money or oil in the harbor....

Lastly, please continue to pray for Bart! His Dr. appointment did not go well this week and it looks like his disease is progressing even faster than expected. We need a kidney soon Lord! His attitude is great! I am very proud of him! He knows this is the hand that God has dealt him and He is determined to stand firm and trust God. I wish he did not have to endure this, but he is living each day to the fullest! Our family so appreciates all your prayers!

Join us at Wrapper's Delight for a weekend long crafting time, fabulous classes, make and takes, prizes, and much more! Visit http://scrapetcevents.blogspot.com/ for more information!

Hope all of you can make it for a great weekend!

Initially 4 U

Initially 4 U is taking off! We have seven different fonts that you can choose from. We are in the process of creating our website, but are still taking orders, and doing some craft shows. You can call Dana or me or email us @
Initially4u@dishmail.net I will update with more pics and website address later!

Alabama vs. Western Kentucky

And some more Pictures!

Pictures, Pictures and more Pictures!

BB & Jess in Atlanta

Bart and BB

Roll Tide from the Ga. dome!!!

I love this picture of me and my sweet friend, Shannon!!!

Family, Family, Family!!!

I have SOOOO much going on! I have got to sit down long enough to upload all the pics I have taken over the past 2 weeks; its been great! First, Darrin, BB, Jess and I headed to Atlanta to watch the Tide play! It was great! We met up with Bart and just enjoyed the day! Roll Tide!

Bart is doing well! Last week he had his surgery to enable him to begin the dialysis. He did well! Today, he is in classes to learn all about the dialysis. He will be doing it at home each day so that he does not have to spend so much time away from work! He is doing well, but stays really tired!

This Saturday, we spent the day at the Quad! Most of the Holmes Crew was there. We all enjoyed tailgating under the tent that Papa Don got for us through GameDayTents! It was WONDERFUL! Great food! And lots of Action! We got a great family picture in front of our great BAMA metal letters! Dana and I have started a new home business called "Initially 4 U". We have about 7 different fonts of metal letters that we paint. We sold alot of them already and are excited about the possibilites! Our website will be up soon! I'll keep you posted! So needless to say we are very busy! Thanks for visiting!

I LOVE Rain!!!!

Ok, ok, ok, I realize I have not posted much...too busy! I did have a great weekend! I spent 2 days at a scrapbook crop with NO interruptions! WooHoo! Got lots done, but alas, did not take any pictures; will have to work on that one!

My sweet friend, Shannon A., lost her baby on Friday and my heart hurts for her and Michael. She has such an amazing testimony about God's faithfulness in this situation! I was blessed just to hear her speak about it!

Had a wonderful day at church and feel very privileged just to worship with such freedom and to hear the Word preached boldly and with power! God gave our Pastor such a Word;
"Don't let your life be defined by your worst moment"!
Think about it...you don't think of Paul as Saul when you read about Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns in jail...I don't! I just think about the sufficiency of Christ! God is good!

I have lots of news coming in the next few weeks, and some updates on Bart so stay tuned!

Baby Brother needs Prayer

What an incredible day we had at Church! I love being in the midst of passion-filled believers! But tonight I am asking all of my friends to pray for Darrin's youngest brother, Bart. Bart has developed a kidney disease due to a bought with strep several years ago. Unfortunately, it has progressed and Bart has been placed on the transplant list. This is devistating to our family, but we are trusting God to take care of every aspect of this situation. Along with Bart, please pray for my in-laws. Don and Janie are really taking this news badly and are in need of God's peace and comfort. This situation did not take God by surprise. He is still on His throne and in charge! Thank you so much for praying~

Old Feelings

It is amazing to me how you can be walking along in life everything normal and out of the clear blue emotions you thought were LONG gone can take you back 15 years. Most people are aware that Darrin and I had major infertility issues. Before we were married I had to have one ovary removed and suffered from endometriosis so the likelyhood of having children was not there. After being married 3 years something much greater happened that would affect eternity. I prayed to receive Christ on June 10. Six weeks later, at a normal Dr. visit we were told I was six weeks pregnant!!!!!!!!!! Praise God! After Brittany was born we were told that the best time for more children was sooner rather than later. Alas, even with countless surgeries and several attempts at in-vitro (one resulted in triplets that I lost), we never had anymore children. Ugh! That was a yucky time. But today, I count it all as one great big miracle. Our entire family has come to know Christ as a result, one by one... I tell all this to lead up to the fact that while several of my dearest friends have discovered over the past few weeks they are expecting babies, I have one very special friend who is walking down that dark hall of infertility and my heart hurts for her. I wish I could take away those feelings or better yet fulfill that desire of her heart, but I can't. I can however walk with her and pray constantly. I can hope beyond all hope that the fact I can empathize with her will bring her some comfort from time to time. I ask that you all join me in prayer for my sweet friend, Joni. I know she would appreciate it so very much!

Abby's party

We had a great time with soooo many of our family and friends. Abby turned 6 (and would you believe I didn't have one picture in the batch of the Birthday girl!) But, I did get some great pictures of Raegan and Jack! Aren't they adorable? I love getting to hang out with so many great friends!

Scrapbooking goodies!

Wow, what a busy week I have had. Last Friday I went all the way to Camp Winnataska to hang out with a TON of kids and youth at our Church camp (Camp Rock!). I enjoyed my time with them although I had two at home who were anti-camp (my"mom" who is my 20 yr old daughter and my "dad" who is my husband)...they just felt like I didn't need to go because of my back! NOPE! I refuse to live my life like that. And I was definitely blessed by going! I got to sit with 4 teenagers and just really get to know them. And I so enjoyed sitting with Belinda White and talking - its just refreshing!

And, God worked wonders. Tucker was in Children's for his long stay of chemo. Each time his stay has been prolonged because it took so long to flush it out of his system. He prayed and Court asked us all to pray that he would get to come to camp on Friday; Oh how I prayed!!!! And I look up Friday, and who do I see; Tuckerman!!! This is him enjoying the slide! "Supertuck"! That was worth it all to see him enjoying answered prayer! Praise the Lord!

I feel like it has been forever since I have posted! The last few weeks have been kinda yuck! Back problems again...but doing better today. Thinking about alot of my friends who may be struggling over losses in the past year. It makes you realize how fleeting life really is and how eternity matters more than we can even comprehend...just praying for God to be ALL they need.

On another note...I am so excited about Scrap Etc. (my favorite scrapbook supply place!)They are moving and before they close on Saturday almost EVERYTHING is 50% off! Woooohooooo! There are some great deals for sure. http://scrapetc.com/ Check it out! Also, for those of you who's sweet husbands put you on a scrapbook budget check out the Scripts Kit Club. For $29 a month you receive a GREAT kit with tons of goodies! If you pick it up at the store instead of having it mailed, you get a store credit for the postage!

Well, I'll sign off for now. Please remember to pray for Tucker Beam! He wants to go to camp with all his friends on Friday, but he cannot leave the hospital until the chemo is flushed out of his system! He is praying really hard, so just pray God grants the desire of His heart. Thanks!

Almost the entire Holmes Family spent last night at our "annual" Baron's Game. Holmes Oil is a title sponsor of a game every year. It was great last night! It began with Don presenting the five all-star team players with a Congratulations gift on the field. Then my nephew, Justin, threw out the first pitch! Then off to the suite where everyone had a blast! Elizabeth Ann was in RARE form! Of course, the minute Brittany got there it was just about the two of them. They LOVE each other! Elizabeth just plays and plays with Britt's hair! After we all ate most sat outside enjoying the game (which by the way was an incredible game!). Elizabeth, Ashley, and Mary Katherine really got into the game and had all of us cracking up! Dana and Jimmy Hooper came with us and spent quite a bit of time laughing over the girls antics. It was a great night and it ended with a great fireworks show! Fun!

The 4th of July

The Fourth of July has always been a great time for our family, but this year was even better. Darrin and I (and many others) had the privilege of supporting Brittany and some of her friends in their ministry at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. We spent much of our day serving bbq, playing games and doing crafts with over 160 children and their families. You really go in thinking you might be able to bless someone and make their day a little brighter, but it doesn't take long to realize its you who receives such an incredible blessing. Brittany is SO passionate about this ministry that its contagious! You don't really know what to expect each time she has planned an event, but it is so evident God is blessing this work. What a privilege to serve so many precious families and to watch your own child serve the Lord as she obediently serves other. Thank you Father, for blessing my heart in so many ways! My cup truly runneth over~

~In Christ

Whoever said rain would spoil a party doesn't know the folks at The Church @ Ross Station!!!!!!!! Our In God We Trust Freedom Celebration was incredible! The McFarland Family farm was the PERFECT place. Thanks so much to Jay and Darlene and their family! A HUGE thunderstorm began right before 4 oclock sending everyone running for cover in a shed...but it didn't stop the fun! As everyone ate and talked the rain showers moved out and the pool fun began! We witnessed Jamie being baptized in the pool no less! It was so very special (it was especially moving for Darrin and I as Jamie and Julie are in our Connect Group!) After that, the kids hit the pool, the men hit the lake to fish and it was a GREAT afternoon for all of us!