Christmas!

We got to celebrate Christmas with our families at OUR house this year. My family(minus the Braddocks) were here for Christmas Eve and Wes's family came down and spent Christmas with us. It was the first Christmas I haven't been at home, but it was great and worked out really well. We've truly enjoyed our company. My dad says he'll come back next year if Ashley and I will have number 8 & 9 of his grandchildren (Don't think that's in the cards for next year, but we really enjoyed it this year!)


Sawyer had a really big Christmas. He was SO EXCITED!!
Wes with Sawyer and Eli
Caleb checking out Uncle Walker

Hannah Brooke and Carson LOVE Caleb - they are so sweet!

The Harpers

Our Christmas Gift Came Early

(Sorry for the delay. I've been working on getting this out since Tuesday but am just now getting it up. I'll update with Christmas pictures soon!)

Hey Friends!! Caleb is now eight days old. We are getting settled in at home and life is great here!! Our new little man is doing wonderful. He's a very sweet baby so far. We're sleepy but overwhelmed with joy.
Thanks for all your sweet notes and for your thoughts and prayers for us.




Caleb with his new best friend and cousin, Eli

You can view more pictures here

Caleb Michael Harper

this is auntie ashley.
i wanted to let you know CALEB'S HERE! Allyson, Wes and Caleb are all doing great! He's 7 lbs 1 oz, 20 inches long and ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! The delivery went great! He's beautiful, and everything's going good! The doctor said they may come home either tonight or tomorrow morning.
I am totally in love with this little boy, and I can't wait to see this little guy grow up! MERRY CHRISTMAS! WHAT A BLESSING!! I could cry at what a perfect little gift Allyson and Wes have!!
Click here for pictures.
ps-Erika posted more pictures here.

Caleb's Room Ready & Waiting

We hung the pictures in Caleb's room tonight, and I feel like we're ready for him anytime now. I'm so excited that he will be here so soon!

My WONDERFUL and extremely talented friend Erika picked out everything in this sweet baby's nursery. We can't wait for him to get here!

Tis The Season

I LOVE Christmastime! I am especially excited about this year! I thought I'd share some pictures of our last few years...

Handsome Angels

I am a week late on this post, but we had a GREAT & busy weekend last weekend. We drove to Dothan after work on Friday to go to the Peanut Festival with Wes's parents. It has become a tradition for us, and we love it! We mostly go for the corn dogs and elephant ears.

On Saturday, we drove to Enterprise to check on Ashley & Walker, Eli & Sawyer. They are doing great, and Eli seems to be the perfect baby so far. He only cries when he is hungry and even then, it's not much of a cry. Sawyer is seriously the happiest kid I've ever met!! He is so funny and laughs all the time!! We got to go to church with Ashley & Sawyer on Sunday which was great - Walker stayed home w/ baby Eli so we could go. A few pictures of some handsome angels...

Baby Eli - So Sweet!

His mama will not appreciate me sharing these pictures with his passy, but I can't resist. His face is just too cute!!

Should Have Been In A Magazine

If engineering & interior design don't work out, these girls (Erika and Kate Hartman) should start a catering business!!

My good friends, Erika and Kate, hosted a baby shower for me on Sunday afternoon. The two of them could seriously start a party planning business. It was worthy of a magazine feature. It was a perfect fall day (in Florida) 80 degrees and sunshine. We started with appetizers and socializing in Kate's backyard, and then went inside to eat corn and crab bisque soup, pumpkin acorn muffins, delicious cupcakes and beautiful fall leaf cookies. The food was amazing, the company was wonderful and I got lots of goodies. It was SO NICE - every single detail! Some pictures...

Michelle Baker with her daughter, Bella, Rosalie Pyetzki (our Bible study meets at her home every week), Morgan Palmer, Carla Riley and Erika

Eli

Eli Marshall Williams

I know most of you who read my blog also read Ashley's and our pictures are the same, but I couldn't help post pictures of our precious new nephew. Ashley said Sawyer LOVES him, especially when he cries. He thinks that is FUNNY :)!!

Eli is Here!!

I wanted to let you all know that my precious nephew, Eli Marshall Williams, was born this morning at 6:15am. He is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! He weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 1/2" long. He has dark hair - (not jet black, but not a blondie like Sawyer either). For now, you'll have to take my word for it because although I took a lot of pictures they are all on Ashley's camera.
ASHLEY IS A TROOPER!!! I am happy to report that she and Eli are both doing great. More to come on Eli as soon as I can get some pictures. YEA!!

Baby Shower in Dothan

Wes's family gave me a baby shower in Dothan this weekend. It was SO NICE! Caleb will be one well dressed little guy!!

The centerpieces on every table :)

Our precious niece, Hannah Brooke and me

My mom, Ashley and Katie came (somehow Katie avoided getting in the pictures)

With Jenny - who kept track of all the gifts

A BIG THANK YOU!!

If you have seen me over the last 3-4 months looking better dressed than normal Wes's cousin, Heather, is the reason!! I wanted to let you know of her unbelievable generoisty. After we told his family we were having a baby, Heather went and scoured her closet and let me borrow all the clothes she had that were flowy and would allow for a growing belly. I probably have 10 of her dresses hanging in my closet - she gave me EVERYTHING she thought might work- EVEN CLOTHES SHE WAS STILL WEARING - she just thought I would be able to wear them more. The huge bonus to her generosity is that she has GREAT TASTE! I LOVE every single thing she let me borrow! I just wanted to give her a shout out and know that I appreciate it SO MUCH!!

(Here is Ms. Generosity at Christmas a couple of years ago)

Our Baby Has A Name!

After 7 months of considering baby names. Yesterday, we finally decided. Wes has been very agreeable to the names I like, but the problem was I liked so many and kept changing my mind. We drove to Clayton yesterday for Ashley's baby shower (Wes went dove hunting) and on the way up there we decided our son's name will be... Caleb Michael Harper. Michael is Wes's middle name and his dad's name. Yea!! So glad 'junior' (which is what we've been calling him) has a real name!!

Ashley's baby shower was so nice. We always enjoy being in Clayton with Walker's sweet family. After the shower was over, Ashley, Diana (Walker's sister), Mrs. Becky (Walker's mom) and I went outside and played with Sawyer and Diana's little boy Risdon. When we came back in there were a stack of presents sitting on the table for me. Who knew? They surprised me and showered me with gifts yesterday, too! Little Caleb will be so dressed up in all his goodies from the Williams' family.

Ashley, Sawyer and me at the shower

Production and Productive

We've had a great weekend. We had a 'date night' on Friday night and went to dinner and then went to see 'Fireproof'. It was SO GOOD and I highly recommend it to anyone who is married or thinking about being married!! It is from the same people who did 'Facing the Giants'. If you haven't seen that you should rent that, too. You can see a preview at http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/.

We had a busy (productive) day yesterday. We're getting the nursery ready. We've painted the crib and changing table and Wes is putting the final coat on as I write this. We purchased a Wagner Power Sprayer from Home Depot yesterday. It was $69.99, but we both decided quickly it was money well spent!!! Wes kept repeating over and over, 'This Thing Is the Ticket'! Hope you've had a great weekend, too!! I'll post pictures of the nursery as soon as everything is complete- it's a work in progress.

What's Going On With Auburn?

I'm with Sawyer (the cutest thing I've ever seen). After watching the ballgame on Saturday night I'm a little concerned about what's going on with The Tigers. Glad they pulled out the WIN, but it makes me a little nervous about this weekend's game against LSU. We're headed up to Auburn Friday night after work to stay with Sarah, Joseph, Ford and Luke - can't wait!

HHS 10 Year Reunion

We had a great time at our reunion this weekend. It was SO MUCH FUN to see everybody. Some of the best, most genuine people I know are from Hartselle!! Ashley planned a whole weekend full of activities and had some of our best friends help. I think a good time was had by all. Here is the link to the candid shots that were taken on Saturday night if you're interested...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartselle98/show/

FTBA Conference

We've just returned from a fabulous, relaxing trip to Orlando. We were fortunate enough to attend the FTBA (Florida Transportation Builders Association) Conference with C. W. Roberts this year. We drove down on Wednesday night after work, went to the outlets and bummed around Orlando on Thursday and were treated to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant on Thursday night. I spent ALL DAY Friday and Saturday at the pool and Wes was runner-up in the tennis tournament (he won a trophey and all)! We dressed up from the decades we were born on Friday night - Wes from the 70s and me from the 80s, and went to the finale banquet on Saturday. Oh- and Wes's boss, George, grew up with Billy Dean (country music singer popular in the 90s for songs like 'Billy the Kid', 'If There Hadn't Been You' and 'Let Them Be Little'). He was the entertainment on Friday and Saturday night. He was great and a genuinely nice guy - I'm now a fan!

We were treated like royalty and hope to be invited back next year:)!!