About once a month a group of Stony Hill ladies get together for our Mother Bear Project. The Mother Bear Project is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear. The simple gift of a hand-knit bear with a tag signed by the knitter has touched children with the message that they are unconditionally loved! We usually got together on Friday evenings for a few hours, ate snacks, knit, crocheted or sewed bears and had a great time of fellowship too! The last Mother Bear event I was able to attend was themed "snuggie, pajama & slipper night", it just happened to be extremely cold that evening so it worked out perfectly! Here are some of our students during one of their "commercial breaks"...
And I'll leave you with us taking a nap after all of our hard work!
Find out more information and how you can help get involved or start a Mother Bear Project in your church or community by checking out the Mother Bear Project link HERE.
We had dinner at my parents house then early bedtime at my brother and sister-in-laws house in Garner. Up and back to the "old" house to finish up Saturday morning! We finished around 12:45 returned the carpet shampooer, grabbed lunch from McDonald's and the girls and off to Georgia we went...9 hours later (more accidents, road construction and regular Atlanta traffic) we arrived home around 10:30pm Saturday evening! We wished we would have been able to visit and spend time visiting all our family and friends in NC, hopefully our next trip! We did run into some friends while in Wake Forest and thanks to everyone who stopped by after seeing the burb in the driveway, what great surprises seeing everyone :) We sure do miss all our NC folks!!!
Before we left NC, I had the privilege of getting together with some of our "old" youth, all these ladies are in college now! Can i just add that Lauren was in 6th grade when we came to Stony Hill!!! It was a fun breakfast at Briggs, a restarant in Wake Forest, super yummy waffles and great conversation :)
in honor of today being my ONE year Anniversary with The Pampered Chef, I'm having a February Frenzy Sale!
with family and friends (more posts to come). Here is a picture of our pastor Jamie and his wife Tara (pregnant with their second set of natural twins!) and Jody & I at Casalinga, an Italian Restaurant in Raleigh. Great atmosphere, yummy food and awesome company! Thanks Jamie & Tara for a great evening and for your friendship, we have been blessed by you all and "the nats" we can't wait to meet "the Sams" :) A benefit since we moved to Georgia is our house is located very close to pretty much everything! We are only 4 miles from the church, about 3 miles from any kind of shopping (Target, Old Navy, Ross, WalMart and a mall) and a ton of restaurants (Chick-Fil-A, Chili's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Arby's, just to name a few), grocery stores (Kroger, Publix), Starbucks (there are about 4 within a few miles from our house) and bunch of gas stations! Our bank is about a mile from our house and there is a McDonald's across the street from our bank! The kiddos received some giftcards for our trip here and we were able to use them that day to go out to lunch! The kiddos have been eyeing this McDonald's because it had a huge indoor playground that they were dying to check out.
Both girls climbed to the bubble, Anna was scared to stand up, but she easily could have seeing that Lizzy is almost as tall as she is!
Crazy hair Lizzy...
Anna of course had to pose too!
Jack just enjoyed the food, especially the cookies for dessert!
cries when it's all gone and he didn't really mind the breathing treatments the first day, but ever since he's fought us tooth 
and nail! The nebulizer does have a paci attachment (pictured), which he took for the first couple of treatments, but then as soon as the machine started he spit it out! He got a cute penguin nebulizer with an igloo carrying case though :) Jody has had asthma since he was very small and was on all kinds of medicines and breathing treatments, he was definitely jealous of Jack's nebulizer! The day after starting the meds and breathing treatments Jack slept great 
and started eating again! The medicine they have him on for the breathing treatments makes him very irritable and feisty, not too much different than normal, but we can tell a difference! We're just glad to see our little man getting better :)
After a birthday lunch at a local Mexican restaurant my parents took me birthday shopping! I was able to get some much needed new clothes :) The rest of the evening we just hung out at our house spending time with family!
The kiddos woke up to many Valentines Day surprises, cards and candy from Uncle Matt, Aunt Diana & Ashtyn; movies, cards and candy from Papa & Wanka and little boxes of chocolate from us!
Here are the grandparents and 4 of their grandkiddos (minus my niece Ashtyn)
Jack was feeling photogenic and we were able to snap some pictures of the only grandson and the grandparents!!! He looks like such a little man in his collared shirt :) Notice he is sporting much shorter hair, but that's another blog post!
Jack enjoying our pizza lunch after church!
Our house with just a tad of the snow left...
Below is Jody & I before we left for dinner! My parents watched our kiddos so we could go out for my Birthday/Valentines Day! We went to an Italian restaurant in Kennesaw and if it's your birthday you get your meal for FREE (you do have to bring along your drivers license for proof), bonus!!! The food was super tasty and it was a great night :)
All in all I had such a great weekend with my parents and family celebrating my 30th birthday!!! Thanks Mom & Dad for driving down to visit and for making me feel special on my birthday (Jody included) and family & friends who wished me Happy Birthday...you guys are awesome!!!
And finally a picture of me and my birthday cake...our family tradition of a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, picked out especially for me by my kiddos!!!
What are some of your family birthday traditions???
Sledding! 
Jack wasn't feeling well the day it snowed and slept most of the afternoon! When he woke up he was grumpy so we decided to watch from the window!!!Before we moved to Georgia Emma got a wild hair and decided to cut all of her hair off! I had recently gotten my own hair cut and I think that had something to do with it! Although I loved her hair long, I did NOT like brushing through it and blow drying it every day!!! I took these pictures the day I cut it which was early January and forgot all about them until I found them today :)
Before and after...I think it was about 6 inches that I actually cut off! I think she looks very cute :)
Emma got student of the week last week and had to make a poster to show to her classmates all about herself! She of course waited to tell us until the evening it was due (yes she turned it in a day late), so we quickly looked through our pictures, went to the store to buy posterboard and sharpies and here is the finished product. She didn't like any of the suggestions Jody or I had, but it turned out cute :) Most important was that she did it all by herself, was very proud of her poster and able to tell all her classmates all about her!
We were so overwhelmed and humbled by the pounding, both of my pantries are full! The church also had cake, goodies and punch! 
Here is new artwork in the playroom, the kiddos are working on the rest of the art for the walls...
