The Wedding.......

Friday night December 12, 2008 we attended Jason's sisters wedding. It was on a yacht in Lake Norman called the Lady of the Lake. A beautiful boat, a beautiful place to have a wedding, not such a great place to have a 3 year old and a 8 month old, who are used to being in bed at 6:30 and 7:30. It was a beautiful wedding, with prime rib, roasted pork tenderloin, or salmon for dinner and wedding cake, of course, for dessert. We also had the cutest party favors, little tiny Godiva dark chocolate wedding cakes filled with milk chocolate ganache. The boxes were tied with ribbon and had a silver heart charm.Luckily, Levi slept most of the time, and Amelia Grace was well behaved, most of the time, except when she was crawling under the dinner table and refused to come out, and all she ate for dinner was the little chocolate wedding cake. So, after her sugar rush kicked in her and her cousins (Julie has 3 children) began running around the top floor of the boat, which seemed to only get smaller as the night went on.
All in all it was a beautiful wedding, we are so happy that they are happy. We all had a good time and we will never take Amelia Grace and Levi on a boat again, until they get in their teens!

Happy Birthday, Remington!

December 10th is always a very difficult day for me, you see that is our oldest son's birthday. Remington Edwards Barbee was born on 12-10-04 @ 7:30 am, in heaven, surrounded by angels and with his Heavenly Father.


If someone had told me that at 26 years old I would be in a cemetery on a cold December morning burying my firstborn infant son, I wouldn't have been able to imagine just how horrible that could have felt. I always think about him and just how much he looked like his daddy, with dark hair and his daddy's dimple....and my nose....what a perfectly beautiful little man he was.


I know you hear people say things happen for a reason, and I believe that too, but more importantly I believe things happen to in some way bring glory to God and His ultimate plan for our lives. No matter how short Remington's life was it was not an insignificant life, I believe in some way he had an impact on someone, even if it was just me...to be my first son, to help me know how much love a mother can have for her children even if she doesn't get to physically care for them, and to know that if I had a choice, with how much my heart aches to hold him some days that I would never bring him back to this place, to know fear, pain, anger and sickness. But with my heart resting in the assurance that he is with Jesus, and that when the time comes I will see him again, makes my heart peacefully happy.

Thanksgiving

I know it is a tad bit late to writing about Thanksgiving but I have just now gotten the time. This Thanksgiving was special because it was Levi's 1st, and well sometimes holidays are the only times we get to see extended family. Our Thanksgiving holiday started on the Tuesday before when we went to Jason's Mama & Daddy's house to have a big dinner with them and Jason's sister Julie. her fiancee, Trevor, and her 3 children Blake, Madison, & Annsley. The dinner was wonderful however we failed to get any pictures because all of the grandchildren are so young it takes lots and lots and lots (did I mention lots?) of supervision when they are all together. But they have fun and get along so what more could parents ask for?
Then on Thanksgiving Thursday, we went to my Mama & Daddy's house for dinner. It was slightly crowded and my Mama & Daddy's house is fairly a good size one. My older brother Tim was there with his wife, Tanum and their 3 children Kylie, Nicholas, and Madilyn. My older sister, Shelley came up from Myrtle Beach with her 2 children AJ, (short for Ariel Jordan) and Jacob. My younger brother Joshua came in with his wife Savanna and their 2 year old daughter Kaytlyn and then there is my youngest sister Melani. Then add in my Grandma and my Uncle David and his wife Linda and their granddaughter Kimberley and then my cousin Steven and his wife April who is pregnant and their little girl Taylor. And oh yeah I almost for got my Uncle Butch without his wife ( a very long and somewhat complicated story) and My aunt Tina. Plus 2 dogs BJ (Bruiser Jr.) and Jelley Bean, and a cat Tessa. We had a great time except that Levi would not let anyone hold him except my Daddy and Jason and someone threw my plate of food away before I got to finish it, but my oldest brother Tim did say the my Sweet Potato Casserole was the best that he has ever had, so that made me feel really good.
So, yea, memories, and we get to do it all over again on CHRISTMAS!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

This time of year is always one of my favorite, because it reminds me of my grandpa. My grandpa had a nickname, "Treeman" because in the small town of Mt. Holly North Carolina , he was the "man" when it came to selling Christmas trees. And everyone who was anyone bought a Christmas tree from him, I don't know how did it, but he remembered everyone who came to see him at Christmas time....or he was really good at faking it!
As long as I can remember the day after Thanksgiving was not one of shopping to get the best deals at the mall, it was spent "shopping" for the best Christmas trees in the mountains of North Carolina. I can remember some years my daddy going with my grandpa to pick up the trees. I can remember all of my "family" who came to the tree lot, there was "Red" Pattterson, "Uncle" John Hope, my Uncle Ray and his wife Judy and people I didn't see any other time during the year I would get to see at the tree lot...but those were my favorite.
Some of my best childhood memories come from hanging out with my grandpa at the tree lot, because I didn't really get to spend that much time with him other than at Christmas, well not quality time anyway. I can remember just running around the Christmas trees and standing in front of the fire, eating homemade cakes and drinking coffee. As I got older I was able to help more, although they never let me run the chainsaw.......I wonder why? I can remember one Christmas we decorated wreaths with pine cones and bows and my grandpa manned the glue gun and my mom and I were the brave ones manning the pinecones and bows. We had such fun!!!!

In our house growing up there was a Christmas tree, of some kind, in every room. It isn't any wonder why the smell of evergreen puts me so at ease.
We were blessed to get Amelia Grace's 1st Christmas tree from my Grandpa's tree lot, but the following July 4th my grandpa passed away. It is bittersweet to drive by that same place and not see Christmas Trees, but to remember the man that I did not know a lot of when I was young, except at Christmas time. But when I got older is when I think he truly realized how much I loved him, and I realized just how much he had always loved me...and we both realized just how much alike we truly were.

Chimney Rock 2008

A few Sunday's ago we decided to take a trip to the mountains. We also decided that we needed to take reinforcements, so we asked my parents if they wanted to go with us. My mama and daddy, and my grandma all signed up for the adventure if Levi's first trip to the mountains....Chimney Rock and Lake Lure...and we picked a great day because the sun was shining but it was cold very cold and we weren't even in the "real" mountains.
We started off the day by my daddy insisting that we buy Levi a hat because his head was going to get cold and he would not be a very happy camper if we had to keep his head under a blanket the whole entire day, so we walked to Bubba O'Leary's outfitter shop (one of my most favorite, next to Fibber McGee's) and al we found was a youth small fleece camo cap, well we bought it figuring it would be a good investment for a 7 month old considering short of losing it he will be able to wear it until he is oh say 10 YEARS OLD. Then we decided we were hungry so we went to this most fabulous restaurant called Laura's House which has family style dining and the best meatloaf next to my mom-in-laws that you can find. Although I decided that day to try the turkey and gravy. We sat in the upstairs section that has a perfect view of the Chimney Rock, a breathtaking view. Then we decided that we needed to walk around in the little shops, yes with a 3 year old, everything turned out okay because the whole trip she didn't break anything. We ended up in a small shop called Willow Creek, who upstairs has the quaintest coffee and dessert shop in Chimney Rock, we all got coffee and some type of dessert, Jason bought a small rum cake for us to bring home and it was very good.
We had a really good time Amelia Grace got to spend lots of time with her great grandma and with her mamaw and papaw. We got mountain apples and peach cider and have some very good memories of Levi's first trip to the mountains, even though he slept on his papaw's shoulder most of the time.

Election Results

I would be lying if I said that I was not disappointed with the results of this year's Presidential Election. I did not want Barack Obama to win, I do not think he is the right man to run this country. I do not think that you can take a minority and put them in charge of the majority without many people voicing their opinion, and doing so rather loudly. And that does not make me a racist.
Now do not get me wrong I thought that Barack Obama talked a very good game, he is great at saying what you want to hear without really saying anything at all. As I was watching a debate one night I was listening to him talk his way into the minds of many Americans and as I was thinking, "This man could be exactly what we need to help this country", then GOD snapped me back to attention and said,"stop what you are doing and listen, truly listen to what this man is saying" and when I did I realized the above, He is not what this country needs, and I do not think it is in our best interest to have him as our President.
With that said, however, I do understand that we are told by God that we must pray for Mr. Obama even if we do like the position that he has been put in, and I do believe that just as we must pray for Mr. Obama to make the right decisions for us and our Country I believe that we must also pray for him tobegin a personal relationship with God and to seek God in his daily life, and to fully rely on Him in these next 4 years.
I do believe that there were Christians who voted for Mr. Obama and I am sure they had their reasons....reasons I will never understand.

Trick or Treating

This is the first year that we have taken Amelia Grace trick or treating. It was a little bit of a challenge since this was also Levi's first Halloween. So we recruited help.....Nanny & Papaw (Jason's mama & daddy)

First we went out to eat at our favorite Japanese Steakhouse SOGO in Concord, which was a fun adventure because Amelia Grace was dressed in her butterfly costume (minus the wings because those things are just unhandy) but anyway then we went to Mall-o-ween at Carolina Mall in Concord. We had a good time seeing all of the different costumes, some were scary, but most of them were really cute little kids all hyped up on sugar. I kind of felt sorry for some of the moms and dads but Halloween = candy and lots of it. then we went to Nanny & Papaw's and Amelia Grace got to help give out candy to the children trick or treating in the neighborhood. Jason's mama said she had more fun giving candy than she did getting it, and that sounds exactly like Amelia Grace.