More Christmas Adventures

My family ( the Youngs) usually try to take a trip around Christmas time. We have been on an every other year schedule. The first trip we took was to Disney World the Christmas before Zack and I got married. Two years later, we took a trip to Chicago and two Christmas's ago we went to California and explored several places in Hollywood, San Diego and of course spent a few days at Disneyland.

This year was different, however, since Rhys and Kimberly both graduated and got jobs they didn't have any vacation time so we didn't plan a big trek anywhere far away. We were however able to get away for a few days to Pine Mountain, which is in Georgia new Calloway Gardens. We rented a little cabin on top of the mountain.

Cuddling with Aunt Caroline

Playing Legos with Daddy

We were able to go Monday through Wednesday and left Wednesday night. The rest of the family stayed through the rest of the week. We had so much fun. The weather was great, a little chilly at times, but overall, great. The first day there, we went to Calloway Gardens and walked for what seemed like 300 miles to this seven month pregnant mama....but was probably only 3 or 4....okay maybe two. The kids did so great. Asher walked pretty much the

entire time.

We ate lunch before we went to Calloway Gardens at a fun little BBQ place called the Whistling Pig Cafe--it was yummy!

We made it to the Butterfly exhibit. The kids loved finding butterflies

Gotta love these two!

Asher found a butterfly!

Walking, walking and more walking

but isn't she the most adorable thing on the planet!

(By the way we got a new camera for Christmas and my husband has fun with it)

C-U-T-E!

We went to the bird show at Calloway Gardens and it was amazing. The birds flew right over your head--we got some pretty neat pictures too. This is a red-tailed hawk.

They liked the birds too.

Random family pic at the cabin

The next day, we went to the Little White House in Warm Springs where FDR use to stay frequently. I love, love this kind of stuff! History is very interesting to me and I enjoyed walking through and reading about FDR and Eleanor.

Honor enjoying the exhibit

This is the bed that FDR died on (kind of morbid I know). History lesson for those who don't know their FDR facts: He was at the Little White House having his portrait painted when he began having chest pain and passed out. He was moved to this bed where medical attention was given to him, but shortly after he passed away.

The Little White House. The back had a great view!

Later on we went on the Wild Safari Ride. It was IN-credible!! We rented a van to drive through that had the windows out with bars over it and the animals would come up and stick their heads in the window for us to feed them. Asher did not love it at first. He got a little freaked out when the animals swarmed to our car when we first drove up. But he gradually warmed up to them and fed some deer and ducks after we had been driving for about an hour or so. Honor on the other hand LOVED it!! She kept squealing and talking to the animals. If she didn't know what kind of animal it was, she would say "come here puppy". It was too funny! She was brave enough to feed the really big bulls and touched the zebras. It was so fun watching her.

Yes, we got in that van--and it was awesome

She makes me make funny faces.....

Oh, just a zebra sticking it's head in our car!

Asher safely in the front seat with Nonnie

Honor's chubby little hand feeding a giant animal

Asher beginning to warm up to the animals--he was looking at ducks.

Uncle Seaver feeding a deer

Daddy's girl

Asher finally getting brave enough to feed a deer

Had to get a picture with my little peacock and the peacocks :)

After that we Casey's packed up and headed back home. Fun, fun trip!! Lots of great memories! We are so grateful to have family close by that we are able to spend lots of time with.

Up next, The Casey family Christmas. Zack's sister April came to town from Myrtle Beach, SC. Asher and Honor were super excited about seeing their cousins, Alli, Sam and Baby "Emiwee" (aka Emily)!

A Casey Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas! Our last Christmas as a family of four! We are fortunate that we live in the same town as both of our families so we don't have to do much traveling. We went to my grandparents to celebrate Christmas the weekend of the 18th. They live on Lookout Mountain. It is beautiful up there and Asher always loves running around outside, exploring, climbing on rocks. (Most of the time I send him outside with Zack to do the climbing, because it makes me too nervous to watch-hah!) We enjoyed a game of dirty Santa with the family where Zack got a super cool flashlight and I came home with an Old Navy giftcard :)

The week leading up to Christmas is always busy, busy, getting ready to be off work for a few days, planning the Christmas Eve service and this year Christmas day was on Sunday, so we had Christmas Eve service on Saturday night and normal church Sunday morning.

This year Zack and I decided that we would not do Santa Clause in our family. After praying about it and reading a couple of posts from bloggers and teachers that we admire, we felt a personal conviction that we wanted Christmas for our family to be about celebrating the birth of our Savior and remembering the sacrifice He made when he came to our world, fully God and fully man to be the perfect sacrifice that we could never be to atone for our sins. We don't want our children, or ourselves for that matter, to be so wrapped up in the story of a jolly man in a red suit bringing gifts for us that we lose sight of the real reason we celebrate the holiday--Jesus' birthday! We also felt that we want our home to be a place where our children hear truth, so we have chosen to opt out of Santa and the reindeer and elf on the shelf and all other things that take our attention off of the Lord. Now before you feel sorry for our babies or think that those poor Casey kids won't be having any fun on Christmas, let me tell you how far that has been from the truth this year. We have enjoyed simplifying our Christmas and focusing on telling our kids about Jesus' birth and the amazing story that is. We gave Asher and Honor three gifts each (something they want, something they need and something educational), just like the three gifts Jesus got on his birthday from the wise men. We enjoyed doing Advent Bible time several nights before Christmas as a family. I can't tell you how happy it makes my heart to hear my sweet babies talking about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. It was a wonderful Christmas. We are so so blessed with two gorgeous, healthy children that fill our lives with joy, adventure and loads of F-U-N!!!

Sidenote-Zack and I finally bought a new camera as a gift to ourselves for Christmas so I actually have pictures to post hah!

Honor enjoying her candy cane!

Honor coloring on her new easel! (really a two way gift for them to share)

Stocking fun! ( we did this in addition to the three gifts mainly because it is my favorite part :))

Ready to open presents!

Love this sleepy head

Honor got a magnetic princess dress up set

Asher got a kid tough camera! (this was the one thing he asked for)

These kind of got out of order, but this was Christmas Eve's Eve. We celebrated our Christmas Christmas Eve morning because we didn't want to rush through it to get to church on time.

Honor playing with the nativity set

Asher reading Daddy a book about Baby Jesus

This was the gift they "needed" We redid Asher's room to make a room for Asher and Honor to share!! Asher has a blue wall and Honor has a lime green wall!! They have done really well sharing a room. Honor only had one tough night as she was adjusting, but other than that it has been an easy transition!

Honor's bed!

Merry Christmas!!

Asher is THREE!!!

(I actually wrote this 6 weeks ago, but better late than never....so here's a recap of Ash-man's big day)

Three years ago, I became a Mommy. I never imagined how my life could change so much by just that one significant event. Everyone knows that things change after having a child, of course, but no one really prepares you for how it turns your life upside down. Everything holds a new and precious meaning. As these three years have passed, I have been able to look at life through the eyes of my sweet little baby boy. I have watched him grow from tiny baby, so sweet, chubby and cuddly, into this boisterous toddler who loveslife. I am amazed at how he sees the world and sees others with such a pure heart and just plain old love. My prayer for my boy is that as he grows, he would love the LORD with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength and find JOY in serving and loving those around him; that he would chose to walk in obedience to God's will and treasure the truth of His word. I pray that the Lord would give him wisdom, strength, health, purity, and that Asher's life would be used to bring glory to our Father and make the name of Jesus famous!

Birth-day

First birthday (We have better pictures, but someone cleaned them off the computer...)

TWO!

We had a party to celebrate this blessed little boy's life. When I asked him what kind of party he wanted to have, he said he wanted an orange party. Since Asher loves trucks, construction, tools, etc--so we used the orange theme and did a big construction themed party. I always have so much fun planning these things and Zack asked me to make sure I tried to tone it down a bit this year, which would have definitely happened, but we happened to have a precious member of our church offer to let us borrow his forklift for the party. So yes, we had a huge piece of heavy machinery parked in our yard for the weekend. Other than that GIANT detail, it was much simpler than past parties as far as the planning and preparation that went in to it. Here are a few pictures of the day. Asher loves people more than any child I have ever met, so just having friends over to his house was super fun, but then you add dirt and a forklift and he was over the moon happy!

Party themed food

We turned our garden (since we are done for the season) into a big dirt pile for the boys to dig in. It was a BIG hit :)

Honor loved the dirt pile too!

About halfway through all the digging, Asher decided to get serious about it and went and found Daddy's big shovel

Riding bikes with our neighbors

It was a fun party. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family to celebrate with. Asher is one very loved little boy!

Family News!

I can't believe summer is almost over. Schools around here started back last week. It's not a big change for our family seeing as we don't have children in school. However my sweet sisters started back and I will definitely miss having them come spend the day with me or calling them to run errands with me. It sure makes a Wal Mart trip easier when you have "helping hands" :) (Sidenote: Zack did start back to seminary today though! He works so hard and we are so proud of him!!)

Our summer has been fun and busy! Looking back now it is hard to remember what all we have done. June flew by as it always does with Vacation Bible School squeezed in there somewhere. I volunteered as the "camp nurse" this year and have told myself I probably won't do that again. I felt pretty useless the entire week only bandaging up one scraped knee and tending one bloody nose. Thankful there weren't any other incidents, but I will definitely try to teach in a room next year. I love VBS and felt disconnected from it all sitting in a room waiting for injuries haha! Zack worked with 5th and 6th grades and enjoyed himself. He was wiped out after that week!

July was a little busier: We had an engagement!! My sister Kimberly got engaged and we threw them a fun party at Java Jolt. They are getting married next May and we are very excited for them. I am sure you will be hearing many updates seeing as she will have the most precious ring bearer and flower girl on the planet :) Pictures from the special day are here : ( https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.1958941245627.2101710.1005630080&type=1)

We had our annual Freedom Fest at Eaglepoint for July 4th. It was Honor's first time to see fireworks. She seemed to enjoy them. Asher loved them! He still talks about seeing fireworks at church! We took a trip to the beach for July 4th. It was the first trip we have taken by ourselves without family. We usually go to Panama City with my family once or twice a summer, but this time we went all alone. It was wonderful and fun. We stayed for 6 days and enjoyed doing nothing but playing at the pool and laying on the beach! The kids really enjoyed it. Asher loved swimming at the pool and Honor loved playing at the beach, so that was a challenge not having everyone happy at the same time. On a sad note I took 3 pictures on this trip--all on my phone! My mom's camera, which we usually have in our possession, broke! I feel like this summer has slipped by with almost no captured memories. We are saving money to buy a new one but for now we are thankful for our iphones! Now for another BIG Family announcement, we found out on our beach trip that......We are expecting another baby!! We were surprised and feel SO thrilled that the Lord would bless our family with another little one! When I found out I was pregnant with Honor when Asher wasn't even a year old yet, I felt a lot of anxiety about how this would affect our family, if I would be a good mom to two babies, guilt over not having enough time with just Asher, etc, all probably reasonable fears at that time as our family was expanding. However, I have felt NONE of that this time around. I feel only pure bliss at the thought of mothering another sweet angel. My children are my biggest blessings and we know that the Lord's ways are higher than our ways and for that we are so grateful!! We trust that the Lord will continue to meet all of our physical needs as well as provide everything we need to know and the wisdom required to raise children "up in the way they should go" as Proverbs 22:6 says. So July ended with a bang. We shared our news with our families a few weeks after we found out and with our friends a little while after that. I am thankful that I am out of the first trimester!! I have had a time with this one, probably feeling the worst morning sickness out of all my pregnancies. My sweet husband has been a saint! He has been such a blessing helping me out as I have neglected many of my domestic duties these past few weeks. But thankfully I feel like I have rounded the corner and can hopefully put sickness behind me and start gaining some of my energy back.

The rest of our summer was packed with playdates, school days, lazy Saturdays and just lots of fun :) The kids moved up in their classrooms at school this past week. Honor is officially in the one year old room and Asher is in the threes! Crazy that in November I will have a three year old!! Honor went for a check up at the doctor and she is the picture of health, weighing in at 20 pounds 9 ounces and 31 inches long. Healthy growing girl! She continues to delight us with her sweet personality. That is what I always tell people--she is just SWEET. While Asher is all boy and you have to basically hold him down to get any sort of affection from him, Honor will go out of her way to give you a hug or a kiss. She is our sweet little princess! She is a talker and already has so many words! My favorite word she says right now is "bear". It is too cute. If I can figure out how to load video from my phone I will put one on here of her naming animals out of her word book. Asher continues to be ALL BOY!! He is 100%, 100% of the time! I love it and can't imagine our life without this little tornado :)

Well that's about all our news for now. Hopefully I will be better about updating in the coming weeks! "But as for us, we will bless the LORD, from this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord!" (Ps. 115:18)