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101 Posts! 3 new videos

Here's Braelyn playing in her new hippo pool on our back deck!

Welcome to our 101st post! I can't believe it. I was telling Sonya the other day how excited I was and thankful that she started this thing almost 4 years ago. It's fun to look back and see all the wonderful things God has done and how we've grown as a family and as a couple and as Children of God. Thanks for reading!


Here's the other videos finally. They were too big to upload on our blog so we had to post them to youtube and put a link here. this is about the extent of my electronical abilities! Here she is feeding herself. She misses a lot but does pretty good.

Here's Braelyn climbing up the stairs. She usually goes faster but was distracted by the video camera.

Almost 11 months old

Ok, so these pics are a little out of order, but just enjoy!
I love to play in the pool!
Braelyn and Addie

The JoDANna Wedding...August 1
Braelyn went all day without a nap until about 3:00 on the way home....she was a little tired, but was a great baby all day!

Cutie pie!


The beautiful couple! It was a beautiful wedding outside at Joanna's parent's house.

Bath time!

Thanks to my wonderful aunts who give me such pretty dresses!!!!





Braelyn is growing so quickly now. We have some really cute videos to post, but the blog is not cooperating right now, so I'm just going to update and post a few pics. She discovered our stairs about a week ago. The first time she started climbing them she went ALL THE WAY UP without stopping. She climbed them four times that day, with Mommy right behind her of course. So now we have to buy a gate. She has also figured out how to bark like a dog. She says "woof, woof" anytime she hears the neighbors dog or sees a dog, or bird, or squirrel......apparently all animals bark :). It's really cute. She loves animals, especially dogs. She also started saying "uh oh" a few days ago when she would drop her sippy cup in the floor. Sometimes I think she tries to say "ball". We bought her a little baby pool and she loves to play in it. She is doing a better job sleeping through the night now. Praise the Lord. She likes to explore the whole house. We have to watch her constantly. She also likes to point at things now and claps her hands a lot more. If we are watching a TV show and people clap, she will start clapping too. She has a hippo toy that she can walk behind and she does really well with it, but no first steps yet by herself. She is starting to eat more finger food and some table food. Still no teeth, we keep thinking that she is "teething", but we've thought that for about 6 months now. She still takes two naps a day and goes to bed around 8:30 and wakes up around 8. She is such a GOOD sleeper! Like her Mommy :)

We are still looking for a church home. I am still looking for some other Moms to hang out with. We have really nice neighbors that we hope to have over for dinner and get to know better. It is nice being closer to our families. We have been home a lot more in the last few months. Aaron is really enjoying his residency so far. He is learning so much and I can tell it is really rewarding for him to work and bring home a paycheck again. He has a different schedule every month, but so far it has been very manageable. I know that he is doing what God has called him to do and I am so thankful for that.

Oh, and I included a picture of our first vegetables from our own garden, which is VERY small. We (actually Aaron) planted one green pepper, one cucumber, one squash, one zuchinni, and one tomato. The tomato died fairly quickly, but the others are looking pretty good. We planted really late, so we just got our first zuchinni and cucumber about a week ago. They were really good. We don't have any squash or peppers yet....who knows we might not get any. But it is fun to see what happens.

Braelyn's First Real Crawl!

Here's Braelyn showing off her crawling skills. She was a little shy at first but now she's all over the place (mostly pulling up the old carpet fibers!)

Sour Blueberries!

Here's Braelyn eating fresh blueberries for the first time. We missed the first few faces which were of course the best but there was still plenty of sour left! Enjoy!

Update on Our Adventure and Exhausted Little Braelyn

This is from today July 14th. Sonya said Braelyn was having a hard time falling asleep and cried and cried then all the sudden she went to check on her and this is what she found! She had fallen asleep sitting up! It was so funny. She's such a good baby. We are so blessed to get to be her parents.

So here's some pics of what we've been up to the last few months!

I graduated medical school!
We moved to TN (this has nothing to do with moving just a cute baby)
Braelyn's first dip in the swimming pool at her cousin Mattie's 1st birthday party!
Our baby is SO adorable!
Braelyn finally began turning over to her stomach to sleep. She now sleeps with her butt in the air sometimes too!

Braelyn learned to go backwards but not forward yet!
Mom, Sarah, Laura, Caryss and Gavin came to visit us in Bristol, TN
My 1st Father's Day!!!
Sonya's family came to visit us in Bristol
Sonya and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary by going to The House on Main in Abingdon, VA then to the Barter Theater to see The Wizard of Oz! It was a great surprise from my Wonderful wife! Thanks to mom and dad for coming up to keep Braelyn!

We celebrated the 4th of July with our favorite little girl and Sonya's parents. Actually it was the 3rd because I was taking my 1st call at the hospital all day and night of the 4th
Sonya got to go visit with her 3 best friends from college. They all have baby girls within a year of age! Braelyn, Avery, Addie, and Charin. I understand that a good time was had by all.
And here we are back where we started. Sonya said she had to figure out what body part was where when she

Sorry I forgot to turn this one but it actually looks really weird from this angle!

So what's next? Daniel (my younger brother) is getting married Aug. 1st in Murfreesboro, Tn to Joanna. They are calling it the JoDANna wedding. They wanted to beat US Weekly magazine in coming up with a clever name. Braelyn will have her 1st birthday Sept. 18th! And anything else God leads us to do! Please pray we find a church home soon. We are ready to jump in and serve!

Celebrating Five Years of Husband and Wife

Ok, so I'm sorry there are no pics of Braelyn on here. I will get to that soon. I just wanted to say that Aaron and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary tomorrow! We are going out tomorrow night and Aaron's parents are going to watch Braelyn for us. I am very excited because Aaron has no idea what we are doing or where we are going and I'm going to get to surprise him for once. I'll share about it later, but I'm pretty sure he will enjoy it. The last five years have been great. It seems like every year brings new challenges and new blessings. I am so thankful that God brought Aaron and I together. He is definitely a gift from the Lord. When Aaron and I got married we decided to write our own vows.......

I, Aaron, take you Sonya to be my wife forever
You are my good and perfect gift from God
Today I vow to be your earthly protector and provider
I will lead you with a servant's heart, just as Jesus leads His Church
I will strive to love you with the love of God,
Regardless of my feelings and our circumstances
These things I vow to you before God and these witnesses

I, Sonya, take you Aaron to be my husband forever
You are my good and perfect gift from God
Today I vow to by your life-long helper and encourager
I will submit to your leadership as the head of our home
I will trust you and follow you wherever God leads us
I will seek to love you with the love of God,
Regardless of my feelings and our circumstances
These things I vow to you before God and these witnesses

I feel so blessed to call Aaron my husband. Thank you Lord for creating marriage. I pray that our marriage will point others toward You.

What Do You Treasure

To God be the glory! Great things He has done!

This morning during my quiet time, I was just overwhelmed with God's provision for us during these last four years of medical school and I felt like I just needed to share with others how faithful He has been to us. Here are just a few of the many ways that God provided for us as we started med school........a wonderful home to live, great neighbors, a job for me where I could impact kids' lives, He helped us sell two cars for a good price and find two more for a good price, God provided people who provided money for Aaron's tuition semester by semester...ALL FOUR YEARS!! (THAT IS AMAZING!!!!!!) and SUCH A BLESSING. God provided people to help us raise money to take a mission trip to Kenya during his first year, we actually raised MORE than we needed and were able to give to others going on the trip.(We needed $6,000 and God provided $8,500) WOW... God provided us with GREAT Christian friends that we could fellowship with and grow with. He provided us with a wonderful church home where we were able to be involved in ministry. He provided us with bible studies to be involved in and we were able to open up our home for ministry. Another huge answered prayer has been in watching Aaron learn, study, take test after test, and be so disciplined with his time and energy. I KNOW God has been enabling him day by day through these past four years. He has enabled him to be able to balance school, church, spending time with me and spending time with friends. He has enabled him to be able to be faithful in attending church and even leading Sunday School for a period of time, while still keeping up with all his studying and learning for school. I KNOW that God has enabled him to do ALL these things, and with such a great attitude. He has enable him to graduate with honors! Thank you Lord for teaching Aaron so much in such a short amount of time and helping him to retain the information and apply it with wisdom. God is so GOOD! And of course, we can't forget our sweet gift He provided for us just 7 months ago, Braelyn Evangelee! We do consider her a true "gift" from the Lord. We wanted a baby so much, and although it was a difficult road at times, God was SO FAITHFUL to us through every step of the way. We are so blessed. And God has provided us with wonderful families who have supported us in so many ways and encouraged us and helped us through these last four years. We are so thankful for them and we love you all dearly. I type all of this to just say "TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE" Our prayer is to always give Him the glory for every single thing He provides for us, because we recognize that without Him, we are nothing, and can accomplish nothing. We are dependent on Him to lead us and provide for us, and He has shown Himself SO FAITHFUL to us. These past few months God has been testing my faith through the process of selling our home and looking for a new one in Bristol. Oh, which reminds me, I forgot to mention another HUGE way He provided.....we have a contract on our home here in VA and will be closing May 4th. Thank you Lord for selling our home. So, I have been struggling with this search for a home in Bristol, and I have been discouraged at times, so for me, looking back at all these ways God has provided for us, just encourages me to BELIEVE and TRUST HIM to provide for our needs once again. He is the Creator of all things and owns all the resources in the world, so I don't think providing a home for us in the next two weeks will be too difficult for Him :). I pray that this testimony of God's faithfulness will encourage someone else too.
And of course, I have to include a few pics of Braelyn, now 7 months old! I look forward to sharing with you all soon of how God provided a home for us in Bristol. :)

March Madness in April too

Well, Aaron informed me that for the last two years I have done a post on our blog entitled "march madness".........so, we have definitely experienced March madness, but it is now April. So, needless to say, our lives have been pretty crazy lately. The good news is that we do have a contract on our house as of March 31st!! Praise the Lord. We were praying that we would sell our house by the end of March, and God was so good and sweet to answer our prayers. We plan on closing May 4th. The only problem is that we haven't found a place to live in Bristol yet. We have been to Bristol 3 out of the last 4 weekends!! Whew........we have looked at about 18 houses for sale and just haven't seen one that we felt like was "the one". We are being pretty picky because we would need to resale this house in 3 years after Aaron's residency is over. So now we are pursuing rental places and continuing to keep our eyes open for houses too, and mostly just praying, praying, and praying some more for God to lead us and give us wisdom in this decision. God has increased our faith so much through seeing Him answer prayers and provide for us in so many ways. We are so thankful that He owns all the resources in the world and knows exactly what we need, a lot better than we do. God is so faithful. It is hard not knowing where we will live, and being anxious to move on to the next part of our lives, but God is teaching me about perseverance. Braelyn and I are a little under the weather right now, although she still seems pretty happy. I haven't been sick in a long time, and it really makes me appreciate being healthy. I am hoping we are all better by this weekend. (Clint's wedding and Easter) We will be heading to TN to enjoy time with our families. I have some really funny videos of Braelyn, but I have forgotten how to download them and we've just been busy. But hopefully they will be up here soon. For now, I have a few pics to share. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

6 months old!!!!!!

Today is Braelyn's 6 month old birthday!! And for her birthday she received a shot in each leg at the doctor's office and had to swallow some other yucky stuff :(......but she is a trooper! She only cries for a second and then she is all better. I took a few shots today, in the little white outfit. And then there will be other pics on here from a while back. She has been on cereal for about a month now, but still needs practice eating with the spoon. Oh, we found out that she weighs 15. 69 pounds and is 25.75 inches long! She is about in the 50th percentile for her age, growing just fine.

I also am including pictures from our trip to TN a couple of weeks ago. It was a GREAT trip! I had so much fun spending time with our families and enjoying some warmer weather (there was 6 inches of snow in VA when I left). We are planning to head back home for Easter and for Clint & Becky's wedding( Aaron's older brother) on the sat before Easter. That will be a fun weekend. Then my sister's baby is due April 28th, so we will be back in town when he arrives. So many exciting things to look forward to, and of course, graduation and moving to Bristol!! So here are some pics, hope you all enjoy.