Andrew Alpaugh Blast From the Past

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Santa lives at the North Pole... JESUS is everywhere. Santa rides in a sleigh... JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water. Santa fills your stockings with goodies... JESUS supplies all your needs. Santa comes down your chimney uninvited... JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then enters your heart when invited. You have to wait in line to see Santa... JESUS is as close as the mention of His name. Santa lets you sit on his lap... JESUS lets you rest in His arms. Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, what's your name?"... JESUS knew our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our head. Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly... JESUS has a heart full of love. All Santa can offer is HO HO HO... JESUS offers health, help and hope. Santa says, "You'd better not pout, you'd better not cry,"... JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me, for I care for you." Santa's litt

We had a wonderful evening at The Splendor of Christmas with special guest Jason Crabb. We've been to see him several times but we finally managed to get a signed autograph on our program and he also grabbed a cd and signed it to Emily. He also grabbed his phone and showed Emily pictures of his Emma.

I am amazed When i look at you I see you smiling back at me It's like all my dreams come true I am afraid If i lost you boy I'd fall through the cracks And lose my track in this crazy lonely world Sometimes it's so hard to believe When the nights can be so long And gave me the strength And kept me holding on Chorus You are the love of my life And I'm so glad you found me You are the love of my life Baby put your arms around me I guess this is how it feels When you finally find something real My angel in the night You are my love The love of my life Now here you are With midnight closing in You take my hand as our shadows dance With moonlite on you skin I look in your eyes I'm lost inside your kiss I think if i'd never met you About all the things i'd missed sometimes it's so hard to believe when a love can be so strong and faith gave me the strength and kept me holding on You are the love of my life And I'm

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We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving in the Smokey Mountains! Hopefully good memories our children will cherish when they are grown. We managed to pull off cooking dinner in about a 4x5 foot space called the kitchen! It all turned out and everything was delicious! The kids shot some hoops and Bryson had a good ol' time just running around and picking up leaves while we waited for the Turkey to get done. Later that evening after Bryson was in bed we played a game of Cranium. The front desk had games that you could check out. Definitely not a game I would care to play again! The day after Thanksgiving we headed over to Dollywood. The weather was gorgeous and could not have been more perfect. Bryson was in awe at all the lights when it started to get dark. I think the first time ever he has actually sat in his stroller for a whole day without fussing to get out. There was lots to look at and it kept him busy thank goodness. After that we headed back to our condo to e

Okay- I admit I'm a little old to be making my first made from scratch crust, home-made apple pie, but I gave it a shot and it turned out great! Can't wait to make some more. Deeeelicious!

Found this while searching through Picasa for something else- what do ya know. Same glasses 5 years ago from Boo in the Zoo. :-) Not much has changed!

Bryson weighed in at drumroll...... 28 pounds (with all clothing on) and was 33 inches tall! What a BIG boy!

It's finally over! I'm sooooooo glad to have all those pests out of my freezer! Fortunately, we had experience from already doing this with Tyler so we pretty much had it down pat. The worst part was actually collecting them. We got lucky with a few or to me not lucky, perhaps it seems God sent them to us! One of the butterflies was just laying there already dead in our yard (it pained me to freeze the live one that Andrew caught) they are so pretty. The dragonfly and the HUGE fly were lying side by side one day right beside the driveway (already dead). The beetles were pretty funny- one night we heard loud clicking noises out on the patio and went to see what all the noise was and low and behold there was the biggest beetle I'd ever seen on it's back jumping all around. Of course Andrew was the one to capture him. The two red velvet ants I found on the same day which we later found out is a wasp that stings really badly. (little did I know) I was spraying aw

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Today marks Bryson's 15th month of life. He is so full of energy and boy is he ever strong willed! We didn't think anyone could be more strong willed than Emily. Ha! He can be very challenging but at the same time he brings us so much joy! Some things about him since last time are, he loves to watch Baby Einstein dvd's or what we can find on you tube as well as Cullen's ABC's. He loves for me to sing nursery rhymes to him and gets mad when I finally run out of songs to sing! He knows where his Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Nose are (don't let him fool you!) as well as his head, fingers and toes oh and belly. :-) He LOVES books. Particularly Dora (ughh!) He looks at the 2 we have from when Emily was little and says "Dorda", it's soooo cute! I wish you could hear him. He doesn't care for the show though, at least not yet anyways. Another really cute thing he does is pretends to count his fingers (something we do quite frequently in our song

Then submit and get your 4 letter code. Click HERE to take the quiz. We were amazed at how accurate this is. Andrew was an INTP-Thinker and I was ISFJ-Nurturer. If you've ever wanted to know what our personalities are- check them out. And we'd love to hear back what ya'll out there are like. Click HERE for a description of your personality type once you take the quiz. Have Fun!

In the Zoo! Click HERE to see the rest of the pictures. We have the cutest monkey in the zoo!!

Our church hosted a Father/Daughter banquet this past Friday evening and this is the sweet couple before their date. :-) They were served beef tips with gravy and fixins, broccoli and cheese, chicken strips and for dessert, banana splits. To Emily's dismay they only had tea for drinking! It sounds like they had a lot of fun from what I heard.

Everyday they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, Headed who knows where? On they go through private pain, Living fear to fear. Laughter hides their silent cries, Only Jesus hears. People need the Lord, At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door. People need the Lord, . When will we realize, people need the Lord? We are called to take His light To a world where wrong seems right. What could be too great a cost For sharing Life with one who's lost? Through His love our hearts can feel All the grief they bear. They must hear the Words of Life Only we can share. People need the Lord, At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door. People need the Lord, When will we realize that we must give our lives, For people need the Lord.

We go on you tube quite often around here and just had to post this one. It's so stinkin' hilarious! Bryson loves to watch nursery rhyme songs on you tube. Also other babies. This is how we keep him entertained! :-) Anyways- you HAVE to watch this.

We found out today that Tyler has been accepted into the Operation Restore program. Dr. Vories will cover the costs of Tyler’s procedure(s) including the expense of his fees, staff fees and supplies. Operation Restore will cover Tyler’s travel and hotel for up to three nights, if necessary, per visit. Operation Restore will cover the cost of a coach class airfare for Tyler (and since he is a minor patient) and one parent. If you decide you’d prefers to drive versus fly (or if the distance to and from Dr. Vories office is such that flying is not necessary), ISHRS will reimburse for car expenses (rental if required, and gas) up to $750 per visit. The Lord is GOOD! We are so excited and very grateful that they accepted Tyler as this procedure would have cost between 8 and 10 thousand dollars for us to pay. We will keep you updated as we find out more. Click HERE if you would like to know more about Dr. Vories and his group.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Emily's 9th Birthday with her grandparents, 1 cousin :-) siblings and a couple of her friends. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Spoiled? maybe :-) Just a little. We spent hours researching and going back and forth trying to decide on which swing set to purchase, how much to spend etc. We decided since Bryson is still so small, it would be worth the money to get something that is going to last a good while and also look nice in our yard. After going to the Rainbow place and trying out some of their sets, we knew there was no other choice to make other then how much we wanted to spend on one of theirs. They are so sturdy and well built even adults can play on them. :-) Emily can actually get some use out of it as well. She LOVES it. Now all we need is a fence to keep them safe in the yard! Click HERE to see more pictures of the swing set.

Since Emily's birthday fell on Labor Day and she had the day off from school and Andrew had the day off from work we decided we'd do something special with just her. She wanted to go to Monkey Joe's and for dinner she chose the Cracker Barrel. We will celebrate with family and friends on Saturday. This didn't go over too well with Emily since she was expecting gifts on her "real" birthday. She expects everything to happen on the real day or it doesn't count! :-) I think she's over it now. Well- click HERE for a few pictures of our day together.

On September 1, 1999 at 3:01 p.m. our beautiful "Cinderella" came into our world, 7lbs. 11 oz. and 21 in. long. We are very blessed that the Lord gave us a precious girl to have in our family. I have so loved dresses and bows, teddy bears and pink rooms. She's growing up fast and all this will soon be gone. We treasure every moment we have while she is still young. Here are just a few of our pictures we wanted to share with you on this very special day. Happy 9th Birthday Emily! We LOVE you! Make a Smilebox slideshow

Finally! Bryson can say my name. :-) I've been waiting a loooooooong time. It's so sweet to hear those words and since it's new for him he says it over and over. He gets a huge grin on his face every time he says it. For the longest time he was calling me ba-ba and sometimes still comes out with Ma-ba. He also says hey, hi, ear,turtle, ball, bad boy, daddy, buddy, uh-oh, kitty, balloon, and birthday. We sometimes don't realize how much he really does know. Tonight I asked him where his diaper was and he looked right down at it. It's so exciting that he is learning so much. I'm sure he's smarter than we think! He LOVES looking at his birthday pictures and whenever we have them up on the screen he gets so excited and says birthday just as clear as can be. We took his bottle away about a month ago and he did great. No problems there. Just a sippy cup now. We no longer rock him to sleep and he usually only cries about 2 or 3 minutes if at all when

The kids had a great first day back to school. So far so good. ;-) Here are the few pictures I got before we headed out the door this morning. No classroom pics. this year. Too old for that now I suppose.

Where did the summer go? I'm sitting here putting off ironing and going through Emily's closet to see what will fit and not fit for the school year. She seems to think she isn't supposed to out grow anything and that she can wear it forever. Crazy girl! Tyler's is done- WoW! he has grown. So many shirts that are so short on him. LOL And as always he had/has way too many. Don't think that will be a problem anymore since he has gotten to the age where he thinks his clothes should either be from A.E. or Aeropostale! Ughhh! This drives me crazy- especially since I am not a "brand name" kind of girl. Not that I am against brand names or anything but in my opinion many people feel that they have to have a certain brand to feel good about themselves and snub their noses at a shirt from Wal-Mart. Ok-you get my point. I'm dreading the early rushed mornings getting to school on time and most of all .... homework!! Will miss the lazy days of summer.

Click HERE if you would like to read our pastor's message from last Sunday.

For those of you curious about his stats.... here they are. His weight is 25.6 pounds (85.64%) his height is 32 1/2" (98.68%) and his head is 19 1/4" (97.44%). No wonder my body aches carrying his big self around and up and down stairs. He got 3 shots and did cry a little bit this time. I don't blame him though the way his leg was bleeding. Guess it's time to say good-bye to the bottle. That should be fun. We also are going to have to work on putting him to bed with no bottle or rocking. We did this last night and he probably cried for about 15 or 20 minutes before falling asleep. Seemed like an eternity to us!

Click HERE to see more pictures of Bryson's 1st Birthday Party. Covered in cake and icing, Your smile stretched ear to ear. A single candle celebrates, The joy of your first year. We sing Happy Birthday, You play midst wrap and bows. We marvel at how you touched our lives, Just one year ago. I remember the first time I held you, Kissed your head, whispered your name. You've changed our lives forever, Our hearts will never be the same. As a child you'll love this day, For all the sweets and presents too. As parents we'll love your day, For the gift we got was you. Each year we'll add another candle, So proud to see you grow. But always with the memory, Of your first day long ago. - Teri Harrison

We took Bryson to Portrait Innovations for his birthday pictures. They turned out great! Click HERE if you'd like to see all of them.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Well- there's not a whole lot going on around here to post about. We served in our church nursery for the first time ever yesterday :-) and LOTS of screaming babies. Wow! There were a couple of girls that were good as gold and played contentedly the whole time. There were about 3 who cried the whole entire time and then 3 that cried off and on. Bryson was right across the hall from us and we got to see him a few times. Once when I looked over he was throwing things over the gate out into the hall! Crazy boy! He has been really bad lately about biting, hitting, pulling hair and just being right down mean. I was telling Andrew how I would be horrified if he bit another kid or pulled hair or anything. Don't know what were going to do with him. Aghhhh! One of the boys in our nursery actually bit a little girl and pulled her hair. Anyways- hopefully this is just a phase he is going through. Our pastor is doing a series on spiritual warfare and I thought I would sha

Click HERE if you would like to read yesterday's message by our Pastor- Dr. Frank Page.

Click HERE to see more cute pictures of Bryson in his new pool. He has really started getting in to balls so we thought it was appropriate to buy him a big bag of them all his own. :-) As you can see..... he really enjoyed them.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures. We celebrated the 4th at Carowinds. Andrew's mom stayed here with Bryson this time so we could ride some rides together and knew we would be very late getting home. We didn't leave til around 3. We managed to do a few things in the water park . After that we ate dinner, then it was off to the ice skating show. Emily really enjoyed that. Then we rode a few rides, watched fireworks and headed home. The wait to get out of the parking lot was at least an hour! By the time we got home it was about 1:30 in the morning! CRAZY! I guess we're just getting too old to enjoy such things HA! Even though it made things easier and we didn't have to listen to whining in the back seat..... we missed the baby like crazy! That was just too long to be away from him.

Just ONE of the many shirts Tyler purchased at the outlets today. :-) He also got a pair of jeans and a hat. Hmmmm...... I wonder if he has any money left???

CLICK HERE to see some video of Bryson staying busy while Mommy and Tyler were shopping. :-)

CLICK HERE to view more pics. from Tyler's 13th b-day. We celebrated with his grandparents and had brownies and ice cream. Tyler has never been a big fan of cake just in case you are wondering " where is the cake?" Crazy boy!

My how the years fly by. I can't believe we are officially parents of a "teenager" now! It makes us seem so old- even though we're really not. ;-) Well- I'm not. Ha! Ha! Tyler has been such a blessing in our lives and we are very thankful to our Lord for sharing him with us for the last 13 years and look forward to many years ahead. Hopefully they won't go by as quickly as the last 13. He is our quiet, laid back, always concerned about pleasing others child. I've heard sometimes you have to watch out for the "quiet" ones though. :-) Well- I thought it would be fun to put together a few pics. of Tyler over the last 13 years. Make a Smilebox slideshow

Click here to see video 1 Click here to see video 2

These were taken Sunday morning. We actually had to wake him up for church.

Just thought I'd share a part of our Pastor's message from Sunday morning. These words spoke to my heart and I'm very thankful I was there to hear them. Grieving attitudes (vv. 30-32). These verses warn us against several sins of the attitude and amplify what Paul wrote about anger. Bitterness refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner man. Somebody does something we do not like, so we harbor ill will against him. Bitterness leads to wrath, which is the explosion on the outside of the feelings on the inside. Rage and anger often lead to brawling (clamor) or slander (evil speaking). The first is fighting with fists, the second is fighting with words. Paul gives the reason why we must avoid bitterness. It grieves the Holy Spirit. He lives within the Christian, and when the heart is filled with bitterness and anger, the Spirit grieves. We parents know just a little of this feeling when our children at home fight with each other. The Holy Spirit is happiest in

"Lord, today I want to do what You say regarding contentment; I want to have a calm and gentle spirit. I don't simply want to call myself a Christian. I want to be known as a genuine servant of God because my life demonstrates the truth I say I believe. Help me this day to face everything and deal with everyone with a gentle and quiet spirit. Help me to be content, even though things don't go my way. "Help me today with diligence, Lord. I tend to lose sight of the goal as the day wears on. I'm a good starter, but I don't finish well. Help me to do a quality piece of work and not to give in to the mood of the moment. "And, Lord, help me, when You begin to bring to pass these qualities in my life, not to call attention to them, but just to let them flow out of my life in glory to You. Help me to become Your servant, Your woman."

If you want to see a larger view of the pictures click on one and it will take you to our web album where you can click slide show and see them big.