I'm not real sure why the picture is this small. However, I did want to say Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband.

Today on the radio I was listening to an excerpt from James Dobson...

He was talking about how marriage goes through so many different moods (if you will). That of unbelievable love for one another, a bit of apathy, friendship, dislike, joy and so on...but the one thing no matter what your "mood" is is that you ALWAYS remember the commitment that you made on this day. forever.

I love you Stephen Corely Bills and I would not change the past 8 years one bit. Mustache and ALL!!!!

What's Happenin'

We had a "thanksgiving feast" at Keatyn's school. She enjoyed it and so did we. I have to say that I am so thankful that Stephen is able to be at these events. It means a lot. He is a hard worker and continues to keep his family his 1st priority!!!

We spent thanksgiving lunch with Stephen's family. As you can see, there is never a dull moment with these three kiddos!

Because we are not in our house yet...('09 baby) we put up this tree upstairs in our "loft". I was pretty impressed with Keatyn's decorating skills. She loved that it was pink!

And this is a random picture of snow...yes folks, we got snow in Lindale one day last week. Keatyn usually runs around the house in just her undies and this day was no different. Soooo when we realized it was snowing, she decided she didn't care that she was half dressed and headed out side. I have to say that this weather made my day and gave me every reason to pull out the scarves!!!

P.S.
Just a little update on our house...we are about halfway finished. We are waiting on flooring, interior doors and countertops. I know this seems like a LONG process, but when it is finished...it will be next to perfect. If you think about it...say a prayer for us to stay patient and to be good stewards of our time and money

Photo Shoot

I have a good friend who has started taking photos. She was so sweet to go with my family to take our picutres. These are the first family pictures we have had since Addilyn was born. Here are just a few of them. There were so many good ones and we are so excited to decorate our new home with some great family photos! Thanks Kelsey!!!!

This explains the whole shoot...Keatyn is very often in her own little 3 year old world! We love that girl!

Halloween...

I know, I know, it is WAY past Halloween, but our lives have been crazy with house renovations, illness and just being busy.

So, here they are...my sweet girls and some friends!

Keatyn and her friend Nixon visiting the Lindale Fire Station.
Keatyn, Addilyn, Steel and Case at the Methodist Church "Trunk or Treat"...Dryver was around there somewhere.

Sweet baby Addilyn...you can tell she just LOVED Halloween.

And our sweet little Ariel. She was so proud of this costume...or as she calls it her "costune".

Halloween was fun, busy, but fun. I felt like I dressed Keatyn and Addilyn in their costumes everyday that week. Needless to say, I was glad when it was over. I was beat!

Not an interesting post

Goings on...

Sweet Addilyn Sloan turned 6 months old this month. She is so much fun.
Here's what she's doing:
She sticks her tongue out and blows.
She lays on her tummy and rolls around.
She LOVES for someone to talk to her, especially her sister.
She is sitting up with support.
She eats and sleeps really well.
Her well visit stats...16.2 lbs and 28 1/2 inches long.
She has the sweetest smile and melts our hearts everytime we look at her. What a blessing our girls are!!!

Keatyn and Addilyn in there October attire!

A very large praise...Stephen was healthy and was able to do a wedding this past weekend. He's back to his normal self...whatever normal is these days!!

And sweet colorful Keatyn...our friends, the Cofield's are in the process of adopting and have made these great shirts for support. We bought me and Keatyn one and Jana had asked that I send her some pictures of us wearing them. This was just one of the photos from the photo shoot...too funny that Keatyn!!!
Check out their blog and buy a shirt...link to it from mine...The Cofields.

Happy Fall Yall! LOVE THE SCARF WEATHER!!!!!!
P.S.
Next blog will be pictures of our new house. We close this FRIDAY!!! YIPEE! (and some pictures from Halloween of course!)

The pictures to prove it...

This was Stephen when we returned home from the wisdom teeth surgery on Friday. We laughed because we have really only seen a sight like this in the movies. He was in a lot of pain!

This was Stephen after the "emergency" surgery on Sunday evening. Bless his heart. But, this was better than the alternative.

And here we are with a little bit of comic relief from Stephen's boss. Thanks Josh for being so thoughtful!!!
Thanks to so many of you for keeping us in your prayers. Today is Friday and it has been exactly one week since all of this started. There has been pain, disappointment, good news and bad, but all in all, we are so grateful at the outcome and we know that we were very watched over and taken care of during this time.

ROLLERCOASTER...

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE rollercoasters...I love the thrill. I love the feeling of excitement. I'm not one to get sick on things like this, so this is why I absolutely love the feeling. However, when you walk through the turnstall of the rollercoaster called "LIFE", I don't always get the same feelings. One thing about a themepark rollercoaster is that you pretty much know what the next drop will look like and you know about the curves and loops and twists. But the reality of LIFE is that we don't know, we don't know when we'll hit a steep hill, we don't know when a twist or a loop is coming and we certainly don't know how this rollercoaster is going to make us feel.
Today the rollercoaster that my family is on is one that has really taken us for a crazy ride. The upside to the ride is this, we have a found a house that we can afford and live with great comfort in our current financial situation. I will be able to stay home and not worry about money or the lack there of or at least not worry in an unhealthy way. Our embroidery business has truly taken off and we have great vision for our small business. Our girls are healthy and adore each other and we have enjoyed so much having two girls to watch. We live near family and have enjoyed the closeness.
We all know that with every upside, there is always a downside...ours is this...this past Friday, Stephen had his wisdom teeth out. Not a big deal...or so we thought. Saturday, he seemed great and then it hit. His face began to swell and we had to take him to his drs. office Sunday morning to have some infection drained...we felt good about recovery at that point because it had relieved a lot. Then Sunday evening after he had been resting all day, the swelling came back and we were asked to quickly bring him back to Tyler for a check up. At this point, the dr said he wanted to do a procedure as soon as possible which meant he wanted him admitted to the hospital. So here I sit, day three in a hospital with my husband, who at this point is really starting to lose his positive attitude. We are thankful that we have good drs, good support at home and good insurance. If we focus on those things and the fact that we have a wonderful group of family and friends who are praying for us, it makes the rollercoaster easier to endure. You know as a believer in Christ we have times like these that make up see and remember that our Savior is sovereign and wants the very best for us and is always in control.
My prayer is this...that we would see God's goodness and trust in him.

Homecoming and the Spirit Store

So here we are at our "Spirit Store". Right now we are sort of makeshift, but the booster club has big plans for us. No matter what, we are enjoying the business and what it allows us to do.

Keatyn Corely in her cute little cheerleader out fit. She wears this to the football games.

Getting her mum pinned on for homecoming. She was so excited about this. Thanks Nadia for adding some pink and bling!!!!

I'm not sure about this smile...it looks a little forced. I wasn't there for the photo shoot, so this is what you get. And I am SOOOOO sad to say that we don't have any pictures of Addilyn from homecoming. Next home game she'll be in her get up again and I'll take some pictures. Just know that she was stinkin' cute!

Update...

Ok, so we have been so stinkin' busy that I haven't had time to blog...I'm serious. Our business has really taken off and we are so PUMPED!!! I wanted to give you a few updates on the Bills:
*Addilyn got her first tooth last week.
*Addilyn is getting another tooth this week!
*Keatyn LOVES her dance class and shows us by putting her hands above her head and twirling around.
*We are considering buying another machine for our embroidery business because we have so much business coming in...this is huge, because when we bought our first machine, we were into doing burp cloths and bibs...we've come a LONG way baby!
*We have house plans, but can't make up our mind if it's the right time to jump into building a house. (more details to come)
*Addilyn is 5 1/2 months old and is truly the happiest baby on the block!

This is just a small update to let you in on our little life. I've got some great pictures to post, but I have to post about our living details before I post any more pictures.

A few new pictures...ok a lot of new pictures!

We went for a little drive to "check out" the land.

Our flower princess
Her Daddy...still.
An attempt to take a picture with Keatyn...
Dinner with daddy!!!!
The sweetest of times...I love these girls.
Ok, so you know you live in the sticks when you load up your kids, no car seats, only a diaper in your beat up Chevy truck that you had to air up the tire before you could go. And if you'll notice, Keatyn has a Koolaid stain on her mouth. Fun Times!!! Boarder line...WT!
Have a Terrific Thursday!!!

We did it...

Well, I am sad to report that I have no picture of our AWESOME Spirit Store from Friday night. It was in my plans to post a picture of the three of us with our display, but it was crazy and I forgot to take my camera. However, I am happy to report that we did really well. We didn't sell out of everything, but we sold out of some things. We won't make 6 figures this year, but we will be able to contribute monetarily to our families. We are thrilled. I am really working to get more pictures on our Stitches and Threads blog so that you can see what we are doing. There have been some of you who have asked how to get some of our things or have something monogrammed...you can email us at StitchesandThreads@gmail.com and we'll work with you.

I hope to have pictures for my next update. Hope all is well and I hope everyone has dried out from IKE!!!!

It's Official!!!!

We are a real business!!! Not that we weren't before, but we joined the Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce. We are so excited. This is really the first time that we have done any sort of "advertising". This Friday (tomorrow) we are opening a "Spirit Store" at the football game. We have partnered with our local booster club. A portion of our proceeds will benefit Lindale Athletics. As former athletes we were completely on board with this and it is yet again, exposure! We have worked ourselves around the clock to get our jobs finished and hopefully, if IKE doesn't wash us away, we'll be successful tomorrow night.

If you want to see some of the things that we are doing, you can link to our blog from here. Stitches and Threads!!!!

Quiet Time...

Does it exist anymore...? This morning I took Keatyn to dayschool at FBC, which she LOVES. She is going to be my gal that loves the social life...I'm afraid. I was that way and I know what it sometimes got me...that's another blog though! Anyway, I ran my errands with Addilyn in tow and then came home put her down for her nap and came downstairs. There was a weird sound...wait, there was only the sound of the icemaker on the refridgerator and the a/c clicking on. Yes, folks, I am sitting in complete silence. Silence is something that I don't get much these days...it's either the chatter of my children, the stitching of our embroidery machine, or the noise that comes with living with two young children, a husband and two other grown adults. I appreciate every aspect of my life in this season, so I'm not saying these things as a complaint by any means, I am just realizing as I sit here with my homemade sandwich, hot pickles and my blog, that these moments of silence are rare. I am appreciating that I have ears to hear the noises around me everyday and that I have been blessed with all those things in my life. I am appreciating that my daughter loves school and that my infant is a great sleeper and a really happy baby. I am appreciating that in this season in my life I am sitting at my parents' kitchen table(LOL!) for lunch because I am staying at home. That is what this blog is truly about. Silence is golden, but I hope that I can always stop to appreciate the noise when a time of silence and reflection falls upon me.

a short prayer...Thank you Lord for this season in my life and thank you that I have had seasons that were different than this one so that today I can appreciate TODAY!

stopping to think and ponder...Beth

Bumps and bruises...

This past weekend began with quite a bit of trauma. We were at the gym, finishing up our swim class and Keatyn got her little fingers slammed in the door...you can't see it in the picture, but I wanted to show how sweet these little hands are and express the sheer pain that she was in. It was very sad.

The first picture shows you a large scratch on her forehead and a bruise. We were visiting some friends for a birthday party and we stayed around for the after party. This was our party favor...Keatyn and her little friend were running in the house (one of those things moms say NOT to do) and the next we heard was a loud thud and a loud cry. Keatyn had gone head first into the wall and left a nice little dent. Luckily, her knot popped out quickly and she recovered quite well.

All in all the weekend ended up fine, but not without some bumps and bruises.

Our CRAZY life...

It has been too long since I blogged last. We have been soooooo busy. Our embroidery business has blown up, which is a GREAT thing, but it does put a lot of other things on the back burner. And you know that I LOVE to blog, so I am a bit disappointed in myself. I will try to do better...I promise. Here are a few pictures to catch you up.

Addilyn is 4months old and as sweet as she can be.

Stephen's team at work sent us these cute outfits and so I took some pictures to make a thankyou note...I love this little outfit.
We started cereal about a week ago. As with most infants...it was highly unsuccessful. But fun!!
She took the spoon, but didn't know much past that.
Sheer agony in that face.
A milestone...she holds her rattle and also tries to get her paci in her mouth by herself.

We are having so much fun and Keatyn absolutely adores her. I love to watch them interact. Now that Addilyn is awake more and has much more expression, Keatyn enjoys making her smile and coo.

Milestones...

Bare with me...we're dealing with a milestone here!!!! I tried to get these in order, but it didn't work...so you are seeing the end results first.

She rolled over. Not from her tummy to her back, but from her back to her tummy. Keatyn did it the other way, so I just expected Addilyn to do it that way.

Here she was gearing up for the final push.
And here too...we had to try several times before she actually made it over.
Look at that double chin...LOVE IT...she is now pulling her legs up all the time. No laying flat for this one anymore.
Here was some good ole' tummy time...if you look really close, you can see the drool coming out of her mouth...she was working so hard!

And this is posed...

Aren't they cute!

She was on the verge of a laugh...she cracks us up!