Christmas happenings and a tribute to a friend

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did. :) It was more fun this year, because Claire understood more of what was happening. I love having a child to celebrate Christmas with!

We had a busy weekend. Three evenings in a row, we had dinner with Quentin's family, including two brothers from out of town. Friday night (22nd) was at his brother Justin's house. We played some fun games and had a yummy dinner. We enjoyed meeting Claire's newest cousin, Ruthie, and Claire got to meet Doug for the first time.

Saturday (23rd) we hosted at our house. After an early dinner, we walked through McAdenville (aka Christmas Town), seeing the pretty lights and saying Merry Christmas to people in the cars driving through.

Sunday (Christmas Eve) we went to our church's Christmas Eve service in the morning, then went to Quentin's parents' house for dinner. We exchanged gifts after dinner, which was fun, and the kids acted out the story of Jesus' birth, which was pretty neat to watch. We stayed up too late, but it was worth it being with family. :)

Christmas morning, I made cinnamon rolls with breakfast. I thought it was funny that my mom and my sisters all made cinnamon rolls, too. Claire had fun opening her presents - a fun toy from my parents, and a new baby doll from us. We got some cool gifts, too. :) Then we hosted my family for dinner (we missed having Mom, Dad, and Ben there) and exchanging gifts. It went by too fast, like it usually does, but I'm thankful for the fun memories that were made.

Now on to something very sad, but also hopeful.
On Christmas night, a young man I knew passed away. I considered him my friend, even though we didn't hang out much. We grew up in the same church for years, knew a lot of the same people, went to a lot of the same events, and I even lived in the house nextdoor to him for almost two years.

Hunter was an incredible young man. He always treated everyone with respect and put others before himself, a true gentleman. He loved the Lord, which was evident through his joy - he always had a smile on his face, no matter what he was going through, because his hope was fully in God. Kind, gentle, humble, joyful, are all words that describe Hunter, a man who can never be replaced.

He truly left a legacy. I scroll down through Facebook, and all I see are posts about how amazing he was, how great a friend he was, how much he is already missed. His life touched so many, countless others, including my own. I can hardly believe he's actually gone.

I'm mourning with his family, grieving with them in their loss. It is sad that Hunter's last days here were full of sickness and pain. But I know that he is with his Savior in Heaven now, and for that I rejoice. He is no longer sick or in pain, he is whole and in the presence of Jesus. So I say, "Good-bye for now, until we meet again." 

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Claire had fun trick-or-treating with her cousins on Halloween. I had fun too. :) Here's a picture of her in the monkey costume we found at Goodwill.

Isn't she cute?

Last week, my family got to have dinner together for the first time in a while - everyone except Ben, who is still in boot camp recovering from shoulder surgery. We had a good time, but it would have been better if Ben was there.

This week I went grocery shopping at the new store, Lidl, for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of their products are less expensive than Aldi (which is where I normally shop). For example, a half gallon of milk was 93 cents at Lidl and $1.29 at Aldi, and a dozen eggs at Lidl are only 36 cents! I'll definitely be going back. :)

Many Blessings

So many happy/exciting things happened in the past 2.5 weeks!

• Anna had her baby on the 10th - a boy! William is so cute, and Claire likes him already. :)
• We found out another Whitaker cousin is due in March, so Claire will have 3 younger cousins by Springtime. 
• Quentin had his 32nd birthday. Claire and I surprised him at his work during lunch break, which was very fun. :) I enjoyed meeting Quentin's co-workers, and they all loved Claire. 
• Two Saturdays ago, we hiked at Crowder's Mountain, where Quentin and I met 4 years ago. It was fun reminiscing about that first day of seeing each other. 
• This past weekend, I went on a retreat with the ladies from our church. We stayed at a beautiful house in Boone. I enjoyed getting to know some of the ladies better, and having extra time to focus on Jesus and what it means to find joy in Him. (the theme of the retreat was Fighting for Joy) It was hard leaving Claire (first time leaving her overnight), but Quentin did an amazing job of taking care of her while I was away. I'm so thankful that Claire has such a good daddy.
• Christianne and Mika got engaged on Sunday! So very happy and excited for them! They've been dating for a few years, and it's clear that they belong together. :) 

Wow, all that in just 2.5 weeks. God has truly blessed us.
Here are a few pictures.

                                                            holding baby William

                                           the house we stayed in at the retreat

                                         the mountain view

                           we made s'mores and sang to Jesus around the fire in the evening.

Oh, yeah, I'm actually excited about Halloween this year. Quentin's nephew has a birthday on Nov. 1, but he's having his party a day early, and will include trick-or-treating. I bought a costume for Claire yesterday, and can't wait to take her around the neighborhood. She'll be so cute! I'll post again after, so I can share her cuteness. :)

Guess that's all for now. I'll also share more of what I learned at the retreat later.

One Year!

I've been so caught up in being a mom to Claire and a wife to Quentin that I haven't posted on this blog for a year. What? Crazy!

So much has happened, as you can imagine. Here are just a few highlights of the past year.

- We went on a crazy beach trip with my family, involving hurricane Matthew, flooded roads, hotel stays, and not much beach time. Still fun to be with everyone though. :)

- Mom and Dad moved up north the end of October. They are now a two-day drive away from all us kids, instead of 20 minutes. I miss them being here, but I'm glad that they are happy where they are. They love it up there!

- Quentin and I went to his grandma's house for Christmas 2016. It was my first Christmas apart from my family. While I did have a lot of fun with Quentin's family, it wasn't quite the same as being with mine. It helped that we got to drive east to my grandparents two days after Christmas, and spend some time with them as well as two of my aunts. They all loved getting to meet Claire. :) She was a great traveler too, hardly fussed at all in the car.

- We found out that Claire is getting a little cousin this Fall. Two, actually. One on each side of the family. We are so excited! My sister Anna's baby shower was this past weekend, and she's due the last day of September. Amanda Whitaker is expecting a baby girl on November 1. It will be fun to see how Claire interacts with her new cousins.

- My youngest brother, Ben, is currently in Marine Corp boot camp. Unfortunately, he dislocated his shoulder a few weeks ago, and is in medical trying to heal up. It's uncertain right now if he will be able to finish his training, but I really really hope that he can. Prayers for him are appreciated!

And, of course, Claire turned one year old in June. We had a party for her the Sunday after her birthday, with both sides of the family. It was fun having everyone together! We mostly just sat and talked, then sang to Claire and let her try a cupcake. She got messy, but had fun eating it. :)

Claire sleeps through the night now, which is very nice. She crawls around so fast, sometimes it's hard to keep up. She can walk while holding onto things, but not by herself yet. Her favorite word is "uh-oh", and she can also say MaMa, DaDa, Up, and Dat (that). It's so cute when she babbles incessantly like she's telling a story. :) Her favorite time of day is when Quentin comes home. I'll say "Daddy's home", and she immediately looks toward the door and smiles when he comes in. She loves her daddy.

Well, I guess that's all. I would really like to post more often. I'll try to make it happen.