And We're Back...

We know ... you haven't heard from us in a while.

It has been very busy.

We are sure you are as shocked as Ali is in the picture below.

I finished my mini semester this week (a semester's worth of material crammed into 3 weeks).

I was busy studying most nights.

We have also been very involved in helping with clean up from the recent storms.

There were crews from Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina that came to help with clean up in the Shoal Creek Valley area.

They were a big help, especially since there were about 400 of them. We totaled 9,000 man hours from all of the work that has been done over the past 3 weeks!

Here are some before and after shots of work sites this past weekend.

Before

After

Before

After

Now, updates on Ali.

First, here are some pictures of Ali in her blessing dress.
We finally got them to the blog for you to see her show it off.

That was her white dress...

Check out her black one...

Ali continues to surprise us. Just a few days ago she rolled over without us even noticing.

We were sad that we missed it. She rolled from her back to her tummy.

We have been watching her closely since then and we have caught her rolling to her side, but not all the way to her belly. We just noticed today that she has started to reach for things.

One thing we are enjoying is how well she sleeps.

She sleeps about 10-12 hours every night ... without waking up. 

She had only been home for 2 months when she started sleeping through the night.

Once we put her down after falling asleep on Jodi's shoulder ... 

she had some marks on her face to show for it.

She smiles more and more.

And we smile more and more. We are sure you will smile at these pictures too.

This is Ali getting up in the morning.

Ali has also started learning to eat rice cereal and other baby foods.

- Sweet Potatoes & Corn ... Win

- Peas ... Fail

She is learning to eat off of a spoon slowly but surely.

March of Dimes

We went to March of Dimes: March for Babies in downtown Birmingham.

There were alot of people there to do the walk despite the storm that had recently hit Alabama.

We walked 4.25 miles.

I was sunburnt on my neck and face.

Our small team raised $270!

The recent storm has affected all of Alabama with the many tornadoes that came through.

Moody was affected by the storm that hit early Wednesday morning (some tornadoes and high winds).

We were hit with strong winds at 6:00 am on Wednesday too.

It came without warning. We ran downstairs to get protection in case anything was to happen to our small home. We were fortunate though, and no damages happened to our home.

Moody is much better than other areas (ie, Tuscaloosa or Pleasant Grove), but here are some of the pictures of the damages in our area.

We went out on Saturday and helped a trailer park neighborhood that was hit hard. There were few trailers that did not have holes or sides of the trailer crushed by a tree.

Most of the homes in these pictures have been condemned and the families have to move out.

We helped the owner of this home move the rest of his items from his home to another location until he gets a new place. You can't see much of the damages in this picture, but most of the roof is missing.

The second floor of his neighbor's home was missing.

We are expecting groups with our church to be coming out this weekend to help with the clean up in the community here in Moody, Leeds, Ashville, and Pell City areas. We have word that there are 300 men coming from Georgia. There will be men coming from other states to help in other areas of our Alabama too. Eventually we will be allowed by officials to get into Tuscaloosa and some of the harder hit areas to provide assistance.

Ali is doing well, but she is on a new reflux medicine and has thrown up just a few times. I've called the doctor and am waiting to hear what medicine we are going to try next.

She is still happy go-lucky most of the time. Like when she is fed and rested.

Sometimes she is a serious talker, like in this video.

And here comes the personality.

She eats her fingers like they are her pacifier.

You can see her dimples the best in this picture.

There is one dimple on each side.

As you can see, she is super cute but especially in her little red coat. :)

Here she is in a Bumbo seat to help her sit up. She likes to sit up.