Happy Birthday PaPa!

R.E. The Cat, Sr.,

You are the greatest Dad and PaPa in the world! You are so selfless, constantly thinking of others, and a HUGE source of encouragement to everyone in our family. We love you so much and are so grateful that God chose us for your family. We miss you like crazy and are so sad that we can't be there today to celebrate your birthday. I really thought we'd be there today. I hope you have a great day with Mom and Meredith and Madalyn. Enjoy some kind of birthday sweet! I would love to bake you something! I love you, Dad! You are my best!!!

In front of Ryan and Meredith's on the day they brought Madalyn home:

So generous...our number checker on the day we FINALLY got our household goods delivered:

Sweatin' it up big time in the August heat for your grandson's pleasure:

Your newest grandchild...in her PaPa's safe arms:

This photo, courtesy of Jackson...not too bad!:

With Alli on her first outing...to the chiropractor:

Amazing grandparents!

You are very loved by this Exum family!!!

Deep and Wife, Deep and Wife

This is what I woke to this morning:

"Deep and wife, deep and wife, deep and wife, deep and wife...there's a fountain flowing deep and wife"

"Oh when the saints, oh when the saints, oh when the saints, oh when the saints, oh when the saints go marching in, oh when the saints..."

"I will sing of the mercies forever. I will sing of the mercies forever!"

Jackson's Bible has a Bible song that goes with each story. We always sing the song before reading the story. A lot of times, he will go through the Bible and ask us, "Do you know this song?" and then we sing it if we do. We also have a CD of all of the songs that we play in the car while we are driving. He loves to sing. What a sweet voice to wake up to this morning.

I'm working on my birth story and will post the details once I am finished (for those of you who are interested). For now, I will say that our Allison is the sweetest and most wonderful baby. She is SO easy! Maybe it's just that I know what I'm doing this time around, but I can't help but believing that she has a very easy-going temperament. I am enjoying every second with her!

Introducing Allison Michele Exum!

Our precious baby girl has finally arrived! Labor started at 3:59 this morning and she was born at 10:31 - only 6 1/2 hours later! Labor was wonderful and birthing at home was better than amazing. I will post details of my labor later, but if I don't get pictures posted, our families just might disown us:)

Allison Michele Exum
1 August 2009
10:31 in the morning
7 pounds 14 ounces
20 inches long

2 hours after birth:

Me with the best partner I could ever ask for! I could NOT have endured the last 30 minutes without you, Jace!

Our amazingly wonderful, very sweet, and comforting midwife, Gail:

Our new family with Gail:

Proud big brother Jackson...he saw the entire delivery and was sweeter than sugar. It was better than I could have ever dreamed. We were all four on the bed together. Thank You, Jesus!

Kisses!

9 hours old:

In Jackson's bed getting lots of lovin':

We love you all and are so happy to share our daughter with you! I am feeling GREAT and we are enjoying lots of fun family time together. Love you all!