Jamie, Charli, and Matti Grace

Good News

2010-07-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well I got some great news last week.

First of all I PASSED MY PRAXIS and second of all I GOT INTO THE TEACHING PROGRAM!!! I am very excited to begin my journey as a teacher. It has been a long hard road working full time and going to school full time the past several sememsters.

I feel like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Thank you all so much for all of your love and support!!

Most of all I could not have done this with out my wonderful parents, sister, husband, and cousin Shelby!!! Thank you all so much!! I love you guys and can not express how much I appreaciate all that you have done for me!!!

Summer Fun

2010-06-28T08:52:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of what we have been doing this summer. I will try and keep up with the pictures at least. I have some time this summer since I am not taking summer classes. Hope Yall Enjoy!!!

There is a spray park in Collierville, TN and I have taken MG several times. This is a picture of her playing in the water. She was not sure about it at first but now she will just run around and let the water spay her. She is a mess. She loves the water and is going to start swimming lessons next week. I can not believe that my baby is big enough to start swim lessons.

I am in an organization called LaCoterie. This is a women's auxillary group that donates money to a variety of organizations here in Crittenden County. We decided at the last min. to put toghether a team for Relay for Life. We had a goal of $500. We trippled our goal with a grand total of $1601.00. Here are a few of the girls that stayed all night. We had a blast. I can not wait to do it again next year.

Matti Grace doing what she does best... PITCHING A FIT!!! LOL I am sure she did not get her way about something. She gets mad and pitches a fit and in 2 min. is over it. I captured this picture and thought it would be a good one for her yearbook when she gets older.

This is MG at Xanders Birthday Party. Xander is my best friend Whitneys little boy. He turned 2 on June 3. He and Matti Grace are really close. They are moving to Omaha, NE in May of 2011. I am really really sad and going to miss them so much. Matti Grace and Xander are BFF!!!

Long Time no Blog

2010-06-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hello....

We have been extremely busy and have had no time to blog. I keep telling my self that I am going to keep up with this blog, but obviously, as you can tell i haven't. LOL.

Jamie and I are doing great. Jamie has been working out of town alot so I have been home with Matti Grace by myself. Since it is summer I am not taking any classes right now, so I am getting to spend alot of extra time with Matti Grace. We have been going to the pool and hanging out with all of our friends.

Mommy has some exciting news... I PASSED MY PRAXIS. This means that I am eligable for the teaching program and will find out on July 8 if I am in. With that being said I am that much closer to being done with school. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Matti Grace is growning like a weed. She is talking up a storm and can say anything. She has began to speak in complete sentences which kind of scares me. Everything is mine these days. She is also into "I do it." I can not believe that she will be 2 years old in a month.

She has been swimming like a little fish. She puts her floaties on and swims all around the pool all by herself. She even jumps off the diving board. It scared me to death at first but the more she does it the more at ease I am with it.

My nephew Mason is playing on a traveling baseball team and we have been going on the weekends and watching him play. MG loves it. She would rather be at the ball field than be anywhere else. She will yell GOOOO MASON. It is too cute.

Here are some picture

This is at a ball tournament in Jonesboro. She always finds something to keeep herself occupied. She was playing with a toy truck under the bleachers and picking up the rocks and throwing them. It kept her occupied of hours. She was filthy when we got home but oh well there is nothing that a little bath would not take off.

Matti Grace, Andrew, Trevor, Aynslee, and Addie at my Aunts house a couple of week ago. The two boys are from my cousins that live out of town. Andrew lives in Nashville where his family was affected by the floods and Trevor lives in Dallas. We rarely get to see these two boys and were really glad to see them. The two girls on the end are my cousin Shelby's girls. We see them almost everyday. MG loves her Addie and Anysnlee... OH and Shelby too. LOL. These three girls are a hoot.

Addie, Anysnlee, and Matti Grace.

This was late one night we were all at Shelbys and Michael and Jamie were watching them. Who knows what Shelby and I were doing. When we came back in all three of the girls were sitting on the counter jamming to the radio. They did this for I know an hour. It was too funny.

Christmas

2010-01-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

We had a really good Chrismas this year. Matti Grace was really into opening her gifts this year. She did not really care about what was inside the boxes she just wanted to tear the paper off the presents. She got tons of stuff and I dont really know where I am going to put all this stuff yet. It is all just piled in her bedroom right now so hopefully I will be able to find a place for it.

Here are some pictures of her from Christmas morning

Here are all of her Santa gifts under the tree.

Her walking into the living room after we woke her up.

She finally found all the stuff under the tree. It took her a min. She was still half asleep when she came in there so she was not even paying attention that there were toys everywhere.

Who would have thought that the Sit and Spin would have been her favorite toy. She loves this thing. She likes to stand on it and spin. I guess that is becasue she can not figure out how to sit on it and spin yet.

It is tradition for my family to get up early and see what Santa brought. We then have breakfast and go back to sleep. This year we woke her up early and had breakfast, but did not get to go back to sleep. She was too intrested in playing with her toys and trying to put her clothes on.

Long Time No Post

2009-12-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything. My life has been a crazy mess. I am working full time and going to school full time and taking care of Matti Grace. I do have help with Matti Grace thanks to my wonderful husband, mother, sister, and cousin. They all chip in and keep her while I am going to school. I will take my last exam tonight and then I will be done for the semester.

I have a few photos of Matti Grace to show what she has been up to for the past couple of months. She is growing like a weed and talking up a storm. Her new thing that she stared this weekend was saying uh-oh spaghetti-o, althought it sounds like she is saying uh-oh pickle. LOL. She is a mess but i would not trade her for the world.

This is a picture of Matti Grace from her first birthday photo session.

I was dying to get a picture of her with this hat on and she HATED this hat. This was really the only good picture that we got of her with the hat on.

Matti Grace was also in her very first pagent a few months back.

She won her age division.

She is suppost to be in the state pagent, but it will be right in the middle of my finals next semester and we are all trying to get me graduated so I doubt we go.

I just love this picture of her. Just thought that I would share it with you guys.

For Halloween Matti Grace was Snowwhite. Although we did not do much trick or treating this year, only becasuse Matti Grace can not have all of that candy and Mommy and Daddy dont need it, we did take her and have her picture made in her Halloween costume. The guy that does these pictures for us does an amazing job. He is normally very expensive (i usually can not afford him) but he does a special for halloween pictures and this is the second year we have taken her and gotten her pictures made. I think we will make this a tradition, until she is old enough that she thinks she can not dress up anymore.

I promise I am going to try and do better with updating my page. I really had forgotten aobut it and then got on here the other day and realized that I had not posted anything since June.

Suprise

2009-06-29T08:24:00.001-07:00

On sat. night we had a suprise party for my friend Kasandra's mother. It was her 50th birthday. Kasandra lives in Maryland so we never get to see her. I have not seen her in almost 2 years. Her mother has not seen her since Christmas so it was a great suprise to Rhonda when she came in that Kasandra, Jason, and all of her kids were there.

Kasandra has a 5 year old a 2 year old and an 8 month old. Since I have never seen Delilah I was super excited to see them. Delilah and Matti Grace are only 2 months apart so they had a great time.

Here are some pictures from Sat. night.

I miss you Kassie...... Move home PLEASE!!!!!

Kasandra and I

Tyler Eli Age 5

Delilah Jane and Mattingly Grace

Delilah 8 months and Matti Grace 10 months

We all thought it was really funny how much they look alike.

Isabella Pearl

Age 2

Rhonda seeing Kasandra Jason and all the kids for the first time.

She fell to her knees and started crying. I would say she was suprised and excited.

Eating Corn

2009-06-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I had corn on the cob for dinner one night and Matti Grace was screaming so we gave her some. Jamie and I were cracking up at her. She ate almost the whole corn on the cob.

We took a few pictures of her.

Here they are

Summer Fun

2009-06-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

So I know that it has been a while since my last post but we have had lots going on. First and formost we have been having a great summer. We have had lots of time in Ya Ya's pool and out in the sun. We have been spending almost every weekend watching either Mason or Miller play baseball. Matti Grace loves the baseball fields. I always tell Jamie that when she grows up she is going to either love baseball or HATE IT. She is always such a good sport in the heat.

Matti Grace first went swimming on Memorial Day weekend. When she first got into the water I am not sure she knew what to think. She loves taking a bath, she was not sure because she could not crawl around the pool like she does the bath tub. Once she was in the water she decided that she LOVED IT. She is begining to kick her legs and move her arms and splash around in the water.

Yesterday Matti Grace and I enjoyed a day of swimming with Shelby, Addie, Aynslee, and Jana. We love to have a girls day in the pool. Matti Grace stayed in the water for I know 2 1/2 hours. When I took her out of the pool her little feet were all pruned up. She was not a happy camper that she was having to get out, but once I got her in the car we did not even make it out of my moms driveway before she was asleep.

Here are a few pictures of her on Memorial day weekend.

A day at my Aunt's House

2009-05-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today we went to my Aunt Ann's house. My cousin Tracey and her little boy Andrew were there and we only see them about every two months or so. We have not seen them in a while so we packed our stuff and drove out to Fisherville, Tn to see them today.

We had a blast. Shelby and her girls also came. The kids were so funny. They would play a while and then someone would get mad, and then they would play a while more.

It is also a tradition for my mother's side of the family (being Itilian and all) to eat spaghetti on sunday after church. This was Matti Grace's first time to ever have real spaghetti. She loved it. I gave her a bowl and cut the spaghetti noodles into small peices and gave the bowl to her and let her feed it to herself. She had it everywhere. It was so funny, but she ate the enitre bowl.

Here are a few pics...

My aunt had a big inflatable thing set up in her living room and it had all of these balls in it. Matti Grace loved it.... too bad we do not have room for one of these in our house...LOL

All of the girls playing in the balls.

At first she did not know what to do. I always get on to her for trying to stick her hands in her food while I am feeding her and then today I gave her this bowl to dig into and I am not sure what she thought about it...LOL

She finally figrued it out, and when she did she loved it.

My aunt lives on a small lake so I decided to take her outside and try and get a couple of pictures of her. She loved it out there and when we tried to take her back in she was not a happy camper.

I thought this picture was too cute.

Although I look terrible in this picture, this is the only picture that I got with all the girls and the kids.

Mother's Day

2009-05-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Let me just begin by saying that I never really new how much Mother's Day meant until this year, with this being my first Mother's Day. It was great. Jamie got out in the front of my house and redid my flower beds, which need alot of work. They look GREAT.

Matti Grace and I got up and went to church with my mom and then we spent the day with my family. My mom and dad cooked fish and everyone went over to their house. We had a crew... My mom and dad of course, Jamie, Matti Grace and I, Shelby Michael Addie and Aynslee, My sister and brother-in-law and of course their 3 boys, My grandmother, and my moms friend Barbara.

We ate fish and hush puppys and what ever else my mom cooked and just sat around and talked until like 8:00 or so . We had a blast. I can say that it was the BEST Mother's Day ever.

Here are some pictures of Matti Grace from Mother's Day after we got home from church.

9 Month Check Up

2009-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

On Friday May 8, 2009, Matti Grace had her nine month check up. I am not really sure she knew what to think considering every other time we have been there they have given her shots. She did not have to get any shots this time. She weighed 17.2 lbs and was 27 inches long. I was really hoping that she was going to weigh 20 lbs. so that I could turn her around in the car seat... but oh well....

Here are a few pics from the Dr's office....

This was when we first got there. I think she was still a little scared that she was going to get shots.

She loves being nakes, so of course when they made me get her undressed she LOVED IT.

I thought this picture was adorable.

She had a ball playing with this paper. I brought her like 4 toys to play with while we were there and this is what she wanted to play with.... Go Figure...LOL

With everyday there is something new.....

2009-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

I do not have any picutures today but I wanted to share this. This morning I went into Matti Grace's room to wake her up and to my suprise she was already awake, but when I saw her I almost started to cry. Why? you ask, becuse she was standing up hanging looking over ther crib. She as been pulling up on the coffee table, but just to her knees. I know I am to expect this, but my baby is just growing up too fast. The next time I catch her that way I will def. post some pictures.

Lunch with Friends

2009-04-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went to luch with some old friends. We had a great time but it was some kind of experience. Since we all have kids now, except for Crystal, everyone in the resturant was staring at us. With luch coming to an end Kristi and Aiden had an accidnet. Aiden spilled an entire glass of Diet Coke on him and everyone else. Kristi apparently was not thinking buecasue she did not have any other clothes for this poor baby to wear. LOL. It was quite funny. So, if you are wondering why he does not have clothes on in some of the pictures, this is why. We ate dinner with Kristi, Aiden, Crystal, Melinda, Meah Rae, Taylor, Garrett, Ms. Barbara, and Tara. It was really good to see all of our friends. I miss Kristi and Aiden very much. Kristi was my college roommate that got married and moved away to Oklahoma. She had a baby in Apil 2008 and she was home to visit for spring break. Also, if you are wondering why Matti Grace has on the same outfit as she did in the Chuckie Cheese pictures it is because it was the same day.

The whole group from L to R: Front Row: Garrett Stephens, Matti Grace Fortenberry, and Meah Rae Dirks Second Row: Crystal Cook, Taylor Stephens, Charli Fortenberry, Aiden Schafer, Kristi Schafer, Tara Wilburn, and Melinda Dirks.

Kristi and Aiden after his accident.

Tara with Matti Grace and Meah Rae

Matti Grace's First trip to Chuckie Cheese

2009-04-24T09:36:00.001-07:00

Matti Grace also had her first trip to Chuckie Cheese. We went for Matthew's 3ed birthday party. Although the rest of the kids had more fun than Matti Grace did, she still had a pretty good time. With all the excitement Matti Grace did not sleep much at Chuckie Cheese, but as soon as we left she was out for like 2 hours. Here are some pictures of her first trip to Chuckie Cheese. Hoepfully there will not be tons of these becasue I really dont like that place...LOL.

Matti Grace loved this car. She rode it like 3 times.

Matthew and Matti Grace riding a Jeep. Matti Grace did not really care for this. It was jerking her everywhere....LOL.

Matti Grace's First trip to the Zoo

2009-04-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Matti Grace had her very fist trip to the zoo. She went with the whole family. My mom, Shelby, Michael, Addie, Aynslee, Mason, Miller, Matthew, Jamie, Matti Grace, and I. We had the best time. Although she had never been to the zoo before, she seemed to love it. Halfway through the trip she fell asleep and did not really care about the rest of the trip. We did everthing at the zoo including the seal show. Jamie and I can not wait to bring her back. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

The whole group. It was an experience, but the kids had fun.

Just the kids

All of Yaya's M's. Mason, Miller, Matthew, and Matti Grace

Addie B and Aynslee

Matti Grace slept through most of the trip

Who ever knew these boys could be so sweet

Matti Grace's 6 Month Pictures

2009-04-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Long time no Blog....LOL

2009-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a long time since I have updated my blog, but I have been so busy with work, school, and being a mom that I really have not had much time. The past few months have been quite exciting for us. Matti Grace started crawling and got a tooth all in one day. I keept saying that I was ready for her to crawl, but now that she is I think I have changed my mind. LOL. She is EVERYWHERE. It is something new with her every single day.

Just last night I was on the phone talking to Jessica and she looked up and waved and said "bye bye". She never ceases to amaze me. We have lots of first these past couple of months and I promise that I am going to post some pictures.

She is now 8 1/2 months old and growing like a weed. I absolutely can not believe that she is growing so fast. Sometimes I feel like its time to do it all over again becasue the time with her has flown by, but then I remember that I HAVE LOST MY MIND. LOL.

Pictures

2008-10-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Mattingly Grace Fortenberry

Jamie and Charli Fortneberry

My birthday. We had a really good time this night.

I never though that I would see my self this way...lol

37 weeks

The Fortenberrys

2008-10-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Just a little update...

Well i dont really know where to start..... I have had this blogspot foever and am just now figuring out how to use it..lol. I got married on May 19, 2007 to Jamie Fortenberry. We are living in West Memphis. I don't guess I will ever leave here..lol. I love it here though, all of my family and friends live here and I don't think I would ever have the heart to leave them. A short time after I got married my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. I thought my world was going to end. I guess when you hear the word cancer you automatically assume death. After a major surgery and 2 weeks in the hospital she came home. I stayed with her lots and tried to help her heal as much as I could. My mom is my rock. Shortly after her surgery the dr's decided to continue treatment with chemo and radiation. The day before her first chemo treatment I found out that I was pregnant. It was both an exciting time and a sad time in my life. I now know why they say things happen for a reason. I just knew that this would make my mother have to get better. She had no choice right, what would her baby do with a baby..lol. At 17 weeks we were very excited to find out that we were having a baby girl. What would we do with a girl after 3 boys in the family? She was born on August 6, 2008. She was perfect. She weighed 6 lbs and 2 oz and was 19 inches long. We had decied (after many arguments) to name her Mattingly Grace Fortenberry, and call her Matti Grace. I did not know you could love someone so much after just a few seconds with them. Although she was a suprise to us, she is the best thing that has ever happend to us. Jamie and I can not get enough of her. I started back to work on September 29 and had the hardest time in the world leaving her.

I am going to try and keep this up so that all of our family and friends that are far awy from us can watch her grow. Thank you for all the support that you give us. We could not do it with out you.