I can't believe this baby is one year old already! We just love her SOOOOOOO much. She is the best baby! She has such a sweet personality and she is such a happy little girl. Her smile and adorable laugh make us so happy. We are so blessed to have this precious girl in our lives.

Lydia is crawling everywhere now and babbling all the time. She says many things: bubba, ball, bye-bye, bible, da-da, duh (for dog), mama, hi, and uh-oh. There are times where she'll be pointing at something and just babbling away, and she knows exactly what she's talking about. Her latest thing is to put her hand up to her ear, pretending she's talking on the phone, and go, "eh?" It cracks us up :)

The rest of us are doing well. Caleb finished Kindergarten and is home for the summer. Daniel still keeps us laughing.

We are leaving in a few days for a BIG trip out to the Northwest. We are all going back to the town in Idaho, where Aaron and I lived when we first got married. Then, we're heading over to the Oregon Coast, on up to Seattle, onto Glacier National Park, and then to Mount Rushmore on the way home. We'll be able to see several people throughout our trip and we're looking forward to that!!

Hope you all are doing well!

Love, Chanelle

It's been a long time. Our little girl is almost 6 months already! I don't know where the time has gone.

Things are going well. We have had some illness this season- mainly Aaron, which has been hard. But, he is doing better, thankfully. Who knew sinus infections could be so serious? He felt awful pretty much the whole month of November.

The boys are doing well. Daniel will be 3 years old in just a few days. My little boy is not so little anymore. (sniff) He's a character. And Caleb is doing well and enjoying the highlights of kindergarten.

Thanksgiving was great! The kids and I got to see lots of family that I have not seen in a very long time and it was great to be together again with them on Thanksgiving. I was sad that Aaron was so sick that he missed Thanksgiving with his family and mine. But, he is doing better.

Enjoy winter and all the fun that goes along with it!

Love, Chanelle

Lydia Marie Collins arrived Wednesday evening, at 9:06pm, June 11th (6/11), weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 18 and 3/4" long. She's absolutely wonderful and we are thoroughly enjoying her!

Check out The Collins' Kids website link on the left for pictures. Pictures are all updated, stories are not. I'm way behind!

Love, Chanelle

Yes, I am still alive and well! I'm just way behind on posting and updating. So, let me try to briefly summarize the last six months and let you know how things are presently going!

We had been looking to move to Northwest Georgia for the last year, year and a half (just south of Chattanooga), to be closer for Aaron's job, for me to be able to stay home, etc. Well, right after the holidays, we found a house- yay! We had to act fast, because it was a fantastic deal and it wasn't going to stay on the market long. We put our house in Jasper on the market the second week of January and continued to work on things on the house. It showed at least once a week, which was great! We closed on the Georgia house the first of February, and then had 3 different offers for our house in Jasper the 3rd week of February. We were blown away that it sold in 7 weeks, especially with the market the way it has been! Well, the closing for that house was scheduled for the end of March, so that meant we needed to get packing. Oh, yeah, and by this point, I was 6 months pregnant and still working/teaching at the elementary school! Super crazy!

With the house in Georgia being only about 45 minutes from the Jasper house, we were able to bring things over pretty regularly, which helped so much. Then, my dad and Aaron's parents brought over all of the boxes we had packed, plus any furniture that was light enough for them to move on their own, and that we didn't need for a few weeks. They did that the second week of March, and it ended up being about half our stuff, which was great. Then, the last weekend in March, we had guys from church come and help us with all the heavy furniture and boxes and everything that was left. This was a HUGE help.

So, since the end of March, we have been in the new Georgia house and loving it! The biggest challenge was driving back and forth to school each day for the last 8 weeks of school. It ended up being an hour each way, but at least it was just a few weeks and not the whole school year. With that going on, I didn't even try to work on house projects during the week- there was no way to do it! So, I saved big projects for the weekends: unpacking and setting up the kitchen one weekend, painting the dining room another weekend, etc. We weren't living out of boxes, and had our basics, so it all worked out.

We made it to the end of the school year, and I've just been trying to relax and get everything ready for this baby, who is due any day now!!!! We are all so excited. Daniel has really been talking about her since I set up her pack n' play/bassinet, and washed her clothes. He's always talking about "baby sister" now. Caleb has been talking about her all along, so I know he's ready and excited.

So, my next post will announce our new little one! And don't worry- it won't take me 5 or 6 months to post about that!

Thanks to all of you who have checked in and left comments. I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.

Love, Chanelle