What a week already! Yesterday afternoon Nana met Jesus too. What an amazing woman! She will surely be missed. Mrs. Ernestine Berry was a sharp, 97-year-old lady until just a couple months ago when she began to really lose her health. Having only known her for a few years, it was a pure joy! She was like my own grandmother since I lost both of mine before meeting Ryan. It was always so neat to sit and listen to her stories of the men that proposed to her and her turning them down to riding in the car in Big Creek, MS (where she grew up) while the curtains blew in the wind. I never heard the words for myself, but she apparently always told her granddaughters that "You can marry for money just as much as you can marry for love!" Ryan and I will miss all the letters and newspaper articles she sent for years. And, we'll never forget how she was so proud of Truett and said, "He is well made!"

Nana, Mrs. Ernestine, Miss Priss, The Queen will be missed, but she's so much better now!

New things at the Berry House

I know you guys have been DYING ... I mean on the edge of your seat dying ... to see all the updates we've done to our house all finished and beautiful! I promise i haven't been holding out on you. We've been holding out on the house! Since I started working with the students at the church and taking a class last semester online, the blog AND the projects slowed down just a little bit! BUT we had a very productive weekend doing little finishing touches but we wanted to show off just a couple of our NEW things around the house!

This is the most exciting of all! We finally got rid of the solid wood door and let a little light in the den. What a beautiful door and just the beginning of transforming the outside of the house!

New ... teenage guys helping? HA!! No! But they did help me pull off a great surprise for Ryan ... not having to pick the bed up and put it together after a long week!

Ryan and I have been looking for a bed since we got married. The slow to find the right thing people we are, we've (or maybe I) FINALLY found the perfect bed and the perfect deal!! LOVE IT!!!


And last but not least, someone is doing A LOT of new things! Truett has overnight become quite the little man! No more baby food for him unless mom is too lazy to fix something! Seriously, I've realized how little I have cooked in the past 10 months but we're loving it! He thinks he's so big — really wanting to walk, but loving to crawl. He's such a joy and the highlight of our days!
It's hard to believe he'll be a YEAR OLD in a little over a month!

There is a lot more going on with the house. Promise, more to come!

Life is Precious ...

I'm faced this morning with news from my mom that she and dad's best friend, Mr. Abb Henry, met Jesus face to face this morning. Those of you that know the Henry's, know they are precious people and have been through a lot in the past 2 years. I'm so glad to have the picture below of Truett with them from a few months ago. Mr. Abb was given the news about a month ago that his cancer would take him quickly after choosing to discontinue his treatment.


Mom and dad were able to spend a lot of time with the Henrys over the past several months and are now with Mrs. Theresa and the rest of their precious friends at her house — a house that will forever be a beautiful memory of Mr. Abb.
Please pray for Mrs. Theresa, Morgan and his wife and little Abby (their granddaughter - she lost her mother only about a year and a half ago). I know Mr. Abb and Neely (Abby's mom) had a sweet reunion in heaven this morning! Life is precious and the time we have with family is as well. Mom and dad also had a friend pass away from a inoperable brain tumor last week. Oh how short our days are!

****
Please also pray for Ryan's family. His 97 year old Nana is not doing well. She is sleeping most of the day now as she is in hospice care at her home in New Hebron. Oh how we wish we were closer to spend some time with her. What a full life she has lived!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the COUSINS!!!

It's hard to believe how fast kids grow up. Sunday was Baby Jake's (who i guess we can't call 'baby' anymore) 2nd birthday! Melanie and Matt no longer have a baby and they survived! Congrats! Jake is a sweet little man regardless of what his mom and dad say. :) (I know, they have to live with him!) I think it might be called being the youngest child and having to hold your own! I can't wait to see this little boy grow up into a young man! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE!!


Tomorrow is sweet little Parker darker's big day! She will be 8!! Parker is the sweetest child! She's the oldest of the Berry grands and a very big helper! She's also such the little singer and her favorite thing...she's a cheerleader! I mean a REAL cheerleader on a competition squad in Meridian. She is a tiny little thing and !so flexible. I can't wait to see her in action!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET PARKER!!!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

What a holiday it has been. We've really enjoyed our time with cousins and family! We left home last Friday and it's been wild since then! Christmas with the Buckleys (ryan's mom's family) Saturday night, me back to Grenada for church and partying with the youth, Christmas with the Berrys Tuesday afternoon (SO FUN!!!), Christmas with the Burnhams on Wednesday, and Christmas Eve service with Mimi and Pop. It's been a lot of fun!
BUT ... Christmas morning, after Truett discovered what Santa brought and we all ate breakfast, Ryan started feeling bad and is now back home in Grenada resting after a LONG Christmas Day in the bed with some stomach bug we assume. So, Tru and I continued with our Christmas Day plans with Mimi and Pop. I felt terrible leaving dad behind but that was his wish. So, we got to enjoy Pop's side of the family at my Papaw's in Brandon ... got to see cousins I haven't seen in years and meet their kids. Truett also got to meet a lot of family he'd never met!
Now it's on to YEC Monday with the youth while Mimi and Pop keep little man!
What a blessing it has been to be with both of our families this season!

The Berry grandkids

the Burnham grandkids plus Melanie
(only way Jake would stay in the pic)

us after the Christmas Eve service at FBC Kosy

Christmas morning in his rocking chair from Santa

Tru and his great grandfather Burnham

And then there was JUST Blue ...

All the puppies are gone and she's enjoying her reward!!

Being a Youth Director

ok...so there has been a lot more going on around here hence the fact that I haven't updated in forever ... HELLO ... I have a child that is officially into everything and teenagers to tend to amongst everything else. Not sure I'll be able to handle more kids one day!!! How do you moms do it?! Sanity out the door, RIGHT?!??

Ryan and I took the youth to the Matt Redman/Casting Crowns concert last night! It was great and such a blessing! Here's a little taste of what 3.5 hours with them was like.

We have done a lot to the house lately! I'll have to take pics when I get a chance this week! The best of them all ... THE NEW FRONT DOOR!!! love it!

oh and Truett is of course crawling and DYING to walk! Santa, here he comes!!