Happy Birthday Jesus

Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas all!





2006 has been amazing...here are some highlights:



awaiting the arrival of our little one



seeing the Bridenstine's in January



the joys of being pregnant




the anticipation of our growing family



our early anniversary trip to San Antonio, and the deep love we share for each other, there's no way I can even put into words!




falling in love with the Lord more everyday

being blessed by so many people with baby stuff, mommy advice, and being covered in much prayer



Taylor Joy's arrival into the world! 5/17/06



growing more and more dependent on the Lord as parents of this little girl




being a mommy and a daddy and discovering how amazing this parenting thing really is!

Storey and Graham's wedding! What a blessing to be a part of that special day with special friends!



My mom's side unoffical "reunion" to see everyone again after several years (for me at least)



our relaxing vacation in the ruidoso mountains...talk about rejuvenation!




Britt's graduation! Congrats to my sweet sis on getting her masters! She's AMAZING!



All of Taylor's firsts: smiles, laughs, teeth, sitting, food, half birthday, Christmas, etc.



Another amazing year is coming to an end. I pray that the Lord will use 2007 to blow us away and make us even more like Him. We love you all! Christmas blessings to you and your family!

7 Months of much Taylor Joy

Our Taylor is now 7 months old...what a big girl. Sigh. It seems like only yesterday we were at the hospital and cuddling our tiny little redhead. Now she's about as squirmy as they come, the poster child for "active alert" baby. Some highlights for the month include eating all kinds of new things: peas, carrots, greenbeans, pears, apples, bananas, prunes, sweet potatoes, peaches, and more (She loves ANY food!), being so close to crawling, pulling up from sitting (yesterday) and just being so stinkin' cute.

Taylor and I celebrated Christmas with my mom's family this weekend. They were all so excited to see Taylor again since some of them hadn't seen her since she was just 5 weeks old. Here's a picture of Taylor playing with my Paw Paw.



After the drive back on Sunday morning Taylor got dedicated at church. Dedication is basically the church body's way of saying we're in this together and will come alongside ya'll, as parents, to raise this baby to love and serve Jesus Christ. It was neat to see everyone stand and agree to do that. It encouraged my heart to what I already knew of our amazing church.



Taylor was definitely the oldest one up there since the last dedication came a couple of days before she was born. She wanted to stand so bad she was wiggling around like crazy...if you saw it you know...I've got my work cut out for me.



A picture of my sweet fam.

My Celebrity Self

So there's this site you can upload your picture to and it scans your facial features to figure out which celebrities you resemble. Apparently I look like many people (celebrities) I have never even heard of. Others like Ashlee Simpson worry me a little...is this pre or post all the surgeries? And I'll take Mischa, she's pretty. About Mariah, can I have her voice too? You should try this if you need a laugh.

Denver & the Mile High Orchestra

In case you're in need of a good Christmas CD, I highly recommend Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. A couple of years ago when we lived in Charlotte and Allen worked at INSP, they performed at his company Christmas party and we were blown away. We had never heard of them before and eagerly bought the CD that night. Then when we came to Texas starting hearing them again in this area. Allen insists on pulling out the CD the week before Thanksgiving to get us in the mood for Christmas. It's very unlike all the cheesy Christmas music that's out there. Here, have a listen...

Denver

Poopsmith...tagged...all this blasted tomfoolery

Aaron tagged me. I know exactly how it went down, too.

After finishing his post (which, by the way, is the sum total of all the words I've ever heard Aaron speak), Aaron thought, "Hmm...who should I tag?" After coming up with a couple of names, he fell out of his chair laughing.

"Honey!" yelled Aaron. "Come here for a sec!"

"Yes," Heather responded, "what is it?"

Laughing hysterically, Aaron managed to get the sentence out between laughing and trying to breathe. "I...just thought...to myself...what if I...(this is too good)...tagged Allen?" Another outburst followed. At first, it was just a faint smirk and a chuckle that emerged from Heather's mouth. Then, it was laughter. In a matter of seconds, she was doubled over at the very prospect, joining her husband on the floor rolling around and laughing at the inconvenience and utter disruption of the schedule that this will cause Allen Duty. They are still laughing to this very minute.

So, here are five things that you may not know about Allen Duty:

1. Gatorade and Nike athletic wear are possibly my two favorite things in the world. I love Gatorade and Nike stuff so much that, subconsciously, I may play sports so that I can wear Nike stuff and drink Gatorade before, during, and after my athletic endeavors. I have long believed that these companies (though Nike does this more often than Gatorade) need an "everyman" to be in their ads and that I'd be a great choice.

If any of you ever meet any executives from these companies, I'd appreciate you dropping in a good word.

2. From November to February, I nearly enter a state of depression if the weather gets over 50 degrees. You may think to yourself, "Allen, you live in Texas. Not only is it not that cold here, but the weather is terribly inconsistent at best." All I want for Christmas each year is consistently cold weather for three months and a few snow days. This desire is so great that I consider moving every year, brought back to reality only by my love for Living Hope, the nearness of our families, and the sheer hassle of relocating. The weather was probably my favorite part of living in North Carolina.

3. I absolutely, positively cannot stand pooping. Whenever I have to poop at home, I make sure that Kendra is nowhere near the bathroom and warn her not to come near the bathroom for the next 4-6 hours. It's not that I take really smelly poops, it's just that I think it's such a vile activity I don't even want my beautiful wife near it. There is nothing more embarrassing to me than pooping in a public place and having one other person enter the bathroom. I don't mind doing it if no one is in there or if there are 20 people in there, but there's nothing worse than pooping in a small bathroom and having one person come in there. Just thinking about it is making my stomach turn.

4. Home improvement projects are more fun to me than going to Six Flags. I would rather install a new ceiling fixture, paint the house, or build a new shelving system than do anything recreationally. Even though it stresses me out sometimes, I love it. If I had the time and I thought I could actually make some money doing it, I'd probably do that stuff for little old ladies and other people who don't like doing those things. Though I love the finished product, I love the process at least as much - especially if it involves using my cool power tools.

5. I'm a good student. By that, I don't mean that I make good grades. In fact, I barely eeked out a 3.0 in college. Good grades require LOTS of work for me, which is definitely not the case with my wife, Butch, or Aaron. Butch once took 20 hours one semester in seminary (that's master's school, people) and Aaron hardly ever took notes in undergrad. I'd get about a 17 if I tried that.

What I mean is that you can teach me to do just about anything in a relatively short amount of time. I'm willing to learn from you if you're willing to be patient with me, and I like learning new things.

So there you go - five new things about me, A.D. And, in typical Allen Duty fashion, I will not be tagging anyone. It was all I could do to log on to this dumb thing to post these answers.

I've been tagged!

I have been TAGGED! i found this random picture on my computer and since it kinda has something to do with this, here it is. Oh, and what you've all been waiting for... here are five things that you may not know about me...

1. This will probably surprise a few, especially friends from home, but I actually like to watch sports. Especially college football and basketball. The reason this is surprising is because even though I grew up watching football (like literally on the sidelines because I was a cheerleader from 5th grade up), I never once knew who was doing what and why. I didn't know what a down was, all I knew was to cheer "First and 10, do it again!" when they told me to.

Ryan Shipley just admitted to me the other day that when I came with them to the Aggie football games, he and Jon Gilbert were like, "WHY did she even come?" It was usually me, Allen, Ryan and Jon and the whole time I was griping because it was hot and asking Allen, "What just happened?"

So, after me and Allen got married, he finally taught me the rules of the game and now I totally enjoy it! I even did picks during the last two seasons of March Madness and wupped Allen, Jon and Ryan! So...go me!

2. I, like most women, HATE snakes! But with me it's more like a constant fear. They are in my nightmares at least a few times a week, sometimes they are biting and eating me (usually), sometimes they are my friend, sometimes they are animated, just depends on the dream... or nightmare. I really want an herb garden but all I can think about is that I'm going to be digging around and a snake is going to get me.

This one time in Charlotte it was raining outside and I was waiting for a package to come and thought I heard something, so I ran outside and down our front steps, peered around the corner just to make sure I wasn't hearing things and then headed back inside. As I was going back up the steps, I saw a black hose on the side of the house and then noticed that it was wrapped all the way along the front door. Hmm, that's weird, I thought... I never knew we had a black hose. Well, as soon as I realized it wasn't a black hose at all, I was right there next to it and leaping over it to get inside. I don't even know how I had the courage to do it. I slammed the door, locked it up tight, ran to our bedroom, shut and locked the door, jumped on the bed and bawled my eyes out. Then, I thought of ways for the next hour that he might have gotten in the house. I called Allen and the way I was crying he thought the snake had bit me. All that to say, snakes are my worst enemy.

3. Growing up I used to think I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was actually pretty good. My senior year of high school I entered a contest to design your own prom dress in TEEN magazine and WON! They featured me in their magazine and even made my dress for me and I wore it to prom. Looking back it wasn't the most modest dress... So what happened to my designer aspirations? Texas A&M.

4. I am very cheap. I wasn't always this way, but being married to Allen Duty will do that to you. I clip coupons, watch the sales ads and even keep a price book to keep track of sales and which places mark which things the cheapest and when. I buy in bulk when the price is right. Since I have the time to do research it, why not be a good steward of our money?

5. I don't wash my hair everyday. As a matter of fact, I don't even wash my hair every other day sometimes. The fact of the matter is, I could blame it on Taylor, but I really haven't since I got to college. Sometimes my hair even looks better on the second day. For those with long hair especially... I totally recommend my dry shampoo method, which is baby powder. Just sprinkle a little (I got this tip from my sweet sis) and voila! No more oil! At least it works for my hair...and makes my life much easier now that I do have Taylor to tend to.

I hope you enjoyed my five. Now that you know 5 new things about me, go ahead. Share your five. I'm not sure who all has been tagged, so this might be a duplicate, but I tag Lindsey, Rachel, D.O., Lauren, and Ana.