Living the Good Life

Some January Cuteness

2012-02-02T13:25:00.003-06:00

First of all, I can't believe that I don't have one single picture for this post. How did that happen? His face is way too cute to not have a million pictures of!!! Oh, well. Such is life. Here are some adorable things Ian is up to these days . . .

Ian can count to six. Well, sort of. He says, "One, two, three, four, SIX!!!" Every once in a while, the five gets in there, but it's MIA for the most part. I love it!
Someone is getting excited about his upcoming birthday party! We've been talking about it and he just smiles and smiles when we bring it up. When asked how old he'll be, he sometimes says "two", but mostly he just holds up his hand full of five fingers. We haven't quite figured out how to just hold up two fingers! Can you believe he'll be TWO this month??? I sure can't!
Ian has gone tee-tee on the potty THREE times!!! And even more amazing is that he has been the one to initiate it every time! "Mama, bathroom! Potty." Wow! It's an exciting, and little bit scary, thing to think about doing real potty training!
Ian has the sweetest little manners. I really don't have any clue as to how they've stuck so well. He says, "Thank you so much!!!" all the time, but lately he's also started saying, "No, thank you so much." Where does he come up with it? He has also started saying, "Pretty please." Not even sure where he heard that one because I am 100% confident that no one in this house has ever said that to him!
Ian's favorite toys these days are his lawnmower, his balls, his stick horse, his Hot Wheel cars, his barn and his stuffed bears. He also like just about anything in Livvy's room.
Speaking of Ian in Livvy's room, he figured out how to climb in her bed because it's lower to the ground than his is. He climbs in and jumps, jumps, jumps! Her bed jumps better than his bed does too and he LOVES it! Fortunately, he hasn't offered to climb out of it really. Since he figured out how to climb in Livvy's bed, it didn't take him too long to figure out he could climb in his bed. He's only done it a couple of times and hasn't offered to climb out of it either. Oh, brother!
Ian is excited about his baby sister. If he's asked if Mama is going to have a baby, he says, "Baby Sister. Libby." It's precious! He also says, "Ivia" sometimes. He's going to be such a good big brother!

Life is really sweet right now with our adorable boy and it's only going to get sweeter with the addition of our sweet Miss Olivia. These monthly posts of cuteness are about to be ridiculous! Can't wait!

25 Weeks

2012-01-21T00:00:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that I am 25 weeks pregnant! Wow. It's pretty surreal. I intended to take pictures at 24 weeks, but that milestone was the day I went to pick up my mom for her visit and as I mentioned, SOMEONE pushed us out the door early!

In my last pregnancy update, I mentioned that little Miss Olivia was pretty calm about moving around in my tummy. Well, no more!!! That girl moves ALL OVER and ALL THE TIME now!!! It really cracks me up. She is a mover and a shaker in there. Since I LOVE feeling her move, it really is such a joy.

The only thing I've been craving these days are muffins. Oh, muffins, you're my fave! Everyone in the house is pretty happy about this craving. Other than that, there really aren't any other cravings. There also isn't much of anything that I feel opposed to as well.

I have a lot of energy these days and I am loving that. I have SO much to get done during this high energy phase, so I'm trucking right along and working hard to check things off my list. I'm really enjoying nesting for my sweet girl and getting her place settled in our home. There will be pictures of my nesting for her soon! Until then, here is a my 25 week belly . . .

A Visit from Mam

2012-01-19T15:21:00.003-06:00

Not that you can tell by the lack of posts on the blog, but we've been having FUN this month! We've also been busy. Mam came to visit!!!

Ian was so very excited for Mam to come that the day we went to pick her up, he forced us out the door 30 minutes before we needed to leave. Isn't that adorable? Since we were so early, I let him "drive" the car while I got it cleaned out and ready to go. Fortunately, it took all of our 30 extra minutes and Ian was a happy boy during the wait. He slept all the way to Birmingham and then happily squeaked in his squeaky shoes all through the airport as we headed to "find Mam!" What a happy little boy he was when we finally found her!

Ian was sure to keep Mam in his view her entire trip. She taught him fun new songs and played fun games . . . Mam is just FUN! The only thing that Mam did that Ian disapproved of was helping me in Livvy's nursery. Ian enjoyed us working on the nursery as long as he was allowed to "help" and play in the room with us, but as soon as he was asked to "help" Daddy in the other room, he was pretty bummed. We got SO much done in the nursery though! Can't wait to get pictures of that up for all to see!

It was a WONDERFUL visit with my mom . . . it always is! I wish so much that we could see each other more. I miss her and I wish that Ian could be with her more. Here are some cute pictures of them together . . . Mam's first visit to Ian's room since he was a newborn! What a treasure!

Praying

2012-01-06T19:55:00.002-06:00

It's definitely true that your children teach you more about God than you ever knew they could. I've seen this all throughout Ian's little life, but lately the lesson has been pretty sweet. Ian loves to pray. LOVES to pray! He asks for us to pray really often. When we're driving down the road. When we're rocking before naps and bedtime. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to "hold you". When we're just going about our day. We'll pray for him, we'll pray for our family and friends, we'll pray for just about anything that we might have on our minds, and usually when we're done, he'll ask to pray again. We'll ask Ian what he wants to pray about and he always has a list of things to pray for too. He prays for his family a lot. He prays for his friends a lot. He prays for our church a lot. This week, he's been so thankful that he got to go to school and play in the hall that he's prayed for that a lot! I love his praying heart and I pray his heart will always cry out to God in prayer all through the day and in all situations. Keep praying, sweet boy! Your God will never leave you or forsake you and He will answer you in Mighty ways!

Fabrics for Livvy's Room

2012-01-05T13:25:00.002-06:00

I am having SO much fun sewing for Little Miss Olivia's nursery! My friend Leigh rightly named the theme of the nursery as "Garden of Eden" . . . for Olivia Eden. There are lots of bright colors, flowers, birds, whimsy and fun. It's a unique nursery for a little girl without a whole lot of pink, but it's going to be precious and something that I think will grow with her. All of the ideas are coming together . . . a ruffled and quilted dust ruffle and curtains, cute accessories and my favorite thing is going to be the olive tree that my friend Susan is painting on one of the walls. The sketch she drew me as a preview is to die for!!! I don't have pictures of any of the sewing yet, but here are the fabrics that I'm using to make our own little Garden of Eden!

Some December Cuteness

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun in December! With the holidays, Vernon was home a lot and that makes for a super good time at home. We LOVE it when Daddy is home!!! Before we get to some cute pictures, here are a few fun things Ian has been up to that don't have pictures to accompany them . . .

When Ian and I walked down to get the mail one day after Christmas, Ian wanted to push his new lawnmower to the mailbox. He also wanted to take the long way home, pushing his lawnmower all the way. His lawnmower came with a toy gas can and it has a place to sit on the lawnmower as you push it. Well, we made several stops for Ian to "gas up" his lawnmower along our journey. It apparently runs out of gas often, but our gas can had an endless supply and Ian's lawnmower was able to make it all the way home! I love that boy.
Ian locked himself in Olivia's nursery one day while his Mimi and Poppy were keeping him. That was big fun for everyone.
Ian is cutting some molars right now and is not very amused with it. Can't say I blame him! Poor baby!
I bought Ian some squeaker shoes quite some time ago and they finally fit! They are adorable!!! I can't really handle him wearing them in the house for long, but they're great for when we're playing outside. Ian LOVES them too! The first day he wore them, he took LOTS of little bitty steps so they would squeak all the more!
We've always known that Ian likes his schedule and is a creature of habit, but the holidays have made that even more evident! He was out of school for 2 weeks and he MISSED IT! A lot of his friends and his Bible class teacher were traveling over the holidays . . . he MISSED THEM! He's been crying for Aislinn and Karlie for days now. It's been FUN to have Daddy home so much, but we're DEVASTATED when Daddy goes back to work these days. Our boy is ready for his life to get back to "normal"!

Now on to the pictures . . . Ian LOVES eating cereal with his Daddy. That wouldn't be so weird except that Vernon eats just plain old bran flakes. Aren't they precious together?

We celebrated Ella Harding's 2nd birthday at Breakfast with Santa party. We had a great time! And, guess who was okay to talk to Santa?!?!?! Mind you, he wasn't EXCITED to see Santa and mostly just waved at him, but we're making progress!

Ian was playing with this bag and wearing it on his head. He walked around the house for a good bit with it completely over his head and had a blast doing it. It was HYSTERICAL!!!

Ian has always been big into wearing our shoes. We finally got some pictures of him trying to wear Vernon's boots though. Hooray!!! SO CUTE!!! He has major trouble walking in them, but he looks precious trying.

One of the MANY games we all played while Daddy was home so much was riding our stick horses. Ian loves his stick horses and loves it even more when we can all ride them around the house. What a priceless treasure!

Our Christmas Day

2011-12-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas morning with an almost 2 year old is SO MUCH FUN!!! Santa brought Ian a Little Tikes truck and Ian is just over the moon about it! He lit up from ear to ear when he saw it and we almost didn't get him out of it in order to go to church. I think our little boy is a big fan of Christmas!

Santa thought it would be fun to have all of his stocking stuff wrapped since he likes opening gifts, but he was over it by Christmas morning. He wouldn't open his stocking gifts until that evening, but he was more than excited to do it by then. Maybe Santa will have a better plan next year!

When we were finally able to get Ian dressed and ready for church, he decided he needed to wear his Daddy's grass cutting shoes to push his lawnmower around the house. ADORABLE!!!

Loved Christmas with our boy! Cannot wait to spend next Christmas with BOTH of our sweet children!!!

Our Christmas Eve

2011-12-29T14:55:00.004-06:00

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! We opened presents with Vernon's family on Christmas Eve . . . what a haul! Ian made out like a bandit!!! He loved every minute of it too. The first gift he opened was a football from Avery. He came really close to not opening any other presents. Our boy LOVES balls! He finally moved on to the next present . . . a stuffed giraffe from Gabe and Jill. We almost didn't have any other presents opened once more because oh, is he in love with that thing! He now sleeps with it every night. Each gift just brought so much joy and delight. He loves the elephant bank from Mimi and Poppy and has thoroughly enjoyed filling it up with coins. He got of wagon full of animals from Mam and GranPappy . . . once again, the giraffe was his favorite! In fact, it took him forever to put it down to finish opening the rest of his presents! Books, dinosaurs and some reindeer slippers were all a big hit, but the hit of the night was his lawnmower. He has ran that thing through our house more than I knew was possible! It's pretty cute.

What a holly, jolly Christmas!!!

This was my gift . . . love, love, LOVE it!!! I immediately hung it the day after Christmas and then rearranged the living room. Sometimes just adding one new thing inspires change for the rest of it!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

Blessings, peace, joy and love to you and yours this Christmas!

A Winter Wonderland!

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-06:00

One of our neighbors has a FABULOUS backyard of lights on display every Christmas. We were finally able to take Ian to see them and he LOVED them!!! The first thing he saw was a blow-up RV with Santa peeking in and out of the door . . . Ian said, "Hello, Santa! Bye bye, Santa!" It was a big hit! There was also a light fixture with Santa driving a golf cart. Ian kept gently tugging at the Santa saying, "Out! Out!" He was desperately wanting Santa to get off of there so HE could drive the golf cart! Hilarious!!! Thank you, Cathy and Andrew, for your wonderful gift to all of the neighborhood kids every year! It is loved dearly!

20 Weeks

2011-12-20T13:52:00.002-06:00

Oh, my! I'm officially half way done with this pregnancy! Where has the time gone? I guess I'm actually a little bit OVER HALF way done since I was 20 weeks on Friday. Boy, do I have a lot to do in the next several weeks!

I've been feeling so great during this second trimester! I remember very well now why I loved being pregnant with Ian and that is pure joy! During my rough first trimester, I had a hard time remembering, but now the memories are all back and I'm truly loving every minute of being pregnant with my little Olivia.

The few cravings I had a few weeks ago seem to be gone for the most part and haven't seemed to be replaced by new ones. I'm still feeling pretty sensitive to smells though and that has caused me to sink to new lows in motherhood . . . I threw up on Ian the other day when I was changing his dirty diaper! Ugh. Thank goodness he was sweet about it and didn't fuss, cry or try to run away!

Little Miss Olivia definitely had a growth spurt last week. She's kicking more and more, but she's still not a kicker like Ian was. Some days I'll go several hours without feeling her and right when I start to feel a little bit nervous about it, she gives me a quick little tap to let me know she's wiggling and growing, but napping. She's not nearly as demanding about when she eats like Ian was either . . . he was VERY demanding! Lots of little differences and things to enjoy and ponder! I cannot wait to meet this sweet little girl that is already giving me so much joy and making my life so much more fun!!!

Ian's Second Encounter with Santa

2011-12-14T14:10:00.007-06:00

Here are the pictures from Ian's visit with Santa at Vernon's work. Sweet, sweet boy! He chews on his fingers when he's just not sure about something... Santa in person is just not his thing!

Ian Meets Santa

2011-12-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

We didn't ever take Ian to meet Santa last year, but we knew that this year would be the year to make the introduction. We were so excited to take him to meet Santa at our neighborhood Christmas party. Ian was acting excited as well. When we asked him which stocking he wanted, he INSTANTLY grabbed the one with Santa on it and just hugged it and carried it around for a while. We have a plastic Santa figurine that Ian loves and hugs often. Ian is such a social little boy . . . not only does he love all of the people that he knows in his life, he happily speaks to cashiers at stores and a lot of other people along those lines. All things were pointing to a happy introduction. I mean look at Santa . . . he definitely looks jolly and like someone Ian would want to say hello to.

Boy, were we wrong!!! Ian was happy standing in line as we were admiring Santa from a distance. He was fine as we talked about sitting with Santa. The second that Vernon tried to actually give Ian to Santa, screams and kicking began . . .

We had felt so confident that Ian would enjoy this outing that we didn't even bring his baby and paci with us. What were we thinking??? He immediately wanted both of those things and his mama. I held him and tried to sit by Santa with Ian. He only calmed down a little, so Vernon snapped two very quick pictures and we were done.

We immediately ran home and grabbed his baby and paci . . . oh, the comfort they bring! And wouldn't you know that we had plans to take Ian to see Santa at Vernon's work on the very next day! Oh, my! I'm curious to see how those pictures turned out, but I'm sure they won't be much better. He didn't scream or cry, but he definitely tried to run away. And that was after a LONG time of allowing him to play NEAR Santa with another little girl, and continuous talk of Santa having cookies. Maybe he'll like him better next year!

Sugar and Spice

2011-12-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

To help celebrate our Livvy, I made a basket of sugar cookies to take to church on Wednesday night for my ladies class. Because you know, sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of! I love celebrating my girl! She's pretty sweet already.

Speaking of Family Pictures

2011-12-04T00:00:00.000-06:00

Posting our Barnett Family pictures yesterday reminded me that I never posted our Moudy Family pictures from July. Yes, JULY! Can I blame the first trimester of pregnancy for this mishap? I'm thinking I will. Anyway, we now know that TWO sweet little girl's faces are missing from this picture. Cannot wait until we can take one with ALL of us present! Even though we have two girls missing, I love these treasures as well. Family pictures are priceless.

Barnett Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-03T00:00:00.001-06:00

We had our Barnett Family pictures made in November. My how things change in a year and half! And next year, we'll have Olivia's sweet face gracing the pictures. Looking forward to that! I'm so glad we have these treasures.

Some November Cuteness

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

Ian seems to be much more of a big boy this month! It's heartbreaking and exhilarating all at the same time. Here's some of the things he's up to this month . . .

Ian has great manners. He says, "Please" and "Thank you" almost all the time. He says, "Bless you" when we sneeze or cough. Occasionally, I get an "Excuse me" and "I'm sorry" too. Such a sweet boy!
When Ian wakes up in the mornings, he's pretty much stopped crying to get us to come get him. Now he talks to us a little bit, whines a little if we don't come quickly enough, and once we're there, he says, "HI!" I'm liking this morning routine MUCH better!!!
One of the funniest (and weirdest) things Ian does these days is ask me to take off my glasses and then he puts his blankie on my head and then snuggles with his blankie on my head. I have no clue how this idea came into his little head!
Ian had his flu shot this month. He cried, of course, but once he got a bandaid, he said to the nurse, "Bye, bye! Thank you!"
Speaking of saying "thank you", a lot of the time he'll say, "OOOOOH, THANK YOU!!!!" He's just so grateful!
Ian is so attached to his blankie, which he calls "Baby". He has two and I trade them out every Sunday. One week I had the clean one where it was visible in the laundry room BEFORE Sunday. Ian saw it and asked for it. I tried to redirect him to his other "baby", but he grabbed my legs, looked up at me, and in the MOST pitiful voice I have EVER heard, he said, "Please, PLEASE, Mama!" Who can resist that???
We're finished with bottles. I'm not really sure how it happened, but one night we didn't have one and he was fine with it so we've never had another one. It's nice to have one more thing that Olivia will use that is no longer Ian's!
One morning I got Ian out of bed and asked him several questions . . . "Did you have a good night-night?" Ian - "Yes." Mama - "Did you have sweet dreams?" Ian - "Yes." Mama - "What did you have sweet dreams about?" Ian, with a twinkle in his eye and huge smile on his face - "Cookies and treats." I would say those are definitely some sweet dreams!!! Another morning he told me he had sweet dreams about Mama and Daddy . . . precious boy!
I was buying some lotion at Bath and Body Works one day when Ian was running errands with me. I was trying to decide if I liked one scent, so I tried it on and let Ian smell my hand. His response was, "Smells GOOOOOOOOD!!!" I bought it. :)
We took Ian with us to our appointment where we found out we are having Olivia. I told Ian on the way that we were going to see Dr. Lawhon. The rest of the morning (and some the next day) he said, "I see you, Hawn! I see you, Hawn!" He loved Dr. Lawhon!
Ian is definitely over his separation anxiety. He gladly stays in Bible class and says bye-bye as we walk out the door. He's better with being left at school as well, but that is because Karlie is there. He LOVES Karlie! She's definitely one of his best girls.
Even though Ian's separation anxiety is getting better, he's finding another little lovie to get a little attached to. I've always kept a couple of stuffed bears in his bed just because they're cute. Well, one of them is becoming a favorite and is often requested to help him go to sleep or calm down. It's pretty cute!
Another favorite of Ian's these days is the Easter bunny that Mimi and Poppy gave him. It bounces and sings, "Here comes Peter Cottontail . . ." Ian calls him, "Tail" and plays with often. He hugs him, jumps with him, tries to give him food when his singing mouth moves, and often says, "Night-night, Tail!" It is one of the cutest things EVER!!!
I need to start seriously thinking about potty training. Ian is getting more consistently accurate about letting us know when he has done anything that requires a clean diaper. He's showing a few signs that he's getting ready, so I need to get ready quick! I bought a potty for him to start sitting on and thinking about. So far, all he does is push it around the house and take it apart to make it sing to him. Funny boy!!! We'll see how it goes!

We had Barnett Family pictures taken this month. Those will come up in another post, but here are a couple of my boys in their picture outfits . . . they are CUTE!!!

A Rose By Any Other Name

2011-11-29T00:00:00.000-06:00

Olivia Eden just couldn't be anyone other than Olivia Eden. When I wrote about Ian's name, I mentioned that Vernon and I had picked out names for a boy and a girl when we first started trying to have children, which was a very long time before we ever actually had our children. Both names were names we liked and didn't think much about the meaning of either of them. But both names have meanings that have come to mean the world to us.

First of all, we chose Olivia because I have loved this name since I was fresh out of college. I've wanted a daughter named Olivia, that I could call Livvy if I wanted to, for as long as I can remember. Vernon was sweet to agree to Olivia and he will only call her Livvy. That's a daddy's heart . . . to call his girl by a precious nickname. I, on the other hand, feel confident that I will go back and forth on what I call her. We chose Eden as a name that is a spin-off to Vernon's mother's first name, Edith. Those are the reasons we chose the names Olivia Eden, but the Lord gave us many more reasons to have no desire to change her name and feel confident that she is our girl.

In the same post I wrote about Ian's name, I mentioned the word we had received about having Ian and the dream that then followed letting us know that Ian was in our future. Just a few short weeks after my dream about Ian, I had another dream about Ian, but in this dream, he was with a girl. A girl he called, "Ivvy". And, then the Lord sent another man with another word and a vision of Vernon walking with a child pulling on each hand. Just as we began praying for our Ian, we've been praying for our Livvy since that time. And now she's here! God is so incredibly gracious!!! He is generous, faithful and loving. He is more than I can put into words.

In our praying for Olivia Eden, we learned a lot about her name. Olivia means "Olive Tree" and Eden means "Delightful". The meaning of Eden, "Delightful", touched an obvious special place to me. The Lord gave us the desire for Livvy in our hearts long ago and he has delighted in bringing that desire to life. He delights in Olivia Eden and she is a delightful blessing to us. "Delightful" made sense to me and is precious to me.

"Olive Tree" was harder for me to find special meaning in, but the Lord gave it. When thinking through so many of the promises that came to pass in scripture, so many of them were shown through the sign of an olive branch. The olive tree was a source of life and promise in the Bible. Our "Olive Tree" is the same. Another amazing fact about olive trees that my mother found out is that olive trees grow best in infertile soil. I can't even tell you how much I love that! Especially with this pregnancy that has been more difficult, that required progesterone, that while many thought I was fertile, I knew better. We've been blessed with two miracle babies and this one is thriving in her infertile soil, just as olive trees do.

A rose by any other name just wouldn't be as sweet, and our daughter by any other name just wouldn't be our daughter. Or nearly as sweet.

Some Things I Forgot

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-06:00

I'm pregnant. I forget things these days. A lot of things. So, here are some of the things I forgot to mention in my "Some October Cuteness" post . . .

Here is our bedtime routine these days . . . all three of us sit on the couch while Ian drinks his milk. Vernon reads us a Bible story and Ian sits in my lap, trying hard to listen, but usually commenting on anything but his story. When we're done with the story and milk, I ask him for night-night kisses. He whispers, with a huge smile on his face, "No." We laugh and I go in for kisses. He whispers again, "No." and dives toward me for me to smother his face in kisses. When we're done with kisses, Vernon picks him up to take him in to "rock-rock" and pray. Ian looks at me and says, "In there." letting me know he wants me to come with them. I come and the very second we all get in his room, he waves at me, says, "Bye, bye! Bathroom." I'm not sure why he wants me to go to the bathroom when I leave, but he does. I don't comply. Ian and his Daddy rock-rock and pray. Some nights he'll let Vernon pray all he wants, but a lot of the time he ends the prayer with an "Amen!" of his own. He's ready for night-night, but sometimes will talk to himself for quite some time before falling asleep. It cracks me up EVERY night!
We're big into the "I hold it." phase of life. And bandaids. And asking for "treats".
One of Ian's most favorite toys right now is his stick horse that is just his size. He's always like it, but he rides it A LOT now and says, "Giddy up!" as he goes along. It's adorable.
Ian has decided he can walk down our stairs to the garage all by himself. He's a big boy, you know!
Ian has decided that all balls are "baseballs". I'm not exactly sure why, but they are. And he LOVES playing "baseball!" His catching and throwing skills are getting pretty impressive too.

I also forgot that these cute pictures of Ian and Joe were on my camera from October. Joe dropped by for a visit on Halloween. He brought Ian an Alabama jersey and me a DELICIOUS pound cake. Joe and Ian had some pretty serious play time . . . it was pretty cute! When Joe needed to leave Ian just burst into wailing sobs. Needless to say, Joe stayed a while longer. Someone knows how to melt his uncle's heart!

I would like to introduce you to . . .

2011-11-25T19:36:00.000-06:00

Our daughter . . .

Olivia Eden

We found out on November 23rd about 11:30 in the morning, that we are adding a sweet baby girl to our family this coming Spring. We are over the moon!!! What a way to start our Thanksgiving weekend!

Miss Olivia is quite adorable. (You're shocked I think so, right?) She was happily chewing on her hands most of the ultrasound and she was happy to wiggle for us and show us everything about herself. Ian was actually able to be at the appointment with us and while he hasn't understood anything about us having a baby, he was mesmerized by the ultrasound. He kept pointing and saying, "Baby!". She was cooperative enough that Ian could tell he was seeing a baby! And, Ian and Livvy are already so in sync with each other that immediately after Ian yawned, so did she. They are going to have such a blast together and be the best little friends!

I drank a little bit of juice before the appointment to help her be awake. When I say a little, I literally mean about 4 ounces. That's it. Olivia was awake, but not moving a ton for the first part of the appointment and then all of a sudden, she started doing somersaults! It was AMAZING! And hilarious. She had definitely received the juice!

Here are pictures of our Olivia Eden . . . I'm so in love with her I can hardly stand it! She is such an answer to prayer. More about her name in another post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

Blessings to you all in the name of Jesus Christ on this beautiful day of Thanksgiving! I pray that your day is full of wonderful things . . . family, friends, joy and peace . . . things to be truly thankful for.

Pink or Blue???

2011-11-23T00:00:00.001-06:00

It's time to find out what kind of baby we're having!!! What's your vote? Pink or Blue? Let the voting commence.

16 Weeks

2011-11-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how quickly the last month has gone compared to the first couple of months on my pregnancy. I have felt so much better over the last month! It's been great to resume a somewhat normal life and somewhat normal state of feeling good. I'm still tired, but I'm pregnant and have an almost 2 year old running around at home, so it's to be expected.

Baby is definitely growing and making her presence known. My tummy is getting tighter and I think I'm pretty sure that I've felt the baby move. It hasn't been as dramatic of movement as Ian's first movements were, so I'm a little unsure about it, but I feel more confident that it's the baby with every new movement. It's pretty exciting and I can't wait to be 100% confident about it . . . that's my favorite part of being pregnant!

Other fun tidbits about this pregnancy are some mild cravings. This baby likes guacamole, waffles and bacon. Not all together though! I like all of these things when I'm not pregnant, but this baby tends to like these things a little bit more than usual, but nothing outrageous. Thank goodness for Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs and heart healthy waffle mix! It makes these likes a little less detrimental to enjoy. This baby also has my sweet tooth in full force these days. Oh, my! So far I've lost weight with this pregnancy, but I'm guessing that since there has been Halloween candy in my house and I've started liking food again, that loss will be a definite gain at my next appointment! Here's to hoping I don't have to throw out the rest of the Halloween candy! :-)

Here's the belly at 16 weeks . . .

Our 8th Anniversary

2011-11-21T00:00:00.002-06:00

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. Eight years. Eight WONDERFUL years! I love being married to Vernon. He's the best thing to have ever happened to me and I thank God for him all the time. Life couldn't be better than it is with Vernon. I love my man! More than I can ever say.

We celebrated our anniversary with a quick trip to the beach on Friday night. It was my first night away from Ian and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself for doing as well as I did! My sweet Vernon was prepared to help me stop crying with M&M's in tow for our drive down to the beach, but I didn't even need them . . . not even a hint of a tear! But, have I mentioned that I love that man??? He knows me well and always makes life better!

We checked in to the Perdido Beach Resort and headed out for a nice seafood dinner. We were able to sleep in a little bit, sit on the balcony and watch the waves, and enjoy a relaxing morning. We had a yummy breakfast and then headed to the outlet malls for a little bit of shopping on our way home. It was a wonderful night and day . . . a wonderful anniversary!

Of course, Ian had a great time too. He loved staying with Miss Sally and having full reign of the house. We brought him back a toy broom - just his size - and he was on cloud nine! A win-win situation for us all!

Happy Anniversary, Love! I can't wait to celebrate AT LEAST 50 more of these!

Baby Showers Galore!

2011-11-19T00:00:00.000-06:00

On the 12th, I had a fun day full of baby showers for some women I love very much. The showers ended up being at about the same time . . . one in Montgomery and one in Birmingham . . . so I was only able to be at each shower for about 30 minutes, but it was 30 wonderful minutes at each! It thrills my heart to no end that both of these lovelies are having babies. God is so, so, SO good!!!

Anne is going to have a sweet baby boy in December. I can't wait to hold him and tell him he's precious. I wasn't able to get a picture with Anne, but believe me when I tell you she's a beautiful mama-to-be! Her party was amazing and I truly enjoyed celebrating this joy with her for a little bit.

Cassie is going to have a sweet baby boy in February. Oh, how I wish I could hold him and tell him he's precious sometime soon, but they live in Houston now. It's probably going to be a while before I get to see that sweetie-pie! In fact, the last time I saw Cassie was when she came to the hospital after Ian was born, which was just a few days before she moved. I miss her. It was truly a joy to celebrate this wonderful day with her for a little bit. It was fun to ride up to Birmingham with Leigh for the great party as well.

What a wonderful day of celebrating life and the goodness of God for breathing it into these two amazing friends! I'll never get over how good He is.

Cassidy Elyse

2011-11-17T00:00:00.000-06:00

On the 11th, our little family traveled to Atlanta to see sweet Miss Cassidy on the day she was born. I love that we met this beautiful girl on the day she was born and that I was able to share this day with Garyn and Zach. It's just too much fun that we live close enough to do these things! Cassidy is precious . . . she has curly eye lashes already, she is somehow chubby and dainty all at the same time, and she is a laid back, easy going little girl. Oh, I can't wait to love on her some more! Campbell left the hospital before we got there to get pictures of their sweet family of four, but we got pictures of Mommy, Daddy and Cassidy together. They're adorable.

He Just Cracks Me Up!

2011-11-15T09:16:00.000-06:00

Vernon got Ian out of bed several mornings ago and got him all settled on the couch to watch Barney. I came in to kiss my boys good morning and this is how I found Ian . . .

Apparently his first request for the morning was to wear his hat. I love him!

You Can't Believe Everything You Read

2011-11-13T21:04:00.003-06:00

The tag on Ian's halloween costume said that I could wash it, so I did . . .

Clearly, you can't believe everything you read! I'm still finding stuffing in my washer!

Some October Cuteness

2011-11-06T20:31:00.003-06:00

We had a fun October! We went on our neighborhood hayride for the first time . . . I have to admit that it was just okay. It was crowded, we made several stops for candy that took forever and it was just too much sitting still for our little boy who just wanted to play outside. I think we'll pass on it until Ian can verbalize a desire to do it in the future. He looked cute in his Davy Crockett hat along the way though!

So far, Ian has not been a huge fan of corn. Corn ON THE COB, however is a different story we learned! He ate and ate, and wanted to eat some more! See the pure joy on his face? Adorable!

Here are some other things Ian has been up to this month:

He can now say ALL of his friends names. There are some hard names too! Names like Aislinn, Teagan, Addison, Zachary, Brooklynn, Ella Harding and John Colton. Yes, he says the double names! Of course, he doesn't leave out his other friends and says Ty, Karlie and Charlie too. And, of course he talks about his cousins Avery and Anna Kate. I'm sure there are others that he says, but these are the ones that come to mind right now. He loves his friends and talks about them a lot!
When we arrive at church or to an "adventure" in town, Ian kicks and bounces and says, "Excited! Excited!" It's pretty cute!
Ian's favorite books to read right now are An Adventure for Ian by his Mam; Pooh, Where Are You?; Goodnight Moon; I Want to Go! The University of Alabama Edition; 101 First Words; Where is Baby's Belly Button; Bedtime and 10 Little Ladybugs. We read all of these several times every day. Ian is pretty hard on his books . . . all of these listed, with the exception of An Adventure for Ian, have been torn or badly bent. I guess that's how we know they are well loved! When we get down our "special" books (that REALLY don't need to be torn), we read You Are My I Love You. It's another favorite.
Ian has decided he likes cheese all of a sudden. I'm super thankful! We also discovered he likes to eat hummus with his Daddy this month. I'll take all the variety we can get!
We moved all of Ian's toys out of the play room to get ready for the baby and into his room. It's been a little bit of a hard adjustment, but we're slowly getting used to it.
One of Ian's new favorite things to do is sit on my kitchen counter and look out the window for the neighbor's puppy. It's a thrill for him.
Ian has started expressing his opinion about which way he would like for us to go in the car. If we go "the wrong way", he cries a little bit and says, "This way!" He knows which way goes to church and which way goes to Mimi's . . . it's hard to go both ways and I'm sure that is what he would prefer!

Our sweet boy is full of smiles, full of words, and full of adventure! He is pure joy and we love watching him grow every day!

Trick-or-Treat!

2011-11-01T13:37:00.003-05:00

Aislinn and Teagan came over for trick-or-treating last night in our neighborhood. We had such a GREAT time! I do have to say though that we were quite the sight pulling the wagon around the neighborhood, climbing lots of stairs, saying "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you!", grabbing candy, crying because everyone really wanted to walk rather than ride, and snacking on cheese as went from house to house because no one would eat their dinner. It was actually quite hilarious. And exhausting. We worked really hard at making it to all the houses of everyone we go to church with, but it just didn't happen. I was really sad about it, but such is life with trying to trick-or-treat with two almost 2 year olds and one almost 4 year old! We definitely had more fun trick-or-treating with friends than we would have by ourselves . . . friends make everything in life more fun!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hope your day is full of fun and treats!

Fall Fandango

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

We had our Fall Fandango at church on Wednesday night. This year was, by far, the most uninvolved I've ever been in this event! I didn't make chili, a cake or decorate my trunk for trunk-or-treat. I didn't even dress my child in his adorable costume!!! I was doing good to dress him in a pumpkin shirt that day and get us all to church for the fun. It was fun indeed . . . it always is!

I tried to put Ian in the bouncy house and he declined. He wanted to push the toy lawn mower that was available for play instead. He pushed it around FOREVER!!! We took him down the line of trunks for some treats and it only took him one trunk to figure out this was the BEST idea anyone has EVER had!!! He pulled and pulled on us to get us to the next trunks and happily enjoyed a sucker along the way! Ian was also thrilled to see his friends, Aislinn and Teagan. He hugged them and hugged them, and hugged them some more! I think they were worn out by the hugs by the time they were over. The only pictures I got of the night are of some of the hugging . . . sweet, sweet friends!

Muscle Man

2011-10-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ian likes to flex his muscles. He's good at it too! He holds his arms out in front of him, squeezes tight while saying, "Grrrr!" and shakes all over. It's probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen!!! Here's a feeble attempt at showing you our sweet boy flexing his muscles . . . I need to get a video!

12 Weeks

2011-10-23T09:43:00.003-05:00

12 Weeks pregnant. A huge milestone. It's a big milestone for any pregnancy, but for us, it feels like freedom! I no longer have to take my progesterone supplement and that is such a HUGE blessing!

Our journey on the progesterone has been wild. I've worn Sea Bands constantly, been dizzy often, thrown up some, seen the chiropractor weekly, had sitters for Ian every day, slept more than I probably have since I've been married, and been stuck in my house for longer than I have since Ian came home from the NICU. It's been hard, but it has been SO worth it because it has made our baby grow and grow and grow!

Now that I'm off of the progesterone, I have felt MUCH better! I've had a couple of really fun days with my boys and now I'm worn out. Being tired is just a part of pregnancy though. It's just so amazing to feel so much better than I have over the last several weeks! It's also amazing to see how different this pregnancy has been in other ways . . . with Ian, I continued on with my love of Mexican food and shrimp. Not so much with this baby. Don't want either one AT ALL! With this baby, I've wanted pasta. It's my fave these days. Brisket sounds good to me too. There's really not much else that sounds great to me, but there's always a lot that doesn't these days. It's interesting for sure and I'm enjoying seeing all of the differences.

We're definitely starting to see that sweet baby! That's one of my favorite parts of pregnancy. I'm so excited to see this baby grow all the way to 40 weeks . . . so in love already!

It's Time for Pumpkins!

2011-10-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

Since I haven't been feeling well, we don't have many Halloween decorations up in the house . . . it was a hard thing to give up, but the baby won that battle for sure! Our compromise was getting the front porch cute for the neighborhood and our future trick-or-treaters. On a day I was feeling good, we headed to our favorite produce stand in South Montgomery to pick out our pumpkins. I wish my pregnant brain would let me remember the name of where we buy our pumpkins every year, but it's just not coming to me! They have the most beautiful specialty pumpkins and are reasonably priced. It's one of my favorite outings in October!

Ian and I decorated the front porch together. He was a BIG help! He asked about the pumpkins a lot, and would say, "Punkin!" Then he decided that he could pick them up and throw them. That was exciting! "Punkin" quickly turned to "Ball" and we had to work hard on turning them back into "punkins".

This is our Halloween porch this year . . . Ian did a good job, huh? It's a fun Halloween porch!

I tried my hardest to get a super cute picture of Ian holding up a pumpkin, but that never happened. I did get this one though and I'm in love . . . that boy melts my heart!!! (And, I promise I've had his hair cut since this picture. Poor baby couldn't see a thing for quite a while!)

Our Baby is Growing!

2011-10-13T14:21:00.003-05:00

We saw our baby again yesterday! Everything is looking great and right on track. We saw legs and arms, a little bitty bottom and a forming mandible. It was amazing!!! The baby was hanging out with her legs crossed . . . just like Ian. It was so sweet! I just can't believe we're getting to do this again. I was lying in bed the other day and a flash of a million happy memories with Ian flew through my mind and this incredible joy flooded over me as I thought about getting to have all those same kind of memories with this little one. Like seeing this sweet baby for the first time and holding her in my arms for the first time. Joy . . . pure joy!!! I can't wait! It will make all the ickiness of the progesterone supplement more than worth it. Thank you, Lord for the blessing of this sweet bundle of pure joy! I'm more than grateful.

Some September Cuteness

2011-10-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

September has been a crazy month! I have had to take a progesterone supplement with this pregnancy and it has pretty much beat me into the ground!!! The good news is that Sea Bands make life livable! However, with all of that, we haven't had a very exciting month. We're doing good to get Ian to school (with the help of a sweet friend) and have any kind of normalcy. Ian has been the sweetest boy EVER during this rough patch of me being newly pregnant. Here's some of what we've been doing this month . . .

We're watching A LOT of Barney these days!!! He LOVES it and I'm thankful for something that will keep him happy while I'm in my "coma" in the mornings. Ian is sweet to get the blanket that I use, cover me up and say, "Night, night!" before we settle into a couple of hours of Barney.
Ian's vocabulary is through the roof! There are so many new words every day and it blows me away. I think I said that last month too! Some of the words that are the funniest to me are pickles, biscuits, special, outfit, shower, coffee, tickles and broom. Yes, he loves to eat pickles and biscuits, knows he's special (and what episode of Barney sings songs about being special); he knows when Barney is wearing an outfit, he loves to take showers with us, loves to go get coffee with his Daddy on Saturdays, enjoys being tickled and LOVES to push the broom around the house.
Ian likes to chew on his toes. When he's finished, he say, "Yummy toes!" Every mother's dream.
Ian likes the Hot Wheels cars his Bible class teacher gave him for his birthday several months ago. He likes to read now and will bring me plenty of books to "read!" as I'm laying around like a bump on a log. He also likes his Magna Doodle a lot these days. All of these are perfect activities for our current state in life!
Ian has been going on lots of adventures with just him and his Daddy these days. He LOVES it and I think has pretty much decided his Daddy is his best friend. Can't say I blame him!!! We talk about Daddy A LOT during the day!
Ian decided that his Granddaddy's name is now Poppy. Pretty cute, if you ask me! What's even more amazing is that he can clearly say, "puppy", "Pappy" (for GranPappy) and "Poppy".
Ian's separation anxiety is getting a little bit better. He still snuggles and holds on for dear life when we're about to leave him, but the screaming has pretty much stopped. Yay!!!

September is our month to celebrate Poppy's and Uncle Joe's birthdays. This year we went to Miyako's for dinner and it was Ian's first time. He LOVED it!!! He was impressed with the utensil show and immediately showed the chef how he could do the same thing. He was impressed with the fire and would have loved to see it happen more often. Our favorite part of the night though was when the chef threw him a piece of shrimp to catch in his mouth as a joke. It landed in Ian's lap and he immediately picked it up and THREW IT BACK at the chef. HILARIOUS!!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the family with the birthday boys, but I got a couple of Ian enjoying the show.

The other funny thing Ian has been working on this month is jumping. I tried a new pair of shoes on him, which he loved and refused to take off, and then proceeded to climb on top of his box of diapers. Once he was up there, he said, "JUMP!", bent over like he was going to jump off, got hysterical, stepped off and proudly proclaimed that he "JUMP!" We did this over and over and over again for the rest of the evening. It was hysterical!

Ian thought his Daddy needed to wear his hat. Pretty cute, huh?

Another Miracle Day

2011-09-28T08:46:00.002-05:00

We've been more than blessed with another miracle day in our family. On August 27th, we found out that another sweet little baby will be joining our family, making us a family of four. Our hearts are overflowing!!!

The Lord delighted to surprise us again! Granted, we were praying for this baby and hoping for this baby, but the Lord gave us this baby when we weren't expecting her arrival. On the morning of the 27th, I really didn't have a good reason to suspect that I was pregnant. I was going shopping with my friend Leigh though and knew that buying clothes would be a part of our day. I thought that I should probably take a test just to be on the safe and responsible side . . . why buy clothes I won't be able to wear soon? After all, there was the slightest possibility the test would be positive. However, I was so sure that it would be negative that I almost forgot I had taken the test. I had set it to the side to look at later; when I had time. When I finally had time, I burst into laughter at it's positive results. "Really? I'm really pregnant, Lord? You are GOOD!!!"

I immediately told Ian. He didn't understand. He happily agreed to wear his "Big Brother" shirt that I had found several months before on clearance to let his Daddy in on the big news though. (I told you we were hoping!) Vernon had been working on the farm with his brother that morning, so I quickly put together a celebration table to help share the news as well. Vernon walked in the door to a precious little boy, wearing his new shirt, and running to jump in his arms. After he was in Vernon's arms, I asked him if he had noticed Ian's shirt. He looked at it, looked at me with a stunned look across his face, and waited for me to say, "I'm pregnant!" Vernon broke into laughter and praise.

We celebrated all weekend! We had a yummy dinner of Chicken Parmesan, went out for frozen yogurt and praised our God the entire time. Our joy is about more than we can handle and we are so excited for this wonderful journey that the Lord has set before us.

His First Day of School

2011-09-13T06:51:00.003-05:00

On September 7th, Ian had his first day of preschool for this year. We got a new back pack (that Ian loves to wear!) and a new lunch box (that Ian loves to carry!). Naturally, Ian wanted to wear his rain boots on his first day of school and who I am to deny his greatest wish? They were a big hit at school! And, since it was actually cool outside for his first day, he had to wear jeans and they wouldn't fit on the outside of his boots, or the inside, so they were just scrunched up at the top of his boots . . . too cute!!!

Ian was excited as we drove to school and walked into school. His excitement ended there. He cried as soon as we actually walked in the door and he realized what was actually happening. When I actually took him to his room, he SCREAMED and SCREAMED and was not about to let me out his sight. Needless to say, we're having some major separation anxiety these days! He apparently calmed down pretty quickly after I left, but it was pretty traumatic for a little bit! I'll be so happy when he gets through this rough patch.

Despite his first bit of being upset, he had a great day and loved being at school. He's such a big boy! It's going to be a fun year at school!

A New Look

2011-09-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was feeling the need to do some decorating and feeling like my living room was starting to need a little something extra. I didn't have a lot of money to spend, but wanted a pretty big bang for my buck. Our couch cushions were getting gross (a toddler at home will do that, huh?) and I wanted more color going on. I know, I know . . . I have terra cotta colored walls; how could I need more color? Well, I did and now I have it in spades! I made FOURTEEN pillows to go in the living room! Surprisingly enough, I did it all for around $100. I have a little bit of a fabric obsession, so I pulled different fabrics from my stash, bought $1/yard fabric for the backs, used a lot of pillow forms I already had, and bought the rest of the pillow forms I needed at half price plus another coupon stacked on top of that. It was a fun project and it has livened up our living room quite a bit! Ian LOVES all of the new pillows to wallow around in, throw on the floor and stack to help him climb. It's all excellent if you ask me!

His Favorite Outfit These Days

2011-09-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ian and I went shopping in Birmingham with our friends Betsy and Addison a few weeks ago. We were in Gymboree and Ian spotted this hat, pulled it off the rack and brought it to me. "Hat!" "Would you like to wear this hat, Ian?" "Yeah." So, I placed it on his head and he wore it a good bit of our time in the store. It was on sale so I decided to go ahead and buy it. It is TOO DARLING and he looks TOO ADORABLE in it to have left it there! I am SO glad I bought it because the boy has worn it A LOT since we got it home! And, of course he loves to wear it with his rain boots the most. I think I'm in love.

In Case You Haven't Heard . . .

2011-09-01T20:17:00.003-05:00

I'm going to be an auntie again in February!!! (I love February!) Lynsey is expecting a sweet little bundle of joy and we cannot wait to meet baby! What a wonderful blessing this baby is and a testament to the Goodness of God!

Oh, and Lynsey is due on February 28th, so start praying now that baby does NOT arrive on leap year! That would be no fun at all! :)

Some August Cuteness

2011-08-31T00:00:00.002-05:00

So, here is what my 18 month old baby has been up to this month:

He figured out that he enjoys sitting on his stool while emptying out his dresser drawers. It was cracking me up . . . why do hard work standing when you can do it sitting?

Ian likes to play peek-a-boo . . . all forms of it! His favorite way of playing these days though is to get in his closet, stand on a box that's in there, pull the door closed and wait a little while before opening the door with a loud, "BOO!!!". We all crack up and do it again, and again, and again.

While we were in Texas, Ian realized that high chairs were for babies. After all, he, Anna Kate and Avery are all the same age and THEY were NOT sitting in a high chair! So, we got a chair that boosts him up high enough to the table. He LOVES it and is SO proud of himself! He's such a big boy, you know. The first day he had his chair, he sat with Vernon and just talked and talked to him so seriously. Melted this Mama's heart!

Ian weighs 28.4 lbs and is 33 1/8 inches long. He's getting hard to carry!
When I ask him to do something, he usually says, "Otay!" It's adorable. He also learned how to say, "NOOOO!!!" this month, but we've fortunately been able to redirect it to, "No, thank you!" most of the time. Sometimes we get, "NO, THANK YOU!!!" I have trouble not laughing at that one. He also says, "Um huh!" for his yes. It's adorable too.
He still loves to push things all around the house. His cars, boxes, the broom. You name it; he pushes it!
We have discovered that Ian loves realistic looking toy animals! Lynsey bought him a toy cow and he's in love with that thing! It's a wild cow too. He tromps it all around saying, "MOO, MOO, MOO!!!" in a VERY vigorous manner! HILARIOUS! We bought him a gorilla, alligator, tiger and buffalo when we got home. He loves them just as much. So fun!
Ian has learned how to flex his muscles. He's pretty proud when he does it too. Such a boy! It makes this girl swoon, so I can only imagine what will happen when he does it for his little girlfriends! Hopefully I can get pictures of it soon.
He starts "school" again in a few days . . . hope it goes well. He's having major separation anxiety these days.
Ian spends a lot of his day saying, "What's this?" over and over and over again. Totally wasn't prepared to be doing this already! Love that he wants to know about his world though.

Love our little boy! He puts a million smiles on my face every day.

He's 18 Months Old

2011-08-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it! 18 months old. Just 6 more months until he's 2 . . . TWO!!! What a joy he is! What a wonderful life we have with our Ian! He's the funniest little person I've ever met. Gets funnier every day. I had to take pictures of him in his rain boots because the boy LOVES them! If he sees them in his closet, he asks to wear them. He just recently discovered a new love to wear with the rain boots, but pictures of that are for another day. I'll also give you more scoop on my sweet boy in my end-of-the-month update. Until then, here are pictures from our 18 month old photo shoot attempt. Man, he's cute!!!

One of My Favorite Couples

2011-08-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

While we were in Texas, I had the joy and honor of taking pictures of my dear friends, Mark and Jeana. After 10 years of marriage, their love makes me want to love my husband even more. Take a look at their pictures and see their love.

We have a new Uncle . . .

2011-08-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

My aunt Janet FINALLY married Ken making him our new uncle! They've been dating for ten years, so it's really great to see them happily married. Janet was the mastermind behind setting me up with Vernon. REALLY glad she did! It made being at their wedding a little sweeter and it was a great end to our trip!

Princess Anna Kate in Her "Trown"

2011-08-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've really taken pictures of Anna Kate. That's a shame. I hope these make up for it . . . I sure do think they do! She's adorable!!! And, she knows it. She's so captivated by her beauty that she just stared at herself in the mirror for the longest time. Can't say I blame her!

A Trip to the Farm

2011-08-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

Avery is an expert on all the fun that can be had at GranPappy's farm. First, she took us to see the cows . . . they were a big hit! Both Anna Kate and Ian were more than happy to pet the cows. They really did love them!

Then it was on to the baby chicks. Love the baby chicks! We had to watch Ian pretty closely with the baby chicks . . . memories of The Green Mile came to mind. :-)

After seeing the baby chicks, Anna Kate was ready to see the big chickens. Almost all of the rest of us had to put on our brave faces to go in the chicken house with the roosters, but Anna Kate had no fear! She LOVED it!!! She even stuck her hand in with sitting hens and found eggs. I was amazed. I'm afraid of chickens.

We made one last stop to see the cows again and give them a little treat for being so friendly. How is it that I'm afraid of chickens, but not cows??? Maybe I should see someone about that.

We headed home after a fun day at GranPappy's farm. It was one of the best days of our trip!

Driving the Tractor

2011-08-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

One of Ian's most favorite activities to do at Mam and GranPappy's is to drive the tractor. Let me be clear . . . HE likes to drive! He does NOT like to be driven on the tractor as of yet. Well, he would like to be driven if Vernon or I was the one driving! He's still a little nervous about being left these days.

Anna Kate enjoyed driving the tractor too. They were actually pretty great about sharing. It was impressive. Aren't they cute???

My Daddy's 60th Birthday

2011-08-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

While we were visiting my family, we had the distinct honor of being able to celebrate my Daddy's 60th birthday. We had a terrific party with most of my aunts, uncles and cousins, and my grandparents. Matt, Keely, Noah, Chloe and Micah also came over for the party and it was so great to be with them. I have such a sweet Daddy who deserves to be celebrated every day of the year. Glad we were able to make this celebration a big one!

Needless to say, we were all pretty pooped when it was all over!

Some Highlights From Our Trip to Texas

2011-08-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

Our trip to Texas was WONDERFUL!!! All of us were together for the first time since Lynsey was pregnant with Anna Kate . . . that's been a while! That also means that Avery, Anna Kate and Ian haven't all been together at one time. Knowing all of this, one would assume that I would have pictures galore of the three of them playing together, but I will confess now that I don't. I had big plans of having a cousins photo shoot, but we were having a hard time getting that done. Instead, we opted to have Kathy with Drake Design Photography do the pictures after our family pics. Seriously cannot wait to see all of those pictures! I know they'll be amazing!!!

Avery, Anna Kate and Ian spent their first bit of time together in the car after picking Anna Kate up from the airport. These three darlings sat in the back seat together and had A BALL!!! What made the ride so much fun? They were all spitting up a storm!!! It was truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Wish I had it on video. Or at the very least, a picture.

I can't believe I don't have more pictures of our time with Avery . . . she is such an amazing girl! She would take the kids outside to play and just love on them. I was so impressed with how she took care of the little ones and then I missed pictures of it. Her little cousins ADORE her and it's precious!

On to some highlights of our time at Mam and GranPappy's with Anna Kate. These two were pretty much inseparable.

First of all, there were LOTS of dress up clothes for Anna Kate to try on . . . she is such a fun girl! She wore a "trown" most every where we went, which was often "to the castle". I told you she is a fun girl!

There was A LOT of playing outside! Ian decided he loves to swing and preferred the big boy swing by far. He could even pump and make it go a little bit.

There were many wagon rides to be had . . .

The wagon even took us to a garage sale one day and came home loaded with goodies.

There was a lot of good food to be consumed. Cupcakes and Popsicles were among the favorites . . .

Ian always wanted more!!!

Anna Kate helped with the cooking one morning. She made us Angel Biscuits. They were delicious!

They played in Mam's office . . .

And, GranPappy's office.

Many more adventures were a part of our trip, but we'll save those for another day!

Weekend at the Lake

2011-08-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Before we headed to Texas, we went to Lake Martin with our Care Group from church for the weekend. It's a highlight of our summer and this year was no different. It was fun to see how different Ian and Ella Harding were this summer . . . so much bigger, into everything, but still full of hugs and kisses for each other! Ian loved being in the water and thought he was such a big boy jumping in, riding the inflatable jet ski and making big waves with his splashing. He's such a fun boy!

The Beauty of West Texas

2011-08-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

We recently visited family in West Texas. I'll post pictures of that soon, but until then, enjoy this view. This is one of my favorite sites to behold in all the world . . . seeing the sun kiss the flat West Texas plains while watching a storm roll across the dry and desperate land. It just doesn't get much prettier. If I try really hard, I can still smell the rain that was headed our way, but still miles off. This is part of what I get homesick for.

Playing in the Playroom

2011-08-13T08:19:00.000-05:00

Just some sweet shots of my boy doing what he does best these days . . .

Nourish

2011-08-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

Have you noticed a new link in my side bar under "The Blogs I Read" called "Nourish: A Personal Chef Service"? If not, notice it now!!!

Nourish is soon to become your next best friend! (Okay, so she happens to literally be one of my very best friends, but that's beside the point!) Check out what all Chef Leigh can do for you and see if you find any reason to say no to her. I'm guessing you can't. She is an AMAZING cook! I've always enjoyed her food, but it was the treat of our month during July to eat Leigh's cooking more times than we ate my own. (My husband finally had delicious and healthy food at our house!) We thoroughly enjoyed all of our food, but here is my husband's rave . . . "I've eaten Roast Beef Wellington all over the world, and in very nice restaurants, that didn't hold a candle to Leigh's." Now that is some high praise!!!

So, take a peak at Nourish. It also just so happens that she's having a give-away right now . . . that's the potential for FREE FOOD from Nourish!!! That makes my day happy. Hope it does yours too!

His Curls

2011-08-05T12:11:00.000-05:00

Ian's hair is curly in the back. A lot of the time, people don't really know this because he sleeps on his wet hair and that mushes all his adorable curls down more than I like. But on days that we shower during the day or go swimming and his hair dries completely in our hot humidity, the curls are at their finest! They are truly fabulous!!! Of course as soon as he sleeps on them, they mush back down, but I enjoy it while I can. Here are some pictures to show them off . . . I LOVE THEM!!!

Some July Cuteness

2011-07-31T00:00:00.001-05:00

Ian is ALWAYS cute, but it seems like this month he is just SUPER CUTE!!! Oh, he's at such a fun stage! He learns new words every day, figures out new things every day and constantly surprises us with all of it!

He's climbing more and getting good at it.
We went through a season of rocking, but it's over. He's done with it. We've gone back to laying him down and leaving the room with a "Night, night!" I have mixed emotions about it . . . loved rocking my baby, but I've always been proud of his ability to put himself to sleep, so it's nice to see that return as well. Thank goodness he'll still snuggle with me!
Ian LOVES having his quiet time in the morning! He gets so excited to play in his bed that he sometimes asks for his quiet time. It thrills me!
We bought Ian his first (and I'm sure not last) Alabama cap as we're getting excited for football season. Did anyone notice that I said WE'RE getting excited??? I've decided I should jump on board with my boys. I'm going to try being a football mom this year and see how I like it. Roll tide! (Yes. I said it. It only took me 8 1/2 years of living here to do it. Oh, my!!!)
Speaking of "Oh, my!", my son now says it too. It's too cute!!!
Ian is not a TV guy. Since my family lives in Texas and we travel there as often as possible, I really want for him to like SOME kind of TV for a traveling distraction. Well, we finally found one show that he likes. Unfortunately, it's Barney. Yes, Barney. He loves it. That part makes me happy, but it's terrible for me to wake up to Barney theme songs running through my mind! The smile it brings to his face is totally worth it though! Yay for Barney!
He calls his nose a "Beep, Beep". You know . . . "The horn on the bus goes beep, beep!" as you push your nose. I love him.
Ian gave his Grandmama a new name this month . . . Mimi. He came up with it all by himself and everyone is quite smitten with it.
Ian likes to help me with the laundry - vigorously throwing clothes in the washer, playing in the water, almost falling in once, and then vigorously throwing clothes in the dryer. You can't hire good help like that these days!!!

Friends From a Far

2011-07-26T13:56:00.000-05:00

We've enjoyed the blessing of being able to visit with out of town friends this month. We enjoyed dinner with some of Allison and Millie's best friends, Frankie and Maurice. It was such a fun time and Ian warmed up nicely to their sweet love. It was precious!

We also enjoyed dinner with our friend Darlene and her sister's family, Charlotte, Jesse, Lilly and Will. Darlene is from out of town, but her family actually lives here. So glad to get to hang out with this is a fun group of folks! Ian thought he had died and gone to heaven getting to play with Lilly, Will and all of their great toys!

His Poor Little Nose!

2011-07-19T10:45:00.003-05:00

Last week as we were walking into church, Ian fell on the sidewalk and skinned his nose. He was so brave and handled it like a pro that evening, but the next day he was pretty sad all day. Poor thing! It must have hurt so bad! It kept getting worse as the day went on . . . the pictures start at breakfast, move on to lunch, and end up at supper and you can tell how much worse the "sidewalk burn" got! It's healing nicely and will hopefully be completely well soon!

Summer Fun

2011-07-13T09:18:00.003-05:00

Grandmama and Granddaddy got their yard all set up for Ian to play in this summer. They're the proud owners of a turtle sand box, lots of buckets, shovels and sponges; a bright rainbow umbrella and a fabulous water sprinkler. Guess who loves going to Grandmama's and Grandaddy's house even more than he already did??? I wasn't sure it was possible for him to love being at their house more, but it was. He loves getting to play outside at their house in all of the wonderful things they have just for him. I love that Ian is able to enjoy the blessing of Vernon's parents so often. I know he's still so little, but I'm praying that he remembers it forever.

Our Fourth of July Fun

2011-07-07T15:30:00.005-05:00

We had an awesome 4th of July! It was a day full of family and friends, good food and good fun . . . what more could we want?

Our day started with our annual neighborhood parade. Our little family of three walked in the parade with our neighbors, Al, Shanea and Sterling. We were the caboose of the parade since we were the only walkers, but I totally think we were the hit of the parade! And, of course I'm not biased at all! Ian and Sterling are just precious boys!

We had Vernon's family over for lunch. Grandmama, Granddaddy, Joe and Aunt Joyce helped us celebrate the day with burgers and all the fixings. We're blessed in that we are able to enjoy meals with Vernon's family often, but it's been especially great that Aunt Joyce has been able to join us so much lately.

For supper, we had some friends from church over - Andrew, Calandra, Teagan & Aislinn as well as Matt, Shea Lea, Braeden, Brooklynn & Barrett. We had fun at the house for a while and then we headed down to our neighborhood square for all of the fun that went on there. It was a blast and meeting up with even more friends from church made it that much more fun. We ended the evening with FANTASTIC fireworks and finally got Ian in bed a little before 10:00. I didn't get any pictures of our evening of fun, but it was truly great.

It's been a long time since I've had this much fun on the 4th . . . LOVED every minute of it!

Happy 4th of July!!!

2011-07-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

All done!

Some June Cuteness

2011-07-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Whew! June seems to have been a whirlwind! Not sure I'll have a lot of cute things to tell you about what all Ian is doing these days, but I'll do my best. Here we go . . .

Ian had his first tummy bug - Hooray. Glad it's over.
I'm shocked at how many words Ian has! Now if he would just realized he can initiate a conversation to get what he wants, we'll be in hog heaven!
I think we've gotten our napping situation under better control. I've enforced quiet time in the morning and it seems to have changed our lives! I think my little man just needs a little bit of help relaxing . . . we can totally do that!
We also got Ian a new "bike" to give him some more entertainment. It's been a life saver as well. He LOVES it!!! He drives it backwards, (which is hilarious!) but he's thrilled as he does it.
Ian is really beginning to enjoy reading now. He hasn't been interested until now, but he's finding his favorites and we're reading them pretty often.
Picture of my boy in his party hat . . . Ian found his birthday party hat in the basement one day and actually asked to put it on. He wore it quite a bit that day. Love him!
Vernon gives Ian his bath at night and Ian watches Vernon shave in the mornings. One morning while Vernon was shaving, Ian ran into his bathroom and grabbed one of his bath toys and took it to Vernon for his shower. PRECIOUS BOY!!!
We finally figured out how to go swimming with a little less anxiety concerning our son's "I'm not afraid of the water" attitude . . . a life jacket does just the trick! It turns him on his back when he dives in head first and it messes up his balance just enough to make him go slower. We're now ENJOYING the pool!
I gave Ian juice for the first time this month. He didn't like it. What??? Aislinn came over and had some juice. Now he'll drink it. What a boy will do to impress his girl!

Check out my cutie-pie . . . He's CRAZY cute!!!

Zachary's First Birthday

2011-06-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you actively use THREE cameras . . . you forget that you have pictures on one of them until they've been on there too long!!! Fortunately, I remembered them before too terribly long.

Ian's friend Zachary turned one a few weeks ago and had a super fun party for us to attend. His parents are rock stars for still having the party because they moved across town the very next day! Zachary's big birthday gift was a Little Tikes car and it was the hit of the party . . . SERIOUS hit of the party! Fights started, tears rolled, screams rang loud. Fortunately, no blood was drawn, so it was all good. Well, all good for everyone other than maybe Zachary, who doesn't quite walk yet and kept being beat out by all the other walking guests. Thank goodness it was his toy to keep!

Zachary is a sweetie-pie and Ian just loves him. I just cannot believe that he's one year old. In my mind, he's been the baby of the group and now he's as old as the rest of them. They're all growing up too fast!!!

I'm the most blessed woman EVER!

2011-06-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Pictures from Father's Day . . . my heart is full.

Vernon's Second Father's Day

2011-06-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend. Lots of playing together, lots of good food and lots of excellent company!

One of Ian's favorite things to do in the morning is watch Vernon shave. For Vernon's gift this year, I snapped a picture of my men having their "man lessons" and matted it. It's adorable! I wish I could share it with you, but I think I'll leave a picture of my hubby in his boxes and under-shirt OFF of the internet! I bought Vernon some really nice shaving cream/after shave for his tough beard, some new razor blades and made him a cd of Jungle Book's "I Wanna Be Like You". It was all a big hit!

We hosted lunch with Vernon's family on Sunday. I made Vernon and Allison's favorite chicken enchilada casserole and we had a great visit. We were excited that Aunt Joyce could join us for the day as well. It's been way too long since we've seen her!

We spent the evening on Skype with my family . . . a perfect end to a perfect day!

The pictures of Ian and Vernon on Father's day will come in another post. They are to die for!!!

More Friends Come to Play

2011-06-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last week our friends Aislinn and Teagan came over to play. Ian loves these girls. L-O-V-E-S them! They're pretty fond of him too! Ian and Aislinn are only a few months apart in age and they are just the best of friends . . . full of hugs and kisses for each other all the time. And, Aislinn takes such good care of Ian. All day she was bringing him his blankie, his paci, and his sippee cup. She wanted him to be well taken care of! Teagan asked Aislinn one time, "Aislinn, do you love Ian?" Aislinn happily nodded her head YES! Sweet girl. We had the best time playing and can't wait to play with these sweethearts again . . . I would take them both any day of the week!

Our Face These Days

2011-06-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ian has only been taking one nap a day for quite some time, but he's just not getting enough sleep. He is a VERY busy boy and has too much to do to sleep! We've tried naps earlier in the day, later in the day, being on the go and staying home for more restful play. We can't seem to figure it out, so this has been our face for the last couple of weeks . . .

Oh, I hope we figure it out soon!!!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

Be Still My Beating Heart!

2011-06-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Shoes!!!

2011-06-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Adorable!!!

A Play Date with Morgan

2011-06-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Our friends Morgan and Michelle came over for a play date on Wednesday. We planned on spending the morning at the pool, so we packed up all of our pool gear. You know how long it takes to pack pool gear for the morning don't you? FOREVER!!! Our friends arrived and we headed down to the pool. I think for 4 people we had 5, maybe 6, bags of stuff. The wagon was loaded, it was hot and HUMID and we had two little ones super excited to swim. Can you tell this story is going nowhere good? We got all the way down to the pool and it was closed for cleaning. Oh. Brother.

Can I just tell you that Morgan was the sweetest thing EVER about not getting to go swimming? Ian isn't really old enough to understand . . . he was thrilled just to be in his wagon . . . but Morgan is old enough to understand. She had been waiting all morning and it just couldn't come fast enough. We were there and couldn't get in. I felt HORRIBLE!!! I'm sure someone has told me at some point that the pool is closed on Wednesday mornings, but I sure did forget it . . . completely. And, we don't go swimming by ourselves because Ian has no fear in the water, so we just aren't at the pool a lot.

Michelle was on her toes though and told Morgan that there were lots of bugs in the pool, so it had to be cleaned and we couldn't get in. That was enough to convince Morgan that she did NOT want to go swimming! So, we headed back up to the house, turned on the sprinklers and played on the front porch. We had so much fun and I really wish we could do it more often. Michelle had the week off from work, so we're so happy they added us to their schedule!

On a little bit of a side note . . . don't you wish you looked THIS CUTE in your swimsuit??? I sure do!

Our Friend Sterling

2011-06-10T12:24:00.002-05:00

This is our friend Sterling. Read his shirt . . . "Could I be any cuter?" My thoughts exactly!!! Sterling came over to play with us for a few hours last week and we gobbled him up. Ian was so sweet to share his toys (and his Mama) with Sterling. Sterling even loved Ian's old taggie blanket lovie so much that we had to send it home with him for a little while. Can't wait to play with Sterling again!!!

Some May Cuteness

2011-06-01T14:23:00.002-05:00

I have to say that 15 months old is one of my favorite ages. This boy is always precious, but he is SO STINKIN' ADORABLE right now it's not even funny!!!

Ian is learning news words all the time and is able to communicate his needs and wants pretty clearly. It's so great!

Ian sings a lot too. Not sure what he's singing, but he sings different tunes very often throughout the day. I LOVE it!

We are definitely a one-nap-a-day baby now. 100% of the time. It's different and I'm starting to enjoy it, but it's taking me a while. I'm having a much harder time getting things done around the house and that's kinda hard for me.

Ian is full of hugs for all his little friends and it is too cute! Every once in a while he scares them with his exuberant hugs, but most of the time they come around to the idea.

All of a sudden, Ian is insisting on rocking before nap time and bed time. He's never been much of a rocker - always wanted to just be left alone. Well, we've had a complete 180 and LOVE to rock now. I have to say, it's a pretty sweet time. He even says, "Rock, rock."

Ian's favorite things to eat now are berries. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. Not so much strawberries, but POUNDS of the other ones. He ate so many berries one night that he got sick in the night. That was lovely.

One of the funniest games Ian plays is shutting us in the pantry. If one of us is getting something out of the pantry, he RUNS to shut the door on us. He gets HYSTERICAL and we all have a great time.

Ian loves balls. He says, "Ball!", picks it up and throws it. He then runs to get it and does it again and again all through the house.

Ian is all about belly buttons. His. Mine. Vernon's. And, I'll apologize now if he ever goes looking for yours!

We've all had colds in May, so kleenex have been a big part of our lives lately. Naturally, our little boy is more than happy to find any stray dirty ones laying around. The good news is that he picks it up and says, "Shooey!" as he brings it to us to throw away.

Ian is big into dancing these days. Even to a sweet, soft lullaby tune. My favorite is when he gets his hair flying in all of his dancing excitement.

Ian uses a spoon pretty well. I still feed him a lot of his food, but he's working on being an independent eater . . . not too soon though!

I leave you with a couple of cutie-pie pictures . . . he's just adorable!

Some of Ian's New Loves

2011-05-31T13:57:00.001-05:00

Ian loves to play outside. Anywhere outside. We don't really have a back yard, so we play outside on the front porch. We decked it out with his slide and a huge flower pot of sand. It's a highlight of his day!

Ian loves anything dealing with technology . . . remotes, phones, computers. He begs to go downstairs because there is actually a keyboard we let him type on down there. Too much fun! And, when we visit Daddy at the office, there is ANOTHER keyboard he can type on. Life is good.

Ian figured out how to color this month and enjoys doing that a lot. His favorite color seems to be orange . . . he chooses that marker first EVERY time! His next choice is red, then yellow, next is green and finally blue.

Avery gave Ian some sunglasses in his Easter basket and they are a favorite. I keep trying to get a picture of him actually wearing them on his face, but we put them on and take them off very often, so it's a difficult challenge! This is still pretty cute though.

SHOES!!! Ian loves his shoes! He also loves our shoes and has just started trying to wear them. "Shoe" is one of his many words and he says it EVERY time he notices a shoe. The other day, Vernon was holding Ian and opened his drawer of shoes. Ian's response was, "Ooooooo! Shoes!" Ian has some new footie pajamas with puppy dog feet and all while we were having our bedtime routine, he kept pulling his feet up to his face, snuggling with his puppy dog "shoes" and saying, "Awwwww! Shoe!" He loves his rain boots too. He LOVES shoes!!! Clearly, he is my child.

Ian - 1, Lipstick - 0

2011-05-30T14:16:00.000-05:00

I was getting ready for our day out the other morning and saw Ian playing with one of my old lipstick tubes. He was working very hard to get the top back on the bottom and seemed to have no interest in what was inside, so I decided to let him work on his goal with "close" supervision. I went back to getting ready and when I checked on him about 30 seconds later, the lipstick had been discovered. I ran to get my camera and by the end of the whole ordeal, this is what we had . . . not too great, but not too bad! Sweet boy!

Another Birthday Party

2011-05-29T14:20:00.000-05:00

Another one of Ian's friends had a birthday this month . . . Happy Birthday, Will!!! His daddy is a fireman, so it was a fireman themed party. A WONDERFUL fireman themed party! Ian got to "drive" the fire truck that came and LOVED every minute of it. We're so happy we were able to celebrate your birthday, Will!

A Visitor

2011-05-28T14:10:00.003-05:00

We had a visitor this month . . .

Avery sent us Flat Lanie Kate to visit for a couple of weeks so she could go back to Texas and tell all of Avery's friends what life in Montgomery was like. Ian loved Lanie Kate . . . she's not so flat anymore!

Mother's Day

2011-05-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm witness to some amazing moms on a daily basis and each one deserves celebration. What a blessing to celebrate my incredible Mother, my mother-in-law, my sisters, my friends! And, in case you're wondering, I'm still completely giddy that I am blessed enough to celebrate Mother's day as Ian's Mama. What a joy it is to be his Mama!

We spent Saturday together as a family . . . running some errands, getting some ice cream, and swimming. It was our first trip to the pool this summer and I can tell we are going to be there a lot! Ian LOVES the water!!! He splashed like a mad man and loved being swished through the water. Don't you LOVE the hair-do it gave Ian?

On Sunday, Ian brought me a bag with a cross pendant and some Mother's Day cards in it. Perfect presents! We enjoyed a wonderful church service and then we had Vernon's family over for a special Mother's Day lunch. We had my favorite cupcakes from Cake Designs to celebrate and enjoyed each others company. It was perfect!

I hope each of you had a wonderful Mother's Day; celebrating all that is wonderful, true and pure about a Mother's love.

Celebrating a Royal Wedding

2011-05-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

I planned a royal tea party to celebrate the royal wedding and it ended up being a tea party more akin to that of the Boston Tea Party . . . we all jumped ship! Everyone got busy, so we decided to cancel our party at the last minute. It actually turned out to be okay that we cancelled because my coffee cake didn't cook all the way through, my quiche didn't set and my coverage of the wedding didn't record. I'm telling you, this party would have been a disaster had anyone showed up! The decorations were adorable, but that's as good as it got. Fortunately, I found some good coverage of the wedding and enjoyed watching every bit of it while I sipped my yummy French Mint Tea! Is there something wrong with drinking FRENCH mint tea for a royal BRITISH wedding? Oh, well! Here's to Prince William and Princess Catherine! I'm SO happy I was able to enjoy their special day!

Finally!

2011-05-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Every trip that I've taken to Texas with Ian, I have somehow forgotten to get a picture of Ian with Jeana. Seriously don't know how that has happened because Jeana is one of the sweetest and best friends I will ever have in my life! We finally got pictures made . . . SWEET pictures! PRECIOUS pictures! Pictures of Ian trying to eat Jeana's necklace and then "sharing" it with Jeana so she could enjoy a bite. Pictures of them laughing and snuggling. Pictures that were totally worth the wait!

Some Pictures of Gabe, Jill and Avery

2011-05-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

Love them. Everything about them. So glad they're mine.

Easter

2011-05-12T00:00:00.001-05:00

Other than Vernon being in Alabama, we had such a wonderful Easter! We all dyed Easter eggs . . . even Ian! Ian and Avery both looked so beautiful in their new Easter outfits. We worshiped at Broadway with my parents and Gabe, Jill and Avery. We had lunch at my parent's house with Gramps and Grandy, Grandmother and Grandad, Gordon and Bula. We opened Easter baskets. We hunted Easter eggs and Ian actually caught on to it pretty quickly. It was such a wonderful day!

We Went to Texas for Easter

2011-05-10T13:13:00.005-05:00

Well, Ian and I went to Texas for Easter. Sadly, Vernon had to stay home and that was SAD!!! We were gone for a week and we sure did miss Daddy during that week! Thank goodness our week was FULL of fun or we wouldn't have survived!!!

Ian likes to help me pack. He climbs in the suitcase and throws everything out . . . it's a big help indeed! He helped Betsy pack to go get Addison this way too, so he's been my packing helper for quite some time now!

We were blessed on our flights to Lubbock to have an entire row to ourselves both legs of the trip. Ian was so sweet to sit in his own chair, in a seat belt, for quite some time. I told him he was a big boy and he gladly replied, "Big boy!" Yes, yes you are, sweet boy!

Do you remember having special treats at your grandparents house? Well, apparently Ian's special treat is going to be GranPappy's wild blueberries. He would SHOVEL them in his mouth!!! It was adorable. GranPappy scared Ian our first day there on the tractor and Ian had a hard time forgiving GranPappy the rest of the week. No matter how strong of a grudge Ian was holding though, he was more than happy to eat blueberries with GranPappy! The weather was so perfect while we were there, we even had a picnic of blueberries on the porch one day.

Ian loves digging in cabinets and he was definitely thrilled to dig in Mam's! He was so funny because he would actually climb ALL THE WAY IN to get things at the very back. He learned quickly to duck his head coming out too. He had even more fun when Avery came to help him.

Ian also found forgiveness in his heart for GranPappy when GranPappy would offer to take him on a wagon ride. You know our boy LOVES to take a ride in a wagon! They drove around outside a lot. And, then Ian would get down and walk A LOT. Seriously, I think Ian probably walked a mile almost every day we were there as he explored all of his new surroundings! We wished we could have put a pedometer on him.

Part of why Ian walked so much is because there was so much dirt to walk in! That sweet boy avoided every sidewalk around. He was COMPELLED to walk in the dirt! He walked from the car to the house in the flower beds. He climbed onto the front porch over the rocks rather than the stairs (most of the time anyway). He's all boy and loved wallowing in the dirt! And, playing in the dirt with Avery was even better! That little boy is in LOVE with Avery!!! He would choose Avery to hold him or carry him most of the time they were together. I love how much fun they have together . . . Avery is the sweetest thing and they are quite a pair!

Some April Cuteness

2011-05-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

Ian and I went to Texas for Easter, so there will be fun pictures from that in a few days. For now, I'll give you some other random cute things that happened in April.

Ian is talking up a storm! His vocabulary definitely improved while we were in Texas. Here are some of the words we're hearing these days . . . bye-bye, hi, hey, ball, out, boo, whoa (when he falls), A-v (for Avery), water, Mmmm (as in Yum!), okay, and baby. He also says, "Ooooh!" with a high pitch at the end and says "Wee, wee, wee!" when he pushes things around the house. I love it. He is working on saying, "Thank you!" and he has said, "Big boy", "horsie" and "shoooey!" on occasion too. While we were in Texas, there were several times that he fell, stood up and said, "I okay." I'm sure there are more words than I've listed. In fact, I'm absolutely positive. I just can't remember what they are right now. I think I'm going to have a chatty talker on my hands!!! It's all too cute!!!

Speaking of Ian's talking, Ian puts any phone up to his ear and says, "Hiiiii!!!!" One day, he held the phone up to ear with his shoulder and his arm raised in the air. He said, "Hi!" and then proceeded to have a conversation of babbling that was interrupted by "Okay!" every so often. The conversation ended with, "Bye, Bye!" and a drop of the phone. ADORABLE!!!!

When asked to find his blankie, cup, bottle, paci or tractor, he can immediately find them. When asked if he wants breakfast, lunch or supper, he runs to his high chair. Ian loves to be outside, play in the dirt, push things, empty out baskets and take wagon rides. He loves anything electronic (expect actually watching TV) and he loves just looking at everything to see how his world works. He loves his baths and playing in any kind of water. He ran straight into the pool the other day with all of his clothes on just to play in the water fountain. He's discovered how much fun it is to drink out of a straw and does it quite well. He's still a little bit of a picky eater, but we're making progress!

What a sweet and amazing boy we have! He's pure joy.

Happy Easter!!!

2011-04-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Gotta Love Prom

2011-04-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

They seriously make prom look good!

We have our pictures!

2011-04-17T20:17:00.006-05:00

Remember when Allison took our pictures??? We finally narrowed down our selections (from WAY too many AMAZING pictures) to these faves as our digital negatives. Don't even ask me how we did it . . . it was HARD WORK!!! The prints we chose are awesome too and look so pretty in our house. THANK YOU, Allison!!!

A Precious Family

2011-04-08T22:08:00.003-05:00

They are precious indeed and I so enjoyed taking pictures of this sweet family!

I love having a boy . . .

2011-04-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Who in one morning can discover the dirt of a potted plant to dig in and get it all over the living room before being found out . . .

And, figure out a way to make his high chair a moving fort and jungle gym all at once. This is just the beginning of all of his fun adventures!

I LOVE him!!!

A Trip to Atlanta

2011-04-05T13:54:00.004-05:00

We got home on Saturday from a quick trip to Atlanta to see Garyn, Zach and Campbell. Love being with our sweet friends! Ian loved all of Campbell's toys. They shared well for the most part, but every once in a while you would see Ian running toward someone to save him from Campbell's outstretched hands. Won't be long before he'll chase her back. Or something far worse. That'll be a fun! Campbell was always full of sweet hugs for "Baby Ian" and was happy to see him every day. They are fun friends and I love it!

We took a shopping adventure one day . . . aren't our babies adorable sitting in their chairs together???

Some March Cuteness

2011-03-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

I did it! I have pictures of Ian being adorable in the month of March! Not sure why I was ever worried I wouldn't.

Also, since Ian is now over a year old, I think I'll quit giving monthly updates like I have in the past (on his birthday with pictures). I'll keep giving fun tid-bits on all of his new tricks during my monthly cuteness posts though. Here are the fun things Ian started doing this month:

Ian has enjoyed pushing things around the house for a while now, but now you hear, "Wee! Wee! Wee!" as he does it. Oh. My. Goodness. I love it!

Ian will raise his hand out and say, "Hiiiii!!!" in a high pitched voice. If you've ever heard me say hello to Ian, you'll know exactly what it sounds like!

Ian loves to brush his hair with his hair brush (or any hair brush he finds). It's pretty cute. Okay, crazy cute!

And, I just have to write down this story about Ian and Ella Harding because it was too funny and cute . . . The other night at Care Group, they were both sitting in my lap. Ian started patting Ella Harding's hair (and maybe accidentally poking her in the eye). This bothered Ella Harding so she got down. Ian quickly followed and proceeded to follow her around the room trying to pat her hair. He was also trying really hard to give her hugs. Ella Harding tried to escape under the table, but Ian just kept following. They both hit their heads several times, fell several times, but finally made it through. The chase ended on the other side of the table in a big sweet hug and kisses. SO sweet! SO cute! On the other hand, how do they already know how to play this game??? I'm guessing I'm going to see some version of this game for a long time coming!

We had a church-wide soft ball game on Saturday and Ian had a BLAST playing soccer with Lauren. She was so sweet to play with him.

Ian isn't really eating much these days despite being offered a good variety . . . bananas, crackers, goldfish, grapes, strawberries, baby food veggies, puffs and PEANUT BUTTER!!! It's an absolute favorite. Can you tell???

Ian Wins the Lottery

2011-03-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

We bought a piece of lattice to block off the stairs of our front porch so that Mr. Ian can play outside safely without me having to be totally on top of his every move. He LOVES it!!! And, who am I kidding? I love it too! We enjoy our play time on the porch . . . Ian loves watching the cars pass by, pushing his wagon as much as absolutely possible, and keeping his eyes peeled for any puppy dogs. He likes the birds that come around too. Now if the mosquitoes will just never hatch, it will be the perfect solution all summer!

One last thing . . . we did cut the lattice down to fit perfectly so it looks much less junky and trashy than it does in this picture. Just didn't want you to think we had crossed over into one of "those" neighbors!

Some February Cuteness

2011-03-24T21:56:00.005-05:00

Yes, you read it correctly . . . FEBRUARY cuteness! I can't believe I almost forgot to post these pictures! And oddly enough, I don't think I even have any random March cuteness pictures. How is that even possible? I've got a few more days of March though so I'll see what I can come up with.

Here is Ian on his actual birthday. Not his birthday party. Not one year old portrait days. His actual birthday. February 18th. Isn't he the cutest birthday boy?

My sweet boy is in love with blankie. They are BFF'S. Blankie and Ian are inseparable and there are moments when Ian FALLS APART when blankie is taken away. It's sweet and sad all at the same time! But aren't they a cute pair? Ian is also crazy cute in just his blue jeans. Mr. GQ!

Ian loves to look out his window while he should be napping. I just had to try and snap a picture of it one day. It was worth a try.

Ian gets the CRAZIEST bed head I've about ever seen. Only his Daddy has beat him in this area, but only by a little. It makes me super happy.

It's not uncommon to find Ian sitting in this basket of toys. Or climbing through it to look for our neighbor's dog out the window. He's such a fun boy!

Are you kidding me?

2011-03-20T14:42:00.002-05:00

Allison took our family pictures LAST NIGHT and look what is already sitting pretty on her blog! Our family pictures! Our AWESOME family pictures. Just from this preview and the preview of Ian in the daffodils, I can tell it's going to be nearly impossible to choose my prints. Start praying for me now!

Tie Pictures

2011-03-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

I've taken pictures of Ian wearing a tie for his newborn pictures, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 12 month pictures so that I can make a story board out of them for his room. Here are the 12 month tie pictures. Some of my favorites.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

He'll be wearing green today, but I'm not positive that will keep me from pinching him. I just can't help myself! Could you??? That's what I thought.

Another Set of One Year Portraits

2011-03-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

When I started thinking about what I wanted Ian's One Year Portraits to look like, oh so many months ago, I knew immediately that I wanted them to be in this beautiful coat and hat. I've had an image in my mind. Before you get too excited about it though, let me say that you will not see that image below. I haven't gotten it. Not sure that I will either. I've had to work around weather, Vernon's schedule (so he could make sure Ian was safe while I was focusing on pictures), changing nap schedules, etc. The evening we had to take them, it was late. It was dark. It was muddy. It was miserable. I'm hoping I can redo them, but we'll see. I broke my own rule of "Never go into a photo shoot with specific expectations". The good news is that I actually got a few pictures that I really like, which is WAY more than I thought I had. The adorable outfit is documented and my beautiful son looks so precious. So, for all of my complaining over lost expectations, I can't be too sad. I mean, look at this boy. This darling boy. HE surpasses ALL of my expectations.

More One Year Pictures

2011-03-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

I hope you looked at the AWESOME pictures that Allison took of Ian in the daffodils. I'm truly in love with them. In order for Allison to take those though, I had to find out if the daffodils were indeed in bloom. So, the day before Allison came out to take pictures, I took Ian to check it out and very quickly grabbed a few pictures of him myself before his nap. I really love these too. I love having two totally different takes of this shoot - different photographer (and therefore, perspective), different light, different camera, different lens. Same great subject though and beautiful keepsakes all the way around.

Birthday Boy Outfits

2011-03-12T00:00:00.002-06:00

Here is the beginning of 1 year pictures of Ian. They're in his birthday party outfits . . . the hat and diaper cover for cake, and the after cake party shirt and pants. Ian really passed the age of being able to take pictures in front of a backdrop a while ago, but I still tried. It was HARD!!!! Not even the fabulous rocking horse that Grandmama, Granddaddy and Uncle Joe gave him for his birthday helped us too much. Ian walks around the house ALL DAY, so being confined to a backdrop was torture for every one involved. Thank goodness he's adorable! Oh, and I neglected to mention in the book I wrote about his one year update, but you'll notice in the last collage of pictures that his new favorite trick is climbing up the slide in our playroom. NOT the stairs of the slide, but the actual slide. Lovely.