Baby Jack

My sister Brittany delivered her first baby 3 weeks after Little Bit was born! This has been a very exciting summer for our family as we welcomed 2 new additions! It has been so much fun being pregnant with my sis and going through the sleepless newborn phase together too.

We were able to travel to Birmingham the week after Jack was born to meet him. Despite how exhausting the trip was with a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 week old, I'm so glad we were able to get some pictures of these boys together while they were newborns.

Here is A loving on baby Jack:

An uncooperative A with both babies:

Here is GiGi with both newbies:


Jack and Little Bit in their matching outfits that GiGi bought them:


Who can resist sweet baby feet?



Side by side in Jack's crib:



Sweet baby Jack:

Meal planning Sunday

I thought I'd join Steph over at Green Kiddos for meal planning Sunday!!! Here's what we're having this week:

Monday - Tacos with black beans as a side

Tuesday - Chicken lasagna and salad

Wednesday - Grilled chicken with linguine and veggies

Thursday - Creamy crockpot chicken with mushrooms. This is a delicious Southern Living recipe that this friend passed along to me.

Friday - Meatball subs and chips

What is your family eating this week?

Handsome in Pink

We made our 3rd appearance at church today since Little Bit arrived. A donned his new pink polo shirt and he looked so darn cute that I had to post a picture!!!

I've had to leave church the previous 2 Sunday's during the service to feed Little Bit. Today his feedings worked out where I wouldn't have to do that. BUT he grunted and squirmed so much that I took him out anyway and watched from the lobby. Next week he'll be old enough to go to the nursery and I look forward to hearing the entire message from the sanctuary!

Fast Learner

I have always been told that I am a fast learner and that I catch on quick to new things. Well, it didn't take me long to learn a few things about being a mom of two!

Here are some of things I have learned:

• I am not superwoman!!! Being the independent gal that I am, this has been a hard one to swallow because I do not like to rely on others, including my hubby. For my own sanity and the well being of my family, I am quickly overcoming this. Its been a sweet time in my marriage as we have leaned on each other because he can't do it without me either!
• I cannot do everything for both of my kids. Again, this is another hard one. Its good for them to learn to let someone other than mommy do things for them, but this is sad for me. As a mother of one, I could easily fill every sippy cup, read every book, change every diaper, and kiss every boo-boo. Not possible as a mother of two because there is still only 1 of me.
• Washing my hair everyday is a luxury that is temporarily lost. I hope to re-introduce this into my daily routine at some point in the near future, but for now, I am just thankful to even get a shower (which may or may not happen everyday either!).
• My kitchen floor may never see a mop again
• I may never run more than 1 errand a day again - it takes a lot out of gal to load and unload 2 kids in the car!
• I have to do a load of laundry everyday or the dirty clothes will overtake our house! Long gone are the days when I did all of the laundry for the week on one day!
• Adding 1 new child does not double the work - it triples or quadruples it!
• Adding 1 new child does not double the blessings - it triples or quadruples them!
• A mother's love knows no limits - who would have ever thought that I could love another child as much as I loved A? I didn't think there was that much love left in the whole world, but little bit has managed to steal my heart!
• My heart is so full sometimes that it hurts
• At the end of the day when I am exhausted beyond belief, seeing all 3 of my boys snuggling in A's twin bed gives me the strength to go on and do it all again tomorrow.

1 Month Old

Our sweet little bit is 1 month old today! I am resisting the urge to cry at the thought that it is already going by so fast!!!

The transition from 1 child to 2 has been much easier than I expected. I would not say that it is "easy," but it has been a really enjoyable time for our family.

Little Bit, at 1 month old, you are:

• Quickly outgrowing all of your newborn clothes
• Wearing a size 1 diaper
• Cooing - it is one of the sweetest sounds ever heard!
• You love your bouncy seat
• You usually fall right asleep when I put you on your tummy for "tummy time"
• You eat every 3 hours during the day
• Most nights you wake at 1:30, 5:30 and 9:00 to eat
• You are a very good nurser
• You like your swaddle ok.... sometimes you fight it and I have to take you out of it
• You're not a huge fan of the sleep positioner - you prefer to sleep on your back
• You love napping in front of your sunny bedroom window

Mommy, Daddy and big brother all adore you! We are so thankful God chose you to be part of our family!

I"m not crazy afterall.... or senile...

I "thought" that I remembered reading something about this when I was pregnant with A, but I could never find the article again and I chalked it up to pregnancy brain or pregnancy dreams.

But it is REAL!!! Pregnancy brain is a real "condition." Check out this article.

I'm sending this to my hubby now so he knows there is a reason for my insanity after all!!!

Why being a mom to boys is so great.....

Last night we were having dinner at one of our favorite BBQ joints. A was sitting in the booth beside me and between a big bite of baked beans, he leaned over, rubbed my hair and said, "Mommy's Beautiful!"

I would not trade that moment or memory for all the money in the world....

Its a good thing that he did that because he's been a little stinker today. So I"m "remembering" that moment a lot today :)

I'm tired.....

We are officially less than 4 weeks away from D-day!!! WooHoo! Our sweet little baby G will make his appearance on June 10th at 8:30am unless he decides to come before then, which would be fine with me!

I have officially reached the point where I am "over" being pregnant. Thankful, none the less, that this baby is healthy, but I'm over being pregnant. This is the point where I just get bigger every day and retain a little more fluid every day. I naturally have big lips, but I"m starting to look like my own caricature picture with all of the fluid accumulating now!

Life has been pretty normal around our house lately. Trying to take it easy despite my raging nesting instincts. I feel like I can't scrub enough! And contrary to my previous post, I want everything to smell like Pine-Sol! We finally finished the nursery. Because I could only do a little here and there, it felt like the project that would never end. I'll post some pics later.

A is just a handful these days! Things he is doing at 2 1/2:

Giving more hugs and kisses than ever

Says, "I love Mommy" and "I love Daddy" all the time!!! I never get tired of hearing that..

When I tell him something he doesn't want to hear, says, "That way, Mama" and points in the other direction... yes, he has gotten a little sas about him lately.

Tells me to "change the diaper" when he has a stinky or heavy pee on.. but because I"m getting ready to have a newborn and A will have to deal with the transition of adjusting to a sibling, I am postponing potty training until G is sleeping through he night and I feel like a normal person again!

Loves the "itsy bitsy spider" song and says, "Mommy, itsy spider me" so I'll sing it and imitate a spider crawling up him!

Sings his ABC's all the time

Can count to 17

Knows his brother's name, but says he is in HIS tummy!

Has banged up knees and shins all the time from being a wild boy!

Asks to watch "Mike and Mike" on ESPN in the mornings - he is definitely his father's son

My goal is to take it easy and relax these next few weeks before our lives are turned upside down with middle of the night feedings and newborn demands! I"ll try to post at least once more before the big day arrives!

Laundry and Lysol

Oh my... we have been in the sick house! Well, I should say poor sweet A has been in the sick house.

He woke up on Saturday morning with a stomach virus and had it coming out of both ends. My hub had to work all day Saturday, so I had a very busy day here by myself. I believe I only did 5 loads of laundry on Saturday compared to the 7 that I did on Sunday. It was accident after accident. My washer and dryer were running all weekend.

He was still too sick to go to daycare yesterday so I stayed home with him and we attempted to send him for half a day today, but got a call at 10am that he was running a fever of 102.

I believe that there are not many things in this life that hurt a parent's heart more than seeing our children sick or hurting. As I have been rocking my baby and praying over him this weekend, telling him how I wish I could make it all better, I couldn't help but be reminded that my Heavely Father has the same tender heart toward me! As an adult who has experienced hurts and disappointments in life, its hard to re-connect with that child like faith and feel like we are His babies.

As my mind continued to ponder that thought, I also stumbled onto how much it must hurt Him to see us hurt at our own expense. I truly believe as parents that some of the hardest and most effective parenting tools will be to let our children make mistakes (at the appropriate age, of course). I wonder how many times the Lord is wanting to make it all go away for me, but I"m too busy pursuing my own way to know.

One of the things I love most about the Lord is that He is able to use a very icky weekend of laundry and lysol to speak to me. One of the greatest blessings of being a parent is that it gives us a teeny tiny little microscopic glimpse of how much the Creator of the Universe loves us. He sent His son to die for us. When I really ponder that, it takes me breath away!

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

25 Weeks

So this week marks 25 weeks into pregnancy!!! I can't believe how fast it is going by. My pregnancy with A seemed never-ending. Of course, I didn't have a 2 year old to chase around last time either :)

I went to the doctor last week and she didn't lift any of my "at home" restrictions. She said that our current course of treatment is working and its still too early to risk a change that could cause my fluid levels to drop again. I am thankful that there doesn't appear to be a greater issue at hand, so I'll just keep being a couch potato for a little while longer.

Barring any conflicts with the hospital O.R., it looks like this little man will be here on June 10th. My birthday is on the 9th so I'm resigning myself to the fact that this will probably be the last birthday that I get to officially celebrate :) We also have a name for our little guy! This has been an exciting few weeks.

I have actually had a very productive bed rest. I have managed to watch seasons 1 and 2 of Friday Night Lights on DVD and catch up on Season 3, I have caught-up on A's baby book and I'm almost caught-up on developing all of his pictures and getting those in photo albums (I am not a scrap booker). I have also started weeding through all of the red tape associated with applying for my CPA license, I have prepared and filed our taxes online and have managed to get back into blogosphere.

Other than that, we've just been enjoying some nice quiet family time at home. A seems to be doing well without his cast. He had a minor limp for the first few days, but its hardly noticeable now. He had fun playing in the snow on Sunday and is just enjoying being a little boy right now!