The Howell's

Duck Hunt

2012-02-02T16:33:00.000-06:00

I told you a few days ago about tagging along on my first duck hunt. It was so cool to watch nature in action. It's neat to watch the ducks come in, at their expected time, and especially cool to watch Mollie retrieve the ducks. Now Mollie is a couch dog. She sleeps in the bed with us...on the pillows. She won't go in the back yard unless we are out there with her. Yet take her into the woods and she is a natural. She has no hunting training whatsoever. It's just instinct. And I happen to think she is mighty beautiful while doing it.

Arriving at the spot and ready to go! She knows what is coming.

Can you tell she is excited?!

My main squeeze :)

Love these two

Then the ducks came flying in. I like this picture for some reason.

Pretty girl

Got one!

and another...

She is having so much fun! She doesn't look TEN years old, does she?!

She was proud after finding this one

At the end of the hunt, carrying one of her prizes

Happy Birthday Grammie!

2012-02-01T08:18:00.000-06:00

We want to wish you...Grammie...a very special and very happy birthday today! We love you so much!! We wish you were feeling better so that we could celebrate with you. Get well and we miss you and look forward to seeing you very soon. You are quite an amazing, wife, mother and Grammie!!

On the Mend

2012-01-30T08:42:00.000-06:00

Last week the Howell house was under the weather. It started with Jason seeming like he had a cold on Friday/Saturday. Sunday night AM woke us up with a scalding hot fever, she was weak and couldn't breathe very well. We ended up in the ER, everything was fine (well at least nothing major was wrong). After 2 days of breathing really fast and heavy and a fever that would not break we went to the pediatrician Tuesday and found out that she has brochiolitis which was caused by a virus. She had to do a breathing treatment in the office and was prescribed one to do at home every several hours. She seems to be doing great now but last week was horrible. Jason seemed to get better and never really got that bad. Just a few doses of Tylenol and he was ok. Thank goodness! We're still having to do her treatments- and she still obviously needs them, but her spirits are back to normal and for that this mommy is thankful! It's so hard to see your babies not feeling well.

Saturday we were so excited to see some sunshine and spent a little time in the back yard.

AM still loves to play golf and is getting pretty good at her swing and making contact with the ball. She and Trey like to hit tennis balls for Mollie to chase.

Sweet Jason, he will be 6 months old on Thursday!

Not sure if you can tell, but she lost some weight when she was sick.

She can hardly keep her pants up!

SO happy to be outside!

My child who never wants her picture taken actually said to me right before this

"Take my picture, Mommy! Over here! This side!"

Then she wanted to help Daddy pull some weeds. She was really good at it too. She even knew to pull of the root of the weed! This is going to really come in handy :)

Jason is trying so hard to crawl. He knows that he wants to move, and in more than just the circle that he turns himself in, he just can't figure it out. Here's a video!

http://youtu.be/sT-NMAXIvHo

We went to Pike Road yesterday afternoon. We left AM and Jason with Gic and Chelsi while Trey and I took Mollie duck hunting. Well, maybe I should rephrase that. Trey and Mollie took me hunting. I've never been duck hunting before. And the only thing I shot was the camera. That is for another post, I took about 400 pictures so I need to sort through them but it is definitely worthy of a post. It was a lot of fun and so cool to see Mollie doing what is her natural instinct. Remember she is an on-the-couch, sleep-on-the-pillows-on-the-bed kind of dog, not your typical hunting dog!

We have a SUPER DUPER busy week ahead and that is not such a bad thing since we were cooped up all week last week. The weather is supposed to be PER-FECT and I plan on spending LOTS of time outside with the kids and Mollie.

Iphone pics

2012-01-15T20:56:00.001-06:00

I don't have much to post about other than to give you a bunch of random Iphone pictures so here you go...

We LOVE going to the Auburn basketball games. We don't get to watch the games as much as we used to or as much as we would like, but they are lots of fun. We have fun chasing AM around as she runs around crazy with her friends. It's so awesome to see her anticipate and get excited to see her friends. Yesterday when we walked into the arena, she put her hand up over her eyes (you know, like you do when you are shielding the sun looking for something) and started calling her friends names. We are so blessed to live in Auburn, I hope we don't ever have to leave!!! Here is a picture of Jason and Trey this past Saturday, isn't he (Jason) getting so big?!

Sweet friends watching a dog catching frisbees at halftime

Anne Morgan and Merrill sharing some popcorn and watching the game

(sitting down NEVER happens! haha)

We missed you Allie :)

Sweet boy

How does she even find room to sleep in her bed?

Kisses for Daddy!

AM found Daddy's baseball glove the other night (not sure why it was out) but she knew just what to do with it! I couldn't believe it, it's not like we've played with it. Although, she did love watching the Braves so I guess that's where it came from. She told Daddy she wanted to throw and catch the ball. It was a bouncy Dora ball that was the size of the glove so it was safe. hehe!

I walked out of the bathroom for a second the other night and this is what I came back to...chillaxin'

AM was watching "Einsteins" and wanted a "princess dress" like June was wearing. We don't have a princess dress since she's never been interested (but has LOVED her "princess slippers", but this is what she came up with. She's worn it quite a lot since this

My little artist. Maybe she will take after my Grandpa. She LOVESSSSS to paint!

She was hysterical...AM hates to have her picture taken, but this time when she was painting and I was taking her pictures without missing a beat or taking her eyes off of her painting, she would say "thank you!" every time she heard the click of the camera...WHAT?!!! Sometimes she is just too much.

Though I did get her to turn around at one point for a picture and this is what I got!

Her finished masterpiece. She was so proud of this one.

Just like big sister, Jason LOVES to jump! He can't get enough!!

http://youtu.be/7XRr4PvkpPY

(I wish I knew why it was so blurry, sorry! but you get the idea)

One last one of my sweet boy. Y'all- I just can't tell you how sweet this little man is. Though I think you can tell just by looking at him. He is just precious! He is sitting up and playing so well these days. I don't think it will be too long before he is crawling. He is getting there, where does the time go?

I really do hate that I give you a bunch of pictures from random times, but I guess you'll have to take what you can get. :) I can't say that I resolved to be a better blogger this year, but I will try. Life happens so fast, that sometimes I just want to soak it in and enjoy it (or sit down a try to relax when I can). I wish I could have every moment recorded on here because I do love to go back and look a past posts when I can. I live such a blessed life, God has given me so much and for that I am SO THANKFUL!

2 1/2 and 5 Months

2012-01-04T08:41:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful New Years and I hope you did too. We are excited to see what 2012 holds. Trey and I had a few days to the two of us to close out 2011 and it was really nice. We went to dinner and a movie one night and then to Atlanta for the Auburn game too. AM and Jason were at my parents house and it sounded like they had an absolute blast. My sister and kids were there for a couple of days too so I can only imagine how much fun was had.

Here is a picture of Sophie and AM sleeping in the same bed the first night. You think they were worn out or what?! I just wish I had been a fly on the wall in that room that night. This was AM's first time to share a room with someone other than her parents.

It's hard to believe that she will be 2 1/2 this month. In some ways I can't believe she is already that old but in others she seems much older than she really is. Her vocabulary expands every single day and she is so funny, and observant, with the things she says. School has been a great thing for her and I love to see how much she is learning and the friends she is making. She has the sweetest little friends and I love to hear her talk about them. It's even cuter when she sees friends out and about around town and they get excited to see each other. This is such a fun age.

She has done so well with her potty training. It was really not that bad at all. That is except for going #2. We are still working on that. The problem is not accidents but getting her to go. She's scared to go so the problem just compounds itself. We're getting there though and I am so proud of what she has done already. I never imagined we would already be in panties at 2 1/2, not to mention have been for several months now.

Here are some pictures of the past few days.

She is still obsessed with all things Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins and Clifford. Here she is putting on a little concert while watching "Einsteins" She was gettin' down!!

(here is the new wall in the playroom...it's a work in progress. Still need to frame it out)

I love seeing what she makes at school and brings home. I have saved every single thing that she has made. This ornament in particular has a special place in my heart. It is so sweet and I still don't know how they pulled that off. I will save it forever! I had a teacher friend laminate the picture for me.

She got a life size Minnie Mouse for Christmas from her aunts Chasidi and Chelsi.

Needless to say, she LOVES her!

Now this is a cute little dog that my crafty dad made for me. We love it around here! My 5 year old nephew saw a wooden dog somewhere so he told Pop that he wanted to make one. Not having anything to go by, the two of them came up with this. Isn't he cute? His legs, head, tongue and eyes move and his tail even wags! That was Christopher's idea. He told Pop that the tail needed to wag so Pop said "let's figure out how to do that" to which Christopher added "use a spring!" Smart kid!

Jason is 5 months old already! He is so precious. He's a happy little boy and I love him so much. He is just so sweet. He is sleeping great (8-7 or so), rolling over both ways, sitting up (longer periods each day, still have to really watch him), starting to pull his legs up underneath him as he reaches for things, and ADORES his jumper! Remember AM in the jumper? Well...he is the same way. He could stay in there all day I believe. He gets so excited...and gets good exercise. He is so content when he is in there, I have to eventually take him out and lay him down for a nap. He won't fuss, but when I lay him down he goes right to sleep!

He is such a blessing. He is the little boy I've always dreamed of.

While at Grammie and Pop's he had his first lawn mower ride. We've got pics of each of the grandkids doing this, so far I think every single one has loved it.

Such a big boy sitting up!

He loves Mollie, they are becoming best friends.

Last night he tried his first real food. I started with sweet potatoes and he LOVED it!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T13:45:00.000-06:00

WHEW! What a Christmas we have had! It was about 4 or so days long and we are just now recovering. We had a wonderful time with our families and we are all so blessed. Here are some pictures from the several days of celebrating. We are missing 2 days, the 2 days that we were with the Howell's. Trey's sister was in charge of the camera those days and I haven't gotten any of the pictures.

We started off on Thursday in Montgomery. Trey and I went to his office party for a little bit and then to Brittny's house to eat pizza and exchange presents with her family and my parents. It was wild and crazy and that's just the way we like it. :) I LOVE watching the cousins get so excited to see each other.

Pop and Jason. Two peas in a pod...

AM in her new hat Grammie made and oh.my.goodness. Minnie Mouse! :)

Pop made balance beams for Sophie and AM. AM knew what it was before he even uncovered them! It was too funny. She LOVES it and has been decorating it with stickers.

(can you see my carpet cleaner in the background? I am SOOOOO excited about this and it has become my new obsession. I highly recommend getting one!)

These two sure do love each other.

The next day we headed back to Montgomery (Pike Road) for Christmas with the Howells. I hate that I am missing pictures from the big Howell Christmas at Granny's and the next day. We had a great time. It is always great going to see all of the extended family. We spent the night at Trey's dad's house Friday night after Granny's and then exchanged presents with them and ate a delicious breakfast. AM LOVES her Bitty Baby and car seat that she got there. Baby has been going everywhere with us. And you best be quiet when she is sleeping in the car seat. :)

Then we headed home to unpack and repack and go to his mom's at the lake for Christmas Eve night and Christmas day. We intended to go to church for the Christmas Eve service but we were all exhausted so we just went straight to their house and to bed early.

Christmas morning...I think she was a tad bit overwhelmed! She didn't know what to do with so many presents! Do you see her ADORABLE piano?!!!

Pink sparkly shoes!!!

Mollie didn't miss out on the action

Jason was adorable in his new Auburn hat and right at home in Gran's (Trey's grandmother) lap.

We had to take a break and color for a while. This child adores coloring.

Hey there Jason! You are growing up so much...and sleeping SO GREAT these days.

I consider that a present for sure!

Mollie with her new bed from Memommie (Trey's mom) for Christmas

Kisses for Daddy

Coloring with Memommie. Actually, she was probably showing her how to draw Mickey Mouse.

(no joke!)

As you can tell, we are all so blessed with amazing family and were spoiled with so many gifts. I hope to get pictures from Chelsi to show you from the missing days. I hope each of you had a blessed Christmas as well. Of course, the greatest gift of all is Jesus Christ and we did not forget that!

Happy 2012!

Urg...

2011-12-22T11:10:00.000-06:00

Just tried to finally update the blog layout with more recent pictures and do a new post and it says that I've exceeded my picture quota. Boo! Gotta figure out what to do next so bear with me until I have time to do that. In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas!

The Nutcracker

2011-12-12T10:13:00.000-06:00

Saturday AM and I had a date with friends to the ballet with some friends to see The Nutcracker.

Unfortunately the group was smaller than originally planned b/c several friends were sick, but fortunately it sounds like they are all better now. I think it was a bit ambitious to go to a ballet with 2 year olds...they loved watching the dancing, but did not understand about having to be quiet. AM kept announcing (very loudly) how many princesses were on stage! "Look! Mommy! FOUR PRINCESSES!!!! Or she would yell "I go potty Mommy!" every few minutes. Oh well, we will try again another time. They need a kids show so they little girls can dance along with the ballerinas and talk all they want. :)

Here are a few pictures of us before our "date." It was fun to go do something just us girls.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season. I love this time of the year. I don't love that our tree is already dead though. :(

4 Months Already?!

2011-12-07T06:33:00.000-06:00

Wow, time is flying. Hence the lack of posts. Life is really busy, especially with Christmas coming up. I love it, but time is going by so quickly.

Yesterday Jason had his 4 month check up. He was 14 lb 15 oz (50%) and 24.25 inches long (25%) which means his weight for height is 80%. Sweet boy still has a big 'ole head at 16.9 inches (70%) :).

Poor thing had to get quite a few shots which left him really puny and sleepy. He slept SO long yesterday afternoon and actually slept all the way through the night last night for the first time. I have a feeling that is not the beginning of a trend but was just due to his shots. The boy eats a lot and still wakes up starving in the night. I've tried to not feed him but just put him back to sleep but that only worked for a week. Now he just shrieks like he is in pain b/c he is so hungry. Once you feed him he goes right back to sleep.

He is such a sweet sweet boy. We are so in love with him. He's so happy. He loves playing in his exersaucer these days and absolutely adores his sister. I love watching the two of them. She is so sweet with him too. I am so proud of my two sweet children. God sure has blessed me.

Jason loves to "talk" these days. His sweet coos are so precious. I love hearing him try to make sounds and mimic what I'm saying. And he has such a light in his eyes that just melts my heart. And his smile, oh his smile. It takes your breath away. :)

Love you Jason, you are such a blessing to all of us! I can't believe you are already FOUR MONTHS OLD! Where does the time go?

Cousins First Auburn Game!

2011-11-21T14:51:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday we had so much fun. Anne Morgan and Jason's cousins, aunts and Grammie came over for the cousins' first Auburn game. It was so much fun. Now when I say cousins, that is most of them...one cousin was somewhere else which we won't say where. Sinful I say :) j/k (he was at another football game taking place across the state)

We took close to 500 pictures so it was hard to choose a few to put on here. I think it's safe to say that everyone had a great time. We can't wait to be able to do it again.

Hunter and Christopher showing off their new hats...

These two girls were in awe of the majorettes, flag corp and band. They didn't pay much attention to the cheerleaders standing just to our left here but I think it's b/c they had on pants and jackets and you couldn't see their uniforms.

Christopher and Jason are already buddies.

My SIL Caroline and Hunter (the smart ones of the family, hehe)

Grammie had her hands (and heart) full!

AM's favorite person in the world...Sophie!!!!!!

My sister, Brittny with Jason

Hunter was proud to share his new hat with his baby cousin

I can assure you that this was a very proud moment for Uncle Trey

I loved watching them hold hands

and jump! jump! jump!

Trying to get a picture of the 4 kids at the end of the day was not the easiest thing

but it was pretty funny. Especially watching AM try SO HARD to hold Sophie's hand and Sophie didn't want any of it by this point!

And here's a little video of my little cheerleader...

WAR EAGLE everybody!

Elmo Live! and a few other things

2011-11-17T15:08:00.000-06:00

Last night I had a special date with my favorite little girl. It was actually a double date with my friend Becca (my next door neighbor growing up) and her daughter Lilla (same age as AM). It was so much fun to do something like this as just the girls. Becca and I used to have girls trips with our moms when we were growing up so this was super special!

We didn't get the best pictures, they were pretty active but it was oh so much fun!

Waiting for the show to begin...

Beautiful Lilla

As I expected, AM was terrified when the characters came out. But once we ran in fear to the bathroom to potty, she was good to go. Once they were singing and dancing she was having a blast! We got the biggest kick out of her. The girl was gettin' down to say the least.

Here are the girls at intermission after getting some popcorn. Couldn't get a single pic of both girls looking at the camera and not munching on their popcorn. (We had just eaten at Chappy's but I guess that wasn't enough...not that either one really ate anyways)

Ready for the show to start back...

(at one point in the show when the song stopped, AM shouted "I DANCE MOMMY" she did NOT want to stop and didn't think they should either)

If only this video captured how she was dancing earlier in the show

She was one tired little girl. I changed her into her pajamas when we picked Jason up on our way out of Montgomery. This is how she fell asleep on the way home.

Her first words to me this morning when she woke up (after sleeping late) were "I had fun at Elmo Mommy!" How precious is that?!

And this sweet little boy had fun at Trey's grandparents house while AM and I had our alone time. He is the sweetest little boy. He is sleeping SO much better now. He is not eating in the middle of the night anymore so I am just patting him back to sleep when he wakes up at his typical intervals which doesn't take long. I know he will sleep through those times before you know it!

AM starts back to gymnastics this evening. I'm really looking forward to it. I know she is going to absolutely love it. She enjoyed it last time but she was still so young. She is just growing up so fast. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to tell you that she gets out for school in the drop off line now! What?! I tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago b/c I was in a huge rush and had to meet someone at the house so I thought I'd give it a shot and she was so excited! Well we have been doing it ever since b/c she loves it so much. I miss walking her into her class and watching her run down the hall, but it also saves Mommy about 20 minutes since I don't have to get both kids out of the car. She is such a big girl. :)

Sweet Boy

2011-11-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

I don't think I take enough pictures of Jason these days. I don't know where the days go, but they are flying by. He is already 3 months old! Last night after his bath I snapped a few. He is so happy and smiley these days. He loves to laugh and coo and he LOVES his bath! He has from his first one. I think he could kick and splash in there all night if I would let him. He is sleeping better most nights. I am hoping that it will begin to happen night after night instead of every other night. I think it will. He is getting better about going back to sleep after eating so that has been a big help. I'm not sure how the time change this weekend is going to work though!

I just love those eyes and that smile. You can't see it here, but he has the

most precious dimple when he smiles really big.

Okay, Mom, that's enough with the flash! :)

I just love him so much! Happy weekend everyone!

Trick-o-Treat!

2011-11-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was AM's class party. It was fun to go and see the kids interact with each other and eat a special snack. I love her little class!

Most of the kids dressed up in their costumes but AM is not much of a fan of dressing up so she didn't. I asked her 3 times that morning whether she wanted to wear her costume or a dress and all three times she said her dress. I wasn't surprised nor was I going to push it.

AM and her friend Allie

(believe it or not, everyone else was finished eating and AM sat there forever still eating!!)

Emma, Allie and AM

Last night we went downtown for the Halloween fun. As usual, Auburn is so much fun! The stores hand out candy and people walk from store to store, dance in the streets to the band and watch all of the costumes on kids, adults and plenty of four-legged friends too!

Here is our little Minnie Mouse! Amazingly it wasn't too hard to get it on her this time!

She was so excited! Little did she know that people were getting candy, we just walked around and danced. Her bucket was a handy little thing for Mommy to put stuff in. :)

Showing off her bucket, she was so proud of it!

When we got up to the band where everyone was dancing, a precious little lady bug kept wanting to come up to her to see "Minnie"! AM was so confused. I don't think that she really understood that SHE was Minnie Mouse. Whenever we would say something about Minnie she would just point to the little broach on the front of her dress.

I didn't dress Jason up. Bad mom, I know. When AM was a baby we put a Tootsie Roll costume on her and I thought about reusing it for him but I remembered how uncomfortable it looked and opted out. I think he was happy enough just being there. :)

We had a great time. I love living here. AM had fun just running around and seeing everything. Don't worry, when she's older and knows about the candy we'll let her. I just didn't see the point this year! Besides, I know who would have eaten it all...me!

Turning 30!

2011-10-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

Well, it happened. :) I turned 30 last Monday. I had a wonderful day...which included a vary rare nap! Yep! Both kids napped at the same time and I was able to get one in too! That was the best present they could have given me. The day started out with me taking the kids to breakfast at Chappy's. We've never done that but I thought it would be a fun little treat since we had to be at the doctors office that morning anyways. (AM had to get her flu shot) Then we came home, ate lunch and took our naps. That night we went to eat at Mikata. Yumm!!

Here are a few pictures we took after dinner that night.

Aunt Chasidi was able to come join us for dinner. The kids were SO excited to see her!

AM talks about her all of the time.

I love this one! He is so happy these days. He loves to laugh and coo and

show off those big beautiful eyes!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-17T20:27:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we had a great time at the Dream Field Farms Pumpkin Patch near Union Springs. We met our friends, the Barber's, who 's little girl Addison is just a few weeks older than AM. They went to this one last year and from pictures it looked like there was more to do than the one we went to last year. They had so much to do. The only thing they didn't have that the other one did was horses. Oh well, we get to see those anyways. :)

When we first arrived, AM and Addison played in the corn pit. I wanted to get in too! It took AM a minute to warm up (imagine that!) but once she was in there she didn't want to get out.

Love this little girl!

...and I LOVE those lashes!!

Getting ready to watch the pig race! It was hilarious!

Jason had a good 'ole time with Emily! He got so happy and made the cutest faces with her.

After a short hay ride, it was time to search for a pumpkin or two.

She found a perfect one just for her!

Sweet Addison brought one over to AM but she didn't want it. (How rude!!)

They are so cute together.

I love how AM sat on the pumpkin all by herself. No one told her to, but it's so cute!

AM and Addison painting their pumpkins. AM only wanted blue.

They had several bouncy houses. AM loved them!

And there was a huge inflatable slide. If I hadn't had a dress on, I totally would have gone myself!

Look at sweet Addison reaching her hands out and calling AM to come down the slide!!!

Jason says: "Hey! I'm here too!!"

The girls painted pumpkins

Then it was time for some ice cream. Addison was so sweet to share with AM. I was so impressed with how well they both did with sharing. (Sharing is definitely something that we are working on around here so I was SUPER impressed) Not once did either of them say no, or mine...! They just had a great time and were so sweet to each other.

We had a great time. I think we'll be going back to this one each year. It was an hour away, but worth it. And not to mention we got to see our friends. They live in Montgomery and we never get together. Hopefully we can work on that b/c they girls sure did have fun!

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Cookie Time

2011-10-17T12:12:00.000-05:00

Somehow I have never baked cookies with AM. Not sure how this has happened, I guess b/c I never make they kind of cookies to cut out and decorate. So I decided to go the easy route and buy a bag of sugar cookie mix and let her have some fun. It was fun, she had a blast!

Think she likes sprinkles?

We may have to do this more often b/c fortunately these cookies don't tempt me!

Stay tuned, we went to the pumpkin patch and have lots of pictures

Aunt Kate and the Farm

2011-10-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

Last Friday we spent the morning with "Aunt" Kate at her farm. We love getting to spend time there. I can't wait for AM and Jason to learn to ride horses out there one day.

Going to say hey to Clipper (the horse) and JJ (the donkey)

Going to feed the horses with Aunt Kate

This was Mollie's first visit to the farm. She was quite intrigued by the horses :)

Then JJ was doing her job and running Mollie off, pretty funny actually!

We love to spend time out there, and Mollie had a blast running around with her old friends, Kate's dogs. It was just what we all needed after the week we had just had.

We are all doing better now by they way. Today would have been Beasley's birthday, and we can only remember all of the wonderful memories we made with him.

Looking forward to going to the pumpkin patch with some friends on Sunday. Hopefully we will get some good pictures! Have a good weekend. War Eagle!!

Bubbles and a Check Up

2011-10-11T20:03:00.000-05:00

We are loving the fall weather around here. We are spending lots and lots of time outside. Much of this time is blowing bubbles. AM could not be happier when she is outside AND blowing bubbles with Mommy and Daddy.

"'mere Daddy" (Come here Daddy!)

Oh so excited running around the yard

Now she has Daddy running around with bubbles with her!

"Cheese"!!!

Pretty Mollie :)

We all love Mollie (this was "the day after" so we all, especially Mollie

needed some extra loving. She totally knows.)

Obviously these final pics don't have anything to do with bubbles or outside, but that night AM just had to put her doll in the "kangaroo pouch"! She was so proud.

Jason was in the said pouch at the time of the outside pictures which is why we don't have any of him. But here is one of him the other day at the doctor's office. By the way he was 10 lb 12 oz and 22.3 in long at his 2 month check up.

Precious Beasley

2011-10-05T12:37:00.001-05:00

As some of you know, our precious Beasley passed away on Monday. We are all still in shock. As you know he had surgery two weeks ago today to remove the metal plates in his back foot from his broken ankle and from his front shoulder/arm from the horrific gunshot. He had been doing amazingly well. We were so excited. He was walking and bearing more weight on his hurt side better than he had in 2 1/2 years. We were scheduled to go for his post-op check up and get his stitches removed on Monday. I was glad we had that appointment scheduled as he became sick to his stomach Sunday morning.

About 3 am Sunday, I was up feeding Jason and Beasley threw up in his crate. We didn't think too much of it other than that he must have had an upset stomach from his medicine. When we got home from church Sunday I was able to get him to eat some chicken and rice. He still didn't do much Sunday, nor was he supposed to. He was supposed to be in his crate for 3 weeks. You could tell his tummy was upset a little but still didn't think too much of it. About 9 pm Sunday I was finally able to get him to come out and lie beside me in the living room and drink a little water. Well he threw up the water and the chicken and rice from earlier in the day. At this point I was really glad we were going in the next morning, though we still didn't think anything serious was going on. Monday morning, we headed to Montgomery for the appt. He was so puny, but he hadn't had anything to eat the day before so we still didn't think too much of it. I really thought he may just have a stomach bug or something. We decided to leave him there for a little bit and let them do some blood work and x rays to see if they could figure out why he was sick. I expected to leave him for about an hour.

The vet called about an hour later and said that everything came back normal but he was dehydrated so she ran a catheter to give him some fluids. We decided to just let him stay overnight and Trey could bring him home Tuesday so that he could get plenty of fluids and get back to feeling great again. I just knew that would do the trick and the vet agreed.

Then the call came about 5 pm Monday. The vet said that things had taken a sudden and drastic turn. Beasley had a seizure about 20 minutes prior to the call but they were able to use the defibrillator and revived him. At this point she noticed that his blood sugar had bottomed out and then she found that fluid had filled his abdomen and it was infected with bacteria. She said there was not much of a chance for him to make it through, but the only chance was to do emergency surgery on his abdomen. Even still there wasn't much of a chance. We, of course, told her to go ahead. A short time later she called and said that he passed. Twice they had to use the defibrillator during the surgery and the second time they just couldn't save him.

She said they went back over everything to see if there was something they had missed somewhere. Maybe cancer, maybe an ulcer, anything. There was nothing. Everything was normal, and the x rays were taken in the afternoon, that's how sudden this came on.

I know this is long, and very detailed, but I just want you to know how sudden this was. It just came out of nowhere. We are very upset, obviously. But at the same time, we know that we did absolutely everything we possibly could have done for him, just as the amazing doctors and nurses did. We don't have any "what if's" because there just wasn't anything else that could have been done for our precious Beasley. He was under the best care absolutely possible. He was AT the vet, not at home. He had an ace for a surgeon. I cannot express to you how awesome she is. And she loved him too. Not only am I grateful that he wasn't at home when this happened because he died, but because I know that he got the best shot at survival because he was there. They jumped on it right away. Poor baby just couldn't fight anymore. He had been through so much over the past couple of years. We just knew that this was the end of all of the bad and he was going to be around for the kids to grow up with. There has never been and will never be another dog so perfect. Especially for kids.

Everyone that knew Beasley loved him. Even people that don't like dogs. They liked Beasley. He was a living, breathing Clifford, The Big Red Dog. There was just something about him. We just can't believe he is gone, but we have so many amazing memories over the last 7 years with him. (Next Friday would have been his 7th birthday) He was such a happy, friendly, outgoing, sweet dog. We are going to miss his wiggles and kisses for sure! Did you know that he won the Valentines Day kissing contest at PetCo one year?! Yep! I could go on and on about all of the memories we have with him, but this has probably been long enough as it is. Maybe we can do that for another post...his birthday perhaps? There is really no way to ever explain what a hug part of our lives he was and how much we have been through with him. But those of you who have kept up with the blog probably have a good idea already.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of sweet Beasley, through the years, in no particular order.

We will always love you Beasley. You were so special to so many people. But I know that you are running around Heaven with your mom, Daisy, and Bo (Trey and I's first dog together). And when we are able to get what's left of your physical being, we are going to let you have one last long leap off of this dock! Just like you would want. You sure did love swimming and leaping!!!

We love you Beasley!!!

Lately and an iphone dump!

2011-09-27T15:26:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a really random post so bear with me or just skip it! haha! I just wanted to jot down some things that have been happening lately. I keep wanting to blog about things but there is hardly ever any time to, and when both kids are finally asleep at night, well...mommy is too! Also, I am finally taking pictures off of my phone which is where most pictures are captured these days. So some of these are a couple of months old, but thought I'd share anyways.

-Jason is 8 weeks old today! My how time flies. He slept from 9:30pm-5:00am 2 days before turning 7 weeks (he did this again last night!). Usually sleeps from 9 or 9:30-3 or 3:30 then eats and (hopefully) goes back to sleep until 6-7ish.

-Nap time is getting better. He still really wants Mommy...A LOT! I end up carrying him around either in my arms or in the baby carrier for hours on end.

-AM loves helping with him in any way. Especially diaper time and bath time. She is actually very gentle with him and truly wants to help. If I had an extra set of hands I would video tape or take pictures of her helping with his bath. It is SO cute!

-AM LOVES school. She doesn't look back when I drop her off in the morning. I think I will be able to drop her off in the drop off line soon, but I don't know if I am read to do that. And I want to find out what they sing at school b/c I can't interpret it but she tries to get me to sing along all of the time.

-AM is really doing pretty well with potty training. She hasn't been in diapers since Labor Day, that's 3 weeks! She does wear a pull up for sleeping and today was her first day to wear panties to school. She has been wearing pullups the last 2 weeks but they said they didn't mind if she wears panties. She did great! She stayed dry all morning at school. I was so proud! Her teacher said she took her once and then she ASKED TO GO once! Apparently after she went on her own she immediately asked for a blue M&M. :)

-#2 in the potty is still a work in progress, but we have been able to catch her starting to go and been able to get her to do it in the potty!!

- It's interesting that she has obviously made the connection with drinking and having to tee-tee. She used to drink an insane amount but now she doesn't at all. In fact I have to make sure that she does drink sometimes. She discovered tee-teeing outside in the yard and gets the biggest kick out of it. It's hilarious! She runs to the same spot every time, haha!! She proves that she knows before she has to go b/c she will point to the grass if we are outside playing and say "Mommy, I go tee tee!!" then runs over there to do it. Silly girl!

-We took both kids to the Auburn game this past weekend. It was SO MUCH fun!!! Jason did great and AM was in heaven. I'm afraid we are going to have to start getting her a ticket too. She absolutely loved it! (and stayed accident free the whole day/night!!!)

-Beasley is doing really well. While he is of course a little sore from having major surgery, you can tell that he already feels so much better. He is bearing more weight on his injured side than he has in 2 years! AM is pretty funny trying to take care of him too. She makes sure that he stays in his crate and has on a leash when it's time to come out!

-I can't even keep up with updating AM's vocabulary. It is exploding! It is so fun to hear so many new words and phrases...every day!

Silly girl!

Loving her little brother

And loving bows...good grief!!

Caught! Playing with brother's diaper cream...eww!!

A new world of grocery shopping. It's not so easy anymore!!

School is exhausting!

Bundled up for a walk one day when it was abnormally cool...ready for this weather to come and stay

How precious is this little boy and his Aubie?!

We've got a little artist in the house...can you see the Toodles/Mickey Mouse that she drew?

As I said before...silly girl! Or as she would say "I funny!!"

Future QB1 :)

And another one...she's a little bashful

Worn out from school and playing too hard!!!

New boots...thanks Aunt Kate!!

Ready for his first Auburn game!!!

AM's first Tiger Walk

She LOVED it!

This is from last night's Monday Night Football intro. I apologize the video is shaking

but I was trying to keep from laughing too hard. This is the 3rd or 4th time

we played the song for her so we were already in stitches!

Beasley

2011-09-23T19:07:00.000-05:00

He's home and recovering! Surgery went well. We are all so glad that we went ahead with surgery. When the doctor got in there every screw was loose! So glad we took both plates out, no wonder he was in pain!! Of course he's sore right now and confined to a crate but give him a couple of weeks and he will be a new man! Thank you all for thinking and praying for him. I can't wait to show you some pictures of him running around like new!!! :)

Beasley Update

2011-09-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you all remember the horrible injury Beasley sustained after being shot 2 years ago in August. The surgeries and recovery too. You may also remember that about 6 months prior to that incident he broke his ankle and had a plate and screws put in his hind foot.

His foot has really been bothering him lately, so much that many days he won't bear any weight on it. His shoulder seems to be ok other than the bottom of the plate rubs on his elbow funny and he is constantly licking it. That doesn't seem to be painful, but rather a nuisance.

Tomorrow he is going to have both plates and screws removed. Please keep him and the veterinarian and nurses in your thoughts and perhaps say a little prayer. This is not nearly as traumatic of a surgery, but it is still a major surgery. Especially the front plate. There is a risk of damaging the radial nerve, just as there was a risk when it was put in. Once surgery is over though, the recovery should not be nearly as tough.

We are just so ready for him to be the good 'ole Beasley that we know and love. He has become such a hermit. He rarely comes out of the closet or off of his bed (or ours!) so we hope and pray that this will revive him. He has too much time left- Lord willing- for him not to feel spry.

(this pic is from exactly one year ago, crazy how much of a baby AM looks!)

I'll be sure to update you on his progress! Thanks everyone, we love our Beasley!

BLESSED

2011-09-15T15:34:00.002-05:00

One Month Stats

2011-09-07T08:09:00.000-05:00

Jason had his one month check-up yesterday. He is a growing boy! He is now 9lb 2 oz and 21.1 inches long. HIs head is 15 in. The first two put him in the 25% and his head in the 45%. That may sound like he's small but he has moved up percentage wise from when he was born so he is definitely putting on the weight! :) I knew he had to be b/c he eats all the time.

Last week we went to Montgomery one morning to visit my grandmother, Great. She hasn't had a chance to meet Jason so we wanted to make a trip just for her.

I didn't get a picture of her with both of the kids b/c AM was too busy playing. Great has quite a selection of toys to play with, and not to mention Sophie came over too so she was "busy". I'm just so thankful that we got a picture of Jason with her.

I apologize for the lack of posts. I wish I could say that it will get better soon, but I can't. Between having a newborn and potty training a toddler there just doesn't seem to be much time for the computer. On an "up" note, AM is really REALLY loving school! And Mommy is loving that she loves it and the things she comes home with for the fridge.

Wish us luck with potty training! And the sleeping is getting better, pray that it continues...oh, one more thing, AM is eating much more like a regular kid these days, so that makes me happy too. :) She is so much fun these days

Happy 1 Month Jason!

2011-08-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

Happy 1 Month, Jason!

We love you so much and you have brought us so much love and joy. You are such a blessing and are growing so fast! I can't wait to take you for your check up next week to see how much you really have grown. You are beginning to sleep better and your tummy seems to be much better too- thank goodness! Now, if I could just get you to stop waking for the day at 3:30 am :)

We love you little man!

First Day of School!

2011-08-23T18:35:00.000-05:00

Today was the big day...Anne Morgan's first day of school! She was so excited!

She did great when we got there. She didn't cry at all and started playing!

She was a little concerned about her friend Anna Rae who was crying. She thought about crying for a minute but didn't give in. I was so proud of her!

Here she is hanging her backpack up :)

Anna Rae was already there when we got there!

She was really excited

When I got there, I peeked through the window and the class was having story time. Everyone was sitting on the mat listening to the teacher...except for AM. She was in the back of the room by herself reading her own book! I expected this. The teacher said that she did well today but she didn't participate too much with the structured activities. That is the whole reason we are doing this. She's never had to participate in structured activities before so it's time for her to learn! She behaved well and didn't cry though. In fact, when Anna Rae was upset she comforted her and kept saying "No cry, A-Rae" This made me so proud! She was worn out afterwards, she almost didn't make it home before falling asleep. We are looking forward to Thursday!!

Cousins Came to Visit

2011-08-22T14:25:00.000-05:00

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple of days. Friday night/Saturday we went to the lake b/c my brother and his family were coming into town to meet Jason. As always, plenty of fun was had by all. I'm so glad that Brittny and her kids live close now so they could come up too! I think it was the first time all summer we have had all of the cousins there.

Sophie loved holding Jason. Here she is doing "this little piggy..."

Christopher has always been so good at holding babies.

Here he is with Pop, making Jason say "Christopher." It was precious!

Sweet baby boy. :)

The Armstrong clan got in about 8 pm Friday night. Drake was so sweet with baby Jason too!

Sophie and AM playing on the beach while the boys were tubing.

AM and some of the dogs watching the boys in the tube.

Love this girl!

These two have quickly become best friends. LOVE it!

Drake and Christopher

Popsicle time!

This was so funny. Love watching what kids think of. For some reason, Sophie and Drake started hooking up their plasma cars and AM's stroller with leashes. They spent forever getting it just right.

Then Hunter and Christopher had to pop in and see what they were up to.

It was so fun having everyone together, even if it was for just a short time. Thank you Kyle and Caroline for making such an effort to come see us. They got here Friday night and had to go back to Nashville Saturday afternoon!!

Then, drumroll please...

AM has now finally held her baby brother!! And just like I imagined, now that she has, she wants to all of the time. She was so sweet with him!

I love how she is checking on him in this picture. She really is a great big sister.

And last, but not least, here she is proudly sporting her Daisy Duck pajamas! She LOVES Daisy. I have a feeling tonight it will be the Minnie Mouse pajamas that also came in the set.

Showing us that Daisy is on her shirt!

OK, nap time is over, gotta run!

Big Sister!

2011-08-15T10:20:00.001-05:00

Anne Morgan is full of funny things these days. She has taken to being a big sister much faster than I expected and she is so proud! One of the cutest things that she is now doing is putting herself to bed. She has always been good about going to bed. Lately she will go to her room with all of her stuffed animals and dolls and let us tuck her in, kiss her good night and then she tells us to lock the door (which is on the outside for when we need to keep her in there, which doesn't usually happen) and shut it behind us. That was pretty funny when she started that. WELL, once we brought Jason home she decided that it was time to start putting herself in bed. She goes to her room, doesn't let us in, and then locks the door, kisses us through the crack of the door and shuts it on her own to then get in bed all by herself! Precious! She is growing up too fast.

We haven't been in the car too much, but when we have she has gotten better about fussing for her movie and her juice. It used to drive me crazy! And I'm sure it will return, but for now, it seems that if she asks once and I tell her no (for the movie) or that she is out of juice then she just takes it for that and moves on. Guess she knows she needs to be a good example for her baby brother!

She is so good at helping Mommy take care of her baby brother. If it's time to change his diaper, and that seems to be all of the time, she runs as fast as she can to his room to help. She hands me the diaper every time and then puts the dirty one in the trash. And she HAS to do it! I don't mind though, it's so cute!

Jason is growing himself! He is so sweet, isn't that nose just precious?! I think so!

Nothing gets past this girl. She picks up on everything! This was last night when she was talking to Jason. She was telling him that it was time to go. Notice, she has all of her necessities. She knows Mommy always has her bottle of water, phone, purse and baby!

And when it came time to take the baby on a stroll in the back yard, once again she knew what she needed. Her water bottle and...

of course her phone in the canopy of the stroller!

She also learned how to pedal her tricycle yesterday! No pictures yet, but I'm sure there will be many bike riding pictures in the future. She loves to ride!

She starts "school" next week. I'm anxious to see how she will do. She will be there Tuesday and Thursday mornings and has several friends in her class. I was nervous to sign her up, but the way that she has taken to all of the new changes in our house lately I think she will do great!

Jason's First Week!

2011-08-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

We have had a great first week with our new baby. I am so incredibly blessed to be the mommy to two special children. They fill my heart with such joy. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true!

It's hard to believe that Jason was born just one week ago. In fact, as I'm typing this, he still wasn't even born. I can't remember life without him though. He is so precious and such a good baby.

Anne Morgan has made me so proud. She is such a great big sister. She loves her baby brother and is a great helper for mommy. She RUNS to his room every time I say that it's time to change Jason's diaper so that she can help. So far she hasn't been jealous at all which is what I was worried about. In fact, she has shared some of her favorite things with him. And one of the cutest things is how she makes sure that he has his blue doggie lovie. She is so particular about this, SHE has to give it to him, she won't hand it to you to lay on him. When she notices that he doesn't have it she runs to find it and bring it to him. I can't believe I don't have a picture of it. I'm sure there will be plenty to come though. :)

AM and Mollie watching over Jason and making sure the bouncy seat is on

Trying to give Jason his paci, which he doesn't really care for. That's frustrating for her!

But she is so sweet about it.

Enjoying some sunshine in front of the window.

Love having a crib with wheels that we can move around so easily!

Yesterday my mom, Brittny and the kids, Christopher and Sophie came over. We had so much fun. We went to the pool, of course Jason and I just sat in the shade under the pavilion while they all swam. I wish I had taken my camera to get pictures. AM loved getting to play in the water with them and it made me happy since I can't swim for 6 weeks.

Then Christopher and Sophie wanted to hold Jason. It was precious!

Christopher wanted a turn, but Sophie said she wasn't finished.

She told him to just hold his feet! It was hysterical!

Sweet cousins (AM was napping)

Christopher got his turn

Sophie is geared up and ready for Auburn football! We bought these for AM but haven't decided which to keep so Sophie tried them on for us. Needless to say, she loved them and when they left our house stopped by J&M to pick one up for herself! :)

Be back soon! I've got some updates on AM all of a sudden stepping into her a

big girl role but don't have time to write any more. Oh! And she is starting "school" two weeks from today! I was worried, but they way she has handled the new addition I think she is going to love it! She has handled change really well. I'm so proud of her!

Finally!

2011-08-03T11:32:00.001-05:00

I apologize for not posting anything yesterday. It was a crazy day, crazy wonderful! I didn't have a chance to post anything on here until it was time to go to bed...and I was going to bed. :)

I am going to do this quickly before the next visitors get here in a few minutes but I wanted to share some pictures of our new little man. He is perfect. :)

We arrived at the hospital at 5 am to start the process. It took a little longer to really get started (i.e., break my water and get an epidural) b/c there were quite a few babies being born yesterday! I will say that I have now felt true labor contractions. I was ready to get the epidural! (When I had AM I had the epidural before I ever felt any painful contractions.)

Once they broke my water it didn't take too long! We thought for about an hour it may, but then all of a sudden it went quick. Put it this way, the nurse checked me at 10 am, I was at 5 cm and she said she'd check again in 2 hours which would have been noon. After watching the monitors, she decided at 10:45 to check me and I was at 8 cm so we called the doctor to tell him to head this way. He left his office at 11, and Jason was born at 11:31! I wasn't due to even be checked for another half hour!! I was more nervous this time than last just b/c last time went so smoothly, I knew I couldn't be so fortunate again. Fortunately I was! Once Dr. Phillips got to the room, he chatted with my dad for a minute then told him, Gic, Chasidi and Chelsi he needed to check me. Once he did, he said it's time to push, he's right here! WOW!! I couldn't believe it! The rest of the grandparents and AM weren't even here yet.

We are so blessed to have a healthy, perfect baby boy. He is so tiny, a good bit smaller than his sister.

He scored a perfect 10 on his APGAR!!

Jason Davis Howell

11:31 am August 2, 2011

6 lb 14 oz

19 3/4 in long

Very first picture with Mommy

Big sister meeting him for the first time. She was more concerned about Mommy

in the bed with stuff hooked up than she was about him.

Daddy getting to hold Jason for the very first time.

Big sister wanted Jason to see her new puppy and puppy had to give him a kiss. :)

He is such a blessing. He is nursing great, it is truly amazing to watch what an instinct it is. He is so tiny right now, I know it won't be long and he will be a big boy! How quickly you forget the itty bittiness though! I love it!

We will head home tomorrow and I'll add more pictures.

Yippee!

2011-08-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the day! We are heading to the hospital at 5 am tomorrow morning! This is the first time I have ever posted from my phone so I'm testing it out. I will post again tomorrow when he is here. Please keep us in your prayers, next time I post I will be a mommy to a precious little girl and a brand new baby BOY! :)

Lake with Cousins

2011-07-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

AM and I enjoyed a couple of days at the lake with 2 of my cousins and my aunt from Kansas. It was great to see them, it's been a while. As usual she was shy when we got there, but it didn't take long for her to warm up to them!

AM and Drew

On Wednesday, my sister Brittny and her kids came up and once the rain finally stopped we all went out in the boat for some tubing and knee boarding. (Well I was just along for the boat ride!)

Christopher and Drew had a blast!

Then it was time for Sophie, Brittny and AM...her first time tubing!

And I must note for my sister's sake, she left her sunglasses and had to wear an old pair of my Dad's that were in the boat. We used to make fun of them as kids...

She loved it!

Next up was Christopher, Haley and Sophie...

The new tube was not the best so we returned it to the dock and borrowed the neighbors. I tried my hardest to get a pic of my cousins with the kiddos. This was the best attempt.

Sophie and AM decided to get off the boat and hang out with Grammie and Aunt Melodee while we went out for more tubing and boarding.

Pop and Christopher on the "big board"

Then Haley's turn

And last but not least, Christopher asked Pop to ski so he did! And he did great!! Go Pop!

We had a great time. It rained much of the day but we were able to squeeze in some games inside and then finally get out in the boat. It was great to see my cousins and my aunt, it's been a while. We weren't however, successful in making this preggo lady go into labor with the boat ride. :)

Looks like we will be having our baby in about a week and a half though! I. CAN'T. WAIT.

2 Year Check-Up

2011-07-15T18:11:00.000-05:00

Our little munchkin isn't so little! We went for her 2 year check-up yesterday and it's confirmed that she's a big girl, haha! She didn't necessarily act like one though. She was terrified and I can only assume that it's b/c the last time she was in a doctor's setting she was getting her nose stitched up. I don't know, it was awful. And embarrassing. She didn't even have to get shots but you would have thought they were operating on her!

She weighs 35 pounds and is 37 inches tall. Both are above 97%!!!

Her head circumference is 19 inches (I think).

Y'all I promise you that she survives on milk and V8 Fusion. She doesn't eat, although the last few days she has, thankfully! Most people would assume with stats like that she eats a lot. Not so much.

I just thought I would throw in some pictures to make this more interesting :)

This little girl LOVES to color/draw!

On another note, I'm sure you're wondering about the blog going private. I am still putting it off (typical). I have all of your email addresses if you have sent them to me, but I have changed a few settings on the blog and I'm going to monitor some things before deciding to make the switch.

In baby news, I'm just trying my best to hold on a couple more weeks. To say that I am ready would be a major understatement. I am looking forward to next week though b/c my aunt and two of my cousins are coming to the lake and it's been years since we've seen them! At least that gives me something to look forward to.

Have a great weekend! Looks like MORE rain.

AM turns 2!

2011-07-13T13:07:00.000-05:00

We have been celebrating Anne Morgan's 2nd birthday for 5 days now...and we're not finished! We still have more grandparents to celebrate with. We decided we would let her open one present a day until they ran out b/c she gets so excited about each one, regardless of how "big" of a present it is.

First was her tricycle. This was her main present. She LOVES it!

(she was "working" on it with the screw driver!)

I guess she's too cool to smile. :)

We knew this next one would be a hit, but didn't realize how big of a hit!

It's all of the dogs from Clifford!!

She still has the books to open and I know she will love those too!

This night she was entertained/occupied for about 45 minutes straight trying to pack unpack and repack each of them into her new suitcase. She never could get it just right, we eventually made her go to bed. It was really funny b/c she was so determined but wouldn't accept any of the options that worked. :)

She LOVES her new suitcase from Great (my grandmother) I caught her with it in the back yard. Not sure what she planned on doing with it out there but she quickly decided it didn't roll so well on the grass and decided to pick it up and bring it back inside.

Yesterday we spent the day in Montgomery. I had a dr. appointment and then we stayed to eat dinner with the Howell's to celebrate AM's bday and Trey's which is Monday. She had so much fun playing with everyone and her new toys...

And their new kitten. She was hilarious talking and playing with that little guy!

We had an awesome dinner at Miyako and then it was time for presents from Granny Sally (Trey's grandmother). AM was actually interested in opening the presents!

Showing off her beautiful pearl necklace from Granny Sally.

And wouldn't you know, that just when we were leaving we tried to take a group picture and our camera died. (I don't mean the battery died either. I'm not sure what happened, I'm hoping and thinking that it isn't anything major, it still comes on and does the focusing and the flash before taking the picture but never takes the picture. Glad this happened now rather than when we are in the hospital with baby Jason! I plan to take it in this afternoon after her nap.) This was taken with my phone, not the best picture but at least we got one.

A rare shot with Grandaddy.

So today all of her bday pics have to be taken with my phone. :( She enjoyed watching Clifford with her "friends" this morning before we met real friends at the pool.

She is worn out after a morning of swimming. I'll post more pictures later, we still have a few people to celebrate with over the next week or so. :)

Party at the Splash Park!

2011-07-10T18:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated Anne Morgan's upcoming 2nd birthday at the Splash Park in Opelika! We had lots of friends and family there to play with us. We had SO much fun! I honestly do not think that I have ever seen her have more fun in her life. She immediately started playing when we got there (this doesn't usually happen, it normally takes her quite a while) and didn't slow down for 3 hours! It was so fun to watch her and her friends and cousins play. It was even better than I could have dreamed of.

Here are her Mickey Mouse cupcakes.

Of course she never touched them, she wanted cheese balls instead. I'm serious!

Running straight to the water slide when she got there.

Grammie, AM and Drake

Hunter was having fun too!

Hunter and Drake shooting each other with the water guns. It was so fun to have her cousins from Nashville in town for the party!

Hunter could hardly stand the wait for cupcakes

Anne Morgan and her friend Addison who came all the way from Montgomery

Anne Morgan wasn't quite sure what to think about her favorite person, Sophie, being there...live and in person! (we text videos all of the time so she's used to only seeing her on the phone or computer)

It was finally time for cupcakes!

Then it was time to run and play again after cupcakes (or in AM's case, more cheese balls)

I love this of Hunter and Sophie running full speed

(Uncle) Trey and Drake

Brandon (my sister's husband) was able to make it to the party too...after a long 8 hour test

for his medical boards. We were so glad to see him!

Daddy and the birthday girl

I think this is the only picture of one of us with her, up close at least.

I know I didn't get one then again, I didn't really want one, I'm quite the WHALE these days!

By the end, Christopher was over the splashing and swimming...he just wanted the cheese balls. :)

Silly Sophie! Man I love that girl!!!

So these are just a handful of the almost 500 pictures that we took. We had the best time. I know I said that before, but we had more fun that I would have even expected. It was a perfect place to have a party for little ones in the middle of the summer. I can't believe she is going to be 2 in a few days. We'll have another post or two for her birthday as we celebrate over the next week.

Jason's Room

2011-06-23T13:15:00.002-05:00

Well, we've finished Jason's room. Of course I'm sure we will still add some little things here and there but for the most part it's finished! What a relief, now we are just trying to hang on for these last few weeks. I can't wait to bring him home.

You'll probably recognize several of the pieces from AM's room. The glider was a hand-me-down from my sister, we used it for AM too, just recovered it. The crib was a hand-me-down too.

The crib skirt was AM's, I just took the green ribbon off and added 2 navy ribbons.

Same side table too!

The same changing table Pop made for AM, and the exact same baskets too.

We reused the bumper pad as well, just recovered the inserts.

I just love these little diaper shirts Grammie made for him.

This room was really fun to do. I enjoyed it and really enjoyed finding ways to reuse what we had.

[I also really like the updated blogger format! :) ]

Private

2011-06-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

I'll be switching my blog to private in the very near future. I've been putting this off for a while, but I don't think I will wait much longer now. If you would like to continue reading, which I would love for you to please send me your address. If you have already sent it to me (through FB or email), I have it and you don't need to bother sending it again. Thanks everyone, I'd love for you to be able to keep up with our growing family! When the switch is made, you will still be able to read the blog, you'll just have to sign in to read.

Weekend of Celebrating

2011-06-19T20:19:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy but fun weekend. Saturday we had a birthday party for my grandmother who turned 90! We spent the day at my parents house on the lake and were able to visit with cousins and long time family friends. It was a really nice day. Anne Morgan had a fun time, especially with her cousin Drake. They were so cute pushing the baby dolls around.

Don't they look alike?

A rare family shot

After lunch, Daddy took AM swimming

Hunter is so funny...and he knows it! :)

Sweet Drake and their dog Divot

Kyle and his boys...Trey and AM

Hunter showing off...surfing

We couldn't believe it, AM actually let Kyle hold her and we even snapped a picture!

I wish we had taken a picture with the "birthday girl" but we didn't. There was a lot of commotion with so many people but we will remember the day for sure!

We spent this Father's Day afternoon in Pike Road at Trey's dad's house. It was a fun afternoon, after visiting for a little bit we decided it was time to swim. Well it turned out to be a good decision, AM actually paid her grandaddy attention! She gives him the hardest time and will never let him hold her or play. We hoped getting them in the pool together would do the trick and it did!

We had a great day, actually a great weekend. We are all exhausted. Little missy has been quite the trooper. She hasn't had her normal nap schedule so I think it will take her all week to recover. Fortunately, this is a really laid back week for us and we don't have anything to do until a birthday party Sunday. After that, it is quite the gauntlet until Jason arrives!

Weekend Trip to the Beach

2011-06-13T21:20:00.006-05:00

We just got home from another weekend at the beach. We were able to spend a few days with a friend of mine from my days at Kentucky. Allison and I haven't seen each other since her little girl was AM's age (exactly) and she will be 5 in August! It was so fun to catch up and for our girls to meet and play together. AM loved Ava, she still gets excited when I ask her about Ava! I look forward to doing this again in the future.

The first night we caught up, Ava told me all about the pool that she and her parents built on the beach that day. "It was so cool, there was sand, the ocean AND a pool you could sit in!" So the very next morning we recreated it and AM had just as much fun with it!

Isn't she cute! She looks just like her mommy. Which by the way, Allison and I didn't get a single picture together. Oh well, it's probably better that way, after all she is about 5'10" and a marathon runner...and well, I'm none of the above! ha! I felt like quite the whale on the beach next to her.

Wow! We actually took a picture of the two girls together.

We had to snap quickly b/c AM does not want to stay put.

We spent a lot of time at Baytowne, I love that place. I think AM does too. She and Ava rode the carousel together the first night. It was her first time to ride one. We had to ride again the next night...and finally the last day too. We actually took some pictures the last time. She LOVED the carousel.

Then she found these little puppies outside of a children's shop.

Needless to say she loved them too. We didn't buy one though. They were $39.99 and didn't do anything. That's why they are called Perfect Petz I guess. For that price I would think they would do something!

We also spent quite a bit of time at the playground there.

We had a great time. I wish I had more of a variety of pictures to show from the weekend, but we were busy enjoying the company. We had some great food, a great time and I can't wait to get together with them again. Hopefully this time it won't be 3 years between visits.

The Start of a Busy Summer

2011-06-07T15:25:00.008-05:00

Whew! The summer has just now officially started and I feel like it's already booked up, probably because it is! We have something going on all summer long. That's wonderful, that means we have lots of family and friends to see, but so much for a lazy summer where you are looking for things to occupy your time!

This past weekend we had 2 birthday parties. First was AM's friend Addison's party in Montgomery. She had a Mickey Mouse party so it was lots of fun. I'm not sure if I have mentioned to you how much AM LOVES Mickey! She had so much fun. They even had Mickey show up at the party, at that point she wasn't so sure. She didn't want to take her eyes off of him, but she was terrified. We eventually got her close enough to give him a high five.

Terrified!

Showing Mickey the Mickey on her shoe!

Getting closer...handing Mickey a crayon

Finally, a high five!!

Sunday we headed to the lake for Grandmommie's (Trey's mom) birthday. We swam, rode around in the boat and enjoyed some ice cream cake.

She was ready to ride!

Chillin' like a pro!

Waving with the birthday girl!

We just got home this afternoon from a 24 hour visit to my parents house. We went over there so that my mom and I could finish up the sewing projects for Jason's room. We did the curtains and a pillow. All that is left now is to find something to do with the dresser that is in there and get stuff for the walls. I'm glad we're almost finished since it seems like the summer is already gone and it's really just getting started. As busy as we are going to be over the next two months I know he will be here before we can blink! I'm already going to the doctor for bi-weekly visits!!

I've been so busy I haven't made it to the gym as regularly the past couple of weeks so I hope I can squeeze in some gym time from here on out. Now that the nursery is almost complete hopefully I will be able to do just that in my free time.

Hopefully all of you are able to get some fun and sun in this summer too. Don't get me wrong, we may be busy, but it's because we will be having lots of fun!

Memorial Day Videos in the Pool

2011-05-31T21:15:00.008-05:00

Here are a couple of videos from the first morning at the pool. You can see how well she is swimming now! And actually, I stopped videoing too soon. She started really putting her face down in the water for a lot longer and swimming further before flipping over. The technique in the video is what she is supposed to be doing...then she surprised us and started swimming more! We couldn't believe it. I think that she was learning from watching the older kids swim in the pool.

I know I'm always telling you about how she is boy crazy. Well here is proof. She wouldn't stop jumping off the edge to us...that is until some boys came to the pool.

(sorry that my finger is in the picture here, I wasn't really paying attention b/c I was trying to hold it together watching her...watching them)

More Memorial Day...

2011-05-31T20:25:00.006-05:00

Here are some more pictures from our trip. These are not in any particular order, it's combined pictures from the camera and from my phone so it's a little jumbled. And actually, the pictures from the last post are from Sunday, not Saturday. Not that it matters to those of you reading this. :)

Supermodel shot :)

Winding down for the evening with Mollie and a box of raisins.

Playing at Destin Commons...after buying some new shoes.

In case you didn't know, she is now officially the coolest kid around. She has chameleon crocs...they change colors in the sunlight. AND she has a Mickey jibbet. As far as she's concerned, there is NOTHING cooler. :) [we are 100% obsessed with Mickey right now...and now he goes with us everywhere]

Taking the dogs out to the bathroom and for a walk one evening.

And one of her favorite things...being tossed in the pool!

Memorial Day Beach Trip...Day 1

2011-05-31T08:19:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to the beach over the weekend. These are from the first day. I'll come back later and add some more from the rest of the trip. We took tons of pictures so it's hard to sort through them and choose a few. As always, Anne Morgan was VERY entertaining!!

She was ready to go! And she insisted on carrying her own stuff!

You are coming aren't you?!!!

Why do you keep stopping? I'm ready to go!

We're here! And there is plenty of sand for me to eat!!

She thought it was hilarious to dump a scoop of stand into the bucket of water and let it splash! She did this over and over and they laughed every time! :)

Then she decided that baby HAD to go swimming too. Here is baby counting ONE...TWO...THREE and jumping the waves

Lots of sand was consumed. YUCK!

Getting buckets of water with Daddy

Whew! That's hard work!

We'll be back later. There are more pictures and a few videos to post. She did GREAT with her swimming, I'll have to update you on that too. I am so proud of her! We had a great weekend and it was a great way to officially kick off the summer. I hope you had a wonderful one too.

Getting Ready for Baby...

2011-05-23T15:02:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we were putting some stuff up in the attic and decided to go ahead and get a few things down that we'll need when Jason arrives. The first was the swing. AM lit up when she saw it! She couldn't get her baby in it fast enough. I set it up in her room for the time being since she was having so much fun with it. Well, a little while after doing so, she was calling for me and I went to see what she was up to. SHE was in the swing! And loving it and so proud of herself! She is so funny these days.

Mommy is getting ready too. This pregnancy has been different than my first one. The main thing is the fact that I am carrying SO low. I feel like my belly is in my lap already and I'm only 29 weeks! I don't just feel like it, it is. With AM, she must have been much higher. I didn't have trouble getting off of the couch or off of a chair this soon. I did have more trouble breathing with her, I haven't noticed that one bit this time. I don't know where he is going to "drop" to when it's time! Clothes are not comfortable, not even maternity clothes. Nothing with any sort of a waist band is comfortable. I'm also very frustrated with the constant weight gain. I try to manage it, but this time around the weight just keeps coming. Granted, I'm craving food that's not so healthy, but I'm also working out a lot more than I did when I was pregnant last time. I'm sure that being at home this pregnancy has added to this issue since I can go into the pantry at any point in time as opposed to being at work. I'm just worried where I will be by the time I deliver!

Most of all, I'm just so ready to meet our little guy! We're finally making progress on his room. We still need to get a car seat since the one we had with AM went to consignment with her stroller. We'll have to get a different kind to work with the new double stroller. Once we've done that, we'll just have to wait! I'm sure with all of the fun and excitement of the summer, it will be here before we know it!

4D Pictures!

2011-05-19T14:13:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we had the pleasure of taking a sneak peek at our baby boy. 4D ultrasounds are so cool! Jason was a stubborn little booger though. He did NOT want to show us his precious little face. He just wanted to keep his hands in front of his face the whole time. The ultrasound tech was so patient and we kept on trying for quite a while. We were able to get a few shots of his face eventually. We got PLENTY of his hands and feet though, haha!

I just love that little nose in profile! I can't wait to kiss it!

The one below is a little freaky, but it's because his eyes are open.

You can see his face best in this picture though.

So there you go, a sneak peek. I guess he was just telling us that we are going to have to wait until August to get a good long look though!

We're making progress on the nursery...finally! I ordered fabric today and picked up the paint. I thought I had everything figured out until I went to order fabric last week and realized it was $48 per yard! Yikes! So I rethought the design and I think I'm going to really be happy with it. It shouldn't take long. I sent the glider fabric home with my mom yesterday. She'll be making that as well as the bumper pad. I'm reusing the skirt from AM's room with some alterations and I will be making the curtains and accent pillow. Once we finish I'll show you some pics!

MothER's Day 2011

2011-05-09T08:00:00.006-05:00

Well you are probably wondering why the E and R in the title are capitalized, or you thought it was a typo. Wrong.

Mother's Day weekend started out great! AM and I went to Montgomery to see the Howell's and give her Aunt Chasidi a birthday present (she shared her bday with Mother's Day this year). We planned on spending the whole day swimming and grilling out. It started out that way. Unfortunately after lunch, Miss Priss had an accident. A total freak accident, it still doesn't really make sense that it was possible. We were all in the kitchen and playing with AM and all of a sudden she fell and hit her nose on the trash can. You wouldn't think anything of it, there aren't any sharp edges or anything on the trash can. Well Chasidi said "there's blood!" and then after she caught herself, AM started crying. We couldn't imagine how much blood there was. Poor thing, she sliced her nose open! I say sliced b/c that's exactly what it was, it looked like something sharp just sliced right through her nose. I immediately called my dad, Pop. He was working in the yard at the lake but said he would meet us at the ER in town. So we all (Gik, Grandaddy, Chasidi and Chelsi) loaded up and headed to the ER. It sure is nice having doctors in the family at times like this. I just knew she needed stitches. Sure enough, she has 4 stitches in her nose. It was so hard to see her in pain and not knowing what to do. My mom, Grammie, came to town with my dad so she and I went to the gift shop while he and 2 nurses (to hold her) to get away from the screaming. Grammie got her a balloon and one of the nurses gave her a teddy bear when we left.

I don't have any pictures from our time with them b/c I was counting on Chelsi to take pictures. Well, her camera was charging before lunch and then we had this bit of an emergency right as we finished up lunch. So we don't have any.

I must say, her nose is healing well and she has handled it in typical AM fashion...like a champ! She doesn't even really seem to notice it. It was hard to keep her hands away from her face at first but now it's much easier. I was already relieved when I walked in the room and Pop had her stitched up, it looked so much better cleaned up and closed up. And I was prepared to wake up yesterday to half of her face bruised but it actually looked better. So without further adieu, here she is.

I didn't take any pictures of it on Saturday, but these are from first thing Sunday morning. I was SOOOO pleased with how much better it looked. And let me tell you, she has not slowed down one bit! We are just going to have to find inside activities for this week since we won't be able to swim and they are showing 90 degrees every day this week.

I hope all of you mommies out there had a super special day. Ours was different than planned since we didn't get to go to church which I was really disappointed in. We just didn't know how she would do with her nose and didn't want to expose her to extra germs kids to play with. And we planned on swimming yesterday afternoon. Instead, I asked if we could go to the mexican restaurant and get fajitas so we did. After lunch Trey took AM home and I was treated to a pedicure, it was divine. When I got home, she was still napping so I crawled in bed with her and napped too! Then it was off to get some yogurt and run a few errands. It was a wonderful day. Ijust hope my little patient heals completely very soon.

Beach Trip

2011-05-02T17:20:00.008-05:00

We had the pleasure of going to Destin this weekend. What a wonderful weekend it was. We had SO much fun and can't wait to go back. It was so fun to watch Anne Morgan enjoy every bit of it. She played so hard and swam, and swam, and swam...It was never enough. She is certainly a little water bug. Here are pictures from the weekend. At the end are 2 videos from the very first afternoon at the pool.

We had just arrived at the beach and it was time for her first swim with Mommy and Daddy. Daddy hasn't ever seen her swim, so he couldn't wait to see what she could do.

Right away she floated...

And then swam to the steps. She became obsessed with the steps.

The next afternoon was the first trip on the beach, mornings were spent at the pool. As you can see, she got a new pair of sunglasses Friday night. She was awfully proud of them. :)

She was pretty proud of her umbrella and chair too.

Uh oh...sand in the chair is no good. Gotta take care of that! :)

We had so much fun just watching her. She was hilarious. It was great to just sit back and see what she would do. You would think that she was a pro at this whole beach thing but she hasn't been since last April, and at that visit she couldn't even walk and just sat in the baby pool on the beach. She was a pro at people watching...and waving to the boys walking by. Seriously.

Mommy, can you hold these for a second?

She found the stick of sunscreen in the bag and had to put some on Daddy...

and then herself...

The water was pretty rough this weekend so we weren't sure whether or not to even take her to the water in the first place. Well we did, and the rest is history. Forget the sand! These waves are too much fun!!!!

Once she discovered the water there was no going back to playing in the sand.

These are 2 videos of her swimming the first afternoon. It was really interesting that the first day she wanted to float more than swim. Remember, this is the first time she has been in the water with us. (I took her a week before by myself and we didn't stay long, it was the first for Trey) Trey has never been to a swimming lesson so he didn't know what to expect. It seems that after she was comfortable in the water with us, the rest of the trip she just wanted to swim to the wall, to the steps, anywhere she could find, and didn't care to float. We didn't take video after the first pool trip so I can't show you her swimming towards the end. Needless to say, we were so impressed and proud of her. The other people swimming in the pool were impressed too and had to ask how old she was. This was one proud Mama. :) It was so funny to listen to them talking amongst themselves about her age and how well she was swimming. "She's not even as old as (insert name) and look at her swim!" I think all of the time and money we've spent with her lessons has really paid off. I know that we certainly feel comfortable and confident with her in the water. The sole purpose of her lessons is to teach her how to save herself should she fall in the water. As you can see, she definitely knows she is safe if she floats on her back and then she can catch her breath.

She liked to "cheat" and when she swam to the steps, she thought she could stand up sooner than she should. She always wanted to go to one step lower than she should. Often she would have to float on her back to figure out what to do. I'm glad she floats b/c she already likes to jump in! Whew!

Easter Sunday 2011

2011-04-24T21:31:00.005-05:00

What a beautiful Easter Sunday it has been! Here are a few pictures from our morning at church. Anne Morgan's dress is one of my dresses from the same age. I love that she was able to wear it. I hope each and every one of you was able to enjoy this wonderful day celebrating the miracle of Easter.

(she was very interested in the purple fountain as you can see here)

Grandmommie (Trey's mom) joined us for church this morning.

Have a great week!

Hunting for a Name!

2011-04-23T14:11:00.005-05:00

Well we've had 2 Easter egg hunt's today. First, we went to the Auburn Egg Hunt at Kiesel Park. It was madness. I thought there would be more kids AM's age there but apparently they must have all gone to the Parkway Baptist one. Guess we should have done that too, we will know for next year. We had fun though, got a couple of pictures.

THEN, when we got home, we decided that it was time to make a final decision on baby boy's name. We've known the first name, in fact I've known that for many years and Trey agreed long ago. We just couldn't decide on a middle name. There were several that we really liked but couldn't commit. So we decided to leave it up to big sister and her egg hunting skills.

We wrote down our final two names four times each and put the names in plastic eggs. Then it was her turn to pick up eggs, we stopped her at five and the decision was made. In a 3-2 count baby boy now has a name!

Jason Davis Howell

We are very happy and excited to finally have it decided. As most of you probably know, Jason was my oldest brother's name. He actually gave me my name. I always wanted to name my son after him, hoping my brother or sister didn't take the name first. :)

Now I feel like we have the ball rolling. He has his first outfit with his name on it now too.

I ordered some fabric samples and they came in yesterday. Some I really liked and some I did not at all. Now I just have to decide on something but at least we're making progress!

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

2011-04-22T12:56:00.010-05:00

So AM has been full of funny peculiarities lately. She is SO particular, and bossy. And she definitely exemplifies "monkey see, monkey do." You better be careful b/c she noticesEVERYTHING that you do. I don't have a whole lot of time, but I've been dying to write some of these down so that I can remember them. I jot notes down on my phone so I can remember them for this, here are some of our favorites: (most of these pictures have nothing to do with this post, just thought I'd throw some in there for fun)

There was no sharing of this Icee!

-a few days ago she was playing kitchen and dropped everything to go into my purse, grab a wet wipe and then wiped down her shopping cart! I just stood there and tried to keep it together. I am obsessive about wiping down the shopping cart with Clorox wipes so I guess she has noticed!

-For a while now she has to be involved with my after-shower routine and copies everything I do. I never really paid attention to how routine I do everything and am so particular about the way I even put on my face lotion. Well she wants to put it on the exact same way. She knows. She dabs one cheek and then the other and you MUST let her do it! One day she (the first time she did this) caught me so off guard b/c the first thing I do after getting out and drying off is grabbing Q-tips and then I turn around and throw them in the trash can. Well she immediately pointed me to the Q-tips when I got out and then took me to the trash can to throw them away!! She also loves holding the deodorant and acting like she is putting it on. In fact she loves this part so much that I have to keep it on the counter now instead of in the drawer where she can get to it.

-A few days ago when it was time to get out of bed, Trey got up to get ready for work and we go into the kitchen to get coffee and breakfast ready to send him off. Well, right when he sat up, she told him to go "tee-tee" b/c she knows he/we always go right when we get up! Too funny!

-She has had an awful cough at night for a couple of months now. It's due to allergies. So at night when she gets into bed, I grab the Vicks VapoRub and put some on her chest and it really helps her sleep better. Lately, I have to try to hold it together b/c by the time that I turn around to put it on her chest, she is already pulling the neck of her shirt down. Y'all, I just wish you could see this. Once she gets into bed she immediately pulls the neck down and she waitsso patiently. It makes me laugh every night.

-She likes to copy Mommy with arm weights. Whatever I do, she does. And she gets the biggest kick out of herself when she does it.

-Our favorite right now is saying the blessing. Right when we sit down she immediately has to hold hands, bows her head and waits for the blessing. She has even said "Amen" lately. Often, she wants to say it several times throughout the meal too...and you better do it!

"CHEESE, PLEASE!!!!!!!"

-A couple of weeks ago she started freaking out in the car when Trey was driving. We realized that she was telling him to put his seatbelt on! Once he did, she clapped and was so happy. She gets him every time. This makes Mommy happy, I don't like it when Daddy doesn't wear his seatbelt. Lately she tells me to put mine on too before I even try to back out of the driveway. She doesn't like it if I sit in the driveway and make my list before putting it on. I just thought this was so amazing since the motion of putting on a seatbelt is really not visible to her since she is directly behind the driver seat. That's my girl though, I've always been a seatbelt stickler!

-Oh, back to the bathroom, now she is obsessed with "washing" her face. She wants to stand up at the sink or sit on the stool in our bathroom and splash water on her face like Mommy and Daddy do when they wash their faces. You have to make her stop. She has a little too much fun with it. :)

-Not that this is something she copies, but it's so cute. She has to say bye to everything in the car when we get out or when she is headed to bed. She says "bye juice, bye baby, bye shoes, bye "B" (that's her life size golden retriever she is completely and utterly obsessed with), bye "whatever you insert here"...I laugh at the things she thinks to say bye to. When it's time to go to bed she'll either say "bye" or "nite nite" to these things.

Baby HAD to come to swimming lessons with us this morning.

I always let AM press the button to open the doors on the way in,

well this morning Baby pushed all of the buttons! :)

-She sometimes "struggles" to get her baby dolls to cooperate and sit still in the stroller. haha! I'm NOT kidding! She'll put them in there, huff and puff, pick them up and tell them to sit still! Then she will put them back in a strap them in. If they aren't ready to sit still, she'll pick them up and pat them on the back or rock them and try again. Last night she strolled one of the babies into the living room where we were watching the Auburn baseball game and had her watch the game with her. When the crowd cheered, she would clap the baby's hands and cheer!

Needless to say, this girl is always entertaining. She is finally watching something other than Praise Baby DVD's. That is only in the last week or two. She LOVES Clifford! This makes me so happy. Not that Praise Baby isn't a wonderful thing to watch and listen to, but after almost 2 years, it's nice to have something different and she will actually watch a cartoon these days.

Finally, here is a picture of her new storage in the playroom. She has done surprisingly well at keeping it neat. She understands most of the time about putting her toys away.

I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful Easter weekend. We are planning on going to the city Easter Egg Hunt at Kiesel Park tomorrow, we should get some good pictures. I'm really looking forward to the service at church on Sunday! Have a great one!

*I hope you didn't get too lost in this post that was all over the place! :)

Time to Brag

2011-04-18T13:33:00.006-05:00

I woke up this morning to a clean house! And I am not the one who cleaned it!! :) Yep, After I went to bed last night Trey stayed up and picked up all of the toys and decluttered around the house! It was so nice to wake up this morning to a straight house! Sure made mopping this morning much easier and I couldn't complain one bit. Thanks Trey, that was so awesome!

We took a trip to Atlanta on Saturday to IKEA (turned into a fiasco of a trip due to road construction...you DONT even want to know!!) to pick up some storage solutions so once they were assembled yesterday and I put some of the stuff away, I had no more energy to tackle all of the stuff that was already lying around and driving me crazy. Our mission this weekend (since we didn't make it to the beach) was to get the house in order. Well by the time I sat down last night, I didn't feel like even thinking about it and mentioned that we never even accomplished what we planned to this weekend. We did get a lot done but time runs out. Well, he stayed up after I went to bed and took care of it on his own. Let me tell you, that is one heck of a way to wake up on a Monday! :)

I also have to brag on my little girl. She is a pro in the pool. I can't wait to show you videos of her swimming. This is one proud mama. My parents came over on Friday and went to her lesson but she was a little thrown off by them being there and I got in the water with her (b/c I though we were going swimming at the beach this weekend). I wish they could have really seen her in action. She was more than excited today to get in the water, she tried to get in the pool before we were ready and then wanted to get back in when she was done. I can't wait for the water to warm up outside so we can swim.

I can't remember if I've told you about AM and the rock wall on her swing set, but she's crazy! She climbs up that thing so fast, it's unbelievable! There is a picture below, I really need to get a video though.

In baby news, I'm 6 months pregnant now and he is definitely an active one! He moves and kicks all of the time. He really seems to be on a schedule though, I don't remember AM being that way but maybe I didn't really pay attention. He does seem to wake up about 10 pm every night which gets me a little nervous...Mama doesn't stay up late! :) I'm hoping to get started on his room soon. We still haven't decided on a middle name yet, hopefully soon.

Here are some photos of what we've been up to lately...

Enjoying lots of time outside...having afternoon snacks on the deck...

watering the plants...yes that's a topsy turvy, thought I'd give strawberries another try using it

planting new trees...

enjoying the most beautiful flowers, particularly from the pink rose bush...

watching the veggies grow...(this pic was supposed to rotate, sorry)

waiting to plant MORE hydrangeas...

swinging...LOTS of swinging

(I don't think I've told you about how BOSSY this girl is, especially with swinging. BOTH swings must be moving! Often she puts a doll or stuffed animal in the 2nd swing, either way, you have to push both. And when she gets down and wants to push, she pushes both!)

and climbing...

and of course enjoying Buddy Fruits...

The child is addicted to those things. She won't eat much at all, but she LOVES Buddy Fruits! It's either that, cheese, milk or fruit/veggie juice. Oh well!

I hope you're having a wonderful Monday. It sure is beautiful!!

Happy Monday!

2011-04-11T12:52:00.002-05:00

So, as usual, this is going to be all over the place. I don't find much time for blogging so when I do I just have to put it all out there.

We have been doing a lot of Easter egg hunting around the house lately. AM loves it! Sorry the picture is blurry, it was taken with my phone this morning and she was too busy to sit still.

Here she is at her swimming lesson this morning floating all alone on her back. I am so proud of her. I didn't want to get too close and stand over her and mess her up so I just took this from my seat. By the end of the week I will get a better one for you.

Saturday we all headed over to my parents house to visit with my Grandpa. He is my mom's dad and lives in North Carolina. While we were growing up he and my Grandma lived in Chicago so they have never been close to us. That makes each visit super special since we don't get to see each other often. This was the first time that he has met AM. I was really surprised and impressed with how well she did with him. She usually takes a really long time to warm up to people but she really did well with him.

Grandpa is an artist/painter. He does amazing watercolors. He paints with other mediums too, but watercolors are his favorite and most common. Growing up when we would visit, we would love to paint with him or just do any artwork we could. That is why it was so special when (AM decided not to nap) he brought out a package of kids paint and paper that he brought from home to paint with her. Of course she didn't want anything to do with it though. She was warm with him, but not that warm! haha!

This is how she preferred to watch the painting...

Oh well. That was so sweet of him to think of that. I really wish she had done it though. While working in the yard yesterday afternoon, I realized that we should have had her dig in the garden with him while we were there. She loves doing that and so does he. You would be amazed at what this 89 year old can do! It's truly incredible. When we got there on Saturday, he was digging, rearranging pine straw and had already painted a trellis the day before. There is no time to sit still for that man! I just hope that I am like him when I'm that age. Shoot! When I'm 75 I hope I'm like that!

Here is the best attempt we could get at a picture. AM did NOT want to nap on Saturday. After a looooong boat ride, she finally fell asleep 5 minutes before we got home. She napped for an hour or so and then it was time to leave. Needless to say, she was a little unhappy when she woke up so taking a picture was difficult. And I must say that yes, I do realize that my face looks extremely round! Ugh! Not to mention my hair and lack of any makeup. Oh well, it's better than nothing.

One more thing, I need some advice. I never thought that potty training would be a topic of discussion at this point. But I think that AM is really interested in it. I don't know that she is "ready" though. I just can't imagine that she is capable of that kind of bladder control at this point. It seems so young. She always wants to sit on the potty, she asks to. She doesn't go though, she doesn't know what it's for. She knows when she makes a dirty diaper though. Sometimes she will bring me a diaper and tell me "di-de" (that's what we call it). Sometimes, like this morning, she will pull on it, say "di-de" and take me back to her room, lay the blanket out on her bed, get out the wipes and a diaper and lay down. So she is totally aware when she goes. I don't know that she knows ahead of time though. As far as tee-teeing goes, I talk about it all of the time but she has never really known what it is. Last night she was playing in her baby pool in the back yard, and we decided to just bathe her out there so she was naked. When she got out, she tee-teed. So I said "oh! you just tee-teed!" Well a few minutes later when we came inside to get her diaper and clothes on, she tee-teed on the floor and without me saying anything, or even noticing at that point, she said "tee-tee"! I couldn't believe it! I know this is a bit of rambling, but I want you to understand her level of understanding and give me some feedback. I seriously never thought it would happen this soon. And I worry about trying it too soon b/c I know that can be detrimental, just like trying to potty train when learning something else...like swimming! Please help! I don't want to pass this window of opportunity but I don't want to stress her or myself out about it either. I am SOOO not pushing it right now, but what do you think? Thanks!!!

Week 2

2011-04-08T14:27:00.001-05:00

Well I fully intended to do another post this week but for some reason I haven't found the time to sit down with the computer all week. I can't believe it's already Friday!

We finished week 2 of ISR lessons today. I am so proud of Anne Morgan! She is able to float on her back now! She still has work to do on it but she is able to do it nonetheless. She talks about her teacher Miss Ashley ("Ash-ee") all of the time. So cute! For those of you interested in the specifics of the class b/c you are thinking about it too, she IS still crying. She gets excited to go there and even when she sees Miss Ashley and I know she enjoys her time in the water. A couple of days this week she didn't cry at all. Today she did but she was still able to perform. I'm not worried about the tears though. It's actually kind of funny. Not "funny funny" but funny b/c I know she is having fun and she really likes her teacher now that she knows her, I don't know if SHE knows why she is crying.

She is doing SO well and I am so glad we are doing this class. I asked her teacher this week about this class versus a traditional private swimming lesson b/c I have had people ask. I knew how to explain this one but didn't know what they would learn in a typical class. She said that in a typical class before the age of 3 it is really just getting them familiar with the water. Before age 3 you can't really teach them anything as far as swimming goes. You could get them to kick their legs, but they aren't able to hold their head or body up to be able to swim before that age. And they can learn to float on their back, potentially, but since they don't go every single day for a few minutes like they do with ISR the results aren't as drastic. She said it could take 2-3 years to teach a child to swim with those methods. And she teaches regular swimming classes too. That's why I asked her. While this is more expensive and time consuming up front it is more effective in the long run. Not to mention life saving.

Now on to other things, This picture below makes me laugh. I think AM has been looking at her cousin Sophie's fashion sense a little too much lately. A few nights ago when she got out of the bathtub and we were putting her pi's on, she grab these two socks and this pair of shoes. She HAD to put them on with her nightgown.

And she wanted a yellow bow. She is really into bows these days. So here she is dancing to American Idol in all of her stylishness. She LOVES American Idol. She gets so excited when she hears the intro music

She has been a handful this week. If you are on Facebook, you know that we had a few rough days and nights when it came time to take a nap or go to bed. Anne Morgan has been the MOST AMAZING child I have EVER seen or heard of about going to bed up to this point. A week or so ago things changed. She started refusing and pitching a fit when it was time. She has gotten now to where when we tell her it's time to go "night-night" she will run to the couch, grab a blanket and want to cuddle. We of course love this b/c she has never done this, but we also know it's just a technique to stay up. We stopped that right away. The past several nights I decided that we would tell her it was time to put her nighttime diaper on and then for about 20 minutes we could cuddle on the couch. Once the words "night-night" were said though, it was time to go to bed. Well, I must say that last night it worked like a charm! We were both in shock. So now it's our favorite time of the day, at least if it stays that way. The past 2 days she has napped well too. And when I say napped well I mean went to take her nap well. She always sleeps well, it was just a matter of getting her to that point. I had to turn her doorknob around and lock her in her room. I HATE doing that. But it really only took a few days. I think we are back on track now and that makes Mommy super happy.

In baby news, things are still going well. He is measuring right on track and my doctor still says I'm the healthiest pregnant patient he has. I don't know how many mommies he says that too, but I'll take it. When I go for my next appointment I have the diabetes test...yippee! If I remember correctly though, it wasn't as bad (the drink) as I expected it to be. I just hope I pass. I've been pretty bad this pregnancy as of late with my eating habits. I started out so well, but I've been giving in a lot more lately. Not a good thing. I'm still working out 4-5 days per week and feel good. The past week or so I've been having some contractions though so my doctor just said to drink more water and listen to my body. We haven't even begun on the nursery. We still have to clear out that bedroom which I hope to do soon and then I can get started on it. We're still working on the name too. As I mentioned before, we just have to decide on the middle name. We're tossing several around but haven't come close to deciding on it.

Sorry this ended up being so long...and without any good pictures. I didn't mean for it to. And I don't have any pictures to share either. Gotta work on that. Hopefully we will take some tomorrow. We are headed over to my parents house to visit with my Grandpa, my mom's dad. He lives in North Carolina. We haven't seen him since our wedding and I am so excited to introduce he and Anne Morgan. I hope to get some pictures. Have a great weekend.

Week 2

2011-04-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

Week 1= In the Books

2011-04-01T14:14:00.003-05:00

So we have successfully completed week 1 of ISR. Anne Morgan did great. There were PLENTY of tears, don't get me wrong, but as far as her swimming goes she is amazing! She'll get used to the teacher and the tears will subside. In fact, she stopped crying for the last half of today's session. She is doing so well at holding her breath under the water, reaching for the edge of the pool to pull herself up and swimming/reaching for the teacher's hands from under water. She doesn't shy away from putting her face in the water either. There are many times she goes for it before the teacher even does it! Her teacher said that next week they will start on learning to float on her back. I pulled my phone out one day to take a video and a couple of pictures but was quickly asked not to video. The teacher said that she could get in a lot of trouble. I didn't really get any pictures either, as they do more I'll be sure to. Hopefully she will let me get a video at the end.

So since I can't share any "action shots" with you, I thought I'd show you some of her that I took before her lesson each day. I love little girl's swimsuits. I started taking pictures everyday before but then I realized I never took one today. And the ones I did take yesterday were before we left the house. It hit me that I probably shouldn't be taking pictures in the locker room.

Speaking of the locker room, this picture says it all..."Mommy! Do you see that naked old woman?" hahaaaha! She couldn't quit staring.

I am not kidding you, it was a bit of a shock to me too. I can't get over the number of people that shower at the gym. (and the showers look so gross! ugh!) The locker room stays packed with ladies who shower and get ready at the gym after their workout. And it is a lot of larger, old ladies. And they don't care that the towels don't cover them much at all. OK, I know, TMI, but I had to get that off of my chest.

I think it's wonderful that so many senior citizens are working out, men and women. But I must say that I think 95% of those who are exercising are at this gym!

I can't fix the red eye, sorry. These were all taken with my phone.

Don't you just love this cover up? It has a matching swimsuit underneath but I forgot to take a picture. And notice the ponytail? That never happens, she hates them, I think it's cute though!

Anyways, I know this isn't a great post, but I really just wanted to document her progress after one week of the class.

2011-03-28T14:59:00.002-05:00

Last week we were fortunate enough to go to my parent's house and visit with them and my sister and her kids. We love any chance we get to see our family. We are so excited that we're going to be seeing a lot more of Brittny and the kids in the future since they are moving to Montgomery! Unfortunately that means that my brother in law Brandon will be sent to Korea for a year. That's the bad part. I'm looking forward to seeing Christopher and Sophie on a regular basis and letting the kids spend lots of time together. AM and Sophie are just alike and I can't wait to see them over the next year.

Thursday afternoon AM actually went to Pop so I snuck back inside and let them spend some one on one time together. She loves Pop but she is weird about going to any man other than her Daddy. Actually, she does great when we get to Grammie an Pop's house about going to him...that is until she sees Grammie. Anyways, I snuck a few pictures of their time together.

Here they are in the new fort that Pop is in the middle of building. He is always up to something (COOL) for the grandkids. They are going to LOVE this fort!

Here is Sophie giving AM a hug before we left. These two girls are hilarious!

Brittny had some more pictures that you can check out here

This morning Anne Morgan had her first swimming lesson. She is taking the ISR swimming course so it's pretty intense. To sum it up she will go every single weekday for 6 weeks. We have to record every time she eats (and what she eats), sleeps, urinates and has a B.M. Each lesson is a max of 10 minutes long and that's because of the intensity. It's not a normal "learn to swim" class. They won't be learning techniques and strokes, it's a survival class. Once the course is over she will be able to save herself if she were to ever fall in the water. As much as this child is going to be around water, this is a must.

Here she is before her first lesson.

And after!

As the course progresses I will take pictures and videos but for now it's a matter of getting her used to the water and the teacher. Stay tuned though! I know we are going to be so proud of her!! I was just after today! :)

It's a....

2011-03-22T19:26:00.003-05:00

BOY!!!

We are so thrilled to be adding a little tike to the crew.

We were surprised to be honest. Trey was going based on my guess and

this week I was thinking that it was going to be a girl.

We're super excited. Now we are discussing names.

We know the first name, it's just a matter of deciding on the middle name.

And AM can already say his name! It's so cute!

We are so blessed. Everything appeared to check out normal and healthy.

I know August will be here before we know it so it's time to get to work!!

Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers and interest in our little family.

Stay tuned...

2011-03-21T12:47:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound day! The appointment isn't until 4pm and is in Montgomery so it will be tomorrow evening before I can update on here...although I may be able to do it from my phone. I've never tried to do anything like that from my phone.

Sorry there haven't been any updates in a while. I had the flu last week. Once I got to feeling better, I dove in head first with sewing projects. It's been fun, I haven't sewn in a couple of months. Trey has been working in super overdrive lately. The project is due at 5pm today so after today we look forward to having Daddy back. He works so hard and we appreciate everything that he does for us. I know it's exhausting. He's been working late every day during the week and going in on the weekends too. And you have to remember that he drives and hour each way. That drive is a little easier now though. Last week we bought a new car for him to drive on his commute. The big 'ole truck was not the best commuter. He got a Hyundai Sonata and loves it! It is so pretty and drives great.

We are looking forward to visiting cousins at the lake later in the week. Unfortunately we had to miss out with the other set of cousins who came last week b/c I had the flu. To say I was disappointed is a major understatement.

So...come back tomorrow evening to find out if AM will be having a baby brother or a baby sister!

Update...

2011-03-10T18:05:00.001-06:00

Well I was able to get into the doctor's office today, yay! And an even bigger yay...we will be having the big ultrasound on the 22nd! I can't wait! Just thought I'd share the update with you. That's all, I know- not very exciting but it will be. :)