After having Birthday cupcakes at school one morning...

Anderson: "We had cupcakes. It was mys birfday today mommy!"

Me: "No sweetie, your birthday is in June."

Anderson: "What means June Mommy?" ( I love how he says this. It is the same anytime he has a question about anything. He always says "what means ____?" instead of What does _____mean?)

Me: "June is a month. Like right now the month is January. Your birthday is in the month of June."

Anderson: dumbfounded and a little disappointed... "oh. I thought it was Leo's friend on Little Einsteins"

Me: "Well, actually you are right. Her name is June. June can be two things...a month and a name."

Anderson: "Then can I have two cupcakes?"

Welcome to my world friends...I'm telling you this child is going to wear us out! HA!

Please join me...

in prayer for a precious, and so prayed for, wanted and loved baby girl. Kelly's Korner Blog is a blog I have been following for quite a while now. After 5 years of infertility, Kelly finally got pregnant and went in for an induction today at 40.5 weeks. The sweet little girl Harper was 9 lbs 12 oz, but wasn't breathing properly. After just a couple of hours in the NICU the doctors have given a very disheartening report and ordered Harper air lifted to Children's Hospital in Arkansas. She is in VERY critical condition with what seems to possibly be a heart issue. Kelly's husband will be going with Harper and Kelly will be following tomorrow morning after her release from the hospital. I can't imagine what it would be like to know your precious child was being flown to another hospital and that you can't go with her. Jeff and I have just spent some serious time in prayer, and I am asking that you pray for baby Harper, Kelly, her husband Scott as well as their families. Also- please pray for wisdom for the Doctors and nurses.

I am so thankful for a God that finishes a good work that he began...Phil 1:6

Go to her blog for updates... she has had over 30, 000 hits today as people waited for Harper's arrival. I have no doubt that there are now 30,000 people praying for her right now. Please join in!
http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/

Sweet Henry...

My friend and neighbor came by today to help me out of a childcare dilemma! I had an appointment and no childcare for Lydia, so Amy popped on over with Henry since it was in the middle of Lydia's nap schedule. After I returned, I convinced them to stay for a little lunch and play date. We had so much fun! The babies were just grabbing at each other and watching each other. It was so adorable!

Our photo shoot sort of spiraled out of control towards the end. Lydia looks like she is a vampire going after Henry's neck!

I can't believe these sweet little ones are about to be 6 months old! Amy and I were due on the same day and have the same last name, we even wore the same dress to my baby shower! I believe Henry and Lydia are just destined to be a couple at some point! They both even sound like they are from the 1930's with their old fashioned names! Ha!

Here they are as newborns...my how quickly they changed!

A Fun Weekend

We started off our weekend with a family outing to my husband's favorite place on earth...Sam's! Friday night we loaded up and bought bulk...diapers, chicken, nutriagrain bars, etc... I love the prices, but really what does one do with laundry detergent that won't even fit into the cabinet because it's a gazillion gallons! Ha!
Oh well, we saved a lot of money and bought lots of chicken and lettuce. That should help with two of our resolutions: better fiscal and physical fitness.

Saturday, I took Anderson to a birthday party of a friend from school. It was a lot of fun for both of us. Ball Pitts, bouncy houses and slides galore! We have been going to tons of birthday parties, but they have really been for my friends children even though Anderson didn't actually know the child all that well. We always have fun, but there was just something really sweet about watching him interact with his actual friends from school at this particular party! It also gave us parents a chance to really talk and meet for more than 5 seconds when picking up and dropping off.

On a side note...We have had a horrible tragedy within the preschool this week. One of the little boys from the four year old class lost his father Tuesday night completely unexpectedly. The father's name was Brad Carpenter and he leaves behind a wife, Karen and two sons (one 4 yrs and one around 7 I think). Brad was only 33 and passed out, was taken to the hospital where he stabilized and was being held I guess for monitoring. He sent his wife home to tuck in the kids and get the babysitter set for the next day and he passed away while she was home. Can you imagine? My heart breaks for this woman. I ask that those of you that can, please remember her and the boys in your prayers. They certainly need a peace that passes all understanding right now. Many of you may remember my friend Beth whose husband passed away at that same age and also quite unexpectedly while she was pregnant with their first child. It feels like deja vu to hear such a similar story of such a young and obviously loved family man. It just shows us how quickly things in this life can change. It made me hug on my family a little harder this week.

Sunday morning, I headed to First Presbyterian to watch as my Aunt was ordained as a deacon. My nephew John was also supposed to serve as acolyte, but bless his heart turned absolutely green right before the service. He was so sick. He ended up having to have my step- sister Erin take him back home. It was nice to see most of my family all on one pew. The service was quite different from what we are used to on Sunday...there was no multi-media or contemporary worship songs. I even sang out of a hymnal for the first time in about 4 years! I have to say I felt like a fish out of water!! But this was a church I have wonderfully close ties to. I attended often as a single gal when I would travel home for visits, and it was in a Sunday school room there where the first mention of a blind date with my now husband occurred! Charlie, the pastor even married us. It was so nice to chat with him briefly this morning. Watching DeLane be ordained and taking part in Communion with my family was a great way to spend the morning!

Laughing uncontrollably on the couch!

Sweet smiles!

I had to put this one on here- it looks like Anderson is throwing a gang sign!

And my all time favorite...check out their faces! Anderson looks disgusted and Lydia looks like she's totally up to something!

Then Auntie M came in to town for a dinner meeting with a friend and decided to come early to see the kiddos. Of course Anderson just lit up when she arrived after his nap. Lydia also gave lots of gummy smiles. It's so nice to have her closer to home now...one sister down and another to go. Jennifer- Tampa is too far away from my babies!! Come home now!! Ummm... I mean no pressure or anything! :-)

5 months old

On Christmas Day little Lydia turned 5 months old! It seems like this time has just flown by! I love fall and all the holidays it brings (and of course football season), but I am ready for things to slow down!

Things she is doing:

-rolling over both ways

-laughing often and always with the sweetest gummy smile

-sleeping from 7pm- 7am and taking 2 naps (10-12 and 2-4) a day...praise God!!

-watching her brothers EVERY move!!

-grasping at and holding on to toys

-finding and playing with her feet and clasping her hands together

-loving praise baby and baby Einstein type movies (we watched our first one today and she was mesmerized!)

She is such a joy and I fall more in love with her each day. Her personality is pretty much the same as it has been; very laid back, very smiley and easygoing. Jeff says she is nearly to his "favorite" baby age of 6-9 months. He loves how babies are a little more stable physically at that point, and so do I. We have also started solids in the last week or so. At her 5 month appt. we hadn't done so because I just wasn't ready for her to stop nursing and I was afraid that when she started solids she wouldn't want to nurse anymore. My pediatrician said that was fine but by her 6 month appt. she would be twisting my arm about solids...since that is only 3 weeks away I decided I better get started! Also Lydia has pretty much weaned herself at this point and it was before we started solids. She just wasn't interested in nursing and became super distracted. This would cause her to lose latch and have to re-latch and before you knew it one feeding was 30 minutes...needless to say that left us both frustrated and Anderson unsupervised at times (Kidding...sort of). So I just decided it was time, actually I guess she kind of decided for me. I miss it, but I am proud of myself for sticking with it for over 5 months and I look forward to new stages and ways to enjoy her. Here are some photos of her first solid feeding. Anderson even got in on the action. He really loves interacting with her now that she is showing some personality.

I am ready for some groceries!

Ok, so far I am liking it...

hmmm...not so yummy...

Mom- don't want to hurt your feelings, but I am about to spit this nasty stuff out!!

Ok, yeah, I am officially not digging this rice cereal stuff!!

Anderson, did they make you eat this yucky stuff??

We have been struggling with schedules and two kids though. Church is the hardest part of our week. Our church doesn't offer an early service yet (hopefully our campus will be getting our own building very soon and will be able to have two services then) Read more about our church here. Church of the Highlands was recently recognized as the fastest growing church in the nation! Anyway, the 11:15 service is right in the middle of Lydia's nap. We have tried to take her anyway, but one time she slept there okay in the nursery and one time she just didn't do very well with it and it kind of made the whole day miserable because she was over-tired. So, those of you with multiple children out there....how do you do it? I am so open to suggestions at this point!! We considered splitting up and having Jeff and I alternate Sundays staying home with her while the other one takes Anderson and attends church, but we'd really like to go together.

Another big deal around here these days is that we have organized pretty much every square inch of our house. We started right after Christmas while Jeff had a little time off and basically attacked one room at a time! Between being pregnant and sick and taking care of a two year old and then having a baby, we feel like we just now have our head above water! With our busy lives I knew we needed to have things more organized in order to keep the clutter to a minimum since we don't have much time to clean up all the time with two small children. It took 3 days to clean out the downstairs. We went through every drawer, every cabinet, craft closet, etc and were brutal in our decisions to throw things away...something especially difficult for my packrat...I mean "sentimental" husband. After that we moved on to the upstairs and playroom which took another couple of days. I can't tell you how nice it is to have everything clean and organized. I am really enjoying my days now instead of thinking in the back of my head about what all needs to be done or organized. Today I cleaned out both kids closets to make consignment piles for their clothes. I have been holding on to Anderson's things for a while because we weren't sure until March if we would need them for another boy. Now that we have a girl and a boy our family is complete, and I know it is ok to let go of some things!

What a difference a year makes...

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

...and Lydia...

Christmas with GiGi

Christmas night we headed to my mom's house to visit with that side of the family. It was so nice to have both sisters home! Marcie moved back from Nashville this fall, but Jennifer and her husband are living in Tampa, so we don't get to see them as often. We actually had our big present opening event the day after Christmas and then stayed a couple of days with Mom since Jennifer was in town. The three sisters and our respective dates even got to go to dinner just the 6 of us at Firebirds one night! We all had a great time and can't wait until next year when my step-brother and his wife have a baby boy to add to the brood! They are due around Valentine's Day.