Santa 2012

There is honestly nothing more magical than experiencing Christmas through a child's eye. They really believe in a lot of magic this time of the year and I love helping their little imaginations run wild.

 Here is part of the tree after Santa came. It doesn't look like much but the older the boys get the more expensive items they ask for... This year the got everything they wanted and we spent the most ever but if you look under the tree it doesn't look like much, but I promise our savings account is screaming it was plenty!!! :)

My little monkey's before they are allowed to open gifts. They were patiently waiting and even my sweet Westin was waiting... on his bottle that is!

Westin wasn't sure about Santa this year. He cried a few times but then thought the big guy in the red suit was pretty nice. Santa told Will and Luke to not fight anymore, I'm not sure how he knew they fight so much but it sure has helped the past few days. All I have to say is "remember what Santa said" and they stop immediately. Thanks Santa!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends! We have spent the last few days with my Mom making wonderful Christmas memories. She went home today and now it is just our family enjoying this time together. I hope you enjoy this Season and remember Jesus is the reason!

Have a blessed time with your loved ones and friends. Merry Christmas!

Westin is 8 months old!

Weight: 19 lbs (even)

Height: 27.5 inches

Our sweet little Westin is SUCH a joy to our family! He continues to be a little lover boy and he is so full of life and himself! His personality is shining and he thinks Daddy is the best thing ever! His big brother's come real close on his funny list and Mommy is still his #1 person. He is a happy boy if he has his eye's on Mommy but if I walk out of the room he starts to panic. I totally melt over that and I think it's completely normal. Sweet boy just had tubes placed in his ears and his adenoids out. He did great through surgery and Mommy and Daddy survived well enough. I will do a whole post for that topic!

Westin, Mommy and Daddy love you so much! Each day you teach us so much about being parents. Yes we are veteran's to this parenting gig but when  you came along you completely healed our marriage, family and life! I never knew God could give us a little angel to make life so wonderful! Your big brother's love you so much it hurts (literally sometimes) and they enjoy watching you do all of your funny new tricks. You are learning at a rapid pace. You have become very mobile and you enjoy moving around the room but you still can't crawl perfectly. You like to scoot backwards, which sometimes can get you in a tricky spot.

We all look forward to making your first Christmas very special! Merry Christmas my sweet little 8 month old angel! We love you so much!!!

(santa baby!)

Christmas Card 2012

Christmas cards are one of my favorite parts of Christmas time! I always enjoy getting the mail each day to see who sent us a card and how precious the card will be with their beautiful babies!

The past several years I have done our cards at Shutterfly. It's super easy and takes less than a week to get them back.

The front of our card is a picture of the boys at the beach this year. It is still one of my most favorite pictures of them all! 

The back is a picture of Westin as a newborn. I didn't send out birth announcement because by the time I remembered he was over 2 months old and I thought it was silly to send them then. So I thought I would add something to the back of our cards to show some love to our sweet Westin. 



I pray you all have a wonderful Christmas! This Christmas is very special to my heart for several reasons. Westin is here this year and our family is complete. God Bless you and your family this Christmas Season! Make lots of special memories with the ones you love the most!

Is Spiderman in your laundry?

More than likely if you have a house full of girls then you will not have spiderman in your laundry. I have the pleasure of raising boys and finding spiderman in my clean laundry the other night really made me think. It makes me think about these little souls God is placing in my care.

At first when I saw spiderman I was irritated. It was midnight and I was the only one up finishing my daily tasks and out pops spiderman from one of the boys pants. He went for a nice wash along with the clothes but I first said "well if they would put clothes away like I tell them to I might not find spiderman in our laundry."

Then I quickly changed my thinking and thought about how one day I will miss seeing spiderman in my laundry. I will miss the simple love they have for small figurine toys and all ofther sorts of little boy items. These boys are growing up in front of my very eyes and I immediately panicked. Am I properly training them to be good boys, to one day turn into good men? Sometimes I don't think so but I would like to think most of the time what we are teaching them are important fundamentals for them in the future. Will (my 9 year old) is starting to out grow the small little boy things. He will always be my little boy but he's starting to like big boy things. He and Daddy can now talk about things and he completely understands. At Best Buy last night he was in hog heaven looking at the cell phones. He wants one so bad and it is something we are completely against right now and he will not be getting one for several more years to come, but he and Daddy can talk about new phones and he might even know more than us about it. :) Luke's pants were the ones where spiderman took his bath. That boy has such a sweet soul. He loves spiderman and I hope he always does. I love Luke's innocence. I worry more about Luke especially since Westin has come along. Will him being the middle child effect him in a negative way. He sometimes seems like it has, ha... but I have faith that is just him being a normal 6 year old boy.

One day Westin will be loving these small little boy items just like his big brothers. My heart is full y'all and I could not imagine my life with out my boys or my husband. We are a very close family, doing things together all the time and I'm so blessed for that! We laugh, cry, fight, love, eat and chill together. I know one day soon the older boys will want to do other things most of the time but I'm so happy we have a home that they feel comfortable in and never seem to want to leave!

Have a blessed weekend friends! Only 11 days til Christmas!!! :)

12.12.12

I thought I would just post today since it is 12.12.12. I didn't think much about until this morning when the hubs called to talk to the boys before we left for school. He told them that this is a special day because we will likely never have another day with all 3 the same digits (in our lifetime at least). So I'm thankful today is 12.12.12. It is another day the Lord has given us and we are blessed beyond words for this day!

I don't have anything planned to celebrate today, ha but I might make a special dinner for my 4 special men!

I hope you all are having a blessed day! Today I leave you with this picture of my 3 boys. I love these little men more than life itself. (you have to turn your head to see this picture, for some reason I can't change it)

Christmas Tradition Tuesday

It has been awhile ago since I linked up with Kelly's Korner but I thought this topic was fun to share. We don't do a ton of traditions and sometimes it seems that each year is different but we try to do a few things each year to make this time of the year special for us as a family and the kids.

We always bake cookies and some  years we do this with other family, friends and the kiddos. It's so much fun for all involved and for me it's fun to do this with friends that I love. If I had a bigger house I would invite all of my wonderful Mommy friends with their lovely kiddos but that's not the case right now. I hope next year it will be different and I will be able to invite tons of friends to join our fun!

Riding around looking at Christmas lights is also one we do each year. As a kid we did this all the time and my brother and I would even keep note of all of the awesome things we saw. Fun times!

We always put up our decorations the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm not a big shopper so instead of shopping that day I always spend it at home putting up decorations. Thanksgiving also starts the constant Christmas music in my car. Right now I sometimes get sick of hearing Christmas music and the minute I turn it one of the boys will ask for the Christmas music to be turned back on. :) It makes me happy they love it so much!

Going to watch the Christmas parade in our local town is always so much fun for the kids. This year we were out of town during the parade (of course) so we had to miss it but I'm sure it was a ton of fun!

On Christmas Eve we go to church for our Christmas Eve service then come home to watch It's a Wonderful Life. We LOVE that movie and there's nothing else I can say about it!!!! If you haven't seen it, you must go watch it!

I know these traditions are not very extravegant but we are not real exciting people to other's. We enjoy our simple life and the kids have a blast most of the time.

I'm excited to hear what other's do as traditions and maybe get more ideas!

Merry Christmas friends!!

Thank you!

You guys truly rock! I received so many wonderful comments, emails and messages from friends I know personally and internet friends! Both Will and Westin seem to be doing great but you really eased this Momma's mind! 

We took Will to the pediatrician last week and they did lots of blood work, called in some meds for his tummy and referred us to a GI specialist. I'm happy to say that his blood work has all come back normal so for now we will see if the medicine will help with his "tummy pains" and if it does not help and he has more episodes we will head on to the GI doctor. Honestly I want that to be our last resort. I sure hope the doctor has already helped him with the medicine. Will is a special child, God has something very wonderful in store for his future!

Last week we also took Westin to his ENT doctor visit. Dr. N is absolutely wonderful and I trust his opinion very much! Westin had an x-ray which determined his adenoids are enlarged so he will be having his adenoids removed and tubes placed in his ears on December 19. Dr. N actually left the decision for his adenoids to be removed up to us but we feel (along with our pediatrician's advice) that if they are having to put him to sleep then go ahead and remove the adenoids. They were enlarged and I would hate to put him through the same surgery again in a few months. It's best to get it done now.

Right now Westin is very sick. He had a bad weekend, so yesterday we were back at the doctor. He has a chest cold with another ear infection. My only hope is after his surgery he will be a much healthier little guy. He is the sickest of my children and I nursed him the longest. Is that just crazy or what? I still have faith that my milk helped him in some way, I do still believe it was the best for him and myself! :)

I'm happy to report my Christmas shopping is DONE! Well, besides my husband of course. He is super easy though so I will have him done in a few days. This makes me so happy. I'm waiting on our Christmas cards to come in the mail so I can get them out. I'm glad to be done with most of the stressful things about Christmas.

Here's to a happy Season! Merry Christmas to you all!!! Have a terrific Tuesday!!

Midweek Randoms :)

It has been awhile since I have participated in the Midweek Randoms so I thought this week is a perfect time to do so.

I'm always thinking of great blog posts and then I completely forget. I need to start a "note" on my phone to remind me of ideas I come up with.

• Westin is having problems with his ears. He is on his third month of a constant ear infection and the pediatrician is now discussing tubes. To be honest, this scares me because Will and Luke never had to have tubes. The pediatrician says that with Westin's age and the cold/flu season just now starting that means he will more than likely have them for many more months. His history is he gets on an antibiotic and day 2 AFTER finishing the medicine they are back and we are at the doctor. Poor thing!
• The crazy thing is when that sweet little fella has the ear infections you would virtually NEVER know. He is still such a happy baby, sleeps all night and eats really well. I can tell just by his attitude and him pulling on the ears.
• Will has been suffering from stomach problems. We haven't detected what exactly the problem is but honestly it's on my nerves. I'm not sure if he's telling the truth or not but I sure hope he wouldn't lie about it. I don't think he is but I do think he suffers from anxiety more than stomach pains.
• We are headed to Georgia this weekend to visit my family. I can't wait!!! It will be a quick visit but so much fun! :)
• This year for Christmas the boys are not getting much from Santa. I sure hope they are ok with that. They asked for 1 big gift and we are getting it, with some games and that is about it besides some clothes they need. Usually all they care about is the gift they wanted and that's it so I'm hoping they are still ok with it this year. Plus Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles are all getting them gifts, they will have plenty!
• I'm starting to organize my house more. I have felt very overwhelmed with having 3 kids (not that this has anything to do with more kids) but it is SO difficult to get all that you want to get done in 1 day, plus everything else on your plate. At night I take 1 thing I want to do and just do it. Last night was organizing and cleaning my silverware drawer. Lots of things we never use I threw away and I cleaned the drawer with cleaner. That felt nice! Next on my list is the older boys room, it is a disaster!

I pray you all are having a blessed week! It's almost December! Just crazy!!!! :)

Thanksgiving 2012

This year for Thanksgiving we didn't travel to Georgia and stayed home to visit with the hubs family. It was lots of fun! I cooked TONS of food so I only took a few pictures. The hubs was so sweet to help with the kids but he managed to dress them (Westin clearly has no pants) and I asked him to take pictures, which he did but only of Westin and his siblings. I didn't get any of Will and Luke. Oh well... we always have next year! Even though I was cooking and running around like a crazy lady, I had SO much fun. It was my first year making the food without my Mom so I was proud of myself.

Here I am with my sweet sister in law, Kimberly. Love this girl and so thankful for our family and friendship!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. I sure missed my family so much but we are headed there next weekend to visit and do our Holiday get together. I'm super excited and will have tons of pictures from that, hopefully! :)

Westin is 7 months old! (and 15 days)

This is the cutest 7 month old booty in the world!

I can't even begin to believe Westin is getting so close to being 1. I mean where does the time go? Even though my uterus will always miss my newborns, I'm SO enjoying this stage! He is FULL of himself and he knows he is a special little boy to all of our hearts. He cracks himself up all the time and thinks his big brothers are the BEST thing ever! It is an amazing feeling seeing all of your babies having fun together, no matter what age they are. Here are some fun facts about Westin right now.

Height: 26.5 in

Weight: 16 lbs. 8 oz  (he has lost almost 1 pound, we are on our 2nd double ear infection right now in 1 month so the doctor believes he has lost weight from that. I sure hope that is all it is causing him to lose weight, plus this boy is jumping all the time now!)

Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day (most days but not all), sleeps from 7pm til 7am each night (every single night), no lie!!!

Eating Habits: We are just now on all formula as of last week. It does break my heart but I'm so happy and blessed I was able to nurse for 7 months. My goal was 6 so 7 was much better! I got sick and it was so hard to get my supply back up, plus it was like wrestling a lion each time to get him to nurse so I figured he might be done as well. So, he has 5 6 oz bottles each day. In the morning he eats cereal and fruit, at dinner he eats 1 fruit and 1 vegetable. 

Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, sitting up with support, ROLLING OVER! Sitting up all by himself, loves to stand up if I'm holding him! Starting to "baby talk" and squeal all the time now. It's hilarious and he thinks he's so funny! Curious - this child is so nosey!! I have no idea where he gets it from. :)

Cuteness: Everything about this child is cute! He cracks up at everything and everyone. His brothers are the best thing he's ever seen. He LOVES him Momma and LOVES to play with his Daddy!! It is really the cutest thing I've ever seen when I see him talk and love on his Daddy, he and Daddy have a special bond!

Talking: He is cooing and trying to talk all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)

Favorites: Mr. Fan and his Mr. Giraffe are his best friends! He also just started enjoying books. He LOVES books. He loves his brothers and Daddy as well!

Firsts: Belly laughs, moving all over his crib at night, keeps his paci in for record time but still loves his left thumb.

Concerns: At this time I'm concerned about his ears. We just finished up our 3rd anitbiotic for his 3rd double ear infection, all back to back and now I think another one is back. So I'm praying for healing and for us not to have to get tubes. Will and Luke did not have to get tubes so I've never been down that road.  

A Day in the Life: Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he eats cereal and fruit, then naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, eats, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again. He eats cereal and veggies around 6pm then has a bath and is asleep before 7:30pm each night.

Westin is a little light shining all the time! He continues to be such a blessing to our family and I don't know how he brings so much joy to our lives, but he does. He has such a fun personality and I look forward to his many more first and more memories!



We love you sweet Bubbie and your getting so big! You will always be our baby though! :)

Halloween Recap

 I do understand Halloween was 3 weeks ago but ya know.... my life is just busy, busy with 3 boys!

I took these pictures in our front yard of Westin. He is trying to give me a leaf in this one, he's not too sure about the grass. :)

Here is a close up on that little fella getting him a leaf. I could eat those tiny fingers up, I just love him so much!

Westin was a pumpkin this year. Yes I know so original. He was super cute and didn't mind the costume at all. He is such my chill baby. I look kind of scary in this picture, I had a house full of crazy kids and adults but this is the only good picture of Westin. 

My two older boogers wore these dark clothes and a silly mask. Of course they took the mask off about 2 minutes after having them on. Therefore I have no pictures of them with the mask on but they sure are precious in this picture.

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. The only thing I like about it is that fall has come. That is such an exciting time after the blazing hot summer's we have here in Memphis. Regardless the boys had a blast and that is all that matters.

Gratitude

I know everyone and their mother is on a thankfulness and gratitude kick. I love how one month of the year I see people on facebook and their blogs saying what they are thankful for, unfortunately we should have that type of mindset much more often!

I'm the kind of person that if everyone is doing it, internally I struggle with not wanting to do the same thing. I saw so many people doing the thankful post on facebook and I said "well I'm not doing that, I'm not going to be like everyone else". That is just how my mind works. Last weekend though I was enjoying a nice article out of the Good Housekeeping magazine. (BTW - I just LOVE that magazine) It was all about gratitude and how everyone shows it in different ways. At that point I decided well why not tell my friends and family each day of this month what I'm so thankful for... and why not take it a step further?

I would say I'm not a real affectionate person or vocal about my feelings. I like to show people, especially my family how much I appreciate them by notes I leave around the house, letters I send to family / friends in the mail and by doing for others. I love to do things for people. I really enjoy seeing the happiness it brings on peoples faces when you do nice things for them.

The reason I'm saying that is because I'm actually thinking of starting a business about doing "certain" things for other people. I'm not sure if it will all come together but I promise when it does I will let you all know what it's all about.

During the month of November I have been putting notes in the boys lunch boxes to let them know each day why I'm so thankful about for them. All of my children are my life, they are the reason I was put on this earth, they are part of MY story and I just love them so much. Unfortunately I'm sure I don't show it all the time. I know they are enjoying those sweet notes. They are my sunshine! Below is a list, thus far of what I'm so thankful for each day. I will continue this each day this month or atleast try to keep up with it! :) 

Day 1: Thankful to my Lord for His loving arms, shoulder to cry on and His friendship. We have a special relationship and it is something amazing! He has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams and I know He has bigger plans for our family, we are waiting for Him!

Day 2: my husband. He is an awesome guy. God made us for each other and the older I get the more I realize how amazing that is. We married so young and we are still going strong. So many people doubted us but like I said above, when my friends where having a blast in college, I was doing the complete opposite. I was in college, but I fell in love and I knew I wanted to marry this guy, right away. We did and the rest is history, I'm so thankful that the Lord has his hand on our marriage and continues to teach us lessons (so hard to listen) and bless us!

Day 3: my unselfish mother. She is my best friend, I could not always say this but she is seriously the one person I go to when all else fails. We talk several times a day and it is the hardest to not have her in the same city as me. Mom and I have never had a normal relationship. The Lord almost took her home almost 15 years ago but He had bigger plans for her. I took care of her and nursed her back to health. She is my rock and is a huge part of my life. I thank the Lord each day for saving her life.

Day 4: my 3 sweet souls that the Lord has trusted us to care for. They are amazing and continue to make us laugh, teach us so much and are pure joys. Will, Luke and Will carry my heart in the palms of their hands, my life is for them!

Day 5: SEC football, we just love football at our house. We are all about going to games and watching games. Thank goodness I have boys who are just as affectionate about football as I am. It is so much fun!

Day 6: the right to vote. The election was interesting and that's all I will say about that!

Day 7: very thankful to have a job to help provide for my family's future! It is hard for woman to stay home these days, I know lots of people do and I could do that but I choose not to. I love my job, I couldn't imagine not being here and I'm even more thankful to work part time so I get the best of both worlds. I work for an amazing company, they are very flexible with my crazy kiddo schedule.

Have a thankfulness day my friends!!

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we planned to have lunch with John's family after church at Cracker Barrel. (my FAV place) We had time to spend between going to meet them so we thought it would be fun to drop by a local pumpkin patch so the boys can pick out pumpkins but of course so we can take pictures.

I swear we took 20 pictures of this 1 pose and this is the only one that came out ok. Westin is not looking at the camera but it's cute of him and his brothers! I love these boys more and more each day.

I just love this picture of Westin, he did not like to be in the hay or around the pumpkins by himself. He had a very serious look on his face the whole time. Daddy did get a few grins out of him but he is in this stage now where he will grin and while he's grinning he tilts his head down, almost like he is shy. So the didn't turn out well. I just love my blue eyed beautiful boy!! He's Mommy's little angel.

After the pumpkin patch we went to Cracker Barrel and stuffed our faces. I sure didn't plan on eating so much but how can you not when your at Cracker Barrel.

I hope you all have a blessed Tuesday! 

What I'm loving Wednesday...

1. Sunday afternoon we decided to go visit my inlaws. They live out in the "county" which we call Eads here in TN. My husband grew up there a majority of his life and we just love the land and life style of that area. It is what we want for our children, it is what our boys need. So we went looking at homes. We found several we loved, within our price range which really made us excited. So, we came home made a list of things that need to be done to our current home to sell so we can get out to that area, hopefully within the next year. Like I told the hubs, I'm willing to stay where we are until we are 100% sure we have found our final home.

2. I'm trying to start back on my blog, I really want to keep up with it more often. These boys just keep me busy so much but I want to document our lives in some way.

3. The boys are so excited about Halloween next week. I do like Halloween just for the fall fun, BUT I can't stand people celebrating Halloween in a "scary" way. It should all be for fun and the boys want to be something "scary" this year... it literally turns my stomach when they talk about it.

4. The boys painted pumpkins this past weekend and we made halloween cupcakes. They had such a great time and I love making these memories with them.

5. We are going to early vote this Saturday. The hubs wanted us to do it together, which I thought was super cute, so I'm excited about that. All I will say about it is that we need a real change right now and I leave it all in the Lord's hands. He knows what will happen and I trust in Him!

I hope you all are having a blessed week! Enjoy this wonderful fall weather! 

Westin is 6 months old!!

Height: 26 in


Weight: 17 lbs. 4 oz
Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day, sleeps from 7pm til 7am each night, no lie!!!

Eating Habits: Half breastmilk, half formula. This past week I decided to start weaning him. He gets so distracted during the day while nursing, with 2 older brothers around there is too much going on so I got sick of trying to wrestle a lion to nurse. I'm happy and so blessed to say for 6 straight months all he had was breastmilk. I'm fining with backing down some. He eats fruits and vegetables twice a day.

Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, sitting up with support, ROLLING OVER!! He's my rolly polly!!

Cuteness: Everything about this child is cute! He cracks up at everything and everyone. His brothers are the best thing he's ever seen. He LOVES him Momma and LOVES to play with his Daddy!!

Talking: He is cooing and trying to talk all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)

Favorites: Mr. Fan and his Mr. Giraffe are his best friends! He also just started enjoying books. He LOVES books.

Firsts: First formula bottles, first time to fall off furniture!
Concerns: Westin has started to get eczema bad so we are treated that right now.

A Day in the Life: Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he eats cereal and fruit, then naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, eats, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again and takes a small 30 minute cat nap while Mommy finishes up dinner. He eats cereal and veggies around 6pm then has a bath and is asleep before 8pm each night.

 

Westin you continue to amaze us with all of your learning and cuteness. You are our light and we love you so much! Mommy sure wishes you would stop growing, I want you to stay my baby forever!!

Back Yard Burger

Today for lunch, I decided to go to Back Yard Burger. I found a coupon and remembered it had been awhile since I ate Back Yard Burger. As I pulled through the drive thru, got my lunch and was on my way I posted this on facebook: "so enjoying this fall, rainy weather. Be blessed my friends."

At that moment, I said to myself that I was happy to be in a good mood, this morning I didn't wake up in the best of moods. When I was headed back to work from Back Yard Burger, I quickly remembered the last time I had Back Yard Burger was a month ago when both of my parents were in town. See my parents are divorced, have been for 16 years. They still care about each other as friends and since their divorce they have always had a great relationship (to my knowledge) and always been there for both my brother and I. I have to say, now that I'm an adult they did a incredible job making sure we felt nothing but love from them, sometimes I wonder if I can do the same.

Ok, back to the Back Yard Burger story. So I'm pulling up at work and I remember them bringing me lunch that day, one month ago. I remember they were doing things at the kids school and had my car so they decided to bring me lunch at work. We sat in my car and I ate, while all just chatted. Dad was driving, Mom was in the passenger seat, I was in the back.. it was very similar to when I was a kid. I have not even thought about that moment until today, a month later when I went to get Back Yard Burger again. Then I quickly remember the feeling I had at that moment. The feeling of security, that type of feeling is only a feeling you can have with both of your parents around. A sense that everything will be ok. Even though I feel tons of security with my husband and our own family, this is a feeling you can't replace. Even today, I just now realized just how much I missed that feeling. It has been 16 years since I've felt that feeling of security. No matter how wonderful my parents did at making sure their divorce went flawless for my brother and I, there is still something always missing. The sense of security in your family. I'm so thankful for Back Yard Burger today. It gave me that feeling back and made me remember how awesome it felt, one month ago when I had that sense of security back and at that time today, I prayed my children would never feel that sense of security being ripped out from under their two precious feet. Not that my life has been bad, it has been nothing but a blessing, but imagining my children ever having that feeling and actually forgetting that feeling for so many years, as I did.. just breaks my heart for them!

I'm so thankful for my parents. They have always put their feelings towards each other to the side and made my brother and I's life wonderful. I pray for all children or adults missing that sense of security, losing a parent at a young age can trigger you to lose this sense of security. I'm very happy I'm able to still have that feeling from time to time with both of my parents together for special events.

Be blessed my friends! I know we all are so blessed!!!

Grandparents Day 2012!!

 A few weeks ago was Grandparent's Day. The boys had a celebration at the school so their Grandparent's could come and eat lunch with them. My parents who live in Georgia flew into town to celebrate with them. It was a very special day and weekend for us. I always enjoy having family in town and it was just too much fun!

 Dad and Luke

 Mom and Luke

 Dad and Will

 Mom and Will

 Dad and his Grandsons

Dad and Westin

Mom and Westin

Mom and her boys! 

And a belly laugh picture of sweet Westin! :)

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for coming in town this weekend. It was so much fun and it is always so much fun making memories with y'all. Thank you for all that you do for us, we love you so much!



Westin is 5 months old!!!

Height: 25 in

Weight: 15 lbs. 13 oz (this was a few weeks ago, he is over 16 lbs now)

Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day, sleeps from 8pm til 7am each night, no lie!!!

Eating Habits: Breastmilk - 4 or 5 milk feedings a day, he has a jar of fruit with cereal each morning and each evening vegetable and cereal. LOVES food!! 

Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, sitting up with support, ROLLING OVER!! He's my rolly polly!!

Cuteness: He just figured out his big brothers and just how hilarious they can be! He thinks they are the best thing EVER! Melts this Momma's heart! He has the cutest belly laugh and he LOVES his Daddy!!

Talking: He is cooing and trying to talk all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)

Favorites: Mr. Fan and his Mr. Giraffe are his best friends! He also just started enjoying books. He LOVES books.

Firsts: Belly laugh and recognizing everyone in our family! First football game as well.

Concerns: He does this thing sometimes when he nurses, looks like a convulsion. I am talking to his doctor about this at his 6 month check up.

A Day in the Life: (not much has changed since month 4, I do add in some cereal usually around 6pm)Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he eats cereal and fruit, then naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again and takes a small 30 minute cat nap while Mommy finishes up dinner. He eats cereal and veggies around 6pm then has a bath around 7p and is asleep before 8pm each night.

Westin Mommy and Daddy love you so much! You are the light of our lives and we are so proud of the big boy you are becoming. Thank you for completing our family. 

L*O*V*E

Love is a powerful word and it can mean different things to different people. The word love can be used in many different ways as well. It is a word that I believe people can use lightly. It's something some people just say... without really feeling love. There are many things I love and there are many ways people can show you love. Sometimes all people know how to do is show you love and you have to interpret that as LOVE. I thought I would share a few things that have happened lately to make my heart swell with love, here is a list of how love has been shown to me.

* When Westin searches an unfamiliar room around unfamiliar people to find a familiar face. Once he found Mommy, I could see his body settle and he was at ease. That is LOVE!

* When my husband sends me an email to tell me he has thought about me all morning and he can't wait to see me when he gets home from work, that's LOVE!

* When my Dad comes into town, between business trips, just to spend time with his Grandson's for Grandparent's day celebration at school, that's LOVE!

* When my 6 year old scores his first touchdown at his first ever flag football game, he turns to look at us, his family, for excitement and boy did he get it!!! That's LOVE!

* When I go check on my boys before I head to bed each night and see Will & Luke sleeping together, that's LOVE!

* When my Mom un-selfishly comes to town when she knows I have been stressed, just to relieve me of some daily duties to help ease my stress level, that's LOVE!

* When I'm having my quiet time and I can feel the Lord's presence and His arms around me, that's LOVE!!

* When my children smile and laugh, that is LOVE singing to my heart!

* When my husband gives me that grin, that only a wife would appreciate, that's LOVE!

* When my children make their beds without having Mommy ask them, that's LOVE!

* When I uncontrollably laugh with my Momma about only things we would think were hilarious, that's LOVE!

I thought writing out the small things that have happened to me lately to show me how much I'm loved, but more importantly how much I'm blessed! I heard today was National Suicide Awareness day, so please, show someone you love some LOVE!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Monday!!

Another first....

 Our home will be experiencing another round of many firsts... recently we had Westin's first tast of solids. At our 4 month check up, our pediatrician said it was time to start solids whenever we were ready. With Wesin being our last baby, this has been the case so far and the hubs thinks it's hilarious:

1. Will (our oldest) turns 4 months old - I leave the doctor's appointment to go buy him baby food, try it that night. 

2. Luke (our middle child) - I already had some at the house after his 4 month check up, I may or may not admit to starting him early. 

3. Westin is our last, it took me 2 weeks from his 4 month check up to even buy food for him. I want him to stay our baby forever!!! :( 

To say that Westin loves food is a understatment. He has not tried anything he does not like and from his first bite of food he eats each bite up like a champ!! He makes the sweetest noises while he's eating food and I think he thinks he is SOMETHING else eating!!! He looks at his big brother like "I'm a big boy now, what you got to say about that?" 

This is his first bite of food, he's asking me right now why he has deprived all this time! 

He is not eating a ton right now, about 2 oz once a day. When I know he's done is when he starts playing with his bib and fingers. He is such a smart boy and he knows now when it's time to eat, too funny!!

I thought about making his own baby food. The hubs was supportive but then the other night, when we were discussing it again he asked me if I had lost my mind. Y'all honestly Westin is lucky to even eat food each night, our nights and days are beyond crazy. After school we are doing homework, cooking dinner, I'm nursing Westin, I'm trying to get the house in order before Daddy comes home, then we eat, take baths, kids off to bed and then we get ready/prepared to do it all over again the next day. It is literally a roller coaster each night, plus we have football practice now twice a week. I'm not complaining, this is exactly how I planned my life but I refuse to put that pressure on myself to make Westin's baby food. He will be just as healthy with me buying his food, as I did with the two older boys! End of discussion, I'm not thinking about it again! I have worried myself for months over this topic, the mommy guilt again comes into play. Once I realized I have no desire to make his food, I only felt pressured to do so, that's when I felt comfortable with my decision. This whole mommy guilt thing is a whole other post!

I hope y'all are having a blessed week! Westin has his first cold and ear infection, poor bubbies! (maybe it's the store bought food, lol!) So I'm taking in all of the cuddles I can get from this little rolly polly, love bug!!

Westin is 4 months old!!!

Height: 23.5 in.

Weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz.

Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day, sleeps from 8pm til 7am each night, no lie!!!

Eating Habits: Breastmilk - 5 bottles or straight from the tap 5 times a day. We also introduced cereal and a few foods this week, I've got a whole post dedicated to food coming up this week!

Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, holding his upper body up very well, ROLLING OVER!! He's my rolly polly!!

Cuteness: He just figured out his big brothers and just how hilarious they can be! He thinks they are the best thing EVER! Melts this Momma's heart!

Talking: He is cooing and trying to talk all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)

Favorites: Mr. Fan and his Mr. Giraffe are his best friends!

Firsts: Bite of cereal and first time to roll over!

Concerns: He might be eating too much, ha! The boy loves his food and gets so made when it's gone.
 

A Day in the Life: (not much has changed since month 3, I do add in some cereal usually around 6pm)Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again and takes a small 30 minute cat nap while Mommy finishes up dinner. He eats cereal or fruit around 6pm then has a bath around 7p and is asleep before 8pm each night.

 

The love we feel for this child is undescribable. Westin, you have changed our lives and made our family more complete. We love you so much sweet boy! We all are enjoying watching you grow and become a handsome perfect baby boy!!

Memories being made...

 J and I believe that as parents, one of our jobs is to give our children wonderful memories. We have always felt this way but for awhile got lazy about it. We got stuck in a rut called life and got really busy with non sense things. A few months ago we had a heart to heart talk about how important it is to make memories with our children, they are getting bigger and we are missing great opportunities. Here we are living life and are we making an impact in their lives, will they remember these days as fun memories or just boring life? We want them to always remember fun things and everything does not need to cost a fortune. Heck just going on a walk with your kids can make great memories for them.

This summer a new park opened up right around the corner from our house. We live in an area that could use something nice, it seems lately lots of "not so nice" has been moving in so we were thrilled to get a new, fancy park. The city really out did themselves. They made nature walking trails and a really nice picnic area with a great playground. So last weekend we went to check it out.

My 3 older boys on the trail, Luke passed Daddy and Will, he is in the front.  

At the end of the walking trail is a paved cove that leads to this river. I stayed back with Westin since he was in his stroller and the boys headed down the "cliff" to check out the river.

Westin and Mommy waiting on them to get back.

Mommy was ready to head back to the park, so I told them to come on. Luke runs up and does this... he has been doing this lately, silly boy! 

Nice cold water on a hot summer day! 

Love me some Will, he is my wise child. He is my buddy and a huge helper!!



Making memories with your family has done nothing but made our strong bond, even stronger!

Luke is SIX!

 Our sweet Lukie turned SIX while we were at the beach!!! Needless to say he had one heck of a party! We did not do a big friends party for him this year, just because we thought the beach was a lot and we did have my whole family with us. Plus J's family came over the weekend before to celebrate so he had a nice week full of celebrations.

Since Luke joined our family 6 years ago he has changed our lives. He was my baby for 5 years and 9 months, I always tell him he will always be my baby. Luke is fun, silly, spontaneous, wild, spiritual, mischieveous, fearless and so sweet. Luke is a ball of energy but that is what I love about him. He deals with situations and life head on, with no worries. My prayer is for him to always have that thought about life. Will worries enough for all of us and I love that about Will too, but having a child that lives life with no worries, it is a sweet thing to watch. Luke is such an amazing child, my life would be boring without him in it!

Here is his cake we got him, we thought the beach theme was perfect and it was YUMMY! :) 

My angel boy made a wish and blew his candles out! He told me his wish came true! :)

I love this picture of Luke in the sand. This is his real smile, no faking. This child has my heart forever and I thank the Lord for him each day!



Sweet Luke, these past 6 years have been the best of our lives. You are our little firecracker and we love every ounce of you!

Thank you for being you and always stay true to yourself! Mommy and Daddy love you more than words could ever describe.

Happy 6th Birthday sweet child!