Thursday Thoughts

1. This little dude would NOT keep calm while we were at the "Splash Pad" this week. I was chasing him around like a lion. He was hilarious at his first outing this summer to the Splash Pad. He wouldn't go under the water and would rather not touch the water but did enjoy running in the cool water. I love this little pot belly, waddle boy so much!!!

 

2. One of my high school (really grade school) friends is now selling It Works Wraps. So last night another one of my "school" friends had a party at her house. Well I did the tummy wrap and I was very skeptical last night. This morning I woke up with my stretch marks almost gone. I kid you not, I was stunned!! So I'm drinking my water the next few days and hoping that I will lose inches as well. Even though I might have already but I didn't measure this morning. I will keep you posted.

 

3. Sunday in church our Pastor spoke on a very convicting subject. It would not be convicting to normal people but it was all about starting and keeping "good" habits. It is easy to get out of habits and so terribly hard to get back into them. It really had me thinking about the habits we do now and the effect it will have on the boys. I've now made some changes to our lives, things we use to do all the time but fell out of the routine. Here are things I'm adding to our lives to ensure we have "good" habits.

 

Getting up every morning to go walking for 30 minutes (I've done this 4 mornings in a row now), listening to klove while on my morning walk, eating and cooking better throughout the day, saying a prayer before each meal, everyone saying our prayers together at night & spending quality time in the WORD each and every night!

 

Doing these small changes has helped my week so far! I've added a few organizational things to that list as well so it is helping me not feel so overwhelmed at home.

 

I hope you all are having a blessed week! We are under a heat advisory today so I'm looking forward to the cold front coming in this weekend.

 

Love to all!



Gatlinburg Trip Part 2 (final chapter)

So the last several days of Gatlinburg we just as awesome as the first several days! It did rain off and on a bunch but it didn't stop us. We still got out to eat and do fun things around town. We are super glad that we got the hikes and mountain sight seeing over with on the first several days since it did rain. That would of been a little uncomfortable. :)  Sorry for the picture overload, these pictures are just all so special to me!

 

 

 

 

Luke's face here is hilarious!! He was so darn happy and we were sitting at this awesome restaurant while a storm was blowing in. Fun times!!

 

We saw 6 live bears, in the wild but we saw this fake stuffed bear and the hubs had to get his picture with him.... Handsome guy!

 

Bubble baths in the cabin are much more fun than at the house!

 

The creek that runs through Gatlinburg. So pretty!!!!

 

One of our favorite restaurants. We ate here twice while on vacation and we told ourselves we wouldn't do that.... but it was so good!!

 

There is no other way to keep this wild man in one area. Daddy was super busy!! :)

 

Our last night we did Putt-Putt. It was SO much fun for all of us!

 

 

Me and my sweet boys! Westin was down there trying to attack the golf club.... He has a lot of learning to do! :)

 

 

Luke got a hole in one on the final hole. It didn't hit him yet but his big brother was sure happy for him! :) Love these boys and the relationship they have with one another.  

 

 

 

Gorgeous waterfall!!! Nature in it's finest as well as old structures are by far my favorite thing about that area! I want to live in an old wooden home, on lots of acres, living off of my own land in such a pretty area... is that too much to ask for?

 

Mr. Wild Man with his wild hair. He is a trip and was an absolute angel the entire trip. I think he really enjoyed us all being together in a awesome place just as much as we did. I love how his cheerio's are lined up in a line. OCD, maybe???

 

 

I hope you all are having a blessed day! I'm so looking forward to the weekend!! :) 

Gatlinburg Trip Part 1

Last week we took a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. J and I have not been in 8 years and the boys have never been, so to say that we needed to take this trip was an understatement. We thought it would be a fun trip for the kids and we knew we all would have a blast. We do love the beach, especially at summer time but I have never experienced Gatlinburg and the mountains during the summer months so I really wanted this trip to happen! There is much more to do while it's warm verses while it's cold like we usually do in the past.

 

We decided to make the half way trip to Nashville and spend the night. The boys have never stayed in a hotel room so they thought that was pretty cool.

 

 

Even baby Westin knew something fun was coming up and he couldn't wait to get the day started!

 

A little blurry but this is the boys headed to Gatlinburg!! :) I promise not one child cried or got upset about anything. We have the best little travelers. As long as you are passing Westin his goldfish and sippy cup on a regular basis, he is even a breeze!

 

Right when we pulled in to Gatlinburg we decided to pull off and walk down to the creek. It is always such an awesome time to us! These little boys were in awe of the beauty from this area.

 

Westin is taking his first drink out of a big boy cup. He never spilled one drop... our smart little boy!

 

 

He's blowing kisses down by the creek here! :) 

 

Our first full day we decided to head on up to the mountain so we could see everything we wanted to see in nature. The next several days it was calling for rain so we knew this day was our best bet.

 

These are from Newfound Gap. Such a beautiful area and I'm so blessed we were able to have a picnic on the top of this mountain. It was a blast for all of us!!

 

My little nature boy!! :)

 

One of my favorite pictures of my boys from this trip!!! Love these little men so much and I love their Daddy more than I could ever imagine!!! It was nothing short of a miracle to have each one of them smiling AND looking at the camera. Can I get an AMEN?

 

Me and my handsome hubby at Newfound Gap!

 

 

After we had our picnic and walked a few trails at Newfound Gap we decided to head on up to the highest part of the mountain, Clingman's Dome. Once you get there you have to then hike up half a mile to the summit.... It was very interesting seeing two adults, clearly with no athletic ability and out of shape getting up to the summit but we made it with all the kids in tow! :) Awesome experience and Westin sure enjoyed his nap on the ride up in his stroller. ha

 

On this day we also saw 6 bears!!!! It was amazing and the boys about had an accident because they couldn't believe they were seeing live bears, in nature. We all were amazed and each one of them was  so beautiful. The Momma bear and her cubs were my favorite.

 

 

 

To say we had a great first full day is an understatement. I would say this was one of my most favorite days because we did so much and saw so many wonderful things, in nature! Being in the mountains I felt very close to God, as if I was in constant prayer and praising the entire trip. Leaning on Him for so many different things as well as praising Him for all He did on that trip. It was amazing and seeing nature in it's beauty just reminded me of His never ending love for us!

 

I will post more on Part 2 tomorrow... stay tuned!



Prayers for my sweet Will

The past 10 days have been rather stressful and interesting at the Clements household. Luke came down with a stomach bug, then several days later Will did as well. Yesterday I got it and so it has been off and on. I'm feeling much better and the boys are as we'll which is great. I'm praying no one else gets it and we all get through the summer sick free. 

All of this sickness threw up red flags with Will. He has suffered stomach pains for about a year now and back in December I wrote about us going to the doctor. Our wonderful pediatrician, Dr. M, ordered blood work and it all came back normal. At that point we didn't feel it was necessary to go see a GI doctor. He seemed to feel better for a few months but we have noticed the past several months he is looking sick, looking thin and all around not feeling well. Last week we weighed him and determined he has lost 10 lbs since December. He is naturally a very tall, thin child (he doesn't get this from his Momma) so losing any weight at all is alarming, much less 10 lbs. 

On Friday Dr. M wanted him to come in to be checked out. Will looks like a very sick child and the first words from Dr. M's mouth confirmed our worries that something serious is wrong with Will. Right now we don't know what it is, we have an appointment Wednesday morning with a pediatric specialist doctor. Right now we believe it is a lifetime treatable sick tummy. Hearing treatable was like music to my ears. Dr. M told Will that his tummy is very sick but we will figure out exactly what it is causing these problems. 

If we didn't have complete faith in God then we would be losing our minds. I have prayed many prayers since last week, mainly that God will have his hand on my sweet child and allow the doctors to find exactly what is causing Will these problems and them be fixed. I want my son to be a normal child. I want him to be able to play outside without getting tired, I want him to be able to eat food without getting sick and most importantly I want him to grow, I want meat on his bones because right now he has none. He is literally skin and bones.

Please pray for our sweet Will and our family this coming week. It has been a roller coaster of emotions. I'm not concerned about my emotions, my thoughts or my feelings... I'm only concerned for Will's health. We will get through this with the good Lord on our side!!! 

Love to all, I will keep you posted!! Thank you in advance for the prayers!