10.29.2011

9 months (and 24 days-Geesh!)

I need to go ahead and throw something down for sweet girl's 9 month documentation. I'm trying to finish strong with these stats for her first year. I won't lie...I'm struggling!

She did great at her check up. Barely cried with her shots. She weighs 21 pounds and is right under 31 inches long. Weight is 70th percentile and height is above 100 still...

She is getting more and more fun with each passing day! She even took 4 steps yesterday. Craziness. I am hoping it was a fluke. I am not ready to have a new walker around the house. She eats everything in sight and gets maaaaad if you take food away from her. There is nothing she doesn't like to eat, which is awesome. She wants everything that Knox has...at all times. She now has 2 bottom teeth, and is working on getting some more. Much to my surprise, I LOVE dressing her up in super girlie clothes. I love putting tights on her. I long for the day that she can wear a bow and have pig tails, but we have quite a while before that will happen. She is just awesome. Still very laid back and chill for the most part. I Couldn't have hand picked a better addition to our family. We love you, G-girl, and are So thankful that the Lord entrusted you to us!

Pumpkin kisses!




Chewing on everything!




Hanging with WaWa




So smiley and happy!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

10.25.2011

Back to Reality...

Lee and I made it back safely from our anniversary travels. To say we had a great time is an understatement. I cannot speak of the amount of food that I annihilated over the past few days. It was all-inclusive, so it was all in Regan's belly. From sun up to sun down. And it was goooood food. I am now pregnant with a food baby...

I will say that I missed the kids way more than I expected. I knew that I would miss them, but I found myself having to mentally make myself stop thinking about them and getting sad. I am so thankful for family sending updates and pictures everyday. It was so nice to not have to worry about Knox and Greer since we knew they were in great hands.

Oh so many funny stories from the trip. We are still laughing about some of the stuff that went down while we were there. We actually got to hang out with a few other couples that we met, so that was pretty cool. We got dressed up a few nights for dinner at different restaurants and we also stayed in bathing suits and ate dinner poolside some nights as well. It was so weird to not have a schedule to follow every day. We just rolled with it and played everything by ear...NICE. I even slept until like 8:15 most mornings. This is huge for me- I am not a late sleeper and can't remember the last time I slept that late. Lee got to play golf... I got a massage... we enjoyed some water sports and beach volleyball... Watched football at the on-site Pub...We did a little dancing... Laid around on rafts in the pool...did some reading and napping in cabanas...ate constantly, etc. It was truly incredible. I feel so refreshed and well rested, and am so thankful for the opportunity to go on this trip. Our anniversary isn't exactly until December 2, but with Lee headed to Japan soon, Thanksgiving, and Christmas...this was the best time for us to go. And it didn't hurt that the rates were a little cheaper :).

I only took a few pictures from my camera. The rest are from my phone. And I mean honestly, are we surprised by this anymore? Who knows why we have an actual camera.

We had just dropped Knox off in Bham and thought it was crazy looking that we had a kid-free backseat!

Dinner in ATL with some of our FAVORITE people, Cathie and Ryan

About to take off

About to land

Exuma Airport. I'm not joking.

Loved this!





Lee quickly changed in to his speedo as soon as we got there...













View from the room





Pics of the kiddos that we were getting from back home



One of my favorites!

Uncle Joey! He has 2 girls, so he and Knox kicked it boy-style a lot while we were gone and watched some football. 



In retrospect, I don't really have that many pictures from the trip. I had to make it a point to take my phone with me to dinner so that we could get some taken together. And they aren't even great quality. Sad. I just really wanted to have a few to remember the trip by. My phone was mainly in the room most of the time, and I will admit that that was nice. Very freeing to not be constantly on the phone or texting or checking emails. Not that I am that important. No one really emails me that much. Mainly my sister :). 

I can't believe we are coming up on 5 years. I will save a sappy post about that until closer to our actual anniversary. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me time with Lee -without kids and work- to just relax and talk and spend time together. I know that without you, none of this would have been possible. 

10.17.2011

Thankful

I just dropped Knox off at school and am about to start the crazy packing process for our trip. We leave TOMORROW! So much to do before we leave, but my heart is so thankful for our family memebers that are keeping our kids while we are gone that I wanted to write about it before things get too chaotic around here.

Greer is staying here with my mom and my sister, and Knox will be in Birmingham with Jessica, Lee's sister. When we first started planning this trip, things weren't really lining up easily. The more kids you have, the harder it is to work everything out, that is for sure! Anyways, at one point we decided that we should probably just hold off and wait for a better time to go. My  parents both work full time, and my sister is super busy with her 3. However, my mom (who was still recovering from back surgery) kindly offered to keep Greer even though her back wasn't back to normal. She assured me that she and Mr. Andy -her husband-would take off of work and do what it takes to keep Greer, and that she wasn't letting anything get in the way of Lee and I going off together. THEN...my sweet sister in law insisted that Knox come and stay with her and her family. We weren't too sure at first because we didn't want to overload her since she has 2 girls, but thankfully she wasn't taking no for an answer :). I know Knox is going to have a BIIIIG time hanging out with some of the nicest/funniest/coolest people ever, and he is going to go crazy getting time with sweet Annie and Lily Kate (our nieces). And of course, Robyn...who is like room mom for all of her kids and always on the go. She rocks, too!  Lee and I are both so humbled by their desire to serve us in such a big way. We definitely know that it is A LOT to have someone to keep your kids for so long, so to say we are thankful is an understatement. Not that we deserve it, because we don't necessarily deserve anything, but this will be the first time that Lee and I will be alone and away from the kids since I can remember....definitely the first time since Greer has been born. Yea...I'm a LITTLE excited!

We did, however, receive some sad news about my mom last week. Her back is starting to bother her again, and the doctor said that unfortunately it looks like a more invasive surgery is in her near future. She is having an MRI this afternoon for more details. This really, really hurts my heart because she had a tough recovery from her first one and the last thing she wants to do is go in for another one. Please, please pray for her if you think about it. I would love for God to work a miracle and heal her back completely, or even if it is just a clean MRI result and no surgery...that would be a miracle for sure. She and my sister are splitting time with Greer while we are gone, so that makes me feel a little better. My sweet mom will be working on the days she isn't keeping Greer, so I know she will be exhausted.

Anyways, all this to reiterate that I am oh so thankful for the opportunity to get away with my husband.
Saying "Thank You" doesn't seem like enough (probably because it isn't). You guys are receiving many crowns in heaven for this one...that's for SURE! Haha. We love you SO much!!

Now, we will definitely be missing these 2:

But, I think we will be able to find a way to enjoy ourselves while we are away from them :).

Bahamas....HERE WE COME!!!!

10.10.2011

Worth Mentioning

O.K., so I definitely have a pile of laundry sitting beside me right now, calling out my name. It's also 1:48 and I still have yet to shower for the day (gross, I know, but I've been steaming floors and scrubbing toilets-happy Monday to me!). However, I am going to stop for a minute and share with you something that has really rocked my "Parenting View" over the last 24 hours.

Some friends of mine went to hear John Rosemond speak at a local church yesterday-where Knox goes to MDO. I have heard of him before, but I have never read anything by him or listened to any talks that he has given. It was 1 pm when I got the invite to go at 2 pm, and I am so thankful that I went. SO thankful.

I love to read, and being a new parent I particularly love reading books about parenting and children. I am sure most of you are in the same boat. Hear me when I say that listening to John yesterday completely rocked my world, and he had SO much scriptural back up and research that it was just insane. We drooled over his message and we clung to every word. Pages of notes were taken.  Mental light bulbs were "going off" left and right. I was encouraged to the core with every word he had to say. It all made sense.

I could probably type about all that I learned yesterday from his 3 hour talk for about 10 hours, but I won't. I wish I could upload my notes to the blog. I honestly am scared to even describe his teachings, for fear that I will not do an adequate job. Pretty much, he addressed the fact that society has all mothers guilt ridden, stressed out, and exhausted these days, and 50 years ago...that wasn't the case. We have bought in to so many lies about being a mother and a parent...so many lies that are no where to be found in scripture...and we are really struggling because of it. Mainly, dealing with discipline. Somewhere along the way we have lost sight of being a true, Godly, supervising parent, and we have replaced that with being a friend, child-pleaser, child-obsessed mother. We have placed the child as the center of our universe and are too scared to discipline them the way that God intended. We are striving for our children to have the best grades and accomplishments, and no where in the bible does it talk about accomplishments for our children... it only addresses the character of the children we are raising. While we should strive to instill a sense of healthy self confidence, we are going overboard in making sure they have the highest self esteem...which only leads to them having lower regards for others in many cases. Humility and modesty should be the desired attributes, but unfortunately the world tells us that those are not worthy ones to have. He goes on to say that demographics show that children are much LESS happier now then they were in the 50's. He said that he cannot remember a single person that struggled with ADHD, depression, anorexia, cutting themselves, suicide, etc. Not one. Now, the stats show that predominately every single teenager across the nation knows of a peer that struggles with at least one of these strongholds. Does that make your stomach turn or what?? We argue and justify with our children and give them reason to believe that they have some kind of authority to make their own decisions. We desire to please them. We do everything BUT tell them to do something...we ask, plead, bargain, etc. We should not have to persuade our children to be obedient. God gave us authority over them to raise them the way He intended. We are responsible for them. John gave MANY scriptural references. He gave many applicable examples that were age appropriate. He addressed so many other things, but unfortunately time does not allow me to share. To sum it up, he believes that all the "new" strategies for parenting that we have adopted over the last 50 years is counter productive, and we are wearing ourselves thin trying to make sense of it all. He definitely acknowledges that there will always be bumps in the road...we live in a sinful world. But he makes it very clear that the only "parenting handbook" we should go by is the word of God.

Anyways, I'm sure that I did not do this poor man any justice by attempting to explain how amazing his talk was yesterday. He has a good bit of literature out for specific seasons of your parenting life. I snatched this puppy up so that I can read it on our trip. I am by no means trying to cram this down your throat, BUT...if you are looking for a good read for parenting and discipline, I'm pretty certain this one won't disappoint!