Midweek Randoms

• Ever wonder how I manage to get ready with two littles? Ha. They love brushing their teeth!

• Jacob, Lily, and I got haircuts today! After at least a month of being on my to do list.

• The weather today was beautiful!

• Tomorrow is my sister's 30th birthday and the Full Moon. Wonder if we'll have a baby?

• This afternoon I ran out {alone!} to Old Navy and found a few comfy clothes. It's hard buying stuff that you can't really try on, but hopefully they'll fit ok.

• Lily and Levi helped me pick up and vacuum. Well, they helped me pick up and then watched me vacuum - neither one of them are very fond of the vacuum.

• Lily and I painted our toenails and made brownies (because Jacob wanted something sweet) this afternoon.

• I'm super proud of my hubby. He is training to run as part of a team in a Ragnar Relay from Chattanoga to Nashville in November. His team is raising money to support mission work in Liberia. You can check out their website here. An added benefit is that in just the short time he's been training, he's lost 12lbs! 

• I made Jacob's favorite, Chicken Alfredo, for supper. 

• Baby Boy finally has a name...I think! :-)

• I took the kids to church tonight and Jacob had a rehearsal.

• I'm pretty tired and hoping for a good sleep tonight. Hope y'all had a great day!

• I just noticed that this is my 500th post! Wowzers!

Date Night and the Best Chocolate

I had a good midwife appointment this morning - everything is great with me and the baby! Half way home (it's about an hour drive altogether) we stopped at Target to pick up a few things for Jacob's orchestra party this afternoon. It was close to lunch time, so the kids snacked on cheese sticks and organic fruit snacks throughout the store. In the checkout I saw the container of Ritz cheese crackers and I did something I'd never done before - I bought them and let my kids eat them. We usually eat pretty healthy, but today, they needed something easy and fast. During the last 30 minutes of our drive home, they downed the entire container! Levi tends to stuff his mouth when he eats, which makes me nervous when we're driving, but Lily was so sweet and gave him one cracker at a time.

Can I just say, I love our van! The two captain chairs in the middle scoot together (like you can see in the picture) so Lily and Levi can be right next to each other. When the new baby comes, Lily will move to the back, but for now, they love sharing toys and holding hands during our drives.

Tonight my parents came over and took care of the kids so Jacob and I could go out! We went to Ruby Tuesday (thanks to a gift card from Christmas) and then headed to Target for newborn diapers, a couple little things to give Lily and Levi when we bring home our new baby, and dog food. So romantic, I know! LOL My friend Jessica mentioned how much she loves this chocolate, tonight we splurged and tried it. Be still my heart! It is the best chocolate ever!! You need to try it!

We also got the boys their first matching outfits! Ahh, so cute!

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Busy Week

 Last week was such a crazy busy week for us! We spent most of the days inside since it was pretty cold and rainy a lot of the week. Monday night I took the kids to my youngest brother's basketball game. His team did a great job and won by a few points. Lily and Levi were good, but it was such a blessing to have the help of my sweet family! Lily sat with my Mom for the first half of the game, and my sister and brother-in-law played with Levi when I had to take Lily to the potty.

I need to do an update on Levi's eyes since he's been doing the patch and wearing his glasses. I'll try to do that this week!

Lily played dress-up in some way-too-big-for-mommy maternity clothes. Ha!

Putting a diaper on her doll.

On Tuesday night, the adult orchestra Jacob conducts had their concert, so the kids and I packed up and went to it. Jacob had youth orchestra rehearsal before the concert, so the kids and I just played together and walked around. The concert started at Lily and Levi's bedtime - they were troopers, but we ended up playing in the nursery at the church. I was able to hear some of the songs, so that was nice! There was a reception afterwards, and everyone enjoyed seeing Lily and Levi. We finally got home around 10:30! The kids did a great job and even slept in a little bit the next morning!

We got our Christmas tree last Saturday, but we didn't get it decorated until this past Friday night! We were hoping to find a time where we could decorate it all together, but Jacob has been sooo busy, it just wasn't working out. Lily and I started putting the lights on on Thursday, then then half the lights didn't work...of course! Friday night we finally got some more and we were able to finish decorating it.

Jacob got to help Lily put on the first ornament right as he was walking out the door to go to the 5th performance of The Nutcracker. My poor husband has hardly been at home the last week or so. We are thankful for all the Christmas gigs, but it is definitely wearing on our family. Just to give you an idea of what I mean... from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon, He played in 8 performances of The Nutcracker on top of several other rehearsals/Christmas programs. Yesterday he was gone from home for 13 hours, and today he was gone 9!  Christmas season for a musician = Craziness!! We are all counting the days to when he's done for the year!

Thursday night the kids and I met my sister and her family at the mall to walk. It was fun, although slightly crazy trying to maneuver two strollers through the crowd of people moving along at a very slow pace. Myra took Ridley and Lily on the carousel when we finished. So fun!

Ripping up a magazine kept Levi occupied for 20 minutes on Saturday!

Lily and I made sugar cookies on Saturday afternoon. It was so much fun! I hope to make this a Christmas tradition.

Of course she enjoyed licking her fingers and snitching cookie dough. Silly girl!

Sweet girl ready to head to church.

We had dinner with Jacob's family and then came home for naps before going back to church. What a crazy week! I'm thankful that it's over, but I love the sweet memories with my children!

Hope y'all had a good week!

Birthday and Homecoming

Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes for Jacob on Wednesday! We had a fun day together!

I cooked up a extra special breakfast and we just kind hung out in the morning. Then we headed to meet Jacob's family and some of my family at an Asian restaurant for lunch. After lunch everyone came back to our house for cheesecake and opening presents. Yes, Lily is snitching a bite in the picture. Ha.

My Daddy flew home from Calgary, Canada late Wednesday night. It's sort of a family tradition for us to all go to the airport to welcome who ever is flying home. Jacob stayed home with the babies (who were sound asleep!) and I got to go with my Mom, sister, and two of my brothers. It was a lot of fun, although it was about 12:15AM when I got home!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is my sweet hubby's birthday!! We are so excited that his schedule worked out where he's off work until early afternoon (he finished one school on Monday, and he starts teaching at the next school on Friday)!

Spring 2008 during our whirlwind courtship

I am so thankful for the wonderful husband God has given me. I am truly blessed beyond measure!

Lily and Levi adore their Daddy. It warms my heart to see the love between Daddy and babies.

Lily has just recently starting understanding about birthdays and she is so excited to celebrate Jacob's birthday! She helped me make him a cheesecake (his favorite!) and we are planning to make him a special breakfast. Precious memories!

Midweek Randoms

Lily is feeling much better, praise the Lord! Thank you all for your prayers! She fell asleep on the couch this morning while watching a dvd. After not getting the antibiotic down her last night, I called the doctor's office this morning to see if they would call in a different antibiotic. They didn't get back to me until late this afternoon, and by that time Lily was fever-free and acting like she felt great. I've been giving her a bunch of herbs and immune system boosters, so I guess they worked! I told the doctor not to worry about calling in anything else since she was doing so much better.

My sweet hubby got these flowers for me today. I love them!! He rarely gets me flowers (because I tell him not to spend the money on them :), so it's really special when he does!

Levi is doing great, except that he's putting everything in his mouth. He's choked badly 3 times in the last few days. The first time he swallowed a hairclip, the second time it was a piece of grass/bark (once it came up it was unidentifiable), and the third time it was a boxwood shrub leaf. We got the hairclip and grass/bark up, but I couldn't get the boxwood leaf up. I called poison control, and they said that one leaf is ok, but it is poisonous when consumed in larger amounts. I think this child is giving me more gray hairs everyday!

Happy Wednesday!

3 years

Three years ago I married the man of my dreams, my best friend. Today I am thankful for God's grace these last three years. They haven't always been easy, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. My heart daily thanks God for my wonderful husband and incredible daddy to our children.

Here's to 67 more years! :-)

Daddy Love

The other night while I was fixing supper, Jacob got down in the floor to play with the babies. Of course I had to snap some pictures!

Lily finding Levi's eye

Love this!

Jammin' with Daddy

 Father/Daughter Violin & Vocal Duo - LOL!

 "Oops, Daddy, I got lost. Can you start back at the beginning of that measure??!"

"Hey Mom, how do we sound? You think we'll get some gigs pretty soon?!"

Violin vs. Fiddle

When we were in Canada Jacob got asked to show the difference between a violin and a fiddle. Hope you enjoy!



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4th of July Weekend (Part 2)

On Monday Jacob got up super early (4 am!) to start smoking meat for his family's get together. Lily woke up around 5:30 and Jacob brought her and put her in bed with me. Thankfully she went back to sleep with me until around 7:30! It was so nice to sleep in a little after such a busy, busy, weekend!

Lily and I went out to Memaw's for lunch with all the family. We just ate leftovers from Saturday and sat around and talked. Memaw has some of the prettiest tiger lilies blooming around her house. Ever since I was a little girl I've thought they are the coolest looking flower!

It was Lily's naptime, so Mandy's husband rocked her {both of them} to sleep. I love this picture! It was just too precious a moment to pass up.

We headed to Jacob's family's house for an early supper. PawPaw enjoyed playing pool with some of the other family members.

Later in the evening we went to my parent's for desserts and fireworks with our church family. My family lives in the country so it's nice to go out there and do fireworks since they are illegal in the city limits. I made these Rice Crispy "Popsicles" dipped in chocolate. They were yummy!

Lily loves sucking/chewing on any kind of fruit or veggie but we have to be careful she doesn't get a bite since her first tooth has cut through! This picture was taken right before Joseph noticed that there was a nickel sized piece of cantaloupe missing from the chunk!! Thankfully I was able to get it out of her mouth before she choked!

One guy brought his remote helicopter to fly for us. He is like a professional- it was amazing to watch him control it and do all kinds of tricks!

To finish off the evening we watched tons of beautiful fireworks!

Lily was a little afraid of all the noise, but if we covered her ears, she was ok. It was also past her bedtime, so she was kind of fussy anyway.

So that ends our fun, crazy, busy, tiring 4th of July weekend!

4th of July Weekend (Part 1)

So...I have been working on this post for 3 days and it's just now getting posted! Ugh, we have just been so busy and way out of routine because of the long holiday weekend. Someday I will be back on track with my blog!

On Thursday I had a visit with my midwife. It was Linda and Lily's half birthday- if you remember, Lily was born on Linda's birthday, January 1st. We had a great visit and enjoyed hearing our little one's heartbeat!!

Jacob got this awesome bike trailer for me for an early birthday present. I love it! I know Lily looks slightly uncomfortable in it, but since this picture, we've strapped in a booster seat for her and she loves it!

Jacob did tons and tons of smoking over the weekend for family get togethers and a guy's get together. All of it turned out so yummy!

Saturday was my 25th birthday. We headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with my parents and Jacob's parents. We left Lily in her pj's and just added a hairbow- she's so patriotic! ha.

Our parent's went in together to get me a sewing machine! I'm so excited to make little dresses for Lily!

My family's 4th of July celebration was at my Memaw's on Saturday afternoon. It was fun to visit with everyone. My cousin Mandy and her family were in town- her little girl is just precious!

I opened some more presents.

And we walked around the farm. Aren't these puppies so cute?! There are 7 total {I think} but I couldn't get a good picture of all of them. Ha!

Lily slept most of the afternoon so I didn't get a very good picture of her little outfit. I love it! It crisscrosses in the back and has little bloomers to go with it.

Sunday was another busy day with church, dinner with Jacob's family, ladies' prayer meeting, church, and supper with my family. Lily was pretty fussy on Sunday night, so Joshua and Elizabeth pushed her on the sidewalk outside until she fell alseep.

Pretty sure she looks like I felt! Ha!

Even though it was busy, it was a fabulous weekend!