Date Night

Theo and I had an overnight date night Friday night while we were down South. My aunt, who works for Hilton, was so sweet and got us a suite!

The room was fabulous.



Omaw and Papaw kept the kids and we had a great time just the two of us. I told Theo I had forgotten how much I like spending time with him! Ha! We got there pretty late because Theo had an online grad school test Friday night. But we hit the town and had dinner at one of the casinos (no gambling for our frugal selves though!), walked around for a while, and then finally headed back to the room after midnight! That was the latest I have stayed up in a long time. I ended up taking not one, but two naps Saturday afternoon. Thanks to everyone who made our date night possible!

Bubbles: K'ville style

We got home yesterday afternoon from our week in Louisiana. It took us 18 hours over two days to get up there but only 15 1/2 hours to get home! I really enjoyed spending time with my family, Carter loved hanging out at Omaw and Papaw's house and playing with his cousins. My dad even drove up and we got to have dinner with him one night.

We had a great trip even though I was exhausted much of the time. But we are thankful to be home. I love travelling but always love getting home too! My kids really thrive on routine so today, we're trying to get back to that.

My mom bought a new bubble machine while we were there. As you all know, Carter LOVES bubbles! He loved it even more because Bradley and Leslie were there. This little machine was cool because it created little bubbles inside of these huge bubbles. It was neat!










More pictures from the rest of our trip to come later....

9 month check up and other things

Olivia went for her check-up yesterday with Dr. B. And I was suspecting, she had all but fallen off of the growth curve (the 1 %). She only weighs 14 pounds 12 ounces. Ever more reason I am done breastfeeding...so I can fatten my sweet princess up! I will admit, it is a little frustrating that my body doesn't seem to be able to provide my babies what they need. I am always jealous of moms who have these fat breastfed babies and often wonder what I'm doing wrong that neither one of my kids gained much weight on breastmilk. Oh well! She also didn't gain any inches in length either. I assume the medical tech weighed her wrong at her 6 month check up. I truly don't believe she isn't any longer. Fatter, yes, longer, no I don't believe that. Olivia also has eczema on her back. Carter had it too but he developed it earlier and didn't have it on his back. Weird. These kids of mine are really different!

Her Omaw custom designed onsie:



In other Olivia news, she slept the whole night last night! I have officially stopped nursing and I don't know if that is what did the trick or what. But of course, Carter was up multiple times last night. I am truly convinced God is punishing me for something, I just don't know what. Literally, every single night over the past 9 months that Olivia has slept without waking up much, Carter is up all night! Ughh! I'm going to get white noise machines for both of their rooms. enough is enough!

Miss Priss is also loving her some table food. She ate green beans off my plate yesterday and tomatoes and french bread. Carter was really old before he would eat table food but maybe that was my fault for not offering it to him more. But I think Olivia will be off of baby food a lot sooner.

Yesterday, the weather was finally gorgeous (after having several days of 40-50 degree temps and us having the heat on in our house! YUCK!) We headed to the "spinny park" as Carter calls it. There were a TON of kids there. I was a little nervous about being able to keep up with him but eventually the daycare left and all was calm again. I forgot the sunscreen so I was trying my best to park myself and Olivia in the shade. No sunburns for either of us so I guess it worked! I will post our park pictures later but for some reason, blogger is not wanting to cooperate right now!

Nine months old

Olivia is already nine months old! (Technically, she was nine months old Saturday but I haven't been on the computer much lately to blog!)It's hard to believe that she is as old as the number of months I carried her inside of me. These have been some of the best 9 months of my life. She brings so much light and life and joy into our house. She is such a blessing. At nine months she:

-is finally taking a bottle really well and is getting mostly formula these days.

-is still nursing twice a day but I think prefers the bottle now :)

-is still not sleeping through the night despite her formula feeds. I let her cry it out for a good 30-45 minutes every night and she still won't fall back asleep. But as soon as I give her a bottle, she conks out. Sigh.

-can get up on all fours but is not crawling yet. And that makes me thrilled!!! :) I know my days of being able to lay on the couch and read a book for a few minutes will be over once she's mobile :)

-takes one to two naps depending on what time she wakes up

-is eating 3-4 jars of baby food a day and some table food. So far, she's had (tablefood wise) potato, banana, blueberry muffin, turkey sausage (which she LOVED!), cheese sticks, mango, peach, puffs, grapes, and a few other things I can't recall this early in the morning!

-finally let other people hold her over the past week without screaming. I'm hoping this means she is going to turn the corner with all this separation/stranger anxiety.

-is still saying momma, dada, "Oh" and can recognize all of us plus Carter

-still only has her two bottom teeth but I'm expecting more to pop up any minute

-still adores her brother and thinks he is the most entertaining person on the face of the earth

-went in the swimming pool for the first time this past weekend and she loved it. She was just a kicking and splashing. I'm hoping she won't be afraid of the water!

-is getting ready to make her first two day car trip very soon. Please pray for all of us!

-is the most beautiful and precious baby in the whole world but I'm biased!

Happy nine month birthday Livie! We love you more and more every single day!

Random Ramblings

The rest of our week has been uneventful. We've had some nice weather inermingled with some rain but all in all, we got to spend quite a lot of time outside. Theo ended up working about 16 hours yesterday so I tried my best to entertain the kids with no help. That certainly makes for a long day. But we hung out with Amy and her boys so that made the time go by faster.

I also had to catch up on this:


While I folded laundry, Olivia did this:


and Carter did this:





Our neighborhood is having a community garage sale this weekend. Even though we have a lot of crap stuff, we are not participating. But I may cruise around the neighborhood to see if there is anything I just can't live without. I may have to watch Amy's boys for a litle while too so we'll see. We want to take Carter and Olivia swimming this weekend. I also want to go to Denver. 'm also trying to finish the newest Jodi Piccoult novel, House Rules. My kids are watching a lot of movies this week in attempt for me to finish before it's due back! At this point, we are playing it all by ear. Hope you all have a good weekend!

This just in

After almost 9 months, Olivia is finally taking a bottle! I can not even begin to describe how happy this makes me. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because I don't have to be her only food source anymore! I can finally pass the buck to someone else. What a relief!! I really wanted to nurse her until a year. And I may still do that. But for now, I'm at least supplementing her with formula. She's not even 15 pounds yet which is less than double her birth weight. By the textbooks, she should have doubled her birth weight by 6 months. But because she was gaining enough weight (barely) and happy and healthy, her pediatrician and I weren't too concerned about it. Last night, she slept 10 straight hours without waking up. I can't even remember the last time she did that. I truly think she has been waking up at night because she's hungry. But no more!! Or at least I'm hoping not!

The funny thing is, I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt for giving her formula. For nine months I didn't because I thought I would feel guilty. But now that we are past the point of no return, I don't feel at all guilty. Most women don't even make it to the 9 month mark so I'm grateful I was able to nurse her that long. Now, I'm done....mostly. I feel so free!

Our week so far

I am running out of clever post titles as you can tell. Really, this post is just about our week so far.

The best thing so far this week is baby Kara is home from the hospital! Praise the Lord. Considering what kind of surgery she had, for her to be home already is nothing short of a miracle. God is good!

As I mentioned already, Carter started swim lessons again so we're doing that every morning at 8:45. What was I thinking? The kids are both sleeping until 8:00 these days (as long as Carter will stay in his own bed at least) so we're rushing to get out of the house by 8:30. Theo was able to come today and yesterday so while he was with the kids, I managed 30 minutes on the elliptical! Oh well, it's only for 2 weeks and then we are off to Louisiana!! Can't wait!

Olivia is not doing too fabulously with her bottle feedings. I think I'm going to try pumping and giving her that in a cup and see how she does. She's going to have to give up nursing...eventually and the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned!

The weather has been so nice lately with only a little rain. So while Olivia napped (for 2.5 hours!!) yesterday, Carter played outside with his friends and Theo and I sat outside and played a game of this:


We are really trying to make an effort to spend more quality time together, just the two of us, and the four of us. This has something we have struggled with since we got married. We are often together and in the same room or at least in the same vicinity. But being in the same room, doesn't neccessarily count as quality time. So we are spending less time on the internet, less time with the tv on and already I can see a difference in our relationship with each other and with the kids. Slowly but surely we are reprioritizing things in our lives. I believe God will bless us for it.

Bowling and 300th post!

Wow, this is my 300th post! Man, I must have had a lot to say over the past couple of years :)

Sunday, Theo and I took the kids bowling. We even brought along Carter's friend, and our neighbor, Caden! It was soooo much fun. Olivia didn't have the best time but that is par for the course these days. She did fine as long as I was holding her. But she has been so cranky and clingy lately. But alas, this too shall pass.

I must say I have a spectacular husband! He is so good with our kids and other people's kids. He helped the boys "bowl" and I didn't too much better than they did :) Theo and I hadn't been bowling since we had kids. I was always afraid to take Carter for fear he would run down the lanes. But Carter and Caden were very well behaved. They did chase each other around but in an area that was completely appropriate. We will definitely have to go back. Carter woke up this morning and asked "Can we go bowling again today?".

The only group picture I could get (I should have had the guy take another one!)


The grown-ups bowling:




I never realized I looked like a chicken when I bowled!


The kids "bowling" with some help






Instead, we went to swim lessons again. Hopefully, he'll eventually get the hang of it. He's so terrifed of having to put his face in the water that is apprehensive of the swim lessons. I'm hoping when we go to Louisiana and I can get in the pool with him, that I can break him of that fear. We'll see.

This past week has been pretty rough in the parenthood department. Carter has been in a mood and everything has been a fight. We are going to try some new discipline techniques. He can be so sweet when he wants to be and so rotten at other times. And for Miss Olivia, she had her first bottle/cup of formula yesterday. I am ready to be done nursing. I am ready not to be tied down to her with no relief every single hour of the day. So I gave her a cup of formula. It took her awhile to get used to it but eventually she was drinking it. She has only had a total of 3 ounces so far. I don't think I can just cold turkey stop nursing. I don't think she'll go for that. But slowly, I am starting to wean her. I'm hoping she'll get the hang of the cup thing soon. Otherwise, it'll take me longer to feed her with a cup than it does to nurse!

As for the rest of this week, Carter has swim lessons Monday through Thursday for the next two weeks. Theo is working the night shift Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Next weekend, I'm hoping we can go up to Denver.

Birthday BBQ: Take Two

Yesterday we were finally able to have our BBQ. We had a good time. We had a little unexpected weather so we packed everything up, and took it inside. And of course, as soon as we did that, the rain stopped. Theo did a good job grilling everything (since I'm terrifed of fire!) We love having people over. I think we've had more people over in the 11 months we've lived here than we did in the five years we lived in Louisiana. Having a much bigger house helps with that too!
The fellas:


The ladies:


The party guests (Meredith and her boys were there too):



Me and my gang:


The food table:


I'm so blessed to have such good friends to share my life with and a great husband who is a HUGE help!

Prayer Request

Please pray for our dear friends, Adam and Georgette. Their 10 month old baby girl Kara is having open heart surgery today. I am praying that the surgery goes perfectly, that God is with every single person in that O.R., that God's presence would just invade the O.R., and that Adam, Georgette, and the rest of their family be surrounded by peace.

Brother and Sister

I took these pictures of Carter and Olivia a few days ago before church. Don't you just love Olivia's dress? She looked like such a big girl in it! I will admit, two of the reasons I wanted a girl were for 1)hair bows and 2)smocked dresses! I know, I'm crazy but I'm just being honest. :) You may be asking yourself how I get Carter to sit for the pictures....skittles!!! Bribery works well in this house!

Birthday Part Two

Theo had to work on my birthday but when he got home, he had this for me:


I love, love, LOVE cookie cake! This one was from Wal-mart which isn't quite as good as the American Cookie Company but apparently, we don't have the cookie company here. Sigh. This was one pretty tasty though, as evidenced by the fact that it's halfway gone and I've only had it for 36 hours!

He also got me a American Express gift card because I have been wanting to go shopping for new clothes, a WOW worship CD, and the sweetest card! We postponed my birthday dinner until last night on account of me being completely stuffed after Lisa cooked lunch for me.

Despite Carter's fever earlier that morning, we went here:


I have been wanting to eat at P.F. Chang's since we moved here but the couple of times we have attempted to go, the wait has been forever. Since we were there at 5:00 yesterday, we were able to walk right in. I had this:


Theo had this:


Olivia had these:


This was also Olivia's first time in a big girl restaurant high chair.

She was quite happy. When we were done, we headed home instead of walking around because Carter was tired. Theo and I spent the rest of the night playing guitar hero! I'm finally (sort of) getting the hang of it. If they had a piano hero, I could totally kick tail in that game :)

So despite how my birthday week was looking initially, I actually had a fabulous time and one of the best birthday's I have ever had. I'm grateful to all the people in my life who helped make it a special one.
My favorite boy


doing what he does best.......being silly!


More family photos






Momma and her best girl