Friday, November 30, 2007

Please Pray

Our dear friends from church, Allen and Gillian, just found out on Wednesday that their 3 1/2 year old son, Joseph, has a large mass in the back of his brain. He is having surgery this morning to have it removed. You can read more about what is happening and how to pray for them here. They also have a younger daughter named Holly. Please be praying for this family.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Why Oh Why?

I've been thinking about something a lot lately that I think has to do largely with living with a toddler, but also just deals with life in general. I've been wondering why my child always has a poopie diaper just after I've gotten him completely dressed and we're about to leave the house? Why is it that the shirt I pull out to wear for the day has a grease stain on it right in the front? Why is it that today, for instance, on my way to bible study at church, does Everett's sippy cup of milk decide to explode and leak through the cooler, through the diaper bag, and create a puddle on the front seat of the car?

Why is it that on days where where I have a ton to get done at home does Everett decide to take the shortest nap ever, but on days where I want him to just sleep for a short time he decides to hibernate for the afternoon? It seems like these thoughts can just go on and on. I know that these are all petty things but they seem to all collect and grate on me. It's amazing how these little things greatly effect my attitudes and emotions.

I was telling a dear friend about this today and she said that when things like this happen to her, she thinks, "Either God hates me or Satan is trying to attack me." She said she knows God doesn't hate her so it has to be the latter. In my bible study we're doing on Thursday mornings, there is a quote in the book we're reading that goes as follows:

"The truth is that we can trust a wise, loving, sovereign God to control every circumstance of our lives. Joy, peace, and stability come from believing that every circumstance that touches our lives has first been filtered through His fingers of love and is part of a great, eternal plan that He is working out in this world and in our lives."

I will say that my faith is really growing in this area right now. I'm being stretched to believe that God is just as much in the small things of every day life as he is in the big things. And that is encouraging to me.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Fall Happenings

Everett has begun to make the silliest faces lately. I don't know how he learned this one...but it was hilarious when I caught him doing it.

We are looking forward to having my sister and her family come to stay with us next week. We'll all be together with my mom and my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. It will be great to spend some time with them. I'm looking forward to the holidays and Allen having some time off.

We found some bunk beds for Everett's new room on Craig's List and we (mostly Allen) have been working on stripping off the paint (they were white) and sanding them down and we're now in the process of painting them navy blue. We're hoping to have them put together and in the room by the time my sister and her family comes. We'll probably move Everett into his new room after Thanksgiving. Hopefully he'll enjoy the new space! It's going to have all navy blue furniture and be filled with cars, trucks, & planes. We're going to keep his old room ready for baby #2.

So far my pregnancy is going well and I'm really starting to show. Luckily I'm through with feeling nauseous, for the most part, and I've had a lot more energy. I've actually been cleaning the house again! Allen is happy about that. We'll be able to find out if we're having a boy or girl on December 4. Allen kind of wants it to be a surprise, but I really want to find out...so we'll see what happens.

Halloween 2007

For Halloween this year, Everett was a fireman. We had a great day. First, a party with our playgroup in the morning and then a neighborhood party in the afternoon and then trick-or-treating! We also had fun the night before Halloween making spiders and a spider web and also carving our pumpkins. Everett sort of helped us. :) There are a ton more photos on our flickr site.

Playgroup Kids:

Our Pumpkins:

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Baby #2 on the way!

For those of you that don't know, we are pregnant (sorry if you're finding out this way rather than in person)! That is the main reason I've been such a slacker about blogging lately. I've felt very yucky for the past month or so. I'm 13 weeks now and hoping that it's getting better but I'm still having definite bouts with nausea. It's been much worse this pregnancy than with Everett. Everyone says that's because I have a toddler to take care of now, which I think is partly true. Sweet Allen has been such a servant to me during this time. He's really picked up the slack when I've been ill or just plain worn out. This has also all coincided with Everett climbing out of his crib on his own, which has led to him getting out of bed as early as 5:30am morning after morning! We're in the process of training him to stay in his crib until we come and get him, preferably after 7am. The past 3 mornings he's done much better. Hopefully we're moving past that, at least until the time change. :)

I have two sets of ultrasound pictures, one set when I was about 6 weeks along and one set when I was about 8 weeks. Of course with this baby, unlike with our first, I've hardly even gotten them out or showed them to anyone, much less even thought about scanning them. Isn't that horrible? Especially considering I was a 3rd child. I hope to be good about taking pictures and scrapbooking with each child though...I just figure it's important to set reasonable goals for each one, rather than go way overboard with the 1st and then totally bail with the others. I'll try to get Allen to take the ultrasound pictures to work and scan them in...not that any of you really care about seeing a black and white blob. :) We'll find out whether it's a boy or girl, at 18 weeks, which is the week of Thanksgiving. My due date is April 20.

I just have to say that right now our house is so peaceful. I've got Mindy Smith on in the background and Everett has been playing quietly by himself, which he rarely does. Normally if he's quiet, he's hiding somewhere in the house destroying something or dumping something out. My friend today called him a 'silent but deadly' kid, which I think describes him perfectly. Just this week he's dumped out a bottle of salad toppings I had in the fridge all over the coffee table and floor, he's dumped out a bag of crackers all over the steps going down into our playroom, and he destroyed one of the baby shower invitations that I had ordered for my sister-in-law's shower, etc., etc. I was asking my sister when this stage ends and she said soon...I'm hoping so!

He's also become quite the climber. Usually this is displayed at the playground, but a couple of weekends ago Allen was outside with him and Allen was blowing off our back porch and Everett was at our fence in the back of the yard, playing with our neighbor's dog. Then next time Allen looked up, Everett was climbing over the chain link fence and into our neighbor's yard. He's quite amazing sometimes.

He really is a sweet kid though and is such a joy to be around. He's got such a great disposition and is a pretty easy-going kid. I'll close with a funny story: One day when Allen was changing his poopie diaper, Allen opened the diaper and said, "How about them apples?". Since then whenever Everett has a poopie he says, "apples in there" and points to his diaper. In his MDO class the past few weeks they've been learning about apples and apple trees and how God made them. So, last week when I was changing his poopie diaper, Everett exclaimed, "Thank you God for apples!" I cracked up.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Beach Trip

We got to go to Seagrove, FL over Labor Day weekend with some other families. It was a great trip and a nice time with friends. The beach was so perfect. The sand was as white as can be and the water was crystal clear. All the kids had a blast playing in the sand and in the water. While we were there Everett learned how to climb out of the pack-n-play and now he is climbing out of the crib. I'm shocked because he's never really been a climber at all and seems to be not the most physically adept kid in the world. It really hasn't been too big of a deal though. We're hoping to get him into a real bed soon. I'm trying to find a twin over full wooden bunk bed set on Craig's List. So far no luck!

Here are some photos from our beach trip:






First Day of School

Everett's first day at Mother's Day Out was last Monday. He had a blast! He ran right into the room without looking back. I was so relieved. His teachers said he was happy and talkative. I can't believe that I have four hours to myself each Monday! It's wonderful and I almost don't know what to do with myself. It's amazing how quickly things go without a toddler to run after. He's at a wonderful school and every Monday he gets to do art and music, along with all the usual stuff. It's been such a treat for me and I think he really looks forward to it too.

Isn't this cooler weather in Atlanta wonderful? I love the changing of seasons. We've had our windows open since Saturday night and our air conditioning hasn't run once!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Everett's 2!

Everett turned 2 on August 9...okay so I'm a little behind. August was a busy month! We had a small get together at the Peachtree DeKalb Airport. Of course it was the hottest week on record, but we still had a lovely time!

Here are a few photos:




Friday, August 17, 2007

Family Photos

Here are some special photos of our family that my sister took while we were out in California. She's just starting to develop her own photography business and I think she's going to be great!









Going back to Cali

We've been so busy I haven't had time to blog and half the time I don't have much creative to say. I wish I had one of those blogs that 87 people left comments on, but at least I have a few faithful readers. Sorry my writing and graphics aren't more creative. I probably should branch out more than just talking about my family and our experiences but most of the time I'm worn out out after just blogging about that.

Anyways, here is the latest update on our California trip we took the first week in August: We went out there to visit my sister and her family. It was over 5 hours on a plane with Everett in our laps. He did pretty well though...thanks to our friend, Jeanne, for letting us borrow her DVD player. We snuck in the trip just before E turned 2 so we wouldn't have to buy him a seat. There is definitely a plus side and a negative side to that.

We were so blessed to spend time with my sister's family and Everett fit right in with his 4 cousins! It was was pretty wild at times with 5 kids in one house, but it was fun to see them all playing together. One day while we were there we went to an amusement park called Gilroy Gardens. It's built for younger kids and it was so much fun. The next day we went to the beach and then on Sunday, Elliot got baptized. The other days we stayed closer to home. They live in Mountain View, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. The weather was beautiful there...highs in the 70's. I was bragging to a guy at the park there that the weather in Atlanta is pretty nice too...so far we had a pretty mild summer. Little did I know we'd come home to a heat wave and unbearable temperatures.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful sister, who is so fun to be with. I'm glad Everett knows his cousins, even though they live on the other side of the country.

Here are some photos from our time there:

Gilroy Gardens






















Half Moon Bay






Elliot's Baptism


Thursday, July 05, 2007

Happy 4th of July!

We went to Buckhead last night with some friends to hang out and watch the Lenox fireworks. It was a great time. The weather was wonderful. The only bad part was getting home in all the traffic. Everett was a little bit scared of the fireworks, but he didn't take his eyes off them the entire time and when they were over he kept asking for more. It was definitely a 4th of July to remember.



Tuesday, July 03, 2007

What a day!

We survived a second round of eye surgery for Everett today. He's dealt with blocked tear ducts in both eyes since he was an infant. We had his first surgery about a year ago but it was not effective. That's normal in about 5% of cases. The first surgery is just a probe that goes in and opens the tear ducts. Today he had small balloon-like instruments inserted into his tear ducts and they were inflated for a few minutes to make sure the tear ducts would no longer be clogged. Hopefully this will work. In 1% of cases they have to do a third procedure which involves the installation of tubes in the tear ducts that stay in for 3 months. Hopefully we won't have to go there.

Today's procedure maybe lasted about 15 minutes but he had to undergo anesthesia which meant he couldn't eat anything 4 hours before his surgery. Since his surgery was at 12:30pm, he couldn't eat anything after midnight and only water or clear liquids up until 8:30am. After that nothing. I was so worried about keeping him happy all morning without anything to eat or drink. He really did great though. We started off watching Sesame Street, but the theme of the day was "eating", so we didn't stay home for long. We went to the park for about an hour but it started raining. Then we drove around I-285 for awhile until it was almost time for the appointment. He took it all really well. When we got home he ate and drank a ton and has been sleeping for the past hour.

I'll be so glad not to have to constantly wipe his tears anymore. Or have people constantly ask if he's crying. It's definitely a small thing, but I'll be glad to have it be "normal".

We went to the beach with Allen's family last week. It was a great time. There are tons of new photos on our Flickr page.

Here is a photo we took of Everett after church on Sunday:

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Blog Backlog

Things have just been so busy lately, especially on the weekends...it's been crazy. I just posted a ton of photos on our Flickr site. Usually I'm so good about keeping up with that at least, but it's been over a month since I had posted any pictures. We went to Augusta for Mother's Day Weekend and we've pretty much been busy since and it doesn't seem to be slowing down much. We went to the beach for Memorial Day Weekend with our dear friends Trevor & Sam. My uncle was here from Indiana for my mom's 60th birthday in the end of May. Then we went camping with our Young Couples Sunday School Class last weekend. This weekend we're heading to Augusta on Saturday to see Allen's uncle. And we've got other things planned the next couple of weekends after that! I guess it's great to have all these fun things going on though.

We're all doing really well. Everett is changing so much. He's growing up, saying new words and doing new things every day. He's also becoming somewhat of a challenge with sleeping and with his temper now though. For the past month or so his wake up time changed from 8am to around 6am. The past two mornings he's done better though so I'm hoping it's changing in the right direction. His naps have been shorter and less consistent too, but yesterday he took a great nap, so who knows? I'm thinking because we've been traveling so much it's just kind of thrown him off a little bit. He's still such a joy...he's got this huge smile now that just lights up the room and makes my heart melt. He always wants to sing the itsy bitsy spider and do patty cake. He does the motions so well, but sometimes he confuses the two songs, which is funny. He's really enjoyed swimming and he's so brave in the water. He jumps off the side to anyone in the water and he's not afraid to go under water either. I'm hoping to take him swimming a lot this summer. The best thing ever is to watch him when we pray at dinner time. He holds our hands and bows his head and says, "Amen" at the end. It's so sweet and we didn't even really teach him to do it. He just learns so much from watching us. Exciting but also kind of scary. :)


Here's a photo of Everett on his first boat ride over Memorial Day Weekend. He loved it:



Thursday, May 10, 2007

Everett's Organizational Skills

Everett decided to rearrange our cabinets the yesterday. It was pretty cute. I think he believes in sorting into piles when organizing. :)


Lynwood Park Parade

Last weekend Allen was out of town for Intown's men's retreat. On Saturday Everett & I went to Beth & Logan's neighborhood for a parade and festival. Tracey & Landon met us there too. It was a lot of fun, especially for the kids. We watched the parade and then the kids jumped in the inflatable castle and rode a ride. Everett liked the ride at first, but after a few minutes he started to cry. It was so cute though. They each ate popcorn and cotton candy and all sorts of other treats. It was very fun and a good way to spend our time with Allen out of town. We were all worn out when it was over.



Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Georgia Aquarium

Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium with our playgroup. It was very crowded, especially for the first hour we were there. After lunch though things were much calmer and we got to go back through a few of the exhibits and see a lot more, which was nice. It was great because we got discounted tickets through Allen's work. We had 8 moms come! Everett definitely enjoyed himself and was worn out at the end.


Tuesday, May 01, 2007

My 30th Birthday!!

Yes, I turned 30 on Saturday. It was a wonderful day. I wasn't the least bit sad about turning 30 and I don't feel old. I celebrated big time that night with a party at Twisted Taco. Thanks to my dear husband for planning and to all of our great friends for coming. It was a blast.

Here are some of the photos:




Everett's New Jeep

Papa and Mimi brought Everett a new jeep this weekend. He's really loving it so far. He's drives a lot like his mom...fast with no hands. :) He hasn't quite figured out the whole steering thing yet. It's so cute to watch him drive though and he looks so grown up in it. Now when we see a jeep on the road he says, "jeet". So cute...


Checking under the hood...

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Latest Happenings

I got to go to California last week to visit my new nephew, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. This is my sister's fourth child. She's amazing. He's a cutie pie and it was so fun being there. Allen's sweet parents kept Everett all week for us in Augusta and Allen was home alone! I got to spend really quality time with my sister and the kids. It's fun to be in their house because with a 7-year-old, a 6-year-old, an almost 3-year-old and a newborn, there is always something exciting going on. It suprisingly made me excited about having another baby...although I don't think we'll ever make it to four, like my sister.

Here is a sweet photo of Elliot
















I got home on Friday and we had a great time celebrating Easter. We went to the sunrise service at our church because Allen was running sound for it. It was FREEZING! I ended up having to go inside with Everett because he was not a happy camper out in the cold. After church we had some friends over for brunch and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was very nice and the weather actually warmed up enough to be outside. It's been nice to just be home this week with not much to do. I'm ready for this cold snap to be over and for the warm weather to come back now!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Springtime

We had a wonderful women's retreat this past weekend. It was so refreshing and refueling for me, physically and spiritually. I was the co-cordinator for the retreat and things went so well and I'm so relieved. There are photos from the weekend on my flickr page. We were praying for great weather and God sure came through on that one! It was 80 degrees and sunny all weekend. Although the pollen was in full effect. My car is now completely out of windshield washer fluid. Barbara Barker was our speaker and she really made me realize how much God cares about the small things in our lives. And how important it is to fix our eyes on him in everything we do.

Allen is so great to keep Everett alone on weekends like these. It was funny because when I got home he told me that he realized that I must pick things up all day. He couldn't believe how much things could get cluttered in such a short time. The house actually looked pretty great when I got home though. He's awesome!

My sister had her 4th baby last Wednesday, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. He's adorable. You can see a photo of him on my sister's blog. I'm heading out there next week to visit them and help with their other 3 kids. Everett is staying with Allen's parents for the week. It worked out really well because Allen's mom has spring break that week and she graciously agreed to watch him, even though they are renting out their house for the the Master's tournament and staying at her mother's house. Allen's going to have our house all to himself the whole week!

I bought 6 Easter eggs at wal-mart yesterday for our playgroup's Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Everett is already loving playing with them. Wait until tomorrow when there are surprises inside! :) He's cuter than ever these days...check out new photos of him on our flickr page. Here's my favorite photo as of late:



Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Everett's Words

Everett is adding so many new words to his vocabulary every day. It's been fun now that he is really beginning to communicate.

Every morning lately we wave bye-bye to daddy as he leaves for work in his black car. On Monday Everett and I were out and saw a black car and Everett pointed to it and said "da-da". Every black car we see now, Everett says "da-da" and points. I wonder if he thinks that all Allen does is drive around all day.

He's loving hats lately...always wearing them backwards. He's so cool. :) He loves pointing out construction vehicles and big trucks, even though he calls them cars. He also loves pointing out planes that pass overhead. He loves climbing up on his step stool to wash his hands at the sink. He loves dancing and "jumping" and clapping to any music. He loves doggies and cars and of course balls.


Here is a list of all of his words so far:

cracker
choo choo
more
car
Landon (his friend)
paper
book
uh-oh
thank you
bye-bye
da-da
ma-ma
night-night
bath ("bafpf")
shoes
socks
cheerios ("eer-e-or-ee-os")
banana ("no-na-na" with his tongue poking out)
1-2-3
snack ("nack")
teeth ("eeth")
ouch
blankie bear ("blank bear")
cookie
bottle
poopie
doggie
tiger
ball (his first word)
balloon
diaper
ice
apple
no
yes
cold
hot (with hands waving)
waffle
baby
quack-quack
go
outside ("side")
slide
swing

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Warmer Weather

I am really loving this weather. It's been so warm and sunny outside. I love not haivng to worry about coats and it's so nice to be able to let Everett play outside again. Here are some cute photos of him playing outside with his balloon yesterday:



Thursday, February 15, 2007

No love on Valentines

I thought this Valentine's Day was going to be so special and I've been looking forward to it for the past two weeks. I made reservations for us to go to Rosa Mexicano, a restaurant in Atlantic Station. Our dear friends offered to babysit for us. I was thrilled at the prospects of having a night out on the town, especially after Allen was sick all last weekend.

I awoke yesterday at 6am to work out. Then I prepared our home to host playgroup, which was a special Valentine's Day playgroup, where we decided to merge two playgroups together. It was very crowded, but a lot of fun. The older kids exchanged Valentines which was so cute. I was exhausted after everyone left and thinking about how much I was going to enjoy the evening out.

Then Allen got home and we exchanged our cards and little gifts. We packed up and headed to our friend's house to drop Everett off. We were halfway there and Everett threw up in the car. We pulled the car over and attempted to clean him up and then headed home. When I called the restaurant to cancel our reservations, I was crying. So, we got home, cleaned things up and Allen headed out to pick up a pizza to at least salvage some of the evening. While he was gone, Everett threw up again.

As we were cleaning all of that up, our septic tank overflowed into our downstairs bathroom, which made it impossible to do laundry...even though I was halfway through washing our car seat cover, clothes, towels, etc. Plus our washing machine is having issues anyways, which Allen has been meaning to fix, but alas he was sick all last weekend. So, then we had a sick kid on our hands with towels, clothes, etc. all needing to be washed and piling up. And water in the downstairs bathroom that had to be cleaned up. Yuck!

At 9pm we sat down to eat our cold pizza and then went upstairs to take care of Everett who continued to throw up through most of the night and into today. My sweet husband got up with him most of the night. It was a memorable Valentine's Day to say the least. I've gotten over it now, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed last night. I'm just hoping that this stomach virus leaves our house quickly and especially that none of the kids that were here at playgroup will get infected, as it seems Everett was exchanging more than just Valentines.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Making Progress

We've slowly been making progress on our office/playroom remodel. We've pretty much got everything painted and the new room is starting to take shape. It's so exciting to see it come together. I really like the new color and it will go with our playroom rug perfectly. Now we've just got to finish up a few more areas on the painting side, switch the outlets from cream to white (the last room in the house for this...woo hoo!), install new doors on the laundry room, install new carpet, etc., etc.

Here is a cool before and after so far...

Before:


After:


FYI...Never buy the Lowe's brand primer called American Tradition Tintable Color Primer. It was horrible. We had to take it back because it was way too watery. You can see in the photo below what it did to our walls...it looked more like a whitewash. When we returned it we got Zinsser's Bulls Eye Water-Base Interior Primer & Sealer and it covered the walls like a charm and we only had to do one coat of the primer and one coat of paint.