I Don't Know How She Does It

*I'm so shocked by all the responses from my previous post!  I have hardly had time to go through all of them.  Y'all are so sweet to leave comments.  Now, if I can just get Judd to sit down and read through the comments!  I'm hoping he will this weekend!  It's been so fun looking through some of the links on Kelly's blog.  There seem to be so many great guys and girls and I'm hoping some people can really make some meaningful connections through this!!!

This week has ben interesting and fun!  It was my first year to participate in our church's Vacation Bible School and I was so wowed!  The last time I did VBS I was like 8 and it was in a really small church, so it was nothing like what our church put on!  All the people at our church do such a wonderful job with the children's programs, and VBS was no exception.

I helped with crafts because I needed to be flexible enough to go and feed Matthew mid-morning.  It worked out great and it was pretty fun.  Although, I did remember why I didn't major in elementary education! 

My hat goes off to working moms!  This week has been crazy with me trying to get everybody's things together for the next day.  The night before I would get sippy cups, diapers, outfit changes, etc. gathered up for the next day.  Plus, I was tired from having to get up and actually get out the door pretty early.  This was hard stuff!  I was never really on time any morning and that's pretty typical for me! 

I don't know how working moms keep their houses together and then get home from work and do it all (dinner, baths, homework, things for the next day)!  I know that if I worked our house would be even more messy than it already is most of the time! I seriously need to get organized!  I'm glad VBS was just for one week! 

I didn't take any pictures of the boys in their rooms all week long so today I made sure I got a few quick pictures of them!  Matthew was not so happy in this picture.  This is his "feed me!" face!  His nursery workers were so sweet with them him this week and took such good care of him!

John Michael came into the nursery with me to get Matthew and he made a dash for his favorite toy from when he was little!

John Michael did so great this week!  The first day he cried but everyday after that he literally was running to Ms. Gail to get into his room and play with his friends!  I think he's going to do great at Mother's Day Out this fall. 

Later in the afternoon, after naptime, the boys read some books!

If you notice, John Michael is sitting away from Matthew so he doesn't have to share anything with him!

John Michael helped me stir up the cornbread mixture for dinner.  If he sees me starting to cook he pulls the chair over to the counter so that he can come and help!  It's so darn cute!

I made Mom's cornbread, a few fried squash pieces, beans, and fresh tomatoes for dinner!  It was so yummy and so good!  John Michael actually ate the beans and he even asked for thirds!  We call beans "balls" and he thinks it's so cool to eat a ball!

What a yummy summer dinner!

After dinner we went for ice cream and then to our town's square.  Some Fridays they have "Pickin' on the Square" and yes, it sounds redneck, but it's just some old people getting together to play some music around the fountain on the square!  It's always fun and both boys put their feet in the fountain.  Of course I forgot my camera!  We have a busy weekend ahead.  I love weekends at our house!

Verse O' the Day:  I keep this on my fridge most of the time because I just love what it means to me!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 

 

Playing Matchmaker, i.e. My Brother Might Kill Me!

When I read that Kelly was doing a Friday spotlight on great single guys, I immediately thought about my brother, Judd!  I had to twist his arm and then twist it some more for him to let me do this, so today I'm playing matchmaker!  I thought about doing it without telling him, but I knew that would not be good!

I'm more than a little biased, but my brother is a great catch, if I do say so myself.  Lately, I've been praying for someone that will be the perfect match for him and a sister for me!  I don't have a sister so I've always thought whoever Judd married would be like a built-in sister to me.  I pray that God has the perfect girl picked out for him, whether it be here in Arkansas (he's thinking about moving, who knows?!)  or our homestate of Alabama. 

This sound awful, but I'm going make a little list of facts about him: (Judd, I KNOW you're dying here and I'm SO sorry but I just had to do this!!)

-Judd has a bachelors degree in political science and a Masters in Public Administration from THE University of Alabama.  Auburn girls, need not apply (I'm just kidding, we might accept an Auburn fan into our crimson and white family!)

-I know he would be looking for a Christian girl with family values.

Judd as a groomsmen at our wedding.

-Judd is very interested in politics and at one time had two political blogs of his own.  He knows A LOT about history and tons of stuff about politics.  I hate politics.  I constantly call and ask him questions about conservative, Republican stuff that I just don't have the time or care to look into.

Our whole family (minus Jordan!) last Mother's Day

-He is super funny!  Judd has a quiet, dry sense of humor.  We're always laughing when he's around!

-Judd is the middle child and the only one in our family who is tall, thin, blond-headed and blue-eyed.  He never seems to put on weight, and I hate him for it!

Here he is pushing John Michael (his nephew!) in his favorite red car!

-He has the most amazing life story of almost anyone you'll ever meet.  What he's lived through, endured and conquered over the last 10 years would put most people's mundane lives to shame.  God has done wonderful and amazing things with his life.  I'm hoping he'll write a book one day!

Judd with baby John Michael. He is such a great uncle to our boys!

-We loooove us some Alabama football in our family and football season is super-important.  Judd played most all sports in middle and high school and was very active in his fraternity. He practically ran freshman orientation at Alabama for a few years.  Roll Tide.

-He is very neat and clean.  Everyday in high school I would walk past his door on the way out the door for school and his bed was made every, single day!  He's definitely the neatest person in our family!  He likes things nice and tidy!

-Our mom is all about good, Southern etiquette, so the boy has some manners!

Judd with John Michael at Magic Burger, home of yummy burgers and grape ice cream!

-Judd has been a totally awesome uncle to our boys, as has Uncle Ray.  They love these boys to no end!  On our last trip home I got to see how great he was with helping John Michael with things and he even fed Matthew and changed him one day when I was passed out asleep from being up with two children with high fevers during the night.  He helped me a lot just by holding Matthew and playing with him.

-And lastly, and most importantly, he just has a great heart.  When you grow up having a sibling with a disability as we do, you just have to have a caring heart.  You are different than families that don't have someone with a disabilty.  Not worse or better, just different.  You grow up automatically doing things to help them like helping getting them ready for school or fixing them breakfast or a sandwhich for lunch.  As we've grown up this has not changed for Judd (and myself when I'm at home).  He still cares for Ray and helps him with day-to-day things.  Things like that speak volumes about a person's character.

OK, I suppose I've embarrassed him enough!  Hopefully he won't mind me posting about him!  Who doesn't like bragging on their brother?!

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A Trip to The Falls

On our last day back home we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Noccalula Falls.  I did a post last year when we took John Michael.  He rode the train last year and we took him when he was around 9 or 10 months, too...I think!  Here's the post from March and here's the post from last July.

We waited a little late to go, so after Matthew's morning nap we decided to pack up and go ride the train, eat at Jack's (apparently it's southern thing) and then play a little at the park.  Both of our boys fell fast asleep on the way home!

Both boys look like they're ready to go!  Choo-Choo!

My grandparents and my mom went with us! 

John Michael loves trains so much.  He kept saying choo choo!  He had so much fun!

We have these exact same pictures of John Michael sitting at this exact same spot at Jack's when he was a little guy.

John Michael:

Matthew:

Oh, Matthew is just so darn cute. Both boys just make us laugh everyday.  We feel so grateful for them!

Did you notice how Matthew's hair is starting to curl up around his ears?  If you know me you know how I feel about curls.  I've got my fingers crossed I'm going to have another little one with precious curls!

We ate at Jack's quite a few times while we were home.  John Michael decided he liked their green beans a lot, so I decided we should go and split a plate so that he would eat something green!

There was hardly any water flowing over the edge of the falls on this trip.  If we had had more time we would have gone to feed the ducks!  You have to feed the ducks at the Falls!  We had fun on our last day in Alabama!  I was glad my grandparents were able to come and watch the boys enjoy their day.  Fun memories for everyone!

America, America!

We had such a fun 4th of July this year.  I enjoy being home with family on the 4th...it's just so fun to cook out, swim, get some sun, and visit with family on the 4th!  My grandparents came up to Mom's house for the weekend and they had a blast playing with John Michael and Matthew.  My grandfather is in awe of our two sweet ones.  He always said he never thought he'd live to be a great-grandfather! 

Here's Papaw showing John Michael the coo-coo clock!  He loves his clocks!

I had the boys in matching plaid shorts with American flag shirts.  They looked so cute.  Of course, I didn't get a single picture of them together.  I always have good intentions of getting a picture of them together, but sometimes the day just passes by and I never get it!

Jordan and I left the boys to play with my grandparents so that we could go to church together.  Dad went with us and it was such a good service.  I always love when they sing the medly of the branches of the Armed Forces.  They always ask anyone who served while their song is playing to stand up and I always get chill bumps and tears in my eyes.  At our church, it's always the older gentlemen who stand up with such pride.  They absolutely were the Greatest Generation. That service put me in the right frame of mind to celebrate our country's birthday!

Later in the day, our friend Justin and his fiancee, Elizabeth, dropped by to see Matthew.  Matthew and John Michael were so cute with them!  Justin lived down the street from me growing up and he and Jordan were good friends throughout high school.  He may have had a little something to do with setting Jordan and me up in high school!

To officially celebrate the 4th, we swam in Gaga's pool before dinner!  Yes, there are pictures of Matthew swimming but I just happen to be wearing a bathing suit, so those will not be making an appearance on my blog!

The men sat around and talked and watched baseball or the race, I really have no idea. 

And after dinner John Michael took a slow ride around the backyard on Gamps' lawnmower!  He kept saying EIEIO!

Happy 4th!  We didnt' shoot any fireworks or go see any because none of us are terribly fond of them.

We stayed poolside and talked the night away.  I think all of us swam until about 11 that night!  My brother, Ray, would love to swim everyday of his life, so that's him in the pool, and then me, and my other brother Judd on the diving board.

I hope your 4th of July was fun and full of memories with family!

Our trip: Everyone got sick, I got no sleep, and we spent a lot of money

Long time, no blog!!  We're still on our trip, but it's drawing to a close.  I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and getting back to our schedules.  Our little ones have been sick a good bit since we've been here, thus I haven't had any time to blog about anything!  It was funny how we thought we shouldn't really spend the money this summer to go to the beach, but we have ended up spending SO much money at the doctor's office.  That's just life!

John Michael got sick Tuesday afternoon and his fever swelled to 103.3 with Tylenol and Motrin on board. He was so sick and it just broke my heart.  We went to the doctor twice last week with him.  He has a pretty bad ear infection (I have no idea how he got it) so he's on Amoxicillin. If you'll remember Matthew was on his 3rd antibiotic when we came and he eventually had to get three Rocephin shots to clear it up, but we noticed he's pulling on his ears too.  I just want them to stay well.  I have no idea how or why they would be getting ear infections during the summer when we usually don't have any problems with them!

Needless to say, it's been fun seeing my childhood pediatrician a lot!  It's fun to be able to take our children to him when we're in town!

Soo....what have we been up to?  I plan on blogging about it a lot more once we're home, but I thought I'd give you a sneak peek! 

When he's not been sick, Matthew's been happy and smiling, as usual!  Mom got him a little walker and he's been scooting around the kitchen!

John Michael has been loving Mom's front loader washer and dryer.  He has been helping load the washer and dryer.  He loves to put the clothes in and push the buttons!  I feel like we haven't done much of anything interesting lately because we've been stuck in the house with sick kiddos.

We've got two happy babies now!  I think they're on the mend!

Even Jackson has been having a good time.  Because he jumped in the pool, he got groomed here and he looks SOOO cute.  He looks like a little puppy again!

We've been eating at my most favorite restaurant in the whole world, Courtyard Cafe. John Michael really likes it and he has decided that he loves their meatloaf and green beans.  He even ate his first fried green tomato there!

I had a girl's night out with two old friends from high school, Joan and Lindsey.  Well, not really high school, more like elementary and middle school!  We broke free of the little ones and spent a night talking and eating and catching up. Both girls were in our wedding!

We were supposed to go pick Jordan up at the Atlanta Airport on Thursday, but JM was sick.  We were thinking about going to the Georgia Aquarium after we picked him up, but it didn't work out.  I was SO happy to see him.  I had missed him so much.  We hate being apart.  The boys were glad to see him too! 

We ate at Top O The River Friday to celebrate Jordan's birthday early.  We figured since we were home we should go ahead and just celebrate it with everyone!  The lady who made our wedding cake made Jordan's cake and it was so good.  She makes the best cakes!

JM was not so happy that night.  I think his ears were still hurting him.  At least Matthew was happy to eat there on the tin plates!

And, last but not least, we went to a wonderful 4th of July service this morning.  It makes me so thankful to live in our country.  We took a picture at the front of the church because the church is selling and building a new church across town.  We figured this might be our last chance to take a picture where we got married! 

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you all have a wonderful, happy, and safe 4th!