Sick Baby Boy

We all know that typically, boys don't do sick well. I've been married for nine years now, and I can testify that men don't do sick well either. Sorry dear, but it's a fact. Jude is no exception. He's had a fever the past couple of days and all he wants is his mommy. I think he's teething on top of it, poor little guy.

Here are some pictures of what happens when I try and walk away.

First, we start to pucker our lips.

Then the wailing begins.

Finally, we hit our limits and fall to the floor in despair.

So what's a momma to do? Try and make him toughen up so he doesn't become a sick whiny boy all his life? I'm sure I could do that, but I'd rather hold him and let him fall asleep on me. It makes him feel better. Yes, I'm continuing the cycle of sick whiny boys and I don't care. ;)

Our Boy is One!!

It seems so unreal to me that we've had Jude in our family for a whole year. While the timing of adding to our little family was not the best, we couldn't have asked for a better addition. He has brought so much joy into our house, especially during such a stressful time in our life. Of course having a baby made it all that more stressful, but I wouldn't trade him for the world. The one word that comes to mind when I think of him is...blessing. He has been such a blessing to us, and we fall more in love with him everyday!!! We are so thankful that God brought him to us.

I remember when I was just a few weeks pregnant, and still wasn't totally excited to be having another baby. I was VERY worried about the amount of work that was going to be added to my already busy life. Plus we knew residency was going to be crazy, so that was another worry. Let's not even get started on my vain worries about weight gain and having to lose weight after I had just lost all of Avery's pregnancy pounds!

I clearly remember getting ready for my Mom2Mom meeting one morning, and was stressed trying to get Grace ready for school, Avery reading for the meeting, and the few things I was in charge of to bring with me. I was frazzled and in tears because all I kept thinking was "I'm not going to make it with three. I barely keep up with two. I'm going to go under when this baby comes." I got to church, put Avery in the childcare, and headed to the meeting. I tried to put my emotions in check and try to enjoy the time with my group. I don't think I did a very good job because one of the sweet ladies in my group, Nadia, asked if I was okay. I told her a little bit of what was going through my mind that morning. I told her I felt like Satan was trying to whisper all those negative thoughts into my ear, and I was listening. I will NEVER forget what she said to me. She said "You know why he's doing that don't you? He knows that baby is going to be someone great someday." Wow. I'm crying just remembering that morning. It was the first time I had viewed this baby as someone who would grow up and have the potential to do great things. Not just another mouth to feed, diaper to change, more laundry to wash. But a real person, with real talents, who can make a difference in the world. And now that he's here, I can already see that she was right. He is going to be great, I just know it!!! Thanks for those words Nadia.

Whoa, I didn't know I was going to write all of that in this post. ;)

On to the party!! I made a "Watch Me Grow" banner. I got the idea from the blog Homemade by Jill. It was so cute, and easy to make. I put a newborn picture at the start and ended with a picture I had taken a few days before his party. Then I made one for each month of his life. I really like the way it turned out. I may start doing this for the girls, but just do a picture each year. Avery's will be a little short this year, but we'll keep adding to it. :)

Here's the last six months.

Our little prince!

How cute is this boy??!! I made the onesie right before the party. I just cut the number out of fabric and used a heat bond iron on. I had big plans to sew around it and make it look nice, but I ran out of time. I think it still turned out cute!

Wiped out parents with their third and precious baby.

Scottie was on night float at the time, which is the cause for our exhaustion. Jude is looking at him like "hey, where have you've been?"

Scottie started to give Jude his cake, but we forgot to put a candle in it. This is his face when the cake was briefly taken away. Hilarious!!

He still looks a little worried. He really wanted that cake!

Oh yeah, he didn't waste any time getting into the frosting.

Don't take it!!

Starting to dig a little more.

That's the stuff!!

We'll have to work on table manners. :)

Since we're cruel people, and enjoy teasing our children, we took away his cake again. Just for the reaction. I know, we're mean.

Licking the plate clean. This kid doesn't mess around!

Happy boy.

This is the only picture I got of my mom. But I like it.

Pure sweetness.

After a quick rinse in the bath, he was ready for presents.

He tried to do some of it himself, but he has an impatient older sister who "helped" with most of the unwrapping.

Woo Hoo, we finally have some boy toys in the house! :)

Playing with his presents.

I love this picture of Jeff and Penny with the kids.

Scottie's grandparents came over for the party. We love being closer to his family now. We've always lived the farthest from them since we started school, so we saw them the least. But now we're only an hour away, and it's great!!

Happy Birthday Jude. You truly are a blessing to everyone!

Apple Picking

I'm so excited that we get to actually enjoy fall this year. I was out of commission for most of fall last year, and Scottie was too busy to do anything with the girls. So this year we are going to do all the fun things we wanted to last year. I found an apple orchard that has pick your own apples. Unfortunately I think we waited to long to go because most of the good apples had been picked and all that was left had been eaten by bugs. Yuck! So we'll go earlier next year. But it was still fun to get out and walk around the farm and look for a few good apples.

Grace looks like she could be on a country magazine in this picture. Such a pretty girl!!

Avery tried her hand at modeling...

We'll have to keep working on that skill. ;)

Avery was the first one to find a good apple. She loved picking them off the trees. But then she'd look at them, realize they were bad, and throw them to the ground with a big sigh.

Beautiful sisters!!

Hey, you're starting to look like a model!

Well....

This is pretty much what was left on the trees. It was a little disappointing, but we'll know better for next year.

I think she found something!!

Grace was so happy whenever she found a good one!

Avery is such a sweetie.

They may fight, but they really do love each other.

Peeking through the apple trees.

This was the resident pig, and there was a sign that said he loves apples. The girls had a blast feeding him some of the not so pretty apples we found. It was cute and disgusting to watch him eat them.

Jude spent the trip in his stroller. But I have a feeling he'll be running up and down the rows next year!

Grace and I shared a cup of apple cider slush. It was SO good!! I would have bought more, but when one small cup cost 99 cents, I just had to be sad when it was gone. It was seriously the best slush I've ever had!

I thought I took these pictures that evening, but now that I'm looking at them I realize they were taken the next day. But I wanted to leave them because they're just so cute.

Oops...I interrupted their little nap with my flash. Sorry Scottie!! ;)

Gracie is 8

I'm finally getting around to posting Gracie's birthday pictures, even though it was two weeks ago. I had a hard time figuring out what kind of cake to make for her. I'm not the world's greatest cake decorator so some of her suggestions were beyond my skills. So I started searching the internet, which is where I get 98% of my ideas. ;) I saw this cake and decided to go for it. She has enjoyed soccer so much I thought this would be a great cake for her. It's not perfect but she really liked it, and I'm pretty proud of myself.

Mom helped with the decorations. Grace is such a detail type of girl, so I wanted her party to look a bit more festive. She notices those kinds of things, and I think she was happy to have a room made up just for her.

She finally got her piggy bank. For months now she has begged for this bank from Target. I kept telling her no because I knew it would make a cute birthday present. She's happy now.

Ready for cake!

Avery got a little excited and blew the candle out for her big sister.

I had Grace pretend to blow it out. I should have just lit it again, but I don't always think of that stuff till later. ;)

My mom got her a journal with her initial on it. She was writing in it all night and kept worrying that someone was going to read it. She even fell asleep writing in it. What kind of secrets can an 8 year old keep??

She pretended to be excited about getting a box of Cheerios for her birthday.

But was happy to find a new wallet in it from Nana. Silly Nana!!

Mr. Cake Face looking serious with the balloon string.

Grace also got a new ds game from Scottie and I. She tends to ignore the world when she starts playing that thing. That's one reason why we don't buy new games very often. ;)

I think she had a good day. Mom came up and then Dad and Carol came over as well. She felt loved and celebrated, and that's all you need on your birthday. Every year I say I can't believe she is ---years old. But she really is growing up too quickly for me. It's nice to have the crazy toddler years behind us, especially since we have two more to experience, but there are times I miss that little girl singing "Little Tine Tines" (little einsteins) Grace has a passionate personality and she will demand much from life. And while that can make parenting tricky sometimes, I have no doubts that she will lead a full life because she won't settle for less. We love you Miss Grace and all that you bring to our family.