The past 9 months...

I'm going to try to do a recap, mostly with pictures of the last 9 months. It's just killing me to not put them up there. I hope that I will go back and fill in a few more details later on, but we'll see. I do have a few post in the "holding" area that I wrote right after I had Tucker, so those details wouldn't be lost, so we'll see when they come out... As for now, here's to catching up...

MAY:
*We set off on our last family of 3 vacation on May 23rd. We drove to Auburn and stayed with my friend, Katie, Daniel and there precious son Maddox. The next morning we headed to Destin, FL for a couple days of rest and relaxation.
*We went to Milton on Wednesday (26th) for all the festivities for Brittany's wedding. We had a blast and loved every minute about being there. The wedding was absolutely perfect and Brittany looked amazing!! Ty was the ring bearer and did awesome!

*On Sunday after the wedding, we headed to Charleston, SC to meet some friends of ours the Chunn's at their beach house on Seabrook Island. They recently moved to TX so it was so fun to be with them. We were planning on only spending the night and heading back to Winston Monday morning, but we were having so much fun we decided to stay till Wednesday! It was the best decision ever! :)
JUNE:
*So we got back home Wednesday night and I was in super nesting mode. Cleaned and put away everything I possibly could. Little did I know Friday night/ Saturday morning I would go into labor! Went to the hospital pretty early Saturday morning and our little man was born on Saturday at 2:07 p.m. Mom missed it by an hour (b/c the airport lost her luggage!) Boo.
*Mom got to stay a whole month since it was the summer! Next baby will hopefully be born in the summer too, because that was simply awesome! We had lots of fun. We went to the pool everyday, relaxed, took naps, ate on the back porch, and shopped. Couldn't have been better! The only thing was about a week after Tucker was born our air quit working and it was unbearable, so we headed to a hotel for the night. It actually was a great set up (thanks Bennett!) and it worked out pretty well. Thanks to George for fixing it! :)
The day before mom had to leave Brenda and Mike came, they were here when she left which made it easier. :) So they stayed a week and we really enjoyed them being here, went to the movies Toy Story 3 (3d) Ty LOVED it but only wore the glass about 50 % of the time.
*Also about a week after Tucker was born David was at church fixing the sign out front and nailed a nail right through his thumb (I think that is what happened), so that was pretty traumatic!
JULY:
*For July 4th we had a cook out at the Branch Ranch and then headed to Kville to watch the fireworks... They were not good, but we had fun getting to spend the day with people we love. (there's that striped shirt for the 4th year in a row!)
*David went to Costa Rica on a mission trip. He was gone for about a week. So while he was gone my BFF from Alabama came! Ashley and Jake came and stayed the week with me! I loved her being here. We were referees most of the time, but I loved it anyway! We did go to the Children's Museum and the park and they loved both of those. It was such a fun treat to have them here with us! I can't wait till next time!!
*Towards the end of the month, my whole family came to visit! I was so super excited about this! Brittany came 3 or 4 days early and then Mom, Dad stayed for about 4 days and then Mandy, Austin, and Madi, stayed the rest of the week. It was so fun having everyone under one roof again, just wish I had a bigger house to store everyone. :) Tyler adores his cousins!

AUGUST:

*We really didn't have a whole lot of going in August. Seemed that everyone was going back to school or getting ready to so we basically just took it easy and I enjoyed being home.

*One night we took the boys out on the Ashley's boat. I loved it. Tucker enjoyed it too, but Tyler wasn't so sure. I'm hoping this summer there will be more opportunities to go and Ty will start loving it! :)

*Also the last week before I had to go back to work, we took a little trip to Ohio. The weather was awesome and I enjoyed sitting on the front porch every morning feeding Tuck and then just doing domestic things like snapping peas and canning tomatoes (ok Brenda actually did that, but it sounded good). :)

SEPTEMBER:

*I went back to work... BOO! I did pretty good though because I knew that Darla loved them and would see that their every need was met and of course she did! She's the best.. btw...

*On the 11th, Tyler turned 2. It happened to be on a Saturday so it worked out great for his party. We were going to have it a church since we just got a new playground, but it rained so we had it inside, which actually turned out better since there were probably more crawlers there than walkers. :) We had a Toy Story party. It was so fun complete with a Buzz pinata. I just can't believe my little boy is 2! Time goes by way too fast!

OCTOBER:

*On October 7th, our new neice, Laney was born! She's adorable and we're so excited to have another girl in the family!

*David won a prize on the radio to pick an activity he wanted to do and he went bear hunting with some guys. Some of the guys ahead of him actually shot the bear, but he saw it. I don't think he was too impressed with the whole thing. Hopefully that will be a first and last kind of thing!

*David's mom made this blanket for Tucker. It is adorable and I'm so thankful she's so talented! :)

*Halloween was fun. Brad, Bekah, and Laney came down for the weekend, so they were here for the festivities. We went with the Worthams around their neighborhood. We had a great time, Ty and Caroline had so much fun getting out and getting the candy and Tuck and Laney were troopers. It really was a fun night. We went to the Parrish's afterwards for chili and snacks.
*Sadly, my sweet sweet mom was diagnoised with Stage 4 breast cancer. It really came out of no where and shocked us all. This is her 3rd round with this nasty disease and it hit us all so hard. She is a trooper and has so much to fight for, so that's exactly what she's doing. She has had so much love and support shown to her it's amazing! Keep those prayers coming. Here she is with her new do. She looks so super cute and young! Yes, I said that's my mom, not my sister! :) Also, one Sunday night right after the news her church surprised her with all wearing some kind of pink for her. They have been truely amazing! I love them all!

NOVEMBER:

*It was a crazy month after that horrible news my mom received, so it was basically trying to get everything done for her and anxious about appointments etc.

*We went to Florida for Thanksgiving. We had the best time! Mom hadn't started treatments yet, so she felt pretty good. We had a professional photographer take some pics for us and we LOVED how they turned out! It really was a relaxing trip that we all needed. It was just so nice to all be together even if we weren't really doing anything. I just enjoyed being home and being together.

DECEMBER:

*Mandy and John started dating and have been together ever since. :) They are so happy together and we are so happy for them!!

*Snow snow snow! We had alot of snow and it actually snowed 6" in Winston-Salem while we were in Ohio with only about 1"-2". Crazy how that works! Ty enjoyed playing in it and David taught him how to eat it... the white kind of course. :)

*We took the boys to see Santa at Reynolda Village this year, because they have a Santa set up in a room and there was no wait and it was pretty much awesome... except that my little 2 yr old decided right when we walked in that he was scared of him and wouldn't even look at him... It was crazy. So every picture we have, Ty has swollen eyes from crying so much. It was really a tramatic experience for him! :)

*I just love Christmas time... I love getting ready, putting decorations up, the smells, the lights.. Pretty much everything about it! Here are the boys just hanging out at the house.

*One of Tyler's many "dates" with Caroline! They really are the best of friends and play so great together!
* We went to Ohio for Christmas. We had a great time and loved being able to be there. We were back and forth between Marysville and Kenton, but for the most part it was very relaxing and we spent many nights in the basement getting presents ready. :) It was a lot of fun. The boys loved being there and all the attention they get. They are spoiled rotten! :) We still need to get professional pics done with this side of the family... Maybe this summer... But we took a few just here and there.

*I just think this pic of the cousins is hilarious, Laney is not happy and Ty is trying to console her and Tuck has his mouth wide open, like... look what bubba did, this is bad!!!

*Santa came... Although the boys didn't see what he brought till about 10:30 because they are late sleepers. :) Ty was excited and Tucker just wanted to chew on whatever he could get his hands on. :)

*We left there the Monday after Christmas and headed to Papa Todd's house for the night. I love being able to go see him and Jack, Gail, and Jon. I wish we could have stayed longer, but this was a short trip for us. It was so good to be there, let them meet Tucker, and play a few good games of cards! Love them so very much!


JANUARY:

*My Auburn Tigers won the BCS National Championship!! WAR EAGLE! We went to the Wortham's to watch the game and drove back in the snow! :)

*Tyler has gotten into tatoos. Candace bought him is first one when we went out to dinner one night and it just happened to be Sponge Bob, we don't watch that show, but he knows who it is so he was thrilled. I think we currently have a tiger on his arm. :)

*I officially turned 29 and will be holding there for a while! I actually flew with both boys to Florida the day before my birthday so I got to spend it with my family, but for some reason I have NO pictures from the whole week I was there. I mostly took video. I'm so bad.

FEBRUARY:

*I had bunko at my house. I had a lot of fun preparing fun treats and getting ready for it... David said, he missed me those couple of days... I made homeade strawberry and homeade peppermint ice cream, made the little chocolate holders and melted candy canes and strawberry canes into hearts for the top! :)

*We had a good Valentine's day! This is what I found on the kitchen table when I woke up.. He's precious.

*Darla was out of town so my wonderful Mother-in-Law came down for a few days to keep the boys for us. The surprise was that Mike, Bekah, and Laney came the next day too! So fun!

*We took the youth the Winterfest in Gatlinburg and we left the kiddos with RaRa. She of course did awesome, and surprisingly I did to. It was their first time to be without Mommy and Daddy and they didn't even miss us! :) That made me happy though.

*The boys are loving bath time and it's great now because I can set them both in there and they play good together. Makes things so much easier!

So, how's that for an update?? I really hope to be much better and now that I'm semi caught up, I think I can do this!! Thanks for still checking on me even though I have been MIA for a LONG time!!

Im back...

Well...I think it is time I return to blogging. Now that mom's cancer has returned and our lives are going down a path we had hoped to never see, I think writing and keeping others in touch is part of my role in all of this. SO much has happened since the last time I wrote, and I will slowly go back and document it all, but for now to get me back on track, I am going to just start with today and write like I have never left.

So... We're doing good! My boys are precious and I adore them so much! I love to just sit back and watch them and soak in every moment with them.

Tyler is such a sweet kid. He really has a sweet heart. You can tell that he's 2 1/2 though and can change moods in a second if something is not going "right" for him! :) He loves Tucker and is usually pretty good sharing with him.

Tucker is absolutely the best baby ever. Seriously, he never crys and is just as happy as he can be. He got his first tooth this past Friday (Feb 25) and besides the constant drooling and eating of everything, we wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't felt it. Then he proceed to get an ear infection on Sat/Sun. So now we are on antibiotics for that so hopefully it will knock that out soon. This is only his 2nd one hopefully tubes are not in our future, but who knows. :)

My mom has another treatment on Thursday, so keep praying that the chemo is working and that the side effects are not too bad this round. It usually keeps her down for about a week so that is no fun, but she is a trooper and is doing amazing! She and my dad will go to Texas March 13th week to get scans to see what's going on. So were praying for great results. We know and trust that God is right there with her and is leading the path.

Well, that's about all I have right now. But I will be back soon.. Promise.

Maternity Leave

I'm going to try not to leave anything out, but I know I will....
The next week is kind of a blur. Mom was with me and it was awesome to have her stay for such a long time. I absolutely loved every minute of it!!
We took Tucker back to the doctor for a weight check and he was at 7lbs, so that was awesome because he was sleeping so good at night we needed to make sure he was gaining weight and he was. :) So, I just continued to let him sleep at night. He would eat about every 2-3 hours in the day and then at night go for at least 5. It was so nice. Many mornings I would wake up about 4:00 and feed him and then go back to bed and we would all sleep till 9 or 10. We got really spoiled. We went out and about several times to the mall, Target, playground, and pool. We got into a routine where we would get up around 9:30 feed Tucker and then head to the pool till about 12, when Tucker was ready to eat again, have lunch and then take naps. We did that for probably 2 weeks. It was awesome!! Sadly mom had to go back to Florida because they were chomping at the bits to get her back! She left on Wednesday and David's mom got here the night before. It was great. But I started to get Mastitis the night before mom left, so I called the dr and he called me in some antibiotics so that was nice. I felt better the next day.
It was great having Brenda here. She loved being with the boys. Ty really got spoiled while the grandmas were here. But he was doing great adjusting to everything. Saturday night I was up pretty much all night with fever and achy to wake up having mastitis again. I was still on my antibiotics. I called the dr and they said to try to pump through it. I pretty much slept all day. Thank goodness Brenda was here, I don't know what I would have done!! Mike flew in Sunday afternoon so she took Ty to the airport to get him.
It was so fun having them all here. Mike and David worked most of the time fixing the playground for the backyard. It turned out great, it was just too hot to play on it. :) One afternoon we went to the movies to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. Ty loved it and pretty much watched the whole thing. He kept his glasses on about 3/4 of the time, so that was good. Tucker did pretty good, I just took him out once to change him and finish feeding him his bottle. It was a fun little trip, then that night we all went to eat dinner.
We hated to see them leave, but knew it was time to figure out how to do this on our own, and actually it went really smoothly.
The next couple of weeks we pretty much just hung out and went for short day trips here and there between Tucker's feedings. The first Wal-Mart trip was successful and I was pretty proud of myself to get them both in and out and no one was crying. :)
Brittany got to fly in and stay a couple of days before the rest of the family arrived. We picked her up from the airport and it was so good having her here. She was a big help and I enjoyed making our friendship stronger that week. It was good. Ty loved her being here and at his beckon call. :) We didn't do much but it was fun just being together. Then a few days later the rest of the family came. It was absolutely awesome having everyone together, except Brad and GG of course. We really just hung out and loved being together. That hasn't happened in a LONG time! So then on Sunday, David left for camp for the week. Dad, mom, and Britt left on Wednesday to head to Ohio and Mandy and the kids stayed with me the rest of the week. Ty absolutely adores Austin and Madi and it was fun having them together making memories. The kids were kind of scared of Tucker, but by the end of the week, Madi was a pro at holding him! Mandy kept all the kids Saturday night so David and I could go on a date. Dinner at J. Butlers and a trip to Wal-Mart...perfect! :) Mandy of course is a pro and did great with the kids. We celebrated Austin's 8th Birthday on Sunday. Lunch at Kimono's with church friends and dinner at LaCarreta with most of the same friends. He got sang to both times. :) I think he had a great Birthday. The night before he went with Jeff and Eliott to the Dash baseball game, so all in all I think he loves coming to KiKi's house! :)
They left Monday morning and headed to Atlanta to go to the Aquarium and to the Coke Factory. So they were excited, but we were so sad to see them leave!!
2 weeks after that, David left for a mission trip to Costa Rica and the night before Ty came down with a high fever! I was sad because I knew Ash and Jake couldn't come with Ty sick. I took him to the dr on Tues and they said it was a virus. Thank goodness he was over it by Thursday and they were able to come on Saturday. It was so fun having her here. I haven't spent that long with her in a really long time. It was fun for Jake and Ty to get to play. They had a rough start, but by the end they were best buddies. We went to parks, children's museums, and just hung out. It was so fun being together!! I am so thankful she drove down to see us!!
David got home and then about 2 days after that we headed to Ohio to see his family. His cousin, Jason was home from Iraq so we were excited to get to see him. We had a great relaxing trip. The weather was gorgeous and I spent most of my days on the front porch with Tucker. Brenda's garden was in full bloom, so we enjoyed fresh veggies and I enjoyed watching her make all kinds of yummy things to can. :) We went to the zoo, visited with friends and family, and really just had a great time! I was sad to leave because I knew that was my last full week of maternity leave and was going back to work the next week. :(
The boys did great on the trip and really adjusted to everything we did! They are pretty sweet, if I must say so myself! :)
So I kept pushing back my start date, I was originally going back Monday, 8/23, but then pushed it to Wednesday and finally actually went back on Thursday, 8/26.
It really wasn't that bad and once I talked to Darla and she said the boys did great I felt 100 times better. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could stay at home with them, but I can't, so I felt good about the situation. They are in a safe place where they are loved, so I know that all is well. :) Work was fine and wasn't too hard to get back into. They had a temporary come in while i was out, so that helped my work load, so when I got back it wasn't a disaster. My boss is great and so understanding. I'm so thankful to God that He put me in such a great place. My boss also told me on Thursday if I wanted to start working Mon-Thurs 7-5:30, I could and then have Friday's off. That was a huge blessing and I'm so thankful for that!!
So all in all, Maternity leave was absolutely awesome. I have 2 incredibly precious boys and a wonderful hubby that loves me. We are doing well and adjusting to day to day routines. God is good and so are we! :)