Thanksgiving...

This year, we are so thankful for the gifts God has blessed us with. I thought I would compose a list...of course this is not all inclusive...

For P and P's health...first, he is an amazing husband and father. He is very patient (with me especially) and the children and I adore him! By the way, he had an excellent check up and there is no surgery on the horizon (well, at least not for a few years - praise God!)

For our beautiful children. They bring me more joy everyday than I could ever imagine. AR is so smart, and she is so wonderful with her baby brother. And J is my snuggle bear. He is just the cuddliest guy ever.

For our families, for their love and support in all our endeavors. They all have been there for us in one way or another.

For our friends...they listen (endlessly) to me...they are always there to bounce things off of, or just cry with, or laugh with. I can only hope to strive to be the type of friend they are to me.

For our jobs, that we are blessed to have them, and they allow us the flexibility for me to stay home with our children. I never thought it would last almost 3 years, but it has, and it's an amazing gift from God that we are able to do that.

For our home...it was very scary selling our house and buying another. It might be half empty, but it's warm, comfortable, and slowly becoming our own. I am working in our master bath right now. Once it's finished, I will post some before and after pictures.

And finally, and most importantly, for our faith. It has taken us through some of our toughest times. Having almost lost my husband, and losing 2 children, some days I am amazed that I am not a complete mess. But I contribute everything to my faith in God. He has been (and will continue to be) the most important part of our lives.

We hope all our friends and family have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving Day! We hope you spend it with your loved ones and we hope it's peaceful and blessed.

Random thoughts and pictures

Good morning! Just thought I would share some pictures over the past week. First, we have officially graduated J from the little baby tub to the big tub, and at the same time with AR. Although both P and I have to be right there, it makes bath time much quicker and easier. And we have discovered that the shower head (which is the wand kind) is the best thing in our house. :) Easier to get hair wet, easier to rinse off soap...quick and easy - just the way we like it. :)

J is standing up like a champ, and cruising around the furniture. He actually took a few steps with his walker. I am not ready for a walking baby yet! What happened to my sweet little infant?

This one was captured just after waking up from his nap...Probably not very nice of me...check out all the drool on his chin! We have 4 teeth now...2 front top and 2 front bottom. And he uses them to bite me wherever he can sink them into.

And finally, this one is from this morning. I was cleaning up the kitchen and came into the living room to find my 2 year old had undressed herself. Now, it's usually not chilly around here, but it was only in the mid-30's this morning.

And on a final note, we are officially "sleeping through the night"! It's been a long, long, long 9 months. We finally decided to try a soy formula, and low and behold...the first night of the soy J slept through the night. If he does wake up, it is much easier to put him back to sleep (5 minutes compared to 2 hours!) We are keeping our fingers crossed that this really is how it will stay. It's been a week and a half. :) Mommy and daddy are feeling so much better.

Oh...and another final note. P had his yearly check up. He is doing fantastic. The surgeon is so pleased with how his heart looks. He said everything is stable, no changes from last year. He does not suspect he will need any kind of surgery for at least a few years, if not more. We are so thankful and blessed for P's great health! God is awesome!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Love all of you!

Talking to God...

I had to run by the church office today to mail something and pick up P's mail. Afterwards, I was sitting in the car in the parking lot, and my mother called. As I was talking to her, the priest walked up and spoke with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. I heard her talking about her bunny, and telling Fr. Chris about how the bunny hops. Fr. Chris waved good bye and went on his way. After I hung up the phone, my daughter says to me, "Mommy! I just talked to God!" :) Very cute! Here's to hoping you have a few minutes to run into God today!

Happy Halloween!

Here are a few of our pictures from halloween! AR just had a blast, once she realized that you actually get CANDY when you say "Trick or Treat!". She just kept saying, "Let's go to MORE houses!" We let her go to about 10 houses, than back to our house to give out candy. She tried to become friends with all of our Halloween guests! She was very cute!

J is a red baby dragon (RAWR!) and AR is a pink pup-pup (picked out by herself!)

J didn't look very happy in his costume. :(

Ruff-ruff!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy halloween...now we start looking forward to Thanksgiving! AR is already talking about going to papa-daddo and mimi's house and seeing all our aunts, uncles, and cousins! She is very excited!

Very first candy bar...

Well, I caved in and gave AR her very first candy bar...a miniture Kit Kat. Oh boy...check out that mouth and those hands. She exclaimed "It was awesome!" :)

BTW, she is going for a haircut tomorrow. ;)

The moments mommies live for...

AR: "Mommy?"

Me: "Yes pumpkin?"

AR: "You're my best friend!"

Me: Heart melting, tearing up! :)

Hope all my mommy friends are having a wonderful week!

Terrible two's...

Well, we had our first real life tantrum today. We had the pleasure of going swimming today at someone's house who is in the mom's group. It went pretty well for about 1 hour, and then I could see that AR was starting to crash. I gave her the 5 minute warning that we were leaving, packed our things, and went to get her. Oh boy...my child hit me in the head while I was putting on her shoes. Needless to say, she was in some serious trouble, having to go into time out in front of the entire group. She cried, yelled, hit the house, hit a plant nearby...it was tough. I finally got her to the car, calmed down and on our way home when she so politely asked could she please have her "gummies" now. Prior to going swimming, I told her if she behaved she could have gummies after we left. No, I did not give in...she did not get the gummies. I am not ready for this by any means!

Otherwise, we are getting back into the swing of things. P is back to work, I am home again. I have an awesome video to post. I will try in the next day or two. The video is not really worth anything, it's the sounds of Joshua laughing...belly laughing...at his big sis. It's so cute. Hope you will return to hear it. It will put you in a great mood! Love to all our family and friends! A.

Where is the summer going?

It's the end of July, and our summer is quickly coming to a close. Patrick returns to work in a few weeks and I think he is very happy that I will be returning to the "nest" from a busy summer of work. We did manage to take a vacation in mid-July. We first stopped at Pappa-dado and Meme's house. We had a great visit and Meme filled our bellies with yummy food! Then it was off to Birmingham to check out my best friend's loft that they have created in an old building in downtown Birmingham. First, thank you so much for having us! We had a blast! And I have to say that the loft is spectacular (To see pictures: http://parhamfamilyblog.blogspot.com) Then we went to Tennessee and spent a few days with P's sisters. Again, thank you so much for having us! We all had a great time! The pictures below are from our trip (except the last two). Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and getting much needed rest and relaxation! Love to all!

J with Aunt M at the science center in Birmingham

AR and G playing with a giant light bright! Very cool.

Get Ready......

SSSMMMMOOOOCCCHHH!!!

AR with her cousins at the lake

AR with her new floaties (thanks meme! they worked great!!!)

J eating some cereal for one of the first times. Not too successful!

AR after a haircut that was LONG overdue! Bella!

It's Summertime!

Well, the W Family is in full summer swing. P is finished with teaching for the summer, which means I am back to working some during the week. It gets a little hectic trying to juggle everything...kids, house, work...but we have a vacation coming up in 2 weeks. We are headed to Tennessee to spend some time with P's family. We can not wait!! It will be the first time they meet J. It should be a fun and relaxing trip. This will be our 3rd summer going, and we love it and appreciate our family for letting us come stay at their lake house. :) Here are some new pics...just a hodge podge of stuff. Enjoy!

Happy 2nd birthday!!

Happy 2nd birthday!

Papa-daddo and J relaxing on the porch

Painting with papa-daddo!

Summertime fun in the backyard! (thanks uncle p and aunt d-d for the crazy sprinkler!)

Our one lone tomato in our garden (hopefully not the last!)

AR and J hanging out together!

Jammy jam dance

Maybe we're biased, but P and I think this is hysterical. We laugh so hard it brings tears to our eyes. I hope AR always feels this confident in her dancing skills! Enjoy! BTW, you have to click on the video multiple times to get it to work. It will give you some trouble at first, but keep trying. It will finally work. (hopefully!) And have your sound up!

First Harvests

The previous owners of our house were pretty avid gardeners from what I can tell...well, much more avid that I am. There are lots of things coming up this spring that I do not know what they are. One of those things was strawberry plants. Well, once we figured out they were strawberries, we have been watching them grow and grow, only to get eaten by bugs. I recently purchased an organic pesticide (it has sesame oil and fish oil in it...it smells fishy!) and we were able to harvest 3 strawberries! AR and I ate the first 2 before I thought to take a picture. They were delicious. There is something to be said for eating something grown in your backyard. I have to admit though that I'm a little nervous. The following thoughts cross my head...what if some animals pooped in the dirt and we get E.coli or what if the organic pesticide is harmful to us? I know this is silly because only God knows what's on the produce we eat from the supermarket. I can only imagine! But I think the satisfaction of growing something to eat outweighs the possible side effects. :) Here's to springtime, a time of new growth and learning especially for my children!

Strawberry grown in our backyard!

The Lake

Greetings from The W Family. Life has been quite busy lately. P is finishing up the school year. He has about a week and a half left and then it's officially summer! I know we are all going to love having daddy home for a few months, but I think AR is going to love it the most. She looks forward to her time with daddy! :) I am trying to continue my NFP education. I need 11 more clients to be able to sit for the exam to be certified. It's alot of hard work, but it is so rewarding. I am working with a new couple who have been trying to have a baby for a few years now with no luck. They have been diagnosed with "unexplained infertility". After going through the introductory session and the first follow up, she told me that for the first time in a long time that she actually had hope. If that is the only positive thing that ever comes out of this, I will feel like all the hard work has been worth it. The idea that I can help someone have hope in having a baby helps me continue to move forward in this venture.

On the family front, the kids are doing great! I am trying to do more things for AR. We have returned to our mom's group for a few events, and AR seems to really enjoy that. Our most recent activity has been going to the sprinkler park at our local county park. It was a mixture of bravery and stupidity on my part! The first time we went, I put J in the stroller and thought him and I could sit while AR played in the water. What a mistake! There were at least 150-200 kids running around. In the first 5 minutes, AR got plowed down by another little girl and ended up with a skinned up forehead and a pretty bloody knee. She recovered fairly quickly, but then was visible afraid whenever another child ran by her. It was quite a site to see me running after AR pushing a stroller through the water area. :) The next time we went, I put J in the baby bjorn and was able to keep up with her more. There were still 150-200 kids there, all running around like crazy. By the way, the sign says "NO RUNNING!" I can only stand it about 30-45 minutes though. We have also found the Chick-fil-A play area. It is really geared toward toddlers and it is very contained. I feel like she is safe in there to run around and I don't have to be on top of her.

J is fantastic. He is sleeping 5-6 hours at night, and it has made all the difference in my sanity and patience. We spent Memorial Day at Lake Moultrie. This was AR's first trip of the summer. We took her a couple of times last summer, but she was only 1. When we got there, she asked Papa to take her on a boat ride. She went right in the boat and as he pulled around the bend where we could see them, she proceeded to wave at us like she was Miss Lake Moultrie in the homecoming pageant. :) The next day we went to Sandy Beach. AR built sand castles and went into the water several times, even though her lips were shivering after 2-3 minutes. She did not want to leave. Neither did I!! I love it there. It's just a great place to spend time with family and relax.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures and let us know how you are doing! Leave a comment for us!

Papa, AR and her cousin JF on the dock

JF, Papa, AR, and daddy playing ball (plus a good view of the lake)

Daddy and J getting ready to go the Sandy Beach (daddy doesn't look too ready!)

J in his beach hat

attempting to post a video...

Well, here goes...I'm going to try to post a video of J. Hope it works!!

Going away...and being home again

Hey everyone! We are back from a week long trip to Greenville. I went to take the second half of my classes to be able to teach natural family planning. Huge thank yous to papa and meme for watching AR for a few days! I couldn't have gone without their help! It was a great week, and really re-energized me for teaching. I was able to take J with me, which was great! He was excellent all week, probably because he was held by myself or someone in the class practically the entire time. He was in heaven! He is really growing, holding his head up now mostly by himself, and he is cooing and smiling like crazy. I'm sorry I don't have new pictures to post right now. I just haven't downloaded them yet. I will though! P and AR came up to Greenville for the last part of the week. I missed them like crazy! There is something to be said for a little time away...makes you appreciate everything a little bit more! I asked P to move J's crib to his room. When we got home and saw it, my stomach knotted up a little. :( It was definitely hard to put him down that night and walk out of the room. But it's time and he is doing well. I don't think it has phased him one bit! :) I will definitely post some pictures this week. I want to try to post a video also. It's hard to capture J smiling and cooing...he seems to know the exact moment the camera turns on or takes the picture, and stops! :)

Pictures of J and AR

Hanging out in my seat (and I'm not even crying!)

I smile alot now, but I rarely let the camera capture it!

AR and her new best friend (she practically forced R to sit next to her the entire dinner!)

Check out J's face...he doesn't seem too happy!

Just wanted to post some new pictures of the kids. This was at our high school youth group senior dinner. AR had a blast and J stole the hearts of all the ladies. :) He is getting so big...he's 2 months old, and he just started sleeping 6-8 hours at night. We've had 3 good nights, so hopefully this is the turning point! :)

AR is officially a girlie girl...

AR received a gift from her Aunt "Re" today (THANK YOU Aunt Re!!), and LOVED everything in it. I think she can officially be called a girlie girl when she loves her new purse, along with sunglasses, wallet, and phone. She won't take off the sunglasses...do we have a celebrity in the making? :)

New Pictures of Joshua

I just took these last night. He is 6 1/2 weeks old. I can't believe it!! He is still pretty colicky. He cries alot during the day, but if you hold him like a football, he seems to quiet down for a little bit. He is sleeping about 4-5 hours the first half of the night, and that's a huge blessing since the first 4 weeks he was up every 2 hours. He is growing like a weed...he's around 12 pounds. He has really filled out and I think his eyesight is improving. He is really focusing on our faces, light, and toys held in front of him. He is also starting to smile occasionally. It's like heaven to see his little gummy smile, and he has a dimple on his left cheek. He is amazing and we can't wait for him to meet his uncles, aunts, and cousins that he hasn't met yet!

Easter and Baptism

AR finding her Easter Basket

AR with her bunny ears!

Daddy and AR before Easter services

J slept through the entire baptism!

The W Family

We had a wonderful time with all our family and friends at J's baptism. We are so thankful for all of you!!

J making a silly face. (~1 week old)

AR after a nap...crazy hair!

My first blog...

Well, I have finally bit the bullet. I am offically blogging...We have so many family and friends who ask for pictures of our children, and ask how they are doing. I just thought this might be easier...since time right now is very slim, it's hard to email mulitple people. This way, our family and friends can check our blog for pictures and hopefully video (if I can figure that out!). Hopefully I will keep up with this and everyone will enjoy it!