Getting down to bidness

September is here! Oh my word, I just can't believe it. August was a very full month with lots of new stuff for us. All of these new things just made the month fly by.

Our first new experience in the month of August was putting Jackson in a big boy bed. We hyped this up to him for quite some time and let him pick out his new decor. Of course you know what the child picked. Thomas the Train. Big surprise, huh? I laugh at myself now, because before I had kids I always said I would never let my children be covered in character stuff. Well, God does have a sense of humor and gave me a little boy who is completely obsessed with one character in particular. I just figure now that if it makes my baby happy, then, why not? I don't have any pictures of Jackson's new big boy bed, but here is the picture courtesy of the Target website.
Jackson has done really well in the new bed and he seems to enjoy his newfound freedom. We did use the "Nanny 911" method. Which is the first time they get out of bed you lovingly put them back in. 2nd time they get out you put them back in and just simply tell them "back to bed". The 3rd time you just plop them back in without saying a word. It really did work well for Jackson. He is getting up quite a bit earlier now and coming into our room, but that's ok. We just turn the tv on for him and snooze away.

Our 2nd big new experience is potty training. I know I've mentioned on here a few times about trying to get Jackson to go to the potty, but he really never seemed ready. I was about out of his last box of diapers, and I decided for him that it was time! He was definitely developmentally ready, just a bit lazy with the whole thing (typical man). So, we headed off to Target (sensing a theme here?) and got him a big goody bag together. Going #1 was a non issue. He had that pretty much down in one day. Going #2 was a little challenging, but this past week he has gotten that under control. Praise the Lord! I wouldn't say that he is 100% potty trained, but more like 95%. So I really am excited! I'm glad we'll have a small break from diapers until the new baby arrives!

Lastly, Jackson started preschool yesterday! He is in the older 2's class at Hebron which goes on Tuesday's and Thursdays. He woke up yesterday morning with a very low grade fever, but I decided to send him on anyway. I'm totally inexperienced in this arena. I debated for 2 hours about what to do and finally decided that he was certainly well enough to go. He didn't have a fever when I dropped him off, and didn't have one when I picked him up. So I think I made the right decision. He had a great time, and was super excited about snack time and playing on the playground. But the poor guy was completely tuckered out when he came home. We ate a quick lunch and he took about a 3 hour nap. Today he feels fine, with no fever at all. Here he is in his first day of school outfit. So preppy and cute! Love it!In other news, I'm almost halfway through my pregnancy. I am 19 weeks and counting! I'm feeling great, and feeling quite a bit of movement from the baby. (He/she is actually kicking away right now. Do we have a future blogger on our hands?) We go next Tuesday for the big ultrasound. And YES, I am finding out the sex. I'm way too much of a planner to not find out! I even tried to bump up my appointment to this week because I'm so impatient. Too bad they were all booked. Please pray that the ultrasound shows a healthy little one. Boy or girl really is a non-issue. As long as everything is normal and healthy, I will be so happy with either. If my instincts are correct, it is a boy. But I was also totally convinced that Jackson would be a girl. Who knows!

I hope y'all have a great week. And I'll post as soon as I can on Tuesday to update on what the sex is!

Abba said it best. "Money, money, money, must be sunny in a rich man's world."

The past few weeks have been rough. ROUGH. We have had a series of unfortunate events with the machines in our life. My car broke down requiring an expensive repair, Kyle's main lawn mower completely died needing a whole new engine. It was in such bad shape that after much thought and deliberation we decided not to even have it repaired and buy an entirely new one. And the kind of mowers that Kyle uses are not cheap. Commercial grade = $$$. I won't go into all of the details about our misfortunes, because really, it is just depressing. I started to type it all out, and I thought I needed to start over because people would need a Xanex by the time they got to the end. Let's just say to sum it all up that we have been stretched and financially strained after all of these mishaps.

But oh my word, how our God has taken care of us. I can't even type this with out tears filling my eyes. For those of you don't know, Kyle's main line of income is landscape maintenance. We are so thankful for all of our maintenance customers, because really we wouldn't survive month to month without them. He rarely does any installations at all. It's not that he can't do them, it is just that maintenance is a much more steady income. There is more profit in installations, but a lot of times they are few and far between. Every once in a while someone will call Kyle for a bid on an installation. For some reason this past month lots of people have been requesting quotes on major landscape installation projects. Just this week, 2 different bids were accepted and scheduled for the end of this month. There are also a couple of very promising jobs that look like will be scheduled very soon. I'm not writing about this to boast. Kyle is very talented at what he does, and he tries to be very competitive about pricing, but THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM OR ME. If you don't get anything else from this post, get that. It does have everything to do with God.

Did God make my car and Kyle's mower break down? No. Things like that just happen; it is a part of life. But God has used this situation to teach some very important lessons. He is faithful. He cares about us. He wants Kyle and I to love each other through the hard stuff. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to realize that it is all His anyways.

Kyle called me this morning with more amazing news. One of our maintenance customers just wanted to pay us for about 6 months in advance so he doesn't have to worry about writing a check every month. This has never happened before. The total amount he is paying us will almost fully pay for my car to be repaired. This is no coincidence. God provided this for us and I will not let the opportunity pass without praising Him.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your provision. Thank you for caring about my family. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your lessons. I don't deserve any of this. But You give freely.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

Oh, just you watch out.

Kyle and I headed out to dinner the other night and I was so sorry that I didn't have my camera. I mean, prime blogging material was right there in the parking lot of Chili's. We got out of the truck and the first thing I noticed on the back of an SUV was those little stick figures that are supposed to depict your family. You know, the ones. Momma stick in a cute little dress, Daddy stick in his business suit, kid sticks with the cheerleading uniform on or football in hand. Here's an example if I'm not being too clear.

Well this SUV that we encountered displayed them all. Momma, Daddy, 2 kids, and even a dog. But there was a not so subtle difference with this stick family. DADDY WAS MARKED OUT. A huge "X" was literally drawn through his entire body. I wish that I had my camera because it really was too funny. I pointed it out to Kyle and told him that he just better watch out and be on his best behavior, or... X.

Alert! Alert!

As I mentioned in the last post, we had some family photos done last night. The photographer came to our house and just started snapping away! We headed to Little Mulberry Park for some outdoor pictures and she was just great. Kyle and I kept joking that we had a babysitter for the afternoon. While she was taking pictures of Jackson they would just traipse all over that playground and he had a new best friend. She was quick too! She already posted a little sneak peak on her blog. Go check them out at her blog. I would post one here, but stupid me forgot to ask for permission. I'll get on that though, because I think the one of all 3 of us would be an amazing header for the old blog!

Unfortunately, Avery is moving to Texas at the end of this month. But she is going to be coming back in our area occasionally to book sessions. I know for sure we will be booking again!

Fun times

Hot husband teaching adorable son how to bowl. MELTS MY HEART!!! We took Jackson bowling for the first time last week and we had a blast. Look, he even got his own little pair of bowling shoes. He actually had a higher score than me in the first game. I really stink at bowling, but it is so much fun! If y'all live anywhere close to Dacula, you need to go to the brand new bowling alley. It was so clean and nice. I've never been to a bowling alley where I actually felt safe using the restrooms. Good times, good times!

Jackson and I packed up for the weekend and headed to visit with family in North Carolina. My mom graciously went with us too. We all hopped in the car on Friday morning and had such a fun time. Jackson had another first while we were there. First ride on a LIVE horse.

My aunt Robyn led him around on her son's horse. He was a little iffy about actually being on the horse, but he loved petting them and looking at them. There were 2 mules in my grandmother's pasture, and Jackson just kept begging to go over there and see them. We had to tell him that the "horsies are taking a nap", to keep him from darting across the road to go see them.

It wasn't all fun and games while we were in NC. Mamaw always has something going on. SO, we picked blueberries, picked green beans, picked cucumbers, etc. I can't say that I did all of that. I stayed back and watched Jackson some of the time while Mama and Mamaw slaved away. Mamaw was lying down taking a little afternoon rest while Mama and I went and picked blueberries on Friday afternoon. Y'all, picking blueberries is not fun. You have to dig into those bushes, and move them all around, and stretch, and bend, and you get the point. We brought our cool whip bowl back full of blueberries, and I was pretty proud of myself. After Mamaw woke up she asked us why we hadn't picked more! Too funny. She really is a workaholic at the youthful age of 87.

We did get some relaxation while we were there too. Lots of front porch sitting went on.
As far as my memory goes back, I can remember loving this front porch. I would sit in my Papaw's lap and laze the afternoon away. We had family gatherings on this porch. My best friend Mandy and I were swinging too high and broke the swing. (We promptly got a stern talking to by Mamaw who told us that we needed to go on a diet. Then she offered us some home made pound cake with strawberries.) I would climb the rails on the porch and pretend that I was in a Broadway musical. Lots and lots of good memories. And this weekend I watched my little one play away as I sat on the swing. That is what they call full circle, y'all.
It was nice to get home, but it was great to get up there for the weekend. It was one of those "good for the soul" kind of trips.

This week is going to be even more busy, so I really needed that little weekend! We're having family pictures done on Wednesday. Do any of y'all stress over this like I do? We're having the pictures made at our house, which is even more stressful because everything has to be clean! You can check out the photographer here. She takes the most gorgeous pictures and I can't wait! We're also heading down to Florida for a long weekend. So.... should be fun! I'll be back next week with an update and some pictures!

Slowly, slowly, slowly I'm starting to feel more like a human and less like a sloth. I'm heading towards my 12th week of pregnancy and everyday I feel more energized. For a few weeks there, it was pretty rough. It was all I could do to get home from work and get dinner together and have Jackson in bed. I don't remember being that tired when I was pregnant with Jackson, but I guess being pregnant when you already have another child is a whole different ballgame.

Summer has been full and lovely, though. We've had lots of great time outside and lots of time with loved ones. Here's what I found Jackson doing one night when I was watering the garden: I know, we're in a drought. But I don't think he had it on too long. That spicket is pretty loose, so he managed to turn it on himself. I think it was on just long enough to drench himself good and for me to run in and get the camera. Every kid should have this experience, right? Sweet summertime.

Jackson has also become kind of obsessed with youtube. You remember this from a few years ago?

Here's Jackson's version


Please excuse my excruciatingly annoying voice in the video. Try to focus on the cute little boy who is dancing. Do I really sound like that? Wow. Jackson is so animated when he sings the song, but gets a little shy in front of the camera. It is hilarious, though. I promise you that.

Our 4th of July was great. A day full of swimming, laying out in the sun, lots of good food, and fireworks. What can get better than that? Here's the little man with a sparkler:
That just screams danger, right? A 2 year old with a lighted object in his hand. But we all walked away unharmed. Here we are at the fireworks, trying desperately to get a family picture. This is the best out of all of the attempts:Kyle's talking, Jackson's not looking at the camera, and I... well for starters, it's obvious that is way past my bedtime of 8:00pm. But we did our best.

What else, what else??? Oh, WE AREN'T HAVING TWINS. I know I had informed some of you that this might be the case. The midwife thought at our first ultrasound that she possibly saw two babies. But our 2nd ultrasound determined that it is just one little peanut in there. I never really felt like it was twins anyways. If it was, I think I would have gone into a mild state of shock. But the one little one is doing great with a strong little heart and seems to be forming beautifully!

I can't think of much else that needs updating right now. We've been pretty predictable lately. Work, eat, sleep, play, etc. I am going back to part time hours. That is a blessing, for sure! I hope you are all doing lovely!

I'm trying, but I've got nothing

1st trimester pregnancy brain has set in. I've been trying to come up with some clever post, but it is really just taking too much thought and I feel like if I have to think that hard to come up with something, I really have nothing good to write about. So, here is a list of what my life has been like in the past couple of weeks.

1. Sleep. No matter how hard I try, my eyes won't stay open beyond 9 pm. Last night Kyle was so sweet and brought me a yummy coffee home. With caffeine. I've been trying to stay away from the stuff, but last night I thought, what the heck? I'll have my coffee and stay up a little later with Kyle and watch a movie or something. I was zonked out on the couch approximately 10 minutes after drinking the coffee.
2. Jackson has really been a hoot lately. He's been going through this stage where he is a little confused on why Mommy and Daddy are sometimes called by Kyle and Sarah. He's been especially hung up on the whole Daddy & Kyle thing. A lot of times he chooses to use Kyle instead of Daddy. I try to correct him, but it seems like it just makes him want to use Kyle even more. Last night Jackson was perched at the dinner table between Kyle and me and I asked him who he wanted to take him to swimming lessons. He looked me dead in the eye, pointed his little thumb towards Kyle, and said "This guy". We could not stop laughing about that one all night.
3. As I mentioned, Jackson is in swimming lessons. He is really enjoying them and loves going every night. He is not scared of the water at all, so I thought that made swimming lessons even more necessary.
4. I'm hungry. A lot. This was not the case when I was pregnant with Jackson. I don't know what my deal is, but my stomach is seriously growling through out the day. My mom suggested that I do the smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day thing. Today is my first day trying that and it really seems to help. I also feel a little more energized. Hallelujah!
5. JACKSON WENT PEE PEE ON THE POTTY LAST NIGHT. Hallelujah x 2! Keep your fingers crossed for me that we're starting a trend here.
6. My first doctor's appointment is next week. Kaiser is set up that your first appointment is with a midwife and after that you can choose a doctor or stick with the midwife. Jackson's doctor was the best. Seriously, I am pretty sad that our insurance won't cover him now. But since this insurance is what we've got now, I suppose I'm going to have to get over it. Any readers have experience with a midwife? I'm seriously thinking about going that route.
7. I keep thinking of super yummy stuff to eat. I know, I'm a little early in this pregnancy to be having cravings but so many different things sound good. I guess it is just because I'm trying to be very conscientious about my diet, anything fattening sounds great. Some of the cravings are: Varsity chili dogs and onion rings, Paula's cheese biscuits with strawberry butter, pancakes, cheese steaks, etc. Too bad I never crave healthy things. AND I FORGOT, COCONUT CREAM PIE! Mmmmmmmm.

Anyways, enough with the randomness. That is my life as of now. I'll let you know when I am a little more creative.