The Friend I am Missing

God has blessed me with so many amazing friends in my life. I think one of the hardest things in becoming a "grownup" has been the way my friendships have changed. I got married, moved further away, got a job and had Noah. It got harder to spend quality time with some of my closest friends. This pregnancy has been exhausting. And I have spent even less time keeping up with friends out of town as I try to make it through each day in one piece. I have missed birthday parties and gettogethers for sickness and just sheer exhaustion. I just keep saying, "when life slows down a little bit I'll catch up with...."

There is one friend who has really been on my heart this week.

I was resting on the couch trying to conjure enough energy to get up and go to bed staring at the walls and getting a sudden urge to paint my walls pale blue. I wished she was there to tell me the colors I have are beautiful.

It was Shania Twain week on AI and it took me back to days in high school where she rode shotgun singing into TCBY spoons.

I was sitting on the porch looking at the Pottery Barn catalog while Noah colored with chalk. I wished she was there to give me her opinion on whether I could recreate the weathered white candlesticks.

I had a Krispy Kreme and it tasted a little off. I wish she was there. Together we consumed enough to tell when something isn't quite right.

I was struggling to fall asleep and I was praying for her and wishing all those times I had missed I had simply picked up the phone and called just to say hi. But somehow I found it easier to tell her how much I missed the everyday things of our friendship here. I hope she knows that even though I don't pick up the phone as often as I should it doesn't mean I don't miss her all the time! I'd give anything to be able to catch up in person soon! Love you Laura!

The Rover

Darby of Fly Through Our Window has three adorable kids. Her youngest is an adorable little boy she affectionately calls, "Rover". She calls him such because he tends to get into mischief but remains adorable. Today Noah was officially inducted into the Rover category! We had an afternoon!

He woke up from his nap and we ate Popsicles on the porch. It was so pretty and he was being so good, I thought "I should get out the easel and paint!" Silly mommy. We were painting and aside from a brief painting the driveway incident everything was fine. Brooke got up from her nap and came over to paint. Noah must have felt the need to show off for BB. While Jennifer and I were sitting talking I thought I heard him say, " I paint my skin red." Surely not. Uhmm. I looked at him and he was PAINTING HIS FACE AND HAIR. Away went the easel.

Soon after one of Jennifer and Teral's friends came over with his adorable chocolate lab puppy. Noah and Brooke love this puppy. Noah was talking baby talk to it and petting it. Rubbing noses with it. Rolling in mud puddles with it. All the sudden he is sitting on the puppy. SITTING ON THE PUPPY.In his defense he "rides" Charlie a lot. But Charlie is about ten times the size of this puppy.

Later we take Noah and Brooke to the neighborhood playground. They swung on the swings and slid down the slides. There was a little boy around five years old there. Noah thought he hung the moon. He would hang around him and stare. Jennifer, Teral and I retired to the picnic table. I look over at him and he is chewing on rocks. ON ROCKS. In his defense, Charlie chews on big rocks. But he is a dog and he doesn't swallow them. Adam came home and picked us up from the playground. Noah is covered in Popsicle, paint, mud, and playground dirt. I'm not sure Adam wanted to let him in the car.

He is a Rover who earned his bath tonight. I prayed for little boys as a teenager. I wanted a houseful of little boys. God has a sense of humor. What on earth am I going to do with two Rovers?????

The Perfect Friday Night

I have been feeling pretty yucky for the past couple of days. I've been throwing up again which really stinks. Its been weeks since I threw up (nasty stomach virus aside). Today was one of those days that you count the minutes until you can go home and crawl back into bed.

Its hard to crawl back into bed when you have a two year old no matter how amazing your husband is. I took a brief nap and felt better enough to take my book to the couch and play cars with Noah.

It had started to rain and thunder a bit. Noah climbed up into my lap.

"What's that mommy? It scared me. "

"It's just thunder. Noise in the sky. You don't need to be scared, Mommy is here and Jesus and God are always with you."

"He's there and there and there."

And he was satisfied and continued to run around in his t -shirt and diaper being adorable. Adam came home with pizza. The thunder had really picked up.

"I'm not scared of it. Jesus is here."

Adam asked him, "Where is Jesus Noah?"

"In my heart."

That is the prayer of my heart. I laid back on the couch after pizza and I watched Noah jump on and off the couch with his cars, I felt his little brother moving around inside of me, and looked on as Adam picked up toys and played with Noah. Tears welled up in my eyes. This is just perfect. Nausea, stress, work, money, worries, chores all fade away. My little family in my little house while a storm rages outside. We are safe and happy loving each other and God on this perfect Friday night, a little girl's dream come true.

The Growing Family

I love these little ones! And stealing their pictures off my sisters' Facebook Pages and blogs! Being an aunt is fabulous!
Can't wait to meet Lillie!

The Love Actually Blog

I don't even remember how I came across this blog the other night but I absolutely love it! It is all about romance on a budget and creative dating of your spouse. For example the last post suggests photo shopping the weather report to forecast 100% chance of romance on a particular day. Or giving your husband a bag of Hersey Kisses that he can exchange for a real kiss anytime. It also has a whole list of date night ideas and "staycations". I am not sure if the author(s) is a Christian or not but the blog is about the marriage relationship and is pretty clean. (I haven't read every entry so hopefully I am not leading anyone astray!) I am so in love with Adam and SO thankful for everything he does to show his love to me and our sons. I am often amazed that I can continue to fall even more in love with him every day. But unlike me he doesn't receive in all five love languages (gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, and acts of service). I crave all of those in large quantities :) Adam is harder. So I was really excited to have a blog to give me some suggestions and ideas to help me show him just how much I love him! I was hesitant to post about it because I didn't want to spoil it for Adam. But I just really couldn't keep it to myself. Maybe I'm meant to share it with someone else! Check it out here.

The Quiet Week

It may have been a quiet week on the blog but not all a quiet week around here! It was prom week and our first niece arrived in the world!

Prom 2010.... Arabian Nights.

It was a stressful week. It was less stress than last year because I had my intern Brandi who worried about the teaching part while I focused on prom stuff. But I feel like I was doing this with half a brain. I am not sure how other pregnant women feel but I feel like a complete scatterbrain! There were some tense moments and late nights.One of my freshmen actually asked me why I was so stressed out about prom. Was it because I couldn't find a dress to fit me? And I have never felt so tired in my life. Every inch of my body hurt and I could have slept for days on end if I didn't wake up every so often to use the bathroom. It is all worth it if the kids had a good time.

I wasn't really concerned with taking pictures so you can't really see the oasis tents over the food buffet, desert treasure centerpieces, iron lanterns, or Arabian Palace cut out that everyone signed. But can you get the picture? The teachers seemed to have a good time. I thought the kids looked happy. The most stressful moment was when we tallied votes and discovered that the Prom Queen wasn't there yet! We stalled as long as we could. And about ten seconds before we recognized the prom court she walked in. What was odd was that every student left by 11:30. Everyone was happy about this but me. Why did they go? Did they hate it??

Clean up was easy and quick. Adam and I ended the night at Waffle House with eggs and bacon. The first WH we stopped at was filled with kids. We quickly left the parking lot and headed to another. My heart broke when I saw when I saw one of our kids standing on the curb by himself. There is a story behind that I'm sure.

I am thankful for Adam and how much he loves me. He was there to support me the whole way. I also greatly appreciate all the teachers who helped and encouraged me. And I am thankful for my sweet neighbor Jennifer who brought me cheesecake, a mommy sippy cup (adorable painted wine glass) and an outfit for Miller as surprises Thursday afternoon.

The arrival of our niece....

On Wednesday amidst all the preparations our beautiful niece was born. Robin delivered via C-Section Wednesday April 14th. Everything went wonderfully. I hated not being in Texas to welcome this little miracle to our family. She is beautiful and bringing so much joy to her parents and grandparents, aunts and uncle. Welcome Aubrey Kate!!!! I can't wait to share in your sweet life. You are an amazing answer to prayer. I already love you so much!

As I relaxed and recovered from prom I got to try out my new toy... the Cricut and Mini Monograms. I had fun in quickly creating a page of Noah's baby book in five minutes. And I actually like the way it looks (unlike the pages I did free hand.) I might actually finish his book before Miller is born! Anyone want a banner?

The Lovie

Noah loves his Spots! Spots goes everywhere with Noah. He loves it so much he often gives Lovies away to new babies as presents. He gave his cousin Xander a monkey. He and Xander gave Lillie a flower. Baby E has a Tiger. What will Miller have?? I have asked Noah and he has said Miller needs a giraffe. But I can only imagine the conflict that could cause. Here are some Lovie options for Miller. What do you think?

The New Rooms

Things in our house are about to change in many ways. Noah will be playing musical rooms and will be moving up to the guest room. Noah's nursery will be transformed into Miller's nursery. Here are some of my ideas and plans.

Miller's room will be painted blue (like this one).....

He will be using all of Noah's black furniture. And the beautiful white bedding. But I will be getting these striped sheets from PBK and maybe one day the quilt. I will add green ties to the whit bumper pads to tie in the chair and storage boxes. Above the crib there will be a masculine monogram of some sort. Like the one below.
This is the white bedding Noah used that Miller will use.

Don't worry, I'm not putting any pink into Miller's room. But look on the wall in the background where those picture frames are hanging from ribbon. I want to do a similar boy arrangement above Miller's changing table. I want to include pictures and then also an M from fun scrapbook paper in a frame.
The guest room, now Noah's big boy room will be painted a green similar to this. He inherited a bed from his cousin Michael. We are so thankful for it!! It stained a dark wood to match the two bookshelves already in the room and a cube organizer for his cars and toys and his train table .


This is is the cute bedding that Michael also passed down!
Above the cube organizer I want to put this cute set. It comes with eight road pieces and four cars and four trucks that you pick the colors for and then four road signs. So cute!
This is the sheeting I'd like to use from PBK. I also found a lampshade to match on Ebay.
I have two windows I bought from a antique store that are black. I want to paint primary color cars on them and put photos behind it. I don't know yet what to do for curtains. I'd like to use sheets or material that I can also make a sham or something else to tie it in. I also will be putting my great grandmother Carrie's rocking chair in Noah's room. I am very excited about that! I imagine rocking little Miller while watching Noah play cars!

I am not sure when all these transformations will be taking place but soon we will start getting Noah's room ready. My goal is to have him in there in June. And the nursery done in July. I will take pictures of our progress!

The Mover and Shaker

Miller is a quiet little baby in the womb. He is still most of the day just resting sweetly on top of my bladder. Every once in a while he will give a little kick. The past couple of nights though.... different story. He is really going to town in there. I love it! I like to think that he will be a sweet little boy. Maybe he won't throw public tantrums or say to me, "No mommy. You do not say no to me." Maybe but unlikely. He will probably be just as spunky as his big brother. And just as adorable!

The Easter Photo Shoot

Adam and I both had fun snapping shots of Noah and then I had fun editing them. There are lots but I thought there might be some grandparents oe aunts that would want to see them :)