I'm Fading...

Since we moved last Sunday, we have neglected to get Internet hooked up and so I try to stay in ouch through my phone but how annoying is it to type and read posts on your phone? Super annoying (in case you were wondering the answer).

But today I'm at my parent's house letting the kids take a nap while Jason finishes up some last things at the house (our renters move in tomorrow!) and thought I'd take the opportunity to prove I'm still existing and things are going fantastic (though a little crazy) at our new place.

Speaking of new place - we LOVE it so far. Not knowing anyone I'm sure will get to me soon, but I hope to meet at least a few of the gazzillion young mothers that seem to be lurking around every corner of our neighborhood! Why is it that it seems harder to make new friends the older you get? I know since I'm not working I'll have to work extra hard at making this happen.

Today we drove back to Siloam to go to our church one last time before venturing out in Bentonville to find a new one next week. Kind of sad. We love CCF and all the friends and fellowship we have found there. It will all be missed dearly and always have it's special place with us.

And while I'm on the subject of things that are Godly :) I thought I'd mention a bit about what God has been doing in mine and Jason's marriage/parenting...I think I mentioned we were listening to the podcast by Mark Driscoll (Peasant Princess Series) which have had a radically impact on our marriage and discussions about where we want to take out kids with the Lord's guidance. I STRONGLY advise EVERYONE to download these 8 sermons. They truly are refreshing and have brought us closer to each other and the Lord, which have spurned into on-going conversations in the past few days about what's important in raising our kids.

Speaking of the kids, they seem to have handled the transition great! Noah is consistently sleeping until 6:30-7:00 (though still in his cradle swing) and Lincoln seems to like the extra square footage (more places to hide!) Our pool opened this week, so we might try that out soon. :)

And that's all for now...I still plan on posting pictures of our new place soon (and getting Internet). Any suggestions on cheap Internet???

New in the 72719

We're here! Pretty much completely moved in minus the new fridge that arrives today and the numerous pieces of furniture my mom and I are refinishing and painting black (trying to modernize this place and junk pieces). I already have 90% of our pictures on the wall (none of which include Noah - terrible), and all the rooms are set up except for the 4th bedroom and our Master (waiting for furniture to be finished).
We LOVE it so far.
This neighborhood is very conducive to the stay-at-home mom type. It's huge with tons of sidewalks and places for morning walks, has a park and a clubhouse equipped with a pool/tanning/lounge/workout facility, and yesterday when my mom and I were painting in the garage, I saw at least 6 moms walking with joggers, some with labs. :)
Yeah - I think I'll like it here.

Today we woke up, had breakfast with daddy (since he doesn't have to leave as early now), went for a walk, and back tot he house to play some. I am excited to start using the fitness facilities tonight and get this extra weight off that's still driving me crazy!
I'll post some pictures of our new place soon when I can find my camera :)

Boxes and Boxes and Boxes, Oh My.

And we're moving.
Sunday.
This Sunday.
When did we find out? Two days ago.
Have I lost my freaking mind?
Quite possibly.

But all contracts are signed and we will soon officially be closer to daddy! Still some late nights, I'm sure, but not the really late ones at least.


So while I'm looking forward to finally making this happen, my heart is more saddened than I expected it to be. I find myself staring at our house and loving it more than I ever have...this is our house...where it all began for us.


But then I catch myself and think of how much selfishness corrupts my heart. God has blessed us with a fantastic place to live, to start our family, but it is by no means our house. It's been a gift and now it's time to let God lead us in a new direction, in a new city, meeting some new friends (but no doubt keeping the old!) and experiencing a new church...though I will most assuredly miss CCF!


So as I sit here contemplating the chaos that is a never-ending list of "to-do's" on my fridge that must all be accomplished in the next 7 days, I'm reminded of God's blessings and gifts in our life and how NOTHING is mine - it's all His.

"I know Oh Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

"For everything comes from Him; everything exists for His power and is intended for His glory. To Him be glory evermore!" Romans 11:36

Mother's Day...Part II

After we all four had naps today, we ventured over to my parent's house for that good food I was talking about in the previous post (and BTW, I do not even think it is possible that I did not gain weight tonight - oops), and fun times. It is no secret that Lincoln loves being around people, but LOVES being around people he knows and loves...and that's just what tonight entailed, so yes - he was the ham of the event. :)
Here's a little partial-family photo (I think Mimi had stolen some Noah-time at this point):


And then I finally got my Mother's Day picture with BOTH of my boys!! Stay tuned...cause I got one more later this night:

And then...perhaps my favorite part of the whole day...there was a little bit of a thunderstorm after we got home tonight. Lincoln wanted ask to get in our bed. He's so precious because when he does this, he gets up there on the pillows and pulls the covers up around him. I couldn't resist but to slide in next to him. We turned on the Wonder Pets and got us in some snuggle time.
Then daddy brought Noah into the mix...precious.

Then daddy joined us, and we talked about how much we treasure times like these and how our little boys are going to be men some day. And the teardrops can start NOW. Loved today.

Happy Mother's Day (and Happy "Cheat Day")

Have I mentioned on here how it's hard to get a good picture when toddlers and infants are involved? Well, here are two takes - they'll have to do.
You'll notice they're "Noah-less" on this blessed Mother's Day...well, that's because he's still sleeping, trying to get well and rested for his first Sunday in the nursery! And since I'm obviously writing this after-the-fact, I can also report he did FABULOUS. The workers said he was so cute, that they would just talk and say his name to him, which made him coo and smile all over - melt my heart. So far the day has been fantastic. Lincoln continues to sleep-in until 9:00ish and both boys have charmed my heart already this morning making me so blessed and proud to be called their mother. :)


And I just have to share these pictures of my precious angels from yesterday morning. We left Lincoln to his breakfast alone while daddy and I got in some snuggle time with Noah in bed. I returned to this yogurt face:Which turned to fun bath time (well, Noah would disagree, actually on the "fun" part).
And as for the title of this post, it is in fact CHEAT DAY for me. I've been doing, basically a no-carb diet for the past 8 days trying to lose my extra 15. I can say that it has been working, in that I've lost 10lbs, but OH MY GOSH I LOATHE this diet. My goal was to do it for 2 weeks, then slowly add in the good carbs and whatnot...but this diet has literally ripped my stomach apart from the inside out, and I decided to take the day OFFFFF. It's Mother's Day for pete's sake. Jason said he did this diet once before and that he would have one day a week where he would eat whatever he wanted. So I think I am going to to do this next week, too. To put this in perspective of how EXCITED I was for today, I dreamed about food all night long...about the strawberry pie Jason saved me a slice of that I was going to have for breakfast (and I did), and the yummy dinner we're having at my mother's later tonight - I dreamed about this people. It's like I get to enjoy it twice. :) I'll let you know tomorrow if I re-gained the ten...just hopefully not that and then some at least.

Oh - and stay tuned for more pictures tonight (hopefully with both sons) from our birthday/mother's day celebration!

Spirits Getting Higher

First off, THANKS for all of your sympathetic comments and encouragement! It's amazing how therapeutic blogging can be. :) Our date night was fantastic. Prince Charming took me to Westville. Ha. But some where hidden in the boonies is the best fillet mignon I've ever tasted. It was unreal. We were able to relax, enjoy each other, great food, and a good movie (Ironman 2).

The day got better, my friends. Sparing you the details, we found out some tidbits of good, encouraging news today that might propel this move forward in the next few weeks! I thought I post a preview of what might be our new house come 2 weeks:


And then since it's my darlings birthday (well, yesterday), I thought I'd show you just how in love our son is w/ Jason (and I think the feeling's mutual!) Last night I capture sheer sweetness when Lincoln got sleepy, crawled into his dad's lap and drifted off...

And in the midst of the craziness on Wednesday, we did get a chance to eat lunch with daddy...guess who was SUPER fired up. :)

And then part of Jason's birthday present was trying to capture a good picture (hence the word "good") of his two boys for his office.

Attempt #1? Not so successful... Let's try again...yeah, not yet.

Hmmm...getting closer (literally from Lincoln's point of view).

Here! This will do!

And in robbery update, our little thieves have now successfully cleared over $5,000.00 worth of checks in the past 24 hours at Walmart (yes, I have called to Walmart TWICE, but they keep letting the guys write the checks without carding them!) We have some very good documentation on them, however, and the police are retrieving video surveillance as we speak. They are EXTREMELY confident these guys will be caught! They also said, so far, this is the biggest fraudulent case they have seen in 10 years because of how big the guys are writing checks (and all in Siloam - brilliant). Off now to get some much needed, long overdue rest. Good night!

My Little Ray of Sunshine

Jason's New Thing

Last summer around this time, my husband exercised his bidding skills through constant ebay-ing (he swore everything he was winning was always under $5 - smile). What was the brunt of all his bids? Anything "Nike Jordan" for our darling Lincoln. It became quite routine for some kind of infant Jordan apparel to arrive on a weekly basis. It became quite comical (some might say pathetic), but nonetheless, our baby was sporty and almost entirely dressed by dad (isn't that reverse??).
Fast forward one year later...
Jason watched this long special on Reggie Miller that was on HBO. A few days later??
A Reggie Miller toddler jersey arrived in the mail for Lincoln.
I started noticing "packages" coming in the mail about every two weeks..."Hun? Ebay again?" Then once every two weeks turned into once a week (yes - I got another one today).
My husband's new obsession?
Toddler jerseys. We're talking Michael Smith, LB James (2 of these!), Reggie Miller, John Stockton (he said he had to get this one since Lincoln met him last year!), Marino, Dirk, Yao Ming, and supposedly a Felix Jones (per my request) and Paul Pierce are in the works - oh yeah, along with a team USA hockey jersey.
But remember - these are all coming from the same guy who has 30+ suits. So glad to see he's passing his obsessions on to his son :)
I will admit though - Lincoln looks pretty darn cute in these jerseys.
Here's some of the collection that were clean.

Awake Noah Update

Yes. I changes the sleeping Noah title to the current because after last night, sleeping was not his forte. I have come to realize through talking with numerous mom friends that Lincoln is a PHENOMENAL sleeper and it's quite possible I'm a little spoiled. Arg. So when Noah wakes up at 4:00am (he sleeps angelic until then), and then continues to wake up every 30 minutes before he's WIDE AWAKE at 6:15am - and I try and force him to sleep until 7:00 - well, I'm starting to painfully admit that he might not be a sleep-soundly-till-7:00 kind of guy. But I can train him to be, right? You bet I'm going to try.The scary thing is that when I finally realized he was NOT going back to sleep at 6:15 and got him out of his bed, he fell asleep in my arms before I even made it into the living room!
So what do I do? I laid him in bed with me where he stayed asleep for 2.5 more hours. Now that's more like it. But in the bed??? Oh dear. So I'm kind of at a loss of how to fix this problem and help him stay asleep from 4-7 without me having to intervene.
Any suggestions form you professional moms out there?
Or am I doomed to have a 4:00am wake-up call?

Sleeping Noah Update

As I discussed in previous post, I've been working with Noah on helping him sleep through the night in his own room (well, in the playroom - his own room will be shared with Lincoln as soon as he's officially a "sleeper").
I've been curious to see how this compares to when we did this with Lincoln...
The two big differences already are (1)We're doing this with Noah a whole month earlier than we did with Lincoln and (2)Lincoln was still getting fed in the middle of the night and Noah has now consistently not needed to eat, just wakes up a million times and cannot sleep in his bed for extended measures.

On Noah's first night, he woke up at the expected 3:00am, and cried from 3-4:00 (while I watched a recorded episode of Flash Forward I missed). I would go in and put his paci in every 15 minutes and then he just stopped on of those times. I went back to bed and we didn't hear him until about 7:00am (by which at that time, I got him up and fed him and started the day).

Last night he slept a little longer...he woke up at 4:15. I went in, put his paci back in, and he fell right back to sleep until 5:30. I repeated the paci drill, and then he fell back asleep until 6:30. At this point, he was wide awake, so I got him up, and fed him in my bed. He fell back asleep while I was feeding him, and - well - I let him. :)

But guess what? Both boys are STILL asleep and it's 9:15. Fantastic.

So with Lincoln, by the third night, we didn't hear a peep from him from the time we put him to bed to 7:00am the next morning. I have a feeling with Noah, we're going to be going in there a few times a night for a bit to put the paci back in. Last night I would let him cry a bit (didn't just rush in) to see if he's go back to sleep on his own, but the tears just majorly escalated. If the paci routine continues for long, I may have to let him cry-it-out without it. We never had to do this with Lincoln....we'll see.

All in all, it's SO nice to have him sleeping in his own room. It's amazing how much better I sleep.