I Love Everything About You

Your chunky little arms & legs.

That beautiful gummy smile you have, especially now that it's a conscious smile at us.

The way you look at me when we talk & play.

The completeness that you bring to our family.

That your ears are a perfect half & half mixture of your daddy's & mine.

Hearing you coo.

How tolerant you are with Riley constantly picking at you.

Your big bright blue eyes.

The cute little grunts you make in the mornings to wake me up when you are ready to get out of bed. You aren't fussing or crying. Just grunting because you are ready to be up for a while.

The fact that you & Riley are so close in age & will be the best of friends as you grow up together.

Your sweet little lips & nose.

Your tiny fingers & toes.

That your eyelashes noticeably grew the day you turned 8 weeks old and are now growing longer & longer.

How relaxed you are in the bath tub. You love a good warm bath.

Your thick, dark hair.

That you are perfectly healthy & well.

How great you sleep at night. You sleep anywhere from 8 to 10 hours every night!

That you made me a mommy all over again.

Your chubby cheeks.

That you are your daddy's girl in more ways than one!

That you are YOU & God so graciously blessed us with you as our child.

Averly,

Your Daddy & I love you so much little girl. So much that it hurts. You & your brother are such wonderful blessings. God made you perfectly perfect for us.

Crawfish Boil 2010

This past Saturday we had our 3rd Annual Crawfish Boil to celebrate TAG & Josh’s (our brother-in-law) Birthdays. The weather ended up getting pretty nasty but it didn’t stop us from boiling some crawfish. It never got too bad where we were but there was a tornado that touched down within 10 miles of us & another that was about 15 miles away. I am so thankful it didn’t get too bad. Despite the storms we had a great time!

  

The kids found a mud hole so we let them play.

 

Part of the crowd.

We walked across the street to the park for a little while too.

Third outfit of the day & in the mud again! After this time we just let them play in their diapers.

Sunday was the worst of the storms for our area. While TAG & Josh were cleaning up, the rain started pouring & in a matter of 30 minutes it was rushing in the car port & their yard was nowhere to be seen.  TAG took the kids & me to Josh’s parents’ house down the road because they live up on a hill, then came back to help Josh & Brooke get things like their deep freeze & grill to higher ground. They also began to prepare to move things to the attic if need be.  The water rose to about 10 or so inches & the creek behind their house overflowed completely. Luckily, it started slacking off after too long & the water dropped a good bit. I know this is nothing compared to the tragedy in Nashville, but it sure was scary.

I snapped these pictures before the water got real high. It was probably 6 or so inches deep out in the yard at this time.

All of the people affected by these storms & floods are still in our prayers!

Just a quick note

Thank y'all for your thoughts & prayers for my dad. He seems to be doing better. The doctor didn't think it was a disc, but something with his muscles. Wednesday he stayed in bed all day but Thursday he was feeling a little better & got up, took a shower & even walked back to his garden. But that kinda overdid things & he was hurting the next day. He is taking several pain medicines & some steroids for the swelling. The doctor wanted him to go back to get an MRI done, but he wants to give it a little more time. Hopefully he will get better in the next few days. I know it's killing him not to be able to get around because he is normally so active.

Also thanks for all your sweet comments. I have a long way to go to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight but y'all are all so sweet!

We did have our crawfish boil yesterday, tornadoes & all! I will get to that post as soon as I have a minute to upload the pictures.

Have a good Sunday!

Have I mentioned...

How proud I am of this sweet boy?! He is such a great big brother. So easy with her & always loving. He wakes up in the morning & from naps looking for her. Doesn't want her to be out of his sight! He loves to “howe” (hold) her & give her kisses. Kisses galore. And constantly. Wants to share his toys with her. Rubs her head & whispers “she toft” (soft). Tries to help us burp her by patting her on the back. Baby talks to her. Wipes her "dool" (drool) off her mouth with a burp cloth. Gets clean diapers for us when we are changing her & throws the dirty one in the "tash". Reads his books to her. Even tries to share his juice with her & doesn't quite understand why she can't have any! ;0)

This boy loves his little sister! I'm so glad that she has him to protect her as they grow up.

Riley, you are such a good big brother! We are so proud of you & love you very much!

Heading to Paris

Tennessee that is, not France. My good friend, college roommate & sorority little sister, Brette, had a wedding shower Sunday afternoon in Paris. Miss Averly went with me but I stopped by my parents’ house on the way to drop Riley man off to stay with them. I only took 1 picture at the shower, which of course is totally not like me, but we got a mini photoshoot in at my parents’ house before leaving.

Here’s a picture of the beautiful bride to be with me & the kids when she came to visit back when Averly was about a week old. (Riley really likes Brette. So much he couldn’t take his eyes off of her!)

He really does love me. ;0)

Riley loves to dance with my dad! Speaking of my dad, if you would please say a quick prayer for him. He was out in the yard this morning picking up tree limbs that fell after the storms this weekend & he did something to his back. He made it into the house & into a recliner but couldn’t move to get up after that. He finally agreed to let my mom call for an ambulance to come get him to take him to Campbell Clinic. My parents are there right now & I’m waiting for an update as we speak. They think it may be either a ruptured or bulging disc just by the way it sounds.

My sweet babies!

Oh & my little sister was home from school for the weekend so we got to visit her. Actually Averly & I made our way back to her house after the shower & stayed the night with her. We had a fun little girl’s night in. We ate Doritos & Oreos & watched movies in bed! :0) Averly did so well too. I was a little worried about her sleeping arrangements because I didn’t bring a Pack’N Play or anything since it was an impromptu stay but we made her a bed with a laundry basket & a comforter. She slept so good!

Her bed for the night.

The only picture I took at the shower was of these two cuties. Averly & her future husband, Jaxson.

Brette's Bachelorette Party is in a couple weeks. I am super excited about it but it's going to be my first night away from my baby girl. I know she (and I) will be fine, but I just remember how hard it was to leave Riley overnight that first time. Wish me luck when that time comes!

Happy 30th!!!

Thursday was TAG’s 30th Birthday! My mom came & kept the kids while we went out to eat for a quiet meal & then we had cake at the house. We are having a crawfish boil next weekend for TAG & Josh, our brother-in-law's, Birthdays! Stay tuned for that post as well.

Riley couldn't wait to get his piece of cake!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! I am so thankful for you. You are an excellent father to our children & provider for our family in so many ways. I love you so much & hope your Birthday was the best yet!

Accomplishments

We have had so much going on the last couple of days! It has been crazy! I'll probably be posting a lot more the next few days. I've been jotting down a few accomplishments that the kids have made lately. Some big. Some small. All very exciting to me. And since this blog has now become their main baby book, I want to be sure to get it all. So here's some of what's new right now.

Riley can identify the letters B & T. Cute story about the letter T. We were at Bed Bath & Beyond the other day & they have a huge display of the plastic college logo tumblers. He pointed to the UT Vols T & said "T", then pointed to the Mississippi State M logo & said "Dada". It cracked me up! My husband is a huge State fan for anyone that didn't know.

Riley loves to color & draw. The Easter Bunny brought him some coloring books & crayons & he LOVES them! Any time we have a pen & paper out he wants to "daw" (draw). We can't tell for sure if he's going to be left or right handed because he uses both when he draws & eats, but mainly uses his left when he throws a ball. We have also been very impressed with how he holds the crayons. Not in a fist but really how you are supposed to hold it.

He can count to 5...well sorta, with help. :0) It usually goes something like this: one, choo, chee, choo, chee, fo, five five five! He gets so excited when he gets to five.

He knows what a guitar sounds like. He has a toy guitar that he has been playing with a lot lately & the other day a commercial or something randomly came on TV with a guitar playing (but not shown) & when he heard it he started yelling "geetar geetar!"

Averly smiled her 1st real smile at Dada on Monday night (April 19th)!! He was holding her & rubbing her belly & she looked up at him with the biggest, sweetest grin! TAG smiled right back at her with a grin just as big as hers. I don't think I've ever seen him smile that big. Except when our babies were born. Then he kept on talking to her & she just kept on smiling! It was such a sweet moment between TAG & his baby girl. I really am glad that he got the first smile because I feel like he misses so much being at work during the day. I think it may have made up for some of it! ;0)

These aren’t pictures of the actual first smile, but some of the first few.

She's been cooing a lot more lately. Really trying to talk to us & get it out.

I discovered Sunday night that me eating Mexican did not agree with her little belly just yet. She was up with gas about 3 or 4 times that night, which is a lot for her. I really hate that because I love Mexican food! Hopefully her belly will toughen up soon.

She has found her hands & puts them to my face when we are talking. And her big brother’s too.

She is still losing more of all that thick beautiful hair she was born with. We can just barely keep a bow in now. Maybe it will grow back quickly though!

She has always been a good sleeper but last night (April 23rd) she slept for 8 hours straight! Then she just woke up, ate & went back to sleep for almost 3 more hours! Every night since then she has slept anywhere from 6.5 to 8 hour nights! I pray she keeps that up. Especially since Riley had so many sleep issues. It’s nice having a child that sleeps! Ha!

I'm so proud of my sweet babies!

Mama & Dada have a couple accomplishments too. I went to my 6 week check up on April 19th & I have lost 30 pounds. Only 18 more to go to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. And Dada turns 30 years old on April 22nd!!