Being sneaky

One of the songs we've sang to Judah since he was born is "I love you Judah" and it has calmed him down almost instantly. Eli LOVES singing it too but every time I try to record him he gets all shy or crazy. So... on the way home from the park I thought I would try and hide the camera between the seat and the head rest to film Eli. The only problem is that I was driving and couldn't see what I was filming... so you get to hear it but not see it. Hope it doesn't make you have motion sickness ;) It's really really sweet though.

Oh! And the first part Eli is singing "I love you Ebony" who's our dog. precious precious.

I'm pretty sure...

I'm pretty sure I haven't been on in a good while! Yikes! So, here are 9 things that have happened that I can't wait to tell you about!

1. I have a new job! I'm going to be an elementary school counselor!

2. My car has been breaking down continually! As in, I would be driving down the road and it would literally STOP. Turn off. Not move. Completely die... while I was driving! I can't think of many things that are more dangerous than that.

3. Eli and Judah are growing like crazy! Judah is 8 months now and Eli is 2 years and 8 months!

4. I finally got to go on vacation with my family! Wes has been traveling all summer and had a little bit of time off and got to have some family time!

5. My sister graduated from college! SO proud of you Amy!

6. I took my first "bridal" shots for Meredith. It's a weird feeling taking someone else's picture and displaying them for people to see, but it was awesome overall!

7. I went to my 10 year high school reunion!

8. We got to spend some fun time with dear friends and their kids! Thank you Allen for having a FREE spray park!

9. I actually played tennis again. I wasn't terrible. But I defffffffinitely wasn't great! I need to get out there more often.

So... I'm going to try and be back! I missed you guys!

Happy Easter

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " ⁸Then they remembered his words.


 ⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.    Luke 24:1-12

Babies, Tigers, and Hives Oh my!

Well it has been an eventful few weeks. We've gone through strep. We've gone through RSV. We've gone through colds. We've gone through allergies. Lots of little sickly things. I think everyone is on the mend now and hopefully will stay that way!

Judah turned 4 months old yesterday! I cannot believe it. He is almost rolling over from back to front (he's been doing front to back for awhile now) and has THE most adorable little laugh! Today I thought he was going to do a full on push up because he was in the midst of our beloved tummy time and he went into his own version of a yoga seal pose! Arms were straight and everything! He is such a strong baby! And he did not get sick one single time (thank you God!). I'm so in love with him! We go to his 4 month check up this week. I can't wait to go show him off!

My dad is the principal of Commerce High School and their mascot is a tiger. They had some sort of gathering and he got all painted up to show off his over the top school spirit. Eli was a little taken back at first but then he just wanted to stare at "tiger" Gramps! When dad washed his face off Eli kept saying, "where'd tiger go?" haha... so cute!

Now these dang hives are making me CRAZY! Eli had them the first time when he was around a year old I think and has had them a couple of times since then, but they have never been to this extreme. It's been like 8 straight days now. The first 5 were at least this bad but after we saw the allergist and he's been on 3 doses of different antihistamines every day they are no where near this extent.

We have no idea what the cause is and we may never know. They don't hurt him or itch so that is definitely a praise! But I can't stand them. Hopefully we can get this batch under control and figure out a way to keep them gone!

Forced Family Time

**Hey friends! Last night after my husband's band played their gig in Houston, they went to eat. While they were eating their van was broken into and all of their bags were stolen (laptops, ipods, some wallets, you know... all that personal information!!) Anyways, please just say a little prayer that they get what is necessary to replace what was lost! Thanks guys!**

When we were growing up we ate pretty much all of our dinners together at home. Mom would cook and then Josh and I would take turns cleaning the kitchen... and I don't think we did that great of a job now that I think back on it. Well when we got into junior high and high school, we spent more and more time away from home doing whatever so when we were home, my parents established what I like to refer to as "forced family time."

I remember being in my room, minding my own business, Josh would be in his room, minding his own business, and I'm not sure where Amy was... but anyway, we would be in our various corners of the house and it would get close to around 7:00 I would hear my dad yell, "AMANDA! JOSH! Get in here!" And then after that happened a couple of times, Josh and I would drag ourselves out of our rooms and go sit in the living room.

That's it.

We would have to go sit in the living room with my parents and watch them watch TV. I would get so annoyed at this. I could not believe that they would make me leave the comforts of my favorite room and come literally SIT in the same room with them just to do nothing! *I would always just pretend that I didn't like whatever they were watching even though I really did, and would just sit with this look of disgust on my face. haha...*

My parents just wanted us to be in the same room as them because they loved us. So forced family time it was.

Well now I'm all grown up (haha) and make Eli and Judah come sit with me all the time and I know that I will continue to do that for many years to come!

So my parents invite Wes and I to dinner at their house with Amy and her boyfriend. They tell us they are cooking out and they have a fun activity planned for us. oh great...what in the world could this possible be?? We are always up for a free meal and hanging out with my folks so we went over there not having any idea what this "activity" was going to be.

We eat a delicious meal, have crazy good dessert, and then it's time for the activity to commence. My dad tells us that it is a game and that he is the MC. I roll my eyes thinking, oh no... this game will last forever!! haha... We make our way into the living room and my parents read us the rules. It's a game about how much we know about our family. You know, like random facts, where people were born, who they worked for, favorite colors, stuff like that. I LOVE this whole idea and I am beyond excited! It's Wes and I against Amy and Eric and we get $1 for every correct answer. Brilliant!

Amy and Eric get $4 to start off with because Eric hasn't been around that long and so they thought it wasn't fair to them. whatever :)

The game goes on, it is so much fun, dad asks really good questions and then some ridiculous questions and then it ends with my team with $10 and Amy's with $13 (let's not forget their $4 head start).

After that there is a part 2. A treasure hunt with 5 clues leading up to a prize. If any of you know my father, who wrote the clues, he is kind of long winded... especially in writing. So clue after clue was prefaced with about 3 sentences of encouragement and big words before you actually made it to the actual clue.

It was an absolute blast and ended with a gift card to the movies (YES!) and my parents house being slightly destroyed due to my sister's aggressiveness. :)

I loved every minute of it. It was the best "forced family time" yet. We missed you Josh!

Getting defensive and getting Judah to sleep

My mom would always quickly rush to my brother's defense in almost every situation that she felt he was being criticized by me. In my immaturity I would usually throw out some comment like "he's your favorite" or "Josh doesn't ever do anything wrong" or ridiculous things like that. To be honest, I was mostly kidding, but there were a few hidden truths to those statements in my mind. Probably because I did plenty of things wrong and felt like I was in trouble more than not! oops! Sorry mom and dad! :)

But I'm entering into this whole new world of having 2 kids and it is bringing out all of these things in me that I didn't even know existed. Judah and Eli are completely different. Eli didn't mind his car seat, Judah hates it. Eli would fall asleep eating, Judah has to be put to sleep *more on that in a minute*. Eli had to have his diaper changed every 5 seconds it seemed like, Judah can handle much longer than that. Eli hated to be on his tummy, Judah almost exclusively sleeps on his. Eli was hardly ever burped and never spit up, Judah spits up all the time. The list truly can go on and on, but the biggest difference is that Eli did not cry much as a baby and Judah does.

Please hear me. Judah cries when he is tired, hungry, or needs to burp (which is frequent), but I know several friends who had babies that their crying almost seemed nonstop. I'm not trying to put myself in their category because I know their stress level in that area was much higher than mine and I don't want to make it seem like Judah never stops crying, but compared to Eli, he does cry much more.

With that said, Judah is darling. I'm getting all teary eyed just thinking about this. He is so strong, so advanced in so many areas, and completely beautiful. Babies cry. Judah cries. And when people make comments about Judah crying I get all defensive and it makes me want to scratch their eyes out. That's not a healthy response (the scratch their eyes out thing anyway) but I totally do get so defensive when it's brought up, especially in comparison to Eli. No one is meaning any harm by it. No one is judging my baby. They are just merely making an out loud observation. I get that. I do...on the surface anyway. But within me, I just want to scream that there is nothing wrong with him and babies cry!

That whole Mama Bear thing is for real y'all! And I need to reign that in a bit! :) So, just as some therapy for me, I am admitting that yes Judah does cry more than Eli did. Yes, it can be more stressful to be around than Eli was at this age. And knowing that I have no control over what people say (and being very aware that they are not meaning it in any kind of hurtful way) I just need to have better control over the reaction it brings out in me.

So I get it mom. Thanks for defending Josh when I was being a bratty sister. He deserves it. :)

As I mentioned earlier, Judah has to be put to sleep. We have a variety of things we go through and one of them will eventually work.

We do the walk about: which is just holding him in a cradle position and walk kind of fast all over the house never making eye contact with him. haha...

We do the rocking chair: which is trying every position possible while rocking and trying to get him from squirming out of our arms.

We do the basketball drills: which is putting him on his tummy and patting his back hundreds of times (literally) until he is finally dead asleep

And on many occasions we do all 3! Most of the time we just have to do one for a couple of minutes and then he is out. Easy breezy. Most of the time...

Well yesterday afternoon he was being all squirmy and rubbing his eyes and he was completely exhausted. I tried my gamete of tricks and nothing was working. I really didn't know what to do. My giant 3 month old is getting super heavy and I couldn't walk him around anymore, rocking wasn't working, bouncing him wasn't working so I just let him lay in his crib and cry. Gasp!

I walked out of the room, opened my computer, went to Dr. Sears' website (that I adore!)  , checked the clock, and started reading all of their articles on sleeping. I told myself I was going to let him cry for 5 minutes. My heart was racing. I hated every single second of those 5 minutes. I read the articles, calmed down, told myself he was fine, and let the 5 minutes pass.

After time was up, I went back in there, picked up my angel with a renewed sense of determination, walked around with him for like 1 minute and he was out. Whew!

I have no judgement towards parents that let their babies "cry it out" in bed. I just am not one of them. I think it might do more damage to my psyche than the baby's but I still just can't do it. Those 5 minutes were good for me to see that Judah was still fine (although upset) and that sometimes I might just need to refresh with a nice little article sometimes and then go back to parenting my baby to sleep.

And... I am almost positive he's teething. He chews on everything nonstop. He's drooling more than he is spitting up (is that even possible??) and I can see a little white speck at the front of his bottom gum. Why is he trying to grow up so fast? :)



I asked, and continue to ask, God to refine me. To teach me discipline. To give me patience. To learn to love like He does. I feel like He uses many moments with me trying to get Judah to sleep to do those things. I love that. I love that instead of using something else, I am being refined by such a sweet and fantastically wonderful baby.

And on a completely random note, does anyone know what plant this is? Sorry it's kind of fuzzy but I was driving by this house and took a picture. I felt like a huge creeper so I didn't get out of the car to take the pic but I really would love to know what this is. :)

People get ready

Well, it's been over a month since I was last on here! Y'all, when Wes is gone it is so hard for me to get stuff done! And he's been gone a lot!

Ok, so people get ready. Here we go:

Today we're just trying out potty training with Eli. He's pretty much obsessed with potties but we've never really started anything with him about it. He is all about sitting on the potty (as of this posting he has been sitting there for about 18 minutes, and my son does not sit for anything!) and so we're making the most of it and seeing what happens!

I am fine with potty humor and stuff but constantly talking about pee pee and poo poo is already getting old. Uh oh. Today is only day 1! I've heard a million suggestions on how to make this all go down but honestly, who the heck knows! What works for one might not work for another! (hmm... he just got up and moved to Judah's bumbo seat... sigh...)

The most appealing advice to me was to just relax, not pressure him, and just take it as it comes. I can do that. It's Spring Break so we thought we might as well give it a shot!

Judah turned 3 months old this month! He is well into his 3-6 month clothes and I highly doubt he'll make it to 6 months in those clothes! He is so big y'all! I can't wait for his 4 month check up to see how much he has grown because it really seems like a lot!

We did experience the worst night of our entire lives last Wednesday. I don't think it was until Sunday evening that Wes and I finally got over it. I had been taking a nap with Judah on my bed. I woke up, left him in there (in the middle of course on his blanket) and went to play with Wes and Eli in the living room.

Every 10 minutes or so one of us goes and checks on Judah. Well we had heard him start to wake up and start talking a little bit so I got up to go get him. I walked in the door, the lights were off, it was dark, and then all of a sudden I hear the worst cry from Judah I had ever heard. I run over to the bed and he isn't there. He is laying on the floor screaming. Right as I walked in, Judah fell off of our very tall bed (at least 3 feet) and landed on our hard floor. I screamed and picked him up as fast as I could. Wes heard me, we flipped on the light, and saw 2 huge bumps on my sweet baby's head. One in front. One in back. He had hit his head twice. Sickening.

Wes called 911 and within a matter of minutes the ambulance was at our house and we were loading our 3 month old into his car seat and strapping him into the ambulance to go to the ER.

All the signs were good. He cried immediately. The bumps were hard and they were sticking out instead of not crying and his head being sunken in. They put ice on his head on the way to the hospital and he had calmed down. When we arrived, the bumps were almost completely gone and Judah was acting totally normal. The ER doctor said that he wouldn't have thought anything was wrong with him if we had just walked in from the street.

We learned many lessons that night. The most important being that our 3 month old rolls over. We put him on his tummy to sleep (it's pretty much the only way he will sleep) and he can scoot and roll now. Wes and I put him on him tummy and within a minute Judah flipped himself over.

I know God spared my eyes from actually seeing Judah fall from our bed. I don't think you can forget images like that and seeing him on the floor was bad enough. He is totally fine. Thank God he will not have to ever remember that, and Wes and I had upset stomachs for several days after that incident. Every once in awhile we would just look at him and start crying. Worst night ever.

Rachel got to come to town for a concert she was in and so we got to spend some time with her and Ellie! It was so much fun! It is kind of crazy how alike our kids are! From the way they say things, to their mannerisms, and their little attitudes they are so similar! We loved it!

And I also got to meet Ashley!! She came to town to visit her bestie and we all met up for breakfast! She is just as fantastic in person as she is on her blog and I loved it! She took a picture so when I get it it will be posted!

In other news, I'm still slowly losing weight, which is awesome. I'm getting back on my Chalean Extreme bandwagon this week since I fell off when Wes left. Look Like Heaven on Seven One Seven is still going!

Jello, Why I hate oatmeal, and Why I love chocolate milk

I have a lot of different associations with jello. Good... and very very bad.

After having both of my c-sections, my mid section is a lot like jello. very very bad

After doing my Chalean Extreme workouts (which by the way, I have been doing consistently and giving them my all! ...except for quitting 7 minutes early on my workout today. ugh...), anyways, after doing those workouts, my arms and legs feel like jello. Good!

When I was in like the fourth or fifth grade, my family and I were taking a trip. We always drove, so we spent many quality hours in the car. I'm pretty sure we ate at Luby's (which I still love... don't judge) and my sister ate some green jello. We get back in the car to continue our journey and as she did many more times, Amy got car sick. My always prepared mother had some clear big plastic bags that she keeps in her purse so we can all share popcorn at the movies and gave it to Amy to, well, you know, throw up in. I just remember looking over to see a bag full of thrown up green jello slime. very very bad

Because I'm no longer eating my emotions and not constantly baking cookies or brownies anymore, I wanted to tame my sweet tooth with something that wasn't too over the top. So Wes and I not buy those Jello Mousse Temptations  which are delicious! I can't lie and say that are filling, but they do at least make me feel like I can have something sweet. Good!


I've never had oatmeal before until I got married. Wes eats it almsot every morning and finally convinced me to try it. I had Apples and Cinnamon Quaker Oatmeal and actually, it was really good! We pretty much take care of our own bowls by rinsing them out and putting them in the sink (or dishwasher... sometimes...). Well Eli has really wanted to start doing basically everything that Wes does, which as mentioned, includes eating oatmeal! So we make it just like we make ours, piping hot! I mix it up with just a little water so he doesn't drip it all over the place. Well the problem with Eli eating oatmeal is that he takes his sweet time, telling us how good every bite is, and it just gets colder and colder, and stickier and stickier. By the time he is finished eating, the oatmeal has basically glued itself to the bowl... which is why I hate oatmeal. I literally am chipping it away with a butter knife, cursing in my head how much I ate oatmeal. I would just fill up the bowl with water and let it soak off, but seeing bowls filled with water and floating particles in the sink literally makes my stomach churn.

But. I LOVE chocolate milk. I probably drink at least 3 full classes of chocolate milk every single day. Do you? Don't you love it?? I can't get enough of it. mmmm... I think I need to make some right now. I love chocolate milk because it's so good! And that's about it :)

Last night we went and picked up Meredith's wedding dress! She looks FANTASTIC in this dress! It is beyond beautiful by itself and when she puts it on it is radiant! I can't wait for the wedding day! Love you Mere!

Oh and did I mention that just the other day my sister put her foot right through my parents' ceiling?

Meanwhile...

I got a call from my friend Jennifer who had some devastating news. We used to work with Coach R.  Coach R and his wife have an older child and then they had twins in December, a boy and a girl. His wife went back to work and their children went off to the babysitter's house. I don't know all of the details, only the horrific ending. The baby girl twin died somehow. I can't believe it. I can't imagine it. Please be praying for this family.

meanwhile...

There were many families from all over with their applications in to Haiti for adopting Haitian orphans. As many of you may have heard on the news I'm sure, those families that were in the later stages of the adoption process were given the green light to finalize the adoptions and get their sweet children and bring them home. Many many children were allowed to leave Haiti and run into the loving arms of their incredible new families. Well, much of that has changed now thanks to UNICEF. As the Howerton family so clearly tells it, UNICEF has added ridiculous steps to slow the process down and many many more children are suffering because of UNICEF's outrageous ways of making themselves first and these children a very distant second. The Livesay's who are in Haiti, have given some first hand accounts of UNICEF's selfish ways. Please be praying for these children and these families.

meanwhile...

Matt Chandler is still battling stage 3 brain cancer and undergoing daily radiation and chemo. He still gives his weekly updates through videos and here is the latest article written about him that I've seen. God is being read about and talked about all over the world because one man has brain cancer. It's incredible. So many other people battling probably every type of cancer under the sun are being prayed over and loved on because they are making themselves known all because Matt has brain cancer. I have no idea what it's like to be so sick and so strong. God has truly been powerful and loving and people are getting to see that and believe that and feel that through Matt's story, and the stories of so many others. Please be praying for the Chandlers  and the countless people making the daily drives for treatment to beat this disease.

meanwhile...

My husband and the band are driving back from Florida today. They have to drive all day and all night. They are on the road right now so please be praying for their safety. I start back to work tomorrow and so the boys will be home with one extremely exhausted daddy. :)

meanwhile...

After I finished my Master's this past summer I took a nice long semester break to give my brain a rest I guess! Not to mention get everything ready for Judah to be born. But now I've been kind of bored. Not bored like I have nothing to do, because that is almost laughably not the case. But bored like I need to be learning something new. So, I've decided to really learn about photography. I have an awesome camera, an awesome lens (thanks to my brother Josh), and a love for all things artistic. I have no idea where to start, or what to do, but that's what I'm going to do.

One of Wes' new year's resolutions was to love discipline, and 2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, or love, and of self-discipline."

I have to admit that I'm one of those people who backs out of or gives up on things when I think that I can't do them. It's so silly. I act all confident about almost everything I do, but that's because I usually only do what I'm confident in! But that's not why we were created and that's not what we were given. So because of that, I'm going to learn about my camera and figure out this whole photography thing. Any of you amazing photographers out there, feel free to pass on some tips!!

Oh, and I finally gave Ebony a bath. You're welcome.

Love you friends!

Time to get extreme?

So we've started our workout program which is called Chalean Extreme . Ever heard of it? I really thought she may have changed her name to ChaLEAN just for this program, but her real name is Chalene. Only changed the spelling :) It's a 90 day program broken up into 3, 30 day segments. I just completed day 5 of the first 30 days. It's hard. Of course, everything is hard to me considering I literally can't remember the last time I worked out before I got pregnant.

I'm working out. I'm doing everything she tells me to do (with the exception of this crazy push up thing... haven't been able to do that ...yet). I took those completely humiliating "before" pictures and hope to see some sort of improvement every 30 days. I'm really really sore but I refuse to stop. I really want to finish this thing! I'll keep you posted. :)

completely random: I'm watching America's Funniest Home Videos and just saw one of the best proposals ever! It was a bunch of friends out on a boat and the guys went diving. The girls were all on the boat and when the guys came up they said they found a little treasure chest at the bottom of the lake! They brought it up and the girls were freaking out. One guy opened it up next to his girlfriend and she started freaking out because she saw a diamond ring in there not even realizing what was happening! She picked it up and he started to go down on one knee and everyone started screaming! ...now that's a GREAT story!

The final season of LOST comes on soon. ughh... I hate that LOST is ending.

Oh! We found out that the little boy we sponsor in Haiti is ok! There are many sad stories out there, but we were overjoyed to hear that he and his family are safe. If you are interested in sponsoring a child from Haiti, please check out New Missions . Such an incredible gift!

Eli turned 2 on December 18. I just wanted to post his 1 year picture and his 2 year picture. SO sweet :)

One more week

Well, my internet is back! hooray! I love it when Verizon tells me to use their website for troubleshooting and I can't get to the website because my internet was down! (sigh) But, we're back in business!

So on Wednesday, Judah is going to be 8 weeks old. I'm not counting him 2 months old until his official February 2 two month old birthday. I absolutely think things are flying by with Judah so much faster than they did with Eli. I look at him and just can't even believe that he has grown so much! He still only smiles at the fan every once in awhile BUT today I got a big ole smile right at ME! It just melts my heart!

Judah is so good at tummy time. He will stay down there a long time as long as that paci is close by. :) Lately he's been napping on his tummy under my watchful eye. I probably am annoying him beyond belief because I check on him like every 5 minutes!

Eli is of course growing like crazy and we are loving it! He is talking a lot... A LOT!! And I'm pretty amazed every day that he picks up on stuff as fast as he does! We're leading him out of his baby talk words like "yo yo" for "yogurt" and "atch" for "applesauce" and getting him to say the actual words. We kind of hesitate before we ask him to say the full word because it's just one more reminder that he is growing up. He is so precious. :)

So I have one more week here at home before I go back to work. I'm not really letting my mind go there completely yet, but I will say only working 1/2 a day is already making it much better for my mental preparation. I won't be gone too long and I'm looking forward to seeing my students and my coworkers! ...but my heart still breaks thinking of being gone from the boys again. Wait! I'm not going there yet! ...moving on...

I have more to discuss but my oldest child has been talking in his crib after his nap and it's getting into that high pitched squeal voice which means he is beyond ready to get up! ha! I'll be back tomorrow!

Eli's first and last haircut

...kidding... sort of :)

We finally went and had Eli's hair cut by our dear friend Lindey . She did a fantastic job and I am SO glad that we went to her because she's a mom of a two year old too so she understands the extreme emotional turmoil that I was going through! haha...

I think she did a great job but I miss his long hair so much! ...ugh... but without further ado...

He sobbed the entire time, I held strong. I lost it when I got in the car and looked at him. Obviously in the grand scheme of things this isn't that big of a deal, but ugh! He's my baby!

Thank you Lindey! You were so sweet to endure this with us!

Week 2

So today is the beginning of Look Like Heaven on Seven One Seven: Week 2. I lost 2.5 pounds last week (whoo hoo!!) and I am very happy with that. Still a good long way to go, but I am willing to be patient ...as long as it's off by Meredith's wedding! :)

I had my doctor's appointment today to see how I am healing. Everything looks good! I'm released to start exercising and my incision looks great. C-sections... blah. But, at least I'm not sore anymore!

Eli is changing so much. He used to say "atch" for applesauce but now he just plainly says "applesauce." His "r" sounds are coming along and he's even saying "Gramps!" I can't remember if I wrote this before but my dad wanted to be called Gramps. Forever Eli called him "Josh" and then it was "Peach!" (which we have NO idea where that came from) and then it was "Virdie" (since that's his name and what my mom calls him) and then "Dad" (which is what I call him). Actually he still calls him all of those, except Josh.

After the Christmas Eve service Eli came to all of us in the house and shook our hands and said, "How ah you?" haha... so random! gosh I love that kid!

He's also started to want hugs all the time and will say "I uh you mama" I love you too baby!

But a lot of my favorite things about him are still alive and active. He still sings as loud as he can. He dances to every single bit of music he hears no matter how short it is. And he can spot a star, a cow, or a horse from a mile away. Precious precious!

Judah hasn't smiled since the double smile the other day. That's ok though. He can be serious for a little while longer :)

The Biggest Loser comes on tonight! Are you watching???

:) times 2!

aaahhh!! What a great day! Does it matter that I was spit up on 4 times? NO! Does it matter that I still smell like spit up after repeated attempts to find where it's coming from? NO! Why? Because...

Judah smiled today! REAL smiles! Two of them! Melt my heart! He is fantastic... I love seeing all of his little firsts!

On top of that I just saw that 3 of my sweet friends, Caanon , Jamie , and Eryn , are all pregnant with their second babies! I am overjoyed for them and their growing new additions, but it's also really a selfish happiness for me as well. Honestly, sometimes Wes and I feel kind of out of place. We don't have that many friends who are married with kids, much less two of them now. Obviously everyone's life plays out in it's own way, but it really does make me feel a little bit more normal to know that other people out there are doing the same thing. Does that make any sense? Anyways, congratulations girls! We are all so excited for you!

The boys

The boys are great! Judah is already a month old! I definitely think time flies faster with the second one. Wes and I are learning our footing and it's becoming easier and easier to have two! Judah slept for like 6 hours last night and of course that helps!

Eli: just bouncing around doing his thing! He is actively leaving toddlerhood and becoming a preschooler! Every time I look at him I am shocked at how much he has grown. He'll say phrases or do things I didn't even know he knew! It's pretty incredible. And my friend Jennifer was telling me about how she finally realized that we are creating our kids' childhoods- what they will look back on and remember just like we do. That kind of floored me. She's right! I hadn't really thought about it in that way and it actually made me feel really old! Two kids? Two childhoods? what?! But actually it's pretty awesome!

Judah: he is very different than Eli was as a baby! He spits up, he's gassy, he seems so much bigger, and he's looking less and less like me every day! ha! He doesn't mind a wet or dirty diaper for a while whereas Eli (annoyingly) had to be changed that very second a speck of anything hit his diaper! He's learning to use his little voice with some gurgles and goos every once in awhile. I'm still waiting on that first real smile! He loves loves loves to be held and walked around- it's probably his very favorite thing! precious precious! I will say he's fussier than Eli so the walking around thing calms him, but I'm using it as a perfect opportunity to burn some calories! Glass half full! :)

Wes: he's a GREAT dad. He has been busy traveling, working at home, and balancing me, Eli, and Judah. I truly cannot imagine doing any of this without him! I love you babe!

Me: this time around I'm much more present. With Eli I was under that postpartum depression spell for a good while. It was just the regular baby blues with Judah, thank you God!! We've been out and about, I've already lost a little weight, and I feel like I'm doing the best I can at taking care of myself and the boys. It's not near as overwhelming as I thought it might be. But those first 4 weeks were definitely hard. C-sections are super annoying. I could not have done it without constant help from Wes, my sister, and especially my mom. Truly lifesavers!!

My friend Meredith is getting married on July 17, which just happens to also be my anniversary! So, of course she's wanting to drop a few pounds as many brides are, and hello... of course so am I! So, last Tuesday we started the Look Like Heaven on Seven One Seven (7-17) weight loss/lifestyle change plan. Basically we name everything we do together so that's our latest endeavor. We weigh in every Tuesday (because that's the night Biggest Loser is on) and we aren't eating any fried foods (which I accidentally ate chips tonight because I forgot they were fried, and once I realized it, I ate like 10 more! yikes!) or any sweets since that is my biggest downfall. It's worked for us in the past so hopefully it works again!

On top of changing our terrible eating, we'll also be working out. I'll let you know once that starts for me. And I'm taking those humiliating "before" pictures so once I start getting some results I'll post those. We haven't started that part yet. baby steps people :)

Anyway! I've missed this blog. I think about it every single day. Now that I don't feel like my world is swirling around me hopefully I'll be better about posting. Love you guys!