Spring Break 2104 - Part II

We chose to eat in at the condo each night to avoid having to take the boys to a busy spring break, packed restaurant. Quin bought us steaks for Saturday night, so we had a nice adult dinner after the boys went to bed. Sunday night, Kat made an amazing baked ziti that we devoured. I think we were all asleep by 10:30 both nights. Thankfully William and Styles slept great! I was a little worried about William sleeping in the pack n play because he can easily crawl out now, but he was so tired that he crashed both nights and for his naps. 

There's nothing sweeter than a baby right out of the tub in their PJ's. He insisted on sitting in his ugly booster seat. That's one battle I chose not to fight!

 He spotted a boat or helicopter! He's fascinated by anything loud with a motor. 

 Silly boys playing bright and early Sunday morning.

 More porch pics in the booster seat ;)

 A very fake, forced smile!

 Silly boys back at the door stopper. It's the small things in life!

 Grant and Robert conveniently escaped on the boat everyday during the boy's naps, like disappeared for over 2 hours!

 The weather was perfect!

Spring Break 2014 - Part I

The Mooty family joined us at the beach for one "wild and crazy" spring break this year - but our definition of "wild and crazy" has certainly taken on a new meaning! It was hands down the most fun spring break I can remember, just a different sort of fun :) Throughout the entire weekend, I kept thinking about the college days when we'd say, "It'll be so much fun to take family trips one day when we're married with kids." Fast forward 8 years and here we are...sleeping in a 3 bedroom condo at the beach with two little boys 6 months apart.  We arrived at the condo early Friday evening while it was pouring down rain and we got settled-in before the Mooty's came Saturday morning, when it miraculously stopped raining for the rest of the weekend- PERFECT TIMING!

 Saturday morning, Quin (William's great, great uncle) came over bright and early for a visit. I was SO glad Quin was at the beach this weekend because we got to spend a lot of time with him! 

 William took to him immediately and climbed up in his lap. He kept asking "Where'd Quin go?" the rest of the weekend!

This will be a photo to treasure!

My sweet boy has so many serious facial expressions. 

 These two little boys kept us BUSY and on our toes the entire weekend, especially as they toddled around the dock near the water!!!

On Saturday afternoon after the boy's naps (they conveniently nap at the same time), Quin arranged for us to go on a cruise on the Never Rest. William's first boat ride on the Never Rest was 2 summers ago when he was just a couple of months old, and this happened to be Styles' first boat ride as well. I'd say it makes for a pretty cool "first" experience :)

 It's pretty much impossible to get a good picture of a 17 month old and 23 month old!!!

 Juice break!

Rare Mommy/William pic thanks to Kat.

 I loved watching William take it all in with sheer awe. He's learning so much at this age, constantly soaking everything up!

 Checking out a helicopter in the distance.

 William and Styles loved watching this helicopter training crew all weekend! They both got very excited every time it'd come by the house or we'd spot it on the boat.

To be continued...

23 Months Old

William will be T-W-O in just one month! This has been such a fun year watching our sweet boy learn and grow into a little toddler with a mind of his own ;) His vocabulary has grown pretty drastically over the past month. He tries to repeat everything we say. His new favorite things to say are "Hi Mommy. Hi Daddy" followed by "Bye Mommy. Bye Daddy." He says those phrases over and over and over. If you ask him what his favorite color is he'll tell you "puh-pul" (purple) and every now and then he'll say pink (yikes!!!). His Daddy does not approve and is really hoping this changes ;) We are working on "I love you" now. When I tell him, "I love you William," he usually responds "Bye."

He's still a picky eater for the most part. Thank goodness he still LOVES the squeeze pouch baby food purees. He will eat pretty much any fruit/veggie from a squeeze pouch. Other foods he likes are turkey/cheese wraps, sweet potatoes, black beans, peanut butter sandwiches, chicken fingers, beef tacos, cheese toast, spaghetti, and any sort of rice. 

He still doesn't seem to have the attention span for TV but he loves playing games on the iPad. Other favorite activities include pushing cars around the house/outside, riding his "bike" (motorized 4 wheeler from Granny), throwing the ball down the street and then chasing it, playing cars/trains, CLIMBING, and making animal noises. 

 We go to story time at the library every Tuesday and we both always look forward to it! William wakes up saying "shake, shake" because one of the songs we sing is called "Shake your bean bag." The whole way to the library he asks me to sing "shake shake." 

He's still obsessed with Elmo (thank goodness because his 2nd birthday is Elmo themed and the invites have already been printed!) Elmo has his own bed in our house and William loves to tuck him before he'll go to bed :) He's been sleeping great. He goes down every night between 7-7:30 and wakes up between 6-6:45, which is a great improvement from when he was waking up at 5-5:30. The time change definitely helped with that!

 Our neighbors invited us to watch their daughter's (who happens to be William's babysitter) horseback riding lesson one Sunday. We had THE best time hanging out at the barn. We tried to get William to sit on a horse with our neighbor, but he freaked out and was too scared. 

 William was obviously in heaven because his favorite little girl, Mae Mae, was there. 

 We've spent a lot of time with the handsome little Wise men. It's been so much fun to watch William and Liam's relationship develop over the past several months. They are a handful together because they're both very active, spirited little guys...haha! William can now say Liam too. 

He moved up to the Toddler 2 class at school and seems to really like it! There's a huge window that looks out to the woods. Apparently the children can see all kinds of wildlife, including deer sometimes, from the window. William calls deer dogs (such a city boy). 

 Grant and I had a fun night out celebrating Virginia and Matt at their engagement party. 

William had his first Cracker Barrel experience and loved their biscuits! He didn't care for any of the veggies. 

 He loves "chock-laahhhte" 

 Riding the train at the zoo with his buddy Liam.

 Feeding Elmo some of his taco. 

We are so ready for more spring weather so we can eat outside on the back deck! 

Hope

This post was written last night (Thurs March 13th). I wavered back and forth on what to title this post. I've felt an intense array of emotions since this morning, some including sadness, grief, anger, thanks, confusion, hope, grace, and love. I stuck with hope because that's what I'm choosing to focus on now. This past week has been one of the most trying weeks of my life. Last Thursday Grant and I happily walked back into the UAB Women and Infants Center to get a sneak peak of our latest blessing from above. I knew I was 8w 4d pregnant because I did an ovulation kit this go around (just for fun) and was confident that our second child would arrive around October 13th 2014. Grant and I confidently walked into the ultrasound room knowing everything would be perfect just like it was with William. I quickly knew something wasn't right when the ultrasound tech said, "Well, it looks like your baby is 5w 6d and it's just too early to see a heartbeat." A wave of panic washed over me and Grant as she continued her measurements and reassured us everything looked good and said we probably just had our dates off. Grant and I both knew this wasn't the case but nervously waited to get my doctor's opinion. My doctor was honest in letting us know this could be a miscarriage but plenty of times everything turned out okay. He said come back in a week for another ultrasound. I knew when we left that day that something wasn't right. Grant was feeling more optimistic.

Fast forward to today. My mom came up yesterday, as a wonderful mom would, to be supportive and a nice distraction until the appointment this morning. She took William to the McWane Center and kept him happy while we went back to the dotor. The whole experience did not start out well. We arrived at 10am for the 10:40 ultrasound. At 12:15 I still hadn't been called back. I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest and I got extremely frustrated and angry at the situation. It turns out there was a computer system glitch and they didn't know I was there. They profusely apologized and at this point that's a blip on the radar. When we finally went back for the ultrasound, I immediately knew the baby hadn't grown by looking at the screen. I told the tech, "This isn't good." She quietly responded, "I'm sorry. I'll get your doctor." I admire those ultrasound techs. I can't imagine having their job! We ended up moving to a room and at this point the reality set in that I was going to lose my baby at 9w 4d. There's no such thing as "just" a miscarriage in the 1st trimester. I never realized that until it was about me. We found out I was pregnant on February 1st and we have loved and prayed for that baby long before that. My doodling turned into writing family baby name combinations and daydreaming turned into wondering whether we would have a girl or another baby boy. There wasn't an hour that went by when I didn't think about the precious baby growing inside me. There's nothing easy about this. Grant and I loved and prayed for this baby before he/she ever existed. It's truly amazing how we've felt God's presence all day long. I don't see how people with no belief in our Lord and Savior get through tough situations like this. We find so much comfort in knowing that's God's grace and love for us is immense, more than our love for each other. I'm blessed with the most amazing husband, child, co-workers, family and friends. I debated whether or not to post about this experience and trial in our life, but ultimately decided this is a place I've always wanted to share the ups and downs. I want my children to read this one day and know how much their Mommy and Daddy rely on God for both the joyous times and difficult times. 

Theses verses have been uplifting to me:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18

For I know the plans I have for you, declares The Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

We are choosing to remain hopeful and positive about expanding our family in the near future! We covet your thoughts and prayers! 

Zoo Day

We took advantage of a gorgeous day and spent the afternoon at the zoo! It's fun to see William's "favorites" at the zoo change each time we go. I'm thinking we need a zoo membership now that he's more interested in going.

 We started with the elephants and he was still trying to wake up from his nap.

 He'd fit right in with the monkeys in their exhibit :)

 The gorilla was sleeping but that didnt' stop William from plopping down and waiting for him to wake up (Yes, that is a push-up popsicle stick he found on the ground!)!

It was a great day!