labor day

good friends.......tasty food (in case you ever wonder how long it takes to cook a 5.5 lb. boston butt, at 225 degrees, in the oven - 9 hours!).....fun times.

he sleeps!

happyhappyjoyjoypraisethelordhallelujah........

this little guy slept all through the night for the first time (aside from a few random nights when he was an infant) last night.

happy happy joy joy.......

there is so much more to say about him ~ like popping 4 new teeth and copying all kinds of fun mouth noises and "da da da da da..." and scooting near the speed of light and pulling up on everything and being the most smiley, happy, endearing baby i know......

but all i can think about right now is he sleeps!!


maybe now i will do a better job of recording the next 9 months of his life.

rain

we love our backyard.
so do mosquitoes.
but today they were hiding.
so we took advantage.

reminiscing

pictures taken in june, romping around after a bath.

new boots

come on cuz', quit worrying about your pants and join the fun!

Thanks for the boots GG. We obviously like them (rain or shine, indoors or out...he rarely takes them off)!

more cousins

a hot, muggy night after dinner at Grandmama's house....

take one~

take seven ~

twelve~

sixteen ~

take nineteen ~

twenty two.

perfectly imperfect. the best kind of perfect ~

seven

Well, he's 8 months old now.....but like I've said, I have some catching up to do.

cutest, most edible neck in the world

cousins

at least, a couple of attempts at four lil' cousins in one shot.....

fireferks

recapping July fourth...

We kept him up well past his bedtime so that he could watch the "fireferks". He was so excited ~ until our little small town show began.

"nooooo fireferks....."

fun times in tight quarters

Bryan's sister, husband, and 2 boys (the same ages as ours) stayed with his parents the same time we did. We wondered if we would all still like each other at the end of the week ~ tight quarters, yes. babies on sleep strike, oh yes. so much fun that we didn't want to leave and therefore kept prolonging our stay day by day for a week... (apologetically to them all?) yes!

so here we are~

back in the South.

if you remember in my post about moving, i was a little overwhelmed about moving in 4 weeks. little did i know at the time that i would actually be packing to leave the very next day.

my uncle passed away the day after i wrote, and as i was planning for the boys and i to go to the funeral we decided that it may be best for us to just stay. it usually takes 2 days for me to just get all of us packed for a short trip. but somehow (it's all a bit of a blur now...though i think i have some friends to thank) we managed to do that plus pack the entire house in the same amount of time.

fast forward a month (past a cancelled flight, a circus of a flight - with connections - with the boys and i, 2 weeks with bryan's family, 2 weeks with my family).....we are finally settling into our home.

and it is wonderful.

there is so much that I want to post about both our time in NY and here.....

i think i will just start throwing pictures up. prepare for an onslaught.

maybe.

hanging real pictures on my real walls may take precedence. we shall see.

the only promise i can make is that they will be much, much nicer than this one~

one in five hundred

looking forward to posting all the happenings of the last, oh, seventeen days.

but until then, just a favorite of the four hundred and ninety six pictures that i took yesterday~

the secret's out!

We are moving back South!

Though we had planned to stay longer, Bryan has accomplished what he came here to do (learn a specific technology) quicker than expected. Way to go babe!

Though I'm a little overwhelmed about getting us packed in the next 4 weeks (yikes....I only now did the math...), I can't wait to be closer to friends and babysitters. excuse me, grandparents.

It's been no secret that it's been a difficult and 'stretching' year, but hopefully no secret that it's been fun and exciting (among a few other nice adjectives that I don't have the time to think of right now) as well.

Want to come pack a box or two?

mr. bright eyes

I've always been a pretty

plain jane kinda girl.

But I've been having an identity crisis lately.

I've been inspired by mr. bright eyes.

He's a pretty colorful kinda guy.

I sat down to write about all the happenings around here, but I got overwhelmed with all there is and didn't know where to start! So, I decided to throw a little color up and hope it inspires me. tomorrow.

see Sam sit

sleepy Sam sitting~

silly Sam (not) sitting~

"da-da"

I fell really fast for Bryan when we were dating, so there wasn't much time to think about what kind of father he would be.

though I had a pretty good idea that he would be an amazing one.

turns out I was right. really right.

Dad

My dad has always written me notes. Sometimes they are long and wordy, sometimes short and sweet. I still have all of them in a box. They pushed out all the old boyfriend memorabilia, thankfully.

I don't think it was very fun parenting me around ages, oh...12 to 15. I was an emotional know-it-all with a 'smart' mouth. I would stomp away to my room in disagreement with my parents often. But before I even had time to pop in a mixed tape I would see my dad's cursive on my bed. The words usually said something like "you know, I've never done this parenting thing before.......so sometimes maybe I'm not even making the best decision........but I'm your father and I love you.......so this is why......and I pray the Lord works through it.....and he will because He says.....".

It would pierce my heart every time.

Thanks for writing, Dad.

You make me want to write too.