oh how our garden is growing!

Everywhere around me lately, people are talking about the vegetable gardens they have started or are continuing to grow this year. I am quite envious that a) they know how to grow it and b) they have the energy and time to start a garden! I definitely do not have either of those right now. Like many things, I'd like to just snap my fingers, and voila have beautiful tomatoes growing on a vine or stalk or whatever they grow on, appear in my backyard!

However, though I'm not growing anything in my backyard, as many of you know, I am (rather the Lord is) growing something inside of me! And from the looks of it, we may just have our own little veggie afterall!

When we first found out we were pregnant with Baby #3, he or she was the size of  a poppy seed. . .

We told the boys about our little veggie at 8 weeks, when he/she was the size of a kidney bean. . .

We started telling family and a few others around 9 weeks, when he/she was the size of a grape. . .

And now, upon reaching week 18, our little veggie is looking quite like a bell pepper!!!

Oh how our garden is growing!!!

a downtown adventure!

This past weekend was a rainy, windy, thundering mess! However, last weekend, when the boys' Nana and Poppy were in town to celebrate Charlie's birthday, it was quite lovely. So, we headed downtown to enjoy some sights in our city!

We started with breakfast, at the oldest restaurant in our city, once frequented by Elvis. . . a place where Charlie discovered sweet potato pancakes and could NOT stop eating them. . .

and then made our way to the Farmer's Market, via a hula-hoop detour. . .where we engaged in a family hula-hoop contest and I'm pretty sure Nana schooled all of us. . .she has some MAJOR moves. . .

And once at the Farmers Market, we admired the gorgeous tulips (and brought some home), listened to live bluesy music, and enjoyed the opening day festivities with our family and fellow Memphians. . .while Charlie STILL snacked on his sweet potato pancakes. . .

We then waited for the trolley to show up and hopped aboard to take a loop around downtown (great pic Poppy). . .I also managed to catch Poppy with his camera down. . .he's like me--wanting to capture it all. . .our final destination. . .the Rendezvous!!! We devoured some food and didn't eat the rest of the day!

Though Poppy and Nana have been to Memphis many times before, it was such a fun weekend of getting the boys out to explore with their grandparents! We love you, Poppy and Nana!!

And now that he's 2. . .

I thought Charlie deserved an update!

Charlie was born a social butterfly! From the moment he could smile, he searched for people to smile back at him. I remember in the midst of chaos when Luke was still 2 and much of our focus was on him and not Charlie (who was hanging out in the bouncy chair), anytime we would glance at Charlie, he would beam from ear to ear! He's still like that! Though he has reached a semi-shy stage, he loves attention and loves to share "hi's" and "goodbye's" with any and everyone! Charlie is so sweet and is great at using his manners so far! He especially loves attention from his brother. AND, Charlie gets the attention from Luke, often when Charlie is doing something that he shouldn't do, which of course, encourages him to keep on doing it! Oh my, and we are having a third???

Sweet, melt our heart Charlie is definitely our most challenging so far! He is 100% boy. I never really understood that phrase when Luke was younger. I didn't really know what it meant, because Luke was so different than Charlie. And in case you don't know what 100% boy means, it's this. . .doesn't sit still, attention span not the best in the world, loves ALL sports, doesn't even try to get dirty and does, much more physical than verbal, and I could go on. NOW, I know that some of this is just his personality and has nothing to do with being a boy, but I do believe that phrase was made for him!

And now for some "stats"

Most often heard words or phrases: Basketball hoop (he wants to play outside with his hoop 24/7), more milk, please (mo milt, peez), dah-te-dah-te-dah (a game that he and Luke invented--played at Aunt Mary's--we drive by her street multiple times a day on the way to anywhere, and the boys both, at the top of their lungs scream this), Go FedEx (doh, ded ex) and Froggy (rahrey). **Also, now that he's been in speech therapy for 3.5 months, his word count is soaring! He is still somewhat hard to understand and a little behind age, but we couldn't be happier in his progress! His "s", "f", "g" etc. are tough, so his counting to 10 sounds like this. . . "One, ooh, eeh, or, ive, ix, " etc.

Favorite activity: Playing basketball outside---he can dribble like an NBA star!!

Favorite food: Pizza (just like his mommy) and chips (he does eat healthy things I promise, but those are his top 2----he even requests chips for breakfast--but doesn't get them, don't worry)

Favorite songs: "Who Did" (as in Who Did Swallow Jo-Jo-Jonah?), Holy, Holy, Holy, "Bring Back" (as in Bring Back My Bonnie to Me), and much more.

Favorite show: Diego (because that's all Luke watches)

Nicknames: Chuckles, Char-Char, Chuckalicious, Littlebit, Muffin

Height/Weight: At his 2 yr. check up he weighed 25.5 lbs, which put him in the 25th%; he was 33 inches long, which puts him in the 10-25th%, so he's still our "littlebit"

Sleeping notes: he's still sleeping with a paci at nap/night, and of course with Froggy and many other lovies. He's still in his crib, though a big boy bed and room is in the works for the summer to be ready for his new brother or sister.

I could go on and on and should probably list more for journaling purposes, but at least I have this! We love our little 2 year old!

Happy 2nd Birthday Charlie!

Happy Birthday Sweet Charlie!

Last week our little Chuckles turned 2!! He began life being called "Baby Charlie" and spent the last year of his life being called "Toddler Charlie" by his big brother and appears now to have graduated to simply Charlie! Though Charlie will always be our baby, he's growing up and last week called for a celebration in his honor!

We have a tradition of singing Happy Birthday first thing in the morning to the birthday person in our house. Charlie was all smiles and begged to have us sing again! We did, of course, several times, and he joined in the singing too! He shortens "Happy Birthday" to "Happy Day!" Balloons are on his favorites list right now, so he was thrilled to have them tied to his chair at breakfast. And so his day began. . .

After running errands with Mommy to get ready for his party, enjoying pizza (another favorite) for lunch, and taking a nap, he was ready to P-A-R-T-Y!! This year we had asked a few friends to join us for a party at a local bookstore in town! Our favorite story lady, Miss Marjorie, helped us celebrate by leading story time for Charlie and his friends. They sang songs, read Chugga-Chugga-Choo-Choo (another favorite) and made a craft all before serenading Charlie and eating yummy cake! Thank you, special friends, for joining us! We had so much fun!

After partying, we headed back to our house for more celebration! Nana and Poppy (who came all the way from DC to make the event) and Aunt Mary and Kevin came back with us and grilled out burgers and dogs before Charlie began diving into some presents!

We are blessed beyond belief to have Charlie in our lives! He is full of joy and lights everyone up! The Lord has given us such an amazing gift in Charlie and we are forever thankful for him!! We love you, Charlie! Happy 1st Birthday--oh wait, silly Charlie, you were just trying to trick us!! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Most Valuable Pics--Destin weekend!

We're back from a quick little trip to the beach and what a fun time we had!! Waves, sand, sun, sea creatures, yummy food and great quality family time!!! And, there's nothing more exciting to photograph than little ones and God's majestic ocean! What a perfect combo! So, since I took hundreds of shots (literally), I won't bore you with all of them. But, since I must post some of them, here are the Most Valuable Pics of our latest Destin weekend. . .

Best "Chillin' on the Beach" photo

Runner up "Chillin' on the Beach" photo

Best "Having a Blast!" photo 

"Most Adorable Boys Ever" photo

Best "Sportin' a Hat" photo

Best "Jumping for Joy" picture

Best "Mommy-was-here-but-didn't-want-her-front-to-show-because-parts-of-her-are-getting-to-big-to-fit-into-anything-and-she's-not-talking-about-her-preggo-tummy-yet" photo

For those of you  family members who want to see lots more beach pics, I do plan to update my photo blog soon too!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

"The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.’" Matthew 28:5-6a

This week was full of color! We attended several Easter egg hunts and have a giant display of brightly colored eggs in our kitchen! Spring is here and the weather has been beautiful! Even though last year, our azaleas and dogwoods were in full bloom at Easter, we are still seeing signs of green pop out in the trees and grass as well.

And, as we have had lots of fun enjoying the Easter bunny side of the holiday, our family has also been talking and singing about the true reason we celebrate Easter---our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! During our family devotional time, we've been teaching the boys one of my all time favorite hymns, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. Luke has the words down and loves singing along and Charlie chimes in on the Alleluia parts. I think Von Trapp family may have their latest rivals! We also talked to Luke about the colors of Easter. The Bible says in Isaiah 1:18, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are crimson, they shall be like wool." How important it is for all of us to know that though we are sinners, there is nothing the Lord hasn't erased and made pure through His amazing love for us!

Thank you, Lord, for dying for us and saving us from our sins!

We hope you all have a very Joyous Easter!

bunny side of Easter

While enjoying the bunny side of Easter, we have been busy hunting. . .

and finding eggs. . . .

spending time with friends. . .

eating Easter cookies. . .

dyeing eggs for the Easter Bunny. . .

narrowly avoiding BIG messes. . .

and practicing patience for the end result!

arachnophobia

There are few things in life that I just cannot stand. One is throwing up, another is Wal-mart (which makes me want to throw up) and yet another, that produces fear like you've never seen before, is spiders. They creep me out in a MAJOR girly way. I can handle cockroaches, ants, beetles, worms, whatever. I don't like to, but I can. However, spiders are a different story. I will never forget going to see the movie Arachnophobia when I was in high school. Why did I see it? No idea. None. It scared the life out of me. AND, to tell you how sweet my family is, they let some of our neighbor friends into my bedroom to hide fake spiders inside my phone, my drawers, pillow, etc. while I was gone. You think the movie scared me? You should have seen me when I went into my room that night and opened a drawer!! I freaked out! I was then promised that there was only one spider---and I believed them!! So every other spider I found sent me into shock, my heart racing like crazy!
So back to now. Or yesterday. The boys and I were out back playing on their playset. I picked up a bucket and saw this furry, white pouch thingy. I wanted it off the bucket, so I scraped it onto a corner of their playset. As I did this, thousands of tiny spiders came crawling out!

It took everything in me to remain calm for the boys, Luke really. I am a mommy to boys now, so I have to be okay with most everything creepy crawly for their sake. I kept it together, you would have been proud. I told Luke to stand back and wait while I called Chad, who turns out was on the phone. I then called my sister, who told me to spray it with Raid. That did the trick. I actually felt really a little sad knowing that I was killing the thousands of baby spiders and knowing there was a mommy spider out there looking for them. Come on, I'm still a big fan of Charlotte's Web! Anyway, Luke also asked, "Mommy, are the babies dying now?" and, "Will their Mommy and Daddy be sad?" in a sweet, tender tone. I told him they were, and that normally we don't kill spiders that are outside. I also told him, however, that I was his mommy and it was my job to protect Charlie and him. That made him smile and he was proud! He told me that I saved the day! Who would have ever guessed that me saving the day and spiders would have ever come up in the same thought??