Recent happenings

I have been a terrible blogger lately, but I've been enjoying spending time with my 2 boys :). Here's a brief summery of what's going on around here:

Jack is beginning potty training. He goes on the potty about once a day. With nursing Brady, really don't have the time and energy to put into full time potty training. He's also talking up a storm!

Brady is doing great! He's such a happy baby! He smiles all the time and has recently giggled for us a couple of times. He's sleeping about 10 hours straight at night, which is great for all of us :) he has stopped rolling over....his head got too heavy :)

Luke is doing great at his new job! He's been trusted with a lot there early on. I'm so proud of him...he's such a hard worker and man of integrity. Luke's also been enjoying the warm weather by playing golf and working outside. If you know Luke, you know he'll do just about anything to spend time outside with his shirt off in the sun!

I (Laura) have been spending most of my time taking care of our 2 precious children. There's nothing more important to me! I'm adjusting well to life in greenville and have been making new friends. Last weekend our dear friends Matt and Jen came to visit us. Jen helped me start getting the house decorated. It's starting to feel a lot more like home with our pictures up on the wall. I'm also excited that garage sale season has begun! Last weekend was my first one out and I picked up a lot of great stuff for under $20! Also, Luke and I took dance lessons last night with our small group from church...SOOOO much fun!!! I Highly recommend taking lessons with your spouse if you never have!

Whew....that was short and sweet! Hope to be better about updating the blog in the future, but I'm not making any promises!!

Really!? Already???

Today, Brady is 7 weeks old, but he started rolling over about 5 days ago!! I got it on video today to show the world because I feel like people don't believe me when I tell them. I can't believe he's already rolling over! The first time it happened, I didn't see it and I thought it was a fluke. Then he did it multiple times the next day, and the next day, and the next. I guess he does know what he's doing afterall!! I think he just has such a strong neck that he can get his head up high enough to carry the rest of his body on over. I asked his pediatrician when babies start rolling over and he said 4 months at the earliest! We'll have to wait and see if he does everything this early....I sure hope not!!!!

Sentences and Questions

Jack is talking a LOT more these days. Tonight at dinner he said this sentence, "Daddy, Mommy changed my dirty diaper." I can't believe the kid put 6 words together! He's growing up WAAAY to fast!!

Jack is also asking a lot of questions. And by questions, I mean, "Why?" and "Doing?" (meaning, "What are you doing?") I hear these 2 questiong countless times every day! I'm not gonna lie, I'll be glad when this phase is over!!

And here's a picture from today just for fun :) The past several days Jack asks at least once a day to hold Brady. And he likes to hold Brady's hand....so sweet!

Brady is here!

Well, I am officially the world's WORST blogger!! It's been over 2 months since I updated our blog (and have been reminded by a couple of people), and LOTS has happened since then!! We're getting settled into our new house and are loving life in Greenville. But the biggest change in our lives is the arrival of our 2nd son, Brady!! And, I'm 2.5 weeks late on this update!

Brady was born December 26th (about a week and a half before my due date). He weighed in at 8 lbs, 3 oz and 20.5 in long. He's got a full head of dark hair, blue eyes and couldn't be any sweeter. Jack is a very proud big brother and helps out by bouncing Brady in his bouncy seat, reading to Brady, and bringing mommy clean diapers :)

We are loving being a family of 4! Everything about it feels so right and complete. We thank God for a healthy baby boy and a smooth delivery. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and we could not be more grateful! Luke and I were talking last night about how we love Jack so much it seemed impossible to love another child as much as him. But our capacity to love has multiplied and our hearts overflow with love and joy for our 2 children.

Here are a few pictures of our new little guy. I hope to be better about updating our blog in the future, but I'm not making any promises....I'm loving spending time with my 2 boys :)

Jack looking at Brady at the hospital

The boys of the family at the hospital, just after Brady was born
Daddy and son just after his birth

Not the best picture of me, but I had JUST delivered a baby! I just love this bundle of joy to pieces :)

Our first (and only) family picture. Another bad one of me, but again, I had JUST pushed a baby out! Everyone else looks great, though. We really need to take another family picture :) LOVE this one! Jack sure does adore his baby brother :)
The rest are a few pictures that Luke took of Brady a few days after we brought him home.

31 weeks!!

We're now 31 weeks into our second pregnancy! Praise God everything is going great so far! I have had no complications this time around. Hopefully the next 9 or so weeks will be smooth sailing, too!

I'm starting to feel very pregnant and very tired (I never really got my energy back this time around). Most days I feel I need a nap when Jack takes one. But I haven't been taking as many lately since there's so much to do with moving into a new house. It's also getting harder for me to get up from sitting on the ground...which I do a lot of since we have a toddler! I think Jack's starting to take advantage of it a little bit. He has not been listening quite as well as he used to. But maybe it's partly just because he's getting older and getting an opinion of his own :)

Can't wait to meet our sweet Brady boy!

House Updates...

Luke, his dad and brothers have been working SO hard on refinishing our kitchen cabinets. It has required much more time than we thought it would....we didn't realize just how bad the paint job on them was! Since we want to move in this weekend, we decided to hire painters for Jack's room, our bedroom, and the family room/ kitchen. If you know us, we're "do it yourself-ers," so it was a big deal to hire someone else to do this. But, they did a GREAT job and we are really happy we did it! Now we can move in this weekend!! YAY!!

Family Room Before:

Family Room After (amazing the difference paint can make, huh?):

I was nervous that this shade of green might be too dark, but I'm super happy with the way it turned out!!

Fireplace:

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

(You can see how the cabinets are coming along. In this picture, they have one coat of primer. They will be antiqued when it's all said and done. I think it'll look great with the green!)

Jack's Room Before:

(Can't really tell in this picture, but it's a VERY bright blue.)

Jack's Room After:

Chair rail still to be added.

Master Bedroom Before:

Master Bedroom After:

Our Little Artist....

This morning Jack was doodling on a piece of paper. He handed me the pen; I drew a star (the only shape he knows) and asked him what it was. Then I drew a smiley face and asked him what it was....of course, he didn't know. Then, he took the pen back and started drawing little squiggles and asking me what each one of them was. If I didn't answer, he would ask again! This kid keeps me smiling all the time!!

On the News!

It's hubby brag time! Since we've moved to Greenville (about 2.5 months ago), Luke has been intereviewed for the local news TWICE as a "Tech Expert!" I couldn't be more proud of him!! Here are the links to both of the news stories:

Story #1: http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/sep/20/mobile-apps-under-investigation-bogus-claims-ar-2438075/

Story #2: http://www2.wspa.com/news/consumer-watch/2011/oct/18/hackers-user-mobile-apps-steal-account-passwords-ar-2570755/

ROAR!

While walking around Lowes (Luke's favorite store) the other day, Jack decided to try to scare mommy. As you can see in this video, I didn't know that he was "roaring" at me for a little while. This little guy surprises us with his fun and creative personality all the time!

Mark 12:30

Jack "saying" his Bible verse:

He does "mind" like he does when he's singing, "If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it."

The Waiting Game...

We closed on our house in Lynchburg yesterday (Monday)!! The process could not have gone any smoother. The lawyers we worked with said we'll never have another closing be so simple and go so smoothly (she was right!). We are so relieved to that house sold and so excited to get moved into our new house in Greenville! However, when we got back to Greenville Monday night, Luke had an email from our lender that the USDA was requesting more information from us. This is a bit of a bummer since we are supposed to close on our new house here in Greenville Wednesday (tomorrow). It has become clear that we'll definitely have to delay the purchase of our new home :(

According to our realtor, she has not had a closing on time in about 4 months. She said that the USDA is in control these days and they "send requests at the 11th hour every time." After quickly getting all the new information to our lender, he sounded like we MIGHT be able to close on Friday (although he origally said around 10 days). We're keeping our fingers crossed for Friday!!

The biggest delimma with delaying the closing is that we had planned to move in on Sat. the 22nd, leaving this upcoming weekend as the only weekend to do work on the house. So, if we can't close, we can't do work on the house, and we can't move in yet. Which means we'll have to pay for another month or storage :(

Although this news is very disappointing to us, we still remember that God is in control of all things. This delay did not happen "by chance." It is not an accident. And God has purpose in this, even if we can't see what it is. We are trusting Him that in His timing, we'll be able to close on and move into our new home!

But for now, we'll play the waiting game :)

"Thank You!"

Once Jack learned to say "please," we started working with him on saying "thank you" when we give him something. We've probably been working on it for 4 months at least. We always tell him, "say 'thank you,'" and he would repeat us. However, the past few days, he been saying it on his own without our prompting!!! I think he's realized how much we like him saying it, so today he's started saying it just out of the blue: "Thank you, mommy. Mommy, thank you!" for no apparent reason! So sweet :) Of course, when he says "thank you" it sounds more like "tee too," which makes it even cuter! I hope our little boy continues to lean and use good manners!

Our New House!!!

We found a house in Greenville that we love!!!! Well, actually it's in Simpsonville, but it's all the same area :) We put in an offer and it was accepted!! If all goes well with the inspection and the closing of our house in Lynchburg, we'll be the new owners of this home October 12!! Here's some pictures of the house taken from the MLS website.

Front:

Close-up of the front door (which I LOVE!):

View when you walk in the front door:

Dining room (on the left when you walk in):

Living room (on the right when you walk in):Half bath downstairs:
Family room:
(The TV stays. The open door next to the TV will be a playroom; there's no picture of it. Having a room downstairs for the kids to play in was a huge selling point for us! This is open to the Kitchen) Breakfast and Kitchen (doors on left go to pantry and garage) This picture is taken while standing in the living rom(picture above):

Master bedroom (love the chandelier, but we'll need a fan!):

Master bath:

Master bath sinks:

Closet off master bath (LOVE!!!):

Bedroom #2:

Bedroom #3: Bedroom #4:
Guest bath:

Laundry (washer and dryer stay):

Fenced backyard:

IT'S A BOY!!!!

Wednesday we went in for our 20 week sonogram (actually, it ended up being at 22 weeks). It's always so exciting to see our baby moving around and hearing his heartbeat! Let me start by saying this baby seems very active to me. But the only thing I have to compare the movements of this baby to is Jack, who was less active in the womb. During the ultrasound, the technichian kept saying, "be still....quit moving for a minute..." I told her this is how he is every time I lay down. About half way through the ultrasound, she said he had already flipped over at least twice!! So, I guess it's not just me and this really is one active baby boy! Hopefully Brady gets it out of his system now! hahaha! Or maybe it'll just make it easier for him to keep up with Jack!

Here's the profile of our little booger:

And the heartbeat (152 beats per minute):

And I just LOVE the 3D pictures!! I know he'll change a lot between now and when he's born, but Brady's lips look just like Jack's when he was newborn :)

We didn't find out if Jack was a boy or girl until he was born and we kept going back and forth about finding out this time. To find out in the doctor's office seemed kinda anti-climactic, so we decided to take the gender in a sealed envelope to Publix. They colored the icing that held the layers together either pink for a girl or blue for a boy. When we cut into the cake, we saw BLUE!!! This was a very exciting way to find out! And we got to share this experience with Luke's parents, Laura's mom, Uncle Nick, Aunt Liz, Uncle Zack, and Uncle Caleb!

Everyone's predictions before cutting the cake:

Cutting the cake!!!

I'll spare Brady the embarrassment in the future of having the "it's a boy!" sonogram picture posted online. But trust me, it's definitely a boy!!!

Insomnia...ugh!!!

Last night I had the WORST case of insomnia! At first I thought I couldn't go to sleep because I drank a lot of sweet tea a dinner. I don't drink a lot of caffine anymore, so I thought maybe that's what was keeping me up. I finally fell asleep around 1:45am, but woke up again around 3:30am. I laid in bed for a long while trying to go back to sleep, but I was just wide awake. I finally got up at 5:00 am.

Since I was up, I decided to work on a sewing project that I've been needing to do for a LONG time. Our friends, Dom and Bekah, who live in California are expecting their first baby...a boy! Since they live so far away from a lot of their family and friends, Bekah decided to make a bird mobile for their baby, but to have their family and close friends each make one bird to complete the mobile. You can read more about it and see a picture here. SEVERAL months ago I recieved instructions on how to make a bird and swatches of fabric that will be thier nursery colors. My instructions were to pick 2 pieces of contrasting fabrics, follow the pattern to make the bird, and return it to them by August 1st (OOPS!!).

I found 2 pieces of fabric in their nursery colors I liked from WalMart for $1.50 each (score!). Since I was wide awake this morning, I decided to get to work on making this bird. I mean, they do need it before the baby makes his big arrival! I am not a seamstress. I have only sewn a few things in my life. And to be honest, I didn't know if this bird would turn out right at all. But I wanted to give it a shot. (I even had to borrow a needle and thread from my mother in law!) I know this is not the best bird in the world and there are lots of blemishes, I'm sure. I actually stuffed it with left over fabric...I mean, c'mon, I definitely don't have any batting laying around my house! So, it turned out a little lumpy. But, this bird was made with much love! Maybe Bekah can put my bird at the top of the mobile so people can't see it real good :)

The top side of the bird:

The bottom side of the bird:

Now let's just hope it doesn't take me as long to ship the bird as it did for me to make it!!!

Birthday Weekend!!

This past Sunday was my 27th birthday. This one was really special because my mom and dad were able to come spend the weekend with us. It was the first time in 10 years I've spent my birthday with them!!

We watched movies, went to a Drive game (local minor league baseball team), walked around downtown, went to church, looked at some model homes, ate dinner downtown, ate hot & ready Krispy Kreme doughnuts (my birthday cake), and just had a really good time!

My parents have been to Greenville before, but have never visited Greenville. I think they were pretty impressed with the city :)

Here's a picture of my mom, me, Jack, and Luke's mom Sunday night after my birthday dinner downtown:

Tonight Luke and I went out on a birthday date...just the two of us!! He took me to PF Chang's, which was AMAZING! He also told me that in a couple of weekends, some of my girlfriends from Lynchburg are coming down for a girls weekend and he's taking Jack with him somewhere else (TBD) as part of my birthday present! I couldn't be more excited!!!!

Pure and Faultless Religion

A couple of Sunday's ago, we visited a church where the pastor shared James 1:27:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

When the pastor spoke about this verse, he focused on the part about looking after orphans. I was thinking about that sermon this afternoon and the part about looking after widows hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that we have a sweet 86 year old widowed lady, Mrs. Jean, living in the condo right next to ours and although I speak with her every few days, I have not done a good job of "looking after her." Mrs. Jean loves our son Jack to pieces. She only has one daughter living in town that visits her once a week at the most. I thought about how lonely she must be and it made me want to cry. I felt so convicted that to look after widows is what God loves and wants from us, and I have failed to do so with the person I share a front porch with. Never once have I invited Mrs. Jean inside my home. Never once have I invited her over for dinner. I guess there's always some excuse like, "my house is messy" or "I haven't prepared anything great to eat," but I honestly don't think she would care one bit. I think she would enjoy our company more than anything in the world.

So, we hope to have Mrs. Jean over for dinner later this week and hopefully spend more time with her and do a better job of looking out for her in the future.

My challenge to you (and myself): God's Word clearly says that the religion He loves is when we look after orphans and widows (not going to church, not singing in the choir, not soaking up knowledge, etc., etc. - although all good things). What are you doing to look after orphans and widows in your life?

Potty Training???

A couple of weeks ago, Jack started telling me when he pooped. Not every time, but most of the time. So, I decided that even though Jack is still really young (20 months), we'd give potty training a shot. I haven't pushed it very much or even been really consistent with it because we've been out and about most mornings. I though he didn't really seem to interested in it or know how to control his bladder, so I was gonna call it quits. I figured he's too young for it anyhow. After his nap today, I decided to put him in big boy underwear one last time. He peed all over the den floor. But when I went to change him, he wanted to wear his underwear again instead of a diaper. A little while later, we noticed he was wet again, so I put him in a diaper. Later I went into the bathroom and saw that he had peed on the bathroom floor.....right next to his potty!! Maybe it was coincidence. But maybe I'll give potty training a little more time before calling it quits :)

Baby #2

I feel like our second pregnancy is so different from our first. When I was pregnant with Jack, we took pictures of my belly all the time and I would NEVER forget how many weeks pregnant I was. I guess we're just so busy keeping up with Jack that I forget to post much about Baby #2 on our blog! So, here's a brief update of what's been going on in my belly recently. I'm now 18.5 weeks pregnant. I've been feeling the baby move for a long time now and Luke's been able to feel the movements for a couple of weeks. The past couple of days, the baby must be doing some crazy somersaults or something because we've both been able to SEE my belly move when the baby does!! I haven't had another doctor's appointment yet. We're waiting to get our group and policy numbers with our new insurance. I have my first appointment down here scheduled for a couple of weeks. We should be getting another ultrasound soon, so more pictures to come (yay!)!!

Potty Time!!

I won't go into too much detail or post the picture that I texted to Jack's daddy and grandmas (and his Aunt Liz who didn't appreciate it ;) ). All I'll say is Jack pooped in the potty for the first time Friday and this is one proud mama!! Hopefully we can continue down the potty training road with some success :)