I'm in Love...

...with him:

This is the day after Caleb is born. I've said this before, even with how I look, this is by far my favorite picture.

History

Caleb was our surprise baby, one of the best surprises EVER. Even though Rondell and I were planning on adding to our family soon, God decided that we needed Caleb right then and not a few months later.

My pregnancy was pretty unproductive. I was really sick with Jamison, but not with Caleb. Rondell and I tried to find out twice Caleb's gender and neither time did he want to show us; we should have known then that he was a stubborn kid that had his own agenda. I was scheduled to have a C-section on February 8, 2007 (I had a C-section with Jamison and I opted to just go ahead with another).

On Tuesday, January 30 I was relaxing at home on my second day of maternity leave. I had just spent the day with my mom the day before to get some last-minute things ready. Anyways, so I was relaxing at home trying to get some thank-you cards done and I just didn't feel well. I laid down but didn't think much of it, after all I had been 10 days late with Jamison and had to be induced. Well, after awhile I thought I had bad gas (TMI) because I had this pain in my stomach. I tried to make dinner for Rondell who was on his way home with Jamison after taking her to the doctor for an ear infection. I stood up to get something and thought I peed on myself. I went to the bathroom and realized my water had broken and there was meconium (Caleb had pooped, which explains a lot now because man that kid can poop!).

I told myself I was not going to call Rondell freaking out but that's exactly what I did! He rushed home and I called my friend Lyndsey to see if she could take Jamison for us until my mom was able to get to our house. I was so worried about Caleb because of course I had read all of the articles about meconium.

We got to the hospital and the people were so nice to me. They confirmed that my water had broken and it all got rollin from there. My doctor was not on-call so another doctor in her practice delivered Caleb. Everything went well and she pulled him out and announced that it was a...BOY!! It was such an exciting moment.

After a long stay in recovery (the anesthesia took a while to wear off) we got to our room and I immediately fed Caleb. The kid too almost an entire bottle, we had to stop him.

And now he's two! My experience with Caleb has been so different from that with Jamison because I didn't have Postpartum Depression with Caleb. Such a difference! I was truly able to enjoy him as a baby. **Sometimes it would make me sad that I didn't have that same experience with Jamison, but as much as I love on her now I think I've caught up!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of my man:

Here are some pictures from his day today:

Jamison and Caleb being silly in the laundry basket.

McDonald's for dinner!

Blowing out his two candles (with help from big sister)

I LOVE CAKE!

Mmmm...frosting!

Happy Birthday Caleb....Mommy loves you!

GiveAway

Head on over to Wendy's blog for a cool giveaway. She just opened an etsy shop selling pillows and cute charms. Check her out.

Mission Organization - Hall Closet

So, I'm still on my quest of organizing my entire house. Right now it feels like the house is in chaos. Why is it that while you're trying to do major cleaning, the house gets messier in the process. UGH. Oh well...I know that finished project will be worth it.

Remember when I talked about my baskets and that hopefully they would help me with this:

Well tonight I got a chance to get this shelf together. There were quite a few things that needed to be thrown away. Here's the result:

It looks so much better to me. It would probably be better if the baskets matched, but this is what I have to work with for now. I put all of my band-aids and first-aid stuff in the basket on the left. The one on the right has my nail polish and polish remover. I hope to be able to find things easier now.

Onto the next project...

Wordless Wednesday - View from my front porch

And The Winner Is...

Gramma Lee!

For the "Caleb's Favorite Person Award"

Still Movin...

I thought I'd update my two readers about my movin. Yesterday afternoon and today were very productive days.

I had been getting down on myself because I wasn't movin as much as I wanted/needed to. See, I love...naps. They are my weakness (that, and a nice cold Coke!). On the weekends it's so nice to curl up with the kiddies for a nice, dare I say it...3 hour nap! Yeah, so it's not like I'm taking little cat naps...noooo, I'm wasting an afternoon with my naps. Well that has to end. Not to say I won't nap, but not as often as I have been napping.

OK, so back to more positive things. Yesterday I was off to take Jamison to the dentist and to spend a little time with her. We had plans to go to a friends house that evening as well. I decided to take advantage of the time off and I made a lasagna for tonight's dinner. Look at me thinking ahead! It was so nice to have dinner ready when we got home today, it saved SO much time. I also made a chicken club wrap to take to Tonya and Troy's house.

Then today I continued with my quest to be organized! First I cleaned out the microwave stand. You know, the place where everything gets dumped: recipes, coupons, magazines, etc. I put my cookbooks nicely on the shelf and threw away a bunch of stuff I don't need. This weekend I plan on doing a little project with my Kraft Foods Magazines that I saw over on Carrie's blog. I'll be sure to post pictures to show you how it goes.

After that the kids and I headed upstairs and I was determined to do something with my room. See, my room is a disaster area. I don't know why but there is just way too much stuff in it. So, I got the trash can and went to work. There is still stuff to do and organize (sounds like a trip to the Container Store to me!), but I got a lot accomplished. One of the baskets I bought from Garden Ridge I used for all of my makeup (you know the makeup I never wear but swear I'm going to one day...). I'll have to take a picture of that another day when we finally paint the bathroom.

So, all in all I'm pretty satisfied with my movin.

I'm So Excited

I'm watching.

Are you?

History Has Been Made

President Barack Obama!!!!!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

Please pray for this family. The blog author's name is Kelly and I found her blog when she was asking people to post about their nurserys to give her ideas. She and her husband initially had trouble conceiving and finally got pregnant with a little girl, Harper. She was induced yesterday and when Harper was born there were some serious complications. Please pray for healing of this little girl and strength for her parents. I can't even imagine what she is going through and how much she and her family need God right now.

A Post Without a Title

There is no title because there aren't words to express how thrilled I am that Stephanie will be back on her blog starting tomorrow!

I first talked about Stephanie here for those of you who aren't familiar with her story and I have her tag on my sidebar. After Stephanie's accident I mentioned that her sister kept the world updated on her status and the status of her husband on her blog. This story has really moved me and I've kept them in my prayers. I did not read Stephanie's blog before her accident, but have since looked at her posts, and I'm looking forward to reading her first post tomorrow.

Join me!

A-Tisket, A-Tasket

...look at all my baskets!

I am on a quest to be more organized (have I mentioned that before, **wink). I also have a love for baskets so I thought "how fun to put the two together." Some of these I've had but I got new ones from Garden Ridge when it was having a sale recently.

This little guy is around in the winter. He sits on the table in my entryway.

This is one of my new baskets. It now houses my Bible and some of our Bible studies.

This basket is the one the used to be on top of the fridge and now sits on the counter to hold mail and other little things.

(Sorry for the bad quality picture...maybe this is why I need a new camera, hint, hint...) This is new too and I'm using it to keep extra tissue in our 1/2 bath.

These are more new baskets that need new homes. I'm sure that won't be a problem. Maybe they can help me solve this problem:

Do you like baskets?

Now THAT'S What I Call Productivity

So, as you know my word for the year is MOVE. Last night we really got movin. First Ron and I came home and he cooked dinner. After dinner I decided that it was time to do some rearranging. I have this basket on top of my fridge that hold paper cups, plates, plastic forks, etc. Well, recently I was at Hobby Lobby and saw this cute little bin:


It brings out the green accents that I have and the lady bugs match the ones on my valence. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the bin but I knew I had to have it. Last night I realized that I could use the bin for my paper stuff and use the basket to hold mail and other things that need to be readily (but in a cute way) accessible. That led to the fact that where I wanted to put the basket was where my mixer was and so I asked Rondell to make room in the pot/pans cabinet. Now, mind you we don't have that much cabinet space but I was determined to make this work and I knew that my husband AKA "Tetris" would make it happen.

So, moving the basket from the fridge caused us to clean the top of that, which led to me cleaning the whole outside of the fridge, which led to me cleaning the walls in the kitchen... After that I moved to our 1/2 bath and scrubbed that thoroughly, even using a toothbrush! The faucet looks almost brand new. Then both kids had a bath, Jamison read me a story for her reading record for school, we had Caleb cry-it-out to sleep (yes, we waited SO long for that...) AND we watched two taped shows of Private Practice.



I'm on the move!

Liquid or Powder?

So, I know that I've said that my new favorite thing is decorating blogs. I love them. I get such great ideas for little things (and big things) to do around the house. One thing I love to read about are laundry rooms (because I LOVE to do laundry). There are many posts out there about people redoing their laundry rooms. I don't have one yet, but when I get my dream house it will look something like this (hi Carrie).

So, looking at all of these leads me to a question...liquid or powder? I ask because in a lot of the pictures women have containers with powder detergent, like here (aren't her signs cute), and I'm wondering if it's better than liquid (which is what I use). Just curious.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.

***Edited to now read powDer and not power...thanks Dad!

One Word

OK, so I've decided to join the movement. There are a lot of posts out there about choosing one word that sums up what you'd like to work on throughout the New Year. I've decided on my word:

MOVE

I can easily get caught up in "I'll do it later" or "a little nap won't hurt" or "what show can I watch?" and miss out on what really needs to be done. I need to MOVE...organizing my home, reading and absorbing God's Word, reading to my children and chasing them around the house, exercising, etc. I have the time, so I need to make the time and MOVE and get these things done. If I continue to MOVE then the clothes will get washed faster, the kids' bathroom will be redone, my Bible study will be done thoroughly...things like that.

Now I don't mean that rest is not important because it is...but too much rest, that is my problem. I will still enjoy the occasional Sunday nap (aren't those the best right after church!), but in between I plan to MOVE.

"She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness." Proverbs 31:27

Wordless Wednesday

Young Love is so Sweet!

New Years Eve 2008

For the past 3 years I have gotten together with my friend Lyndsey and her friend Amber (OK, so she's my friend now too). It's nice because we live close and we all have kids so it's pretty low-key and relaxing. Each year we switch houses and this year it was Lyndsey's turn. Sadly, she got food poisoning and it was almost cancelled. Luckily she recovered pretty quickly, poor thing, and we went on with our festivities.

This year Lyndsey's friend Stephanie (who I have also adopted as my friend) and her husband Brian joined us. Stephanie and Brian live out of town but are in town for an extended stay and it was fun to have them with us.

The kids mainly played in the basement and the adults sat upstairs, ate, talked and laughed. It really was a good time and I look forward to next year!

Friends...old and new: Amber, Stephanie and Lyndsey!

Josh (Lyndsey's husband), Rondell (he's mine!) and Brian (Stephanie's husband). Don't they look SO excited about me taking their picture? Group hug...NO!

Caleb got such a kick out of sliding down Lyndsey's stairs!

Happy 2009!

I don't make resolutions, but I'm at a point now where I feel like I need to make a change. So, in 2009 there are some things that I'd like to put into action:

- Be inspired by Christ

- Study the Bible more (more than just reading but really learning and applying)

- Lose weight

- Love my family more and make them the highest (under God) priority

- Organize and maintain my home (you gotta check out the attached blog post!)

- Read more

- Make less To Do lists, and DO more! **Of course, I will still be maintaining my lists because without them I would be lost but I want to cross off more and spend more time doing than writing.

OK, so now it's in writing... I would like to update on this list over time, talking about my studies, weight loss, fun things with family, home organization, etc. I think this will be fun!

What are you going to do?