Thanksgiving festivites & the rest of our weekend.

Thanksgiving festivities started Tuesday afternoon when I attended lunch with my big boy at his school. I didn't get a lot of pictures but I got a few. Lunch was great and I loved getting to spend that time with him. He always gets so excited to have everyone at his "school."

Loving on my boy ;)

Jace & Poppy

Baba loving on Tuff & Jace

I worked Wednesday until 3 and then we had our nephews over to spend the night. Tuff LOVES his BIG nephews. It is so sweet to see him interact with them. I didn't get any pictures of them because we just hung out around the house but Tuff had fun with them.

Thursday we had plans to go over to my aunt & uncles house for Thanksgiving. We had SO much food! The amount of food we had left over would have fed all of the people who were there probably 3-4 more times. It was crazy! We got some pictures. It was hard getting a good one of all 4 of us. What can I say, it's almost impossible to get a good picture with 2 babies 2 and under. Here's what we came up with...

Take 1

 Take 2

 Take 3

3rd times a charm, right? Besides Gunner not sitting up right.

Got some pics of mom and dad with the grandbabies.

LOVE Gunners smile in this one.

Gunner Bear with Meme & Pa

Gunner Bear with Aunt TT

Mom & Dad w/ grandbabies & Tori

Sweet picture of Harrison w/ Meme & Pa

Aunt Bonnie & Uncle David (our hosts)

Aunt TT with Harrison

"Chiiiizzzz"

I was going to try and get some pics of the boys in their matching shirts but when we got home, Tuff took an extra loooong nap so I just had a photo shoot with sweet Gunner Bear. Here are a few from our "shoot."

Man, I love this kid! ;)

Friday morning we got up and ready to head to the airport. My sister and brother in law brought home a new niece and nephew for ME and 2 new cousins for Tuff & Gunner. We were all SO excited to meet them. It was a rough ride getting down there without being stressed. Let me tell you a little how our morning went.

10:00 am- Left the house. Mom called. She forgot the food she was supposed to take to April and Brandon's so I had to run by her hosue and get it.

10:30 am-Need gas/Need food. Ran through McDonalds drive thru and stopped at store right next to McDonalds. Both boys sleeping at this point, thankfully.

10:45 am-Get to April's. Pick up Tori and head to Publix for balloons for Harrison.

11:10 am-Get to Publix in Smyrna. Tell the lady reason for balloons and that I'm in a hurry because I need to be at the airport in Nashville at 12. She says "No worries, this won't take long." 20 MINUTES, JUST 4 BALLOONS & $9 LATER (I kid you not), I'm walking to the car. At this point I'm frustrated. And stressed. And hoping Gunner is not awake screaming for a bottle when I get back to the car because it's time for him to eat.

11:30 am- Get to car. Gunner screaming for a bottle. Tuff's awake from screaming. Tori is hungry!

11:32 am-Go though McDonalds drive thru again. Tori orders fries and a drink! REALLY? Haha.

11:35 am-FINALLY on interstate with screaming baby and balloons in my rear view mirror.

12:00 pm-Get to airport, Gunner still screaming for a bottle. No idea where I'm going. Finally find where to park. Get out to get Tuff out. Open his door and he immediately starts vomitting all over his self. (Break for a HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Just had to do that thinking back at all the craziness) Gunner still screaming for a bottle. Call mom and tell her we NEED help. Someone has to feed the screaming baby while I clean the pukey 2 year old.

12:05 pm- FINALLY inside the airport and where we need to be. Gunner eating & Tuff reaking of vomit. Wonderful.

12:10-12:15 pm- We meet TWINS!!!!! SO worth going through that chaotic morning.

This was the BEST moment of the whole morning.

Harrison beaming while running into his mommy's arms.

She cried.

 I cried.

 And if I had to guess, I'm sure a few others cried.

The babies are perfect.

And the family is beside their selves.

Group shot

They couldn't be any more perfect if you ask me.

Sweet Sophie

Sweet Greer

Friday night we went to watch Dalty play ball. We were pooped after the game so we all went home and crashed. Saturday morning we got up and headed to Murfreesboro to do a little shopping. I wanted all new stuff for our tree this year. When we got home we busted it to get all of our decor up and done with. By Saturday night, it was all done except Gunner's tree. Thankfully. I will probably finish up Gunner's tree tonight. I took pictures of the trees but not of all decorations. I will try to get those pictures tonight when I get pictures of Gunner's tree.

Our main tree

Lights on

Lights off

And Tuff's tree w/ lights off.

Sunday morning we had pictures of all Jordan's moms grandchildren made and then headed to his families Thanksgiving after. I didn't take one single picture. I was wore out, not thinking and left camera at home.

Last night we did this for the first time....

The verdict, you ask?

He LOVED it (of course) & ate the whole bowl.

We did it at 6 pm and thought it might help him sleep through the night.... We were wrong. He was still up, like clock work, at 12:30 and 4:30 sucking down 5 ounces of milk. Oh me. Not sure if he'll ever sleep though the night.

STILL loving the sweet boy, regardless.

Hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did.

I had MANY things to be thankful & blessed for this year.

The main 2 things being, our 2 beautiful, healthy baby boys!!!!

We're Home!!!!

A few words to my BIG baby! :)

Mommy

Loves you

with all her

<3

& soul!

Gunner Blake- 3 months

Gunner Blake...

You are 3 months old!

You are getting to be such a BIG boy.

You are still eating ALL the time.

Right now, you're still taking 5 ounces of milk every 3-4 hours.

Dr. C suggested we start you on cereal so I plan on starting that over our Thanksgiving break.

You are still wearing some 3-6 month clothing but mostly 6 months.

You are wearing a size 2 diaper.

You are still waking up at 12 am and 4 am for a bottle. It's like clock work with you.

Mommy is TIRED. All the time it seems. But you are worth every minute of lost sleep.

Dr. C said I could start letting you "cry it out" once you turn 4 months old. I'm not looking foward to it but I am looking foward to the sleep I'm going to get shortly after you get used to consoling yourself back to sleep. :)

You are a pretty lazy baby. If we lay you on your stomach, you don't cry or get upset & hold your head up like most babies would... You just lay your head down on the floor, completely content. HA!

You also only push up on your legs when you're mad. You never seem to do it just for your own pleasure.

You are a very attentive baby. You want someone holding you or in your face at all times if you are awake. Mommy and Daddy don't mind holding you but it can get a little frustrating when it comes to trying to get other things done.

You still LOVE a bath. And being naked. Lately you've started throwing a MAD fit when I take you out of the bath time. You usually scream the whole time I'm lotioning/dressing you. Poor bud. I always tell you that you can't stay in the bath tub forever. The water will get cold eventually. :)

You still smile and "talk" ALL the time. You have the sweetest little smile I've ever seen!

And lately it seems like when we talk to you, you try to talk back. I could be crazy but sometimes I think you even try to make the same sounds we make.

You LOVE big brother. You watch him everywhere he goes. And if he's ever close enough, you smile and "talk" to him too.

Big brother loves you too! Lately, he's been wanting to hold you more and get in your face more. He really loves laying on the floor with you and watching cartoons.

We love you so much Gunner-Bear!

Happy 3 months baby boy! :)

Month by Month...

And some comparison with Brother at 3 months old.

They aren't looking to similar to me anymore.

What do ya'll think?

Harry's Thanksgiving Musical

[I promise I'm going to post Gunner's 3 months post SOON. I was planning to do it today but don't have my camera with his pictures on it so it will have to be tomorrow.]

Anyways, since sister and Brandon are in Korea picking up their sweet babies this week, we decided our family needed to get together and go watch Harry in his Thanksgiving musical at church last night. (We think he's missing mommy and daddy a lot. Pray he makes it through the week.) I was SO glad we went. I really enjoyed watching all those sweet children (especially my sweet nephew) sing their hearts out for Jesus! It was beautiful. And both my babies were in AWE. See for yourself.

[Sorry about quality. All pics were taken from my phone]

Pa and boys

Sweet Harrison is the shortest one, in the middle.

And here is a little video we clipped for mommy and daddy to see. Harrison was "breaking it down" the whole time. I love his free spirited personality.

Lastly, April and Brandon got to meet up with the twins today. You can read about it here on her blog but here is a picture of their new family, minus sweet Harrison.

April's face is hilarious.

But how stinkin sweet are these babies? Can't wait to see them Friday!!!

This week, I'm thankful for a SHORT work-week.

As I'm sure everyone else is thankful for the same! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Thankful

As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, I find myself with a heavy heart this year. I've been experiencing a little bit of guilt and regret after everything that happened with my Nana.

Let's go back almost a month... Every year on Halloween we take the kids trick or treating and then stop by the Holiday House (where my Nana lived) so my Nana could see the kids and give them the treats she had prepared for them. This year my mom and I were talking about going before trick or treating but after trying to come up with a decision, we ended up deciding on going after. Trick or treating was fun but got a little overwhelming towards the end since Tuff wanted to be held and daddy was on a tight schedule because of work. So after we got to the car, we loaded up and headed to my MIL's. YES... completely forgetting about my Nana. Just a few miles from home my cell rang and there displayed on my screen said "NANA calling." I felt horrible. She laughed it off and said it was fine but I still felt bad. THAT was the last time I talked to her before the accident. I also feel like I could have made a little more time for her. Called her more. Visited more. Took the babies to see her more. Invited her over more. And now all I'm left with is "should have's" and "could have's." This really got me thinking about some other family situations we have been faced with lately. Since my Nana's passing, I've wanted to work on mending everything that needs to be mended. I want to try and start over-looking the small things, try to accept the way people are and just LOVE my family & friends regardless of their flaws. God works in mysterious ways. I truly believe that. I also believe he used this situation to open our eyes to REALITY. Reality is that anything can happen at any given moment. Someone we love can be taken away from us in the blink of an eye. And like I said earlier, we are then left with the could have's and should have's.  HE loves us regardless of our flaws and HE expects the same from us.

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are to love one another."

I have a few other reasons for having a heavy heart this morning that I'd like to share with everyone. Shortly after my Nana's memorial, my mom got some news that her dad (my papa) hasn't been feeling well. He has been having severe headaches. Severe enough that it's been making him incapable of doing anything. He went to the DR the beginning of the week and had an MRI scheduled for today. Yesterday morning we got news that he was in so much pain that he had to go to the ER. They have him on pain medicine AND muscle relaxers and none of it seems to be helping. Once in the ER, they told him there was nothing they could do for him until his scheduled MRI today and they sent him home. I'm not sure if we'll get the results today or not but we could use some prayers. Please pray it's just something minor that can be fixed. Also, please pray for my mom. She could really use the prayers. I feel like she is always trying to be Super Daughter, Super Mom, Super Sister, Super Daughter in law, etc. I am proud to have such a caring mother. We can always count on her to be right by anyone in our families side in their time of need. BUT, I know how exhausting that must be for her. And I feel like it's starting to take a toll on her, emotionally. And that tends to make me worry about her. Also remember that her whole family is 9 hours away from us. Which means if anything were to happen, she has to travel that far just to be able to be by their side.

And my heart is heaviest this morning because of a little boy in my home town who just got diagnosed with cancer yesterday afternoon. From my understanding, he had been having headaches and they took him to get it checked out the beginning of this week. They found a brain tumor and once they drained it and sent it for tests, they found out it was cancer. The cancer has also spread to his spine and is in his spinal cord. BLESS this sweet little boy. Can you imagine the hurt and pain his parents must be feeling? I hate to see my children sick with a cold... I can't imagine what it would be like to see them sick with cancer. Where I'm from it's SMALL. I'm not sure of the population but it isn't much. Since I've moved here when I was younger, it was always something people complained about, including myself from time to time. Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everything. That kind of thing. But I can tell you one thing, when something like this happens, everyone comes together. And that's what I love most about our small town. Last night at 9 p.m. they held a prayer vigal for this sweet little boy at the town square. I couldn't make it since I had 2 babies that needed to be in bed and because it was so cold but from what I've heard, the turn out was HUGE. That my friends, is powerful. When it really comes down to it, that is what a small town is all about. Everyone coming together in time of need. Since I couldn't be there, I said my own prayer at 9 p.m. while holding both my sleeping baby boys tight in bed. I know I've asked you all for LOTS of prayers the past few weeks but please remember this little boy and his family in their time of need. They NEED the prayer's. He needs the Lord's healing hands. Please spread the word. Tell your friends, family and even add to your churches prayer lists if you can. His name is Branden Schwartz and he is only 10 years old. I know him and his family would be so appreciative.

After all of the above, I've been feeling extra Thankful & Blessed lately. I'm thankful for a happy, healthy marriage to a wonderful husband & daddy. I'm thankful for 2 beautiful baby boys who are also happy & healthy. I'm thankful for my family & my husband's family. I'm thankful for our jobs that provide us a home, food on the table and clothes on our backs. I'm just thankful. So even though my heart may be a little heavy this year for Thanksgiving, it will be extra FULL of thankfulness too.

Happy Friday, Friends.