Cars birthday bash

Before I became a mom, I vowed that I would absolutely not allow my children to wear character outfits/shoes/socks... I'm more of the type of mom that likes my boys to look like little guys instead of decked out in Spongebob, Elmo, or Thomas paraphernalia. But I must admit when you have little Disney eyes looking at you and asking for something in that super cute voice, I'm a pushover just like the rest of them. Nolan is obsessed with Cars. I mean it might actually be an addiction. He can name makes/models of cars. Anything from an Impala, Dodge Ram, Cobalt, Corolla, Tundra...he knows it. It's like he's a cool party trick these days.

I thought I would be able to talk him into having a pirate or dinosaur party...not so much. He was 100% set on having a Lightning McQueen party. So I let my pride down and let him win this battle. He even has Lightning McQueen underwear. Hey I'm desperate to finalize this potty training deal (we've been in underwear for a week! WOOHOO!). And let me just say that they have EVERYTHING possible out there for the movie Cars. He got flashlights, keyboards, slippers, plates, you name it. So while I must admit that I was really hesitant to have this Cars party, it really was a lot of fun. I guess kids really do know how to have more fun than grown ups. You can see the rest of our pictures from the party if you click on the link for Snapfish.

3 months old

In the same week I'm experiencing my oldest turning 3 years old and my baby turning 3 months old. It's too much for me to keep up with! At Campbell's last appointment, he was 14 lbs. 5 oz. He seems to be working on a heavyweight title. He's been a smiler now for two months but just recently we starting giggling. I wasn't ready for it to be so soon as it was 4 months with Nolan but it's just the best ever. The poor thing is probably sore because I try and make him giggle all the time. I decided that hearing your child laugh is the best sound God ever made. It really does make everything worth it. He's actually ticklish! I see a lot of tickle fights in our future.

Happy Birthday Nolan!

Where has 3 years gone? I remember delivering him like it was yesterday and not believing that they were letting us take a baby home when we had no idea what we were doing. I remember the sleepless nights, back when he would eat any food I put in front of him then 2 years he refused to eat anything but snacks (now we're eating MUCH better), remember crying when I left him at daycare for the first time, getting so excited for all those milestones, and all the rocking and singing and giggling. I guess the fact that it goes by so fast is a testament to how much fun we're having. I even remember wanting to return him for a refund when he was 15 months. All the good outweighs the bad by a landslide. In honor of my big "baby" boy, I wanted to reminisce with a few of my all time favorite videos. Being a parent is the hardest job I've ever had in my life but no one prepared me for how much fun and how much joy I was going to experience too. I've never smiled or laughed so hard in my life as I have these past three years. I just pray that Nolan will know just how insanely crazy I am about him. Thank you God for I am truly blessed.

Church picnic

Our church had a fall picnic on Sunday evening. We had hot dogs and all the fixins. We had a mean game of bocce ball going along with a water balloon toss. Nolan liked it until his balloon popped on him and you would have thought it was the end of the world. Ahhh, the drama. Campbell was a huge hit, especially with all the ladies. I even got to eat without bouncing him on a leg or rocking back and forth. The great thing about church is that when it comes to your kids, it's like going to family gatherings. You have so many people to help. They should totally charge me a babysitting fee every Sunday for all the help they give. There are times when I have no idea where Nolan is in church and sure enough here comes one of the youth group kids holding his hand playing with him corraling him to come back to me. Talk about true sheperds! On Sunday morning, before children's moment, Nolan apparently noticed the cross for the first time at the front of the church. He said, "Is that a cross?" (Sometimes he gets crosses and the letter 't' mixed up). One of his mini little babysitters, Trent, confirmed that it was and he responded, "I want a cross for my bithday party." What 3 year old wants a cross for his birthday party?

Dress Rehearsal for Halloween

It's that time of year that Justin and I just love. There's something about football on TV, the weather FINALLY turning cooler, leaves changing colors and knowing that the holidays are quickly approaching that just warms my heart. I love Halloween. I think I get it from my mother. She always made me these elaborate costumes. I still remember my Rainbow Bright costume to this day and how proud I was to wear it and I probably broke the age limit of trick-or-treating a couple of years. So it's only natural for me to pass this love of dressing up down to my boys. Nolan wants to be a cowboy this year. In years past, I have this adorable costume picked out only for him to absolutely hate it and want to take off the hat after one second of wearing it. So this year in an effort to keep his costume on, we've been having some dress up time with our costume. Here's a sneak peek at some of the costume.

Daddy Mack

C.S., Mack, Neal, Cornelius...the man of many names. But the one we lovingly refer to him as is Daddy Mack. The man was the most independent 93 year old you've ever met. Until a couple of years ago he was mowing his lawn, cleaning his gutters and driving himself all around town. We heard of Daddy Mack's declining health just a few weeks ago. Even then it was hard to believe. He would talk about how he was about to die because his pacemaker was about 10 years expired but that pacemaker just kept on tickin' and year after year good ol' Daddy Mack was there with his unforgettable laugh, hunched shoulders and toothpick sticking out of his mouth.

The grandkids coined "Daddy Mackisms" that he would try so hard to say just right but things would just get a "little" mixed up. He would talk about how his cough had gotten into his "bronicals" and hearing the man say "Sauvignon blanc" was enough to make anyone laugh. But that is what made Daddy Mack - Daddy Mack. Every time Justin would get off the phone with Daddy Mack, I would wait in anticipation to hear if there was another Daddy Mackism we could add to the list.

Justin lived with Daddy Mack in Memphis after college for two years. Daddy Mack makes me look bad as a wife. He had homemade dinners on the table every night. I mean some good ol' home cooking and was a model to him of what it means to care for and take care of family. While it's been so hard that Justin has lost both of his grandfathers in less than a year, I know that both of these men have meant so much to him in his life and I see that love being passed down through the generations. We miss you Daddy Mack!

Daddy Mack with Justin as a baby (left), Nolan as a baby (right)

Daddy Mack doing his favorite hobby-fishing

Daddy Mack and Nolan-July 2006

And I couldn't find a video of Daddy Mack but he's talking in the background in this video of this and you can hear his contagious laugh.

Here he is pickin' on Justin's guitar in November of 2004 when we were in Memphis celebrating his upcoming 90th birthday.

Roly Poly Campbelloni

I know that Nolan has always had the nickname Nolie Polie but just for this short time Campbell has taken the nickname. We've had tummy time and one day I look over and he just rolled over! Don't they say second children do things faster to keep up with their older siblings? While I'm not in a hurry for him to crawl or walk (although when Nolan did I lost 10 lbs so maybe it's not so bad), it is fun experiencing the little milestones with Campbell but at the same time everything is going so fast with him growing up already! Here's a video of him rolling over. He kind of has a crash landing, we're working on "gently" rolling over. Please ignore the baby talk.

Double your pleasure, double your fun!

My best friend Angi and I have been best friends since 5th grade. Actually I didn't like her much in 5th grade, but in 6th grade I decided I liked her. Ever since then, I consider her my best friend to this day. She had twins 11 days before I had Campbell so we've experienced everything together. Her babies were early and stayed in the NICU so we even experienced our first night home with the babies together and called each other crying the next morning. She goes back to work tomorrow and I'm probably going to feel so lonely because we seriously have the longest conversations everyday about motherhood. Somedays we can't stop smiling at all that God has blessed us with and other days we talk about the guilt and hair-pulling moments of motherhood. We got the babies together last week and they "played". It was more eventful than our last playdate where the slept the entire time. We've already prearranged Reese and Campbell's marriage and that Tucker and Campbell will be best buds like their mommies are. Here are some pictures of our fun day...

Best buds
Campbell making the moves on Reese

Hey you better leave my sister alone or I'll let you have it!

Mommy Dearest

Wow, what a weekend! Justin's grandfather, Daddy Mack, is not doing very well at all right now. He's almost 94 years old and up until now has been in amazing health. He's decline has been rapid and they've called in hospice. Understandably, Justin wanted to go spend time with him.

I realize especially now just how amazing my husband is when I'm doing the single parent thing this weekend. I've had some moments that I am not very proud of. I'm afraid to say when you mix sleep deprivation, a newborn, a toddler and no break from any of it, it's a recipe for disaster. I wish that I could be one of those moms who make it look so easy and never complain but I'm just not being truthful with myself if I said it was. I somehow feel inadequate that I can't handle it all. How in the world do single parents do it? I wonder how in the world my mother didn't throw the three of us into the dumpster doing it by herself before my dad adopted me.

Don't misunderstand, I absolutely love my children and you would literally have to send me to a mental hospital if something happened to them. I just keep reminding myself how overwhelmed I felt when Nolan was born and while we were in the midst of it, it was never ending but looking back it was such a short phase. Now while the newborn part is much easier the second time around, it's managing a toddler and a newborn with two totally different needs that is exhausting.

Thankfully with family and friends in town, I've had help. My sister came over yesterday and I'm not sure if it was the odor I was giving off or the amount of grease dripping from my hair but she offered to take the kids just so I could go shower. What an amazing 15 minutes that was.

Nolan always acts like it's Christmas day when daddy comes home everyday after work. Tomorrow is my Christmas!

Chunky Monkey!

Well we went for Campbell's two month check up today and everything went well. Here are the stats: 12 lbs. 11 oz. (he gained nearly a pound in one week!) and 22 1/4 inches. He's in the 75th percentile for weight and head size and the 25th percentile for height. I wonder if those giant daddy genes are going to kick in soon? The doctor was amazed to hear he's sleeping 6-7 hours at night. Usually 4-5 hours is the norm for a two month old. I think he's just hibernating with all those rolls. Then came the shots....boy he was NOT happy. Wow, I think some glass might have shattered. Luckily, he calmed right down when I nursed him. All in all, it was a successful visit.

Labor Day Laughs

What a fun weekend! We managed to squeeze in as much fun as we possibly could in three days. We went to go to our nephew, Eric's, 12th birthday celebration with the family on Saturday, church on Sunday, and we fed the ducks and went to the park on Labor Day. We even enjoyed a very nice dinner without inhaling our food down in record time with both boys on Friday night. And...drum roll please...Campbell made it without a feeding 7 hours for two nights! YEE HAW! Can't get a better weekend than that! Here are some pictures from our fun-filled adventures.
Campbell sure does love his Granddad. They do share the same middle name after all.

Melt my heart!
Nolan loved riding the "American-go-round"
We actually saw this heron catch spear this fish and watched the poor guy get eaten. It was a real life Discover channel moment!

Nolan loved the turtles, ducks, and herons. He wasn't so sure about the geese once they started honking.

Let's go feed the ducks mom!

Here we are finished feeding the ducks, now it's time to play on the playground!

Campbell's talking to Gram in Kentucky. Who says babies can't talk? He was cooing up a storm telling her about all the fun we had this weekend. She loved it!