Birthday Dinner

Last night Stacey, Nicole, Julie, Kandice and Christy all joined me at The Melting Pot for my birthday dinner. I've been to The Melting Pot before, but only for dessert. I wanted to experience the full course meal, and of course, it was amazing. My favorite was the salad and the chocolate...it's ridiculous how good that chocolate is. It was a great girls night out with some of my best friends in Nashville. One of my favorite things to do is sit down to an amazing meal and spend time talking and laughing with some of my favorite people! I love you guys - thanks for a great birthday dinner.

Christy, Julie, Stacey, Nicole, Me and Kandice

Nicole, Me and Kandice

Yummy!

Me and Christy

Soccer Saturday

Today was the boys first official Soccer game of the season. I posted last week about their first practice. Gabe was totally into it and Sam was the one standing in the middle of the field picking flowers. Today at the games, it was the opposite. Gabe wasn't into it and Sam was. Sam is my more reserved, shy one, so I can't tell you how proud I was of him today. He was right in the middle of the pack, chasing after the ball at every turn. He even got to it once and kicked it free of the pack. After he did that, he looked over at Neal and I to make sure we saw, the look on his face was priceless...he was so proud of himself. Just watching him running back and forth made me want to bust, he was SO cute in his yellow jersey and the way he runs kills me. We have had a rough few months with him. He is walking the line between toddlerhood and boyhood, so we are all trying to figure out how to make that transition.

I'm not sure what Gabe's deal was today, I guess it was just an off day. It's always funny when they won't participate in something and then later, they will talk about how much fun they had. Huh? Sure didn't look like he was having fun, but he says he did!

I brought my camera, but the battery died after I took one picture. I had to use the video camera as a back up, so these pictures are from the video camera and didn't turn out all that great, but I still had to post them!

Gabe and his best friend, Mitch (far left, the one pouting!) and another teammate

Sam and his best friend, Tucker

And Luke...he cried pretty much the whole time. He didn't want me to hold him, he didn't want his paci or to eat. I finally just put him in the stroller and he cried himself to sleep. Little stinker. I assumed that my third child would go with the flow...boy was I ever wrong! He is three months old and giving me a run for my money! He sure it cute though. It won't be long and he will be out there with his brothers chasing after the ball.

Introducing...

My sister-in-law! Loy, my brother's wife and my sweet sister-in-law, has joined us in the blogging world! I'm so excited for you guys to read all about my adorable nieces and nephew. Morgan is 11 (yikes!), the twins, Jacob and Payton are 4 and Addison (Addy) is 1. Todd and Loy live in Houston in a neighborhood down the street from my parents neighborhood where Neal's brother and sister-in-law happen to live as well. We are the only ones that don't live within a 5 mile radius...sad. Loy works at our old church in childcare. My parents also attend the same church and Adam (Neal's brother) is the Associate Music Minister there! See what we are missing out on all the way over here in Nashville? Anyway, Loy is an extremely experienced mom and is one of the sweetest and nicest people I know. I'm lucky my brother was smart enough to choose her as his bride! I always enjoy the time we get to spend together, its just not enough. So - go check out her blog, see how cute my nieces and nephew are and leave her a comment saying hi.

3 Months

My littlest baby is 3 months today. Last night, I gave Neal some pj's to put on Luke. When I came back in the room, he was wearing a different pair. Neal said the pair I gave him was too small...too small? Do you know what that means? I've got to pull out the 3-6 month bin and put away some of the 0-3 month clothes. Some of the 0-3, I'll keep my favorites out until he absolutely can't straighten his legs! This is the last time any of my babies will wear 0-3 month clothes. I will pack them up and hand them off to another darling boy who can get some good use out of them. This is the first of many lasts. Just a little bit ago, as I rocked him to sleep, I tried to memorize the way his little body felt in my arms. I hope I never forget.

At 3 months:

-loves his paci, has to have it to go to sleep.
-we still swaddle him in the miracle blanket, although he is almost too big for it.
-smiles so sweetly
-coos really loudly
-loves to lay on the floor and kick those little legs
-little legs that are starting to get chunky!
-goes from around 9pm to 8am between feedings and sleeps most of that time, he almost always wakes up between 3-5 for a quick cuddle and paci refill.
-doesn't like riding in the car
-the only way to get him to stop crying in the car is to blare the music for a few minutes...works like a charm.
-he has discovered that his hands are a part of his body, he stares at them and tracks them with his eyes when they move.
-loves being sung too, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" always gets a smile.

First Soccer Practice

We've made the jump into organized sports. The boys had their first soccer practice Tuesday evening. They were both so excited about their new soccer gear, the shoes, long socks and shin guards and sure looked cute in it all. They get their jerseys next week, which will make them look even cuter. Gabe jumped right in and was always in the middle of the action. Sam was a little more reserved and wasn't so sure about chasing after the ball in a tight pack of 5 year olds. He will be the one standing in the middle of the field digging in the dirt!

Guess What?

Yup - that's our mud and lumber! This is the reason I've not posted in a week. After some long meetings, tons of phone calls, lots of prayer and even walking away once, we signed a contract Friday to build our new house! We have lived in our current house for 7 years and it has served us well, but, the time has come to move on...15 minutes away. Sam starts Kindergarten (sniff, sniff, sob, sob) next year and we wanted to get him into a better school district. We also really wanted to get into a neighborhood that has more kids and more of a community feel to it. This new neighborhood has 10 parks throughout and is full of families with kids. The new house isn't so bad either! It's a little bigger than our house now, with 4 bedrooms, a bonus, and a wonderful back yard that backs up to woods. It also has room to grow with an unfinished bonus room that we can finish out into another bedroom or something else down the road.

We are putting this house on the market in 4 weeks, so we are busy getting it ready to sell. We are hoping to sell it and close on the new house in the fall sometime. I'm overwhelmed with everything we have to do these next few months. I'll certainly be updating through out the whole process.

Any tips out there on how to survive building and selling a house?

April

Is anyone else's April as crazy as mine? It seems like everyone is having birthdays and babies this month. I have 3 baby showers and at least 5 birthdays to celebrate through out the month. This is one of my favorite months, since one of those 5 birthdays to celebrate is mine! I also love the beginning of Spring. The weather is finally warming up here, the flowers and trees are blooming so we are all sneezing and taking our allergy medication religiously so we can go outside and play.