Love Grows Love

Think I'll go to Austin...

2011-08-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

Every year, usually in August, Kaleb has to go to Austin, TX, for an election conference. The first year we were married, I got to go with him! It was my first time being there, and I loved it! The next 2 years, however, the conference was my first week of school. Boo! This year, it was back to being at the beginning of August, so Kam and I got to go along! Free hotel stay and getting reimbursed for gas?? Yes, please!!

We had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants that I only get on vacations...Steak n Shake!!

After dinner, we got to see the bats! One of the largest urban colonies of bats lives under the Congress St. bridge in downtown Austin. By "one of the largest," I mean between 750,000 and 1 million bats. They stay there in spring and summer, and every evening at sunset, they take off to have a nightly feast on bugs! Yum! (Kam loved that part:) ) We got to the bridge about 7:30, and the sun didn't actually set until between 8 and 8:30. So we waited! Our sweet boy kept asking where the baseball game was. We tried to explain (several times) that these weren't baseball bats...they were the animals.

And then they came! And kept on coming! They were everywhere for at least 15-20 minutes straight! You could hear their wings, all fluttering together...it really was amazing.

During the day, Kaleb had meetings to go to, so Kamden and I spent time at the pool in the hotel (mostly in the hot tub, per his request)...

And did a little sight-seeing! I basically just drove until I found something that looked kid-friendly. I happened upon The Domain, which is this awesome outdoor shopping center that had me at Charming Charlie's! I didn't buy anything, but looking was enough!! We found a Yogurt Planet, which I have decided is my favorite dessert place E.V.E.R.

Then, we spotted this little splash park, and Kamden ~~begged~~ asked so nicely, "Pweeeeeeease, Mama??" So I said what the heck?? Go for it!!

We headed back to the hotel after that (I didn't get lost once on this trip!!) where Kaleb was waiting for us. And we had some delish dinner at Buca di Beppo!

Then we headed to Golfsmith so Kaleb could dream big!!

Kamden had a little meltdown shortly after this picture because he didn't just want to putt, and we didn't want to pay for anything in the store. So we consoled him with a trip to Baskin Robbins. Yum=)

The next day, I have no pictures...Kam and I went to Lakeshore Learning (can you hear the angels singing??) and then to Petco so he could see some animals. We came back to the hotel, swam, and napped until Kaleb came home! Then we headed out for dinner with his co-workers at P.F. Chang's (yum!) and then to Round Rock to see a minor league baseball game! Kamden lasted almost the whole game. (This is his camera smile now)

He was so excited about seeing this mascot. He hugged him and then actually gave a real smile while looking at the camera!!! This is huge for us. He doesn't do this often. At all.

The next morning, we headed back to Bridge City! It was such a wonderful little getaway for us. I just wish Ella could've been with us!! She starts first grade on Wednesday...unbelievable!!!

We had my sister-in-law's baby shower on Saturday, which turned out so cute!! Hopefully I can get pictures of that soon (they are on other cameras!!).

This also is my last week of summer. I'm excited about school starting, but sad about leaving my sweet boy. It's been so nice being off with him this summer! We are visiting his new sitter this week so that he can get a little familiar with her before he starts next Monday. And we have big plans for this weekend...one of my college housemates is getting married Friday, so I get to see friends I haven't seen in years, plus some of those friends are coming to stay the weekend with us!!! I am absolutely thrilled! It'll be a great way to end the summer!!

Water Park Fun and a Trip to Nan & Bip's (& Katie's)

2011-07-26T22:34:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, my sisters-in-law and I brought Ella, Kamden, and Caleb (friend) to a water park about 30 minutes away. The kids were SO excited about going!!!

They are little water bugs! There were 2 big slides (that, technically, Ella was not quite tall enough to ride, but no one seemed to notice) that Ella and Caleb bravely rode by themselves:

Kamden hung out in this area for the smaller kids and thoroughly enjoyed himself!

There were a couple smaller water slides in this part of the park, and at first he would only ride with his Aunt Cay-Cay. But he got brave once and went down alone, and that was it for him! He was hard to pull off the slides after that! He just couldn't get enough!

That evening, we headed up to Many to spend the weekend at my parents' house. We had to bring Ella back Saturday afternoon:( This was our last visit of the summer with her. I cannot believe it's over already!!

While we were at my parents', my mom pulled out this old type writer that my Pappaw Mike (her daddy) gave her. Ella wrote 2 stories all by herself!! She typed it all, spelled it all, everything!!! She just amazes me!!

Now, the kiddos stay overnight with Kaleb's parents pretty often, since they live so close down here. But Kamden has never gotten to spend the night (without us) at his Nan & Bip's house! And they'd asked earlier on in the summer if he could stay a few days with them. Kaleb has a business trip to Austin next week, and I thought that would be a perfect time! Then I started thinking, my goodness, Austin sure is a very long way from Many, and that's 3 days of being very, very far away from my baby boy...so we decided to let him stay up there Sunday night. And Monday night. And then my mom called and said he was having so much fun, could he just stay one more night?? Sooooooo, he's still there! And I am missing him like crazy!! I think that, aside from Kaleb's hospital stay last summer, this is the longest we've been away from him. But he is having SO much fun!! I am just ready for him to be back home:)

Please, Baby, Please!

2011-07-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

I think I first got this book before we got married. I remember finding it in the library where I worked and just LOVING it. And Ella LOVED it, too. She could quote every page, and it became one of our routine night-time stories. Then, she got older, and it got pushed to the side.

Then Kamden found it! And it became one of his favorites! And he could finish the lines, and again it became one of our routine night-time stories!

But then he found "I Love You, Stinky Face" and "The Stinky Cheese Man" and "I Love You, Forever," and I can't remember the last time we read "Please, Baby, Please."

Picking up toys around here is usually a bit of a struggle. We have no problem singing the Clean Up song, but a major problem when it comes to acting on its prompts. So I've noticed that threatening to throw whatever doesn't get picked up in the trash works for Kamden.

Tonight, he had some blocks scattered in the floor in our bedroom. Here's our exchange:

Me: "Kamden, pick up these blocks before bed!"
Kamden: "I don' wont to!" (I am spelling "want" the way he says it...I hate misspellings.)
Me: "Okay, I'll just put 'em in the trash!"
Kamden: "No, no trash! Pwease, baby, pwease!!"

You see, there's a page where Baby is throwing her diaper in the toy box and the text says, "No, in the trash! Baby, baby, baby, please!" And he remembered that!!

I know I just posted, but I really wanted to make sure I got that little bit down. And the rest of the story...well I was just so proud that he'd put it together, especially after not having read the book in so very long that I just hugged him and told him he was awesome and picked up the blocks myself.

Didn't really grab that teachable moment, did I?

Oh, well. Next time!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

2011-07-20T09:38:00.000-05:00

When I first met Kaleb, I learned that he was really into baseball. Like, really. And I am very much not a sporty girl. But because I wanted him to like me ;) I learned everything I could about it!! And whenever we finally got together "for real," we made it a thing to go to an Astros game every year or so. Behold our family's growth through Astros games!

That April 2009 one is when I was 8 months pregnant with Kam, and in the August 2009 one, he is about 4 months old. We skipped last year, so this is the first game that we've taken him to that he could actively participate in. Ella has been going at least since she was 3, and she probably went before that, but I don't have pictures if she did! She remembers everything...she reminded me that at the last one we went to there was an eagle flying around. No clue!!

We got some great photo op time while Kaleb waited to get our tickets!

Of course, the kids have to get a prize for going to a game. Kamden chose this bat...

And Ella chose this ball!

We bought a $6.75 thing of popcorn just so we could get that helmet they're trading off with up there:) Well worth it!!

The kiddos with Craig Biggio and Carlos Lee! This was after the game. Doesn't it look so real?? Haha!

We all had a GREAT time. I am so glad we got to take them this year. They only got squirmy close to the end, but they stuck it out. And the 'Stros actually won!! Unbelievable!!

When it rains...

2011-07-16T01:29:00.001-05:00

...we bake!

Today, we had the very unusual blessing of having RAIN!! All morning!! Which meant Ella couldn't go play with her friend across the street until it stopped. She was pretty bummed, so we decided to make something! Her first idea was chocolate-covered strawberries! Wonderful! We have strawberries and white almond bark. Let's do it!!

We each tasted a strawberry, just to make sure they were still good...

...and they weren't. That's okay! Bigger and better things:

These are definitely my go-to dessert. Not only are they DELICIOUS, I almost always have the ingredients on hand!

They were SO good. Maybe half of those are left right now;)

The rain stopped by noon, and Ella got to play with our neighbor while I attempted to get Kamden down for a nap before we went to visit his new sitter. I thought it went really well! He seemed to like her as much as he likes any other new people who give him a sucker! I didn't get any pictures of that, though.

When Kaleb came home, we all went out to eat for supper. Ella wanted Mexican, so we went to our usual Mexican restaurant, La Cantina. Mistake. It was SO incredibly loud. I seriously thought I was going to just lose it on the people at the table next to us! We all agreed it would probably be our last time there. It's just not worth it!!

We came home, got ready for bed, and got the kids down. Then, around midnight, someone came plodding down the hall...

When you wake up in the middle of the night and Daddy is still up playing Call of Duty, you get to sit with him until you fall asleep! Good rule, right??

Evenings at Our House

2011-07-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

Sometimes we sit, and enjoy the outdoors...

Sometimes we dance over the toy-strewn floor

Sometimes we gather in Daddy's shed...

And cover our ears, when it's too loud for our head!

We love to help Daddy...

And we sometimes do weird things!

But my favorite part of the day is our bedtime routine!

Where we jump into bed and read a story or two,

And ask God to help us sleep the whole night through!=)

(Hey, it's practical!!)

Goooooood Mornin'!

2011-07-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

Here's what I left in bed this morning!

Sweet, sleepy babes!!

They woke up shortly after this. It was the second time for each of them. Ella found our bed around 5 or 6 this morning, and Kamden found it closer to 7, I believe. Kaleb was getting up for work, so I'm guessing it was 7. Again, success! Since I consider that a full night in that big boy bed! Last night was a little easier and quicker. I had him lie down while I read 2 books (his favorite two...The Stinky Cheese Man and I Love You, Stinky Face. Such a boy!) and then we prayed and sang songs until he was out.

I adore days where we have nothing to do!! We had a little bit of outside time this morning before it got too unbearable.

I have a HUGE praise!! We recently found out that our friend who's been keeping Kamden during the school year since he was born won't be able to keep him this year:( After my initial panic and hysterical crying, I got myself together and contacted some of the ladies I've met at our new church (more on that later!!). They suggested several options, and after weighing them all, Kaleb and I had kind of settled on one that we really wanted for Kam. She comes very highly recommended by a few different people, and seemed sooo nice on the phone when we spoke. We were just waiting to hear if she would have a spot for him when school starts...and she does!!! It will also be $20/week less than we'd been paying, which will be made up for the fact that with our other sitter we didn't pay when he didn't go. But that is definitely something that we can swing! I'll be going to meet her and fill out paperwork tomorrow. I am just so very thankful that it happened so fast and without any stress at all!! God is so good! And I KNOW that I never would've found her if it hadn't been for the new friends at our new church. Isn't it amazing how He just works everything out before we know what needs to be worked?? I promise for an update on our fabulous new church later this week.

Can ya believe it? 3 posts in 3 days! Don't worry, I'll try not to jinx it:)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

2011-07-11T09:58:00.002-05:00

Can someone please tell me how this...

turned into this...

so quickly??? Sigh. Saturday night, I put Kamden to bed a little late, around 9:30 or 10. I left the room and heard him crying for me, but thought he'd go back to sleep. About 5 minutes later, he was walking out of his room. What?? I tried to get him to show me how he climbed out of his crib, but he couldn't do it again, so I put him back down for the night. Kaleb and I were up late and finally went to bed around 3 a.m. We heard a thump, then looked up to see what looked very much like Kamden's impression of a grumpy bear walking into our bedroom. He acted like he was still half asleep and climbed in our bed. I asked him both times if he was hurt, if he fell, etc., but he said he was okay and we didn't see any bruises. So yesterday morning we went ahead and converted his sweet little crib into a toddler bed.

We spent the day in Starks yesterday, just relaxing, visiting, and swimming.

We got home really late, and Kamden was already asleep so we put him in his bed. He immediately woke up and wanted to play. I know this because he told us :) It took over an hour of us taking turns sitting by his bed and rubbing his back and singing for him to go to sleep. BUT...he didn't come stumbling back into our room until after 8 this morning!! So that's definitely a success!! I also consider it a success that our little dear who climbs on EVERYTHING took over 2 years to figure out he could climb out of his crib:) We're hoping that with a routine evening tonight, he will go down easier. We shall see!! Can't quite let him cry it out at night when he can get out and roam around the house! And I really don't think I can put a lock on the outside of his door. Or a tent over his bed. We'll just pray this works!!

*Oh, and yes he is wearing his Spider-Man underwear in the bed pictures. Potty training is very lax at our house. I was all gung-ho in the beginning, but I just don't think he's ready. He asks to potty at least once a day most days, and on days like today he asks to wear his "Pie-Man Un-Wear" and he gets to if he goes on the potty. But then he moves to a diaper if he tee-tees in them. Which he did about 30 minutes after I put those on.

Summer!

2011-07-10T12:46:00.000-05:00

I tried for hours to put pictures on here and it was taking FOREVER. So maybe next time:)

I am going to just skip everything that's happened in the last few months because, honestly, everyone who reads this is also my FB friend, so you've already seen all the pictures from Kam's fabulous 2nd birthday party (which turned out to be airplane-themed, not Mickey Mouse:) ) and you know that the school year ended beautifully. We had a great start to our summer! We brought Ella back down after her graduation in May and had some relax-time at home. I got out of school a week later, and I know we didn't do a whole lot, but it sure feels like we have just been going non-stop! I have NO clue how it's already July 10.

We've already had our 2 family vacations this summer. We went with my family to Galveston & Kemah, where we had an AWESOME time at Schlitterbahn Water Park and at the beach and the boardwalk in Kemah. Then a few weeks later, we had a relaxing vacation with Kaleb's family at a lake house on Toledo Bend. Days of tubing and soaking up the glorious sun were treasured by all of us!! We are so incredibly blessed to be able to take trips like this with our families!! And then we have another small trip planned for the first of August. Kaleb has an election seminar every year in Austin, and this year Kamden and I will get to go with him! (Ella will be back at her mom's by then.) For the next couple of weeks, we are just going to try to do fun things around the house so the kids don't get bored! And I will hopefully find some time to work on my classroom.

I ended the school year at 45 lbs lost, and at one point this summer I'd gotten to 49 lbs! But now it's back to 45. I attribute that to the complete lack of willpower when it comes to vacations, eating out, family get-togethers...all of that. BUT I also got TurboFire for my birthday a few weeks ago and am on Week 3 of it right now, and I REALLY think that I have got to be building some muscle, too!! I am definitely feeling it BIG TIME. I took my measurements in week 2 so that when I get a month or so into it I can use the inches to judge instead of just the scale. I get so focused on those stupid numbers!! I'm really trying to just let my clothes and my eyes tell me. I have kinda stopped Weight Watchers. It was AWESOME and I completely owe those 45 lbs gone to it!! Well, it and C25K and TurboJam and walking and running on my own. But I haven't been tracking, and it costs money, and I know what I need to do, so I'm just gonna do that:) I have never felt as good as I feel now, and I can honestly say that this is the smallest (I hate to say that because I definitely do not feel "small") that I have EVER been as an adult. In fact, I am below the weight that I put on my driver's license when I was 16, which was a lie even at the time:) So I am becoming okay with the fact that I might not get down to that magic "145" before we start trying to get pregnant in the fall. I just want to feel the best I can feel and look the best I can look. Woo hoo!!

Kamden has become really, really fast and really, really talkative. He talks all.the.time. Even when he doesn't have anything to say! He's started this thing at the dinner table. Kaleb and I will be having a conversation and he just starts in, "Um, Mommy, and, um, Daddy, and swimming and, um, *smacks tongue* snake dead..." he just strings together whatever words are in his head at the moment, just so he will have something to say! It is hilarious!!! He also started telling us, "I didn't do ANYsing!" in a super sweet voice, so sweet that you expect him to bat his eyes while he says it. This is in response of doing something wrong, of course. He and Ella love having scooter races through the house, and we've had to move them outside because we found scuff marks on the floor today since they have started riding fast then jumping off and letting the scooters go and run into things.

So that's what's been going on around here! I always say that I'm going to do better at blogging and then I never do, so I'm hoping maybe if I don't say it this time that maybe I actually will:) That way I don't jinx it:)

Spring Break & Party Plans

2011-03-15T23:48:00.000-05:00

Well, my Spring Break has come and gone! It was last week, and it was a much needed break! Friday night, we went up to my parents' to spend the weekend with them. Our 4th wedding anniversary was Thursday, March 3rd, so Saturday night my parents watched Kamden so we could go on a date!

We went to Shreveport, spent some time in Barnes and Noble (and actually bought books that we have since read!), got some clothes for Kaleb and Target, and had some yummmmy sushi! It was so wonderful to just get to have some time alone together.

Kaleb came back home on Sunday, and Kam and I stayed to hang out with my family since my mom and sister were also on Spring Break last week.

Kam got his Nan, Bip, and Katie fix, and Nan, Bip, and Katie got their Kam fix!!

FYI: It is incredibly difficult to get good pictures of our sweet boy right now, as this is what he is usually doing:

Man, I love this kid!!

Unfortunately, Ella's spring break is later on in the month, and she had her aunt, uncle, and first cousins on her mom's side coming in from Florida to visit, so we weren't able to get her over the weekend. But we will have her for her spring break and we cannot wait!!

If you're reading this, you probably already know, but I "officially" restarted Weight Watchers on January 10 of this year. I'd been working on kicking my 64 extra pounds (yes, I said it!!) since school started in August, but I just kept going back and forth, and I have had such great success with WW in the past that I knew I would have to be just as diligent with it if I really wanted to feel good again. Luckily, my mom, sister, and a couple of my aunts joined too! It sure makes it easier to do when you are accountable to people! All that to say, I've set several mini-goals for myself (along with my big ultimate goal weight of 145, and yes, I know that if you can do math that you now know my starting weight was 209, and I am okay with you knowing that), and one of them was to have lost 30 lbs by Spring Break. And if I did that, I could buy a couple new items of clothing! (Because I cannot wear some of them anymore, yay!) Well, I met that goal the week BEFORE Spring Break, got cocky, and by the actual weigh-in day I was 1 lb away from my goal!!! Talk about frustrating! We still went shopping on Monday, and I still tried on clothes, but I just wasn't really happy with anything I tried on (although I have gone down a size) so I didn't end up buying anything. I've since gotten back past that goal and I've lost 17 lbs since officially starting WW. (We are doing it online.) So that is really exciting!!

I am going to really try not to talk about the weight loss stuff on here because I feel like it is ALL I would talk about. Right now, I really need motivation to get work-outs in. When I lost before, I'd joined a gym, and I absolutely LOVED it...all the equipment at my fingertips, Spin classes, Group classes, etc. But a gym membership is not fitting into our budget right now! So I am trying to get motivated to take up running. I REALLY want to be a runner. So I am hoping to start Couch to 5K soon. Probably next week, since this week is already halfway over.

Okay, done with the weight stuff.

Now for the second half of my title, party plans. I know you won't believe it, but Kamden's 2nd birthday is coming up!!! Tear!!! (And sadly, as a teacher, also relief because the weekend we're doing his party is April 30, which is the first weekend after the TAKS test, which means RELIEF, and also, PANIC and PRAYER that the scores will be good!) He absolutely loves a lot of stuff...but his favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and The Fresh Beat Band. Which is great, because neither is too annoying. So we decided we would use one of these as a party theme. Now, there's MMC stuff out the wazoo, but would you believe that there are NO pre-made Fresh Beat Band party decorations? Except the custom-made stuff. Last night I'd just about talked myself into just making all the decorations myself (I found some cute stuff online that I know I can do) but to be honest, I just don't know that I would find the time to get it all done. And the colors I'd use might look too girly. And, also, this:

Do you think this boy loves him some Mee-Mouse?? (***PLEASE*** know that our bedroom does not always look like this. While I was videoing this, I looked at the background and just cringed and didn't even want to share it, I am SERIOUSLY so embarrassed, but...my goodness this kid is just so stinkin' cute doing his Meeska Mooska that I couldn't not share it as proof of his Mickey Love.) So...I think we are going with a MMC theme. Which will be WAY easier than Fresh Beats! And there's always next year! If he's still into them then=)

Weekend Fun!

2011-02-23T21:48:00.005-06:00

We had a great weekend with Ella! She was out this Monday for Presidents' Day (and so was Kaleb) so we went up to Many Friday night to get her! We stayed with my parents that night, and Aunt Katie happened to be working on a cake. Which means 2 things: 1) Cake Scraps (Ella ate ALL the white cake scraps!!) and 2) FONDANT!!! Ella wasted no time making some beautiful fondant creations of her own!

The kids also played lots of Just Dance 2. Kamden likes it almost as much as Ella! We heard, "Unh dansse" several times Friday night and Saturday morning!

We had a wonderful lunch with my family and my grandparents, then we headed down to Starks. Kaleb's parents had the awesome idea to take the kids out to Nibletts Bluff Park. I'd never been...wow!!! It was beautiful!! We enjoyed a picnic by the water...

And boat rides!! Ella rode the boat, too, but I wasn't on there with the camera when she was riding. Let me tell you right now, if Kamden Alce Breaux could live his entire life on a boat he would!! If we heard "Boat-motor!" one time this weekend (or any day, actually) we heard it a million times!! He can spot a boat quicker than anything else. This is Kamden in his own little heaven:

He wasn't into sitting with me on the boat. Just Pawpaw and Uncle Marcus!!

Playing on the (parked) boat.
It was SUCH a great time and such a great way to spend time with both our families!! I will leave you with a picture of a terrifying animal. Do you know what it is?? Because I don't. Some sort of ram?? It just sat there in all its evil majesty. Have I watched too many scary shows or do you see Satan in this dude's face???

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

2011-02-22T22:51:00.006-06:00

What's your daily routine?

This week, our blogging topic is describing our daily routine! Mine is pretty much the same for weekdays. Here we go!

5:00 a.m.--This is when my alarm goes off for the first time. Because I am always very certain when I go to bed the night before that today will be the day I start getting up early to work out.
My alarm goes off in 20 minute increments until I finally either a) get up at 6:15 or 6:30 or b) hear this little darling calling for Mommy or Daddy=)

(Note: He is not in the bath when he calls. He is in his crib. This is just the only super recent picture I have that I'm not planning on using tomorrow.)

6:15-7:00--Get ready for work. This consists of washing my hair (every other day unless I worked out) and, if I got up earlier than 6:15, actually straightening it and wearing it down. And putting on make up and getting dressed. While I do this, my sweet husband gets up at 6:45 and gets Kamden ready to go to his sitter's house. Our TV is on KFDM. When they have to "switch over to the CW" I begin worrying because I should really be ready by now.

7:00--The Fresh Beat Band comes on, recording on the TV in our bedroom. I begin to panic because I should REALLY BE READY by now.

7:00-7:05 (Okay, 7:10)--Rush around to get something together to eat at school, get Kam loaded into the car.

7:15--Drop Kam at his sitter's house, which is very conveniently on my way to school!

7:30--This is the time I have to be at school. Realistically, I am here somewhere between 7:25 and 7:30 daily. Unless the awesome traffic light on FM 105 is messed up, then it's more like 7:33.

7:40--My day begins, and I take my kids to P.E. or Music. I have a lovely Conference time until 8:40, when my kids come back.

8:40-3:05--I teach math to 4th graders.

3:30--I can leave school at this time. Sometimes I do. Most times I don't. What teacher actually leaves on time??

4:00--Pick up Kamden whenever I leave school. We come home, he usually asks for some sort of snack, and I get supper going. (**Unless it's Monday. Monday is grocery day unless I went over the weekend.)

5:15--Kaleb gets home!

6:00--We watch the news.

6:30--Usually, supper is ready by now. When we hear "Wheel...of...fortune!!!" We know we should be sitting down at the table=) We are THAT old.

After supper, one of us does the dishes while the other gives this little love bug a bath.

Around 8:00--Kam goes down...either by us rocking him and watching TV or by rocking him in his room for a minute then putting him down. Honestly, and I know this will sound bad, but it depends on what all has gone on during the day and how much we need to just sit down and watch mindless television for a minute.

9:00--If I didn't get up at 5 to work out in the morning, I start to feel guilty, so on nights like last night I do some sort of workout video or Wii Zumba at this time.

10:00--Hopefully get a bath while reading a delicious book!

11:00--I really try to be in bed before this time, but it rarely happens.

So, that's it! A normal day for Jenni Breaux. I hope no psycho reads this and comes to kill me now that s/he knows my routine. Now I've freaked myself out!

I will be back tomorrow evening with a post about our wonderfull weekend with Ella, which will include LOTS more pictures!!!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

2011-02-16T20:50:00.005-06:00

Yes, that's Kamden with one of my eye make-up pencils in his nose. My son LOVES make-up. I'm serious! He loves putting it on, digging his little fingernails into my blush and eye shadow, everything. And when we took our first trip ever to Sephora with my BFF, Blaire, a few weeks ago, I really think he was as excited as I was. What 21-month-old boy goes to Sephora and starts saying, "May-up! May-up!" over and over again??

All that to say, my friend, Leslie, who is all-around inspiring, has inspired me to blog again! And she had a great idea to do it. We all want to know things about people, but would never ask...and sometimes never knew we wanted to know! So, I'm just calling it "Inquiring Minds Want to Know..." because I really like to label things=) This week: What's in your make-up bag?

This is my super-cute make-up bag! One of my students gave it to me my first or second year teaching. (Leslie, did you get one, too? If you did, then it was my first year. If you didn't, it was my second.)It seriously fits everything I need! I was honest...I just dumped it out and placed it nicely and didn't hide the earrings or hair clips that somehow found their way in there.My daily make-up routine consists of taking off the previous day's make-up a couple of seconds before I put today's make-up on. I know, I know. I use Mary Kay's Eye Make-up Remover because it is AMAZING.

I am a big fan of Bare Minerals, so I use their Medium Beige foundation/powder/whatever, their Warmth (LOVE), and the Mineral Veil when I remember it. (I honestly cannot tell a difference).

My favorite pieces of make-up are right here:
My lovely sister, Katie, introduced me to Too Faced a while back, and also changed my eye-lining-life forever when she bought me Buxom Lashliner in Leatherette (the little pot of stuff to the right of my eye shadow). It is AMAZING. Seriously. I don't ever see myself using anything else. The Too Faced Natural Eye (the box of stuff above) is what I use daily. I have some awesome Bare Minerals that I sometimes use for dressing up, but that doesn't really happen much these days=)

The other things in the picture are my blush, which is just some random Cover Girl blush, and my lipstick, which is the little silver box thing. It's Loreal Infallible in Henna and it stays on forever. Most days I just wear Mary Kay's Lip Gloss. I am currently using Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume mascara, but it's only because I have to use it up before I go back to my awesome Glam'Eyes. I don't know why I ever strayed!

That's about it! I would really love to be able to wear MAC or this stuff Blaire (she's my girly stuff guru) just told me about called HD. Maybe one day when we have tons of money I will make the switch!! But for now...that's my bag!

Just-Past-New-Year's-Resolution

2011-02-14T20:55:00.009-06:00

So I ALWAYS make resolutions, but I learned that if I make more than one at a time, I'm likely to quit them all!! And the first resolution I made was about weight loss!! I started an on-again off-again weight loss program in August when school started, and in January my mom and sister decided to join Weight Watchers, which really helped me kick it back into gear!! So far, I've lost 27.6 lbs since August, and 11.2 of those have been since re-joining WW on January 10! I am super excited about it. Anyway, all that to say that is the resolution I started in January. This month, thanks to my dear friend, Leslie, I think it's time to really commit to blogging regularly again. How many times have I said this? About a million. Mostly to my mom when she complains that I haven't posted in a year or so:) But the truth is, I do have some time in the evenings now. Especially since Kamden has ~~been brainwashed by my husband to love~~ developed a deep love for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which he calls "Man." Ridiculous!! Anyway, Kaleb plays it nightly, and now it's kind of merging with putting Kamden to sleep. We'll see how long it lasts!

On Wednesday, I'll be participating in Leslie's blogging challenge, so I'll just blog about life for today. School is going really well. Kaleb's job is going great. Ella is kicking butt in kindergarten, and Kamden is kicking butt (but not in the good way) at his sitter's house. He is a hair puller to girls and an eye-poker to the cat. We really do try to work with him on being kind to our friends and to animals, but right now he kinda just thinks it's more fun to tackle things. Like cats, dogs, and friends who are smaller than him most of the time.

We had a good Valentine's Day today! We are on a super-tight budget right now and this week it left no room for gifts, so we decided to write one another letters, which I love:) I made a yummy Mexican supper and did some chocolate chip cookies for Kaleb. They are not WW-friendly...but it's Valentine's Day and I am pretty sure they will be gone soon:) Kamden REALLY racked up on candy that my students got me. We sent Ella a package, but I'm sure there will be some remnants left when she comes this weekend!

Just because I like to keep a record SOMEWHERE of what he's doing right now. At almost 21 months Kamden decided he'd like to start pottying. He went really well at the sitter's when the "big kids" went, but at home, he couldn't care less. If you put him on a potty, he will go, but he isn't interested and telling you BEFORE he actually does it:) So that's going to be a little ways off. I hadn't planned to start working with the potty stuff until this summer, but I figured if he wanted to do it now I surely wasn't going to stop him! He is SO curious. We answer the question, "Unh dis?" approximately 237 times a day. And that's probably a vast underestimate. It means "What's this" by the way. And he also asks us ALL the time, "What do?" "What do, Mommy?" when he wants to know what we're doing. And when we answer him he always says, "Ohhhh." It's hilarious! We are so enjoying that he can say absolutely anything right now. He can tell us if he's hurt, and he can tell us what hurts. He tells us what he wants to eat and drink (milk, juice, water, and occasionally "doke" which is any type of soda) and what he wants to do or watch on TV. He is obsessed with "Fesh Band" which is "Fresh Beat Band" on Nickelodeon. He also LOVES Mickey Mouse, and we are 99% sure he will be having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party this year. He just rode into the bedroom riding Ella's pink "cooter" which I know sounds really bad, but that's what he calls her scooter. He's pretty good at it, too! He can ride it while holding a bag of Cheese Nips and eating them. Obviously, the whole go-to-sleep-while-watching-Daddy-play-Man isn't working=) Going to take this as my cue to go nigh-night!!

Here's a picture of me with my littlest Valentine tonight. He hasn't had enough candy =)

Forever.

2010-09-13T21:41:00.008-05:00

Thought I'd start with some adorable kids so you wouldn't be quite so "it's about time" about my absence. I know. I say I'll do better and then I leave a picture of my big ol' pregnant self up front and center for 4 months. Jeez. And I thought summer would be the ultimate time for me to catch up! I did have time...I guess I just wasn't feeling it or something? My time was much better spent with our kiddos! We got Ella for all except 2 weeks of the summer! We had lots of fun going to Summer Reading Program events at the local library, hanging out at the house, and just enjoying one another! We got to go on vacation with my family to Branson, MO, in July and with Kaleb's family to the lake in August. Both trips were WONDERFUL and PERFECT and just great times spent with our families!! The kids l-o-v-e-d every minute of both trips, and I know that all the grandparents and aunts and uncle did too! And so did Kaleb and I!

I spent a long of time at the end of the summer working on getting my new classroom ready. I really don't see the point in putting pictures of all this up because they're all on my Facebook, and everyone who reads this is on there, too, so I don't know why I should put them both places?? So I'm not. Anyway, I started back to work for New Teacher Orientation and then Staff Developments Aug. 9. I was worried about Kam, as he had become such the extreme Mama's boy over the summer when it was time for us to leave him with anyone other than family. He cried the first couple of days when I dropped him off, but he quickly fell back into his old routines and he is loving it just as much as he did last year! It's so wonderful to know that he's well taken care of and we LOVE that it's just him and 3 other kids there.

Ella started back to school August 18 as a real kindergartener!!! She LOVES school. She is learning so much...and her mom has been working with her on her reading, so she called us last week and read 14 pages of a 32 page book to us!!! I honestly am flat-out amazed at how quickly she's picked up reading. Not just memorizing pages...recognizing sight-words and sounding out others. She is doing so well!! And she started ballet last week and she loves that as well! We got to go up and hang out with her last weekend for Labor Day and it was so great to see her. I swear she's grew a year's worth just in the few weeks it'd been since we saw her!

I am absolutely loving my new school!! Kaleb and I are both from small towns, and we've always wanted to raise our kids in a place like that as well. And I am really hoping we stay in Orangefield, because I can definitely see our kids making it home! The other teachers have welcomed me with open arms, and I learned the names of my 74 4th graders really quickly! I really think this'll be my best year yet. Woo hoo!

I've been trying to keep up with all the stuff Kam is doing now...I wrote a letter a few weeks ago to him so I wouldn't forget it all. And tonight I added some more. But I wanted to share some of the things he is into right now! And I am also totally copying off of my Due Date Club friend, Elisabeth, and making a list of the words he says. (What a great idea, Elisabeth!!)

We have fallen into a nice little routine of bath, brush teeth, fix a bok (bottle of milk), read some stories, sing a couple songs, and go to bed. He loves it and he LOVES to read!! He has a few favorite books right now. During the day, it's a "Trucks" book that has sliding panels. He brings it to us to read, and we do it, but it's more of a "What kind of truck is this?" book than a story book. At night time, hands down it's "Please, Baby, Please" by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee. Oh. my. goodness. The boy LOVES this book! And I'm glad because I do too!!! I bought it a few years ago for Ella and she quickly fell in love with it! It must just be super-appealing to kids, because now I can put as many books as I can find in front of our boy and he will ALWAYS choose "Please, Baby, Please," or as he says, "Baby, baby, baby!" There is a spread in the book that shows the baby pouring a bowl of cereal on her head and the words are "Not on your HEAD, baby, baby, please, baby!" And I would always rub Ella's head when I'd get to that part. And soon she would start rubbing it herself. Well, I did that to our boy a few times and now not only does he rub his own head when we get to the page, but tonight as soon as I finished reading the page before, he started rubbing his head! Tell me that's not smart! He also obeys when he's told to shut any door. And most of the time when he's told "No" although we are still working on that.

He is talking up a storm...he will mimick almost anything! Here are the words he can say...the first ones are in order of appearance, but that might not last for long. And I am sure I will leave something out!!

1. Mama/Mommy (I think he might've said Dada first...cannot remember)

2. Dada/Daddy/Gaggy (all what he calls Kaleb)

3. Baw (ball)

4. Pappy/bappy/boppy/poppy/pappiesss (paci)

5. Dawg-dawg (dog)

6. Bite (of food)

7. Juice

8. Ah-pa Juice (apple juice)

9. Bok (sippy cup)

10. Eh-wa (Ella)

11. Paw-paw (Kaleb's dad)

12. Ma-ma (He says this for "Mema," Kaleb's mom)

13. Nan-nan (Nan, my mom) (He will NOT say Bip, my dad!)

14. Kay-teee (Katie, my sister)

15. Teh-too (thank you)

16. Puppy

17. Battt (bath)

18. Ride-ride, or sometimes wide-wide (Ride. In the boat, in the golf cart, in the buggy, in the vehicle...the boy just wants to RIDE!)

19. Duck

20. Ta-tuh (tractor)

21. Eat

22. Buhk/Bik (book)

23. Baby

24. Tuck (truck)

25. Tuh-tur (Tucker, Kaleb's parents' dog)

26. Cheeeess (cheese)

27. Cookie

28. Poo-wee (like it's stinky)

29. Na-tee (nasty)

30. Hi!

31. Bye!

32. Heh-oh? (Hello, on the phone)

33. Ca-wi-back (Also, on the phone...we think this must be something like Call you right back?)

34. Peez (please, but not very often)

35. Hossie (horsie)

36. Wabbit (rabbit)

37. Wion (Lion)

38. Eyessss (He does this and then pokes you lightly in the eye=) )

39. Teeeeess (He doesn't have the "th" down yet. It's teeth)

40. Ice

41. Wain, wain, wain (rain, anytime it thunders or rains)

42. Awwww! (When he hugs his friends)

43. Shooss (Shoes)

44. Poo-poo (Gross, I know, but I'm listing 'em all!)

45. Tee-tee (Again, I know, I know!)

46. Nah-na (Nonna, his babysitter)

47. Guhbuhguhbuh (Yo Gabba Gabba, his very favorite TV show at the moment)

48. No, no, no (How could I forget this one??)

49. Yight (Light...he points out EVERY single light we see)

50. Wock-wock (rock rock, in the rocking chair)

51. Pish (Fish--real ones and Goldfish crackers)

52. Wow-wow (Round, round, for when he spins in circles and makes himself dizzy)

53. Aht-Aht-Aht (Hot, hot, hot)

54. Wing-wing (Swing, swing)

55. Pop-pop (Pop-Tart, tied with pancakes and waffles for his favorite breakfast food)

56. Mine!!!

I know I am leaving some out...hopefully I will actually update this when I think of them!! (Or when his grandparents remind me after they read this=) ) He also can point to his hair, ears, eyes, and nose when prompted. And belly. He lifts up his shirt for that one=) He loves flirting with waitresses in restaurants and then acting shy when they talk to him. He's quite the little flirt. He also yells "Hi!" to ladies when we pass them in the store. Unless they speak first, then he's all shy again. Silly boy!! He's started to act like his big sister and pretend to be a dog and sometimes a cat. He drops to all fours, crawls around, and does his impression of a bark or a meow. It is hilarious.

I almost forgot! Kamden also got his first haircut last weekend!! What a change that made in his little looks...the picture you see above is not what he looks like anymore! I will try to get some more pictures up soon.

I think that's enough for tonight. I really will try to do better!!! Oh, here's a picture of me and the other 4th grade teachers in our fabulous new shirts! Yay!

Our One Year Old!

2010-05-04T22:37:00.006-05:00

Oh, that sounds so weird.

I have spent the majority of this day completing, "A year ago today..." statements. A year ago this morning, I looked like this:

Yikes!!!

A year ago around 2:14 (or 2:16? How bad is it that I don't remember?!?!?!) this afternoon we met this little guy for the first time!

A year ago rightthisveryminute I was feeding Kamden one last time before sending him to the nursery so we could get some rest for the night. I was tired. But I was the happiest woman alive...I was officially a MAMA!

And now, a year later, I sit here at my computer, with my sweet baby boy sleeping soundly across the hall, trying to figure out how in the world did we get here so fast? Has it really been a year since I looked into his eyes for the first time? Has it really been a whole year since our lives changed so completely? And has it only been a year that Kamden has been in my life? (Well, a year and 9 months, technically.) I am overcome with joy and gratitude that God decided to let Kaleb and I be Kamden's parents here on earth--that He chose to give us this tremendous, humbling opportunity to care for him and love him. He is perfect and healthy...and I don't know why God decided to give us such an amazing blessing in such a tiny baby (at the time ha!), but I am forever changed.

Kamden, our perfect, precious son,

We love you more than you can ever imagine. You bring us such joy, such happiness, such hope. When you smile at me, I feel like the most important person in the world. When you laugh, it is infectious. When your little face scrunches up and you squeeze your eyes as tight as they will go and try to muster some big, sad tears when we tell you "No," we might laugh for a minute...because you are so darn cute...but it also just breaks our hearts to think that we've hurt yours! You'll learn eventually that we don't let you eat paper or climb on the hearth for some really good reasons. But for now, we'll just have to keep watching you do your best to squeeze out some tears and work us over!

My sweet boy, I pray that you will grow up knowing how important it is that God is first in your life, and I know the only way that can happen is if we show you. So I pray that, while I know we will not always be the perfect parents, that we will be able to be examples of Christ's love for you and that we will never forget that God is the reason we have everything...each other, your amazing, sweet sister, our wonderful, loving families, our faithful friends, and you. I pray that He will continue to be in the middle of mine and your Daddy's relationship and in the very center of our family. I pray that He will keep you safe and well and keep all of us in His perfect will.

I love you so.very.much my sweet, precious boy.

Happy Birthday! And never, ever forget...I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be! Momma loves her little son!

P.S. I promise a much less sentimental post another day this week with birthday party pictures. Just feeling quite weepy and nostalgic tonight!

Almost a Year Old!

2010-04-27T22:30:00.007-05:00

Things have been pretty busy around here! Most of my time on the computer has been swallowed up by my newfound hobby--creating invitations and announcements (and 1 business card and 1 t-shirt graphic) for a ton of people!! I made Kamden's birthday invitations and then a couple people needed help with theirs and that led to me creating a grand total of 8 birthday invitations, 1 graduation invitation, 6 birthday Thank Yous, and the 1 business card and the 1 t-shirt graphic. I am LOVING it!!! I would put up pictures but I am pretty sure that everyone who reads my blog is also my facebook friend=)

I opened up a shop on Etsy, but I haven't put anything in it yet...waiting until after Kam's birthday party this weekend. It is stressing me out just thinking about it!! I'll be baking 2 of the layers for his cake tomorrow evening, 2 Thursday, then my sister is coming to help me put it all together and decorate it on Friday, my parents are coming on Friday for the weekend...we have family coming from out of town and are expecting between 40-50 people at his party! I am so excited! I just want it to be the best ever!

Kamden still isn't walking...or really even showing any attempt to! He still sits down as soon as he realizes he is standing on his own. He discovered the stairs at his Mema & Pawpaw's house a few weeks ago and now that is ALL he wants to do when he gets to their house! He is pretty quick, too. But he dives headfirst to go down. He pretty much dives headfirst to get down from ANYTHING. Kaleb asked me the other day (as he was diving off the bed), "Do you think he realizes that we are the reason he doesn't hurt himself when he lunges off of stuff?" I sure hope so. His next statement was something to the effect of letting him fall one day to teach him not to do it. I am 97% sure he was kidding! Haha!!

Speaking of Kaleb...my sweet husband...yesterday he went grocery shopping with me (HUGE deal for me), and today he went to Beaumont after work to pick up Kam's birthday gift from us AND he went to Hobby Lobby AND Michael's looking for cake stuff for me!!! And last week he, out of the blue, ordered the cutest phone cover for me! Sigh...I really do have the world in this one here!!! I love him so!

So, Kam will be a year one in less than a week. I am trying not to think about it. Or about the fact that I'd planned to have him weaned by then...he only nurses about 3 times a day and gets 2 sippies of formula at his sitter's...I am trying to figure out what to do next. I know a lot of things say that he will wean himself when he's ready and he still climbs up, assumes "the position" and starts nuzzling me when it's time to nurse. I am not quite sure how I'm supposed to tell him no???

Oh, that's another thing. Before now, Kamden would only really cry, I mean all out, tears streaming down, cry, when he was in pain. Well, now he has added "hearing the word 'No'" to that trigger list. Man. He really enjoys throwing food on the floor after he's finished eating. We say no. Sternly. And he starts working on the tears...the mouth turns down first, he turns red, and then the tears come. Sometimes it takes him a bit to work them up, but he sure does it big!! What a mess.

He also can say "Mama," "Dada," "bah" for ball, and "Nah-nah" when he's hungry. He waves bye-bye and occasionally blesses the person being left with a quick "Bye!" We swear we've heard him say "Eh-wa" for Ella, but he won't do it on cue. He loves singing "The Wheels on the Bus." He slaps his hands on top of one another when we sing it to him (his Nonna (his sitter) taught him that one!) and yesterday he actually did "Deep and Wide" for me! Well...he did the deep part. I was proud! This weekend we also discovered that he can catch a ball! I kind of flipped out when I saw it. I wish I would've recorded it!

He refuses all forms of baby food as well as food that's hotter than lukewarm. He loves fruit (oranges, peaches, and strawberries are his favorite) and his sitter tells me he loves veggies, too! He is a big fan of grilled cheese and loves brisket. When given a choice, he's chosen red meat over any other option at the time. He still loves his yogurt, goldfish, and animal crackers.

He gives big, wet, mouth-wide-open sugars when we ask for them most of the time. However, if he's holding any inanimate object (a stuffed animal, a picture, a pan) he will give it sugars every single time! And he kisses himself when he sees his reflection in a mirror. Tonight he also started giving me eskimo kisses...he doesn't quite grasp them yet, I don't think, because when I try to go nose-to-nose he just opens his mouth wider. Ha!

He's gotten so good at putting himself to sleep. We'd fallen back into the habit of rocking him to sleep, and we wanted to be sure to nip that again, and the last few nights he's gone down without any fuss. Tonight he talked for a while, but not in a whine or anything. I think he was probably saying his prayers.

I know this has been long, and it's basically been all about Kamden, but it's mainly for my records.

I have an Ella story! No picture of it because we haven't seen her since it happened...she cut her hair. I mean she cut her hair. It is short. I mean short. She'd been saying she wanted a haircut and her mom made her an appointment...but our girl is more of a proactive person, a "right now" kinda gal, so she took matters into her own hands. I promise I'll post pics of it after the birthday weekend!

(Pre-hair cut!)

We went up to see her weekend before last and were able to take her to Hodges Gardens...she pretended to be our hiking leader. She did a great job!

This is a picture of my dad and Kamden. Somewhere there is a picture of my Pappaw holding my dad on that same piece of petrified wood (which you cannot see, but trust me, my dad is sitting on it!) at Hodges a lllooooonnnngggg time ago. My goal: find that picture!!! Either way, this one is adorbs!

I think that'll do it for this update. I will (hopefully) be back after this fun-filled weekend!!

Spring Break #2: Ella's Home!!!

2010-03-14T23:18:00.006-05:00

Ella's home!!!

That's the most important thing I have to tell you about this weekend=) Here's a rundown, though. Friday after work we loaded up and headed to Many via Jasper, where we got to meet up with the Williamses for a long overdue dinner!! It was so great to catch up with them! After a delicious Mexican dinner, we made it to Many around 10 or so Friday night. Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast with my family...

then headed out to get Ella!! We weren't the only ones excited to see her...

Kamden was watching out the door for her to arrive! It was the cutest thing!

We spent the day in Many on Saturday and then headed back home to Bridge City for the week. This morning, we went to church then came home for some lovely outside time! It was a BEAUTIFUL day!! This evening, Ella helped feed Kamden...

And entertain him...

With Pat-a-Cake...

And Peek-a-Boo!

He loves his sister so...and so do we!!

I cannot tell you how wonderful and complete it feels to have her back with us for a bit!! Just wish it could be longer! This is my last week before my Spring Break, and usually I'm wishing the weeks away until it's here. But if I wish this week away, it means Ella's week with us will be up...so I am all for dragging this week out as long as we can!! Hopefully we can make it a good one!

Spring Break #1

2010-03-11T22:57:00.004-06:00

Friday evening, our friend/pastor Mark came over with his boys (we missed you, Lauren!!) to hang out while Kaleb did some work on his golf clubs. Now, the Snodgrass boys are 3 and 4 months, and Kamden was very much in awe of Paul, the 3 year old (after he investigated Luke, the 4 month old, and attempted to give him the initial head swat that he gives everyone he comes into contact with). So when Paul went to play in Ella's room, Kam followed closely behind.

A sidenote to say that Kamden loves Ella's room. We keep the door shut most of the time, so when he can get in, it's like a whole new world for him. She has this easel with dry erase markers, chalk, and watercolor paint. He's tried to taste the paints before, so last time he was in there I got smart and moved them out of his reach.

Fast forward to last Friday night...when Kaleb comes out of Ella's room holding Kamden and saying, "Hey, Jenni...are watercolors nontoxic?"

The kid is still here and never got sick, so I am going to go with a yes on that. Our boy...is there anything he won't eat?? (FYI, the answer is yes...and it involves most baby food right now.)

Saturday Kam & I stayed home while Daddy went to play golf...Kam got his special weekend breakfast of a pancake...

and cereal with blueberry applesauce. I say it's special...but really if the boy wants a pancake, the boy gets a pancake!

This week, the school district that Kamden's sitter lives in was on Spring Break, so she took the week off, too. It also happened to be Kam's Nan's (my mom) and Aunt Clair's Spring Breaks as well! So my mom came down Sunday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday evening! I know she had the best time keeping Kam...and I really enjoyed having her down here!! It really made me realize how much I miss my family and made me a little sad to know that we can't do things like that more often. But....such is life, right? So, Nan went back to Many on Wednesday and today Aunt Clair and Mema (Kaleb's mom) kept him. He hasn't been spoiled at all this week!!! He got to play outside all day today, and I hear he is quite the gardener! Ha!! Aunt Clair will be keeping him again tomorrow, then we will be off to Many for the night so that we can get Ella tomorrow!!! Because next week is Spring Break #2 for our house! I'm not off until next week, but Kaleb's taking off Monday to have a Daddy/Daughter Day with Ella, and then he will keep Kam for a couple hours in the morning the rest of the week until his mom can come to keep the kids. They are going to have so much fun!! I wish I could take off some, but I am way out of days at school...I've already been docked for 3.5 days, so I'm trying to save anything else for emergencies! After this week, we start our final week of Spring Break...mine! So Kam will be out of the sitter's for 3 weeks!!! He'll go on Monday of this next week and one day during my week off so I can get some errands run, but other than that he is in full family mode. And I think he loves it. Ha!! I know that he loves his Nonna (sitter), too, though! Hopefully he will do just fine when he goes back at the end of the month.

That's about it for tonight...I am worn slap out! Hopefully I will be back with a post after this weekend, finally with some pics of our sweet girl again!!! I cannot wait for this next week with her!!!

Oh, one last picture...did you know that Kamden loves to empty entire packages of anything he can get his little hands on? And then attempt to eat whatever he empties out? Yes, even diapers. Hey, at least they're clean ones!

10 Months Old!

2010-03-04T23:30:00.003-06:00

Believe it or not, our sweet boy is 10 months old today!

That means that in 2 more months he will be a year old!!! Everyone says how quickly time flies and how fast little ones grow up...and even as much as I try to squeeze every ounce out of each day with him, I am still sitting here shaking my head, trying to figure out how in the world we are at 10 months already.

This week, Kam's decided he's not such a big fan of baby food anymore. He's ready to eat our food. All of it. Any time anything is being put into our mouths, here he comes, licking his chops and pleading with his eyes (and his little whimper). Tonight he was able to coax some Crescent Chicken Pot Pie out of his daddy and some WW Giant Fudge Bar out of me. After a whole cup of diced peaches and an attempt at baby food. We also learned that while he usually loves loud noises (i.e. the vaccuum cleaner, hair dryer, etc.) he is not a fan of the lawn mower. Kaleb tried to take him for a ride on it this afternoon and it didn't go so well. He'll have to learn to love that one! He's also started giving sugars on the lips, but only when he feels like it. Apparently, Sock Monkey deserved some love this afternoon!

Happy 10 Months, my sweet baby boy! I love you so very much and I thank God daily for allowing me to help raise you here! You are such a blessing in our lives. Your smiles melt my heart, and hearing you say "Ma-ma" makes me prouder than I've ever been before. I love you, I love you, I love you!

3 Years and a Fat Lip Later...

2010-03-03T21:56:00.005-06:00

Three years ago today, that was me, minutes before I became Mrs. Kaleb Breaux!!! Can you feel my excitement? If you would've asked me then, I would've sworn to you that there was no way I could ever be happier than I was at that very moment.

But I am! I am happier, more fulfilled, and more in love with my sweet husband than ever before!! On one hand, I feel like there is no way it's been 3 years already since we walked down the aisle. I still get giddy just thinking about being able to say that he is my husband!!! On the other hand, I'm shaking my head in disbelief that it's only been 3 years...I feel like we've been together for much longer than that...I cannot imagine life without Kaleb, and find it hard to remember what life was like before. I do know that I love him more today than I ever have...and that I am so very blessed that God has given me the most amazing husband in the world! He is absolutely perfect for me, and I truly am The Luckiest!!

In honor of our 3 year anniversary, some awesome things happened! I got the most beautiful bouquet of roses at school today!! I just love getting flowers...and getting them at school is even better!!

Also at school, I got a new computer!!! Well, newer...new to me...and it is awesome!!!

And lastly, in honor of our anniversary, Kamden decided to be a little dare devil and push his Tonka walker at full speed through the kitchen...sideways...and then the groove between the tile of the kitchen and the wood laminate of the living room stopped the truck...but not Kamden. Our sweet boy went over the truck and came up screaming and bleeding. I won't lie...I freaked out. My calm, level-headed husband kept his cool and helped me get myself together so we could comfort Kam. There was a lot of blood...I was so scared he'd knocked a tooth out or something. But he just busted his top lip. And he busted it good. My poor baby. Nothing would soothe him except nursing...that definitely did the trick! He calmed down immediately, and then wanted his paci (which I thought would definitely be out of the question). He let us eat our supper and then happily played during his bath and post-bath minutes-of-freedom like nothing had happened. I mean, he can't see that his top lip looks like his mama was Angelina Jolie instead of me. =)

So, minus that little mishap, today has been just great! And the week is almost over! Saturday night, Kaleb's parents are watching Kamden so that we can have a Valentine's Day/Anniversary date!! We will definitely do dinner and we are trying to figure out if we can squeeze a movie in there, too. We shall see!!

Also, hopefully I will be able to get a 10 month picture and post up of Kam-man tomorrow...cannot believe it's time for that already!

Lastly, but definitely not least, please say a prayer for our sweet Ella Claire! Her mom told us today that she's got that dreaded stomach bug that's seemed to hit just about everyone lately. We are praying that she gets over it quickly! I am sure she is miserable, and I hate that we can't be there for her!!

That's it for tonight, folks...until next time!

I Hung My Head

2010-03-01T23:01:00.007-06:00

I am ashamed to even post here! It's been 3 months. THREE MONTHS!!! Here are the monthly pictures we missed...I have missed chronicling so many things...Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's...visits from Ella, a snowy weekend in Many, and numerous milestones that Kamden's achieved. Sigh. I figure I've gotta come back somehow, though, right? I miss blogging big time. I really am going to try harder now...Kamden is going to bed early enough that I usually have time before I go down for the night. Mostly for my own personal records, here's what's gone on...we had wonderful end-of-the-year holidays!! We spent Thanksgiving in Many with the Lowe family, Christmas Eve Eve up there, too...came back to Bridge City with Ella (after seeing her Christmas program at school and going to her class Christmas Party and the kids' first trip to see Santa together) and enjoyed our new house on Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning...then went over and spent the rest of the day in Starks with the Breauxs...we had Ella until after New Year's, and we spent that with all the Coleman clan down here. Then we had a few weeks of school...Kam had an ear infection in late November...then a little viral infection in early February, then pink eye the next week, then was croupy the next week...now he's just got some congestion. We have discovered that he just loves Amoxycilin and that he hates both cough medicines he's had to take thus far in his life.

Here's where he is now...he eats everything. Seriously, everything. If he doesn't like it at first, we mix it with yogurt and he is good to go. He has a head full of hair...and in February he's cut 4 new teeth. The bottom two and the one to his left of those are all the way in...his top right eye tooth came in 3rd (bottom left came in after, but quick) and his front teeth came quickly after, but they're just about half-way in so far. He hasn't had much trouble with them...just loves to gnaw on things. He's been grinding his teeth lately and it drives us CRAZY!! It just makes my whole mouth hurt when I hear him do it.

(This picture was pre-any top teeth.)

Thanks to our good friends the Snodgrasses, we discovered this wonderful book, and Kamden has now been sleeping through the night since the first couple weeks of January. We had a few rough nights in the beginning, but it is well worth it now! He is in a good routine...eats supper around 6:30, plays for a while, has a bath around 7:30, has a 5-10 minute wild romp around his room (I do mean wild), nurses, goes in his crib, immediately stands up, gets cuddled and prayed with, and then goes to sleep around 8:15 or 8:30 each night. He wakes up between 5 and 6. I'll take that over the 3 hour intervals anyday!!

He's very interested in walking...he cruises anywhere he can and pushes everything around the house, whether it's his walker, a tv tray, a bowl, a laundry basket...if he can push it, he's using it to get around. He still doesn't show much interest in walking to either of us...he knows he is a speed crawler, so he drops down and takes off. He's discovered the toilet...both how to flush it and that he can reach it if we forget to put the seat down. YUCK, I know. He also is tall enough that if he gets some momentum he can throw himself over the side of the tub...so far, he's only done this once where he went all the way over, and I caught him before he made contact with the water or tub. He is into absolutely everything. Nothing is safe. He definitely is keeping us on our toes and he is only (almost) 10 months. 10 months!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable.

He says "Da-da," "Bye-bye," and "Ba-ba"(at bathtime) regularly. In the last couple days, he's also (finally!!!) been saying "Ma-ma," too. I also notice that when he's hungry he tends to say "Na-na." Not sure if that's a coincidence or not. He also waves when he says "Bye-bye." He started that around the 9 month mark.

He still is utterly fascinated by the vaccuum cleaner. He LOVES it. He cries when we turn it off. He loves to watch me vaccum the house...and mop, which doesn't make noise. His sitter says that he's just a little man who loves to watch women clean. Ha! I think he's just going to be a clean-loving guy like his Daddy.

Don't have time for much else tonight...just wanted to confirm that we are all alive and well and get the recent milestones written down for our own records. Yes, we have a baby book, but I like to have things in 2 places=)

Forgive me for skipping blogging for 3 months...and know that I am really going to try harder this year!!

A Project and a Birthday

2009-11-23T20:45:00.008-06:00

Once again, too much time in between posts. I will freely admit I've been neglecting my blog (and grading papers) because I finally started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and they kind of took over every free second of time I had. I only read the first 4 and had to make myself stop so I could get other stuff done!

We've been wanting to paint Ella's room since we moved in, and we decided it would be great to have it done for her when she came home for her birthday weekend/Thanksgiving Break! So last week, every extra minute we had was thrown into redoing this room:

And making it this room:

I know, I know...it's pink, huh? That's what Ella requested--"bright pink" actually, and we went for it! I think it turned out pretty great, right?? This was our first time ever painting a room, and it went pretty smoothly! We are no longer painting virgins!

We also wanted to redo her little chest of drawers. It belonged to my grandparents, and it was a blonde-ish wood with bronze hardware. We wanted it to match everything else in her room, so we pretty much copied my DIY-idol, Just a Girl, to the letter in doing this thing! It turned out pretty well! The only thing is that we only let the paint dry about 20 hours when we probably should've let it go longer because of the rainy weather. The TV scratched the paint off immediately! But it still looks great!

Ella loved it! She still is a little apprehensive about sleeping in there alone, though. It's way down the hall and around the corner from our and Kamden's bedrooms, so the first night back she wanted to give her bed in Kam's room a go.

He's supposed to be lying down to sleep. Riiiiiiiiight. She was going to read one book and then go to sleep. She kept calling out to tell me he was standing up. He was a little distracting=) So she did sleep in her own room that night, but half of the night I was in there and the other half her daddy was:) And then as soon as he came back to our bedroom, she was in about 30 minutes later! We'll see if this continues to be a pattern=)

The next day was Ella's 5th brithday party!!! Yes, our little lady turned 5 years old on Sunday!!! Unbelievable. Her party was a lot of fun...the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves! Here's the birthday girl on her throne...

And here's her beautiful (and delicious!!!!!!!!) Margie cake! (For those of you who aren't family members, Kaleb's Aunt Margie does all the cakes for the family...and the are all just as gorgeous and unbelievably, sinfully delicious!

Ella's main gift from us this year was a bicycle! And a princess helmet and elbow pads, naturally. She loves it!

And lastly, the other child. He's doing well...I know you saw the picture of him in his crib, and you're probably wondering (if you care at all) how his sleep is going. Well.......he does start his night out in his crib, but he wakes up around 1 and I just put him in bed with us so that I can function at work the next day. However! Kaleb and I are both off this week, so we are dedicating ourselves to some serious sleep training with the boy! Last night went great! He went down after his last meal around 10. He slept until probably 12 or 1, when he woke up fussing. Kaleb got him to go back down until maybe 2 or 3. I went in and got him to go back down without nursing!! He woke back up at 5, and that was basically morning, so I brought him to our room and he ate and played for a while before going back to sleep. He went from 10-5 without needing to eat!!! So now that I know he can do it, it'll be much easier to just let him cry without worrying that maybe he really is hungry. Hopefully, though, his waking will start to diminish. Fingers crossed!

At Kamden's sitter's house, there is a walker. And Kamden loves this walker. He goes everywhere in it. He comes to meet us in it when we pick him up, laughing all the way! We were going to get him one, and then one of our friends at church told us she had one she wasn't using!! We've only had it one day and it's already been a HUGE lifesaver!!! He just smiles and laughs and roams the house in it!
It's so nice to know he is able to be mobile yet contained=) He goes all around the house on his hands and knees, too, but the walker makes it much harder to get to cords and wires=)

Lastly, this sweet picture of my sweet possessive baby boy. Does it look like he's saying, "She's mine!!" Oh, I love my life!

The Tale of the Boy Who Cried...Every 2 Hours.

2009-11-05T10:31:00.004-06:00

Once, there was an adorable, sweet, funny, heaven-sent baby boy named Kamden. He was (and is still) adored by many. He was a very healthy baby, weighing in at 19 lb 13 oz at 6 months, and every sign indicated that he should be sleeping through the night by now. But was he?

No.

His parents thought that maybe, just maybe, it was because he was still sleeping in a pack-n-play by their bed...and was able to eat any time he woke up because his mama wanted to sleep and thought it was much easier to just put him in bed with her, latch him on, and fall back to sleep...several times a night. So, maybe they were waking him up! Yes, that must be it! Maybe Daddy's snoring, or being able to smell Mama just a few inches away was what roused him from his sleep and made him think "time for a midnight/2 a.m./4 a.m./10 p.m. snack!"

So, the tired Mama and Daddy bought a baby monitor for the sweet thing and put him in his very own bed in his very own room at 8:30 the night he turned 6 months old. (They waited 6 months because his mama, who reads entirely too much, read that the risk of SIDS goes down if he co-slept in their room for the first 6 months!)

And everything was great! And then it was 10:45. And he awoke, certain that he was just starving to death. So Daddy tended to him for a while, and there was just no consoling him, so they thought maybe, just maybe he was needing his last meal for the night. So the mama let him nurse...and he fell asleep after about 10 minutes of eating.

This happened again at 1:10, 1:50 (at 1:10, Daddy got him to go back to sleep), 3:30, and at 5:30, when Mama fed him and brought him to their room so she could pump and start getting ready for the day. Oh, my. Is this what it's going to be like every night?

The mama and daddy certainly hope not!

That, my friends, is how Kamden's very first night in his very own bed in his very own room turned out. It gets better, right?

Oh, and yes he will take a paci, but if you really want to see a violently angry 6-month-old baby, you should try offering Kamden a paci when he really just wants to nurse. It ain't a pretty sight--and the sound is even worse!

Excuses and Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T21:40:00.004-06:00

So here's my excuse for the length between posts this time!

It is Election season at the Breaux house. As most of you know, my wonderful better half is the Election Coordinator for our county...which means for about 2-3 weeks during the fall and sometimes the spring, too, he has to work LIKE A DOG every single day. Seriously, he has not had a day off since October 19!!! We so appreciate all the hard work he does for our family!! Sadly, this means he has to work longer hours so we don't get to see him as much. And you can probably guess how well Kamden does when I'm trying to do something besides give him my undivided attention...so blogging has been out of the question! But right now he and his daddy are taking a much-needed pre-bedtime nap together, so here I am!

Yesterday was Kamden's first Halloween, and also Kaleb's and my first real Halloween together! Why? Well, like I said, it's Election season...it's always Election season during Halloween! So this is the first time he's had Halloween night off since he started working for Jefferson County 3 years ago!!! We were pretty excited about it, and we had a Halloween Party to go to! We got Kam's outfit last weekend, and kind of procrastinated on our's...okay, we really procrastinated...we were at Goodwill and Spirit Halloween Store yesterday afternoon getting what we needed for our costumes:) Can you guess what we all went as?

Okay, Kam-o is a monkey...and the cutest monkey I've ever seen=) Kaleb went as Harry Caray, the late Cubs announcer...well actually he went as Will Ferrell doing Harry Caray. It was hilarious! I wish I would've filmed him!!! And I went as the Octomom. I was thinking I'd just get Ella's dolls and hit up Goodwill for however many more I needed to make 8 so I went to her closet and started pulling them out...the girl has 8 baby dolls!!! I could only fit 7 of them in, so I just threw Kamden on my hip and called him my 8th! And we could not get a good family pic...closing his eyes wasn't part of Kaleb's get-up...he just has the tendency to do that when he takes pictures! Haha...and I forgot to take my glasses off for the picture. Oh, well!!

The party was a lot of fun...and we got to fall back last night! It's my favorite night of the year. Kamden didn't really understand it this morning, though, as he was crawling all over me at 6 a.m. ready to start the day! We had a talk, but I don't think it's sunk in yet. He's been realllllllllllly sleepy today, and cranky for a lot of it. He didn't rest much yesterday, though, so we are praying that's why! A little boy at his sitter has come down with H1N1...and I am reminding myself that God is in control, not my worrying, oh, about every hour on the hour since we found out=) We started some vitamins as I've read that Vitamin D deficiency is thought to be a cause of all influenzas...and mostly we're just praying and trusting God to keep our baby boy well! He had his 4 month shots this past week (yes, I know he'll be 6 months(!!!) on Wednesday) and he never ran any fever or anything. He's still eating anything we'll give him and he coughs a bit but it's mostly when he's upset and he's done that since he was about 3 weeks old. Don't know who he could get that drama from!! =)

I'd also like to ask for your prayers for Kaleb's family...you may remember that they lost a cousin suddenly a couple months back. We found out yesterday that another cousin passed away Friday night...he had a pulmonary aneurysm that caused a heart attack. He was only 30 years old...I had the privilege of meeting him at the other cousin's funeral, and he was such a wonderful guy, so full of life. We were throwing around plans to go visit him in New Mexico in the future. It's just so very tragic, and something that everyone's just scratching their heads about. Please keep the family in your prayers in these coming days, weeks, and months.

I think that's about it for this update...I should really attempt to do my lesson plans while Kam is asleep!

Pumpkin Patches & Wild Things

2009-10-21T18:09:00.009-05:00

What a wonderful weekend we had!!!

This was our first weekend to have Ella at the new house when we weren't having to move! Woo hoo!!! Friday night, she wanted to eat Mexican, so we went out to eat and to get her a few new clothes from Target...our little long legged lady didn't have a single pair of pants that came past her ankles here!! Our big plan was to go see Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday. When she was with us regularly, we read that book just about every night...and she absolutely loves it. So last year when we found out that they were making a movie of it, we told her and the poor thing has been waiting for at least 7 months to finally see it!!

Saturday morning, we got up, got ready, and I was asking her what else she'd like to do with our Saturday. She first wanted to go to a museum, but I told her there really weren't any around here...and her next idea was finding a Pumpkin Patch, getting a pumpkin, and carving it! (She also wanted to make a "calabaza pie" which she informed me was "pumpkin pie" in Spanish, but it turns out neither of us or her Daddy like calabaza or pumpkin pie, so we skipped that part.) We'd never been before, so I got online and sure enough, one of the Methodist churches in Beaumont had one! So...that's what we did! First, saw our movie...

and then headed out to the Pumpkin Patch!

After that, we came back to the house to carve Mr. Huggy Face (guess who named him?)...

And had some homemade pizzas! It was such a perfect day...one that we will definitely treasure!

It is so funny to see Kamden with Ella. He absolutely lights up when she's around...speaking of the little man, he's already got another tooth! Just a couple days after my last post I noticed his other front bottom tooth was poking through! He's also gotten really good at scooting anywhere he wants to go. I have a video that I hope to find time to upload overnight...he's started getting up on his feet and pushing a blanket around on the floor. He is just getting way too big too fast!

So that's what's going on these days with the Breaux Fam...what's going on with you?
(Ella took that pic of Kam...and I had to include this last one in all his Little-Man glory!)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

2009-10-12T22:45:00.006-05:00

Here's what's happened since I last posted: We did go to that wedding, and we did make the trip over to Dallas and back that weekend. It was a lot of fun!

I did end up taking Kam's 4 month pictures while he was still closer to the 4 month mark than the 5 month one=) Here's one of the few where his hands were out of his mouth:

At his 4 month appointment, he was 26 1/4 inches long and weighed 17 lb 15 oz. We mentioned to Dr. Wallace how he was noticing (and trying his darndest to grab) everything we ate, and he said it'd be okay to start some cereal. He wasn't so sure about it at first...

But then he loved it! We got a little crazy with it and gave him too much oatmeal at first, but now we've got it regulated to rice cereal at lunch time at his sitter's, sometimes with a fruit, mostly with my milk or distilled water, and sometimes with formula when I don't have enough pumped. The boy is an eater. Big surprise there!

On September 24, we closed on our house!

You might be wondering why I know the exact date...we had to write it on about 15,347 papers, so it's kinda etched in my brain. The following weekend we enlisted our family members and a few friends and completely filled up this truck:

along with a couple others. Who knew we could fit so much stuff in a little duplex with 1200 sq ft??

The kiddos were fantastic while we moved...here they are in our new house!

And here is a most flattering picture of us outside of the house. Yes, we put the sign back up for this picture. I believe this was Mrs. Nell's idea? It was a great one!!!

The following week was spent getting everything sort of in its right place...and the following weekend, October 4, Kam turned 5 months and was dedicated! Yes, we waited a long time...but as you might have been able to tell by my completely sporadic blogging, things have been more than a little hectic! Not a great pic, but at least it's some sort of proof!

Like I said, homeboy turned 5 months!

He is more fun than ever...so happy most of the time. He's trying so hard to crawl...he makes it up onto his hands and knees and rocks back and forth...and sometimes flips himself over...and sometimes scoots backward...and always is adorable.

He doesn't have any words down yet...he has gotten really good at bringing everything to his mouth.

He got to attend his first out-of-the-womb concert this weekend! (First in-the-womb show was NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK woo woo!!) Shane and Shane played in Beaumont and they were so wonderful...it was truly a great worship experience.

And on Sunday he got to wear his first manly pink shirt=)

I think he's saying, "I dare you to attempt to make fun of me in this shirt! My mama will knock you out!" I hear that she will, too.

Tonight I was on my way home from school and the weekly grocery trip when my phone rang...it was my fab husband telling me that Kam has officially cut his first tooth! We can feel it and see it! It's really there!! I doubt I will be able to get a picture of it...he sure does like to keep that tongue on top of it...but it is there! Time surely does fly. I'll leave you with a little bit of proof of that...

I Can't Do No Mo

2009-09-04T13:24:00.002-05:00

Before you ask, no, I don't have any pictures to post for this one. I am feeling like quite the failure at many things lately!! I've never felt so scatter-brained and disorganized (since high school at least). School is always the place I can be orderly, even if it's the only place. My desk=the worst mess I've ever seen. I am making copies the day OF my assignments instead of having the whole week done ahead of time. I haven't done my lesson plans yet, and we'll be gone all weekend. Every student-free minute I have is spent being milked, and as soon as school is over I have to rush home to nurse again. It just never ends and I feel like I can NEVER get caught up!!! Maybe after the house. Because I'm about to get even MORE behind with moving. Which is exciting, but I don't know how I can possibly function with throwing another iron in the fire. I feel like I'm about to burn something!!

The second week of school is coming to a close. It's going to be a challenging year, just putting that out there. Maybe not so much behavior-wise, but last year I had some really bright stars and this year...well, they're kind of...dim. I just want us to continue to grow. And to do that I have GOT to get on top of things. But it's not happening this weekend.

We always go to Kaleb's cousin's house for Labor Day weekend in Dallas, which is always quite the blast. This year, though, I have the privilege of being a bridesmaid for my Bec-Bec!!! The wedding is in Natchitoches. So, we will start heading north as soon as I drop my kids off outside. Kaleb will drop me and Kamden off in Natchy and then go get Ella, then drive on to Dallas. (I'd like to interject that I absolutely cannot wait to see my Ella Clair. CANNOT. WAIT. But I will...) We will do the wedding tomorrow evening at 6 and then my sweet sister, Katie, and her sweet friend, Brant, will drive Kam and me about 2 hours from Natchy and Kaleb will drive about 2 hours from Irving, and we will meet in the middle (Neath that old Georgia pine?) and head on to Dallas tomorrow night. Late. Then Monday we'll leave in the morning and my parents will meet us in Shreveport around noonish and we will all hang out with Ella before we bring her back to her house up there. Then Kaleb, Kam, and I will drive back to the Beaumont. Man. Can you say road weary travelers?

This has been the longest we've gone without seeing Ell, and we are definitely feeling it!!! We miss her so very much!!!

We are also almost in the house. We had the inspections done last week and the appraisal was yesterday. I don't know what else has to happen, but we are thinking (hoping, praying) that it'll be ready to close in the next couple of weeks or so. We are so ready to just be settled.

Kam is doing GREAT with Mrs. Laurel!!! Kaleb said his face just lights up when he sees her. She says he's a good baby, and I'm like really????? Haha...he is a good baby, but when we're around he always "needs" to be held. She said he seems to just know that he's not the only one there and she can't hold him all the time. There are 2 1 yr olds there, and they just love on him a lot. He's also been taking about 4 bottles a day...and I get 3 bottles at school and 1 during the night/morning pumps, so we are just breaking even with that. I am proud to say that he has yet to have any formula, though, so I feel like that is a major accomplishment for us. I don't think there's anything wrong with it or anything...it's just that nursing for at least 6 months, hopefully a year, is a big goal that I've set for myself, and I really will do anything I can to make it happen for the Kam-man. I don't want to have to wean him just because I'm working full-time, ya know? Anyway, it's just something I really prayed about, and I am so thrilled that God is making it happen! One day last week, something happened and I only had 3 bottles to send. Mrs. Laurel said it was like he knew we just had 3 bottles, so that's all he took! Smart boy.

And speaking of our smart boy, he turned 4 months old today! I am just shocked. I know I say this every month, but where did the time go?? I will do a 4 month post hopefully tonight at my parents'. I need to do the pictures and all that. So I PROMISE that the next post will have pictures. Unless I just go crazy first. Which is entirely possible.

Firsts

2009-08-24T21:21:00.002-05:00

Has it really been a week already?? I am so sorry...can you tell I started work last Monday? Last week was great...Kam got to stay with Aunt Jewel Mon-Wed, and Mrs. Nell Thurs and Fri. He was a fussy, hungry little fella every day except Thursday, it seems! He completely depleted my frozen stash. I began getting really worried that we'd have to start supplementing formula during the day...I was pumping a little under 2 bottles at school and one at home, and he was taking 4 during the day. However, I think maybe he was in his 3-4 month growth spurt and just plain comfortable at home and wanted to eat all the time!! Today was his first day at Mrs. Laurel's (his new sitter) and he only ate 3 full bottles and part of another...and that's with him not being with me from 6:45-4:15!! I think that is just fabulous! And I've started to be able to pump more, too. Guess the Lactation Consultant was right...just the stress of going back to work and all that junk! Anyway, Kam napped well for Mrs. Laurel, too...I am so very thankful that he had a good first day at a sitter!!

Today was also Ella's first day of Pre-K!!! Can you believe it??? How in the world is she almost 5 already?? Man. I talked to her this evening after school and she loved it!!! She loves her teacher, loves that she gets to play outside so much, and loves the "new" song she learned! (5 little monkeys swingin' in the trees...) We totally used to sing that all the time. I think they put music to it, though. And she pointed out that they sing "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me" at the end of theirs! =) So funny. So she had a fabulous day as well...I hear she was quite the big girl. I am so proud of her!! And we miss her so much!!!

And, lastly, today was my first day back. It went about like I'd expected it to. I'm trying very, very hard to start this year with much more patience and understanding. We have a ton of new kids this year, and the old ones know what they can and cannot get away with, so it's always fun getting a new set and having to set this straight all over again! It's going to be a good year, though, I am sure of it!

No pictures, I know. I took one of Kam on his first day, and Rebecca sent us pictures of Ella on our phones...I just have to figure out how to get it from my phone to the computer! I think Kaleb's smartypants phone can do it. So I will post pics of both the lovely kiddos when that happens!

I think that's about it...it's 9:30 and my plan is to be in bed by 10 or 10:30 every night. With Kam waking up so often and my getting up at 5 to start pumping and getting ready, it gets really late really early!! I hope all of you have had a wonderful Monday as well!! What? Wonderful Monday? Did I really say that??

School Schmool

2009-08-17T21:58:00.005-05:00

This weekend flew by! We went up to Many for a Lowe Family Reunion and then brought Ella back. Man, that was hard. We know that she is going to love school, though...and I think she'll be doing Dance, too!! She is CRAZY about taking Dance lessons like her Cay-Cay, so I can't wait to see what she learns! Speaking of Ella, I just have to share this picture of her dressing up in Caitlin's clothes the other night...

Haha!!! That is actually one of Caitlin's dresses that she wears now...our girl has graduated from regular old dress-up clothes!

The reunion was a lot of fun...we got a chance to see some people I hadn't seen in...well, I can't remember when...and this was Kaleb's first reunion on my side. I think he didn't think it was too, too bad. Ella really enjoyed herself...she got to play with "The Brown Kids"!!

I kind of just have some random pictures...after the reunion we rode over to Bossier and killed some time at Ellis Pottery. Did you ever wonder if two Breaux kids could fit into the FRONT part of a buggy?

Well, wonder no more. They stayed like this for a good 5 minutes...then Ella was quite over it=) It was a little cramped.

Today was my first day back to school, and it wasn't bad at all!! It helped that a) we had an interesting workshop on ESL this afternoon and b) I know that Kam was in very good hands! He and Aunt Jewel had a good day here...and I basically just spent the day (when I wasn't thinking about school) pumping every chance I got and just being excited to see him this afternoon!! Tomorrow we have a Math Workshop with the fabulous Kay Olds, so I'm not dreading that either. And the rest of the week I get to tackle organizing my classroom. I stocked up on binders and sheet protectors....oh, it's gonna be fun!!

Today went well, but I sure do miss my wonderful husband...he's in Austin for a work conference. I think it's the first time I've stayed here without him. I cannot WAIT for him to come home on Wednesday!!!

So how about a nice, feel good picture before we go...I don't know how you can look at this and not smile!

Ah, if only he can always love getting clean this much!!

Oh, and I almost forgot...Check this out!

School Days...

2009-08-11T23:28:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I think I am officially the worst teacher ever. I haven't been up to the school a single day this summer to do anything for my classroom. Actually, I only went up once and that was to conference with parents whose kids failed the TAKS test. My room is a wreck. They painted the walls, so every single piece of furniture is in the middle of the room. Honestly I would love to get in there and get things together, but I've had an infant all summer and a 4 year old for half of it, and getting things anywhere but our house together is quite the feat=) I have been enjoying our kids, and I don't regret that...I just know that there is a ton of stuff for me to do before Open House next Thursday. Teachers go back to school on Monday, but apparently we will be in meetings and all that good stuff. So basically I need to get my room done this week. And basically that is pretty impossible without help. My mom is here through tomorrow, so I think we are going to head over to the school and try to get some things done in the morning. Ugh. It's really here, isn't it?

Let me fill you in on a little scare we had on Monday. I posted a few weeks ago about how excited we were about finding a sitter for Kam. She'd assured us she'd hold a spot for him for August 17th. No problem. So last week I e-mailed her, just to touch base. She never replied. So Sunday I texted her. No reply. Getting nervous. Monday I was about to call her when I checked my e-mail. Her mother-in-law, who lives with them, had been in the hospital and is sick and will need this lady to help take care of her during the day, so she couldn't take anymore kids Kam's age. Um, when we signed up with her, there were no more kids Kam's age. They were all school age except a 1 year old. So basically I am freaking out and praying and asking everyone I know to pray...and Kaleb reminded me that this sweet lady who keeps the nursery at our church lives in Bridge City and keeps kids. Hmm...I call her and wouldn't you know it she just got a call from a mom of an infant (she keeps 2 max) who decided to stay home this year and her one spot opened up! Tell me God didn't work that! It's in Bridge City, which is away from both our works but where we'll be living when the house thing comes through. And hopefully I can eventually get a teaching job in BCISD. Then there was the issue of where he would stay next week...Mrs. Laurel doesn't take kids until August 24th. I didn't even sweat that...I am finally starting to realize just how much God works things for us=) Well, one of my aunts messaged me saying she could come down and keep Kam. I thought she was joking. She wasn't! And Kaleb's mom said she could take off work a few days to keep him also! Wow. God is so good!!!

So that's what's happened these last couple of days. I know, I know, no pictures. Tomorrow, tomorrow...

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2009-08-09T22:34:00.003-05:00

Aren't they adorable??

Today we went to Ella's second and Kamden's first baseball game! In case you're wondering why Kam's eyes are so big, it's because we were thisclose to the field!!

I was more than a little nervous...and it didn't help that Kaleb kept saying, "Now, Jenni, you have to actually watch the game when we're sitting this close...okay, watch this guy...okay this guy can hit watch out..." So I spent the first couple innings paranoid that we were going to get smashed in the face by a baseball!

Luckily for all of us, that didn't happen! We did, however, get a really cute new family picture=)

Both kids fell asleep at some point during the game...

And Kam woke up in a much better mood! Ella wasn't in a bad mood to begin with.

And I added another location to my Weird Places I've Nursed list!

Hey, when a baby's gotta eat, a baby's gotta eat!! I am saving every drop of milk I've pumped for when school starts. So far I only have 3 5 oz bags!!! I have one week!!! That's not even enough for one day! I gotta get pumpin'...

I am dreading tomorrow because it's the beginning of my last week at home. It kind of hit me today and I started worrying not about how I will handle it but about how Kamden will. He seriously has not been away from me for more than 2-3 hours in his life. So now I'm worried...will he think I abandoned him? What will he do for 8 hours with a complete stranger?? Will the stranger ever e-mail or text me back confirming that she does, indeed, have a spot for him still? (I'm calling her tomorrow to check up on that.) Anyway, I can feel myself falling into the worry stages and I so hate to be there and I know that God so does not want me there...so please help me pray that I can just trust that He makes all things good, even going back to work after you have a new baby!

Now, I am also looking forward tomorrow because my mom's coming to visit for a few days!! It'll be her last trip down here before school starts for us both, and I am really excited about spending time with her! Plus, we'll get to show her "our new house??"! We are under contract...it's funny, we texted the seller to see what we were supposed to do next and he asked us the same thing. Oh, dear.

Love Grows Love

2009-08-08T09:35:00.007-05:00

You have got to check out Genesis Costner's blog and see a few of the amazing pictures she posted of Ella and Kam's photo session with her last Saturday!!! If you are anywhere near Many, we highly recommend her fabulous skills!!!

Notice anything new? I got creative last night and realized I could make a new blog header myself! I used a background I found here, took it into Publisher, added some stuff, and poof! Use another blog backgroung from the same place and we've got a whole new blog that I love!!

The lyrics are from a Caedmon's Call song that we have kind of claimed as our theme...
You said to “put on a happy face”on a high school stage
But I read what you really meant
In your handwriting on a Bible page
You waited like you told me
Though we knew it right away,
It took eight and a half more years
To finally say

I fell in love with you
And that love became something new
It keeps getting stronger
Than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

When we got the news
We had to call our families
And start painting the room
A nice, bright blue
Our vows they started breathing
And they took on flesh and blood
And we held them in our arms
And tasted God was good

I fell in love with you
And that love became something new
It added a name and it added a smile
It keeps getting bigger every further mile
There on your bended knee
We sewed the seeds of our history
They’re coming up stronger
Than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

3 Months Old!

2009-08-06T20:55:00.003-05:00

Somebody turned 3 months old this week! I figure I copy so much off of Kelly, who is a stranger whose blog I stalk, already that it won't matter if I copy just one more thing.

Kamden, you are 3 months old! What are you doing these days?

You are sleeping so well! You normally go down after your bath between 9 and 10. If it's later, it doesn't matter...you almost always wake up between 3 and 4 in the morning and then you're good to go until 6 and 8!

When you do wake up for good, you are in the best mood! (Once you've gotten your breakfast, anyway.) You smile and come so close to laughing. It makes my day!
You sure do love your sister! She sweet-talks to you and you just jabber right back! She absolutely adores you, too!
You smile and talk for your Daddy every single time he tries to get you to! You don't do this for anyone else, not even me!
When you do smile and talk to me, it makes me feel like the most important person in the whole world!
You scooted and rolled over for the first time this week! You pretty much refuse to do it on cue, though.
You're pushing up all the time now, and you have officially perfected holding your head up! Sometimes I can even carry you on my hip!
You love your Bumbo chair. In the kitchen, in the floor, on the bed...you are so happy in that thing! (This might embarrass you later, but it also puts you in the perfect position to poop! We are so happy about this...and that it's so easy to clean=) )
You are just an all-around happy, good baby! You cry if you're hungry, tired, or have a tummy ache, but the happy times way outweigh the sad! We love you so much!

We did Kam's 3 month pictures today! He's getting so big! He's finally fitting into some really cute outfits...like this one with the hat!!! I'm sure his dad would say he hated it so he's flipping me off here...but he does that a lot=)

He would not take his fingers out of his mouth this morning! Even when he smiled!

We had our now-standing Thursday lunch date with Lauren, Paul, and Sara at Chik-Fil-A today, so we got all dressed to go.

Ella wanted to wear her pink Hello Kitty rainboots, so we planned the rest of her outfit around that. She insisted on wearing the scarf and mittens, but her hands started sweating before we left the house, so she took the winter attire off.

We had a fun lunch time...Ella and Paul got to play after they ate. They love Chik-Fil-A!

So today has been a pretty good day! No major meltdowns, just some good quality time with my two favorite kids ever! I so do not want this summer to end!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

2009-08-05T23:24:00.004-05:00

I will detail our day later on in this post, but at one point we stopped by Kaleb's work to go over some papers that I needed to sign. Ella had the camera and was taking pictures. We had no idea what she was taking pictures of...until we looked at them tonight. Here are just a few of the jewels she captured:

I have no idea who Ella's seen do this. Definitely not her step-mama. No way. Not me! We have laughed so hard at these!!! I especially love how big her eyes are in all of them. She is so funny!!

So, today was park day! Kam and I got up at 8 to get ready and let Ella sleep til 9. We made it to the park around 10:30...and stayed all of 30 minutes! It was ridiculously hot, but we still got some cute pictures!

Ella played and Kamden sat there...this was his first time out in the stroller and not in the carseat. It was just too hot and he was soaking through his clothes with the sweat. So, time for the front facing stroller rides! He is such a big boy!
Okay, so it's not much for head support...but it's gotta be much cooler!!

Kam is totally calling a Time-Out here. I just didn't catch it until I uploaded the pictures. Too little, too late.

At one point in the park excursion, I'd gone to the car to put up his carseat and left Kam and Ella at the park entrance. I turned around to see Ella quickly walking away from Kam with a duck very close behind. It had taken a special interest in our girl...and she was especially interested in getting away from it!=) I must say, it did get a little too close for comfort...

After half an hour of baking in the sun, Ella was ready to leave. I hated to just go home since I'd built up the park trip so much, so I suggested we go play at the mall instead of going back to the house. She liked that idea=) She had a blast there...and it felt oh-so-much better!

Did you know our girl is very close to perfecting Hop-scotch?

She had a great time playing...and Kam actually had a great time watching! At one point he was straightening out like he was trying to push himself off of me to get down and get at 'em! This was the first mall trip where he didn't scream. Yay!!!

As always, there are a ton more pictures from today on Facebook...hopefully we'll get around to 4 month pictures tomorrow. And we're meeting for our weekly Chik-Fil-A meal again, so I am going to try and remember to get pictures of that, too. Oh, and I will be singing the glories of the Bumbo seat. Wait for it...

Playing Picture Catch-Up & Conquering Motion

2009-08-04T23:22:00.005-05:00

Alright! The Breauxs came over for dinner and to help us fill out our house contract tonight, so the camera is back! First, let's catch up from this weekend...

The whole family got into the pool before the volleyball began. Kamden seemed to enjoy it. It's cooler than his bath water, but he still seemed quite content. Do you know they don't make Little Swimmers for 3 month olds? Haha...maybe that's supposed to tell us something.

One of the highlights of this day was the fact that Pawpaw taught Ella how to swim! She is pretty terrified of putting her face in the water, but he bought her some goggles and now you can't get her to take her face out! She puts her head down and swims. I guess her main thing was having her nose in the water. Now we just need to perfect the art of kicking out instead of down in the water=)

Here she is in all her gear. Can you tell how much she loves this pool?

We finally got a picture of Mema with her grandkids! Once again, Kam is the only one not looking at the camera. Come on, kid, you are killin' me here!

We also were able to get a picture of Pawpaw with his kiddos! I think they were watching Willy Wonka. Can I just say that Kamden loves Willy Wonka? And yesterday we discovered he loves Chicken Little, too. He thought it was so funny!
Last picture of the day, Artsy Ella took this great Rule of Thirds picture! We haven't even sent her to photography school yet. A prodigy, I'm sure. =)

As always, there are many more pictures up on Facebook.

Now let's talk about today and the second half of my title. Conquering Motion. Today I put Kam down for some tummy time on his little play-mat. The kid scooted until his head was completely off it! More than once!! He was also trying realllly hard to turn over from his back to his belly. He'd get everything turned except for his top leg. It just wouldn't cooperate! Anyway, I was just thrilled that he scooted!!! So Kaleb comes home and Ella and I have been talking up this scooting business. He puts Kam on the floor on his tummy to see him scoot and the boy rolls over. This is the first time we've seen this. We were so excited!!! He did it again, so we got it on video, but it's on Hi-8 so I can't put it on here. Hopefully we will catch it again soon. I still have to share our sing-a-long video. Man, I've got a lot of bandwidth to burn!

Tomorrow morning we are going to take our first trip to the park! Hopefully, everyone complies. Ella asked about going to the park today, so I was toying with the idea of going tomorrow. Then, she had a major, and I do mean major meltdown because she wanted to go home with Mema, Pawpaw, and Cay-Cay. Before you start thinking we are awful parents, the plan was for her to stay the night with them Friday and Saturday night...they're driving to Houston for an Astros game Saturday evening and then we are meeting them for the Astros game on Sunday. I have never seen her fight as hard as she did tonight...it didn't help that she was tired and it was 10:30. Anyway, I decided the park would be an excellent distractor...only it wasn't...but I still want to go.

I haven't talked about this on here, but this is our last visit with Ella before she starts school. We've avoided it as long as we could, but it's here, and it hurts. I had a mini-meltdown myself last night when she told me she wouldn't be able to see us as long when she started school. I guess I didn't realize she knew. I just cannot begin to think what we are going to do without her here. We don't know when we will get her or anything...and that's probably what's bothering me the most. The fact that after we bring her back this time, we don't know how long it'll be before we see her again. I should probably stop talking about it because I'll be a blubbery mess again...I just want to do everything possible to make this last time a fun one for her. Please pray for all of us...it's going to be a very big, very hard adjustment for us all. We really do feel that the Lord has called us to stay here for a while. I know He must know what He's doing. We just have to trust that he is going to work it all out. You know, like that Tom Petty song? It'll all work out...

(No) More Than Words

2009-08-03T22:05:00.006-05:00

Sunday turned out to be SO much fun!!! I was able to enjoy the pool without completely embarrassing myself at pool volleyball=)

This is going to be a boring post, I'll just warn y'all now! I got some wonderful pictures yesterday, but (and it's a big but) I left the camera at the Breauxs' house!!! I got a sinking feeling halfway home last night, but it was way too late to turn around. You know that feeling when you don't have a cell phone? That is suddenly how I've become without a camera. I mean, what if some amazing photo opportunity presents itself? What if Kam rolls over?? What if Ella starts talking to him and he actually starts jabbering back to her??? Nothing to capture it with. And what makes it worse is that tomorrow Kam will officially be 4 months! And how in the world can we set up a cute little photo set in the crib with the little sign with nothing to capture it with?! If I've learned anything it's just how much I rely on that thing. To be perfectly honest, I'd planned to postpone all blogging until we got it back, but I just can't do that. So I've been told=)

Just be ready when it is back...you are gonna get more pictures than you ever thought you wanted to see!

Today was a pretty good one...the kiddos were fabulous this morning...I was able to get some laundry folded, the dishwasher unloaded, breakfast dishes actually washed before lunch, straightened and vaccuumed the house...and we still had time to get groceries before meeting Kaleb to meet with our seller. Ella has been absolutely perfect all day. Our dear Kamden...well, let's just say he has, ah, voiced his opinion a lot. I sing the praises of the sling and its inventors...it saves all our lives on grocery day. He usually sleeps the whole trip. But today was just plain bad timing. I'd fed him at 1, then I had to get ready and get Ella ready and by the time we left the house it was already 2:30. Mistake #1. I knew that he'd be hungry around 3, which was also right around the time I'd be grocery shopping, but there was no alternative. So, off we went. He did sleep in the sling for the shopping part of the trip...then the checking-out time came at 3:25 and he woke up with the hunger of a lion and the voice of one. I guess. He let the entire store know how he felt...he somehow finagled himself half out of the sling...the sweet check-out lady actually unloaded my buggy for me! That was a huge lifesaver. He finally calmed down enough to get back in the sling facing out...and we made it to the car before the screams started again. Our sweet Ella, on the other hand, was an absolute angel!!! She didn't even ask to get a toy or anything! This is a first. She packed her "fancy toys" in her "fancy purse" for the trip.

After we got Kamden fed, we headed to Bridge City to let Ella see the house and to go over the contract with the seller. Ella loved the house! She ran laps around the living room while the grownups quickly came to the realization that none of us had a clue about contracts and reading them and filling them out. Luckily, we've got friends in...I can't think of anything witty to insert here that'd let you know I was singing "I've Got Friends in Low Places"...anyway, Kaleb works with a couple ladies who are going to take a look at it for us tomorrow! So, contract should be done tomorrow, take it to the seller Wednesday, turn it over to the Title company, and get this thing going! It is so very exciting to think about being in our own home! I am trying really hard not to get my hopes up in case something falls through....but, man, it sure is hard!

Tomorrow I have a goal...and that goal is to have clean bathrooms! So, hopefully the kiddos (namely, Kam) will comply and let me do my thang.

Note: The song alluded to in the title of this post is my all-time favorite Monster Ballad. EVER.

VBS, Trips, Sing-a-Longs, and Apparating

2009-08-02T00:45:00.006-05:00

VBS was a lot of fun, but I am glad it's over! It threw Kam off our evening schedule, which also threw off his day schedule, and we were busy trying to get things moving on the house I posted about before. We've talked to our lender and to the seller and we think we've come up with a number we're all happy with...it seems like God is totally taking control of the situation, which is exactly what we were praying He'd do! He's pretty awesome like that=)

So during VBS I mentioned I had the babies...we all had a blast! Remember how I was trying to explain that little thing Kam was so content sitting in?

There it is! Can any of you tell me what it's real name is? We have a Babies R Us gift card to use, and I am pretty positive this is what it'll go for! He sure did love that thing.

After VBS Friday night, we headed off to Many. We got Ella at 10:30 Saturday morning and a friend from high school who takes amazing pictures came to do Ella & Kam's pictures!!! I was sooooooo excited that we were able to get her. You have got to check out her stuff!! We cannot wait to see the pictures!! (But we will wait patiently, Gen, while you work your extra magic=) )

After the pictures, my dad boiled some delicious shrimp...then Ella wanted to have a Disney Sing-along (I have been debating about whether it's sing-along or sing-a-long. I think on videos we have it's Sing-a-long, but why? Along is a word. Sing along. Sing-along. Anyway, I don't like the way Sing-along looks, so I compromised and used both hyphenations, one in the title and one here. and now you know just how much I dwell on grammar.).
I would've taken a video of that, but we were all singing and...well...you know. She wanted to revisit Disney songs on the ride home, though, and I DID get a couple videos of that. I'm working on getting them uploaded but that seems to be a major feat so just be patient with me as I try to be patient with my computer!

After Many, we headed down to Starks to visit with the Breauxs, Renfrows, an Edgar, and a couple Colemans. We also got to see some of Kaleb's dad's family that we hadn't seen in forever, so that was nice! We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time at the Breauxs' house, so tomorrow after church we are heading back for an afternoon filled with great company, great food, and a great pool=) I know there will be pool volleyball...y'all pray for a sista! I am so athletically challenged, yes, even in the pool. I hate to embarrass my family! I guarantee that I will always cause my team to lose, though. Sigh. Maybe one day I'll get some coordination! =)

On that note, it is 1:14 a.m. and we have to be up at 7:30 to get ourselves and our wonderful children ready for Sunday School by 9:45! Sunday mornings growing up were always hectic, and I am very quickly realizing why. I leave you with a beautiful picture of a beautiful girl with a beautiful flower...

I sure do love this girl!

Oh, one more thing. On the way home tonight, 2 street lights went out as we were driving by, and I spent the rest of the ride home trying to figure out why in the world anyone would want to apparate to Port Arthur, TX!!! (If any of you are Harry Potter fans, you will get this.)

The Thunder Rolls on Sunshine Mountain

2009-07-30T00:03:00.003-05:00

Ugh!!! I do not know why Blogger doesn't have a thing that lets you rotate your photos. It's turned the right way on my camera and as the file on my computer, but Blogger rotates it. Anyway, turn your heads sideways and see how sweet Kam slept for 2 STRAIGHT HOURS for his morning nap today (Wednesday...I know it's posted on Thursday but it's midnight).

Then he woke up and immediately put his fist in his mouth. He is enjoying his hands more and more these days...he doesn't suck on them, he really just licks around on them a lot. So, we had CMT on for most of the morning. ~~I like~~ We like to have music playing, and ~~I am~~ we are in a very country mood this summer. =) So, The Singing Bee was on and they were playing "The Thunder Rolls." My boy was awake and in a great mood, so I started singing it to him. I think he kind of liked it...
Then I started thinking about "The Thunder Rolls" and is that really a good message to be sending to our 12 week old baby? Um, no. How about some "Sunshine Mountain"? I think he liked that one a little better. He started ~~jabbering~~ singing along=)
Our boy loves his swing...it surely is a huge lifesaver!!!
Tonight we started VBS. I'm with the 0-2 yr olds (with a helper) and Kaleb has the 1st-3rd graders. It was a lot of fun! They have a lot of the little sit-in bounce-a-roo-type thing? I don't know what they're called. The round things they sit in and it has all sorts of fun stuff attached all around him and he can play with it? That thing. Kamden sat quite content in that for quite a while. So, we will most likely use our Babies R Us gift card for one of those=) You know, to give the swing a break.

That's about all I have for this evening. Stellan is still not in Boston...the doctors are having changing ideas about what to do, so MckMama is asking that we pray for wisdom on everyone's part to do what is best for Sweet Stellan. He's been very toxic because of the drugs, but he's been peeing it out quite a bit today, so he's not as swollen.

Now I think I'll go to bed. Oh, Kam made it til 4 a.m. before he woke up. 5 hours. I'll take it. Did he go down awake tonight? Well, he was realllllllly fussy and wouldn't calm down, so I thought he was hungry and started nursing him. He was out in under 5 minutes, the little turkey!! Guess I learned my lesson.

House Hunting & Sleeping!

2009-07-29T00:31:00.008-05:00

So, yesterday we went and talked with a realtor. We liked her, we really did, but didn't sign a contract with her just yet. There was a house in Bridge City that we wanted to look at and it was For Sale by Owner. So yesterday we rode out to look at it...I took 66 pictures, but I will spare you=) Here's part of the front...My personal favorite parts are the living room and kitchen areas...

Now, all of Bridge City completely flooded during Hurricane Ike last year. There were literally 15 homes that were untouched (I heard). This one flooded and the guy who owns it now bought it from his uncle, completely gutted it and redid EVERYTHING. So everything is new...and beautiful. We have not found a home that we just loved during our hunting...this one is 1,822 sq ft, 3 br, 2 ba, 2 car garage...has the open living/dining area that we are looking for, all tile and wood laminate except for the new carpet in the bedrooms...nice sized rooms and bathrooms...so now we are just trying to decide what our first offer should be. You know, the one that's ridiculously below what we'll pay but not so low as to be insulting to the seller? That one. The way I see it, if we can't get it for what we are looking to spend on a home, then this one's just not for us!

Oh, and about the flooding...BC hasn't flooded like that in a hundred years, literally, not just a number I came up with. We are going to get an insurance quote also before we make an offer. So maybe you could be praying with us about that! This is our first home so we are pretty nervous about it!

In other news, Kamden is sleeping so well! This last week he's started waiting longer and longer between his nightly feedings. He will normally eat at 9, get a bath and go down at 10, and wake up around 4. Now I am unsure, but I think the last 2 nights I've just put him in bed with us without feeding him and he's gone back to sleep until 5 or 6. I could be wrong though. Anyway, even if he's sleeping til 4 that's 6 full hours. Sometimes he wakes up around 2 or 3 but he's not hungry, just reinsert his paci and he's back to sleep. I tell ya, it is so nice. I am still holding him until he's asleep, though, and putting him down asleep. I know it's about time we started sleep training with him, although I don't think I could ever be a CIO-er (that's Cry It Out-er). I also don't want him to have to have one of us with him to fall asleep. So tonight it was pretty late at his last feeding--11 because we have been getting all our loan info together for our lenders--and he was still awake after he ate. So I put him down. Awake. Without rocking him to sleep. Now, we did rock, but just not until he was asleep. He whimpered for a bit and I put his lovey close to his face, and he didn't cry. I left the room and he didn't cry. After a few minutes of silence, I went back in to check on him...still awake, but not crying. A few minutes later, here's what I found:

He doesn't even have his paci in his mouth!!! I am in no way trying to cut the paci out right now. Just excited to see that he didn't need it to fall asleep! How sweet is it that he is clutching his lovey like that? Also, it looks like he'd get a crick in his neck doesn't it? He throws it back like this to sleep every night, no matter what side he's on. Makes my neck hurt just thinking about it.

Anyway, he's been in there like that for over an hour now and I am just praying this is a new trend for him!! It seems too easy, though. I'll keep y'all posted, as I'm sure you are just on the edge of your seats about it.

And lastly, an update on Stellan...the last things she posted this afternoon/evening said that he was very uncomfortable and manic from the drugs...and then that he was beginning to show signs of toxicity because of the high levels they were having to give him to keep his little heart out of SVT. Then he has a lot of gags, chills, shakes, and fussing, vomited, and felt much better. They are thinking that they will be going to Boston tomorrow. I know she keeps posting positive things, but the pictures on her Tweets will just break your heart!!

P.S. Grandparents: I apologize for the lack of Kam-pictures...maybe we will do some new photos tomorrow. Today was full of crankiness, and nobody needs to see that!

'Cause You've Got...Personality!

2009-07-28T09:12:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was another first for our sweet boy! He and I went to Al's Formalwear to return Kaleb's tux from the wedding. The entire trip there I was trying to figure out how I would carry in his carrier and two tuxes (another guy's) and open the door. I decided the sling was a better option...even though I hated to get him out of the carseat and into the sling just to run some tuxes inside. So we came back out and I was putting him back in his carseat and he was looking at me and holding his head forward. That's a first! I laughed at him and pushed it back onto the headrest in his carseat. He immediately grinned real big and popped right back up!! It was like he was playing a little game with me! It was the cutest thing!!!

We are also noticing that he is CONSTANTLY jabbering if he's awake. And he notices now when he's alone in a room...when it's just us at home during the day, if he's awake in his swing and I step out of his eyesight he starts whimpering...as soon as I talk or show myself he's fine!

He also will pretty much always smile if we coax him even a little...or if he's lying on his back and looking at a fan. What in the world is so funny about fans?? I think every baby in the world is fascinated by them.

Anyway, that's what's going on in the world of Kamden today. It is so fun seeing his little personality come out!

For those of you who are following Baby Stellan, have you seen MckMama's latest Twitters? Here they are from this morning:

Stellan had a good night! He's on enoromous amts of 3 heart drugs & they've finally been keeping him in & OUT of SVT so he's getting breaks.
Stellan is WAY fluid positive, though, and the Lasix (diuretic) hasn't been working, so he's pretty puffy.
He's definitely out of immediate danger since his heart rate is finally slower. Today we work on hammering out details to get him to Boston.
Stellan is still feeling sick (restless, nauseous, itchy, manic) from all his meds, but they're keeping him out of SVT so that's just that.
He's been NPO for over 24hr because they've been on the verge of venting him. No venting in immediate future since he's doing well so: MILK!
Stellan's hemoglobin is still low so he's getting another blood transfusion. Thank you to everyone out there ...

Sounds like things are stabilized right now...let's keep lifting the McKinneys up in prayer!!

Please Pray for Stellan!!!

2009-07-27T10:04:00.001-05:00

Like thousands of other folks, I have been reading MckMama's blog and following sweet Stellan's trials and tribulations for months now. In the womb, he was diagnosed with SVT, which makes his heart beat ridiculously fast, in the 200's, and the doctors told his parents that he wouldn't survive. Then, God worked and he did! He was born with no more heart problems at all until he was 4 months old. He spent 2 months in the hospital and God worked again! Since 6 months, he's been out of the hospital and regulated by medication...he's had a few bouts but he always came out quickly. Now he has been in SVT since Thursday and it doesn't look good. You can read the details on the link above...please pray for this beautiful baby boy!!!

A Wedding and Some Sushi

2009-07-27T00:16:00.000-05:00

The wedding was so nice! Kam got to wear his dressiest outfit for it...we are hoping it will still fit for his Dedication!! We really need to set that up. Anyway, the wedding was lovely, and we are so very happy for Leslie and Justin!!! I have to share this picture because I just thought it was the cutest idea! It talks about how the SWEETest part of their wedding was sharing it with all their guests (I think...something to that effect) and there were lots of different kinds of candy and little bags that you could fix for yourself! So cute!!

Mr. and Mrs. Justin Williams! I have a picture of them looking at the camera, but I totally cut off the top of Justin's head, so decided to use this one instead.

Kamden did great...had a couple of times that I thought he had an explosion, but I quickly unbuttoned the bottom of his outfit and sat him up on a nursing cover so he could finish. It stayed in the diaper both times! Yaaay!!! Thought I'd share this ADORABLE picture of him talking to his Daddy!

And this, my very favorite picture of my very favorite boys. Is my husband not just so very handsome??? Man, I am one lucky girl.
After the wedding, we came back to Beaumont to rest a little then met up with Mark, Lauren, Paul, Tony, and Aaron for sushi! Yummmm....

Okay, I'd posted another picture of a Crunch Roll, but I accidentally deleted it and I don't feel like re-uploading it! So the Kiluaua will have to do. And lastly, my wonderful friend, Lauren, with her wonderful baby boy, Paul, and me and my wonderful baby boy!

It was such a good time!!

Tomorrow we are going to meet with a realtor...pretty exciting, right? We are really hoping to get the ball rolling on this house stuff. Pray for us!!

Goin' to the Chapel...

2009-07-25T09:54:00.001-05:00

Well, we're not getting married, but our good friends, Leslie and Justin are!!! We had a great time at the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner last night. It was so great to see Les and Justin again, and to meet all their family that we've heard so much about! It was pretty funny...you all know that I'm a blog stalker...well, Leslie's sister-in-law, Heather, is one of those blogs that I stalk. She puts up pictures and everything just like I do, so I almost forgot that I hadn't actually met her and her family. So we were talking with her and she was holding Kam and talking to him and she told him she'd seen lots of pictures of him...turns out she's a blog stalker, too!! It was exciting to have a blog stalking reciprocated. I felt so honored! Haha!

Kam had on an adorable outfit from Aunt Katie for the first quarter of the night. See how cute?

Then he had yet another explosion. Have I talked about his explosions on here? He used to space them out, every other day, but lately he is blowing out every single day. Usually I can catch it because he's quite noisy with it=) So I pick him up as soon as I hear him so it can't go up his back. Last night we didn't get it fast enough...it was up to his neck. Yuck!! Luckily, I was kind of expecting it so I'd brought a cute layette to change him into. I pack 2 outfits in his diaper bag now...let's just pray he doesn't need them at the wedding today!!!

Here are some pictures I took of Leslie and Justin and then of me and Les. It's strange how I actually forget how much I miss her until I see her!!! We have got to get together when they get back, and do it much more often!

Who is that completely random, definitely not-on-purpose guy behind them?? Awkward!!! Haha=)

The Happy Couple!!!

Oh, quick story to wrap up...I'd gotten these really cute pacis for Kam on Thursday. You have to sterilize them before first use, so, since I'm a good mama, I fixed a pot of boiling water and threw them in it. I did not set a timer. I went about my business feeding Kam (and probably watching something ridiculous on TV) until I heard a hissing sound. It took me a good while to figure out that it was coming from the kitchen...every drop of water had evaporated from the pot and the adorable pacis were melted to the bottom of the pot. Everything was ruined. Here are the poor cute pacis.

Don't worry...I got more=)

Off to dress Kam for the wedding...let's pray he doesn't ruin this outfit!!

Goooooooood Mornin', Good Mornin'!

2009-07-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

So that is pretty much the only part of that song that I know. I make up the rest of the words. But Kam doesn't mind...in fact, I think he pretty much loves it. Here, you be the judge!

He is so happy these days!! Unless he's hungry.

Yesterday was busy! We met Lauren and Paul for lunch at Chik-fil-a and had a great time after I got Kamden hosed off after his massive explosion in his carseat. Man, not to be gross, but that kid is a full-blown man when it comes to pooping. After that we went to the mall for a couple of things then Wal-Mart to get things for supper. Then we went to Kaleb's work, left the cold stuff in the fridge there, and headed off to meet a lady about keeping Kamden once school starts back. We have really been praying that God would lead us to someone that we would trust and it would make it a little less hard to leave him. We found her!!! She is WONDERFUL and we are praising God that we found her!!!

After that we drove out to Orange to look at a house...didn't like it so much...then Kam and I came home to start on supper while Kaleb went to pick up his tux for Les and Justin's wedding tomorrow. While I was feeding Kam and he was on his way home, his parents called to see if we wanted to meet them for supper at La Cantina, the restaurant formerly known as Acapulco, which is our favorite=) So yay I didn't have to cook! We had a great dinner.

I just realized what time it is...I have to go get ready to leave!!! Here's a pimpin' bathtub pic until next time!

Happy Birthday, Nan!

2009-07-21T11:39:00.001-05:00

Today is my mom's/Kam and Ella's Nan's birthday! Since there was no way we could be with her for her birthday, I thought I'd do a birthday blog to try and make up for it=) I wish I could've gotten one of these pictures with both grandbabies, but Ella's not here and I didn't plan far enough ahead.

Kam wanted to wish his Nan a VERY happy birthday!

He was all smiles this morning=)Man, I love this little guy. And we love you, too, Nan! Hope your day is wonderful!!

We had a busy end of the week/weekend. Thank you all so much for your prayers for Kaleb's family. Please continue to remember them...it's a very, very hard time for everyone. They could really use your prayers!

We drove to Franklin Wednesday for the wake that evening and stayed for the funeral on Thursday. Then we drove up to Many after the funeral to take Ella back on Friday. And we came back on Saturday. It was so nice to be home Saturday night! Felt like we'd been gone forever. This week is pretty clear...I have to meet with the parents whose kids didn't pass TAKS tomorrow...not looking forward to that...and then Friday and Saturday we will be spending some time with the Rector/William duo that is about to just be the Williamses!!! Woo hoo!!! Leslie and Justin, we are SO excited for you guys...and so excited that we are actually getting to see y'all!!! It has been way too long. We are really looking forward to the wedding weekend!

Speaking of, I have nothing to wear to said wedding, so we are heading to Kohl's when Kaleb gets off work. We have a 30% off thing that expires tomorrow, so we are going to take advantage of it!

Hope you all are having a wonderful week...and hope you have a great birthday, Nan!!

Pictureless

2009-07-15T07:22:00.000-05:00

I honestly havn't taken any pictures since the last post, so sorry! Wanted to give an update.

1. Please remember Kaleb's family in your prayers. One of his cousins died very unexpectedly on Monday. He left behind a wife and 2 children, as well as all of his family. It's been very tragic for everyone who knew him. Especially remember them over these next few days as they gather for the viewing and the funeral.

2. We'll be gone for a few days...we leave today for Franklin to take part in the arrangements. We'll go up to Many after the funeral tomorrow to bring Ella back on Friday. Probably no posts til Sunday.

3. On a lighter note, Ella is HILARIOUS. 2 Scenarios.

Yesterday, we were watching TV when she says, "Jenni, don't you think I need one of those little white things to sleep with?" I hadn't been looking at the television, so I rewound it. Those little white things would be maxi pads. Deeeelightful. That sure was a fun conversation to have!! I did tell her mom so that she wouldn't be shocked if Ella said something to her about ladies bleeding.
Still yesterday, in between Target and Wal-Mart (which involved both kids being absolute perfect angels!!) she says, "Jenni, you know I'm gettin' a little bit older..." I said, "Yes, you are, baby..." "I think I need one of those little chin things." Ummm...what??? "You know, those little white things that you put on your chin and it exercises it for you?" So apparently, our little lady is a walking infomercial!!! When I told her mom about that one, she shared with me that they were in Target recently and passed by the "Slider Station" thing (RIP Billy Mays) and Ella said she needed it because they could cook hamburgers "in just 2 minutes!!"

Man, I love that kid!!

Visits and a Shower

2009-07-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

Slacking again, I know.

So we know that Nan was here to visit. Thought I should give you some proof!

After she left, BOTH KIDS went down for a nap at approximately the SAME TIME!!! The stars were aligned or something.

It's a rare moment around here! I got quite a bit done around the house before Kaleb got home.

Yes, they can both breathe, I promise!! They are burrowers I guess=)

After Kaleb got home, we were still waiting for Katie to arrive, so Ella and I decided to bake some of the best chocolate chip cookies you've ever tasted!! She is such a little bakerella!

Look at that form!! She is a natural!

Katie arrived and we went out to eat at La Cantina, our favorite Mexican restaurant. No pictures of that, sadly.

The next morning, Katie watched the kids (our first official babysitter!) while I went to this FABULOUS day spa to get a pedicure that she'd gotten me for my birthday!! Best pedicure of my life. I will have to make this a monthly indulgence, I'm afraid! I mean, check them out!!

Mmmmm, it had been over a year. So nice!!! Thank you, Katie!! And if you live in the Beaumont area, I highly recommend Vallie Marie Day Spa!

That afternoon, Kaleb's coworkers gave Kamden a shower! This was our 4th one...we are so, so very blessed!!! I didn't get a lot of pictures because we were opening gifts and writing and all that good stuff, but here are the decorations and the adorable cake!

And here is the best present-opener, displayer, and the best big sister ever!

What an eventful day...during the shower, one of Kaleb's coworkers was feeding Kam with my last bottle of expressed milk and he had a HUGE blowout that went all the way up his back. And through his adorable little outfit (which is now ruined) onto the lady's blue jeans!!! I hope it didn't stain them the way it stains everything it touches at our house! (By the way, he NEVER had blowouts like that until the night after his shots, so I am thinking that might have had something to do with it.) Silly mama had forgotten to pack an extra outfit for Kam. Luckily, we were at a BABY SHOWER and there were a few outfits that were his size right now=) Like this one!

So handsome.

After the shower, we loaded everything into the truck so that we could take Ella to meet up with Kaleb's dad. They were taking her to Galveston for the weekend. We got in the truck, I started feeding Kamden, and Kaleb was moving the car into a parking space. He glanced at the truck to see that it now had a flat tire. They're doing construction on the building we were parked at and a big chunk of metal got stuck in his tire. So, we moved to the car and Kaleb loaded everything into it and we were off. After we dropped Ella off, we met back up with Katie at Frankie's, our favorite Italian restaurant in town.

I have no idea how we managed to not get a single picture of Katie while she was here!! I promise she was, though!

Yesterday, Kam and I hung out at home while Kaleb played golf with his dad. I cooked a roast for supper last night and started preparing for today's lunch. I did my first Lambert Brisket Sunday Dinner, and it was a success! Brisket (okay, it was a Sadler's that I doctored up), Baked Beans, Potato Salad, and Garlic Bread. And I doctored up some barbecue sauce, too. I learned from the best!!! (That would be my sweet Daddy. This is one of his Sunday dinners!) We had our wonderful friends, Mark & Lauren and Paul and Chris and Noah over to help us eat it.

This evening, Ella came home and we visited with Kaleb's family for a while. Then it was bathtime for Kam-man again. Daddy likes to keep things interesting, so we tried out the sink!

We have pretty much decided that as long as he's surrounded by reallllllly warm water, he is going to love his bath.

And now, everyone's asleep except for me, so I think I'm going to try and get settled in now! Hope you've enjoyed this picture-filled update!! It makes up for the missing days, right?

Bath Time!

2009-07-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

I realized recently (mostly thanks to Carolyn's adorable bath pics of Baby Jaslyn!) that we had next-to-no bath pictures of Kamden! And that I definitely didn't have a bath time post. It's for a good reason...Kam really didn't care to much for baths in the beginning. His wonderful Daddy discovered that it was because we weren't getting his water warm enough, though, and baths are usually pretty fuss-free for him now. We were still putting his tub by the sink and just pouring the water over him and all that. Well, last night we put him in the tub with me and he LOVED it!!! He kept trying to lay his head back in the water, bucking off of me, kicking his feet, and cooing and smiling. So, that told us that he really likes being submerged in the water! That and the fact that when his Daddy put him in the pool at Mema and Pawpaw's this weekend he was in heaven as well=)

So tonight, it was bath time for both our sweet kiddos. Now, let me back up. My mom came down today to help me take the kids to Sulphur so we could take Kam for his 2 month checkup and (grimace) shots. More on that later. But, since Nan is here, Ella got to stay up past her normal bedtime so they could play. We are also phasing out naps with her because she is doing so great during the day, afternoon, and evening now even without her naps. And it helps her fall asleep more easily at night. So, all that to say that at 9:45 when we told Ella it was bath time, she was extremely sad. What would make it better? How about we throw brother in the tub with her!! She really liked that idea and perked right up! So we put his tub inside her tub and, well...

They loved it!! Ella was SUCH a big girl while Daddy washed her hair, and Kam didn't cry about any of it either!

So, speaking of Kam crying. Guess that's as good of a segue as I'm gonna get here. We did have our sweet boy's shots today. Three of them. Plus an oral vaccine for the rotovirus. I did a good bit of research on vaccines because all the talk has me pretty scared of them. But I prayed about it a lot and God really gave me a peace about it. Man, He's been doing that a lot lately=) Anyway, I was really nervous about taking him by myself to get it done. I knew Ella would be with me to help, but she can't drive and I was afraid he would need lots of extra comforting on the ride home, since our fabulous pediatrician is an hour away (and worth every mile). Kaleb couldn't come because of work complications, so my wonderful mom offered to come down and help. I do not know what we'd do without her! A lot of people I'd talked to and the nurse I spoke with from the doctor's office suggested giving Kam Tylenol 30 min to an hour before the shot. So my plan was to give it to him 30 min before we got to the office. I realized that I'd forgotten my plan as we were sitting in the office waiting for the doctor to come back. I was feeling pretty horrible, but it ended up being about 30 min before the shot anyway because of course the doctor took a little while to make it to us and then the nurse came in for the shots. Ella did not want to watch, so she and Nan went out to look at the fish tank in the waiting room. He did great on the oral Rotovirus vaccine, then the nurse told me to hold his hands and I did and got down in his face and she said, "Here we go, Mom!" but she didn't need to because as soon as she stuck him he started screaming and turning as red as I've ever seen him. I tried to talk to him to console him but I was tearing up and when I start to cry I can't talk or you can hear it in my voice, so I just kissed on him til it was over. She was so fast!!! As soon as she was done and I picked him up, he whimpered a bit and then was fine! I was banking on needing to nurse him when we got done, too, but he'd just eaten while waiting for the doctor to come back so he was fine. He didn't cry at all on the ride home! I did notice this evening that he was a little warmer than usual (the kid is a heater anyway) so we gave him another dose of Tylenol tonight. Oh, here are 2 of his 3 bandaids.
Sweet my baby! Oh, and for the checkup results!! As you can see from his bath pictures, the kid is turning into quite the little chunk! He has a belly that just won't stop! And he now weighs 13 lbs 5 oz!!! Incredible. They said he was 23 inches, and they said he was 23.5 inches last time. So I think the measuring just isn't accurate because I really don't think he's shrinking. He is in the 90th percentile for weight, and our doctor said that he should be getting really close to sleeping through the night now!! We shall see. He gave us some tricks to try. I'll be happy if we can just get back to one middle-of-the-night feeding, though. I don't expect a full night this early on.

I guess I should end this so we can watch the new Ghost Hunters International that we DVR'd tonight. I honestly don't know what I'd do without DVR.

Where did June go??

2009-07-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

I am really slacking on the blogging lately! I apologize, I really do. Kam is awake a lot more these days, so it's not quite so easy to get much computer time with two hands. A lot has happened while we were gone! The highlight was definitely vacation. Didn't get off to a very good start, as we found out on our way to Missouri that Michael Jackson had died. I am not exaggerating when I say I was heartbroken. I know there were a lot of questionable things about him, but no one cn deny what an amazing entertainer, singer, dancer he was. I truly hope he is in a better place.

Anyway, vacation. If you read this you probably also have facebook and have probably seen all our vaction pictures. Some of my favorites:

Oh, that sweet boy! We sure do love him! Can you believe he turned 2 months this past July 4th??

The time really is flying by with him. As is the summer. I had really been dreading having to go back to work in August, but I have been praying for God to give me peace about it and He really is. Please be praying that we can find the perfect sitter/daycare for Kam! Also, Ella will be starting Pre-K with her mom in Shreveport in August, so also pray for that whole situation. We are not sure how we will be able to get her when that starts and we are not looking forward to that.

She has been SUCH a big help! We've actually been cutting out naps in the afternoon because she doesn't get cranky anymore! I just do not want this summer to end. Here are our sweet kiddos this afternoon:And to end, here's what Kam looks like when Daddy starts talking to him!

Happy 2 months, baby boy!

It's Been a While

2009-06-29T10:13:00.001-05:00

I know it's been waaaaay too long since I posted, and I am sorry!! We have been pretty busy. I am blogging from Branson, MO, right now on our Lambreaux Family Vacay! We are having a blast and Kamden is being SO amazingly perfect. He's been through 3 shows and a winery tour and he didn't fuss during any of them! I did have to feed him during one show, and I had bottles pumped for the others. We are just so amazed at how great he's been! I would put some pictures on here, but Katie's camera has them all and she's gone right now. I will have a big post when we get back though!

Ella Sings and Kamden Whines

2009-06-11T01:30:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night, Ella wanted to sing some night-night songs to Kamden. So we taped it! Sadly, Kamden wasn't quite as excited about it, but he didn't all-out cry until the very end. Enjoy=)

My Favorite Babysitter

2009-06-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

This little lady is such a great babysitter!!! I was a little nervous about having both Ella and Kamden by myself, but man it is wonderful!!! Ella has been SUCH huge help today!! We got up at 9 and she held him while I fixed our breakfasts. Then we put him in his swing while we ate...and she watched him while I washed, dried, and fixed my hair, put on makeup, and started the laundry! And she's only 4!!! She was able to calm him down when he cried (unless he was hungry) and she is so patient with him. Seriously, best big sister EVER!!! And she helped me pick up around the house today, too!! A-mazing.

This little one gave mama a GREAT night last night!!! We went to bed around 12 (he passed out at 11) and he woke up at 2, 5, and 8 to eat! Are those perfect 3 hour intervals? I think so!!! We are realllllly praying that this is the start of something good and not just a fluke!

Oh, and I'd like to add that Ella has slept in her bed ALL NIGHT both nights that she's been here with us!!! This is HUGE as she usually wakes up in the middle of the night and comes and sleeps in our floor. She really is becoming SUCH a big girl!!!

Tomorrow I'll have to incorporate the sling again...Ella is getting to take a trip to the beach with Mema, Aunt Clair, Aunt Cay Cay, and Andrew! I am jealous, but it helps to know that I'll be spending the day with this sweet one!

I didn't blog about the sling did I? Yesterday, Kam and I took our first grocery shopping trip without Daddy. I feel very uncomfortable with the way the infant carrier fits in the buggy, so I decided why not just throw him in the sling? It definitely weighs a lot less! So we did...and would you believe he did not make a PEEP the entire time?? Not even a tiny whimper! It's like he thinks he's gone back into the womb and he just sleeps so soundly. So, I have officially become a baby-wearing mama. Woo hoo!!!

Good Morning!

2009-06-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

Not to make you jealous, but here's who I'm spending my day with!

Ohhhhh, sweetest boy ever!!! I love him so much!!

We had a great weekend! We headed up to Many on Friday and stayed with Nan and Bip that evening. Saturday we got up and got Ella and went to have lunch with some of Kaleb's friends from college, then we hung out at my parents again until it was time to leave. The ride home? Not so fun. I am afraid Kam has decided he doesn't like long car rides. He cried (loudly) pretty much the entire way home (3 hours). He'd be okay for about 20 minutes, then cry for 10. Poor thing. I know that's a lot of time in a carseat for him, but we don't really have any other options! I guess we'll just hope he gets better!

Yesterday after church last night, the Tony awards were on!!! Yaay!!! Kaleb was less than thrilled about it, but Kam...well he was pretty pumped!

Can you believe how well he's holding his head up?? He had his head like that first picture for at least a full minute. Enough time for Kaleb to notice, tell me, me to stand in awe, then have the sense to get a camera and capture it!

Oh, and in the first picture, no I didn't get him to smile on cue. Not there just yet! I just caught one because I was staring at him with the camera on his face for about 5 minutes solid:)

Happy Monday!

Kamden is 1 Month Old!

2009-06-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

I cannot wrap my brain around the fact that this little bundle of joy has been here a month! On the one hand, it seems like he was born last week, but on the other I've already forgotten what life was like before him! I say it a lot, but being a mommy really is the greatest thing in the world. I know, I know, enough with the words, give us some pictures!

Sweet Kamden was not entirely cooperative for his photo shoots today. Most of the time he looked like this:

When he's crying, he doesn't look so different than he did a month ago:

Here are the few awake and content pictures I got of him!

(Memaw & Pappaw Mike, he enjoyed lying in his little gym today! He just stared and stared at all the colors!!)

And, of course, he slept.

And when Daddy came home, he had to get in on the sleepy action!

I love my sweet boys!!

Happy 1 Month Birthday, my sweet Kamden!!

Grandparents!

2009-05-31T14:29:00.000-05:00

I thought today would be a good time to show just how much Kam loves his grandparents and how much they love him!

We'll start with how much he loves his grandfathers. Last weekend and this weekend we were amazed by the way he just stopped crying and was immediately calm after his Bip or his Pawpaw got him!

Now, rest assured he certainly loves his grandmothers, too!! They dote on him and he loves on them...it's a wonderful circle, really=) Here's Kam with his Nan and his Mema!

Kam sure is a blessed baby!!

No Pictures Today...

2009-05-30T18:07:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd warn you early! I will have quite a few when we get back home tonight or after church tomorrow, though! We had a big day yesterday! Kam made his first trip to The Ehrhart School to meet all my kiddos and my co-workers. They all loved him! My 4th graders were at P.E. and swarmed him. Well, the girls swarmed him. The boys swarmed me to tell me how they did on their TAKS tests! (They did AWESOME by the way, I am SO very proud of my kids this year!! (83% of my 4th graders passed and half of them got Commended, only missing 1 or 2 questions overall!! And my 5th graders are at 70% right now, but I am really hoping that at least one of them (hopefully 2 or 3) passed their TAKS the second time around!) Both these scores are the best that our school has ever done in these grades for the Math TAKS. Woo hoo!!

After our trip to the school, we made Kam's first overnight trip to Mema and Pawpaw's house in Starks! He's been here for short visits before, but we spent the night this time and he did so great!!! He gets lots of love and he just eats it up! Also, we made a record last night...he let us sleep from 1 a.m. to almost 5 a.m. WITHOUT WAKING US ONCE!!! That is a 4 hour stretch. That is HUGE for our boy! Just hope it can continue to happen:) He has been such a sweet baby today...in a truly great mood!

Tomorrow we're going to take Kam to our church for the first time. We had a trial run last week at my parents' church, and he slept through the whole service! I hope that's the case again tomorrow!

Check back tomorrow for pictures from this weekend...I am off to play some Yahtzee with the fam!

It's Been a While...

2009-05-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted in a while (a week!!) but I had good reason. We have been busy! We spent this weekend making Kamden's first long visit to Many to see my parents, drop off Ella, and let all my family meet him! Here's Kam ready to go:

He did GREAT on the trip. He slept the whole way there (3 hours!), which we weren't really shocked about since both the Breaux and Lambert sides of our family are excellent car sleepers:) All my family was able to visit (except Uncle Roger, but since he's in Maryland we'll excuse him:) ). We took pictures of everyone holdin Kamden, but there is no way I'm posting all those on here. See my Facebook album for all the lovely pictures from this weekend. Here are a few highlights.
Kam spent a LOT of time this weekend like this:
and this: . He spent a little time like this:

and this: and this: !
We took our first full family picture on Sunday!

Kamden also did great on the ride home. Slept the whole way again!

He's really been having touble sleeping at night. Well, unless we are holding him. This weekend was really bad, and I am assuming it is because of my chocolate and peanut butter intake :( So I have given up both. I haven't had either since Friday and man I am craving it! I have had some chocolate chip cookies, but I figure that can't hurt much and he hasn't had any problems with gas this week. Still, even when he wasn't gassy, he wanted to be held all night when he slept. Kaleb discovered that he really likes to lay on his side, so we bought a sleep positioner for him on Monday. It's a piece of cloth and at the bottom of it there are two wedges that velcro and we put him in there on his side in his pack n play in our room (wow lots of prepositional phrases there!) and the wedges keep him from rolling onto his stomach. He is doing great with it!! He still wakes up every 2 hours, but he eats for 30 minutes and then I can usually put him back down and he only fusses for a couple minutes if any and then falls asleep! It is nice!! And it was really cheap, too, just $15 at Target! Here it is in action:

Speaking of Target, Kam and I hadn't been anywhere except to hospitals, doctor's offices, Kaleb's parents', my parents', and my parents' church until today. We went to Target!!! It was so nice to get out. I found this awesome sling there!!! I really think Kam and I are both going to enjoy this. It's hands free cuddle time!! I definitely feel like a mama kangaroo.

That is about it for this super long update. I promise I will try and do better with the daily postings from now on!!

Sleepless Nights

2009-05-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

I know I didn't post yesterday. That's mostly because I slept for most of it. Kamden stayed up ALL night Monday night. What a party animal. He wasn't happy to be up all night either. He was pretty upset about it. My wonderful husband let us both sleep as much as we wanted yesterday, though, so it definitely made up for it!! I don't think it's his congestion keeping him up. He's still stuffy, but it's so much better during the day. He just did not want to be put down and I'm guessing he just still has his days and nights mixed up. Not fun. He stayed up for a while yesterday evening and while he slept yesterday during the day Kaleb made sure that we put him down in something each time. Like this:

So precious! Shout out to Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Glen for that bouncer! He loves it=)

Last night after I put Ella to bed I came into the living room to this:

Wondering what has him so interested?

He is his father's son!! Kaleb didn't make him turn his head or anything. Guess he just noticed there was a game on. I sure do love these guys!!!

2 Weeks Old!

2009-05-18T16:01:00.000-05:00

Wow! So hard to believe that our little man is already 2 weeks old!!! I've been watching the clock today and trying to remember what was happening at that time 2 weeks ago today. I like today much better:) Right now I'm relaxing in our recliner while Kam is sleeping soundly in his swing to some Ben Harper. Mmm this is nice. Here, let me show you!

Last night was pretty funny. Ella left some of her penguins in the living room and Kaleb had put Kam in the floor to change his diaper. We noticed he wasn't crying like he normally does when he gets changed. Kaleb looked and saw that he was staring at the penguins, captivated. So we had a little photo shoot=) I would love to know what he was thinking about those crazy penguins!!

Stud

2009-05-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, not much in the way of an update today. Nothing's really happened! But check out the pose our little man struck while waiting to get a bath this evening. I swear we did not pose him like this!!

Is that a stud or what??

Big Sister is Home!

2009-05-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Today was so nice! I woke up feeling great (after my initial dose of 3 ibuprofens--yes, the doctor prescribed it!) and vaccuumed and mopped the house. It reallllllly needed it! Tomorrow I'm tackling the dusting. I also got a lot of clothes washed today. It feels really good getting up and getting something done! I'm glad I'm feeling well enough to do it. I am having a hard time realizing that we came home from the hospital a week ago today! Wow.

Kamden took a nap in his pack n play for the first time today!

This morning Kaleb's mom and aunt came over to bring Ella back to us and to see Kam for a while. It was so nice to get to visit with them! I really enjoy having visitors over, especially when it's to gush over our beautiful baby! Ella didn't waste any time. She hadn't gotten to hold him in a long time (her words).

Here's how I've spent most of my evening! Loving on this little guy...

And watching this sweet girl perform for us...

We are so very blessed!

Second Opinions

2009-05-12T20:38:00.000-05:00

So yesterday was pretty stressful. I won't go into great detail, but we are basically tired of getting orders from our doctor through nurses and asked for him to call and speak with us since he wouldn't see Kam yesterday and hasn't seen him since the day after he was born. Two nurses called me back instead. We decided to use a pediatician in Louisiana that Kaleb's family has used for years who is awesome. We had quite a bit of drama from our doctor's office about returning the stupid Bili Blanket, and I am now on a mission to make sure no one I talk to ever uses Beaumont Pediatric Center!

Today was a new day. A beautiful day. It was the first day since Kam came home last Wednesday that we didn't have to get up and be at a doctor's office/lab/hospital at 8 a.m. We had an appointment with our new pediatrician at 1:40 in Sulphur, exactly one hour away. We were excited to get a second opinion on his jaundice. Kam slept the whole way there:

And back:

Here's one time he woke up:

Sweet boy!! The new pediatrician was AMAZING. He said Kamden looks great! He actually LOOKED at him, didn't prick his heel to get a level, used his eyeballs to look at his coloring. He said it looked fine, yes he has jaundice, but it'll clear up in about 3 weeks. He said with his weight gain that we are doing a great job with breastfeeding and that we didn't need to supplement anything at all. He wants to see us again in a month, and he told us to call him if we needed anything at all. What?? Call him?? Wow. We are praising God that we have found a doctor who cares about our baby boy and not how much money he can squeeze out of us.

Because my family expects daily pictures of our boy and I missed yesterday, I'm doubling up today. Here's how I get to spend my evenings with my two favorite men!

And lastly, check out this smile!!

Bilirubin, How I Hate Thee

2009-05-11T12:30:00.000-05:00

So when we came home from the hospital on Wednesday, the on-call pediatrician told us she was concerned with Kam's bilirubin levels. He was a little jaundiced. At that time, they were 10. She wanted us to come in the following day to their office and get it checked again. So at 8 a.m. Thursday morning we went back to the doctor's office. This time, his levels were 16.5, so they had us rent a Bili Blanket, this light paddle we strap onto his back, to bring his levels down. They also told me to supplement formula with my breastfeeding, which I did not do because I did not see a need for it. He'd also lost 5 more ounces, so he was down 11 ounces from his birth weight, but my milk hadn't come in yet. The next day we had to get back out and have his levels tested, but this time we had to go to the hospital to the walk-in lab. Be assured that jaundice isn't the worst thing they test for, so we were obviously a little ticked that they made us get back out into a place where sick people come to get tested with a 4 day old baby. His levels were up to 18.5, but the doctor said that he expected that because the Bili blanket would cause his levels to peak. So they told us we had to do it again the next day, but we had to go to another hospital because the lab would be closed. We did, and they made us wait in the EMERGENCY ROOM for over an hour with a 5 day old baby. We were absolutely livid at this point. Especially when we found out that our county now has its first confirmed case of swine flu. We told the doctor about it when he called back that afternoon, and he said his levels were down to 16.7 but we needed to come back to the same place on Sunday to get them tested again. This time we were able to go straight to get the bloodwork done, but his levels had gone up a point to 17.7. Happy Mother's Day. Needless to say, I was pretty emotional for the entirety of our Mother's Day, which was actually fabulous. We got to spend it with Kaleb's family and mine, and it was an amazing feeling to know that I am actually a real mama now!! It was just very hard to hear that his levels were back up, and we hate how they are treating it. Everything we've read says that they usually don't start treatment this aggressively unless the levels are above 20. I understand they're trying to make sure they don't get that high, but they have now stuck my baby boy's foot every single day since he's been born and we are just tired of it!! Not to mention the fact that we learned that births involving pitocin have a greater chance of resulting in high bilirubin levels in babies, and the fact that most breastfed babies have jaundice and it just runs its course. We had to go back in and get it done at the same hospital again today and then went to our doctor's office. We don't know the results of the bilirubin test, but they weighed him and he is back up to his birth weight, so we are hopeful that that will at least stop the doctor from telling me to supplement with formula, which I refuse to do. We have many people praying that his levels are down, and he is peeing and pooping a lot more now, which is how his little body gets rid of this bilirubin, so we are trusting that God is working on our little man! Please help us pray that this goes away quickly. We are also going to try and bring the bili blanket back today as it costs $55 every day we use it and we've already had it 4 days and it's obviously not working that well! We have him swinging in the sunlight right now, and we're going to take him outside for a little while today and try to let him get some sun that way, too. I never knew jaundice was this big of a deal!

Anyway, that's what we've been dealing with. My parents and sister were here on and off last week, and it was sooooo nice to have all the extra help! Now it's just me and Kaleb and Kam and we are trying to get ourselves on a schedule of some sort. I know my mom expects new pictures of Kam every day, so I will update this afternoon with those! In the meantime, help us pray for his bilirubin levels!!

Our Beautiful Baby Boy

2009-05-05T09:21:00.001-05:00

Many more pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056296&id=62000192&page=2#/album.php?aid=2056296&id=62000192

I am Officially a MAMA!!!

2009-05-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

This morning, I woke up to the horrible feeling that I was wetting the bed. Only it didn't stop. So, at 2 a.m., I woke up Kaleb to tell him that my water broke. I think we were both pretty much in shock at that point. We got to the hospital around 3 a.m. where we spent 3 hours convincing them that my water really did break. We got into a room at 6, and both our families were able to make it there during that time, praise God! I still wasn't having any contractions and I wasn't dilated anymore at 9, so they started me on pitocin. Wow. That stuff is brutal. I was really worried because I know the horror stories about it, especially when the mother is trying to deliver naturally with no epidural. They were pretty true! I have never been in that much pain in my life. Around 12 they offered me some nubane, but said that Kam had fallen asleep and they needed his heart rate to get back up before they could give me any. I took it when his heartrate went back up around 1. So I didn't do it totally without drugs. I was 6 cm at this time (I'd dilated 2 cm that hour). Around 1:30 I was considering an epidural. Our nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated! We got ready to start pushing...and at 2:16 our baby born entered this world!! He is 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. And BEAUTIFUL!!! He's got quite a bit of very dark hair and gorgeous coloring. He's also doing really great at nursing so far. We've been able to have 2 feedings and are due another one in about 30 minutes. We'll get to come home on Wednesday as long as everything continues to go smoothly.

I could not have done this without a) God for giving me the strength I needed to get through it, b) my amazing husband who wore himself out rubbing a hole in my back through every contraction. He NEVER ceases to amaze me. I love him so much!!! And c) my wonderful mama who gave me a crash course in Lamaze and helped me breathe through the worst pain I've ever felt!! There is absolutely no way I could've done this without them.

Now I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit until they bring Kam in to feed again. I will post pictures tomorrow!!

It all happens for a reason...

2009-05-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

So I've been pretty complain-y lately that Kamden hasn't come out yet. Which is really ridiculous when I stop and think about it. He's not due for another week. I just figured with my whole measuring 6 weeks ahead thing (8 weeks ahead now) that there was no way I'd carry him to 40 weeks. It is quickly approaching, though! I'll be 39 weeks on Sunday, and I haven't been having many contractions at all. My energy and nesting have been WAY up during the day. My classroom is more organized than it has ever been. My desk drawers are beautifully arranged, and I've done everything possible to put my entire brain into a binder for my sub. Copies are made so that she won't have to do anything while she's here except work off my lesson plans. I dusted every piece of furniture I have yesterday at school. The house is pretty clean...bathrooms look great and the bedroom furniture is dusted. I have plans tomorrow to vaccuum, mop, and dust the rest of the house to keep busy. I have to be doing something right now it seems. Except in the evenings when I am so completely drained that doing more than watching TV seems like a major feat. I finished all the thank you cards and Kaleb mailed them for me yesterday. I applied to a couple other schools and Kaleb also mailed that stuff off for me. Just to see what's out there. So, we are basically just waiting around, twiddling our thumbs til Kam comes.

However...

Everything happens for a reason. We found out this morning that the girl who's been planning on taking my class for the last few months changed her mind and decided to stay at her old job. She was supposed to start on Monday to get into the swing of things in my room. So we are back to square one trying to find a sub to take over my class for the last 4 weeks of the school year. Please pray that we can find someone quickly who will be good for my kids!! I don't want to leave not knowing what will happen with them.

38 Weeks...

2009-04-28T18:49:00.000-05:00

We had our 38 week appointment today. I'm still only 2 cm dilated, but I'm now 80% effaced and his head has moved down quite a bit. Still not engaged, though. He said it's very possible that I could go into labor this week. If I don't, I'll go back next Tuesday for an ultrasound to see how big he is and everything. I'm pretty disappointed that I haven't dilated more, but I know that he will come when it's time! I've been able to get a lot of stuff done at school, so it's actually been pretty good. I think he's waiting for me to finish my thank you notes. So I'm going to get that done tonight=) No more excuses then!

No Baby...

2009-04-27T09:48:00.001-05:00

Well, I hit 38 weeks yesterday, and Kamden is still waiting to make his big entrance. I'll be honest, I really thought he was coming this weekend. All our bags are packed and all my school stuff is ready. Yesterday I found out I'd lost 3 lbs. I haven't lost a single thing this entire pregnancy, and I know that this apparently happens when you're close to the end. I also didn't have an appetite and after lunch I felt full for the entire rest of the day. (I always have an appetite.) Last night I started having contractions that came 5 minutes apart, but they only lasted about 30 minutes. They seemed like good ones, too. They hurt in the front and the back, just like they're supposed to. But then they just stopped. I thought for sure my water was about to break because I had to pee, literally, every 10 minutes, and during the contractions I had to after each one. But nothing. And I haven't had another one since 11 something last night, so I guess that was that. I won't lie; I am a little disappointed. I realized how real it all is, though. Last night when I really believed it was time, I came thisclose to absolutely freaking out and breaking down and crying hysterically because what the heck am I supposed to do??? I am confident that my body and the Lord will just take over. :) I'd really like for him to come this week. I'd also really like for him to not come while I'm giving the TAKS test Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. So tonight would be great, Kam. We are all waiting for you!!

Happy Thursday!

2009-04-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

I like Friday better than Thursday, but I'll take Thursday over any of its predecessors. Did I spell that right? I am too lazy to spell check it. Okay I just saw the spell check button and did it anyway. I did spell it right.

I am excited about this afternoon! We are taking Ella to Build-a-Bear after work to let her make an animal for herself to be her Big Sister animal and she's going to make one for Kamden that she can give to him when he's born. I totally stole that idea from someone online, but I thought it was a great way to make sure she doesn't feel left out! Woo hoo!!

I went and walked on my conference today, hoping to get this baby moved down. I had a few contractions, but nothing after I finished. Oh well. Guess it just takes time! We don't want him out until he's ready. Just want him to be ready very soon!!! =)

37 Weeks!

2009-04-21T19:10:00.000-05:00

The weekend was a lot of fun...we went to Houston with Kaleb's family to Ella's first Astros game and it was so much fun!!! I had 3 contractions during the game and we were a little anxious, but they were still sporadic so we stuck it out. So glad we did...they actually won! Amazing. Sunday was a great time with friends after church--we had dinner with our Sunday School class--and then we watched Fireproof at church Sunday night to jumpstart our HomeBuilders small groups that will begin this Sunday. I'm really excited about this!!

This week has alredy been rough starting out. This morning I hurt so badly I thought my hip was going to swing out of joint. I walked with a limp the entire morning. By the afternoon it was much better, though. We had our 37 week appointment today! I was realllllllly hoping for some dilation, but I'd prepared myself for it to be nothing. We were in luck, though! I'm dilated 2 cm and I'm 60% effaced! Woohoooooooo!! Kamden's head is still pretty high, though, so my doctor doesn't think I'll go this week although he said anything could happen. I think our parents are going to help us out in getting Ella back to her mom's this weekend. I don't think it'd be wise for me to make the trip, and I don't want Kaleb to be 3 hours away if Kam decides to come! I definitely don't think we'll make it to 40 weeks. I think we'll do remarkably well to make it through TAKS next week, which is my main goal. I guess we will see what happens! Just so glad to be making some progress!!!

36 Weeks Down...

2009-04-15T13:16:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I hit 36 weeks!! Unbelievable...it's happened so fast, and now it's going sooooooooo slow!!! This weekend was pretty wonderful. Friday we headed to Kaleb's parents for the annual Good Friday/Clair's Birthday Crawfish Boil! It was sooooooo good. So good, in fact, that I ended up sleeping the entire afternoon after we ate!! I felt so bad, but I apparently really needed the rest. Then we headed back to Port Arthur for a Good Friday service at our church, which was great. I got to be lazy all day Saturday AND have a date with my sweet husband that evening. Sunday we had a great Easter church service and with my in-laws for Easter dinner and an afternoon of naps, stuffed bellies, and the Masters. Then my mom and Ella arrived (she picked her up for us since it was her mom's turn to have her for Easter and so that we wouldn't have to make the 6 hour trip in a day again!) and we all played and ate some more and just spent some good time together! My mom has Spring Break this week, so she was able to stay with us through yesterday, which was SO nice. Kaleb and I loved having her there, and Ella squeezed every second of play she could out of her Nan while she was here!!

Monday we had a Staff Development half day and then we all went over to one of the teachers' houses here where they threw me my final baby shower! It was SO nice!!! We have officially gotten just about everything we need!! And what we didn't get, we got a ton of gift cards for!! We are just so amazed at how much God has blessed us through our friends and family. Kam is one loved kiddo and he's not even here yet!!

Tuesday I had my 36 week doctor's appointment, and I was realllllllllllly hoping he would check me, but he didn't. Apparently those will start at my appointment next week. Sigh. I want to know if I'm making progress here!! He feels super low with the pressure he's putting on my lower abdomen and my back. I had quite a few contractions Monday evening, but they were sporadic so we are assuming they were just Braxton Hicks. At least I'm having some now! That's gotta mean we're getting somewhere!

He belly dances almost constantly now. Poor thing must be getting so very squished in there! Although as huge as my belly's gotten it sure seems there should be plenty of room to me! I'll have to take some updated belly pics this week. I want to compare. Everyone says I've dropped, and it definitely feels like I have, but I want to SEE it, you know?

I'm on a message board with some other ladies who are due in May (Hey, girls from the board who read this!! Think it's just Stacie and Carolyn!) and 6 girls have already had their babies!!! Granted, two of them had twins, two had complications with blood pressure and one with her appendix rupturing, but one of them just flat out went into labor!! Another is being induced on Monday and another a week from Friday. This all just blows my mind!! It's getting so close. I'm having some MAJOR nesting urges. Kamden's hospital bag is packed. I'm going to get mine together this week since I finally have everything for it. I've gotten this big urge to get organized, too, in every room in the house and just throw out stuff we don't need anymore. Also, I have started making a million lists...including trying to think of things we can buy ahead of time and freeze for meals. I want to make up several dishes to have in the freezer so we won't be so tempted to eat out once Kam is here. See what I mean? Major nesting. I read this means labor is SO CLOSE. I wonder if I'm pushing it. Ha!

This is long and rambly and random. No pictures because I'm at school again. Next time!!

Picture Post!

2009-04-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

Okay! First, a couple pictures of our sweet Kamden from his 3D ultrasound at 30 weeks!

Ohhhhhh, we cannot wait to meet this handsome little man!!!

Here are the latest updates to his side of the room...

Can you tell we are READY?? He really can bake a little longer, though. It's okay.

Here are some pics from our showers! First, the one in Many...

Our sweet Ella was SUCH huge help with all the opening of all the presents!! She is definitely going to be an amazing big sister!!!

She wasn't there to help me at the Grace Church shower, but I managed...

Man! That's maybe the most pictures I've posted ever at once!! Of course, there are a ton more of all of them on my facebook, but I am pretty sure that everyone who reads this also is on my facebook. So.

Oh, and I'd like to take this moment to say how absolutely AMAZING my husband is. He told me last week that he'd ordered a "surprise" for me and the baby. He did so good at not giving it away! It came in the mail today and it's a nursing stool!! I'd never even heard of one, but it's supposed to be a huge help with your back when you're nursing in a rocker/recliner (oh, WE GOT OUR FIRST RECLINER!!!). I'm already using it. My short legs don't have to dangle anymore!! I love him so very much all the time, and his thoughtfulness on this was just so special to me!

We had a wonderful weekend...My mom and sister came down for the church shower and stayed the night Sunday (well, Katie, stayed Saturday night, too!!) and while it was a short visit, it was so great to have them down here with us! Kaleb's mom and sisters came to the church shower, also. We are so very blessed to have such amazing families! I must go to bed now!!!

I know, I know...

2009-04-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

I tried to update a couple of weeks ago and the electricity at my house went out so I lost everything! I had pictures and lots of words. A lot has been happening! We had our first shower, in Many, March 21st and got a TON of amazing stuff!!! Kamden has so many adorable little outfits and blankets and burp cloths...we got his room all set up! We also have been SO incredibly blessed by friends and family members who've gotten us all the big items that we registered for! I mean EVERYTHING!!! We were thinking we were going to need to buy stuff ourselves, and we now have all the big items we need! All that's left is him=) I cannot wait to meet him, but he can stay in and bake a little while longer. I have 5 weeks left until my due date, but I am pretty sure he's already dropped. People have been saying they can tell and I have noticed that I now have to run to the restroom at least once an hour. Which is pretty annoying when you're a teacher!

Last night, we had our shower at our church here. WOW. We were so overwhelmed by the love our church family poured out on us! And our moms and sisters were able to come too!!! It was so much fun getting to spend time with everyone. I can't wait to start dressing Kam up and putting up pictures of him in all his little onesies and layettes...so exciting! I have one more 2-week trip to the doctor and then after next week I'll be going every week! I cannot believe it's already time for that!!!

This is a pretty boring update. I'd include pictures, but I'm at school and don't have my hard drive here. Maybe I can liven it up tonight!!

Oh, Spring Break was wonderful!!! We had Ella that week, so she and I got to spend lots of time together. Thursday, we took her to the Butterfly Museum and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. She LOVED it!!! She's such a little scholar. She was educating us on all the different types of dinosaurs. And she's only 4! And a girl! Haha!! She is amazing and so ready for her baby brother to get here!

K, that's it for now. I promise to have a more interesting post tonight!

It's Been a While...

2009-03-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

I was doing so good at updating regularly! I've been meaning to post since March 3rd, our 2nd wedding anniversary, when my husband surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of calla lillies (our wedding flower) that I have EVER seen!! I was waiting because I was going to upload a picture of them. Then I only had a picture from my phone. Now I can't figure out how to get to my online album with Verizon. But trust me they were GORGEOUS and amazing!!!

Then I was going to post about our 3-D ultrasound we had on March 4, but I didn't want to do that until I'd done the anniversary one and you see how it goes. I think everyone who reads this has see the ultrasound pics of our handsome little man! He is just so CUTE I cannot wait to meet him!!! They're all on facebook if you haven't seen them.

Then I finished making three more bow holders for friends and Kaleb and I got Kamden's letters done for his room as well! And the changer came in and that's all put together. It's looking so cozy!!

Last night I redid Ella's letters for her room and OH my goodness I will finish them tonight so that I can upload pictures. They are the cutest things I've ever done!!! I did them in frames and I'm just super pleased with how good they look!! I'm not trying to sound conceited or anything...I spent hours on them, though, and I am proud of them!

I had a doctor appointment yesterday which went well, I have a hair appointment today and church tonight, I'm taking the evening OFF tomorrow and doing some artsy stuff for the hostesses for my shower in Many this weekend, then Friday it's off to Many for said shower! I am SO excited about it and about seeing everyone on Saturday!! AND we're getting Ella on Saturday so she'll be able to come to the shower AND NEXT WEEK IS MY SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!! I am literally counting down the hours until Friday at 1. Literally. I am in desperate need of a break from this place!!

I need to talk about American Idol. I love Danny, Anoop, and Allison. I hate Adam. And I also really don't like the blind guy. I'm sorry, but at what point do we stop voting for him because he's blind?? He's not that good!! Can we talk about Adam last night? Wowwww. I'll be honest with you, as creepy as it was, he kind of reminded me of Jimmy Gnecco when he went into that primal wail thing and although I cannot STAND the guy or the arrangement he used, I was kind of impressed at what he did with it. I woke up singing it at least 3 or 4 times as I groggily made my 50 trips to the restroom. But I still can't stand him and thought the performance was overindulgent. I want to like Michael Sarver, and I'm sure he's a great guy, but his performance last night just was not good. I'm sorry. It wasn't. And that cute little tatted up girl...it's like she's kind of got a sound that doesn't belong in pop music at all, and I should like that, but she falls on her face every time for me. She looked amazing last night, though.

Pregnancy Makes Me Crafty!

2009-02-24T22:19:00.000-06:00

So the nesting bug has chomped down on my pretty hard! And it's made me want to make all sorts of things! I can't paint Kamden's letters for his room until the bedding comes in, so while I'm waiting I wanted to start something else. I've wanted to get Ella one of those cute hairbow holders for a while now, but didn't feel like paying $20-$30. So I decided I should try it myself! I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday (and they were having a sale on all their wooden decor AND ribbons by the roll!) and bought paint, a big white "E," ribbon, round paint brushes, and fabric glue. Last night and tonight I cranked this out:

In my defense, it only took 2 nights because I started at 10 last night and only had time to put a couple coats of pink paint on the E! I am so proud of this!!!

I am also quite proud of our bargain tonight. I looked everywhere for what I wanted to do with Kam's name and Kaleb and I really fell for this:

I wanted to make sure the colors matched his bedding, so I decided to get them unfinished from this website. For the unfinished letters, the unfinished 6x6 frames, and the unfinished backs it was going to be $13.50/letters, which was $80 without shipping or paint. I thought this was a pretty good price (we wanted a font other than Times New Roman or Curlz) and was prepared to pay it. However, today I realized if I just bought the letters from the company, the total for the letters would be $17, and I was hoping I could find some unfinished wooden frames somewhere to fit them. So I got Kaleb to meet me at Michael's after work. Oh man! Not only did they have unfinished wooden frames for A DOLLAR, they also had the perfect sized letters in what looks like the Whimsical font for $1.24!!! We also got really thin wood for the backing for $1/each, and brackets to hang them with. And wood glue. All this, plus a little toy for Ella, for $36!!! Are you KIDDING me??? I know we didn't buy paint yet, but that won't be more than $5. So we are doing this project for less than half the price when you factor in shipping, and we still would've had to buy paint with those other letters!!! I am SO excited!!!!! Now we just have to wait for the bedding to come in and I can get started on his little letters. Awww! Here are the unfinished letters in their unfinished frames:

The frames and letters will be chocolate brown and the backboards (not pictured) will be the light blue of his bedding. Ah!!! I can hardly wait!!!

My Man

2009-02-24T08:48:00.000-06:00

Well, why not do this. Here's a chance to see how well you really know your significant other. Cut, paste and fill in the answers, then forward . . . shoot, you know what to do. The real challenge is to send it to your significant other to see how right you really are.

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Call of Duty, Golf, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Top Gear, or Man vs. Wild

2.You're out to eat, what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch or Caesar, depending on his mood and his meal.

3.What's one food he doesn't like? Red Beans & Rice

4. You go out to eat. What does he order? Usually a steak or if they have red fish, then definitely red fish, especially if it's grilled with some sort of sauce on top of it.

5.Where did he go to high school? Starks.

6.What size shoe does he wear? 14

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Golf clubs!

8.What is his favorite type of sandwich? He really likes BLT's from Subway, but at home he's been on a Deep Fried Turkey Sandwich kick.

9.What would this person eat every day if he could? A steak

10.What is his favorite cereal? Crunch Berries and/or Trix

11.What would he never wear? The color pink

12.What is his favorite sports team? Well they really upset him, but I guess the Astros.

13.Who is his best friend? Me! Haha. Jason.

14.What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Leave my clothes lying in the floor.

15.What is his favorite color? Blue.

16. You bake him a cake for his birthday...he would pray it wasn't from scratch. I really mess those up! He would eat anything I cooked, though, to spare hurting my feelings.

17.Did he play sports in high school? Yes, basketball.

18.What could he spend hours doing? Playing Call of Duty, or anything else on PS3, and golfing.

19.What is one unique talent he has? Wouldn't you like to know!! ;-)

20. If he could do one thing all day instead of what he does - what would it be? Play golf!

21.What is your favorite physical feature of your spouse? He's got the most unbelievable blue eyes I've ever seen. (Yes, I just quoted a 90's song. I dreamt about being able to say that about the man I married, and now I totally can!!! They are AMAZING.) I also love his dark hair and that he's tall.

22.What is your favorite memory of your spouse? Oh, man. I cannot name just one. Getting ready in my apartment the night we got engaged (while listening to Rent), going on the most amazing Easter egg hunt of my life, seeing him waiting on a bench for me and reading all the eggs' contents with him. Seeing him on his knee with a tear in his eye asking me to marry him. Seeing him at the end of the aisle on our wedding day. Our honeymoon, or the most amazing trip of my LIFE. Lying next to him while Mexican party people were blaring "Sweet Caroline." Oh, man, I can't stop!

23.What do you love most about your spouse? I love his obedience to God and his yearning for more of Him. I love that he has been so amazingly sensitive to my emotions during my pregnancy. I love the way he loves sweet Ella. I love the way he loves me. I love how excited he is to have a son on the way!!

24.What is your wish for your spouse? That our love will keep growing more love.

25. If you won the lottery what would be the first item that you would buy your husband? Definitely a nice, new set of golf clubs! Then a house.

I love you, Kaleb!!!

(Not) Born to Ride

2009-02-23T12:04:00.000-06:00

Oh, man. We knew this weekend was going to be a challenge. The pains that had started last week had pretty much subsided by Friday, though, and the ride to Many wasn't hard at all! We got there around 11:30 and I felt fine. Saturday, we drove 30 minutes to pick up Ella, then an hour to the wedding. Still okay, though. It was the last 3 hours of that trip that did me in. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so very happy for Jamie and Joshua!!! She was gorgeous and he was handsome and it was all so wonderful. The absolute best part was the groomsmen's choreographed dance to "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys. OH.MY.GOODNESS. That was the funniest thing I have seen in such a long time. I got half of it on film, so I'll try to upload that to Facebook soon. I got to see so many of my friends, some that I hadn't seen since before Kaleb & I got married. It was so nice to catch up with everyone! Another highlight was Ella, the dancing queen. The girl goes to weddings for 2 things: cake and dancing. Luckily for her, Aunt Blaire was at this one and she followed her around the dance floor the whole time we were there. Anything Blaire did, Ella did. It was hilarious. My favorite part was seeing my sweet girl shaking it to Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Girl had one hand on her hip, one hand waving in the air, and was shaking it like it was nobody's business!!! I have that on film, too. She danced her little heart out.

So all that was fun, then we had the 3 hour drive to Beaumont. THAT was when my body decided it had just had enough. My tailbone and pelvic bones (the ones that are separating) could not get comfortable. Sunday morning it felt like someone had taken me while I was spread-eagle and just hit me with a hammer really hard. It literally felt like I had bruises, I am not kidding!!! So church was kind of painful. Then the most painful was the hour-long car ride to Starks after church. Man. I am just glad that we're done riding for a while!!! Hopefully, we won't have another weekend where we drive for 9+ hours in a 72 hour period until AFTER Kam gets here!!

I should go teach or something now. Check my facebook in the next few days for those videos!

Growing Pains

2009-02-20T10:17:00.001-06:00

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time. I have had a re-he-heeeeeeeeeallllly easy pregnancy thus far. Earlier this week, my hips decided they don't want to be quite so buddy-buddy anymore and are going their separate ways. That's resulted in some pains in the nether regions that I wasn't expecting so soon. Technically, I am in my 3rd trimester, though, so I guess it was time! I am 28 wks 5 days today (WOW), and we decided it was time to take some new belly pics last night. Kaleb decided to get all artsy fartsy with it. I put the ones I approved up on facebook, but I'll give a couple here just to show the enormity that is my belly:

And it still has 12 weeks to grow?? Holy cow.

This weekend is going to be fun and tiring! Tonight, we start a Faith Promise weekend at church and have a service at 6:30, then we're driving to Many for the night. Tomorrow, we'll pick up Ella at 2 in Natchitoches, then drive to Pineville for Jamie and Joshua's wedding!!! I am really looking forward to being a part of their special day and seeing all my college friends!! And I am SO excited that I get to show off Kaleb and Ella=) Then, after the wedding, we're heading back to Beaumont so that we can be at church Sunday morning for the last Faith Promise service, dinner on the grounds, and then we'll head over to Starks for the afternoon/evening. I better get my lesson plans done today! I will have zero free time to do them this weekend. Not only am I counting down the weeks til Kam gets here...that also marks the end of my teaching year=) 12 more weeks! I can do this!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

2009-02-18T21:46:00.000-06:00

So I mentioned that this past weekend we'd traded out Ella's queen bed for her very own big girl twin bed. We had the sheets and had ordered a reallllllly cute comforter from Target online (because the stores here didn't have it in a Twin). We ordered it on Feb. 9, and today it STILL hadn't even shipped, so we decided to cancel that order and see if we could find something else in a store.

I went to Anna's Linen's today and scored big time!! I got a pillow-top mattress pad for $20, a brown bed skirt for $8, and a set of pink t-shirt sheets (so we'll have an extra set) for $8!!! Then after church we ran to Target thinking we'd just pick up the Full quilt and see if it'd work even though it'd be a little long. Well, they had a Twin!!!!!! Yay!!!! And it was $60! So we completed Ella's entire bed for under $100!!! Here are the pictures of Ella's new room!

A Wonderful Weekend

2009-02-16T09:34:00.001-06:00

This weekend was one of the best I've had in such a long time! For a former V-Day hater, I sure have come to love the holiday=) Friday, my wonderful husband came and had lunch with me at school. I'd told him all I wanted was a nice, romantic dinner someplace I'd never been before. He made reservations for Pat's of Henderson in Lake Charles and WOW! It really was some of the best seafood I've had in my life. Definitely the best crab cake of my life, and I don't say that lightly. I am a huge fried seafood fan. So we got to have our nice little romantic evening on our last Valentine's Day alone! Saturday, we did some errands in town and then came home and worked on Ella & Kamden's room. We switched out her queen bed for a twin and put his crib together! It is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Thanks, Nan & Bip!! I can't wait to get the bedding so we can put it on and get the full effect. Now to finalize our choice of a changer and order the letters to go above the crib...there is still so much to do!! I'm glad we still have a little time. Less than 3 months now...I like to think of it in months and not weeks...the thought of 12 weeks terrifies me!!!

Anyway, so that was Saturday, and then yesterday we went to church and spent lots of quality time together. I love my husband so very much, and I am so thankful that he is MINE!!!

Our Big Headed Baby!

2009-02-13T08:55:00.000-06:00

Isn't he so handsome?? I think it's amazing that we can already see that he's got Kaleb's nose and my huge mouth! AND he's smiling!!! I had a talk with him on the way to school yesterday morning. I told him we'd be able to see him around 2:00 and it'd be really great if he'd smile for us. What a sweet, smart boy! He must've been smiling for a long time...we didn't go back until around 2:20:) Anyway, he is measuring right on track except for his head, which is about 2 weeks ahead of schedule! Nothing abnormal...especially if you've seen his Daddy;) (Love you, baby!!!) My belly is way ahead of schedule, but I still think his measuring is way crazy since the baby and fluid are both fine. I suppose I could just have a huge belly...but let's stick with the doctor making a mistake:)

Boxes

2009-02-10T13:19:00.001-06:00

Kaleb and I have been really searching lately. We know that our lives are about to drastically change in May. We also know that Ella will be starting school in August, and that if we want to continue to have her on a regular basis like we do now, that we'll most likely have to move 4 hours away to Shreveport, where her mom will be living. I've just always assumed that when she started school we'd move up there. So Kaleb's been applying for jobs and we've really been praying that God would open the doors we need for us to get up there before she starts school. With a new baby coming along, we know that we're going to have to work extra hard for Ella to always feel like we are a family even though she's not with us all the time. We've prayed and prayed for God to work his miracles to put us up there, assuming that up there is where He wants us. After all, how could He possibly want us to be away from Ella?? All this time, I thought that I was stepping out on faith by trusting that God would move us up there. I realized recently, though, that although I thought I was having faith, in actuality I was just stuffing God into my own box--the "we have to live in Shreveport for this to work" box. It's the only thing that made sense to me, so I assumed it was the only way God could possibly choose to work things.

His ways are not our own.

These past few weeks have come as a complete spiritual renewal for Kaleb and me. The sermon series we're doing at church, "You Were Made for More," has really put a cry in both our hearts to be all that God wants for us. We both feel that God is moving in a very big way, not only in us, but in our church. We feel that big things are happening and are about to happen. And, as much as I struggled to admit it, we need to be here to experience them.

God calls us to do things that don't make sense to everyone else. Or us. We learned about Joshua, and how God just told them to march around a city and it would be delivered to them. Say what?? March around and it'll all fall into place?? Sounds crazy. But it worked because it was God's will. It was His plan, not Joshua's. The story that's sticking out the most to me right now is that of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. I know it's a little dramatic, but stick with me here. God told Abraham to take his only son and to kill him. As an offering to God. Not just to move away from him. Kill him. I'm sure Abraham thought God was nuts. How could it possibly be good for Isaac to die? How could that be what God wanted? But Abraham trusted God with everything He had. We don't know if he thought that maybe God had a way out, but he had faith that if God said it, He had a perfect reason to. He's God. And you know what God did? He provided a sacrifice for Abraham. He stopped him from killing Isaac and provided a ram in the thicket. He worked it out perfectly, just like He always does.

So I've come to realize that my faith wasn't really faith in God as much as it was faith that God would work things out my way. It's becoming more and more clear now that God is going to work things out His way. How amazing will it be when God provides a way for us to still see Ella?? The school she'll be going to is a Christian pre-school. Maybe they'll be flexible with the weeks she's there. She's already learned a lot in the school we used to have her in here. Who knows? God does, and that's what matters.

It's been an amazing thing to see God reveal Himself and His will to my wonderful husband and myself. Kaleb was much more open to the idea, so he let God reveal it to him long before I opened up to the idea. In all of this, I'm also becoming more and more thankful for the amazing husband that God set aside for me. He truly has become the spiritual leader for our family, and my favorite part in all of this is being able to see him allow God to work through him and share things with me that God's sharing with him.

Our God is amazing! I love Him so much! He will make a way for us here. He is our Provider!

Get Down with the Sickness.

2009-02-05T13:03:00.000-06:00

This week started with a sore throat. It's Thursday, and my sore throat has progressed to a stuffy nose that doesn't let me breathe with my mouth closed or taste the yummy (I guess) broccoli and cheese soup I'd been wanting for days from Jason's. And a cough. How did I catch it from my students and not my husband when he had it weeks ago?? It makes no sense to me. Hopefully this is as far as it goes, though. I can't take anything and I can't afford to miss any school at all, so I need to stay healthy!

Kamden is making himself known in a big way...he's running out of room in my belly (which seems impossible if you've seen me and know how big it is!) and his crazy kickboxing antics make it look like I've got an alien in my stomach trying to come out! It's a lot of fun, and I am pumped that I can finally refer to him as my Little Nudger! (See: Breaking Dawn.)

My mom informed me that the crib they ordered for us came in today!! This is soooooo exciting. The really fun part will be to see my dad and husband put it together in a few weeks. That should be something.

Kamden is literally slamdancing right now. I keep trying to catch it on video, but he only does it when I'm preoccupied. I guess they start that early!