Living life 3 hours at a time

Currently, I live life 2 - 3 hours at a time. With a newborn that is your schedule, that is how often they need to eat. Being his source of food, that means I live my life 2-3 hours at a time. Is it tough? Some times. Does it inconvenience our life? Some times. Am I totally sleep deprived? Yes! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! I have spent the past month watching this little man grow and change and I wouldn't change a single 3 hour block of it!

Ethan turns 11!

Ethan turned 11 last Monday, yes, 11...Eleven...1 1...One One! My oh my how time flies. We all went to have lunch with him at school that day and as we are leaving Paul says sadly..."we only have 7 more years". Yes, that is true. But I would much rather think of it as we have seven years left. Ethan is an amazing boy, turning into a great young man. Although it's been 11 years (9 for me), I look forward to the next 7 taking a long time!

Playing Catch-Up

One day. Soon. I will get caught up on this blog thing. Until then, possibly some random posts that do not seem, no do not at all go together. It's the way it goes with a newborn I guess. So, lets see what pictures pop up and I'll blog about them. How's that for my normal structure! ....looks like we have a pic of me and my baby boy...Courtney learning to ride her bike with no training wheels! SHE insisted on getting a helmet. See, Paul and I both say "we didn't grow up wearing one and we are fine (kind of)" but she took her training wheels off and then would not ride it until we got her a helmet. So, I sent Daddy off to the store to get "the coolest helmet he could find"...Sorry, IF she is going to wear a helmet, she is NOT going to look like a dork. :-) Next up is Courtney and her Auntie Shannon, whom she A D O R E S! Then, quite a good picture of me, Dad and Austin..good job Shan! and last but not least is probably the most beautiful picture I have ever seen of my daughter. I took it the morning she had "crazy hair day" at school, hence the bright pink "crazy" hair. He smile and eyes are stunning in this picture. We LOVE her! See you soon with most likely another random post! Happy Thursday!

proud big brother

Ethan finally got what he wanted....a baby brother. Back when I was pregnant with Courtney his mom was pregnant too...both of us with girls and he already had an older sister. His score for the past 4 years...3-1, not in his favor. Dolls, hair bows, pink and dancing were not his idea of being a big brother. Although Courtney is our little 'tom boy', he wanted a brother, a boy. So, as you can see, he is one happy big brother. He never said much to me, through out the whole pregnancy. At times I wondered if he was somewhat upset about it, but now I know that is so far from the truth. Going back to school I hear all this teachers in the hall "Ethan is so excited", "Ethan is so proud", "Ethan loves having a little brother". Apparently he had been talking about Austin a lot, telling people when he would be here and showing his excitement. How proud that made me as his mom, to know he really does want to be a big brother again and is excited to finally have his little brother here. I am so excited to watch Ethan lead Austin, teach Austin, and help Daddy show Austin how to be a man of God.

rewind...3rd trimester pictures

 I really can't believe how fast Austin's pregnancy went. I truly tried to enjoy every second with Courtney this summer and we had so much fun and made so many memories. Here are the final 3 months of pregnancy...June...

July...

August...the day before we went to have him

Quite possibly the only picture out there of us while I was pregnant...

Last day of our "count down to austin" chart...she was SO excited!

Introducing Austin

Welcome to our new blog address. Austin Dale was born on August 24th @ 9:09 AM as a perfect little healthy boy. He is absolutely amazing and precious. We spent the first couple of days in the hospital after a scheduled c-section for Mommy and have been home with tons of family since. Everything went perfect for Austin. Mommy had some (not serious) complications which will be a later post, but all of us are doing well now and enjoying our new family of FIVE!