Catching up

Well, like I said a couple days ago, I can't believe it's been a month since I have blogged. Life gets crazy.

I've been working, Tues-Fri, every week. Tyler has been working some CRAZY hours, hitting overtime by Wednesday a lot of weeks. This has made for some very long nights alone with Jackson and one very stressed out, exhausted Mama. Thankfully, that time is coming to a close and he will be staying home with Jackson from now on, only working Mondays and possibly an occasional weekend. So ready for this change!

So, let's go back in time. I had a wonderful first Mothers' Day this past weekend.

It lasted the entire weekend! Saturday, Shirley and David came up to keep Jackson while Tyler and I went to a co-worker's wedding. Tyler and I enjoyed our first outing alone in a while!
After the wedding, we came back to the house and hung out with Tyler's brothers Joey and Dustin for a bit until church Saturday night. Tyler's parents & brothers, my parents, brothers, and grandparents, and Tyler, Jackson, and I went to church together Saturday night and all sat together. I thought that was pretty awesome. Then, Sunday morning, my in-laws and sweet husband let me sleep in a little later than usual and I got coffee and a card in bed! :) My in-laws went back to El Dorado and Tyler, Jacks and I got to spend the whole day as a family together, just watching movies and hanging out (since the weather was not so great). Then we had dinner with my family at my parents'.
Jackson with his Poppy


The weekend before that, we found out that our best friends Charity and Jonathan Ashworth are building a house three lots down from ours! Charity and I have known each other since we were kids back in Alma. We reconnected in college and got married around the same time. Jonathan and Tyler are buddies now, too. We are too excited to have them so close and can't wait for all the cookouts, movie nights, and yes, golf days that will ensue! :)

Jackson is really growing so quickly lately! It really does go too fast! He is now a lot more social, and smiles at everyone! He loves to play peekaboo, and recognizes his bottle as his "food". He can sit up with support from his Bumbo or pillows around him.


He laughs and coos at you all the time. He's been eating rice cereal occasionally and getting better with that. We go back to the doctor the first week of June for a check up, and I can't wait to see how much he's gained! He is such a blessing in our lives. We can't imagine or remember our life without him!

So, that's what's been up... really not too much... just day to day life :)

Crazy Eights

My goodness, has it been a month since I've blogged? Guess time gets away from you when you have a three month old....

Anyways, I want to update soon and put up all my newest pics, but for tonight I will simply play this crazy eights game - thanks Shanna! Like you, I like the 8-8-08... I graduated that day!

The Rules:

1]. Go to your photos files and select the 8th photo folder.

2]. Select the 8th photo in that folder/album.

3]. Post that photo along with the story behind it.

4]. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.


This is me with Ashlen Batson (soon to be Thomason, as in this week!) at an Arkansas Travelers game in June 2008. I was on my last week of clinicals at Butterfly Learning Center, and had bought my car the day before! Tyler and I met up with Dustin Thomason (her fiance) and Ashlen because it was Arkansas Children's Hospital night at the Travelers, and Tyler was working for ACH and got free tickets. We went to Famous Dave's BBQ to eat beforehand, and it was incredibly humid! This was about a month before Ashlen won Miss Arkansas! So, just for kicks, here's the pic with her and her parents from the night she won:


And also just for kicks, here's some pics of us about this time last year at ANOTHER Travelers game, voting for Kris Allen (it was the night he sang Falling Slowly...):


Dustin and Ashlen voting frantically
Ashlen & me again... it was super cold that night!

And it just so happens that Dustin and Ashlen came to our house tonight to see Jackson and hang out before they get married next Monday (in FLORIDA! SO JEALOUS!!)! So, bravo, Shanna... this game was a winner! And, I only have two followers.... Shanna and Chrissy, so Chrissy, tag you're it! :)

When it rains...

So... it has been a fairly eventful week again. It seems our lives never slow down, only keep getting more hectic. I went back to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and they were fairly normal days. Wednesday, Tyler turned in his notice at work that he will be going PRN as of May 17. That is a HUGE thing for us as a family. Tyler will be staying home Tues-Fri while I work and working on his masters' of healthcare administration online. He will probably be working on Mondays since I am off, and still taking call one weekend a month. This is going to be a positive thing for our family, because lately his job has been taking him away from us multiple nights a week and him getting called out in the middle of our nightly routine makes for a cranky daddy, mommy, AND baby! Let the countdown to May 17 begin!

Thursday, my mom called while I was at lunch and let me know that Grayson was running a high fever and she thought he might have strep throat. At such short notice, I had to take off work on Friday so that Jackson would not be around him. I'm so glad that I did, because it turns out Grayson has mono, and Jackson could possibly catch it even though he is so young. Now, Sunday night, Grayson's fever still has not gone below 101 degrees and until he is feverless, Jackson cannot go to their house. The doctor said that could be several weeks. Time to get creative for babysitters! :) Tyler's dad is going to come up Tuesday and Wednesday to stay with him, and my friend Kristen is going to watch him Thursday (which was thankfully already arranged). Hopefully by Friday, my mom can leave for a while to come watch Jackson at our house.

This weekend we worked on our flowerbeds... I say "we" but I guess I mean Tyler and his brothers, because I was inside most of the time with Jackson. We replanted some shrubs that were not really alive any more, and put down new mulch. In the process of this, we used our water hoses for the first time since the winter. Well, you can imagine what happened... both our outside faucets apparently froze in the nasty weather we had this year. Thankfully, after a long afternoon of trial and error today, my grandpa and Tyler got the back one fixed and it was nothing that could have hurt our foundation or inside floors. We'll have to fix the front one at a later point.

Jackson got a Bumbo chair on Friday, and he really likes it, though he barely has the head control to sit there for very long! He's getting the hang of it. The past two days, we've been working on getting Jackson to go to sleep in his crib without one of us rocking him to sleep. So far, so good. He has taken several long naps in there. Tonight, we're gonna try to let him sleep in his crib for the first time. He has slept in a co-sleeper in our bed since he was born. He's already sleeping now, so we'll see how long that lasts! Last night he slept from 9:30 pm to 4:30 am without waking up. I'm praying that tonight will be the same.

And... here are some pictures from this week! And, now I realize these are the only pictures I have taken this week. Which means tomorrow we will be having a nice photoshoot. :) This has been the most random post ever.

Turning points

Do you ever look back at moments in your life and think, "Man, if I had known that was going to be a turning point in my life I would have paid more attention and soaked that in a little longer?"

Oh, sure, the big stuff - your wedding day, buying your first car, the day you graduated college, buying your first house, or the day you had your first child - but I'm talking about the little things that are less obvious:
The last Christmas you spent with the grandmother that then passed away.
The first time you met the person who you would eventually spend happily-ever-after with.
The last time you cleaned out your above mentioned first car before you traded it in on something bigger.
The last birthday you spent in the house you grew up in before your parents unexpectedly sold it.
The last time you & your mom went shopping before she found out she had cancer.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that lately I have realized how quickly our lives can change, usually always for the better. It also seems to me that those turning points never seem to come with warning signs, and so maybe we should cherish each and every moment that passes, especially the little ones, while we have them in front of us. Not only cherish them, but turn those little moments into everyday celebrations full of fanfare and excitement and wonder.

That's something my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all know how to do... turn the ordinary into extraordinary... and I hope that I can pass that on to my children as well.

What is life, if not to live and love?

First week back!

So... I went back to work on Thursday! And.... it was really a lot easier than I thought it would be. Amazing how God gives us grace and strength to walk through what He has called us to walk through. Thursday and Friday, Tyler was able to be home to keep Jackson, which probably made things a lot easier as well. Friday, he even got to see his GranGran, Poppy, and Uncle Dustin, so I'm sure he didn't even miss me that much! Tomorrow, I go back to work "for real" and my mom will be keeping him, which means up and at 'em early & across town to drop him off. We'll see how that goes in the morning! He's like his momma and likes his sleep in the mornings. Here's a picture from last week (8 weeks old):

The Easter Bunny brought Jackson some much-needed short-sleeved clothes! Suddenly the weather got much warmer!

Love this smile! He has my heart, for sure.

Friday night, Brennan was home from Belmont and we went to eat dinner with my family. We grilled out burgers and just enjoyed hanging out. It was also the day Jackson turned two months old! Jackson had a nice conversation with Grandpa Chris:


This weekend, we also bought an SUV! It's a 2003 Lincoln Navigator. We were really out of room with my little car, and Tyler had a Ford Ranger, which you cannot put a carseat in, so we had to get something a little bigger. It's so nice to be able to haul things around, too! We are blessed.

We took Jackson to Easter service on Saturday night. He was great through praise and worship, but got a little fussy when the sermon started, so he and I hung out in the foyer the rest of the service. It was still nice, though, and we honestly met a few other families while we were out there! Here are some pictures of us on our way to Saturday night service:The loves of my life!

Sweet, sweet, sweet!

My favorite boy on the planet!

Then, since we had gone to church Sat night,we slept in late. This is quite possibly my most favorite picture EVER!

We had an early lunch at my grandparents' before Brennan had to go back to Belmont. A nap ensued:

Sassy and Grandpa Chris with the sweet one:

Uncle Brennan getting some loves:

Today, Jackson and I went for his 2-month checkup. He weighs 11 lb, 11.5 oz now! 50th percentile. He's getting so big, so fast! I can't believe it! Then, we went to Sam's to stock up on formula and diapers... it's incredible how fast you can go through that stuff!

Whew... I guess we had a pretty eventful week after all! Day by day, that's all we can do.

(My current view! Couldn't resist!)

We will follow

I have had a lot on my mind lately, and the past few days I have felt somewhat overwhelmed. There are a lot of unknowns in our life right now, and if you know me, you know I love to have a plan. I really, really hate not having a plan. But there are a lot of things that seem to be up in the air and circumstances that are outside my control. Between the post-pregnancy hormones and not getting enough sleep, tonight I became pretty much completely overwhelmed. As I was sitting in my bedroom crying, and crying out to God, and reading my Bible, I came across this verse.

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."
Isaiah 42:16

These are words I have read over and over, and taken comfort from on so many occasions. However, tonight, the words seemed to slap me across the face.

I WILL. There are no if, ands, or buts about it. HE WILL.

As I return to work and have to leave my sweet baby and that difficult transition -
HE WILL make the rough places smooth.

Tyler's graduate school and job situation -
HE WILL guide us.

My parents' moving to Fort Smith and 2 hours away from us -
HE WILL not forsake me.

The state of the nation, health care reform, and consequently, mine and Tyler's careers -
HE WILL turn darkness into light before us.

HE WILL lead me by ways I have not known. Along unfamiliar paths. Out of my nice "planned" comfort zone. But HE WILL guide me. He sees and knows so much more than we can imagine or comprehend.

Though I do not know what the next chapter of our life holds,
I do know and trust and believe the One who holds our life.

And just one short chapter over, in Isaiah 43:19:

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

Lord, this family will follow where you lead us.

We have had another busy week! Saturday, we went to visit Tyler's grandparents in Fordyce. It was his second lengthy car trip (almost 2 hours) and he did great, sleeping the whole way there and the whole way back, and being nice and happy while we were there! His aunt Peggy and cousin Jennifer also stopped by to meet our little man! Here are a couple of pictures :

Family picture! Possibly the first one in two months, since one at the hospital!

Jackson with Jennifer

Jackson with his great-grandpa, Papaw McDonald in their matching overalls

Jackson hanging out with his great-aunt Peggy

Jackson and his great-grandma McDonald

Last weekend (well, weekend before last now, as it's Monday!) our friends Austin and Linley came up to visit, and brought one of Tyler and Austin's friends from high school, John, and his fiancee Allison with them. We hadn't seen Austin and Linley since the weekend of Thanksgiving, and Tyler had not seen John in 5 years. We had a nice visit, though it was rainy and gross outside! We took Jackson to Cracker Barrel with everyone, and he slept in my arms the entire time! He's really getting good at going and doing things. Here are some pictures from that weekend:

Tyler, Austin, and John

Linley with her babygirl Kenlee and Jackson

He is growing up so quickly! I can even tell a difference from the picture with Linley to the pictures from this weekend in Fordyce. I have to go back to work on Thursday, and that brings mixed emotions. On one hand, I am very ready to have some semblance of a routine again. We haven't had much of a schedule since Jackson was born, and though I don't expect him to settle into a perfect routine, I think it will do us all good to have a set bedtime and time to get up! The other part of me is very sad to know that these are my last few hours to be at home constantly with my sweet boy. At this point in our lives, Tyler and I don't have much of a choice except for me to continue working. Hopefully, in about 2 years, Tyler will be done with his masters' degree and I might be able to stay home more at that point.

On another note... Happy Easter!