And it Begins...

Tonight I decided it was time to lower Caleb's crib to the middle height now that he is starting to army crawl and pull himself up into our laps while on the floor. Well thank GOD I decided tonight was the night because right after lowering it and getting the boys in bed here is what I watched Caleb working on doing... I finally went in with the camera to catch it...

He completely pulled himself up to standing position without any help! I couldn't believe I caught it on camera... the first time pulling himself up to standing position.

Another Update..

Benjamin came down with a fever this afternoon and we immediately called the pediatrician. He went in for the H1N1 test and was positive for it! Please please please be praying for my little ones. Benjamin is not quite 2 and little caleb is 8 months today. caleb has now gone to my mother in laws to stay away from Benjamin. Both boys will be taking the medication for H1N1 and it is extremely hard on their little stomachs. It will make them throw up, have diarrhea, and an upset tummy. Caleb has to take it for 10 days unless he comes down with symptoms then he will take it twice a day for 5 days. Benjamin will be taking the full amount for his little body. The biggest fear is developing a bacterial infection. Please be praying for them. Thank you everyone.

Feeling Better

So I am feeling like a completely new person! My fever has been gone for 24 hours now which means I am no longer going to give this to anyone. I have stopped taking my cough medicine which gave me incredibly weird dreams (like my hands being covered in chocolate) and it made me dizzy and queesy. I have 3 more days of the tamiflu which is powerful stuff! I am not convinced that my flu was H1N1. The doctor said it was, but i am not sure. I was flu positive, but the H1N1 test is a seperate test. He said it is all they are seeing right now, but whatever. It was no fun. Thanks to everyone who has been praying... So far no one else is sick. I am trying hard not to over do today, but I have a hard time just sitting still. I am tired of TV and movies.
I am so ready to see my boys. They have been with my parent or inlaws since Thursday and I miss them so much! Benjamin has picked up the phone quite a bit while he has been away and says "mommy" so they will call me so he can talk to me. I know he isn't quite sure what is going on and why in the world he can talk to me but not see me. I think he is really missing us. Hopefully I will be back in the full swing of things really soon. I have to get going on planning Benjamin's 2nd birthday party! It is only a few weeks away!

H1N1

So I have H1N1...It is awful! just found out a little while ago... I will be out of comission for a while so please be praying for me, my husband, my kids and my mom who have all been around me. They gave my mom and husband the medication for it also so they will be protected.. I just worry about my kids. Prayer is the best resource so please be praying for them..

The Boys

Benjamin was in bed and I heard noise from his room. I walked in and said "benjamin what are you doing?"
Benjamin: "make cake and french fries.... num num"

What can I say the kid loves french fries and cake and he has quite the imagination!

Caleb is now up on all fours and rocking back and fourth. He is quite the little army crawler. He is much faster then I remember Benjamin being. He is full of smiles and giggles every day!

Oh I never knew love like I love my two boys!!

Oh say what you say...

Benjamin: "mommy... aleb cry..... check him."

I made the mistake of standing caleb up on my lap (when benjamin was around) and I would sing "shake shake shake.... shake shake shake.... shake your booty" (yeah good choice mom) now Benjamin has picked up on it and will now walk up to me, out of the blue, and say "mom mom... shake ya booty."

Today will be the first time Benjamin has been in the nursery at church since he realized he could say this phrase.. I am praying he won't say it to the other kids or the nursery workers.. we might get kicked out of church.

Benjamin has an incredible desire/obsession with cooking. He wants every moment I am in the kitchen to help me cook. He has a little step stool he calls his ladder and he stands next to me at the counter and makes a complete mess of whatever I am doing, but he LOVES it. He will have his spoon and look at me and say "mix it, mom mom" He will stand near the spice bottles and pull them out one by one pretending to add spices to his creation. He even has a bowl and spoon in the bathtub for his culinary bath. He uses little blocks as his salt and pepper. He fills his bowl with water and then he will pick up a block "peppa" and add some in.. "Mix it up"... "salt, mix it up" He just truely enjoys cooking. Maybe he will be a famous chef on food network!

Benjamin is also really into "tools" right now. He talks about a toolbox all the time! "fix it, toolbox" he will say. He wants to play with daddy's drill and "tape measure." He often gets out the tape measure and measures Caleb and then will come over and measure my arm and leg.

Most recently Benjamin has begun the mimicking stage... He will repeat ANYTHING you say. I had very open ears last night as daddy and a friend were watching football with Benjamin in the room. Often if i get really really frustrated I will just growl/groan in order to not use bad language and I have noticed benjamin will copy even that. He thinks it is funny, but I don't want to teach him this type of behavior... It is really hard being a mom!

We have also reached the time in our lives that in order to go to the bathroom alone you have to lock the door. Benjamin has learned how to open all the doors in the house. It has added a new deminsion to our parenting.

Yesterday he went into his room (opened the door and went in) and decided he was going to try and pet his fish. I noticed I had not heard him in a while and found him in his room with water all over the place... daddy came in and got him and said Benjamin, were you trying to pet your fish? Benjamins reply "yep"

Thats all for now...

Wonder Pets...

Benjamin has moved on to the Wonder Pets being his new favorite show (he calls them the Pet pets )and he tries really hard to sing the song that is on the show. For those of you who know the song you may find this to be funny.

Last night Benjamin and I got home from running an errand and he gets in and starts singing
"mommy, tuck, and ming-ming too." and a few nights ago Brad put him in bed and said Benjamin just layed in bed singing over and over "and ming-ming too, and ming-ming too"

Since we are talking about funny things Benjamin says, today he started wearing his pull ups or his "big boy pants" and after we got them on he was all excited and wanted to show them off. (they are Cars pull ups) well Caleb woke up and Benjamin wanted to come in and help me get alab out of his crib. To Benjamin this just means he gets to climb in the crib with Caleb and laugh and play. Anyway... he crawls in the crib with caleb and sits down facing him and says "look alab... bi boy pants... a car" He was so excited for caleb to see his big boy pants with the car on it. I thought it was really cute. Then after he showed Caleb he heard Brad come out of the bedroom and started yelling "daddy bi boy pants.... cars."

Ever since we went out of town for the 4 day weekend for our anniversary Benjamin seems to really have been affected by us being gone that long. It was the longest we have been away from the boys. After we got back he wanted nothing but to be next to me on the couch and he would snuggle up beside me and look up at me and in the softest little voice he would say "miss you mom-mom." He also did this to Brad while lying on the floor with him. He looked at him and said "miss you dada" He now says this all the time when I just walk into the other room. I think he missed us a lot. Maybe he is experiencing a little separation anxiety as well. It makes me feel special that he loves me so much! Sweet boy!

Potty Training...

It has begun!! Today is day 1 of our 3 day potty training journey. It is going to be a boring few days because we are not going to be going many places. Benjamin has already been used to peeing in the potty on occasion (when he feels like it). Today we got the "big boy pants" out, which are pull ups. We started our morning naked and just going to the potty every 10 minutes. So far we have peed 5 times!~! I am proud of my little guy! He is wearing his pull ups right now and so far no peeing in them. I just have to stay on top of asking if he has to go potty. Well I better go check on him... Its going to be a long day but hopefully worth it.

Baby Fat...

What ever happened to my baby fat?? Well it is still here! I got so frustrated and just decided that I would wait until I was done nursing Caleb to begin really losing. So I started last week (monday).
My starting weight was 178 UGH!
However after week 1 I am at 174. I got sick this week which didn't help and have not been able to do any exercise. I am pleased with a 4lb loss. Hopefully this week as I am only dealing with sinus stuff now will allow for some extra exercise. So Baby Fat.. so I will say goodbye to my 4 lbs and I never hope to see it again!

Thank God for Boxes

Today we were in need of some entetainment for benjamin who is getting to be in his TERRIBLE TWO'S... He is just into EVERYTHING and testing every limit possible. Anyway... I quickly got the idea to put some boxes together and create a truck for him to play in. He had a blast in it and it provided the entertainment we needed today.

Caleb even got to go along for a ride.

A much needed mommy hug from my boys!






Crazy Bath time hair to end our day!

Halloween 2009

Halloween was a fun day. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to participate with the boys as two days prior I had some sort of virus or something. It was all the symptoms of flu, but I was tested and didn't have flu. Anyway I am still trying to get over my sore throat. I was able to have a great Halloween with the boys. Benjamin's 2nd and Caleb's first! Both boys were monkeys (very fitting :) and this year we actually got to carve a pumpkin. Last year if you remember Benjamin was terrified of pumpkins. As we were carving and putting pumpkin guts into the bowl Benjamin kept saying "punkin cake" and then he would put his spoon into the bowl of seeds and mix it all up. He loves to cook! Anyway these pictures are in backwards order of the day, but enjoy! Also just to note... Benjamin started calling me mommy and brad daddy instead of dada and ma-mom I am not sure I like this.... It means my little boy is growing up on me!

Our smallest monkey.

Benjamin HATED his costume and absolutely pitched a fit having to wear it. This is why we have so few pictures of him in it.

Grandma "ga ga" and papa.

Caleb decided halloween would be a good night to get going towards crawling. He got up on his knees and scooted himself on the floor.

Daddy and his boys.

Benjamin taking a good look at the pumpkin lit up

My sweet little pumpkin! It does look like Benjamin is about to kick the pumpkin off the table, but his foot was behind the pumpkin and it just looks this way.

carving and making "punkin cake"

Helping daddy clean out the seeds

Helping daddy by "cutting" with his spoon

My two little pumpkins! Aren't they sweet!

Check this out...

Click HERE to see how I saved $196.20 and only spent $4.32!! It was an amazing deal!

Our Anniversary Weekend.

This year we had the best opportunity (thanks mom and dad) to go to our family lake house on Lake Keowee. It was a wonderful weekend. My parents and Brads parents juggled keeping our children so we could enjoy 4 full days and 3 nights at the lake. This is the first real time we have had away since Benjamin was born. We had an outdoor fire and drank wine while we wrote in our Anniversary Journal. This journal is something we do every year to reflect on the past year and to write our hopes for the year to come. We also had the chance to drive up to Cashiers NC and see the beautiful fall colors. It was a true weekend of complete relaxation and much needed sleep. Here are some pictures of our weekend. 

4 years ago...

I met Brad 8 years ago and I didn't think much of him the first day I met him. I thought he had an odd and sarcastic personality and he didn't cross my mind again until 4 days later when a group of us were all meeting at Atlanta Bread Company to caravan to Memphis, TN for the summer internship program we were all a part of. I was the first to arrive and was waiting by my car. That is when I saw Brad sitting at the traffic light and all the sudden my stomach went into complete butterflies. (it was completely the Lord's doing). The entire way to Memphis I was trying to think of reasons to have to call him. I remember thinking "what in the world am I doing." We stopped at a gas station/Arby's and while sitting there Brad looked over at me during an awkward silence and simply said " so... you like stuff?" my reply "yeah... do you?" It was at that moment that he had me... I didn't quite realize it for another day or two, but that was the start of our relationship. Almost 3 years later Brad got down on one knee on the top of a mountain in New Zealand and asked me to be his wife. Seven months later we were married and to me it was the most beautiful wedding ever. We had a blast at our reception and then off to Jamaica for a week of relaxing. 

Our lives have changed a lot since I first met Brad... we have grown and changed in may ways. We started our family a year and a half after we were married and have expanded in leaps and bounds. I am more in love with Brad now then ever before. He is my rock and my support, he is the one I enjoy laughing with the most. He has big dreams and desires for our life and I love that! Brad is caring, and patient. Probably one of the most patient people I have ever met. He has an ability to not react quickly in anger to situations and he has this amazing God given ability to NEVER hold grudges against people or situations. He loves the Lord and only wants our family to grow together closer to our Heavenly Father! 

Brad I am more thankful for you in my life then I know how to express. You are everything I ever imagined in a husband and I look forward to many many more anniversaries with you! I love you with all my heart!!

Right after getting engaged

Happy Anniversary...I think!

I am a little late in posting as our anniversary was 2 days ago, but I will post my whole anniversary post in a few days. Right now Brad and I are enjoying an amazing weekend at the Lake and it is SO BEAUTIFUL. We are having so much fun relaxing and enjoying our time here while the kids are at the grandparents. We didn't start our anniversary off very well.... Here is why. 

Last week while Brad was on his way to Columbia for school, the transmission went out on our van. Then this past I went to work where I ended my day without a job. I came home with the kids and didn't do much.. tried to clean up a little etc... On thursday Brad and I woke up at 6:30 (not on purpose) maybe it was the anticipation of a weekend away. We got our day going and I started packing for our weekend. I got the boys all packed to go to their grandparents and then started laundry so I could have clothes for the weekend.  Right now my closet area in my bedroom is a disaster and there are clothes everywhere.. So with that being said I noticed that the lid to the round "hat box" that I keep all my lingerie in was laying on the floor, but my box of lingerie was gone.. I thought it was weird so I asked Brad if he moved it etc.. we started looking for it but couldn't find it. We kind of passed it off as that is really weird were could I have put it! So we left to take the boys to the grandparents and run some errands. When we got home I went to the drawer where we keep all our DVD's to get our wedding video's and realized that 25 of our DVD's were gone! I went and got Brad and he came in to look. This is when we started to look for other things that might be missing and the list just piled up. We figured that this must be a joke our friends are playing on us. So we called or texted all our friends with our bizarre question of "did you take Lauren's lingerie as a joke?" After realizing our friend thought we were crazy, we came to the conclusion that someone broke into our house. We started making our list of what was missing:     

1. Lauren's lingerie

2. video camera

3. digital camera

4. the kids portable DVD player

5. Brad's IPod

6. 25 DVD's

and this is all we have noticed at this point! We ended up calling the police and they came out to file a report. We are pretty unnerved by the whole situation.  I think what bothers me the most is that someone took my lingerie!! It is just disturbing that the creep who took it probably gave it to his girlfriend as a gift or something. Used lingerie to my knowledge is not a hot item on the black market!  I am very disturbed that our cameras with our memories of our children are also gone and that those creeps could have watched the video of our family etc. It just bothers me a lot! I can sit and dwell on it and get very angry, but it won't do me any good. I have however prayed for the people who did this because I know that I can't do anything, but the Lord can. I also have to remember that one day they will face the Lord and there is no hiding it. I do have an idea of who did this, but I have no proof and it is pure speculation. So after talking with the police they told us there was nothing that could be done at this point so they would have the police patrol our home and to try and have an enjoyable weekend away. Monday we will have to search for serial numbers etc to check pawn shops and all that. We have picked out a verse that we are going to have as an ebenezer of sorts for our family. 

For you O God tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us to a place of abundance" Psalm 66 10-12.

After finally leaving to go on our weekend away we ended up having to stop at Copper River Grill for our anniversary dinner! Not what we had planned but we were starving so we split a hamburger and just enjoyed that we were together. 

I will post about our actual anniversary later. 

Anyone Hiring??

Once again I am on the job hunt. I lost my job today due to the schedule being so empty and there just not being enough funds to pay someone who is the second hygienist in the office. I feel defeated and like my confidence in what I do is gone! I don't even know what to say... If anyone knows of someone who is hiring please let me know. I have to find a job fast because I am the bread winner in our family while Brad is in school.