Update

Hi!

I know that it's been way too long since I've blogged, but between work, children, church & soccer I haven't had much time on my hands.  I thought that I would just give a quick update on everyone, starting with hubs...

Hubs has started taking 2 classes online through our local community college (where he also works).  When he came to me with this idea, I was a little hesitant.  He decided to push through my hesitation and it was clearly God's will for him to go there.  Hubs has a learning disability and since making the move, he has received LOTS of help with his studies, and he didn't even have to take the placement test.  More importantly, he received enough financial aid to cover his tuition and books.  He is doing great as well, having an "A" average in one of his classes.

Ms. Addison is doing so so great in kindergarten.  First of all, she LOVES it, every aspect of it!  She is even disapointed that she doesn't get to go to school on the weekends and she shouts out "That's my schoooollll" when we pass by.  She even eats in the cafeteria a couple days of the week, which thrills my heart that she is trying new foods.  The biggest accomplishment is that she has began to READ!!  She came home with a bag of site words a couple of weeks ago, and she is doing so well with them.  She is also playing soccer, her Dad is coaching her again.  Our Saturdays are filled with going to the games and cheering her along from the sidelines.

Mr. Finn is also doing great in daycare.  I really like his center and his teachers.  I call and check on him several times a day and they always talk about what an easy baby he is ( I have to agree).  He has started eating cereal each night and he doesn't like it very much, but I feel that he needs it because he has started getting up during the night to eat.  He has also found his voice and loves to grab toys and chew on his toes -- which is the cutest thing ever!

I am also doing great, I can eat almost anything with my galbladder being gone, anything except fried foods.  Work has been so so busy lately,   but I still love my job.  I am also still in love with my new home and I am looking forward to decorating it for fall and Christmas!!

Well, that's about it for us, hopefully I can blog more often!

First day of kindergarten!

Tonight I tucked in a little girl who just completed her first day of kindergarten. 

The day started early, I woke her up at 6:30, but this morning was different she had a jump in her step, a disinterest in her morning cartoons and an eagerness to get to school. 

She quickly dressed in her new freshly ironed dress and white canvas tennis shoes.  I shopped for a couple of months for the perfect "first day of school" outfit, and I finally found it online 2 weeks ago.  I'll never forget  the tears in my eyes when it arrived, because I knew where she would wear this dress.

We ( all four of us) arrived at school at 7:30 sharp, with my big Nikon camera around my neck like I was a tourist.  The school seemed so big for such a little person, but she navigated it like a pro, showing her Dad and I the cafeteria, library and the playground.

I have to say, I have been really impressed with her elementary school.  Addison had her first visit to the school back in May when they allowed the upcoming kindergarten class to visit the school to play and explore with the other children.  Then in July she went to the school for the screening and the following week she went to visit again to explore her classroom (complete with the class pet, a tarantula).  On Monday afternoon, her teacher and teacher assistant came to visit Addison at our house, where her teacher read a book to her and played with her a bit, so that Addison would become more familiar with her.

Even so, I was a bit worried about my girl today.  I was relieved when her BFF, Cecilia's mom (who works at the school)  called in the middle of the day to say that she had checked on Addison and she was doing great!  When I pulled up to the school to pick her up, I was so relieved to see her walking out, holding the teacher's hand.  She hopped in and said  "I had a great day and I want to go back tomorrow."

So, there's no turning back now....

Lucy....

Some of you may have noticed the button to your left, that's Lucy.  Lucy has become a part of our family, even though we have never met her.  I first stumbled across Lucy and her precious family (big sister Ella, little bro Jack, her mom Kate and father, Erik) on another blog.  At the time Lucy had just been diagnosed with cancer and the outcome was not favorable.  My family and I hit our knees praying for this little girl in Tennessee and our prayers have been answered because this week Lucy walked into her kindergarten class for the first day of school.

Today, Lucy's mom wanted to meet all of the families that have prayed for her daughter in a linky party.  So of course I linked up.  So let me first introduce our little family.

I am the Mom, Keisha.  I am 29 years old and have lived my entire life in Western North Carolina.  I had always dreamed of living somewhere else, but as I grew older I realized that Western North Carolina is a great place to raise my children.  I work as a pediatric dental assistant and I can say that this is my dream job, along with being a mother & wife of course.  I will volunteer at most church activities, especially those of which include children, I love to blog, bake and pulling for our Clemson Tigers.

The Dad, Josh or "Spunky" to which most people call him is 35 years old has been married to me for the past 8 and a half years, works in maintenance at a local community college as he takes courses to become a minister.  "Spunky" is such a great father and husband, even staying beside my side this entire week while I underwent 2 nights in the hospital and emergency gallbladder surgery.  He loves Clemson football, coaching our daughter's soccer team and making our yard the most beautiful one in the neighborhood.

The daughter, Addison is almost 6 years old and will be starting kindergarten in 3 days (yikes!), she loves being mommy's helper, jumping on her trampoline, mac - n - cheese, and playing soccer.  She's a little hyper, but she's our girl!  Her Daddy always prayed that God would give her a BIG personality and he answered that prayer for sure!  We love watching her twirl around in her princess dresses!

The son, Finn is almost 3 months old, even though he's still young, we can tell that he's a complete opposite of Addison's personality, he's very calm, loves to sleep and eat (which Addison never enjoyed at this age), and loves to spend his days kicking on a blanket in the floor.  He's our unexpected blessing from God and we love him to pieces!

So that's our family, and we will continue to pray for Miss. Lucy!


Hugs!

Home...

Surgery went well and I am now resting comfortably at home Praise The Lord!  Thank you for all of your prayers and please continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

12:30...

I will be having surgery at 12:30 to remove my gallbladder at 12:30, all prayers appreciated!

In The Hospital...

Yes, the above statement is true, I am in the hospital :(

Over the weekend I began having a really bad backache, I thought that it could be associated from a massage that I had on Friday and I laid on the heating pad most of the weekend.  I began to feel better on Saturday night and we went and celebrated hub's birthday, but on Sunday morning I woke up with a horrible backache and I felt pretty out of it.  I shook it off thinking that it was probably associated from staying up too late on Saturday night and I went to church, eagerly waiting for nap time.

Around 3AM on Monday I woke up with a bad tummy ache and that same nagging back ache, I thought that it was from eating too much candy the night before ( an entire bag of gummy worms) and went on to work.  Getting through the day was a little tough, but I made it!  I came home and didn't leave the recliner all night.

I didn't sleep at all on Monday night and around 6:15 I gave up and told hubs that I needed to go to the emergency room, we made arrangements for my mom to take care of my beautiful children and hubs rushed me to the E.R. in Asheville.  I was quickly sent for an ultrasound and lab work that confirmed my self diagnosis, my gallbladder needed to come out.

The doctor in the e.r. gave me the option to stay at the hospital or to go home and later meet up with a surgeon.  Being that I was in so much pain, I chose to stay and get an i.v. meds and get the chance to get my gallbladder out sooner.

Hopefully I will get it out tomorrow, please pray that they can do it laproscopically (sp?) and that I will have a quick recovery.  Thank you!

Back to work...

Wednesday was my first day back to work and I really didn't want to go.  I even laid awake in my bed most of the night before, when the alarm went off I was already awake.  I cried off and on most of the day on Tuesday, at one point I was playing with Finn in the floor and my tears began to hit his chubby little hand and he laughed and grinned at me.  When it came time to leave on Wednesday morning my kids were still in the bed and hubs held me close to his chest where I cried again.

I hate being a working mom, granted Addison has turned out well by going to daycare since the age of 9 weeks old, but it's still very difficult.  Luckily, I never missed any of her milestones, I was right beside her when she rolled over, saw her first step and when she said "Mama".  Hopefully that will be the case with Finn as well.

On the flip side, I am lucky to see my kids every weekend, I have only been on two  business trips since I started with my company, and even so hubs came on one of them with me. I am lucky that I see my kids every night and the best part is that I have every other Friday off and 4 weeks of vacation every year. 

I fully trust the center where Finn is going to go and luckily he will only be there about 4 hours every day, hopefully we can leave the yucky viruses at school! 

Choosing to be a working mom or a stay at home mom was never an option for me, I HAVE to work, but I am hoping that maybe one day that I will have the option to stay at home with my children, and all that takes is prayer.  I am trusting that God will provide my husband a job that will give us a sufficient salary and that I can have the choice.  And when it happens I will praise him from the rooftops.

Until then...

All Smiles...

This week...

This week has been great! Here are the highlights...

**Addison's 2 besties invited her to bible school at their church, so she went every single night and loved it!!  While there, she sang songs, made some awesome crafts, and was visited by a firetruck, a police car and an ambulance.  She woke up every morning asking when it was time to go to bible school.  Tonight was commencement and I was even a little sad that it was all over because I know how much fun she has had all week.

** On Wednesday we went shopping with my mother in law to Khol's to purchase Addison's back to school clothes and backpack.  I also visited the R.E.I. store for the very first time to purchase some Keen shoes for Addison...they are the greatest shoes ever!!!  I normally buy them for her every spring, but this year I couldn't find them at the store that I usually get them at, and someone told me that R.E.I. had them and they were correct!

**Today we had a playdate with some friends at our house, I served hot dogs, pasta salad, veggies & chips.  Everyone had a great time, including Finn!!

** I just ordered Addison's back to school outfit, it is adorable, but I was so sad to be buying a new dress to wear to kindergarten.

It looks like we have a great weekend in store, I can't wait to spend time with my family!

Mommy's Day Out...

Yesterday was a great day! 

I had my postpartum doctor's appointment in Asheville, so I hired a babysitter for Addison.  This was only the second time that I have ever hired a babysitter, but after yesterday I may do this more often because Addison thought that it was a special treat having a teenage girl come over and play with her! I ended up taking Finn along with me and we made a trip to my office to show him off.  He was so good the entire time and several of my co - workers even held him!  It was bittersweet being at my office, I miss my co workers and the adult interaction, but I am really going to miss my kids during the day.  I feel confident that Finn is going to be great at his little school that he's going to go to, and I think that Addison has turned out great being in daycare for the past 5 years.  She's not anxious or anything about starting kindergarten and she really misses her little friends, we even call them on the phone on occasion.

Finn did great at the doctor's office as well, but I ended up having to feed him while waiting for the doctor.  I did have to have the nurse hold him while the doctor did my exam, but she didn't seem to mind.

After we got back into town, I still had an hour or so before I had to relieve my babysitter so Finn and I went by to see Josh at work during his lunch hour.  All of his co workers oohed and ahhed over out little guy, Finn snoozed away, so he's unaware of how cute all of Josh's co workers think that he is.

When we got home, I ended up dropping off our babysitter and I decided to take her and Addison to lunch at Subway.  Addison always puts up a fight about eating sandwiches, but she loved sharing our sub sandwich at Subway.  Maybe this is a start, because I am super anxious about the lunch situation at kindergarten.  She can only pack a sandwich or something of the likes at kindergarten.  This is a big change from her lunches at pre school, because they had microwaves available so the teachers would often heat up chicken nuggets, pizza or mac - n - cheese for her.  I am not opposed to her eating in the cafeteria, but she's a really picky eater and I hardly doubt that she would eat meatloaf, fish sticks or some of the other options.  Maybe this will be a good thing though, maybe she will start to eat a wider variety of foods...I guess we will see!

When we got home both of the kids took great naps, and then Addison and her Dad went out for ice cream and Finn and I stayed home, drank a bottle and watched a little HGTV.

It was a great day!

Playing In The Rain...

Addison is tired of our afternoon thunderstorms because she can't jump on her trampoline.  Yesterday she decided to take matters into her own hands!  I think that this is so cute that I'm going to email it to our local news station, we'll see if it makes it on air!

Bragging Rights...

Last night, I got 7.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep!!!

Yes, Finn slept through the night for the very first time & I am super excited about it!!

I first woke up at 6:30 or so in a panic, but a few minutes later I heard some soft coos from the room across the hall.  We are so thankful for sleep and for this precious baby boy.

Sweet Dreams!

Love, 

Addison & Finn

The Storm...

Today started out being such a great day.  I got up and had my wonderful coffee, snuggled with Finn, played number hide and seek with Addison, I even decided that today was the day that I was going to start my diet back and only had a bowl of fruit for breakfast and a healthy lunch as well.  I was even happier when I put on some shorts that used to be a bit snug and they were bigger in the waist and legs.

Around 5:30 or so I asked Addie if she wanted to go to the library to exchange some of her books, she happily obliged and hubs agreed to meet us there when he got off of work.  We spent some quality family time at the library and then I found out some of my maternity clothes had sold at the consignment maternity store, so I was happy to go pick up my paycheck.

Finn and I were driving home in my car, hubs and Addie in his when our neighbor Pam called, which isn't unusual because she's always wanting to see the kids or whatever.  I was just pulling up our driveway and she said in a panic voice "Keisha, are you home?"  I said no and then asked her what she needed and at that moment I saw what she was referring to, and mind you I honestly thought that maybe I had forgotten to unplug my hair straightener, but thankfully I did unplug it.  And it appeared that my two beautiful Bradford Pear trees were laying across the road and when I got out of my car I saw our trampoline.....oh, our trampoline.  Our trampoline was laying upside down, on the enclosure in the middle of our driveway, directly in front of our garage.

And then Addison saw her trampoline...her poor little face will be forever etched into my head.  She screamed and screamed over and over again "my trampoline, my trampoline is broken" and I repeated over and over again like any good mother would "it's okay, it's okay we will buy you another one."  I then handed over Finn to Pam and told her that I would get him at some point, Addie followed Pam and Finn over to her house.

Hubs and I then learned that we live in the best neighborhood in the world....the entire neighborhood came out, rolled up their sleeves, put their work gloves on and got to work.  They worked, and worked and worked for 3 hours, carrying brush, caring for our children, sawing up limbs and helping us to flip over our trampoline.  To thank them, we ordered pizza and fed the neighborhood...such a small price to pay for their generosity.

In the end, we ended up with quite a bit of firewood, and our trampoline will need a new enclosure.  It could have been a lot worse, I am so thankful that hubs met us at the library because he could have been coming home when the trees fell. And, we have the best neighbors,  but I will have to start my diet again tomorrow, because at the end of the day I thought that I deserved a bowl of cookie dough ice cream.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great fourth of July, just some of it did not go as planned.

I love our little town where we live, Main Street always goes above and beyond on every holiday and offers lots of festivities for the entire family.  This fourth of July was the same, with all of the little shops having cute sidewalk sales, face painting, Professor Whizpop creating all of his famous balloon animals and an animal adoption on the courthouse lawn.  I am a bit disappointed that there was a parade earlier in the morning and we were unaware of it until later that afternoon. 

We left mid morning to enjoy our day on Main Street, we first went to the toy store and then to the Court House lawn to see all of the adorable puppies.  We were then walking to the bakery to eat lunch and the rain drops started.  I was carrying Finn in my Moby wrap and I was concerned about him getting wet, so we turned back before we all got drenched.  We ended up going back home because of  the torrential 4th of July rain.  When we got home we were in the middle of a thunderstorm so I was glad that we didn't stay down town.

After nap time was over we had my parents over for a 4th of July cookout complete with hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, pasta salad, fruit and complete with smores!  Afterwards Addison and hubs shot off some fireworks and sparklers were lit.

Ever since we bought our house, we were told of the country club above our house having a marvelous fireworks display that could be seen from our back patio.  It was beginning to get dark and Addison was asking about the fireworks.  I decided to drive up the road to see if I could see anyone to ask about the time that the fireworks would begin, when I got up there there was no one to ask...no one in sight anywhere; making me think that there would be no fireworks this year.  I had a little girl that was demanding fireworks...so I had to provide!  I got back home and hubs and Addison jumped into the car and we drove to the local Tractor Supply parking lot so that we could witness the fireworks from the lake.  Mom stayed home with a sleeping Finn (the best baby EVER).

It wasn't a coincidence that we were at the right place at the right time because we ran into one of the groomsmen from our wedding, please pray for him and his wife, they are really going through a tough time and it's made me hug my family a little bit tighter since hearing about their news.

We had a great fourth and feel blessed to be American's.

Company

The past few days have been a whirlwind of company and I have loved every minute of it.

On Thursday, my friend Emily (whom I have been friends with since kindergarten) came by with her two adorable boys to visit.  Addison loved playing with her oldest son, August in her room and on the trampoline.  Emily's youngest son, Tillman is a year older than Finn so that makes me excited to have play dates with him in the future.  The kiddos played nicely together so that Emily and I could just chat.

On Friday, Addison's BFF (isn't that funny to already have a BFF when you are 5 years old??), Cecelia and her family came over to visit and brought us a wonderful dinner of baked ziti, salad, garlic bread and chocolate ice cream.  It was so nice of them to think of us, when they have 3 young children of their own.  Addison especially loved visiting with Cecilia since she doesn't get to see her on a daily basis like she did during the school year.  We're hoping that these two sweet girls will be in the same kindergarten class next year!

On Saturday, Josh's mom and step - dad came over to visit and to  spend the night.  We treated them to dinner at our house, Josh grilled hamburgers and I made pasta salad, french onion chip dip and pasta salad.  After dinner we roasted marshmallows on the grill (because we're too cheap to buy a fire pit when we have a perfectly good charcoal grill that does the same thing).  I think that they were a little amused at our roasting the marshmallows on the charcoal grill, but oh well!

The next morning Josh left with them to go and watch his nephew, Will race dirt bikes.  This was his first dirt bike racing experience, he said that it was HOT HOT and he had a nice mixture of sweat mixed with dirt and dust all over his body when he got home, he smelled lovely!  Anyway, his niece, Anna and Will came back with them as they are spending the week with Josh's mom.  They loved Finn and Addison loved seeing her cousins.

We love having company and may be having some more in the near future....

Addison's version of "God Bless America"

This year in school, Addison learned the song "God Bless America", she gets a few of the words confused, but her version is too cute so I thought that I would share...

  God Bless America

Land I Be From

Stand Beside her

and guide her

with a light 

in the night 

from above

From the mountains

to the prairies

to the oceans

La la la

God Bless America

my home sweet

HOME (really loud)

God Bless America

my home 

sweet 

HOME (Louder than before)

We have hung an American flag from our front porch, so she sings her version of God Bless America anytime we are coming or going!

Addicted...

I'm a little worried about myself, you see I have always enjoyed the smell of coffee, the taste, not so much.    Now after baby #2 and attempting to keep up with him and an almost 6 year old on a daily basis, coffee has become a necessity.

It all started a few weeks ago when I was up 2-3 times with the little guy and Miss Addison woke up somewhere after I got little guy down for the night--around 6:30 AM and I thought that I would give this coffee drinking thing a try so I poured myself a mug full, added a ton of milk and sugar and it was pretty good.

The next morning hubs made the coffee prior to leaving the house and I could smell it all of the way down the hall in my bedroom, making my mouth water and could it be that I actually rolled myself out of bed before the kiddos got up just to have a few minutes of peace and quiet with my coffee?? I have relied on him to make the coffee before he leaves every morning ever since.

Yesterday morning, hubs was in a rush and didn't have time to make coffee...then I got into a rush, ya know wiping rear end's, fixing bottles, turning shirts around and wiggling 2 little baby teeth on a sweet girl.  So I didn't have time to make the sweet goodness of life, and by 10 AM I had a head ache like no one's business.

Hello, my name is Keisha and I am addicted to coffee.

Save Your Pennies...

Addison's mission friend's group at church is collecting pennies for the Baptist Children's Home.  If you have any pennies that you would like to contribute, please let us know & we will get them from you!

God Bless!

Story Time!

Our Son...

Introducing our little miracle:

Finn

May 17, 2012

2:51 PM

8 lbs 0 oz

20.5 in

Perfect!

Happy Easter and 35 Weeks Pregnant

Here I am....35 weeks pregnant. I do believe that I am starting to look like a movie star...that's right... Willy from Free Willy!

Here is hubs and Addie in front our our home, hubs recently cut down the bushes in front of our house, so it may look a little different from previous post.

Save the best for last....our little princess in front of the white fence in our back yard!

Hope that everyone had a blessed Easter! We sure did!

Saturday night...

Since our purchase of our home, we are now on a stricter budget...no more Saturday night dinners out on the town!

Instead we choose to bake a dozen or so cupcakes, pull out every bottle of sprinkles in the pantry and this is what you get....

And for the record, our Saturday nights are MUCH more fun!

Our New Home!

Now, after months of negotiating, signing papers, PRAYING, getting appraisals done, water tests done, and waiting for the closing date....I can officially say THIS is our new home.....

Does it look familiar?? Yes, yes it is the house directly behind us (we like the neighborhood).

We moved in just yesterday, and we are so happy to be here!

More pictures to come when all of the boxes disappear!

It's a....

So much to update, so little time! But in the meantime we found out a couple of weeks ago that we are expecting a

BOY!!!!

Coming mid May!