Wyatt's Busy Day = Lots of Pictures

Wyatt and I met my friend Sarah and her little girl Addison at Early Works museum on Friday. They have a 6 and under play area that encourages pretend or imaginative play. Wyatt is at the perfect age for this and had a great time...

...collecting fish in his net,


playing in the garden,


hanging out in the doghouse,


and riding on the cow.


After lunch I took Wyatt to Southerland Station which is a great toy store that also has an elaborate train display. We stayed there for about an hour before heading home. We met J at the land and he played some more there. His energy is amazing. I was exhausted and he was literally running circles around me while playing in the gravel.

"Doing Construction"





Love that dimple...


...and those freckles.



Why Dada is "funner"

Rain, Rain, Go Away

And please don't come again until after our house is framed!

Wonderful Weather = Wordless Wednesday

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This cast consists of 4 girls and a boy so I had to recruit my nieces to help us out with this one! The red head with all the curls is Emma. The little red head is her baby sister Chloe. And then I think everyone knows YouYou. Hope you remembered to wear green today and don't forget to kiss the Irish!

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Sunday Snippet

It feels like the past few weeks have been a blur. Jeremy and I both had bronchitis and had tons of meds laid out like we were 97 years old. We found out we have to move - again. (Trying to remain positive, trying to remain positive, trying to remain positive....) YouYou had her surgery and then I spent time at Erica's house and at the hospital helping out.

So, I haven't been following any of my normal routine. It has just been survival mode and then rush mode. And last night, I discovered that I hadn't done laundry in, oh I'd say maybe... 2 weeks?

Seriously. And if I don't do it, it doesn't get done. There is no magic laundry fairy living here. As I'm not quite ready to sign up on Mr. Linky for the official "Not Me Monday", I thought I would just share this with you all here.

Are you ready?





Then I got one with Phoebe so you could get a size comparison...the pile was taller than her.



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On Saturday (before I made the laundry discovery) J, Wy, and I went to Huntsville to run errands as we are leaving for Vegas on Thursday. I took Wy with me to Belk's and we looked at shoes and at purses. Yeah, that was interesting. When he wasn't zooming around like Lightning McQueen, I tried to involve him in the process enough that he wouldn't go into the protest mode.

Me: What do you think about this purse Wy? Do you like it?
Wy: No, you need a bwue purse because you have on bwue pants. (I had on jeans)

Well, I went against his advice and picked up this little cutie for our trip to Vegas. You know - green, like money? Get it? No, actually I just thought it was the perfect size and I like purses that are unique.



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While I was up to my neck in laundry sorting, J called me into the living room to show me Wy's latest project. Remember the juice drawer? Well, matchbox cars like order too.



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And on the house front, the framing is scheduled to begin this week. They estimate it will take them 2 - 3 weeks to get that done. Here is the latest picture I have...



And we have found temporary housing through a wonderful friend. It is furnished so I can pack most everything at this house and leave it in storage until we get to move...again. :)

A Setback for YouYou

Today Erica took YouYou to her pediatrician here in Huntsville for the scheduled follow up. She was already concerned about her breathing and was glad she had the appointment. YouYou's doctor took x-rays and compared them with her last set of chest x-rays that were taken in Birmingham. It looks like YouYou now has pneumonia in her lung(s) - not sure if just in one or both. Her cardiologist asked Erica to bring her in to his office this afternoon. So Erica rushed home with YouYou, grabbed a few essentials, and went to pick up her mom who went down with them. They were told to be prepared for YouYou to be admitted.

So please pray for the following:

- for Erica to continue to feel better and get her strength back; she did get in to her doctor on Thursday and was able to get some medications for herself

- for YouYou's lung(s) specifically and her little state of mind - I know she will not be happy to be back at the hospital again

- for Aaron and the boys as they are without their Mama and sister again

You can check YouYou's sites for continued updates. Thank you so much for caring about this sweet baby girl. I am planning to send down lots of different kinds of band-aids. She loves putting them on even the littlest baby scratch and liked to have different kinds. At one point, she had 3 on one hand! Whatever makes her feel better...

Slumber Party in Birmingham

I spent the night with Erica and YouYou on Tuesday night at the hospital in Birmingham. We really feel like she is going to be released today. That would be so good for YouYou and Erica. I just really think YouYou is DONE being here and would do so much better getting the TLC at home instead of this hospital. Erica is doing everything anyway as far as giving her the medicines. And since she is now taking in more liquids, I think she is ready to go home and continue to heal there.

Our never ending slumber party finally came to an end around 2 a.m. Little YouYou for whatever reason didn't want to go to sleep even though we could tell she was exhausted. And I was pretty tired and Erica was exhausted physically and mentally. I don't know how she was still standing at that point. So we had to do the tough love, turn off the lights and tell her it was night night time which sent her into hysterics. She cried for about 30 minutes straight. We just had to let her cry it out until she finally gave in. She is actually still asleep right now which is good.

Erica talked to the Dr. in the hallway around 7:30 and they did a chest x-ray in the room which YouYou slept through. So we are waiting to hear if we are getting the green light to go home. YouYou's car seat is here so we will just load up in my car and get outta Dodge. Thanks for the continued prayers. It is hard to see YouYou in this shape. Her little face is swollen, she has a boo boo on her cheek from the tape, an IV line in her neck, and her little mouth is pitiful. All that looks worse than the zipper on her chest from her surgery just b/c that is hidden under her gown. She is a tough little girl though and each day that goes by allows her to heal that much more. I Will keep everyone posted - keep those prayers coming that we get to go home today.

30 Days

So, anyone want to guess what I am referring to?

Could it be how many days until my vacation?

Nope, that is only 12 days away. And that can't get here soon enough because 30 days is...........

...how many days Jeremy and I have to find a place to live and to move.


I. am. not. kidding.


My FIL is selling the house that we have been living in. Well, you know, it IS his house. He bought it with the intention of flipping it. My FIL allowed us to live in this house for 1 year. I appreciate that. I grew up being told that "beggars can't be choosers." Now, am I thrilled that he sold his house? Not at all. Did I have several high stress conversations with various friends this week when I found out this was a possibility? Absolutely. The hardest part was the timing of it all. This was a very stressful week on its own without finding out that we had to move. But after I got over the "I can't believe this is happening to us" mantra, I moved onto the "what are we gonna do about it" mode. Jeremy and I are working on our options. To say the least, it will be an adventure.

BUT, you know what, we are going to be OK. We will figure something out. We expect our new house to be completed in July. And we have until mid April to leave here so we will only need to split up our time with all of you for about 3 months. :)

So, much more to come on that in the coming days. In the meantime, progress is being made on our house and I have pictures to share.

Today there was a crew there laying block. They are scheduled to finish up tomorrow. I think once that is complete, the framing can begin.








My brother Matt came out and backfilled around the house for us.




And Wyatt got to go for a ride in his bobcat.





View from the back...




Wyatt running in the basement which he refers to as "the gym."



The reason I will make the best of the next few months...

You You's Surgery Day!

Today is You You's open heart surgery in Birmingham. When they did the heart cath last week to see if they would be able to do the surgery this week, they found an issue with one of her valves as well that other tests had not shown. So today they are going to close the VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect) and also fix the valve issue. Please click on her button to go to her site where Erica is posting updates. And please take just a moment to pray for this precious baby girl.