A few videos for your enjoyment!

This video is Caelan saying the different pledges at school. They say them at chapel every thursday. He loves it and is so proud of himself for knowing them! We are so proud of him for everything he is learning!

This next video is of Maddox. He started walking on Saturday. (He was 10 months on saturday.) I still can't believe my little boy is growing up so fast. He took 6 steps on sat. and then 11 at the park on monday. I am so glad that Jared and I were able to be together when both of our boys started walking! It is such a special time! I will post another video, a better one, later this weekend, but I just wanted the families to be able to see this now. Take care everyone and enjoy!

Initial Here Preview Party

I realized today that I have not posted on my own blog about the Preview Party we are having this weekend for my business. We are having a party to show examples of the things we can do. We would love to see anyone that can make it. We are also giving a discount for any order that is placed at the party or is e-mailed to us before. We are also open to people bringing items. If you would like more information about Sunday, please let me know. You can leave a comment and I will get back to you! Our blog is www.initialheremonogramming.blogspot.com. Our e-mail is initialheremail@gmail.com.

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

Hello to all again! It has been a long time since the last post. I have wanted to post so many times since, but lack of time (and sleep) have kept me from doing just that! The one main reason for not posting has been my mom. June 12th my mom had a triple bypass at Brookwood. 2 weeks later she went for a routine follow-up and told the doctors she was having chest pain still. They opted to keep her to try and figure out what was going on and it ended up one of her graphs had failed and she needed 2 stints (sp?) put in. She was in the hospital for another 6 days for that. After this she started to try and get her strength back. She kept an eye on her blood pressure and heart rate only to discover her bp was low and hr was high. Once again, back to the doctor she went. This time she had an angioplasty done. In the words of her cardiologist her right coronary artery has been rebuilt with the 3 surgeries. So, in a nutshell, my mom has been in the hospital 14 days in the last 7 weeks. She says she does not want to be back in the hospital ever! Who can blame her?!

On to better news, the boys! They are both growing so quickly! Maddox is now 8 1/2 months old. He is eating lots of different foods (sweet potatoes, squash, crackers, puffs and others). Not to mention the cheerios he could eat his weight in! He is also on the move. He has been crawling for a couple of months now, but he has gotten very quick! He pulls up and can get back down again by himself. The last 2 weeks have been a little hard on him with sickness, but that has not really slowed him down. He had a mild ear infection, then 4 days later caught a 24 hour bug and 5 days later he caught a fever virus. Luckily (or unluckily), we were to be on vacation. God knew we needed to stay home instead. Other big news about Maddox are his stats. When he was sick we ended up at the dr. 2 times and they weighed him and measured him. He weighed in at 18 lbs. 12 oz. and was 29 1/8 inches long! And that was at 8 months! Caelan at 9 months was 16 lbs. 12 oz. and 29 1/8 inches! Because of this Maddox is now in Caelan's old seat. Caelan has made the move to a big boy booster seat. He loves it! For other news, Maddox is in 12-18 month clothes, but I feel we will be close to 24 months/2T size for fall. What a crazy thought! Thank goodness for kidsmarket! I will have to show the loot when I get to shop in a couple of weeks!

I have to run, but I will do another post soon! Here are a few pics of the boys for your enjoyment!

Initial Here- My New Business

A couple of weeks ago I started a business with a friend of mine, Sara Thomas. It is called Initial Here Monogramming. We can monogram or embroider many things. We have started a blog with examples. If anyone needs anything done please contact us through e-mail. We can get back to you with a price if it is not quoted on the blog. We are very excited about where this business is going and can't wait to see what God has in store for our future.

Our blog is http://www.initialheremonogramming.blogspot.com/

Pictures of March

So, it has been a while!

I know I promised to do better with the blogging but I have had a busy last few weeks. I have lots of posts in the works and much to update! The last time we blogged was when it snowed. That seems like forever ago, but that was only the beginning of March! The snow was the first of our surprises for March. About 2 weeks after we found out that Jared PASSED his last ARE test! Praise God! He took the test at the first of February, so having to wait 6 weeks was no easy task. Thank you all so much who prayed for him and our family! Right after that was Jared's birthday. He says that passing his test was gift enough, but the boys thought he could use a new shirt and shorts. (Now that he will have plenty of time to play with them since he won't be studying anymore!) Towards the end of March the weather started warming up (not for long though!) and we went to the zoo with some friends of ours, The Skeltons. This was Maddox's first trip and I think he enjoyed just being out and about. I think both of my boys would stay outside all day if I would let them. Chrissy is such a great friend and Caelan just loves Ella! He had such a great time with them! I really admire Chrissy for getting out with them. They will soon be a family of 5 with a little girl to be added to the mix in July! That means they will have 3 under 3! You guys are amazing! Later that week we took Caelan to see Playhouse Disney! We had great seats and you could see all of the characters to well! I think I will have to keep my ears open for more events like these! We all had fun! Last but not least for March, we have entered baseball season again! We all enjoy going to watch the boys play games, but this year Caelan is so much more in to it. He thinks he is on his own team and will play behind the bleachers with other kids- hitting, running the bases, and sliding. I know some of this may be a little hard to follow, but the months are flying by and Maddox was 4 months in March! I am going to do a post just for him after this. Just keep reading (up I guess).

I'm Sorry!

I am so sorry I have not posted in over a month! We have been really busy and I hate to say it,but this post will be short until I have some downtime at naptime today! Hopefully, no bad weather will hinder this. Lots to catch up on (for all of you 4 blog readers)! Hope everyone has a great Good Friday and God Bless!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!

Got Milk?

This was too funny not to put up! Pardon the red eyes, but I have not figured out how to edit these. :)

Krislyn Broek

This goes back to another previous post, but here is baby Krislyn Broek. She was born almost 2 weeks ago. We got the opportunity to go see Sara and Kris in the hospital when they had her. She is an absolute doll! I hope God gives us the pleasure of a little girl in the future (far future) because Jared just looked so happy holding her.

My Boys

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks. We have had such a great time with adjusting to life with 2 kids. Caelan has been a great big brother and Maddox has just fit into our routine. We cannot imagine our life without our boys.

Food, Friends, and Freedom

The top picture is Caelan trying to split an egg at a Japanese restaurant. We took him to eat here when Jared had some time off at Christmas. He loved when he did this and saw the onion "volcano" they did. The next picture is from New Year's. We went to dinner at Brio and met up with Phillip and Jeanine and Robby and Andrea. It was great! All of us are going to see Wicked in April when it comes. This is a great group to get together. The last picture is of Caelan's new bed. Once Maddox arrived we decided it was time to move him to another big boy bed. He loved it! He has done great sleeping in it. We can't believe our little boy is so big!

More Christmas!

Christmas- Better late than never :)

These are very late, but I figure it is better to happen now rather than not at all. I hope you enjoy. I have a few others to post because we had such a big Christmas!

Let's Hope and Pray!!

Today will hopefully be the last day that Jared will ever have to take a test! Today from 8 am until 2 pm he is taking test number 9 of 9 for the Architecture Registration Exam (ARE). I, along with others, have been praying for him this morning and will continue to do so. If you happen to come across this while he is still testing please send up a quick prayer. This is a huge thing for his profession and for our family. He has been preparing himself for a while to take this test and we are so proud of him! As soon as we find out how he did I will let you all know. It usually takes about a month to get the results, but God willing we will find out sooner! God has been so good to us and no matter what happens we know that His way is the best!

On other news 2 friends had their babies this past friday! The Thomas' had Krislyn on friday morning. We are so excited about her arrival as she has been a much anticipated girl for all of the boys that have been born recently! She is beautiful and I will post some pics as soon as I figure out this computer! The Mills' had Micah on friday night! He made the 8th grandson for the Lombard crew! I know everyone is so excited about his arrival. Daddy posted some pics on his facebook page and he is such a cutie. God is so good in giving both of these families such blessings!

In other sad news, I got a call from my mom this morning to tell me that a former Hoover coach and his wife lost their 3 month old baby boy this past weekend. They are thinking SIDS was the cause. Please pray for this family. As a mother it breaks my heart to hear things like this.

2 Month Check-Up

We had our 2 month check-up today and Maddox was great as usual. He weighed in at 12 lbs. and 24 1/4 inches long. That puts him in the 50% for weight and 90-95 % for height. Once again we have a long, skinny boy on our hands! He is getting so big. He is already in 6 month clothing for the most part. We do have a couple of small issues to get over, but it should be cleared up by our 4 month visit in March. Dr. Bill was very happy with where he was at and said he had made tremendous strides in putting on weight since his birth. I am glad that our little boy is doing so well! Now, if we can make it to March so I can get more clothes for him at Kidsmarket!

*I plan on having some pics in the next post! Jared says that no one cares about the writing; they just want to see pics...I think I might have to agree!

Christmas

I am sure I am the last person in blogger world to put up a post on Christmas! We had several different family gatherings and the boys were great for it all. Caelan really got in to the gifts this year. And I mean that literally! We got up that morning to find Caelan had already been in the living room to see what Santa had brought him. Santa brought him lots of things including a Radio Flyer Scooter and art table. That morning we saw he had moved some other gifts to get his scooter out to he could ride! He even turned on the light in the living room by himself so he could see the toys! He is such a little goof ball!

We spent Christmas morning here at the house. Lola, Papa Duck and Unc came over to see us. We had our family get together that following Saturday with them. After they left we went to Jared's parents(Grandma and PaPa) to have Christmas with them. We all got some great things that we needed.

I will post some pics from then in a different post.

My New Year's Resolution....

So in a better attempt to keep everyone updated with our family I have decided to make one of my new years resolutions to be to update the blog at least once a week! This will be hard for me at first, but I thought no time like the present! I am working on a couple of posts so look for them soon. I hope your year is off to a better start than ours, but more on that later.