Music to my ears!

Last night as we were getting ready for bed, the most awesome thing happened!  I laid Jaxten down on the floor to change his diaper before his bedtime feeding and he cried and fussed a little.  Then, when I reached down to pick him up he looked at me and just as plain as day I heard the most precious noise come out of his little mouth................

"mamama"!

Oh be still my heart!

I grabbed him and started "yay"-ing and I asked Scottie if he heard it.  He said he didn't hear anything. 

(Yeah, whatever.  He was two feet away and he's just in denial)
;)

But wait...it get's better!  I sat down with him on the couch to feed him and he looked at me and said it again!

"mama"

(This is where I melted into a puddle and slid right off into the floor!)
(Scottie is still in denial because I know he heard it again!)

I have been waiting for these two sweet little syllables.  Sure he was crying when he said it, (Caden also said mama for the first time while he was crying for me) but I don't care one bit.  And it wasn't his first sound, but I don't care about that either!  I'm just so honored to be his "mama" and I'm tickled if he calls me anything!!

What a Difference

We live within walking distance to a public park so I love to take the kids on nice days to get outside for a while.  We don't get to go much since I work all day during the week but sometimes on Saturdays we get to play for a while.  I found a picture I took of Caden on a slide at the park.  I think it must have been a few months before he turned 2 because he didn't have some of his teeth.  He was still terrified of getting a haircut so it was really long!  I miss his pretty long hair sometimes! :(

My precious, cute little boy!!

We went to the park again the other day and I had a De-ja-vou moment when he climbed up to go on this slide again.  I made him sit still (that's a feat in itself) for a picture and I'm just amazed at the difference 2 1/2 years can make!

My baby's hair is all gone and look at those skinny. LOOOONG legs!!

They grow up SO FAST!  I've always been told that and they (whoever "they" are LOL) weren't kidding!  Maybe I'll take his picture on this slide every year from now until he graduates high school, which won't actually be too long at the rate we're going!

My Little Pumpkin

We had Jaxten's 7 month pictures done this weekend (a little late, I know).  I think they are just adorable.  He was great until the end and I tried to put the cutest little hat on him.  He was having NO PART of the hat!  I'll just get some pictures of him at our local pumpkin patch with the hat!  

Here's what we did get. 

I am such a sucker for smiley baby pictures!

The next pic is one of my top favorites!

I just love how the leaves are popping out and his little shirt. (By the way, the shirt is NOT pink. It is orange with little white checks, I promise!)

This really makes it feel more like fall now!

October 15th

Today, October 15th, is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day. 

I am so blessed to have never felt the pain of losing a baby. 

I have learned not to take it lightly that I have had 2 pregnancies that both resulted in beautiful, healthy children.  I read so many blogs about people who are not able to say that and my heart aches for them.  I can't even begin to imagine what that might feel like and I won't pretend that I could. 

I know that God has a perfect plan for each and every person, but somehow the simple words "It was God's will" just don't seem sufficient for someone that has been forced to let go of a child from this earth.  I have a dear friend who just recently found out at her 16 week appointment that her precious little baby's heart had stopped beating and my heart hit the floor when she told us on the phone.  

There are just no words.....

The only thing I can offer is prayer.  It's the only thing I know that really works.  So if you or someone you know has suffered a loss of this kind, just know that Jesus knows.  

And he cares.

Please visit iamtheface.org for more information on how you can join a support group or help in other ways. 

HAPPY

10-10-10

We have a BIG day today!  We are celebrating the 100th year anniversary of my church, Hanes Baptist Church.....AND our pastor, Ron Groce, has been there for 25 years this month......AND it's Homecoming Sunday......AND it's our first service in our brand new church!!!

Whew....that makes me exhausted just typing it!

Last night we had a special service with a catered dinner following to honor our pastor.  He is a wonderful man of God and I absolutely love to hear him preach.  He preaches straight from the KJV Bible and doesn't compromise for anyone and I love the stand he has taken for our Lord.  This church has been such a blessing in my life since we found it 3 years ago.  It's a joy to have a great church with a great church family to share in this walk of life.  We've been having church in a gym that is now our Family Life Center for the past several years.  The original church was across town but they bought land and built a gym in anticipation of building a larger, new church.  God has been good and allowed us to finally build this new place and we are having our very first service on Homecoming day!  I think the timing worked out just perfect!

That's just like my God.....Perfect!

Anywho....hope you all have a wonderful and blessed 10-10-10!!!!

Fair Fun & FOOD!!!!

We went to the Dixie Classic Fair on Friday.  We take Caden to ride stuff, but I go for the food!  I try not to let myself think of how nasty it probably is from sitting out ALL DAY.  But if it is nasty, it sure does taste good.  I bless my food anyway so I figure it's all good. :)

We didn't get there until about 7:00pm because we went after work.  We met some friends from church and Caden had a blast riding with their kids!  I apologize now for the pics.  It was dark and the glare from the rides made it nearly impossible to get a good picture.  These were some of the best shots. 

Me and my boys! (Just realized they kinda match!)

He was a little excited about being at the fair.  Can you tell???

Mmmmmmm......Roasted corn!  Fried veggies!

OH YEAH!  This is my absolute favorite fair food!  Turkey leg as big as my arm!!

Apparantly they can deep fry anything!

I say yuck, but my friend really liked it.

In the words of Caden "Now thas what I'm talkin' bout"!  It doesn't get much better than this!

It's a family thing ;)

The remains......LOL!

Alexa and Caden on the airplanes.

Caden, Alexa and Hannah.  Caden looks so happy doesn't he?!?

Inside the big spinning dinosaur thing-a-ma-jig.

Caden driving his girl around.

Sweet boy.  Didn't make a peep the whole night!  He just watched and took in all the sights.

Caden talked me into getting on this with him.  Talk about dizzy.  I don't like fair rides anymore.  They put them together in like 5 minutes and there are always extra pieces laying around on the ground.  To me that just spells D.A.N.G.E.R.O.U.S. (Plus, I had just downed a WHOLE turkey leg and roasted corn.)

There we go!

Pucker up baby!

Caden said "Raise your arms and scream!"  So I did :)

I guess the kid in front of us told her mom the same thing! haha

This is my brave little man about to ride something like the Dropzone at Carowinds.  He wasn't scared at all!  Even when the 8 and 9 years old boys in our group chickened out!

Going up................

Dropping back down!

No tears, no fear.  Big smile when he got off and a "I wanna do that again!"

This is us right before we left. 

We had a great time, but I'm really glad it only comes once a year.  Don't think I could handle much more!

Jaxten is 7 months old!

Jaxten, you are 7 months old!

 

*You weigh 17lb 10.8oz (35%) and you were 26 1/4in long (25%).  I do not understand these percentages though because Caden was always in the 50th percentile on his weigh and he has never seen a day as chunky as you! (They said your head was 17 3/4in!  Lots of room for a smart brain!)

*You are wearing 6-9 month clothes now.  You could still get by with a few 3-6 month if your thighs weren't so chunky!  Everyone loves to squeeze your legs! (You can see in the picture above that I'm not lying about those thighs!) ;)

*You are still in a size 3 diaper.  You could almost fit in a size 4 but I'm going to squish you in a 3 as long as I can!  I think Caden was still in a size 2 at this point!

*You are still nursing some and taking formula.  You drink around 20 oz of milk each day.  You get cereal twice a day and you eat all kinds of baby food.  Your menu includes sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans, green peas, mixed veggies with corn, apples, pears, peaches, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, mango, and probably some more that I can't think of.   You eat them all individually or any combination.  The baby food bananas smell terrible so we started just mashing up a real banana and you seem to like it much better.  You LOVE your baby food and would eat it all day!

*You go to bed around 9:00pm and I have to wake you up at 7:30am.  You take a nap around 9:30am and usually 1 or 2 more naps later in the day.  You sleep through the night most of the time but lately you've started waking up around 5:00am for a "snack".   We are gonna have to do something about these little "mid-night" snacks! 

*We have been trying to let you drink from a sippy cup but you are not too interested in it right now.  You chew on it and some of the drink dribbles out but you don't really suck on it yet. 

*You have started getting up on your hands and knees rocking back and forth so I know it won't be long before you are crawling!  You can scoot backwards really well though.

*You are sitting up really well now.  All of a sudden one day you got your balance and you just sat up for several minutes.  Now you can sit in a highchair at restaurants and in buggys at the store.

*We bought you a jumperoo and you are kind-of starting to get the hang of bouncing.  You still love the excersaucer but you've been done with the swing for a while now. 

*You have started making all kinds of new noises.  One of your new noises is "babababa" and   Caden loves that because he thinks you are saying "Bubba" which is what we say when we are talking to you about your brother.  Now you have starting saying something that sounds like "blahblahblah"!  It's soooo cute!

*You still love to take a bath.  I hope it stays this way too!

*Your favorite thing in the whole world is to be outside.  If you do get bored or fussy, all we have to do is walk outside with you and you are instantly better!  Caden is the same way so I anticipate having trouble keeping you kiddos in the house as you get bigger!

*You have really started reaching for EVERYTHING.  If I'm holding you while doing household stuff you will lean so far trying to grab things.  You want to hold the remote, drink cups, paper, keys, and anything else you are not supposed to have.  And if we don't give it to you or we take it away, you fuss a little.  You love cell phones.  Mimi puts the speaker phone on so I can talk to you while I'm at work and you smile so big at the phone and then you look at it like you're thinking "how did mommy get in that box!"

*You cried for me when I left for work a couple of times!  It makes me want to smile and cry at the same time!

*You love to grab mommy and daddy's faces and pull us close and "kiss" (or slobber) us!  It's wonderful!

*You are such a happy baby!  The only time you cry is when you are really tired or if we leave the room or you can't see someone and you think you are alone.  Even then you usually just fuss rather than actually cry!

 

I'm amazed everyday at how fast you are learning and growing.  In less than a year we will be celebrating your 1st birthday (jaw dropping to the floor)!!  I better get to planning now!  I love you so much and I'm so very blessed to have a happy and healthy little boy to watch grow up. 

Songs of Praise!! "Still Blessed"

***These are songs that my group, CrossView, sings or just songs that mean a lot to me. We only sing songs that lift up the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. I hope you can let the words minister to your heart even though there is no music.***

Still Blessed

(Performed by The Perrys)

Verse 1

Sometimes I wake up in the morning

I see I made it through the night

I listen for my family sure enough they’re alright

As we gather round the table

Bow our heads in thankfulness

With tear filled eyes my heart cries still blessed

Chorus

There’s never a day He doesn’t give me all I need

Even when I wake up to the storm

My soul cries peace

Sometimes I try to count them

They’re too many I confess

So with arms upraised I just say still blessed

Verse 2

Now I don’t want to leave my family

I don’t want to leave my friends

Oh but lately I’ve been homesick

How I long just to be with Him

So in the morning should you find me

With my eyes closed in death

Oh what victory, what glory, still blessed

Chorus

There’s never a day He doesn’t give me all I need

Even when I wake up to the storm

My soul cries peace

Sometimes I try to count them

They’re too many I confess

So with arms upraised I just say still blessed