The King Family

Family Pictures

2012-01-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

My friend from high school tooks some pictures of the 4 of us the day of the Iron Bowl. She did a great job! The boys had the most fun rolling around in the wet leaves and watching the trains go by. We were going to eat lunch at Whistle Stop Cafe, but it was closed....guess they don't get a lot of business the weekend after Thanksgiving and day of Iron Bowl. We ended up at chik fil a instead and Joseph loved all the attention from the people there! He flirts with everyone and people constantly tell him how cute he is....I am sure this happens to everyone's baby too. :) Beau was just staring at the wall at chik fil a because he had a fever (thought it was just a fever virus, but when he had "slapped cheeks"/bright red cheeks the next week, then we realized it was fifth's disease.)Fever and all, Beau did a great job smiling for the camera.

Fall 2011

2012-01-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

This Fall the boys enjoyed going to the Pumpkin patch, playing at Halloween parties, playing outside a lot in the afternoons, and seeing family on Thanksgiving. I had mono for the majority of Fall, Beau was in and out of sickness, Joseph cut several teeth, and Rodney traveled about every other week. It was not my most favorite season of the year. But, we did have nice weather to play outside with our neighbors in most afternoons. :)

I bought matching Pumpkin shirt for the boys to wear to the Pumpkin patch...they were longsleeve, and the day we went, it was 80 degrees outside. Oh well, they look hot in this pic! And, Joseph's shirt looks like it is a size 3 month because it is showing off so much of his belly, but it is actually a size 18 month...maybe it is a slim fit 18 month :)

Beau was Buzz Lightyear this year for Halloween. They went to a nursing home by their school to trick or treat and then he went to several parties. The pics below are from our neighborhood party. I had mono/throat virus and was on super pain meds so this Halloween is a little of a blur to me. :)

This was at Beau's school Thanksgiving Feast. He was "Dancing Frog"....they gave themselves Indian names. He was most excited about the delicious sprinkle cookies that a friend brought for their feast. :)

I can not get this pic to flip the right way, but I love it anyway. My 3 boys watching Danger Rangers cartoon after naptime.

Handsome Boy!

2011-11-10T17:53:00.001-08:00

Beau's 4K School Picture. What a handsome little boy!

Seriously!?!

2011-09-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

Seriously....one of us hase been sick since August. Terrible times at the King house!

First, Beau had a terrible case of an ear infection + swimmer's ear. It was horrible. Rodney and Beau spent 6 or more hours at Children's South with an ENT and then we went back in for a check up a few days later to make sure the meds were kicking in. Thankfully, they did and he was fine.

About a week later, Beau started school and got strep throat.

Then, Tropical Storm Lee hit and we lost power for 4 days. We stayed at home because Rodney set us up with a generator that ran almost everything for us. But, Baby Joseph got a nasty cold after that.

Then, a week or so later, baby Joseph got Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. Yuck!!
Beau had this 2-3 times between 1-2 years old, so thankfully he appeared to be immune to it. :) But, Momma got Mono and possibly Strep from cuddling with baby Joseph while he felt terrrible with hand, foot, and mouth. Apparently, it is a form of Herpes and can cause Mono in adults. Lovely.

The Dr. told me it would take 2-3 months for me to feel normal again and would be contagious until my fever went away, but that I could still cook and clean for my family (As long as I washed my hands). Oh, and to sleep as much as possible. Seriously!?! Not, so easy to do with 2 little ones :) Thankfully, Rodney has decided to work from home this week and help with the kids. Hopefully all the vitamins I am taking will kick in and boost my energy since there is no medicine you can take to get over mono...just sleep, liquids, and vitamins.

Seriously ready for the whole family to be well at the same time!

First Day of 4 year old Kindergarten

2011-09-02T07:57:00.001-07:00

He loves Cars the movie and he wanted to take Filmore (the van from cars) with him. He also has a Cars bookbag. :)

Beau also wanted this Auburn poster hung up on the wall in his room...seriously, he is growing up too fast.

Standing by his seat on meet the teacher day

Mom and Mrs. Judy talking to each other on meet the teacher day. Mrs. Judy found out I used to teach and she was telling me all about their curriculum. :)

Playing with his favorite school toy...the yellow crane!

More Summer of Fun 2011

2011-09-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Love this picture, but I could not get it to flip the right way at all...still so cute!

Trying to get a picture of them in their matching pj's, but they just wanted to play :)

Riding like a big boy in the grocery cart
Watching fireworks with Aunt Betty on the 4th of July

Love this picture of Beau reading a Chuggington book to Joseph

Summer 2011

2011-08-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

We had a great summer of relaxing, playing in the water, going to McWane Center often to beat the heat, and just playing with friends and family. Beau went to summer school 2 days a week this summer from 9-1. He LOVED it! They had a water play day every week and Beau was so excited to wear his bathing suit to school. :) We went to the beach in May and then Beau went to Callaway Gardens in Georgia with his Nona and Papa around the 4th of July. We were planning a beach trip for August but Beau got a terrible ear infection+swimmer's ear that kept us from going. So, we instead, took him to the Georgia Aquarium while baby brother stayed home with Nona. Here are some pics of our summer fun.

Happy 4th Birthday Beau!

2011-06-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

(this picture was taken on his birthday, after a day at VBS and he was so tired! He also got a much needed haircut the next week)

Beau celebrated his 4th birthday a few weekends ago at our house. He had a water play and ice cream party.He was so excited about the M&M's, cherries, and ice cream cones and other ice cream toppings that he talked about it for weeks before his party. We celebrated with our friends and family and Beau had a great time.The kids had a great time on the water slide and little pools. The boys loved the sprayers on the water slide and kept aiming them at each other. On Beau's actual birthday we celebrated with the 4 of us and enjoyed birthday cupcakes. :) Can not believe my baby boy is 4. Time is flying by!

School Days

2011-06-27T08:07:00.001-07:00

Beau started going to summer school 2 days a week. It is at the same school that he will go 5 days a week in the fall. Lots of kids in our neighborhood go there and 2 of the teachers live on our street. He is LOVING it so far! They have a water play day 2 times a month where they were their bathing suits to school and play in sprinklers, with water toys, etc. On the other days they make crafts, read books, eat watermelon, and make ice cream. He has a Cars bookbag with Finn and Lightning McQueen (or Lightning the Queen as Beau says.) He eats lunch there with his friends and then comes home to play with his brother. Joseph looks around for Beau when he is at school....Beau is his constant entertainment at home :)

Here he is on his first day...He looks a little nervous, so was Rodney :) We walked in to drop him off and I didnt't think Rodney would ever leave the building. Beau came home so excited on that day and he had a smiley face stamp on his hand and a sweet note from his teacher saying that he had a great day.

A Weekend at the Beach

2011-05-25T12:36:00.001-07:00

We spent last weekend at the beach with my Mom and Rodney's mom and dad came for 2 days. The boys had so much fun and loved the water! The pools and the ocean water were freezing, so I did not get in very far. Rodney was a trooper and got in the pool all day for 3 days with the boys. We enjoyed chocolate covered donuts from Thomas' donuts for breakfast, full days at the beach and pool, and good sleep at night time!

Easter 2011

2011-05-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

We had a great time celebrating Easter! We went to 3 Easter Egg Hunts with friends and family. Beau racked up on the candy! He realized after the first Egg Hunt that we went to at Dawson that every egg had a suprise treat inside. He started being picky at the next Egg Hunt and would open the eggs before he chose them to make sure he liked the candy inside. At the last Egg Hunt there was so much candy that he was in Heaven. :) I bought Ressurrection Eggs at Hobby Lobby and we loved talking about them. They also had suprises inside, but the suprises were things that symbolized the Ressurrection. Then, we dyed Easter Eggs with a friend and then again with Granny. Beau loved having her over to have a little buddy to talk to and play with.
We celebrated Easter Sunday by going to church and then relaxing the rest of the day. That night we celebrated with my family and Beau got so much candy and fun suprises in his Easter baskets.

Just haging out

2011-05-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

The End of the Soccer Season...
The Team got medals and took group pictures. Beau was excited about his medal, and then they got to play their last game, and then the team celebrated by eating Doodles Italian Ice Cream. :)

Joseph trying rice cereal for the first time at 4 months....He wasn't sure what to think about it the first time, but now he LOVES eating it every night.

Beau has dropped his afternoon nap (he was still awake every night at 9-9:30), so now he has "rest time" in his room from 2-3 and he loves it. He makes a pallat on the floor and looks at books and listens to an audiobook on my phone or on the computer. Sometimes he dozes off to sleep, but not every day. This is how I found him one afternoon at 5:30. He was playing a game on Rodney's phone and passed out. So sweet...

This is how we enjoy our afternoons....playing in the sprinklers in our yard or in our neighbor's yards. Beau loves to play with the kids in the afternoons and I love that time too :)Beau enjoys running and playing and Joseph usually stays in the stroller or the ergo with me.

Just some cute pictures of Joseph...

This is how Joseph used to sleep...we used the miracle blanket swaddle and he would always kick a leg out, then we used the swaddles we used with beau and he got an arm out....now he sleeps on his belly with his lovie and a blankie.

Seriously, he is so long! This was at 3 months old with his legs hanging out of the bouncer...at 4 months old he weighs 18 pounds and is 27 inches long. He hates to be on his back now and loves to roll and flip when he is on the floor.

This was Beau at his dentist check up...He gets to wear cool sunglasses and watch a cartoon on the TV the have mounted above the dental chair. He had a great check up and got to pick a treasure out of the treasure chest!

Soccer Time

2011-03-29T19:43:00.001-07:00

Beau had his first soccer practice and game on Sunday afternoon. He is on the navy blue under 4 team. He is one of the youngest kids on the team, but he had so much fun playing with his team. Saturday morning Rodney took Beau and Joseph shopping to get soccer stuff while I shopped at Kids Market. They picked out soccer socks, shin guards, a soccer ball, and soccer shoes. Beau wanted a pink soccer ball, but Rodney convinced him to get a blue and silver one instead. Here are a few pictures of his first practice/game:

Getting a pep talk from Daddy before practice starts

Ready...

Running...

Kicking a Goal! He scored the first goal of the game! :)

A Team huddle with the coach...God Bless Him...the kids could focus for about 30 seconds at a time (including Beau...he enjoyed running..at all times...even if the game was still going on, he was running around the field, at times, not even by the ball or the team, just running wild and having a blast!

What a Big Boy!

I could not get this picture to flip the right way, but I didn't want to leave it out. This is Beau practicing on Saturday night before the game....he is wearing his bath robe with his shin guards and soccer shoes (or shin "gardens" as Beau likes to call them)

Pictures of the 4 of us

2011-03-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

These are some of the shots we picked from our newborn photo session of Joseph. We had a photographer come to the house and take them when Joseph was a few weeks old. He is wearing a 3-6 month outfit and it is a little snug...he loves his milk. :) Beau loved the pictures, and enjoyed getting m&m's after the shoot was over. Enjoy!

Baby Boy is 2 months old

2011-03-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

Joseph turned 2 months old on March 1st. It has been a crazy month weather wise....warm, icy, snow, warm, rainy, etc. We will be so glad to have consistently warm weather where we can play outside!

Joseph is a big boy! He is weighing in around 14 pounds and is 25 1/2 inches long at 9 1/2 weeks old....seriously, none of his onesies will fit in length. He will just have to wear t-shirts and shorts or large sized shortall outfits this summer. He is such a cutie and his personality is really starting to come out. He is trying to "talk" to us and smiles a lot. He also knows how to really fuss when he does not get his way. :)

Beau is so excited to have a little brother. He likes to tell Joseph everyday that he is taller than him. Beau asks all the time when he can get bunk beds in his room for he and Joseph to sleep in. He also wants a car where he and Joseph can both ride in the front seat. I told him that they are not old enough for that yet. Somedays I think, Time please slow down and let my babies stay little forever. Other days, I am really looking forward to the boys being older and being able to eat lunch without changing diapers, whining toddlers, etc.

Life really has been pretty boring around our house the past month. We have played outside and with friends as much as possible when the weather has been nice, other than that, we have been inside. My house has never looked like such a disaster zone!
Thank goodness for lots of kids in the neighborhood because around 5 every afternoon we go outside and play until the daddies all come home. :)

Beau loves to get in the baby gym with Joseph...he is showing me a piece to a train....he is a touch obesessed with anything dealing with trains or construction

Bath time!

Loving the play mat solo while Beau was in auburn with nona and papa

Arts and crafts during yucky, cold, rainy days

Our Baby is One Month Old

2011-02-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Joseph is One month old today! It has flown by! It makes me a little sad that he is growing up so quickly...but I am looking forward to sleeping for 8 hour stretches again at night. :)

This past month has been such a blessing to our family. Most of you that read our blog know that it took us almost 2 years to get pregnant with Joseph. About a year into the process, Rodney told me that he had read this verse in Genesis and it was what he was going to start praying and believing for our family too. So, for a year, every month, we held out hope for our Joseph. (we would have been THRILLED to have a girl, but I always felt from the moment the test told us we were pregnant, that this would be our Joseph).

Genesis 30:22-24 "Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

It still makes me tear up a little when I hear someone talk about our "children" or our "boys" because for so long I thought that might not be a reality for our family. For 2 years we prayed this verse for our family..Psalm 113:9 "He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD." (I was not childless because we already had precious Beau, but we still prayed and belived for more).

Our sweet Joseph is a pretty good eater and sleeper. He loves to be held and does not love to be put down in his bouncer, swing, car seat, or really anything else....yet. Today, he did sit in the bouncer for about 15 minutes while he chewed on a puppy dog stuffed animal that my aunt Betsy gave him....I think he was trying to get some milk out of the dogs ear :) He does sleep great in his crib or pack n play though! Beau loves being Joseph's big brother. He tells everyone the baby's name is Joseph David and wants everyone to call him by both names. Beau loves to help us and the baby. Most of the time, he is a big help! We are trying to enjoy every minute of this stage of life because I know our kids are growing up so fast.

Happy One Month Birthday to our Sweet Answered Prayer...Joseph David King

New Year's Baby

2011-01-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

We started 2011 off with a bang! On Saturday, January 1, 2011 we woke up and did our typical Saturday morning routine with Beau.....we all rolled out of bed around 7:30 and went to the couch to watch Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder cartoons. Sometime during Bob the Builder, my water broke. My water broke with Beau and it was hours before my contractions really started (thanks to pitocin at the hospital). I told Rodney that my water broke during the cartoon and got up and got my things ready to go to the hospital. I told Rodney there was no rush because last time things moved so slowly. Well, with Joseph, my contractions started almost immediately after my water broke. I was trying to be chipper while Rodney showered and while we were waiting on my aunt to get to our house to watch Beau. I did not want to upset Beau because he was already a little upset because "the baby broke the water bottle inside mommy's belly"....hilarious! We got to St. Vincent's and checked into labor and delivery. We got a great nurse for the morning shift and she told me that I was progressing so well that I would not need any pitocin. (thank you Lord!....I hated having pitocin with Beau!) The nurses also told us that we were their only hope of having a New Year's Day baby so far. I am a (secretly) competitive person....I love to win games, have the best score or grade, etc. But, you would never really know it because I am horrible at sports and most games :) Anyway, when I heard that there was another couple that checked in to deliver their baby also, I kept asking if they had delivered yet....they did not deliver before us, so we won! We had the first baby on New Year's Day at St. Vincent's....I was a little sad that we did not win free diapers or cash, but that's okay. :)

I was able to get my epidural after a few really strong contractions around 1:00 that afternoon. At 5:31 p.m. on 1/1/11 Joseph David King was born weighing 7 lbs 15 oz, 21 inches long. (This was a pound + some ounces bigger than Beau, so Joseph looked huge to us). He got a 10 on the apgar scale because he came out with such a pretty complexion/color. He has lightish hair (blondish/reddish) with blue eyes and we think he is perfect. :)

Beau loves having an extra person in the house and loves to "help" us with Joseph. He does not love when Joseph cries (Beau covers his ears and tells us Joseph is crying.) Beau does not want to be alone to play or do anything currently...he says he needs us to watch him play because he is a baby. (fun times around here!) Hopefully when the weather warms up and we are not iced in for days, Beau will remember that he is a big boy and can play on his playground outside.

Our New Year's Baby:

Christmas 2010

2011-01-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks before Christmas, we headed to Calera to ride the "Santa Special" train. Beau loves trains and he was very excited to go, but not really excited about Santa. He kept asking where Mrs. Clause was. He told us that he wanted to ask Santa for 2 blue trains for Christmas and we said that was fine. Santa handed out gifts to the kids on the train. Santa pulled out a frosty the snowman stuffed animal out of his big red bag and Beau took it and said "thank you." After Santa moved down the train, Beau looked and me and said "but I wanted two, blue trains." Hilarious!

We had a very relaxing Christmas this year. I was unable to travel because of high blood pressure at the end of this pregnancy, so we stayed close to the house and enjoyed lots of family time and food. :) We enjoyed going to our church Christmas Service. Beau sat with us this year and he did a great job! He loved the music and the camera that was recording the service. It was attached to a crane and he stared at it for most of the service. He really enjoyed lighting the candles at the end of the service and singing songs.

This was our last Christmas as a family of just 3, so we really enjoyed just being with Beau and watching him open his gifts and enjoy them. He understood this year that Christmas is where we celebrate the birth of Jesus. So, of course, we had Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes on Christmas morning. We spent all day on Christmas Day in our Pj's until we went to see my family that night, in town, for Christmas dinner. Beau kept asking when his friends were coming over to give him presents for Christmas. We tried to tell him that his friends would come over sometime and play with his presents, but Beau kept insisting that they would bring him presents too. :)

Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos that he got for Christmas
Taking Lamby for a ride on his new motorcycle
Singing Happy Birthday Jesus....this is the same candle that he got at our Church Candlelight Service...he would not turn it back in at the end of the service
Helping Daddy put Joseph's pack n play together...he needed to get tools and his hard hat for the job :)
At the Candelight Service
So Handsome!

At Zoolight Safari on New Year's Eve....we got there in time to play for a little while before it started pouring down rain. We rode the train and joked about how my water could break on the train ride....it did break about 12 hours later on New Year's Day. :)

Fall and Football

2010-11-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy fall enjoying Auburn football and playing with friends. We had a block party the night before Halloween and Beau had a blast! He dressed up as Thomas the Train and had a great time riding his bike around the street, eating sweet treats, and jumping in the bouncy house in our neighbor's yard. There were probably 60+ people there and Beau loved playing with all the neighborhood kids!
Thomas the Train!
Riding the bike 3 houses down to the party
The bouncy house...it had seen better days and could only hold 4 or so kids at a time without one side slightly caving in...super safe for a bunch of kiddos!
Eating a sweet treat and catching part of the Auburn game on the big screen outside

The weekend before that we went to Auburn for the Auburn-LSU game. We took Beau tailgating and into the game with us. He was such a trooper (considering it was a 2:30 kick off which is in the middle of nap time for him). He loved watching all the people, seeing the eagle fly, watching for Aubie and the camera man. These guys next to us would stand up on the bleachers and stomp their boots loudly very often, so Beau would get up when they did and stomp too...his new balances didn't have quite the same affect as their boots did. :) He fell asleep on Rodney's shoulder at halftime and slept most of the 3rd quarter. He woke up and was ready to enjoy some skittles....a stadium size box that he ate almost entirely by himself! It was a fun day and a great memory for us to have.
Beau and Papa at the Tiger Walk
Our seats were about 4 rows up from the field...not a great way to watch the game, but Beau had a blast watching everything else...especially this camera man that would swing back and forth across the sideline

Not a great family pic because Beau got cut out of it, but it's the only one we had!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to the Old Baker Farm Pumpkin Patch in Harpersville. Beau was most excited about these ride on toy tractors that were everywhere. He would hop on them and drive them around and around. He had been on a red one several times and was waiting to ride a green tractor. He finally got to ride one as we were walking towards the parking lot on our way out. I didn't think he would ever get off of it!

We started off the pumpkin patch with a trip to the petting zoo. We saw goats, bunnies, pigs, horses, cows, and ducks. A lady let Beau pet a duck and he clung on to me and wanted me to pet it with him....one day he will learn I don't love to pet live animals at zoo's and farms very much. Oh well...after that we lathered up with hand sanitizer and kept on the tour of the pumpkin patch. Next, Beau found some hay bails that he could climb on and jump off of...fun for a while! Then, we made our way down to the line to get on the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Beau was so excited to see "site builders" (tractors, bulldozers, etc.) on the hay ride to the pumpkins. He ran through the fields to find the perfect pumpkins for our family. He said he was stronger than me so he would carry them for me...this lasted only a minute or so before he handed me 2 pumpkins to carry back to the wagon. They carted our pumpkins to the parking lot for us so we didn't have to tote them around the farm the rest of the morning...very nice! We picked them up on our way out of the parking lot.

He had a great time (despite how HOT it was that day!). This was our last pumpkin patch as a family of 3....we probably should have gotten a family shot, but we are so bad at getting those!

Sitting on a hay bail with Daddy and Papa...they are laughing because Beau kept sliding off the hay bail before we could snap a picture

Playing in the Cotton Bounce....cotton was everywhere!

Pointing at the bunnies....not a fan of touching any of the animals up close

Riding the green tractor that he had been eyeing all morning long!

Beach Time!

2010-09-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach two weeks ago for a few days and it was so very nice! The weather was perfect and Beau took great naps every day because he was so tired from swimming! We stayed at a condo that had pools that were mostly in the shade (which worked well for our fair-haired/skinned family). We played on the beach early in the morning before the sun was too bright or too hot. Beau loved the swimming pools and the sand, but did not like the ocean. He would not even put his toe in it. He loved to watch the helicopters fly by and see all the boats in the ocean. He has already asked us when we are going back!

The morning we were leaving for the beach...this is his "new" smile for the camera

His favorite place...in the sand!

Toting all the floats for pool time

Eating a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles from Thomas' donuts....he ate the entire thing and then we had pool time for hours to run off the energy!

Doggy Paddling in the swimming pool

Walking with Daddy to the ocean to get some water for the sand castle

Refusing to actually go in the water...

Mommy and Beau after eating at the Boatyard restaurant...we eat there every year and he loves to look at the boats coming in and out of the dock

Favorite Pool activity of the week....letting Daddy throw him in the air to Papa...over and over and over..

Critter Club at the Zoo

2010-09-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, Beau went to his first "Critter Club" class at the Birmingham Zoo. It is an hour long class once a week for 3-5 year olds. I liked it because the parents don't have to stay with the kids (looking at animals is not my most favorite thing to do), and Beau has really been wanting to go to the zoo and see snakes....seriously....this will never happen with me...they are one of my biggest fears ever! So, Tuesday they learned about tortoises and turtles. Beau got to color a turtle picture, make a turtle craft, and go see "Greg" the turtle at the reptile house. (I am not sure I could even step into the reptile house without having a slight panic attack that we were in the same building with the snakes, so I am so thankful for his tour guide/teacher "Grammy"). Then, he got to ride the train. He was soooo excited when I went back to get him and he could not wait to tell Rodney and I every thing he learned about turtles and tortoises!
So hot after walking around the zoo, but still holding his turtle craft!

It's A Boy!

2010-09-09T19:55:00.001-07:00

We are 23 weeks pregnant, and found out a few weeks ago that we are having another little boy! Rodney and I both thought it was another boy, but Beau was set on having a "stister." We told him that there was a chance it would be a brother and he kept telling us it was not a brother. When he found out it was a brother, he jumped up and down and said "It's a boy! I can be rough with him...like John-Mark!" (John-Mark is one of his good friends little brother).....we told him he could not play rough with his brother for a while though!

He has since told us all of his stuffed animals are girls and his "stisters.".....but he says he is happy to have a brother to play trains with. (He still thinks we are buying the baby all new toys so he will not have to share his toys ....should be a fun adventure in teaching sharing!) Several nights I have gone in his room to tuck him in and have found a stuffed animal shoved up his shirt. I try to take it out and he says, "No mama...my baby is still growing. It is not ready to come out yet." This child keeps us laughing for sure!

Beau is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!!

2010-07-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yay!!!! I am 16 weeks pregnant and we are so thrilled! We found out at the beginning of May that we were going to be parents again and we were so thankful. I am due January 6th. Most of you know that we have been dealing with fertility issues for almost 2 years. We went to a specialist in January and found out I had a small issue that could be corrected surgically. We were told to try for 3 months before coming back in to pursue the next step...treatments, medicines, etc. On the 3rd month, we became pregnant. Words will never be able to accurately express how thankful and overwhelmed we were by the the blessing of getting pregnant "naturally" and not having to go down the fertility treatment path. (I do not think there is anything wrong with treatments, medicines, interventions, etc....I am just so thankful the Lord blessed us with a child before we had to take that step).

These past 23 months that we were trying to get pregnant were the worst months that we have ever had to deal with in our married life. Almost every one I knew was pregnant or just had a baby. I kept thinking it would be us next, but the months kept on ticking away. It was so hard to go to play groups, see friends, or read people's blogs and facebook because everyone was sharing their great news of new additions and I was just longing for a new addition to our family. Our friends and family were so great throughout the process, even on my worst days. We became so thankful for each other and for our son, Beau. We came to the point where we were still praying and believing for more children, but were content with Beau. I would just stare at him sometimes and tear up because I was thankful that the Lord chose me to be his Mom.

Rodney and I dug into the Word like never before because we were desperate for hope and wisdom for our situation. Rodney handled things much better than I did, and I had many more moments of hopelesness and fear than he did. But, we read Isaid 49:23 daily "Those who hope in the Lord WIll NOT be disappointed." We also prayed and believed Psalm 113:9 daily "He settles the barren woman in her home as the happy mother of children."

One of our pastors said that when it is raining in your life (storms, hardships, troubles, etc.), to Worship. That simply Worshipping during those times changes everything. I believe it does too. This was a song that was listened to constantly on my itunes to help me on the roughest days...God is so good and faithful to pick us up during our toughest times and carry us through them.

"Desert Song" by Hillsong
This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in the hunger in me
My God is a God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

I will bring praise, I will bring praise
No weapon forged against me shall remain
I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my Victory and He is there

And this is my prayer in the battle, and triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm in His promise I'll stand

All of my life, in every season, You are still God
and I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to Worship
This is my prayer in the Harvest, when favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow.

One house down!

2010-07-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have a buyer for our Homewood House! We close in less than 2 weeks because it is an all cash offer and that moves more quickly than getting financing, etc. for a home. Rodney and I are so excited....we are overwhelmed with how good and faithful God has been to us during this process. We will have so much more "family time" without having an extra yard to take care of and extra home to do maintenance on. I am so thrilled!

We moved to Homewood so I could quit work and be a stay at home Mom to our sweet Beau. There have been many days since the day we bought the Homewood house that I questioned my decision to quit work...not because Beau was hard to take care of (even though somedays are harder than others!), but because so many obstacles were thrown in our way once we made this decision....I could go on and on! But, we put the Homewood house up for sale when Rodney felt like the Lord told him that my Mom should live with us...we could help her and she could help us. It has been a really good thing (looking back after almost 1 year of living together). We found a house that will fit all of us for a very long time, in a good school system, and still pretty close to Rodney's office. We made an offer...they accepted it and we will move in sometime in September. To make this move, we had to have our Homewood house sold or rented. It has been for sale for almost 2 years with no offers...talk about frustrating!! We put it for rent (after much prayer and many conversations). We had a TON of people interested in renting it...such a blessing. Rodney showed it to some brothers, and one of them is in a band. They were super interested, but I was not so interested in them. Really...who wants to rent their house to kids right out of college and especially one in a band? I had made my mind up...it was a NO! Well, the Lord is hilarious sometimes...The brother's band is "Rush of Fools"...a well known Christian band, and the parents decided to just go ahead and buy the house for their boys to live in. I mean....hilarious! Rodney told me this news Saturday and I could not stop crying...I could not believe this was really happening, and was so overwhelmed with how much our Heavenly Father has carried us through these past 2 years.
I am reminded of a quote I came across in August(almost 1 year ago) that said "Stand still and wait on God, for He has known the solution to your problem before it came into existence." I am so thankful that the we are able to bless this family with our house and they are blessing us with taking a huge financial strain off our shoulders. God is so good and faithful...even if it does take much longer and is much harder than we imagined.

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

We spent the Saturday before th 4th with Rodney's family at a HUGE family reunion they have every year. I still do not know who half of the family members are or exactly how they are related to Rodney. But, they always have good dessert and have a great swimming pool to cool off in. I left my camera in the car, so I didn't get any pics of Beau "swimming"...he wears this frog floatie and has learned to dog paddle. He thinks he is Big Stuff! Rodney taught him to jump off the diving board at this pool and he LOVED it (once he learned to hold his breath so he didn't choke on water).

On the 4th, we ate a yummy dinner with my family, with a fantastic peach cobbler for dessert! We then headed to Southside to watch the fireworks show with Rodney's family. We didn't know how Beau would do because he doesn't like loud noises, but he enjoyed all of it. (I think he was on a sugar high from the 3 bowls of ice cream and 1 helping of peach cobbler he had that day, but that is another story)

Here are some pics:
Hanging out with his cousins, Blake and Jenna....He was sooo glad they came with him to watch the show!

Summer Fun!

2010-07-06T13:54:00.001-07:00

We have been having so much fun this summer with friends and family. We have spent lots of time trying to find cool places, preferably with water or ice cream, to cool down with. Here are some pics of our summer fun so far...

Playing/Running from the water coming from the sprinkler at Nona and Papa's house in Auburn

I walked into the kitchen one afternoon and found this "flower" that Beau had pulled out of the front yard for me. He was so proud of himself...he wanted to keep it for weeks in that same container!

Cooling down with an afternoon trip to DQ for some ice cream

Meeting "Farmer Jason" at the Hoover Library....James and Beau are cracking me up with their expressions!

This is Coco the Cow from the Trussville Library...This started at 9 am or so and was sooooo hot! This is Coco "spraying" the audience some fresh milk from her udders...Lovely!

Beau and James and John Mark waiting for Coco to make milk....we ended up leaving and going to get ice cream and play at McDonald's....much cooler and more fun for everyone!

Happy 3rd Birthday Beau!

2010-07-01T14:26:00.001-07:00

Beau turned 3 on June 9th. We had his party on a Saturday morning. We started out at the Crestline Fire Station for a birthday fire station tour. Beau got to sit in the firestation living room in these big recliner chairs while he waited on his friends to arrive. He was a little shy to start with, but when his cousin Jenna got there, he toured the whole station with her holding his hand and got much braver! We ended up back at our house for lunch and birthday cupcakes. He was so happy to see his friends and family that day. He keeps asking if it is still his birthday, and if he gets to go to the firestation. I still can't believe my baby boy is 3!

Hanging out in the Firemen recliner chairs

Listening to a talk about fire safety from our fireman tour guide

Jenna holding Beau's hand

Sitting in the driver seat...not so sure about it!

The view of us the fireman took from the ladder on the firetruck

Trying on the Fireman outfit

Happy Birthday Beau!!

Spring Time=Festival Time

2010-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

We spent two weekends back to back going to different City Fest events. We spent the last weekend of April in Auburn with Rodney's parents and we went to Auburn's City Fest. It was supposed to rain and be yucky weather that weekend, but the rain held off for us to spend a little while at the outside festival. Beau loved running around to all the bouncy things and trying to play baseball, basketball and soccer. His friend Tori was also there. She is one year younger than Beau, but she still does everything he does, so you would think she is as big as he is!

This is Beau helping Papa water the fountain in their backyard. He loves to help fill it up by spraying water in it!

These are picture from the CityFest(before the thunder hit and we had to leave...the little man is terrified of thunder or "under" as he calls it)

The next weekend we went to "We Love Homewood Day" at Homewood Park. He has soooo much fun getting balloons, treats, random gifts from all the booths. Then, he bounced and jumped until he was worn out. We went to eat at Momma Goldberg's (or Momma Goldburgers as Beau calls it) afterwords and he almost fell asleep in his high chair.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

On Good Friday we had an Easter Egg Hunt at church with our small group. The kids were very excited to see some real ducks there, but my child did not want to get too close to them (definitely takes after me!). Then, he hunted eggs (they were scattered all over the grass, so there was not too much "hunting" to do). That night, we got to dye eggs with Beau for the first time. For as long as I can remember growing up, my family always went to my grandparents house on Good Friday night and we would dye Easter eggs together. We have not done this since Beau was born, so we decided to restart the tradition this year. He LOVED it!!! I was nervous with the colors and eggs and potential spills that could take place, but it ended up being so fun! He took his Easter eggs to my Aunt Betsy's on Easter to show everyone and he and his cousin Jenna cracked them all open. (under Daddy's supervision).
Beau not wanting to let go of his soccer ball or get too close to the duckies

Easter Egg Time

On Saturday night, we made resurrection cookies. I found this recipe online that goes over the ingredients and ties it into the Resurrection story with Bible verses. The recipe called for nuts, but we substituted chocolate chips instead. I think he got a little bit of the meaning of Easter this year. He knew that the cookies were empty (hollow) Sunday morning and that meant the tomb was empty.
The Cookies before I put them in the oven
Rodney telling Beau about Jesus being put in the tomb and having it sealed

The oven "sealed" shut like the tomb....can you guess which piece Beau put on the oven door?

Sunday morning we went to our 8 am church service and it was packed out (for the early service!). It was such an amazing service and we are so thankful for our church. I asked Beau what he learned in the nursery and he said "God was taken away by some mens (everything is plural to him) and the peoples were sad." Then, I asked him if Jesus came back and everyone was happy and he said "Um, I don't know Mom. I was talking to James (his buddy) during the movie." Well, at least he got the first part!

Our Easter "basket" we gave Beau...it has no candy because he got 4 other baskets from my aunts, mom, and cousin filled with yummy goodies and treats for him!

We also celebrated Rodney's birthday on Easter night with my family. (His birthday is not until later in April but we tried to take advantage of having the whole family already together in one spot). Aunt Betsy made an Easter bunny birthday cake for Rodney that Beau already ate a piece of on Easter night. He saw Aunt Patti put the cake in our car Easter night and Monday morning he wanted to eat it for breakfast. Well, my mom ate the rest of the cake Sunday night, so we did not have it anymore. We just told Beau it was all gone and he kept saying "Aunt Patti taked the cake and put it in my car. I saw her." This child does not forget anything!!! Especially when it comes to sweet treats.

Homemade PlayDough

2010-04-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

We were out of playdough a few weeks ago (because it had been left out for several days and dried up into little crumbly pieces). So, I found an easy recipe online and we made some. It just required flour, salt, and water (and food coloring). So easy, but a little messy.

The playdough I made got very gooey after being played with for 10 minutes or more. So, I stuck it in the fridge to firm up and let him play with another color that was already pretty firm.

Nothing to do with playdough....we are a tad bit obsessed with these orange goggles...he wants to wear them at all times! (they go with a leaf blower he got for Christmas). Check out his hair when he wakes up in the morning....No amount of water or combing helps at all!!

How to Get Through Another Cold, March Morning

2010-03-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought since March was here, we would be able to get out and play at parks, playgrounds, and in the yard a lot. I was soooo wrong! We have played outside maybe 5 times in the past several months because it has been a crazy winter here. So, this morning, Beau woke up early, after going to bed late (Rodney had a meeting and Beau was trying to "wait up" to see Daddy come home!), I knew that I had to make today fun if the little man and I were going to survive it. :o)

So, I realized it was St. Patrick's Day...mainly thanks to Rodney who wore a green shirt to work....and remembered that when I taught school St.Patrick's Day was my favorite holiday to celebrate at school (except Valentine's Day because Teachers rack up on candy on V-Day!). So, for breakfast Beau had strawberry yogurt with some green food coloring, YUM! Then, we painted with shamrock cookie cutters, our fingers,and a paintbrush or two. We even had green applesauce with lunch! Those few activities (plus a friend coming over to play at lunch) allowed us to survive another yucky, cold, spring day in the King household. Warm Weather ( 60 plus degrees with sunshine) can not get here soon enough!!!!!

A little green yogurt to start the day!

Painting with a shamrock cookie cutter
Check out the face! He said the paint felt "Yucky!"

The final Masterpieces:

Play Time

2010-03-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

If you ask Beau who his favorite friend is, he will say "Daddy!" Whenever Rodney is home, Beau always wants him to play, chase, read, and watch "TB" (TV) with him. I walked into the play room a while back and found Beau "cutting" Rodney's hair like "Mrs. Bonn"(Mrs. Yvonne cuts our hair). I started laughing so hard because Beau has his Bob the Builder hard hat on, and he was using his Handy Manny pliers to "cut" Rodney's hair. Rodney was such a good sport about it, and let Beau cut his hair for several minutes. I tell him he is not allowed to cut Mommy's, that only Mrs. Yvonne can, because Beau pulls when he "cuts" hair and it hurts!

This has nothing to do with the other pictures, but I walked into Beau's room this morning and he was "reading" in his rocking chair. He knows most of his letters and some of the sounds that they make because he has been watching "The Letter Factory" dvd a lot. Today he was saying "T", "W", "P" for Papa, "R", etc. and naming as many letters as he could. What a smartie!

Horses in Auburn

2010-03-15T12:45:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago, we spent the weekend in Auburn with Rodney's Mom and Dad..."Nona and Papa". Beau LOVES to go to Auburn to see them....he gets to help Papa with yardwork, put water in their fountain in the yard, play with their dog Maggie, and eat Nona's ice from her cup of sweet tea. (this grosses me out because I HATE sweet tea, but we let him do this every once in a while with Nona and Papa).

The Auburn Equestrian team was having a horse competition, so we went to check out the horses. Beau was not too thrilled at first, but then he warmed up to the horses. He has ridden on a horse 2 times before. The 2nd time, the owner of the horse accidentally clipped Beau's chin when she was putting the helmet on him. He cried and cried and cried! He still rode the horse, named Cody, but whenever we talk about horses or see them, he will tell us the story about how the helmet hurt his chin when he rode Cody. I don't know that he will ever forget it! We did not put a helmet on him this weekend, he just got to be held by his Daddy while they looked at the horses.

Let It Snow!!

2010-03-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago it started snowing on a Friday and snow covered our ground through Sunday! It was so nice to look at....we played in it a little, until Beau told me it was "too chilly" outside. Love it...because I was thinking the same thing!!

Here are a few pictures of when it first started snowing....Beau's only real interests in the snow were (1) cutting grass with his lawnmower in the snow (2) eating the snow

Winter Pictures

2010-02-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of us and Beau over the past few months....We have just been hanging out, trying to stay warm, and playing in the snow!

Beau is Potty Trained!!! (not at night time yet, I am not ready to cross that bridge yet!) He has done a great job and we are so proud of him! Here he is in his thomas the train underwear and slippers!

This is Beau "working" at home...Rodney went to work one day, and Beau got his laptop and phone and went to work also.

We went to McWane in December and saw the Trains exhibit...I think Beau could have stayed all day!

Here he is (on day 2 of a fever virus) wearing some mardi gras beads my aunts and mom gave him....he still wears them around the house all the time!

This was when we got a little snow in January...Beau just wanted to eat it

We saw Curious George at McWane Center....Beau really loved the coloring and the experiment he did...he was not so happy to meet George and the Man in the yellow hat.

What a cutie!

He got this blower and protective goggles from his grandparents for Christmas. We thought he would love it, but he said the noise "Scared his ears!" We took the batteries out, and he loved it again.

He started trying to get us with the blower, so now it is mostly an outdoor toy!

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

2009 was definitely a CRAZY year for us! I am so thankful it is over and we can look forward to a bright 2010. Even though 2009 had more downs than ups for us, we fell more in love as a family and fell more in love with Jesus than ever before. We are counting it as a great learning year!

Here are a few pictures:

January 2009

It was so warm last January that we got to play at the park...in short sleeves! (looks like that will not be happening this week!)

February 2009

This was his first time to really watch TV..I put in a Wiggles DVD and he sat sooooo close to the TV to watch it!

(It may have snowed in January or February of last year...can not remember which one)

March 2009

First time to ride a pony....did not love it!

Discovered his love of the splash park at the zoo

April 2009

Swimming at an indoor pool at a hotel with Daddy

He got his first lawnmower from Nona and Papa...he has wanted to cut grass almost every day since then

May 2009
He went from this...

To this....
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And did great!!!

June 2009

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Loving the Water

Not loving the beach so much

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

Playing for the last time in his room at our old house

Worn out from moving twice in the course of about 5 days!

October 2009
We visited McWance Center at least twice a month during the fall

November 2009
Going to his first Auburn Football Game!!

Decemember 2009

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

We had a BUSY Christmas week this year! We started off a few days before Christmas going to eat dinner for my Mom and my Aunt's birthdays. We ate at Stix by the Galleria. Beau loved seeing all the family and sitting with everyone. He did not love when the cooks turned on the fire and started to cook. He sat with his cousin Jenna and had a very tight grip on her! She was so sweet to hold him the whole time they were cooking.

Then, we went to the Christmas service at our church the next night. Beau sat with us this year and loved watching all the people. We did have to occupy him with several snacks, but overall, he did very well. Pastor Chris gave such an incredible message and the music was wonderful too. We are so blessed to have a church like that to attend.

Rodney's parents spent a few night with us too. Christmas Eve day we traveled to Sylacauga and back. Our power went out due to a crazy windstorm around 6:30 that night. It came on around 4:30 pm Christmas Day. So, we have no pictures because our camera battery was not charged! We stuffed stockings by candlelight on Christmas Eve and really thought our power would be back on the next morning. The power company really did a great job with keeping us updated, and once we realized it was not coming back on anytime soon, we packed up and headed out to warmer places! I never dreamt on our Christmas morning that we would have no food, no lights, no heat, etc.... My mom went to her sisters house and we went to Sylacauga (again) to Beau's great grandparents house. They had made Jesus a Birthday cake and Beau got to blow out the candles. We came back to Birmingham Christmas night and celebrated at my aunt's house and then we have been trying to recover since then! We were all worn out!!

Love his Christmas outfit!

He is singing Jingle Bells in this one!

Explaining Christmas to Beau

2009-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

So, Rodney has been reading a book about Christmas to Beau at night for a while. In it, Jesus is covered up by a purple blankie in the manger. Beau wants to have a purple blankie now because Jesus has one.

My Mom has a hand made nativity set that was made by my Great Aunt. It is in our dining room, so we talk about it a lot over dinner. Beau knows who all the people are in the nativity and he likes to feed baby Jesus milk. Rodney asked Beau what gifts the wise men brought Jesus and Beau said "candles, lotion, and money." I laughed because I thought Beau made it up. Apparently Rodney has been teaching him that the wise men brought candles (frankincense), lotion (myrrh), and money (gold) to Jesus.

My Mom told Beau that Baby Jesus grew up to be a carpenter...like Handy Manny and Bob the Builder. I was laughing so hard at the Handy Manny comparison that I was crying! So, if my child tells you any of these things, please know that he learned these things from his Dad and Granny!

Happy Thanksgiving....a little late!!

2009-12-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving with family this year. Everyone came to our house to celebrate and it was so nice! Beau had a great time with his cousins and entertaining all the ladies in the family. We also discovered that Beau has a love of candy corn. We were making turkey cookies (cookies that looked like turkeys, not cookies made out of turkey). I looked over and Beau had his hand in the bag of candy corn and he was shoving it in his mouth. Here are a few pictures:

He has a mouthful of Cookie in this picture!

Fun Times

2009-11-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

We took a few pictures of Beau with a pumpkin in our yard a while back. We never made it to a pumpkin patch this year, so we were "pretending" with the fake pumpkin in our yard. We had so many good pictures this day, but here are 2 where Beau was cracking up at his daddy..

We went to a friend's birthday party at the Galleria (it was supposed to be at a park but it had been raining non stop for a week, so the party relocated to the food court). Beau loved it because he got cake and a juice box. He did not, however, love the carousel ride. I had to hold him the whole time on it!

You can see the look of terror in his eye when we were trying to make him ride an animal on the carousel....we all ended up sitting in a sleigh type booth on the carousel and riding as a family.

<

When we go to the Galleria, we always go to the Auburn store so Beau can rock in the "Future Tiger" kiddie rocking chair and so he can pet the tiger.

We could not figure out what he was doing to the tiger at first....

Then, he told us he was feeding him 2 ice cream cones....

And this is a picture of "Muddy Muck" from Bob the Builder. I found this at Kid's Market at the fall sale and knew Beau had to have it. We gave this to him when we had to move out of one house and into another during the course of 4 days...he was very confused during this time, but Muddy Muck went with him to the new house and that helped a lot!

A Weekend in Auburn

2009-11-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

We spent the last weekend in Auburn for the Auburn Homecoming game. We stayed with Rodney's parents and had a great time. Beau loved being at Nona and Papa's house and told everyone all week long that he was getting to go to Auburn. He was a perfect angel on the car ride down...which is rare for the 2 1/2 hour drive(in traffic). We took him to his first Auburn game and he was so excited to go! He was just in awe of all the people in the stadium. I thought he would be scared of the noises on the jumbotron, but he just ate his granola bar and looked around. He did LOVE to see the Eagle fly. He could not tell that she started from the American flag, but did see her land on the field to eat her treat. He has been talking about it for days!

What a cute couple!

This picture is special to me because Beau and I are standing in front of the mural on the stadium that has my grandfather "Bo" on it. We named our son after him (even though we changed the spelling of the name). He is #45 on the mural. I tried to explain to Beau that his great grandfather was on the picture above us, and I got a little teary. Beau said "Mommy you upset...you need a kiss!" What a sweetheart!

Beau is not a fan of the real Aubie and apparently not a fan of the life size fake Aubie either....

When we were unpacking, Beau found his lovie named "tigey". He wanted to take him into the game too!

Papa and Beau in the stadium...this is Beau's first look at the field. He was in total amazement the whole time!

I loved holding him at the game....those times where he will sit in my lap and be still are rare the older he gets, and I take advantage of them as much as possible!

Beau fell asleep on Papa 5 minutes into the first quarter....precious! And, yes, he fell asleep holding his half-eaten granola bar.

After nap time, we went to Toomer's Corner. We let Beau take some toilet paper with him to roll the trees. At first, he would throw some toilet paper and run really fast, like he did something wrong! Once he found out he was not going to get in trouble for throwing toilet paper in the trees, he ran from tree to tree having a great time!

McWane Center

2009-10-24T13:10:00.001-07:00

We spent Saturday at McWane Center. Beau loves this place and so do we! He plays so hard there, then we eat at Subway in the cafeteria area and Beau gets to drink a juice box. This rarely happens, so he drinks it so fast he is "all done" in a minute. Too funny!

Checking out Fish

Playing at the Water Table

Playing at the "Garage"

Digging for Dinosaur Bones

Light Bright

Catching up on the fun!

2009-10-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Loving wearing his helmet and knee/elbow pads at breakfast!

Chilling out!

Feeding "Monk-Monk" some water (He also likes to cover Monk-Monk up with a blanket, and feed him bottles, cups, etc)

In his hand you can see him gripping his "treasure" he got at the dentist. Now, he hands us random things all the time and says "Here's your treasure!"

Tailgating in Auburn

< Picture of his cute, tiger smocked outfit at the tailgate....Rodney was not loving it, but I think he looks so precious!

At a friend's "beach" birthday party at Oak Mtn. State Park

Loving the water

Moving....Again

2009-10-24T12:47:00.001-07:00

We moved most of our things into the house from the previous post. It was a cute house in Vestavia....big enough for us and my mom to live in for a year until our house in Homewood sold and we could buy another one. But, we started unpacking and I got sick....sinus infection, cough, sneezing, etc. I told Rodney I thought the house had mold because I got so sick so immediately after staying there only a few hours. Then, a few of our other family members got sick after being in the house to help us move. We asked for our money back because we had been there 4 days....the rental company said no! Only if we could prove there was mold, then we could get our money back. So, we hired a super duper eco-green-dust-mold-etc. inspector. He saw where someone had painted over mold in the downstairs and thrown glade plug ins in cabinets where we could not see. So, all the mold was circulating through the air vents throughout the whole house=why we all got sick. However, the rental company has been VERY uncompliant with our requests for money back, even though we proved the house has 95% mold in some areas, which equals an unsafe environment!!! Anyway, we are currently in the process of using a great law firm in Bham to help us in this situation....The silver lining to this situation is :
(1) We are healthy and not in an unsafe home
(2) We have already moved into a new house in the Crestline area....Yea!!! No more moves for us for a while!

Sweet Beau was so confused during this process....he still tells us he left toys at his old house or the broken house(what we call the vestavia house). But, he does love that he now has a dog! When my Mom moved in, she brought her dog, Sam. Beau has taken over in feeding Sam, giving him treats, and in everyday bossing around. He likes to be able to tell him to go downstairs, lie down, and tucks him in to his blanket at night before he goes night night! I am not sure that Sam is loving having Beau as much as Beau is loving Sam...Oh Well!!

We're Moving....Again!!

2009-09-14T13:02:00.001-07:00

Yes, we are moving for the 4th time. This makes 5 years of marriage, and 4 different houses. This will be our 3rd time to move over a 31 month period of time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I do hope to one day live in a house for more than a few months at time! But, I am very thankful that we are moving again. A little background info. on all our moves:

House 1:

Our sweet little townhouse that we lived in for our first 2 years of marriage (our longest stretch to live in 1 place). We moved because we found out we were pregnant and wanted more room.

House 2:

This was the house we intended to stay in for a very long time. We had our son a few months after moving here, and then I asked Rodney if I could quit my job to stay at home with him. His answer was "yes, but we have to sell our house and downsize." I jumped at this idea. I would have done anything to stay home with my baby because he captured my heart and I felt like I was supposed to change careers and stay at home for a season.

House 3:

(this is not the best picture of our cute little house, but it is the only one I had!)
We moved here so I could stay at home with Beau. A few months after we moved, my Mom went through some major health problems. Rodney told me one night that he thought we should move her in with us. (what a great husband to want to take care of his mother in law!). I agreed, but we knew our cute, little 3 bedroom/1 bath house would not be big enough for us all.

House 4:

This is a temporary 1 year move for us. We are renting this wonderful house until our other house sells. This house will allow us to live upstairs with plenty of room and my mom can have the "mother in law" suite downstairs with plenty of room. Then, we can save and find or build somewhere for mom and us to move that we can actually really live in for a long, long time!

***This is why I have been a terrible blogger recently....we have been looking at real estate online, going to look at homes, cleaning our current home for showings, etc.... Hopefully, in October, with the move behind us, we will have more time to breath and relax!***

Riding the Bike

2009-09-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Beau got his red bicycle (tricycle technically) for his 2nd birthday from Memie and Super. He loves to ride it...he started off only being able to pedal backwards, but can now pedal forwards too! We have not let him ride it on the street yet because we did not have a helmet for him to wear when riding. Saturday, I went to a friend's baby shower and Rodney took Beau to get a helmet. They came home with a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads too! Beau was wearing all of it while sitting in his highchair eating lunch. It was too cute! Here are a few pictures of him riding his bike...

A Fun Filled Sunday!

2009-09-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

We usually have pretty relaxing Sundays around our house. We go to church, and drop Beau off in the nursery, come back home and we play, eat lunch, take naps, and play some more. This past Sunday, we decided to go to the mall after Beau woke up from his afternoon nap. I heard that they opened a new Lego store and wanted Beau to check it out. We all got on the carousel first and realized that Beau no longer likes it. I had to hold him as we stood beside the horse on the carousel. He would "pet" the horse, but not ride on him. I guess we will be saving our $5 or however much the carousel ride is from now on! Then, we made our way to the Lego store. (I am not sure who was more excited...Rodney or Beau!)Rodney and Beau put together a Lego man while I picked out a small present for Beau. Then, we went to the Auburn store so Beau could pet the Auburn tiger (HUGE stuffed animal tiger). Then, to the Disney store and our last stop was the Build-A-Bear store. Beau loved to watch the bears get stuffed with fur, get a heart, and get washed. He has not stopped talking about it since! We told him for Christmas he could get his own bear. We made it through all those stores and only spent $10 total. We finished up the night by eating at Jason's Deli....one of Beau's faves because he knows he gets ice cream after his meal!

This nursery picture was from a few weeks ago, but I love opening his bag every week to see his picture and talk about what he learned
I love pictures of him sleeping....so sweet and still!
They had several buckets where you could pick out legos to build your own Lego person
The finished product
Resting on all the Disney store stuffed animals

So Smart!!

2009-08-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

I know that every mother and father think that their children are the smartest ones around.....a genius even possibly. We definitely think Beau is so smart....too smart sometimes!

He knows that he can ask the grandparents or babysitters to do things that we don't let him do, and they usually let him because they don't always know we don't allow it, but Beau does! For example, last night we came home from a date and Beau was "Exercising" on my elliptical. He knows we don't allow him on it, and he had a HUGE smile on his face....until he saw me. Then, he quickly hopped off, and put his stuffed animal "lamby" on the elliptical. He said "Momma, Wamby (lamby) exercising!" I am thinking he knew I would not spank lamby....His new favorite word this week is "NO!" to everything....not so fun for us! He is having to go to time out everytime he tells me "NO!" He has been on the timeout stool several times already...this is followed by big tears, and a pitiful face from him. Hopefully, this will help stop the "NO!" to everything!

Beau is a talking machine! He loves to say hello, goodbye, and War Eagle. He can say all of his colors, some of the alphabet, and that his name is Beau Carl King. When we leave the grocery store, restaurant, drug store, he turns around and says "We'll come back!" as loud as he can. (Not sure where he got this from!) He loves to tell us he wants to eat at Moe's, Chappy's, and Jason's Deli. His favorite things to watch on TV are Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, and The Wiggles. We try to only let him watch 30 minutes of TV in the morning, but sometimes when I am working on dinner (which can be a super fussy time of day for him), he will say "Watch Bob on T.B. (what he calls TV)Momma and I say "YES!".

I am very thankful that Beau LOVES to read books. He can sit and let you read to him for a solid 30 minutes. We read 1 book before nap and 1 book before bedtime. His current favorite is any book with Huckle Cat (Richard Scarry's Big Books). They have great pages filled with colors, letters, trucks, food, etc.

Another favorite is the outside. He would play outside all day long if we let him. He asks for bug spray now because the mosquitos are so bad, but once he has that on, he is ready to play! He loves to play with the tools in the tool box, drills, hammers, screwdrivers, etc. He still loves to cut the grass with his 2 lawnmowers also. I am ready for the fall....cooler weather....less bugs...being able to go to the park anytime (not at 9 am due to the heat later in the day).

We are having so much fun with Beau everyday. There are so many nights that Rodney and I go to sleep just laughing about what Beau said or did that day. He is such a good baby (I know he is really a "toddler", but he will always be my baby), and we are soooooo thankful for him!

King Family Virus

2009-08-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

For the past week we have all been sick....Beau had a fever virus that lasted for 5 days. He called it a "feber" and wanted to take lots of vitamins. Then, I got sick , and then Rodney was sick over the weekend too! It has been no fun!!!!! Rodney stayed home Monday to recuperate and so Beau, Rodney and I rested and watched some T.V. or T.B. as Beau calls it. Hopefully, we are all on the road to recovery and will be able to get out and about again soon. Staying in the house is making us all a little crazy!!!

Here are a few pictures of Beau resting this week:

His eyes look so tired in this picture...I was cutting coupons and he was so tired he laid down ontop off all my papers. Soon after that, he was asleep on the floor.

Goodbye Crib, Hello Big Boy Bed!

2009-07-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Beau has been sleeping in his big boy bed for about a month now. He loves to climb in by himself and arrange the pillows, sheets, blankets, and animals the way he likes them. He says "Get in Self" when he does not want us to help him. We hear that more and more frequently now! He has done a great job sleeping in his big boy bed. He wakes up and stays in the bed until we come and get him out. This is great because I was nervous that he would get out of bed and play or get out of his room when he woke up, but so far so good! Here are a few pictures of his bed and new pictures in his room.

The Book

2009-07-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago we put Beau in his bed with his favorite book. 2 hours later we heard him sneeze and then start crying very hard. We went in to check on him and realized that he had chewed the corners off his book and shoved them up his nose. It was a lovely experience to remove the pieces from his nose with tweezers, q tips, suctioner, etc. We finally got all 10 or so pieces out and got him to go back to bed. He still loves to read this book (even though some of the words are chewed off now), but he can no longer take the book to bed!

Water Fun

2009-07-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Beau loves to play in the water! I think he could play in water all day long. Here are a few pictures of him loving the water...

Beach Trip 09

2009-07-08T12:19:00.001-07:00

We spent the last week of June relaxing at the beach with my family. We stayed in a condo called "Splash" with my Mom and Dad for a week. Nonna even came down to stay with Beau for a few days too. We got to spend lots of time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins who were staying at a beach house right down the road from us.

Beau LOVED the pool, kiddie area with splash splinkers, and the sand. He hated the ocean because it was cold. I was not too upset because I prefer the pool not the ocean too. Rodney loved this condo because the majority of the kiddie pools and the lazy river were covered, so they could play for hours and not worry about getting too much sun. This was great since we are such a fair skinned family! The kiddie area had a HUGE water bucket that dumped water on the kids every 30 seconds or so. I thought Beau would love it....I have never seen my child so terrified of anything before. He would say "No water bucket! No water bucket!" I thought he would play in that area when his cousins came over to play, but he just wanted them to get away from the water bucket too!

Here are a few pictures of our trip:

(This is Beau doing a "flip" before he got in the pool. He saw his older cousins flip into the pool and he wanted to be just like them! He would say Flip! and do this side arm move and then jump in to us)

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2009-06-09T05:01:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where has my baby gone? He turns 2 today, but we celebrated on Saturday with friends and family at Homewood Park. I have been very emotional about Beau turning 2....he is not really a "baby" anymore. He is sleeping in a big boy bed and not a crib, he tells us "get out" "night night" when we try to cuddle with him at night. He is getting so tall, moving up to the 2 year old room in the nursery( I cried through part of the service the last time I took him to the "walker room" in the nursery because I knew it was his last time to be in it)....my list could go on and on about how he is growing up. I am very happy he is healthy and strong, but I am sad that he is getting so big!

Back to the party.. The day kicked off with swim lessons (which he loved!) and then we headed to the park. We got to the park and it was cloudy and breezy...praise the Lord! He had some food, 2-3 cupcakes (he was only supposed to have 1, but asked other people besides me for extra cupcakes :o)) , and then played, played, played! He never even asked to go on the playground because he was so content playing with all the people who came to celebrate with him. He was so worn out from the day that he took a 3 1/2 hour nap!

Beau's invitations said "Come have a ball with us at Beau's 2nd birthday party!" I made cupcakes that looked like basketballs, tennis balls, and baseballs. We brought a wagon full of sports balls for the kids to play with too. But, the highlight of the party was the cooler full of ice....I think the boys played in it more than anything else!

Beau about to dig into the cupcake.....he also ate part of his "2" candle (he quickly spit it out once he realized it was not a cupcake)

James having fun by the ice chest

Beau's cousin Addison enjoying a cupcake

Sweet Evelyn playing with the toys

Bubble wands....anything bubbles are some of Beau's favorite toys

Opening gifts with Memie

Beau playing with a huge chunk of ice

James, Lawson, and Beau checking out the ice chest

The bubble lawnmower.....he does not like anyone to play with this and he wants to "cut grass" every minute of the day when we are at home!

5 Year Anniversary!

2009-06-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Rodney and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Friday. We actually celebrated it on Thursday night at PF Changs while Beau spent the night in Auburn with Nonna and Papa. We are looking forward to a great 5th year together and many, many more to come!

Here are the only pictures of our wedding that are uploaded to our computer...
Us coming into our reception at McWane Center

Our 1st dance as husband and wife

"And they lived happily ever after"

Mother's Day and Birthdays

2009-05-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated My cousin Rachel's birthday and my birthday and Mother's Day. We had a good time celebrating with my family on Friday night. On Sunday, Rodney told Beau that it was Mommy's Day. Beau kept coming up to me all day and saying "Mommy's Day....Mommy's Day"....it was precious!

This is a picture that my friend painted for Beau's grandmothers and great grandmother for Mother's Day....He LOVED getting his foot painted!

Beau having fun with his cousins (don't know why it is soooo tiny!)

Drinking the fruit juice out of the bowl..Yum!

My Wii that Mom and Rodney gave me for my birthday

Beau and Rodney playing tennis on the Wii

Big smile!

Water fun at the Zoo

2009-04-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

We went to the Zoo Tuesday with some friends and Beau had so much fun! He stayed in the water area for almost and hour and a half. One of his friends was eating a pretzel by the water area, and Beau was running by, stopped and looked at the pretzel, but decided to run back to the water instead of ask for the food. He was really having a good time if he was too busy to eat!

His favorite part was trying to stand on the water spout and let the water spray him in the face....he also liked drinking the water.

(In most of the pictures above Beau is playing in the water with other kids that were on a field trip, that is because all of Beau's friends were eating snacks or playing in other areas and Beau was still wanting to play in the water!)

Fun in Auburn with Nona and Papa

2009-04-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

Playing at Hickory Dickory Park...our little model striking a pose!

Riding a pony with Papa....he looks like he is checking out the situation

Riding on his inch worm with his blankie....he would take this blanket everywhere if we let him!

Playing with Aubie...Beau does not look too thrilled about it!

Outside....Beau's favorite place to be!

2009-04-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

Beau loves the outside...."loves" is probably an understatement, but I don't know another word to say for it! He wants to go outside as soon as he wakes up in the morning and would stay out there until night night time (or "night nap" time as he calls it)

This morning he woke up, ate breakfast (I took his pj's off because they were covered in oatmeal), and he ran to get his boots and hat. He put them on the right feet (very impressive!) and put his hat on and ran to the door and said "Outside!"...Who needs clothes to play anyway?

This is a picture from after church on Sunday....he cried so much in the nursery I am surprised his face is not still red from all the tears and fussing! (He was NOT happy about us leaving him in the nursery after leaving him for a few days to go to the beach!)

"Playgroum" is what Beau calls his playground

He is saying "holdy" and holding out his hand for me to help him down the slide because he is too busy looking at our neighbor's dog to worry about having to look down to slide down to go see the dog

Vacation Time!

2009-04-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Rodney and I are off to the beach for a little vacation! After a fairly stressful past few months of homes for sale and my mom having some health issues, my sweet husband is taking me away! Beau will be staying with his grandparents in Auburn and will have tons of fun in "aubrin" as he calls it. He does know that Aubie lives there and knows how to say "War Eagle" too! He will probably cry all the way back to "Burminham" (as he calls it) when we pick him up after our vacation is over. He hates to leave his grandparents and cries for them when we have to leave them...no fun for us, but we are thankful he loves them so much!

Happy Easter ( a little late)

2009-04-15T11:52:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Easter this past Sunday by going to Church of the Highlands. It was a wonderful service! We left Beau home with Nona and Papa because he was still snotty, coughing, and had a low temp. Beau loved his Easter basket and the plastic eggs that he got to hunt! We tried to explain the Easter story to him and quickly realized...he is too young! He, however, HATED the Easter bunny at the mall. We went to get his picture made and in the picture the bunny is sitting down, I am standing next to the bunny holding Beau...he refused to get anywhere near the bunny! He did wave to him and tell him "bye bye" as we were leaving though! Anyway, we went to my Aunt Betsy's house for Easter dinner with my family. We left early because Rodney took my mom to the ER because she was sick. She is on antibiotics and doing much better, but are still going to hire a sitter to help her during the day until she can get into a rehab facility in birmingham to regain her strength.

Here are a few pics that my Aunt Betsy took of the day....
Cousing Jenna holding Beau

Jenna helping Beau hunt for eggs

The 3 of us!

Dumping out Easter eggs for Daddy

Cousin Rachel holding Beau...I think he could of sat in her lap all day!

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Beau has been battling a fever that has been on and off since Wednesday. He is also cutting two 2 year molars (this is probably the reason for the fever!). This has made for an interesting week, but we were so glad to have a break where Beau was well to play at the park!

On Thursday, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt with our Art Small Group. It was such a fun day at the park! Beau LOVED looking for eggs...he even tried to take them out of other kids baskets! We had a "practice" Easter egg hunt at our house on Wednesday to get him ready for the real hunt. We like to try to "practice" something that is new before he actually does it, so he will know what to do. He especially loved to open the eggs because they had special things inside like stickers and erasers. He also got to make a bunny rabbit craft while he was there.

Bunny Rabbit Craft

He is holding the egg out and saying "Egg" "Egg"....he has not really stopped saying "egg" since we got back home from the Easter Egg hunt :o)

The Past Week

2009-04-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

The past week started off a little rocky with a trip to the ER last Friday. I was cooking lunch for Beau and I and he pulled a palm tree magnet off the fridge to show me. I quickly realized it was missing the black magnet that went on the back. I asked Beau where it was and he pointed to his mouth. I looked everwhere for it and could not find it anywhere. So, off to the ER we went. (This makes our 4th trip in his 21 month life!....I keep waiting for DHR to come knocking on my door to make me go to childcare classes) Anyway, he was a little nervous about the ER and unhappy that he could not eat or drink. They did an X-ray which he was really unhappy about and it ended up normal. So, off to the house we went. I put him down for a nap and continued my search for the magnet. It was eventually found waaaaayyyyyyyy under the fridge. I am not sure how he could have even pushed it back that far. Oh well...we were very glad he did not eat it because he would have had to undergo surgery to remove it.

This is the only picture I have of our ER experience...notice the grip Beau has on Rodney's hand!

Then, Rodney went out of town for work. He was only gone 1 night. I have never seen Beau so upset before! He kept crying "DaDa!" and then saying "Right Back" because when Daddy goes to work we say how he will be "right back" after Beau's afternoon nap is over. Beau refused to sleep for much of the night that Rodney was gone, but was sooooooooo happy to see Rodney when he got home. (I was too!) I really think Beau thought Rodney had left us....I am praying for no more overnight work adventures for him in the near future!

Beau got to eat a jello pudding while Rodney was gone.....you can tell he really enjoyed it!

Once Beau finally went to sleep and got over screaming "DaDa!" "Right Back", this is what he looked like when he woke up....Check out the curls in the hair!

The week did pick up and go more smoothly...

Playing outside

Playing with a baby...Beau loves babies! He loves to rock our friend's babies, give them toys, hug them, etc. It is too cute!

Playing with a friend at art small group

"Cleaning" the side porch to wash the pollen off of it (Rodney had to step in to help and Beau turned the hose on him and soaked him too!)

Playing on our bed after bath time

Eating ice out of a Moe's cup....he LOVES to do this, but only out of this particular cup

Beau has started to actually watch a little TV which is great for me! I do not want him to watch TV all day, but he will sit and watch "The Wiggles" DVD for 20-30 minutes. Here is a picture of him....I had to pull him back because he was so close to the TV!

Hanging Out

2009-03-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Playing the piano when we went to visit friends who just had a baby

Coloring on a wall with chalk at friends house....Beau wanted to hold all of the chalk while he colored

This is not a great picture....but Sunday Beau took his daiper off 3 different times. It must have been bothering him....oh well!

I was cleaning up and put the pack n play out...Beau sat in it for about 10 minutes and played. Then he started jumping in it as you can see from the picture...then he climbed out of it. No more pack n play for this little man!

New favorite afternoon activity....playing in car, while it is parked, with momma or daddy...he is sticking his hands out of the sunroof in this picture

Swimming

2009-03-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

Beau got to go swim in an indoor pool last weekend. He LOVED the pool last year, so we thought he would love it this year too. Well, he just sat on the pool steps with Rodney for 30-45 minutes. He did finally start to splash the water towards the end of the time at the pool. Rodney picked him up to carry him into the pool more, and Beau said "No.".....I don't think he was scared, he was just checking out all the kids at the pool. He is signed up to take swim safety lessons soon, so we will see if he gets any more adventurous in the water then.

This is the furthest that Beau went into the pool

Splash!

Hanging out with Daddy

Playing with Family

2009-03-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

Over the past few weekends, Beau has gone to Auburn to spend the weekend with Nona and Papa and Maggie (their dog). He has gone to Sylacauga to see his great grandparents, Memie and Super (Beau calls him Sup-Sup) And, he has seen my family when cousin Rachel was here for a week. He has definitely been LOVING all the attention he gets from his family!

Memie is showing Beau how to play with one of the many toys that she bought him

Playing ball with Sup-Sup

Taking Maggie for a walk in Auburn

Playing on Gran-Gran's walker with Blake and Jenna...Beau does not look thrilled in this picture because he had to stop to take it....he had the best time getting rolled around the house by his cousins!

Playing in a car at Nona and Papa's...this was another little boys car. Beau wanted to ride in his car and the little boy wanted to ride in Beau's car, so they swapped for the day!

Random Pictures

2009-03-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Beau playing in his yellow rocking chair. He loves to rock in it and "read" books. He also loves to be rocked in it....today at nap time he said "Momma, rock, please".....so of course I rocked him! It melted my heart.

This was taken at the mall. He is walking with 2 of his favorite people...Nona and Papa!

This is a picture of Beau and James playing with Elmo's Restaurant....Beau LOVES to play with James!

This is a bunny that was in the yard at Nona and Papa's house. Beau would run up to it and say "rabbit" It was one of his favorite things to do at their house in Birmingham. (This was taken 2 days before Beau got a major haircut)

Another picture of James and Beau....this day they chose to bring toys into the ottoman and play in it....I love how James has his leg propped up on the ottoman!

Snow in March!

2009-03-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

We had a fun snow day on Sunday at the house. Beau was so excited to wake up and see snow covering the yard, cars, porch, etc. He looked out the window during breakfast and every time the wind blew the snow off the roof, he would say "Whoa!"

He was not a big fan of actually playing in the snow. He did like to sit on Rodney's car and eat the snow though. That was mainly what he did while we were outside playing in the snow.

Standing in the snow....

Getting Daddy to help him get out of the snow

Playing with snow on the car

The boots.....this child would wear these every day, all day, if I would let him

Eating snow....Yum! He ate snow for a good 10+ minutes while he watched the neighborhood kids build a snowman

Playing with a snowball that Daddy made

King Look-alike Meter

2009-02-21T14:26:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Old photos - Descendants

After seeing this "Look A Like Meter" on several of our friends blogs, I decided to try it. I knew when Beau was born, he was a mini version of Rodney. Now, people say they can not tell who Beau looks like. Except for when I am at a grocery store, the check out person often says "He must look just like his daddy!". Well, according to this, he does look more like Rodney....by 9%.

Book Worm

2009-02-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

Beau loves to be read to! He will sit in his rocker or in any chair with us and look at book after book after book. He loves to point out animals, babies, food, etc. in the books. Then he will clap for himself. It is precious! We, of course, think he is a genius!

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-17T11:25:00.001-08:00

Beau loved getting all the Valentine's from family and friends! He got several cards that played music or talked when you opened them. He liked to play them over and over and over....! One played "I got you babe" by Cher and another one played "Achy Brakey Heart".

Beau ate heart shaped biscuits for breakfast on Valentine's Day and then ate 2 pickles for lunch at the mall. This was odd, but he had a slight fever, so we thought he just wasn't hungry. We found out the next day that he has his 2nd case of Hand, foot, and mouth disease. Yuck! Oh well....it is much easier the 2nd time around.

He got this puppy dog stuffed animal from his aunt Betsy for Valentine's Day. Betsy has a 3 legged dog named Jack. Beau calls him "Jack Jack", so of course Beau calls the new puppy dog "Jack Jack". He likes to take him everywhere and he likes Jack Jack to nap with him too.

We had a great Valentine's Day and are very thankful for our family!

Heart Shaped Biscuits for breakfast on V-Day

Using Jack Jack as a pillow in the car

The heart that Beau made at our art small group

January Catch Up

2009-01-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

Beau turned 19 months old on January 9th. I can't believe what a big boy he is becoming!

He loves to talk and try to repeat what he hears. It is making Rodney and I very conscious of what we say around him.....for example, he heard "shut up" on the TV one day and then said "shut up" right back. I wanted to cry. He is currently saying "blu balu balu berry" for blueberry, sit, sheep, horse, house, car, ball, momma, da, dadu, mydadu (all for Dad), nona, papa, mag(maggie the dog), grin griny (Gran Gran), T (My Dad), Sam (dog), grape, nana (bananna), popcorn, more, cat, dog, all gone, no (for everything...even if it is a yes), store, eat eat, tee tee, poop, baby (for all kids...no matter how old)and he can say almost all of our family members names (or at least the beginnng of them).

He still loves to eat, but does not like drinking milk anymore. When he does not drink enough milk, he gets a little purple under his eyes....must be missing a vitamin or mineral in the milk. Our pediatrician said he is healthy, and to try to add milk to his oatmeal and anything else we can stir it into. He does love to drink water or "otter" as he calls it.

We have been having fun playing at home or with friends during the week. On the weekends we play with friends or family too.

Playing at park

Beau told Dad to "sit" with him

New Favorite Activity.....Coloring
Final Masterpiece

Funny

2009-01-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

On Friday, during Beau's nap, I was talking to one of my best friends, Lindsey, on the phone. I was telling her how Beau has started taking his clothes off during nap time and in the morning when he wakes up. It is normal for us to go in and find him with one pant leg off, a diaper partially off, and a shirt hanging off him. Friday afternoon, Rodney was home a little early from work, so he was able to get Beau when he woke up at nap time. This is how he found Beau....check out Beau's enormous grin. What a goose!

(I know his outfit does not match at all, but I was doing laundry and it was either that outfit or a shirt and a diaper....I knew the diaper would be off in 5 seconds and that would not be good!)

Playing Outside in January

2009-01-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

This past week the weather was rainy, but warm enough to play outside when it was not too wet. After lunch, Beau and I played outside for almost an hour. He was fascinated by the big tree in our front yard. It had a hole where the rain water had collected. Beau loved putting sticks, leaves, and most of all, his hands in the water. Then, he entertained himself by putting things in the hood of his car....sticks, leaves, bark, whatever he could find. This child loves to be outside. I am learning to like it more because I know for many years to come, most of my time will be spent outside playing with him!

Blanket Time

2009-01-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Rodney and I decided to start trying "Blanket Time" with Beau when he turned 18 months old. In December, he turned 18 months old, so we started this process. We put Beau on a blanket and gave him a few toys. We told him to stay on the blanket until we told him it was okay to get up. This is supposed to help him learn to be disciplined at home and outside the home. Anyway, the first few times, he would get up and run around the blanket. But, the other day he sat on the blanket for 10 minutes solid! I was only going to try for 5 minutes, but let him keep going once he went over 5 minutes. He was entertaining himself by his cell phone and the boots (of course!)

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

2009-01-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Rodney and I celebrated New Year's Eve by dinner out while Nona and Papa (Rodney's parents) watched Beau. We then ate some cake and ice cream and watched a movie on the couch. We rang in the new year with New York and then headed to bed. Beau even slept in on New Year's Day until 8:30. It was such a treat for us!

Rodney and I both had to agree that 2008 has been the worst year of our lives together. We have had several family members pass away, family members battle cancer,3 sets of great friends move away, Rodney's parents moved 2 hours away, and the list could go on and on!

However, We did have a huge blessing in 2008 that I could quit my job teaching at stay at home with Beau. We found a great house that we could afford on Rodney's income, so we prayed about it and went ahead and bought it while we still owned our other house. We never thought that in May of 2008 we would find out that the house would be deemed "unsellable" due to foundation issues when it was built.So, in May, I resigned from my job to stay at home with our child, we had 2 homes with 2 sets of bills and were on one paycheck. The last 6 or so months of 2008, our prayer has been "God Are you still there?" "Did you forget about us?" Our old community is still waiting on a solution from the builder/developer, so after much prayer, we put the house up for rent.

Thankfully on Jan. 2nd, 2009, renters moved in and will be living there for 1 year. We are so thankful that the Lord did hear our prayers for provision and guidance in 2008, He just answered them differently than we had thought/wanted. Don't you love when that happens?

Rodney and I are praying for and believing for a fantastic 2009! Here are our some of our favorite pics of 2008 with Beau....

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

Both of June 2008 (1st birthday and 1st beach trip)

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

Christmas 2008

2009-01-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Christmas Day by breakfast at our house, lunch with Rodney's family and dinner with my family. Beau was a trooper that day, even though he was still recovering from his fever virus.

(This is from zoolight safari that we went to before Christmas...but it is one of the few pictures where I am holding Beau and he is smiling....He LOVED their "snow" that was falling)

Beau enjoyed all the gifts and toys that were given to him that day. His current top 2 favorites are:

"Boots" My Aunt Patti gave him these boots. Whenever we go anywhere, these are the shoes he wants to wear. Rodney and I even hid them in his closet, but Beau found them yesterday and so we have been wearing the "boots" everywhere again. He does look super cute in them!

"Monk-Monk" This is a stuffed animal, technically called a "Fur-Real Friend" that Rodney's cousin gave Beau. This monkey cries when he is hungry and he makes sleeping sounds when you lay him down. Beau loves to carry "Monk-Monk" everywhere with him. We have already lost the bottle that the monkey drinks from, so Beau feeds the monkey his sippy cup and popcorn for a snack. It is too cute!

Christmas Eve in the ER

2008-12-27T08:23:00.001-08:00

Well, on Christmas Eve morning (at 1 am) we got to take our 3rd trip to the ER at Children's with Beau. I think he is the only baby I know that has been there 3 times already in his 18 months of life. (The first time was when he rolled off the couch at 6 weeks old...who knew he could roll that early? The 2nd time was when we realized peanut butter gave him a scary looking rash)

It started on Monday with Beau running a fever off and on. Then on Tuesday he still had a fever off an on. This was how he was almost all day on Monday and Tuesday. He would try to play, and then get so tired.

I called his pediatrician Tuesday afternoon to see if we could come in, but they were full already. So, she redirected us to Children's after hours clinic who would call us that night for an appt. We went there at 6 and it was a great experience. They said Beau had a viral infection and we just had to wait it out. They told us if his fever got to be 104 or higher to go to the ER though. So, at 12:30 am on Chistmas Eve Rodney brought Beau to me in the bed and said that he couldn't get Beau to stop shaking. Our thermometer showed his temp to be 105+, and the medicine we gave him was not helping it go down , so we headed to the ER. Once we got there, they gave Beau more medicine to get his fever under control. We waited several hours so they could rule out spinal meningitis and a few other infectious diseases, and were released at 4:30 am with the doctor telling us the same thing the previous doctor told us...just a viral infection. We were very happy with that diagnosis and went home.

Beau ran a fever all day on Christmas Eve, but thankfully it broke around midnight and he was fever free on Christmas Day. He was able to really enjoy Christmas Day with his family and all the yummy food and gifts that were given to him.

We took a few pictures in the ER with our phone....the favorite toy for Beau was definitely the doctor's stool....

Beau Loves His Daddy!

2008-12-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Recently, Beau has fallen even more in love with his Dad. It is very sweet the bond they have. A friend told me this happened to her son around 18 months, and so I was ready for it when Beau turned 18 months last week. We went to Auburn this past weekend, and Beau is definitely not a fan of long car rides. So, on the way home, Rodney entertained him with Beau's favorite stuffed animal, "lamby". Rodney let lamby drive the car for half an hour or so, and Beau laughed the whole time! If I had done that, Beau would have given me a look like "what's so funny about that momma?"

He also loves to enjoy a special dessert sometimes with his Daddy. This day Rodney came home for lunch and had ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. Beau enjoyed a cookie with some chocolate sauce. You can see the joy on this child's face because he rarely gets anything like that!

These are how most of our picture are...me holding Beau and smiling, and Beau chewing on something looking not interested that I am holding him...Oh well, I know he loves me too!

Here Comes Santa ...and the tears!

2008-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Rodney met Beau and I at the mall for lunch and to see Santa. Beau was all smiles in the Santa line. He loved seeing the kids and babies that were there. He was even all smiles as we got onto Santa's platform. When I handed Beau over to Santa, the meltdown started. It got better when Santa handed Beau the candy cane, but Beau was still gripping the chair. About 3 seconds after the picture was taken, Beau burst into tears again. We grabbed him off Santa and it took him a few minutes to settle down.

Unfortunately, Santa is not the only person Beau cries when he is given to. He cries when Rodney leaves, when I leave, when we drop him off in the nursery, and even sometimes when he is with our families and we leave to go run errands. We are hoping this phase that started 2-3 weeks ago, goes away just as quickly as it came!

Ready for the game!

2008-11-29T13:09:00.001-08:00

Rodney got to go to the Auburn Alabama game this year with his Dad. So, Beau and I spent the day together! We went and played with James before the game. James had on his Alabama colors and Beau had on his Auburn colors.

James and Beau playing in James' car. Notice James in his red and Beau in his orange!They were too cute!

Beau is ready for the game in his Auburn shirt and tiger shorts! (He is actually ready for a nap, but will be dressed right even for his nap)

No matter how the game turns out, our family will always love Auburn. Probably because the game is close to Thanskgiving, it makes me miss my grandfather, "Bo", who we named our son after. He had many accomplishments in the sporting world in his life, but they all started with his time playing at Auburn. I found this picture online (we have lots of pictures of my grandparents, but none that are uploaded on our computer)of my grandfather and I thought I would share it on Beau's blog today.

This is the cover of a matchbook that is being sold on ebay. Too funny! I guess someone in my family should buy it!

We hope one day Beau will be great at sports like both his great grandfathers (Rodney's played baseball and mine played football and golf). However, I do not know if I really want to see someone tackle my child. I often joke with Rodney that I would jump out of the stands and tackle them! Maybe Beau will end up being a track star (a great non-contact sport) like his Dad. :o)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T13:06:00.000-08:00

We had a great time on Thanksgiving. We went and visited 3 different places where we got to see our families. Beau had a great time this year. He loved playing with everyone and eating the good food. He also enjoyed chiming in on our family prayer by saying "amen!". It was so precious. Here are a few pictures of the day:

Enjoying the food at Memie's (Beau calls her Mamie instead of Memie)

Holding hands with his cousin on the hammock

Checking out a deer with Papa

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving Picture

2008-11-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to do at least 1 art activity a week with Beau. They are definitely interesting! I usually wait until the weekend to do them so Rodney can be there to help with the mess. This past Friday night, we were making Turkey hand prints for family for Thanksgiving. We painted Beau's palm and thumb brown. Then, we painted his fingers different colors and made a hand print on paper. I had grand dreams to make one for all of the people in our family, but we only got 3 before Beau realized it was more fun to smear his hand print around than to simply make a hand print. Oh well....we are planning on trying this again sometime because I think it is too cute.

We made the first delivery last night to my Mom and Dad. This is what their Thanksgiving picture looked like:

Playing Outside

2008-11-17T08:16:00.000-08:00

Beau loves to play outside! I think he would stay outside all day if he could. Friday he was "helping" Rodney rake leaves in the yard. Beau took a break from all the work and decided to play on his slide. We got the slide at Kid's Market for around $5 or less and it has been put to great use so far.

17 Months Old

2008-11-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

Wow...it is hard to believe Beau turned 17 months old on Sunday. He is growing up so fast, it makes me sad! He also has 16 teeth. Wow! Only 4 more to go!! Beau loves to talk, most of it sounds like "drdle doo gbggara", but he can say some words. He loves to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog cartoon. He actually just loves to watch the intro with the theme song. We have to play it over and over and over and then we say that Clifford has to go "night night". Then, Beau will say "ni ni cl" (of course, night night clifford is what he is saying:o)) He also loves to play and climb on everything. He is getting better about playing by himself, which is nice so I can fold laundry, make lunch, etc. while he is playing. Here are a few of Beau's current favorite things:

The first 2 pictures are of Beau with books. He loves to look at the pictures and have people read to them. He likes to sit in chairs or in peoples laps to have reading time.
Reading with Aunt Betty.
"Reading" (looking at the book) in his chair...he is posing for the picture, but he was reading when I went to get the camera.

Beau also loves to be outside. He goes to the front door or side door in our house often and says "doe" for door because he wants to go outside and play. These 2 pictures were taken at his friend, Austin's, 2nd birthday party at the park. Beau is playing with Austin's new toys.

Beau loves to "color" and "draw"....he really likes to try to eat the crayons, paint, markers, etc.

The last favorite thing for right now are his Elmo slippers....As soon as he wakes up in the morning, he will get these off his bookshelf and point for us to put them on his feet.

Lesson Learned

2008-11-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

This morning I took Beau with me to vote at our voting place by the park. Normally, Rodney would go with us or watch Beau, but he was on his way to Tuscaloosa for work. We get to the polling place at 8. Beau was in his stroller, with his stuffed animal, and a snack. He loved every minute of the 45 minutes it took us to get through the line and vote! He loved watching all the people and kids. However, while we were standing in line, I was thinking how nice it would be to have a families with children line for families to be in and out a little quicker. Anyway, we voted and I put Beau in his carseat in the car and he was starting to get fussy. I gave him my keys to the car (which we do often) so he could entertain himself with them while I put the stroller up, etc. because we needed to hit the road to go to the chiropracter. So, I left a door to the car open for safety, so Beau would not be hot and so he could not lock himself in the car with the clicker. About the time I closed the trunk, the wind slammed the other door shut, and then I heard "Beep." Oh my Lord, my child just locked himself in the car!!! is what I was thinking. I ran to every door trying to open it and they were all locked. I called Rodney, but he was in a meeting and could do nothing from Tuscaloosa. So, after trying to tell Beau what button to push to unlock the car with no success, I called 911.

The police were there within 10 minutes, and just as they pulled up, Beau figured out what button unlucked the car and hit it. I threw open the door and grabbed the clicker. The policemen had a good laugh at the timing of thier arrival and how we did not need their assistance. I was relieved that Beau was fine...he was actually fine the whole time. His favorite button to push on the clicker was the red one, which made the alarm go off.....over and over and over. Imagine that going off, a mom banging on the window telling her 16 month old what button to push to unluck the car, and the masses of voters pulling in and out of the parking lot watching this. Several of the onlookers offered to wait with me until the police showed up, but I politely told them I would be okay, as I wiped the tears away that were rolling down my face. Oh well, lesson learned......Beau can not hold the clicker while he is alone in the car! What a morning!

Pumpkin Painting

2008-10-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

After we picked the pumpkin out last Sunday, we painted it Monday night. I used finger paint that we already had. Beau had a great time!! After he painted, he went straight to the bath tub.

Pumpkin before painting

After the bath, we shared some popcorn as a snack.

Beau and I were getting ready to go to play group Friday morning. It had been raining earlier, so I told Beau he could play on the porch, not on the grass, while I got all of his things together for play group. I heard Beau laughing and looked up and saw him covered in blue paint....looks like the finger paint was washable and washed off the pumpkin in the rain. Oh well, we will try again next year, but with non-washable paint. :o)

Nothing to do with pumpkins, but cute....

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

We took Beau to the Pumpkin Patch in Hayden on Sunday with the Allen's, Goodson's, and Nix's. Beau had such a good time checking out all the people and pumpkins. His most favorite thing to do, I think, was to sit on the pumpkins. We picked out a pumpkin and I plan on getting Beau to "paint" it tonight and we will put in on the front porch.

Checking out pumpkins
Beau and James picking out pumpkins

Sitting on a pumpkin
Sitting
Sitting....
Still Sitting....
Checking out animals at petting zoo

Playing at the Park

2008-10-17T08:09:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, we stayed in Auburn with Nonna and Papa C (Rodney's parents).

We got to eat dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger with Rodney's friends, Wesley and Crystal on Friday. They are expecting a baby girl anyday now (actually about 4 days ago!). Rodney and his friend Wesley both had long hair when it was "Cool" in the 90's. Here is a picture of Rodney with long hair....too funny!

Saturday morning we went to play at Hickory Dickory Park in Auburn. Beau had a great time playing all over the playground. He really liked checking out what the other kids were doing and trying to be big like them. Here are a few pictures:

(Typical family pictures where Beau is trying to jump out of our arms!)

Elmo

2008-10-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Beau's new favorite toy is an Elmo that we got at Kid's Market for $4. We were going to save it and give it to him later, but when Rodney and I picked him up from Nonna and Papa C's on Saturday, he did not want to go home with us. He cried and screamed when Nonna and Papa put him in the car.....so we gave him the Elmo.

Elmo dances to the tune of YMCA, but it is E L M O instead of Y M C A. Anyway, it is super cute and the first thing Beau plays with in the mornings. This Elmo is not soft and cuddly like a stuffed animal, but Beau must think he is. Yesterday, I caught Beau giving Elmo kisses, trying to share his sippy cup of milk with Elmo and letting Elmo sit in Beau's chair. He even tried to put Elmo in his bed when it was naptime. Too funny!

Hugging Elmo

Giving Elmo a kiss. When Beau kisses anything he says "mmmmmmmmmmmm" and then pushes his face against their face

Giving Elmo some of his sippy cup

Putting Elmo in the chair for a nap

Favorite things

2008-09-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

Beau loves to play outside. He knows when we put shoes on him that we are going outside (either to play or get in the car to go somewhere). Once his shoes are on, he will go towards the door and say "doe" "doe" for the door. Once outside, he typically waits for us to hold his hand so he can go down the porch stairs to the grass. However, he has been known to start going down the stairs without us. Scary! Once he gets safely to the grass, he takes off like a WILD MAN! He runs around the yard and plays with pine cones, sticks, hickory nuts, waves to the neighbor's dogs and says "woof woof" to them too. Here are a few pictures of our outside adventures:

Another favorite thing of Beau's is shoes. My mom taught him how to say "shoes" at the beach in June. He loves to see shoes, put on shoes, bring other people shoes, etc. If we do not have shoes on inside, he will find our shoes and try to put them on our feet for us. He will stare at other peoples shoes and point to them and say "shoes!". This morning I was cleaning out my shoes...making the swap from spring/summer to my fall/winter shoes. Anyway, Beau had such a good time "helping" me take shoes out of my closet and put them into my storage basket.

Beau's other favorite thing is his Daddy. It is amazing. I know Beau loves me a lot and if he can not find me in the house, I can hear him walking around saying "Momma" until he finds me....which is precious. But, all day long, the word I hear more than any other, is Da! Da! Da! (this is what Beau calls Rodney). He says it when he wakes up from a nap, in hopes that Rodney is already home. He says it when we go to lunch, the mall, or anywhere in public. I guess he thinks Rodney is going to meet us wherever we go. When Rodney gets home from work, I tell Beau that Da is home. Beau runs to the side door and waits for Rodney to come up the stairs to see him. Then, the playtime starts! I think this is what Beau looks most forward to everyday. It is too sweet!

Stitches are Out!!

2008-09-24T08:58:00.001-07:00

Thank Goodness!! This morning we went to Children's South to get Beau's stitches out. The Doctor told us that the biopsy from his surgery came back normal. She told us before surgery that they would biopsy it to make sure it was not cancerous. We were sooooooo thankful for the good news today that it was not cancer. Beau had a GREAT time playing at Children's. They had the best waiting room with a playground, play kitchen and play dollhouse. He ran from one spot to another and wore his Daddy out! The nurses came in to take out the stitches. They faced Beau towards the TV and told him to watch the TV. We had to break the news to them that our son will not watch TV.....he is too busy! So, I pulled out some raisins from his diaper bag and he sat on the bed and happily ate the raisins while they pulled his stitches out. They said he did great and they wished all kids were as well behaved as him. I told them the trick is to bring food....it works everytime! :o)

The first hair washing in 16 days!!!!!!

Storyville Station

2008-09-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Beau went to a birthday party today where the theme was "Princesses and Knights." The party was for Ms. Jordan, who turned 3. I worked with Jordan's mom for 4 years. Our classrooms were next door to each other. Jordan's mom will always be one of my dear friends.

The birthday girl and her parents

We arrived at the party at Storyville Station and Rodney got to help Beau pick out his own knight costume. Beau was not crazy about the armor part of the costume, but he wore the cape the whole time! However, Beau did keep running over to the side of the room with the princess dresses, tiara, and boas. He pulled out this boa that he wore for a few minutes before tossing it to the floor.

Next, Beau got to get a tattoo. Hopefully, this will not be a new trend! He chose a yellow smiley face tattoo for the princess to put on his hand.

Then, we got to go downstairs (we chose not to ride the magical slide down to the basement due to Beau's stitches and Mom being a little scared of it) for dance time! Beau was not so great at the choreographed dances...chicken dance, hokey pokey, etc. He decided to run circles around the other kids during the dances and do what Rodney and I call the "Beau shuffle"(a running in place move) and the "Booty Bop" (where he bobs up and down while sticking his but out). Then, they brought out the bubble machine. This was a huge hit with all the kids!

Then, it was back upstairs for pizza and cupcakes. Beau did not eat the pizza but he ate part of a cupcake while we watched a slide show of the birthday party that the workers had taken. Then, it was time to go. Beau got a goody bag and a mug with his name on it, a picture he drew (really was just scribbles), and a group shot of all the kids at the party. The princesses also were giving out balloons. Beau let 1 or 2 go into the air before we realized he was doing it on purpose. He loved seeing those balloons go bye-bye! It was such a fun birthday party!!

Checking out the princesses

Bath time....kind of!

2008-09-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Beau has been not able to get his hair wet due to his surgery that was Tuesday. The Doctor told us we could bathe him in a little water, but he could not splash....So, we gave him a sponge bath Tuesday, no bath on Wednesday (because I was doing the nursery and was not home). By Thursday, Beau was a little smelly! I asked my Mom for advice and she brought over a shower cap to protect his head during a bath. On a side note, my Mom always trys to buy Beau "girly" items. Girly outfits, shoes, etc. She says it is because she never had to buy clothes for a boy, so sometimes she forgets! Anyway, the shower cap she bought him is PINK! Too funny!!

I am not sure if Beau felt better after his "bath", but I sure felt better! He smells clean , except for the medicine smell from the ointment on his head. Oh well...we are just super excited that he was still in the tub and did not splash!

So excited to get in the tub...He is running towards it!

Fridge DJ

2008-09-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is Beau's new favorite toy! Beau saw that James had one, and loved it, so Rodney and I ordered one for him. When Beau wakes up in the morning and we are fixing his breakfast, he goes straight to it and plays the songs. He likes to listen to the songs all day....even during meal time. Here a few pictures of him at snack time eating and listening to some tunes....

Wanting Mom to turn on Fridge DJ

Dancing to the music

The Big Day

2008-09-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Beau had surgery on Tuesday to remove a "nevus sebaceous" on his head. He was born with it. It basically looked like a birthmark on the back of his head. Our pediatrician told us that no hair would ever grown on that spot, and when he is older there is a high risk of skin cancer if we decided to leave it on his scalp. So, we knew one day we would get it surgically removed. That day finally came this week. Rodney and I were both pretending not to be nervous in front of each other, but after the surgery, we both confessed how nervous we were, even though we knew Beau needed the surgery and that the Lord would protect him.

We got up at 4:45 am Tuesday morning and were at Children's South by 5:30. We checked in and the nurses got Beau's temp, bloodpressure, etc. He was loving all the attention and the new place! We went to his hospital room that had an orange football with his name on the door. We went in and teams of different doctors and nurses explained to us what the procedures would be for his surgery. Then, Beau got to play. He played with almost every toy in that place! We went back to his room a little before 7 am because we knew that it was getting close to time for the surgery to start. The nurse came in and said it was time to walk Beau to the door so they could sedate him before surgery. We prayed for him and then watched the nurse walk him away from us. Beau was happy as could be and never looked back at Mom and Dad. About an hour later, the Doctor came in and said Beau did fine during the surgery and was in recovery. Then, she told us the worst news of the day, that I could not was his hair for 14 days!! Not to mention that we are putting sticky ointment on his stitches on his scalp 5 times a day. I will be so glad to scrub his hair when we get the stitches out!!

The rest of the day was okay. Beau was a little groggy all day, and slept off and on. Rodney and I were really nervous that day. It was almost like the first day that we brought him home from the hospital when he was born. We watched him like a hawk because we did not want him to fall and hit his head where his stitches were. He slept great through the night that night and has been doing great ever since! We go back to get the stitches taken out on Sept 24th!! Then, Beau will get the best bath ever!

War Eagle Time

2008-09-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we went to Aunt Patti and Uncle Tom's to watch Auburn's first game on Pay Per View. The game was a little slow, so we played a lot! Beau had so much fun with Uncle Tom playing Trotty Horse! I think he could have played it all night long.

This is a typical picture for us...I tell Beau, who is standing across the room, to look at me and he looks up and sees the camera and runs toward me...

Playing with his cousins toys

His new favorite place to sit...his toy box

Trotty horse with Uncle Tom

What a Big Boy!!

2008-08-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

Eating off a big boy plate....how did he get so big? I remember this time last year he could not even hold his head up because he was only 12 weeks old. The time flies!!!

The Past Week

2008-08-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the past week Beau and I have spent a lot of time together at the house. We have taken lots of walks and even a few car rides. I do not like being cooped up in the house all the time, so normally we have play dates with friends, but this week I realized that Beau had hand, foot, and mouth disease. It actually sounds worse that it really is. The little man had blisters on his hands, feet, and in and around his mouth. I noticed on Monday that he was not eating well, which is odd for him. We ate lunch with Rodney at Zoe's and Beau fed almost all his food to the pigeons. I thought he was just being silly. The pigeons then all swarmed to our table. They were everywhere! Anyway, on Wednesday, Beau's rash showed up and then it made sense why he had not been eating. The nurse said to give him ice cream, juice, popsicles, etc. So, Beau has been enjoying a popsicle at almost every meal since Wednesday. His rash is clearing up and today he actually ate a little turkey, so I am hoping he is on the way to recovery! Hopefully next week we will be able to visit our friends who had babies last week!

Eating a popsicle for breakfast! The oatmeal he normally eats hurt his mouth when he was sick
When I was cleaning Beau's room trying to get rid of the sick germs, I looked up and saw Beau climbing in his closet.