Family Time

My very talented friend Haley came and took family pictures this past weekend since my little brother was home from Iraq. She put a sneak peek on facebook and here are two of my favorites!!



It has been a very long time since we've had any type of professional photos taken and since Chris was in town I really wanted to get pictures of all of us. This one turned out great even though my poor brothers struggle terribly with smiling... they are so awkward when they take photos! Ha! This one turned out better than usual though.

Here were two I took while we were getting ready:

Nana and Caroline

Ava Grace telling me she found dog poo.... good job!

Little brother update: coming home from Iraq

My little brother has been in Iraq since May and before that was in Texas, so he has yet to meet his new niece and nephew.


We are SO thrilled he will be coming home this coming week if all goes as expected!!

Unfortunately though, we found out last week he had been in the hospital with an appendicitis. His wife hadn't heard from him for several days and was getting very worried. Finally someone called after he'd been in the hospital for 3 days and told her where he was and what he was in for, but it turns out they can't do appendectomies in Iraq.... so my poor little brother has a rotten appendix in Iraq where it is 120+ degrees and is still working (going on missions and keeping things safe). How miserable does that sound?

Please pray for his strength to get through this and that he will be able to come home this weekend. He will only have 10 days off before he has to report back to Iraq and in that time has to have his appendix removed. Y-U-C-K. We are excited to see him though and for him to meet his new family members!

Hi ho hi ho, its off to work we go

I've been back at work now for 6 days. I started on September 1st, so I only worked two days last week and had a 3 day weekend, then a 4 day week this week. This coming week will be my first full 5-day week back.

It has gone better than I expected. I let myself be very anxious about how I would get everything done during the day and find time to pump and function when I may not get a great night's sleep. Actively listening to people all day long takes a lot of energy... you'd be surprised... One thing I learned last year is that I cannot be the best counselor if I am so tired I can't stay focused on what a student is talking about and truly listen while also paying attention to things that they are not saying, like body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, etc.



I only had one day this week that I didn't get to pump in the afternoon. I am trying to do so twice a day and also on my way to work so that there is only 3-4 hours in between. After missing the afternoon time this week I decided I will just have to schedule myself appointments to do so because otherwise, there is always something that comes up, middle schoolers have a lot of 'crises'!

Ready for school! It was 50-something degrees outside.

N has done well at day care. He is staying at a lady in our neighborhood's home. She keeps 6 kids and she has 3 new babies, whereas she used to have 3 four-year-olds who went off to kindergarten. So she has an 18-month old, 14 month-old, 10 month-old, two 7 month-old twins and a 2 month old. I know that is a big difference and will be a big adjustment for her, hopefully things will go okay for N even though he is the smallest and not always the squeakiest wheel.

We also had his 2 month doctor appointment 2 weeks ago. He was 50th percentile for everything, doctor said he is the 'average white boy', ha! He was 10lbs 2 ounces and 23.5 inches long.

We haven't had too many more milestones this past month except he smiles all the time. Mostly sleeps from 7 or 8 until 1 and then wakes up with me at 5. The funniest part is on the nights when its Ben's duty, N always sleeps through the night!! I don't get it! Last night since it was Friday and I REALLY needed to catch up on sleep, Ben was going to bottle-feed him so I could only wake up to pump when I needed to. Well sweet little baby slept from 9 until 6 this morning! Which is amazing, but I'm going to need him to do this on MY nights!


Here is the best 2 month picture we took:

Taking pictures after day care and work and when a baby is very sleepy does NOT work.

Out to eat at Chuy's on Labor Day

War Eagle!!!

We are having a wonderful Saturday: getting to sleep in and pulling for our tigers to beat Mississippi State! Love it!