In our smallish town, Walmart has become what old country stores used to be. Walmart is our local grocery and is close to our house, so we are there a lot. We are familiar with most of the cashiers, and they usually recognize us. At Cracker Barrel the other day I saw a lady that looked so familiar, but I couldn't place her. Jay took one look and identified her as the express lane checker at Walmart. I guess she looked a little different without her blue apron on! Yesterday at Walmart the checkout lady asked how old Brian was. After reading my name off the receipt she said she remembered checking me out sometime while I was still pregnant. There are several cashiers that I enjoy having. I even still like to go to the sweet foreign lady's line, even if she has forgotten to give me my last few bags of groceries on two different occasions. Both times they were waiting for me at the customer service desk when I went back later in the day. Jay and James even get their hair cut at Walmart, and the ladies there remember James as the talkative one. I almost always see at least one person I know in there. There are also lots of people I don't know, but are very friendly and helpful. As I was putting Brian in the car after shopping yesterday, a man saw me and asked if he could put my cart up for me! New York was fun to visit, but it can't compete with small-town living. Besides, there are no Walmarts or Cracker Barrels there!

In other news, the kids have said some funny stuff lately:

The other day we drove by a gated neighborhood and it reminded me of the Veggietales silly song "Gated Community". We were trying to recall which Veggietales movie the song was featured on. After deciding it was Sheerluck Holmes, James said this about it: "It's old school. Well, it's old Sunday school!"

As we walked into the garage the other day, Eliza looked sadly at her bike, which has been sitting unused all winter. She said to me, "Do you know how much I love riding my bike?" "How much?" I asked. "As much as I love God." Oh, my!

Brian is doing well. He is the sweetest thing…it's hard to believe he'll grow up to be a mean kid, but it happened to both of my other sweet babies! Okay, so they're not that bad, but sometimes I do wonder what happened to my little sweeties. If Brian could just get over this cough he has, it would be great! He slept 7 hours last night! I'm glad because I needed it.

Brian's 2-month portrait (I took this really quickly with light from a window)

This weekend the weather was beautiful! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to enjoy it because I started feeling very ill Thursday night, with fever and chills and achy all over. I also had some pain when I nursed Brian on one side, which led me to the conclusion that I had mastitis. I managed to feel okay Friday by taking ibuprofen every 4 hours, but I was concerned I might need antibiotics. I decided to wait until Monday to talk to a doctor, but by Saturday I was already feeling much better, and was almost back to normal on Sunday. I'm glad my body was able to take care of it so quickly!

Sunday we were able to get out and enjoy the warm weather after church. We went to a field near my parents' house and played soccer, softball, and Frisbee with my siblings. I took some pictures that I will hopefully post soon! Poor Jay and my sister Adrienne's husband Jon had to work on our toilet. That has been a fiasco! But it is working for the moment and I am glad. We still have boxes decorating the living room until we can find time to put together the kids' new storage furniture. Someday!

Life is a whirlwind right now! Last weekend the kids and I went to Memphis for my Grandaddy's 80th birthday party. (Jay had to do some work over the weekend, so he didn't get to come…we missed him!) Bridget and Benjamin rode with me, though, so I had some help and good company. :) Grandaddy's party had a bowling theme, and it was really neat! I had fun, despite having a bad headache, a fussy baby, two wild older kids, and no husband around! It was mostly family, so I had plenty of help. I was pretty tired afterward, though.

Brian continues to grow and change. He is 2 months old now! (Since he was born December 31st, I guess we have to use the last day of each month as his monthly birthday, since many months don't have a 31st. It's kind of odd, but it will do.) He weighs around 11 and a half pounds (or at least that's what the Wii Fit says), and he is getting a lot better at holding his head steady and using his hands. He is a smiley baby! I love to see his face light up when I talk to him. He is truly a blessing!

Unfortunately, Brian and Jay both caught the cold that's been passed around in my family for the last few weeks. Brian was very congested at the beginning of the week, but he now only has a little cough every now and then. It has been hard on me trying to take care of a sick baby, and get the older kids to school, and do all the housework…in fact, I am way behind! But things are looking better now, and I will survive. :)

James participated in a mini dance clinic held at his school Monday night, and then he got to perform his dance Saturday night with all the other kids as well as the dance teams from the Bryant High School and middle schools. He was one of two boys in a sea of girls, and he had a great time! It was really quite a performance, and he did pretty well for only having practiced it once. Here it is:

And last but not least, here are some recent pictures of Brian:

Everyone seems to be happier on a relatively warm, sunny day, and spending some time outside makes it even better! While enjoying the beautiful weather today, I was inspired to write this:

"Ode to a Playground"

Oh, how we love your lack of walls,
your abundance of acceptable climbing opportunities,
and your ability to turn destructive capabilities into unrestrained playfulness.
You have been missed.

Beautiful, isn't it? Thanks for letting me share my sad attempts at poetry. :)  

This is a rather random post…sorry!

I am having trouble finding time for my blogging, which makes me sad. Not that I really have much interesting to say, but I enjoy writing about what's going on in our life! We have pretty much gotten back into a routine after our crazy snow last week. Brian has changed so much in the last couple of weeks that I wouldn't recognize him if I didn't see him every day! He is a happy baby, smiling and cooing at just about everyone he sees. He still gets fussy with his tummy sometimes, but even that seems to be better. I am getting further behind on housework…there is laundry piling up on the couch, dishes stacking up in the sink, and we still have yet to put away our Christmas tree (I'm just being honest here; yes, it's a little embarrassing!) And now we have 9 large boxes taking up a chunk of the living room that contain the pieces to a very nice (read: expensive) storage wall system for James and Eliza's room. We are generally rather frugal people, but we really needed something better in their room to store their stuff. I will write more about it when we get it all set up, whenever that may be!

My mom reminded me yesterday of an excerpt from a poem she had heard once. We looked up the poem and it was so fitting that I want to share it here:

Song for a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

We have quite a winter wonderland out there right now! It snowed several inches yesterday before turning to rain, and everything is still covered with white stuff on this sunny morning. Our power was out yesterday for about an hour and a half, which was scary, but other than that we are enjoying the unexpected break from work and school. (Well, it's not really a break for me; actually, it's more work! But I still enjoy having everyone home.) Jay had to run to the grocery store to pick up some essentials…we were totally unprepared! I think the snow took everyone by surprise (even the weathermen.) Jay got a few pictures of the house and the kids in the snow:

I can't believe it's already February. Brian is a month old as of yesterday, and what a month! He is changing so fast, as babies do. He is still pretty laid back, but he has been having some tummy issues that make him fussy sometimes. He spits up a lot more than my other two did (but that's not saying much since they almost never spit up!) He started smiling at me before he was 3 weeks old, and is smiling more frequently now, as well as making those cute little baby noises. He weighs over 9 pounds, and is still a great eater! He has forgotten how to sleep for more than 3 hours at night, but I think he is growing so fast he is just getting hungry. He continues to study the world with wide eyes, just like he did right after he was born! James and Eliza, who had been kind of uninterested in Brian for the first few weeks, are starting to pay more attention to him as he can interact with them more. Brian is just a part of the family! Here are a few pictures of him recently:

First trip to the park, 2 weeks old

Baby laundry

Visiting in Memphis

Brian's first bath, 3 weeks old

One month old!

And here is our newest family portrait:

We are so blessed!

Well, Brian survived his first road trip! We went to Memphis this weekend to show off our baby to my extended family, and also took a day-trip from there to Jackson, TN, to see Jay's sister and her family. Brian did great, sleeping the whole time we were in the car. It was fun watching my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents play "pass-the-baby", each wanting to get a turn to hold him. He was barely put down all weekend!

We have been busy! Besides our road trip this weekend, we have been to the park, the dentist (for me, not Brian!), and the kids' schools. James got two reading awards last Friday, so I went to the awards ceremony. He was very proud of his trophies! I took Brian into Eliza's school when I picked her up one day so that her class could see him. They were so excited!

Jay is back at work this week, so I have been picking the kids up from school. I haven't quite gotten the hang of getting ready to go somewhere with a baby again, so I have been a little late each time so far. I think I am getting better, though! Someday I will be on time!

We are looking forward to having Jay's mom visit this weekend! Uh, oh, Brian is crying, gotta go! Some pictures of our recent adventures can be found on my flickr.

Sorry, but my life revolves around baby right now! Brian is doing great, and he is a great eater, which means I have little time for anything else! He is already nearly back up to his birth weight. He is a pretty good sleeper, letting me get some much-needed rest. He is not a consistent night-sleeper, but he has been having a long sleep period about every other night, which is probably better than my other 2 were doing at this age! I love all his little faces, and getting him dressed in his cute little clothes.

We have already been able to a little bit of visiting this week. It was good to get out of the house for a while! Wednesday night my mom took the kids to AWANA at church, so Jay and I took Brian to go pick them up afterward. We had quite a crowd of admirers, all wanting to take a peek at the 6-day-old baby! Several of the kids there had never seen a baby that small before. Saturday we were able to go visit Jay's Mimi, who lives in a nursing home. She kept asking if Brian was premature…I guess she has forgotten how small babies are when they are newborn! She really enjoyed getting to hold him.

God has blessed us with a beautiful, precious baby. This picture that Jay took the other day really captures Brian's sweet little self:

We have pictures of each of our kids coming home from the hospital in the car seat:

Brian got to have a new car seat because our old one "expired" in December. There is actually a date on the seat that says "Do not use after…" Plastic gets brittle over time, so it makes sense that it wouldn't last forever!

We are having so much fun with our new baby! He has been really laid back so far, only crying if he's really hungry or when I change his diaper. He has even been sleeping for about 3 1/2 hours at night, then waking up once to nurse and going back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. We are so blessed!

When James was born, we couldn't believe how smoothly his birth went. I was induced on my due date, so we showed up at 6:00 that morning, and had a baby by 1:00 that afternoon. Eliza was not much different, except that I went into labor on my own. We showed up at the hospital around 5:00 PM, and had a baby 2 hours later. We hoped this birth experience would be similar, and we weren't disappointed!

I was supposed to have a doctor appointment Wednesday, December 30, but when we got there we were told that my doctor had to do an emergency surgery, so we would have to reschedule for the next day. I was a little disappointed, because I had been having lots of contractions and I wanted to see if any progress had been made. But we went home and waited to see the doctor Thursday morning. They took my blood pressure soon after we arrived and it was pretty high, but they weren't overly concerned; they would just check it again before I left. We saw the doctor, who confirmed that I had made some progress. We talked about scheduling an induction for the next week in case I had not gone into labor by then. I mentioned my blood pressure and how I had been induced with my first baby because of it, and the doctor left to look at the schedule. It was New Year's Eve, so things were a little different than normal, I think. He came back and said, "Let's go ahead and induce you this afternoon." Okay! My doctor would not be able to attend the delivery, but I was okay with that. I got his wife's doctor instead!

We went straight to the hospital and arrived there around noon. (We had packed just in case, and the kids were already at my parents' house for the doctor appointment.) The doctor broke my water, and they started Pitocin to get the contractions going. I managed to handle the pain until about 3:30 or so, when I asked for an epidural. It was wonderful! After that, I almost went to sleep. They didn't check my progress again until sometime after 5:00PM, and the nurse said, "You are ready to have a baby!" They got the doctor in pretty quickly, and after 3 rounds of pushing, Brian was born at 5:54! Nearly my whole family was in the waiting room, and they got to come in and meet him right after he was born. It was great!

After the delivery, my blood pressure remained high for a while. It went down a little during the night, but was back up again the next day, so they told me to stay lying down on my left side. That was very frustrating! I wanted to be up and about, because I felt pretty good, but I had to stay in the bed as much as possible. It finally started staying at a fairly normal level (still high, but not as bad), so they were not concerned enough to keep me there longer than planned, and we went home Saturday morning. I guess it was a good thing we went ahead and had the baby…it could have turned into something really bad if we had waited!

We are having a great time at home with our newly expanded family! The kids have been out of school, so they have had the chance to get to know their new brother. They start back tomorrow, but Jay will be home for another week and a half, so that will help. It has been a great start to a New Year! I hope you are having a blessed New Year as well!