I wanna hold 'im!

Noah loves Eli so much! He wants to hold him all the time! I have a blast watching them play together.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Baby Toys!

It seems that the baby toys are a lot more interesting now that Noah's too big for them! He sat in the Bumbo seat to watch tv today.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Say, "Mamaw Papaw Camper"

Last week we stayed with my parents, and Noah got to spend the night in their camper with them. He loved it and continues to talk about it daily! I caught him trying to get Eli to talk about it too...

My Lil' Punkin

We went to the Scarecrow Festival this past weekend. It was a lot of fun! They had a free train ride, games, and food. We got some pumpkins for the boys and I got a pot of Mums. I love the fall!!!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

First Smiles...

are so sweet!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Testing out my new phone

I'm supposed to be able to post to my blog from my phone...lets see if it works.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

A Rare Moment of Quiet...

Noah just got his pacifiers and blankets and came in the living room and fell asleep on the couch! He must have been worn out from going to bed late and getting up at 6 a.m.! I'm using this rare opportunity to do some blogging. My last post was a story I'd been meaning to share for, uh, the past 2 years! This story is a little more recent...

I was sitting next to Taylan on the couch at their house. He was looking at my pregnant belly (pregnant with Eli), and started asking me questions.

Taylan: What kind of baby are you going to lay this time?

Amber: (Holding in my laughter.) Another boy.

Finally Got Around To It...

I’ve been meaning to get this story written down for a long time…

Jeff and I were visiting Tara and Jason for Thanksgiving in November of 2007. I was pregnant with Noah at the time. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Cheerios. The Hayes' boys were sitting around the table eating breakfast with me. Taylan was sitting next to me intently watching me eat.

Taylan: Does your baby eat your food?

Amber: Yes.

Taylan: Let me see…

Amber: Well, you can’t see it, because the baby’s in my belly.

Taylan: Does Uncle Jeff have a baby in his belly?

Tayman: (Standing to his feet and placing his hands on his hips.)
No! Boys don’t lay no babies!!!

Elijah William Brown

On August 2, 2010, we welcomed baby boy #2 into the world! Elijah "Eli" William Brown was born at 3:46 p.m., was 20 3/4 inches, and weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz.

We've been home a week and a half and eveyone is settling in. Noah loves his new brother and showers him with hugs and kisses!

Baby Boy #2 Update

We went to the Dr. today, one day past Baby #2's due date. She checked everything out and said that the baby's heart rate is great, that I'm almost 3 cm dialated, and that she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor this weekend! However, if I don't, we're scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, August 4th. We're so excited and ready to meet our new little one! So the waiting continues...

40 weeks

Noah's 2nd Birthday!!!

I'll just go ahead and say it, I can't believe he's 2!!! We celebrated Noah's 2nd birthday by having a pool party at Uncle Jason and Aunt Tara's house. Both sets of grandparents, Aunt Renee, Uncle Jason, Aunt Tara, and our friends Mark & Glistina, David & Shiloh were able to make it, along with Noah's buddies--"T-T's" (any one of Tara's boys), "Ika" (Isaac), Ryan, Ayden, and Kodah. Yep, all little boys! It was sooooo much fun!! We could hardly get the kids out of the pool to eat or do anything else. We're so thankful to Uncle Jason and Aunt Tara for sharing their home with us! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Noah!

Kicked back, letting Daddy feed him the Elmo cupcake.

He had lots of help opening presents!

Goin' to "T-T's"

Jason and Tara live less than 2 miles down the road from us, so we get to go visit a lot! Noah is very fond of all his cousins and loves to go play with them. Since all their names start with a "T", he's started collectively calling them "T-T". The boys fight over which one of them is actually THE T-T...which is pretty funny to listen to them argue about! I took this video so I could show Jason, Tara, and the boys how excited Noah gets when he knows we are going to their house...

Baby #2

Here's what my nesting has accomplished in Baby #2's nursery...

Can't wait for the little guy to get here! We're so excited to meet him!

Father's Day Weekend

We traveled up to Daleville this past weekend for Father's Day. It was also the weekend of our 5th wedding anniversary! It hardly seems possible that it's been 5 years! We stayed with Jeff's parents, and it was neat to be able to be right across the street from the church where we had our reception. We spent the weekend hanging out with family and just relaxing. Noah especially enjoyed the tractor ride with Grandpa Don!

Home Improvements

While I've been nesting inside the house, Jeff's been working on a few projects outside the house. The first major project was to replace our privacy fence. Our neighbor, Clyde, helped out quite a bit to get us started. It looks fantastic!! I was so proud of how hard Jeff worked to get it finished!!!

Before...

After...

Before...After...Thanks to Clyde for building us the bird house! After...
The second project was to build a storage shed. In Progress...

The Finished Product! Oh, and now we can park BOTH cars in the garage!!!!

Toddler Bed Training is Tough!

Yeah, the first week was really difficult! It took a few nights for Noah to get used to his new sleeping arrangements. He would wake up a couple times a night and cry for us...so hard on everyone! One of the first nights, he woke up around 4:00 a.m., and was playing with some toys that were in his room. He played for about 20 min., and then went back to bed. I took this picture of him around 7:00 a.m. that same morning...

Looks like he barely made it back into the bed before crashing! :)

Down at Hobart & Faye's

This weekend we made our annual trip down to visit with Hobart & Faye. Noah had a blast playing on their front porch. He kept going over to the edge of the porch, picking up one rock at a time, and delivering it to Aunt Luc. He probably made the trip over 20 times!!

Big Boy Bed Adventures

Well, it's time. Time to transition Noah to his toddler bed! I can't believe he's big enough for this new change, or that baby boy #2 will be here in 10 weeks! So anyway, we got Noah a toddler bed and his first night to sleep in it is tonight...we'll see how it goes!

Checking out the new bed...

Hey, I think I like this!

Ready for ni-night...

Reagan!! (Tim and Hannah, too)

My cousin, Tim, coaches a soccer team in Indiana. His team was going to be in a tournament here in Lexington, KY, and I jumped at the chance to see him and his family. Especially since I've never seen little Reagan in person, and she's 3 months old! So we worked it out for Hannah and Reagan to come stay with us, while they were in town for the tournament. It was so much fun! Noah really enjoyed having a baby here (good practice), and loved on her every chance he got!

We met them at the soccer field on Saturday evening to watch a game. They were also doing some sort of herding dog show there too, so there were hundreds of sheep in the field across from us. Jeff took Noah over to see the sheep and he made "baaa-baaa" sounds at them. (Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this.)

Noah meeting Reagan for the first time--be gentle, buddy!

Oh, she's pretty!

I'm gonna give her a hug!

After the game we went out to eat together, then Tim had to go back to the hotel to chaperone, so Hannah and Reagan came to Winchester to spend the night with us. Reagan was a champion sleeper and did great in an unfamiliar bed! Sunday morning we lounged around the house and the kiddos played together...

Cuddle Time

More Hugs!

We were so glad they we able to come down for a visit! It was great to have a baby GIRL around...she's the only one out of 15 great-grandchildren!

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

Since we had all 6 of the grandsons together over Easter weekend...we got them all coordinated and did a photo shoot with of hopes of getting some good ones to give to Mamaw for Mother's Day. Here are my favorites...

We had this last picture put on a T-shirt for Mamaw to wear. If you see her, ask her how her first time wearing the shirt went...LOL!!!

Mother's Day Weekend--Breathe Retreat

I think that Tammy, Tara, Kim, and I got the BEST Mother's Day gift ever!! Our hubbies sent us on a two night women's retreat with our church. It was fabulous! We had so much fun--the ride up, the time away, wonderful speakers, memorable small group time, etc.

Getting ready to leave for retreat--so excited!!

The first evening session.

At another session...not much sleep the night before...but oh, so much fun!

I was so grateful to Jeff for making it possible for me to go on retreat...he did such a great job with Noah! It was also super nice to hear how much I was missed! ;)

The Cloffice

In our attempts to make room for Baby #2, we've had to do some consolidating of spaces. We have a nice sized walk-in closet in our master bedroom, and decided to turn it into a "cloffice"--half closet, half office. For me, it was really a dream come true! Though I don't always achieve such order, I LOVE to have every inch of space utilized and organized. Here's how it turned out....



It was so exciting for me to have this done! Now we can work on making our old office space into a bedroom for one of the boys! I think I may be nesting...:)

Our Babymoon

Jeff and I went on a "babymoon" at the start of this week. It was a chance for us to have a getaway before #2 comes, and for us to celebrate our upcoming 5 year anniversary! (Have we really been married 5 years?!?!) This was our first overnight trip away from Noah, in almost a year, and we were so excited to have the opportunity to go! Mamaw was finishing up at the the Georgetown Kite Festival, and we dropped Noah off there on our way to Newport, KY.

On our way to Newport, we stopped and ate dinner at Cracker Barrel. We didn't get to our hotel until after 9 p.m., and thought about heading to bed...but then we reminded each other that we were baby-free and we should really take advantage of the restaurants within walking distance of our hotel! So we took off down the river walk a little ways, and ended up at Don Pablo's. It was pretty chilly that evening, but we chose to sit on the outside deck to enjoy the lights glistening off the river, riverboats passing by, and night sky. It was beautiful! Things were made even more perfect by the fire that they had going on the deck.

Here we are at Don Pablo's...I really wish I would've gotten a pic of us by the fire!

The next day we went on a riverboat cruise, and walked around the Newport on the Levee shopping area. We had ice cream, played at the arcade, and even got a couples massage! (Well, it was actually just those chairs you sit in, pay a dollar, and the rollers massage you for like 3 minutes...but we counted it as a couples massage.) :)

That evening, we had dinner reservations at The Chart House which was directly across the street from our hotel. We had a wonderful, quiet dinner with a riverfront view...so romantic!!

Tuesday morning, we checked out after breakfast and took off for Winchester a little early. It was the twins' birthday, and Mamaw and Papaw had taken Noah up to the school to eat lunch with the boys. Jeff and I were both anxious to see Noah, so we hurried down to the cafeteria to see everyone....

And this is the part that I want to have etched in my memory forever...we came through the door of the cafeteria and saw Noah sitting on the table in Mamaw's arms. He saw us and started to do a little "happy dance" in her arms. As soon as we were close enough, he reached up for me to hold him. I scooped him up, gave him a big hug, and he touched my nose and said, "Mama!" Then he leaned over to Jeff, touched his nose and said, "Dada!" It was sooooo sweet!

It sure was nice to have the time away, together, just me and Jeff...I think that time of refreshing is so important for couples...and it made coming home, to be reunited with Noah, that much sweeter!