So what was I doing one year ago from right now? Oh yes, I remember...sitting in a hospital bed holding my newborn baby...A YEAR AGO?? What? Jenna is a year old today. How can that be? I looked in the back seat of the car and saw a little girl facing forward, smiling, dancing, and then saying a slurred version of "Dora." Seriously? Time went by so fast! Party time tomorrow!!!
And here she is a couple weeks ago.
Matt and I both had tubes. Actually, I had them twice. We knew we would probably pass that down to Jenna. When she was 6 months old she got her first ear infection. For the next 5 months she had 7 ear infections. We saw Dr. Betts a lot more than we wanted to. Poor thing. Finally I asked if we were anywhere close to getting tubes. Of course he referred us to Cleveland Head and Neck. The doctor there told us she would have to have tubes just by talking to us. We scheduled it two weeks from then, which was yesterday. I didn't start getting nervous until the day before. I wasn't worried that something would go wrong, it was just stressful and I knew she would hate it. She hates nurses and doctors. I don't blame her. She has been to the doctor a lot and was in the hospital for 2 nights when she was 8 months old. She does, however, like Dr. Betts. For that I am thankful. So Thursday morning we had to be at the Surgery Center at 6:45 am. Jenna is a very late sleeper so not only was that early for us, it was for her too. We got there, filled out paperwork, talked to the doctors and they took her from us. I hated that part! She cried as we left. From the time we sat down in the waiting room until the time they came to get us to see her was only 20 minutes! When we got back there she was crying but they say that is normal. One ear was draining a lot. It had a lot of build up but other than that everything went perfectly. We took her home and she slept for 3 hours! When she got up, it was like nothing ever happened. She has been a perfect angel since then. I am so happy that is over! And so thankful her ears will be feeling much better.
Right after her LONG nap. Matt's grandparents live in Rainsville, AL which is only an hour and a half from Cleveland. We went down there Saturday to stay one night with them. The four of us loaded up SaturdayWe around noon and took off for Sand Mountain. The kids thankfully slept the whole way down. We got there and let the kids play while we unloaded the car and talked to his 
grandparents. Their house has a big living room and Jenna loved it! There was so much room for her to crawl around. She went everywhere and loved every minute of it. Ashton discovered the tredmill in the guest room and acted like a monkey and laughed at himself over and over again. Granny and Papaw have toys at their house from when all their grandkids were little. It is amazing to me how much kids love "new" toys! The toys were old but because my kids had never seen them before it was like Christmas! They would hardly look at the toys I brought from home.
For dinner, we drove about 30 minutes to the Catfish Cabin. It was wonderful! They serve unlimited hushpuppies and slaw. I ordered clam strips and a sweet potato. We also ordered fried pickles..my favorite!! They had the best sweet tea there! I drank way too much and paid for it later. (I am very sensitive to caffeine and was up for a while!)
When we got back to the house we all played outside. It was such a nice evening. It didn't feel like August weather and we were so thankful for that. I had lots of energy, thanks to the sweet tea. So Matt and I played lots of games while the kids ran(and little Jenna crawled) around the big yard and played. We brought Ashton's tunnel which
was a huge hit!
Then it was inside for bathtime. Jenna had a blast! She isn't used to taking a bath with anyone else. She has her own small tub at home but that night we put them in the bi
g bath together and she thought it was the coolest thing. She kept splashing and laughing and sliding around. Ashton loved filling his cup with water and dumping it...sometimes on Jenna...she didn't like that at all. They played until they turned into raisins. After that, time for bed. It is so hard taking kids out of town. It took Jenna forever to go to sleep. She is so used to her bed and that pack n play just doesn't cut it for her. But eventually she gave up and went to sleep.
Both kids woke up early and were ready to go full speed. Matt got up with them and let me sleep a little longer! Thanks pal! We played at the house all day long. Granny fixed a delicious lunch. We all enjoyed it. Sweet Jenna fell asleep at the table after stuffing her face with mac and cheese. Ashton had food everywhere..including mashed potatoes in his hair!
After lunch was nap time. Even for me. While
Ashton and I were still sleeping, Jenna, Matt, Granny and Papaw cut a watermelon and ate almost the whole thing!
We starting cleaning up and packing around 5:00 so we could get home in time to make a quick(yea right!) trip to Wal-Mart. It was a great mini vacation. Matt loves going down there to get away..even if it is just for one night.
The office went out to eat last night so Cole and Ashley dropped little Jeremiah off at our house. He slept the entire time! We didn't even move the carseat from where Cole left it. The little man wiggled around once and spit up and that was all the action we got out of him. However Jenna loved him being there. In fact, while he was snoozing in our living room, Jenna crawled for the first time! We have been waiting for that moment! I thought she would never crawl. She is almost a year old for crying out loud but she finally did it. She would chase the ball all around the living room and then go after Matt's phone every time he left it on the floor. It took her a while to remember there was a baby at our house after we came back downstairs from her bath. But when she saw him she kept trying to kiss his toes. How cute! It was a day worth remembering for Jen...she began crawling and she got her third tooth! Thanks to Jeremiah for the good luck and watch out everyone. Jenna is mobile!
Here is Jenna giving the baby love.
And here is Jen crawling to get the ball. I got our wedding pictures back last night. I could hardly wait to get to mom's to get on her computer. It took hours to look at them all. Not only because there are lots of them, but because my mom's computer is very slow. Jenna was more than ready to go home by the end of the 5th CD of pictures. I absolutely love them all. I couldn't ask for anything better. Picking the photographer was by far one of the best decisions of my big day. Of course I can't post them all but I thought I would put a few of my favorites on here.
If you know my mom at all, you know that her favorite thing in this world is her car! She kept Jenna one evening and took her for a ride in her little car. She said that Jenna kept looking over at her and smiling really big. Mom was happy...she had her favorite girl in her favorite car!
Matt and I are keeping my parent's dog while they are at the Church of God General Assembly. We love her. Mom and Dad used to joke about me taking her with me when Matt and I got married. I feel so sorry for her this week. She is used to a big house and a big back yard to run and play in. But we live in a small apartment with a tiny yard. I decided to take her to the park to run around for a while. Jenna has never been to the park and I knew she would love the swings. When Matt got home from the river we loaded up and went to Deer Park. Jazz loved running around and stretching her legs, chasing kids, and sniffing everything in sight. I was right, Jenna loved the swings! She would laugh and smile the whole time. Matt helped her down the slides over and over and over. She also got to "drive" a car. She liked that too. It was a great first time at the park!
Matt's dad lives in Ider, Alabama. They invited us to come down for a big cookout on Saturday. We decided to ride with Josh and Sheri and drive down Friday after work to stay the night. Tim and Angie had gone to get Ashton and Hunter so they weren't home when we got there. The guys, Josh and Matt, went swimming while we waited on everyone else to get home. When they 
arrived we all went inside to catch up on what is going on in everyone's lives, snack a little,
show off pictures and watch the kids play. One by one we all starting heading off to bed. I think the guys stayed up late talking but the kids and the girls hit the sack. In the morning Tim fixed a wonderful breakfast! Jenna helped him fix eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits. We hung out around the house some and then it was outside for the rest of the day. The cookout was great! There were about 40 people there and plenty of delicious food. All the kids went swimming, including Josh and Matt! They had a blast. Jenna loves the water. And Ashton jumped into Elijah's arms 100 times.
They have lots of animals there too. And of course Jenna loved that. We saw the hunting dogs, and the many many cats, and fed the horses apples from the apple tree. Jenna would try to call the cats to her by clicking her tongue. It was so cute.
It was a fabulous day! The only complaint we had was the flies! But spending time with family made it all worth it.
