Pregnant...again!

Yes...It is true...I am pregnant again. A wonderful surprise!

Homecoming

My brother was on the homecoming court at Cleveland High School this year. We were so excited and all loaded up and went to see him. He did great! He smiled more than I have ever seen him smile. As we were leaving the stadium one of our friends said, "I actually saw Ben smiling! I even saw his teeth!" Way to go, Bro!

Roll Tide!

Football Season has started and we are so excited! Josh came over for the first Alabama game of the season. Matt and Josh never moved from the couch, except to get another drink, of course! We won 34-10. Jenna is in the spirit too. We taught her "TOUCHDOWN!" Roll Tide! Roll!

Jenna's Party

Jenna's party was a blast! Lots of family and a few close friends came to celebrate with us. Grandmother and Mom cooked brunch for everyone. Then we had bubbles, sidewalk chalk, a slip and slide, a sprinkler, and the trampoline in the back yard at my mom's for everyone to play with. The kids had such a great time! After playing outside, we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream. Jenna had a wonderful time and fell fast asleep before the party was even over! Thanks to everyone for coming and for Jenna's cute gifts!!

A year ago today...

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!!!

Here is Jenna the day she was born.
And here she is a couple weeks ago.

Tubes

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 surgery.

Right after her LONG nap.

Away for a night

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 big 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.