goodbye alabama!

We love our friends and are already missing them. We love them so much!

Jude and Caroline had a definite connection...

Jude made the first move.

Jonah being sweet and sassy...

Fernie came over to say goodbye to her baby.

We love Fernie!!!

Bishop Wyatt came over to say goodbye. :)

Katlin stayed all day and helped us. She took care of her little Jude. He loooved her!

Josh and Dan. BFFs!

Jonah lovin the pool...

Caroline lovin on Aly.

Megan Sorenson and Cooper bein crazy as always!

Stuart Hopkins and his sweet little girl!

Dan and Aaron Richards, we will miss that smile and laugh!

Trevor bein all manly :)

I miss these girls! Aly, Kim, and Megan 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

Jude's four month shots

My sweet little baby had his four month set of shots a couple weeks ago. Soo sad! I think it was worse this time around. Maybe because he is more aware and alert and just looks at me so helplessly. Or maybe because I've had two more months to love him and get to know him. My friend told me what her former pediatrician's office did to make the shots less traumatizing for the little ones and I thought it was a great idea that every pediatrician's office should implement. The idea is to have two nurses give the shots simultaneously in each leg. He had to get four injections this time, so instead of giving one shot, then another, then another, then another, he only had to get what felt like two shots because he got two of them at the same time. I politely told the doctor about it. I knew if I had the doctor on my side, she would tell the nurses to do it and the nurses do what the doctor says. So the doctor told me that would be fine, it just might take a little longer to wait for two nurses instead of one. And she said she had never even heard of doing that before. I think it should spread and everyone should start doing it! The first nurse came in and then the second. The second nurse acted all perturbed. Really?! She's obviously never had a child. The second nurse was all on her high horse and she said he had to lay down on the table "for safety purposes" although they let me hold him last time. I figured I would pick my battles. So I laid him down on the table. He was smiling and kicking like the most innocent happy little child. Then came the shots. INSTANT HYSTERIA. As soon as they were done I immediately brought him up to me and started feeding him. He calmed down and was just exhausted. He fell asleep on the 0.4 mile ride home and this is how I found him in his car seat once we got home...

Then we had a post shots photo shot. Typical. See two month shot post here.

He had a rough day or two after this set. No fever or anything, just kinda miserable. He's back at it now, though. LOVE HIM!

soul surfer

Surfing is Dan's passion in life. And that still seems like an understatement. He and a friend left at 5:00 am last Saturday morning, drove 4 1/2 hours to the beach- Gulf Shores, surfed all day, drove back, and got home at eleven Saturday night. Now that's love. He tracks the swells/waves every day of his life and knew it would be good on Saturday so he took full advantage. He even made a deal and got the board of his dreams while he was down there! A fish 7S. So happy together those two.

Now, we just need to move closer to the beach. Maybe after medical school...

bumbo

Jude is now sitting up like the biggest boy in his newly acquired bumbo. He wasn't too sure about it at first.

Mama, what is this thing?

His head was a little wobbly at first, but by his second go round he had it down to an art form. We are  diligently trying to keep him off his back because it's "flattenting out a little bit" according to the pediatrician. She throws that around like it's no big deal. Uhmm.. big deal over here! We are hard core tummy time now days. He's been a little confused as to why we won't let him sleep in his bed anymore, he will thank us someday. :)

If you click on the picture above and buy the bumbo, I get money. You know you want to.

3 goin on 30

We've been married 3 years on April 11th. Feels like more. It's the most satisfying and wonderful thing to be in a happy, healthy relationship. A lot has happened since we've been married! Moved across the country, I got my license and first job as a nurse, Dan (almost) graduated with his bachelor's degree, we survived the 4th worst tornado in history (literally, Dan saw it on the weather channel), and we brought the most perfect child into this world... so productive!

We love each other a lot. And tell each other at least ten times a day. I'm so thankful we are happy and content just being together. Every day is an adventure. I'm so glad I get to go through all these crazy adventures with him.

Our love gets better every day. We can only imagine the love we will have when we add a zero to that three!

We had a little photo shoot in the backyard. It will be great when Jude can take pictures for us. :)

And then he decided he was done.

And then we got attacked by mosquitoes.

For dinner we dined on grilled pineapple and chicken and garlic lemon potatoes. And of COURSE Martinelli's! Of course.

And then we played with our baby some more.

And he grinned and laughed with his Daddy.

These two are best of friends already.

Preparing to take flight...

And then a little bit of this... yes!

on grandma.

More on mama. and grandma. what a joyful  bliss she is to have around. i had been so, so excited to have her here for 1.5 weeks. it met my expectations and surpassed them!

we went to South Carolina on a house hunt and made a new friend in Bill Still. (Dan couldn't come due to school, boo!)

we looked at lots of houses. some rickety, some new. some seventies, some blue!

lots of hotel breakfast, stashed away for lunch too. we also went to a mexican restaurant. the only mexican restaurant in boiling springs. how cute is that?

lots of navigating using the iPhone map and finding our way around new places. (3600 parris bridge rd?!) like ATL without one wrong turn! go us!

we had a photo shoot of jude in the hotel room. we were ecstatic about how cute he was in his new green outfit!

This one's for Grandpa...

Grandma did lots of laundry. she loves laundry. we even starting packing!

we watched some movies, &danced away to footloose.

a trip to TJ max, sam's club, and wal-mart.

Oh, and chipotle. and chick-fil-a, of COURSE! (my mom's favorite)

Jude just knew to smile. He didn't even have to look at the camera.

BEST. BLUE. EYES. EVER.

Conan O'brien anyone?! BEST.

His teeth were hurting... Poor boy.

We made a quick trip to Target to get some teething rings. He was laughing like crazy the whole time.

Spent our last evening together enjoying some real Southern ribs at Dreamland.

had a picnic on campus over dan's lunch break &dined on yogurt, tortilla chips &hummus, m&m's. so good!

we drove all the way from Spartanburg to Tuscaloosa with zero stops. i'd say that's pretty impressive with a baby on board.

Most importantly, she spent lots of time with her little grandson. giving him lots of hugs and kisses and rocking him in the rocking chair and playing with him. He loves his grandma!

VICTORIOUS!!!