Joshua Dale has arrived!

So, I realize I haven't posted in a while, but that is ok. Joshua arrived on Friday, May 29 at 5:06 pm. He was 20.5 inches and 7 lbs 1 oz. He is absolutely precious! Labor and delivery were easy (thankfully). Our family is now complete.

Tyler is a great big brother already! He's been so gentle with Baby Joshua. When he visited us in the hospital, he did not want to leave. Tyler didn't quite understand why Joshua and I had to stay and he had to leave. He had lots of quality time with Mema (my mom) though.

Here are just a few pictures of our newest addition and Big Brother Tyler.

Momma's BIG Boy!

I can't believe Tyler turned 3 yesterday! He is getting too big too fast! Yesterday we took cookies for his "party" at school. He of course was all excited about that. The school I teach at had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser so we ate there for supper and then went to Mema's house. Gina and Mikey were coming for the weekend (Stephen worked Friday and Sunday so he didn't come). Tyler got his birthday presents from Mema (grandma), MaAnn (great-grandma) and Aunt Gina and Mikey. It touched my heart for him to say thank you to each of them and give them big hugs and kisses. I am proud that Ken and I have raised a gracious child.

We had his Mickey Mouse birthday party at Mema's house today. We had lots of friends from church and Tyler had a great time. I saw one of the parents at Wal-Mart when I went to get the cake and he asked what Tyler needed. I said clothes. He then asked what he wanted and I said toys. He asked if Tyler would be excited about clothes. I told him he wouldn't believe how excited he gets about anything. During his party one of the other parents commented about how excited he got about clothes. Of course he likes the toys too, but most kids just open clothes and throw them to the side. Not Tyler. He takes it out and almost inspects it. He really looks at it to see what it is. I think it is hillarious! Of course he immediately wanted me to open all the toys so he could play. I'd have to tell him we'd play after we opened all the presents.

Ken's mom (Grandma Fran) and his sister Julie came for the party and are staying until tomorrow. We all went to dinner and Grandma bought dinner. I told Tyler to tell her Thank you. He says, "Thank you Grandma for my dinner. Thank you for my cheeseburger, my fries and my Sprite!" How sweet is that?

After we got back home tonight, Tyler really showed me he was a big boy! He has been wearing "big boy" underwear all week (except when sleeping) and has done really well since last Saturday. He's had a few accidents at school and would only go poop when he had a pull-up on for nap time or when getting ready for bed. Tonight however, we have crossed another bridge! He came and told us he needed to go potty and he went poop on the potty!!! How exciting! Then 5 minutes later he told us he needed to go potty again and he did! I guess he wasn't finished the first time. I am so proud of my BIG boy! And you should all see my "Tyler Went Pee Pee on the Potty Dance." It's quite exciting! He even told us dinner he needed to go pee. We haven't been out much in public this week as you can imagine why so I was very pleased (and surprised) that he stopped eating to tell us he needed to go. Hopefully I have bought my last set of pull-ups! :-)

On to a different note....Ken and I were talking about how the new baby is coming and we're going to be switching rooms so the new baby will be closer to mommy and daddy. Well Tyler apparently didn't like this and quickly told us the new baby will sleep in the barn! So we asked who would take care of him in the barn. He told us Mary would just like she takes care of Baby Jesus! Now, does it get much sweeter than that?

It's another boy!!!

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this! We found out last Wednesday that we are having another boy! We are really excited. We know the first name will be Joshua but we are undecided on the middle name.

Our holidays were good. Nathan was here for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We were in VA visiting Ken's parents. We ate dinner at his Aunt Dorothy's house. It was nice to see the extended family we don't see very often. I wasn't planning on doing much Black Friday early bird shopping but Tyler decided to wake up at 5am since he went to bed at 7pm the nght before. That's what happens when you don't take a nap! Since I was up, I got some holiday shopping done.

The next thing we knew it was Christmas. Christmas Eve Ken and I spent 2 hours putting together a train table for Tyler. He was so surprised Christmas morning. He didn't quite know how to react to it. A few days later, it took him less than 5 minutes to tear the whole train track apart. I then spent 30 putting it back together! After Christmas at our house, we went to my Mom's for brunch and presents with my sisters and their families. With all the kids it is a lot like a zoo I think. They really enjoyed it! We saw Brendan that night, too. There were various other celebrations over the next few days with different parts of the family.

Nathan came to visit Dec. 28-Jan. 3. He missed his first flight at 9 am on his way here and was stuck at the airport until the 6 pm flight which was late and didn't leave until 7! Made for a very long day for him and Ken who was waiting at RDU to get him. We spent New Year's in VA for Chirstmas with Ken's family.

Of course its back to the grindstone now! I am finishing up first semester for work. We are in the middle of exams right now - fun stuff!!! Ken is working a straight 40 hour work week. But that is better than no job. For a while his quarry was the only opened around here. Things should be picking back up soon hopefully. We both started new semesters in school. This is my last one for grad school!!!

Oh how I can't wait for MAY!!!! I graduate with my MAEd in Business Education on May 8 and Joshua is due on May 31! Tyler is really excited about the new baby. For now anyways. He loves kissing my belly. The way he says Joshua is just hillarious.

Hope all is well your way! Thanks for reading.

Lots of stuff going on!

As I write this, I am currently in Austin, Texas at the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education FORUM. We left Jacksonville at 3:30 am Friday (11/07) to make it to the New Bern airport by 4:30 am for our 5:30 am flight. Then went to Charlotte. There we had a 2 1/2 hour layover. And since we didn't have to be in Austin until Sat. morning, we gave up our seats on our original flight. We didn't have anything better to do. So we then flew to Dallas-Fort Worth and then to Austin. We arrived in Austin right around 3pm Central Time. We were so tired!!! It had been a long day! We got to our hotel put our stuff in the room. Went to the hotel restaurant and when we went to bed, Wheel of Fortune was still on!!! We slept for nearly 11 hours and we are still tired. Of course with this pregnancy, I have been tired at night anyways. I have not been sick at all, just ready to crash at 8 pm every night! We have been learning a lot and meeting lots of interesting people though. So it is all worth it.

My biggest concern is being gone 5 days! I have never left Tyler that long, but he seems to be doing fine. He has gotten caught up on his Daddy time! With Ken working nights, we see him in the mornings as we are getting ready to leave (usually) and on the weekends. Ken told me they have a surprise for me. I asked Tyler about it and he told me they used the drill and screws! I couldn't understand whatelse he told me although he talked for 2-3 minutes about it! He was so excited about whatever it is. Makes me kinda nervous!!! Tyler is staying with grandma tonight since Ken has to work so he will love that. Tomorrow they are meeting me at the airport. I get in at 5:30pm and Ken is suppossed to be at work at 5, so he'll go in late and I'll take Tyler home. I can't wait to see him!!!! I miss my little buddy!

Baby wise, I am 11 weeks now. Everything is going fabulous. My next appointment is on the 18th and I will have a sonogram. It will be too early to see what it is, but I will find that out later. I am too impatent to wait until the end to find out!!! :) Hope all is well with you!

Fist Day of a New School! :-)

Tyler was a bit clingy, but he was fine when I left him. My niece Grace had just arrived so they were happy. He gets there at 7am and there are very few kids then so they all meet in one room until more kids and the regular teachers get there. Since it was his first day, I didn't know this so I went right to his room and there was no one there. Someone is coming from the other end of the hall and she tells me to go to the first room and why.

I told her this was his first day so I needed to put his stuff down. Now, let me make it clear, we were in the 2 year old room, during this conversation. I told her since he didn't have a bin with his name on it, I was putting his stuff in Gracie's bin. Explained that was his cousin and she said that was fine. We go back to the first room and I leave him there.

At 4:15, I am there to pick him up. I needed to pay so I did that before going to get him. I tell them who I am, who I am picking up and that I need to pay for the week. One of the ladies in the office asked me if I brought Tyler any pull-ups or a jacket or anything. I said yes with a rather bewildered look on my face I am sure!

Then the other lady (whom I have know nearly all my life) says, "Are you sure that is the right Tyler." First lady, "Yes, Tyler and it was his first day." I say, "Today is my Tyler's first day." First lady asks, "How old is he?" I say "Two." They both look at me funny and tell me he had been in the 3 year old room all day.

Now, I realize it just opened last week, but how do you get kids confused???? I told the lady I have known forever what went on the morning and she assured me it would be taken care of today. When I went to pick him up, I met the 3 year old teacher and she asked the same questions and I told her why they thought he didn't have any thing with him. She did at least say that he had a great day. They were just a bit concerned because he wasn't potty trained yet thinking he was 3 1/2 not, 2 1/2.

When I dropped him off this morning, I made sure the same lady from yesterday knew he was only 2 and she said ok. We'll see what happens today! :)

Festival of Marriage

This weekend, Ken adn I went with 8 other couples from our church to the Festival of Marriage retreat at Ridgecrest. It was very refreshing and enlightening as well. We got to know the other couples from our church better than we already did, but most importantly, we got to know each other even better.

They had a variety of sessions we could attend on a variety of topics. Everything from your prayer life as a couple to "Celebrating Sex in Your Marriage." Coincidentally, our entire group showed up to the same session on that last topic so that was a running joke the rest of the weekend.

Steve and Debbie Wilson were the main speakers Fri and Sat night and Sun morning. They were awesome. Based on their testimonies you can tell God is a BIG part of their marriage. They gave us the 6 Mosquitos of a marriage. They started with an anaology of how mosquitos can get in your house and before you know it they have bitten everyone. These six are the same way - busyness, irritability, drifting, financial debt, inability to be open, and I don't remember the 6th one as I write this, but I know it was good too!

We loved the sessions and being able to get away and get closer to each other. We sure missed Tyler though! My sister Laurie helped my mom keep the kids (Tyler and my two nieces Caroline an Grace) while we all went to the retreat. Sherri and Robert got home about 5 minutes before us. Then Lauire had Tyler outside waiting on us and he was just so excited to see us! It was so cute. He was laughing so hard and just ran up to us. Fortunately, I got a hug first. Otherwise, once he saw Daddy, I wouldn't have gotten any love! They had decorated pumpkins and he grabbed our hands to show it to us. He was so proud of it over something so simple!

Today, Tyler starts a new preschool. It just opened last week and my niece Grace goes there, too. So I am sure you will hear more about that later. He was a bit clingy this morning when I dropped him off. I attribute it to a new place and he hadn't really seen us since Thurs. night.

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

No sick days for Mommy!

I certainly don't like being sick, just as I am sure the next person doesn't. Unfortunately, Tyler doesn't understand when Mommy doesn't feel good. It's my usual change of season, cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon, sinus issues. My nose is stopped up one minute and running the next.

Tyler is so sweet though. He will just come snuggle with me and he just warms my heart. He has a doctor kid for Diego and Baby Jacquar and he'll bring the stethescope and "doctor" me.

I go to the doctor on Tuesday for my first prenatal visit. I hate all these doctors appointments, but I understand they are necessary. Pregnancy wise I have felt great! No morning sickness/nausea at all. With Dylan, I was only sick during the first trimester. With Tyler I was sick the entire 9 months. When the sickness never stopped after he was born, I knew something was wrong and found out my gallbladder had stopped working. It was taken out two years ago.

Now, if we can just get Tyler potty trained and to reset his internal alarm clock so he knows we can sleep in on the weekends! Potty training is getting there. He's great about telling us after the fact! Yesterday, he crawled in our bed at 6am. He went right on to sleep but I was wide awake so I got up and did some school work. It was rather peaceful to be up with no one else up. I usually just get up when Tyler does. If I am up before him, it is only to get dressed for work and then I wake him up and we are out the door.

Well, until next time...