reactions.

By now, those who read this little blog or know me (or my husband) on Facebook know our exciting news --

We are expecting baby #2!

This news has been a long time coming, let me tell you.  We weren't really prepared for God's timing on this one, but when is one ever prepared for God's timing, really?  It took us only 6 months to get pregnant with our firstborn, Deacon, and we'd heard that it typically takes less time to get pregnant with second and third children, so we waited until Deacon turned a year old to begin trying for another.

That's when I was ready to see about adding to our family.

So we waited that first 6 months.  And then we waited another 6 months.  And then we waited ANOTHER 6 months.

Is anyone counting?  We were.

It took us TWENTY (20) months to get pregnant with our second.  WHAAAAT??!

I don't know.  All I can say is it's God's timing, and I trust it.  Whether I agree with it is of little consequence because His timing is always better than ours.  Amen.

So here we are, anticipating another sweet baby next February.  We are SO excited!

We've told all of the important groups of people now and everyone is excited for us.  :)  We told my family a couple weekends ago when we were together for my niece's 5th birthday.  My brother and SIL's anniversary was the following Monday so I put an ultrasound photo and the photo from my previous post in their card.  They opened it that Sunday when we were all together -- us, my parents, grandparents and them.  There were happy tears and hugs all around.  :)

We called Jeff's mom & dad to tell them Sunday evening when we got back.  They were excited, too.

Then last weekend is when we announced to our Connect Group at church.  We popped the same photo up on the screen and we heard, "awww...OOOHHHHH!"  It was funny to hear.  We got lots of congrats, well wishes and hugs from everyone.

And THEN we told Deacon.

 
We showed him the ultrasound photos and told him about "the baby in mommy's tummy".  And he said, "Can I see it?", and then "Can I hold it?"

He's gonna have a hard time waiting another 6 months.

round 2.

the book nook.

I love to read.  I remember going to the library with my mom & brother when we were little (and were out of school for summer with no jobs!  Ah, the good 'ole days...) and checking out the absolute maximum that they would let me get and reading through them in, like, 3 days.

 

Yeah, I love to read.

 

I'm hoping that Deacon will get that love of reading from me.  His Daddy doesn't have it -- or didn't have it until just recently, within the last year or so.  Deacon does love to look at books, and he's to the point now where he'll sit through actual "paper page" books.  You know what I mean, mamas.  Yeah, he'll sit all the way through to the end.  Excited about that!

 

Anyway, over the last 2.5 years of his life, he's been given a lot of books and we've had some in the living room and some in his own room.  I decided I wanted to combine them all into one special place in his room called "the book nook".  Eventually, I picture a cute little arm chair sitting in this area for Deacon to have some quiet time to sit and read any book he wants...

I kept a couple of diaper boxes and covered them in some kraft paper for the "shelving".  I cut out letters on my Cricut machine to put all over the outside box and then I lined the inside backs with some scrapbook paper I had that coordinated with the colors in his room already.

 

The letters on the wall were cut on my Cricut machine, too. 

 

It's nice to have all of Deacon's books in one place now (and there's less to clutter up the living room now, too. :).

 

 

summertime on the coast...

You know, there are worse places we could live, I suppose...

 

Living on the coast most definitely has its advantages, especially in the summertime.  I think I've mentioned before my (life-changing) discovery of Instagram -- the photo app I use to basically capture my life as it happens.  It's so great because I don't always have my big honkin' DSLR with me, and yet I can still capture sweet memories.

 

I wanted to share a little of what we're doing this summer, instagram-style (just to further clarify, these were taken with my phone, using the instagram app -- it's freakin' awesome!)...

 

 

 

 

Happy summer, y'all!

ridin' bikes.

Wasn't one of your favorite past times growing up riding bikes until it got too dark (or until the mosquitos had sucked every ounce of blood out of you)?

These cute kiddos enjoyed that past time when they were together for Father's day weekend.  We're grateful for Grandpa & Grammy's looooong drive way...

 

[readin' while ridin'...even better!]

[can't get enough of these beautiful blue-eyed boys!] 

 

[I hope they'll always be good friends.]

Father's Day weekend...

We went to spend last weekend with my family in Lexington for Father's Day, and we had a cookout Saturday evening with my mom & dad, my brother and his family and my grandparents.  It's always a good time when we can all get together and we usually do some pretty good eatin'.  :)

 

Even though it was Father's Day weekend, we didn't give my Daddy the day off (that was for the next day, Sunday ;).  He grilled the most awesome ribs for us -- a 3-2-1 deal.  So those ribs cooked for a total of SIX hours on his Traeger grill.  So worth the wait!

 

And we had other yummy stuff to eat with them...

 

 

Of course we brought Jeff's new ice cream maker with us to make our first batch of homemade (vanilla) ice cream for an after dinner treat.  It was soooo good!  It was pretty sweet (but isn't ice cream supposed to be??) but it was the perfect consistency and so creamy!

 

 

We celebrated the dads in our lives with some gifts:

 

 

My Buppa got a bag of books and crossword puzzles -- his favorite!

My Daddy got a basket full of all his favorite snacks + a gift card to Olive Garden.

Jeff and my brother each got a "redneck wine glass" from my parents --
ha, good stuff!

And then I had one more gift for Jeff from us -- a hand painted ice cream bowl!

 

A guy's gotta have a good bowl to eat that yummy homemade ice cream out of, right??

 

I think we made the day pretty special for the dads -- I hope they felt loved and appreciated!  I am so very proud of my Daddy and the example he's been, and still is, in my life.  I've always felt like he was on my side, supportive in whatever my current thing is.  Love you, Daddy!

And of course, I'm proud of the Daddy that Jeff is to Deacon, so proud of both my boys!  They are my heart.  :)

 

we {heart} daddy!

For Father's Day this year, we gave Jeff an ice cream maker!

 

Now let me just say that I didn't come up with this on my own (I wish).  We were shopping in Sam's one day and we saw them.  Jeff took a closer look at one of them and then as we were stepping away, he said, "I want that for Father's Day!"

 

:: cue the file upload into my "gifts for Jeff" folder in my brain ::

 

He is kinda hard to buy for unless you have gobs of money or you're a computer geek. 

 

Or a woodworker.

 

So anytime I hear him say "I want that" and it's reasonably priced, he's pretty much getting "that" at the next occasion to celebrate him (birthday, Christmas, etc.).

 

Hence, the ice cream maker purchase made just a few days before Father's Day.

 

So I wasn't even gonna try to wrap that big 'ole box and keep it somewhere secret.  Instead I decided to hide (read: camouflage) it in this junky closet we have.  It wasn't hard to cover it up after I found a large enough space for it.

 

And then we had a scavenger hunt to find it!

 

We gave him his card which had the first clue inside.  Then he was off!

Since we gave it to him, we've made 4 batches of ice cream!  We're getting our money's worth out of that "reasonably priced" gift.  :)

But no matter what the price, no matter what the gift, Jeff is totally worth every penny!  He is such a good daddy to our boy.  Deacon and I both love him to pieces!  Happy Father's Day, Daddy!