Lovin' Is What I Got...

With Mother's Day coming up very soon on Sunday, I want to thank my momma. I don't even know where to begin...I've been so blessed to continue to have her as my mom.

My momma was a single mom from the time I was 3 months old. She is my ROCK! Just imagine having to raise a baby essentially by yourself with most of the care falling on you and having no partner in the house to help. I get a panicky feeling just thinking about it! My momma has been my biggest encourager, my inspiration to be a better person, my conscience, and my best friend.

I LOVE and cherish this woman. I must talk to her at least twice(if not more times) per day. Most of the time we just ask each other a question and hang up or talk about nothing or other times just breathe(not really) when we have nothing to say to each other, but I just have the need to talk to her.

When something good or bad happens I call Adam and then I call Momma. It's that kind of relationship. I know she loves me unconditionally and always will. This letter does not even do you justice mom, you are the BEST mom in the whole world and I love you! I strive each and everyday to be a mom just like you!

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Two words for ya...HE PASSED!!!!! Adam passed his Alabama Bar Exam and is now an official attorney!!! Thank for all your continued prayers!!! We felt them!

Now, be working on that little prayer that he can find an awesome job and I can get a new job as a stay at home momma-ha!:)

The swimming hole

How do we learn to chew? I thought that it came naturally, but apparently it doesn't. Anderson refuses to chew his food. He will spit out, gag and throw up chunky food with textures. Which leaves me with Gerber stage 2. Do you know any special techniques to helping babies learn to chew their food??

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This past Sunday, the weather was beautiful, and warm and we decided that we would head outside and swim a little bit. We blew up the baby pool and WA-LA!!!

Don't you just adore warm, lazy, summer-like days? We do! :)

At first Anderson wasn't quite sure what the swimming pool was all about, but after a little bit, he thought it was the neatest thing ever. In fact, he threw a FIT when I made him get out and take a nap!

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Yesterday, Anderson had his 1 year check up, P.S. I know you all don't care about this stuff...but I'm just doing it for my memory.

Height: 30 1/2 inches (75%)

Weight:20lbs 12 oz. (24%)

He's right where he's is supposed to be and guess who FINALLY started crawling(well scooting) and pulling up!!? My big boy! He's classified as a late crawler, but the doc says it's fine. To me, this means,baby who knows his mama and dada will pick him up whenever he whimpers for one thing:)

One more thing...Anderson said "DAWG"tonight! Boy this is getting so fun!

Say a prayer for my SIL Kelly, who is 36 weeks pregnant and in the hospital for high blood pressure with a little protein in her urine. She's good, but they are trying to keep the baby, Aaden, in utero for as long as possible.

Oh the Fun of Turning One! - Birthday Pics

Anderson is 1! And as you can see from the pictures, he had a great and fun-filled birthday party! The theme of his party was a circus birthday party. My friend and co-worker Laura made the cake. She did an awesome job and it looked and tasted much better than those expensive bakeries! Thanks Laura!

Anderson, at first, wasn't sure about his birthday cake. I too had to hold my O.C.D. personality back and let him get messy. Boy, did he! He had a ball messing up his birthday cake! But he hated the clean up!

He got so many fun gifts! Like this one that Uncle Anthony and Aunt Kelly gave him!

4 generations: My Daddy, my Papa Ivey, Anderson and me

Anderson enjoying the bubbles with the kiddos!

Daddy, Anderson and me

Finally, when Anderson's guests started leaving, Anderson went into full MELT DOWN MODE, but when they were all gone, he was great! Probably just too many people and too much fun! :)

Happy Birthday Baby Boy! We love you!

A Look Back

When I was pregnant, people would ask me, "do you know how being a mom is going to change you"? I would answer back, "I'll love him just as much as I love the dogs"(which is alot), but now I'm a momma and I think to myself, "what were you thinking"!?! This is a love beyond my comprehension!

Tuesday morning, April 22, 2008 at 5:00a.m. I woke to feel a little uneasy. Contractions, again! I called Dr. Green and he said to head up to Labor and Delivery to get on the fetal monitor. Sure enough, contractions! Wait a while...and a little bit longer. The nurse comes in and announces "Dr. Green says he's going to induce you today"! WHAT!?!?!


Into a L&D room and the petocin starts and we began calling our families. Family starts arriving around 3:30p.m. The room suddenly is very crowded with people. I CAN'T take it! These people have to go...I'm in labor! It's around 8:00p.m. it's just Daddy, Anthony, Kelly and me and we are laughing about who knows what? Dr. Green rushes in and says that he can't watch this baby's heart rate decel anymore and we are going into emergency c-section! WHAT??!!! I'm thinking, "but my momma is at supper with Adam's parents and this is not supposed to go like this"... Daddy gets dressed in scrubs and into surgery we flew. As they were wheeling me down to surgery, I see my momma, who looks terrified and I start to cry and it hits me. While they prep me, I'm alone, and I start to pray that you will be ok. Please GOD!


8:39p.m. you are delivered and I hear you cry, OH that sweet cry! GOD is so good! You are having some trouble breathing, wet lungs. They take you to NICU to evaluate. You are jaundiced and have short, shallow breaths, but are fine! I don't get to see you until the next morning. I didn't sleep but 45 minutes, I was waiting to see you.


You are BEAUTIFUL, tiny and perfect in every way! From the first moment that I saw you, I knew I was meant to be your Momma and I would love you always!You are the best blessing that God has blessed us with! Thank you GOD! Hallelujah!

To Anderson:

You have grown so much over the past year, and not just in size, but in personality and in character. You can do so many things. Looking at you when you were a tiny baby, I never envisioned you growing up, I guess I thought you would be a baby forever. You are the BEST blessing that GOD has blessed your Momma and Daddy with in this lifetime. I truly mean that! In my eyes, you hang the moon! You are the love of our lives and our love for you is like GOD's love, unfaltering-always! I can't wait to see you grow, explore and learn about the world around you.

I love you, my love

Your Momma

I

Easter and Spring Break: Warning this is a long post

For Anderson's 1st Easter this year we went to Dothan to spend the night with our families. Anderson participated in his first ever Easter egg hunt...well, let me rephrase that. You see, my mom has always been the type of person who when she does something, she does it BIG! She wanted to have Anderson and his cousins a Easter egg hunt and for the babies, a squirt toy, car and ball hunt. When she told us this, we just rolled our eyes. I have to say though, that there is something about your little boy finding toys and Barbie sunglasses hidden in the brush that just got you just a little bit excited! My best friend from high school, Shelley and her kiddos stopped by to hunt eggs with us, they loved it!

Anderson also found this sippie cup in the brush, don't worry, my mom hid it there:)
He was more interested in biting his Easter basket than anything


Anderson's grandparents

Shelley, Anderson and me
Momma, Anderson and me

The day was great and Anderson had fun with his cousins and brought home a loot of squirt toys! Love you Nana!

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Easter morning, Adam, Anderson and me headed to Atlanta for our Spring Break. Our first stop was the Zoo Atlanta. We were more excited about Anderson riding on the carousel than he was...he looked like he could let out a yawn anytime. He loved the animals, and actually paid attention to them and got pretty excited and did his famous point when he saw them. His favorite..ummm.. and mine too were the panda bears, pretty cool!

Day 2: on Monday we headed to the Georgia Aquarium, which is btw, the largest aquarium in the world! Anderson LOVED it, do you hear me? LOVED IT!! Run, don't walk to take your kids to see this awesome place! He pointed at all of the fish and I could barely hold him he was so excited and squirmed so much. He kept saying "wat dat" and I know I said "fish" like one million times. Half way through the aquarium, Anderson needed a nap...bad...we had to leave and go let him take a nap in the parking garage in the car, don't worry it was cranked and we were in there too, you know I'm not that kind of mother! We went to my old friend(well she's not old, but you know what I mean)from high school, Lisa Poole Alexander's house and boy did we had a yummy supper and our kiddos played and we caught up, so FUN!! Thank you Lisa, we enjoyed it so much, also, Lisa check out Anderson's shoes in the following pics, he loves them! Thanks!

Doing his famous point at the fish

Lisa, Nolan, Nicholas, Anderson and me

Day 3: On Tuesday, we went to Stone Mountain, but most of their attractions for kids were closed so we rode the sky lift up Stone Mountain and back down and decided to try the Coke Museum and Atlanta Botanical Gardens-two words, delicious and awesome! The Coke Museum was neato and the coolest thing ever is that you get to taste Coke products from everywhere in the world, from Zimbabwe to Costa Rico to the U.S. and Anderson got to some of them too, although he made terrible faces. :) The Botanical Gardens were beautiful and Anderson would once again point and say "wat dat", that baby loves to be outside. I think he's going to grow up to be a park ranger. We ended the day by going to the Varsity, if you haven't been there, you should go. They have great hot dogs with chili and f.o.'s (frosted orange drink, which taste just like a creamsicle) Anderson LOVED the hot dog chili and the f.o. YUMMY!!!

Adam and Anderson on top of Stone Mt.
Anderson at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Enjoying his f.o. at the Varsity

Day 4: We went to Babyland General in Cleveland, GA, again, another cannot miss place. This is where Cabbage Patch Kids are made. They actually deliver(make) the babies right there and they announce it over the loud speaker and you can witness it and name the babies. We named the one was born while we were watching Molly Isabelle. We wanted to buy Anderson a little boy cabbage patch doll, but when we went to "adopt"/buy the doll, it was .....$$$$$ 199.00 for a DOLL, thanks, but no thanks, he got a mass produced c.p. doll instead of an original. We also went to Helen, GA which is neat, but kind of junky. We rode on the horse drawn carriage and Anderson loved that, he kept waving to everybody as we passed by! :)

We had such a great trip and were sad to come home, but we had a very special 1st birthday party coming up on Saturday the 18th and had to get ready!! Those pictures and a tearful letter to my little boy who is quickly growing up is soon to follow. Stay tuned folks...

Thanks for sticking with me to read this entire post, if you did!

I promise...

I promise, I will be back soon. We have been so busy with Easter and vacation in Atlanta and getting ready for Anderson's party. I'm really not even supossed to be on the computer. I should be busting my hump getting ready, but I'm really tired! Thank you to all our of family who are making the trek from Dothan! We LOVE YOU!