How was your day?

Ours was not great. But lots of spaghetti and several steri strips later, we are smiling...
We have a tough little guy on our hands!

And, I just had to add this pic...you really can't beat the bath time mohawk!

a new year

Although I have not been on top of things enough to get my own pictures posted, I do have a few links to share. First, my brother, graphic designer and photographer extraordinaire, took some pics on New Year's day of our fam at the park. I am aware that I have on a random combination of clothing, but I still wanted to share: http://famecreative.com/photography/parkday/

Secondly, Elizabeth Wiggs took some more pictures of William a few weeks ago (actually the day after we moved into the new house). She did a wonderful job, especially considering that William was a ball of constant motion, eating leaves and squirming, during the entire session. Just scroll down to see a few of them on her blog: http://elizabethwiggsphotography.blogspot.com/2009/12/rounding-out-2009.html

I hope you are all enjoying the new year!

New Year's Eve Eve

We're still here. We finally got internet at the new house 2 days ago, and we are getting settled. I worked all last week and I am now basking in the glory of finally being off for "Christmas" break. I just wanted to send out a quick post to say Merry Christmas a few days late and Happy New Year a few days early. Though the holidays have been chaotic and stressful to say the least, we know that we find our true rest in Jesus Christ. He came to earth as a humble and helpless child, in human flesh, to live perfectly and die sacrificially for us. As the new year approaches, I hope to again be reminded of how He makes all things new, even me. And, by His grace, he preserves me despite my distracted and unfaithful heart. I hope this year brings you all great newness and restoration in Him.

Our only family shot from Christmas Day...I had just worked about 13 hours
and William kind of has a mullet from the haircut I gave him, but the fact that we
took a picture was a serious success for us that day.

This is what most of our pics from the holidays are like..stillness is not one of William's talents

From a few weeks ago, but I just thought I would include it...
I love these two!

The Last Night

Tonight is our last night in the old house. We both sold and bought (in that order) houses today, and we get possession of the new house at noon tomorrow. Here is a final old house before and after, although I am a little hesitant to post this one. This is probably my least favorite, but I will explain my thinking and maybe someone can learn from my mistakes. When we first moved in, as you can see below, we had white cabinets, white floors, white countertops, white plaid wallpaper, white appliances...and after about a month I was so tired of cleaning all this vast whiteness that I vowed to have NO more white. White is beautiful in magazines, but it is not so ideal in real life. The white linoleum is what really pushed me over the edge. So, we started by changing the wall paper. Removing the old wallpaper was an ordeal in itself (do not attempt unless you absolutely have to do it), and the walls underneath were not very smooth. So, we decided to go with more wallpaper, and I chose the red because I wanted some color. Then, we painted the cabinets yellow which was another ordeal. We had to do a primer and then two more coats on each and every cabinet and door and then put them all back up. (This is what I did with my spring break during M-1 year- fun, huh?) Then, we redid the floors in the whole house (remember?) All of that is to say that, given the opportunity to renovate the kitchen again, I would just redo the floors, paint the walls a nice green color, and change out the hardware on the cabinets. By the end of the re-do, I realized that I might have gone overboard with the color since the new floors made the room a lot darker. I also learned the importance of living with a room for a while before making major changes, and at least planning the whole project at one time (even if you have to complete it in phases).

I'm sure you are all quite bored by this series by now, but I wanted to document it for memory sake. Please be praying for us as we move and get settled in to a new, but not far away, house. Pictures of the new place to come soon!

Another Before and After...

As I was looking for pictures of the house, I found a few pregnancy shots. I am certainly grateful for this sweet "before and after", and I am having a much more comfortable holiday season this year!

Before

After

Before and After #2

You may have already seen the nursery tour here, but I thought I would post some older pics of what used to be our guest room. This might actually be a good before and after of HJ, too, since he is still sporting his longer hair in this pic, and no beard. The guest room is behind him in the picture, but it is sadly the only picture I have of it before we painted it. This is another picture taken when we were still just looking at the house.

Here it is after painting the walls brown (a shade which we cannot find now to patch some chips...lesson learned- always keep the name of the paint- you will not remember it). This is also after we tore up the carpet and had our pine flours refinished. Sorry for the mess, but this again is the only picture I can find.

And, here it is after we turned it in to a nursery. We really love the nursery now, but we wish it was a little more baby-safe. We are planning to baby proof the nursery from the ground up in our next house. Any suggestions on what to do about the lamp? It doesn't matter how many toys are in the room, if we leave for a minute, William will find the lamp and the cord.

Before and After Numero Uno

Here is the first installment of our renovation chronicles. I'm starting with the bathroom. It is by far the smallest room, but we actually probably did the most work here (and by we, I mean HJ, since I was pregnant and avoiding the fumes).

Here it is when we came to look at the house:

Minus the tiles, and the plywood, vanity, toilet...

Here is some fabulous wallpaper we found under the vanity...

Here is the finished product....HJ did the tiling himself (and everything else except the painting...Thanks, Gran, for the help!)

Just catching up

Here are few pics from the weekend...

Love my guys...

Getting to be quite the independent snacker, and loving graham crackers

Discovering a William-sized cabinet

Good bye, Little Grey House

We are leaving our dear little grey house next week in exchange for a slightly bigger grey house right down the street. We have loved our house and really have used every one of its 946 square feet for the last 4 1/2 years. It has become dear to our hearts. It was our first home together, we came home to it from our honeymoon (ah, the days of the air mattress). And I have spent many (many, many, many) an hour studying here for my medical school exams. We have put a lot of work into renovating it (some things I would not do again), and this is where we brought William home to his first little nursery. Ok, I know I am getting sentimental, but I am sad to leave this sweet 1920's cottage. It is one of the oldest houses in our neighborhood, and even has a greenhouse. So, in honor of "Little Grey", I think I'll post a few before and after pictures and a few memories over the next week. We're planning to move next weekend if all goes well with the closing on Thursday.

November in Numbers

1- number of houses sold and bought (almost, close next Thursday)
2- number of trips to the pediatrician (one just for a flu shot)
3- number of steps William is taking on his own
4- number of days William had to stay home from day care due to fever or excessive bodily excretions
5- or was it five?
6- number of days a week I questioned my career choice (I got one day off/week)
7- number of 30 hour shifts worked in the ICU this month
8- (x10)- number of hours I worked/week, at least

Despite the badness of work, I did get off on Thanksgiving Day. And, we visited Tupelo for the day. We are so grateful for our sweet family which has grown one bigger this year. Thanksgiving was truly a day of giving thanks to God for his rich blessings.

Here are a few pics. More updates to come...

Did you know I was a child model?

For child proofing your cabinets? Neither did I, but HJ bought these cabinet latches (not sure where he bought them since they have obviously been in the store since 1989 when this picture was taken), and I'm pretty sure I am the child in the picture. I took a picture of an old photo for comparison. What do you think? Hilarious?

And I did have bangs, but I had just grown them out in this picture. (By the way, I am mad in the picture because I got to stay up and make cookies with my mom, and then two other certain people also woke up and got to make cookies, too.)

Mornin' Sunshine!

I'm off work today. And, I woke up to this cute guy...

Not a bad start to the day. Now, I'm planning to do a little consignment/antique/bargain shopping...sounds like fun, huh?

Monkey Man

I'm a little late on posting Halloween pics, but here are a few. I think William was aptly dressed for the occasion. He was not thrilled about the costume, so he is not really smiling in the pictures.

P, P, P, Poker Face

Happy Nine Months to my Wee Little Man

Yes, there is food all over his face (and body)...he got to try little turkey sticks (a healthier vienna sausage) for part of his nine month celebration, and they were a huge messy hit.

TP'd

Ooh, a new toy...

It's not a toy?

Oh well, too late

A little marroon and white...

We took William to his first Mississippi State football game on Saturday. He lasted all of 5 minutes (ok, maybe 10) in the actual game. I guess I had forgotten how loud it actually is (or is it louder now?), and the sea of cowbells was just too much for this little guy. I also forgot my camera, but "Gran" was so kind as to send us these pics. We did have a great time tailgating and seeing all the campus renovations even if we missed the game. Here is the little bulldog himself:

Proof

William has said Bye-bye several times this week, sometimes with a wave, or at least we think he is saying bye-bye. What do you think?

Eight Months

Yesterday, our little guy turned eight months old. His first year is quickly coming to an end, and it has gone by with impressive speed. He is pulling up on any and everything and crawling up a storm. He has 4 teeth, although the top two are snaggled because the outers came in first. He is working on his talking all the time, and maybe starting to say some more purposeful "mama"s and "dada"s (but of course this could just be our hopeful imaginations). A few days ago, he started clapping when we sing and sometimes just clapping for fun. Moving anywhere is still his most favorite of favorite things, so diaper changes have gotten to be very challenging.

Over the weekend, we had quite the adventure. HJ called me (I was at the Cooper-Young Festival) to tell me he had locked himself out of the house, and William was inside. I ran about 4 blocks to my car and sped the few miles home. Thankfully, HJ had left the TV on and William entertained himself with the UT football game, a Southern Living, and HJ's flip-flop (yummy!) until I made it back with the keys. No harm done, but a bit of a scare.

Today, I took William to the pediatrician because he has had a cold and his eyes are gunky, gunky, gunky. His tear ducts are blocked, so this is a common occurrence, but they were worse than usual. So, he is now taking some antibiotics. This explains his red eyes in some of the pictures. He wakes up with his eyes completely crusted over everyday, and it is so pitiful.

William also got his first pair of shoes today for his very teeny feet...here he is modeling them in just his diaper...what a flattering combo.

We're still here...

Well, the blog has taken quite a hit lately since I've been working a ba-zillion hours a week (maybe a slight exaggeration, but it doesn't seem like it). However, Sir William is thriving as usual and we are loving every minute of this sweet stage. Here are a few recent pics....

Daddy

Tags

Independence

Let me explain the tags caption...William loves tags. Any toy with a tag is his favorite. I went to check on him during his nap one day, and he had reached out of his crib, found the tag on his duck, and was holding on to it while he slept. I'm pretty sure tag is going to be his first word.