Wet Willy

We are still here, although rather busy of late. Hopefully, there will be more updates in the near future, but, for now, here are some pics of our busy little man.

Breaking the Blogging Break

Here are a "few" pictures in an effort to catch up. It has been a busy couple of months to say the least, and our little guy seems to have turned into a big boy overnight. He is such a happy little man, but definitely keeping us on our toes. His current favorite things are the swiffer, brooms, sticks, eating everything by himself, blowing kisses, putting his finger up his nose when we say "shh", learning to put his hands together when we pray (but not for long), avocados, strawberries, "iss" (fish), and saying bye-bye to anyone/thing that leaves his line of vision or acts like it might. These pics are from Easter, Memphis Zoo, Atlanta aquarium, and a few randoms. The outfit in the top right was one of HJ's when he was little...William likes it because it accentuates his tan legs!

Valentine's Weekend Project

What did we do with our valentine's weekend (which also happened to be the first weekend that William spent away from home- in Tupelo with Gigi and Papa)? We renovated the hall bathroom...I know, romance at its best. Here are the pictures. HJ convinced me that the floors, in fact, did not need to be redone, so we left well enough alone. They are speckle painted ceramic tiles...which I'm not crazy about, but they are also well done, easy to clean, and durable. I wanted to make this bathroom colorful and fun, so I decided to paint the vanity...it took five coats! We are still looking for a mirror/medicine cabinet to cover/fill the hole in the wall, but things are coming together. We also had a near disaster when HJ dropped our marble sink (which was about half of the budget of the project) and it broke. However, the nice, nice lady at Lowe's let us exchange it for an unbroken one!

Firsts

William had his first haircut today. I was sad to see so much of those blond locks go, but his hair grows straight down and was getting in his eyes. (Also, a lady at target thought "she was so cute" and HJ decided it was time for a cut). The mullet is gone, but William looks like a big boy now...so sad. He has also finally started walking. He is not late to walk, but we had seriously been thinking he would walk any day for the last 3 months. He would take about 2 or 3 steps and then get down and crawl. He decided at a birthday party this weekedend after seeing some other one year olds walk that he would also start walking. I guess he just needed a little peer pressure.

Before

After

More lessons to learn

Where to start? The last few weeks have been busy, busy and a little stressful, too. Last month was a long and tiring one for us due to a combination of factors, but we have made it through. I try to remind myself that the difficulties we are dealing with (long work hours, sick kiddo, etc.) are difficulties that I would never trade. I am so grateful to be able to do my job (even though I am seriously looking forward to July when I will switch over to derm!), and I am also thankful for our sweet, sweet little guy. William has had a blocked tear duct on the right side since birth, and if you see him often, you know that his eye is in a constant state of goopy messiness and that his skin around his eye is usually pretty red. Well, on Tuesday we had the probing procedure because it did not seem to be clearing up on its own. The doctor took a thin metal probe, stuck it in William's tear duct, and "probed" it through to his nose. It sounds terrible, but it took a total of about 45 seconds. Thank you to everyone who was praying for him and us. God truly answered our prayers because William just rested calmly on the exam chair until the very end of the procedure. This, in itself, is a miracle because he is never still! And, for the last 2 mornings, his eye has not been matted shut when he woke up. The doctor said we would know in about a week if it is permanent, so we are still praying that the effects will be lasting.

We have been praying for months for his tear duct to open up on its own. We know this is a small thing compared to other illnesses and even the procedure is small. But as we have been waiting for God's answer, we are learning anew the lesson of God's timing, not ours. I have definitely been learning humility, even in this small way, through my inability to fix this on my own, and through the fact that William looked like his face had never been washed everyday due to goopy tears running down his face (seriously hurtful to a mother's pride :). And, we are reminded that God has his own better and sovereign plan that He will work in his wise and kind way. We are grateful we are not in charge!

I did want to share a few pics of the last week or two...

First outing with the bike trailer...we picked up Dakota for little trip around the block

William loved the helmet...

I just had to share this....William definitely takes after his Papa (who very much dislikes peas). Here is the assortment of veggies that we give William:

Here is his plate after he eat them...notice he eats all the carrots and green beans, but no peas. He will eat the corn, but only after the the first two favorites are gone. Once he finishes what he wants, he points to the bowl for more of the favorites. I just think it's funny that he can so readily pick out the good stuff.

Happy First Birthday

What a difference a year has made in our lives!



For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.

Psalm 71: 5-6

A whole year already?

On this night last year, I was hoping that our game night filled with hours of trivial pursuit would inspire William to make his entrance into the world. And it did! Seriously, even the timing of our sweet boy's arrival was such a blessing from God. I was praying I would not have to be induced and my induction was scheduled for January 22. God worked everything in his perfect timing as usual. We are so grateful and amazed by our sweet, sweet guy! I cannot believe that tomorrow is his first birthday! He is truly an undeserved gift from God!

On Sunday, we had a little birthday party for William with a few family and friends. It was a "Milk and Cookies Pajama Party" so all the kids could wear their PJ's. Here are a few pics:

Pre-party decorations with William's PJ's from small to big:

William's first cake

Cookie decorating area

Very serious in this pic, but he really did like the cake...

See?

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.)