The BEST surprise!

I love surprise parties...I love throwing them and watching the reaction of the person of honor...today...I got to see what it's like to be on the other side of things! :) My dear friend Lisa, and my awesome running girls, the Sole Sisters, with the help of my husband, totally shocked and stunned me today when I went to Lisa's to drop off her son Eli after baseball assessments. Since our laundry room still isn't completed, I had asked Lisa if I could bring a load over to wash sometime this weekend. So in I walked, sweaty from being at the ball field and lugging a big bag of laundry in one hand, laundry detergent in the other and spotted OUR babysitter in her kitchen. I truly was confused and asked Lynda what she was doing there...when everyone jumped out and yelled surprise!! What?!?! It was so fun!! I was mortified that I was so gross and sweaty but was SO excited to see my sisters and several other friends that are so important to me! I literally had to turn around and walk out for a second b/c it was so overwhelming and it would have been so cliche' for the pregnant lady to cry! When I walked out on the porch up drives my mom and sister!!! (Believe it or not...I was actually EARLY...that NEVER happens! So I surprised them a little too!) It was the MOST fun! :) We had so much fun visiting and eating yummy food, drinking delicious (alcohol free) mojitos and martinis, and an adorable cake complete with a cute little modeling chocolate baby! Seriously...it was the best surprise! I felt so blessed and loved and so thankful for these special women in my life!! AND, on top of all that...we had some fun games (it truly wouldn't have been a party without the competition factor) and little P4 (and I) got SPOILED!! Adorable outfits, blankets, monitors, many books and enough on a gift card to update the family truckster (Greg about choked when I mentioned that I would like to get a new stroller for the new baby, mainly because we have already had 10 strollers, but I am psyched to get a new one that will take the infant car seat as a travel system). Truly spoiled!! One of the best things was a package of diapers that everyone put funny sayings on - examples - (my fav - "it's Daddy's turn!", "it's a good thing I'm so cute" etc) really fun idea!! I did get reprimanded to peeking at them, as they are supposed to give me some late night humor as I am sleep deprived, but I just couldn't resist!
I am so thankful for my friends who show me constantly what it means to encourage, admonish in love and just be silly together...building each other up and sincerely and so selflessly showing me what friendship means!! Thank you also to my mom for driving home from NC to be there...it wouldn't have been the same without you there...and thank you so much for making P4 his very own nonnies (blankets - she makes them for all her grands!)!! Thank you to my sister for driving through 2 time zones and customs to be here (well, actually Powder Springs, but same difference) and bringing her daughter to celebrate too! Thank you to our wonderful friend and sitter Lynda for caring for not only my boys, but my sister's son too! Thank you to Trina, Holly, Deborah and especially Lisa for hosting and being the best hostesses, caterers and game masters! It was such a special day...and as a special bonus...I also got to wash my laundry! :) You girls are the best and I am so blessed. Thank you!!

Another visit...

from the tooth fairy! This time she was coming for 3 teeth, and she left a $2 bill and a gold $1 coin for each! $9...can you believe it?! Maybe she felt sorry for him having to have them pulled because I am pretty sure the most I ever got as a kid was $1! :) So happy he is happy!

Landon did great!!

Landon was a champ today!! I met him at school for lunch and then we headed over to Lynda's house (our wonderful sitter who so graciously offered her washer and dryer during the time we are without ours). He watched Cars2 while I did laundry and then it was time to go...he got a little nervous but was doing fine. When we arrived at the dentist office there was a film crew filming...and Christy seemed surprised that I didn't have all 3 boys with me...I think she was intending to have our boys in her video, which is fun! :) My sweet neighbor Lisa, who had the little boys, offered to bring them to the office and Tanner and her sweet daughter got to be in the filming! Very exciting! Actually, the delay and having the boys present seemed to calm Landon and when they finally came to get him for the procedure, he seemed pretty relaxed (well except for when Tanner grabbed Landon and said "Don't be scared Landon...I'll be praying for you!"). All in all, it only took about 30-40 minutes and out he came biting on some gauze. He was pretty chill about it and seemed only mildly bothered by the procedure. I was so very proud of him!! He looks like such a big boy now...and the cutest thing was how excited Tanner was to see his missing teeth! And, he kept saying "I am so proud of you brother...you did so great!" So we will see what happens tonight...Landon thinks that certainly the tooth fairy will reward the unconventional way his teeth were lost with big bucks...I told him I hoped he would get anything since he didn't really lose his teeth the conventional way! :) We shall see! I'll post some photos so you can see our cute little toothless wonder! Thank you for your prayers...they worked!

Landon's big day

is tomorrow! For what, you ask? Tomorrow is the day that he will finally lose his second, third and fourth teeth. You may remember that he was knocked in the mouth a couple of months ago. He lost one of the bottom teeth within a month, but the second one is still hanging on for dear life...and will be, it seems for the duration. His big boy tooth got tired of waiting and decided to just grow in behind the baby tooth (aka shark tooth) so at this point there is nothing to continue pushing the baby tooth out and it will have to be pulled. Additionally, at our regular 6 month check at the dentist, she revealed that Landon's big boy teeth on the top are so very large compared to his baby teeth that one of his front teeth is actually sideways! Although they are just the teeny tiniest bit loose, she reccommended going ahead and pulling them to hopefully create a little room for them to drop and hopefully rotate into place. Also, by them having room to drop, they will also help loosen the next two teeth on the sides. Obviously, braces are most likely in our future, but after talking with our small group leader, who is also an oral surgeon, we feel like we are making the right decision to go ahead and extract the teeth. So tomorrow is the day!! I think he is a little nervous...but truth be told, I am sooo sad that we have to do this! I am trying to be positive and encouraging...but ugh...I hate it! So, tomorrow, in addition to spending the morning doing laundry at our dear friend and sitter Lynda's house (no, the laundry STILL isn't done and more than that, they aren't even working tomorrow b/c the contractor didn't schedule the drywall until Wed...ugh!), I'll meet Landon for lunch and then take him with me and on to the dentist. Please say a prayer that he won't be too afraid and that it won't hurt him too badly...I won't be able to go back with him, so I am just praying for peace for his little heart. Please pray for Christy (our dentist and friend), that she would have steady hands and be able to comfort him the way I would if I could be there in the room. We'll post pictures of our adorable toothless wonder when we can!!

A first date?!

For the past 10 years I have been meeting with some of the girls from my old single girls small group several times throughout the year for breakfast and toes. As we have all moved from singles, to marrieds, to mommies....and some to other states...these visits have served as a way to touch base and keep in touch even in the busyness of life and I love and look forward to them! Our January meeting is always to celebrate sweet Lila's birthday...but this year we also needed to be sure that she had pretty toes for her baby girl's delivery day on January 25! Unfortunately, a sick child prevented Rebecca from joining us, but Lila needed pretty toes, so we met for breakfast at J. Christophers anyway! When I arrived, the host took great joy (and pride) in telling me that Lila had been "expecting" me...it was so corny...in an endearing way! :) He had a couple other little quips that were also funny, but they escape me right now (shocker-I have no memory to speak of these days!) We had a great breakfast and even got some fun photos...9 days before her due date and 1 month before mine...might they one day grace a rehearsal dinner table? :) We can only hope! Love you Lila...so thankful for you and your friendship these past 10 years!!

What were we thinking!?

Yesterday started what we hope is a 2-3 week renovation of our laundry room...yes, I am just about 34 weeks pregnant at this point...so we are sincerely hoping that our contractors can stick by the schedule they provided at the beginning!! In talking with builder Bob (yes...his name is Bob and, of course, the boys started calling him Bob the builder!) yesterday, he is pretty sure that they can be done and gone from the upstairs of our house by the beginning of Feb...which would be wonderful!! Why do we need a reno of a 5 year old house's laundry room you ask? Well, when we bought the house, I had to give up my dream of a sink in the laundry room. For the size of our house, the laundry room makes absolutely NO sense! It truly is the size of a small walk in closet with just barely enough room for the washer/dryer and a small laundry bin. When we realized we were expecting another boy...we realized that we would need a larger capacity washer/dryer that was much more energy (and time) efficient. The problem was, there was NO way to have any larger unit installed in our current laundry due to the layout. If we could even get them in there, we would not be able to close the door...and the boys would have to fall asleep to the music of the spin cycle and overall clasps clanging in the dryer. Additionally, I could just see me trying to soak 3 pairs of baseball pants AND dirty bibs/diapers/burp cloths in the bathroom sinks...and it did not look pretty!! Not only are the sinks too small to hold more than 2 to 3 items at a time, but now they both are used for teeth brushing and I didn't want the boys brushing teeth in a sink which just a few hours ago contained bleach and soiled clothes. So resurfaced my dream of a sink in my laundry room. Our builder also included a large, but ill-designed, walk-in linen closet in the hall next to the laundry...and I guess my high school drafting class came flooding back and I could just envision what could be! So, after many months, we have finally begun the process or relocating the roof support that currently sits on the wall that we will be demolished to combine both spaces into (drum roll please) a laundry room large enough for a super + capacity wash set AND a large laundry sink!!! (and the crowd goes wild!) It may sound like a silly request, maybe a little frivolous to some, but to the person that spends hours a day in that little room...it sounds like heaven! I cannot wait! I'll have to post pictures of the before and after so you can celebrate with me!

The other project being tackled is a large attic space off the boys' closet. Right now, it is wide open, unconditioned (no HVAC or insulation and has a screened vent to the outdoors) and though we have an exterior type door separating the closet from this space, there is a significant difference in air temp in the boys room and closet...and their room is typically about 3 degrees colder than the rest of the upstairs in the winter and hot as blazes in the summer! Overall, the space measures around 12x12, but with the gabled roof, the "usable space" is more like 12x7.5. We are having it insulated and drywalled and carpeted and the vent altered so that there is still proper ventilation through the ridge vent but we can seal off the open vent to control the temp a little better. The "conditioned area right off the closet will become a little "play room" with plenty of built in shelving that they can feel comfortable playing Lego's in and not worry about the baby "eating" them! :) In time, it will also serve as a "study nook" so that those that need to go to bed can, and those that still have studying to do can close the door and finish their work. We may change our minds later, but the intention is to have all the boys in the same room. We really enjoy having a guest room for guests and the big boys already share a room and do great and Mathis is chomping at the bit to join them...so instead of having 2 twin beds, we will have 2 sets of bunks! And I truly believe that it is fine for kids to share a room - it may even foster a closer relationship! The times we have camped outside their door to listen to their night-time conversations are wonderful memories...and it is fun to hear them dreaming and laughing together!

So please say a prayer that all goes smoothly (and quickly) and that little No Name can stay put until it is completed and we can make sure all the drywall dust has settled (and been vaccuumed away!). Can't wait to share before and after photos!

Take great care!!

What's in a name?

Here we are at the 32+ week mark and still no closer to a name for this precious boy! I am not kidding when I say that I have had many, many sleepless nights over this!! If we had known then that we would have a 4Th boy coming, we might have saved Mathis' middle name, Cooper, for the last one. Every person in our family seems to have their own idea of a perfect name (some people have more than one entry...) and though all of them sound great with our last name and listed with the other boys' names, we are not totally sold on any of them! For those of you that have known us for a while, you may remember that we like two syllable names that contain 6 letters (just the first name...the middle name doesn't have as many rules). So, for now, this baby is just sweet little No Name...or as my parents have named him, little Almost (6 letters/2 syllables)! :)
We have mentioned a few of the options to some close friends and family members and have gotten mixed reviews...the funniest remarks were "that's a dog's name" and "no, not that one...that is awful" (yes, people REALLY said that!) so we are left scratching our heads and praying that God will reveal this boy's name sooner rather than later! Worst case scenario, we will take our list to the hospital with us and wait to see that sweet face to make a decision. Until then...if you have any suggestions, feel free to share, we could use a little help! :) But don't forget - 6 letters/2 syllables! :)
Happy New Year and God Bless!!