Coming soon....CSN Stores Giveaway!!

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I am going to be hosting a giveaway soon so make sure you watch my blog for the upcoming post. You do not want to miss it!

One year later....

I have so much to be thankful for. We were blessed with a beautiful baby boy a little over a week ago. I was able to have a natural birth because the baby turned from breech to head down just in time. My sister came all the way from North Carolina with her 20 month old son to stay with us and help out for 2 weeks. My hubby got a job promotion....and all this just in the last 2 weeks or so! Much more has happened in the last year as well. It helps me forget the pain from a year ago....

Its hard to believe its been a year since our beloved dog Duke died. We still miss him tremendously, but we have been blessed with 2 more Aussies and they have been keeping us busy! Bo is a nut, but he is really good, listens very well and LOVES playing in the barn. He is super fast and climbs stacks of hay bales. Jim has a lot of fun with him. I think he would make an awesome agility dog...maybe I can get Jim to take a class with him. Luke is a bit more laid back and he is a sweetie. He gets a bit crazy sometimes (he IS an Aussie after all!) but he does really well with Jimmy. He loves to play frisbee and is doing pretty well with returning it to me when he retrieves it. Neither of the dogs are as well trained as Duke was, but hopefully in time they will catch up. I just haven't put as much time in as I should have and now with Baby Matthew its going to be even harder. I am more in charge of Luke's training and Jim is taking care of Bo so we will see how it goes in the coming months. Bo will be a year old in a few days and Luke will be one in October. Time sure does fly!

So...what else has changed in the past year...we got the 2 dogs, we sold my white truck, refinanced the house, got the front board fence up, had a baby, oh, and hubby's job promotion. I am praying he does well and that learning all the new things he will be responsible for comes easily, as this is a bit of a large change from his original job. We are so thankful for this change though, God is awesome!

So in the midst of the sadness we have felt with the loss of Duke (and some other minor issues we have been dealing with), we have so much to be thankful for. All I have mentioned and so much more. It really helps to put what we are thankful for in writing, it gets my mind on the good things instead of bad!

So...what are YOU thankful for?

Its Been a Week!

Wow!! I can't believe its been a week since Matthew was born! I am SO sorry I didn't get a chance to post details right away, my sister didn't bring her laptop to the hospital so it had to wait. Then when we got home, it was difficult to have time to sit here and write a post since most of my free time is in the evening and my sister's son went to bed around 7 each night. The computer is in the guest room so I couldn't go in and write a post while Caspian was sleeping. My sister went home yesterday though (miss them already!!) so I wrote a couple posts in retrospect as if they posted on the correct days lol! We are doing great a week later btw, I can't believe its already been a week and a day (I know I have already said that, but still!!). And Jimmy is an official 2 and a half year old today too, my little man is growing up so fast! Matthew will be right behind him. *Sigh*

Its funny, Matthew looks a lot like his brother and daddy from the side, but more like my side of the family from the front. It will be interesting to see who he favors more as he grows.

Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers and comments so far, I will be working on answering emails in the next couple of days! Hopefully now I will be able to get back into a groove and post more regularly.  Thanks for sticking by me everyone!!

Welcome Baby Matthew

Matthew Adrian was born July 12th at 2:54am. Weighing 8 lbs 9 oz and measuring 21 & 1/2 inches long, he came into this world without the assistance of any drugs or interventions.

My water broke at about 5:30pm Sunday while we were at a restaurant, luckily right before we ordered any food! I was sitting there looking at the menu when I felt something a little funny and then a little gush. I said "Uh oh" and my sister looked at me and said "Nuh uh!" and I grinned at her and she ran out to the truck to get something to help me out. Poor hubby was just sitting there wondering what was going on then I told him and the waitress came to get our order. I told her that we were going to have to leave because my water broke! She looked surprised and I felt really bad that I made a mess lol! My sister gave her a big tip though and off we went, after I finally made myself stand up that is (there is a lot of fluid in there!!). We drove home, got my bags, I showered real quick and Jim's mom came over to babysit Jimmy and Caspian, my sister's little boy. Then we headed to the hospital and got there around 8:30pm. I still wasn't having any contractions so the nurse had me start walking. We walked for about an hour and the contractions started in no time. Then I had to start using the breast pump (sorry if TMI lol) to help keep the contractions going, which wasn't a problem because they kept up strong! I had to have 2 rounds of antibiotics through an IV because I was GBS positive then after that it wasn't long before I got to get in the jacuzzi and was in transition. That part is a bit blurry =) but I know it didn't take too long after that before I got back into bed and was able to push (the on call dr. didn't do water births) I had been really wanting to push while I was in the tub but that last centimeter of dilation was STUBBORN!! After a few pushes, Little Matthew made his entrance into the world right before 3am. Such a little sweetie he is! He looks a lot like his brother and daddy, but I can definitely see my side of the family in him, a lot more than in Jimmy. He is doing very well, just had some bruising on his face because of mommy's excitement to meet him, and he is turning into a champion nurser.

We are home now so I will try to post more pics soon. Thank you all so much for all of your kind thoughts and prayers, we are so thankful our little one turned head down and was able to be born naturally. God is GREAT!

We Have a Baby!!!

Still Waiting....

Here is a baby update, sorry to keep you all waiting!!! My sister is staying with us to help out and we've been busy getting things in order and running last minute errands, etc. And the computer is in the guest room so its a little difficult to get online ;-)

Ok, so I had my appointment on Wednesday and the ultrasound showed the baby is head down, praise the Lord!! Everything else looked wonderful. Baby was measuring about 9 lbs but apparently it can be off by a bit so we shall see. I was only dilated about 1 cm, but we know that can change quickly, especially with baby #2!

So the plan is to proceed with our natural birth plans. If nothing happens I will have another dr. appt. on Wednesday. So far no plans to induce and a c-section has not been discussed. So we are playing the waiting game!

I pray baby comes soon, I am so ready to be able to hold my sweet little blessing! Thanks so very much to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. I will try to post an update as soon as one is available. My sister is going to bring her laptop to the hospital so I will make sure we post SOMETHING to let you all know if anything happens. Have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday

I am SO thankful for this (the fence):

 So now THIS can happen:

Luke, Bo and Cody can run around and I don't have to worry about them getting hit by a car (like what happened to our precious Duke almost a year ago)

There is wire lining the fence so the dogs can't get out...though Luke could get through the gate if he wanted to, we will be getting a different gate at some point and moving this one to a pasture whenever we get it fenced. I do not plan on letting the dogs out without my supervision any way, at least not for a while. There are still a couple places that need secured on the old fence. But this fence is the most important one since it is on the road. AND it keeps little Jimmy away from the road too. It is such a relief to have it up. Just needs a few touch ups of paint. I think it is so pretty, hubby did a great job!