Holidazed...

Sorry I have been MIA for another month...I feel like the world's worst blogger. But, you know what, I am so okay with that...I have nothing funny or witty to share right now...I am too dang tired... Here 's a slideshow of Christmas 2006 here in Savannah; it is the best I can do for now! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas filled with Jesus, family and friends (oh, and food, of course!) and is looking forward to the new year as much as I am...

One More November Post...

I haven't posted because I am sick...ugh. I am hoping I am on the mend, but nervous that the crud may have developed into a sinus infection. May have to go to the doctor tomorrow--but I do feel a bit better today.

I had a very special Birthday/Thanksgiving in Richmond with my mom and dad. Jeremy was sick while we were there (thanks for passing it to me, Jer!), but he seemed to heal up nicely after about 36 hours. We celebrtated my 30th birthday very low-key (except for the raging fire on top of my cake...that was pretty exciting!) and had a woderful non-turkey dinner of roasted pork loin on Thanksgiving(MmMmmm...it was delicious, Dad!). My mom and I even shopped a little on Black Friday--we spent an hour at Kohl's. I found a coat within 15 minutes of arriving. Then, stood in line for over half an hour waiting to pay for it. We decided to go home after that! We went to colonial Williamsburg on Saturday and spent the afternoon there walking the streets of old. We were hoping they would have the town decorated for Christmas, but no such luck!

It was definitely worth the 17+ hour drive there and back with the other 38 million Americans traveling, to be with my precious family--thanks for inviting us up and taking such good care of us, Mom and Dad!


Wishing that I had put makeup on and fixed my hair that morning--but, c'mon, I was about to travel 8 hours in the car with two little ones!


Our Thanksgiving meal and Ley checking out the homemade cranberry sauce (boy, was it good with that pork loin!!)


Granddad and his kiddos!


Colonial Williamsburg, VA

Bike Helmets and Parking Spaces...

Just a little humor on this special day. Jeremy and I were married seven years ago today... Does it seem like it has been that many years?!? Most days, yes... The title of this post refers to my faves in the following joke. Happy Anniversary, J...



Men are Like......

.....placemats
they only show up when there's food on the table.

.....mascara
they usually run at the first sign of emotion.

.....bike helmets
they're good in emergencies but usually just look silly.

.....government bonds
they take so long to mature.

.....copiers
you need them in reproduction but that's about it.

.....lava lamps
fun to look at it but not all that bright.

.....bank accounts
without a lot of money they don't generate a lot of interest.

.....high heels
they're easy to walk on once you get the hang of it.

.....mini skirts
if your not careful they'll creep up your legs.

.....handguns
keep one around long enough and your gonna want to shoot it!

.....laxatives
they irritate the crap out of you.

.....bananas
the older they get, the less firm they are.

......weather
nothing can be done to change them.

.....blenders
you need one, but you're not quite sure why.

.....commercials
you can't believe a word they say.

.....department stores
their clothes are always 1/2 off.

.....horoscopes
they always tell you what to do and are usually wrong.

.....parking spaces
all the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.

WARNING: This will make you dizzy...

Welcome to life with Leighton...he never stops. Okay, it just feels like he never stops because during the time when he does sleep (stopping=sleeping), I am sleeping also. He took a 20 minute nap today (he normally sleeps 1 1/2 to 2 hours) and the following resulted. You may want to wait 30 minutes to an hour to watch this if you just ate or drank...

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I Heart Monochrome...

Just a black-and-white montage of mostly Madden...

Slow start this morning...

Here are a few pics of Ley and Maddie. Leighton has become all about Spiderman the last few weeks (since seeing his cousins in LA--he watched the movie with them). He runs around in his muscle suit singing, "Spiderman, nobody knows who you are!" and shooting webs out of his pointer finger. We even borrowed the movie and with the aid of TVGuardian (that technology is pretty great), he has loved watching the action flick.



Madden is doing great...sleeping throught the night again. She loves to be held all the time. She will play by herself on the floor or in the doorway jumper for short amounts of time. She is rolling around all over the place. Oh, and she is very entertained by Ley. She still loves to be swaddled, and my pastor, Larry, asked me on Sunday if I was going to wrap her up like that until she was 14!?! I told him I was going to do whatever worked as long as it continued to work (I definitely have a few more weeks of 'baby burrito-ing'--I wrapped Ley until he was 5 1/2 months old and he was much bigger than her)! I started trying Baby Einstein DVDs for her, but she is not too interested yet. Maybe she would watch them if I was holding her!! Due to teething, she always has something in her mouth. It is so hard to get a good picture these days! I can't believe she is almost 5 months old...

Sleep, I miss you...Come home soon...

Daylight Savings Time is bittersweet. You understand this if you have kids! It is really tough on the little ones' schedules. And for that matter, it affects me too. I was so blessed to have a baby who sleeps to between 8-9 AM in the morning. Now that has changed to 7-8 AM. Okay, that is still not bad at all, except Ley is getting up at 6 or 6:30 AM now! I am so not a morning person; I have never been a morning person. I know that there are moms who get up at 5 AM due to their sweet litle children's body clocks (so I should NOT complain), but I just needed to vent. My body and my brain miss the extra sleep in the AM. I am off the decaf and on something with a little kick (I love that Folgers makes a Lite coffee with half the caffeine of regular coffee...).

I can't believe it is already November and that I have not posted in two weeks! We made a whirlwind trip back to North LA to visit our immediate family so they could meet Miss Madden (and Jeremy had a wedding gig to play, of course). We lived through the ordeal of traveling twelve hours with a 4 month old who truly dislikes her carseat. I can almost tune out her 'carseat' cry after listening to it for so long...



Madden had her 4 month check-up last week. She was 13 lbs and 24 1/4 in, which is 40 and 50 percentile consecutively! I kind of freaked a bit until Dr. Hobby assured me it was no big deal. She was in the 8o and 95 percentile at her two month appt. He said as long as she is doing everything she is supposed to as far as milestones and developmentally (which she is), that she is just a little baby. This is foreign to me considering Leighton never fell out of the 90 percentile! At 4 months, he was 2 1/2 lbs heavier and almost 3 in longer than Maddie! Anyway, Madden made it through another set of shots; and Jeremy, Leighton and I have all received our flu shots this year per the Dr. to try and protect sweet baby girl (as well as ourselves, but not sure I could have talked Jeremy into getting one if I didn't play the "Dr. said you had to because of Maddie" card).



We had fun trick or treating this year. Leighton was in his usual form this year. He thinks when someone opens their door to him with a bowl of candy that this means he is welcome to come on in! We had to keep reminding him not to enter the homes...He loved his costume and we will continue to get lots of wear out of it since he loves to play dress up. Madden was a chili pepper courtesy of her friend Jackson. I wasn't going to dress her up but decided to at the last minute since Ashley had the costume, and Jeremy really wanted her to be something. It was a bit big, but we didn't mind and neither did she.

Fun at the Park

Late, yesterday afternoon the Davis family headed just down the road from our house to a little park and had some fun before dinner...Leighton loves this little park because of the purple, bouncy dinosaur and the rocket ship. It was really nice and cool yesterday evening and we had a good time playing before if got too dark...

Let the Bouncing Begin!

Leighton absolutely loved this doorway bouncer (and actually, could be the amount of time that he spent in it that causes him to literally jump while he is having a conversation with you to this day), and now it's Madden's turn...I hope she likes it as much as he did!

Roll With It, Baby...

Maddie has been rolling from tummy to back for awhile now, but just in the past 2 weeks started rolling from back to tummy. Before I know it she will be sitting up, then scooting, then crawling...it's going too quickly! I love watching her grow, though...We sure are cleaning up alot of spitup again due to the fact that she is now able to roll over on her own!

Leighton is really interested in her growing as well. He is ready for a playmate and not just a 'baby sister'. This morning I hear, "Look, Mom! I picked her up!" My heart dropped into my stomach, and I turned to see him with her in his lap. He had pulled her up from her tummy, backwards into his lap. I am so glad he loves her so much, but I hope she survives his 'attention'...I just keep reminding him today that he can hold her anytime, just to let me know first so I can help...

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One more thing....

Congratulations on the new job, Uncle Jeff!!! We are very excited for you guys. I still can't believe you are moving to Louisiana now that I live 12 hours away....but, it matters not because God is good!!

I LOVE being a Mom...but could I have FOUR!!?!

My closest friend here in our little town, Ashley, has just begun massage therapy school ( I know, how lucky am I!?!) and this morning our friend Jessie, who usually keeps her kiddos for a couple of hours on Monday morning (until Ash's hubby, Scott, gets off work at 10 AM), is on vacation at the beach (okay, so she is a little luckier than me at the moment...). So, Ash asked me to watch the kids this morn. This is the first time since Madden was born that I have watched her kids and I was a little nervous too be in charge of an almost 4 month old, a 20 month old (Jackson), a 3 1/2 year old (Savannah), and my almost 4 year old. But, I really didn't have much time to be anxious once they got here.

It actually went very well. Maddie actually slept until 8:45 AM, so we had a whole hour of just the 'big' kids. We ate breakfast pretty quickly, and we played and destroyed Leighton's room after that. Everyone obeyed the room rules for the most part:
#1--stay out of the closet
#2--keep off the bed (this policy helps avoid the temptation to jump and possibly cause a trip to experience the joys of emergency medicine)
We then made a pallet in front of the TV and turned on 'Charlotte's Web' and snacked on animal crackers and milk...Savannah was the only one who truly watched the movie; Jackson and Leighton continued playing.

Even nursing Madden was not a big deal. Jackson is the only one who paid much attention to that...The only thing we had to watch closely was the swing...Jacks kept wanting to get up close to love on her and stopped the swing in doing so, while Ley and Savannah were wanting to push the swing themselves with a little too much force. It's a good thing that Maddie is used to life with Leighton on a daily basis; sometimes I think he messes with her as much as 3 or 4 brothers and sisters would! That which does not kill us (or send us to the ER...), makes us stronger...

Before we knew it, Scott had arrived to pick up his half of the kids. It was a fun morning and I will gladly take care of the Carpenter children again whenever I am needed (although I may need a little Swedish massage when I am done!!), but I am certainly happy with my two offspring for the time being...

Can You Do This??



My daughter is only 15 1/2 weeks, but already she is able to perform amazing tricks! She is normally quite fond of just the right thumb, but sometimes when she finds her hand to be up close to her mouth she just decides to suck her entire fist! I couldn't get to the camera quite fast enough and by the time I took the above photo she had already pulled part of her fist out of her mouth. I kid you not though, she can get her entire tiny mitt inside her gummy, little mouth. Wow...she definitely doesn't go by the motto of "less is more", that's for sure.

I am very new to the whole idea of thumb (or in some cases, fist) sucking since Leighton could not get enough of the pacifier. Madden makes a face like you are feeding her peas for the first time when you try to stick a paci in her mouth. Madden likes her thumb SO much that sometimes, mid-nurse, she decides to suck it rather than finish her meal. Once again, amazing...that digit is really something special these days!

One day in a few years, I am probably going to be ready to pull my hair out due to the thumb-sucking, but right now, I am loving it! How wonderful is it when they get that teeny phalange in their mouth and are able to soothe themselves...just lovely! I can't worry myself about the future woes of a thumb-sucking child just yet...because the present perks are just too great for the moment...