Y’all, Andrew and I are SO very excited to share with you that WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY!! It’s been almost 4 years since we lost our sweet Lil-bug. We still miss her so much and Reynolds says that he still remembers her…and LEGIT prays for her almost every night {along with my mom}.

Several months ago, maybe even a year ago {or more? I lost track of time!} we started talking about getting a new dog for our family. Emory loves every dog he sees and Reynolds needs a four-legged friend, and I think a little responsibility. And in all of our conversations about dogs, what kind, how big, etc., we settled on a Goldendoodle and started our journey to finding our new family member.

Fast forward to just a couple of months ago, when we found a breeder in Pickens, SC {near Greenville, for my non-SC friends} that would have a litter sometime early February. We inquired about the litter and were told then that they wouldn’t know until closer to the due date how many puppies there would be, but that we could of course get on their waiting list. We jumped in, last on the list, but expectant.

The puppies were born on 2/1 and a few days after that we received an email from the owner with some details and information. They had more deposits than puppies, so they opted to give up a boy puppy from a December litter that they originally had wanted to keep. Thankfully, someone opted for this cute little guy, which meant, WE would now get a puppy!

At this point I started stalking these sweet babies on their Facebook page – Double U Doodles. First a few pictures, then videos, we were all immediately and completely smitten by these sweet little faces. Reynolds even saw a video and announced that he wanted “Red Boy”.

We asked the kids the other night what names they could come up with for a girl or boy dog, and though I can’t remember them, they were all quite silly and unrealistic from a mom’s perspective.

Well, today was the day that Andrew and I got to go visit these sweet puppies so after dropping off all the kids at their respective schools, we hit the road, north. The drive was quick and beautiful. Andrew worked and made phone calls while I listened to the Today show {Hulu is amazing!}. Our visit was limited from 11am-12pm and I wanted every bit of that hour to meet these sweet little pups.

We pulled up to the gate promptly at 11am…no other visitors were there so it was just us and the puppies, all to ourselves. They were fast asleep, in a little puppy clump when we sat down next to their pen.

They were seriously so much cuter in person. The owner/breeder, Rebecca was so sweet – in her email she’d stated that we wouldn’t get to hold these sweet pups because they were still so young, but today she squirted hand-sanitizer on our hands and opened the pen for us to love on them!

I didn’t tell Andrew, but I wanted them ALL. In that very moment.
Rebecca told us that most people wanted a ‘red’ puppy – there are three of those: two girls: Flower Girl and Pink Girl and one boy: Red Boy. Sort of figuring we won’t get one of those {Reynolds may be slightly heart broken…but hopefully not}, we focused first on “Blue Boy” a Sable colored little fella – brown and black and “Turquoise Girl” who is black with little bits of white on her paws.

We had such a fun time holding these sweet puppies; Rebecca was a delight and made my day by letting us play with them. Before we left we gave her our top 4 list, which was actually really hard. I hated having a ‘last’ option, as we will be THRILLED with whichever puppy we end up with. Which, by the way…it will possibly be tomorrow that we know which one will be ours! Of course, it’s a few more weeks before we can bring him/her home to the crazies {our kids}…but that gives us time to figure out a name and get all the fun puppy things. :)
By they by…where’s the best place to go for puppy training?

Oh, and did you know that today is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day? I may be looking for a fairy tale about puppies, to tell at bed time.

Until next time…

I thought it totally fitting when we got home from the doctor’s office this morning and I opened up my January 2018 issue of ‘Real Simple’ to see the article titled, Your Sick Day Survival Guide.

Somehow it knew.

Bless it all y’all. I picked the kids up Friday from daycare and she had a fever. 102ish. Saturday she got down to 99 most of the day…but by night she was back up to around 103. Andrew called the doctor, who told us to bring her in this morning.

I was the second person to walk in…  Sometimes I feel like we’ve become regulars since 2013. They know us all by name…

There was another little fella waiting with his daddy that had the same symptoms Eliza Jane did. I hope the outcome for him was different.

We went through the routine of weight check {where she stomped her feet, and screamed “No! No! No!”}. This girl…she has no clue of what weight checks will be in her future, all 35 current pounds of her.

We got into the room and they took her temp that I think he said 98.1, which was totally not right because when I got her back home, she was 101.9…

Anyway, sweet Doc checked her ears, which didn’t go well for the pint-sized spit-fire. She screamed and flopped like a fish out of water. After removing a small ball of wax from each ear, Doc confirmed a slight infection in the right ear. Then said, “I think we should do a flu test, just to be able to rule that out.”

Sadly, we didn’t rule it out. It ruled us.

Once again, she thrashed her head {why does she do this?!}. But the sweet girl in the lab got what she needed to be able to tell us that Eliza Jane has the flu, type A.

Back in the Doctor’s office, he tells me all the things he is going to prescribe, for both flu and the ear infection…and that sweet Eliza Jane needs to “be quarantined as much as possible”.

That.will.never.happen.

Then, when I told him about the other two kids in the house {why the quarantine will never happen}, he said if anyone got a fever to call them and then everyone would get Tamiflu. My fingers are crossed on this, but I’m also not a Pollyanna.

Meanwhile, to today/tonight being New Year’s Eve. The kids asked all day for us to have a party. In thinking we wouldn’t be able to do something so great for and with them, I tried to think of something fun we could do tonight to celebrate New Year’s.

While at Publix this afternoon I grabbed a few minor fireworks and a bottle of Sparkling Grape Juice. I was hoping to make them feel special, that we could have a party, even if a bunch of people weren’t at our home. I mean Andrew and I may not be the most fun people on the planet…but we know how to throw a great party.

After supper, and Emory went to bed {he was rather cranky this evening}, we bundled up and went outside to light up our fireworks.

Now? All the kids are in bed asleep. Daddy and I are working on our laptops, watching Rockin’ New Year’s Eve…and yes, we’ll be asleep when that beautiful crystal ball drops!

Happy 2018 Friends! I hope your new year is everything you hope it to be!

Gone are the days when I could sit down at night and share all the fun and wild things happening in our lives! I have thoughts most days about a blog post and all the wonderful things I want to share with you, but the time is rare that I can sit down at the computer and get out all the things I want to say.

Life has been super busy, as I’m sure it has been for you as well. The holiday season often brings an additional element of events and commitments {of which I am most happy to oblige!}.

The last several weeks have been really fun for us :: We celebrated Emory’s first birthday, our 7th anniversary, Thanksgiving and now we’re full swing into Christmas!
I thought I would share some pictures from the beginning of November up until this past weekend when Dana and I took our girls to a Nutcracker Tea and then the ballet – which was so magical for all of us!

First off…Our Daycare Church celebrated Luther-Fest and had some great entertainment for the kiddos.Institches Designs blew me away once again with some adorable shirts for Emory’s first birthday!  We spent a fun morning out at EdVenture shopping in the Publix and then playing golf in space and finally by flying an airplane! Thanksgiving Feast at Daycare for these Turkeys! The love is strong between these two. Packing their Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes.
He’s finally getting to where he LOVES to sit in his PB anywhere chair!Andrew and I had a fun night out at the Festival of Trees annual fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital. And then my little buddy turned one and loved his cake from Rosie Girl Bakery! We even got the same pictures that we got with both Reynolds and Eliza Jane on their first birthdays {more pictures from AnnieLaura Photography to come!}.Eliza Jane wanted to try her hand at creating a ‘smoky eye’ with my purple eye shadow one morning…. Reynolds got to be one of the Wise Men in a church Christmas play.Thanksgiving in Macon – and I got to see my two favorite Georgia guys! Eliza Jane and I {and Emory – not pictured} got to go to Woodley’s Garden center one Saturday afternoon, where she helped me pick out some beautiful Poinsettias to celebrate the season. Celebrating 50(!!!) years of Christmas parties with Mrs. Black – who is a spry 95 year old!
Emory got some tubes last Monday to help with those pesky ear infections! My fingers are crossed!! Favorite sibling photo of all time so far…These two boys are so handsome!!We opened some fun Christmas gifts from our friends Caroline, Wes and Pace – who sent us the Lucas Family’s 12 Days of Christmas and we love it!Eliza Jane got her first Shirley Temple from our favorite server, Luis!Eliza Jane and Brynn’s Christmas gifts from the moms was an afternoon of the Nutcracker. Making silly faces before the curtain lifted… A fun photo with Santa himself…and he was a pretty Santa for sure!
I love looking back to see all the things we’ve done over the past several weeks. I hope this season is wonderful and magical for you and your family.

I wanted to also share a post with you from two years ago – a post about my mom on her birthday, which is today. She continues to share her love with us through this amazing cake that we have dubbed “Grammy Cake”.

Oh…Eliza Jane.

Twice this year she’s hijacked us. And this time, she hijacked herself.

It was a lovely Monday afternoon. Just the yesterday in fact. We were looking at a house for sale and first Emory had a dirty diaper…and as fate would have it I had ONE wipe in his bag. ONE. Andrew and I raided both our glove compartments for any and all napkins to help in our time of need. I was more thankful for Subway, Bojangles and Dunkin’ Donuts than ever before…

As I was cleaning up the poor baby who was extremely unhappy about his current situation, Andrew was aiding me as best he could. And as I recall it, I saw out of the corner of my eye, the other door closing shut. Silence was broken by what I have called the ‘Mariah Carey scream’. It’s this high-pitched shrill of a sound, that if you aren’t in a safe enough distance away, you could lose your hearing entirely.

“What the…” Andrew said as he threw down the other napkins he held to run over to the other side of my van {side note: yes, I drive a minivan now…}. The screaming somehow got louder and as I shook Emory into his pants {bless his sweet heart}, I got over to the other side just in time to see her smashed up and crooked finger.

Andrew was trying to talk to the screaming child and in my “Ican’tbelievethisishappeningrightnow” annoyed, moment self, I said, “It’s broken, just get her in the car.”

Of course it’s broken. It can’t NOT be broken. I have never seen a finger look like THAT before.

Bless my sweet husband. He got her in the back of the van despite the screaming and crying. And wouldn’t you know. She didn’t care one bit about her jacked-up finger. She was screaming now at the potential that she would miss gymnastics.

Punch me in the face, would you?

She’s nuts.

“My want to go to ‘nastics!!!” she was hollering from the back seat as tears poured out of her eyeballs.

“Momma…?” Reynolds said quietly. “Are we going to miss gymnastics now?”

Poor kid. Originally, I was going to be a single mom for the night so I had decided to be brave and take all three to gymnastics. I even called ahead Monday afternoon and asked if Reynolds could participate in Eliza Jane’s class and had gotten that okay’d.  Now…  Now all their dreams of doing flips and swinging and rolling around had been dashed.

“What were y’all doing? Who closed the door?” these were the senseless questions I was asking them of course. Reynolds stared at me like I had 10 heads. Mum was the word. No one was fessing up to this fiasco.

I called the doctor’s office and told them what happened…”What do I do? Where do I take her?” I asked.  They told me to take her to the “Black and Blue clinic”.  And of course as I was retelling this to Andrew his response was, “oh yeah, I’ve been there many times.” Y’all recall that I have an accident insurance policy 1. because of him and 2. because of Reynolds, who is much like his father. And now, apparently Eliza Jane is as well. So far now…2 out of 3 children are following in their father’s footsteps. I am doomed.

Anyway, back to the story. We got to the clinic and by then the screaming and crying had stopped…but she was still sniffling about missing gymnastics. Logic was in no way a part of any of our conversation, obviously. Andrew was trying to explain to her that she couldn’t tumble and do flips if her finger was hurt. “My not want to go to the doctor! My want to go to ‘nastics!” She was adamant.

Bless it all, y’all.

Long story cut short…I called ‘nastics and told them we weren’t going to make it after all, but thanks for letting us know that Reynolds could participate in her class in the future.
Emory and I left the clinic to get home and cook the supper my tummy was rumbling for and as I finished up my dinner I got the text that everything was okay.
“She didn’t even cry when they did the x-rays.” Andrew’s text came thru and I shook my head thinking, “of course she didn’t.”

No major damage, just a cut on the backside of the joint that we are trying to keep a bandage on, to be sure it doesn’t get infected.

What a Monday. Here’s to the rest of the week and hoping that there are no more hijackings in our immediate future. And yes, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.

Meanwhile…here she is in all her silly from today.

Have a great night!