Sept 19, 2009

After 3 years of dating... we made it forever. Surrounded by our family and friends, with sand between our toes and the waves crashing to the left we held hands and exchanged rings. We promised to love each other and honestly... it hasn't been hard. Always doing what is right in our relationship and making each other a priority now that we have a cute little guy demanding our attention is sometimes hard, but the love is effortless.

 

as we stand beside the ocean, we commit to a marriage as strong, constant and unchanging as these waves flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea. 

I take you to be my partner in life and my one true love. I promise to love you more each day than I did the day before. I promise to give you the best of myself, to respect you as a person, and to bring joy and strength to our relationship. I promise to trust you and to honor you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving your faithfully through good times and misfortune, in achievement and failure and regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward and forever.

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

I am so lucky to be married to the most wonderful husband and father. I am blessed beyond what I deserve and I am so thankful. Tonight we will celebrate with a date night. Dinner and a walk around Target. romantic. and perfectly us.

on a side note... I am totally sobbing at how little Jackson was when we got married. 

He was only 15months and Durham looks so much like him in these pics, you know, like a cute fat little baby! ::sniff sniff::

nine and a half months

That is how old fatty is now... 

I can't believe it. This year is flying by. 

I am knee deep in:

first birthday planning and work

baby snuggles and slobber

toys and little bites of food can be found in my bra and purse at any time

five tooth smiles and a hundred night time checks

I am knee deep and loving it.

I haven't written a true update in quite a while, so there is quite a lot to share. This blog is a record of our life, and I want to make sure I put it down so I can remember. These memories might seem small but they are all consuming to us.

mommy & daddy:

We are doing great. Hubs stays super busy providing for us, and I have no idea where he gets all of his energy from. He is still working full time & part time and in school for his masters! one.more.year. We are looking forward to celebrating our 3 year anniversary this week with a date night (our 3rd one since Durham was born). I'm still working and then racing home to be with mini-me. Over the past 2 months I have completely weaned off my PPD meds. I'm not perfect, but I am feeling again and it is rejuvenating. I have good days, and great days, and a bad day mixed in there sometimes but overall I am doing better than ever. My BFF is pregnant (she finally announced last week!) and I spend lots of brain power thinking about their new baby. We are having family pictures taken next month and then the crazy holiday season begins! I've been good at planning things so I can make it all happen, but I'm going to have to do even better with work picking up.

Durham:

Big boy is growing growing growing! At his 9month appointment he weighed in at 22.7lbs and was 30inches long. He had his first shot at this appointment and he did good... we both cried, but he didn't have any cranky days or fevers following so I'd call that a win. 

He wears 12-18 month clothes and has 5 teeth (four on bottom and one on top). He still loves bath time most, we do most baths in the big bath tub, but I sometimes use the kitchen sink because it is easier on my back. Either way he is always splishing-and-splashing.

Durham is so much fun right now! He is crawling all over the place (and fast too!) pulling up on everything and letting go.... standing alone for a second and then plopping down. His favorite place to be is standing next to the ottoman. He scoots around it all day and leaps from the ottoman to the sofa and to your leg and back again.  

He is still taking 2 good naps a day, one around 10am for 2 hours and one around 2pm for an hour or longer. We have weaned to 4 bottles a day, and he eats 3 meals of 'bites' and a snack or two. His favorite finger foods are blueberries, grapes, cheese, peas and waffles. He also loves applesause, squash, and yogurt.

D says 'mama' and 'dada' all the time (and knows who he is talking about when he says it!) and a couple of times we have heard him say 'bye'. His favorite book is 'B is for Bear' it's one of those touch and feel... we stay on the duck page forever because it is too cute how he pets the baby ducks fur. 
:: swoon:: 

We call him Durham, d-bo, fatty, turtle head, mommy's baby, baby-d, and d-bear... 
he calls me 'mama' and it is the sweetest most heart melting thing I have ever heard.

Durham says 'mama'

and I melted into a giant puddle on the floor...

He is saying it all the time now, usually when he is sad and wants me. I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing it. It is like a sweet music that only I can hear. I love it so much.

Woodchuck

we have a teether on our hands. D has 2 new teeth on the bottom (for a total of 4) and none on the top. Those top teeth are all just below the surface and are causing him a lot of pain. My mom made him some home made popsicle that he loves... one part apple juice and five parts water into little popsicle containers. He LOVES them and it totally takes the edge off. 

This weekend we noticed that Durham has been using his crib to massage his teeth. aka: chewing on the rails like a little woodchuck. Bestie and I looked up some covers and I was ::this close:: to ordering these when I thought about checking pinterest. I'm glad I did, I stumbled across THIS adorable DIY from Jane Marie Photography's Blog. I followed her instructions, but added a piece of pipe insulator from Home Depot under the felt for extra cushion. I needed two sections of pipe insulator ($3 total) and used felt that I already had here ($FREE).

I still needed to do the sides when I took these pics, but it is working out great. The guard does not detour him from chomping but protects his tummy from getting wood nasties in it, and helps his crib stay nice since we will later convert it into a big boy bed. win.win!

GO DAWGS!!

It is that time of year again...

time to crank up the grill and put on our red & black

time spend our Saturdays with friends

It is time for College Football!