before i was a mom

before i was a mom,

i never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

i didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisionous.

i never thought about immunizations. before i was a mom,

i had never been puked on.

pooped on.

chewed on.

peed on.

i had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

i slept all night.

before i was a mom,

i never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests, or give shots.

i never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

i never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

before i was a mom,

i never held a sleeping baby just because i didn't want to put him down.

i never felt my heart break into a million pieces when i couldn't stop the hurt.

i never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

i never knew that i could loves someone so much.

i never knew i would love being a mom.

before i was a mom,

i didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

i didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

i didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

i didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

before i was a mom,

i had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

i had never known the warmth,

the joy,

the heartache,

the wonderment,

or the satisfaction of being a mom.

i didn't know i was capable of feeling so much,

before i was a mom.

(~anonymous author~)

i am forever grateful to god for making me a mom and giving me 2 precious sons.

trace and lucas,

you mean more to me than you will ever know.

and i am so proud to be your mommy!

whitt fit

warning: these recent photos were captured by the mama of this "whitt fit" throwing boy. while i am not proud of these fits lucas has been having, nor do i like them, i just had to take some pics. is he not the cutest, even while rolling on the floor and making such awful faces? :)

(please note the shiny clean hair. GASP. he had just taken his nightly weekly "he is so dirty i can't say no tonite" bath.)

seriously, all that over an old broken phone? wow. i hate to see what kind of fit he throws in a few years when he is grounded for the first time. ha!

chalk. bubbles. balls.

a post chocked-full of pictures... in which the boys had a blast playing outside. lucas tracing trace :)
"playing chalk" as trace calls it.
playing eating chalk. oops. shouldn't someone be watching this kid?
blowing bubbles with daddy

fun with the diego ball

it kept him entertained for quite a while

trace chasing bubbles...

stomping bubbles...

and karate chopping bubbles!

love how he says "BALL"... he says it so cute and country. like BAWWWWL :)

getting all kinds of dirty

beautiful day to blow bubbles

our names all connected. corny? possibly ;)

☼ thank you god for this beautiful sunshine you've given us! ☼

where a kid can be a kid

for months, the big boys (trace and caden) have been seeing chuck e cheese commercials on tv. and every time trace saw one, he would tell anyone who would listen "dat's where i'm hafin my birfday at." so this mama had a brilliant idea to have a combined birthday party with caden (who will be 4 soon) and trace (who recently turned 3) at CEC. (when brothers marry sisters, and the kids are double first cousins, it just makes things easy to have a joint party. like the invites said "it's double the fun, with 2 birthday parties in one! ha. cheesy i know. but it worked!) anyways, i've heard horror stories of CEC hell, and how awful, expensive, terrible, etc the party was. well i'm happy to say, we had a great experience! we didn't purchase the "official" birthday package, so that def saved us some money. but we partied, ate pizza and cake, the kids had a blast, the parents hung out and talked, and even played a few games as well! (yes i admit, i am addicted to a game a CEC. however, i won a ton of tix for trace, so who cares!) ha. a lot of friends and family came, and though it was a little crazy at times, and we got fussed at for being a fire hazard, the party went great and i think it was a huge success! hardly any set up or clean up, which is always a plus in my book! please forgive me for not editing these pics... and ignore the red eyes! :)

the birthday boys!

trace was terrified of CEC, but lucas was quite intrigued! i love this pic of lil man grabbing his big nose!
poppi vs trace :)

cupcake time..... let me just say, when the bday boy wants batman, you get batman. black icing and all! :)

this stuff stained his teeth/mouth for 3 days!! but how cute is he??

presents!!

woo hoo. batman shoes. awesome!

daddy and luc luc

trace sliding... wheeee

trace was having a blasty blast!

lucas... not so much. lol

just a little bit of the loot!

i think that trace's 3rd birthday party will always be one to remember! he had a great time, and is still talking about it. now when we see the CEC commercials, we get to hear "WOOK! dat's where i had my birfday at!" :)

happy birthday trace and caden! we love you sweet boys!

out of the mouth of TrAcE

this boy. he is so funny. (and so cute! don't ya think?) and he talks alot. seriously. ALL.THE.TIME. he just turned 3, so you can imagine that a lot of the things he says are hilarious! so often nate and i just look at each other like "did he just say that?" sometimes he is funny even when he's not even trying to be. sometimes it's the sweet things he says. sometimes it's the not so sweet things, and the bad thing is i know he probably just heard me or nate say it. it's the childlike innocence that i love so much about trace. i thought i'd share a few things i've heard him say recently!

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when trace doesn't want to do something that i've asked him to do, like finish eating the rest of his dinner, he will politely tell me "uhhh, no fanks mama, i'm ok!"

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you know he's obssessed with scooby doo. well i'm not a huge fan of it, and one reason is all the monsters, ghosts, goblins etc. and he watches it right before bedtime. the other nite i asked him if he was scared, and he said "nope, i not scared. monsters aren't real... they don't scare me. they are only on scooby doo. right mama?" (he has heard me say that to him a hundred times, that monsters aren't real and only on scooby doo!)

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one i'm not so happy about... he was playing with his toys the other day and was getting so frustrated. he told me "i can't get this freakin thing to work!" oops. i'm guilty as charged.

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since daylight savings time a month or so ago, we usually catch the sun rising when we are on our way to meme's/bitsy's each morning. it is always on the left side (i know it's the east, but try explaining that one!) out trace's window. he goes bananas and every morning, without fail, while riding in the van he will say "WOOK! it's SUNNIN!! i see the sun comin over the trees!" i love his excitement, over the small things that so often we take for granted!

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before bed, trace and i do butterfly kisses, then eskimo kisses, then a BIG KISS. then a fish kiss. then we do a BIG HUG. and recently after that routine he said "and i want a fish hug mama." so now we have a fish hug. don't ask me what a fish hug is, i just kinda made something up. and now he wants it every nite! :)

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trace has been blinking his eyes all crazy lately. so i thought it might be his allergies. the dr gave us some eye drops and every nite trace says "it's ok. we'll just do our eye drops tomorrow." (needless to say, we tried them one nite, it was complete torture, and we haven't tried again!)

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speaking of allergies... the pollen has hit FULL force around here this past week. one morning it was all over my windshield, so i turned the wipers on to clear the window. yellow streaks were everywhere and trace asked me "did somebody paint the car yellow mama?" yeah buddy, they sure did!

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the big kids were playing outside at meme's on easter. they were playing in the fountain, obviously putting dirt and stuff in it. when i fussed at them trace looked up and said "but we're just making fwaklat (chocloate) milk! see??"

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trace and i had a stomach virus a few weeks ago. it was the first one he's ever had. let's just say he remembers that nite well. so 3 nites ago out of the blue he told me "i sowwy i froe up mama. i didn't mean to. will you forgive me?" sweet boy.

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when i buy something new, i will normally try it on and ask nate how it looks. well the other day trace said " i wike dat cool shirt. you sure wook pretty mama!" awww, melt my heart!

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sometimes before bed he will say "and maybe, when i wake up tomorrow, there will be SNOW on the ground." and my response "ummm ok bubba. maybe. you never know, we do live in alabama!"

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and last, one of my favorites! the other day he told me and nate "SHHHHH. be quiet mama and daddy. i'm trying to read my Bible." and he proceeded to say "it is a light to my feet." i knew what he meant! :) then he read the story of zacheus to lucas and it went something like this "zacheus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he."

notice he has his Bible and will not put it down. not even when he takes a pic with his brother. gotta love this sweet boy!

(i pray trace sees the good in me and nate. and that we are godly examples to him and lucas. it's not always easy, that's for sure! but with god, all things are possible! we definitely need HIS help in this crazy world we are living in!)

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so what are some things that have come out of the mouths of your babes recently?

lil bit of nothing

so yeah... i have 2 boys. we like hot wheels, motorcycles, basketballs, monster trucks, hammers and nails, scooby doo, airplanes... i think you get the idea. so when trace goes to shannon's house on thursdays, apparently he LOVES to get in the dress up box, with all of lala's princess costumes!!! i think these pics are hilarious. i am in no way bothered that my son plays dress up and LOVES to be cinderella! :) look at lala, she is in the middle, withOUT a dress or tiara. hmmm. what's up with that? (btw, shannon took all the pics on this post. so shout-out and thanks to nae nae!!)

on most days, lucas is a bottomless pit! it's a wonder the boy doesn't way two hundred pounds. well i know that's a little far fetched. but seriously. he only weighed 20 pounds last i checked. (of course that's been a couple on months. but anywho.) wow. he loves him some food. he's not too picky... and i'm thankful for that! but be careful, if you give him something to eat, b/c 1 of 2 things might happen. if you aren't fast enough, he might bite your finger with those sharp little teeth. OR, he might not take a bite at all, but inhale the whole thing! HA! love my little eater!

you talking to ME?

and on occasion, trace will chow down too! some meals are more of a battle. but we pretty much ask trace to eat, and if he wants to, fine. and if he doesn't want to, then that's fine too. i doubt he'll starve! :) love this pic of him eating his sandwich! :) he is my lil buddy!

oh, and this last one gets me everytime! lucas' new favorite thing to do is yell BITTTEE and proceed to close his eyes and open his mouth. it's the funniest thing. here shannon is feeding him a banana, and she managed to get the perfect shot. and she was smart- she used a fork. HA.

just wanted to share these cute pics on my blog... even though, ahem, noone really reads it anymore. oh well. i'm doing it for myself afterall. right? well, mainly i do it for myself, and for our family memories. but sometimes it is nice to get a few comments now and then. (thank you for the 4 of you who do sometimes read it!) and i know, i know, some of you read and don't like to comment. but i'm just sayin'..... a blogger loves her comments, right? or maybe it's just me... :o)