Christmas 2013!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Preston. Well, as good as it could be with just the three of us. :)  Sure did miss having family around. We started some family traditions though starting on Christmas Eve and it was awesome!! We baked cookies together, we watched a family movie and ate fresh popped pop corm together, we played play dough, we read Christmas stories and wore our Christmas pjs, it was so special and so fun. We also started with our tradition of what kind of gifts we give Preston. We did a want gift, a need gift, a "share" gift, and a clothing gift. It worked out perfectly, and he had plenty. We really love this idea!

Kevin's Dad, Step Mom and sister are here visiting, and what a great visit it is! We love having family up here and are loving reconnecting and spending some quality time together. We're keeping it really easy paced and just enjoying each other. It's been phenomenal. His Grandpa and Nona/Grandma gave him some awesome gifts, including the hit of the year: a tool workbench. Oh my goodness, to say Preston is obsessed is an understatement! All we hear is, " tools, tools, tools, tools, tools, tools...." aaaaaaaallll day long, It is literally the first word out of his mouth when he wakes up, " TOOLS!".  It's so awesome. He is quite the little thinker, and loves to figure things out.

We've also been painting and doing crafts and having a great relaxing time as a family with Kevin off of work. It's been wonderful I sure will be sad when he goes back to work this week. But very thankful he got so much time off for the holiday.

Here are some Christmas pictures!

Christmas Breakfast

 Coloring our family Christmas coloring page and then framing it and hanging it on Preston's art wall

First time to play with playdough!

 Baking cookies!

Watching 'Happy Feet' and eating Dad's famous freshly made popcorn on Christmas Eve

Christmas books before bed on Christmas Eve

Santa came, stocking is full!

Santa came!!

Love this boy! 20 Months old.

It sure was a great Christmas. Soaked up every minute with this sweet boy with the time left as an only child.

35 WEEKS!!!

Oh.my.gosh. Baby time is fast approaching. I really feel like I need another two months at least. But I am fighting off some terrible all day gall bladder pain because of the belly putting so much pressure on that area of my abdomen; so on that note, I am kind of ready. And I sure am ready to meet my lovely boy! I just can't believe the time is already here!

I saw the midwife last week and all is well. I weigh 138#--total weight gain of 32#, my blood pressure is still great, the baby's heart rate was in the 140s, I've started my my at-home natural GBS protcol, and the midwide mapped the baby's position and determined he has moved positions. He is still head down but he is no longer in perfect face down birthing position. He is now facing up. Hope this little one has plans of turning back around soon. :) Birthing a sunny side up baby makes for a long, painful labor. So I'm doing things to open up my pelvis like pelvic tilts, chiropractic adjustments, pregnancy massage, and acupuncture, and sitting on the exercise ball to encourage him to turn around. So fingers crossed! I've grown a lot recently. My poor belly button might end up with a stretch mark this time around. Boy, things sure are feeling tight. :)

The baby's nursery is complete! We had a sitter come over last weekend two days in a row and we got the massive mess in his room all sorted, made all of our crafty decorations, and got it all put together. It looks awesome! His room is done is vintage airplanes. Turned out so great.

We had our maternity photo session this past Friday, too! We went to a park in downtown Atlanta, and boy was it cold! But it was a super awesome part of town, Really really loved it, and the photos turned out fabulous.

Dec 2013 at Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta. Preston is 20 months.



We are still working hard on the house and hoping to get a lot more done this month before he arrives. But at the same time I really want to catch up on sleep and chill out before he comes. That actually might happen, too, because I am sooooo exhausted these days. I can barely make it up the stairs carrying Preston without being totally out of breath. Ready for that part to be over, too.

But, I'm feeling more and more connected to our  sweet boy with each passing day. I am sooo anxious to see what he looks like and to see if he looks a lot like Preston. Can't wait!! I'm already so in love with him.

In the New House!

U quick update on where we are with our move to Georgia. Yep, we're in the new house! Feels good to be out of the apartment! Doesn't feel great to be surrounded by a million boxes -- they all look like work to me--or all the broken/damaged items from the move, but still thankful we are to this point " in the process".  Whooo hooo!

Kevin and I are working as fast as possible to get things settled. It's been pretty slow going with Preston though. I would pay an obscene amount of money for a baby sitter for a couple of days so we could get a ton done!!

We had a totally uneventful Thanksgiving, sadly. We stayed home and unpacked. I did not cook, as we had nothing in the kitchen unpacked. It was pretty anticlimactic, but I guess that's what happens when you move out of state and close on your house 5 days before Thanksgiving. :)

We are taking Preston out for Santa pictures tomorrow! So fun! I will post a pic if I can. :) And we're setting up the Christmas tree this weekend, too. Gotta make it nice and special for our first Christmas here and for Preston. Can't wait to start some great traditions with our dude.

Much love to you guys!  Sorry I don't have any pictures of Preston. This hasn't made the todo list recently. :)

Wicker Bean Dos Update

 Our sweet pea boy seems to be doing well. I had some bleeding last week for about 4 days so I went in last weekend to have it checked out by my midwife. I wasn't sure if it was coming from the bladder or vaginally. I was having no pain, no contractions, and was feeling totally normal. Granted it was only a small amount of blood, but it was there for multiple days in a row.

Sooo....the midwife determined that the baby had a perfectly stable heart rate, he was "reactive" while being monitored which is great, my cervix looked good and normal and was closed, so no signs of anything abnormal. Great news! We still don't know where it was coming from though. :) But it has since stopped and all has been well. So I'm not stressin over it.

I saw the midwife earlier this week for a routine check up too. I am measuring a smidge behind on fundal height, 30 weeks when I was 31.5 weeks, which could be from him being so low in my pelvis, just like Preston was. He is already head down and very low. I now weigh 134#, I actually don't think I've gained anymore weight in the last two weeks!! Yea!!! The babe's heart rate was in the 150's and my blood pressure was 100/70 ( I'm always a little low).

I have been working like a beast around here lately. Lots and lots of physical work. But so far so good on my body holding up well. I'm suuuuuuuper tired, but that's only because I work from sun up well past midnight every night and I'm not sleeping well. So I'm perpetually tired. BUT, before any of you freak out on me, I did actually take a three hour nap today while Preston napped! It.was.uh mazing! Felt like a new woman when I woke up. My body totally needed it.

I am having a few braxton hicks contractions here and there, but nothing that I can really even measure or track. To say that I am thankful is an understatement. I knew the moment God told me he was going to allow us to get pregnant on our own that the pregnancy would be special. I knew God would show his power and mercy. We still don't know what the next 7 weeks hold until this little one is due to make his appearance, but all I know is I am eternally grateful for every day that we've had without complication. God is good!!

We have bought everything we need for the baby's room, but nothing has been set up yet. It is all thrown into his room an awaiting us to find some time to put it all together. But his room is not priority at the moment as the rest of the house looks like a bomb went off. Boxes, boxes, and more boxes everywhere.

We are taking our maternity photos next weekend, too! Whoo hooo! So exciting. Mr. P is going to look so super cute in his little outfit. What a blessing to be celebrating this sweet SECOND boy with an older Bubba in tow! Wow.

I am praying daily that our little boy #2 stays in as long as possible as there are still so many things to do to get the house and everything else ready for him. It seems daunting. So I want him to cook as long as possible! Need.more.time. :)

So as of now, I feel great, our baby is great, and we're pluggin' along daily to get things done. Good times!

                                                                 32 weeks, 134#

T Minus Two days!

Another quick update:

We are moving into our house in two days! Whooooo hooooooo! So ready, and excited. We are ready to get settled!

We have accumulated so much for the house and it's being stored in this apartment, we are going to have to rent a Uhaul to transport it all. LOL

Our home goods will be delivered to our house on Saturday, and let the unpacking begin.

Kevin will meet my parents in Mississippi on Sunday to pick up our other two dogs

And Kevin is taking the next week off so we can hopefully get settled some and unpacked

The baby is doing well. Just had another midwife appointment. I have yet again gained more weight, and I weigh 134# for a total weight gain of 29#! My midwife said it may because of high cortisol levels from all the stress of moving. Cortisol makes you put on weight. My fundal height is 29 cm, right on track. The baby moves all the time and has lots of hiccups. He is still head down.

One day shy of 30 weeks!






My gall bladder pain is starting to rear its ugly face daily. Ugghhh!

I passed another kidney stone/tissue a couple of days ago which lasted three days. THREE DAYS it was stuck in there! It was brutal! So bad that I did go and seek treatment just to make sure nothing major was wrong with my kidneys. The back pain was out of this world! So I had to drive myself at 1am to the nearest hospital as I sobbed and writhed in pain. But Kevin needed to stay home with Preston since he was sleeping.  My right kidney had severe backup of urine from the obstruction. Did have to take pain meds for two days. But better now! It finally came out! The heavens opened up and I'm like a new woman.

My midwife is concerned about my anemia and wants to investigate further.

Preston is still magical. He talks up a storm, and is just perfect. It's starting to hit me that he only has two more months of being the only child. Makes me sad. He is getting two more upper premolars right now. I'm very ready for him to be in his new house too. Ready for him to be settled.

Life is good here. Of course, busy as usual, but, hopefully, maybe, that will settle down in the near future.

Throw Back! Uh, melt my heart.

Another Week...And the countdown begins

We are three weeks in and have another week and a half until we close on our house! Whoo hooo! I am really excited about moving into our house. This is a big deal!! This is the first house that Kevin and I have purchased together, picked out together, and all that good stuff. :) Can't wait, really!

This also means that here pretty soon we will get our other two dogs back, too! I sure have loved the break though. But, of course, I sure have missed them. But it has been great to be shy two dogs with all the work we've had on our plates. Way less to manage.

I've been working hard on finding all new providers for lots of things. I think I'm finally making some good headway. I mentioned last week that I've been putting this off! For people like us, there's lots of new people to find. Hairdressers, various docs, photographers, chiropractors, acupuncturists, placenta encapusulators...yes, I'm doing that...:) ... and the list goes on.

We've also been making great headway on the baby room and getting some things we know we will need for the house taken care of so those are a few less things we will need to do after closing. I know once we close and get into the house, all we will want and need to do is unpack! The countdown has began for when the baby arrives. Lots to do. ....and also throw the holidays in there, too.

Preston is a sick right now. For now, it just looks like a cold, but it's further interfering with his sleep. Poor guy. I can't wait for him to get into his own room and get settled. :) Sweet boy.

The baby is still good. I can def tell I'm pregnant. I'm getting pretty big. :) And I regularly have pregnancy 'ailments'. Not anything serious, just uncomfortable. Although I did have sciatica last week which was very painful. So I went to the chiro and was adjusted, and feeling soo much better.  So I take a lot of hot baths and indulge in an occasional glass of red wine. On a bad note, I have nooo idea what's up with my body or this pregnancy, but I have been SERIOUSLY craving cokes!! I don't know if it's the caffeine or the 'bite', but I literally crave them. And I indulge some. Soo bad, I know, I know.

Kevin is still doing great at his job. We went out to dinner with his boss and his wife and kids last weekend. They, too, are a young family, and what a really great family! So happy about that! And although they aren't going to be living right next door to us, they are not too far, and the wife is also a stay at home mom! Really really liked them. I think me and Summer, his bosses wife, may meet up this week with the kiddos. They have three. 6, 4, and 5 months. Very cool for us to have another family going through the same thing we are.

Preston is still as cute as ever. He is now completely off breast milk. I think I mentioned that last time. He is loving his new milk and no tummy issues have come from the switch. whoo hoo! He is one smart dude, I tell ya. Well, of course I think so, but he just seems more and more amazing every day. (I wonder if I'll think the same thing about baby #2??) The bar has been set pretty high by Mr. P!

He is in love with things that go, " Roar!"
He points to the moon in the sky and tries to grab it
We hear a lot of trains so every time he hears one he says, " oohhhh choo choooo!"
Every time he hears a car or truck he says, " Vroooom".
He gives lots of kisses and hugs, even when we don't ask for them. He also lays on the dogs and gives them hugs and kisses. So sweet.
He is now sleeping in a crib, the baby's new crib
He has become soooooo social. He is a HAAAAAM! We can't go out without him demanding the attention of those around us. And he plays games with them and laughs and smiles the entire time.
And he loooooooves other kids, of all ages. He is sooo happy around other kids!
He has become quite the dancer too. All he has to hear is a simple faint beat of in the distance and he breaks out his moves. So funny!
I got him some cheap swords at the dollar store, and he loves them. He waves them in the air and slays whatever he is slaying in his imagination. It's the cutest thing.
Every dog he sees he says, " woof, woof!" over and over. Loves dogs.
And every baby he sees, he yells, " BAAAAABY!" But he also knows I have a baby in my belly and will pat and kiss my belly and say, " Mamma Baby".
He is becoming a little better with eating and is throwing food less. He has finally learned to hand us food he doesn't want instead of throwing it.
He is now taking partially chewed up food from inside his mouth if he wants a drink. For some reason he doesn't think he can take a drink if he has food in his mouth all of the sudden.
He is eating more things, especially while we're eating out
He alerted me and told me he had " Poo poo" and pointed to his diaper
We are teaching him at every diaper change the difference between a 'wet' and 'dry' diaper to get him used to knowing what they feel like on him and naming them to help him when potty training time comes
He seems to def prefer to do things with his left hand
He has also stopped wanting me to read books to him, sing, or rock him at nap time. He just wants me to put him right in the crib. soooo sad.  He still lets Kevin read to him and rock him before bed though. I have no idea why he naturally stops letting me do things. He has weaned himself from so many things all on his own. We've never had to actually wean him from anything. I think maybe my belly is getting in the way of him being comfortable while we read and rock. But not sure.


He is soooooo big and grown in so many ways. Man, they just change and change so much all the time. I know he is still very much a baby, but looking back over the last year and a half, it makes me so sad how much he has grown up. I'd be content to have him as my breastfeeding, needs to be rocked baby forever! :)

Things are great, and God is good! We're pluggin along and making progress on this new life event.

Wicker Bean Sweet Pea #2 Update

I can't believe I've actually left my midwife in Texas, whom to say I love is an understatement. So so sad about it. But it's defintely not just all a dream because I saw my new midwife and perinatologist here in Georgia for the first time yesterday. It was all a little different too. :)

Side note, the day I had these two appointments was also our five year anniversary. Kevin surprised me and took off of work to stay home with Preston so I didn't have to drag him all over town during his nap time! AWESOME GIFT! Because it was a 7 hour day for me out of the house and lots and lots of being all over the place with lots of confusion. :) Almost killed myself by TURNING DOWN A ONE WAY STREET IN DOWNTOWN! Good grief. :) Even though I was busy all day, it was soooo nice to be able to do it alone. When I got home Preston was rested and napped, fed, and there was a beautiful bouquet of Birds of Paradise flowers waiting for me and the most amazing, sweet letter from Kevin. (Birds of Paradise is what flower our wedding was done in. Good job, Kevin! ) And then we went out for a lovely steak and seafood dinner. It was perfect.

Back to the appointments--The big downside is that I have to drive an hour to get there---if it's NOT during rush hour--much longer if it is, to get to both of them. Both practices are in downtown Atlanta. Very much like downtown Dallas, hectic all the time. My practices are in two different hospitals downtown, which means this very directionally challenged woman has to mess with traffic, one way streets, and paid parking lots. AND, lets just say the area fits the stereotype of typical inner city with Projects, panhandling, loitering, and boarded up homes and apartment buildings all over downtown. Just a new culture to get comfortable with. :)

Sadly, I found the hospital that I will be delivery at pretty much matched the profile I saw outdoors in downtown Atlanta. Wasn't impressed. Seemed dingy and icky. Lets hope this awesome midwife group would not be practicing out of this hospital if care standards were subpar. But the midwife was great. She was much more thorough than many providers I've seen before. She took a lot of time with me, asked a lot of questions, and answered all of mine. We seem to be on the same page as far as holistic care, nutrition, and supplements. So a good first visit! The baby sounded great on doppler and my fundal height was a little ahead.  Since I'm starting the last trimester, they will begin seeing me every 2-3 weeks, then once a week once I hit 36 weeks. Not looking forward to this long drive and "event" every two weeks with Preston in tow, but we make it through everything else together, so we'll manage great.

The perinatologist visit went very well, too. He was super nice, and calm. I can't say for sure, but the doc may be a Buddhist. LOL Not that it matters.  There there were Buddah statues all over the practice, meditation music was on in every room, along with large waterfalls, and everything was painted calm, soft blues.  And the doctor talked a lot about "balance" of the body and mind and has an incredibly calm energy, was soft spoken, and smiled the entire time. I sure loved his vibe! Great for high energy people like me who need reassurance.

He said he does not need to see me back and I am cleared to be as active as I want. The baby looks awesome! Whoo hooo!

Here are some stats. I was 27w5days:

My cervix measured 4.5cm vaginally. Wow, super long!
The baby weighed 2.8#'s
He is measuring 28 weeks
He is in the 36th percentile
He is projected based on his weight now to weigh 7.8#'s at delivery
The cord and placenta looked normal
Fluid level 16.8 cm--Great
Placenta is now posterior! Huh.
And I weigh 131#! I have gained another 4# in the last month, although my midwife said she is not concerned either. But geeeeeez!!

Here are some pics of the man! He was quite the mover on screen, too. His foot was by his head with his hands between his legs. He is head down with his face facing my spine, and curled around my right side with his butt under my ribs. Just the place his big bro liked to lay too. He was opening and closing his mouth over and over on screen. So already a talker like his Mamma. :)

They look a little scary in 2D at this stage because they don't have a lot of fat on their face. :) My little alien.



Good continues to amaze us, be so faithful and good. We know with certainty that all of this is by His hand and by his ordination. Very blessed!

Hey Yo!

Just a quick update to let you all know that we are still alive and well and truckin' along. Things are great here in good ol' Georgia. Although I did find a live snake in the apartment last week while Kevin was a work. A broom and dust pan do have other purposes apparently. :)  Kevin and I have a little less than three weeks until we close on our house. Whooo hooo! Living in an apartment is taking us back to some of our good ol' days...NOT. I had forgotten how much privacy and space you don't have and how loud upstairs neighbors can be. Kevin and I can deal with the noise, but it's been dreadful for Mr. Preston and his sleep. He can't sleep, actually. He's constantly woken up from naps and overtired. Poor sweet boy. Makes me so sad for him. Long days for all of us.

We have decided to go ahead and start shopping for the baby's room so it's one less thing we have to do once we get into the house. We know as soon as all those boxes arrive at our house, we won't get out of the unpacking phase and decorating for Christmas for a good while, then we start the process of selling our house in Keller,  and then the final weeks before the baby will be here, then baby comes...and then...things will be weird for a good while...so lots on the agenda still. And I think having Preston use the baby's crib while in the apartment and getting him out of the pack and play may help him sleep. 

Our house is coming along nicely, too. We go check on it about once a week. It's crazy how ' primitive' the house looks, yet it will be perfectly done and ready in less than three weeks! It's wild because they still have what looks like a lot of work to do! Super excited to get the move-in process going, well, more excited to get it done. :) 

Speaking of moving in to the new house...what comes with that...yep, decorating!! love.love.love. Kevin and I hit up a fantastic antique mall this weekend. Oh my. I could spend countless dollars in about ten minutes. We both really loved a lot of things, and will eventually grab some of those great finds for the new house. We did buy the baby a dresser, Preston an old school kid desk, and a metal ceiling hanging thing for pots and pans to go over the kitchen island. Kevin and I have always wanted one of those, yet they are quite expensive, so we couldn't pass up a great deal on one. 

I'm currently working on finding new photographers for our maternity, birth, and newborn photos. I don't know why I've been putting this off, but I have. Hope to just knock it out! I'm also working on finding a babysitter for P for when Kevin and I close on the house and do our final walk through with the builder. A little challenging when you don't know anyone. :)  In other news, Kevin and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow! Needless to say, back to the babysitting thing, we won't be doing anything alone or spectacular, but nonetheless, it's FIVE YEARS, a big one! :) What a blessing!!!

Kevin is still doing well at his job and learning the ropes. Lots to learn apparently. But the more he gets to know his colleagues, the more he really likes them. Soooo glad! Huge blessing, too!!

And on a kind of sad note, Preston just finished his last bit of frozen breast milk today! He seems to still be doing well with his transition to goat milk, although he has never had a whole cup of just goat milk...but I guess that starts tomorrow whether we are ready or not! :) I'm sad to see this day come, but I worked hard to have him strictly on breast milk for 19 months, so feeling happy and proud of that. I told Kevin this weekend that I would be a lot more sad about this transition if we weren't expecting a new baby in three moths. So a new little one to nurse in a few months really helps me not be so sad about it all coming to an end with P. I just love love nursing. :)

Last bag of frozen milk, November 4, 2013! 19 months old!...and his new samari sword. He slays dragons that fly through the air. Cutest thing ever.

God is moving us through this process, and really has been a 'Yes' God, and has ushered us through each door holding our hand. Soo sooo glad to feel his presence so boldly. 

He is good! 

Most handsome 19th month I've ever seen!

 Doesn't he look like a little man?!

Ooohhhhh weeeeee, lookin' like this Daddy!

New golf club and ball. Loves it!

27 weeks!! Getting bigger, for sure! I'm scared to know how much weight I've gained in the last month, as my maternity pants are getting tight. LOL Midwife appt. with new midwife tomorrow, so I'll find out tomorrow just how bad things are. :)

HEEEEELLLO GEORGIA!

Yep, we are here and doing our very best to settle in...at least temporarily. We arrived about a week ago after a two day trip. The actual drive is only about 12-14 hours, but we knew there was no way Preston would hold up for such a trip, so we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi for a night to break up the drive. And, side note, don't stay in a La Quinta that allows dogs...or at least the one in Jackson. Good gosh, holy dirty hotel room! EEwwww! I know they allow pets, which we obviously needed since we made the drive with two of our four dogs, but, man oh man, was this place no bueno. I'm not even joking when I say that Preston's BLUE socks were literally turned dark dirty brown from him walking on the carpet for an hour before bed. Gross.  And if any of you have gleaned anything from my writing, then you should know that a dirty house, and especially dirty floors is definitely not on the menu. That was a rough night. Not only was it dirty, but my sister was also with us, so she slept on a couch right beside our bed, and Preston slept in his pack n play beside the couch -- so we were all in the same room---with the two dogs, in a room right beside the highway and beside a main entry door to the hotel. Needless to say, it was loooud, and none of us slept. But we made it through, and we hit the road again as soon as we could.

We made it here to Georgia without incident other than the electric window in my new Pilot stopped working. Arg. ...But the main thing is that we all survived one another and all made it safe and sound. :) We are now in our temporary apartment for the next month. Our estimated closing date as of now on our house is November 22nd. Fingers crossed there are no delays and we can work on the other big aspect of moving:  unpacking and getting resettled and moved-in, and doing our nursery!

Not too much has slowed down for us though in the one week we've been here. It seems when we complete one task, another is in line and needs to be handled. So it's been a slew of decisions, decisions, decisions, handling maintenance issues at our rental property back home here from Georgia, handling poor property manager issues with the rent house we moved out of back home, and just a slew of " administrative" stuff, as I like to call it. But there is just a lot involved in moving four states, breaking a lease, living in temporary housing, continuing to manage an owned rental property, starting a new job, preparing for a baby, taking care of a toddler, changing insurance ( especially while pregnant), finding new doctors pronto, and building and buying a house, and then handling everything that comes up in between. It'll slow down though! And it's still a ride and journey that we are so happy to be on. God has made his presence so known through every detail and in our spirits. It's been an incredible time for us to see more of His goodness, faithfulness, and ability to be in the details of our lives and truly meet us exactly where we are. He has orchestrated so many things for our good, well before we even knew we needed these things to work out the way they did. He's provided so many " yes's " at so many turns, big and small. I love seeing his brush strokes and knowing and loving Him enough to hand Him all the glory. He is the maker of all things good.

Kevin likes his new job and is getting his feet wet more and more each day. He really likes his coworkers, and I'm super excited that most of them seem to be in our same phase of life, young, married with little kids. Awesomeness! The same goes for our new house! Our next door neighbors are due with a baby in March! Super awesomenss! I really hope she's a stay at home mom, too. :)

Preston and I are getting out most days. We're at least going to lunch together or hitting up the park and giving him some outside time. Although it's already cold up here, at least to me, I still try to get P out and about to hes not couped up all day. Preston, for the most part, has been adjusting well, too. He's been a little off on his sleeping since he has to sleep in a pack n play, which is not great, and his eating has actually been horrendous, but, we're working through it all day by day. All in all, he is doing wonderfully! He is such and easy going dude. In other big news, although the timing is not ideal, I am just about out of frozen breast milk so we're in the process of transitioning P to his new milk. Total * sniff sniff*! Uhh! I knew this day would come, but it's still super sad for me. So as of right now he's taking 75% breastmilk and 25% of goat milk (with added things in it, like coconut and olive oil, blackstrap molasses....) to make it the closest nutritional profile to breast milk. So far, so good. It actually tastes really good! How can it not with all that molasses and coconut oil in it?! :) It's still surreal to see this phase leave for good though. But I give myself a big pat on the back. I worked my tail off to be able to keep him breastfed for these past 19 months, which is quite the task, so I'm going to relish in the good of it and be super proud of myself! Most don't make it this far, and being able to provide for Preston this way makes my heart happy.

Me and the baby are doing well, or so it seems, too. So far so good. I'm trying to be very conscious that this is the exact time that all of my problems with Preston began. I am 26 weeks now, and I went on bed rest at 25 weeks with Preston and remained that way until 32 or 34 weeks. So I'm being very aware of any Braxton Hicks contractions I get, drinking lots of water, and sitting down or taking a bath when I feel like I'm getting too many contractions. Regardless of what we have going on, or what needs to be done, none of it is worth potentially causing this baby to be born so premature. Far too many health issues to contend with, and it's just not fair to our sweet boy. So no worries, I'm being very mindful and will continue to be even as we start moving into the house. :)

We took Preston to a Fall Halloween Festival this past weekend at a local church. He had quite the time! He dressed up in his dragon costume and played and played. They had a " Toddler Town", full of age appropriate things for the little ones to do so they didn't get ran over by the big kids, and he had a blast. He actually wasn't interested in the cool animals, all he wanted to do was play with the push and riding toys, So funny. I had intention of making him a great, unique costume this year for Halloween, but with all that we have going on, that one just didn't make the list. So we went pretty generic, but that's okay, he still looked cuter than ever, of course! He was a dragon!

"Roar!!"

He LOOOVED this pink tricycle. He kept coming back to it.

" Big Hugs" as we say, for the baby goat. Preston loves to gives 'big hugs'.

Dad was so proud. He went straight for the golf club and ball and started putting. :)

The sweetest most beautiful dragon I've ever seen. :)



So there ya have it. A quick update. We will be headed out for a bit on Halloween, so I'll post pics after Thursday. We are alive and well, and things are moving along. Thank you for all of your prayers. They are certainly being honored. Love you guys.

My old man, Julian. He turns 12 in January!

This is what all the trees look like here, sooo gorgeous!

 ...and the trees are everywhere!! Everything is " natur-ey".

My sweet Glory who gets poked in the eye ball by Preston and ridden and used as a step stool about a 100 times a day! She's so sweet.

 Car break on the road to Georgia!

First night in town, out to dinner. Realized it's cold here!!

 Good Morning, Sunshine!

 Boxes. The best invention ever.

Trip to see the ducks one last time before we left home

So sweet!

Love you guys. I'll update soon. :)