good morning from our 8 month old!

Sorry it is sideways, it send it that way from my phone.

Well, we've made it 8 months with this little sweetie! What a long way we have come from December 13th! Many prayers have been answered as my body has healed, Lucy stayed healthy without any infections in the NICU, she CAME HOME, she has been progressing physically & developmentally, she does not have any disabilities that we know of at this time, and she is making us so very haaaaapppppy!

We are staying busy busy & August doesn't look any different! Tonight we are heading to a going away party for our friends, Justin and Rebekah. They are heading to L.A. in about a week. We are so very sad that they are moving, but so very excited for them!

I stole this from your FB, hope you don't mind ;)

Tomorrow is our 7 year anniversary! We won't be able to celebrate really this weekend because Luke has to open tomorrow.We are planning on going 'away' for a night in 2 weekends. Luke forgot he had 1 week of vacation left to use before next week, so he sort of just lost it. He is going to be able to take a few days here and there before September though--he is in charge of inventory again. His 60 hour work weeks are long gone for a month. We'll see him sometime around October! Anyways, happy 7 years!

A few months before the wedding. Ok, well we were only engaged from aboutMay 21st-August 14th. So I guess I should say a few weeks before the wedding

 

In 2 weekends, we also have Lucy's NICU birthday party @ Baptist. We're so excited to show off our sweet little girl to all the people who took care of her for us for almost 2 months. Ah, I 'm still in shock every time I think that we have to live almost 2 months without her here in the house with us. I still feel guilty about how little time I was able to spend with her there. I know there are mothers that sit up in the ICU ( P or N) every hour possible. It was just a very hard time--hard to see her so little, hard to hear her monitors beeping, hard to work around other people's work schedules, hard to work around Luke's work schedule, and hard to work around Landon. I didn't really want anyone else to see her like this either. I didn't want her to be treated like a circus act--a  2 pound baby!!! I did go see her every day, and for the most part I was only allowed to hold her 1 time a day. Even when we brought her home we continued the cluster care and only 'messed' with her when she ate. Since their bodies are so immature, they can't be overstimulate by touch or sound or anything. That is another major reason, besides body heat, that we could only hold her for so little of a time. And then if she had not had a good day or just had her vitamins, we couldn't hold her at all.  So when we/I did go and we couldn't hold her ( or had already had our 10 minutes of holding) we cupped 1 hand on her head & 1 on her booty.

 

This picture was about 5 weeks old. It was always so hard to leave my sweet baby, and brings tears to my eyes still. We are SO VERY THANKFUL for all the wonderful nurses and Drs who loved our sweet baby like their own! We excited to see some other little miracles at the party, some of whom we watched grow as well in the NICU.

 

I also go back to Dr. W next week. He wants to do some final blood work on me after the HELLP syndrome. Once again, we're reminded of how thankful we are as the "morbidity and mortality rates associated with the syndrome have been reported to be as high as 25 percent". We'll see what all he has to say, and ask any other questions we still have.

 

I FINALLY made Landon a dentist appointment. I have been meaning to since December. He is excited to go, and just has to wait about 2 more weeks. Maybe we can find out if his tumor removal will affect his back molar.I'm not sure if there is anything else we can squeeze into August!

baby steps & running shoes

FINALLY, after 3 weeks of trying cereal with Lucy, she is pushing it to the back of her mouth ! She is able to eat a lot more than a tablespoon, and I don't have to wipe it all off her face, put it back in her mouth, and take a good 5+ minutes to eat all of it. We will start with a veggie this week. I'm hoping to meet up with a friend to steam, puree,  freeze a good amount for our babies.

Luke got me a new pair of running shoes!Which means I need to start running again for real? At least I have a new pair of workout shoes at least. As gross as this is, I never thought about it until a few years ago on Oprah that wearing the same shoes you work out in is NOT acceptable to wear around anywhere else. That's actually gross. Especially if you have sweaty feet-stinky or not. In high school and college, we had shoes that we played in. But I did no other working out other than with the team. Then in basketball league since then I've had shoes to play in, but I didn't work out in them. Anyways, just know when you see me that I didn't work out in the same shoes I'm wearing . I got my last pair before the Mini marathon in 2010. I'm sure I put the mileage on it recommended before getting another pair. I wore these today for some cardio & I love them too! Landon hasn't had a pair of tennishoes since around the spring. We were just going to let him wear his dress shoes and

flip flops until the fall. But we hit an awesome sale at Swag's--on accident really. We were drinking coffee at McDonald's & letting the kids play, and we saw the line wrapped around the building, all the boxes stacked, and realized what was going on. We bought mine and Landon's for almost 1/2 of what I paid for just my running shoes last year. YAY!

 

Knee deep in the water somewhere. . .

Got the blue sky breeze blowin' wind thru my hair

Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise there's a fire in the sky

Never been so  happy

Never been so high

and I think I might have found my own piece of paradise

I took the kids back to Orlando ( 3rd trip since the 1st week in May) last week. I actually rode along with my parents and niece. We had a great time with family eating, going to the beach, playing with cousins, swimming in some pools,and just being away! My kids travel great, I think. We have to stop every few hours to feed Lucy, but it gives Landon a chance to get out and run around, milk an enormous fake cow,play checkers at cracker barrel, look at gators at a rest area, watch a kid have a seizure in the play place at chick fil a, get peach ice cream at an orchard-- you know the normal road trip things ;)

After 3 trips to Florida, an Atlanta trip to watch my cousin play basketball, and a few trips to Louisville or the farm, we are done for the summer. Well, except back to Louisville this weekend for a HS reunion.

Mind on a permanent vacation

The ocean is my only medication

Wishing my condition ain't never gonna go away

cereal

after a week of drooling it out, she started this today. so cute!

America's Got Talent

My favorite favorite act is.............




Last night's...............

rolling and eating

Lucy was 7 months old last week! She got some good rolls in on her 7 month birthday!

I love Landon's voice. He is fascinated with these socks because he only wears flip flops lately.

 

We also tried some cereal this week. It seems to be taking much longer than her big brother to get the hang of it, but we will keep at it. He quickly went from a taste to a serving for a weeek then veggies. But like everything with her, it seems she's just a little slower catching on.

She is grabbing EverYthIng near her!



I made it a little bit thicker the next day, and she did a little bit better.

And just a picture to make you laugh................................

Her eye had some issues this week, but after about 5 days of medicine in it, there seems to be no more drainage & swelling is gone.  Luke took this picture and said, "her face looks so gross". =)