Why we are private

We went private so that I could feel a little more at ease about who is peeping at pics of my kid. I have a bizarre relationship with an estrange father and just want to eliminate possible situations. I forgive but I don't forget and let my guard down, I am a mother first! I am a little shocked at how few people e-mailed me wanting to be on the "list"....guess I think I'm more interesting that I really am and it was a little hit to my pride, ha! ha! Well, that's all I have to say about that (picture Forest Gump's voice, ha! ha!)

We have been surviving lately, and by surviving I mean just that. My insomnia is getting better but still just as present as ever when I'm up for several hours during the night. I fall asleep at night perfectly but then wake up a few hours later wide awake. If you have ever experienced sleep lost in any form you know what I talking about when I say I feel like I just want to be taken out of my misery. I was starting to think that 4 padded walls, meals being brought to me 3 times a day and my laundry done for me was starting to sound heavenly and wondering how I could make it to this special place. Yep, sleep deprivation can make you crazy! And this kind is so miserable. I have no problem getting 6 hours of broken sleep a night because of a newborn, I get up feed the baby and go right back to sleep. This is so different because I CAN'T go back to sleep, I want it so badly but it just doesn't happen....augh, I get mad thinking about it.

I do think that God allows you to go thru things and I was asking for the lesson to be learned. That lesson came loud and clear last week......I'm so blessed with loving friends that want to help! God sent to me the most amazing friends that forced their way into the home of this prideful girl and helped. They came and cleaned, took JT to the park so I could nap, have been bringing food a couple times a week and most of all praying and checking up on me. Psalm 68:6 says that "God sets the lonely in families, He leads forth the prisoners with singing" in this case he sent a body of caring believers my way quickly to take care of me like I was their own flesh and blood and sent this prisoner of insomnia singing His praises! There are lots of other things that I have seen God's provision and goodness in but this was the most profound for me. I did cry out for help, and was responded to by the most amazing friends in Christ I will ever know!

The Dr is thinking this is just a 1st trimester hormonal thing and I'm praying so too. I'm in week 10 now and am excited to be past this part very shortly. Also JT started his 2 day a week pre-school last Wed and that is a tremendous help. He loves it there and I get an awesome break from 9-2 on Mon and Wed each week. God bless the Early Learning Center! It is a great school at our church that is of course christian base and academic base. It's not a free for all play for all like a Mother's Day Out program, which JT does not do well in that environment, but is an actual school with Chapel time each week to boot! JT is a music man and when he hears it he starts to shake his grove thing. I'm definitely going to put him in some sort of music school next year, because he shows a true passion for it.

I will post some pics in a few days. How's this for a terrible mom? I was dropping him off for his 1st day of school this year and as we were going in there were moms snapping pics of their kids outside the school and their classrooms. Why do I never think of these things?! (I get a freebie because of the insomnia right now!) So I'm just going to take my camera on Monday and we'll have a do-over.....nothing wrong with that, right? Well except he went to this school one day week last year, so technically it's not his "1st" day of school! Oh, maybe with this next one....I think God gives extra grace to the 1st born because technically it's just a science experiment, none of us know what we are doing with these precious little babies....trial and error is how you survive the 1st year of motherhood

We are going private

Just a head's up to everyone that reads this that we will be going private in a few days. Send me your e-mail address (travisandcrissy@yahoo.com) and I will add you to the list to gain access.

Thanks!

A great lesson

Words of Affirmation is one of my primary love languages, ESPECIALLY if it's thoughtful. For some reason God knew that Travis and I needed this e-mail sent to us because we had a horrible weekend with a defiant 2 year old testing the boundaries over and over again with mommy and especially daddy. By Sunday night we felt completely defeated. Then God used a thoughtful friend to send a message to me via Facebook to compliment our little JT. Larissa will never know how much that note has encouraged me. I don't have family here but I have an amazing network of friends that help and encourage me with their joy and I am all too blessed for this. From this I have learned that I too am going to start looking for ways to help encourage other parents, to pass it on!

Before I copy and paste what she wrote please note that Travis and I are by no means the experts on parenting and sometimes we blow our tops sky high because we have no idea what we are doing, but I do have to say that we have been praying together A LOT lately because our sweet little blondie is definitley a strong willed child. And as I was reading her note a verse automatically popped into my head...

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap a reward if we do not grow weary" Galations 6:9

Since he tends to embarrass me publicly on a regular basis, I feel in my state of insomnia that I should be praised publicly....call it pride cause I'm sure that's what it is!

August 31 at 9:48 pm

So Clint and I worked in the nursery yesterday morning and JT was in our class. And I just wanted to send you a quick note to tell you what you prob already know but JT is just PRECIOUS and was a joy to have in there. So well behaved, polite, and SO smart. I might need to ask for tips in the future cause whatever y'all are doing is working!

In just my short time of being a mom I know I question constantly if I'm doing the right thing so I just wanted to send you some love to let you know that you guys are raising a wonderful son!

Again congrats on the new little one and we will be praying for a sweet healthy baby to come next spring : )

Take care,

Larissa

Hello, Big Brother!

Most everyone knows, well I hope our immediate family at least, so I guess I will make it "blog public". On the morning of Sunday, August 2nd I took a little test with a very high tech device and the word "pregnant" popped up on the small window after about 1 minute. Quite honestly I was in shock for a few minutes (the same way I felt when the 2 lines appeared on the old school test I took with JT). I guess it just always goes to show that I doubt God's goodness and can't believe that He would add to our joy, because I certainly don't deserve it.

I then decided of another way to tell Travis because I didn't think it was quite "ideal" when I told him with JT (I just walked up to him with a pale white face and handed him the test) so I wanted to give him a better surprise.....his reaction was hilarious by the way. I put the test in his sink in our bathroom and when he came in to get ready for church I told him that there was something wrong with it. He just kind of looked at me strange because I sure he was confused as to why I would use his sink in the first place when I have my own. So when he looked down in there, he said "who's toothbrush is this?" Ha! Ha! I STILL giggle when I think of it. I said, "um, honey, that's NOT a toothbrush!" He picked it up, read it and then smiled and said "yea!" I think it's such a great story that I had to put it on here for memory sake, since I'm going to be printing this and keeping for my kids. JT LOVES babies so I'm really excited for him to get to be a big brother, he'll probably be just as great as my big brother is! (Love you, Scott)

Here's a video of JT playing inside with his coaster. It was super hot here the last few weeks so we played inside A LOT because the heat makes me want to vomit. It's cooled down considerably this weekend and today is AWESOME! Only suppose to be highs in the upper 80's...unheard of for Texas in August.

Updates!

First off, I found the dumb phone. I think I learned a valuable lesson: I rely on and save way too much info on that phone. I was seriously having a panic attack when I lost it....that should never happen! I think it's ridiculous, but I haven't come up with another way to reduce the dependence on this precious device. I'm not pack around a huge calendar to write down appts and other places I need to be....not searching my purse for a piece of paper with my grocery, Costco and Central Market shopping lists.....and I'm definitely NOT going to pack around a music device and a phone, I have enough to carry, thank you very much!

So moving on, we've been super busy lately, but with what I couldn't tell you. Just taking care of a toddler from day to day is a full schedule, for sure!

Newest developments: we ALMOST have the ABC's down. He can sing most of the letters, misses a few in the middle, but nails all of them at the end! Yea!!!!

Here's some pics!

At Sammy's B-day party.....we visited the Fire Station up the road the the firemen let the kids climb all through the truck. I was great!

Helping Sam with the loot aka the b-day gifts!

Hitting the Pinata....that kid understood it right off the bat and was hitting it with force
Take that, Pinata!

Out back digging in the dirt. He saw me put these on while I was planting some flowers and is now obsessed with wearing them when he's digging. Notice the blue foot....he'd just gotten done painting our patio

Starring off into the yard....so funny!

Painting his masterpiece

Grabbing onto his friend Blakley. She was one of the only girls born during the baby boom of '07 with our friends. She's a cutie and JT loves her

When daddy had the lawn mower, he had his lawn mower. Then daddy switched to the weed eater, so JT came running inside looking for his too. He loves doing whatever daddy is doing too

Coloring, he loves to do this in the morning after breakfast

I brought his up and down coaster inside because I refuse to go outside in the 100 degree temps.. augh! Even with a pool, it's just too much sometimes to bear.

This video was taken this morning around 6:15 am....yes we are back to the crack of dawn wakings!

I've lost it!

Well mostly my mind it feels like, but more importantly my cell phone. I can't find it anywhere, and I'm pretty sure I had it this morning.

I feel like I'm walking in a daze!

Of course I store everything on there, including my grocery list, so I really need to find it....plus it wantent cheap to say the least and I don't think Mr Kinley will be keen on the idea of replacing it especially since the new ones are a little more pricier!

So if you have seen I-rene aka my iphone (she's wearing a white parka) please let me know! I won't even be mad if you read all my texts and e-mails....just don't delete them please ;-)!

Too much comminication

Sometimes I feel so un-lucky that JT can communicate with me so well because even thought I love to hear what he's thinking at any given minute, I have to hear what he's think at any given minute. I swear there's not a quiet thought in that kids head! I figured out the other day that he has gotten wise to me pretending like I don't understand what he's asking for so he tells me "mommy listen to Jackson!" and then asks again. I about died laughing when he said it so of course if it makes mommy laugh then he's going to do it again and again.

This morning was another first. I was going out front to do something and JT came running after me yelling "wait for me!". That's the first time he hasn't talked about himself in 3rd person, usually I would hear "wait for Jackson!". I think it's coming from Travis teaching him to say "excuse me" instead of "excuse you", which kind of makes me sad because I love when he comes up to me and says, "mommy, hold you" which I think he'll start asking me soon "mommy, hold me".

His favorite things to do nowadays are play with his trains, trucks and wrestle with his stuffed animals. He's also learned how to hide behind the couch pillows. It's so cute! He'll get himself behind there and yell "mommy, find you!".

He's learned all the basic colors including pink, purple, black and brown. Counting has gone a little the other way now that he loves the number twenty. He used to count to 13 then jumble a few up and say twenty, but now he'll only count to 8 or 9 and then say 20 with a huge smile on his face. When we are in the car he'll ask to hear his "favorite song" over and over again. It's a rockin tune from VBS and he'll play air guitar right along with it. He's a rocker through and through!

His horsey backpack or as he says "horsey packpack". He loves packing it on his back now!