How Can It Be....She's 3?!

Am I the only one who feels like time has flown by recently? It seems like only a few weeks since this was happening instead of 3 years! But even though it's went by crazily fast, those 3 years since our baby girl was born have been challenging, joyful, and everything else in between. We celebrated Darcey's birthday last week both at home and with family. And although we were all a little under the weather with a cold (hence the pajama type clothing in the pics) it was still a fun time seeing her so excited to be 'growing bigger". :-) Here's a little peak into our celebrating....

 

We are so thankful for the blessing of having this little girl in our lives! She never fails to make us laugh with her silliness and melt our hearts with her sweetness. Not to mention amaze us with some of her words! :-) I can't wait to see what God has in store for her as she grows up.

Happy Birthday to Our Little Men!

It's been a week of birthday celebrations around here for our 2 boys! So crazy that we now have a 10 year old and 1 year old in the house. Where does the time go?!

 

First off was Dathan turning 10 last week and we took a fun trip to the Smokey Mtns to celebrate his special milestone. He had a blast picking some places to visit and eat while we were there. It's unreal how quickly he is growing up into a young man! Love his tender heart and funny, artistic personality. He is definitely one of a kind and I wouldn't have it any other way! And just look how handsome he is too. :)

 

 

 

 

Next up when we got back home was Daxton turning one so we had another special milestone to celebrate! I'm still in disbelief that it's been a whole year since he was born but we are loving this fun age that he is now. Taking a few steps here and there but no full fledged walking yet, which has not slowed him down in the least. Jabbering in his own language, laughing with his mouth opened wide, and overall bringing lots of joy to our lives. So thankful for this sweet, baby boy!  He had a blast eating his first cupcake (made from black beans. true story.) or mostly smashing it on his face. And look what a cutie he is too. :)

 

So there's a little post about our boys! Grateful to have them both in our family. Such a blessing to raise them and watch them grow! More pictures to come later of all the fun we've been having the past week......


                                      Tyra

  

Celebration Fun!

My 31rst birthday was this past weekend so we celebrated with a party at my parent's house. Fun times! My mom cooked a delicious lunch and a yummy allergy-free dessert. The girls had so much fun decorating and yes, they put all 31 candles on the cookie cake! Took a lot of air to blow out that many. :-) As is typical here in the south it ended up being a warm day in February so we even got to enjoy going outside. Unfortunately, we currently have 2 pretty sick babies so my actual b'day was spent caring for them, but it was nice to celebrate while we could! Prayers for health are appreciated and here are a few pictures to see of our day. I'm so thankful to be blessed with another year to live and look forward to what God will do in the future! Until next time......

 

 

Baby Girl is 2! {another over-due post}

As you probably recall I had plans of doing some make-up posts on important stuff I'd missed after the baby was born. I think I did like, one maybe? lol Then came the holidays and us being sick (yes, all six of us!) and well, you know how it is. Anyway, I'm still wanting to do a few of those over-due type updates so here's the one about Darcey's birthday. That was in October! Enjoy. :-)

 (yummy cookie cake.....made especially to be allergy friendly)

 (laughing over her singing birthday card)

 (loved opening her tea set.....she had to serve everyone of course)

 (eating chocolate syrup for her birthday breakfast. good stuff)

(balloons for the birthday girl and daddy staying home from work to celebrate)

It's so hard to believe that this little girl is 2 already! She is such a fun, sweet, wonderful addition to our family. It's amazing just how big her personality is. Not to mention her vocabulary!
She loves to give hugs and say I love you or I missed you. She likes sleeping in her own bed or if she occasionally ends up in ours still wants her own space.
She had made huge strides toward being potty trained before Daxton was born (at her own request), but totally lost interest afterwards. I'm okay with waiting until things are a little more normal before pushing it again. Although not having to change 2 little ones will be a relief for sure!
She loves singing and dancing like a ballerina. Has a huge imagination and is always ready to play. She loves the ABC song and can count to 20. Most of the time. lol
She has grown so much over the last few months and now weighs a whopping 30 lbs! And it's not fatty weight at all but she is just a big girl. Quickly out growing the  size 2 clothes we started the winter out in and already needing bigger ones. Ah!
She also thinks she's as big as her older sister and brother of course, which is sometimes cute and sometimes frustrating. For both of us! She also loves her new baby brother and calls him her buddy. So sweet.
I could go on and on about our Darcey girl but I'll just sum it up by saying there's definitely not anyone else like her. And we wouldn't have it any other way! I can't wait to see her grow and change over the next year and am so blessed to be her momma. Thankful God has allowed us another year to have her in our family. :-)

Our First Baby Boy~Growing Up (late birthday post)

If you read my last post, then you were forewarned about me blogging some "old" news. And if you didn't then I guess here's your warning now. Ha! Things have been so crazy around here since August that the few posts I've written have been mostly baby related so I decided to do a little catch up. The first one being about Dathan's birthday since it fell right in the middle of the craziest days before birth. So here we go....

You probably remember the story about me crashing his party (that we tried to have early enough for that not to happen!) by going into labor due to a uti. Yeah, so let's just say we didn't get any good pictures or anything since I left in such a rush. Which I am still kicking myself over cause it was the neatest theme ever. He chose to do police stuff (inspired by the movie Courageous) and it turned out awesome! (if I do say so myself) Oh, well, at least we have the memories of what would have been a great party, right?! I did get a couple pics of him opening presents at the birthing house while we waited to see what was going on with me and the baby.

                      (opening gifts from grandparents and uncle)

                          (trying on the police costume)


Our present for him got left at home so he was able to open it the next day. Wearing his costume again of course. It was a main staple in his wardrobe for a while after first getting it. :-) 

                               (so excited about his gift!)

                            (yeah, he really is this cool in real life;)

A couple weeks later was his actual birthday so we celebrated as a family with him choosing his own food and dessert. This is the picture of him after blowing out his candle. Isn't he the cutest thing ever?! (or maybe I think that because I'm his mom)

 

There are still days when I can't believe we have a nine year old already. I think especially after having a new one again it's made me wonder where in the world the time has gone? And also realize that it flies by and they are grown before we know it. We've been blessed to have Dathan as our son and it's amazing watching him grow and change into the young man he's becoming.

He bravely deals with all his health issues like a trooper even though he has enough of them to frustrate the strongest of adults. We love his crazy, artistic, athletic, comedic, deep-thinking self more than words can say. Best of all he has a heart to know God, try to do what's right, and work out his relationship with Him. We are thankful of the honor to raise him and so proud to be his parents. I pray that he will have many more birthdays and we will get to see him grow up into a Godly, young man one day!

 

Our {Big} Baby Girl is 7!

Where do the years go?! Seriously, it seems like only yesterday we were bringing home a beautiful, baby girl and now instead she is 7 already! We were so busy celebrating and having fun that I didn't even take the time to write on her actual birthday but wanted to go ahead and share some memories now. Guess I might as well just start at the beginning, right? :-)

For various reasons we chose to birth in TN for our second baby, at a house, with a midwife. I was a little nervous about the longer drive, natural labor, etc but also excited and hoping to have a much better experience than with our first in the hospital. We only did one ultrasound and couldn't tell for sure what the baby was (although the opinion leaned slightly more towards girl than boy) so we prepared for either on the big day. I was 4 days over my due date and had been trying a little of everything to get things started but nothing seemed to work so far. We went to the chiropractor who did some acupressure to stimulate my uterus, in addition to the regular adjustment then headed out to eat with a friend before going home to see what would happen.
After leaving the restaurant I realized while driving home that I seemed to be "leaking" something. I called Blake, who was driving separately, and told him we should pull over to check if my water had broken. Um, yeah, it had. Completely. Which I quickly found out after standing up. Ha! I almost immediately started having pretty hard contractions so we debated whether or not we'd have time to drive all the way home (30 minutes further away from the birth house than where we were) and then the whole way back or if we should just head out from there. The only drawback being I somehow didn't have the baby bag we had packed in the car with me so I wouldn't have much for it to wear. We decided that was still best though and called my parents so they could pick up a couple of outfits and then meet us there to watch Dathan during the birth.
Long story short, we made it to the house and I got cleaned up and changed. The doula arrived and then the midwife (finally!) thankfully since by then I was hurting pretty bad and wanting to get in the birthing tub. She had to check me first and was surprised to find I was already a 7! (she had convinced herself since I was so calm and quiet during the contractions that I probably wasn't far along....which is also why she didn't hurry to get there) Anyhow, the tub was filled by then so I got in, which felt good for a few minutes but the pain quickly became alot worse and I started feeling different. The midwife was kinda casually walking through the room during a contraction and I said what does it feel like when you need to push?! She got a shocked look on her face (since I was only a 7 like 10 minutes before that) and quickly got some gloves on. I didn't even feel like getting out of the tub so we decided to just try birthing in the water. Three pushes with lots of screaming (on my part, that is, since she was face up! Ouch!) later and out came our baby girl!! :-)
It was an amazing, unforgettable experience to say the least and I wouldn't change anything about it that I can think of. (okay, so I would have preferred less pain and tearing while pushing but all that was quickly forgotten anyway once she got here!) I can definitely say that the beginning of her life was just as unexpected as she has proven to be herself since then but I wouldn't trade either of them for the world.

Our Delancey Paige is the most loving, sweet, stubborn, funny, independent, girl imaginable.....with a personality that is all her own! From dressing up like a princess to playing with worms out in the dirt, she never ceases to surprise us in how she looks at things. I can't wait to see what God does in her life as she continues to grow and learn every day. We are so blessed and honored to have the privilege of raising her. Sometimes I feel like I'm the one that is learning things just from being her momma! I'm so thankful for the Lord giving her to us for these seven years and hope to enjoy many, many more birthdays with our girl! And now I will end by leaving you with some pictures of her day.......

p.s. I almost forgot to add that she asked to get her ears pierced as a special surprise for her birthday. She loves it and they look so cute! So proud of my big girl. :-)

She's 1 Today!

It's almost impossible to believe that a whole year has passed since we welcomed this beautiful baby girl into our lives, but time has flown by and we are definitely celebrating her 1rst birthday today! I could go on and on about her and how special she is to us but I think I'll just let some pictures do the talking for me. Mostly anyway. :-)

Holding her for the first time!

Meeting the big brother and sister!

                           (fast forward a WHOLE year!)

Birthday Party!

Opening presents....she learned fast!

She had the most fun with the paper!

Taking a break to read her card!

Loves baby dolls....what a cute smile!

Wasn't sure what to think about her first cake!

What is this?!

She figured it out pretty quick! (altho she didn't end up eating much)

The 3-D's!

Waking up happy on her birthday!

We've had a fun weekend already celebrating and I'm sure today will be full of it too! Happy Birthday to our Darcey Ella! She's a wonderful, sweet, lovable addition to our family and we are so thankful to have spent the past year with her in it. Good times and bad I wouldn't trade a moment of it for anything!

Pie, Movie, and Birthday Celebration!

It's Blake's birthday! And we're celebrating with a homemade lemon icebox pie and then going to watch the Dolphin Tale movie when he gets off work.
Ten years ago we spent this day together for the first time and here we are 9 years of marriage and 3 kids later celebrating again!
We called and sang him a special birthday song earlier, Delancey is decorating up the table, and Dathan's making a card. They're having so much fun making it a special day for him!
So here's to a Happy Birthday for Blake and hoping that he has many more for us to celebrate together. I'll be sure to post some pictures later so ya'll can see all the fun!

I Can't Believe He's Eight!

Eight years ago I was both anxious and excited as we got ready in the dark and drove to the hospital to be induced for the birth of our firstborn. Never could I have imagined just how life changing that day would become for us.

Birth plans didn't go exactly as wanted or expected, but he arrived safe and sound a few hours later....with a head full of red hair! I'm pretty sure he was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen and he very quickly stole a very special part of my heart. :)

After coming home we started our journey through the next few months of severe and unexplained health problems which included 3 more hospital stays where he had to endure some pretty awful things. But God was gracious enough to let us keep him, even though there were times when I was afraid we wouldn't get to.

The past few years have been full of many things both good and bad. But the best part of them has just been having the privilege to watch a fun-filled, joyful, laughing baby boy grow up into the wonderful young man he is so swiftly becoming. So I can easily say that the good has most definitely far outweighed the hard times.  

I never cease to be amazed and thankful at how blessed I am to be his mom. Happy Birthday, Dathan Levi!!

Happy 6th Birthday!

It's hard to believe that we're celebrating 6 years of her life today, but here are some pictures I wanted to share of Delancey growing up. She is loving, sweet, and fiercely independent and we are so proud of the young lady she's becoming. I pray that the Lord will use her life for great things. Her biggest ambition is to become a wife and mother and I tell her that nothing could be greater! I'm very thankful for May 10, 2005.....the day God blessed us to become her parents. Happy Birthday to our first baby girl! Hope you enjoy the pictures. ( which are in reverse order for some reason!)

February '11...so grown up!

May '10...princess birthday party

April '09...the little cowgirl

January '08 (the broken arm!)

October '07...always a princess!

June '06...just turned one!

July '05...first pictures