Growing Pains?

So, in reality I barely made it to bed time with H yesterday!  I was ready to put him by the road with a sign that read "Free to good home"!  He napped great yesterday.  But for some reason cried all afternoon....he wanted to be held and was rubbing his eyes and pulling his hair (a sure fire way to know that he is TIRED)!  Not sure if he is going through a growth spurt or what....but he has been doing the same thing today....crying, wanting to be held, and rubbing his eyes and pulling his hair.....actually he has been doing this since Sunday.  He seems exhausted all day....he will nap for 2 hours in the morning (unusual for him) and nap for around 3 hours in the afternoon....and still sleeping decent at night (only waking once for a bottle)...hmm?  Needless to say he is taking an early morning nap and mommy is having some much needed quiet time.

Ok now, I am going to be totally honest with you guys...the constant crying and screaming and holding is wearing me down.  Not to mention (and you will recall from yesteday's blog) that I have been feeling like I have no support.

Once again the Proverbs 31 devotion was written just for me today. 

Philippians 4:5b The Lord is near.



She talks about going through seasons of pain.  And not hiding the pain but letting God come in and heal our pain.  Reminding us that He is constantly with us and wants to heal our pain.  Well I havent lost anyone or necessarily have that type of pain...but I definitely needed to be reminded today that God is with me no matter what.  To be reminded that with Him alone I can tackle the crying and tiredness with His help.  I needed to be reminded that I dont need to rely on people (whoever they may be) to give me the support I expect.  I dont have to rely on people for this support because I have that in my Heavenly Father 24/7.

1 Corinthians 13:7 It [love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 



Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Philippians 4:5 Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.

I thought the full verse was appropriate this morning also.  To be gently reminded that our (MY) gentleness is needs to be evident to everyone....ESPECIALLY H!  Thank You for this reminder!



Father, help me to remember that this too, is a season in our lives.  That this too shall pass.  Give me persevearance to trudge through this season and to always remember that not matter what You are for me and with me!  Thank You for Your unconditional love and support. 

Whether H is going through a growth spurt or not...mommy definitely is.  God is teaching me loving patience and gentleness.  He is teaching me to rely on Him for everything...not others.  And he is teaching me the importance of a schedule! 

Stirred Up!

So many of you know what I have gone through that 6-8 months with H trying to get him to sleep (and probably many of you, like me, have experienced the same thing).  It has been an uphill battle.  I am tired and irritable all the time.  Im not very nice to Christopher, which obviously has caused a wall to be built between us.  I am exhausted and at the end of my rope. 

I have felt, for months, like I get no answers from the pediatrician about this.  For the last two weeks or so  I have been the sleep nazi with naps and staying on schedule.  Finally last night H slept from 7PM to 530AM!  But, this morning we also had an appointment with Mrs. Debbie (the PA at the pediatrician's office), in a last stitch effort to stay with this office.  She didnt give me the magic answer (which I had secretely wanted but knew wouldnt come!), but did provide me with some great suggestions and some wonderful MUCH needed support.

One of her suggestions was to go ahead and convert H to a toddler bed (which is easy to do becasue our crib converts to a toddler bed!)!  But, upon telling Christopher this, he was negative.  I was and still am discouraged.  I wanted to scream JUST SUPPORT ME PLEASE!  I GET UP WITH HIM TIME AFTER TIME EVERY NIGHT, NOT YOU!  But I just very nicely (or I hope so anyways) excused myself off the phone.

So, while H is naping I reluctantly read the Proverbs 31 devotion for today and cried the whole time (still am), because it fits so perfectly.  She talked about having all the right ingredients (faith, a bible, a church, Godly girlfriends, a devotion subscription, and a quite time) but yet getting stuck and burnt up.  She questioned if your family, marriage, job etc. feels like a whirlwind going through them.  I wanted to shake the computer and SCREAM YES BUT ITS MORE LIKE A MONSOON AND IM DROWNING!  Her answer to this was quite simple, its a good thing and to think of it as God stirring the sweetness in! 

I want nothing more than to be a sweet, Godly woman.  I want nothing more than to have a healthy, thriving little boy who I can teach God's love to.

My prayer for today is that I simply get through todays monsoon.  That God would continue to work in me, making me into a better wife and mother.  That he would make me a little sweeter today!  And finally that He would remind me when im at the end of my rope feeling unsupported that He, my Savior, supports me whole heartedly.  Thanks you Jesus!

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

The cutest pirate you ever saw!

GiGi said H had to have a halloween costume...so he was a pirate!  He was the cutest pirate you ever saw!

Although he didnt last too long in his pirate garb because he got too hot!



Golf Adventure

Update #3!

I had mentioned earlier in the week that on Friday (since we didnt have H) that we could go play a round of golf.  Of course I was also quick to mention that Christopher might not want to play with me because I am so awful....and slow! 

On Friday morning Christopher actually took me to play my first EVER full round of golf!  (Sorry no pics....I figured that wasnt the "golfer" thing to do)!  He did inform me before we left that I may not be able to play every hole through...depending on how busy the golf course was.

Well, we started hole one thinking that there wasnt anyone teeing off directly after us...but quickly we learned there was!  I was crushed thinking I would only get to hit a few shots at each hole!  But much to my liking all the golfers in front of us (and there was MANY...as the course was packed that day due to Florida Georgia weekend) golf was going slow and we had to wait on the groups infront of us so I got to play EVERY hole all the way through!

Ok, so in reality I THREW the ball a few times!  Not exactly a fair shot!  But a few times I got so mad with myself I just picked the ball up and chunked it!  HA!  Now there was a time that I hit my ball into a bunker (sand trap) (which only happened twice this round of golf!) but a guy on A DIFFERENT hole hit his ball into my bunker too.  I got there first and attempted to hit my ball out...I missed!  Well, in an attempt to not hold this other random guy up I just threw my ball out.  His remark..."WOW!  That was the best shot I have see all day!  Didn't even pick up any sand!"  HA! 

In the end I had a blast!  The verdict is still out on Christopher however!  :)

After this experience Christopher informed me that I really should take golf again in January as my second PE credit!  So, I am proud to say not only did I play my first round of golf; but I am also registered for golf AGAIN!  HA!

Sea Turtles

UPDATE #2

As I mentioned earlier Christopher has been on vacation this last week.  Wednesday Christopher and I took Harper over to Jekyll to the Sea Turtle Center.  If you live in the Brunswick/Glynn County area I hightly recommend going if you havent been!  We had a blast!

The turtles were an amazing site.  The center had pictures of what the turtles ooked like when they were rescued and why they were rescued...and you could absolutely tell that the center has rehabilitated these sweet creatures.

I was a little unsure how Harper would react.  But he absolutely had a blast!  He watched the turtles intently. 

He also kept trying to climb over the railing and get down!  He wanted to swim with a turtle!  Harper and his daddy had a great time together and this next picture shows that in its entirety.

Besides having a few minutes (literally it only took us about 45 minutes or so to walk through) of great family bonding it was so incredible to see how far the turtles have come!



This little (or not so little) guy was iver 140 lbs!!!



Birthday Boy

I have absolutely been slacking with my blogging.  Not to mention Christopher has been on vacation the last week and we have had a lot going on. I am going to attempt to get this thing caught up...but it will take me a few posts to do so.

I will start with Harper's Birthday.  All of you know by now my baby isnt a baby anymore.  He is officially a toddler!  :(  It is the most exciting and sad thing ever for a mama!  Thursday night I cried becasue all I could think was "when I put him to bed and get him up in the morning he wont be a baby anymore...he will be a toddler"! 

Friday (10/21) his birthday, I was good...didnt shed one tear!


Saturday we decided to get his hair cut (it needed it bad)!  And I cried because in the end he looks like a big boy!!

I was also quite proud of my big boy, with the help of a sucker, he sat fairly still and never cried during his haircut!

Sunday we also had a 1st Birthday Party for him!  It wasnt anything big, but his mommy had a blast and will definitely remember it.  I regret to inform you that his mommy was also so tuckered out after the party that there will not be a party for a few years!  HA!  But he had a blast being the center of attention and here are some great pics from that day.  THANKS Serena for taking, editing, and sending them to us!

Funny thing was Harper did not want anything to do with his cake!  He would not touch it! 



Now, after the fact, Pops (Christopher's dad) gave him bites of cake off a fork and he loved it!

Guess the moral of the story is, Harper doesn't like to "dig in" and get dirty!  HA!

Not the best picture of us but it sums up the day!

Its still desperately hard for this mama to believe that her baby is a big boy now!  And it amazes me that day in and day out he is growing and learning.  Every day he shows me that he is soaking in his surroundings and learning something new!  I love you Harper Barnes!

First update in a long time!

It has been a while since I have even cared to look at this blog.  Life happened, I got busy, and eventually I stopped caring about it!  But here I am!

This week we are getting ready for Harper's first birthday!  I CANNOT believe that he is turning ONE!  Where has the year gone?  Just yesterday I took a home pregnancy test and found out I was preggo!  And Friday hes turning one!  God has truly blessed me beyond imagine with an amazing little boy!  The BEST little boy, I say!  He has a funny personality, he is sweet, and I love him to pieces. 

As I will be running around getting things together for his party this week im also trying to plan a halloween costume for him.  I wasnt really planning on doing anything for this but GiGi kindly told me a few days ago that he HAD to have a costume!  She bought him this styrofoam sword not to long ago and told me to plan around that.  So, I racked my brain for a few days...couldnt come up with anything so I asked Christopher.  Good ol' Christopher to the rescue!  First thing out of his mouth?  A pirate!  Great idea daddy!  So now I am planning a pirate costume.

I googled pirate costumes (thanks google!) and got my list together: black pants that need to be cut and frayed, a white shirt that need to be frayed, red vest, a hat, a sword (DONE), and an eye patch (done, found one at the dollar store for $1).  So, im going to look at the consignment store for black pants and a white shirt since im cutting them anyways!  But I am thinking im going to attempt to make a red pirate vest out of felt (ill sew it, yes).  And attempt to make a black pirate hat out of foam pieces.  I will post pictures along the way.  Maybe it wont turn out a total disaster!