Emerson's Ballin'

Life with four little peeps is in FULL swing!  I'm definitely appreciating being near family, because it's literally "all hands on deck" at times!  My Mother-In-Law and my family have been super helpful and I've been ever so grateful for the assistance!!  Last night my Mom, Sister and I sat on my parents driveway and watched the kids play while we visited and caught up a bit.  When my Dad (aka G-Dad) came home from the office the boys were super excited and wanted to play basketball and Emerson didn't want to miss out on the action.  You have to watch the video of him "dunking" the ball, he's hanging from the rim and its too funny! 

 

And here's one more, Emerson is singing Jesus Loves the Little Ones...he is too cute, I love hearing him sing!

That's just a little tid bit of what he's doing lately...he's getting so big!  It's hard to believe that he's a Big Brother!  At times he does such big-boy things and then at other's I'm reminded that he and Ava Jane are just 21 months apart (which I totally realize some people have kids closer together then that but whew...man I'm glad its not any closer!)  Like Monday when I was carrying Emerson on one hip, carrying the baby seat on the other arm and trying to cross the parking lot with Lawson in tow too...lets just say I felt like a crazy person as we all got strapped in at Walmart!  I was wishing somebody could push me around in a cart...Mommy had a mini-meltdown that morning!  But truly things are going really well, Ava Jane is precious, the boys have been super helpful and as for me, I'm learning to roll with the punches and continue to say my life mantra daily to myself, "Joy in the Journey"....I feel like Dori on "Finding Nemo"..."just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"  Thank the Lord for the Holy Spirit, I'm learning to rely on Him more and myself less...I truly, deeply am in need of his power and strength each day and find myself more and more "hungry" for Him, which is a GREAT place to be...hard, but oh so good!  I'm reminded of  II Corinthians 12:9-10: “And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 

Thank you Lord for the peace you bring and the strength you give!

Nursery Reveal...

I had hoped to have done this post last weekend, but instead, I was in the hospital getting to meet my sweet baby girl!

I absolutely LOVE how her nursery turned out!  My Mom and I did the bedding and table skirt, we literally looked EVERYWHERE (from Birmingham to Memphis and all the fabric places here in town).  After all that shopping and looking I finally settled on these colors and fabrics (I loved the icey pink--it wasn't too light nor was it bright pink) and I love the mocha linen that I chose to pair with it all...I feel like its a quiet retreat for this precious little lady!


I found the glider rocker at Caroline's Consignment up in the Heights, what a great little shop that is!  We are still working on the toile lumbar pillow that will go in the chair, but I wanted to go ahead and blog about her nursery.

The baby bed was actually mine as a baby and was quite the collaborative work; my Mom painted it white, my Dad attached the decorative wood piece then my sister glazed it, didn't it turn out beautiful?! 

Here's the finished product....didn't it turn out great!!

My sister, Whitney, has begun a business, Whimsy Hill Designs, where she updates furniture by distressing vintage pieces and giving them a more up to date look, she uses chalk paint and an array of glazes to achieve certain looks.  She also specializes in home organization, helping to make things run more efficiently as well as home design (staging design and home decor).   If you're interested in her doing any home or furniture updates for you please contact her at wmclell@gmail.com

She painted, distressed and sealed this dresser and I'm IN.LOVE.WITH.IT!

This chandelier was actually hanging in the hallway of our new home and I thought it'd be a perfect light fixture in our girly-girls room, so we just had an electrician do a little switch-a-roo and there you have it!

I almost died when I found this adorable ruffled lamp shade at Hobby Lobby on sale 50% off, I love me some Hobby Lobby!  And the other lamp, on the round table, I found that at Stein Mart and it coordinated perfectly and was a whopping $39.99 can't beat that!! 

As for the artwork, I painted the pictures myself, I looked all over the internet for just the right thing and couldn't find it, so I took an idea I'd found and waited for Hobby Lobby to run their 20x20 inch canvases on sale and went to town painting! 

We ordered the fabrics and trim from Fabrics Etc in Little Rock, Premier Fabrics in Memphis and I actually found the linen fabric that we used for the bedskirt at Hancock's for $8.99/yard, how great is that?! 

The bumper pad was a floor sample from Pickles and Ice Cream, it was on sale for a killer price so I snatched it right up, then Mom and I tweeked it a bit because some of the colors they used on it didn't quite go...I think it turned out lovely!

 

 

Well, that's a little peek into Ava Jane's room...there's a few finishing touches we're working on, but for the most part, that's it!

 

And here's the little lady herself, a week old yesterday! 



Introducing Our Little Angel Baby....

Well the last several weeks have been very full at the Head house.  With all our other babies they've been born at 38 and 39 weeks so as we inched closer to those weeks of this pregnancy I had all sorts of lists going of things to try and accomplish or get done before she made her grand entrance!  We began checking off lots of my to do list and yet nothing was really happening...I would have contractions fairly close together (like every 8-12 minutes) for several hours and start thinking "oh man, here we go..." only for the contractions to completely die off.  Well that happened several different nights (Adam would lay out his clothes, I'd check my bag, then check the bag of things for all the boys to make sure everything was there for when the grandparents had them), I would have little rounds of contractions but nothing to really speak of, I must say it's hard to walk around feeling like a ticking time bomb...but what else do you do?

Well on Thursday evening we decided we'd go for a walk across the new bridge to see if we could get things moving, the boys loved riding their bikes and I must say the scenery was terrific, but NOTHING happened!  My body must have instinctively known something was gonna happen because I was like a freak on Thursday night (organizing, doing laundry, filing paper work, cleaning, etc).  Finally Adam said we should go to sleep, so we did, I was having NO contractions, not even any Braxton Hicks so I didn't figure anything was gonna happen...boy was I wrong!

At 3:00am I woke up having contractions regularly but not very strong ones.  I laid there about an hour trying to decide what to do, then thought I'd get up and take a shower and get ready...well when I stood up...and GUSH...there went my water (which has always broken in the hospital every other time).  I  yelled to Adam, "grab a towel" so he jumped out of bed, grabbed the towel and immediately started calling his parents who were on call to come be with the boys whenever things got going.  They got here and we left for the hospital, we arrived at about 5:00 and quickly checked in, they told me  I was only at 3 cm (which with all the others I'd gone in at 6 or 7 cm, so this was much different from the very beginning--it should've been an indication of how things would go....)  I began to be uncomfortable, but it was not unbearable... I told them I wanted my epidural as quickly as possible, and I DID get it, and there was some relief right there at the very beginnng....but my labor went from 3 to 5 in about 35 minutes, then it went from 5-8 in another half hour, then within minutes I was complete and in a TON of pain.  Apparently my labor had progressed to quickly for the epidural to catch up and she was "on a nerve root" and it wasn't allowing the pain killer to touch it....therefore we got, and will pay for, an epidural that unfortunately didn't work.  To say it was "intense" might be an understatement, I was in a lot of pain, and on top of everything, I was Group B strep positive so I needed 2 doses of antibiotics before she was born, so they were hoping I could hold off for another hour and a half...that did NOT happen!  Though she'd been slow to get started, when she decided she was "ready" she made a quick and deliberate delivery!  My doctor wasn't able to get there in time, the Charge Nurse was the one who delivered her....oh my goodness, such relief!

And I was doubly relieved, because they said "its a girl!" and I do have to say I did start crying....I think somewhere in my mind I wasn't quite positive she was a girl...honestly, I did pack the little day gown that I'd brought all the boys home in, just in case, but we certainly didn't need it!  Oh how precious she is, we just can't get enough of her.  So far she's super easy, and VERY QUIET which is a welcome relief for sure, if you've been around my family at all, my 3 boys can be very loud!  The boys are super excited for Ava Jane to be here; they were quite giddy the first time they met her up in the hospital!  I think this next leg of our parenting journey is going to be really fun, its already been real sweet and she's only been here 3 days!!  Adam and I spent some of our two days in the hospital just thanking and praising God for all the MANY answers to prayers, the perfect provision He's made for us to be here (in Little Rock) and getting to have a baby girl (who is healthy and strong)...we are completely humbled by His gracious gifts and we stand amazed at his goodness to us!

 

 

Meeting Poppy and Grammy as well as her 3 Big Brothers! (Lawson was super excited, Emerson looks a little apprehensive about all of it!)

All my boys...Oh how I love them!!

Last Weekend-Air Show 2012

Finally...I'm back online, after 3 trips to Best Buy to fix our computer, we finally walked out of there with a new replacement!  So I'm re-entering the blog world, hopefully with no more interuptions!

Last weekend we did a first for the all of us Head's; we attended the Air Show on Little Rock's Air Force Base.  I have to say I was filled with lots of memories of the military as we drove around on the Base...seeing all the brown signs with all kinds of acronymns and words, some familiar, some not so much, filled me with nostalgia of our four and half years spent in the Army at Fort Benning.  Everyone should have to spend some time in the Armed Forces, it has given me such a perspective and appreciation not only for the soldiers who fight for my freedoms day in and day out, but a really deep love for this wonderful country I have the priviledge to live in, I get teary just thinking about it!

I have to say that the show was fun, the boys had a great time watching the planes and getting to go inside some of them.   I was honestly a little apprehensive as the Blue Angels flew right over us, and as they seemingly "dodged" one another, it truly seemed that there might be a plane crash at any moment, but to all our delight, the show went on without a hitch!  There were many "ooo's" and "ahhhh's" as the boys were totally impressed with what they were seeing!  Lawson was very adament that he wanted to take a ride...we kept having to tell him, "not this time buddy, we're just watching the cool tricks". 



 

 

 

The funny part of the show was trying to keep the ear protection on Emerson, he cooperated some, but he HATED wearing it, I was worried he might go deaf from the EXTREMELY loud jets that were constantly flying over head....I resorted to just squeezing his ears when they flew over, and that wasn't all that pleasant either as you can see.

 

 

 We had a fun time hanging with friends and seeing the show!  You can see more fun pics with our friends at Carol's blog.

 

 

 My only complaint, or warning to those who go next year, is the traffic is HORRIBLE!  We were literally on the Base an hour and forty-five minutes in a line waiting to park before we could even see the planes....then we waited in a line for almost 45 minutes to turn out of the lane we were parked in when we were trying to leave, finally Adam just started weaving through the parking lot and we were off quickly from there, but my goodness, no one was directing traffic and it was getting a bit hairy in our car!  Thankfully we had a some snacks, a few sips left in our cups and a DVD player that was working!!

Go Hogs

Though its not officially Fall yet, with the start of football, it seems that we are headed into the next season! So to kick it off right we had a few friends over for a Razorback watch party!


My chunky monkey kept stealing meatballs and lil' smokies off of Bella's plate, as if he hadn't had enough already?!



It's always fun to get together with friends and the kids definitely had a great time going crazy in the playroom. I can't say I got to watch much of the game and conversations were what I lovingly call "broken" as each of us Mom's had to go and check on kiddos, but all in all it was fun being with good friends and enjoying tastey game food! Two kiddos are missing from this picture but when they took over the kitchen there was a total of 11 crowded around eating (that's 11 kids 5 years and under, how about that!!)


So glad the Razorbacks pulled it out! Wooooo...Pig Soooieeee!!

Last Lake Trip of 2012!

We weren't able to get to the lake as much as we'd hoped this summer so, last weekend when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped on it! The boys were super excited to get to go. We had great weather and a wonderful time!



Adam and Emerson...and how about that perfectly glass-like water?!! It was perfect skiing water!


G-Dad wakeboarding...


My sweet boys...


Gigi and Emerson...


And Daddy caught some air on the board!


Just enjoying the cove...



Lawson didn't want to tee-tee in the water, but he was ok to stand on the back of the boat and tee-tee in the water...how cute is that bo-bo?!


It's hard to believe trips to the lake are over for 2012!