For mom...(me)

So, this is more for me because I am not doing a great job of keeping up with milestones, etc for the boys so am forcing myself to sit down and do it.  I love watching their little personalities...how different they are and alike at the same time.  So here goes:
Caleb:
Smart as a whip...he can recognize someone's car wherever we are.  We can be driving and he sees a car that looks like daddy's or mine, or ANYONE's car he has ever seen and says, "Mommy, that is like _______'s car!" We pulled up in our driveway today and our neighbor's mom's car was parked and he said, "mommy, that's Mrs. Meg's mom's car."  Seriously?
He loves his brother, but does not love to share with him.
He loves cheese, milk, cereal, hummus, spaghetti, "chewies," and nothing else.
He loves to play with cars, legos, loves to read books over and over, loves the pool, loves to be outside and LOVES anything Disney.
His vocabulary is so expansive and he is very articulate with his words (not bragging but he is pretty fantastic!)
He knows stores by what we buy there...the milk and egg store, the cereal store, etc.
He asks Jermile all the time when he gets home from work, "daddy are you staying for a long time?"-he loves when daddy is home :)
He categorizes people as little people (kids) or big people (adults)...hard to tell a "larger" person what he means when he calls them big :/

Aiden:
He is crawling (army style) around everywhere.  He is hard to contain!
He adores Caleb and Beasley and will follow them anywhere.
When he laughs, it melts my heart!  Caleb can make him laugh like no one else can.
He has 4 teeth...both upper/bottom front 2!
He is a pretty chill little guy for the most part, but we have had our phases!
He is starting to pull up to a stand and has really in the 3 weeks been able to sit from crawling and go back to crawling
He is only about 1lb bigger than Caleb was at this age although everyone says he is going to be the big one whatever that means!
He is not very snuggly...meaning, he does not like to be held and never really has.

That is all I can really think of for now.  I love the opportunity to get to be home with them everyday.  It absolutely has its challenges, but I love getting to see everything they are doing and not missing anything.  BUT, Caleb has a gotten a bit whinier since being at home with me.  Yikes.  Thankful for this family!

 Aiden 8 months

 Caleb's last day of preschool

Aiden:"Mommy, um, help!"

Gotta love him

Your child might be OCD if.....

(lining up his hummus and crackers before he can eat them)

Some new born pics!

Our new addition...

Well, we have recently welcomed our precious little boy, Aiden Gaines, into our family since my last post.  Life is drastically changing with 2 boys, but we are getting there!  Caleb has been wonderful and is so loving and concerned over Aiden.  He loves to help any way he can...getting diapers, giving hugs and kisses, "holding" Aiden and really whatever we ask him to do for Aiden, he is eager to do.  So thankful for that.  I still want to make it a regular priority to have Mommy/Caleb dates once a week or where Jermile's schedule permits.  It has been a harder transition for me probably not having the "Caleb time" I was accustomed to having.  But, I love this little guy (Aiden) so much.  I pray these boys grow to be the best of friends and support each other as they get older.  Jermile's schedule is completely insane.  Because this is a public post, I will not say everything I would like to say about it, but for now, I will say he is working way too much to enjoy it.  Pray for him.  Here are some pics of our growing family!

 I love this pic.  It is truly how Caleb is with Aiden.  He could just sit and watch him for however long we would let him...well, or until his hyperactive nature kicks in!

How did we get here?

I have been telling myself I need to write this post for a while now, but not sure if anyone reads this anymore.  I am going to write it for myself so I can look back and remember how faithful God has been and continues to be.  I have also (with much pain) joined the Facebook world, only to keep up with the happenings of all the people we miss so much from Clemson.  I can't believe I am living in Auburn.  God was so clear in His direction to move us here but I still cannot believe I am back to a place I love so much.  Saying that, I am learning more and more that it is not about the place that makes it home, but it is family.  Wherever Jermile and Caleb (and soon to be Aiden) are, that is where I want to be!  Months ago, God began closing so many doors in Clemson, which we took as discouragement at the time and not really understanding what He was doing.  We were trying our best to be financially faithful by stepping away from homes we really wanted and putting offers on homes that would not stretch our budget.  All offers fell through but we needed a home quickly, as we were having to get out of our rental by August.  I continued to ask, "God what are you doing? I know You are leading us somewhere, but where?"  All the while, I thought he was leading us to a specific neighborhood in Clemson.  Some time later, a job opened up at Auburn, but Jermile's first reaction was NO!  He had a great job in Clemson...worked with some amazing people and was surrounded by the community he loved.  To make it short, I saw God completely turn my husband's heart around through His Word and clearly communicated to him through so many other ways, that Auburn, if given the opportunity, was where He wanted us.  WHAT??????  I was baffled that Jermile was coming to me saying he felt led to leave Clemson and move our family to Auburn.  It was such an act of God!  Obviously, it was where God was leading us as we have been here for about a month.  It is a completely different Auburn than what it was when I lived here before.  I have the opportunity to stay at home with the boys, which is something I have wanted since Caleb was born.  I am so thankful to have a husband that listens to the Lord.  Even if it meant we were to stay in Clemson...I completely trust the Jermile listens and hears from the Lord and does what He says.  That brings such a peace to know I am being led by someone who wants nothing more or less than what the Lord wants for his family.

So, a practical update...Caleb started preschool today (see picture below)!  I think he is ready to get around some kids.   As much as I love being with him all day, I know he needs to get away from mama for a bit!  We are getting settled as we are renting the house my parents just bought from me a few months ago.  Funny how things work out, right?  God is leading us to a church that is somewhat similar to our church that we loved dearly in Clemson and I am able to get involved in some ladies' bible studies that are providing childcare.  It has been a hard transition for Jermile, but he can handle just about anything.  Thanks for everyone's encouragement.  We are about 2 weeks away from welcoming our second little boy into the world!  Crazy!  We miss Clemson, friends and family so much but know we are where we are called to be.

 This is our next door neighbor, Ella, who Caleb loves!  Everyday we pull in he asks if we can go see her!  Her little brother, Raleigh had a "tailgate" bday party a few weeks ago.  

  My proud little boy on his first day of preschool.  He was so excited, he didn't even say bye to me!

Little Man

It has been a while and there is so much to blog about.  Since my last post, school is out (praise the Lord) and we have been enjoying our summer!  I think I enjoy being pregnant during the winter months more than the summer months.  My hat goes off to those that have been pregnant with all their children during hot summer months!

Caleb is continuing to amaze us with everything he is doing.  He has moved to a big boy bed which I thought would be hard, but he has done it like a champ and doesn't get out of the bed until we come in and get him.  He is also now fully potty trained!  He is doing great and loves to tell us when he has to go pee pee or poo poo. The only thing we are having trouble with him not wanting to pee in his pull up at night, so he wakes up about every 3 hours to go potty.  I guess he is just getting us ready for the new little one!   I LOVE the fact that we don't have to buy diapers....for a few months anyways!  He is talking in complete sentences and his favorite right now is telling what he has to go to and then adding "I'll be right back, ok?"  Like, "I have to go get a shirt, I'll be right back, ok?"  "I hug Beasley, I'll be right back, ok?"  It is the cutest thing to listen to...listening to your little baby putting ideas together on his own and putting them into sentences is crazy.  He loves to go to the park and slide (he is always asking, go see slide, mommy?).  He LOVES Elmo....in an unhealthy way.  It used to be Veggie Tales, which he still loves, but I am tired of listening to Elmo talk in the 3rd person.  Has anyone ever noticed this?  Instead of saying "I am happy" Elmo says "Elmo is happy."  It is a tad annoying!

We are definitely entering, or really, deep into a difficult time in disciplining little man.  He is testing us with what he can get away with and I have recently been reading "Don't make me count to 3" which is geared toward disciplining our child's heart through God's Word rather than disciplining their behavior.  This has been so hard and I have to constantly examine my motives of why I am disciplining...is it because he has made me mad or because he is somehow disobeying God's Word?  Obviously the latter is the reason we are called to discipline, but I find it hard to take a deep breath when he has blatantly been disobedient.  I am just praying that God will teach me as I am trying to teach Caleb to obey us and in turn when his heart is ready, he will better understand to obey God.  Pictures date back to Easter! 

 

Easter Egg Hunt

 This was from a get together with all of Jermile's college buddies.  This is how many kids there are between them all!  

Celebrating daddy on Father's Day:

Jermile and I are trying to make it a tradition to take a trip to Charleston on our anniversary every year.  We rarely get a pic together without out little man with us!

Caleb Birthday and some more...

I know this post is a little late, but little man turned 2 on March 11. Crazy. We celebrated with family and Elmo! Caleb is really into Elmo and Veggie Tales these days. The weather was wonderful and it was a great day to celebrate.

Mom made Caleb's cake.

This was a favorite, but everyone got soaked!

This was the only picture we got with Caleb's new shirt. Not sure if you can even read it, but he is going to be a big brother! It was the perfect time to announce seeing as all the family hardly ever gets together!