2 weeks

Well, our lives have been quite busy lately . . . still adjusting to our new joy. Don't get me wrong, she's an awesome lil' baby! But juggling two + trying to work (yes, I had a shoot this past Sunday and a wedding this Saturday) + keeping up with the house + trying to keep everyone posted . . . it's hard!

I still need to blog about her debut, but till then, let me tell you about my baby girl . . . or 'Tubbs' as I call her! She has the BIGGEST and CUTEST chubby cheeks! Gah, I kiss them all the time :) 

Tubbs is quite the eater. I mean, QUITE the eater. I am breast feeding / pumping (yet again) and she's done well at keeping most feedings to every 2.5 to 3 hours. At first, she was every 4 . . . which scared me, because I know breast milk goes thru their systems faster than formula . . . but with every 4 hour spans, she was still gaining . . . so no need to change anything. Not to mention, she is letting Daddy and I sleep at night! So, now that we are on a 2.5 to 3 hour schedule during the day, she sometimes gives us a 5 hour span at night! Thank you baby girl! She's beginning to make up for my miserable pregnancy! Laugh.

She had her 2 week appointment today and she is now 9 lbs 7 oz. -- Tubbs gained a pound from her debut! And she is 20 3/4 inches long. Sigh. She's already making me sad by growing so fast!! Tear.

She has started to like sleeping on her belly. I seem to have tummy sleepers! Makes me nervous with all the 'studies' about SIDS . . . but, they love their tummies! And hey, I slept that way . . . and I'm fine (or so I think, j).  She has also started to lift her head a little. She thinks she such a big girl! AND she is starting to pay more attention to us . . . she will stare at us longer :) Makes us smile!

OH, and Houston loves her! He says 'Mornin' Joanie' when he gets up and 'Mama, baby okay?' for when she cries . . . which isn't too often. He likes to hold her hand and help carry her carseat to the car. Oh, my buddy. He even shares his cars with her! He lets her look at them . . . and maybe hold on. That's it. haha.

Here are a few images. I have more but need to download! Another on my 'to do' list that keeps getting longer! 

She rarely cries . . . and it's usually because she's hungry :)

They just can't get enough of each other :)

I think we have another belly sleeper!

my houston.

I have one crazy child! He is so outgoing . . . WILD! For one thing, he LOVES to play dress up . . . sounds weird for a lil' boy, BUT he thinks it's so funny to walk around in my clothes / accessories. I mean, I get it . . . he sees me doing it EVERYDAY . . . so to him it's normal. And have no fear, we only let him do it and laugh . . . it's not like we let him go out of the house this way!!

This was the day I was dressing up for my Maternity Photos . . . so, he dressed up too!!

Not only is he playing dress up . . . he is beginning to 'mock' you. AH. Scary! Especially since Jess lives with us! And if you know my sister, she 'corrupts' our kids! j. She has taught Josie and Wes many things that we all 'shake our heads at' but then we can't help but laugh! So now, when Houston goes up to 'GiGi's House', he usually comes back down with some sort of new trick! The newest is 'making faces' and giving you 'FINGERS' and giving it to you 'crooked'. And for those of you who don't know what 'crooked' is . . . Houston tries really hard to give you the 'peace' sign with his two fingers, but he can't . . . he can only 'criss cross' them (like you do when you are wishing for something) . . . and Jess has now taught him to 'give it to people crooked' . . . OH GAH!

silly days up in GiGi's House

AND, he has become quite the lover. He absolutely LOVES our animals. ALL of them. All three cats. Even Jess' classroom pets, turtle and fish. Which turtle was recently given away, thankfully he hasn't noticed. He loves Belle and Pollie (Matt's dog and Donna's dog, they stay at Bob and Donna's). OH, and can't forget Pepper, Jojo's cat (well, it's really Earl's cat).

Here is H with Millie . . . he loves rubbing her belly.

giving Millie love.

And he loves them SO much that he has conversations with them . . . don't ask! Jess got Joanie Leigh a cute lil' hat for her shower next weekend (she can't keep secrets) and she was showing Matt and I her new hat . . . in the midst of her showing us, Houston decided he wanted to show Sloan. And tell Sloan that it's too small for him, and that it only fits Joanie's head. Laugh. HE IS SUCH A MESS!!  And isn't her hat cute!!!

H showing off Joanie Leigh's new hat from GiGi

 

Fishing.

Check out my lil' Fisherman.

http://youtu.be/_RvaLYWaL-U

wanted to share . . .

what my twin and I do . . .


Normally when I ask Matt to take my 'weekly' pictures . . . Jess comes in and says, 'Oh, take my picture.' So this week . . . we did!

Aunt GiGi at 20 weeks.   |   Mama at 20 weeks.

daddy's games

Most of our week nights consist of Soccer games. Jess, Houston and I have attended quite a few of daddy's games. Here a few snap shots of what we three do during the games! 

Wild Ones

Just wanted to share a couple photos of our wild monkeys for Thanksgiving. I am pretty sure the 'hype' of 'Turkey Day' had them all in a different world.

Rockstar Friday

As you have seen before, Houston LOVES these Rockstar glasses . . . And so does Josie, Wes and Jessie.

Oh my. What a group of kids.

Welcome Fall

This past weekend our Billingsley household went to NC for the weekend to spend some quality time with my dad's side of the family. We had planned a nice 'vacation' -- yea right -- for a long 4 day weekend. We decided to go up Thursday, spend the night Thursday and Friday with my Uncle Stan and his wife SueSue; then spend Saturday and Sunday with my Aunt Carol and her hubs Eddie.

Well, that was our 'plan'. And all went well up until the first night. j.

Thursday:  Matt, Houston and I drove up Thursday afternoon to Raleigh, NC in hopes of H to fall asleep during his 'naptime' and sleep 2 hours of the 4 hour drive. But, why would he want to sleep on such a fun, exciting car ride! I mean really, an hour was PLENTY for him. . . pssht. In Houston's defense, we did have the TV plugged up to sit right in front of him -- and I must say, it's a LIFESAVER for long trips. We hardly heard a peep from him -- so with the TV being right there, it was too much fun for him.  He watched Cars 2 and Ice Age going up the road. But, once we arrived to our Destination - 5 hours later - it was all down hill from there.

Houston wanted to climb the stairs - up and down, up and down - then he wanted to eat in their living room - yikes! their WHITE rug! - then he wanted to jump up and down on his bed - it was an air mattress - then he didn't want to take a bath - because the stairs were way cooler - and then we stayed up A-L-L night. Yep. Bath was at 8:30 and he fought sleep till 11. Finally we got him down and he slept till 3:22am. Exactly. I woke up at 3:22 and said, 'Really Houston. Really' -- Houston sleeps thru most nights. It is VERY rare that he stays up . . . and when he does, it's HELL. I'm not used to it, Matt gets cranky and Houston is tired. Bad combo. Bad combo. -- So, after his 3:22 wake up call . . . we stayed up till 6:30. I tried everything I had. I rocked him. I gave him milk. I rode in the truck around the neighborhood at 4:30am. I let him watch cartoons. I let him cry it out. I held him down. I read him a book. You name it, I tried it. But at 6:30, he walked right up to me and put his sweet little head on my shoulder . . . and OUT. Whew. I was glad.

After our first nights sleep - if you call it that - I was ready to turn around and drive back. Honestly. It's hard to socialize / spend quality with your family when your child is experiencing devilish acts and is sleep deprived - and 'you' are too. Hell, if I wanted to be sleep deprived, I would have had another baby. wink.

On to Friday: We all decided we would do whatever it took to get H worn out. . . except it was raining. Crap. So, during his nap time we starting to discuss some neat places around the Raleigh area that he would enjoy. And SueSue mentioned a neat Museum called Marbles. Marbles is located right in downtown Raleigh - not far from their home. When H got up from his nap, we left as soon as we could! We didn't want to waste any more energy! Laugh. As soon as we walked in, he was down on the ground running. He LOVED it. It had so many neat things for kids. I would go into a long explination of what all was there . . . but it would probably need to be a seperate blog. It was HUGE and fun.

And of course I forgot my camera . . . so all my images are on our camera phones. Not the best of quality, but still cute pics!

We came back and ate dinner at a great buffet place. Now, I'm not usually big on buffets, but this place was one of those 'natural / organic / healthy eating' places. And it was SOOO Good. I think it was called Sweet Tomato. Yum. They had the best salad I have had in a while. Yummy. Yummy place.  But, while we were eating dinner, Houston looked exhausted. You could tell he was 'done'. I thought his head was going to hit the table with each bite he took. Laugh. - AH. Love when he is like that - And thankfully, we were right. He was worn out! Because he slept thru the night!  He slept so late, he didn't wake up till 9 the next morning!

With Houston's late sleeping, it put us behind for Saturday. But, Saturday: We had about an hour drive to my aunts house. And we were almost there when up behind us came . . . Blue lights. Yep. A State Trooper. DAMNIT. We didn't even see him. We didn't even know how long he was following us. Whoopsie. But, he clocked us going 69 in a 55. Hello speeding ticket. We haven't seen one of you in . . . 5 years? But, we were too busy looking for our turn, that we didn't even recognize the speed limit change. Much less, we were going down hill!! Ugh. Oh well.

So, with a little change of mind and direction . . . we headed to Carol and Eddies. Only 10 mintues or so away now. We arrived to a cold, windy welcoming from mother nature! Burrr.

Carol and Eddie had just got some new babies . . . baby cows, 3 to be exact. And Houston was in LOVE with them. He didn't want to leave them. He wanted to jump thru the electric fence and point at them all day while saying, 'boo. a boo, ma ma.' -- 'Boo' is Houston's 'Moo'. Not sure why he has it switched . . . but he does.

After a long walk to their pond, visits w. the cows, a very short nap . . . Matt and I made a decision to go home. We had already contimplated going home . . . and unfortunely that meant we would spend less time with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Eddie, but sometimes we just have to weigh the odds and make the best decision. We knew H was exhausted . . . and another house change would only make it worse.

And sure enough. On our drive home, he took an hour nap. And as soon as we arrived home . . . his eyes were so tired and heavy and red, that he slept till 9 the next morning. A full 12 hours of sleep. He even crashed that Sunday for a long nap. And slept another 12 hours the next night to catch up. He was pitiful.

So, needless to say, our 'vacation' wasn't so much of a 'vacation'. But it was a great trip to spend time with my family. We don't get to see them much, but when we do, it's so much fun.

Love yall!


*Take a look at our pretty fall pics! We loved driving and seeing the tree colors! Houston could careless . . . But, Matt and I enjoyed :) We even drove over to see my Grandma and Grandaddy's grave. Thought I'd share a picture of the pretty setting they had when we went :)

hello?

need I say more?

I LOVE THE SINK

Houston loves to play in the sink. Every night after dinner... we play in the water.... While mommy cleans the dishes. And well, Houston wishes he could stay in there all night long... but instead... we must move on to bath and bed!

Just a funny....

We like to eat EVERYTHING... even grass that is on the ground.

These photos are from a while back when I kept Josie and Wes for a few weeks. I will update the blog soon and let you all know what Houston has been doing lately!

Pigeon Forge

Last weekend our family too a 'FAMILY VACAY' to Pigeon Forge, TN.  Take a look at our family fun time!

*Matt was the 'Jungle Gym'

*Wes was in his own world.

*Jess and Josie doing what they do best, goof off

*Everyone hanging out in the 'driveway', while POPS grilled.

* Jess and Ed loving on Mr. Houston

*Brandy and Dave swinging Wes

*Houston's first trip to the Mountains....

The car ride was not that bad. We had JoJo ride up with us to 'help' with Houston.

*Edwin cant get enough of him!

*And of course, JoJo doing what she does best, TAKE CARE OF THE BABIES!!

Overall, it was a great trip -- FAST, but great!

Easter Sunday

... two week too late? nah.

Sorry for the late Easter blog... but, we've had a full plate lately. Seems like we don't find too many free moments!! Sigh. But now that I do have a moment and Houston is sitting in his bumbo seat and blogging with me... Here is our story of Easter Sunday!

We started out Saturday night with Aunt Jessie and Edwie and Uncle Grant... dying Easter eggs. Well, mainly Jess, Houston and I dying Easter eggs while the boys watch the rest of the final 5 on TV.

Sunday morning we went through Houston's Easter basket... Where the Easter bunny brought him clothes and candy... ahem. Well, brought Daddy and I candy! Yum.

As you can tell, he didn't care too much for the basket. So, off to church we went. Where Houston cried during the service... mainly because we had hand bells that did not sound good. Ahem. I mean, it was beautiful.

And of course... we followed up our Church service with a nice Sunday dinner at JoJo's... Where we all had photo shoots...

Of Course, the Babies are the cutest photo of all!!

After a big dinner at JoJo's we headed to Deeda and Dukes! to enjoy another dinner... sigh (and I am suppose to be losing baby weight... ). And enjoy some Deeda, Duke, Grant, Janie, Doug, Katie and Maggie time... whoa!

It sure was one big day!! But, overall, it was a beautiful Easter with our baby boy.

The Heffley's came to visit!

Matt's aunt Kathy just moved here from Texas but her kiddos still live there. SO, this past week was their spring break and they came to SC to visit the family!  Matt has always talked so highly of them and wanted me to meet them FOREVER (since we met in 2005)! However, I didn't get to meet Nicole until our wedding in 2008. And JUST met Corey last summer! We love them to death and enjoy their visits! We just wish they could stay LONGER!

This is Corey and his Girlfriend with Houston.

Zoo Days

About a week ago, we took our first trip to the ZOO! We went with Brandy, Josie, Wes, Jess, Cindy and Tyler. We had a great time!! Houston didnt really do much, other than sleep and sit there... but the other kiddos had a BLAST!! Take a look:

These are the three monkeys we chased all day! 

*Tyler, Josie, Wes

*Tyler