Sutton Henry

That sweet baby boy of ours is such a delight!
He is 16 months old now and learning more and more every day. He is always happy. He loves his brother and now calls him "Coooo" or "brub-be."

He also loves his "tat" or cat, and his "ber" bear. Each morning when we go into his room to get him out of bed, he says, "tat...ber" and grabs both the cat and the bear. He wants to hold them while he gets his diaper changed, then he will take them into the kitchen for breakfast. Once he sees his breakfast he tosses the cat and bear on the floor and says, "eeeeat."
He loves to eat. He will literally eat anything we give him........except pizza. Crazy, I know.

Sutton is not a cuddler. Never has been. It really makes this mommy sad. Cohen has always been a cuddler. He still says, "ooot" when he wants to be held. He has been saying this made-up word every since he was 11 months. But not Sutton. He will come sit in my lap long enough to take a thumb-sucking break, or for me to read him a book, then he's off to play.
He will read books for a hour if you will let him. His favorite book now is Cohen's book Everybody Poops. I think it's so funny that Sutton likes this book. Maybe he will potty train early? Doubt it:)

He loves his Mommy. And I mean, loves! He wakes up saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" and always wants me to hold him.....but not in a "lay his head on my shoulder and cuddle" kind of way. Just on my hip, or in my lap.
His right thumb is still his best friend. And he loves doing whatever Cohen does. However, he is getting pretty rowdy lately. He walked up and slapped Cohen on the cheek when he was on the potty last week. I slapped Sutton's hand and said a stern, "no!" Sutton looked at me and said, "uh-oh" and walked away.

Sutton and Cohen had so much fun in the snow a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time for both of them to play in the snow.

 

 I can't get these pics bigger for some reason:(

And how about this?..... This cute baby that looks like my Sutton Henry is.....me! I saw this picture at my parents house in a frame and literally thought that it was Sutton for a second. Except I lack those cute dimples that he has.



Sutton



Me

Are you observing?

I have prayerfully decided that I am going to "participate" in sacrificing some things for Lent.
I have never observed Lent. I am a bit ashamed of this.

A little background on me...
I grew up knowing Christ and His ultimate sacrifice from my mother. Even though we never attended church more than 5-10 times per year, I knew all the Bible stories and said my prayers every night. My grandparents are Catholic and I attended mass with them many times, and I also went to Baptist church with my parents. However, I did not read the Bible or attend church regularly until I met Chad when I was 18.

Pretty quickly in our relationship he told me that if we wanted to continue dating, I must attend church with him every Sunday. I will admit, at first I went to church with him because I simply wanted to spend every moment with him. After several months, I realized I liked being part of a church family. I found myself becoming more conscious of my words and actions and striving to be more Christ-like. Chad and I committed to reading the entire new testament the second year we were dating. Every night, I would call him from my dorm room and we would take turns reading 1-2 chapters of the Bible each night.  I thank Chad for helping me grow into the Christian that I am.
We are fortunate to have found 2 churches that are perfect for our family. Harpeth Hills church is where we spend our Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings with our wonderful life group. And Granny White is our Wednesday night church. If you are looking for a place to call home, both of these are wonderful church families.

Back to lent....
The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. 
I am observing lent this year for these reasons. Jesus Christ gave up so much for me. I should be able to give up some things for Him, in honor of Him.

I choose to give up two things that will be extremely difficult for me. Yet are nothing compared to His sacrifice........
Sugar
Non-essential purchases.

My plan is to pray or read scripture when I feel the urge to eat a cookie or buy a lip gloss, clothes for my boys, etc.

What will you give up in observance of lent?

Back to my "home."

As you may or may not know, I left my job in labor and delivery in July 2012 for an opportunity to work with a great company as a clinical specialist. My job is to travel to various hospitals across the country and in-service the operating room staff and physicians on the use of our products. I knew this job would require me to travel 2-3 days a week with those days being over-night trips.  I have been working with great people, staying in really nice hotels, flying somewhere almost every week, and eating at fancy restuarants....all for free. Oh, and I also have a company car, iphone, and laptop. 

Not a bad gig......unless you have children.

I miss my boys and Chad like crazy. I am alone a lot, which I enjoy, but, geez do I miss my family. 

Around Thanksgiving I decided I wanted to go back to labor and delivery full time. I truly love being an L and D nurse. It gets in your blood, like an addiction. I love the adrenaline rush of the emergencies that happen on occasion. If you are unlucky enough to have an abruption, cord prolapse, or any other obstetrical emergency...I'm the nurse for you:)
I spent a lot of time convincing Chad that I was sure that I wanted to leave my current job and go back to being a floor nurse. Chad was doing totally fine with me working out of town. He said it wasn't any different than me working night shifts at the hospital because he didn't see me either way. But, as a momma who prides myself on being as "present" as I can be in my children's lives, I could not travel around the country and miss my boys lives. Every time I came home after being gone for 4 days, my boys were doing new things.

Thankfully, my very great friend is also the manager of L&D.  She knew how unhappy I was traveling, and let me know when there was an open position for me to apply.  After a few interviews, I was able to get a great job where I have spent almost 7 years doing just what I love!

I am officially finished with the traveling job next week! It is bittersweet. The job is an awesome job for a nurse with no children. So if you are an RN looking for a great gig....give me a shout. I know people:)



Have a wonderful, blessed weekend!

Starting at Last!

Our house is FINALLY starting! We first signed papers and put our initial deposit down on July 4 to build our home.
After issues with the lot and whether there was a "spring," "storm drain," or "sinkhole" in the middle of the lot we finally got that settled in November and were given the go to start construction.
Permits were slow to obtain, and weather wasn't (and still isn't) on our side so the grating of the lot just happened last week!
This has been a long, very frustrating process, but I finally feel like we will actually have a new home in the next 6 months.

A little back story...
My dad and my brother are both contractors. In a perfect world I would have them build our home. My dad built every house we ever lived in, plus many more homes through the years. He does an amazing job and is very talented. We always thought we would buy a lot and have my dad build us our dream home. Well, considering Chad refuses to live "south of Concord Road" and would live in Green Hills in a perfect world...our options to buy land were extremely limited. There are virtually NO lots in Green Hills, and very few in Brentwood that allow you to bring your own builder. So we decided to build in Fountainbrook in Brentwood and use their builder.
It makes me extremely nervous to put my trust and money in a builder's hands. Especially when I have heard mixed reviews on this company. However, we know that we are getting a great home for the money, will be in a great neighborhood with some of our very best friends, and a great school system for our kids.

We went and picked out our light fixtures on Saturday and I was extremely surprised at Chad's choices. Here are pictures of lights that look like our choices.




 This is the light Chad picked for over our kitchen table. I call it "the bird nest" light:)

Our pendant lighting above our island looks close to this, but it is aluminum.



I decided that I will put only things that I love into this house. I will not concern myself with whether or not things "match" but I will be sure that this house is totally "me" and fits our family's lifestyle.

That's why we will have distressed wood floors. With two boys, and hopefully more children in the future the floors will take a severe beating..so why not have floors that only look better with more scratches and dents?

One of the most exciting things about our new home is we have 2 of our very best friends in our neighborhood. The Schimmels and the Loftons.

I will keep the blog updated with our progress of our home!
Fabulous weekend to all!

Kelly