Retaining wall... check!

Today my husband, my brother, my brother-in-law, father-in-law, and 3 close friends all built a retaining wall underneath our investment house... why you may ask? Because the dirt underneath it was collapsing, and soon the house would have too without this wall! We were really surprised at how quickly it went with all the helping hands! It looks like tomorrow Mark and Dave may help us put up the backsplash in our kitchen too! Hip, hip hooray! It's been almost a year since we remodeled the kitchen and that is the last thing to be finished! I think I may do a little dance when it's done!

Not the finished product, but you get the idea!

It's been so nice out, we've been taking little man out for walks

Daddy is NOT his favorite person at this moment...

In other news... my application still has not been approved to schedule my board exam... so I wait. And study. Ugh. I want it over.

Today I'm thankful for...

*God's amazing grace and guidance; I may not always listen, but He's always there

*My mom who sent me a starbucks card for Valentine's day

*My sister's blog posts; they help me feel connected to her even though she is halfway across the world

*My son; you know that lyric "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" well, having him is kind of like that... only I didn't know what was missing until I had him

*My husband; for being so supportive and loving and telling me I'm beautiful even when I look like "frump wife" :)

*My mother-in-law who is keeping my house running so I can study

*My new job! I hope it's as awesome as I think it will be...

*My brother who dotes on Maddox like he was his own son

*Ice cream, popcorn, and wine; oh how I love thee!

*Good friends; enough said

*Sleep.... I've had very little of you the last 3 1/2 months, but I think we may become reaccquainted in the near future thanks to...

*Rice cereal; my son seems to like you

Study, study, and study some more!

Well, the title says it all! I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone, studying hard for the boards. I have STILL not been approved to schedule my exam, so it may not be the 25th like I was hoping it would be, but I'm still hopeful. I got a job though! I have accepted a job at a skilled nursing facility here in Winston for a company called Sava Senior Care. I am really excited; they seem to really care about their employees and patients which is really important to me. I also get $1000 a year for continuing education (practically unheard of to get that much these days), get full benefits with working 30 hours a week (so I can spend more time with Maddox), and I am getting probably around $10 more an hour than I thought I would as a new graduate! God is so faithful. My temporary start date is March 14th... hopefully I will pass my boards on the first try and be done with it!

In other news, Dave and Rebecca (Lucas' parents) arrived on Thursday to come for an extended visit. Dave is going to help Lucas fix up our investment home and Rebecca is going to help me watch Maddox and take care of the house so that I can study for the boards. Mark (Lucas' brother) comes on Friday to stay for the weekend to help do some of the heavy labor on the house also... we will have a very full house for a couple of days! I think that's about it for now...

Airplane!

You love standing

Your first rice cereal feeding

You're so cute when you pout!

Grandma Joyce came to babysit for a few days!

Life goes on...

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies by. We have already been back from Mexico 2 weeks and life is in full swing. Our first week back I had a nasty head cold that I am still trying to get rid of... and Maddox got a mini version as well; you should have heard his baby coughs, it was enough to break your heart! Fortunately he was only sick for a day or two, I guess him getting all my antibodies helped him fight it off. We also introduced rice cereal in his bottle last week. It was glorious to have him sleep for 4+ hour stretches... unfortunately he also didn't poop for the past week so I ended up taking him to the doctor today after prune juice, rectal stimulation, and a supository all failed. Of course then he pooped in the office. Murphy's law right? Anyways, so we are holding off on the rice cereal for a couple more weeks... at least I know sleep is coming in the near future!

Just "hangin" around

I have been blessed to have lots of friends who have been helping watch Maddox for a couple hours each day so that I can study for the boards. I finally feel like I am making some headway in the massive review book. :) Plus Lucas' parents come next week and then I will have unlimited live-in help. So between studying, cooking, cleaning, taking care of Maddox, applying for jobs, and doing interviews, my life has been relatively hectic! I think that it is about to get more hectic too, as we are gearing up to really start to fix up our investment home. I pray that God will bless our investment and that once it's fixed up we'll be able to get renters in there and have a little extra income instead of a money pit. Lots of exciting changes are underway...

You love bathtime now

Maddox is growing so fast... he is 14lbs, 4oz already and so stinking happy. He coos and oohhs and aahhs constantly, plays with his activity gym, and loves the TV (this won't be allowed when hes' a little older) He also thoroughly enjoys looking at the pictures on the wall and his crinkley lion. The past 2 mornings I have woken up to hear Maddox talking up a storm in his crib at 4am; he goes on for about 15 minutes and then drifts back off to sleep... it is so adorable that I have to stop myself from picking him up, unwrapping him and talking to him until the wee hours of the morning. We are so unbelievably blessed that God put him in our lives!

You are actually starting to enjoy tummy time

You love daddy

You are so incredibly happy these days!