What I love about my husband.....

In honor of our anniversary today (7 years!!!) I thought I would do a post in honor of my best friend and partner, Clint. Here are the things I love most about him....

I love that he has a totally babyish side of him that makes him funny yet adorable at the same time. Making me laugh every moment, especially when all I want to do is be mad.

I love that when he was 20 he made me a homemade Valentine’s Day card that to this day is my most precious treasure. He even cut out construction paper hearts.

I love that he is always thinking about me – even at the grocery store when he brings home my favorite candy or drink, or at home when he’s on the internet looking at things to surprise me with (James Avery bracelet!!!).

I love that he bought me a bouquet of roses and a huge red balloon covered in “I love you’s” for our first Valentine’s Day together in 1994.

I love even more that he bought me lilies and cleaned the house and mopped the floors for our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple in 2004.

I love that he sang karaoke to me in Daytona so whenever I hear George Strait’s “I cross my heart” I think of him.

I love that he drove me home from school every single day for 2 years even though it was out of his way.

I love that he fixes my coffee when he gets up first, and knows just the way I like it.

I love that when we run into people from high school, they always say “You guys are still together? Wow!”

I love that he loves his family so dearly and talks to his father 3 times a day.

I love that every time I feel our relationship will not last he will do or say something to ensure me that we can get through anything.

I love that he tells me stories of his friends at work even though I have never met them.

I love that he is my best friend and I can confide everything in him.

I love that he will always love me, even when I don’t deserve it.

I love that I know he will always be there for me.

I love that he is my high school sweetheart.

Photographs, Bullying and Eardums

A couple of months ago I had the girls photographs done. I am THRILLED with the outcome and can't wait to get some frames so I can hang my new masterpieces!!

Here's a link to the photographer's blog...
http://www.cbtphotography.com/blog

If you ever think about hiring someone to do photos, we were very pleased with Cindy. She spent several hours outside in the heat and was extremely patient with my girls.

We've really been struggling with little Aubrey the last few weeks. I know, hard to believe that the little angelic face seen on the above link is capable of....... (sigh) hitting her friends at school. Every day last week Aubrey's report said that she was sent to time-out "several times" for hitting, pushing and pulling hair. At home, Aubrey has been crying and having fits, not to mention waking up 3-4 times a night. I don't remember Madelyn having these problems, but then again they are called the "terrible 2's" for a reason, right?

Saturday we were in Nashville and Aubrey woke up from her nap, after only an hour, crying. I got her out of bed and she was extremely clingy and whiny, which I figured was from her lack of good napping. About 10 minutes later, I noticed blood dripping from her right ear and rolling down her face. Now, Aubrey has always had ear infections, and has had tubes in both ears since she was about 6 months old. It's not uncommon to see "infection" draining from her ears, but I have never seen BLOOD.

I tried not to panic and got some cotton swabs to try to clean out the outer ear, then noticed her whole ear was FILLED with bright red blood. Clint's aunt convinced me that we needed to go to the clinic, and off we went. The doctor at the Nashville Walk-in-Clinic looked in her ear for only a minute before telling us that her eardrum had ruptured. Apparently she had such a bad infection in that ear that it kept pressing against the eardrum until it finally popped. Her ear was so filled with blood and infection that the doctor couldn't tell much, but gave us antibiotics, ear drops and told us to follow up with an ENT when we get home.

We went to the ENT yesterday, and he confirmed that her eardrum was in fact ruptured. The tube that had been in her right ear was stuck in her ear canal, covered in "gunk". I had to literally pin Aubrey down while the dr sucked out all the infection and dried blood from her inner ear and took the tube out. It was AWFUL. Poor little Aubrey just cried and kept screaming, "Mommy, you're done. I wanna go home!" He told us to continue toe meds and come back on the 8th. We're hopeful that the eardrum will heal on itself, but if not it may require surgery. I'm also thinking that all this may have contributed to Aubrey's terrible 2's. Since she's been on the meds, her attitude has improved dramatically, and she hasn't been to time out all week : )

So that's what life has been like just for the last 5 days!! The weeks before that included my stepfather being in ICU for 9 days, among other craziness. Thank the Lord that Don is doing better now, and I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers!!!

I'm looking forward to some down time...... (yeah right!!)

Hudson Brooks McDowell

The newest addition to our family was born September 15th!!! Meet my perfect little nephew, Hudson. We went to Nashville last weekend for a quick trip tp meet this little guy, and I took my camera but forgot my memory card. So here are a few newborn pics.

We're leaving Friday to go to east Tennessee to visit Amanda, Houston and Hudson at their house. I'm super excited, as I haven't ever seen where they live, and I know that part of the state will be GORGEOUS this time of year! This time I'll remember my memory card and I'm sure I'll have TONS pf pics of the girls with their cousin.

Last weekend, Madelyn and Aubrey wanted to play with Hudson so bad! Madelyn kept asking Aunt A what Hudson was eating (she's nursing!!) and asked me last night if I have milk in my boobies! HILARIOUS!! She also asked me what I think Hudson will like to play witht his weekend, and asked how long it will take him to grow up. They are so excited to have a new playmate!

We love you, baby Hudson!!!

Aubrey

So yesterday Aubrey's teacher went to see Gisele and told her the following conversation that happened.



Teacher "Aubrey, where did you get your beautiful curly hair??"



Aubrey "Target"



HAAAAAAAAAA! Can you tell where we like to shop :)

Project Organization 2010

So I've been complaining for a LONG time that we just don't have any space and blah blah blah. Over the last few weeks as I started to look around the house, I realized that a little re-organization would drastically improve the clutter problem we were having. And so began what I call Project Organization 2010....

Madelyn's room before. She has these toy bins in the corner of her room, and there ALWAYS seem to be little toys ALL over the floor. UGH!!!!

I just LOVE when things aren't cluttered and messy!! Madelyn loves having her bookcase closer to her bed. And yes, she was asleep when I took this picture about 10 minutes ago - OOPS : )

The pantry - again I noticed that we have a huge space between the floor and the bottom shelf of the pantry. We used to put all kinds of junk down there. These drawers were the perfect size to do the job. I didn't take a Before pic, but just imagine lots of JUNK.

I decided to start small - the laundry closet. I doubt anyone has noticed, but we don't have a single linen closet in our house. So we have old towels and rags that are used for cleaning and such that get tossed in the laundry closet. It BUGS me, and has for a while....

BEFORE

AFTER

We have been very blessed with small children who can wear clothes for more than one season before outgrowing them (yesterday Madelyn wore size 2 shorts to school and I had to adjust the waist because they were too big). So at the end of the fall and winter, we boxed up Madelyn's clothes and threw them in her closet. Then on top of that we threw extra balnkets and sheets. In the past we have put her shoes in the little hamper basket in her closet. So each morning Madelyn was digging around trying to find matching shoes.

AFTER - I was SOOO glad to be able to move Madelyn's toy bins into her closet instead of her bedroom! Once I took all the boxes of clothes out and put them in Space Bags (which, by the way, are my new favorite invention ever) I had all kinds of space in her closet!

The kids LOVE this shoe organizer. They think it's a game to get their shoes in and out of it! And because their shoes are so small, we can fit one pair of shoes in each opening, so it actually fits both of their shoes. Every spot is filled up now, because we ALL know how little Aubrey feels about shoes :) I think she has about 8 pair in there....

It's not that Aubrey's closet was super messy before, it just had a lot of space that we weren't using. And in a house where we are completely out of space, I realized this was a problem...

I was able to organize all my wrapping paper and gift bags which usually fell out of Aubrey's closet everytime I opened the door. We also cleared out a space for the BIG toys that had been taking up tons of space in the middle of her bedroom.

We added a couple of drawers for storage on the right side of her closet. Before it was just WASTED space. Now we have some toys and clothes in there.

Aubrey's cluttered bedroom BEFORE

Because we were able to make room in the closet, I was able to actually clear out some of the toys. Her room seems SO much bigger now, and she loves it!

The garage - BEFORE

Ok, before you judge me you have to realize that we haven't really USED the garage since Clint got a take home car for work in December. A few weeks ago we "gave" the Altima to Clay and Kelly to drive for a few months. That's when I noticed how totally nasty our garage was!! It had basically been used as a storage area for everything - especially trash!! We were putting so much stuff out on the curb that a woman actually thought we were having a garage sale and stopped to ask me how much for some of the girls' toys! That's when you KNOW you have too much junk!

AFTER

I still have a LOT of work to do in the garage. The shelves are currently packed with boxes that I need to go through, and we have a lot of toys that are going to Aunt A's house in October. but look - we have a garage floor!!! WHO KNEW??

LOTS of thanks to Amanda for shopping with me and helping me figure out what all I needed to organize properly, and to Christopher who came over and helped clean out the garage :) We're so blessed with our family and friends!!

And by the way - next up is the coat closet and master bedroom. Anyone looking to help - BRING IT ON!!

Posers

I know I haven't posted in a while, but we've been BUSY!! I began Project Organization 2010 last weekend, and have been cleaning and organizing the house like a madwoman! I took lots of before and after pics, so those are to come shortly.

Last weekend we also spent lots of fun time with family. My grandfather turned 89 last week, and we all went to my Aunt's house to celebrate. After that we headed straight to the Buchanan casa for a cookout with all of Clint's family. It was a FUN weekend :)

Madelyn's first soccer game is this Saturday morning. I know it will be HILARIOUS! Madelyn is the kid on the team that everyone is screaming at to remind her to run after the ball, so I should get some funny pics and videos. For now I'll leave you with some pics fo the girls posing that Mimi took Sunday. Excuse the quality, they were taken with a phone....

Madelyn's 4th Birthday Party

I can't believe my baby girl turned 4 last month!!! She is growing into such a remarkable little girl. She's always laughing, and anyone who is around Madelyn cannot help but smile. She LOVES her sister, reading books, puzzles, and God. I honestly think that seh all ready knows more about the Bible than I do. She constantly is listening and absorbing the world around her. I thank God everyday for how BLESSED I am to be Madelyn's mommy!!

We had her birthday party at the Big Backyard at the Memphis Botanic Gardens. It was very hot, but had about 20 kids show up, and lots of family!!

The birthday girl.....

She wanted a purple butterfly cake, so this is what I made. I was pretty happy with how it turned out....

Aubrey thought she was just as big as Sissy!! I'm not sure she completely understood that it wasn't HER birthday!

I just think this picture is funny. Like I said, it was HOT

Aunt A....

Mason...

Aubrey, Will and Reagan....

The spider web is one of Madelyn's favorite things there....

Mom's Wedding

As everyone who reads this is aware, Mom was married on July 24th :) Here are a few pics from the day. We had about 130 people show up, and everything was perfect!!

Here's Mom, Don and the Buchanan clan....


Buchanan and Martin families....

Mom and Don. She was such a beautiful bride!!

Groom's cake. Just FYI - I made the tuxedo strawberries....

My cousin Christy makes amazing cakes!!

Oreo balls (YUMMMMMM)

Mom and all her Grandkids.... LOVE this pic!

The blushing bride....

Clay, Colton, Bed, Don and his son Donny

It truly was a wonderfule day, and we're ALL so happy for Mom and Don :)

You make my Heart Happy.....

So last night I told Aubrey I love her. She stood there very thoughtfully and finally said, "ohhhhh. That makes my heart happy!" While she said that she was rubbing her belly, which is where she believes her heart is, I suppose. PRECIOUS! Moments like that make you realize that everything in the world is good!!

I promise to start posting more often. In fact, I have SEVERAL posts ready to publish....

Stay tuned

Soccer Practice

Madelyn had her first soccer practice on Tuesday night. The kids all did better than I thought, and they had a blast! Madelyn did really well, but when someone kicked her ball she about broke down for 10 minutes or so. As her coach said, if she was that upset about it then she should protect the ball pretty well :) She LOVES to play gaolie, and was able to block most of the balls. She also was able to shoot 2 into the goal when someone else was at goalie.
I forgot to take my camera, but here are a few pics that a friend of mine took with her phone...

Tonight is their first night of gymnastics at River City. I'm pretty excited about it, and Aubrey can't stop tlaking about it.

I have a ton of pice from mom's wedding and Madelyn's birthday party to post. I've been working on downloading them to the new laptop, so I'll work on posting those tonight :)

Mom's Wedding in Pictures