Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Logan's party

Happy Birthday Logan!

My big plan was to update the blog with Logan's party pics & other fun summer things while Inman & I were out of town last week. The slow hotel internet connection had another plan though & despite all my warnings of many b-day pictures to come, I am late!


I needed to go ahead and do it thought because we are about to have a house full of company. We have lots of company coming in town for my Granddaddy's 80th b-day celebration. My cousin & her 4 kids will be staying at our house for a week! We are very excited! Last time I saw this cousin, Jacob was not quite 6 months old & she was pregnant with her 3rd. We have a lot of catching up to do! Plus there are lots of other family members that will be in town & we have a lot of fun things planned. We better double up on our wheaties the next couple of mornings!

Mema & Papa with the b-day boy

We snapped a picture before everyone got here since it seems I look up after a holiday or party & have a lot of pictures of everyone else & the kids but maybe I wasn't there that year?!

Nana Jean & Logan

Logan was not into opening gifts at all this year, big surprise huh? Here he is with his stool that Papa made him. Big brother has one just like it. 


I stole an idea from my friend Alyson. We had a book party. The invitation was a little rhythm that basically said "we have TOO many toys, bring a book." Not quite like that but we figured we would do it this year while we could get away with it! I took a lot of ideas from my friend including books as party favors, & books that had the food served in them (If you give a mouse a cookie, Bread & Jam for Frances, Curious George & the ice cream party etc)

Logan in his #1 b-day shirt

In case you need one more look at those eyes!

He sat for about 15 seconds for that picture & hasn't sat still since:)

Cake time! We knew he would have no problem with this part! Once again batman on the scene...





I think the cake was a hit! 
We had a great time on Logan's big day! Thanks so much for those that helped us celebrate!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

I love this man more & more every day as I watch him be the best daddy to our two little guys! 
Our boys think he hung the moon! He points them to the One who truly did though & for that I love him so much!

Happy Father's day to my dad too! I have loved watching my dad become "Papa" to my kids. God has blessed me with a great dad!

I couldn't ask for a better father in law, George is a great "Dadoh" too!

And the greatest Granddaddy ever!

I have so much to be thankful for on this Father's day, the men that God has blessed me & my family with & the unconditional love of my heavenly Father. 
Happy Father's Day!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Happy 1st B-day Logan! (you were warned!)

Yes, I have been in reflection mode ALL day...Ok, really for several weeks now. Leading up to Logan's birthday, remembering how great with child I was, I have definitely taken a walk down memory lane. It is always funny to me that some things I can remember like it happened yesterday & others were so surreal that I can't put my finger on the details. Inman humors me & even watched the video of Logan's first few minutes of life tonight. I think he gets a kick out of moms taking the yearly walk. Thankfully his mom prepared him a little bit by always recounting his day, the time he was born & would sometimes make that phone call right around the time of his birth. Nothing could have prepared him for "birthday mode" though. Whatever you think of the recent Jon & Kate recent scandal, I think Kate Gosselin said it so well recently while celebrating her kids' birthdays..."it is so much more than the party..I will always make a big deal out of their birthday." I think there is something about their first birthday too:)

These moments were priceless! One year ago today, my boys began their very special bond. Jacob loved his brother from the moment he saw him. It is so cute to see their little relationship developing & changing. Even when Logan gets under foot or requires more attention than he would like, Jacob loves his brother SO much or as Logan calls him, "BroBro."



We had a great day celebrating today! Even if Logan doesn't know it is his birthday we still wanted to celebrate his day. I think he knew he was getting the TLC treatment:)
(& that would be different than every other day of his life how?)

I guess it is a tradition. I have done some sort of banner for the kids' birthdays. This is Logan's 1st b-day banner.

Jacob helped make pancakes for Logan's breakfast. Logan took a little morning nap & Mema came over. She got some pics with her new camera that I will have to download. We went to a puppet show at the library & went out to lunch with Mema. Daddy was home all day with us (yea!)

Even though we will have family over for cake & ice cream on Saturday, we had to let Logan have cake on his real birthday. He thought this was a great idea!


He has started "singing" anytime we do & joined in with the singing.


I would say this was a hit!

Brother helped with the cleanup.

And loved helping with a couple of presents!

Logan enjoyed doing a few of his other favorite things....
putting any and everything in his mouth......

.....tearing up whatever he could get a hold of....

.....a little adventure.....

Did I mention that Batman makes regular appearances at our parties now? (Pics from Dad's b-day last week to follow)

I really relived every minute of the late afternoon & evening hours leading up to Logan's birth time. I gave regular updates of what we were doing this time last year....(Inman only rolled his eyes a couple of times & even chimed in a couple of times!)

approx 1:00...."the hospital finally called us & told us to come on in for our induction (we had just eaten firehouse subs)".....
approx 3:00 "This is when the fun was really beginning...they started the pitocin about right now."
 approx 5:45 "This is when Mom, Dad & Steph went to the cafeteria to grab dinner thinking we had plenty of time."
6:00 pm "This is when the epidural was started, it all went downhill from here...."
6:35pm "OH! This was about when they brought back your food & things had started heading south, no time for dinner!"
5 cm
"This was not a good point in the evening. No one could figure out why the epidural was NOT working. Nurse & doctors were buzzing all over the room, the pump? the epidural catheter? had it come out?"
7:00pm "Dr Williams lifts up the blanket & announces 'the reason the epidural is not working is because you are ready to have a baby. We are going to move fast April, not because we are panicked but because the only way you will get out of pain is to have the baby.'
I did not use bad language at this point but was putting two & two together that I was about to deliver with only my right leg numb!"
7:05pm "Night shift nurse at bedside. (cool story, we are now friends outside of the hospital) The nurse in me tells the dayshift nurse to go ahead & go, I hate for her to stay late because of me. She assures me she is not mixing this birth & it will be SOON!"

7:23 pm LOGAN MARSHALL HOUSTON is here, all 9 pounds, 9 ounces of him!
As I watched the video & relived those first few moments, it was so different from Jacob's birth. (Besides being fast!)
Jacob's birth was so neat because he was my first. Even being a nurse & knowing things could go wrong, I still had such an innocence. The birth was very lighthearted. My dr allowed me to pull Jacob up myself & place him on my chest. We declared "It's a boy!"
Watching Logan's birth again, I noticed right away that innocence was gone. I had to say goodbye to a baby in between Jacob & Logan & I guess you never see it the same again. We had some complications with Logan before even getting out of the 1st trimester & all this showed in my eyes, in my face. Those tears that fell were different. No more or less love, just different...such a relief that he was here! So thankful!

God has blessed us so much this last year! We can't imagine our lives without this little guy.
So, don't say I didn't warn you! This is the short version if you can believe it?! And our partying is not over yet!:)

Do you think the "birthday enthusiasm" will carry on? 

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

CAUTION

Consider yourself warned.....the rest of the week (& let's just be honest, into next week too) will consist of an insane number of pictures, endless ranting about how I can't believe my baby is turning one tomorrow & lots of reflection of his first year, how he has added so much to our lives & just general sentimental mother gushings:)
Most of that will be posted with pretty wet eyes however I am not one bit sad that my ankles are not as large as they were this time last year!