A visit to New Orleans

Our trip would not have been complete without a visit to New Orleans. We left Alabama early Friday morning. It still stirs my heart and emotions every time we drive in on I-10. The devastation still takes my breath away. Things are slowly coming back, but seeing blown out, vacant building never gets easier.

During the day, we also made a visit to my mother and grandparent's graveside. It was precious and difficult all at the same time. We brought flowers and all three of us prayed together as a family. This is not the way I wanted Will to, in a sense, meet them, but I am counting on many memories and stories of them to fill his heart in the future.

We made our first stop to my childhood hair stylist, Denise. She would have had a fit had we missed her. Will was a little grumpy from being woken up in the car.

My precious, long-time family friend, Sherry met us for lunch. I had to have a shrimp po-boy, if only for a couple of bites. Sherry was a Rainbow girl when my mother was one. She knew my grandmother Beulah and has stories that I will count on her sharing for many years to come.

Sherry was so gracious to bring us a sweet gift. Will was most impressed with the bow.

An essential stop was at Becnel's farmer's market for some Louisiana Satsumas. (Satsuma: a small, seedless, sweet tangerine like fruit that peels in one piece. Yummy!) We had to get several bags to bring back to folks in Georgia. I've been eating them like candy since we've been home.

We stopped by my Aunt Margaret's house for a brief visit. It was during the LSU-Arkansas game. (sadly, LSU lost) It was difficult for Aunt Margaret to tear herself away from the screen to visit with our little man. He got kisses during commercial breaks.

My beautiful cousin Dani loved all over Will. We never get to see her enough.

Thanksgiving Dinner

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! We ate dinner at my cousin Bruce's home. His beautiful wife Annette cooked the best meal. We all went back for a second round at dinner time. Annette and Bruce have 5 precious boys. My cousin Phillip, his wife Cortney and their adorable daughter Olivia joined us from the Mobile area. My Aunt Anne and Uncle Terry were also there as well as several sweet members of Annette's family. My grandmother was also there. It was the biggest and best Thanksgiving I have ever had! Mike had a lot of fun, too.

My cousin Annette, cousin Cortney, Aunt Anne and cousin Olivia. Annette has done an incredible job of raising 5 incredible boys. Their ages range from 6 years old to a freshman in college. You can bet that I was taking notes. Will took right to her the whole day. She taught me some great secrets to help him with his feeding issues. I think I will put her number on speed dial as Will gets older. She is a wealth of information!
Annette and Bruce's oldest son, Stewart, was amazing with Will. I called him the "baby whisperer." I only wish he lived closer.
Will and Stewart
This is Annette and Bruce's youngest son, Benjamin. He was so sweet with Will. All of their boys were so great with Will. I've never seen anything like it. I only wish I had thought to take pictures of all of them. In a few years, Will is going to fit right in with all the boys.

This is my cousin Phillip's sweet wife, Cortney, and me (looking quite pregnant!)
Ahhh, with Will in such good hands, I had some time to do some handsewing.
Aunt Anne with Will. Oh, how he loved being held by everybody. Especially his great aunt.
My cousin Bruce with Will. He's an expert on raising boys, too.
Sweet sleep in Cortney's arms. It didn't last long though. Will tried his hardest to stay awake all day. I think he was afraid he would miss something.
Our precious Olivia. She was the beautiful flower girl in our wedding. She has grown so much since then.
Cortney
Bruce, relaxing after a second round at dinner.
Benjamin and Will.

Saying goodbye was so hard. We just don't see everyone enough. We are looking forward to coming back many times in the future. Only next time, we'll be bringing Will and the new baby!

On the road for Thanksgiving

Our first trip with Will was to a little town in west Alabama called Thomaston to see my Aunt Anne, her husband Terry and my grandmother Elva. Aunt Anne is my father's sister and Grandma is my father's mother. It was a long trip, but well worth it. My grandmother will soon turn 98! We are all so proud of her. We arrived Wednesday evening and had dinner with Aunt Anne, Uncle Terry and my cousin Stewart.

Soon, after we arrived, Will passed out for a long nap.

Throughout the trip, Will was quite the daddy's boy.

This is Will on Thanksgiving morning. I just love the duck feet.

First thing in the morning, we headed out to see Grandma. She represents 5 generations.

Will is the latest of her many great-grandchildren.
It was a precious moment when I handed her to him. We have so little family left on my mother's side, so it was really wonderful for him to meet his only living great grandmother.

I know Will was thinking that he would live the rest of his life in a carseat. Travel is tough on a little one.
We had breakfast at one of the two places open on Thanksgiving.

4 months old

Last week, Will turned 4 months old. Most people say the time goes by so fast, but for us it seems like years ago that he was born and spending his days and nights in the NICU. This morning, we took him to the doctor for his 4 mth check-up. Everyone enjoys placing bets on his weight, but this time, we were all wrong! Will is 12 pounds, 8 ounces. He feels like a lot more! His length is 24 inches, exactly 2 feet! He smiled and cooed for the doctor, but was quite angry at the nurse when he got his shot. When we got home, he slept for hours. The doctor said we could try to give Will some rice cereal with a spoon. This should be interesting. Mike and I will give it a try tonight, with the camera nearby.

Mike and I are anxiously awaiting our first family trip for Thanksgiving. We are taking Will to see his family in Alabama. I cannot wait for him to meet my 98 year old grandmother. We will have dinner with my aunt's family and all of her children and grandchildren. It will be great fun! The next day, we are planning to drive into New Orleans to see some special friends and family. I am already nervous just thinking about packing. I alone, pack a ton of stuff. Packing for a baby makes crazy. I'm so afraid of forgetting something critical.

Yesterday, I took him to have his holiday and 4 month pictures taken. He was so great. I know I'm the mother and SUPPOSED to be proud, but oh my goodness, he took the yummiest pictures. I had such a hard time choosing his pictures. Below are a some of them.

Will looks like he is about to take off!

Will was starting to get tired of pictures.

Will has had enough! No more smiling, no more dreidel, no more pictures!

Here is our sweet little gift under the tree!And this is my favorite picture!

Sweet visits from friends and grandparents!

Mike's parents came this Sunday to visit with us. Will is their first and so-far, only grandchild. They try to come and visit every two weeks. Each time they come, they remark about how much Will has changed. He is smiling and cooing a lot more these days. Will loves his grandma, but definitely has grandpa wrapped around his finger. It's always hard for Grandma to let go of Will when it is time to go home.
On Saturdays, well actually Thursday - Monday, football reigns supreme at our house. Our little Will has discovered a love of the game. We know that he doesn't really know what he is watching, but it sure was funny to see Will and Daddy so focused on the LSU-v-Alabama. Of course LSU won! We are trying to teach him the important things early. Note Will's teddy bear slippers. Too cute!!!

Disclaimer: We don't like for him to watch T.V. but we gave in for 5 minutes of football.

On Saturday, we were treated to a wonderful visit from a dear old friend, Laura and her sweet son, Jared (15 mths). I had the privilige of teaching with Laura several years back and we have been friends ever since. The sweetest news is that she is pregnant, too, and due in March. It's fun anticipating the birth of our 2nd child together.


Will seems to love having his picture taken.
It was fun to watch Jared respond to Will. He kept looking and looking at him. Will is starting to teeth, so he readily puts his mouth on the closest thing around. This time, it was Jared's shoulder.
Jared is kissing Will. Will was not that happy about all of his affection.

Our 1st Halloween with Will!

The night before Halloween, Mike and I carved pumpkins. This is Mike's 2nd pumpkin to carve so it was fun to watch him concentrate. My pumpkin was traditional, while Mike's was more free-form! Will slept away the whole time. He could care less at his age. Next year will be a hoot!

Will was dressed as a little Peapod. I purchased this bib and hat set back in the spring in the baby section of Pottery Barn. I put him in a green onesie and pants and called it a costume. He looked so cute in his hat. He almost looked like Robin Hood. My look was more thrown together. Michelle said she thought it was cute when mommas dressed up, too. So, I put in pigtails and put lipstick on my cheeks and there you have it. It's open to interpretation! Will kept looking at me strangely. It's like he was saying, what's wrong with my mommy!

This is a picture of Will with our sweet neighbors Tammie and her son, Zac. He was dressed as a dinosaur! Tommie and Tammie have 3 wonderful children, Zac, Kenzie and Kaitlin. They are such a blessing to us!

Will is a pooped peapod! Out like a light.

This is a picture of our home for the evening. It wasn't fancy, but it looked beautiful. We put out our pumpkins and had lumineries light the way to the front door.

These were a few of the pumpkin cookies I made that were left. They were quite popular with the guys. It was such a fun evening. We can't wait until next year when Will can really begin to enjoy it.