My first not me mon

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I didn't get excited about Social Security checks( i thought they meant to say Stimulus checks) and then aksed when do we get them... all to find out that I will not be getting a SS check for quite some time.. No Not ME!

I did not sit at our fancy dinner table at tomatoes glued to me phone in case my parents needed to tell me something about Avery. And I did not try to sneak text under the table to check on him later when brant told me to put the phone away.. No NOT ME!

I did not steal a lick of our wedding cake eairlier this week. I always tell me newphews not to do that... so why would I??

I did not scary my Avery into tears when I jumped on the bed to play with him. No NOT ME... ( in my defense, I though he saw me comming)

I did not organize half my dresser only to shove everything back in it tomake my room look cleaner.. NO NOT ME!

I also did not eat left over wedding cake for breakfest twice this week either! No NOT ME!

So what have you not done this week?

~ A year Later~

I cannot believe that Brant and I have already seen one year of marriage! Its unbelieveable to me! A year ago today, we were packed up and heading to Gatlinburg for a week of relaxa-ing and honeymooning! :) This year of marriage has taught us SO much

• how to face a crisis and learn how each other deals with the wake of it
• Brant learned how to do Laundry the RIGHT way
• communication seemed harder at first even tho we were living together ..we learned neither one of us has ESP.
• We learned how to care for a house/stay on budget
• We grew in our relationship.. Everyone should read "Devotions after I say I do"
• Lauren learned new receipes
• We grew in love... its an everyday thing :)
• We learned how to make a baby.. haha. and now we have Avery Dillon
• We learned how to be parents... the lesson isn't over yet :)

Those are just a glimpse of the lessons we have learned... and we can't wait for other lessons that are in our future. Some days/weeks were hard, some easy. But through it all, marriage is great for us!

To celebrate, we dropped Avery off at Nana and Grandpop's and we headed to a great Resturant called Tomatoes! Yummy homemade Italian food and wine! Then Brant surprised me with a trail of rose petals around the house, long steamed pink roses, and white chocolate. We ate our wedding cake and ended the night with Avery, thankful for a great year and hopeful for what is to come.

Here are some pictures of the year. Pictures of this past week ill upload later!

Our perfect wedding day

Downtown Charleston


Showing off our prego bellies

Welcoming Baby Avery!

Gasp.. Daddy and Avery time!

So pretty much I have never left Avery's side since he's been born. Unless it me taking a quick shower or being a room away from him. Oh and once when my parents watched him for a half hour so I could run home to let the dog out. But pretty much I havent been away from him for more than 30 min! And last night, just as I was about to driff off into sleep brant says,

"btw, I want to take avery on my earrands tomorrow" My first reaction was "its ok, its easier to leave him here... " but after some prodding and thinking/sleeping on it, I gave in this am. Its hard to beleive that my leave is almost over! And brant and Avery will need tolearn how to get by without me when I start going back to work.. And Avery also has to learn how to deal when its not mommy/daddy with him either... Breaks my heart! :) Im sure all is fine... brant has it all under control, but I miss my little pirate! I also don't know what to do with myself. I was told no cleaning or organizing while brant was gone since this is him "giving me a break" sooooo... I guess Ill just blog, facebook, take a bath. Although I do have to admit that I did straightenup a little bit! Maybe brant won't notice! hahaha!

I just can't wait for my boys to be back! I think I drove brant crazy this am when I was telling him what not to forget... including... dont forget that you have avery and don't forget him in the car... (its happened toothers before...) anyway.. Im sure all is fine! :) Just another step in parent hood! Tomorrow the grandparents have him so brant and I can celebrate our first wedding anniversy! Hard to believe that its been a year!

~Our Boy~

Its hard to beleive that Avery is already 6 weeks old! It is really true that time goes by fast! These past weeks we have learned so much about ourselves and Avery. He was born April 2nd 2009. My little boy decided to turn breech on me at the last possible second so I needed a C-section. The c-section was a breeze for me, but poor Avery got stuck in my stomach for about 5 minutes. The doctors placed in on Oxygen for the first 24 hours, and then monitored them the second 24 hours in the Level II nursery. It was hard for me the first day because I wasn't able to see him. It got a little easier the second day when I could visit him, and then on Saturday he joined us in the hospital room! We were realeased to go home on sunday! But by wednesday we were back in the dr.'s office because we suspected that Avery had a bad case of jaundice. Unfortunetly we were right and he spent the next 48 hours on a home phototherpy bed. And four days of getting his poor heel pricked! But he was a trouper! Parenting is hard, in the sense that you never want your child to get hurt or be sick and in the first week of his life, i felt so worried and helpless for him. But I guess it comes with the territory! Avery is so sweet and perfect! He even knows to give me the good diapers and daddy the messy ones! :) Even more special to having Avery is watching Brant and him bond. Brant hasn't really been around babies his whole life and was scared to hold any baby. But once Avery came,he knew he couldn't hide forever. I love seeing brant learn to care for him, and become so excited to see him. The look of wonder on brant's and Avery's faces are so adorable and melts my heart. They love to talk to one another, cuddle, and its only daddy that can give avery a bath. If I even try, Avery cries as if I cut off his arm! But Ido have my cuddle time too, and the smiles and I swear he cuckles! Avery is now into his moblie I set up for him and even tries to grab the bears as they swing by! And he loves his belly mat! He has pretty good control of his head too! But all in all, this past month and a half my have flown by but all the sweet memories we have made, the lessons learned and cuddles and kisses given are just a tiny glimpse of what we have in store. Im cherishing today and hoping for many great tomorrows!