Welcome, Finley Scott Carter!

It's been a while since I posted...but as you may know, it has been a little bit busy around here. After a little bit of drama, Leah and Hunter welcomed Finley Scott into the world on May 20th at 3:10 a.m. He was two weeks early, but at 21 1/2 inches and 7 pounds 9 ounces, Leah was a little bit happy that he didn't have the chance to get any bigger. Mommy had a few issues so he was delivered by emergency c-section and had to remain in NICU for 5 days. He is now three weeks old, 10 pounds 12 ounces and 22 inches long....so I would say he has recovered quite well!

Leah & Hunter have settled into their roles of Mommy and Daddy easily and are blessed to have a wonderful little guy who is so calm and easy going. He doesn't like his diaper or his clothes changed, but other than that, he's practically perfect...and that is an unbiased opinion from his very proud YaYa!!!

I just know that you need to see pictures of him....so, here he is......

Now that we have Finley safe and sound, we are anxious for Beck and Bella Kate to arrive. They are scheduled to be delivered on July 7th....but, I will be surprised if they wait that long!

And the adventure continues......

Everything is changing

When you have three babies coming in the spring/summer, there are always things to do. Leah and Kelsey are both busy getting things ready in their homes. Leah got her baby bed and rocking chair and baby Finley will have a beautiful room when he arrives. Kelsey has started picking out fabric for bedding and has bought a second baby bed. Maddox has been promoted to a "big girl twin bed" and seems to be adjusting to the change well. I am sure that when the little ones get here, everyone will be ready.

I am still waiting for a few more things in my nursery, but I am mostly finished with what I will be doing here to get ready for "the gang". I have now started to make a few fun things. Here are some of the bibs and burp cloths that I have been working on. The good thing about sewing for boys and a girl is that I can use any type of fabric...pink razorbacks as well as boy print. I have also done a few blankets. There is no such thing at this point as too many of anything. We need three times everything.....

Saturday, my nephew Beau and his sweet son, Kaiden, stopped by to visit with us. He and Maddox are nearly the same age (Kaiden is older by six weeks). They were so cute playing together. I definitely got a preview of how different it will be having boys in the family. Kaiden was very, very well behaved, but evidently boys just have a different way of looking at the world. Maddox has never even thought of jumping down the stairs and that is the first thing that Kaiden did. After that, Maddox decided she might need to try it too! Oh no, I think Dave might have been right.....

I don't know if everyone does this, but in our family when we get scary news this is how we handle it.....

Baskin Robbins ice cream with someone you love! We are asking that all of you keep our Mother, Granny and Great-Granny in your prayers as she makes some decisions about her health.

Maddox has an announcement....

Maddox is pleased to let everyone know that she is going to have a baby brother and a baby sister. Her mommy found out today that baby A (boy) is approximately 7 ozs. and baby B (girl) is 6 ozs. Daddy Garth is very excited about his son and I think Mommy Kelsey is equally excited about having another girl. YaYa and Poppy are happy that everything has equaled out....with Maddox that makes two girls and two boys!! We are going to have soooo much fun this summer!

Sewing, sweet boys, and Paula Deen!!!

I have been really busy the past few weeks sewing for the babies. I made bumper pads for the cribs and am waiting for the curtains and chair to arrive. I also made bumper pads for the mini crib that I will be using downstairs. I have a little more work to do on it, but I think it will be sweet for my little ones. The brown crib quilt is finished and the green one will be finished in the next week or so. I am just waiting for the twins to be named so I can finish them. As soon as I get everything finished, I'll post pictures.

I went with Kelsey to her doctor appointment last week and got to hear the heartbeats. Maddox went with us and cried when Dr. Weidower listened to the heartbeats with the "microphone". She was just worried about her mommy, I think. The ultrasound was much better and she loved seeing her "baby brother and baby sister". We will find out soon what the babies are going to be and we may have to do a little fast talking to get her mind changed about the whole brother and sister thing! Keep your fingers crossed that we get at least one little girl. I'm not sure if I can handle three little boys!

Speaking of little boys....I got to meet the sweetest little one on Saturday. Elizabeth, Rhonda, and Dave stopped by for a visit and to introduce us to Lee! As you can see from the picture, he has the sweetest little smile and is so laid back and mellow. Boys are just so much bigger than girls and I have a lot to learn about them. But, if this sweetheart is typical of all baby boys, I'm gonna love 'em!!!! Elizabeth, thanks for bringing him by for us to see!
Sunday, my sweet guy and I have dinner at Paula Deen's new restaurant in the Tunica Harrah's Casino. Last spring, Phyllis, Ann, Margie, and I went to Savannah and ate at her restaurant and I wanted to see if the food in the Tunica restaurant was as good as it had been there. Yes, it is!!! I ate hoecakes and fried green tomatoes.....Yummy! Eddie loved it too and is now a fan of Paula Deen (and Uncle Bubba, too).

Small windows of time....

I have chosen to look at the next few months in small windows of time. I can handle things better if I don't look too far down the road. When the girls both got engaged and married in the same year, that was the way I survived without losing my mind.

First up is getting my house ready for all the babies. I'm not doing a lot, but I do want to get things ready so everyone will have a place when they come to YaYa & Poppy's house that looks nice and keeps us from having to run up and down the stairs so much. I have ordered some things and they are starting to come in. Today I picked up the mini crib that I am going to use downstairs. Putting it together will be Poppy's job (we all remember how much fun he had putting Maddox's kitchen together at Christmas) and, I will be sewing the next few weeks trying to get some projects done before I move on to the next small window of time.

Garth and Kelsey had an appointment with the doctor yesterday. This was their first visit with Dr. Weidower and I think Kelsey liked her as much as Leah does. She said the twins would probably be delivered by C-Section at 37 weeks. Kelsey is not opposed to that since Maddox was born so fast and a scheduled birth is what she wanted anyway. That moves her estimated delivery date to July 8th ... 5 weeks after Leah's due date!

But, that's not in this weeks window.......

Scardy Cat

This week has been uneventful for the most part.....except for finding out about Leah & Hunter's baby boy! Eddie has been at duck camp with Gerry, Tuck, and one of their friends most of the week and I have pretty much been on my own at night. It was the perfect time for everything to go haywire.

The security system hasn't been working for a while and I couldn't arm it at night. (I found out later that I could have bypassed it and made it work, but I didn't know that then.) That had not bothered me too much until Tuesday night when I couldn't get the garage door to close. It was a little spooky having the garage door open all night, the security system not working and being home alone.

Now normally I am not a scardy cat, but a few weeks ago Eddie was out late playing cards and I had gone to bed to watch TV. Like I said before, the security system has been all screwy and the ready light has been blinking green, then red for no apparent reason a lot lately. A master panel is in my bedroom on the wall beside my TV and I could see it blinking, but didn't pay much attention to it.

My mobile phone rang and when I picked it up to answer the caller ID said.....HOME! Now tell me, how many scary movies have you watched where that exact thing happened and the killer was inside the house?! I couldn't decide whether to answer it or not, but finally timidly said "helloooooo?" Eddie said "Whatcha doing?" Still a little skeptical, I said "Nothing. Where are you?" "In my bedroom", he said.

Turns out he had forgotten his mobile phone in the truck downstairs and when he tried my door and it was locked as I do anytime he is gone, he picked up the house phone to get me to let him in. Can I say.....scared the **** out of me!

All this to say, this week I called the security people, the garage door people, and the trash compacter people while Eddie was gone. Two out of the three are now fixed and I don't think the trash compacter being broken will scare me! And...my bodyguard is now home from the duck woods to guard me at night. All is well!

Leah & Hunter are having a BOY!!!!

Leah and Hunter went to have their ultrasound done yesterday to let them know the sex of the baby.... and there will finally be a boy in the family! We would have loved, loved, loved this precious baby no matter the sex, but I'm pretty sure that somebody (Poppy) was really hoping for a boy.

Everyone is so excited! Leah came by today at lunch to bring the proof...about 12 ultrasound pictures and, may I say, it is pretty obvious that this is no girl. I thought about posting a picture of the ultrasound, but maybe that falls into the category of TMI.

Oh well, off to shop for all things BOY! I'm loving it!