Want to see some adorable pictures????

I'm really hoping this link will work. This is the website with Brooks' newborn pictures. Make sure you click on all the little pictures at the bottom of the page. My favorite one is the one with all of his Bengal's gear. ( I know Cindi just threw up!).


http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?birthid=76d4fbbc-65d5-483b-8ea1-d82cd7c0fa35&babyid=dc519e17-91c7-4d0d-bb26-d0c0a2a5181f

Austin and I are still at Sarah and Bennie's doing the cooking, laundry and cleaning. Oh and we're also getting in a lot of cuddle time with Brooks. I tell ya, this Grandmother stuff is the BEST!.

More pictures from Grandmotherville!!!!

This is the sight we've all been praying for...Sarah Kate with her baby in her arms. It just doesn't get any better than this!

Great Grandmother and Emily trying to help wake up Brooks so he will nurse.


I'm tellin' ya, I could kiss those cheeks off. In fact, I have tried!

Our dear friend, Connie personalized his very own Bengals outfit for him. I wish you could have seen Bennie's face when he saw this!!

Pictures from Grandmotherville!!

Before Emily hits the road with her laptop this morning I wanted to get some pictures up for you all to see.

Here is Aunt Em getting her turn...

Here I am playing with that precious little mouth. He has very sensitive skin and is covered in a rash that has us all horrified. It looks like it would be so itchy but he doesn't seem to be bothered with it. They say it will just disappear over the next couple of days.


On Mommy's lap. She is a natural mother!



Brooks just being precious!



Sweet Bennie holding his boy....I tell you guys, it would melt your heart!

My Heart Is Full With The Joy of Being GRAND!!!

He's here!!!! And wouldn't you know it, my computer issues of the moment won't allow me to post a picture of him right now. However, you can take my word for it that he is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen in my life!

Sarah has had placenta previa for the entire pregnancy and although it did move a little bit in the last couple of weeks, it didn't move enough to allow her to have a normal delivery. She was scheduled for a C-section for 10:00 this morning. They were to be there at 8:00 and we were going to get there about 9:00. I talked to her at 7:30 this morning and she was ready and waiting for Bennie to finish getting ready so they could leave. Ten minutes later she called me back in a panic. She was putting the baby's bag in the car and she felt a gush of fluid. She thought her water had broken but it was bright red blood. I told her to call an ambulance immediately and we hung up and I started moving fast. They didn't call an ambulance (the hospital is a 10 minute drive) they left all their "stuff" at home and Bennie drove her to the hospital. When I got there they had her back in a room with the fetal monitor on her. The birthing center was packed and BUSY! They started prepping her for surgery and since I'm a nurse and I work at that hospital, she asked if I could go in with them and they said YES!! I got myself garbed and masked and off we went.

I cannot describe the emotion I felt seeing my baby girl on that OR table It was just surreal. I tried to keep the fear out of my voice and tears out of my eyes and I managed it all okay until that precious baby was out of her and I heard him cry. At that point, all bets were off and I was just a blubbering Grandmother. I've asked so many of my friends what it feels like when you see your first grandchild and it seemed that no one could really put it into words that I could grasp and understand. Now I know why. It's just not something that there are words for. The closest I can come to explaining what I felt would be to say that an enormous love bomb burst inside of me and I know for certain that I will never be the same. It's love squared and then some! MY BABY HAD A BABY!!!! And he was PERFECT! And she was SAFE!. I just kept saying, "Thank you, God, thank you!"

To see Sarah and Bennie finally have the baby they've prayed for for so long was so wonderful.
Have I mentioned that he's beautiful??!!! He was born on 8/7 and weighed 8 lbs 7 ozs at 11:07. Sarah has always said that her lucky number is 7 and after today, we all believe her.

I work tomorrow night (but guess where I'll be on all my breaks!!!) and then I start a week of vacation on Sunday when they will probably come home. I'll be staying at Sarah's next week to help take care of her and be the chief cook and bottle washer ( even though she's nursing!). I promise to post A LOT of pictures from her house.

When we called Emily in Florida to tell her he was here today she decided on the spur of the moment to drive up here and as I type this, she is somewhere on this side of Atlanta headed home to get her hands on him. Some of you understand what a miracle that is in itself!!! My cup runneth over.

Let the Grandmothering begin.....I'm in heaven.

For every one of you who offered up prayers for my sweet girl and her husband I thank you from the bottom of my heart. God is so very good.

You won't believe these pictures!!!

I'm sorry. I can't help it. I am madly in love with this new little person that will soon be entering our lives and I'm afraid that I just have to admit that I'm absolutely going to be one of those obnoxious grandmothers who talks about her grandchild to anyone who will listen. And....even if they don't listen, I'm still gonna talk about him.

Sarah had her medical ultrasound on Thursday, but this morning they went for the non-medical 3D ultrasound. I thought the picture of his face in the last one was incredibly clear. Well....that was nothing compared to THESE!!!!

He is SMILING!! In the womb, he's smiling!! Know why? He knows that he has a grandmother waiting for him that is going to be completely blind to any faults he might ever have!

Along with a cd of 39 still pictures, they also got a dvd of tons of video of him moving around with a baby themed soundtrack. Priceless! I love this one of him with his mouth open


I love this one too. It's like he's bored with this whole picture taking thing and he's thinking, "Would you all PLEASE just let me grow in peace?" They also say he's "chunky", get a load of the meat on his little arm....and he's got 11 more weeks to grow! His mother weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce. I can't wait to see how much he weighs.


Check out his meaty little thigh.

He looks exactly like his father.

I love the definition of his lips ( exactly like his daddy's). Don't know what's up with that shadow across his nose.

How will I ever wait another 11 weeks?

Look at this face!!!!! Sweet Brooks.

Our life is so incredibly busy at the moment that I barely get to check email anymore, but when Sarah Kate shared this picture with me from her ultrasound today I just knew I had to get on here and show him off!

Can you believe that little face? It's almost like an actual photograph instead of an ultrasound. The US tech says that he is a big baby. Expected weight at this stage is about 2.5 pounds and he is about 3.1 pounds today. All I know is that I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on him. I've been collecting all my "Grandma supplies" and by the time he gets here I'll be all set up.

They are continuing to do a lot of ultrasounds and Sarah is doing great. She does have placenta previa and it's not showing any signs of moving. If it doesn't she will have to have a c-section which she is upset about, but hey, healthy baby and mom is the only thing that matters.

Patrick and Amber closed on their house and he's moved in to it. I would say that I miss him, but we've been over there painting and fixing up ever since he moved in and I'm heading back there in the morning. It's so much fun that it doesn't feel like work. I have taken a lot of before pictures and will post them along with the after pictures as we get things done.

I'm hoping that at some point soon things will settle down and I'll have more time to play here.

I'm alive, just buried in projects

You all probably thought I got lost somewhere along the way between Florida and home since I haven't posted a single thing since before we left. But I did, indeed, make it home in one piece. But I don't feel like my feet have much more than touched the ground since we got home two weeks ago. We had a GREAT time! We did a lot of hanging out with Emily and Wendell, laid around the pool a couple of days, went to Universal Studios a couple of days, visited my parents at their retirement community for a day and a night, and did some decorating of Emily and Wendell's condo. The best part though, was sitting up late at night and just girl talking with Emily and Sarah Kate. I was truly in Paradise!! While walking around at Universal, I looked up and saw "Paradise" in lights on a building and just had to take the above picture.

On one of the days that Emily had to work while we were there, Sarah, Austin and I went to WONDERWORKS. Below are Sarah and Austin playing in giant bubbles.



Emily and Austin playing with the giant shark at Universal Studios.



Since we've been home I've been working like a Trojan on my "to do list". I am bound and determined to get the deck finished. It was on my list for last year, but I just procrastinated myself right out of doing it and I've been kicking myself all winter for not doing it. Soooo, I've jumped in with both feet and I will get it done or die trying. Actually, one of the reasons I didn't get it done before was because I kept changing my mind about what color I wanted to use. I've waffled back and forth on many choices. I finally decided on doing the rail and corner sections white and painting (staining) the actual floor the same putty color as the siding in the back of the house. I'm so happy that I decided to go with the white.


The wrought iron table and chairs were painted green and I decided to paint them black and I'm loving the change, I bought some pretty chair pads for the chairs and I can't wait to get it all put together. I love how the black pops against the white. And I can't wait to see how the colors of my flowers will pop against the white. You can see a little bit of the siding in the following picture. That's what color the floor is going to be.


In other news, Patrick and Amber have a new baby! They are closing on their house at the end of May and when Amber heard about a new litter of Yellow Labs, they just couldn't resist getting one. You need a little back story here. Patrick has always LOVED "Old Yeller". Even as a little boy he would say that someday he was going to have a Yellow Lab and he was going to name him "Yeller". My Patrick is such a soft hearted guy. A couple of years ago, Austin had a little friend spending the night. As we were eating dinner, Austin turned to his little friend and said, "After dinner we'll watch "Old Yeller" and you can watch Patrick cry!". He's 29 years old next month and he still cries every time Old Yeller gets shot So, now he finally has his yeller dog. He is so cute and we've all fallen in love with him. I will miss him when Patrick and he move to the new house next month.

Speaking of their new house, here it is. It is a tri-level with an in ground pool out back (I think the pool was was what sealed the deal). They have a lot of work ahead of them. While the house is sound, there are a lot of cosmetic things that need to be done to bring it up to date. It's stuck in the 70's if you know what I mean. We will be spending a lot of time cleaning, painting and landscaping over there and it will be a lot of fun. I will take before and after pictures and share them with you as we go.

Here it is from the back...I foresee many good times in this back yard.

As if tackling the deck wasn't enough of a project, I am also working on refinishing my grandfather's 97 year old high chair, and I swear I think it had 97 coats of paint on it. I've never stripped an old piece of furniture before and I had no idea what a slow process it is. I bet I have at least 12 hours in this project already and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere, I just keep telling myself that it will all be worth it when I see little Brooks and all the grands to follow sitting at my table in their great, great grandfathers chair.

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And speaking of Brooks!!!!! Here is Sarah at 23 weeks. He's growing fast and we can't wait to get our hands on him.

Well, it's time to get back to my projects. I'll eventually get caught up with everyone, I promise.

Ohhh, there is something in the works here that has been long prayed for and anticipated. I can't give you any more details right now but please hold good thoughts for the signing of contracts. I promise to give alll the details when I can.