My little blessing.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of finding out that I was going to be a mommy. It was an amazing day....I'll never forget it. Lets take a little trip down memory lane...

It was a Sunday in August, 2010. Will and I walked out of church after hearing a testimony from a couple at our church...they were having difficulty getting pregnant and at that pointed had decided to hand it over to God and move to Guatemala to love on kiddos there. It left a mark on our hearts, that is for sure. Will looked at me on our way to lunch from church that sunny afternoon and said "Babe, I think it's time we not not try to get pregnant". I was shocked. Excited. It was my turn for a shot at starting my family. Well, 5 weeks later....it was September 29, 2010. It was a typical morning in our household. Will's alarm was going off at 3:05 for him to be at work by 4:00 AM. Far to early. At that point I was so used to his alarm going off so early that I rarely woke up, but something was different that day. I didn't feel good, something felt off. I didn't say anything to Will, just rolled over and tried to sleep it off while he got ready for work. After he left I still didn't feel right and thought to myself that maybe I should take a pregnancy test. Knowing we were "not not trying" I had bought a pregnancy test to keep so that when the day would come....I'd be prepared. I had no clue it would be so soon. At 4:00 in the morning, alone, on a Wednesday, I saw those 2 blue lines....my heart dropped. I couldn't believe it. I was going to be a mommy. God blessed me, ME, with a little babe. I started to cry. Obviously I couldn't go back to sleep as my mind was racing 1000 mph. I knew I had to pull it together and go into work and act totally normal. I didn't want to say anything to Will because I wanted to tell him in person. Talk about a long day at work....I couldn't focus. I'm sure I looked flustered, excited, tired, confused, anxious, and so many other emotions. After the longest work day ever passed I made a stop at TJ Maxx on my way home...I wanted to find something "babyish" to give to Will to tell him I was pregnant. I found the perfect gift - a yellow bib that said "Daddy's hugs are the best". I wrapped it up and home I went! I walked in the door and tried to hide it for a few minutes....I was unsuccessful. I blurted out "Will, I got you something today....". I handed him the wrapped up bib and watched him open it. The look on his face. Priceless. He knew as soon as he unrolled the bib, before he even read what it said, that I was pregnant. He was excited (maybe a little shocked too). The first words out of his mouth, "My boys can swim!". Second, "Where is the test, I want to see it". Third, "Can I pray for our baby?". And there we stood, hugging, and Will prayed for our little babe. A truly amazing day.

Time sure does fly! Here we are, 4 months in, and our little guy is practicing sitting up all by himself....

 I just can't get enough of him....I love him to death.

4 month check up.

Yesterday I took Maddux in for his 4 month check up. I can't believe it's been 4 months! Before I took him to the doctor my car lead me to a children's consignment shop, seriously, I had no control. Upon walking in I saw the perfect Halloween costume, a giraffe! It's so stinkin cute. I'd show you a picture but that would ruin the adorableness that is going to take place October 31 - so be patient.

Anyway, upon arriving to the doctor's office I was immediately thankful for what I got. One baby. On the elevator ride up I met a sweet lady who had 3 week old twins - yikes. She looked tired. I assured her the sleeping thing would get easier...even with two, I thought it must. We had great small talk. I then walked into the office, checked in, proceeded to the small infant waiting room where there was a mother of 4 week old triplets! YES, triplets! Ahhhhh.....I can't imagine. I'm so so so so incredibly thankful and blessed to have Maddux....I can't fathom taking care of more than 1 of him! The mother of the triples was so kind and also looked so tired. Bless both of those mommies, I have a lot of respect for mothers of multiples!

Back to Maddux, he did not like the doctor at all. He is weighing in at 13 lbs 12 oz and is 24 inches long. He is close to the 50th percentile for weight and 25th for height. Poor little peanut got momma's short jeans ;). When Dr. Sanchez came in we had a nice conversation about starting solid foods and the developmental milestones to expect within the next couple of months. THEN came the fun part....or not so fun part. Maddux has had a cold the last week so Dr. Sanchez wanted to check his ears...that really ticked him off. Then he was poking and prodding all over sending Maddux into hysterics, and we hadn't even had the shots yet! The doctor left the room and I nursed him to calm him down...for his shots :(. The nurse came in and thankfully she was quick! I made Will hold him....I couldn't do it. And let me tell you, it was no easier to watch and listen the second time as it was the first. It just broke my heart. I grabbed him and fed him which eventually calmed him down. The plus side to shots? He took a 3 1/2 hour nap! And of course...stayed up until 10 pm last night opposed to his usual 8 pm bed time. But he slept in, so it's fine.

Yesterday was also a going away party for some dear friends of ours. We had a fabulous time playing rock band and hanging out. Carl and Danae, we're going to miss you and your family a lot! :(

I leave you with a picture of Maddux and Liliana going to sleep last night. Yes, Maddux had his first boy/girl sleep over. No worries, we broke it up by midnight.

Cookies n' Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes.

Yesterday  I tried a new recipe, cookies n' cream cheesecake cupcakes. I found the recipe on Pinterest, my new favorite website. If you haven't ventured that way you should probably check it out. I don't have an excessive amount of boards and pins going quite yet....however, my yummy board has the most pins, is that bad?

Upon browsing pinterest I came across this delicious recipe and immediately had to repin it, obviously.Who can say not to a combination of oreo AND cheesecake? Not this girl. With a going away party to go to for some good friends of ours I thought this would be the perfect treat to bring, therefore preventing me from eating all of them myself! Now, I have to admit, I've never made any sort of cheesecake before so I had no idea how they were going to turn out. I knew my cream cheese had to be room temperature and that I planned for ahead of time. Well, of course when reading through the recipe the 4 eggs were also supposed to be room temperature. So sad, to bad. I didn't have the patience to wait for the eggs to warm up, they went in cold! And after some mixing with my lovely red kitchen-aid mixer, into the oven they went for 22 minutes followed by the refrigerator over night.

This is what I woke up to this morning staring me in the face when I went to grab milk for my cereal...

And yes my friends, on the bottom of these delicious looking cupcakes of goodness is a whole oreo...

The truth is, I couldn't wait for the party tonight to try one. And I personally think they are a scrumptious treat, worth every calorie.

The recipe came from www.foodgawker.com and on the same page as these oreo treats are a handful of other great looking recipes. I have two potatoes waiting to be cooked the way she does hers...sliced with garlic in them (Swedish style apparently)!

Here is the recipe:

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30 (Note: I halved this recipe and it was very easy, 30 of these cupcakes would surely be the death of me)

• Ingredients:
• 42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

I will be making these again. They are super easy and delicious. Hopefully they are a hit at the party!

Here are a couple pictures of Maddux and his daddy watching the baseball game last night. Not the Braves, the Cardinals. The Braves have struggled a bit lately and hold only a 2 game lead in the wild card. The Braves had an off day while the Mets played the Cardinals. Thankfully the Mets had a 9th inning come back and won the game...hopefully the Braves can pull this out these last 6 games! 

Monopoly.

Yesterday  Will beat me at Monopoly. Wait, let me rephrase that, Will annihilated me at Monopoly. Take a look.

It was Braves Monopoly of course. All of those "stadiums", yeah, those are Will's. I had nothing at this point....every piece of property I owned I had to mortgage. Before I knew it, every mortgaged piece of property I owned was sold back to the bank. Will won. Apparently I'm not good at Monopoly. But I had fun!

Will was the tomahawk, I was the hot dog. How fun is that? A hot dog!

Before we started we said the first to buy Greg Maddux wins. You know how monopoly can take FOREVER...we figured this was an easy way to make it short. Well, no need to cut the game short. By the time the tomahawk landed on Greg Maddux it was evident it wouldn't be a long game...

I love nights like that. Even though I lost, it was most enjoyable. After we put little man to bed we lit candles, poured the wine, and ate dinner; followed by watching the Braves game (which was embarrassing) and Monopoly.  This was the first time in a long time we played a board game and it reminded me how much I love it. It will be happening again soon. I cherish nights like this. Makes me appreciate Maddux's early bed time. It's important to have time just the two of us....we loved it.

Another game of Monopoly is in my near future....I will play better next time.....I just need a few weeks to recover from this game....

And on a totally different note, Maddux and I have the same feet. I was sitting in the glider with him when I noticed just how similar our feet are....

Poor guy, stuck with the Beal family barney rubble toe. 

Much love to all of you. Happy Weekend!!!

Monday.

Yesterday was my first Monday back at work. Ugh, Monday's. They aren't fun. I personally don't know anyone who looks forward to work on a Monday. It was also Maddux's first day at home with Amy. Can I tell you how big of a blessing she is? My goodness. I still have a difficult time leaving in the morning, a few tears trickle down my cheek when I walk out the door. However, knowing he is home with Amy makes it easier. I don't have to drop him off at a daycare...he gets to be home. With someone I trust. Someone who loves the little guy like her own son. It's a true blessing that I have her in my life. Not only is she Maddux's babysitter, but she is my friend. Ahhhh, thank you Jesus. He truly does provide. So many parents have to worry about their babies at daycare and that isn't something I have to go through. A blessing.

Thank you Amy for being YOU. We love you. 


Now would be the time to post a picture of Maddux with Amy however, the only picture I have is from the day he came home from the hospital. Snuggling already :) (I'll get an updated pictures of them soon)

I can't leave you without a recent picture of Maddux. Here he is with his daddy in the pool last weekend (I apologize for the quality, it's a cell phone shot)...

Adios friends.

Rice Cereal.

Yesterday Maddux tried rice cereal for the first time! I can't believe how fast this is all going. Typically you introduce rice cereal at the 4 month mark but we couldn't wait....the kid was starving.

Over the last 2 weeks his sleeping has become progressively worse. For a solid 5-6 weeks he was doing 8-9 hour stretches, eating, and sleeping 2-3 more, it was glorious. Slowly he started waking up more, sleeping less, and something had to be done about it. The last few nights were AWFUL (of course it would be during my first week back at work) and he was waking up 5-6 times and eating every time. My mother in law suggested calling the pediatrician and asking about starting rice cereal. The nurse I spoke to wasn't ecstatic about it but said it wouldn't hurt...I went for it. And boy am I glad I did!!! He actually ate quite a lot of it and the best part of it all? He slept 8.5 hours before waking up to eat and then slept 3 more :)

A few pictures of our rice cereal adventure:

And a little home video....enjoy :)

PS - I updated our shutterfly account with September pictures. I still haven't uploaded all of our Michigan pictures - it takes forever...there are to many! The link 'yesterdays pictures' will also take you there.

Happy Friday ya'll :)

I'm a working mom now.

Yesterday I took time out of my day to stop and think about how grateful I was for all of the prayers and kind words from people who care about me. To all of you reading this wondering how work went, THANK YOU. I truly believe I survived because of you praying for me.

Rewind back to Tuesday, it was awful. I'm sorry to be so debbie downer about it...but really, it was stinkin awful. I slept horribly on Monday night, Maddux woke up 3 times, and before I knew it the happy melody on my cell phone went off telling me it was 6:15 and to wake up!  Through A LOT of tears I managed to get ready and it was time to nurse my baby before my dreaded walk out the door for a day at work. I cried the entire time I fed him, gave him a huge hug goodbye, and handed him to my mother in law. Ugh...I cried, and cried, and cried. Cried on my way to work and I cried at work. I finally got home, and cried. Put him to bed, and cried. The tears didn't stop.

I tried to get a good nights sleep on Tuesday night however failed miserably. Laying in bed I stared at the video monitor just thanking Jesus for my perfect son and asking Him to tell me the winning lottery numbers(then I wouldn't have to work!). Eventually I fell asleep, Maddux woke up 4 times, and that lovely ringtone woke me up again before I felt even slightly refreshed. I just prayed to Jesus to help me through the day....and He did. Because of all of the people praying for me. It went a little better. There weren't as many tears and I got a little more work done. I literally stopped and said thank you to Jesus for helping the day go better. Perhaps it was because I knew I was going shopping and out to dinner when I got home, not sure. But either way, I survived. I LOVED walking through the door and seeing my smiley boy - he is the absolute best.

A big thank you to my mother in law for all of her help and knowing what makes me smile. I loved getting text message updates and pictures throughout the day (even though I usually cried when I saw them).

Every passing day this will get easier, I know it will. I have all of my faith in Jesus to make this work. Mom's do it every day...and a lot of momma's have more than 1 baby at home that they leave! I know I can do this. I'm just thankful the first couple of days are over....I can't wait to spend my weekend with him :)

Here is a picture my mother in law sent me....looks like a happy baby to me :)