Welcome Baby Aubrey!

Aubrey Jeanette Long arrived on July 15th, 2010 at 6:06 p.m. (Riley was also born at 6:06 p.m....how cool is that). She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 17 1/2 inches long. She is such a sweetie pie and doing well.

I will do a longer post later with details of her birthday!!! Too much to do right now!

Yucky Week But Great Holiday!

Last week was possibly my most difficult week of motherhood so far. It started on Monday when I decided to keep Riley home from school because Edmond was gone on an overnight flight (2 days). I just thought he and I would have some good hangout time. He started off the day acting cranky, not eating much and then I noticed a few ulcers on his bottom lip. I took his temp, but it was normal. After his nap, during which he slept very little, we went to the grocery store and ran into one of his teachers. She informed me that 2 kids in his class had the hand, foot, and mouth virus. Well, Riley has already had it (we think), so I wouldn't have been too worried except that it was the only thing that made sense. Sure enough, when we got home, I checked his temp again and he had over 100 degree temp. AAGGHHHH....and of course Edmond was gone overnight...of course! Bad turned into worse very quickly. By Tuesday he would eat almost nothing and was not drinking as much as I would have liked. I had a meeting at work on Tuesday, but luckily one of our friends who doesn't have any kids, came over to stay with Riley while I was gone. I felt horrible even asking her to do it, but it was a parent meeting that involved several teachers/staff from school and there was no way we could reschedule. She was a lifesaver!!! To make a long story a little shorter....he was worse again on Wednesday, and not any better on Thursday. Finally on Friday, we started to turn a corner. Saturday was a much better day and he finally started to eat. Today he is almost back to normal, but we are worn out from the rough week!!! He had so many ulcers/blisters in his mouth it was just pitiful. There was some bleeding, LOTS of tears, TONS of TV watching, very little sleep for both of us, and a very exhausted 36 week pregnant mama!!!! I have no idea how I would have done it with 2....really how do you do it???!!

Anyway, last night we had a few friends over to grill out and we had so much fun. Some friends of Edmond's from high school were here visiting and our neighbors came over with their kids as well. I will post a few pics from this!!

I hope you all had a great holiday as well. Thanks to my husband for all he does to serve our country! Riley and I are so very proud of him!

My pitiful little boy!! This face says it all (sorry for the belly shot...I can't really avoid it these days).

Feeling better on the 4th of July!

I just had to decorate a little!

Riley with his friends (and balloons), Ava and Elijah. They seemed to have a good time!

June 23, 2007

**We have not had internet access for the last week so this post is coming a few days late!!!

On Wednesday, Edmond and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. I cannot believe that it has already been 3 years since we were married...and almost 5 since we've been together. I just have to say that I don't think the Lord could have done any better in creating the most perfect person for me!! He is more than I could have ever imagined. I had no idea that my love for him would deepen and change so much in three years, but it has. It's just different....I hope and pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen our marriage and allow us to grow even closer to each other and to Him in the many many years to come!!! I love you Edmond!!

This is the night Edmond proposed!

He read 2 passages of scripture to me and then washed my feet to demonstrate how he wanted to serve me for the rest of our lives. I still use this bowl in our home today...it has such a special meaning!

A night or two after our engagement we met my family in Lafayette at Cracker Barrel for dinner. My parents surprised us with our first wedding gift.

I don't have any pictures from our wedding on my computer, but this is one from our honeymoon. We were and still are the happiest people in the world...the Lord has truly blessed us.

Joy

Doesn't this smile just bring you such joy???!!! Ughh...I could just eat him up!! The most fun news I have to report is that he has "tee teed" in his little potty 3 times this week. Now, don't get too excited....I am not convinced that he is ready for the real-deal potty training, but I am pleased that he knows what to do on the potty and that he is somewhat interested at this point. This smile was captured shortly after his first successful attempt!

In other news, we will officially be in our new house this evening! The moving has been quite crazy this week, but we are so thankful to be moving into a new home for the rest of our time here in Hawaii! Thanks for the prayers and well wishes.

One downfall of moving is the time it will take to get internet/cable hooked up again!!! We will be cut off from the internet world for a week (which is why I am doing this post now)!!! I have become kind of addicted to the internet these days so maybe it will be good for me to take a break for awhile.

I'll leave you with one more picture of my little man!

Poor thing...he has no idea what is about to happen when our new little one arrives. I guess I should give you a little update on her. I had a Dr. appointment earlier this week and they say that all looks well. She is 33 weeks along now (oh goodness...maybe 34, I really can't remember and my calender is packed somewhere)! I am measuring about one week behind (which is better than the 2 weeks behind I measured at my last visit). The Dr. said it's nothing to worry about, so I am trying to do that and not worry. Maybe she will just be petite! I don't know if I ever mentioned her name. It is going to be Aubrey Jeanette Long. Jeanette was Edmond's grandmother's middle name. They had a very special relationship and we are so happy to be able to pass on her name to our daughter.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and Father's Day! I will post with some new home pictures when we have internet again.

Changes!

We are getting ready for some fun changes here in the Long household! The obvious is a new baby, but I haven't done NEAR what I need to do in order to prepare for her arrival!!! That is coming soon...I promise!

First of all, even though we haven't officially started potty training, I did buy a little potty for Riley to start exploring the idea. This was suggested by our pediatrician and even though we are no where close to really potty training, I thought it wouldn't hurt to have one around. As you can see below...it's just a toy right now!!

Riley is also getting ready to have some summer fun time at home with mom. One of his favorite things to do is to play in the water outside (well being outside in general is wonderful to him, but being outside AND in the water is even better). I am so thankful to have a job where I have the summer off!! Today was my last day! In the picture below, you can see that his shirt is wet because he played in the sprinkler. He also love wearing daddy's boots when he gets home from work.

(I have no idea why it is underlining my text, but I don't have time to fix it) And then last, but not least, like I mentioned in an earlier post....we are moving!!! Yipee!! We couldn't be happier. When I get back from Louisiana, I will have another week in this house and then we'll be in the new one. I have some pictures of the current one and the new one, but let me just say first that 1- we were very thankful to have this home while we did, 2- this new home is nothing fancy, I know, but it is new and bigger and that is all that matters to us right now, 3- there are some downfalls to the new home, but I won't even mention them because I want to stay positive!!

Here is our current home. I do love the tree right in front and the privacy that the "wall" gave us while on the patio...but, I won't miss the lovely window units!!!

And here is the new one. It is a duplex, but still very nice. We haven't been in yet, but have peeked through our windows. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs (all pretty good sized) and the living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and half bath downstairs. There is a little fenced in yard off to the side with a nice little patio. We are very anxious to get in and get settled. Trying to decide what colors to paint!!! I can't decide whether to play it safe or try something fun!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

My Boys!

Today has been such a wonderful Mother's Day! I've been thinking alot today about several things. First of all, about the wonderful mother, grandmothers and mother-in-law I've had in my life. They've all had such an influence on my spiritual life and I'm so thankful for that. I've also been thinking about the days when I wondered if I would ever be a mother (and a wife). Those were some difficult times. I never heard the Lord say one way or another if I would get married or have children, but I just decided to trust that He would make my heart ok with whatever He decided to do with my life. I'm not saying it was always easy to trust Him....sometimes it was a daily decision! Anyway, I just want to encourage any of you who are also waiting to see what He has in store for your life. Hang in there and keep close to Him.

In addition to being thankful for the women in my life, I am also so very thankful for these two boys! They made today so very special! We spent several hours at the beach and it was so relaxing. Sometimes it is not, but today was different.

Here is Riley pulling his puppy in a wagon! He is just too funny. This little boy makes me smile so much. I just can't get enough of him. And soon his little sister will be making things very interesting around here. I will let you know the name we've decided on in the next post!

And for a bit of exciting news....we are MOVING!!! Woo hoo!! Not away from the island, but to a new home. We are beyond excited. It will all be happening mid-June. We are still going to be living next to our current neighbors (they are awesome and we couldn't be happier about this). The best part is that our house will have 4 bedrooms!!! So....bring on the guests! We will have plenty of room for visitors. Love you and miss you all!

Happy 18 Months Riley!

Riley is 18 months old today! I can't believe he is already a year and a half. He is growing up too fast.

At 18 months of age, this is what he is up to:

- Loving to be outside (and now saying "outside")

- Still getting some teeth (we are up to 10, maybe 11 as of today)

- Saying all kinds of words like airplane, bug, up, book, ball, dog, hi, bye, cheese, banana, more, please, hot, eye, nose, mama, daddy...I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now. The only 2-word phrase he has said is "bye da" when we were leaving Edmond one morning.

-Understanding almost everything we say...not always doing it, but seems to understand

-Playing with everything in the kitchen that is not a toy and making a MESS

- Loving animals of all kinds (except bugs...I think he has seen me freak out one too many times and now he is starting to do the same)

-Not eating as much of a variety as I would like. We are still doing some baby food vegetables because he won't have much to do with real veggies. He usually likes mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas (think he likes cheese?), scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets, french fries, all kinds of fruit, all kinds of sweets.

-Enjoys reading his books and watching his shows on TV

He has been so much fun! He keeps me moving, that's for sure!

To celebrate, we took him to Sea Life Park today (we had been planning to do this for weeks really..it just so happened to end up on his 18 month birthday)! He is way too fast for me to get a good picture of these days so these will have to do.

Riley's new thing..running right up to the camera and saying "cheese" while squatting!

I think we said look at the camera and he is pointing to and saying "eye".

All he wanted all day was to be down and free!

I thought I would get a good shot of him smelling or looking at the flower...of course it went into his mouth!

Looking at the dolphins with Daddy!

Showing us and saying "bug"...one of his new words.

Here are a few pics of the animals we saw. It was fun, but we quickly realized that Riley is not at the best age to do something like this. He wanted to get in the water with all of the animals and threw a fit when he couldn't. We still had a fun morning!

What a view!!!! This park (which is very similar to Sea World) is located right off of the coast. This mountain/island was behind the dolphin area. Just beautiful!

That's all for now! We should hear pretty soon about our move and about Edmond's schedule of trainings for which he will be gone. We will keep you posted!