Bald Head Island

Chris and I officially introduced the boys to our favorite vacation spot, Bald Head Island. If you have never been there before, it is absolutely beautiful! You have to take a ferry over to the island and there are no cars on the island. Everyone travels around in golf carts. There is a little bit of everything too. There is a forest area, marsh area, harbour area, the beach and of course the golf course. We enjoy the island because you can go hiking one day, kayaking through the marsh the next day and then spend time on the beach. There is also a huge abundance of wild life there. Every time we go we see deer, foxes, pelicans, cranes, herons, alligators, turtles, etc. They even have a conservancy on the island that protects the sea turtle eggs that make it on the island.

It is also very quiet. It isn't commercialized like a lot of vacation spots. There is one grocery store, a handful of restaurants and the golf course. There are no hotels. There is one inn and everyone else stays in houses. So, you spend a lot of quality time with family cooking your own meals and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Here are some of our pictures for you to enjoy...

Cooper and Mommy relaxing on the beach in our cabana. That cabana was by far the best purchase of the summer! The boys have taken many naps in it and I have been able to enjoy the beach some while they are napping! :)

Uncle Scott playing with Cooper. I'm guessing Cooper was crying here and Scott was ready to hand him back to Chris...

One of my favorite pictures. My sister-in-law is really a great photographer. The boys are playing in their cabana here on the beach.

Grandparents and Grandkids! I love this!

The boys first trip to the pool. Emory loved it. He was already swimming around like a pro! Cooper just lounged around, but he still enjoyed it.

Papa Steve and Emory relaxing on the beach.

Family picture time!

I love this picture! The sun is setting and the boys look so cute!

Happy Emory after playing in the pool! Look out ladies! What a cutie!

The boys enjoying the sand.

Emory enjoying the beach. This is in between waves. He had such a good time watching the water go in and out.

This was such a great moment for Chris and I. I am such a lucky lady to have such a great husband!

My parents! I love this picture! They have been together for over 35 years and are still so cute!

My neice and nephew. The best part about this picture was that it was not prompted at all. They got tired of everyone else taking pictures and sat down together. How cute are they?

This is at the beginning of the week as we are waiting on the ferry to take us to the island. You can see one of the ferrys behind us.

This was one of my favorite days! I got a girl day with my mom. We played a little golf and it was just the two of us! I played horrible and the maintenance people were all over the place, but it was still an amazing day!!

Chris and Emory waiting on the ferry. I love this picture with the sail boats in the background.

Chris and Cooper waiting for the ferry. I think Cooper spotted it coming...

Hello World!!

Hello there to all my friends and family! I'm sorry that I haven't updated you in a while. My life has been a little crazy with work and the boys lately. But, I do have some BIG updates to tell you about!

1) The boys have started playing in thier Jumperoo and their Baby Einstien Activity Center recently. They are getting so big! They are holding their head up so well that we thought we would see how they did in it and they LOVED it! Here are a few pictures to show you their new toys...

Cooper is mesmorized by these pandas that sit on a teeter totter.

Emory jumping away. I couldn't catch a smile in the picture, but he lights up completely when he is jumping!

2) The boys have started on solid foods! We have been trying rice cereal with them for a little over a week. Emory has grasped the concept of eating from a spoon really easy. Cooper has take a little bit longer. He seems more interested in how he can help with the spoon than anything else. Mostly they start the meal looking at us like "why do we have to put this in our mouth?" But, by the end they are wanting more. It has been so much fun watching them make this transition! Here are some pictures of their first bites...

3) We took the boys on their first beach trip this past weekend! And, they loved it! We had such a good time with Shawn, Lauren, Jen and Brian. It was so great to hang out with other parents and get to relax a little too! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy...

I love this picture. This is actually taken after our first day to the beach. We brought them inside and laid him down on the floor to get his bath set up and I turned around and he had fallen asleep! So adorable!

Daddy playing with Emory.

Family Picture!

The boys chillin in the tide pool

We had so much fun at Ocean Isle. I can't wait until they get to experience Bald Head later this week!

Mother's Day and Cooper update

So, this was my first official Mother's Day! I have spent so many Mother's Days planning for my mom and putting together the family get together. It was honestly really nice to be on the other side of that awesome day! The day started out amazing. Chris cooked breakfast while I spent some quality mommy time with the boys. As the day went on though, we started to get more and more concerned. Cooper was eating ALL the time and spitting up at least half to all of what he was eating. By the end of the day, he was crying so much because he was in pain from all of the acid coming back up. It was so pitiful! He finally went to sleep though and my relaxing started to begin. Chris set up the fire pit outside and we watched the fire and had a glass of wine with mom and dad. We talked about what happened this time last year and what an amazing 12 months it has been.

This time last year, we were having our leftover eggs thawed out and put in. We didn't have any hope of actually becoming pregnant since we were told it may only be about a 20% chance we would have one child let alone two! And, against all odds, God delivered on his promise and made me a mom of my two precious little boys! And, to top it all off, we did that on my parent's anniversary. So, this year we celebrated their 38 years, Mother's Day and our anniversary of me really becoming a mom. What a special day! Here is a picture of my special boys and me...

I just love this picture because Cooper looks like he is saying "Excuse me. Can we start again?"

To back up a step...For those of you who weren't aware, Cooper has been not gaining weight. He is officially 2 pounds lighter than his brother. So, we are very concerned. So, that is why we were so concerned on Mother's Day. It looks like he is able to keep in enough fluids to maintain his weight and keep hydrated. But, there just isn't anything else that he can keep in his stomach to help him grow. We have been to countless doctor appointments to figure out what is going on.

As of today, we went to see a Pediatric GI specialist. She agrees with our primary pediatrician that it may be a milk protien allergy. This apparently is different from him being lactose intolerant. And, there is milk protein in almost everything I eat! So, I am having to really cut back my diet. I can eat basically only meat, veggies and eggs. We also changed his formula that we supplement with to a hypoallergenic formula too. It takes about 2-3 weeks for us to be able to see any change with this too. So, we won't know if this is the real problem until it has time to work. This unfortunately is our best bet at this time. Because he is so small, they really don't want to do any more tests than we need to. So, we are going to try this and if it doesn't work we will move on to more testing as needed.

So, please keep Cooper in your prayers. He is an amazing little boy that is so advanced in so many ways, but we are concerned that if he doesn't start growing it could impact him long term. We are all hoping that this is a simple milk protein allergy. Once it gets out of my system, he should start to get better.

Catching up

Wow! These past couple couple of weeks I have had a lot going on! I'm sorry for the delay in my blogging, but I am having trouble keeping up right now... That being said, some awesome things have happened these past 2 weeks...

Cooper has been rolling from his stomach to his back for several weeks now, but we finally caught it on video! Check it out...

On top of that, last night Emory finally rolled over for the first time! We were setting up for his bath and I put him on the floor so that I could test the water before putting him in and he rolled over!! It was so cute! He was so proud of himself! I wish I would have been able to capture it on video or a picture, but we were getting ready for the bath. So, I didn't have anything close by!

Cooper also starting holding his bottle all on his own! It has been so cute to see him so excited about doing this on his own. We are definitely raising some independent children here!

The boys also turned 4 months old yesterday! It is so amazing to watch them grow so quickly and start to figure out the world around them. They are getting happier every day and discovering new things all the time.

They are both really starting to recognize Chris and I too. They especially respond if my voice is in the room.
They both made my day yesterday. When I walked into day care, Emory was sitting in a bouncy seat. So, I said hi to him and he responded with a huge smile! (It is seriously hard to get this boy to smile sometimes!) And, on top of that, Cooper was in the worker's arms and turned completely out of her arms and looked for me with a big smile! I just love my little boys! It really is the little things in life that make everything worth while!

Weekend with Grammie and Grandpa!

This past weekend we took our first big trip with the boys. We drove 4.5 hours to go see Chris's parents on their farm in Walterboro, SC. The boys did so good in the car and throughout the weekend. We only had to stop once on the way down and once on the way home to feed the boys and they were really pretty quiet the whole time. I was so proud!

Chris's parents have a Christmas tree farm and I can't wait for my boys to get to play in the dirt there. There is always something to plant and something to do and I know that they will have a blast there once they can walk around and dig in the dirt. They did get to ride on the ATV for the first time to go see papa's house. And, they had so much fun! Cooper was crying until Grandpa turned on the ATV. His eyes got big and started to pay attention to everything. It was so great to see him enjoying it. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. They even got to sport their new John Deere hats (compliments of Grandpa Langdale)!

I love that Cooper is smiling here!

Proud Grammie and Grandpa



Our boys and us had so much fun spending time with family. We'll compare photos in a couple of years when they are done digging in the dirt... Thanks Grammie and Grandpa for a great weekend!