18 month pictures

Janet Ledford took these pictures and I absolutely LOVE them! We met at the Botantical Gardends in Birmingham on Father's Day for her to take them. Harrison finally warmed up and Janet got some great shots.

Harrison's Room Part 2

Katie finished Harrison's room. Katie did such a good job!!! She didn't finish it until Friday afternoon so when we got home, I took him up to see it and he was so excited! He ran from wall to wall and pointed and was talking about all the cars and trucks. It was so sweet. I should've videoed it but of course I didn't have my camera upstairs with me. I ordered the bedding to match today so hopefully I'll have it by this weekend. I can't wait to get it all finished!







I'll post a Part 3 after I get his bedding and things. Ben will be home in 3 days! Please pray for safe travels for him!

Harrison's New Room Part 1

When we lived in Spain we had a 2 bedroom house, so Harrison's room was the office, guest room, Auburn room, etc. He never really had his own room. Well...now he does! I told Ben that I was going all out on his room since he never really had his own nursery. So of course while blog stalking, I found this girl named Lyndsey and on her blog she redid her son's room and I loved it! It is a totally copied room but it's so cute! Katie is painting it for me and I think it's turned into more work than she thought. Katie, mom, and the kids have been here since Tuesday and she has been working on it. Here are the pics from day 1...






Everyone could use a good pic of A.J. Man he is a cutie!!!



Here are the pictures from today. It's really looking good!





I'll post more when it's finished! I love it! Thanks to Katie for all her hard work!

Guess who is 18 months old???

Yes, he is. Can you believe it? I can't. He is such a toddler now. He doesn't walk, he runs. All the time! I guess that's what he is supposed to do, but man it is exhausting! We went for his well baby on Monday and he is right where he is supposed to be. We finally got over the 22lb mark. He now weighs 23.6 lbs, still skinny, but working on it! His little personality is really shining thru these days. He is saying some words like momma, dadda, bubble, ball, hot, baby (he says bobo),outside, and trying really hard to say Dixie. The other morning I was in the shower and I could smell that he pooped. I said Harrison did you poo poo. He made this funny face and said poo poo butt butt and pulled on his diaper...too cute! He is doing really well with daycare now. He doesn't cry anymore which is such a blessing. He eats there now and is taking a nap. The teachers tell me he is starting to play with the other kids so I'm glad that's going well. He walks in every morning by himself. He is still a pretty picky eater, but is getting better.

Here is a pic of our little guy...well he will always be my little guy...you mommas know how it is! Love to all!

Livin' in America

I haven't posted anything since April 9th...that has been a long time ago, but I have several good reasons. Harrison and I have been living back in the good ole USA since the end of April. This whole transition has been challenging, but we are hanging in there. 18 days until daddy joins us, but who is counting, right? I guess the biggest change, at least in Harrison's world, is I've gone back to work and he goes to daycare now. He has been going for about 4 weeks now and he just now doesn't cry when I drop him off. It's such a good feeling to know he isn't going to have a huge meltdown every morning. He is really good at school and he loves the teachers there. He has already been sick, but that's just part of it. As for me, I'm working at Navy Federal again. I still don't feel like I just click with any one person there, but I do like it. I like getting dressed up and out of the house. All the girls I work with are really sweet and my bosses are great! That's half the battle right there. Our stuff arrived from Spain 2 weeks ago on Wednesday. Needless to say working 40 hours a week with a toddler by myself, the boxes aren't coming along very quickly. This weekend I finally got the kitchen unpacked. Now, I just have to get it organized which I'm almost finished with. Like I mentioned above Ben will be here soon. He gets here June 25th and will have a couple of weeks off before he starts his school down here. In December he will leave for 8 months (I've gone crazy after not even 2 so not quite sure how I'm going to handle 8) so we must make the most of our time together as a family. The day after he comes home we are going to New Orleans to take Harrison to the zoo. I'm sure it will be a fun day!
Moving back to the USA has been very overwhelming. The hardest part has been not having many friends to rely on. It's so hard to do everything by myself. At least both of our moms are close if something bad happened. I do finally have Internet and Saturday I'll get cable so maybe our life is getting back to normal. Sorry no pics, but I would be embarrassed for anyone to see my house right now. After I get it decorated and organized I'll post pics. Love to all!

Easter 2010

I'm a little behind on posting this, but things have been crazy around the Peeples' house! Of course the Easter bunny came to see Harrison.



We went to Mrs. Angie's for a brunch. Mrs. Angie is the one that kept Harrison while we were in Ireland. Harrison loves her daughter, Kayla.





Harrison decided to get brave and jump on the trampoline. He had a really good time although he didn't know what to think at first.




We went to the Spinaio's for Easter dinner. Vanessa and I will be traveling to the states together a week from today. We are both super excited. At Vanessa and Tanner's house we hid Easter eggs for Hayden and Harrison to find. It took them a bit to get the whole concept but once they did they went at it!







Harrison tried to get into his Easter basket. Not really sure why. I think it's a phase. Harrison and Hayden try to get into the smallest spaces they can find.



Hayden looked like such a little man! I'm going to miss this little booger, but he is doing great in his new daycare.



One last thing. Vanessa's dog thought Harrison was running and playing with her and she kind of landed on him. He was more scared than anything. He had a mouth full of dirt and a scratched up face, but nothing more. Vanessa felt terrible and called the next day to check up on him. I told her he is a boy and supposed to be rough and tough. Here's a pic though. It does look pretty bad, but he was fine.



This will probably be our last post with pictures for a while. On Monday, we are doing our pack out meaning this computer along with the majority of our stuff will be on it's way to Gulfport, MS. It should arrive in Mississippi the last week in May so Harrison and I will only live without anything for 3-4 weeks. Not too bad considering when we moved here it was 2 months. It is very bittersweet leaving here. We have met some incredible people! I guess this is the military life. Some we will see again, but most we won't. Pray Harrison and I make it to the United States safely next week! I can't wait to see friends and family that I've missed terribly! Love to all and SEE you soon!

A.J. is 1!!! Happy Birthday sweet boy!

A year ago, today, my little sister gave birth to a 9lb 7 oz baby boy and might I had she did it with no drugs! I remember being at work and waiting on an email saying he was here. I finally got that email right before I left work and I was so excited. It was a lot of fun for my sister and I to be prego at the same time and now we both have little boys. When I got home from work, Ben said you need to call your mom, A.J. is on a ventilator. I was shocked. 20 minutes earlier I thought everything was okay. Well turns out that A.J. was born with heart problems, they didn't know exactly what was wrong with him but he was being air lifted to a bigger hospital so he could be taken care of. What to do, what to do...I knew living in Spain it would take me at least a day to get home if I needed to go. I also knew a commercial flight at the spur of the moment would be around $3000. I worried about my family the whole night. The next day, which was a Friday, I called to the air terminal here on base and there was a flight leaving Friday night. I went to work on Friday and told them what was going on. To the military, in order to be considered emergency leave it has to be your immediate family members. A.J., to the military, isn't considered my immediate family. At Navy Federal, they told me that it probably wouldn't be approved for me to leave. I told them that it would be approved or that would be my last day. Miraculously, it was approved about 30 minutes later. So, I worked on Friday, went home and got Harrison and me ready to go. (Oh and we had only had Harrison's passport for about 2 weeks because it takes so long to get them here!) That night we get to the air terminal and the girl that checks you in asks me if I minded dogs. Well at the time, we had 2 dogs and I knew they didn't bother Harrison so I told her no. She asked me if 28 was too many. After all was said and done, Harrison and I were flying on a plane to North Carolina with 28 military working dogs and what seemed to be 100 marines. I felt safe, though, right? It all ended up being just fine. I got to Birmingham Saturday and momma and daddy and the kids picked us up from the airport. We went straight to UAB to see A.J. in the NICU. Katie, my sister, didn't know we were coming. I walked in, she looked at me, and it took her a minute to say What are you doing here...She was exhausted, sore from having a baby, trying to pump every 2-3 hours, and worried about her sweet sweet little man. He honestly looked like a toddler in the NICU with all the tiny tiny premature babies. Here are some pictures.




It was determined that A.J. would need surgery to repair his heart. He had open heart surgery when he was just 6 days old. He did great though! That trip I didn't get to hold the little booger. He was moved into his own room the day I had to leave. Here is a pic after surgery.




To look back on it now, I just remember praying and not knowing what would happen. A.J. and the Buie family had so many people praying for them. You can tell their little family is loved by just the amount of people in the waiting room during the surgery and the days following.

So enough about all the drama! He is 1 today! It's crazy how very vivid that day a whole year ago is in my mind. He is a funny little guy, from what I've heard. I can't wait to see him 3 weeks from today when Harrison and I leave Spain. I can't wait to see him and Harrison interact and I hope they are close. We love you so much A.J.! You had a rough little start in life and you have been such a trooper! You did give your mom a hard time with sleeping at first and I'm sure that you will keep her running once you start walking, but you are such a blessing to our family. We loved you before you were born, we love you now, and we will love you...always and forever! Here are some pics of the little guy, well he's bigger than Harrison, but age wise he is a little guy still!




I can't wait to spoil him rotten! Oh how I love being an aunt!