Welcome to the world Baby Boy!

Our great friends the Overstreets were blessed yesterday to welcome a son, Paxton Michael Overstreet to the world! He has a wonderful dad, mom, and big brother Camp--plus a ton of friends--who already love him!

Welcome Baby Paxton!

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Today is our dear friend Crystal's birthday!!!!

We are sooooooooooooo glad that she was born! She gives us laughter and happiness and encouragement and, most of all, love so freely. She is such a wonderful friend to Brian and me and is one of the reasons that we started dating, and stayed together. She believes in and loves us and she means so very much to us! We miss her terribly, but even across the distance she makes us laugh and gives us so much!

WE LOVE YOU CRYSTAL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Thanksgiving on the Coast

We had such a great Thanksgiving! We made our usual trek down to the coast with a stop in Yazoo City and Madison to break up the trip. Ali Grace met her Uncle Michael, four great-grandparents, and quite a few great aunts and uncles and cousins. Everybody ooh and aahed over her and held her. And Jack had a BLAST! He didn't look twice at Brian and I the whole time because he had so many other people to play with. It was so much fun and so great to see everybody! I am truly thankful for our HUGE family and that we are all so loved by so many people!

Grandmamma and Jack were checking out the sale papers together. She is so sweet with him. They are too cute together!

She loved holding and talking to Ali Grace! Two girls pretty in pink.

My Grandma came to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's side of the family and she got some good cuddle time with Ali Grace. She is an expert with babies! She has 8 kids, about 18 grandkids, and Ali Grace is her 23rd great-grandchild I think.

Yeah, I have a huge family, and that's just my Mom's side--there's still my dad's, and Brian's whole family! LOTS OF LOVE!!!
My sister, Elizabeth, and Ali Grace. Elizabeth is a great aunt, and she's going to be a great mom--one day--she's got the mama hold down.

My brother Michael met Ali Grace for the first time Thanksgiving Day. He's such a sweet uncle! He ended up leaving way later than planned cause he had to wait for Jack to wake up and play with him for a little longer! :)

Here's our little man on a mission. He, my dad, and my PawPaw went picking pecans. So cute!

3 generations of Bodin men. These elder Bodins were wrapped around Jack's little finger.

Two rascals. There's no telling what "nuggets of wisdom" my PawPaw is imparting to Jack. I've got to watch him! :)


My cousins Katie and Emily were Jack's favorites! We stayed at their house and he dragged them around all weekend. They are the sweetest, most down-to-earth teenagers I've ever met! They love having us all come over, and don't seem to mind us taking over their rooms and being full time playmates for Jack.
We also went to see Brian's Pap-Paw. He laughed at Jack and held Ali Grace so carefully. He is such a big strong man, and watching him hold little tiny Ali was great!

I love watching all of our grandparents with our kids. We are so blessed that we have them in our lives!

'Bout Time

We have been super busy, plus blogger wouldn't let me post pictures for a while. So...here are some pictures of what has been going on.

One of our family traditions is Brian and Jack making pancakes every Saturday morning. They are so cute cooking together. Jack won't let Brian put him down for long, and Jack gets to flip the pancakes sometimes. They love it and so do I.

Ali Grace loves playing on her mat. Jack and I will lay down with her sometimes. She does great on her stomach and will roll back on to her back. When she does roll over Jack and I cheer for her. Jack is such a sweetie, clapping and saying "yaaahhhh A-yee" and "go A-yee".

Jack LOOOOVES taking a bath, and always has. He has a lot of fun with his toys now. He names them all and makes their sounds. He's getting so smart!

More posts to come. I have tons of pictures from Thanksgiving to
put up.

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday!!!! I am so incredibly thankful to God for giving me Brian as my husband!

He is a wonderful husband who puts me first and deals with me and my emotions so well. He never gets too mad, and he always forgives completely and then forgets. He is always there for me.

He is an awesome daddy to Jack and Ali Grace. He gets up with Ali in the middle of the night, plays with the two of them like he's a kid too, and makes pancakes with Jack every Saturday morning.

He provides for us so well both financially and spiritually. He works so hard and he keeps us focused on God.

He's the funny one in our relationship and he keeps me laughing all the time.

He is a wonderful man. I love him more and more as time passes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!!

I LOVE YOU!

L.L. Cool Jack

Mama said knock you out!!!!!!! hahahahahaha

TWO months old!!!

Ali Grace is already two months old! The past two months have been the fastest of my life!!! And they've been sooooo good!

Ali Grace is getting so big so fast! She's really starting to fill out and get little rolls and creases and chubbiness! I love it! She is still eating really well, and she goes 5 to 6 hours between feedings at night pretty consistently now, which is fabulous! She makes the sweetest little cooing and sighing sounds and she has the prettiest smile I have ever seen! OH that smile! :) We're having lots of fun with her, and enjoying watching her grow and change.

Here she is during one of her many "wardrobe changes" of the day. The girl spits up like crrrazy!

Big Brother Jack and Little Sister Ali Grace hanging out. (This was right after Jack tried to lay back on top of Ali! It's definitely tricky negotiating him around her sometimes.)

Laid out! Brian doesn't like this shirt, every time she wears it he says that what it says just is not true. So that's my disclaimer--but I think it's cute.

Sadly we haven't taken that many pictures of Ali Grace, so she's a little unfamiliar with the flash--she did pretty good though--she's so sweet!

I love the little smirk she's making in this one.


And here she is after a quick "wardrobe change".

Look at that smile! Awwwwwww!

Family

Each day it seems that I love and appreciate our family more and more. It's still a little weird that there are four of us, but it feels so right and good too. Lord willing we want to have more kids, but right now we love where we are. And we love love love love love our little ones!

The picture above is what a typical evening at our house is like. Brian holding Ali Grace while reading a book to Jack. Ali Grace is definitely a daddy's girl. When Brian puts her on her shoulder like this she falls fast asleep within minutes. He's so sweet with her! I think that Jack and I have a special connection too--he just gets me every time. He makes me laugh constantly--unfortunately at times when I'm trying to be stern and discipline him too. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

A couple of weeks ago we went to a Halloween party our friends the Wilsons threw. Jack dressed up as Spiderman, and Ali Grace was a ballerina. We had a lot of fun hanging out. The kids were precious! Jack had a blast playing and eating and Ali Grace slept the whole time.

At the time Jack's costume looked a little snug (we had to put warm clothes underneath) but looking at the pictures now, he looks SO CHUBBY!!! Poor little guy, one day he's going to hate me for dressing him like this, and taking pictures of it, AND PUTTING THEM ON THE INTERNET!!! Oh, but he's so cute too!

The Wilsons' youngest son is one day older than Jack, so we get them together to play every now and then. They had so much fun playing in the ice. Their little hands were all red and cold. The were so funny!

The kids all looked so cute! we had everyone from our Spiderman to Super Mario, Scooby Doo to princesses.

This is what Jack did most of the time--well this and the ice.
This was Jack's first taste of pizza, and he loved it!!!!!
I held Ali Grace while she slept, she is so sweet! :)

The Big Brother

Such a big boy! Trying to be just like Daddy. He is imitating Brian more and more lately. It can be pretty funny. The other day Brian was showing Jack how to put a crayon behind his ear, and of course Jack was poking it everywhere but behind his ear. They are so cute together!

Jack is such a great big brother already! He's so sweet to Ali Grace, giving her kisses and hugs and loving on her. But being a big brother isn't all fun and games, Jack definitely doesn't get as much time and attention as he used to. So lately I've been trying to take him outside a lot, which is one of his favorite things! The other day he had a great time running around, swinging, and discovering all kinds of things.

I love how big he looks in his little jeans and jacket!

(Check out our very dead and sad garden in the background.)

Jack and Lucy girl.

Here Jack is pointing to a bird that was flying over our yard. He's pointing and saying "Flying up in the sky." He's been learning about animals and the sounds they make. He knows lots of them--bird, dog, cat, cow, sheep, duck, pig, and some others. It's so cute when he does the sounds--they are getting closer and closer to the real sounds, he tends to drop the first letters or sounds of each of them. Precious!

Ali Grace is ONE MONTH old!!!!

She's actually one month and three days old...I'm a little behind on posting. :)

All of us are doing really good. We're just hanging out, enjoying time together. Ali Grace is eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeing like a champ. Plus she's growing like crazy and being unbelievably cute too, so she's great. Jack is playing, talking, and running around constantly. His newest words are yummy and whoa. Brian grilled shrimp this weekend in the annual Rison in the Fall BBQ Competition. He got 5th place which was a little disappointing because he won 1st last year, but we're all proud of him, and he had a good time! The kids and I went downtown to the festival for a couple of hours on Saturday and it was really fun. We saw lots of people and got to eat some yummy barbeque.

Isn't she soooo cute!!! We think she looks like Jack did at her age, but a little bit different. We are loving her more and more each day and we truly feel blessed by her!

Chisholm Family Update

It's been a while since I've posted, and I really don't have all that much to report other than that we're all doing great and we're getting used to the new routine really well.

We did take the kids--oooh that's weird, it's plural now :)--to the doctor last week for Jack's 18-month checkup and Ali Grace's 2 week checkup. We love our doctor!!! She was so excited to meet Ali Grace and went on and on about how cute and perfect our children are, which any parent loves to hear.

Jack had his last shot until he is four, so that was great. He now weighs 25 pounds, 3 ounces and is 32 3/4 inches tall. He's a solid little boy! He is getting so smart too! The other day I decided to start writing down the words he can say (and that we can understand) and the list was over 30 words, AND it's gotten longer since then. He says "thank you" "bye-bye" "eyes" "nose" "draw" "stars" and lots of other things. He give Ali Grace kisses all the time, and he gets excited whenever she wakes up. He's a great big brother already!

Ali Grace had gained 9 ounces since birth, which made me feel great! I am so glad that she's doing well and gaining so well! Dr. Malak said that she is beautiful and very alert for her age. Ali Grace did wonderful on her first longish trip in the car, she slept the whole time! :) She's doing really well eating and sleeping most of the time. Sometimes she has trouble with gassines, and she's been really effected by what I eat. So I'm trying to be careful with what I eat, and hopefully the sensitivity won't last long.

Brian and I are doing good. We're tired by the end of the day, and a little bit more irritable than usual at times, but we're enjoying this time--we know that it won't last long, and they will never be this small again. We love love love love our little ones so much! We have been so very blessed with them. They are beautiful and sweet and so precious! God is truly amazing!

Sorry I don't have any pictures, our camera is dead and we keep forgetting to get new batteries. We will soon though--we need to take many many many more pictures of Ali Grace. :)

Love Days

We have been so blessed with our beautiful, healthy, amazing children! God has been so gracious to us and we are so thankful. The past few days have been so full of love and excitement and joy! I'm amazed at how merciful and good God is, that He has made a time that I was truthfully dreading, and made it so happy and joyful!

Our Ali Grace! She is already changing so much! She is absolutely beautiful! We just love her so much! I can't believe how much our love has increased, but it has!
Our sweet Jack! He is so much fun! He's getting used to things slowly, but surely. He is a little more whiney and a little less obedient lately, but he's doing alright. Nana has been keeping him occupied a lot of the time, and that has been a great blessing.
Nana, Ali Grace, and Jack. So sweet! Daddy's little girl. She looks SOOO tiny when he holds her.
Jack is very curious about Ali Grace. He pats her and lays his head on her like he's giving her a hug. He has tried to take her out of my arms and hold her a couple of times, he doesn't quite understand why we won't let him do that. He is very curious about this whole nursing thing and about the "boots" as he calls them (boobs). haha. He is already a good big brother. :)

Our Ali Grace

Alison Grace Chisholm was born at 10:28 a.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. The labor was about 10 1/2 hours long and I got an epidural after around 8 hours. I only pushed for 10 minutes and it was sooo fast! We are so blessed that our Ali Grace is here and healthy!

Mommy, Daddy, and Ali Grace's first picture together.
She was such a big surprise! Right before she was born I looked over at Brian and asked what he thought the baby was, and he said a boy. All of the doctor's and nurses in the room were so excited. And then there she was, our Ali Grace! Praise God! She is beautiful! The labor was perfect and her heartbeat was perfect the entire time--not one abnormality! She is such a miracle to us!
Ali Grace stayed awake the whole time she was in the nursery after being born. When they brought her to us Brian wrapped her up really good and she went straight to sleep and slept in his arms for 2 hours! She just wanted her Daddy! I think this was the moment that she wrapped him around her little finger.
Grandmamma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amanda came to see us Thursday and helped us pack up and go home. We left a little over 24 hours after she was born because we were both doing so well.
She looks so tiny in her car seat! I remeber when Jack was that little and going hom for the first time in this seat! He wore that same hat too. :)