Reed's First Birthday Party

Reed turned one on a Saturday so we had his party on his actual birthday. I decided to go with a modernish theme of colors and circles. My friend Elizabeth made his cake and she did such an awesome job! Not only was it totally adorable, it was addictively delicious.

I painted some plain letters to go over the table and cut out circles to hang from the window. (I took this after we ate - whoops!)
My friend Lisa made this cute birthday banner. I wanted to do something with the mantle but ran out of time. I was thinking maybe putting his monthly pictures would be cute but oh well.
We grilled chicken, steak and shrimp kabobs. They were all good but the shrimp were delicious! I got the recipe here. Look for sweet and spicy honey shrimp. I haven't figured out how to copy the whole link.
I made stuffed bleu cheese potatoes, also from the above site. Even those who dislike bleu cheese loved these!
I made these cookies sort of at the last minute. I do not love how they looked but they tasted good.
I dipped some pretzel sticks as well and they were a big hit. Other goodies included pigs in a blanket, chicken nuggets, fruit and veggies and a cheeseball and crackers.
I found these colorful sodas at Walgreens. I was planning to buy some blue cream soda as well but for some reason decided to wait until the day of the party and the store was sold out.
Ms. Honey came to see Reed and celebrate with us. She brought her granddaughter Austin, too.

After we ate we opened gifts. Reed seemed to enjoy the process but I am not sure he was as interested as his brother and cousins were.

After gifts it was time for cake!
He started out slowly, just taking teensy bites.
But pretty soon he demolished his smash cake!
We had a wonderful time celebrating Reed's first of many birthdays. We are so blessed to have this little man in our lives! His birthday is also our wedding anniversary. I can't think of a better way to celebrate our marriage than the birth of our son!

Happy Birthday Reed!

To my Reed, on your first birthday:

A year ago you surprised us when you decided to be born on a Friday afternoon. Labor started out pretty mildly that morning and we weren't sure if today was "the day". After spending a week in the hospital on moderate bedrest and worrying about every little thing, I was pretty numb to things going on. I really didn't think you would come that day until labor intensified by 11:00. I decided two things: I wanted your daddy there and I wanted an epidural.

I spent a good deal of the pregnancy with you worrying. At first we were worried we would miscarry, so I didn't let myself get attached. Then other worries came. How would we afford this? How would we manage our time with two full time jobs and a busy toddler? How would we love another baby as much as we loved Will? I spent so much time worrying that I missed out on bonding time with you. And that last week in the hospital, I was worried about how healthy you would be when you were born. Looking back, I think I didn't want to get too attached in case something went wrong. The first moment I laid eyes on you was sheer delight for me:

Our first minutes with you were brief. I got to hold you and introduce you to family, but I knew any second they would want to take you to the NICU, so I didn't let myself get too attached. After I rested and got cleaned up and had dinner with daddy, we came to visit you in the NICU.

The moment I saw you in your incubator, so tiny and sweet, tears started pouring from my eyes. You were so beautiful!

The nurse let me hold you. And then I couldn't help myself. I got attached.

And now a year later, I can't let you go. You are a momma's boy and it tickles me. I am usually the one who puts you to bed at night. Not because daddy is unwilling, but because I want just one more cuddle. I am attached. I worried that I wouldn't have enough love for you and now that thought seems ridiculous! I am so proud to have you as my second son and as a brother for Will. A year ago I couldn't imagine how you would fit into our perfect family of three and now life seems like it would be imcomplete without you. You have taught me so much about faith and love and family over the past year. I am excited to see what the next year brings!

Happy birthday, my sweet Reed!

Love,

Mommy

6 Years

6 years ago I began the day as a Gibbs and ended it as a Sharp. I completed a mission I had been working on for over 5 years: I got Brad to marry me. With that mission complete, we started a new one - to live happily ever after. And we have succeeded thus far! Ha! Of course not every day is perfect. We have ups and downs, but there are many more ups. I wouldn't change a bit of it. 6 years ago I couldn't have pictured our life today. Two kids, two dogs, a few job changes. We have been blessed! I look forward to 6 plus 60 more! I love you, Brad! Happy Anniversary!

What do you think?

People tell me quite often that my boys look SO much alike. And I can tell they are brothers. They have the same color eyes and similar hair color and skin tones. But to me the look quite different. Reed has large round eyes and his face shape and body shape are so different than Will's.

So, I thought for fun I would put a picture of each of them for comparison. Here is Reed at about 10.5 months and below is a picture of Will at the same age.
What do you think?

The Big Easy

Brad and I took a trip to New Orleans at the end of August. This was the first weekend away, just the two of us, just because we wanted to, in a LONG time. Brad's parents kept the boys for us so we knew they were in good hands.

We stayed on Canal Street. Our room wasn't that great but we got a great deal on priceline and had a wonderful view of Canal Street and of the Mississippi.



We slept in Saturday morning and then walked here for breakfast.



The line to sit down was quite long so we stood in the takeout line. After 20 minutes (I think) and lots of sweating, we finally had our beignets and drinks. As we walked out we realized there was also an indoor dining area with no waiting. Ugh. I guess we'll know next time!



We sat on a bench and enjoyed this view:



I was in an aircast from a foot injury a few weeks prior so we decided to hitch a ride on one of these to tour the French Quarter:
It was wonderful! If we go back, I really want to do this again. Our driver was a retired history teacher and he knew so much interesting information! I am not very observant, apparently. I thought they were horse drawn carriages. Umm...no. They are pulled by mules! Once I really looked at the animal I realized! Here is our driver and his mule.

He was nice enough to offer to take a picture of us, too!

Jackson square is full of vendors and people. I took a picture of a guy taking a picture of us! Ha!

The red building in the middle is where Ellen DeGeneres went to elementary school, as well as some other stars I can't remember the names of!

The Clover Grill was in a scene of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I had never seen that movie but we decided to watch it after we got home. Interesting! Anyway we had dinner there Saturday night because we ran out of time to eat somewhere fancier. It was decent but I doubt we would return. The staff and other diners were...shall we say... colorful?

I thought this sign was funny.

Our driver pointed out a few hangouts of local celebrities and he drove us right by Brad and Angelina's house. This is looking through there door into their courtyard. I don't even really like them but I was hoping we would see them coming or going! (we didn't)

This is a statue of Joan of Arc. I am fuzzy on the details but she had a lot to do with New Orlean's history and the fleur de lis.

After our tour ended we went on foot for a bit. Here is another view of St. Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square.

And I can't remember what this building was called but it is right next to the cathedral. Clearly I am not cut out to be a tour guide!

After having some lunch (shrimp poboy and gumbo!), we walked back to the hotel. I caught this on the way back. My maiden name is Gibbs so anytime I see that name I think it is neat.

We cooled off and lounged in the room for awhile and then went to the pool for about 20 minutes. The pool was about the size of my living room and it was very crowded so we left. We went to the Imax and saw "Hurricane on the Bayou" which was a great film about the swamps and marshes and hurrican Katrina.

After that we changed clothes again and got dinner. We had to walk on Bourbon street for a few blocks and it had changed a LOT from 11:00 that morning. Definitely not our type of fun! After dinner was the real reason we were in New Orleans - to see Brian Regan!

If you are ever near one of his performances you defnitely need to go. We laughed our tails off! He was soooooo funny and so clean! I don't really appreciate foul language so it was nice to be at a family friendly event. Lots of people had their children with them!

After the show we walked back through the Quarter and got some dessert which was a total disaster but we had fun. We slept in the next morning, got Starbucks for breakfast and headed home! It was great to see our boys. It was the first time I had been away from Reed for more than 1 night and I really missed him. Of course I missed Will too!

A Year Ago Today

A year ago today our lives changed when my water broke at 32 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I wrote this post that day and blogged pretty much daily through the next 7 days of my hospital bedrest and throughout Reed's NICU stay.

So many emotions run through me when I think about this time last year. I was scared because our baby was so far from his due date. I was surprised. I mean, who expects their water to break just in the middle of the day while you're at work doing the same thing you do 5 days a week? I was excited. We didn't know the gender of our baby and I was possibly VERY close to meeting him/her!

The whole experience was surreal. It felt dream like. I felt like I was being silly sitting in the doctor's office. I really thought they would tell me to quit peeing on myself and go back to work. But they didn't. They told me to go check in at L&D and that I could possibly be there for up to 4 weeks before I had the baby. Brad was in Louisiana so my dad was with me. I remember getting hooked up to the monitors and finding out I was having contractions every 3 minutes. I remember nearly passing out after they started my IV. I remember getting steroid shots that hurt like the dickens. I remember being so glad when Brad finally arrived. I remember being giddy after getting stadol and phenergan to help ease the pain of the contractions that night.

Most of all, I remember quiet time with God. Some friends from church were at a Beth Moore event in Memphis and they were praying for me. Friends of my parents in Russia were praying for me. Friends across the country were praying for me. I remember waking up around 6 the next morning and feeling like God's arms were wrapped around me and that someone was praying for me right then. It was amazing. God had gotten my attention. I believe he had been preparing me for this time.

Throughout the pregnancy I had several dreams about our baby. I had six dreams we had a boy. In three of those dreams he was born early. In two of those three I met him in the NICU. I only had one dream I had a girl. A couple of weeks before I ended up in the hospital I had a very specific feeling that we would have a baby early. Will was 3 weeks early and I always felt he would be born before his due date and I felt the same way with Reed's pregnancy. But this feeling was different. I felt like we would have a preterm baby. It really shook me up but I dismissed the feeling and told myself I was being silly. I feel like God was trying to say "Hey Sarah! You're going to have a BOY! And he will be early!" I guess if we have a third child I will pay more attention to those things!

Even though this time last year wasn't particularly fun, I would do it over again in a heartbeat. I met some wonderful people and made new friends. And of course Reed was worth every minute of it! I am so thankful for good medical care and an attentive doctor and nurses. Because of what they did, Reed was able to stay inside me for 7 more days. I will forever be grateful to my doctor and nurses and to God for performing the miracles He did.

11 Months

Reed,

You are ELEVEN months old! Just one more month before your first birthday!


You have too much to do these days to sit still and take a picture with your bunny. I tried and tried but couldn't get one. So I tried sitting the bunny next to you but you kept knocking him down before I could get a decent picture!

So I enlisted the help of Daddy. Here you are smiling when Daddy walked in. You love Daddy.
And here is one of the only pictures I could get of you sitting with the bunny. Pitiful. But look how big you are!

You weigh about 24 lbs now. You wear size 4 diapers and mostly 12-18 month clothes. Since the weather has been cooler I got out Will's old shoes and you have outgrown some of them before you even wore them! Right now you can wear a size 4 or 5! You have 5 (almost 6!) teeth and your hair is growing quickly!

You are crawling/creeping everywhere and you love to pull up and cruise the furniture. Sometimes you stand on your own but you haven't attempted to walk yet. You are BUSY. You get into everything. You pull tuperware out of the cabinet and books off the shelf. You love when I am loading or unloading the dishwasher and you constantly try and climb and sit on the door and pull silverware out of the basket. You love balls and books and pushing things. You love Will's vacuum so maybe you need one of your own!

You sing "E-I-E-I-O" from Old McDonald and you have started saying "No no" and sometimes "Nana" as well as "mama" and "dada". Ms. Honey says you can say "eat" but I haven't heard it yet.

You are only taking sippy cups with whole milk now and are eating all table foods. You love bananas and ravioli and anything sweet. You also love green beans and peas. Will would gladly give you all of his.

We will be celebrating your first birthday very soon and I can't wait! Though I can't lie, I am kind of sad that you are growing up so fast.

Love,

Mommy

Daboice Nana

Our parents are invaluable to us. They birthed us, fed, clothed, taught and disciplined us for many years and helped us to become (semi) responsible adults. We all live in the same subdivision which was a pretty wise choice because now that we have kids of our own, they help us with our boys. They have taken care of sick boys and visited in the NICU and cooked meals and cleaned house.

Brad's dad kept Will full time for us while we worked and kept Reed and Will for a few months until they started going to daycare during the day. His parents usually have one or both boys at some point during the weekend.

My parents have kept them some while we work and usually about once a week my mom comes over at 5:30 in the morning to get the boys up and ready and dropped off at daycare so I can go to work when Brad is out of town. I don't think anyone should have to be anywhere that early but she does it. So when she asked if I would take her picture with her little princes, I happily obliged. It was about 99 degrees with 150% humidity and we had to wait for the camera to defog first, but we got a few cute shots. Her grandmother name is "Nana" and Will has started calling her "The boys' Nana" but it comes out more like "Daboice Nana". Cute. :)

Reed's expressions crack me up. It is nearly impossible to get everyone smiling at the same time!

We were trying to get Will to stand by her and he wanted to stand under the tree. So we asked him to look at the flower on Nana's dress. He did. Laughter ensued. We never could get him to look at me.

10 Months Old

**This post will be moved to August where it belongs...evenutally :) **

Reed,

You are TEN months old! We have hit the double digits and there is no turning back now! Look how much that bunny shrunk!

You are becoming a BUSY boy. You like to get into things. You fooled Mommy up until this point by making me think you wouldn't be as much of a handful as Will. Sly little thing.

You are now crawling up on your knees! I think this is called creeping? Nana would know... You kept the army crawl for quite a while then all of a sudden you were UP! And moving fast! You love to play with balls and you laugh a lot! You are cruising the furniture and can even stand up for a few seconds without holding on to anything!

You are eating more and more table foods and still eat quite a bit of baby food. You still take bottles 3-4 times a day though we are working you getting you used to a sippy cup.You are wearing size 4 diapers and mostly 12-18 month clothes with a few 6-12 month things still thrown in there. You are long and lean compared to how Will was at this age. I still get tickled when I put some of his old pjs on you and they are so baggy in the sides.

Your hair is growing quickly and coming in sort of blonde! You have 4 teeth and a 5th one will likely come in soon. See them chompers?

We went to see Dr. Mallette, your opthamologist, for the first time. They dilated your eyes, poor baby. He said that you are far sighted and that you definitely have a blocked tear duct. He wants us to put antibiotic ointment in your eye and massage it to see if it will come open. We will go back and see him in October and if it is still blocked, he will perform surgery to open it. I would hate to put you through that, but we want your eye better!

We enjoy you more and more everyday. It is exciting to see you learn and do new things, but could you please slow down the growing? I love you!

Mommy