Jack's Adventures in Potty Training...Day 1!

Today Jack was introduced to the potty chair. He is having loads of fun lifting and closing the lid! So far he has tried to get to it once and sat on the edge and peed in the floor. I consider this a milestone! Go Jack! He is only 18 months but with a baby arriving in 5 months I'd really like to get this knocked out! We are able to do it with Nelson but Henry was 3 before it was complete!

Baby #4

So we are going to have another boy! I am actually really excited! As is the rest of our family. Of course, what boy wouldn't want another brother to play with? I always felt like this was another boy but once in a while I thought maybe I wanted a girl. But felt so much relief and excitement when we saw that it was a boy. He'll be named Luke Ryan Suggs. Isn't that cute? :) Hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Has it really been since June?!

As usual, I'm waaaaayy behind updating my blog. Sorry about that. I promise, I will try to do better!

It's been a busy few months. After all our vacationing back in May and again in June, James injured his back and has been home from work since August 1. We have SO enjoyed him being here but glad that he is finally on the mend. He had surgery on Monday, the 15th and is home recovering. The procedure he had done was a microdiscetomy by the amazing Dr. Ledlie at ETMC.

Nelson is doing great at school.. despite is inability to control his talking. Great grades as usual but bless his heart, he talks more than I do! For those that didn't know me in my youth, that is what I got in trouble for too. :) So he gets it honest!

Henry is LOVING his first year of school. He's only gotten one folder mark so far and it nearly broke his heart. He is a perfectionist if you didn't know. He is mastering every thing at school so far and is doing an amazing job reading. He did tell me that he shouldn't have to keep going because he isn't learning anything new now... that it is just "re-learning" LOL. :)

Jack is a whirlwind... constantly on the go. Emptying kitchen cabinets. Using the stepstool to clean off the kitchen counters. Sneaking into his brothers room for forbidden toys every chance he gets. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds although I don't quite know what all his words are yet. :) But he does say eat, up, no, shhh, mama, dada, and has his own version of bite, cup and a few other words. And lots more noise that I don't understand!

I'm doing great. Expecting baby #4 in May...or June. I'm due May 31st but you know how the Suggs kids like to arrive at least 5 days late. The morning sickness is getting less frequent and my energy level is moving back up so that's good. We are really excited about this 4th and final installment. :)

We are still doing the Dave Ramsey thing. Maybe not so strict with it as we were in the beginning ... not EVERY dollar spent is planned but we are still debt free with the exception of the house and are paying extra on it. Thank God we were turned onto this way before James got hurt at work or we'd be in a world of trouble trying to make ends meet on his reduced salary!

Well here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. That's all for now!

Summer!!

So it's finally summer time! We've had a great one so far. Nelson was able to get out of school early for good grades and attendance thanks to the Flex Year Plan that FISD has. We left two days later to head to Kansas City via Tulsa. Lots of fun was had at the Tulsa Drillers game. In KC we got to visit with some dear friends of ours. It is so refreshing to get away and be surrounded by such good faithful friends! We also took a nice walk around the Plaza to see the fountains and spent some time at Crowne Center. What a fun place for the kids! While there we also saw the Rangers play the Royals at Kauffman stadium. It's such a great family friendly stadium.

Since we've been back home it's taken some adjusting to Nelson being here full time. I am SO glad to have him home with us! The adjustment is for Henry - he's use to getting to pretty much do what he wants when he wants but now that Nelson is here he has to take turns and wait. :) Not a fun thing in Henry's eyes. They are re-learning to play well and get along with each other though. They just finished a week of VBS. We are looking at sending them each to some type of summer camp but we haven't made up our minds yet. We need to soon though so the spaces don't all fill up!

Jack's first birthday is coming up. It's so hard to believe that it has been nearly a year since he entered this world! He has been so fun lately and has been growing and learning at an incredible rate! He really enjoys his big brothers...and when Daddy is home, Momma is chopped liver! :)

James and I are also attempting to make a couple of significant changes in our lives. There is lots of praying, talking, looking, thinking, etc., going on in the Suggs House. Hopefully we'll have news to tell on both changes soon. But no, nothing yet. :)

Anybody have a couple or three bricks I can borrow?

The boys are growing up sooo fast. With Nelson just turning 8, registering Henry for kindergarten, and Jack quickly approaching his first birthday I have come to the realization that life is passing by much too fast. These boys are growing up at a rate that makes me uncomfortable and nervous. James and I do our best to instill in them morals and values - we want them to mature into respectable young men who love the Lord, understand the value of family, have a good work ethic and know their way around a dollar. How are we to do all of that in such a short time? I know. I am being irrational here... we do have time. But it's going by SO FAST!!!

I have always, ALWAYS enjoyed being a mother. But just recently have I felt like I kind of know what I'm doing and really been able to relax and be the kind of mother I want to be. By recently I mean the last year or two. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's losing my own mother - the death of a special loved one can really put a new light on things. Maybe it's Jack - being here to watch him change on a daily basis. (I was at work at this part of Nelson & Henry's lives) Or maybe it's something else. Whatever it is, I'm thankful for it. I do have my days where I want to pull my hair out and shake somebody but for the most part I am truly enjoying motherhood. Who wouldn't? I mean I get to play outside and act like a kid all day! And do laundry all night (lol). I get to be a teacher....I actually taught Henry to read! I get to be a problems solver on a pretty frequent basis. I get to be amazed at how much Nelson knows about things that I paid no attention to at school. That kid is absorbing history and science. I mean we are recording things on the history channel like How the State Got Their Shapes and America, The Story of Us and discovery channel shows like Life. He is opening my eyes to things that I have never been interested in before. I also have a new found love for cooking and trying new foods that I am trying to pass on to the kids. They love to judge me...every dinner time at our house is an episode of Chopped! If you don't know that show turn on Food Network and watch it! Another thing I've been wanting to learn lately is the art of sewing. I will have to stick to things like curtains and throw pillows....and maybe pajamas. For some reason it seem that boy clothing patterns aren't quite "cool" enough. I might could get away with sewing a few outfits for Jack. IF I learn!

We are all looking forward to this summer. Summer is great for obvious reasons: No school, later bedtimes, more daylight. But for us it's also great because Nelson is home every day that James is. It makes our family days complete. We are going to Kansas City the last week of May to visit some very special friends of ours. I met Britton at a job interview where I ended up working with her for a couple of years. We became instant friends. Her husband, Brad, played his soprano sax for James and I at our wedding. He is a very talented musician. Early in the month of May, they will be going on a mission trip to Costa Rica. It's been a while since we've been able to visit with them so we are all very excited. The icing on the cake for the boys is that we will be watching the Rangers play the Royals while we are there. You know it is their goal to see the Rangers play at all the stadiums.

We just paid our van off early and that vacation is our little reward. We also have a vacation...something more local...scheduled for the end of July. After that we are getting busy paying off our house. We are working hard to get debt free and the house is the last thing.

That's it..... for now. :)

I know.....

it's been a while. Again. I promise to try harder to keep up with this thing better so you won't be left wondering what is going on with us! I know that keeps you up at night. Ha ha! I'm going to be short for now. Here goes:

Nelson is doing great in school. Basketball just started up and soon both boys will be playing soccer too. Henry begs every week not to go to gymnastics but I make him anyway and he ends up having fun. Jack is growing like a weed. He is really getting funny too. James and I are working towards getting debt free - you can read about that at http://ifyouhaveit.blogspot.com . I skipped working out for the three weeks during the holiday season but am back on track now. I will NEVER go that long again! I feel like I'm starting over. But I'm excited to be back to it so I can... for once in 9 years... be ready for swim suit season! :) James participated in his first marathon last month and did great. He has the bug now so when checking his vacation calender I noticed that EVERY day he requested off from ETMC is for a marathon, half marathon, or 10K. Thankfully being his cheering section is something the boys and I enjoy!

To sum it all up... we are blessed. :)

More later!