Lately...

I haven't been able to post a whole lot, for obvious reasons. I'm quickly learning that being a mother of two is a whole different ball game. I'm prettymuch exhausted all of the time, as my body is adjusting to only getting an average of 5 hours of sleep per night. My objective this week is to get Evan to take an afternoon nap while Jacob takes his, so I can at least have an hour to lay down. It is a lot of fun with two boys, and I keep reminding myself to enjoy these moments, even the hard ones, because I know they won't last forever.

We've had a lot of busyness lately with relatives in from out of town and lots of family stuff. We've really enjoyed that, especially Jacob with cousins to play with. Next week, we will travel to Portage, IN for my nephew Nicholas' 7th birthday, so we're looking forward to skipping town for a few days. When I get some more time, I'll do more posts and include some recent pics.

Lastly, I can't let this post go by without mentioning that today is my 4th wedding anniversary.
Today, I have been married to my wonderful husband, Franklin, for 48 months. There is still no other person that I'd rather journey through life with. He is a wonderful father, and I am so proud of him. Tonight, Grandma and Papa are babysitting both boys, so we can have a date. I can't wait!!! I love you, baby!

Evan Lucas Choate

Well, I finally got a few minutes to sit down and blog a bit. I'm sure most of you know this by now, but Evan Lucas arrived last Tuesday, 5/27 at 3:18 p.m. He was 8lbs, 4oz, 20 inches and very healthy. The delivery went very well. It was an induction, so I was a little skeptical of how smoothly things would go, but I had little discomfort and the labor was only about 5 hours from start to finish. The last few days have been busy adjusting to life with two little boys, while getting very little sleep. Luckily, Evan is a very peaceful baby, who hardly ever cries and does a lot of sleeping. He has his days and nights a little mixed up at this point, so we're working to adjust that as well. Jacob loves his baby brother. He's always wanting to kiss him and see what he's doing. His life has prettymuch gone on as normal, and he's getting lots of extra attention from Daddy and his grandparents. I've posted some pics below. I'll blog more later when I'm not so exhausted :-)

Patience

I don't know about the rest of you, but patience is not one of my strong points, and it never has been. Ever since I can remember, circumstances have caused me to be anxious, worrisome and often times downright irritable, because of my lack of patience. And so many of those times, I knew the Lord was trying to teach me about the wonderful virtue of patience, but yet time and time again, I resist the lesson. Soooo, he continues to keep teaching me, and each time I have a choice. It's amazing when you think about how many chances he gives us (me) to learn this lesson. It just demonstrates HIS incredible patience with us filthy sinners who need him so badly.

Once again, I find myself struggling to be patient, but in the midst of it, I have to decide that I'm not going to let this get to me. I know in my brain that the Lord's timing is perfect, even though my emotions (and anatomy) sometimes try to convince me otherwise. I am waiting for a huge life change to happen at any moment, but in the meantime, I am going to try my best to relax, put the life change out of my mind, and spend some very important quality time with my little boy as this will be the last time it will just be Mommy and Jacob. Maybe that's why I've experienced this discomfort, causing me to stop working earlier than planned. Maybe that's why my mother has suddenly been given a large block of free time, so she can help me do some things around my home that I'm not physically able to do anymore as well as when the baby comes. It's amazing how so much has lined up just perfectly (it can't be a coincidence). The timing of it all is impecable. So, now we just continue to wait...

Labor Rumors

Hey all, just want to set the record straight as I think some rumors of my being in labor have circulated lately. As of 4:45 p.m. on Friday, 5/16, I am not in active labor. I've been having a lot of contractions for the last couple of days, but they haven't picked up in intensity nor are they very close together, so I am in the early stages, but this could last for days. My doctor has asked me to come back in the office on Monday (which will put me at 38 weeks), to see where things are at, and if necessary, they can intercede and speed things up a bit for me. At this point, I'd like this to happen as naturally as possible; however, I am kind of a baby when it comes to pain tolerance, so I might opt for their help if I'm desperate enough. This weekend, I plan to keep busy and active, and hopefully my body will kick into gear on its own. I really appreciate all your prayers and support. We'll definitely spread the word when something big happens :-)

Oh when will this baby come?

I had my 37 1/2 week check-up today. Baby is good and Mommy is progressing nicely/normally. Contractions have picked up which makes sleeping much more difficult. The doctor says "it could be any day now or you could go another week". I love how they are so carefuly not to tell you anything with any certainty :-) (not that they really have any). My husband refuses to believe that I will hit my due date, but I hate to think that and get my hopes up too much.

Tonight, Jacob is going to spend the night at his Grandma/Papa's house, so as to give his mommy a little break. I think Mommy and Daddy are going to try and have a mini date, as it could be our last chance for awhile.

On a good note, we found out late last week that Frank will not have to serve jury duty beginning next week, but they have actually postponed his service until September. To quote my husband if you want to avoid jury duty altogether, he says "don't ever tell them you'll be happy to serve at later date, because they will take you up on it". That's ok though, September wouldn't be an inconvenience and it is after all his duty as a citizen.

That's about it for today. Check ya'll later.

Midweek Tidbits

Just a quick update on things today. Not a whole lot has happened lately. Frank and I moved Jacob to his new big boy bedroom over the weekend. He seems to love it. Much more room to play and run around, plus it can house more of his toys than the nursery. I am so proud of how he is handling everything. I thought for sure we would have a period of adjustment when it came to sleeping, but he has done wonderfully, no crying or midnight freakouts! We brought all of his familiar items, so I'm sure that is helping...plus he wakes up to seeing himself in the mirror directly across from the crib, and I think he likes putting on a show for himself :-)

Yesterday, I went to the doctor for my 36 week checkup. I'm now on the home stretch and Baby Choate could make his appearance any day now. Things are moving along nicely, with both myself and the baby.

Toddlers and Minivans

Jacob has officially dove into the "terrible two's", even though he is not even 20 months old. He mostly throws his tantrums for me and gives me all the headaches. I've always heard that kids are the worst for their own parents. Why is that? We're the ones that love them the most in this world. Anyhow, being almost 9 months pregnant doesn't help in dealing with a toddler. Jacob doesn't understand that he can't crawl and lay on top of mommy, because it hurts really bad, so that of course makes him upset. He also has his own way of talking back to us, which we are trying really hard to nip sooner rather than later. He's also been waking up in the middle of the night screaming lately. At times, we've had to tend to him, other times, he goes back to sleep on his own, but needless to say, I'm being re-introduced to the world of sleepless nights and the new baby is not even here yet. I do have to say, however, his new "long, slobbery kisses" right on the mouth sure melt my heart and make it hard to stay mad at him. He can be just as sweet as he can sour.

On an exciting note, we broke down last Friday afternoon and got the ever dreaded minivan that all families are destined to at some point in time! The salesman came out to introduce himself as we were peeking in the windows and his first words to us were "you two look too young to be buying a minivan". What can I say? We're about to have child number 2 and if we're going to have a big, non fuel-efficient vehicle, gosh darnit, I want to have plenty of room inside for all the crap we're going to have to haul around. Anyhow, we're really happy with the new vehicle! It should serve us greatly over the next several years. On a side note: It's an 06 Chevy Uplander (supposedly the crossover, so it has kind of an SUV feel to it, which of course, makes us feel better as twenty-somethings.)