Welcome to the World!

 

Elizabeth Lauren Tuley made her entrance to the world at 1:20pm on August 28, 2012.  She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 and a half inches long.  Her birth was such a blessing for us.  She doesn't even know it yet, but God has already used her little life in unique ways to strengthen her parents faith even more.  She's another one of God's miracles of life, so different from her big brother, but special in her own way.  We are in love and big brother loves her too!

Showers for Baby Girl...

Some dear friends threw a couple of baby showers for us the first weekend in August.  My mother and Jeff's mother were able to attend both showers.  It was so fun!  Anticipating her arrival has been the most fun part of this pregnancy.  I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends that would take their time and energy to love on us and on our sweet baby girl.  We are so blessed, and she is so loved already!

 

These are pictures from Saturday's Shower hosted by Tracy.  Such a great time! 

 

 

Such a great table set-up!  Everything was very girly!  :)

 

Me, getting all teary eyed...

 

The only picture I got of Tracy, the hostess of Saturday's shower.

 

Just chatting...

 

The shower on Sunday was hosted by Jackie and Linda!  So fun!  I don't have many pictures, but that just means we were having too much fun to take pictures!  :)

 

 

Me with the Hostesses.  Don't mind the bird cages...  :)

 

Many, many thanks to these special ladies and the friends that came out to honor and celebrate our baby girl.  We are so blessed!

Jacob's ideas on decorating...

While mommy was washing and hanging all of sister's clothes...Jacob had his own ideas about how things should look in her room!  He got all the empty hangars and began putting them where it made sense to him!  Ha! 

 

There we go...

So proud of my work!

We need some hangars here...

Such a sweet sweet boy!

Girl time!

The first weekend in August was spent doing many things for Baby Girl's room...  I put GJo, Agga, and Aunt Jenny to work!  Ha!

 

Using the CRICUT for some wall art designed by the grandmothers.  Jenny did an awesome job supervising!  :)

 

Me at 36 weeks with baby girl's mobile.  The mobile was inspired by something I had seen on Etsy.  Agga helped with the cutting of birds and flowers, and GJo helped with the ribbons and bows.  It was a group effort and it turned out PERFECT!  :)

 

The completed artwork for her room.

More pictures of the nursery to come...

"Dads and Boys" Trip

For a Father's Day gift to Chappy, the Tuley Boys got to go to St. Louis for a special Cardinals game.  The trip was planned by Agga, and Uncle Biggie (with his super power connections) was able to get a plane for the boys to travel in style!  We had been telling Jacob that he was going to go on a trip with Chappy, Daddy, Uncle Biggie, and Uncle Buh, and that girls were not allowed.  He appropriately named the trip the "Dads and Boys Trip." which we thought was so cute! 

The Boys waiting by the plane.  Jacob was so excited at the airport.  He loves planes, and was saying, "I love the airport.  I love Southwest, I love Jet Blue.  Where's Jet Blue?"  I am not sure where the Jet Blue came from because we have never flown on that big blue airplane, but nevertheless, Jacob was wondering why those big jets were not at this airport.  We told him over and over that those planes were too big for this airport.  :)

In the airplane.  SOOO excited!

In St. Louis at Mike Shannon's restaurant before the game!

Go CARDS!  Apparently, it was pretty hot.  Jeff said the ball park registered at 110 degrees, the humidity was horrible, but this guy sure was cute!

All the Tuley boys together after the game!  What a great picture!! 

The next day, they went to the Gateway Arch and took some pics.  Since it was still so hot, the trip was cut a little short and the boys decided walking around in the hundred degree weather was not that fun!

Jacob checking out the capsule that takes you to the top of the Gateway Arch...

Fun was had by all!

Happy 4th of July!

We watched fireworks on the driving range of a nearby country club, just like the past couple of years.  As always, Jacob loved the fireworks and talked about them for a few days afterward.  He also LOVED seeing all the American Flags for decoration.  He would say, "There's American flag, that's a  forf of Juwy."  It's so cute!  Here's some of the family pictures...

Jacob is covering the baby bump.  :)

  

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July!  Have a blessed day!

Boxes and Ramps

I don't know what it is about boxes, but for some reason, they provide endless entertainment for Jacob!  Ha! 

Jacob asked if he could have a ramp for his cars.  So we made some ramps from pillows and a hard surface.  He seemed to think it was fun to watch his cars go up and down the "ramps."

Thanks for checking in!  Hope you have a blessed day!

Hopefully this habit will be broken in 13 years..  Otherwise, drivers beware!

No reading and driving Jacob! 

Full Size Bed for a Big Boy!

Over the weekend we changed out Jacob's toddler bed to a full size bed!  Since he's going to be a big brother soon, little sister needed his mattress, and we thought a bigger bed would be helpful when guests come and stay too.  Here's some pictures of the process!  Jacob was quite the happy camper when he saw his bed all put together.  So cute!

Everybody helping undo the toddler bed.  Jackson and Deon are supervising, Jacob is checking out the screws, and Daddy is undoing the side rails.  Teamwork!

Jacob turning the allen wrench to unscrew the railing of the toddler bed.

Adding the footboard, meant Jacob had a new "racetrack" to try out.  He was pretty happy about it!

Jacob using his "drill" to put the boards in place.  :)  Just like Daddy.

The mattress is on, and Jacob is pretty happy about it.  This picture us a little blurry around his face because he was bouncing up and down on the bed!

The final set-up.  Jacob said he wanted orange sheets, which is his favorite color, so we found some and some striped pillowcases to go with them.  He screamed with delight when he saw it all put together.  It was one of those moments that I wished I had recorded.  Oh well!

Happy Sleeping, Jacob!

Swimming Lessons

Jeff and I both decided that it would be a good idea to do some swim lessons for Jacob.  Swimming was always a big part of my childhood, and Jacob loves the water, so off we went!  I think we will be taking some lessons for the next few summers until he is really confident in the water!  Here's some pictures of our little "swimmer."

Ready to leave the house for Swim Lessons!

Day 1, Jacob was a little worried that Mommy and Daddy weren't able to be with him.  Really, most of the other kids were crying and he just joined in! 

Jacob is sitting on the edge of the pool close to the diving board.  They learned to jump in, roll over and float on their back.

A picture of Jacob floating on his back in the deep end!

Hopefully after a few more summers of practice, he will be swimming right along with Phelps and Lochte!  :) 

Speaking of Olympic Swimming...The trials have been on the past few nights and Jacob has been really interested in what they are doing.  When we told him they were swimming, he had a big smile on his face.

Radnor Lake

Today we went on a walk/hike at Radnor Lake.  I saw that a friend of mine had taken her two boys earlier this week, and I thought we'd venture out and do the same!  Great idea!  Jacob had so much fun going over bridges, taking pictures with trees, and seeing lots of deer, geese, and even a few turtles.  Even at 7 months pregnant, I kept up with our running 3 year old, who was saying things like, "Come on guys," and "What do you think is up there?"  Here's some pictures from our morning!

Thanks for checking in with us!  Have a blessed day! 

Flag Day 2012

Since Jacob LOVES American Flags, we decided to celebrate Flag Day.  June 14th is the day the American Flag was adopted as a symbol of the United States.  Let's just say that when you check out Flag books from the library, there's lots of information about flags that can be learned!  :)

To start the day, we had pancakes with red white and blue sprinkles and an American Flag toothpick.  Oh how I WISHED we'd gotten a video when he saw his breakfast this morning...oh well.  It was pure joy!

Here's Jacob saying, "Dude, How Cool!"  This is the new phrase, except it sounds more like "du" instead of dude. 

We even "decorated" the table with his flags.  More like, I just stuck the flags into a vase with rocks in it so they would stand up.  :)  But he LOVED it!  And that's all that matters!

He wore his USA shirt and took his American Flag everywhere we went today.  We even had an "American" lunch of burgers and fries at Five Guys.

We made Flag Day cupcakes and gave them out to some friends.  Jacob did all the sprinkles and all the flags on the cupcakes.  So fun!

Such a proud boy with his Flag cupcakes!

So, for those of you that always wished you could celebrate Flag Day...this is your post!