Happy 5th Birthday, Jackson!!

So metimes, when I stop and think about the last 5 years it just seems like a big blur. I still cannot believe that I am the mother of two children. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to know what loving your child feels like. When we had Jackson, everything happened so fast since he was early and it was an emergency c section, but the minute i saw him in his little incubator I was in love. He was so tiny and helpless and sweet. These are just some of the pics of our sweet baby boy throughout the years. Unfortunately, our pics of him as a newborn aren't digital it was before we had our camera, they are all hard copies so I couldn't get them on here. Happy Birthday, Jackson! We love you more than you will ever know! Thank you for all the joy you bring into our lives.

Growing up too fast...

I know I always say it, but life just keeps getting busier and busier!! I always start out the week saying I am going to blog, but it never happens!! here we are 6 weeks later...Well, alot has happened these last 6 weeks, first off I started a new job as a nurse in the Operating Room and I am LOVING the schedule! It is so much better for all of us. I am able to pick up the kids most days by 3:45. Jackson and Leah are now loving school, although it took Leah a good 5 weeks to even TALK to her teacher! She is so stubborn! We were a little concerned at first because the teacher said she wasn't eating at all at school and she was 4 weeks into it! But then we realized the more we gave her attention for it, the more she would do it, I'm happy to say she has been eating the last 2 weeks now :) Just to show you how manipulative, I mean smart, she is her teacher told me she had a friend at school named Chloe who did everything for Leah. Chloe told Ms. Beaudry (the teacher) that she felt bad for Leah because leah couldn't talk!! She had Chloe putting soap in her hands after she went to the bathroom and even drying her hands for her!! Ms. Beaudry definitely has leah figured out now, and always has a good story for me when I pick her up, she's a mess. This is a picture they took the 3rd week of school when she was still disliking it, we just got the pics back this week and Scott and I were near tears when we saw her face!! Back to the last 6 weeks...Jackson has started soccer and he LOVES it!! He is really good at it, which I wasn't sure how much he would like it but he kept telling us he wanted to play so we signed him up and he started about 2 weeks ago. One of the other residents, Jeff, has a son jackson's age so they are playing on the same team. Jeff is the coach and Scott is the assistant coach, it is so funny to see them coaching 12-15 4 year olds soccer! Scott really likes it and Jackson loves having his daddy as the coach. Jackson is going to be 5 years old on Wednesday and I cannot believe it!! I'll save all the emotions that go along with that for Wednesday when I make him a bday post. He is truly such a good boy!! He has grown up so much these last 4 months since we have been here it blows my mind. He has matured so much where you can logically talk to him about things when he gets upset instead of him whining when he doesn't get his way. He is so sweet, it just melts my heart. His teacher took me to the side last week and told me how proud we should be as parents with what a good boy he is. She said he is always so nice to all the kids and is such a good listener and all the kids love him...nice things to hear about your kid :) He is getting so smart too!! He has words every week that he brings home from school, and I couldn't believe some of the words he knew...acorn, anchor, alligator!! Scott and I picked them up together on Friday and like 6 of the kids ran up and hugged him goodbye at the same time, it was really cute. Needless to say, he LOVES school!!

Today we had Jackson's 2nd soccer game and on the car ride there he said "Mom, I don't think I am ever going to score a goal." I told him he was great at soccer and of course he was going to score a goal. Well, today he scored 2 of the 3 goals for the team!! I was so proud of him! When he scored his first goal, he turned around to Scott and said, "Dad, I just scored a goal!!!" His face was beaming, it was so fun to see! Moments like today are so indescribable as a parent, just to see how happy and excited he was to get his first goal at a game, it was precious and made me so happy for him. After the game, we went to Incredible Pizza to celebrate his birthday with just the 4 of us a little early. It was so fun! Jackson hit the jackpot on this car game and he ended up winning 4 times and got 265 all four times! We ended up with 0ver 1400 tickets and he chose a nerf gun that shoots nerf balls as a prize...he of course thought of Leah and let her use some tickets too and she chose a stuffed dolphin. It was a great day :)

Leah on the motorcycle at Incredible Pizza in the backlight miniature golf area

Jackson helping daddy at the ticket machine

Leah and I trying to keep track of all of Jackson's tickets

When we walked in and told them it was his birthday, he got a birthday boy sticker and got to spin a prize wheel and he won 250 tickets right away!

Jackson at his soccer game with his little buddy Ryan, Jeff's son

Leah has started tap and ballet on wednesday nights and she loves it! It is so fun to see her little personality come out when she dances. These pics are from when she got to put on her tap and ballet shoes for the first time.

Nice form....

On top of all the extracurricular activities, our kids have been sick....Jackson has been fighting an upper respiratory infection for going on 4 weeks!!! He just has this nagging cough and runny nose. I took him to the dr when he started running a fever this week and was getting really lethargic, so he is on an antibiotic and i hope it clears it up. He's acting a lot better now so I think we have turned a corner. Last Thursday Leah's eye got really goopy and by Friday night it was full blown draining yellow gunk!! Saturday morning, we woke up in a hurry to get ready for Jackson's soccer game, so I jumped in the shower and Scott made the kids breakfast and turned in cartoons. When I got out of teh shower, leah was eating her poptart with her eyes closed, I said "Leah why are you eating with your eyes closed??" She just said "I can't open 'em." Then took a big ole bite of her Poptart, I thought then it was Pink-eye but when I looked online it said it can be viral and go away on it's own. Sunday morning when her eyes were matted shut again and she refused to let us clean them, choosing to instead walk around with her eyes matted shut, insisting shw was "Just tired," I decided to take her to a clinic at Walgreen's to get her on eye drops. She had Pink eye...Monday she broke out in hives from her medicine, so we now know she has a sulfa allergy...which worked out great, because by Monday night Jackson's eye was pink and goopy so we could give Jackson Leah's medicine she was allegic to...You see what I mean about busy?!?

Poor Leah with her eyes stuck together :(

We also had to get a new car a few weeks ago because the transmission went out on our Explorer and was going to cost $2500 to fix!!! A month after we paid off the stinkin car!! We got a Hyundai Sonata and really like it! It's practical for us right now, gets good gas mileage and drives nice....sometimes I do miss the space of a SUV. Oh and we have a new addition to our fanily, Raisin the dog!! We rescues her for the Humane Society. They said they found her on the streets being kicked by some teenagers :( She is the SWEETEST dog ever! She is such a cuddle bug! But we will talk about her later...I am sick of writing this, so I know you are sick of reading it :)

Hope everyone has a great week!! Miss everyone back home!!

Love,

The Ludlows

Big Changes

No pictures on this post today, just thought I would update on some big changes around the Ludlow household. It was a very difficult decision for me but I have decided to leave my current job in Labor and Delivery and instead work in Day Surgery at another hospital. I have been working nights since we moved here and I just felt it was taking away from so much time as a family. I would work all night, from 7pm to 7am and then come home to the kids, give Scott a kiss on my walk into the house and his walk out of the house and crash in bed. The kids, bless their hearts, didn't understand mommy wasn't sleeping at night so they would be up at 11am, so I was only getting like 3 hours of sleep after working 12hours. Needless to say, after 8 weeks of doing this, I'm exhausted. I feel like it's making me a horrible wife and mom, which I know it's not my fault, but I still feel guilty if I'm not my most patient with the kids. Scott hated me working nights as well. Before I started working nights, we were loving it here in Memphis, since starting work we have just been going through the motions and really feeling us growing apart. I was crying from missing Scott and the kids all the time and I couldn't sleep even on my nights off from the stress of really not liking my job. I decided to be proactive about it and apply to jobs. Memphis is alot different than the Dallas area in their number of hospitals. Dallas has so many hospitals to work for, Memphis really only has like three. I applied to all three big hospitals in any and every area just trying to get a job on days. I had a couple of interviews but nothing went anywhere since my experience is in Labor and Delivery. One particularly frustrating day I went onto Yahoo Jobs and posted my resume, the next day I got a call from a small hospital here in Memphis that I haven't even heard of. She found my resume online and asked for me to come in for an interview. The job is in Surgery and the shift is 5 days a week from 645am-315pm, perfect for all of us because Scott is at his residency and the kids are at school until 330pm and then they have the option of extended care until 630pm. This job you are not required to work weekends or holidays. I wanted it so bad, I felt like their was reason she contacted me. I prayed and prayed I would get the job, Scott did too.

Well I found out on Monday I got the job!! It was such a relief to Scott and I, the kids are so happy about it too. So tonight as I write this I am working my last shift in Labor and Delivery for at least the next 2 years. This is very hard for me because I LOVE labor and delivery, it truly is what I am passionate about in nursing. It never gets old to see a family welcome their little miracle into the world and being a part of that special time with them, but I know what our family needs and I need to be home when the kids and Scott are home. I know when Scott is done and we settle more in our lives I will go back to it because it is what I love, I am just so grateful that God heard my prayers and answered them for my family and me and helped me to get this job where I will get to be home with my family more. So only a couple more hours left in my job and then it is the beginning of a new adventure! Wish us luck!

Sometimes, I really don't know what we got ourselves into...

So, a couple of weeks ago I was putting laundry away when I started hearing some banging outside, I looked out our big picture window at the front of the house and there were 4 unmarked police cars with police officers and their big ole rifles banging on the side of our neighbors house. Our kids were back in the den and I told them to stay in there and I set our alarm. The cops were wandering all over the front lawn and looking in windows. Scott got home and he was standing in our front lawn like a crazyhead trying to figure out what they were doing. I yelled at him to get inside. Anyway, they were there for like 3 hours and we found out from our other neighbor that it was a drug bust. I guess they cut open all the couches and everything trying to find drugs. I was on the phone with my sister NJ as it was unraveling and I said, "Scott has meant them and he thought they were really nice." Nj yelled, "That doesn't count, Scott thinks everyone is nice!!" Which is very true....Anyway here our some of he pics I tried to sneak of the cop cars. I didn;t know if I could get in trouble for that, so I had to hide to get them :)

Here is our new adorable nephew Luke!!! He was so snuggly and sweet, i just love him!! Leah and Jackson were pretty sweet with him too.

So alert for 2 weeks old!!

Jackson said in the car last night out of nowhere, "I just wish Baby Luke would never grow up, he's just the cutest baby!" He is such a sweet boy.

Snuggling with his Aunt Lauren. I have SERIOUS baby fever!!! Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to have another one!!!

The kids playing in the new sprinkler mat that Grandma Ludlow got them. It's about all we can do outside right now with this awful summer heat!!

Finally some house pics!!!

Master shower Scott refinished

Guest bedroom

Now that I am finally posting house pics, I realized I havent taken any of our bedroom yet, but my sheets are in the wash and I'm exhausted so I will post some tomorrow with pics of our completed bathroom as well. I will definitely have some updating to do tomorrow with pics of our sweet nephew Luke!!! Lisa, Janene and Luke came to visit on Wednesday and he wasn't even 2 weeks old yet! I love him so much! He is such a sweet, cute baby! It definitely makes me homesick to see him and to see Lisa as a mommy for the first time. I just wish I was closer to help her out and see him grow. I guess that's life and being here is what was meant for us and our family. We love it here, don't get me wrong, but missing stuff like this is hard. We had a wonderful visit with Scott's family,but it went to fast since I worked 2 of the nights they were here. Anyway, here are some of the house pics, enjoy! Den looking from the formal living area

Den

Formal living area

Dining Room, this room started out with wall paper and was pretty ugly, I'm very pleased with how it turned out

The kids bathroom

Kitchen, again this room was kind of ugly, it was an awful orange-red.

Painting in kid's room, we love it, looks so good in there!

View of the kids room from the door

I ended up adding a few ore pics I found at the top of our bathroom and the guest room, sorry it's such a mess of a post. I'm going nite-nite now!!