i love these SOOOO much!

ok, so i absolutely love to look back at all of the things we did, said, prayed, ect. when i found out that i was pregnant with levi. it was absolutely the MOST exciting time for me - really - to find out that there was a BABY growing in my tummy was just - you just can't describe it with words...so everyone reading this who is preggers - i am so SO excited for you! but anyways, so i'm looking through things, and i came across these videos. but before you watch, let me set up the scenario for you...

it was a wednesday night in august of 2006, and clayton and i had just gotten home from church. we had been home for awhile, so clayton was in the living room eating some dinner and watching a movie. i was about to join him, but i was so FRUSTRATED that my pants were so uncomfortably tight (you know like after you eat WAY to much at one time and you just feel miserably sick??) and so i went to change into some elastic-wasted pants (little did i know how much i would grow to love elastic over the next year!) so i was changing clothes and i remember saying to clayton a couple of days before, "if i am not pregnant, then we are going to do some SERIOUS working out, because i am so bloated!" really, it was ridiculous...so i decided, oh i'll just take a test tonight - that way if i'm not pregnant, i can run until i pass out tomorrow. so i go into the bathroom, kinda hoping i was pregnant like you always are - even when you think you really don't want to be - and i wait my 3 minutes in the bathroom. mind you - clayton has NO idea what i'm doing, or why it's taking me so long to change clothes. and after my timer went off, i look down.....OH MY GOSH!!! i could NOT believe it!!! there was a positive sign in the "results" window. what!!!??? am i reading this right?? are my eyes ok?? am i just thinking i'm seeing this, but it's not really there?!?! i FREAKED OUT! i was shocked to say the absolute least. so i wait in the bathroom, thinking to myself, "ok - should i go tell clayton that i just found out he is going to be a dad, or should i wait and do something really cute and memorable - OH MY GOSH!!! am i really asking myself these questions?!!?"

and in the midst of all my thoughts, clayton yells from the living room, "babe, WHAT are you doing?? you're missing the movie!!!"

and that's all it took. i couldn't help myself. i walked into the living room with the test in my hand and just stood there in front of him. i was not just looking at my husband anymore...i was looking at the MAN who would father and raise this sweet baby growing in me!!! he had never been so attractive! so as i'm processing ALL of these life-changing thoughts, i somehow whisper..."i'm pregnant."

"WHAT."

"um, i just took a test and it said that i was pregnant." (i'm literally ALL smiles and some tears at this point - shaking because i'm so excited.)

"what. let me see the directions. are you sure you did this right?" - (of all things, this is what he says to me! it was so funny. he automatically assumes that i pee-ed on the stick wrong..gotta love it.)

and what do you know - i had taken the test right, and the results were clear. i was pregnant. so we took another test later that night, and then another one again the next morning...all with the results stronger than the last. I COULD NOT CONTAIN MY HAPPINESS!!! i wanted to tell the entire world on thursday. SOOO, we decided that we did not want to wait (kindof scary now that i think about it) and we made plans to tell our families on thursday night. the plan was to have my family all together at my parents house, and clayton's family all together at his mom's house to take seperate pictures. we told them that we had to have family pictures taken because they were doing a minister spotlight in the bulletin on sunday morning (so cheezy huh, but that's all we could think of) - so after we all got home from work on thursday, we started off to the houses. we had a good friend come to "take the picture" but really we had the whole thing on video so we could always watch our families reaction to the good news. so we all line up, and our friend tyler jones (the official picture-taker) says, "ok, on the count of 3, everyone say "darby's pregnant!!!" hah! i can't wait for you to see their reactions!!! so this entire huge long post is for these videos...

my family - things to watch for...1) my dad's reaction is SUCH a typical dad response..he weirds out immediately. 2) my family does NOT get it. they continue to say "darby's pregnant" without understanding what they are saying...so goofy. 3) my brother, case, the second the video starts, actually gets it, and you can hear him say..."what." - priceless. 

now, CLAYTON'S family - things to watch for..1) well, this isn't the most obvious, so i'll start with it first. travis, who is in the middle, standing next to me, continues to look at the camera in his "cheezy pose" for a good while after the madness starts...kindof funny. 2) clayton's mom, beth, - absolutely steals the show! you will hear her before anything, but watch how hard she hits my arm in excitement, and then she hugs EVERYONE in the circle - she was SO EXCITED! 

thank you to both of our families for making such an exciting time in our life even better...and thank you Jesus, for giving me such a gift in levi. You are such a good God! i am so honored that you have entrusted such a precious little boy to clayton and i to raise. You have shown me more of Yourself through this little boy than i could ever have dreamed...to You, all praise and honor and glory.

so sorry this was so long, but i wanted to share these videos with you! enjoy! 

texture aversion??

well, since levi's been old enough to eat any kind of food, he has refused. ok so maybe every once in a while, he will eat MAYBE 4 or 5 bites of some kind of baby food or big people food, but after that HE IS DONE! he will not eat any more...and we have tried EVERYTHING! eating when he's real hungry, eating when he's kinda hungry, eating when he's not hungry. you name it, we have done it. so at his 9 month check-up, his pediatrician told us that if he wasn't eating food on a consistent basis, then we would have to go to a specialist for "texture aversion." well, we have 2 weeks for this little boy to decide he likes "texture" and it's not looking good. well - i thought it looked grim until today.....

after he "helped" me put the water bottles into the fridge (meaning i hand him a water bottle, he looks at it and tries to throw it into the right spot on the bottom shelf - this process usually takes at LEAST 15 or 20 minutes, but hey he LOVES it) i left the door open as i stepped over to the counter to write down something before i forgot...i mean, being a mom, if you don't IMMEDIATELY write down your thoughts, forget it...they are gone for good. so i started writing something down and realized that it had gotten quiet...like REAL quiet. so i look over at levi and he's sitting on the floor facing away from me. and as i bent down, he looked up at me with BAR-B-QUE sauce all over his face and bib!!!! he had somehow unscrewed the lid off the jack daniels bar-b-que sauce and was savoring EVERY LICK he could get!!!! (don't worry, there's not actually alcohol in the sauce - and i know that because i was afraid i would have a drunk toddler for the rest of the day, and would have to skip taking our drunk son to the nursury because they don't allow intoxicated children at church ;) i could not stop laughing! he doesn't have "texture aversion!!!" he just isn't getting the southern, finger-lickin' flava in the pureed foods from gerber!!!! so we will see what his doctor has to say about that ;)

oh kids - they bring so much excitement into life! i LOVE it! i absolutely love the age levi is right now. who knows what will happen tomorrow. 

um...can you say cheese?

well, its been a while since we have posted...sorry! i don't know where time goes during the day. well, ok. that's not true. we spend a lot of time laughing...as you will see ;) levi has found his camera face...really, a necessary milestone in our family. i absolutely LOVE IT! it's the same in every picture and i have probably 395 more on our computer! so i hope you enjoy as much as we did. other things that have happened in the last month...

1. my friend rachel had her little girl, ellie ruth patterson. yay! 

2. had a birthday that sent me on the downhill spiral to 30...geez.

3. we have been planning/thinking about levi's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!! 

4. i have started reading sacred marriage...absolutely incredible.

5. my friend jennifer colley found out she is having a baby at the end of october...such an answer to many tears, questions and prayers!!! thank you God for your incredible GOODNESS and MERCY. jen, we can't wait to meet this precious gift!

6. and blah blah blah....other boring, unexciting things OH - levi did learn how to dance on que...so the video at the end is just a little glimpse of his mad skills...hopefully i will catch him when sesame street is on. he LOVES dancing to big bird and the gang! 

PLEASE click to enlarge this picture so you can see his little "chicklets" - !!! this is prob my FAVORITE picture right now...

bubble beard and the newly learned camera smile!


betcha didn't know clayton could beatbox, did you? :)

first family road trip

to the....

yes, we went to the abilene zoo yesterday for a little family road trip. we got to the zoo around 3, and it closed at 5, so it was perfect. levi absolutely LOVED every animal we saw...but his favs were the giraffe, rhino, and jaguar. we didn't get any pics of the jaguar, but levi stood on a ledge and there was just a pane of glass between them..they stood eye to eye for several minutes and levi growled the whole time! it was so great...i can't wait to take more road trips! we were supposed to stay the night in abilene and then drive to stephenville on saturday to see kelsey and tanner and his family, but clayton woke up on friday night at 3.30 and was so sick...throwing up sick and weak. so i made the executive decision to pack up and leave. none of us were sleeping at all, and levi absolutely could not sleep. while clayton was making those fun "throw up' noises, levi decided to mimic all the noises his daddy was making...a little too much bonding was made between these two this week (really though, levi has bonded SO much with clayton this week...he wants to do EVERYTHING clayton does. it is the greatest thing to see the two of them together). anyways, clayton was too weak and sick to drive home, so i drove us home...2 1\2 hours in the middle of the night. if you know me at all...you know that is the biggest challenge for me. i fall asleep soooo fast when we travel...so i was very proud of myself for getting us home ALL BY MY BIG GIRL SELF!!! ;) these are just a few of the animals we saw. and it was so great, becuase we could get so close! thank you to rachel for all the abilene advice!!

dads co-pilot

looking at the giraffe for the 3rd time..

this bear was the greatest...he just sat there while we threw bread at him

waiting for the rhino to circle back

bison!!

giraffes, again.

the lions! i was sad because these pics were the worst.

the rhino came over so we could feed him.

zebras, babies and daddies...makes for a great day.

i don't know what this is.

melman...

after a long day...levi fell fast asleep with his new zoo buddy watching over him ;)

inflatable duck + water = TONS OF FUN

well this inflatable duck you are about to see is really for little babies...it's supposed to BE the bathtub...and what do you do when you get to big??? you turn it into a RAFT! yep...a raft that is entirely too big for the bathtub, but nonetheless a blast to play with. so thank you to uncle case for this amazing duck...it quackes as well...so that makes it even cooler. the greatest thing about this video is watching him hit the sides like he's riding a horse...you spur the horse to get it to go, and for levi, you hit the side to make mom and dad make the duck go. he's a quick learner :)

new words

levi is a true texan. of course, i knew he would be growing up in lubbock, but i didn't think i would see it so soon. he has started saying "bye bye" and when he says it, it sounds like the most hickish bye you have ever heard...and when he says it he waves his little arm as frantically as he can. i love it! it is so cute...and it's so weird to hear my BABY forming words!! and now he also says "ball." you can ask him in the bathtub to find his ball, and he gets his little basketball in all the commotion of dinosaurs and boats and ducks and airplanes. I LOVE IT! it's like the last 10 months of teaching and loving on this little guy is finally showing fruit!!! it's so much fun! he knows what "dog" is, but has a hard time saying it still...but we'll get there i'm sure! 

we are excited about spring break next week! this will be the first year since we have been married that we are not taking a trip with the youth, so we are having family week next week!!! i can NOT wait! so our plans are a-plenty! we are hoping that the weather will be good enough to go swimming (matching trunks for the boys :), a day of play at legacy play village (it's this amazingly huge playground that kids flock to), clayton and i will have some dates of our own...movies, drivein, ect. so i am so excited!!! it is so exciting to think about planning "family" things for spring break. anyways, it will be posted about next week as we go through it all!!!

clayton, levi and i went to the hospital this afternoon to see one of our friends who had just had her second baby. the MINUTE i saw the babies in the nursury, their tiny noses, toes, fingers and mouths...i lost it. this HUGE emotion of wanting to have another little one to hold came over me. and then as i walked into her room and saw baby ethan swaddled and asleep in her lap, i got teary-eyed.  i can't believe how much levi has grown out of - the little cooing noises, the jerky yawns and movements, the inability to stay awake for 30 minutes :)  -  he just seems worlds apart from that stage. and he is, of course, but it's hard to believe that in only 10 months that levi went from that newborn to who he is now...it just goes so fast. i guess that's why people keep having kids :) 

i just couldn't resist.

haha!!! can you count the wrinkles?? 1,2,3,4....
hey...what's up mom?

:) close up :) this just makes me smile.

"i'm too sexy for my pants. too sexy for my pants...."

i just had to put these WAY sweet pics of levi's "highnee" (not sure how to spell that one) up for you to see. i don't know why, but i think baby bottoms are SO cute...now this amount of cellulite on any adult would be absolutely nauseating to look at (i mean, hey - NO judgement here..that's for sure :) but on a munchkin, it's precious! so other than not posting in a while, we have been doing relatively good! because it's spring, and because we live in lubbock, the weather has been RIDICULOUS!!! stopped up noses, sinus headaches, sore throats...they have all been present at our house this week. so needless to say, i am ready for the sun to come out and stay out! and for the snow NOT to mix in with all our warm afternoons!! but it will come soon i hope...and aunt kelsey is coming to town next week!!! YAY! she can't stay long, but we will take what we can get! levi is SOOOOO excited! (ok so we all are :)