Knoxy-boy turned one month last week! Can't believe it! Time is flying by. He's huge. I don't know the stats because I'm that mom that cancelled the 1 month visit. He's growing, sleeping, eating and beginning to notice the world more and more so I gave him the 1 month check-up at home. His chart has probably been flagged by the pediatrician with a big note that says SLACKER MOM, but oh well.

Do you remember Patrick? Despites Korey's continued requests to get rid of him, he remains. And I love him! And so does Ruby. And really so does Korey-he lays on him while Ruby plays in her playroom. And Knox is learning to love him too. Everyone needs a 6 foot puppy!

In Knox's short 5 weeks of life, he's done a lot and hasn't slowed us down much. We just take him along every where we go. So far he's been to the mall at 8 days old and countless times more, Chattanooga at 10 days old for Easter and the lake house at 2 weeks old. He even took his first cruise on the boat. Next week we're going to Virginia.Poor baby also goes on all the crazy adventures with his sister, like her first haircut(she did so well!), story time at the library, the playground, and yesterday to one of those in-door jumpy places. I'm convinvced those are just one big germ exposure, but Ruby loved it and it was air conditioned so we'll probably be back with an extra squirt of hand sanitizer! School is out in about 3 weeks which means we'll have Korey home more and I'm really looking forward to it! This summer should be really fun at our new neighborhood's pools, the lake house and a family beach trip. If only we could keep the temperature in the 80s for the next few months!

Grandaddy and his 2 babies at the lake house

Knox Michael Mobbs

He's here! And just as sweet as ever! He came into this world in a hurry but has been chill ever since. I sometimes forget I have another child. I'm sure those days will be over soon but for now I'll enjoy them!



Proud Grandmothers



The day that I went into labor was a full day and even though I kind of felt like things were moving in the direction of labor, I wasn't sure. Ruby had her Easter egg hunt and party at school that morning and I felt fine. I had worked the night before until 1:30 am so I was tired but I actually felt much, much better than I did the day before. At work on Tuesday night, I was admitting a kid and a doctor sat down beside me. After a few minutes he said, "should I get out the stirrups because you're looking mighty uncomfortable". Gee thanks. But yes, I was uncomfortable. After Ruby's egg hunt we went to Costco and the grocery store. Then we came home, played outside, and while she napped I did the daily toy clean up, uploaded some pics and worked on the blog. Since I was supposed to work the next 2 nights which included Korey's birthday we had planned to go out to dinner to celebrate that night. We went to a late dinner and then came home to get Ruby ready for bed. This whole time I felt fine. Keep in mind that "fine" is all relative at 38 weeks pregnant. I was still huge, my back hurt, my feet hurt, and it took great amounts of energy to move at all, but that had been the norm for weeks! While I rocked Ruby I had a few contractions but didn't think much about it given my history with contractions that come and go. I started having regular contractions at 10:00pm which I let go on for an hour while I caught up on Smash on the ipad-why not?! Around 11:00 I finally realized that the contractions were pretty close together and were getting more and more painful. So we called the family and let them know we were headed to the hospital. While we waited for Korey's mom to get there we( yep, me too) did a mad clean up and packed our bags. We picked up my mom on the way and checked in around 1:00 am. On arrival I was 5-6 cm and contractions were about 1-3 minutes apart. Because I didn't want an epidural the nurses did the admission then kind of let us be. By 3:00, I was 8 cm and the nurses went to call the doctor to let her know. About 20 minutes later I was sitting in the rocking chair and had a really strong contraction, my water broke and I felt like I was about to have the baby in the chair. I told the nurses this baby was coming right now. The nurse literally threw me into the bed and of course told me not to push until the doctor got there. Yeah right!! At that point they were paging any doctor or midwife in the hospital to come to the room. Well, one more contraction and little Knox came into this world into the hands of a nurse with no doctor in sight. It was a little crazy, but I really wouldn't want any other way. The nurses were wonderful despite the chaos, it was fast, I got to go natural again and I think it's a great story to tell! However, because it was so crazy, we got few pictures right after he was born because no one was really ready. And my sister, my professional photographer, was in Birmingham still because it was the middle of the night and we had no idea how fast he would come. It's more than 2 weeks later now and we still don't have a family photo!



Aunt K-K

Later that day, Knox had some choking spells where his oxygen levels dropped a little bit. Because he was born so quickly he had quite a bit of mucous that he wasnt able clear on his own very easily. They initially took him from our room to the regular nursery to watch him. A few minutes later I walked down the hall to the nursery and all the nurses were around him. They let me come in and explained that his oxygen levels dropped to 85% and he needed a little oxygen so they were moving him to NICU. He ended up spending 24 hours in the NICU which meant that I had to get up every 2-3 hours, walk down the hall, and go 3 floors down to the NICU to feed him. Not fun! But he ended up being fine and they moved him back to our room the next day after some observation.



Meeting her baby brother



He's now 2 weeks old and the cheeks are filling in! He's getting up every 3-4 hours at night to nurse, but likes to snooze during the day so I have to wake him up! Other than that he really is easy! He'll sleep anywhere and eat anywhere, unlike his picky older sister when she was his age. I'm feeling really good and we haven't let having a newborn slow us down at all! We've already been to Chattanooga for Easter and we're at the lake house this weekend. Ruby is adjusting well and most of the time really loves her little brother. I love it when she'll say out of nowhere "my baby brother is so cute". I hope she continues to think that as he gets more alert and vocal!

Catchin up before the storm

***I wrote this blog entry while Ruby napped on Wednesday and was going to come back home after dinner and upload the pictures for it. Well, I had a baby instead. But I thought I'd go ahead and post and then work on Knox's arrival post.*** 

Yes, I took a blogging hiatus. We've been a little busy moving, unpacking, celebrating, working, parenting, gestating, etc. But little boy Mobbs will be here any day(or minute if I'm lucky) so I thought I'd do some catching up.

As for Ruby, she's a character these days. So full of life and drama. She's had to adjust to being at home in a house with only her mommy and daddy. Life just isn't as entertaining when you don't live with your grandparents that dote on you constantly. But she's surviving! She's very vocal these days and very opinionated. Her vocabulary has exploded in the last month or two and she's like a little sponge. She'll say things and I just have to look at her and laugh. A few weeks ago I told her not to put my phone in her mouth and she said "ok mommy, its dangerous". Really?! Today I handed her a snack and asked her if it was good and she said "no, delicious mommy, delicious". Crazy girl! 

 So lets go backwards and do a quick catch up since the last post.
-Ruby began to like Preschool

She goes 2 mornings a week and after a few rough weeks at first, she is now loving it. Her teacher changed after the holidays and has been really great about sending notes home each week. We've been amused that Ruby doesn't like craft time at school. Each week I'll get a note that says something like: Ruby does not like to paint or Ruby didn't want to draw today. My favorite so far is: We made turtles but Ruby didn't want to. We ask her why she doesn't do crafts at school and she says "Ruby not paint at school" Who knows!!! She loves it at home! I guess she won't be an artist like her Aunt RaRa.

-Mountains
We had a nice little Mobbs family vacation to the North Georgia Mountains. It was the first weekend that the weather got cold so it was perfect and a nice relaxing weekend before we moved.

 -Halloween

We had a little Bumble Bee. We did costume story time again at Barnes and Noble and then went trick or treating in my parents neighborhood with cousins Chase, Cooper and Zoe(aka two ninjas and a cute little owl).

 -Moving
After a year of living at my parents house and a year of looking at, putting contracts on multiples houses only to have them fall through over and over, we finally got to close on a house. It was such a stressful and long process, but was God was definitely in control. We couldn't ask for a better house, location and deal. It was worth the wait for sure!! Once we closed we got right to work putting down new floors, painting, cleaning and moving in!

-Thanksgiving
3 weeks after moving in I thought it would be a good idea to host Thanksgiving at our new house. It was great incentive to get things done, but it was also exhuasting. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I really wanted to do it. It was great to have family and friends over and Korey got to fry his first turkey(with a little help). Yum!!

-Christmas
We had a sick little girl over Christmas. She actually woke up screaming at 3 am on Christmas morning and didn't stop until she finally crashed at 8am. Poor thing! Turns out she had her first ear infection with blisters on her ear drum so I can't blame her. Luckily we were only having my parents and sister and brother-in-law over so we just stayed in our PJs and enjoyed the day as much as we could.

We also had the annual Mobbs family ChristmasChaos. Each year gets a little more crazy and a little more fun! Nana completely over does it and the kids completely enjoy it!

-Ruby turned 2!!!

Ruby and her cousin Zoe are only 1 day apart so we decided to do a joint party this year at the Babyland General Hospital. If you're not from Georgia you might not know, but this is the official Cabbage Patch Kid birthplace. Its a little girls heaven. There are dolls everywhere!! I think Ruby enjoyed it, although you'd never know it by the family picture. (Trust me, this is the best one we got)

-Baby Boy Mobbs

Yep, it's a boy. And I've made it 38.5 weeks without bedrest. Yay!!!! We're awaiting his arrival any moment. Soon*** we'll be a family of 4!!

***Soon became about 10 hours later

Announcement

Of course she wouldn't look at the camera, but it's true. Ruby's going to be a big sister! We are super excited and yet some days when I'm running around after Red and completely exhausted I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I'm due April 8 and the Doc guessed another girl this week, but it's still early to confirm it. Either way, we're just praying for a healthy baby and no bedrest like last time. Twelve weeks on bedrest with a toddler would be way worse than last time so say a prayer for me!

First Day of School

Excited to go to school!

Today was Ruby's first day of preschool or Mother's Day Out. She'll only go 2 days a week for 3 hours but I'm hoping it will be really good for her. Maybe she'll learn to share and begin to be ok with not being the center of attention 24 hours a day! One day a week while she's there I'm going to a women's Bible study at another church and the other day I'm FREE!! When I dropped her off she had to be pried out of my arms screaming just like every time we take her to church nursery. But I stood around the corner for a minute and she evenutally calmed down. But when I got back-oh my!! I wish I had had a video camera. Or at least a strong drink for the teachers. All 12 kids were screaming!!!I think after the first mom got there they all realized their mommies weren't there and they lost it. It was pretty funny! But after Ruby saw me she went back for one more handful of goldfish so I think she must have done ok most of the time.

She would not put on her back-pack because she wanted the name sticker off her cup!

Once we got to the church she wanted her bag on

Telling Bibby all about school

Summer Surprise

Summer is coming to an end this weekend and even though we had fun this summer, I'm ready for fall! Bring on the cool weather, fall fairs and skinny jeans (and of course, football!). In our house, football picture day marks the end of summer. The picture always makes us laugh because they are so staged but its a good way to ensure that we have a family picture at least once a year and its fun to look back at how we've changed over just 7 years. I had to wake Ruby up bright and early so she was determined not to smile-instead she looks asian. We're proud of our Coach and "Go Longhorns!".

My cousin asked me to send her a recipe this week for a cookbook that her work is putting together. She works for an oncologist so it will be a fundraisor for cancer research which is great and dear to both of us. I was searching for the perfect recipe to submit in memory of Mama Jackie and today I found it. I was looking in one of her old cookbooks which she heavily supplemented with hand written recipes and newspaper clippings. I came across this recipe card that she must have filled out for someone else since the top line says "From the kitchen of Mama Jackie". She started making this dish a few years ago for a family gathering and we all loved it, especially my sister. I'm pretty sure she made up the name just to make us laugh, but it stuck. So here's Mama Jackie's Summer Surprise. Make it this weekend for your Labor Day festivities before all the fruit of the summer is gone!

I love her extra tips on the back! My mom started adding mango to the mix and its delish! Enjoy!

Wednesday Night Fun

Yesterday Rubes took a 4 hour nap. She rocks! But after dinner that meant she had lots of energy to expend. First we went to the playground. Then we hit up the sprinkler. And she must have worn herself out because this morning she slept until 10:30!! Yeah, she rocks!

Grandaddy taught her how to drink water from the hose this weekend

 

Taking a break

 

Love that smile and those rolls!