2 1/2 Years Old

Now that Evan's a month old, that also means that Thomas is two and a half years old.  Talk about time flying!  It is so hard for me to believe that two and a half years have gone by already!

It's really amazing to watch him grow into this little person with his own talents, his own quirks, his own insights and his own thoughts.  He's a very kind-hearted individual but is also very headstrong.  (Wonder where he got that from!)  He loves people...he loves his family (especially his baby brother!) and he loves his friends.  He's pretty shy in new situations but once he's comfortable, look out!  The world is his stage! 

He's very chatty and listening to his thoughts and musings are the highlight of my day.  Some of them are the funniest things I've ever heard!  It's also amazing to watch him learn and absorb information.  He's so smart and blows me away with some of the things he knows and understands.  He's very perceptive.  Sometimes I can look at him and tell that the wheels are spinning in that head of his.  He's just taking the world in!

He's still growing so fast.  He's a very solid boy and now I'm noticing that he is starting to lengthen out.  I believe we're going to have a tall one on our hands!  His hair grows faster than any hair known to man!  We get monthly haircuts to keep it in line.  Hopefully it will stay blond for awhile...it's fun having a blondie in the house!

He's a great eater.  Not too much of a sweets fan but could eat sausage until he was blue in the face!  He's also eating more and more fresh fruit and vegetables these days.  He's still definitely a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy!

He loves sports...already his knowledge and understanding of sports is quite impressive!  He loves the LSU Tigers and the New Orleans Saints...we're raising that boy right!  He also loves cars, trains and trucks...especially "ment" mixers or anything that pushes/dumps dirt.  He loves to watch movies...Toy Story 3 is a heavy favorite at the moment.  He loves to build with blocks.  The other day, he wanted to show me a tower that he built.  He kept saying "Tiger's going night night!"  I realized that he had created the clock tower on LSU's campus from a book that he likes to read, "Goodnight Tigers."  So neat huh?

He loves music, especially playing the guitar and the drums.  Maybe we'll have a little musician on our hands??  He also loves listening to music.  He frequently requests to "turn it loud" when we're listening to music in the car.  He also still loves to read books.  He's getting really into those books that have the interactive buttons that you can push while you're reading the book.

He's been in a regular bed since October and has not had a pacifier since the summer.  Both of those transitions went very well much to my relief.  Potty training has been slow-going but we're going to get there!

He tests his limits with us at times...sometimes more than others...and has had to be disciplined, which has proven to be harder that I thought it would be.  No one ever said parenting was easy, huh?  But he seems to learn when we teach him right from wrong and I can tell that he wants to do what's right.

He's such a joy in our lives and we can't wait to see what treasures life has in store for him!

Happy two and a half years Thomas!  We love you so much!

One Month Old

Baby Evan is one month old already!  Man, how time flies!  Pretty soon, we won't be calling him "baby Evan" anymore. (tear!)

He's growing so much and so fast.  Case in point: When we went to his 48 hour check up with our pediatrician, he weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz.  When we went for his two-week check-up, he weighed 10 lbs, 6 oz, meaning that he gained about two pounds in two weeks!  Whoa!  And he keeps on growing!  I think the Blanchers are truly forming their own football team!

He's also getting so strong.  He's holding his head up like a champ and will prop himself up on his forearms for a few minutes before getting agitated.  Also, when he's on his tummy, he will push himself over to his back pretty consistently.  I think it's more out of frustration than skill but who cares!

He's making great eye contact and is tracking movements.  He is also responding well to our voices...he makes great facial expressions!

He eats every three hours and eats at night between 10:00 and 11:00, then gets up around 3 AM, then is up between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning...not too bad!

He loves to be swaddled, loves his paci, and LOVES to be held.  He's growing to enjoy his baths more and will tolerate tummy time for a little bit before letting us know he's done.  He still has such a sweet disposition but will let us know if he needs something...maybe we'll have another opinionated one in the house!

Happy "one month" baby Evan!  We love you and love watching you grow!

The Blanchers are Jackson Bound...for real this time!

Yesterday, Adam, the boys and I packed up our belongings that were in Shreveport and headed over to Jackson.  We (the boys and I) are going to be staying in Jackson during the weeks while I'm on maternity leave.  We'll be heading back to Shreveport in mid-March when I'll be returning to work for the remainder of the school year.  Our plan is to then head BACK over to Jackson to spend the summer with Adam.  I know, it's hard to keep up with our crazy schedule!

Our "moving day" provided us with the most beautiful weather...cold with 100% chance of rain.  Ideal weather for loading and unloading cars!  We completed the tasks successfully though, with the helping hands of my dad on the front end and with only a few items ending up in puddles.  We pulled out of Shreveport at 5:20 PM and pulled into Jackson at 9:45 PM.  We made one stop to eat dinner and feed Evan. 

All in all, it was a successful and uneventful trip.  Thank goodness for car DVD players!  Makes the trip so much more enjoyable for all involved!  And we're so looking forward to the next few months and spending more time together as a family.  I'm also looking forward to exploring Jackson and experiencing all that it has to offer!

But first, I must make some sense out of this chaos...

Note baby Evan...this is the look of pure excitement!

Hello Jackson!  The Blanchers are here! (for a little while at least)

2010 Recap: March 2010-St. Patrick's Day

When St. Patrick's Day rolled around last year, I was still creatively inspired.  I must have still been on my creative high from Valentine's Day!  I found some really cute treat bag toppers from Skip To My Lou, a blog with super cute, free printables.

inside contents of bag...green sunglasses with a pouch of lucky charms...came up with that one on my own!

class treats-finished product

sporting his glasses
the shirt was also homemade...attempt number two...this one a bit more simple with just a shamrock on it!

I sure enjoyed spending the day with my two "lucky charms!"

We Are Family!

I love my family.  I really do.  I'm a family-oriented kind of gal.  Not only does my own little family bring me more joy than I could have ever imagined, but I love my extended family.  I see my parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law at least once a week.  I'm extremely close to my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I love my in-law family and really cherish the times we get to spend together.  I LOVE my family!

My family has had some really good times.  We laugh A LOT!  We're loud...all of us...from all sides!  We've been very, very blessed beyond words sometimes.  My life has been full of these wonderful blessings and memories. 

We've had some hard times too.  There have been times of disagreement, times of sadness, times of illness.  We've been angry together; we've been scared together; and we've been sad together.  But through it all, the consistent factor has been that we've been TOGETHER.

When I think of the word "together," my mind immediately pictures the McGowens. 

My uncle Robert is one of my mother's brothers and he has three children, my cousins Miriam, Miles and Nell.  (You might remember them from our ski trip to Colorado.)  They lost their wife and mother, Lenore, to an extremely courageous battle of cancer a little over a year ago.  She was a woman of beauty, grace, faith, and strength who through it all, stressed the importance of relying on God and family through all times.  At her memorial service, my uncle spoke so eloquently about my aunt Lenore and how through this entire journey, she had the family live by these rules in this order:

1.  God-pray daily and go to mass
2.  Family-support each other
3.  Work-school or job
4.  Community Service-helping others
5.  Play-responsibly

While these rules are so simple, they are so profound and I think we all would be better off if we prioritized our lives in this order.

My uncle and cousins do, in fact, continue to live under these guidelines on a daily basis.  It's evident every time I see them and it's very inspiring to watch.

When Nell sent me her pictures from our Christmas gathering, she also included some pictures from their Christmas morning for my enjoyment and entertainment.  She, jokingly, said that if these pictures were included in my Christmas post, it would be sure to get a lot of hits!

Well Nell, I thought they were so great that they got a post all on their own! 

Once again, I was so inspired at the overwhelming sense of "family" and "togetherness" while looking at these pictures.  I see people who have taken a difficult situation and have moved forward with smiles, laughter, optimism and faith...and through it all, they support each other.  I know Lenore is smiling and laughing along with them daily!

So here are a few of their Christmas morning pictures...I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

the continuing family feud...Team Saints or Team Cowboys?? (Miriam-Team Saints, Nell-Team Cowboys)
**note the thumbs down in the corner in response to the gift**

this is the face of surprise!

I think he likes his gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year McGowens!  Thank you for making me laugh and inspiring me constantly.  My love and prayers are always with you and may 2011 be the best year yet!

Christmas Craziness

**FYI, this is a lengthy post**

Christmas CAME to our house this year!  It came in many forms.  It came while spending great time with family and friends.  It came while experiening the pure joy of a two-year-old seeing his beloved choo choo train that Santa brought him.  It came in the quite candlelight at our Christmas Eve church service with hundreds of voices singing Silent Night.  I LOVE Christmas!

Our Christmas celebration usually stretches out over several days.  This year, it began a few weekends before Christmas with Adam's family.  Grammy, PapaRazzi and Uncle Justin had come in town to spend some quality time with baby Evan so we were able to open some of their gifts with them. 

Thomas loved his new toolbox from Aunt Brenda!



Thomas's cowboy boots were from Grammy.  Adam had a pair of boots like them when he was young and wore them all the time.  He refused to wear any other shoes for awhile...he even wore them with shorts in the middle of the summer!  We'll see if Thomas follows suit...


We were sad that we weren't able to get down to Mobile to spend Christmas with the rest of the family this year but were so grateful that they were able to come up and spend the weekend with us!

Our next family gathering was on Christmas Eve.  It's a Middleton-family tradition to all gather together on Christmas Eve night and attend our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Noel.  We take up two rows in the sanctuary and enjoy the beautiful service together as a family.  Then in years past, we would all gather at my grandparent's house for presents, yummy eats, plenty of wine, and lots of loud laughter!  Now we are continuing that tradition either at my aunt's house or over at my mom and dad's.  It's always a lot of fun.  It was always something that I looked forward to as a child and even now as an adult, it's so fun to spend time with my cousins, most of who live out-of-town and get to catch up with what's going on in their lives.  We've grown in number over the years, with spouses and children of our own; and every year, those that are there take an annual "cousins" picture.  This year, even those who weren't able to make it were there in spirit...and on paper!  My aunt's creative juices were a-flowing and she created paper plate versions of those in absence. 

It's also tradition for the grown-ups to take an annual picture.  This includes my dad and my two aunts with their spouses.

I didn't have any pictures of the evening so I stole these from my aunt...thanks Gigi!

The celebrations continued the next morning when Santa came to our house!  He actually came to my parent's house this year, but it was still so fun and magical.  Thomas had more of an understanding about Santa Claus this year and was very excited about him coming (and bringing him a "choo-choo train on the tracks").  Adam and I both agreed that Thomas's reaction to his Christmas gift that morning was better than any gift we could have received!

(Wish I could have posted our video of his reaction...was having some major video uploading technical difficulties!)
We had a wonderful morning with our family!  I don't care how old you are, Christmas morning is a magical time that I giddily look forward to every year.  And it gets better with kids!  This year, we prepared for Santa Claus's arrival.  We made cookies; left them out with a glass of milk and a note; and was excited to see that Santa enjoyed them while he visited our house and left a note for us!

helping Daddy make cookies

Rocking the shirt/diaper look

watching the cookies bake in the oven

We also started a little family tradition last year of all wearing matching pajamas the night before Christmas.  Both last year and this year, I had a time finding matching pajamas for us all as a family.  It really became quite the search!  This year was even more of a challenge because my parents and my sister were also included in our match-stravaganza.  It took some time and some diligent searching but I was pleased with the outcome and was looking forward to seeing us all in our "jammies" on Christmas morning!

Some Christmas morning memories:

this outfit was also worn by Uncle Brian on his first Chrismas

The train table not only captured the attention of Thomas, but of most of the males present at our house that day!

Our McGowen side of the family came over for brunch and our "dirty Santa" gift exchange, which always promises to provide lots of laughs!  Like our time spent with our Middleton cousins, I always enjoy our time spent together.  I don't know what it is, but we always end up laughing with them...who knows what we're laughing about but it never fails!  I failed to take any pictures of the event but my cousin Nell sent me her pictures. 

Meet "Shing Shing," the yearly re-gift...cousin Miriam was her lucky recipient this year!

We spend the remainder of the day relaxing, playing with our new toys, and eating a fabulous dinner!  It was a wonderful Christmas and I already can't wait until next year!

2010 Recap: February 2010-The Blanchers are Jackson Bound! (sort of)

In January, Adam began the process of interviewing for internships.  Since 2006, Adam's been working towards his PhD in Psychology.  He attended Louisiana Tech for the first four years and the fifth year was to be spent at an accredited internship site.  These internships are all over the United States and you match to a program much like you would match to a residency in medical school.  Adam spent the last part of 2009 applying for internships and he was asked to interview at six programs.  He was asked to interview at programs in Dallas, New Orleans, Jackson, Memphis, Tulsa, and Baton Rouge.  He spent the majority of the month of January traveling to all of these programs, meeting the staff and other interns, and letting them meet him. 

As I was digesting the reality that we would be moving that summer, it was a scary yet exciting feeling.  I haven't ventured far from the homeland in my lifetime and have never lived in another city from Shreveport for longer than three months (this was when I worked in Virginia for a summer during college).  However, I was excited that to some extent, this was completely out of our control.  We would rank our top choices of programs but those choices had to match up with the programs that ranked us at the top of their list.  As one who always has to have a plan and has to have control over a situation, this was completely out of my comfort zone.  But I liked it and I was anxious to see where we would end up!

It was always our plan to move together as a family wherever Adam matched.  It was only a year so I had planned on taking a leave of absence from work and just pick back up where we left off in Shreveport when we came back a year later.  I was relieved that the interviews ended up in the Southeastern region of the United States for the most part so that we could at least be in driving distances to our families.  The match day for internships was February 22.  As that day approached, we waited anxiously to see if Adam matched and where we were going.  On Monday, the 21st, we got notification that he had matched to a program.  Whew!  Ok, so we knew we were going somewhere...

On the morning of February 22, we both woke up very easily and immediately ran to the computer where we were to receive email notification of where he matched.  It was our luck that our Internet chose not to work correctly that morning so after multiple failed attempts to get online and much frustration, we decided to try to pull up the email on my cell phone.  Thankfully it was successful and we held our breath to see what plan awaited us...

We had matched to the Mississippi State Hospital in Jackson, MS!  We were excited about this new chapter in our lives and what was even more exciting was that it was right between Shreveport and Mobile...perfect traveling distance to both of our families!  I immediately started researching things about Jackson...places to live, places for Thomas to go to school, jobs, churches...

That night, we were getting together with our friends and family to have a "great reveal" of where we had matched.  My creative juices were still a-flowing from Valentine's Day so I created this sign to put in the middle of the table for our friends and family to see when they walked in.

The only thing left to attach was the city where we were going.  Here's the finished product ready to be viewed at dinner.

We had a great evening with family and friends celebrating this exciting day.  We were ready to begin this new adventure in our lives!

Let's fast-forward to April.  Another surprise was in store for us!

We found out we were pregnant with Baby #2, due in December!  While we were so excited, it came as a bit of a surprise to us and threw our "plans" all out of whack for the upcoming year.  Initially, our decision was to continue as planned with moving all together to Jackson.  As the end of the school year came upon us, it became evident that this may not be the best decision for us.  I explored job opportunities in Jackson and none of them could compete with my job situation in Shreveport, with my maternity leave benefits, etc.  Thus we then needed to entertain the possibility of spending the year of Adam's internship apart.  Thomas and I would stay in Shreveport and live with my parents, who would be able to help out with the kids, and Adam would live in Jackson.  We would travel to either Shreveport or Jackson every weekend to see each other, and after I had our baby, Thomas, baby and I would go to Jackson and spend the majority of my maternity leave there.  We would also plan to spend the summer months in Jackson together as a family when I got out of school.  While this decision was very hard and many discussions and tears were shed over this, we decided that it would be best for me and Thomas to stay in Shreveport.  As I've said before, I believe that life takes us on paths that are sometimes unexpected but I also believe that they are always for good with Faith and Trust.  We knew that whatever decision we made, it would be difficult at times.  However, we also knew that our love for our family was very strong and we trusted in God's plan for us and we would come out of this whole experience stronger and better! 

It's been six months since Adam's been over in Jackson and we both agree that this arrangement, our "situation" as we call it, hasn't been that bad.  We are so thankful that we've been able to spend every weekend together either in Jackson or in Shreveport.  Plus, Adam was able to be here for Evan's birth and got to spend a good week with us once we came home from the hospital.  Plus, we are about to head over to Jackson to spend a couple of months together while I'm on maternity leave.  We feel like we've gotten through the hardest part and we're proud of ourselves for that!  An added bonus is that Adam loves his internship and is learning so much with it...he's going to be the best psychologist around when this is all said and done! 

The path that life takes you on can be filled with twists and turns.  However, if you throw your hands up and give it all to the One in charge, (a daily struggle for me!) your path can also be filled with fabulous opportunities and sweet blessings...and we're loving every minute of it!