so very behind....

I cannot even begin to describe the chaos that we endure on a daily basis.... with school,and jobs, and a 15 month old running around like a crazy -man all the time, blogging has taken a backseat! Thanks to those of you that have lingered around during my non-blogging this year. I am resolving to start back up because it is something I really enjoy. I have some announcements coming up in the new year. I have been blessed with some great opportunities this year and I am embarking on some scary ventures, but I am hoping that it will all work out! I know it will... I just have no clue as to how!
I leave you with an outtake from our holiday cards!!

my baby is one!!!

Luke turned ONE at the beginning of Sept! I am really behind on this blog! I wanted to share a few of the highlights from his very first party!!!

Luke gets a haircut!

Tea for Two!

Last Friday, Luke had his VERY FIRST PLAYDATE!!! It was so much fun to watch him interact with Ms. Emma (isn't she so cute?!) The mommies had some much needed conversation and a yummy lunch with a Great dessert and the babies played. Here is a sweet picture of Luke showing Emma that the balls go in the busy ball machine! She wanted to hold onto the two that she had found and Luke couldn't stand it... he kept taking them from her and we kept secretly making sure that Emma had 2 to play with. Emma brought over her Dora doll (which LUKE loved) and she taught Luke to say Dada (finally), and Uh-oh. We are hoping that this is the beginning of many sweet afternoons for these two!

Why Didn't You Tell Me Wednesday?

Why didn't you tell me that I WOULD NEVER SLEEP AGAIN!?

I talked to Mamaw this morning (it is her Birthday) and we always have the best conversations! She is so fun and she is so chatty. I love to ask her about things from her past. Today we were talking about all sorts of things and we somehow got around to talking about the lack of sleep a mom endures with a baby. This was fresh in my mind because we had a rough night around here. When Luke was a newborn, he SLEPT! Then all of a sudden he started waking and wanting to be fed every 1.5 hours.... Then he started sleeping for a good stretch at night. He had his first cold around Christmas and it has been a battle ever since. Today he woke up at 5:45AM after a long, long night. Around 1AM he wanted to PLAY!!! I thought I would lose my mind. Mamaw laughed and told me about one of her sons who would not sleep in anything but his "buggy" and when she would nod off and stop rocking the "buggy" he would wake up "wailing".

Anyway, I have just decided to accept the fact that my child is just not one that will SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT (kuddos to all of you who are blessed with children who will). We have tried all sorts of things, all sorts of methods, and it just isn't meant to be for me to sleep THROUGH THE NIGHT. It has gotten better... we definitely do not wake up ever hour anymore and for that, I am VERY thankful. I was just looking back over the past couple of years (pregnancy included) and I am amazed at how little sleep I have been able to function on. Those who know me, know that I LOVE to sleep, I always have. Ever since I was a little baby, I have just LOVED my sleep. I am not a morning person, I am a napper. I believe that when I prayed and prayed for a baby and pleaded with God that I would do just about anything, He decided that I would have to give up my sleep! ha!

A birthday!

I spent my morning making THIS! It is the most chocolatey cake I could concoct. It actually turned out great considering there was no formal recipe. I just put in every type of chocolate that I could think of. The cake is a chocolate fudge box mix with dark chocolate pudding, sour cream, and Ghiradelli dark chocolate mixed in. Then I made a chocolate ganache and poured that in between each of the three layers and on the top before I iced it with Hershey's chocolate icing!

Looks like the Birthday Boy enjoyed his Chocolate OVERLOAD!

We went to lunch at Calypso Cafe in Nashville....

And then we went to the ZOO! (it was so very hot and I snuck this picture while we were waiting for our water from the concession stand)

The meerkats were one of the FEW animals that were braving the heat to hang out

After we stopped off at Phonolux, Luke passed out in the car on the way home (this was the ONLY nap he had all day!)

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to the BESTEST husband EVER!

New manual camera shoot!

Up until recently, I have been having horrible results with the manual settings on my camera. I have been practicing every day lately. Well yesterday, Luke went over to the window and it was so cute and I quickly grabbed my camera and ta-da!!! I think it turned out awesome. I shot with low ISO and my 50mm fixed lens (which I am trying to use more often now).

Fun Friday....

Not much going on over here today except for the fact that tonight is PAPA MURPHY's night and I am so super excited!!! I wanted to share a few recent pictures of Luke! Hope you have a great weekend!

Things I love Thursdays....

I have the worst time keeping my stainless steel sink all nice and shiny. I am constantly wiping it clean and scrubbing it with a sponge, but a few weeks ago I picked up some of this stuff and let me tell you, it is SO AMAZING. It smells great and my sink is so shiny that I can see myself in it!

Why Didn't You Tell Me Wednesday?

Why didn't you tell me....

...that one day, I would wake up and realize that MY THIGHS touch. (and NO, that is not me in the above picture)... It is driving me bananas. If it were fall and I were to somehow get myself into my corduroy pants, I think that the friction from walking out of the house to my car would land me in the E.R. because I would have started a fire and obtained serious burns.
Granted, this business did not just start overnight, as much as I would like to think that the "extra baby weight" around my middle has migrated down to my thighs due to mother nature's evil sense of humor and some help from gravity, I blame nursing and my constant hunger during that time!
I have since started working out (last week) and I have greatly modified my eating habits. I am hoping that I will be back to "normal" again in a few months. In the meantime, all of my lounge pants seem to be generating large amounts of pilling in the upper thigh section-- they will probably not last much longer without some intervention. Wish me luck!

Why didn't you tell me Wednesday?

Okay.... so pardon me for the LONG pause between these posts, but I have a renewed sense of things and I hope to stay on top of this (at least for a little while)....
...now on to the post....

Why didn't you tell me that some days, my baby would be on a mission.... he would have one goal to achieve, and it would involve three stealthy maneuvers.... he is locked on accomplishing what I have come to fear.... The Baby Trifecta

The Baby Trifecta can come in multiple combinations or in some rare instances it has happened all in one horrible changing table session. I am talking about the horror of not only being peed on, puked on, or pooped on.... but having them ALL happen at once.... all in the same day. Believe me, they have all magically happened at the same surreal moment!!

Memorial Day quick trip

so we took a quick trip to visit my SIL, she made the BEST stuff....
dirty snowballs (in the summer!!!)

it was this guy's birthday!

Luke LOVES his Aunt Babs

Noahie loves his swimming pool....

Why didn't you tell me Wednesday?

Okay people... It is one thing for somebody in the house to get sick with a stomach virus, but it is a whole "nother, nother" when your husband starts off your blissful weekend puking and then by Saturday night you have a projectile vomiting (almost) 8 month old with his millionth poop-leaking diaper! Several thoughts were running through my head this weekend in no particular order:

1. food poisoning... I think NOT
2. HOW MANY times can I change a diaper and clothing and the changing table!
3. will I have enough baby wipes and diapers to make it through?
4. HELP!!
5. I hope I don't get sick....
6. Great, TORNADO warnings and golf ball sized hail
7. yuck, more trips to the washing machine
8. Please don't poop/puke on me
9. HELP!!
10. OMGoodness, I just stepped in POOP at 3 am walking back to the nursery? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
11. When is this all going to end? Surely there is NOTHING left in there?
12. I have run out of all matching pjs and I frankly don't care, let's just see what is left that isn't in the washer/dryer
13. HELP!!

I hope your weekend was better than mine! Thankfully, Josh is better (he now has back problems from being banished to the couch and still cannot really help with Luke, heck, he can barely walk) and Luke is steadily getting better, although the poo issues are still around (geez)!

we interrupt the silence

...to share a few pictures....
Luke and I enjoyed one of the beautiful days we have been having recently. He was so funny on his blanket out in the yard. He kept picking it up to see what the funny green "carpet" was underneath. Unfortunately, I needed to be on a blanket too because while I was on my stomach grabbing these shots, I also picked up a rash from the grass!! Enjoy...

What a difference an hour makes!

I am guessing that I am not the only momma out there that thinks the time-change is phooey.... Our schedule has been so out of whack today! We went to bed early, woke up SUPER early, took a 1.5 hour nap and are now working on another nap! Poor Luke's biological alarm clock needs some adjusting and I am zonked! He has started getting up really early (as of last week) and now with the time change, we are not functioning very well! Hope we can get in the swing of things again soon.

Any tips out there?

Terrific Tuesday!!

Although rain is headed our way, my heart is happy. Why?.... because of my baby bubba! We are getting up earlier these days and we are recovering from a terrible cold, but we keep a song in our heart and a smile on our faces (most of the time)! Hope you have a wonderful day!

"Why didn't you tell me" Wednesday #2

Why didn't you tell me:

- that I will almost always "get ready" for my day, just by brushing my hair/teeth and putting on clean PJs

- that I will go days without straightening or curling or fixing my hair...

- that I will go even LONGER without shaving my legs...

- that I will develop a DEEP appreciation for house shoes (I LIVE in my UGGS too)

-that getting a few minutes in the shower will be the absolute highlight of my day on most days (

Show us your life Valentines day....

my funny valentines



kelly's korner is at it again... and, of course, I just had to join!... she wants us to share Valentine's stories... My favorite one just hasn't been written... yet



This will be our first Valentine's Day as parents!! (we knew last year that we were having a baby, but I was so very sick, I honestly do not even remember what we did... I probably tried to eat some rice and not throw up).


This year we are going to a Japanese steak-house for a VERY early dinner (like 4:30 on a Saturday--ha). A kind friend offered to hop on down the street to watch Luke for us.


This Valentine's Day will be a memorable one for us because every day is new and special now that we have our baby that we prayed and yearned for. We waited on our little Valentine for many years. He has made our hearts fill to a capacity that we never thought imaginable. I am so blessed to be Luke's mom and Josh's wife.

Things I love Thursdays... #2

Yes, I am continuing in true cleaning-geek fashion.... I love the Clorox wipes. My favorite would be the Lemon Fresh ones. I use them EVERYWHERE!! I use them in the kitchen, in the bathroom, on random stuff (like icky doorknobs) and most recently to disinfect Luke's stuff (such as the excersaucer stuff that the dogs LOVE to put their snouts on all the time)!

Since I missed posting yesterday, I am going to try to make up my Wednesday post tonight... keep your fingers crossed and go pick up some Clorox wipes! :)

Tuesday cheer

Okay, so I have been holding out on you... I am FINALLY sharing this with the WORLD! We had Luke's 4-month pictures made and THIS is what happened... Just look at the JOY on his face!!
We have a WONDERFUL photographer that we have the priveledge of working with. She does AMAZING work... but even this photo just GOT her! We were so excited and amazed that Luke kept his sweet smile and that she grabbed a wonderful memory for us!You can check here out here.

to tweet or not...

This whole twitter thing is bugging me. I haven't thought to join until recently. I see so many updates via twitter.... I will be honest, I have NEVER even visited the Twitter website to check it out, much less to set up an account.... I don't even know how to tweet.... I do think it is funny that the updates are called "tweets". I have wondered about joining the world of twits, tweets, tweeters, or what-have-you! Maybe I will check it out... what are your thoughts.... do you tweet?
p.s. we are getting snow again! Ugh... I am tired of snow....

Blissdom is sold out and I am only 45 minutes away!

So, this week, I have been thinking about how all of my favorite bloggers are just down the street in Nashville and I AM NOT!!! Oh, the pain!! I have been checking out their sites and seeing how much fun they are having! The local news even ran a piece on all of them! If you haven't heard, they are all at BLISSDOM!!

Today I read the post at LIFE IN GRACE and she mentioned her friend @ Blessed Moon was having a blog party and so here we go! Thank you for having me to your party!!

ME...

I love to blog, I started it as a way to communicate with the world while waiting for my son to be born. I was very sick during my pregnancy, I was laid off from my job, and I was enjoying the peeks into the lives of all of these great women so I started Clarksville Capers.

I love to decorate and I love to see how other people live. I have too many hobbies to keep track of (but not enough time). I am married to the most wonderful man, I have finally been blessed with a sweet baby boy, I have a dog that I love and one that is growing on me. Add all of that to the 2 cats, the bird, and the lizard and life gets hectic. Oh yeah, did I mention.... I am NOW a FULL-TIME student! WHEW!

Luke makes a purchase....?

Somebody has a "new" friend....

(he picked him out all by himself....)

I think the "new" friend is cute...
maybe because he looks like our "old" friend.... Dante!
(I think that is why Luke was drawn to him in the first place)

Things I love Thursdays!

Since you have hung in there this long, through my sporadic blogging and now through my renewed regular blogging (ahem, I know it has only been a week), I am going to share even more with you! We started with a theme this Wednesday and now here is a new Thursday series....

THINGS I LOVE THURSDAYS!!!

#1 I love....

a good vacuum! I have an obsession with clean carpets... I am a BIG fan of a certain brand... in fact, I don't even call it vacuuming, I call it Dysoning!!

My original DC07 died this summer after a few months of desperately trying to revive it with random parts suggested by the company. It was a wonderful purchase and I worked it to death over the 6-7 years that I had it. I know, you might think that isn't enough time to justify the purchase price of such a machine, but I dysoned daily... and not just my floors, I used EVERY attachment that came with it VERY regularly! Remember, I have 2 dogs, and at one point had 4 cats and a bird! I also love shaggy carpet (frieze, I think). So, based on all of this, when the original purple dyson died, I had to drive an hour to go pick up my second one!! This one has something called "airmuscle" and it SUCKS, but in a very good, picking up every last particle of dirt and pet hair kind of way!

I love my vacuum so much, that I have been a little disappointed that I haven't had the same amount of time to bond with my new DC28. At first I was too pregnant, then I couldn't use it because of my C-section, and now.... it is that whole "time" factor... Nevertheless... it is one of my MOST FAVORITE things....

I love the color of it, I love how easy it is to use, I love how well it works, I love that it is RELIABLE, I love that it does not use bags, I love that the filters are washable, I love that there is NO BELT to change, I love that the attachments are on board and easy to get to, and I LOVE, LOVE the carpet lines it leaves behind after I use it (see... I told you I have an obsession)!

"why didn't you tell me" Wednesday

You guessed it!... It is NAP-TIME!! As I hurry to eat my lunch I am starting off a new thing here at Clarksville Capers... I have steadily kept track of all these wacky things that I wish somebody would have told me... most of them relate to becoming a mommy and since most of my followers are girls, I thought this would be a fun thing to do. You will either wince at my misfortune, recall your own similar experience, or use it to keep yourself from feeling alone if you find yourself in the same predicament! Please feel free to share comments with your own experiences, as long as you don't mind if I share them in later posts!

#1 Why didn't you tell me....

that even though when you become a mother, you will never be alone, but yet, you will feel very lonely...

I am blessed to have finally had a baby after many long years of praying for one, but in my greatest joy, I have found isolation. I don't have the baby-blues or any sort of depression about it--I love my son (even when he wants to wake up every 2-3 hours at night, when he smiles at me, I smile back, because I am thankful he is here). The isolation I feel is because, as a new mom, you are struggling to just perform he basic functions for yourself, while tending to a whole new life.

1. I used to be "on the go" a lot. Now, if I even feel rested enough to think of venturing out, it requires a ton of work and prep just to make it out the door. Namely, the getting ready part for me is so hard. Putting on "real" clothes is just a luxury!

2. There is no such thing as a "quick" visit with a friend. Part of this is because I am so far away from many of my friends, and part of it is because I just cannot function enough to get out sometimes.

3. I used to talk on the phone "A LOT". Now I have to remember to call my friends to check in with them-- to let them know that I am still alive. Part of this is because of my next point...

4. My schedule is so crazy. For the past year, due to my sickness or now catering to my son's needs, my schedule is just the total opposite of everyone else's. So, even if I could settle down for a quick chat, it is while most of my friends (and my husband) are in bed or at work! If I do actually manage a call, it could be cut short because of "bodily functions" ;)

5. Because I am so drained, I don't feel like I can comprehend much or hold any sort of intelligent discussion that doesn't involve my child or my lack of sleep, and I know that most people don't want to hear this... so, I keep to myself (except for here... where it is my world-bloggers!).

6. I feel that because I feel this way, that something is not right with ME... and that is why I am being so open and honest in these upcoming posts. It wasn't until a friend of mine called to check in a few weeks ago, that these things were validated and I realized "My GOD, I am not the only one"