Four Blessed and Happy Years

On this day, four years ago at 10:11pm, I became a mother.  Noah was born into this world and forever changed our lives.  He (along with his brother) are two of the greatest gifts I've ever received.  How I'll ever thank him for the things he has taught me in his 4 short years, I don't know but I plan to spend my lifetime trying.  I never knew unconditional love until I set my eyes on his precious little face.  At that moment, I knew that no matter what lie ahead, there was NOTHING that would make my love for him change and I would do anything for that sweet, tiny baby boy that I had just met.

I'm so proud of the little boy Noah has grown into.  He has such a sweet little soul.  He is so loving to his family and friends and enjoys expressing his feelings with a hug, a kiss, or by rubbing noses.  I'll drop anything to be on the receiving end of these affectionate gestures!  He loves nothing more than to cuddle on the couch, especially when he's sleepy.  Some days, we'll spend hours of our time cuddling and watching tv and I wouldn't trade those moments for anything in the world.  He has the brightest smile that will light up a room and the best laugh I've ever heard.  Regularly, we are stopped by strangers that comment on what a handsome little boy he is.  I also hear all the time how he looks like he's such a "deep-thinker".  I jokingly think to myself that hopefully he'll share all of those deep thoughts with us soon!  He may not communicate verbally, but he is very effective with his non-verbal communication.  He is full of so many facial expressions!  He understands far more than we realize and is quite perceptive.  He surprises us all the time with things that he knows and understands.  Everyone that knows him has fallen in love with his sweet little personality and he has precious friendships with the teachers and aides at his school, as well as the high school kids at our church that help in his Sunday School class.  It's so funny to watch him flirt with the girls, he'll literally wink at them repeatedly and smile so coy.  It's too cute!  One day, several high school girls were volunteering at his school and when I came to pick him up, they ran outside to meet me and tell me how much they loved playing with him.  Things like that warm my heart.

Noah has definitely faced his fair share of obstacles and despite his very young age, he is so determined to overcome these challenges.  He sees all the things that his buddies in school and at church can do and he wants to be just like them!  He has shown perserverance, working hard through therapy, and learning to do all these skills on his own without giving up.  I hope these are traits that we can continue to instill in him.   He's a tough little guy.  And I couldn't be prouder!

He has no idea how many people he impacts on a regular basis.  So often, members from our church will comment to us on what an inspiration Noah is to them.  Grown men inspired by my little boy... WOW.  Every Sunday morning, the Wee Care kids of our nursery (3 - 5 year olds) join the beginning of the worship service.  They walk down the aisle together, stay for a few of the songs and a prayer, and then all walk out together to the music.  Noah has now been doing this for a year so the people of our congregation have all witnessed first-hand, Noah's progress in walking.  We try to always let him walk some of the way until he tires out.  In the beginning, he would walk with two adults holding his hands on each side of him part of the way down the aisle until he would get tired and then someone would carry him the rest of the way.  Now he will walk with someone holding just one of his hands and he can make it the entire way up and then back down the aisle.  It won't be too long before he's doing it completely on his own!  On many occasions, I am the one who walks with him as he makes his way up and down the aisle for this part of the service and it amazes me just how many people have their eyes on Noah, smiling the entire time, some even with tears in their eyes, celebrating right along with him as he conquers that walk up and then back down the aisle.  He has won the hearts of so many people and he doesn't even know it! 

He loves his family and especially his brother.  These two are quite the little pair and I love watching them together!  He enjoys music and if any commercial or tv show has a little tune that he can dance too, he's instantly glued to it and swinging his arms and bobbing to the beat.  He likes cars, trucks, and the louder they are, the better!  Sirens wailing, engines revving.. he loves it all.  He still enjoys playing with any type of ball and has fun watching sports on tv with his daddy.  He can't get enough of being outside!  This child LOVES the outdoors and cries when we make him come in.  I'm pretty sure that if I would let him, Noah would drink his weight in juice, daily.  I have to bargain with him to get him to eat... "Noah once you take 3 bites of food, THEN you can have some juice."  Most of the time he'll comply.  Of course, if its a cookie or a snack, then he'll gladly eat up!

These past four years have been the greatest of my life.  It is such a joy to be Noah's mom.  I'm so thankful that God chose ME as the one for the job.  He makes me prouder than anything I've ever accomplished or completed.  He's my heart and my world and I look forward to celebrating many more wonderful birthdays with him! 

Happy 4th Birthday, Sweet Boy! 



"While we try to teach our children about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

Noah's Walking, Noah's Walking...

Last year, when we first began working on getting Noah to walk, the therapist taught us a song that we would sing everytime he was practicing... it's to the tune of "Frarajaca" and the words are:

"Noah's walking, Noah's walking

Hop Hop Hop! Hop Hop Hop!

Running Running Running

Running Running Running

Please don't stop! Please don't stop!"

It's a very complex song. :) We literally sing this song all the time because he enjoys it so much!  Here's another video of Noah walking. This was from yesterday at PT in Birmingham. Since he was sick part of the time during his February PT session, they rescheduled him to do another 6 visits (2 x week for 3 weeks). He has 1 week left and his progress has been GREAT! I love his smile as he approaches the camera at the end of the video. :)


Untitled from whitney brink on Vimeo.

He Lives!

As a mom to two boys, I couldn't imagine the pain, terror, heartache, and even the suffering that Mary went through as she witnessed her son being beaten with a leather whip, tortured, spit on and ridiculed as he made his way to his on own cruxcification.  Putting myself in her shoes... I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't even be able to think straight; I would want to jump in the center and protect my son, take the beatings myself, wrap my arms around my child and comfort him, do ANYTHING I could to stop the pain.  But she had to watch it all, unable to do anything for she knew that not only was Jesus her son, but he was also God's son.  It's heartbreaking that Jesus had to endure that for all sinners, however, His love for us is that GREAT.  He paid the ultimate price, dying on that cross for each and every one of us, even those that were mocking and beating him that very day.  It would have seemed as if all hope were lost if we didn't know the rest of the story... on the third day, he arose from the dead, saving us all and rewarding us with everlasting life.  WOW!  What a precious gift of redemption we have all been given by Him!  Thank you God for your Son, for loving me unconditionally when I am so unworthy of that love, for saving me and allowing me the honor of spending the rest of my days with you in Heaven!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday.  We dressed in our new Easter attire and spent the morning praising our risen Savior with my family at church.  Afterwards, we went to my grandmother's house where we stuffed our bellies with a delicious lunch, topped off with homemade vanilla ice cream, cakes and pies for dessert.  And of course, no Powell Easter lunch is complete without my grandmother's bunny cake!  Jamie and I enjoyed the conversation with my family. Collier relished the attention that each of my family members were giving him... he even started crying when my cousin's 2 daughters had to leave!  Talk about enjoying the center of attention!  Noah had fun walking around outside with my uncle Terry.  By mid-afternoon, the boys were tired, our bellies were full and it was time for a nap.  Thank you Lord for a gorgeous Easter surrounded by loved ones! 

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

My sweet little baby is 6 months old today.  I know I sound like a broken record, but WHERE has the time gone???  It breaks my heart that his 'babyhood' is going by so quickly.  Jamie and I are still on the fence about whether or not we will have a 3rd, so I realize that there's a chance this could be the last time I care for a baby and I want it all to SLOOOOW down.  But on the other hand, it's so exciting watching Collier as he gets older and learns new things!  He is sitting up really well now although he will fall over from time to time.  He loves sitting up and playing with one of his musical toys (one of Noah's hand-me-downs) that is a mirror/piano.  He has begun pushing up on his belly and getting his tummy off the ground so I showed him how to get his legs underneath him (in a crawling position) and the very next day I found him in that same position and rocking back and forth! Uh-oh... I'm close to having a crawler! He definitely knows how to get around and has learned how to push himself backwards.  He also rolls all over the place to get to different toys.  I've just begun to introduce the sippy cup and he knows exactly what he's supposed to do... it goes straight to his mouth the minute I give it to him, however, he hasn't quite figured out that he's supposed to raise it up and tilt his head back in order to drink.  He is still a jumping machine and will spend as much time as I'll let him in his jumper.  He kicks his legs CONSTANTLY and they remind of me of little windshield wipers... back and forth, back and forth...

He still has such a sweet, happy disposition and my dad's side of the family has nicknamed him "smiley."  He has the most infectious laugh!  And I love to listen to him as he carries on a conversation with himself.  I can't wait until the day that I get to hear him say his first word.  He has also discovered how to blow raspberries.  And boy does he blow them!  ALL.THE.TIME.  And it makes me laugh every time.  He is such an eager and enthusiastic baby.  He's so excited all the time: huge smiles, kicking his legs as fast as he can, all the while checking out the world around him, trying to see what he can play with, and just so happy.  The only thing that he doesn't play around with is his food and his bottle.  If he spots the bottle, you have .2 seconds to get it in his mouth or he gets mad and will fuss at you!  Same with the food, he expects to be feed quickly... as soon as he swallows, he's immediately ready for another bite and if you're too slow, he will let you know.  We joke that we should just give him a straw and let him suck the food out of the container! He's on a GREAT schedule and we have dropped the "dream feed."  Now he gets a 6 oz. bottle every 4 hours: at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm.  He still gets 2 meals a day of solids (at 8am and 6pm) but it's probably time for me to incorporate lunch in his day, too.  And he naps at 9am, 1pm, and 5pm.  The 9am is normally around 1 1/2 hours, the 1pm is the longest nap, ranging from 2 - 3 hours and the 5pm nap is the shortest and around 45 minutes (sometimes this nap gets skipped).  He goes to sleep around 7:30pm and sleeps until 7am.  He still has little phases every now and then where he'll wake up in the early morning hours, but he goes back to sleep fairly quickly.  He is a very easy baby!  Another "new" thing during this past month is that his hair is starting to grow and thicken up!  He has a cute little mohawk where it's filling in on top of his head and his hair is much lighter than Noah's... it almost looks blonde at times!  He is starting to slim up some and his belly isn't as round as it used to be... but he still has his sweet little chunky thighs!  I don't know his 6 month stats yet but we'll be going for Collier's 6 month check-up and Noah's 4 year check up in a few weeks.

It is such a joy and blessing to be Collier's mom.  I love this little boy with every square inch of my heart and he is the perfect addition to our family.  He adds so much happiness and laughter to our lives.  I feel so blessed to have been given not one, but two amazing little boys and I love being their mommy. Thank you God, for giving us these two precious gifts!

Returning to Pre-Baby Body... After Two

So after my first pregnancy, I lost the weight and was back in my pre-pregnancy clothes in no time.  Maybe it was because I was only 25 and still had a good metabolism?  Who knows... all I know is it was a piece of cake so I was under the assumption that it would be just as easy the second go around.  Well.... not so much.  I gained about the same amount of weight but I've been stuck at about 5 lbs away from by pre-Collier weight.  So I enlisted Weight Watchers to help me.  My mom, sis and I joined at the beginning of March.  According to their scale (fully-clothed) I had 7 lbs to lose to be at my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm ecstatic to report that I've lost 6 lbs and am 1 lb away from my pre-Collier weight!  Whoo hoo!  I've averaged losing a pound a week and am doing it the healthy way.  Something that I hope I'll be able to maintain, rather than lose alot of weight quickly and gain it back the minute I slip up.  I've learned to pay more attention to what I eat plus I'm allowed to splurge on a sweet every now and then.  I'm choosing healthier options and it's paying off.  I've always been somewhat active, working out or walking/running pretty regularly since high school, but with 2 kids, I just don't have the energy!  Jamie and I purchased 2 DVD's so that we could workout together after the kids go to bed each night and we stuck with it for a month or so but have been slacking lately.  I'm just worn out and want down time when I put the kids to bed!  So for now, I'll be keeping up the diet as my form of weight loss.  Maybe eventually my enery will return and I'll begin working out. 

Now, weight-wise I'm back to what I was... but unfortunately, gone are the days of wearing a bikini by the pool.  I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking to tankinis from here on out!  So depressing...