We miss you!

We miss you Daddy/Beegeeweegee! We can't wait for you to get those helicopters back home! Love you :-)

Jim and Chris

Happy anniversary to Ma and Pa Beach. Wish you guys could be together today to celebrate but we are so happy to have Chris' help here in NC as well!

Handywork

I am so thankful that Ben is so good with his hands! Here is the finished project of the back porch!

The missing piece to my puzzle....

I have been slightly frustrated since we haven't been able to get Issac to lay down by himself very much & then he has been gassy as well.....the past 2 nights haven't been super swell but Ben took Isaac from me last night after I nursed him and they promptly fell asleep leaving me to 3.5 hours to sleep on my own!! That is the most that I have got in the past 2 weeks!! Benny definitely is the missing piece to the puzzle that is Isaac!

A few thoughts for today......

• what the heck happened to the steelers on Sunday? Were they asleep at the wheel?
• why is it so easy to lose the first half of your baby weight and then the rest hangs on?
• why is it that your hair doesn't want to behave after you have had a baby?
• why do I have such gassy babies? I am going to stop watching my diet so carefully!!
• what am I going to do with 2 children by myself after Ben's mom leaves (even though it will only be a few days until Ben returns home!)
• how do you balance your time between 2 children? I am feeling guilty about not having time for Kendall.
• last but not least.......why does lack of sleep make you feel like such a big cranky baby????

An update of sorts....

We have been hanging steady here. Isaac is 2 weeks old today and it is so hard to believe that so much has happened in such a little time. Mom and Dad have been here for a week with one week left to go. Chris (Ben's mom) will be flying in on the 27th (concidentally the same day that Ben leaves for California).
Isaac has been really great minus not being able to sleep by himself at night. I.E. I have been cuddling him for the 3 hours in between feedings. NOT FUN!! We have some great suggestions on how to get around this and I think that I am going to work on him while Ben is gone to try and get him straightened out.
Dad and Ben have been busy on some household projects. Alot of you know that my gazebo covering bent and ripped on Mother's day weekend. I was super upset as I really liked how the back porch was with it. Ben salvaged the bottom half of the frame since nothing was wrong with it & they built a pergola out on the porch instead. I am super happy to have my nice relaxing spot back!
They also painted our living room. Ben and I have been wanting to do this for some time but just didn't have time to do it. It looks so much more finished & I will be excited once we replace the light fixture since that room will be completely done! We have to put pictures back up soon as well.
Mom has been putting Kendall through Grammy's Potty Boot Camp which I guess Chris will be keeping up with when she gets here. She has done pretty well so far peeing in the potty about 5 times and pooping once!
We went to Cherry Point yesterday to see Ben's new squadron. (It is official since he has finally checked into HML/A 467)It was really weird to be at a fixed wing base but nice to see where Ben will be working.
Other than that.....hmmmmm.....lots of football watching, mom cleaning, and general rest. We are hoping to get back to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to get Kendall on her normal schedule & I look forward to taking mom & dad to see my office on Tuesday since they haven't seen the new building yet.

Thanks again to all of our family and friends! It was such a pleasant surprise yesterday to be greeted with all of the packages on the front porch not to mention all the others that have been delivered over the past few weeks.

Mamoo and Dadoo

Happy Anniversary Mamoo and Dadoo!!
Love,
Ben, Jamie, Kendall, and Isaac

Welcome home Cody!!

Congratulations Stef you made it through another one! Welcome home Cody!! Enjoy the soccer game today :-)

Happy Birthday!!!

Pappy Heider!!
Wish we could be there :-)

BeeGeeWeeGee

My thanks would not be complete without mentioning my wonderful hubby. Today is Ben's first day back to work so I am a little sad but I knew that it was coming. He has been doing such an awesome job from taking care of Kendall, to cleaning the house, laundry, cooking, getting up with our gassy son, and trying to make sure that I get a little TLC in the meantime.
What a great husband and friend :-)

Family and Friends are a wonderful gift!

We just wanted to say thank-you to everyone for all of the correspondence with well wishes that has come our way, baby gifts, help around the house, meals made by our wonderful Sunday school class, and everything else! I promise once things settle back down to normal that I will get back with everyone....maybe I should hire a personal secretary :-) We really appreciate everything that ya'll have done!
Love,
Ben, Jamie, Kendall, and Isaac

More pictures from Isaac's first week

Laura's Visit

My best friend from nursing school came into J'ville to visit us when Isaac was 3 days old. Laura has always been a big traveler and since she was coming to Delware to see her sister she decided to hop a flight on down here. It was so good to see her since Alaska is just a bit too far for a car trip! We didn't get to do too much but I am hoping to see her again around Christmas time. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Ten Tiny Fingers, Ten Tiny Toes,

And one Daddy Beach nose.

Isaac Carter has arrived. We went to labor on Saturday night and Isaac made his way into the world at 7:11 a.m. on September 7th (my mom's birthday).

He is wonderfully healthy and the labor & delivery went well. Isaac weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Kendall LOVES being a big sister & loves to hold her baby brother. (Not to mention tell everyone about him!)

We just got home about an hour ago. (They let us come home home early for good behavior!) We are ready for company maybe tomorrow or the next day. I am attaching a few pictures and more will be on the way.

Mamoo

Happy Birthday Mamoo!
Love,
Ben, Jamie, Kendall, Isaac, and the 4-leggers

Little impact

We thankfully didn't see much impact from the Hanna storm front. We did get rain yesterday on and off plus a good deal of wind early this morning but remain relatively unscathed. Today kicks in full swing fall/baby cleaning. I am under Ben's orders to sit for a little bit since I was doing too much huffing and puffing for his liking so I thought that I would attach some pictures of our recent adventures.

Ben made Kendall a tent today so that she could play in there while we are cleaning. She is having a good time in it :-)

Last night Kendall helped daddy shuck some corn again and here she is enjoying the cooked version. I might also add that she also sampled some of the uncooked variety as well!

I wanna be like Jordan!

First day of Parents Morning Out and you can't make me smile!

Preparing for Hanna

As the first drops of rain are beginning to fall on eastern NC, I just wanted to let ya'll know that we are prepared now after a big trip to Walmart yesterday morning and another to Food Lion today if Hanna decides to descend on us. The laundry is at least washed if not folded just quite yet, I have started securing things outside but Ben will have to finish, the burb is filled up with gas as will the car as well when Ben gets off, I am hoping to get online in a little bit to pay the bills, and I think that we are stocked with food & drinks. I know that this isn't supposed to be the big one to worry about but I would rather prepare for the worst & hope for the best. That being said.........

OB update

I am 75-80% effaced and a loose 3 cm which is about 4 cm dilated. The midwife thinks that Isaac is over 7 pounds now and his heartbeat was in the low 150's yesterday. She began to stir my membranes (why all of a sudden do I feel like a mixed drink?) then decided that she had better not with the upcoming weather & the fact that this is baby #2. She asked how close we were to the hospital in the event that we need to get there in a hurry. I know that it is no secret that I am ready to hold this little guy but I really wish that he will wait until after Hanna. I think that we have decided the safest course of action if it happens tonight during the worst of the tropical storm/hurricane, we will take Kendall with us so not to risk my friend Stef and her kids or our safety. Prayers are much appreciated!

Kendall had her first day back to Parents Morning Out yesterday and had a blast. It will be so nice to have her back on a "normal" schedule plus get her some more time with other kids. There is only 1 boy in her Thursday class so hopefully she won't get in too much trouble!

Ben is not going to be able to check in to his new squadron until September 16th so that he can get his replacement up to speed at the wing before leaving. He will be leaving for California on the 27th to help bring the aircraft back to NC. Unfortunately, he will be missing his mom's visit since she flies in that day and leaves on October 4th. (He probably won't be back by then.) I will be grateful for the company and help though!

My friend Laura, from college, is to be coming in on the 10th so I am worried that Hurricane Ike might keep her from visiting and I have been so looking forward to having her here. We will see as the time approaches!

Depending on when Isaac decides to get here, we will be scheduling mom and dad's visit in here as well!

Sorry for the verbose posting but I thought that I would jot a few things down while 1. we have power, 2. while I don't have 2 crazy children and 3. just because I can :-)

Ben will try to keep the blog up after Isaac gets here with pictures and the like.

Happy Birthday to Judd today and my Grandma Wonderling tomorrow!!

Happy Belated Labor Day!

I hope that this blog finds the majority of you in bed instead of sitting up like myself :-) Still sleepless in Jacksonville. I guess Isaac is just preparing me for what is to come.
We wanted to wish everyone a happy Labor day even if it is a day late! We have had a pretty low key weekend (mostly out of necessity for my sake.) Let's see what we have been up to....
Kendall and I had lunch with Stef and Greyson on Friday. We had a blast even though Kendall fell asleep in my lap in the play area of Chick Fil A! I don't remember what we did on Friday night???? Saturday, we went to a birthday party for Gabriel (one of Kendall's friends from play group) in the afternoon/evening time. Kendall had so much fun that I see a slip n' slide is in order for next summer! Sunday we were blessed with some pound cake from our dear adopted "grandparents" from church. Of course as usual we enjoyed church and our fellowship time with our Sunday school class.
Kendall got in trouble in her nursery class....she likes to be a lion or tiger which involves roaring. She had this one little boy pinned and was roaring in his face....he didn't like it so he pushed her down. Both kids got time out but Kendall told her teacher "NO!" and wasn't abiding by the time out rule very well so when we went to pick her up we got this report.
I tried the old stand by on the way out of church...."when mommy and daddy aren't around then you need to obey your teacher or the adult in charge...." Ben also talked to her when he was putting her up in the burb. He told her that even though we play at the house with roaring that we shouldn't do that to other kids. She responded, "He pushed me!" O.K. yes he did but that was because you were roaring in his face and he didn't want you to. Kendall then told us, "I just teasing."
There you go solid 2 year old logic!
We went shopping a little bit on Sunday evening hoping that the walking would kick start my labor. No such luck.
Yesterday was just plain old us relaxing again due to my uncomfortableness. Today (Tuesday) is going to be orientation at St. Anne's for Kendall's Parents Morning Out class. I do believe that Thursday is not coming soon enough!
So you are caught up with us :-) Let us know how your labor day weekend was!