ninety-one :)

Today my grandmother, Mama Tom, turned 91! Amazing. She is an incredible woman, and I am so grateful for her... and thankful that she basically lives just around the corner. I love that our boys spend time with her and are spoiled with cookies and cheez-its and ice cream sandwiches when we visit. We are pretty blessed to have her in our lives! And although she would never want to live to see 100, I hope she does!

Mama Tom actually came very close to death back in April, and it was such a miracle that she lived and bounced back as much as she has. She told me a couple of months ago that she's so thankful the Lord let her live to meet Eli. Clearly, they have a sweet little connection. He lights up whenever she talks to him and tells him how wonderful and precious he is :)

just two short months ago...

I'm finally back to report on our month of September... maybe I won't take as long to get this blog truely up to date :) I won't hold my breath.

We were so excited {especially me & Gus} to go to Mexico Beach for Labor Day weekend. Matthew and Hudson had been many times over the summer without us, {thanks to super sweet aunts, uncles & grandparents} but Gus and I hadn't been since mid-June. The weather was great, we could not have enjoyed all the company more, the boys had a blast riding their bike/tractor on the street, Matthew looked forward to crab hunting each night, Gus and I had the chance to go to dinner alone one night @ Mango Marleys, Eli spent his first time on the beach nursing, I loved reading The Help, we enjoyed freshly caught scallops & the first weekend of Gator football... I could go on and on. It was the best weekend. We just love Mexico Beach with family!









At the end of the month my cousin Kia got married down in Winter Park, so Gus, Eli and I headed down there with Mom and Dad for a quick getaway. We had so much fun and laughed pratically the entire trip over randomness... running late on the way down, staying at a stellar La Quinta {we were thinking it was one of their newly remodeled ones. no such luck!}, a lady @ Applebees asking how old "John" was, referring to Eli. We have no idea how she thought his name was John, and I could not contain myself. Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, the wedding was at the Farmers Market in Winter Park, and it was so pretty with the reception held in an old train depot. It was so fun being there to witness Kia & Catherine's big day since we don't get to see each other all that much... they looked incredible, their pre-wedding music was fun with a little Outkast thrown into the mix, the mashed potato martini bar was so so yum, and they had the best favors: precious jars of honey. Congratulations, Kia & Catherine!!

the happy couple...

flower girl/fairy Nora {my cousin and Kia's niece}...

my cousins - brother & sister duo, Ariel and Ian...

yay for a photo with one of my faves...

and a BIG yay for a recent picture of just us...

mom & dad with the groom and my hilarious aunt and uncle...


Now on to homeschooling... for those of you who aren't aware, Gus and I made the decision that instead of sending Matthew to 4K at the expensive private school here in town {just a fact, not a criticism!}, that I would homeschool him. To be honest, I never imagined I would ever homeschool, but for various reasons it was quite obvious to us that it's the perfect fit for Matthew this year. And God gets all the credit here because on my own, I am so far from being cut out to homeschool anyone :)

Our first day of school was September 8th... we certainly have a few kinks to work out, but overall it's been really fun! We study a different letter each week and the month of September was "all about me", so Matthew learned about his five senses while we made jello, we traced his whole body and talked about his heartbeat & breathing, and he did a lot of artwork pertaining to the theme of the month. We also squeezed in two field trips... my great friend and mentor Karen {who is helping me tremendously with teaching since she's a retired preschool teacher} took M to her farm to see corn being harvested the week of "C", and at the end of the month the two of us went to the Quincy Fire Department since we were studying "F". Matthew had an absolute ball doing both!

we have a five year old... and a two month old!

How is it possible that Matthew is FIVE??! Yesterday I showed him his baby book as part of homeschooling, {more on that later} and I just couldn't get over how fast time has gone by since he was born. I'm also a little weirded-out that I'm actually old enough to have a five year-old :)

Matthew is such a joy... our little "gift from God"... who's sometimes a little too big for his britches! However, here are some things we enjoy most about our five year old:

1. he is an affectionate little dude
2. he could draw and color and paint forever
3. he has a fun/big imagination
4. he is great about entertaining himself
5. last but certainly not least, he is always super willing to put the pacifier in Eli's mouth when he cries :)



Now on to the littlest guy... we no longer have a newborn. It's official. Especially since he weighs more than the average two month old! But he sleeps great, eats really well, and is a great baby! He is now smiling and most recently discovered that he can actually put his hands in his mouth. Precious.



Can't do a post and leave this one out... he fell asleep watching his favorite thing in the whole wide world, Thomas the train :)

look who's three weeks old!

Crazy thinking Eli is three weeks old today! He had a wellness check-up yesterday, and he checked out great... so thankful :) He now weighs 10 pounds 5 ounces, so he's obviously eating well! And he's sleeping well too. For some reason we've been blessed with pretty easy babies, but we're thinking Eli really takes the cake. With the exception of last night, for the past week he has only woken up once in the middle of the night to eat... and having as long as a six-hour stretch between the before bed feeding and the middle of the night feeding. Hooray for getting good sleep!! {now if only the night sweats would go away!}

These were taken over the last couple of weeks...

eli gus bert :)

It is so hard to believe Eli was born fifteen days ago! I hate that he's already that old, but at the same time I'm so glad we're over the hardest "hump" of having a newborn... needing pain medication about every 4 hours, trying to get the hang of nursing again, having an all morning cry-session even though my brain knew it was not rational, falling asleep in the middle of conversations, etc. I still don't feel back to normal or even completely adjusted to this new life of three little boys, but I'm so grateful I'm headed in that direction.

Eating breakfast one last time before our new addition arrived... they really didn't know what was to come {especially Hudson, of course}, but they have done great!


Fresh out of the oven... born at 1:34 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6th, weighing in at 9 pounds 5 ounces {yikes!} and measuring 20 inches long!


Out of the three boys, this was the first time we took the camera in the delivery room... so glad we did.


Enjoying our first moments in the recovery room...




All the happy grandparents finally meeting the third Bert boy :)


Meeting very proud great-grandmother, Googie!


Big brothers meeting Eli for the first time... their faces really say it all :)


This is the first of many Hudson kisses Eli receives on a regular basis. Hudson has also proved us wrong so far... he's usually very cautious with Eli and doesn't seem to be jealous at all. Yay!


LOVE this one because Matthew was just beaming the entire time... and pretty much still is. He's in love with his baby brother.


One of our favorite surprise visitors was our pastor, Gus. He showed up the night before we came home from the hospital, and it's a visit we will treasure. He read the precious verses of Psalm 139:13-18, prayed for us and dedicated Eli with a little oil on his forehead.


Other very proud great-grandmother, Mama Tom, wasn't able to come to the hospital... so she was itching to hold Eli right after we got home. The first thing she said was that Eli looked like Gus. I agree!

promise post #1...

I am so excited that I'm squeezing in one of the posts that I more or less promised before Eli's arrival... in FIVE days! I had my last doctor's visit today and signed all the surgery paperwork, so we're definitely good to go!

Anyway, my good friend, Sara Beth, took some pictures about a month ago to capture this pregnancy a bit. Here are some of my favorites!

{We both laughed when she took the hand-shaped heart one because we thought it would turn out pretty cheesy... but it's acutally one of my very favorites!}













Next up... room re-dos!

quick update.

For those of you who are wondering... we have decided to stay put. {at least for awhile} We don't really know what the future holds other than the fact that we are where we should be for now. It's kind of easy to come to that conclusion when no one's calling to inquire about your house on the market :) We are so fine with that too because we love so many things about our house and Quincy. And it's just really nice knowing that we are exactly where we need to be!

So, we pretty much came to this conclusion mid-May... and then I started freaking out about how little time we had until Eli arrives. We had put so much on hold just in case someone wanted to look at the house. I've been crazy-nesting ever since!

I must say that "nesting" is one of my favorite things about being pregnant. Just today, I filled almost an entire trash bag full of junk in our bathroom. I love being so motivated to dust shutters and re-organize drawers and eliminate so many things that simply take up space in our house!

One last thing... the thought of re-capping all that I left out between Easter and Hudson's birthday seriously makes me want to quit blogging all together. I think I would rather have a gap than call it quits! And I know I am very unreliable/untrustworthy about my blogging... BUT I have to say that I am pretty darn confident that I will have a couple more posts before July 6th: maternity photo shoot & room re-dos.

Be back soon!