Crazy Kid

Saturday was a long and busy day. Actually, it all started Friday night. Scott and I went about 30 miles north to Ackerly to attend one of our senior's graduation ceremonies. We left Will with one of our youth moms for the evening so we didn't have to drag him all the way out there just to make him be quiet and still for an hour. The graduation didn't start til 8:00, so it was a late night. By the time we got Will home and in bed, it was almost 11:00. On Saturday, we all went to Midland to do a little shopping and go to the Rockhounds (minor league baseball) game. It was soooo hot!! Again, it was another late night. I snapped this picture of Will in the car on the way home being his goofy little self. He and I were playing peek-a-boo with his softie (the blue thing on his head) and he just decided to leave it there for several minutes. It was quite funny. We had fun on the way home keeping him awake (he desperately needed a bath as the next day was church day). Anyway, I just had to share this cute and funny picture.

It was a busy weekend as usual. Scott had two meetings yesterday before evening service and Will was in a not-so-great mood. It must have been the lack of sleep from the two previous nights getting to him. He is catching up on it today, though. He is already down for his third nap of the day right now. He has probably slept a total of 5 or 6 hours in naps today. Wow...I wish I could do that. Today he is running a little fever from the shots he had last Monday. They said to expect one anywhere between 3 to 14 days after the shots. It should only last about 24 hours. That might also explain the extra-sleepiness.

Last night we got to see our friends, the Holts. Kathy is a fellow LCU-er who we reconnected with through blogging. We had a good time catching up in person. I had met her husband Matt, and son, Patrick, when Will and I visited Houston a few months back. This time, they were in Big Spring (where Matt is from) for a wedding. We had a great time visiting and reminiscing about our days at LCU. We hope to get to see them again before they leave town on Wednesday.

Today was my last Monday at work!! Next Monday is a school holiday for Memorial Day--woo-hoo! Only 7 more days of school and 8 more days of work. Then, let the summer begin :)

Cake and Ice Cream!

Oh, wow! Cake!

Hmm...this is interesting...

Okay, I'm done now!

The Guests

Nana Terri and Grandpa Tim

Donna, Trissa, Leland, and Lauren

Ryland

Birthday Boy, Mom and Dad

Pictures...finally!!

The sign I made for the door of the fellowship hall

The cake I made...the antennae should have been red, but I ran out of red icing! Oops...oh well...it turned out pretty good anyway, I thought.

Birthday Party & Mother's Day

Our computer is on the fritz, thus the reason for no posts. As soon as we can figure out the problem or I can get up to Scott's office, we will post pictures from Will's birthday party!

It was a really good birthday party, as far as one-year-old parties go. We basically just watched him open his presents (which I really did) and ate cake. He was so funny with the cake. He didn't know what to think of it. I think he would have really liked the ice cream if it hadn't been so cold! He enjoyed being the center of attention and getting to play with all his presents (and the wrapping they came in). We were thankful that my parents were able to come and share in the fun. We also had some friends from church come to celebrate. It was just right :)

Mother's Day was really great. It was nice to be able to spend it with my family. Even though I received some earthly gifts, I was more blessed by their love and appreciation.

Sorry to cut this short, but as I am at work, I don't really have time to post anymore. I will get those pictures from this weekend up just as soon as possible. Love to All~~

"Happy Birthday, Dear William..."

(Will this morning with his birthday muffin. He blew the candle out all by himself!)

One year ago today, our lives were forever changed. God gave us the most precious gift we have ever received. That gift arrived at 10:29 am, May 10, 2005, after much anticipation. We cried with tears of joy and called him William Reed Prather. One year ago, I became a mom and Scott became a dad.

Today is Will's first birthday. It is hard to believe that one year has already gone by. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 7 oz, 19.5 inches long and now he is such a big boy at almost 19 lbs. He was beautiful at birth; he becomes more and more handsome as each day goes by. Born with light brown hair, it is now unmistakably blonde. He has kept his blue eyes so far; maybe he will take after his grandpa Harvey and two great-grandpas.

It did not take us long to realize that Will was full of personality. He smiled for the first time at 5 weeks and has not stopped smiling since. He is one of the happiest babies I have ever encountered, and for that alone I know we are truly blessed. Will loves people and loves to laugh. He is so curious that he often refuses to sleep because he must know what is going on at all times! With our crazy schedules, he has always been a trooper, putting up with everything we put him through. He is the light of our lives, a light that I pray will never grow dim, but keep shining brighter and brighter!

Our journey began on Thursday, September 16, 2004. I went in for a regular appointment with my doctor and asked him to run a pregnancy test...I was suspicious even though I had tested negative at home the day before. It was about 10:00 am; I had left work for a quick doctor's visit. While I was waiting in the exam room, I heard a student nurse out in the hallway say, "This test is positive!!" My heart leapt. There were several other patients there; could she be talking about me? Seconds later, the nurse and doctor poked their heads around the door with huge smiles on their faces. I will never forget those looks. "Guess what?" he said. "You're pregnant!" I was so excited and so scared all at the same time. The worst part was, I had to go back to work and not say anything to anyone!! On my way to Scott's office to pick him up for lunch, I stopped by the flower shop where I used to work to get him a white rose. On the card, I put, "Clear your calendar for May 22 [my due date]." As soon as he saw it, he knew. We went out to eat to celebrate! My mom knew that I was going to the doctor that day and was suspicious that I was pregnant. I didn't want to say anything yet, because I was also waiting on a blood test to come back to further confirm the pregnancy. She called me that afternoon before I got the results back and I basically told her that everything was fine and I would call her back later. It was so hard to do that! But when I got the results back, we called our parents to let them know the good news.

The next 7 1/2 months went by fairly quickly and without incident. I had a great pregnancy. Of course, in April, I had to go on best rest, but you all know that story! So that brings us up to May 9th. I woke up that morning and began having strange cramp-like pains about every 15 minutes. I had never really had any Braxton-Hicks contractions, so I didn't really know what contractions felt like, but come to find out, that's what they were! I called the doctor's office and talked to the nurse to see what I should do. She said to come in when they were 5 mintues apart (duh!). So I waited. I called my mom and told her what was going on. She said that I would definitely be having the baby by the next day, so she booked a flight to Midland at 9:30 that night. When she and Scott got back to the house at about 11:30, I took some castor oil in rootbeer, just to make sure things were getting going.

Sure enough, I woke up at 2:30 am with contractions about 5 minutes apart. I woke up my mom and Scott and we got to the hospital at 3:30 am. Since it was the middle of the night, only 2 nurses were on staff (little hospital!) so it was a while before I was checked in and given pain medication. When we first got to the hospital, I was already dialated to a 5. At 7:30 am, when I finally got my epidural (I love you Skip, wherever you are!), they broke my water and I immediately went from a 6 to an 8! At 10:00 am, I began pushing. Will was ready to come out! He was born at 10:29, much to all of our surprise--the doctor wasn't quite ready for him, but he did catch him in time--yea! My wonderful friend Harmony was awesome and videoed the whole thing (strategically--you rock, girl!) and Mom and Scott were right by my side. It was a wonderful birth. I am so thankful for how it all went. Will was able to come home the next night and I have only been away from him one night since!

I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures from the last year:

The picture to the left is our little family on Will's two-week birthday, May 24.


While in Katy in July, we had professional pictures taken of Will and I. The one to the right is my favorite.

All decked out in baseball duds! ~Sept. '05

Smiling with Grandma La Don, July '05.

Dressed as a pea pod for Halloween!

With Grandpa Tim at Thanksgiving.

With Great-grandpa Harvey at Christmas.

With Nana Terri at New Year's.

A happy smiley boy in January.

There are so many more pictures that I could post of my sweet baby, but I will stop here for now. I will never forget these moments. Every detail is imprinted on my memory and on my heart. I love you, Will. Happy Birthday.

Love, Mommy :)

Before Bed Playtime

Books, books, books! How this child loves books! This is a good picture to measure how tall Will has gotten. Here he is wearing size 12 mo. pajamas. He is into several of his 12 mo. clothes (mainly shirts) already.

They fit!

Crawling toward the camera.

New Tricks

Here is Will looking out the window to the backyard. If you look closely to the left of his head, you can see Cracker lying in the grass.

We've had a lot going on lately, and that is the reason for no post. Scott has had some major papers due for school and we had our "Senior Sunday" at church this past weekend as well. To say the least, he (and in turn, we) has been quite busy.

Will and I took our first solo excursion to Midland on Saturday and spent about 3 or 4 hours there, shopping and such. We found some cute stuff for the both of us. I think I enjoyed it a little more than he did :)

On Monday, I had the day off (an un-used bad weather day, yea!) so we took a little trip east down I-20 to Abilene to return books to the ACU library and visit with our pals, Ty and Beth. Beth is a talented photographer...you can see a sample of her work here. She took some more pictues of Will on Monday for his first birthday. They are going to be super cute!!

Will is busy pulling up on everything in sight and wanting to stand more and more. Another thing he has learned to do recently is lick his lips. It is quite funny to watch. Also, I have a whislte on my key chain and he has learned to blow that. It is really cute to hear him whistling away on it. He blows as hard as he can and it still comes out so little!