An Overdue Update

Well, we have been pretty busy lately and on the move!! Literally!! Austin is crawling now!! Well, it's his version of a crawl, which is more of an army crawl. It started out with him pushing himself backwards. Within about two weeks, he finally figured out the forwards direction. However, he hasn't quite figured out how to get up on his knees, and bless his heart, he also hasn't figured out that he can push off with both his right and left foot. A few days after he started moving in the forwards direction, I picked him up at school and his teacher had just noticed a large open blister on the bottom of his right big toe (this coming the day after she noticed a bump on his hand and freaked me out with the possibility that he had Hand, Foot and Mouth, which thankfully he did not have). They couldn't figure out how he got the blister but I wondered if it had anything to do with how he was crawling. Sure enough, when we got home and I put him on the floor, I noticed that he uses his elbows to move forward and he only pushes off with his right foot!! So poor little buddy rubbed a big blister on his toe from crawling around. We kept a sock on his foot for a few days to let it heal some and it has almost completely healed and toughened up. Now he has multiple little blisters in different spots that just continue to heal and toughen up, just for another to come up in another spot!

After mine and Austin's weekend in Huntsville, we had a slight life-changing experience happen within our family. Justin was on his way back from working in Memphis on Thursday, August 5 when he flipped his truck off a 25 foot ravine off the interstate. Him and both of his coworkers were all miraculously okay with only minor cuts and bruises. It was a total freak accident and started when Justin's back tires hydroplaned after hitting a patch of standing water on the interstate. After losing control and skidding across the northbound side of the interstate and hitting a tree, they went right over this drop-off and flipped until they landed upside down. I'll post the pictures below.....they speak louder than words.








So needless to say, by the time he got home Thursday night and spent the day in the office on Friday, we did absolutely nothing that weekend except enjoy our time together. Justin was very sore and tired so we were as lazy as possible. This experience has made us both realize how precious life is and how short it can be. In all honestly, Justin should be dead right now and I should be a widow. A widow. I can't tell you how many times that word has crossed my mind. That night as I was washing dishes after Austin was in bed, all I could think about was what I would be doing if the wreck had been fatal. Would I even be in our house, washing those same dishes? Or would I be with Justin's parents at their house? Or would my mom be with me, washing my dishes and taking care of Austin while I mourned and grieved? Would I already be making funeral arrangements? Would I have to drive to Mississippi to identify his body? What kind of funeral would he have wanted? Who would be taking care of Austin while his mommy was grieving the loss of his daddy? How long would I continue to wear my wedding band? As morbid as these thoughts may sound, they were all running through my head, along with so many more. And as I talked to my mom about all these thoughts, she knew all too well exactly how I felt, as she actually had to ask herself those same questions when my dad passed away. I cannot even begin to imagine the thoughts that went through Justin's mind. I know his perspective and outlook on life has been changed forever. Right then and there, in the kitchen in front of the stove, I dropped to my knees and thanked God for sparing my husband's life. I give Him all the thanks and glory for the miracle that happened that day (oh yeah, and Ford for making "Ford Tough" vehicles). Hug your loved ones extra tight tonight.....life can be so sweet, but also so short.

The following weekend, Justin, Austin and I all went back up to Huntsville for another weekend stay since Justin was finally done with working on the weekends. We had such a great time!! Austin loved the pool of course and Justin and I really enjoyed having "adult" time with our friends! Jenn and Quin have such a perfect backyard for entertaining and we loved sitting outside on the deck, drinking a few beers, listening to music, grilling burgers and hot dogs and just enjoying life!! I wish we could do that every weekend!! Austin playing in Aunt Jenn's sinkSwimming with Aunt Laurie and RowenI love this picture of them!We have a picture just like this of Justin and his dad when Justin was about Austin's age. We were trying to re-create the picture...sure do wish my scanner would work so you could see the side by side comparison!

We came back on Sunday afternoon and went straight to Justin's cousins house for a Vinson family gathering. It was the first time that some of Justin's cousins had met Austin since we only see them about once a year. We had a nice time, although we were both pretty exhausted from staying up too late two nights in a row.

This past weekend we did a ton of cleaning on Saturday and a lot of nothing on Sunday!! Austin is at such a fun stage right now and is quickly getting into anything and everything!! He may not have his crawl down 100% but he sure is fast!! He loves playing with his toys and I could sit and just watch him for hours. He makes me smile and laugh so much when I'm with him. He is just so awesome. I know we have had our moments and he hasn't always been "perfect", but really, what baby is?! Other than those few moments...or days....he has been incredible and such a blessing to our lives. I can't even look at him without thinking or saying, "Oh my gosh, he is so cute!!" I swear he gets cuter and cuter by the day. He is still eating great and sleeping great!! He eats about 25-30oz of formula a day, eats a fruit and vegetable each day and also still gets rice cereal. We have had to change up the consistency of the rice cereal though because if it is too thick, it makes him gag and then he throws up everything that he just ate. Not a pleasant experience and very frustrating to say the least. He is sleeping from about 7:30pm to 6am, sometimes a little later, which is pretty awesome!! It has turned into a great schedule for us because we have plenty of play time with him at night, but also plenty of time to cook dinner, eat and spend some alone time with each other before bedtime. He is teething right now, which has proved to be a slight struggle lately! We just started putting Orajel on his gums and that definitely seems to help. I just hate to see him in discomfort and we believe the pain has kept him from sleeping a few nights here and there. Any teething suggestions from you moms out there?!?!

We are gearing up for football season and a trip to Charlotte, NC to visit our friends, Scott and Beth Ann this weekend. We are leaving around lunch on Friday and coming home Sunday, so it will be a short trip but we are very much looking forward to it. Austin is going to stay home and my mom is coming to stay with him. I just couldn't fathom a 6+ hour drive with him one way, not to mention that Friday is Justin's 30th birthday - yes the big 3-0 - and we really wanted to be able to go out and celebrate. So it worked out for everyone and we so excited!! Saturday should be lots of fun with the start of college football and getting out to see some of Charlotte! It should make for a great birthday/football/Labor Day weekend!

Here are just some recent pics of Austin over the last few weeks:

Austin was so tired after his bottle that he fell asleep on the changing table!He was wide awake after his bath though!He fell asleep in the bathtub the next night which has never happened!This was the night he started "crawling" backwards (yes, that is drool dripping off his chin!)These are his 7 month "photo shoot" pictures I do each month....they are getting harder and harder as he gets more mobile. I took a ton of pictures over the course of a few days just trying to get a few good ones!You can see how interested he was in taking pictures!I love that sly little grin!He fell asleep with his paci in upside down, which he does often because he loves to take it in and out of his mouth and play with it. I just think it's so cute when he puts it back in upside down and doesn't seem to care at all!I was trying to capture how blue his eyes are and the picture turned out kinda weird, but I kinda like it! In a way, it looks nothing like him to me!Playing with Daddy!Kisses for Mommy!
We put him in the swing in his swingset for the first time and he loved it! The smile on his face is priceless!!!

That is all I have for now! I would like to end with a quick update on Nikki. I know I haven't updated on her in a while, which is awful because the news is good!! She has had a zero tumor marker at her last two checkups!! This is such awesome, amazing news! She has been feeling so good and has had a wonderful summer because of that. She is getting ready for a trip to Hawaii (I'm only slightly jealous..) after another checkup next week, so please continue to pray for her! We need those tumors to stay away for good and I really don't want her to get bad news right before her trip. It's so amazing that the last chemo has worked so well, especially since it is the treatment that worked so great for her in the past. I just hope and pray that it continues to do its job because it's time for those tumors to be gone for good!!

Not even sure if there are any readers still out there, but if so, thanks for reading! I would love to hear from you!!