Case in point: We are at Fazolis and Hayes has that “I need to go potty” face. Knowing he would rather stay at the table and finish his blue icee, I scoop him up and race to the bathroom. Half way through the restaurant I put my hand over his mouth because he is screami..errr..shrieking at the top of his lungs until we made it to the loo. At that point, I was thinking, what would June Cleaver have done? Nope..I should be wondering how June Cleaver’s three year old would have acted in a public restroom upon realizing he had to potty.

Now, I have a story for our blog..

Second case in point: We are at the Midway Fall Festival quietly, but trying almost unsuccessfully to navigate the throngs of people to between the entirely too narrow walkway..when Hayes smacks Rhys in the face while riding in the stroller. Rhys has this alarming capacity to inhale for about 10 seconds before he lets out a whail and then screams at the top of his lungs. That short silence feels like an eternity because we wait for the loudness of the cry to figure out how badly he is injured. Thankfully, he is not, just stunned. In the meantime the ENTIRE crowd in front of me and on either side turns my way and begins to glare at me as if I should do something immediately to remedy the situation. Good grief. Their judgmental glances were enough to make we want to yell myself. I know the majority of them had to have been a parent in my situation at some point in their lives. Give me a break.

So, I’m not sure what one of those moms would have done to remedy either of the above mentioned situations, but I thought we handled it pretty well.

We started our summer with both vehicles taking trips to the mechanic (on the same day). Whoo hoo! (thick sarcasm)

Hayes is three now and Rhys is almost 19 months old. They are hilarious together and it is obvious they love being brothers. I’m so glad they are as close as they are.

I just completed year 6 of teaching and I am wiser for it; I’ve taken up running and am looking to do a half-marathon in October; I love playing music with some spectacular musicians at church each week.

Jeremy is taking classes this summer to press on to finish that M.Div and today he learned that the Greek letters that make up Ichthus are actually an acronym that spells out the names of God. (I think I got that right.)

Keep checking back..we’ll talk to you soon!

As for the littlest one, Rhys is into biting these days. He enjoys trying out his new teeth on any unsuspecting human, toy, or animal. He’s a pretty fast crawler, so beware. Yikes!

On the way back from the Wilmore Arts and Crafts fair, we were walking briskly back to our house and noticed that both Rhys and Hayes were singing to each other in the stroller. We were quiet and listened to the recognizable pieces of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and Rhys’ own song today.  What a wonderful snapshot that will stay with us forever!

The boys really enjoy one another these days, especially when the other tickles them. Will our days always be this joyous? Probably not, so I’m wishing we could freeze time today.

We’re in day three of battling this disease. The scary thing is that his doctor and I didn’t really see a sick kid that day. He’s as healthy as he ever was. The only symptoms he had were LOTS of diapers and a remarkable thirst. Hayes is teaching us that everything is going to be ok. This process is harder for us than it is for him.

How can you help us? Pray for Hayes’ health. Everytime we give him insulin, we are giving him health. This is just not fair. Why do kids get sick? I wish I understood why. This is a tough one.

Check out JDRI (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International) at jdrf.org.  Right now there is no cure, but some day there will be.

A few notes about today..

Today was a lovely day at our house. It was quiet and busy as we played with our boys. We stayed in pajamas almost all day. The highlight of the morning was that Hayes helped us make pancakes and kolaches. We enjoyed his delicious additions to our breakfast.

It snowed again today. It was quite serene. We enjoyed watching the snowflakes turn into glitter as they fell to the ground.

Hayes got a new engine for his train set. I have never seen him express so much happiness before! It was a wonderful blessing to take part in such a special moment.

I am cherishing these days that I get to spend with my young family. The boys are growing so fast and I don’t want to miss a moment of their new discoveries.

Rhys rolled on his side at 6 days old. What an overachiever! He has held his head up like a champ since day one. He loves to be snuggled and held, unlike his big brother, Hayes, who is always on the go and doesn’t always have time for kisses and hugs.

Hayes is loving his baby brother and can’t wait until he can really play with him. He is always trying to get him to play with his cars, blocks, and trains. He loves to kiss his baby brother and bounce him in his bouncer. Too bad he doesn’t always share kisses with mom and dad! Hayes can throw a basketball, football, or baseball like an all-star athlete. He enjoyed playing basketball with his cousin Justin, Pop Pop, Uncle Ash, and Daddy during their Christmas visit.  He learns new words every 5 minutes or so and has become loquacious these days.  

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.

Rhys is 6 weeks old and Hayes is 22 months and 3 weeks old. What a year this has been! Shortly after we celebrated Hayes’ first birthday, we found out we were going to have another baby..another boy! We experienced selling our home (boo hoo) and made the move to Wilmore, KY so Jeremy could finish his M.Div at Asbury Theological Seminary. We’re settled in now. We just celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas as a family of four (with the Woodleys and my dad coming to visit twice each!). We are looking forward to a new year and hopeful for the new things the year will bring. We have been truly blessed by our friends and family this year. Thank you!

We were blessed with the birth of our second son, Rhys Alexander Woodley, on November 16, 2009 at 4:58 PM. He was 19 1/4 inches and weighed 7 lbs and 1 oz on his birthday. We all woke up that Monday morning to my complaining of cramps and pain. I wasn’t sure if Iwas going into work until around 6:30 AM..when I finally called in to request my substitute teacher.  After dropping Hayes off at Ms. Rachel’s, we drove through Chick-Fil-A to get a breakfast burrito and a sweet tea for me and a breakfast combo of Chicken Minis for Jeremy. We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 AM. I was having trouble concentrating and answering  all those demographic and insurance questions as we checked in to the hospital. As we left the elevator to arrive at the labor and delivery wing of Central Baptist Hospital (Lexington, KY), we saw Jeremiah 1:4-5 on the wall:

4 “The Word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5 ” Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,

before you were born I set you apart; 

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

This is one of Jeremy’s favorite pieces of Scripture.   What a blessed thing to read as we began to prepare for the birth of our newest son.

We got settled into our room and the nurses began asking me questions about how I was doing. By 10:00 AM, we hadn’t really figured out if I was really in labor, or if this was just a false alarm (like we had with Hayes..5 times.)  I was hooked up to all the machines and was able to listen to Rhys’ heartbeat as we tried to find something to watch on TV. (We were excited about getting to watch cable, because we didn’t have that at home). I got in trouble with the nurse as she walked into to find me eating and drinking my Chick Fil A breakfast. As the nurses and dr tried to determine if I was really in labor, we found a pretty interesting show about people surviving bear attacks and other attacks of violent creatures. This helped take my mind off the slightly painful contractions. At some point, we were told that I could walk around to see if my labor pains would increase. Since I was at 37 weeks and 5 days, (full-term, but still a bit early)  Nurse Tammy told me that I would have to “prove” that I needed to be there if this was indeed early labor. As I walked around, Tammy noticed that I was in an increasing amount of pain. As I got settled back into bed after our dizzying walk around the labor wing, Nurse Tammy brought me some pain medicine. Things started to get fuzzy and silly. Contractions were irregular coming every 4-7 minutes. Jeremy ran to the car to get our cameras as the Stadol lulled me to sleep for a bit. As I woke up, I was apparently saying some really silly things and Jeremy was amused. 

The next few hours seemed to fly by. Not long after the medicine wore off, the contractions started coming regularly and fiercely. Soon after (around 3:00 PM), the dr. came in and broke my water.  Jeremy and I had a slight moment of panic and immense joy as we realized that we were going to meet our newest son very soon. We began calling everyone we could think of to let them know we were in labor. YEAH!

Note: Nurse Tammy told us that she was known for having her expectant moms deliver by 5:00 PM and that she’d never broken this record.

I had agreed earlier to an epidural and began pleading that the dr would come in and do it immediately. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long. The anesthesiologist and Nurse Tammy told me that I was handling the contractions like a champ. The epidural took a bit to work itself out. Shortly after 4:30, I called the nurse to tell her that I felt like I needed to push. The dr came in a few minutes later and Rhys was born at 4:58 PM. (Nurse Tammy hadn’t broken her record!)

Rhys was so alert the second we met him. Jeremy went to take pictures of our newest son as the nurses cleaned him up.  I was able to hold Rhys almost immediately to help him warm up. We enjoyed those first few moments with our newest son and wished that time would have stood still.  We noticed how much he looked like his big brother and how dark his thick, black hair was. Every part of him was perfectly formed. How wonderful are the promises of God.  We praise Him for the birth of our newest son, Rhys.

Shortly after his birth, I was moved to the Mother and Baby unit on the 3rd floor. My dinner was there to meet me. That was very good thing, since I was ravished! Our friend, Gina, came to visit us after Jeremy called her to ask her to bring Rhys’ baby bag. In all of our hurry to get out of the house that morning, we grabbed everyone else’s bag except, Rhys’!  Rhys got his first bath that evening and wailed during that experience. During those first few hours, we spent a lot of time cuddling and changing diapers. What great lungs he has! Our friend, Joey to see us that night as well.  Fortunately, our nurses were quite lenient about the visiting hours!

I spent the first night listening to Rhys’ little noises and grunts. He is a very loud sleeper. Some how, Jeremy was able to get some rest that first night. Rhys has a vigorous appetite and is a great eater!

Rhys had several visitors on his second day. Jeni, Cory, Gina, and Joey, some of Jeremy’s group from a class at Asbury, came to visit us that night and we had dinner together eating some of the “yummy” hospital cafeteria food.

Rhys passed all of his “tests” during those first two and a half days. It took a second run at the hearing test for Rhys to pass since he had fluid in his ear after delivery. Rhys had a special visit from a pediatric urologist to check his kidneys and bladder since fluid was found on his kidneys at my 36 week visit. An ultrasound on the day after he was born found a bit of fluid still on his kidneys. Dr. Shaffer reassured us that he wasn’t too worried about it and that we would need to follow up in two weeks.

We have been so blessed since moving to Wilmore. It is difficult to be far away from our family and friends in Texas. The Lord has blessed us as we have made some new, wonderful friends that have helped us transition from begin parents of one to parents of two beautiful boys. Thankfully, many family members have been able to come visit us and help us with their wise ideas and insights, not to mention doing laundry, dishes, and cooking meals.   Thanks for reading. Keep watching for updates.