Lately...

There's only been enough time for me to endure one pollen-related illness but it's already shaping up to be a busy spring! Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to.

Graham spent a weekend with my parents in Camden while Julie and I traveled to Anderson, South Carolina for a cousin's wedding - Julie was a bridesmaid.

We saw lots of family at the hotel, including Auntie Elle!

I had a great lunch with my father-in-law. 

Amazing hushpuppies! (@ Harbor Inn Seafood in Anderson, SC) https://t.co/GX1OFmZuOr pic.twitter.com/nOVy1ZFNnL

— Nick Baggett (@Nick_Baggett) March 11, 2016

Julie was a beautiful bridesmaid but I had to keep a close eye on her as it was surprisingly warm that day. 

The week after the wedding, we enjoyed a nice visit from our friend Kiley and her sweet girls. Graham really liked having some playmates his age for a change!

After that, a little prep work for the twins was needed. That included getting a new van! 

Graham has been a trooper through it all. He's played with his trains inside.

He's played with his trains outside.

And even took time to oversee the dying of his Easter eggs.

It's been an active month and I know we're very blessed to enjoy it all together! 

Like, Love and Don't Like (New FAMILY Edition)

Now that we’re all caught up (and before we slip back into complete silence) it’s time to provide a more current look at what’s going on with the Baggetts. As I mentioned in the last post, I’m going to borrow from my Like, Love and Don’t Like format that I enjoy using to grease the writing wheels. But rather than share personal observations, I’m going to put a “family” twist on this format. Keep reading – you’ll see.

This week, I like having a yard. When we moved into our new house, we went from having ZERO yard to having plenty of room for all kinds of activity. Now that it’s getting warmer, I’m excited about being outside even more with Graham. I’m interested to see if the grass rebounds from the wear and tear of Graham’s “roller coaster”. Graham seems to like digging in the dirt so I’m also pumped about getting his sandbox in place soon. I’ll be sure to share pics and videos.


This week, I love Julie’s tenacity. Julie is doubly pregnant yet she has yet to slow her pace when it comes to taking care of Graham and me, helping coordinate baby showers for our Sunday School class, hosting friends and family members, preparing the nursery, buying extra baby items and all of her other many duties. She’s amazing, really. She told me that she figures she only has a few more weeks left before carrying those babies really starts to take its toll. Until then, she’s trying to get as much done as she can. I try to be as helpful as I can but that means just saying out of her way most of the time!

Here's a recent picture of Julie making my mother feel special on her birthday. 

This week, I don’t like toy tornadoes. I guess another reason why I’m looking forward to more time in the yard with Graham is because of the major devastation he leaves in our basement after a day with his toys. It could be worse – at least it’s confined to one part of the house. But, man…that one part of the house sometimes looks like a tornado has scattered all of his toys! Graham has always loved trains. I really thought that interest waned back at Christmas as he only asked Santa for Hot Wheels and Paw Patrol toys. For a short period of 2016, trains took a back seat to those toys. But for last month or so, trains have been in high demand! These days, the confines of his train table are too restrictive – he seems to really enjoy (getting assistance) building new track layouts that span a much bigger area of floor. I guess I shouldn’t complain the product of an enjoyable time. I should also start bracing for the day when we have 3 tornadoes in the house!

Long Time, No Blog

At a recent family gathering, I was reminded that we haven't produced a new blog post in a very long time. I looked to see for myself and it's been over a year - YIKES! A lot of great things have happened for the Baggetts since that last post in January of 2015. Let's use this post to catch up on some of our BIGGER accomplishments.

BIG MOVE

Julie and I started our family in the townhouse she bought earlier in her career. It was all the space we needed as newlyweds and we made it work when Graham came along. But as he grew bigger, the house grew smaller. We wanted a larger home with a yard so a very determined Julie Corman Baggett set her sights on finding something that met our needs. We visited dozens of homes but could never work out a purchase.

Finally, in October of 2015, we moved into our new home and I wouldn't trade it for any of the other homes we considered! I've had a lot of fun tackling some areas of need in the yard and we've painted almost every room inside. We've still got a long way to go but I hope that we'll be able to put together a book of "before" and "after" photos to document all that we've accomplished.

Graham loves playing outside at his new house!

The very best part of our move occurred about a month after we settled into our new home. After having it on the market for over a year prior to our move, we sold the townhouse. We were extremely blessed to not have overlapping mortgage payments!

BIG ADDITION 

Before we got super-serious about moving, we were super-serious about having another baby. It wasn't until after we moved into our new home that we had any success on that front. That's what God's schedule called for and did we ever succeed! We informed family and friends about the TWINS back at Christmas and recently had a really neat gender reveal party at our house.

Posted by Julie Corman Baggett on Sunday, February 21, 2016

The genders were a total surprise to us - we didn't find out in advance. My sister was a huge help with the balloon and boy were they loud when Graham popped them! Click here to watch a video of the big reveal.

Julie’s due date is July 11th but we’ve been told to expect them to arrive in late June. We’ve got to double-up on cribs, car seats and just about everything else but we’ll make it happen!

GOING FORWARD 

Now that I know how much our blog is relied upon for family updates, I’ll be aiming to produce at least two new posts each month. I’m going to challenge Julie to write at least one post a month. I miss my “Like, Love and Don’t Like” posts so I might borrow from that format. Those posts won’t be so personal – they’ll be more about the things going on in our family. That shouldn’t be hard to do. Between maintaining a larger home with Julie and my new job (oh yeah, that happened too!), I don’t know as much about what’s going on in the outside world as I once did!

In the meantime, let me give you a few links that are surefire ways to keep tabs on us:

Nick’s YouTube Channel - I mainly share videos of Graham playing with his toys in his new yard so this is a great way to keep up with him. If you have a YouTube account, you can set up an email alert to notify you of new videos that we post.

Julie’s Instagram - Julie does a great job of preserving moments from her outings with Graham. Everyone has an Instagram account these days and, in almost everyone’s case, what you see on Facebook has already been seen on Instagram.

Come Visit Us! - We’d love to have you visit us and let us give the grand tour of all the things we still need to do in our new home! Plus, I’m really starting to get into BBQ’ing thanks to my awesome new grill that my wonderful in-laws gave me for Christmas. I might cook you something when you visit!

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like normal winters. Today is the one-year anniversary of the weirdest, most maddening winter events that I've ever experienced. So far, this has been a typical Alabama winter, and I really like that. Last year's ice event caused a lot of chaos for the better part of a week. I can't imagine how folks even function after snow storms like what occurred in Buffalo last November and this week in the northeast. Even one year later, I still slightly panic any time my tires spin on wet pavement and think the worst of thoughts - like what's depicted in this recent video from a New Jersey driver.


Would you be as calm and steady as this guy if you saw an out-of-control truck barreling your way?

Me neither.

This week, I love advances in car technology. For me, browsing the websites of car manufacturers has become the modern day version of visiting the local dealership. The new designs of Chevrolet's cars and trucks have really caught my eye - especially that new Chevy Colorado. We come to expect car manufacturers to raise the bar each year but I'm super impressed with the WiFi feature that Chevrolet has added to their new vehicles.


This will change road trips forever!

This week, I don’t like misplaced pity. I've had plenty of time to collect my thoughts about Auburn’s 2014 college football season. Ending the season by losing 4 of the last 5 games seems oddly acceptable given the promise that next year holds. But before we begin hyping next season (or is it too late for that?) I would like to address an issue of misplaced pity that fell upon the shoulders of kicker Daniel Carlson immediately after Auburn's overtime loss to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. I did not like the swiftness at which the media, coaches and many fans consoled Carlson as if his missed kick was the reason Auburn lost that game. I did not like that because it seemed to redirect the blame for the defense's abysmal play onto something more tangible - a helpless kicker. Also, where was the pity for Auburn kicker Cody Parkey when he also missed a pair of crucial field goals in a far more significant bowl game the prior season?

"Cool it with the penalties on 3rd and long, Mincy." 

Auburn's defense is the reason for those losses and to even hint at placing the blame on a non-defensive player is crazy. I, like a lot of people, like the hiring of Will Muschamp as Auburn's new defensive coordinator but I've been on enough of these roller coasters to know that every up has a down. Muschamp will certainly improve Auburn’s defense but I have that creeping thought in the back in my mind: What if he doesn't??