Frosted Willow

I was mowing the yard the other day and as I rounded the corner of my yard by the street, I turned back and looked towards my house and started thinking about how everything came together for my life to turn out the way it did with Amanda, Talon, and now another baby coming into this house. I started thinking about bringing the baby home and how exciting it will be!

I thought back to when my best friends Jay and Ashley brought their little girl Charlie home for the first time. I was on call to watch their house when Ashley went into labor and to take care of the dogs like I had done numerous times before so I was there when they came home.

I remember when they announced they were having a baby and while I was obviously extremely excited for them, I had another feeling, which I'm sure many can relate to, that my life was growing at a slower speed than my closest friends. We did everything together. We went out together, I could come over any time and just hang out. We even put up the Christmas tree together one year. I never felt like a third wheel, it was more like we were a tricycle. They were an extension of my own family and both of their families made me feel welcome anytime.

The day Charlie came home from the hospital I took their family picture in front of the house and I can remember leaving that day thinking about what the future would hold for me and how things would change with them starting their family now. Little did I know only a couple weeks later the story of my own family would be beginning.

Well, Jay and Ashley are in the process of selling their first home and I know they will always treasure that house for all of the awesome moments that happened in it. I realized that I had some big moments in my life that happened there as well and I'm going to be a little sad to see it go. It was their house I went to the night I kissed Amanda for the first time. It was their house that Amanda and I had our first "stay at home date" and it was their house where I first met Talon for the first time. Amanda was in the area and I was over at Jay and Ashley's, and she told me she had Talon with her. It was like the universe perfectly decided to put that situation I was so worried about (meeting Talon for the first time) in this perfect place with my two best friends there with me. It was perfect. He was just a wee lad at the time only two months older than Charlie. They were so inviting and accepting of Amanda and Talon and we all stood there in the kitchen and talked for awhile. It was one of those moments where it hits you that yea, I think this is gonna be alright.

Our friendship is as great as ever, but just a little bit different. Oh we still party plenty, it's just that most of the time it's at kids birthdays! It's been so fun raising kids at the same time!

I'm going to miss you house. You were a great home to my best friends and you were a great second home to me. Looking forward to making new memories!

#dadsimple

This was Jay's birthday present to Ashley. A custom drawing of their home. Check out https://www.facebook.com/cococustom on facebook.

Baby Love

"It's a love unlike any love you've ever felt before" is often one of those things people say when you have you first kid.

A lot of thoughts run through your head when you are going to be having a kid and I'm no different. Probably the scariest thought is whether or not my love for the new kid will be the same as my love for Talon. Someone told me that it'll be different when it's your own kid that you've created and I honestly don't know what it'll feel like. Do parents who adopt kids and aren't ever able have one of their own love that child less than parents who are able to? I just don't think "love amount" is something you can quantify.

Maybe it's a different kind of love to decide to marry someone with a baby, I don't know. I think it's so awesome all of the different ways you can make a family and if you look around and really think about it there are examples all around us. I decided to become a dad the first time I asked Amanda on a date. I knew long before that date that if I ever got the chance to take her out, it would end up being forever. It was really one of the easiest decisions I ever made. I knew I wanted to be with Amanda and I knew I'd eventually love Talon because I love her.

I wondered what that love would be like and 2 years later I can't imagine a life without him. It's like a piece of clay. An artist doesn't love clay, they love the molding that becomes a representation of their input and effort. Teaching Talon to walk and talk, that's where love came from. The 60th time you toss him a ball and he finally catches it and runs over and gives you a hug, that's where love comes from.

I think it's the same with any kind of love. The way you and your significant other do things that mold each other and your way of life to the point where you can't picture your life without them. That's where love comes from.

I think it's something that you build on and different kinds of love take different amounts of time. It's contagious and it evolves and it changes your heart forever.

I'm not sure what I'll feel for my new son or daughter, but I'm not really worried about it being a different kind of love. Every kind of love is different. Love of an idea, a wife, a husband, a child, a second child, a pet. They're all different, but they all have the same ingredients just like clay sculptures. Love is a mixture of effort, feelings, and that secret sauce that no one can really describe. The "you just know" ingredient.

I don't know if I'm out of the norm here, but Amanda asked me yesterday what my gut feeling was on the baby being a girl or a boy and I honestly don't know. I'm excited for either but I don't have a gut feeling either way and if I think I do it switches around from boy to girl to I don't know.

I'm obviously excited to be the father, but my favorite part right now is that Amanda is the mother. And for right now that's where the spark of love is at, but I'm excited to get our brand new piece of clay and see what we and the world around us create.

#dadsimple

Baby on the way!

Finally the news it out and I can talk about it! Amanda and I are so excited to be having a baby.

We started trying as soon as we were married and were really hoping we'd get to announce it at Christmas, because how fun would that be. Plus our baby kinda looked like the Grinch the first time we saw it.

It's okay... you can laugh.

We had taken a test a couple days before we found out and it was negative, but Amanda came home from work sick and just burnt out on energy so I made her take another one. She did her thing on the stick and I set it on the counter... it didn't take long at all before the line that hadn't shown up in any of the other tests starting turning blue. I said "Uh, you may wanna come over here for this" and she did and it turned dark dark blue. I think I let out a "Holy Shit" (forgive me Jesus) and we hugged, for awhile. She had trouble getting pregnant with Talon and he had to be robo-babied into her, but not those Spangler seeds (or half babies as I call them). I did a flex like The Rock.

I immediately thought that we needed to go tell my family, but Midlothian is a long ways away from Azle so we had to figure out a way to get to my family and her family in the same day, naturally I posed a nice little Chili's rendezvous the next day and it was on!

We coached Talon all night and all day to say "Mommy has a baby" as soon as he saw my mom, but we got to Chili's and he was of course overcome with Colton and Camden being there that he forgot. So I casually walked over and whispered into his ear that he was supposed to tell her something and he spilled the beans, excitement ensued and I was free to eat!

Then it was on to the other half's house, they were crazy sick but we forced our way over anyways. Amanda had her two pregnancy tests that she gave Talon in a bag to go give her mom. At first she didn't know what they were but quickly realized, tears fell, excitement ensued and we had to tell Cody and Jessica. For this, we chose Facetime but had to be sneaky, so Sandy called Cody and said she needed all of them on the screen...well.... Jessica was in the bathtub! But they all got on camera (covered) and Amanda lowered the test over the screen where they could see. Excitement ensued, I did my Rock flex in the background. We facetimed the rest of her family and my Dad, Renee, and Savannah and the news was out, to our families anyways because we were only 4 weeks pregnant.

It was pretty exciting to be able to tell someone! 24 hours and it killed me inside!

We are so excited and all of the Facebook likes, All 341 of them and all of the comments were so awesome.I would say "we read all of them" like it was such a gift to you all that we took the time to read them, but OF COURSE WE READ THEM ALL! And of course we were telling each other every time we hit a "likes" milestone. Facebook likes is the obvious judge of how awesome of a person you are, like... duh

It's funny how much you notice all of the baby stuff at the stores now. I mean come on look how cute these are. Are you kidding me with this stuff....

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Now we wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl and the waiting is killing me inside.

Excitement ensues...

#dadsimple