Mommy, Daddy, Addie & Baby!

4, 5, 6, almost 7!!!

2011-08-26T17:29:00.001-05:00

Cole will be 7 months old tomorrow. I really can't believe it. I just counted the months to make sure and yes, he will definately be 7 months old tomorrow. Wasn't he just born?

I'm going to use this post to write about his 4, 5 and 6 month updates and post some pictures. I've still been taking his monthly pictures and writing in his baby book, but it has not made it to the blog until now.

4 months old

Cole had some big milestones at four months. He began sleeping in his crib on the night he turned 4 months old and has been in there ever since. It was also the first night that he slept unswaddled and he slept great that night. I loved having him in the co sleeper in the bed with me, but it was way past time for him to move to his own bed.

Cole also began eating some solids at 4 months. We first fed him some rice cereal mixed with my milk. He wasn't sure about it at first, but it only took a few feeding before he realized that he loved it. This baby boy loves to eat and has since tried all the baby fruits and veggies and some meats. We haven't found anything that he doesn't like and we can't feed him fast enough!

Here are his official stat's from his 4 month well visit:

~13 pounds, 7 ounces (19th percentile)
~24 3/4 inches (41st percentile)

At 4 months, Cole was:

~ Wearing a size 1 diaper
~Sleeping great through the night in his bed!
~ Wearing size 3 month and 3-6 month clothing
~Nursing about 6 times a day and learning to eat baby food
~Learning to like his Jumparoo
~Watching his BabyFaith DVD's

Cole's very first cereal feeding. I promise he loves it now!

Cole with Mommy!

Cole laughing in Daddy's arms:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5 months old

By 5 months old, Cole was on the perfect schedule and his schedule was much more predictable so it made it easier to plan our day. He is just a dream baby! He typically sleeps from about 9:00 p.m. until about 7:00 or 7:30 the next morning. He usually naps about 1 hour in the morning and about 2 hours in the afternoon. I don't have his official weight/length from this month because he didn't have a doctor's visit, but I think he was over well over 14 pounds by 5 months old.

At five months old, Cole was:

~Wearing a size 2 diaper

~Wearing 3-6, and 6 month size clothing

~Playing with his feet. He found his feet and loves them!

~Chewing and drooling on everything. We thought he might get a tooth, but no teeth yet.

~Rolling around. You could put him on his play mat and he would roll off of it and across the room!

~Splashing in the bath and loving it! (and making a mess!)

Loving bath time:

Chewing on those feet:

Playing in his jumparoo:

Playing on his playmat:

He adores his big sister:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6 months old

If I had to describe Cole in just one word, it would be joy. Just pure JOY! He is such a joy to be around and so much fun. I've always thought that 6 months was the best age for babies and I still do. He isn't quite mobile yet, so I don't have to worry about that and he can interact with us so much more now! He is so very aware of his surroundings and loves to take everything in.

I don't think anyone can argue with me about one thing: he is a momma's boy and I love it! Right now, I think it's mainly because I have his main source of food! I hope he will always be a momma's boy.

These are his official stats from his 6 month well visit:

~15 pounds, 15 ounces (20th percentile)
~26 1/2 inches (50th percentile)

As you can see, he is growing like a weed and has doubled his birth weight! Up until 6 months old, I was exclusively breast feeding Cole. At six months we began giving him 1 bottle of formula a day and he is doing great with that. I plan to very slowly start weaning him and be done breastfeeding at around 9 months. I'm just so glad that I've been able to do it for this long.

At six months old, Cole was:

~Wearing a size 2 diaper
~Wearing 3-6 and 6 month size clothing
~Laughing, smiling and babbling all the time. He loves to hear himself make noises.
~Eating 1 meal of baby food a day (usually at lunch). I give him cereal, 1 veggie and 1 fruit.
~Nursing 5 times a day and taking 1 bottle of formula a day.
~Jumping in his jumparoo!
~Drolling and chewing on everything, but no teeth yet
~Reaching out for people. He reached out for me first and has been reaching out for others ever since.
~Not sitting alone yet, but it won't be long!

And most importantly at six months old, Cole was melting Mommy's heart! He loves to be held and is so spoiled and I'm sure I hold him more than I should.

A few more pictures of Cole at 6 months:

Chilaxing in his stroller:

Splashing in the pool:

First time at the beach:

Playing with big sister:

Okay, so now I am caught up on Cole's monthly updates until he turns 7 months old........tomorrow!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

2011-08-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

The opening line of A Tale of Two Cities is the best way that I can think of to describe the past few months.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Losing dad has been the worst thing I've ever been through. This has by far been the darkest days of my life. On the other hand, being a stay at home mother and wife to my wonderful family has been the best experience that I've ever had. These days have also been the brightest days of my life and I think they always will be. I can't imagine anything else on this earth that could make me any happier.

It's been almost 3 months since I've blogged other than Dad's obituary that I just posted before this. I still can't believe he has an obituary. We lost dad a few days after my last post and I've barely even looked at my blog since. I sat down and looked through my old posts this week. I've been blogging for three years now, and I'm so glad that I have. I would have forgotten about so many fun moments if I wouldn't have taken the time to write them down and post pictures. I've written so many posts with great memories of dad. It made me smile to go back and read them.

I hope to do better with my blog posts, because I truly enjoy doing it. It is for me more than anything. My reason for blogging is still the same as I wrote in my very first blog post. I still want to post updates from our everyday life to keep our friends and family updated, while also creating this virtual keepsake for me and my family. My scrapbook and photo books can't capture the everyday moments and journaling that I can do on this blog.

With that said, I'm off the work on a new post on Baby Cole who will be 7 months old tomorrow! Where is the time going and why can't I keep him little for longer? The last post on him was at 3 months so I have some catching up to do!

Thomas Hilman Weeks, Jr.

2011-08-26T13:40:00.001-05:00

Thomas Hilman "Papa" Weeks, Jr., age 64, a native of Columbus, MS and a resident of Daphne. Sunrise October 14, 1946 - Sunset June 10, 2011

He is survived by his wife, Penelope R. "Penny" Weeks; five children, Carrye (James) Campbell, Jonathan Weeks, Adam (Lacey) Gordon, Jennifer (Brian) Davis, Rebekah (Terry) Shaeffer; seven grandchildren, Tristen, Will, Jeanne, Addie, Chloe, Jake, Cole; three sisters, Linda Sobley, Bonnie Johnson, Suzan Bardwell and many other loving relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends Sunday, June 12, 2011 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm at Bay Community Church in Malbis. A Celebration of Life service will begin at 5:00 pm at the church.

A Graveside memorial will be held at Jubilee Memorial Gardens following the Celebration of Life service.

2011

2011-05-27T22:52:00.001-05:00

I knew it was going to be a bittersweet year before it even started. I remember praying on New Years Eve of this past year. I was struggling with so many emotions and I remember not feeling well. I didn't feel well physically because I was entering my ninth month of pregnancy and was just plain miserable. I also wasn't well emotionally, because I knew what else was to come. I was so excited to begin 2011 because we would soon be welcoming our son into our family. I couldn't wait for that. However, I was also dreading the year 2011, because I knew it was the year that I would say goodbye to my father....my sweet daddy... Addie's Papa.

I haven't written about this yet, because I didn't know what to write. I still don't know how to put it all in words. I can't even sort it all out in my head, but I'm going to try to write about it from my perspective.

Let's rewind to November of last year. I got a call one afternoon from my step-mother, Penny, telling me that dad had received some bad news that day. Six tumors were found on his brain. Tests later in the week revealed that there was also a spot in his lung and kidney. It was a hard week for our family and we all decided to get together that weekend. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and dad was scheduled for brain surgery on Tuesday.

I have to tell this little side story: I picked Addie up from preschool one day that week and I told her that we were going down to see Nana & Papa for the weekend. She was so excited; she loves going to Nana & Papa's house! She was being unusually quiet in the backseat and I knew she was thinking of something. She finally said with such enthusiasm, "Mommy! That means you get to see your daddy!" My eyes just welled up with tears. She didn't say that she was going to see her Papa. She made sure I knew that she understood that I was getting to see my daddy that weekend. It was like she and her sweet little spirit knew how much my dad means to me, just as her daddy means the world to her. I needed to hear that and I'll always remember her saying that.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with our family that weekend and I am so thankful for the time that we all got to spend together. Dad enjoyed his 6 1/2 grandchildren as he called them that weekend since Cole was on the way. I had a wonderful and meaningful conversation with my dad and was absolutely amazed with the peace that he was showing to all of us during this difficult time. We made some wonderful memories that weekend and of course, since I had anything to do with it, we took many pictures:

Our Family ~November 2011:

Nana & Papa with their Grands!

Addie & her Papa:

Dad had brain surgery that following Tuesday and we found out that it was cancer; small-cell carcinoma to be exact. The surgeon couldn't give us much information that day, but I googled it at the hospital on my phone and knew instantly that the long term prognosis, even with treatment, would not be good. After recovering from the surgery, he immediately began radiation to his brain. I didn't see him again until Christmas and I could tell it was taking a toll on him. It was making him very sick. He still put on a smile though and tried his best to enjoy our family.

This was during Christmas. Dad, Addie, me and baby Cole in my belly!

You see, he still didn't look very sick at Christmas, but he was. He began to lose his hair the week after this picture was taken. He began chemotherapy after that and became even more sick. I couldn't travel down to see him after that because I was so far along in my pregnancy. My sweet stepmother, Penny, would give me the updates and I talked with him often on the phone and prayed for him numerous times a day. I remember him telling me not to worry, that he was going to be there to meet Baby Cole. He didn't promise anything more than that, but he said that was going to meet his grandson.

He kept that promise. He couldn't be at the hospital when Cole was born, but as sick as he was, he and Penny made the trip up to see us the day after we got home from the hospital with our new baby. I was experiencing the normal emotions from just having a baby, and seeing my dad that day was almost more than I could bear. His appearance was dramatically different from the last time I saw him and I could really see how sick he was. I was so glad he was there, but it was a very hard day for me. I was trying my hardest to keep it together, but I had to go out of the room and recompose myself more than once.

Papa was so excited to meet Coley Thomas, his grandson, his namesake.

At this point, Addie didn't know anything was wrong with Papa. She wondered out loud why he was wearing a hat and he just told her that he got a hair cut. She didn't seem to think much of and marched right along and enjoyed Nana & Papa being at our house. This picture is funny to me. She jumped into the picture as I was snapping it.

Here she is trying to get under his hat with him:

It was very hard that day when he left. I hugged him and cried and cried and cried. I knew in my heart that that was the last time he would ever be at my house again. I don't cry much and Addie was surprised to see me cry. I just told her that I was sad to see him go and she was so sweet and hugged me and told me that it would be okay.

Another side story: Soon after Cole was born, I was in the car with Addie & Cole. It was one of our first times out after Cole was born. I can't remember where we were going, but she spoke up and out of the blue said, "Mommy, I'm so sorry that your daddy is sick." Again, she said your daddy, not her Papa. I just think it's so thoughtful and so considerate of her to word it like that. I still hadn't told her anything about Papa at that point, so finally, I told her that yes, Papa is sick and we need to pray for him everyday and since then we have.

As much as we have prayed for our sweet Papa, it appears that he will not be healed here on earth. He has been under hospice care for several weeks now, and we only have a few days left with him on this side of heaven. We've spent a lot of time down there during the last few weeks and we are heading back down there this weekend.

This picture was taken when Cole was about six weeks old. Dad was admiring his sweet new grandson.

Cole had lost most of his hair and we joked that they were both baldies!

These next few pictures were taken during Easter weekend. We had a big party for Papa at my sister, Rebekah's house. Brian took these and I love them. I will always treasure these photos.

My dad means the world to me. You can click here to read a post that I wrote about him on his birthday about 2 1/2 years ago. I've enjoyed the time that we've had with him recently. I've got to spend another holiday with him, take more pictures with him, and have more conversations with him. It doesn't make it any easier, but I'm thankful for those special memories.

It has been and will be a difficult year for our family, so if you pray, please pray for us. He will me missed dearly, but we are a family of Faith and we believe that we will see him again soon.

Standing on His Promises,

Three Months

2011-05-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

This is just a brief update on Cole at 3 months. Brief, because that's about all I have time for these days! What happened to all that time that I was going to have when I became a SAHM? Ha!

Cole turned 3 months old last week and I cannot believe how much he has grown in just 3 short months!

I'm not sure exactly how much he weighs now, but I think it is somewhere between 11 and 12 pounds. His next well visit will be at 4 months so I'll have all of his official stats then.

I read over the list of facts that I wrote about Cole at his two month post (which was my last post) and most everything is about the same. His little personality is really starting to shine now and he smiles all the time and is starting to laugh out loud. He is such a joy! He has recently found his hands and his tongue and loves to play with both!

This little guy has stolen my heart... just like his daddy and big sister did before him! I never knew how much fun a baby boy could be and this is just the beginning!

I hope to update again soon! I have a post just about my sweet Addie that I've already started on that I hope to be finished with soon!

Two Months

2011-04-14T23:20:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that our sweet baby boy is over two months old now! He's growing so fast. I took him for his two month well visit last week and he had a great check-up. He received his first set of immunizations so it was hard to see him get those shots, but other than that, it was a good visit.

Current Stats:

~10 pounds, 5 ounces (14th percentile). This is up from 7 pounds, 12 ounces at his one month check up!

~22 1/2 inches long (24th percentile). This is up from 20 1/2 inches at one month.

As you can see, he has grown a lot during his second month of life...2 1/2 pounds and 2 inches!

Cole is a such a good baby and is so laid back. He is developing a sweet little personality and loves to interact with people now. He is smiling and laughing and cooing at us and it is so much fun. I love this age! He probably gives the most smiles to Addie. When she is near him, he watches her every move. It's so sweet...I can tell that he is going to adore his big sister! He already seems to want to do what she is doing. She is such a good big sister to him and I know that she will be such a good example to him.

A few facts about Cole at 2 months old:

~He has outgrown his newborn clothes and is wearing 0-3 and 3 month sized clothing.

~He is wearing a size 1 diaper.

~ He nurses every 2 to 3 hours during the day for a total of about 7 or 8 times a day.

~He loves his paci!

~ He is sleeping through the night!!! He usually has his last feeding around 9 or 9:30 at night and goes to sleep right after that. I usually don't hear from him until sometime between 5:30 - 6:30 the next morning. Then, he nurses and usually goes back to sleep until about 9:00. I know, I am so blessed that he is such a good sleeper!

~He is still sleeping in the sleeper that is in the bed with me. Addie was in her crib by this age. I'm going to have a hard time putting him in his crib. I love to hear his peaceful breathing at night and I just love having him right there next to me!

~He still likes to be swaddled and sleeps in his ~~straight jacket~~ swaddle blanket every night and during his afternoon nap.

~He is starting to really like his swing! He hated it at first.

~He will sometimes take little cat naps in the mornings, but not for very long since he sleeps so well at night! He usually takes one long nap (about 2 hours) in his crib in the afternoon.

~He loves his mobile, I mean LOVES it! It's the wind up kind and he gets the biggest smile and nearly laughs out loud when I wind it up for him. I'm serious when I say he loves it!

~He enjoy his bath now.

~He likes to be outside and likes to stroll around the yard with us in the evenings.

~He has rolled over both ways now, from front to back and back to front!

~He's not too crazy about tummy time and will either roll over to his back or will just get mad and cry.

Here are a few more pictures from his two month photo shoot. I actually took these on the day he turned two months and he did so good that it only took one session this time!

A few snapshots during his second month of life:

Today

2011-04-03T21:29:00.000-05:00

Today was a special day for us at church. We celebrated and honored all the newborns and new additions to our church family and each child was presented with a bible with his/her name on it. We enjoyed a wonderful sermon about children and a great fellowship meal afterwards. It was a great Sunday and I'm so thankful for my little blessings. We had a similiar celebration when Addie was a baby and I blogged about it here.

Cole was all smiles this morning:

This morning before church:

Our family of four at church. I love my family SO much!

Us with Nammie & Pa-paw and Rena, Jace & Arielle:

Cake we had at our fellowship meal today:

Cole's new bible!

Our Church

2011-04-02T23:11:00.002-05:00

I've tried to post this post since Thursday night and it hasn't been working for me...it must be the devil! :-)

Anyway, I'm participating in Show Us Your Life this week at Kelly's Korner and this week it's tell about your church. I don't blog much about our church or church activities, but I should because we are very involved with our church and our church family means SO much to us.

We attend Hamilton Crossroads Church of Christ and we love it! It's a very small church (maybe 80 members). Brian grew up going to this church, but it is very different from what I grew up going to. I starting going with Brian while we were dating and we got married there and it's been a huge part of our lives ever since. I'm excited that we are planning to raise our children in this church that I have grown to love. Our church is a church that believes the bible is God's word and we study it and we follow it. You can learn more about our church by clicking here. Our church members are good, genuine people and we are continually encouraged and uplifted by them. I feel that I've grown so much spiritually in the last few years as I've been surrounded by such a strong group of Christian men and women.

Our church is very involved in our community and is striving to be a church in action. We have several ministries within our church that have done a wonderful job reaching out to those in need around us and spreading the Gospel.

Our church has been a huge encouragement to me. We have a wonderful group of women that I've become close to and I know would do anything for me. We meet and study together and realize that a lot of us have some of the same daily struggles. It's good to be reminded that we are not in this race alone.

Brian & I also attend a class at our church for young married couples that meets on Wednesday nights. It's been a blessing to our marriage as we've done some awesome studies together. We've grown closer to each other and closer to God through these studies and it's has helped us tremendously to keep focus on what's important.

Our church is also very involved with our children and we have a wonderful youth group. Addie loves going to church and going to her class on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. We plan fun activities for our children and teens throughout the year. Right now we are planning our annual Easter Egg hunt which is always so much fun and then VBS is just around the corner.

We rarely ever miss church...we are there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and any other time that there is something going on. We don't go because we feel like we have to. I've never felt that way. We go because we feel it's so important to worship, study and fellowship with other Christians.

We have some great leaders in our church and I also have to mention that our preacher is an amazing man of God. He is younger than I am, but is so wise beyond his years. The messages that he delivers are powerful and uplifting and sometimes challenging. He has been with our church for several years now and he and his wife have become good friends of ours. They are the most selfless people that I've ever meet.

I could go on and on about how I feel about our church our wonderful church family. I'm so thankful that we are a part of this group. We are looking forward to church tomorrow because it's the day to honor our newborns and new additions to our church family. It's simply a day that we recognize and pray and give thanks for our new babies. It's such a blessing to know that we have the prayers of our church family as we raise baby Cole and strive to teach him what's important in this life on earth.

This isn't the best picture of us, but here is a recent one of us outside of our church. It was Cole's first Sunday at church and he was just over a week old.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by if you've came here from Kelly's Korner. If your a regular blog reader, maybe you've learned a little more about us and our church family and if your in the area, we would love for you to come visit! I'm sure I'll have some more pictures to post after tomorrow!

God Bless!

Wonderfully Made

2011-03-27T23:15:00.006-05:00

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14

Feeling Blessed

2011-03-17T18:15:00.004-05:00

I've heard the word "lucky" a lot today with it being St. Patrick's Day and all. I've never really liked the word lucky though. I prefer blessed. I've been thinking today about how very blessed I am. I am blessed beyond belief and so humbled by the blessings that God has given me. I wore green today, but go ahead and pinch me so I can make sure this isn't a dream.

Brian recently gave me this necklace from Lisa Leonard. It's called the little feet necklace and he gave it to me at the hospital just minutes after Cole was born. Brian has given me several of her necklaces and I wear one of them almost everyday. The example of this necklace on her website has "lucky mommy" on it. I guess you could consider me a lucky mommy, but I don't think luck has anything to do with it. I am so undeserving of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me while I'm on this earth and I thank Him everyday for these blessings.

Count your many blessings today. You won't need any luck.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday was BIG!

2011-03-05T20:09:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was a BIG day for Baby Cole. At 5 weeks and 1 day old, he gave me his first real smile, he rolled over for the first time and then did it two more times, AND he slept through the night for the first time last night! As excited as I was that he slept through the night, he needs to tell mommy when he decides to do that again. I got a great night's sleep, but as any breastfeeding mom would know, it was way past time for him to eat this morning.

Note to self: Just because Cole sleeps through the night; does not mean that mommy gets to sleep through the night. It would probably be best to get up and pump. :-)

And, since no post is complete without pictures, I snapped these sweet picture of Addie playing with Cole tonight. It's so sweet to see them interact:

Playing at the Park

2011-03-04T19:47:00.003-06:00

We have been enjoying this beautiful, almost-spring weather. Addie loves being outside and I'm so glad that this weather is allowing us the opportunity to get out of the house more. I love days like these where the biggest thing on our agenda is going to the park:

One Month

2011-03-03T22:32:00.003-06:00

Baby Cole turned one month old on Sunday. I can't believe he's been here for a month! He is becoming more alert everyday and is finally starting to do more than eat, sleep and poop. :-) He has starting cooing at us and interacting with us more. It's so sweet and so much fun. His looks are also changing everyday and I think he is starting to look more and more like Brian. He looks very similar to Addie when she was a baby. I need to dig up a baby picture of Addie and show a side by side photo comparison because I can't believe how much they look a like.

I took him for his 1 month well visit on Monday. He had a good checkup, but did not weigh as much as I was expecting. The pediatrician reassured me that it is adequate weight gain for a breast fed baby, but I was really expecting him to weigh more.

Current Stats:

~7 pounds, 12 ounces (7th percentile). This is up from 6 pounds, 12 ounces at his 4 day weight check.

~20 1/2 inches long (15th percentile). This is up from 18 1/4 at 4 days old. I'm not sure how he shrunk from 20 inches at birth to 18 1/4? One of those measurements was obviously wrong.

Addie's weight percentile was very similar to this when she was a baby. She gained weight slowly at first and as a new mom, it stressed me out so I started supplementing with formula when she was about this age. That was detrimental to my milk supply so I hope I don't have to do that again. I'm determined to breast feed as long as I can so I'm taking Fenugreek now and pumping after most feedings to boost my milk supply and I hope this will help Cole gain weight more quickly.

A few facts about Cole at 1 month old:

~He is still wearing newborn size clothing and some 0-3 months clothing. The only things that he has really outgrown is some of his preemie size outfits.

~He is in size newborn diapers. I'm hoping we can move up to size 1 soon because I have a lot of size 1 diapers. He has gone through about 10 packs of diapers already...that's a lot of diapers!

~He eats every 2 to 3 hours during the day for a total of about 9 times a day.

~He still wakes up only once a night to eat.

~ He loves his vibrating seat and it has been a lifesaver for this mommy. He sits in it while I shower, cook, clean, play with Addie, or whatever else I need to do. If I need to put him down, he is usually fine as long as he is in his vibrating seat.

~He is still sleeping in the sleeper that is in the bed with me. This has been wonderful and I love having him right next to me.

~He takes naps in his crib during the day. I'm getting him used to his crib so hopefully he will sleep well when it's time for him to sleep in it at night.

~He is doing better with bath time, but he still doesn't like it very much.

~He still loves to be swaddled and he sleeps swaddled every night and during most naps.

~He loves the top of his head to be rubbed. It can always soothe him and he usually rolls his eyes and falls asleep when I run his head.

~He is a very good baby and seems to have a laid back personality.

Here are some pictures of our sweet boy. I ordered these monthly onsie stickers from Etsy and I plan to do a photo shoot each month to show how much he is growing and changing. There is one for each month and they all have sock monkeys on them.

These pictures actually come from three different photo shoots that I did in a 24 hour period. I finally got the ones I wanted. He's not always excited about mommy's photo shoots. Here are the outtakes:

I take a ridiculous amount of pictures. Here a few more from the past week and a half.

Daddy & Cole:

Mommy & Cole:

Addie & Cole:

Well, that's the update on Cole. Addie is doing great also and is such a good big sister. I've got some good pictures that I've taken of her this week too and I will share those soon.

Cole Update

2011-02-18T14:18:00.007-06:00

Our baby boy was three weeks old yesterday. The time if flying by with him and yes, we are having fun! I am so much more relaxed with him than I was at first with Addie and it makes these newborn days so much more enjoyable. I am enjoying every minute of it and I know that I will miss this when it's gone. With Addie, we couldn't wait for her to get to the next stage. Every stage seemed to get more and more fun. Cole may possibly be our last baby, so I'm wanting him to stay little as long as possible and I don't want to hurry to get to the next stage this time.

It still has been an adjustment for all of us, don't get me wrong, but it has gone much smoother than I expected. I've also had a much easier recovery with him than I did with Addie, so that has been such a blessing.

Cole is such a good baby and is on a great schedule already. I'm happy to say that so far, he is thriving on breast milk alone and we hope to continue that for a while. I had to wake him up to nurse during his first week at home. He was literally sleeping 22-23 hours a day. I was worried that he wasn't waking up often enough to eat, but he is gaining weight like a champ and his pediatrician feels like he is doing great. He lost down to 6 pounds, 12 ounces at his four-day checkup. This, of course, is normal with a breastfed baby. We went back one week later and he was back up to 7 pounds, 3 ounces which was 7 ounces in a week! I've tried to weigh him at home and I think he is close to 8 pounds now.

He started waking up a little more during the second week and looking around at this big new world. He was still sleeping the majority of the time though (probably 20-21 hours a day). I stopped waking him up a night during his second week since he is gaining weight well and ever since, he has only woke up once a night for his feedings. I can handle that and I hope it continues!He usually has his last feeding around 10:00 at night and he has been waking up like clockwork at about 3:30 a.m. Then, he will sleep until sometime between 7:30 and 9:00 in the morning!

This week (his third week), he has been much more alert during the day and he is awake for a couple of hours in the morning and afternoon and for a while in the evening.

Here a few favorite pictures from his first three weeks!:

For now, he sleeps in this co-sleeper that fits in our bed. It has been wonderful and has been the best piece of baby gear ever! I would recommend it to anyone.

Here is Mr. Bright Eyes!

He hates taking a bath. Hates. it.

I've done several photo shoots of him. This is Cole at 1 week old.

He is often held by his big sister!

Another photos shoot at two weeks old:

I love this shot! I caught him laughing in his sleep! Have you ever seen anything sweeter?

He has been on several outings already; to church, out to eat, to the bank, to Nammie's office, to Jace's birthday party in Montgomery....

In the evenings, he can usually be found propped up on Daddy's shoulder.
I think it's his and Daddy's favorite place to be:

He loves to be swaddled!

He doesn't like his swing much yet, but loves his vibrating seat.:

This is him yesterday at three weeks old playing in his crib. He loves to watch his mobile.

This is another photo shoot and I'm using a picture similiar to this in his birth announcements:

He has been sitting right here in front of me while I've done this blog post.

This picture was taken just a few minutes ago:

But, he is stirring now so I think it's time for him to eat!

Until next time... he and his big sister will be keeping me busy!

Addie is 4!!!!

2011-02-11T18:01:00.000-06:00

Where has the time gone? I can't believe that our sweet little girl turned four years old last week! It seems like yesterday, we were bringing her home from the hospital and here we are four years later and we just brought her little brother home. I know the next four years will fly by just as fast and I am trying so hard to cherish every moment that I have with them. I'm just so thankful for the four wonderful, healthy and happy years that we have had with her and I hope we are blessed with many more together.

Brian took off work on Addie's birthday to spend the day with us. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (by her request). We put four candles in them and played her favorite birthday song and that just made her day.

Here is the birthday girl on her 4th birthday. Growing up way too fast:

She wanted to go get her nails polished for her birthday. I'm pretty sure I didn't get my nails done when I was four years old.

Happy girl with pink polka-dotted nails!

Then, we met Nammie and at lunch at Ruby Tuesday's and Addie got a big hot fudge sundae since it was her birthday:

We didn't plan a big party this year because we knew it would be right around when Cole would be born. I was due the day after her birthday and since he came a week early, he was only 1 week old on her birthday. This momma didn't feel like planning too much and I didn't want a house full of people with a newborn baby. We did have a small, garden-fairy themed birthday party at home last weekend with just our family. I threw up a few decorations and ordered her a beautiful cake and she was thrilled!

Addie dressed up for her fairy party:

Party decor:

Her cake:

Happy 4th birthday Addie:

It didn't look like a small party with all presents she received!

I still can't believe she blew out four candles this year!

Happy Birthday Addie!

He's Here!

2011-02-09T15:50:00.000-06:00

He's here and has been here for almost two weeks now, but I'm just now getting a chance to blog about it! I don't know why I've been so busy with a newborn and a just turned 4 year old at home. :-)

Our sweet baby boy arrived in this world on Thursday, January 27 at 12:22 p.m. He was 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. He is perfect in every way and we can't put into words how blessed we feel that he is here safe and sound.

I put this slide show together of some of our favorite pictures of his first few days of life.

We are so happy to have him home with us now and we are all doing well. So far, the transition has been easier adding another baby to the family than it was when we first had Addie. We are more relaxed this time and I think that helps a lot. Addie has done great too and has taken on the role of big sister very well. She's a big help to mommy!

I've got lots more pictures to share and I have done several photo shoots with this little guy. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to share some more soon. These were at the end of the slide show and are some of my favorites so far:

From the front, it doesn't look like he has much hair:

But, he has a head full in the back!

I'll post more again soon. (Hopefully!)

Showered with Love!

2011-01-25T21:00:00.007-06:00

I was given a special shower for baby Cole last weekend by my sweet mother in law (Reba), sister in law (Rena), and family friend (Becky). It was so nice and I was showered with lots of special gifts for our sweet baby boy.

First, here is a recent picture of me and my big baby bump! Surely, he is coming soon, because I don't feel like I can possibly get any bigger!

The cute shower invitation designed by my sister, Carrye.

The food table was decorated so pretty:

Yummy cupcakes!

Each personalized with Cole's name on them:

Lots of gifts!

I had a special little helper to help me open all of the gifts!

When I got home, I had so much fun going through everything again and putting everything up.

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who are just excited as we are to welcome our new baby boy into this world.

Patiently Waiting

2011-01-23T21:02:00.004-06:00

We are patiently waiting the arrival of our new little boy which could be any day now. I think that I finally have the nursery finished and our bags are packed in case it's another dash in the middle of the night like we had with Addie.

Here is a look at his nursery:

My sweet friend had this cross made for Cole. It is hanging on his door and I plan to take it to the hospital to hang on the door there.

This is the fabric that is used in the nursery. It's called Circus Toile and it's the same bedding, chair and curtains that we used when it was Addie's nursery. It looks very similar to Addie's nursery with just more touches of blue. I'm glad I picked out something neutral when I was decorating Addie's room. It's so much more practical and I would rather go all out for their big girl/big boy rooms like I did with Addie's.

Cole's room:

Bed and mural on the wall:

Armoire and glider... I can't wait to sit here and rock our sweet little boy:

Letters that I had painted to match the bedding:

Changing table:

And, that is Cole's room. Now we just wait. His bag is packed and sits here waiting to go:

I also have gifts for Addie & Cole that I will let Addie open at the hospital:

New

2011-01-13T19:00:00.003-06:00

Happy NEW Year! I can't believe it's 2011. It's a NEW year and there is a lot of NEWness going on around our home.

First of all, I have a NEW job. I am now a full time SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) and wife and am loving every minute of it! This is something that Brian and I thought about and prayed about and decided was best for our growing family right now. It's also something that I've always dreamed of doing and I am so thankful for this opportunity to focus more time on our family and raising our children. I've been at home since the middle of December when Addie finished the first half of K3 at her preschool. She will now be at home with me everyday and we have continued her school right where she left off and we are both really enjoying this time together.

We had a wonderful Christmas which will hopefully get it's own post and Addie has been enjoying playing with all of her NEW toys! Santa must have thought that Addie was a really good girl this past year. :-) We were all blessed with so much this Christmas, especially time with our family and this sweet little angel:

We are also preparing for our NEW little addition who will be here very soon. Addie has been helping me get the nursery ready. I've been putting the finishing touches on it this week and plan to take some pictures this weekend to share. We all can't wait to meet little Cole.

Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone is having a great start to 2011.

I'm working on our Christmas post and now that I have more time at home, I hope that I'll be able to keep up with this blog a little better. I hope to get a few more posts in before Cole makes his debut, but I'm not sure that will happen. :-)

Merry CHRISTmas!

2010-12-22T16:28:00.005-06:00

It's been so long since I've signed into blogger that I almost forgot my password! I plan to do better because I have much to blog about. Anyway, we are really enjoying this holiday season. Here is a snapshot of our Christmas card. We have been blessed with so much this past year and are looking forward to what next year has in store for us.

Merry CHRISTmas to all!

And yes, each month is accurate and really a picture from that month. :-)

Oh, BOY!

2010-09-14T18:27:00.004-05:00

We had our ultrasound last Wednesday and found out that we are expecting a baby BOY! We are so excited! Addie went with us and she did great. She (along with us) was amazed looking at the screen watching him move around. I was surprised that she could recognize some of his tiny features. She said, "Awww...I see his ears and I see his nose!"

When the technician told us that is was a boy, I looked at her to make sure she understood and I said. "Do you hear that Addie...You're getting a baby brother!" She initially crinkled up her nose and said, "I thought it was a sister!" She is fine with it now and she has been talking about her baby brother ever since. She tells me that she is going to hold him, read him books and she even told me that she would help with the diapers. We'll see about that!

Of course, Brian is very excited too. He said he would have been thrilled either way and I know he meant it, but I'm glad that he is getting a son. I'm thrilled also and so thankful that he is healthy. Everything looked great on the ultrasound and all of his little measurements were perfect. He weighs about 10 ounces now and his heartbeat was 152 bpm. His due date according to our ultrasound is February 2nd which was exactly what Addie's due date was according to all the ultrasounds!

Here are some pictures of the little fellow:

His perfect little profile:

And, yes, he already has a name. He's actually been named for years. We had this name picked out when we were pregnant the first time if it was a boy.

He will have both of his grandfather's first names: Coley Thomas and we will call him Cole. My dad is Thomas Hillman (Tom) and Brian's dad is Coley Frank (he goes by Frank). I'm so excited that I'm finally getting my Cole.

We've been doing a little shopping for Cole already and I've been working on getting the nursery ready for him. He won't need much because my SIL, Rena, brought me all of Jace's clothes and blanket and everything else you can imagine so I've been having fun going through all of those. He is well dressed already!

We feel blessed and humbled beyond belief to receive the blessing of a son and he's been in our prayers long before he was even conceived.

We prayed for this child and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him. – I Samuel 1:27

Summer Hiatus

2010-09-04T12:58:00.009-05:00

It seems that I've been on somewhat of a hiatus this summer. I wasn't planning to take this long of a break from blogging, but that is just how it has worked out. It's been a very busy summer and lots has happened since my last post. I've put my blogging on the back burner, but I do enjoy blogging and plan to keep this blog going.

Since posting last, Addie had her end of the year program at preschool and has started another school year.

End of school year program:

First day of K-3:

I've still been practicing my love for photography and Addie serves as my main subject.

Robbie & Krista got married this summer in Fairhope:

Addie was the flower girl in two weddings:

We've had lots of fun in the sun including trips to the zoo, pool, and beach.

And, most importantly, we found out this summer that we are expecting a new addition to our family in early February 2011! I think most everyone already knows this by now.

We are beyond excited and we told everyone by letting Addie wear this cute little shirt that I found on Etsy. I actually ordered it a few days before I knew I was pregnant. We were planning to start trying soon, but little did I know that I was already pregnant.

The front says " a little birdie told me a secret..."

and the back "i'm going to be a big sister!"

Addie seems very excited about the new baby and she keeps saying that she is ready for the baby to come out. I am 18 weeks along and I am due February 5th, which is the day after Addie's birthday. We will find out next week what we are having and I'm so excited to find out. We will be thrilled either way. We've just been praying for a healthy pregnancy and baby. We had a little bit of a scare at the beginning of the pregnancy and thought I had lost the baby, but everything turned out okay and we have been hearing a strong heartbeat at my past few appointments. I was also very sick for the first 8 weeks or so, but I am feeling much better now. I didn't have a single day of pregnancy related sickness with Addie so this pregnancy has turned out to be much different than the first one. We can't wait to share what we are having next week and reveal our names. We have our names picked out, but we are waiting until next week to officially reveal them.

Fall activities are now in full swing and we are so excited about this season. Addie has started back gymnastic classes and loves it. College football is starting and we are going to the Troy first football game this evening. We have so much to look forward to this upcoming season and I am so thankful for all the blessings in my life.

I still have lots of pictures to share from our summer, so I'm going to try and post a summer recap in the next few days.

I Heart Faces: Play!

2010-06-07T22:06:00.003-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I posted and I have lots to share from the past few weeks, but for now, I really wanted to get on here and participate in the weekly photo challenge at i heart faces.

The theme this week is play, and I thought that one of the pictures from my last post would be a good on to share. I love this one of Addie just a swingin' and decided to enter it this week. This photo is a little grainy, but I love it and it really was a hard shot to get. I love how her little feet are in focus and the smile on her face in the background:

More to share soon...

Just a Swingin'

2010-05-19T12:09:00.004-05:00

Arielle Christen

2010-05-17T19:19:00.005-05:00

Here are a few more pictures of our new little niece, Arielle Christen. She is such a little beauty:

Addie loves her little cousin:

Arielle loves her Aunt Jenn-Jenn and got upset when it was time for me to go:

I told her that I would see her again real soon and she cheered up again:

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

2010-05-14T07:39:00.006-05:00

I'm so glad it's Friday! It's been a very busy week and we've been to Montgomery after work three times this week. There were two special baby girls born this week and I got to see and hold these little ones on the days that they each arrived. It's been my favorite thing about this week!

My friend and sorority sister, Ashlee, had her baby girl, Mary Holland, on Monday so we had to go up there and see her. She is big, beautiful girl weighing in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces when she arrived!

Meet Mary Holland:

I think this baby looks good on me:

Addie loved meeting her too!:

We also have a new niece! My sister in law, Rena, and her husband, Chris, and big brother, Jace, welcomed a new baby girl into their family on Tuesday.

This is Arielle!:

Addie just adores her:

She would have held her for hours if she could have:

Arielle with her favorite Aunt!

We went back and saw Arielle again last night and I did a photo shoot of her at the hospital. I got some great shots of her and I can't wait to share some of those later. I've got to get them loaded on my computer and edited.

Also, my blog friend, Anna, who I've also met in real life through my sister in law, Rena, had twin girls last week and I have really enjoyed reading her blog and updates. They are true miracles and Anna is such a good writer so click here to see and learn more about her little ones. She also has another daughter named Addie!

Well, that's all for now other than I think I might be coming down with a fever. The baby fever, that is! ;-)

Happy Friday!

A Mother's Day Surprise!

2010-05-09T09:56:00.001-05:00

My wonderful husband and sweet mother in law surprised me with the BEST Mother's Day gift. This gift has a little story behind it. I've been wanting to get a pastel portrait of Addie done, because my grandmother had one done of me when I was about her age. This is mine and it was hanging in Addie's nursery when she was a baby. It's still hanging in our empty nursery that is patiently waiting for another baby one day. :-)

Anyway, I attempted to have one done a couple of weeks ago and to be nice to all parties involved and to not get into a long, crazy story; let's just say that it didn't work out as planned.

Well, Brian and his mom knew how much I wanted it done and they took a picture of my pastel and took some pictures off this blog and got someone to do a pastel portrait of Addie. Isn't that the sweetest? I'm so excited about it and I just love it! I had no idea and was totally surprised. I can't wait to get it framed and hang it in her room very soon.

This is hers:

Isn't it beautiful?

These is one of the pictures that the artist used:

Side by side comparison:

Looks great doesn't it?

Thanks so much to my wonderful husband and my mother in law. This means so much to me!

I'm having a great mother's day and Addie made some very special surprises at school last week that I'll treasure forever. I loved being a mother to my sweet little princess. It's a privilege and I feel so honored that God chose me to be her mother.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today

2010-05-08T21:40:00.006-05:00

We went to Montgomery today to visit Rena, Chris & Jace and took Addie and Jace swimming. We didn't stay out long because it was a little cool and the water was even cooler, but they had a ball playing together.

When we got home, Addie & her daddy planted new flowers around her play house. They took up the pansies and planted some new pink flowers that Addie picked out. I love everything about this picture below; the trees in our wide open yard, Addie's beautiful play area, Addie & Daddy working together, our cat...just everything. They say a pictures says a thousand words and this one does for me:

As you can see, we sure are enjoying our time off this weekend. I love Saturday's like these.

What's in a Name?

2010-05-06T21:39:00.003-05:00

Kelly is doing a show us your life post this week about how you picked your kids names and future names, so I thought I would join in on the fun.

I love thinking about baby names and already have names picked out if we are blessed with more children one day. Of course, I could change my mind by then, but Brian & I both like something unique and we like variations of family names. He & I both have very common and popular names according to our birth years. Jennifer was the #1 name in the year I was born according to the Social Security Administration and Brian was the the #8 name in the year he was born. It was not uncommon for me to have 3 or 4 Jennifer's in my class when I was in elementary school and remember not liking that.

We wanted something more unique for Addie and we had fun picking out her name. Her full name is Adelynn Claire and it's a variation of family names. I think it is beautiful and love the way her first and middle name sound together. Brian has an older cousin named Delynn who we both love and I came across the name Adelynn in a baby book. I just loved it especially since it was just like adding an A to Delynn. Adelynn is also unique and according to that SSA website has not been in the top 1000 names for any year since they've been tracking it. We don't personally know any other Adelynn's, but I have met a couple through the blog world. We also met one while we were at Disney. She was from Canada and had never met another Adelynn.

Claire is a distant name on my mom's side of the family and it's also my niece's middle name, Lindsey Claire. She is actually named after me (Lindsey was my middle name.) We also considered using the name Addison and either way planned on calling her Addie. We were strongly leaning towards Adelynn though. The day we went for our ultrasound to find our what we were having, I remember being so excited and I had a tear running down my cheek and said "That's Adelynn" as soon as the technician told me it was a girl. And, I'm pretty sure she had something monogrammed with her name on it within the next week or two.

I'm glad we chose Adelynn because it seems to be unique and Addison seems to be a very popular name now. There are 3 of them at pre-school with Addie so I know the teacher's must get tongue tied keeping up with all of the Addison's (they all go by Addison) and my Addie. I know of two or three other Addie's, but I don't think it's very common. The SSA website says it was most popular in the late 1800's and hasn't not been in the top 1000 in the past 50 years except for in 2005 where it ranked 979.

Okay, so this post was probably way too long about how Addie got her name and included some stats that most of you really don't care about. I never knew any of this or if her name was popular or not according to SSA until I looked it up to write this post. It's a neat website and you can click here if your are curious to see where your names rank.

And, like I said, we do have names we like picked out if we have more children but that could always change. It's fun to think about though. They are family names and I won't reveal them yet but will give a hint with the initials. If we have a boy one day it will be C.T. We're almost certain of this and had this picked out even before we knew if Addie was a girl or boy. It's both of our father's first names for those who know us well. If we have another girl one day we like E.K. (double name) or A.C. The E could be three different names that are all very similar and are variations of a family name. The K and the C are the same name just spelled differently. We actually considered this name for Addie's middle name and it is a family name.

And, for fun, I shot this video of Addie asking her about her name:

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to reading other posts about how others choose their children's names.

Last Weekend

2010-05-05T21:22:00.005-05:00

Addie & I took a little road trip last weekend and had a great time visiting with some of our family and friends. Brian stayed home to get some things done at home and he also helped with a local youth rally.

We drove down to Daphne on Friday and spent some time with my sister, Rebekah, and my sweet little niece, Chloe. Addie & Chloe just adore each other and have so much fun when they are together. We took them to Kangorooz and they had a blast. It's an indoor play place full of inflatable jumpers. It's a neat place and Rebekah & I even had fun racing each other on one of the obstacle courses.

Addie & Chloe:

Then, on Saturday, Addie & drove over to Mississippi for a baby shower for my bestie, Angela! It was in Moss Point at her husband's family river house and was a fun shower. They got lots of nice gifts to prepare for their little one who should arrive sometime next month. They didn't find out what they are having, but Addie informed them that she thinks it's a boy.

Of course, she had to get in the middle of everything and help Angela open her gifts.

Addie had fun playing at the river and I got a couple of pictures of her:

We spent the night with Angela & Matt on Saturday night and went out to eat and got some good local seafood at the Blue Gill. We wanted to get some since this oil spill is threatening our local seafood market. It's so sad to think about.

We also got to go visit with Brian's cousin, Denise, and her family who live a couple of miles from Matt & Angela. Addie had fun playing with her children, Nicholas & Katie, and even got to play with Nicholas's pet snake. The highlight of our night was probably watching the snake eat his weekly meal. Addie was fascinated with it, but I was sure the tell her that we don't ever touch any other snakes.

On Sunday, we met my mom and my sister, Lalonie, and her family for brunch at the Spot of Tea in downtown Mobile. It's one of my favorite places to eat in Mobile and we had a great visit with them. It's across the street from Cathedral Square so after brunch we took pictures and played in the square. Lalonie just recently got a DSLR and wanted me to give her some tips on how to use it. We had fun practicing with our cameras! There were fountains and I let Addie get into her swimsuit and play. I'll let you decide from the pictures if she had fun or not.

My nieces, Lindsey & Mary Hannah, and nephew, Rhein. Mary Hannah turned 16 last week and is driving now...unbelievable!

Me, mom & Lalonie:

Addie with Uncle Jonathan and her cousins:

Do you think Addie had fun playing in the fountains?

I think so!

We didn't get to see my dad and Penny this weekend though because they are off on a cruise! They actually flew out to San Diego on the day that Addie & I drove down. They are on a 15 night cruise that goes down the Pacific Coast of Mexico, to Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal and makes a few stops in the Caribbean before they dock back in Mobile. Doesn't that sound fun? I know they are having a great time and I hope they have safe travels.

Happy Hump Day! We are more than halfway to another weekend!

Back in the Game!

2010-05-05T21:09:00.007-05:00

I've got my game face on and I'm back into couponing!

I never completely stopped, but I haven't been doing as good until recently. I wrote this post and this post last year when I first got into couponing. I've saved a lot of $$ by clipping coupons and combining those with sales. It takes time, planning and research and is almost like an art, or maybe even a science. Regardless, it's a challenge! It's so worth it though and I'm trying hard to be a better steward of our money for our family.

I'm back in the game, and my co-worker Rhonda, gives me lots of tips. We call her the coupon queen at work and you can click here to read her blog.

Okay, so I thought I would share my latest deal from CVS:

I got everything pictured above for $29.14 and got back $18 in ECB's! So, its like getting it all for about $11! Please note: Not pictured is a small bag of M&M's that my sweet little princess asked for at checkout. It was $0.89 and not a good deal, but she was very good while I was trying to sort out all my coupons and get all the right products that I couldn't say no!

I'm not really good at breaking it all down like some of the blogs that I read do, but I combined coupons with sales and used some ECB's that I had from my last visit. I spent a little more than normal this time, but I did the free water deal and bought some P & G products so that I would have enough to get the Year of Saving coupon booklet.

Here is my mile long receipt:

Showing my savings of $67.90!!!

I'm excited to be back in the game and if you want to save money, you should give this a try. It works! The idea is to buy items with coupons while they are on sale and stockpile items that you know you will use. That way, you aren't running out to the store paying full price for an items as soon as you need it.

I've posted links to some of my favorite money saving sites on my sidebar to the right. There is a whole online blogging community that gives tips and comments back and forth on weekly deals. One of my favorite sites is Southern Savers. They have great tutorials to help you get started and they post weekly deals.

Boxer Babes

2010-04-26T18:03:00.006-05:00

We have new puppies!

Our female boxer, Breeze, gave birth to some beautiful puppies yesterday. This is her third and last litter. She had a very hard labor and delivery and sadly, only two of the five puppies survived. The two remaining are one male and one female and they seem to be doing great. They are nursing and moving around great.

Breeze with her babes:

And, we can't forget the proud father, Blaze:

Favorite Fruit

2010-04-16T19:32:00.005-05:00

Happy Friday to all!

I am very excited that it is Friday and I am looking forward to a lazy Saturday at home tomorrow. We don't get those as often as I would like. We stay so busy, that I feel like we don't get to enjoy time at home like we should. I don't really like being busy all the time, but I know so many people that thrive off of being busy. I think we miss out on the little things in life when we are constantly on the go. I feel like these fleeting moments just pass us by because we don't slow down long enough to enjoy them.

Last weekend was one of those busy weekends. Addie & I went down to Dothan to run a few errands and we met my friend, Angela, and her sister for lunch. We had to pick up some shower gifts for some showers coming up. I also had to take my camera to the shop because one of my lenses has been acting up since we got back from Disney. This is the first chance that I've had to take it because we've been so... you guessed it, busy. Well, I was glad that I had my camera because we saw this on the way home and I did a U-turn:

It's a strawberry field where you can buy and pick your own strawberries! Strawberries are my favorite fruit and I've always wanted to stop and do this, but we are usually so busy that we have never taken the time to stop.

When we walked up, the man automatically handed me a bucket of strawberries that were already picked. I told him that we wanted to pick them ourselves. He looked surprised and told me that I would probably get dirty and it would take a while. I told him that I didn't mind. He said "Okay, ma'am." and handed me an empty bucket and told us to walk to the middle of the field for the best ones.

Addie & I had so much fun. I taught her which ones to look for and let her pick most of them while I snapped some pictures. We were out there for probably 30 minutes or so and in that time, we saw dozens of people stop to get strawberries, but we were the only ones picking them ourselves. I guess they were all too busy. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on these fun moments:

Addie loved it to say the least and we have been enjoying our strawberries all week!

Take time to enjoy something fun this weekend.

I'm linking this post with the Other Mama's Friday Favorites.

Easter

2010-04-10T20:27:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures from last weekend. We celebrated the Resurrection of our wonderful Savior and enjoyed all kinds of Easter fun. Instead of narrating, I'll just let our pictures tell the story this time.

Favorite Moment This Week

2010-04-09T12:21:00.005-05:00

I'm participating in Hillary's Friday Favorites blog carnival at the Other Mama. She is doing a giveaway for a Lisa Leonard necklace! I LOVE. LOVE, LOVE Lisa Leonard jewelry and Brian has given me several pieces in the past. You may remember this post when he gave me the wish necklace for Mother's Day last year. It's my favorite piece of jewelry and I wear it all the time!

Anyway, on to my favorite moment of the week:

I was out in the yard taking doing a little photo shoot with Addie on Wednesday evening before church and she was giving me a few cheesy smiles. If I ask her to smile, she usually cheeses it up and squints her eyes and it never looks genuine. It's hard to get a real genuine, in-the-moment smile. I did get some great shots and smiles of her for our Christmas card last year, but I did have to use some extreme measures that I may or may not have revealed here.

Well, Brian pulled in the driveway at just the right moment and this is the look she had on her face when she saw her daddy coming home:

PRICELESS... and it's genuine! I love capturing moments like these! She just adores her daddy and calls him her "prince" all the time. It is so very sweet. I love watching them together and they have the sweetest father/daughter relationship imaginable!
Well, I thought I would share this favorite moments from this week and it also helps that this will give me another chance in the giveaway!

Happy Friday and stayed tuned... I hope to post our Easter pictures later this weekend

Thanks for stopping by if you are visiting from The Other Mama! I can't wait to browse through some more Friday favorites posts. Go check them out here...there is always something fun to read!

Showers and Pretty Flowers

2010-04-01T20:11:00.006-05:00

Last weekend must have been the weekend for showers because I was invited to several of them. I was only able to make it to three of them since I was helping host two of them.

I helped host a shower for Rena in Wetumpka on Saturday morning. She is expecting a baby girl (Arielle) next month and she got lots of nice things to help prepare for her arrival. The shower was a sweet pea theme and we used lots of pink and green to decorate.

Then, Addie & I had to head back to Troy for a shower for my friend, Ashlee. She is also awaiting the arrival of a baby girl (Mary Holland) next month. Addie was a big help and helped Ashlee open her presents.

On Sunday, we hosted a wedding shower for Robbie and Krista at our church. They are getting married in June and Brian, Addie and I are all in the wedding. It was a fun shower and they received a lot of nice gifts. The colors were yellow, green and white and we used a lot of lemons and limes to decorate with.

We enjoyed all the showers last weekend and we are also enjoying this beautiful spring weather. I love everything about spring (except for allergies). Our yard is starting to bloom and I love all of our pretty flowers. Brian works hard to always make our yard beautiful.

We are looking forward to Easter and more nice weather this weekend!

High School Reunion

2010-03-25T20:54:00.013-05:00

I'm feeling rather old and nostalgic this week, because we traveled down to Mobile and went to my 10 year high school reunion last weekend. It was a two night event in downtown Mobile. We had a great time and a good turnout. I've been looking at my old yearbooks and going through my huge plastic bin of high school memorabilia this week. I probably won't do this again for another 10 years!

I'm not sure if you were as cool as me, but I remember having this tassel hang from my rear view mirror all summer after graduation. I think I finally took it down when I moved to Troy. :-)

So, in honor of my high school reunion this past week, I thought I would share some favorite pictures from high school and the MGM Class of 2000! I've enjoyed looking back at these this week and reminiscing and showing them to Brian. No, your not going to see the embarrassing ones...There were enough of those shown during the slide show this past weekend.

High School picture (Junior Year...I think)

Don't be hatin' on that cheesy background:

Field Day 1999:

Senior Prom:

Girl Friends:

My bestie, Angela, & Me! (She was an Azalea Trail Maid)

May Day 2000:

The girls at my house before Junior Prom:

Working on the Senior Swag during Homecoming Week:

Okay, that's enough...on to the reunion:

On Friday night, we had a welcome back mixer at the Skyview Lounge on top of the Holiday Inn downtown. It was a good atmosphere and we had great views of downtown Mobile. It was informal and gave everyone a chance to catch up and break the ice. However, most of us that were good friends have all ~~stalked~~ caught up with each other on facebook anyway. I wonder what reunions were like just a few years ago, when you really hadn't seen or even heard from most of your classmates in years. Times have definitely changed. Brian & I stayed with our good friends, Angela & Matt on Friday night. I graduated with them and just love them. They were high school sweethearts and are expecting thier first child in June. Angela & I had so much fun spending time with each other. Matt had to remind us that it was the class reunion, not the Jennifer & Angela reunion. We had fun looking back at our senior yearbook and trying to remember everyone.

The big reunion celebration was held at the Exploreum on Saturday night. We stayed at the Battle House Hotel on Saturday night which was easy walking distance to the reunion. I was so excited about staying at this historic hotel and it is so beautiful since its been restored. Angela & I had fun exploring the hotel and spent some time at the spa before getting dressed for the big night. It was cocktail attire on Saturday night and I love getting all dressed up to go somewhere. I don't get that chance very often. We had dinner, drinks, dancing and a slide show at the reunion. The slide show was amazing and we got to watch it in the IMAX theater at the exploreum. It was fun seeing if everyone had lived up to their who's who titles and remembering the class prophecy.

A few pictures from the weekend:

A few observations from the reunion: The majority of our class seemed more comfortable with themselves and everyone looked great. There were a few shockers and people who have taken a complete 180 since HS, but mostly everyone who came seemed to be in a happy place in their life. There were a few that made a fool of themselves in HS, that are still making a fool of themselves. There were also a few that were still trying to make a name for themselves, but the majority of us seem happy and are enjoying life. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and revisiting this time in my life, but I can honestly say that I'm completely comfortable and content with where I am in my life and wouldn't change a thing.

I'm typing this word for word from my Senior Book that filled out.

Dreams for the Future: I wrote " To make it through college and settle in a career that I really enjoy. To get married to the man that God has chosen for me. To have children and to raise them well."

Wow, in just 10 years, I think I have fulfilled this dream and I'm looking forward to what the next 1o years will be like.

Our class motto was "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you will land among the stars." My favorite part of our slide show was the end when it said, "And even if you don't think you've reached the moon you've been looking for...you've landed among the stars of your life." and then it showed recent pictures of us with the ones we love. I do feel like I've been blessed with some real super stars in my life!

I'm linked up with Hillary at the Other Mama in her Favorites Friday carnival so go check out the other posts from this week. I'm also linked in with The Girl Creative and her New Friend Friday!

Thanks for tuning in and Happy Friday!

Top Ten Tuesday: Disney World

2010-03-23T21:07:00.016-05:00

I'm finally getting around to posting more about our Disney trip. I decided to link up with Amanda at Oh Amanda, and do a Top Ten Tuesday post.

We were at Disney for a week and stayed at Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter Resort. We were able to visit all of the parks and also visited Downtown Disney a few times. I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to go and it was so nice to get away and have a whole week to spend with each other. Brian & I both love Disney World and it was so much fun watching Addie experience it for the first time. She had a blast to say the least. Here are our top ten favorite things about our trip to Disney World.

1. The Walt Disney World sign: This has always been one of my favorites and I get so excited when I see this sign. I could hardly contain myself as we were driving into the Walt Disney World Resort. It was just the beginning of our wonderful week ahead.

2. Disney PhotoPass Service: I think this is a really neat thing that Disney does now. If you don't know how it works, you get a PhotoPass Card and give it to the Disney photographers each time they take your picture. They scan it and your pictures are added to an online album for you to view. The Disney photographers are all over the place at the major picture spots throughout the parks and at the character greetings and several other places. I pre-ordered the CD at 33% off before we left, so we took full advantage of all the PhotoPass opportunities that we could find while we were there. I took over 800 of my own photos, but I'm glad we did the Photopass thing because they captured some great moments and got some great pictures of all three of us together. Our PhotoPass pictures can be viewed here.

3. Character Greetings: Addie enjoyed this more than I thought she would, and she loved seeing all the different characters and getting them to sign her autograph book. The princesses were her favorite, of course, and she asked all of them lots of questions. She thought they were the real deal. Here are some of our favorite pictures of us meeting the characters:

4. International Flower and Garden Festival: This was a special event going on at Epcot and it was beautiful. There were beautiful flowers and gardens and amazing topiaries displayed throughout the park. Epcot is one of my favorite parks. I love to walk around the World Showcase and this made it even more beautiful.

5. Rides: I have another ride to include in the ranks of my favorite Disney rides and that is Soarin'. It is a multi sensory ride that makes you feel as if you are gliding over California. It is amazing and is as close to real as it gets. At one point, you are gliding over the ocean and you dip down and it seems so real that you feel like your feet are about to get wet. It is amazing. Addie was tall enough to ride it by her hair bow, but I think it was a little intense for her. She didn't complain about it, but she didn't want to ride it again.

My other all time favorite rides at Disney are Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rock 'n' Roller coaster, and the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I also rode Expedition Everest and Mission Space for the first time on this trip and liked them both too!

Addie had a blast riding rides too and liked almost all of them. Her favorites probably include Dumbo, It's a Small World, Snow Whites Scary Adventures, Peter Pans Flight, The Magic Carpet's of Aladdin, The Seas with Nemo, and Living with the Land.

6. Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party: This was such a fun parade/dance party. Addie absolutely loved it and was really dancing and getting into it. She was getting down and doing all the dance moves. It got even more exciting when she got to parade and dance with Mickey Mouse himself! We must have been standing in the right place at the right time because one of the Disney dancers saw Addie dancing and she came and got her and took her up to parade and dance with Mickey. It was so much fun and definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Addie thought she was the star of the show! It was hard to get a good picture because I was having to hurry to keep up with them and there were so many people around that kept bumping into me, but I got a few cute ones:

7. The weather: The weather was almost perfect while we were there and the temperature was perfect. It was warm, but not hot. It was slightly cool early in the mornings, but during the rest of the day, we were very comfortable wearing our flip flops and tees. We had two rainy days and four absolutely beautiful days that made up for it. You almost couldn't ask for better weather even with the rain. Here are a few pictures from one of our rainy days. We had fun anyway and walked around the park and played in our rain jackets and ponchos.

8. Once Upon A Time Breakfast: We ate breakfast one morning at Cinderella's Castle with the Disney's Princesses. The food was really good, but Addie was too excited to eat. Can you blame her? She loved getting greeted by all the princesses and it was a royal treat for all of us.

9. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique: This is a salon in Cinderella's Castle where Addie was transformed into a little princess. This was SO much fun for me to watch and this was a dream for Addie to get to do. She picked out her dress, hair style, makeup and nail color. She loved it! She pranced around the rest of the day at the park and thought she was a real princess.

Sleeping Beauty:

The only sad thing about it was when she feel asleep at the park during dinner that night, she didn't wake back up until the next morning. Brian carried her out onto the bus and back to our room. I put her PJ's on and took her hair down and it didn't wake her up. When she woke up the next morning, she looked in the mirror and said in a sad little voice, "I'm not a princess anymore." It almost brought tears to my eyes and I reassured her that she is my princess and is so very beautiful everyday.

10. Cinderella's Castle: Last but not least, one of my favorite things about Disney is Cinderella's Castle. I could stare at it all day. It is so beautiful and just makes you feel like you are living in a fairy tale. This was our favorite photo spot and we loved watching the fireworks above the castle.

Wow, that was probably the longest post ever, but it barely scratched the surface of our trip and all the pictures that I took. I'm working on a slide show that I'll try to share later. These were our favorite moments from our trip. It was a vacation that we will always remember and I can't wait until I get the chance to go back there again one day!

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time...

Magical Memories

2010-03-12T19:35:00.000-06:00

This is just a glimpse of our favorite magical memories that we are making here at Disney World. I can't wait to share more later.

Favorite Place on Earth

2010-03-05T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hillary at The Other Mama is starting a blog carnival this week called Favorites Friday. I was planning to do one of my Flashback Friday posts, but decided that I could turn this post into a Favorites Friday post and link up with her instead!

I decided to post about one of my favorite places on earth:

Walt Disney World!

I love Disney World and we are looking forward to a vacation there in the very near future. I'm so excited that I'm about to bust, and I've got Brian & Addie hyped up about it too! Brian hasn't been since he was very young and this is Addie's first trip. She doesn't really understand exactly where we are going, but I've been showing her pictures and video clips to give her an idea of what to expect. I can't wait to see the look of amazement in her eyes when she walks into the Magic Kingdom for the first time. It truly is a magical place!

I think the main reason that Disney is such a special place to me is because I spent a whole summer working there while I was in college. It was quite an adventure and I met a lot of people from all over while I was there. It was definitely a summer to remember!

I think it was a good experience for me, because I felt like I needed to get out and explore a little at that time. I had 5 roommates and we shared a three bedroom apartment. They were from all over the country and one was from Spain. I felt like I was on a season of the Real World or something because we were all so very different and had to learn to live together. I didn't get extremely close to my roommates, but met some great friends who lived in our apartment complex. The whole complex was college age students who were working at Disney for the summer.

I worked at Pirates of the Caribbean at the Magic Kingdom and it was really neat to see how Disney works behind the scenes. When I wasn't working, I could be found exploring all the parks or going to Downtown Disney. I have some great memories from Disney and will occasionally look back at the scrapbook pages that I made from that summer:

And, if nothing else, this should make you laugh. I had to wear this "Pirate Costume" to work everyday.

The way Disney works behind the scenes is really fascinating. There is a whole tunnel system under the Magic Kingdom that was created by Walt Disney himself. Everyday, I would walk through the tunnels, clock in, go change into my costume, and then take the elevator or stairs up and pop out right by where I worked. If you ever get a chance to do one of those behind the scenes tours of the Magic Kingdom, do it because it is something to see!

Well, that post was longer than I intended, but I enjoyed sharing a little about one of my favorite places on earth. Stay tuned and I should have some new pictures from Disney to share soon!

Show us Your Life...Collections!

2010-02-25T23:35:00.013-06:00

Kelly is doing a Show Us Your Life post on things you collect so I thought I would join in on the fun and show off my cows! If you are here from Kelly's Korner, thanks for stopping by!

I collect CowParade cows and I love them. CowParade is the largest and most successful art event in the world (you can read more here). I've always had a thing for cows. I'm not really sure why, but I do and I especially love these because they are like art. They each have such unique designs and fun names. Brian has given me most of these and he surprises me with new ones every once in a while.

I keep them in this cabinet in my hall:

There is quite a herd in there!

Here a few of my favorites:

This one is called Lullaby Cow and Brian gave it to me just after Addie was born:

This is Lucky Cow. He gets to come out front and center for St. Patrick's Day soon!

Happy Birthday to Moo:

These are In the Mooooooood for Love and In Lurve with You:

This was a blank paint-it-yourself cow and I just painted it to look like a regular cow. I know, I'm real creative!

Butterfly and Bumble Bee Cow

My Christmas Cows: Father Cowristmas and Moodolph

No Cow is an Island:

Starry, Starry Cow:

Miss Udderly Delicious: (she's a chocolate cow!)

Well, that was just a few of them. This is really the only thing that I collect, unless I can count shoes and purses! I plan to continue collecting them; There are new ones out every year and it seems like there is a cow to represent just about anything. Each cow gets to come out and go on top of the cabinet for display sometime during the year. The seasonal cows, of course, come out during the appropriate season or holiday, and I just pick random ones during other times. It's fun!

We've also just started a collection for Addie. We wanted to start her a collection of something, but couldn't decide on what until recently. We just started collecting her the Barbie Collector Dolls. It started with the Wizard of Oz Dorothy Barbie and we've got her a few more since then. I don't really have a good place to display them right now, but I've been shopping some antique shops for a cabinet that I can put in her room to display them in. She loves looking at them and so far she hasn't asked to play with any of them. She's has plenty of other regular ones to play with!

Sike!

2010-02-25T21:14:00.007-06:00

Sike.

Do you remember that word?

I haven't heard it in a while, but my brother and I used to use it all the time when we were kids.

Urban Dictionary says that sike means the immediately preceding statement is false and was told to mislead.

Well, that's how I feel about the weather last weekend. It was such a beautiful weekend and I feel like we were misled to think it might be spring. The beautiful weather didn't last long. We were siked and now it is cold again. I'm so ready for spring weather and spring blooms to get here. I sure wish that groundhog wouldn't have seen his shadow.

Regardless, it almost felt like spring and we spent most of last weekend outside. It's kind of crazy considering we were trudging around our yard in a half of foot of snow the weekend before. The Alabama Forestry Commission was giving away trees in our area to encourage people to plant trees during Arbor week this week. We went and picked up some trees and planted them all around our yard. We love where we live and have plenty of room to plant trees in the wide opens spaces all around us. Brian also got me two cherry blossom trees and planted them for me. I love their blooms and have been wanting one for a while. I snapped these sweet pictures of Addie and her daddy outside planting trees. She loves being outside with her daddy and hopefully we will get to watch some of these trees grow as Addie grows.

I also chased this little guy around the yard all weekend.

We actually have several beautiful redbirds that hang around our yard. Brian has challenged me to get a good picture of one, but I have yet to do it. This bird sikes me out too. Just when I think I can get close enough and have my camera focused just right, he flies off. I haven't been able to get close enough yet, even with my 300mm telephoto lens, but I haven't given up

I'll get you my pretty...

These are a few pictures we snapped of him when it was snowing. The contrast of him on the white was so pretty, but I never could get a really good shot of him.

Oh well, I'll try again next time it snows. If history repeats itself, we should get another big snow in about 20 years or so.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-22T19:42:00.006-06:00

Yes, I know I'm a little late posting this, but we had a great Valentine's Day. We don't really celebrate big on Valentine's day, but we love spending time with those we love. The only decoration that I put out is my Valentine's cows. (Thanks Rebekah!)

Each year, our local volunteer fire department hosts a Valentine's dinner and silent auction for a fundraiser. It's always so much fun and there are always unique thinks to bid on. Here is a photo of me and my little Valentine just before the banquet:

We try to make Valentine's Day fun for Addie, so we gave her a basket full of sweet surprises on Valentine's morning.

She helped me get her Valentine's ready for all her little friends at church and at school.

My big Valentine, Brian, and I got to go out for lunch after church on Valentine's Day. We were planning to go to a movie, but we couldn't decide on one, so we just enjoyed a nice quiet lunch. He got me this camera strap and I'm super excited about it. Now, I'll look even cooler when I'm out and about taking pictures. :-)

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day and most importantly, spent it with the ones you love.

Snow Day in L.A.!!!

2010-02-15T13:55:00.003-06:00

We had snow much fun this past weekend (ha!) and we cannot believe how much of the white stuff we got here in L.A. (Lower Alabama, that is!). You can't get much more excitement than the mention of snow here in the deep south and we got much more than we anticipated. It's a very rare occasion for us and I think that is why we appreciate the beauty and the joy of it so much.

All schools and most businesses in our area shut down on Friday in preparation for the winter storm that was approaching. It started snowing before sunrise on Friday morning and did not stop until almost sunset. The snow was falling all day long and I was amazed and mesmerized by watching it. I think this is the most snow that I've seen in my whole life. Some parts of our county were measuring 7+ inches. I measured about 5 inches consistently throughout our yard and that was in the middle of the afternoon. We had a couple more hours of snow after that. I'm guessing that we got about half a foot of snow which is almost unheard of around here. This is definitely a day that we will always remember.

I had to work for a few hours that morning and then we closed down because the roads in our county starting closing. I've never driven in snow before and just the few miles home really scared me. My knuckles turned white because I was gripping the steering wheel so hard on the way home. I even got stuck in our driveway when I tried to pull in. I had to back up and pull back in a few times before I made it up the driveway. Brian saw me spinning out in the driveway and called my cell and literally had to coach me through getting up to the house.

Here are a couple of pictures from our yard:

Addie couldn't wait to go outside and play in the snow. The first thing she asked was "Where's Frosty?" She liked it at first, but the snow was falling hard and hitting her in the face so it wasn't long until she was ready to go back in. This technically wasn't Addie's first snow. You may remember this post and this post from last year when we got a little snow sprinkle. It was nothing compared to what we got this year, but we still got excited about it.

While Addie was taking a nap, Brian worked hard on building us a snowman:

Actually, it turned into a snow princess!

We played outside some more later in the afternoon when the snow wasn't falling so hard. We made snow angels and had snow ball fights. It was so much fun to feel like a kid again!

We woke up the next morning and played some more. We rode our four wheeler in the field behind our house. Then, we hit the slopes in our back yard and had fun practicing our version of winter sports: snow sledding on the top of Addie's toy box lid. It worked well!

Well, that was only a fraction of the pictures that I took of our snow, but I don't think any of them can truly capture the beauty of our winter wonderland. The snow melted fast and all that is left now is a small clump from the snow princess. It's bright and sunny outside right now and Friday almost seems like a dream. We thoroughly enjoyed our snow day, and we are now looking forward to warmer weather!

Another Party!

2010-02-11T20:08:00.004-06:00

We had another party to attend last Sunday. Our nephew, Jace, turned 2! His and Addie's birthdays are only 4 days apart so their parties will always be close together. Here are a few pictures from Jace's 2nd birthday party.

Addie's Birthday Party!!!

2010-02-10T21:14:00.007-06:00

Addie's 3rd birthday party was last Saturday and everyone had so much fun! It was a gymnastics party and the theme was tumbling monkey's. She was so excited about her party and she had a blast. There were about 18 little ones there plus parent's so it was a big party! It was much different from her 2nd birthday party last year when we just invited immediate family only.

My sister, Carrye, did the invitations, posters, and stickers that we used for decoration. She also made the dress that Addie wore. I think the invitations turned out so cute!

Teresa made her cake:

I made this lollipop tree. We gave out the lollipop's as favors.

Mommy, Daddy & Addie at the party:

The birthday girl:

We spent the first hour in the gym where the children got to run around and play on the gymnastics equipment. We got them all together for a group picture:

Addie showed off some of her gymnastics skills:

Then, we went to the party to room for cake, drinks and snacks.

Addie loved her cake and smiled big while we all sang happy birthday to her.

Her favorite part was opening presents:

Brian took this little video of Addie blowing out her candles:

I made this slide show of Addie's party: (Be sure to listen to the music!)

Addie's Birthday

2010-02-05T21:34:00.005-06:00

Addie had a wonderful birthday yesterday. The birthday cow came out. He comes out when anyone has a birthday around here!

Her morning started out great when she won the birthday cake from our local radio station. (She has won it two years in a row!) It was an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!

She went to school and we took cupcakes to her class so she could celebrate with her friends.

Then, Nammie & Pa-paw came over and we ate dinner. Addie opened some presents and ate another cupcake and some of her ice cream cake.

As you can see, she had a wonderful day and we are looking forward to her party this weekend!

Flashback Friday: The day Addie was born

2010-02-05T21:02:00.004-06:00

I haven't done a Flashback Friday post in a while, so I thought I would share Addie's birth story since it's the week of her birthday. Don't worry, I'm not going to share unwanted details, but this will probably be long. I haven't wrote this down anywhere, so I will be glad to have it one day. I seriously remember every detail like it was yesterday, so I better record it while it's still so clear in my mind.

Addie's original due date was February 9th, but she entered this world a few days early on Super Bowl Sunday, February 4, 2007! I went to my doctor the week before she was born, and he scheduled an induction for Tuesday, February 6th. At first, I was fine with it and I was just ready for the pregnancy to be over. I felt huge, I was uncomfortable, and my lower back had been hurting so badly for a couple of weeks. I loved being pregnant, by the way, except for the last couple of weeks. I had a wonderful pregnancy, with no major complications and I loved feeling her move inside me. It was just amazing to me.

Anyway, I worked my last day of work on that Friday, the 2nd of February, and was ready for a long weekend off before she was born. The idea of being induced really started bothering me, and I had just about decided that I would call my doctor on Monday morning and schedule the induction until after her due date. She was healthy and doing just fine inside my belly, so why would I want to force her to come before her due date just because it was "convenient"? My little angel must have known that her mommy was worried, so she showed me that weekend that she was indeed ready to enter this world a few days early.

We had company that weekend. Jacob (my step-cousin I guess you could say) was staying with us for the weekend. He was a senior in high school from Mississippi and was trying out for the band at Troy University. He was only there at night to sleep. On that Saturday, I met a friend of mine to get a manicure and a pedicure. I went back home that afternoon and just rested and did a few things around the house. Our house was already spotless, because I had been nesting for a month and I had our bags packed for weeks.

We went to sleep around 10:00 that night and my only complaint was that my lower back was hurting. It had been hurting for weeks so I didn't really think that it was labor pains. I woke up about 1:00 in the morning and looked over at Brian and said "Uh,oh!". He jumped up and said "What?!" I told him that I thought my water had broke or was about to. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough it did. We were so nervous and excited and started running around the house getting ready to go. Well, he was running and I was kind of taking my time. I took a shower, unloaded the dishwater, folded a load of clothes that was in the dryer, and went and woke Jacob up to tell him how to lock up the house when he left the next morning. We didn't get into the car until about 3:00 in the morning and by that time, my lower back was really, really hurting. I decided that I was probably having back labor and was not having any pain from the contractions in the front. On the way to the hospital, we called our parents to let them know. Brian's mom was right behind us and my parent's got up and got ready to make the long drive up to Dothan.

It's about a 45 minute drive for us to the hospital in Dothan, but I'm pretty sure that Brian got us there in 30 minutes or so. They checked me right in. I told them that my water had broke and I remember the lady at the desk asking if I was really early. She said that I didn't look very pregnant. I looked down at my belly and she was right. I couldn't believe how much my belly had shrunk. My belly was about half the size it was before my water broke and I started worrying if my baby was okay without the fluid there to protect her. They hooked me up to the monitor and she was fine and they wanted to "examine" me to make sure my water had really broke. I laughed and said, "There was a gallon of water on the floor, I'm pretty sure it broke." I guess they must get a lot of false alarms, because she acted like she didn't believe me. She said, "Well, honey, let's make sure so we can decide if we are going to keep you or not." At this point I was like, "Look lady, I KNOW that my water broke and you ARE going to keep me, because I live 45 minutes away and I'm am NOT driving home and back! It's time!"

After a couple of bad nurses and a good one, they determined that I was indeed in labor. Well, duh! I didn't need a RN to tell me that. Brian's parent's, my parents, Brian's sister, aunt, and granny all arrived at the hospital that morning before Addie was born. I really had a wonderful labor, if you can categorize labor that way. I was in pain, but it was bearable; nothing like I had been scared about. I slept most of the morning and received an epidural around 9:30 a.m. I went back to sleep and they checked me a little after noon and told me it was time. Brian was the only one in the room with me and he was wonderful during the whole thing. I didn't push for very long, and Addie was born at 1:17 p.m. The nurses almost delivered her, because the doctor barely made it to the room in time. It wasn't my regular doctor and she was doing an emergency c-section on someone else just before Addie was born.

I remember thinking that it was so much easier than I expected and I was absolutely amazed at my new, perfect, beautiful baby girl. She was so healthy and scored a 9.9 on her Apgar score. One of the nurses said she was really a perfect 10, but they didn't give out 10's. Everyone was waiting outside the delivery room door and they heard the 9.9. They told me that they all gasped and thought that was Addie's weight. Ha! No, she was a perfect 7 pounds, 1 ounce and was 22 inches long. That is very long and they measured her twice to be sure. She was a string bean. She was so long and tiny. She did have cone head though, so I think that contributed to her being measured so long. They took her measurements again just before we left the hospital, when her head was perfectly rounded out and she measured 20 1/2 long that time (and was down to 6 pounds 4 ounces).

So, there is Addie's beautiful birth story. I had no complaints during my labor and delivery except for the crazy nurse. Brian & I spent a few minutes alone with our little angel before we let everyone else come in the room to meet her. We were so proud and I was on cloud nine. I felt great after Addie as born and didn't expect to feel so good. We had a great stay at the hospital and had many visitors. We brought her home two days later on February 6, and she has been our joy ever since then. I think we'll keep her!

Just a few pictures from that first day:

THREE years old!

2010-02-04T06:35:00.000-06:00

Today, at 1:17 p.m., my sweet "baby" turns 3 years old. Can she really be three years old? Where has all the time gone and why does it seem to go by faster and faster? I try to treasure every moment that I get with her because she is growing up way too fast. I know that I'm going to miss these days.

Addie,

Happy 3rd Birthday! You are the light of our lives and bring us more joy than we ever thought was possible. I'm so glad that God chose us to be your parents and I am so thankful for the three years that He has allowed us to have with you. I pray and hope that we will get many, many more years with you. You are the best gift that we've ever been given and we thank God for you everyday.

You are so beautiful, sweet, smart, happy, and loving at three years old. You love life and your smile and laughter are so contagious. You are so full of wonder and amazement, and we enjoy watching you explore new things.

You've asked us everyday for the past couple of weeks if it was your time for your birthday. Yes, sweetheart, today is your day and we plan to make it very special for you!

Happy Birthday Addie! We love you so much!

Love, Mommy & Daddy

Just a few of Addie...

2010-02-02T21:12:00.004-06:00

...playing outside on a cold winter day.

State of the Blog

2010-01-31T16:03:00.008-06:00

I've been on a much needed blogging break and it's time to catch up. Although, I've finally accepted that I'll never really be caught up, if you know what I mean. We've been so busy lately that I don't feel like I can get caught up with much of anything. It's been one month since my last post. This is my first post of 2010 and today is the last day of January 2010. At this rate, I have a feeling that 2010 will fly by just as fast as 2009.

I almost quit blogging, because it's next to impossible to find time to sit down and write a post. Our evenings are crazy busy. Addie goes to bed about 8:00, and by the time I get everything ready for the next day it is almost 9:00. That leaves very little time for exercise, my DVR, my computer, and most importantly, my husband. I really enjoy blogging though, and I went back and read several old posts that made me smile. It reminded me why I blog and that is to capture everyday events from our ordinary lives. Some of those moments are the best moments and I know that I will love looking back on this in the years to come. Or at least, I hope there will be more years to come. So, for now, I plan to continue to blog. I want to do it for me, and I invite you to read along and see what we've been up to.

So, what have we been up to during this first month of 2010?

Partying: We had one more family Christmas party on the day after New Year's Day with Brian's mom's side of the family. We enjoyed seeing everyone and I got an Alabama Snuggie while playing dirty Santa! I'm more excited about it than I should be. I think I've used it everyday since then. (I'm using it right now.)

Cleaning/Organizing: We finally got all of our Christmas decorations put up, and I said that I will never put out as many decorations again. Brian wanted to video me so that I can watch it next November right before I decide to decorate again. We've also been cleaning/organizing our house. It amazing how much "stuff" can pile up on you, so we try to do this every once in a while.

Playing: We've had fun playing with Addie's toys from Christmas. She loves to play dress up, play with her dolls, and pretend to cook. I've also been playing with some of my Christmas presents and I've been learning about Photoshop which I love!

Working: This month has been extremely busy for both of us at work. We are beat and are ready for things to slow down a little.

Winning: We enjoyed watching Bama win the National Championship! We watched it from home and I was curled up in my Snuggie watching the game. Brian was also listening it to it on the radio and had a 2-3 second advantage and was driving me crazy. He would say things like "NOOOOO!" or "You're not going to like this." or "You are going to like this!" and he was jumping up and screaming before they scored on T.V.

Dating: Brian & I have enjoyed a few date nights at and away from home. We watched the first two seasons of Dexter in two weeks. Robbie has us hooked on it! We can't wait to watch season 3. Brian & I also went out to the movies one night and saw Avatar. We thought it was worth seeing at the theater and the 3-D effects were amazing in my opinion.

Surviving: We survived the unusual cold spell here in L.A. (Lower Alabama). I'm not a fan of cold weather and was absolutely miserable during our cold spell. We bring our dogs in at night when it gets that cold. They are house trained and do great sleeping on their dog beds. Addie enjoyed playing with them. I love this picture:

I also survived my first trip to a Chiropractor and surprisingly liked it. I'm not sure what happened, but I did something and hurt my back. It's much better now, but I can honestly say that was some of the worst pain I've ever been in. I couldn't hardly move for a couple of days.Also, Brian's mom (aka Nammie) was in the hospital for some heart problems. She gave us all a scare, but she is doing better now.

Planning: We've been planning Addie's 3rd birthday party that is next weekend and we are planning a trip to Disney World in the very near future! I can't believe that my "baby" is almost three years old and I'm super excited about going to Disney and experiencing this fun place with her. I haven't been to the parks since I worked there in Summer 2001.

Also, I just sent off the paperwork and payment for my 10 year high school reunion that is also coming up very soon. It is a weekend event in downtown Mobile and is going to be a blast. I can't believe that I've been out of high school for almost 1o years now! Unbelievable! I can't wait to see everyone and catch up.

Outings: We've been on a couple of family outings and we took Addie and Taylor (our adopted daughter as we call her) to the mall one night. We did a little shopping and had a blast. Addie adores TayTay (as she calls her) and had fun shopping with her. I think I got a preview of what Addie's preteen years may be like. Here is Addie & Taylor on the carousel:

Praying: We've also been praying for the people of Haiti. I can't imagine what they are going through and the reports and images are so heartbreaking. This country has been crippled by poverty, politics, and now nature. I wonder sometime why I have been so blessed and it really makes me appreciate everything that we have and the luxuries that we have living in our country.

Blogging: Well, obviously this is the only blogging that I've been doing this month, but I hope to do better and I have some posts planned for this week which is the week of Addie's birthday! We celebrate big with birthdays so we hope to make this a fun week for her! This post has more words than pictures, but I had a couple of fun photo shoots with Addie this weekend so next post should be more pictures. For now, here is a sneak peek:

Stay tuned...hopefully, I haven't lost all of my readers during my blogging break.

The Christmas Post

2009-12-30T20:52:00.011-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas and we feel so blessed, especially this time of year. We are blessed with wonderful families, friends, and so many wonderful things to enjoy this season.

I had big plans to do several posts about all of our Christmas fun this year, but like I've said before, it is so hard to find the time to sit down and blog. I usually don't get on the computer until late at night after I've taken care of every thing at home, spent time with my family and put Addie to bed. And, by then, I'm tired and have usually lost my motivation to do a blog post. I'm here now, so I'm going to attempt to recap our Christmas in one post.

We had a Christmas party at our church a couple of weeks ago, and we enjoyed some great food and fellowship with our church family. Santa and Mr. Claus came to our Christmas party too!

Mommy, Daddy & Addie with Santa and Mrs. Claus:

We hosted a party at our house the weekend before Christmas for the extended Davis family. We all had a great time watching the children exchange presents and the adults played Dirty Santa.

Davis Family 2009:

We made cookies for Santa in our fun Apron's that Nammie gave us:

I had the perfect Cookie taster:

We had our Happy Birthday Jesus party at Nammie & Pa-paw's house on Christmas Eve and then Addie opened a few presents from them.

Brian & I woke up early on Christmas morning and got ready to drive to Daphne. We had to go wake up our little sleepy head. She went through her stocking first and loved it. She would have been thrilled with just her stocking stuffers. She went into the family room to see what Santa left for her and was very surprised. She didn't know what to play with first. I think she must have been a very good girl this year. Here are a few favorite pictures from Christmas morning:

Her big surprise was a Barbie jeep and she LOVES it:

We left just before noon on Christmas day to drive down to Daphne to spend time with my family. Addie was exhausted and slept almost the whole way. She was rested and ready to go again once we got there. We all enjoyed being together and the children had fun opening up more presents. The only one who didn't make it was my brother, Adam. He was sick on Christmas day. We're going to try to find a way to photo-shop him into our family picture. (Santa brought me Photo Shop for Christmas, but I have no idea what I'm doing yet.)

Our Family:

Nana & Papa with their grands:

We spent the next morning eating brunch with my sister, Lalonie, and her family. I didn't get to see my mom or grandmother at all because they were both very sick during Christmas. We were so sad about this. We took my mom (Addie's Meme) her gift and had to wave to her through the window. She didn't want to take a chance on exposing Addie. Addie blew her a kiss and said "Merry Christmas Meme. I love you. Feel better". It was very sad, but we'll be making a trip back down soon the spend some time with them.

My niece, Lindsey, takes guitar lessons and she played us Silent Night while Mary Hannah and Rhein sang. It was the sweetest version of Silent Night that I've ever heard.

We decided to drive back late on Saturday night, because we were celebrating Christmas with Brian's family the next day. We left around Addie's bedtime and got home just before midnight. Addie slept the whole way and went right back to sleep once we got home.

Here we all are with our stocking's at Nammie & Pa-paw's house:

The newly engaged couple:

The guys with their gifts:

Nammie & Addie:

As you can see, we had a wonderful Christmas and we are blessed with so much. I took a ton of pictures, so it has taken me a while to go through all of them and decide which ones to share. This post would be too long if I shared all of my favorites, but here are some more that I put into a slide show:

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that you'll find 2010 your best year yet.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

2009-12-25T00:01:00.004-06:00

Joy!

2009-12-16T06:01:00.001-06:00

Since I've sent out our Christmas cards, I thought I would share a copy on our blog and participate in this Christmas Card Carousel. I look forward to sending and receiving Christmas cards each year and I really love our card this year. I found this card on Shutterfly. If you remember, I took some pictures of Addie in a cotton field last month and got great results after not going to extreme measures. I love simple designs and this card caught my eye immediately. This is truly a season of joy and Addie brings us so much joy. I thought our card was very appropriate for this year.

Front:

Inside:

I wish all of my blog readers a joyous holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

Tour our Home!

2009-12-14T19:59:00.015-06:00

Welcome!

I'm participating in the Christmas Tour of Homes with the Nester, so I'm inviting you in for a peek at some of the Christmas decor in our home. Go check out her blog and all the the great links that have already been posted! You are sure to get some great ideas. There are already almost 900 links posted! I love decorating our home for Christmas and getting ideas from others. Every room of our house is decorated in some way or another and I add to it each year. Since we had a Christmas wedding, we have many things that we are able to use each year that were used for decoration at our wedding.

This is the wreath that is hung on our side door. It's a fresh mixed noble wreath and smells so good when you walk in our home. Since we have an artificial tree, I like to get a fresh wreath each year:

You walk into our dining room from this side door, and I also have a fresh basket of greenery on our dining room table that smells wonderful too!:

And our casual Christmas China is set on our table:

Also in our dining room is a small tabletop tree that's decorated in all cow ornaments. I have a thing for cows:
Some more decor in our dining room:

This is our big tree in our family room. I've been known to sit in this room at night with all the lights off staring at the lit Christmas tree:

This corner shelf is decorated with mostly snowman figurines:

On the center shelf is a small nativity scene. Addie loves to hold baby Jesus even though she's not supposed to touch. How can you say no to that?

Addie's room is also decorated with a pink and green tree and a stocking fit for a princess:

Our bedroom is probably the least decorated, but I do decorate the mantel above our fireplace and this is where our stockings hang:

There are also Christmas frames all around our home:

This has to be my favorite. It's a grand masterpiece and happens to be one of a kind:
This isn't just a reindeer
as you can plainly see.
I made it with my hands and feet
which are a special part of me.
It comes with lots of love
especially to say,
I hope you have a very,
Merry Christmas Day!

~Addie~

We also decorate the outside of our house with lights and garland, but I haven't taken a good picture of it this year. It was pouring when I tried to get one tonight, so I had to take a picture looking out from the porch. I love the ambiance that it creates and I love to sit out here and enjoy it:

Our elf, Tayte is also known to show up all over our home watching a certain little girl:

That certain little girl in her Christmas PJ's happens to be my favorite thing to see around our house:

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home. There is much more decor in our kitchen, bathroom, and hall but I didn't take picture of everything. This post took long enough as it is, but I enjoyed showing the Christmas decor in our home. I still have a few more things that I may put out, and I'll be getting the house ready this week for a big family Christmas party that we are hosting at our house this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by... Come again!

Merry Christmas!!!

6 years!

2009-12-13T22:21:00.007-06:00

Brian & I celebrated six years of marriage today! We spent the weekend at the beach and had a wonderful time. It was so nice to spend some time focusing on us and we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend together. We went to Destin, FL and stayed at SanDestin. The weather wasn't very nice, but it didn't get us down. We finished up our Christmas shopping and enjoyed dining at some of our favorite restaurants. Addie stayed with Nammie and Pa-paw and they had a fun weekend decorating the Christmas tree and wrapping presents.

I Love this man:

It was so foggy that you can't even see the beach behind us in this picture. We could barely see the waves and we were only a few feet away from the water.

Flashback Friday: Our Wedding Day!

2009-12-11T07:01:00.004-06:00

Brian & I will celebrate 6 years of marriage this weekend, so I thought weddings would be an appropriate theme for this week's Flashback Friday. I cannot believe that it has been 6 years...where does the time go?

We had a Christmas wedding and were married on December 13, 2003. I thought it was a beautiful wedding and it was everything that I ever dreamed of. It is a very busy time of the year to get married, but I was still in college so we were trying to find a time that would work around my classes. I was taking finals for fall semester the week of our wedding and we were also in the middle of remodeling the house that has become our home. It was a cold and rainy December day, but I thought it was just perfect. I was marrying the man of my dreams and my best friend and that's all that mattered to me. Somone told me that rain on your wedding day meant you would have good luck. I don't know if I would call it good luck, but Brian & I sure have been blessed with so many good things. We are so thankful for each other and all the good things that we are able to enjoy in our lives.

These are a few scanned images from our special day, so they aren't the best quality. I love looking back at our wedding pictures and remembering this day:

Next week's them will be The Post of Christmas Past!

Cousin's Christmas

2009-12-10T22:30:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, Addie & I went to Birmingham for a Christmas party with some of my family. We call it Cousin's Christmas because it is my paternal grandfather's children and grandchildren and also his sibling's children and grandchildren that gather together. My grandfather has passed, but he has two living sisters and a living sister in law. We are a family of mostly girls and we had a great time. I love visiting with this part of my family that I don't get to see very often. Birmingham is a great center point for everyone to meet because we have people coming in from north, south, east & west! My dad's first cousin, Sara, has it at her house and she is a great host.

Addie & I went up Friday night and spent the night. It was supposed to rain and snow on Saturday morning, and I didn't want to drive in that so we went up on Friday night. We stayed at a hotel that I'm very familiar with and had a great mother/daughter night together. I was a little worried about us being at the hotel by ourselves, but we did great and Addie loved our little get away. We woke up Saturday morning and saw a little snow, then we went shopping before our Christmas party.

Addie ready to go night-night at the hotel:

Mommy & Addie:

Weeks Girls:

Addison, Thomas & Addie:

Addy & Addie had a ball playing with each other:

Sara made them stockings:

Addie loved holding baby Thomas:

Addie keeps telling me that she wants a baby sister or baby brother. I think someone is putting a bug in her ear...

SEC Champs...Facebook Style!

2009-12-06T23:30:00.004-06:00

Go Bama...2009 SEC Champs!

Now, all we want for Christmas is a National Championship!

We are so excited about Bama winning the SEC Championship this weekend! Roll Tide!

I was on facebook Saturday night and everyone's status updates were cracking me up. I choose to keep mine simple and just put "Roll Tide!" Everyone else was being much more creative and were making up jingles to Christmas songs. Here are my favorite facebook updates from the weekend:

"Gators roasting on an open fire, Ingrams votes r n the clear, Roll Tide cheers being sung by the choir and packing for Pasadena coming near!"

"Jingle bells, Florida smells,Ingram ran that thang,Tebow cried, those Gators died and Saban just got paid!! Roll Tide!"

"The Bama defense is frightful. Offense so delightful. Tebow had no place to go. 13&0, 13&0, 13&0..."

"More determined than ever the elephants they came, & he clapped & he shouted, & called them by name; "Now, Cody! Now, Mark! Now, G-Mac and Ro! On, Tiffin! On, Javy! On, Trent & Julio! To the top of the conference! To the top of the poll! Rammer Jammer Alabama & ROLL TIDE ROLL!"

"ESPN just reported that Tim Tebow has signed a 6 year 38 million dollar endorsement contract with Kleenex! "

Roll Tide!!!

It's time...

2009-12-03T19:42:00.007-06:00

It's time for a post! I'm way behind on my blogging; we've been so busy and I haven't made time to post during the past two weeks. We had a great Thanksgiving and we've been busy getting ready for Christmas around here. I love this time of year! We spent Thanksgiving with Brian's family. We usually don't travel during Thanksgiving because we always have to work the day before and the day after. We had some great food and enjoyed spending time with Brian's family. We have so much to be thankful for and we took time to enjoy it on Thanksgiving.

Davis Family - Thanksgiving 2009:

Mommy, Daddy & Addie:

Nammie & Pa-paw with their grands:

We went shopping on Black Friday before work. We were up early, but I was on a mission and got what I wanted!

Dressed and ready for work and shopping at 4:00 in the morning. This frappuccino got me going:
Notice that Addie's car seat is empty. We didn't drag her out in all the craziness; she spent the night with Nammie.

At Wal-mart. It was a mad-house in there:

Heading home. We got what we came for:

It was crazy at Wal-mart... I mean CraZY! I've been before on Black Friday, but not as early as this year. We got out of there quick and were back home before 6:00 so we took a little nap before going to work. Brian went to the Iron Bowl in Auburn. I worked until noon, and then went to Montgomery to watch the game at Rena's house. It was a nail bitter, but we managed to pull it off... Roll Tide! I hope we are ready for the SEC Championship this weekend!

I can't believe Christmas is only 3 weeks away! We got a new tree this year and put it before Thanksgiving. This was the first time that we've ever put up our tree before Thanksgiving. We decorated the outside of our house with lights and garland and I'm almost done putting out all my Christmas decor inside. I put a small white tree in Addie's room with pink and green ornaments. It's so girly and she loves it! She is getting really excited about Christmas, and I think she will really get "Santa" this year. Tayte made his appearance this week and she has been on her best behavior... I wish he would stay around all year! We've ordered our Christmas cards and I'm done with most of my Christmas shopping! Now, I hope I can relax a little and enjoy this season!

We went to the mall a couple of weeks ago and Addie got her picture with Santa. She loves Santa this year, unlike last year and she climbed up in his lap and told him that she wanted "a pony with long hair and a princess with long hair."

Here is a sneak peek at our Christmas cards for this year:

She is my joy!

Addie's tree:

Addie was a big help with the tree:
I got some big shatterproof ornaments this year and Addie took them right out of the bag and hung them on the tree. She hung them all in one spot:

I had to make a few adjustments after she was done and I've added even more ornaments since I took this picture:

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully, I post again sooner than later. I didn't get a chance to do a Flashback Friday post for this week, but Flashback Friday will be back next week. Next week's theme will be weddings and the week after that will be a Christmas theme.

Flashback Friday: Vacations!

2009-11-20T00:00:00.005-06:00

This week's Flashback Friday is vacations! Who doesn't love a vacation? We were in the Smoky Mountains this time last year and I would love to be there right now. You can click here, here, here and here to read about that trip. Wow, I did a lot of blog posts from that one trip. Now, I'm going to try to put pictures from several of our other vacations all in one post, so join me as I flashback to some favorite vacation memories. I'm just going to show one or two pictures from each trip or this post will be extremely long.

On our honeymoon in December of 2003, Brian & I went on a Caribbean cruise to Labadee, Haiti; Ochos Rios, Jamaica; and Cozumel, Mexico. We were also scheduled to stop in the Cayman Islands, but our ship had to dodge a storm at sea so we missed that port of call. It was fun going to different places in the Caribbean and we loved exploring the cruise ship on our days at sea.

Labadee, Haiti (December 2003):

In November of 2004, Brian & I went to Orlando and went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventures and Sea World. We had a blast and enjoyed riding all the roller coasters. We LOVE roller coasters. It was a great time of year to go because the weather was great and it wasn't very crowded.

Universal Studios (2004):

In January 2005, I went with my sister, Lalonie, to NYC with several girls that work for her. I was thrilled when she invited me to go because it was a place that I had always wanted to see. It was a wonderful trip and NYC is a great place to visit. There is so much to see and do. I've been twice now, and would love to go again one day.

Central Park (2005):

NYC (2005):

In May 2005, Brian & I went on a cruise with his family. We all had fun going together and we cruised to Grand Cayman; Costa Maya, Mexico; Belize City, Belize and Mexico. One of my favorite memories from that trip was exploring the Mayan ruins in Tulum.

Tulum, Mexico (2005):

In May 2006, Brian & I went to on another cruise in the Pacific. We left out of Los Angeles, CA and cruised to Catalina Island, San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. We also stayed in Long Beach for a few nights and got to to see a lot of L.A. and southern California.

San Diego, CA (2006)

Catalina Island, CA (2006) This is one of the most beautiful places that I've ever been:

We brought back a special souvenir from that trip to the west coast who was born exactly 9 months later! We've been on a few small trips since Addie has been born, but it has definitely slowed down our traveling. That is fine with me because she brings me more joy than any vacation ever has. We love to travel and there are so many places that I hope to see one day including Hawaii and Europe. We are hoping that our next trip will be to Disney. We are planning to take Addie there next spring.

Link below if you want to share some of your favorite vacation moments from the past. I would love to see some of the places that you've been.

I'm going to take a break from Flashback Friday next week, but I will start back the next week with something Christmas so stay tuned!

Addie

2009-11-17T21:04:00.008-06:00

Here are a few pictures that I took of Addie last weekend. These were taken the same day that I took our Christmas card pictures, but I didn't use the drastic measures that I revealed in my Not Me! Monday post. Seriously, I didn't.

We were playing in the hayfield next to Brian's parents house and Addie was having a blast. I just let her do her thing while I snapped away. Impromptu photo shoots like these always result in the best pictures.

P.S. I got some layout tips that I used above from MckMama. Go check out her wonderful blog and tutorial!

Not Me! Monday...Christmas Card Pictures!

2009-11-16T12:35:00.011-06:00

I've wanted to participate in one of MckMama's Not Me! Monday for a while, but haven't because I'm not usually one to admit my imperfections.

In my last post, I posted some fun pictures of Addie laughing; we went to a neighbor's cotton field to take pictures to use for our Christmas cards this year.

I've already been asked how I got her to laugh and smile so much for those pictures. Well, it's getting harder and harder for me to get a genuine smile out of her and I have to get more and more creative with each photo shoot. If I ask her to smile, she gives me a big cheesy fake smile.

Okay, so here is the not me part... I most certainly did not go to extreme measures to get a real smile out of her. I would never do that. Those extreme measures did not include me encouraging her to break wind and then laugh about it. Addie & I would never laugh about something like that. Then, in the middle of our photo shoot in our neighbors field, she did not squat down and tell me that she had to go poo... Not my little princess.

Go check out MckMama's blog for more Not Me! Monday posts...you're sure to get a good laugh!