Soup of the day

Christmas sickness and a Target couponing trip

2012-01-24T11:21:00.006-06:00

Right after she starting running fever

Christmas morning :(

Lizzie started getting fever too

1st out of 2 doctor's visits that week

Boneless chicken farm-both fell asleep on me

I know these are out of order but I don't want to take the time to fix them.

Making snow cookies-a Christmas tradition (before we got sick)

Lizzie's new big girl bed....loving this change!

I am so far behind I am not going to attempt to catch up. Basically we had a great fall and winter but then both girls got very sick during Christmas and we had to cancel several of our plans with family. I have realized there are 2 times in my life that what was going on in the outside world didn't matter to me. 1. When we had our babies and were in the hospital and it didn't matter if your house was dirty or clothes were washed. All that mattered was taking care of that baby. 2. The second time was this past Christmas when both girls were sick and we didn't get to go anywhere or do anything for about a week. They both ended up with ear infections and bronchitis and Lizzie had some Croup thrown in there too. It was pitiful to watch them not even feel like opening presents (although they did but not with as many smiles as we had hoped for).

Callan on Christmas day-went to my Granny's for 30 minutes and she threw up so we had to leave

On a totally different note, I am posting a short pic to describe my latest Target shopping trip. Not only am I super excited that I got a new Target debit card today which saves me 5% on every purchase and 1% of my yearly purchases go to the school of my choice. I'm hoping maybe somehow Mars Hill can take that donation off of my future bill. Fat chance! But also, today I had an amazing couponing shopping trip that I wanted to share.

I got one box of Multigrain Cheerios, 2 boxes of Skinny Cow chocolates and 2 boxes of Cheez Its. My sweet cashier friend checked me out and told me my total of $17.59 and then I handed her my 4 coupons. $1 off Cheerios, $1/2 Cheez Its, $3/2 Skinny Cow Target coupon and Buy one get one free Skinny Cow manufacturer coupon. When all those were scanned my total was $4.54!!!!! With my new red card I saved an additional .19 cents today. I was so excited that my total went from $17.59 to $4.54. Greatest Target shopping trip ever!!!

We are so thankful for the sunshine we have seen over the last few days. It is a change for my allergies and my mood!

August updates

2011-09-04T14:17:00.006-05:00

Typical picture of our girls these days

Reagan, Calln, Tyler, Lizzie, Taylor & Carley

Ghetto pool

New Bama jerseys

Me and my honey of 8 years

Mom/Mimi/party helper

One of L's many faces

Thanks Amy's cakes!

Just a little browsing in Hibbett's

My first night of running-pushing a double stroller with these 2 monkeys in it! Their first and last run with me!

Some of the tomatoes from our plant

I thought I would update all my many readers on what's been going on at the Bridges household. It is Labor Day weekend and I just found out that our friend, Katie is on her way to our house with her boyfriend, Matt. I am so excited to see them. What a nice surprise. They have been at the beach along with the tropical storm and have been pretty miserable so they are going to use their last day to visit their Florence friends.

This is a crazy week for us because the girls start school at Kid's Point on Tuesday. I hope they are really excited about it because I am! I realized recently that they are together all day everyday with little to no break from each other and it is starting to show. This has got to be exhausting so I think school will be so good for them. We are having to make an effort to spend one on one time with them to separate them a little and it is good for all 4 of us when that happens. Callan is lately giving us a run for our money with her little defiant attitude and I'm so ready for the few hours a week that I get to be by myself. Granted I need to be cooking and cleaning and I hope I learn to make good use of my time, but I am so excited for the little break. Maybe I'll squeeze in some fun Mel time!

Will and I are leaving soon for a little beach trip on our own. It is a belated anniversary trip and much needed. I seriously feel like we haven't had a decent uninterrupted conversation in several weeks. It is so hard for me to leave the kids but I know how important things like this are for our marriage. I love spending time with Will and it is going to be so nice to do it for several days in a row with no precious little voices around! Thanks to fabulous grandparents for lending a babysitting hand while we're gone!

Our house is still for sale. Actually at this very moment we are having an open house. Can't you tell how busy it is? We are trying really hard to sell it on our own to save money to possibly fix up another house or put some money down but it is really hard to do. This open house might let us know how badly we need to list it. By the way, a little shout out to Mary Lord who is an awesome agent if you need one! Still got an hour and a half left so we'll see what happens.

On a crazy note if you know me, I have actually started running. Yes I know you are all shocked by my exercise but I decided now that I'm close to 30 that maybe I should do a little something to get in shape. I decided to do the Couch to 5K program which basically takes me from the couch seeing as I don't exercise to being able to do a 5K. I am on my 4th week of running and I'm running 3 days a week. I don't pay attention to how far I run, I just try to run more time than I ran the time before.

We moved into a new classroom at church for our SonSeekers class and me and Will have spent a lot of time looking at furniture and buying art for the wall. It's an awesome room though and we have tons of space so if you are youngish (20-30's) and want some super cool people to hang out with, come to CrossPoint and hang out with us! We have some single, some married, some kids, some without. Equal opportunity!

Lizzie turned 2 on August 26th and whenever you ask her how old she is, she says August 26th. We had her party last weekend and it was great. It is so nice to be surrounded by family and friends that love your children. She got tons of stuff and we had lots of yummy food. We have found a hot dog bar with lots of different toppings to be a huge success. We also had beans and one of my new favorites, corn dip. Oh my, it is so good. My aunt made it for a family get together and it has been a huge success the 2 times I've made it since. Let me know if you want the recipe.

On a not so fun note, my grandfather, Paw Paw (mom's dad) has recently been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. It has hit him pretty quickly and he is starting to get very weak. His speech is the thing that has gone down the most and it is almost as if he is talking without his teeth in. It is very sad because we know his time isn't very long. He is a super cool granddad and it has been hard to watch him going down. I'm also very sad for my mom who is the only daughter; she has 3 brothers which help care for he and my granny a lot too but mom is really close with them and visits with them a lot. My granny isn't in the best shape either and has a really hard time walking so if something happens to him, she might not be able to be by herself very long. I'm trying to make a cookbook for that side of the family to commemorate all the times we get together and eat. Hopefully I'll get it done by Christmas!

Sorry all of this is so random but sitting here with nothing to do, I thought I'd share some stuff. I don't feel like arranging the pictures so they are just going to be all at the top. Have a great Labor Day!

Part II

2011-06-19T14:19:00.006-05:00

Part I is below.

We have decided to sell our house. We aren't really sure where we are going but we put a sale sign in the yard in early May. It is For Sale by Owner which means we don't have the marketing that the realtors do but we are praying that God will send the right people by and that he will also help us decide what to do. We feel confident that this is the decision he wants us to make but of course it is still hard. If you know of anyone interested, it is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with an office and a bonus. I've got pictures I can email anyone interested. Here's a pic of the outside.

Here are a few random pics of the girls lately. They are really starting to play well together. Right now, they are very much into pushing each other around in the doll strollers and playing in Callan's bed. They get along for the most part but we definitely hear some crying and screaming from time to time when they aren't doing so well together.

Lizzie did great giving up her paci. She did much better than I thought she would.

We have had lots of playdates and outdoor play this summer. Here are a few pics of some of our friends. Callan also finished out her first year of preschool at King's Kids. We loved Mrs. Kim & Mrs. Connie and will miss them. Unfortunately as much as we loved it there we are going to enroll both girls in CrossPoint's new preschool this year. If you are interested in knowing more about it, let me know. It is for 2's, 3's and 4's from Tues-Fri (any variation of days). We are so excited!!

Mrs. Kim & Mrs. Connie at preschool

The slip & slide is always a winner!

Lizzie & Baby Ava

Uh oh!

I've got blackmail on Beau!!

Precious friends!

We spent one Friday night recently riding our bikes on the TVA trail and enjoying a yummy peanut butter & banana sandwich by the dam. It was such a nice ride and I hope we do it again soon. It is hard to want to do it on really hot nights. Thank goodness Will pulls the girls in the trailer and I don't have to.

Will & C taking a break

We are missing our sweet friends Chad, Julie & Parker. They recently moved to Indiana and we were so sad to see them go. We know God has a plan though and we are thinking his plan involves bringing them back. Here is a pic of Callan and Parker on one of their visits back. Can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

We are potty training Lizzie this week. It has been pretty good except for Friday when I was having a hard day and so was Lizzie. We started on Tuesday and since Tuesday she hasn't had on a diaper since. We put her down for her nap and bedtime in panties and she has been dry every nap and bedtime since. It is amazing. Callan still wears diapers at nighttime but thanks to my sis-in-law, Shannon's advice we decided not to go back to diapers with L at all so she has really surprised me that she has done so good. Yesterday she only had one accident and so far today (church and all) none!! So thankful we might be saving some money on diapers now. I'll post a pic of her and her new Minnie Mouse panties later. By the way, I would love some advice on how to get C out of diapers at night. I think we might have gotten her out of them for naps thanks to Lizzie wearing panties at nap, C has wanted to too. We need to get her out of diapers at night too though. Help!

Spring & Summer Part I

2011-06-19T13:39:00.012-05:00

I guess I'm only going to post once a season or so but maybe I can get you caught up. We had a busy spring with lots going on but amazingly this summer has slowed down a little. We have lots of birthday parties coming up this week but other than that we have enjoyed lots of nights cooking at home and playing with the girls. It has been so nice to spend some quality family time together.

Callan started gymnastics at the Y right after she turned 3. She loved it at first and wanted to practice her new tricks a lot but after about 6 weeks she started saying she didn't want to go and cried when we talked about going. It was a very crowded class and the teacher wasn't exactly pushing her to go during her turn so we didn't mind dropping out. Most of the time she just wanted to sit by the teacher anyway. Maybe when she is a little older she will like it better.

Will had to go to Mobile & Destin for his last work trip for a while so me and the girls tagged along for a quick beach stay. The first part of the trip was absolutely awful and we thought we might never take another family trip again but once we got settled at the beach and quit hotel hopping and being in the car so much, they were great and we had a great time. We stopped the first day in Birmingham at the Children's Museum and had a fun time letting the girls run around and see all the neat stuff.

Then we went on to the beach and stayed a couple of nights. They loved the sand and it was so nice to stay out there for several hours and enjoy the wonderful weather. We bought a Sportbrella at Sam's and I highly recommend it.

My aunt Lori is an awesome painter and over the last few years she has painted the girls their own personal chair with their name on it. We got a table from a friend for a super low price of $10 and painted it to match the chairs and it has been perfect to let the girls play on or eat a snack. Precious!

Taylor & Tyler got to come up for their spring break and spend a little time with us. We picked them up at the airport (they flew by themselves!!! They are getting so old!) in Birmingham

and they stayed in Florence for a few days before going to Athens. They are amazing kids not to mention great babysitters too. Our girls love them so much and just the other day Callan said she couldn't wait until they got here this summer so she could hug them and hold them.

They are coming in about a month for their summer trip so we can't wait!

Here are a few pics from Easter. We always go to my grandparents in Danville and hunt eggs after church. Oh yeah and eat...Granny food!!

We sat in the laundry room during the bad storms in April. Thank goodness Florence didn't get hit hard but I know so many have suffered from them.

This post is entirely too long to be one so I'm going to break it up. Hope you are catching up! Part II is next

2011 so far

2011-03-22T14:28:00.006-05:00

Best family pic we could get

So clearly I haven't posted in a while. Christmas was the last time and now we are already almost in the 4th month of the year. Time is flying by. Lots has been going on but I don't think I can catch you all up on everything so I'll just post a few pics and tell a few stories. We started the year off with a new (to us) minivan. We got a 2005 Honda Odsessey and this momma is thrilled. I said I would never have one but after having 2 kids back to back it has been worth it. I really don't care what I drive and now I can get the kids in and out a lot easier. It has been great.

In February, I worked for my second time at Wee Swap doing some marketing work for them. I have really enjoyed getting to use my degree and of course the two ladies who run it, Lou Ann Mitchell and Lea Snell are awesome as well. I will hopefully get to do it again for the fall sale (first of August) so I'm looking forward to that.

Callan is turning 3 on Thursday, the 24th. It is hard to believe it has already been 3 years. We had her party this past Saturday with just our parents, grandparents and siblings. Very small compared to the last 2 years but we decided not to do extended family after the first 2 years. We had sandwiches for lunch and cupcakes instead of a cake. I went all out this year with a preordered sandwich tray from Wal-Mart and boxed cupcakes with icing out of a can. Greatest. Mom. Ever! I have to say it was quite nice not worrying about all the little details. Here are a few pics from her party.

Bouncy house-thank you Wee Swap

Cupcakes!

Opening presents

New shades!

Barbie Jeep-so excited about this! Got a great deal!

A new tea set

Will has been traveling more this year than ever before. They got a new contract at work (which is great) but it has meant that he and Scott have had to visit several new hospitals to show them which products to order. He has been to Detroit, Washington D.C., New York, Tampa, Orlando, and maybe New Jersey?? all in the last 5 weeks or so. He still has to make at least one more trip in Alabama before he can be done with this project. I am so ready to have him home and I know the girls are too. We really miss him and just try to stay busy while he's gone. It is not an easy job being a single parent and I have a new respect for people that do.

Amy, Reagan, and Carley were here for spring break this past week. The twins get to come in a month for their spring break so we're looking forward to that. We've got a fun surprise planned for them when they come. My girls are obsessed with Reagan (Ray Ray). I have never seen 2 people be so in love with someone else (cousin love, that is) They just lay with him and hug on him and hold his face. They cry when he leaves the room. It is hilarious. I am just so thankful that we are all so close.

Carley trying out the seat

Carley, Reagan and Callan at Cracker Barrel

Me & Amy at Frostbite!

Our newest project involves this little lady. We are trying to get rid of that sweet little paci (pappy) We have taken it away except for naptime and bedtime (and this picture) but it has been hard. Let's just say Lizzie hasn't been as easy as Callan was. I know you are all shocked! She is much louder than Callan if nothing else so this sweet little paci has been a great way to plug her little mouth when she is whiney. Well, remove the paci and what do you have? A whiney little girl. Callan gave her paci up before a nap at 14 months and never looked back. Lizzie, not so much. I am waiting for Will to get back in town before we begin the no paci at bedtime try but I anticipate it not being very much fun. I hope she makes it easier on us than we think. I guess we'll try letting her throw them in the garbage and telling them bye bye. Wish us luck!

On a more serious note, some friend of ours, Chad & Amanda Wilson lost their home to a fire this past Thursday. Thank goodness all 5 family members are fine but they lost everything they owned except for the clothes on their back and their cars thanks to a stranger that pulled them out of the garage as the fire was going. Remember them in your prayers. They have received lots of help and God will carry them through but it is still hard and heartbreaking. Here is a picture of their sweet family.

Christmas Craziness 2010

2010-12-31T08:03:00.010-06:00

Warning: lots of pics!

December is always a crazy time for us like it is for many. My birthday falls during the first week along with the Coat and Toy Giveaway at church. Then when we get closer to Christmas we have several gatherings to go to. This year it was 8 of them. It is a little bit ridiculous and exhausting but what can we say...we love our family and have a hard time saying no. Here are a few pics from the holidays. For my birthday we went to Umi to eat which was delicious. At the end of our meal they serananded me with several songs in Japanese that I couldn't understand and presented me with a beautiful crystal swan. Let's just say it wasn't as nice as I'm pretending but it did make for some good laughs. Thanks Umi! Then Will surprised me with a dance lesson at the new studio, Free to Dance. areyoufreetodance.com. Super cool because he knew that would be something I would love to do! We learned the parts of the Waltz and I give Will huge props for doing something that he didn't really want to do for my sake. He also gave me a Papaya gift certificate and a pedicure!!! Already took advantage of that one and loved it!!! I left out a lot of stuff and a lot of celebrations but you can see it was already too much!

We went to a Tacky Christmas party at some friends house. Here is Will's sweater (thanks Jo Anne) and his silly face to go along with it.

Callan's school did their Christmas program and this is what C did the whole time. Actually she stood up with the 3 years old and older even though her whole class sat down the entire time. She never moved her mouth. The most action we got was her shrugging her shoulders a few times. They had a little party in their class afterwards. We recorded the whole thing which means a lot of boring video since she didn't perform!

Yes Lizzie is on the potty and yes she poo pooed. Jo Anne had put her on their one day and she went and several times since then if we've seen her going we've put her up there and she will go on the potty. It is so funny to see something so small up there using the big potty. She also pee pees on command. She is hilarious! And no, I will not be potty training anytime soon!

Our first Christmas event was with my dad and Elaine, Shan, Shannon, Alexis and Faith. They came to our house this year which was so nice for us not to drive one more place. We ate soup and dessert and then opened presents. We had lots of fun and the girls definitely enjoyed getting some new toys!

Will left on the Sunday before Christmas to go hunting in Kentucky with his dad, uncle and cousins. They were gone for 2 nights so me and the girls came up with some fun (give mom a break) type of things to do. We had fun playing in our new matching pjs.

The girls all wanted to flip except no one actually flipped and they all stayed like that for several minutes.

Me, Will, Shannon & Shannon

Our family at my dad's

The girls riding the tractors at Chapparel Steakhouse in Lawrencburg. That is where we meet the rest of the Bridges family for Christmas.

Our Bridges crew with Memommy

Carley holding up her bread at Ricatoni's for Reagan's birthday

The grandkids (aka. the chaos) at Ricatoni's

The grandkids with Granna, Dada and Santa

Callan got a new stool for Christmas and Lizzie was trying it out while talking on the phone...she's such a multitasker

We couldn't find Lizzie and she was in the rocking chair patting the Bible

Their terrible crazy hair growing out. Now you know why we always want a bow in it!

Scott, Amy, Will and me

Bring on 2011!

Chicago

2010-11-27T15:32:00.006-06:00

Our segway tour-it is actually a lot harder to take your hand off than you would think

I haven't posted about our Chicago trip just because honestly I'm not real good at posting. It's about time though. Will had to go to Chicago for work for 3 days and he had a free flight so I used it to go with him. His parents kept the girls one day and my mom kept them another day. Thank goodness they were able to do that so we could spend some time together.

The first night we ate at a place called Lou Malnati's, a local Chicago style pizza place. Last time we were in Chicago we ate at Giordano's and really weren't impressed with the pizza. I was a little hesitant but oh my word, how awesome!! We got some spinach bread to start with which was awesome and then a deep dish italian sausage pizza. It was so good, I can't even explain it!! Then we topped it off with a little cookie and ice cream for dessert. The picture above is us full and satisfied. We then did a little shopping on Michigan Avenue and found my favorite Chicago store, H&M. Probably the only one I could even afford shopping in, but it is the bomb. It is 3 floors of trendy, stylish, super inexpensive clothing. We picked up a few things before I had to have my picture made to capture the night!

We were literally exhausted walking around. I had on boots that weren't very comfortable when you walk as many miles as we did. So we decided to take a ride on a rickshaw. I didn't know that is what these were called until this day but a guy rode his bicycle and pulled us around on our little cart. It definitely beat having to walk even one more step. Very different and fun!

Will looking professional waiting on the subway, or the "L" as the locals call it

The 2nd day we were there we decided it would be neat to take a segway tour around Chicago. We had a lot of fun with our guide, Demetrius, and the only couple from ATL that went with us. Demetrius was from Greece so we really had to pay attention to what he was saying because of his heavy accent.

Before my driving lesson began

At the Shedd Aquarium-Demetrius loved taking pictures so be glad this is all I'm posting of the segways.

Another night of shopping at Filene's Basement-my trooper husband

A quick stop at Ghiradelli for a free sample of chocolate, a little bitty cup of water and some delicious hot chocolate. Notice the smile on my face!

A quick stop at the Hershey store before heading home for the night. Silly hats and tired faces!

Our drive home from Nashville to see our babies. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. This was our delirious driving pic! We had a great trip and I am so thankful for Will's job and the opportunities both of us get from it. I am also thankful for loving grandparents who will lend a hand and let us go do these things. As much as you love your kids, it is so important for your marriage to get away and spend time together!

Stocked up!

2010-11-21T19:43:00.003-06:00

The two pictures above are the same thing just a different angle. I wanted to share my recent Publix run. I was in Madison for my dad's birthday and me and my sister-in-law, Shannon, (the coupon lady as she was referred to in Publix) and my niece, Alexis, ran after the party and picked up a few things.

Ready for my total?? For all the stuff pictured, I spent $48 and saved $118!!!! Can you believe that? I am still new enough to this that I get super excited. You probably can't tell what all I got but it does consist of 2 bottles of Fantastic, 3 boxes of spaghetti noodles, 2 vegetable oils, 2 boxes of Ritz ($1.09 total), 2 boxes of mac and cheese, 4 bags of frozen veges, 4 things of cookie dough, 3 boxes of popcorn, 2 things of margarine, 2 things of spray butter, 16 things of crescent rolls or bread, 2 things of cream cheese, 8 boxes of muffin mix (.20 each), 2 bags of muffin mix, a bottle of dressing (.57), 2 boxes of chex cereal, a box of Gas-X (they paid me $1.50 to take it) and 2 bottles of vitamins that they paid me $3 to take.

Shout out to my amazing teacher, Shannon, because I couldn't do it without her. She is on a first name basis with all the workers and even warns them when she things they will run out of stuff because of it being such a good deal. She is also awesome about donating stuff to the 8th street church in Madison or Huntsville one. I am giving her my Gas-X and vitamins to take there. She gave me 2 coupons last night in exchange for a bottle of Lysol that I wasn't going to use. It's amazing the things that make you excited after you have kids! It is so fun to go get so much stuff and not spend a lot for it. I have had to reorganize the pantry several times but I think I found a place for everything. I also went to Target this past week and got Del-Monte vegetables on sale for .45 each. That is cheaper than Sam's just so you know. I bought 3 cases!!! They also have their Campbell's cream of mushroom and chicken and Swanson chicken broth on sale for .50. That is dirt cheap!

We are supposed to be getting 2 Publix in Florence so hopefully that will happen sooner than later and I'll host another coupon class-probably at church-and let Shannon come teach us again how to save in our own town!!! Oh and just so you know, my total last night started well over $100 and I know I had at least $60 in coupons!! It was so fun to see the total drop! Yeah for cheap groceries!!

Shutterfly Shout Out!

2010-11-02T20:19:00.003-05:00

Hey friends,

I wanted to give a little shout out to my friends at Shutterfly. They have some awesome stuff on their website that you need to look into. Go here to find great Christmas photo cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery for the upcoming holiday season.

It is definitely hard to choose since there are so many but my favorite Christmas card is Peppermint Bliss-http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/peppermint-bliss-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476. I love the font and the colors most of all but I also love that you can put 3 different pictures on there to show different family members, arrangements, etc. I can't wait to get a good picture to upload for our Christmas cards.

I also love Shutterfly's calendars. You can find them at http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/ . These make great gifts because you can upload all your pictures and have them printed on your calendar. It makes remembering birthdays so much easier and fun when you have pictures to go with it.

Shutterfly is the best place to upload your pictures and share them with friends. http://www.shutterfly.com/upload-pictures. I do this often with my sister-in-law who lives out of town. She also sends me her pictures and when I sign in I am able to save her pictures and use them later for my photo albums. That is definitely one of the things I use Shutterfly for the most!

Thanks to Shutterfly for making it easy to share memories!

Go visit their site today and get ready for the holidays!!

SonSeeker Saturdays

2010-10-27T08:55:00.003-05:00

First of all can I say how blessed I am to be a part of such an amazing church and Sunday school class. The SonSeekers (our class) had 2 events this past Saturday so we spent a lot of time together. First, on Saturday morning we got together at the soup kitchen downtown at 1st Presbyterian Church. Our class had volunteered to take a day to prepare and serve the food. We decided to serve taco soup, corn chips and chocolate oat bars. We had prepared the food beforehand so we really just had to set up Saturday morning. This church opens their soup kitchen every Friday and Saturday from noon-1:00. What an awesome ministry. They told us to estimate 60 people probably at the most. Well, we ended up having 76 people come through and could you believe that we had exactly 76 bowls of soup. EXACTLY!! Not one more or one less. Can you say Godwink?!! That was amazing in itself. It was a great opportunity and an eye opening experience. Hopefully we can help another time.

All the girls that helped

Then Saturday night we had our monthly Supper Club at Zach and Sara Miles' house. It was a Halloween party if you can't tell from the picture below. Me and Will dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oyl. I thought we did pretty good to have put the outfits together in less 1 day. Yes that is black hair dye in my hair. It wasn't much fun to have to wash out!

Popeye & Olive Oyl

Well could you ever have imagined that out of only 14 people Lee & Magen had dressed up as the same thing. Here is a picture of me and Magen pretending to battle it out. Needless to say we didn't win best costume or most original!

What's even funnier is Sunday night at church me and Magen dressed exactly alike too. Not on purpose!!

Here is the whole group! We had such a great time. Zach & Sara and Eric & Melissa were responsible for the funfest! Thanks for being such great hostesses! Thank you God for such godly, fun people!

My baby started preschool

2010-09-10T14:08:00.003-05:00

Playing in the garage-just a picture that has nothing to do with this post

Well Tuesday was a new adventure for us. We enrolled Callan in King's Kids 2 days a week and this week was her first week there. She was really excited to go and we talked about all the things she would do and her lunch and bag, etc. When I went to wake her up that morning I walked in and said, "Who is going to school today" and she jumped up and said, "Me"! That was a surprise but I was so excited that she was excited and not nervous.

Eating breakfast-we were actually really excited

Ashlan & Callan-we picked her up from Tara's classroom downstairs and she went to the 2 year old class with us. She did great. Not one ounce of nervousness. Wish I could say the same for C. As we got to the door we got this face below.

Getting a little more nervous

No time for a picture with mommy

I hung around for a few minutes to ease her into it. Another little girl was having a meltdown and I wanted to make sure she did join in...at least not yet!

Daddy and his girls

I finally decided to leave and was able to sneak out without her noticing. I did peek in once and saw that she and Mrs. Kim, her teacher, were looking in her bag so I'm sure she started to get upset and they were trying to distract her. I left on that note excited that she had done so well. I went outside and talked to Jessica and Courtney and told them how good she did and went home. Scarlett called me a few minutes later to tell me that she was crying when Scarlett dropped Ava off and then she went back a few minutes later and she still was. I was sad for Callan but happy for the update. I would have been more shocked if she didn't cry at all. I went back eagerly at 1:00 to get her and found out that she cried for about 30 minutes and then did fine after they went outside to play. She did have 2 accidents probably a little because of nerves and mostly because mommy packed her some first day of school juice which is very rare in our house. It almost always makes her have an accident and I packed a whole sippy cup full. They told me that her cup comforted her so that juice was gone. Well I think she is smart and realized she never gets juice so she gulped it down and then it went right through her. I also think it is probably weird for someone else to take you to the potty. Oh well, I was a little nervous for Thursday but once they pried her from my arms, she only cried for about 10 minutes and had no accidents. Yay for improvements! I was so relieved. I am so thankful that she still likes it and so far seems eager to go. It has been nice having a little more time to myself and a little extra one on one time with Lizzie!

I love Will Bridges

2010-09-10T13:16:00.006-05:00

Happy 7th anniversary!

I am behind on blogging but I wanted to catch up on our 7th anniversary trip. Me and Will got to go to the Westin in Huntsville for 2 nights without kids! Talk about a special trip! No kids was so exciting. Don't get me wrong I love my kids but we needed a break. I hadn't left Lizzie since she was born so this was sad but I was also really happy because she has been a mess and I needed some time alone with my hubby. We left on a Thursday as early as we could and headed to Cheeburger Cheeburger in Huntsville. First time to eat there and we weren't disappointed. We stopped at Gigi's Cupcakes afterwards and definitely weren't disappointed. We went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool for a while and then headed in to get ready for dinner. We went to the Monaco to watch a movie. I think it was called The Other Guys and it was awful. Truly terrible! Then we headed to PF Changs for dinner and then off to our heavenly bed.

The next day we went to Parkway Place mall and ate lunch at the food court with my dad, stepmom, brother, sister-in-law and niece. That night we headed over to Cheddars and enjoyed a wonderfully inexpensive huge portion dinner. We had a late reservation for The Melting Pot for dessert. Before we went there we went to The Station to play a game of Shuffleboard. I won...just saying! We shopped at Bridgestreet and my new favorite store, Papaya. Then the beloved Melting Pot. Oh my word, The Melting Pot! If you've never been you must go but I only recommend dessert. The entree food is good but not quite worth the money. The dessert is unbelievable. Look at my pictures below and the smiles on our faces. It cost $16 for a one person dessert but it is definitely big enough for 2!

The next day we ate lunch at Connor's and then headed home. It was a wonderful trip but of course we were happy to see our babies. It is always hard for me to leave my kids but it is also much needed time. I am blessed to have a wondeful husband who is so supportive of me and such a wondeful father to our kids. I love him more today than I did 7 years ago. The love grows and changes through the years but the longer we are together the better and stronger our marriage is. I love you honey!

At Bridgestreet

Notice the cheesiness in my smile-super excited!

Will's reaction to our dessert!

Got a little on my dress!

Testing out the chairs at Brookstone-mini massages

Going out to dinner without kids!!!!

Westin's 'heavenly' bed...it was!!!

Our future ride! Will always said we are going to get one of these when we retire. I can't even imagine!

Lizzie videos

2010-09-02T14:48:00.002-05:00

A few new videos of Lizzie...

Happy 1st Birthday Lizzie

2010-08-27T16:56:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday to my 1 year old, Lizzie! Yesterday was actually her birthday so I'm a little behind. My mom is on her way (hallelujah) to help with the party tomorrow night. Nothing fancy, she's just 1! We are excited and have been truly blessed with this sweet baby.

Where is Lizzie?

2010-08-22T16:39:00.005-05:00

Thursday will be Lizzie's 1st birthday. It is hard to believe that it has been a year but you all know how fast time flies. She has been such a different child than Callan to say the least. It has been a new experience for us. Lately her new thing is winding up in random places. When it gets quiet, I go looking. Here are some of the places I've found her lately.

In her closet, sitting on her b'day present

In the baby bed in C's room

On the boxes beside the tv-signing "more"

On the little car that she cannot ride

In between the couch and chair in this piece of furniture

Same as above

In the baby doll stroller reading books

Brushing her teeth beside the toilet on some foam samples

In the toy basket

Under the bathroom sink brushing her hair

I could probably take a new picture everyday but these are some of my favorites!

7 year itch

2010-08-10T08:04:00.005-05:00

Well yesterday was our 7th anniversary. It is crazy to think we've been married that long. I was thinking back to our wedding day and how much of it I can still remember so clearly. The way that we saw each other for the first time (a priceless moment which is now displayed in our house in a collage of pictures), the feeling of walking down the aisle and meeting Will at the altar, the way we excitedly ran out after the wedding, the few moments we had to ourselves before everyone came in to eat, the exhaustion of a receiving line, the feeling of leaving the wedding in a super cool car, and the honeymoon adventures! All of these feelings were ones of pure joy and happiness. Such great memories. I wasn't a bridezilla at all so I didn't care about most of the details so I was just able to enjoy it all.

Fast forward 7 years to reality. Me and Will have a great marriage but that doesn't come without work. Marriage is hard. The first year was especially hard. He and I both had lived in fraternity/sorority houses so the reality of moving in with someone of the opposite sex was shocking. We have really grown and learned a lot about relationships over the last 7 years. It has been a fun journey and more than that, fun to have him by my side. I think it is huge that we were such good friends before hand. I think that really helped our relationship to have a strong friendship... as well as love! I look forward to the future with my sweet husband! I have so many blessings I can't count them all. But I know one of God's greatest blessings was sending Will to my life.

We had a super low key anniversary day. Will worked, I worked, the girls napped, we went to Target, ran a few more errands as a family, grilled steaks, Kraft Homestyle macaroni (delicious-please try it), corn on the cob and peas. Then topped it off with homemade banana pudding. An early bedtime made the night complete. Boring, old, happily married Will & Mel. I love you honey!

Banana pudding!!! Yum!!!

Summer fun

2010-06-26T08:25:00.009-05:00

So sorry, I don't feel like putting these pictures in order or labeling them. Enjoy all at once!

Well I'll be honest, I haven't really felt like blogging lately. The summer is wearing me out. 2 babies+hot sun=exhaustion. We've had a lot going on this entire year...until now. All of a sudden we didn't have a busy week and it was wonderful. Can't say that we've done a lot but it has been so nice to slow down for a while. We eaten in a lot this week, played outside a lot, swam a lot, just had a normal family week. Callan had swimming lessons this week with Mrs. Denise. Wow has she become a household name in a bad way. Every time we say something about a pool, she says "pool nee no". Pool, Denise, no! Bless her heart. First three days we cried a lot, 4th day was great, 5th pretty good. At least we are getting used to the water and introducing her to the fact that if you get off the step, you will go under if you don't 'reach and pull and kick, kick, kick'!

We have gotten out our redneck pool a alot this summer and had fun playing in that. Will had to go to Detroit for a few nights so me and the girls stayed with my mom in Hartselle. My mom rocks! If you have a mom that helps you out, you are so lucky. Well, when you have kids as close together as ours, your mom is more important. She is extra helpful! We got brave and decided to go to the Birmingham Zoo in the 95 degree heat. The first hour was miserable but then a storm starting brewing and it cooled off a good bit. It ended up being a great day besides the fact that I got bit by a duck! I forgot my camera so the pictures are on mom's to be posted later!

Last night we got to meet the newest member of the Mann family. Baby Harrison arrived safely Thursday night. He is precious and I'm sorry ladies, Lizzie has already claimed him! Congrats to Jack, Kimberly & big brother Henry!

July is going to be a little busier. Will's parents are moving in a week or so and Amy and the kids will be here in a couple of weeks for a while. Then comes August. Will has to go to Denver again for a few days. Then we're going to try to go to to Atlanta for a few days BY OURSELVES!! Oh my word, I will be so excited to get to go away for a few days. But at the same time, I will be so so so sad to leave the girls. I left Callan in December and was okay until I got home and broke down like a baby but I've never left Lizzie. I'm not sure how that is going to go. But...she has been a much harder baby and I know that has added so much more stress to our lives and we really need to get away. This last year has been hard but I know it will get better soon. Each day is better. Callan was such a good baby that this has definitely been a change. I guess this is reality while Callan was a dream! We love you Lizard! Then we'll plan Lizzie's 1st birthday party which is crazy in itself that she's about to be 1! Then in September I think we are planning on going to D.C. and seeing Josh play and visiting the city. That will take the place of our yearly beach trip.

Anyway, maybe I'm caught up for now! Have a good weekend!

Reunion

2010-05-29T10:13:00.005-05:00

Before the reunion at my mom's

Some of the class of 2000

Last Saturday was my 10 year reunion. I graduated from Hartselle High School in 2000 before heading to Florence to attend UNA, fall in love, get married, and you know the rest. I graduated with 189 people but I think only about 30 were at the picnic. We didn't go to the dinner that night so I'm not really sure how many came to that. I was so glad to see everyone but there are a few who hold a special place in my heart. Me, Alison, Emily, Mandy & Ashley (who left before pictures) were really close the last few years of high school and they all came back (after I begged) to visit last weekend. Me & Al have known each other since birth and grew up going to church together and later became close friends. Me & Mandy knew each other since Kindergarten, me and Em and Ashley since junior high. I was so glad we got to get together and meet each others children. There is a picture below with some of the guys we were close with too. Some weren't there but it was nice to see them too. I haven't seen most of them in years so this was a nice treat. I have so many fun memories with these people. Cheerleading, beach trips, cruising through Cullman for boys (that's right), blind double dates, proms, homecoming, hanging out in the summers, lots of fun stuff. Thanks for all the memories!! Hopefully we can get together before our next reunion. Go Tigers!

Mandy, me, Al, Em (Maggie) Ashley missed the pics

Mandy, me (Callan), Russell, Alison, Emily (Reagan)

The boys-David, Andrew, Russell, Ben, & John

Easter weekend

2010-04-06T14:01:00.011-05:00

Family photo at C's birthday party

It is being weird and not letting me put pictures where I want so they are out of order. Oh well, I'll get over it. Callan fell out of her little princess patio table chair yesterday and got a pretty good bruise and bump on her head. Thank goodness we had already done Easter pictures! I wish her bangs would swing the other way for a few days. Here is the bump...

Lizzie and "Becky"-an old doll of mom's that is obviously Lizzie's size

Callan's Easter basket

Taking a break from hunting eggs...

to pick flowers

Shannon teaching the family how to clip coupons!

As you all know, I am addicted to saving money at Publix now. It is like a game trying to find the right coupons and trying to get the best deals. Well I went last Friday night while at my mom's and then again on Monday morning before heading back to Florence and I did so good I decided to show you what I bought. On Friday night I spent $49.13 and saved $89.34!! Then on Monday I spent $48.80 and saved $63.45. I took a picture of my purchases lined up on the counter to show you what all I got for that amount. Hopefully I won't have to go for awhile!

Here is the Friday night trip....

2 bags of OreIda Steam N' Mash, 2 things of Jimmie Dean sausage, 5 cans of veges, 3 cans of broth, 4 boxes of macaroni, 1 bottle of dressing, 5 things of Steamfresh veges, 2 boxes of muffin mix, 1 pack of nutrigrain bars, 1 box of Ritz Crackerfuls, 1 bottle of bbq sauce, 2 FREE boxes of Chocolate Cheerios, 6 boxes of popcorn (saved $6 by getting it there with coupons), 2 containers of ketchup, 4 boxes of fruit chillers, 1 bottle of cooking oil, 1 bag of Keebler cheesecake middle cookies, 1 container of pound cake, 1 carton of strawberries, and a FREE container of Greek yogurt (they actually paid me .60 to take it out of the store)!! I think that is all.

Here is the Monday morning trip...

5 boxes of instant potatoes ($1 total), 4 boxes of granola bars, 5 boxes of brownie mix, 2 huge Lysol wipes containers, 4 bottles of bbq sauce, 2 bottles of Pam, 2 things of Lysol spray, 2 Voila bag meals, 14 boxes of green giant veges and a huge thing of Bounty paper towels.

and here are the 2 containers of Snuggle I got FREE!!!

Here's what else has been going on.

We celebrated Callans' 2nd birthday on March 27th. She had a great time. We had a hot dog bar set up and it turned out really good (and easy)!!

She is signing thank you after everyone sang

Her cake

Her cake at Granna and Dada's on her actual birthday

We got her a new tricycle that we can help turn since she can't reach the pedals good. We didn't give her to her until a few days later. She waited patiently while daddy put it together.

The finished product...

Easter morning at mom's

Easter lunch at my grandparents

Waiting to eat lunch

By the way, Will has been gone all weekend which is why he isn't in any of the Easter pictures. He got tickets to the Masters practice round in Augusta for yesterday and so he and Scott (brother-in-law), Scott's dad, Jerry, and Scott's brother-in-law, Chris, all went down early to Clayton, GA where Jerry has a house and they played golf. Then Sunday night they drove over to Augusta for the Masters on Monday. Then he spent the night in GA again last night and worked this morning. He is on his way home now. I'm sure he'll post pictures of his trip (if Chris emails him some pics since he didn't have a camera and you can't take your phone in) on his blog soon!

www.thebridgeswecross.blogspot.com

Enjoy this beautiful weather! I can't get enough!

What we do while daddy is gone...

2010-03-15T16:07:00.007-05:00

Will is in Denver for part of the week so while we wait on Mimi (my mom) to get here, this is what we do....

Watching cartoons

Cleaning up our spilled milk

Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider

Eating lunch

Tummy time

On our way to shop

Modeling our new outfit

Playing

Eating a snack on her box

Sitting up-our newest trick

Helping mommy cook

Making a chocolate chip cheese dip

Sampling the chocolate chips...

Pretending to take a rest

Brushing our teeth

What sweet girls we have been blessed with! We miss you daddy!

Cake Crisis

2010-02-16T09:27:00.006-06:00

Me & Ginger, the guest of honor

Oh my word, what a day I had yesterday! I was hosting Ginger's baby shower for Ryder last night so I busied myself cleaning and getting things hidden to be presentable! Will ran to Sam's at lunch to pick up the cake and some lunch for us and he immediately called me when he had the cake in his hands. He said, "I just took a picture of the cake and I think you should check your email. I don't think you're going to like it". I went into panic mode and quickly went to the computer where I opened up the file and couldn't believe my eyes. Brace yourself!

Really Sam's?? No Thanks!

This is the cake I'm supposed to put on my table for the baby shower tonight? Are you kidding me? He has got to be on candid camera. It was insanely ridiculous! I couldn't believe they expected us to be happy with that! I was furious and after giving my piece to Will, he hung up and took care of it. He spoke with the manager (a man of all things) and Will just asked him if we could have a plain white cake to ice ourselves. He agreed and called the bakery to let her know. When Will got back there she said, "You didn't have to call the manager". He felt terrible. She had gotten her feelings hurt but he didn't know how to tell her it was awful! He just explained tha the needed to work the payment out with the manager and wasn't sure if we were bound to this cake or not, etc. She gave him the cake and he went on his merry way. He talked to Tricia Trousdale who works there and she totally helped him out. She couldn't believe the picture he showed her and the other girls there and we ended up getting the cake for half price. Talk about a good husband. First of all, he knew that it was awful and I would not be happy and secondly, he totally took care of the situation! Thanks baby!

2 hours later my dearest friend, Scarlett, arrived at my house to fix this little problem. She brought her extreme cake decorating toolbox and got to work. She drew out a plan, whipped up some icing and made this cake happen! Here was the final result! Exactly what I wanted from the start! Thanks Scarlett, I owe you big time!

Scarlett's my hero!

I showed Ginger and all the other guests the picture last night and they laughed so hard. They couldn't believe it either! It all worked out!

And yes I know in the grand scheme of life that this is totally not important but I wanted it to be decent for the guest of honor! And it was!

We can't wait to meet baby Ryder when he gets here!!

Also, I have absolutely no voice this morning! I sounded terrible yesterday but today I can't talk at all. I am waiting on the doctor's office to call me back and let me know what I can take!

Publix addiction

2010-01-19T20:54:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I have a new addiction. It's called saving money at Publix! My super sister-in-law, Shannon, has always been great at saving money and using coupons. She gets some of the most unbelievable deals and sometimes they even pay her to take stuff because she has so many coupons. Well, at Christmas she taught me some of the tricks to be able to save lots of money. I worked all Sunday night gathering up all my coupons and checking the Publix ad online and then made my grocery list. I arranged for a babysitter for Callan and headed to Decatur with Lizzie to do my shopping. I was there for about an hour and a half which I think is hilarious because I didn't get that much but I did go down every aisle. Let me tell you there were some super shoppers there. Some ladies had spreadsheets, expandable file folders, scissors, all the works in order to get the best deals. I had to call Shannon at least 2 times to make sure I understood how it all worked but finally I got to the register and checked out. I spent $39.13 but saved $54.08. I was sooooo excited!!!! I saved so much money. I got Green Giant vegetables for $1/box, Scotties tissues for FREE, 2 boxes of fruit snacks for $1.30, 2 boxes of stick butter for .15 cents each, Pillsbury pancakes-2 boxes for $2.18, Jello pudding, Success Rice, FREE Jolly Time popcorn, 2 boxes of granola bars, Wheat Thins, 2 bags of cough drops, 2 bottles of Fantastik, 2 bags of Voila dinners, 1 16 pack of AA batteries, some McCormick seasoning, 2 cans of Progresso soup, 3 cans of Chef Boyardee, and 2 bottles of V8 Splash. Now, tell me that's not a ton of stuff for $40. Plus the batteries were $8 of that. I am hooked. I can't wait until the next Publix shopping trip. We are going to save so much money by making the drive to a Publix and we are going to try so many new things by doing this. I've already talked Scarlett into doing it with me next time. It does take a long time committment for getting your list and coupons together and then obviously the drive and shopping time but well worth it in my opinion. Shannon said she and another girl might be doing another couponing class soon so if they do and anyone is interested in driving to Madison to listen to their tips, let me know!

New Orleans

2009-12-16T14:25:00.008-06:00

On Fulton Street in NOLA-lights everywhere

My my my, it has been so long. I have absolutely not made time to sit and blog lately. I have so much to catch up on but I'm mainly just going to talk about our recent trip to New Orleans.

In front of St. Louis cathedral

We have been super busy this winter with traveling, Josh Willingham Foundation stuff, holidays, etc. We hosted Will's mom's family over for Thanksgiving so we were busy preparing for that. Then Will had to go to Detroit at the end of November so I stayed with mom for a few days. Then we celebrated my birthday and worked the coat and toy give-a-way at church. Then he was going to have to go to New Orleans for work so I decided to go with him considering Southwest had a flight for $25 one way. Unbelievable deal!! We thought about it and decided it would probably be best if we left Callan while we were gone. It would be good for all of us but also easier traveling with just one kid, etc. It would have been the first time I had left her for more than 1 night. We got his parents to keep her most of the time but my mom drove up for one night so that Jo Anne could go to work. I cried as soon as we left the driveway. Just thinking about her being sad as the days went on and we still didn't come home broke my heart (I bet she didn't even notice). I finally pulled it together and we had a great flight. We drove 2 hours that night to Lafayette for his appointment the next morning. After it we drove 2 hours back to New Orleans for the rest of the trip. I went with him to some of the appointments and just sat in the car.

Lizzie gave us a pretty hard time while we were gone. She isn't the easiest baby anyway but wow! I know some of you are thinking we are getting payback because Callan has been so good and laidback and we agree. Lizzie came out screaming and hasn't stopped much since. Her and Callan are as opposite as day and night so far, in looks and personalities. Lizzie cries...a lot...loud. Callan not so much. Lizzie has colic and still gets up 2 times a night. Callan was sleeping through the night at 7 weeks. Lizzie smiles a lot. Callan, not so much. I'll be interested to see if they stay so opposite. Anyway, the second night we were there Lizzie screamed off and on for 2 1/2 hours. Our hotel was connected to a mall so finally at 11:00pm we walked all 3 levels of the mall trying to get her to fall asleep. FINALLY! We got up early the next day for appointments and she screamed a good part of the time Will was in the hospital. The next night was better but the last morning we were there she still wasn't acting right. She whined and cried pretty much the whole time we waited for our plane in New Orleans. I scheduled her an appointment for the next morning and we went in bright and early to see Dr. Crenshaw. She checked her out but didn't see anything wrong (I assumed it was her ears but it wasn't). She finally decided to do a cath to make sure she didn't have a urinary tract infection. She also did a CBC (bloodwork) to make sure all her levels were good. Everything came back okay except her numbers showed her that it was probably viral. We were at a loss but Friday and Friday night were a little better. Saturday Will's parents kept the girls while we went to the tacky Christmas party with our class and they said she was okay but had screamed some. That night she screamed again for 3 1/2 hours off and on. I finally called the triage nurse and she told us we had clearance to go to the ER (I guess they would send us straight back) but she finally went to sleep around 2:30am so we decided to just wait and take her on Sunday afternoon. We saw Dr. Hamilton and after looking in her mouth he said, "There it is". He saw several ulcers on her throat. Poor baby! He said that she could have had a sore throat for several days before the ulcers even showed up. There isn't anything we can do except for Tylenol...bummer! But she has been so much better. Monday I got a smile AND a laugh so I think we are on the right track. Will had the same thing. He had gone to the doctor Friday thinking he might have the flu but they didn't find anything but Dr. Hamilton looked in his mouth after Lizzie's and saw some in his too. Lizzie really is a sweet baby when she's not sick!

She was having a good moment

Whoops, I was supposed to be talking about New Orleans!! We ate at a couple of great places like Boutin's in Lafayette, The Gumbo Shop and Cafe du Monde (BEIGNETS!!!) in NOLA. But we also ate at some stinky places like Bubba Gump Shrimp. We got to go to the outlets where I fell in love with Banana Republic (never really shopped there before), we got pulled over going 71 in a 45 (no ticket!!) and we got to walk around the very neat city of New Orleans. Although I wouldn't recommend Bourbon Street with a 3 month old....not a lot to offer!

Beignet heaven and the best hot chocolate ever!!

The Real World New Orleans house

I was so excited to see Callan! I cried harder when I saw her than I did when I left her. She was so sweet and sat in my lap for a while and would hold my face and then lay her head down on me. I didn't want to put her down. Will travels a good bit and has left her before so this was definitely harder for me. But don't get me wrong, he's a sap when it comes to his baby girls!

Ready for Christmas!

Her new Elmo panties-potty training coming soon

We are about to be busy with Christmas plans. We have 8 places to go in just a couple of days. It is sometimes more stressful than enjoyable. I am looking forward to spending time with all of our family though. Amy, Scott and the kids will be here in a few days and I absolutely can't wait!!! We have so much fun when we're together. I can't wait for the girls to play together. This will be the first time they have seen each other since they're walking! I can't wait to see Callan opening presents. I can't wait for the wonderful food! So many fun things going on. I've been making homemade cookies and icing like my mom used to when I was little and using my new Christmas cookie cutters (thank you tacky Christmas party prize)!

Outfits thanks to the Friendship Center

The tacky girls

The tacky boys

A little shout out to our great friends Jack, Kimberly, and Henry who are now expecting baby #2 in June. We are so happy for ya'll!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and realizes how blessed we all are!

Christmas family photo

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-24T21:03:00.005-05:00

Will, me, Callan and Lizzie went to the pumpkin patch today at McGee Farm. It was Will and Lizzie's first time and what a chilly day to go. We were supposed to have a SonSeeker trip to the farm but there are so many sick kids in our class that only 6 people showed up. Oh well. It was still fun. We walked around and visited the goats and chickens

(Love this face!)

played in the corn kernels,

milked the fake cow, and sat among the pumpkins. Callan seemed to like it pretty well although it took her a while to get into it. It was nearing nap time so out of about 50 pictures we got about 3 we love. She loved feeding the corn to the goats and letting them lick her hand and she really loved milking the cow.

Lizzie stayed in her carseat hidden in the stroller the entire time so we didn't get the family picture I was hoping for but I did get one of her at home.

Thanks for the pic Kayla!

On a completely random note, we got a new kitchen table and need to get rid of the other one. It was Amy's but she said she doesn't want it back and to give it away. So if anybody needs a table, here she is. There are four chairs (only 3 pictured) that come with it. If you are interested, please let me know. It is currently sitting in Will's office and we would really like to get rid of it asap. It is yours if you will just come get it. It isn't in great shape but it has been great for us for 6 years. One chair leg is broken. You can sit in it but I wouldn't lean back or put the heaviest person in it. Let me know if you want her! (Flower arrangement not included!)

October is here!

2009-10-05T16:45:00.005-05:00

Lizzie-almost 6 weeks

Well, I haven't been very good at blogging lately so I'm going to attempt to catch up while the girls are napping. Things have been going pretty good around here lately. I am getting braver getting out with both kids. Lizzie is easy for the most part since she usually just sleeps in the car seat but it takes me about 5 minutes to get everything ready to go in a store and then another 5 to get everyone and everything (double stroller) back in the car when we're done. There is no more running in a store real quick. I don't go in unless I plan on staying for a while. I did battle Target the other day for the first time with both of them and it was a productive trip. I had about 15 coupons for different baby items (mostly diapers-thanks friends for the Pampers coupons-keep them coming) that I wanted to use before they expired so I ventured out and spent over $100 on diapers alone. But I did save $15 thank you very much. I am very particular about my coupons. I refuse to let a diaper coupon expire. We're going to use them eventually so why not save a buck or two here and there even if you have to buy a lot at one time in order to use the coupons. It's an investment! I took a picture of the diapers I bought just to show you how we spend our money these days.

We need stock in Pampers!

Lizzie has been doing great on her weight. I can't remember the last time I updated but we have been taking her in every week for weight checks because at one point she lost an ounce from one week to another. So I started pumping off the top of my milk so that she can get to the fatty milk and her weight has shot up. She now weighs 9 lbs. 10 ounces and is in the 75 percentile!!!! I did an experiment about 2 weeks ago where I didn't pump much that week just to see what would happen and sure enough she only gained 2 ounces. Every other week that I have pumped she has gained about 5-6 ounces. So I definitely have to continue doing that until she grows out of it and can gain it without me having to do that. I hope that isn't long. It is annoying having to pump before I nurse her but I will do just about anything in order to not have to go to formula. The doctor didn't think we needed to come in again until her 2 month appointment now that we have figured out how to make her grow. She is doing great and usually happy. She is still waking up 2-3 times a night and that is hard for me but she is always smiling and cooing when she is awake. She got her first haircut Saturday night. That's right I said haircut. The kid had a rat tail and I refused to wake another 11 months before I did something about it so I cut it off. I didn't get Callan's hair cut until 15 months but Lizzie needed one the moment she entered the world. I've done good to wait this long before cutting it. Don't worry, I saved a lock of it for her baby book!

She smiles so much!

I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks since Lizzie got here. Time is going so fast. Callan has been so good with her thank goodness. She loves her paci and thinks if it isn't in Lizzie's mouth that it needs to be. She is also very eager to let us know when L cries. She needs us to immediately go check on her. This is both helpful and annoying but I'm just thankful that she likes her instead of the opposite. She loves for everyone to look at Lizzie. If anyone speaks to Callan she immediately points to L so that they will look at her too. Today I asked Callan to sing to Lizzie so that maybe she would smile and she took her hand and starting singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider. It was so sweet. I wish I had it on video.

We had a great weekend catching up with old college friends at UNA's homecoming and we're looking forward to Katie coming here this weekend and hanging out. Thursday night we went to hear a Dave Matthews cover band. We only got to hear 1 1/2 songs because of a speaker malfunction before we had to go home and put Callan in bed but it was still nice to be outside. It was Callan's 1st concert so I took a pictuer of her and Henry. I also have some awesome footage of Henry dancing. He's got some really good moves!! I hold on to the videos for future blackmail!

Notice his arm around Callan!

Here are some pics I took today of the girls.

My two opposite children

This is when she was done taking pictures and ready to play!

Innocence, frustrations and disappointments

2009-09-15T15:51:00.005-05:00

Where I found C when I walked in the house

Well, I'll start with the cute stuff. The other night we took the girls to Diebert park to feed the turtles and fish. Will wasn't exactly jumping for joy to go because it is such an ordeal now with 2 kids. He would have been happy just walking down the street but I insisted. Anything to get out of the house these days. He admitted later that he had a lot more fun than he expected to have. This picture is of her feeding the turtles some bread. She loved it too!

Here is a picture I took of the girls Sunday morning before me and Callan left for church. It is hard to get a good picture of the two of them because I don't trust Callan to hold Lizzie and so I have to prop her up on the boppy pillow which means that Callan can't get very close. Callan looks scared to even look at Lizzie.

The frustrations that I was going to blog about have turned into blessings. As you faithful readers all know Callan has been a slow grower during her short 18 months and we had several tests done and different doctors check her out just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. Well Lizzie comes in the world at a whopping 8 lbs 9 oz so we just knew that she was going to be different than her older sister. When she left the hospital she was 8 lbs. 1 oz. At her one week checkup she had only gained 2 ounces so she was 8 lbs. 3 oz. Then at her 2 week checkup she lost an ounce putting her down to 8 lbs. 2 oz. I was really bummed feeling like we were on track to have the same issues that we've always had with Callan. Dr. Hamilton wasn't really concerned that she wasn't at her birth weight but he didn't like that she had dropped so he wanted us to come in 5 days later for a weight check. In the meantime I made sure to wake Lizzie up by putting a wet wash cloth on her skin to make her mad so that she would eat really good. I took her in yesterday to see how much she weighed and she had gained 12 ounces in those 5 days!!! She now weighs 8 lbs. 14 ounces. We were so shocked but excited!! (It takes Callan about 2 months to gain that much) Dr. Hamilton called me yesterday afternoon and he was so sweet. He was so excited about her progress that he doesn't want to wait to see her. He wants to bring her in again this Friday and again next Friday to make sure we are on the uphill climb. It wasn't exactly easy. I have had to pump most everytime before I fed her and then struggle to get her awake enough to eat but it is totally worth it. I would do just about anything to nurse her and not have to start out with formula. So I'll keep you updated but we are praising God and praying that she will continue to grow on a normal schedule. If she grows that much from here on out she'll be bigger than Callan in just a few months.

This last paragraph is a confession and why I am so disappointed. Yesterday morning I had a dentist appointment and I was told that I had a cavity. I know you are thinking this isn't a huge deal but let me tell you that I have never EVER in my entire life had a cavity. I was so bummed! I am so disappointed in myself for not flossing like I should (does anybody?). I hated to hear that but more than that I hated to pay for it. I've got to go back in a month to have Dr. Wilson use the laser on me but I'm so bummed because I can't say that I've never had a cavity anymore and I feel like I need to take out a loan to pay for this thing. It isn't cheap! Which is why I will leave you with this advice. Brush and floss daily! I know I will be!!

Lizzie Ruth Bridges

2009-09-02T18:53:00.009-05:00

Warning: lots of pictures

Lizzie Ruth Bridges

The family present at her birth

She hated her bath!

Callan is a proud big sister

The family hospital photo

Callan wore her big sister shirt to church

Callan waking up after a nap with me and Lizzie

She was glad to be done with her bath at home too!

Sleeping in the swing

Well, I am going to attempt to blog about Lizzie's birth tonight while I'm sitting at home. I am really missing Peak of the Week at church. I don't miss church much at all. I think I've been sick once in about a year and other than that unless I'm out of town I go. I love CrossPoint! But this is the life I have to continue for a few more weeks because of a new baby. I can't wait until she is old enough to get out and go places. I'm getting a little tired of being at home (I know it's only been a week). Anyway, here is the story.

I was a week overdue and was scheduled to be induced Wednesday, August 26th at 5:30 if I didn't go before. I had lots of contractions on Monday and Tuesday and ended up calling Queen Kathleen at the hospital to find out if I should go in earlier than Wednesday. She should if I could stand the contractions she would wait because it would only help me to labor more on my own at home. So I sat around all day Monday and Tuesday trying to take it easy. Callan spent the night with Will's parents Tuesday night so that she didn't have to get up early. We arrived at the hospital and Kathleen hooked me up to the monitors and asked me the million questions they have to ask. She checked me about an hour later and I was at 3cm. She started the pitocin on the lowest level because my contractions were already 4 minutes apart. At 8:45 they were bad enough to get my epidural. I was 4cm by now. By the way because of the contractions I think I would have been in labor on that day anyway so I wasn't as worried about having to be induced. At 10:00 I was at 6cm and still waiting on the doctors to break my water. I don't exactly know what took so long but they just weren't in a hurry. I was under the impression it wasn't going to be broken between 7-8 that morning but oh well. At 10:45 (only 45 minutes later) I was 9 cm. At 10:58 I was 10cm (water still not broken-funny story there if you want to know but can't post it b/c it isn't appropriate for the guys to read). Dr. Woodford finally came in at 11:05 and broke my water and Lizzie arrived at 11:11. I might have pushed 6 times. I laughed half of the time because of all the hair this crazy kid has. She came into the world weighing 8 lbs. 9 oz and 21 3/4 inches long. I was so shocked at how much she weighed and at the amount of black hair she had. Callan was only 7 lbs 3 oz and had just a little light brown hair. Of course now Callan's is blonde so I'm curious what Lizzie's will do.

Labor was great this second go around. Much quicker, calmer, easier. My recovery has seemed to be quicker as well. I have felt better physically but also mentally. So far she has been a great baby except for the sleeping at night part. She sleeps so much during the day and then at night she seems to have a harder time. She has had a hard time going to the bathroom as well (go figure if you've ever met my other child) so she seems to hurt more at night (don't know if this is possible or not). We went in this morning for her 1 week checkup and she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. She left the hospital weighing 8 lbs 1 oz so she only gained 2 more ounces in a week. I was kind of surprised but I'm hoping once her potty issues get resolved she will eat even better and put the weight back on. Just an FYI we weighed Callan this morning too and she weighed 17 lbs 13 oz (at 17 1/2 months). She is still so small although she seems huge to us now that we have a new baby. She is healthy as far as we know and is eating SOOOOOOOOOO much better than she did about a month ago. I'm interested to see if Lizzie follows the weight pattern Callan did or if she will be bigger quicker since she started out so much bigger.

We are all adjusting well. Callan likes to pretend cry when Lizzie cries. I haven't decided if she is really upset and needing attention or just warning us that Lizzie is crying. She loves to touch her hair and also to hold her paci. She has never put it in her mouth though which is good. She also loves to look down in the sling when I'm "wearing" Lizzie and squeal when she sees her. Quite funny to watch! Will and I are both somewhat exhausted. My mom was here from Friday until Tuesday and I don't think I realized how much she did for us until she left. We both crashed today since we had the girls by ourselves and Lizzie slept the whole day so I didn't even really have to mess with her. Oh well, I guess we'll adjust just like everyone else does. We are just glad to be blessed with 2 beautifully healthy baby girls. I'll try to update more often but I don't get on here near as much as I did a week ago! Hope to see you all soon!

Cozy in the cradle

The girls in their cadillac going for a ride on the golf course!

How to induce labor

2009-08-21T11:24:00.005-05:00

Me and my 2 basketballs

Well I obviously didn't make it on my due date with Lizzie but it wasn't for trying. I had a really good day and felt great for the most part. I had lunch with a few girlfriends at Rosie's and the mexican food really did start some contractions but they didn't last. Then last night I cooked chicken and dumplins and homemade ice cream and we had Will's parents over to eat with us. Then me, Will and C took a stroll through the neighborhood. When we got back, me and Will shot a few hoops. And yes I was really shooting in these pictures, more than a few shots. He was worried about me getting hurt or falling but I was just trying to make her get here.

Look at that form!

Then we came in and put C to bed and read for a little while. I got very naseaus at some point and ended up going to bed early. I woke around 1:00 for a potty break and then again around 3:00 for another one. Well at 3 I started having some pretty strong contractions that weren't going away. They lasted for about 3 hours but were only about 6-10 minutes apart. I finally got up and went to the couch and then ended up on facebook and googling labor signs. The contractions were pretty rough but all of a sudden they were gone. I have only had one since I woke up this morning. Craziness! Oh well, going to run in to see Kyla for a quick haircut and then grab lunch with my hubby. I'll keep you updated!

Callan watching Sesame Street while laying on Lizzie

40 weeks prego and still nothing new

2009-08-19T11:53:00.003-05:00

Well, I am officially 40 weeks pregnant and I went to the doctor this morning to find out that nothing new is happening. I have been dilated to 1cm for a month now and still haven't had any progress since then. Dr. Woodford went ahead and made me 2cm dilated and we have scheduled an induction for next Wednesday (the 26th) if I don't go before then. I really really really want to go on my own so I'm okay with this decision. I'm glad he wasn't pushing for me to be induced tomorrow or anything. I feel like by next week I will definitely be ready for her to be here and will feel like I've given her plenty of time to make her entrance. So now I've gotta clean my house again! I thought I had cleaned it for the last time before my mom got here but it looks like it might have to happen again if Lizzie keeps holding out. Thanks everyone for checking on me and praying for us. Keep it up! We'll let you know if anything crazy happens!

Happy Anniversary Mr. Bridges

2009-08-09T21:18:00.004-05:00

My hubby of 6 years!

Well, today is mine and Will's 6 year anniversary! We have had a good weekend together and a very relaxing day today. Yesterday after getting up around 6:30 to go to some yard sales (we found nothing), we headed to Bridge Street to eat at PF Changs and shop a little. The manager at the restaurant brought our appetizer out so we were discussing some of the dishes with him and he ended up ordering us another entree (on the house) just to try...along with the one we ordered. It was delicious but random. It was shrimp with honeydew melons and candied walnuts in some sort of glaze but oh my word, good. I would definitely eat it again (with a little less sauce). That was a sweet treat for our anniversary lunch. Then we did a little shopping and I mean little. Prego was walking slow. We finally made it down to the other end of Bridge Street and went to the Melting Pot for dessert. It was very good as you can imagine...chocolate and good stuff to dip in it! We left and ran in Old Time Pottery looking for some stuff for the girls' room but didn't find much then headed home. My mom had come up for the weekend to keep Callan while we went out and she ended up leaving so we crashed. Will's parents came over to visit and let us run to Martin's for some new flip flops and then we headed to bed super early.

Today, Will had to sing at both services so that kind of messed up lunch plans. It is just asking too much to make Callan wait another hour after church before we eat so me and her just headed home and went straight to sleep. Will got home a little later with lunch and then we spent the rest of the afternoon being extremely lazy and catching up on our rest. We went to church tonight and then Cracker Barrel with his parents for dinner...delicious!

It is crazy to think that 6 years ago today we were going through all the wedding motions and heading towards our honeymoon, etc. We had such a fun engagement and wedding. I wasn't the typical bride that cared about all the flowers, decorations, food, etc so it was actually somewhat relaxing making most of the wedding plans. Will and I met at UNA through his girlfriend at the time, Melissa. She was one of my good friends (we were both Alpha Gams) and the 3 of us would all hang out some. Sometimes, me and Will would even hang out (as friends) when she was in class or working or something. He was just a really great friend and good at listening to all my drama in college. They broke up after a year or so but we stayed really close. One summer, my roommate at the time and his roommate at the time wanted to be hooked up so we were hanging out (the 4 of us) trying to set them up. We did a lot together that summer but things never worked out for the 2 of them but they did for us. I never in a million years would have dreamed I would have married Will Bridges. He was just a friend that was fun to hang out with but I'm so glad I took a chance on crossing that friendship line and kissed him. Yep, that's right, I kissed him first. I don't mind telling you because he is so proud of it that he would tell you himself. We started dating and dated for just under 4 months when he popped the question in Nashville. We knew after 2 weeks that we wanted to get married. What can I say? We fell hard for each other! We decided to get married the following summer; a year after we first started dating.

We have had so much fun in the last 6 years. We are so blessed to have Callan and now Lizzie (almost) but we are also so glad we waited almost 4 years to expand our family. It was so nice just to focus on us and our relationship and get to travel and play for a few years. Now we are having fun growing our family and learning about parenthood. I'm so thankful for Will and our relationship and thankful that God put him in my life. He has so many good qualities (that I won't mention now) but just know that he's a wonderful husband and father. I married into an amazing family too; one that I consider to be my own. His parents are awesome and treat me like their own and his sister is one of my best friends. I couldn't have asked for a better situation. Anyway, I'm getting carried away so I'm going to end here. Happy Anniversary Honey!

At the Melting Pot

A pregnancy update...I am 38 weeks. Our due date is August 20th, one week from Thursday. I go back Wednesday for my 39 week check up. As of last week, I was still just dilated 1 cm and no other progress. She hasn't even dropped. Oh well, we'll see when she decides to get here. I am pretty much ready. I do pretty good during the day but the nights are harder and more uncomfortable. We are excited about getting little Lizzie into the family soon!

Callan's 1st haircut

2009-07-27T11:05:00.006-05:00

Making faces with Mimi

What's up?

Callan, mommy and Lizzie-before the haircut

Callan got her first haircut last week by my Uncle Gary, my daddy's brother. He has a salon in Hartselle and when I go back home I try to go by and see him so I called and made Callan an appointment for while we were visiting mom. He was thrilled to see her and let her show off all of her tricks and she did so good being around someone she isn't around a lot. She loved the animal smock she got to wear and smiled as he pointed out all of the animals. He barely cut anything but she just needed her mullet trimmed and the hair around her ears cut. She sat so still. It was almost like she knew if she moved, he would snip her ear. I saved a few strands (there wasn't much to choose from) for her baby book. It looks so much better so I'm really glad we did it. I think she looks more and more like Will in these pictures!

Callan with Uncle Gary before he cut her hair

Sitting so still

So far she likes what he's done

Please don't cut me!

All finished-looking more and more like daddy

Orlando

2009-07-04T21:48:00.016-05:00

Back in October when we were at the beach, we went on one of those timeshare tours and ended up purchasing a small Discovery plan with Wyndham hotels. Although we regret spending that money, we might as well enjoy what we've payed for so once we realized that our points expire in March of 2010 we decided we had better use them. We have 308,000 points total just to give you an idea and we only used 108,000 on this trip. We narrowed down a few choices and finally decided a couple of weeks ago on a last minute trip to Orlando. We stayed 5 nights (the first in Tallahassee to break up the drive) at the Bonnet Creek Resort on Disney property. We left last Sunday and drove for about 7 hours before calling it a night and settling in. The hotel we were booked with had just lost cable and internet due to a storm but we decided to stay anyway. We basically unloaded, put Callan down to sleep and then went to bed ourselves.

We got up the next morning, ate a nice continental breakfast and headed towards Orlando. We arrived around 2:00, grabbed some lunch and waited to check in. Our room was very nice and we had a great view of the fireworks at Disney and the pool.

Callan riding the cart

That night we headed out to our favorite restaurant at Disney, Ohana, at the Polynesian Resort. When we arrived they said it was a 3 hour wait but that they would possibly have some cancellations within the next hour and a half. We decided to wait long enough to use Will's blackberry to decide on option #2 and literally within 5 minutes they called us in. We were so excited! They have the most unbelievable food and tons of it. You pay one price and then they bring you all kinds of food and as much of it as you can eat. Salad, dumplings, noodles, chicken wings, vegetables, skewers of pork, turkey, steak and shrimp and last but not least the most unbelievable bread pudding. I didn't even know I liked bread pudding but clearly I do. We stopped at the grocery on the way home and called it a night.

Will and Callan at Ohana

Family pic outside of Ohana

Tuesday morning we got up and met Paige Stevenson at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and chatted for a while and then headed over to the Animal Kingdom. It is ridiculously crowded in the summer months and I wouldn't recommend it, at least not 33 weeks pregnant with a 15 month old. We stayed for about 3 hours and all we did was watch Nemo, the muscial. Not the greatest but we wanted to try it. Will did get to ride Everest the new roller coaster twice in 20 minutes. We left to take Callan home for a nap and then that night headed out to Epcot for dinner and a few rides. We walked around the entire circle at Epcot and ended up only riding the ride in Mexico and the Nemo ride and didn't get to eat at all because everything was so crowded. Scott, Amy, Reagan and Carley were coming over to spend a couple of nights with us and so we met them at PF Changs for a late dinner and then headed back to the room. Taylor and Tyler were at camp and missed out on the trip.

Carley at PF Changs

Wednesday we lounged around in the room while it rained and then after lunch headed to the pool for an hour or so.

Will and Callan at the pool

We came back and took showers and put the girls down while the boys played putt putt. Then we went to Wolfgang Pucks at Downtown Disney for dinner.

The girls and their "shocked" faces

Reagan and Carley

Pretty good food and then a ridiculously long walk to the other end for a cookie. Guess it was worth it though. We called it a night and headed back for a rousing rendition of Nertz for the adults.

Scott, Amy, me and Will

Thursday morning they left to head back home and we went down to all 3 of the pools and took turns swimming in each one and floating in the lazy rivers. After lunch, showers, and a nap, we went to 2 different outlet malls where we had much success! Sidenote: Callan has major constipation issues and has for a long time but now we have her on glorified Karo medicine called Lactulose. She gets a teaspoon in each morning bottle along with some prune juice throughout the day to help her issues. Well, that morning Will fixed her bottle and I told him not to worry about measuring, just eyeball it. Hmmmm. Not good. She managed 3 unbelievable diapers that day (usually we are happy with 1) and 2 of them were complete blowouts. The first blowout occurred at the first outlet mall when we were getting her out of the car in her cute little turtle bubble and realized she needed new clothes. All I had was a onesie so we put that on her for the duration of the night. Then when we got back to the hotel, she had another awful one. Worst she has ever had. Will had to clean her brand new (used it for only 2 weeks) carseat out while I took her upstairs and stripped her down for bath #2 of the night. The onesie made it to the trash can since it was completely ruined. That is the last time we don't measure the medicine. Although I'm not sure that it was all the medicine's fault since she did have prunes and prune juice that day. Hope that doesn't happen again soon.

Friday morning we left around 8:45 Florida time for home and had a really good relaxing (somewhat uncomfortable-pregnant belly + long car ride=uncomfortableness) drive home. When we were in Atlanta Will mentioned that the car was jerking a little like the van did on the beach trip drive home. We kept driving and I didn't think another thing about it until we got to Birmingham to stop for dinner. After we ate and got back in the car, the check engine light came on. Will thinks it is probably the transmission since he had just driven the van about a month ago with transmission problems and remembers the feeling. We were able to get back on the interstate and head towards home but for the next 2 hours he had to make sure that he didn't accelerate too fast so that it wouldn't have trouble shifting gears. We decided to go home through Athens so that we would be a little closer to home before we had to get off the interstate (normally we would go through Cullman). He was afraid that once we slowed down (getting on the exit ramp) that the car would stall and not be able to make it any further. We didn't want to get stopped by any lights so he managed to drive in crazy ways and turn right at lights and then u-turn around to avoid getting stopped. By the grace of God, we made it home and parked Lemon (that's her new name) in the garage until Monday when we can have it checked out. Let's just hope it doesn't cost too much.

Family photo

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. We realized this was the longest trip we've ever taken that didn't involve stopping in Tampa for part of the time. It was really nice to get away and relax since I've been having lots of contractions and nice for us to go just the 3 of us but also nice to spend it with Scott, Amy and the kids since we have never really been on a trip with them. Lizzie will be here in a maximum of 7 weeks so after her arrival we'll have to take another trip or 2 to use up all of our points. We still have many points left. Happy 4th of July and Happy Birthday to my fabulous mother-in-law, Jo Anne!

Lizzie at 33 weeks

Pre-register

2009-06-23T12:03:00.006-05:00

Will's fake scared face as we enter the hospital

Well, you all know how I like to keep my pregnancies interesting so here's another story for you. This past Saturday we celebrated my niece, Faith's, 2nd birthday in Madison at my brother's house. We were almost to their house when I started having contractions. Nothing new for me...I have had several with each pregnancy (Braxton Hicks). But these felt different. They were definitely stronger and some of them I was really having to breathe through. We got to their house and for the next hour or so I just toughed it out. I got a bottle of water to see if that helped but it didn't so I decided maybe I should lay down for a little while. I layed on their bed for a while and finally started timing the contractions. They were as close as 2 1/2 minutes apart!! I didn't really care for that so I thought I would call the doctor's office although I knew what they would say. She said I needed to go to Huntsville Hospital and not take the time to drive home. Well, I didn't really care for that either so we called Danielle who said to take 2 Tylenol, drink lots of water and lay down for an hour and if they weren't gone, go to Huntsville Hospital. So I moved to the couch where I could lay down but still socialize (after having some snacks and cake from the party which I had missed earlier). The contractions would slow down some (never more than 12 minutes apart) and then they would speed back up (2 1/2 minutes apart) so we decided we were going to have to do something. We were supposed to be staying after the party to celebrate and eat with my dad for father's day but it just didn't look like it was going to happen. Will ended up calling Dr. Allen who has been such a huge help to us during both pregnancies. He told us he thought we would be fine to drive home (what we wanted to hear) but if I continued to have them on the way home, we might ought to go on to labor and delivery and just make sure everything was okay. So we hurried home, dropped off Callan, packed a bag just in case and headed to the 4th floor of the hospital. They hooked me up to a monitor where we heard Lizzie's heartbeat (always nice to hear) and they monitored my contractions. Still just as strong and frequent as they had been for the last 5 hours, they finally checked me. No dilation of course which didn't surprise me any but still contractions. Not nearly as bad as my ones with Callan the day of labor but probably half of that (enough to make it uncomfortable). Will went downstairs to pre-register us which we got to do early with Callan when I passed out in childbirth class. She finally decided to call Dr. Woodford and see what he wanted us to do and when she told him who it was he said, "Aw, I know her, send her home". Don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult but he didn't seem to think the contractions were a problem. I think as long as I'm not dilating any, they don't really care. Once I start dilating, they might have to stop them. So I was sent home that night around 8:30 with a take it easy and drink lots of water. I stopped having them around the time I got settled for bed so that was a relief and haven't had any to complain about since so hopefully I can take it easy the next few months. We've still got 2 months left so I would like to keep her in there as long as possible to get everything done and feel a little more prepared. August 20th will be here before we know it. We have our 32 week appt. in the morning so maybe I'll know more then. At least we got to pre-register!!!

Good news and a few new pics

2009-06-15T20:36:00.006-05:00

Well, I'll start with the good news. We got a letter in the mail today from the endocrine doctor with the results of Callan's bloodwork. She had checked "normal, no immediate action required". This was amazing news to us. It showed that the prealbumin test they had done yielded a 26 for Callan and normal is anywhere between 20-40. We aren't for sure everything that this means but we do know that the test (according to google) checks for malnutrion issues.. So this shows that Callan's body IS processing the nutrients correctly. From what Dr. Karabell told us last Wednesday, this will mean that once and for all, she is just a small baby. I left a message for the doctor this afternoon but haven't heard back from her. We are just wanting to make sure there is nothing else we need to be doing for Callan. We feel so blessed to have such a sweet, happy, HEALTHY baby girl!! We cancelled the return visit with the endocrinologist and will just look forward to her 15 month check up in July.

As for the second part of my post, meet Lizzie Ruth. We got our 4-D ultrasound done this past Friday for my 30 week check up. We had such a busy weekend with the funeral, etc that we haven't had a chance to scan them and post them. So here she is.

She was asleep for the whole entire ultrasound although she still did kick a little. As soon as we walked into the room, Callan started crying so hard. It broke my heart because she already recognizes the doctor table and paper and thinks that she is the one having the appointment. She had already been to the doctor twice last week so I think her little heart couldn't handle it again. Thank goodness it wasn't for her. Lizzie seems to look a lot like Callan did in her ultrasound pics so we'll see when she finally gets here. She definitely seems to have Callan's lips. She made a couple of snorty face looks, opened her eyes a little and kept her hands and feet right around her face. I was probably only laying down for a total of 7 minutes and all of a sudden I got extremely hot. I realized very quickly that I was about to pass out so I said something to the ultrasound tech and she had me sit up immediately. We were done with the ultrasound anyway so I layed back down on my left side for a few minutes. She cut the fan on and just let me relax until I felt like I could walk around. We went out to the lobby until they called me back to see Dr. Woodford. We were waiting on Woody to get in there and I started feeling bad again. I got lightheaded again and by the time he got in there, I knew I was about to pass out (again). He inverted the table so that my head was lower than my body which made me feel so much better. I finally got the blood flow back in my head which I think hadn't happened from the previous pass out time. Leave it to the ole' vena cava to have me feeling fabulous. For those of you that don't remember this happened to me at about 32 weeks with Callan. I passed out in child birthing class and had to be admitted, monitored, etc. The doctors finally realized that I can't lay or even sit leaning on my back for an extended period of time because it cuts off the blood flow and I pass out. I like to keep my pregnancies interesting! Hopefully this won't happen again because I know the signs and signals of it and know how to make it go away.

Hopefully I'll talk to the endocrine doctor and maybe even Dr. Hamilton tomorrow and see if they say anything extra. If it is worth blogging about, I'll let you know!

Beach trip

2009-06-11T08:26:00.018-05:00

I don't know why I can't keep blogging regularly so that I don't have to remember the events of the past month everytime I do sit down to do it but I guess I can't so here is another catch up since the last blog. May went by faster than ever with mom's birthday and work day, Mother's Day, nursery duty for 5 weeks, and Will working longer hours. June is quickly doing the same thing. We have been getting Callan's little $5.00 sunshade pool out in the afternoons to let her get used to swimming and she seems to love it.

I've also taken her to Aunt Susan's a couple of times to swim in the big pool and she really loves her hippo float more than anything.

Will started off the first week of June with a trip to Detroit for a couple of nights. I started off the first of June with some pretty scary dizzy spells while sleeping. After 2 nights of it, he made me call the doctor. They wanted me to come in to check my blood pressure, which was fine, but I just told Danielle I didn't feel right. She wanted to do some blood work but since I had just done my glucose test, she didn't have to. After flipping to the results of that, she said, "No wonder you don't feel good". My iron count and my blood sugar were both low. Not low enough to take the 3 hour glucose test or to be classified with gestational diabetes but low enough for her to put me on a diet. For those of you that know my eating habits, this diet is not for me. I was hoping low blood sugar meant eat more sugar, but it is quite the opposite. High protein, low carbs. Basically all I eat is carbs (hence why I feel so sluggish a lot) but now I am supposed to eat as few as possible. This has really been a challenge for me. Some days I do very well, but I can tell the days I'm in a hurry I don't pay as much attention to it. Breakfast is the hardest. I went to the grocery store and bought some crackers, tuna salad, trail mix, jello, things like that that don't contain many carbs but are higher in protein (except for the jello!) It is hard to do but I really want to stay commited because I know it will make me feel better and even more so, I know it is healthy for Lizzie.

So, Will got back on Thursday night around 8:00 from his work trip and we left for the beach at 6:30 on Friday morning. We borrowed his parents minivan so that the 3 of us could ride down with Jack, Kimberly, and Henry in one packed car. Ben, Brooklyn, and Brooks were driving separately. The ride down was very good. Both kids sat on the back row and did great. We laughed about how many times Callan sneezed and Henry blessed her. So sweet! I'll go ahead and tell you that Callan stayed sick with a cold the whole time we were there. I guess that is why she sneezed so much on the way down. Her nose ran constantly and so did her eye (clear fluid) but there was also a big red ring around one of her eyes. We thought she might be allergic to the beach weather. It was absolutely pitiful. When we would be holding her she would have her head on our shoulder. If we were in the pool, she had her head on her float. It was just so obvious that she didn't feel god but she handled it so well. She was such a good sick baby. Hopefully this explains why all of the pictures of her look so sad. Maybe also because she was on Benadryl the whole trip.

We finally got to the beach house around 2:00 if I remember correctly. It was a very nice 3 bedroom, 3 bath house across the street and around a few corners from the beach with a very awesome walk in pool right across from our house. We found our rooms and we laid Callan down for a nap while the Mann's went to the beach for the afternoon. B, B, & B all arrived a couple hours later. We decided to go out for dinner since we didn't have any groceries yet and hit up Pompano Joe's. It was very good (crab legs for us) and I would go back. I love the open restaurant on the beach feel! After dinner we took the boys and babies back and me and Kimberly went to Wal-Mart for food! Saturday was spent between the beach, the pool and napping babies back at the house.

The beach was about a 10 minute walk from the house so they had a very large golf cart trolley to get you there. Unfortunately the trolley driver was one of the rudest, meanest ladies we had ever met. She hated when someone called her to pick them up and sometimes she even acted like she didn't see people waiting on her. At one point, Jack, Kimberly, and Henry waited for about 15 minutes before calling Will to come get them in the van and when he left to go get them, the trolley driver was sitting out by the pool acting like no one had called. Also, at one point, she had a Bud Light can in her cup holder. Whether it was hers or not, we don't know but not cool! Okay, enough about her. We went out again on Saturday to the Old Bay Steamer restaurant in Fort Walton where we all shared a family style meal of crab legs, shrimp, potatoes, corn and salad. Delicious! Quickly becoming one of our favorite places to eat. Sunday night we decided to grill out pork chops and chicken at the poolside grill and just take it easy. The boys cooked and we had pork chops, chicken, salad, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and rolls. Oh my word, delicious! Some of the best food I've ever put in my mouth! After that, we headed out to the outlets which closed at 6:00 on Sunday night so me, Will, Callan, Jack, Kimberly and Henry ended up at Destin Commons where we walked around for a while and enjoyed the beach air!

We left Monday around 10:00 and had a very easy drive for the first half. About 45 minutes from Prattville Kimberly commented that she smelled something like tar and hoped it wasn't the car. I drifted off to sleep not thinking anything about it. We finally decided to stop and eat in Prattville and pulled off the exit. A few minutes before the exit, we noticed the van doing funny things. We got off on the exit ramp and stopped at the light. When it changed we were able to go about 10 miles an hour at most. Then at the next light, we knew we were in trouble. The van wouldn't go at all. Will kept trying and trying but it wouldn't budge. We were about a 1/2 mile from where we were going to eat and weren't going to make it. The boys got out in the 6 lane traffic and I hopped in the driver's seat so that they could push us from the very left lane to the very right lane and pull into the EconoLodge. We rolled into a parking spot and then it hit. We were stuck in Prattville with more stuff than you can imagine and hungry with 2 non-napping babies. Fun times! We called Darwin and after a lot of talking between him, Will, and Enterprise, we decided we would have to rent a car to get home in and Mr. Transmission would fix the van if we got it towed in. Darwin and Jo Anne had just gotten home from Tampa about 2 weeks earlier and on their way down, the transmission messed up and they had to leave it in Georgia for the week and rent a car to finish their trip. So with a newer transmission, we thought surely we were in the clear but I guess not. We ran across the 6 lane traffic to eat at Jim & Nick's BBQ and wait on the rental car. It took forever for Enterprise to pick Will and Jack up and another forever for them to get back with our Buick Enclave. Mind you, it was the only car they had available and it just so happened to have 3 rows. Godwink! We hopped in and drove across the street to unpack the van with essentials and repack the Enclave. We had to leave behind a few things that we won't see for a while but it was mostly beach stuff and a random loaf of bread. The tow truck arrived and after 3 hours, we were on our way home. We got home close to 7:00 only to realize we left the garage door opener in the van and had to find our spare key to get in the house. Thank goodness for that. It was a very long tiring day but honestly there were so many positive things that happened and so many things that could have been so much worse. Thank goodness for good friends to share the adventure with! Darwin and Jo Anne have headed back to Tampa this week to see Amy and the kids and on there way home, they will stop in Prattville and pick up the van so maybe by next week, we will have all of our stuff home. I will add that D&J arrived at our house Monday night with supper which was another blessing. All in all, it was a great trip although not quite long enough but eventful along the way.

Oh, we did take Callan to the doctor Tuesday when we got back and Dr. Hamilton said she had the beginnings of an ear infection so he started her on some medicine. Then yesterday we went to Southaven Mississippi for her endocrinologist appointment with Dr. Karabell. The doctor seems to think that there are no growth hormone issues since all of her numbers fall into the range that she goes by. She wonders if maybe there is a nutritional absorption issue instead. She was concerned that she had only gained 1 pound in 2 1/2 months (she weighed 16 lbs. 9 oz. and at her 12 month she weighed 15 lbs. 10 oz). She did more blood work to look at her protein levels and if I understand it all correctly, either something will come back possibly proving the absorption issue or she will determine that she is just going to be small. She said we might want to contact a nutritionalist about how to increase her caloric intake to try to fatten her up a little. She suggested adding butter to things, cooking things in canola oil and eating lots of ice cream. Unfortunately this is the complete opposite diet that I am on. Bummer! I have realized that it will be forever before we can turn her around in her carseat though. Oh well, we're definitely counting our blessings. She is such a good happy baby that we can hardly complain. Thanks for all the prayers and hopefully I'll remember to post the results of her blood work when we find out.

House pics

2009-05-06T11:17:00.010-05:00

Our new house!

Okay, I promised a few pics of the house so here they are. We moved in about 2 months ago but we still have a lot of holes on the wall where we want to add pictures or patch the old owner's holes, a terribly messy garage to clean out, etc. Hopefully we will get that done soon because I am hosting a wedding shower over here in a couple of weeks. Also, we are moving Callan into the guest bedroom as soon as we get the crib put together, paint, etc. Lizzie will keep the nursery furniture so Will decided it would probably be easier to move all of Callan's stuff out of the furniture and into the other room instead of moving the furniture itself. We did buy a new crib and hopefully will put it together soon and get Callan moved so that she has time to get used to the new room and not feel like Lizzie took it from her. Besides that, the only other major project is the upstairs. It is just a bonus room for now but has no furniture in it. We are hoping to make it into a sort of movie room maybe by football season but haven't touched it yet. If we were to have 3 kids, Will can move upstairs for his office and the baby could take the office which is downstairs next to our bedroom. I think that about sums it up. Now for the pictures!

The kitchen with old awful countertops

The kitchen with the new countertops!

The breakfast room and back door

The back porch with the pergula

Another view of the back with the deck

The front of the house

Lizzie's room where Callan is now

The bonus room with nothing in it!

The master bath-we have our own sinks

The bathtub-shower to the right-toilet to the left

A view of our bedroom

The master

From Will's office looking out

The clutter that is Will's desk

The dining room

The living room

Another view with my desk in the background

What you would see walking in the front door

Callan's future room-boring right now!

Callan's bathroom

Spring break and more

2009-04-21T09:52:00.009-05:00

Cousins

The girls riding side by side

Tyler and Carley

It seems like so much has happened since the last post so I'm going to try to fill you in. Amy and the kids were here for spring break which is always fun. The twins are as beautiful and grown up as I've ever seen them. They are very funny but also very mannerly. Reagan is a wild hoot. He has more energy than any kid I've ever seen. He is so funny with some of the things he comes up with. He bounces from one thing to another in no time. Carley is the most smiling baby I've ever seen. She is so generous with her smiles and I take every one I can get. She and Callan are going to be the best of friends. I'll post some pictures from the week. We went to Mars Hill and let the kids play ball and enjoy the outdoors

ate tons of Fox's pizza (our favorite), enjoyed an afternoon at Paw Paw's, had dinner, did a scavenger hunt and played basketball at our house (the boys spent the night and built a fort),

The girls sleeping together

The boys and their fort

fed the horses

and enjoyed Easter Sunday together. Amy thought they were flying back on the Saturday before Easter but it turned out that they weren't leaving until Easter. Glad someone looked it up.

They left on Sunday after church and Will, Callan, and me went to Granny's for Easter lunch. What a feast! There are so many good cooks in that family. We got a few Easter pics, most of which Callan wasn't smiling or looking.

Easter Sunday

The week post Amy's visit was a little more relaxed. Will finished off baseball season this past weekend with a loss to Cleveland. I always enjoy it when I get to go, but I also get my husband back every afternoon now and that is worth it. We have already gotten to spend some good time together in the afternoons walking, swinging, and blowing bubble on the golf course with Callan. Callan is cutting her 8th and possibly 9th and 10th teeth. I can't tell exactly how many because she doesn't like for me to look but there are a bunch. She is still very picky about her solid foods despite how many teeth she has. She is pulling up on everything and loves to walk while holding your hands (not very steady but at least she tries). She is a huge fan of her duck bath and hates getting out.

Everytime Will tries to pick her up to hand her to me to dry her off she turns toward the back of the tub and tries to grab ahold of the duck (Suzie).

She also got to try out her new pink swing Granman and Nana got her for her birthday. Will hung it up yesterday and she loved it. She would have stayed there all night.

Well, I think that about sums it up for spring break. We are getting new countertops for our kitchen next Monday so I will hopefully post some before and after photos and some pics of the house.

Jules the mechanic

2009-04-15T15:29:00.003-05:00

Here's a little tribute to my friend Julie Young. We all know what a dear, sweet friend she is with her witty sense of humor and super smart mind good for remembering birthdays but did you know that she is also a mechanic? Last night at our ever popular girls' night out at Logan's (all 3 of us that attended-me and the Julie's) I left my lights on in the Explorer. I'm not used to driving that car and it didn't ding when I got out so I didn't even think about it. After a wonderful meal and some great conversation with the girls, me and Julie Y. were headed out to the middle of nowhere where we had parked when I noticed that I left the lights on. I commented that I'm sure it wouldn't crank but Jules assured me it would. Well, I was right! I got in the car and "click", nothing. I quickly called Jules before she got to far and being the super smart gal she is, she had a set of jumper cables in her trunk. Even better, she knew how to use them! My marketing degree got me nowhere. Should have been an engineer-that's funny even to think about. Anyway, I popped the hood, we searched for 5 minutes for the release button under the hood and finally after calling Will, found it in a not so obvious spot. Jules had her hooked up and running in no time. This is my thanks to Julie for being such a good, smart friend. Thanks for the hookup!!

12 month update

2009-03-31T13:41:00.009-05:00

The first family picture we've had in months

Well, I have lots to post about but don't really want to put in the time to do it. We have recently just gotten back from Tampa where me and Callan flew down to visit Amy and the kids. Will and Scott had to go to Chicago for a show all week so we flew down to Tampa and his parents drove down the same day. We had a great week of playing with the kids, eating and shopping.

A couple pics of the girls in their matching pjs

I ended up getting a cold on Wednesday of the trip and I still have it today (tomorrow will be 2 weeks). I had an appt. with Danielle last Wednesday and she gave me some medicine but I still haven't kicked it. Every member of Amy's family (including Scott when he got home) ended up with the cold. Scott ended up with the flu, Taylor an ear infection, all of them fever and runny noses and just not feeling good. I feel so terrible even though Amy won't let me admit that it's my fault. They are due here this Saturday for spring break so I just pray we can all be done with it and have a fun week together.

Callan and Aunt Amy at Reagan's ballgame

Giving Tyler sugar

One of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen

Last Tuesday was Callan's first birthday and we had her party this past Saturday. We had 37 family members here at the house so it was a bit wild but everything turned out great. We served finger foods and cake and let Callan open her presents.

Some sunglasses she modeled for us

Everyone was so generous and we feel lucky to have such a supportive family. She absolutely loved her cake!

She looks so guilty

I don't know how much she really ate because most of it just ended up on her hands but Saturday night around midnight, she was wide awake. She had already been asleep for over 4 hours but all of a sudden she was crying out. It has been forever since we've had to get up in the middle of the night to console her. She ended up staying awake for 2 1/2 hours and I even had to give her a bottle. I don't know if that was a result of the cake or not, but I sure hope it doesn't happen again soon.

The biggest party helper ever--thanks mom!

Her new duck bathtub

Yesterday was her 12 month check up with Dr. Hamilton. I have really been looking forward to it just to see what he thought about her progress and to ask him a bunch of questions. He was very pleased with the progress she had made with her legs (aka-standing up) and said she might walk around 15 or 16 months. We haven't expected anything sooner because she is still pretty wobbly when standing. She is pulling up a little and still army crawling but she definitely gets where she wants. She calls everyone momma with an occassional dada for Will. She weighed 15 lbs. 10 oz. (1st percentile) and was 27 1/4 inches long (5-10 percentile). She has consistently been on the bottom of the chart since birth but Dr. Hamilton was ready to do some blood work just to make sure she really is naturally small and that there isn't a problem. I had to take her in this morning for them to draw blood and it was absolutely one of the most awful moments of my life. She screamed so hard that I can't even explain it. She is a very strong little girl when someone is trying to hold her down. They got the sample and the nurse said it was clotting so she might have to do it again. Sure enough, she came back in to do the other arm so we went through it all again. It was going too slow and she wasn't getting enough, etc so she had to go talk to Dr. Hamilton and he said just to prick her finger for the rest. So after 2 arms worth of blood, they still had to prick her finger. That was about 11:30. She was still snubbing (while sleeping) about 1:15 when I checked on her. She was so upset. I got in the car and called Will and just started crying like a baby. It really broke my heart to hear her so upset. We should get the results by Friday or early next week but the tests will check for thyroid problems and growth hormones. He said he didn't expect to see any abnormalities but he just wants to make sure we are saying the right thing about her being so small. All in all, it was a great check up and he said she looked very healthy and was doing great. That is always nice to hear. I'll keep you updated on the results of her blood work.

Her birthday outfit I got at consignment!

Happy Birthday Bunny!

2009-03-24T14:25:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Callan!

Today is a special today for my baby girl. It is her first birthday! It is so hard to believe that last year I was getting my epidural about this time and loving life! It has been an amazing year with tons of mistakes made and lessons learned.

We are so thankful to have a happy, healthy baby girl. She is having a pretty normal day. A little Sesame Street this morning before her nap.

Then a photo session to take birthday pics for this post. A trip to T.J. Maxx and Wal-Mart to pick out a cake. Home for another nap. Lunch, playtime, trip to Target (what a great day) and then a night with daddy while mommy goes to a baby shower. I posted some pics from her first day and then of today. Happy Birthday Callan!

She is showing you she is 1 (even though it looks like 2)

It's a GIRL!!!

2009-03-12T14:22:00.006-05:00

Well, a good friend of ours did an ultrasound for fun and told us that we are having a girl! We weren't shocked! I have always thought I would have 3 girls so I would have been more shocked if it had been a boy! Here is our new baby girl in all her glory! Hopefully we will have a name soon but until then, we aren't talking!

We are getting ready to celebrate Callan's first birthday soon! It is exciting and sad at the same time. We are excited because each day brings new tricks. The older she gets, the more fun stuff she is doing. She is so much fun to watch but it is also so sad because it goes entirely too fast. I know all those with kids understand where I'm coming from. I guess we decided it was going so fast that we would just start over with another one. More to come soon!

February

2009-02-10T16:18:00.015-06:00

Bunny at the bowling alley

A seat in a public restroom called "I'll hold the baby"

Wow! It's been a while and so much has happened. Let me see if I can catch you faithful readers up. February has been crazy busy. It seems like things have come out of nowhere and taken up almost all of our nights and weekends. I'm sorry that each paragraph seems out of order. I wrote some of this before it happened and never posted it so when I went back and changed some of it, I wasn't able to copy and paste paragraphs in different places. Hope you can keep up!

We closed on our new house on January 24th and got a contract on our old house at the same meeting. We also had our 10 week appointment with baby #2 and got to hear a sweet little (fast) heartbeat. The appraisal went through so we are good to move. We are moving tomorrow and Saturday into the new house. It shouldn't be too much trouble since we are hiring the big stuff done but so far it has been a blast! Kidding!

February 4th was Will's 30th birthday. I have been so excited about it because it is such a monumental year and I wanted to do something to make it really special. A lot of secrets went into this birthday and amazingly he didn't find any of them out until time. I gave him one gift a day from Sunday to Saturday (his b'day was on a Wednesday). Small gifts, mind you. Most less than $10. I'm not extravagant. On Tuesday I went ahead and gave him 2 gifts. He got one that morning and then that night I couldn't wait for the next one so I went ahead and told him that we were going on a trip this coming Valentine's Day weekend. I told him he could either find out where we were going and all the details or wait until the night before we left and I would tell him everything. He decided he wanted to know. Thank goodness because I was tired of holding secrets. I had a big letter typed up telling him everything and he read it to find out that we were going to Clayton, GA. His parents, sister and her family were also meeting us there. That was an even bigger surprise. We don't see his sister and family too often so we were super excited about that. We went snow tubing (except prego), played lots of Nertz and Cranium, ate and ate, played with the kids, had pedicures and hairstyling sessions (by Taylor), laughed lots, worshipped together and ate even more. It was an amazing trip. By the way, Scott's parents own this unbelievable house so it is a free trip except for food, gas, recreation, etc. Even better!!

Sweet baby Carley

The snow tubers

The girls

All of D&J's grandchildren (so far)

A week before we left Will had told me that he was taking me out on a date to thank me for his good birthday week. We were working at the new house so we drove separately to Arby's, our dinner reservation. I was a little shocked, but hey I like Arby's and I especially like saving money so I wasn't about to complain. As we were ordering our food, 3 of our other couple friends showed up to eat with us. I'm thinking "how sweet, Will has asked them to join us". Well, it turns out that all the girls are thinking we are there for them. Each girl thought that Friday night was "their" night when in reality it was all of our nights. After we finished eating, the boys finally told us that they had planned a girls night out for us and we would be staying at the Marriott that night with no husbands and no kids! Brownie points!! It was soooooooooo sweet! They had even gone as far as to go to the room ahead and time and put chocolates on our beds and flowers in a vase. Will had even packed my overnight bag without my knowledge (and he didn't forget anything)!!! We had a blast! We walked around the hotel, sipping tea, read some magazines, had some major discussion time and played Catch Phrase and ate Cheetos until we were blue in the face. After falling asleep sometime after midnight (exhausted), we woke up early to join the boys and kids at Cracker Barrell for a big breakfast. It was an amazing night with no tv and lots of girl time. The boys really outdid themselves on this one. Thanks guys!!

Then follow the day up with a major headache, a quick nap, and a trip to Bridge Street to eat at PF Changs for Will's b'day dinner. We took a few friends with us for the trip and it was a wonderful time. After an hour and a half wait, we finally got seated. We all ordered something different and ate off each others' plates and it was so much fun. It was the perfect end to a perfect week.

The Thursday night before we left for our trip we had our SonSeeker Valentine's party at church. We had planned a big surprise...thank you Paige and Scarlett for your help. We told the class that we were all going out to eat together and that they had to come to the church to find out where we were going. We were also having a guys dessert competition in which the guys prepared their own desserts and got judged by the women to see who was the best cook. So once everyone got there, we said we were going to walk over to the student center and take a peek at all the desserts before we got our dinner instructions. When we got over there, there were tables set up with place cards for each couple, decorations everywhere, romantic music, etc. The guys seated their dates and brought them a box of chocolates and then fixed their plates (lasagna, salad, bread) and served them for the night. It was so fun! I think most of the women were shocked by what the guys had been in on. Then we had dessert and apparently Anthony Wilson is the best cook in our class, followed closely by Ricky Albright and Will. Then we played the newlywed game where Bradley Willis and Cayce Cooper (engaged couple) won first place followed by me and Will and Casey and Kayla Darby. Maybe we should learn something from Bradley and Cayce. It was a great success and I'm thankful for everyone's help in putting it together.

Sorry this post is so long but maybe I can post more often than this from now on. I got my camera working again so I'll try to post some pics of the new house as soon as it gets presentable. Don't hold your breath!

Callan's new trick

New news!

2009-01-19T11:32:00.005-06:00

So much has been going on lately that I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with why I have time to blog instead of cleaning, etc. We are in the process of selling our house which means that your house has to be ready to be shown at a moments notice. Therefore I have a clean house! It doesn't happen very often but we are trying to keep it picked up as much as possible so we don't have to scramble too bad at the last minute. It is already getting old though and it's only been a week. Whoever heard of putting your paper towels and soap under the counter. Don't those people wash their hands too? It is frustrating trying to remember all the "rules". But I'm thankful for the opportunity and will just continue to pray that it works out in a timely manner. We are closing on our new house Thursday so that is kind of exciting too. I don't know if we will do any work over there now or just wait until we have a closer move in date but I do know that we are not in a hurry. As for now, I'm just sitting here hiding all our "junk" in the Explorer until we can move it somewhere else.

We also finally announced that we are pregnant again. We have known for about a month and wanted to keep it a secret until my 10 week appt. this Friday but other circumstances allowed us to have an early ultrasound and so we told a week early. We are 9 1/2 along and due August 20th. We are very excited and a little shocked. Although we wanted our kids close together and we were trying we just didn't realize God wanted them to be this close. But He knows what we can handle so here we go again.

Saturday after I finished getting ready for the day I noticed that my vision was blurry in one eye. I was sitting at my computer trying to make a list of groceries and couldn't read the half on the right side of the page. So I decided to read some Facebook happenings and realized that now I couldn't read. Not because I couldn't see the words but because the words weren't making any sense to me. It was like they were written in Chinese or something crazy. I told Will I thought I was going crazy and he made my lay down for a little while. Well the reading thing got worse and then it was followed by my right arm and hand going numb. He tried to call Danielle who wasn't home and then tried Dr. Allen. He told us to go to the ER immediately. We slowly gathered up Callan to take her to Will's mom and as I got up and going, my symptoms all went away. Well by then I felt stupid for going to the ER when I wasn't having any symptoms so on the way to drop Callan off, we called Dr. Allen back and he said for us to just meet him at his office (he was on call Saturday) and he would check my blood pressure. The whole time we were thinking it was a sugar problem since I had eaten a very unhealthy breakfast or chocolate chip muffins and apple juice but when we got there he actually told me I had all the signs of a stroke. He said once I called him and said the symptoms were gone he realized it was probably just an atypical migraine but when he thought it could have been a stroke, he said we had 30 minutes to get to the ER and get a CT scan done to make sure there wasn't any brain damage! How scary!!! After checking my blood pressure he said we could do an ultrasound to show us that the baby was fine. So he hooked us up and there was our little grape! It's little nubs were just moving around so wildly! He first said, "There's 1" and then acted like was looking for another one which scared us half to death but he was just saying, "There's 1"! Thank goodness! After a scary day it ended up being a good day because we got to see the baby a week early and finally got to tell everyone the good news. It does seem like everyone already knew the good news though! Just so you know, the baby is NOT the only reason we bought a house! That seemed to spark rumors for sure! Just pray that this pregnancy is as good as the first one and that this baby is as good as Callan. We may have to stop with 2! I'll post an ultrasound picture as soon as I get it scanned!

2008 in a nutshell

2008-12-30T16:07:00.008-06:00

The Bridges family-2008

As the end of the year approaches I thought I would reflect on the happenings of 2008 in the Bridges house. We started the year with me 7 months pregnant with Callan and having contractions at work. I ended up resigning from my job of 6 1/2 years shortly after and preparing for Callan's arrival. We flew through the next 2 months with not much to write about until March. Callan arrived on March 24th, the day after Easter. She is nicknamed "Bunny" because of when she arrived. She has been an unbelievable little blessing. She is an awesome child just extremely picky about certain things. She despises vegetables, bottles, standing on her feet and growing. Dr. Hamilton said that he isn't surprised by anything that Callan does anymore. She is definitely her own independent little girl. We are trying to remedy all of the above but it is a slow go with a stubborn little darling. Amy's family came up during the summer and the twins got to visit with C for the first time. Me and Callan ended up flying to Florida to visit with Amy and fam before Carley arrived and then off to the beach shortly after with daddy and Mimi. Carley arrived on September 22nd in Tampa and Will, Callan and I flew down in October to visit with her for the first time. She is an absolute doll. We are so glad that C is ending up with cousins so close in age. Carley is 6 months younger and Faith (my brother's little girl) is 9 months older. 2008 brought lots of travel for Will. His job is going great and he is flying around visiting customers more than ever now. Me and C are not fond of staying home by ourselves so we usually find something to do. Callan was only 1 of about 10 babies born this year alone is our class at church. It was a definite baby boom year for the SonSeekers. We are so glad there will be lots of little ones her age to run around with, granted they are all boys for the most part! We finished up the year by visiting with all of our families for Christmas. It is so nice to spend the holidays with family. We are so thankful and grateful for all of our blessings and we pray that the Lord will bless us with more children and friends in the future! Happy New Year!

Here are a few pics of the Christmas holiday!

Sporting the Christmas pjs...............Carley Jade Flatt-3 months

Paddle pool-the game of the holidays!

Callan was just mad that Carley had to be in the picture too

Carley and Taylor...............CJ and C in their matching pjs

Christmas card

2008-12-22T10:13:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of Christmas cards we did this year!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

2008-12-06T14:32:00.003-06:00

Well it has been a few weeks since I posted so I thought I would add a few pics of Callan dressed for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We spent a lot of money on a Thanksgiving outfit (try $3.00) so I thought I would share that and then we have had a lot of fun with the Christmas pictures. We are trying to finish taking pictures so we can order our Christmas cards. I will post the final card whenever we decide. Here are a few of the pics we have made.

Ear infections and big girl accidents

2008-11-19T12:48:00.005-06:00

Well, I thought I might update my fellow readers about what is going on. Callan got rid of her ear infection (I guess) but about a week after she finished the medicine, Will and I noticed that she wasn't acting like herself. She was acting just like she was when the doctor said she had an ear infection. So knowing we were going to be out of town and out of pocket for a few days, we decided to take her to the doctor on Friday to see if she had another one (which is what we had suspected). Dr. Crenshaw checked both of her ears and sure enough she had a double ear infection this time! So since she had 2 in 1 month, she gave her a stronger medicine this time. She is so sad but sweet when she is hurting. She is very cuddly and wants to be held which is great but it is so sad because I know it is bothering her. She is still one of the best, least whiny babies I've ever seen to be hurting. Hopefully this medicine will knock it out. She is definitely taking after her daddy with her ear troubles!

Will had to go to Chicago at the beginning of this week so me and C decided to stay with my parents for a couple of nights and then go back and get him at the airport. Sunday was my daddy (Granman's) 60th birthday so after church we drove straight to Huntsville and celebrated with him, Elaine, Shannon, Shannon, Alexis, Faith and my Uncle Harold. I dropped Will off at the airport that afternoon and me and C stayed with daddy that night. Monday we had lunch with daddy, Shan, Shannon and Faith at Adtran (where Shan works) and then me and girl Shannon went shopping for a little bit. After dinner at the McCaig house, I went to my mom's and my best friend from high school came over and visited for a few hours. Alison hadn't seen Callan in a while so it was nice to see her and catch up. She is always so full of information! Mom was bowling that night so she got in late. Tuesday me, mom, and C shopped in Hartselle and Decatur and had lunch at Cahoots (shout out to Julie-gotta try it). Mom cooked dinner for me Tuesday night (rare but delicious) and then me and C headed back to Huntsville to pick up some tights at the Gap and get daddy from the airport.

Oh, I almost forgot about the "accident". While cooking at mom's Tuesday, I decided I would put C in the high chair mom has had for years and let her play while we worked on dinner. Well, the strap in broken that goes between her legs. That should have been my first sign. So we did it CrossPoint style and stuffed a blanket around her to help her stay propped up. The high chair is really slippery. That should have been my second sign. Well anyway, to make a long story short, all of a sudden mom gasped and we both turn to see Callan sliding out of the high chair and landing on her belly. Mom caught her before she hit her face, thank goodness! It made me so sad to know she was hurt (I actually think she was just scared). I will never do that again!!

Well, I think you are caught up now. Have a good rest of the week!

The many faces of Callan and other updates

2008-11-11T17:31:00.008-06:00

Things change so fast these days. I am hardly able to keep up with all the things that Callan is doing much less get it on video or in pictures. But I did catch a picture of a monumental moment in Callan's life. Last Tuesday she went and cast her first vote for president. She even got an I voted sticker just like mommy and daddy! That will be fun to look back on one day!

Saturday morning was a lazy morning for us. I made some muffins while Will and C enjoyed a little morning ESPN. Notice who has the remote!

Here is how I found her the same day after her nap...

I know most of you won't be shocked by the following pictures seeing as you all know my child but I thought I would share some pics of her funny faces. I was finally able to catch a few in pictures. Most were taken while she was eating and as I offered her the food, she made the snorty face as if to say, "No thank you"! She is really a hoot and makes some of the craziest expressions I have ever seen but it is so fun and she is highly entertaining with her little high pitched squeals. She really squeals now to get your attention and she recognizes her name very good. She is finally eating some of her vegetables but I am having to disguise them in different fruits. I am trying to finish off all the frozen food I made for her so I can save some money and get the bought kind. Ha! Ridiculous! I ended up breaking the new blender on the last batch of sweet potatoes so I guess it is a good thing that I am finished doing it. She is still not taking her 2 daytime bottles very good but she takes her morning and evening ones good so the doctor isn't worried. I'll leave you with some of her funny snorty faces!

Was it worth it?

2008-11-05T22:25:00.006-06:00

Okay, so I've been telling you blog followers that I was going to give you an update on the cost of Callan's food. Someone even told me I would be the guinea pig for anyone else thinking about doing this. Also, a girl named Andrea found my blog through Scarlett's (I think) and wanted to know how I made it. I will be happy to tell you in a separate email Andrea. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond! Well, I got my numbers together a while back but seeing as I didn't excel in math, I had to call my genius brother to figure out for me if it was worth it. He is super smart and graduated 3rd in his class with well over a 4.0. Sometimes I feel adopted! Anyway, he loves brain teasers and puzzles so I decided to call him today with all of the information and let him figure out the formula for me.

Here was my first scenerio for Shan...I paid $8.00 for apples and was able to make 54 cubes (ice cube tray cubes). I can fit approximately 4 cubes in one empty jar of the size 2 foods. The size 2 jars cost .46 cents each at Wal-Mart. So after all of his calculations it looks as though it would have cost me $6.21 to buy that same quantity of apples! Poop! I was so mad!! I actually went in the hole trying to make C's food. It is somewhat time consuming as well so I was really bummed about the outcome. It is totally not worth it for saving money! I didn't always go in the hole but I haven't saved enough to be worth it.

I talked to Kimberly since she made Henry's food and asked her if she ran into this problem and she said that she did it more for the sake of Henry eating the fresh food that she made versus the shelf stuff. No offense to Kimberly, but I've decided it isn't going to be worth it for us!

I should tell you though that I get apples and sweet potatoes free from my Paw Paw (except for this one time when I bought apples because I let Paw Paw's rot in my garage-sorry mom). So apples and sweet potatoes are worth my time because I'm not paying anything except for the saran wrap and time. Once he's done with the garden though, I'll probably just buy these 2 as well.

To give you a rundown, here are the rest of the results:
Mangos-lost some-not sure how many cubes I made
Peaches-lost .48 cents
Pears-lost $1.26
Bananas-saved $2.05

So while I highly encourage it for the freshness of the food, I highly don't recommend it for saving money. We will now stock our pantry with tiny jars of crazy foods-bought!!!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-29T12:16:00.004-05:00

Ear infection

2008-10-24T20:36:00.004-05:00

Well, I guess I'm spoiling the ending but as you can tell from the title, Callan has her first ear infection as well as her first sickness. I feel like we have been to the Dr. a lot during her 7 months (today, exactly) but mostly it was for the weight gain issues. Otherwise, she has been lucky to avoid any sickness. Anyway, she has had a runny nose since last Thursday. I even called the Dr. before going to lunch on Friday to make sure she wasn't contagious. We have been using the humidifier and putting Vick's VapoRub on her feet at night to try to manage the cold. She has also been snorty when breathing (yes, I know she is a snorty kind of kid anyway, but this is extra snorty). So today when I used the aspirator, my findings were green so I decided to call the doctor. The nurse asked me all kinds of questions about her symptoms, many of which I couldn't answer specifically. Does she have a cough? Well, she has recently developed an attention grabbing, look at me cough so I don't know if it is real or not. Is she fussy? Well, maybe a little but she is also teething so how do we know? Plus, Callan's fussy isn't anything compared to some other kids. She is still very calm while fussy so it is hard to even call her fussy. After the many questions, she told me that she would feel better if the Dr. saw her since the runny nose had been going on for a week and because of her age. So today, against my wishes, me and C went to the sick clinic for the first time to see Dr. Colvard. The whole time I was in there, I felt stupid for being there because she was in a great mood. I'm not sure I've ever seen her laugh that much. But they insisted we come so we did. He didn't do a whole lot but did look in her ears and after cleaning them out several times, decided she had an ear infection in her right ear. My heart just broke. Not only did I feel bad for Callan, but I felt bad because I hadn't acted on it sooner. I had never heard that a runny nose and fussiness could be an ear infection. But apparently it can be! So he gave her an antibiotic and sent us on our way. I scooped her up and held her tight and cuddled her extra special tonight before putting her down. I feel so bad for her! I'm just glad they made us come in so now we can fix the problem. He said if she wasn't better by Monday to call them back so that makes me feel good that it should be gone soon! I am impressed that we made it 7 months without any problems to amount to anything! Happy 7 month b'day C!

P.S. She weighs 12 lbs. 12 ounces. She gained 5 ounces in 16 days. Her younger, curvier cousin, Carley, weighs 10 lbs. 12 ounces. It seems as though Carley may be passing on clothes to Callan soon! The strawberry outfits that the girls were wearing in the post below...Callan wore the 3 month one in that picture (Carley wore the NB) and then we left the 3 month with Carley and she wore it the next day! Ha!

Catching up

2008-10-18T19:49:00.004-05:00

It seems like so much has happened since my last post but now that I sit down to write about it, I can't remember everything. We have just recently gotten back from visiting Will's sister and family and our new niece, Carley, in Tampa. It was a great trip! We always enjoy spending time with Scott, Amy, Tyler, Taylor, Reagan, and Carley (the list is longer!) Will went to work 2 of the days so that was no fun for me, but I'm glad he could help Scott out with some of the orders. It really makes us realize how blessed he is to get to work at home. The twins spent time with friends and their aunt so we didn't see a whole lot of them. They are really growing up and I know they are soon going to be uninterested in hanging out with their aunt and uncle. We spent a lot of time with Reagan and Carley though. Reagan really loves Callan until he needs her out of the floor so he can play pretend baseball on the rug! Me and Amy took some fun pics of C and C in their matching strawberry sleepers and in their diapers and halloween hats. Very cute! We also took the girls to the mall where we realized how much life has truly changed as we tried to manage 2 small babies, pretzels, a cookie, shopping bags, strollers, and drinks! At least the food wasn't harmed!

We returned Tuesday to Bunco, lots of laundry and life full speed as always. Wednesday we went to the Nissan place to look at a Camry and ended up buying an Altima (Friday). We traded our Camry in and left with a silver Altima just like we had when we got married (before we started Dave Ramsey and sold the car to get out of debt). It is nice to be able to have a car like it again. We always did love the Altima...bullet is her new name!

Today is Saturday and after Upward soccer, Will flew with Dr. Wilson, Chad and another friend to the Alabama game. My mom came up to visit for the day and went with me and Callan to McGee Farms with several people from class. It was really fun! It was so neat to see how all of of our lives have changed with these sweet babies. The kids seemed to like it too! We got some cute pictures. Okay, everybody but me. Callan wasn't in the best mood. I was kind of frustrated because the whole time we were there she made that little snorty face (don't act like you haven't seen her do it 24/7). Then I finally realized, that is her face. She makes that face all the time so we need to cherish that funny face and know that it won't last long. I ended up getting 2 or 3 that I liked and I ordered some Halloween cards tonight. I'm excited to see them. Since we didn't get professional pics of her made, I am spending a little money on ordering holiday cards to send out.

This next week will be deep cleaning for Supper Club and finishing up making Callan's food for the next couple of weeks. We spent $40 on fruit at Wal-Mart (mostly for Callan) but soon I'm going to figure up how much money I'm saving by making my own and post it for you all to see! Have a good week!

She is finally here!

2008-09-22T22:53:00.003-05:00

After anxiously waiting all day Carley has finally made her arrival. She was born at 6:39 (which is 5:39 AL time) and weighed 8 lbs 11 1/2 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Amy feels and sounds great and the labor went super quick. She was born within 5 minutes of pushing! She deserves it after Reagan's long labor! I have posted the only two pictures I have so far! We are so excited to welcome Carley Jade into the family!

Carley is coming!!!

2008-09-22T14:12:00.003-05:00

Well I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Carley Jade today. She will be my 4th niece. I have talked to Amy several times over the last few days and she has been trying to figure out if her water was breaking and after calling the Dr. today they decided it was. They wanted her to come in immediately and not wait until her 2:30 appt. and as soon as she got there they told her it had already broken. This breakage started Sat. night so it has been a while. Now she is at the hospital and has just been hooked up to the pitocin and has already ordered her epidural. I have talked to her several times and she is just as cool as a cucumber. She seems very relaxed and excited! We are sad to be so far away but anxious to hear about the new arrival. It will probably be tonight or even tomorrow before I have any news! Pray for both Amy and Carley!

Callan's first trip to Destin

2008-09-18T21:58:00.003-05:00

Well we have been back from the beach for a week and I still haven't posted on it so I thought I would take the time tonight to do that. Me, Will, Callan, and my mom (Momma Sheila...a.k.a. Mimi) went to Destin for a few days last week and had a great time. We got a really cool hotel room at The Palms of Destin conveniently located next door to Hooters but across from the beach. We got a great deal because the Wyndham called and asked Will if he wanted to book a trip for a really good price as long as we took one of the time share tours while we were there. So we agreed and took the tour the day after we got there. Well, it is only supposed to take 2 hours and they actually did their part in only making it last 2 hours but we were the ones that drug it out. They told us all these great perks, yada yada yada and then gave us the whopping $25,000 price to join!!!!!!! Ouch!!! We politely declined stating that there were so many other things in life we wanted for that much money. Our tour lady called the big dog over and after figuring out that his wife was from Florence and making that connection, he cut the price in half for us. So very tempting seeing as this is a lifetime membership that we could will to our children. Once paid for, it is yours to do with it what you please. Gift, sell, or will away. Being total analysts about money though (although we actually did think about it for a while) we decided that it is not us to just jump on something so suddenly like that and once again there are so many other things we want in life besides vacation points. We were about to leave (at exactly 2 hours in) and they told us about a trial offer that we could get for just a fraction of the cost and we could try the vacation points out for 26 months. Well, what do you know? We bought! We were totally talked into the idea of having some really cool vacations for not a lot of money for the next couple of years. Of course, their goal in doing this is to get you to join the actual lifetime deal after your 26 months but if you don't, no biggie. So we are going to try to use some of our points and take some cool trips and see if it is worth pursuing later.

Anyway, back to the beach trip. After spending almost 4 hours in the time share office, we finally made it to the beach for the first time on the trip. We spent a total of 2 hours at the beach the whole time we were there. It is just a total different experience with a baby. Plus we had a really unbelievable pool at our hotel so we spent quite a bit of time there. The hotel was really beautiful and the pool was amazing but the only problem was that they had a Trader Vic's in between the 2 hotel buildings and every night they had karaoke until 11:00 pm and until 2:00 am on Wednesday night. It was so loud!!! Callan couldn't sleep and then we got to where we couldn't sleep either. The first night there were only 2 people in the whole bar and they were just playing the music extremely loud for those 2 people. Will ended up calling the front desk on 2 different nights to ask them to turn the music down but the lady said that she could only ask but they didn't have to oblige. It was awful! I'm very shocked that they can call themselves a family resort and have that much madness going on. We will probably not stay there again.

Me and Will went out by ourselves on Wednesday night (thank you Mimi) and it was so nice to have a date night. We ate at the Old Bay Steamer (delicious) and then went to the Donut Hole for dessert (not so delicious). I don't know why we keep going there when we don't even really like it. Will had a little too much non-decaf coffee and got a little crazy when taking pictures. I'm posting one below. We took 9 pictures like that but I'm not going to embarass him too much! I'll only post one! All in all, it was a wonderful relaxing trip even if we didn't get a tan at all! It is always nice to be away from the crazyness of life for a while.

Constipation

2008-09-15T21:50:00.002-05:00

I know that sounds like a weird title but that is what my sweet baby has been dealing with over the last few days. This may get a little graphic for you weak stomached kind. Sunday afternoon (right before church) Callan started grunting which is completely normal for her and usually hilarious for us. But this time it was different. Will and I both went into the living room where she was playing in the floor and knelt down beside her as she continued to do her business. The only problem was that it got stuck. She was having the hardest time! I can not explain in writing how bad she was straining and now crying. Amy heard her through the phone and couldn't believe how bad it was. I stayed in the living room with her while Will searched the internet (google nazi) to find a cure. He ended up calling Jeff Thompson from church (he is a pharmacist) to ask what he recommended. He told us to go to CVS and buy an enema (bless her heart). So he raced across the street and said he would have paid $400 for it because he hated to see her in such pain. I sang every church song I could think of to ease her mind while Will was gone. He got back and we proceeded to help her out with her business. Finally after about 10 minutes of our help, she will able to finish up. She immediately started smiling and kicking her legs, obviously feeling much better. This whole process lasted about an hour so we missed church but there is no way we could have gone. She would have grunted through our entire outreach group. She was exhausted from all her hard work so we gave her a bottle and got her ready for bed a little early. Well, half way through the bottle, she started grunting again. I felt so sorry for her having to go through this pain again. Anyway, after a few minutes and a little help from daddy and his rubber glove (that's right!), she was able to finish her business AGAIN! She finally felt better and was able to fall asleep within 2 minutes of laying her down.

Now, I had constipation one time while I was prego and I will forever have sympathy for anyone going through it. I could never imagine that it would be so painful but I remember laying on the couch crying because I was in so much pain! I felt even worse for Callan because there isn't a whole lot you can do for a person experiencing this. I had changed her cereal from rice cereal with apples to rice with DHA and RNA or something like that (mainly because Target doesn't carry the apple kind) but I quickly changed it back today. I will just have to make special trips to Wal-Mart for it. She had lots of apples today and a huge bowl of prunes just to make sure we don't have to go through this again. I hope your babies don't have to deal with this!

We just returned from the beach last Thursday so I'll post some pictures soon of our adventure!

Surprise trip to Tampa

2008-09-05T13:59:00.007-05:00

Well me and Callan are back safely from our last minute trip to Tampa to see Will's sister, Amy, and her family. The kids didn't know we were coming so it was a fun surprise. Amy made a video (on her blog) of the kids' reactions when they walked in and saw her. Tyler thought that Amy had already had her baby, Carley, and she was home! He's a nut! Taylor was so excited she couldn't move and Reagan quickly told Tyler that it was Callan! She got to take baths in the sink which is a lot harder than I thought and she slept in Carley's Moses basket which she loved!

The plane ride could not have gone any better except for the stinky diaper at the end. She slept the first 45 minutes and played he last 45. Then on the return flight she slept the entire time. She fell asleep before we took off and didn't wake until I was walking to get my luggage. Will surprised us by coming in the airport to wait on us. We was so excited to see Callan and she smiled very big when she saw him! We had an easy drive home and I made it to Bunco just in time!

The trip was awesome. We are extremely close with Amy's family and try to visit several times a year. Scott is Will's boss for one and I tell Amy everything. When the four adults are together we have so much fun and laugh the whole time. I'm excited that now our kids will be close as well. Carley is due to arrive in 2 weeks, 3 at the latest (they will induce if necessary) so we will be going back in one month to see the new baby. Callan didn't get to stay the baby of the family very long!

The kids were so good with her. Tyler was very sweet and quiet around her but played in the floor with her. She probably would have sat in Taylor's lap all day long if I had let her and she loved to watch Reagan run around the room. He got down in the floor with her and showed her some picture books. Callan smiled every single time Scott came into view and I have never seen my child lay her head on anyone's shoulder except for Amy's. Gretchen was even wonderful at staying away from her. She adapted to Florida time with no problems and slept through the night there too. I am so glad that the trip was a success and I can't wait for the next trip so I can see baby Carley, finally!!

A new day

2008-08-30T11:16:00.004-05:00

Well, I thought I might blog and fill you in on Callan's last minute appt. yesterday. I feel like a different person. We saw Dr. Hamilton yesterday morning about her crying while nursing and refusing to take the bottle and basically in the first 3 sentences he said we were going to start formula and solids because she wasn't big enough. We have already been doing cereal and it has helped her gain a little weight but now he thinks the solids will help even more. He told me that he thought I had skim milk instead of buttermilk (ha) so I am supposed to quit nursing. I am pumping a couple of times a day for a few days to ease my discomfort but other than that I am very excited about not having to fight my child nursing or pump all day long. She weighed 11 lbs. 3 oz. which is still not good for her age but at least she is growing. We also cut bigger holes in the nipples of her bottles to help her get it faster. After watching her take a bottle (which she wouldn't) and watching her eat cereal (which she ate like crazy), he called her a maniac barracuda and decided she wasn't getting it fast enough from the bottle which is why she loves the spoon. Hopefully these changes will really help her pack on the pounds. She's got so many clothes I hope she can hurry up and wear them before the weather changes.

So last night Jack, Kimberly, and Henry came over for dinner and afterwards me and Kimberly spent a couple of interesting hours in the kitchen making Callan's baby food. She had done it with Henry so I was excited to be learning from a professional. We blended apples, bananas, mangoes, pears, squash, zucchini, and peas, and I still have avocado to do. It was a lot of work but I am excited about the benefits. She said we had made enough food in just a couple of hours to last at least a month if not more. I am excited to try some of it out. I am going out of town though so I will be buying some food for our travels. I am not about to thaw out, warm up, etc. while on the road. Hopefully I can continue making the food for a while (until she is eating more than I can make). At one point in the night Kimberly decided to see how apples would look on the floor (the blender messed up) so a whole bag of cut up, blended apples ended up on my kitchen floor, cabinets, rug, and Kimberly's legs. I think it was God's way of telling me my floor needing cleaning and I was avoiding it until last night. It was a fun experience though and I look forward to saving a little money from doing it! Here are some pictures of my food after I blended it and poured it into the ice cube trays. Pretty colorful!

Thanks again for all the prayers, calls and emails about C. We are excited to hopefully put some weight on our child and I feel a huge relief from all my nursing issues.

All Small and a last minute vacation

2008-08-28T23:52:00.002-05:00

Well here is the new picture of peanut sporting her "All Small" Dr. Suess onesie. I thought this outfit was appropriate for her tiny little figure (although it was a little big). We tried on a Newborn outfit that morning and took it off because it was too big! We go back to the Dr. at 11:15 Friday to talk about the nursing and bottle issues. She basically just doesn't consume near as much milk as she needs and doesn't consume it easily either. We battle during nursing but she won't take a bottle either. It is the most frustrating thing I have ever had to deal with and I'm tired of people making me feel like it is my fault or I'm doing something wrong. Maybe we'll figure something out tomorrow. The second picture I just thought was cute.

Now on to the second part of my story. Will came in today and asked me if I wanted to go to Tampa. I said of course thinking he meant in October when we are going to see Carley!! But he actually meant this weekend. He said I could leave as early as tomorrow or as late as Wednesday of next week. So Sunday me and Callan will be flying (by ourselves!!! Ahhhh!) to Tampa to see some of my favorite people in the whole world. The kids don't know we are coming so it will be extra fun to surprise them. We are staying until Thursday. I will miss Will terribly because this is definitely the longest we will have been apart since C was born but I am very much looking forward to some time with my sis-in-law and family. Scott hasn't even seen Callan before and the kids only have once. I'll give a little shout out to Amy now. We have an awesome relationship. She is one of my best friends and I tell her almost everything! I am lucky to be blessed with 2 wonderful sisters-in-law which I know that is hard to come by but I always look forward to spending time with Amy because she is so far away. We soak up every single minute together. We are awesome shopping partners which only makes our relationship even stronger! She is due in about 3 weeks so this will be a very special trip because it is our last hangout before Carley gets here! Will and I will either be flying (if we can find a cheap flight) or driving back sometime in October to see our new niece. We wanted to give her a little time to adjust and get the grandparents out of the way so we have plenty of baby holding time to ourselves! JK! It is mass chaos at their house with us and Will's parents there. That would make 11 people and a dog in the house! We wouldn't do that to her (again!) Anyway, I am super excited and will take tons of pictures to post about my trip when I get home. Please pray for me and C as we travel alone to the airport and for C's Dr.'s appt tomorrow. I will try to post about the appt. tomorrow!

Peanut grew

2008-08-18T13:01:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to update everyone on Callan's doctor's appointment today. She had gained 7 ounces in 2 weeks and Dr. Huffman-Parker was pleased. She said to her that just meant that she needed the extra calories. We had a scale here at home that we had borrowed to keep an eye on her weight the last 2 weeks and I was panicking because it never showed her gaining even one ounce, but obviously it was wrong! Also, I think I have been having a problem with my milk supply being low so I'm going to take some medicine and an herbal supplement to help with that. Hopefully that will help her stop crying while nursing. If she still seems hungry after I feed her we are supposed to give her formula or pumped breastmilk to make sure she gets all that she wants. Hopefully if my milk supply increases I won't have to give the additional supplement for long. We are still going to continue with the cereal 3 times a day and she said we could start solids if we wanted to but we don't really see any rush for that since they don't really contain many calories and that is what she needs right now. Hopefully my child will be wearing some of that closet full of clothes pretty soon. I just expect her to really start putting the weight on now! She finally weighs as much as I did at 2 weeks!!!!!!! Anyway, thank you all SO much for the prayers. We are very pleased and I honestly feel like a new person today! I have been a little stressed out lately (no comment Will). It makes us feel so good to have so many people asking about her and praying for her. God has blessed us with such good friends and family! I will post pictures of my fat child later!!

Anniversary trip to Memphis

2008-08-12T10:04:00.008-05:00

I'm sure I can't do the trip justice with just a blog but I wanted to update you on where Will took me for our surprise anniversary trip. Saturday we celebrated 5 years of marital bliss and he had planned an entire weekend of fun. We headed out Friday morning towards Memphis (I figured it out after a few minutes). Will had put together a notebook with our schedule in it and he gave it to me as soon as I got in the car. I still didn't know what we were doing, only the addresses of the places we were going. Once we got to Memphis I was in the backseat with C giving her a bottle and wasn't looking around so I missed about 10 signs telling me where we were going but it made it more fun. I finally looked up to see the last sign say we were at the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium. The zoo is one of my favorite places on Earth so I was super excited! It took us forever to load up the stroller with all the things we were going to need for the day but once we got in it was perfect. The weather was not nearly as warm as it had been, C loved being outside in the Baby Bjorn and the animals were hilarious. We watched the sea lion show which was a highlight of the trip. We kept walking trying to find something to eat for lunch and when we would decide on a place and get there, it would be closed. That was frustrating! So I finally fed C in a bathroom (Ugh!) and we ended up leaving and getting some Chinese food close by. We have discovered that C's favorite animal is the zebra so Will took her picture in front of the zebras!

A sweet little duck that wanted out!

After we left lunch, we headed toward our hotel which I just knew was the Peabody. He kept saying no it wasn't but he was driving straight towards it so I was getting really confused. Finally we rounded a corner and ended up at the new Westin which Will's uncle built along with his company. I was so excited because I knew it was an awesome hotel but being as nieve as I am I never even thought we might be staying there. Well, let's just say that Uncle Glenn gave us the hook up! I don't want to spend too much time on this subject since I don't have pictures but it was an unbelievable room! The sign on the wall said it was $2,500.00 a night and we got it for free!!! It was almost as big as our house with the most desirable bathroom (and half bath) that you could ever imagine! C even had her own crib!! We didn't take many pictures of the room but we did make a Cribs video that you can come over and see if you want to!

We left that night headed to the Memphis Redbirds game where we got the $5.00 tickets to sit on the bluff. It is just a grassy hillside out past left field where you take a blanket and sit and watch the game. Nachos are my favorite food in the whole world so this is one of the reasons we went. Will got the famous BBQ nachos but I stuck with the regular. The weather was amazing but the company was best. It was just so nice to lay out on the grass with no worries. Callan ended up taking a little snooze. We left the game and took a walk down Beale Street with our 4 month old and then headed back to the Westin for bed.

Will practicing his pitch!

This child can sleep anywhere!

Our family photo

Beale Street at night

The next morning after some apple juice and muffins, we headed to my next surprise. We walked down a few blocks and ended up at the Peabody hotel where I am still confused. We finally ended up at a desk where I had to tell a lady my name and she said, "Oh you're here for your pedicure" and I said, "I don't know". Well I was there for a pedicure. Will had made me an appointment for a Fiji spa pedicure. He and Callan turned and went back to the hotel while I was getting that done. I walked back after my pedicure which was unbelievable by the way and we packed up and took the trolley down to the Arcade restaurant. It is the oldest restaurant in Memphis and the location for several famous movie scenes. Not the greatest food but fun to go there anyway. We then headed to the Memphis Farmer's Market where I got a cool t-shirt and then on to the Bigfoot Lodge for the most delicious dessert ever. It was a huge chocolate chip cookie cooked in a castiron skillet and served with ice cream. Amazing! After our extremely fun weekend together we headed home. When we got here we walked out on the back porch and there was an Amish swing hanging from the ceiling. He had surprised me one last time with a new swing! It is awesome! We have sat out there several times already. The trip was so nice because we really needed some time away as a family with no distractions (we didn't even take our computer!). Will made our anniversary so special and I am so thankful for him! I can't wait to see what he does next year! HA!

Us at the Arcade restaurant

Peanut

2008-08-05T16:51:00.005-05:00

Well after the appointment today I am changing her nickname to peanut. She didn't have as good of a report as I wanted her to. She weighs 10 pounds 5 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. Her height has dropped from the 75 to the 25% and her weight has dropped from the 10 to the 3%. That isn't what we hoped for! The doctor suggested a few things to hopefully get her weight up but she has to go back in 2 weeks to have a weight check. Dr Huffman-Parker told us to start her on rice cereal 3 times a day....3 TIMES A DAY! Apparently that is a lot just for starting out but I assume she is just overdoing it so that we can see if she has gained anything in 2 weeks. We gave her the first little bit this afternoon and after a few practice times of her not opening her mouth she really seemed to enjoy it. Of course we video taped it and took pictures. You can't miss a Kodak moment. She wore her first bib today and looked so cute but I had a hard time when she actually got something on the bib. Anyway, we are going to try the cereal and hope she is bigger in 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted!

Just so you know, I was quite the opposite from a small child. I was 8 pounds 12 ounces when I was born and by 2 weeks I weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces which she still doesn't weigh at 4 months. Just for kicks, I have attached a picture of me at 4 months and Callan at 4 more. We are quite opposites. Will calls me the Michelin baby! It is an awful sight but it is such a funny picture that I have to share it.

A fun week ahead!

2008-08-04T21:15:00.002-05:00

This week is going to be a good one for me and Will (I hope). We started the week off with an awesome night of Refuel at Creekside Church. Tomorrow is Callan's 4 month appt. and I can't wait to see how much weight she has gained and how long she is. She seems to be tall and skinny which I'm sure she won't mind but she is outgrowing some clothes so I know she is gaining a little weight at least. I'll update you later about her growth!

After her appt. we are driving to Huntsville to meet my dad, stepmom, brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces for lunch. My dad doesn't know yet so hopefully he won't read this until after lunch. I love to surprise him so hopefully we can pull it off! Will has to visit Huntsville Hospital for work so me and Callan are riding over with him and enjoying some family time while we are there.

Tomorrow night Will has a basketball game and I have Bunco. It is always nice to get away for a little while!

Then nothing extremely special the rest of the week until Friday. Some of you may already know from reading Will's blog but he has planned a surprise trip for our 5th anniversary which is Saturday. All I know is what to pack and what time we are leaving. I love surprises and I can't wait to find out what it is. He is so good to do special things for me on special days. I can't believe that we have already been married 5 years. I have an awesome husband. He is so good to me and such a good father to Callan. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we have "discussions" and things aren't the greatest but the best part of our relationship is knowing that the other person isn't going anywhere. I have never doubted Will's loyalty to me and I hope I haven't given him any reason to doubt mine. One of our biggest family goals is to try to have a positive outlook on things and not focus on the negative side of things. I am also trying very hard to be a better wife to him and to have a better attitude. We have shared a lot of tears but more than that a lot of happiness. I hope that we have many many more years together. I'm sure we will have a great time on our trip and I'll let you know where we go!

Ready for the beach!

2008-07-25T21:42:00.003-05:00

First of all...today is exactly one year ago that we found out we were pregnant. I had to leave for work 10 minutes after I took the test and had a hard time not thinking about it all day long. We left 2 days later for the beach with 14 of our closest friends and didn't say a word. Boy was that hard! Some of our friends (Julie G. to name one) guessed it but we lied and denied it. We ended up telling a week later after we saw the heartbeat at our first doctor's appointment. Man a lot has changed in a year.

Onto the real blog...I wanted this swimsuit and hat for Callan but I refused to pay $16.50 for the suit and $12.50 for the hat but the wait paid off. Me and my sister-in-law, Shannon, went to the Gap a week ago and it was on sale. $5.97 for the suit and $3.97 for the hat. I was so excited!! I love it. I had to try it on her along with her new sunglasses and therefore I had to take pictures. I thought I would share them with my faithful readers. We are leaving for the beach in about 6 or 7 weeks and I can't wait. We will probably have the pack Callan's entire room but I think it will be worth it. My mom, Mimi, is going with us so that will be great to have an extra hand.

She rolled!!

2008-07-18T22:18:00.002-05:00

I am so proud. My child rolled over today from her stomach to her back! I was watching her in the pack n' play while I was on the phone with Kimberly. I knew she was getting close to rolling over so I called Will to come in the living room and watch her. She was so close so I told him to watch her while I got the video camera. Well of course while I was gone (20 seconds total) she rolled! I missed the whole thing. I was so sad. A huge milestone and I missed it! I turned the camera on and recorded her laying on her back. Not quite as monumental as the roll itself. Anyway, I'm proud. It will probably be a while before she does it again but maybe I'll catch it next time!

Separation anxiety

2008-07-18T10:25:00.003-05:00

Could my 4 month old really be having separation anxiety? Monday night while I was at Bunco she screamed bloody murder while she was with her daddy and then again on Tuesday night while I had the baby shower. What is going on? If there was anybody I trusted for her to be okay with it would be Will and now she is having a hard time if I'm not there. It makes me never want to leave her again although I know that I have to for my sanity and hers. We are just together ALL the time so I guess she doesn't want me to leave. It is making it very hard on me though and I feel bad for anyone else that holds her. She is just having a hard time! Bless her! How am I supposed to leave this sweet face?

Happy belated 4th of July

2008-07-09T15:54:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to share Callan's 4th pictures. The 4th is Jo Anne's birthday so I wanted to take some pictures of C in her festive clothes to put her in her birthday card. They turned out to be my favorite ones of her so far. She is really getting a personality. She is smiling a lot and even starting to laugh! I hope to catch it on video one of these days. Someone asked me one day if she was smiling yet and it made me realize that she is so calm that some of you haven't seen her smile yet and probably don't think she is any fun but she is! She is a party animal. No, just kidding, but she is fun. She is still sleeping about 11 hours at night without getting up. We are so proud...and rested! Have a good day!

Summer happenings

2008-06-28T23:02:00.010-05:00

Oh my! So much has happened this summer already and I'm so behind on posting. I'm posting a few pictures to catch you up on Callan and our summer so far. Let's see...I left off with Mother's Day. I guess the next thing to happen was Father's Day. I got Will tickets to Yankee Stadium in New York to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox play this summer. This is the last year for that stadium to be open and I knew it was on his "list of stadiums to see before he dies". He was pretty shocked. He actually found out even before Mother's Day because the guy I bought them from on Ebay left me positive feedback and it showed where I had bought the tickets. He came running in the living room thinking someone had stolen our identity and bought the tickets with our money but it was me. It was a little more than I would have normally spent for a holiday considering we are going to have to buy plane tickets and a hotel, etc. but I wanted him to know how special he is to me and Callan. He was so good to me during my pregnancy and delivery that I wanted to do something special for him. He is an amazing father and I love to watch him with his baby girl. Those are some of the most precious moments. Anyway, we can't wait to go on our first trip together with Callan.

Callan has just turned 3 months old which is unbelievable to me. She is doing so good. We feel so blessed to have such a good, calm baby. She sleeps through the night now and has been for several weeks. She sometimes sleeps almost 12 hours. It's amazing. I pray that if we ever have another, it will be this good. She is more alert and interactive now. She is awake more often and smiling lots. We both heard her laugh for the first time the other day. That was a fun moment. It is amazing how you can get nothing accomplished during the day but not even care because you spent it just talking and playing with your kids.

We got to see Todd & Betsy while they were home and introduce the girls. The boys played golf one day and the girls (me, Callan, Betsy, Gabrielle, Joan, Christy, Sienna, Ellie, Holly, Alex & Lilly) all had lunch at Robert Trent Jones while they played. We found out that Todd & Betsy are having another baby this December!!! So exciting! Gabrielle is unbelievably adorable by the way!

Amy and the kids came for almost 3 weeks and just left Thursday. It was a tearful goodbye as we said bye to all of them and baby Carley. Carley is due to arrive September 18th and I finally understand what it is like to have someone very close to you have a baby very far away from you. Amy just experienced that with us and I guess she is paying us back by being in Florida. While she was here, I had a surprise baby shower for her. It was so much fun! I have had to keep lots of secrets in the last few months and I'm so glad they're over. I told Amy that we were going to eat lunch at Ricatoni's and she should come pick me, my mom, and Callan up but when she got here almost 30 of her close friends and family were here to help her celebrate. It was exciting. She got lots of fun things.

We also celebrated my neice, Faith's, 1st birthday a week ago at Shannon and Shannon's new house. She is an absolute doll! She is walking pretty good now and always smiling. It is always fun to be around her, her older sister, Alexis, and Shannon and Shannon. We played a little guitar hero after the party and celebrated father's day with my dad and his wife. We always have fun together.

The last celebration was Jo Anne's birthday. Her actual birthday isn't until July the 4th, but we celebrated this past Thursday because it was Amy's last day here. We grilled steak kabobs and made a carrot cake (Jo's favorite) and presented her with the last surprise of the summer. Amy had an idea of doing a scrapbook for Jo since it was her 60th birthday. We got in touch with a lot of family and friends and asked them to do a scrapbook page for a book that we were putting together. Some were funny, some were sweet, all were memorable. There were lots of old pictures of big hair and extremely big glasses, but it was so much fun to collect them all and look at everyone's different memories of Jo Anne. We bought one book and 2 refill pages with totaled 40 pages. We ended up with 90 pages and 3 books. We decided that was a testament to Jo Anne's friendship and kind heart. We worked on it several different times while Amy was here but we had a hard time getting away from Jo Anne so Amy finally called Ken and made him ask her to come in to work one day so that we could finish it. It turned out great and I'm pretty sure she loved it. I'm so glad I don't have to secretly hide scrapbook pages that I get at church anymore!

Let's see...we added 2 more new babies to our SonSeekers class. Ava Claire and Luke Judson were born within 5 days of each other. We visited both at the hospital and they are precious. Callan is so glad that she has another girl friend at church now. We are going to have to have a few more girls to match the boys born this year.

I guess that is a good long list of what has been going on in the last month or so since I posted. We are hopefully going to take it easy now that the secrets are over and Will's softball season has ended. Hopefully now we can just enjoy our time as a family!

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T16:40:00.003-05:00

I hate it when people don't update their blogs often and I am so being that girl lately. I haven't really known what to write about because I didn't always want to be writing about my child, but it has been almost 6 weeks since my last post. Even though she is amazing to us, she is still too young to do many "tricks" so I don't have a lot to say about her besides that we go this week for her 2 month shots! I dread it so bad!

Here is what has been going on in our lives:

Scott and Amy find out for sure tomorrow what they are having. They were 75% sure it was a girl, but she gets another ultrasound done tomorrow. I can't wait to know for sure!

Will has been the assistant baseball coach for Mars Hills for the past 4 years or so and this year the boys have made it to state. We go on this road this week for the state tournament and I can't wait. I really get into whatever he is coaching after I get to know the boys and so I can't wait to watch them play and hopefully win a state championship. Mars Hills hasn't even been to state since Will's senior year so this is extra exciting!

They played Friday night and won the second game in extra innings because a ball bounced off of one of our players head's and allowed a run to be scored. It was hilarious! There was a great SonSeeker turnout of support. It was very fun and I know Will appreciated everyone being there to support him too. Kimberly got pegged by a foul ball in the head and hand. She is a little sore this week! Thank goodness it didn't hit the kids though. It was close!

Well, today is my first Mother's Day! I posted a picture of our family Mother's Day portrait! It was such an exciting day for me! Not only was it my first MD, but it was Callan's first day at church (on a Sunday). She was the best baby during church! She only cried out once during the service and class. I was so proud. I hate getting up in front of people so I was praying she would be good and she was. She slept the entire time and most of the day today. Not to mention that she slept for 9 hours last night. I could not believe it. She is only 7 weeks old. I felt so proud (and rested)!! We feel very blessed to have Callan in our lives!

I promise not to make it this long before the next post, but that's all for now!

By the way, I will be missing (but recording) the season finale of The Bachelor tomorrow night so don't tell me who he picks!!

7 days!!!

2008-03-31T21:48:00.005-05:00

Well, my last post was about me having 9 days left until my due date and seeing as how I went 4 days early, I'm now posting about the 7 days after Callan's birth. Let me back up a little though and update you on what has happened in the last week.

Easter Sunday Will and I were on our way home from my grandmother's house and I developed a really bad headache. After several hours, Tylenol, and a nap, it still wasn't gone. The Dr. had told me to watch out for a headache that wouldn't go away because it usually means that your blood pressure is up. We stopped by CVS on the way to church Sunday night to check my blood pressure and it was sky high but different every time we took it. I called Jo Anne at church and she had Joyce Jones meet us in the foyer of the ROC to use the cuff to check my bp. It was definitely up and after talking with her and Dr. Freeman (who had just had coffee with Dr. Allen and told me that Dr. Allen was about to have dinner with Dr. Woodford-my Dr.) they all suggested I go to hospital and get it checked out.

By the time I got to the hospital and the nurse checked me out, everything was fine except my headache was still there. We told them to tell Dr. Allen (he was on call) not to worry about coming up there but he insisted on it. Well, little did I know that he was going to strip my membranes and cause me to dilate and go into labor the following morning. After an awful night (they gave me Ambien to sleep and apparently I cried for 25 minutes straight hysterically) my water ended up breaking at 8:15 Monday morning. We went to the Dr's office where Dr. Allen confirmed it and sent me on to the hospital. A quick stop at McDonald's for some apple dippers and we were checked into the hospital by 10:00. Long story short, lots of contractions, a fantastic epidural, the best care possible by Kathleen Stanfield and 13 1/2 hours of labor later, we had a sweet baby girl. She was born at 9:44 pm, weighing 7 lbs, 3 oz, and was 21 inches long. She was absolutely beautiful the moment she came out (sorry i'm biased).

We stayed in the hospital for 3 nights and left Thursday after lunch. We had tons of visitors and loved every minute of the attention (thank you friends and family). We got home and my mom came Thursday night through Sunday. She was a fabulous help. She did so much around the house and in the kitchen. I had a little bit of a breakdown when she left but recovered quickly. We had an exhausting weekend with tons of company and great food so far (thank you Cross Point). She has been so good it is scary. She basically feeds every 3 or 4 hours for 15 minutes and then sleeps or looks around for the next 3 or 4 hours. It has been wonderful. We have gotten lots more sleep than we thought we would and have adjusted well. I'm crossing my fingers that it lasts. I posted a few pictures of her first few days here in the world and I'm sure I'll post plenty more later. I am going to go rest up for the night's activities. Hope to see you all soon!

9 days!!!

2008-03-19T17:44:00.004-05:00

Nothing exciting is happening lately except a lot of waiting. I thought I might fill you in on my latest appt. We are only 9 days away! It is going so fast, yet so slow here at the end. We had an appt. today with Dr. Woodford who ended up having to leave to go to the hospital and deliver a baby so after Mona (our nurse) left us, Danielle came in to check me. I’m still not dilated, but I did have some higher protein levels and my blood pressure was up just a touch from last week. Danielle wasn’t really concerned with any of it. She said the protein was probably from my lack of water intake today. She wants me to rest and drink lots of water and come back on Friday to make sure the protein level is normal . I think if it isn’t gone and my blood pressure happens to be up, we might talk about inducing! She said Dr. Woodford probably wouldn’t let me go a week past my due date so the end is definitely in sight. She also said I had dropped so I should be able to breath better now. This was the most eventful appt. we have had so far, I just hope it is all okay. I have gained 23 pounds total so I’m probably about done. My belly measure 37.5 inches around. I’m definitely not miserable but I am getting very anxious for her to get here. Hopefully it won’t be long. There is a full moon this Friday and Easter is Sunday so we’ll see if we can make it past those 2 events. I'll keep you posted!

I'm going to be an aunt again!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-18T14:05:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to share my latest news now that the secret is out. Will's sister, Amy, is having another baby. She is 10 weeks along and due September 18th. Will & I have known for about a month, but had to keep the secret until Will's parents got to Tampa Saturday and found out the news. We are thrilled! Her and Scott have the twins, 10, Reagan, 5 and now the new baby. I'm so excited because now Callan will have someone closer to her age to play with! Amy will be coming to visit whenever Callan arrives and I can't wait to see her! I have attached her 9 week ultrasound picture!

Catching up

2008-01-14T22:06:00.000-06:00

Hello readers, It has been a while since I posted so I'm trying to remember what all happened since I've been on here last. We had a wonderful Christmas and got to spend time with all of our family. We went to my dad's, mom's and brother's and then Will's sister and family came in from Tampa and we celebrated at Will's parents. Will & I got to spend a lot of time hanging out with Scott & Amy. Reagan turned 5 while he was here and we celebrated with a party and some wonderful cupcakes. Also one day we had a family painting day to paint Callan's room. We are just now almost finished. What a project! Here are some pics of Amy's kids and of my brother's kids. Faith had on the cutest little Santa outfit on Christmas day! She never stops smiling!

We also got our 4-D ultrasound done right after the new year and it was amazing. We got one really good clear picture of her face and then the rest of the pictures she had her leg up beside her face. She is very limber!

I had my first round of contractions about 2 weeks ago while I was at work. I felt them all throughout the day starting around 11:30 and ending around 4:30. I didn't really worry a whole lot about them because I figured they were Braxton Hicks. We went to the doctor a few days later and he didn't seem very worried either. Needless to say, that was my last day of waiting tables at Ricatoni's. It just isn't worth it if something were to happen.

Oh my, the lastest story! This one will go down in the history books. Will & I (along with Ben & Brooklyn) took a childbirth class at ECM this past Saturday. I was really dreading it just because it was going to be a long day...9:00-4:00. About 20 minutes into the class, I started getting really hot. I took my jacket off and didn't think a whole lot about it. Then I got really really hot and started fanning myself and told Will I didn't feel very good. The teacher (who is a nurse) asked me if I was hot. I told her I was very hot and started to get very dizzy. She grabbed me a graham cracker to chew on and then all of a sudden I woke up on the floor! I passed out at child birth class!!! How hilarious is that!!! I was apparently not out for very long, but I woke up to the taste of graham crackers and gum in my mouth and the nurse was right over me telling me I would be fine. I looked up and saw the entire class gathered around me and realized what had happened. I was a little embarassed, but mainly I just couldn't believe I had actually past out. Will said it just looked like I went to sleep and he and the nurse laid me in the floor. Brooklyn ran to get a nurse from Labor & Delivery and they brought back a wheelchair and wheeled me to a room to be hooked up to the monitors. They checked the baby's heartbeat, my blood pressure, temperature, etc. and then took my blood sugar. Everything checked out fine! Will had to go down to the ER and register me so at least we got to pre-register. We missed about an hour of class altogether, but then went right back as if nothing had happened. They decided that my blood sugar had bottomed out. We went back to class and I ended up feeling that way one more time so I got up and moved around and then switched chairs. The ones we were sitting in leaned back a lot more than I like to lean back. That seemed to fix the problem. Everyone was worried and a little tickled at my incident. I assured them that I was fine and we went on with the rest of class. After talking with Dr. Allen though, we have realized it wasn't my blood sugar at all. It is actually caused by the baby laying on and pressing on the vena cava (blood vessel in your back). So when I was leaning back in these weird chairs, she was jumping around on this blood vessel and I started feeling like I couldn't breathe. I didn't know enough to get up and move around or that probably would have fixed it. All in all, it was an interesting day. I'm sure no one in the class will forget me!

Well, I think we're caught up now! I've been cooking all night and getting ready for Bunco at my house tomorrow. Hopefully it will be edible! Until next time!