Happy New Year!

New Years Eve is here and I can't believe that 2009 is over! This time last year I was just talking about baby furniture and hadn't even told my family that Mitch and I were going to start 'trying'! And a week later I was 'pregnant'! lol (They count my pregnancy as starting January 4th, even though I didn't technically conceive until the 14th, 15th, 16th or 17th. And no, we don't know the exact day, we didn't pay attention because we never dreamed we were going to get pregnant so soon!) But 2009 brought us so many joys that we are thankful for! There is no way for us to list them all, but here are just a few things that I thank the Lord for every night...

-For my husband and the great dad that he is!

-For Brookelynne and how much I love her!
-For Toby and Tama and the entertainment and companionship they give me when Mitch is working those 15 hour days!

-For the home the Lord has provided for us and the reliable cars we have!
-For great parents who love us
-For my mom's health! February 1st will be 13 years since her lung transplant!
-For great friends!
-For siblings that we love even when we can't stand them! :)
-For Christ and the sacrifice he made on the cross for me! And the work He does in our family and home every day!

While there were some hardships this year there were far more blessings. I personally lost two things that were very dear to me. Starr was a very good friend who will always be missed but will always be remembered. I love that I get to think of her every time I say Brooke's full name and look forward to getting to tell Brooke about who she's named after and why! I also lost Brooksey, two weeks after losing Starr, which was so difficult because she was 18 years old, and I honestly can't remember not having her. She was our dog for as long as I can remember and was a great pet and companion. She's also very missed, but that is the circle of life and we come to 2010 with renewed enthusiasm for life and for Christ and aim to live life to the fullest with no regrets!

So here is to you (whoever you may be) and to a new beginning for everyone, may we be faithful, honest, Godly men and women and strive to be the people, spouses, children, parents, friends and employees that the Lord would have us to be, so that this time next year we will look back at 2010 and see that we have honored our Lord, our commitments and our families and have no regrets!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day

The Pearsons Christmas


Well, Christmas Day is here and was filled with many many things to do! We got up early and opened Christmas presents at home, just Mitch, Brooke and me! Mitchell got me a beautiful diamond journey necklace and I love it! Brooke got a couple of things that she LOVED opening! lol jk. But we did get it all on video, so she can love it in a few years. (Mitch's big gift was a suit, by the way).

Then we scurried around the house and got ready to head out. We went to my mom's house and she had breakfast ready! It was soo good, cheese grits, bacon and sausage! We were waiting for Gran to get there but no one could get her on the phone. Come to find out she had gone to visit her daughter in law at the last minute, and left Mom a message, but she hadn't gotten it yet. So after a while we went ahead and opened presents, Mitch, Brookelynne, Mom, Josh and me!

It was very nice! Josh got an MP3 player, and Mitch got a safe. Mom got me a beautiful jewelry box, and Brooke got some clothes and a very cool steering wheel fisher price toy. (And Mitch likes that because it will help her with her spanish! haha).


We then headed over to Mitch's parent's house and opened presents there with Jeanna, Wayne, Zach and Dorothy. Brooke got 2 light up, lullaby dolls, and a piano/building blocks toy! (It is capable of helping with spanish too, but Mommy's going to have to figure out how to work that part before Brooke starts hearing the spanish! haha) Its a very unique toy, and I'll probably have to put some serious work into understanding it, while Brooke will just 'get it'. lol.

Nay Nay also got Brooke a walker/jumper for the house, so she'll be growing into that really soon!


We spent a few hours just hanging out with them, and then headed home, because I had a really bad headache (which didn't go away until I went to sleep). Jeanna had made a delicious lunch and was so generous to send some home with us! She cooked her ham with apple pie filling and it was sooo good! :) Once we got home, we unloaded the cars and walked the dogs and did the dishes and I don't really remember anything past that! I do remember that my house is a disaster area and is going to need some serious work!

Christmas Eve Festivities!

Well Christmas Eve is finally here and we've been very very busy! :) I got up early this morning and went to my mom's to finish the last of the wrapping and then help her cook and clean for tonight! :) Dad did me a favor by coming up here to walk the dogs around noon so that I didn't have to come home, but they didn't have to stay in their cages for 12 straight hours! That would have been bad!

Mom made homemade spaghetti sauce, garlic bread and a salad for dinner while I did most of the straightening up and set up! Brooke, meanwhile, spent a good portion of the day being walked around by Paw Paw, and then laying on her play mat! We had to get ready for church around 3:45, but Mom had fallen asleep on the couch with Brooke and told me that she couldn't get up because Brookelynne was 'holding her down'! Ha! They are both such stinkers! :) hehe. Mom and I had finished getting ready and were changing Brooke into her dress when Nickie, Phillip, Danielle, Cameron, Parker and Emma arrived! They came inside and dressed the babies and we headed downtown!

Josh and Amy had saved us seats near the back! The service was very nice, but Brookelynne didn't want to be there apparently because she kept crying. I would no sooner step through the doors to go into the lobby that she would quiet right down. As soon as I would sit back down, she'd be crying! Mom finally took her and kept her outside for about 15 minutes until she fell asleep and then she came back in with her. We did the Lord's Supper and then lit our candles, it was a very sweet service, and I loved holding Brooke as the auditorium was lit by candlelight. I started crying as I prayed for her and thanked the Lord for sending Jesus, and asked that she'd come to know him in just a few years.

We went back to the house and finished getting dinner on the table. We sat around the table and ate and talked and had a very good time! (Mitch and Dad had arrived by then!) Then we opened presents! The little boys got toy trucks and were loving them! lol Lots of noise involved! The rest of us got gifts too and really had a good time spending time with family! We pulled out Brooke's Santa pjs, which matched Parker's and Emma's and got some cute pics, here are some of them!



Brookelynne, Parker and Emma



Parker and Cameron with their trucks spinning!


Brooke and Emma


The Pearsons!


Josh and Amy


Brooke in her Jenny Jump Up from Aunt Amy and Uncle Josh!

Countdown to Christmas!

So many things are going on while I'm getting ready for Christmas 2009. So many things are new and great this year! Obviously, Brookelynne is here for her first Christmas which we are so excited about! I remember last year on Christmas Eve sitting around with my mom and cousins Danielle and Nickie and talking about getting started on my baby furniture because Mitch and I hoped to have a baby in a 'couple of years'. WOW! We never dreamed that a year later we'd have such an amazing gift! I guess God's plans were sooner than we thought, and we're just fine with that! :)

Anyway, yesterday Brooke and I went and saw Nay Nay while we were on that side of town. It was very nice and we had a good time, unfortunately, we got away from our original time schedule and ended up not getting home until like 8:45! (instead of 6!) I had to go by the Verizon kiosk at Regency bc my phone is not charging right and I don't know if its the charger or the phone. They said that my phone is under warranty and gave me a number to call. I called them tonight and they told me to go to a store that has a tech, and they can process the warranty claim there...guess where the closest one is? Yep Allll the way up in Brunswick!

So I drove up there today and was supposed to pick up Mitch's phone and take it too, but he had to go to the island so I just took mine. I was there for over two hours! It took forever, but I did get a new phone. Not a replacement one because apparently they don't make them anymore or something, but the one they gave me is pretty nice.

Tomorrow I have to go to my mom's and attempt to finish the wrapping and some sewing and cleaning...I doubt it will all happen! lol. We'll see! Can't believe Christmas Eve is the day after tomorrow!

8 Days til Christmas and SOOO much to do!

Well this week has been less than productive! lol. I am telling you, it doesn't matter what I do, I can't seem to get ahead of anything. I had worked to get stuff cleaned off the table and out of the living room, and then Mitch brought 2 boxes inside yesterday and spread stuff everywhere! lol. My house is past the point of being a disaster! The only rooms that get and stay clean are the kitchen and Brooke's room! Once those are done, I'm either out of time or out of energy! haha. I still have 4 or 5 presents to buy and more than that to wrap! I've got to get organized and there is some painting that needs to be done. And Christmas eve is a week from today! SO crazy!

Well, with so much to do, I better stop typing and get to doing something!

Packed Weekend...

Well its 9:30 Sunday night, and I'm exhausted! lol I don't think I've even slowed down since Thursday. Between wrapping presents, straightening up my mom's house, visiting with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin, laundry, church and shoe molding, I haven't slowed down at all.

My sweet girl loves the camera!


Thursday I spent the morning with Jeanna, my mother in law (for those who are unaware). We went out to a consignment shop at the beach to look at baby stuff! She picked out an adorable Christmas outfit for Brooke as well as a play-mat for her! I also got her a little piano (I'm going to give it to her as a birthday present!) so that we can see if she has any desire to be musical, without spending $30 or $40 on stuff! (It was only $12!). Then we went to Garden Ridge, just to find out that they no longer carry any craft supplies! None, seriously. I was SHOCKED! Shocked, I say! :) Then we went back to her house and fed Brooke and hung out for an hour or so with Dorothy (Mitch's Grandma).

This is Brooke in her new outfit from Nay Nay

(In her swing)


(In my baby rocking chair)


(With her Daddy next to her!)


(With Tama (left) and Toby (right))

I had picked up a present while at Garden Ridge and between it and the ones that I got from Gran to wrap from her, my car was packed! So I figured I might as well go ahead and take them to my mom's house so that they could be wrapped. I made a nice little mess in my mom's living room while getting about half of them wrapped, but Brooke was pretty fussy all afternoon so I didn't get as much done as I wanted.

Friday I went back over there to finish wrapping and to clean up the mess I made because my Aunt Doris and Uncle Bob were coming there to see us on Saturday! They arrived nice and early (around 9:30) Saturday morning from Gainesville. It was the first time they got to see Brooke and they thought she was wonderful (like I do!) We had a very nice time visiting with them and having lunch. After Mitch got done at the flea market, we went to dinner at Olive Garden, which was really nice! I hurried home and went into overdrive for a couple of hours, straightening up the bathroom, folding 5 loads of laundry, washing all the bottles/bottle accessories, and cleaning Brooke's room. Then I took a shower and Brooke went to bed around 11:30.

I, therefore, didn't get to bed until midnight, and then I woke up at 3. I got up and pumped and headed back to be 30 mins later. Unfortunately, Brookelynne woke up at 4:45 and was hungry, so I fed her and was up again at 6:30 to try and get out of the house to make it to church. Mitch was working at the flea market today so I was on my own for church. Didn't quite make it on time, but did at least get to Sunday School after dropping Brookelynne in the nursery for the first time! :( Church and Sunday School were good (except for this guy who sat in our group today who kept saying all these non-Biblical, degrading, sexist and stupid things! I seriously had to fight my flesh, because I wanted to throw something at him and/or tell him off! lol But I can say honestly, that I was not rude and held my tongue very well!

Had lunch with my parents and dropped food off for Mitch and then I stopped to see Ms Darlene because she had just gotten out of the hospital. I visited with her for about half an hour and then went to my mom's. I worked in my old bedroom, putting down shoe molding and painting, until Mitch got finished at the flea market. Then we had dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse before coming home. I am sooo tired but won't be going to sleep any time in the near future. Trying to decide if I should go finish that room tomorrow, so that Josh doesn't make a mockery out of the paint job! (He's seriously bad with a paint brush/roller!) lol

Also, we pulled out the play mat that Nay Nay bought Brookelynne the other day and here are a few of her playing on it!

Week in Review...

Well this week has gone by very quickly. Since we found out that Brooke had an ear infection we've been dealing with her slight fussiness and random schedule. One day she'd be up all day and sleep great, and the next day she'd sleep all day and be up until midnight! She'd been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks when she got her ear infection, so I was definitely not loving the regression. I also didn't love her not feeling well, because I don't know whats wrong with her. Is her ear not improving? Is it just a tummy ache? Did she get a cold? Have a headache? There's no way to know! :(

Yesterday we went back to the doctor's office because she had a fever on Sunday night and was cranky on Monday. They told me that her ear infection was all healed up so she much just have caught a little something else. They did her two month check up so that I wouldn't have to go back on Thursday! She weighed 12 lbs and half an ounce! She's 23 inches long which means she's grown an inch and a half since she was born! They gave her her shots, but wouldn't let me hold her while they did it, which made me mad! (Because I had been told by several of our friends that they had been allowed to hold their babies while they got their shots!)

I did fine, didn't cry or anything. She wasn't happy at all but quieted down when I was able to pick her up. :P (Mean nurse).

Today is my Grandma Gwen's birthday, so we're going over to have dinner with her at 6. Hopefully Brooke feels up to it! :)

Here are some pics of her the last week or so!

Looks like my baby's sick...

Well today we found out that our precious little Brookelynne has an ear infection! Last night she had a fever of 100.6, so I called the doctor's office and they had us come in today. We saw Dr Sanchez and he was really nice! He had to clean out Brooke's ear to see inside and turns out that she has a little ear infection in her left ear. So he prescribed her some amoxacillen (sp? I could go look at the bottle, but don't want to get up). :) The cool thing about that is that apparently Publix just gives it out! No copay and they didn't even bill my insurance! lol Which for the record is very cool. We'll start the doses tonight and then she's got to take it for 10 days, so we'll be done next Thursday, which ironically is when her 2 month appointment is! :)

Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Rivalry Saturday...

Well Thanksgiving only comes once a year and is packed full of food and family, as always!

We got up Thanksgiving morning and got all 3 of the girls dressed and out the door around 10. About an hour later than I wanted but, hey, we had 2 extra children! We got to my mom's and I helped her make dinner! We had quite a spread and it was all delicious! She's such a great cook. Josh and Amy had to have Thanksgiving at her grandparents house that morning, so we planned on eating at 1, and Josh and Amy arrived right before we sat down to eat! We had a really nice meal and just talked and laughed for about an hour. Then Mitch and I had to head over to his parent's house for their Thanksgiving!

We got there about 3 and dinner was ready right at 4. Jeanna had worked really hard and it showed! She had so much food and it was great! Especially the yeast rolls *wink wink* (She was very proud of those because she made them from scratch and they were really good! :) ) We got to stay and visit with everyone for a couple of hours and Poppy got to hold Brooke a lot. Then we headed home because Mitch's allergies were really bothering him. Jennifer brought her cat from Texas and Mitch is apparently very allergic because his eyes were red and watery and his nose was running really bad almost immediately! Next time we'll have to get some Benedryl in him before we encounter any cats! lol.

Black Friday, Mom and I decided to go out late, which was 9 am. I don't think I could have gotten out of bed a minute earlier than I did. This having an infant thing and going all over for holidays is exhausting! :) We hit a few stores and got the things we were looking for and then had lunch with Gran before heading to Mom's house. I got the tree out of the garage and got it standing. I also wrapped several presents. I'm not sure what all we have left to buy, but what we've bought is wrapped! :) Then I came home and waited for Mitch to get home. It was another late night! I just can't seem to get away from those!

Saturday Mitch went to the flea market early! It was so cold while he was packing the car that I was getting cold and I was inside! I got up and ready and went to my mom's to finish the wrapping. I was so tired and Brooke was really cranky all morning, so I didn't get over there until almost noon. So I didn't get much time with my mom before meeting Mitch to watch the game. It was a sad loss but expected with the rookies we've had and the problems our defense has faced all season. Still we are Seminoles thru and thru, so here is a picture of us all decked out in our FSU gear!






We had to wake Brooke up to take the picture, so she wasn't very happy! lol

Thanksgiving week

Monday before Thanksgiving Jennifer and the girls got into town, so we went over there to see them. Here are some of the pictures from Brooke's first meeting with her cousin's Alana and Jaqlyn.

Alana is the one holding Brooke, Jaqlyn had her cup in her face! :)


Brooke isn't looking in this one but Jaqlyn is actually looking!


Tuesday I can honestly say I have no earthly idea what Brooke and I did. I don't remember anything, so we'll move on to Wednesday!

Wednesday I picked up the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and stopped in to see my friend Amy because she hadn't seen Brooke yet! We got to talk for a few minutes and then I headed to my mom's. I spent the afternoon wrapping presents, cleaning and cooking so that the house would be ready for Thanksgiving day.

This is Brooke in her cradle! Isn't she cute!


Then I went over to the Regency mall to meet Mitch's family so that I could watch Alana and Jaqlyn take their pictures with Santa. Then we all had dinner at Longhorns. After dinner Alana wanted to come home with me, and after quite an exchange that included begging, crying, guilt tripping and some major attempts on my part to not laugh out loud, I headed home with 3 girls in 3 car seats in my back seat! When we got home, we gave all the girls a bath together, and now have the first official 'bath tub party' pictures of Brooke's young life! Here are a couple of them!



Alana and Brooke


Jaqlyn...with a washcloth on her head!


The girls didn't really want to go to bed, so it they played alot. My spare room may never be the same! lol

Long time, No post....

The last 10 days have gone by so quickly and rather uneventfully that I haven't posted! :( So I thought that I would do a quick recap of them so that I do hit the slightly eventful point and then I'll re-commit to posting more often! :)

Well last weekend was as short as they come! But that's not unusual, I had a baby shower in the morning (Saturday) and then Mom and I went down to the outlet mall to do some shopping (mainly I was looking for some new boots and a slip for Brooke's dedication gown). We met Dad, Bev, Tricia, Davis, Abbi, Freddy, and Austin for lunch, which was very good. Aunt Tricia got to hold Brooke for most of the lunch and Abbi took a turn holding her also. Dad took pictures on his phone, so I'm going to get Josh to put them on a computer so that I can post them! We found some really good deals at Carters and Aerosoles, but other than that, nothing. I did however see that they had a Nike Outlet, so we ended up coming back out there Sunday afternoon because Mitch wanted to look at some stuff.

The week was as blah as can be. :) Monday I went to my mom's to work on the flooring in the last room of the house! I cleared the room and then Dad and I went and got all the materials. Tuesday I went back to start on the flooring, but Dad didn't come to the house, so I really couldn't accomplish anything since I kept having to deal with Brooke. Tuesday night my throat started hurting, so Wednesday morning I went to the doctor's office. I had/have a sinus infection, so they gave me an antibiotic. This has made me frustrated this past week because I've had to throw away all of my breast milk for 7 days! The good news is that we now know that Brooke will eat the defrosted Breastmilk! (Our friend Christina's daughter Kalea is 7 months old and Christina's still having to pump even though she has freezers full of breastmilk, because Kalea can tell the difference and won't drink it!) Thursday I wasn't feeling good so I accomplished very little. Friday I put up our Christmas decorations because I usually do it the Sunday before Thanksgiving and knew I wouldn't be able to do it this past weekend or any other day before Dec. 1st. I quite honestly I feel like its a total waste to have Christmas decorations up for any less than 4 full weeks. :)

Saturday I rested while Mitch worked the flea market and then we had dinner with Mitch's family. :) We all met at the Chili's and ate and then headed to the mall to see Santa! lol Yes I know its early, but quite frankly, she's not going to remember it anyways and I didn't have to wait in line! Brooke did just fine with Santa, not scared or anything, but we had a very hard time getting her to look at the camera because she likes looking at lights and they had all of these Christmas lights dangling above Santa's chair. So all you could see of Brooke was her chin! We did get a good one though...


Brookelynne's first visit with Santa!

This is NayNay feeding Brooke in her pretty dress


Family Picture!



Here are some of the pics that needed to be put on here!

Brooke in her Halloween bib! Thanks Aunt Sasha and Uncle Justin!

Brooke's Tummy Trouble...

My baby girl is a wonderful baby. From not crying much at all to her going 4 or 5 hours between feedings she's a blessing. One of her other attractive qualities is that she rarely spits up, and when she does it is in very small amounts. That is why it really worried me this morning when she started spitting up over and over again.

She seemed to spit up a lot of her bottle last night, but I just assumed that the breast milk she had just had was from a day I had too much fried food or that it was too warm and/or cold for her, and dismissed it. But this morning I fed her 2 bottles that she completely threw back up, and I am talking everywhere. She was also screaming constantly... At first I was thinking that it was again the milk or temp, but when the second bottle had the same effects, I started to worry. I checked her temp and it was 99.4. I called the doctor's office and was waiting for a call back. 30 minutes went by and I checked it again to find that it had gone up to 99.7. The nurse called about that time and said that they were going to fit her in since it was Friday, they didn't want to risk waiting until Monday if it was something serious.

So I drove to the doctors office and waited for them to fit me in...which took like an hour and a half. :( [While waiting I did see Angela and Dustin who were just leaving after Dallas's 2 month appointment/shots...note that they said Dallas only weighed 10 lbs 2 oz] When they took me to a room, Brooke's temp had gone back down to 99.1, which was a good thing. They also weighed her and she weighed 10 lbs and 7 oz! That is soooo crazy! I can't believe my baby girl has grown 3 lbs in 5 short weeks!

Anyway, back to the story. The doctor came in and checked her over and said that she seemed to be fine, that it was probably just a little stomach virus that would run its course and be gone, but since it was Friday, they wanted to test for the other thing that it could be. It seems that in 3% of babies the muscle that wraps around the opening from the stomach to the small intestines spasms closed and doesn't re-open. This happens between 4 and 6 weeks old, so Brooke is the perfect age for it. She said they would send me right over to Wolfson's for an ultrasound and that they would give me the results before I left. She went to leave and I was like "Um, what happens if that is the problem?" She came back into the room and sat across from me and said "Well, they would keep her overnight and tomorrow they would do surgery to cut the muscle so that it releases."

She says this very seriously and also very slowly, as if I were going to drop Brooke from shock and she would have to catch her. lol. While this was disturbing news, I wasn't really worried, I guess because of all the experience I have with my mom's surgeries and procedures. My first thoughts were "Okay, well its done laproscopically, which is good, and Wolfson's is one of the best hospitals in the region, so that's good. The Lord can handle it if that's what this is, so we'll be okay."

I called Mitch and both our mom's to tell them what was going on. Mitch definitely did not take it in stride...lol. I told him what the procedure would be if she had this issue and he was like "Are you serious?!?!? Holy Crap!" (or something to that affect! haha)

Anyway, we got to Wolfson's and they saw me fairly quickly and the Ultrasound didn't take long at all. They called me back with the results to tell me that it was negative (meaning that she wouldn't need surgery). So that was great news, except that I still didn't know what was wrong!

We left the hospital around 5 and Brooke hadn't eaten since 11 because they wouldn't let me feed her before the Ultrasound. So as soon as I got home I fed her and she seemed to be doing better. Her temp was down in the 98s and she wasn't spitting up or crying nearly as much as the morning. So I guess she's already getting over whatever it was. :) But needless to say it was quite and eventful day...

Long Day, But She's Worth It...

Today was the longest day that I've had since I had Brooke, and by the time I got home tonight I was definitely feeling it! lol. Last night around 10 pm I found out that my Aunt Betty was in the hospital and was going to have a heart catherization (sp?) this morning, of course Mom and I were going to go. So I went to bed immediately but when I got up at 2 to feed Brooke, I couldn't go back to sleep so I just started getting ready to go. I left home at 5 am and got to my mom's by 5:30 or so. After transferring everything into her car, getting gas and food, we were on the road to Tallahassee.

I had fed Brooke at 4:45, so she was able to sleep until we got to the hospital around 9. We caught Aunt Betty right before she left for the procedure. They said that only one person could go with her, so Mom and I stayed in her room, while Uncle Alvin went with her. I tried to sleep while she was gone, but was wide awake. She got back to the room around 11 or so and Kelley and Rebecca arrived shortly after that. Kelley was hungry so me and Rebecca drove up to the McDonalds and bought us some lunch. Unfortunately, they didn't put our sauces in the bags so we were all a little disappointed! Laura had arrived when we got back to the hospital, and we all spent the next 4 hours laughing, talking and catching up, in general, while Aunt Betty's medications wore off.

They came in and said that the procedure went well and that they had found no blockages. This is great, except that we still don't know what's causing her problems! :( Uncle Alvin headed home when they told us that they would release her and left her with all of us girls. He had spent a good portion of the previous hour pacing the hallway, instead of listening to us! haha.

Mom and I left the hospital right before they discharged Aunt Betty and headed to their house, because Brooke wasn't going to make it all the way home before being fed again and I didn't want to wake her, feed her and wait for her to go back to sleep before leaving the hospital. When we got to the house, Uncle Alvin was finishing up dinner! He had done an excellent job too! (I especially LOVED the fried okra, it was SOOO good! haha)

We all ate when everyone got there, and Aunt Betty got to hold and feed Brooke, which she hadn't had a chance to do yet, so that was good. Mom and I got on the road around 7:30 and I was hoping to sleep on the drive home but couldn't fall asleep. Thankfully Mitch had gone ahead and gone to bed when he got home from work, because by the time I got home at 9:15, all I had the energy to do was pump and hit the sack! :)

Pretty Pretty Pictures....

This is "Brooke-e" (as Rachel and Jeff call her) laying on her quilt that our sweet friend Rachel made for her! We got it in the mail this past week and it is just beautiful and matches perfectly! She wasn't in the mood to take pictures at this time but I managed to get at least one that wasn't horrible! lol Rachel, thank you soooo much! Its beautiful!


Yesterday Brooke had her first official photos taken! lol. Her own little photo shoot! I had a girl I know from church come up and take them and she did a great job. :) Brooke did a great job too! lol She was very happy while Sarah and Paul were here, right until the end when she decided she was getting tired of having her clothes changed and being moved around! I should have the pics in the next week or so and I can't wait!!!

This is her in her dedication gown getting ready for Sarah to start!


And since Brooke is officially 3 weeks old it means that its time for some more pics of us around the house....


This is Brooke with her sunglasses on!


Sweet girl wrapped up in her towel after her bath!


My girl got caught sucking her thumb!


And just to be honest, her daddy made sure to take a picture of her when she's good and mad. This was it!

Busy Week....

This has been a very busy week, full of appointments, errands and events! lol

Monday I had a very sweet friend (Mrs Marie Wilson!) who came over and cleaned my whole house! She worked her little behind off (which is actually very literal since she's as skinny as a rail!) I am so grateful for her because I definitely would have never accomplished that alone! She is such a blessing to us!

Tuesday we had several errands to run, so we started out of the house around 1. We hit up Sams Club to get just 3 things, but alas we left with many more things! I usually do that, but this time it was all Mitch who caused it! I got my three things and was like "Okay, we can go" but Mitch started walking down each isle saying "Don't we need this?" and "We should get this". I just rolled my eyes....

We then were headed to my mom's, because Mitch needed to use Ms Carmen's fax machine. On our way we stopped at the Walgreens to get our flu shots. That was a pretty painless experience which makes me happy! :) We got back on the road, but soon stopped as we saw a clearance sale at some Bargain Warehouse place. Ended up with more stuff to sell at the flea market, so I guess thats good. By the time we made it to my mom's, she had dinner pretty much ready for us! :) We ate dinner and headed home, nice and tired! haha

Wednesday we had much overdue dentist appointments. Neither Mitch nor I have been to the dentist in over 5 years. We got our teeth xrayed and cleaned and it turns out that we each have one cavity! (Which is good since Mitch has had his since he was at the dentist last time and just never got it taken care of, and since I have horrible teeth and really expected to have more!) Mitch took me to my mom's so that I could get some things done while he ran a few more errands. Josh came over because his car was being worked on up on Normandy. He held Brooke for a few minutes but soon went outside because he didn't like how red she got when she cried! haha. Mom came home after work and took Josh back to the car shop and took me and Brooke back to church for dinner and the Wednesday night service. Church was good, and Brooke slept right through it but that made for a long day and a very tired set of parents!

This morning I got up extra early to go back to the dentist. I had to get my cavity filled... :) lol Most people hate the dentist, and especially hate getting drilled on, etc, but I have had so many dental procedures done that a little filling is nothing! lol When I got home, Mitch took my car to get the radiator flushed and the oil changed. Tonight we're supposed to do a little shopping...hope we have the energy!

2 Week Doctors Appointment

Friday we had Brooke's 2 week appointment at Carithers. We saw Dr Kim Del Porto, who I know from doing Apples of Gold at church, which is nice. We arrived early, but they went ahead and put us in a room. The nurse came in and weighed and measured her, and Brooke rewarded the nurse's effort by pooping on the scale. lol. She weighed 8 lbs and 5 oz and has grown a full inch, making her 21.5 inches long! Her head's circumference was 34 cm.

We got to put her diaper back on but had to leave her without clothes until Kim came in, so Daddy kept her wrapped up tight in her blanket so she wouldn't get cold!



He also entertained her by giving her Eskimo kisses!



When Kim came in she checked Brooke's eyes, ears, coloring and lungs and said that everything looked great! :) Yay! She also checked Brooke's hips and said that she could still feel a it popping a little bit, so we're going to have to get an ultrasound done on her hips. That's going to be done next Monday at 1:30, and it will take a few days to get the results, but we should know if she needs treatment for hip displacement by the end of next week. If she does, they'll just give us a brace to put on over her diapers and she'll wear that for about a month and it would be fixed!

Other than that everything's great! We will have to go back at 2 months and she'll get her first round of shots! I'm going to make sure to make that appointment well in advance so that Brooke's Daddy can get off early and hold her during those shots! (While Mommy and Brooke cry) lol.

Two weeks already...

So today my baby girl is two weeks old. It seems like just yesterday that we came home from the hospital, but so much has happened since then! She has worn several of her adorable little outfits, she's had her first doctor's appointment and her first visit to church, her first visit to Grandma's house and her first time away from mommy and daddy. She's bigger, louder, awake more, and developing her own little personality right before our eyes. She getting used to the dogs and they're getting used to her. All in all, its flown by and I have to stop myself to make myself remember the things that we've done!

Since my last post, which was last Tuesday, we've accomplished a lot. :) We had lunch and ran errands last Thursday, which ended up being quite a day! We met Papa (my dad) for lunch at the Bono's on Dunn Ave, because he was leaving to go hunting and wanted to see Brooke. We then went over to Sam's, because Papa wanted to get a box of diapers for Brooke (we're using disposable diapers until we get Brooke's hip checked one more time because they think there might be a problem with it being loose, so we don't want to separate her legs any more than necessary and the cloth diapers are a little too wide for her narrow hips.) But when we got to Sam's, Papa headed over to the clothes instead and helped pick out 2 warm outfits since it was getting so cold all of a sudden.

We left Dad when we left Sam's and headed to University to accomplish our next goal, which was collecting a copy of Brooke's birth certificate. I sat in the vital statistics office for 25 minutes while Daddy fed Brooke in the car. After dealing with rather slow people, we got her birth certificates and headed to Target. This was the second Target that we went to that was sold out of the breast pump accessories kit that we were looking for. This made me very frustrated. lol

When we left there we headed across town to Grandma's house (my mom). We got there shortly before my mom got home from work, and told Mrs Carmen to come over to see her. She did of course, and held her for about 15 minutes before Grandma came in. Then Mitch and I visited with the two of them for half an hour or so before heading home. We picked up a crib for us to use in our bedroom, which has yet to be used but that's another story.

Friday Daddy had to go to Brunswick for a few hours to do his annual community service project. That meant it was the first time that I was left home with Brooke and the dogs by myself. I did very well, considering I still couldn't stand up straight, lol. It scared me a little, because Mitch had been handling the dogs all week, and I didn't know if I'd be able to handle them if they got excited. Thankfully they didn't and all was fine!

Friday night Tiffany and Jason brought us dinner and we all sat down and ate together. Then Mitch and I went to see a movie. He said that we needed to make sure that we continued doing some things just the two of us and that we should take advantage of it being a Friday night. So my mom met us at the theater and took Brooke to her house while Mitch and I saw "Law Abiding Citizen". And I can honestly say that I now understand the compelling need to check in on your child even though you know they're in capable hands! lol I kept the phone in my lap the whole time wondering if Mom had managed to get the car seat out okay and if she remembered to feed her. Even though it was barely two hours between the time my mom pulled away and the time I got to my mom's to pick her up. lol I know I'm a dork.

Saturday I spent the day at my mom's house like I do most every Saturday and we just took it easy and watched some football while holding Brooke and chit chatting. And then Saturday night, Mitch and I just stayed home and tried to get some rest.

Sunday Morning Brooke made her first appearance at Sunday School. Making a point of visiting Grandma's class first so that she would miss the crowds on our floor. She looked so cute in her little white dress with lavender accessories! After Sunday School we walked over to the auditorium so that Mr Don, Ms Diane and Allison could see her and then we came home. I was exhausted! lol I slept as soon as we got home, because Mitch had to go to bed by four so that he could get up for work by midnight. This week he's been doing Melissa's PDS job while she's on vacation, so its been interesting hours.

I'll post about this week later, Brooke is waking up and needing Mommy!

Brooke's First Doctors Appointment

Today we had Brooke's first doctors appointment. We spent the morning lazily around the house and then got ready to go! She had to be there at 1:15, but alas we didn't make it on time. lol So it begins (the lateness I mean). I filled out all the paperwork while Mitch just held and talked to Brooke. He really is just enamored with her! I really liked the doctor's office, it was clean and organized and they really seem to have their act together. We are using the Carither's Group, which has 8 or 9 doctors. At the hospital Brooke and I saw Dr Connolly, Dr Baker and Dr Dal Porto. (one each morning). Today's appointment was with Dr Sapolsky. She was very nice and really helpful. Brooke weighed 7lbs 10oz, so they were very happy with that, since she's only 5 days old and already above her birth weight. They checked her hips for me, because Dr Dal Porto had said she had felt some clicking in one of them at the hospital. They don't think its anything serious, and that she'll just 'grow into the joint' in the next week or so, but if it still clicks next week then they'll do an ultrasound to look at it.

We headed home then, but stopped at Target to get my prescription. Since my work is right in front of the Target, I told Mitch to drive through the parking lot because I was going to take her inside to meet my boss if he was working. So we did and Anthony's car was there, so we went inside. Everyone was ooing and awwing over her. Anthony said he'd buy us lunch and I was like "oh, we're not hungry" and Mitch gave me a "look". So I asked him if he was hungry and he said yes, so we ate! lol She slept the whole time we were in the restaurant, and it was easy to keep random ppl away from her because it was 3:30, which is the slowest time of the day so the place was almost deserted. Mitch got the salmon and said it was the best he'd ever had, which is good. When we got home it had been just over 5 hours since we left and Brooke was ready to eat again. She's really good though because she rarely needs to eat more often than that. Now that she's on breastmilk completely (and not a mix of breastmilk and formula) they say she'll need to eat more often, but she sleeps so well that I hate to wake her. If she's eating more often I'll probably just give her a little extra in each bottle, but I haven't decided yet.

Mom came over after work today to see Brooke. I got some laundry done while she was holding and taking care of her, but not as much as I'd like to have accomplished because I'm still in a lot of pain. Christina Wombles brought us food tonight and of course had Kalea with her (her 6 month old daughter). Kalea went to Mitch for a little while so that Christina could hold Brooke. We couldn't believe how big Kalea looked compared to Brooke. We've seen her every week for 5 months, but hadn't noticed how much bigger she had gotten! It was a nice evening. Hopefully Brooke will be a good sleeper tonight too...

First Days at Home...

Daddy ushering Brooke in to the house for the very first time...


We arrived home around 1:30 on Sunday afternoon and started trying to adjust! From unpacking all the bags to introducing her to the dogs, there was plenty to do. My mom and dad got here around 2 or 2:15 with a roast and the fixins to go with it so that we'd have plenty of food! Mom finished the last touches while Dad ran to the store to get me some motrin. Then we ate lunch, which was delicious!


Dad holding Brooke on the couch.

Josh and Amy got here a little bit later and we spent the afternoon passing Brooke back and forth while Mitch held the dogs and I tried to keep up with all the pumping. lol (for those of you who don't know, I'm not actually breastfeeding, but am pumping so that she gets the benefits even though I'm not comfortable with the whole her-latching-on-to-my-breast-thing). Josh kept taking her from Amy. lol, but it was really cute because one of them would stand up each time they passed her back and forth because they didn't know how to pass her while sitting next to eachother without feeling like they were going to break her. :) It was very sweet to watch. Amy then left me some of the clothes that she was getting rid of so that I could go through them...needless to say, that hasn't gotten done. :)


Amy and Josh holding Brooke

When they all left, we started settling in to being a family of 5. (Mitch, Me, Brooke, Toby and Tama) :) And believe me, as long as we're all in this house we're all part of the family, lol, and Toby and Tama won't let me forget it! Speaking of them, they did great with Brooke, Tama is still a little to clumsy (in general) to be too close to Brooke when we're not holding her, but Tama usually doesn't bother her.

Sunday night was interesting, because it was the first time that she really cried. Mitch had gone to bed because he was supposed to do something the next day, and I had fed her which usually puts her to sleep, and planned on going to lay down. She started screaming and wouldn't stop. I got up and sat down, I bounced her and swung her, I changed her and gave her more food, I sang to her and talked and nothing worked. Worst of all, my back was hurting so bad from walking around with her that I started crying out of just pain. Then I was crying because I was like "its only the first night and I'm in so much pain I can't take care of her, what if this doesn't go away before Mitch goes back to work next week?" After an hour or so, I was going to get Mitch up, when she just stopped. Just stopped, like nothing had been wrong to begin with. I cried even more. lol. Mitch came out and told me to go to bed. (I had been up since 5 that morning and it was 1 am.) He came out here to the couch and they both fell asleep snuggled up together.

Monday we planned on staying home all day but when I started getting dressed (something I'm going to attempt to do every day regardless of if I have somewhere to got) I noticed that my incision had leaked more than I was told it would, so we called the doctors office and they said they wanted to see me. So we started preparing for our first trip out of the house. :) I packed the diaper bag, we all got dressed, and made it out the door with barely enough time to get there for my appointment! :) Mike told me not to worry about the incision that it looked good, but gave me some antibiotics just to be safe. He also explained that the excruciating pain that shoots through my hip sometimes is caused by my inner stitches being wrapped around a nerve, and that until the stitches start to dissolve, I'm stuck with it. (this happens in 10 to 20 percent of c sections.)
Sandy Newman brought us dinner that evening and it was wonderful! She sat and visited with us for a while and enjoyed getting to hold Brooke!

That night went well, with Brooke staying awake from 5 to 9 pm, and then going right to sleep after taking her bottle around 9:30. We agreed that she needed to start sleeping in her crib so that the dogs would be used to hearing the baby monitor go off in the room and seeing me leave the room without getting excited or waking up Mitch. So we went to put her in her crib and then Mitch went into the living room to get his extra pillows from the night before. He asked me where a blanket was and I said "why?". He gave me one of his 'guilty but you love me smiles' and said "well I'm just going to sleep in Brooke's room tonight, just to be safe" I laughed so hard, because he was so sincere! And he did, he slept on the floor until I got up and came to wake her for her bottle. Then he went back to our bed. I spent the rest of the night holding her in the living room once she ate.