Saturday, September 25, 2010

Tooth #5 has made its appearance!

Well my little Brookelynne has been slobbering everywhere and chewing her hands constantly for the past 2 weeks, with no teeth in sight, but last night after a full day of a hard core runny nose, I was able to feel it! :) It is a top tooth, to the left side of the two she already has. You can just barely see it, but I could absolutely feel it! While I am very happy that it is here, I'm really hoping that the 'matching' one on the other side will come through today. All of her other teeth came in in twos, the bottom two a day apart and the top two, 2 days apart. Either way she'll be adorable for her birthday pictures Friday and for her party in 2 weeks! :)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Its A ....

Boy! :)

We went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and found out that our little bundle of joy is all boy! Once again we had both grandmas in there with Mama, Daddy and Brookelynne to find out the sex! When we first went in there and she started doing the sonogram he wasn't really moving much and his legs were facing my spine (which makes it difficult to see between them). I was kinda frustrated because he wasn't moving even though I had just chugged a large coke (with plenty of caffeine)! But while checking all of his measurements, head, feet, legs, etc, she said "Oh wait, look at that! Do you know what that means?" And we were all like "Yay, it's a boy!" About that time my brother called my mom to ask her a question and I told him that it looked like we were having a boy, and Mitchell insisted that I tell Josh that the nurse wasn't even looking for the sex at the time, but just happened upon it and it was "OBVIOUSLY a boy"! lol Silly boys! It was really cute though!

When we were all done, my mom and Jeanna both headed back to work, but Mitch, Brookelynne and I went to get some lunch. It was very nice to spend some time talking about our big boy! Then Brooke and I went shopping! We hit up some fabric stores trying to find some ideas for his room (with no such luck) and then we went to church. It was quite a long day but we are so excited to be having a little boy and cannot wait to start planning his nursery and buying him clothes! We have discussed and discussed and discussed names until we were blue in the face, and while we still don't have a middle name, it looks like our new addition will be going by Braxton! :)

Won't that be so cute? Brookelynne and Braxton!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Brookelynne's Trip to the Beach

Today my dad came by to see us! He was headed back from the hunting camp and stopped to see us. He was able to help me out some by playing with Brooke while I got some cleaning done, and then he took us all out to lunch. :) He suggested that we have lunch in Fernandina and then go by the beach, so that's what we did! We went to Zaxby's for lunch (which I thought was really good) and Brooke-e ate a grilled cheese sandwich, and actually finished the whole thing! Then we drove down to the beach for a few minutes, just to let Brooke see it. It was so cute!

 She really liked the way that the wet sand felt but didn't want to walk on it without holding on! The first time that the water got her feet she laughed and LOVED it! That was when Mama and Brookelynne kept getting closer and closer... until we got REALLY wet! (Don't worry, I picked Brooke up!)


She really did like it but after the water got higher on Mama than Brookelynne liked, she didn't want to be down anymore. So Daddy walked in the water while holding her and she would laugh when it would get up to his knees. It was really sweet. 
And of course we had to get at least one family photo. I know my booger isn't really smiling but I think my huge grin makes up for it! I was trying so hard to make her laugh for the picture that I looked a little silly myself!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A little Vaca!

Well for those of you who know my husband well, you know that his idea of a 'vacation' is having 7 to 10 days off of work with absolutely nothing planned for any of them. And I mean NOTHING! This drives me crazy, but knowing how hard he works, I try to work with him as much as possible, and therefore, we have not gone anywhere since our honeymoon. And yes, that has been 3 1/2 years. Well I had officially had enough and had been promising my cousin Kelley that we would come visit her and see her home for over 2 years and *TADA* we finally did it! :)

We headed out Thursday night around midnight and drove the first leg of the trip during the night so that Brookelynne would sleep through it, and arrived in Columbus, Ga around 5 am. We went through Columbus because I have another cousin who lives there that we don't get to see often, and wanted to spend a few hours with them. So Nickie got up and let us in when we got there and we just enjoyed a few hours of catching up while the kids and Philip woke up and got ready for the day. After Parker went to school, Philip made breakfast for everyone (which was delicious) and then Mitch (our over night driver) took a nap (along with Emma). Then Mom, Nickie, Brookelynne and I headed out to see some of Columbus and visit some of the stores that we had heard so much about! There was a consignment store that we stopped at where Grandma (my mom) bought some bows for Brookelynne as well as a umbrella stroller (for only $8), a Christmas dress and a play outfit. She also bought a couple of bows for Emma too! We visited some other stores and had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. Then we picked up Parker from school and headed back to the house.

Philip made us some sandwiches for the road (which were delicious) and we headed out around 4, just in time for Brookelynne to collapse into her only nap of the day! (just as we planned!). We drove for 5 hours (that only counted as 4 because of the time difference) and arrived around 8. It was a long drive, with more stops that we would have liked, but once we gave Brookelynne a 30 minute break and dinner, she was out again and the rest of the drive went by without incident! Aunt Betty and Uncle Alvin met us at the house (Everyone else was at the football game), where we unloaded the car and got ready for bed. Kelley, Glen, Becca and Lane got home around 9:30 and we stayed up for a little while talking with them, but we were worn out and in bed by 10:30 (11:30 our time!). Unfortunately Brookelynne didn't get the memo that we were in a different time zone or that she needed to sleep all night regardless of how many naps she had, because she woke up at 3. :( But we got her back to sleep pretty easily and made it until 5:45 before she woke for the day.

Saturday was a lot of fun, if for no other reason than that we spent it with everyone. We drove over to Aunt Betty and Uncle Alvin's property to see it, and it was very pretty. They bought 80 acres a few years ago and are working to get it cleared and such so that they can build a house and raise cattle on it. Uncle Alvin of course wanted to show us all of the property (a feat that requires a vehicle since unlike FL there are hills and hills and MORE hills!), so we loaded up in Kelley's chevy and my Mom rode with him in the little toyota truck. It was so sweet how much he enjoyed telling my mom about it. I love that they love each other so much and treat each other like siblings instead of cousins! Then we left Uncle Alvin and Lane to work while Aunt Betty, Kelley, Becca, Mom, Brookelynne, Mitch and I went to see the Amish and headed back to the house. The Amish community was very interesting with some of the homes and fields they had. We bought some peanut brittle and pickled okra from them (both of which were very good) and went to some of the homes that make furniture (all of which was very well made and some of which was very inventive, including a 'half picnic table' which literally looks like a picnic table cut in half, but you can also pull back the 'table top' and it makes a back for the bench- very cool!) Then we picked up McDonalds and headed back.

The ladies all headed to Walmart to pick up groceries and the Glen and Mitch headed over to Uncle Alvin's and spent some time over there while we settled back in at the house. We cooked dinner and the guys came home after which we watched a movie, picked out by Becca. She had seen it at a youth group thing and INSISTED that we see it. :) It was a very good movie, called "To Save A Life", that dealt with the way a young man handled the suicide of his childhood friend. Needless to say, this made for a late night! :) And Brookelynne, of course, was still unsure about this time change thing, and decided to wake up at 4. :(

Kelley made us pancakes for breakfast Sunday morning (a job that was supposed to belong to Rebecca, but she decided to sleep in!). We were going to go to church but then Kelley remembered that it was not at 11 like usual, so we wouldn't have made it. (They have 2 services at their church each week, but every 5th week they combine services so that they can keep the solidarity of the church. Since it was the 5th Sunday, they had a 10 am service instead of a 9 am and 11 am) Aunt Betty and Uncle Alvin stopped by to say goodbye again before they got on the road to head home. Then we proceeded to spend most of the day relaxing. We went to Walmart to get something for Lane and Aunt Frances decided to get Becca a shirt and buy the pellets for Lane, which made both of them pretty happy! lol. Shortly after getting back from Walmart, Becca started talking about getting her hair done and what she wanted to do to it. Well Kelley was not very confident about dyeing it at home because they've had orange and green issues in the past and she also was worried about getting the bottom too dark or the top too light. So we talked about it and Becca decided that she trusted me and her momma enough to dye her hair. We went back to Walmart (in the rain for the second time) and picked up dye in addition to several other things we had forgotten earlier!

When we got home we all loaded up in the trucks (guys in one and girls in the other) and went down to Davy Crockett Park, which is just down the road. We drove around behind the boys, and Glen and Lane were spotting deer and turkeys and pointing them out to us. They were able to do this because Glen had pulled out the walkie talkies and given one to Lane and one to Rebecca. This is notable because of how much Lane enjoyed bugging Becca on it, and how little patience Kelley had for this! haha (There is a good chance that those things will be 'lost' for a while! haha). Anyway, we saw several packs of deer and turkeys and then went through the visitors center. Inside the visitors center they had the stories of Davy Crockett with life size replicas of his home and some of the animals he was known for killing. One of those animals was a deer (big surprise), and I said "Brookelynne, do you see the deer?" and she said "Deer?" and then proceeded to repeat herself like 100 times! :) The 'r' wasn't very strong, but you could definitely tell that that was what she was trying to say! :) Then we went around to the creek and the boys pulled out their reels and started fishing, and we walked around and looked at the little waterfall and got our feet wet. Brooke LOVED seeing the water and really wanted to get in it, but when I let her feet touch the water (which was very cold to the touch) she didn't want to be in it anymore! lol. She wanted us to get in, and to hold her while we walked in, but she didn't want to actually touch it herself! haha.

When we got back home it was time to dye Becca's hair. She wanted the bottom half to be dark and the top to be blonde, but darker than it currently was. So, I went to work! lol Kelley helped a lot and Mom did a great job of distracting Brookelynne for me! haha It turned out very well and Becca loved it, so that made me happy. We had dinner and hung out for a few more hours before saying our goodbyes and getting to bed. I packed the car with as much as possible and set out everything so that we could get up and head out at 4.

When we got up and packed everything else, we started to leave and the car wouldn't start. And no, I'm not kidding! lol. We woke Glen and he came out and jumped us, and we were off. I drove the first stretch and we made it through Birmingham before rush hour. Brookelynne slept until about 8 and with another bottle was back out until almost 11. But she was in such a good mood that we were able to get all the way to Auburn before stopping for lunch (around 1). We ate at Cracker Barrel and then headed toward Tifton and down US 1. About an hour from home Brookelynne started screaming and freaking out. She was really upset to a point where I couldn't just let her sit there, so I pulled her out of her car seat and within a minute or so she was asleep in my arms, but Mitch refused to drive at all while she was out of her car seat, so I tried putting her back in it. She was freaking out all over again, so he got into the back with her to entertain her and I started driving. She would be happy and then scream, so we stopped again and changed her diaper. When Mitch opened up her diaper, her little butt was bleeding. :(. Poor baby girl! So we cleaned her up as best we could and put a really soft pair of pjs in her seat and let her ride the rest of the way without a diaper. Once we were home she went commando for a couple hours and then into the cloth diapers she went! (She loved the commando though, it was SOOO funny, because when she did go to the bathroom, she would look down between her legs like "What in the world is that?!?!?" lol)

Anyway, while it was a quick trip, we really did enjoy ourselves and loved our time in the mountains! :)

And don't worry about Brooke, we have it under control and her little bottom is almost back to 100%!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Brookelynne's Surgery



Today Brooke had her surgery and it went very well (just so you can all get rid of the suspense!)

She had tubes put into her ears and a bronchial cyst tract removed from her neck. Her surgery was scheduled for 10:15, so we had to be at the hospital at 8:15 for check in. While she cried the whole way to the hospital, she snapped out of it, just as we got off the bridge. Once inside, she immediately had every nurse in the area coming to see how cute she was walking in with her bunny. :) She did great through all of check in, from changing into the gowns, getting weighed and measured and even getting some blood out of her foot, not one cry. She hadn't had any food since 6:30 last night and had had juice at 6 am, but obviously was hungry. This morning before we left, she got a hold of 1 cheese it, and I'm pretty sure I had gotten all of it, but to be safe, they postponed Brooke's surgery until 2:45. Which really upset me and freaked me out because my poor little baby must be STARVING!!! Seriously, you should see what this girl usually eats! So anyway, they didn't tell us this until 10:30, and they gave her juice to 'hold her over', so thankfully she was able to take a short nap. She was acting wonderfully considering no food, and was entertaining everyone there. Speaking of which, Nay Nay, Grandma, Daddy and Mama were all there to help entertain her and keep her distracted, a job which we all tag-teamed as much as possible. Mitch and his Mom took a lunch first and then came back and my Mom and I went to get something to eat. We stopped at the gift shop on our way back and Grandma bought Brookelynne some pig slippers to match her hospital gown! :)

Which was HILARIOUS because we put them on her and she would take a step or two and then fall down to play with the pigs, and then stand up and walk again! haha It was so cute though. Anyway, they came and gave her some nausea medication around 2:00, and brought me, Mitch and Brooke into the back around 2:45. Then we met with the anesthesiologist and the surgery nurse. When Dr Maddern finished with the procedure he was doing, he came and talked with us too. I was rocking in a rocking chair with Brooke when he left and told us they would be taking her shortly. I prayed with her and told her how much I loved her. And although I did tear up, I did not cry, just for all of you who were wondering! :) We walked her to the surgery ward a few minutes later and handed over our most precious thing to the nurse, and quickly walked back to the waiting room.

About 45 minutes later, Dr Maddern came in and told us that the surgery went well. She had 2 more stitches than he had planned, but he got it all and it wasn't deep at all. So we had to then wait until she began to rouse from anethesia and was able to swallow, and then a nurse came and got us and took us back to a recovery room, where they promptly brought her into us. She looked SOOOO pitiful! :) She couldn't really talk because her throat was still so sore from them just pulling out the breathing tube, and she was going "ub ub ub ub ub ub." I tried to take her, but she wanted her daddy (big surprise), so he took her from the nurse and sat in the rocking chair while I gave her kisses and held the bottle they had for her. A couple minutes later Daddy got up and asked me to take her because she was fussing, and twisting and he was worried that he would mess up or pull out her iv. So I got her all untangled and held her really tight and she fell asleep again. Mitch took this opportunity to let the other family members come back and see her, and then when he came back in the room he kissed her goodbye and headed home (since he had been up since midnight and had to be up at midnight again, and at this point it was already 5:15). My mom then came back there with me and helped me get her dressed and when she woke up this time she was practically her regular self (except for some equilibrium issues that were resolved in half an hour or so). When we walked out of the recovery room, Paw Paw took her (although he was worried that he was going to break her) and she was more than happy to let him carry her out. We stopped at the pharmacy downstairs so that I wouldn't have to stop on the way home, and waited for her ear drops. And Grandma got to feed her some applesauce (WHICH SHE LOVED) and then we got in the car, she was out again. I will say that this was a crazy day but I'm so glad that she seems to be doing great. Her neck looks a lot worse than I expected, but they say it will heal with out a scar, so I'm okay.

This was her after we got home and had some more dinner and a bottle. As you can see she's perfectly happy, and that's what her neck looks like. Hopefully it won't look that way long! :) Thank you all for your prayers through out this process. We know we serve a mighty God and He always knew she's be fine! :)

Monday, August 9, 2010

Brookelynne turned 10 months old!!! :)


It is hard to believe that my sweet baby girl is 10 months old already, but alas this is the truth! She is an amazing little girl whom I love with all of my heart and she grows so much each day. How about we do some 'stats' and accomplishments?

* She weighs 18 lbs 5 oz a couple days before when we did her physical.
* She is 28 inches tall.
* She has begun walking while holding onto someone's hand. (This was difficult for her, because she learned to walk without holding hands, so when you would grab a hand, she was unable to balance and would fall down) But now, not only is she a champ at it, but she gets SOOOO excited when you grab her hand, its like its a party! :)
* Speaking of things that excite her, going outside is one of her favorites! If you walk to the laundry room and open the door to the garage, she practically hyperventilates! She starts swinging her arms up and down and bouncing around! Its so cute!
* She has learned that she can 'ask to go outside'. Paw Paw (my dad, who fully believes that being outside can solve anything) stopped by on his way to the hunting camp a few days ago, and he took her outside a few times to 'walk around and look at the birds'. About 10 minutes after they came back inside, she walked over to him, grabbed his hand, walked over to the door, and proceeded to point while going "uh uh uh". You should have seen Paw Paw's face! He was SOOO thrilled that she wanted him to take her outside...of course they went immediately! :)

* She can tell you where her head is and where her toes are!!! :) We are really excited about this because we didn't think she'd do this until after a year! But she's super good at it! And she is so proud of herself when she gets it right!
* She is eating table food almost all the time. She still has applesauce for breakfast most days but other than that it is all 'grown up food'. She's doing really well with it too! :) She LOVES it when she gets food off of Mama's plate!
* She is wearing mostly 12 month clothes. She still has short legs, so the pants run long on her, but the dresses and shorts are perfect. All of her 9 month stuff is just too short. I will be going through her closet/clothes/drawers soon to re organize once again. I can't believe how quickly she grows!! :) She's just getting SOOOO BIG!
* She can say "Mama", "Dada", "Bye Bye", and "BaBa" (Although I'm pretty sure that the only one she understands the meaning of is bye bye.) She does crack us up because she makes the funniest faces when she talks, being overly dramatic with the way she moves her lips! I guess the funny faces Daddy makes don't help!
* She is drinking 3 breastmilk bottles a day with 2 or 3 bottles of juice. (every few days we have to supplement with formula, but she doesn't seem to notice)

All in all, my baby girl is doing great and becoming less and less like a baby! :)I know that she has to grow up, and while I hate that fact, I'm really enjoying this stage of her development! She's just so precious and sweet and we are blessed beyond measure to have her as ours!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

MOVEMENT!

Well Friday we had a doctor's appt with Paula and Brookelynne came with me. The nurses couldn't believe how big she was getting or that she was so cute and such a great little walker! We played in the exam room until Paula got there and when she came in, Brooke got up on the table with me so we could listen to the heartbeat. She was sitting on my thigh and watching intently as Paula found my uterus, put on the gel and turned on the doppler. Then she put it on my belly and it went from making a static sound to the heartbeat sound and Brookelynne FREAKED OUT! :) I picked her up and sat her on my shoulder where she continued to scream until she noticed my bellybutton. At that point she was totally fine and loving that little indention in my belly! haha. She's so silly!

Today we had a great day and enjoyed church and lunch. When we got home Brookelynne took a good nap and Mommy even got a short one in! We went back to church this afternoon and worked in the nursery, and while Brooke wasn't eating well, she did great otherwise. And when we got home, Daddy came out and greeted us! He had woken up and so he got Brooke out of the car and we all came inside for a few minutes of family time. Right before Daddy went to bed, while in the midst of pumping, the baby pushed all the way out! :) It was nothing like the first time I felt Brooke move (which was her kicking my pelvic bone) but a really cool sensation as this little one stretched out! :) Daddy came over and kept his hand on my belly for several minutes, but he or she didn't want to do it again so soon. Hopefully he'll be around for the next time and will get to feel it first hand! :)