Brookelynne's 1 Year Photoshoot!

We had Brookelynne's 1 year photos taken on Friday and OF COURSE, we used "Our Photographer" (as we like to call her), Sarah Orgunov! She always does such a great job and is so wonderful to work with! She met us at the park across from Riverside Presbyterian, and five points on Park St. And we spent 30 minutes walking around the park and taking some sweet pictures of our sweet little girl! These are just a few of them, but they are some of my favorites! Hope you enjoy them!

A "Mother Daughter" photo op! :)

In her pretty red outfit that Grandma Gwen bought her! We forgot her planned bow, and had to improvise with the belt off of her other outfit!

I think the bow turned out pretty stinking cute! 

(BTW, In this picture, she looks exactly like I did in my 1 year picture!)

This is her "official" 1 year photo. That's my happy girl!

 And of course we had to get a family photo too! :)

I love our little family!

Mommy Meltdown....

Well I'm going to just come clean here, to anyone who cares to listen- I've been having a hard couple weeks. lol The title didn't give you a hint now did it? :) Don't get me wrong, my world is not falling apart, we haven't gotten any bad news, nothing big has even happened. But between my hormones, my schedule, my sweet daughter (who has been grumpy/not feeling the best), my husband's inconsistent schedule, and the length of my 'to do list', I'm definitely not feeling at my best.

And if you didn't notice in that last sentence, the number of 'my's in it should tell you everything you need to know. I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and I can't even come close to being adequate. I know that I am not the only one to ever feel this way, nor will I be the last, and I'm also more than aware that I probably would feel 5x better than I do if it weren't for the fact that my pregnant/hormonal-self magnifies every little emotion by 100! But either way, this is where I've been and today, it just all broke down! :)

Brookelynne (as I mentioned) has been feeling a little bad lately. I'm 99.9% sure that she's not sick, and that she's just cutting a tooth and/or has allergies, but either way, she's had a runny nose for days now and therefore couldn't go to the nursery and had to stay with me in Sunday School/church. (Mitch couldn't come to church because of that crazy schedule stuff I mentioned earlier!) Soooo, she did well enough in Sunday School and I was able to stay in there for most of it, but wasn't going to even attempt to be quiet in the service, so I went ahead and went to the car and gave her a bottle, and she went right to sleep. She slept for about 25 minutes and then woke up screaming. I started driving toward lunch (since I had just been sitting in the garage), as she continued to scream louder and harder. My dad was taking us to Beach Road, and while I love that restaurant for me, Brookelynne is still not at a point where she can eat just what they serve, and since I hadn't packed her lunch, I had to go to the store. So I was going to stop at the Publix, but they were closed for renovations, and by this time I was starting to cry because she was screaming so loudly. So as I started farther down Atlantic, I couldn't think of any grocery stores anywhere close and several miles down the road, saw a Winn Dixie sign. I pulled into the parking lot, and got her out just as quickly as I could, and as I sat down in the back seat with her, just started to cry. I was trying to get a diaper out because I knew she would need a change, when I realized that her diaper had leaked all the way up her back and all over her dress. So I started undressing her (me still sitting in the back seat of the car, still crying), and when I went to take off her diaper, she started screaming again. Any guesses on how I handled that? :) Yeah, more crying, louder, harder crying.

So I sucked it up and got her changed and redressed and headed inside the store, both of us with beet red faces. I got to the toddler isle and my phone rang. It was my mom who had just gotten out of the service, asking if I had left the garage yet. I then broke down all over again, right there in the store! lol. Any takers on how that looked? (on top of which, my daughter finds it hilarious when I cry, as long as I'm not sobbing loudly, so while I'm crying on the phone to my mother, she's touching my nose and laughing at me...and no, I'm so not kidding!) Anyway, my mom of course told me she would be right there, and shortly after getting to the car, she drove up. Brookelynne was of course a perfect little angel by this point, but I was still ready to sob every time someone even looked at me. Soooo, after 20 minutes in the parking lot, trying to reassure me that I'm a great mom and not a failure at anything, much less everything (which was what I felt like at the time), I was able to leave. Of course, I drove my mom's car while she drove Brookelynne, but none the less, I wasn't crying and that was quite a milestone!

Anyway, I think it was just what needed to happen because this week is going to be even more hectic than the past few, so I guess I just needed that release before everything gets even more crazy! And just as long as I remember that the Lord is there to hold those burdens for me, and that I have plenty of friends and family who are more than willing/happy to help me, I think I'll be okay! :)

Big Girl Furniture has Arrived!

Well if you think about our furniture situation (baby wise) for more than a minute, you would know that we have a need for different furniture in Brookelynne's room since Braxton is going to use my baby furniture just like Brooke has. The catch? Brooke-e will only be 15 months when Braxton is born, and realisticly, should have her furniture at least a month or so before he comes so that there can be as little 'change' as possible when he comes home. (As it will already be a big adjustment for the sweetheart!) SOOOOO, we need to have a crib, because any of you with 12-15 month old babies just aren't ready for a toddler bed yet! (Esp since Brooke has just started to attempt to climb out of her current crib!

Therefore, I started looking for furniture for Brooke's room new and used, and was getting very discouraged. With Brooke's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and a new baby on the way we are obviously a little strapped for cash, so we didn't want to spend more than $500. So, while I could find a couple convertable crib + a dresser sets for good deals, they were still over $500 (running closer to $700) and they were only the two pieces and I really wanted 3 pieces, one that could double as a changing table, but wasn't going to look dumb in her room once she's done with diapers. So I was leaning toward used, and checking craigslist regularly, but were finding one of two things.... Either people were selling an entire bedroom suit (3 pieces) for barely less than they paid for it ($900-$1500), or they were just selling a crib or just a dresser.

So after more than a month of this, I was becoming very discouraged. Tuesday I decided to check craigslist again and found a set that was very close to what I wanted. The only thing that I didn't like was that it was lighter color wood than I wanted. I talked to Mitchell about it and we both agreed that if we could get the furniture for $450 it would be worth it to get it and paint it black to match Brooke's room, as long as it was in very good condition and was well made (since we are planning on her keeping it for a long time!) So I emailed/called/discussed the details with the sellers and worked it out for us to get it for $450, and pick it up yesterday (Thursday).

So BoggaBoo and I got up yesterday, ran some errands and got to Grandma's house around 9:30 to meet Uncle Josh (who helped us load and  transport the furniture in his truck). We went down to Oakleaf, and the furniture looked just as good in person as it did in the pictures, so we bought it. We loaded it up and ran over to the Target (because the sky was black) to buy a tarp and cover the furniture just in case. Uncle Josh carried Brookelynne through Target and they were so cute playing! Brookelynne kept squirming and wanting down, at which point she would run from Uncle Josh. It was very cute (it would not have been cute if she did it to me! lol) Then we got on the road and headed home! Bogger was practically refusing to take a nap, and by the time we got home she had slept for just long enough for her to not take any other naps for the day.  :(

When Mitch got home, I ran up to Home Depot to get some black paint (because we were somehow missing the half gallon we had left over from a year ago) and when I got back, Mitch was like "I really like the furniture the way it is and think it will look good in Brooke's room like it is." So we pulled the headboard into her room to compare it to walls/bedding and see. I still didn't think it would look good, but he was pretty adamant that he wanted it in Brooke's room just the way it was. So, before he went to sleep, I had him bring in the big pieces from the garage and take out the chest of drawers and changing table that were in there. I had already called and asked my mom to come up and help me for the afternoon (thinking I would be painting and unable to be interrupted by my baby girl), so she got here shortly after Mitch went to bed. She then entertained Brookelynne and helped as I needed her to as I took one crib apart, put the other one together, put all the bedding back on and reorganized the necessary things (ie we didn't want to go overnight with no changing area).

And I was honestly surprised at myself, but I really like it! There are still some more touches that will have to be added or tweaked to make it flow as well as I would like it to, but I'm really happy with it. Brookelynne seemed to like it too! She loved the fact that there were doors and drawers! She kept wanting to open and close them all. :) Good thing is that when the doors are closed all the way, she can't open them without help, so I won't have to worry about her getting in there when I'm not around, at least not yet! :) haha.  Soooo, for all of you who have been patiently waiting in suspense, here are the before and after pics of her room (before being my baby furniture, and after being her 'big girl' furniture!)

BEFORE

 Brookelynne's bedding in my baby cib!

 AFTER

 

Brookelynne's Bedding in  her "Big Girl Crib/Bed"

 BEFORE

The window, rocking chair and chest of drawers.

AFTER

 The window, rocking chair, and changing area

BEFORE

 Brookelynne's Chest of Drawers, candles and cork board

AFTER

Brookelynne's new dresser and changing area. 

It's a little different to have the changing area on the opposite side of the room, but I like it!

BEFORE

 Changing table/area

AFTER

Brookelynne's new armoire, placed where her changing table had been.

So what do you guys think? Do you like it? Anyone think it should still be painted? Let me know!

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! :)

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!

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!

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%!