"40" "Forty" "4-0".....

Anyway you type it - it is still the same....this past Wednesday I turned "40". I can't believe that I have finally turned "40". I don't think it really hit me until yesterday. I keep thinking I am "40" with a 4 month old...wow!!!

Some years my birthday falls on Thanksgiving but this year it was the day before Thanksgiving. Wednesday morning we went to see a train exhibit and then to lunch with our friends the Crowell's. Ella was so good as we went through the exhibit. She was awake part of the time with her eyes wide open and then slept through part of it. She was also good at lunch...we gave her a bottle while we ate.

For dinner that night we went with the Procter's to one of my favorite restaurants. One you can't eat at too much or you would gain 10 pounds a week! Ella slept through the whole meal and did not wake up until we were leaving. Amy brought a birthday cake to celebrate the big "40". So now, between the four of us Keith is the baby of the group....but 40 will be here for him before he knows it...yes, I robbed the cradle!

After we got home, I started cooking for our Thanksgiving meal with the Dawson's.  In the past we have gone to the Dawson's house on Thanksgiving but thought it might be easier to host at our house this year with Ella. There is a lot of baby stuff to carry with you if you are going to spend the day somewhere.

So, as you can see, we were quite busy on my birthday so maybe that is why it did not hit me until yesterday that I am now "40" years old!! But as one of my friends has reminded me at least I am younger than Sesame Street. For those of you that do not know, Sesame Street turned "40" earlier this month.

Here are a few pictures from Wednesday.

 

 

 

One Year Ago Today!

One year ago today (which was a Friday) I had a blood test and that blood test came back showing my HCG levels to be "38". Today we have E who is 19w5d old. I will never forget that whole week! My doctor did a blood test on the Tuesday before and called me back to tell me it was negative. On Thursday I decided I was going to take a home pregnancy test and when I did I thought I saw a very, very, very faint line.  Friday morning rolled around and I just could not keep myself from taking another test so I did and again, a very, very faint line. I called my OB and she was off that day but told me to go by her office, pick up my paper work and go to the lab and have another test....well, that is what I did and the rest is history. I can't believe that was a year ago!

It's Official!

It is official. I have a new boss. I am on call 24/7 and probably work harder and definitely longer hours than I did even during the busiest deadlines during tax season.

If you have not figured it out yet I am now officially a stay-at-home mom! I was a little nervous to tell my boss this week we had decided for me to stay home but then he told me he was not surprised. When I first moved here, the only people I knew besides Hubby and two of his friends were the people at my office. Even though our office has grown over the past eight years many of us there have really lived life together. We have seen happy times and sad times in each others lives, we have worked together until the wee hours of the morning and the list could go on and on.

When I am up at 5:00AM feeding E I think about how I would normally be getting up to go to work or when I am still in my pajamas at 10:00 because I have been taken care of E I sometimes think about if I was at the office we would be deciding where we would be going to lunch.

I still have to go clean out my office and turn my keys in and get to see everyone. I will miss seeing everyone four days a week but I am really loving my new job of taking care of Miss E.

I am so thankful that I am going to be able to stay home with her!!!!

I Am Thankful For....

I am thankful that we have all been healthy so far and pray we all stay healthy during this flu season.

I Am Thankful For....

Today I am thankful for my home, electricity, heat, water, food to eat, etc...it is cold and has been raining here and I am so thankful we have a home to stay warm and dry in. I think we take so many of these things for granted sometimes.....

I Am Thankful For....

I am thankful that E is napping today. She is actually still asleep....it has been 3 hours!! It is amazing how much I can get done while she is napping!!! I wish she wanted to take a nap everyday!

I Am Thankful For....

Today I am thankful for our precious little Kate and the 17 hours we got to spend with her on this earth. She changed our lives forever and we learned so many things from her short life. I would much rather her still be here with us but I know that we will be together again one day when our time on this earth is over to.

I Am Thankful For....

Today I am so thankful for the sweet little sounds I woke up to...(E just talking away in her bed)!

I Am Thankful For....

Today I am thankful for our preicous litte E. She has brought so much joy into our lives and is such a blessing from God. She brings sunshine to our house everyday with her little smile and just being her sweet little self.

Today I Am Thankful For....

Today I am thankful for my wonderful and loving husband. I do not know what I would have done the past few years without him standing beside me as we have walked through life together. Anyone that knows him knows what a sweet, kind hearted, and loving person he is. Hubby, thanks for all you do for me and E!!!

I Am Thankful For....

A friend from back home had the following challenge as her FaceBook status today.

"To do something cool as we enter this season of Thanksgiving. Try it if you like. Everyday until Thanksgiving , post one thing a day your thankful for on your status. "Today I am Thankful for...." The longer you do will you find it makes you a more grateful person! Repost this as your status to see who else will accept this challenge...."

So, I decided to do a daily post on my blog to and maybe some of you that read my blog will leave a comment as to what you are thankful for each day. I would love to read your comments!! Don't worry for all of you that come here to see the latest pictures of E, I will still be posting those also, this is just in addition to my regular posts.

So today and everyday I am thankful that Jesus Christ died for me so that I might live!!

4 Months

E was 4 months old on the 6th.  I know you have seen the picture above before but I just love this picture of her so I decided to include it again with this post and  as I was going back to pull pictures from each month I realize what bad snapshots I have taken for the monthly snapshot. Some have been taken with my phone rather than my camera which make them not so good...but she sure is cute no matter what the quality of the picture is!

This month E has started doing alot....

• She is really talking/cooing now.

• She eats every 2-3 hours normally during the day unless she is taking a nap.

• She has decided she does not really need alot of naps.

• She has slept through the night (or what I consider through the night) several times.

• She gets a bottle each evening so her daddy can feed her to and she has drank up to 12 ounces. Normally it is around 8 ounces though.

• She has started noticing us. She will follow us with her eyes.

• She has started noticing Sadie.

• We are starting to get a bedtime routine down.

• She hates tummy time.

• She has started holding things that I put in her hand - and she picks up her burp cloth and holds it and puts it in her mouth.

• She loves putting her hands in her mouth....I think she is going to find her thumb very soon.  We have seen her thumb in her mouth a few times but then she sticks her whole hand back in her mouth.

• She still does not like her pacifier.

3 months old

2 Months Old

1 Month Old
1st Day in NICU

I'm just a little spoiled!

This past week Hubby's parents were in town for a few days. Well, if E is not already held alot during the day I think for the 48 hours or so they were here she was probably held at all times unless she was sleeping or the grandparents just needed a break from holding her! She loves to be held and I told Hubby I had to reprogram her on Thursday. She thought I was suppose to hold her more than I already do. But that's ok, that is what grandparents are for!

Friday she was 4 months old. I will post her 4 month picture just as soon as I download it from my camera today. She was an awesome little girl yesterday. We had to go by the church to drop off some things for the Ladies Event that is this weekend at our church and then we met Amy for lunch. Ok, lunch was at the Sonic so that I did not have to take E in but it was lunch out with a friend! When we got home it was time for E to eat again and then she took a 3 hour nap!! One of my friends told me she once read "Sleep begets sleep". So the better naps she takes during the day the better she will sleep at night!

Well, we are excited because it is Saturday, which means College Football, which means LSU vs Alabama. I hope the Tigers are ready to play and win today!!

Ok, I will get her 4 month snapshot posted later today along with her in her little LSU outfit! She does like to watch football!!

E grew up alot this past week!!!

In the past week E has really been growing up! Last Tuesday we went and finally bought 8 ounce bottles (I know you are so happy Jenn). She gets one bottle a day and that is between 6:00 & 7:00 each evening (this is so her daddy can feed her to!). For the past few weeks we would give her 4 ounces and then make up another 4 ounces. She really did not like waiting on us to get the second 4 ounces in her bottle so we finally got her some 8ounce bottles! She has gone from the bottles that hold just a little less than 3ounces to her 4 ounce bottles and now 8 ounce bottles!  Wow, when she was born and we were in the hospital trying to get her to eat they were just trying to get her to drink around 20cc's. There are 30cc's in an ounce so she is drinking up to 240cc's.  There have been times that she has taken up to 10 - 12 ounces but that is not everytime!

Another thing she did this week was move from her bassinet into her pack-n-play. As you may recall when we first brought her home we had the pack-in-play set up in our living room. She would sleep in either it or her bassinet - according to where I was. Well, I moved the pack-n-play in my room a couple of weeks ago and finally moved her to it. Yes, she is still in our room and I don't plan on moving her to her room anytime soon:)!

Saturday, I ran to WalMart and when I came home Hubby had turned the way her swing moves. I could not believe all the things that changed just this past week. I know if I blink she will be graduating from college.

We also got her an exersaucer this past week! I think she is going to like it. We did have to put a few blankets around her because she is not quite big enough yet. I will leave you with a picture of her in her exersaucer!

Our Little Princess......

E was our little princess from the moment we laid eyes on her. Our whole life evolves around her now. Our life and schedule is nothing compared to what it was and it is better than we could ever imagine! I may not always get alot of sleep or get those afternoon naps like I use or go out to lunch with my friends as much but when I pick this little girl up it does not matter anymore. She keeps us on our feet and quite busy. Because of all the sickness going around right now the doctors have told us to keep her away from groups of people so she and I spend alot of time at home. We love it when Hubby has some spare time and he makes us get out and go do things....we do that during non busy parts of the day though.

Well, for those of you who read my blog that knew me a really long time ago know that I loved photography. Over the years life got busy and I just did not play around with my camera that much. Since E has been born I have really been getting back into playing around with it again. We went and had E's pictures taken when she was about 5 weeks old and when we got them back I just cried. They were not what I wanted. After that, Hubby went and bought me a background set. Now we can take pictures whenever we want to and when she is in a good mood! So, here is a picture of her that we took this weekend.  For some reason it is not letting me load one of the others....maybe it is the way I saved it.  I have got to work on it some more.   Isn't she just a little princess!!