Carly Faye

I'm officially a great-aunt once again!  Here is our newest beautiful addition... Carly Faye.  She was born early this morning & weighed 6lbs 11oz.  Of course I could hardly wait to get off work so I could rush to see her.

My niece Rachel is doing great, a few complications right after her c-section, but she's doing just fine now.

I got to hold Carly almost the whole time I was there & got to feed her too.  It's amazing how little she is & now I can't even remember when Kayla was that little.  Those moments are so precious & go by way to quickly in my opinion.

I can't wait to take Kayla to meet her new little cousin, but I think we'll wait until Rachel & little miss Carly get home from the hospital & get settled in a little first.  I'm anxious to see how Kayla will react.  Carly's big sister Katie isn't quite sure what to think of her new little sister just yet but... she'll have plenty of time to adjust, no doubt.  It was cute to see Katie glance at her, pat her a few times then she was ready to go back to playing with her books & on to something else.

Isn't amazing how little babies just warm your heart.  Welcome to the family Carly Faye, we love you!

Hey diddle diddle

Well here it is, the famous finished mural I painted on Kayla's bedroom wall awhile back.  I have to say that I am very proud of my work.  Even though all I did was print off images, cut my own stencil out with a knife & then simply trace & paint them on the wall... I think it turned out very cute!

Heck, I may even paint more things on the walls in our house now, who knows.  LOL

I'm so happy... we finally re-did Kayla's closet this weekend too!  I stayed up way beyond my bedtime Thursday to paint not one but FOUR coats of bright white paint in the closet.  Since there isn't any lights in there, I figured I would go with something a little bright that way it might be a little easier to see everything.  Friday after I got off work, Fred met me at Lowe's & we purchased the shelving to install, then immediately went home & started to work on it.  It didn't take long at all & bam... a new wonderful closet emerged.  After I get everything organized like I want, I will take pics & post.  I'm definitely doing the guest bedroom closet exactly the same as soon as I get everything unpacked out of it someday.

I absolutely love organization!  I'm kinda weird like that I guess, but oh well.
Things always seem to move a little smoother if everything is organized, don't ya think?

New wedding band

As I said before, over a month ago Fred lost his wedding ring somewhere in a pasture, so I bought him a new one a few weeks ago.

Well it finally came in & I picked it up earlier this week.  It's nice!  I guess I didn't pay that close attention to it when we bought it.  Hopefully he doesn't lose this one.

13-14-15 months

So here is a recap of the past few months... I'm so far behind.

At the beginning of January we finally had family pictures taken & they turned out really good!  January 23rd is hubby's birthday, so I made him a chocolate cake & attempted the best decorating job that I knew how, then we went over to his parent's house to celebrate.

In the time frame since I last blogged, Kayla started walking & is now successfully moving at a high rate of speed these days.  She has 7 teeth & working on more.  She's also saying more words now too.  Simply amazing isn't it?

Kayla is full of life & full of everything these days.  She eats pretty much about anything you give her, so far I haven't really found anything she doesn't like.  Apparently I was an extremely picky eater when I was little, so I've been crossing my fingers she wouldn't take after me.  She's not a morning person, AT ALL!  She likes to wake up in her own sweet time frame & definitely isn't happy if she's forced to get out of bed before she's ready to.  That's when a little attitude comes peeping out of her.

For whatever reason, I got this bright idea awhile back that I wanted to paint hey diddle diddle on the wall above her bed.  I guess I became brave after succeeding at the silhouette I painted a few months ago.  I have to admit, the idea in my head was great but once I actually started on it, I was starting to doubt myself.  I am happy to say that it turned out so cute though & I was actually impressed.  Of course, I stenciled everything on the wall & basically painted in the lines... how hard can that be.  Anyways, her room is slowly but surely coming together.  Considering she's 15 months old now, I should have had her bedroom done a long time ago, but hey... I'm working on it.  By the time I actually finish she'll be able to tell me that she wants something else I'm sure.  Next project is her closet.  I'm going to install new shelving in the next week or so & I'm very excited about that.  I have a vision for it, now I just have to make it happen!

Watching Kayla grow every day is absolutely the best thing in the entire world to me.  Her bubbly personality totally makes the sun shine bright.  I'm head over heels addicted to her laugh too.  I just can't help it.  I simply can't imagine my life before she was in it or what I would ever do without her.

I think my favorite mommy time is in the evenings before bedtime... when she's snuggled in my lap with her cup of milk, watching tv with me right before it's time to pass out, then I get to carry her off to bed & get those sweet hugs n kisses goodnight.  Those are moments I treasure every day & thank the Lord that he gave me this sweet angel.

Date Night Surprise

Well last Saturday night, we finally had another date night, woohoo!  My mother-n-law came over around 8pm to watch Kayla so we could actually go out for once.  We ended up running to the mall for some quick errands... one being that I needed some new bras & hadn't had a chance to go get any.  That was a quick trip though.  I hate shopping, so we were in & out of the store in a flash.  Then we headed to Kay Jewelers where we found him a new wedding ring, since he lost his a few weeks ago in the middle of a pasture somewhere.  After that, we ended up at Longhorn Steakhouse to eat some dinner.  We had a really nice dinner & I even drank a beer!  Man that beer tasted good too, it's been a long time since I had one.  After dinner, we headed home.

The fact that Fred came up with the idea for us to go out, all on his own... well that meant a lot to me.  I was starting to wonder when or if he would ever get the notion to.  After all, we hadn't had a real date night since November & well... to me that seems like forever ago.

As much as I love spending every moment I possibly can with my precious little girl... sometimes I need a little adult one-on-one time as well.  So when the opportunity arises, I take advantage of it.

I love you honey & thank you for planning a date night!

Week 16-26

Week 16 thru 26 came & went... here we are week 27. I finally met with Paula last Wednesday. Fred was scheduled to come with me, but he unexpectedly had to make a trip to Clinton to rescue his brother with a broken trailer instead. I decided to keep the appointment with Paula for myself anyways.

Our visit was great as it always has been in the past.  She asked a lot of questions, trying to get caught up on everything the past few months & we just sat & talked.  It felt good to get some things off my chest & to talk about positive things that have happened since the last time I saw her.

Everything is a work in progress for us.  Each day is a new day.  I'm trying to stay as positive as I can for the sake of my sanity & in hopes to keep a bright spirit to set an example for my family.  I do believe that a happy, bright spirit in a person can bring light to others around them, so that's my goal.  Even though I don't succeed at this every day, I sure do try.

I'm very happy to report that my wonderful husband has been great about coming home earlier each day during the week to spend time with us in the evening.  That's been a huge change from before.  I think he started to realize how much he misses with Kayla not seeing her as often & not to mention the time that he & I get to spend together in the evenings is nice as well.  He's also helped with a few small projects around the house which is awesome, some of which I didn't even have to remind him of.

Valentine's Day...
My hubby made me a homemade steak dinner, with salad & corn!  Yum!  Yum!  He bought me the sweetest card & the "Breaking Dawn" movie.  I honestly couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's Day this year.  It was truly awesome!  I love you honey.

Even though we still have a lot of challenges ahead, we've most definitely have made some huge strides.

I know this is short & sweet... but for now, that's all I have time for.  More updates to come.

13 months already

Little Love Bug officially turned 1 year old December 9th!  We had a birthday party for her Sunday, December 11th & it went great.  I wasn't quite sure how she would do with so many people in the house, but she handled it perfectly.  When it was time for everyone to sing happy birthday to her & time for her to dig in to her cupcake... well she wasn't to thrilled about it, but by the time we got to that point, she was exhausted & ready for a nap.  The party lasted from 1pm-3pm, which was just the right amount of time.

Kayla got lots of wonderful things, but most of all... time spent with family & friends.  She got some much needed PJ's, clothes, OSU blanket, Sesame Street Dr. Kit, School Bus, Big Bird Ring Stacking Thing, the Elephant Ball Popper & lots of wonderful cards.  I'm probably missing a few things, but let's just say... she had a very blessed birthday!  As soon as the house was clear of birthday guests, it didn't take Kayla long to pass smooth out!
Her birthday cake & cupcakes that we stayed up until 3am making the night before... turned out great!  Fred did all of the frosting on the cake & cupcakes & I wrote with the pink icing on the top of her cake & did the sprinkles for the cupcakes.  Together we made a great team.  Despite not getting near enough sleep.  We should have started the cake & cupcake making project hours before... lesson learned for next time.

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, so I'm going to attempt to catch everything up between then & now.

Then just two short weeks after Kayla's birthday... well it's Christmas!  Since I didn't get her pictures made with Santa Claus last year, I was determined to get it done this year.  Of course last year, she was only a few weeks old & I didn't feel it was necessary to drag her out in the freezing cold weather to have a pic made.  Anyways... we went to Bass Pro & the Santa was great.  Totally believable if you ask me.  The line wasn't long at all, so we didn't have to wait a long time.  I hate waiting in long lines.  I dreaded the thought of even going because of waiting in line, but I had my fingers crossed before we got there & luckily for us, the line was short!  Kayla wasn't quite sure what to think about the whole ordeal though.  She had absolutely no expression on her face & sat there stiff the whole time.  None the less, the pic turned out cute & I was very happy.  I had this fear that she might scream & cry the moment I sat her on Santa's lap, but the exact opposite happened.

We ended up having Christmas with my family the Sunday before Christmas.  The way everyone schedules were, that was the best we could work out, which I thought went great considering it was such short notice.  We had KFC & pizza for lunch, opened presents & just spent time together.  It was such a nice day.  Kayla was worn out & ended up passing out before everyone left.  When she's tired... she's done & that's that usually.  My brother & sister-n-law bought Kayla a Mickey Mouse Pillow Pet, which are very popular right now & my cousin Sherri bought her a Minnie Mouse... she's in absolute heaven with them!  It's so cute to watch her roll & lay on Mickey Mouse.  She sometimes falls down on top of him & just lays there.  If you ask her, "Where is Mickey Mouse?"  She immediately speed crawls over & hugs & lays on him.  So precious!  That's my sweet little love bug!  Christmas Eve, Fred & I ended up opening all the presents that we had under the tree so that Christmas morning would be focused on Kayla.  Fred got me a video camera, hurray, hurray!  I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  I've been wanting one for some time now & I finally got one.  The best part was that I was able to record Christmas morning with just the three of us & Kayla opening her presents.  Now I will be able to capture all the moments that I want her to be able to look back on for years to come.  Christmas Day we went to Fred's parents house, which is our usual routine.  Kayla was a little fussy & wanted me to hold her a lot for some reason, but that's ok.  She got books & some little farm animals with wheels to play with.  Then last Saturday, New Years Eve... we drove to Sulphur for my mother-n-law's side of the family Christmas get together.  Kayla got a cute little piano.  Again she was a little fussy & wanted me to hold her a lot.  Kayla & I ended up driving home by ourselves & Fred stayed to drive his parents home because his dad wasn't feeling well.

Christmas was very busy for us this year, but all in all... we all had a wonderful Christmas.

It was hard to see the year come & go as fast as it did.  Kayla is starting to take more steps on her own each day & everything seems to be changing so fast any more.  My brother & sister-n-law got her a little mini play kitchen for Christmas & I enjoy every minute of sitting in the floor playing kitchen with her in the evenings.  She seems to learn & catch on so fast.

All three of us are going to get our pictures made (today) Saturday.  I told myself months ago that I wouldn't take any pictures until I lost weight, but then my BFF reminded me that this are moments that I can't go back & re-do later on.  And she's absolutely right about that.  So now I'm excited about getting pictures made!  My brother & sister-n-law bought us a picture frame for Christmas that I would love to hang in the living room & Fred mentioned the other day that we should fill it with our family pics that we will be taking, so that's the plan!

Whew... I think that is enough catching up for now.  Hopefully I will find more time over the weekend to blog some more.  But for now... goodnight.