Braggin' about the Bryans

Christmas traditions and other fun things

2011-12-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! We spread out family Christmas' into three days which was MUCH better than everything in one day. K has A LOT of new toys that I need to find a place for in her room, but for now everything is in our living room!

Throughout he month of December, we added some new Christmas traditions...
I wrapped 24 of K's books to open each night for the month of December. The first night she opened one and got excited and said, "I HAVE THIS BOOK!" I explained to her they are ALL her books that she already has, but its fun to pick one and not know what it is and then we can read it. It was a fun new tradition!

ELF ON THE SHELF! Great new tradition! We bought the elf on the shelf that includes a book that explains what to do with your elf. Each night, Buddy, (K named him) goes back to the North Pole to tell Santa that K was a good little girl and the next morning, he would appear in a new place in the house to keep an eye on her. I am going to miss having Buddy here...he helped K to eat her veggies and not throw fits...
I bought K her very own Christmas tree--back in July. I was so excited, I wanted to put it up then, but Bill made me wait. :) We took so many pictures with both of our families...I couldn't decide which to pick to put on here on my blog...so I just picked a couple. We had a great Christmas with everyone! I loooove breakfast. It's tradition for me to have a good breakfast for Christmas. We celebrated our family Christmas at home on Friday and I made these Rudolph pancakes. I switched the eye color after this pic so Kaitlyn can have the green eyes and I could have the brown...I had to get them right before we ate them. :)

Kaitlyn did just fine sitting on Santa's lap. We went to the new Outlet mall expecting it to be crowded with him being there, but there was NO line at all!!
Kaitlyn got "Jingle" the dog from me and Bill (along with other gifts--but this was probably her favorite!) Jingle comes with a book and movie. When you get to certain lines in the book, Jingle responds. Well, okay, he ONLY seems to respond to Bill when he reads the book. I read is over and over and Jingle doesn't seem to like my voice. But Jingle is still a pretty cool little pup.
Kaitlyn's a happy girl! Behind her is the Rapunzel vanity that Santa brought her. The mirror lights up when you lift up the comb and pretend makeup. She's our little princess!

my daughter...

2011-09-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of me and her today. I had a day off work and it was beautiful weather! We had a picnic in our backyard in her "house". We had so much fun together!! We did lots of other fun things too!

She is speaking sooooo well now! She asks full complete questions and we can just carry on conversations with her. When she asks a question, her voice goes up and then ends on a complete different note...hard to explain, but its hilarious!

She's been saying the sounds that different animals make for awhile, but now she likes for us to say them wrong, so she can correct us... I might say, "A cow says 'oink'." and she'll laugh and say, "No, Mama, a cow says Mooooo!"

For the longest time, anything she would say, you would hear "Mama" after it.. "Look mama, I see a K mama, its a green light mama, it's a bird mama, mama, mama look!" It never got old to me though....

When she watches tv, she likes to pick the character who she is....Like if she's watching Dora, she might say, "I be Boots, mama--you can be Dora..." It's funny. I wonder if the kids at her home day care do that too.

She loves carrying around a cup and spoon with her everywhere she goes. She pretends to stir and feed herself and her babies and us. She's gonna love cooking someday! She helps me cook dinner sometimes too.

She is saying some things that I catch myself saying...she says "that is just Perfect!" or "that's my favorite!" :) One day she caught me with my hands on my hips disagreeing with something with Bill and I look over at her and she was doing the exact same thing and pointing at him saying "You should have known Dadda!" It cracked us both up!

She loves eating lasagna and loves watermelon. She calls Lasagna--onya.

When in trouble from us, she suddenly will say, "ouchie" like she's suddenly hurt and she's trying to change the subject so we'll feel sorry for her.

We point out all the school buses in the morning before I drop her off and she says, "look another yellow school bus!" She also watches for stop lights and will say, "green means go! Red means stop! yellow means SLOOOooooow down!"

She's so complimentary....I could put her socks on for her or her hair bow and she'll smile and say, "great job momma!"

She gets so excited when seeing other kids in public. She would point to other girls and say, "oooh look it's a girl!!"

She's counting to ten in spanish...she started this a couple months ago. I think its from watching Dora. She also will say other things and then tell us its in spanish. She'll just jabber some things and say, "that was in spanish." it's hilarious. One day she said, "beep" and then said, now in spanish beep is "beeeeeeeeeeep"!

Instead of saying Abc's, she says "let me sing my ABCD's!" She's been able to say these for awhile now. She can also sing several other songs and recite lots of books. She loves anything to do with letters..she finds them everywhere! We drove by a circle K and she got so excited there was a K..."Look momma a K, K is for Kaitlyn...bye K!"

She's been going pee pee on the potty since February--BUT she's not potty trained yet. She will go every time I put her on there, but she still drinks so much and she still pees so much. I could put her on there every hour all day long, and she still will pee in her panties without knowing she did. And I haven't really tried really really hard to work on her with it. So we decided to wait a little longer before really pushing it. She used to sit down on it and get so frustrated when she couldn't pee and would look at me and say, "It's not working momma!" It was so cute and sad at the same time!

One time she woke up in the middle of the night and as I checked on her, she begged me to say a prayer with her and then it was okay for me to go back to bed.

Here are some cute quotes in her little quote book I have been keeping track of....

"That very better"
"That very hurt, momma"
"Pweeeeze hold you momma"
"Look momma Peoples!"
"Please want this"
"I can't want that..." Instead of don't, she says can't.
while praying..."Thank you for our tv, daddy's eyes, and our blankies, amen!"
watching a fire on the grill while dadda was cooking..."Happy Birthday to Dadda..."
"What's that name?" about EVERYTHING...people, characters on tv, stuffed animals...
"Look momma its a stop sign...it's sooooo pretty!"
"Look momma a stop sign, it has 8 sides!"
"Look momma its a circle, circles have 8 sides"
while someone was saying a prayer at church, she shouts out, "And thank you for my Nini!"
AFter I put her down for her nap, she jumped up and ran to me and as I was just about to get on to her and direct her back to bed, she hugged me and said, "I love you to the moon and back!"
"Jacey (our dog) is my favorite girl everywhere...and momma is my best friend!"

She LOVES books...here is her reading another book....

I'm an AUTHOR!!!!

2011-09-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

Check it out: My new Children's Book!! It's finally here!!! Here is how it all came about.... About 4 years ago, my friend, Jen, worked at Tate Publishing. She was an illustrator/cover designer there. We sat down one evening and talked about how she is illustrates all of these books, but doesn't have one to call her own. She had great ideas of a couple of story lines for books, but never really thought it would actually be put together for a book. We talked how "someday" it would be neat to have a book together. I totally took it seriously and went home that night and thought about the story line that she mentioned to me about Ms. Bostrich. I woke up the next morning and just started writing. Being a Kindergarten teacher, I read children's books daily to my class, and of course being a mom, I come home and read books to my daughter. So when writing, I had in mind some of my favorite books. I wanted to make the lines flow together and rhyme so when you are reading it, it would be like the Dr. Seuss book--How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I kept thinking...."All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not." So, I wanted a sweet little town like Whoville...so I came up with "Hickabee". I changed Ms. Bostrich to Ms. McBostrich to make it flow better too. Then I wanted the people to be super nice like Whoville...and then something that the town was known for...so I thought about the "roast beef" in the feast on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but instead I made it "beef stew". Anyways, after sitting down for about 3 hours, I had the entire book written. I gave Jen a call and read it to her. She couldn't believe I put her idea all together into book form. She loved the things I added and how I made it rhyme. Later we met together and she sketched some characters and it was exactly how I pictured the characters and town to look like--very whimsical and fun!! She really made the characters come to life!!! Anyways, after she finished the illustrations, we had to go through editing and got to look at proofs and pick out someone to be the voice in the download-able audio and THEN here we are 4 years later and the book is now PUBLISHED!! We are thrilled!! We placed an order and got 100 hard backs and 20 soft backs and split everything last Thursday. And now it is Tuesday and we are almost completely out of books!! My librarian at my school got permission from my principal to do an author signing day for me and Jen and we have some other things booked--I am speaking and reading at a Rotary Club and Jen's superintendent has her speaking this Friday. Whew! and that is before we did any work and got out there and marketed!! So we are super pumped and hoping this could actually get big! I would eventually like to talk to some libraries and book stores about doing some book signings as well. So, if you are reading this and are interested, I am ordering more books and they should be here in less than a month--hard backs are $14 and soft backs are $11. Soft back books are being sold on Tatepublishing.com but it is listed just under Jen Fisher. I think they could only put one author name on there. We should have a debut at other websites in October.

Here is a little about the book:

In the friendly town of Hickabee, the quirky and selfish Ms. McBostrich decides to take away the beauty of an animal only to please herself. Although Ms. McBostrich originally thinks she is satisfied with her decisions, the events of the story force her to learn a most unforgettable lesson.

If you wanna find out what happens....you gotta buy the book! :)

Another Quiet Book...

2011-08-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

I recently made two more quiet books for my little girl. This one below is before I sewed it all together. The two books were originally going to be one big one, but it got too thick....

This page is for playing with/braiding/or putting bows or pony tail holders in the girl's hair. There are bows and pony tail holders in the pocket. This one above is matching shapes on the gumball machine. This one above is fun with the finger puppets that go inside the ark. I wish there was room in the ark for more animals! :) And this one is for matching the different shapes.

I got ideas for this quiet book and the other one I will post soon from this site http://quietbook.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-11-10T17%3A48%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=12

Recent photo shoot

2011-07-26T20:04:00.001-07:00

We recently had a photo shoot with the wonderful Valerie Vaughn from withunmindphotography.com I had her daughter in my class this last year and as a gift during Teacher Appreciation Week, we were able to do a photo shoot. There were SO many pictures we loved from this shoot...but I had to eliminate it down.... :) We had so much fun taking pictures.

Birthday Girl!!

2011-07-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind on my blog posts...I am finally getting to Kaitlyn's birthday pictures from last month. This first picture is Kaitlyn on her actual birthday.
Kaitlyn's birthday part was a couple days after we got back from vacation, so I wanted to do something somewhere else beside my house. We had gone to the Orr Family Farm a few months ago, and Kaitlyn LOVED it there. I was worried with an outdoor party either that it would rain or that it was be TOO Hot. Well, it WAS a very very hot day...but I think it still worked out. First the kids got to do pony rides....some cried when they had to get off, because it was so fun!! They didn't realize there was much more to come!

Next up was the animal barn. Pigs, goats, rabbits, lots of fun animals that the kids got to pet and feed. Then the guide took us to a little room with bleachers where a little farmer pig sang happy birthday and Kaitlyn got a cute shirt from the farm.
Next up, CHOO CHOO!! We all rode the train around the farm. It was nice because after getting all sweaty, that was a bit more cooling. Below is a pic of Kaitlyn with her cousin Haylee and their Nina/Nini! :)
Afterward, Kaitlyn got to toot the horn! Here are the cupcakes I made for the party. They are supposed to be Minnie Mouse cupcakes. They turned out pretty good after I made them, but by party time, the oreos got a little soggy. Oh well...they seemed to enjoy them. It was too windy to blow out a candle so we pretended. :) ha. Kaitlyn got lots of great presents!! Last of all was the carousel! fun, fun! Here is a picture of Kaitlyn with most of the kids that came to the party..
It was so much fun and I am so glad we decided to go to Orr Family Farm for Kaitlyn's 2nd birthday party!! She did not nap when we got home even though she was exhausted....she HAD to play with all of her new toys! :)

Vacation!

2011-06-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

Bill and I hadn't taken a vacation since before I had gotten pregnant with Kaitlyn. We decided to take Kaitlyn on her first vacation this year to Beaver's Bend. It was a perfect family getaway.
We got to do the paddleboats...

go to the swimming beach area...

Ride a horsey! Kaitlyn LOVED this horse. She jumped up and down and was so excited when they brought the horse over to us!

We made smores and hot dogs over the fire pit...
We rode the train and saw deer...

Kaitlyn was the lucky child who had the winning ticket on the train to get a free cotton candy! She must've inherited me and Bill's good luck! :) We celebrated our 8 year anniversary!

We had a good time and we were sad for it to all end!

You know you are a mom when...

2011-05-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

I had fun with this...

You know you are a mom when...

-You think being out after dark is really late.
-Your Saturday night consists of doing the hokey pokey.
-A gourmet meal is mac n' cheese and hot dogs.
-You drive to work after dropping off your child and when you get to work you realize the whole drive you were listening to a Kid Bop CD and you realize this only because you were singing to it.
-When you get hurt and you are around your friends you accidently say things like "ouchy" and "oopsie daisy"
-You feel sorry for other parents at restaurants when their child is screaming and throwing a fit, but you also feel a little relieved because you realize you weren't the only one with a child who does that.
-You spend more time making your child look super cute when going to church than yourself.
-You get ready and take a shower WAY faster than you ever thought you could.
-You bring hand sanitizer and wipes everywhere you go.
-You have cheerios somewhere in your car (probably under my seat or on the floor in the backseat or behind Kaitlyn's carseat.)
-You've done some of those things that you said you would never do if you were a parent.
-You wake up at the smallest sound.
-You refer to going to the restroom to "going to the potty" in public.
-You get excited to go to places like Chuck E Cheese or the zoo just to see your child happy
-You find your jewelry strung out all over the house (or makeup, tools, etc)
-You get mad when someone rings the doorbell when you FINALLY got your child down for a nap.
-You can't go to the restroom without being interrupted.
-You can bathe a squirming, screaming toddler, wash their hair and dry them off in five minutes flat.
-You actually called all of your friends the first time your little one used the potty all by herself.
-You find random things in your purse (bag of cheerios, pretend cup and spoon, my little pony...)
-You sing the "clean up song" when you are doing housework and you are all alone.
-Anytime you hear a child call for “Mommy” or “Daddy” you look around even though you know for sure that your child is nowhere around.
-Pregnancy and birth stories are interesting.
-You know the books "Goodnight Moon" and "Brown Bear" by heart (and so does my daughter!)
-You have trouble concealing your knowing smirk as you listen to a first time mom-to-be talking about how things are going to be once her baby arrives.
-You let your child spit out something they don't like into your cupped hand.
-You have used your own sleeve to wipe their runny nose in public because you had no more tissues.
-You look into your sick child's eyes and wish it were you and not her.
-You have a huge smile on your face when your husband walks in the door and hear him say "Daddy's home"
-You didn't want to put your child to bed because sleeping in your arms is just precious!
-You've been puked on.
-You've gone to bed at 8:00.
-Your big plans for Friday night is ordering a pizza and you are pretty darned psyched about it!
-Going to the grocery store is a 2 hour event
-Holidays are way more fun!
-You can't afford anything anymore.
-When you go to find a pen to write your babysitter a check, and have to write it in red crayon.
-When you go out with your friends and all you can think of to talk about is your child,
-Sleeping IN, means sleeping until 8:00
-You sing "Dora Dora Dora the Explorer" in the shower.
-You know you’re a mom if you no longer find Barney particularly annoying and in fact welcome him into your life as a great teacher of concepts such as shapes and colors that your toddler has previously believed that you were making up.
-You know you're a mom if you blog about your baby's latest consonants!
-You use your own saliva to clean your child's face

20 months old!

2011-02-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Kaitlyn is now 20 months old!! wow, I can't believe she'll be 2 in just 4 months!! Since she was 18 months old, I have been writing things that she's been saying on scraps of paper all over the house. I needed to sit down and finally blog about it all....so here it goes! It may totally bore someone else reading it, but I wrote it mainly so we can look back on it someday...

We love having conversations with her.... The other day she said, "Kaitlyn slippers go?" And I asked her "Where did they go?" And she looked at me with the sweetest voice and shrugged her shoulders and said "Well I don't know!"
When we had the big snow blizzard, we sat at the window one day and watched the snow and Kaitlyn said, "Ooooh look, Bubbles!" And I said, "No, actually that's snow". and she said "bubbles" and I said "snow" and we went back and forth until finally I said, "okay fine its bubbles!" haha . the next day she said "snow" on her own. I think she just wanted me to agree with her!She likes to ask everything/everyone "what you doing? " One day, she picked up these big plastic eyes that belong to her cozy coupe car. I heard say, "Hi Eyes...what are you doing?" ha! :) She'll walk up to our dog and say, "Jacey, What are you doing?" And the tone in her voice will go up and down as she says it.
She LOVES books, letters, shapes, drawing with a pen, and colors, baby dolls, amongst lots of other things!! She can identify most colors--blue, pink, purple, green, orange, yellow, black, white, and red. I think her favorites are orange and yellow. At the doctor's office she was looking around and every time she spotted something yellow, she yelled "YEWOW!!" It was cute.She memorizes her books and likes to sit next to me and tell me what they say. She loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see. Sometimes in the car, when we aren't singing songs, we can recite the entire book together.
A couple months ago, she heard someone call me "Amy". Later in the day out of nowhere she looked at me and shouted, "AMY!" It was so funny! So of course I laughed and she kept doing it. Another day she was eating and trying to get my attention, so she started out saying "Mommy, mommy, momma, momma, momma, MOM! Mom! AMY AMY AMY!!" I just died laughing! But told her she should call me Mommy or Momma! :)She says "Thank you" quite a bit! she's done that since she's 12 months old. Every time I hand her something or if she hands me something you hear a "Thank you" and if anyone sneezes, she always says "bless you". even for herself, or if the dog coughs or sneezes...
She's been saying "careful" a lot. Like she'll say "careful mommy..." if I am about to step on something. She tells herself careful if she's about to fall or trips over something. it's cute!
She's really into singing songs about Jesus! We have a Christian children's CD that has her name in the songs and every time we get in the car, she says, "Mommy...sing Jesus!" She also likes to pray. :) She LOVES church too!When looking for something, for instance if I say, "Where is your Barney doll?" she'll sing to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin"--but she'll say "Where is Barney, Where is Barney...lalala, lalala.." I think I do that without thinking since I am a Kindergarten teacher and she's just picking up on it. haha. Oh, this is another good story... In the car she saw a Circle K sign and said, "Mommy, Look it's a K! Kaitlyn K, Kaitlyn K!" Then we turned to another street and she said, "Bye bye K" and then a few minutes later we heard her singing to the Where is Thumbkin tune... "where's your K? Where's your K?"
She says bye bye to just about everything/everyone she sees... Getting out of the bathtub..."Bye bye water, bye bye Dora (her bathtub doll), bye bye cups...." At church she'll see stuff on the walls, "Bye bye fish, bye bye giraffe..." I'll pick her up from day care, "Bye bye legos, bye bye kids"... and then will name off all the kids that go there.She stayed well most of winter until suddenly she got hit with pneumonia a couple weeks ago. :( It was so awful. She didn't even look like herself. Luckily, we were able to treat her at home with antibiotics and breathing treatments and she got better within a week. There was a lot of sleepless nights. She hardly ate anything during that time and I think she lost about 2 pounds. It was strange to see her not eat much because usually she's such a good eater.

Speaking of eating, she LOVES eating french fries, ice cream, cookies, chips, (ha, I promise I feed her healthy food too!)... and she loves carrots, pears, peaches, lasagna, spaghetti and chicken! She also eats with a fork pretty good all by herself. You can always tell when she 's eating something she REALLY likes, she laughs with every bite! It's so funny.

she loves putting on mommy and daddy's shoes. Here she is walking around with Daddy's shoes. (I couldn't figure out how to turn this picture the right way.)
She likes to get crayons or a pen and tells me to draw her "shapes". I'll draw the shapes and then she'll say them over and over again..She knows rectangle, triangle, square, heart, and star. she LOVES doing that! She has these foam letters in the bathtub and she used to hand them each to me and say "E" for each one. I couldn't understand how she knew there was a letter that was an E? Then I saw her Elmo stuffed doll has an E hanging from him and when you squeeze it, Elmo says, "E, E is for Elmo!" So one day while in the bathtub, as she handed me the letters, I said a few of them and said something that began with that letter just for the fun of it. "That's an M, m is for Momma, That's an R, r is for rabbit!" and a few more. She REMEMBERED them the next day. I couldn't believe it. she now knows around 8 letters. She gets so excited to tell me those letters! Every now and then she'll also count to 12. She only does it when she's really into play and she lays out her toys like she's really counting them.
She likes to say "Wow, cool!" When she doesn't like something she says "like it" and shakes her head no. Or "want it" and shakes her head no. In her playroom there is a picture of me and her by her window. She likes to carry it over to her chair at her table and pretend that I am sitting in that chair with her. Its so funny!
When Bill isn't home, I ask Kaitlyn, "where is daddy?" and she looks at me as if telling me something I really didn't know. "Daddy's working!"
Instead of saying "Hold me" she says "Mommy, hold you!" and reaches for me. Instead of asking to hold something, she says "Hug it!" We'll be in the grocery store and she'll see goldfish crackers and she'll reach for it and say, "Mommy, hug it!"

I could go on and on!! Every day is a new adventure and every day she knows more and more!! I love this little girl so much and can't imagine my life without her!!

Snow-Klahoma!

2011-02-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

Look at that snow!! Kaitlyn and I have had so much fun together over all these snow days. I haven't gotten cabin fever, just enjoying every minute! The first snow day last week, I brought the snow in to Kaitlyn and let her touch it and play with it inside. But the snow was so extremely cold, she didn't care to touch it. After it set out for about 20 minutes, I made a mini snowman for her on the counter top. I wish I had taken a picture of it! I think she was happy to be home too! :)

Last Friday I bundled Kaitlyn up and we went outside. It was still pretty cold, so even though bundled up, we were only out for about 3 minutes. Saturday it felt better so we were able to make a snowman!She is 19 months now. Whew, the time sure flies with her! Usually at church, before meals, and before bed we say a prayer, but since I was holding the camera (video below), I think she was confused when I told her to pray. She was probably thinking mommy's not doing it, why should I? :) ha.

It was actually the first time she said her ABC's almost all the way through. Usually we sing it together. She has been counting to 12 too. I have no idea how she learns things so quickly!! she listens to EVERYTHING we say! Today she heard a lady on TV that said something like, "I want to win some money!" And Kaitlyn went around repeating it in the same tone the lady said it. ha.
Goofy girl!
In this next video (below) I caught her reading. It's hard to catch her doing something by the time I get the camera. Its a book that on each page its says thank you God for all different things. She was singing "Thank you God.." and turning the page and singing it again. Me and Bill sing the book to her just to make it more fun.

January zoo day!!

2011-02-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Crazy to think that less than a week ago we were at the zoo. Without having to wear jackets and wearing short sleeves...at the zoo. Perfectly perfect weather! We had so much fun! We could have probably stayed all day. I see something new every time I visit the zoo! In the pictures below we walked through the "cat forest". It was really pretty and we could see tigers behind the fences pretty close up.

Kaitlyn really loved the children's zoo. I was pretty nervous to let her touch the goats because I had a pretty horrific experience with goats when I was a child at the zoo....goats attacked me because I had food and I had about 15 goats trying to climb on me. I will never forget that! ha. I was about 3 years old then. Goats are strange little animals. We went inside the little barn to see other animals and when we came out about 6 goats were making a semi-circle like they were waiting for us to come out. Bill joked that they remembered me from when i was a child.
she was fearless!!

hair!

2011-02-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have so many things to still post on here...but I thought I would make a post on hair! haha. I am so excited Kaitlyn's hair is long enough to do pig-tails! Her hair is very curly and every night when we give her a bath, we see its actually way longer than it seems when wet. I was surprised that she was okay with me pulling her hair to make these pigtails. I usually do it when her hair is still wet from the tub so it will stay better. In this picture her hair still looks wet and it was the first time I put her hair up, so its not a perfectly straight line in the middle...ha. She looks so cute and so grown up in them! I then realized I didn't have many bows in multiples of two, so I had to go out and search for bows!

And just to be silly, I posted pics of me and Bill and our new haircuts. :)

Christmas!

2011-01-16T20:22:00.001-08:00

So I am finally getting a little caught up with my posts...well, I am just a month behind. Here are some Christmas pics.... I wish we had taken more pics at our family's houses. We just have pics from Christmas time at our house.

Kaitlyn's Santa gift was this kitchen set and shopping cart.
here is her stocking with "Boots" at the top.

she loves her daddy! this dog is as big as her, but she loves carrying it around.

gifts from her aunts...
this one is from "Nomelle" (Noelle and uncle Mike)
and this is from aunt Erin.
checking out this kitchen...
my lil diva!
me (before chopping off my hair) and my favorite girl!

Kaitlyn cooking!

2011-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

I dread coming home and having to cook a meal. I really do love cooking but I hate having to spend MORE time away from Kaitlyn after being away from her all day. So, I decided to let her start helping me cook. She had SO much fun helping. Here she is putting cheese on the casserole. She put a tiny little piece of cheese on so it took forever to cover it, but she had a blast. First I let her sit by empty casserole dish with a whisk and she pretended to stir. She loves doing this at her table and her kitchen set, so I thought she would enjoy it with mommy. Then I let her pour on the seasonings and help me stir the food. Finally, she put the cheese on top. She cried when I made her get down from the counter. But then I showed her the food in the oven with the oven light and she got all excited that it was cooking. We had so much fun together! I can't believe she is big enough to do this.

Kaitlyn's play room

2011-01-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

One of the things I did over Christmas break--I re-decorated Kaitlyn's playroom. She sleeps in her crib in the nursery room that is attached to our bedroom and on the other side of the house, we have a playroom for her. This room will eventually be her "big girl" bedroom. I saw this sticker tree decal online and LOVED it! It was super easy to put on the wall and Kaitlyn really likes it. My mom got her this Dora table and chairs for Christmas. Kaitlyn's favorite thing to do is sit at this table and pretend she is eating and drinking. She pours tea and demands for me to sit in the other chair. "Mommy, sit down!" :) She could sit here all day long!!

Below is the shelf with most of her toys and books inside. It looks kinda crowded in this pic, but its so nice to have this shelf. The books on top are very special to me and Bill. Bill's parents found his favorite childhood book and gave it to him for Christmas--Ernie's Little Lie. It really meant a lot to him. The book in the middle was my mom and aunt's favorite childhood book--Good Little Bad Little Girl. It became my favorite as a child too. Kaitlyn likes to sit in her zebra chair and rock her baby dolls and read her books.
I found this Owl picture at Target and it matches the sticker decal I bought. I thought it was so cute! Her table has this thing in the middle that we can store her dishes and play food. Bill's family got Kaitlyn the rocking horse for her 1 year birthday. I think its so cute!
Below is the kitchen set Kaitlyn got from Santa. :) She has really enjoyed playing with it. The sign and flower on the wall I bought at Hobby Lobby.

Being crafty...

2010-12-29T20:14:00.000-08:00

I have several things I really need to post about. This is a start...I should have done it two months ago, but just got pictures uploaded.
So about two months ago, I thought I should make a book for Kaitlyn for Christmas. I pictured a book that is "quiet" but kept her busy. It could even be a book for church. Now I have a book that I actually wrote and is in the publishing process, but its nothing like this. This is my crafty/touch and feel book for just Kaitlyn! :) I have never really sewn anything, so everything except the binding of the book was put together by felt glue. These are pictures before I bound it together. Its definitely not perfect and I think if I made another I could probably do better, but I was excited for her to see this one!!

cover:
dress the girl page (with velcro)
Above: tie the shoe...of course she can't do that yet, but she can play with the shoe strings. She loves shoes!
Below: I wanted to do something that zips, so the first pic shows the ladybug without spots and the second pic shows the spots that were inside the ladybug!

I think the peek-a-boo page is her favorite. I am thinking of making a book with peek-a-boos on each page.
The shape one is fun for her because she is really getting into shapes and beginning to identify them. I wish I had put a triangle on there instead of a rectangle. oh well. The pink shapes are in the pocket and you match them to the white shapes already glued on.
The snowman page has a pouch for all the pieces.
The flower page is neat for her to touch. It also smells good because I sprayed perfume on the flowers!
The purse is just because she loves purses and that has a snap on it with fun stuff inside for her to pull in and out.

It was fun to make!! She's played with it a few times. I try to have her sit with me when she plays and looks at it, because pieces will be all over the place. I already have to re-glue on some pieces, but that was expected. its hers, she can do what she wants with it.

Below was another "crafty" thing. We paint these snowmen on shirts in my classroom. This year I made one for my sweet girl. Hers was special though, it got a bow and little rhinestones as the snow around the snowman. She liked us being twins. :) She kept saying "snowman Kaitlyn, snowman Mommy!"

big girl!

2010-11-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

It wasn't easy going back to work today after 5 days straight with Kaitlyn. It was nice to have Bill home for 5 days straight too. Friday, Bill shopped a bit, and then we put up our Christmas tree, and took Kaitlyn to see the lights in MWC. Kaitlyn LOVED them. I think they wore her out though because before we were all the way through it, Kaitlyn said "All done." ha. It was pretty crowded and we had to go about 2 mph, so she was ready to go.
She is cracking us up with some of the things she says/does. She knows how to say "bless you" when someone sneezes and she waits for you to say thank you and if you don't, she finally says "thank you". Then if she sneezes and we say "bless you" she says thank you. She's got some good manners! :) She says "I love you" a lot. And when we go places she always says "bye bye Jacey!" (our dog) except it always sounds more like a question "bye bye Jacey?" She also likes to wonder to her play room by herself and sit in her chair and just read books to herself. We will peak around the corner of the door at her and she will just be talking to herself..."cat...meow! monkey...oooh oooh, fish, look lion roar!" very miss independent! too independent at times! She doesn't like to hold our hands. :( she loves shoes too! she likes to put them on all BY HERSELF! and she can do it too! but she likes to put them on without socks. She loves our Christmas tree and is doing really well not touching it...thank goodness! every now and then she will say "touch..." and start to sneak over there. the other day Bill said "hot!" and she ran from it.
here are some pics and a video that will hopefully work:

The dance queen...and other fun things about Kaitlyn

2010-10-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

I LOVE 15 months! Every month I keep saying its my favorite month, but she is sooo much fun right now! Here are some of the fun things she does/says...

-She's VERY shy in public. She is super active and full of personality at home, but someone else comes around and she hides behind my legs and squeezes on! At church she holds on tight. Its nice because she is keeping from getting germs from everyone who wants to touch her..ha. But then no one in public believes me how much she knows and can do because she just stares at them.

-she knows over 100 words! yes, I wrote them down. haha. I can teach her to say ANYTHING after saying it a few times...but the 100 words are the ones she says on a regular basis. its AMAZING to watch her learn things and understand what we say and do. I can say "do you wanna go play in your room?" and she will take off running to her play room. or "do you wanna go play outside?" and she runs to the back door. or "are you hungry?" she says "EAT EAT EAT!!" She can tell me all the sounds that animals makes and point out and say all animals in books. its funny to hear her say "moo" when we ask her what a cow says. Its kinda an angry "moooo" sound. And instead of "woof" for a dog, she pants like a dog. she also likes to tell us where our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, belly button and toes are.

-when she walks in a room and sees you, she says "HI" really loud. its precious.

-instead of saying "no" she says "uh-uh" and shakes her head.

-she got her first pair of "BIG GIRL" shoes. they have Dora on them and they light up as she steps. she loves them!

-she's starting to say "mommy" and "daddy" instead of momma, dadda. its really cute! i don't know where she learned it. it kinda sounds a little british "mommeee" "dattee"

-when you ask her to play peek-a-boo, she quickly covers her eyes for a long time and then uncovers them and laughs.

-she's VERY girly and loves jewelry. everything in the shape of a circle can be turned into a bracelet and she will walk around with her hand in the air to keep it on. she loves to go through my jewelry box.

-she also loves watching me put on make-up. I let her play with my blush brush sometimes and she will put it on her cheeks and then on mine.

-she still loves flowers and will pick them all in our backyard.

-also very girly--she will point at a bug that is outside, on tv, or in a book and say "EWWWWWW!!!". the other day she found a dead beetle in our house and picked it up and carried it to me and said "EEEWWW!!!"

-she loves Dora the Explorer and will say "D-D-D-D-Dora!" when she sees her Dora doll. If you have watched the show, you will know that in the song it says "D-D-D-D-Dora!"

-we can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and she will light up and put her hands in the air and dance and turn in circle saying "up above the....lalalalalalala....like a diama...lalalalala..then louder "UP ABOVE THE....LALALALAL"

-Everything can be turned into a phone for her--the remote, her plastic food, shoes, dog bone...ha! She has play phones too. she picked it up the other day and said "hello? uh-huh...uh-uh....bye-bye" it was too cute!

-she loves books...still. :) in the book "Goodnight Moon" she points out the fire on each page and says "HOT!" and pulls away and then blows on it.

-she kisses all things that she likes...her baby dolls, pictures in books, Jacey, other pictures. she will go back in forth kissing me and Bill if she's in a good mood.

-she helps me with putting away clean silverware (except the knives) she likes to hand me the silverware and she says "TANK YOU!" WElll...the other day...she pulled out a cookie sheet from the dishwasher, she walked over to the oven and pulled out the drawer underneath (where cookie sheets belong in our house) and put it in and shut the drawer. It was hilarious! I didn't show her what to do or anything...she just was on her own mission! ha. she must be watching me. then she went back and decided she could play with the cookie sheets and carried them all over the house.

-I can ask her if I can change her diaper and she will lay down the middle of the living room and kick her legs up. ha! I wonder if she does that at the home day care. I have seen 2 year olds there that have done that before. she must be watching them.

My lil smartie

2010-09-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

This video was taken on Labor Day...Kaitlyn LOVES books and loves to tell you everything in books! Towards the end of the video she blows kisses and says "I love you" all on her own. usually she says it after we say it, but we were excited that she said it all on her own and caught it on video!

Summer days drifting away...

2010-07-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have had a WONDERFUL summer. I am so sad to see it come to end so soon. Here are some of the highlights of the summer...
Our great friends, Laura and Steven got married in the beginning of June. I was so thrilled to get to be the maid of honor!! Our whole family was in the wedding--Bill was a groomsman and Kaitlyn was pulled in a wagon! Here is Kaitlyn below looking beautiful...
here is me with the beautiful bride and the other bridesmaids. Such a great day!
Kaitlyn turned 1 at the end of June. She had a fun birthday party! I cleaned out one of our spare bedrooms and turned it into Kaitlyn's playroom. This will also be her future bedroom. She loves having a big playroom!
Fourth of July was a lot of fun at my mom and Tony's house. We got to swim and eat BBQ with family and in the evening we watched fireworks with family and friends in the neighborhood. Its the best firework show ever...and even better we got to watch them with family and friends! Kaitlyn even stayed up to watch the fireworks. She loved them!
My 10 year reunion was also this summer...this picture looks terrible because I couldn't figure out how to make it any bigger either... Kaitlyn's gotten to have a lot of fun this summer...we have had play dates with friends at the zoo, gone to story times at the library, went to the splash pad a few times (and still are going with a friend this next week!), played at the play area in Sooner mall, gone swimming, ran through sprinkler, and had several lunch dates with her dadda! Below are a few pics of fun outings...Friday Bill was off work and we decided to drive to Seminole to the Children's museum and had a blast there with Kaitlyn! We knew she would be too young for most of the things there and probably won't remember it, but she sure smiled and laughed a lot! We think she had a blast!! She thinks she's a big kid...

Its been awesome to see how much she's grown over the summer. At the beginning of the summer, Kaitlyn could walk, but was still pretty wobbly when walking. Now she is running and can keep from falling. She also didn't have any top teeth at the beginning of summer, now she has 4!! She went from drinking formula in bottles and eating pureed food to drinking whole milk in sippy cups and eating the same food that we eat. I was glad to help her with this because she didn't want to chew anything and it would all come up..suddenly one day she decided it was pretty good stuff!
She's also become very girly. Probably because she sees how I react to things. She loves watching me put on makeup and loves when I take my blush brush and tickle her face with it. She loves jewelry and will put it on me and say "pretty!" She loves flowers and picks all the dandelions that grow in our backyard each day. When she sees bugs or crumbs on the floor she says "EEeeeew!" and points to it.
Now she can repeat just about anything we say. I can say, "Kaitlyn I love you." and she'll smile and say "I love you!" here is a video of her...

She also is really good at giving kisses. Oh and she's getting very attached to me and Bill and cries when we leave to go somewhere. so its gonna be extra hard on both me and her when I go back to work. :( I am sure I will cry too.

And here is a video of Kaitlyn helping me with the dishes. We are starting her early on doing chores...ha!

Here is a cute video of Kaitlyn and our dog Jacey playing together...they sure love each other...

Recent photo shoot...

2010-07-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here are Kaitlyn's 1 year pics. We got some family pics too. We have used several different photographers since Kaitlyn was born and we love them all but its nice to have a variety of different styles. My friend Stephanie did these photos. We had fun taking these in bricktown. She is the same photographer that took pics of Kaitlyn when she was 3 months old as well.

These are just a FEW of my many favorites!

She's 1!

2010-06-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn is 1!! I can't believe it! She had a really great birthday! Thursday was her actual BIRTHDAY and Bill took off work. We went out to eat for breakfast and then headed over to the Splash Pad in Choctaw for the first time. Kaitlyn LOVED it!! We came home and played with her, ate lunch, gave her a nap and then went to my mom's pool for a little while. Bill's sister, Erin made Kaitlyn's cute little outfit! She made her shirts and tutus. She also made the tutu for her highchair and the banner that is later in this post.
Saturday was Kaitlyn's birthday party. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but never cried. She became very happy and we opened presents first. She liked the cards, paper, and tags on clothes quite a bit! :) We would open up a present and she would want to play with it or read the book she opened, but had so many presents, we had to move on or it would take all day!
Here is the awesome rocking horse Kaitlyn got from her Grammy, Poppy, and Aunt Erin.
Here is Kaitlyn's cousin, Haylee! :)

The cake!! She wasn't so sure about it at first. She started taking pieces and threw them on the floor for our dog, Jacey.

The awesome zebra rocking chair my mom and Tony got her....
Kaitlyn's boyfriend, Liam. She really likes being around Liam. He blew her kisses and she pointed at him and showed him around the kitchen.

The awesome cake! Becca made this cake and the cupcakes and it was all beautiful! She worked so hard on making this cake. It all tasted delicious too!
I made the little cupcake toppers and decorations.
Kaitlyn's happy with all her toys and other gifts!

And below is a short video that we didn't know was on the video mode. Its only 3 seconds, but its cute! Hope you had a great 1st birthday baby girl! Looking forward to many more birthday parties to celebrate you!

And she's off...

2010-06-09T20:19:00.001-07:00

Kaitlyn took her first steps on May 10th at 10 1/2 months old. Now she can walk all the way across a room. Its so crazy that my baby is walking!

She's learned so much in the past few weeks since I have been home with her. She is understanding words that I say and she'll point to things when I say them.
Her vocabulary has really expanded as well. Her new word is "hi" in a high pitched voice because that is how I have been saying it to her. She likes to say "whoa" "uh-oh" "duck" "baby" "dog" "no" "light" "momma"--but she only says momma with her tongue hanging out. ha!
and just about any other words that we've said, she's repeated.
she knows a little bit of sign language "more" and "all done".
and she loves to punish our dog, Jacey. She'll point to her and babble in a deep voice after she sees me getting onto her.
Some of her newest things are pointing and laughing outloud when other people laugh. She has this cute loud laugh that almost sounds like a cry. Sunday at church her ball rolled up close to the preacher and when he noticed it, he said something about it and everyone laughed. Kaitlyn thought it was the funniest thing that he was laughing and laughed a few times outloud. :)

Another of her favorite things to do is scrunch up her nose and make a mean face. Her daddy LOVES to egg that on as you can see below. they look just alike when doing it!

Busy reading a book by herself... She'll point to pages and just babble to herself.
And below is me and Kaitlyn on my first Mother's Day!

We have had so much fun this summer! I'll have more to update about all our summer adventures in the next couple of weeks. Kaitlyn's 1 year birthday is coming up at the end of June! Wow--can't believe she's almost ONE!

Kaitlyn 10 months

2010-05-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn at 10 months old….

I can’t believe how quickly Kaitlyn has grown over the past few months. We look back at Christmas pictures and she has changed so much since then and that seems like yesterday!! I am so excited to be out of school soon so I can finally spend more time with her! When school began in August, Kaitlyn was only 6 weeks old so I feel like I didn’t get to finish my maternity leave.

Miss Curly Sue! Her hair is so wavy at the top--its hard to brush it and keep it from sticking straight up! I am anxious to see what her hair will look like at it grows longer. We still don't know what color her eyes are. I think we are saying blue...but in some lighting they are green and some lighting they are very gray.

Kaitlyn discovers something knew everyday. One day she will blow in and out of her nose all day long and scrunch up her face and she will think its so funny. Another day she will make a fish face by sucking in her cheeks. Then she might make a clicking sound with her mouth and tongue. Then she will wave bye bye a whole lot throughout the day…then she discovers a high pitch noise to babble sounds….then she’ll clap a whole bunch another day…or blow bubbles or discover any other sound she can make or do. It’s hilarious!! She gets more and more fun everyday!

For Easter we had a friend take pictures with real baby ducks. She picked up a duck and put the entire head in her mouth before I could get to her. YUCK!

Kaitlyn’s first word was “Dadda” at 8 months old. After she said Dadda, she said “Jacey” (our dog’s name), then she would repeat things we would read in books “boat” “ball” “duck”. “goodnight”. FINALLY at 10 months she said “Momma”. It was the greatest thing (to me!). I cried. Now after saying “momma” she has also said a few other things… “dog” and “uh-oh” and “book” Its really funny to see her say dada and momma…she says Dadda with a huge smile and can change the tone from low pitch to high pitch…with Momma its more difficult for her to say…always low toned and sounds like she has a stuffed up nose.

Kaitlyn LOVES playing peek-a-boo and now she can hold up a blanket and cover her own eyes and peak from behind it. She also has learned how to purposely drop something and say “Uh-oh” and she knows that we’ll pick it up and give it back to her to do it again. She LOVES water bottles. I could be drinking from one and she will go nuts trying to take it from me. I give it to her and she wants to drink it so bad so I tilt it up for her and half the time it spills all over. Ha.

She got her first tooth at 9 months and within 2 weeks she had another tooth come in right next to it on the bottom of her mouth. Her upper gums have been swollen for months now. I just know one of these days she’ll wake up with four upper teeth.

There is a song that I sing to my Kindergarteners that I started singing to Kaitlyn…it goes “If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be…standing outside with my mouth open wide, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah (during that part I have my mouth wide open and tilt my head up to catch raindrops and make that sound) Kaitlyn will sing it with me during the “ah ah” part. She LOVES doing that. Now we have sung that song so much, she starts doing the “ah” part when I say the beginning of the song. It’s adorable. I got it on video. So that is definitely her favorite song now. She likes patty cake too, but not nearly as much as the rain song.

Kaitlyn LOVES books!! I can pick up three of four books and say “Kaitlyn wanna read books?” and she will smile really big and crawl super fast to wherever you set down the books. She will stop whatever she was getting into to come read a book. But then you HAVE to read to her when she gets to you or she won’t be happy! It is so neat to see how much she likes board books. We have a book that has buttons that you can push and a voice tells you the word of the picture…the other day Kailtyn said “dog” and after she said dog she reached down and touched the picture of the dog to hear it say “dog.” I was really impressed! I know it could have been coincidence, but I really think she knew what she was pushing.

The other day when I picked up Kaitlyn from the home day care, she was sitting on Betty’s lap. When she heard my voice and saw me, she jumped up and reached for me…I picked her up and she immediately waved “bye bye” to Betty. She knows her routine well. It was cute.

Kaitlyn is VERY curious and crawls very fast!! We get worn out chasing her around the house. We are finding more and more things that need to be baby-proof! She loves to crawl and get into ANYTHING that she is not supposed to get into. She will have all her toys all over the floor and she will want the remote or the dog’s bone or to go straight to our fireplace!

She can stand on her own for about 20 seconds. She’s been pulling up for a few months, but she is very close to taking her first step. She gets scared when I try to get her to take a step but I have a feeling she will take a step before her 1 year birthday.

Well that is my update for my 10 month old. I am trying to write about her every few months so I can put it in her baby book. There is so much that has changed over the past couple of months I know I will forget if I don’t write it down.

Tomorrow is my first Mother’s Day. It is a joy to be a mother and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am honored to have Kaitlyn be my daughter and I am looking forward to watching her grow. At nighttime after giving Kaitlyn her bottle she usually falls asleep in my arms. I sit there and just stare at her not wanting to put her in bed. I am so thankful to have such a precious little baby. I am so blessed that I get to help mold her into the woman she will become. I pray that I can always set a good example to Kaitlyn and be a mom that she can always be proud of.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms and “mother figures” out there!

My baby girl...

2010-04-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

All about Miss Kaitlyn

2010-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

Look at those big blue eyes!

This picture above is her looking like her daddy! haha. Just chilling!

Kaitlyn is 8 months old! Since I hadn’t updated in awhile I thought I would write a post about what all Kaitlyn is doing now and some of her favorite things…this could get long.

Kaitlyn started crawling (a little over a week ago) and now she is all over the place! It’s funny because she discovered the door stopper in her bedroom pretty quick when her foot accidently kicked it and it made a noise and shook. Now she likes to crawl straight to door stoppers! We are gonna have to take those off as part of baby proofing our house! She also loves anything she is not supposed to have. Dog bones, cell phones, purse, paper, etc. She goes straight after those things!

Here is a short video of her crawling:

She is also able to lay on her stomach and pull herself up to sitting position.

Oh and everyday when I pick her up at her home daycare, as soon as she hears me walk in and say “Kaitlyn” she turns my way and smiles and reaches for me! I love it!

She LOVES it when her daddy says “Daddadadadadada” he never fails in making her smile! She loves when he comes home everyday too. She likes going on walks and going outside. Here we are about to take a walk and she's wearing her new windbreaker. She almost fell asleep when we went walking!

She loves when someone is wearing zippers, buttons, hats, or anything she can pull on.

She likes to put her toes in her mouth when we are changing her diaper. This is hilarious. Wish I had a picture of that.

She loves our dog Jacey and is so good with her.

She also loves splashing in the bathtub—she really can’t sit still in the tub. It’s like a big party in there. She tries to pull herself up from the side of her bathtub and will constantly reach for things or splash.

She loves sticking anything in her mouth and really loves jumping in her exercauser or jumping anywhere even in your lap!

The picture above she is trying to figure out her sippy cup. She still doesn't really understand that you tilt it up and juice comes out. We are working on that.

Her favorite food is sweet potatoes and squash, she does not like homemade avocado! Ha…she gave me the funniest face when she tried avocado!

Her favorite shows are Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer (although Bill says she LOVES watching football!)

Kaitlyn LOVES books. Of course, her mom is a Kindergarten teacher! Her favorite books are Goodnight Moon/Brown Bear and any touch and feel books.

She loves it when we sing--This Little Light of Mine and Jesus Loves Me . She loves music and loves hearing others sing during church.

Some of the sounds that Kaitlyn makes—Mmmmm when tired, Mommamommamomma when upset, Guh guh (for good girl when she sees our dog, Jacey), and she is exploring more sounds—Ahhhhh, grrrrrrr (this is a VERY deep sound that sounds like a dog growling), dadadadada

She went through a phase about a month ago where she stuck out her tongue quite a bit. It was funny.

Here is a pic....

Now she is all about blowing bubbles and spitting. We egg her on which is probably not a good thing because she’ll probably do it in the middle of church sometime.

She never has liked taking naps, but is cranky all day if she doesn’t nap well. She also wakes up more at night when she doesn’t nap. Lately she’s been sleeping so good at night it’s around 10 ½ - 11 hours straight. Sometimes she’ll wake up after 9 or 10 hours, eat and go right back to sleep for a couple more hours. She’s (almost) always slept pretty good at night though. At 2 weeks old she slept 5 hours straight with no problem and that was with me waking her up. Thank goodness she is a good sleeper but she sure keeps us busy every evening while she’s awake.

She LOVES her burp cloths and likes to hold on to them all day like a little blankie. After feeding her solids, we hand her the burp cloth and she can wipe her own mouth. She likes to be clean! (That’s my girl! ) oh and one of her new things—she shakes her head no when she is done eating. She will also shake her head no when she is tired or just being silly. Not really sure if she understands the concept of no, but she sure shakes her head like she is answering you. Ha. We need to get a good video of her doing it.

Oh and she likes it when Bill whistles at her. She looks like she gets embarrassed, grins, and blushes. It’s so cute!! She also likes playing “peek a boo!”

She still doesn’t have a tooth. I thought at 6 months old she was teething because I could see those pearly whites up in her gums, but nope doctor said not yet. She drooled very heavily from 3 months to 5 months and had to wear a bib constantly. I still don’t feel any bumps up there yet. I know my teeth came in later and Bill isn’t sure when his first came in, but I read in a book that babies usually take after when their parents teeth came in.

And if you haven't noticed from the pictures, my child has red hair! It’s more a strawberry blonde. I love it! Everywhere we go someone says how pretty her hair is. I have been quite surprised how red it's become. Bill did have a little bit of red when he was little…so it may change to blonde like his did. Her hair is finally getting long enough to put the little bow clips in. They don’t stay in long though since she moves so much!

I am hoping Kaitlyn has a really good immune system now and by the time she starts school and won’t be sick very much because she’s had it really really rough this winter. It went from her very first cold to croup to bronchiolitis, to 3 more times in Pediatrician office before finally getting a breathing machine, and this past week had the stomach flu for nearly a week. Poor girl.

Well that ended up getting super long! I sure love my baby girl and can’t imagine what it would be like without her. I am sure I could go on and on writing about her. She brings so much joy to our lives. She puts a smile on our faces everyday. It’s so neat to see how much this little sweet person already has such an adorable little personality. We love her so much and are so blessed.

Kaitlyn laughing...

2009-12-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

Kaitlyn turned 6 months old on Christmas Eve and that was when we got this video. She's been laughing for us but not many have seen her laugh out loud so we were excited to get her on video. She's doing it more and more each day. She also started eating her baby veggies about a week ago. She seemed to like eating them at first but now we are having a hard time with both veggies and cereal. I think I am putting way too much in her bottle and she is too full to eat solids. I gotta figure out the best way to do that. Or maybe she's too tired when we feed her the solids? I am so glad to be at home these two weeks to try the different foods with her. She is ALSO sitting up by herself. This past month has been a BIG month--So many firsts! from first Christmas, first snow, first veggies, first time sitting up (without support), and first time getting sick :( (not fun). She's also realizing that rolling several times will get her somewhere. I can lay her on a blanket and next thing you know she's halfway across our living room!! She is a very happy baby. :) I am going to have a hard time going back to school next week after spending so much time with her.

2009-12-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

We are SO excited for Kaitlyn's first Christmas!! Of course she really won't know what is going on and will probably only care about the wrapping paper when opening gifts...but we are excited to celebrate with her. On Christmas Eve Kaitlyn will be 6 months old. I can't believe she's already half of a year! She's so much fun! She's a very happy baby and has been laughing out loud quite a bit now. She recently had a cold that turned into croup, so its been really hard to see her not feeling good. She hasn't slept very well at night the last 3 nights and has had a hard time breathing, so we are hoping that tonight she'll finally be able to get her sleep. She's on the road to recovery now and is already feeling better.
It's FINALLY my Christmas break!! I have been looking forward to now ALL semester. I get to be at home for 2 weeks with my baby girl!! I know it will fly by though. Here are a few pictures that were taken this last week at our house.

Blessed...

2009-11-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

Here it is Thanksgiving day!! It was a wonderful day. I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving Break since school started in August. I have been looking forward to spending time off from work with my baby girl. My oh my has she grown over the past 5 months. Here is a picture I took of Kaitlyn yesterday...

She is such a sweet and happy baby! Right now at 5 months old she weighs 16 lbs. She laughs and loves to play!! She also REACHES for everything!!
So mommyhood--what have I learned?? I learned that as soon as my baby was in my arms after she was born...all nerves went away and I knew exactly what to do as a new mommy. I learned that you will analyze EVERYTHING--how much your baby poops, what color their poop is, how much they've pooped, how much they've spit up, if other people are holding her right, if others are holding her bottle right, is she looking pale, is she losing weight, does she have a temp, ....and the list goes on!! ha. You know I always have heard how quickly time flies and how quickly babies/kids grow...but until you have one of your own do you really understand how each day your child grows SOOOoooo much!! I have learned how much I DREAD shots for her and how I would do anything to take that pain away for her.
I have also learned how much I DREAD cutting her fingernails and how quickly they grow!! I got her skin one time and she bled and it was AWFUL hearing her scream and cry knowing I did that! I have also learned that babies being sick and having a cold is NOT fun at ALL!! :( Kaitlyn has not run a fever yet...but has had her first cold for almost a week now. She's had a tough time sleeping at night and breathing through her nose. She just doesn't know what to do about it. It's so hard to see your baby get so frustrated in the middle of the night. I have learned I would do anything to make her happy!! I have also learned many different ways to get her to burp! ha. and how important it is to make sure she burps or she will not be a happy baby. I have learned to not judge other mommies! I have learned that even when your baby wakes you up in the middle of the night--you suddenly are not tired anymore and will kick into parent mode. I have become more interested in making Kaitlyn look pretty than myself! ha. I shop more for her clothes than my own. I have learned that advice people give may not work for your baby and you gotta find what works for you. I have learned that my husband is an amazing father and loves our baby girl so much. I have learned that I am very picky with who holds my baby and always make sure they have washed their hands especially now that Kaitlyn has experienced a cold ! ha.
OKAY...I could go on and on...but now I want to share some pics/videos...

Here is Kaitlyn so tired after visiting lots of family members. today...

this video was when Kaitlyn was 3 weeks old. Bill was at work and I was using my camera. I loved when she woke up because she stretched and made this cute noise. What was I thinking waking up a sleeping baby?? (another thing I learned--don't wake a sleeping baby!!) ha.

This was when Kaitlyn was 7 weeks old....It looks like Bill is shaking her around, but I promise the camera just made it look that way. ha. I was cracking up while doing this video because she was just so content and just let him do whatever he wanted with her. :)

Wow--she has changed SO much since these videos!!
I have several more videos of Kaitlyn in the bathtub and her first time eating infant rice cereal but it takes a long time to get these videos to load...so maybe later. I need to get a video of her laughing and squealing. When Kaitlyn was 4 months and 1 week old..we tried feeding her infant cereal with a spoon since her doctor recommended it. It didn't go as well as we hoped. It took a week of TRYING to feed her before she swallowed any. For that entire week each time we tried to feed her she cried and turned the other way and we made just a mess all over her! Then one day Bill made her laugh and put the spoon with cereal on it in her mouth and she ate some and realized she actually liked it! ha. Then for the next few days after that she would cry when it wasn't in her mouth and we couldn't get it in quick enough! Now when eating she sticks her tongue out really far for each bite. I can't help but laugh because she's just so darn cute!

Recently...

2009-11-22T10:03:00.001-08:00

A few more favorites...

2009-10-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

Baby Kaitlyn at 3 months old...

2009-10-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

This post is for NOELLE and anyone else who wanted me to post!

2009-09-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

I've been told I need to post, so here it is Noelle! :) I am terrible about posting. i need someone to remind me every once in awhile. Above is one of our favorite pics of Kaitlyn. Bill took it on her 2 month birthday! She is growing so fast! We look back at pictures from right after she was born and she already looks so different. She has gotten good and chubby! I love it! She'll be 11 weeks old on Wednesday. Still don't know what her eye color will be. One day they look blue, then brown, then green, or gray. She sure smiles a lot now. Today was a fussy and tired day. MAybe a growth spurt? She's also drooling like crazy!! Her shirt was soaking wet yesterday. Is it possible that she could be pre-teething? Her hands are constantly in her mouth too and drool is all over them.
Below is our attempt to get a family picture with EVERYONE! :) didn't work out so well. ha.
This is Kaitlyn carrying on a great conversation with her daddy!
And here is her smiling at her momma! We tried out the bumbo seat and she loved it! I didn't really think she would be big enough for it, but she did fine in it. She sure likes sitting up and looking around.
This is us weighing her at 2 months old on our home scale.
Beautiful girl!
Here is me and my girl! This was after I became a blonde again.
I love this pic too. Pretty girl. Bill does a good job taking pictures too.

Kaitlyn 7 weeks

2009-08-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

I have been terrible about posting since Kaitlyn has been born. I am writing this with one hand and Kaitlyn is asleep laying on me! She is now 7 1/2 weeks old. wow does time fly!! everything went well when she was born...healing for me was much harder than I expected--actually I am still not 100% better. Kaitlyn is doing great and gaining lots of weight--she is getting good and chubby! She is such a sweet baby. She is smiling a lot--we are just waiting for those first giggles! sometimes she will smile and "coo" so much you think a giggle will come out! Last week her aunt Erin said "hi" to her and we could've sworn she said "hi" right back from the sound she made!! we have a genius 7 week old! haha.
I had to start back to work this past week. It came WAY too soon. I cried the first day of school....and then I got to school and had parents cry as they dropped off their "babies"with me in Kindergarten. It is SO hard to leave my baby girl all day! But it sure is nice coming home. She had been sleeping so good at night UNTIL the first night of my first day of school. she's decided to get my attention at night since I've been gone during the day!
here are some pictures of her over the past few weeks...

My baby girl!

2009-07-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

Kaitlyn Grace was born on June 24th!! We love her so much!! 6 lbs 13 oz 19 1/2 inches long

In labor eating my ice chips...
Proud daddy...

Going home on June 26th...
2 weeks old...
Our family!

Maternity Pics By Sweet Dream Photos

2009-06-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Erin, Bill's sis, gave us a package for Christmas to go to Sweet Dream Photos and have the "The Baby Plan" which included photo shoots for maternity pics and baby pics for up to a year old!! Our friend, Amanda, owns the company and is an excellent photographer. (sweetdreamphotos.com) She made us feel comfortable and we had a fun time taking these. I can't wait for her to take pics of Kaitlyn! We had these taken just before 36 weeks. She has a few more that she is going to send me, but I wanted to go ahead and show these on here.

Me and Jen

2009-06-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Jen and I gave ourselves a photo shoot the other day! We were cracking up the whole time and have a ton more pictures. Balancing the camera in the grass (above) was pretty difficult, but we were excited how that picture turned out.

Cheesecake Factory with the Mitchells

2009-06-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

We met up with Michael and Annaleise at the Cheesecake Factory! yum! here is our strawberry shortcake dessert. We had a lot of fun with them!

38 weeks 3 days

2009-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Its our 6 year anniversary today!! We are going to hang out at home since we went to the Melting Pot a couple weeks ago. Above is a picture of us a year ago today on our 5 year anniversary when we stayed at the Renaissance. My hair has gotten so much darker since I have been pregnant!
Anyday now is what the doctor tells me. Above (and below) were pictures taken a week ago at 37 weeks. I don't think I have changed in the past week. I almost didn't post a belly shot, but I thought it'll be the last one and you can see how Kaitlyn is way over on my left side. I've been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions lately and feeling a lot of pressure. Last night it started hurting when I had contractions. But it went away. Today I am being a hermit. I really don't want to go anywhere or do anything because I am just so big and uncomfortable. Going anywhere in the car makes me have a lot of contractions.
I am going to go walking (if I can) to try to get this labor started! My hands and feet really started to hurt as they have swollen. I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring the past few days. I still have just a tiny bit of ankles. My doctor's appt was on Friday and there has been a little progress--I am still dilated to a 2, but now 50% effaced. The doctor wasn't there, but the PA was trying to tell me that I should think about getting induced in the next week if she hasn't come yet. She said that since I am so small and the baby is getting so big. So I don't really know what to think about that. I thought I would call my doctor tomorrow as she gets back into town to see what she thinks I should do. She was already planning to "strip my membranes" this Thursday which may cause my water to break anyways, so I don't know if she would prefer to induce? I would rather Kaitlyn just come on her own in the next few days so we won't have to make that choice.
and although you can't see them, stretch marks began appearing 2 weeks ago. They are getting worse too. :( hopefully they'll go away after she is born..

fwendz

2009-06-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Laura and I went to get pedicures (forgot to take a picture) and then later in the evening, we went to Shogun's with our husbands (well...her husband to be..) . We always have fun together. I LOVE that place! At one point during the meal I took a drink of water and spilled it and felt drips on my foot. My heart started pounding because I thought my water broke! I told Erin about this and she told me this same thing happened to Vanessa AT Shogun's! I forgot about that happening to her. I thought that was funny.
This was a GREAT surprise! Laura and Steven have given us so many baby gifts...She called and said they wanted to show me something. I had no idea what she was up to. When they got here, they asked if I would go outside...I saw the highchair that we've been really wanting with a sign laying on top that said, "This is a bribe...Will you be my maid of honor." I thought that was a really sweet way of asking! Their wedding is a year from tomorrow (June 12th). So I have motivation to get back in shape after Kaitlyn is here! :)
Of course Bill and Steven wanted to join in the fun too! :)

Nursery!

2009-05-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, here is the baby room! I was very excited to get the mobile and lamp that matches the bedding! There are still a few things that I need to put up...and there is a small wall btw our bedroom door and the entrance that you can't see. Some of the other decor or things we got that didn't not fit in the room, we have in her other bedroom. I haven't finished that room yet, it may be awhile. I have a lot of ideas though. This room that is her nursery is a small room attached to our bedroom. Its perfect for a nursery and later the office room.
Here are the letters I have been working on. My friend Jeri helped find the font and we printed them off and her husband bought the wood, cut them out, and sanded them down. Then I painted them pink and used mod podge and craft paper for the front. I got some polka dotted ribbon and used that to hang them from. You'll see a close up of the letters on the bottom picture.
You can see the changing table and shelves on the wall. I need switch up some other things to put on the shelves. I have an adorable decorative plate I will put on the shelves, I just am trying to figure out how to get it up there without it falling. I have to paint the little rocking chair that is on it now. And I am working on making a little stuffed rabbit that someday I will finish for the shelves.
Here are the letters and below is a closeup. I always saw baby rooms with their name on wood letters and am so glad I ended up doing it! I was always so tired I never thought I would finish.

When do you think Kaitlyn will be born???

2009-05-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was getting on here to finally post pictures of the nursery...but Bill hasn't put them on the computer yet and I don't know how to....so I will post about my doctor's appt today....

Today I was checked and dilated to a 2. The doctor felt on my belly and thinks Kaitlyn is around 6 lbs already. The baby's head has dropped (she told me this last week actually) and is engaged. I asked what station that meant (I've been reading stuff online) she said about a -1. I guess a 0 would mean the baby is ready to come out. She said effacement was at a 30% which means my cervix is thinning out. So she compared this to another lady that is due in about a week...she said that that lady's baby has not dropped and become engaged yet...which means she will either go past her due date or will need a C-section. I asked her if she had an estimate of when I will give birth and she said probably a week or so before my due date. She doesn't think she will be late at all. good news for me! Which all along for some reason I have had a feeling she may come a little early before due date-maybe because the doc told me at 14 weeks that she felt like a big baby. I had the same feeling early on that she was going to be a girl. BUT she said not to keep that as a promise...she very well may not come until her due date. But she also said she could come in the next week. so its a good thing we put the car seat in last night and my bags are packed. The only things that I would like to accomplish is finishing out thank you cards, me and Bill need to finish with our office room and organize it, buy a recliner or glider, go to Bill's work shower they are throwing for us next Thursday, and take our breastfeeding class this Tuesday night. If none of that happens before she is born, that is okay too. :)
So knowing all this...what is your guess on when Kaitlyn will be born?? Her due date is June 25th.

I'm finally posting shower #2 and #3....

2009-05-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is my church shower, it was on May 3rd. We got a lot of really great stuff!! Above is all of the hostesses with me and Bill.
And here is me and Bill...yes, I got all emotional. That's happened a lot lately. But I had to post this picture because of the look on Bill's face!! ha.

All of the presents packed in the back of my SUV!!

AND.....this is my work shower.... it was on April 30th (almost a month ago...)
I am sitting in my principal's chair. He let me borrow it for the last month of school since my back was killing me. Isn't that nice?!
Me and Jeri!
Me and the wonderful hostesses, Tamara and Becca!

So this little cutie is going to be Kaitlyn's boyfriend! They will get to see each other and play with each other everyday!
These cake balls and ice cream were soooooo good!!!!

My mom came with me! Bill couldn't make it since it was while he was at work.

Pregnancy update and baby raccoons!

2009-05-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

Above is the latest belly picture we have taken. This was taken a week ago today when I was 34 weeks and 2 days. Yesterday I went for my 35 week appt and I will go see the doctor every week now. This was the appt where they check for strept B. That wasn't fun. I won't know the results for another week, so hopefully that will turn out okay. The doctor checked me and I found out the baby has dropped! Her head is down and she is engaged. So she is in the right position! No wonder I am going to the bathroom every 20 minutes! (sorry, TMI!) I also found out that is why I am having trouble walking and am having other pain--her head is in my pelvis! I am not dilated yet though which is okay. I know that really doesn't matter because it affects everyone differently. I won't be getting any more ultrasounds. A lot of people have told me that it looks like I am going to pop anyday now...I think she is going to wait a few more weeks. She still has some weight to gain. She is kicking really high at my ribs and I can feel her really low also. I am short so she is all over the place in there! ha. I don't know how much she weighs now, but according to my pregnancy books and weekly emails, she should be around 5 1/2 lbs now and should gain a half pound each week. Maybe next doctor's appt the doctor could tell me how much she weighs.
School is out, so now so I can finish everything I wanted to do before Kaitlyn comes. After saying goodbye to people at work, it hit me yesterday how close it is until she comes!! Some people said next time they see me I would be a mommy...I bawled when I got in my car! It was a good pregnancy/excited cry. All year I knew I just had to get through this school year and then she will come soon after that! It was a tough school year, so it never seemed like it would end. I am glad that I can get some rest before she comes because I know I won't get much when she is here. Although me and Bill got up at 7:30 this morning when we could have slept in! ha. No sleeping position is comfortable and I get up a million times to go to the bathroom. Oh well anything is rest when you are used to being on feet all day talking, explaining, disciplining, yelling, bending, walking, and teaching 24 five and six year olds all day!
And now, baby raccoons!! My brother, Matt loves animals! He rescued these baby raccoons from a friend's attic. They would have died in the wild if he wasn't nursing them. He knows everything about them and is so good at taking care of them. I could not believe I held a baby raccoon (at almost 9 months pregnant!) He will probably be giving them to an animal rescue as they get bigger and knows they will be okay.
Here is one of them sucking on my mom's finger.
My niece Haylee is such a little country girl! she picked them up like they were kittens! She loved holding them.

Here is Matt feeding one with a bottle.

My sweet dog, Jacey!

2009-05-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I would make a post for my dog, Jacey!! She has been our baby the last 4 years...and she still will be...just not the only baby anymore. She is so interested in all these new baby things and wants the toys and stuffed animals to herself!
I think she has an "instinct" about the baby. She knows something is different about me.
She leans up against my belly a lot!! She's been very clingy lately.

Here she is trying to lay on me! I have to push her off of me a lot because she tries to take the place of that big bump on my belly!! ha.
And here she is with Bill!! Aren't they both adorable?!

First Baby Shower!!

2009-05-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am finally posting pics from my showers. Actually, I am just going to post pics from my first shower and will have to post the other two we've had since later. There were SO many pictures, I had a hard time choosing which ones to post from this shower!! This was a family and close friends shower that my wonderful sister-in-law, Erin, threw for us. She did an awesome job! I wasn't able to put everything from this shower on here or I would have over 100 pictures! I also don't have many pictures on here from who was there. There were between 15-20 people there and it was a lot of fun! I am now 34 weeks pregnant and I was 30 weeks during this shower, so I have grown a lot since then!
Me and my beautiful niece, Haylee!
Playing pin the baby on the baby! Erin blew up a picture of me standing to my side and everyone had to take a baby "Bill" and see who can get the closest to baby Kaitlyn. It was really funny! Erin used a picture of Bill's face (he looked almost like he was crying!) and put it in a baby body. I didn't post pics of it since it's so small, but I will be putting it in a scrapbook if you ever wanna see!
All the gifts!!!!!!

I didn't get a pic of all the gifts opened, but we got a lot of really great stuff!!
The food was amazing!!!!!
Jen did an awesome painting for the nursery!
Me and the lovely hostess!

Check out the diaper cake!

Yes, that's me "tasting" a diaper! yum! We played a game and each diaper had a different kind of chocolate candybar smeared inside. We had to guess the candybar. pretty funny!

4-D Ultrasound...

2009-04-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Thursday was an exciting day! I was given a gift certificate from a parent of a boy I had in my class a few years ago to go to Miracle Within Ultrasound and get a 4-D ultrasound. It was so neat to see what our baby already looks like! I think she looks adorable...I may be biased though. :) We were able to watch her smiling and her eyes open at one point and she yawned and moved her mouth a bit. I was speechless and had a tear roll down my face. We have a 30 minute DVD from the session, but Bill was only able to put 10 minutes of it on his blog if you want to watch it. It kinda looks like she is saying "I love you" in sign language on that top picture--see it's NOT the texas sign. :) We had it confirmed that she is STILL a girl. And if you were wondering why it looks like she is wearing a necklace on that top picture, it's actually the umbilical cord and the ultrasound tech said to not worry about it being around her neck since it's loosely around it. It was really funny because nearly the entire time her legs were crossed and way up by her head almost kicking her forehead. The ultrasound tech had to shake my stomach a bit and slap it to get her to stretch out for a better picture. She would stretch out and then go right back to that position. No wonder I've been feeling her kick so much!

28 weeks (or 7 months)

2009-04-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

No, I promise that's not a basketball in there!

I am now in the third trimester!!!!! This picture was taken yesterday at the end of a long school day, so I don't look my best. I thought it would be funny to put on a shirt that I would wear often around the house before I was pregnant. It's a size small. It was pretty difficult to stretch it over my belly for the picture. I usually am wearing Bill's shirts around the house now.
I feel like I am huge. She is such an active baby, I told Bill we need to video tape her rolling around and kicking so I can post it on here. I get a "kick" out of her kicking. haha. :)

more pregnancy stuff..

2009-03-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'll make up for not posting much lately..

Spring Break was great! I was able to get a lot done and get lots of rest!! I wanted to sleep in as much as I possibly could because soon I won't get to do that! We rearranged the baby furniture and it looks really good. I wanted to get all the decorating done during spring break, but I didn't get to that. We did get to register at Babies R Us and Target! We also took a birthing class last Saturday...which made for a really long day, but I am glad we did it. They made all the daddies-to-be give a good massage to the mommies-to-be. I liked that part! :) We watched a few videos that really made me teary eyed when hearing all about labor and birth. I am definitely planning to get an epidural.
My sciatic nerve has been REALLY hurtin' bad this week. It hurts to sit down because it's right there in the middle. My doctor told me some exercises to do to help it, but it really doesn't help a whole lot. I am hoping my husband will start giving me massages every night to help that pain...hint, hint!! I have always heard about the pains and how uncomfortable you get when pregnant--but man, there are so many places that hurt and feel so "not normal" all the time! My doctor said since I am so short, there is not as much room in there and I'll feel a lot of pain in my ribs (which I have) and other places. she said usually all those pains I explained to her are after 30 weeks...so I guess it just gets worse? or I guess I should just get used to it. I also had my first pregnancy leg cramp a couple days ago and dang those stink!
It's hard to find a position that is comfortable to sleep--especially with that sciatic nerve pain. Actually I haven't gotten much sleep at all lately. Sunday night was zero amount of sleep! I sleep on my left side and she kept kicking on that side...I almost felt like I was hurting her by laying on her--so I laid more on my sciatic nerve instead! Then she continued to kick all over all night. I know she is just preparing me for what's to come after she's born...she'll sleep during the day and be awake all night! A lot of kicking is always a good thing!

I just went to my doctor's appointment today. I'll be in my 3rd trimester next week so my doctor will need to see me more often. I had to have my Rhogam shot since I have RH negative blood. I had this shot after I had the miscarriage and I think I was just so numb then that I really couldn't feel it, because it hurts more than I remember. Maybe it hurt more now since the shot was close to my sciatic nerve?...
I had a million "is this normal" questions for my doctor... I always feel more relieved after I talk to her. I had her sign my consent form to get a 4-D ultrasound in two weeks at Miracle Within Ultrasound in Edmond--I was given a gift certificate from a friend to have that done. We are really excited about getting a 4-D ultrasound!
Dr. Doeden also measured me and said I measured at 30 and she said that is ahead of schedule....I should've asked, but if I measure at 30cm, does that mean I measure at 30 weeks? Anything ahead of schedule is great news! I would love to have her come a couple weeks earlier than my due date--not TOO early, but 2 weeks would be fine--as long as she is healthy and everything developed well. :) The earlier would mean the more time I have at home with her before school starts in August.
I'll have to post another picture soon.

OH AND YAY FOR LESS THAN 100 DAYS!!!!!!!!

Pregnancy amnesia!!!!

2009-03-25T17:55:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I have posted. I have a lot to write about, but just going to write about one thing today...

About three weeks ago, I took off work half of a day to go do my glucose test. If you don't know about this already, you do this b/w 24 and 28 weeks. They give you instructions on what to eat for breakfast--no sugar--I had bacon, eggs and toast. then I drank this special orange drink they gave me about an hour later. You have to down it all in 2 minutes. THEN you have to have your blood drawn exactly an hour later (but be there 45 min later). Everything was going well..I had the drink (thankfully it didn't make me sick, but it wasn't the best!) and I had a 40 minute drive to the hospital. WELL, on the way there, I saw this car with bars separating the front seat and back seat and thought it looked...um, ghetto. ...so I got closer to look at it...when I decided to go around this car, I saw that lights magically appeared on the car and realized it was a police officer!!! (well, duh Amy!) I looked ahead to see who he was pulling over and there was no one in front of us... he pulled behind me and I had no idea why he was pulling me over. (right away I remembered that I got pulled over 2 weeks before for following someone too close and then I hadn't had my insurance card because I accidently threw it away a few days before.--luckily THAT police didn't ticket me, just a warning). I hadn't received my new insurance card in the mail since the last time I got pulled over and knew I didn't have my card this time either. Then I opened my wallet to get my driver's license and that was gone too!!! All I could think was CRAP...I need to have my blood draw in 5 minutes and I am going to get a ticket AND get thrown in jail and I'm PREGNANT!!! The police man came up to my window and asked for my "stuff" and I was hysterically crying flipping through my wallet. I told him that I ALWAYS have my driver's license, but I think I left it at my last doctor's appt..but at the same time I was trying to explain what happened to my insurance card...and try to explain that I had to be at the doctor for a timed test within the next few minutes. He had NO sympathy for me and looked at me like I was a crazy person. it was pitiful. I couldn't make sense talking. so, I ticket for "following too close". He thankfully didn't ticket me for the other things. After the ticket I had to drive to the hospital and realized I left my paperwork at home (AMNESIA AGAIN!). Time was TICKING! I had to go to a different office and take care of that and then finally checked the time and I was 12 minutes past the hour. LUCKILY they told me there was a 15 minute window. WHEW! I did NOT want to have to go through drinking that nasty stuff again!!! By the time I got back to the school, everyone seems to have already found out about the ticket and me not having my license and insurance card. I felt like an idiot.

This is not the only time while pregnant that I have had amnesia or have been extremely clumsy. The poor kids in my class have had to remind of where I put things and I have spilled my water nearly everyday. I keep thinking that I am not myself at all!! The childbirth instructor last Saturday told us that pregnancy amnesia is true because you actually are not getting enough oxygen to the brain. SO I can blame my craziness on that.

We got baby furniture!!!!!!

2009-03-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

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We got baby furniture!!!! :) Bill did a great job putting the crib together. The pictures really don't do justice, you'd have to see it all in person. The wall is a light green color and our trim is all black so it looks good with the furniture. I don't know for sure how we will arrange it all...but I definitely have a lot of work to do with decorating--which I am very excited about.
Since we've gotten this all together, I have gone in there a million times just to look at it and imagining our baby in there!! The room is connected on to our bedroom, so you can see it all from our bedroom when the doors are opened.

24 weeks!

2009-03-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

This one above was taken today...kinda a weird picture. It looks like half of my arm is missing!
This was taken on Valentine's Day--check out the flowers Bill got me!

I hadn't posted in a few weeks, so I thought it was about time. Today I am 24 weeks pregnant!! It's exciting to be this far along--especially to know that there have been babies born at 24 weeks and actually survived. NOT that I want her to come this early AT ALL--she still has a lot of growing to do!! It's just neat to know. I took off work for half of the day tomorrow to go take the glucose test. I am really dreading it...I hope the drink doesn't taste bad or make me sick. I just wanna get it over with and pass!
Last week Bill and I went with his mom and sister to buy baby furniture!! Bill's grandmother left some money when she passed and his mom decided to use some of the money for us to get all new baby furniture as a gift from his grandmother. We will get to pick it up this weekend!! It's all black so it will match the black trim throughout our house. We got a 4-1 crib, so she will get a lot of use out of it. I will post pictures of it when we set it up. And I ordered bedding too that came in a few days ago. It's called Ladybug Lullabye and it's on the Babies R Us website if you wanna see it.
Today I had three different people at work give me baby gifts. 2 were parents of Kindergarteners. One gave me a VERY soft and pretty baby blanket...and the other gave me a bunch of really cute outfits! Then a very sweet 5th grade teacher gave me our first package of newborn diapers, Christmas bib and booties, and a cute onesie! It's so fun getting baby stuff!!!

Speaking of baby stuff...I need help! Next weekend, Bill and I are going to start registering. We are going to register at Babies R Us and Target. I am making a list of things that we need to register for. If you are a mom and have any recommendations, please leave a comment for me. I know everyone may have a different opinion on what works and what doesn't, but I still want your advice. Or if there is anything that you wish you would've gotten or certain brands that you love.... please let me know.

Ready for a long post??

2009-02-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

almost 21 weeks

So this week at work everyone is telling me I got big overnight. People definitely notice that I am pregnant now! I am carrying very high--I feel like my belly button is looking at me-ha. Kinda funny this morning the whole school watched the 2nd grade perform their music program and as I walking in a student I had last year said "Hi Mrs. Bryan...." then looked at my stomach and said, "WHOA!!!" some parents heard him and were cracking up. Another former student of mine got in an argument with other kids in her class because they told her I was preganant and she said, "don't say that about Mrs. Bryan, she is NOT pregnant, she would tell me if she was..." She was really upset about it. Her teacher thought it was funny that she thought they were saying something bad about me and she tried to defend me.

I have been wondering all along if I have been feeling her kick and now I know for sure!! Last week it was amazing, I was laying in bed watching tv after I ate and felt a kick! I looked down and SAW another kick!! So cool, I bawled. :) I told Bill and have been wanting him to feel her move...so yesterday, he saw a kick when watching my belly and then today he got to feel a kick!! It was so neat to share that experience with him! She's kicking like crazy now!! Especially after I ate spicy food on Saturday night.
oh and we decided on a name!! Her name is Kaitlyn Grace! I have always loved the name Kaitlyn and was surprised that Bill like the name so much too. Grace is the name of Bill's grandma who passed away when his dad was young. So it is a very special name to his side of the family.
My friend and one of my roommates from college gave me an awesome gift--it's a Christian children's CD with her name personalized in all of the songs. I love it!! Kaitlyn loves it too!!

Today was a crazy afternoon for my school...
I had recess duty from 2-2:30...while outside, the tornado sirens go off. I had to gather all 80 kids as fast as possible (and I forgot my whistle!!). The other two K teachers ran out as the kids were running to the building and we got them inside. While going in, many older kids were in the hallway getting in position so I hoped my class stayed with me. By the time we get to our hallways, I realized we have not practiced a tornado drill all year, so we had to get the Kindergarteners in duck and cover in the hallway. I counted them and they were all there, but about 3 or 4 were crying scared to death. I calmed them down and got them in position. whew, what an adrenaline rush!! They weren't allowed to leave unless parents checked them out, then our principal told us it was fine. That was all so unexpected today!! I am exhausted now!!

18 weeks pregnant

2009-01-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

It's a girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
pj's and hippo!
I love these clothes!!
First crocheted blanket from a sweet lady at work. First onesie, cute blankie and frame.

Since we found out on Thursday that we are having a baby girl, we have been so busy we haven't had a chance to buy anything girly. Thanks to Bill's mom and sister and some friends from work, we already got some cute girly stuff!! We also got a few things for our baby at Christmas time including OSU socks, some binkies, bibs, tigger and pooh. I am including pictures of the "girly" gifts. I am so excited to be having a girl!! I have always wanted one of each, but all along during this pregnancy I had a feeling that it was a girl and only imagined buying girl stuff!! :)

We had sooo much fun Thursday night at our BIG reveal with the cake. You can go to Bill's blog to watch the video from that night-- cooterbrown05.blogspot.com I am including pictures of the cake before cut and after. our friend Katie (cakeittothelimit.blogspot.com) did the cake and did an amazing job!

I didn't realize my stomach had grown so much since the last picture until I took a picture yesterday.

It's a....

2009-01-22T19:23:00.001-08:00

Girl!!!!!

I'll tell you later...

2009-01-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

I will post later tonight if it's a boy or a girl! We know what it is and are sooooo excited to finally find out. We have to wait until we tell our family with our "cutting the cake" plan til they find out if its a boy or a girl. I do want to say that everything looks good and measurements are still the same due date. and the baby had hiccups during the ultrasound. :) "It" is very limber because the toes were way up by the head! It was so neat to see. They actually did a 3-D ultrasound and we didn't even know they were going to. The mouth was opening and closing, so that was neat. I'll post some ultrasound pics...

ONE MORE WEEK!!!

2009-01-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

In one more week we find out if we are having a baby boy or baby girl!!! I can't wait! I am such a planner, I can't imagine not finding out. It's gonna be a very slow week. I really want one of each, so really I don't care if its a boy or girl. I did the Chinese gender predictor online and it says girl. I have heard those aren't always right though. Hmmm..I guess we will see. I have had certain boys in my class who make me want to have a boy and certain girls who make me want to have a girl. What do you think we are having??

So...here is what we are going to do. After we find out (that afternoon), Bill is going to call our friend, Katie, who makes cakes (AMAZING cakes, by the way!) She is going to make either a pink or a blue cake, depending on the sex. It will be frosted really well so you won't be able to see the color of the cake. I think it may have question marks decorated on the top or something. Anyways...that evening Bill will pick up the cake and bring it to our house. Then our family is all coming over and when we cut the cake, they will find out if it's a boy or girl on whether the cake is blue or pink!! I'll have to take lots of pictures of the cake to keep in a baby album. We thought that would be a fun way of telling the family if they are going to be buying blue or pink for our newest family member!! :)

I am also having the kids in my class vote that day. They are so cute...everyday they tell me that my stomach is getting bigger. One boy named Cooper told me that I am having a girl because girls have girls and boys have boys. I asked him if his mom had him or his dad...and he said his dad. ha. Then kids started asking me how I got pregnant...um. I ignored that question. that's up to their parents to come up with something clever. :) Poor kids...they are the ones to witness my mood swings and lack of energy and sickness.

As far as how I am feeling...after 16 weeks, I started feeling MUCH better. THANK GOODNESS! I can actually eat now. I still get morning sickness right after getting up, but that is nothing compared to being sick all day. I still have my nervous moments though--I worry about so many things going wrong. it's so hard after dealing with a pregnancy loss knowing everything will be okay. Some of the most recent Google searches from freaking out was when my dog stepped on my stomach, when I went over a HUGE bump in the road, whenever I woke up and my stomach seemed to shrink, and whenever I thought I ate moldy apricots. After this next ultrasound and we see that the baby has grown and is healthy maybe I won't freak out anymore. Hopefully I will start feeling the baby move. Actually, sometimes I think I am feeling the baby move because there are little pops and bubble feelings here and there. It's not very often though.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T08:23:00.001-08:00

Wow...this is going to be an exciting year! We had a fun New Year's Eve and today is officially my last day of Christmas break. I sure could use a few more days and could certainly get used to sleeping in and doing whatever I want!! I am trying to get lots of sleep because I know in about 6 months, no more sleeping in!! I didn't really get everything accomplished that I planned to over the last two weeks...oh well!

I had my monthly doctor's appointment on Tuesday. I enjoy going because every time I get to hear the baby's heartbeat! This time it was 147 bpm. I was worried my doctor would get on to me because I had a feeling I had lost weight over the past month. And I did, a few pounds. She wasn't worried about it, especially since i am still sick and that's kinda expected 1st trimester. But now that I am in the 2nd trimester, hopefully I will gain some more. I think I eat less than I did before being pregnant. I have to eat such small meals and snacks throughout the day. Some days my stomach is smaller than other days and that worries me! The doctor measured and felt my belly. She said, wow, there's a big baby in there! So that made me happy to hear!
I bought a pregnancy body belt to help with my back problems. It really does help! I am so glad I don't have to walk hunched over anymore.

15 Weeks

2008-12-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

13 weeks 4 days

2008-12-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

Above--the baby's profile.
The face

the back side--check out that arm!

12 Weeks

2008-12-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

I am obviously not very good about updated this thing. I will try to do better. :) Maybe it will be a long one...
Every week being pregnant, I counted down the days to 12 weeks. The risk of miscarriage goes down and so does morning sickness (or so it should). I hoped morning sickness (which totally should not be called that--it's morning, day, evening, and night sickness.) would magically disappear at 12 weeks. Well, Thursday was 12 weeks and guess what...still SICK! I have every symptom in the book that comes with pregnancy. (bad acne, headaches, back pain--yes, already, abdomen pain, morning sickness, FATIGUE, mood swings, emotional wreck, and others I shouldn't mention.... :) I think it's God's way of telling me there is still a baby in there. On days (which doesn't happen often) where I actually feel somewhat okay, I get worried something is wrong. I wish things would get better soon, especially this time of year. I am missing out on a friend's graduation party right now since I was sick this morning and last night. And Christmas shopping hasn't really happened yet.
But, I am lucky to have a good supportive husband who is helping to keep the house clean, get groceries, and who rushes to get me anything I need on the spot! :)
Last week Bill and I went in for our latest doctor's appt. and got to hear the heartbeat. I was 11 weeks pregnant, so we weren't guaranteed to hear the heartbeat, but after the nurse moved the doppler around for awhile, we were relieved to hear it! The little heart was beating 160 bpm!!! Many people are telling me since it's a high heartbeat, that means it's a girl. Bill is refusing to believe that. Although deep down I think that he thinks it's a girl too. When we find out in 6 weeks, we will finally begin purchasing things for the nursery!!!
When I went to Target the other day to buy for a baby shower, seeing all the different brands of diapers, wipes, formula, desitin, car seats, etc, etc. was kinda overwhelming. I am going to have to do some major research on what is the best to buy. I'll have to admit, some of the stuff there I had no idea what it was.
Well, that's all for now...

2008-11-17T17:31:00.001-08:00

Well, well, well...here I am finally beginning a blog page. There has been a lot that has happened to me and Bill the last few months that has inspired me to make a page. We have a new house in Choctaw that I keep delaying taking pictures since it is not quite done yet...but I think I will soon break down and take pictures of the house and post them. Even bigger news...we are going to have a baby! After losing one in August, we were able to get pregnant again and I am 9 weeks pregnant today. I have been so sick, but after seeing the first ultrasound and heartbeat, I realize how blessed we are and how much worth it will all be. Strange thing is, I am already showing on my belly more than people would expect. So, I am posting a picture for you to see. Also, a picture of my husband (baby daddy) and the pregnancy test (to prove it!) So, enjoy and I will try to update as much as possible.

2008-11-17T17:24:00.000-08:00