Blakely Rhyan

Bath Time

2011-05-05T18:13:00.000-05:00

...it's not all sunshine and roses! :)

Meeting Presley

2011-05-05T17:17:00.002-05:00

Sweet Presley :)

2011-05-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

BJ wins!

2011-05-05T16:37:00.001-05:00

BJ is the only person who guessed Presley's weight right on the money!

Waiting to go back and get better pictures! Karen had a 2nd degree tear and is being stitched up right now!

4 pushes

2011-05-05T16:34:00.003-05:00

BJ's sister just came to the waiting room and said Karen only pushed 4 times! (Lucky!) :)

Mom, Dad, and Presley are doing great!! She has the sweetest little cry!

Stats

2011-05-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

Lots of dark hair! Looks just like daddy!!

iphone picture

2011-05-05T16:13:00.001-05:00

She's precious!

2011-05-05T16:10:00.002-05:00

Just saw a video of Presley! Her lungs work!! :)

You can see a very proud Daddy crying in the background!

They are commenting on how pretty her color is!

The princess is here!!!!!

2011-05-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

Face up

2011-05-05T16:06:00.000-05:00

Presley is face up....not really sure what that means! Next push and she's out!

2011-05-05T16:01:00.004-05:00

I'm shaking....This brings back lots of amazing memories! So happy for Karen right now. Giving birth is such an overwhelming experience in the best way possible!

Push! Push! Push!

2011-05-05T16:01:00.001-05:00

Spotted: DARK hair!!

Men....

2011-05-05T15:58:00.001-05:00

Julie and I are fidgeting and anxious. All the men are calm, cool, and collected. Especially our dad....he's just sitting in the corner reading his Kindle! So typical! :)

Any minute now

2011-05-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

Dr. Neville is in the Building!!!! Let's do this!

we're ready

2011-05-05T15:53:00.002-05:00

The nurse had Karen push some to try to get Presley to come down. She made her stop after a few because the doctor hasn't arrived yet!

getting close

2011-05-05T15:48:00.002-05:00

Presley is still pretty high. They still need her to come down before they get going. The baby's nurse has arrived though! Karen has started swelling from all the fluids they're giving her. Feeling lots of pain, so they're turning her on her side!

Praying for a safe delivery!

2011-05-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

15 minutes

2011-05-05T15:35:00.002-05:00

Dr. Neville will be up to her room in 15 minutes. They are getting everything set up and the sky has officially opened! (Probably only women who have had babies will think that's funny!)

game time!

2011-05-05T15:33:00.002-05:00

some things never change

2011-05-05T15:22:00.002-05:00

My mom just texted to say that Karen is touching up her make-up and worrying that her hair might start getting frizzy if she gets sweaty during labor! :) That is sooooo Karen!

By the way....my mom says it will be in the next 30 minutes. We're keeping count and she's said that 12 times today!

waiting room

2011-05-05T15:13:00.004-05:00

We're all glued to our phones waiting for updates....

Here's what's been going on in the waiting room today:

Words With Friends
Chick-fil-A
Fox News
Mavericks talk
Poker
Smoothie King
Reading
Blogging
Sleeping
People watching

.....and lots of waiting! :)

lots of pain

2011-05-05T15:07:00.002-05:00

Karen is hurting a lot now! The nurse has been called in to check her. We're so thankful that Dr. Neville will be the one to deliver Presley! We LOVE her! She delivered Blakely and Addy also!

NINE (and a half)

2011-05-05T14:57:00.002-05:00

Karen is at a 9.5! Baby is still pretty high, so they're needing her to drop quite a bit before she can start pushing! They increased her epidural about 20 minutes ago because she was starting to feel a little more pressure!

In other news, ALL family is here! We've taken over the waiting room! For those who are wondering where big sis Blakely is...she's with her daddy right now and will probably come to the hospital tonight after her sister is born!

tweet tweet

2011-05-05T13:35:00.003-05:00

Karen's feeling good enough to tweet! Gotta love social media! She did feel some pressure from a few of her contractions (which are 1-2 minutes apart right now!) She is at a 6.5 right now!

P.S. Uncle Scott and Sam are en route to the hospital! Scott "dominated that test" - in his words! :)

We're ready!!!!

Epidural troubles

2011-05-05T13:02:00.004-05:00

Just went back to see Karen. They have her sitting straight up in the bed, because when she lays back she gets shortness of breath and feels like she's going to pass out.

When you get an epidural, they give you a dosage based on your height. Karen has a pretty low tolerance for medicine, so they gave her more than what she really needed. As a result it was causing the epidural to go up a little too high and it was making it hard for her to breathe and her arms were going numb. They had to sit her up and give her oxygen, and that seems to be making her feel better.

As of right now she's still at a 5. They just upped her pitocin, so things may start speeding up here soon! She is in a good mood and feels pretty good! She only had 3 bad contractions before she got her epidural, so everything is going well!

Five

2011-05-05T12:41:00.004-05:00

Karen is at a 5! She had a nursing student put her catheter in, so it took a little bit longer than normal! (Apparently the nursing student had been turned down by several patients this morning, until finally Karen told her yes!) BJ's family just went back to see Karen for the first time! Bethany and J.T. are excited to meet their new baby cousin!

Just Waiting....

2011-05-05T12:22:00.003-05:00

We haven't gotten any updates from Karen or BJ in a while, so no new news to report. I'm assuming she's probably just resting right now, so we're all hanging out in the waiting room.

Our dad is here now! We're just missing Scott and Casey!

BJ's Family is Here

2011-05-05T11:45:00.002-05:00

(11:39 am) BJ's dad, sister (Jan), brother-in-law (Sonny), niece (Bethany) and nephew (J.T.) have arrived! Our Mom and Jan will be in the room for the delivery, so now that they are here, Karen can officially have this baby!

Bring on the Epidural

2011-05-05T11:19:00.004-05:00

Karen is having pain now and just ordered her Epidural. Our dad, BJ's dad, BJ's sister and brother-in-law, and Karen's brother-in-law Casey are all headed to the hospital now. When she had Blakely, she progressed pretty quickly, so hopefully everyone will be here soon! Uncle Scott (our brother) is taking a final for seminary in Waco right now, so we're hoping he is able to concentrate and do well on his test and then head this way when he's finished!

My mom just came out and said that Karen is in a LOT of pain now and feels like Presley is about to fall out! She said she thinks Presley will be born in the next 30 minutes. However, my mom also told us 2 weeks ago that Karen would be lucky to make it 24 hours! :)

The nurse just came in to start her epidural (11:30 am) so while we wait in the hall, we're all taking guesses at how much Presley will weigh and what color hair she will have!

Pitocin

2011-05-05T10:59:00.003-05:00

Dr. Neville just came in to check Karen's progress and she is now at a 4! She did notice that her water hadn't completely broken yet, so she went ahead and did that! The nurse just started the Pitocin drip (11:00 am) and Karen is feeling good!

BJ is doing good! I just asked him how he's feeling and his response was "anxious!" He's not lying...he's been pacing this room all morning! :)

All Checked In!

2011-05-05T10:02:00.005-05:00

This is Robin...

Karen woke up this morning to what she was pretty sure was her water breaking. (TMI Alert!) She noticed she was wet and it was a pretty slow drip, but she did what she read online to do and laid back down for 30 minutes. When Karen was pregnant with Blakely she had a false alarm and thought her water broke, when actually she had really only wet her pants! :) Anyway, she read that if you lay down and rest and then stand back up, it will continue to trickle if it's really your water, but nothing will happen if it's just urine! When she stood back up 30 minutes later it started trickling down her legs again so she knew it was her water leaking. They called the doctor and she said to come on in.

We're all here now....lets get this show on the road!

P.S. How fitting that Presley will (hopefully) be born on Cinco de Mayo and her sister is half hispanic! :) Arrrriba!

Our Story

2011-04-16T12:56:00.004-05:00

I have been meaning to start a new blog for the new chapter in our lives. I have registered a name, and started the process.... I just need to format it then I will move my new posts over there. This will make my husband very happy!

Let me start off by telling the story of BJ and I. I cant skip ahead to the fact that I'm 35 weeks pregnant without first telling everyone how I got to this point, minus a few obvious details. ;)

Last January, as in January 2010, I was working full time for the family business and part time for my brother in-laws business. Add the fact I was a full time /single mom and you can imagine how tired and busy I was at all times. The only "adult interaction" I got was with people I worked with. It was my new years resolution to start dating again. I knew this would be hard since I never had time to go anywhere to meet anyone new. I let 2 people I work with talk me into starting an Eharmony account. At first I was embarassed by the fact I was turning to the internet, then as I talked more with my coworkers I finally came around to the idea and thought - who cares what anyone else thinks. I let it be known to my family, few close friends, and Blakely's dad what I was about to embark on. I didnt want to be ashamed of it, or feel like a closet internet dater. I went into the process with an open mind and the idea of just meeting some new people.

I registered for Eharmony at the very end of March. On March 27th, I was "matched" with BJ. This just meant eharmony thought we were compatible, so I could see his profile - and vice versa. On March 28th, BJ initiated the first contact. After going through the "process" online answering questions about eachother, sending emails etc... we exchanged last names and became facebook friends and got eachothers cell phone numbers. We both decided to meet after long conversations on April 7th, his birthday, for a quick meet up. We didnt want it to be a first date with all that pressure. We just wanted to meet up, I had made him brownies for his birthday and just get the initial face to face over with. After that first meeting, we started seeing eachother every day. We hit it off immediately. We were raised the same, had the same morals/values... and most importantly when it came time to meet Blakely I knew this was the man for me. We started talking engagement by the 2nd week. When you know, you know. I never felt like we were rushing anything. Everything just fell into place so naturally. With eharmony we already knew so much about eachother, on surface issues and on the nitty gritty issues that most people uncover months/years into a relationship.

On June 10th, BJ proposed to me. At first we planned on having a big January 2011 wedding. As we started the planning process I knew that what I really wanted was a small beach destination wedding with none of the wedding planning stress. So, on August 13th in front of my parents and a minister we said our vows on the beach in Mexico. Once we got back to the U.S. we said our vows again infront of BJ's dad, a minister, (just us 3) to make our marriage legal here in the U.S..

Fast forward a month later and we found out on September 11th that we were expecting!

I will include more wedding/ honeymoon photos next time... Blogger is giving me problems at the moment.

Hello, Goodbye

2010-08-31T13:06:00.003-05:00

A few things happened since we last talked.

Like this....

Now that Blakely and I are starting a new chapter in our life I thought it would be fitting to start a new blog (new name etc).

Stay tuned for the new site link.

Mobile Uploads

2010-02-15T12:25:00.008-06:00

I thought I would include a bunch of MOBILE UPLOADS to this post so you can see what we have been up too in our blogging absence. If you follow me on twitter I have already posted most of these.

Since I last blogged I have been busy busy! I am still working my day's for the family business my dad and I run. A few nights a week and on weekends I work at my brother in-laws company. Juggling a full time job, part time job and a 1 year old has definitely not left much room for blogging.

My dad and I spent 4 days in Jacksonville, Florida recently at a National Convention for the franchise we own. That was fun to get away and meet owners from all over the country. We were able to exchange a lot of good information.

Blakely celebrated her 2nd Valentine's recently. I got her a 'Yo Gabba Gabba' movie for the car, a new shirt, and some lotion. :) I was on the look out for some kid play jewelry but didn't find any. Blakely is really into wearing bracelets right now. She is also talking up a storm. The other day she surprised me by saying "bye" when someone said "c ya later" to her. I'm not sure how she knew that meant bye.... they weren't by the front door or anything. She still pretends to answer the phone when it rings and says "hello". When I asked her the other day what the cat says... she answered "please". (I was aiming for more of a 'meow' answer.) She does know a puppy says "ruff ruff" thanks to Tia Ray Ray. Also when she is getting sleepy now she will start to say "nite nite".

As for me and my personal life... I am down 30lbs now since November 1st and 19lbs of that has been since December 12th when I started my high protein diet. I have yet to start working out... but that is going to get fit into my schedule THIS WEEK! I have lost all of my Blakely weight now. I just have another 15 lbs of my miscarriage weight to lose.
So much to do... so little time. :)

Blakely loves dipping her fries, nuggets, and fingers (!) into bbq sauce. Her dad taught her this.

Sharing french fries at McDonald's with her dad. We are trying to have family night once a week or so with Blakely.

When I got back from the convention one of my craftsman gave this to me as a gift. Cute !

This is what happens when you aren't paying attention. The picture doesn't do the scene justice. She pulled out every single wet wipe. Notice her escaping the scene of the crime.

I gave Blakely a yogurt covered pretzel the other day. What was I thinking?~ I turned back to look at her and she had it all over her hands & face. She wasn't happy about the mess it made.

When I didn't pull over to clean her off she yanked both her pigtails and bows out. Not a happy camper~

Valentines Dinner with Milo & I . She loved being out and listening to the band. We loved all the food. We bought the valentines day package and even got a bottle of wine. I sipped it. Gag! I seriously don't see how people drink it. Is it an acquired taste?

I made a cupcake out of our light post during the big snow storm!

This is why I'm single. This was my outfit to play in the snow in. Blue sweat pants, a hoodie, and cowboy boots.

Tired baby.

At the convention I won this! :) Just what I have always wanted.... an angle grinder. Seriously though, I was just excited I won something.

Crazy airport hair. She was half blonde / half brunette. I saw this at the DFW airport. Sorry if anyone is related to her and I have now offended you.

Weren't these diet coke cans on the plane adorable? Diet Dr. Pepper is so much better though.

Insecurities

2010-01-12T12:11:00.005-06:00

My friend Tanna wrote a blog post yesterday on one of her former insecurities and I could totally relate to her posting. She touched on how she could still remember a hurtful comment someone in 7th grade made to her about her teeth and how she has never forgotten that. It is amazing how we never forget the hateful words that are said to us. Even the most innocent comments made by people can be the ones that always leave a mark in your memory as well. When you have an insecurity everything regarding that insecurity is heightened and analyzed and thought about for days/weeks/years. I have held those "words" as baggage. Instead of those words motivating me to change... it did the opposite. It was almost like I froze. I was unhappy, depressed, and embarrassed... but I didn't do anything about it. I kept giving up. I have just started to chip away (both literally and figuratively) at my biggest insecurity.... my weight. In the past 2-3 years I gained 20 pounds with a miscarriage and 40 pounds being pregnant with Blakely. As of November 1st I had only lost 19 of those 60+ pounds. YIKES!
In November I got a 2nd job working at my brother in-laws Smoothie King on the weekends. I started paying attention to the success stories of some of the customers that had started meal replacements. I also just started enjoying learning about getting healthy in general and made some small changes in my diet. It wasn't till mid December when my schedule changed and I started working on a regular basis with someone who had experienced tremendous results doing a high protein diet that I made a commitment to myself to change. No carbs, no sugars. I could eat as much meat, vegetables, and even fruit as I wanted. I asked questions and stored the knowledge. On my own, I decided that this was the time I wanted to finally make a change for myself! They say there are 3 types of people. 1) Motivate-able people 2.) self motivated people 3) and Motivators! I am definitely a self motivated person most of the time. People might inspire me, but unless I want to do something and make the decision myself I wont do it. As weird as this sounds, if others want me to do something - I usually wont do it just because I don't want to fail. I have to make the decision and I keep myself accountable the best.
I am happy to say I have seen some results lately. Just the beginning though! From November 1st until now I have lost 21.2 pounds. 9 of those pounds have come since December 12th when I completely changed my diet. For breakfast I have a meal replacement shake with Gladiator mix. For lunch and dinner I have grilled chicken, vegetables, cheeses, turkey lunch meat, cottage cheese, fruits etc. I am not starving myself, and am still able to eat as much as I want of the right things. I have had a few days where I stumbled a little, but for the most part I am determined and feel like this isn't that hard.

Here are some pre-baby weight pictures (I should say, pre-babIES!) Notice I only have 1 chin! Maybe 1 and a quarter at worst. ;)

This was me in September! Very unflattering, but just to show you how much weight I kept on. What was the most depressing to me was I thought I was fat in the "skinny" pictures I just posted.... so you can only imagine my self esteem at this post baby weight. This weight and all the baggage I carried because of it is definitely a contributing factor to the demise of my relationship with Milo. (whether he wants to admit that or not, it affected the way he saw me and the way I treated him because of the way I saw myself)

I cant wait for a new AFTER picture. Maybe I will take one in March on my 30th birthday! There is a goal for me!

Blakely's First Christmas

2010-01-05T10:46:00.005-06:00

Celebrating Christmas this year was completely different with a baby and sooooo much more fun! Our family had 2 new additions this year (Blakely and Adalyn) so the living room was definitely full with people and presents!
Our family has several Christmas traditions that we do each year. The first is having EVERYONE spend the night together. There were 14 people all sleeping under one roof on Christmas Eve. Wow! In the morning when everyone starts to stir we make all of the kiddo's stay in the back of the house. Once we are ready to head to the living room we line all of the kids up in the hall by age. The youngest gets to go into the living room first. Robin and I got to be in the line again this year holding our babies! :) Our family has been doing this since we were kids. Everyone finds their stocking and that is where they sit. After we look through our stockings, my nephew Mason reads us the TRUE reason for Christmas from the bible. Once we do that Brian, my brother in law, passes the presents out youngest to oldest. We generally watch everyone open their gifts. It's always fun watching my nephews react to their toys.
Blakely enjoyed opening presents this year, which excited me! Although, about half way through she wasn't very interested anymore and just sat and ate snacks from her stocking. Milo spent the night with the rest of the family on Christmas Eve so that both Blakely would have both her parents with her on her first Christmas.

Santa brought a microphone, some bath toys, and some other goodies for Blakely's stocking this year! That girl LOVES to sing!

Mason, reading the Christmas story.

Present time!! We got Blakely a cell phone, which she loves!

She was already making some phone calls within seconds!

And..... now she is telling her friends what Santa brought her!

Fancy Nancy doll!

Baby Addy was enjoying opening presents also.

Cute picture of all the cousins. Everything is nice and posed, looks like everything is grand huh?

2 seconds later. Yes, that is my daughter hitting Mason! We are going through a bully phase! *Dear Lord, please let this just be a phase*

We put the girls in the chair together with their matching pj's (thanks Tia Ray Ray). Blakely put her arm around Adalyn on her own.

Up to Speed

2010-01-04T14:39:00.003-06:00

As most of you noticed, I took a break from blogging for awhile. I started this blog to document my pregnancy with Blakely and then continue on so I could make a blog book for her and have an electronic baby book if you will. When I would write each blog I would try to remember that I was going to have this printed for Blakely so things seemed nice and rosey from the outside world perhaps. I thought some things were better left unsaid. In about November I started really struggling with my blog and making things continue to appear a certain way, when in reality they werent.... so I just stopped blogging.

It's a new year now and I thought I would do this blog the right way.

To bring everyone up to speed on our real life.... Milo (Blakely's father) and I split when Blakely was 4 months old. Something I did not announce to the blogging world, although most my close friends and family knew about this. Milo and I continued to co-parent and take Blakely on outings as a family etc. In November the day finally happened when I was confronted with the news that Milo had a girlfriend and had moved on. This took some adjusting too. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that our family would weather the storm we were going through and things would get back to normal. This wasnt the plan God had in store for me though. After a rough couple of months I think it's safe to say I have now come to terms with the cards I have been dealt and feel a peace about the situation. Milo and I are continually trying to be better parents and figure this whole co-parenting situation out.

Blakely is very loved and has not gone without any extra attention during these hard times for our family. She is so loved by her parents, grandparents, Tia's, uncles, and cousins. My family has rallied behind me and showered us both with love, support, prayers, and monetary gifts that we are so VERY thankful for.

One of my very close friends, Brittany, is also going through a situation similar to mine. She has been such a source of comfort and a vessle through which I have been continually fed scripture and encouragement. Thank you, Brittany!

Now that I have all of that off my chest, I hope to bring all of you up to speed on what Blakely has been up too in my next few posts. Little Miss turns 1 on Friday! I decided to postpone her 1st birthday until February so that I can save some $$ and have warmer weather to celebrate in. (The extra time to plan also helps!) Until then, here is a picture of the cutie.

Happy Bday Uncle Buck

2009-12-10T13:35:00.003-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

UNCLE BUCK!

Happy Birthday to my Uncle Buck! Thank you for being one of the best Uncle's ever! For your birthday I wanted to say THANKS for all the things you have done & BOUGHT for me this year. Thank you for my BIG BOWS, my trip to the Beach, for feeding me cereal each morning and letting me take naps on you in Gulf Shores,AL, for all of the pajama's and outfits you bought me, for my big sucker (even though my mom told you not to buy me one), my cool mirror so I could see my mom while she is driving, and for helping buy my new BIG GIRL car seat (and for installing it, I'm not sure my mom could have done it)!! Woo hoo, I'm a lucky girl! I hope you know how much I love you.

Love, Blakely

P.S. I'm going to go playnow.

Blog & Hog

2009-11-05T22:52:00.004-06:00

Tonight I got the urge to bake Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Y-U-M-M-O!

My older sister, Julie, made these muffins for me everyone when I was in Arkansas in September. I definitely have what I like to call 'fat girl moments'... yes I can say that.... I'm no skinny minny. I have a card that allows me to use the words 'fat' and 'girl' in the same sentence. :) Sheesh. Ok, so I definitely had a 'fat girl moment' when I ate my first Pumpkin Choc. Chip Muffin. WOW-O! I had an out of body experience when I ate it. That's how I know it was a 'moment'.

Julie blogged about the recipe for the muffins here. I posted her digital recipe card below. This image was taken from her website. I cant take credit for the photo, or creativity. She is fabulous & these muffins are fabulous!

Boo at the Zoo

2009-11-05T15:08:00.005-06:00

The week of Halloween my sister got the idea to take the girls to Boo at the Zoo. We dressed the girls up in their costumes and walked around the zoo. We quickly realized Boo at the Zoo was more about trick or treating and candy than it was about seeing the animals. We did get to see the elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, flamingos, zebras and.... well, that's about it. We did get lots of candy though.

Want an idea of how cheap I am?? I got as much candy as we could at the zoo, so that I could supplement the candy at home to pass out to our trick or treaters. :) Hey, it cost $14 a PERSON to get into Boo at the Zoo. I felt justified when I was gathering candy like a mad woman. :) I re-gifted it.
Here are some pictures.

This was the first time Adalyn put her costume on. She wouldnt bend her legs. She was as stiff as a board. So cute!

Changing diapers in the back of the suburban. yep. we're getting old.

Rock N' Roll Halloween

2009-11-03T10:51:00.006-06:00

Blakely's first Halloween was such a blast. I love being able to celebrate the holidays with her. We decided that we wanted to find a costume for her that would match her dad's. A his and hers sort of thing. We were going to have her be a parakeet and him be a pirate, but we couldn't find a cute parakeet costume. Then we thought about her being a bunny and him being a magician w/ a top hat. The bunny costume was going to have to be ordered online though and was upwards of $60. Long story short, I found a guitar costume at Babies R' Us on sale for $15! We decided right then and there that she would be a guitar and her dad would be Elvis! It was a success!

Robin, Casey, Milo, and I decided to take the kids trick or treating to a few houses of people we knew in the neighborhood. Addy was a chicken. That costume on her was so precious!!

Yes, I sewed a bow onto her costume. I didnt want people to think she was a boy guitar. ;)

We had to switch to an umbrella stroller because Blakely wanted to hang over the side of the wagon.

Trick or Treating at the Bickston's. At this point Adalyn had already fallen asleep and Blakely was on her last ~~leg~~ guitar string.

Both girls wiped out. Blakely didnt take an afternoon nap that day, so I knew she was either going to have a melt down or fall asleep. I was happy we were melt down free.

Party poopers.

Future Martha Stewart

2009-10-25T09:44:00.003-05:00

When I cook in the kitchen I like to try to involve Blakely. She likes to play with measuring cups, cookbooks, and bowls. I will tell her all the steps to what I am making while she plays. Sometimes she watches from her highchair. Sometimes she just plays on the floor. She helped me make ritz chicken the other night. She crunched all the ritz crackers up for me. They were in a ziplock bag.

This is just the beginning of our bonding time in the kitchen. I cant wait till she can use the apron I bought her when she was younger.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Scott

2009-10-23T12:56:00.005-05:00

Uncle Scott's birthday was on Monday, October 19th. He turned 22. I'm getting so old. Blakely loves loves loves her Uncle Scott. One of her first words was 'Scott', which sounded more like 'sgot.' There are 5 people that Blakely never hesitates to go with. Her mom, dad, Bob (this is what she calls my dad), Nonnie, and Uncle Scott. These are the only people she could be alone with and not get scared. We are going through a big stranger phase.

On Tuesday I decided to let Blakely have a tiny tiny tiny piece, more like a speck actually, of leftover cake. The piece was smaller than the size of her pinky. I also gave her a pile of whip cream on her tray about the size of her fist. I have done this before when I was desperate to make a business call and needed her to sit quietly in her highchair. I was having another one of those moments where I needed to run out of the room quickly and I wanted her to be occupied. When I was in the other room for about 2 minutes I remember thinking to myself.... 'Blakely is going to be sticky when I go get her, I will have to give her a bath now.' Never in my wildest imagination did I expect to see this........

Apparently when whip cream melts into more of a liquid form then combines with even the tiniest bit of RED icing it can go a long long way. I was shocked! She was thrilled!

Something old, something new...

2009-10-21T12:57:00.005-05:00

This is a story for Blakely. It is a little history about her mom's friendships, with a fairy tale ending. ;)

When I was in high school I had two very best friends. One was a girl. One was a boy. Your dad thinks I'm crazy because I call everyone my best friend, but these were my #1's. My #1 girl friend and my #1 guy friend.

Jenna, Jenna Pecor. We used to sing eachother's name opera style from across the room. I am not sure what started this, but I can still hear in my head what it sounded like. Karen, Karen Gaskill..... and Jenna, Jenna Pecor. We were two peas in a pod. Completely opposite, yet exactly alike. We both loved being dramatic. We loved to laugh and make others laugh. We also both loved being bossy and the center of attention! :) Jenna and I loved to watch movies. We would quote Wayne's World & Tommy Boy all the time. We also memorized skits from Saturday Night Live.... and then we performed them for other people. Our youth minister in High School actually called us over to their apartment once to perform the skit for his parents that had come in from out of town. The spartan cheerleader skit, that was our specialty. Our first fight lasted a commercial break during a Friends episode we were watching. That's it. We were mad during the commercial break, then we were over it. Jenna and I used to entertain ourselves by making collages out of magazines. We also once made a cassette tape of ourselves making animal noises. Yes, your mom had a weird way of entertaining herself.... but so did Jenna. She was fun. We laughed at everything we did. That's what made being her best friend so much fun! We grew up in the same youth group together so we also had our faith in common. I hope you get involved in a youth group when you get older. I will always treasure my Inglewood Baptist youth group days. Jenna and I once sat in her kitchen talking about the rapture and how it could happen at any second. Then we started screaming. Happy screams. Excited screams. Then screams of laughter, when we realized we were both screaming. We talked about everything. Boys mostly. We definitely experienced our share of boy troubles together. Jenna was always very independent though. Even when she was upset about a boy, she always kept her cool. Not your mother. I'm very emotional. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I was usually the one that said or did things in the moment then regretted them later. Not Jenna. She was smart. Very poised. I loved that about her. She always kept her cool and was a much stronger person than I was.

Jason Whitehead. The boy version of myself in highschool. I used to always tell everyone that. I loved sports in highschool. I still do. In highschool I actually played the sports though. Now I just tend to watch. I met Jason when I was in third grade and he was in 4th. He was dating my friend Erica. Dont get any ideas. You will not date until your 18. or 21. possibly 30. Jason and I loved to play basketball. I would go over to his house on Sunday afternoons and we would play basketball in the driveway. Or he would come over to my grandparents and we would play basketball over there. Sometimes whichever girl or guy we would like at the time would join us. I dated his friends and he dated mine. We never dated eachother. That is probably why we were always such good friends. We were literally like brother and sister. If a girl wanted to date Jason. They became friends with me. Or they asked my advice about him. I cant remember a time where it was ever weird to have a guy best friend. Our friendship just worked. I hope you have a good guy friend that will look out for you when your growing up and your parents arent around. Someone that will give you advice and explain to you why some guys are jerks.

This picture makes me laugh. We both looked very young and alarmed. ha!

As a best friend to both of them we all definitely hung out together. I can remember Jenna and Jason liking the other, several different times in the years we were all friends. Usually it was at different times though. He would like her and she would like someone else. Or vice versa. After swimming at Jenna's one day I remember Jason telling me he wished she would just date him, instead of another guy Jenna liked at the time. He said, "Mrs. Pecor loves me.... all the mom's love me." For some reason that still makes me laugh. He was right, the mom's always did love him. Jenna was just a hard catch. She was always one step ahead of the boys. She liked them, then when they liked her she moved on to the next. :) Jenna loved the chase, she would just never let them catch her.

Now. Fast forward 10 years or so. I found out this past summer that Jason and Jenna had reconnected after all these years and were now dating. Shocked? Yes! Excited? Yes! However, it totally fit! They totally fit! Jason sent me a message a few weeks ago telling me that he was going to propose to Jenna and he wanted some of her friends and family to meet up on Monday the 19th to celebrate after he did it. It was obviously a surprise to Jenna. (here is her story) You got to come to Cheesecake Factory with mom to celebrate. I was so excited for the both of them and that you got to meet them. Maybe when you get a little older you can ask Jenna to tell you her engagement story and how she finally let a boy catch her. I always love hearing how people got engaged, so I think you will too.

I took this picture from Brooke's blog. Tanna & I got Jenna an engagement gift with her new future last name.

Dinner Party

2009-10-21T09:59:00.004-05:00

2 weekends ago I was cooking dinner with Sam, my brothers girlfriend, and we got the idea to have a small dinner party with the family. The catch to this dinner party was that Robin, Sam, and myself would have to make the food. Not my mom, who usually does all the cooking. We wrote on three slips of paper; main course, side dish, and desserts. We each drew a slip of paper. Whichever course we drew we would have to make on Saturday night for the family. So, this past Saturday we all went to the grocery store together to buy our ingredients for our dishes. We had to make something from scratch, and it could not be something we had ever made before. Robin drew the main course. She made Garlic Asparagus Chicken. Sam drew side dish. She made garlic mashed potatoes. I drew dessert so I made an appetizer s'more dip with graham crackers and a homemade peach cobbler. Half of the fun was going grocery shopping and cooking in the kitchen together. My parents house has a very open concept, so it was nice laughing and joking with eachother and all of the guys while we slaved over the stove.

During the actual meal, which turned out nice by the way, we played a couple of dinner party games. If you ever have a family get together or a dinner party I suggest playing some dinner games. It made the meal so much more fun. It was also a great way to keep everyone involved in conversation. Before the meal I put a random sentence on a piece of paper and put it under each plate on the table. Whichever sentence was under your plate you had to work it into normal conversation at the dinner table without anyone noticing. This ended up being pretty hysterical. Some examples were: my dad had to say "all this meal needs is a big bowl of cherries!" My sister Robin had to say "If I were a movie star I would want to be Julia Roberts." Casey had to say "I prefer reading a newspaper while on the toilet." Scott was "If I were a girl, I would totally date Tony Romo." etc. etc. The other game we played was called 'Mr. Freeze.' Before the meal we all drew a piece of paper from a bowl. Only one piece of paper had an 'F' on it. If you drew the 'F' then at dinner you had to freeze at some point during the meal. Once you noticed the person freeze everyone else had to freeze. The last person to notice and freeze themselves lost. Robin ended up being Mr. Freeze. It was funny watching everyone slowly realize what was going on and freeze themselves.

There is never a dull moment with my family. We all love to joke and laugh. We make every occasion a party with games. This dinner party was no exception! Next month the guys are going to do the cooking. They already drew which course they would be making. I will let you know how that turns out. ;)

Old McDonald had a farm....

2009-10-18T09:43:00.006-05:00

Milo and I took Blakely to Green Meadows farm, at Lynn Creek Park on Saturday. As we pulled into the parking lot I got emotional. No tears. just sentimental - emotional. It hit me that now Blakely is old enough to understand these fun family outings. It also hit me that this is just the beginning of taking Blakely to do fun things. Fun family things. That was the key. I'm the parent now and it hit me I have my own family to take to these things.

Green Meadows was a hit and the weather was PERFECT! We took pictures with pumpkins and got to take Blakely on her first hayride. Blakely also got to see and pet so many animals. Although she wasnt in the mood to smile for the cameras, she was in a great mood while we were there. We were able to pet and/or see: goats, cows, horses, zebras, bison, turkeys, ducks, chickens, sheep, llama, and pigs.

Blakely wasnt afraid of the animals at all. She would have kissed the baby pig if we would have let her. She was also lunging for the cow. Being the very overprotective mom that I am, I wouldnt let Milo take her close enough to touch the cow. (I didnt realize they dont have teeth).
They had them set up so the kids could milk them if they wanted. I thought that was pretty cool. She is obviously way too little now. However, when she is older and learning her animals better that might be fun.

She looks so big to me in this picture!

This baby goat was only 4 weeks old.

Mom would not let her near this animal... it made me nervous.

This horse also made mom nervous. Horses never like me because they sense my fear. I have been bucked off twice, and had one take off running while I was on it. I couldnt figure out how to stop it. No more horse riding for me.

The baby pigs were only a week and a half old. Just a little bit of farm info.... Most pigs are pregnant for 3 months and 3 days, most farmers say they go into labor at 3am in the morning, and the babies are usually 3lbs. They grow about 100lbs a year. (I can relate to that. ;) )

Baby duck... it was so precious. It was even quacking.

Pig Races.... the best part of the day. I decided to sit the race out. Only kidding people geez..... I raced and lost. ;)

After the Hayride with dad.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Creative juices..

2009-10-12T18:12:00.004-05:00

Lately I have been in the mood to paint. Paint a canvas, paint pottery, paint a wall... anything. I was going to have a painting party last week while Julie was in town, but life got in the way. We are going to do it over Thanksgiving Break though when she comes back in town. Hopefully we can get the girls together before then also.

My older sister is very creative. I wish I had half the raw talent she has when it comes to creating things. Here are some things she has painted.

The last time I painted pottery was with some girls I worked with in College Station. These werent just any ordinary girls. These were architecture majors.... very ARTSY girls. That's part of the architecture package. You need to be artsy. Anyways, we all went to a local pottery store and painted a tall pencil/pen holder. I was pretty confident that I could hang with these girls. Actually in my mind I invisioned winning some sort of office award for best pen holder design or something. Things never panned out for me. My pen holder looked like a first grader painted it. I just made light of the situation. Inside, I died a slow creative death though. sigh.

Fall Pictures

2009-10-12T14:16:00.005-05:00

Robin, Julie, and I made the girls tutu's last week to take some pictures of the girls in. The day we took pictures Blakely was really just discovering what this whole crawling thing was. Needless to say it was hard to get her to sit for the pictures. She kept crawling off.
Julie took the pictures of the girls. Then we also got some pictures with her boys holding the girls. I'm waiting for her to send me those pictures. Until then, here are some outtake photos I took.

I love this picture, even though her eyes are half closed. She was laughing and so happy at that moment.

9 Months Old

2009-10-12T13:53:00.003-05:00

Blakely is 9 months old now. It's hard to imagine that in 3 months she will be turning 1! I just cant grasp that yet.

The week before Blakely turned 9 months she started doing an army crawl across the floor. She still wasnt sure how to get on her knees so she just used her arms to drag herself across the floor. The day before she turned 9 months she started to actually crawl on her knees....well... knee. Now she does a tripod crawl. This requires 2 hands, one knee, and one foot. It seems to work for her though. She is now pulling up on things as well. Yesterday she pulled up on the window seal then played at the window for a good 45 minutes.

Here are some other things Blakely is now doing at 9 months....

- She loves puffs, we find them all over the house

- She still loves to play in her excersaucer and watch Veggie Tales

- She says "Up" when she wants to be picked up or put down.

- Other words she says on a daily basis are: Bob, dad, daddy, da-da, hi, hello, yeah, kitty (which sounds more like kittttttttt - she rolls her tongue, it's the hispanic in her. ;) )

- She from time to time will say "gram-pa" and "buck".... Although if you ask anyone in the family we swear we have heard her say 'thank you' 'Adalyn' and "I dont know". She is big at copying ANYTHING we say.... so we have to be careful.

- Anytime the phone rings she stops what she is doing and says "hello" or "yeah". She will look around at us till someone answers. (I think this is from watching her mom work and answer phones all day.) **side story.... Last night she was sound asleep on Nonnie's lap and when the phone rang she sat straight up and said "Yeah". We all thought it was hillarious.

- We are going through a big stranger phase still. It takes her DAYS to warm up to people. I hate this.

- She is wearing size 4 diapers! This is new, so they are still pretty big on her.

- She is eating stage 3 baby food and some table food. anything with a runny texture. I tried banana slices with her and she wasnt a big fan.

- Loves her new alphabet mat that she plays on. She loves to take it apart, much to her grandpa's dismay.

Beach Part 2

2009-09-25T09:47:00.004-05:00

I guess it's about time to put some pictures up of our vacation to the beach. Better late, than never. This might take several blog entries.

Blakely and I had a great time at the beach with my older sister and her family. I didnt want to come back to reality. When you are sitting on a beach in another state, it's easy to forget about everything that is happening back home and in reality. It was a nice escape.

I am happy to report that Blakely fell in love with swimming while we were gone. She has always loved her bathtime, but I have read several blogs where the babies reacted differently in the pool. Blakely would go absolutely crazy when she saw the pool. She would try to lunge out of my arms, ready to jump in. I took a video of her in the water. On this particular day the water was cold! It didnt seem to bother Blakely at all. Her arms and legs go 90mph the entire time she is in the water.
Click here for video

After Blakely would get out of the pool she would fall asleep not even 10 minutes later. She would completely wear herself out. Her favorite napping spot was on Uncle Bucks lap. These pictures were taken two different days.

This night Blakely fell asleep at the dinner table when she was taking her bottle.

Blakely also loved the sand, which meant I had to give her about 3 baths a day. Babies + sand = MESS MESS MESS. Sand would get caked onto her face (from trying to eat it).... it's almost impossible to wipe off with a towel. The only things that would get it off were water or baby powder. Our last night at the beach we went to have pictures made. I should have put Blakely on a blanket while I took pictures of the Brooks' family. Instead I let her play in the sand. BIG MISTAKE. By the time it was her turn for pictures she was an absolute mess and I couldnt get the sand off her face, arms, legs etc. Needless to say, I never got any fancy smancy pictures of her dressed up on the beach.

Beach & Blog Celeb

2009-09-13T20:45:00.005-05:00

Blakely and I spent the last 10 going on 11 days on vacation. We drove to Arkansas to meet up with my sister, brother inlaw, and their boys - then all headed to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL.

On the way to Arkansas I realized I needed to pull over at a gas station to go, well... potty. I hadn't thought thru about what I would do with Blakely while I peed. TMI? Sorry. Anyways, this particular restroom was very clean. (If you ever go thru Gladewater, TX... stop at the rest stop with the bbq restaurant & sonic attached.) Anyways, I put Blakely's changing mat on the floor then sat her on it. I was trying to hover over the toliet and lean down to keep her from getting off the mat all at the same time. (men will never understand this) I know I looked like an idiot because my genius self was in the first stall. So, everyone that came in to the restroom had to first look at my 8month old sitting on the floor on her changing mat with my hands reaching down holding her in place. Oh well. After some thought, I have decided on the way home that I will bring in her umbrella stroller that I bought on vacaton and just use the handicap bathroom. That way I don't have to hold her.

I will definitley post a ton more on our vacation, but first.... the best part of the trip..... drumroll please..... Julie, Blakely, and I met Kelly, Harper & Scott (from Kellys Korner)!!! Our first night in Gulf Shores we needed to go to Walmart. As soon as we got out of our car they were getting out of theirs. Julie started ~~saying~~ shouting "There's Kelly!" I need to add that she wasn't very discreet when she was blurting this out. The whole way into Walmart they were behind us, and I was trying to shush Julie the whole way in. Julie called my sister Robin, who told her that we had to go say something. So, Julie still being Captain Obvious would shriek 'there she is' any time we were in eyesight of her. I finally told Julie to 'let me handle this.' :) I said something to the effect of ' we recognize you from your blog'. She stopped and smiled. I asked her if it was a little creepy that she was out of state and strangers recognized her from her blog. I must say she was very sweet, polite, down to earth and precious! Julie and her started talking.... my work was done there. Julie was in heaven. As they talked, Blakely and I met Harper and Scott. I told him I was embarassed that my sister was acting like Kelly was Oprah. He just laughed and said they never know when they will run into someone that recognizes them. He was friendly (and good lookin, I might add.... go Kelly) and mentioned he couldnt believe how much hair Blakely had. After we moved along I kept running into them in Walmart and didnt want them to think that I was following them so I would go the opposite way. Needless to say I left with about half the stuff I actually needed.... Julie and I both were a little sidetracked.

Julie actually ended up tweeting with Kelly and sending some direct messages back n' forth. So, I would say the vacation was a complete success. ;)

Girls lunch

2009-09-01T13:44:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Blakely and I met up with Robin and Tanna at Cheddars for a girls lunch with their little girls. Blakely was MESMORIZED with Brylee. Blakely just stared at Brylee and kept wanting to touch her. It was precious! It's hard to see the 6 week age gap in the photos below. Blakely is such a big girl, you wouldnt be able to tell she is younger except for the fact that she wanted NOTHING to do with table food and Brylee was totally digging feeding herself!

Excuse the pulled loops on Blakely's headband. She yanks on it.

I'm so lucky to be able to stay home with Blakely and go to lunches with friends. Thank you Dad!! Tanna, Robin, and I were talking about maybe putting the girls in a mothers day out program a couple times a month so we can have some free adult time and so the girls can bond with kids their age.

Blake and I leave for vacation in 2 days!!!! I will promise to blog on our trip to the beach!

Catch up

2009-08-24T09:38:00.003-05:00

I'm back, from my blogging hiatus. I needed a break from the Internet world.

Blakely has 2 teeth now! She has done pretty well cutting the teeth. We gave her tylenol, baby orajel, and teething tablets, courtesy of Tanna & Brylee June. It's nice having Tanna who experiences everything with Brylee a few weeks before us, so we can ask her advice. The week Blakely cut her first tooth I had to have a root canal. Sympathy pains for my daughter! I have to admit... one night I used her orajel and teething tablets to help with my own tooth ache. :)

If you look closely, you can see her 2 teeth!

Blakely is becoming increasingly vocal. She squeals/ screams when she plays now, something she learned from her 3 boy cousins. She says bob, dada, help, hi, and bye. I'm still ~~patiently~~ waiting on her to say "mama!"

Blakely has a new baby girl cousin, Adalyn Grace. When Addy was first born Blakely did not like hearing her cry. It freaked her out! Everytime Adalyn would cry Blakely would cry. Now Blakely is used to it and goes about her own business, except for the occasional mimic of sound. Blakely likes to copy now so occasionally she will copy Adalyn.

We are almost ready to crawl. She can get on her knees in a tripod position, but then loses balance when it comes to putting weight on the 2nd arm.

Blakely and I are counting down the days until we go to the beach. Julie & Brian are paying for the 2 of us to live in the life of luxury for 7 days in Gulf Shores, AL. We are staying in a Niiiiiiice condo ON the beach. God has blessed their family and now they are blessing mine. :) Brian has offered to watch Blake while Julie and I do some girl things while we are there. Blakely loves her uncle Buck, so I'm looking forward to the relaxing. I cant wait!

Happy Face

2009-08-10T11:59:00.002-05:00

Blakely just started doing this new face, where she smiles as big as she can. When you smile at her, she opens her mouth wide open then starts waving her arms. She is so extremely happy when people smile at her and get excited with her. She loves doing this for Milo & myself... her Nonnie & Bob (my dad).

Yes, Blakely calls my dad 'Bob'. She watches veggie tales so often that "bob" was her first word (Bob, the tomatoe is the main character). Since my dad used to say it to her so much, she somehow correlated that name with him as well. So.... anytime I turn Veggie tales on, or when she sees my dad she will say "Bob!".

Labor Blogging

2009-07-28T21:30:00.001-05:00

Looks like Robin's labor blogging might be off to an early start. Read here to follow along.

Labor Blogging

2009-07-26T18:32:00.003-05:00

Well, it's that time again! Another round of labor blogging, only this time it's for my sister! On Wednesday, unless Adalyn decides to come sooner, I will be blogging my sister Robin's labor & delivery from the hospital. You will be able to follow the blogging on her blog. I am excited to be able to be involved in the big day. This is a great way for her friends to be kept in the loop and feel like they are there without everyone crowding into the waiting room and letting Robin get her rest. If you have ever been pregnant you know what I mean. It gets crazy and stressful when there are 50 people coming in and out of your room. Gotta love technology.

pics

2009-07-25T09:22:00.002-05:00

more to come.......

2009-07-13T15:30:00.004-05:00

Robin's due date is getting closer and closer. Only about 3 weeks left. Go here to guess which day Adalyn will grace us with her presence.

Since Blakely is at my Aunt Carol's right now, I had a few minutes to put some new photos up.

She is getting so big!

6 month check up

2009-07-09T10:39:00.004-05:00

Blakely had her 6 month check up this morning. Originally Milo was going to take her but after a flat tire and a change in his work plans I got to take Blakely. I personally think Milo chickened out, because he didnt want to watch her get her shots. That is the worst part about her dr. visits! :(
Blakely did great for her appt. The doctor thought she was a boy again. (even though I kept her bow on her head - even when she was just in her diaper) She cried during the shots, but as soon as they were done she was fine again.

Blakely's 6 month Stats:
18 pounds, and that is at the 80th percentile for weight. 26 inches, and that is at the 48th percentile for height. head circumference of 18 inches, and that is at greater than the 97th percentile for head circumference.

After her shots! No more tears..

Back at home... trying to grab my camera from me.

6 Months Old

2009-07-08T22:42:00.005-05:00

Blakely is 6 months old today! Can time fly by any faster?

6 Months Old and Now She.....
~ Is sitting up on her own. She is getting better and better at this every day. While we took pictures of her in her dress this evening she sat unassisted the entire time.
~ Has started making this crinkled nose face at us. She will mimmick us if we do it first.
~ Giggles when we play peek a boo.
~ Knows when a stranger has her now
~ Reaches for people when she wants them to hold her
~ Tries to grab your food or drink out of your hand (mouth wide open while she is trying to grab it)
~ Started sleeping on her side when she takes her naps
~ Does a fake cough to get our attention
~ Anytime she sneezes, she coughes first
~ Loves to jump, jump, jump
~ Likes to make sure I am watching her if I am in the same room. She will watch her movie or play, then lean her head back to make sure I am still there.
~ Loves Bananas and Sweet Potatoes.... she isnt a big fan of pears
~ Bed time is now between 7pm - 8pm.
~ She usually gets up for one bottle in the night, then sleeps until 8am
Before Blakely was born, Milo bought her a couple of dresses for her to wear. We were able to put one of them on her tonight.

Moving and grooving

2009-07-06T22:55:00.003-05:00

Milo, Blakely, & I spent a few days last week out of town doing some renovations on a property owned by his boss. Blake & I went along for the ride to just get away and try to help with the repairs. As soon as we made the 1.5 hour drive to Dennison we let Blakely loose on the carpet at the home. We don't have any carpet in our home so Blakely went crazy when we let her down on the carpet at this house. She started to roll around (which she never does) and even tried to scoot across the floor. When we lay her down it looks like she is trying to swim. She pushes her legs back 90mph, and her arms start flapping. I can tell she really wants to be on the move, she just cant figure out how to make it happen yet.

Blakely's signature pose... BIG EYED! :)

Blakely has started to take a liking to her 'my first doll' toy. I'm so proud! We get such a kick out of watching her with her doll. For some reason she only likes to hold her upside down. :)

Also, on the car ride we figured out Blakely likes to sing!!! Seriously! When we had the music up she would talk and talk in the back. As soon as we would turn the music off she would start grunting. She did this about 17 times. We thought it was the funniest thing. I'm hoping it wasn't just a coincidence. ;)

Adventures in babysitting

2009-06-30T23:35:00.002-05:00

Thank you, Sam!

Blakely had a sitter come over today and watch her while I did payroll. They played hard.... cant you tell? I dont know what I would do without my Aunt Carol and Sam. Sam comes over every other Tuesday so I can do payroll... and my Aunt Carol has been watching Blakely every Monday afternoon since she was about a week or two old. They love Blakely, and Blakely LOVES them.

Feet

2009-06-27T13:12:00.004-05:00

Blakely loves her feet. Absoultely loves them! I had to stop painting her toes, because her feet are almost always in her mouth now. Here are some pictures below of her doing her cheerleader poses.

Now this is a big bow! This was her Easter morning bow I made her. We say, GO BIG - or GO HOME! ;)

Ok, I say "Go big or go home"... Blakely just says "get this thing off me!"

Cheeky

2009-06-25T11:50:00.003-05:00

The new blog is up and running. http://getoutofyourboxkaren.blogspot.com/

or just click here

That blog has nothing to do with Blakely, so I will keep it public. This will be going private soon. I have a few more things I want to post publicly before I transition over.

Blakely is getting more and more personality each day. With this personality comes a louder noise level too! She is def. a chatty little girl and will make noises just to hear herself. She is really starting to enjoy her toys now too. Her control over her hands is getting better each day. My aunt Carol that watches her on Monday afternoons said that Blakely kept deliberately pinching her cheeks. (My aunts cheeks that is!) Maybe we pinch Blakely's cheeks too much, if she has already learned to do that to others! Oops. Who wouldn't want to pinch these though....

This is me, stepping out of my box.

2009-06-24T11:49:00.005-05:00

I decided to make another blog, one which I will link here ~~shortly~~ . *** My new blog venture will be public and will chronicle my quest to try something I have never done before, every day! I understand being a mom and working can sometimes get hectic, so I'm sure there will be days I miss. It will be my intention to TRY to do something new everyday, take pictures/video of me doing it, then blog about it.

As I was sitting watching my mom sew last night I realized I dont do much anymore besides take care of Blakely. I am one of the most laid back people EVER and am completely content most of the time to just hang around the house now. Well, NO MORE! I need to get out of my nice little box I am in, and revert back to the person that used to book a trip across the US on a moments notice.... someone who on a whim up and decided over breakfast at an IHOP in Austin, TX to drive to Colorado just to see the snow, RIGHT THEN! Yep, this mom needs a pick me up... and what better way, then to learn and experience some NEW things.

So, today I will mark the first day on this new journey. Today I will do something new! I will create a blog with this self challenge. ~~I will post the link once I make the blog! :)~~ Here is the link

I hope you will follow along. It would be a blast if some of you did some of these new things along with me.

Fathers Day 2009

2009-06-22T09:17:00.005-05:00

Milo celebrated his first fathers day this year with Blakely. We planned to go somewhere to take their pictures together, a tradition that we wanted to start this year. Blakely has started a new thing where she gags herself and then as a result throws up. After 2 outfit changes and a bath, we were finally able to get those pictures done. I took the pictures, instead of paying someone. Milo usually puts some effects on the pictures to clean them up. Hopefully he will get a chance after work to mess with them. For now, the rough versions are below.
We got Milo 2 small gifts this year. One was a photo box. Inside it you pull out 2 sets of photo albums. Each were filled with pictures of just them two. Second we gave him a frame that had the poem 'My Daddy's hand" and a picture of Milo and Blakely when she was about a month or two old. I printed it out on vellum paper then framed it. Milo got teary eyed when he opened his gifts. Anything that involves Blakely usually gets him misty eyed.

Bathtime

We had finished by this point. Blakely had thrown up on Milo, and she was so hot.

Going Private

2009-06-19T09:47:00.003-05:00

After a lot of thought I have decided to go private in the next few days. I keep hearing horror stories about how the internet and public blogs have quickly become a way for criminals to find out everything about you then use that information against you for burglaries, abductions, rapes etc. Since I post a lot about where Blakely and I will be etc... I cant take any risks that anything could happen to her. I read a lot of blogs, most of the people I dont know. Even if I dont know you, but you read my blog right now send me an email and I will invite you to keep reading.

Thanks for understanding.

kkgaskill@yahoo.com

Future Aggie

2009-06-18T18:31:00.004-05:00

I decided I needed a little get away, so I packed Blakely up and we headed to good ole' College Station for the past few days. Blakely slept until we got to Waco, then in Marlin I had to stop and give her a bottle. Then we had to stop again in Calvert just so she could see me and so I could give her her pacifier. She slept the rest of the way. Even though we had some pit stops, the drive went by so quick!
We stayed with my best friend Brent while we were there. Brent is one of those friends that you couldn't live without. I love him to death, and Blakely thought he was pretty cool too. She was mesmerized by his hands... I think because of his Aggie ring. Blakely and I used the time away to just relax and enjoy some mother/daughter time. I really do enjoy Blakely's company, she is like my best friend that never has to go home.
The drive back Blakely slept or played the entire drive, until the very last stretch. I had to pull over one exit before mine to give her a bottle, because she couldn't wait any longer. :)
Milo missed Blakely to death, and informed me that she wasn't allowed to go away for that long again. ;)

Here are a few pics from the trip.

Brent made me laugh when he would hold her. He loved playing with her, but was nervous when it came time to actually pick her up.

Blakely enjoyed just sitting on his couch watching her DVDs or just playing. Look at those rolls on her legs.

This is the inside of Brent's fridge. There was absolutely NO FOOD in the house. All he had were condiments and drinks. Brent eats out every single meal... always has. When I used to live in College Station, I gained about 20 pounds because of this habit.

This is my favorite picture. I was outside with Blakely and took some pictures of her sitting in a lawn chair.

5 Months

2009-06-12T09:28:00.006-05:00

Blakely turned 5 months old this week! I tried to document most of what Blakely did on the day she turned 5 months old. It seems like she gets bigger every second! Blakely is at the top of the charts for height and weight and is a very active baby. Her favorite things to do are play in her excersaucer while watching a Veggie Tale movie, jump in her johnny jump up (she doesnt swing around anymore - she JUMPS!), stand (with help of course), get tickled on her neck, laugh, play airplane with her dad, talk to Nonnie (she will coo so loud when Nonnie talks to her), grab her mom's hair, give kisses, play with her rings, put everything into her mouth, and kick kick kick when she is laying on her back! Blakely has started to say B sounds now. She says "Ba Ba" all day long. My dad thinks she is saying "Abba". We are all on pins and needles waiting for her to spit out that first B letter word. Will it be Ball? Bottle? Baby? Boy? Buck? (That one's for you Uncle Buck), Brian? (again, that ones for you Uncle Buck), Blakely??? The joke in our house is that her first word will be Bob (the name of my ex). How awkward would that be. lol.
Blakely now eats cereal, applesauce, & bananas! She finally started opening wide when I'm feeding her. I was having to pry her mouth open before. She really loves her bananas so far! We are going to try sweet potatoes next, since my mom said that was all of our favorites when we were babies. I also noticed Brylee, Tanna's daughter, loves that the most so far too. I read the best way to keep their nutrients etc is to bake them (not boil) then puree them... so we will do that this weekend.
Blakely now gets swaddled with her arms out. She can break free from the swaddle so I started doing it this way just to keep her legs warm and semi confined. Otherwise she would spend all night holding her feet in the air and would get no sleep. She loves to have her legs in the air when she is laying on her back. The other day she took almost her entire bottle with one leg straight up in the air.
Here are pics from Blakely's day on 6/8/09.

This is how we start off most days.

Playing with my rings in my excersaucer, looking back to make sure mom is watching me!

Blakely loves to flip the little pages... she will sit and do this over and over for a good twenty minutes without getting bored.

Blakely's 5 month, big girl breakfast.... Banana's! These came out of the freezer.

Lunch with daddy @ Pioneer Restaurant. Blakely was an angel. She just sat and watched us.

Hanging out with mom. Little did I know she was about to have a massive blow out celebration in her panties! Yes, it was bad.

After a bath and diaper change, Milo, Robin, and I all went to Ikea with Blakely since I had to drive to Mckinney for a work related errand. We thought we would take advantage of being next to Ikea and made it a shopping trip!

Hanging out in a room of Ikea. This is the room with the big windows. It's Milo's favorite mock room. (although they redecorated his favorite space, so he was a little bummed)

So happy to be shopping! Nothing like her mom!

OOPS. This is what happens when you put all of your attention on checking out. As we were headed for the door I looked down and saw this...

5 month supper at Taco Bell in Frisco.

Busy day for a 5 month old. Needless to say, she slept all night! :)

"You ate your baby?!"

2009-06-09T23:33:00.004-05:00

We have been trying to explain to Blakely that she is about to be a big cousin to baby Adalyn. As you can imagine these talks with a 5 month old are usually a little one sided. When we were with Robin yesterday I think Blakely finally got it. ; ) Robin was standing near Blakely and I saw Blakely just staring at her stomach with her big eyes! We had to get a few pictures of it. We cant wait to see baby Adalyn and are thrilled the girls will be so close in age!

Sidenote: If you were wondering about my title from my blog entry. This is a famous quote from my nephew, ~~Carson~~ Garrett. Gotta love kids and their questions.

Cheeky

2009-06-08T08:24:00.002-05:00

I am a little behind on my blogging. We took some pictures outside of Blakely a few weekends back when she got home from a Luau at the Burnett's house. I am very blessed to have a well behaved daughter. I didn't go with her and Milo to the party, but I did hear that she did very well. When we take Blakely in public she is always so busy looking at her new surroundings that we normally don't hear a peep out of her. Last night she sat in her car seat during the entire dinner at Don Pablos, and was quiet as a mouse! She is a very content baby. KNOCK ON WOOD! After we took these pictures it was funny for us to see just how HUGE her cheeks are. Don't you just wanna pinch and kiss em?

Rings are a girls best friend.

2009-06-06T22:04:00.004-05:00

Robin met up with a friend for lunch a few weeks back and got a baby gift for Adalyn. When she stopped by the house on the way home we opened up her gift & let Blakely play with them for a bit. Well, fast forward a few weeks and we now owe Robin another bag of those ring things... Oops. :) Blakely loves them! I hang these rings from her car seat, her jump up, her excersaucer and they keep her entertained. Most of the time she spends chewing on them, so we have had to wash them several times already. When Blakely was on the way home the other day she fell asleep in the car holding onto her rings (she did this again last night). We brought her in and let her finish her nap in her car seat while we were watching tv (we also did this again last night). She slept like this for at least an hour. Holding her rings the ENTIRE time!

Robin, make sure to thank your friend for us! We promise to buy Adalyn some new ones!

Cause and Effect

2009-06-01T10:30:00.003-05:00

This is what happens when you play airplane with a baby after they just ate.

Applesauce

2009-05-30T15:12:00.005-05:00

We made Blakely homemade organic applesauce baby food today. Thats a mouth full. Nonnie found a simple recipe and whipped some up for us. Blakely wasnt too sure about the texture and the whole swallowing part.

Photo Contest

2009-05-29T16:17:00.004-05:00

Milo entered the photo above of Blakely in her Easter basket into a Readers Digest photo contest and WON! We got a package via FedEx today with a letter & a $100 american express gift card.

Woo hoo!

100% girl

2009-05-22T16:06:00.005-05:00

When I was pregnant I took a picture holding a onesie over my belly that said "100% girl". Now Blakely is able to fit into that onesie! How time flies!

Blakely loves her tutu I made for that onesie.. She squealed so loud when I put it on her. She is thrilled when she gets to wear it. She loves to grab it, pull it, and put it in her mouth.

Eyeing the tutu....

It looks so tasty it's making me salivate..... must.... get... in... mouth.....

In for the kill.............

What?!

Ok, back to watching my Veggie Tale movie.

Crafts & goodies

2009-05-21T15:23:00.007-05:00

This weekend my sister, mom, and I went shopping for Robin's nursery fabrics. She is getting custom made bedding/curtains with Amy Butler fabric! It is going to be so precious! We went to the Cabbage Rose in Fort Worth to pick out the fabric. I loved this fabric store... it had so many great fabrics. How dorky does that make me sound? Seriously though, Amy Butler fabrics are very trendy and this is the only storefront that has their fabrics that's remotely close to us. Most of her fabrics you can only get online. Robin is still having to order a big order online, because they didnt have all the fabrics she needed, but we were able to get about 5 different fabrics to start some accessories for the room.

After buying her fabric, then hitting up Hobby Lobby we came home and made some stuff for our girls' rooms. My mom bought me a Glitter 'B' in Canton last month, and I figured that would be SO EASY to make... and it was. So, I made glitter letters for Blakely's room. Their letter is fancy since they have the proper wood tools to cut it themselves... I have Milo working on mastering that part for me. :)

Here is the letter bought at Canton....1 letter for about $20.

Here are the 7 letters I made for about $10 total!!

Next on my craft time list was tutu's. If you plan on making several tutu's it is well worth it to buy your supplies from some wholesalers or companies that sell it by the spool in bulk. The cost difference is huge. It take 1 1/2 spools to make 1 tutu for a baby. The spools are anywhere from $6 + in retail stores... but you can buy them online for about $2 a spool or less. I get mine from Nashville wraps becuase their tulle is super soft.

This tutu is about to get accessorized with zebra ribbon... and a matching bow. I buy my ribbon from a wholesaler also, since I use so much. If you ever need any ribbon talk to me, I will let you buy it at my cost when I put an order in. No sense in paying too much money for it at Joann's or Hobby Lobby. If you have the ability to buy wholesale I get my ribbon from Venus Ribbon and Creative Impressions. They usually give you a bunch of free ribbon when you place an order.

I also got my stuff back from the 31 party I went too at Tanna's. I love the stuff I bought. It is all fabric that is so easily washable. My friend Laura sells this stuff. I also plan on having a 31 party at some point in June. Laura, I will email you on that date!!

Blakely, Adalyn, and Brylee (Tanna's daughter) all got an apron... I forsee many play dates of baking on their Easy bake ovens, playing kitchen, craft time etc.... They will all be the same age. I cant wait!

This is a tote that mom bought for Blakely and Adalyn. They can put toys in it, craft supplies, or even a lunch.

Here are a couple other recent nursery additions...

A chandelier from the Paul Michael Company (I LOVE that store). We went to the one in Louisanna. I need to buy candles for it and some chain, to hang it from the ceiling in the corner of her room.

A bulletin board... although there isnt much room in the nursery for it, so it might end up in my office.

A day outside

2009-05-20T15:56:00.003-05:00

We let Blakely play outside and get some fresh air this weekend since the weather was great! She was so happy to be outside and not stuck in the house all day. As you can see in the picture above, once it was time to come in she was exhausted.

Another day at Handyman Matters

2009-05-19T13:15:00.003-05:00

I am very lucky to have my daughter with me at work, she usually spends the day jumping in her jump up, watching veggie tales, playing in her exersaucer, napping, eating, or in my lap. Scott has left for the summer to intern in Crossett as a Children's Minister, so it's just Tooter and I at Handyman Matters now.

Blakely is such a good sport. This is her in her jump up (hanging from the closet door). How pittiful, huh? Poor thing was just jumping and staring at our supplies in the closet while I was doing paperwork & taking calls.

Every monday my Aunt Carol picks Blakely up to spend the afternoon with her. About 15 minutes after I took that picture Carol showed up early for play time, so you will be happy to know she got lots of attention from Tia Carol, and she didnt have to hang from the closet door all afternoon.

Shots

2009-05-19T08:53:00.002-05:00

I took this picture about 30 seconds after Blakely got her 4 month shots. As you can see she was in a good mood?! She only cried for about 2 seconds when she got her shots. As soon as the needle was out she was completely fine. She is such a big girl!

Bungie Bungie

2009-05-13T09:26:00.004-05:00

Blakely has gotten so big lately. She now has a new favorite toy, a rattle that shakes & laughs. The rattle is a plush material which I love because when she yanks it to her face it doesnt bop her in the head hard. Blakely does NOT move in slow motion when things are headed into her mouth, so the hard plastic toys she has usually tend to be a hazard around her.
One of Blakely's new favorite past times is jumping in her Johnny jump up. She loves it! She bounces around & twirls in it. I am a huge fan of anything that keeps her occupied and happy.

This entry wouldnt be complete with out a few BIG EYED photos. As you can see, Blakely is still doing her deer in headlights look.

This picture was taken about a week or two ago, before she got the true hang of jumping in her jump up. She just had her legs backwards like she was flying.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-11T09:40:00.005-05:00

First off, I want to say I have the best Mom EVER! Seriously. My mom was always awake before us and always went to bed after us. (I never saw her sleep). Our rooms were always cleaned, our beds were always made, she always had a home cooked dinner on the table and kept a spotless house. My mom was always the head home room mom for ALL of our classes (she had 4 of us). She was the PTA President, and the Cheerleading Sponsor. She never missed our extra circular activities and always made sure our needs were met before her own. She always picked us up from school and toted us around town.... usually giving all our friends rides too. Although we joke and call her the helicopter mom... because she hovers over us all, she is the mom I will always strive to be... and I'm sure I will always come up short. I love you mom. I appreciate you now more than ever.

My first Mother's Day started off bright and early at 5:00am. Blakely was obviously very excited to start the celebration since last year at this time I was unaware I was preggo.

I started this blog after Mother's Day last year. In my first blog entry I talked about how last Mother's Day was a hard day for me. I had a miscarriage the August before mothers day, and the reminder that I was not a mother that day was very hard. I found out that I was pregnant with Blakely the Thursday after Mother's day. This year I am beyond thankful that God allowed me to be a mother to a beautiful baby girl. I am so madly in love with Blakely and cant imagine my life without her. My first Mother's day was perfect, simply for the fact that I had Blakely to celebrate it with.

Before I lost Talon (we were going to name our baby Talon, whether it was a girl or boy), I used to laugh at the family bumper stickers on the backs of cars. I would make jokes and I am pretty sure I swore I would never have bumper stickers on my car. After losing Talon, when I would see the family bumper stickers I would envy those people. I wanted nothing more than to have my own family. The bumper sticker family represents to me what I ached for.... and now that we have Blakely I feel so privileged and blessed that I wanted nothing more than my very own bumper sticker family for Mother's Day.

My mom mobile, has officially been pimped. ;) Thank you Milo.

How time flies...

2009-05-07T13:56:00.003-05:00

This time last year I was pregnant and didnt even know it. Below is a picture of Milo and I at a concert on May 1, 2008. Blakely was already growing inside of me, enjoying some live music... and we were oblivious to it all. Milo actually had a temperature of 101 - 102 degrees that day, but INSISTED on going to the concert. I hope Blakely doesnt get our stubborn streaks... if you combine the 2 we might have a recipe for disaster.

Wii

2009-05-06T13:47:00.002-05:00

Uncle Scott made a Wii character for Blakely the other day. Can you see the resemblance? (please excuse the quality of the photo, and the dirty tv)

Crazy

2009-05-04T09:23:00.003-05:00

Last night I had trouble sleeping, I never could fall into a deep sleep. You all might think I'm crazy, but during that insomnia I planned Blakely's 1st birthday party. I know, I know.... she is only 4 months old. I dont even know what started the craziness, but by 3am I had picked out what cakes I wanted (yes, I want cakes - as in more than one!), decorations, party favors for the kids, party favors for the adults, the outfit I want her to wear, the bib I want her to wear, how I wanted to decorate, name placeholders, games etc. etc....

It's official. I need a life. :)

I wont go into detail about what I picked out, but I will say the theme (and I'm not usually a theme kinda girl) is cupcakes. The decorations also include tutu's and sequins. :) Very girly.

Robin's Shower

2009-05-04T07:39:00.006-05:00

Over the weekend we had my sister Robin's 1st shower. She has great friends that are very creative and good to her. Blakely came at the end of the shower for an appearance and got a little fussy for a few seconds, so we had to hijack one of Adalyn's new pacifiers. Oops.
My older sister and her family came in town from Arkansas for the shower last Tuesday, so I got to spend the week with them. Blakely was definitly spoiled and spent the majority of the time being held.
Here are some pics I took off my sister's blog.

Weigh In

2009-04-25T09:17:00.002-05:00

Well, the moment of truth on the scale came this morning. I lost 4.6 pounds my first week. I was pleased with this, but the more I sit and think about it I'm starting to beat myself up that it could have been more.

I only worked out 1 1/2 times this week... although I plan to get another workout in today. (I say 1/2 because a workout got cut short this week) I did use ZERO cheat eats this week. Last night when everyone else was eating sonic, I had a grilled chicken sandwhich on wheat bread. I was supposed to drink about 4 bottles of water a day.... that usually ended up being about 2 bottles for me. The things I need to work on for week 2 are workouts and drinking more water.

1 week down, 5 to go in the challenge.

2009-04-23T21:26:00.003-05:00

I have been waiting for Blakely's eyes to turn brown. I feel like they are headed in that direction. My mom thinks I'm crazy. I read that babies eyes can change color even at 1 year! So, Blakely, I wanted to document a close up of your eyes... so in case they change color you can see what you look liked with big blue eyes.

Blakely was in this outfit by 11:00am - thank you, thank you.

Blakely loves to pull her shirts up. Yes, this concerns her parents.

Blowout

2009-04-22T21:34:00.004-05:00

I put Blakely in jeans for the first time yesterday, she looked adorable. Milo came home for lunch & even requested I take their picture since he liked her outfit. I think he even made the comment "you did good on her outfit today." Umm... what? I'm assuming that means that most days he does not like the way I dress her?! (insert rant here) At least she wasn't still in her pj's. Yesterday was actually a good day for us, just for the pure fact that she was in clothes before noon. I will admit, it's hard to get her ready in a cute outfit during the day while I'm trying to watch her and take business calls until Scott arrives to help.... Which brings me to my story.
I know I have mentioned several times on my blog that my younger brother who is a junior at DBU, watches Blakely everyday after he gets out of class. Well yesterday when I was in the back of the house I heard him yelling... "Uh... Karen... Help!" When I came around the corner I saw him holding Blakely (stretched as far from himself as he could get her). As I looked down at Blakely in her cute outfit, he turned her around to display a blowout. Nooooooo... not on the cute outfit..... not the day I actually got you ready! NOOOOOO.... It was pretty funny watching my brother. As I got Blakely ready for a bath, he left the room. He mentioned something about needing to throw up. ;)

PS. She had ANOTHER blowout on Scott today.... this time it was was in her pajamas @ about 2pm. See, I'm not lying when I said on a good day she is in her normal clothes before noon. :)

Sunday, Fun day

2009-04-20T09:34:00.005-05:00

Sunday morning Milo and I decided to go to Fellowship church in Grapevine for the late (11:30am) service. We really enjoyed Ed Young & the Praise & Worship music. I think we finally found a church that we both agree on. We checked out the nursery area and were pleased with how clean & organzied they seemed. We didnt bring Blakely with us this week, because we wanted to get aquainted with the church and check out the nursery first. We will take her with us next week so she can make some new friends. Maybe she will check out some of the other kids doing this "rollover thing" and decide she wants to try it.

After church the weather was nice for a lil' walk to the park. We put some leg warmers on Blakely and we were out the door. She had been fussy, but once we walked outside she was very content. Speaking of Blakely... she has officially outgrown her rolling bassinett, and her pack n' play bassinett. She slept at the bottom of the pack n' play for the past 2 nights. We are going to transition her slowly into her big girl bed.

Now onto my 42 day challenge news......

The challenge started today, here is our team! I sat down last night and made my jar and cheat eat tokens. I decided to put a little effort into it, so I would take it more seriously. I will post pics of my tokens later. Here is a sneek peak for now.

31 Party

2009-04-17T23:55:00.006-05:00

Tonight we had a 31 party at Tanna's house. Our friend Laura is a consultant for 31, so we were able to combine food, friends, and shopping all in one. I loved the stuff she was selling... I recommend going to her website. I bought 2 cute aprons for Blakely & Adalyn (Robin's daughter, that will be born in late July/ early August). I also bought a mommy tote, and a zipper pouch with Blakely's name on it. I didnt even look at the "grown up" stuff... everything these days is all about Blakely. I forget about my needs sometimes. Case in point - today I looked down and realized that I was wearing the same shirt that Blakely had spit up on me the day before. Also, have you seen my hair... I needed highlights like 3 1/2 months ago. (that's fitting, because that's how old Blakely is) Once the 42 day challenge is over I think I'm going to reward myself with highlights/haircut, a new outfi,t & a night out just me & the girls.

Here are some pics from the party tonight...

Below is a picture of 8 girls that are doing the 42 day challenge. We were enjoying our last few days of sweets.

No more cupcakes after Sunday night. The Challenge begins Monday. If you havent joined in on the challenge, you should!! You have till Saturday night to join our group. Otherwise you can still do it... just follow along or start a group of co-workers/friends/family that will do it along with you. Email Tanna if you wanna join our group. tctummy@yahoo.com

Welcome baby

2009-04-16T14:20:00.004-05:00

My friend Danielle had her baby today! It's a girl! Now Blakely has another friend.

Here is baby Kaelynd

The baby is so precious! It brought back so many memories seeing her. I cant wait to have another. :)

Labor blogging

2009-04-16T00:40:00.001-05:00

I have started my blogging for my friend Danielle.

If any of you like to read a good labor & delivery story as it unfolds you can go here.

Danielle

2009-04-15T10:12:00.004-05:00

My friend Danielle who is 9 days PAST her due date is getting induced tomorrow. She checks into the hospital tonight around 8pm. Everyone be thinking of her & saying a prayer for her and her baby. She really wanted to go into labor naturally, so we are still crossing our fingers for her that she will have some sort of "movement" take place on her own today before she checks in. I am going to go to the hospital BRIGHT & EARLY tomorrow morning so that I can blog her labor & delivery details to her friends and family that will either be stuck at work or are out of the city and cant be there. I'm so thrilled that I get this opportunity to help create something that will be memorable for their family and also help family & friends that aren't there physically feel involved in the process.

Giving birth was the best moment of my life. I will NEVER forget opening my eyes and seeing Blakely's lil' feet sticking up in the air. If anyone else wants to follow along on her journey tomorrow, check out her blog for updates. :) They are waiting to find out the sex of the baby... so this should be extra special for her blog readers... I will get the joy of helping announce not only the birth of their baby, but whether or not they will be having a baby girl or baby boy.

I'm so thrilled for her, I can hardly stand it. I keep telling her I am living vicariously thru her tomorrow.

Danielle @ 36 weeks

Veggie Tales

2009-04-14T22:59:00.005-05:00

Milo finally took a video of Blakely watching her Madame Blueberry - Veggie Tales movie. When I say she loves to watch this video it is an understatement. We watch this video 20 times a day... yes, I know... I'm a bad parent and let my child watch videos. This really helps me get things done during the day when I'm trying to work until Scott comes over to watch her. On a normal day once Blakely wakes up and has a bottle I usually let her watch her movie while I'm getting ready or doing some work.... by the time she is done watching it we play then it is time for a nap. Once she gets up from a nap we start the cycle over again until Scott gets here. In the evening before bed time this is how we get Blakely to wind down. We get in bed and let her take a bottle and watch it one last time (usually not the whole way thru) as she gets sleepy. Blakely will talk to the tv, laugh, and smile. She really gets passionate during certain parts of the video. It seems like she is getting mad at the tv, then she will bust out a huge smile.

Here is the video. I know it's long, but I think she's precious.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T20:28:00.006-05:00

This was the best Easter I have ever had, by far! All because I got to share it with my beautiful daughter. Blakely was in a good mood today, she is normally a pretty happy baby - I'm very lucky. We got her ready for church this morning with the intention of making the early 8:30am service. We got in the car at 8:30am to leave so we pulled out, then decided to pull right back into the driveway so we wouldnt be rushing into church late. We decided to hang out at the house until the late 11:00am service. This was Blakely's first time to go to big church. We sat on the backrow just incase she got restless. She slept thru most of it. We made it thru the entire sermon, but slipped out when they started the invitation. I was proud of her. After church we came home and gave Blakely her easter goodies.... mostly thanks to Nonnie. :)

Here is a picture of her Easter pj's she wore on Saturday night in honor of Easter....
They had little bunnies on the feet.... so precious!

This was Blakely's easter dress, it had a cardigan since it was chilly this morning. We made her bow to match the dress and her purple bracelet! Yes, she had to wear her bling to church.

She Loves her daddy!

Nonnie bought Blakely her easter dress, so of course she had to buy herself a shirt to match. :)

Blakely's first Easter basket!!!! The Easter bunny brought her an ExerSaucer, some bunny ears, sunglasses, a baby einstein video, cereal, & a curious george barbie! This is Blakely's first of many Barbies from her mom... I have about 50 in a hope chest for her. I have been collecting them for my daughter since highschool. Now that's planning ahead! :)

Look at my BIG bow Tia Ju Ju....
Blakely's eyeing her loot... wondering why the Easter bunny didnt leave any candy!
HOLLYWOOD!
I'm blessed with a very happy baby! With that said... it still takes about 100 pictures until I get one with her smiling in it.

Blakely LOVES her new Exersaucer. She loves the bright colors.

This picture cracks me up!!!! That toy spun... she was impressed! VERY impressed.

Our last Easter outfit for the day. It said 'My first Easter'. Yes you are seeing correctly. I PAINTED HER TOES! I know, I know... but they look sooooo cute! She doesnt put her feet in her mouth, so I didnt see any harm in painted toes for easter. :)

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Rain Rain Go Away...

2009-04-11T21:45:00.003-05:00

Rain, rain, go away... come back another day.

It always seems to rain on Easter Sunday. Hopefully we get at least an hour or so of sunshine tomorrow so the kids can hunt Easter Eggs. Blakely is ready to hunt Easter eggs in the rain if she has too.... she's got her rain hat & boots out & ready to go.

Blog fan

2009-04-11T16:06:00.006-05:00

Whenever I cant find Blakely and Milo, I always know to look in the office first. Milo loves to hold Blakely in his lap(or on the desk) while he fiddles around on the computer. I decided to capture this father/daughter time on camera... except Miss tooter would not look at the camera!

Why wouldnt she look at the camera, you ask?? This is why.....

Because Mommy's blog is way too interesting!!!! Especially when she puts pics of that cute baby up! - (please excuse my very messy desk!)

Here is the love bug doing her second & third favorite things respectively...... standing (with our assistance of course) and slobbering. :)

PS... WE MADE THIS BOW (my mom made this one)! Yes, we finally started to master the art of bow making.

Easter Bunny

2009-04-10T21:54:00.003-05:00

We took Blakely to have her picture taken with the Easter bunny today at The Parks Mall. She did great! She slept while we waited in line, then dosed off and on while she was getting her picture made. The Easter bunny didn't phase her in the least. Next year it might be a different story when she is more aware of what is going on. While I was standing in line waiting to have her picture made I started to think about all the years I walked past the families standing in line to have pictures made. Sometimes I still cant believe I have a family now... my own little family. We are so blessed that we are able to stand in line now with our little girl.

Madame Blueberry

2009-04-09T23:13:00.003-05:00

My mom bought Blakely a Veggietales dvd that my nephew Mason used to watch when he was a baby. My daughter is following in Mason's footsteps... she is addicted to it. Blakely will literally watch Madame Blueberry over and over while I'm on the laptop or cleaning up etc.... She sits and talks to the tv the entire time. She cant get enough of this..... I, on the other hand, am so tired of this dvd. :) I shouldnt complain too much though, I do love the freedom to roam about or have some "me" time while she is watching the movie.

I will take a picture of Blakely sitting in her boppy watching the dvd tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow.... we are taking the princess to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny. Wish us luck.