Finally Catching Up

Well, things have been busy around this household! We've joined a playgroup, started music class, have obedience class for Holden, Drew is starting 12's again on Thursday, and I've been picky and hungry all at the same time!

So Taylor's music class started this morning and it's fantastic! She is still really shy around other kids, but I think she'll open up as the class goes by (it's 10 weeks long). We do a lot of basic music exercises, sing songs, a lot of movement and learning! I was very impressed with it and I think Taylor likes it a lot too even if she was slow to open up. She finally let go of my leg in the last 10 minutes of class to run to "workin' on the railroad". I can't wait until next week!

Playgroup last week was also fun, we met at a park and the weather was beautiful! Taylor went on the swing for the first time (the park by our house doesn't have a swing) and she thought it was a lot of fun. She also went down a slide a few times, but spent most of the time glued to my leg again. She did walk around a bit, but when she fell she didn't like getting the dry grass on her hands. She just held her hands and looked at me like she was disgusted with dirt. I hope she gets over that!

Here's some pics from the park:







Here is a couple from last play group at Jumpin' Jupiter!




Here's a couple from around the house. This is Taylor in her outfit she got from our neighbor in England (they are in Oklahoma now and had a baby boy in October).


Here she is walking, walking, walking! Seems to be her favorite thing to do these days. I love her little jeans!

I have more pictures that I took this weekend, but it's already after 11 and I have to get up early tomorrow. We're doing a mall walk in the morning, and a playgroup at ChuckECheese right after!

I'll work on them a bit tomorrow as it's Drew's starts 12's on Thursday and I don't know when I'll have time to do it until he's done. Oh, I need to scan baby bean pics when he's home and Taylor is awake also!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Love,
Us

Guaranteed to make you smile!!

Tell me this isn't TOO darn cute!!

First OB Appointment

Went to my appointment today, but mostly it was a confirmation appt. It started off kind of funny though. I was in the waiting room and I hear my name (Jennifer) so I look back and the nurse smiles at me so I get up and follow her into the back. I take off my coat and shoes and get on the scale, then get on the table and she starts taking my history. It kind of went like this:

Nurse: When was your last period?
Me: About November 22nd.
Nurse (confused): So you haven't had a period since November?
Me (thinking, duh!): No
Nurse (confused): Are you pregnant?
Me: Uhh, yeah
Nurse (after a moment of silence): What are we seeing you for today?
Me: It's suppose to be my first OB appointment
Nurse: ...............
Me: Do you not have me down for that?
Nurse: Um, no.
Me (glancing over her shoulder): That's not my birthdate.
Nurse: It's not?
Me: No
Nurse: What's your last name?
Me: White
Nurse: Oh.....oops.

So I get my jacket and shoes back on and go back to the waiting room. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed! A few minutes later I hear her call "Mrs. Hill!"

My name (first AND last) got called shortly thereafter to go in and get my ultrasound. I went in and she was also confused. She said, "last time you were here, we inserted an IUD?" I explained my referral wasn't good to come back so I had it removed on base. That made more sense, apparently they were very confused at why I was pregnant with an IUD supposedly in place!

So I hopped on the table and got to see the little peanut! I can't believe how big s/he is already! I was going to scan the pics when Taylor went to bed, but I think I'll wait until morning so I don't make too much noise. She's not been sleeping well (will cover that in a bit) and I don't want to wake her. So peanut's heartbeat was 160 bpms, she took a bunch of pictures, and took some measurements. I measured at 8 weeks and 4 days, putting the estimated due date at August 29th.

After the U/S I went back into the waiting room until my turn with the doc. I was called in, peed in a cup, and filled out a little info form. My blood pressure was 97/68, and I haven't gained any weight yet, (154 fully clothed). Amazingly after what I've been eating lately! The doc. came in (Dr. Johnson) and we mostly chatted about my history, etc. She said that I'm low risk for pretty much everything, I'm healthy and she expects a routine pregnancy. I don't have to take the epidural class again since I already took it with Taylor (YAY!!!! It was horrible!!) so I'm good to go! She asked if I had any questions, which I didn't, and sent me to get some lab work done. I really liked her!

I had about 6 vials of blood drawn, made my appointment for next month (Feb. 18th) and then headed home! That was about it. Next appointment should be fun.. a full exam and pap (ugh!).

So that's what's going on with that!

Poor Taylor has a cold. It seems to be going around lately. She has a really runny nose, and she coughs like crazy at night. I feel so bad for her and there's nothing we can really give her. The humidifier helps a little, but not as much as I would like.

We also joined a play group in the area, last week we went to our first meetup. It was at this place called Jumpin' Jupiter. It's basically a building filled with huge bounce houses and slides and stuff. She cried a little, she wasn't sure what to think, but by the end she was brave enough to bounce up and down a little without hanging on to me. I do have pics of that I'll get them up when I scan the u/s pics.

We also signed her up for a toddler music class. It was suppose to start this Tuesday, but the teacher lost her voice, so rescheduled to start next Tuesday and it goes for 10 weeks! Hopefully Taylor is feeling better by then!

Drew has some crazy work stuff going on, I guess they are going to be doing exercises or practice stuff every other week for a while. So he'll be on 12's every other week, and work 12's every other weekend. Ugh!! He thought it was going to start this weekend, but I guess it starts next weekend instead. That's good at least!

I guess that's about it! I'm sorry I've been slacking on the pictures. I've been so tired lately so been sleeping when I can, of course I spend a lot of it tossing and turning. I need to take some more actually... Valentine's Day is coming up!!

Love to you all!

Couple of Videos

Well I can upload some videos on the laptop, but I'll have to wait until I get to the back computer to do pictures. I'm headed back there in a few so hopefully I can get some more up for you!

We're still alive!

Just wanted to make a quick post and let everybody know we're still here and kickin'. Drew has been working 12's for an exercise at work, so in order for him to get some sleep I try and take off during the day with Taylor so it's quiet and haven't had much computer time sans baby (oi, I mean TODDLER) to post updates and work on pictures.

She had a rough night last night, either her teeth were bothering her or she was having nightmares because she kept waking up crying every 20-30 minutes after midnight looking for me. As long as I was in the room she would go back to sleep but if I wasn't there she would stand up and sob until I came in. So I spent most of the night uncomfortably sleeping on the floor in her room. I gave her a bit of Tylenol tonight to see if that helps. I hope so! I need some good solid sleep in my BED!

Thankfully Drew (who had only been sleeping for an hour when Taylor woke up) got back up to let me get a couple hours of shut eye and then we switched and I left so he could sleep. That said, I'm off to bed now at 8:15 to try and make up for some of this lost sleep! Fingers crossed that she has a better night!

I will update when I can, I think Drew's 12 hour shifts end on Friday, oh and in case I forgot to mention it, my first OB appointment is on the 21st (next Wednesday) at 10:45, so hopefully we will get a solid due date and get to hear baby bean's heartbeat!

Taylor's Appointment

Taylor's 12 month appointment was on Monday, and everything went great. She is still tiny at 18 lbs 1 oz (10th percentile), 28" (25th percentile) and head circumference of 45 cm (75th percentile). She has been on the same curve so the doctor says she's growing fine, just petite. We had to get her a few vaccines, and have her finger poked to make sure she wasn't anemic (it hurts to turn 1!). The doc did say she says a lot of words for her age! She was asking me if she said mama and dada, so I started telling her what all she says and she was very impressed!

She's also walking pretty good now, she can go most of the way across the living room, and she takes off running with her little activity walker! She's also really good at putting shapes together. She's our smart cookie!

We had somewhat last minute company come yesterday. A friend from CA has stopped in for a couple of days. He will leave tomorrow, but it's been nice having a friend around. Drew took us today to check out a B-52 up close and personal. That was pretty neat. We couldn't climb up inside, but we could take a peek, and walk around the outside and check out the (empty) bomb bay thing. It was nice to see a little bit of what he does. He's a smart cookie too!

Tomorrow he is starting an exercise where he works 12 hour shifts from 6pm to 6am all the way through next week (including teh weekend, ugh!) so we wont be seeing too much of him. Luckily he had today off so he has a nice day to prepare for everything.

On the pregnancy front, I'm feeling pretty good. I get a little wave of nausea here and there, and well, pregnancy brain is in full force. Compounded with Mommy brain, I'm surprised I remember my name half the time. Does it ever get better? I'm still pretty tired a lot of time, but having Taylor around keeps me busy and awake!

That's my quick update for the evening! Once company leaves I have some more pictures that I took, I'll get those processed, but I didn't want to be rude and hide away in the back room processing.

Love you all!

Cake Portraits

Yep, she got cake TWO days in a row. No wonder she hasn't been wanting to nap!!

Tons of Birthday Pics, just for YOU!

I sat here and diligently processed all of Taylors Birthday Pics so I could get them up tonight to share! She refused to take her morning nap, so her afternoon nap was early and she went to bed by 7. She was cranky much of the day (except the first few hours in the morning, and a couple of hours after her afternoon nap) but otherwise, she had a great Birthday!!!

We went to the park, but we didn't get to spend too much time there because it got chilly and started to sprinkle, and Taylor was wearing a dress, and I was wearing short sleeves!




She Looooooved the slide!

After her nap, she had her Birthday lunch.. I can never get enough of her blue eyes..


Then I told her she was going to get a WHOLE cake to herself.. she said "say wuuuut???"

But first she opened presents so she could go straight to the bath after cake.

What's this from Uncle Jeff, Aunty Marnie, and Cousin Hannah??

Super cute clothes, and look.. a CARD! I can read it!

A coloring book and crayons for moi?This wrapping paper is nice, lets see what's inside it!


Look, it's a doll from Grams, and here is her nose!


And a new book too, yay! (She calls book a Buh)
The very start of my own LITTLE PEOPLE world from Mama and Dada!!




HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!! (Think she wants that cake??)

She wastes no time digging right in.
The whole thing for me thanks!


Nom Nom Nom!

Some goes here too.
Who is YOUR makeup artist???
Want some??
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
Dada can help too.

That was GOOOOD! I like this Birthday thing!
After cake she got all cleaned up and played with her toys a while, and colored in her book. I was very impressed that she didn't try to eat the crayons TOO much (except for the red one... they say red is an appetite stimulant you know). She colored 5 or 6 pages and only tore one out. Good girl!


All in all, I tink she had a great day, and we enjoyed it too!! I have some 1 year portraits planned that I'm going to do this week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Happy 1st Birthday Taylor!

Hard to believe a year ago today, right about now, I was getting my water broken and our lives were about to change! For the better of course!

This first year of Taylor's life has been full of excitement, new learning experiences, frustration, happiness, confusion, and of course, lots of LOVE! Who knew that this little person could cause so many emotions!

As I sit here and watch her eat her Birthday breakfast smorgasborg of eggs, organic mini waffles, mushrooms, cheese, and cut up grapes I think how far she has come in 1 short year. From learning how to smile, how to hold up her head, how to grab things, roll over, sit up, talk (I never get tired of hearing meow meow meow all day long), stand, wave, and the most recent development, walking! Not to mention this blooming personality, full of smiles, and giggles, and of course... demands.

She makes every day brighter for us, and now that we've had her around a while, we can't imagine life without her. She is the light of our lives, our little princess!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

The plan for today... fun! It's suppose to be a beautiful day, so after morning nap and meal, we're going to head over to a little park so Taylor can swing, and she can play and perhaps go for another wagon walk. She loves her wagon! I'm not sure when we'll do cake and presents, but we'll make sure to get it in there (with lots of pics!). I baked her a giant cupcake cake and decorated it with ladybugs! I hope she likes it!

I'll be sure to update again later with pictures from the day!

Happy New Year!!!

Wishing everybody a Happy New Year from our family to yours!!!!!!!

I barely made it until midnight, but I did it! I was SOO tired (Taylor got up just after 6 yesterday morning). Taylor went to bed at her normal time but got up at 2:30 for some reason wide awake. I think some of the neighbors were making a lot of noise and woke her up, although all of the fireworks didn't seem to bother her. I layed on the floor in her room until she went back to sleep around 4. I'm not sure what time she got up this morning as Drew took the shift and he's back asleep since Taylor went down for a nap.

Not much planned today, I think Drew is going to enjoy his day off and I might run to Home Depot if they are open to pick up some primer paint. I don't know if I mentioned it, but we decided the living room colors aren't working. We like them, but they don't flow with the kitchen and unless we paint our kitchen green or brown it's not going to work.... so after much thought and consideration, we've decided to change. i'll post pics when it's done.. it might be a while. Repainting is never as fun or tackled with as much enthusiasm as painting in the first place, haha.

I've also joined a challenge called Project 365, and the goal is to take at least one photo every day for a year. I'm documenting this challenge on my photo/papercrafting blog here: http://www.pixelsnpaper.blogspot.com so feel free to check over there and see what I'm doing! Like here I might not get a chance to upload every day, but I'll do my best to post as often as possible and label the pics with each day that I took them. I'm hoping not only will I get to document life for a year, but also work on my photography skills and try new ideas! In the end if I complete the goal I plan to have a photobook printed (or even make a scrapbook) of the project.

Here is a couple of New Years photos for you!




I thought this one was cute, the paper she is holding is a picture of me. She just thought it was the greatest, lol.



Again, Happy New Year to you all!!!!

Love,
Us