Being a Mama...

So... it's great and unlike anything you'd ever expect. And its kinda sad... when you realize they'll never be little enough to fit into that sleeper ever again! And exciting... when you catch them mid air as they JUST learned how to roll over! Off the bed! And then there's all the other stuff that you don't realize 'till you're there. Why do single people, meaning they make decisions based on their own single preference and well being, think you are BLOWING them off if you can't take your baby to... oh, a bar?! It's not so easy building the loving friendships with the diaper genie in tow. You have to find another mama. That's really all that works. Ever notice a lot of really messed up people have kids?

He can hold his own cup....

My little monster learned to crawl. He scared the crap out of our poor old fart of a cat. Boy did she let him have it! Guess her tail was just the motivation he needed to stop rocking on those knees and actually take off :)  And I am so proud! Beaming at work telling everyone, even the single guys who only care where the next kegger is gonna be... However, thins is my new motivation to NEVER skip a workout again- He's mobile. He's fast. I gotta be faster! Ah.... being a mama....

Check out the video... starring our soon-to-be-put-in-her-grave-too-early cat, Trouble!

Walk in the park...

Shorts and t-shirts? Squinting from the sunlight? Flip-Flops? Harper, I don't think we're in Ohio anymore!!

Harper and I are enjoying our visit very much! Jen, Lee & Sawyer are also having a great time! We all went for a walk in the park a few days ago and had a blast!

We walked to the "Bark-Park" and saw some dogs! It had rained and there was a pretty good size puddle in the park and while we turned to walk away we heard one of the owners calling his dog & yelling "No!". We turned around to see his dog rolling around in the giant puddle, covering himself in mud. I'm pretty sure at this point that if Maddie or Saphire did that, Lee would go bazurk! I bet it was a pain for the other guy too!

It was also a lot of fun to see all of the "water damage" to the park. We took this picture (kind of difficult to see) in hopes that you would be able to see the change in water level stains on the brick wall and also the trees. The bottoms of the trees were covered in leaves...but only on one side! You could tell by the way the leaves were wrapped around the trunks which way the water was flowing! It was super cool to look at! The mud however took some tolls on the walk ways! At times it was super slippery so on the way back, I opted to take off my flip flops & stick it out through all the yucky, wet, COLD mud!...

So anyways, We had tons of fun & afterwards we even stopped for ice cream! Maybe we'll go for another walk or two while we're here and if not, it will at least become an every visit ritual! More later!

Tennessee Trip

We made it! Harper did wonderful on the flight and Mommy enjoyed all the extra seating surrounding her! Uncle Lee picked us up from the airport and we sat in traffic for a while but it was nice to talk and visit! We got home to a "screaming" Aunt Jen. She wanted to jump up and down and be happy we were there but recovering from a cold, Jen didn't have much of a voice to do so! A little over 24 hours into our visit; here's a look so far!

Yes, they love each other very, very much!

Aunt Jen loves her niece Harper!

For Mom...

Mom wanted me to add some pictures of Harper so she can show people at work! I post them on facebook but she can't get to it at work haha. Here ya go Mom...or Grandma!!

These have been taken in the past two weeks! Every day she focuses a little bit more, giggles a little bit louder and smiles a little bit wider! She recognizes more and more faces and voices too. She really is starting to come into her own and her beautiful personality shows through more and more each day!

If this isn't cute...

I don't know what is!

She was fuss-fuss-fuss all evening...I left her with Uncle Keith for five minutes and this is what I got! I guess I have to let him call her "Monkey Face" now!

Two Months!

Boy how time flys! Harper is now TWO MONTHS OLD! I don't recall eight weeks of mid-night feedings...nor 56 days of up-all-nights! I can't recall each and every bath and no way can I count the number of diapers I have changed! Regardless, the past two months have been the best two months of my entire life! Things started out rough but that was to be expected! As time went on, Harper and I both got the hang of things and I would say we're a pretty great team!

Harper is also enjoying time with Daddy! She loves to snuggle up on his chest and fall asleep with him! He can make her laugh and giggle and she seems to really love being with him! The two of them are more than adorable and Harper looks a lot like him too! It's a wonderful thing to watch the two of them cuddle up on the couch! The three of us are doing very well and there is more than enough love for this little one at both of her homes!!

Mad Baby

I was looking at old pics of Sawyer... In this one you can really see how bad his little face broke out. Besides the face that he looks absolutely annoyed with me for taking his pic!

Luckily, it does get better! As well as the same rash on his little tush :)

A visit

Besides the insane amount of fun we will have, I think when you are here we should get some "way too cheesy" pic of the little cousins. We will appreciate them later when they are bigger and they hate us :) On that note, you should bring the little swim diaper you got for Harper with the dinosaurs on it. I am pretty sure I found little trunks for Sawyer with the same print! That's gonna be a cute pic!  We can't wait until you guys get here :)

This Saturday we went to the Aquarium in Chattanooga. It was about an hour and change to get there, but it was so cool. Sawyer really seemed to like looking at all the fish and the penguins... We skipped the Sharks this time. He spent the whole day in his little carrier. And couldn't seem happier! It was neat to see how we would both do with a big trip away from home. And without Lee. But we made it :)

Breastfeeding...It Rocks.

I just had to share this picture...

Yea, thats all.

It's a hard way...

So sometimes it's really hard. It's hard to make the right choices for your baby. It's usually more expensive. It's always more time consuming. Even painful. Check out this link. I wanna go find this product, because they totally get exactly how it feels! 

The baby sale was a hit today. Lots of fun stuff. I did see one pair of saddle shoes for $16.00. Gonna guess the mom who was selling them remembered how hard they were to find. Sorry that was outta my budget! I do have a care package on the way though :)

This is me

Photo Shop

Well, I bet you are having lots of fun dressing up your little chicky. We are having the same fun down here. Lee likes to say that I dress Sawyer like a little baby and he dresses him like a little BOY. There is a distinct difference I guess! Still, we both agree on overalls.

In stead, we just spend a great deal of time taking pictures of all the fun stuff he does... He has started laughing at us. Especially is we tickle him a little, he just laughs and laughs. It's really cute. And I just keep trying to take cool pictures of him. I figure the more I practice, the better they will get. 

In a perfect world we get a pic with overalls and thumb sucking :)

Dress Up!

Harper is enjoying playing dress up almost as much as I am! Honestly I think I may actually be having too much fun picking out clothes for her everyday!

We're also enjoying her new neon-dinosaur plastic panties...she can wear them in the pool too!!!

Just thought we would share our new cute outfits. She doesn't seem to care what she's wearing but I hope someday she realizes how much fun it is to play dress up with a baby!!

Harper's Smile-Box

Make a Smilebox photobook

Sawyer's Smile-Box

Make a Smilebox photobook

Buck?

Ok... so we found this stray dog... By "we" I mean of course Lee. I get this strange text, asking if I (Home with our son, and nothing really pressing in my future...) have time for a 'serious and quick talk.' Well, I guess. It must be about a stray or a drunk or something coming to stay with us, or borrow our car, or something... Well. He looks pretty much like a 70% model of Maddie, and he's blind. And he is super sweet and soft, after his bath. And oH sweet lord did he need a bath, or three! 

He has a hard time with moving around. Lee is gonna take him to a vet that does work for the SPCA. It really doesn't seem like he has been blind all his life... he's still pretty bad at it. Honestly, he looks drunk while trying to waddle around. Maybe the vet will be able to do something for him. Remove cataracts or something... We'll see. But we are all starting to like him around here. Except, of course, Trouble.

Need a better name...

Funny Faces

Well if it's funny face day, we have a contribution too! I think I took this one while he was trying to talk/make noise. He does a lot of that these days. At first he would only "talk" to Lee, AND I had to be out of the room... But he has come around. He is especially chatty at bath time. He gets so excited when we put him in the bathroom, he knows he gets to go swimming :) This one is my usual angle from above. I love how bright his eyes look in this one. I keep hoping they will stay that way. *fingers crossed!*

THE look...

This is it! She makes this face all the time and it just cracks me up! She has the one raised eyebrow that Grandpa just can't get enough of...but then she opens up her eyes really big & puckers her lips as if she were saying "oooh"! Her eyes are lightening up a bit but still very bright blue!!! Take a look and tell me that wouldn't crack you up everytime you saw it! Haha, I love her!

NO MORE BUSH!

Harper and I really enjoyed the day yesterday. We sat and watched the Inauguration of Barack Obama, our 44th President! She has no idea how monumental this actually is but I hope someday she can think to herself that even if it was only six days, she was alive for this amazing day in American history! One of our friends snapped this picture while she watched the parade...I thought it was just amazing and decided to share! Hope everyone enjoyed the day not only to bring in Obama but to get rid of Bush...ahh, there is hope.

Welcome Miss Harper!

Well, I am so glad she is finally here. What an adorable little peanut. Nice job Kate.  I wish SOOOOO much that I was there to see her and you. If I was you would get the biggest hug and Harper would be covered with kisses... Can't wait to see her! Soon I hope :)

Love you all!

Harper Jean

The longest hospital visit and stay ever!! We were admitted to Fairview Hospital on Monday, January 12th around 5 o'clock pm. Aunt Meggie and I had been there since 1:30 however getting an ultra sound and a non-stress test. Harper was measuring at a weight of 6 lbs. 7 oz. so Dr. Moyer and Dr. Drazdik decided to just get things moving and induce in the morning.This was night number one, mostly spent with Aunt Meggie, Uncle Boobie and Aunt Kelly!! Uncle Chris brought us some dinner but couldn't stay too long...stupid visitor parking!

The next morning, Tuesday, January 13th, around 6:30 am, the nurses hooked us up to a Pitocin drip to get things moving. Even though it got contractions going they were not painful just a little bit uncomfortable. I was easily moving in and out of bed, listening to music and being nosey going through all the cupboards and closests, again with Aunt Meggie, Aunt Kelly and Uncle Boobie. Grandma was stopping for coffee for everyone else and finally got to the hospital around 10 o'clock. She decided to stay home the night before to get a good night sleep to be ready for the next day! Because they were inducing me, I was cut off from anything but clear liquids at mid-night the night before. We rushed to order some pizza with no idea how long it would actually be until I got to eat!! This is how we spent most of Tuesday morning...

Things were still moving pretty slowly and I wasn't progressing very much with the Pitocin so the nurses were upping my dose pretty often. Even though I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes, they were more than bearable and most times I didn't even notice them as contractions. After a little nap from about 1-3 pm Dr. Drazdik decided that I had progressed enough and she was going to break my water and told me that would move things along a lot quicker; boy did it! Only a short time after wards, maybe 30-40 minutes, my contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart, lasting about 30-45 seconds and were easily up to a 9 on a 1-10 pain scale. I dealt with those getting progressivly harder, faster etc. from about 4:15 pm until I decided to get an Epidural around 7 o'clock. By the time the anesthesiologist got to the room and put in the epidural it was about 8 o'clock and I was feeling incredible by about 8:15. Take a look...

Around about 10 o'clock it was wearing off and they gave me another dose. I was checked and progressing pretty well but still wasn't ready. Then around 11 o'clock it was wearing off again but I had made enough progress that they didn't want to re-dose me because I could be delivering soon. This next picture is Jana and I; she is pretty content and just waiting. I however am starting to feel those contractions again and my epidural was definitely not doing what it was before! haha

The nurse came in to check me around 11:30 and told us that I was 10 cm. and 100% ready to go! She was going to give my doctors a call and get things set up in the room for delivery! I got a little sick to my stomach and thought I was going to throw up. At first they said that it was just the epidural and to breathe, it would pass. Well I put a cold rag on my forehead and closed my eyes. By the time I calmed myself down (I'm pretty sure the nausea was strictly nerves) my doctors were there! It was about 12:05 when they walked in the door. We waited for a contraction to start pushing...I pushed through 4 maybe 5 contractions for a total of about 15 minutes and she was out!!

She opened her eyes as soon as she was out! They brought her straight to my chest and she looked at me and I looked at her and I started crying (like everyone else in the room!). I only got a few seconds good look at her because after that my eyes were just so blurry. We had a name tally on the door all day letting all the nurses and doctors, even other patients if they wanted, vote on the names they liked between Evelyn, Reagan, Harper and Emerson...Harper only got one vote for #1 choice but as soon as I looked at her I just knew she was going to be my little Harper Jean. She was finally here & nothing could have ruined that moment. Everyone was so happy & taking pictures...I will add them soon. As for now, I would like to introduce you to my daughter...my 6 lb. 13 oz., 19 inches long, perfect Harper Jean.

Say Hi Harper...