Eight

I've been tagged by Caci to make lists of 8 things. I'm copying her lists (at least the titles of them!)

My 8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Red Lobster
2. Burger King
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. Braum's
5. Chili's
6. Cheddar's
7. Papacita's
8. Mazzio's Pizza

8 Things that Happened Today
1. Woke up with Karys at 7:30
2. Ate Rice Krispies for breakfast
3. Folded laundry
4. Played on facebook
5. Finished a Christmas movie I had recorded (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus...not that good)
6. I started another Christmas movie (Christmas in Wonderland...good so far)
7. Told Ryan goodbye as he left for work
8. Thought about all the things I need to be doing!

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. First Christmas with a baby
2. Finishing all my gift-making before Christmas
3. Spending time with the family over Christmas
4. Six Flags this Sunday!
5. Ryan being off work for a week and a half
6. Getting my Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree!
7. Checking the mail for more Christmas cards. :)
8. Getting my workout on later

8 Things I Am Scared Of
1. Clowns
2. Throwing up
3. Drowning
4. Something bad happening to my child
5. Something bad happening to my husband
6. Getting cancer
7. Falling down the stairs
8. Being attacked

8 Things I Wish For
1. A long, happy life
2. Good friends
3. A happy marriage always
4. Well-rounded children
5. My children to know the Lord
6. A comfortable life
7. More money!
8. Jesus to come back (while I'm still alive, but maybe when I'm old!)

8 Things I Watch on TV
1. The Office
2. Friends
3. That '70s Show
4. Worst Week
5. Dancing with the Stars
6. The Biggest Loser
7. My Name is Earl
8. Ugly Betty

Now I'll tag: Jaime, Kristen, Meredith, Merrisa, Christy, and Mary. :)

Madison's Piano Recital...And More

This post is basically to let anyone who is interested see my niece, Madison, performing at her piano recital. The video is at the end of this post, but before you get to that here are some pics from the last week or so:

My mom bought this shirt for Karys and wanted to make sure I took her picture wearing it. It says "Who needs Santa? I've got grandparents!" And the picture below it is a bib my sister bought and wants a picture of her wearing. It says "Santa's Best Helper." So here you go, Mom and Julie!

This picture is one that was taken yesterday at Mary's house. Karys was sitting on the couch and slowly fell over and when she landed on her side, she looked like she was modeling. She wouldn't keep her "pose" very well, but she had her legs crossed and we tried to get her to lean on her hand. :)

And now, for the star of the show (or, the post :) it's Madison!! *applause*

Need Suggestions

I thought that once you titled a blog, it was that way forever, but I've figured out how to change the title. But I don't know what to change it to. I originally titled it "We're Having A Baby??" last year when I started this because it was such a surprise to us. However, now that we have a 4 1/2 month old...not so surprising anymore! :) I'd like to come up with something clever...any suggestions?

For your viewing pleasure...

I just spent the last too-many hours uploading pictures to facebook. :) These are the pictures that we had taken by our awesome friend, Chip Gillespie, while we were in Houston for Thanksgiving. If you ever need pictures taken in the Houston area, he's your guy! Hope you enjoy!

Click here to view the pics.

First Feeding

We started Karys on rice cereal yesterday. No real reason why yesterday was so important but I got the idea in my head and that made me want to do it. Plus I talked to the doctor's office the other day to ask a question and decided to ask about cereal--mainly just how much and how often. So I got my answers and yesterday was the day. This was my very first experience feeding a baby who has never had solids before. Quite the experience! :) With every bite she made this face of confusion/disgust. It was pretty funny! The doctor's office told me that I could mix the cereal together with formula, water, or juice and to make it runny because otherwise she wouldn't know what to do with it. So I mixed it with formula and a little bit of juice to add some sweet flavor to it. My question now is for all of you moms who have been here before: does it take time for her to like this or am I doing something wrong? She had cereal twice yesterday and twice today but it still seems like she's not too into it. Sometimes she more or less just spits it back out. Both times today she had some of it (and spit some of it back out) and then I had to stop because she started crying. With these feedings I give her some of her bottle, then put her in her chair for cereal, and then give her the rest of the bottle. With this evening's cereal feeding I even tried giving her a few sips of the bottle after a few bites of cereal. Any suggestions would be awesome!



Here are some pictures of this experience (taken at the first feeding yesterday):

Before any cereal

After the first bite

After a few bites

And this picture is just one I took the other day for cuteness purposes--she played herself to sleep!! :)

Deckin' Those Halls

Technically nothing's been "decked" yet, but the process is being started. And by process I mean, I reorganized our decorations tonight and re-boxed things so that like items are together. Oh, and I pulled out everything I didn't want or need so it can go into a garage sale. While this was going on, I put Karys in her high chair seat on the floor with me (I used the high chair seat because we don't have the Bumbo play tray yet and with the high chair, she has a tray for toys). After she got tired of the toys, I gave her a piece of tissue paper to play with. At first she didn't do much with it, but once I crinkled it up a little bit, she was more interested in seeing what it was all about. Here's a short video for your enjoyment:

And here's what happened after the video ended: Straight to the mouth!! :)

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

This year (as we have for the last 2 years) we traveled to Houston for Thanksgiving to be with Ryan's Mammaw, Aunt Donna, Uncle Jerry, and cousin Ashley. However, this year was different in a few ways. Of course, number one being that we had Karys with us!! :) And secondly, we were not joined by Ryan's sisters and their families. It just wasn't one of those things everyone was able to do this year. But we had a great time. This was Karys's first long road trip (4 hours) and first overnight trip (we were there 3 nights). She did WONDERFULLY. It was her first time sleeping in her pack n' play and she did great at that. We had a great time. Friday morning, one of Ryan's friends, Chip, took family pictures for us since he is now a professional photographer. I can't wait to see them! They're our first professional pictures in 3 years, for me and Ryan, and our first ones ever with Karys. Hope your Thanksgiving was as blessed as ours...now we're starting the preparations for Karys's first Christmas!!


Here are some of our pictures to share from the weekend:

Karys and Ashley (apparently she's telling Ashley something very serious!)

Karys and Mammaw

Karys playing

Karys and Uncle Jerry and Aunt Donna

Awww...

Just a few cute pictures to share!

Sleepy girl!

Here are Karys and Ethan sharing some tummy time yesterday during Bible study

And just a picture of Karys enjoying tummy time. Look how high she can raise up!!

Who Would've Guessed?...

That unloading silverware from the dishwasher was funny?! :) This afternoon I had Karys on the counter in her Bumbo seat (don't judge me! :) while I unloaded the dishwasher. I started pulling the silverware out and putting it away and apparently she found this hilarious!! She's started doing "real" laughing now and I just love it! It's impossible not to laugh back at something like that. Last week we got this great video of her spending like a minute and a half laughing at Ryan playing Peek-A-Boo with her. Of course it's on the video camera, which most likely means it's too big to upload here. But I used my digital camera to take today's video. Hope you like it! (Oh, and don't you love that the second I start talking to her, she stops laughing?! :)

TAG, You're It!

I've been tagged by Meredith. :) Apparently when you are tagged, you are supposed to retrieve the fourth picture from the fourth album on your computer. My picture is going to be fairly recent because we got a new computer and haven't transferred all of our old pictures to it! But, here it is:

This is Karys during the clean-up time after she was born. :)

Okay, now I tag: Amy, Caci, Evangeline, Erin, Shelah, Merrisa, Kristy, and Lindsay. Can't wait to see your pics!! :) Have fun!

Just for Laughs

Actual conversation that happened in line at Albertson's tonight:

Man in line behind me (to cashier, whom he apparently knew): (looking at Karys) You'd better watch out because this little boy is going to get you!

Cashier (before looking at Karys): Oh, yeah, okay! (sarcastic)

Cashier looks down at Karys: That's not a boy, it's a girl!

Man: No, it's not! (Looks at me quizzically)

Me: Yeah, it's a girl.

Cashier: She's got on a pink outfit and a pink blanket!

Man (to me): I don't know any better...I had two babies and both of them were boys.

The above picture is to show you exactly how Karys looked during the aforementioned incident. Granted, this man was probably in his 60's, but come on!! :)

Karys Tells the Truth :)

In case you can't see her shirt, it says "Kiss Me, I Am Too Cute." Also, notice how she's grabbing at her feet. That's a new thing she started a couple of days ago. Hopefully that puts a smile on your face for those of you that, like me, are saddened by these election results. I knew this was how it was going to go down, but now that it really has, I just wonder what is in store for this country. I decided this morning that the only way this election would've been fair is if both candidates were black, because then everyone would be forced to only look at the issues and not at skin color. I think the idea of a black president is awesome, but I don't think that should've been enough reason to vote for him. I feel like there is a dark cloud hanging over us now but I have been reminding myself CONSTANTLY today that God is in control. However with that being said, God also allows us to receive consequences for our poor choices. Is this election the result of a nation that has not put God first for a long time? I guess we will find out.

On a positive note, check out this cute picture I took yesterday! :)

Baby's First Halloween

Not that it was really all that much fun to her!! But I had fun (as all parents do) exploiting my child for my own personal enjoyment! Haha! We started off the day in one outfit, but basically only wore it long enough to take the pictures. Texas decided to be rather warm today and if I would've left her in long sleeves all day, the poor girl would've died of a heatstroke!! But I just had to get pictures in this shirt. I bought it from a friend this summer at her garage sale. It says "lil' miss-chevious". Yesterday I had an interesting time trying to find the pants and bow. I knew if I didn't have her wear her headband (especially in the orange shirt) she would be mistaken for a boy. Lately when trying to find black pants I have been out of luck...it seems people don't think babies should wear black??? But I did find some yesterday at Target. I wanted a Halloween bow for her headband, but I waited too late for it. I did find this cute black one at Walmart and am glad that I got it. It'll serve more than just the purpose of Halloween.

What a pretty girl!! :)

So what did we do on her first Halloween? We first went "trick-or-treating" at our friends', Luke and Alisha's, house. Alisha sent out a message a few days ago that they were going to have trick-or-treaters and that they had treats for babies under 1. (She got an adorable stuffed monkey. :) Then we went to the church for the annual carnival, Farm Fair. This was my first time to ever go because in the past it's usually on a school night and I've never wanted to go, be out late, and then go to work the next day. So this year I actually have a child to take and I have no job so it all works out! :) Here is a picture taken of her at Farm Fair in our second Halloween outfit. This shirt was sent to her by my parents and reads "this is my costume". She did well this evening, considering she missed her last nap because I was taking her out gallavanting around town. :) I hope you and your "trick-or-treaters" had a safe and fun Halloween!

(Her eyes look all weird in this picture because it was dark outside so my only source of light was the flash, which obviously was a bright contrast!)

Yay...A New Post!!

My apologies for the long break between postings. My sister got onto me the other day and told me to get some new pictures up soon. My reason, however, for being absent from the blogging world is a good one. Last week, Ryan's sister, Misty was here for the entire week from Connecticut so we were at his other sister, Amber's, house every day to hang out with her, her two kids, and Amber's 4 kids. It was so much fun! Karys's cousins are really starting to enjoy her now that she's older and more interactive. The last time Misty's kids (Will, age 2 1/2, and Jillian, age 1) saw Karys she was only a couple of weeks old and just not a whole lot of fun yet. Now she smiles, and even laughs! I found out from Misty and Amber that the noises I started hearing from her several days ago were, in fact, laughs. She gets this huge grin on her face, and makes almost a fake cough sound...so cute!

Oh, and today marks her three-month birthday. Wow...time is now flying! We took her to the doctor last Thursday because of a rash that wouldn't go away (turns out it's eczema) and she weighed 12 lbs. 2 oz. (that was with clothes and a diaper, though).

Here are some pics from our fun week with family:

Karys and Jillian vegging on the couch

Karys, Connor, and Ryker

Her adorable headbands that we have finally fit her so I dressed her all sassy! This onesie is a gift from a church friend, Rai Lynn, and on the back it has her name in this cute font with rhinestones around it. One day I'll get a picture of the back. :)

Look at this big girl!

And this is just a fun video for your enjoyment. She cracked us up because she was so enthralled with this toy!

Pictures from the Weekend

This past Saturday Karys and I made her first fairly long car trip. We drove to Forney to spend the day with my parents and sister (about an hour and forty minute drive). She did really good in the car. My sister managed to snag some great shots of her and was disappointed that I hadn't posted them yet. So here ya go:

Sweet baby smile!!

This one cracked us up. I was looking at a take-out menu and Karys stared at it intently the entire time I was looking at it. I moved it all around to make sure that's what she was looking at and her eyes just kept following it!

FINALLY!!

I have been trying to catch Karys on video "talking" but have had no luck until tonight. The reason being that I'm trying to capture it with my digital camera so I know I can post it on here and if I'm sitting and talking to her, the second I put the digital camera in her face she stops because the camera has a little red light on it that blinks when it's recording and she spends the whole time staring at the light! So I got a chance to record her tonight in her swing which was apparently less distracting to her (I guess because the camera wasn't right there in her face.). Every time she sits in her swing lately, she talks to the toys that are on it...especially the giraffe. :) I hope you love this as much as I do---she's guaranteed to make you smile!

Random Miscellaneous Information

As the above title states, this post is going to be full of random info. Karys is officially two months old (actually that happened last Tuesday, but I forgot to mention it on previous posts). Today was her appointment with the doctor (where she also had to get her first round of shots :( She weighed in at 11 lbs. 2 oz (47th percentile). That means that since we last went to the doctor 5 weeks ago she's added almost 2 pounds to herself (only 4 oz. away from a full two pounds). She didn't grow quite as much this time. (22 1/2 inches...last time she was 22 inches.) She's now in the 43rd percentile for height. Her head circumference was 15.25". I don't remember what it was last time--the important thing is that she's in the 39th percentile which all together means that she's growing proportionally. She had to have 3 shots today and one oral vaccine. She did really well for her shots. When she was given the first one she had a delayed reaction. It seemed to take her a second to realize that what just happened hurt. Poor baby. But when it was all over with she recovered very quickly (finishing her bottle helped too!).

I took this picture this morning, especially for my mom. She bought this outfit for Karys on Saturday when we went shopping at Kohl's.

On Sunday we all ended up wearing blue, so after we got home we took a family picture (since our last one was taken the day we left the hospital!), so here it is for your viewing pleasure:Oh, this is Karys's latest self-soother (so much for the pacifier!):And finally, she discovered her hand on Monday. She's only done what she did once but it was cute nonetheless. She was laying on the floor doing all the moving that she does with her hands and feet and her right hand passed in front of her face and she took notice of it. She stared intently as she moved her wrist very slowly back and forth. We caught it on video, but it's on the video camera (that seems to make files that are too big). I'll try that another day.

Nana and Granddaddy

On Saturday my parents came over for a visit. They have a goal of seeing Karys at least once a month, which I think is great. These are pictures from their visit.

Fun Play Date

I am doing a Bible study on Thursdays at church and after it's over each week, a couple of friends and I eat lunch together. We had been going out to eat, but that gets expensive quickly so we're going to start rotating houses. Today we were at Mary's house. Mary's little boy, Ethan, was born the day after Karys so we're enjoying the first-time mommy thing together. We laid them on the floor side-by-side to prove that Karys is longer than Ethan (probably by a good 2 inches) and they were so adorable I had to snap pictures. :)

We attempted to get them to hold hands :)

We eventually had to move Karys down a little bit because Ethan's hands were just a little too active and kept hitting her in the face!

We Love You, Aunt Misty!

Ryan's sister, Misty, mailed Karys this onesie last week, along with a matching burp rag and bib. Isn't it just adorable? :)This other picture is one I took on Monday at a Bible study a few friends and I do together. I put Karys on my friend, Jennie's, bed to take a nap and when I went in to check on her, this is what I saw:

Girls Can Wear Blue Too!!

I would LOVE to know why when strangers see me out and about with my baby, they automatically assume she is a boy. She can be wearing the pinkest of all outfits and they stare right at her and call her a "he." It seriously happens pretty much everywhere we go. Usually if they ask a question about her I'll make sure to clearly say the word "she," but if they just make a comment about how cute "he" is, I just smile, say thank you, and go about my business. I mean, it's not like it's really going to affect them one way or the other to know that she's a girl instead of a boy. The reason I bring this up is because it just happened twice on our trip to Walmart. The above title is because the outfit she is wearing happens to be blue today. Normally, I might say that I understand since she's wearing blue, but this was one of the girliest outfits possible. It's one of those sunsuits (I think that's what they're called) that looks like a dress, but only in the front.

The outfit in question

So, the first woman to mistakenly identify her gender sees me in the formula aisle. She asks how old the baby is and then says something about him being a big baby...how much does he weigh? To which I reply, "At her one month check up, she weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz." which gets the reply of, "Oh, it's a girl?" Bear in mind that this woman is looking right at Karys; the outfit is trimmed in pink and she is wearing white socks WITH RUFFLES!! Her feet are very easy to see, in case I give this woman the benefit of the doubt and say maybe it was hard to see the whole outfit when she was strapped in her car seat. It's not hard to see her socks! The second woman to do the same thing is one of the employees handing out the free samples. As I'm walking past, she steps away from her post to come peek into the car seat and very confidently says, "Awww, it's a little boy." Aye yi yi!!


For those of you who haven't seen our car seat, here is a picture of it:
I picked this one because I thought it was pretty gender neutral. It didn't really scream "boy" or "girl" to me. The colors might be a little more masculine, but I thought they were balanced out by the polka dots...a little more girlie. Plus, I didn't want to get a car seat that was girlie because our plan is not to just have one baby. And should a subsequent baby be a boy, he would not be riding around in a pink car seat.


I guess that is the end to my rant. :) My question is this: does an infant girl have to be drowning in pink in order to be identified as a girl??? :)


See, even mommies can wear blue! :)

On a fun note, she has started "talking" back to us sometimes when we talk to her (meaning she makes her sweet baby noises on purpose). We caught some of this on video the other day and I tried to upload it. However apparently our video camera creates files that are too big for Blogger. So here's just a cute video I captured one day last week. Hopefully I'll get a "talking" video up here soon. Hope you enjoy!

Just Some New Pics

I keep wanting to post a new blog, but I really don't have any information to give. Well, Saturday night, she slept from 10:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.!! :) However, it's still the exception and not the rule because last night she woke up crying at 2:15 which happens randomly usually once a week. Oh well. :) She was officially 7 weeks yesterday. Here are some cute new pics:

Ryan took this picture after I finished her bath the other night before I got to brush her hair because he thought it was funny. :)