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