Ahhh, Finally...Pictures! And Video!!

My sweet friend, Alison, asked me this morning at church how I was doing because my latest blogs haven't been as perky and upbeat as usual. Honestly, I haven't been feeling quite as perky and upbeat because I'm kind of in the middle of a little pity party I'm throwing for myself. :) However, I can choose my own attitude and I'm am aiming to try and choose a happy one as often as possible. Starting.....NOW. :)

So, here are some new pics for your enjoyment. Karys is getting really close to being able to sit independently. I attempted to catch some pics of that. She does pretty well having the Boppy behind her for support. (And to my sister, Julie: this is the Winnie the Pooh outfit you gave her!)

And now, video #1: My wonderful friend, Stephanie, gave Karys what is turning out to be her favorite toy for Christmas. It's a ring stacker that stacks stars and has lights and plays music. I have to admit, it's a pretty fun toy. So this video is highlighting her "almost" sitting skills and her love of this toy.

And this video is funniest if you get the background behind it. If you don't watch "The Soup" on E! this might not be as funny. The show highlights/makes fun of clips of shows that are on TV during the week and every once in a while they make fun of a kids' show called "Yo Gabba Gabba." The part they highlight has a kid by himself saying "My name is ___ and I like to dance!" followed by said kid doing whatever "dance" moves he wants to do to music being played. Recently Ryan started doing that with Karys and I find it totally hilarious...especially since it makes her smile and laugh too (although sometimes she smiles/laughs because I'm doing it, but oh well!). Tonight after her bath, Ryan had her in front of the mirror doing that and she was hilarious because when he'd move her to one side she'd hike up her leg which made it all the more funny. Hopefully you find it funny too!

Latest Updates

Once again, I am being boring with no new pictures. Of course, I'm typing this while I have a napping baby.

We actually showed our house this morning to some friends from church looking to buy. I think they're hoping to find something a little bit bigger, but it was worth a shot, both for them and for us! We're having a realtor come out tomorrow to talk with us on what we need to do, plus look at the house. So we feel optimistic that things will work out.

I heard back from my doctor today and she feels that my next step definitely needs to be having my gall bladder removed. She's supposed to be getting me an appointment with a surgeon and then we'll get this all under way. What a great time for all of this, huh? ;)

Poor Financial Decisions + Economic Slump = House for Sale

As the above title states, we are going to be in the position of selling our house ASAP. As a couple, we have probably not made the best financial decisions over the course of our marriage and that, coupled with the fact that Ryan is not able to get overtime at work anymore means that we really don't have the money to stay in the house we are currently in. We are hoping to get our house on the market and sold ASAP...hopefully. We would love for you to pray that that will happen for us and that we can get a new house soon. :)

In other news, I had my Hida Scan last Thursday but have not heard any results from it as of now. If I don't hear anything by Friday, I'll definitely call the doctor's office. :)

Sorry I don't have any pictures to share right now...I'll get to work on that!

This Time It's About Me

Usually I post about Karys or things about our family because, let's face it, we've become more interesting people since she's entered our lives. :) However, I just want to post quickly about something going on with me for those who are not aware. Starting back in September, I've been having really excrutiating stomach pains that come in spells. They last for different amounts of time and I've discovered Prilosec to be the only thing that will make the pain stop. Last Monday I visited a new doctor (after awakening to the pain at 2:30 a.m. and not having it subside until 10:30 a.m. and the only reason it finally went away was because I took a Prilosec at 8:00 a.m.). She had some blood work done on me and I got a call on Tuesday that my Liver Function Test came back high. That meant more blood work and an ultrasound on Thursday. I was told from that that my gall bladder looks abnormal. Today I got a call confirming that and so this Thursday I have to go have another scan done where I'll be injected with dye to make sure that my gall bladder really is the culprit. From there, I will probably be having my gall bladder removed. All that to say, I don't want to leave people out in the dark. :) If you think about me, I would love your prayers. If surgery is the next step, it'll be "fun" to figure out how to recuperate and take care of a baby at the same time! Luckily my family is already trying to figure out ways to come and take turns staying with us mainly because I'll need help caring for Karys. Oh well, life goes on and we'll be fine. :)

What A Difference!

My friend, Jennie, posted pictures of Karys on her facebook page that were taken yesterday. She's been taking pictures of her since September at a Bible study we do with some other girls. I ended up looking at all of the old pictures and it was then that I realized how much difference a few months makes. That prompted me to post a couple of comparison pictures for your enjoyment. When Karys was really little, I would sometimes prop her up on the Boppy after eating to help prevent spitting up. Now that she is 5 1/2 months old, she's almost able to sit independently and the Boppy helps her with that task. So this first picture was taken when she was less than 3 weeks old...

...and this picture was taken tonight at age 5 1/2 months. My apologies for my foot being in the picture. :)

See what I'm talking about?? :)

Also, a couple of weeks ago we got together with my aunt and uncle, and cousins, because my cousin, Anna, and her husband, David, were in town from Chicago and it was their first time to meet Karys. So here's a picture of Karys and Anna, especially for Anna's benefit.

Aren't they just so cute? :)

More Christmas Pics

For those of you not on facebook, I added more pictures from Christmas. Click here to see them. :)

New Discoveries

I just have to share a couple of pictures of Karys's newest discoveries. First of all, she's been a thumb-sucker for quite some time, but I'll guess that most people have never seen a double-thumb sucker! :) I'm thinking she figures that if one thumb is good, two must be twice as good!

Then, on Christmas Day she discovered how to roll over from her back to her tummy! She's been able to go to either side for a few weeks now, but has not been able to go all the way over. She was laying on her play gym and rolled up onto her side. Then she kind of swung one leg over the other. The arch from the gym was kind of a hinderance because she couldn't figure out how to get her arm out from under her because she didn't have room for it. But she finally got it! It was really exciting to watch her do something she hadn't been able to do before. :) And now that she's done it several times she's gotten really fast at it! Here's what she looked like after that first time:

And this last picture is just fun. The Monday before Christmas we got together with friends (we had 4 babies at our little party!) and of course we had to put the babies together for pictures. This one is funny to me because Karys is looking at Stephanie's mom, Catherine, and Stephanie seems to be looking at me! Oh well, still a cute picture. And of course there's Ethan chillin' to the side. :)

And yes I do realize there are only 3 babies in this picture but Jackson had gotten tired of the whole picture-taking process! ;)

Better A Week Late Than Never

I'm talking about my post describing Karys's first Christmas. We didn't come back home until Tuesday afternoon and then yesterday had a lot of craziness of it's own, so now that she's taking a nap, I can put up some pictures and describe the fun that we had celebrating Christmas (and New Years too, I guess!) with a baby.

On Christmas Day, I got up early so I could get ready before Karys woke up because we wanted to get on the road for our various destinations during naptime to make the best use of our time. When you don't go to bed until almost midnight, 6:30 a.m. comes really quickly! :) We started our celebrations here at our house, where Karys's big present was an ExerSaucer. She is really loving it! Here's one of the pictures of her playing in it:

I think we probably had a bit of present "overload" because we put her in the ExerSaucer first thing and then I kept pulling toys and things out of her stocking and putting them all around her. That looked like this:

Here at our house, her presents included: (from us) the Play Tray for her Bumbo seat, a book, plus the Exer-Saucer and stocking stuffers; (from Aunt Misty and family) clothes, adorable shoes, and a book; (from her great-grandmother, Mammaw) two fun toys; and (from her great-grand-parents, Grandpa and Grandma Jo) a cute outfit.

After that, we went to Ryan's sister's house here in town and exchanged gifts with their family. Karys got a really really adorable hooded ladybug towel.

We left there and were on our way to Forney to have Christmas with my parents and sister. They successfully spoiled the baby! One of her stocking stuffers was a small bear that said "Baby's First Christmas" on its tummy. Here she is loving on that bear:

From her grandparents, she got some great new headbands and hairbows, lots of books, a set of Baby Einstein toys, a rock n' roll guitar toy (because my dad plays bass guitar), and stocking stuffers. From her Aunt Julie, she got some great new outfits, a teddy bear, and a Care Bears movie (because my sister loves the Care Bears). I know there was other stuff too, but I just can't remember it all! Here she is once all of her presents were opened:

I was really thankful that we were able to stay with my parents from Thursday all the way until Tuesday. They were all so helpful and just loved doing anything they could for Karys. My parents even gave me, Ryan, Julie, and her boyfriend Six Flags tickets that they had and they kept Karys while we all went to Six Flags. It was my longest time away from her ever and I only called them once! :)

On Monday, we celebrated Christmas with some of my dad's family. Unfortunately, it was getting close to bedtime so we did not have a very happy baby. However, you'll notice in this picture that the shoes seem to be helping!

That seems to be enough for one post now, but stay tuned because after I post this one I'll be posting another one with a couple of other non-Christmas-related pictures.