Timothy's 2nd Month

So, miracles of all miracles! I got all the pictures from the last 5 months uploaded, sorted, and loaded onto blogger - woohoo! I even took advantage of all the walgreens sales recently and printed them too...will such wonders never cease?!? That means I can get on my 2012 "resolution" of updating my blog more often. I'm gonna do a series of catching you up posts, then HOPEFULLY I'll be able to keep up with this bad boy on a more regular basis.

Taking you all the way back to September 2011, here is a recap of Timothy's 2nd-ish month.

Let me remind you I had a c-section and we had assumed that would be the case so we had lined up help for the first 6 weeks. There is good and bad to having company for that long, but it was ultimately a blessing and we are grateful for family who could come and help me recover fully. Deborah, Erin & Grady flew in to meet Tim an stayed with us for a few days. I'll be honest, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of adding 2 more kids to the mix, but as a veteran mom of 2, Deborah assured me it would be easier and it was! Grace had an absolutely BLAST with her cousins and Aunt Deborah got in lots and lots of new baby cuddles, as any Aunt should. :) While they were here, my stepdad came for a few days and took my Mom home and David's folks arrived for the start of their visit. After they left, we had one day solo before my Dad & stepmom arrived. On a whim, we decided to head back to WV with Dad & Linda when they went home so we could introduce Tim to his Great Grandma and the rest of our family in WV. Here are a few highlights from those few weeks of visits.

Grandad & Mimi with the kids

Erin, Grady & Grace

Snuggle time with Aunt Deborah

Not so sure about those kisses from Aunt Deborah

Grace & Erin coloring in the big book.  

The kids with their Mama & Papa

My 2 miracles

Snuggles from Nanny!

Papa and his little Mountaineer.  We get all my cousins' hand me downs so there is NO shortage of WVU gear.  :)

Papa time

Snuggling with Papa is the best!

Mommy snuggle time, my favorite!

Papa's kisses, LOVE that face!

My dad with his 3 babies (including Casper, his cat)

Tim's Great Grandmother holding him for the first time!

Many a babe has slept in those capable, comfortable arms - snuggling with my dear Aunt Reta

Grace & Tim with their cousins Maggie & Truman and their Great Grandma

It's December already?!?

Where do I start?  I can't believe it's been almost a month since I had a personal blog post.  I did post about the shutterfly cards, but that was for selfish gain, and I know you all come to this blog for pictures of our beautiful girl and to find out what we've been up to.  That said, I'm going to recap with a TON of pictures, so get ready!

First up, our dear friends Paul and Bethany welcomed their sweet baby boy 2 weeks early on Nov. 2.  They named him Tyler David and he is such a cutie!  I enjoyed lots of time at the hospital with them, and while not as much since they got home, I'm sure that will change soon now that all their family has come and gone.  :)  Here's a few pictures of Tyler in his first days.

On November 9, we had Grace's 1st birthday party with our playgroup from church.  How in the world she is already 1 is beyond me!  Anyway, there is another little boy who is just 11 days older so we celebrated with a joint party for Grace and Joshua.  It was quaint and fun and the kids had a BLAST getting filthy in chocolate icing...

On November 11, My brother Mark and his wife Kayla came to ATL for the first time for a visit.  We were SO excited to see them.  I think looking at the pics on the fridge has helped, because Grace went right to Uncle Mark when they came up from the train at the airport.  We did alot of tourist-y stuff including introducing Aunt Kayla to Chick Fil A (she liked it, of course.  :)  Thursday night we went to Big Pie in the Sky, a place they saw on Man vs Food.  It was good pizza, and even better company.  Friday we just hung out, ran a few errands and did a little Christmas shopping.  That night we met David at the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant we all love, for dinner and it didn't disappoint either.  Saturday, we headed downtown to the Varsity and Centennial Olympic Park and walked around.  Then Mark, Kayla and David went to the World of Coke while Grace and I came home so they could nap.  We spent a "quiet" evening at home playing rock band (which Mark and Kayla LOVED and bought when they got home, lol) before I had to take them to the airport for their red eye flight home.  It was a wonderful visit!  Here are a few photos from our time together.

You have to visit the Varsity if you come to ATL...and you MUST wear the hats for a photo op.  :)

Fun in the fountains with Daddy!

All of us at the Christmas Tree in Centennial Olympic Park

Grace wasn't too sure about Dance, Dance Revolution...apparently Aunt Kayla wasn't either!

Aunt Kayla teaching Grace how to play Rock Band

Well that's all the time I have for now...at least I made it half way through November.  I'll try to get the rest of the photos up in the next few days!

150!

This is my 150th post, wow! I am enjoying posting when I have time and certainly I enjoy being able to share our Gracie girl with friends & family far away. I've got lots of photos and a few videos for you from the last week, enjoy!

Grace loves her Jumperoo!I have no legs!! (Bonus if you know what movie that's from!) She figured out that she can tuck her feet up under the tray and kind of swing, it's hysterical!Here's video of her going to town...

She just learned how to pull up from a seated position. I can't believe it. Last night she even tried to climb up onto the fireplace. I'm not ready for that kind of mobility! She often can just sit back down, but sometimes she gets nervous and cries for help. Here's a few pictures from her first time pulling up, the video was taken a day later.

We had a wonderful summer rain the other night and it was finally cooling off outside. So, we took Grace out to enjoying the rain on the porch swing. Here she is with her DaddyShe saw cousin Grady use his passy so she knows it goes in the mouth, but still doesn't get what it's for.
Here she is doing her almost crawl...she has done several "correct" moves when crawling, but never more than 1 or 2 steps at a time. She's getting it though!

This was just cute, so I had to share.

We are finally starting to feel better here. I haven't had an allergy issue that bad in quite sometime, but since I couldn't take any meds due to my low milk supply, I wasn't getting any better. The doctor told me (after a week and a half of awfulness) to start taking benadryl and mucinex and just to drink plenty of water, but despite me doubling my water intake my milk dried up after a week. Sunday was my last morning nursing my sweet girl and I'm certainly missing it. I put in alot of work and I was really hoping to make it a full year, but the Lord had other plans and I'm making my peace with it. Thankfully, she's having a much easier go of it since we've always supplemented with bottles of either formula or pumped milk. The good news about not nursing anymore is I have been able to take much stronger meds this week and my migraine has been bumped back down to my normal low grade headache, I can breathe and I am feeling better. Hopefully by Monday I'll be as good as new. I have to sing at church on Sunday, so just pray my voice holds out!

And just a random "yeah me!" thing...I had 2 of my best coupon days ever recently. At Target, I saved 62% (really, really hard to do at Target!) and at Kroger, I saved 71%! 50% is my target at the grocery store, so 71% is something to cheer about. Now, I can do better at Publix with BOGO items and my coupons, but I only buy BOGO items with coupons at Publix, all my other groceries come from Kroger. Since if I did all my shopping at Publix my percentage would go way down, I don't consider the occasional BOGO trip as regular shopping. :)

The First 3 Weeks

It has taken me a week to get the pictures up & loaded, so while she's almost a month old, I'm still gonna post this for you. :)

I simply cannot believe our precious Grace is already 3 weeks old...time has certainly flown by. Despite our best efforts to treasure every moment, I feel confident she is going to grow up way too fast...

We have had lots of help over the last few weeks and my dad & step mom arrived on Wednesday to spend Christmas with us. My mom stayed the full week after we came home from the hospital, which was great. Since I had the c-section I really needed the help both for me and for Grace. She was so great about doing all the household stuff and even scooping the poop, endearing herself both to the cats who appreciate a clean litter box and to David since that is his least favorite chore. :) We had such a great visit, it was probably the sweetest mother/daughter time we've ever had and we were sad to see her go home. Last week David was able to take 2 days off which was wonderful. He was able to go with us to our Doctors appointments and we had a great time as a family of 3. His folks came up on Thursday and left yesterday and Momma was a great asset in helping around the house too. Of course all the grandparents got in lots of snuggles with our Gracie girl when she wasn't eating.

Nursing is going really well and as of Wednesday she is already up to 7lbs, 1oz - she is thriving! We couldn't be more thrilled and I am grateful to not have to supplement her feedings with formula or pumped milk. Not supplementing certainly allows for more free time and sleep time for me. :)

We have been adjusting really well and I have been trying to sleep when she sleeps some which has been great. I think David has really been the one who has had to function with little sleep. It has really been a sweet time in our marriage. My friend Jennifer asked me the other day what surprised me the most. I said how my heart overflows. I can't believe how much I love her and how much my love for David has increased...I didn't know it was possible to love him more but seeing him as a father overwhelms my heart with joy and love. I know they say that love multiplies with each child, and I think that applies to our spouses too. He takes such good care of both of us, it really is amazing to me how wonderful he is.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the first 3 weeks for you to enjoy including some from the hospital off David's mom's camera.

David & I admiring our girlOur new family!Mom, Gracie & IWith David's folks at the hospitalWith Grandma & GrandadMe & my GirlDaddy & Gracie - too sweet!In the big bed - I pull her in with me after her morning feeding and we snuggle and snooze together :)I love this picture of her smiling...David was holding her in his hands and talking to her and she was just grinning!I was taking pictures of her for her announcement and I just loved this oneSnuggling with PaulieSnuggling with me & ScottyShe really isn't crazy about bath time...

More pictures and updates to come soon, hopefully. :)