happy, happy, joy, joy

This is The Sweetness in her walker. We go outside almost every afternoon and she just loves it. She laughs all the time now. She is just so happy. Babies are so sweet!! She laughs and smiles with her mouth wide open!

We should do that more as adults - full bodied, mouth wide open laughing.

fun foods

Hila, this is for you.
We made appetizers one night while meemaw was here.





valentine pizza's


















Hot moulten blobs! (ham, cheese and bread!)










Apple, Ham and cheese turnovers.














appetizers for dinner is always fun! These were all made with refrigerated biscuit dough. Alysha, mom, and I all picked out a recipe from the same book and somehow we all picked out ones that had dough in it. LOL. How can you go wrong with bread and cheese? We had fun making them. The best were the blobs. We had a blast!! We also had cream cheese cookie bars. SO GOOD. Forgot to take a pic though. It made me think of Nilla appetizer fun times!! I miss ya!!!!

randomness

This picture is so cool. Some ants decided 8 was their favorite number. Perfect picture for a blog of random thoughts. I think I will make it my official picture for my future random thoughts blog.

I LIVE........... in a county full of old people. No Joke. The front page of the Sunday edition of the Citrus County Chronicle last week said that Citrus County is the fourth Largest retirement county in the USA. Citrus county has more people over the age of 60 than any other county. (except for the top three of course) That is why we cannot find many couples near our age in any of the churches we visit, THERE ARE NONE!!

I LOVE......... my family. My baby girls are so sweet. Our family life is so sweet. Shay and I met Jon at the door everyday, then we all sit down together and have dinner. (either cooked or heated. :) There is not a day that goes by that I don't stop and think, "wow! I love my being with my girls and my hubby. Praise the Lord for this sweet family." I am not an overly emotional person, but I feel so thankful and blessed, and many times I just tear up! I must be getting sappy in my old age.

SPEAKING OF OLD... I will be 30 this year. That's right, I said thirty!! Life is going by so fast. I guess I will have to celebrate my thirtieth by myself this year. I will just have to enjoy those margaritas by my lonesome. Maybe it is turning thirty that is making me sappy now. I am right where I wanna be. sigh. I wish it would stay this way forever.

The Weather...... It is so nice outside now. I love this time of year when it is cool, but not cold. It is finally down in the 80's everyday and we have a nice cool breeze. We open the windows everyday and just enjoy it. The girls and I go outside as much as possible during the day, it feels so good! It seems to just lighten my mood. Isn't it funny how the weather can affect our moods. This week Jon, the girls, and I have been going walking in the afternoons. It is so nice, I love it. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8. lol

shayla eating cereal with meemaw

Shayla Shots

These are my beautiful girls!!


We made use of the two boppy pillows. shayla is officially a "supported sitter"


Shayla in her pack n play just hanging out. Putting everything in her mouth!!

exhausted and loving it

Babies are amazing!! What an awesome little gift from God. Shayla changes daily!! She is so interactive now. Everything she touches goes right into her mouth. She reaches and grabs for everything she can see. She is an amazing little person. She is so much fun to play with. She LOVES your attention. She will just smile and laugh and squeal if you get down and play with her. I will never grow tired of her smile.

Shayla was still feeding every two hours with no naps and yesterday I decided to give her two more ounces at every feeding. She now takes a bottle every 3 - 4 hours!! The best part is she will lay down for 30-45 minute naps. WOO HOO! So nice for me. That every two hour schedule was killing me! She was draining those four oz bottles, but I was scared to give her more. I asked the doctor about it specifically at the last visit and she was skeptical about it. Now, Shay is more satisfied and can rest easier. Lesson learned is this: Reading the books and asking the doctors advice is always good, but each baby is different and you should do what is best for your munchkin.

I have been giving her the rice cereal once a day, as prescribed by the good doctor, but it upsets her tummy. Yesterday I started her on Banana baby food. Her facial expressions are so cute. She really seemed to like the banana, but it also gave her a tummy ache. I tried it again today and she had a tummy problem. Nothing seems to go down well, poor little baby. I am going to try oatmeal cereal next, instead of rice. We will see how that goes.

I am totally exhausted at the end of my days. Taking care of Shayla is a full time job. I am homeschooling a middle schooler and I have all the wifely duties of a stay at home mom. You don't know what tired is until you add a baby to the mix. Don't get me wrong, I would not trade my life for anything in the world; however, I am truly bone tired at the end of the day. Each month gets a little bit easier, the older she gets. It is all flying by so fast. sigh............

shayla shots

Sitting up like a big girl. She can sit up when propped.



Sleep blissful sleep...................... How relaxed! If we could sleep like that as adults, we would smile all the time too. :)

Harley girl

Babies are the only ones who can have "firsts". As adults we get to do some firsts that are memorable too. A long time ago, when I was about 18 or so, I made a list of all the things I had not yet experienced, but wanted to do one day. It was simple things like fly on a plane, ride on a jet ski and ride a motorcycle. Now I can put a CHECK by the motorcycle ride!! One of my hubby's shipmates has a nice Harley and he came over to let me ride.



This is me right before my ride. We are sitting in my driveway.



It was fun!! I am glad I did it, ONCE. Riding motorcycles is not for me, but it was cool. I held onto that guy tight and giggled alot. LOL. I was scared but excited all at the same time. I think I was more excited to actually mark it off my list than to actually ride. I just wanted to be able to say, "yeah, I've ridden a motor cycle." My husband actually had a bet going with that guy that I would chicken out. He really did not think I would do it. GO ME!!

It is fun after all these years to look back my "goals list" and see what cool fun things I have accomplished. I have actually accomplished most of them at this point. It has been neat and I recommend this little endeavor to all you adults out there. Live it up!!

bad advice and a bad night

Just when I am convinced that no one is reading my blog, I get some comments. Apparently, I left everyone hanging about the high chair. What a nice surprise that inquiring minds wanted to know if Jon actually did put the high chair together. He did - but ONLY after I got it out and pretended to get started on it myself. haha. After six years of marriage, I've got him figured out. :)

Now to the bad advice that led to a bad night. The doctor told me that since Shayla is rolling onto her stomach at night that I needed to take out the bumper pads. I was surprised! I mean, I have never heard that before, WOW! How are you supposed to know this stuff, it does not say that in the books.....

Last night I went and removed the bumper pads. Thus begins my bad night. My sweet little baby, who never makes a peep after I lay her down for bed, wakes up screaming at 4:00. That is A.M. It is such a jarring way to be awoken. I have jumped and ran before I have even opened my eyes. I go tearing into Shayla's room and, low and behold, she has her arms stuck in between the slats. The slats that are now exposed because I have removed the stupid bumper pads.

I get her fixed and put back in the middle of the crib and proceed back to bed. After twenty minutes my heart has stopped racing and I am back into a nice light sleep.

BUT NOT FOR LONG....

At six something Shay wakes up screaming again. This is not crying, it is screaming! Again, my feet hit the floor before my brain sends the message to my eyes to open. I make it out of the room and into the hallway and I hear Jon say, " I got it". He goes tearing past me and into Shays room, so I stop dead in my tracks and try to gain my bearings.... I mean it is like a football game going on in my house in the middle of the night.... "Alysha, go long"...........

This time ShayShay has her legs sticking out of the crib. She has managed to kick her changing table and knock a bottle off the changing table into her crib. (they are close together, kinda in an L shape.) So, Jon fixes her, but this time there is no going back to sleep for me or Shay. Jon is already up cause he is going to work. Alysha is awake too, because of all the commotion. She said I hit the wall coming off the bed and then I slammed into the door going through the doorway. I obviously made quite some noise. If not for the wall and door, I might have hit the floor.... lol. It was run first, think later. What a night!

I let Shay lay in her crib and play til seven, then I went and fed her. Alysha, Shay and I slept in the den on the floor until nine. N I C E. . . . . . .

Shayla in her high chair

You can click on these to make them bigger and see her sweet little face. She did good, she did not seem to like it, but she did good. I don't know why it would not taste good. It is formula mixed with rice flakes... haha.

Four month doctors visit

Today was Shay-Shay's four month check up. She is now 15lbs 12oz and she is 26 inches. What a big, healthy girl. She had two shots in each leg and one she had to take orally. She did great. She cried just a little.

I asked the doctor about her inability to nap for me during the day. She said that I should not try to force her by laying her down and letting her cry. She said most babies at this age sleep just six to seven hours at night and takes a long two hour nap during the day. Since Shay sleeps twelve hours, she might not need a long nap during the day. I have no room to complain, I enjoy sleeping until 8:30 a.m.

Now for the good news. We can now feed the baby rice cereal!!! So fun. Alysha and I are so excited to feed the baby in her highchair. The highchair is still in the box. I got it out this afternoon and informed my husband that was his job tonight. :) We'll see if it happens anytime soon or if I have to do it myself.

I just LOVE all the firsts of babies. It am so much enjoying each day with this baby. She is so sweet.

Labor Day and Bows

I found a bow and used toothpaste to stick it to Shay-Shay's head!! It was soooo cute!! People mistake her for a boy ALL THE TIME. Doesn't matter that she is wearing pink, in a pink carseat, has a pink paci in her mouth... still they say BOY!! Oh well.

For Labor day we went to the Pioneer Museum of Florida. They had a big day of history including a mock court marshall and a Civil War Reenactment. It was fun. They also had lots of old stuff, like cars and buggies and things.....

We are covered in sweat at this point. Yuck!

It was EXTREEMLY HOT! I think I have the best baby in the world. She is so sweet!! She just comes along for the ride, where ever we go, she is happy. She is so good.