Brayden-2 months

Brayden is growing like a weed. We had his 2 month check up back on the 16th and he was already up to 13 lbs! He was in the 80-90%. The doctor joked that he might break the scale. haha. So different from Kaitlyn who was either too small to even make the charts, or usually hovered around the 3% mark. He is still a wonderful baby and I couldn't ask for a better baby. He rarely cries and he can be consoled pretty easily. He is still not sleeping through the night and I don't forsee it starting any time soon b/c this boy likes to eat too much! Currently he eats about 4.5-5 oz every 3 hours. We put him to bed around 11:00ish and he wakes once around 3:30ish to eat and then goes back to sleep until 7:30-8:00. So not too bad. We are in the process of trying to push the bedtime earlier though b/c we are pretty worn out. I just don't want him waking up too early in the morning.

It has also been sweet to see how Kaitlyn interacts with him. She really does love him so much. Every morning if he is not up yet she asks where "baby boy" is. The other day we went on a walk to the park and Kaitlyn was fighting me to put her coat back on before we walked back home. Brayden's stroller started rolling away. VERY slowly...I wasn't worried, but I told Kaitlyn "Hurry Brayden is rolling away!" She screamed and ran after him crying and grabbed onto the handle and wouldn't let go! It was so sweet to see her trying to save him. She gives him kisses all the time and loves to help out with him.

We also had Brayden's Baby Blessing at church this past Sunday. All of Justin's family came into town for it, so that was nice. On Justin's side of the family there are now 3 babies all within 2 months of each other. Isaiah is two months older than Brayden and Ellie who are only 2 days apart. They will have so much fun playing together when they are older!

My Beautiful Baby Boy!

Blessing Day

All the new babies (Brayden, Ellie, Isaiah)

Kaitlyn Randomness

Kaitlyn LOVES to go to the grocery store. She knows them all by name. Without me telling her where we are going, as soon as I pull into the parking lot, she looks out and says "There's Harris Teeter" or Aldi, or Bi-lo. Harris Teeter is her favorite of course b/c she gets a balloon and a cookie. She LOVES balloons. Whenever she has a 'fresh' balloon she will literally carry it around until it dies. I am talking even when she is sleeping...she will not let go. At night time Kaitlyn is a really sound sleeper, but if we try and take the balloon out of her hand while she is asleep she immediately wakes up saying "BALLOON!" Too bad those HT balloons die the next day and she wants to go so often. A couple days ago she actually screamed for over an hour b/c she wanted to go to Harris Teeter. She just kept saying "Go Harris Teeter" over and over. I guess my couponing has created a little grocery store monster! haha!

What we've been up to these past 5 weeks...

It's been 5 weeks since our little baby boy was born and things have been going pretty smoothly. He is seriously the sweetest baby ever. He hardly ever cries and that is usually only when he is hungry. He is content just looking around with his paci when he is awake. It has been such a blessing to have such an easy baby after what we went through with Kaitlyn. He is a big eater. I have fallen back into my old habit of just pumping ILO nursing. But its not bad. He is already up to about 4 ounces or so per feeding and would eat more than that if we would let him. I do let him nurse in between meals if he is really hungry as a snack :)

He had his 1 month check-up this past week. He is already up to 9 lb 9 oz and 21.5" long, both in the 25-50%. He has adjusted pretty well to sleeping patterns as well. He goes to bed around 11:30ish and will wake up once around 3:30-4:00 to eat and then goes back to sleep until about 7:30 or 8:00 so not too bad! Kaitlyn has also been adjusting better since the first couple weeks. She is not quite as whiny and is happier now that we are up and about again. She likes to try and help out too which is sweet. Unfortuantly I forgot to take a picture of him at exactly 1 month, so here is a picture of us today before church on his 5 week birthday along with a few others of his first month here one earth.

Kaitlyn about to head out trick-or-treating

Crossing the bridge at Discovery Place

Kaitlyn and her BFF Brigham at the water factory

Brayden Thomas Wood

We are so happy to have our little baby boy here with us! He was born exactly 2 weeks early on Sunday Oct. 16, 2011. As you know, up until my last appointment before he was born he had been breach/transverse, but luckily he decided to turn on his own! Justin and I were watching Grey's Anatomy and I told Justin towards the end of it that I thought I was starting labor. I started having contractions at 10:00pm Saturday night. We stayed up until about 11:30 to make sure they were still coming regularly and they were. I decided to go try and take a nap since it would probably be awhile and Justin tried to clean up the house. Of course I couldn't sleep since I kept getting woke up by contractions, so I tried to start cleaning and packing as well. My mom was out of town coming home Sunday morning, so we had to call my brother to come and stay with Kaitlyn while we went to the hospital. We left for the hospital around 8 or 9 AM. When we first got there I was admitted into Triage. My contractions up until then had been painful, but not unbearable. Then all of the sudden he must have turned inside me and I started having the worst back labor ever. I literally felt like I was going to die! I was screaming and crying for an epidural, but the midwife was tied up in another delivery and I couldn't be admitted to the hospital room until she checked me again. The nurse made me walk for an hour to dilate to 4cm. I felt like my back was ripping in half. Literally the worst pain I have ever felt. I really don't know how I would have survived the entire pregnancy without pain meds. I was naseous from the pain. Finally my midwife came and checked me and I was at 4cm. I got admitted to my room and was able to start the fluids for my epidural. Unfortuantly the nurse couldn't get my IV in. It hurt so bad so she called another nurse in to put it in. Luckily the second nurse was able to insert it correctly and I was able to get my epidural about an hour later. After that everything was perfect! They broke my water and everything went quickly after that. I felt a lot of pressure like I needed to push but I guess they didn't think I would be ready so quickly. They kept waiting to check me even though I told them I was feeling pressure. Finally they checked me and said "Wow, the head is RIGHT there!" They paged the delivery nurse and suited up very quickly. They told me to push and he came right out on the first push!

They put him on me and I was immediately in love. It was different than with Kaitlyn. Not that I didn't love her, but I felt it more strongly this time. I think maybe b/c I already know what it was like to love a child now, when I didn't yet know with Kaitlyn. He immediately started sucking his thumb so they told me to let him nurse and he did for quite a while. They didn't even take him from me until like 2 hours later! I guess they could just tell that he was healthy. He weighed in at 7lbs 7 oz. and was 19.5in long.

Most all my family was out in the waiting room so they all came in right away. Kaitlyn did suprisingly well at the hospital. I think she really did understand that he was here and was part of our family. She has adjusted pretty well as far as acting like she loves him and doesn't try and hurt him or anything. But unfortuantly she is not taking the lack of attention as well. She cries a lot more now and whines all the time. If I am pumping or nursing she will just stand at my side and cry. She has also started doing a lot more bad stuff for attention. So hopefully that will all pass soon. I know it will get better, but I hope soon! So far Brayden has been a little angle and we love him so much!

About to head to the hospital

About 1 minute after he was born

Kaitlyn meeting Brayden for the first time

Welcome home!

Brayden's Room

So we are finally done with Brayden's room. Our house has been in shambles ever since we started converting the guest room into Brayden's room. We had so much storage in there and stuff that we needed to sell on craigslist and we are still trying to find places for it. I need a basement...or at least bigger closet or attic or something! Currently our loft area and master bedroom look like a tornado has went through with all of the random boxes and clutter lying around looking for a new home. But at least his room is now ready for his arrival! We went with a jungle theme. I am not as happy with his room as I was with Kaitlyn's, but mainly b/c I feel it is just too bland. But we didn't want to go through the hassle of putting up moulding to have two different colors and all that, and thought the green walls might be too much, so we just went with a cream color and I painted some letters for his name and a couple of canvases to hang up b/c I am too cheap to buy anything premade! haha! I thought they turned out pretty good, but of course it is a little hard to see on these small photos. My mom and I found this awesome giraffe on craigslist and then I bought some wall stickers of jungle animals.

Zootastic

Zootastic had a groupon a while back that my mom and I both bought. So Kaitlyn got to go twice in about a 2 week period. She enjoyed it, but I have to say that I personally think Lazy 5 Ranch is WAY better. Zootastic does have a few more animals that Lazy 5 does not, but overall the experience is more fun riding the hay ride I think at Lazy 5. But anyway here are a few pics of Kaitlyn petting and feeding the animals:

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn turned 2 years old last week! I can't believe that she is now a "2 year old" That seems so old, but yet I still feel like she is a baby in so many ways. To celebrate, most all my family was not around, so we didn't bother with a party since she still had no idea what a birthday was. That morning I took her to a local place called "The JumpE Place." It was awesome and really cheap so we will be going there again for sure. She had a good time jumping on all of the inflatables and going down the big slides. I think having a sibling is going to be so good for her in the long run, b/c she is finally at the age where she enjoys playing with other kids around her same age. She had so much more fun at the JumpE place when this other little boy would jump around with her. I am so sad that I forgot my camera though :( She literally had a smile on her face for about 45 minutes straight (which is rare) and I wish I could have captured some of those happy moments. So then we came home and had a little lunch and then it was nap time. After her nap I tried to take her outside to get some pictures of her since I had forgotten earlier. This is about the only one that came out ok.
That night once Daddy got home, we ordered a pizza (which is one of her favorite foods) and just made her a homemade bday cake. A very laid back birthday, but we just didn't see the need to do very much for this one. We will definitely make a much bigger fuss about it next year when she knows what's going on!

Just a few comments on this stage in her life for me to be able to look back on:

She is still fairly behind on communicating and talking, but she is starting to get better. She still doesn't say yes or no and won't say any words on demand. But she has started just randomly coming out with quite a few new words here and there which I am happy about. A stranger probably could not understand even 90% of them, but we do, and that is good enough for me for now! I guess some kids are just slower than others at talking.

In other ways, I feel she is pretty smart for her age. She can identify most all the letters of the alphabet by pointing to them when we ask her where they are and can actually say about 3 or 4 letters. Her numbers are a little harder for her. She can only identify about 5/10 of the numbers on a regular basis. She also knows all of her basic colors and will even say each of them but blue for some reason whenever she randomly sees something that color. She also knows most of her shapes: triangle, square, oval, circle and sometimes rectangle.

We haven't had our doctor check-up yet so I don't have all of the stats to post yet. Overall she gets better with age! haha. She has gotten much better with her separation anxiety and will now stay with Justin and my mom with no problems. We have finally broke her of her milk bottle and she will now drink it on her own in a sippy cup. She is currently sleeping in a toddler bed and takes one nap a day. She is a pretty good eater and will eat most anything for a bribe of ice cream or candy :)

In a Funk...

I have been slack about posting anything lately and I blame it on the funk I am currently in. My baby is breech...well technically I think more transverse. Pretty much has been since the beginning, but the doctors were hopeful he would turn by now. He still hasn't and now they are worried that I am running out of time for him to still turn on his own. I have been doing all kinds of weird exercises that I found on the internet, but so far nothing is working. I REALLY don't want to have a c-section. I don't know why I am so depressed over it, but I just am. I think about it 24/7. My hands are constantly going to my stomach every few minutes to feel for the head to see where it is at. I cry at each of my doctors appointments when they confirm that he is still not head down. They probably think I am a nutcase b/c I have cried at so many of my appointments. First when they scared me to death with the marginal cord insertion thing and then I had a cry over some unpaid bills I was unaware of for them, and now this :) Yes I know I sound crazy...but I will just blame it on the pregnancy hormones for now :)

I just recently got even more into a funk over my situation after reading up on the difference between transverse and breech babies. Apparently transverse babies have a harder time trying to turn than a breech baby and the c-section itself scares me even more with a transverse baby b/c you sometimes will have to have the larger vertical cut rather than the horizontal cut at your bikini line. Then I imagine the harder recovery and Kaitlyn trying to crawl all over me (she has a really bad habit about doing this) and rupturing my scar, or me not being able to pick her up for a longer time period after delivery, or the fact that I want more than 2 kids and would most likely have to have mutliple c-sections. Plus the cost difference between a normal delivery and a c-section is ridiculous! I know these are all things I shouldn't worry about until the time actually comes and everything may work itself out, but I just can't stop thinking about it. I try and focus on other things but it is always in the back of my mind. I have soooo much stuff I need to get done around the house before Brayden arrives as well, but I just can't seem to find the motivation. I am always tired and find excuses. I am currently trying to focus on one thing at a time. Currently Brayden's room. It is almost done. Justing pained a couple weeks ago, and I have been painting letters for his room and now am working on a couple canvases to hang up in there. (I know this is extra time consuming, but I was way too cheap to buy everything that I was envisioning so I figured I will just do it myself)

Anyway I will stop rambling about my depressing funk. I just needed to vent it out somewhere else...b/c I am pretty sure Justin is tired of hearing about it :) In other news Kaitlyn turns 2 next week! Craziness!

July 2011

I definitely fell behind on my blogging this summer, so this is a catch up post. Kaitlyn has graduated to a toddler bed. We actually did this probably 2 months ago or so, but I haven't gotten around to posting about it until now. Since baby Brayden will be requiring the crib come October, we didn't want to buy a new one and figured we should probably start transitioning her now in case it took a while. As you may have noticed from my posts, Kaitlyn has never been an easy baby for us, so we were expecting this to be a challenge as well. Much to my surprise she adjusted wonderfully! She goes right to sleep and doesn't even try and escape her room. She does wander around her room now and then, and collect stuff to bring back in bed with her, but she still always goes to sleep and still takes her naps no problem. Here are a few pictures of how we found her when we went to check in on her before we went to bed:

(Above: asleep on the pillows we put at the bottom of her bed in case she fell out. Below: asleep in the middle of the floor with baby beside her :)


I can't remember if I have mentioned it before, but Kaitlyn is a mini-hoarder. We joke that she is going to end up on the show. Seriously she hoards everything. She has a cozy coupe that she loves to load with all sorts of random stuff and then try and squeeze into it to. We can't leave any room of the house without her arms full of anything she can possibly carry with her. In her bed we find tons of books, toys, etc. after she has fallen asleep. She also loves to have all of her stuff buried on top of her. (See below :))

Another fun thing that Justin and I got to do this past month is head up to Gatlinburg/ Pigeon Forge, TN. We only went for 2 nights while my mom babysat Kaitlyn. It was nice to get away, even though we couldn't do any of the fun attractions since I was pregnant. But we had never been together and it was definitely someplace we would like to go back again. Here is a picture of us in a mirror maze we did.

Very lame, in case you were wondering, but we thought we'd try it out! We also played a little miniature golf, and did a laser challenge that I killed Justin on while wearing a skirt and being pregnant! As far as an update on Kaitlyn's separation anxiety, she has definitely gotten better. I think the trip away helped b/c she got used to being around my mom again and will now stay with Justin or my mom again with no problems. Nursery is still out of the question. But I guess it doesn't matter anymore b/c I have just been called as one of the Nursery workers! haha. So I guess she doesn't have to ever be alone in there anyway!

Kaitlyn also got to attend a birthday party this past month. Our next door neighbor Will turned 2 and had a huge backyard bash! They had all kinds of little pools and slip and slides set up for the kids. Kaitlyn LOVED it. In fact she pitched a fit when we brought her home to start getting her ready for bed (It was a late afternoon party so we were there until about 7:30ish). She ran to the back door and started pointing and screaming at their backyard to go back! haha. Here's a picture of her going down a waterslide!

Separation Anxiety getting worse...

Feel free to skip over my SA posts, but this is more for a journal for myself as to how Kaitlyn handled this stage in her life if I ever have to deal with it again! So anyway, the SA is getting even worse. Last night I had to go to an activity at church. From now on I am never going to leave without telling Kaitlyn goodbye b/c I read that it only makes it worse and they lose trust in you. So I gave Kaitlyn a hug goodbye and told her I would be back soon and left. I stood outside the door for a few minutes listening to her scream. I called Justin on my way home and he said she cried the entire time I was gone until she went to bed. She used to be FINE with Justin and LOVES her daddy. But for some reason she is traumatized right now anytime I am away, no matter who is with her. To make matters worse, now she can't even really be near my mom b/c she thinks she is being left with her. I met up with my mom again today and we had lunch and then went to Costco. I told her we were going to see Nana and so as we were getting out of the car she asked "E Nana at?" (Where's Nana at?) and I said right there and pointed to her car. She immediately freaked out b/c she thought she was getting in the car to leave. Then later on while in the store my mom couldn't even come too near the cart or Kaitlyn thought she was being left with her. She started freaking out trying to get me to hold her so that I wouldn't leave. It is getting very exhausting and I am just hoping this phase doesn't last too long. I don't think we are going to try leaving her again in nursery anytime soon if that was in fact what has brought on this sudden traumatic anxiety in our everday life! We have always been supporters of the cry it out method, but it doesn't work so well if noone wants to watch your kid b/c the literally cry for hours on end with no intermission!

In the mean time I am just trying to expose her to different environments and more people (while I am right there of course.) We have went to two different toddler storytimes at the library this week and I think those will be good for her. I am just trying to get her used to being around other kids as well b/c currently she doesn't really know how to play with them.

At a Loss...

Have any of your children experienced separation anxiety? Kaitlyn is going through a terrible phase of it right now. I am at a loss for what to do for her. I think it all started when we tried leaving her during nursery. She FREAKS out. Like clings to my body and won't let go. If we do manage to escape out the door, she is brought to us literally within minutes hysterical on the verge of throwing up she is so upset. I understand that our nursery workers have way too many kids to only try and console her, but I just don't know how to help her. It is not one of those situations where the kid cries for a few minutes, but then is fine. SHE WON'T STOP until either Justin or I comes to get her. She is literally inconsolable. The bad thing is nursery has scarred her from other people that she used to be fine with us leaving her with. Before we started trying to leave her in nursery over the past month and a half, she used to wave byebye to me and LOVE spending time with my mom. Now she clings to me and throws a fit ANY time she has to leave me. The crying doesn't stop either once I am gone. She cried with my mom for over an hour straight, periodically asking "Where she at?" Last night we left her with a lady from church who likes to babysit Kaitlyn once a month while we attend the temple. I warned her that she is in a phase right now and it would most likely not be good. Well we recieved word that after we left she cried nonstop for 45 minutes until she wore herself out and just watched tv while refusing any food, snacks or even ice cream! Basically we were told that she would just sit there refusing any interaction.

What do I do?!? We considered joining a gym membership just so I would be able to practice leaving her in daycare settings. But that is so expensive just to practice daycare! I currently have no desire to work out, nor do we wish to spend that kind of money just for something like that, but her situation is getting worse. And I am sure a gym daycare would not put up with a child like this either so that would probably be a complete waste of money anyway. Today I met my mom for lunch and all my mom said after our meal was "ok time to go, Let Nana wipe your hands." and Kaitlyn FREAKED out b/c she thought I was leaving her. I wouldn't mind as much if she was able to be consoled after I left but she is not. She literally cries nonstop. PLEASE HELP!!! I don't know what to do :(

Last Day of Work!

I am now officially a stay at home mom. I don't think it has hit me yet, since I still had to go into the office today, but it was weird saying my goodbyes...or just waves to people I never really talked to anyway :) I thought I would be sad, but I'm not! I was ready to get out of there. These last 5 or 6 weeks have been so stressful having to go into the office 3 days a week for training. I am definitely ready to be finished with that. We will of course miss the extra paycheck, but I will just have to become even cheaper than I already am! hehe.

It's so weird to think back at how much I have changed over the last 10 years. This year marks my 10 year graduation from high school and I just realized that I have changed SO much. Judge me if you will, but I actually used to plan out my 'outfits' for weeks in advance so I didn't wear the same thing too often, and LOVED shopping. I wanted all designer labels, etc. Now, I can't even remember the last time I went shopping that wasn't at a yard sale, craigslist, or a major clearance rack! haha. I guess priorities just change as you get older. Although I would say ours was once we had Kaitlyn. When Justin and I first got married we still spent $ like crazy. If we would have started out with our Dave Ramsey program in the beginning, we would probably have a nice little savings right now. But oh well. Live and learn. I am excited to focus more on time with Kaitlyn and other aspects of my life and the money situation will work itself out!

Oh and P.S. In response to my last post, Thanks for the sweet comments. I actually heard back from the doctor and my condition is called Marginal Cord insertion. Which is the better of the two that I was worried about so that is good! I am much less freaked out now!

It's a Boy!

So today Justin and I went in for our 20 week ultrasound and we found out we are having a little boy! I have made it no secret that I wanted another little girl so that they would be 'friends' but I guess Kaitlyn will just have to be friends with her brother! My initial reaction was not really disappointment I should say, b/c of course I am happy to have a precious little boy, but I was actually nervous! A boy is a whole different ball game than what I have grown accustomed to with Kaitlyn! A million thoughts just started rushing through my head. After our ultrasound the tech had us go wait in the sitting area, while she got our doctor and sorted through the pictures. Justin and I chatted happily and I was sent to my room for my consultation visit.

Then it got bad. The doctor came into the room and asked me to come with her. She took me back in for another ultrasound b/c she wanted to "check a few things." Justin stayed behind with Kaitlyn. The second ultrasound was horrible. The doctor and US tech just kept moving all over my stomach looking at different areas of my baby with worried looks on their faces. They never said a word to me the whole time except to each other like, is that it? Finally I was like "is something wrong?" I was then told that my baby's cord has inserted at the top of the placenta, which is not good. It is usually inserted at the middle of the placenta so that the baby receives the proper nutrition, oxygen, bloodflow, etc. that it needs. While mine being at the top is not absolutely cause for something to go wrong, it just means that I will have to receive routine ultrasounds to keep checking the progress of the baby to make sure it is growing and I was told it often results in premature labor. They said the main problems result in birth defects from the baby not receiving the proper nutrition, etc. that it needs from the cord being at the top. The doctor didn't really tell me much else, but just said to come back in 4 weeks for another ultrasound and they would just have to keep a close eye on me. I was too shocked to even know what questions to ask at that time. So I left and we drove home.

I felt like our happy chatter about having a boy was ruined. I came home and started googling my condition and freaked myself out. Apparently there are two different cases for what I have and one is MUCH more serious than the other. But I was never told what kind I have or maybe b/c they don't even know yet? But I spent the rest of my day crying over what I read on the internet and worrying that I had the horrible condition. Justin told me to stop reading about it and we tried calling our doctor to see if they had more information but we haven't heard back from them yet.

So yes, even though I was completely freaked out and not expecting this news, I finally got off the internet and had a prayer. Justin and my brother also gave me a blessing and I feel better as I am now typing this post tonight. I am sure I will still be nervous up until each ultrasound visit where I get my reassurances, but for now I am going to try and stay strong and just start preparing my life for a new baby boy!

I'm Pregnant!

I am happy to say that I am pregnant with baby #2! I am very excited since we had actually been trying for a while. With Kaitlyn we got pregnant the first month we tried so the disappointment each month of finding out I wasn't pregnant was new for me. Although I am sure mine is nothing in comparison to some. We only tried for about 5 months before having the positive test, but to me it felt like forever! I think I was just spoiled getting pregnant right away with Kaitlyn. Anyway, my due date is October 30th so we will have a Halloween baby! I am about 12 weeks along and for some reason have been soooo nervous this time around. With Kaitlyn we told everyone pretty much right away. This time, for some reason, I have just been so nervous about miscarrying that I have kept it quiet. I was talking about it to one of my friends and she gave me good advice as I told her that I just had a bad feeling this time around. She said that "those bad feelings are never put there by Heavenly Father, but by Satan. He is the one that wants us to have bad feelings about good things." Which is so true and did make me feel better at the time. But for some reason I can't shake the feelings of miscarriage out of my mind. I will just be happy to get far enough into my second trimester to feel better. Other than my "uncessary worries" I am starting to feel better. I have not physically thrown up, but have felt pretty nauseous. Mainly though I am just tired and weak feeling. I just want to sleep all the time but recently just lay in bed and can't fall asleep! Very annoying when all I want is sleep! My house has pretty much went into shambles :) Cleaning is just not at the top of my priority list. (not that it ever was very high!) But at least I have turned in my work notice! I felt much better after that knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not as bad working when there is an end in sight! I am looking forward to being able to enjoy my summer free with Kaitlyn and hopefully have a relaxing second trimester!

Freedom Park

This past Friday was a beautiful day so I decided to take Kaitlyn to Freedom Park to feed the ducks/geese. I wish it wasn't so far away b/c it has so much to keep kids entertained. We have a playground in our neighborhood, but I don't know of a closer location that ALWAYS has ducks around to feed. Anyone?? Anyways, Kaitlyn enjoyed swinging on the swings... Then we made our way over to where all the ducks were. I was nervous about her falling into the water, but she seemed to know not too get too close. She was loving it at first, but didn't get the hang of how to throw the bread to them. She kept just holding it out in her hand and I would have to take it from her to throw to the ducks. Well eventually one of the Canadian geese decided to take it from her hand anyway! It was so quick, I think she mainly just got scared by it, but needless to say she wanted nothing to do with them after one "bit" her finger! haha. So I finished feeding them our bread and then we headed back home.

Just holding the bread out for them...

Eating a little bit of the bread for herself

I think this may have been the goose that bit her :)

I Quit!

I really did it. I quit my job today. It has been a long time coming, and I am not finished officially, but the notice is in. I am giving my work a 2 months notice since I am currently the ONLY one that does my job, or really knows even how to work everything since they decided to lay off my other 5 co-workers over the past few years. But I feel like giant weight has been lifted off my shoulder already. I knew I wanted to quit, I have just been dreading giving the notice. I HATE confrontations like that. But I am happy to say it went well. My boss was very professional about it and only had nice things to say. Although my two month notice, vs. two weeks made it much easier on him. So now I just have to figure out how I am going to go into the office regularly to train my replacement once they have found someone. My decision to quit has been a long time coming. I knew I wanted to just be a stay at home mom ever since Kaitlyn was born, but we still had a lot of debt and since I had to opportunity to work from home, we decided to take advantage of it. But lately it has been getting harder and harder to manage while still tending to Kaitlyn as she gets older and more demanding. I find that as work gets busier (which it has picked up quite a bit lately) that I have been getting more and more stressed out. And I find myself taking it out on Kaitlyn which is not good. I just feel so guilty when I have all this work to do and I am sitting at my computer and Kaitlyn is hanging on my leg and I am having to try and tell her to go play somewhere else. Not good. I know this decision is the right thing, although finances will definitely be tight now. Luckily we have all of our debt (minus mortgage of course) paid off so we will just have to live very cheaply...even more so for those who already make fun! haha! So my two month notice should be up sometime probably mid-June and then I will be able to enjoy the remainder of my summer as a regular stay at home mom! So bring on the play dates everyone!

February 2011

Life has been crazy as usual, but I keep neglecting this poor blog! Nothing too exciting going on this past month. Valentines Day was pretty low key for us. My only request was for a card (that had to have more written in it than "Love, Justin" and my request was granted, along with the Sound of Music DVD I had been wanting. Justin received some of his favorite candies and a new grill brush and cover since our current ones were worn out. For dinner we went out to Cracker Barrel with a gift card. You may scoff, but that is actually one of my FAVORITE places to eat. Nothing beats a good ol' fashioned southern meal. MMM. Another highlight of the month was that Justin and I both had to give talks at church...acutally not a highlight, but glad it is over! We have been loving the weather lately and have been having fun with Kaitlyn outside. Check out her hair when she plays on her new playset we found on Craigslist! haha!



And my mom got her this awesome shopping cart for Christmas. She pushes it around with her baby in it, but Justin thought it would be funny to put her in it. She loved it!

This past weekend we went to my mom's house to help her build a square foot garden and Kaitlyn had a horrible accident. Justin had been driving the riding Lawn Mower to haul bags of soil, and while we were all busy Kaitlyn touch a hot part on the mower and her hand blistered up pretty bad. She was pitiful. We soaked it in chilled Aloe Vera Juice for about 20 minutes and then wrapped in up in a bandage and she passed out from crying so much. Definitely her worst injury so far :( I was so impressed by how she handled it though. The initial burn was horrible, but ever since she woke up from the following nap, she has not even been bothered by it! We kept it bandaged the first day and she just used her other hand for everything and kept the injured hand up at her side. After that we took off the bandage to let it breath and it hasn't even slowed her down! I am worried about infection though. She won't let us touch it, so every time she is asleep we go and coat it with neosporin and she doesn't mind it being washed in the bath tub. Here are some pictures of her bandaged hand :( But also some happier pictures prior to her injury over at Mom's house:

Catch Up

So I am very behing on my blog, but I had a lot of pictures I wanted to put up here. Nothing much is new with us, except that Justin started school this past week. He is obtaining his MBA through an online program with ECU (where I graduated.) It will take him 3 years since he is only going part time, so hopefully it will not be too time consuming for him. Hopefully it will lead to better career options. Things with my work haven't been too bad lately so I am holding in there for now. We'll see what happens once the housing market starts picking up again in the spring.

Here are some pictures from a couple months ago before it got so cold, but this used to be one of our daily activities was a wagon ride. I am looking forward to being able to get outside more again but it is just too cold right now. I am excited b/c I bought a really cool playset off craigslist for Kaitlyn too once it warms up.

About to depart on our wagon ride...

Love our wagon rides!

Christmas was good for us. This was our first year waking up and having our first family Christmas just the 3 of us. Then we went over to my mom's house where Kaitlyn hit the motherload of toys along with my extended family. We went down to see Justin's family over New Year's along with most of his siblings so Kaitlyn enjoyed that. Christmas was so busy I actually didn't really get many pictures which I regret...but here are a few from Justin's parents.

Modeling the cute hat and scarf that Justin's mom made.

We have had so much snow lately! We had our first white Christmas since I have been alive and then we had another huge snow storm this past week. here are a few pics of Kaitlyn in her snow gear. She is not too fond of it, but I think she mainly just hates her snow suit. The gloves are a little weird for her as well.

Leaving the house and wondering what all that white stuff is...

Sledding down our driveway

Trudging through the snow...