Day with the Bray's

Exhausted

2012-02-08T10:05:00.005-06:00

The past 18 days have been a whirl wind. In 18 days I've made 4 trips to Tulsa, a trip to Dallas, and and a short trip to Miami, OK. I came home last night more emotionally and physically exhausted than I ever remember being. I barely managed to eat dinner and shower before crashing in bed. This morning I took Mason to daycare since he missed yesterday and scheduled a 30 minute facial and 1 hour body massage for Saturday. My mom gave me money for a massage for Christmas, and I'm glad I hadn't used it yet. I decided to go ahead and blog about the past 18 days today or it wouldn't get done.
So 18 days ago I got a call from my dad that my grandpa's health had gone downhill fast and he wasn't gonna make it much longer (he had been in the hospital already for a week). So we left the next day to see him in the hospital and say our good-byes. Unfortunately he was out of it, and I don't know if he even knew we were there. We stayed there several hours and then went home. The next day (monday) Kayla went to see him, and she said he was awake and able to move his hands and mumble at you (although you couldn't understand him). So Mason and I loaded into the car and made another trip over see him, and I'm so glad I did. While he was tiring out by the time I got there I know he knew were there because he clasped my hand and tried to talk to me. Throughout that week family started pouring in from all over...Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, and Oklahoma. They had 6 kids...3 of them were their nephews and niece whom they adopted at the age of 3,6, and 9 when their parent died in a car crash. They have 15 grandkids (2 were unable to come) and 4 great grandkids.

That following Saturday Zac and I went back to Tulsa since all the family (minus 2 grandkids) was there...it is a rare occasion for us to all be together. I'm so glad grandpa held on long enough to see everyone, and I think everyone had a moment when they knew grandpa knew they were there. The following week he was out of it most of the time and hospice had taken over. I left Thursday to go to Dallas. I had already planned to visit one of my best friends from college who has a son Mason's age and to go to IKEA. I knew a funeral was on the horizon, but still wanted to go. Friday in Dallas I got the call that grandpa and moved on to a better place, but I stayed there since the funeral wasn't until Tuesday. So we went to Tulsa again yesterday as well as Miami, OK to the cemetery. On top of being sad over losing a very close grandpa (my first grandparent to lose) I had also been worried about a couple people very dear to me that are going through some heartbreaking times...not to mention being an emotional 6 month preggo. Needless to say the lack of sleep, stress, emotions, and cold hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday.

When I went to bed I had a 100 degree temperature, but after sleeping for 11 hours I a lot better. Before I get to the pictures, I will say I am thankful to see how God has been there during these times. My grandpa lived to a ripe age of 81 which is much longer than they originally thought. He lived a great life dedicated to the Lord and to his family. The Wednesday before all this happened I heard a lesson at our women's class at church that prepared my heart for all this. It was about when Jesus wept. He didn't necessarily weep at Lazarus' death (because he knew he would be healed), he wept because he felt the pain in sweet Mary's heart and well as the others. It is comforting to know that there is a God who truly aches for and with us. I've posted some pictures from the past year or so. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of Mason with him the last 2 or 3 times we saw him (I'm kicking myself for the that now!) Mason loved his great Grandpa Bean. Mason is pretty stingy with kisses, but he would always give him and a hug and kiss.

Grandpa Bean was a wonderful hands-on grandpa who will be greatly missed.

Change

2012-01-30T14:24:00.005-06:00

Change is never fun, but we decided we might as well get started on the process before we're worn out with another baby added to the mix. So after the holidays we started with the paci or as Mason calls it "bobbie". It was a little hard for me because he said it so cutely and he just loved sleeping with his bobbie.

We decided to cut away a little bit of the paci every couple nights. He knew it wasn't his regular working paci, but it didn't stop him from sucking on it. After about 10 days we finally just decided to take it away completely....he was down to only 1/3 of the nipple (yes he was still somehow sucking on it). We timed it on a night that he was hanging out with a bunch of church kids for 4 hours one afternoon/evening so he was nice and tired. He cried for his bobbie several times, but did end up falling asleep after about 10 minutes of fussing. The next day he fussed for only about 5 minutes. After that he didn't fuss too much, but it did take him a long time to fall asleep (30-45 minutes). That paci was like a sedative, and he would go to sleep almost immediately. Now he would toss, turn, walk around his crib, etc. He still mentions his bobbie everyday, but not in a sad way. He usually says "bobbie bye-bye" or "bobbie go?"

After a week or two of no paci we moved on to the next change...crib. Mason will be sleeping on a twin size bed, but we decided to start with converting his crib to a toddler bed. The first time he had the freedom to move about he played for about an hour. He took clothes out of his drawers, books out of his box, and toys out of his toy box. When he finally fell asleep I found him out on the rocking chair.

Sometimes he will fall asleep on the floor, but usually it's on the chair. I made a little pallet on the floor next to the bed since he usually falls off the bed at night...it doesn't seem to wake him though. We bought a bed rail for the twin bed, but we couldn't use it on this bed because it didn't leave enough room for Mason to get up and down from the bed very well.After a week of the toddle bed I have found him asleep in the bed only twice and one of those times was today. So hopefully this will start becoming the norm. Thankfully he's done pretty well with the changes this month. I just can't believe my baby is getting so big!

Interesting Tidbits

2012-01-13T15:24:00.005-06:00

I decided that it was way past time to mention some of the quirky things Mason is up to these days. When Mason was 18 months (he just turned 20 months) I was shocked when he pointed to the letter A on my shirt and said "A". I don't know how exactly he learned that because it's not something I had been working with him on (I had been focusing on colors). But since he seemed so interested in his numbers and letters I decided to go ahead and start. By the end of 18 months he could identify the numbers 0-6 numbers and say 2, 3, 5 as well as say the letters A,B,C,O,S, and I (actually he calls "S" five but I can see how that's confusing). I was blown away because at this point the only animal noises he would make was dog, cow, and elephant (he now does cat, sheep, and lion also). Apparently he doesn't care too much about what the animals say. Now he knows all his numbers to 9 (he still struggles actually saying 6 and 7) as well as many other letters.
Some other interesting things about Mason: He LOVES puzzles; he sticks his tongue out (like my dad) when he is concentrating on something; he loves to wrestle, do "Ring Around the Rosie", and wear hats-especially his yellow lego one; he is very opinionated about the books, movies, puzzles, etc that he wants; he says "no, uhu, no" while shaking his head if he doesn't want to do something; he is in the "mine" phase. Another thing I've been surprised about is his interest in praying. Normally we would just pray before dinner and occasionally lunch as a family, but now we are praying before every meal because if we don't Mason will tell us to. He wont even pray until we are all sitting at the table (unless one of us isn't home). Yesterday I was cooking dinner and while he was standing in the kitchen waiting for me to be done he clasped his hands, bowed his head, mumbled a few words, and then said Amen. He didn't know I was watching but boy did my heart beam for joy! (that was the first he prayed on his own...I guess he was hoping it would make dinner get ready faster) I hope he continues to grow into a spiritual young man!

I have had so much fun with him the past month or two! He is learning new words and doing new things everyday. I am so thankful for my little man! Here is a short video of him saying one of his new words "whoa". I'm pretty sure he learned it from the babysitter.

Seeing Santa

2012-01-03T11:54:00.004-06:00

Mason had several opportunities to see Santa this year. First we went to our library (Rogers) to see their Santa and Mrs. Claus. They were so cute, and all the kids were given a super soft Build-A-Bear Reindeer. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because as soon as we walked closer towards them Mason had a death grip on me and was screaming at the top of his lungs. We got near them for a minute, but I didn't make him sit on his lap this time. Even though he didn't want anywhere near Santa he talked about him the entire drive home (Santa, Santa, ho-ho-ho, etc).

The next day we took Mason to the Fayetteville mall to eat lunch with Zac and try out their Santa. I thought maybe we'd have better results this time since we had just seen him the day before. Here's a video of part of this encounter.

We actually got him to stop crying for a bit, but as soon as we went to put him on Santa's lap he started screaming again.

Five days later Mason had a Christmas party at his Mother's Day Out. I didn't realize it at the time, but it turns out that Santa was there and they had all the kids' pictures taken with him and mailed to us. Here's ours...

I kinda felt bad for our little guy because I really didn't know there would be a Santa at his school. I'd only planned on making him sit on his lap once since it's obviously traumatic for the guy. However when I opened up the card and saw the picture I couldn't help but bust out laughing. He really does love looking at Santa from afar or in pictures, but not up close in personal.

My thoughts

2011-12-09T16:07:00.005-06:00

I have been wanting to blog about a book I read about a month that has had a huge impact on me, but have been so overwhelmed about what to say that I have failed to say anything at all. I have reread bits and pieces of the book multiple times and am still often brought to tears. The book is called "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns (theholeinourgospel.com also has several videos about some of the places he's been). It is an inspiring book about a man’s passion for bringing God’s whole gospel to the world.

The Bible talks a lot about how much God loves his creation and especially his children, and you know God’s heart has to be breaking when he sees what so many of his children are going through. The book mentions that 40% of the world’s people make less than $2 a day and that 26,575 children die each day due to mostly preventable causes related to poverty. At first I thought how can God allow his precious people to suffer, but I’ve realized that God is waiting for me to be his hands & feet to these impoverished people. I am reminded of the passage at the end of Matt 25 where it talks about feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, etc... “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” The book mentions a mother in Haiti who was trying to give her children away because they were literally starving to death. As a mother myself I can’t imagine what an awful feeling that must be. It literally breaks my heart!

I am so thankful to have been blessed to likely never have to experience that, but the question is what am I going to do about those that aren’t so fortunate. I can look around my house right now and see so many objects that we don’t really need that could have potentially saved multiple lives across the globe. Over the past month I’ve been thinking how am I going to let this book as well as God’s Word truly change my life. When Jesus walked the earth he spent most of his time healing the sick, broken hearted, oppressed as well proclaiming the heavenly kingdom. 1 John 2:6 says “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” I can sadly say that I have not given enough thought, money, prayer, and the good news to those who are truly in need physically and spiritually. I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to open my eyes to what needs to be done. One thing is for sure, we need to redo our budget and give more of it away. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him” (1 John 3:17). I have lots of possessions in comparison to much of the world and if God is in me and his heart is breaking for the poor, sick, and oppressed it’s time my heart breaks for them in a way that calls me to action.

I STRONGLY encourage all of you to read the book as well as look at website worldvision.org to find ways to help. There are endless options available besides sponsoring a child from providing livestock, education, water well, etc. While some parts are sad overall it is a very inspiring book! I’m hoping to get The Gospel Quest for Christmas that is a study guide & DVD for those who have read this book and are still trying to figure out “What now”.

"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now." Saint Teresa of Avila

Cousin Time

2011-11-30T15:09:00.005-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Bray side of the family! We got there Wednesday night and stayed till Sunday which was nice to not feel so rushed like we do most weekends. God had blessed me with low level nausea the day of and surrounding Thanksgiving so I was able to enjoy the family get togethers. I did throw up two nights at the beginning of the week and two nights at the end of the week so I’m definitely not over the sickness, but it was nice to have a few good days with all the family around.
Zac and I went to the doctor last Tuesday, and the doctor is 99% sure that I’m not having twins based on the size of my uterus. I can stop worrying about that now! J When we were listening to the heartbeat the baby was moving around like crazy. I couldn’t feel it at the time, but you could definitely hear it. It looks like we’re gonna have another active one. Right now I’m 15 weeks and the baby is about the size of a navel orange. Within the past couple days I’ve started feeling fluttering feelings when I’m laying down real still. Hopefully it won’t be long till I can actually feel him/her poking around. BTW we find out the sex December 19th!

Here are some pictures from the past week. I got very few pictures of the adults and none of the awesome spades tournament hosted at the Matthews house (Zac’s aunt).

Saturday Britt, Kayla, and her clam came by for a few hours on their way home from my parents. Mason had a lot of fun with Zane. Zane had him laughing hysterically, and later on Mason wouldn’t stop kissing him.

Of course it wasn’t until Sunday that Mason really started playing with Curryn. I guess he finally decided to forgive her for always taking his toys. The video shows him trying to kind of wrestle with her.

On Monday night we started putting up our Christmas decorations. Of course Mason tried to help. He’s actually done pretty good about not pulling the ornaments off (knock on wood). He has touched them, but not yanked them. It’s taking a lot longer to get everything decorated this year because I can only handle a little bit at a time, but it’s worth it because it just makes the house seem all warm and cozy!

He loves talking on the phone so much that he'll use just about anything!

We're alive!

2011-11-19T16:09:00.006-06:00

So it's been a LONG time since I've posted last! Since I've been pregnant I've had an aversion to my laptop...yes it's weird I know. I've probably turned it on less than 10 times in the past 2 months. I think it's because I was scared to see anything remotely related to food. Luckily I am able to scan email and facebook on my iphone pretty regularly, but that's about the extent of my internet usage the past 2 months. I have lots of blogging to catch up on.

I am still nauseous, but I am getting so much better. I was hoping that I wouldn't be sick this go around, but I've actually been even more sick. I tried not to feel sorry for myself when I've been blessed with a baby especially when so many people are dealing with horrible things, but I still found myself really depressed. After a few bad weeks I decided to spend some time reading the Bible and praying during Mason's nap instead of watching TV, and my spirits were definitely lifted! I still have bad points everyday and I still can't handle dealing with food, but at least there are now times in the day that I don't feel too bad. So on to pictures....

About 2 months ago Patty, Stephanie, and Curryn (Zac's mom, sister, and her baby) came to visit us. It was fun to watch Mason and Curryn play. There is a funny video of them at the end of the blog. Mason has discovered he can carry more objects if he tucked them under his neck.

The stomach bug visited our place which was not pleasant, but Mason sure was cute and cuddly .

I've been to crash at my parents' place a couple times the past month or two. It gives Zac a break from cooking for us, and it gives me some help entertaining my little man. He is missing the regular outings we used to take before I got sick. Below is a picture of the treehouse/fort the guys have been working on at my parents' a lot this past yea,r. I think all that's left is the observation deck up top.

It took Mason awhile to figure out the whole trick-or-treating, but it didn't take him long to figure out that candy is awesome! He wanted to eat everything given to him immediately. Below he is with one of his best buddies from church at our trunk-or-treat. They are both enjoying a sucker.

We only took him to a few houses just down our street because the last thing we need is a bunch of candy in this house especially with Zac around! :)

We decided to get Mason a little potty because he has been telling us when he "poo-poo". He likes to sit on it, and I've even got him to pee in it twice - I put him on the pot as soon as he got up and gave him a drink while he was sitting on it - I suppose that's cheating, but we made a big deal about it. Unfortunately I haven't been consistent with it since I haven't felt well. If he seems interested I might really give it a try come January. He looks so big on the potty!

My sweet, handsome little man is starting to get more mischievous.

The video shows Mason upset with Curryn because she keeps taking his bear. He's a little bit wimpy in his attempts to cover it, but I like to think that it's because he doesn't want to hurt her. :)

Particular fella

2011-08-25T21:16:00.003-05:00

I think our little Mason is going to be even more particular than his momma! When we walks by the china cabinet he often flips the handles up. This particular day he was really going after it and ended up flippling up almost all of them. Anytime you're at our house you can guarantee seeing at least one up fthem flipped up.

Another thing that I think is kind of funny is how he likes to take the edge of his afghans and rub them back and forth under his nose. I don't remember when he started, but I know he's been doing it for several months. He normally doesn't have a blanket and paci out in the living room (like the picture below) and so we usually catch him doing it in bed or if we are rocking him right before bed.

The Projects

2011-08-16T20:45:00.007-05:00

This spring/summer we have been busy with projects...which is no surprise to most of you. We put in some raised beds for vegetables. The right side has basil, parsley, mint, cucumbers, peppers, and zinnias for looks. The left side looks bare because I've started cleaning it out to plant another round of produce for the fall. On the left I had climbing green beans, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, and zinnias. I'm about to plant winter squash and another batch of green beans as well as more lettuce, squash, and sugar snap peas in my pots on the porch/deck. It is so nice to have fresh produce straight from your own yard! We used some of the left over scraps from our fence to make an open compost. By next year hopefully we will have some rich soil to add to our gardens.

We are back porch people. We spend several evenings a week sitting on the back porch so we decided to extend it out to make more room. Zac made the deck and corner bench...he's so talented! :) We plan on staining it in October.
He used some of the deck scraps to build us a little foot stool under the covered patio part.
Another project was to build a big shed. We needed to clean out the garage so we could both park inside again. We have it on the side house so we don't have to look at it. Our compost is right behind it.
The most recent project was to build a rain barrel which was Zac's idea, and I LOVE it! I'm all about doing what I can to be resourceful. Today's rainfall already filled it to the top!

Besides keeping up with the gardening and staining the deck, we are done with projects for quite awhile!

I saw the sign...

2011-08-07T20:49:00.005-05:00

Kayla (my sister) did sign language with her kids, and it was really successful so we wanted to do it with Mason. It has been amazing! If he starts to fuss a little bit, we can say "What do you want?" and he can often sign to us what he wants. Sometimes he'll throw his hands up like he knows he should have a sign but doesn't know what it is. Or if he doesn't say what it is we will give him some choices, and he'll sign what he wants based on that. Right now he knows eat, more, drink, all done, outside, movie, sign, book, help, and please. He doesn't have the form down perfect in all of them, but enough to where we know what he's saying. When we ask what he wants he usually signs a movie. He LOVES his Baby Einstein movies! If I say he gets to watch a movie, he squeals with glee and waves his arms.
I'm so thankful our kid loves to go to bed. If we say it's time to go "night night" he will repeat it back and start walking towards his room. Friday night he was fussing a couple hours before his bedtime so I asked him the question. Surprisingly he responded that he wanted "night night." Then he proceeded to lay down on the living room rug (he didn't sleep well that day). I couldnt believe it! Unfortunately we couldn't give him what he wanted because we didn't want him up early the next morning. The video is of him saying and signing "night night" before his afternoon nap. He's been able to say it for the past month, but we just showed him the sign for fun (hands together on the side of your face)...as you can see in the video he hasn't got it down yet.

He looks like....

2011-07-17T21:12:00.003-05:00

Both of us! There are times when I think that Mason looks like me and other times that I think he looks like Zac. Today we got out some baby pictures and decided that he looks like both of us. I think he has my shape head and nose, and Zac's lips and chin. Then his eyes and brows look like both of ours depending on his expression.

He's got moves!

2011-06-19T21:50:00.004-05:00

Not sure if they will be good moves or not, but he sure is cute! Hopefully he takes after his daddy in that department. :)

Toddling

2011-06-12T20:27:00.004-05:00

Mason has been taking a few steps here and there the past couple weeks, but this weekend he was really gaining confidence. Today he walked almost all the way across the living room. Zac got the last half of it on video. Our little guy is becoming such a big boy!

It's funny how the first day I dropped Mason off at daycare, I cried for 40 minutes straight. I felt so guilty leaving him to be raised by someone else. On his last day of daycare 10 months later, I cried when taking him out of it. This time I felt guilty taking him away from the teachers that love him dearly. Poor kid didn't know what was going on...3 teachers and myself were all crying when they were giving their last goodbyes. They gave him gifts and such sweet cards. It's a good thing I didn't read the cards till I got home because I cried all over again when I read them.

His teacher on the left - they would say his favorite - wrote the following...

"Mason, I am going to miss you so much! You are the cutest, sweetest, most precious little boy I have ever known. I have enjoyed teaching you and playing with you every day. I can't imagine the kind of wonderful man you will grow into. I am not saying goodbye but "farewell" because you will be in my heart forever! I love you!"

Twelve other teachers wrote kind little notes...some from the Ducks class (he was there till he was 6 months) and others that either came in during breaks or were in the surrounding classrooms and couldn't help but fall for his sweet smile and friendly waves. It warmed my heart to know he was so loved by those who helped raise him during his first year of life.

On top of a gift and cards, they also sent him home with a cookie monster cupcake...which he loved!

Cheap Entertainment

2011-06-05T21:20:00.002-05:00

Mason would take the clean clothes out of the hamper one by one, put them back in the hamper, and then take them out again. He did this several times...it was great!

He got some blocks for his birthday, and he loves stacking them. He has been able to stack them 5 high on two occasions. It's funny what makes us proud these days!

Life is good....

2011-05-15T20:56:00.010-05:00

because the breast pump is officially in the closet!! I have spent MANY hours with this pump the last year, and I am SOOO glad to be done! It feels so good to sleep an extra 30 minutes every morning and to be able to go to bed whenever I feel like it without having to pump. There were many times I almost quit, but thanks to my stubbornness and encouragement from Jill I made it a year.

Life is also good because I have a wonderful healthy son! He loves to feed Sammy, push his walk-n-ride toy, and make funny noises and faces. He has also started saying more words. He also says ball, dada, doggie, bye, and hey. He will stay balanced standing for quite awhile, but he still isn't taking any steps.

Mason has had 6 or 7 ear infections since November so we were so excited to get his tubes put in. I feel bad that he had to get it done on his birthday, but I can already tell he's feeling much better. I thought the infant gowns were adorable!
I cant believe our little Mason is one! It was nice to celebrate his big day with much of our family in OK. He got lots of great toys and money for his college fund. It's a good thing we bought a wooden toy chest on craigslist to house all the new toys!

Life is great!

Bluhble

2011-05-02T19:37:00.004-05:00

Mason started making this sound about 2 weeks ago...I think it's pretty cute! I wanted to get him to do some of his other tricks, but he wasn't up for it.

Its almost here!

2011-04-17T20:50:00.010-05:00

I can't believe Mason will be a year in a couple weeks! Time has gone by so fast, and I've been terrible about taking pictures the last two months. Only 7 more weeks of work, and then I will have more time to do the things I want to do. It's hard to know where to begin on what he is doing and enjoying these days since I haven't given a true update in a couple months. I've been writing it in my baby journal, but I just can't seem to type it on the computer afterwards. I won't bore you with everything, but I'll share some of his favorite things. Such as....Feeding Sammy, I for see our dog gaining a few pounds in the next year. He thinks its great when Sammy comes and licks it out of his hands. He loves to look up at what's above...especially ceiling fans and lights. When we took him to Lowes a few weeks ago he leaned way back and just stared at the ceiling for several minutes...it was hilarious. He has started doing the bashful/playful game where he will bury his head. He LOVES to wave. He was a late waver, but now that he knows he never stops. He will wave at anyone. He also likes to growl, steal other children's paci's, and give open mouth kisses. His babbling is becoming more recognizable to us anyway. The main ones we notice him using are bite and bottle...of course it actually sounds like bi and baw. This picture was actually when he turned 10 months. I still need to take the 11 month picture. When I bounce him on my legs he always has his mouth wide open with his tongue sticking out. He hasn't quite figured out how to "blow" the kiss...it just stays on his mouth.

Mason is fascinated with putting his finger in holes. Reaching for the outside ceiling fan.

Last weekend we went with some friends from church to watch the Zac Brown Band concert and go camping. We had such a blast! We were excited to get home and see our cutie, but it was so nice to just be a couple for an evening. We needed the time away....even if we only ended up getting 4 hours of sleep. I can't remember the last time I stayed up past 3am on purpose!

Thank you Jimmy and Ashley for saving us spots so we could get awesome seats! We were right behind the pit area.

Here is a mini-video of him jamming. You can see how close he got to us. The sounds not real great because the camera didn't know what to do with all the bass. Awesome concert and company!

The final product

2011-04-10T21:30:00.003-05:00

So here is what we spent two weeks working on! We love the way it turned out, and we especially loved being able to relax this weekend.

Craziness

2011-03-29T06:18:00.004-05:00

This morning I am pumping in my kitchen surrounded by a bunch of tools and living room furniture so I decided to do a quick post to take my mind off the mess. Things have been insane here lately in the past month Zac was gone for 10 days at home office, Mason got real sick, Zac's had 2 tough funerals (aunt and cousin), I was in charge of our big academic night at school in addition to several other things that came up. So what do we do when life get's insane....start a huge project. Definitely not the best idea at least timing wise. We decide to put in laminate wood floors over the weekend thinking it would be a 2 day job to do the living room and hallway. It's Tuesday and we're still not done with the living room, and we haven't even touched the hallway. We're hoping tonight we can finish the living room (we've got the baseboards and trim left), and we'll save the hallway for this weekend.

I'll end on a couple cute pictures of Mason. He is such a joy, and it's incredible how much we love this little guy!

9 months and counting

2011-02-21T20:13:00.003-06:00

Our little cutie is now 9 months old, and he's started doing so much this month! He is making the thbbppst noise with his tongue, drinking water from a cup, clapping, pulling up to his feet, eating puree meats and some beginner finger foods (puffs, mum mums, green beans), and is squinting his eyes when he smiles real big.

Some things he loves to do is bang his toys around, steal toys from his daycare friends, and talk to his toys. He still loves to read books. He's noticing more of the details, and will even lick or put his mouth on some of the pictures (the red balloon and little mouse in the book "Good Night Moon"). We didn't go to the doctor this month, but according to our scale he is 20 lbs.

Thankfully he still hasn't developed separation anxiety, but he doesn't like is to be startled by new people picking him (usually when he's tired).

Here are some pictures of the little man.

He's chewing everything these days.

If you have not seen it make sure you watch the video of him laughing that we posted yesterday!

Who knew

2011-02-20T21:04:00.004-06:00

the song "This Little light of Mine " was so hysterical!

I'm really going to try extra hard to give Mason's 9 month update tomorrow. After 2 trips to OKC in one week, I'm pooped!

2nd post in one weekend

2011-02-06T15:14:00.006-06:00

You should be impressed because I am! Here is a cute video of him clapping and blowing his tongue/lips.

Here are a few pictures of our adventures in the snow for those of you that don't have facebook.

Stuck Indoors

2011-02-04T09:04:00.003-06:00

While I've not enjoyed being stuck indoors all week (Zac was in Columbia, MO), I've had so much fun interacting with Mason. He's had me cracking up all week. I'll tell more about what he's up to in a week or so.
I've been harassed for not updating the blog recently. So here are a few pictures...I was going to do a video of him clapping, but he wasn't cooperating so I'll have to post that later.

Here is a picture of him with the stomach bug while we were in OKC. It was awful (we did a LOT of laundry those two days), but it was pretty cute how cuddly he was. He has upgraded to the big boy tub and he LOVES it!

He's been sleeping in the weirdest positions. He moves all over the place in bed.

Enjoying our 70 degree weather right before the big snow storm.

I love being the hero of rescuing him out of bed...as long as it's not real early.

His new favorite toy is flinging the door stopper. It's amazing how long it will keep him entertained.

Buggy time!

2011-01-25T21:12:00.002-06:00

I think it is so adorable to see the babies in the buggies going on walks at daycare. I didn't have Mason spend much time in the snow since he had been sick all week, but I just had to get a few pictures of him in it while stuffed into his snow suit.

I just love that sweet face!

Tidbits

2011-01-11T14:25:00.004-06:00

Our bundle of joy is now 8 months old and cute as ever! :) Since I didn't do a 7 month blog, I'll just tell you some of my favorite things he's started doing the past couple months. He's started babbling more...he actually babbles more when we leave him alone. He says dada and bubu, and when he's tired he'll usually say nunu or mama. Of course he still doesn't know what they mean. Our new favorite game is to have him imitate our sounds. He won't imitate the mamas/dadas, but if we squeal or say "uh" he will do it back. It's so much fun! The Thursday before Christmas we awoke at Patty's house to find Mason sitting up in bed which was a neat surprise. Of course the big new thing is crawling. We have to watch him because he is getting more adventurous each day.

Unfortunately we have had to start the "no" word. Twice we've found Sammy's nasty chew bone in his mouth...totally sicked me out!! He is always on the look out for it, and will make a beeline fore it if he sees it. The other thing we are having to say "no" to is when he rolls over onto his hands and knees on the changing table. It's kind of cute to see that bare heiny up in the air, but he is very adamant about rolling over and over and over again. We are now feeding him 3 meals a day. Breakfast - oatmeal and fruit; lunch - veggies; dinner rice/barley and veggies. He LOVES solid food. I'm shocked at how much he wants to eat. He loves it all - except peas. Here's a few pictures to leave with.

On the loose

2011-01-01T22:36:00.003-06:00

Mason is officially crawling! He started taking a couple crawls forward yesterday, and today he has really taken off. We're gonna have to baby proof the house and clean the living room carpet tomorrow. Here is a short video of him crawling. Keep the volume off so you dont hear my annoying high voice. :)

Breaking the Addiction

2010-12-20T09:04:00.003-06:00

Mason is officially addicted to his paci. We would give him his paci right when we laid him in bed, and he would fall asleep on his own. It was great! It would normally fall out once he was asleep, but it was no big deal. Until he got sick.... When he was sick a couple of weeks ago he would wake up in the middle of the night. So being sleep deprived we gave him his paci, and he would go back to sleep (it's like a sleeping drug to him). The only problem is now he is in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and wanting his paci put back in his mouth. We decided we would break him of this habit this week while I'm not working. So last night at 1:30 he woke up and started stirring and making light fussy sounds. This contiued for about 20 mins, and I thought this isn't so bad it sounds like he's about to fall back asleep. Then he straight up screaming started. I'm sure this is hard for every parent to hear, and especially for us because he rarely cries like this. I go in, get him out of the corner of his bed, shush him, and leave. Of course all he wanted was his paci so he continued to scream for 15 minutes...until we gave him his paci. Yes, we caved but there is always hope for tomorrow! On a positive note he was so worn out from crying he didn't wake up again until 6...so that's progress.

In my last post I mentioned that Mason has been moving around a lot...mostly crawling/scooting backwards. Here is a picture of him. He started at the front of the blanket where the toys are then when I came back in the room about a minute or two later he was under the tree. It won't be long till he's really on the move.

We noticed the past week that he will twirl his hands and feet when he's happy and especially when he's eating. It's so cute! Here is a short video showing it.

Susie homemaker

2010-12-05T21:13:00.007-06:00

While I'm far from being a true "homemaker"...whatever that really is I don't know...I'm so excited about all the stuff I've made recently. Mason has been sick the last several days (upper respiratory infection) so I've used the time quarantined to get some things done around the house. I have been talking to my mom and some people from work about making my own detergent. I was shocked at how easy and cheap it is to make. The items I used cost less than $10 to make, and it makes so much that i won't have to buy anything for months. I hate to admit how excited I was to make this...I've never been more pumped to do a load of laundry knowing how little it cost.
Here is the finished product...below is a big bowl of detergent (you use about 1-2 tbs per load) and I only used half the grated zote. It's great because I can even use it on cloth diapers since it is residue free.

Last week we started Mason on his first food other than cereal - sweet potatoes - and he loved them! Saturday I made some butternut squash, green beans, and apple sauce. I hope to make peas and carrots later this week also.

A couple weeks ago he started getting on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth, and then "crawling"/scooting backwards. It's funny because if there is something out of his reach he'll get up on his knees, rock, and then scoot back. He will then look and reach for the item again only to find it farther away. He just can't quite figure out how to go forward.

He loves this pop-up book, and tries to grab all the pictures that pop! It is by far his favorite book right now.

Mason with his cousins over thanksgiving.

My dad is building a huge fort for all the grandkids so he put the guys and kayla to work on it. I cant tell who's going to be more excited when it's finished...the adults or the kids!

Mohawk Man

2010-11-21T20:24:00.004-06:00

Here is Mason at 6 months. We just love our sweet, smiley kiddo and have had so much fun with him this past month! He is always cracking us up. I thought I'd share some interesting things we've noticed this past month. He will open his mouth really wide immediately when I put the snot sucker in his nose. He will rub his eyes when he's tired...I don't know when he started it, but I've really noticed it the last few weeks. He squints his eyes and shudders when he tries something he doesn't like or anything new for that matter. He will grab and bring the bottle towards his mouth if he's really hungry. He's not a good napper at day care or church. If a lot of things are going on around him he just won't fall asleep because he's too busy watching everyone. He loves the thrill of rolling over from his back to his front, but he's not good at rolling from his tummy to his back. Once he starts fussing when he's sick of being on his stomach, I'll turn him on his back only to have him immediately roll over on his tummy again. It's an endless cycle, and not a fun one at 5 in the morning. His hair in the middle of his head continues to grow so we had to run with it and give him a green mohawk for Halloween.

Other things about this month...he loves his giraffe chew toy and jumperoo. He is getting better about putting the paci back in his mouth after taking it out. He's noticing more and more details in books, on us (jewelry, glasses, hair), Sammy, etc. He is getting really good at sitting up especially in the last week which was perfect timing since we had his pictures taken yesterday. As long as his attention is forward he can stay up for a long time which was perfect timing, but if he tries to lean or grab for something on the side he will usually fall over. We started cereal right before he turned 6 months as I mentioned in the last post, and he's doing even better with it now. We have gone through 2 rounds of antibiotics this month to get rid of an ear infection. He's such a laid back kid the only reason we found out he had one is because he had a fever and was congested.

Confessions

2010-11-15T20:19:00.005-06:00

I absolutely love junk food! I particularly love chips (nacho doritos, cheetos, and bbq are my favorites) and peanut m&ms. I would consider myself a healthy eater, but deep down I crave the junk...which is why I won't buy it. Since I've had Mason my cravings have gotten even worse. I try not to go to walmart hungry because I will often end up grabbing a bag of chips and start eating them before I even leave the store. To make matters worse my co-worker got me an enormous 3 lb bag of peanut m&ms for my birthday so of course I have to eat a large handful everyday. Needless to say it has made losing my baby weight a slow process especially since I'm not working out at all. It's a good thing I'm still nursing...that's my only saving grace.

Last week we tried feeding Mason cereal for the first time. He wasn't too impressed. Even after a week of eating the cereal he still squints his eyes and shivers with his first few bites. Here are some pictures of him eating.
He just turned 6 months over the weekend so I plan to give a monthly update sometime this week.

Growing boy

2010-10-20T20:58:00.003-05:00

It amazes me how much Mason learns/changes each week. Oct. 12th he turned 5 months and here is a recap of things he has done the previous month. Things he started this past month: giggling, chewing on his toes, using the stand up activity center, occasionally rolling from his belly to his back, taking the paci out of his mouth and trying to stick it back in again, and two days before his 5 month bday he started sitting up a bit...he can only stay up for about 10 seconds. Things he loves: grabbing my face (particularly my nose) and hair especially when he's eating his bottle, scratching his nails on things like the couch, sleeping with a blanket over his face, watching Sammy, making all kinds of noises, and chewing/slobbering like crazy. His tooth is still just a little spot just chilling right below the gums. I wish it would just pop through so he could be done with it. Here are some pictures from the past month.
I love this one of Grandpa Bray when he came up for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ. He's been working on rolling over from his back to his front. He wasn't able to do it until yesterday, and he's been doing it like crazy since.

He loves sleeping with the Afghan my Grandma Bean made him.

Gotta love the wild hair!

Here's my bundle of joy at 5 months old. He weighed just over 15 lbs.

4 1/2 months

2010-09-26T20:19:00.007-05:00

Below is a picture of Mason at 4 months. His 4 month appointment was last Thursday...late just like this post. He weighed 14.5 lbs (50th %tile) and was 26.5 inches long (90th %tile). He's going to be a tall skinny kid. Unfortunatelyhe reacted badly to his shots again. Friday he had a temp over 100 most of the day, and he had a few huge throw-ups. My poor little man!It's been so fun watching him learn to do more and more things. Last month he started getting a lot more vocal...he's definitely finding his voice. In fact right now Zac is playing his guitar, and Mason is singing/squealing along. It's hysterical! Mason's gotten a lot better this past month pushing himself up when on his tummy. He's grabbing for toys and pulling himself up when we grab his hands. He rolls to his side a lot, but he's only rolled over 2 times from his stomach to his back...I think it was more by accident, but hey it counts right? He's also getting really good about looking for us. He loves looking at his momma and daddy! Here's a few pictures from last month.

He loves to grab the monkey on his car seat. It is definitely one his favorite past times on top of grabbing his feet and watching Baby Einstein.
Here are two very short videos (less than 30 seconds) of him talking/squealing. The second one is of him tonight singing along with Zac on the guitar.

Finally a new post! :)

2010-09-20T21:18:00.010-05:00

We've been doing a lot of traveling the past month which has been fun, but we are glad we aren't going anywhere for awhile because we're pooped! In August my college friends all got together...we get together once a year. It was so good to catch up. 3 of us had babies over the summer, and it was so fun to see every one's babies. We had a good laugh about the silly arguments we all had with our husbands (like who is the grumpier one) due to sleep deprivation.Here's our beautiful boys!Tyce was due 2 days after Mason's original due date, and he came a week after Mason. But he definitely has Mason beat in size! Our next travels was Disney World and Universal Studio. We had a great weekend getaway with a couple from church (Whitney & Jay). We went to see the Harry Potter world...which was awesome! Mason was an excellent traveler which is good because we are always on the go. Here are a few pictures from the trip...I posted a lot more on facebook. The only thing that sucked about the trip was pumping. I tried to nurse Mason while we were at the parks, but it just wasn't working. He would thrash around (he did not like the nursing cover) and take forever. So I just had to throw away all reservations and pump out in the open...covered of course. I pumped in cars, planes, airports, restaurants, park trains, etc. A mommas gotta do what a mommas got to do. Jay was such a good sport considering that not something he sees everyday! On a side note we saw John Travolta and his wife at Universal. They walked right in front of us! We got a video as soon as I get around to it I'll try to snap a pic out of it and post it for proof.

The following weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. It was good to see and catch up with some of my friends. Unfortunately I only took one picture. Deidra's baby girl is due in a couple weeks.

Thankfully this past weekend we stayed home! We had a great seminar at church Saturday morning, that got us excited about the future direction of our church. We spent the rest of the weekend getting stuff done around the house and watching football. I'll leave you with a cute picture of Mason. He turned 4 months Sept 12 so hopefully I'll do his 4 month post by this weekend.

Just a few pictures

2010-09-03T14:31:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been a whirl wind with me going back to work, and then trying to be super mom when I'm home with Mason in the evenings. Here are a few recent pictures.

Diapers, Day Care, and More!

2010-08-15T14:11:00.010-05:00

Since it's been awhile, I'm going to have 3 blogs crammed into one: cloth diapers, first day of day care, and 3 months.

So the first time I heard about cloth diapering (other than being a thing of the past) was last fall when talking to Cami (Zac's cousin's wife). When I first heard about it, I thought that's nuts! Who on earth would want to go back to the dark diaper ages when we've got nice disposables. Well, after talking more to Cami and Jenny Goss I've finally decided I can do this. It took me several months to get mentally ready. But I can say that Zac and I've been doing them for the past 3 weeks, and we love it! Who would have thought! Below is a picture of the diaper cover and an insert that fits into it. We have a few different types of diapers, but the Thirsties brand is definitely my favorite and I like the flip inserts best.

It's exciting to think about how much money we are saving especially since I'm hooked on pampers! For now we are going to continue using disposables at day care, but I plan to ask them about the possiblity in a couple months. I want to get on their good side first. ;)

I also love how cute he looks in these diapers!

Thankfully Aunt Stephanie came to stay last week when I went back to work on Monday. It helped ease me into leaving my baby. I hadn't been away from him for more than 4 hours yet, so it was nice to have him home with her those first two days . Wednesday he went to day care for half the day, and then Stephanie brought him up to see me for lunch. Thursday he started day care full time, and boy was this momma a mess! I cried on both Wednesday and Thursday, and by Friday I did better...I just got teary instead of cry for 20 minutes!

Here is us packing before his first day.

Here he is on his first day. He is actually doing really good at day care. The care taker pictured below seems to be smitten with him. She is always talking to him in baby talk. They said he just loves to look around and rarely fusses. I know it will be fine, and it's only for one year.

Our freezer was getting over taken with breast milk so Zac and I bought a small chest deep freeze over the weekend which i'm pumped about!It's hard to believe our little baby is already 3 months old!

This past month he has learned to do a lot. He has started cooing a lot, has great neck control, loves to stand up, grabs his knees, rolls to his sides, he reaches for his toys, pulls on my hair and shirt, likes to look at himself in the mirror, sleeps till 7am, and squeals when he gets excited (but hasn't actually laughed yet). Friday he pulled himself up when holding our hands for the first time, but technically that was after his 3 month birthday. He still doesn't push himself up when he's doing tummy time. His legs are much stronger than his arms. He's a wiggle worm and rarely stays still which has been the case ever since he's been in the womb. The pediatrician always comments on how wiggly he is. He's gonna be a busy body like his mom and dad! :)

We just love him go pieces!

Only when your very old or young that...

2010-08-04T19:39:00.008-05:00

...your proud of one tooth. That's right our baby is cutting his first tooth! He was a little fussy Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Since he doesn't usually cry unless he is hungry, tired, or spooked I knew something wasn't right....plus he was constantly sucking on his hand. So we checked and sure enough there is a small white spot poking through on his bottom gums.

This past weekend we went to the Bentonville Farmers Market for the first time. We loved it! In fact we think it is better than the fayetteville one. There was yoga going on in the square, live music, and lots of stands. They had a delicious crepe shop so we just had to get a breakfast crepe. I'll definitely have to go back and get the nutella crepe next time. I try not to have Mason watch to much tv, and if I do it's usually a baby einstein because it's not so spastic. So if we have the tv on watching something I usually keep him turned away from the tv. That obviously doesn't stop this kid...he will crane his neck back just to get a look at the flashing lights.

Lastly here is a picture of our smiling cutie. We are so blessed to have such a happy, easy going baby!

Random pictures

2010-07-26T22:19:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks. This one is of us with Lindsay, one of my hs friends.Mason's 2nd cousin, Deven, was so interested in Mason and even grabbed his hand! So cute! Mason was just staring at the lights. :)

I love this shirt that my sister made. With his hair wet and parted all he needs is a briefcase.

Can't stop kissing that cute face!

His first 4 or 5 weeks of life he loved to be swaddled and sleep on his side at night. Now he sprawls out.

It just kills me when he sticks out that bottom lip and his eyes start welling up with tears.

Zac getting in some snuggle time before he puts Mason to bed.

This week he just started blowing spit bubbles. It's cute, but a little slobbery.

Kim, a lady from church, gave Mason the book Jungle Chatter, and it is his favorite book to look at. It has bright colors and makes animal sounds.

Where have the 2 months gone?

2010-07-18T22:23:00.005-05:00

Last Tuesday was Mason's 2 month appointment. He is doing really well. He now weighs 11 lbs 12 oz which puts him in the 50 something percentile so he's right where he needs to be weight wise. He was 23.75 inches long which put him in the 75th percentile. I forgot about the shots that he would be given; otherwise, I would have made Zac come to the appointment before he left town. First they gave him this liquid which caused him to gag and throw up his entire lunch...won't be feeding him right before his shots next time. Then of course he screamed during the two shots which cause me to also cry...not fun for either of us. When we got home he had a fever the rest of the day and night and threw up a few more times. My poor little guy had such a rough day. It's a good thing I took this picture before the doctors appointment! Zac will definitely be going to his 4 month apt where he gets the next round of shots.

I was trying to make him laugh while taking the picture, and I ended up scaring him.While Zac was in Hawaii for the wedding my mom stayed with me for half the time while Brittany stayed with me for the other half. Everyone was here on Saturday to go to the wilderness safari. The animals were definitely more interested in Mason than he was in them.

Sunday night after Bible study I took Mason swimming for the first time at Melanie's neighborhood pool. Luckily the water was warm because he really enjoy it and was kicking his legs.

Miles of smiles

2010-07-08T20:36:00.005-05:00

I'm finally updating the blog! Mason is 8 weeks old this week, and I can't believe how fast the time has flown. I can't imagine having to go back to work at this point...thank goodness for summer break! I've got several pictures to share over the past couple weeks. This first one cracks me up. I can always tell when Mason is ready to eat because I will kiss him on his cheek, and he will immediately turn his mouth towards my lips. I like to pretend he just wants to give his momma a kiss. :) One of my favorite things about him is his head of hair. Here are a couple pictures of his crazy hair.

The past couple weeks he's started getting really good about moving his head back and forth while he's laying on the ground. Although he still has awhile till he's got enough neck strength to hold up that big noggin when sitting up.

A few things that Mason has enjoyed doing the past month is sit in his bouncer...aka the pooping chair, lay inside his boppy, wiggle around on the floor, and go on walks.

Mason's big accomplishment this month was learning to smile. Around 3 weeks he started occasionally smiling, but it wasn't till he was 5 weeks old that we were able to get him to regularly smile. Now it's my favorite part of the day. You are guaranteed a smile if you clap his hands together...he LOVES the songs "happy and you know it" and "patty cake." I just think this is the cutest picture of my happy baby! :)

I've been trying to have Mason get on his tummy for a bit each day which he's not real crazy about. Sammy on the otherhand LOVES Mason's tummy time mat.

He also loves Mason's blankets, boppy, or just about anything that we put down that is Masons.

Mason's two month appointment is Tuesday so I'll be sure and post his new weight and length next week. We have a feeling he's gained quite a bit. Once I just started pumping and feeding him from a bottle, he started filling out real quick.

Some Firsts

2010-06-12T17:28:00.005-05:00

Things have been much better the past week or two! Mason has been gaining weight and was finally to his birth weight a few days before he turned 4 weeks. I'm still supplimenting because my milk went down due to his lazy eating habits, but I'm in the process of getting that where it should be. Getting him to stay awake and suck effectively is still very difficult, but we are slowly making some progress. Even though he's a terrible eater, he's doing great at sleeping...I'm able to get about 6 hours of sleep each night which is manageable.

Here are a few pictures of his firsts...

His first walk (1 1/2 weeks) His first bath (2 weeks)

His first time to go to church (3 weeks)

His first time to Sushi King (3 1/2 weeks)...I haven't been able to eat it for the past 10 months, and it was oh so tasty!

Here he is one month old.This one is just because...I love it when he sleeps curled up on my chest. Such a sweetie!

What I like about you...

2010-05-30T11:53:00.005-05:00

We got great news at our doctor apts on Tuesday and Friday. His blood & urine test came back negative, and he's been gaining 2 oz per day. He should be back to his birth weight by 3 weeks (Wed). He is one hungry boy right now. I'm feeding him 25 minutes on each side and then giving him about 2 oz of formula every 3 hours. I'm hoping to start getting him down to 1 oz of formula with each feeding by the end of the weekend. I'm glad Zac & I invested in a nice rocking recliner for our living room because I'm spending a LOT of time in it!

Here are a few things I love about Mason...

when those big eyes are just fixed on my facewhen his lips are puckered upwhen he occasionally smiles...he hasn't figured out how to do it regularly yet when he picks his head up to either look up at you or when he picks his head up to start routing for food

how he loves to have his hands up by his face

how he curls his legs up when laying on our chest

how he has a little white spot in his hair at the base of his hairline
when he kicks and flares his arms aroundI just love this little guy, and I thank God for blessing us with him!

Emotional Rollercoaster

2010-05-24T17:53:00.004-05:00

These past two weeks have been quite a ride! I'll try to do an abbreviated version of the past two weeks. It started with my water breaking at 6:45 am on Tuesday the 11th. We got to the hospital at 8 am to find that I had only dilated 1.5 cm. I wasn't progressing so they put me on pitocin. At 7pm I was still only dilated to 5 cm so my new nurse kicked everyone out of the room so I could relax enough and hopefully start progressing so I wouldn't have to get a c-section. Finally by midnight I was at 10 cm and started pushing. After an hour of pushing, we still could not get Mason's head through (it turned out to be 36 cm - quite large) so they had to do an episiotomy...which ended in a 3rd degree tear. At 1:18 am Wednesday the 12th he was finally born! Unfortunately he was stunned when he came out (blue and not really breathing or crying) so they immediately took him to the warmer and started sucking all the gunk out of him, and praise the Lord he started crying. Zac and I got to hold him long enough for one picture each before they took him to the nursery to put him on oxygen and run several tests. At 4am we found out everything was good, and I finally got to hold my precious baby! At 10 am I decided I wanted a little shower and ended up passing out in the process...first time ever. Then about 30 minutes later I was feeding Mason when his whole body turned a deep blue. He went back to the nursery for a couple hours before coming back with an IV of antibiotics and another tube attached to his foot to monitor the oxygen in his blood. Thursday they took off the oxygen monitor on his foot, but kept the IV on him, and then Friday we were finally released after his circumcision to bring him home! That night we were up all night because little Mason would not let us put him down to sleep which resulted in my break down on Saturday morning because he started having trouble nursing when my milk came in. Thankfully all was better by that afternoon, and he did much better sleeping from that point on.
Our 1 week apt was last week, and we were told he's looking great but needs to gain more weight. So I've been working really hard to keep him from drifting to sleep while he's eating since the apt. He's been eating every 3 hours for about 20 minutes on each side so I wasn't prepared for the news I got yesterday at his two week apt which resulted in my 2nd big breakdown. He continued to loose weight over the past week. At two weeks they should be near birth weight (8lbs 1 oz)...he weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. So my poor little guy is basically starving, and I don't understand how that's possible. Anyway, doctor is very concerned about his weight loss so she had us go to get some blood work and urine samples taken at the hospital. Thankfully blood work came back fine, and we'll find out about the urine when we go back today. She is also having us supplement with formula by giving him about 1-2 oz after each time I feed him so we can fatten him up fast.
I will say we could tell a huge difference in Mason's behavior yesterday evening when he had a full belly. He was so much more content, and we had so much fun watching him kick and play while laying on his back. When it was time to put him down to bed he went right to sleep, and I had to wake him up for his nightly feedings because he was sleeping so soundly.
Hopefully today's apt will show that he's gained some weight...I don't see how he couldn't because he just downed the formula each time. Here is a picture of him from last night.

Maternity Pics

2010-05-20T20:31:00.005-05:00

So, here are the maternity pics our good friend Daniel Ryan took. I have been meaning to post the last few weeks.

These were taken when I was 37 weeks. I have been a little behind on the blog because I have been admiring my precious baby boy! I plan to blog about his delivery in the next few days.

Celebrate good times!!

2010-05-08T10:42:00.009-05:00

I'm officially on maternity leave! It feels great to know that I won't be working for the next 3 months! Well, I'll work a few days this summer to analyze data and plan with the leadership team for next year, but I like that part. It has been a struggle for me to decide whether or not to go back to work next year. I've always said I wanted to be a stay at home mom, but then I got offered a once in a lifetime job with work two years ago. So I feel like I can't leave because it will be hard to get it back again and I'm just getting to the point where I've finally figured out how to do my job. Anyway, all that to say I've decided to work one more year, and then I will quit to stay home with Mason next year. Plus Zac said if I work one more year to put back a lot of money in savings and Mason's college fund, we can take a nice vacation next summer. He sure knows what to say to convince this lady! I don't need new clothes, car, or a house...but a vaca is my weak spot! :) We're thinking Macchu Picchu in South America.Here are some pictures from my work shower that was a little over a week ago. They did such a cute job decorating!Below are my hostesses Paula, Dawndy, and Cindy. This is actually the day after the shower because I forgot to get the picture during the shower. When I was teaching 6th grade math/science I worked very closely with Paula and Cindy. Dawndy is the literacy coach so we share a room/office and obviously spend a lot of time together.

When I got home and started taking all the presents out of the bags and getting things ready to be washed, Sammy was just sniffing everything. I don't think he knows what to think about all this.

I also got a lot of diapers which is going to be really nice to not buy diapers for the first couple of months...I've gotten around 400 so far.

I should be getting my cd of maternity pics tomorrow so I will try and post them either tomorrow or Monday. Plus I'll give the update on my progress...we're just ready and waiting at this point.

Let the countdown begin!

2010-04-26T20:58:00.009-05:00

A little over a week ago was our church shower. Below are my wonderful friends/hostesses from church that threw the shower...AJ, Rachel, and Joyce aren't pictured. I didn't realize how bloated I am getting until I saw these pictures...note to self, don't wear sleeveless shirts anymore until after Mason is born. We had a wonderful Saturday brunch...they even had "Mason jars" holding the silverware!

It was so nice because my mom and sisters as well as Zac's mom, Grandma Jackie, and Aunt Celeste all came! Here is a picture of the grandmas' checking out the big baby belly.

Kayla's cute little kiddos came and joined in on the shower fun. They were a little surprised at how big my belly had gotten.

They had lots of fun helping me open up the presents.

I'm not sure what Avery is throwing a fit about, but I think the picture is hysterical!!

We are pretty much finished with Mason's room...besides putting all his presents in their proper place. There is no mistaking that it is a boy's room with all that blue! Thanks to Kayla for painting the cute letters on the wall.

The quilt on the pull-out bed was made for Zac by his Great-Grandma Straughn (aka Grandma-Great) when he was a baby which happens to match perfectly. This past weekend was our maternity pictures and my work shower is this week so hopefully I can post some of those pics this coming weekend. After this weekend we will be waiting and ready for our little guy to come into the world!

Beauty of pregnancy...

2010-04-11T20:24:00.006-05:00

I beg to differ! I have decided there is nothing glamorous about being pregnant! I don't know how newly weds or people who haven't gotten married adjust to life with a pregnant lady. Luckily Zac has had several great years with me to not get too grossed out or frustrated by this person that has taken over my body! ;) Besides the getting fat and 5 months of nausea, I've been gassier, more snotty & congested, secreting bodily fluids - I even wet my pants at Walmart when surprised by the monster of all sneezes - , more tired, cranky, and demanding, and apparently I've just started snoring this past week...probably due to the fact that I can't breathe well with Mason squishing my lungs and the congestion. While I feel anything but glamorous, these past couple months have been pretty good especially compared to the first 5 months. I still haven't had much trouble with heartburn, my backache is manageable, I've been able to sleep pretty well, and I've really enjoyed feeling Mason moving all the time.

This past week was insanely busy so I don't really have any pictures to post. Monday I had a 1.5 hour meeting after work, Tuesday we did the dreaded trip to Walmart, Wednesday was church, Thursday we had 2.5 hrs of our breastfeeding class, Friday we had 3.5 hours of birthing classes, and Saturday we had more birthing classes from 8am till 6 pm. Needless to say I'm still exhausted even though I've had 9 hours of sleep the past 2 nights. We were kind of dreading the 15 hours of classes squeezed into 3 days, but we really enjoyed it. We definitely left feeling a lot more confident about labor and life with a newborn. One of my favorite parts were when we practiced the relaxation and birthing positions where Zac rubbed and pushed on my back as well as massaged my hands and feet! He was definitely the best coach there! :)

I'll leave you with a picture of me with my furry baby. Until Mason comes Sammy is getting more than he'd care to of my cuddling and kissing!

Running & Sunning

2010-04-04T20:32:00.005-05:00

No, I have not been running (that would be Zac), but I have been sunning! This past week has been so gorgeous outside that I spent several afternoons laying out for about 30 minutes working on my tan after work. It felt so great to be outside! Patty came in town for the weekend, and we had a great time hanging out with her. After she left today we were able to cross something else off the list...Zac cleaned the garage, and I finished prepping the flower gardens. Between standing a lot at Zac's race and bending over working in the gardens, I'm achy and exhausted! So I'm going to let Zac tell about his duathlon. He did such a good job!The Iron Pig Duathlon is 3.1 mile run, 18 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. It is the only one in the world on a ACTIVE runway. I have never run an 8 minute mile in my life. In fact I have never under a 9 minute mile. In my 3rd endurance event and my first duathlon I ran the first 3.1 miles (5k) in 23 minutes and change! For the record, that little girl and her mother are NOT competing in the Duathlon! : )

The second event is the 18 mile bike ride, 9 miles up rolling hills and 9 miles back down. In my 5th bike ride of the year I finished in a respectable 60 minutes. My favorite part was the 26 year old girls who passed me on a hill I was laboring up... The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hufff..... pufff.....

Girl: Hello (toothy smile) Beautiful day for a ride!!!!

Me: Huff.. yeah... puff... Beautiful....Hack Pitooeee...

Girl: Bye!!!

Yup, nothing like getting passed like you are standing still by a happy person. I didn't feel as bad when I got passed by those guys who were working as hard as me! But come on!!!

The last run of this event is really the toughest. Not only are you tired, but also, you are not being pushed by a group of fast runners so you are completely at your own pace. I finished my last 3.1 mile run in 30 minutes. I was determined not to let the 60 year old man (not pictured here) beat me. The girl behind me was the #3 girl in her age group. (OK.... really she finished 2 minutes ahead of me because the men start 2 minutes before the women, but when I tell the story to Mason that is what I am going to say!)

My goal was to finish under 2 hours and be the top 10 in my "Clydesdale" weight class. (200lbs and up) I completed my goal in 1:56, and 10th in my Weight class.

On a side note. When I finished, we started paying attention to the other winners. It turns out that Mandy's Obstetrician was competing in the race. In fact, his son won the event overall, and his daughter won womens overall. The doctor who has been examining Mandy placed 9th overall. Nothing like getting whipped by the only other dude there that... um... nevermind...

Mom came up and watched me run. Here we are in the backyard on a beautiful Easter Sunday. I drew on a hard boiled egg with a Sharpie Pen before I put it on my salad. It was a perfect weekend and I am pooped!!!

Sexy Mama Bag

2010-03-28T16:33:00.003-05:00

So I'm really excited about my diaper bag. When looking for just the right diaper bag, I wanted something that didn't shout I'm that I'm a nose wiping, spit up cleaning, diaper changing mama. I wanted something a little sexier! :) While my pose is definitely far from sexy, you can see what it looks like below. I love the inside it is cream and green with lots of pockets inside and outside. It also came with a matching coin purse, diaper changing pad, and special hooks to attach it to a stroller.

This week was my spring break, and I got loads of stuff done which felt great! My biggest project was to recover the rocking chair. It's hard to tell in the picture that it is blue and white striped.

I also cleaned out and organized several shelves, cabinets, fridge as well as worked on the baby book. So today I'm just relaxing...well for the most part.

Babymoon

2010-03-22T11:26:00.012-05:00

Zac and I spent a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Eureka Springs. It's crazy to think we've lived here for almost 5 years, and we've never been. We had planned to go to OK this weekend, but then Zac had the great idea to take a weekend get-away because most the weekends from now till Mason's birth are pretty busy. It turned out to be just what we needed! An escape from our everyday routines to just enjoy one another...I didn't even think about my list one time! We stayed at an amazing bed-and-breakfast! We had a two person jacuzzi tub (we were careful not to make the water too hot for little Mason), fireplace (which ended up getting quite a bit of use once that cold front came in), the softest sheets and towels, Andies mints on the night stand, and awesome food! It's also the only place I've been where they stock your fridge with 2 bottles of water for you to drink everyday with no additional charge! One of the best things is they deliver homemade breakfast right to your room, and it always includes a hot breakfast casserole of some sort, a pastry, and a bowl of fruit. Then they also bring homemade desserts to your room every afternoon. Needless to say we were quite spoiled and loving it!

We got to Eureka late Friday afternoon. The weather was gorgeous so we enjoyed eating outside at a cafe downtown and walking around.

That night we went to see the haunted Crescent Hotel that was built in the late 1800s and is still used as a hotel. They do ghost tours, but we opted out of that.

Below is a view of the hotel from far away. We had hoped to go back during the day on Sunday to get some pictures outside, but the roads ended up getting pretty slick so we'll have to do that next time.

Saturday we didn't do a whole lot which was great! We had a leisurely morning, lunch at a bakery, a look at the big Jesus, and a drive around to look at all the remodeled historic homes.

"I once caught a fish this big..."Oh come on you were thinking it!!!(Zac)

The only plans we actually had for the entire weekend was a 2 hour couples spa treatment Saturday afternoon. I found a lady online that had a business inside her home which made it a lot more affordable than the typical spa, but it felt just as good! It included a steam, shower scrub, mini-facial, and a 30 minute massage. Since I was pregnant they ended up doing an hour massage and a 30 minute facial instead of the steam and scrub. We both left feeling completely relaxed! Saturday night during dinner is when it started snowing. It was hard to believe that the night before we were eating dinner outside!

Here's the gazebo outside our cabin Sunday morning.
We've decided that even after Mason is born we are going to continue getting away at least once every year. While it won't be as exotic or as long as our trips have been previously, we still think it is so important to get away even if it's just for one night to continually foster and strengthen our marriage where we're not distracted with all the things that need to be done at work and around the house. It's our mission to not continually put our children before God and our marriage because we think a strong, loving marriage is the foundation to a strong family.

New Do

2010-03-14T19:51:00.008-05:00

As usual, it has been a busy couple weeks. Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous so I worked outside cleaning out the flower beds. They were in bad shape since I was sick during the fall and hadn't touched them since Sept. It was such a blessing to have a few sunny days in a row! Sammy & I even took a cat nap lounging in the sun both Friday after work and Saturday soaking up some vitamin D. This weekend we registered which was lots of fun! Zac had fun being in charge of the gun where as I had fun looking at all the baby stuff. It's amazing how much stuff you "need" for such a little guy!

The other big thing I did this weekend was get my hair done which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it always takes about 2 1/2 hours. I cut off quite a bit and had her put in darker highlights. You can see my new do and my protruding belly below. They were taken today...30 weeks.

We've had several productive weekends with most of the big things crossed off the infamous list. So we are heading out of town next weekend to spend a relaxing weekend at a romantic B&B in Eureka Springs. We can't wait!

3D ultrasound!

2010-03-04T19:37:00.008-06:00

Nothing like a bunch of hormonal pregnant woman lined up waiting to get into the Mom's-to-be presale event. It was a huge children's consignment sale, and we were able to get in the evening before it was opened to the public. It was a pretty big deal...there was a long line to get in because there were only letting a few people in at a time to keep a stampede from occurring like in the movie, "Confessions of a Shopaholic". I ended up buying maternity clothes, madela breast pump, and a stroller for a great price!It was so tempting to buy a bunch of stuff, but we resisted. The room below was packed mostly with row after row of children's clothes...there were several rows not even pictured. All the toys and equipment were in another room. The big stuff went pretty fast, but at least we got away with a couple things we were looking for. We will definitely be doing this again next year! Today was our 3/4 D ultrasound. It was so nice to see our little Mason again! When we first started he was asleep with his hand over his face. After a bit of probing, I was able to wake him up and get him moving. He didn't move nearly as much as our last ultrasound, but he did move around about every couple minutes. He kept bringing his hands and feet up to his face. She took 16 pictures, and below are just a few of our favorites (again its the ghetto picture of a picture so they aren't nearly as clear as the originals). The big blob to the left is the placenta. He's got his daddy's upper lip butt crack! :) He's got his hand in the loser position on his forehead with a big smile on his face. I think he's going to be a jokester! This one has both his arms up near his face. You can tell he's starting to get more cramped than he was 9 weeks ago. We also got a video, but I'm too exhausted to mess with it tonight. I might try to put a little 1 minute video of it later this weekend.

Cousins!

2010-02-22T20:02:00.006-06:00

This past weekend we went to OKC to meet Deven, the newest addition to our family, and Mason's soon to be cousin on Zac's side. He is a cutie! Zac is so excited about our little guy being born that he called Deven, Mason, two or three times while we were there. I was afraid he might try to take him home with us. ;)

Of course we can't go to OKC without stopping by my sista's place to love on her cuties! When I was leaving to go I gave Zane a big hug and kiss. Then once I put him back on the ground he gave my belly a kiss without me saying anything to him...so sweet! Some exciting new pregnancy information is that I felt Mason hiccup for the first time Thursday! Since then he's hiccuped everyday but one. I had read about babies getting the hiccups, and thankfully it's not nearly as annoying as it is when I get them. It's been crazy feeling him move lately because he's gotten so big that I am starting to be able tell what it is that's poking me...a foot or hand, an elbow or knee, or his head. Today he has moved a lot more during the day than he normally does...hopefully that means he'll sleep all night. In fact I've been giggling throughout this entire blog because he's twisting, turning, and pushing hard my stomach so much that it almost tickles. I can't wait to meet this little guy!

Time Flies!

2010-02-14T20:48:00.006-06:00

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post! Boy does time fly. About a month ago we had a great sermon on finding joy in suffering when I noticed a middle aged widow getting teary eyed. It reminded me of the verse in the Bible that commands us to look after our widows. With Valentines Day being so close, I thought what a great time to reach out to the widows in our congregation. So several young ladies from church got together (it turns out we have over 60 widows/ers), but I'm so glad we did it! We all had fun, and I'd like to think we brightened the day of many people. I didn't get many pictures taken of the making cookies and cards since I was running around, but here is a picture of most of the children that participatedI started reading a hilarious book called, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy, that was given to me by someone at work. It has been great because it makes me laugh every night. Last night I was reading the chapter, Pregnancy Insanity, when I read the following that so applied to the argument Zac and I had gotten in to earlier that day. "Immediate gratification is the goal of most pregnant women...Certain sensations take on a ferocity when you are pregnant that they never had in your nonpregnant state. And God help the person that stands between you and your satisfaction." Yesterday the "satisfaction" was getting at least one of the three things painted that is on my to do list. After a leisurely morning, I asked Zac to paint something after lunch. The first was the fire hydrant which he determined that we needed to wait on because we needed a wire brush to wipe it down with first. So then I mentioned to paint the lamp instead. He started to, but the paint got all screwed up leaving him frustrated. So he said he was done with projects. I said well let's spray paint the bed then because I wanted to be able to cross something off the to do list. I knew I'd be out of town the next couple of weekends, and I'd been sick all week so I was determined something was going to get done. It didn't help that Zac had stayed up till after 2am playing poker with some guys from church...however, the pregnant woman won out...thank you sweety! :)

Later that night after Zac took a nap :) we had a wonderful evening out. We went out to eat, walked around the mall, and then went to the movie. A couple months ago we got a new maroon rocking recliner. I really wanted a comfy chair in the living room to rock the baby in. Well the curtains in the living room were maroon also which just didn't work...you can't have a maroon chair sitting in front of a different shade of maroon curtains (luckily they were old cheap curtains so I didn't feel bad about replacing them). So while we were out we got some new curtains for our living room. I have decided that buying curtains is one of the hardest things to pick out. The choosing and hanging was such an ordeal that I didn't even bother with trying to iron them. Hopefully the creases will eventually fall.

Mason is still moving around tons. In fact, he made such a sharp jab or turn at work last week that I literally jumped. It won't be long till he starts going after my ribs.

Preggo gone wild with projects!

2010-02-02T19:40:00.004-06:00

Thanks to 2 snow days, I had a very productive weekend. I have become the project Nazi. I'm trying to take advantage of the 2nd trimester high to get a lot of stuff done. The past week we have been tackling our photo albums. They are now completely up to date...printed and labeled. The biggest task was starting and completing our Greece and Egypt scrapbook. It's nothing fancy, but at least it's done! I knew if I didn't do it before Mason is born, it probably wouldn't get done. I love the feeling of crossing something off my to do list! Yes, I'm a nerd...

Speaking of nerds, I'm starting to sound like my mother. ;) Love you mom! I found yet another grey hair tonight...I've decided to stop counting. Without even thinking I started humming, "I need to wash that grey right out of my hair..." When it is time for my mom to color her hair instead of saying something about her roots getting bad or it's time to color her hair, she always sings that little number. Before long I'll be saying "pork chops and applesauce" when we're having pork chops for dinner even though we NEVER ate applesauce with the pork chops...again a saying my mom still says to this day.

Tomorrow I will be 25 weeks, and I'm feeling enormous! I can feel my skin and body stretching. Last night I woke up around 1:30 to a sharp pain running across the right side of my belly (where the stomach meets with my hip). I couldn't figure out what was the matter...it didn't help that Mason was having a party in there. I tried going to the bathroom and stretching, but I couldn't get it to go away. I almost woke up Zac to call the doctor to make sure it wasn't serious, but he looked so comfy I couldn't wake him. Plus I knew he'd think I was being paranoid. :) Anyway, it turns out that it was my ligaments being stretched...our school nurse used to be a nurse for an OBGYN which is quite convenient for me! Let the swelling and stretching begin! I'm starting to get huge all over...except for my booty...yes, Jill, I still have a tiny butt! I wish I had more junk in the trunk, but if I can't get it to pack on during pregnancy I guess it's never going to happen for me.

Got Chicken?

2010-01-25T19:11:00.006-06:00

Today we had a doctor's appointment. I have started looking forward to these more since I saw Mason for the first time. Putting a name with a face (if you will) has made his arrival more of a reality. I heard Mason again today, and I can't help but smile when I hear his heart beating so strongly. I am proud of my big boy and his strong heart beat already. The doctor ALWAYS says its the strongest heart beat he has heard today, and I let myself believe him every time. (of course in the back of my mind I am thinking "he says that to all the girls"). -Zac

Here's a ridiculous picture of me, shocked at how big I'm getting and I still have 3 months to go! I'm going to be enormous!! Zac and I talked this past weekend about how crazy it is that Mason is already a living, breathing (well he's breathing my fluid) little person. He can taste what I eat, hear what we say, and push me back if I push on him. At church Harry read a verse (I can't remember where it is) that mentions how when we die our body returns to the earth and our souls return to heaven. His point was that if they are returning to heaven then they had to have already been there. It's crazy to think that Mason's soul has recently come down from heaven. Zac also mentioned how John the Baptist leaped in the womb when Mary greeted Elizabeth with Jesus in her belly. How could that be unless his spirit was already in his body. Anyway it is just amazing to think that there is a real, live baby growing inside of me...it's taken awhile for that to really sink in.

I'm slowly starting to crave food again. Not really any one thing, but tonight I saw someone eating a fried chicken leg on TV (1 1/2 hours after dinner) and I just had to have one! Zac was so sweet and went to KFC to get me a chicken leg. I definitely won't be making a habit of that, but oh it was so good tonight. A few more random food things...I am able to eat salad and veggies again which is good since Mason can now taste what I'm eating. I would feel bad if he didn't like veggies when he gets older bc I never ate them while I was pregnant. Also, I am way past the cinnamon phase. In fact can't stand to chew cinnamon gum anymore. I'm more into the fruity gum.

Over the weekend I worked on Mason's room some more. I finished sewing the bed skirts for the crib and bed. Sammy loves to monitor my progress anytime I am sewing as you can see in the picture below. Such a helpful little dog! ;)

Mason's Room

2010-01-17T20:43:00.005-06:00

This weekend I was busy starting working on the Mason's room. I uploaded a picture so you can get a general idea, but I've got quite a ways to go to get it looking the way I want it. Kayla gave me Zane's old baby bedding...it was nice to not have to spend money on that. I surprising had a hard time finding curtains and bed skirts to match it so I just decided to make some. I still need to finish the bed skirts, recover the rocking chair, paint the fold out bed, and figure out what we are going to put on the walls. But at least it is slowly starting to look a little more put together.

Pregnancy update:
I'm feeling so much better! I am officially off the nausea meds! The first few days were a little shaky, but for the most part I'm not nauseous anymore...hallelujah!! Which is a good thing because I've got a lot of projects that I am in the middle of that I need to get finished in the next few months. I do have a pinched nerve in the middle of my back (right where my bra pushes) that has been driving me crazy especially the last 2 weeks. If you're around me much you'll probably notice me pushing on my upper stomach at the base of my right ribs. Somehow the nerve is connected with the one in my back so I push on it to try and numb the pain. I finally

went to a chiro for the first time last week because it was hurting really bad nonstop. I've always been skeptical of chiro's, but I was desperate. I am determined to enjoy some of my pregnancy. It did feel a little better so hopefully after a couple more visits I'll be good to go. I am thankful that I've not had any trouble with heartburn, sinuses, lower back pain, etc (knock on wood) that other women experience. I am starting to notice that my belly is getting huge. I am having a harder time squeezing through the garage to get in my car, shaving, bending over, and getting up if I've been sitting on the floor. Mason is still moving tons, and we have fun watching him poking around on my stomach. He's getting big enough that I can see my belly twitch when he's moving which is so cool! I can't wait till he's big enough to where I can see even more controlled movements. I always thought it looked like an alien was trying to escape out of Kayla's belly when she was pregnant with Zane and Avery. I was surprised that we agreed on a name so soon. I avoided the whole name conversation for quite awhile because it was just too overwhelming. Once we found out the baby was a boy and we started talking about it, it didn't take long to decide on Mason Zachary Bray.

Big Belly!

2010-01-07T08:54:00.004-06:00

I decided to do a bare belly shot since I haven't done one yet. I am 21 weeks as of yesterday, and over the past month I've continually been feeling better! This past week I have cut down to one anti-nausea pill a day, and I'm hoping get off it completely in another week. I am so thankful that the nausea is finally leaving. Those first four months were rough, and I'm ready to start preparing our home for our little guy.

Since I've been off this week due to snow/ice, I used this time to start working out if you can even call it that. On Monday I decided to try out the elliptical machine. To my shock I was WORN out after 5 minutes! It's hard to believe I ran 13 miles less than a year ago...I guess that happens when you do nothing but lay around for 5 months. I've got a ways to go to get my body ready to have the strength and endurance to go through labor!

The baby is still moving a lot! Zac and I had fun watching him move around on Monday. We could see all kinds of jabs, kicks, and twitches making my stomach move. It will be fun when he gets bigger and we can see even more of his movement. Although it won't be so fun when his movement get's so pronounced that it's keeping me up at night because he seems to be more active at night and the early morning.

Most wondeful time...

2010-01-04T14:47:00.015-06:00

There is nothing better than spending Christmas with family! Unfortunately there is just never enough time to see everyone. This year we spent Christmas with my family. This was the second year we've been with them on Christmas morn out of the 5 Christmas' we've had as a married couple. It was nice to hang out with everyone, play games, watch Christmas movies, and see the kids so excited about Santa coming. Avery ended up spending every night in our room on the floor. It was cute that she wanted to be with us; however, it was not so cute when she woke up at 5:45 am wanting to go down and see what Santa brought her. We couldn't convince her to go back to bed so we sent her down to GG & PaPa's room. Luckily they coaxed her back to sleep till 7am which was still too early for me to unwrap gifts, but putting it off any longer would have just been torturous to the kids. The snow was icing on the cake to a wonderful Christmas holiday. New Year's Eve was uneventful this year. Zac had been feelilng sick, and I was exhausted from a lack of sleep the night before. So we stayed home and watched the movie, Hangover. After we saw the ball drop at 11 in NYC, I went to bed. Below are several pictures from Christmas.
Of course we had to make cookies to leave for Santa.

Zac played the guitar and we sang Christmas carols. We hadn't done this before in my family...if you know much about my family you would know we are not great singers. But I think everyone enjoyed it, and we may have to start doing it more often.Gotta love Christmas morning shots!

Yea for a white Christmas! We took another picture where everyone wasn't so wind blown, but I thought this one was funnier...plus it captured how we felt...VERY COLD!

Kids made chocolate Christmas suckers. Zane only made a couple because he spent more time eating the liquid chocolate rather than putting it into the mold.

We ventured out the day after Christmas up to Kansas to have Christmas with my mom's side of the family (minus Shelly & Jennifer's family). We had an ugly sweater contest and Wes won.

We always play different money and gift games instead of the typical draw a name and buy that person a gift. It's a lot more fun. This year I won the money from the girls game (this time the goal was to roll doubles so you get to work on unwrapping the very difficultly wrapped money)!

We waited a couple days to let the wind die down before took advantage of the snow and went sledding.

Sammy surprisingly had a ball in the snow. Zac would throw snowballs, and we would chase them. Of course when he went to pick it up, it exploded in his mouth, but that didn't stop him from doing it over and over again!

Big News!

2009-12-30T18:22:00.008-06:00

Today was the big day! In fact I'm skipping Church to work on the blog. We got to see our little baby!! I was so excited, but I couldn't have imagined how amazing this experience would be. As I mentioned on Facebook, I started feeling the baby move 12 days ago, and the past week the baby has REALLY been moving especially when I lay down (in fact he's moving right now). The coolest thing I have ever experienced was seeing the baby move the same time I could feel it, and boy was he a mover!! It just had me in tears the whole time! I don't think he remained still for more than a few seconds during the ultrasound... he even flipped over a couple times the 30 minutes we were in there. The tech had a hard time getting pictures because he was moving all over the place. Here are some of the pictures...well pictures of the pictures. A little ghetto, but you get the idea. It was the fastest 30 minutes of my life.

As you can see, she had no doubt he was a boy!His cute little feet!

He has one hand behind his head and the other by his face. Such a cutie! :)

One pleasant surprise was they created a DVD of the ultra sound. Here is part of the video...it's a recording of the video playing on my lappy so it's not that great a quality. But you get the picture.

Although it was a dreary, rainy day outside, it was one of the best days of my life! The doctor said that either he's going to be a big baby or my due date is a week earlier. I'm pretty positive that my due date is correct so I'm guessing he's going to be a big fella like his daddy. I am 20 weeks today, and his weight is 14 ounces (the avg is 10). I won't mention how much I gained this month....not as much as last time, but it was still a lot. I can't even blame it on holiday sweets because the thought of them just makes me sick. Over the past two weeks, I've only had one small piece of pumpkin pie and a small piece of peppermint bark. Anyway, we are thrilled to be having a little boy (especially Zac)! God is good!

My furry friend

2009-12-20T16:29:00.008-06:00

While Zac was out getting groceries on Saturday, I decided to wash the dog. It is a humorous cycle that always makes me laugh so I figured I'd share. It starts with me turning on the kitchen faucet and getting a Sammy towel out of the laundry room. Knowing that it is now bath time, Sammy runs out of the kitchen or living room and hides under our bed. (Yes, that is torn up tissue under the bed...he's been a little mischievous lately) He always gives me a cute, pathetic look that makes me laugh, but I grab him anyway...which is getting more difficult now with my stomach getting larger. He does good once I start washing him in the sink (I didn't get a picture of that since I was by myself). Next, I blow dry his hair which may seem over the top, but if I don't he will dry his fur by rubbing his body and face all over our carpet till the carpet's wet and he is dry. As you can see below. He still does it some after I blow dry him, but only for a bit. Lastly, he runs like a crazy dog into the laundry room demanding his reward for such a torturous experience. Of course he can't eat the treat right away. He has to carry it around the house looking for a place to hide it, but after 5 minutes he still hasn't found the proper place to hide it so he decides to go ahead and eat it. And that is what happens every time Sammy gets a bath. He is my adorable, predictable dog whom I love!

I'm almost halfway there!

2009-12-16T16:18:00.004-06:00

Today I begin my 5th month, and I will find out the sex in 2 weeks...on Dec. 30th!! I have no "feeling" about whether it will be a boy or a girl. Of course Zac would like a boy first, but we're good with whatever. I am excited to know so I can buy some bedding and curtains. It's no fun looking at a bare room with bare furniture in it. So far I've not noticed feeling any movement...I think it's just been gas bubbles that I've felt. Unfortunately no food cravings yet...just aversions. As a born food lover, I'm actually quite ready to crave food, but the thought of it still makes me ill. Luckily I can eat just about anything as long as it's not garlicky, herby, or have a very strong flavor, but nothing ever sounds good. The one thing I do eat/chew non-stop is cinnamon gum...Stride and Trident have become my favorites. I am chewing it from the moment I brush my teeth in the morning till I go to bed at night. I also had to switch to close-up toothpaste about a month ago because the strong minty flavor in most toothpaste didn't sit well with me.

I felt so much better this past month than I have the two months before...for that I am VERY thankful! I still have to take the meds and wear my bands, but it is so much more manageable now than it was. I keep trying to skip a pill or not wear my bands, but I start to go down hill fast. It's a good thing I've got great insurance because it looks like I'll be taking meds most of my pregnancy...another thing to be thankful for! Without insurance the generic Zofran costs a little over $4 a pill...I pay that much for 13. Another thing to be thankful for is that I only have 2 more days of work, and then I'll be off for 2 weeks! I always feel better when I don't have to get up early and go to work.

I was told there is a good chance our baby will be really smart. Jane Pollock (one of the authors of a leading educational book, Classroom Instruction That Works - also known as Marzano's high yield strategies) came to talk with all the curriculum leaders in our district. The curriculum director told her I've had a lot of trouble with nausea when she found out I was pregnant. She then proceeded to tell me that she read in a medical research journal that there is a strong correlation with women who are sick much of their pregnancy and high levels of intelligence. Our director said that the son his wife was sick with her whole pregnancy ended up scoring a 36 on his ACT. So I'm hoping our baby falls into that "strong correlation." :) Actually I'll be happy just to have a healthy baby. The lady was amazing to listen to and has the best memory of anyone I know...especially anything to do with medical research. She was inspiring, but I left feeling pretty dumb...I guess that's because my mom wasn't sick at all with me. ;)

Catching Up

2009-12-10T15:16:00.000-06:00

I've got a lot of catching up to do from the past couple weeks so this will be a bit longer of a blog. For the week of Thanksgiving, Zac and I went to OKC and had a great week! It was so nice to spend 5 straight days in one place instead of hopping all over Oklahoma. Tuesday I ate lunch with Avery while Zac worked out of the OKC branch for the day. Those kindergartners are so cute and love adult attention! I had to fight off 3 other kids who tried to sit by me before Avery got there. I felt like the big bully saying "seat's taken."

That evening went to see the 3D IMAX showing of "Christmas Carol" with Zac's family and my sisters. It was a fun show to watch, but definitely not a kids movie. Zane and Avery were not impressed and spent much of the time covering their eyes. Here are a couple pictures from the theatre. The first one is everyone that went besides Britt & Zac.

For our Thanksgiving meal we were at Patty's house with her side of the family. There was a lot of family there that we hadn't seen in awhile, and we had a lot of fun catching up. Unfortunately we didn't really take any pictures of the event. I was excited to see how cute Sammy's turkey shirt turned out that Kayla made. I think the other dogs were jealous! ;)

Later that afternoon we went to hang out with his dad's side of the family. We had fun playing games and visiting...again we only took like one picture and very few people are in it.
Since we're doing Christmas this year with my family, Patty and Stephanie came to our house this weekend to do our own Christmas thing as well as celebrate Zac's 30th birthday. We were so happy they came to visit us! We love to have company and very few venture our way. While they were here we went to Silver Dollar City to see the millions of Christmas lights and eat all day long!
We got lots of great gifts during our gift exchange. Sammy LOVED my snoogle (pregnancy pillow). He was passed out on it minutes after I opened it.
-Z-
This week it seems everywhere I looked there was something reminding me that I was bout to turn the dirty thirty. A song on the radio called "my next 30 years", a 'very special episode' of friends where they are all talking about being 30, and even my beloved ESPN is running a '30 for 30' series. Surprisingly, I feel pretty good about the dirty thirty it is just a number and every day is the best day of my life. I was thinking about all the adventures I have had so far, and I am pretty sure it won't compare to being a dad. On a side note, every year I forget to make a wish before I blow out my candles, this year was no exception, remembered about the time the last candle went out.

16 week appointment

2009-12-06T20:37:00.000-06:00

I'm a little behind on the blog. I'll do Thanksgiving break in a couple days because I want to post my 16 week check up from this past Wednesday. This week the baby is about the size of an avacado.

Overall everything was good. The doctor said that the top of my uterus is about one or two fingers below my belly-button which is crazy to think about! I will say I got one piece of bad news...I contemplated not even putting it on here. When I got on the scale it showed that I've gained 8 pounds in 4 1/2 weeks!! I know I shouldn't be shocked because I'm still not well enough to do much exercise, and I have to eat every 2 hours to keep from getting sick...but come on 8 lbs?! Anyway, the doctor reassured me that he's not concerned about my spike in weight gain. He said that it's not uncommon to have a sudden increase one month, and that most likely my weight gain will be a lot more slow and steady the next couple months. Later that night I was eating my 8:00 snack of popcorn, and I was complaining to Zac that the light popcorn didn't have near enough butter on it. He made a smart-alleck comment about gaining 8 lbs. I died laughing because I knew he was kidding...he has never made a comment about my weight and if he would have been serious I would have killed him. Unfortunately I can't remember the comment...I know very anti-climatic. The past couple weeks I've been a lot more scattered and forgetful (common pregnancy thing). I keep asking Zac the same questions over and over because I truly forget that I already asked him...he loves it when I do this! :)

Below is the video of the heartbeat. We will find out the sex of the baby Dec. 30th, and we can't wait!

Good Weekend

2009-11-24T08:28:00.000-06:00

I can finally say I had a decent past week! YEA!! Stomach is still a uneasy, but at least I'm not miserable and that's a relief! I'm still taking meds and wearing my sea bands. The combination seems to be working for me. Thursday I tried skipping one of my pills, and that turned out to be disastrous on Friday morning when I walked into the kitchen and smelled coffee grinds and an orange Zac ate two days previous in the trash can. Needless to say I ended up in the bathroom, the trashcan got demoted to the garage, and I'm going to keep taking the pills.

Since I was feeling pretty positive about my progress I ventured out of my cave this weekend. Friday night I joined my Twilight junkie friends from church (and every other high school girl) to watch New Moon. Saturday I finally had my highlights redone...it was quite embarrassing how bad they were. Then Sunday after church we went to Olive Garden...the first time I've been able to stomach going into a restaurant in a long time. Not to mention I got breakfast in bed Saturday and Sunday morning...I've got the best husband ever! ;)

Here's a belly shot from Sunday I'm starting to look like a normal person again (minus the huge stomach). I'm sure my boss has wondered what's happened to the gal she's hired...I've looked pretty crappy the past two months!

Bring on the maternity clothes

2009-11-12T18:34:00.000-06:00

I bought my first maternity purchase over the weekend. I've had trouble buttoning my pants the past week or so and the rubber band wasn't working so well on my dress pants. So I bought the Bella Band. It's not nearly as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I have it folded over so the ends (which are tighter) are way below my stomach...I don't like any pressure on my stomach. I'm excited to feel better so I can do some real maternity shopping. I think this is God's way of making me take it easy because if I wasn't so nauseous everyday I would be running, planning, organizing, shopping, etc.

Since I'm still nauseous and I've tried all the home remedies and prescription meds, I went to Walgreens today to purchase the sea bands. I've had several people tell me about them, and I've read about them in a couple books (pressure points). As you can see below they look like sweat bands which will look real nice with my work clothes. I'm so desperate at this point I don't even care. I'm anxious to see how they work. I figured if I still feel ill tomorrow, I'm going to call the doctor to see if I can try a different prescription.

Zac has a few things he would like to blog about...so I'm nervously handing over the computer to him hoping he doesn't say anything about how hormones have taken his wife to some far away land! ;)

-Z-

I was told that my baby is the size of a Peach. This is a game changer. Before, Horatio Sanz, (what I am calling him/her for now) has been compared to the likes of a kumquat, a pinto bean and last week a it was compared to a lime. All of these I have no frame of reference for... Don't get me wrong, I have seen a lime, but more often then not it is in the sliced form. A peach on the other hand is something that I am familiar with. I can imagine a peach with little arms weird little tiny body and not only that but a peach is BIG. I think "Peaches" was the name of the team in "A League of Their Own".

People have been asking me how I am feeling? I think I am going to start pleading the 5th. It seems like no matter what I say "Jazzed" or "Freaked" or whatever exclamation I come up with at the moment, the response that inevitable follows is: "You have not seen anything yet". What the heck is that supposed to mean? I think I might just start saying ridiculous things and see what happens.

Nice person: "How do you feel Zac?"

Zac: "I hate it when she threatens me with the tire iron... Did that happen to you???"

Honestly though, my response is unchanged, I am jazzed about a little baby growing, but I've not quite got the permanancy thing implanted yet, but I am sure that will sink in, in few years...

I know, I know... "I've not seen anything yet"

12 Weeks

2009-11-04T16:48:00.000-06:00

I found out today (from my weekly emails) that the baby is about the size of a lime, and his/her reflexes are starting to develop. It is pretty exciting to think about! I'm getting a quite a bump as you can see to the left. It's weird because I lost a pound over the past month, but I've gained almost 2 inches around the waist. I'm guessing I've lost a lot of muscle since I haven't been able to work out the last several weeks. It could also be that I've eaten mostly carbs & dairy the past 6 wks.

I was hoping that now that I turned 12 weeks I would magically feel better. Unfortunately I was disappointed...I'm still quite miserable. In fact it's been worse this week than last week. It was so bad on Monday evening that I couldn't even make the much needed grocery list. Just the thought of food about almost made me lose my lunch. Poor Zac had to make the grocery list, go to walmart, and make dinner. Thanks honey! For some reason my nausea is always worse in the evening. I have now been nauseous everyday for 6 weeks, and it's getting quite depressing. Some days are a little better than others, but I always feel ill/funky. Normally I'm rarely ever sick, and if I am it's just for a day or two. So this 6 weeks straight is getting the best of me. I'm trying to stay positive and joyful, but I've not been too successful here lately.

One more random bit of info is that I have officially found 10 gray hairs! I'm blaming it on the hormones. Over the past couple weeks I've found tons of small 1-2 inch gray hairs! It can't possibly be that I'm getting old! :)

Bit of encouragement

2009-10-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

I got a wonderful bit of encouragement today from Teresa Perry. It was just what I needed to hear! It was from the article, "If I Had My Life to Live Over." It said, "Instead of wishing away 9 months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside of me was my only chance to assist God in a miracle."

I have had my fair share of needles this week. I got the flu shot and the H1N1 shot on Tuesday which was quite painless. Then when I had blood drawn yesterday for my blood tests, I ended up with a huge bruise...luckily it didn't hurt until later that evening. This was taken about 30 hours after I was pricked. Zac surprised me on Tuesday night with my first designer purse! He returned that night after being at home office for 10 days! It was a long 10 days alone...luckily my mom came a stayed with me over the weekend to take care of me and keep me company. Pregnancy has also made me a lot more weepy than normal so I think Zac felt quite bad about having to leave me sick and emotional for 10 days. So he stopped by Lake of the Ozarks outlet mall on his way home. It was a wonderful surprise, and he did such a good job picking it out!!

11 Weeks

2009-10-28T18:12:00.000-05:00

Today was our first official doctor visit! We got to meet our doctor today...he graduated from Harding. During the apt. they asked us a million health questions, drew blood to run tests, did an exam, and lastly we got to hear the heartbeat! Even though I can't feel it, we heard the baby moving around while we were listening to the heartbeat. We took a video of it to post, but it's not real clear. We'll try it again next month.

Pregnancy so far...has not been much fun! My symptoms for the past month have been all-day nausea, gassy, bloated, acne, metalic taste in my mouth, and slight constipation. I have to keep telling myself we have been so blessed because there are many days I don't feel like it. Thankfully Zac has been wonderful to do almost all the cooking and cleaning. I've probably made a permanent indention in the couch since this is where I am when I'm not at work or sleeping in bed.

7 Weeks

2009-10-28T18:01:00.000-05:00

We had a little miscarriage scare at 7 weeks due to bleeding, but thankfully it all ended up just fine. They did an ultrasound to make sure everything was good. It was amazing to see the heartbeat vibrating when it was still just a little blob! Here is a picture of our precious, little blob.