things i love: week two

#1
cuddling in bed with you for hours after russ leaves for work in the morning.

#2
the way you completely straighten your legs right before you fart or poop.

#3
how quiet and content you are when you lay on the changing table.

#4
when storm lays so calmly beside you when you're in your bouncer. this is quite a sight to see, because storm is rarely calm, if ever.

#5
holding you in your baby carrier for a walk around the neighborhood, and while I do work around the house and you sleep through it all, even vacuuming!

#6
watching you take a nap on russ's chest when he gets home from work. you both look so peaceful.

#7
having someone else hold you and watch the way they look at you and see how much so many other people love you.

#8
the night that me and russ laid you in the middle of our bed and laughed hysterically about how only two of us can fit in the bed but we could probably fit forty of you on the bed. we actually compared the idea to the "guess how many jelly beans are in the jar" contest.

#9
that russ volunteers to get up with you in the middle of the night on weekends without me asking him to. but I let him sleep anyway, cause he works so hard during the day. he is such a great dad.

#10
simply holding you all the time, and knowing that no one will take you away from me unless I want them to. I always get first dibs cause I'm the mom. (but I do share you often, refer to #7)

our advice to you: have a child.

So, first i would like to apologize to every other new mom that i know for continuously begging for information, updates, and photos right after their baby was born. I now know exactly why it always took everyone so long to get online and post pictures and blogposts. Because life is just too good to pause and get on the computer for more than a few seconds at a time. As a matter of fact I couldn't sit here and write all of this in one sitting, i wrote bits and pieces of this post over the course of three days!

I already know this post is going to be long, because I have so much to catch up on. But I will stick mostly to the details and just add a few personal thoughts in between to keep this from being a novel...


labor and delivery:
We went to the hospital on Saturday, August 15th at about 2:45pm. I think that day we were more anxious than ANY other time in our life. We originally had a plan to go in and be induced that day since Russ was home from work all weekend (he works an hour away, and i was really nervous about actually going into labor without him close by), and the doctor i wanted to deliver my baby was on call at the hospital.
I was only dilated to a 1, but was having semi-regular contractions already and i didn't even know it. So they went ahead and admitted me about an hour and a half later, and let me have contractions on my own until about 6:30 pm when they gave me a pitocin drip to help move things along. I then started having contractions too close together, so they dropped my pitocin down to a very minimal amount and i stayed that way until about 3:30 in the morning when my water broke on it's own. I had only dilated to a 3 or so when my water broke, so i just stayed on some pain medicine and then got my epidural about 2 1/2 hours later, then just a short time later i had dilated to a 9 almost 10, and they started bringing everything in for delivery, we just had to wait for the doctor. Finally, around 11 am i started pushing, and she was born at 11:34 and 56 seconds on Sunday, August 16th. She weighed 7 lbs, 11.8 oz, 19 inches long, and more beautiful than any baby i have ever seen. Seeing her for the first time, hearing her cry, and then holding her in my arms was a moment in time that I will absolutely never ever forget, I think I was too exhausted to cry as much as i wanted to, but there were definitely tears of joy from both me and russ. I am crying more right now thinking about it all again. My heart is so full.


in the hospital:
There were so many people there to visit us after Caedmon was born. She is very loved, by so many people. We got to see everyone briefly about an hour or so after she was born in the labor and delivery room, and then they brought me a tray of food (i was so happy about this) and i got to sleep for a little bit before they moved me into a "real room."
While there, from Sunday afternoon till Tuesday afternoon, we had so many visitors, but those moments in between visitors, and later in the evenings, the moments that just me and russ and caedmon were alone together will forever stay with me. Monday night was the first time that it really hit me that we had a daughter. I cried for quite awhile just holding her, and telling russ everything that i loved about having our own family. He just sat and listened to me, and i loved him so much for just letting me go on and on and on. Geez, i am crying so much right now going over all this in my mind and heart again... it is all so indescribable, so i won't even try to describe how i felt in that moment, or how i feel right now. God is just so good.
I'll keep going now.
On Monday morning Caedmon's pediatrician, Dr. Timberlake, came in to examine her for the first time, and then came in our room to discuss everything about her examination with us. Everything was just perfect, except that she had heard a slightly abnormal heart murmur when checking caedmon's heart. Russ and I were absolutely scared to death. She couldn't really tell us more, but she did let us know that an echocardiologist was coming later that day to look further into the situation and give her an echocardiogram? i don't really remember exactly what they did, or how they did it, because all i could think about was how worried i was, so i apologize for not having concrete information about that whole conversation... Anyways, we had to wait until her heart doctor, Dr. Donner, came to the hospital to review the test results before we would know anything else. That whole morning/afternoon was very cloudy cause i was just trying not to think about it, but couldn't help it, cause i was just so concerned for our little girl. Finally, he came in to talk to us about what they found, and basically this is the final diagnosis:
All babies are born with a heart murmur (a teeny tiny hole) in the top two chambers of the heart. They all have to have this little hole in order to survive in the womb. Caedmon has a tiny hole in the top two chambers just like she is supposed to, but she also has a tiny hole in between the bottom two chambers, and they diagnose this as VSD, Ventricular Septal Defect. I won't try to explain exactly what this means, cause i won't do it right, but here is a link on what exactly VSD is. (I hope you all feel a little smarter after reading about this medical stuff, cause I sure did...) The doctor wasn't concerned about the size of the hole, but would like to regularly monitor her in hopes that the hole will eventually heal itself. So the bad news, became a little better after finally knowing what the situation was, and knowing that we wouldn't have to do anything like take medication, or treat her any differently than a regular newborn. We were relieved at
We got to leave the hospital around 2 or 3 on Tuesday afternoon, and headed home for the first time as a family of three.

life at home:
So far Caedmon has been so wonderful. She is breast feeding so well, sleeping so well, and peeing/pooping so well. that is basically all she does so far... haha, but spending time with her all day long is so incredible. We continue to have lots of visitors at home, bringing us dinner, and just giving us some good company. I love having people over, and showing her off, I have never been so proud of anything my whole life. Getting my driver's license, graduating high school or college, getting any job I have ever had, owning a home, absolutely nothing can compare. I love being a mom, and figuring out how to live with her at home. Just feeding her, sleeping with her, giving her a bath, changing her diaper (russ has become a master at changing her too!) doing housework while she sleeps, taking short walks around the neighborhood with her, all the normal day-to-day adjustments have been so great, and I wouldn't like to spend my day doing anything besides being a mom. I like to consider all this new mom stuff as playing "house."
I do miss my husband terribly during the day, (he started back to work this past monday) but I can't describe how thankful I am for that man. Every single day i wait for him to get home and be with us. I think I have thanked him 100 times for working so hard for us, so I get to stay home with her. Our financial situation isn't the most ideal with only one income in this terrible economy right now, but it works for us, and we wouldn't change it for anything. I love that I get to experience everything that goes with being a parent all day long, rather than having to adjust all over again if i had to go back to work...

Here are a few highlights from her first two weeks: (these are directed towards caedmon so she can read them one day when she is older, and know all the little things that happened to her when she was brand new...)

- Your first bath at home went SO well! (and i was so nervous about bathing you for some reason before you got here) you didn't cry one single tear, you were so awake and alert and just looked at your daddy the whole time. You did spit up a little in the bathtub, but you were already naked, so we just washed it right off. After your bath things got a little messier... We thought you looked so adorable in your little hooded towel and we wanted to take pictures of you, even though i was hurrying your daddy to get a diaper on you, I made him stop for "one more picture" and just as i said that you pooped right in the floor. Your dad called it a "rookie mistake" and we both laughed. And then you peed on the changing pad cover. It was quite a funny first experience for all of us...

- Once this past week, while you were breastfeeding, milk came out of your nose and it blew a big bubble out of your nostril. I got really nervous cause you didn't breathe for a second, but then i laughed at how funny it all was (after you started breathing again... of course.)

- You slept through the night before you were two weeks old! We stayed up late (around 1:45 or 2am) and then you slept till almost 9 am! We were very surprised, but unfortunately i woke up in the night checking on you several times and russ had to wake up at 5:30 for work, so we didn't get to sleep through the night, but at least you did!

- You had your first car accident before you were even a week old... oops! We took you to your first doctor's appointment the Friday after you were born, and on our way out of our parking spot, the car directly behind us backed into our car! It was very scary at first, but you were asleep and never even batted your eyelid... It was the first time I had ever been in any kind of car accident even just a tiny "fender bender" that I can remember (unless my mom and dad had an accident when i was little and in the car with them, but i am unaware of any...) so we shared that first together (i think.)



There is so much more to say, and i will try to update often, but like i said at the very beginning of the post, life is just too good spending lots of time with this newborn baby, that I can't promise a daily post... but i have started on a "Things I Love" list and will hopefully continue this list for the first year of her life. I am simply writing down a short thought (or two) every day about something that i love about caedmon, about being her mom, about her amazing dad, etc.
I will try my best to post those every week.


things i love: week one
#1
the way russ always holds you just a little longer and gives you several more kisses everytime i'm ready for him to hand you to me.

#2
the cute little breathing/throat sounds you make when I'm feeding you.

#3
when you are sleeping and I lay you on my stomach and your arms hang down my sides and it looks like you are hugging me.

#4
I absolutely love looking into your big beautiful blue? eyes when you are awake. you stare right at me and my heart just feels so happy right then.

#5
that everyone tells me your beautiful and I know they aren't just saying that. it makes me so proud to be your mom.

#6
the really long hair on your ears (but for your sake, I hope it eventually goes away...)

#7
the way my shirt and hands smell after I've been holding you.


stay tuned for things i love: week two coming tomorrow!


Now it's picture time!

Everyone meet my beautiful baby girl, Caedmon Clair Burnett:


I have so many pictures that i want to show everyone but instead of
uploading all one million of them individually, i made a slideshow. There are a little over 60 pictures, but i promise it will take less than four and a half minutes to get through all the pictures. (it is worth it to see how cute she is in all the pictures!)

(you can turn the captions on or off by scrolling over the box until the menu bar
appears at the bottom of the box and simply click captions.)

thanks so much for reading our blog. we are so ridiculously happy to be parents, and we love sharing our new experiences with everyone. we hope that everyone else will love our little girl almost as much as we do. (there is no way anyone else can love her more than me & russ, except Jesus.)

P.S. Russ told me I was a great mom today, it felt really good to hear that. I think he's an even better dad.

her room is waiting on her!

here are full pictures of Caedmon's room for everyone who waited so patiently!

now the only thing left to put in this room (besides her name over the closet doors, which i so forgot to do...) is a sweet little girl! and hopefully we will have one of those tomorrow!

we will keep everyone as updated as we can!

and we just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who has been so sweet to us over the past nine months, thank you for your prayers and support, and we can't wait for everyone to meet our little caedmon.

a whole bunch of words...

i have to apologize that there there was no update on the room today,
but i had a pretty exciting doctor's appointment this afternoon,
and couldn't focus on anything else except the fact that my doctor told me...

(drumroll please)

that he would induce me on Saturday!

So hopefully, tomorrow i will be wrapping
up with a last look at Caedmon's room
with full photos!

cause hopefully the next post after that
will be after she is born!

i had lots and lots of different thoughts running around in my head today, with such unexpected news from the doctor... and i think in ten years i would like to remember what i was thinking and feeling at this particular moment in my life, so i will share them with you all too!

first:
family really is so important to me. i want to share all the best times of my life with these people. these are people that will be in my life forever, and not just a season of my life, and just with that perspective alone, I feel such a love and appreciation for every one of them.
i can't even describe how i feel about having a family of my own, and how much i already love and care about this little girl inside me. what a precious gift that has been given to me, and can't help but feel an overwhelming responsibility to do everything right, even though i know that i will fail sometimes. but she is my own flesh and blood, my family, a product of me and of russ, and we will forever be bonded by that. i know that regardless of whether or not i do exactly the right thing, it will never change the fact that we are and always will be connected to each other. And i love that all of these things roll into our relationships with our other family members. Whether or not we all do exactly the right things, these people are still the people that i love so much.

second:
i love that i have supportive friends. even though life doesn't guarantee that I will have the same
people around me forever, i feel like there are so many people in my life that i can look back on and know the purpose that God had for their relationship with me. even in middle school! so a word to the teenagers, it really does make a difference who your friends are when you are young, because these are the people that will shape and mold you into who you are today. no one is perfect, and it seems that during so many points of my life, there has been someone to call me out, give me their honest opinion, or just be there to say only what i need them to say and agree with me, or cry with me, or laugh with me... i mean, i am about to have my first baby, and i am beyond excited, and i am glad that i can have people to be excited with me. i am so blessed to have any friends at such an incredible time in my life, even if it was just one. but thankfully, i have so many more than that.

third:
The Lord is pretty stinkin' amazing. And i don't deserve to be so loved by Him. I don't pray enough, i don't read scripture enough, i don't trust him enough, i don't love people around me enough, i am not disciplined enough. sometimes i become apathetic in my relationship with Him, i am selfish, and full of sin, and make terrible decisions daily. But he still loves me. And cares for me. And he daily provides for me. How can people not believe in that love and power? I am just in awe. He makes miracles happen every single day. He completely created a brand new person inside me, from nothing. She has ears, eyes, arms, legs, a beating heart, all because God designed her exactly the way he wanted her to be. She is perfect because of Him.

fourth:
my husband really is a solid foundation for our family, and i never thought i would feel that way about him the very first time i met him, cause he played video games, and spent all of his money on candy and cokes.
i am so thankful for his support/encouragement/protection/love for me, and i love watching this spill over into how he feels for our daughter that will be here so very soon. I am in awe of how God designed our relationship to be so perfect for us to learn how to love and respect each other in marriage. even though we fight and argue over the silliest stuff sometimes, i never doubt that his commitment to me and now to our very own family is unwavering. i love that man with every piece of me, even when i don't want to. i love that he makes me laugh, and doesn't want me to cry or be upset, or watch me hurt in any way. i love that he makes sacrifices that he never brags or boasts about.
i love that he tries so hard to make the best decisions for our family, and that he thinks of me in those decisions. I love that i can depend on him, and stand on his decisions, and that we can walk through this life together, rather than both of us searching for answers/advice on our own, and then trying to come to an agreement. i can simply ask Russ, and know that whatever he says, regardless of what the decision is about, is what we will do, and we will do it together.

Russ, so many people have told me that they can't remember what life was like in their marriage before they had kids, but i hope that i will never forget these moments that we had in our first two years, just the two of us. the fun times we had, the laughs we shared, the fights that helped us figure out how to communicate with each other, and the love that we have had for each other. even in your imperfections, you are perfect. thank you for being so sensitive and not scared to show your emotions, or admit when you are wrong. i absolutely love that about you. saying i love you isn't close to enough for what i feel for you right now. you are the love of my life, the leader of our home, and i hope that one day our daughter will look at our marriage and see a picture of christ loving his church, and want that for herself.
i cannot wait to watch you look at your daughter for the very first time.
i can't believe that we created something so wonderful together.
and i hope she has your eyelashes.

and last but not least:
i can not believe that i am about to have a real life person to call my daughter. the idea of this completely overwhelms me sometimes that i just have to cry. not because i am sad, but because i am so ridiculously happy. for probably the past month or so, i have woken up every morning, and just walked into her room and just stood there just looking around. the sunlight in the morning is so great in her room, and i love just feeling complete joy for those few minutes. i have thoughts all the time of what she will be like at a certain age, or just the little things that she will say and do that i will want to share with the whole world. i can't wait to be there for her when she is sick or scared, or upset. i can't wait to be there for her when she is really happy or excited or really proud of something she did. i love that she will be ours, and that no one else can make a decision for her, besides me and russ (until she can make decisions on her own, and by then i hope that russ and i have taught her everything she needs to know to make a good decision for herself) i know that comes with responsibility, but i am so ready.

I know that things won't be perfect all the time, and that accidents will happen, and we will do things that we might not KNOW are the right thing, but thankfully we both (Russ & I) trust Jesus to continue to take care of us regardless of what we do. We won't be the perfect parents (who is?), but we'll be parents just the same, and i am pretty excited about that.

Caedmon, i love you so much,
and i hope you will be able to feel all of that
love the moment you first lay in my arms.

going green without saving the planet...

today's highlight:

going green without saving the planet...

as much as i agree that we should be saving the planet,
none of our "green" things will actually do that.
we just simply love the color...
so here are some pictures of "green"
but not so eco-friendly things in caedmon's room...

of course her walls are green...
as i am sure you have already seen from previous painting pictures.


and her bedding has green polka dots!


that match her window valances


that also match the mobile


and the little leaves on her canopy


then we have these baskets with the little green bows


that sit on the wall shelf above her changing table


then we have a few green grass accents for decoration on another wall shelf
i seriously think i have some sort of dried grass decoration in EVERY room of my house... i mean i could do a whole separate blog post on all of them...


just a little green candle


she has lots of green baskets in her closet!


and she even has some green-to-go
with her green car seat
(it matches the stroller that Russ had on his earlier post)
(and even though they aren't green, i have to give a quick thank you to Kim for those super cute strap covers. i think they are so adorable and so SOFT)


and finally, one the newest items in her room, a green diaper bag (that i love!)
as a matter of fact i loved it so much, i made a slideshow of pictures
cause i wanted everyone to see every pocket!

the first peek in caedmon's room

our first highlight from caedmon's room:

how exactly do you brush a nickel...

we'll start here because the first thing you have to do is turn
this brushed nickel door knob
to open the door to her brand new room...
welcome everyone!


we installed brushed nickel hardware on her closet doors...


to match the brushed nickel knobs we put on her changing table/dresser...


with a simple little brushed nickel reading lamp that sits on her dresser...


beside a personalized brushed nickel picture frame...


she also has a brushed nickel curtain rod...


and finally the one piece that ties everything all together:

the brushed nickel CHANDELIER!

and that concludes our first preview...

come back for tomorrow's highlight:
going green without saving the planet...

fabric is my new best friend.

okay, i am fully aware that it is 1:00 in the morning, but apparently sleep is overrated when you are over 38 weeks pregnant. so instead of unsuccessfully trying to sleep tonight, I made some craft projects! I was overly inspired by "getting prepared" for our Young Moms group that will start back up in September. I am in charge of leading a craft project during each meeting for the girls that come to our group... i'll explain more about this great organization later...
Anyways, I was just too excited about how these projects turned out, that I had to get online and blog about them... and the fact that I can actually USE these excites me even more! This is the first year that I will have my very own child, rather than trying to brainstorm easy craft projects that "moms" can use...

so here they are:

two crafts that we will be assembling over the next year at Young Moms!

a trendy diaper wipes case

complete with a button embellishment

I see these things all the time at arts & craft shows, and people charge like $15-20 dollars for them! I only paid $1.50 for the case (with wipes!), and I already had the fabric and ribbon laying around... man, i love a deal.

and we will also be making this:

a fabulous notebook cover

it is just a composition notebook that i got from staples, covered with mod-podge, then fabric, and then i hot glued the ribbon on...

I seriously think this notebook cover only took about 7 minutes to make... and most of that time was me just waiting on my hot glue gun to heat up... super easy.

Okay, i'll admit that i really didn't want to go to the store (i even made Russ do the grocery shopping tonight) which is why both of these are made out of the same fabric... but I really love this fabric, so i could probably make a million things out of it! and maybe i will.

so there you have it. fabric is my new best friend. hope you enjoy looking at these as much as i enjoyed making them!



and for everyone who reads this blog and has been WAITING for pictures of the finished nursery, they will be here starting TODAY!!!
I have decided to highlight a different thing every day this week, so by the end of the week, you will have seen all the greatness there is in Caedmon's room... minus Caedmon of course... unless she decides to come this week!

okay, i think i will try some sleep now,
goodnight you princes of maine, you kings of new england.
(that line was just for russ...)

How much will Caedmon weigh?

Wow, we have had a surprising number of votes (over 40!) for how much Caedmon will weigh when she is born! Thanks so much to everyone for getting involved in the fun!
Unfortunately, since so many people have been guessing we have SEVERAL repeat guesses... and the Burnetts can only afford to pay for one winner... i mean, we do have to pay for a baby now people!!
SO, our solution to this problem is this... The first person that guessed at each weight will be the winner of the ULTIMATE designed and printed christmas card prize. What does that mean if you were the second person to guess that weight? I would simply suggest you find another weight that hasn't been guessed yet, and hope to win there! Or, you can keep the same weight if you would like and just hope to be right, but just know that if you weren't first, we won't be covering your christmas cards for free this year! (I will gladly design them for you, but sadly, I will have to charge you {well worth the investment though, in my opinion...})
So sorry that I had to make rules, cause i hate rules. But I had no idea that so many people would be guessing!! I am posting a chart of everyone that has guessed so far, if your name is second (or third) and you want to reguess, just post another comment with your new guess. There are still lots of weights that haven't been guessed!

(click on the chart to make it bigger)

chart was updated on 8/14/09 3:23 p.m.

Also, the winner will be the person with the closest guess WITHOUT going over... that is how they do it on "The Price Is Right", so it is only natural for us to do it that way here on "the burnett blog"!

Keep those guesses coming friends!!!

P.S. Pictures of a completed nursery will be coming so very soon... the chandelier is hung, but we are still waiting on the crib to get here!

Ultrasound Pictures, and a chance to win a FREE design!

AN UPDATE ON GUESSING CAEDMON'S BIRTH WEIGHT CONTEST:
I just told my ultra-cheap husband about our little weight guessing contest that we have going on, and how many people have already made a guess today and just out of the blue, he said he would pay to have the winner's cards printed! So you not only get a FREE really cute card design from me, but Russ will pay to have your christmas cards printed! Man, this is becoming quite a great deal... so be sure and make your guess below!

As promised, here are the latest pictures of little Caedmon. These were taken on July 28th. At my appointment two weeks before that, Dr. Pickins said I was measuring just a little smaller than i should be, and he couldn't accurately determine her positioning, so he scheduled us for another ultrasound. I was a little nervous at first because they usually only give two ultrasounds during the course of a normal pregnancy, and we had already had our first two. But after seeing the ultrasound everything was okay, she was head down, and i had plenty of fluid. Then I was just glad that we got to see her one more time before she gets here!

I also took a 36 weeks belly picture when we got home from our ultrasound,
so this is what she looks like outside:

and this is what she looks like inside:

She is getting MUCH bigger, and you can already tell her cheeks are pretty chubby! They estimated that she was already 7 pounds, but everyone says they never really know by looking at the ultrasound... but I am going to assume that is probably pretty close...

I am going to bet that she weighs 9 lbs 1 oz.

I know! Let's all take bets on what we think she will weigh!
Leave a comment with your guess,
and the closest to her actual birth weight
will win a FREE christmas postcard design!
(you'll have to pay to print them {around $40, depending on quantities}...
but i will design them for FREE)
UPDATE: RUSS IS PICKING UP THE PRINTING TAB, SEE THE PARAGRAPH AT THE TOP OF THIS POST!
And not to boast or anything, but i think our christmas cards were pretty stinkin' cute last year...
here is a reminder if you haven't already seen it...

the front:

and the back:

So let the guessing begin! Yay, this is fun.

Roll Tide!

So, as you can probably tell, I didn't have a lot to do today except update the blog... (that means that Caedmon's room is pretty much ready, decorated, and organized!! (minus a crib and a chandelier being hung, but i hope those are coming really soon!)

I promise this is my last post for the day, but stay tuned for more tomorrow, it is definitely worth it (hint: ultrasound pictures!) But the best part about this particular post is that it is RECENT, and not something I am having to go back and catch up on, yay for me! But don't forget to read the first three posts from today before this one!

So now we get to the point of this recent post:

Last night Russ went with me to Wal-Mart to pick up an online order that I placed about a week ago, and while we were there I wanted to get some fabric for a little picture frame project I wanted to do for Caedmon's wall...
This is my final product:
(it is kinda hard to see in the picture, but looks better in real life)



BUT, the point of this story isn't about my craft project... it is about my sweet, adorable husband who apparently knows how to sew...

While in the fabric department of Wal-Mart Russ found some fabric that his daughter had to have.


So he bought a yard of this fabric, a bag of stuffing, and a spool of pink thread and stayed up REALLY late and he made her a pillow. and it is absolutely perfect. i hope she loves this pillow and the man that made it as much as i do...


And since we are already on the topic of how sweet, sentimental, and CRAFTY my husband is, I thought I would just top things off by showing you the Mother's Day card that he made me back in May. I cried for about 20 minutes after reading this... but i was very "pregnant emotional" for some reason that day...

This is the front:


And this is the inside:
(click on it to make it bigger so you can see teeny tiny Caedmon)


He is a pretty great dad already.

Our Final Baby Shower!

This was our fifth and last baby shower that we had for Caedmon!

That means she is so CLOSE to being here!!
My older sister Jeri hosted a shower in Pike County for some friends and family on July 25th. It was a great time spent with friends that I hadn't seen in a really long time and I got to see some family that I hadn't seen in a few months!

Russ came down with me (we didn't think it was smart for me to travel that far alone at 8 months pregnant) and so did Miss. Abbey Hankins, so she could spend some time with her "best friend" Ema.



We got some GREAT gifts, and had some delicious food. And a really cute idea that my little sister, Erin had was to "design" onesies for Caedmon, so they made one and put everyone's name that was at the shower, and then Ema and Abbey made one for her. I can't wait till Caedmon can wear these one-of-a-kind outfits!



It is so hard not to say the same thing about every baby shower that we had, because we REALLY are so thankful, and so blessed, but how many times does everyone want to read the same thing over and over... so for a little variety in this post, I have included a video that we took while we were at the shower of my nephew Tobey singing to Baby Caedmon, hope you enjoy it as much as we did (minus the part where I am singing...)




P.S. I think you have to click play and wait a few seconds for it to "buffer" and then click it again to play... since this is our first posted video, I am not sure exactly how it works, but I know it does, cause it eventually played when i clicked it a couple of times... Also you will have to click the pause button on the music player in the right sidebar, so that you can hear the video.

Our Third & Fourth Baby Showers!

On July 5th, our friends at Chick-fil-A hosted our third baby shower for us. And it was such a fun shower (including some good Chick-fil-A food.) I don't have pictures from the shower because I forgot to take my camera, oops! (Russ wasn't very happy with me about that...sorry babe)
But we invited men and women alike, and Russ got to open all the presents! It was so fun listening to all the guys "ooh and ahh" over all the cute little pink stuff! We were so glad to share that time with everyone that we love at Chick-fil-A!

I did have one great highlight to post about it: Miss Emma Clare Wells designed the cake for Caedmon, and she was so very excited about having such a big a part in planning the shower.
Here are her "blueprints" for the cake. I hope you can read all of the words on the image I scanned, because she was very detailed in all her plans! Thank you so much KayLynne for saving these for us to have!


And Russ did take a picture of the actual cake with our camera phone, he is so smart! It wasn't EXACTLY the same as Emma Clare had planned, (I don't know if we needed a 2 1/2 ft tall cake...haha) but the final product was very very close!



Thank you to EVERYONE at Chick-fil-A for loving us so much. You are all such a big part of our hearts, and we couldn't be more grateful for your friendships!



And then we had our FOURTH baby shower:
My good friends/family, Emily, Amy, and Heather threw us another shower on July 11th.
It was a super cute shower, and we received MORE stuff! Seriously, I don't think we could have ever had a baby if it weren't for so many people being so generous to us. We really couldn't have afforded everything we needed without the help of great friends and family.

We got lots of great things including a really nice activity center/bouncer from Russ's mom, Kim. We haven't put it together yet though, cause she can't use it until she sits up. So pictures of Caedmon in the bouncer will come later!
We also got a nice pocket video camera from Kelley, Russ's stepmom, which was a necessity in my mind! Now we can record everything from her first days, to her first smile, to her first words, to her first steps, etc. And then share them with everyone who reads our blog! I'm really excited about using it when Caedmon finally gets here!
And another notable gift was from Lib Rogers, she crocheted/knitted Caedmon two sweet little blankets. That is kind of her "trademark" gift for new babies, so I was very excited to get them!


And the girls who hosted the shower got us the bedding for the crib!! It is really pretty and the colors match her walls perfectly.


We also got so many other gifts that are all well worth mentioning, but this post would have to be forever long. But please know that all the gifts were so very much appreciated!

Russ didn't actually attend this shower, but he did get the chance to stop by on his way to work to sneak a peek and steal a plate of food! And we got a picture together while he was there...

Thank you so much to Emily, Amy, and Heather for putting on such a great shower! I am so lucky/glad that I can call you guys both friends and family (well maybe not yet "family" for Heather... but maybe soon...)
And one last thank you to everyone else who came to the shower, we are so thankful! Everything was absolutely wonderful...