help us win!

okay blogger friends, we need you!

you know that one income family we decided to have when we moved into parenthood... well that means we can't afford "luxuries" these days, so we need your help!
we need everyone to "like" our picture on facebook, so that we can WIN a contest to get a $50 credit with the*reason photographers!
all you have to do is become a fan of the*reason on facebook,
and then vote for OUR photo out of all the photos in the fan photos album!

P.S. you have to have a facebook account to become a fan of their page and to "like" our picture.

We got to have our pictures made last year on a "freebie" day with these great photographers, but fortunately for them, unfortunately for us, their business is growing, so they don't offer those freebie days anymore. so our only hope for pictures is to win this contest! Take a look at the great "freebie" pictures we had taken last year. We loved them so much that we used them on our christmas cards for 2008!

this first photo is the one we submitted, and that you are hopefully going to "like" so that we can win!









as you can see, we are missing a very important part of our family in all of these great pictures...
little miss caedmon clair!
so we need the*reason to take more pictures of us this year, and that will only be possible if you help us win!

and i couldn't upload a whole post without a picture of caedmon...
so here is the cutest girl in the world...

this was this morning shortly after i woke her up because she slept for EIGHT HOURS IN HER CRIB WITHOUT WAKING UP TO NURSE! i am amazed, and hopeful that this will continue!

things I love: week nine

things I love: week nine

#1
when I lay you down in your crib and you get so excited! it is hard to describe it but you start kicking your legs and making these happy noises and you smile but not the same smile that you always have it is a different one where your mouth is more open... but it is definitely a happy face!

#2
I know this one isn't really about you but it's because of you so I am going to add it... I love that my dad made you a toy box. it is so beautiful. Everyone who sees it is so impressed and I love that I get to say that your Pop made it for you. it makes it so much better than just buying it somewhere...

#3
when you smile while you are sleeping...

#4
the fact that you love it when I sing "you are my sunshine" to you. it literally solves all your problems and dries all your tears, like magic.

#5
that you only poop a few times a week now! saves us lots of time and diapers and wipes!

#6
that I know you are eating well because you are getting so so heavy!

#7
your perfect little frown. I don't like that you have to frown sometimes but when you do it is adorable.


Caedmon had her 2 month checkup today...that means shots!
so here are her before and after pictures...

BEFORE
(click me)

and 3 bugs bunny bandaids later...

AFTER
(click me)

things I love: week eight

things I love: week eight

#1
making this list, I know this adding this one is like cheating but it really is something I love because I can't wait till you are old enough to read it for yourself and know how what our life was like when you first arrived.

#2
how your dad gets so excited when you smile at him.

#3
how easy going you are when we take you places. I hope you stay that way!

#4
the way your hair looks after I dry your head with a towel and then brush your hair over to the side.

#5
just simply being with you all the time. I don't ever want to leave you! how will I ever be able to send you to kindergarten?

#6
the way you grunt when you cry because you have gas

#7
how "tough" you are when you get a boo boo (storm scratched your little foot this week), and the fact that when daddy let you know that you were tough, you smiled real big!

a fun game, & random pictures that make me smile...

HERE IS A FUN GAME FOR EVERYONE TO PLAY...
but let's see how well you do.
(it is harder than you think it is... maybe.)

click on this long string of pictures to make it bigger.
then see if you can tell which baby is Caedmon, and which one is her cousin, Malachi.
leave all your guesses for each numbered picture (1-10) in the comment section.
and then we will see how many people can actually get them all right...
i will post the answers in a few days, so don't forget to leave a comment with your guesses and then come back and see if they were right!




And for your further enjoyment:
I was looking through my iPhoto today and found tons of random pictures that just made me smile... and I decided to share them with you.

This first one is what i refer to as "the ragu cheese explosion." Apparently someone (either me, my husband, or some stranger in the grocery store, no one can recall the actual culprit here) had already opened this jar, used a little bit of sauce, and put it back on the shelf without tightening the lid. so when i went to shake it up a little... well you can see what happened... needless to say my shirt was ruined, and it was brand new. why was i cooking in a brand new shirt, who knows. it wouldn't fit me now anyways... i still have some of those post pregnancy pounds to lose.

This next one is a picture that i took last year with my regular ol' sony cybershot (the lovely girl in the picture is an amazing photographer herself) and it just makes me smile cause i like it. i wish i would have had my new camera while i was taking this!

And this one is self explanatory, i mean why wouldn't you smile when you look at this picture. This was taken 2 sundays ago when caedmon was 6 weeks old. we were out at berry watching russ play flag football, apparently she was having fun, and lookin' pretty dang cute at the same time.




And this last one here is the pumpkin i carved last year, and i was so proud of it!
I carved "Trick" on the backside of the pumpkin, but i had to do it backwards so that it would reflect on the wall. pretty neat huh?
It made me smile because I know that we will be carving pumpkins again so soon!
I have to come up with an even better design this year!
Any suggestions?



and, i think i am going to bed now...
seeing that it IS 4:00 in the morning,
oh the joy of having a newborn baby... and insomnia.
hopefully caedmon will sleep late in the morning... :)

things i love: week seven

we will have mailed out all of Caedmon's birth annoucements as of tomorrow morning!
(they are super cute! well, at least I think so...)
so if you don't get one by this weekend, i sincerely apologize, but it is only because we didn't have your mailing address! so if you'll send it to me (dixib33@gmail.com) I would love to mail you one, plus then i will have your address to send future things like christmas cards and birthday invitations!

things I love: week seven

#1
feeling how warm you are when you are laying next to me in the bed, especially as the nights are getting cooler! we just lay close and keep each other warm!

#2
your classic double chin and all the new fat rolls all over your body... and I know that you may not think it's cute later, but it is right now! there is one thing i don't love about this though and it is how things get stuck in those little rolls of yours... like lint & grass & dirt... gross. haha

#3
the fact that you have completely transformed our little "family" into a real family where just last friday when russ got home from work I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and you were napping in your swing and I saw russ out of the kitchen window cutting the grass... and it just felt like I was watching a movie...

#4
that the "littleness" (I just made that word up...) of you never wears off to strangers. they always tell me how cute and little you are, but I get to see how much you've grown in these past seven weeks so to me you seem so big!

#5
how "normal" it is to have you with me all the time! I am so glad that I never have to leave you with someone else! your daddy is so wonderful to work so hard for us, so I don't have to leave you every day!

#6
how you hang your left leg over the side of your bath seat like you are just lounging out... (that is if you aren't screaming your head off in the bath!)

#7
thinking about how my diet and exercise affects you. it makes me want to drink more water, eat healthier more often than I do, or just get outside and go for a walk. I used to do these things for myself, but now I do them for you, so I can feed you better and take care of you better.

things we love, birthdays, and grins (and lots of pictures!)

truth be told, i should be in bed sleeping since it is the middle of the night and Caedmon has been fast asleep in her crib for several hours, but here I am instead on the computer, cause i can't fall asleep. it is crazy how everyone tells you to sleep when they are sleeping, yet it is so hard to do that sometimes... oh well. let's blog.

Here we are again, pretty late with my "things i love" post for week 6, and it is almost time to post week 7... but that's okay because this isn't like a homework assignment where my teacher would give me an 'F' for turning it in late. good thing, or i would get a lot of 'F's (well i actually did get one of those one time in college... but that is another story, for another day... or never...)

so here it is: thing i love: week six

#1
giving you kisses on your bare skin. it could be on your toes,
your cheek, your belly, your back, your lips, your forehead, or anywhere.
(but only me and daddy can do that... so don't be getting any ideas...)

#2
holding other peoples children and knowing that no matter
how great they are they will never be as great as you!

#3
walking around stores with you in the shopping cart.
for some reason I just love that so much,
like it just makes something so regular & mundane
like grocery shopping or a quick trip to walmart, so great and fun.
cause I can just look at you the whole time!

#4
that I sweat profusely when you really really cry.
this is also something I hate,
but I love it for the fact that it means my body
was made to be your mom, and it does things
beyond my control only because of you.

#5
that one of your regular faces is you
with your lips pursed in a tight "o" shape.
it is absolutely adorable.

#6
taking lots and lots of pictures of you!

#7
knowing that you look just like your dad.
y'all are the people I love the most on this earth
and I love that y'all have so many similar features.


Some other news, we FINALLY got our birth announcements delivered to us, and almost mailed! I only mailed the first half cause i didn't have enough stamps... but the rest will be going out by the end of this week!
I say that we FINALLY got them, because I ordered them on Sept 9th, and then there was a routing problem by UPS, then when they finally delivered it late, there was an EMPTY box on my doorstep, i kid you not. Then i had to make three different phone calls to the printer, and they FINALLY had them reprinted and they upgraded my shipping to Next Day Air and I received them on Oct 1st! That is a ridiculously long time to wait for an order. It wasn't the printers fault, but they tried to reconcile things with the upgraded shipping and I only ordered 100 announcements, but I am pretty sure they mailed me about 250 of them... not sure what I will do with THAT many birth announcements, but i definitely won't be mailing all of those out, cause I can't afford the postage!

And just keep on reading for lots of our latest updates (with lots of pictures):

Caedmon had another doctor's appointment on Sept. 28th with Dr. Donner, her heart doctor, and she had to have another echocardiogram, but this time I got to be in there with her and see what exactly they do. It is basically just like a pregnancy ultrasound with the handheld thing and the goo. Except they put it on her chest, and it takes a long time because it is hard for them to see what they want to see with a 6 week old squirming around... but she did really good considering it took forever, but i got to lay on the bed with her, and talk to her and sing to her, so she would be relatively still. Anyways, after that, she had another EKG where they stick a million things on her chest and hook wires up to them, and she did really good laying still for that. We finally saw Dr. Donner after all her tests and he said that everything looks the same, she still has the hole in her heart (VSD) but since she still has no symptoms (difficulty eating or breathing), he doesn't want to see her again until she is one, unless she has any unforeseen problems, which we are hoping won't happen. They measured and weighed her while we were there and she now weighs a whopping 10 lbs 14 oz, and she is 21 1/4 inches long! Man, i knew my arms have been pretty sore lately with toting her around everywhere! She's so BIG!


And our latest (Caedmon's first!) family holiday was Russ turning 26 on Sept. 30th! Unfortunately he had to work all day teaching and then work at Chick-Fil-A that night, but Caedmon and I had a couple of surprises for him before he left for work and when he got home at the end of the day.

When he woke up he found this "pile" of stuff set up in the kitchen:


Underneath this little pile is a framed picture of her being held in his hand.
(he had asked me for a big framed picture of her for his classroom,
but he decided we should hang it up here at the house cause he liked it so much.)


and the point of the "pile" was a big creative explanation for the rest of his birthday present that will be coming in the mail soon.
(you'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read the little teeny tiny lines in between...)


These are her footprints that i stamped on a piece of cardstock.


Then i scanned them on the computer and designed this t-shirt with her two footprints, minus the toes :) forming a heart, and put them on a t-shirt!


We can't wait to see it in real life!

Then when Russ got home late that evening, we had these birthday cake/cookies waiting for him! (I made the frosting from scratch! gosh, that makes me feel so motherly & domestic!)



It was hopefully going to inspire the Braves to get their act together and try to make it to the playoffs... but it didn't really help after all... at least they were fun to play with :)


We even let Caedmon eat one. Okay, maybe not, but it wasn't fair for us to eat them without her, so we pretended...


Happy 26h birthday to our husband/daddy!



And here are a few exciting moments about how she is growing and changing every single day!

#1 EYELASHES! They are growing much longer and thicker, and i am still holding out that she will develop long luxurious lashes like her daddy... and her eyes are definitely very very blue!


#2 COOS & GURGLES! She is definitely more vocal now, it is mostly when she is just waking up from a nap, or after she is finished eating, they are like her own little sounds of contentment! It is so cute! Russ's grandmother, Mer, bought her a little "Sleep Sheep" that is this little stuffed sheep with a sound machine inside it, and there are four settings, heart, rain, ocean, and whale. Well we listen to the whale setting a lot while Caedmon is awake and it sounds like ocean water in the background but with a whale sound every few seconds. Anyways Caedmon loves to watch this sheep and listens to the whales, and then "talks" back to them with her own little cooing sounds! One day when she is doing it more than once or twice every five minutes or so I will take a video and write a post on how our daughter can speak "whale." :)


#3 BIG GIRL BATHS! Since I told you her umbilical cord came off last friday we have been bathing her in the tub, and some days she loves it and some days she hates it!
Clearly she hated it this day...


#4 LONGER/THICKER/CURLIER HAIR! I really have no idea how much it has actually changed, but it definitely looks like more to me! This is what her hair looks like after we take her hooded towel off after her bath!


And for the grand finale, I mentioned in my last post that Caedmon has been
SMILING!
Every single day she smiles more and better!
And here is my sweet little girl cheesin' it up for the camera.
I really think seeing her smile is almost as good as seeing her for the very first time,
it completely melts my heart. Enjoy these absolutely incredible little grins.




OH MY GOSH, don't you just love them? They make me smile so much!

Be sure to stay tuned for week seven of the things i love (but don't be surprised if it is closer to week eight before i post them! haha)

And can i just say in conclusion that I am so glad it is fall. summer was great, but i missed most of it cause i was too pregnant and it was too hot... but now I just can't wait to be outside and let Caedmon experience my favorite season of the year!