My busy weekend

The weekend has flown by! Friday night Chad and I went on a date to Market Place to enjoy some nice dinner! We then went to Sam's and bought some things for the rest of the week! I love Sam's, we always have fun in there!!! Plus, we priced diapers and all that good ole' stuff!

Saturday I had a baby shower to go to for my friend Mandy so Chad went and played golf. Her shower was adorable and there were so many sweet girls there. I have known Mandy for about 8 years now, and Mr. Cayden is due Sept 10th! After the baby shower Chad wanted to give me some time to myself so I left for an hour, got a Sonic drink, (happy hour baby), and ran around a bit. Then we went over to our friends Chad and Melissa's. They grilled jalapeno stuffed chicken with some amazing goodies to go with. I must say that the highlight of my evening was the brownies with icing! Melissa made the especially for me because I had never had them with icing before! We were BAD!!! I did bring a fruit dish, but that kind of out weighed the other sweet treat! It was GOOD! I didn't eat lunch so I could save up for this lovely meal!! Yummy....After dinner we played cards, Phase 10! We love that game and all had a blast playing and giggling while sharing stories! Chad ended up winning... Melissa's Chad. Dang him! I did horrible!

Melissa and I have become close over the past few months. She has been there for me through the end stages of my pregnancy with Avery and throughout the first few weeks. We really appreciate them and have loved getting to know them! I am so glad that Chad and I have found a fun couple to hang with and share our time with. We all have SO much in common!

So after being at their house and seeing a glaze they had on their walls, Chad and I decided to do our own! We have been wanting to paint our bathroom and bedroom but weren't sure what we wanted to go with because we are wanting to do a whole to new makeover on our room soon. We love the colors in our bathroom, but the paint is starting to look dirty. So we are in the process now of getting this rubbed glazed all over the walls, I must say- it looks fantastic!!! At first I was nervous because you are just using a WMT sack and dipping it into the paint and rubbing it all over the wall. But it's looking better the more that is completed!

Im starting to get a little sad thinking that my baby is 6 weeks old this week! I am officially over the postpartum stage as of next week so I have no excuse for not being able to do anything. I go see the doctor this week and he will let me know if I can continue on with normal activity, which includes working out everyday, walking at least once a day, and eating right! I have 20 lbs to lose to get to my goal weight! I do plan to allow until Christmas to get to that weight because if I try to do it too soon, it won't fall off. It takes time! Took 9 months to pile on, it will take every bit of that to get back down, and more! I just want to be healthy and that takes some life style changes of eating better for my baby, walking often, and adding a lot of activity back into my life. The hardest part is my hips have changed. So hopefully we can shave off a few inches of that area.

Avery is fantastic! She's the cutest thing... wiggling like a worm! She has those arms and legs just a movin'! We just love looking at her, laying her in her boppy, and spending mornings with her giggling. She will just lay there and look around. I can barely carry her over my shoulder to another room because that head is turning trying to look around at everything! She is so alert! We go in 2 weeks for our 2 month shots! ;( I will cry like a baby!!!!

Enjoy some fun cute pics of our enjoyable weekend!

Our amazing meal at Melissa's:













Us girls:



















Melissa cooking:



















Chad & Avey:



















Sweet Daddy:



















Me and my angel:



















So precious:

























































Daddy and sissy asleep:

Big Brother- Reality TV!!!

First, I want to thank all my fellow bloggers for the wonderful advice about breastfeeding. I am currently trying several solutions and hope we can figure out the cause of all this gassiness. Poor girl!! I tried giving her a couple more drops of the gas drops along with a warm swaddle before her bedtime and she slept like... well, a baby! I rubbed her tummy last night and cycled her legs a bit, so hopefully this could be the ticket!!! Still no poo, but less fuss and gass pains...

So I am a huge reality TV gal. I love watching all the drama that unfolds and it just so happens that Big Brother has become one of my fav's. I love how they are confined to a house and all sit in there and work each other up. The drama is unbelievable and I just eat it up! This seasons first episode was last night so me and Chad went over to his parents house and they cooked up a good meal for the season start of the show! We had brisket, ribs, baked potatoes, beans, you name it... we had it! It was amazing! Chad's parents love the show so we just had a blast. Plus, they got to see their little grandbaby and just held her all night. I'm so lucky to LOVE my in-laws... they are so good to us!!!!

The weekend looks to be great! I have a baby shower for a friend of mine Saturday, and then Saturday night Chad and I are hanging with our good friends Chad and Melissa! We are excited and plan to grill out!

On our way:


















Papa Linam with his girl:

My baby is 5 weeks old & is GASSY!

Today Avery is 5 weeks old, time flies WAY too fast. She has grown up before my eyes. Literally. She has already changed tremendously in 5 short weeks! Her eyelashes are growing longer by the second, her hair is slowly turning to light brown, her thumb is making its way into her mouth, her cries are very distinguished, she loves her tummy, she smiles at times (check out the pic below), and she is super long! I think she will be tall like her daddy!

I love blogging to get advice... so here it is! Avery is SUPER gassy. I breastfeed and supplement a little formula at night only. She sleeps WAY better that way. But, I think since we started formula per the doctors request because of her weight, her tummy got all out of wack! She doesn't go poo poo but every 3/4 days and that is normally if I make her. I know that time frame is normal however her tummy is constantly rumbling and hurting her! We have tried gripe water, gas drops, apple juice.... and it seems that nothing is really making it better. I am trying so hard to build up my milk supply so I don't need to do formula at night. I just think she isn't getting enough simply from me to sustain her throughout the night because on breastmilk she wakes every hour it seems like verses the formula, she sleeps 4 hours at a time!!! It's a lifesaver! So... any advice for gassy babies besides what I have tried? Any solutions are appreciated!!!

Enjoy our 5 week old pics!

Blog Hop: Favorite Picture

Well I must say, I do enjoy life so much that I can't just post one favorite photo. Here are a few of my favorite moments in life over the past few years:

I love Christmas time:
















Me and Chad on our favorite beach in Destin:














Some of my girlfriends all dressed up for a fun night:



















I absolutely LOVED being pregnant:













My best friends wedding was SUCH a special memory:














A group I use to work with, I had an awesome job in Marketing:














RAZORBACK FOOTBALL:















The cute car in Destin:


















My Dad took this picture in New York:














The light of my life, Avery born 6/3/09:











My Wedding Day 5/13/05,favorite pic:

Me & Dad's feet in the sand

Our pool in Hawaii overlooking the ocean, PURE BLISS:

***Replace this line with your content. This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. Post up one of your favorite photographs and a caption that tells the audience about it. Here is a sample: http://mcklinky.blogspot.com/2009/07/mcklinky-photo-blog-on-tuesday-sample.html Do not change any part of this snippet of code except for this paragraph only.... replace the text that falls between (and includes) the opening and closing asterisks. Be sure to enter your own link to your own blog hop post as soon as the blog hop starts!***

4th of July party at the lake

Friday we had a huge 4th of July celebration at my parents house on the lake. There were around 30 of us and oh my goodness ya'll, some GOOD food! Everyone came around 6:00 and the house was decked out in 4th of July decor from little chalk boards from Pottery Barn that had words written on them like freedom, sacrifice.... to mason jars filled with blue sand and candles with red ribbon that lined the areas out to the lake. Mom and Dad had flags lining their boat dock and flags from the house with all kinds of red, white, and blue lights hanging everywhere outside. It was nice to have the real feel of Independence Day all around!

The boys had the cooker out early Friday morning and cooked pork all day. It was AMAZING!!!!! You can see pictures of the meat below, wow! We had so many appetizers and then had a huge meal, and of course lots of desert. I have a great recipe to share with everyone in a later post for some apple dip that my friend Amber introduced to us. It's so good, and you will hate me for it because it's so good, it's bad! HA! Bad in calories that is!

So anyway the boys smoked pork all day and I felt like we were at a tailgating party in my parents front yard. I went and picked up a huge cake and then helped mom get everything ready all day with my sister in law Tiff and her mom. When all the kids got there they immediately started shooting fireworks! Dad went and bought tons of them, and they brought a lot too. It was a party, let me tell ya! We screamed and talked so much my throat hurts!
So my grandmother is in town so we call her "Great Mimi Marge"... she just adores Avery. We hung out with her Thursday night and she just ate her great grandaughter up! Gram is so sweet, we just love her! She is where I get all my glitz and glamour from! I love shiny, sparkly, and pink! That would be gram! What is so awesome about her is that she is still so in style, for a gma. I just love it and hope I can maintain that when I am her age. She's a little diva spit fire!

So today's the 4th and we are going to hang with some friends tonight and have pizza and fireworks. Chad and I are spending the day with Avery taking a drive and enjoying some lunch and time together. I am exhausted from yesterday but Chad was so good to help with Avery last night so I could sleep a little. He is such a good man. I love him so much! Hope everyone has a fantastic 4th, enjoy the fun pics from our 4th of July party!!!

AVERY ELIZABETH... 1 month old

Avery turned 1 month old today. Wow, how time flies! It's so sad, but at the same time sweet because she is starting to show her true colors already. I have already distinguished her sweet cries from gassy, to need changed, to just hungry! She has this adorable cry where she will say, "GARRRRR"... and it's the sweetest noise to my ears.. and this one is, "I want my passy and I want it now Momma"!!!

The first 2 weeks were so hard. I am not going to lie! As I said in my previous post, it's a total adjustment. Almost like someone losing a ton of weight and trying to figure out who they are in this different body... that is a great way to describe how I felt the first 2 weeks; in a different body, and a different person. Several of my friends are pregnant and have asked me how I have adjusted, what to look for in signs of depression, etc... and honestly I can just say if there is anything that doesn't seem like "you"... look into it a little further. As the first 2 weeks were something different for me because I woke up with a baby after 4 years of being alone with my hubby and 27 years of my life with just me, it is still amazing and like anything else new in your life it's going to take time to adjust to that change. I new I was going to be okay at the 3 week mark when I felt like being out like I always did, wanted to get ready and take a shower, and of course could get myself out of bed and pick up, even if it was just a little. I am still not ready to be miss suzy homemaker and start cooking meals everyday, but I am feeling my upbeat self and loving life tons! Trust me, I have had my broken down days where I just cry on and off... but I think it's more tears of joy. Some days I just still can't believe that she is finally here, and some days I just have a hard time knowing I can't jump into the car and go. I have to worry 100% about her safety and her well being and if she is fed, changed, and comfy!

I still have 2 weeks until I am able to do more so until then I am pondering making mental lists of what I want my weeks to look like following. Being a stay at home mom is a full time job and I want to make sure my days are full of tasks. I will have those occasional nap days and relaxing days, but for the most part I want to take full responsibility of the household in doing gardening, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, etc... So I am trying to plan the best day for a WMT shopping day. If anyone has any suggestions on the most quiet day to go, let me know. Apparently that day isn't Wednesday because I went today and it was nutso city! Peeps were everywhere and mean too! I covered Avery up and had it set in my mind that if anyone touched the cart I was going to have a panic attack, ha! I hand sanitized EVERYTHING when I walked in and I noticed people at the McDonalds staring at me thinking, "She is a new mom"... but I didn't care one bit. You can tell I am a new mom because I have this adorable little crown diaper bag and it's packed full as if we were going on a huge weekend trip! I took my little list and off I went, $100.00 later walking to my car having a horrible hormonal sweat breakdown! UGG... for all you ladies that are about to have a baby, get ready- the hot flashes get worse! Also, I suggest parking near the cart holder because I stood there for 5 mintues trying to figure out what to do... do I put her in the car and start it so she doesn't get hot? But then I can't leave her because you just don't do that!! Do you leave her in the cart while you put the bags in the car then take the cart with her in it and carry her back? Lordy! It was hectic so just park NEAR a cart stand!!!

Avery found her finger yesterday and sucks on it all the time! She is just the cutest baby and absolutely wonderful. She sleeps 5 hours through the night at a time and I only get up once right smack in the middle of the morning hour when nothing is on TV! We are truly looking forward to the fun that is ahead of us in raising this beautiful girl. I have to say, I am a little attached.... Hope you enjoy the pics- I added a sneak peek of the tutu I made her for the 4th of July.. I have a full outfit ready for her including a bow that mimi made for her!