ChattaNEWga (lots of pics)

Yesterday was our family "vacation" for the summer. We just took a day trip down to Chattanooga to see my little sister and the aquarium. We had an absolute BLAST! It was one of the funnest things I think we've done since Taylor was born. It wouldn't have been nearly as great if Taylor hadn't enjoyed it as much as she did. Michael and his fiance Leeann also went down with us, which was cool. It was fun to hang out with them.

We started the day going to the aquarium which is in two buildings. The took the ocean journey one first. Me and chris touched some sting rays, and he touched a shark (a little one.) Then we saw some cool butterflies. Then came my absolute favorite part of the Aquarium... THE PENGUINS! I honestly was so excited to see them I almost started to tear up (thank you hormones.) That was the first time I've ever seen penguins in real life and I LOVE penguins. The best part of the penguins, though, was the fact that Taylor got just as excited as I did, if not more-so. She could have stood there for HOURS watching them. She was laughing and talking to them. They would come right up to the glass and just stare at you and she loved it! The rest of the aquarium was pretty cool too. And, of course, you HAVE to walk through the gift shop to leave, so we went and got taylor a couple things. She immediately walked up to the stuffed penguins and picked out the one we would be getting for her! We also got her a real cute baseball cap with a penguin on it.

Then we took the River Journey part of the aquarium. It was pretty cool too. Taylor loved walking up to the glass and watching the fish. She would squat down and start talking to all of them and pointing, turning and looking at me and chris to make sure we could see it too. It was funny. Me and Chris touched some sturgins this time... I have no idea if that's how you spell it. This part of the aquarium had alot of turtles and such. I think chris liked them alot. He used to love turtles. We did see an alligator snapping turtle and chris told us about catching them in the pond behind his house when he was younger and all the things they did to them. It was kinda crazy. They looked MEAN. Taylor enjoyed this part of the trip too, but I think she was getting a little tired (she'd only slept for the last 20 minutes of the trip in the car and that was it for a nap... and it was after one at this point.)

When we left the aquarium we went to the Creative Discovery Museum. It was so cool... but we only stayed for like 30 minutes or so, because we were meeting Cayce and Joey to eat some lunch. Taylor had a blast there too. We're definately going to go back one day and spend most of the day there. There's TOO much to do. It's the coolest interactive kid museum I've ever seen. But we had to leave to get some lunch so we had pizza at the Mellow Mushroom. Then we went on to see the IMAX 3-d movie that goes along with the aquarium. It was Dolphins and Whales. It was kinda boring. And Taylor didn't behave well in there. Chris watched about 10 minutes of the movie and then was out in the hall the whole time with Taylor. She was just too tired/restless to sit there through that.

I wasn't quite ready to leave after all this and so we went and let Taylor play in some fountains they have set up for kids to play in. We stripped her down to nothing but her diaper and let her go! It was fun to watch. She LOVES water and had a BLAST once she started splashing. And she splashed and splashed and splashed. If it wasn't getting windy, we would have let her play longer cause she was having so much fun. But it was cooling off outside, so we got her cleaned up and then went over to cayce's home.

We hung out there all night and relaxed, we grilled burgers and just had fun. It was great to be able to spend time with Cayce and Joey and Michael and Leeann. They're fun people! I don't think we got home til after midnight, but it's okay, cause Chris is still in bed asleep and it's 10:30.

Overall, this was one of the funnest vacations I've ever been on. I think the good majority of it was so awesome because we got to watch how excited Taylor got and how much fun she had.

Well, Here's the pictures. Enjoy!

Michael passed out on the way down
So did taylor
He looks a little evil in the picture, but there he was so cute!


Surfs UP!

A real shark cage!


Talking to the fish

Taylor and daddy looking up at the fishes!

Sea Otter! Taylor called them Puppies!

alligator snapping turtle
Discovery Museum
Taylor actually hit that little boy when he got in there with her.
Nurse Taylor

Michael and Leeann
Our family :)
Cayce and Joey
WATER TIME!
Penguin Parking Meter!!!

Her diaper hung lower than her knees!!!

She had no nap at all yesterday besides 20 minutes in the car before we got there... so when we got to cayce's place, Taylor CRASHED!

What should my belly be?

I'm painting my belly! I'm excited to do this... but I can't, for the life of me, decide what to paint it. So I'm here to ask for your input!

Below are some pictures with a few different options. These are not the only options for me. I could do any of these, or a basketball, watermelon, baseball, beach ball, any other round thing you can think of!

So, I'm going to post this, and a poll on the side. You can either leave a comment, or vote on the poll and let me know what you think. (The poll will close Sunday night at 11:59 pm! So vote soon!)

What do you want on my belly????Just a side note, My favorites are the fish bowl and the globe... I don't know why. But I think they're funny. Choose Wisely!!! :)

Oh My Goodness!

Taylor's 15 months old (tomorrow). She had her 15 month Dr. Appt today... She's growing, growing, growing! She's moving up the curves. She's over 22 lbs now (43%) and 29 inches tall (11%). So she's actually growing faster right now than she was at her last visit. She was only in the 7th percentile for height then, and like 20 something for weight. Her head is still HUGE compared to the rest of her! I don't think it's too noticable though.

She did have to get 3 shots :( It was so sad. I'm hormonal, and almost started crying when she did. It was hard to hold back. But afterwards we went to the store and bought her a new "baby" to make it all better. She thought her bandaids were kinda cool. That's a first. They always freaked her out before.

She's passed out in bed right now... it wore her out pretty bad. I'm sure she'll be alseep all afternoon. Hopefully she won't feel bad when she wakes up though.

She does have to go back at 18 months for another check-up, and if her blocked tear duct (she's had it since 2 months old) still hasn't cleared up, then they'll recommend a good eye doc to take her too. Also, Madison will be going in for her 2 month visit at the same time as Taylor's 18 month. That's just insane to me.

Well, I think it's my nap time too. I woke up with the sore throat and runny nose chris and taylor have had all week. Maybe I can sleep it off! Hope y'all have great weekends!

OB Update

One month left! Dang my arm got tan this summer!

I went to my OB appt today. It went well, with some weight gain and all! This is the last one I can keep my pants on at! That's actually what my OB told me :) This means dilating time! Though I'm sure there will be none (there wasn't with Taylor), it is still a sign that the end is near! Only 3 more appts til my little Madison will be here. Gosh... All the things that are left to do are getting slightly overwhelming.

And I had my first actual realization that I am going to have TWO kids... I'm going to be at home, alone, with 2 kids. What will I do? I'm so lucky to have such good examples around me! Hopefully I'll be able to manage it. I'm just not going to think about it til I get there though. I'm sure I'll manage it all somehow. If I was going to have a one year old, I think it'd be a bit easier on me... but the age difference will be so much. But at the same time, Not enough. Does that make sense?

Regardless, I got nervous for just a second. But oh well. Women have done this for thousands of years. I can handle it. Hopefully.

Taylor "Teefers"

or in other words... Taylor's Teeth! (It drives chris nuts that I call them her teefers... but I don't care... that's what I call them.)


So, some of you may know that Taylor did not get ANY teeth in until she was 13 1/2 months old... pretty late compared to most kids. I worried a bit that she'd forever be a toothless hillbilly, but they finally did come in. We actually noticed the first one had broken through on July 4th! She now has two teeth on the bottom, and I think 2 or 3 coming in at the moment.


Since she now has teeth, we decided to go shopping yesterday and buy Taylor her first toothbrush and toothpaste. She's big into Elmo right now, so we found a real cute Sesame Street toothbrush with him on it. She held it the entire time we were at the store. We also got some great toddler toothpaste (flouride free so she can swallow all she wants!)


Last night before bed, we brushed her teeth (though she did have her sippy cup of milk afterwards... atleast we're getting a habit started.) First, I made sure to get her 2 little "teefers" clean and then let her have fun with her toothbrush. So tonight, we brushed them again. I figured this is pretty monumental so I got out the camera.


That's when I realized, we have never taken any picture of her teeth! So after a few shots with her toothbrush... I tried getting some of her teeth! No luck. So then, I asked chris for his help. I think the pictures explain themselves!

We finally gave up after this last one... You can kinda see one of her teeth in the one before it, but chris's finger is in the way a bit. Oh well. So much for the cute little picture i had in mind of her smiling and those cute "teefers" showing. I guess it'll have to wait til she can say "cheese".

Taylor's Striptease & Feeding her Baby

Yesterday me and my mom were in the kitchen, talking and cooking lunch... I had set up the baby gate and put some chairs in another doorway so that Taylor was stuck in there with us. She was just walking around, playing with some tupperware and stuff... then all of the sudden, she grabbed the front of her diaper and just ripped it right off. Me and mom started cracking up laughing and I had to get pictures!

She was trying to put it back on!!!

Then last night, taylor was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I thought we could put her baby to bed first, then maybe she'd be more willing to go. She gave her baby her sippy cup and then it was off to bed.

I thought it was so cute to see her holding the baby and sharing her sippy cup :) She's having so much fun playing with this baby doll, it's making me more hopeful that she'll really get into being a Big Sister once maddie is here.

Cravings

Here's my weirdest craving I've had with either pregnancy. Last night I ate sliced onions (raw) dipped in ketchup! Oh my goodness... it was SO good. Chris said he thinks it only tasted so good because I'm pregnant, but there's no way... it was delicious. I may even eat some more today. Yum Yum Yum!

C-Section Vs. Nature

I have known since before I was even pregnant with our little Maddie that she would be born by C-Section. Taylor was a c-section (not necessarily emergency, but not planned either) and though my doctor is not one of those "Once a section, always a section" I knew that I would never be able to deliver vaginally... I'm an "Always a section" kind of girl. I didn't really KNOW this until I was toying with the idea of maybe being induced a little early to see if I could deliver a smaller baby... Chris told me before he came into the room with Taylor's C-section, my ob pulled him aside and told him to really pay attention, because it was physically impossible for me to deliver a baby and so all our kids would be c-section. She didn't put it quite that way to me and so I was still hoping a tiny bit.

There are lots of pros to all this. For example, chris has had the time scheduled off from work for quite a while now. We don't have the worry of waiting around for labor to come. We already know what our daughter's birthday will be. I won't have any pain (before she's born.) There are a few cons for me too though. A c-section is alot harder to recover from. There's like 4 times greater chance of death in a c-section than otherwise. The scar tissue from my previous c-section could cause problems. There's not quite the thrill of anticipation. There's lots of pain afterwards. But all in all... This is what's best for me and my baby.

It was very hard to come to grips with. You can ask my mom and chris's mom. I kinda figured I'd have one with Taylor, but when I was finally told that she would be a c-section, I broke down. I knew I would never have the feel of pushing, of delivering a baby. I felt like my body was defective... It wouldn't be able to do the ONE thing it was created for. Then there were the little things my mom told me that helped! Taylor's head would be beautiful and round... not cone shaped. :) Funny, but true! Atleast I could carry the baby full term, even if they wouldn't come out on their own in the end. I finally calmed down and realized this was the way it was suppose to be.

Lately, I've been questioning whether or not this is the only option for me now. I think it's mainly due to the fact that I watch all these baby TV shows during the day. Every time a woman is able to deliver her baby, I feel a bit of Jealousy. A part of me hopes more and more that something happens that allows me to deliver this baby. I had one woman (actually smaller than me) who told me she took lots of classes and did all these different things to be able to deliver her 2nd child (her first was a c-section also.) She told me not to say that I'm an "always a section" kind of girl. That just made my hoping worse. I insisted to her that it really is physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to deliver a baby. But she made me wonder...

I guess I just didn't think I'd be having a hard time with this, since I've known it from the beginning. All that truly matters is that my baby, and myself, come out of this okay and are healthy. But a part of me can't help but feel jipped a little. I really would love to be able to deliver this little girl myself, to have my body do what it was created for. But either way, c-section or not, my dear beautiful daughter will come into this world and hopefully will be the healthy, happy little girl I keep dreaming about. I just have to keep telling myself this is the way it was meant to be... and maybe turn the TV off more often!

Breakfast in Bed

My husband is wonderful. I just have to brag for a minute. Last night, he got up with taylor both times she woke up in the middle of the night (I don't know why she woke up, but she was FREAKING OUT!) Then this morning, when she woke up, he got up with her again. They sat in bed and watched TV while I slept... When she tried to crawl on me and wake me up, he pulled her back and told her to let me sleep. Then, when she wouldn't quit trying to wake me up, he took her downstairs, made her breakfast, made my entire family breakfast, made me cinnamon rolls, and then brought a plate of two cinnamon rolls and a cup of OJ up to me in bed. I was still asleep when he did this (it was like 10!!! I haven't slept in that late in a LONG TIME!) but I gladly woke up and ate my DELICIOUS breakfast. Then I went downstairs where he was still cooking pancakes for everyone and cleaning and such. Taylor had already eaten and been cleaned off! It was great. Then he said today was my day to relax, but I tried to protest. So he reminded me my OB had said I needed to quit doing so much. "You're going to end up hurting the baby and yourself." Okay... I gave in. We came back upstairs and by that time it was time for Taylor's nap... so we laid her down and then laid down ourselves. We watched some olympics and the Titans Game from last night. We both fell asleep at like 11 or so, and slept til 2 when taylor finally woke up from her nap... It's been a great day so far and I can't wait for the rest of it. Chris promised me some Yahtzee!!! We used to play all the time when we were first married. I can't wait.

Yup, I'm married to a great guy. He's the best. He's wonderful! I love days like today!

Keaven's Karriers

Devrie and I made this baby carrier yesterday for Madison. I LOVE the fabric (Hobby Lobby) and can't wait to use it.

Below is the fabric I used for the outside

Below is the inside fabric Here is taylor's baby in the sling!
Here's the buckle in the back!
I'm so excited to use this and I hope I get tons of good use out of it.

Mommy's Makeup

Taylor has a BIG fascination with my makeup and hair stuff. And of course, it's all in the bottom two drawers in the bathroom so it's within perfect reach for her. I don't mind too bad (except when she gets ahold of my eyeliner!) She LOVES to use the brushes I use. I adore how girly she can be sometimes.

She's got her daddy's bottom lip!

Soooo Priddy!

She's making sure i'm watching!She loves to use my headbands too... but won't keep them on for too long. I think this one is So Stinkin Cute!Using Mommy's brush!

Her hair has been such a mess lately. It's way too long in the front now and is always in her eyes, but I don't have the heart to trim it. I want her first hair cut to be a BIG one! It'll probably be a while before that happens... I usually have that crazy hair (courtesy of dad!) pulled back, but she woke up this way.

Thanks for all the comments too folks. Glad ya'll enjoy the pics.

New background and pics

I finally figured out how to add a cute background to my blog. It only took me forever! I also realized I haven't added pictures of Taylor in a long time, which is one of my favorite things about other people's blogs... so here they are.

So I wanted to get a picture of her favorite blankie! This is the one we actually used at the hospital and on her way home from the hospital. My old boss Lori and her daughter Elizabeth brought it to us at the hospital when Taylor was born. I love the fact that it's her favorite.
Here's where I start to feel stupid. I tried to put her on the ground to take a picture with it (I need some for her scrapbook.) She's got her winnie the pooh slippers on (getting ready for our pajama party at devrie's) and she fell down :( This is her still crying after I had already held her for like 10 minutes! She knows how to milk it!

Now she's totally indifferent to me or anything else in this world, because the Mickey Mouse Club is on TV. We always watch an episode or two before breakfast... It's how I get my extra zzz's.
Here is her "Taylor"tude. She's mad at me for making her fall down. Or maybe it's for interupting Mickey Mouse. Oh well... I needed pics of her blankie!

Warning: This could get long

It's been a while since I last blogged, well, a while for me. I haven't much felt like myself and I'm just waiting for this baby-ectomy to happen 6 weeks from TOMORROW. Here's what's been going on in the meantime!

EMMA SMITH: MY STORY - Last week I went to see this movie with two of my sister-in-laws... I loved it. It got me pumped and ready for this next month in our book club (we're focusing on Emma for the month, any book or article or whatever, just has to be about her.) I can't wait to find a great book about her and learn more. So excited.

WORST DAY EVER - Last thursday was honestly one of the WORST, most STRESSFUL days of my life. Me and Taylor left at 7:00 in the morning to go to Nashville for alot of errands we had. One of those was taking my car through emissions. After sitting there in line for 1 1/2 hours, my car failed. My gas cap needed replacing. Have you ever just SAT in a car for 1 1/2 hours with a 14 months old? Not fun. Not the smartest Idea I've ever had. It sucked. She cried. I yelled. And we'd have to go back through, after I bought a new gas cap. Then off to the OB. That's next on my little list here. Anyways... after my ob appt (still in a rough mood) we have to go to some car part store. These are not places for women, especially with a kid, especially pregnant with a kid. I walked ALL over the store... 3 times, looking for a gas cap. Chris said to take mine in with me... but it had been attached to the gas door thing, so I had to RIP it off! And I'm looking and looking. I started to walk up to 3 different guys to ask where they were... all of them walked off when they saw me coming. (Grrrr) I finally go to the back to ask a guy where they are... Guess they're in the back of the store where people can't go... he ran off to get the right one. Didn't need my old one... guess i needed to rip it off anyways though. So krispy kreme is right up the road and I needed a doughnut, so we go get them... I thought this would cheer taylor up. NOPE. She threw hers on the floor! So we go to krogers... I bought a new sippy cup and some sprite hoping this would get my dear daughter to quit crying, which she'd been doing since like 8 that morning. NOPE. She threw the sippy cup at me. More crying from her. More yelling from me. I flipped out. No way was I going back through emissions with Taylor crying like that. No way was I going to be able to make it back home (45 minutes away.) So we went to my mother-in-laws. I cried, Taylor Cried... but we calmed down after a while. I called chris also and told him I couldn't do the whole tags thing that day. Too much for me. He'd have to do it all. Anyways. After we had both calmed down, we left again. I decided I could probably make it through emisssions this time (Taylor was asleep in the car.) So I sat for another hour or so... Then, when the lady had gotten done with the test on my car... her computer crashed. Right before it was going to print out my little sheet thing. WONDERFUL. So her manager came over and they had to reboot it. I swear I waited 30 minutes this time. Sure the people behind me were upset, but it wasn't my fault. They had to go back through and retest everything on my car. This time, I got my print out though and left, before anything else could go wrong. We came home and I went to bed. Chris was great that night though and took taylor and let me relax. He also took my car the next day to the county clerk to get my new tags. So that was the worst day ever. Seriously.

OB APPT - My appt didn't go quite like I thought it would. My dr. is great, the nurses are great, but i was in a foul mood already. We had to make one more payment on our baby, after I thought we were already through. Then, I had lost weight. Are you kidding me? I've already been terrified that this baby isn't growing right because I hadn't been GAINING enough and now I'm LOSING what I've Gained? With the way my day was going, I broke down. My dr assured me she wasn't worried about the baby, but how can this NOT affect my little baby? I have no idea. I'm just worried. She also told me to take it easy. Right. That's very easy to do when I have a one year old to chase after all the time. But I am trying ... to take it easy and not worry. If something was wrong, they would have done something about it. I hope my next appt goes better.

FRIDAY NIGHT = PAR-TAY! - My mom and dad threw a party friday night. Lots of people came, from church, my brothers and sisters friends from school. We had hot dogs and smores and lots of other stuff... it was fun. the guys played music all night long... Taylor even showed off her talents on the drums and with singing. She sat and played drums for a while, and would get SO mad when we had to take her off them. Then she found the mics and she sang and sang and talked and sang into the mics. She's definately going to be a performer one day. She gets in these moods where she shows off and loves to entertain those around her. Guess she gets it from her Papa (my dad) and her dad... he loves to make people laugh and I see alot of that in her too. Anyways, the party was fun. it was fun to see everyone who came. and the food was good.

BREAKING DAWN - after the party friday night me and leeann and cayce all went up to barnes and nobles to get my reserved copy of Breaking Dawn, the last book in the twilight series. There were around 300 people there waiting to get the book. Crazy. I did meet a new member of the Hendersonville Ward. She was behind me in line. I only read one chapter that night before I went to bed... then I read to about 3/4 the way through on saturday, and finished the rest yesterday after church. It was SOOOOOO GOOD. I've always been on team Jacob and I think the ending made alot of sense. I think it will make people who like edward happy and people who like jacob happy. Anyways. I loved it, and definately reccommend it. Cayce started reading twilight friday night/saturday morning when I went to get my book. She finished twilight on saturday and started on new moon after that. I let me borrow all my books :( I'm glad she's into them also now, but I wanted to read them all from beginning to end of the story now that I've got all the books. Guess that will have to wait. I made her promise to get them to me before the baby's born so I can do that! Leeann is also into them now. She's on new moon also, and bought the third and fourth book friday night at B&N. They're so good.

Well, that's my update. I did warn you it would get long. Good Job to those of you who read and finished this :) I'm proud of your endurance!!!