Bean's Newborn Pictures

The day before Bean decided to make his appearance, I had contacted a photographer about coming to take pictures at the hospital after he was born. Since he had other plans, that did not happen. Then with him being in the hospital for 2 weeks, we didn't get to have the precious, sleepy newborn photos done either. So when Bean was about 8 weeks old, we had some "newborn" pictures done of him as well as the first pictures of our new family of 5. These we done in March of 2012.

With Bean being born so close after my Dad passed away, I wanted to do some pictures with a few of the his things. My Dad was a firefighter for over 30 years. He practically lived, breathed and slept firefighting. When he passes away there were only a few things I wanted: his helmet and his collection of Fire Dept badges from all over the country. The frame Bean is laying in front of is my Dad's collection of badges that he had framed. When I got it, I printed out a picture of my Dad in his dress unifrom I took after the memorial for the Charleston 9.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I just love this one because it looks like my Dad is watching over Bean while he sleeps. 

Here's one of Bean with my Dad's helmet, jacket and boots. 

I'll leave you with one of my favorites. Mine and the Hubs hands forming a heart around Bean's precious little baby feet!

 

 

 

Until next time...

 

Sorry for the catch up and flood of new posts. These are just the first of many until I can get caught up to current!

So much has happened!

Since I last blogged, so much has happened! This post was originally written in March 2012. I'm just now getting around to finishing it with everything that has been going on the last year or so. I didn't want to just leave it as a Draft though so please excuse how dated it is!

On Father's Day 2011, we found out we would be adding another little bundle of joy to our family and we couldn't have been more excited. Back in September, we found out that precious little bundle was a boy! Noodle was not to happy since she really wanted a sister and Nugget, being only 2, didn't really care either way. When I was about 33wks pregnant, I found out I had gestional diabetes and got put on a fun diet! This pregnancy was the easiest when it game to gaining weight. I didn't gain much and then being put on a diet towards the end, I only put on 11 lbs altogether. Well, at 36 weeks, I went into labor and Bean joined us at a big ole 7lbs. 11 oz for being 4 wks early. Shortly after being born, he was bumped up to a Level 2 nursery baby and put on oxygen for some fluid that got into his lungs on the way out via c-section. He was only on that for a few days and did wonderfully after coming off of it. He was eating like a champ and doing everything he was supposed to but then he started having Bradys and Apnea. Bradys, short for Bradycardia, is where the heartrate would drop below 80. With the drop in heartrate, he would also stop breathing. This meant that he would have to stay in the hospital even after I was discharged. At frist, he was having some pretty bad ones where he would turn blue around his mouth and have to be stimulated to come out of them. It was pretty scary. The severe ones stopped and he was just having minor ones that lasted mere seconds. However, these were keeping him in the hospital in the Level 2 nursery! It was so hard leaving the hospital without him and even harder, going to visit everyday knowing that I was going to have to leave without him all over again. The Bradys were the only things keeping him in the hospital! Well, after 2 weeks, his Neonatologist said his Bradys were minor enough that he could come home on a heart/apnea monitor. We were so excited to have our Bean home but at the same time, scared to death for him to come home on a monitor. He's been home for 5 wks today and the first couple of weeks, his monitor went off regularly. It wasn't too scary luckily! The last couple of weeks, its only been going off in the car and they were lasting only a second. This week, the Respiratory Therapist came and downloaded his monitor to send to the Dr and she lowered the alarm to go off if his heartrate dropped below 70 instead of 80. I am so happy to say, it hasn't gone of since then. He is now Brady and apnea free! It only took him til he was almost 7 wks old/3wks adjusted! I'm also happy to say that he hasn't taken anytime at all to catch up to being a big baby that I'm used to having! At his last appt, almost 2 wks ago, he weighed 10 lbs 15 oz! He's quickly becoming my little chunker and I love it!!

Here's a picture of our new family of 5. Sorry, I can't seem to find any of my other pictures from when Bean was born.

The Hubs started a new job a little of 6 months ago (Aug. 2011) and it's been the best thing! He's home every night at a decent hour but the best part is he only works every 3rd Saturday and never works on Sundays! That would have never, ever happened at his old job! There would be days that would pass that he wouldn't see the kids and now he puts them to bed every night. We did take a small pay cut overall but because his pay is commission only based, some months he makes way more money that he did at his other job while some months he makes way less. We've discussed this numerous time and our final decision was that it's worth it since we have so much more time together as a family and there's much less stress for him! (He's since lost that job, had several others and just recently (March 2013) has one that we think we like and will pay the bills but that's a whole other post in itself)

Right before the Hubs started his new job, we found my Dad had Stage 4 Lung cancer. We learned that it was in his lung, his hip, his spine and several other places.The day we learned of his diagnosis, we also told him that we were having another baby. He was excited, I felt as though he would not make it long enough to meet our new little one. Unfortunately, I was right. On Jan. 8 2012, we went to his house to celebrate a late Christmas with him since my sister and her family were in town from Ohio. None of us had seen my Dad since he had been diagnosed. We did not have a close relationship over the years and he wasn't one to share what he was going through. He did not want us to see how he was struggling and I didn't want to build a short, close relationship with him. Anyway, when he walked out of his bedroom when we got there, I lost it! My once strong, physically fit, handsome Firefighter Father had be turned into a week, frail, skeletal 90 year old looking man. I ran to the bathroom and sobbed. I had heard from my aunt the toll the cancer had taken on him and tried to prepare myself as to what he would look like before our visit but no amount of preparation would have been enough. We had a nice visit with him that day. Even through his battle, he managed to keep his sense of humore which is one thing I will never forget about him. Mentally, I don't believe he was all there that day but he was still cracking jokes with us. That day we joked about how in 6 weeks, I was going to lose my belly when Bean was born and that he needed to gain a belly with how skinny he had become. I am glad we got to spend that time with him but sad that often when I think of him, I see the frail, sick Dad rather than my Strong Firefighting Dad. On January 11, 2012, he lost his battle with cancer and just 2 1/2 weeks after that our precious Bean was born. We gave him my maiden name as his middle name in honor of my Dad since they never got the chance to meet here on Earth.

Well, I started this post forever ago and so much has happened even since then that it will have to be a whole other update post! I'm going to try really hard to get back into this blog because I love looking back and reading past posts!

 

Until next time...

Holiday Cards with Tiny Prints!

I can hardly believe that its that time of year again but I'm excited to start looking at Christmas cards. We just had our family pictures made about a week ago and I plan on using them on this year's card. Trying to get ahead of the game a little instead of waiting until last minute like I normally do.

Why not consider using Tiny Prints for all your Christmas Cards needs? For the last couple of years, I have used Tiny Prints for our family's Christmas cards and let me tell you, I have always been pleased! They have a great selection and they are great quality cards. The recipients of our cards from Tiny Prints have always commented on how great they are!

Well, here are a few that are in the running for us this year!

 

I love all the colors of this one and it coordinates nicely with the colors in our family pictures. I really like how Tiny Prints lets you customize your cards with the perfect pictures! This one even come in several different color options!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I love their tri-fold option, too! It's got room for a ton of pictures, which makes life easier! That way you don't have to narrow it down to just that one! It gives family members and friends the opportunity to see a whole array of your family photos!

 

 



Ok, last one! Being a family of 5 this year, this is a great card.  It has room for a family picture plus an individual shot of each one of my littles!

Tiny Prints has so many options to choose from that I always have a hard time deciding which one to pick! I'm sure you will, too!

Check back after Christmas to see which one I picked!

Also, make sure you check our their Special Offers page! Right now, you can get 25% off already reduced Holiday cards or Free Shipping!
http://www.tinyprints.com/promo/tiny-prints-coupon-codes-promotions.htm

Tiny Prints also offers birthday invitations and stationary!

Hope everyone's having a great Fall! Christmas will be here before you know it!

**This is a sponsored post, however, all opinions are my own.

Do you have your Valentine's Cards yet?

I know we don't yet, but Tiny Prints has lots of options that we can choose from! We normally go with the generic Valentine's that they sell in any drug store but Tiny Prints offers way too may cute and different options to go that route this year.
Make sure you check our their Valentines Cards as well as their Valentines Day Greeting Cards.

My son, Nugget, is almost 3 and this is his first year in preschool which means its his first years of holiday parties. That is so exciting to me! I just love making little goody bags for all the little ones in his class. I think this card called To Infinity would be the perfect one for him to pass out to his little friends. It fits him perfectly! Having his little Nugget face as a space ranger is just perfect since he's obsessed with that well known space ranger, Buzz Lightyear!

My daughter, Noodle, just turned 8 so she's an old pro at holiday school parties. She always has the hardest time deciding on what kind of Valentines to give but I think Tiny Prints has just the perfect one for her. The card, Love and Peace, is right up her alley. The girl is obsessed with anything that has peace signs. I sometimes think she was born in the wrong decade she loves them so much!

Here's another option that would be good for either of my kiddos to hand out. What kiddo doesn't love a good maze? This A-Maze-Ing Valentine offers them just that!

What I love the most about Tiny Prints and their cards is the personalization you can do! I went ahead and designed this card, Sweet and Simple using my absolute most favorite picture of my kiddos, courtesy of Kristen Pace Photography.

I think this will be the one I send out to everyone! I just love it!!!!!!

Make sure you head on over to Tiny Prints to check out their selection of Valentine's Day cards!! Once you check out their cards, head on over and Like them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tinyprints) and follow them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/TinyPrints).  And of course, Tiny Prints is on Pinterest, too, so make sure you go follow all their boards (http://pinterest.com/tiny_prints/)!

Tis the Season for Christmas Cards...

and this year I'll be getting our cards from Tiny Prints.  They have such great options! Holiday cards, Christmas cards, ones with photos, ones without photos, tri-fold ones and even ornament ones that can be hung on the tree! What makes them even better is the personalization that's available. Who doesn't like adding their own little touch to make them more personable!?!

As I was looking through their selection, I could tell I would have a hard time choosing which one we would use this year. I loved so many!

Here's a Tri-fold option that I love. I love the bright colors, what it says and that it offers space for 3 pictures: one of Noodle, one of Nugget and either one of Newby or one of our whole family!

Here's an Ornament option that I love too! "Happy Everything" it says so that no one is left out! And it, too, has room for more than one picture. What a great little keepsake it could be for our family members and friends' Christmas trees. I really like that

I've just noticed that I'm leaning towards maybe an aqua and red color scheme this year. I just love those two colors together.

Ok, here's one last option: The Flip Card! These are so fun and different!

Well, those are just three of the options that I love! I think I'm going to have a very hard time deciding which one! I think, first, though I ought to decide when and where we'll have our Christmas pictures done. I'll need some fantastic pictures to fill any one of these Tiny Prints fantastic options!!!

Not only does Tiny Prints do Christmas and Holiday card, they also have a wide selection of
Birth Annoucements

Birthday Invitations
,

Address Labels and much more.

Also if you are a blogger and want to receive 50 Tiny Prints Christmas cards in exchange for a review, you can go here to sign up:

http://blog.tinyprints.com/feature-tiny-prints-christmas-cards/

Keep checking back to see which option I picked.

**I was offered 50 free holiday cards in exchange for this post. The opinions, however, are my own.

Better Days are on their way!

So a few posts ago, I hoped for Better Days for our family in 2011 and they are finally on their way! Of course, we've gone through a lot to get to these better days!

The Hubs finally got a promotion at work but unfortunately, it came with dealing with a boss that was a real piece and horribly long hours that kept him from seeing the kids a lot of the time. Well, that job is now history and he has been given a better opportunity with more potential at another company. We are super excited! The hours are much more family friendly, the pay is better for less hours, as well as less responsibility and drama. I think he'll have more opportunities for advancement with this company too! The best part is he's taking over a week off to spend time with us before starting the new job! Yay for Family Time!!

Nugget is having lots of better days these days too! His face is completely clear except for the occasional and minor break out from some environmental change or food sensitivity. A few months ago, he went through allergy testing torture and we learned he had a Tree Nut allergy. It hasn't affected him too badly! He didn't eat nuts often before anyway. We just recently got a Trader Joe's in town and found him some Sunflower Seed Butter that makes a great sandwich! He loves it! The allergist also gave us a new ointment that couldn't be used on babies less than 2 yrs. old and it did the trick. Within days, his face started clearing! It's been amazing!! He looks like a different baby! Here's a very recent picture! Last time we had some professionally done at Christmas, there was lots of editing to clear up his face. Not this time!!!

And I've saved the best for last! Our Better Days are bringing baby #3 in February!! We are so excited! I'm just out of my first trimester and hoping that my second brings better days with less nausea, morning sickness and just plain miserableness! Of my three pregnancies, this has definitely been the most difficult for me! I just feel way more pregnant than I actually am and with that, can only imagine what it will be like the further along I get! The kids are getting used to the idea of another baby. Noodle's excited sporadically! She really wants this one to be a girl and I think until she knows for sure what it is, she doesn't want to show her excitement! We've discussed with her how we have no control over what this baby will be and that God will give us what he thinks our family needs! So for her, let's hope He thinks we need a girl! Nugget's just 2 1/2 and he doesn't quite understand. He loves babies but when you ask him if he wants Mommy to have one, he emphatically says, "NO!" At his age too, we've had to explain to him that he has to be more gentle with Mommy's belly since there's a baby in there! He thinks the baby is in my belly button, it's so cute! He also has been telling people  he has a baby in his belly, which we think is really, really cute! That's how we've told a few people our news!
Me: Nugget, What's in your belly?
Nugget: A baby's in my belly
Me: Who else has a baby in their belly?
Nugget: Mommy!
The older people have really gotten a kick out of that!
So this one is due Feb. 25th which means if all things go as planned (which we know rarely happens), we'll stay Together 24. My Dr. has already said we can schedule my c-section for Feb 24th so this baby with be a 24 too! It will also share a birthday with Nugget if it comes that day! What an exciting 3rd Bday Present for him!

Just a last random picture that's just cute not to share! My favorite pic from our last session with the amazing Kristen Pace! I plan on getting it as big as I can because I love it that much! Hope you love it too!

Well, Here's to Better Days for us and all of you too!

Until next time...

Chattanooga Mini Vacay!

I know that I've been MIA for a while now but life has been crazy hectic and I've been in an extreme funk!

My funk is slowly starting to die and I think it's because I know summer is a week and a half away. It does help that we just got back from a mini vacay in Chattanooga. The Hubs' cousin was getting married so we jumped at the chance to take a few extra days to do fun things with the fam. The best part was that the Hubs actually got to take a few days off and go with us!! That's a rarity these days!

So we left Friday night and got in at like 1:30 in the morning. Saturday we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, took the kids to the indoor pool for a bit then headed to Rachel's wedding. It was a great wedding even though the weather wasn't great. It took place at the General Lee Woods Inn and it was a gogeous backdrop. Congrats to Rachel and Nathan!

Sunday, we ate breakfast at the hotel then headed to Creative Discovery with the kiddos. It was a great children's museum! Nugget could have stayed at the water table forever! Noodle even had fun!
After the children's museum, we headed to the Hubs' Uncle's house! Now I have to say that I am not a mountain person AT ALL and their house was literally perched on the side of one! The road to get there was winding back and forth with a great big drop off down the passengers side of course. Needless to say, the visit with them was nice but this girl won't be going back there anytime soon.

Monday morning we got up, packed up and started our trip home. We stopped on the way in Ringold, GA which just recently was devasted by tornadoes. We were able to see lots of damage when we stopped off to eat at Cracker Barrel. It was so sad! Tornadoes scare me to pieces and to see the aftermath and how random it was firsthand, made it even more scary! I pray for all the people affected by those devasting storms and hope their lives get back to normal soon and that they don't have to experience anything like that again!

On the way home, we stopped off at the Georgia Aquarium to break up our trip a little. I have to say that the place is AMA-ZA-ZING! It definitely puts the SC Aquarium in Charleston to shame. We got to see penguins, whale sharks, sea turtles and my favorite Beluga whales!  The kids had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it but I think we may have enjoyed it more than they did!