Oh The Places We'll Go...

“Do you trust Me”

2011-08-07T21:12:00.001-07:00

A simple phrase that the Lord spoke to me over and over again the week after I found out I was pregnant. It’s so hard to overcome my stupid human nature sometimes. This has been one of those times… I pray this isn’t taken the wrong way, but to be completely honest if I were to pick a time to expand our family now wouldn’t have been the time I chose. Of course now that I have been so blessed to be able to get pregnant again I am beyond thrilled and wouldn’t change a thing. All of that being said I still have moments where my brain is overloaded calculating cost daycare for a toddler & a newborn… thinking of our upcoming move to a bigger house (praise the Lord) and I start to stress out. And I swear I hear a voice saying “Do you trust Me?” I know that this is all in God’s plan and I pray that I can get past my own agendas and just be willing to happily walk this path He has chosen for me. If you want to be praying for us here are some things we are praying about ourselves… A way for me to be able to stay home after the baby is born. Beside the cost of daycare for 2 I would love to be able to be home with my kiddos and to be a part of their everyday life and not miss out on this precious time with them. This would be a precious gift and our biggest prayer right now.

Thanks for reading and again I pray this isn’t taken as me taking this pregnancy for granted or being unhappy about it… nothing could be further from the truth. Now that the initial shock has worn off I am already in planning mode. I hit up the Lullabies & Mudpies consignment sale this weekend with Amanda & my sister and got a gender neutral bouncy seat & a comfy armchair style rocking chair for the nursery Yipee… I wish there was a way to know if it’s a boy or girl already I want to go shopping haha!! Ok and off to bed I go I have to get up early to meet my brother at the gym. I fell off the wagon last week and only went once. I am going to get back on track with that starting tomorrow. I will post a weekly pregnancy update and weight update too… I have had some great numbers on the scale the past week’ish courtesy of a very, very, very nasty stomach bug that made its rounds in our house & the houses of friends not the way I like to lose weight!! ick! Ok nighty night!

Baby Mayeux #2

2011-08-07T20:48:00.001-07:00

Ever have one of those days where it’s business as usual and then something happens and your world is suddenly upside down and it’s impossible to get your mind on anything else? July 19th was that day for me.

A quick rundown on our history to help put things in perspective. After getting married we tried for almost 2 years before having Jocelyn. Thankfully got pregnant with her, had a fantastic pregnancy and we just celebrated her 2nd Birthday. So since she was born we have done nothing in the way of preventing pregnancy. Just kind of avoided the “green days” on my period app not really even knowing how accurate that is because of my crazy cycles.

So back to July 19th… according to my period app I was 2 days late at that time ( based on my average 35 day cycle). On my lunch break I ran to Target to grab some birthday party supplies and grabbed target cheapy brand HPT to check “just in case”. I’ve seen more negative pregnancy tests than I can count and usually the day I finally check I start shortly thereafter. So I figured eh might as well check then we’ll know, but the thought had crossed my mind if I am pregnant we can announce it at Jocelyn’s Birthday party. So I run back to work, toss the tests in my bag and planned to take one next time I ran to the potty. Shortly after getting back to work I did just that. I sat the test down washed my hands etc and turned back to grab the test thinking it would be negative and I’d go on about my day. Boy was I not ready for what I saw….

That would be a sure enough positive, not a is it a line? kinda looks like a line… no it’s + for sure haha. My heart started pounding and my mind began racing. I had to lean on the wall I thought I was going to pass out… I began to cry. I couldn’t even think of how I was going to tell Brad. Needless to say I was worthless the rest of the afternoon at work. I finally left about a half hour early because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Brad handled it much better than I anticipated. A baby is a blessing we know that without a doubt, we have the most amazing gift named Jocelyn who is a constant reminder of that. My tears and concerns about telling Brad weren’t about the baby in general but about jobs, daycare for 2, having to move again when we just moved into this tiny house with no room for another family member, etc. He hugged me and said it is what it is… we’ll make it work, we can’ t be upset about another baby. And then just to be sure we took a couple more tests, because I was still a little shocked haha.

Ok after 3 tests and seeing the word “Pregnant” on the digital test I finally believed it. A quick blood draw the next morning revealed a HCG level of 1234 right in line with what I estimated my gestation to be. So we were able to make the official announcement at Jocelyn’s birthday party. My mom monogramed her this adorable shirt…

So come March 20, 2012 the Mayeux Family will be complete with 2 precious children and 2 very happy parents. I’m going to post a separate post about how the Lord has dealt with me and my doubting spirit so this one won’t be a novel. Thanks for all the encouragement and sweet words regarding our big news. We seriously have the best friends and family!!!

Breakfast for dinner & berry butter...

2011-07-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

I don't think there are many people around these days who are blog readers who haven't heard of "The Pioneer Woman" . I also follow her on twitter, she has a hilarious sense of humor and wow can this lady cook. Check her out. I love having breakfast for dinner with friends and we decided to do just that this week. Christy found this recipe from The Pioneer Woman and man does it sound yummy!! So I took on the berry butter part check it out...

I made a little over a pound of butter- I softened 5 sticks used 3 to make strawberry butter & 2 to make blueberry butter.

Whip the butter up until it's light and fluffy!

After the butter is all whipped up I added my chopped strawberries and beat the butter & fruit together for just a couple seconds. I also added a sprinkle of powdered sugar just to sweeten it up a little :) Next scrape the butter out onto a sheet of tinfoil covered with a sheet of plastic wrap.

Oh it also is very important to have a cute assistant nearby in case you need an extra hand or two :) haha

First I folded the plastic wrap up around the butter then rolled the butter log up with the foil. Twist the ends of the tin foil in opposite directions. I just twisted until the butter was all pushed together and made a tight roll.

Next I did the same with the blueberry butter!! Next the recipe said pop them in the freezer for 30 minutes then transfer to the fridge until ready to use them. And the final product was delicious. We all dug right in and forgot to take a picture so we "staged" a picture check it out... isn't it yummy looking?!?

Been up in the gym, just working on my fitness!

2011-07-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

I'm a bandwagon jumper'on'er sue me! My friends Christy & Jessica recently commited to get healthier & in the process planned to lose 10lbs in 6 weeks. And they are both doing great!! I am a week'ish behind them because I had family in town & was on vacation and not in the mindset to start when they did. Better late than never right?

I've had some great motivation to keep going to the gym the last 2 weeks... and that motivation is my sweet baby brother (who is in no way a baby). He is gym rat in a good way... Dedicated. Hardworking. Encouraging :) yeah that's him. So when I mentioned I needed to get my rear in gear and hit the gym in the AM before work he offered to change his routine and go in a half hour earlier than normal so I had time to get in a run, shower & be at work by 8. Isn't he a doll? So that's what we've been doing. Last Wednesday, Thursday & Friday I hit the gym. Saturday AM I was awake before the rest of my house for some reason so I got up and ran a mile... and geez was it hot & humid. I am so thankful to have an AC'd place to go during this time of year. Sunday & Monday (4th of July) I took off and was back at it yesterday and today. The cardio first thing in the AM makes me feel better the rest of the day I can definitely tell a difference. I would love to sign up for some more races I want to do more 5k's & really want to be ready to the 15k double bridge in February. So I want to build endurance and just get in better shape.

So all of that being said last Friday I weighed in at 170lbs even... this AM I weighed in at 165.2 which means I lost 4.8lbs in a week. Yay!! Now to be completely honest I do have some help with my diet in the form of an appetite suppressant from my doctor to help make it easier to make the right choices & not overeat. I am almost out and plan to be done with them. I really wanted to use the medicine just to help jump start my weight loss and get on track. And prescription or not there is still no such thing as a magic pill... the work still has to be done & the food still has to be chosen wisely. So anyway just thought I'd post & share my details. I am so thankful for the encouragement & support from friends & family. Here is to a healthier me.

Dear Body

2011-07-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Body,
Let me just say simply this, You are beautiful.
Truly, you are this amazing piece of art that has carried me through twenty-eight years of digesting and moving and thinking and creating and loving and living.
You are more than 600 muscles stretched over 206 bones, running alongside an incalculable number of nerve endings which scientists can’t fathom to count. You are this machine that is constantly working and producing — 100 billion new cells and 4,000 heart beats
every hour you live.
Body, this brain that sits at your crown has more connections than stars in the universe and moves information at 268 miles per hour, and it allows me both to think philosophy and move my pinkie toe.
And yet, and yet.
I belittle you. Call you fat. Complain about your stretch marks. Compare you to younger versions. Obsess about all the ways you don’t measure up to the girls in the magazines.
And, Body, I am sorry for that. Sorry for all the times I haven’t appreciated you for the complex gift you are that has birthed a baby and run down basketball courts and morphed from toddler to adult.
But, this year, this summer, will be different– I promise.
I at-least hope. This year, I’m going to revel in the ability to dig in the sand without worrying about what rolls are showing, where.
This summer, Body, I’m not going to look too long at the other bathing suits on the beach, not going to whine about her bigger chest or flatter stomach or skinnier thighs.
I’m not going to miss the memories of today, distracted by the discontent with this awe-inspiring masterpiece that’s been given to me.
Because work of art, you most definitely are.
Grateful for You,
Me

I can't take credit for this, I got it this morning from here. I get their daily emails and they are always what I need to hear!!

mercy...

2011-05-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

I have heard more than once in my life you don't know how I feel because... "you never get mad about anything" or "you get along with everyone." I have been accused of being a doormat or even worse being called a fake because I "like" everyone. I can't help it, my nature has always been to be a people pleaser and I'm just a non-confrontational person (these are not necessarily good qualities). There are few people that I just genuinely don't care for, but I don't consider myself to have any enemies or hate anyone. I don't say this to sound like I've got it all together, completely the opposite actually. I think because I know how imperfect I am that makes me all the more willing to let things slide with other people. I am glad this comes easily to me, but I know for others it's a struggle. This past Sunday at church a few verses really stuck with me and I can't get them out of my mind. So when I'm having a day where "my neighbor" is particularly hard to love as myself I want to be able to recall these thoughts. Because when I stand before my God to be judged on how I spent my time on this earth I want all the mercy that I can get... because again I know how human (and all the ugly things that go along with that) I can be. So today I encourage you to show kind mercy when given the chance and choose to love the unlovable no matter how hard that is!! :)

James 2:12-13 (message) Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

James 2:12-13 (amplified) So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love]. For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.

Matthew 12:36-37 (Message) Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation."

Romans 12:18 (Amplified Bible) If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

I love saving money!!

2011-05-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

After my fantastic run to publix during lunch I came back to work and printed a few more coupons and ran again after work to grab some more good deals. So I got all the stuff pictured above for less than $10. Woo hoo!! Before I give you the breakdown on how that happened let me say I'm not an "extreme couponer" that show is stupid and unrealistic. Plus why stock pile all that stuff?? I have already given away some of what is in the picture and have even more set aside to give away. It's funto be able to get such great deals to me and in return bless others :) Of course I kept some for us as well. Ok so onto the break down... Every Monday/Tuesday I wait for IHeartPublix to post the preview of this weeks ad and Coupon-Chix also posts the local weekly grocery match ups. Both are great resources.

So Ronzoni Pasta was on sale B1G1 (buy 1 get 1 free) so you would pay $1.39 and get 2 boxes. I got a printable manufacturer coupon from the 2 sites listed above that was $1 off of 2 boxes so for 2 boxes of pasta I paid .39 cent. So less than .20cent per box. So if you come over for dinner anytime soon expect spaghetti, baked ziti, etc haha.

Next was the Coles breadsticks B1G1 for $2.89. I again had printable coupons from the sites above that were $1 off of 1. So I used 1 coupon per box of breadsticks (2.89 -2.00=.89) making it .89cent for 2 boxes.. less than .40cent per box.

And last but not least was Lysol bathroom cleaner B1G1 for $3.69. Now I had some coupons from a pamphlet we received at work, but there were coupons on the websites above as well I just got a little better of a deal with the coupons I had on hand which were $1 off of 1 bottle. So again I used 2 coupons which made it $1.69 for 2 bottles or .85cent per bottle.

Ok so there ya go :) A bit long for you friends who are already coupon pros, but several folks asked about it so I thought I'd share it in long form. I also check out Hip2Save daily because they post great deals every day and they also do the drugstore weekly matchups on Saturday so you can be all ready to go on Sunday.

My best days are ahead of me...

2011-05-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

During the crazy days that followed our recent move I found myself sitting on the floor sifting through hundreds of photos (a perk of moving haha). I came across a few that were too good not to share and had to text some of them to friends. I had a moment while sitting there looking my 11 years younger self in the face... It was my highschool graduation. A whole world of possibilities was at my feet, I was skinny (well skinny for me, I think a size 8/10 is the smallest I ever remember being), my hair wasn't thin, it was long and shiny, I had no worries or fear of economical downfalls, health insurance plans, etc. It was very easy for a moment to feel as if my best days were done and now I was just going to get through the rest of life. My mind immediately snapped back to present day and I hear lullabies coming through the baby monitor and the crowd cheering on my husbands video game in the living room some tangible reminders that my best days have just started. So as my 29th and holding birthday just passed I am happy to say my best days are ahead of me.

"My Best Days are Ahead of Me"

Danny Gokey

Blowing out the candles
on another birthday cake
Old enough to look back and laugh at my mistakes
Young enough to look at the future and like what I see
My best days are ahead of me

Life hasn't always been a party
but mostly it's been good
There's only one or two things that I'd change if I could
I dont get lost in the past or get stuck in some sad memory
My best days are ahead of me

Age ain't nothing but a number
Sometimes I have to wonder
What does it really mean
But hey im still putting it together
I keep getting better
if I keep getting better
I can be whatever I want to be
My best days are ahead of me

I've got sunsets to witness
dreams to dance with
beaches to walk on
and a lover to kiss
there's a whole lot of world out there
that I can't wait to see
My best days are ahead of me
My best days are ahead of me

Seasons Change...

2011-05-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

"Seasons Change. God stays the same. He is making every thing I go through

into something incredibly beautiful."

Such true words, not always easy to swallow mind you, but true words nonetheless!! My mantra for the last few weeks thinking of this impending move has been "I can be happy anywhere". Happiness is a choice, now of course life can sometimes suck but there is always a choice. I strive to wake up daily and choose to be thankful for what I have and pray that the Lord will let me see the good in all situations sucky or not! So this past weekend was a whirlwind of packing, moving & unpacking all while chasing a busy, busy toddler around haha. This move was a strategic one... we have been doing ok and getting by where we were, but who wants to just "get by"? Not us! So we are stepping out on faith and moving to a much, much smaller house with much less rent :) To be honest we haven't always been the best stewards of money for example looking back at my travel nursing pay checks I could just kick myself for not being out of debt, ugh! but live and learn right... well we were living but not so much learning until now. We made a decision and we have lowered our outgoing in an effort to become debt free - thank you Jesus- this year!!!! So there you have it in a nutshell... So I wanted to put my thoughts on paper (or computer screen rather) so if I have a pity party in the near future which I reserve the right to do haha... I can read these words and give myself an attitude adjustment!!

Ecclesiastes 3:1&6 To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose
under heaven: A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away.
Which is what did this weekend at the yard sale haha... it's just stuff and I can live without stuff. I have my amazing God and family which is all I need.

In my daily InCourage email I read this blog and if ever I could identify with the changing of seasons it is now :) and this season is a one of less is more as discussed in this blog!!! if you are going through similar situations read those blogs!

Keeping it Real...

2011-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is exactly how I feel right now haha.. just keeping it real and she said it better than I ever could so here ya go :) check out her original blog here!!!

I am the girl who watches infomercials and decides that this is the one thing missing from my life. I’m always on the hunt; always looking for that which might make life feel more simple. I daydream about empty laundry baskets and freshly made supper while I just feel like it’s overwhelming. The house, the chores, the obligations, the meals, the whole race of life. I just walked through my house, lamenting at the litter of Barbie carcasses and books that have infiltrated even my bathtub, and I decided that what I was going to write about today would need to move on over to the back burner.
Because I need some girlfriends today.
How many times a day do I step back, shake my head, and whisper into thin air, “It’s just too much…”
I realize that is an oxymoron, but it’s true.
I relentlessly seek that which can simplify.
I have no idea why I am so consistently convinced that there is an object, a method, a product, or a book that will solve the problem of “too much.” How do I live a meaningful, faithful, purpose-driven life when I can’t even get all the dishes done?
Sometimes it just seems like I’m never going to feel “caught up,” and as a chronic list-maker, this troubles me.
I know, I know. They’re only young once. Soak it up while you can. Don’t mind the clutter, the crumbs, and the missing socks, because one day they will be gone…
Yes. Absolutely. And I think that a majority of my parenting is spent looking through that lens, mindful of the fact that it’s a season that will pass. But what about right this second, when I just want to breathe and sit still for just one second? Have you ever just sat on your front porch (hello, neighbors. I apologize about not meeting you sooner, but this is me having a little meltdown in the only area of my home that doesn’t smell like graham crackers or urine) and wondered how you were going to go back in and do it all?
No?
Me neither.
But hypothetically, can we chat for a minute? Because I want to pick your brains and ask you to give me some practical advice for how you structure your life to combat this feeling. What do you do when you feel like you can’t “catch up?”
And the real question…
In the event that you were awake at 3 a.m. last night and you saw the swively-sweeping-vacuuming-can roast a chicken while you sleep and wash your exterior windows-machine, do you think it’s worth the three easy installments?
Cause I’m thinkin’ it might be the ticket to a simple life.
Thoughts?
Angie Smith, Bring the Rain

The Stir...

2011-05-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

So I know Easter was a couple weeks ago, but I stumbled across this blog today and it was so powerful to me. Our society seems so geared toward bigger is better and an instant gratification mindset that we often neglect to see the tiny stirrings that are the birth of something amazing and huge. I copied the text below from her blog here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!

You know what my favorite part of the Easter miracle is? It’s hard to choose a favorite, but I have one.
It’s not the stone rolling away.
It’s not the burial clothes left behind.
It’s not the disciples reaction when they saw our risen Lord.
It’s not the nail marks still present.It’s not what Jesus said before ascending to heaven.Although each of those snapshots of reality represent truth so profound the breath slips from my chest, they aren’t what makes my soul leak tears.
No.

It’s the stir.
The stir no one saw.
That first second Jesus twitched beneath the burial clothes and death lost it's sting. Hope, glorious, glorious hope rose in that second when the world still felt the weight of death. Hope twitched. Hope moved. Hope stirred. And Jesus arose.

God reminds us of the stir in so many ways.
A branch looks dead and yet a stir is happening in places we can’t see. Places that soon burst forth green life.
A drought threatens to dry out the life of everything planted and yet a stir is happening in places we can’t see. A wind shifts, a cloud bursts, and heaven pours forth.
A woman is told her womb will not and yet a stir is happening in places we can’t see. Her baby will come through a stranger’s womb and in an instant her arms are filled.

The stir no one saw.
The stir we so often miss.
The stir we so desperately need to remember.
The stir was.
The stir is.
The stir will forever be.
Even when we can’t see it.
He is risen, my friend. And because He is risen we can know there is a stir happening behind whatever tomb threatens to close over our hope today.
Yes, there is a stir happening in places we can’t see. He is risen indeed.

McGuire's 5k Recap!!

2011-03-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

I survived my 2nd 5k and I had a blast... I'm hooked already thinking about which race I want to do next!!! I posted a couple pics below but for all of the race pictures check out this link.

This is my "hi, I just spend too much time on St. Patty's day themed makeup that I'm about to sweat off" face haha!!

The morning of the race I had planned to meet up with a friend and run with her (I knew she would push me which is what I wanted). We parked and met up but then got separated before lining up for the race and it's hard to find people in a sea of 10,000 green shirts haha! So I started out walking with my mom, sister & friend Janet (who hadn't planned to run) hoping I'd see Sherrell. And I did just about the 3/4 mile mark she came jogging by so I started jogging with her woo hoo. I am proud to say I only had to slow a couple times to catch my breath... Below is a picture of Nike+ app screencap of the run. The only problem is that I started the app at gunshot, but with that many people it took a few to actually get up and pass the starting line and I forgot to click end run when I crossed the finish line so my time was off a bit. The official time posted this morning and I finished in 42mins 24sec. And like I said before my only goal was to beat my last 5k time which I did by almost 4 minutes, yay :)

Here is the pace map pic... see the first orange/red area is where I walked then the green starts where I met up with Sherrell and started running the two darkest spots during the run part is where I stopped to tie my shoe and the second at the water table. There are short walk areas where I had to slow way down for a few then we would jog again. I knew I wouldn't be able to get out there and run the whole thing I am still building up stamina and getting in better shape. I am very pleased though with my pace during the times I was running and the fact that I ran way more than I walked :) yay!!

Overall the race was a blast, this years total broke last years record for the most people with 11,036 participants. That's crazy!!! I've never been in that large of a crowd before. The costumes were hilarious. Something I learned after the fact online is that this race is the nation's largest prediction race... we're kinda famous around here. Haha!! I'm trying to stay motivated and get up and run in the mornings to work on building up my stamina so I can actually run an entire race and not have to talk walk breaks like a weanie!!! Time for bed... tomorrow is Wednesday which means 2 working days until the gorgeous weekend. Night Friends :)

K-Love strikes again...

2011-03-09T07:19:00.001-08:00

Heard this song on K-Love this morning on the way to work... Gotta love K-Love making me cry every morning on the way to work! Listen to the song and I posted the lyrics below... I have it on repeat at work already today!!

Laura Story - "Blessings" Lyrics

We pray for blessings

We pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need

Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
But long that we'd have the faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are your mercies in disguise

Free Stuff!!

2011-03-08T12:07:00.001-08:00

Dare I say it? I think I am finally getting the hang of couponing :) I think previously I have always just used coupons that were available when I already had a huge list of things to get from either the grocery store or target. But today I ran to Target with the sole purpose of using my coupons and spending as little as possible for the few items that were on sale. See my pictures I'm excited!!! I got the tips and the printable items from Hip2Save website which is fantastic full of great info and deals.

In my picture below my 2 packs of Shout Wipes they paid me 3cents each for those because they were 97cent each & I had $1off coupons for them. The eye liner was $4.19 but I had a manufacturer -$2Rimmel coupon and a target -$2 coupon so that was .19 cent. I had 2 -$5 physicians formula coupons so I used one on the concealer stick which was $4.94 & I found that physicians formula brand bronzer powder in the clearance bin and used the second coupon on that. (didn't think it would work, but it did woo hoo. So the only thing I didn't have a coupon for was the HIP eyeshadow pigment that was also on clearance. So for all of those items I paid $1.91!! I was so excited haha :)

My first great couponing trip receipt... Spent $1.91 saved $16.00 = 89%!

Last night I ran to Publix to grab a gallon of milk and a couple other items and to use my shout spray and wash coupons that were B1G1 and I got both of them for .75 cents each! And with a very busy, I can feed myself, independent toddler that is a necessary laundry item haha!

And then after work today I had to pick up a script from Walgreens for the hubby (side note- he seriously hurt his neck Sunday night horsing around and trying to pick me up on his shoulders which ended with his neck injury and me on the floor, haha we are nerds) anyway... so I took this time to snag some free children's pain reliever! Walgreens had a $5 off Pediacare pain reliever and there was an online printable $2 off- the medicine $6.99 and I saved $7. So yay for free stuff! This was exciting stuff... It's the little things people haha :) ok off to bed now, Night!!

A Day in the Life of Jocelyn...

2011-03-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends... this is a peak into what it's like to be me, Jocelyn :) Check out all my pictures starting with me playing in my cool new fish pool this weekend. I am only wearing a diaper because my bathing suit from last year is way too small.

Swinging always makes me smile, I am so smart now when Mommy says want to go to the park? I say "swing, swing".

All this big girl play means big girl falls... and not too long ago I got my first skinned knee. Ouch!

I'm almost always a happy girl, but I'm especially happy when I have my favorite monkey blanket to cuddle with!!

I love my daddy!!!

Every night in the bath mommy has to tell me "don't drink the water" but I just can't help myself...

Blowing bubbles is also one of my favorite things to do... I usually just end up a sticky mess because I like to do it myself!

Nothing better than being outside, barefoot in the grass

Curly is my friend, he puts up with a lot from me. I called him a "horse" today and jumped on his back!

Last night Mommy found this tutu in the closet and put it on my....

and I loved it, this is me doing a twirl...

and hear is my tush... haha!
I wore my tutu until bedtime last night and this morning daddy snapped my picture wearing this while playing.

I am such a big girl these days, I "talk" all day long. Some gibberish, but more words are real words now than before. I still love to eat an am not picky about food at all. I am a sweet girl and give lots of kisses & hugs. I always make my mommy & daddy laugh. After hearing mommy say my mealtime blessing I now join in and yell "ANEN" before eating... (I even did this once last week when mommy forgot to say the blessing, I still remembered). I have mastered the word "no" and am now practicing no ma'am & no sir with mommy, so at least I'm polite when I'm sassy. Thanks for checking out my pictures.

Love,

My First 5K....

2011-02-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

I must start this post by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to my amazing, beautiful (inside & out) friend Christy Cutler. If you follow her too you know a while back she posted her plan to run the Double Bridge Run, a whopping 15K. I was inspired!! When she broke the news of her plan it was about 2 months until race day and not nearly enough time for me to whip this out of shape body into good enough shape to run the pace requirements for the 15K. So I signed up for the 5K run instead. And I am so glad I did!!

Saturday morning bright and early around 6am, my other fantastic friend Jess and her hubby picked me up. We arrived at Gulf Breeze High where the 5k race was to begin at 8am. We got there early and had plenty of time, So we stayed warm in the car for a bit. Finally a little closer to race time we went to the race start area and started stretching and warming up a bit. I was nervous I would have to pee mid race so I hit up the nasty port-a-potty twice before we started haha!! My mom & friend Sherrell also joined us at the starting line. And we were off. It was very crowded to begin with and we started out right next to a marine corps squad who were running and chanting - talk about motivation! We ran and walked off and on throughout the course. As we approached the end the crowd was cheering everyone on and I picked it up and finished the race with a steady run. I had a blast, I felt great I could have kept on going. I am definitely not ready for a 15k or half marathon or anything that big yet, but I know I can do more than I did during the run. Here is the official time stamp from the event website.

Tara Mayeux #3429
Cantonment, FL

Age: 28 Gender: F
Distance
5K
Clock Time
45:18
Overall Place
760 / 2754
Gender Place
403 / 1342
Division Place
55 / 57
Pace
14:35

Here are the things I learned during my first (but certainly not last race)...

Races are such great people watching... one of my favorite things to do :)
You will get hot while running, so even though it's cold to start, don't wear 3-4 layers that can't be easily shed haha!
PACE - such an important thing... it's easy to get excited and just start cruising like your a seasoned marathon runner and then be pooped a mile into it. So next time I will pace myself, slow & steady!!!

And a couple pictures one stolen from Christy :)

babbling...

2011-01-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Let me start with saying sorry in advance for the incoherence of this blog post!! Just thought I'd write and give an update on life in the Mayeux house. First I must give thanks for healing. Jocelyn had a nasty bout of fever & terrible sore throat and Brad and I have been battling stuffiness, runny nose, sore throat, sneezing... name it all this crap that's been going around. Thursday 2 weeks ago I attempted to go to work but just felt horrible once I got to work I found out why... I had a 102 fever ugh! My manager sent me home so I called my doc and he said I had a sinus infection and I started antibiotics. Still it took days before I was up off the couch and functioning, even then I was not back to 100%. But praise the Lord I am back up to par!

I love having a DVR it's so nice to be able to catch up on my favorites on my time, also my hubby got me a color Nook for Christmas and it's so great. I love to read and the nook is the neatest gadget!!!

I want to go back to school... I've always said that but in a very non committed way. The last couple weeks it has just been on my mind and I keep thinking I need to start making steps to do it. There is never going to be a point when I have "too much time or money" and if I wait on that I'll never go back. This past week I was talking with one of our PA's & a nurse practitioner at work and just getting input on what the differences are in the 2 jobs and what school was like etc. Well the nurse practitioner asked me how old I was I told her 28 and she said "In 7 years you'll be 35... you can be 35 with a degree or 35 without". Sounds silly but it really made think about things. I tend to look around and see my friends and co workers who are my age or younger and are already Nurse Practitioners and rather than be inspired I've let myself be discouraged by how far I still have to go. But no more I've made my mind up... I registered again with (what used to be PJC) Pensacola State College who now offers a 4 year nursing degree. I filled out all the necessary paperwork and paid my fee and am ready to go back to school. I missed the start of this semester so I will be taking 1 or 2 online classes come May :)

Speaking of going back to school my long term dream is to be a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (which would be many, many years down the road haha)... who according to Wikipedia has a median salary of 157K a year :) haha... if that's not motivation to go back to school I don't know what is.

OK enough rambling! It's a gorgeous day outside and Jocelyn and I are headed out to enjoy it!!!

Resolutions!

2011-01-11T06:18:00.000-08:00

res·o·lu·tion-
* Resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

So I don't want to make any "new years resolutions" because we all know we (meaning I) tend to make big plans and rarely are we (again I mean I) able to follow through with them haha. So I just thought I'll jot down a few plans for this upcoming year and beyond.

Visit someplace I've never been- Hopefully if not before then, than this will happen with Bradley & I's 5 year anniversary in September!! I'm trying to talk Brad into Vegas ;)
Feed someone hungry at least once a month- once a month is not nearly enough, but it's a starting point. Either by handing over a few dollars, a McDonald's giftcard or a to go meal from the cafeteria at work.
Stop being such a wimpy, pitiful, powerless christian and be the daughter of the King I am called to be!!!
Project 365 - an iphone app that lets you take a photo for every day of the year!! So far they have all been Jocelyn haha!
Be healthier- Of course I want to lose weight, but instead of focusing on that if I just do my best to eat less junk, stop drinking sodas and stay active then weight loss will be a by product!
Reduce my Debt- I don't know that I'll get debt free this year, but I can certainly make strides to reduce it.
Coupon- I want to get serious and save my little family some big bucks this year by couponing. I'm setting myself up for success on this one by ordering the Pensacola News Journal & All YOU magazine. Now if Christy Cutler would let me tag along with her to CVS a few times I'd be good to go :)
Run (walk some, but mostly run) a 5k- This one is already in the works too I've signed up for my first 5K in early February... less than a month away. I better get on the ball haha!!

Ok so I'm sure there is plenty more but I just wanted to jot a few down and put them out there to help hold me accountable somewhat :) Thanks for reading!

The best thing I've seen in a long time!

2011-01-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

This is the best thing I have seen in a long time... Brad showed me this video this AM and then we you tube'd all the appearances he's made since being "discovered" and I just cried and cried!! I am so happy for this man, he seems so appreciative of this opportunity that has come to him. I pray he continues to stay in this grateful state of mind and keeps his sobriety too! Such a heartwarming story!

I can do this too!!!

2010-12-27T14:10:00.001-08:00

You might be thinking "you can do what too?" well actually most of you are friends with the Great Christy Cutler so you already know, but for those of you who don't know her or haven't read her blog your missing out, so check it out here! Well she has yet again inspired me. So I am commiting to my very first 5k yipee! I am so excited. I am aware that given my very sad current shape and state of mind as far as fitness goes that I will have to do some walking in the midst of this 5k but my one and only goal for the day of the race is to finish and not be last haha! See I can easily do that right?? I signed up as a runner so I will run some & walk some. I'm already a couple weeks into my couch to 5K app on my phone and it really helps keep me motivated!! Ok so I'll keep you posted on my progress :) But I'm soo excited!

On The Night You Were Born!

2010-12-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

My Mom got this book for Jocelyn for Christmas and it's so sweet. I recommend all you mommies get it and read it to your kiddos. The message is so precious!

by Nancy Tillman

On the night you were born,
The moon smiled with such wonder
That the stars peeked in to see you
And the night wind whispered,
“Life will never be the same.”
Because there had never been anyone like you…ever in the world.
So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain
That they whispered the sound of your wonderful name.
It sailed through the farmland
High on the breeze…
Over the ocean…
And through the trees…
Until everyone heard it
And everyone knew
Of the one and only ever you.
Not once had there been such eyes,
Such a nose,
Such silly, wiggly, wonderful toes.
When the polar bears heard,
They danced until dawn.
From faraway places,
The geese flew home.
The moon stayed up until
Morning next day.
And none of the ladybugs flew away.
So whenever you doubt just how special you are
And you wonder who loves you, how much and how far,
Listen for geese honking high in the sky.
(They’re singing a song to remember you by.)
Or notice the bears asleep at the zoo.
(It’s because they’ve been dancing all night for you!)
Or drift off to sleep to the sound of the wind.
(Listen closely…it’s whispering your name again!)
If the moon stays up until morning one day,
Or a ladybug lands and decides to stay,
Or a little bird sits at your window awhile,
It’s because they’re all hoping to see you smile…
For never before in story or rhyme
(not even once upon a time)
Has the world ever known a you, my friend,
And it never will, not ever again…
Heaven blew every trumpet
And played every horn
On the wonderful, marvelous
Night you were born.

Colorado Vacation... Part 2!

2010-12-13T10:48:00.001-08:00

Okay to pick up where my last blog left off Monday AM... Rory was just fine the urgent care center checked her out and they were back to the hotel really quickly. Praise the Lord!! We loaded up our 2 awesome minivans (I'm usually very anti minivan but these were pretty darn cool) and hit the mall. After very little sleep the night before Jocelyn wasn't in a shopping mood, so we cruised around with Wendy & Rory for a bit then set up camp at the really cool play area. We played while everyone shopped then Papa, Jocelyn, Bishop & I called it a day early and went back to the hotel. (after a quick cupcake shop stop first hehe). We ended the evening with a WalMart run to buy snow boots, snow gloves & wind pants.

Tuesday- The plan was to wake up eat breakfast and hit the road to Breckenridge to play in the snow. However Monday night was the roughest night with Jocelyn yet. *(side note she was stuffy and yuck 2days prior to the trip one of my docs at work suggested starting her on an antibiotic to stop and poss infection before going to a different climate & flying... ok end side note). Tuesday made 5 days on the antibiotic with symptoms not improving which said to me it was a virus or just the change in weather and the antibiotic was not doing any good and could even be the cause for the yucky feeling/temperament for Jocelyn. So Tuesday AM I was crying, she was crying... I decided to skip the antibiotic give her Tylenol & we prayed over her and put her down for a morning nap. I told everyone to go ahead and go without us because it seemed like we were doomed for a rough day. Thankfully my family decided to wait on us and when my girl woke up for her 2 hour nap she was a brand new kid!! :) Prayer works folks. We quickly got dressed and loaded up for the hour-ish drive to Breckenridge. When we got there we found a little store & bought some plastic sleds and had a blast sledding down this huge hill. I got to make my snow angel I'd been talking about for days haha :) There was little pavilion an public restrooms that were heated so it was nice to be able to pop in & out to get warm when we got too chilly. The day was going great, on the way home we came across a terrible car accident that had just happened. We were the first people to stop we jumped out and ran to check on the 2 people involved. They both only had minor injuries praise the Lord. Tuesday night was the first night Jocelyn slept all night and it was such a blessing!! She slept in the pack and play in the bedroom and I gladly slept on the pull out couch bed in the living room haha!

Wednesday- We woke up so refreshed after a full nights sleep. After our daily trek downstairs for yummy hot breakfast we got loaded up and headed out to the Denver Zoo!! The zoo was amazing, so huge and had tons of animals we don't have here at home. Jocelyn loved it! Highlights of the day were 1. a very "frisky" giraffe haha, he ruined all our pictures we tried to take of the giraffes due to his uhm... "friskiness"!! 2. my brother claiming he had to "bend over backwards" to get burger (mostly inside joke, but I wanted to remember this cause it cracked us up)... I swear the boy eats every 2 hours. We kept joking he was like a baby because he would eat, nap, eat, nap.. you get the picture! 3. We braved running across traffic on a busy downtown street to check out another cupcake shop mmm!

Thursday- We signed up for a tour of the US Mint in downtown Denver at lunchtime. It was interesting, there were only coins produced at this location so it could have been better well that and attempting to keep my super busy toddler quiet and orderly during a tour was interesting to say the least haha :) After our tour we hit up THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY... yummmm! I know most of my highlights have been about food but that's part of the beauty of vacation right? So of course we had yummy friend mac & cheese balls, a huge portion of pasta for the entree and then was way to stuffed so my fave vanilla bean cheesecake was packed up to go and enjoyed in bed that night haha :) aren't vacations wonderful. That afternoon while Jocelyn napped some of us hit up the huge SuperTarget.

Friday- This was a chill out day we hung out at the hotel in the AM, we hit up a mall nearby, which had a great play area like the other mall. Thank God for those play areas, have I mentioned my toddler is a busy. busy child and is not fond of riding around in her stroller shopping at this point in life? haha. We didn't stay at the mall too long, we went back to the hotel to chill and start the packing process. Another joy of vacation is having nothing you have to do... so I was happy to hang out in the room reading a book letting Jocelyn and Rory play together. Those two will be partners in crime I can tell already haha!

Saturday- Time to go home!! Up showered, dressed, finished packing then down for last breakfast!! We were scheduled to fly out of Denver at 2:40 but we had to be there at least an hour early to check in and before checking in we had to return our rental vans and ride the shuttle to the airport. Let me mention at this point every day we had been there it was colder here in Pensacola than it had been in Denver... seriously I even went and bought a short sleeved shirt to wear home because I kept burning up everywhere we went because all I had packed were sweaters!! So we go to leave the hotel to head to the airport and the wind was blowing 900 mph and it was FREEZING!!! haha. Now I didn't mention this but Friday my dad bought a couple big shipping boxes for us to ship home the snow gear we bought for Breckenridge. I also stuffed my 2 big jackets in there because again it had been warm the whole trip. So it was an interesting morning until we made it safely into the airport. The flights were uneventful thankfully in fact our flight to Houston was so quick we had to wait once we landed because our gate was still occupied. So we had plenty of time to find our next gate, eat some dinner, and charge up our ever wonderfully portable DVD player!! haha :) Seriously best invention ever! I prayed many thanks for that thing and the makers of ToyStory many times that day!

Ok sorry long post I know, but I wanted to remember the events of our family vacation. It was wonderful and I am so blessed to have the family I have :) We were glad to be home and Jocelyn and I were so happy to see her "dadeeee"!!!! And I know I say it often but I seriously have the best kid on the planet, don't get me wrong she is all toddler, so busy and into everything, but I can count the number of meltdowns on one hand for the entire vacation and I think that is pretty darn good!! :)

Here are the photos all on facebook... Enjoy :)

Colorado Vacation... Part 1

2010-12-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

I have a few minutes of quiet while my kiddo is taking a much needed early nap... the reason we have time for a nap is not good though. Poor Rory (my niece) ran into a table while playing in the breakfast area of the hotel and passed out for a second or two. My sister & BIL are obviously worried so they took her to urgent care to double check Nurse Tara's assessment haha. We are all praying for a speedy assessment at urgent care and a fast return to us for some family fun.

So Saturday we flew out... our flight was a few minutes after noon so that meant no nap prior to traveling. My girl (and niece & nephew too) did fantastic on all the flights no meltdowns, no issues. Jocelyn got antsy and started to get cranky at the end of both flights... understandably so did I haha. But we let her move around as much as possible this meant standing in the seat saying "hi, hi, hi" to our family in the row behind us, looking out the window, etc. She had lots of snacks & drank plenty of water to keep her ears clear while taking off and landing. She spent most of the second flight laying on me & my mom watching Toy Story and not napping haha. I have always praised the fact that she is a great sleeper, you lay her in her crib say night night and she goes to sleep on her own. Fantastic right? Right, well the downside to that is she never falls asleep when we are out, no naps in strollers or while being held very rarely she will snooze in her car seat but again that's rare. So she went all day Saturday with no nap. She handled it so well though I can't complain in fact I was praying and saying thanks all day.

That night was rough...between sleeping in a crinkly noisy pack & play and being in a new environment complete with stuff nose & tiny nosebleeds ( that includes Jocelyn, myself, and 3 other family members.. this altitude ain't no joke haha) we were up a majority of the night back and forth between attempting to sleep in the bed with me (don't judge me!) and in the pack & play. Last night was worlds better and I think she is getting used to this being a new and different place. I found a good place in the bedroom for the pack&play and the baby monitor works across the hall to my parents room so we can hang there and play games after she is down for bed at night! Yay.

Yesterday we hit up the Denver Aquarium and had fun, Jocelyn is fearless she stood right up next to the glass watching and pointing at all the animals the tigers running around (I know tigers at an aquarium, just didn't make sense to me, but they are there!) she even petted a stingray & a bearded big lizard thing haha. Fearless I tell ya... :) Ok time to get that girl up and get dressed we are headed out to shop, we found a local mall with tons of stores we don't have at home and a big indoor play area for the kiddos :) yay! I have lots more pics I'll post a link once I get them all on facebook!

Love,

T & Baby J

On this day in History...

2010-12-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

First of all let me say... AHHHHGHHHHGHH

That is a happy scream you see up there, why you ask? Because on Saturday we are flying to DENVER! Woo hoo for vacations, snow, board games in PJ's, heated indoor pools in winter time, snow, great restaurants, have I mentioned SNOW??? :) haha!

December 1st 2008 feels like a million years ago. I will always have a warm place in my heart for this day because it's the day I found out I was going to be a mommy. Here is the post if you wanna read. What a joyous day it was!! I am continually amazed at my daughter and at life as a mommy... I stop daily and give thanks to the Lord for the life he has blessed me with. I cannot imagine life without my baby J!! She is growing so fast it seems and I try so hard to grasp every new thing she does, but I can no longer keep up or count what she learns on a daily basis it's amazing.
So a few random facts that I may/may not have already mentioned haha. She is a mocking bird she copies everything we say brush, ball, box, drink, juice, baby, "wight (light)" haha she LOVES blankets to carry around to play with or to sit on in the living room watching a movie, she just loves them. Her favorite thing to eat is still "nannies" (bananas) I love going to publix and rounding into the produce section the minute she sees them NAAANNNIIES and she is reaching out for them haha. It's adorable. She still LOVES to eat, she can eat dinner drink milk and be playing if she sees Brad or I eating she runs up saying "mmmmm" haha!! Most of the time she is a very independent player, she plays with toys "reads" her books, etc. She finally cut her 4th 1yr molar, she had a couple rough nights of sleep while it was breaking through, but things have settled back down. She is a ToyStory fan.. I bought ToyStory3 for her (ahem.. me too I guess) and we watch parts of it to settle down and get resty after her bath before bedtime. She is a cuddler these days reaches out for hugs and kisses without being asked and often walks up and just rests her head on me. I love it!!!

Thanksgiving was a blast last week we hosted at our house. The Mayeux's, my parents, Alex, Brit, Wendy, Andy & kids all came over. We had 2 turkeys (1 deep fried yum!! and one baked), a ham, 2 trays of dressing, all the other classic side items and tons of sweets. It was a good day I loved having both of my families together we missed Yo & Ali + families though :( Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving as well!!

Love,

Shutterfly Christmas Cards...

2010-11-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

I LOVE shutterfly, I have been using them for a while and here is why. So we all have busy lives... wouldn't you agree. I know I often think where does the time go? And so many of my best made plans are still in my brain or on a pathetically long to do list somewhere. That being said I have found a fabulous way to help check off one of the very important items that is constantly revolving on my to do lists. Cards!! Thank you cards, Christmas cards, Just because I have an adorable daughter cards, you name it!! Shutterfly is a busy mom's Godsend!!

I knew for Jocelyn's birthday I wanted to send out a photo thank you card, so I did just that. I took one of her adorable "smash" cake pictures and made a Thank You card to send to all party goers. I think a photo card is so much more appreciated!! They turned out soo cute!

And now that the holiday season is upon us I'm already planning our family Christmas card, much like last year. Here is the link to check out all the Christmas/Holiday designs to choose your favorite. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards Let me forewarn you that it is difficult to choose just one, because they are all soo fabulous. Plenty of options for everyone... whether your a one center focus picture or a lots of little photos kind of person. Personally I think this one is my fave so far http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/oh-holy-night-religious-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496 . So simple and elegant!! I know that my family will love getting the card in the mail no matter which one I choose :) I encourage you to take some stress off of yourself this holiday season and use shutterfly like I do!! But wait that's not all... It is also a great place to create personalized desk calendars, birthday stationary, and photo mugs.

And if all of that hasn't convinced you, now we all have one more reason to love Shutterfly...you and I have an opportunity to receive 50 free holiday cards! It just doesn't get any better than that :) Don't miss out on this great deal. If you would like to receive 50 free holiday cards, click HERE to sign up!!

http://www.shutterfly.com/
http://www.facebook.com/shutterfly facebook .com/shutterfly
http://www.twitter.com/shutterfly

Thanksgiving...

2010-11-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

"Count your blessings name them one by one,

Count your blessings see what God has done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings see what God has done"

Ahhh good ole PCA hymn, I started to write this blog and that song popped in my head! So that is just what I'm going to do... count the things I'm thankful for one by one, well obviously not all the things that would never end, but you get the idea! Here goes!!

My Saviour- I would be nothing without him.
Family- God has given me the most amazing family both immediate and extended.. inlaws & outlaws ;) haha
Health- this is one thing that's a bit easier for me to not take for granted considering at work I see so many others who are are not in good health whether it's a broken arm or cancer I see it daily at work therefore I am constantly reminded of what great health myself and my family have.
My Job- speaking of work I can honestly say I love my job, this is the best job I have ever had. I just had my 2 year anniversary and I don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon!!
Bradley- For better, for worse he is my other half. My best friend. My provider. My daughter's father. My protector. My all!
Jocelyn- A time not too long ago, I cried out to the Lord and just cried in general for a child. I was blessed with a miracle on July 23rd. She is the light of my life, full of personality and spirit. I can no longer remember life before her and I think that's the way it should be :)
The Holidays- I am a holiday lover I'd listen to Christmas music year round if I wouldn't drive my husband insane haha. I put my tree up almost 2 weeks ago and there are already presents wrapped underneath.
Provision- My little family has never gone without, things may get tight (as in no eating out/no movies/no unnecessary shopping/etc but we have always had food to eat & gas in our vehicles.
Liberty- Our church is great, our church family and friends are fantastic. I love being a part of a church that is so community geared. There is always some sort of outreach going on to our neighbors!
Cupcakes- OK this may sound trivial, but I am so thankful that the Lord has given me this desire/ability to bake these sweet, little treats. Seeing and hearing how much people enjoy my creations is so uplifting.
Vacations- Hey speaking of vacations it's like days away... I can't wait to play in the snow, goof off at the hotel in pj's, playing cards with the family, eating at the cheesecake factory! Yum!!
Comedy- Some of our best nights in involve Bradley & I giggling like kids watching stand up comedy. I love my husbands real laugh when he laughs so hard he wheezes... it's great!
Friends- I have some great ones... some I talk to every few days, others I only really "talk" to via facebook/blogs but they are all friends none the less and I consider myself blessed to have them.
Food- I'm sure some uppity ups would see this and think "how sad", but I don't care food is meant to be enjoyed in moderation of course and I love it. Especially sweet & salty, yummm!
My messy, messy living room- I am thankful for this because it means a rambunctious, healthy, happy 16 month old plays here everyday.
Technology- Thank you Lord for my iphone :) haha

Ok so there are many other things I am sure, but I doubt anyone will want to keep reading if this gets much longer.

I am thanking you, God, from a full heart, I'm writing the book on your wonders. I'm whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy; I'm singing your song, High God.- Psalm 9:1-2 (The Message)

Love,

Dreams...

2010-11-22T07:37:00.000-08:00

I was a zombie this AM... I snoozed my alarm and finally drug myself out of bed at 7am this morning giving myself a whole 20 minutes to get ready, dressed and out the door for work haha. Why was I a zombie... let me tell you. Dreams really, really weird dreams. The first dream was horrible a lie from the devil and I won't give it an inch worth of blog space the second however was very comical. The scene is at home (not home as I know it now, but in the dream it was home ya know what I mean? haha) anyway I was apparently pregnant but didn't look it, my tummy looked like it does now, so I guess possibly pregnant looking, actually too many cupcakes is more like it! So there I am pregnant at home and the "home visit OB nurse" is there and I'm having back pain every 2-3minutes haha she says oh your probably in labor I say nah it's too early like but a couple months and with Jocelyn I didn't have any back labor. Still the nurse says let's check you and make sure. She checks me and says you are almost 10cm you need to get ready to have this baby... haha what?!? I jump up and say no I gotta wash my hair first and I haven't packed for the hospital, so I jet to the closet and start throwing things in my suitcase clothes for me and baby girl stuff so I guess it was another girl. Meanwhile Brad isn't there I dunno where he was but I was planning to just have him meet me at the hospital and the rest of family is there and they are totally ignoring me... acting like I'm not in labor, not speaking to me, not offering to help with pack or drive me to the hospital anything haha. So I call an ambulance then I start panicking saying " I can't have this baby now, how am I going to go on vacation to Denver with 2 kids" haha.... then I woke up!! haha how bizarre! It was so funny I was so mad at all my family that means you mom, Wendy, Alex, and a couple cousins/aunts were there too. Oh except my Father in Law he was calling my cell phone checking on me while I was attempting to pack my hospital bag!! hahaha. Don't they say when you dream your pregnant that means someone close to you is pregnant or soon to be? I hope this is the case for anyone (or all) of my friends who are patiently waiting!!

Ok so that's all... totally bizarre I just had to share I'm sure it's not so comical to you guys, but it was so real I had to laugh when I woke up and remembered it!

Goals Review

2010-11-04T06:44:00.001-07:00

Monday- Didn't hit my step count (I think I made it to 8,000) But I did cook dinner at home. And then we prompltly went to bed as soon as Jocelyn was in bed. When did I become such an old lady haha. My bed calls to me earlier & earlier everynight!!!

Tuesday- I didn't cook at home, but I did hit my step count. I was not very active at work so after the kiddo was in bed I hit the elliptical. That has been the best purchase. It's quiet, so day or night I can do it. Plus it's in my bedroom right in front of the TV so that's a nice distraction.

Wednesday- Dinner at home (so what if it was grilled cheese sandwiches & soup, still homemade haha). And my step count was much better!! I made an effort to get up when clinic was slow & I found myself sitting around. So I'd take those down times and hit the stairs just up and down a few flights. Also I had 15 minutes when I woke up that I got on the elliptical & also another 20 before bed.

Thursday- Wednesday night I prepped Taco Soup so Thursday AM I plugged in the crockpot and let it do all the work for me. So yummy homemade dinner was ready for us when we got home from work!! And I didn't snap a pic because I took my phone out of my pocket and forgot about my step count, but based on activity I am sure I hit at least 8,000- 10,000.

So there ya have it Friday was my day off and much harder to keep my phone (which is my pedometer) on my with out having a big scrub top pocket to carry it in haha. As for the rest of my list Thanksgiving meal plans were finalized as well as my to pack/buy list started for our Denver Vacation. I didn't find a bread recipe so obviously I didn't bake it considering I didn't have it haha! But Jocelyn and I did get several walks in and some outside in the yard play with Curly. I don't know how enjoys playing in the yard more Curly or Jocelyn!! They are so cute!

Love,

Goals...

2010-11-01T08:56:00.001-07:00

Here are a few goals for this week... I wanted to actually make a list so you all can be my accountability and give me a verbal "spanking" if I don't stick to it this week :) So here we go...

Get my step count to 10,000 at least 5 days this week.
Cook dinner at home at least 4 nights this week.
Get Jocelyn out of the house every day even if it's only to the backyard to walk in the grass for a few minutes or to the park to swing.
Find a good homemade bread recipe and BAKE IT!!!!
Get a Thanksgiving meal plan together.
Make a Colorado Vacation to pack/to buy list.

Ok so that's it for now :)

Have I mentioned... weekends are the best?!

2010-11-01T07:37:00.001-07:00

Ahh.. what a busy but great weekend. I am so blessed with such great family & friends. Friday was a super productive day for me. Got lots of stuff done around the house prepped some stuff for a cupcake order. Also Friday was trick or treating at work so we stopped by Nemours to see all my work friends dressed up and to show off my big girl. Jocelyn wore her "trick or treat" onesie MiMi monogrammed for her & her Halloween bow also made by MiMi. (Allow me to take this moment to say my mom is great, she watches Jocelyn for us while we work and also somehow manages to work and still has time to make such adorable goodies).

Saturday morning was spent baking Isaak's Birthday Cupcakes (Happy Bday big boy!!) Then off to his party we went and let me say it was by far the most elegant, adorable 2 year old's birthday party I have ever seen! Seriously those ladies should be in the party planning business!! If you aren't friends or don't read Isaak's mommy's blog your missing out... check it out! Jocelyn had a great time walking around meeting new friends and enjoying all the party festivities. I remember once looking around and not being able to see Jocelyn only to find someone holding her in the kitchen playing with her. I can't believe how very blessed I am to have such an amazing group of friends. As I watched Isaak, Benjamin, Taylor, Jocelyn and several others play I could feel my heart smiling. Such loved kiddos!!! Then off to home we went for a nap, daddy went out to play some golf and mommy enjoyed some quiet time... aahhhh :)

That brings us to Sunday, Bradley was playing drums so Jocelyn and I came to first service. Let me take a minute to say what progress she has made with going into the nursery. She still cries when I drop her off but get's over it very much faster these days. I always walk away quickly & come back to listen at the nursery door after 1 song. That gives her 5-10 minutes depending on how early/late we are for church haha to get settled and start playing. I am glad she is adjusting well & not being too clingy these days. She definitely has her independent moments to say the least :) After first service I went right home to put the kiddo down for a nap... so we could hit up the fair that afternoon. And that's just what we did. It was hot, I don't think I've ever been to the fair during the day and I definitely never remember being at the fair & being hot/sweaty. Ugh, lesson learned for next year. Jocelyn did great though. We walked through the petting zoo a couple times the Goats were Jocelyn's fave (the camel was mine he was hilarious to feed). We made a few laps around the fair grounds and ate all our usual junk food haha. Shish-ka-bob, funnel cake were my weakness couldn't pass those up :) Jocelyn enjoyed nibbles of all we ate she is a fan of cotton candy as is Benjamin & Isaak haha. Isaak kept reaching toward the bag of cotton candy saying "please, please, please" haha :) Such a sweet boy. Isaak is the only one who rode anything. Jocelyn & Ben are still a bit small... next year it will be a whole different story though haha. Such a great tradition we have going!!! After our couple hours out at the fair we were all worn out & ready to go.

Home we went and straight into our bumble bee costume for Jocelyn :) This year trick or treating/dressing up was for mommy not for Jocelyn haha. She is a good sport though and went along. We walked to Mom & Dad's to see Bishop & Rory (Anakin & Princess Leia) and we stopped at a few of our neighbors houses to show off our adorable little bumble bee. Trick or treating was short lived because my girl needed some dinner, a bath & some chill time. So that's just what we did. When I put her to bed around 8pm she didn't make a peep and went right to sleep she was worn out from the busy day :)

Ok that's all :) Thanks for reading & keeping up with my family!! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend & Halloween as well.

Love,

Back in the land of the living...

2010-10-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

This has been a very trying week for our little family. Brad was off work Monday and he and the baby girl hung out around home. Tuesday AM Brad texted me at work and said he wasn't feel good... shortly after that he texted again and said his not feeling well had quickly changed to sick. Thankfully my Mom was able to come to the rescue and get the baby out of the house so he could throw up in peace... which he did all day long and even into the early evening. When I got home from work that evening I picked up Jocelyn and quarantined Brad to the bedroom. I attempted to sleep on the couch that night, but could never get comfy enough to fall asleep so sometime in the middle of the night I snuck back in our room and slept facing away from brad with my own blanket haha. Wednesday AM Brad was no longer sick but had that terrible day after a bug weakness, so Jocelyn went to my parents again and I went off to work for a half day. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday at work I was fine... Can you tell where this story is going?!?

Thursday evening I hurried home from work picked up the kiddo, baked up some cupcakes for a friend and a few for my mom's Birthday dinner. I also cooked birthday dinner and had my parents over to eat. I didn't feel sick but not great I hardly ate dinner... Brad had rehearsal and after my parents left I gave Jocelyn a bath and put her to bed. I managed to clean up the kitchen mess and get in bed before 9 feeling worse. Ugh... the bug struck again!! Shortly after Brad got home from practice I started throwing up, All I can say is I feel terrible for him because I am a terrible vomiter (is that a word?) I am loud and I cry big baby sobs... I HATE throwing up. I know no one likes to vomit, but I swear I dislike it more than the average person!! Oh and TMI alert in 3..... 2..... 1.... I will never eat a burrito from Moe's again seriously. I don't believe it made me sick, but there are a million other things that would have been better coming back up that that trust me. Haha... Sorry I digress! So my poor husband hardly got any sleep I'm sure between my ups and downs all night and pitiful crying in the bathroom. The next morning he got up with the kiddo I attempted to get up and sit in the recliner to attempt to rejoin the land of the living. Only to get sick again! Fortunately that was the end of it... I was able to rest and lay around the rest of the day praise the Lord. Yesterday was spent much of the same way nibbling toast and sipping water & sprite just getting my tummy used to having food in it again. Today we played hookie from church and Jocelyn got her AM nap while I straightened up my house and lysol'd everything and did laundry etc. Now we are waiting on my niece & nephew to arrive they are spending the afternoon with us while my sister & brother in law have a "grown up lunch" haha :)

Thanks for the prayers most importantly and of course for the calls & texts checking up on us, we are so blessed with amazing friends and family.

Love,

recipe input?

2010-10-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

I am wanting to make first homemade bread!! I have been looking at recipe after recipe online and can't decide! So I turn to you my friends. Give me your input, links are greatly appreciated (especially if the website has step by step instructions and or photos haha). Thanks in advance for your help :)

ready, set... GO!

weekends are the best!!!

2010-10-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Blogger World... Check me out posting again and it hasn't even been a month haha. Yay me!! This has been a fantastic long week as always. I used to dislike Sunday nights so much as many others do I'm sure because that meant Monday AM is a few hours away. I am doing my best to stay in a thankful mindset and remember how blessed I am to now have Fridays off which means a long weekend every weekend... and one more day I get to spend with my sweet little family. Also this gorgeous weather has been so great... we walked to the park 3x this weekend. It's such a nice little outing to help from getting stir crazy when we are home all day. Prior to this weekend Jocelyn has not liked the sand at all... I've tried several times to get her to play or touch it even just stand barefoot she cried refused to walk etc. Finally our first trip to the park this weekend she has realized how fun it can be. So our second park trip I brought her little shovel & bucket and she had a blast scooping sand in the bucket then dumping it out. So cute!!

Saturday night was girls night out... We went to Olive Garden for dinner, then made a fast pit stop to Dunkin Donuts to get some sweets and coffee to smuggle into the theater where we saw "Life as we know it"... which was so cute. I cried and laughed it was my kind of movie. When I got home it took all my strength not to go get Jocelyn out of bed and hug her up haha, I settled for a pat on the back and covering her back up (that girl is such a crazy sleeper haha). ::sigh:: I am so blessed I have the best kiddo ever!! She is such a joy just when I begin to get frustrated with normal spirited toddler stuff she stops an gives me an unsolicited kiss or hug :) I can't believe how blessed I am!!! Oh and we are making progress with the meltdown when going into church nursery haha... this AM she cried while I signed her in and handed her over, but stopped shortly after and when Brad picked her up she was playing and having a good time. Praise the Lord!! :) Ok I'll leave you with a few pictures check out my adorable baby girl!!!

Is she not the cutest thing ever??

"Stink Face"

Forever I've tried to get her to stand/walk/sit/play in the sand no go... suddenly she loves it!

She loves the swing normally I don't know why this picture happened to catch this face haha.

A long overdue update...

2010-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

First things first an update on our baby girl (guess at some point I will have to quit calling her baby girl, but for now I don’t want to) had what should have been her 12 month well baby visit, however her pediatrician was booked so it ended up being around her 14month instead. She definitely showed Dr.Lenga she is a big girl and has a bit of toddler anxiety with unfamiliar things, like looking in the ears, listening of the heart etc haha. She is “perfect” in Dr. Lenga’s words. She weighed in at 28.5lbs and 33” long. She is off the growth chart as always for height and weight however her head circumference has finally moved back onto the grown scale haha, she is finally growing into her head. (Big head=Big brains!!) She also go her 12m shots which included flu shot poor kiddo 4 pokes at once. She did great the rest of the afternoon she was home with daddy then that night she woke up in the middle of the night burning up with fever. Poor kiddo started vomiting I think because her fever was so high… after a cool bath & Tylenol her temp was still over 102. It took several hours and some sips of Gatorade she finally cooled down, stopped vomiting and went back to sleep. It was a rough couple of nights. From now on I will set my alarm and give her Tylenol/motrin around the clock after her shots. I have learned my lesson!!!

So that’s the stats on the doctor visit in the meantime my girl is growing up way to fast!!! Getting lots of teeth, her bottom molars are in and feels like her top molars are about to pop through. In other big girl news she fed herself a bite of peas this week all by herself. She was in her chair eating lunch, mostly with her fingers I was using her spoon giving bites in between when she became to busy playing to eat haha,. The spoon was left on the tray and I glance over once and she had scooped some peas and was almost to her mouth with it, then she got them in and didn’t even spill any. I was so impressed I squealed and clapped she thought I was crazy haha J Also she has suddenly decided to “talk” she has a good vocabulary that is growing daily, here is a list of her favorite words…

Dadadadada
Book (with special emphasis on the “k”) also if she wants to read her book and you don’t pay attention she brings it to you and picks your hand up and puts it in your hand while saying “book, book, book, book” haha
Juice – and everything is juice… water, milk, juice, soda, coffee anything J
Ball
Cheese – I just discovered this yesterday because I went to take a picture of her, so I hold my cell phone up pointing at her and she grins and said “chz” haha so all day yesterday we pretended to take pictures of her with whatever we could find. She is such a funny girl.
Good Girl – whenever we correct her or she does what we ask her to do we always say “yayy good girl” so I noticed the other day she is mocking us after we say it and saying “good girl” haha.
GO, GO , GO- when we get read to leave I grab keys and diaper bag I hear that little voice saying it.

Now of course some of those words are more clear than others Book for example is so well pronounced it’s not even funny while other like cheese could use some work :) point is she is such a smarty pants!!

On the home front we are all doing well. Brad is enjoying his work and it’s been pretty steady with promise of lots of jobs to come so that’s always good especially heading into the holiday season. I am still LOVING my new position and all that comes with it. Including floating from clinic to clinic and being off on Friday’s J It’s amazing what a difference 1 day a week makes the week flies by. Before I know it I’m halfway through the work week… and also being off at 4:30 instead of 5 makes a huge difference too especially with 5 o’clock traffic.

Lots of things to look forward to… Hopefully my BFF Courtney will be back on Pensacola soon and I am thrilled (also see Courtney I updated my blog!!!) I’ve already started buying Christmas presents and have decided that I am putting my tree up the week of thanksgiving this year haha. I am planning to host thanksgiving at our house for a Mayeux/Farrington blended holiday J Can’t wait and even more can’t wait for Cajun fried turkey (hint, hint Poppie)!!! Also can’t wait for our Colorado vacation the first week of December… so ready to play in the snow!!! A little nervous about flying with a very busy toddler, but I know it will all work out! Ok this is the longest post ever perhaps if I updated more often I could not have to write a novel!!

an "Aha" moment...

2010-08-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

Oprah calls them "aha" moments, call it what you want I had one this weekend. As I was sitting in church it occured to me how spiritually out of shape I am. Anyone who knows me knows it's no secret how much I battle my weight. Now to anyone out there who may be more overweight than I am, please don't roll your eyes at me! Every Monday I start a new week of "being good" (I no longer call it a diet, makes it feel less like a failure when I give into temptations) and by Friday I'm pigging out and saying "I don't care anymore". This is an on going roller coaster... and it's no wonder I can't stick to any diet because my flesh is running my life lately in all areas. It's no suprise with the way I've neglected my spiritual workouts. I ordered a new daily devotional book Daily steps of God Chicks and plan to dive right in and get back on track with my daily quiet time and bible reading. In turn I know once my spiritual self is stronger I will be able to keep my flesh in check better. I am so blessed to be healthy and have a healthy family and I want to keep it that way. I'm looking forward to cooler weather that is hopefully around the corner and spending a lot more time outside!

In other news my girl has been super fussy for the last few days. Yesterday I went to pick her up from the church nursery and she was crying her little eyes out... I figured she would calm down once I got her and we were out and about. No go... all day long she was so pitiful I figured she must be getting more teeth, we've been alternating tylenol & motrin. Today I discovered she has a molar peeking through in the back on the bottom, poor kiddo no wonder, she must be hurting. Jocelyn is a poster child for "every kid is different" haha it took her forever to get any teeth now on bottom she has 2 middle teeth and a molar haha. How funny? ok time for her bath & pj's :)

Can't believe a year has passed...

2010-08-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago we celebrated Jocelyn's arrival into this world. What a crazy, amazing, beautiful and sometimes messy ride it has been.... and I would not change a thing! As I type this my girl is taking a nap, well supposed to be as soon as I said that I hear "dadadadada" in the monitor haha... She is such a joy and her daddy and I's heart! There is no way to put into words what she means to us, a joy is all I can say! Here are some stats on our big girl!!!

She is walking and crawling everywhere... she is so fast you blink and she is out of sight. Her walk is adorable she gets excited and goes fast then realizes she is on her own and stops and makes a "wow" face haha!
She is still napping twice a day, except on Sunday because with church, lunch, etc she usually only gets one middle of the day nap and is in bed early. Otherwise it's 2 naps a day, bedtime is anywhere between 7:45-10 depending on mood and how her naps went during the day.
She loves jumping in her bed... when we go in to get her up from bed she stands right up and starts jumping... probably because we have sang "monkeys jumping on the bed" song for the last year of her life haha, our little monkey!
She has the best hair... I love it, thick and shiny! She is a beautiful girl already!!
She has 5 teeth so far, lots of drooling and chewing lately looks like 2 or more are ready to pop through they just haven't poked out of the gums yet.
The girl can eat! she loves food and I feed her everything... I am trying to keep from having a picky kiddo. I have yet to feed her anything she wouldn't eat, for example we went to Tokyo's for dinner a few weeks back she had zucchini, carrots, broccoli, shrimp, steak, chicken haha.
She has no allergies (in Jesus name) as a baby banana's gave her a rash, but we prayed she was healed and have started giving her bananas again and she is fine yay!! Also she has had seafood, peanuts, eggs all the "high allergy foods" and no problems at all!
She gives kisses willingly- and every time she does it melts my heart.
She has finally stopped snatching her hand away and grumbling when we say the blessing, now she holds our hands and sits quietly while we pray :) then a huge grin pops up when we say AMMMMEENN!
She loves curly, she chases him all over the house and we frequently have to keep her from giving him "kisses".
Yesterday she ate dog food... I feel like it's official my child is a toddler now. I'm sure dog food eating is a right of passage.
This morning she went to the 1 year old nursery for the first time at church, my big girl.
She does well in social settings, went right into the nursery this AM no fuss or fight, praise the Lord.
She loves music, ABC's, Patty Cake, John Mayer, Jesus Culture, CMT, KLove doesn't matter she just likes music in general!

Ok sorry that list got entirely too long... You might have to take a break get a snack and come back to finish reading :)

Her first birthday bash was a huge success... I couldn't have imagined it any better. I had no clue the amount of people that would show. It goes without saying I have a HUGE family!!! So I mailed out invites to all the family and a few close friends, expecting maybe half the people we invited to show. We decided to have a party at home, being late July and ridiculously hot outside there weren't any outside options and she is too young to enjoy Chuck E Cheese or any other type of place. So I had the brilliant idea to grill out and have a small party at home. Well let's just say our little girl is very well loved... the house was packed, seriously you could hardly move around. My dad did a head count and we had 46 people crammed in our not little, but not big house. It was hot and chaotic and I loved it. I kept just looking around at all the people who are in my child's life... friends, family, cousins, aunts & uncles, we are sooo blessed. Thanks to all who came out to celebrate our girl!!

Ok so I'll end this forever long post with a promise to update more often... I know, I know I say that all the time, maybe this time I'll stick to it. I have a busy afternoon of cupcake delivering and family August birthday party to attend. Hope everyone is well!!!
Love,

The Mayeux's
Brad, Tara, Jocelyn & Curly :)

::sigh::

2010-07-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I got a tiny glimpse of the Lord's love for us. It's so true that you can't even begin to fathom how great that love is, my tiny little glimpse came in form of my sweet baby girl though. Last night around 12:45 she started crying (something she doesn't usually do these days) so I gave her a couple minutes to see if she would settle back down. She continued to cry so I went to check on her, the moment I picked her up she quit crying. So there we stood for just a few minutes cuddling. She rested her head on my shoulder and held on to the back of my arm... I felt her little body relax, all she needed was some mommy love. I laid her back down in her crib she went right back to sleep... I went back to bed and thought how often I try to handle things on my own because I don't want to be that "cry baby" who vents to God about my feelings/loneliness/worries.. but last night made me realize how happy I was to just be able to hold my baby and make her happy without her needing anything from me (no diaper change, no bottle, nothing..) just me... she just needed a shoulder to lay on! A shoulder I was more than happy to give. I know the Lord feels the same way when we cry out to him even if it's just an "I need you" cry! My girl makes me so happy!!!

So here is the update on my big girl... who will be 1 in a week and a half!! Agghh, where did this year go. I cannot say it enough, time flies it's crazy!!! She has 4 teeth and several more looking like they are about to pop out... she is a great eater as always, life is much easier now that she eats grown up food. Last night for example daddy is out of town so we sat down and shared grilled chicken green beans and mashed potatoes! mmmm she is such a doll baby, she has the best hair I've ever seen on a baby (and not because I'm biased either) haha. Just this past week on Saturday night 7/10/10 she took her first steps 3 very tiny, wobbly steps. I was elated!!! Since then she has repeated the process and made several 2-5 step walks before diving into my arms haha! daredevil! She crawls everywhere loves to pull up and cruise around, the router/modem in the living room is the reason she has gotten her first hand "spanks" because she can't leave it alone haha! we are getting there she knows what no means and sometimes chooses to crawl away and find other toys at which point daddy and I clap and praise her for listening and going the other way haha :) we look like idiots but who cares!!

Ok so there it is, I finally did an update! I will post again for her birthday!!! Gah still can't believe our little "cupcake" is about to be 1!! We are prepping for the most fabulous cupcake themed birhday party ever :)

Transitioning to family blog?

2010-05-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

My poor, poor baby blog is so neglected these days. Since I don't have a regular/family blog I figured this can be my one stop blog!! The new neame Oh The Places WE Will Go since it'll be all about the Mayeux's not just baby J. However speaking of baby J... she is fantastic. I love her more than words can say. It's amazing how something so little can change your life so much. I don't remember life before her. I mean I do, but it was in black and white and now we live in color :) She is amazing. Next Sunday she will be 10 months old AACHKKK it's crazy how time flies. We are feverishly planning for the big First Birthday Party. It will be cupcake themed and fabulous dahling!! As of now my girl still has no teeth, doesn't crawl or cruise. haha! She does get where she wants to go and has successfully pulled up to standing on her own a couple times. She scoots on her rear or rolls most of the time, now she is getting up on her knees and hands and attempting to crawl, just not very successfully! I'm not worried she'll get there when she gets there. She loooves to eat still and it's obvious based on her 25lb little body and size 18m clothes. I know she will slim down when she gets to crawling and walking, so I'm enjoying her rollies while they are still around!!

As for daddy and I we are doing great!! This weekend was my birthday and it was a perfect weekend!!! Girls night Friday night with pedis and sushi... At the nail place we were a sight, Five girl in chairs geting pedi's and 2 strollers with very adorable kids watching all the action :) Then off to Sushi, great food and even better conversation with some amazing woman! Saturday I baked my little heart out making practice cupcakes for Jocelyn's birthday party and my own birthday cake... it was great if I do say so myself!!! Also we played in Jocelyn's kiddie pool in the backyard, she spashed and had a blast! Sunday was a great time at church then family time at my parents. I'm so blessed to have such amazing family and friends!!!

Ok so there is a quickie update.. I will keep posting more updates as we approach my baby girls 1 year birthday. I can't believe it is almost here!!

8 months old?!?!?!?!?

2010-03-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my baby girl turned 8 months old!! That is just insane... where have the last 8 months gone? Last night Brad and I were looking at newborn pictures and videos of when she was soo tiny and just started to smile! It makes me cry, I love the stage we are in now, but to know those tiny little baby cuddles and smiles are long gone is soo sad! Motherhood is so bittersweet!!

Well Jocelyn is a busy girl these days... not crawling yet, but loves to sit up on her own and play toys, she reachs and grabs everything, she lunges forward and rolls all around! She loves reading her first words book, we make animal sounds her favorite is the elephant :) She smiles everytime we sing monkies jumping on the bed & ABC's. She is never is the same position when I get her out of bed in the mornings. This week twice she was turned all the way around head at foot of bed haha. She is such a great eater here is her usual meal routine...
*oatmeal/rice cereal for breakfast about an hour after waking up, 7oz bottle right before nap number 1 usually around 9:30, stage 2 veggie/meat & stage 2 fruit for lunch after her nap usually around 12-1, second 7oz bottle before second nap usually between 2-3 in the afternoon. Now that she is up later at night, dinner is usually 6:30 ish again stage 2 veggie/meat & stage 2 fruit or yourt for dessert, then 7-8oz bottle between 8-9 then to bed :) She also loves yogurt melts & puffs and juice, water, yogurt juice pretty much everything. I have yet to find a food she won't happily eat. Yay I am praying that continues into toddler years and my child will not be a picky eater like her momma was :)

So there ya go, she is such a big girl. I need to add new pictures soon, I'm slacking terribly in that department. I've purchased props and plan on doing some Easter pics which need to be done like NOW, because Easter is not far away haha :) Right now my girl is battling her first diaper rash, poor kiddow it's terrible she has such sensative skin anyway her poor bottom looks like it's been burned. But praise the Lord it is healing, lots of naked time and stealthy mommy doing diaper changes in the middle of the night seem to be doing the trick!! Time to run!!

Small Update..

2010-02-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post the other day after her 6month well baby appointment last Wednesday. Jocelyn is 20lbs 7oz and 27inches long. Her weight and head measurements are off the growth chart and her height is the tippy top of the growth chart. She is definitely a big girl haha! Unfortunately we had to go back to the doctors office today because last week she had a fever and couldn't get her shots. So today we went in to do that. When we got in the room the nurse said that one of the vaccines that should be 3 combined was out of stock so they had to give them seperately :( sooo sad. So my poor doodle bug got 4 shots today... she was so pitiful she looked at me like what did you just do. So sad :( She got over it quickly though and hasn't even fussed a little the rest of the day! She is such a good girl.. I know I say that alot, but she is!! haha I am so thankful :)

So there we have it my little girl ...

is 6months old
sits on her own,
rolls front to back,
rolls back to front,
moves (ever, so small baby steps) in her walker,
turns when you call her name,
looooves Handy Manny,
laughs every time you sing "monkies jumping on the bed song"
can drink out of a straw :)
still dislikes tummy time for the most part
things Curly is hilarious
makes her mommy smile a million times a day :)

6 Months Old

2010-01-24T18:30:00.001-08:00

Jocelyn's 6month birthday was yesterday. My sweet baby girl has been here 1/2 year already, can you believe that??? I hardly can myself, it's been soo short and soo long at the same time. She is my heart, she make me laugh with her silly faces and noises. I still can't stand in her nurery and watch her sleep without crying... I'm just amazed that I get to be her Mommy.

Ok enough mushy stuff here are the highlights... about 2ish weeks ago she rolled over for the first time I was beginning to think it would never happen haha. My lazy girl as I call her :) She is a good sitter, she topples over every once and a while but for the most part she has it down! She loves to eat, get a jar of food out or one of her spoons and she starts squealing. She is overall a happy baby, she defnitely gets fussy when she misses a nap but that's common. As of now no teeth yet, she drools alot and puts everything she can get her hands on in her mouth... so we'll see :) So in the 6 months of her life I have had my first parenting mistake I am now having to deal with... From a very little age I let her nap in the swing, she sleeps great in her own bed at night... in the day is a TOTALLY different story. She refuses to nap anywhere else, as you can imagine this makes life difficult! So I'm now beginning the process of weaning her off the swing haha... who would have thought it could have become such a vice. Oh well live and learn right?

Now that she is 6months and 1 day old I don't feel stupid for planning her first birthday party, which I have actually been doing for quite some time haha... I have never been a big party person or planner for that matter, but her first birthday is such a huge milestone. I can already picture a fun hot summer day, surrounded by tons of family & friends and cupcakes which is the theme. I've already started buying stuff call me nerdy, but whatever I figured buying a little along would be the way to go :) Ok time for bed... here are a couple pictures enjoy :)

5 month birthday!

2009-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

5 months have passed already... I honestly can't remember life without my girl. We are continually amazed by her. She is such a huge blessing. She is soo animated and interactive lately. She watches your face and will smile back at you when you smile at her. A funny noise or a belly zurbert (sp?) haha always bring a giggle. She seems to be starting to teeth, she is always chomping on something, the blanket, my finger, he hand, a teethy ring pretty much anything she can get her hands on. She hasn't rolled over yet on her own, but I feel like it'll be any day and then she will be off haha. She bends and kicks and gets to her side but hasn't mastered the full roll yet. I'm not rushing it... stay tiny as long as you want baby girl :) She is eating up a storm. She has mastered eating off of a spoon and enjoys veggies everyday for lunch and cereal or fruit other times of the day most days. She hasn't met any veggies she doesn't like yet, but sweetpotatoes and green beans seem to be the favorites. She did seem to have an allergic reaction to bananas the one time we tried it, her face broke out really red! So we haven't tried it again yet. Maybe in a few weeks we'll do a bite and see if it was a false alarm. :) I hope so!

Ok that's all for now. I will try to remember to take a 5 month picture tonight and add it on. She is soo big :)

4 month shots :(

2009-12-05T13:02:00.001-08:00

My sweet baby girl had to go have her 4month check up & shots this past Wednesday. She is technically almost 4.5 months, my big girl. Speaking of BIG GIRL haha... here are her stats from the appointment... She is 26.5 inchest long & 17lb 15oz. Needless to say for a 4 month old she is big (over 100th percentile), she is off the growth chart for height and weight. The shots were no fun as usual, but she is a trooper only cried for a few minutes then zonked out in the car on the way home. The doctor said all was well, she is doing great. She was having bad spit up issues for a while, but it's a million times better now that she is taking zantac to help keep the reflux down. We have started doing some solid foods. So far she is a fan of sweet potatoes haha... also the doc said she can have half & half apple juice or white grape juice.

Ok gotta run, my girl needs some attention here is a drooly picture to end the post :) haha!

long overdue post...

2009-11-04T19:22:00.001-08:00

Hi all... I just wanted to give a quick update. So here are some quick tidbits about my big girl...

She laughed out loud for real (like a big kid laugh) for the first time tonight while Bradley was blowing on her belly.
She has such great control of her head and she loves "sitting up" where she can look around.
I fear she is becoming a TV junkie... bad? educational? eh jury is still out. But it makes her kick her legs and smile huge so in small amounts I don't see the harm. She loooves Mickey's playhouse the best for sure! Dora & Handy Manny are tied for second haha.
I love that we have such a great bedtime routine.... bath, splashes, bedtime lotion (thanks Christy.. ahh Baby Magic smells soo good), clean jammies, playtime, bottle then into bed she goes. Sometimes she is asleep, other times dozing and sometimes even wide awake when I put her in bed. We are so blessed our girl falls asleep on her own in her crib, what a blessing.
I weighed her on our scale at home last night she weighs 16.3lbs. Big girl!!
She still loves the swing (thanks again Christy haha!!)
She made her first mini road trip last weekend to Mississippi to visit aunt Yo & Uncle Moose. She was perfect in the car... in fact on the way home she slept the whole trip home. 3.5 hours... good girl!
A bib is a necessity at this point, she is drooling up a storm.
She is drinking 6oz every 4 hours.

Bedtime now... I'll write again soon :)

poor neglected blog...

2009-10-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

haha.. my poor blog is so neglected these days. Well Today my sweet baby girl is 12 weeks old. I guess from here on out I'll just say 3 months, 3 1/2 months, etc. It's so hard to quit counting time in weeks after doing it for the entire 40wk pregnancy haha.

Jocelyn is amazing, I know what parent doesn't think their new baby is amazing, but she really really is amazing!! She is the best baby. She of course has her fussy moments, but don't we all :) She has been sleeping through the night I mean all the way through the night since I started back to work. What great timing eh? Most week nights she has a bath, takes her "nighttime" bottle and is in bed asleep by 9:30 and I have to wake her up to take her to my parents house around 7:15am. Crazy huh? A couple short months ago I never thought I'd see the day when I would wake up before her haha! I am once again a well rested woman :)

Today on her 12wk birthday I can't help but to look back and think of how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. She has turned into quite the little sassy girl with lots of personality :) She loves bathtime she has learned she can splash... and boy does she. She wiggles back and forth and splashes all the water out of her little baby tub haha. Now if we could just figure out how to get her to not poop in there haha... (yes you saw correctly my baby is a bathtub pooper. eewww it has happened x 3 now, yuck!) She is full of smiles and eyebrow raises I can't hardly stand it! She is so great.

As an update for me.. physically great as far as post partum stuff goes. Have been healed and feeling fine for a while. That being said I started back on birth control and am hating it!!! I am finishing this pack and am not taking more. I have decided I'll just chart my cycles and pray that the Lord will keep things from happening until it's time, because the pill makes me feel like poo. Everynight I feel sick, I tried to wait to take it until I'm in bed and about to fall asleep and even then I still get the "gonna barf" feeling, ick! Also this past month of taking the pill I have gained 7 count them 7lbs! double yuck! Nothing fits and I feel hungry and bloated all the time just blah. So I'm done, I talked to Bradley about it and he agrees I should just not take it. So there we go :)

Ok I promise I'll update again soon with pictures, I'm slacking I know, it's been tough being back to work this makes 4 weeks. I am still taking pictures just not as many as before!! I'll definitely get back on track though soon :)

2 Month Doctor Visit

2009-09-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today Jocelyn had her 2 month well baby check. She is such a good girl. She didn't fuss a bit when she got naked and weighed or when the doctor was checking her out. My big girl is weighing in at 13lbs 11.2oz and is 23.5inches long. That makes her 90th percentile of height and head circumference & 95th percentile for weight :) Dr.Lenga said "they don't come any more perfect than that"!! Yay. Before the doc came in Jocelyn was looking at herself in the mirror and being her usual smiley self!! It was all fun and games until the ladies with the shots came in :( boo my poor bug had to get 3 shots- 2 in her left leg & 1 in her right. Thank God she has all that chunk on her thighs now to help cushion!! I gave her tylenol about 30 minutes before she got her shots so I hope that helps her feel a little better this afternoon. She of course cried very big & loud but only for a few minutes. By the time we walked up front and got checked out she was sound asleep on my shoulder! My girl is a trooper.

ugh...

2009-09-20T08:05:00.001-07:00

Why can't it just stay Sunday for a while longer... I don't want tomorrow to come. Maybe I'll just quit my job? Do we really need to pay rent? car note? have cable tv? buy groceries?

I know I'm not the first mom to ever have to go back to work after having a baby and certainly not the last. I also know I'm incredibly blessed to have my mom watching Jocelyn when I go back tomorrow, what a huge relief that is. Plus I was able to spend 8 incredible weeks at home with her, not everyone gets 8 weeks off. All that being said I'm selfish and 8 weeks is not enough. I want to be able to be with her all day like I have been the past 2 months. I want to lay on my bed and cuddle up, play peek a boo, listen to her little laugh, to see that big toothless smile, "watch" girly movies together on rainy days, go shopping together (my girl is a good shopper)... And as if this transition wasn't going to be difficult enough on it's own, she isn't feeling well right now. Stuffy nose & cough bless her heart!! Also she is still not sleeping through the night. At least when she goes to bed at 10-12 we are only up once so that's good. I just don't know how it is going to work I mean I'll survive but I'm sleepy/tired now and I get to go back to bed for a few hours after her early am feeding usally around 6am-7am. So it'll be a change for sure getting up during the night then getting myself ready & Jocelyn fed/ready and out the door around 7:15. Eek!

I'm trying to focus on some positives... I am so excited for and looking forward to this holiday season. Halloween will be here before we know it, very quickly followed by Thanksgiving then Christmas. I love Christmas, always have. I have my christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving if not before haha. I can't wait to prop Jocelyn up in front of the christmas tree and take pictures!!! Yay!

On a more positive note one good thing I can think of about going back to work tomorrow is that I'll quit eating all day long. Being at home all day is terrible for my diet. At work I get busy and if I don't eat during the lunch break time I might not get another minute to sit and eat... so that's good for me. Definitely keeps me on track.

Sorry this was a whiny post, I'm so blessed to have such an amazing baby girl, a wonderful husband, a great job, a fantastic "baby sitter" for while I work etc. Thank you Lord for all your blessings and I know you will be with me to help ease this transition time.

8 weeks

2009-09-18T13:15:00.001-07:00

7 Weeks Old

2009-09-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

Say it isn't so... has it really been almost 2 whole months since Jocelyn came into our lives? Time is flying and as you can see by the comparison picture she is getting so big. I just love those chunky, kissable cheeks. She is definitely finding her personality now. She recently discovered her voice and will often just "shout" out and her face cracks me up. She looks around like did I just make that noise haha. I just can't get enough of her. I am definitely not looking forward to going back to work, the very thought of it makes me cry. So I won't think about it now haha... we'll cross the bridge when we get there. For now I plan to enjoy my last week of being a stay at home mommy :( Enough sad stuff, funny thing happened last night on her 7wk birthday. I had just changed her and she had a HUGE poopie diaper. So I got her all cleaned up and put her in the bathtub. I was rinsing her body off just about to wash her hair and get her out of the tub when she tooted. No biggie she is a gassy little girl haha. Then shortly after the toot her face went bright red & she grunted... uh oh classic I'm about to poop sign haha. Sure enough there it was!!! I picked up naked self up out of the tub very quickly, I startled her she looked at me like I was crazy!! Definitely a funny moment. Brad and I couldn't stop laughing. Since I'm talking about bathtime mishaps here is another and with pictures to prove it haha. A few nights back we were doing our bedtime routine and once again she had a huge poopie just before bathtime. I got her clothes off and was so focused on rushing her to the tub before she peed on me I totally forgot to take her socks off. I didn't even notice until I went to wash her legs & feet haha. I was a bit sleepy, can ya tell? Check out the picture below. Jocelyn was less than amused as you can see :)

Before I go here are a few things I love about my girl...

I love that when you pick her up the way she stretches backwards with her hands up by her head and toots her little butt out- its soo cute!

I love that moment when she is crying in her crib in the middle of the night, her world is upside down, her diaper is wet, her stomach is growling- she is miserable and as soon as I pick her up she calms down. To feel her little body become less tense and her breathing slow down is amazing.

Her smiles & almost laughs that she gives- she seems to do this most often on her changing table while getting a clean diaper or changing clothes.

The way she holds her head up now, she is getting to be such a big girl :) She is so alert most of the day and wants to look around and take everything in.

Her sweet little baby nose breath on my neck when we are cuddled up.

Her crazy, sticky up hair.

The way she smells.

I could go on forever... she is amazing :)

6 Weeks Old

2009-09-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

My sweet baby girl is 6 weeks old today. I have been bad about updating, at least I am keeping up with taking the weekly pictures though. And if you can't tell my girl is a good eater and is getting chunky!!! I couldn't resist the naked picture for this week haha I just love her big baby belly.

Well alot has happened since my 3 week update... a few weeks back Jocelyn started sleeping in her big girl bed. Yay! She has slept much better since then and so have I to be honest. The baby monitor is sensative enough I can hear every grunt & cry, but it's so much easier to give her a minute and see if she is going to fall right back to sleep when she isn't in the same room with me. Over the last week and a half she has had several 5-7 hour stretches. Most recently last Sunday evening she ate and was asleep just after midnight and didn't wake up until 6:45 Monday AM. I panicked when that baby monitor started blaring, I jumped up Brad rolled over and said when did you get up last (he doesn't always hear the monitor during the night, so he assumed I had already been up to feed her since we went to bed haha). I yell when we went to bed as I run to her room... she was fine of course I was so worried she had cried all night and I didn't hear her or something stupid, but all was well :) And that uninterrupted 6.5-7 hours of sleep was amazing!!

Not much else to report, Jocelyn is a great baby. She has her occaisonal fussy moments, but overall she is great!! At night she eats, I swaddler her up and put her back to bed. Even if she isn't completely asleep she doesn't fuss just hangs out until she falls back asleep. We have gotten into the routine of nightly baths. She loves to take a bath and this gets her all wide awake for a few hours which usually helps her to sleep better... which we all love!! Her usual eating schedule is every 3- 3.5 hours she has some days where she acts like she is starving and ends up eating more like every 2 hours haha... which shows because the girl has got several chins and lots of adorable leg rolls haha. Speaking of rolls, Yesterday my co workers threw me a "meet the baby shower" since Jocelyn arrived early before they could throw me a shower. While at the clinic I weighed my big girl she was 10lbs and 14oz... my big girl!!!

Ok time to get up and get moving, the baby girl and I are going for a walk!!!

~Belly Collage~

2009-08-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

I actually miss my belly... I mean I'm so happy she is here, but looking at these makes me kinda sad!
Check it out...

3 Weeks Old

2009-08-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today my baby girl is 3 weeks old... I now see what everyone means by treasure every moment, because they really do grow up too fast. Now i know she is far from being "grown up", but she already doesn't look like the brand new tiny baby that came home from the hospital with us a few weeks ago.

This week she is definitely showing me that she is growing with her eating habits haha. She has become quite the piggy. Last night was pretty rough in fact because she was ready to eat every 2 hours on the dot. Which wouldn't be terrible but by the time I feed her, burp her, change her diaper and get her back to sleep... then I have to pump and put the milk up. So by the time I lay back down to sleep I have maybe 1 hour to sleep before she is awake and ready to do it all over again haha. I know these "growth spurts" are important so I am not complaining. I think she is starting to fill out, especially her little jaws. She is far from fat but she definitely has more fat on her now than when she was born.

This week we had both had our 2 week follow up with the docs. Mine was Monday bright and early. Everything looked good per Dr. Stalnaker, he said I was healing well and to hold off on the "fun" for another 4 weeks still haha. I am going back in 4 weeks again for my last post partum follow up. We discussed birth control and I am waiting for now since I am breastfeeding/pumping religiously so I should be covered. But when that starts to slow down I'll start back on something to prevent any siblings for Jocelyn... for now anyway haha.

Then yesterday was Jocelyn's 2 week well baby appointment. She was "perfect" per Dr. Lenga!! Her exam was great, she was such a good girl she didn't even cry while she examined her, she was all wide awake too. Ohhh and she is gaining weight yay! At her weight check appointment (2 days after discharge from the hospital) she weighed 6lbs 4oz and yesterday she was 7lbs 9.6oz. Check her out!!! Her next appointment is her 2 month shot appointment... I am not looking forward to that. BOO :( After her appointment we went up to work so everyone could meet her. Everyone loved her of course!!!

Ok time for dinner, here is a picture. I'll post again soon!!

2 weeks... belated!

2009-08-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

There she is my sweet baby girl... I am so crazy in love. I knew I would be, but until she was physically here where I could smell her, hold her, kiss her, cuddle her, etc I had no idea how overwhelming of a feeling it was!! So there is my excuse for this post being late I would much rather be spending my time with her than updating my blog haha. Sorry!!

This week we have had our first bath and then a couple more since then. The first one she fussed & cried during the whole thing. The other times she was fine just wide awake until I wet her hair then she let out a squeal but other than that no fussing. I'm hoping she will be a water baby and love baths & swimming!!! Also over the past week she has become quit the little piggie... she is ready to eat at least every 2.5 to 3 hours. She is getting the hang of nursing we are doing both that & bottle feeding just depending on house she is feeling. When she gets too upset she just won't latch so we always have a bottle on hand! Speaking of bottle feeding, she has been taking 2- 2.5oz, well lately that is not enough. Yesterday and during the night she was awake & fussy again in an hour and a half. So this morning I put 3oz in her bottle and she drank every drop. My girl is hungry, she is working on putting on some baby fat haha. I couldn't be happier I am ready for her to be able to fit into her clothes haha :)

Ok we have to get out and run some errands so I should get to it. I'm still adjusting to the whole getting 2 people ready to leave the house. I am working on not being late everywhere... I will leave you with a few pictures of her first bath.

1 week old

2009-07-31T10:11:00.001-07:00

Happy 1 week Birthday Baby Jocelyn!!!! So yesterday was one week ago that Jocelyn came into this world. It seems like the week both flew by and crawled on at the same time... much like the pregnancy I guess :) weird! Jocelyn is an amazing baby!! The first night home was ROUGH... I had nursed her the whole time we were in the hospital no big problems. However come Saturday night Jocelyn was crying and crying I couldn't get her to latch, Needless to say I was having a breakdown right along with Jocelyn. I tried to pump really fast to give her a bottle but with my crying and being upset & her crying I was unable to do anything. Fortunately when you leave the hospital we got a free diaper bag that had a few samples of formula in it. So I gave her 2oz which she gulped down and promptly fell asleep. I have never felt worse in my life, I felt like a failure my one job is to provide for this sweet baby girl and I couldn't do it. So after calming myself down I was able to pump and have enough for her next feed so that's just what I kept doing pumping and staying ahead of her feeds. And praise the Lord I have an excellent supply of milk so since that night she hasn't had any more formula and I haven't had anymore breakdowns haha. I have tried to nurse a few times since then but it is short lived she gets frustrated quickly which of course gets me all upset again... as of now I plan to keep pumping and giving her breastmilk in her bottle. It works and we are all happy that's the most important thing!! ahhh that was my first "pick your battle" moment as a new mommy and I am thrilled we have come through it.

Now we are settled into a routine... she sleeps well and only fusses when hungry. She has her times during the day when she is wide awake and so interested in the world around her. I cant stand it, she is sooo cute. I still look at her and cry because It's just so amazing. I don't deserve to be her mommy... I am beyond blessed!!! Brad is doing amazing also, he wakes up with us at every feed and warms the water helps with diapers... he's already a great daddy. I just wanted to update really fast, hope you enjoy the picture up top. My beautiful 1 week old :) who is starting to wake up gotta go...

Love,

Tara & Jocelyn

She is Here...

2009-07-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

So this may be the longest post ever so feel free to take a break and come back later to finish the whole story haha :) Like I said she is here... our sweet baby Jocelyn Faith is snuggled up on my chest in her new Moby Wrap as I type this out! To pick up where the last blog left on... On baby watch day 2 - AKA Sunday was more of the same I mentioned on Saturday. I had contractions pretty much all day off and on and continued to lose parts of my plug the only new development was what I thought was possibly a leak of amniotic fluid. So I went back and forth all day trying to decide if I was leaking fluid or not. So after much talking we decided that evening to go into L&D triage and just get checked. We arrived at triage that night and long story short no leak of fluid. The nurse did check my cervix & I was 4cm dilated and "paper thin". I was having intermittent contractions on the monitor but definitely no active labor, so they monitored Jocelyn for a bit & sent us home. On a side note - the nurse was so not nice. I had debated about going in at all I was worried about being that woman who runs to triage when nothing is wrong, but I figured I'd rather go and have peace of mind instead of wondering if something was going on. Anyway we walked in she asked why we were there I explained and she said ok. Brad then said to her "would you please tell her she isn't being dumb for coming in". She said first baby? yes... then she makes this face and said "yeah, happens all the time" doesn't sound rude, but she said it in a totally snotty way. Ugh, thanks lady. Moving on... since we were in triage late that night and the contractions continued through the night which meant very little sleep, Brad & I both stayed home from work on Monday. Monday we slept in then spent the day "nesting" haha... Brad rearranged the living room. We vacuumed & cleaned the whole house, my mom even got in on the action and came over to help and mopped all my hardwood floors THANKS MA :) Needless to say we went to bed early that night and I slept like a rock! I got up and went to work on Tuesday, Brad was anxious and really wanted me to go ahead and start maternity leave but I felt like I needed to go in at least one more day and get things settled and let them know I was officially out on leave. So that's just what I did... Tuesday got some loose ends tied up at work and told the powers that be I was starting maternity leave the next day Wednesday. Oh also Tuesday my in laws drove in from Kentucky. We visited with them that evening and slept in Wednesday AM. Ok Wednesday is where things start happening haha... stick with me!! Wednesday brought a lot of the same as days before... lots of walking! Also my sister had her annual appointment with Dr. Stalnaker & happened to mention to him that she hoped she see him again soon. Since we were sitting on ready. She also told him we had gone to triage on Sunday and were definitely 4cm dilated and had been having contractions. He told her "what? I wouldn't have sent her home... I'm on call this weekend if she is ready tell her to go on in, I'll induce her" I'm sorry what??? So that got our brains going. I always said I didn't want to be induced just because I was ready to meet her or because I was puffy & miserable, but good Lord was that tempting. So we started praying and took a walk. I just said Lord please let something start up so I can have a reason to go into the hospital then if I need help keeping labor going then so be it, but I didn't want to go in and be induced with no signs of labor. We decided to just sit on it and see if things got going. Brad took his dad to hit some golf balls around 3 or so. Around 4pm I noticed the random contractions were more regular like 6-9 minutes apart. I thought eh this has happened before didn't think much about it. Then it became obvious they were staying steady and actually getting closer. Woo hoo.... I called Brad and said babe I think something is going on. I got a shower and finished packing up our hospital bag. I was praying the contractions would continue and would be productive. By the time we arrived at L&D triage around 6:45 the contractions were coming every 1-3 minutes. At this time the pain still wasn't unbearable. The contractions were definitely uncomfortable and I was having to stop and work through them. We got checked into a room in triage and from the time we walked in the door it was a great experience the nurse was so sweet. They got me on the monitor, Jocelyn was fine and the contractions were definitely there and regular Praise the Lord. The nurse came in and checked me I was 5cm dilated yay!! She said let me call the Doctor on call and get some orders. Brad said so we are staying? Please don't send us home... she said "oh honey you are having a baby, your not going home.. she is in labor". WOW talk about reality check haha!! So things happened pretty quickly from there, Dr. Lyle came in and asked some questions and started the paperwork. He said the plan was to get me admitted and into a room then get me comfortable with an epidural, go ahead and break my water and see how things progressed. Sounds like a plan!! Shortly after the nurse came back in and got some more info from us, Brad stepped out to make the calls that had to be made to my parents, his parents, his sister who was driving in and of course all our friends.

Once I got settled in the labor room, my new nurse came in her name was Kerry she was great!! Before anything started while she had me fill out all the paperwork & sign my life away we discussed the use of Pitocin. I wanted to let things progress naturally if possible she agreed. So the plan was as long as I was progressing we wouldn't do Pitocin, if after the epidural labor started to stall out (which is a common thing) then we would start Pitocin. She started my IV and drew labs etc. We had to wait on a liter of fluid to go in & my labs to come back before I was allowed to have the epidural. At this point the contractions were a little more intense, but still bearable. I wasn't in desperate need of the epidural yet, BUT I was scared to wait too long because what if I passed the "point of no return" haha. EEk!! So around 1030pm the labs were back and in came the anesthesiologist!! I was not nervous because I'm familiar with the process & have helped hold/assist for tons of LP (lumbar punctures or spinal taps), but the moment she got everything set up and I was in position I nearly had a panic attack haha. I can honestly say getting the epidural was the most painful part of childbirth for me. I think if my contractions had been more painful I wouldn't have felt that way, but I was too afraid to go through birth without it so I could deal with the pain for a few brief moments. And that's all it was, shortly after she was set up and ready to go... then she was done & cleaning up her supplies. Yay!! So of course then things were golden. I was tingly weird feeling, but not totally numb I could still move my legs which was great.

So not 5-10 minutes after the epidural was in Dr. Stalnaker came in to break my water. That was weird like peeing in your pants but a whole lot more fluid haha. And once the doc broke the water & left and guests came in I could still feel fluid coming out. Try to have a conversation while that's going on haha. TMI? sorry it gets worse than that so if that bothered you stop reading now!! haha!! While breaking my water, he checked my cervix at this time I was 6cm yipee!! At this point Dr. Stalnaker asked the nurse if she had started Pitocin yet, she explained to him what she and I had discussed. He was fine with the plan. So now it was a waiting game... we had tons of visitors so we stayed busy. Around midnight or so the nurse came back in to check my cervix I was 7 cm, woo hoo still making progress just slowly. So she said she would check me again around 1:45am or 2am, at which point I was still 7cm. This is when we decided to go ahead and start pitocin at the lowest dose to see if that helped get things progressing again. By this time most of the visitors had left just a handful of family was still hanging out. Somewhere between 3-4 I started to feel sick to my stomach, so my sister stepped out to ask for a washcloth to wipe my face, the nurse popped in and said what kind of sick? I said like I am going to throw up haha... she said let me check you again that can be a sign it's getting close to time to push. So she checked my cervix yet again and said ohh you are 9cm nearly 10cm and I can feel the head she is low. At this point the nurse said I could technically start pushing, but it would be a looooong process and I would get exhausted quickly... so she increased the pitocin drip & helped get me sitting up a little more in a position that would help Jocelyn drop more. At this time thank the Lord I couldn't feel contractions but according to the monitor they were back to back and big!! Epidurals are amazing... haha :)

After a short while I was starting to feel some "pressure" yipee... the nurse came back in and said ok you are ready lets do some pushing. So the room cleared just my mom & Brad were there. *side note- The entire pregnancy Brad has said I will be there and hold your hand but I'm not looking. His plan was to stand at the bedside & look up at the wall or my face haha. He couldn't watch when she started my IV and he left the room when I had my epidural. Ok side note over haha... I started pushing and in a couple minutes the nurse said "look grandma, there is the head, she has a lot of hair". When Brad heard this he couldn't help but look then he was hooked haha. He was a trooper I was sooo proud of him he was there holding my leg & counting for me while I pushed. As far as pushing goes the nurse kept saying your doing a great job, but being mostly numb from the epidural I couldn't tell if I was doing anything or not. The nurse suggested a mirror soI could see... earlier I had said no way to a mirror but curiosity got the best of me haha. Once I had the mirror the pushing was much easier because I could "see" what I was doing. Things moved fast & soon the nurse was calling for the doctor & the baby nurse. Once Dr. Stalnaker was in place I only had to push two more times. I ended up pushing for 40 minutes altogether and on July 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 she was born weighing in at 6lbs 11.7oz and was 21 inches long.

She was gorgeous as could be, that moment is sooo surreal. I can't even express in words what it was like to see her be born and have her placed on my chest. To be able to kiss her head & see the little feet that had been kicking me :) Wow... I of course cried, Bradley cried & my mom cried haha. She was perfect, long skinny feet & long fingers. And her cord had a "true knot" in it. She was an active little baby I'm not surprised she tied a knot in her cord haha. As far as I go I had a 2nd degree tear which according to Dr. Stalnaker was "u" shaped & not a straight tear like normal haha. I like to be difficult what can I say haha. Ok this has been the longest post ever... if you actually read this God Bless you :) I wanted to type it all out for me mainly, so I could remember all the details. Here are few labor/delivery pictures to finish it off!!!

Brad & I in triage- about to be admitted!

As soon as she was born!

Our first family picture- Jocelyn holding Bradley finger (daddy's girl already)!

A "wow" moment! I was a mess!!

Baby Watch... Day 1...

2009-07-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Feel free to not read this haha... mostly just so I can keep a running tab of what I'm feeling in case this happends to be the day I'll remember the details later when things get more frantic haha. I slept pretty good last night, as good as I could I guess I should say!! I was up 2x to pee of course (everytime I go looks like I'm losing part of my plug... guess we'll see if that's the case). Then a couple times during the night woke up to a contraction. They are going on plenty just faaaar apart. An hour or so, then 45 minutes then 2 hours. So very sporatic still, but they are there so we're just waiting. Oh and of course I gotta mention I was up at 5:45 STARVING... I couldn't ignore it and go back to sleep it was keeping me up haha. So I robbed a granola bar from our hospital bag stash that's over by the bed!!

Speaking of hospital bag we are all ready my camera batteries are charged & ready. Jocelyn's clothes are picked & in the suitcase also :) Also Brad & I clothes are ready, it's just sitting open waiting on last minute stuff to toss in when it's time to go!! yay!! So I'll update again later.... Just wanted to make notes as the day goes on. We just got home from taking a walk, just had a contraction, again just 1 though. So I'm cooling off right now eating some pineapple yumm!! I'm just trying to enjoy this day and not feel anxious or "wish" the day away. We are going to go to Sam's in a few to grab some groceries... oh and of course an ICEE :)

Appointment Update- Big News!

2009-07-17T17:13:00.001-07:00

This morning was my weekly appointment, now as a brief reminder of my appointment 1 week ago I was 0cm dilated and 0% effaced. Boo. So today I go in and the doc does the tummy measurement & doppler- All was well. Then time for the cervical check... The doc checks me and said "dang girl... big time". I said big time what? haha. He was smiling so I assumed good news, he then proceeded to tell me that I was "3cm borderline 4cm dilated" and 90% effaced. He also commented that she was "right there" he said he could feel her :) I must have said WHAT?? are you serious like 8 times. He said yes I'm serious. He asked if I had been having a lot of contractions. I told him I notice more at night, but not so much during the day I'm busy at work up and down at work etc. He said well start paying attention if they get timable you need to head to Triage! Yes Sir!!! Don't have to tell me twice.

So I'm thrilled... all day today I've had contractions! Nothing consistent but lots off & on. I'll have a few 20 minutes apart then nothing for an hour and half etc... So I'm just watching and noting the time to see if they are getting closer together. Yipee!!

And let me tell you I have my priorities in line... I left work & headed straight to my favorite pedicure place to meet my mom to get my toes done. I am not going to the hospital with my feet looking like this that is for sure! So I'll keep everyone posted right now I"m headed in the room to pack our hospital bag for real then we are going to the grocery store to get some food & drinks our pantry is bare!! So I plan make laps around wal mart and then walk more when we get home to help get things moving :) Pray for progress & a baby soon... I'm too excited to sit and wait weeks longer!!!

Love,

Tara & Jocelyn

Post appointment & 36 wks update!

2009-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

So as you may know my first big "get checked" appointment was last Friday. And to answer the question of am I dilated? Effaced? thinned out? progressing at all?.... I'm "nothing, nope don't' feel anything" haha... but let me explain....

oook so here is the story.. I get checked in, get in the room, get all half naked (awkward) haha, then the nurse pops her head in and said "oh yeah Dr.Stalnaker has a resident with him is that ok...I say sure fully thinking Dr.S would be the examiner not the student" Anyway... student comes in ALONE. He looks at my chart asks me stupid questions that are clearly noted on the paperwork he's reading like... "is this your first baby?" "how far are you now?" then says is the baby moving alot I say yeah SHE is super active... "oh ok you having a boy or a girl?" haha uhm SHE is super active.. So whatever he measures my belly no biggie... then grabs the Doppler and can't find a heartbeat for like 5 minutes seriously. She's like a big baby in there how can you not find it... he's way up high like in my belly button haha. I say she's laying over here point to the left side & she's head down so maybe your a little high. He finally finds it... nerd! So then he leaves & comes back in a minute with Dr.S. Dr.Stalnaker lets him do the Group Beta Strep swab no biggie... then he says ok he'll check your cervix now. UGH... I should have spoken up but I didn't so he "checked" me and ouch (it was not that bad when Dr.S did it early on in the pregnancy) and the guy seriously poked my thigh first before he made it to his destination.. He must be brand new in the OB rotation. So Dr. S says anything? he then replies "nothing, nope don't' feel anything". So long story short I may be nothing or I could be something and I don't think that guy would know the difference haha. I do have a bladder infection and have to start antibiotics for a week. But otherwise things are well. We left that morning with "homework" from the doctor... sex & walking. haha ok Doc thanks :) And I realize whether I was "nothing" or 2cm... none of that really matters, because until Jocelyn is ready to come, it's just a waiting game! A game that I am more than happy to play :)

He gave me the spill about You need to have your bag packed & ready... if your water breaks you come straight to the hospital... not home to pack & shower. Straight here. So get your bag packed & in the car haha! :) yay.... it's getting real :) Now to get to work, we have much to get done in our house!!

Sunday marked my 36th week, I don't know why but the magic number 36 was the week that felt like it would never come. I always just though wow I can't wait one day I'll be 36 weeks... and here I am :) 36 weeks just always seemed to be that week that you need to be ready, because at this point things could happen at anytime. I realize that it's much more likely to be closer to 40/41 wks but a girl can dream right??

So this weekend we got a good bit of stuff done to be ready for our baby girl to arrive. I with the help of my mom got the linens for her bed washed & ready to go back on the bed. Also the linens for the bassinet which is now in our bedroom yay! Last week Bradley rearranged our bedroom so the bassinet will fit and it's much more roomy feeling in there now so double yay! And then with the help of some great friends (Christy & Rachel) Jocelyn's clothes are sorted through by size. Then washed, folded & put away ready for her to get home and be ready to wear them. On a side note... baby clothes smell so good fresh out of the dryer :) I stopped to smell every piece I folded. haha. I know I'm a nerd! Now there isn't a ton left to do, I also finished all of Bradley & I's laundry and started the hospital bag last night. I plan to finish packing that tonight. I went to walmart & got some snacks for Bradley so we won't have to raid the vending machine at the hospital & also grabbed a few travel sized items so we can have everything packed & not have to try to scramble to grab stuff from the shower when it's time to head to the hospital :) yay!

It all feels so close, yet so far away at the same time. I know she will be here in my arms before I know it. I am trying to treasure every wiggle & stretch I feel inside my tummy!! She is running out of room in there and sometimes it feels like she gets frustrated and kicks and tosses then gives up haha. Poor baby girl. Hang tight won't be long now :) Sorry for the looooong post alot to catch up on :) here is this weeks belly pic. Enjoy!!

~35 wks~

2009-07-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the week to week update for 35 wks... "She's nearly there! Most 35-week babies weigh 5 pounds or more and rarely experience major complications if born before they officially come to term. She baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight."

So that's what my girl is doing for the next 5 weeks. I am loving that fact that now I can say "NEXT MONTH I'M HAVING A BABY" or when someone asks when are you due I can say first of next month!!!! yes I know I am a nerd, but it's exciting stuff what can I say?? So the breakdown on numbers is as follows

-35 days until due date

-25 working days until due date

-5 days until my next appointment

-0 days until I'm ready to meet my daughter!!!!!!

These days I'm feeling very pregnant haha... I'm still not "miserable" or "ready to have this kid out of me" in that way... yes I'm so ready to meet her, but I'm coping with the new aches & pains ok I think. Now that being said I hold the right to change my mind anyday and say I quit haha :)

So that's pretty much it for now... I'll update after my appointment this Friday!! This week be praying that come Friday my body has started to get ready and when I get checked Friday I'm at least a little dialated/effaced. I know that doesn't mean I'll be having a baby anytime soon, but it would just be exciting to know there is progress :) So below is this weeks belly picture and then a side by side comparision of two weeks ago and this week. I was wanting to see them close together to see if I had "dropped" but looks like I just grew haha!! Anyway here they are!!!

Love,
Tara & Jocelyn

34 weeks down, 6 weeks to go!!

2009-06-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

YAAYYY for 34 weeks... I'm trying to celebrate every last milestone, because at this point they are flying by and before I know it my daughter will be in my arms. It's so crazy :) My baby is the size of a cantaloupe this week and weights 4 & 3/4lbs according to the week to week pregancy website! The other thing the 34wk article said was that I once again fatigue is setting in and I'd be increasingly uncomfortable with every passing week. So to the article and every person who keeps telling me I'm about to be "miserable" I say... I don't accept it! I was thinking this morning in church why do I just have to accept that I will be hating the next 6 weeks of this pregnancy. I have had an exceptional pregnancy thus far and see no reason why it won't continue :) Sure things are hurting and my body feels the toll of the extra weight that goes with carrying a baby, but I am far from miserable or sick of being pregnant and for that I thank the Lord. It always helps that when I am feeling more tired than usual is usually when Jocelyn is the most wiggly... a sweet reminder that my girl is growing and quickly running out of room haha!

Not much new to report since I just updated after my appointment earlier this weekend, nothing has changed! My focus over the next couple weeks is prep prep prep... I am starting my hospital bag list, washing all of Jocelyn's adorable clothes and bedding, finishing up buying few necessities before she arrives & buying a few necessities for Daddy & I - PJ's and slippers for the hospital, etc. It's all becoming so real...

To wrap it up a few more pictures... I just realized I never posted pics of the carseat/travel system. So that's below, I know it's not "girly" by any means but I loved the colors and it feels neutral to me, so it can be used in the future with a baby brother :) Next is the newest pair of shoes Jocelyn got from her Mimi tonight haha, she will never lack for stylish shoes that is for sure!! And then my usual 34wk belly picture too!! Enjoy...

And just for good measure I thouht I'd document my hand/ankles, because I'm sure in a few short weeks they will not look the way they do now and I want then to be remembered as they were haha :)

**Love, Tara & Jocelyn**

Baby Shower #2... belated

2009-06-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post pictures from my second baby shower on the 19th... so here they are :) Of course first is me and my plate of YUMMY food! Seriously best salad I've ever had...

My BFF/Mom and I

Rachel & I

Amanda & I... and of course Benjamin & Jocelyn too!

The greatest shower co-host ever Christy and me :)

Me and my pink balloons...

The hostest with the mostest... Veronica!

My sister Wendy & I

"34 week" appointment update

2009-06-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

This morning bright and early I had my "34 week" appointment... Somewhere along the way I got to where my appointments were the Friday before I actually advance a week. Oh well... not that you care just thought I would pass that little tid bit along haha!! So this AM I walk into the office and let me say I'm loving being that lady that is finally pretty far along and look it haha. What I mean is I remember being 16 weeks and seeing these very pregnant ladies waddle in and thinking wow, I'll never be that far along haha. And here I am waddly and large :) yay!!!

So the lady checks me in and first thing as always is weight and according to their records/scale I lost 2lbs. Seriously?!? I blame being busy over the last weekish & then being out at camp yesterday all sweaty and drinking TONS... I mean TONS of water like 3 liters over 12 hours at camp. Next up is blood pressure- 96/68, which is fairly low. I am usually on the low side, I haven't had high BP since the very first visit praise the Lord.

Into the room we go and in a few minutes Dr.S comes in. He looked rough haha, he said he'd had a long week and it showed haha! First he commented on my blood pressure and said be careful, pregnant women are at a higher risk of passing out especially with a low BP. He then went on to say it always happens at Walmart or Target... so he said don't go shopping he didn't want to get a call saying I had passed out haha. Next was the belly measurement and my tummy was measuring "perfectly" he said and if he had to guess he'd say she'll be a 7.5 pounder!! I asked if his weight guessing skills was as good as his boy/girl guessing skills, cause those aren't great haha... he laughed and said he felt pretty confident since my measurements have been steady that she'd be about 7.5lbs so average weight I guess :) Notice he didn't make any "what great skin"comments, yeah Dr.S I saw your eyes gaze upon my stretchmarks haha it did not go unnoticed! Then it's time for the doppler, her heart rate was 133 strong & steady. Just like that we're done, he said make sure she's moving around alot which she is, no problem there. Next appointment is in 2 weeks, at which point he said "I'll check you then and see if anything is going on" which means... well you know what that means. EEk are we already to that point??? And appointments are going to be weekly after that. It all suddenly seems sooo close :) which is great, but I can't believe it's almost here already!!

So there is my appointment update and for funsies I thought I would share the massiveness that is now my belly haha :) Enjoy... and notice the belly button is now "flat". I have a deep belly button so I didn't think I would every "pop" but it looks like it's going to happen before the next 1.5 months are up. Oh and ignore the dumb expression on my face...I have no excuse, I'm just a nerd!!

33 wks... belated!

2009-06-21T20:41:00.001-07:00

Tonight I sat in Jocelyn's nursery and wondered for the millionth time... Am I really about to be a mommy? That funny feeling in my tummy, is that really my daughter trying to find room to wiggle around? It is so close at this point and I know it's real, but I still feel like I need to pinch myself because it all feels too good to be true. If I haven't said it enough Thank you Lord for allowing this miracle to happen to us! We are so blessed not only because of the baby girl but because of our amazing friends and family who already love Jocelyn so very much!! I am overwhelmed by all the gifts we've gotten. Tonight I put all her outfits in the dresser & set up the diaper champ, etc. In the next couple weeks I'm going to wash everything and put it away for real and of course get our "hospital bag" packed... eeek I can't wait!!!

So for the official 33wk update- physically I'm hurting more and more in my pelvic area. Some days it makes me limp all day. Please don't think I'm complaining. I'm not, I know full well this is part of my body getting ready to have this sweet baby girl. Right now I'm looking at my tummy and watching her knees/feet/elbows something poke out of my stomach. Its very alien'ish haha :) But I love every minute of it!! My belly is super round and I'm loving it :) I still only have the same 2 stretch marks - no more, no less haha. On the weight gain front... I'm just at 20lbs gained since finding out I was pregnant. Everyday I wake up and weigh and the scale is a bit higher than the day before. The end is near and my baby girl is growing :)

Here is a little blurb from my weekly pregnancy website...
This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening.
Impressive stuff... huh? She's over 4lbs!!! I'm so ready to see her face and kiss it off haha!!! Well enough rambling here is my 33 wk picture I took on Sunday, enjoy!!

Baby Shower #1, 32 week update & more...

2009-06-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

Whew what a week it has been... Busy work week then Bradley was getting ready to head out of town. Something I had a hard time with, I swear I cried like 3x Thursday night. I have definitely noticed being more emotional the last week or so, I'm trying to keep it in check & not be a crazy lady! But it certainly takes a lot less to make me cry the last few days than it did before haha.

Today marks 32 weeks... I still can't believe how close it is. Each new week starts and then suddenly I feel like it's Sunday again. Time is flying by so fast...! The big news for week 32 is I have gotten my first stretchmark.. yes it's true, Blah!! Around noon on Saturday my sister in law Yo arrived and we chatted and hung out for a bit, she looked at my bare belly and commented on the no stretchmarks. I went to get ready for the party and when I got out of the shower (like 1 hour after we looked at my tummy mind you) there it was or there they were I should say. I was like What the??? where did that come from haha. It's quite funny now, at the moment I was quite shocked & mad about it to be completely honest. I've still been putting my belly cream on since then, hopefully some of the goodness will absorb!! I'm kinda proud of it now, it's like my first "battle scar" of motherhood :) Otherwise I'm good, feeling the same as last week. Definitely feel like my pelvic bones are "loosening" up and getting ready to do what they are supposed to do in a few weeks haha. Below are my typical 32 week belly pic (ignore my undies showing out of the top of my pj's haha) & the stretchmark picture too of course haha :) oh and the bright red thing by my belly button is my belly piercing scar.
So Saturday was my family baby shower which was great. I had a great time, I love all my aunts & cousins, grandma & sisters haha... everyone. We had some yummy food & an amazingly beautiful cake (Thanks Brie!!!!) Also my sister in law Brittney brought packs of white onesies for everyone to decorate they came out adorable!!! Here are a couple that were made...

I can't wait to see what she looks like in these, they are soo sweet :) It was a great idea!! I got so many great gifts, diaper bag, baby bath with baby wash etc, diaper caddy full of supplies, tons of clothes, homemade quilt, some great books, the diaper champ, baby hangers and tons of diapers and wipes. It was so great, I'm even more ready for Jocelyn to be here now. Here is a link to the rest of the pictures from the shower here...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129896&id=637900802&l=a953faa83b

Oh Here are just a couple of the belly pictures that Melissa took for me. And may I say I LOOOVEE them haha, they are so sweet. There are a ton more just thought I'd give you a peek :)

Time for bed... Thanks for reading :)
Love,
Tara & Jocelyn

First Childbirth Class & appointment update

2009-06-12T11:09:00.001-07:00

Hey all... This past Tuesday 6/9 was our first "prepared childbirth" class. I was excited/nervous about going. Just getting to learn some stuff and the fact that I'm actually far enough along to be in a childbirth class makes me Ssooooo happy haha. We got there and got checked in our first observations were 1) the teacher is a nut, but as the class went out a funny very relatable nut it turns out so yay! and 2) everyone appeared to be our age or right around. There was only one very young looking girl in the class, otherwise mid 20's was the majority. We got signed in and put on our goofy name tags and took a seat. (side note thank God my friend from highschool Meghan was there with her hubby, it was nice to have someone to whisper and laugh with that's in your position, not that I can't do that with Brad but he isn't pregnant therefore kinda not the same) To start the class we went around the room and said our due date, who our doctor was and if we were having a boy or a girl. I was happy to see there was only 1 person there due before me, I was going to be that eager woman who was in the class way to early haha. So after all the introductions were done my sweet hubby leaned over and said.. "hey, your the 2nd furthest along and have the 2nd smallest belly in here" haha. One of the many reasons I love him :) Otherwise class was pretty basic for a first class. Sitting positions and exercises mom's to be should be doing to help prepare body for labor etc. Nothing too intense or "gross" per Brad. Oh yeah and they made the Coaches all say why they were there, everyone was basic to support my wife, to understand better what she is going through, blah blah blah.... all true stuff I'm sure but not very sincere sounding haha. So Bradley's turn comes and he says "I'm Brad, I'm here because I quite possibly have the weakest stomach on the planet and want to know what I'm in for before I get in the delivery room. I'm pretty sure I'm going to puke or pass out" haha. The whole class laughed, another reason I love him. For better or worse Brad is Brad, he says what's in his head and there is no mistaking his true feelings about something!! I'm bummed he's going to miss the next 2 weeks of class cause he is supposed to be out of town :( Boo.. I'll have to fill him in on the gross details when he gets back!

Well today I had a 2 week appointment with my doc. BP was good low as usual so that's a good sign, pee sample was great and I didn't gain any weight since my last 2 week appointment. Weird, cause I've been eating I swear haha. I was getting ready to leave the exam room and the doc asked if I had watched the epidural film yet, no sir, do it today he said haha. Ok, he said then it's done just in case you need it haha... Well I wouldn't mind if she was early, just not this early!! So I will only have 2 more 2 week appointments then it's every week... 36weeks will be here before I know it. The time is flying by!!!

I am also soooo happy to report that TOMORROW is my family baby shower!! I can't wait. I'm hosting at my house it's going to be a blast. My mom bought me this sweet little sundress to wear, my friend Brie is making Jocelyn an amazing "oh the places" themed cake and I get to spend the afternoon with a group of amazing women!! Love it :) I'll post pictures from the shower soon and of course my 32 week update on Sunday with a brand new belly picture. She's growing, it's getting large haha!!

Ohhh and I promise I'll post my professional belly pictures soon, they are so great!! I love how round my belly is haha weird I know, but the pictures turned out amazing!! ok that's all for now, time to work for a couple more hours then I'm off yay!!!!

Love,

**Tara & Jocelyn**

31 Weeks! Seriously??

2009-06-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

I know I say this every week but where does the time go? I only have 9 weeks left!!! Single digit weeks... wow!!! So I'm sleepy and waited way to long to update this blog so here is my super fast update.

My next 2 week appointment is Friday, so I'll update again then.
My first baby shower is Saturday, I can't wait!! To be with all the best women I know and to eat some yummy cake, take tons of pictures!!! Soo excited.
Next weekend is my 2nd baby shower again so excited for all the same reasons haha.
Jocelyn has hiccups alot these days, Bradley got to feel them tonight! It's soo cute, my big girl is practicing breathing.
I had belly pictures done last Thursday and I can't wait to show them off... so sweet!!
My back pretty much constantly aches, the real pain only comes sometimes so it's very tolerable at this point.
I'm still under 20lbs gained... as of this AM I was just at 17lbs gained since finding out I was pregnant. If I keep it up and only gain 1lb a week from here on out I'll be under my 30lb goal! Yes!!!
Tomorrow night is Prepared Childbirth Class #1... bring it on :) Brad is ready to be grossed out haha!
Newborn parenting class was pretty basic, glad that one is over!
Still no stretchmarks, thank you Lord!!!
I love feeling little feet in my ribs, can't wait until she's here and I can bite those little toes!!!!
Sunday I ate icecream & dill pickle flavored chips together- I'm obviously pregnant haha!

Ok there ya have it for now, and below is my 31wk belly picture from Sunday. Enjoy :)

30 weeks

2009-05-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ahh I am finally 30 weeks, that's so insane! That means one week from today I'll be in the single digit weeks until my Jocelyn gets here. In some areas I feel so ready for her to be here like TODAY, then in other areas I'm scared to death and want to keep her in my tummy for alot longer. Now I know she'll soon be out of space and the second is not an option haha!!

Friday I had my first two week appointment. The wait time/check in time was longer than the doctor time haha, which is not a bad thing. That means things are still great. He said again he was proud of my weight, made another comment about my tummy not having stretch marks, my tummy measured right on track for my weeks, my GTT results were "excellent" and my vitals were all good. So it basically went that fast and he said ok you need anything? I say no, he says see you next week!! Oh I'm sure he says it to everyone but he also said "you need to come teach a class on how to be a good pregnant patient" Still made me feel good even if it's lip service haha :) So I'll be back there again in 2 weeks to do it all again!

Physically, the heartburn is definitely much more often than it used to be. I've noticed it to be worse on days I drink soda. Today I went soda free & only had water and no heartburn yet ::knock on wood:: haha! So as much as I enjoy my cheat of a soda here and there it might be worth it to skip it for now. I'm definitely not comfortable anymore... I'm not huge & miserable yet, it's just getting hard to get comfy in bed to fall asleep. Tylenol PM's are my friend

Tomorrow night is our first baby class- newborn parenting! So everyone be in prayer for Bradley, I know he's thrilled about this upcoming month full of classes haha. I told him I'd spare him the breastfeeding class... so just newborn parenting & childbirth class. Not too bad! And June is going to be such a great month, very busy but both of my baby showers are coming up and at the end of this week I'm doing maternity pictures!! I know it's a bit early to do that, but I'd like to do them now while I'm still stretch mark & puffiness free haha. And still have the confidence to show my bare belly!! Right now I'm headed to bed but first here are a few pictures :)

~~ 29 Weeks~~

2009-05-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

29 weeks... 29 weeks!!!!! haha is that a crazy number to anyone else??... no? just me? OK then!! With every passing week I am more and more amazed that this is really happening, that my baby girl is growing and in a few short weeks will be ready to be born!! As in she will be here in the flesh, not kicking me on the inside. I can't wait to see her face, to bite on her little toes, to see if she really has hair hehe, maybe enough for a bow? or at least enough to look girly :) I'm so ready to see her. Brad and I argue because I want her to have baby blues like her daddy and he wants her to have "m&m" eyes like her mommy! Either way she is going to be a gorgeous girl no doubt about it!! And with her MiMi, she will be a well dressed baby girl with the best selection of shoes you've ever seen haha :)

I just have to take a paragraph and brag about my husband!!! He has been amazing through this pregnancy. Very caring and doting, when I'm laying around all comfy on the couch, he makes sure things are in my reach so I don't have to get up. And when my back is hurting he heats up the "warmy blanket" for me :) He's been just amazing, I am so blessed. He is so encouraging too and tells me at least weekly that he's proud of how I've handled things so far. He says he is so proud of my weight gain and how controlled I've been. On the flip side of that he doesn't judge when I do have a weak moment and eat an extra serving of something or make a run to get ice cream, just because I want it haha. Yesterday I was whining because something hurt and I said "sorry to be whiny" he said babe you are allowed to be whiny you have a baby in there and stuff has to hurt I know... and in a few months that baby is going to come out and you can be even more whiny then cause you have every right to be haha. Isn't he the best?!?

Ok so here's brief update on me & Jocelyn before the belly picture... Things are good, she is still super active and wiggles around alot. I have been feeling good overall, I'm starting to get sore, my pelvic bones hurt now...(well hurt is a strong word, they are sore feels like alot of pressure). I think things are adjusting to make ready for her arrival in a couple months. The heartburn is back on a daily basis now, but it's nothing a few tums and a glass of milk can't fix :) As of now my rings still fit and I haven't noticed too much swelling in the ankle area as of yet. I've been super focused on drinking a ton of water this past week and it has shown on the scale. I've been eating as usual, but just by taking in so much extra water I had 2 days last week where I lost weight, weird! So I'm hanging just below 15lbs gained right now. So we'll see how that holds up in the upcoming weeks! I have my next OB appointment this Friday so I'll update after that!!

Enjoy the picture and please excuse my poor posture & back fat roll haha :)

Big Girls Need Love Too!!!!

2009-05-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening Bradley & I went to the scan lab to take a peek at our little girl. I love going there the people are so nice and the students crack me up. Jocelyn either loves it or hates it I'm unsure, but I know she is super wiggly while we are there haha. I think the pushing on the belly with the probe annoys her, she's feisty like her daddy!!

While we are there we found out a couple of things... she's still definitely a girl haha. The teacher of the class (who is a high risk OB sonographer by day) said "ooh she's obviously a girl" then she quickly looks at Brad & I and said do you know what your having haha. Brad said "WELL WE DO NOW!" She was scared for a minute but we laughed and then she realized we already knew!! Also my girl has HAIR!!!! yay no bald baby! Even if it's just peach fuzz still... I wanted my girl to have hair! The scan tech said look at that hair, I didn't see it at first so they pointed it out for me. So cute little wispy hairs.

And last but most importantly if you look back about 2 weeks ago I posted after being at the scan lab that they measured Jocelyn's femur & belly to determine her weight which on 5/6 was estimated to be 2# 3oz... so cute! So last night again they did the measurements and just 2 weeks later she is estimated to weigh 2# 13oz haha. My girl gained 10oz in 2 weeks!!!!! That makes me laugh. So after measuring her the teacher said based on her weight I'd guess her due date is August 2nd, that means she measuring 1 week ahead. My big girl! Brad loved that, he hopes that means she'll come a week earlier than expected haha!!

So that's all for now, I'm feeling great today! Yesterday I had heartburn up to my eyeballs, but after some tums & a glass of milk this AM there is no heartburn in sight. Hopefully it will stay that way! She is a super active baby, it makes me laugh when I'm just sitting here in my office working (or blogging.. whatever) how much she moves around in there. I think Bradley & I are going to have our hands full!!

**Love, Tara & Jocelyn!**

28 Weeks!

2009-05-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today is day 1 of my third (and last) trimester... the beginning of the end! I know I've said it a million times but this whole pregnancy has been so fast & so slow all at the same time. I'm so enjoying being pregnant here are the things I love...

My big (mostly beautiful) belly!

Sweet comments & smiles from strangers, like the random lady at the driving range the other day who said "you look great, are you feeling good?"

The wiggles & kicks from my sweet Jocelyn- now in the morning when Brad & I are laying there before we get up, I always say... oh Jocelyn is awake now haha. She's a busy little girl!!

Taking my weekly belly pictures, it's so funny to watch the pictures in order quickly and see my belly grow.

Going to the doctor's office every 2 weeks now and hearing her heartbeat & knowing I have a strong healthy little person inside me.

Oh and speaking of doctor visits last Friday was my last 4 week appointment, now they will be every 2 weeks. At that visit I did my Glucose Tolerance Test to make sure I didn't have gestational diabetes. When I got all checked in the nurse brought me the sugary drink to start, it has to be drank within 5 minutes. So I figured lets get this done with fast haha... I started chugging. I had it downed in 3 minutes whew. It wasn't terrible it was icy cold & tasted like a too sweet orange gatorade. The worst part was just not eating that morning... my stomach was growling so loud haha! So drink was in then in came Dr. S. The usual vitals look great, weight gain great, how do you feel, etc. He measured by belly & listened to the heartbeat both were fine. When I pulled up my shirt to reveal my tummy for measuring & doppler check he said Ooh no stretchmarks, you have good skin! I said thanks I'm using tummy lotion twice a day haha, I know it probably doesn't make a difference but it makes me feel better & it makes my tummy skin soft!! Oh and I checked my results online and my glucose at 1 hour after my drink was 109... woo hoo :)

So my baby girl is 28 weeks today... I can't believe that 30 weeks is only a couple weeks away! In 3 weeks I'll be down to single digit weeks until due date!! WOW! Ok sorry haha :) just so exciting. This past Friday after my appointment I ran down to the education office and signed up for childbirth classes, newborn parenting classes & breastfeeding class. June is going to be a busy month. Between the classes and 2 baby showers, plus Bradley is going to be out of town for a week in June aaaaannnnd I have arthritis camp at the end of June. Whew! So I'm going to be a worn out come July! haha.

Ok enough chit chat below are pictures... first is the usual 28wk belly shot, excuse my bright red tummy, we spent the day at the beach yesterday and I'm guilty of not putting on enough sunscreen! Brad is convinced I boiled Jocelyn haha!! And second is the beach picture :) and last but not least is a kinda belly picture from after my birthday dinner with friends at the Melting Pot, Yummm!

Here Yolanda... are you happy??

2009-05-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

Ok so as I was so NOT sweetly reminded tonight I haven't updated this week haha. So here it is!! Today I am 27wks and 4 days pregnant. I feel as if my belly has popped out quite a bit more than it was last week... see pics below for proof haha!

This week has been great. I am having a very uneventful (thankfully) pregnancy... praise the Lord! This week I'm feeling the toll an extra 13lbs puts on your body. Most of the day I'm fine, I just feel the drag by bedtime for sure. I've been sleeping with my body pillow and heating up this moist heat thing to put on my back which is heavenly :) Other than that no problems or complaints.

This weekend is my 27th Birthday yipee!! So tomorrow night we are going to fancy dinner with some friends I'm so excited!! But before the festivities can start, tomorrow AM I have my OB appointment including the Glucose Tolerance Test... yummm sugary drink coming right up haha. So that is first thing in the morning then me & my mom are going to do some retail therapy... yay!

Ok no more chit chat I'll post again soon and below are some in between weeks belly photos for Yo since she is soo far away and doesn't get to see my bump in person ;) I love you Yo!!!!

26 weeks and sick... blah!

2009-05-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

So this has been a crazy last week or so... First Bradley was sick. Poor boy, horrible cough, sneezing, sore throat the works! Poor guy was not sleeping at all, he was trying to not keep me up all night so he would get up and go in the living room when he had his coughing fits. Poor man :( So I was being the good nurse & wifey and taking care of him, all the while keeping my distance. I mean I love you babe but I don't want to get sick haha. So he finally starts feeling better mid last week. Thursday I woke up with a scratchy throat kinda ick feeling, nothing terrible I worked then went home. Thursday evening I suddenly felt like I had been hit by a bus... all over achy, fever, sore throat. Oh no! So I called in Thursday night, figuring I'd sleep in take some mucinex and feel better in a couple days like Bradley... or not! haha. Friday night at 2 am I was up coughing so hard I felt like I was going to knock poor Jocelyn out. Brad ran to the store at 2 and got me some cough medicine and I was able to get some sleep. The same stuff continued Saturday all day, so I got in touch with my doc who called in an antibiotic for me, So I called out for today too. So here I am now on Monday still coughing and hacking, but at least it feels like it's starting to break up. My chest isn't so congested now, Praise the Lord!!! I'm getting up and going to work in the AM even if I have to wear a mask & sanitize my hands every 23 seconds haha!!

So sick stuff aside, I'm doing ok as far as pregnancy goes. I'm feeling more & more pregnant with each week that passes. My belly is growing and my baby girl is too. She is stronger every day, as evident by her kicks & punches haha. I love that Bradley can feel her all the time now. She still loves to kick his nose or whatever is closest when he blows zerbets on her haha!! And get this she actually woke me up the other night with her wiggles. It was one huge one that made me eyes fly open and say "what the??" before I came around enough to remember oh yeah I'm pregnant and that was just my daughter kicking me haha! Jocelyn also has a new favorite past time of bouncing on my bladder! I can be fine just sitting around and suddenly feel like, oh no did I just pee in my pants haha. Thank goodness this isn't the case, but it sure feels like it when my girl does whatever she does to it haha. I love her already, she is so fiesty!!!

Here is some stuff about Jocelyn's grown for this 26th week!!

By this week, your baby's crown-to-rump length is approximately 9.2 inches. Remember, that is only from the top of his head to his bottom and does not include his leg measurements! Your baby weighs almost 2 pounds and is beginning to put on weight.

After a month of having his eyelids sealed shut, your baby begins to open his eyes again this week. Your baby's eyes are almost completely developed.

Your baby's blood circulation is completely functional. The umbilical cord system continues to grow and thicken as blood travels with considerable force through the body to nurture the baby. The placenta is now almost equal in size to the baby.

That's so amazing!! She is already all perfectly formed in there!! So insane, she's just gaining some weight, waiting on time for her debut. haha!! Oh and I just noticed my ticker is down to double digits... 97 days?? seriously??? wow!

** Love, Tara & Jocelyn**

25 Weeks

2009-04-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

"Your uterus has grown quite a bit bigger this week. The top of your uterus is between your bellybutton and your sternum. Your uterus is about the size of a soccer ball now! " Uhm... a soccer ball?!? That's crazy, no wonder I'm definitely feeling "bigger" these days haha.

Well I'm not feeling so hot so this update will be short and sweet... I'm great & Jocelyn is a very wiggly girl. I love feeling her kicks & rolls... she is most definitely active in there and it's the best feeling ever. I am feeling good, more back pain these days! I'm going to go get a body pillow that might help support my belly & knees when I lay down at night. So hopefully that'll help some :) Other than that I've been great, I'm feeling like a cold is coming on despite my best efforts to let Brad keep it to himself, I'm sneezy & coughy ugh. Lots of OJ & rest is what the doctor ordered for tomorrow so that's what I'll do :) Before I go here is my 25 week belly pic Bradley took before we headed to the beach on Sunday... Love, T...

PS- Notice the huge vein running down my belly... it's crazy I'm so "veiny"!

24 week appointment

2009-04-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from my appoinment. Everything went great as usual... have I mentioned how blesses I have been throughout this entire pregnancy?? I was supposed to have my appointment at 7:45 this AM (much easier that early, hardly any wait I'm usually in and out). But while I'm getting ready for work Dr.Stalnaker's office called and said he had an emergency c section and could I come in at 1115 instead. So I said sure. I went down for my appointment at 1115 and that waiting room was a zoo as I expected it to be. I know how easy it is for a clinic to get behind so i anticipated it would be rough haha.

I finally got back to see the doctor and he used the doppler the heartbeat was great. Next was the tummy measurement which was 23. So as I understand it your cm from pubic bone to fundus (top of uterus) should align with the number of weeks you are. I am 24wks 5 days today... so looks like my girl is dainty haha :) Then he said how did you do on your weight while frowing at the chart... uh oh! Then I was pleasantly suprised with "oh great, girl you are jammin on your weight gain. I am proud of you". Haha did he just really say he was proud of me? I'm beaming. I know it sounds so vain to be this wrapped up in weight gain, but I'm so aware of how easy it is to not notice the increase and I don't want to have gained 70lbs by the time Jocelyn is born. It was hard work last year losing that 30lbs so I don't want to put any extra work on me than is necessary after she's born while I'm trying to lose the baby weight.

So anyway we wrapped up the appointment by talking about my GTT - glucose tolerance test which will be at my next(and last) 4 week appointment. I asked what was the acceptable high end and that is 140. I wanted to know and make a note because of my job I get access to the program physicians use to look up lab results etc before the printouts are sent to the offices. So the evening after I take my test I'll be able to cheat and see what my number was before my followup visit haha. I know I'm impatient so sue me! So that was it... I'm going back for my GTT & next 4 week appointment on May 15th, which is the week before I'm actually due to go, but I already have that day of work and that way incase the nasty sugar drink makes me queasy I won't have to deal with working. Alright, back to work I go...

Love,

*Tara & Jocelyn*

24 weeks down... 16 weeks to go!

2009-04-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hey again... I know I am way overdue for an update! And it took a kick in the butt from my sister in law... Love you Yo!! to get me going again haha. So today my baby girl is 24 weeks!!! And she is an active little girl. I feel her throughout the day at random times, but is the most active in the morning before I get out of bed and at night when I first lay down :) To feel those wiggles & kicks is the most indescribable feeling.... I want it to last forever!!

We had a stressful week last week between work and other dramas I was an emotional lady for sure. Last week was the first time I felt like I had to bite my tongue and or say sorry for being ugly to people... and I hate that. That's totally not my temperament so I blame hormones & hope this week is a vast improvement over last week!!

Every week I'm physically feeling a little more pregnant. Most days my energy and body feel fine, the same as I did pre pregnancy, but I do have days where I feel like my tummy is super heavy and my back & legs ache by the time I get home. I am so blessed though to have the job I have where I get to sit most of the day at my desk. That definitely helps keep the back pain in check. Other than that my only other pregnancy symptom that has been obvious is heartburn. Which I hope means my girl is growing a gorgeous dark head of hair (yeah I know it's an old wives tale but a girl can dream right??). My weight is still holding on the lower end which is great considering I was overweight to start with... I'm really trying to keep my gain at 30lbs or below. My gain is climbing I'm a little over 10lbs gained right now, but that is perfectly fine with me.

So other than that I am well, she is great and Brad is great also!! Brad actually is getting to feel her more and more now. He was blowing a "zerbet" (ie. raspberry) on my tummy the other night and she kicked him in the nose haha. His face was priceless that was the biggest he's ever felt her... his face was so great I wish I had a picture of it. Then he puts his face back down to talk to her and she kicked his nose again haha. Now it's there little game, she's beating her daddy up on a regular basis these days :)

My next doctors appointment is this Friday. My appointments are so fast, he measure my tummy, looks at my vitals, we hear the heartbeat on the doppler and then he says any questions... and I'm out the door haha. After this Friday's appointment I have one more 4 week appointment then I'm every 2 weeks :) Oh and my next 4 week appointment will be my Glucose Tolerance Test, I'm going to schedule my appointment for an afternoon so I can go home after it. I'm sure I'll be ok, but I've heard some people say they were queasy after drinking the syrupy drink. So as a precaution I figure may as well! Ok onto the pictures I've done enough rambling...

my 22wk 6day bump at the beach...Jocelyn likes the beach she kicked the whole time we were there!!23 week belly

24 week belly

"A day that will live in infamy..."

2009-04-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Just kidding haha... it's not as bad as Pearl Harbor obviously, but this morning I hit the 10lb gain mark! :) My girl is growing so fast, today I am 23wks and 2 days!!! I've been up and down, right on the edge of 10lbs gained, but before this morning I was safely in the 9's haha.... It's so amazing to watch as my body changes to accommodate this little one!

I will update soon for real with lots of new pics, for now I'm at work and just wanted to share my news! Hope everyone is having a great week!!!

2009-04-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today marks 22 weeks... that means only 18 weeks left!! I finally have less weeks left to go than weeks I am along, if that makes sense. I'm loving that I look/feel pregnant now and (on some days..) people can tell I'm pregnant and not just heavy!! Just last week at work one of my patient's mom eyeballed my belly and then POKED IT with one finger and said "oh my your not... are you??" I said yes I am haha... and thank the lord otherwise wouldn't that have been sad!!

So once again I'm great :) haha... still feeling fine more than not. Only little backaches here and there, nothing terrible. We walked again tonight, I'm proud of myself for at least doing that much during the pregnany. I know it's not much but anything is better than nothing right?? Weight gain is still good, still slightly under 10lb weight gain since I found out I was pregnant.

Oh and speaking of here is a belly photo comparison from week 4 (the morning after we found out we were pregnant) and week 22 which was today.

That's so crazy to me... I guess because it grows so little every week it kinda sneeks up on you haha. I'm still religiously putting on my palmer's cocoa heavy cream with all the good vitamins and stuff that are supposed to keep your skin looking good. I'm praying the belly stretchmarks stay away. I've already got them on my legs and hips from years ago that are all but faded now... so if I get some new ones there I don't care, I'm just hoping to keep them away from my tummy.

I'm headed to bed, our AC is broken right now. So on top of having a bit of a sunburn from laying out on Saturday it's hot & muggy in here ICK! We have 3 fans going and the window open right now. I'm hoping to get some decent sleep despite the heat. So night,night!!
*Love, Jocelyn & T*

21 Weeks

2009-03-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hey again.... So week 21 finds me much like week 20, well maybe a tiny bit larger than last week :) I'm still feeling great, I am enjoying pregnancy so much. I am so blessed to have had such an uncomplicated pregnancy thus far. I'm not feeling puffy or swollen, my rings still fit fine. The only thing I've had to adjust from pre pregnancy is sleep style, I just realized I'm more comfortable (meaning less back pain in the am and at night) if I sleep with a pillow between my knees. Helps tremendously.... but even that isn't a complaint just an adjustment!!

I can't believe how great things are coming along for the nursery and for Jocelyn in general :) This week I'm buying a very "gently used" previously loved medela breast pump yipee!! I'm so excited... it makes being a first time mommy a little easier knowing I've already got alot of the essentials and I still have 19 weeks left before she gets here.

Wow... 19 weeks left!! I am so ready to meet my little girl. The kicks and pokes are getting stronger and more frequent. It's so great actually feeling her every day. I can always feel her first thing in the AM & right before I go to bed at night she is so wiggly. It's amazing how much I already love her and she has only been around a few months haha :)

Ok I'm off to make fruit dip for a work thing tomorrow... Below is my 21 week belly pic, enjoy!!

Nursery Furniture: Round 2

2009-03-27T21:38:00.001-07:00

Tonight my mom called to tell me that not only had my bedding arrived, but also my dresser!!! YAAAAAAAAYYY. So of course we had to put it together tonight! Here are a few pics of the bedding, the dresser by itself and the whole room (excuse the mess and tools everywhere it's been a busy week haha). I'm trying to refrain from washing the bedding and putting it on right now, cause I know it's still four months before she'll be here so no rush! But it's soo darn sweet I wanna see it in the crib all made up :) eeek I can't wait. So here are the pics...

Half Way anatomy scan & appointment

2009-03-26T18:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we went for the big half way appointment and anatomy scan. And this update will be short because there is nothing to report haha.. which again is a great thing. The scan was fun, our little girl is so wiggly. The scan tech measured her thigh, belly & head to calculate her weight and she is 12 oz. She's so tiny, not even a pound yet. She also measured her little feet and it was like 1.5 inches. It's so amazing that she is all formed just in there growing!! So after the scan we went to see the doctor and he said "well everything looks great", he checked my weight said oh your finally gaining some weight..(ugh yeah haha). Speaking of as of this AM on my scale I'm up 7.5lbs since we found out I was pregnant. There wasn't much else said at the appointment... Basically everything on the ultrasound was great and I have no complaints so there isn't alot to discuss. I'll have 2 more four week appointments then it'll be every 2 weeks. woo hoo.

The only other thing I have to report without going into too much detail is that last Sunday my 20wk birthday my boobies let me know that they are ready to do their mommy duty of making milk... enough said :)

20 Weeks

2009-03-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

HALF WAY!!! This is my 20th week... isn't that insane? maybe not to you, but to me this is just craziness. So this week is pretty much like last week as far as how I feel. The only new thing I've noticed is a "full" feeling in my tummy, almost like I just finished a huge meal but this is an all day feeling even when I'm starving. Guess that is here to stay, my girl is growing and my belly is making room. Tomorrow is my next 4 week appoinment and my anatomy scan at my doctors office! I can't wait I love seeing my little girl on the screen, plus now that I can feel her while I see her it's so amazing!!

So yesterday our changing table came in, so tonight my Mom & I got to work on it and here are some pics along the way...

Me and the big mess, trying to read the directions haha!

when taking the pic above this, mom cracked up and said that guy is on your shoulder haha...

Ooohh ok good so Jocelyn doesn't have to put out her cigarette while I'm changing her diaper

The finished product...

I can't wait for the dresser to get in later this week, I'll post more pics of the nursery once I get more furniture in there... I'm so excited :) Ok I'm off to bed!! The last picture is of course the 20 week belly picture, well it's 20wks and 2 days cause we took it tonight instead of Sunday, but still you get the idea. Night all!!

Nursery...

2009-03-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Can I just say I am sooo excited to see Jocelyn's nursery come together... it's going to be soo great :) And Becaue I have the best family in the world my mom bought us the changing table we wanted...

And then this other person in my amazing family (who is far to modest to release his/her name) has purchased us this dresser to match...

I love them... now the only furniture left to buy is a big comfy chair for mommy to sit in :) haha.. I'm on the lookout for this one, but it's gotta be perfect so I plan to shop it around for a bit.

In other news... there is no news! I still feel great!! My belly is definitely getting bigger and the numbers on the scale are rising. And guess what I am LOVING it!!! I want it to hurry up and slow down all at the same time! I can't wait to hold her and kiss her little button nose.

Oh and my stomach is itching like crazy which I know further proves it is indeed growing haha!

19 weeks

2009-03-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

So at 18 +1 I felt her kick for the first time... and just now like 10 minutes before I posted this I was feeling her in there and I wanted to see if I could feel from the outside. I put my hands on my lower tummy pretty firmly and I felt it... so Bradley put his hand on there and he felt her kick!!! His face was priceless... I can't believe he got to feel it. Only once, cause then of course she is being still! Haha I'm just amazed he could feel it. My baby girl is so strong in there... she is a tough cookie :) Ok well I gotta get some sleep, below is my 19 week picture my sister in law took for me tonight. She insisted on taking it to make sure I was "sucking up" she is loving that my belly is most definitely poking out now haha... so here it is!

And now I'm headed to bed... I can't explain how sweet it is to fall asleep to these sweet little pokes/kicks in my tummy. Grow strong baby girl, we love you!!!

18 Weeks

2009-03-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok well first things first, there is the 18wk belly in all it's glory haha :) Enjoy! or shield your eyes and run away screaming... whichever!!

I hope Jocelyn know's how lucky she is to have Bradley as her daddy... he ran to walmart on Monday to grab a few things while I was at work. He calls me and says "babe I couldn't help it, I had to get the girl something" haha... Below is the picture of what he bought her. He is soo stinkin cute, I can totally picture him wandering around the baby department at walmart reading onesies and deciding on what size etc sooo sweet!

Then of course the picture below is a little something I picked up on EBAY... love it :) She'll fit in this just in time for football season woo hoo!!! GEAUX TIGERS!

So week 18 is only 3 days in and boy has it been a doozy already haha. The biggest news of all is I FELT HER KICK!! Monday night I kept thinking what is that? is that a kick? gas maybe? haha... So I laid down in bed and grabbed the doppler (thanks again Christy). So while laying there very still I could listen for that unmistakable "baby kicking around in there noise" and see if I felt what I thought I was feeling. And as you can guess, I did feel it. A few big ones.. my little girl is so strong already. Soo sweet I can't stand it... this week she is the size of a sweet potato. I can remember when she was a sesame seed, then a blueberry, then a strawberry... my how she has grown.

In 2 short weeks I'll have my next 4 week appointment which is the "halfway" point so before I see the doc, I'll have the anatomy ultrasound scan. Yay I can never get enough of watching my girl bounce around in there haha. Good stuff!

Only other news is I finally broke the 5lb gain mark, I've officially gained 5.5lbs... which looking at my belly picture I know that seems totally not accurate. But I started this weight tracker program online when I found out I was pregnant and have been loggin in my weights every couple of days.

Ok time to watch a movie with the hubby,

Love B, T & J

17 Weeks

2009-03-03T19:38:00.001-08:00

Here is my belly picture from Sunday aka 17 weeks!!

So week 17.. where has the time gone? I know that the first half of pregnancy probably feels faster because for the whole first month or so you don’t even know for sure if your pregnant or not! But even still I feel like when did I get almost halfway through this pregnancy?!? Slow down I don’t want it to be over so quickly. Although I am soo ready to feel those little pokes & kicks… grown big Jocelyn so I can feel you!

Speaking of growing as you can see I certainly am haha.. one day I’ll put all my belly pics side by side so you can see the “growth” right in front of your eyes. I finally broke down and actually got a real pair of maternity jeans from Kohl’s. I put them on and oh I was in heaven… up until now I’ve been wearing my regular jeans with a rubberband around the button to keep them up… but even those were starting to squeeze especially when I was sitting down. Ouch. I’m happy though I weighed this morning and I’m at 4.4lb weight gain since the day I found out I was pregnant!! My book says for 17 weeks the average is anywhere from 5-10lb gain at this time. So yay! The only bad thing is I at some point the weight will all fly on at once haha and I’m trying so desperately to keep stretch marks away!!! Haha…

So this is what I’m feeling this week…

*Heaviness down low.. which I know will only get heavier haha!

*Some heartburn here and there I can definitely relate it back to what I eat so I’m drinking plenty of milk with my spicy stuff to help that situation.

*The absence of moving in there.. haha, I’m so excited to feel those first movements!! Which I know she’ll do soon as she gets good and ready!

*COLD- I thought pregnant ladies had like a built in furnace? Haha what’s up with that I’m wearing 2 shirts & a hoodie to work in my office and am still freezing during the day… maybe the furnace doesn’t start until later?

*I can definitely tell the days I don’t get my full amount of water in, it’s crazy the difference a little hydration can make in your body!

Already Spoiled Rotten!

2009-02-26T17:41:00.001-08:00

So I did a teeny bit of shopping today :) I had to buy a few girlie items now that we know again what we are having haha... I couldnt help myself I was at walmart buying milk, cheese, etc and my cart magically drove to the baby section.. what the?? haha. So I bought a few cute summery things as you can see above.

Yesterday when I posted too I was so excited I forgot to mention I did have another 4 week appointment yesterday morning... it was super fast I was there at 7:45 and was walking in my office at work (which is 3 floors above my doctors office... How's that for convenience?) at 8:05. Yeah FAST! Basically went like this... check in hi nurse Kathy, here is my urine sample (a must at every appointment). Step on the scale ooohhh lost 0.5lb since last 12 week appointment 4 weeks ago, yipee. Ok the doctor will be in to see you in a moment. Four minutes later the doc is in, measure the tummy, he reports no growth there, how am I feeling, great! Your blood work was all normal!! ok well see you in 4 more weeks we'll do an ultrasound at that appointment. Alright see ya later! haha yeah that's the long & short of it... super fast, I like my doc he's cool :)

Ohh also check out what Auntie Yo emailed me this letter for the baby girl & a couple pics of what she bought her.

Dear Jocelyn,

Aunt yo went shopping today and bought u something really sweet that she knows u will love! Be good in mommy right now and stay strong and grow big and remember u will always be my lil sunshine!

LoveAunt yo

My little girl is so so blessed, she is very loved already :) Thanks Auntie Yo, can't wait to see you in a few weeks!!! And this weekend mom & I are going shopping for baby stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay!!!

And the ref takes a point away... Team Blue-0 / Team Pink- 1

2009-02-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

No you didn't misread, the first scan was wrong... today our baby showed us that she is unmistakably a girl!!! Pictures at the end of the post to prove it. So here is the story, last week when I said it was a boy that was based on my friend at work scanning me... so now in her defense she is a sonographer but specializes in Cardiology and the machine we scanned on are for echo's etc not OB scans. So that day she said Boy, thought she saw something she wasn't conclusive! We just got excited wanted to know so just ran with it. The thing is I have had an "uneasy" feeling like unsettled about it being a boy. Don't get me wrong I was thrilled that it was a boy, just felt like is it really a boy. I had just been feeling it was a girl for so long...

So fast forward to yesterday my mom said hey T last night I dreamed that we went to your scan on Wednesday and they said this baby is a girl, not a boy!! haha we laughed didn't really think much about it. Then today we're at the scan.. (which is kinda a school so there are 2 students scanning me learning stuff but the teacher is a high risk ob sonographer) The teacher says you know what your having I said well we were told it was a boy, she said ohh no I'd say girl. I'll tell you for sure in a few when I scan. Haha and that is exactly what she did... she moved the wand like 2 seconds and there it was my babies girly parts in all it's glory!! No mistaking the "hamburger bun"!!!!

So there ya have it, sorry we are being wishy washy, but she really is a girl! And without any further chit chat here are some pictures!!

My baby girl's profile- look at that sweet nose!

Check out those toes!!

Her girly parts zoomed in haha... wow!!!

16 weeks

2009-02-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

I am 16 weeks today, it's so strange to think in 1 month I'll be halfway through my pregnancy already!! Part of me is so excited for what's next... feeling kicks, getting a big ole belly, holding my sweet boy in my arms, but part of me is sad this is going by way to fast. I waited sooo long for this, it needs to slow down some!! Since I have yet to figure out how to stop time I'm doing my best to just enjoy everyday and little ache pain, stretchy feeling I get :)

Speaking of which, I'm feeing the stretch down low these days. Last night I woke up and went to roll over and thought I pulled a muscle or something... sudden strong muscle pain in my lower tummy.. I actually said OUCH haha! Ooohh and I thought I felt some "popcorn" the other day, it felt like a tiny thump from the inside way low where baby is hanging out and not bubbly like gas, but "pokey" haha. Maybe he's getting stronger and kicking me.

In other big news, the big painting is all done in the nursery, thanks to my mom & amanda!! It looks amazing in there. I'll wait to post more pictures until we have furniture and stuff so it's not so empty, but I love it. It turned out just like I wanted it to!!!

And the scale finally budged this AM... I have now gained 4lbs :) woo hoo, I'm eating when I'm hungry not eating when I'm not. And trying to add in those "extra 300" calories in a healthy way. I've been drinking tons of milk, it's good for me and double bonus helps with the heartburn!! yay!

Ok so here are few goals for this the 16th of my pregnancy...

1. Drink more water... I'm great with this goal during the week and while at work, not so much once I get home.

2. Walk around the beltway in our neighborhood 3 nights this week. I feel great once I do it and curly loves it. It's just fighting off the urge to be lazy as soon as I get home from work.

3. Cook dinner... This past week getting ready for our worship team gathering and trying to finish the nursery I came straight home from work every night and painted then went to bed haha.. we ate fast food every night. shame shame!

4. Clean out my closet & pack up some of these clothes that no longer fit. So when I try to get dressed it's no longer depressing haha.

Here is my "belly" picture from this morning... love, T & baby boy!

We're having a BOY!!!!!!!

2009-02-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

TEAM BLUE!!!!!!

So today we had an ultrasound Bradley & my mom were there. Baby totally wouldn't cooperate at first he was sitting indian style with legs crossed at the ankles. Which of course totally blocked all our attempts at peeking at privates haha. So after we had been scannig for a few I said I really gotta pee, should I wait. The ultrasound lady said nah go ahead go really fast maybe the baby will move around and we can get a better view. Well let me tell you after I went to the restroom the baby had plenty more room to stretch out and that he did. In just a few minutes after we started scanning again there it was the unmistakable "turtle head" haha. The scan lady said you see that daddy? You should have seen Brad's face it was priceless he was grinning ear to ear! He's already making plans to buy his boy a mini dirt bike and of course a drum set haha. I'm so excited.

We don't have a boy name settled on yet, so that's still a work in progress I'll keep you all posted on it!! I'm a little nervous that maybe we didn't see what we thought we saw haha... I know the chances of misreading a boy part is alot less likely than a girl part, but still have a fear that it was a mistake haha!! Maybe it was cause where I was laying on the bed my view wasn't as good... Brad and mom say it was defnitely there!! I'm giddy :)

I just wanted to post a few "teaser" pictures of the nursery... I am loving it, I'm am beyond thrilled with the way it is coming out!! It's even better than I thought it was be... I can't wait to see the finished product and start buying some stuff now that we know it's a boy room!! Oh I don't know if I mentioned it before but the "theme" is Oh The Places You Will Go by Dr.Suess. Green hills, bles skies and weird funky castles & people haha!! Ok enjoy the pictures. Love you all... Tara

Fun Stuff

2009-02-16T22:19:00.001-08:00

Project Nursery is underway :) I'm sooo excited, all the "hard" stuff got done tonight... we did the not fun painting, now just accent painting is left. I'll post pictures as soon as all the painting is done. I still only have a crib at this point, but we've got plenty of time.... about 6 months to be exact!! So tonight my mom, Amanda and I had a blast starting on the painting of the nursery. I loooove my theme it's something I've had in my mind for years and I'm so glad it's something gender neutral since we don't know what the bambino is yet.

Speaking of that if I can't find out what the baby is this week at work sometime, I made an appointment at the scan lab for next Wednesday the 25th at 4:30 so we'll definitely know then... if the baby cooperates haha! I can't wait... I can't believe we are about to find out already! It feels so soon!! I can't wait to start buy clothes... all we've bought so far are packs of diapers and wipes haha, boring practical stuff!!

Ok it's way late for me, I'm headed to bed... night!!

First Belly Picture...eeek!

2009-02-11T05:26:00.000-08:00

So today I am 14wks and 3 days.. yay! Where has the time gone, it's so fast & so slow all at the same time. So weird. All in all I am feeling fabulous these days. Much more energy and while I am still ready to go to bed at 9pm and often fall asleep watching a late movie with friends haha I am not dead on my feet come 5pm or cranky in the AM after sleeping all night long. So that is good news :)

Physically, while the scale holds steady at 2-3lbs weight gain the last couple days I have felt as if my belly is making it's presence known to the world haha. Infact it seems others thinks so too, because 3 times this week someone has said either "I think your starting to show" or "do I see a belly?" haha.. To which I responded yes you do see a belly haha, weather or not it's a baby belly, that's debateable, but there is most definitely a belly there!! My only ache/pain this week has been what I think is my sciatic nerve... very tender, shooting pain low right back top of right butt cheek. ouchie... it's not so bad in the AM but as the day wears on it get's quite achy.

I have to brag on me a little haha... Monday & Tuesday this week I have gone home from work changed clothes and walked a big lap around the beltway in our new neighborhood. My parents have measured it out before and said it's 2 miles. Sweet!!! It's been so nice around 5:30 in the evening and Curly is loooving the time outside too.

I can't wait to feel kicks... when did you mama's start to feel them?? The other day I felt a fluttery thing, kinda like a vibration (not like gas or a tummy growl) just a weird "what was that" feeling haha.. so I was unsure, I know it's still really early though. The funny thing is when I lay down and play with Christy's dopper I can find the heartbeat right away now and it's thumping right away then I'll hear a loud buzzy noise like your hear if you are just moving the wand around, but I'm not moving so I think I can hear the little one kicking around in there.

Dr. Stalnaker said at last visit that not this upcoming visit schedule 2/25 but the next 4 week visit we could do a gender scan and see what we were having. I was like another 8 weeks I'll be 20 weeks by then... Gah!! I can't wait that long!! So if we can't find time at work these next 2 weeks to see what's going in there then I'm scheduleing an appointment at the scan lab as soon as I'm 16 weeks!!! Yay!!!

Ok last paragraph I swear... sorry I didn't mean to ramble, but I dreamed 2 nights ago I had this beautiful baby girl with tons and tons of dark hair like me and Bradley and she had her daddy's crystal blue eyes. I was in heaven... so I truely mean it when I say I don't care if I get a boy or a girl. It seems most are convinced it's a girl, so we'll see if everyone is right!! At my last appointment Dr.Stalnaker said I think it's a boy while he was doing the dopper thingy.. I said oh yeah? How often are your right... he laughed and said "yeah not often" haha. So we'll see in a couple weeks!!

Ok be sweet to me, I know my belly picture below is mostly belly not much baby to it, but I figured eh why not share. Love you guys!!!

Fried Pickles...

2009-02-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

I have a crush on the cook at Beef O'Brady's... why you may ask?? Because tonight we ate dinner there and eventhough fried pickles are no where on their menu I thought I've been wanting some so bad, no harm in asking anyway. So our waiter said some cooks make them just depends!! I said will you "pretty please ask him to make some??" haha. About 10 minutes later here comes the man with a basket of yummy fried pickles... I was in heaven!!!

13 wks 3 days

2009-02-04T19:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Hi... Sorry so i've been a slacker lately, we got all moved in there is still some unpacking to be done but the big stuff is where it needs to be and the crib is in the "nursery" I love it. I have a little newborn diaper sitting in the crib haha I go in there sometimes and picture my sweet little baby laying in the crib... I love it, yes I know I'm a nerd and I don't care.

I've been feeling great lately, soreness of boobs is all but gone newfound size however is obviously here to stay and then some haha!! I had another 4 week appointment last Friday it was great according to the Dr's scale I've gained 2lbs since pregnancy... Dr.Stalnaker said that was perfect which was good to hear. On my home scale I flucuate from 2-3 lbs which is so crazy to me because my jeans no where near want to fit anymore, how can those few tiny pounds make such a big difference? The rest of my appointment went well they are fast not much to discuss at this point... he used the doppler found the heartbeat in like 2seconds it takes me forever at home haha. Talked about bloodwork that I had to have asked if I wanted to do screening for down syndrome, cystic fibrosis etc... no thanks! I'm believing for a happy, healthy pregnancy and even if my baby is special needs it won't change a thing in my mind so no thanks! I don't want some stupid lab work to sit around and worry about.

So meanwhile I'm just still loving life and having a hardtime believing this is real... I know that sounds crazy but I feel like I'm pretending then we get an ultrasound or hear the heartbeat on the doppler and I think wow it's really happening all that time we prayed and cried and wanted this.. here it is :) I can't help but smile we are soo blessed!!!

so not much else to report at this time, I can't wait to feel my sweet baby move around he/she is an active little thing you should see the ultrasounds the babe bings around in there like you wouldn't believe. I had a scan at work last friday and Brad got to come up and see... he was amazed. He kept saying look at him jump haha!! so cute!! Then today at work we were bored so SCAN TIME haha... and today the baby was sucking his thumb... It was the sweetest thing. Here are some pictures below the first one is 12 weeks check out the elbow! And the second one is today, we captured a quick view of the thumb sucking!! I'll update again soon :) in the meantime...
love,
t

Slacker part 2...

2009-02-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I know I haven't posted in forever, I promise I'll try to put in a real update tonight. I have a good excuse though. We finally moved last weekend. It was the longest weekend of my life haha. Brad and I were sooo tired. We couldn't have done it without Johnny & Amanda and my Parents... And I love them all so much. Escpecially my mom and Amanda, who cleaned and cleaned my old and new house I'm so blessed to have such great friends!!! Ok I'll try to post tonight and put new ultrasound pictures up. I had another 4 week appointment and all is well. I'm great, baby is great... yay!!

I love my job!!

2009-01-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

I am soo blessed... my clinic is right down the hall from cardiology where they have 3 ultrasound machines & rooms for echocardiograms etc. Well one of the sonographers is such a doll, she heard I was pregnant and said ooohhh I'm going to set up my machine haha!! So we had a fun impromptu scan today and it was so amazing. The baby was soo wiggly, the little legs were kicking and his little head was bobbing up and down. I couldn't believe how much the baby was moving around in there... so sweet :) We even counted 5 little fingers on the hand!! So here's a couple pictures & a video I took of the heartbeat with the doppler the other night.

You see that sweet little face?? And I already love that round tummy haha

The wave... see the 5 little fingers?
And I can't get the video to work oh well you get the idea :) haha

Slacker?

2009-01-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

I've been a slacker lately... So here is a brief update!

I'm feeling good :) My last real bout of nausea was last Friday. That one was a doozy, I actually got sick and left work early. Since then I've been feeling great! I'm hoping this is what "they" were talking about with the icky symptoms fizzling out around 12 weeks!! Yay!

Last week while Brad was out of town I drank a whole gallon of Orange Juice by myself... eek! Lately OJ has just been one of those things that always sounds good to me.

Today I'm 11wks 3days - and I've gained 3lbs... normal? not normal? I dunno??

Last Friday I found the baby's heartbeat with the home doppler (thanks again Christy!!!)... It was so amazing. And not that I didn't feel "connected" before, but it made things feel more real. That I can run in there and hear my little "bump, bump,bump" whenever I want is so amazing.

The last week of February I'll be 16 weeks and we'll get to find out what we are having... is it just me or did that get here really fast??? haha

I've been taking "belly" pictures for weeks just so I can look back at them later and I'll post one as soon as I'm more pregnant and less fat!!

My hubbys is amazing... he makes me toaster strudel while I bum on the couch haha :)

OOHH We got a bigger rental house... and we move in 1.5 weeks. EEEK!

... and on that note, I gotta go get some stuff done :)
Love,
T

the year 2027?!?

2009-01-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

I came across this today.. isn't that crazy?? I can't even imagine what life will be like in the year 2027...

Congratulations! Your Due Date Is Sunday, August 09, 2009
Your conception date was most likely Sunday, November 16, 2008

You are in Week 11 of your pregnancy and your baby is 9 weeks old.

Your Second Trimester will begin 2/8/2009

And your Third Trimester will begin 5/10/2009

73 days down, 207 to go!

Fun Birthday Facts
Your baby's birthstone will be Peridot or Jade (Married Happiness)
Your baby's Astrological Sign will be Leo
Your baby's Flower is Gladiola or Poppy (Orange, Red and Light Green)
Your baby will be born in the Chinese Year of The Ox
This time next year your baby will be 23 Weeks Old!
Your baby will start kindergarten in 2014,

be old enough to drive a car in 2025,

finish high school in 2027,

and will graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year.

Can you imagine?

My Healer...

2009-01-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

This song was "my song" while we were trying to coneive... and now I can't hear it without crying. We sang it at church this morning, it's just so amazing! Jesus is my healer I felt so broken... I didn't know what was "wrong" with me, but I finally began to just put my trust in him and leave it there. Once I did that I just kept professing I was fine, my body was fine I was going to have a healthy baby... and soon. And sure enough it happened!! So today we sang this and the words are just so powerful. I couldn't help but smile through tears because nothing is impossible for Him and never before now have I realized just how much so he holds my world in his hands. My precious baby is not mine for safe keeping, I've already given him/her back to the Lord. So here are the lyrics it's so great!!

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe You're my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You're my Portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus You're all I need
My Healer, You're my Healer

Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands

Amen!! haha In other news I'm 10 weeks now wooo hooo which means my sweet baby is the size of a !! Isn't that just adorable?!? and he/she weighs 4 oz that's equal to 4 paperclips haha. So tiny. I'm very sleepy and I think I'm about to nap with my hubby. I'll update again soon...

9 weeks

2009-01-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

Eventhough I don't like Olives.. I'm so glad my sweet baby is no longer a "pinto bean"! So this past week brought much excitement and nausea as well. I consider myself supremely blessed to not be nauseated all day every day and only 1 day of actual vomiting. Today I ate a handful of saltines and drank some juice before I got out of bed and that helped alot! So just as I was afraid it seems the key is snacking all day. So I went to walmart and got some not so bad for me snacks to keep at work so when nausea strikes I'll have something to nibble on.

This past Friday was amazing. I keep watching the video of our baby's heartbeat over and over again. It's so comforting and surreal. I still can't believe it some days... How did we get to be so blessed, why are we able to experience this miracle. I feel so underserving sometimes. I'm just enjoying every moment, time is already speeding by I can't believe I'm already 9 weeks. Next Sunday I will be double digits.. wow!! Also, I weighed this morning and I'm still only 1lb heavier than when I found out I was pregnant. Of course according to my jeans you would think otherwise haha. It's ok.. all part of the process!!!

Oh I'm so spoiled the weekends make me not want to go back to work. I'm loving napping, why can't we leave work and come home to nap every day? I think the world would be a better place if everyone got naps!! Ok I'm going to run and finishing watching Father of the Bride: II haha... cute movie!!

Oh The Places We'll Go...

“Do you trust Me”

Baby Mayeux #2

Breakfast for dinner & berry butter...

Been up in the gym, just working on my fitness!

Dear Body

mercy...

I love saving money!!

My best days are ahead of me...

Seasons Change...

Keeping it Real...

The Stir...

McGuire's 5k Recap!!

K-Love strikes again...

Free Stuff!!

A Day in the Life of Jocelyn...

My First 5K....

babbling...

Resolutions!

The best thing I've seen in a long time!

I can do this too!!!

On The Night You Were Born!

Colorado Vacation... Part 2!

Colorado Vacation... Part 1

On this day in History...

Shutterfly Christmas Cards...

Thanksgiving...

Dreams...

Goals Review

Goals...

Have I mentioned... weekends are the best?!

Back in the land of the living...

recipe input?

weekends are the best!!!

A long overdue update...

an "Aha" moment...

Can't believe a year has passed...

::sigh::

Transitioning to family blog?

8 months old?!?!?!?!?

Small Update..

6 Months Old

5 month birthday!

4 month shots :(

long overdue post...

poor neglected blog...

2 Month Doctor Visit

ugh...

8 weeks

7 Weeks Old

6 Weeks Old

~*Belly Collage*~

3 Weeks Old

2 weeks... belated!

1 week old

She is Here...

Baby Watch... Day 1...

Appointment Update- Big News!

Post appointment & 36 wks update!

~~~35 wks~~~

34 weeks down, 6 weeks to go!!

Baby Shower #2... belated

"34 week" appointment update

33 wks... belated!

Baby Shower #1, 32 week update & more...

First Childbirth Class & appointment update

31 Weeks! Seriously??

**30 weeks**

~*~ 29 Weeks~*~

Big Girls Need Love Too!!!!

28 Weeks!

Here Yolanda... are you happy??

26 weeks and sick... blah!

25 Weeks

24 week appointment

24 weeks down... 16 weeks to go!

"A day that will live in infamy..."

21 Weeks

Nursery Furniture: Round 2

Half Way anatomy scan & appointment

~Belly Collage~

~35 wks~

30 weeks

~~ 29 Weeks~~