20 weeks and still smiling!

Caroline has really shown her personality this week. She has the sweetest squeal and the funniest belly laugh. As soon as we start talking to her, she starts smiling. When we tickle her, especially under her arms, she laughs SO hard. All we see are her toothless gums and squinted eyes. It's so sweet and has a way of making my heart grow a little bigger!

We started cereal a few weeks ago and she loves it. She looks like a little birdy waiting with her mouth wide open. When it comes time to eating, it's serious business. She wants it and she wants it NOW! It's really pretty darn funny. If you take her bottle away before she sucks the "air" she starts fussing. But if she sucks the air, she is fine when you take it away... crazy I know.

She loves her crib! What an answer to prayers. She gets her bedtime bath, gets lotioned down, then her night time bottle, a few goodnight books and then the lights are out. We sing a few songs, put her down with her lovey and she is done for the evening. She wakes up a time or two for her paci but for the most part she sleeps from 7:30pm until 6:30 am. I am so thankful for this. It really stressed me out in the beginning... I have gone from "dreading" our nigh time routine to absolutely LOVING it! It's a sweet time for us. It's a time in the day when I feel like I can totally relax and enjoy my baby girl.

We have had some funny "photo" opportunities this week. Hope you enjoy. PS-I have posted some pictures from Caroline's baptism, January 18. Take a sneak peak at our baby girl's big day!

19 weeks and SNOW!

WOW, what a birthday present. Caroline got to enjoy her first snow. I don't think she will remember it but it sure is nice to have pictures of her. I thought we would move the bear outside for today's picture. Caroline continues to grow and change so very quickly. Her big thing this week is to squeal. It's like she has just discovered this sound. She gets so excited. She also started eating cereal with a spoon. She has done a wonderful job! She seems to really enjoy it. I picked up a children's Action Bible Songs CD for her. I love it. It reminds me of growing up at Trinity UMC singing with Mrs. Jackie. Caroline loves the songs especially "I'm in the Lord's Army." She raises her hands when I get to the part about fly over the enemy.

Mommy and Caroline

This is good stuff!

"I'm in the Lord's Army!"

My baby girl is just precious. My heart grows a little bigger every day just when I thought it couldn't grow any more.

I just LOVE those beautiful baby blue eyes!

Ansley Kate's 1st birthday!

Caroline enjoying the snow...

Caroline's Baptism

Us with Dr. Jenkins and Rev. Chris

Today was a wonderful day for our family. We stood before God with our family and friends and promised to raise Caroline in a loving, Godly family. Some of our very close friends and family were there to support us and celebrate with us. It was perfect! Caroline was an angel! Parenting can be overwhelming, challenging and exhausting. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in taking care of our children that we forget what a true gift our children are. Today, the Lord reminded me what a gift Caroline was and still is to us. Dr. Barry's sermon was about waiting on God and allowing his plan to shine. Praise God that we allowed HIM to work in us. We couldn't imagine are more perfect little angel!

As I think about the vows that we made today, I pray that I will be able to live up to the promise that I've made before God! I pray that Andy and I will be the parents God intended us to be. I am very thankful that we are surrounded by Godly people who love us and love Caroline. Praise God for his blessings!

Us with Granny

Us with Pop and Peep

One tired little bunny!

Getting cozy in Peeps arms

We are so blessed with such a HAPPY baby!

4 month check up

I love this face! :-) Especially those cheeks!

Caroline had her 4 month check up today. She did really well and I was very thankful! She weighs 14 1/2 pounds and is in the 75 percentile for weight. She is 25 1/2 inches long and is in the 9oth percentile for height. She got two shots and one oral vaccine. Luckily she didn't start crying until after the second shot. It was very short lived and she was smiling once again. YEAH! Dr. E was very impressed with her sweet personality. He couldn't get over how happy she was. Her hair is getting thicker and curlier. She has some MAJOR rolls and we have to continue to put cream between them to they won't get too irritated. I love it!

Snoozing before her Dr. appointment

Waking up from her afternoon nap. Caroline went down very easily. She stayed in her crib and played about 20 minutes. When I went in to check on her, she has kicked her "wedge" to the end of her crib, kicked her sheet protector to the side and was all the way at the top of her crib. Too funny!

18 Weeks, surely I must have skipped a week??

Can my baby girl really be 18 weeks old? So much has happened this week in our household. A few weeks back Caroline made the transition to her crib and did much better than we anticipated. Once she got over her sickness, we decided it was time to allow her to "soothe" herself to sleep. Mostly because she started fighting us/sleep while we were rocking her. Let me warn anyone out there, THIS WAS NO FUN AT ALL. We started on Wednesday night and by Friday night, Andy and I were both loosing our minds and in tears. It broke our heart to hear her cry. But by Saturday either she was too tired and she decided to give up because we put her in her crib totally expecting her to start crying and guess what? No tears!!! She went right to sleep! :-) Same thing on Sunday. Monday night wasn't too good but we feel like we are moving in the right direction. When we put her down tonight, once again she was OUT. We have also adjusted her bed time. We now bathe her at 7 and have her bottle and story time and try to have her in her crib by 7:30. Andy and I love this new routine. We have enjoyed the time that we share together as well as going to bed early again. I think the hardest thing for us to adjust to is the lack of sleep.

"Now do I look like a kid who would give my parents that much trouble?"

This Sunday Caroline will be baptised. We are so excited. Many of our friends and family members will be with us to celebrate this wonderful day in her life. Andy and I had to read a book on infant baptism and meet with our Pastor to discuss it. I am so glad we did. It really made us think about what we are doing and how important this day really is. I will be sure to take lots of pictures (actually my wonderful sister in law will be helping me with this) and post hopefully by Monday.

"You're going down Mr. Bear!"

17 weeks

What an interesting week we have had. Caroline went on her first vacation and also her first trip to the beach. She had her first pool experience and she loved it. She started getting sick on the our 2nd night. She didn't sleep well, was a little fussy during the day and just wasn't herself. The nights and mornings were the worst. However, as the day went on, she would get better. We came home on New Years and she still wasn't any better. If anything, she was getting worse. Friday morning, I took her to her pediatrician. She was a little wheezy and Dr. E decided to run an RSV test. Sure enough, baby girl tested positive. There wasn't a whole lot they could do for her other than give her something to help cut the cough, which was great.

My mom spent the weekend with us. We had a great time and Caroline appeared to be getting better. I went to work on Monday and came home to a sick little girl. She wasn't acting like herself and wasn't finishing her bottles. We took her back to the doctor. Praise the Lord her oxygen level had improved but Dr. T did hear some wheezing and decided to give her a breathing treatment. She did not like that at all but it did seem to help. However, it hyped her UP!!!! We had to give her some more this afternoon. WOW, it made her crazy. She has been bouncing off the walls! Hopefully it will be a VERY long time before we have to give it to her again. I am hoping that we are on the downhill side of things.

Otherwise, baby girl has been great. She is still the sweetest little girl there is. Andy and I were laughing tonight at how you can be so tired and frustrated with her one minute and dying laughing the next. When those big blue eyes and pretty long eyelashes flash at you along with a HUGE toothless grin, your heart can't help but melt!

Happy New Year!

The view from our room! God is amazing!

Welcome to 2009! I pray that everyone had a wonderful 2008. The Lord surely blessed us and we are excited to see what 2009 holds in store for us. We celebrated 2008 with some of our dearest friends. Andy, Caroline and I headed to the beach for a few days with JV and Amy, Chris and Charissa, and Wes and Sage and all their little ones. We had 5 kids under 3. Boy did we have fun. I must say that all the kids were extremely well behaved.

Charissa's mom and dad kept the kids for us on Tuesday night so that we could enjoy an ADULT only meal and conversation. It was awesome! We had a great meal and then headed to a coffee house for some scrumptious blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. (Some of the best I have ever had!!)

Wyatt was riding his motorcycle with a helmet.

Caroline's first trip to the pool. She really enjoyed it!

We made it home to find out baby girl hadn't had a good night. She was very restless and wasn't able to sleep. We spent most of the night with one eye open because she was coughing and crying out. We thought we would go to an Urgent Care but decided to wait it out. We woke up to a yummy breakfast made by Wes. We had homemade almond pancakes, eggs and fresh fruit. I felt like I was at a bed and breakfast. We enjoyed a day at the Condo which was very nice and very relaxing.

Our very own chef... Wes

The boys cleaning up the kitchen!

Wednesday night we stayed at home and enjoyed a nice meal at home. After dinner we played Uno Attack. I tried so hard to stay awake but it just didn't happen. I went to bed and woke up an hour later in time to watch the ball drop and watch the fireworks show "lined up and down the beach!" Back to bed. :-)

New Years Eve bath fun...

The group minus John Van

Good bye 2008, hello 2009!

I spent my second year on New Years Day on the balcony watching the sun come up. (A little different from last year. Last year I spent an hour watching the sun rise and enjoyed some time with the Lord basking in his glory. This year I had a baby girl who wanted my company. I did however get some great shots of the first sunrise on New Years.

The Lord has truly blessed up this year. We pray that 2008 was wonderful for you and your family as well. We can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us! We know that there will be a lot of changes and we look forward to them!

Happy Dew Year! :-)