The Best Things...

About Being a Mommy

Tonight as I was putting Katie to sleep I was thinking of how blessed I am to have such a sweet little girl and all the things I love about being a mommy. It's so much better than I even imagined it would be. Here are some things I was thinking of...

* Bedtime- We've been trying to get Katie to sleep at a more regular time and start a bedtime routine. For the last several nights I feed her, change her diaper and put on her pajamas, swaddle her, and then I sing my favorite lullabye song to her (with the song playing on the ipod. I'm not a singer!) It's "In My Arms" by Plumb, I think the second song on my blog playlist. Then I put her down and she's usually out within 5 minutes. The last 2 nights she's slept 9-9 1/2 hours! I play her ipod while she sleeps with the sweetest cd, "Bless My Little Girl" all lullabyes for little girls. So sweet it will make you cry. (But then again, I'm an emotional sap too. LOL)

* Swaddling- She loves to be swaddled and it really calms her down when she's squirmy or fussy. She's so active. When she lays down without her swaddle (especially at night), she will squirm for 2-3 hours! She gets that from her daddy. But once I swaddle her, she's fine. She just looks so comfy all bundled up like that. She reminds me of a caterpillar in her cocoon.

* Nursing- I really thought nursing would be wierd and akward, but it's not. I love that time with her. It's our special time together that is ours and only ours. I feel so blessed that I'm able to nurse her and hope I'm able to continue after I go back to work next week. Even giving her a bottle is great. Just to know that I am meeeting that need for her and comforting her in that way is an awesome feeling.

* Her "coos" and smiles- One of my favorite times of the day is early in the morning. That's when she's most alert and for the longest time. She "talks" to me for a good solid 30 minutes or longer and and smiles a ton. It's amazing when I just look at her or talk to her and she stares so intently then smiles at me. It warms my heart like nothing else.

* Playing with her- She's finally getting to a point where some of her toys catch her attention and can keep her entertained for a while. I love reading to her (we like to read her story Bible) and playing with her on her play gym or have tummy time.

* Cuddling- After about an hour or hour and a half of playing and talking to her in the morning, she's ready for a nap and usually that's when I get back in bed with her, lay her on HER tummy on MY tummy, and we cuddle up for a nap together. I could cuddle with her sleeping like that all day. Or when I hold her looking over my shoulder, her arms wrapped around my neck, she nuzzles her head in my shoulder and sleeps. I love it.

* Bathtime- I think she gets cold because as soon as I put her down in ther tub, she bends her arms and clenches her fists so tight right in front of her chest. She stays this way for her entire bath. Even though she gets cold, she loves her bath. She looks around totally carefree and I love the way she stares at me so contently while I'm bathing her. And she's so cute wrapped up in her little hooded towels with her hair wet and super curly! I also sing the lotion song every day now over and over while I put on her lotion after her bath. (I posted a video of the song about a month ago if you want to hear it. My sister in law made it up for her kids.) She loves it and again stares at me and smiles and sometimes coos while I put her lotion on.

It's so amazing to get to know this little person and all her little quirks, patterns, and to start to see her personality come out. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her and to see how she grows as the months and years go by.

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas Party

Audrey, Caedmon, Katie
Last Sunday our Community Group (Bible study group) had our Christmas party. Two other couples in the group had babies about 2 months before Katie was born. The babies were so cute all lined up in their carriers I had to take a picture.

Ho Ho Ho

Today we took Katie to get her Santa pictures. If you haven't gotten pictures of your kids with Santa yet, let me recommend Bass Pro Shop. For older kids, they have stations set up where they can do crafts and stuff.

They do a FREE picture. If you want more you can order them online. I like that because then family can order copies too. They also let Andy stand to the side and take some pictures with our own camera. Here are the ones we took.

This one's my favorite.

Sleeping in line waiting to see Santa.

I thought it was funny. The camera guy had a reindeer puppet he was using to get the kids' attention so they're looking at the camera. Katie can't even see that far away yet but he was still trying really hard to get her to look at the camera. HaHa

Here's the link to see the one they took and order prints of your own, Memaw and Mimi.

www.basspro.com/santaphotos

Click the "Photo Pick-Up" button

Enter the following passcode: Batch ID # B305 Photo # 50 260

If they're not up yet, check back soon. They should take 24-48 hours before they're on there.

After spending way too much time and money in Bass Pro Shop, we went over to Grapevine Mills to finish our Christmas shopping. Here's Katie in her Santa hat.

New Discoveries

I put Katie in her Bumbo seat for the first time yesterday. I'm not ready to just let her sit in there for a long time, but she did pretty good with me sitting there with her. She looks so grown up when she's sitting up in there.

Tonight she was playing with her favorite lights and music toy and started reaching for the butterfly that hangs down on it. I was able to get a picture of her smiling at it too. :)

Cold Weather

It's been getting cold here and I love it. Andy and I are definitely cold weather people. It snowed in Amarillo this week. I'm really hoping Katie will get to see her 1st snow when we go there for Christmas!

First Day at Church

This past Sunday was Katie's 1st day to go to church with us. She went to Sunday School with us then went to the nursery during the church service. She did so good. She slept the whole time. Her little dress is a "newborn" dress. I was afraid it wasn't going to fit anymore and was really surprised when it fit so well.

After church we went to Abuelos for lunch. Andy was playing with her and got her to smile. I love it when she's awake like that.

Back Home... I had to get one more picture in her sweet little dress.

Merry Main Street

Last Saturday night we took Katie to Merry Main Street. The city hall area is decorated with a great light show choreographed to music, and Merry Main Street is the city's kick off to the Christmas season. They lighted the big city Christmas tree, Santa was there for pictures, they had live reindeer, all the Frisco elementary school choirs performed, and there were lots of booths and exhbits to visit. I was hoping Katie might notice the lights, but she didn't seem to. It was pretty cold so we had Katie all bundled up in her winter jacket, hat, gloves... We had a really good time but waited too late for pictures with Santa. We'll have to go somewhere else for that.

Here ae some pictures from the night...

Frisco Fire Clowns

I promise we all had a good time. :)

all bundled up

"leaping lights"

Good Friends

Last weekend I got to see 2 really good friends that I don't get to see often. I had a really good time visiting with each of them.

Jamie and Katie

Me and Miller (Jamie's baby)

Katie in her cute hat from one of my student's mom

Staci and Katie

Piggy Went to Market

Hi Katie

The Lotion Song

"Lotion, lotion, lotion,
Puttin on the lotion.
Puttin on the lotion on my girl.
Lotion on your nose,
Lotion on your toes.
Lotion, lotion, lotion everywhere!"
Too cute. I've started singing this to Katie after her bath every day while I put her lotion on.

Good Things Come in Small Packages!

I know the flash is too bright, but I love her expression in this.
She's so much fun to play with now. She's so much more alert and becoming interactive. This is her favorite toy. It lights up and plays music and she loves to watch all the lights.
Uncle Cory and Aunt Mindy got to come over and visit yesterday. It was great to see them.

Andy was playing with Katie a couple of nights ago. So precious. He would blow in her face and she gets startled. Her eyes open up really wide while she shakes her head and throws her hands up. If you listen close, you can hear her gasp the 1st time he does it in the video. He's so good with her. I love watching them play together.

My Sweet Nieces

Katie with her cousins Lily and Tess

"Miss me, miss me, now you gotta kiss me!"

Happy Thanksgiving

We all had a great Thanksgiving today. I thought Andy was coming back from hunting this morning, but he got a deer yesterday and came on back then. It was such a nice surprise. Of coarse he was ready to see his baby girl and he siad, "Wow, it's only been 3 days and she's already changed so much!" He was right. Just since we've been here in Alexandria with family all around, she's been so much more alert. She will turn and look at you when she hears your voice and even follows me across the room with her eyes all the time now. And she's starting to smile. Not a whole lot yet, but we've seen her smile a few times. It's so exciting to see her noticing so much now.

I really think it's helped motivate her to do all this with so much family constantly holding or interacting with her. We've had so much fun with everyone this week.

Daddy's Camo Girl

Yea! It fits! Well it's going in the "newborn- too small for Katie" bag as soon as we get home, but I was able to get it on her for pictures with Daddy. She has another cute camo outfit I was going to take pictures of her in with him too, but she spit up on it before I could even get it on her. Oh well.

Andy is so good with her. She is definitely a Daddy's girl. I'm always so impressed with Andy and proud of him with her.

2 Months Old!

The top picture is from my Oct 21st "Baby Einstein" post. Katie was 1 month old then and the bottom 2 pictures were taken a few days ago... at 2 months.

I've raised the flower headrest all the way to the top of the bouncer and her feet are almost at the very bottom of it now.

Monday she goes to the dr for her 2 month appointment and for a round of 5 immunizations. I'm anxious to go have her weighed and measured and see how much she's grown. But I'm dreading those shots! She got 1 immunization at her 1 month appointment and it killed me to see her scream and cry when she got it. I don't know how I'm going to handle 5 of them this time. They told me I can give her some Baby Tylenol to help. So I'm going to try that and pray it helps. They may need to give me some Zanex or something before it's all over. LOL

My Baby Doll

Well, I've kind of slacked off on posting on here. So here are a few pictures I've taken over the last few weeks that I want to share...

I love this hat and her little sweater dress. The hat was perfect for cold weather with the flaps to cover her ears and a strap under her neck to hold it on. Unfortunately it is newborn and it only got cold enough for her to wear it a few times before she grew out of it.


And then there's her camo "Buck Girl" outfit. The tag on it says "3M" so I waited until last week to put it on her and it barely fit already! I'm hoping it still fits this Thursday when Daddy gets back from hunting so they can take a camo picture together.

She's growing so fast it's kind of sad. She's not my newborn baby anymore. I had to bagup all her newborn clothes last week because she's grown out of them.

I've also noticed that her hair is starting to get a little bit of a redish tent to it. In this camo picture it really looks red. I think we're going to have our little redhead girl just like her daddy!