Georgia is Three Months Old!

Georgia-you are THREE months old today!

Here's what you have been up to:

• Mommy has gone back to work so we have a new routine that you have adapted to very well. You seem to be content wherever you are which is so nice!
• We are finally taking you places and you seem to really love going and doing. You enjoy car rides and you sleep like a champ in your carseat.
• You laugh out loud and it's so sweet! You especially like when daddy acts silly (we have videos to prove that).

• You are very much a busy baby. You love to be talked to and you LOVE to talk back. We may have a motor mouth in our future!
• You just moved up to a size 2 diaper and you're wearing 3 month or 3-6 month clothing. You are around 13 pounds. Right on target!
• You take 6-7 breastmilk bottles per day. We try to anticipate when you're hungry because you don't like waiting! 
• You are trying so hard to roll over. It won't be long!

• Your eyes are still a dark blue but I still think they may change to brown like mommy and daddy's.
• You love your paci but you have found your fist and that seems to be replacing your paci at the moment. You still enjoy your paci when you're sleepy. Your wubbanub has been great for you. You love holding your little caterpillar and mommy loves that you don't lose your paci as much now.
• You continue sleeping through the night-have I mentioned you are the best baby?! Typical bedtime is around 11 and most mornings you sleep until 7:30! I can't brag enough on how good of a sleeper you are. If we lay you down and you wake up in the transition you just goes back to sleep on your own! 
• You smile, you laugh, you coo, you try to talk-you pretty much do it all! 

Look at how much you have grown! :) Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! Happy 3 months, Georgia Grace!

Ballgame and Brennan the Baptist

Last Friday we took Georgia Grace to her first basketball game! She absolutely loved it. She wanted to sit straight up and she would follow the game up and down the court. She was so busy observing she would barely eat or nap (which is her normal routine at that time). Bless her heart she has lived a pretty boring life so far ha!

It was an exciting game and the Bears won! I'm glad our first ballgame experience was a good one. I see many more ballgames in the future for this little girl :)

Sunday was Baptist Men's Sunday at church and our cousin Brennan gave his testimony to the congregation. It was SO good and brought everyone to tears. We are so proud of him! 

We tried to get a picture of Brennan and Georgia but that just didn't happen. So we snapped a few of her at home, I couldn't miss an opportunity since she was all dolled up. 

I am thankful for a fun weekend of sports and fellowship.

The Reason I Blog

I started my blog in July 2012 as a way to record memories of my family. I am not patient or devoted enough to scrapbook so I chose blogging as my tool to document our life happenings. Blogging has become so fun for me and I know it will be so neat for my children to look back on. Someday they will be thankful for the countless pictures I will take of them ha!

I just ordered my first blog book from blog2print. I love it! I plan to make one each calendar year.

Blog2print allows you to print out your blog as a hard copy book. The layout is clean and simple. You have options to tweak your pages but I chose to keep it to as close to how my blog looks as I can. I am Type A like that.

I am so glad I have these memories documented for my family to read about for years to come. 

Crib update: we have had three successful nights in the crib! The first night she went to sleep at 11 and woke up at 12:30. When we went to check on her the sheet was wet so we think she spit up which caused her to wake up. She ate a little then went right back to sleep and slept until 8:15. Sunday night she fell asleep at 11 and slept until 7:45! She is the definition of an awesome sleeper! I know I am envied by many mothers because of this ha! Since we can't put a blanket on her we have been letting her sleep in gown sleepers and sleep sacs. She inherited the cold hand gene from her mother so we put mittens on her hands to help keep them warm. I am so proud of my babydoll!!!

Ice Ice Baby!

Ice blanketed our area this morning so we are home safe and sound. I didn't risk driving to work this morning and that turned out to be a wise move. When I got up at 5:30 the parkway I travel was closed for multiple wrecks! I'm thankful for a job and boss that allows me to stay home when conditions are unsafe. Our meteorologist friend Landon Hampton took this picture this morning. This is the main road in the middle of our town-scary slick!

The ice did not hit until this morning so yesterday we traveled to Frankfort to watch our high school alma mater compete in the Class A state tournament! We lost by 1 point. I think that's almost worse that getting beat by 30 but the team played a great game and made our town proud! 

Our little bear showing her support in her custom onesie made by Aunt Rachel! The beauty of this onesie is it works for the Butler County Bears or UK! And can we just take a second to talk about how cute she is?! Oh my goodness! I know she's mine but come on! :)

So after a week of transitioning, we are going to try to move Georgia Grace to her crib tonight. We have prepared ourselves by moving her bassinet farther away from our room each night. This was an idea from my mom and I think it will help. We've also been letting her nap in her crib to get use to the mattress. That has gone really well! I probably won't sleep a wink but that's ok. We know it's the right time, she's just getting too big for her bassinet. When she moves her arms she hits the sides ha! And she's just a few inches from being too long. I'm praying for an easy transition for all of us. I will post an update on our progress!

And this is random as all get out, but I think this is the neatest picture of Willie's family from Duck Dynasty! I'm going to put it in my memory folder for the future. I love how it shows their personalities.

Now it's back to enjoying our "ice" day with our little princess! Stay safe, folks!

Be Still

One of the benefits to having a morning/afternoon commute to work is it gives me time to think, pray, and reflect. Today as I was driving home I got to thinking about Georgia's birth day and it brought me to tears. God made the perfect arrangement of cells to form our daughter. It was all in His hands. He is the creator of all things and provider of all good things. What an honor that He has entrusted me to be her mother! His grace just overwhelmed me in that moment.

It's nice to be still sometimes. That's something I do not do near enough. I'm constantly going and thinking about the next thing that needs to be done. When I'm home and Georgia is napping or Marcus has her, I am rushing like a mad woman to get things done because it would be awful to leave dishes in the sink or for some dog hair to collect on the rug ha! The first step to change is admittance, right? :) I am making progress.

On a side note, our heat went out last night. And it just so happened to be the coldest night in Kentucky in 12443294 years! It was seriously 8 degrees when I left for work this morning at 6:30. Hubby is going to get a new thermostat today, we are optimistic that will solve the problem. We survived last night on electric heaters in every room. I was worried that it would get too cold for baby girl but I actually think it was warmer in our house than usual ha! I woke up toasty so I am sure she was fine. If it's not fixed this afternoon, we are hitting the road and shacking with family!

My little butterball! 

Tonight is Bible Study and the UK game! Happy Tuesday, y'all!

This and That

We got Georgia Grace's coming home dress framed this week! I love it. We are going to hang it in our hallway. And if I need to take it out to use again someday that would be great too :)

Today we went to Ellie Kate's 1st birthday party! Isn't she such a doll? I work with Ellie's grandma and her mom is a sweet friend of mine. Georgia has only been around boy babies so far so it was nice to have some girlfriends :) That is Ellie's grandma holding Georgia-yes, grandma! She looks fabulous!

My baby girl will be 12 weeks old Tuesday. HOW? She looks so big in this picture. I had a talk with her the other day on how she needed to stay little and let mommy carry her like a baby forever. She laughed when I told her this, I think she has different plans ha! I'm trying to savor these baby days as much as I can. It will be her 1st birthday party before we know it.

And a big congrats to my high school alma mater for winning the class A region and advancing to the state tournament! We're so proud-once a Bear, always a Bear! Go Big Blue!

Things We Love

I wanted to do a post on the things Georgia Grace enjoys at this age so I will know for the future. Something tells me my memory will not be sufficient to remember this. I have a horrible memory! Thank goodness for my blog.

Wubbanub

I discovered wubbanubs from another mommy friend and I'm so glad I did. The animal attached to the paci helps comfort her and gives her something to hold onto. And the weight of the animal helps keep the paci in while she's sleeping. They are adorable too! Georgia Grace just has the 'cutsy caterpillar' but we will probably get a few more since she likes it so much.

Moby

We kind of have a love/hate relationship with the Moby wrap. If she's in the mood, it's the greatest thing ever. If she's not in the mood, we are stripping it off as fast as we put it on! One night she stayed in it for over an hour. I was able to do a load of laundry and cook supper with her right there with me. I'm glad my dad and Dianne got this for us for those days she's feeling the Moby.

Gloworm

I think the new gloworm is so much cuter than the one I had as a child. We use it at night before bedtime to help wind her down. She will just stare and coo at it for as long as we show it to her. This was a gift from grandma Harrison. She's an expert on kids toys!

Bumbo

She feels like such a big girl in this! Sometimes she just likes being put down and to be able to sit up and see everything. She started using her bumbo at 10 weeks and we continue to use it daily. Grandmomma got it for her, I love the color.

She also loves her swing, I think that's common for all babies. I took this picture and the bumbo one today. I just love that cable knit romper. As you can see she's already getting too long for it. She's growing like a weed! We had such a fun day all three of us being home together. I only left the house once to get groceries for supper. We have played and cooed and laughed. Today was such a blessing. I love my little family!

Baby Pictures

So if anyone is wondering who Georgia Grace looks like-here ya go! This is my mom. Oh my goodness! Some people that I have showed think it is a picture of Georgia.

Here I am as a baby. I can see a resemblance. She definitely has my wild hair!

And here is Marcus. I will say I think she looks like him more now that she's a little older. I think it's the nose and sometimes when she raises her eyebrows I see him.

I had to post this! My cousin that is in high school is taking a parenting class where one of their projects is to take care of a baby for 3 days. Bless Payton's heart-her baby woke her up SEVENTEEN times Sunday night. She told me she wanted to trade babies with me ha!

Marcus is home the rest of the week due to all the sickness in his school system. I'm excited about all of us being home together Thursday! Even though we can't leave the house for fear of catching the influenza it will be nice just being at home together. 

Today Georgia got to spend the day with gammy and gran stan so Marcus could work on his Masters class. It sounds like they had a fun day! She played so hard she wore herself out. 

It's currently sleeting and we are in a winter weather advisory until 4am. I could have an interesting commute to work in the morning. And it's definitely not fun heading to work when you know your two loves are home :(. I can't wait for Thursday!

Fried Chicken

We had a pretty laid back weekend. It was unseasonably warm this week which is not a good thing for the flu epidemic that seems to be effecting the whole nation. It is rampant right now. We are taking all measures to keep it out of our house.

Saturday night I learned how to fry chicken. This is Marcus' favorite food so I know it's a skill I need to master. Gram was my teacher, she makes some fabulous fried chicken. I was so intimidated by the endeavor but it really was easier than I had envisioned.

Here I am with my finished product! My mother-in-law gave me a 10 out of 10! I will toot my own horn and say I did a mighty fine job.

A staple in the south! It was fun making memories in the kitchen and I look forward to more in the future.

Here we are today before church. Georgia Grace went for the pretty in pink look! It was a nasty rainy day and temperatures are supposed to really drop tonight. We are staying in and getting comfy. Hope everyone had a great, flu-free weekend!

Thursdays With Mommy

Today is my first Thursday at home with my baby girl after returning to work on Monday. We had a fun day full of...

Playing with Owen.

 Loving our babydoll.

Kicking our feet on the changing table!

Resting. 

Kisses for mommy<3

And just being the prettiest baby in the world!!

I'm looking forward to many more Thursdays just like this. I know these days will be gone before I can blink an eye.

TGIT!

Back To Work

 

We both survived my first day back to work! I couldn't wait to get my hands on my sweet girl!

Thank you all for the prayers and kind words on my behalf. The tears went away as the day progressed and by the afternoon I was so excited to get home and see my baby! Grandmomma sent me several pictures and text updates throughout the day that really helped. And Georgia Grace did wonderful! She never fussed except when it was time to eat. I was so relieved to hear she handled the transition so well.

She also had another great day with mamaw Carolyn today. We are so lucky to have family taking care of her. I know every mom is not that fortunate. I am blessed.

When I start to feel the mommy guilt, I remind myself I am doing this for her future. I want to be able to provide her with everything that she needs just like our parents did for us. Plus I am privileged to be able to be home with her one day a week so I feel like a part-time SAHM ha!

It will be TGIT for me :)

 

One Sad Mommy

Just as I expected, my 10 week maternity leave has come and gone a lot faster than I'd hoped it would. I head back to work tomorrow and Georgia Grace heads to grandmommas. She will be with grandmomma three days a week and mamaw Carolyn will keep her one day and I will be off one day. I can't tell you how excited I am to be going to a 4 day work week!

I know tomorrow will be very difficult but I just have to remind myself that she is in the best of hands and God has provided me with this situation so I can continue with my career. I'm thankful for my wonderful job and workplace that has allowed me a day at home with my baby. I'm thankful for our grandparent's health so that they are still able to take care of her. I'm thankful for a loving husband that supports me returning to work to help provide for our family. And I'm thankful for my God that makes all of this possible.

If you think of it tomorrow, please say a prayer for me as I can already tell I will be an emotional mess.

 

Also happy 49th birthday to my wonderful dad! We love you!

A New Year and A Healthy Baby

We spent New Years at a baby-friendly party at Nathan and Rachel's. Sara and Brandon brought Abbott so Georgia Grace had a playmate! We had a time trying to take their pictures. One would start crying or fall asleep or look away. We finally settled for some entertaining snapshots like the one below ha! We had a great time ringing in the new year with wonderful friends.

This one is hilarious. I have never seen that expression before ha! Abbott is such a handsome little fella :)

 

Yesterday we had Georgia's two month well baby appointment. She's right at 11 lbs (10 lbs 14 oz) and 22 1/4 in long! She was in the 50th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference-her pediatrician called her the perfect baby. We already knew that though :)

She did really well with her vaccines. She cried for just a minute and then she was fine. I'm constantly reminded of how good of a baby she is. She slept really good last night and seems completely normal today so hopefully we can avoid the fever, fussiness, etc.

I'm so thankful for a healthy baby. I try not to take that for granted and to thank God daily.