A whole month!

I can't believe it has been an entire month since my last update...but that just shows how crazy this month has been!  In no particular order...
*     I went to the sewing class and made a dress for Ashlyn.  I did one on my own the other day too!
*    Worked with Ashlyn on eating baby food.
*    We had Spring Break! Autumn and Shelby came to visit and I got to visit my friends in Auburn. :o)

*    Mary's Birthday/St. Patty's Day
*    We started fixing up the house to maybe try to sell it.
*    Ashlyn turned 7 Months old!!!
*    I lost my camera...but I got a new cell phone.
*    Ashlyn got sick again. :o( We're talking 104.7 fever.
*    I wrecked my car. :o(
I have lots of pictures to share...unfortunately some of them were on the camera I lost. Here's a few of the one's that didn't get lost.

St. Patrick's Day 2011
Note:  Just for Granny, Great Granny, Great Grandad and Mary...I know she's Scottish too. :o)

 My friends Jenny and Olivia in Auburn!  I had a great time visiting with them!  I don't get to see them nearly enough!!!  They are both such sweet ladies!
I got videos of Autumn and Shelby visiting at my house...but they are on the camcorder...so I'll have to add them later.  They are so precious!  David has pictures on his phone of our visit to Chuck E. Cheese!!!

 Photo shoot at the doctor's office with Daddy's hat!!!  This was the dress I made Ashlyn at the sewing class.  It is reversible.  Unfortunately the good pictures of it were on the camera.

 This was the first visit...obviously she wasn't feeling that badly yet.  Second visit was for the fever...and it got pretty bad.  My poor baby was miserable.  Thank God she is feeling better now.  That was one scary virus.

The dress I made Ashlyn on my own.  The red dots are lady bugs, and it has clovers and yellow flowers and the fabric has silver glitters.  I'm pretty proud of myself. :o)  It's a little big because it was a toddler's pattern...so I made a size one and she's in between size 9 months and 12 months right now.

I think the pictures of Ashlyn's first feedings were on the camera.  She pretty much HATES baby food.  She loves oatmeal and rice cereal and now we've found a couple baby foods that she will eat (Sweet Peas, Mac and Cheese, & Chicken and Gravy - and yes...those are all ground up...yuck!)  She was throwing up her oatmeal though...that is why I went ahead and took her to the doctor the first time...I was getting worried about her refusal of so many foods.  Good thing is...she is definitely gaining weight.  She is at 19 lbs now!  Mary said David was 25 lbs when he was her age...what a chunker! :o)  She is still drinking breast milk so she is getting the nutrients she needs and the doctor wasn't too concerned with her lack of interest in other foods.  He said not to force it...which is his philosophy on just about everything...and my Granny's.  We did buy those "Fresh Food Feeders" (pictured below) for Ashlyn and she likes those.  She has eaten grapes and apples.  The fruit is a little cold and I think the mesh feels good on her gums.  She is seriously teething now!

Privatizing

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to privatize this blog.  The intention of my blog is to help me document the adventures and milestones in mine and my family's life and to offer a way to share pictures and videos with family and friends.  If any one out there wants to continue viewing my blog, please request to be a follower.

Thanks, Heather

Happy Half Birthday to my Sweet Baby Girl!!!!

I can't believe it has been six months since God blessed us with this precious little child!!!  We are so desperately in love with Ashlyn!!!  She amazes us as we watch her learn and grow.  She has such a sweet demeanor.  She is truly a joy to be around.  She smiles and giggles and melts your heart!  I am so thankful for the last six months and I am excited to see what the next six months hold!

Newborn

One Month

Two Months

Three Months



 Four Months

Five Months



Six Months

Ashlyn is growing so fast!!!  I blink and she's a few inches longer and a few pounds heavier.  She has her six month doctor's appointment on Friday and we'll know her measurements.  She FINALLY rolled over on Sunday!  David put her down on her back on her playmat and left the room for a minute.  He came back in and yelled to me that she was on her tummy!  I put her on her back on her playmat this morning and left the room for a minute and when I came back she was playing on her tummy.  We still haven't actually seen her roll though!!!  I can't wait to see her do it!  She still won't roll from front to back.  She's stubborn like her Momma and Daddy!  I know in a few short months she'll be completely mobile - so I'm just enjoying coming back to find her where I put her down for now.  We added oatmeal to her diet last week.  She wasn't real fond of it at first, but she's grown to like it.  We have decided to introduce Carrots on Sunday.  I told her about it today while she was eating her breakfast.  I told her it would help her have good eyesight and that bunny rabbits LOVE carrots!  She looked excited. ;o)  

Random Stuff

Just some random stuff...



 My view in the morning.  I was at a stop light - don't worry - I wasn't taking pictures while we were moving.

 I made my first bib!  I think it turned out pretty!  I have a Roll Tide Baby!!!

 She's not unhappy, she just hadn't really woken up yet.  She takes after her Mom-not a morning person.

 I added these little buttons to give to someone in their baby shower gift.  The plain white is just too boring.  I LOVED these little shirts when Ashlyn was a newborn!!!  I could throw it on her quickly with just her diaper and wrap her up and didn't worry about her umbilical cord being pulled.  What can I say - I'm a paranoid first time Mom.

 Ashlyn is rocking her beach gear!  Ready for the beach this summer!!!

 Going to stay the day with GrandMary for President's Day.

Just in case you were wondering - NO she DID NOT ride in the front seat...we just put her there while we moved seats up and installed the base for the car seat - she totally LOVED it up front though.  She thinks she is a Big Girl already.  Sorry - you don't get to be a Big Girl 'till you wear Big Girl panties!

Still catching up...

Bath Time with Daddy!!!

Where there is water...you can usually find Bones.

Bones was supervising...

 What...this rabbit isn't for chewing???

 Not too keen on the rinsing off part! :)

 SNOW!!!!

 Tom came by to check her out...

 I was so proud of Tuscaloosa!!!!...snow on the ground and...wait for it....actually FUNCTIONING!  I couldn't believe it!!!!

 First time using a spoon.  This was some seriously liquidy rice cereal, but I didn't want to make it too thick since we had just started adding it to her bottle a few days before.

 Looking lovely!  Ha Ha! - P.S.  I have started using bibs...but we were going straight to bath time from here, so who needs a stinky bib!

Nummy Nummy!!!

I LOVE this child's giggle!!!!! Forgive my high pitched baby talk voice and David's television show in the background.

Ashlyn's Daddy gave her a bug for Valentine's Day.  He put a squeaky bath toy in the little pouch and she LOVED both!!!!  Happy Valentine's Day to both my precious Valentine's!!!

Sickness if finally gone!!! Time to catch up!!!

We have had a couple CRAZY months around here!  We got back from Oklahoma just in time for New Year's...went back to work that Monday thinking it was time to get back to "normal".  Boy was I wrong!  I haven't worked a full week since we got off for Christmas vacation.  We've had a Well Check up appointment, several sick appointments for Ashlyn - including a stay in the hospital, sick appointments for me, a holiday and several snow days.  While I LOVE spending the extra time with my baby girl...I'm ready to get back to some kind of schedule now!

 I finally finished the blanket I sewed for Ashlyn!  It is very warm and soft and she likes it a lot!

 I made this paci clip for her for Valentine's day. :)  I am almost finished with her first bib.  I am going to take a few sewing classes from someone I knew way back in the day!  She sews the cutest things for her girls and I am so excited to get some more formal training than just looking at an item and trying to figure out how it is constructed or googling the how to videos. :)  The first class is March 7th!

 My sister gave Ashlyn this little bouncy seat and she LOVES it!  Half the time she is in it she spends gnawing on the fabric.  Poor little thing is teething and she is gumming anything she can get her little mouth on.

 We put Ashlyn's handprints down on paper.  It definitely takes two to accomplish a task like that.  We went straight to bath time after!

 More pictures of the messy!  At one point, David had her hands wrapped up in paper towels trying to keep paint off of everything else, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that. :)

 My poor little one got a cough and a fever so I took her to the Doc.  At first we thought it was just a little cold so we took her home to rest.

 Day two - she is obviously miserable. :(  I took her back to the doctor on the third day and he had her retested for RSV.  She tested positive this time.  He got her started on breathing treatments and told us what indicators to watch for that she was getting worse...that night I called him because she was breathing heavy and he sent us to the ER.  He called ahead and we didn't have to wait in the front at all.  We got there at around 10:30 pm.  It didn't take long for the doctor to look at her and he let us know she would be admitted for observation.  We had to wait in the ER room for quite a while, but at around 2:30am we made it to the pediatric floor and got settled in.  Ashlyn was so pitiful...but she was such a trooper.  Needless to say, no one got much sleep in the hospital, including Ashlyn - she had breathing treatments every four hours and every couple hours they came to check her oxygen saturation and fever.  Her fever topped off at around 102 thankfully.  She stayed for two nights and we finally got to go home.  We continued breathing treatments for another week.  Then Mommy's throat started hurting.  It literally felt like I had swallowed razor blades!  I visited the doctor and they thought it was a cold.  Two days later I went back - they did a chest x-ray and diagnosed me with bronchitis and pneumonia.  YUCK!  To make matters worse, David had to go out of town the day before I went to the doctor the second time, so I was trying to take care of the baby while being sick.  I developed a new sense of respect for single moms that day.  That was really hard!

 GrandMary took this picture for us.  She came to the hospital and gave us a little break.  This was the first and only time I saw the outside of the room (besides the walk up from the ER).  We went to the cafeteria and got some lunch.  After lunch, GrandMary watched Ashlyn so David and I could take a nap.  That nap was MUCH NEEDED!  Thank you GrandMary!!!  Everyone was wonderful at the hospital, but I hope we never have to go see them again!  My little one was so brave!  I am SO GLAD she is better now!

 Rockin' the hairbow!  Feeling much better now!

Singing to Mommy!

 Four Months!

 Five Months!!!

Next post, I'll have the pictures from the snow day, sink baths and Ashlyn's first adventure of rice cereal with a spoon!

My God is Amazing

We get a little news bulletin in our email most days at work.  I usually glance over it and see if anything is interesting or pertinent to me then delete it.  Yesterday, one of the features was a Hubble Space Telescope revelation.  This is a picture of the glowing gas that they found.  That is the extra short version of the story.  You can read the whole story on the link below.

http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/01/hubble-study-led-by-ua-astronomer-zooms-in-on-a-space-oddity/

I love being dumbstruck by how amazing my God is.  How big He is.  How smart He is.  How wonderful He is.  I try to conceive of the massive size described by "light years", but it's mostly beyond my comprehension.  The sheer size, yet detailed intricacy of God's creation blows my mind.  As I was reading this article, I was reminded of a sermon by Louis Giglio that I watched on You Tube.  It is five parts and pretty long, but worth every second.  The pictures alone are worth watching it, but when he puts it into context of how amazing God is....WOW. This is the link to Part 1 of Louis Giglio's "How Great is our God".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKMw1ndl-EY

One of my favorite songs is and has been for a very long time "Our God is an Awesome God".  I love the expression of worship to our amazing God in the refrain of the song's lyrics.

"Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom pow'r and love
our God is an awesome God"

Crazy how our amazing God can use a little bulletin at work to remind you to praise Him daily!