Hello!!

Just wanted to tell everyone Happy Friday! I am so glad my week is over and I get to enjoy spending time with Emmie, Paul and Paul's mom this weekend! It is so nice to be able to go home to such a great family!! I am truly blessed for our family! I hope everyone has a great weekend! This is a picture Paul sent me from his cell phone of Emmie this morning...she just gets cuter and cuter every single second of the day!

Bath Time!!

Emmie absolutely LOVES her bath time so I thought I'd take a few pictures of her from last night!! The slideshow is her bath time and these are after...such a happy baby!!

After her bath, she is pretty exausted and gets ready for sleep, but she is already becoming quite attached to her binky! So I took some cute pictures of her after bath when I laid her down she was looking for it and could only find her hand to suck on! That did not appease her for long though!! LOL


Then....she was OUT!!!

Mommy & Me

So, after a long day at work, I got some much needed "Mommy and Emmie" time!! It was great to come home to a sweet, beautiful and precious baby after my first day back at work. Emmie did really good yesterday while I was at work. She is a very good baby and never fusses or cries unless she doesn't feel good. Even when she gets hungry, most of the time, she is content with her Binky (pacifier) until her "meal" is ready :) She did have some tummy troubles after her 5:00 dinner and after talking with a friend at work, I am attributing to the yogurt covered raisins I had at lunch! So, no more raisins for me, at least for a little while!! Other than the tummy ache, Emmie seemed vey happy and content to have me home. She snuggled with me and smiled at me a lot and just made the day all better!! I can't wait to go home this afternoon to another quiet night with my baby!! Oh, and my husband was a sweetie too and cooked me dinner and did pretty much everything else around the house so that Emmie and I could just sit and hang out the rest of the night :) He's great too!!

These are some pictures from when I was home with MiMi and her cousins Abram and Eli...they just couldn't give her enough kisses!! It was so cute (Eli who is the youngest of Nikki's kids and is 3 years old) had figured out pretty quick after being around Emmie he ALWAYS had to put Germ-X on before he could touch or hold Emmie. So, he got to where he would come up to me with a big smile on his face and hold up his sweet little hands and say "Can I touch/hold her, I got Germ-X!" I would say "Are you sure?!" He would say "Smell 'em"......because I told him you could smell the Germ-X to know if he used it!! It was so cute! And when anybody else would come to see Emmie or visit and want to hold her, Eli would say "you have to use Germ-X"!! or he would say "if you get some Germ-X, you can hold her"...Too Cute!!

Back to Work

So, today is my first day back at work. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed this morning and got dressed (make up and everything!) for the first time since Emmie was born...LOL at least for the first time before lunch!! It wasn't horrible coming back, as I don't have to take Emmie to daycare until at least next year. We have been so fortunate to have our families come up here to stay and keep Emmie so she doesn't have to go to daycare until she is bigger and stronger. Paul's mom flew in from Miami Saturday and will be staying for a couple of weeks and then my mom is coming for the week of Thanksgiving. Then I will be part time and just come in the afternoons when Paul gets off work for the first couple of weeks in December and then we are taking a week off for Christmas to go home and then my sister will come up to keep her the week after Christmas. And Paul's mom may even come back after that for the month of January. So, it has really worked out so good that our families can help with the transition. It definitely made it so much easier coming back to work and knowing Emmie was safe and snuggle-y and spoiled at home with family instead of dragging her out in the cold and leaving her with someone she doesn't know!! I just can't imagine how it would have been if I had to take her straight to daycare this early, it would be so hard. So, I'm back to the grindstone at work!! It won't be too bad the first few days until I really get back into the swing of things and the stress starts back up!! LOL Anyway, it is nice now to think throughout the day what a sweet precious little baby I have waiting at home for me when I get there!
Emmie is growing so fast already! She had her 2 month checkup Friday and weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long!! She is the size of newborn now :) To me she is so big already, it's funny when people see her and say how little she is because she has already almost doubled her size!! She is doing just perfect, the doctor said she looked like a perfect little baby to him!! Absolutely healthy and growing great!! She did have her 4 shots and did so good, only crying when they gave them to her and that was it!! I have some recent pictures from our trip that I have to have put on a CD and then I will post them, hopefully in the next day or two!! Until then, I hope everyone has a good week!!

Sweet Home Alabama

I have been home now for 2 weeks and as hard as it is to admit, as much as I am independent, I am extremely happy to be here. When I moved to Nashville, I was content just coming back to visit every month or two. As hard as it was being away from my family and friends, especially my niece and nephews, I was fairly happy being in Nashville. I am very close to all of my family and stay close by talking to them everyday, even several times a day (sometimes my sister even calls me "Maw-Maw", which most of you know my grandmother and how, shall we say, PERSISTENT, she is!!) There was the occasional home sick day or night when I would get the blues, but I liked being "on my own" and away from all the small town drama and busy-bodies (you all know what I am talking about :) But, ever since Paul and I got married last year, we have talked about moving back here to settle down and raise our children. He has never lived in a small town like this and he absolutely LOVES coming home with me. He loves the closeness of the family when we are here, he loves the values and morals people here have, he loves the "Mayberry" atmosphere of going down the street to a store and literally ALWAYS knowing almost everyone there, as does his daughter. She gets so excited when we visit, she loves going to my dads and riding the horses and going to Aunt Nikki's to stay with her cousins and Mi-Mi's house, etc. She was calling my family Aunt, Uncle, Granddaddy, MiMi, Cousins, etc before the end of the day on the day when we got married! :) She couldn't wait to become a part of our family, as she has seen how close our family is and wanted so bad to have that. Neither of them have ever had family close and unfortunately do not get to see them very often. Well, obviously having Emmie makes it even harder to be away from my family and friends back here. Not only for all the help and support they are, but for Emmie's sake. I want her to have the same closeness and togetherness with family and friends I always had growing up. I can't remember a Sunday or weekend day that growing up we weren't at one of my aunts or uncles house playing with all my cousins or that they weren't at our house. Every holiday, every birthday, any and every occasion to get together, we did. As I've come to realize, this "lifestyle" has a lot to do with being a "Southerner". From people and friends I've met in Nashville, the majority of them are just not like that with their families and friends. They see them occasionally, but it just isn't like we are down here. I think we just value family more and hold it as a higher priority than others. Sure they love their families and visit, but it just isn't the same. I know people who only see their families once a year, if that! I just can't imagine not having my family being a HUGE part of my life as well as my child's life. I say all of that to just say, family and good friends are such a blessing and something I never take for granted. With Emmie coming along, we are definitely more aware of how we want to raise her and the strong bonds and relationships we want her to have with all of our family and friends here. It makes me see that there is nothing more important than raising your children with family and friends you can truly, truly count on to be there.....I'm sure it won't be long before we are back where we belong!! Here are some pictures while we have been here...

I'm Back!!!

Hey everyone, I have FINALLY found time and strength to post again!! First of all, I want to thank Christy for helping in keeping this updated during all the chaos. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it updated through the last couple of months and she was gracious enough to help share news and pictures for me. So, THANK YOU, Christy!! Well, I don't even know where to start or what to write about, it seems like so long ago!! Obviously, our ENTIRE life has completely changed since last time I was on here!!LOL We welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the family and have just been adjusting to having a child now. It is amazing and so rewarding, I can't even describe the feelings I have experienced since she came along. As you know, we had some bumps in the road, but Emmie and I are both doing great!! I don't know if Christy put Emmie's "stats" on here when she was born, she weighed 4 lbs, 2 oz and was 17 inches long!! She was born on September 9 and was 33 1/2 gestational weeks. Now (5 weeks old) she weighs 5 lbs 6 oz, 19 in long and her head is 13.5 in. She is still the tiniest, cutest little thing ever, but she is growing and doing amazing. The doctors have been so impressed with her growth and strength, she is already trying to lift her tiny head up!! I want to say Thank You to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers and well wishes we received through the whole ordeal. God is amazing and definitely has a plan and works in mysterious ways. If you had ever told me I would have to go through what I went through, from the preeclampsia to having a newborn in the NICU for 2 weeks, I wouldn't have believed it. But, as we can not predict what God has in store for us, we never know and it makes me realize how precious life is and how thankful we should be everyday for our blessings, especially our children. Emmie is by far the greatest gift and blessing I could have imagined and now, I can not even think of our life without her!! I thank God everyday for her and my family and the blessings he has given us!! I know all of you probably feel the same way about your children.
So, with all the emotional stuff out of the way, LOL, I wanted to post some pictures of baby Emmie!! My very talented sister, Nikki, took these two weekends ago when Emmie was 3 1/2 weeks old!! As I've noticed, obviously there are several new additions to families and I just want to say Congratulations to all of you and hope to get to meet them all very soon!!