March 28, 2010

Mr. & Mrs. II

Here are some pictures from the beautiful wedding of Ashley & Richie:
A beautiful bride and her diet coke...the Ramey way to calm your nerves before a big moment!
One big wedding party
This way to the fun!
The beautiful Burt-Stark Mansion in Abbeville
The getaway car!
Some of the girls...I'm the short round one on the right...  :)
The new parents, Aaron & Jeff, Ashley's sister and brother-in-law
Mr. & Mrs. Kellahan
Me and Ashley

Mr. & Mrs.

Our Friday and Saturday evenings this weekend were spent in the adorable little town of Abbeville, SC enjoying the wedding festivities of my friend, Ashley.  Friday night was the rehearsal and dinner.  While I was busy rehearsing...
...daddy was doing his best to try and entertain Austin in the church... 

...but that little boy found a way to entertain himself just fine!
And we can't forget a shot of the happy couple practicing their first walk down the aisle as man and wife!

March 25, 2010

Updates...

Well, this week hasn't been much fun....

I ended up coming down with the same cold that Austin got on Monday night and of course stay-at-home moms can't take sick days....so I've fought with this "crud" all while dealing with my sick little guy at the same time and trying to ignore my urge to go get in bed with a box of tissues and watch Hallmark movies all day long.  The good news....it seems to finally be on its way out and were hoping for a few good nights of sleep this weekend.  So, I promise I'll get back to the adorable Austin tales and cute pictures as soon as we get rid of these dark circles and crusty noses, but for now I do have some exciting news!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and another ultrasound.  Baby is doing great, he's finally head down, his little heart is beating steadily and he's got plenty of fluid (my fluid levels were a problem with Austin).  As for me, my blood pressure is still low and I've gained 15 lbs., which was my goal for the entire pregnancy, but I'm ok with it considering I had gained double that by this point with Austin!

Speaking of weight, they estimated baby's weight to be 6 lbs. 2 oz. which is in the 88th percentile!  It also happens to be the exact weight I was when I was born.  It's so crazy to think that this "little" boy is the size of a full term baby right now!

So, all that being said and after some more discussion, my doctor said that should he not come before on his own, we will schedule an induction or c-section for April 27th!  Just 4 short weeks from now!  It's so nice to have a date in sight, and even though a hundred things could happen between now and then, I know that I will have another little baby to hold in no more than 33 days!  Whoa!!  Time to pull that name list back out and get down to business!

March 22, 2010

They Come in 3's


You know the saying that bad things come in threes...

Well we sure got our three between yesterday and today!

1st of all, Austin picked up a nasty little cold that has made him just miserable since Saturday night.  We were on our way home from Columbia when he woke up in the car and just started screaming.  I got in the back with him and he was burning up.  Ryan drove as fast as safely possible with Austin on the verge of throwing up he was crying so hard.  His temp was 102, the highest we've ever seen, and he wouldn't calm down.  I made my first after hours call to the pediatrician, terrified we needed to go to the ER, but we were finally able to calm him down and bring his fever down before it came to that.

Sunday we spent the entire day indoors with our pitiful little baby, trying to force food and fluids and keep him from drowning in his own snot.

#2 happened this morning when I left the house to go to a doctor's appointment and my car wouldn't start.  Great....no A/C and now a dead battery!

And why was I leaving first thing in the morning for an unscheduled doctor's appointment?  #3 Because I woke up at 4am with those darn contractions again!  I went into my OB's office as soon as they opened and after 20 minutes on the NST monitor and steady contractions 5 minutes apart, they sent me straight to L&D.  The contractions continued once I made it to the hospital so they started an IV and gave me a shot to relax my uterus that made me feel like I had just downed 5 double espressos!  How an injection that makes you shake and twitch like that is actually used to relax something, I have no idea!

The first shot seemed to have little effect on my contractions so they gave me another one several minutes later that finally seemed to do the trick.  Until I got home that is... Luckily I go back to my doctor on Thursday and we'll talk more in depth then and have another ultrasound.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to make it at least 3 more weeks.  This was a good kick in the pants though that maybe we should find a name for this little boy ASAP!

So, the 3 is done and now things should start looking up, right?  Fingers crossed!!

March 21, 2010

Stylin'

While I was off visiting baby Salem, daddy and Austin had a boys afternoon at the house watching basketball and playing outside.  When I turned into our neighborhood that evening, this is what I saw coming down the sidewalk...


I was laughing so hard I almost tinkled on myself!!

Daddy left on Austin's stained pj top and put on a pair of the new baby's newborn pants...and then took him for a walk around the neighborhood!!

His excuse for dressing our child like a hobo was that he couldn't find where I kept Austin's pants and when he saw these sitting on top of the dresser he thought they matched!

I just hope none of the neighbors were looking out their windows!  :-)

Visit with Salem


Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting Aaron, Jeff and baby Salem!  Their beautiful baby girl is doing well, but still has to be hooked up to monitors for a few more weeks to insure everything is going ok.

Salem was such a happy little girl while I was there and barely made a fuss throughout the 4 hours I visited!  She was awake and very alert for most of the time and then fell asleep on me later in the evening.  It was so hard to have to hand her back to her mommy when I had to leave.  I forgot how good it feels to have a sweet little baby sleeping on your chest!

Since Aaron and Jeff are having a hard time traveling with baby Salem due to the monitors, they had to cancel their newborn portrait session.  I agreed to try my hand at newborn photography so that they could have a few pictures from her first weeks of life.  I was surprised and pretty pleased with myself at how they turned out!  Their neighbors even brought over their 4 week old boy, Corbin, and I took some pictures for them as well.  I could definitely get used to photographing adorable little newborns, after all, they don't wiggle and squirm quite as much as a toddler does!

Mommy and Baby Salem

Baxter is so protective of his new little sister!
Look at those BIG eyes!
Someone feels a little left out...
Baby Corbin

1st Day of School

Last week Austin had his first day of school!


I packed his backpack and lunchbox and we were headed out the door by 8:30am.


After speaking with the coordinator for awhile, I peeked in on Austin before leaving.  He was having a great time and playing with 2 of the other little boys in his class.  Ok, well, he was pulling out all the balls from a basket and the other boys were taking them and throwing them across the room.  He may have been getting a little bullied, but he didn't seem to even notice!

I was wiping the tears from my eyes as I was leaving the school and I continued to do so for the first hour I was away from my baby boy.  I couldn't stop thinking about him and just wanted the time to pass more quickly so I could go pick him up.  I did, however, manage to get some laundry done and get the house somewhat straight.

Finally, it was time to go pick up my boy!  Again, I peeked in before walking in the room and couldn't help but laugh at what I saw!  Two of the boys were sound asleep, the little girl was sitting quietly in a rocking chair and my dear Austin was up and running around by himself with a toy in each hand and still going strong!

When I walked into his room he ran to me with his arms out and yelled "mama!"  It melted my heart!  Such a welcome greeting sure made the morning seem worth it!

March 19, 2010

Think Pink!

I am SO excited to announce that this BEAUTIFUL little girl...


... is going to have a little baby SISTER!!

Congratulations to Keri, Shawn and big sister-to-be Kylie!!!

March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day!




You just can't color without tasting a little crayon first...


17 Months!!


Time sure does fly when you're having fun!!  Austin turned 17 months old yesterday and it blows me away how much he's grown and learned in a little less than a year and a half!

Here are some fun facts about 17 months:

-Austin's speech is really starting to pick up and he loves repeating things we say now and has a pretty good little vocabulary of his own.  Some of his favorite words are ball, banana, baby, mama, dada, block, book, tiger, star, more, no, bye bye, all done, night night, duck, eye, moon, balloon

-He can point to his eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hair, fingers, belly, toes and back.

-Austin noticed the freckles on my arms the other day and now he loves to point to them and say "gurgle," which I imagine is his version of freckle.

-He loves to look at letters and is starting to recognize several of them on his own.  He knows the letters A, B, C, D, E, I, M, O, and P.  Why those 9, I have no idea!?  I don't sit down and drill him with flash cards or anything, but he loves his Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, ABC books and foam bath letters which I attribute to the reason he's picking up a lot of things.

-Austin is infatuated with our digital picture frame in the den and will stand in front of it for several minutes a day to watch all the pictures scroll by.  Often he yells out mama, dada, or baby when he sees our pictures go by.

-We started working on animal noises a while ago to distract Austin during those wiggly diaper changes.  He now knows what the horse, cow, sheep, lion/tiger, snake, elephant, and monkey say.  He also says "waddle waddle" when we ask what the penguin says...that ones my favorite! :-)

-Our sweet boy loves to give kisses, but he's always fair about it!  Whenever he gives me or Ryan a kiss, he has to immediately go over to the other and kiss them too!!

-Austin has his top 4 teeth, 2 bottom ones and 3 molars.  I have no idea where all the rest of his teeth are, but the older he gets, the better he seems to be coping with teething so I guess I can't complain!  This last molar popped through just this week with a bunch of drooling and chewing, but not a single night waking.

-His favorite toy is a ball, any ball.  He has about 20 that he loves equally and plays with constantly.

-Austin ADORES his Wiggles DVD that his buddy Tyler got him for Christmas.  He's learned a lot of the motions that go along with the songs and does them when he wants me to put the DVD in.  His favorite song is Hot Potato and he gets SO excited when it comes on.

-He loves music and has the cutest little dance moves I've ever sen.  His newest move it to spread his legs really far apart and sway from side to side really fast.

-Austin is a very talented mimic and loves to do whatever mommy or daddy do.  Lately, I've been using his Aquaphor on my chapped lips and now whenever he gets a hold of it, he opens the top, sticks his finger in the hole and then rubs his lips.  :)

-He definitely has an "I can do it" attitude and will throw quite the fit when I don't let him do something by himself.  I tried to give him a popsicle today but he would NOT let me hold it for him and whenever he held it he just dropped it on the floor or turned it upside down and bit the stick.  I ended up having to take it away from him which caused quite the temper tantrum!!

March 16, 2010

The Cheaper Alternative

Since we can't quite break the bank and buy Austin the $500 bounce house, I tried to find a cheaper (free) alternative to entertain my active baby boy this morning.

It involved about 10 different pillows that I collected from around the house and a few blankets.





He enjoyed his pillow mountain for a while, but the newness wore off just a little too fast.  

So we just went and jumped on the bed...
...well...Austin jumped...
I played referee.

Got $500 to Spare?

Since Austin had SO much fun at Monkey Joe's over the weekend, it got me thinking...and looking...

I think he might be the most popular kid in the neighborhood if we bought him this:

I couldn't believe they actually sold these things, but I can apparently purchase this one for about $480 from Overstock.com

If we win the lottery, this is the FIRST thing on my list to purchase!!!

March 14, 2010

Austin's Greatest Day Ever: Part 2

Since the rain ruined our chance at more playground time, we decided to try out something new.  We had been hearing rave reviews for a place called Monkey Joe's and thought we'd give it a try.


HANDS DOWN, the BEST $5 we've EVER spent!


I have never seen Austin so happy in his life!


He jumped and bounced and slid and ran and crawled without taking a break for over an hour!  His face was red and he was almost out of breath but he wouldn't slow down!!  He had just as much fun playing on all the inflatable "stuff" as he did watching all the other kids.  He even tried to play with a few other boys and at that point I could not have been happier that he is about to get a little brother and permanent playmate.  Now if we could just give him giant inflatable toys for the backyard...we'd be set!  I guess we'll just have to be frequent visitors to Monkey Joes for now.


At 7pm we finally had to tear him away from the inflatable fun since it was past dinner time and getting really close to bed time.  We made one last stop at Chick-Fil-A for a chicken nugget dinner (complete with icedream dessert) to complete Austin's Greatest Day Ever.


He slept for 11 hours straight last night and took a 3 hour nap this afternoon.  I'd say our weekend was a success!









Austin's Greatest Day Ever: Part 1

After a week spent indoors due to yucky weather, we figured we'd better take our chances this weekend and get the little guy out of the house for some fun and exercise!  Thus began Austin's Greatest Day Ever!!

After sleeping in a bit, we went out for a late pancake breakfast.  On the way out, Austin started dozing off in his car seat  so it was back home for an early nap time.  The little guy took a great nap and then we headed out to the local playgroud for awhile.  Austin climbed through tubes, climbed up slides and up and down stairs...the boy sure loves to climb!  He got on the swing for a little bit, but that was a tad too constrictive so we had to let him back down so he could run free.

We started to head over to another playground about the time the rain started so we went ahead and made our weekly trip to Costco to stock up on the essentials.  Can you believe this boy goes through almost 3 cartons of milk a week?!

So, speaking of constrictive, another place Austin is not too fond of being strapped down is in the shopping cart.  We tried something a little different this time and I just let him ride IN the cart instead of in the seat and, wow, what a difference!  He stood up in the middle and held onto both sides while we zoomed down each aisle.  It was like he was steering a race car.  And then when that got tiring, he laid face down in the cart and watched the floor go by.  Of course, at some point we had to start putting things in the cart and that was when Austin got promoted to daddy's shoulders for the rest of the trip.

Below are some pictures from the playground.  Stay tuned for Austin's Greatest Day Ever: Part 2







Followers



 
Designed by Munchkin Land Designs. Copyright 2011. All Rights Reserved.