6 Months Pictures

So she will be 7 months next week and I am finally reporting on her 6 months stuff. Oh well...better late than never.

We did her 6th month check up and pictures all in one day! She was 18lb and 27inches. She is in the 70ish percentile in all her stuff. The doc said she looked good. :)
After the doctors we went and got her picture taken. We went to Portrait Innovations again. I love that place. The are fast, reasonablely priced, and do a good job. I love her pictures. Now my goal this time is to get these out to everyone before she is a year old. I still haven't sent out her birth pictures to people yet. Actually I am going to send the birth ones with the 6 month ones. I don't know, seem reasonable to me. So in her sixth month she has really become a different baby. She is very talkative, has an opinion on things, plays with toys, and is now mobile! She is crawling...well pulling herself around on her belly. We have a funny video of daddy teasing her with a piece of string, like the cat, well he gets jealous and wants to play too. It is cute, but forever long so probably not going up on the blog. I will try to get something shorter.

Well thats about it... we are heading out to the beach and then on to Washington next week!!! Very exciting!! Enjoy the pictures.

Yes she is falling over on this one, but I love the smile on her face.

This is mommy's personal favorite. I love her cheeks!! I eat them all the time!

This on is daddy's favorite.

The best vidoes ever!

So Daddy had O'lena laughing so hard that mommy had to get a video of it. She just kept going and going. She was laughing like that for three days. Then she stopped. We can get her to do it any more. I makes mommy giggle too every time I watch it!

Daddy got her laughing again while playing with her. I thought it was great too. This time I got it on the better camera. We have realized that she has to be in a mood to do it. When you act really weird she will smile at you, but when she is in the right mood you can get her rolling. I love it!

Exciting things happening?

The most exciting things happening: 6 days of school left, we have TILE in the shower, O'lena is awesome, I finally cut my hair, and there is only 6 days of school left! I think I already said that.

Yes, there are six days left for school and I am ready. People/students are starting to get on my nerves. I am ready to spend time with my baby too. I hope this is going to be as good of an experience than I am thinking that it will be. I have big plans that I just KNOW I am not going to get done. Oh well, I can always try.
Yes, WE HAVE TILE!!! Awww the shower. Our two year project is finally getting a face and it is beautiful! I love our accent tile. It is sooooo much better that the previous tile we chose. I love it. See the pictures below, though they do not do it justice.
Yes, O'lena is awesome. She is defiantly getting a personality. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like. She likes her toys. She has really started to play and enjoys playing with people and her toys. She doesn't like that she cannot not crawl yet. She kind of scoots on her head to where she is trying to go, but not very successfully. I think she is getting balder and balder.
Yes, I finally cut my hair off. I have been thinking about it for a while and even blogged about it. Well I got it cut last week. It is a longer bob with layers and bangs. I like it. It is much more fun, but I actually have to do it in the morning which is a pain. I keep telling people I feel like I'm 19 again because this is the length I wore it in college alot. I'll have to get a picture up soon.
What else? Oh yeah, 6 more days of school. And by the time some of you read this there may only be four or five days left!!!! So excited!

On to pictures....So for some reason I cannot get any of the picture to move around so everything is backwards. Blogger can be annoying at times!

Yeah I thought this was a great one. She is just so darn cute!
Jessica, Larry, and the family came down to visit us over the holiday weekend. I love it when they come. It makes me realize what life is going to be like with many kids. I am looking forward to it. They are great to have around and I really miss them when they are gone. Here is Lena with cousin Tiggy Tighe. He did very well with her. I was impressed. Here is everyone hanging out in the pool for some nice relaxation. They were working hard putting up shower tile. I like this picture with everyone hanging out in the pool. The kids were in it everyday. Actually a couple of times every day.

Mostly completed shower. Derick, Larry and Jess worked really hard. Derick is now working on the bottom. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I can see it. Just a few more tiles and grout and we may have something we can get clean in!! Oh yeah, we had a fire on the porch trying to cook hamburgers. We needed the help of the baking powder.
This is the first piece of tile going up on the wall!!! It was so monumental that I had to take a picture.

O'leenee being adorable in her jeans. She kept sliding with her socks on the counter. It was really cute. Daddy is getting very good at dressing her!
O'lena is practicing her sitting up. She is getting better and better, though she still gets distracted by her feet and ends up folding herself in half. It is really cute. She has learned that she likes her feet in her mouth. This is O'lena's first trip in the pool. She LOVED it!! She has been in several times since and has become a water baby. She gets kicks and so excited when she sees a pool now. She wants to go in and swim. We are going to have to be careful when she gets mobile. We got her this awesome floating things she she loves just hanging out in. Though she is not too fond of uncles jumping in and slashing her.
Daddy and Lena swimming in the pool!

O'lena is 5 months!!

So O'lena turned 5 months last Friday. Can you believe it?!? I can not! I cannot believe she has been in our lives for 5 months already. She is so big! She has grown and changed so much already!! That was my biggest depression issue postpartum; I didn't want her getting bigger. I would cry and cry about it. Thank goodness that is over! I still don't like her getting bigger. At each stage I like it better though. She is now a good hip sitter and I can walk around with her and use my hands. She is also rolling over and talking like crazy. She even sings to the radio and sometimes just to herself. She loves her toys and blankets. She is just awesome. I think she is about 17lbs now. We weighed her at Publix the other day. She doesn't go to the dr. until 6 months so we won't know an offical weight until then. Life has been good; busy, but good. I am liking our new pattern and schedule: come home from work, feed baby baby food, play, eat night time bottle, baby go to bed, mommy and daddy eat, then bed. I am still trying to work out, but I haven't been as good about it. I have lost 2 lbs! I guess that counts for something.

I dont know if I might be going through a midlife crisis or not, but I am wanting to cut off my hair again. Yes, I remember how much I hated it the last time I did it, but my long hair is driving me nuts right now. I'm not sure what to do. I really want a bob, but then again I don't want the up keep, but then again I want to be able to put it up, but then again I don't want anything on my neck, but then again if I cut is short there is no way of keeping it straight in the summer humidity, but then again it is getting heavy on my head, but then again I want it short, but then again my bald spots are not completely grown back yet, but then again I can donate it for the oil spill clean up, but then again I don't want to have to do it everyday, but then again I want CHANGE, but then again....okay so I could keep going. I dunno. I am also tired of big decisions. Work is getting to me with all the feelings of inadequacies and the life altering decisions I have to make for each child. In my job each kid needs so much that whatever you do is not enough because they need so much more. There is also not a perfect placement for anyone. It is always "where is the best fit?" or "who needs it the most?" Ideally eat kids would have a one on one private teacher to fill in all the gaps where life has not given them. Oh well hear me vent..... (Yeah I don't why this is all underlined! I cant get it to go away and I don't want to retype it all!! Sorry)

O'lena, yeah she's great. So is Derick. His garden is getting big. I can't wait to eat freshly grown cucumbers...ooooo and squash! Oh bad news. So we thought I would be able to go back to school to start my masters. I signed up for classes and everything....well come to find out that spouses do not receive free tuition for graduate level classes. Derick tried to turn in the paperwork and they were DENIED. Spouses get free tuition for undergrad classes but not masters levels. So at $900 a class, that has been put on the back burner. Probably for a good LONG time. Oh well again....I think Derick is enjoying the dad thing. He is really good with her. My favorite new thing he does is they will go face to face and they will just make noises together. It is so adorable!

What else is going on?.....20 days of school left! I am excited for summer, but not. I am excited for the staying home with the baby part, but I know that is only going to last for so long. Having to take care of a baby all day is HARD! Remember maternity leave!?! I get very stir crazy too after week two. The other thing I hate about summer is that you have have all these things planned that you want to do and you get NONE OF IT done. That just bugs me. Though one of my goals is to teach the baby how to float. I was going to get lessons, but they seem to be during the times that I can not get there AND expensive, so we are just going to spend a lot of time in the pool this summer practicing. Then again I say that now and I'm the one that doesn't like to swim unless I'm already wet. Man, I'm talkative tonight!! Hush Whitney and show the pictures......

Mommy and O'lena sitting on the couch, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes spit-up, then come O'lena in the baby carriage. :):) Yeah it doesn't rhyme but it just keeps popping in my head every time I see this picture.
Second time O'lena sat in the cart with out the car seat. No, she is not sitting up on her own yet, but she is trying. That is what the blanket in the back was for...support. She loved it though. I love the car chair cover our friend Linda made for us! It rocks

Oh yeah and her hair--it doesn't stick up any more but it has somewhat rubbed off on the side so it now looks like she has a mohawk that she doesnt style. It also looks like a comb over when I put it to the side to try to cover it up. Oh well. Maybe one day she will have normal looking hair.

O'lena first Mother Daughter Banquet at Wesley. She enjoyed it so much that she even fell asleep! hehehehehe

So Derick took her to the gun show a few weeks ago and she enjoyed it so much that she fell asleep there too!! Yes Derick took her and I stayed home (well I intended to stay home....) At least it is someone else for daddy to drag along to the "fun show." (Yes, Derick it is my most favorite place to go, I am just glad that now you can take her for daddy and daughter time....)........right....anyways...You should have seen him! He was walking around with her attached to the front of him and the diaper bag attached to his back. Our diaper bag is one of those with two handles that are suppose to be on your shoulder. He put it on like a backpack. They definitely were a sight to be seen.

Here is a video of Beena talking in the bathroom one morning. She can't sit on the counter any more because she would roll off. She now plays in her standing/sitty toy. We don't have a name for that thing yet. Anyways....she likes it. The first grrrr is me trying to get her to talk again. The rest is all her...i think....I thought she was cute. Oh and yes, daddy did her hair.

PS: The shower is on the list to be done on Memeorial Day. Wish us luck!

My first REAL mother's day

We (Derick, O'lena, mom, Jim, Bryan, Kevyn, my co-worker Stephanie, and her friend Alex....oh and my Aunt Lesley, cousins Ben and Christine, their Aunt Terry and a girlfriend Jennifer (I think that was her name)all poppped by for a minute) went to the beach. It was good fun. Of course all the pictures are are of a baby, but man she was cute in her new suit. (Which by the way the new background was inspired by.) I had gotten her a nice one piece last time we went to the beach. Yeah she ended up naked by the end of it because we couldn't get her in and out of it to change a diaper. So I got her this cute two piece. She ended up half naked even then. But she loved it. She had a blast. She loved playing in the sand and water. She didn't like the waves so much but she did like playing in the tide pools. She must have eaten about cup of sand. It was cute. We are going to have a water baby.

Uncle Bryan made a hole and sat in it.....um yeah.....

Whole lot of just goin going on

Here are some fun pictures of stuff that is just happening. Nothing too terribly exciting, but could be mildly interesting to people who know us.

This is Oma and Ol'ena at my old college roommate's wedding. Lena is taking a short nap before dancing the night away. She loves dancing! She kicks, waves her arms, and sings to music. It is very cute. She just absolutely loves the "Jump on it" song by the Sugar Hill Gang!

O'lenee had her first trip to the beach (out of the belly) a couple of weeks ago. I think she really enjoyed herself. It was interesting though, the night before I had to go to Target to buy new swim suits for the whole family. She was the only one that I need to buy something that was in sizes smaller than the ones she had. Does that say something about mamma and dadda? With that in mind- I have decided to try to lose some weight. It is not coming off magically like I thought it would. I am 4 and 1/2 months postpartum and need to step it up a bit. The sad part is what I have to use for motivation- felling good and looking good are not enough incentive for me to get my act in gear, so when I loose my goal poundage I am allowed to have my the external hard drive I want. (I am deathly afraid that my computer is going to kick the bucket here soon and I don't want to lose everything on it. Plus school likes to erase things without telling you, so I need a place to keep things safe.) Lena-beana is also getting to the point now where she is playing with toys and I have to watch her more closely, because she is starting to roll over. She went from her back to her tummy last night! (She hasn't rolled from her tummy to her back since the video! I don't know why)

So I was getting claustrophobic with all the furniture and baby stuff in the dining room and family room that I made Derick rearrange. He HATES moving furniture and hanging pictures. He did not like the fact that I wanted to change everything around....I haven't told him yet that I have pictures for him to hang up too...

Check out the new space. It is alot more roomier. Well at least I think so....

We have also started O'lena on baby food. She is not a big fan of peas and doesn't like green beans one bit, but she LOVES squash! She was making the funniest faces when I was giving her green beans. This is not one of them because the pictures were blurry, but it is a cute one anyway. You can she is not so happy about it.

My husband is very talented. Wood building...check; auto mechanics....check; baking... check, skurring up trees...check; having a green thumb...check! He decided a while back that he was going to start a garden. Well he has! It is awesome. He is growing squash, peppers, corn, tomatoes, mint, cucumbers, okra, peas, and some kind of herb that I bought and cant remember the name of. It is looking marvelous. Actually these pictures are a couple weeks old so the plants are much bigger now. You see the wooden box in the back? Yeah, he made that too. It is a compost box.

He is getting the baby involved too. She waters it with him. He even lets her hold the hose. :) His goal is for when this crop is ready to be harvested she will be old enough to partake. I think it might just happen.

Some other cute pictures of the baby. This is what I came outside to one day. O'lena was hanging outside while daddy was washing the cars. She was just having a blast hanging out. She was out there for over an hour content as can be!

This is what saw when I got out of the shower one morning. She will sometimes eat her bottle in bed with us in the morning depending on the time. (Oh I have officially stopped breast feeding. I just wasn't making enough and it seemed to be the right time to do it. Not too terribly upset about it. It started to become a hassle for the both of us.) Anyways- I thought it was really cute!

She is still doing good with sleeping through the night. Lately though she has been waking up in the middle being fussy. I am kind of tossing it up to that she is teething. OH! That reminds me! She is teething. We had our 4 month check up a couple of weeks ago (she is 25 ins long and 14 1/2 lbs!) and the doctor confirmed what my mom suspected. She has some bumps on the bottoms that look like teeth that maybe cutting. My mom totally called it. She hasn't been really fussy (knock on wood) until lately and that is just at 1 am. Otherwise everything is going just fine.....

Spring Break Fun!

It was a long, but very eventful and enjoyable week traveling the open roads of North Carolina. The first stop was in beautiful Jacksonville, FL visiting Jessica, Larry, Natalie, Ashlyn, and Tighe. We had a blast as usual. :) We went to Clay County Fair and saw all the live stock. It is kind of funny how life changes....in past years all I would wanted to have done was ride the rides, but now being older and a mom, I wanted to show her all the animals. hmmm...life is changing a lot recently....

Derick showing O'lena a bunny. She was like "What in the world?" They also had hairy chickens. I never seen chickens so fluffy before. They were neat.

Uncle holding Tiggy. He is so cute! I can't believe how big he is getting! Man, babies change so much don't they!?

Jessica: You know every time I hear ABBA song "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line..tiggy tighe, tiggy tighe, tiggy tighe tighe tighe" I think of you guys. And believe it or not I hear it a lot because I have the Mamma Mia soundtrack in my CD player in the car right now. :)

Our next stop was to go see my Aunt Lorie's family for Easter. We totally surprised my Grandma Lee (she lives with my aunt.) She had no idea that we were coming! It was great! I think she only put O'lena down to eat and sleep. Grandma was great with her. It was great to see her too. We haven't seen her in over a year The family together coloring eggs.O'lena coloring eggs....yeah she fell asleep...Next stop: Nama and Popy's house. It was their first time seeing the baby too. It was a quick trip; only 2 days and I have decided that it was too short. Life just seems to move so much slower and more comfortably in Murphy NC. I am just so much more relaxed. I love it there. 2 days was just not long enough. I never got to hold the baby there too. She was always in the arms of a grandparent. It was cute. She just hung out with everyone. Can you believe it!? One night after her bath her hair actually stayed down!! It did that for a couple of day. It was awesome. She looked like a normal baby with out crazy hair! I think she thought the stay in the NC was too short too. By the time we were leaving she was having just about enough of the car. She did fairly well driving. It did take us a lot longer than we ever expected to get anywhere. The 6 hour drive from Jessica to my aunt's took 8 hours. It it took us 4 hours longer than normal to do the drive home. Of course there were a few stops along the way. We had to stop at the Bass Pro in Macon and we HAD to find a Bo Jangles. Derick and I never been to one and he really wanted to go and see what it was like. After some road confusion we finally found one. The vote is in: better than Popeye's.