Rocking with God (and Addie) (and Addie's 1st ear infection)

Graham started school to get his MBA at the end of January. He is going to school online so he works on it every night from about 8 till 10 or 11........which means, I put Addie to bed. Which is a BIG change because for the first 11 months of Addie's life, Graham did the whole Bath, Bottle, Teeth Brushed and Bed thing.


I love it though. It's nice to have time just me and my baby. We start with a bath at 8:30ish then we have milk (in a cup now woo hoo!), brush our teeth, Tell Daddy goodnight, Read a story (BLAME There's a Mouse about the house......another post), say our prayers and then I sing her ONE song ( she is still awake when I lay her down I just love to sing to her!). Last night we went through everything and it was time for our prayers. Addie clasped her hands together, looked up at me and smiled. As the tears ran down my face we said a prayer for our family, Aunt Meghan and her baby and Aunt Lauren and her baby. Addie always giggles at the end when I say and In Jesus Name...Amen. That is the most precious thing, to get to pray with my daughter everynight, and the fact that she seems to be starting to understand that she should be still and quiet. I just LOVE it!



I think it is very important to talk about God and to God from a young age. We have probably been saying prayers with Addie since she was 3 or 4 months old. I hope that this will become a natural thing to her and she will ALWAYS look to our Father for help when she needs it. And to be able to just talk to him and tell him how her day is going!







Okay so I started this post several days ago and I am just now getting time to finish and post it. You ask, Why? Because we have been dealing with an AWFUL ear infection in both of Addie's ears!

It all started two weeks ago when Addie got alittle cold, no big deal we pulled out the Zyrtec and it 'seemed' to clear it up. By that Saturday she was ALOT better so we went to Coolige park and I took her one year pics (I really wanted some outside, and after looking at how much it can cost to do an onlocation photo shoot I decided I could just do it! And I think I did a pretty good job!) She had a blast that day and was feeling pretty good that whole week.....until Thursday night. Oh my she was up ALL night long! Friday she spent the day watching Ellie play from my lap, this is when I should have known something was wrong! She actually slept all night Friday night and Saturday was when she started getting REALLY bad. She had a fever ranging from 100.9 to 102.8 with Motrin and Tylenol alternated every 3 hours. She was up every 2 to 3 hours that night and we REALLY thought it was just her back teeth coming in. By Sunday her fever was staying around 102 and she felt horrible so we called the doc. By the grace of God her doctors were on call this weekend and they had an opening at 11:30. The doc came right in and said, "Yep, that's a bad ear infection.........in both ears!" It was so bad she couldn't give her Amoxicillin (really dont know how to spell that????) and she had to give her another stronger Antibiotic. The catch......she can only have it once a day and it would take a good 36 to 48 hours to start working! AHHHH! Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday were a blurrrrrrrrrr! We spent our time giving meds, taking clothes off (to get fever down), giving baths (to get fever down), rocking, singing, reading books, and switching Addie from my lap to Graham's (thank goodness he is home all week!). It was a LONG 48 hours! Addie started feeling alittle better last night and was alittle more better today! Hopefully Tomorrow she will be 80 or 90 % better!

All I can say is


EAR INFECTIONS SUCK REALLY BAD!

I hope ya'll have a good week!

Addie's First Birthday Party

First of all I'm sorry its been so long! I started keeping another little girl, my laptop broke again and I've just been tired! I'll do better I promise!

So Addie turned 1 on Feb 16 and I can't believe it! We had her first birthday party on the saturday before (Valentine's Day) at Tiftonia Baptist and it was perfect! Debbie Webb made her a castle cake complete with a princess that had Blonde hair and blue eyes like Addie. It was AMAZING!


Addie had been VERy sick the whole week leading to her party. We even went to the doctor on that Wednesday and they gave her an IV! She was feeling alittle better and the fever was gone so we decided to go ahead with the party.

Addie's Great aunt Susie monogramed her two shirts, one said "Birthday Princess" and the other said "Princess Addie". She also had a Tu-Tu, Pink tights, and Pink Shimmery shoes to wear. Completing the Princess had a Crown, jewels, and a wand! She was Beautiful! ( I can't find a picture of her along with her crown on so this will do)

Almost everyone we invited to Addie's party came! It was awesome! She got TONS of toys to play with and pretty outfits fit for a queen!

She was OVER opening presents almost as soon as it started. She thought all the giftbags were purses and kept grabbing them and walking away :)

Gingy got her the Princess Chair she is sitting in. And I made her a hairbow with ribbon that said Princess (I knew she wouldn't wear the crown) (Can you guess the theme of this party yet??)

Like I said Addie wasn't feeling her best so the cake eating wasn't as bad as it probably would have been if she was 100 %.

and

All in all Addie had a Great birthday party! Thank you to all that came and shared this special day!

Mommy and her Princess! (I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE IS ONE!)

Daddy and His little Princess!

Toddlers and Tiaras

Oh MY! If you haven't seen this show on TLC..........DON'T watch it! Its horrible! The whole concept of telling our little girls that they have to put makeup on, fix their hair up, have a FAKE TAN, wax their legs and strut around like a you know what, when they are 3 years old and up is appalling! We should be teaching our little girls that real beauty is on the inside. And when you are beautiful on the inside it shows on the outside! Don't get me wrong I LOVE to get dressed up for my hubby and have a nice date but I am 25 years old (almost). I also think it is perfectly NORMAL for little girls to want to PLAY dress up and put makeup on and pretty dresses. But not go out of the house like that! My mother has ALWAYS told me I was beautiful, even when I was SURE no one in the world would want to look at me (don't laugh, you have those days too. When you have a monster zit, nothing you put on looks good, and your hair is frizzy and won't do what you want. WE ALL HAVE THESE DAYS). My mother always taught me you were beautiful from the inside out. It just took me a long time to really realize that. Anyways, these moms are crazy for making their daughters do these pageants. Most of them will say the daughter "wants" to do it, but all the daughter wants to do is please her mom. There was this one little girl that won the big title (she was like 5) and she cried and said to her mom, "I won all the money we spent back". Little girls should be playing house, doctor, whatever not beauty queen at 3 and 5 years old!

If Addie comes to me at 16 or 17 years old and says that she really wants to do a pageant, I would support her in every way I could. But I will only do that if it is HER decision and it is something she wants to do for FUN.

While I'm ranting...................I have a HUGE problem with Libby Lu's. You know that little beauty salon (the one that makes little girls look like s***) inside Belk (I think). The one where you walk by and there are 15 little girls ranging from 1 to 10, dressed in little-bitty clothes, more make-up than you would find in the whole makeup department combined, their hair put up and sprayed with colors and sparkles ,standing outside the little shop singing a song and dancing (provocatively). IT DRIVES ME NUTS!!! It's one thing to let them play at home and make them wash it off before they leave the house, it's another to dress them up like that then parade them around the mall. This is not the way we should be raising them. No wonder the average age of teens having sex is 13! These little girls are being pushed into womanhood before they even know what that means.

What happened to the good ole' days when modesty was a word EVERYONE knew. When girls covered their selves. These girls need to respect themselves enough cover up. They need to realize that to truly be sexy to be smart, funny, and fun to be around. Not flirty, provocative, and revealing.

DATE NIGHT

Kids take ALL of your time up. And there is nothing wrong with that, in fact that's the way it should be...............most of the time. Graham and I have noticed the past couple of months how we spend all our time and energy on Addie. We have had a few nights here and there that she spends the night with grandparents and we get to have dinner or watch a movie or something, and we did take an anniversary trip alone but totally thought and talked about Addie the whole time. So one of our resolutions for this year is to spend more time just us. We are going to have ATLEAST one date night a month, 2 if we are lucky. It's a night that we will have dinner and take a walk (when its warmer) see a movie or just hang out at home.

So, Addie is spending the night with Gingy and Popie tonight and Graham and I are going to eat and see a movie. I'm so excited we haven't seen a movie in like 6 or 7 months!

Our Weekend

Saturday Graham, Addie and I headed to the mall to take back a few Christmas presents and get some things for her birthday party. It was a HORRIBLE day, it was cold and rainy not good weather to have our 10 1/2 month old out it! Anyways we went to Party City and got the plates, cups, napkins, and a few special things for Addie's Birthday party. All of which I am sure I will misplace by party time. It's basically going to be a princess theme. I'm PLANNING on making her cake (hopefully it will work out), I want to make a 3 tier pink cake. I am so excited about it but we will see how the run through looks.

After switching some jeans out for Addie and taking a few items back for Graham we decided to eat lunch at Red Robin. It was very good. Neither of us had ever eaten there and it was the first time Addie had "junk" food. She Really seemed to like it though.

Sunday we went to Red Bank Church of Christ. We have had some issues at our current church that never seem to resolve themselves so together Graham and I have decided to look around. We started at Red Bank because I have always loved the church that meets there. They were so welcoming this morning, it seemed like everyone introduced themselves. I felt very comfortable. Addie was horrible during church and we really missed having my mom to give her too but we managed. After church I realized that there was a nursery she could have gone to, go figure! She will be making an appearance in there next week. Bethany, Chris and Tanner went with us this morning and it was nice to have them there too. Tanner was not even as close to as bad as Addie during church (probably because he went to sleep) but they went to class together and the teacher said they did great. Well............the first thing the teacher said when we walked in to get Addie was, "she sure does have an arm on her" I was so embarrassed. This week she has developed a bad problem of throwing things. Anyways, we really enjoyed it and we are probably going back next week. I am so excited and I haven't been excited about going to church in a long time. Graham really liked it too (he actually say a guy he works with and a friend from college there) and wants to go back. We need a place that has more people our age and Addie's age. I want her to grow up in a good, strong youth group like I did. I'm not so sure that's how it will be at Tiftonia. I love Tiftonia but there are things that I don't believe will ever change, I hope and pray they will but.............That's another post for another day.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Oh yeah.............one of my New Year Resolutions is to post atleast 2 times a week!

Planning!

I swear I LOVE planning weddings and special events, BUT when it comes to something for me it's torture! I am trying to plan Addie's first birthday and I have so many ideas and so little money. Well we could spend more on it but everytime I tell Graham how much something is going to cost he freaks out! Like tonight I FINALLY found plates, cups, napkins and forks that I love, and they are on sale. So I go through and figure out how many of them I need, how many with the Princess things on them and then how many just plain pink for the adults. Now keep in mind the guest list (mostly family) is like 74, now we know that many will not show up but if my whole family comes that is like 30 people alone. ANYWAYS, for the plates, cups etc. it was like $35. I mean really that's pretty good! NOT TO GRAHAM.....he freaked out and said he would go to walmart and get all of it for 10$. I said HONEY we are not getting white paper products for her FIRST BIRTHDAY. He doesn't understand that this is a BIG DEAL! Oh Men, you gotta love 'em. Well I have to go order the party supplies I hope you all have a great weekend!
~Brandy

2008 memories

Addie and Ali in one of their wagons from Gingy and Popie

Addie dancing to the music on her zebra

Addie opening presents at Papa John's

Our pic of Addie with Santa

Addie and Daddy making cookies

It seems that the older I get the faster the years go by. It seems like just yesterday I was huge with Addie in my belly, stressed from working, stressed from getting everything ready for Addie to come...........pretty much just stressed out! 2008 was a GREAT year for us. It started out alittle shaky with me being sick as the ball dropped and the 3rd week of January I was put on bedrest, which was HORRIBLE!!! I had to lay in bed all day and Graham would move me to the couch when he got home. I was only supposed to be on my feet for 2 spans of 20 minutes a day! Trust me IT SUCKS!!!! Anyways, In February we got our little bundle of joy. It was one of the hardest times in our lives but so worth it. It's very scary when you bring this tiny baby home and you don't have your mom or the nurses to take care of it. We were so scared that first week. Over this year we have watched Addie grow into a little person. She has gone from doing nothing to being into EVERYTHING! SHe dances anytime she hears music, screams to the top of her lungs, and totally has an attitude! We love watching her grow and learn everyday and she is the best thing that has happened to us this year. Another big thing we did this year, besides taking care of Addie, is we got to go to Jackson Hole, WY and into Yellowstone and the Tetons. It was a beautiful trip. Things we will remember forever. It was a great time for us to get away and remember "us" again. When you have a baby you have everything consumed into him or her and those first few months Addie was all we had time for. We did everything for her and went to sleep, we were so tired, too tired to have time for "us". So that trip was great to spend time together as a couple.

This year has be the best yet! I'm sure next year will be even better. Addie will be one in less than 2 months and she is on the verge of walking. We can't wait for that, we will be able to go outside and play alot better then! From my family to yours we hope you have a wonderful 2009!

updating of Pictures!

Playing in the leaves

Look at those Eyes

Which reindeer do you think I am???

All cozy waiting on the Christmas parade to start

My sweet Little girl infront of the tree.

Family pic at the Christmas Parade downtown

Look at that curly hair!

Addie being goofy

My loves!

Addie First Christmas

Adam still has our Laptop so I can't put pics up yet (he fixed it WOOHOO and we should be getting it back soon) I will add Christmas pics later.

Wow........Addie has been So good this past week. Monday was pretty normal. Tuesday we went to Gingy's house to make cookies and were there until Addie's nap time. She was so funny when no one was looking (or so she thought) she would try to get a handful of cookie dough and stick it in her mouth. I can't tell you how many times Gingy fished it out of her mouth! I swear that child is into EVERYTHING all the time! Mom says she is just like I was when I was little, but I don't think I could have ever been that bad ;) Wednesday Addie and I spent alot of the day cooking and trying to get daddy out of the kitchen, he would have to "sample" all the goodies. But who could blame him??? his wife has become an awesome baker (haha). Wednesday evening we started at my Papa John's house with dinner then open presents with my mom's side of the family. Addie got alittle overwhelmed with all the kids and toys so we had to come home and chill out a few minutes before we went to Graham's aunt's house. We got over to Terri's and opened presents from that side of the family. Addie got a fire truck riding/pushing toy that OF COURSE plays music, a baby doll, some blocks and a dress (so cute I'll make sure and get a picture). She LOVES the fire truck, she figured out the whole pushing it thing on Christmas day (when she had more time to play with it) and she pushes it all over the house. Within the same day of learning how to push and walk with it she took her first 2 steps! She has done it a few times here and there since then but crawling is faster. I bet we will have a walker before she is 11 mths old (jan 16). Santa visited our house that night and left Addie, mommie and daddy all kinds of goodies! We ended up having to wake Addie up about 10 Christmas morning (that child would sleep all the time if you would let her!). We decided to go ahead and feed her first, figuring if she opened presents first she would not want to eat and just play. So we had breakfast and opened presents, let me tell you she had figured it our by then and she was ripping through those presents so fast. Santa brought her a bouncing zebra that plays music, a table that has buttons and music on it, another baby doll, and several other things (Santa may have gotten in trouble by higher authority for buying too much stuff) but Addie favorite came in her stocking.....................she got her very own measuring cups! She loves them and carrys them everywhere. Just like her mommie she is going to be a cook!
We played all day and MeeMee, Papaw , Uncle Sam and Aunt Nikki came over that night to do dinner and presents. Yes I cooked AGAIN! I feel like that's all I have done for the past month and half! Addie got SEVERAL more toys that night but her favs are a train that you put balls in and it spits them out from Sam and Nikki and a Kitty pillow and blanket that MeeMee and Papaw got her. And the big thing was a blow up house thing that had those plastic balls in it, Addie has tasted EVERY ball and just crawls in and out, in and out, in and out!
Friday.....................I know Christmas went on FOREVER for us this year!
Miranda, Manny and Ali came in town Friday so that night we did dinner and presents with them. I tell you I thought I, I mean Santa went overboard but my mom is another story! She got Addie books, and dolls, and push toys and clothes, and other small toys then she got her and Ali matching wagons. They both were so excited! Addie crawled into it herself and sat down (there is one in the baby class at church and she loves going for rides). We had to put it in the garage so Addie will leave it alone.
All in all we had a great Christmas, not because of the things we got but because we got to spend time with family and it was so much fun to see Addie get so excited! It was like we were kids again. Christmas with your kids is AWESOME! Maybe some of our Friends out there can start having some kiddos so Addie will have friends to play with.................HINT HINT.......you know who you are! LOL! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!!

Its been awhile!

Yeah, I know I'm sorry! I have just been SO BUSY! I feel like I have baked or cooked something extravagant everyday for the past month! I usually cook dinner every night, and a big dessert at least once a week, but WOW you wouldn't believe what has come out of my kitchen lately! Graham is getting very spoiled, I have tried several new dinner recipes. Hopefully that will slow down after next week!
Let's see, since my last post Addie has started standing pretty good on her own, played in the potty (pics to come), got two more teeth and went to see Santa. Oh yeah, our laptop crashed and that's why I am never on here. I HATE the color in our guestroom/computer room so I don't like to come in here. Over Christmas break Graham and I plan on cleaning it out and making it more of an office, I hope to get him to paint it too :) Hopefully Adam will be able to get our pictures, itunes music, videos etc off of that computer and then we can reboot it and start all over. What a mess! I recommend everyone buying an external hard drive and backing up their pictures today! You never know what is going to happen.
We put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving and Addie cried the first time she saw it. She really hasn't messed with it as much as we thought she would. Tink on the other hand..........................I'll just say she has had her fair share of spankings! Addie now has 5 teeth and she smiles alot to show them off. We took her to see Santa last Thursday and she did awesome! She never cried, she pulled his beard and she smiled for the picture........I couldn't ask for a better little girl! She is so full of life these days. She is into EVERYTHING! I used to spend my days on the couch while she played.............NOT ANYMORE! We crawl around, make tents, bake, cook, clean then NAP! Thank the Lord she naps, and I get to too!! :) We are so excited about her first Christmas, I think she will have the best time playing with the wrapping paper and bows. Hopefully she will like her presents too!
Graham has been very busy at work these past couple of weeks. He works so hard I am so proud of him. His company treats him so well because they know what an awesome, smart man they have working for them and they don't ever want to loose him. I never get to talk about how thankful and proud of him I am. But he really is the most wonderful husband and daddy! I love you!! (not that he ever reads this!)
And me................let's see........I weighed myself today and I weighed almost 40 pounds less than this time last year(I know I know I had a baby BUT I only gained 16 pounds total with Addie) so I am very proud of myself. Lately, when Addie is napping, I have really been busting my B*** in the kitchen and I love every bit of it! I have always liked cooking but it is slowly becoming a passion. And it really should, see Graham and I have a new dream of moving to Wyoming. He wants a ranch and I want a Bed and Breakfast. This is our "when we retire" dream. If you have never been out to the Jackson Hole, Yellowstone part of the country you should pack your bags and go now. Well......wait till we have our B & B and you can stay with us! It really is a beautiful place! I sit around and draw up house plans for when we are ready to move :) I know.......weirdo! Well I am off to make me and Addie poodle skirts for a party Saturday. I will post some Xmas pics as soon as I can get them off the computer! Have a MERRY Christmas..........I'm betting I don't have another chance to post before then!