Daniel's Birthday Week

After reading on my friend Kari's blog about her and her husband celebrating each other's birthdays all week (Andrew's birthday-week) , I decided to do something similar for Daniel!

Monday: new Rangers t-shirt and athletic shorts

Tuesday: Brownies and ice cream for dessert - YUMMY!

Wednesday: New polo shirt

Thursday: Certificate for full car wash

Friday: The big day! Breakfast burritos from Leal's and a popcorn maker - Happy birthday, my love!!  One perk of working at Sanderson Farms: you get the day off on your birthday, so Daniel got a long weekend and we got to hang out all day!

Saturday: Birthday party!

Playing croquet in the backyard

My brother, Max, and my Dad

Daniel's brother Micah, his wife Jenny, and their stepdad Wes eating dinner (Daniel grilled hamburgers)

Notice the radar on the TV behind them?!  We thought we were going to get hit by a major storm at any minute, so we spent most of the evening inside.  But we never got more then a few drops of rain!

Family photo

I think we wore her out!

Sunday: I washed Daniel's car (see Thursday's gift) and vacuumed and thoroughly cleaned the inside.  It looked pretty!  But I forgot to take a picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it! :)

We're going to go out to eat at some point this week to celebrate both of our birthdays since mine is on Wednesday.

Waco Bucket List

I saw an ad on Facebook for Living Social that said "Waco Bucket List."   I clicked on it because I thought it would be cool to see a list of things to do in Waco, but it was just a link to the website to sign up for their daily emails.  It got me thinking, though... Since there is a chance that Daniel and I may not be in Waco forever, I thought I would make my own Greater Waco Bucket List!  So here it is, in no particular order:

- Eat a Health Camp Shake
- Visit the Waco Mammoth Site
- Go kayaking in the Baylor Marina
- Photograph Emma in the bluebonnets (...guess we'll have to wait until next spring!)
- Tour some of the historic homes in Waco
- Go to the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University
- Take Emma to play in the spray park at Cameron Park
- Stay at Moon River Ranch's Bed and Breakfast
- Play pool at Cricket's
- Eat at The Coffee Shop Cafe in McGregor
- Drive by Prairie Chapel Ranch (George Bush's Ranch in Crawford) -- Do they allow visitors??
- Go for a swim at Tonkawa Falls in Crawford
- Drive by the Branch Davidian Complex in Mount Carmel
- Drink a cup of coffee at Common Grounds
- Eat at Jasper's BBQ
- Eat at One Thirty Five Prime
- Buy fresh produce at the Waco Farmers Market

I wanted to put down "see a show at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre", but it's closed and not even available for tours! :(

Things I would put on the list, but I've already done:
- Eat a Gut Pack at Vitek's BBQ
- Play at the Mayborn Museum's children's discovery center (**although we still need to take Emma when she's a little older**)
- Visit Cameron Park Zoo
- Hike the trails at Cameron Park (and climb Jacob's Ladder)
- Walk across the Suspension Bridge
- See a movie at The Last Drive In Picture Show in Gatesville
- Eat kolaches from West, Texas ("the Kolache Capital of Texas")
- Visit the Dr. Pepper Museum, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame
- Walk all the way across the Waco Damn
- Eat at Papa Rollos Pizza
- See a show at the Waco Civic Theatre
- Swim at the Waco Water Park (**we need to take Emma there, though**)
- Visit the Bear Habitat at Baylor University
- Water ski on Lake Waco (Thanks, McKowns!)
- Visit Carleen Bright Arboretum
- Visit Homestead Heritage
- Shop at River Square Center (Spice!)
- Have breakfast at Cafe Cappucino
- Eat at George's

Is there anything else we should do?  Leave me a comment with any ideas I didn't mention!

My first Mother's Day

I got my Mother's Day gift a few days ago when it arrived in the mail.  Daddy helped Emma write me a poem and had it put on a beautiful glass picture frame!  Impressed, aren't you?! :)

Mommy

We laugh and we play and we have so much fun

that we are so exhausted when the day is done.

You call me such sweet names

and love me to the core

but I know when I am grumpy

I can also be a chore.

But in all our sweet moments

just remember what I do

is only your reflection

just me taking are you.

Happy Mother's Day

Emma Leigh



How sweet is that?!

Today was a wonderful day!  Daniel let me sleep in (Emma woke up at 6:00 and I didn't get up until 6:50), and he had pancakes ready for me when I got up.  We had a nice morning at church, and Emma's Sunday School teachers gave me a pink carnation.  They attempted to put her fingerprint on the card, but she didn't want much to do with that... no surprise there since she doesn't like anyone messing with her hands! 

The rest of the day we relaxed at home.  Daniel emptied and filled the dishwasher, changed Emma's diapers all day, and grilled steaks for dinner! :)  I got to talk to my Mom on the phone, and my sister and her family came by to pick up their dog (we've been pet-sitting), so we got to hang out with them for a while.

My sister and her kiddos - Happy Mother's Day, Amy!

Emma and her Daddy

Emma went for her first swim in the "big bathtub" this afternoon.  She loved it!  (See the video I just posted on Facebook.)

After dinner, we took a walk around the neighborhood.  It was a little warm, but it was nice.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.  I am so thankful for my mom, my sweet daughter, and my wonderful husband.

Finally...

A restful weekend at home.  Although I feel like I got at least a little bit accomplished.  After 'dealing with the cat' Friday afternoon, Carolyn and I got out of the house and went to the China Spring softball game vs Connally to see our friend Kelly Levesque coach once more before her big trip to Italy that she left for yesterday.  If Coach Levesque ever reads this blog, she should feel very special, for 2 reasons.  1) We chose the softball game over the aTm vs BU baseball game in Waco, and 2) Emma Leigh has been to 2 of her softball games this season and has yet to attend an Aggie athletic event.  It was kind of eerie at the game because the smoke from the wildfires near Abilene had blown in and made the sun and sky an unusual reddish gray.  Felt out of the loop considering I hadn't heard about the wildfires until we got home and watched the news, just knew something was very odd. 

Saturday morning Carolyn woke me up abruptly, announcing we only had one dog in the back yard when she went to feed them, Jake had taken advantage of some rocks I rearranged along the back fence and quite magician like escaped into our neighbors yard behind us.  Fortunately he was still in their yard even though they had their gate open to the wild blue yonder if he had wanted to.  I think he was more perplexed at the fact there were no dogs there considering that house has changed occupants since his last prison break.  The rest of the Saturday was filled with relaxing with Emma Leigh and Carolyn.  I harvested a 3 green onions for Carolyn's broccoli bacon salad and a radish.  Sunday I harvested a couple more green onions for our neighbor Miss Boopsie so that I can try and get some more in the ground soon.  After fertilizing the garden, roses, and plants in the front yard while Emma Leigh hung out in her swing, we went to our Sunday school class social at Erin and Scott Roger's house.  We cooked steaks on the grill and enjoyed catching up with everyone before Emma Leigh got tired and we had to get her to bed.  We have a suspicion that Emma Leigh may be getting a tooth, she's been a little fussier these past few days accompianied with some excessive drool, although we've seen this before so only time will tell.  I guess it was Thursday night we had sat Emma Leigh down in the living room with her toys while we ate dinner and about halfway through my meal I'd turned to check on her and she had pulled up on our basket full of blankets and just grinned like she thought she was SO big.  We truly are to the stage where she does something new practically every day.  I'm sure full fledged 'cruising' (I'm told that's what they call it) will surely set in within the next few weeks which means its only a matter of time before she's courageous enough to take that monumental first step.  Pretty incredible to think about considering 8 months ago today I was just now passing her around and showing her off.  I am very thankful God has blessed us with such a healthy and lively baby girl.  Also new to our world via Emma Leigh is a pretty constant dose of 'ba-ba-ba-ba-ba'.  I'm trying to mutate it into a da-da-da while Carolyn keeps influencing her to change it to a ma-ma-ma sound.  Sometimes she lets us fill in the blank and just bobs her chin up and down with no noise at all. 

Today we were bad and skipped early service and singing in the choir.  Not sure why, but the first hour after waking up this morning I felt more exhausted than when I went to bed.  Normally I'm a little more chipper than that in the mornings.  We did get up and make it to Sunday shool though and then had to help in the nursery during the 2nd church service.  After running a few errands, I took on the challenge of trying to diagnose and fix an old lawn mower we bought from our neighbor at the beginning of last mowing season.  It worked for a few cuts and then after that I just couldnt get it to run.  So today I decided if I couldn't get it running it had to get out of my garage and I'd just use my much puinier and non-self propelled lawn mower another season.  However, after several hours of unbolting and cleaning and head scratching and rebolting and unbolting and rebolting, I primed it 4 times, put the throttle in full 'hare' position, yanked the cord and to my surprise (and it's surprise I think too) it cranked right up!  I don't think I've ever had so much fun mowing the front yard.  I didn't take myself as much of a tinkering type person.  The bad thing is I couldn't tell you what I did to it, just put the pieces back together better than I did taking them apart I guess. 

Well, tomorrow its back to the grindstone... God bless.

A tribute to the cat

Well, its been a long time since I've sat down long enough to 'journal' or 'blog' or whatever all the cool kids are calling it these days.  It had been on my mind several times, but here I am finally pounding out some thoughts on Carolyn's cat of 13 years.

The week began with Carolyn and I finally caving in to the mounting evidence that our cat Ashley (yes I said it, 'our cat') was getting very weak and that it was time she be put down.  We weren't real sure how much pain she was actually in, but her kidneys have been failing for some time and had finally gotten to the point she would hardly eat and was far from the plump, fluffy feline who moved in four and a half years ago.  When I first met Ashley, she was the poster kitten for why people didn't like cats.  Not fond of strangers, territorial, and known to hiss and bat at you at the slightest prodding.  I went from a pretty neutral, uninformed view of cats to a very 'This thing will kill me in my sleep if she moves in with me!' stance fairly quickly.  My only saving grace the day she moved in was the fact she was declawed as a small kitty and thus rendered fairly harmless.  However, merely weeks after moving out of Carolyn's parents house (and away from a pre-teen and teenage boy), I had to admit 1) I was still alive, and 2) she was actually starting to grow on me.  I did still have plenty to learn though, and at times she was not a patient teacher, but we got through it.  Only pet to here, no sudden movements, and my least favorite, the kitty litter.  She did earn her keep while we were in the apartment though.  Getting up early one morning for work, I stumbled into the living room in the dark, as not to disturb Carolyn, and stepped on what was a very cold and wet substance I assumed 'her cat' had hacked up overnight, only to be proud when I discovered she had hunted down the little white mouse that had been spotted the week before.  The true test for this cat, however, came roughly 8 months ago when one of those noisey little rugrats moved in that she had made very clear she was not a fan of.  Just the sight of a human under the age of 3 would send her into full fledged battle mode and cause us to enforce a 2 room buffer zone between parties.  However, when Emma came home, she only let out a suspicious growl and I believe she grew to enjoy her.  Or atleast over these past 2 months, she enjoyed teasing her.  Before Emma could crawl, she would boastfully circle Emma round and round like she was leading a parade, eventually leading to Emma coming to full frustration in her immobileness.  The joke was on her the day Emma took off after her and got a handful of fluff before the poor kitty knew what happened though!  This became quite the game around our house these last few weeks.  Ashley enjoyed it.  She would hang out just out of reach and taunt.  Never once did she snip at Emma when she managed to get within arms reach.  But she soon grew too weak for the game and spent most of her time curled up on our guest bed, primarily because it only sits only about 2 feet off the ground.  An easy landing pad.  After working off the wall hours, including what amounted to a 24 hour shift Tuesday, I managed to be off today, the Friday that came faster than most, but that I dreaded so much.  I did not enjoy my role as the grim reaper.  No matter how justifiable, its hard to pull the plug on your wife's childhood companion.  The hardest part what having a set time.  Friday at 4:30.  All day the countdown was on.  6 hours, 4 hours, 45 minutes.  Then it was time.  Carolyn and Emma said their goodbyes and I took Ashley to the vet for the last time. 


For not being a cat person, I'll miss the cat who 'tucked me in' for over 4 years.  No more entering the room to an unexpected meow.  No more paws knowing exactly where the bladder is so I will get up and feed her.  No more watching Emma's face light up when the cat enters the room.  No more hoping the kitty litter is clean enough to make it til next Sunday, for the first time since we've been married, when Emma goes to bed, its just the 2 of us.

Our 4th Wedding Anniversary

Thursday was our anniversary!  We've been married for four wonderful years.  Emma and I met Daniel at Cracker Barrel for lunch that day, but our real celebration was Friday night in Salado while Emma stayed with Granny (Judy, Daniel's mom).  Daniel didn't tell me where we were going.  I knew we were heading south since we were meeting Judy in Temple, so I thought we were going to the Austin area.  Daniel even asked me if I brought plenty of reading material for the drive, so I was very surprised when he took the Salado exit after just 20 minutes!


On Friday night we did a little shopping before having dinner at Adelea's on Main.  It's a elegant, but casual, little bistro in an old house in Salado.  

It's a little pricey, but hey, it's a special occasion, so it's okay to splurge, right?  Plus, the food was delicious! Here's what we ate:


Appetizers: Daniel had the Polenta Cakes with Mushroom and Proscuitto, and Carolyn had the Adelea's Petite House Salad (with yummy sugared pecans).
Entrees: We both had the hand cut 7 oz. fillet mignon topped with blackberry chocolate sauce and served with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli.
Dessert: Daniel had the Pumpkin Creme Brulee, and Carolyn had the Goode Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.


We have a tradition of taking pictures of each other and our wedding rings.

After dinner, we drove through the Nature in Lights display in Belton (between Salado and Temple for all of you non-Central Texas people).  

It's over 5 miles of Christmas lights!  We had a blast singing the Twelve Days of Christmas through that part of the display, but we were a little disappointed that they only had one lord-a-leaping.  The only ones that were numerically correct were 1 partridge in a pear tree and 5 golden rings.

We stayed at Stonecreek Settlement Bed & Breakfast in Salado (in the Wimberley cottage).  Isn't it cute?!





I woke up a few times in the middle of the night and actually thought I was hearing Emma crying. (First night to be away from my baby made me a little crazy!)


The next morning we tried to go shopping on Main Street, but everything was still closed at 9:15 AM.  So we went to Temple to satisfy my craving for a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks!  We spent the rest of the morning browsing around several gift, antique and home decor shops in Salado and had lunch at Cathy's Boardwalk Cafe before driving back to Temple to pick up Emma.


I'm very glad Daniel chose a fairly local destination.  Since we were just staying one night, it was nice to not spend a large chunk of our time just driving.  We missed our baby girl, but it was a wonderful, much-needed, and relaxing get-a-way!!  

Mommy leaves for a few hours...

Since Daniel is working second shift for a few weeks, I get to leave Emma home with Daddy while I go to church for Bible study and a workout on Thursday mornings.  When I got home yesterday and went to get Emma up from her nap, I unswaddled her and found out what happens when Daddy gets to pick her outfit while Mommy's away!

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

These are the things that we've come to love during the past five and a half weeks!

Baby K’tan Baby Carrier – The double-sling design is a cross between a soft sling and a structured front baby carrier or backpack.  It is made entirely of soft 100% cotton, and the two loop design holds the baby securely.  It’s very comfortable because it rests on both shoulders and has a built-in back support band, and it is easy to use – no wrapping or buckling involved.  Plus, it has 10+ positions, is machine washable and dryer safe, and can be used for a long time (up to 42 pounds)!  And most importantly, Emma loves it!!  If she’s fussy, she normally calms down right after I put her in it and start walking around.  She falls asleep in it fairly easily too!  It’s great when I need to take her somewhere and don’t want to carry her car seat/carrier or can’t use the stroller.  Example: I went to the Just Between Friends consignment sale the other day and couldn’t take the stroller in, so I just put her in this sling.  She did great the entire time I shopped!

The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp – Most new parents have heard of the 5 S’s for how to calm a baby, but this book is wonderful in its detailed instructions on how to do each S (Swaddle, Side/Stomach, Shushing, Swinging, and Sucking).  This was indispensable advice for us for Emma’s first five weeks of life because she had to be calmed down and put to sleep in our arms before we could put her in her crib.

Gold's Gym 65 CM Exercise Stay Ball – This thing is great for when Emma is fussy and needs to be bounced or rocked. We can bounce like crazy when she’s screaming and then transition to smaller bounces, bouncing and rocking, and eventually just rocking until she’s out cold!

Luna Lullaby Soothing Swaddle Blankets – These blankets are great because they’re 44” x 44”, so they’re much larger than normal receiving/swaddling blankets.  They’re made of soft muslin that is breathable and stretchable.  They even come with a DVD with step-by-step instructions on how to swaddle a baby.

MAM pacifiers – these are the only pacifiers we’ve found that Emma will take!

Mommy’s Melodies Soothing Plush Bear – Emma loves the mother’s womb sounds, but it also plays 3 lullabies and 2 nature sounds.  It automatically shuts off after 5 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to turn it off or it draining the batteries all night long.

Now all we have to do to put Emma to sleep is to combine those last three items!  Swaddle her up good and tight, give her a pacifier, turn on the Mommy’s Melodies bear, give her a kiss, and put her in her crib.  We normally have to go back in her room once or twice to put the pacifier back in her mouth and turn the bear back on, but that totally beats having to walk and bounce and sway and rock and pat and… okay, you the get picture… for 45 minutes or more!

Medela Tender Care Lanolin – I’m not going to go into detail with this one, but let’s just say that this stuff was a necessity during those first few weeks of breastfeeding.

MommyGear.com – This is a great website for purchasing nursing bras, especially for those of us with larger cup sizes!  You can shop by size, and they offer free shipping on size or style exchanges on all nursing bras.

Boppy pillow – I didn’t think I would need one of these, so I just used regular pillows at first.  But after borrowing a friend’s Boppy, I don’t feed Emma without it (unless I’m out of the house).  Plus, we can put Emma in it to prop her up or for tummy time!

Baby Nail Scissors – I tried using the clippers on Emma’s little nails… let’s just say it didn’t go well!  The scissors are so much easier and safer to use, in my opinion.

bumGenius Cloth Diapers – If you’re going to use cloth, this is the way to go! We only have a few of these because they’re pretty expensive. The all-in-one's come in sizes XS - L, so you have to buy more as your baby grows, but they're so easy because you can just throw the whole thing in the wash. With the bumGenius 4.0 diapers, you have to deal with inserts, but they have snaps to adjust the diaper to three different sizes.

Snappi Diaper Fasteners – Since bumGenius diapers are a bit pricey, we just use prefolds with vinyl diaper covers most of the time. Snappi's make putting the prefolds on so much easier than it used to be!

Emma's First Month

It's hard to believe that Emma is already a month old!  She's growing and changing so fast.

One day old

One month old

Emma weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces (75th percentile) at her 3-week checkup.  Dr. Huitink, our pediatrician, was very pleased with her growth.  We're getting the hang of breastfeeding, although it definitely wasn't easy for the first couple of weeks.

She is sleeping pretty well.  She takes good naps during the day and normally sleeps about 4.5 to 5.5 hours when we put her down for the night.  After the middle of the night feeding, she normally goes back down for another 3 hours or so. She slept through the night for the first time when she was exactly one month old!  She fell asleep at 10:30 p.m. and didn't wake up until almost 6:00 a.m. (7.5 hours)  Unfortunately, she hasn't done it again in the week since then.

She is a very good natured baby.  She only fusses when she's hungry, tired, and when we're trying to put her down for the night.  She's starting to hold her head up by herself pretty well.  She makes lots of faces, but the cutest is when she puckers her lips like she's drinking through a straw.   We've gotten a few grins out of her, but we're still waiting for a real smile.

Other tid-bits:

• We were locked out of house when we brought her home from the hospital.  Carolyn's sister accidentally went back to Ft. Worth with our house keys and our neighbor locked a door that we normally leave unlocked!   The neighbor had to come home from work to give us our spare keys back.
• She had a lump on her upper back right after she was born.  It was about the size of a marble!  We thought it was a cyst, but the doctor said it was just tissue and would go away.  Sure enough, by her 3 week appointment it was gone.
• We thought we would have to get her frenulum (the tissue under the tongue) clipped, but the ENT said it was not severe enough to put her through the procedure.
• Her umbilical cord stump fell off after just 11 days!
• We lost power at the house for several hours when she was one week old.  Her very first outing (besides the doctor's office) was to Dairy Queen for dinner.  Fortunately, the power was back on when we got home!
• We got lots of meals from our wonderful friends from our Sunday School class at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church!
• Daniel had to work the second shift when Emma was 3 weeks old.  Fortunately it was only a four day week because of Labor Day because she was very difficult to put down two of the nights he was gone.
• We started taking her to church when she was almost 3 weeks old.  We only took her to Sunday School the first week and she started to fuss in the middle of it.  Daniel took her outside and got her to fall asleep.  Carolyn missed half of Sunday School the next week for a feeding, but Emma did great during the worship service!
• Other outings:  Walmart, baby shower for a friend from church, Sunday School social/lunch, Just Between Friends consignment sale, Target, Vitek's BBQ, and the post office