We're Having Another Baby!!!!!!

I know it's been forever since I blogged. We have been really busy moving and getting acclamaited to our new church. I just want to let you know that WE LOVE OUR NEW CHURCH!!! It just feels like home. We love our new home. We have the best neighbors in the world.

I got the best birthday present ever this year. Just a few days before my birthday I found out that we were pregnant. I will be 11 weeks tomorrow! I am so excited, I can't wait to go to the doctor's office and have an ultrasound so I can see our new baby. I'll let you know how it goes.

The BIG 2!!!

Carly is 2 today!

Wow! Has it been two years since I went into the hospital to have my daughter? It doesn't feel like it. I can't believe it has happened so fast. One minute I am holding my newborn daughter that fits into one arm and now I have a toddler that barely fits on a lap well.

I think i am going to take this time to share some memories of her.

Looking up at me while she ate, precious look, the trust in her eyes.
Rocking her to sleep and singing to her (I still rock and sing to her every night).
Her first smile, as she looked at her daddy and I.
Learning to crawl, using one arm and pulling herself along.
The first time she reached for me.
The first time she cried when mommy was leaving.
The first time she said "momma"
Her first steps.
The way she runs to her daddy when he gets off of work.
The feeling I felt when she had to go into hospital.
The way she still looks at me.
Her sweet, sweet kisses.
The way she says, "miss you mommy"
The way she says, "lub you mommy"
The way she says, "read to me"
The way she runs up and throws herself at me knowing I'll catch her and she won't fall!! What better picture of how we should be with our Heavenly Father!!! He will catch us every time if we believe!!! Just look at how he caught Zach and I when we thought we would never have children.

Thank you Jesus, for the precious gift of my daughter! Thank you for answering the prayers of so many with her birth! I praise you for the joy she is in my life. Please help me to raise her to your standards and to love you! Please guide her to you! I entrust her life in your hands! Thank you so much!!!!!!

We're Moving...Again

So let me just start by saying that God is soooooooooooooo AWESOME. Since we got to Johnsonville, I have been in a really dark place. I like this town and many of the people. I have found friends that will hopefully last a lifetime. So you ask about the "really dark place". I am a stay at home mom. Thus said, I think all stay at home moms would agree that we need a support group. We need other stay at home moms that we can get together with. Women we can share our "stuff" with. Unfortunately, there are no other stay at home moms here. I have been praying for God to bring some into my life. To help me meet them when I am out and about. To have them show up at JFBC. However, it hasn't happened yet. There are other things that added to my "dark place" but I won't go into those things.

About 3 weeks ago, we were approached about a church in Greenville that needed a Youth/Worship Pastor. The senior pastor their had requests a meeting with Zach. At first we were kinda shocked and really thinking it wouldn't pan out to be anything. Zach called Chuck and spoke to him. At that time we both we a little excited by the possibility. We were praying for God to make our path clear! We struggled with leaving here b/c of some of the relationships we have developed. Over time, (a short time albeit) God has shown us that this is truly where we need to go.

So really God has answered my prayers. See, my best friend in the world is a stay at home mom who lives in the upstate. She has two sweet children, one being my daughters best friend. I also know many other stay at home moms and groups that i can go to. I am very excited by this.

I will truly miss my friends here and wish JFBC the best they can have! I hope things go well for them. I hope they thrive!

I am just so excited to follow God whereever He takes us. Thank you Jesus!!!!

My Valentine is so Smart

Ok. i will start off telling you that my daughter is doing great. She is getting into the terrible 2's a little. Otherwise, she is still my angel. She has started singing lately. It goes something like this, "Inkle, Inkle inkle inkle..." you get the picture but the really funny thing is when she goes from singing "inkle, inkle" to "a,b,c e i e i" Since, I know that these two songs share the same tune, it makes it really funny to me to here her go back and forth.

Fortunately, the weather has been nice here and we have been able to spend some time outside. Carly loves it. She got a small 4 wheeler for her birthday last year, and she loves to ride it around the yard. She is so cute on it. The funny part is she doesn't know how to steer it so she wrecks a lot and has to yell, "Help". How sweet.

One more thing about my smart daughter...she now understands missing someone. Or at least I think she does. We spent a week away from Zach with my parents last week. Almost everyday i would ask her if she missed her daddy. She of course didn't understand. I would tell her that she did. Then, after we were home, Zach went to work. Carly was looking for him and calling out, "Dadddy, daddy?". I told her daddy was at work. She looked at me and said, "miss daddy". I looked at her and wondered if she knew what she was saying. Then, yesterday, Zach was at work and Carly and i went to DG. On the way we passed the church and i told Carly daddy was at work there. She then said, " I miss Daddy". I guess she does understand. It is so sweet.

New Year, New Me

So i know that this blog is mostly about my daughter and what is going on with her. Well I will tell you that she had a great Christmas. She got way too many toys and is loving all of them. She is in a neat place right now. She sings a lot now. She is really using her imagination now. She likes to play tea party. Anyway, she is beautiful and smart and funny and fun to be around.

Now, let me tell you about me. For a while not I have been overweight. Okay, not just overweight but OBESE. Now that is not a place I ever thought I would be. At my senior high prom I wore a size 1 dress. So how do you go from a size 1 to a size 20? Wow, that is a difference. I don't think I liked myself necessarily as a one but I sure don't like myself at a 20. I can't play with my daughter for long, I feel horrible a lot of the time...the list goes on. Well, how did I get here.

When i went to college I gained the freshmen 15. No problem there b/c I was probably underweight as it was. Then I went up and down as it goes until my Junior year. Then I was planning on getting married and stressed from the wedding and college so I gained a little more. i was still Okay, not over weight. I stayed about the same til I graduated. Right before i graduated from college Zach and I thought we were pregnant. Then we not only found out that we were not pregnant but that we were going to have difficulty getting pregnant in the first place. So began our journey to have the aforementioned Carly. Talk about stress and then through some fertility drugs on top of that and you get a lot of weight. Then add a miracle pregnancy and you get even more weight. So here I am...overweight and unhappy.

What now? Well on January 2, 2009 I decided that that day was the time for a change! Sure I had "tried" before. I would act like I wanted to do this and then cheat, cheat, cheat. Not this time. I am doing it right. I have changed how I eat and drink and I have started exercising. I love the way I feel. I feel empowered and in charge of myself! And guess what...I have lost 15 pounds already! I am so excited. I CAN DO THIS and I AM DOING THIS!

Christmas Pictures

Well things are going well at our new home. We have made some good friends already. One thing about moving though is that we have to find new "people". What do I mean by that? We have to find a new pediatrician, a new OBGYN, a new family doctor (although to be quite honest I haven't had one of those in 6 years), a new dentist, etc. New "people". One of those etc. is a new photographer for Carly. Carly has had the same photographer since she was born...Tina at Sears. I met Tina when she was taking pictures of a friend of mine's daughter several years ago. I met her again when I was with Allison at Sears one time. So when Carly was born and I needed to take her to a studio, I went to Tina. She is the best (with a studio(Allison is the best without a normal studio)). So when it was time to get Carly's Christmas pictures done I had a decision to make. Do I go to someone new? NO. I decided that I would just come to Clemson a day earlier for Thanksgiving and have Tina take her pictures. yay! She did a great job. Have a look.

On another note. I hope everyone has a truly Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I have so much to be thankful for. My beautiful daughter, my health, my husband, my friends, my family, our new home, my dog, and most of all My Lord and Savior.

I miss my Best Friend.

So I have been in mfy new home town for several weeks now. And I have made some new friends. I really like them. I am hoping to get to know them even better. I can see that they will be fun to be around.

But I miss my best friend. My best friend is Allison Wells. I honestly didn't even know what a good no great friend was until recently. Allison told our story on her blog http://babytangerine.blogspot.com/. However, she left out how good she has been to me. Allison has always been there for me when I needed her. She prayed for me when I was going through infertility. She has listened many of times to me just gripe about anything and everything. When Carly was in the hospital in January, Allison came to the hospital and brought me a home cooked meal, a pair of pants and tshirt that had not been thrown up on, shampoo and conditioner (to was the throwup smell out of my hair), socks, etc. She came and checked up on me. She prayed for us. When another friend had to stop watching Carly due to being pregnant, Allison was there when I needed her. When I needed other things, Allison was there and helped me out.

Now here is the kicker. When my life had a drastic change starting in May of this year, Allison stepped up. She became one of the only people I could trust and talk to. When everyone around me was judging me and my family and making assumptions or just trying to tell me what to do, Allison just listened. She was there for me and really, really listened. I was let down by so many people but not Allison. She did nothing but picked me up.

I cannot thank her enough. I have never in my life had a friend like this.

Now, I live far away from my BFF. And Carly away from hers. And I miss them. I miss being able to call her and meet her for supper at beef's or applebees. I miss when we used to eat together every thurs before WPT. I miss that if I do get pregnant again she will be so far away. And when she gets a foster child, I won't be there.

thankfully, her in laws only live about an hour from me. And my in laws only live about 20 min from her. So we will still see each other. And we will still hang out.

Hey alli, next time let's get a pedi together for old times sake. I love you, girl. You are the sister I never had.

Halloween

Well, Halloween was fun in our new town. We went to a school carnival with some new friends on Thurs. Carly played with Dexter and got a few little gifts. She had fun and wore herself out. On Friday Zach's parent's came into town. We went to a trunk or treat at a preschool and then we went to one other house. We didn't wantt o go to too many houses since we didn't know that many people this year. Carly was super cute as a duck and would say "quack, quack". We tried to teach her to say "trick or treat", she did good but it sounded more like "trick,treat". She just left the or out. She is getting to be too big. I love her so much. And here she is in all her glorious duckiness.

New Home, New Outlook

Well I will make this short by saying a lot has changed since I wrote on this last. Some things not so good but some things are much better. Now let's move on.

Carly is almost 18 months now. She is getting too big. She is running around and repeating almost everything you say. She is a handful and I love her.

Yesterday, Zach, Carly and I moved to Johnsonville, SC. He got a job as the Worship/Youth Pastor at a church here. We are very excited for this change. This is a nice change for us. It is a small town about 30 min from Myrtle Beach. The people here seem truly nice and we are looking forward to getting to know them and serving along side them.

I will try to post some pictures soon. I just have to figure out how to do it since it has been so long.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

So I know you think that I vanished in '08. I haven't but my computer died. So, I don't have a lot of time at the computer anymore. Most of the time when I am at the computer I am doing youth work for my church.

So, to catch you up. Carly is crawling like crazy and pulling up on things. She can walk behind one of those walk behind toys. She has three teeth. She hasn't gained any weight since getting out of the hospital. I guess I need to back up there. She got really sick and had to be admitted to the hospital and was in for 1 week. It was no fun at all. She was puny and listless. I was extremely worried about her but now she is just fine.

She is growing so fast. She is the most beautiful little girl. I can't believe that is will soon be her birthday. This has been a short year. I am just so thankful for our little princess.

Happy 2008

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy 2008! I hope this year will be great. I tell you I can't believe that 2007 is gone. It was a year of some of my happiest memories yet. I became a mom. I saw my daughter do all kinds of things. I experience the best Christmas yet. I just hope 2008 keeps it up. I can't believe Carly is almost 8 months old. Wow!

Well tomorrow a very big decision will be made regarding Zach and my future. I pray that the Lord's will be done above all. I don't know how things will go. I will post as soon as we know something so that it doesn't drive people crazy trying to figure out what I am talking about. I just can't discuss it as of now.

Update to deleted photos

I just wanted to update all of you about the deleted photos. I took the SD card to J and P photo in Greenville on Thurs and on Friday was able to pick up my recovered photos on cd. Yes, they were able to recover all 900+ photos. I was so excited I started dancing in the place. So I will post real christmas photos soon. For now, I have a very tired little princess awaited her bedtime meal. Goodnight and Happy New Year.

Carly 1rst Chrismas and More

Carly had her first Christmas yesterday and it was so much fun. She got all kinds of fun things. She has been wearing herself out playing so much. Today we set up a corner in our living room just for her.

Christmas actually started for her a couple weeks ago. First we had Sarah Bradley (and her parents)over for a little party. Carly got a fun doll that is dressed in a cow outfit and it sings Hey Diddle Diddle. Carly loves it. I like it even more b/c SB (Sarah Bradley) was a moo cow for Halloween and Carly and she went to Boo in the Zoo together. The next night Carly hosted Tori and Jayden (and their parents). See Tori is a like a big sister to Carly and Jayden is her boyfriend. They gave her a little Christmas doll and a princess towel.

On last Friday we went down to Oburg. Sunday evening we had Christmas with my family. Carly had a lot of fun with her cousins. She got a little Lion ride on toy. She loves it. She plays with it alot. She also got so fun bows that she will have to grow into. My parents gave her a toy top and a thing for her crib.

Monday night we were out at my granny's with my dad's side of the family. Carly had even more cousins to play with there. She is the youngest and she had fun crawling around playing with everyone's toys. After good food and Carly opening a few gifts we hit the road for home. We got back to the house at about 11 pm.

Tuesday morning Zach parents came over to watch CArly open her presents. She had a ball opening each one and playing with them all. Then we went over to their house to open gifts. There she had even more fun. She really wore herself out playing with everything.

Well today started off just fine. We returned some gifts and got a few new things. Carly had fun playing with all her toys. Well I did something very bad. See I got a new camera yesterday. So I took the SD card out of my old one and put it in my new one. It had all the pictures on it from the last 4 months. ( I had not saved them yet) Well I was playing with the camera and deleting some fuzy pictures and I deleted my whole card. Trust me I cried (literally). I found out there is a recovery place in Gville so I am going there tomorrow to try to retrieve my pictures. Please pray that I will be able to. Pictures have never meant this much to me but if I have lost all those pictures I will cry again.

Well the pictures I posted are from today. I just wanted to show you her stuff.

Hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Carly

So it has been quite a while. Carly is growing up so fast. She is eating food now. She loves her oatmeal. She has eaten peas, carrots and green beans so far. She has liked them all. It is funny how much her poo has changed.

She is 6 months old and way too big. She has been clapping with closed fists for about 3 weeks. Today, she started clapping with open hands. She likes to hear the clapping sound.

Halloween was a blast. She was the cutest turtle. We went to Boo in the Zoo at Riverbanks and Greenville. We had more fun at Riverbanks. Greenville kinda herded us around like cattle in a shoot. Then we went to Downtown Clemson for Tricks or Treat. She enjoyed it. Even more so the people downtown loved her. Several college students stopped us to take pictures.

christmas is coming soon so we took Carly last week and got her pictures done. I will post one or two so that you can see what a big girl she is.

Roll Carly Roll

Carly is growing up so fast. This past Wed she rolled over from her back to her tummy. She has been rolling from her tummy to her back since she was 7 weeks old and now she can go the other way. So this is how it works... I place Carly on her blanket on her back...she rolls to her tummy...then she rolls back to her back...then she looks at me like "what's going on mommy". It is kinda funny.

She will be 5 months next Sunday. Where has the time gone? She can almost sit up by herself and she tries to pull herself up to a sitting position when she is reclined back. She can sit up when she is leaning forward a little bit and holding her toes. She is so cute.

Last night we got her her Halloween costume. I know some of you may be thinking that she is too young to do Halloween or you may be against it totally. Well, Zach and I have decided that we will do halloween and that Carly can be nice things...Not devils or witches or monsters. So this year she will be a turtle. I know those of you who know me are so not surprised. The costume is so cute. My friend Summer told me about it. We got it from The Children's Place. Bonus: it was on sale.

Well I am gonna put some pictures from Sears. She was 4 months old.

first library group

Carly had her first library group today. The Central Library has a reading group for toddlers (children under 2). It was a very fun group. We got there and Carly had fallen asleep in the van. I took her in anyway so that she could hear the books while she was asleep. Well, once we got inside she woke up when she heard all the other children around her. At first she was scared because she didn't know where she was but once I took her out of her seat she was fine. they sang a few children's songs (itsy bitsy spider and happy and you know it). Then they read a book. then they sang another song. Then they read another book and used a felt board to show the story. Next they sang B I N G O. After that we did ring around the rosie and then got stickers. Carly was smiling the whole time. I am so happy that she enjoyed it. I love to read and feel that it is super important to start early. I also like that it exposes Carly to children other than just the ones at church.

We checked out 5 books to read this week. I wont be able to take Carly next Friday because I have to work. I hate it and don't want to work on a Friday but they really need me. So I guess we will have to wait 2 weeks before Carly gets to go back.

what's going on

So I know...I am horrible at keeping up with this. I am super sorry. I am working 4 days a week and usually have something going on on my day off. AND I have a 4 month old, who has time for anything?

Carly is growing well. She had an ear infection 2 weeks ago and had her 4 month check up the same week. She is 14 lb 15.5 oz, 23 6/8 in long. She is doing really well. We went back yesterday and the ear infection is all gone.

She went to her first Clemson football game on Labor Day. We tailgaited and she did very well. She fell asleep in Paw Paw's arms on the way to the game. She slept while Fla State's band played right next to us. She slept while Fla State took the field and people cheered. However, when Death Valley erupted as clemson took the field in pregame she woke up with a fright. Imagine: you go to sleep in your grandfather's arms and you wake up to about40,000 people screaming around you. She did well during the game but it really scared her when we scored or got a first down and everyone cheered. So we left at half-time to get the tired little tiger in the bed.

She "talks" all the time now and she is getting even more cute.

Well she is talking to me now and wanting some attention. I will try to post some picts but it doesn't always work.

Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised you.

Been along time

I apologize to those who have been checking. I have been a terrible blogger since I have gone back to work. Carly is growing like a cute little weed. She is sleeping for 8 hours at a time. Yay. Sleeping is much better.

I was able to get her a an excersaucer from a consignment sale in town (www.upstatekids.com). It only cost $25 instead of $99 for a new one. She loves it. I will have to put a picture on here soon. I will try to do it tomorrow. I also got her a bumbo for only $6. Back to the excersaucer-she loves it. She sits in it and bounces and plays with all the little toys. She can coo now and she sits in it and just coos and coos. She also likes to watch tv in her bouncy seat. We got that baby tv channel. She loves it. she will watch it for 30-60 minutes at a time.

She got sick for the first time this week. She had a stomach bug. We had to put her on a pedialyte diet for 24 hours and then a combination pedialite/breastmilk for the next 24 hours. She is doing much better now. I just hated that my baby felt so bad. She just wanted to be held by her mommy. I just wanted to make her all better.

Now she feels better and was playing again today. Yayy.

The Beach, 4th of July, 2 months, 1rst Shots

So I know it has been a while since I last blogged. We were without internet for awhile. Now we have it back so I can give you updates.

We went to the beach (Surfside)and had loads of fun. Carly did not mind the water at all. She would just sit there and let the waves hit her and not mind at all. We didn't do a lot this year b/c she is not old enough. It did throw her off her schedule. She hated being in the carseat so much and she let all of us know about it. We did a lot of sitting around and relaxing. There were times that I just wanted to go home and get her back on schedule though. She would get so upset and just cry and cry. We had to just rock her and sing to her a lot. We were able to get her a lot of clothes at the consignment shops down there and at the outlets. Oh yeah, Carly rolled over for the first, second, third, and forth time. Wow, she was only 7 1/2 weeks old. Watch Mommy, she is growing up to fast.

We came back on a Sat and the next day was The Picnic at the Lake. It is where we take our church service to the lake. It is a lot of fun. The only bad thing is that there is no air conditioning. So Carly got hot and tired kinda fast. So we had the service, ate the food, and left. Next year, she will be old enough to enjoy the lake more.

Well just a few days later was 4th of July. So HAPPY BELATED 4th of JULY. We actually celebrated more the day before at Clemsonfest. Carly slept through most of it and only startled a little at the fireworks. Carly also went to the movies for the first time on July 3. Zach and I went to see Live Free or Die Hard. She slept through pretty much the whole thing. It is nice to know that we can still do stuff like that if we plan properly. So July 4th we didn't do too much. We went over to Zach's parents to eat supper. Some friends were over (Phil, Della, and "Brother" Matt) and Aunt Connie and "Cousin" Matt. To explain about the Matt's; there are a ton of Matt's in our church that we have contact with. "Brother" Matt happens to be Zach's brother's best friend and went to the beach with us. So, he is like a brother. "Cousin" Matt is really Zach's cousin. Anyway, we had a ton of fun sitting around talking about things.

Well 3 days after July 4, Carly turned 2 months old. My parents, Zach, Carly, and I all went up to the MOuntain house for the weekend. It was nice to get away for 2 days to the mountains. It is so peaceful. Carly did great b/c it was a much shorter trip. She rolled over again so that my mom could see her.

Carly got her first shots on Tuesday. She did pretty good. She only cried while the needles were in her legs. I couldn't watch b/c I didn't like seeing her in pain. I hated seeing her bleeding. It just made me want to cry too. She ended up with a fever and not feeling good on Wed. I was at work and she would not take a bottle from her daddy. So when mommy got home, she became an all you can eat buffet.

Other than that not much going on. I started my new job and Zach is still looking for a job. I hope he finds one soon. I want more time with my Carly.