Together Again...

and I couldn't have been more proud! Our babies are growing by the second, and if I have to drive to the end of the earth to get this photo-op every year, I WILL! Even when our babies are 40 years old, I want this picture. Every year! I love these girls and their babies and couldn't have been more happy to share my pregnancy with them. So, here's a recap of a year gone by.

Me, Steph, Lynette & Katy - June 19, 2009

July 18, 2009

Me-with Mills, Steph-with Nash, Lynette-with Brynlee, & Katy-with Colton

Christmas 2009

and here we are today, one year later!

Happy Birthday Colton! He's 1!

Tonight, we gathered with some of our very special friends, to celebrate the 1st birthday of a very special little boy. Colton, the son of two of our best friends, Katy & Landon, turned one on Tuesday, and they were in town from Houston, TX. We haven't seen each other since Christmas, so we were glad to be part of this very special occasion. Colton, who was supposed to be the second born, out of the four babies you've seen in previous posts, actually came on July 27, instead of Sept. 4. So, he was baby #1, Mills was baby #2, Brynlee #3, and finally little Nash came in November. We had such a good time, even with scorching temperatures. Happy Birthday sweet Colton!

Oh yeah! Get it all over daddy!!!


Sweet Nashy! Don't you love this happy boy!

Mills loved the balloons!

Mills giving Brynlee some "sugar." Her daddy just LOVED this!

Today...

We made an early trip to Walmart, had lunch, a nap, and made an unexpected trip (because we were bored) to Memphis for some window shopping. Mills did end up with some squeaky sandals, part of his early birthday present, and we visited his Daddy while we were there. My whole goal for the afternoon, was a nap for Mills. He ALWAYS falls asleep on the way to, or on the way home from the big city, but today, not so much. I couldn't believe it. So, when we got home, I, the mean ole' mama, made him take a nap. Of course it only lasted an hour before I got him up for supper. Still early, I decided to let him play in the $3.00 blow up pool that I had bought for the beach. We never used it, so since the sun on the west side of the house, we had plenty of shade, and more of an excuse for a quick dip. Why didn't we just go next door to the big pool? No shade and way too hot!

and then....


fun in the cabinets!

Mama Mia!

Well, maybe. He should have been eating spaghetti or pizza; something Italian to go with those perfect little expressive hands. I couldn't think of a more perfect caption. He loves his cheeseburger and peas. Interesting combo, huh? This boy doesn't turn down much, and usually, always cleans his tray.

Good Morning, Bad Night

TGIF! Right? I love having Fridays off and always look forward to spending the weekend with my sweet Mills, my hubby (when he is off) and even ole' Joey. We usually don't have much of an agenda on Fridays. Usually, I will take Mills strolling around the square while window shopping and enjoy seeing the many familiar faces I have known all of my life. That is what I love about a small town. This week, the humidity was enough to knock you off your feet, and the heat was unbearable. I didn't even want to walk to the mailbox today, much less go strolling around town with a baby.

This week, we made plans to head across the street to our church's family life center for a short paint-a-piece session. My friend, Brandi, so graciously emailed me this week to let me know that she had a few spots open, and informed me that there would be "help" with baby's hand prints. (thank goodness) So, at 9:00 am, Mills and I loaded up, headed across the street, and painted a tile. The girl from paint-a-piece painted Mills' little hand and placed it on the tile like a pro, then I finished the product. I can only imagine what things would have been like if I had given Mills the painting sponge or a paint brush, so we opted for the "neater" way out.

After getting home, I coerced Mills into taking a nap. I knew he was tired so upstairs we went. He took a great nap, before I woke him up for lunch. During his nap time, I was busy working on his birthday party plans, which are enough to make you want to pull your hair out. I am almost ready to say, "That's it! We're having ice cream and cake! Just ice cream and cake!!! Would that be "uncool?" Seriously? No, I think not. As a matter of fact, it is sounding better and better by the minute!!!!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon with a very short trip to Walmart, then came home and played, read a few books. I could tell that my boy was getting sleepy again, so I tried to get him to take another short nap around 3:00. He would not have it, so the rest of the afternoon "went to pot!" I can honestly say that in the past 11 months, this afternoon and tonight had to be one the most trying of all. This, my friends, was one of those days that makes you take a deep breath, sit down and throw your head to your hands, because you have done all you can do and nothing is working. Mills cried and cried, and would not let me put him down. When I picked him up, he would try to wiggle out of my arms. Then, when he would get down, he would immediately reach for me AGAIN, and want me to pick him up. I tried giving him some formula in his sippy, and he threw it down, then commenced into a hissy fit. So, off to the high chair we went for supper. He took about 5 bites, started crying...AGAIN, and started shoving his food off of his tray. Oh yeah, Joey was more than thrilled. I, on the other hand, had "had it!" So, I left things as they were with complete confidence that Joey would help with the clean up. I took our sleepy eyed boy upstairs, put him in the tub (oh but he was happy now). Next to the bedroom for jammies and a book. It was 6:15 by then and nothing seemed to make Mills happy. So, I gave up. Heading downstairs to the fridge for his bottle, our boy rubbed his eyes and whined the whole time. So, you guessed it. It was bed time, and way to early for it, but I had no choice. I knew that if I went upstairs, fed him his bottle and rocked him, he would be out like a light and go to sleepy town. He is always so easy to put down. Oh, BUT WAIT! The little fella tried to wiggle out of my arms, pushed his bottle away and threw a fit. So, I gave him "pappy," which he didn't want, and tried to rock him a little more. This made him more and more mad. So, broken-hearted, I picked him up, and put him in his crib. Usually, he will play, or roll around in his crib. At the most, he will whimper, but tonight, he screamed like I have NEVER heard him scream before. My heart sank to my stomach as I turned and walked out of the room. I kept telling myself, "just keep walking, get the monitor. He's tired. He'll go to sleep." I could hear him screaming from the top of his lungs as I so sadly walked downstairs. It lasted for about two minutes and then I watched him throw himself down, grab "pappy" and he was done. *insert deep breath
Really, I wanted to cry, because I had walked out on him screaming. I felt like a heel, even though I knew what I had done was best. Would someone please tell me what sort of lingo this is? Honestly! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

11 Months

11 Months? Where has the year gone? It is so hard to believe that my 6lb. 10oz. baby boy has grown in to a mean crawlin' machine, who is just on the verge of walking. Look out world! Here he comes! Mills, this is what you're up to:

1) Buh-bye baby food! You are now eating table food only, but still enjoy rice cereal with fruit for breakfast. So far, you've had just about everything, and have made it clear that you are not a fan of tomato-based foods and mandarin oranges. Other than that, you love everything. You're favorites seem to be, ravioli, green peas, and pears.

2) You are drinking from a sippy most of the time, except for early morning and bedtime, but that's your mommy's fault, because she is having a hard time giving up the night time "bonding bottle." She is going to have to get over that soon!


3) At bedtime, you no longer go to sleep before I put you in your crib. Now, I lay you down,

watch you happily play in your crib on the video monitor, and then, after a few minutes, you're out until 6:30am. You sleep longer on the weekends, but that is because your mommy doesn't have to WAKE YOU to take you to Mimi June's.

4) You are now in size 4 diapers, wearing 12-18m clothes, and wear a size 2 or 3 in shoes.

5) You know you're dog's name. When I ask you "where's Joey?" You immediately look at him, or go and find him if he's not in the room.

6) You are saying, Da-da, Daddy, Mama (every now and then, but not near enough!), dog ("daw"), Hey!, baba, other than these words, you could care less about talking, waving, clapping, or playing patty-cake. You seem to think it's funny when every one else does it, but will only do it on your own will. My favorite is when you say, "Hey Daddy!" which sounds more like, "Haaaaaaaaay Daaa-dy!" You even say it to me in the mornings when I get you out of your crib...thanks a lot.

7) You are on the verge of walking and just this week, you stood up on your own in the middle of the floor with out the assistance of the coffee table, couch, etc. This was just before you realized what you had done and immediately sat down. You're just not sure about it yet, but are well on your way to making your mommy burn more calories.

8)We are not sure of your exact weight, because luckily, you haven't been to the Dr. in two months...it's a record! (knock on wood) What we do know, is that you are solid as a rock! I have come to realize that my small frame and petite stature are no match for your growing body. Thank goodness for strollers!

9) In the last week or so, you have learned how to place the rings on your star stacker toy. You can take them off and put them back on, and you know how to make it light up and sing! .

10) Lastly, you have started what we like to call, "showing your muscles." Unsure of where this came from, you will put one or both of your fists in the air, grit your teeth, and grunt like a strong man. At first, you were doing it when you would get mad. Now you do it on command when we say, "show us your muscles," and you smile really big. You also give the best hugs and kisses ever!

Mills Goes to Benihana

Mills sporting his chef's hat...complete with children's menu on the back ;)

Gobbling down his chicken and fried rice

We finally got our little man down to our FAVORITE restaurant! After craving Benihana for months now, we finally gave in, and went down for a very early supper. Mills, well, he LOVED it! Like father, like son, he couldn't eat his fried rice fast enough. I of course picked all of the eggs out just to be safe, and evidently I wasn't fast enough. So, after fried rice, zucchini, and steak, our little man had a blast. He thought the chef was tooo cool. He did extremely well!

Happy 4th of July

We did absolutely nothing after church today, and Mills had two wonderful naps. After "tentative" plans did not go through, we opted for a last minute run to the grocery store and grilled a few burgers. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had. E's bacon burgers are excellent, but this time, I think he beat them all. I made a quick last minute trip to get a few fireworks, and when I say "a few," I mean a few. Literally, like $10 worth. It helps to have the hook-up on prices ;). Mills loved the big ones so much last night, that I couldn't go with out having a few for him tonight. And yes...he again stayed up way past his bed time, but you can't shoot fireworks in the daylight. So, as long as he was hanging in there, we let him go as long as he could. He has been such a wonderful baby.

The Hanson's came by and visited with us and grabbed a burger as well. Of course, our traffic man had to be back home and in bed early for his early morning commute to work, so it was a quick visit. However, Amanda braved our night of a VERY small fireworks show, and stayed with us a few hours longer. You never know what you'll get into if you hang around here long enough. We ended up hopping of the golf cart and heading over to the club house for their nice fireworks display, then driving around the neighborhood and stopping to visit with the Naifehs. Mills got to meet their "bunny." It was a HUGE rabbit! A very pretty one, indeed!

Our "Yankee Doodle Boy" waving his flag

Mills' First of Many 4th of July Celebrations...

Mills goes tubing

We awoke bright an early this morning, for Mills' first visit to the lake. E had to work...again, so I tackled the job alone. I was anxious to see how he would manage on the pontoon, and he did great. The fact that he could crawl around helped, and I took his play mat just in case he should want to take a nap.

We bought him a life-jacket last night. I had been meaning to get him one, but have lagged behind, so since today's trip required one, off we went. Mills + life-jacket = FAIL! This "oh so wonderful" life vest may as well have been a straight-jacket. The poor baby screamed his head off when we put it on him. It was way too bulky and he couldn't even move his head. We will definitely be shopping for another, as it is nothing like the one my sister, Morgan, wore when she was little. We did manage to get it on him for a few minutes of tubing. He would cry, then stop, then scream, and then we gave up and got back in the boat. Tubing would have been fine if he could have been "jacketless," but we know that's not possible!! Afterwards, he went straight to sleep. Then, we had lunch just before going back out and finding a cove to swim in. We resorted to Mills' float and he did fine.

Being that he is only 10 months old, we didn't stay as long as I would have liked, but I was not about to wear him out. So, Mills and I headed home for baths and more Fourth of July celebrating.


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Mills' 1st Fireworks

Tonight, our church, held it's first annual "Let Freedom Ring" fireworks celebration. The festivities did not start until 8:00, with fireworks being at 9:00. I really wanted to participate, but was a little worried that after a day on the water, it may be too much and too late for Mills. I was also a little worried at how he may react to the fireworks. After thinking it over, I decided to give it a try. For those of you who know me well, we have a pretty strict bed time routine, but mostly in part because Mills demands it. Anyway, I loaded him up with his stroller, bag, plenty of snacks and milk, and our beach blanket, and headed across the street for music, a wonderful message, and an AWESOME fireworks display. Mills was so good. He sat in his stroller very content, eating his puffs and crunchies, then decided that it was time to get out. So, after letting him crawl around on the blanket, we moved closer to the pond where the fireworks were to be displayed. I was waiting for reaction, and sure enough, the first ones went off, and I got the most pitiful lip and whimper ever. My first thoughts were..."oh no, this isn't going to go very well," but after popping his "pappy" in his mouth, and dancing with excitement with him, he livened up, and did great. Mills sat in my lap, very still, and watched with amazement. He was all smiles for what seemed like eternity.

I can tell you this, there is nothing like sitting on a blanket holding your sweet baby close and watching a beautiful display of fireworks with friends. I will never forget this night, and am so glad that we went. It was truly a blessing!