Thankful for Family

This Thanksgiving was kind of a big deal.  My mom has 5 brothers and sisters, and the last time we were all together was about 6 years ago.  Adding to that, my cousin, Kyle, and his wife just had a cute little boy, as well as our addition of sweet Annabelle.  My grandmother's health has been steadily declining in the last several years, which means she can no longer travel.  Adding all those things together, everyone in the family decided to do all they could so we could all be together for Thanksgiving.  You just never know how many holidays you have left once your grandparents really start getting sick.  Definitely want to take advantage of the time they are still here!

We started the trek to my grandmother's bright and early at 5:00 am.  Annabelle did incredibly well!  Given the fact she's still eating every 2 hours, we were super scared at how much time we would have to add for feeds.  Turns out we only had to add about an hour to our drive time.  WHEW!  Thank you Lord!  We introduced Annabelle to Baby Einstein and she loved it!  Mommy and Daddy loved it too because she was out in about 5 minutes!

As far as Annabelle and lots of people, she did ok.  It was about 22 people all together in one house.  Any house gets small with that amount of people!   We say it's kinda like the close talker episode of Seinfield....she just doesn't like close talkers, or loud talkers for that matter.  If you come at her with that loud baby talk right in her face she will freak out people.  No amount of warnings seem to work for people.  Annabelle starts whaling, mom steps in to calm baby down, then someone else wants to "try."  I wish it were different, but that's just the way she is.

We have very few pics from the trip.  I was so busy feeding, trying to eat myself, and trying to talk with family I wasn't even thinking about pictures.  Here's what we got...

Here's the introduction to Baby Einsteins.

And 5 minutes later.

Annabelle meeting her first fish.

Incredible view out the back porch.

4 generations!  So grateful to get this picture!

Annabelle with Great Grandma.

The whole crew (minus my mom the photographer)

The obligatory cousin picture.  Love that we're somewhat color coordinated!

Road Trip!

For Thanksgiving we will be driving up to my grandmother's house in Missouri.  That's a 10 hour drive   with a 3 month old.  I know...we're a bit scared too.  SO, in order to help ease the sting a bit, we drove down to Travis's parents house in Houston Halloween weekend.  We decided to leave around the time she would be going to bed.   So we put her in her pjs, gave her her last feed, loaded everything up, and headed down to Houston.  And let me just say, for the record, we knew packing with a baby would be a little more intense, but good gracious the amount of stuff adds up quick!  The car was packed top to bottom.  Everything worked out exactly as planned, and she slept the entire way!  She did so good!!

I'm learning it never fails when we're starting to make some major strides in some area we have to go on a trip and mess up her schedule.  This trip was my first lesson.  She just started sleeping 8-10 hour stretches the week leading up to us leaving.  In fact, the night before she slept 10 glorious hours!  My naive mommy brain was hoping she would maintain her new found sleep patterns, but reality quickly set in.  The weekend was a bit much for sweet Annabelle.  Like I've mentioned before she's not one for crowds.  She gets overwhelmed pretty easily.  Needless to say, she was super overwhelmed the whole weekend.  That equaled to a lot of retreating upstairs for some one-on-one baby alone time.  She's just a bit of an introvert.

Coming home and recovering was a bit of a beating, but we gotta start somewhere.  Just super thankful she doesn't mind her carseat, and actually loves being in the car!  I know some of my mommy friends who's little ones can't stand the carseat.  How hard that would be!  Here are some pics from the weekend.

Happy Halloween!

So so sleepy...

Nap time with daddy.

 Grandpa and sweet Annabelle

 Grandma and Annabelle.  And what typically happened 5 minutes in to holding her. 

 Uncle Shawn 

Great Grandma

And We're 2 Months Old!

Another 4 weeks has passed and you're 2 months old!  I think this month went by faster then the first!   We have seen so many changes in you.  You are growing and talking all the time!  You are so much fun!  We did, however, run into some gas and spit up issues, which you weren't too happy about.  I decided to give up dairy and gluten to see if that would help.  Turns out you don't love when mom eats dairy, so the spit up issues got a TON better.  Gas still proved to be a problem.  We have been working hard to help you feel better all month.  Even with all the gas discomfort, you still are a smiley, happy baby!

You definitely recognize mommy and daddy, and give us big smiles when you see us.  Melts our hearts!  In the  morning we usually have some good talks while we change your diaper saying our good mornings and talking about our sweet dreams.  You always have so much to say!

I never realize how big you are until I see someone else hold you.  Daddy picked you up the other day, and I thought to myself,"How is our sweet little baby that big!"  Well, not that you were ever that little, but you were little to me and daddy.

You make some super cute faces...

You had your first road trip.  We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Houston.  You did great!  We left around your bedtime, so you slept the whole way down.  We're discovering you don't really love being around a ton of people.  We had to take some breaks every once in awhile to let you get some downtime.  We took some nice walks, and you got to meet a lot of people that were dying to meet you!

You love the tv (but daddy does not love that you like watching tv) ;-).  You don't love tummy time, but you love sleeping on  your tummy.  Mommy doesn't let you at night yet, but one day soon.  You like snuggling with mommy during naps.  You do this super cute side wiggle until you find me.  It might explain your bald spot in the back. ;-)  You almost rolled over.  Mommy was getting so excited!  You still love your changing table, bur aren't as infatuated with staring underneath the shelf anymore.   

You seem to be ahead in development.  Here are some of the things you are doing these days...

- you have great head control, and are able to lift your head on your own

- you're making really good eye contact

- you're following objects and noises you hear

- you can to a mini-push up during tummy time

- you are a drool machine!  and you love making bubbles!

- you like your play mat, and can bat and touch the toys

- you found your hands this month!

- you do this think where you hold your hands while you're eating (so cute!)

We love you more than we ever thought possible, and LOVE watching you grow and discover your little world!

Trick or Treat!

Love my little ladybug!

A house divided

Although we were sad to not see our Rangers in the World Series, we still were excited for the series.  If it's not the Rangers, Travis is a big Detroit fan.  He kinda has a man crush on Verlander (don't tell him I told you).  Although not following within the American league, I was rooting for the Giants.  I'm not even sure why.   I like Zito pitching.  I feel like he's been around a long while and deserves it.  I went to school with Pence, so that's always nice to see someone you know win the ultimate championship in their sport.  All in all, I just wanted to see the Giants win.  And win they did!  

A close family friend of Travis is a HUGE, I mean as big as they come Detroit fan.  She sent little Annabelle a cute t-shirt to wear, so I gave in and let her root for Daddy's team.  Our little sports fan!

Newborn pics

This is waaaaay overdue...When Annabelle was 4 days old we had her newborn pictures done.  Ashlie, my friend and roommate from college has a sister, Meagan, that is a photographer.  We were so excited to get pictures of our sweet little baby!  And Meagan did a GREAT job!  Check her out at Sweet Pea Photography.

Here are some pics from the shoot...

One of my favs...such a precious moment captured

Nothin better then this...

So.  Precious!

Love my family!

I know.  The cutest thing you've ever seen.

Ok, maybe this is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Our beautiful, perfect girl!

Don't Blink

Right after she turned 5 weeks, we started having some serious issues with gas.  Poor thing was just miserable!  Worst feeling as a mom...So, thus began the process of eliminating foods, and trying to figure out how to help our sweet girl.  By mid-week 7 it was at it's worst.  I mentioned my attempt to get my hair done, and boy was that a huge fiasco.  Between the over-stimulating surroundings and her gas, she was done!  Screaming and crying.  Big fat tears started falling...then mom started crying.  Felt so helpless.  During the week and a half of the unbearable gas my sweet baby girl did not enjoy being the in the burping position on my shoulder.  For over 5 weeks I had loved the cuddle time of feeding her, burping her, then her falling asleep on my shoulder.  Just some of those priceless moments of being mommy.  I was super sad to see that phase come and go.  

Fast forward to the end of week 7 were the dairy was leaving my system and the medicine we tried started working.  The combination equals this...

Thankful for these precious moments!  Huge reminder to not take advantage of these sweet moments.  Like they say, the dishes can wait, the cleaning can go til later, laundry can get done tomorrow, but these moments with my sweet girl will be gone in a blink of an eye!  Don't forget to cuddle while you can!

Cutest noises ever!

Isn't this the best!  She's not too sure what to think when she sees daddy's phone come out...

Annabelle strikes again

She keeps us laughing...

Obligatory mom pics

Annabelle's life thus far in pictures...

2 days old

My precious girl one week old

Two weeks old, and much more awake!

Three weeks and growing and growing!!

Beautiful blue-eyed four week old!

Five weeks and loving life!

Six weeks, and we're talking and talking!

Seven weeks, and so fun!