kickin' it with kellianne

Friday Fun!

2012-01-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

Bristol and I had a fun friday! Every other Friday we meet up with other momma's and babies to have some fun. All the babies are within months of each other, which is nice because they will grow up together at church. It was great to have some girl talk along with baby talk ( you know, talking about sleep, pooping, eating, napping --- the important things for our sweet children).

I took a few pictures towards the end of the play group. I couldn't squeeze everyone in my camera because my lens doesn't have a zoom ( too hard to explain). So I captured a few different shots from one end of the couch to the other.

Jake and Bristol. I would like to say that Jake is one of the cutest little boys ever! He is so sweet and loved chewing on his toys all afternoon! Jake's mom, Wendi and I worked at Cornerstone Christian Academy last year. She is so sweet and hosted today's playgroup. Thanks for a fun afternoon! Let me know when we can go on a chick-fil-a ( get me out of the house) diet dr. pepper date! :)

Aedan, Landon and Jake. Landon sure is checking out Aedan! Aedan is one silly boy and I would also like to add that is super cute! He likes to flirt with me, which I don't mind at all. And how cute is Landon? His hair is precious! He has the cute little Justin Bieber bangs. I asked if he could give Bristol some hair, his mom said there is a wait list :) I am so glad Katie and Landon joined us today! So good meeting you Katie! Trying to get all the little people to "sit" on the couch and stay still is quite the task. At one point, Bristol completely fell forward and it was quite funny.

Aedan decided that he wanted to rest his head on Landon's leg. It was very exhausting for Aedan, too much working trying to sit still and smile for the mommies. I think Landon likes his new friends! These 3 boys are just so cute I can't stand it!

Here are some more little friends. From the far left we have Hannah, Aedan, Maddie, Landon, Jake and Bristol. Maddie was a mover and a shaker, she didn't want sit still, she is such a big girl. Look at Landon, he is thinking about when he should take a nap for his mom :) ( hopefully he took a nice long nap for ya Katie!)

And on the far left we have little Parker. I believe he is 8 weeks old. I said we have 2 little peanuts on each end of the couch ( Parker and Bristol). He was so sweet the whole afternoon. He slept pretty much the whole time. He is so tiny and precious. Moms always told me that when Bristol was a newborn they said " wow, I never remember when my baby was that little" and I always thought, ok whatever, I will remember Bristol when she was that little. Well guess what? I don't. Insert foot in mouth. I really can't remember when she was so tiny. I mean I do to an extent but they grow up so fast and time passes by. I'm sure all the moms agree that time does not stand still when you have a little one. In fact, it passes so quickly you wonder where it went. I'm still trying to figure out how Bristol is 5 months old already.

Sweet babies. They all 3 were quite tired. Bristol had been awak since 7:15 am, no nap. She held up like a champ too. I always worry about taking her in public with no morning/afternoon nap. I always anticipate a meltdown. She has been proving me wrong lately, which is a nice surprise. Now, if she could start sleeping through the night again, I'd be ohhh so happy. :) But I must remind myself that it could be worse. I could have a baby that doesn't sleep at night. I count my blessings everyday.

Bristol and I are completely wiped out. She took a nice long nap once we got home. I took a little snooze too. Tomorrow is another action packed day for my little sidekick and I. I have to do my final tomorrow for my accounting class and my parents will be babysitting Bristol. After that, we are headed to our first family. Say a prayer that she will get at least 1 good nap in.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

picnik

2012-01-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

(collage made in picnik)

Have you ever heard of the FREE PROGRAM called picnik? If not, it's pretty much awesome. And by the way, I didn't spell picnik wrong, that is how "they" spell it.

It's a free photo editing program that lets you edit your photos, make collages, print photos, add text to photos....etc. Like I said, it's pretty much awesome. I've used this program on and off since 2009. It's quick, easy and FREE.

But I have some sad news. Picnik is closing. I just got an email saying that they will be closing their services April 19, 2012. My mouth dropped when I read that because I know how many people use this program and LOVE IT, myself included. Since they are closing, they are offering their "premium" services and regular services for FREE ( love that word ) to EVERYONE. I would suggest you go sign up and start using their stuff.

Right now I am in the process of making fun collages of Bristol and all the fun things she has learned, saw, people she has met, milestones etc so I can display them for her 1st birthday party in August.

So go now, hurry! www.picnik.com

bibs and drool

2012-01-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

Bristol is about to get some teeth. When? I don't know. I hope soon though. I say that because she has been teething for about a month now. She drools like crazy ( has to wear a bib EVERY SECONE OF THE DAY - expect when she takes a nap and goes to bed for the night), fussy, swollen gums, irrability and anything else associated with teething. Which by the way, I want to talk about bibs for a minute. Bristol has a crazy amount of bibs, some good and some bad. We prefer the ones with the plastic backing so her drool doesn't soak through her clothes. Since she has to wear them ALL the time I really wish that they had clear bibs. I am really crazy about Bristol matching from head to toe and when she is wearing a cute outfit I tried to get a big that matches but that is VERY RARE. Like for instance, she had on the CUTEST outfit on at church on Sunday. It was light pink with a tutu around the whole onesie, socks matched, bow matched and she wore a little white knit cardigan. And then there was the ugly bib. Seriously, they need clear bibs.

Back to teething. Any momma's out there have anything they used to help their little one with teething?

it's all fun and games

2012-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Until Bristol is upset.

This girl sure does know how to put on the water works when she wants attention. She is famous for her big ole' crocodile tears. For people who aren't around her often and they see her cry those big ole tears they feel so sorry for her. But this chick isn't fooling me. Nope, not this momma. Now, don't take what I am saying the wrong way. I love my beautiful baby girl TO DEATH. But she just knows how to "work it".

These pictures were taken a day or so ago and RIGHT BEFORE I took the pictures, she was happy as a pig rolling in mud. The minute I turned away to go wash some bottles ( which by the way, I should start my own bottle washing business, goodness gracious) she started to fuss and then cry. Of course I had to document her dramatic little self by taking some pictures.

On a sidenote : Bristol is teething. BAD. Her poor little bottom gums were so red and swollen today, broke this momma's heart. I've been giving her oralgel, highlands all natural teething tablets, highlands teething gel, teething rings/toys and the love and comfort from her momma.

ANNNNNNNND one other sidenote: I am off facebook. Yep, you read that right. I will have a whole other post about this but I just wanted to say that I will be posting more on my blog since I am off the book of face.

Well my friends, it's almost midnight and my sweet girl will be waking up in a few hours ( yes, she loves to sleep through the night then go back to the newborn days of waking up in the middle of the night).

Bye!

she did it!

2012-01-22T21:12:00.001-08:00

Bristol FINALLY rolled over. ALL.BY.HERSELF. No help, no pillow propping her up. I am one proud momma! She has rolled over before but it's been with help of a pillow. She rolled over from her tummy to her back.

My sweet girl is growing up!

jerimiah was a bullfrog

2012-01-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Blogger is just about on my very last nerve ( other than my dog rocky, but that's a whole other post in it's own). It seems as though I can't upload pictures and write something without the words being underlined. I don't get it? It's very annoying and I want it to stop.

A lot has gone in the Barron house the past month and a 1/2. We've had family come into town for the holidays, we celebrated Bristol's first Christmas and our first christmas as a family of 3, started our first family( in non first colony church of christ terms, it can also be called a small group), I'm finishing up my bachelors degree ( holy cow, i can't believe it) and lots more.

We have been little busy bees running from one party to the next or someone's house. Bristol's sleep schedule has been off and when i say off, I MEAN WAYYYY OFF. She started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks old. Boy was i lucky. In fact, i loved when people asked me if she was a good sleeper because i was so quick to answer and say YES SHE IS, she has slept through the night since 10 weeks old. Of course they would be in shock. I was told that should would be a great sleeper if she was already sleeping through the night. I got used to getting some good shut eye too. We were both getting great sleep. And then, all of a sudden, one night, she woke up in the middle of the night. I, myself, thought it was a bad dream. Oh no, no dream was happening. She woke up, in real life. Annd, it hasn't stopped. She goes to bed between 9-10 and will wake up between 2-5. A couple nights, she woke up every hour. Yeah, that wasn't a good night for me. We are also trying to get her to sleep in her crib. Some nights she will and other nights she won't. Well, she will always start out in her crib and then a couple hours into it, she wakes up and i will try everything in my power to soothe and nothing works. So off to her swing she goes. She loves her swing. Prayers are def appreciated for sweet Bristol and her transition to her crib.

Bristol loves her hands. She loves to look at them. I wonder what she thinks when she looks at them. I get the biggest laugh when she looks at them because it's like she discovers them everyday, almost like she has never seen them before.

Fingers are yummy, don't you think? :) If she isn't looking at her hands, she is sucking or chewing them. She has fit up to 4 fingers in her mouth at one time, now thats talent.

smiling at daddy!

sweet baby is so tired.

watching mickey mouse before going to her first wedding shower.

playtime

2012-01-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Blogger is really making me mad with the uploading picture process. And now, it underlines everything I type....grrr!

Anyway.... Bristol has started to really enjoy play time. I'm going to be honest, she hasn't had much interest in it. She doesn't like tummy time- usually cries about 1 min into it and then when she is on her back, about 10 mins later she wants nothing to do with it. But, she is getting better, as long as I put toys and books in front of her.

It's been fun to play with her and watch her grab things. I love watching her use her hands and grab things, pick up toys, touch her books, pull her paci out and put it back in. She is right on track with all that - which makes me very happy! I am working on her sitting up by herself, she can do a good job with some help from me. But I really don't have to hold her tight. She is getting strong!

I feel like lately I have been slacking on taking pictures of her. So the past couple days I have snapped a few shots of her playing with her stuff.

Really mom, you're just going to leave me here?

Love her cute little feet! She still doesn't fit into any shoes she has.

i absolutely love her baby blues.

i love my new purse, it tastes so good. she is teething by the way!

oh hey mom.

nice little set up I've got here. mommy put out my favorite toys and books!

of course i can suck on my paci and put my lollipop in my mouth!

4 months

2012-01-06T15:07:00.001-08:00

I'm a little late on this post. But here it is....
Decemeber 15, Bristol turned 4 months old. Here are her stats and what she is up to lately.

Weight - 12lbs 6 ounces 18% for her age
Height 24 inches, 44% for her age
Clothing size - 0-3 month, 3 month ( can fit into some newborn stuff)
Size diaper - size 1

What she loves.....
* chewing/sucking on her fingers
*watching the mickey mouse clubhouse show
* sleeping in her swing
* talking and cooing
* loves her mommy, has a little seperation anxiety if she isn't with me
* loves to be outside, although we don't go often because the sun is so bright and she doesn't have sunglasses
* being held! this girl wants to be held 95% of the time, makes this momma tired!
* loves loves loves bath time! since the day we brought her home she has loved taking a bath
* loves lotion massages after bathtime
* getting her ears cleaned, sounds silly, i know. but she could be screaming and the minute i clean her ears with a q-tip she stops what she is doing.
* her changing pad in her bedroom. she will kick and talk all day long laying on it
* reading books. she loves to hold the books, turn the pages ( at least tries to, haha)
* being held in the baby bjorn.

what she doesn't like so much.....
* her car seat, although, she is getting MUCH MUCH MUCH better with going in it. I don't stress out in the car when i drive anymore. I would dread putting her in the car because she would cry and cry.
* sometimes she doesn't like diaper changes, but i understand that
* when you take the bottle out of her mouth to wipe her mouth. she will squeal so loud!
* strangers. She is very weary of people she doesn't know. she has cried on several occasions when someone is holding her that she doesn't know
* tummy time. she does not like to be on her tummy
* rolling over - she really isn't interested

Bristol's milestones and tricks....
* teething - can you believe that? i can't!
* grabs her cute little feet while laying down
* has rolled over only a few times
* squeals for attention
* sucking her fingers and hands
* can grab for things in front of her or out of peoples hands
* holds her bottle
* sleeping in her crib ( HUGE MILESTONE!)
* laughing - the cutest.thing.ever!

Ok- so that's all i can think of right now. I really need to write down stuff when it happens. I always tell myself that I am going to do it and then I rarely do. oooops! Hey, I'm a full time mom, full time student.... trying to find a balance is hard :)

Bristol will be 5 months old January, 15 and I can't believe! She is almost a 1/2 year old!! Time has flown by and it's unbelievable how much they change. I want time to stand still! Brandon always says that he doesn't want her to grow up. I feel the same way but at the same time I love seeing her discover new things!

That's all for now.... have a fun weekend!

this my friends, is what you call ....

2012-01-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

a massive picture dump.

ok - i realize that sounds gross, but it totally made me laugh. i'm not gonna lie, i like to be gross sometimes and say weird things like that. oh whoa... did i just admit that? back to what i was saying. this post will be nothing but pictures. in fact, this might be part 1 of the massive picture dump, i might have a second installment tomorrow. that's if you lucky.

Bristol was one happy girl playing with her great mamie.

Bumbo in the bath tub. she likes it!

out cold.

this rarely happens. bristol falling asleep without being rocked, swaddled or being held.

Bristol with her 2 grandma's and 2 great grandma's. very special picture!

I am reading to my little cousin Shayn. I am 23 years older than him :)

all of us being silly!

sweet pea hanging out on the kitchen table.

much needed bottle. she's a princess, spoiled little princess.

uncle ste-ste hanging out with bristol. pretty sure they were watching football or basketball?

4 generations. we are looking a little rough but that's ok.

i love to chew on my hands. i'm teething!

see, i told you i was teething! grandaddy is giving me something to chew on.

hmmmm, let me think. yes, yes, i was on the nice list this year, thank you very much!

how can you not kiss those cheeks?? she looks so much bigger in pictures, she is only 12.6 lbs - 18th percentile

i love mickey mouse clubhouse!

i'm only 4 1/2 months old but i know how to old a present and open it!

christmas eve with grandaddy at church

love my little family!

grandaddy and his favorite christmas present ever!

Great Grampie and Great Mamie with their first great grandbaby!

Great Grampie made Bristol a toy box from scratch, it's so pretty! more pics later

love these 2 people so much!

i love this picture so so much! everyone adores bristol!

rollercoaster ride! :)

Ok - so blogger is being very weird so i apologize for the lowercase and uppercase craziness, random underlined words, etc.

Have yourself a very Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:42:00.001-08:00

The Barron Family wishes you a VERY MERRY Christmas with your loved ones! What an exciting time of year it is! We are so blessed to be parents to an amazing little girl. We love her so much and we can't wait to celebrate her very first christmas!

Bristol Elaine Barron wishes you a Merry Christmas!

CIO

2011-12-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

cry it out.
that's what we are doing around these neck of the woods. i bit the bullet and decided miss bristol needed to cry it out. at first, i hated the thought of it, i really did. but the more i thought about it, i decided this would be best for her and for me. you see, from day 1, she has been swaddled and rocked to sleep once she was asleep she was then transfered to her swing.sometimes it would take me over an hour to rock her and for her to STAY asleep. this was hard on me because i needed to get this done like school work, etc. she still sleeps in her swing. yes i know, some of you are clinching your jaw thinking, " your almost 4 month old still sleeps in her swing". in the beginging this was the only way bristol would sleep, being rocked or in her swing. she starting sleeping through the night at exactly 10 weeks of age. so why would i stop doing the things that were working? in the back of mind, i knew at some point i was going to have to stop swaddling and putting her in the swing. everyday i would have the mind set, " today is the today where we stop swaddling and start sleeping in her crib. yeah, those days didn't happen.... UNTIL TODAY. as i type this, bristol is crying in her crib wearing her sleep sack. no swaddling no swing. oh my, what am i going to do?

will i still have a baby that sleeps through the night? is this totally going to throw everything out of whack? my prayer is that it doesn't but let's get real here. i know this is going to mess some things up. my sweet baby is spoiled, this i know. bristol is not used to laying flat, she is usually always propped up, whether if thats in her swing, lamb chair, nap nanny, carseat... you get the jist. my prayer is that she transitions nicely to her crib.

i'm not gonna lie, i really do miss rocking her and nursing her. those are sweet moments that i wish cherish forever. i enjoyed spending some one on one time with my sweet angel baby but i know this CIO method is best for both of us. little girl has to learn to fall asleep without being swaddling or swaying back and forth. i already told myself with my next child, that i might tweak a few things when it comes to sleep habits. also, my next child will not be held 24/7 like bristol has been. she is the first grandbaby on both sides so i can understand how everyone wants to hold her but it has put a damper on a few things. and by damper i mean, everything. ha! no really, it's been tough. she didn't want to be on her playmat, she didn't want to sit in any of her chairs - all she wanted was someone to hold her. she actually prefers to be held while you stand up. she isn't a fan of you sitting down and holding her. i dont get it but thats what she likes. she is quite picky :) she has gotten a lot better has she is getting older. for example, today, she sat in her nap nanny for 3 episodes of the mickey mouse club house. she LOVES that show and it's precious. this allowed me to take a shower, eat some cereal, take the dogs out, and a few other little tasks i needed to do. she is growing up and its right before my eyes.

my baby will be 4 months old december 15th. where has the time gone? she gets more fun everyday. it seems like she masters a new trick every week. she is now sticking her tongue out and its the cutest thing. she is also now sucking her pointer finger and thumb at the same time. she will do it on both hands too. i was a thumb sucker, so we will see what becomes of this. she likes her paci but doesn't NEED it. she needs it more for her to fall asleep and then she will spit it out while sleeping. i like that she isn't dependent upon it.

I took some christmas photos the other day of bristol. the 2 in this post are just a few of what i captured. i might be bias, but my baby is so beautiful. i am so blessed to have her in my life and i cant wait to spend christmas with her and my family!

i hope all of you are doing well. enjoy your holiday season with your family!

girod family

2011-12-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun with the cute little Girod family this past Friday. Bethany contacted me to take pictures for the christmas cards this year. I was beyond excited because that meant I got to see Bristol's future husband, Max. Of course Betho and I talked wedding plans after the shoot was done. I'm not kidding.

Bethany and I grew up together, since elementary/middle school. She is a twin and Kayla came to the shoot as well, oh excuse me, Aunt KK :) We had some fun times growing up!

So here are just a few pics from their shoot!

my favorite time of the year, christmas!

2011-12-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends! Hope you are all doing well. I am so excited about this post. Why you ask? Well, because Tiny Prints is offering 50 free christmas cards to bloggers! Woohoo! this makes me so happy because I am dead broke and what is better than free? Umm... nothing!

I really can't believe christmas is right around the corner! This year has flown by, especially since having Bristol. She will be 4 months old December 15, can't believe it! I am so looking forward to spending time with my family this holiday season. Although Bristol isn't quite aware of what is going on, I am more than excited to spend this holiday season with my sweet girl. Starting new traditions and following old traditions, that is what this momma is all about. We are beyond blessed to have a healthy and happy baby girl.

Ok- back to the christmas cards. Like I said Tiny Prints is offering 50 free cards, that's just amazeballs to me! Yeah, I said amazeballs. It's my new word. You should try it. This holiday season I itching to pick out a super cute christmas card along with taking a super festive picture to go with the card. They offer so many different cards, it's taking me awhile to narrow down some that I like. I find myself leaning more towards the traditional/vintage style but sometimes I wish I would just pull the trigger and pick one that is totally not me, like something more contemporary. Tiny Prints offers so many styles, sizes and colors of christmas cards that there is bound to be one for your family!

I'm down to 3 different cards. I'm not sure which one I want. Any suggestions? I don't even know when I am going to get a good picture, my hope is for this weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that we will have time to take one.

So friends, if you are in need of a christmas card, a cute one at that, go to Tiny Prints and check their holiday cards out!

Have a Happy Thursday!

it's a new day everyday

2011-11-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

Everyday when Bristol wakes up, it's a completely new day. It's amazing to think that they are learning new things every single day. There are so many tricks my sweet girl can do now, it's fun to watch her discover and figure out what she can do to make this mommy proud.

Her new trick? Laughing. It's the cutest thing ever. It takes a minute for her to actually get a laugh out but when she does, it's soo precious. It's a combination of a grunt and laugh. I can get her to laugh in the bathtub, on her changing table in her room or in her 1 of 700 different chairs she has, haha. My dad got her to laugh for the very first time and it was so cute. I didn't know what was happening because she was facing him while I was holding her and I felt something come from her belly and I realized it was a sweet belly laugh.

She loves the show mickey mouse clubhouse. She will sit in her chair and watch mickey and friends all day long if she could, well until she gets fussy. It really is such a cute show. We watch it every morning after she gets up and she usually does the deed ( you know, poop). We have quite the routine. She also loves football. The bright colors and players running all over the screen. We just introduced her to veggie tales, she is watching the Saint Nicholas one right now.

Bristol can somewhat hold her bottle now. She will put both hands on it and hold it for a few seconds then wants to me do it. She can also find her paci if it falls out and put it back in. She is very talented :) If I say so myself.

Bristol becomes more and more vocal everyday and it's so fun to hear her new noises. When she is watching Mickey, she will talk to the TV, just precious. She also likes any bright lights and movement.

Bristol Elaine just keeps growing and growing. I'm thinking we are going to switch to soy formula. She keeps have bad gas and bad gas pains which makes for a very unhappy baby. I hear soy really helps. I feel bad that we have had these tummy issues for as long as she has been born. Well, it started at about 2-3 weeks old. I'm hoping and PRAYING that we find the right formula in combination with breast milk to help her little tummy. She does love her bottles now and often will refuse to nurse, which makes me pump more. I'm ok with that, but I know that nursing is such a good soothing technique. We just have been taking one day at a time, that's for sure.

Something Bristol is also doing is boycotting naptime in the afternoon. I can still get her to take her morning nap, but boy, it's a fight in the afternoon. She sleeps between 8-10 hour a night and people say that the more the sleep at night the less they take naps. Well, I don't know about that. SHE NEEDS AN AFTERNOON NAP. She is soo fussy when she is soo tired and it makes for long afternoons when this poor baby is so tired but fights it. OR, she will fall asleep and then when I transfer her to her swing, she will wake up within 10 minutes. It's been a fight the past week or so. I am really praying that this is just a phase and it won't stay like this.

She hasn't rolled over yet and is not interested in it to be honest. That's ok because she is doing so many other things that are so fun and awesome to see.

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to go get some things done around the house!

Enjoy your Saturday!

Hodges Family Fun Photo Shoot

2011-11-25T17:22:00.000-08:00

Say that title 10 times fast! That's a mouth full! :)

Meet the Hodges family!
Cliette, Lorelle, Preston, Peyton and Parker.

I had my first official photo shoot and I was excited about it. Cliette is Brandons cousin and when Lorelle text me to ask if I wanted to take photos, I immediately said yes. Who wouldn't want to take pictures of those cute boys??

So off to Oyster Creek Park we went. The weather was great, the lighting was even better and I think we got same great shots!

Cliette, Lorelle and boys, I am so glad I got to take some family pictures for ya'll. I love ya'll dearly and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

My little Turkey

2011-11-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving from this butterball turkey!

May your day be filled with fun, family and many blessings!

it's a date!

2011-11-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

A play date that is!
Bristol had her very first play date this past Sunday with Max. Max is my friend Bethany's cute little boy. Max is 6 1/2 months old, right Bethany ?:) I think I'm right. Anyway, I went over to Betho's parent's house because she lives in Austin and she was in town visiting. I swear, Max is going to be some type of athlete when he gets older, she is one tall boy! He was so cute while I was there - quite the talker :) He attempted to rip Bristol's bow off her head and I believe back handed her one time, I laughed so hard. He was interested in Bristol when he was up close to her.

Bristol did a great, which surprised me because she has been boycotting afternoon naps. Luckily, she took a 2 1/2 hour nap prior to the play date. She was happy as a clam, had a bottle, smiled, cooed and "played" with max.

I can't wait to get together again with them!

Thanks for having us over Bethany and Max!

I know Bristol is too tiny for the bouncer, but we wanted to see what she would do. She actually liked it. Kicked her a legs a few times. Brandon set hers up last night!

"Giver her to me!" - Max

He is soooo cute!

Trying to get a good picture of them both. Bristol just layed there and Max was a mover and a shaker!

Sweet boy! I'm telling you, look for the name Maxwell Stone Girod in about 16 years... He'll be on a field or court somewhere! :)

My little sweet pea.

They love each other, can't you tell? Their wedding will be in 25 years.

Max was trying to get fresh with my baby by holding her hands. That's ok though, parent supervision was around. :) I love these little people!

Christmas Cards

2011-11-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hello my friends!

Can't believe it's almost December! Time sure does fly by, especially having a little one now. I've been thinking about what kind of Christmas card I want to send out this year. What photo, what color scheme, etc. Last year I used Shutterfly because they had a promotion going for any blogger who blogged about their cards, would get 50 free christmas cards. Um... yes please! You better believe I did that promotion. Our cards turned out great and better yet, they were free!

This year, Tiny Prints is having an offer for 50 free christmas cards, any style you want. How amazing is that? I swear, I love free things and I'm sure you do too! Especially if your pocket book is a little tight, especially around the holidays.

You need to to fill out this form AND blog about the offer and a rep will contact you within a week of you filling out he form.

Can't wait to browse their website and find the perfect card for our family of 3! Now... I just gotta get a great picture of all 3 of us!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

hi

2011-11-12T09:47:00.001-08:00

She wanted to say hi. :)

all i wanna do is craft!

2011-11-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

I love arts and crafts or also known as DIY projects, but to me it will always been known and called arts and crafts. Growing up I loved doing arts and crafts whether that was coloring, drawing, making something, painting something, playing with play-dough ( back in the younger days). Really, I loved it all. I still do. I think that's why I loved teaching preschool - it's arts and crafts everyday , of course other things are taught in preschool too. You just do some really fun projects in preschool.

Over the past 3 or so years, I have re-kindled my love for crafting and I consider myself a creative and crafty person. I've always loved it but I have found a new love and passion for it. There for a while, I was making clipboards. Those were so much fun to make, just very time consuming. I sold a lot of them, especially at Brandon's school. At one point I had an order for 14 clipboards from one lady. This little project of mine was great, it kept me busy, my brain was being used and I loved the outcome of each clipboard. I stopped making them because I was cooped up in a 700 sq foot apartment and the space was just too small. I also kind of got tired of it too. It's a tedious process and I got burned out.

Pinterest really has lit a fire under my butt to find and make some really cute things. It's kind of hard right now with Bristol being so young, but I love to look at all the websites and just imagine myself creating and crafting again. I know the possibilities are endless with crafting but what makes me so excited is to start making things for my sweet angel baby. Bows, onesies, shirts, etc! ahh! The only problem is, I need to learn how to sew, like PRONTO.

My friend Ashley over at Plum Berry Creek has started her own company of home decor. She makes the BEST THINGS ever. Before I go any further, I wanted to dedicate a whole post about her little company. Just know, that you are missing out on some SUPER cute stuff, so head on over to her website! DO IT! GO, NOW... HURRY!

Anyway....

I can't believe Thanksgiving is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER. Um, I could of sworn it was just summer time? Where did the time go? I guess time really flies once you have kids, is that true? I am looking forward to starting traditions with Bristol. I love traditions, do you? There is just something about starting something and continuing it for years and years. My nannie loved traditions, I guess that's where I get it from, amongst other things.

I'm going to the nutcracker market this sunday and I AM PUMPED! I go every year and this time, my friend Ashley ( the same one with the new business ) is coming with. She is going to love it and she will freak out on how BIG it is and all the goodies she will find there!) I'm broke so I will just be "looking with my eyes". It's going to kill me not to buy anything, but yeah, I'm broke hahaha.

So I realized this post was supposed to be about crafting. I didn't get very far on that topic. Oh well. I've found this website full of FREE PRINTABLES. Check it out! I am going to print out some of the thanksgiving ones. I'm waiting for their Christmas printables to be posted!

That's all for now.

Well wait. Did I ever mention that Bristol has been sleeping through the night for the past 3 weeks? Oh yes. it's amazing. I really thought this day would NEVER come. Like never. I am one happy momma!

ok - for real this time... BYE!

picture dump

2011-11-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

littlest pumpkin in the patch

2011-10-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Bristol is a tiny little girl. Everyone always comments on how little she is. I really didn't think she would be this small at 2 1/2 months but she is quite the petite little girl. When I was her age, I was a chunkster and so was Brandon. So naturally, I thought she would take after her parents and pack on the lbs fast, but that isn't the case. We are praying that she gains weight every week and will make strides with her weight.

But, in light of Halloween(ie) on Monday, I thought I would do a little photo shoot of our little pumpkin. Quite frankly, I would do a photo shoot of Bristol every day for the rest of her life if I could. Can you just see me now dressing Bristol up at age 18, asking her to sit in the glider and snapping away photo after photo? Ha, in my dreams!

Brandon's parents had bought Bristol some 3 month pj's last weekend and one of them was her Halloween(ie) ( yes, I call halloween, halloweenie) pj's. Since Halloween is Monday, I thought she could dress up in her pj's Saturday, Sunday and Monday and get the use out of it while we can. Who knows, we might be sportin' our halloween gear for a long time. After all, she is still in all newborn clothes - 0-3 month outfits are too big and 3 month outfits are toooooooo toooooooo big. But she has gotten a little longer so the newborn sleepers are too small. Ok- sorry, I totally got off subject. Back to the halloween outfit. Brandon's parents got it for her and they came over today so I dressed her up, put a bow on her head and sat her in the glider for a mini halloween(ie) photo shoot.

With no further ado, I give you " the littlest pumpkin in the patch".

Bristol's eyes get more blue every day. Love love love! I was hoping ( and praying and wishing) that my baby would have blue eyes like me. So thank you Lord for granting me my hope, my wish and my prayer! :)

Posing with her pumpkin we got her from the patch. It really looks big in this picture, but it's no bigger than the size of a softball.

My little pumpkin - I love her so!

She looks so sleepy in this picture but I love it because of her eyes!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys this weather!

randomness

2011-10-28T15:34:00.001-07:00

Lots going on, little time to post about it. But while my sweet angel baby is swinging away in her swing, I thought I'd post about some random things that have happened lately. So here goes...

This beautiful life planner arrived on my front door step today. Ohhhh happy day! If you dont know about erin condren then you are missing out! Go check out her website, I know you will find something lovely for yourself. Here's a secret, head on over to plumdistrict to snag a voucher ( $25) worth $50 for anything on her website. Plumdistrict is like groupon but geared towards moms. I got my planner for only $25.00 because i waited and waited annnnnnnd waited for a deal to come my way. No way could i justify buying a $50 planner. Brandon would have filed for divorce. No joke. I took a pic of my planner today and sent it to my friend ashley. She hadnt heard of erin condren before, so i told her about my planner, she loved it but likes her planners small. She went to the website anyway, watched the video of the life planner and she ended up buying one. :) The deal on plumdistrict expires in 2 days, so hurry on over and get your voucher!

My sidekick and I at the pumpkin patch. sweet baby had the hardest time opening her eyes, it was quite bright outside. Apparently we live in a bat cave. In fact, I know we do. I need to take her outside more so her little blue eyes can adjust to the bright light. She did a great job while we were there. We couldnt really get a good picture of her with the pumpkins but thats ok, we will next year. I just love making sweet memories like these so we can look back and see how much fun we had.

Bristol got her 2 month shots today. Boo hoo hoo. Poor baby cried but did so much better than I expected. She cried more getting her ears checked last week than getting her shots. She is still super tiny, we are working on the weight gain. We gotta plump her up! Overall, she is very healthy and most of all happy. She loves to coo and talk to mommy all the time. Her smile melts my heart and I wish I had her eye lashes :) I love her to pieces. She makes my heart smile.

I made chicken and dumplings last night for dinner. OH.MY.STARS. The recipe I used was amazing! This is Brandon's favorite meal and so I thought I would try to make it, crockpot style. LOVE ME MY CROCKPOT! It took 8 hours to make and worth every minute of those 8 hours. I snuck about 10 small bites towards the end. I couldn't help myself. Brandon loved it. Wife of the year right here. I used the recipe from crockpot girls . Their site is amazing, has anything you can think of when it comes to your crockpot. I WILL be making this again and again and AGGGGGAAAAIIIINNNN.

Here is my new camera lense. Let me just say, it's fantastic. I've been teaching myself how to use it and it's been very fun to say the least. I have gotten some GREAT photos with it and can't wait to take more!

Well friends, that's it for now. I am off to pump my little heart away. Yeah, I just said pump.

See ya later!

my sweet little peanut.

2011-10-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

My Bristol baby is 2 months old. How is this possible? I feel like I just found out I was pregnant, then having our gender reveal party and finally, popping her out of me :) Too graphic? sorry. In all seriousness, I am the luckiest woman alive to be the mom of this precious angel. I love her oh so much and have so much fun with her everyday.

We had her 2 month appointment on Monday and with her being sick, we decided not to do the shots until next Friday. Good thing, because Bristol and I both cried at the dr. She was crying for obvious reasons, she is sick. Congestion, coughing, sneezing and her poor little ear was bothering her. Me? Why was I crying? Well she has only gained 1lb since 2 weeks old. How is THAT possible? I knew she wasn't going to be in the 95 percentile for her age, but shoot, 6th percentile? It shocked me and I guess I wasn't prepared for that news. She is only in the 23 percentile for her height. So my friends, I have a little peanut, which I am totally and utterly ok with, because she is healthy and happy - that's all that matters, right? So this week and next week we are really working on packing on the lbs on that sweet little body of hers. While I'm trying to lose weight, she needs to gain. I'm hoping for at least a pound or two by next Friday. The Dr. isn't concerned and didn't really suggest I supplement but I am giving her one bottle of formula. Not my idea for gaining weight, but I want to make sure she is getting enough food. I'm having some issues with my boobs making enough milk. I'm going to talk to a lactation consultant in the next couple days.

Here is what's going on with miss priss....

*9 lbs 8 ounces

*22 inches long
* sleeps from 11:30pm - 4:30 - 5:00am, goes back to sleep till about 9 am. then takes a nap at 11-2....overall, pretty good sleeper :)
* still in newborn clothes
* wearing size 1 diapers, WAYYY too big, but the newborns seem to be just a little snug.
*doesn't like her carseat anymore - always gets fussy when in the car
*discovered her feet for the first time the other day
*loves to smile, especially at her momma
*only likes tummy time for about 5 minutes and then will let you know she is done!
*her eyes are getting more blue everyday
*people always comment on her "red" hair. I'm not sure where the HECK they see red. If anything, it's a light brown with a hint ( small ) hint of auburn. Mine was that color and turned blonde
* still loves her baths
* loves laying in her crib after bath time
* loves sitting in her nap nanny after eating
* used to like changing her diaper but now she gets upset from time to time
* enjoys being outside and looking around
*when feeding, she is so bright eyed while eating a bottle but when nursing, her eyes are always closed
* still loves to be swaddled in her miracle blanket with paci in her mouth.
* loves being rocked to sleep and will fall asleep with her mouth open, cutest thing ever
* she listens to "white noise" while going down for naps and bedtime. my life wouldn't be the same without it
* definitely knows who her momma is. She can pick me out in a room, respond to my voice....it's amazing
* we watch price is right every morning and she loves it. Her nannie, my grandma who Bristol is named after loved prices right.

Ok - so that's all this fried brain can think of right now :) We love our little peanut more and more everyday and couldn't imagine out life without her. LOVE YOU SWEET GIRL!

2 months old!

2011-10-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

my baby is 2 months! here is a picture until i post the stats about my precious little angel.

its a nice day for a white wedding

2011-10-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

my brother got married this sunday. it was a beautiful day at a park in montrose. i was honored to be the photographer for their special day. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Coming soon .... a post about Bristol getting sick for the first time, 2 month stats and the day in the life of my baby girl. I know, you can't wait to read about all that stuff. :)

My parents with the bride and groom!

The bride and groom with my moms sister ( the other 2 could not come).

All of the guests who came to the wedding

Right after they said "i do".

my precious sleeping beauty. she was sick that day and still is. she was cradled in the arms of her daddy.

the kiss!

my dad officiated the wedding, it was such a special ceremony.

the "minister" and the newlyweds!

today's list

2011-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

First on today's list......I wanted to say thank you to my "friends" who confessed about reading my blog! I know there are more you... fess up! Only because, I want to get to know you and read your blog, if you have one. I will be adding you lovelies to my friend list on the side of my blog, if you aren't there already. Can't wait to start stalking, I mean reading your blogs!
Second on today's list.... my brother is getting married this Sunday! Holy Moly! I didn't think this day would come, well, kinda sorta, maybe, not really. I don't know. My brother has had several girlfriends - ok that sounds bad. He's had like 4 or something annnnnnnd I hated every single one. Ok, hate is a strong word. Sorry, I'm tired this morning and that's the first word that came to mind. You see, I start off liking the girl and then they cross me and well, I stop liking them. I try really hard to like them, I promise I do. But he just hasn't picked the "best" candidates for a girlfriend. He has been engaged for about 5 or so months, actually, I really don't know how long, I just threw 5 out there because it sounded good. Her name is Margaret. I like her. No, I love her. Really I do. She is sweet, caring, outgoing, nice, funny, fun... the list goes on. They really are perfect for each other and for that, I am happy he has found Margs.

So the nuptials are this Sunday at a park in Houston followed with the reception at my parent's lovely home. It's a small affair, only close close friends and immediate and some extended family invited. About 60 people in total. This wedding was put together in 3-4 weeks because Stephen and Margs are expecting a baby. They planned on getting married this coming Summer, but due to the little bambino, they bumped the wedding to this Sunday. I will be the "photographer" that day and I am super excited about this. I've told you before about my love for photography. I know by photographing their wedding, it will only help me improve my skills.
Third on today's list is..... my Bristol will be 2 months old tomorrow!!!. I mean really, where the heck as the time gone? I thought my days would be soooooo long and boring being a stay at home mom but goodness, everyday is the same but different at the same time. The mornings and afternoons fly by so fast! This momma is going to be wreck on Monday because baby girl will be getting her shots. I know she is going to scream and cry her eyes out. I just know it. Prayers would be apprecaited for my sweet baby to be ok and not feel icky afterwards.
Fourth on the list..... It's still not too late to show your face on my blog! I'd love to hear from you! Really, I would.

Ok, that's it! Have a great weekend my friends!

show your face... or name.

2011-10-11T08:59:00.001-07:00

I've been blogging since 2007. Can't believe it's been that long. I never thought I'd be in the blogging world, let alone since 2007. But here I am. I started my blog engaged to Brandon which has been followed by an amazing wedding and a BEAUTIFUL baby girl, my sweet Bristol Elaine. My, time sure does fly.

I know that my blog isn't the most interesting or thought provoking but I love to write down all things on my mind, when I can remember. Of course, my memory has faded, like Brandon pointed out so nicely to me and Bristol last night. I quote " Bristol, your momma is losing her mind". I can't argue with him. It's true. I digress.

There are truly some amazing blogs out in the blogosphere. Some that I stalk on a weekly basis, ok maybe daily basis. You caught me. There are some blogs that I read.... maybe once a month and some I read every couple weeks. I love reading blogs with pictures. Let's be honest, a post isn't as fun without pictures. I'm guilty of not having pictures on each post, but now that little miss Bristol is here, it's real easy to post a picture or 2..... or 10 on each post.

I'm sure you are wondering what the point of this post is. I'm getting there friends.
Like I said, I've had this blog since 2007 and I really don't know who all my "readers" are and I would LOVE to know who they are. I always joke that like 3 people read my blog and to be honest, I'm still convinced that is the truth, no joking there. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little sad when no one comments on my blog. Seriously, how good does it make you feel when someone leaves a comment? I think to myself " wow! someone is ACTUALLY reading my blog, let alone, likes this post enough to leave a comment. I must be doing something good". Yes, cheesy, I know. I'm just being honest.

So here's the deal-i-o.

Show your face! Well, maybe tell me your name. I wanna know who you are, how you found my blog. Do you stalk it? It's totally ok if you do, I'm a self proclaimed stalker and proud of it. I really would LOVE to get to know all you people who check my blog. Because let's face it people, I know there are more than 3 people looking at my blog because my "check in" thingy on the right hand side of my blog tells me people from Utah, College Station, Houston, Spring, Sugar Land, Richmond, Alvin Texas are checking my blog. Of course, that's all my "check in" thingy will let me see.

Don't be embarrassed. I REALLY do wanna know who you are.

So tell me your name. Comment on my blog. And if you have a blog, I would love to know about it and stalk it, I mean read it.

Deal? DEAL!

No really.... I wanna hear from you. :)
kthanksbye!

all smiles

2011-10-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

My baby girl loves to smile. It's her new trick. Sucking her hands is so last month. I love to see that sweet gummy grin of hers. It's so precious. When she is smiling, she tries so hard to laugh, it takes her breath away. I remember when we brought her home from the hospital and I thought " I want her to stay this way forever". Boy, am I wrong. I LOVE seeing her change everyday, learn new tricks, become a little woman. What a joy it is to get to see her and be with her everyday. I won't miss one new trick, for that, I am so grateful.

I would hate to leave her with a child care provider and miss all the cute "firsts" she will have. I think I would be depressed if that were the case. Again, I am so blessed and lucky to be a stay at home mom.

Bristol's smile melts my heart. When she smiles, I get all giddy inside, like she is doing for the first time, each time. I love the way her eyes get squinty, her noses scrunches up and her lips curl. Each smile is different every time and I love that. Whether her smile is as big as the state of the Texas or a little smirk..... it will always melt my heart. Oh, how I love my sweet girl.

Another thing Bristol is doing lately is is drooling. The amount of drool that this girl can produce is CRAZY. It's so cute, when she is happy, she drools up a storm. Today, I picked her up out of her nap nanny and her whole mouth and neck was covered in her drool.

Playing on her jungle mat. I don't want to every forget these days of simplicity with my baby girl. The joy that she brings me everyday is unimaginable.

Helllllllo drool! She was is mid "coo" in this picture.

Her smile is precious in this picture. It makes me want to cry. She was so happy, and what for reason? Who knows... but the song " the joy of the lord" comes to my head when I see this picture. That song always makes me smile.

I mean really? Seriously? Can she be any cuter? Goodness gracious, this girl melts me. I love her squinty eyes, long eye lashes, uneven ears ( one sticks out more than the other) her chin like her momma, little rolls on her body, and her soft brown hair.

soft sweet smile.

Oh Bristol, momma doesn't ever want to forget moments like this of you. You're innocent sweet smiles makes your mommas heart smile.

Playing on her jungle mat.

the tale of the missing camera charger

2011-10-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

oh me oh my. i'm losing it people! seriously, i cant keep track of anything anymore. before being pregnant i considered myself a put together person when it came to remembering things, writing things down, staying organized and other things of that matter.

well, bristol sucked more brain cells out of me than i thought was possible. love my baby but her momma is officially nuts. on a daily basis i lose my phone, tv changer, mylicon, bristol's paci, misplace my camera.... need i say more? my recent casuality? my canon camera charger. i gotttta find this. for one, they arent cheap and replacing it would mean my husband would kill me for buying a new one and second - i work at my old job from last year as the school's photographer. umm.... my battery is dead and i have a big week at school for pictures.

please lord, help me find my charger!!

in other news.... we have a big weekend coming up. my brother is getting married next weekend, the reception is at my parents house. we are going to be busy this next week preparing for that event. bristol will be the belle of the ball.

and lastly, i'm so happy ut lost.

have a good weekend!

because i'm obsessed

2011-10-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. I'm totally and completely obsessed with my daugter. She is perfect in every way. God created the most amazing blessing and gift that he could ever bless Brandon and I with. I could stare at her all day, in fact, I could take pictures of her every move. She is so sweet, precious, beautiful, gorgeous, pretty and perfect. I love her with every fiber of my being. I never thought I could love something so much but goodness, I do and for that, I am so thankful.

Thank you Lord, for blessing me with the most beautiful baby. I am so lucky to be Bristol's mommy and get to spend every minute with her every day. I don't deserve the things you bless me with everyday but somehow, you continue to be there for me and bless me with the most amazing gifts. Thank you.

Bristol loves her crib. Has she slept in it yet? NO. I'm too scared to have her sleep in her crib. After all, her bedroom is upstairs and mine is downstairs. I'm being a wimp about it, but hey.... I still want her close to me. After bath time, I always put her in her crib to get the feel of it and whatnot. Boy, does she LOVE IT! She stares at her bumper pads and talks and talks. It's the most precious thing ever. She is the most precious thing ever. So today, after her record setting blowout, I gave her a bath. Did I mention that the blowout was so bad that I almost had to cut her onesie off to ensure that the poop would not get on her face while taking the onesie off? Yeah, pretty gross. Luckily, my mommy skills were used and I figured out a way for it to not get on her head. I promise, it did not get on her head. Maybe her foot, but not her head. ha!

I took about 35,353 pictures of her in her crib. I got a new lense remember? So of course she is going to be my model.

Angel baby also sat in her bumbo for the first time. We will be using this more and more!

I'm a big girl!

The love look on her sweet face.

Angel baby. Nothing sweeter than my baby girl.

Bristol loves her to use hands any way she can.

7 weeks and a few days old. Time is going by so fast. She changes everyday. Love her so much.

beauty queen in the making

2011-10-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

Total beauty queen in the making. Actually, she's a softball player and golfer in the making. Forget this beauty queen crap. She's an athlete!

She loves her daddy so much. It's so cute to see Brandon interact with Bristol. He is in love, that's for sure.

Here she is being held by my brother, Aunt Ste-Ste ( stephen ). He was just talking to her like crazy and she kept staring at him. Uncle Ste-Ste loves her so much. In fact, my brother is going to be a daddy too. His baby is due May 8, 2012. Bristol will have a cousin less than a year apart from her, how cool!

Can this be any more precious? Bristol loves when daddy wears a hat. She could stare at it all day long. I love this picture so much of Brandon and our girl.

Look at those cheeks! Her momma and daddy both had chunky cheeks when they were babies. Looks like she is taking after both of us.

This is one of my new favorite pictures of Bristol. I had placed her in her boppy for a minute to grab my camera and she was smiling away. I wish the paci wasn't in the picture, but then again, it's fitting because she always has her paci with her.

I got a new lense this past week. It's the type of lense that creates the blurry background shots, that's if it's set manually on the correct settings. I've been playing with it and it's amazing! All these photos were taken with the new lense, I didn't photoshop the blurry background, the lense gave it to me! How awesome right? I love photography and I'm hoping to enhance my skills in the next year. :)

Gotta go, baby is crying!

before i forget

2011-09-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, it's so easy for me to forget something. My memory has gotten better since being pregnant, but I will say this, my memory is on a whole new level with a newborn at home. ha! I'm sure all you momma's can agree about that. It's kinda funny, I can be sitting in bed about to get on the computer to look something up and by the time I click on mozilla to open the internet, I completely forget what I am on the computer for. Oh, the joys of mommy hood :) Wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

So yeah, before I forget, I wanted to document a few things about miss Bristol. I'm a much faster typer than I am "writer" and so I will transfer all this later to her baby book. But for now, it's on the good ole' bloggy blog.

Here's what's going on with my little monkey...

*Bristol is 6 weeks and 2 days old. Time flies my friends, time flies.
*She has discovered her hands and LOVES to suck on them. Probably the CUTEST thing ever.
*She has attempted to roll over 2 times. I kid you not. I'm sure you are rolling your eyes at me thinking, " yeah right kellianne, she is only 6 weeks, she can't do that". I swear that she almost did. She gets all the way on her side and is one "leg kick" away from rolling over.
*Her sleeping habits have remarkably changed over the last week or 2.
* She loves to be swaddled in her miracle blanket. God bless who ever invented that blanket, totally saved my life.
* Loves her paci or "bink bink". Can't keep it in her mouth very long, she always needs help to keep it in.
* Bri loves her bath. She gets a bath every night. She is so happy in the bath, it's so cute to see her so relaxed.
* We started putting her in her crib after bath time to lay in there to get used to it, and she loves it. Just stares at her crib bumper and coos, kicks and talks to us.
* Loves gettiong lotion on after her bath
* Finally will take a nap in her swing. She went from liking her swing to not liking her swing to now liking it again. typical female, can't decide what she likes.
* She is starting to smile more and it melts this momma's heart. It's precious in every sense of the word.
* Bristol loves to be rocked in my amazing glider. We brought it down from her room and put it in the corner of our bedroom ( perfect fit by the way) matches too :)
* She has had some gas problems lately, but we have gas medicine ( mylicon) and she will eat that stuff like it's going out of style. Of course I give her the recommended amount. That stuff with soothe her so fast.
* She loves to be held on your shoulder so she can see what's going on behind you. She is noisy like her momma and Omi and there is nothing wrong with that :)
* Her head mobility is getting better and better, loves to whip her head back and forth. Her neck muscles are getting stronger.
* Loves tummy time and back time on her play mat.
* She eats about every 2-3 hours during the day and eats about every 4-6 at night :)
* Bristol loves stroller rides, car rides and walks at night. She could be fussy and once we get going in the car or her stroller, she stops crying
* She is starting to "talk" more and more and it's so cute!

Our routine at night....

- bath around 9:45 pm
- feed her after bath
- swaddle her in her miracle blanket around 10:30pm
- rock her in the recliner/glider
- she likes to be on her side ( i'll have to get brandon to take a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about)
- Once she is asleep, she might wake up around 12:30 to eat and then she is back to bed till around 4:30-5:00.
- we are getting long stretches of sleep which is AWESOME.

Ok that is it for now. I have much more to update you on like my "new job", well kind of, part 2 of the birth story, family happenings and pictures! She is in her swing and probably will wake up any time now...

bye!

slacking

2011-09-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

Being a full time mom is WORK. Good work of course. But with being a full time mom, means that I don't get a lot done during the day because miss Bristol wants to be held 24/7 :)

I have been wanting to post for days now but haven't had the time to do so. I want to post Part 2 of Bristol's Birth Day but again, no time. I've wanted to post pictures of my sweet angel baby, but once again, no time.

But I wanted to let you know, all 2 of you who read my blog, that I am alive and well. I'm hoping this weekend I will set a record for the most amount of posts in one weekend. :)

My hopes is that this blog will be a journal for all things Bristol and with that said, I need to catch up real fast!

Hope all of you are doing well!

She's a celebrity

2011-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Bristol had her newborn photo shoot a couple weeks ago. I have been waiting patiently to see just a sneak peek of our sweet little one and boy, did our photographer not disappoint. Gabby is trying to build her portfolio to start a photography business. I personally, think she is wonderful and I hope that her business flourish's in the future. She also took our maternity photos, which we also loved.

Gabby posted one picture of Bristol today on facebook and I wanted to share it with all of you. I so can't wait to see the other photos!

We love this little baby girl more and more everyday. Still can't believe she is here and she belongs to us!

In other news, I will try my hardest to write part 2 of Bristol's birth day. It's been hard lately to sit in front of the computer. My phone has replaced the computer for all things internet, facebook, etc. I'm actually on my computer now writing this but time is limited with a newborn, so this might be short lived.

I also have A LOT of pictures to share with you that include a lot of "firsts" for Bristol. I've been going crazy with pictures, but hey, I'm a mom, isn't that part of the job title? :)

Ok - like I said, this would be short lived. This momma is tired and has a breast infection
( YUCK!). I'm taking 2 meds that make me very sleepy. So I'm off to take a nap! I'm hoping to post again soon.

Bye!

Bristol's Birth Day : Part 1

2011-08-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

(Bristol Elaine Barron)

I am finally getting to sit down and document the most amazing day of my life, the birth of Bristol Elaine. What a day it was, what a day it was.

First I am going to share a little of what was going on the few days before I had Bristol.

Brandon's friend Andrew and his girlfriend came into town from Philly to visit for the week. They were really hoping that I would go into labor while they were here, but I was convinced at this point that that was not going to happen. So they arrived here Saturday August 13. We went and got mexican food for dinner and then went bowling. I thought, I will just "bowl" Bristol right out of me, haha. I was suprised to see how well I actually did at bowling 9 months pregnant. Needless to say, I had a lot of stares that night. The people who had the lane next to us kept staring at me. At this point, I was so over people staring at me and so I was really annoyed. She finally came up to me and said " how far along are you?" I told her 9 months pregnant and she couldn't believe I was out and about 9 months pregnant. I was on a mission... remember? To bowl Bristol right out of me, haha.

(Bristol's first bath)

So after NOT bowling Bristol out of me, I was convinced she was going to come late. Sunday rolls around and we just laid low all day. I haven't been going to church due to lack of sleep, VERY uncomfortable and just down right feeling icky.
Brandon was upstairs in his "man cave" playing a video game ( which by the way, NEVER HAPPENS, he never plays video games but he said he was bored, haha). I was downstairs laying on the couch with my pups watching TV, nothing new there. I eventually got up from the couch because I had to go to the bathroom, like BAD. Which once again, nothing new there.
(Sidenote - sorry if this is too graphic or TMI, but I want to document everything that happened, kthanks!)
As I am sitting on the "potty" I hear a "KERPLUNK" Immediately, I looked down in the toliet and saw blood. My first instincts were .... " I LOST MY MUCUS PLUG!!" Losing your plug is an indicator that labor will be coming soon, hours or days, depends on the person. I then, yelled out to Brandon and told him I lost my plug. I called my mom and dad. Which by the way, my dad was on his way to the airport for a VERY IMPORTANT 1 day trip to Florida for business. But I called him anyway and told him what happened. He told me to keep him updated, he still had some time before he boarded the plane and if anything were to happen, he would come right home.

(Our family of three, sharing a very special moment together, beyond blessed.)

Soon after going to the bathroom, I had to go again, umm... nothing new there either. Well, I noticed that I was still bleeding from the plug, but it was more than what you would expect. I started to get a little worried because I had researched several different things that could happen. Also, your doctor always says, "call if you start to bleed". Well, hello! I've never been pregnant before so I wasn't sure if this was normal. After that, I call the Dr. on call at my hospital and he proceeds to tell me its nothing but if I am worried to come up to L&D. Hmm... I was so confused. He said it wasn't anything but if I am worried then to come, didn't make sense to me. So I relay the info to Brandon and my parents, specifically my dad because of his trip he was going to go on.

(Granddaddy and his little girl)

Brandon's parents were out of town too, moving my sister-in-law into her new apartment for college. Brandon called them to let them know the situation too, but they couldn't leave even if they wanted too because they hadn't moved Whitney into her apartment yet. So basically, everyone was on stand-by and waiting to hear if anything changed. Brandon and I said if the bleeding continues, by 6pm Sunday we would go to the hospital. Well, I went to check again in the bathroom and there was more blood, enough to make me freak out a little. Luckily, my bags have been packed for WEEKS so I told Brandon we need to go now and I'm worried. So let the dogs out to go potty, Brandon loaded the truck, and off we went to the hospital. At this time, we couldn't get a hold of my mom. Her phone was turned off, which she says she didn't know it was. I call my dad, tell him the news. Guess what? He was WALKING TO his gate to board the plane. God's timing is so perfect and my dad turned right back around, changed his flight for Monday morning at 8am, talked to the airline company and got his bags back before they were loaded on the plane. Once again, God's timing is perfect. My dad would have been DEVASTATED if he missed the birth of Bristol. Back to my mom. Her phone was off so she had NO CLUE what was going on. My dad got a hold of my brother and told him to drive to their house and get her. So he did. I asked my brother what he told my mom and this is what he said " I walked into the front door, walked to the fridge, grabbed an apple and told mom, KELLIANNE IS HAVING THE BABY!" I laughed so hard.... of course, my mom started to freak out. Then called my dad and he filled her in.

(Daddy with our 1 day old baby girl)

We arrive at the hospital around 5:00pm Sunday, check into a triage room and get checked by a nurse. I was 1-2 centimeters dilated, which I have been for weeks now. She reconfirmed that the blood was from the mucus plug and that I didn't need to worry. By this time, my mom got to the hospital first, then my brother came. Dad was about 5 mins away from the hospital. It all came out to be a false alarm, the nurse wasn't worried at all. She said Bristol looked great and just to "wait it out". Of course I would have to wait it out, ugh! Since my family was at the hospital, we all decided to go out to eat, haha. Did you expect me to say that? Yes, I was feeling fine, they discharged me and we went to eat a family dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I was still slightly bleeding and very uncomfortable, but I WILL NOT TURN DOWN a meal at CF. We ate at about 6:30-7:00pm and we all went on our merry little ways. Brandon and I kept out hospital stuff in the truck in case something would happen in the next few days.

We got home from CF and settled down for the night, not thinking anything of what just happened earlier. I took a warm bath and then took a hot shower. At about 10:45 is when I started to feel period like cramps in my lower stomach. I wasn't sure if these were contractions or not but I told Brandon that I had these pains. He said to monitor them, which I did. He went to lay in bed and I stayed on the couch because I wasn't tired. After having about 2-3 more contractions I went and told Brandon. He immediately popped up and said are you ok? Of course I was OK, but I was just confused because I wasn't sure if these were actual contractions, I mean, I've never been pregnant before so I don't know what real contractions felt like. I got into bed and that's when we started charting the contractions. They went from 20 mins apart to 15, to 10, to 5 to 3 .... talk about FAST. I had Brandon rubbing my back through each contraction. I'm going to be honest, they just felt like bad period cramps, which I am very familiar with. They last about 20-30 seconds a piece so I wasn't in too much pain. Brandon then called his parents to let him know I was contracting and called my mom. By the way, it was about 1:00am at this point.

( Daddy and Granddaddy both wore pink to celebrate Bristol)

At this point, Brandon and I both decided that we needed to head to the hospital, but first, Brandon called the hospital to tell them we were coming. Did I mention that my Dr. had been out of town for 2 weeks and JUST got back on the 13th? The Dr. I spoke to earlier in the day was on call for Dr. Starr ( my dr. ). The hospital told him that the Dr. would be calling him back in a few minutes. I was expecting the on call Dr. to call, but it was MY Dr. who called him back.
Brandon told Dr. Starr the situation and she said to come in. Off to the hospital we went. Well, first, we took the dogs out to go potty, grabbed a few last minute things and then hopped in the car and drove to the hospital. At this point, we still didn't know if they were going to admit me, but the contractions were getting worse, not too bad, but definitely intensifying.

Ok - so that's it for now. This post has taken me over a week to write and I finally got the first part written, goodness!

I'll write the 2nd part soon :)

By the way, if you are reading this last sentence, God Bless you! :)

one week early

2011-08-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not know already, Bristol Elaine has arrived! She entered this world Monday August 15, 2011 at 11:03am weighing 7.5lbs and 19.75 inches long. I was exactly one week early and I am still in shock that I have a baby, a beautiful one at that.

I will spare the details for now, because the birth story is a fun and exciting one and I want to have adequate time to share it with you.

So until then, here are a few pictures of our sweet precious Bristol Elaine.

Minutes old. I was quite drugged up from the epidural. Those things are amazing :)

Proud Daddy, he is so in love.

Not even a day old.

Precious little lady!

Coming home outfit!

There was a sneak peak :) I will post more pictures and the whole story at a later time.

just kick me!

2011-08-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Went to the Dr. Today. I'm 2 centimeters dilated. My Dr., well actually, she isn't my Dr., this is a fill in while mine has been on vacation for the past 2 weeks. Anyway, she said that everything looks good and I could have a baby in a week or so. I'll be 39 weeks on Monday. I was actually hooked up to one of those machines that track the heartbeat, contractions and movement. The reason why I was on the machine is because I really hadn't felt Bristol move this morning or last night. I was worried. She is a big time mover and shaker at night and I really didn't feel her move. I actually laid down in bed last night and said a little prayer to God " Dear Lord, please give Bristol the ability to move right now, even if it's just a little kick or nudge. I need the reassurance that she is still OK.

Sidenote: I've heard 2 stories in the last 2 days about babies dying. One at birth due to water on the brain and then the other at 8 months gestation. So my fear has definitely sky-rocketed since I heard about both stories.

So back to my story. I prayed to God and about 20 seconds later, I felt a kick. I then proceeded to ask God, ok, can she move a little more, even if it means her keepign me up all night? Well, I felt one more kick and that was it. So this morning the Dr. wanted to monitor Bristol, and that is what we did. I laid on the bed in the room, played on my room, pushed the button everytime I felt her move. Come to find out, at the same time I was having contractions. Painless ones, I'm sure Braxton Hicks, you know, he's my best friend.

So things are moving right along. Could be any day now. I'm just waiting for the first "real" contraction to hit. I'm sure I'll be grabbing the bags and saying " LET'S GO!" :)

As promised, here is a picture. It has no meaning to this post. Well, it has meaning because it's my mom and I but no relevance in regards to the subject of this post. This was taken May 22, 2011 on my parent's 35th wedding anniversary dinner at the best resturante ever, I mean Taste of Texas.

Love my momma.

upcoming events and other tidbits

2011-08-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

It's almost the middle of August and there is so much on my mind. Of course, the impending birth of our daughter Bristol Elaine is top on the list. But there are other things that are of importance that will be taking place till the end of December. I'd love to share these events with you. So here goes....

August ____, 2011 - Birth of Bristol Elaine

August 22, 2011 - First Day of School for Brandon. He is teaching 5th grade this year!

September, 2011 - I will start my alternative teaching certification program!

September 4, 2011 - will mark 1 year of home ownership!

September 20, 2011 - Brandon and I's 3 year wedding anniversary

October, 2011 - I will be going back to school after taking a break. I have 4 classes left and I will officially be a college graduate. Wow, what a journey it has been.

December 16-24, 2011 - Schrock Family Vacation to Seattle and Leavenworth Washington! Ski slopes, here we come!

In other Barron news, I'm definitely in the nesting stage. Actually, I have gone in spurts with the nesting stage. As of today, I'm nesting. Ask me tomorrow and it will probably be a different story.

Bristol's nursery is ALL COMPLETE. What a sign of relief. I love ever inch of her room and can' wait for her to "see" it, haha.

I've been thinking lately, I'm going from a working wife, full time student to .... stay at home mom, housewife and EXTREME COUPONER. Yeah, that's right, I am turning into an extreme couponer and Brandon is in full support of my new career. haha

Since I'm considered a college senior, I get to start my program before I graduate, which is great. This will speed up the process of getting a job - for the next school year, of course.

The Schrock Family Vacations are the absolute best, hands down. We are all looking forward to sharing a week of laughter, smiles, jokes, memories and toting around Bristol Elaine.

Totally embracing the fact that I LOVE to save money when I shop. Rarely, do I EVER buy anything that is full price. If I do, it must be an amazing item because spending full price for something should be illegal. I love sales, coupons, discounts,etc. I will have 1 full year to master the art of saving a lot of money at the grocery store.

Here I am. The housewife and stay at home mom. I know I will love it. It will be an adjustment of course, since I have always worked. But I know that both roles are full time jobs and I am beyond blessed to get this opportunity to stay home with Bristol.

Ok readers, I am going to try and post a picture each post because quite frankly, blogs are boring without pictures. Well, most of the time. At least mine is boring without pictures, maybe all the time. The thing is, I hate blogger and how they upload pictures AND mostly all my pictures are on an external hardrive, which I don't feel like plugging that guy in and importing some back on my comp. So.... I will try my best to get you at least one photo per post. Can't promise the photo will be related to the post itself, but needless to say, there will be a photo.

Talk to you soon!

oooooooooooooo girl!

2011-08-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm slowing down and feel like an 88 year old woman. No offense to 88 year old women, love them, bless their hearts. But boy, I'm to the point where I can't be on my feet for very long.

I have a SERIOUS case of cabin fever. Like a seriously serious case of it. Here's my dilemma. And by the way, by no means do I want you to think I'm complaining. I'm just "talkin' it out" :) Back to the dilemma......

I feel good when I am at home. Well, not good, but if I start to feel bad I can just plop right on the couch or in my bed curled up with my precious pups and I will feel better within minutes. But guess what? I AM SO TIRED of laying around the house, doing NOTHING.There's only so much TLC " Baby Story, Making Room For Multiples and Baby's First Day" that I can watch. Now, on the other end of things, I want to go out and run errands and just get out, but within minutes of being in public I have to go pee 46 times, I start to have some serious pressure in my lower stomach and then I become miserable. This is all while trying to push the cart in the store while waddling and trying to look like I'm a happy 9 month pregnant woman. Dilemma? I'd say so. Well, to me it's a dilemma.

I'm so ready for Bristol to be here. I'll be 38 weeks on Monday. I haven't progressed any since I last updated ya'll with how far I have dilated and effaced. I'm hoping next week will bring a different story. She has been moving around A LOT at night. Loves my bladder, in fact, their best friends. I'm ready for the friendship to be over with, if you know what I mean. I have braxton hicks every night almost. They are painless but uncomfortable for the fact that they tighten my stomach and make it feel like it's going to POP.

Bristol's nursery is ALMOST complete. My mom and I are going to Target tomorrow to go buy her curtains and then her room is done. Well, Brandon has to hang them, of course. There have been times where I have LOVED her nursery and then times where I thought " what the heck was I thinking?" But after everything has been put together, hung on the walls, placed perfectly on the shelves, I LOVE HER ROOM. I can't wait to get the curtains.

I'm still feeling very calm about labor. I know that that might change in the midst of labor, but as of right now, God is totally being God and taking care of my emotions. I love him for that, amongst many other things.

I'm hoping the next post I make will have pictures. I need spice up the blog a bit and post some pics. I might do a post of pictures "pre-pregnancy" and then pictures of during pregnancy.

Until then my friends.....

calm as a cucumber

2011-07-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

When I think about labor and contractions, I don't freak out. I actually feel really calm about it all. Is this normal? Should I be freaking out? When I know something big is going to happen in my life, I immediately start praying for wisdom, strength, guidance and a peace about the situation. I'm sure most of you do the same thing. I continue to pray over these things and about these things during the situation I am in the midst of- whether I'm washing the dishes, feeding the dogs, going to the bathroom ( yes I did just reveal that information). Pray without ceasing. Such a powerful thing anyone can do.

But really, I have this sense of calmness over me. Will all of that change once I am experiencing labor and contractions? Be honest, now. :)

You+Me= Baby Bristol

2011-07-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

d-day

2011-07-24T10:20:00.001-07:00

My birthday is on the actual " D-Day" from World War II. But this is not what this post is about.

I'm talking about d-day for Bristol. My mind is constantly thinking " will this be the day my water breaks and I go into labor?" Everytime I get up and go to the bathroom at night I think... " did my water break"? ORRRRR.... when she is moving a lot in my stomach ( especially really low in my belly) I often think " are you trying to come out?"

You're mind really starts spinning when you have a baby inside of you and it's about that time for him or her to come out.

I'll be 36 weeks on Monday and I go to the Dr. on Thursday. I haven't been feeling well the past week. Nauseous, tired..... just icky. I feel better when I'm laying down and not doing a darn thing. But in all reality, I'm tired of being at home and not doing something. Ah!

I know I know... my life is about to change. No sleep, no sleep, no sleep. :)

My prediction is that she is coming in about 2 weeks.

We shall see.

it's the final countdown

2011-07-21T15:20:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow will mark exactly 1 month till my due date. This seems so crazy to think about. I feel like I just got pregnant. 9 months really does go by fast. I also started my weekly Dr. appointments. I'm already 1 1/2 centimeters dialated and 70% efaced. My Dr. could also feel Bristol's head. CRAZY! I know that you can dialate either really fast or REALLY slow... so we will see where I'm at next week. Monday I will be 36 weeks and I still have the feeling that I will go into labor before my due date. We shall see.

I wanted to share some recent pictures with you. I haven't used my nice canon dslr in so long because, well I don't care it around with me, that's what a cell phone is for right? Well, here are some pictures that I have taken over the last week or 2.

How cute are these little sparkly keds? I bought these for $8.75 at dillards, they were orignally $25.00, can we say steal, I mean deal? :)

Another clearance item from dillards. My family LOVES under armour ( they have the most comfortable tennis shoes, by the way). So of course I had to snatch this up when I saw it was on clearance. It's a skirt with built in shorts, just my style. She'll go golfing with daddy in it on Saturday's and come with mommy to the backyard and hit off her pink tee-ball set. She'll have no choice.

Hey! It's me! I'm looking a little rough, but I just had to share this picture with you all. See my pups? Yeah they are attached to my hip. Nakona ( white dog ) is always sitting on my chest, belly, lap or laying on me. She has been very clingy lately, I think she knows something is about to happen. I actually started to cry on the phone today with my dad about my pups. Sounds cheesy, I know. But you guys, these are my babies. I'm just worried they will go through this huge shock of not being the center of attention anymore and that I can't devote enough time to them. I know this sound silly, but I'm serious, Rocky and Nakona are my sweet babies who keep my company whenever I need it. I'm just going to pray that all things go well once we bring Bristol home.

Here is our jogging stroller. Isn't it lovely? It's the city mini and it's absolutely delicious. The ride is soooooooo incredibly smooth. I'm so excited to use it. Wanna know a secret? I totally push it around the house all the time. I even put Nakona in it. :) It's parked by the front door, just waiting to be taken out for it's first real ride. We will need to buy the carseat adapter for it and then we can strap little Bristol and go for a spin!

Well, that's all for now. My Dr. put me on a strict diet for the next few days. She thinks I might have a stomach bug which is making me feel nauseous, have random hot flashes and well having the "runs". So I'm going to go see what I can come up with for dinner.

Bye!

ready for lift off

2011-07-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

My child is head down and ready for lift off.

Is that too graphic for my blog? Sorry, but I'm the no holds bar type of gal, so to me, that isn't too graphic. But yeah, she is head down and I think she is ready to come out. I'm having a lot of pressure in my lower stomach and feeling VERY uncomfortable all over my body. I'm not sleeping, what is sleep anyway? My beach ball, I mean baby bump definitely gets in the way so I find it very hard to get comfy, even with pillows in between every nook and cranny. Comes with the territory right?

We went to the Dr. yesterday and my Dr. thinks that Bristol will be around 6lbs at birth. How much should I actually believe of that? My mom was very tiny when she was full term with me and I was 8lbs. I guess we shall see.... taking bets now.... how much do you think she will weigh? I'm going with around 7lbs, Brandon agreed with the Dr. and was thinking around 6lbs.

I'm also needing to find a pediatrician in the Sugar Land area. I posted it on facebook and got a lot of feedback from people. Some people said the same Dr. which was nice to see, but I guess I really need to do some SERIOUS research. I already had bad luck with my first OB and I changed 10 weeks into my pregnancy. So I'm hoping I find the right pedi for Bristol and her first time parentals.

I'll be 35 weeks on Monday and I think I feel about 40 weeks pregnant. I really have a feeling Bri will be coming early. Not like I have past experiences to help me out with this one, but I just have this thought that she will be here before we know it. My Dr. told me that the majority of first time moms actually go about a week after their due date. Oh lord, I am begging you to let this baby come before my due date. Did I mention that I am due the first day of school? And by that I mean, Brandon is a teacher and his first day of teaching is August 22 - my DUE DATE. I really want him to spend some time with this baby girl before he has to go back to work. It's all in the Lord's timing, I know I know. I trust his calendar more than my own :)

Speaking of Brandon, I just love him. Tomorrow we will be celebrating 6 years of being together. We talked on the phone for the first time June 5, 2005, started dating July 16, 2005 and now look at us, almost married 3 years and a baby on the way. God is so good. But enough about that, I am going to dedicate a whole post to him tomorrow.

I am almost done with Bristol's room. There are still a few things that need to be done like finding a cute rug, cute curtains, my friend finishing up the paintings for above her crib, securing the changing pad to the dresser and.... well I'm sure there are a few more things that need to be done. But we are definitely in the home stretch! My mother-in-law and Brandon's grandma came over last night for me to boss them around, I mean help me with things :) They were a lot of help. We got a lot organized, which is a big sigh of relief. A couple weeks ago, my mom came over and DEEP cleaned and I mean DEEEEEP cleaned all the bathrooms in our house. We also got our master bedroom fixed up. It told myself that our bedroom was going to be the last room in the house to get decorated. So my mom helped me stage it and then that weekend we painted, well my dad and Brandon painted our room. I really feel like we are living in a new house which our room fixed up. Next on our list is to take out all the carpet in the house and replace it with hardwood floors. So a big shout out to my wonderful mom, awesome mother-in-law and precious grandma-in-law :) I love you girls, thank you for helping me when I need it the most!

well, that's all for now. we are heading to dinner... I'm coming back with another post tonight, fill with pictures from my mom.

i know i know, you'll be waiting by your computer for that post

bristol's room - work in progress

2011-07-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

pin me up scotty

2011-07-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Pintrest. You into it? Have you looked at the website? Well, I knew nothing about it till a couple weeks ago. It's actually rather interesting to see what goes on the website. I thumbed through some pictures and thought I would share what caught my eye. This is very random and I think I like it that way. So here goes.....

So many times in life, we find ourselves judging other people for what they look like, think, say or do. I am so guilty of this, on a daily basis. When I came across this saying, it really hit home. Passing judgement makes me no better than the next person, nor does admitting it, but think about what this saying is saying. So many people fight different battles every single day of their life. Some might share those battles with you, some may not, but by no means do I need to judge them for their battles, when I fight my own battle everyday.

Um, all I have to say about this picture is.... I WISH I COULD DO MY HAIR LIKE THAT EVERYDAY. I'm such a bad "curler" if you will, and when I see hair like this, I want to rip it off the girls head and glue it on mine. I really need some hair help. Any advice on how to make the big waves?

One word .... AMEN.

Don't you LOVE this picture? I totally want to do something like this for Bristol when she turns 1. Love love love this. Now where can I find that pink chair? Hmm... I might need to start looking now.

Love C.S. Lewis. Need I say more?

How genius is this rustic window? Make it into a large collage picture frame? YES PLEASE! I want this oh so badly -- for my guest room.

I love fall and this picture reminds me of Wisconsin, where I was born and lived for several years. The falls are probably the prettiest season in Wisconsin. I love the oranges, reds, yellows, browns... I love it all!

So that was my first "pinterest" post. This was actually fun. Looking at different things and thinking " oooo I like this! Gotta have that! ewww... sick!"

I suggest you hop on over to pinterest.com and CHECK IT OUT!

pack your bags and let's go!

2011-07-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

I really thought that when I got pregnant I would be blogging every step of the way. Ugh, was I wrong. I'm actually a little dissapointed in myself for not documenting every step but let's get real, I was working a full time job, I'm a full time student, full time pregnant, full time wife..... need I say more? I guess if I really wanted to, I would of blogged more - oh well.

I will be 33 weeks on Monday and I can't believe it. I will say this over and over again.... I remember when I first found out I was pregnant, I was an impressive 4 weeks along and thought- I know the next 9 months are going to go by so slow. I am not a patient person so I was already doubting my level of patience. But I'm sure the rest of you moms out there will agree, the past 8 months have flown by. In fact, I can't even remember what my stomach looked like before I was pregnant. I'm not going to lie, I miss not remembering what I looked like before I was pregnant. Oh sure, I can look at pictures but shoot, that doesn't do anything for me. Do I sound vain? I'm sure I do. Take it how you will. I just think I am ready to not be pregnant anymore and have my baby girl with me in my arms, not in utero.

So now that I am in the home stretch, I have been thinking about packing my hospital bag for myself and Bristol. She really can come at anytime and my BIGGEST fear is that I will not have one bag packed and ready for her debut because he came earlier than expected. I asked Brandon's cousins wife to fill me in on what I should bring in my personal bag and here is what she told me.

Pajamas. 2 pairs to be exact. You see, I still wear my t-shirt and shorts for pajama's and quite frankly, probably always will. But Lorelle ( Brandon's cousin's wife) made a good point. Bring a pair or 2 of pj's that you can wear after you give birth. It will give you a sense of "home" and just the comfyness you might be needing. So I'm thinking, since I don't wear "real" pj's, I will be going to Wal-Mart of Target and buying some that I don't mind getting, well, a little damaged, if you will. Do you have any recommendations on what kind I should get?

Boppy. I have this exact one, isn't it cute? Lorelle suggested that I bring my boppy since I will be attempting to breast feed Bristol. I think it's a great idea, especially since all of this momma thing will be new and so will breast feeding. Hey, I want both Bristol and I to be comfy and the boppy will do just that.

Makeup! Can't leave home without it! Growing up, I was an athlete and I never wore makeup to practices or games. Well, once I got to college and starting playing college softball, I never left the dorms without it. I played softball and if you think of the stereotypical softball player, what comes to mind? ( I'll just leave it at that). So with that said, I always wore makeup. So, you better believe that at the hospital I will have my make up and ready to go .... gotta be picture ready of course, duh.

Sandals. Aren't these cute? I'm the biggest fan of Reef sandals. Actually, I still wear my black pair that I got when I was a senior in high school. They are so darn comfy. Lorelle suggested a pair of sandals for easy access when walking around the hospital post birth. I'm a total fan of that idea, especially since they are so easy to slip on. I actually kind of want this pair, haha.

Pillows from home. I actually thought of this one. I think, for me, I want to bring my own pillow. It will give me a sense of home and plus I know it will be comfortable. I'm sure I will need all the comfort I can get or "bring".

Not pictured - more bathroom needs like toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, etc.

Now that is just my short list..... do you have any suggestions, ideas, or advice on what I should add to my bag? I really want to make sure I pack everything I need and maybe some things I don't need :)

My next post will be all about Bristol's Bag for the hospital.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

whoa!

2011-06-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I'm still here. Life has been so busy lately.

I don't have much time to post because I am trying to finish some school work but I thought I would give ya'll a little run down on what's been happening in my life as of late.

Still in school.... blah!
Came back from Abilene June 11 - good week!
Baby shower June 18 - absolutely amazing - Pics to come!
Celebrated fathers day - awesome day!
3d/4d ultrasound today - pics to come!

And that's all I have for now. Sorry it's so short!

Bye friends!

pacifers, diapers and bottles

2011-06-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Those are the only things I need right?

Goodness gracious! Although I registered quite sometime ago, I feel like I don't have everything I need. Please don't take that wrong, like I'm selfish or whatnot, but I just feel as though, there are many things I am missing, even though I'm probably not.

I mean, this is my first "rodeo" ya know and there are many things I am not sure about - there I said it! You see, I have babysat for many families or the last several years, I'd say at last 10 years. I have babysat for families that have infants to 10 year olds, I've pretty much covered all basis. Not only have I been babysitting for a long time, I also have worked with children for several years, so I feel that I have a good grasp on kids and what it's like being " mom " for the day.

But the more and more I think about, I'm rather scared about the adventure I am about to embark. Of course I am thrilled, excited, happy, overjoyed and anticipating the arrival of Bristol, but of course, human nature is setting in. Do I really know what I am doing? Will I know how to feed her right? Burp her correctly? The list goes on....

So besides the emotions that I am going through right now..... I wanted to ask all of you mama's out there what you recommend that I register for, other than the main items. Of course I need the stroller, carseat, bouncer, swing, pack n play.

What about the little items? What type of bottles and how many do I register for? I did register for 2 different kinds because someone told me she might not like a certain brand so register for more than one brand and don't over register for both brands. Does this make sense? Ah!

So here is what I am asking of you....

Can you send me your top 10 list of MUST HAVES of baby items that you couldn't and can't live without?

You can comment on here or email me at Kms03b@yahoo.com

I really would LOVE to hear from you because I need all the help I can get :)

kthanksbye!

as of late.

2011-06-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Life is about to be super busy for the Barron Family, or should I just say me?

Here's what's been happening as of late....

* Brandon's 26th Birthday was May 19
* Brandon's school gave us a baby shower May 23
* Last day of work was May 27
* Memorial Day fun with the fam
* Laying out by the pool and exercising in the pool
* Running endless errands
* Still going to school full -time

Upcoming events ....

* Celebrate my birthday Friday June 3 - cheesecake factory - YUM!!
* Leave for Abilene, Texas Sunday June 5 - 11
* My 27th birthday June 6
* 3d/4d ultrasound June 13
* Monthly Dr. appointment June 16
* Baby shower June 18
* Baby shower June 25
* Maternity photos somewhere in between those days... haha
* Church baby shower July 10
* My mom and brothers birthday July 17
* My dad's birthday August 1
* I will take a break from school on August 1 so I can prepare for baby :)
* And Bristol should arrive sometime around August 22

I know there are other "happenin's" in my life that I'm missing out, but that's all this pregnant brain can think of right now. I just hope I can keep up with everything and everyone in these last few months.

I'm 28 1/2 weeks pregnant. Bristol is a mover and a shaker and loves to put on a show for mommy. BUT, when someone else puts their hand on my stomache, she gets a little shy. It's funny. Brandon, my mom and my dad have felt her move, but this was after many times of
"place hand on belly".

I am feeling great! I have no complaints, really. I mean no major complaints. Right now, my sleep is suffering but that's ok, I have to get used to it, right? I've been swimming laps in my parents pool and doing water aerobics and I LOVE IT. I'm really glad that I am pregnant during the summer because I love a good tan and a good workout where I don't sweat. Can I get an amen? :)

Well, I think that is it for now. I'm hoping I will have a lot of pictures to post in the next few months. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer because I know I am!!!

spoiled.

2011-05-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

My job and my sweet sweet babies spoiled me this year while working at CCA. From little gifts from my kids to a baby shower from the school -- I was showered with love that completely overwhelmed me. Well, the last week of school really brought me to tears because of the love that was shown, once again from my sweet class. I have never worked for a place that is so generous to their employees and let alone the families that I have had the pleasure of teaching their children. My goodness, blessings continue to overflow. I am so grateful for CCA and all 21 students and families that were called "Hummingbirds". I will miss them dearly and I hope that I will be able to return to CCA once I am ready to get back to work ( not for at least a year, yay! i'm going to be a stay at home mom!!).

This is a super cute diaper cake from one of my little girls and her mom. How cute is this? Not to mention, how generous and sweet of them to think of Bristol and I.

My room mom once again, went above and beyond and collected money from students who wanted to give me a baby gift. Of course, they all went above and beyond and got me items from my registry from Babies R Us. Some of my kids helped me open the gifts, it was too cute. Everytime we opened a gift, they'd say " Ms. Kellianne, what is this?" I would then explain to them all the things I got, they got to pass them around and "ooo and ahhh" at the baby items. It was hilarious and precious, of course.

Not only did I receive the diaper cake, the baby items from my students, but I was also given a gift card "tree/flower". Mine is the pink flower which is dangled with gift cards from all different places -- Target, AMC, berripop, Visa gift card, Babies R Us, the list goes on. This still shocks and overwhelms me. When our room mom brought this in and explained what it was, I started to cry. I just can't believe the thoughtfullness and selflessness of my parents and their children. Wow, is all I can say.

God put me in a place where he knew I needed to be. After struggling with finding a new job after FBISD eliminated my position, I wasn't sure what was in store for me. But God knew exactly what he was doing. In fact, it was his divine intervention that he chose me to work at CCA. I am forever thankful and grateful for such an amazing place to work, surrounded by Godly Christian men and women and most certainly, the amazing families that represent CCA. Oh God is so good.

Lord - thank you for blessing me with the opportunity to work at CCA and continuing to bless Brandon and I with your love and grace.

mother's day

2011-05-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day was great! We all went to second service together ( my parent's go to first and Brandon and I go to second). After church we went to Babies R Us for me to use a gift card - boy, I could stay in that place for hours upon hours. From there, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory where we had lunch together. Stephen's girlfriend is a manager there and so we got a "little deal" on our meal, wink wink :) Of course the food was fantastic, you really can't beat the QuesoFactory. We then headed to my parent's house to take pictures before we all changed our clothes, haha. I didn't want to take pictures outside because it was so darn windy that day and well, I fixed my hair for once and it wasn't going to look like a hot mess when we took pictures. So I opted to take pictures inside. I'm a brat, I know.

Let me back track for a minute. Saturday night, Brandon and I invited his mom and family over for dinner. We grilled chicken, had baked potatoes, fresh steemed broccoli, fresh salad and baked beans for dinner. It was ALL delish! They stayed for a little bit and we watched a movie on TV. It was a nice evening with his family.

The proud Uncle and Baby Daddy. My brother always comes up with weird or funny things to do in pictures. It cracks me up everytime it happens. I love love his sense of humor. But, you must understand my brother in order to understand his sense of humor - some people think he's a weirdo. haha .... See the thumbs up in the background? Gives me a good laugh! This picture almost makes me think that they are the "fathers" of the baby and I'm just the surrogate mother, hahahahahah!

The best parent's in the world. My goodness, they never seize to amaze me. I can cry right now thinking about how selfless they are and how they continue to support, provide, give and love all 3 of their children everyday.

Momma and her boys. What I love most about my mom is that she ALWAYS includes Brandon, no matter what. He isn't left to the side, he is always asked to be in pictures. She goes above and beyond to make him feel loved. When she talks about "her kids" she always includes Brandon. I really admire that about her.

First off, I need a tan - and I am working on that right now, haha. But on a serious note, my mom is my best friend. She is ALWAYS there giving me advice, listening to my vent, and laughing with me about silly things. She is such an inspiration, a genuine, kind, loving, compassionate person. I am beyond blessed to have a mother like her and I hope that one day, I can be half the woman and mom that she is to me, Stephen and Brandon.

I NEED YOU!!!!

2011-05-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

Pottery Barn Petite Paisley Nursery Bedding

"Annie" Nursery Bedding from Polkatotdesigns.com

Hello! It's been a while since I have posted and there are so many things I want to talk to about but right now I am dedicating this post to all things baby bedding.

You see, I had Bristol's bedding picked out from a place called Polkatotdesigns.com and LOVED my selections. Did not love the price tag, but I thought, well this is my first baby and it's exactly what I am looking for. Back to the price tag --- um...... the price of this bedding is kind of ridiculous. Although it is all custom made with beautiful fabrics, it's definitely exspensive.

So my mind has been set on saving money for the bedding and just going through with it. Well, I have been thumbing around on the computer and needed to look for diaper bags because I haven't found one I liked yet. So the potterybarn website comes up and I started looking at diaper bags. After finding one I really like - of course expensive too, I thumbed over to nursery bedding. I found a set that I really like that is HALF, I repeat, HALF the price of the custom bedding. It's something that I CAN afford right away and don't have to save for. It has the colors I like and will match the color of the walls and the white furniture. The pottery barn bedding can also come with a quilt which goes with the toddler bedding.

This is where you come in. I really need your help. I'm trying to be practical but I also want her room to be beautiful and what I REALLY want.

If it were you, what would you do? Go with the custom bedding that makes you go broke or go with the practical priced bedding that is still super cute but easy on the pocket book?

For all you people who "read" my blog and NEVER COMMENT.... I NEED YOU TO COMMENT, don't be shy :) I need all the advice, suggestions and feedback!

evolution of the bump

2011-05-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the ever growing baby bump that I have finally gotten used to. It's so amazing to see how your body changes through pregnancy. One day you look down at your stomache and it's flat and the next day you wake up and there is a round bump poking out of your belly. Just another amazing gift from God.

Now these pictures were taken with my iphone so they aren't the best quality but it's fun to look at them and see how I wasn't so brave to post a pic with my face and finally at 23 weeks I said
"WHAT THE HECK!" :)

Everything is going great so far with my pregnancy. She is definitely a mover and a kicker and I LOVE feeling her move! Brandon finally got to feel her kick and he was absolutely amazed. I will be 24 weeks tomorrow, it's just flying by! I have my first baby shower this week at work. There are 4 of us that are pregnant at work, 3 are having boys and I'm the only one having a girl :) 2 of the ladies are due in July and myself and the other teacher are due in August. I'm really looking forward to Tuesday and being surrounded by such Godly women to share this special time in my life.

I can't believe today is May 1st. My last day of work is May 27. I will be taking the year off and I'M SO EXCITED!!! I never thought I would be able to be a stay at home mom and well, once again, God is doing amazing things for my family and I and is blessing me with the time to be with Bristol.

Well, Brandon and I are off to get a couples massage this morning. I will be getting a prenatal massage and I'm looking forward to it! I really need this!

Blessings to you all for a great week!

who am i? where am i? what am i doing?

2011-04-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Bristol is literally sucking all the brain cells out of my brain. I swear, I feel more dumb by the day. Everyday I have to ask myself, who am i? where am i? and what am i doing? Ever since getting pregnant, I just can't keep up with things like I used to and that is very frustrating to me. I had the BEST memory ever and now I can barely remember to pay the bills - even that gets over looked sometimes. Yes, I forgot to pay our electric bill one time and came home to no power. It was a disaster and the hubs wasn't too happy. I think he will be taking over the finances soon, haha.

At work, I feel like I just go through the motions now, which a lot of my day is routine, since that is what my kids need and thrive off of. But at the same time, I feel so lost sometimes. Like in a daze. Is this normal? I sure hope so. Lately, I've also been very emotional. Just within the last couple weeks my emotions have really kicked in and I've cried several times. I'm a sensitive and emotional person - hey I cry when I watch MTV, but when it comes to just bawling out tears, that is not normal. Brandon thought I was nuts when I had my first break down. I thought I was nuts too, but hey, don't tell him that. I have a lot on my plate right now. I'm working full time, going to school full time, pregnant full time, wife and daughter full time... the list goes on. I understand that everyone has roles they play in their lives so I'm not saying I'm any different, I've just been overwhelmed with all the tasks that I am taking on right now.

Speaking of being overwhelmed, I am so overwhelmed and defeated with school right now. I wish I graduated in 4 years. I'm so tired of college. I feel like I've really let myself down lately and I need a good pick me up when it comes to school. Say a little prayer for me, would you? :) I need the peace of understanding and patience to overtake my mind so that I can steadily finish school soon.

Ok thats enough "venting".....

In other exciting news...

The nursery furniture came in today! WAHOO! I'm only 21 weeks pregnant and ordered the furniture a long time ago because we got such a GREAT deal on it. We actually saved over $600.00 on all of the pieces since we got it on sale. This type of nursery furniture NEVER goes on sale so we had to take advantage of the sale, especially since this was the exact stuff I wanted. So this weekend we will pick up the furniture and we will also be going to the paint store to pick out paint for her room. I received my swatches in the mail of the bedding so I have an idea of what color we will be picking.

This weekend will be very exciting! I'm looking forward to decorating the room and getting all things for Bristol! :)

Annie and Newport

2011-03-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't change the name of my child in my whomb. Annie is the name of the baby bedding that I will be ordering oh so soon! I've been eying this bedding since I found the website 2 months ago. The website is all custom made baby bedding and other baby/kid things. I will definitely be pinching my pennies the next few months to buy my sweet "Annie" bedding.

I have already picked out my baby furniture too, which is all lifetime pieces - makes me so happy! We found the furniture at Baby and Kid's First Furniture. I wanted white for a girl and a dark brown for a boy. We actually ordered all the pieces a long time ago for the nursery because we got 15% off of all the furniture and they said that sale never happens for this brand of furniture, so we jumped at the chance. At first, they ordered the girls furniture because it was the most expensive and they would refund us the different if we had to order the boy pieces. Then they called and said that they had to switch the orders and ordered the boy furniture because they think the brown would sell faster than the white. But now, we have to call them and tell them to order the white. Talk about a mess, huh? All I know is that we saved like over $600.00 for buying it on sale. Can't beat that, right?

I'll be registering this weekend or next week and I can't wait for that. I am preparing for it to be a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day. I'll be going with my mom, Brandon said he didn't want to go
(not in a bad way) and he said that I should take my mom. He also mentioned that I know more about all that stuff than he does, since I've been babysitting forever. Any of you have any suggestions on items I should register for? Bottles, pacifiers, blankets....ANYTHING! I am all ears when it comes to this stuff.

Hope you all are enjoying your Wednesday!

our sweet baby girl

2011-03-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Bristol's cute little feet

She was looking right at us :)

3D picture - She was sucking her thumb, just like I used to do.

Bristol is already praying, isn't this precious?

blue or pink, what do you think?

2011-03-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Blue and pink onesies to dress up the fireplace

It's a girl! So excited!

Brandon's parents, Lisa and Richard. Both team pink!

Such a special picture. Brandon and I's grandmother's. His grandma is next to him and mine is next to me. Love these ladies!

My momma and daddy, AKA - grand-daddy and Omi ( o-me)

Think pink team :) We were right!

Blue crew, too bad they were on the wrong team!

Everyone outside for the "big reveal". Such an exciting time!

Brandon talking to my brother while he holds the balloons. Getting ready for the countdown.

No one had really turned around yet except for Brandon's Aunt Vicki. Can you see her? She cheated, haha! There goes the pink balloons because IT'S A GIRL!

It's a .........

2011-03-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

We found out March 21 what we are having and by the looks of it, IT'S A GIRL! Bristol Elaine Barron will make her debut in August! We are BEYOND excited and thrilled! The ultrasound was amazing, we saw her in 2D and 3D. The last time we saw her was when I was 10 weeks pregnant and we weren't even supposed to see her then. So... this was a lonnnnng awaited appointment and you better believe I was counting down the weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds for this appointment. It's all I talked about at work that day with my sweet babies. We talked about the baby, baby names, and they even felt my tummy and talked to the baby. Yesterday with my kids, will be, one of the most cherished moments through my pregnancy and through my teaching experience.

Speaking of names, let me just share just a few names that my kids wanted to name the baby.

1. Lucy,
2. Magnus
3. Marlin
4. Abigail
5. Marissa
6. Heart
7. Christian
8. Justus
9. Shala
10. Jesus ( my personal fav )

I was totally expecting some off the wall names like number 6 but believe it or not, they really put some thought into it. Which made the conversation even better and more special to me. One of my little girls asked if I was going to bring the baby to work at the end of April. I said well, unfortunately, they baby won't be here by then. She seemed a little sad about that, sweet thing.

We had a gender reveal party last night at my parents house and it went better than I expected. Not that I didn't think it would go well, it's just the turn out we had was amazing. I really didn't think we would have a lot of people come because it was on a Monday at 6:30pm. But we had an overwhelming turn out that really brought me to tears. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who came and shared this special moment with us!

Everyone had to come in either blue or pink depending on what they thought or "wanted" the baby to be. Everyone were total troopers and participated which also surprised. Brandon and I took pictures with all the couples who came to the party and of course, we took a "think pink" picture and a "blue crew" picture. Here is how we revealed the gender of the baby to everyone.

After the ultrasound, I ran over to Party City and picked up 6 pink and 6 blue balloons. We used them as decoration in the house until it was time to "let 'em fly!" :) We had everyone go to the backyard. My parents have a huge backyard so it was the perfect spot to hold all 30 something guests. But while everyone was going outside, we took my brother and told him what we were having ( his reaction wasn't quite what I was expecting, he really wanted a boy, haha but nonetheless, he was excited!) We gave him both sets of balloons and told him that he had to let go of the "pink" ones, of course. We had him walk over on the opposite side of the fence ( my parents live next to an open levy so it was a perfect spot for my brother to be). Everyone in the backyard was facing the pool so when the balloons were let go, they had to turn around ( more for the dramatic effect, ya know??) I totally feel like I'm chopping up this story, it's totally easier to explain and type, hopefully ya'll are still following along. If not, sorry charlie! Anyway, Brandon leaned over the fence and counted to 3 and Stephen let the pink balloons go. Everyone turned around at that point and that's when you heard the crazy screaming from my mom. Good screaming of course. :) I wish I videoed the whole thing, I completley forgot to find my camera with the camcorder on it. But, I did get a great picture of the balloons flying :)

Needless to say, it was a great night with family and friends. I'm so happy we decided to have a party and share the news with people we care about the most.

I will be posting ultrasound pictures and the party pictures in another post because blogger uploads pictures weird and I'm not in the mood to deal with it.

Be back soon!

Breck or Bristol?

2011-03-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

One week from today Brandon and I will find out if we are having a boy or a girl! Let's pray the baby is in position so we can see "the goods" :) I never thought I'd see the day when we would be able to find out the sex of the baby. After all, I found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks, so I've come a long way since that December 16th night in the bathroom, haha.

We have chosen names and have had them picked out for a lonnnnnnng time. I've always been a dreamer and I would dream about the day I would graduate college ( hasn't happened yet, I'm working hard at that though), get married, own my own home and have babies. I've always talked about and dreamed about what I would name my future children. Since Brandon and I have been together, 6 years this July, we have tossed out names, fumbled through websites and made list after list of names we like for a boy and a girl. Of course, my girl list was a mile long and my boy list had 2 names on it, haha. We have thrown out so many names, juggled the possibilities of this name or that name and we finally agreed on 2 names that we absolutely love. You see, I LOVE a different name. An uncommon name. A name you won't hear often. Just like mine. Growing up, I didn't particulary like my name because no one could say it w, spell it right or say it right and it was VERY frustrating! But the one thing that was constant, is that there was NEVER another Kellianne in my class, at church, on my softball team or anywhere else I went. I grew to love that about my name. I loved when people complimented my name too. My parents put a lot of thought into creating my name. I love that "Kelli" comes from my grandfathers middle name and "Anne" comes from my mom's first name. I love that my name has a meaning.

I wanted the same thing for my children. Their names to have meaning.

So, after weeks of throwing out names, we finally came to a decision. A decision we are both very happy about :) If we have a boy his name will be Breck Tucker. The name Breck is a name that we both love. We feel that it is strong ( some beg to differ, like my brother) and it sounded great with the last name Barron. We chose the name Tucker because it is Brandon's grandmother's maiden name. We wanted to pay homage to both of our grandmothers who we deeply love and care for. And if we have a girl, her name will be Bristol Elaine. No, I did not chose the name Bristol after Bristol Palin, in fact, I liked this name well before Sarah Palin came along. I would hear this name often on ESPN, haha -- and I always thought, what a cute name! We chose the middle name Elaine after my Nannie who is no longer with us. Many people tell me that I am her "mini me" and that is quite an honor because to me, I could never live up to a woman like her.
I love that both names are unique and you don't hear them often. I did have a student last year named Breck and he is a sweet boy but thats the only other time I've heard that name. You know, it's hard picking names when we are both teachers, you know what I mean? :)

March 21 is when we find out and I can't wait to share the news with everyone!

word-less Wednesday

2011-03-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

Do you really think I could have a word-less wednesday post? PSHHHH! Not this motor mouth! I won't make this post long though. Here are 2 collages I made from our last 2 events we had at school. I try to capture everyone in my class but its so hard when I'm the classroom photographer/teacher. It's a hard job ya know, but someone's gotta do it :)

Enjoy these photos of MY cuties! :)

16 weeks and insomnia

2011-03-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

I can't sleep. This shouldn't be happening now! That happens at the very end of pregnancy and of course right after the baby comes. But why can't I sleep now? Last night, had to be by the far the WORST night of sleep in history for me. It was miserable, I am miserable ( even as I type this at 6:15pm). I almost started crying today when talking to a sweet mom while my kids were in music. She asked how I was and of course, she knew something wasn't right with me. I told her how I'm not sleeping and I'm just so tired. My eyes burn beyond belief, I have had constant horrible headaches, my TMJ is coming back and most certainly, I feel useless at work. Although, I try to put in my hardest effort day in and day out at work, but when you're body is lacking sleep, you can barely keep your eyes open and all you think about is your bed, how can one be productive at work? I truly feel like I'm walking in a daze 24/7. I know, this too shall pass. And the more I think about the topic of this post and my pregnancy, I've realized that maybe all my "prego posts" haven't been positive ones. I apologize for this, but hey, this is a time for me to vent and talk about what is going on with me and my ever so growing body and belly. I really do enjoy being pregnant, besides all of not so fun yucky stuff I've been through, haha.

So any of you mama's out there remember going through insomnia this early in pregnancy? Do you have any recommendations to help me get through this? Body pillows? Medicine safe during pregnancy? HELP!

for all you party planning mamas...HELP!

2011-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

GREAT NEWS my friends!

Brandon and I will be finding out the gender of the baby March 21! How exciting is that? My doctor approved me to go at 18 weeks instead of 20. I'm just hoping little peanut will be positioned correctly in order for us to see "the goods", haha! One thing I always said I wanted was a "gender reveal party" with my family and closest friends. So, my mom and dad are going to host the party that night at their house. Here is where YOU come in! I really need your help, big time!

For the party, I know that I want everyone to wear pink or blue depending on what they think the baby is but I want to also do some other things too. I know everyone reveals with a cake or cupcakes, which is way cute, but I am trying to think outside the box for the reveal. If all else fails, I'll do the cake thing. ( which by the way, Brandon and I will be the only ones to know the sex of the baby, we will will neutral colored shirts) I'm sure you are all thinking that it is silly to know, whats the point of the party, but in this situation, I'm going to pull the selfish card and say I want Brandon and I to be the first people to find out what we are having, not anyone else, sorry!

So friends, do you have any creative ideas on what to do at a gender reveal party? Any themes? ANYTHING?!?!?!? I want this to be fun, memorable and a good time had by all! So help!!!!

my sweet sweet child

2011-02-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

I came across this "message" from another blog I read and I couldn't help but thing, wow. What an AWESOME God we serve. These words are so encouraging and since I am pregnant, these words have a whole new meaning. I serve a wonderful and merciful God and these words completely and totally confirm that in every way.

My Child,
You may not know me,
but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up.
Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways.
Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image.
Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring.
Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived.
Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation.
Ephesians 1:11-12
You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16
I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live.
Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb.
Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born.
Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented
by those who don't know me.
John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love.
1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.
1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father.
1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.
Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father.
Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.
James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.
Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.
Psalms 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you.
Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession.
Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul.
Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things.
Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires.
Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine.
Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you.
Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart.
Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes.
Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.
John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being.
Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you.
Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you.
1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love.
Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me.
1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7
I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is…
Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you.
Luke 15:11-32
Love, God

and if our God is for us.....

2011-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

This is my 200th post.

Last night my daddy and I went to the Chris Tomlin concert at Houston's First Baptist Church. It was absolutely,positvely, hands down, the BEST concert I have EVER been to in my life. We were 4 rows from the front, amazing seats. Chris Tomlin has been one of, if not, my favorite christian artist for many years now. He is also my dad's favorite so when I heard on KSBJ that he was coming, I HAD to get tickets. Well, they sold out. BUT, they added a second show and those sold out within 30 minutes. I sat at my computer at work @ 9:50am to ensure that at 10:00am I would snag 2 tickets for my daddy and I. My dad had never been to a christian concert before so he was excited but also had no idea what to expect. Let's just say I looked over several times at my dad with tears in his eyes, hands raised, praising the Lord. After the first song was sung by Chris, my dad turned to me with tears in his eyes and said " Thank you! This is absolutely amazing and I'm now addicted!" Of course, I got teary eyed and had to look away otherwise I would of been a crying mess ( I cry at MTV shows).

The concert was purely amazing. The worship that happened last night was unspeakable. It was one of the best nights I've had and I got to share that with my daddy. Several times during the night my dad would turn to me and touch my belly and say something cute about the baby. I got tickled every time he did that :) The concert started at 6:30 and ended at 10:00pm. I really thought Chris would only sing for about an hour. Oh no... he sang and sang and sang and sang. We were singing, dancing, raising our hands while praising the Lord which was such an awesome thing!

My dad said he is addicted and well, he isn't lying. We are going to the MercyMe concert in April. I just still can't believe how amazing last night was and how I got to worship like I did. I am so thankful for that daddy/daughter date. :)

I highly recommend that you go to one of his concerts, it will truly touch you in so many ways.

lemon drops keep falling on my head

2011-02-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

This Monday marked week 13 for baby barron and I. I can't believe I am already 13 weeks. I found out I was pregnant when I was 4 weeks. Time really has flown by. Baby B is the size of a lemon this week. I love how with pregnancy, the baby is compared to a size of fruit or vegetables - it's funny. So, as far as I know, baby barron is growing right on track. I go to the dr. next Friday, I will be finishing up week 14 and will soon start week 15, CRAZY! Speaking of going to the dr., I changed my doctor. Same practice, different doc. I really didn't like my previous physician, which I mentioned in a previous post and I was torn between 2 different physicians to go to but I finally chose the one I think will be great. She was my aunt's doctor and she said she loved her! I really want someone who is going to treat me like I am her only patient, who can sympathize with me, who has a great bedside manner - amongst other things. I felt like my other doctor was always in a rush, was very "matter of fact" with me, which is great, but not when I am new to this whole pregnancy thing. There are other things I didn't appreciate so we made the choice to change doctors. I'm excited to meet her and see how things go. Please say a prayer that this one works out :)

Speaking of working out, I've had NO ENERGY to work out. I know I need to be active, which I feel that I am active at work with my kids. We are always on the go, but I also understand that I need to exercise outside of work. When I get home from my crazy day at work, all I want to do is take a nap. Here is what I do when I get home from work..... let the dogs out, feed them, grab a snack, go to the bathroom, turn on oprah ( only if the guests are good) and then crash on the couch for about 45 mins to an hour. I crash to hard that I wake up in a pile of drool. It's true, every since I've been pregnant, I sleep with my mouth open and drool like nobodies business. Rather embarrassing. Once I get up from my nap, I usually find a pile of pee somewhere from Rocky ( sooooooooooooo annoying and frustrating). Brandon gets home, we cook dinner, go eat somewhere or go to his parents house ( live 10 mins away). After dinner, I get back on the couch, check my online class and then watch TV and at 10 o'clock, Brandon and I call it a night. And that my friends, is the exciting life of ME.

Now, if I may, can I ask all of you to say a little prayer for me? Hear me out. Although I LOVE my job and I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be and where God has called me to be, I am struggling really bad with my emotions and certain situations at work. I won't go into details, but let's say that the past 5 months, yes I said 5, I have been tested in so many ways that I didn't know were possible. I love my kids to death. I would do anything for them, I really would. But I have been struggling with understanding some things. Also, being pregnant, hormonal, and emotional hasn't helped. I think my kids have spring fever and they really have been testing me and my partner. Can y'all pray for peace, patience, understanding, wisdom and strength as we finish out the rest of the school year. My partner and I prayed together after work and there is something to be said when you can pray with your co-workers. What an awesome thing. But I also know the power of prayer when there are multiple people praying for the same thing. So, again, do y0u mind lifting me up in prayer?

Annnnnnd, to finish up this post..... here are some pregnancy highlights :) I stole this from a girls blog I read where can I find these little thing anyway?

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 13 weeks 3 days

Size of baby: Baby B is 3 inches long - size of a lemon

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Not quite sure? Maybe gained 2 lbs?

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. Although I use the bella band to keep the pants on, haha.

Gender: Don't know and sooooo anxious to find out!

Movement: none yet, to my knowledge

Sleep: Haven't slept good before I was pregs :(

What I miss: sleeping without interruptions aka - going to the bathroom, middle of the night snack break

Cravings: fresh fruit ( strawberries, green apples, blackberries, cherries, peaches)

Symptoms: I have been feeling great the past 2 weeks! Other than being sleepy

Best Moment this week: When a lot of people at work commented about my emerging baby bump :)

please tell me i look pregnant and not fat.

2011-02-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

After putting on my clothes for church this morning I felt a little different. A little more, well larger in the stomach area. I looked down and BAM! There was a full on pouch! Now, back in my high school/college days, I'm not going to lie, I had a flat stomach - no pouch, and yes, I will brag on myself for a second. :) As those days faded and I hit more of my "adulthood" if you will, my stomach got a little more "soft". No more sports really did me in, haha. ANYWAY..... back to this morning. I walked into the bathroom and said to Brandon " PLEASE TELL ME I LOOK PREGNANT AND NOT FAT! And you better say the first one!" He looked at me which the strangest look on his face and said " Babe, YOU ARE pregnant so you look pregnant, you're not fat". Phew! Good thing he said that because he would have been in the dog house.

So let's talk about this pouch that starts to pop out and makes you feel weird and uncomfortable in so many ways. It's such an awkward thing. If people don't know me, will they think I'm fat or pregnant? I'm also at the point where I can still fit into all my pants except my black trousers and jeans. Let me clarify - I can fit in all my pants but 2 pairs of my jeans I need to wear my bella band and just started wearing the bella band with my black trousers. I'm too small to wear maternity pants so if need be, I will buy a size or two up in regular pants. Another this I was worried about was "showing" too early. I know woman show at all different times, some sooner than others and I think I might be that girl. It's exciting, it's weird and it makes you look in the mirror 25 times a day and most certainly makes you take longer to pick out an outfit. But at the end of the day, it also reassures me that my pregnancy is right on track and everything is happening the way it should be.

And for the record, if you ever ask me how I'm feeling and I say "horrible" please understand that when I say "horrible" I really mean I'm feeling great! I have jinxed myself MANY times the past several weeks. Everytime I either verbalize or think to myself " wow, I've been feeling awesome!" I get sick the next day. For example, we went to dinner with my parents the other night and Brandon and I were talking. I was telling him how good I've been feeling lately. My sensivity to smells has gone away, I've been sleeping better, not going to the restroom as frequent and the nausea has been minimal. Saturday rolls around and BAM! I was sick all day. This has happened many times, not just this weekend. So, like I said, if you hear me say I'm feeling horrible, I'm really feeling GREAT! :)

On another note, I've been horrible at taking pictures the last year or so. I have no new pictures to share with you and quite frankly, posting without pictures is kind of boring, I'm not gonna lie. So I am going to post some random pictures to keep you entertained because I know that my last posts have been about being pregnant, sick, and pregnant. I'm sure if can get old. :)

This little guy is Brandon, can you tell? It's one of those cardboard cut outs.... too cute huh?

Our very first picture together, Minute Maid Stadium - 2005

My Mamie and Grampie on my wedding day

My sweet Nannie and I on her 85th birthday. If we have a girl, she will be named after her. Love this woman to death. There is no better person I know.

Well, I gotta run! It's superbowl sunday and the parents are coming over! Enjoy your Sunday!

ketchup and snow.

2011-02-04T12:30:00.001-08:00

(Leavenworth, Washington)

I am so behind on everything! Laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, school work, bills ( bad, I know) but motivation is lacking BIG time. Brandon constantly says how the house is so dirty,well guess what? It is. I feel horrible that is is dirty and trust me, he IS helping around the house, but the guy can only do so much. He works 9-10 hour days ( he's a teacher and stays late everyday, so dedicated) trust me, he pulls his fair share of work around the house but I can't let him do it all. I really hate hearing him over and over again saying how big of slobs we ( actually me) are. But all I wanna do when I get home from wrangling 15 4 year olds is take a nap with my pups. But after next week, I am going to make a true effort to get motivated and help pull my weight around the house because I HAVEN'T, at all. I gotta play "ketchup" especially with house work and school work. I have 18 more hours left and I will be graduated! It's been such a long long lonnnnnnnnnnng journey.

How about the snow in Houston? Oh, that's right, we didn't get any. Wow weather guys, let's not hype it all up and then BAM! it's not going to snow. What a bummer. I'm like a little kid when it comes to snow. If I had my choice, I would be living in a place where it snowed. Afterall, I was born in Wisconsin and lived there till I was 4. That might not sound like a long time, but I have fond fond memories of playing in the snow, making snow angels, sledding and snow ball fights. I have begged Brandon since we've been together ( going on 6 years in July) to move to a place where it snowed. I think he's a scaredy cat to relocate. But we won't open that bag of chips right now. Speaking of snow, when the baby is about 4 months old, we are taking a trip to Leavenworth, Washington Dec 16-24. It's a little German town in Washington and if you know anything about my momma, she is all about her German heritage. She speaks fluent German and goes to Germany every other summer for 5 weeks. In fact, we were supposed to go to Germany as a family this summer but baby barron has other plans, which I am totally O.K. with :) Back to Leavenworth. It's a small town that pays homage to the German culture and is the cutest town ever. It's known for its tree lighting ceremonies, ski slopes and anything German. We have started to buy baby stuff ( warm clothes, neutral - of course) for baby b. It's been fun finding things. So come December 2011, the Schrock/Barron family will actually get to see snow! Wahoo!

(Leavenworth, Washington)

I'm having a hard time with uploading pictures on blogger and adding text, too. It's a little frustrating. Any help or ideas?

Well, I'm off to clean the house a little and do some school work. We are having my parents and brother and his g/f over for the superbowl on Sunday.

I'll be 12 weeks pregnant on Monday!

there really is a baby in there!

2011-01-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

Baby Barron at the end of 10 weeks

Disclaimer: Blogger is being a brat right now. I can't post pictures under my text. I don't know where the underline came from? I can't remove it. FRUSTRATING!

The title speaks for itself. After Friday's appointment, it really became surreal that I have a baby growing inside of me. Going to the first appointment I got my first ultrasound which the baby was sooooooo tiny that you could barely see he/she. But when I went this Friday ( ending my 10 weeks) the baby had grown so much in the last 4 weeks! It was unbelievable to see how big the baby was!

When we first walked into the patient room, I didn't see the ultrasound machine. I thought, ok, well maybe they have another room for ultrasounds. As the nurse walked in, I asked if her I was going to get another ultrasound today. She said no, and of course, my heart sank. I was so dissapointed to hear that I wasn't going to see baby barron today. She said insurance doesn't cover but 1 ultrasound. How stupid. Doesn't insurance companies know that this is the most exciting time for mommie's and daddie's to-be? WE WANT TO SEE OUR BABY!

The nurse was telling me what I was going to get done today which was a "well-woman" exam. OH JOY! Just what I wanted to do. Have someone looking up my address when I am totally not prepared for it, haha. We were also to hear the baby's heartbeat. The nurse grabbed the handheld machine to listen for the heartbeat. After 5 mins, she coulnd't hear it. The doctor came in and she couldn't either. So that meant I got to have ANOTHER ULTRASOUND! Wahoo! God really knew I wanted and needed to see my baby. So off to the ultrasound room we went....

Ultrasounds are so amazing. What I mean is, its incredible that a machine can show you your baby. It's unreal. Do you agree? The minute the baby popped up on the screen I started to smile so big. I wish I could see Brandon's reaction but the screen is to my right and he is standing on my left. I would love to see the smile on his face. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. Baby Barron which is now named "blob" and you'll see why in the ultrasound pic, was so big! We got to see the heartbeat, but didn't get to hear it, we will next appointment. The heart was beating so fast. On the screen it looked like a little lightening bug flickering on and off. Too cute. We also got to see the arms/legs, aka, nubs. The doctor measured the baby and she said everything is right on track which was music to my ears. So the doctor paused the screen so she could measure the baby and of course, she captured the WORST shot of the baby. He/she looks like a blob. I mean, the doctor really could of gotten a better picture for us to take home, especially where we saw the arms and legs. Oh well, I just have to be thankful I got an ultrasound when it wasn't planned.

Speaking of doctors, I am actually going to change mine. I will stay with the same practice, but I am just not meshing with my current doctor. Brandon and I both agree that we need to find someone who is more on our level and has a good bedside manner. The doctor I have now is very " matter of fact". Which is great and all, but everytime we ask a question, we feel that she is pretty rude with the way she answers. I already have 2 other doctors in mind that I've heard great things about. So for now, I am going to pray about it and see where God takes us.

i love you to heaven and back.

2011-01-27T18:49:00.001-08:00

You know when you're having a bad day, all you want to do is crawl into a hole and get away from everyone and everything? Well, I had that day today at work. I hate to complain, I really do, but I blame it on the hormones right now, ok? Today was just one of those days that everything that happened got on my nerves, wanted to make me cry and wanted to throw in the towel and just go back home and crawl into bed. I haven't had one of these days in a long long long time and I'm not quite sure this is the time to be having one. But, although I was having a bad day, I had a few sweet, precious and unexpected moments with some of my favorite little babies.

Don't you just like when an act of kindness is made and you weren't expecting it? Especially when it is expressed from a 4 year old? It really makes those gloomy moments you are having bright again.

Let me share what happened today.

During chapel, we were praying. As I am sitting there, I had two of my little girls just come and put their arms around me and snuggle up to me while we were praying. There was nothing more that I needed at that moment than those 2 little girls right next to me.

I was sitting in a chair ( the little itty bitty ones that break my back everyday, haha) and I was just watching what the kids were doing and all of a sudden one of my girls came up to me, gave me hug and a kiss on the cheek. Which was then followed by my favorite red headed girlie who had to give me the biggest bear hug ever.

While we were doing our morning meeting time, I had another one of my sweet girls say "Ms. Kellianne, I have to tell you something. I just wanted to say that I love you to heaven and back". How precious it that? It came right at the perfect time.

These little stories are the exact reason why I love what I do and love to teach. Although I can have a no good very bad day, my babies can make that no good very bad day a better day. Sometimes we wonder why chooses us to be in certain places, well things like this confirms that I am exactly where I need to be.

who wants a cupcake?

2011-01-26T13:54:00.001-08:00

I love sweets. Oh my goodness do I love sweets. Did I mention that I love sweets? Ok, I know you get it. Anyway, I am baking some cupcakes today. Ever since I had the best cupcake of my life, no not sprinkles or crave cupcakes, but a cupcake that was baked by our super duper room mom for my class ( it was her daughters birthday) I have had the urge to bake, especially cupcakes. So while at the grocery store, I "accidentally" picked up a box of yellow cake mix and milk chocolate icing and called my shopping trip "officially" over, haha.

I told Brandon I wanted to bake some cupcakes for his team at work and he didn't want me to. Quite frankly, I think he would be embarrassed to bring in homemade cupcakes from his wife. He works with all women on his 4th grade team and I just wanted to do something nice and whats a better way to a women's heart ( not that he is wanting to win over their hearts, you know what I mean) than sweets! Well, I ended up not baking them that day and I think he was happy to find that out when he got home from work. Little does he know, I am baking the cupcakes as I type this. Round 2 is in the oven. I've also started to bake right when I get home so I didn't take a nap. I'm going to try and not take a nap and see if I sleep better at night. Poor Brandon, he hasn't been sleeping either. I feel horrible, since all I do is get up every 2 hours to go to the bathroom.

I totally wish that my cupcakes would look as good and as cute as the ones pictured above, but I'm not trying to get fancy here. I just want a cupcake that tastes good :)

yes yes yes!!!

2011-01-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

I am blogging 2 times in 1 day. Wow, I'm impressed with myself. Really, it's because I am home sick and I've been either sleeping, watching TV or surfing the internet and blog stalking. I mentioned earlier that I like to plan. I also mentioned that we have names picked out for a boy and a girl and also the crib/furniture as well. While searching for names and furniture for the nursery, you better believe I've been looking for baby bedding. Can I just say that I've had the hardest time looking for EXACTLY what I want. I have a picture in my mind and as I went to website and website my vision was not happening. C'mon people!

I really feel bad for boys. The bedding they offer is so cheasy, whimpy, sissy and well - not boyish! I want my boys room to me ALL-BOY. I want certain colors, certain decor and most of all - when you walk in the nursey it reads ALL -BOY. Sidenote - I don't know what I am having yet, I am just planning for both a boy and a girl. I didn't want theme bedding, meaning no sports, animals, etc. I wanted patterned bedding, stripes, dots, etc.

No need to search anymore my friends. I stumbled upon this AMAZING website as I was blog stalking Kelly @ Kelly's Korner. She bought her baby bedding for her older daughter and now her soon to be daugther. This website was EXACTLY what I was looking for, seriously. This is all custom bedding and you can pick and choose your colors, patterns, etc. It's awesome!
Blogger is being weird about where I put my photos.
Here are some of my favorites for a boy and a girl...

Let me know which one you like!

Girl #1

Girl # 2

Boy #1

# 2

# 3

Makover!

2011-01-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

Notice something different? :) I LOVE MY NEW BLOG MAKEOVER!

Marina over at Penny Lane designs has done it once again! She created my very first blog design
which I should have kept this whole time ( but I was silly for changing it) and so I hopped on over to her website and looked at her pre-fab layouts and LOVED this! She is so awesome, easy to work with and super talented! I definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a new look :)

In other news, I have stayed home sick the past 2 days. I've had a sinus infection but today I have felt a little different. I have been nauseous all day, which hasn't been happening lately. I've been waking up very queasy so I go grab a snack to subside the possible hunger pains caused by nauseua. Well friends, my body had other plans. As I'm sitting on the couch resting, I made a mad dash to the restroom, and I'll spare details here. I'm sure you can imagine what happened. Ever since that happened, I feel totally and utterly exhausted. It made me feel better for a little bit, but now I am back to feeling horrible again.

I just pray that I start to feel better soon. I'm 10 weeks pregnant, so only 2 more weeks to go till my first trimester is over. Would you mind saying a little prayer for me and my health? I just hate feeling this way and going to work and being with my sweet babies and not having enough energy to play with them, etc. I really feel more productive while I'm at home because I'm getting rest.

Anyway, I am going to go back and rest some more on the couch and wait for my hubs to get home from work.

Oh yeah.... quick question.....

I'm at the point where NO FOOD sounds good anymore. I am disgusted at the thought of it. Do ya'll have any suggestions on how I can overcome this? I AM DESPERATE! I am sick of food and sick of eating but a lot of the times, it takes away the nausea.

HELP!

plan, plan, plan.

2011-01-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'm a planner. It might not seem like it when you first meet me or in fact, it still might not seem like it if you have known me for 10 years, haha. But, I DO like to plan. I'm not opposed to things "just happening"either, but in most cases, I like to plan things. Now, party planning is not my forte, in fact, I hate it. Weird? Yeah, I know. I used to carry around a planner and write in it everyday. Some how, I lost that planner or I'd like to think that I misplaced it. Everytime I'm in Target I stop by the planner section intending to buy another one, but somehow I talk myself out of it every time.

So now that I am pregnant, you better believe I'm starting to plan for things. This might be pre-mature but I really like to get my ducks in a row for such a life changing event. I can start looking now right? Well, too late for your approval, I've already started. My parents, Brandon and I went to Babies R Us the other day. It was so fun to go with all of them. We just walked around, went down each aisle, "ooooed and ahhhhed" at every cute thing, smiled like we were kids in a candy store and dreamt about how cute baby barron will be. We got a very good idea of what things we will register for and how we will choose gender neautral items like stroller/carseat, high chair, swing, etc. I do plan on having more than one child, God willing :) So it only makes sense to go with neutral items.

This Saturday, my parents and I ( Brandon was at a sports show with my brother) went to Baby's First Furniture in Sugar Land and to the Chimney Rock/Richmond location. Talk about pure baby bliss! I was in heaven. What amazing things they have for babies now a days. My parent's were just so suprised with all the things they offer for babies and mama's today. For me, since I've been babysitting since I was out of my mothers whomb, I've seen a lot of these items but it was great to look at them for me and baby barron! It was very surreal :)

Remember how I mentioned I was a planner, like 30 seconds ago? Well, I put my planning skills to use. I already found the baby crib/furniture that I want for a boy or a girl. Yes, I'm only 10 weeks along, but planning doesn't hurt does it? I hate last minute decisions, especially with being pregnant, you can go into labor at any time and certainly not be prepared for it. I also found the glider/recliner I want for the babies room which once graduated from the nursey, it can be transitioned to the gameroom in our house. It's all about lifetime furniture, haha.

We've also picked baby names. I won't disclose the names quite yet, but I will say they both start with the letter B and both names pay homage to our grandmothers, which is the best part. Some of my readers might know the names already but I'll expose those a little bit later.

In pregnancy news....

I go to the Doctor this Friday for my 10 week appointment. I can't wait to see baby barron! I know he/she has grown so much since our first ultrasound. Two more weeks and I am done with my first trimester, wahoo! I'll be talking with my doctor about a slow release prenatal vitamin. I've been having some difficuly in some areas and I need to change things up for my vitamins. I really have been blessed with not throwing up like some of my other pregnant friends have been. I've just had the NAGGING queasy feeling, constant tiredness and going to the bathroom quite often. I wake up about the same time every night to use the restroom, exactly 2-3 times. I'm getting used to it by now. I take a nap everyday after school from about 4-5:30. I'm sick of eating and I'm worn out on water, propel and every thing else. I had a diet coke today for the first time all pregnancy. IT WAS GLORIOUS, JUST GLORIOUS!

One last thing, my blog is getting made over by the wonderful and talented Marina from Penny Lane Designs. I can't wait for my new layout!

Stay Tuned!

amen!

2011-01-18T18:39:00.000-08:00

Let's put all this pregnancy stuff on hold, sorry baby barron. I wanted to share with you an email that my daddy sent me that his friend wrote. I believe in standing up for what I believe in, but I also believe in giving respect where respect is due. I serve a God that is everlasting and all loving and I will raise my child in the likeness of the Lord.

Please take a second and read what this email says. I firmly stand behind each word, each sentence and each phrase.

> >>>> I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for
> >>>> singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin , but I
> >>>> didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his
> >>>> Theory of Evolution.
> >>>> Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because
> >>>> someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big
> >>>> deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of
> >>>> Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to
> >>>> grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the
> >>>> game.
> >>>> But it's a Christian prayer, some will argue.
> >>>> Yes, and this is the United States of America and Canada, countries
> >>>> founded on Christian principles. According to our very own phone book,
> >>>> Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what
> >>>> would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna?
> >>>> If I went to a football game in Jerusalem , I would expect to hear a
> >>>> Jewish prayer.
> >>>> If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim
> >>>> prayer.
> >>>> If I went to a ping pong match in China , I would expect to hear someone
> >>>> pray to Buddha.
> >>>>
> >>>> And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit.
> >>>> When in Rome.....
> >>>> But what about the atheists? Is another argument. What about them? Nobody
> >>>> is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection
> >>>> plate. Just humour us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a
> >>>> Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession
> >>>> stand. Call yourlawyer!
> >>>> Unfortunately,one or two will make that call. One or two will tell
> >>>> thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a
> >>>> football game is going to shake the world's foundations.
> >>>> Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our
> >>>> courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us
> >>>> to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us
> >>>> to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are
> >>>> telling us to cease praying.
> >>>> God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you,well,just sue me.
> >>>> The silent majority has been silent too long. It's time we tell that one
> >>>> or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority doesn't
> >>>> care what they want. It is time that the majority rules! It's time we
> >>>> tell them,"You don't have to pray; you don't have to say the
> >>>> Pledge of Allegiance; you don't have to believe in God or attend
> >>>> services that honour Him. That is your right, and we will honour your
> >>>> right; but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We
> >>>> are fighting back, and we WILL WIN!"
> >>>> God bless us one and all...Especially those who denounce
> >>>> Him, God bless America and Canada , despite all our faults, We are still
> >>>> the greatest nations of all. God bless our service men
> >>>> who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God.
> >>>>
> >>>> Let's make 2011 the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back
> >>>> as the foundation of our families and institutions. And our military
> >>>> forces come home from all the wars.
> >>>> Keep looking up.

for all you mamas out there...

2011-01-17T10:05:00.000-08:00

Quick Question....

I have my next appointment coming up next week and I have to turn in some paper to my doctor. The paper consists of signing off if I want or don't want to have certain tests given. I have the option to get the following tests done...

- Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Testing
- First Trimester Screening
- Quadruple Testing
- Amniocentesis or CVS Test

Now here is my question.... how many of you soon-to-be mama's or current mama's had these tests done? I am completely in the dark here and would LOVE some input. As much research that I could do, I still feel that I'm in the dark about it all.

So can you help me out by letting me know what you did? :)

Thanks!!!

how do i look?

2011-01-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen that TV show on the Style Network called " How Do I Look"? If not, it's a makeover show for people who dress terrible and get made over. These types of shows have been on TV forever and I get sucked in every time. Buuuuuut, the end result is what I always look forward to.

My blog needs to be on a makeover show. Seriously. Now that I'm pregnant, I really wanted to dedicate my blog to all things pregnancy so that my family and friends near and especially far can keep in touch via my blog.

I am looking for someone to design me a new page that reflects everything that I am about. But there is one catch, I am on a BUDGET! I look at a lot of blogs and see how darn cute their templates are and I also go to the blogs they got their design from and the prices are quite exspensive!

So here is what I am asking ..... can you recommend a blog/company that does blog design that IS affordable? I REALLY WANT AND NEED A CHANGE and want that to happen ASAP.

So help me HELP MY BLOG! :)

now accepting.....

2011-01-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

I am now accepting any suggestions, advice, tips or snip-its I need to know about pregnancy. :) After all, this is my first go round at this thing we call child bearing and other than reading books, magazines and the internet, I am totally and completely lost and overwhelmed at the same time. So... for all you mama's or soon-to-be mama's out there, do you have any great advice you can share with me?

Here's what I am struggling with right now.....

MORNING SICKNESS. Although I haven't thrown up at all, the constant nagging of nauseau that lingers all day long is getting REALLY OLD. My Dr. gave me a prescription for Zofran and I can take it up to 3 times a day. But, I'm not sure if it's working. I still feel icky and sick to my stomach. I've also read that if you want to avoid the morning sickness, eat 5-6 meals a day, small ones. With that, I feel like I'm eating ALLLLLL the time! Then I feel bloaded and gasey ( hey it's my blog ok? haha). Which right now, I feel like I've put on 10 lbs because I've tried the little snacks to keep the nauseua away but all that is doing is making me feel like a blimp.But, I find myself hungry sooner that I would get when I wasn't pregnant. NO BUENO friends. any advice?????????? please??? :)

I'm also dealing with a sensitive sniffer, in other words, my nose can't handle smells. It's frustrating because we love to light candles in our house and now I told Brandon we can't light them anymore. The smell of my dogs shampoo makes me want to throw up and I can't even wear perfume anymore. The air freshener in my car had to be thrown out because that also, made me want to puke!

I'm extremely exhausted and I don't have any energy, which I knew was to be expected in my first tri-mester. Actually, all the symptoms I'm dealing with I was very well aware of, I was just hoping they wouldn't happen to me, haha. You know, maybe I would be the exception to the rule? I guess not. What do ya'll recommend for more energy? I'm not drinking my diet. dr. peppers which I MISS TERRIBLY. I'm going to start exercising this week so start getting some more energy and possibly get rid of my bloaded belly? UGH!

And that's all I can really think of right now. I start work tomorrow after having 18 days off. Really, this break couldn't have come at a better time but I keep wondering how I am going to keep 15 4 year olds entertained while I'm feeling like poo! Maybe my kids will give me some energy, one can only hope!

So again, feel free to send me some advice! You can comment on here or you can email me at Kms03b@yahoo.com

and baby makes 3!

2010-12-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

I'm pregnant. :) I announced it on my last post, if you didn't read it, which I don't blame you if you haven't, because quite frankly, my blog isn't all that exciting but the big announcement has been made, only on my blog, not on facebook, per my hubs request. He is not to fond of facebook. That's a whole other post, haha.

So, I am transforming my blog and making it about all things pregnancy, baby and things of that nature. I'm excited to be able to write about my journey being pregnant and for my friends and family far away to follow my journey. First off, I want to say that I am beyond blessed that God is giving this experience and journey to Brandon and I. I've always wanted to be a mom. I love babies, toddlers, kids, teens, etc. I grew up playing " babies" and I was the best mom to those babies. I've dreamed about what my babies will look like, I've tossed around names for years and now, in less than 8 months, my dreams are going to come true. I have prayed for my future children and my future pregnancies. I am lucky enough to have found my soul mate and now I am lucky enough to have the experience that God created for women, being a mom. I am so blessed. Just about 2-3 weeks before I found out I was pregnant, I really dedicated my prayer time to praying about my future children. I wanted God to know how I felt and hear me talk to him about my feelings and emotions about children. Of course, Brandon and I firmly believe that God has chosen us to parent a child according to his will and we will raise our baby in the likeness of the Lord. But also, we firmly understand that this is exactly what God wanted for us in this season of our lives.

Let me kind of give you a run down on how everything happened. Ok - get your mind out of the gutter, I don't mean " how it happened", I mean how we found out, etc.

December 16 - (Found out I am pregnant) Just a normal day at work. Actually, it was a great day because it was Thursday, the day before my last day at work before the christmas break. One of my best friends called me to have dinner with her because she just moved back to Sugar Land. We were going to go to Panera Bread but first I had to go home and change my clothes. While I was home I really had to go to the bathroom, like bad. By this time, I thought to myself, hmm... my period should have come by now. And since I had to go "potty" soooo bad I thought I should just take a pregnancy test. ( I was also having some other symptoms that you can have around "that time of the month" but also during pregnancy) So I took the test, put it casually on the back of the toliet and then went to go change my clothes. At this point, I really was positive that it was going to come back negative. I casually walked back to the toliet, picked up the test and well.... IT WAS POSITIVE. But of course I had to double check! Yep, the stick doesn't lie. It was telling me the truth. At this point, I screamed so loud I scared my dogs and even myself. Brandon was still at work, he had a meeting. I called him 46 times and no answer, which is typical, even if he isn't in a meeeting. I left the house and met up with Lisa and I kept trying to call Brandon, no answer, of course. FINALLY! he called me. I told him I was pregnant, he thought I was kidding, I told him I was pregnant, he thought I was kidding and I told him one more time and he finally believed me. He was in shock but of course happy. After dinner, I ran to the store to get one more test ( i know i know, the stick doesn't lie, I already told you that). I took the 2nd test while Brandon was in the shower and within SECONDS, it came back positive. I was pregnant.

December 17 - (Scheduled my first appointment. )We told both sets of parents. We had made dinner plans with my parents Friday because we were " celebrating" our 2 week christmas vacation. We all sat down and we were just casually talking and I had asked what everyone wanted for Christmas. Of course, everyone said nothing. And thats when I said " well what if we gave you a grandbaby for christmas?" Annnnnd they all freaked out! :) They were so excited and happy and shocked! After dinner, we headed to Brandon's parents house. I asked if Brandon wanted to tell his parents and he said he wanted to. So once again, he asked his parents what they wanted for christmas and they all said nothing but his dad followed with " well it takes 9 months to make" and thats when I thought HOW THE HECK DOES HE KNOW???? Brandon then said well, its going to happen, we are having a baby! Both of his parents flew out of their chairs and ran and gave us hugs!

December 18- 25 - Called other family members and told some friends. Started to experience morning sickness, more like all day sickness. Counting down the days till my first appointment.

December 26 - 28 Left for the hill country with my parents. Pretty much had morning sickness the whole time. I managed to make it through, brought a lot of snacks and what not.

December 29 - 6 weeks and 2 days pregnant, First appointment! I was soo nervous alllllllll day! I text my mom and told her I was so nervous. I had no idea what was going to happen, well I had a clue, but you never fully know until you get there. Brandon went with me and he was nervous too. We got into the room and there was the ultrasound machine and I think thats when it became real. I saw my name on the screen and really couldn't believe my eyes. We left out appointment with a picture of our little itty bitty baby/alien and a due date. Our baby is due August 22, 2011, the same day as my Grampies birthday :)

Now onto some signs and symptoms I've been having ...

morning sickness - all day
exhausted!
boobs extremely sore
rollercoaster of emotions
sensitive to almost every smell - i told brandon we can't burn any candles in our house
sleeping horrible
breaking out in weird places
frequent urination
craving salads and water - weird huh?
no energy at all

So there you have it. The run down of days since we found out the big news along with some pregnancy woes. I still can't believe this is happening, but of course I am so happy and so thankful for everything that has happened and is going to happen in the months to come.

I ask you to join me and prayer as the next 8 months are going to be life changing, exciting and unknown. Please pray for the health of the baby and all things go according to planned.

Als0, for my family that is reading this, please feel free to leave comments that you have read my blog! I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

love ya'll!

To comes ... first sonogram picture!

well.......

2010-12-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened lately. Phew! Brandon and I have been on our 17 day Christmas Vacation ( of course you have to count the weekends). It's been great spending time together, getting things done around the house, sleeping in together and most of all just being lazy. We are definitely trying to soak up the last few days of the vacation. It seems like the spring semester goes by a lot slower than the fall semester, so prayers are already being sent up to the big man.

In other Barron news.......Brandon and I were shocked to find out that I'M PREGNANT! Yep, it's true. I'M PREGGO!!!!! We found out December 16 that we are going to be parents. I had my first appointment December 29 and my expected due date is August 22. I'm just 6 1/2 weeks a long and feeling every sign and symptom possible. Disclaimer: This is the first time I have made it public, of course we have told our family and close friends, but "social media" has not been exposed to the news, per Brandon's request. I begged him to let me share my journey on my blog and he said that was totally ok, just not facebook. He is not a fan of facebook. So, if we are friends on facebook, please don't post anything on my wall. kthanks! So back to the signs and symptoms. Holy Moly, for all you mama's out there who have experienced morning sickness, or shall I say, ALL DAY SICKNESS, I can definitely feel your pain. Although I have not had to throw up, I feel queasy and sick to my stomache almost all day. My dr. gave me some meds for it and Brandon is actually picking them up as I type this. I'm hoping they work. I've also been extremely tired, which I know is completely normal. I'm just very thankful that I've had these 2 weeks to just rest ( well, I with the holidays, it's hard to rest).

But I just wanted to share the exciting news with all of you! I'm hoping to do a huge blog makeover in the next couple weeks. I want to share my journey on my blog for my friends and family, near and far. So, if you know of anyone still in the "giving" spirit, send them my way to help me transform my blog! I need all the help I can get!

I'm off to go get some rest!

Until then....

schools out for summer , i mean christmas break!

2010-12-19T17:55:00.001-08:00

This post won't be long but I just wanted to say that SCHOOLS OUT FOR CHRISTMAS VACATION! Can I get an Amen????? AMEN! Brandon and I both have 18 days of pure relaxation, bliss and more! We are so happy to be home together for this break. We are going to get some stuff done around the house! WAHOO! I just LOVE being a teacher, of course to be around my sweet babies, but also having the perks of long vacations :)

So that is it for now. A lot has happened since I last posted so I will fill you in later but until then..... enjoy your Sunday!

save save save!

2010-12-09T15:38:00.001-08:00

In the past 2 days, I have saved over $300.00 on products that I have bought by using www.hip2save.com! I LOVE THIS WEBSITE!!!!!!!

I scored this watch ( white and black). I got the white for 24.99 and 4.99. You read that right folks! What a deal!!!!!!! I bought the white watch a couple days ago from another website and it retailed for 124.99 and I just bought the black one today which retailed for $99.00.

Geneva Platinum Collection CZ Accented Bezel Ladies Watch

Last night, I scored a 1 year subscription to ESPN magazine for $3.99 for 1 years worth of magazines. The retail price was $104.00. Can you say DEAL? Of course, this is for Brandon :)

I am not addicted to www.hip2save.com and I swear by it! I look forward to what deals and coupons she post everyday!

my mama taught me right

2010-12-07T18:16:00.001-08:00

My mama taught me right. Although, I feel that statement isn't using good grammar, I still wrote it anyway and since it's my blog, I can use bad grammar if I want to, right? You see, growing up my mom was the coupon cutter, money saver, penny pincher of the family. I remember sitting at the kitchen table watching her cut out coupons. 9 times out of 10, she wouldn't buy something unless it was on sale. I used to get embarrassed when we'd be in public and she would use a coupon to purchase something. Don't ask me why I was embarrassed, but I was. My dad on the other hand, didn't need a coupon or a sale to make a purchase. I loved that about him, haha. If he wanted it, he bought it. He didn't make irrational purchases either, he just bit the bullet and bought the item.

The older I get, I realized how my mother made an impact in my life. Why not save a buck or two? My goodness, who doesn't LOVE to say money? In my book, it is NOW cool to use coupons at the grocery store, resturants, etc. :) When I get a great deal on something, I am more likely to "brag" about the good deal than saying I bought it full price. Who doesn't like a love a good deal?

Well, the past 2 years I have really embraced coupons and look for them on the internet, papers and receive emails with coupons. I came across this website that is AMAZING. It lets you know about EVERY HOT DEAL going on.... from groceries, to clothing, to toys, etc. It's AMAZING. Did I say that already? I actually just purchased my mom's christmas gift after looking at this website and finding this AMAZING deal.

I am going to be a good blogger friend and share the website with you, in hopes that you too, will find some use out of this AMAZING website.

http://hip2save.com/

Once you enter the site, just continue to scroll down. There can be up to 10 posts in one day about different money saving deals. I hope you find this website helpful and money saving for your family! I just love it!!!

HAPPY SAVING!

what does a turkey say?

2010-11-27T22:42:00.000-08:00

It's 12:54 am. I'm exhausted. I've had very little sleep over my Thanksgiving holiday. I've been so busy cleaning and getting the house in order that sleep has been on the back burner.

I'm dying to share with you some pictures of our Thanksgiving feast we had with my kids last Friday at school. They got to pick if they wanted to be a Native American Indian or a Pilgrim. We had yummy chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a, fruit, juice and spiced pumpkin pecan icecream. We also played pin the feathers on the turkey. Oh annnnnnd we had a lot of outside time to burn off all the sugar that had been consumed all week. Gotta love the holidays :) But let me say this. My babies are just the most precious things ever. I love them. I can't wait to see them on Monday!!!!! So with no further ado, here are my spunky little hummingbirds!

Here are my babies and I with our class pet. ( it's the pumpkin turkey). His name is Henry. It's the first name that came into my head, I know I could of picked a much better name, oh well. They loved Henry. I would see them out of the corner of my eye walk over to him and start talking to him or wave to him. Cutest.thing.ever.

Are they not the cutest boys ever? The 3 musketeers! Love each of them!

Yep, these are my cutie patooties! I get to love on these precious girls every week!

Let the festivities begin! My little pilgrims and indians!

Pin the feathers on the turkey! It was so cute!

And to end the day... a slumber party! Not really, it was nap time. Since the schedule of the day was so thrown off to due the Thanksgiving feast, we started nap time late so we popped in veggie tales and we had a "slumber party". They loved it.

I really could go on and on about my hummingbirds. I really can't wait to see them Monday. I can't wait to get hugs and kisses!

welcome to our home

2010-11-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

First things first. I will be posting a few more posts after this one

because a lot has happened since I last posted. I need to catch all of you ( you know, my 100 readers, haha) up on what's been going on. Most importantly, I have pictures! Let's be honest, a blog post is so much better with pictures and quite frankly, I've been lacking pictures lately. I'm a picture queen. I love taking pictures, but for some reason this past year or so, I have been M.I.A when it comes to whipping the camera out to snap a memory or two or three or ten. I digress.....

Most of you know that Brandon and I have moved into our first home. We moved in September and we are just getting things put away, hung and organized. Since I have had a week off, more like 9-10 offs including the weekends, I have busted my tail to get things put away, hung on the walls and organized. We've painted the game room, bathroom up stairs and hallway. We have put some serious work in this place.... minus our bedroom and bathroom. That's a whole other story. Brandon keeps bugging me about it. See, I'd rather get all the rooms that are visible to the eye when you walk in the house decorated, cleaned up and ready for visitors. Our bedroom and bathroom are last on my list. We had our first family party last night with my parents, brother and my extended family ( aunt, uncle, cousins, etc). It went great! They played poker up in the gameroom. Playing poker the Friday after Thanksgiving is a tradition that we set when my moms sister Kathy moved to Texas about 4-5 years ago. It's a good time of fun, fellowship and winning some money, haha. Not me of course. I don't play poker.

Anyway, I wanted to share some pictures with you of our house. We are still in the progress of painting and decorating.

Disclaimer:please excuse any random paint splotches on the walls, random shoes, jackets, dog toys/bones laying around. :)

This is our foyer area. We will be painting the downstairs, hopefully soon. It really adds so much when there is paint on the walls. I'm hoping to replace that table with an older piece that I can re-finish. But this will do for now :) We also want to rip out all of carpet and add wood flooring. Hopefully that will happen soon.

My cross wall. Can't wait to add more crosses!

I present to you.... the gameroom! We just painted this last weekend. We just added the new 50 inch plasma to the wall, Brandon is spoiled, that's all I'm saying :)

The Man Cave. This was the first room we painted in the house. It has been updated since I posted a pic on facebook a while ago. This room is filled with all sports stuff that Brandon and collected over the years. It really is a cute room! Of course you need a man cave christmas tree :) It's a cowboys tree. I know, they suck this season, haha.

Here is the desk with his diplomas. I'd like to introduce you to our good friend, Bucky. Brandon shot him when he was 12 years old. Poor deer.

Guest bathroom upstairs. LOVE THIS bathroom. Sometimes I just walk upstairs to go look at it. I'm not kidding.

Another shot of the bathroom. I think what I love the most is that everything in the bathroom, (minus to the 2 wall hangings above the towels) I already had. The two wall hangings above the towels we a clearance purchase at Hobby Lobby. They were brown and I spray painted them black.
How did she get in this post? This little dog is my shadow. Wherever I go, she goes. She actually is scared to climb up the stairs herself, so I carry her. Pathetic, I know. Spoiled, I know. She had followed me upstairs when I took these pictures so I had to snap a shot of my baby.

I will show you more pictures later like the outside of our home, the kitchen, dining room, living room BUT NOT the master bedroom and bathroom :)

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Be back soon with more posts!

hummingbirds

2010-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

I'm a hummingbird, my preschool class that is. It's ironic my class is called the hummingbirds because my mamie ( grandma : my mom's mom) LOVES hummingbirds. She is actually obsessed with them. So, naturally, when I heard my class was called the hummingbirds, I immediately thought of my mamie's love for them. I'm going to be honest though, I was kind of disapointed when I found out the name. I thought, why can't we be the Zebras, Leopards, Giraffes or Monkeys. It's easy to find all things zebra, leopard, giraffe or monkey. Not so easy finding hummingbird things. For the record, I'm over it now, haha. I am glad we are called the hummingbirds, after all, that is what God chose us to be. The class name suites my babies perfect.

I get a good laugh when I look at this picture. You can't make everyone happy, right? I love this kids. I pray for them everyday and thank God that I am getting to be a part of their little lives. I love taking pictures of them. Capturing the fun things they do at school, the time they spend with their friends and to document this year of their life that they won't remember when they are probably, oh..... 26 years of age, like me.

Dear God,
Thank you for choosing me to be a part of these little angels lives. I am truly blessed by them everyday. Although I might get upset or seem short tempered from time to time, I am constantly reminded that you love these little children and you have made them to be the little people they are. May you continue to live in the hummingbirds hearts and may your spirit flourish in our classroom daily. I love you and thank you for all you do.

Amen.

you reap what you sow

2010-11-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

I believe in consequences. I believe if someone isn't doing something right, their should be an appropriate punishment. Ok, that sounded harsh. I believe in right and wrong. I believe in telling the truth. I believe in being honest and loyal. Get my drift here? Let me explain.

The photographer for our engagement photos, bridal portraits and wedding photos has been on the news last Friday and today for scamming people in the Houston area. I am one of those people. You see, she "lost" my bridal portraits so I had to re-take them. The day of the wedding, she had "corrupted data" on her photo card and about 50 photos ( immediate and extended family photos) were "ruined" .... could not retrieve them from the camera. So Brandon and I had no photos of our extended family like cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. It took 1 year to get our wedding album. We had to hire an attorney for the whole situation. She avoided us, never returned our calls. I think I called her 50 times in 1 week and never got a call back. Her home phone number was a fax number, her cell phone voicemail box was full. She didnt return emails. I'm telling you, I was running around in circles. So we hired an attorney like I said earlier. We finally settled with a monetary refund and a year later we got our album. We are still not happy about the situation.

We thought we were the only ones who were getting scammed by this woman. Well, we were wrong. She has been all over the news the past couple of days. Couples who got married in 2006 still haven't received their wedding album. They took her to small claims court and they won, but it didn't matter, she didn't follow through with her promises. She's lied, she's be sneaky, she's been untrustworthy, she's been a horrible communicator, etc. I really could go on.

I actually was contacted by the BBB about this situation. The media wanted to contact me but I was fishy about the whole situation so I didn't respond. Well, I emailed the lady back today. We'll see what will come of it.

You reap what you sow. And boy, did she deserve what is coming to her. Her business needs to be shut down. If you are interested in seeing the story, go to channel 11 news and type in photographer.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

PS - one week from today I will be snuggled in my bed sleeping in till 11:00am :)

Bye!

out of the mouth of babes

2010-11-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

I love my job. I see and hear some of the cutest, funniest, hysterical things on a daily basis. I could walk into work with little sleep or in a bad mood, but the minute I see my babies, they cheer me up and put a smile on my face. I love their hugs, their kisses, their laughs, their smiles and sense of humors. Preschoolers, really are, the most precious thing and I am so lucky to be a part of their lives. I'm the lucky one, that's for sure. Here is a quick list of a few of my favorite things that I love about my little hummingbirds.

1. listening to them pray everyday.
2. getting hugs and kisses 150,000 times a day.
3. when i hear " i love you ms. kellianne".
4. i have given nicknames to some of my kids and hearing the other kids call them by their nicknames like its their first name.
5. hearing the kids have conversations between each other. hilarious.
6. watching them have a BLAST in P.E. on Tuesdays and Fridays.
7. having one of my babies say they prayed for me last night
8. receiving pictures and drawings and that child coming up with the best story as to what that picture is
9. hearing them sing songs like "in my fathers house" or "my god is to big"
10. seeing them walk into class with a BIG smile on their face.

Those, by the way, were put in no particular order. Although, hearing them pray everyday would be my all-time fave.

Lately, my kids sure have been saying some very funny things. Here's a sneak peak.
This happened last week...

Me : Aaron, go tell Ms. Rhonda that I am going to ride the elevator upstairs.
Aaron: (running and screaming) Ms. Rhonda!!!! Ms. Kellianne is going to take the elevator.
Me: Thanks Aaron!
( i get upstairs)
Tyler - Ms. Kellianne - you just ride in the alligator?
Me: Yes, Tyler, I just rode the alligator. He spit me out.

This happened a couple weeks ago...

(waking kids up from rest time) Me: Aaron - roll your mat up and go put your mat in the tub. You rested nicely today, I'm proud of you. Did you want to be the "tub monitor"? ( help the other kids put their napmats in the plastic tubs)
Aaron: Sure, I'll be the thermometer.

This happened in carpool line

(sitting with the kids waiting to hear their carpool number called)
Daniel - Ms. Kellianne - are those your fast shoes? ( I wore my tennis shoes because of my back, I needed more support)
Me: Yes Daniel, these are my fast shoes.
Daniel: Wow! I want those shoes, can I have them?

I apologize if none of those stories were funny, but they had me cracking up. I'm sure as the school year progresses I'll have more stories and I'll be happy to share.

By the way, I am on a roll with posting on my blog! wahoo!

Everyone have a blessed night!

A Loyal Friend

2010-11-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

I must say, Shutterfly has been a loyal friend to over the past 5 or so years. What's that you say? Shutterfly-who? Let me explain. You see, Shutterfly has to be one of the BEST websites for any photography need. Whether you need prints made, photobooks created, englargements of your most favorite picture or best yet- the classic holiday card - Shutterfly has it all!

I'm serious when I say this.....I truly love Shutterfly! I created my first photobook about 5 years ago and I haven't looked back since. I have created 2 books for friends, 1 book for my brother, 3 books for Brandon and I - and 1 in the making. They have great deals, user friendly and most of all FUN!

Christmas is right around the corner - can you believe it? I sure can't. How did it get here so fast? When you're a pre-school teacher, days, weeks and months just start to merge together after awhile and you lose track of what day it is. Anywho - In August my family and I had pictures taken for the first time in over 15 plus years. We made sure to get them taken before my dad underwent surgery for his cancer on his ear. Needless to say, they turned out fantastic and I can't wait to use one of the lovely pictures for Brandon and I's 2010 Christmas card! I love sending and recieving Christmas cards - especially if there is a picture within that card. I've been looking at the shutterfly website and I have come across a few cards that I am loving this year.

Although Brandon and I don't have kids yet to fill all those pictures slots, I love the monogram in the middle of the card which makes it more personalized!

Love this clean and simple look. The black/white picture really makes the card.

Jesus is the reason for the season and that's why I love this card so much. How many cards do you receive that says " Have a Christ Filled Christmas!" Love it!

If I had a sweet precious baby like this one on this card (I'm asking Santa for a baby for Christmas), I would totally go with this card. How could you not be joyous and blessed with this sweet baby?

Well - those are just SOME of the cards I love this year from shutterfly. They have a FANTASTIC collection this year. I am very impressed! So whether you are needing christmas cards , photobooks or prints .... make shutterfly your "go-to" friend for all your needs!

Also - one last thing. Shutterfly is giving 50 free holiday cards to ANY and ALL BLOGGERS! So if you are a blogger and want 50 FREE holiday cards click here.

Now go look at Shutterfly and "oooo and ahhh" at the christmas card collection!!!