Memorial Day

Josh had to work this past weekend, plus it was raining and stormy most of the weekend, so Lila and I didn't really do much but nap (she napped, I wasn't so fortunate, however). But, Josh got home early Monday morning and picked up breakfast for the both of us on his way home. It was such a nice surprise as I didn't expect him home for another couple of hours! It stormed Monday morning, so we ran some errands, and ate our free spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A (which was amazing) while we waited for the storm to blow over. Once it cleared up, we packed up and went for a swim at the neighborhood pool. After two years of living in our neighborhood, Josh had never gone to the pool there! We had so much fun swimming with Lila. She is such a little water bug, and loved every minute of swimming in her lounge that her Grammy gave her. After a swimming for a while, she was worn out and took a long nap while we laid out in the sun. It felt so great to get a tan again! Next weekend my girlfriends come visit to go to the beach!

Video of Josh and Lila swimming in the pool. She was enjoying the water and laughing her cute little laugh!

16 weeks old (and some change)

Our baby girl is growing so much these days. She went from still being able to wear a few newborn size outfits to barely fitting into the six-month size clothes in the last three weeks. She weighs over 13 pounds now and is filling out all over the place. She is smiling so much more everyday, and she smiles with her whole body! It is the cutest thing! She even has Josh's dimples (yay!!!) and you can see them when she smiles really big.

We go for Lila's 4-month check up in a few weeks, June 9th, so I'm eager to see what she will weigh then. She only weighed 10 pounds a little less than two months ago!  She still wants to eat every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, so I still feel like I'm either attached to her or attached to a bottle in someway!

Also, she still isn't sleeping through the night (only 4-6 hour stretches), and loves waking up at 4 and 5 and 6...But I've been letting her cry herself back to sleep (that sounds so awful!), which only takes her 10 minutes so I don't actually have to get up with her all of those times. The good news is, she naps fabulously!!! She took a 2 1/2 hour nap in her crib today! No "crying it out" necessary. Her naps usually range between 1 -2 1/2 hours, and she takes them two times, sometimes three times a day. She is on such a good nap schedule that I've been hesitating leaving the house during her nap times so that she gets used to this schedule and sticks to it. She always takes her first nap within 1 1/2 hours of waking up (which is usually 10:30) and her second nap starts between 2:30-3:30. This doesn't give me much time to run errands in between, but I don't want to mess up a good thing, ya know?!?!

Well, that's all for now! Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Thank a veteran or active duty military member this weekend! (Thank you my wonderful husband, Josh!!!)

Weekend Visit in Georgia

Josh and I made our last 6-hour trek to my parent's house in Atlanta this past weekend. Since we are moving to Texas (13 hour drive back to Atlanta), we will not be actually driving back and forth. It was bitter sweet, because as we hate being in the car that long and enjoy flying much better, but our dog, Chevy, and my parent's dog, Jackson, will no longer get to play with one another (my parents won't be making the 13 hour drive either-they prefer to fly as well). These dogs love to play, Chevy more than Jackson as he is about 7 years younger. The whole time we are visiting at my parent's house, the dogs play and play and play! It was sad watching them this time knowing that it was their last time getting to rough-house with each other.

Jackson on the left and Chevy on the right

The reason we had to make one last trip is because my mom insisted I take my teaching supplies and books that I had kept in her garage since my last year teaching at Riverside Elementary before I moved to Florida. I had to organize TONS of materials, books, and art supplies into bins to be moved to our new house in Texas (even though I most likely won't teach again until our youngest is in Elementary School). But, I'm going to use a lot of the art supplies and books for Lila and the others to come until I go back to teaching, so it won't all just sit in the garage!

Saturday morning, my mom, Lila, and I went to my cousin, Katie's graduation from Wesleyan High School. It was so much fun getting to see my aunt and uncle, Scott and Stacey, and my cousins, Katie and Wesley, as well as my grandparents, Pop and Nana...even though I'm pretty sure they were more excited to see Lila than me, but I'm okay with that!

Mom and I with Lila before the graduation brunch

While I was in the garage packing, Josh's parents as well as his sister, her husband, and little boy came over to visit. I'm sad I missed watching the baby cousins play together outside, but I'm surprised I was able to pack all of my things in one afternoon! That evening, we all went up to the Riverclub Clubhouse to eat dinner on the screened in porch. It was such a nice night, and the food was so good!

Josh only has 4 more workdays left at Coast Guard Station Destin! So crazy!!! I will miss the beaches here, but I CAN'T WAIT to be in Texas!!!

The baby cousins, Coleman (22 weeks) and Lila (15 weeks)

Lila with her aunt Melissa

The babies out to dinner, they both loved looking at the fans

Lila getting herself ready for her last 6-hour car ride back to Florida

A sleepy Lila Boo with her daddy

New favorite toy

Lila definitely has a new favorite toy! Since she has been able to support herself really well lately, we decided to try to sit her in her Bumbo seat that her cousin Emma gave her. She can almost sit up by herself, but she isn't quite all the way there yet, so this seat lets her sit like she wants to without us needing to hold her there or prop her up somewhere. She sat in her seat yesterday for an hour straight before wanting to do something else (which gave mommy lots of free hands to get things done around the house!). She loves to be anywhere in this thing, on the couch watching tv, in front of her playyard toys, or really just sitting in the middle of the room. Yet another great invention to make our lives a little easier!!!

The Joys of Technology

I consider myself to be "somewhat" computer savvy. However, it has taken me almost four months to figure out how to upload my video camera videos onto my computer and be able to find and retrieve them once they are uploaded. Well, during Lila's naptime today I figured it out!!! YAY!!! I also figured out how to put them on YouTube and link them to this blog. I put the videos down at the bottom, if you want to watch. They are silly little Lila videos of course, nothing special, just watching her like I do every second of everyday!

I also wanted to share an awesome website that I've become pretty obsessed with. I shared it on Facebook yesterday, but I'll share here too! It's called Mixbook.com, and it is a site where you can create online scrapbooks. I've created digital scrapbooks before from Kodak Gallery, but I was dissappointed that you can only create one background for the whole book. With Mixbook.com each page is different (just as a real paper scrapbook would look like). I LOVE scrapbooking, but it was way to expensive and way too time-consuming with a new baby. Mixbook is perfect and REALLY easy to use. You can even upload your pictures straight from your computer or from Facebook. Once your done, you order it, and they ship it right to you. I know I sound like an advertisement, but I promise, they don't pay me. I just wanted to pass along the good news to you scrapbookers out there. That is all! Have a great day everyone!!!

House-Hunting, Mother's Day, and Moving Nostalgia

What a week we've had!!! We've been to Atlanta, then to Houston (League City-suburb), then back to Atlanta, then back to Florida yesterday. We are flat worn out from all of our travels!

As you may know, our little family is moving to Texas in June. We spent last week in League City, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston and directly in between Houston and Galveston (where Josh will be stationed), looking for a house to buy. At first we were thinking about renting, but it is such a buyers market out there that it will be a nice investment. We get to upgrade our house for cheaper than what we have now in Florida (crazy, huh!). Our real-estate agent was WONDERFUL, and she showed us tons of houses. We finally decided on a brand new 1 1/2 story house that was perfect for our growing family (although it's not so much growing just yet...don't get too excited!).

Our new house in League City, Texas

We flew out to Houston, so I was really nervous how Lila would do on the plane. She was a perfect angel, and made lots of friends on the flights there and back. We had so much stuff to bring that it looked like we were going on vacation for two weeks, not four days! That's just how it goes when traveling with a baby. Who knew someone so small required so much gear?!?!

On the plane to Houston

Carrying Lila around the town

Using her bath sling in the hotel

We got back to Atlanta on Saturday evening, just in time for Mother's Day. This Mother's Day was so special to me, being that it was my very first one! Josh had a card from himself and Lila waiting for me when I woke up, as well as Godiva chocolates, my favorite! That surely started my Mother's Day off right! Then, Lila was dedicated at Smokerise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, Ga, the very same place that I was dedicated in October of 1984, almost 26 years ago! The service was so nice and my whole family on my mom's side as well as my dad's mom was able to attend. Lila had all of her great-aunts and uncles, second cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents from the Freeman/Vansant side there to celebrate with her. She was so good on stage and loved being the center of attention (I have NO idea where she gets that from-haha!). Her eyes were so big and bright being up on the stage-she will be a future Jazzercise instructor I'm sure! After church, we had a big lunch at my grandmother's house with everyone. I don't think that Lila was put down the whole time, all her family loved to hold her!

We're back in Niceville for a few short weeks before the movers come to take us to Texas. We absolutely loved the area so much that we didn't want to leave and come back. We really love our home here and will miss so many things about this area. I already miss my friends at church, the beautiful beaches, my parent's beach condo 15 minutes away, our perfect little house in our wonderful neighborhood as well as the friendliest neighbors! So many things have happened in this little house:
-It was the first house we owned togeter and came home to as a married couple.
-We added our dog, Chevy, to our family here.
- We brought home our first baby to this house.
This house has been good to us, and we have really enjoyed it here in Niceville. We are ready for the new adventures that Texas will bring us as well!

              Our house here in Niceville, Florida

My Baby is 12 Weeks Old!

As cliche as this sounds...I really can't believe that Lila is 12 weeks old today!!! Wow, the time sure has flown by!

By now Lila is: *smiling at faces she recognizes, *rolls over from tummy to back, *rolls halfway over from back to tummy, l*ifts her head 90 degrees when on her tummy, *talking and cooing all the time, *focusing on objects for longer periods of time, *has great control of her head, *puts pressure on her thighs when held standing, *sleeping for 5-7 hour stretches at a time at night, *looks at her hands and loves to suck on her fists, *loves her bath and being naked, *loves swatting at and grabing hold of the objects in her playyard, and loves being with her mom, dad, and dog Chevy!

She has developed and grown so much in the last 3 months! She is over 22 inches long and weighs 11.4 pounds. Josh and I have enjoyed every minute (even the tired, sleepless ones!) of being parents, and are so blessed that God has given us this little angel!

Birthday Weekend in Atlanta

What a wonderful extended weekend we had visiting friends and family in Atlanta!!! We got into town Thursday afternoon and met my parents, grandparents, and sister at Stoney River for my birthday dinner. It was delicious as always, and my grandparents enjoyed getting to spend some time with Lila. She sat and looked up at my grandmama (my dad's mom) and talked to her the whole dinner! Friday, we had our wedding photographer, Laura Negri, come to my parent's house to take Lila's 3-month pictures (although she'll be three months on May 3rd). She said that Lila was a gem and a breeze to photograph. I wonder if that's because she has had a camera in her face since the second she was born!?! We all wore white, and I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out! My parents left Friday to go to Ole Miss for my brother's fraternity parent's weekend, so Josh and I went to lunch at the River Club with Lila. We got to relax at the house a bit, and then my aunt Carol Anne and uncle Greg came over to visit with Lila and take us out to dinner for my birthday. I love when birthday celebrations last several days :-) ! We went to the Mexican restaurant up the street from my parent's house, and it was so much fun! Saturday (my actual birthday) we went to visit our friends Rachel and Kevin's little boy Liam. He was born April 12th, and will be Lila's boyfriend in a few years! He is such a cutie! I enjoyed holding him while we chatted. Saturday night, we went to our good friend, Brittany's wedding. Luckily the rain stopped for most of the ceremony and party, and we had so much fun seeing many of our high school friends. They loved to hold Lila, and she was passed around during the whole party. Josh loved that her outfit matched his! So cute! Lila had so much fun meeting all the new friends too! Sunday, Josh's parents came over to my parent's house and we all ate brunch up at the club. Then, Josh's cousins who have triplet boys and a girl toddler came over to the house also to swim. They are so cute and we had fun watching them play in the pool. Mamu held Lila while she slept the whole time! Lila was so good for her grandparents! Monday, we met our good friend Bryan for lunch at Cafe at Pharr so that we could visit and so he could meet Lila. After lunch, we headed over to Lenox and walked around while we waited for my mom to meet us for birthday shopping! Josh was such a trooper while he shopped with us at Neiman Marcus and actually picked out a few things for me to try on! My mom was impressed that he was participating. He spotted Sheree from the Real Housewives from Atlanta while shopping and we shopped around her hoping that we would get on camera, but the cameras weren't around...bummer! Once we were done shopping, we headed back up north and met my dad and sister for dinner before heading to Suwanee. I had such a great long birthday weekend, but it's always nice to be back at home! We leave on Tuesday for Houston to house-hunt! Wish us luck!

Family photo at the wedding reception

Lila and daddy with matching outfits

Some of the girls with the beautiful bride

Naked baby!

Playing with the strings on her Moses basket

Hanging by the pool with Mamu and Big Pop

Big Pop and Lila

The boys and little Emma playing in the hot tub

Lila playing in her bouncer/walker from her great-grandmama