ONE year old!!!

 These are the first pictures of our ONE year old that I took when I went in her room to get her up this morning. She was just sitting in there talking and playing with her blankets like she does every morning. She's always her happiest after a good nights sleep. When I went in I sang her the Happy Birthday song, she stood up and smiled at me! Melt my heart!!! I videoed it but I don't think I'll share it. haha

 This is BR's big present. She got a Pottery Barn Anywhere chair and so far she likes it. It's kinda big and she doesn't understand that she must SIT in it. She fell out/off of it twice this morning and I felt so bad because she hit her head on the floor. Poor thing! She just wants to stand up on it every time she gets in it. I guess we'll keep pillows around the chair and hopefully she'll figure it out soon.

Her ONE-year old pictures didn't turn out as great as I had hoped because she had gotten tired before we got ready to take them. She did pretty good with the cake but when the balloons were in the picture she wouldn't sit down in her new chair.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!!!

I'M ONE!!!

This is her outfit that I made. There is a bow that matches but I need a headband to put it on so I'll be going to buy one in the morning.

We go to the doctor on Tuesday for Brantley's ONE year checkup so I'll post her stats then. I'm super tired and we have a big day tomorrow so I'm going to go to bed. 

We are so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with our sweet Brantley Rae! It's really hard to believe that she is ONE already. She's growing up way too fast!!

We love her and couldn't be more in love with her.

Happy 1st Birthday, Brantley Rae! 

You are ONE year old!!

Brantley Rae is ONE!!

It's hard to believe that today is finally here. We're taking 1-year old pictures this afternoon and maybe stopping by the park to swing for a while. Special dinner and playing all day! I'll be back to post her 1-year old pictures and do her 12mo/1-year post hopefully later on today....maybe Sunday along with her birthday party post. We'll see!

Happy 1st Birthday, Brantley Rae!

Mommy & Daddy love you so much!

Thank you Cards from Shutterfly

I just ordered these adorable Thank You cards from Shutterfly. The great thing is that I got them for FREE by collecting the Pamper's Gift to Grow points from inside all the Pampers diapers boxes we have bought over the past year. How great is this?! Awesome, I know!

Baby Bird Thank You Card

Tell them "thanks" with personalized thank you notes from Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Anniversary Family Dinner

Monday was our actual anniversary so instead of me cooking we decided to go out for Mexican. This isn't a great picture but it's all we got. Our little family of 2 is now 3. I wonder what we'll be next year. We'll see!

Happy 2-year Anniversary to us!!

Anniversary Weekend

Last weekend, Chase and I left BR with her grandparents and headed over to Atlanta, Georgia for a fun weekend together. It was great to spend some one on one time together without worrying about Brantley at the same time. Much needed!

On Friday morning we left bright and early (7am) and headed to ATL. We went straight to the Georgia Aquarium. We had been talking about wanting to go there for a while so we took this chance to check it out. We were so amazed at the size of the tanks they have and the variety of animals/fish they have. It was so great!! I took a lot of videos because there was no flash photography inside. Here they are...

This is a video of the biggest tank that the have at the GA Aquarium. They have 4 whale sharks, manta rays, saw tooth shark, grouper, barracuda, sand tiger sharks and lots lots more. Chase and I went back to this tank at least 4 times because it was by far the coolest one. The whale sharks are massive and beautiful. The cool thing we learned about them is that they won't attack humans because they can't bite/swallow anything larger than a quarter. Hard to believe but it's true.

In this video, you first see a sand tiger shark. It had really pretty spots. Then a HUGE grouper swims right in front of the camera shot. Couldn't have been more perfect. It was like he knew I was videoing. Oh and if you look at his eye you can see that he has a cataract in his right eye. Old! You can also hear the lady say that they were able to open the aquarium with NO DEBT so this allows them to put most of the amount collected from ticket sales into research. They are currently researching Whale Sharks among lots of other species. There is very little that they actually know about whale sharks. So cool!! There is a saw tooth shark fish just hanging out at the bottom and then you see a Guitar Fish, it's a type of shark. Seriously the coolest tank in the whole place!

This is another video of the whale sharks but it's a little better than the others. You can really tell how big they are. These are around 20 ft long (maybe 30) but they can grow up to 40 ft long. There is also a hammer head shark and manta rays playing in the bubbles. So cool!

This was my second favorite tank at the aquarium. Seahorses! The tank is so colorful. Those little vertical things floating around are fish. I don't remember what they are called but they were pretty cool. There were some bigger seahorses behind the coral but I didn't get a good shot of them. Kids would LOVE this aquarium! I would suggest that you wait until they are atleast 3 years old so that they "get-it". There were some young kiddos there and they didn't seem to really be enjoying it. They didn't want to touch the sting rays (stingers are removed) and they just seemed to get tired of it really fast. We saw a lot of the same kids during the day and the bigger kids seemed happier than the under 3 crowd. 

These are Elephant Fish. They were very playful and chased each other around the tank. I had never seen or heard of these before so I was surprised to see them.

 More pictures that I took at the Aquarium.

 I totally recommend the Georgia Aquarium!

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Friday night we ate at Pappadeaux's and it was wonderful. The atmosphere and food there were both fabulous. Our server was great and it didn't take too long to get our food. I was starving so that was nice. haha We got dessert to-go and didn't eat it until we got home, but it was still wonderful.

No pictures from dinner. Oops!

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Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and headed over to Stone Mountain for the day. We had tickets to ride the skylift to the top of the mountain and walk around. It was really cool! Did you know that Stone Mountain is made up totally of granite? That's a lot of kitchen counters! haha

After going to the top of Stone Mountain we had time to walk around and eat lunch. We ate at Miss Katie's Kitchen. It took forever for us to get our meals but the food was really good so I guess it was worth the wait. 

Finally 2:00 was here and it was time to go tubing. 

We had a lot of fun. We're planning to take Brantley there one day if they keep doing it for a few more years. They had a special kiddy snow area with a castle that had small hills for tubing and sledding. The kids were adorable and having a lot of fun. I think kids have to be 3 to tube.

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Saturday night we ate dinner at Dave & Buster's. Our meal was great and then we had fun playing a few games and collecting tickets. It was like being a kid again so we just a great time.

 Chase got to play this Nascar driving game. He drove Talladega and came in 4th place, I think, or it might have been 7th. I can't remember.

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This weekend was great and I'm so glad Chase and I decided to go away to celebrate 2 years of marriage. It was so much fun! I love my husband so very much. I can't believe it's been 2 years already but I can't wait to see what God has in store for our future. We have only just begun!

Updates Coming

I'll be back later today to write our Anniversary post. I tried last night but my computer died. Check back tonight to read about our fun weekend in Atlanta.

Upcoming Events

Wow! I can't believe that 2 years have already gone by. What a wonderful two years it has been. Chase and I are very much in love and I'm so happy we get to celebrate our anniversary this year. I'll post about that after. Last year I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant so we just went to dinner and straight home. This year we are actually leaving BR with grandparents and doing something fun. Just the two of us! I can't wait!

I know I've blogged about this one a few times already but really, only 9 more days and then my baby won't be a baby anymore. I love her and I'm so excited about celebrating her life with our friends and family!!

Gift Suggestions

Hey there!
As most of you know Brantley's 1st birthday is next Friday! I can hardly believe that a year has blown by so fast. She is growing up so much and I just love to watch her learn new things every day. I wanted to send out the link to her Wish List on the Toys R Us website so that those of you coming to her party could get ideas of the things she would like. Her Wish List # is 30361719. I hope this helps if any of you aren't sure what to get her. Of course, gifts are not required to come to her party, but I just wanted to offers these suggestions if you were thinking of bringing a gift. Also FYI, she is wearing 12 month clothes and 3.5 size shoes. She doesn't have a favorite color yet but if you look at this post you can see the colors that will be in her big girl bedroom will have once we get it finished.

Anyways, I hope this post doesn't offend anyone. I just wanted to give out suggestions to anyone that is wondering. I can't wait to see every one at Brantley's party!!

Only 11 more days and our baby will be ONE!!

 This was taken the day after we came home from the hospital. I hardly remember her being that tiny. In this picture she is sleeping in what was my baby crib when I was a baby. What a precious memory!

This is one of her newborn pictures. They were taken when she was just 6 days old. She has changed so much but yet she still looks the same...Beautiful!

What's up?

I'm not sure what has happened but for some reason my cute font that was on my post titles and sidebar titles has stopped working. If anyone else is having this problem and knows how to fix it, please let me know. Thanks!

I just updated my Java and Flash files but they still aren't working.

Ideas for Brantley's Big Girl Room

I have so many dreams and big expectations for Brantley's big girl room. I want to make it cute and girly since her nursery wasn't girly that much at all. The walls will be PINK and the furniture and cubbies/shelves will be white/ivory.

Above is a collage of some of my ideas. It's going to be a couple of months before we can start working in her new room but I had to write down and share my ideas while they are fresh on my mind.

This is Brantley's baby quilt that her Bebe made her when I was pregnant and it's the inspiration for her room. It's not big enough to cover her whole bed but it's going to cover the foot of her bed over a white/ivory comforter. I just love it! I'm going for a Pottery Barn look in her room!

This is the color that I want to paint the walls. It's going to be great!

These are wall cubbies from Pottery Barn and I love this idea. I'm going to ask my Dad to make something kind of like this and install it on the wall next to her bed. I love the idea of storing books, dolls, (in the future) craft supplies, other small toys, etc.

I know you can probably feel my excitement from this post. I can't wait to get started!! We're probably going to work on our bedroom first and you know I'll blog about that as we do. Stay tuned for updates.

BR and her Great-Grandmother Harris

 On Friday, my Mom, BR and I went to visit my grandmother for the afternoon. We had a great time talking and playing with Brantley. She had fun playing with Grandmother's toys because they were different from what we have at home. She played with a race car a lot of the time. I think she might need to get some cars for her birthday. We'll see!

I loved visiting my grandmother and hope that Brantley and I can go back again soon!

Ice Storm 01.10.11

Last night it started sleeting pretty hard. We could hear it falling from outside. We also had lots of freezing rain (I'm not 100% sure what the difference is, but I know there is one. Ha!) We kept waiting for the snow to start. We had been told by our weather men and women that we should get 2-4". So our deck was covered in ice and we went to bed hoping that we would wake up to lots of snow outside our door.

Well when we woke up this morning, I (Chase didn't really care) was really disappointed to just see more ice. Every thing was frozen. We didn't have any fun powdery white snow to play in our make a snowman out of. Darn! Oh well, we still went out and walked around the yard to check out all the ice. I'm so so glad we never lost power because that would have really been crappy.

So this is/was the Ice Storm of January 2011. Now we're just waiting for everything to start thawing out but it may be a few days before that happens. It's suppose to be well below freezing tonight so chances are the roads are going to be pretty bad in the morning. I'm staying in! 

p.s. I really hope the roads clear up soon so that the mailman can come pick up BR's birthday invitations so those can get out to everyone soon. Just to let you know, it's Jan. 29th. Mark your calendar. Invitations to come as soon as Birmingham thaws out! haha

BR at 11 Months

Let's act like I did this post a week ago, okay? Thanks!

Brantley Rae is 11 Months and 1 week old! I can't believe that in 3 short weeks she will be ONE year old. Where has the time gone!

 Brantley Rae is growing up so much. She's walking 90% of the time now and is talking a lot of jibber-jabber. It's so cute! I love to hear the pitter-patter of her little feet as she waddles around the house.

This morning I took her outside for some pictures and all she wanted to do was pick up leaves and put them in her mouth. ha! Not exactly what I had in mind but that's fine too.

Stats

Weight: I'm not sure. Chase weighed her on our scale the other day and it said she was 18.5 lbs. I'm not sure that I believe it. If that's correct then she has gained 2 pounds in a month. hmm?

Height: I need to start measuring her since she can stand so well now. Add it to the list.

Eats: 3 meals a day with formula from a sippy cup at each meal. If she has a snack in the afternoon, I give her juice. Sometimes before naps I'll give her a bottle and at night when she wakes up I give her a bottle.

Sleep: BR goes to bed around 7:45 every night. She takes a bath at 7:30 and then book, bottle, bed. She unfortunately has been waking up 1-2 times a night for the past almost 2 months and I haven't been able to keep her from doing it. I get up and give her a bottle and she'll drink a whole 6oz but I'm not sure that's she's really hungry. She shouldn't be! I think it's possibly that she can't find her pacy so she cries out and I think she's hungry. Hmm? I've got to experiment and get her sleeping through the night again. I'm tired everyday!

Shoes: Size 3.5 -BR got her first 2 pairs of Stride Rites for Christmas. They are super cute and she walks great in them.

Clothes: Mostly 9 months but she is starting to fit into 12 months. I guess that extra 2 pounds is helping out in this area. She has really started to get a belly on her that is so cute.

Diapers: Size 2-3 Pampers - She can wear a 3 but they are still a little bit too big so we're using 2-3 for now. 

Words: DaDa and All Done "a da" - She was saying Momma some a month or so ago but has since then forgotten how to say it.

At 11 Months Brantley Rae:

- Is walking all the time. She is getting more and more steady and confident in her walking ability. I'm sure she'll be running before too much longer. She already tries to walk too fast and usually falls or we catch her.

- Is still taking a pacy. Chase and I have talked about the fact that we need to "lose" the pacy soon but I'm just not ready because I know how much BR loves and needs her pacy. I've started trying to get her to love a blanket and she done like silky blankets but she still needs her pacy to go to sleep. Any Suggestions? Cold turkey?

- If you give her a doll or stuffed animal and tell her to 'give it love' she will pull it to her cheek and squeeze it. So cute! 

- When she sees herself in a mirror (in a book) she will bend down and kiss herself. haha

- For some reason she LOVES when I vacuum with the Swiffer Sweeper Vac. I'm not sure why but she will follow me around squealing out of excitement for the vacuum. We gave her a toy vacuum for Christmas but she doesn't have the same love for the toy as she does for the real thing. I really should video her next time.

- Likes to look at books and turn the pages but is much too busy to sit and listen to a whole book. (Like mother, Like daughter.) She does love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and will sit through that whole book and actually laughs when I say "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." She's so cute!

- Her hair is really growing now and it's even starting to curl in the back and on the sides.

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Today after lunch I took BR over to the park here in Bluff Park. We played on the play gym and went down the slides a few times. Then I let her swing, which is her most favorite thing to do at the park.

 She wasn't sure what she was suppose to do up there so she just picked up a piece of pine straw and stood there. Funny girl!

 I finally got her to walk around a little bit and explore. The play gym up at the park is WAY too big for her but it was still fun. I know as she gets older we will spend many afternoons up there playing.

Can you see the joy on her face as she was swinging? She loves it! I just love to push her and listen to her squeal and watch her beautiful smile stretch across her face. It's adorable, she's adorable!

So you wanna know what else BR can do now...

 She is starting to learn how to use a fork! If I stick the food on it then she will put the fork in her mouth but she hasn't figured out how to stab the food herself yet. We haven't tried a spoon yet because she doesn't really like food that has to be fed to her on a spoon. It reminds her of baby food and she's just not going to even try it. haha Little Stinker!

She takes baths in the big bathtub! Up until 2 nights ago she has still been in her baby tub. She loved crawling around in the bathtub and having more room to play with her toys. I still need to buy a skid-proof mat for the bottom of the tub and I'm going to get me something to put my knees on. These old gymnast knees can't kneel down on that tile long enough to give her a bath.

So our little baby girl is growing up and is 11 months old now. Yikes! I've already started planning her birthday party but I've got to get busy. It's going to be here before I know it and I've got a lot to do.

Praying for Dawson

Last week one of Chase's little cousins was burned badly while playing beside a fire at a friends house. It was cold so the friends Dad made them a fire outside so they could stay warm. The fire died down and Dawson's friend decided he would just pour some more gas on the fire to get it going again. Well he didn't throw the whole cup on the fire and when the gas caught on fire and the fire started coming back up towards the boy he panicked and tossed the cup. Unfortunately, he tossed the burning gas filled cup right towards Dawson. Dawson turned his back before the gas hit his back and caught him on fire. (I can't imagine his pain. It makes me tear up just thinking about how bad this hurt him.) He hurried to get his clothes off but before he did he suffered extensive burns to the backs of his legs, his bottom, his back and sides and the backs of his hands.

He was rushed to Children's Hospital in Birmingham and will undergo his first skin graft surgery tomorrow. I want to ask that you please pray with us for the surgeon(s) and nurses that will be doing Dawson's surgery tomorrow. Also, please pray for a speedy recovery for Dawson. He will be in the hospital for a minimum of 3 weeks. We pray for strength and comfort for Dawson and his parents as they will be taking turns staying with him after this week.

Chase and I went to visit Dawson yesterday afternoon and he was not feeling well. He had a fever from the burns and was tired and hurting badly. The physical therapist was in the room when we got there trying to get Dawson moving his limbs so that he can keep the skin loose, but he was in so much pain that he didn't want to try. Please pray for this sweet boy with us. Like I said before, I can't imagine his pain and all that he is and will go through on his road to recovery.

This is Dawson with his niece that was born almost 2 months ago.

I thank you for all your prayers and I know that he and his parents would be thankful as well.

Redstone

Yesterday, Chase and I attended Redstone Church and we loved it! We have friends that go there and they've been telling us about it so we finally made it yesterday morning. It was great! It's a partner church of North Point Church in Atlanta, GA. Andy Stanley is the teaching pastor at North Point and Redstone, so we watch his sermons on a screen since he's actually in Atlanta at North Point. It was different to watch the sermon on the screen but Andy is such a good speaker so he held my attention. His sermon yesterday was A New You Resolution. It was so great. He taught that it's always a mistake to decided what you want to do, before you determine who or what you want to be. It makes so much since now. If we determine what type of person we want to be this year (honest, loyal, obedient) that will help us decide what we're going to do this year. It was an eye-opening sermon and I'm so glad Chase and I were there to hear it yesterday. We are excited about Redstone and can't wait to go back. We're also looking forward to joining a Small Group soon. We will be n a small group with 6-7 other married couples that have small children and we will form close relationships through worship, study and prayer. I'm so pumped! This is what we've been looking for.

Check out the website. We would love for you to join us one Sunday morning. The service starts at 10am. The music is great also. Let me know if you would like to come, we'll save you a seat.