The little things....

So, I am totaling loving this imitating stage that Lila is going through. It will probably drive me crazy later, but right now it is just really cute. We are driving in the car yesterday and the song All American Girl by Carrie Underwood comes on. I look in the mirror and Lila is bobbing her little head. I hold up my hands and start snapping my fingers. She immediately started trying to snap her own fingers. Then we get home and I am spraying some air freshner. Moments later she goes and picks up the can. Not only does she hold it and twirl it around like she is spraying the room, but she starts making the "sshhh" sound like it is coming out! This morning we were folding clothes and listening to her kindermusik CD and I start leaning way over to the left and then to right and then she started doing it. She has done some things like that before, but it always seemed to be a delayed reaction. Now she does it pretty immediately. Oh, its the little things they do that just get ya!

A Just Because and Travel Tips

So, I need some advice. We are heading to Alaska in July! I am super excited, but I am also very nervous about my non sleeping on anybody, doesn't sit well or long in a lap, and non watching TV child, for the 10 hour trip. Our flight from Atlanta to Alaska is a VERY large plane and guess what? It is PACKED! There is not an empty seat beside us. That means for 7 hours we will have Lila in our lap. Let's not forget that I will be almost 7 months pregnant. Yes, we probably should have coughed up the money and purchased her a ticket, but Geez, that is a lot of money. Anyway, I need some ideas to keep her entertained. This is also the child that totally freaks in an elevator (although I will say we have had some progress with that lately), so I am nervous about the noise, etc. What about her ears? Will they bother her? I apologize now to those sitting around us.

Ok, second question: This is for those mothers about there with lots of kiddo's, especially say 5 and under. I am looking into going ahead and purchasing a double stroller with an sit and stand in the back. I.E. the Joovy Caboose triple sit and stand. Here is my thinking. I will have 2 15-16 months apart, and the Good Lord willing (and if these 2 don't change my mind) we would like to have more within the next several years. Let's say Lila is like 4ish and baby boy is 3ish and then we have another, do you think this is a good idea? I am thinking that Lila will be old enough to where she doesn't want to ride in the stroller anymore, but if we are out on a long day (zoo, mall, amusement park) then she may get tired and want to stand or sit in the back and then I would have the 2 seats in the front for the younger ones. Help Please! What strollers would you suggest? I really don't want to buy 500 strollers trying to figure out what is best, so I would like for this to be a 1 time purchase, for a while at least. Thanks in advance!
And I leave you with this:
Just because I think she is cute....

As Promised....

FFF.

This was from last night. We had a few people over for dinner. Well, let's say I felt the least I could do was cook since we asked for help to move our 10,000 lb piano, (It's not really, but that beast is heavy) and move in my new china cabinet. YEA! Anyway, we love to have people over anyway and it was a nice night out and Lila loves seeing her friends. However, daddy will be turning the front porch light on when she starts dating if she is going to kiss like this! :) Mason at least had his mouth closed, but Lila went in with hers wide open!

ALSO! BIG NEWS! :) Michael came in this evening after playing outside with Lila to show me her new trick. He was telling me how she was blowing kisses over and over for like 5 minutes. I thought it was really cute as he was telling me this, but I didn't get too excited about it until he asked her to blow me a kiss. OH MY GOODNESS!! I jumped up out of my seat it was so cute. I was so proud! He said that she was waving to Chloe (our sweet dog) and he asked her if she wanted to blow Chloe a kiss and she just did it...over and over. Oh, I love her. She has also been blowing, as in cooling, off her food lately before she puts it in her mouth. I noticed the other day that she was holding her food up to her mouth and blowing really loud but I didn't put together what she was doing until I noticed myself blowing off her meatballs and then she did it too. Wow, the things that make a mother so proud. The other funny thing she has been doing lately is taking her paci and wanting to dip it in my water glass. I guess she has seen me do this one too many times at resturants when her paci falls to the ground. My baby is growing up!

Oh, and I am getting ready to back date quite a few posts so if you really care and want to read, you may need to scroll back some.

I Passed!

I received a call this morning from Franklin Women's and I passed. YEAH! The first thing I thought of when I saw I missed the call was that I needed to go in the kitchen and down about 7 oreos before listening to the message. :)
Still to come:
my Favorite Friday Foto!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! This hymn has been sung loud and clear through our house and car after the past 2 days.

I feel like I have spent the past 2 days at several different Dr. offices. However, after the news we have received, it has been well worth it. Yesterday, we went to MFG to have an echo done on baby boy. I was assuming, but not sure, that the reason we were doing this was just precautionary due to our history with Lila. Thankfully, that was the case and more importantly, Baby boys heart looked GREAT!! Of course, if he happens to have a very small hole, they cannot detect it now nor can they detect if later in life he would develop some type of stenosis. They seem to think that everything looks great and as always, it was fun to get another peak at our little guy.
I can honestly say that sometimes I totally forget that Lila has a small hole in her heart. We think she is just perfect. And she is. We feel especially blessed after being in that hospital today and seeing really really sick children in and out of there. It made Michael and I realize what a wonderful blessing our little girl is. Today, we spent our afternoon with Lila's cardiologist at Vanderbilt. She did great! That is until..... she saw a stethoscope. I think we may invest in purchasing a Doctor's kit for Lila to play with. She totally lost it as soon as they even thought about getting near her with it. Unfortunately, she needs to be very quiet and still so they can actually listen to her heart. We were able to settle her down while the assistant listened, but the Dr. only heard about a total of 4 seconds. Lovely. He did say he THINKS that the hole is probably even smaller than the last time he saw her and that he still hopes the hole closes on its on. The great news is she can carry on as normal and it should not affect her in anyway...sports, learning, etc. He did say she was "The perfect little Gerber baby" (AAWW!)...but then he added, "With an attitude" (BOO!). I just like to say that she is no dummy and is WAY too smart for these mean ole doctors. I will say I will be praying that when we seem him in a year, that she will not scream when they touch her. She wasn't crazy about the EKG either, but the nurses were great and entertained her enough to calm her down to get a good reading, which looked wonderful! One more breakthrough...we went up and down 2 different elevators 4 times and she did not TOTALLY panic. YEAH! She started to freak out a little bit, but controlled herself. This is good. We are making progress.
Now, I am just waiting on my diabetes test. Please lord, let me be fine. I did talk to my Dr. about my weight gain. I am actually the one who brought it up to her. She is fine with it, but I did gain 6 pounds in between these 2 visits. She said that where I am now is fine, but I can't keep gaining 6 pounds every 4 weeks...so I have to cut out the multiple sweets everyday. Thinking that I shouldn't have them makes it even more difficult. I was telling myself all day that I had to be good. What do I do? Literally, as soon as I walk in the door, I eat about 3 oreos and later that night had my very yummy chocolate chip ice cream sandwhich. I am so bad, I know!

Father's Day

For some reason, Father's Day makes me even mushier than Mother's Day. There is something about Daddy's and their little girls.... It just makes your heart melt. Once again, Lila knows just how to wrap us around her finger....see below. (I think it is just the fact that it is Sunday, which means no nap at church, which means, totally exhausted by the time we get home from lunch.) Michael sure was in heaven though!

I am so thankful that I have a husband as wonderful as Michael and that Lila has such an amazing daddy. I couldn't ask for anyone more. One of my favorite parts of the day is watching Lila when Michael walks in the door. I hope that she always thinks as much of him as I think of my own father. When we were first married I don't think I gave Michael enough credit for things. I just knew that if Michael couldn't do it, then I could call my dad. In my eyes, my daddy will always be able to do anything, fix anything, and know the right thing to say and do. Even though Michael and my dad are very different in certain ways, I have seen Michael grow as a man of God, he is the most dedicated worker I know, and has also turned into that man who I look up to every day and is my world! God is so good to me to give me such wonderful Dad's. My own Daddy, my father-in law, and my amazing hubby! Happy Father's Day!

When I picked out what Michael was to wear for church Sunday morning, he didn't know I had planned for him to match his baby girl.

I had to show houses on Sunday, so we just went out to eat instead of cooking. I gave Lila bite of my strawberry and the next thing I know, it is devoured! I usually just cut it up in small pieces, but I thought I would let her have a bite. Too funny!

I will be walking soon!


This sure would have been a cute picture if the drill and my shoes weren't in the way. Can you tell I was over wearing high heels for the 4th day in a row? I am not sure I even made it in the door before they were off!

Wedding Time

It seems like as adults you go through phases where everyone is getting married at the same time, then everyone is getting a new house at the same time, then everyone is having babies, etc. etc. The year that Michael and I got married we went to 13 weddings and 2 different times we had 2 on the same day, and I was in 5 weddings! Since that year we haven't had as many, but for some reason, it has started back up again. I personally think it is fun and it reminds me of the vows that Michael and I took. I was in my good friend Amy's wedding last week. I will not go into details about my nightmare bridesmaids dress. I just had to remember that it was not about me! We had a great time and Amy was beautiful. They called me the make-up Nazi (surprise suprise). Hey, I wanted everyone to have their lips on so that the pictures turned out good. :) Anyway, here is a snapshot of Michael and me and me with the Bride. Fun times!