Big 3 months!!!

Oh my how time has flown by!! Madyson is 3 months old and probably the happiest baby I've seen in a long time! She is always willing to give you a big smile and laugh just when you talk to her! At the beginning of this week I struggled with trying to figure out Madyson's sleeping schedule... It seemed she was extremely cranky when it go to the evening... I could not figure out why.. it was quite frustrating.. But then I seeked help via the internet a few friends and I soon figured out... She was tired.. she needed an evening nap.. I knew she was tired however I didn't want her to go to sleep at 5 and then wake up super early the next morning.. I was constantly afraid to put her to sleep then..

But then I figured out if I layed her down between 3 and 4 she takes a small nap.. that gets her till 7pm and then she's ready for bedtime. I suppose I'm blessed to have a baby who loves to sleep. She's only awake for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour at a time... I also feel like I have mastered the art of putting Madyson down at night.. I have been able to put her down to sleep and she sucks her thumb and falls asleep on her own already!! I kind of missed rocking her to sleep, but its best this way.. She doesn't like the rocking her to sleep as much as I do I suppose...

I spoke to my sister-in-law and she said none of her kids ever slept that much... so once again, I'm blessed. Although there are times when I get sad she sleeps so much because I want to spend more time with her. However, I know I need to enjoy these moments because they probably won't last to long.

With Christmas around the corner I know that our house is going to be very, very small!! I know Mady is going to get so many Christmas presents and I can only hope we can find a place for everything!

After Thanksgiving we got some family pictures taken.. here are a few that are my favorites!!

Holiday Cards

One thing I am looking forward to do this year is creating Christmas cards to send out to family and friends. Especially now that Mark and I have a family with Madyson gracing our world! I usually get my Christmas cards done through Shutterfly.. the greatest website known to man! Its so easy to create the perfect card to send to everyone on there! And I always get my orders super quick!!

Last year I actually created a calendar for my parents! It was a great idea too I put in family pictures throughout the year, and used it for a clue in a scavenger hunt for their bigger present. They told me they actually look forward to each new month to see the next pictures! Check out their calendars!

They are actually offering a wonderful special this Holiday season! You should check it out!!

All you have to do is upload your pictures onto a design that you like. There are tons of designs to choose from! Their instructions are pretty clear and easy to follow! You place your order and walla! Your done! In a few days you'll have your Christmas cards delivered to your mailbox!

One of the many specials that Shutterfly is offering is that they will give you 50 free cards if you blog or tweet about this offer! Thats it!! Pretty simple right?! Just click on this link if you want to grab this awesome special for yourself as well!! 50 free cards?! HOW AWESOME!!

Its been a while and I apologize

Wow I suck at this whole blogging thing.. I guess I think oh who reads this anyways.. but alot has changed since the last time I've written.. Madyson has taken up my entire life and I love it!! She has changed so much in the past 2 months that its crazy!! She is holding her head up and full of giggles and smiles!! Mark and I are truly blessed to have such a good, social, beautiful baby girl! I love cuddling with her and watching her smile at me or Mark.. Often times when she is crying in the middle of the night (because she's hungry) I walk into her room without saying anything, look at her in her crib, and she looks up at me and starts laughing! She definitely has Marks since of humor! There isn't a day that she brings a smile to my face! Watching her grow is a blessing and a wonderful sight to see!

I have been working with a lawyer's office here in town. Its only part time (5 hours) a day, and Marks mom has been spoiling.. er.. I mean watching Madyson while I'm at work. Its actually a great system we have, she comes and picks up Madyson and when I get off work I go to her house to pick her up! Belinda (Marks Mom) is awesome! What a blessing to not have to worry about child care or all of the above! If Mark and I had to pay for child care, we wouldn't be able to afford it.. it would be cheaper for me to NOT work.

Unfortunately I couldn't afford to take off an entire month.. I only took off 2 weeks.. which I still worry that Madyson doesn't know I'm her mom.. even though I keep telling myself she does bc I walk in to pick her up and she greets me with a smile! That right there should show she knows who I am. I wish I didn't have to work.. I wish I could be a stay at home mom and play with her all day long.. I don't think I would get anything done because I would want to sleep when she sleeps and play when she plays haha! But I count my blessings because like I said its only 5 hours a day! And lately she's been sleeping most of those hours it seems.

Things that has happened over the past two months.. Mady got baptized! My sister Julie and her husband Bill were the Godparents! Over all the baptism's we've had in my family with all of my nieces and nephews I believe this one was the most smooth running baptism! We only had close family members there.. we decided to keep it simple, Father Michael baptized her (the priest who married us), and we had the ceremony in Dickson, TN at my old church. All of my nieces and nephews were wonderful! Most of the time they run around the church and one pore sap (someone older) has the job to keep an eye on them and try to keep them calm during the ceremony. However, the entire ceremony all the kids stay still in the pews and watched the ceremony in silence! I was very surprised.. only one child, Carly who is a little over 1, walked around the entire time and my mom followed her around.

Also, another thing 6 days before Mady was born, Jenny (my sister-in-law) had a baby girl as well. Her name is Annabelle! I am sooo excited to see Madyson and Annabelle grow up together and play. Its amazing how big the difference is between the 2!

Here are a few pictures from the last two months!

We were the Flintstones for Halloween. I personally made the outfits myself, I was quite proud of how they turned out... Especially little pebbles

Here's my side of the family at Mady's Baptism
Here are Mady's cousins!!!

Mark's side of the family

Mady is getting so big!

Hopefully I'll keep up with this more and more pictures to follow..

Its been a while....

I haven't posted anything in quite a while and I thought I would make an update! I'm 35 weeks along and I feel like a whale! lol I have the wabble walk and back pains and everything! Mark has been working on Madyson's room and things are coming together. I'm hoping we will have it painted by the weekend and looking great! My dad is working on making a crib for little Madyson. He's had a few set backs but I told him Madyson wouldn't be sleeping in the crib until she's like 6 months! lol My dad already made a cradle for Madyson and it sits in our room next to the bed. These past few months have gone by sooo fast.. its hard to believe in about 5 weeks we will have a baby in our home!! There are so many moments when I think "we won't be able to do this in a few weeks..." like get up out of no where and just GO out on a "date"...

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited and Mark is soooo excited... but its just scary how our life is going to change so drastically in the next few weeks. Mark and I have been going to pre-natal classes every Thursday of this month. I thought by taking the class it would ease my fears of giving birth, however it seems like the class tells you EVERYTHING that could go wrong... which puts thoughts in our head... NOT GOOD.. lol I'm sure its easing my mind a bit, getting knowledge on how everything works. I'm just so blessed that Mark is with me through every step of the way! I am so blessed to have a husband that cares so much and that is so supportive no matter what!

I feel so unprepared too.. I've had 2 baby showers and still feels like I have NOTHING I need to have.. I have tons of clothes tho... At least Madyson will be looking stylish huh? lol The thing that makes me even more blessed is to have a sister that has tons of stuff that even if I don't get everything I need with the next two baby showers, I'll get it passed down from my sister. That's the thing that eases my mind to this day.

The thing that is killing me is my carpal tunnel. I feel like such an old lady complaining of such a thing, but its common throughout pregnancy... apparently... I don't get it when I type or anything. its the worse throughout the night when I sleep. I wake up to go to the bathroom and my hand is always asleep. Sometimes its a pain, and sometimes its a numbing/tingling feeling throughout my fingertips... it looks like I might have to buy a wrist-brace to wear throughout the night.. that's sexy right?! lol

I have been in a canning frenzy in the kitchen lately... yesterday I canned about 15 jars of pasta sauce. With my garden and tomatoes that my dad gave me I had a whole box full of tomatoes!! Next time I believe I am going to make salsa!!! Today's agenda is to can green beans! My mother-in-law is going to come over later to help me... The new problem is that we don't have room for all of the canning I'm doing.. hahaha

Well thats all for now... I'll try and update more often!

Family Vacation

This past week my whole family and I went to Alligator Point Florida for a family vacation. We haven't been on a family vacation since I was around 8 years old. We got a beach house right on the beach!! It was fantastic!!! 17 people and 2 dogs under one roof!!! What a household!! We left on June 25th and got back July 2nd! We did everything from swimming, flying a kite, playing in the sand, shopping, went to the redneck aquarium (which the kids absolutely loved), and much more!!! I believe Fred and Mark had a blast flying their kites. It ended up being more of a battle and trying to knock each other's kite down... they had the trick kites with two handles and Fred called his kite the angel of death because his kite was an angel fish and about 6ft big... on the other hand, Mark's was about 3 foot long and just blue.. lol Needless to say Fred broke Marks kite over and over, but Mark was a trooper and kept fixing it and taking it back into the air. He had knots all throughout his string trying to keep it together. A funny story about Marks kite, he was out there without Fred around and got his kite up all the way with no extra string. He was quite proud of himself. He stuck the end of his kite into the sand and stood there in awe. A wave came up and knocked his handle out of the sand and his kite went flying! Next thing you see is Mark chasing his kite across the beach. I wasn't out to see this but my mom was. When I came out with my camera to get some pictures of the kite flyers, Mark was no where to be found. My brother pointed towards the house and I saw the kite, but did not see Mark anywhere. Finally I noticed a tree swaying back and forth. Mark was on top of this pine tree and I'm surprised it was holding him! He was trying to save his kite. Needless to say he lost about 2 ft of string and it was in a huge knot! Julie, Mark, and I finally worked hard and got his kite untangled. The next day he got it back up into the air and the string broke and the kite went sailing away again... Needless to say, Mark didn't go chasing after that one. hahaa We went to this aquarium. I call it the redneck aquarium because when you pull up all you see is a trailer. hahaa there were different buildings behind the trailer, it was great for the kids though because alot of the animals were hands on and they got to hold them and get up close and personal with the fishies. Greg was sweating so bad from running from tank to tank.. It was cute. We were in and our within 2 hours... It was a great thing to do on a rainy day. Sadly, the last 2 days we were there it was raining... So we didn't get to get a family picture on the beach like we wanted to but hopefully this will be an annual thing and we will do it again next year. My dad went fishing about every morning and night. Thanks goodness for Bob Crockett (Jenny's Dad) for bringing his fishing poles. My dad caught a stingray the first morning and a big trout that we ended up eating for dinner one night! I knew he enjoyed that greatly!!

Mark and I were able to bring our dogs Daisy and Maverick to the beach house! They were so tired by the end of each day! Daisy took on the waves at the beach like a baywatch dog jumping the waves and all! Maverick liked chasing the crabs... I'm surprised he didn't hurt himself haha.

Here are a few pictures from our trip! Look how cute Mark and Fred are with their kites!!

Spring Break fun!!!

For my spring break I went and visited Bekah and her family in Knoxville! I had a blast! It was fun to see how much her little girls have grown up and how great a mother she is! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures :( I don't know what was wrong with me!

However, for I didn't celebrate with the Gillettes on their spring break. We went to the Evansville Zoo as well as the Adventure Science Museum! Well, while I was in Knoxville with Bekah she taught me a little on how to edit my pictures on picasa! I would love to show them on here however its saying I don't have any more space to show them... ??? Anyone can help me please?

Things I've learned so far...

Oh my the things I have learned since I've learned I was pregnant. Its amazing how much life has changed within a short period of time! Here is a short list of things I've learned:

• Opposites do attract! My blood is O Positive and Mark is O Negative!
• Waking up at 4:30 a.m. starving is not fun!
• Apparently I need to eat something every 3 hours or else a migraine comes on!
• Even tho I have been around kids with all of my nieces or nephews, I still feel very unprepared
• I thought I had weird dreams before I was pregnant, but now... WOW not sure how they could get any weirder!
• This whole mothers instinct is crazy, before I was pregnant all I wanted was a little, full of drama girl, but since I've been pregnant all I can think about is boy stuff; and now I'm having dreams about having a boy!

I found out I was pregnant on Christmas Eve, now I get to find out the sex of the baby on my birthday... This baby is bound to be born on labor day, or someones birthday... Aug. 30th (our due date) - Jenny's Birthday, Sept. 2nd - Mom's birthday, Sept. 4 - Jake's Birthday, Sept. 5th - our Anniversary, Sept. 8th - Kristina's Birthday and also there's Labor day.. maybe we should start taking a poll on who's going to be sharing their special day with our little one lol

Right now, our current stress is worrying about money. Which I know is everyone's worry. But with me out of a job during the summer, I have no idea what we are going to do financially.. I just need to find a place that will hire a pregnant woman. :-/

All in all life is good. I need to get a baby registry together... that is the top of our list right now.

So it has been a LONG TIME

Well.... I haven't posted anything since October!!! You have probably thought I had fallen off the face of the earth!!! When in fact I haven't! The fact is, is that life has not calmed down since Mark and I said those big words of "I Do" to each other. It feels like we have been going none stop every weekend since the wedding! Will it ever calm down?! Probably not.. but hey you don't want life to be boring do you?!

In December we took a big family picture with Momma Haggard and Daddy Haggard at the Opryland Hotel... It was so much fun/chaos! Here is a preview of the entire family... haha

And here are all the nieces and nephews!!

So as you can see we had a blast, as well as having our hands full!!! The Haggard's were wonderful!!!!

And after this was taken we had our Christmas! Needless to say, in this picture (come to find out on Christmas Eve) there are three of us here! On Christmas Eve, we found out we were pregnant and we were going to have a baby right around our one year anniversary!!! This wasn't the way we planned on spending out one year anniversary however it seems God has a better plan for us yet!

I am currently 9 weeks pregnant and am feeling the symptoms very well! I am extremely tired all the time and can't seem to get up the strength to do anything at night. Poor Mark, I have been slacking majorly with my duties as a wife, and haven't been doing the cooking lately. However, God did bless me with an awesome husband who has the patience of a saint! I normally love cooking, however lately it seems like I just don't have the will in my body to get up and cook.

My first doctors appointment is Feb. 12th. Which means I'll be around 12 weeks by then. Some other funny news, is that when we found out we were pregnant we told our families on Christmas Day and come to find out my sister-in-law is pregnant too!! She found out the same day as us, she is a few weeks before me. And as the weeks roll on, I am finding more and more of my friends pregnant along with me! There must be something in the water, watch out! I have always prayed that whenever I am pregnant that I would have others pregnant with me.. I just never imagined this many with me! :D God is sooooo awesome and works in wonderful ways!