18 MONTHS!!!

Kennedy turned 18 months on Saturday!! She is a big 1 1/2 now! This is the month she most likely will become a big sister. She had a good year and a half with us all by herself and I think she has really enjoyed it to its fullest! She doesn't seem big enough to be a big anything. She is still so small! I am amazed at the things she learns everyday and says. She is constantly surprising us!

At 18 Months Kennedy....

1. Loves to play pretend. Her favorite things to pretend are a cat, dog, and a baby. She will crawl around and meow or have you wrap her up as she pretend cries like a baby. She also plays mommy to her babies, changing diapers, feeding them, and changing their clothes.

2. Is OBSESSED with bugs. Why? I have no idea. She loves anything that is a bug, likes to point them out, loves pretend bugs, and doesn't go a day without mentioning bugs at least 10 times. She even ate chicken the other day because she called it bugs and laughed the whole time.

3. Loves people around her. If you take her out to eat she will say hi to everyone and make her scrunchy smiley face at them.

4. Everything is nice. Sometimes if you give her something or do something for her or someone else and her comment is, "Nice." She likes when people are nice I guess! :)

5. Pat the Puppy is her favorite book right now. She is learning to turn the page with the TV that shows pictures of babies and she is really obsessed with babies.

6. She still loves her Dew and Dew has learned to say his version of her name, KeKe! They fight all the time, but we call that love. It is love!

7. Likes to feed Riley. She will go and give Riley a piece of her dog food one by one and my dear Riley takes every piece from her and eats it nicely. I am still amazed at how well Riley adjusted to Kennedy!

8. She has learned the joy of Aunt Wookie (Courtney). Courtney has been in Nashville and is home just for the summer and Kennedy has taken to her Wookie! Wookie pulled up next to us in her car and K yells, "WOOKIE!"

9. She has learned that grandparents will give you anything and let you do anything and finds great joy in that. She gets so excited to see her MeMe and Pops and SuSu and Poppa. She has them all wrapped which is a good skill if you ask me! :) Bat an eye and it is yours! Keep that up K! :)

10. She has great pride in her mommy and daddy. When I walk through a store and someone stops to say something to her she will pat my arm or point to me and say in a sweet voice, "Mommy" like she is so proud of me and wants everyone to know I am her mommy. It doesn't get much sweeter than that! I know that will fade away, I will enjoy it while it lasts!

Ok, those are just a few things.... I will stop now, I think I could go on forever! Happy 18 month birthday K!

The Littlest Olliff

We went to the doctor today to have our last ultrasound. Baby brother is doing great! He is right at 6 pounds now. He is not supposed to be a big baby so they say. If I make it full term he should be about 7 1/2. They are never really right with those ultrasound predictions in my opinion so it is just a guess. I think he will be right on at about 7 pounds. K was 7 lbs 7 oz. We'll soon see how big he is! I go every week now so I will keep you updated on Mondays of his progress. He is coming soon! How crazy is that?!!!! We're getting excited, but I don't think the reality of it all has caught up with me yet. It will soon!!

Homebound from now on!!

Well, I made it on my last trip out of town. :) Greg was in his cousin Wesley's wedding this weekend so we were off to Macon for the wedding. It is only about 2 hours away so I felt ok about going. K stayed behind with her MeMe and Pops and had lots of fun. I think they filled her full of cooka's (cookies) and played her until she dropped! It was fun to have an adult weekend, but I soon realized I am getting extremely pregnant and things are just not the same anymore. Last week I said I was fine, and this week, late pregnancy is catching up with me! Friday night was fine at the rehearsal dinner because I got to sit a lot, but Saturday night was a different story! I found myself drinking my water surrounded by grandparents and tired children sitting on a bench hoping the bride and groom were going to leave soon so I could go to bed! That is sad!! I did make it to the end, went back to the hotel and went to bed. We came home today and all took naps! It was fun to spend time with just Greg a little. I did see him some this weekend. I dragged him around doing some last minute baby shopping. So here we are at 36 weeks, and I am in Statesboro for the long haul now! No more trips for me! I go to the doctor tomorrow to have my last ultrasound. I go every week until his arrival from now on so I will keep you updated. We should have a guess of how much he weighs tomorrow. I feel like he has grown! Things are coming together with the nursery. I will post some pictures this week. It is getting acceptable enough to share now! I can't believe he will be here in about 4 weeks! WOW!!! We still have no name!!!!!!!!!!AAAHHHHH!!!!

What's in a name?

Ok, so we all know that we don't tell our babies names until they are born. Kennedy was decided on fairly early and it stuck. This time we had a few we liked and we decided on one. Recently I have had my doubts about the name and tonight Greg agreed with me that he doesn't think that is the baby's name. So, I am back to the playing with names process....I think we might have it, but who knows? I really might have to meet him to decide. That means no monogrammed outfits in the hospital......that is going to be tragic! Maybe we will decide soon....... I'll take your suggestions, I won't promise to use them, but you can feel free to suggest! :) And don't say Henry, that one is out!

Night, Night!

Kennedy has been cracking me up lately when I put her to bed. She has to have a stuffed animal or baby with her when she goes to bed every night. We spend time talking about what she wants to take with her. She usually chooses a baby. I lay her down and say love you, to which she replies, "love you." It can really melt your heart in a minute! She spends some time playing around with her baby and then goes to sleep! She sat up tonight to wrap her baby up in the blanket (i guess he was cold) so I snapped a quick pick. These sweet moments I want to remember forever! She is growing up too fast!

My life at 35 Weeks

I thought I would take a minute to document the differences in my two pregnancies. I don't want to look back and wonder so here goes...

With K
At 35 weeks...
1. I could not wear my rings. I did buy some very nice fake ones!
2. I had gained 40+ pounds..maybe a little more by then (ok so a total of 50 by the end!)
3. I did not have ankles.
4. I could not breathe. She lived in my ribs. Seriously hard to breathe!
5. I had heartburn so bad I thought I was going to die. Very near death.
6. I could not wait to not be pregnant. I just wanted to meet her and have myself back.
7. I was in countdown mode. I subtracted a week from my due date and swore I would be induced if I had not had her by 39 weeks, which ended up happening.
8. I would consider myself very grumpy!
9. I had no clothes that fit. NONE! I was in XL mode and that wasn't even comfortable.
10. I had to wear wrist braces at night so that I could feel my fingers the next day!

This time around...
At 35 weeks....
1. I can wear my rings!
2. I can see my ankles!! They still exist!
3. So far, my face has not puffed up and exploded like last time!
4. I can still breathe, I am carrying him much lower and it is better for the air supply problem.
5. I have a LOT of lower back pain, which is my major pregnancy complaint. He is so low it puts pressure on my back and carrying around a 24 pound toddler and him puts a little extra pressure on it I think!
6. I am enjoying being pregnant. Pregnancy did not suit me as well with K, but this time I think I am cherishing the moments a little more. I love when he squirms around in there! All too soon that feeling will be gone!
7. I've gained almost 30 pounds, which for me is SO much better than last time!
8. I have my grumpy mood swings, but for the most part I am still generally happy.
9. I am NOT in countdown mode. I want to enjoy my last moments of being pregnant, of having an only child and spending the rest of the summer with her, and I have a lot to do to prepare for his arrival!
10. I am not subtracting any time from my due date. I really want to see if I can go into labor on my own this time. We'll see how I feel at 39 weeks and counting, but right now I am not crazy about being induced right at 39 weeks.

Maybe boys are nicer than girls. He has been so much sweeter to me during my pregnancy! :) I hope that doesn't mean he will come out acting the opposite! My K turned out so sweet and precious and was worth all of the things I went through. And I lost that50 pounds (almost to the day that I got pregnant again)! I would do it again in a heartbeat! It amazes me how different pregnancies can be. So that is my 35 week documentation of my pregnancy with baby boy olliff. He'll be here before we know it!

Bow your heads people!!!

Praise the Lord! Baby brother has turned his little self around and is now head down! For those of you who don't know, my last ultrasound he was breech. I have been VERY worried that he wouldn't turn and I would be faced with some decisions and possibly a C Section, which I do not want to have. There is something special about having your baby and going through the whole birthing experience. I don't know if I will be doing this again (we never say never) but if it is my last time, I really wanted to go through it without major surgery. I went to the doctor today and told him about how worried I was and he said, "We'll take a quick look and see." The ultrasound tech was out of town, so he did the ultrasound and I of course questioned him to make sure he was sure that he was head down. He said yes, I am sure! :) So as it stands now, he is in position and hopefully will stay that way. I go back next week to find out how much they think he weighs. Dr. H asked me today if I was ready to have him, which I quickly responded No! I am just not ready yet! I have a few things left to check off on my list, some quality moments left with my K, and then I will be ready. I am starting to get uncomfortable, but it is nothing I can't push through. My main problem is Kennedy wants me to hold her all the time, and I feel like I should because I won't always be able to do that after he is born, and she gets heavy carrying around along with all my baby brother belly weight! I am so suprised at how fast this pregnancy has gone by. It seems like yesterday I called Greg and asked him if he wanted to come home for the news or did he want me to go ahead and tell him! We were so suprised! Soon enough, I will get to hold my little suprise in my arms and tell him how much we love him! What a blessing! Thanks for being a good baby, baby ____________, and following mommy's instructions and turning around. I really do appreciate it!

Fun times on vacation!!!

We had a great vacation! It was SO nice to have time to spend with family and friends without any worries. I left behind a lot of things to do like finish the nursery, work on my maternity leave plans, etc...but we left that all behind and spent a great week at the beach. Kennedy enjoyed the beach to its fullest. She is our little dare devil. She will run to the ocean in a heart beat. She loved spending her days playing in the sand. She dug and dug like it was her job! We took one day to run down to the zoo. It was only about 30 minutes away. She had so much fun! I really wanted to take her before the new baby is born because I know things will be crazy around here for a while. I thought she might be a little too young, but she really enjoyed seeing all the animals. Aunt Courtney even took her to feed the giraffes! And I made it through the walking with my 34 week pregnant self! I was proud of myself! I also made it through the week with no contractions and baby brother did not decide to make an early apperance thank goodness! It was good to just relax and lay on the beach or swim in the pool with no worries! Aaahhhh......

I am fully aware of how long the slide show is and I apologize to those of you who might get bored with it. I love taking pictures and I took over 300 and narrowed it down to about 80 for you guys and that was hard for me! I am posting two of my favorites here for those of you who don't want to look through our entire week! :)

It still amazes me to see the world through a child's eyes. Spending time with Kennedy is something I love to do. Everything we do, she shows me a new way to see it. How many times have you ever looked at the tiny fish that swim in the surf and get excited or how often do you take the sand in your hand and find the tiniest shell and get so excited? A child's world is full of amazement and new things and it is so fun to be able to show the world to my daughter. I go through a lot of emotions about having another baby, like will I have time for my sweet daughter to enjoy all the things we enjoy now? Then I realize how full she has made my life and having another baby will only make my joy grow. We are now in the home stretch of meeting baby brother so I better get ready!

Enjoy a little of our vacation! A few disclaimers....

Miss Kittie: I only put one picture of you in the slide show and you were fully covered!

Sandi: I have no idea why I have no pictures of Lillian and Kennedy, she was so obsessed with her Lily!

Jen: Don't get mad about me posting bathing suit pics, they are waist up only!

SuSu: You should not be mad about the bathing suit pics because you look good in one!

Wookie AKA Courtney (K calls her wookie, we don't know why :)) : I tried not to post bathing suit pics of you....I don't think I did at least!

Aaahhhh......summer fun!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Father's Day...a little early!

This comes a little early because of VACATION! :)

I wanted to make a little slide show of Greg and Kennedy over the past year. She has grown up so much! She really loves her DaDa. When he's gone, I hear "DaDa?, DaDa?" to which I have to explain where he is. She adores all the things he does and I can see as she grows how much she will enjoy learning about his "favorite" things! We've started on golf and have a lot of daddy's hobbies to take up!

Looking over the past year makes me look forward to what the future holds for my family. I have seen Greg change from the man who didn't realize we were having a baby until he held her in his arms to a wonderful father. He loves his Kennedy and I know that he will be a great dad to our son! I may fuss a bit (just a little) about you Greg, but you are a wonderful father! Kennedy and her brother should be proud to call you DaDa! I love you!

Happy Father's Day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

SHOWER!!!

Baby brother's shower was so wonderful!! Baby brother got lots of great diapers and some other great things! I came home and put it all away in his closet. We hung all the little clothes and oohhed and aahed over all of it. You really do forget how tiny they are. I should remember, it hasn't been that long for me! It was so nice to spend time with friends and celebrate him for a little bit! Thank you so much to my sweet friends Jen and Sarah. I cannot put into words how special you two are to me. I am so thankful to have you in my life!

The countdown is starting until his arrival! I can't believe it is so close!! Only 6 weeks to go!!!WOW!

Bye, Bye dear mullet!

Kennedy had her second hair cut today! I will say that I let it go a little long between hair cuts and the back of her hair grows so much faster than the rest. She had grown quite a nice little mullet! Poor redneck baby! I am sure people were talking bad about her behind her back. My goal is to have a cute little bob so we had to go pretty short to have the sides catch up with the back. It turned out really cute! It is kind of stacked in the back. It looks adorable with a bow, but she would not cooperate with that for my picture taking. So here is before....

And after! See you later mullet!
Baby brother is being showered tonight by Sarah and Jennifer and I am so excited! It is fun to celebrate him too! Check back for pictures. I will try to load them up tomorrow because we leave for vacation after that! His room is also well on its way. It is painted the absolute perfect shade of green and has a crib! :) I will post pictures when I finish putting a few more things up! Have a good day!

As Kennedy calls it, WATER!

We had a great time with MeMe and Pops! Kennedy is such a little water bug! Every day at the beach she would get there and say, "WATER!" She just loves the ocean. I will say that I spent way more time in the water than I ever have before. I am not so into the sea creatures that live in that nice water my Kennedy loves so much. She loved it so much, that out I went into that nice not so clear water of St. Simon's Island. Her favorite things about the beach so far are the sand, the waves, and going out into the deeper water and floating in the waves. She would even dunk her head back into the water when a wave came. She is also a little too brave in the waves. Mom and I let her walk out as far as she would go by herself, with me right behind her of course (She had no idea I was there) and she went past her knees in the water, a huge wave (to her it was huge) came and knocked her over. I grab her and she comes up smiling like it was the best thing ever! We are off to a week at the beach this weekend so I am sure she will have TON of fun! This time she gets to play with her Dew in the sand and I think she will enjoy showing him all the things she learned!



Kennedy loved spending time with MeMe and Pops. She woke up every day we were there, looked at me and said, "MeMe?" She would say this over and over again until I went downstairs to find MeMe and Pops. So much for sleeping in! I was amazed that she remembered where we were and knew to ask for them. It just shows how grown up she has gotten lately!

I spend my days at the beach armed with 50 sunblock for Kennedy and spray and spray the entire time I am there. She ends up coming home with a nice tan! She refuses the hat and loves to be in the sun. I also put sunscreen in her hair which explains the greasy hair in all these pictures! No tent or umbrella for this baby! Then I go and buy her a bathing suit with barely a back! What kind of mommy am I? It is really cute isn't it? She also has a bikini we will be sporting on vacation. Girls are so fun! Next year baby brother and K can have matching Bailey Boys suits! What fun I have ahead of me! :)

I would also like to add that I was very far away from her when I took all these pictures. I am so grateful for my nice zoom lens and that fabulous camera we invested in! I would miss so many moments if I didn't have them. To my SLR friends who don't have a zoom lens yet, when your baby starts running, it is the best thing ever! I was mad at Greg for spending money on it, but now I am going to say I was wrong about that! Did you hear me greg? I was wrong....that doesn't happen very often! :)

33 Weeks! WOW!

Today I am officially 33 week pregnant! Oh my goodness! It is starting to get scary! I did have a huge freak out moment today about not being ready for his arrival. I seriously am not ready at all. Not even a little. So, Greg talked me back into the world and after I was done with my huge pregnancy tears, we went out and got a few things done. We picked out paint for the room and the dresser. I am distressing his changing table/dresser like the one in K's room. I have also been very stressed about the crib situation in this house. Upon great contemplation I decided to not kick Kennedy out of her crib yet. She is just still too small. She can't even climb on the couch yet, she is so short. The thought of her in a big bed scares me a little. So we decided it would be best to get another crib. I found a fairly inexpensive one that I like so we bought that today! I was standing in the aisle as we were looking at cribs and said to Greg, it doesn't really matter which one to me, we just need it for about 6 months, and the lady next to me looked at me like I was crazy and said, "6 months?" I tried to explain I have another baby and she will be out of her crib, etc.. but she just looked at me like I had lost my mind and walked away. Did she really think I was going to put a 6 month old in a big bed? Anyways....we now are the proud owners of two cribs, which means we will soon be the proud parents of two little ones!!! WOW! It makes me feel so much better knowing I have a bed for him. The plan is to use this one until K turns around 2 and is ready for her big girl bed. Then he will graduate to Kennedy's crib. The room is getting painted tomorrow and Greg is also going to pick up the dresser from Uncle Patrick. He has the matching dresser to K's and I want to use that for a changing table. He just wants something to put his TV on to replace it. So weird! I offered to get him a new dresser and he says no, just something to put my TV on. Where does he put his clothes? I have not sent off my window treatments to be made, but we do have the fabric. The office is cleaned out and moved into the cabinet in the living room. It turned out very nice. We got a new cabinet for our TV and I love it! It amazed me how much we had to move around and buy this time! I have spent a small fortune getting ready for this baby and I don't feel like we are anywhere near done! It was harder this time because we now have no more spare room here! Kennedy just fit into the empty room that had been waiting on her forever.

K and I are headed to Darien tomorrow for a much needed beach break. We are leaving Greg to get all the nursery stuff done! We'll see how much changes by the time I get back! Sorry to bore you about all the nursery stuff. I will post pictures when I get back with what we have done. We go on vacation the next week and then I will be able to do a little decorating. It will need a little flair to it after I get everything positioned! I am homebound in July, no more travel for me, so I will have a little time to do that. I hope he doesn't decide to come early! I am not ready for that. He must stay in until 39 weeks. I say that now, my mood might change the bigger I get! :) I am worn out from our day of working hard so I am off to bed! Have a good week, what day is it? Is it ok to start the week now? I LOVE not knowing what day it is! Summer is wonderful!!!

I loved you before I knew you

I have been thinking today about how grateful I am to have my children. Being pregnant with my son has brought a whole new meaning to my life. I spend my days chasing around my first hold it baby God gave me, but when all is quiet I get time with just him. The gift of becoming a mother has been something that suited me right from the start. I knew from forever I wanted to be a mom. And now, as my family grows I am continually blessed with so much! It is amazing how you can have a bond with a baby before you ever see his face. I know so much about my precious son already. I do know my true love for him. I can really say that I loved him before I knew him. As my crazy life spins around me, I can still find those moments of calm, of times with my unborn son and the moments only we can share and begin that bond that will last a lifetime. I get so worried about things like how in the world we can afford 2 children, how will we fit in this house?!! How will I love both my precious children and find enough time to devote to them? I ran into a couple at church yesterday that had in-vitro to get pregnant with their first, tried 2 times unsuccessfully to get pregnant with their second and then a month later got pregnant on their own. It gave me chills, and she said to me, "We just have our God babies, only God can do this!" Ah how true. It brings it all back to being loved before we were ever known. God loves us before we are ever created. I think I have a tiny glimpse of that now. And to think, He loved me enough to bless me with a sweet husband, a beautiful daughter, and now a sweet son! Life is full of obstacles, as I well know, but it is also full of great joy. Every day that I wake, I hope I learn to appreciate all I have been blessed with. My world is not perfect, but it is full of so much love that I don' t think the worries are worth worrying about! So to my baby _________, I loved you before I knew you, and I cannot wait to see your sweet face, hold you in my arms, and show you the world God has given us! You are surrounded by love from the very beginning, may you always know how loved you are!