Hooray for pre-pregnancy weight!

This morning the scale FINALLY moved. I was getting so discouraged because I've been working harder than I ever have to lose weight and it was just not coming off as quickly as it has before. I am finally at the weight I was pre-pregnancy, but most of my pants are still a little tight. Guess the weight re-distributed itself, ha.

I'm going to keep going and try to lose a few more pounds. I had put on a few before I got pregnant, so I've got to keep working to get ready for the bridesmaid dress I have to wear for a friend's wedding in May and our cruise in June!

Edited to add: I do not for one second regret eating all the delicious foods I enjoyed during my pregnancy! I had so much fun getting to eat whatever I wanted and I would do it again! Somehow I stayed within the normal range for pregnancy weight gain, but I really have no idea how, ha.

Thanks for getting married, guys!

Today is my parents' 28th wedding anniversary. These days, to be married to the same person for that long is considered quite an accomplishment. I am fortunate to have married parents and I don't take it for granted. They raised us in a Christian home, where having expensive things wasn't as important as doing fun things together.

Now that I am a parent, I realize how hard it must have been on my mom to take care of us. With 4 kids that were stair-steps in age, I'm pretty sure she had at least 2 in diapers for like 7 years! After taking care of Amelia all day, I almost never feel like cooking supper anymore, something I used to enjoy. But my mom took care of all 4 of us all day and we had a home-cooked supper every single night. Usually with some sort of homemade dessert. Granted, with 4 kids, it's not like they could afford to go out to eat all the time, but still... It could have been sandwiches and tv dinners.

My daddy has gotten up at the crack of dawn since I can remember to drive to work in Jackson. Yet, I have no memories of him coming home too tired to play with us. All I remember is us listening for his truck coming down the driveway and we'd run out and stick out our thumbs, pretending to be hitchhikers and then we'd jump in the back of his truck to ride the rest of the way to the house. So silly, but it was so much fun to us! Oh, and Prize Day on Friday was a big deal at our house. I thought everyone's family had Prize Days until I went to kindgergarten. Prize Day meant that when Daddy came home from work on Friday, he would have some sort of treat for us. My favorite was when he would bring those Mickey Mouse ice cream bars. Remember they had the chocolate ears? Good memories.

Happy Anniversary, Mama and Daddy! I hope you're married for many more years to come!

She's fine, I'm fine

Cliff and I just walked over to check on her, and she was being sweet, hanging out in a bouncy seat. She kinda hates ours at home, but she's just so wide-eyed, looking around at the other babies and new faces. I'm still doing ok. I'm a little overwhelmed with trying to catch up at work, so I haven't had free time to sit around and be sad about leaving her. I'm just so glad she wasn't crying when I went over. Now that I know she's doing fine, and I trust the people she's with, I am ok with leaving her. Now I'm ready to just get settled into our new routine. I can't wait to go pick her up at 4:30!

Back at it- a little "live blogging"

So far, so good. No tears from baby or mommy this morning. Other than the fact that most of my work pants STILL don't quite fit (UGH), I am glad to be back at work. I think it is too early to check in on Amelia, since it's only been 2 hours. I think I'll walk over on my lunch break. I'll report back then.

Posts without photos are so boring, I know. We took a pic this morning, but I can't get it on my work computer without my camera cord.

Pics are up!

I have no words to adequately express how much I love our pics! Lindey is so talented! Go here and click on the photography site, click on client viewing and the password is amelia. Let me know which ones you like the best! I want them ALL!

A preview

Y'all know how much I love taking pics of my sweet girl, so you can imagine my excitement to see what a professional would do with her. My new BFF, Lindey Magee has given us a little preview on her blog. I am loving them already and can't wait to see the rest! I think my fave is the middle one. She snapped it on our bed. How cool.

Please keep Lindey and Baby Magee in your prayers. She will be induced Tuesday and has had some complications in the past couple of months. I know she is going to take some fabulous shots of that new little sweetie.

Is it really over?

Tomorrow is my last official day of maternity leave. We'll still have the weekend, and then it is back to work for me on Monday. I haven't blogged much lately because we have been busy trying to make the most of our time off together.


Monday we went to Hammond to shop at one of my favorite stores of all time, Hobby Lobby, to stock up on frames. Now I can display my baby's face all over my office and our home. I also scored some other cute stuff for the house from their clearance. So much fun. Am I the only one whose heart starts pounding rapidly when I am in the presence of bargains? It usually happens when I find good deals on shoes or purses here, here or here, but it was definitely beating like crazy when I saw all the cute, cheap vases and frames! (Can you tell I have discovered how to link? I have a feeling I will be sending you guys to all kinds of fun sites now.)


Surprisingly, I haven't even been taking that many photos lately. We've either been on the go, or just laying low, snuggling around the house. We needed a recent photo (like we didn't have any) for the newspaper's "Babies of 2008" section, so I asked Katie to come over the other night to take some pics. I was hoping that I could get Amelia to smile and Katie would be able to capture it, since I've been unsuccessful in my smiling photo attempts. She wasn't feeling up to posing, but we managed to get some cute ones.


She wore this cute outfit to church Sunday night. She didn't want to make a cute face, but I just had to post a pic of her in her dress and boots!



Katie snapped a couple of cute candids while Cliff and I were doing anything to try to get her to smile. I hate the double chin I have from this angle, but it's cute of Cliffy and Amelia.

After she spit up ALL OVER her dress, we decided to try some in just a diaper and a bow. This is our new glittery flower clip. Some of you may recall that we already have one in brown. The glitter is a pain to get out of her hair but I had to teach Amelia early on that sometimes we have to suffer for fashion.

Finally a smile! This one will run in both the Daily Leader and the Lawrence County Press's "Babies of 08" editions. I resisted linking to both these newspapers. I don't think the baby sections will be online. Boo.

I liked this one because it is so typical of Amelia. Since birth, she has always placed her hands up by her face when she's sleeping and she loves to clasp them together all the time. So sweet.

Her newest trick to grab her daddy's heart (or anyone's heart for that matter), is to poke her bottom lip out! Sometimes she does it in between smiles, but often she does it before she has a huge meltdown. Here's one with the lip.



And then Daddy made her feel better and got a smile.

We had our 3-month photo shoot this morning. Amelia was kind of sleepy and I'm not sure we got any smiles, but I think they turned out ok. I'm eager to share the link to her proofs with you soon. It should only be a few days because she's having a baby Tuesday and wanted to have them ready for me before then. I can't wait to see them! Of course the second she put her camera away and got ready to leave, Amelia started grinning and cooing at us. That little stinker.

I will probably do a little live blogging with updates when I have time on Monday when I go back to work. I know I will have a million things to catch up on, but I'm sure I'll take some time to sneak over and check on my sweetie. Pray for us that we'll handle our separation well. I think we're both going to be fine, but it won't be easy!

Amelia's first playdate

We are trying to make the most out of our last days at home together, so Monday we traveled to Ellisville to hang out with my friend Courtney and her two sweet babies, Collin and Brantlee. Brantlee was born three weeks before Amelia. We had a great time catching up and meeting each other's babies. Amelia did great for the long ride there and back. I am getting more confident in being able to get out and about with her by myself.

Here are the two girls hanging out in Brantlee's crib. They are almost the same size, but Amelia is a little longer. They both have those fat pinchable cheeks! Brantlee is such a happy baby. She grinned the whole time, while Amelia is much more serious. She's pretty selective about giving out her smiles, especially when there is a camera in front of Mommy's face. We've really got to work on that. She was fascinated with Brantlee's mobile. Guess we need to get one. I never bought one because I didn't find one that looked cute with her bedding, ha.

This is Big Brother, Collin. He's only 18 months old, but such a big boy. Courtney has her hands full! I don't know how she does it!

Here's Brantlee trying on Amelia's headband. I think she liked it, Court!

Yesterday we went to Co-Lin to visit our co-workers. Amelia got to see all the girls in my office again and then we went to surprise Daddy at his office. He was glad to see us and got to show his baby girl off to all his co-workers. Afterwards we did a little shopping for a couple of new outfits and a few new hair accessories. We have a little more than a week left and so many more things we want to do!

We had a quick photo shoot before going to Mommy and Daddy's work. This is the best one I could get. She doesn't want to sit still for pics these days. And refuses to smile when she sees that camera. She just gives me this wide-eyed stare, ha. We will get better. Check out those chubby legs!

I did manage to get capture a smile this morning playing on her favorite toy, the play gym. She smiles and chatters away while she's on that thing.

But when I sat her in the chair for a pic, this is the face I got. Ha! It's like she's thinking, would you please stop putting me in this chair for pics and just let me have fun on my play mat?

A few more

The sun was bright on our stroll:

I've never given her a chance to see if she liked hanging out in just a diaper. Turns out she loves it. I had to tell her we would not make it a habit, but it is fun cuddling with her when she's all soft and snuggly without clothes.

Maternity leave is winding down

The countdown to me returning to work is on. I knew my maternity leave would fly by, but I had no idea it would go this fast! It has been so nice being home with Amelia and getting to spend every second with her. I would love to be able to take about 6 more months off. It seems like just when I am about to have to return to work, now is the time that she is interacting with me. She smiles at me in the morning when I am grouchy and want to go back to sleep. She coos at me a nght before bed when I want nothing more than for her to get tired already and go to sleep in her bassinet. I catch myself blowing off hours just hanging out with her and trying to make her smile, or just looking at her while she is sleeping. I hate knowing I will miss out on so many things while I'm at work.


On the bright side, I have 2 1/2 weeks left. I am so fortunate to have been able to take this much time off. I know lots of moms who have to return to work much sooner. I try to remind myself of that when I am jealous of stay at home moms. We are also fortunate to have a daycare on campus that is right across the street from my office. I'm not looking forward to leaving her, but I'm glad she won't be far away.


I'm going to spend the next 2 weeks just eating up my time with my sweet girl. If that means my house is messy, then it'll just be messy. I'm going to still try to squeeze in a few projects I had planned to get done with "all my free time." What was I thinking with that?


Here are a few of our recent photos:

10 weeks old- playing on the gym my brother gave her for Christmas. She loves to kick her feet and stare at the dangly stuff. She hasn't yet figured out that she can reach the toys and make them make noise. She also likes to stare at herself in the little mirror.
All dressed up for church last Sunday. So far, she's been an angel at church. We'll probably have to start leaving her in the nursery soon, but for now, she has been sleeping right through the sermon! It's during her usual morning naptime.
In my last-ditch effort to get back into my work clothes, I've been trying to do pilates along with a DVD. Amelia wanted to join in my workout so I let her play on my mat.
She liked it so much, I decided it was time to get out her own mat. It's fun to start playing with some of the fun things we got as shower gifts. It looks like she was playing with the toys, but she really just sat laid there for a while, then started screaming. Both our workouts ended abruptly!

We're about to go strolling for the first time in a few weeks when she wakes up from her nap. The weather has been so nasty, we've been stuck indoors. I always want her naps to last longer so I can get things done, and now I'm waiting for her to wake up so we can go play!

I'm so excited that I was able to score an appointment with a photographer whose work I am in love with. She devotes time to her family and doesn't take many appointments. These shots should be different than the newborn photos we had done, and the ones Katie and I have been taking. She has a unique, contemporary style. She'll come to our house on the 22nd to do 3 month photos. We'll follow up with more at 6, 9 and 12 months. Can't wait to share the link to her proofs soon!

A HUGE Milestone

We forced ourselves to leave Amelia overnight for the first time! She stayed with Grammy and Papa (my parents) while Cliff and I went out on New Years Eve. What, you may ask, did the crazy new parents do on our night of freedom? Well, we got dressed up and went to Jackson and had dinner at a cool restaurant called Julep. We went there a couple of years ago on New Years with some friends. Of course, back then we stayed until midnight and celebrated with everyone when the clock struck 12. This year, we were out of there by 9, and decided to go see a movie. Pretty tame for a couple in their 20s, I know, but it was just our style. We had a great time. We saw Doubt, with Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Meryl Streep. The acting was so awesome. Love those two in anything. We also saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last week while we had family at home to watch the baby. Very strange of us to get to see two movies in one week, but I highly recommend these.

Instead of ringing in 2009 with a glass of champagne and celebrating with a bunch of people, I kissed my baby daddy in the car on I-55 on the way home to our sad, empty house. I missed my baby so much and was totally regretting leaving her! I just knew she was wondering where I was and why I wasn't holding her and snuggling with her to get her to sleep. I admit that I cried a little. I resisted going to my parents house to get her. Ok, I didn't resist anything. Cliff was driving and he wouldn't let me. We picked her up in the morning. I was so glad to see her! I know it is crazy, but I swear she grew while I was gone.

I'm glad we got that milestone out of the way. She was fine and didn't even notice I left her. And my parents just loved spending time with her. I needed to go ahead and take this step because Cliff surprised me with a Mexican cruise for Christmas and I'm going to have to leave her for 5 days in June! I'm sure by then, I'll be glad to get away for a while, but I can't imagine how hard it will be!