Always Room for 'Moore'

Wow!

2010-04-28T21:21:00.002-04:00

Daddy discovered that Charley was repeating "wow" tonight after him each time he said it. So, we pulled out the video camera as fast as we could and got a few clips on video. For those of you who don't know, this child jabbers like nothing I have ever seen...so, it comes as no surprise that she is already clearly repeating words.

Easter/9 Month Pics

2010-03-27T20:28:00.001-04:00

We took Charley on Friday to have some pictures made for Easter which will also serve as her 9 mo. pics. We went to the same place that we took her Christmas/6 mo. pics because we thought they did a pretty good job, and their prices are very reasonable. We had so much fun with these...Enjoy!

2010-03-27T20:27:00.001-04:00

2010-03-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

8 months

2010-03-27T17:30:00.005-04:00

Whew....this month has been an adventure to say the least. As we revealed below, Charley has officially learned to crawl! And of course, 2 weeks later (since the original crawling video was posted), she can get anywhere she wants to go and FAST!! As stated on the crawling video, we started a new babysitter this month (March 1). It is amazing the difference in her now that she has some exposure to other children. Since day one of staying with Mary, she has begun to "talk" our ears off...seriously, the child just jabbers on and on from the time she wakes up until she finally closes her eyes at night...have no clue who she got that from ;)

We also got our first ear infection this month too...and boy, that was far worse than the flu...believe it or not. Also, for some reason, since then, her oh so wonderful sleep habits have been not so wonderful. It's kind of unfortunate that we started a new babysitter, got an ear infection, began crawling, and the time changed all in the same week....because we cannot seem to figure out the sleeping issue...it's CRAZY!! But it is basically to the point now that she wakes up every night/morning around 5:00 a.m., I go in and nurse her for about 10 minutes and she is usually back to sleep and will sleep until 6:73/7:00. This is about as good as we have gotten it recently and we have just learned to be happy with it for now and pray that she goes back to her normal patterns at some point.

Finally, the most fun part about this month (not really) is teaching Charley the word "No". Since her newfound freedom of mobility, she just assumes she can do whatever she wants...and we have had to demonstrate otherwise ;) Her little personality has begun to really flourish and she can be a little hard headed at times, but she's done very well for the most part! Oh, the joys of parenthood...the good and the bad :)

Here's her timeline for the month.

- Begins staying with Mrs. Mary (3/1/10)

- Begins attempting to climb out of the tub, and learns the word "No" (3/1/10)

-Is able to get anywhere by running in her walker (3/6/10)

-Diagnosed with ear infection (3/8/10)

- Crawls for the first time!! (3/11/10)

- Learns to play peek a boo (3/12/10) (see video below)

- learns to wave; mostly to say hello, but occasionally to say good bye (3/19/10)

- Begins eating off the table occasionally (3/23/10) (thanks Mrs. Mary for feeding me yummy homemade mashed potatoes!)

It's funny to even post this picture, because now this seems like months ago. This was the beginning of the crawling.

I want to get it sooooo bad!

Mom..this is exhausting!!

2010-03-27T17:30:00.003-04:00

Peyton came over again for a playdate. It gets more fun each time we get these two together. They are starting to realize each other is in the room. They aren't exactly "playing together" just yet, although this picture might lead you to believe otherwise, they are getting there! Regardless, Peyton's mommy and I don't take a breath in chatting the entire time they are here...we LOVE it!!

Who knew that the fav toy would be packages of babyfood...why is that surprising to me?? Charley has been demonsrating for 9 months now that anything is more fun to play with than a real toy...hello mommy...get with the program...toys are not cool anymore, just don't tell Toys' R us that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Charley made this hat at Mrs. Mary's and mommy thought it was so cute, we had to eat dinner in it :)

Peek a Boo!

2010-03-12T21:19:00.004-05:00

We were on our way out of the house today and we started playing a little game of Peek a Boo with Charley, just for fun....little did we know that she would actually play back!

We really liked this game, so we thought we would try again while eating at a restaurant....and yes, we did draw some attention, but that's ok :)

Crawling for the first time!!

2010-03-12T20:59:00.002-05:00

Well...here it is...the moment we have all been waiting for!! She finally did it!!

The good thing was, we literally got her very first time on video (below). Unfortunately, it wasn't me nor Robert behind the camera :) Yep, she actually did this at the babysitter's house. She has recently started staying with a lady, Mary, who keeps a few children in her home, and it has been VERY good experience for all of us so far. So, although, we didn't get to see it in person, we were so thankful that Mary was able to give us the next best thing. We are very blessed to have someone who loves and takes such wonderful care of our precious baby!!

7 months!

2010-03-12T20:32:00.006-05:00

Man, how time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe our little baby is growing up so fast!?!? Many people told us that after about the 6 month mark, you better brace yourself, because it just flies, and they weren't kidding, but it's all so much fun!!

This month we are practicing mobility and independence, along with a few teeth appearances along the way. We are trying to encourage crawling, it doesn't help that mommy has two very good friends who are OT's and keep me on my toes with regards to physical development (Thanks Jaynah and Lindsey ;). As I'm sure you all remember, this child hated tummy time and that fact has yet to change. If you put her on her tummy, she will pretty much just roll across the room to get what she wants....so we are working on it. She has a walker that she absolutely loves, and can get around in it fairly quickly. But each time I put her in it, I can just hear said OT friends' voices in my head..."don't do that!!!" So...we're getting there, but she has definitely become a little more mobile.

Other notable items this month:

She begins holding her own bottle consistently(1/26) - unfortunately mommy doesn't get to witness this one too often as she pretty much only gets bottles when I am not around ;)

Her first tooth begins to poke through (2/8) - Note: teething has not been too terrible. We have used motrin occasionally when needed, but nothing out of control.

Her second tooth pokes through (2/12)

Both of her teeth are on the bottom, so we are anxiously awaiting her top friends to join her soon :) Enjoy the pics below of this month.

I must inspect everything I come into contact with directly with my tongue!

I gave her a small mixing bowl to play with one day while I was cooking and this is what she did with it....cracked me up!!

Fun in the Sun!!!

2010-03-12T20:32:00.004-05:00

Finally!!! It got warm enough outside to walk out the door without a jacket for 24 hours! So you better believe we had this little family in the sun as quickly as we could get there. We pulled the exersaucer out, put a hat on baby and washed the cars while soaking up the sunshine...it was such a fun and beautiful day!

I just adore this picture!

Goofy face :)

Sweet little profile

Yay for sunshine!!

2010-03-12T20:32:00.003-05:00

Helping Daddy clean the house!!

See....this is how you do it Daddy...just trust me, I'm a girl, I know these things ;)

Playing in the floor with Great Grandpa :)

Look, my shoe...soooo exciting!

6 Months

2010-03-09T21:47:00.001-05:00

To everyone's surprise I am sure, this month was another fun and exciting one. Charley did several new fun things, but most of the change this month evolved around her sleeping routine.

Most of you know that she has been sleeping through the night since she was a mere 5 weeks old!! The caviot is that, until now, we have always swaddled her to go to sleep, which I always feared in the back of my mind was the reason for her incredible sleep habits. As such, as any sane person would, I was very nervous to attempt what we called the "swaddler removal"

We both agreed that it was time that we remove the swaddler and allow her to have her arms free while sleeping, although I knew it was going to be a nightmare. The first night we tried it, she cried for 30 minutes (note, I rocked her completely to sleep, then put her down, once she woke up, she cried for the 30 minutes because she didn't know how to put herself back to sleep with arm freedom), the next night 15 mins, then none.

Well, since that was so easy, we decided the next week to stop the rocking to sleep and begin putting her down completely awake. Again, just a few nights later and no more tears...and it has worked ever since. We put her in her crib between 7:00 and 7:30 each night, completely awake and most of the time, we hear nothing else from her until 7:00 the following morning, it's just Glorious!!

Sorry, seems as if this post might be a little long...

Additionally, we took her in for her 6 month checkup and shots. Her stats were as follows:

Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (65%); Length: 27" (90%); Head 17.5 in. (90%)

To sum things up, the doc said she was tall and thin with a big head! Everything checked out perfectly and she has a perfect bill of health....Praise God.

Other notable items for this month

- Charley says "Hey" and "Dada" (12/26)

- Pulls up in the tub (1/21)

- says "Mama" (1/23)

Sweet kisses for my sweet Daddy :)

Mommy and me!

Mommy getting those sweet cheeks

2010-03-09T21:46:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you are all tired of seeing bathtub pictures, but I cannot reiterate enough how much we all three enjoy this time each day. I posted these pics below to show you the first time this silly monkey pulled up to stand in the tub. I had the camera right there when it happened and was able to get several shots in action. Note, she just got this toy caddy for the tub for Christmas from her Mimi and Pop (Robert's parents).

Almost there...

And she made it...check out the look on her face, I think she was about as surprised and proud of herself as we were!

Charley's First Christmas!

2010-03-02T19:54:00.001-05:00

We had so much fun celebrating Charley's first Christmas this year. It also happened to be her 6 month birthday as well...what a fun day of celebration!!

Santa came!!

Our sweet little elf :)

Reading one of her books Santa brought her.

Next year, Santa is thinking of just filling the boxes with tissue paper as it was the biggest hit!

2010-03-02T19:53:00.003-05:00

Charley and Tate getting to know each other, while they are both playing on the same toy.

"Mom, how did Mr. John know that this was exactly what I wanted!?!?"

Christmas lunch at Nanny's

All three cousins playing together. They are sitting in the middle of a living room floor full of freshly opened toys and they all wanted to play with a set of coasters...unfortunately, it was the same set of coasters!

2010-03-02T19:53:00.002-05:00

We had to take several of these throughout the day between all the visits and presents...it just wore this munchkin out!

Mandi and Sweet Baby Anna. She was 2 weeks old here and made our baby look Ginormous!!

Audrey came and Charley was just a little excited! :)

Happy Family!

5 Months!!

2010-02-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

During the period from month 5 to month 6, this child decided that she wanted to try something different almost daily. I just left her calendar sitting out because it seemed that I was writing something down in it every day. Here are some of her 5 month highlights:

- Began eating solids (a.k.a. gerber fruits and veggies) (11/28)

-Gives Rocky a treat (see pic below) (12/1)

-Played baby Jesus in the Live Nativity Scene at CFUMC (12/5)

-Went Christmas caroling as an honorary member of the CFUMC youth group (12/6)

-Began sitting up unsupported (12/11)

-Begins making noticeably more letter sounds like "ba" and "da" (12/11)

-pulls up to stand in the bathtub (12/13)

-Diagnosed with the FLU :( (12/15) - no worries, she handled it like a champ, but not a fun couple of days for mommy and daddy

- Rolls over from her tummy to her back and can now roll across the room (12/18)

As you can see, it was a very busy month, but a lot of fun watching our sweet baby grow and explore right in front of our eyes.

"Helping"Daddy decorate the Christmas Tree

"Ooohhhh look at the pretty lights"

Giving Rocky a treat for the first time...this was fun! Just look at her face and you will get a glimse of the cuteness...but nothing like watching this in person.

Meeting her cousins Ava and Ellie and Aunt Lindsey for the first time. We had a great afternoon making Christmas cookies with all three of the girls!

2010-02-25T20:55:00.003-05:00

This was her reaction to peaches...we just cracked up with every bite she ate :)

This is what I look like after daddy feeds me :)

Another playdate with my friend Peyton...are they cute together or what?!?!?

Of course, loving the bathtub!

Christmas Cookies!!

2010-02-25T20:55:00.002-05:00

Taking a batch of our freshly baked Christmas cookies to the neighbors...who could resist cookies from this cute little elf?!?!

Turkey day with our little Turkey :)

2010-02-25T20:47:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving this year was so special because it was while we were home for Thanksgiving last year that we made the announcement to our families that we were pregnant. That is a memory that I will always hold very near and dear to my heart. After going through the trouble we went through to get pregnant, it was sooooo much fun to FINALLY get to share this special news!!

"Everyone is Thankful for me!"...very appropriate for this Thanksgiving!

Eating brunch at Granny's and watching the Macy's parade.

2010-02-25T20:46:00.001-05:00

Outfit change to go to the next house.

3 Generations!

Robert, Ella Claire and Charley

These two sweet girls love each other soooo much!

4 months and mommy is back to work!

2010-02-24T20:46:00.001-05:00

We have hit the 4 month mark which also marks the time that my glorious maternity leave is over and I have to go back to work. After being out of work since the end of May, the thought of going back was almost more than I could handle. But just as he always does...God has led us through this and given me an excellent opportunity to continue my career while still spending time with our little one.

For those of you who don't know, I began my career in public accounting and have worked there up until I was out for maternity leave. It was a wonderful start to my career, but not a career that is family friendly. So, instead of going back there, I have opted to take a part time position as the staff accountant at Morgan Memorial Hospital, which is a small critical access hospital in Madison, Georgia. Not only is Madison a wonderful town to work in, it is also just a 30 min. commute as compared to my sometimes 2 hr. commutes to Atlanta. I work 3 days a week and am at home with Charley the remainder of the time. It has been wonderful and such a blessing for our family!

Other than the huge transition back to work, other notable 4 month highlights include:

- Charley's Baptism

- She rolled over for the first time

- We experimented wih rice cereal

- We took her to Helen

- She got to visit Santa at Phipps

See below for all of our pictures from our adventures this month!

She LOVES the exersaucer!!

She has discovered the shiny sink faucet and it has become a bathtime toy.

She has also learned to sit up and reach for everything she sees that she wants!

Rice Cereal!

2010-02-24T20:40:00.001-05:00

We decided to experiment with a little rice cereal just for kicks. You all know how it is with the first baby...the pediatrician says wait until 4-6 months before you start rice cereal and solids and the minute the child hits the 4 month mark....you've got the bowl and spoon ready and waiting! She did pretty good! She was not nearly as messy as many babies I have seen, and it was a lot of fun for mommy :)

She already wants to feed herself...independent you think??? I have no idea where she got that from? ;)

Taking Charley to Experience Helen!

2010-02-24T20:21:00.001-05:00

Robert and I have made it a tradition for the past 10 years that we have been together to make it up to Helen during the fall. We love enjoying this beautiful part of God's creation, especially during the peak of Fall. So as soon as we could feel fall in the air, we decided that we would make a day trip up to Helen to continue this family tradition with Charley. We had so much fun and it was nice to go up and come back home in the same day so we didn't have to pack a ton of stuff and could just enjoy the trip!

Mommy and baby are geared up and ready to go!

Enjoying a picnic outside...the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS!!!

The stroller was perfect! Not only did it hold all of our stuff while walking around, it was a portable napping spot for the munchkin while we continued to stroll around.

We found our way to a walking trail that had some beautiful falls. And we actually took a quick shot of just the two of us...very rare these days :)

2010-02-24T20:20:00.003-05:00

These are the falls that we were taking our pictures in front of.

2010-02-24T20:20:00.002-05:00

Time for a quick photo shoot with all the pretty scenery!

Attempting to get a family shot.

2010-02-24T20:19:00.001-05:00

One of mommy's favs!! Charley has such a sweet daddy. She and I are both blessed beyond measure to have him!

Finally!! The family shot we were after.
Many of you may recognize this as our Christmas card photo!

Charley's Baptism

2010-02-24T20:08:00.004-05:00

We were blessed with the honor of having our precious gift from God baptized on Sunday, October 25th, which also happens to be her 4 month birthday! We could not have asked for a more beautiful service. This particular Sunday was also Youth Led Worship, which could not be more appropriate. I wish we had gotten a picture of it, but the entire youth group came down and stood with us during the baptism ceremony. It meant more to us than they will ever know....GOD is GOOD!!!

She did so well for Pastor Doug. Side note, Charley was born on the Pastor Doug's first day at Covington FUMC, so coming to see her in the hospital was his first official visitation as our pastor...and now he gets to baptize her four months later.

I LOVE this picture and so wish it wasn't so blurry.

2010-02-24T20:08:00.002-05:00

Just couldn't resist this picture with her cute smile. Our family after an amazing Baptism service!

Ok, ok guys....enough pictures already!!

3 Months!

2010-02-23T20:41:00.001-05:00

3 month highlights

- Charley turns on her side (9/25)

- Charley laughs out lout (9/25)

- Charley pushes up on her elbows while on her tummy (9/30)

As you can see, Charley is truly changing every day. We have almost gotten to that point that we notice something new every day. We had our first "photoshoot" this month (a.k.a. baby, mommy, the bobby and mommie's camer) to document the three month mark. We also had our first playdate this month with our friend Peyton. Peyton's mommy and Robert and I all worked together in college and have remained friends and become much closer since we both have precious girls 5 weeks apart. See pictures from our adventures this month below.

Charley trying to show mommy where her belly button is.

sweet baby!

Love this shot of catching her laughing in the moment!

2010-02-23T20:40:00.003-05:00

We love getting out and taking walks when it's pretty out....and this is usually how we wind up in the end.

On our way to the pumpkin patch with our little pumpkin!!

Getting ready for church one Sunday...Daddy thought I was too cute not to get the camera out for a few shots :)

Charley and Peyton! Peyton is 5 weeks older than Charley....aren't they too cute together!?!?

2010-02-23T20:40:00.002-05:00

Hanging out with mommy and daddy outside one night, it was just starting to get a little cooler outside, so we put a cute hat on her...and of course had to take a picture once we realized how cute it was :)

This is her pushing up on her elbows. I got to the point that I would just turn her over on her tummy every time I changed her diaper and she finally figured out how to push up and hold her head up.

2010-02-23T20:39:00.001-05:00

We took both girls for a walk and they both wound up napping before we got home...perfect!

Hold up there Miss Moore...don't think you are going anywhere!

Mommy...look what I found!!

I think she is already ready for her first pedicure!

More from 2 months

2010-02-23T20:27:00.001-05:00

Here are some final pics from her 2 month folder. Mommy was really trying hard with the tummy time thing, which she hates!! So I thought I would try putting her on her boppy to entice more time....it worked a little better, but still not her favorite position.

You looking at me??

Pretty baby :)

She makes me smile!

2010-02-23T20:21:00.001-05:00

This was the first night we noticed Charley really playing with her activity mat with her feet. As you might imagine, the point of this toy is for babies to use their hands and reach for the toys...well of course, our child must do things a little bit differently!

It didn't take very long and she had mastered this feet business. We started calling her "Twinkle toes"

Along with the feet theme this week, this was the first night she finally discovered her feet in the bathtub!

We had so much fun watching her play with her new little discovery...parenthood is so much fun!

Tailgating...with a twist

2010-02-23T20:12:00.000-05:00

After testing the waters with taking Charley on a 10 hour road trip, we thought we would try out tailgating the very next weekend to see how she would handle that. Again, like a champ! Although it was EXTREMELY hot...she did wonderful. She was surrounded by great company, namely her two cousins Ella Claire and Tate and friends, Max, Keith, Lily and baby Molly on the way. It was a great day with wonderful friends and all of our little ones...GOOOOO DAWGS!!

"Aunt Kelly" and Charley sportin' the black on this warm day.

Uncle Michael and "Uncle Chad" with their little ones Tate and Lily.

2010-02-23T20:07:00.005-05:00

Napping baby...but it didn't last very long...she was so afraid she was going to miss something.

Uncle Michael feeding me :)

Our classic girls picture, with a few additions :)

The Moore and Azzolin girls!

2010-02-23T20:07:00.004-05:00

Charley hanging out with Debbie and Baby Molly (ok, well she is on the way, but she was certainly kicking while Charley was squishing her.

Robert and baby Tate :)

Poor Charley was getting so hot, so we stripped her down to her diaper and layed her in front of the fan for a while.

And she's out....apparently the cool down and change of clothes was just what she needed....the end to a very fun day!

Beach Baby!

2009-09-12T22:06:00.024-04:00

Since Charley has proven herself to be the absolute best baby ever, we decided to push our limits and attempt to take her on a 6 hour road trip to the beach at 10 weeks. So we hopped in the car at about 6:00 on a Thursday night and headed to Pawleys Island to see our friends Erik and Lindsey who recently moved there in May. We had soooo much fun introducing Charley to all the new sights and sounds of the beach. Although she HATED the water, I think she really seemed to enjoy everything else. We will definitley be going back soon! See all the pics below and enjoy!

We slept in late on Friday morning and went and found a good place that served breakfast all day. This is what we found and it was so Yummy!!

Right inside the restaurant, they had this sign that read "where are you yolks from?". There was a push pin to represent all of the places where people had come from to eat at Eggs up Grill.

Since Covington was clearly covered in representation, we thought that Hawkinsville needed some attention. If you look closely, you can see the green pin in the middle on Hawkinsville.

The first patron from Hawkinsville! Yes, I am fairly certain that our own child thinks we are pretty cheesy!

Erik getting to hold Charley for the first time since he came to visit her in the hospital when she was born. She has grown quite a bit since the last time she has seen him.

Friday afternoon, our first venture out on the beach. We just went to take a little walk this time, no bathing suits until tomorrow.

Charley's first time getting her little toes wet in the water....she was not too sure about this.

She was just as content with us pushing her around in the stroller down the beach...who wouldn't love that?!

And she's out! We dug her a little sand cradle and put a towel in it and she slept there for quite a while in the breeze.

Saturday morning, Daddy and Charley sleeping in the couch so mommy could actually get some much needed rest in the bed. Are they cute or what???

Beach day! We took her tent and tucked her in a little corner and let the breeze flow through the tent and she and Rocky were as content as they could be.

Brother and Sister! :)

We decided that since we took the time to put her bathing suit on, we might as well give her a quick dip in the water just for the record.

And the verdict: She HATED it!!!! I think the water was just a little too cool for her...maybe next summer.

"Daddy, I am so mad at you for putting me in that water, I am not even going to look at you!"

After church on Sunday, we went back down to the beach to actually try and get some pictures. The wind was blowing soooo hard that day, and Charley was not very happy, so this is what we got. Again, maybe next summer. Sorry this one is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to move it.

Family! :)

Sweet Daddy!

On the way home, we read some books (Goodnight moon is her favorite!)

After reading books, this is what she did for the rest of the ride. Again, she is the best baby in the world! She handled the 6 hour car ride better than mommy did!

2 month update!

2009-08-31T10:52:00.012-04:00

Can you believe that our sweet little one is already 2 months old!?!? Crazy how the time flies! We took her in for her 2 month well baby check up and the dreaded first round of shots. Yikes! Mommy was not excited about this visit at all.

As it turned out, Charley did absolutely wonderful with the shots, but Mommy had a little melt down as they were being administered, I just couldn't take it. But all is well. She is up to 10lbs, 14 oz. and 23 inches long. That puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length. What's so funny is she was only in the 10th percentile for length when she was born, so maybe she won't be as short as we originally expected. Everything checked out beautifully and she didn't have any side effects from the shots. Praise God!!

See below for some random pictures that we took during the past week around the 2 month mark.

Finally...everyone is asleep and mommy can get some things done! Better hurry, one of the three of them is bound to wake up soon!

These pictures are actually in the wrong order. Recently we discovered some interaction between Charley and Rocky that actually involved physical contact. This is a close up to prove that it really happened. :)

Rocky is not really sure about this new relationship.

I'm gettin outta here!

Before now I don't think Charley or Rocky knew that the other one even existed.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all wake up this happy? I took the camera in one morning when I went to wake her up to get some shots of her laughing and smiling in action. This is her actually laughing.

There's that smile! :)

Going for a walk with mommy...doesn't she look like such a big girl in that stroller ?

Promise to be better with the updates. Yall come visit us!!

Visits from the Grandparents!

2009-08-31T10:37:00.006-04:00

Since our little one has come into the world, we have found that it doesn't take much to get some visitors to come to our house. In the past two weekends we had both Papa and Nana (my Dad and Sandra) and Ganny (my mom) come up for weekend visits. We decided that this is almost easier than going to Hawkinsville and trying to get around to everyone all in one weekend. See below for some of the shots we took while they were here.

Charley getting to know her Papa....yes, he is crazy, get used to it baby...Mommy has lived with it all her life ;)

Playing with Papa

Charley checking out her Nana....thinking are you really married to that crazy man!?! :)

Charley and her Ganny hanging out.

Talking to Ganny!

What a difference 6 weeks makes!

2009-08-11T07:48:00.000-04:00

Wow! Mommy almost cried today because I finally had to break down and put up all of Charley's newborn clothes. She grew out of them about a week ago, but bad mommy has continued to stuff her in them hoping it would stop her growth....no luck. So we are officially wearing 3 month clothes. No...you are not going crazy....you're right....she isn't even 2 months old and is wearing 3 month sizes.....that's what I said too!

Yes, our little munchkin is growing like a weed. At her last Dr. visit about a week and half ago, she was 9 lbs, 2 oz....so she is more than likely over 10 lbs. now based on her growth rate over the past 5 weeks. Although this makes mommy sad, it is actually very good considering the fact that we have discovered that she has a severe case of acid reflux. We took her to the Children's Hospital of Atlanta this past Friday to confirm for sure. She handles it like a champ and it really doesn't seem to bother her too much at all. So we praise God for that blessing. We also pray that she will soon grow out of it. But other than that, she has a perfect bill of health.

Below are two pictures of her in the same outfit. The one at the bottom is the day we brought her home, while the one at the top was from church this past Sunday. Robert and I both knew she had obviously grown, but it is just amazing the perspective you get when you see her in the same outfit....she grew legs!!! :)

Taking Charley to Jesus' House!!

2009-08-02T15:08:00.001-04:00

Yes, we were nervous, but what better place to take our child than the House of the Lord? We took Charley to church this morning for the first time and it was such a blessing. Not only was everyone so ready to see her, they all gave us such a warm welcome back as well. After we got her settled in the nursery, we walked into the Sactuary and all of a sudden we heard all of the youth in the balcony shouting "Robert and Courtney!!" It brought tears to my eyes, and I realized that we really do have the most amazing church family!!

She did wonderful! It does help that we have the most fabulous nursery workers you could ask for :) She slept most of the time and made it a very easy transistion for mommy and daddy. As nervous as we were (almost to the point of dreading it a little), I'm so glad we did it and we are already excited about next Sunday!

So,we didn't even think about taking pictures until after we had finished eating lunch. We went back to the church and had to figure out how to take the pictures ourselves. The camera was actually sitting on top of the car here....this was about the best we could do.

Did I mention that she slept the entire time :)

Photo Shoot by a proud Mommy :)

2009-08-02T14:38:00.000-04:00

I have been getting a little better at getting some things checked off of my to-do list during maternity leave, one of which is getting birth announcements ordered. But before I do that, I needed some pictures to put on the announcement. So please forgive me for spoiling the surprise, but below are some of the pictures (which I must say, I am pretty proud of, given our very average quality camera and the fact that mommy has never really had a lot of experience editing pictures before) that will be on the birth annoucement that you all will receive. The last two pictures of Charley and her daddy will not be on the announcement, but will be in a frame at home.

LOVE it!!! So sweet!!

We all know that mommy is obsessed with her toes!

Does it get any sweeter than this. Look at both of their faces.

Rub a dub dub...I LOVE the tub!

2009-07-22T21:33:00.001-04:00

With each and every day that passes, we are learning more and more about our baby girl. It didn't take us long to figure out that next to eating, Charley's favorite thing to do is take a bath. She, like most babies, just loves it the minute you put her in the warm water. Unfortunatley, the second you take her out, it's screaming bloody murder until we get her all dressed and warm again.
Regardless, bathtime has become one of our favorite times as a family. It is so much fun for Robert and I to just sit and watch all of her funny faces and reactions to the water.

Clean my ears good Daddy! Robert was making "monkey noises" while cleaning behind her ears and Mommy was just cracking up.

Hilarious! She loves the spray setting on the faucet. Tonight we actually got some videos of her trying to eat the water when we got it close to her mouth...so funny!

Yea....we soaked her. Just wanted to see how she would react.

I LOVE THIS!

Feelin' Froggy :)

2009-07-20T14:57:00.001-04:00

So...I think I have officially passed the "Mom Test". You know you are a mom when you have to take a picture of your baby in her cute Frog PJ's regardless of how silly Charley or Daddy thinks it might be. Our friend Peyton (her mommy, Jaynah is one of our friends from college), who is a few weeks older than Charley, gave us these PJ's because she had gotten two sets of them. Mommy thinks they are super cute and worthy of their own blog post.

"Daddy....are you really going to let her do this to me...I mean really, what if I asked Mommy to take her picture in her PJ's and no make up to show the entire world...she might not be too happy about that...why this torture???"

"Ok mom....one more pic, and I'm out!"

"AAHHHHH" Get me out of here!!"

These were the cute little feet :)

On a different note, I took this picture this past Saturday. Robert and I were doing some things around the house while Charley was sleeping in her swing. I walked by during her little nap and had to do a double take. I thought "Wow...you are starting to look like a little baby and no longer like a newborn!!" She is growing up right before our very eyes and I am trying to soak up every single moment!

Weeks two and three

2009-07-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

Mommy is trying super hard in the middle of nursing, changing diapers, putting in another load of clothes, putting up the dishes, nursing, changing diapers, nursing and changing diapers to keep up with these pictures in real time. I have put her pictures from week 2 and 3 together here, just for efficiency purposes (that term has a whole new meaning these days). We hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoy taking them :)

These first ones are actually week #3 (so this past week)

She's waving at you!

Mommy adores her cute little toes!

Yawn! (mommy was secretly hoping she would fall asleep here pretty soon ;)

One of my favorites so far. I actually caught a smile with our piece of junk camera. As luck would have it, our new camera messed up on us a week after she was born, so we have had to revert back to the old one for the time being until we can get it fixed.

This next set is from week #2

This baby LOVES to suck her fingers, especially at night time after her bath.

This was Charley all day one Saturday when we went shopping for a good portion of the day and out to dinner. Praise God for a well mannered child that allows mommy and daddy some freedom from time to time.

Her first real bath after her little stump fell off. As promised, you can see that she like this one much better.

Another one of mommy's favs!

Poor thing is so small that sometimes she will slide right on over to the side and mommy has to catch her before she drinks the entire bathtub of water, which might put a little damper on these relaxing bathtimes...who wants to drink soapy water???

Daddy and baby like to cuddle every night between bathtime and bedtime...so sweet!

Our 1st 4th as a Family of 3! (yes, mommy is a numbers girl ;)

2009-07-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

When you have a one week old, 4th of July parties at the pool or the lake with fireworks and other excitement is just a little too much to handle. So thankfully, we were able to have a nice, laid back dinner at Ron and Pam's house to celebrate on a much smaller scale....but it was still fun. Here are some pictures we took in our patriotic outfits. I had a cuter outfit for Charley to wear, but it was way too big, so we had to work with what we had. Enjoy!

Week One at Home...Success!

2009-07-13T11:03:00.000-04:00

We survived the first week at home with our baby girl! In all seriousness, we really can't complain too much, she is a really good baby. The very first night at home was a little rough, but she slept for 4 straight hours on just the second night and has done that on a pretty regular basis since then.
We are still learning and getting to know each other as a family, but it has been a lot of fun. See below for some pictures of the first week.

I know, I know, I was just ranting on what a good baby she is and this is the first picture :) This was her first bath at home and as you can see, she LOVED it! Unfortunately, we had to give her sponge baths for the first 2 weeks until her little stump on her belly button fell off. The problem with sponge baths is they tend to get cold after the first 30 seconds. We have now started real baths and she really does seem to like those.

Feeling much happier in Daddy's arms all wrapped up in the towel.

First trip to the pediatrician. Everything checked out perfectly. She had already gained back up to her birth weight at 5 days old, which the pediatrician was very happy about.

Hanging out with Nanny!

Will, Allison and Sam came to visit. Sam is about 4 weeks older than Charley, and far outweighs her. It was kind of funny to put the two of them together.

Soooo funny, these two are going to be buddies one day!

Mimi and Pop, Uncle Michael, Aunt Stephanie and Cousins Ella Claire and Tate came over for dinner one night. Ella Claire was so excited to get to hold her baby cousin for the first time since the hospital didn't allow visitors under the age of 12. She was too cute playing with baby Charley.

Mimi and Pop enjoying their grand baby.

Pop and Charley getting to know each other.

"Aunt Audrey" came to visit...Yay!!! She also brought us a pink rose bush that we planted outside just for Charley...so sweet!

Preacher Julie! She was so excited to get to see Baby Charley for the first time. I think Charley liked her a lot! :)

"Aunt Meredith"!

Charley having some "Tummy time" in the rainforest. Sooo funny!! Notice the giraffe that Daddy has in the picture on the left and Rocky trying to get his face in the shot at the top.

Stretch to Mr. Giraffe! The sad thing is very soon, she will be big enough to reach up and grab that Giraffe anytime she wants to.

That about wraps up our first week at home. Will post pictures from her first July 4th celebration along with week two shortly!

Photo shoot in our coming home outfit :)

2009-07-04T17:49:00.001-04:00

Since we spend so much time and effort picking out that perfect outfit to officially bring our baby home in, we thought we should at least take a few pictures in her sweet outfit.

Coming Home!

2009-07-04T17:33:00.001-04:00

After a wonderful experience in the hospital, somehow they trusted us to come home with this baby :) Here are some pictures of the adventure from the hospital home.

Our wonderful nurse helping us to make sure the car seat is just right.

On the ride home.

We made it finally!

Introducing Charley to Rocky and all of the visitors that were there to welcome her home.

Our Family in front of her bow. This bow has been the talk of the neighborhood for the past several weeks. Ever since our 36 week appt., all of the neighbors have been waiting to see the bow go up. Thanks Ron and Pam for taking care of that while we were in the hospital.

Daddy and Charley!

Mommy and Charley! Can you tell how tired I am??

Our new Family....we are so in love with her!

2009-07-04T17:22:00.000-04:00

As all parents know, there is no greater love than the love you have for your children. And it is amazing just how quickly you fall in love with the precious gifts from God from the minute you hear that first cry. We are more in love with this little girl than we could have ever imagined. And we fall more and more in love with her every day.

All of our visitors

2009-07-04T16:57:00.001-04:00

Charley has been loved from the start and it shows with all of the visitors that came to see her during her first few days of life in the hospital. We love you all and are so thankful that you could come and celebrate our precious blessing with us.

Daddy and Proud "Papa"

"Mimi" is in love with her newest grandbaby.

Great Aunt Lynn

Daddy and "Nanny" changing Charley's first diaper.

"Uncle Erik" He came all the way from South Carolina just to see Baby Charley. "God is good. All the time!"

"Aunt Kristen" getting to know Charley.

Charley with her "Nana".

The Beginning of the most Exciting Adventure of our lives!!

2009-07-04T12:34:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I apologize for this taking so long, but somehow this 6 lb. human being takes all of the time and energy from both mommy and daddy 24 hours a day!

We went to the hospital on Wednesday evening, June 24th around 9:00 p.m. I was pretty sure my water had broken around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, but for those of you who know me well should not be surprised that I decided that we needed to clean the entire house, take a shower, and pack our stuff before we left. Upon our arrival, they had to run some tests to be sure that my water had actually broken. By the time midnight rolled around and we still had not heard anything, Robert and I had pretty much chalked it up and figured that we would probably be sent home. To our surprise, the nurse came in just a few minutes later and said...."well, do you want to start pitocin now or at 4:00 a.m.?" Robert and I both looked at each other in total shock and surprise. Robert even said to the nurse, "so....this is it, we are having a baby!?!?!" She said "Yep, you will not be leaving this hospital without your baby!" We were sooooo excited!

We opted to wait until 4:00 a.m. to start the pitocin, with the intentions of getting some food and maybe an hour or two of sleep (yeah right!)! I sent Robert to Wendy's to get my last meal and he came back with most of it right. Due to the excitement, he didn't even know what he was ordering, but he did make sure that everyone at Wendy's knew we were having a baby! :)

We ate our food, then tried to do some walking around to get the contractions started, and they definitely started coming. The sleep part never came and we are still waiting on some time to catch up, maybe tomorrow ;)

Around 4:00, they came in and started the pitocin. And by 5:00, I was in some pretty major pain, asking for the epidural. I went through some pretty hard contractions for the next 2 hours, until the epidural came around 7:00. At 7:01, I was back to my normal, sarcastic self. As they were laying me down after the epidural, I said to the nurse (jokingly) "I mean do you think you could hook one more wire to me??" Robert said, "Wow, you are back!" From then on, things were great!

I progressed pretty quickly with the pitocin. At 5:00, I was 5 cm, at 7:00 7cm. So they said we should have a baby here by 11:00 or so. They came in at 10:30, 9.5 cm. They came back at 11:00 and we started the first push at 11:08. Baby was here at 11:43!

I must say, the entire labor and delivery process was actually fun and exciting (mind you, I did have an epidural and I can't speak for those who do it completely naturally). Even pushing was fun. It was extremely exhausting, but an experience that Robert and I will never forget.

This was about 1:00 a.m. We were soooo excited that we didn't know what to do with ourselves.

Daddy was trying to get some sleep.....ha, ha...never happened!

Here she is! Her first picture of her life....so beautiful!

She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs, 13 oz, 18.5 inches long.

Getting her all checked out. Everything checked out wonderfully!

Daddy and Charley both crying! So sweet!

Our happy family, just a few minutes after delivery.

Mommy and her sweet girl. She has a few marks from birth, but they are fading away little by little each day.

39 weeks - almost there!

2009-06-22T11:23:00.000-04:00

We went back to the Dr. this morning. STILL 1 cm dilated, but getting close to 100% effacement, which is still progress. Here is the run down of how the conversation went after he checked me:
Dr.: So, what are we going to do?
Courtney: I say let's have this baby this week
Dr.: Ok, well let's have her tomorrow then.
Courtney: (heart drops to the floor and develops small knot in her throat) Whoa!, hang on, can we at least wait until Friday?!?!?
Dr.: (chuckles a little) Sure, we can do whatever you want to do.
Then the Dr. procedes to call the hospital and set us up for an induction on Friday morning at 6:00.
I don't know why the thought of tomorrow made me freak out just a little, I think it was just the reality finally hit me really quick...it was all kind of funny. I think Dr. Robinson thinks I am a little out of control, and he may be right. But I decided that if we are going to plan, let's at least plan for the weekend, so that it makes it easier for everyone to come up and see her :)
So, that is the plan! I'm sure that now that I have it in my head that she is coming on Friday, she will decide to change mommy's plans and come on Wednesday or something. But either way, regardless, we will be holding our new baby girl on Friday! Yay! Praise God!
Please continue to keep our family in your prayers and we hope that you will all come and see us!!
Also, we took one last picture of mommy's ginormous belly, see below: (and no laughing allowed!)

Now we just need baby and we will be complete!

2009-06-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

I think we have finally gotten everything ready and in place for this baby to arrive. We have baby stuff hidden away in every single room in the house. It is amazing how much stuff you need for such a small person! Here are some pictures of the nursery as it is now and some other baby stuff in the house. We can't wait to finally have some pictures with our baby girl using some of these things very soon!

Swing and bouncy seat in the living room. We also have another swing in the nursery and another bouncy seat that will more than likely wind up in our bathroom to use while mommy is taking a shower.

Here's the view of the nursery from the door. Obviously the car seat will be out of there, but for now that is it's home.

Love the letters! Daddy and Nana (Sandra) did a great job with them while mommy and Papa patiently watched and took pictures :)

I have a feeling mommy and daddy will be spending a lot of time here in this chair holding and rocking baby.

Changing table all set up with diapers, wipes and cream in the box.

Here's the other swing. We might move it to our bedroom if we decide that it is more efficient there, but for now this place works. And the diaper cake will eventually be taken apart and used since there are only 163 newborn diapers in there! Absolutely cannot let all of those go to waste!

This is actually a diaper wreath that my mom had a friend make . It is soooo cute. We probaby won't actually use the diapers on this one and just let it hang for decoration for a little while.

All of her cute stuffed animals inside the crib. Obviously these things will be removed once she starts sleeping in there.

This is right above the rocking chair in the corner. These are more pictures of Robert and I as babies. Both of us were right around 10 months old here.

We saw this plate in a store last week and absolutely could not live without it! It was perfect for our sweet girl. In case you can't read it, it it says "For this child we prayed....1 Samuel 1:27" For those of you who know our story know that her room would not be complete without this on the wall.

This is all of her stuff that has been sitting in the dining room just like this for the past 3 weeks, ready to go to the hospital at any time. And it is still sitting there, (with the exception of the car seat, which Daddy has already put in the truck). The pink bow on the left is actually at our neighbor's house now. They are responsible for putting it on our mailbox as soon as she arrives in the world. The outfit in the middle is what we will bring her home in. And yes, that is two diaper bags that you see, both of which are full. Always have to be prepared for anything! :)

38 weeks and counting

2009-06-16T12:42:00.001-04:00

We went back to the Dr. yesterday for our 38 week appt. Looks like I am still sitting at 1 cm dilation, but have progressed to 80% effacement. So at least that is some progress. The Dr. said that with first babies, you ususally thin out (efface) first before you dilate, so it looks like my body is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Still no further indication of timing. We are still looking at any day now between now and the due date. The possibilty of induction right around the due date has been brought up and the Dr. said that I would do very well with that if we chose that route, as my body has already started progressing on it's own. As she is on the larger size (Charley that is), we may decide to take that route if she does not come on her own within the next 2 weeks.
Other than that, Mommy and Daddy are doing great, just wondering how much longer with each day that passes. I have officially been put on Maternity leave as my commute back and forth to work is at least an hour. So we really are ready for "Go Time" anytime this child of ours decides she is ready. I have definitely felt a decrease in her movements, in fact the Dr. put me on the monitor for a while yesterday, just as a precaution, but she is perfectly fine. Seems like she is just simply running out of room in there, which makes Daddy and I hope that maybe that will intice her to want to get out soon :)
Please continue to keep our sweet little girl in your prayers, especially in the days ahead as we make progress closer and closer to her birthday!

36 week appt.

2009-06-01T19:43:00.001-04:00

As promised, I will try my best to keep this updated on a weekly basis as I go to the doctor from now going forward. Had an appt this morning and as it turns out, I am dilated 1 cm and am 50% effaced, which was great to hear! This means that we are on our way, and it could be any day between now and the next 3-4 weeks, although it is unlikely that we will make it all the way to the due date. The doctor did tell us that since I have started progressing naturally on my own, we do have the option of an induction anytime that we would like to do that after the 38 week mark. Note, I will be 38 weeks on June 15th. But, for now we are going to wait it out and see if she will just come naturally, although we will not let it go past the due date for sure!
We also wound up in the hospital today due to some contractions, but a false alarm. The did take me in and put me on the monitor for about 2 hours monitoring both my contractions and her heartbeat. It turns out that I am actually having contractions roughly about every 5 minutes, but nothing to be too alarmed about just yet. They are not hard contractions, just generally mild, but definitely another sign that we think it will be sooner rather than later. Will keep you posted as we find out more. The next appt is next Wednesday, which also happens to be our 3 year anniversary...YAY!!

Couples Shower

2009-05-31T08:12:00.001-04:00

Our sweet neighbors, Ron and Pam, threw us a couples shower to celebrate Charley's arrival. This was our last shower before the big day! We had tons of fun and got to enjoy some wonderful food, fellowship and friends all in one place!

Me and my sweet Audrey! Actually she will be "Aunt Audrey" to Baby Charley :)

Some of my friends from work, Myra, Andrew, Jason and Ashley. So glad they could come!

Whit and Katlyn sharing some of their snacks with each other :)

This time the boys got to enjoy all of the fun baby stuff. I wanted to make sure that Robert knew what each and every gift was....."Look Honey, isn't this cute!"

And of course, I wouldn't know what to do if we didn't have kids there to show us how to open all the gifts.

The CUTE cake....I absolutely loved it!

The Happy Parents to be :)

Me and Pam! Thanks guys, this was so much fun! Charley is so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who love her so much already!

Hospital info, etc.

2009-05-26T16:30:00.001-04:00

Robert and I went to the hospital, where we will be delivering, for a tour of the facility. I wanted to give you all the website to the hospital (Rockdale Medical Center): http://www.rockdalemedicalcenter.org/

You can also click on this link for directions:
http://www.rockdalemedicalcenter.org/Directions/Default.aspx

Also, the address is:
1412 Milstead Avenue
Conyers, Georgia 30012
770-918-3000

You will enter through the East Tower (parking is available right outside the entrance). Once you come in, you will take the elevators up to the the 1st floor and follow the signs to The Birth Place.
Please note (we didn't realize this), after we have delivered and have moved over to the Mother/Baby side, there are limitations on visiting hours. Visitors are only allowed from 1 - 9 pm. But that is only after the baby is here. There are no limitations on hours anytime prior to and immediately after delivery. Also, children under the age of 12 are not allowed at anytime, although, Robert and I (and a few others) think we might be able to bend this rule a little if we are careful, kind and courteous, but I did want you all to be aware that that rule was in place. Hopefully it won't pose a problem.

As far as other updates; I promise to keep this updated on at least a weekly basis from now until the big day so that you all will know exactly what is going on. I am currently 35 weeks and doing great. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors, Robert and I were able to get away for one last vacation to the beach this past weekend (And no, I will NOT be posting pics of me in the maternity bathing suit!). Thanks so much Ron and Pam!

My next Dr's appt is Monday, June 1st and I will see him on a weekly basis after that. Charley should about somewhere around 5.5 - 6 lbs at this point, so she is well on her way. We are just trying to get last minute things together and taken care of. Will post final pics of the nursery soon, once it is complete.

Hope you all are well and can't wait for you each to meet our daughter!

Pregnancy Pictures

2009-05-26T16:14:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Charley's Aunt Stephanie, we were able to capture some really great images of this special time. I am about 34 weeks here (I apologize for the lack of updated weekly pictures). Enjoy!

I think this is my favorite.

More Showers!! Yay!

2009-05-26T15:29:00.000-04:00

Dublin Family Shower (5/17/09) This shower was a ton of fun, thanks to my cousins and Aunt for throwing it!

Here are all of the gifts. Notice the BEAUTIFUL high chair on the left side....thanks Kris, Sarah and Lynn...I LOVE it. We have already found the perfect place for it in our kitchen!

Charley got a RIDICULOUS amount of clothes at this shower! It was out of control, but so much fun! I even made Robert look at every single outfit when we got home, he was thrilled ;)

Me and the beautiful hostesses (except my Aunt Lynn)...thanks girls!

Me and my favorite grandmothers (Nanny and Granny Ruth), I just love them!

*************************************************************************************

Hawkinsville Shower (5/9/09). These pictures are in reverse chronological order from what actually happened, but oh well, they are here. This shower was also so much fun and I cannot thank Stephanie, Elinor and Mandi for throwing it, they did a great job!

Me, Meredith, Kelly and Lily :)

Me and Elinor (she looks amazing, might I add)

Me and the hostesses (except Stephanie)

I don't think I could have opened all of the presents without the help of Lily and Ella Claire (or at least that is what they thought :)). Honestly, by the time they got the gift opened, they grabbed it and took it across the room to let everyone see, so I didn't really get a chance to see all of the gifts until I got home and sorted through them. But as long as they were having fun, that is all that matters!

All the guests playing some games

The precious cake!

The punch and cake table

The food table...soooo yummy!

Lily and Ella Claire! Are they cute or what? I can't wait for Charley to get here to meet them :)

Some of the gifts.

I saw these flowers as soon as I walked into the church. I thought to myself (wow, what a nice centerpiece). Little did I know, Robert had these sent to the church for me for Mother's Day...so sweet!

Mama pinning on my flowers.

Youth Baby Shower!

2009-04-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

We officially had our first baby shower this past Sunday night, April 19th. Our awesome youth group threw it for us and it was sooooo much fun. See below for all of the fun and games!

This was the gift table. Well, the youth gave us one big gift, that was awesome by the way, (see below). This is also where the phenominal diaper cake was that Lindsey did an excellent job with. And on the right are some cards and a box. Each person at the shower wrote a personal message for me, Robert, and Charley and put them in this box. We are not allowed to open it and read them until we come home from the hospital. So for now the box is on a high shelf in her room, so mommy won't be tempted to spoil the surprise :)

Here is a close up of the phenominal diaper cake discussed above. Also, you will see there are baby pictures of Robert and I on either side. Kind of weird, but we were able to find a very similar picture of both of us doing the exact same thing (holding this yellow brush) around the same age....guess it was meant to be :) Also, the black bag sitting in the front is actually a bag of pink and green M&M's. But they're not just any M&M's, they have mine and Robert's faces printed on them with "Mommy to be" and "Daddy to be" on the other side, where the
"M" usually would be....very cool!

Here are some of the tables of the youth and adults. This is some of the girls.

Our table with big fat preggo mommy :) Notice my plate is empty!

Erik, Lindsey, and Julie! (and Liam)

The boys!

The fabulous dessert table! Note, if you haven't noticed, the theme is pink and green. So naturally there was a pink and green cake on the dessert table. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside. The cake was actually a pink and green checkerboard design....thanks Jennifer Morganthall! So yummy, and cute!

Game #1: See which male can guess the baby food by taking a little bite of it. Soooo funny! They thought it was quite disgusting, but as it turns out, Wesley was pretty good at this game.

Erik feeding Robert. I think these were prunes.....Gross!!

Game #2: For those of you who don't know, Robert will tell you that our "perfect" child will come out already potty trained, so we are not going to even have to worry about diapers. But just in case that is not true, we had a who can change and clean the baby the fastest contest.

Someone placed a little surprise in Robert's. It was actually melted Reese cups...so gross looking, but his reaction was priceless!

Of course Mommy had been done with her baby for several minutes at this point. I was just looking on to see what the heck was taking Daddy so long :)

Done! He was so proud of himself. Notice the clothes are no longer on the baby. He decided to just take them off completely, thinking that would be easier and cleaner.

Game #3: Can you guess who this is? This game was just for the girls. Some of the girls brought in pictures from when they were a baby and we all had to see if we could guess who they were.

Our Big Gift! We like to call this Charley's Cadillac. It is a very nice Eddie Bauer travel system. Thanks so much, we can't wait to be able to use it!!

Game #4: Can you guess how big Mommy's belly is? I think Ivy thinks I have an elephant in my belly or something :)

The Proud Parents-to-be after a night of great fun and fellowship with some of our favorite people! Thanks again to everyone, it was perfect!!

Ok ok already....Here are some pics of the nursery in process.

2009-04-09T08:39:00.001-04:00

Some of you have been begging for updated nursery pics, so here goes. We still have a ways to go, but since we got her bedding in, I thought I would go ahead and post where we are so far.

As you can see, the walls are a little bare. I want to get some cute letters and put her name above her crib. Also going to cover that green chair, that is actually Robert's grandmother's chair, so we thought it would be sweet to put it in her room. I am working on getting some curtains made also. Notice the sock monkey in the chair, this sweet lady at our church made that by hand just for Charley....so sweet!

Close up of the bedding...I love it!

Her quilt. Once she is born, I will get her birthdate monogrammed under her name.

This is some of the furniture that Robert and I attemped to paint in the antique/distressed look. I think it turned out pretty well, considering this was our first time and we had no clue what we were doing. I still need to get knobs and pulls to go on there.

Notice the shelves at the top, I actually bought those for nothing from a store that was going out of business. They were selling everything in the store down to the display shelves.

Here is the other piece of furniture. No, the swing will not stay here, it will eventually go in our living room once she is here, but this is where we stuck it for now.

I know, I know, the poor child is deprived. And no, our first shower is not until next weekend, so this is all mommy's fault :) But I must say that 90% of this came from the consignment store. Mommy has become a consignment store junkie. I figured she would get tons of new clothes at her showers.

28 week Ultra Sound Pictures

2009-04-07T20:20:00.001-04:00

As promised, I have posted the pics below from our appointment today. Charley looks perfect! And as the saying always goes, "mommies know everything", I was correct in the fact that Charley is a little larger than the average 2.5 lbs. She is actually about 2 lbs 12 oz., which is still in line with her being in the 60th percentile for her size. As long as she continues at the rate that she has been going, they predict that she will be no smaller than 8.5 lbs at birth. As most of you probably know, her Daddy was a 10lb baby, so her size is not the least bit surprising :) Her heart rate was about 140 bpm, which was music to mommy's ears. Please continue to pray for her (and her crazy mommy who can't seem to quit worrying about her).

This picture is a little scary at first, but it is actually her right in the middle of a yawn, it was so cute to see her sweet little yawn. But when we looked at the picture, we thought that it resembled this painting that I'm sure all of you have seen at some point. This is called "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. I hope that this is not an indicator of what Charley's intentions are when she finally gets here....again please pray for mommy and daddy ;)

This is her looking at you. If you look closely, you can really make out her face pretty well. She actually has her eyes open which is really neat to see. Looks like she might have her mommy's enormous eyes, or at least that is what Daddy thinks :)

28 Weeks, welcome to the 3rd Trimester!!

2009-04-05T21:50:00.000-04:00

Yay! We have finally made it to the 3rd Trimester, now it is time for the countdown!. Mommy and Charley are doing great, although Mommy worries every second of every day for no apparent reason. We go back to the Dr. on Tuesday of this week, so we will post more ultrasound pics and updates of baby Charley's well being. For now at 28 weeks, she is approximately the size of a pair of tennis shoes, roughly 15.5 inches, and about 2.5 lbs. Now if I know my little girl, my guess is, when we go to the doctor, we might find that she is a little larger than that :) but we will see. Please continue to keep both mommy and baby in your prayers (and Daddy too) and hope that we can continue smooth sailing through this last trimester!

24 weeks and growing!

2009-03-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

Wow! Mommy is growing by the day. I don't ever realize it until I take pictures and compare them. Mommy and Charley are both doing great. At the last doctor's appt., (22.5 weeks), Charley weighed 1 lb 5 oz. She is still on track to be a little larger than average, but that's ok...who doesn't love a cute chubby baby :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

2009-03-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but we got a total of about 5-6 inches....can you believe it!?!?

There was no way that we could get out and drive in this.

I know this is not a baby related post, but thought some of you might be interested to see all of the snow we got on Sunday, March 1, 2009! We just wish that Baby Charley were here to see it for herself. Oh yea, not sure if we have made the announcement official, but we have decided on Charley Elizabeth Moore for our baby girl.....we just cannot wait for her to be here.

20 week belly pics

2009-02-08T21:01:00.001-05:00

Please excuse the way I look, we had just gotten back from running around with the youth. But who am I trying to kid, most of you know that I am a jeans, t-shirt and ponytail kind of girl.

Yay! We are halfway there, and Mom is getting the belly to prove it! This week, Baby Moore is the size of a Coconut...or so that's what they say. We will continue posting pics of Mom's growing belly because it is beginning to grow larger by the day :)

It's a GIRL!!!

2009-02-01T16:56:00.000-05:00

It's a GIRL!!!! We are soooo excited about our baby girl. Mommy has already begun her sweet little wardrobe...it is so much fun!

Beautiful profile. Those black spots are her heart and her stomach....so amazing!!

Baby Girl Moore already sucking her thumb!

We went in for a level II ultrasound and got to see our baby girl from every angle possible. The ultrasound nurse said that she was the most beautiful baby girl she had ever seen!! :) She did say that she already weighs 9 oz. and at this point (18weeks), they are usually between 5 and 7 oz.!! Wow, although I am not surprised, I am just so glad that she is healthy...Praise God!

First Belly Pics! (More to come)

2009-02-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

The Nursery in Progress

2009-02-01T16:36:00.001-05:00

All done - I think Baby Moore is going to absolutely LOVE IT!! Thanks Daddy and Aunt Audrey!

He was in that room for 3 days straight - but got it done!

For those of you who know me well, should not be surprised that we had the nursery done before the end of the First Trimester. "Aunt" Audrey and Robert did a great job! I wasn't allowed any closer than the doorway, but that didn't stop me from still trying to take control :)

First Pictures

2009-02-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of Baby Moore at 12 weeks. Starting to look much more like a baby than the 6 week ultra sound.

Welcome!

2009-02-01T16:13:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our Family Blog! We are so excited to welcome our first baby into the world due June 29, 2009. Please visit often for updates, new pics, etc. We want each of you to enjoy this journey with us. May God Bless you all!