Is It Really Monday?

It doesn't really feel like Monday to me.  Normally, when it's my weekend to work, I get Monday off.  This week, I swapped shifts with one of the other pharmacists so now I have to work 12-8pm today and have tomorrow off instead.  Not so bad, considering I have all morning to spend with my baby girl and get a little "break" in the week tomorrow.

We had some exciting news come about towards the beginning of the weekend.  Brandon got a new job!  He has officially quit his job with his old company and will start his new job in about a week or so.  We are both really excited about this new opportunity.  The biggest perk (at least in my opinion):  less travel!  It's going to be so great to have him home more often.  He will still have to travel overnight some, but it will be considerably less than what he was doing at his old job.

We had a fun weekend even though I spent the majority of it at work.  I got off at 4pm on Friday, so I was really excited to be able to spend a little extra time with the family Friday night.  We had a great night at home.  Brandon and I played with Anniston and sang countless songs to her so she would laugh and smile.  When we would run out of songs to sing, we did resort to singing along with commercials that came on TV.  Oddly enough, those were the ones she liked the best.  I think she likes us singing together too.  It was fun.  And cheesy.

On Saturday, my parents came in town to spend the day with Anniston while I was at work and Brandon was catching up on some stuff around the house.  After work, Brandon and I went about our normal bedtime routine with A and then laid around catching up on DVR.  I even got a foot massage while we were watching TV!  Oh my..

On Sunday, Brandon's mom, nana, sister, and her two girls came to visit and see Anniston while I was at work.  I was sad that I missed out on all the fun but it was nice getting her all to myself when I got off work:)

I'm looking so forward to Tuesday this week.  It's my day off and Brandon will be off as well.  We're trying to think of something fun to do since it's not often we both have a weekday off together.  I think we may go eat at a local taco shop for an early dinner.  It will be the first time we've gone out to dinner just us and Anniston.

I think this is going to be a good week!  Here are some pics I snapped from this weekend.  Happy Monday!

Anniston is 4 Months!

My beautiful Anniston Ruth,

Yay!  You are now 4 months old. It's amazing to reflect back on the past month and realize how much you have changed in such a short amount of time.  You are such a happy baby.  You will smile and laugh at practically nothing.  Sometimes I can just look at you and smile and in return your eyes will light up and you give me the biggest grin.  We play silly games, look at ourselves in the mirror, and sing songs like "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Since I've returned to work, you have started going to Miss Kristi's during the day.  She takes such good care of you and sends me emails during the day on how you are doing.  You will smile and laugh at her so I know you like her too.  We are so lucky to have found such a great person to watch you while I'm at work.

We have FINALLY found a pacifier that you will take!  You were so picky that we had to go through about 7 different ones to find one that satisfied you.  You are still not attached to it (which will be good for later on) but it really helps satisfy you when you get fussy and squirmy.  Of course, the brand that you like seems to be really hard to find in stores, so we've had to specially order some back-ups off the internet.

You are still taking 4 oz of milk every couple of hours and have gotten really good at sleeping through the night.  What a relief!  And just in time for me to return to work!  You still take a little catnap in between almost every feeding.  I can tell the second you start getting sleepy because you will rub your eyes with your fists and yawn.  It's so cute.

You have started "talking" and making little noises so much more now.  Some days you apparently have a lot to say and will just sit in your bouncy seat making all sorts of little sounds.  A couple of nights ago, you woke me up with your "talking."  Daddy and I laid in bed for a minute just watching and listening to you on the video monitor.  It sounded like you were carrying on a conversation with yourself in there!  It was the funniest thing.  Another morning you talked to me all the way home from Miss Kristi's.  I would turn the radio down to try to hear you better and you would stop.  When I turned the radio back up, you started back up.  Maybe you were trying to sing along with the radio?  I don't know but it was quite entertaining!

You have rolled over a few more times by now.  You rolled over at Miss Kristi's one day and then got frustrated that your arm was stuck underneath you.  I was on my way to work one Saturday and Daddy texted me that you rolled over one way, then rolled back the other way.  I was so upset that I missed it and of course you wouldn't do it for me later that night.  You love to play in your jumparoo and sit in your highchair in the kitchen.  You also love to watch me get ready in the morning.  I do my make-up and dry my hair and you will just sit and stare at me.  I love it.

You are still in a size 2 diaper and in 3-6 month clothes.  You weigh about 16.4 lbs and are 25 inches long!  The doctor says you are doing great in weight and height.  You've had 4 ear infections by now.  We just finished up another round of antibiotics and went to the doctor today for your 4 month shots and -shocker- your ears were normal!  Maybe we will be good for awhile!

Baby girl, you are such a joy to be around and to play with these days.  Daddy and I have so much fun at night spending time with you and coming up with new ways to make you laugh and smile.  You bring happiness to my life every day.  I love you more than you could ever imagine.  Happy 4 months sweet Annie:)

Love,
Mommy

What's been going on...

This week has been super busy but fun at the same time.  B left to go on a business trip Sunday and just returned last night.  Needless to say, I have been busy working, taking care of Anniston, and running all the errands since he's been gone.  It's been a little challenging trying to get "stuff" done in between all that but I've tried not to worry about my never ending to-do list and just concentrate on spending my time with my baby until B got back in town.  A and I have had so much fun at night hanging out, watching our girly shows, and playing with Ruby.  She loves it when I sit her in the high chair and I sit beside her to eat my dinner.  For some reason, she loves to watch me eat and chew.  She giggles like it's the funniest thing when I chew obnoxiously and say "nom nom nom."  I know- we are silly girls.  We will work on table manners later.

Yesterday and today were my days off this week since it's my weekend to work.  I dropped her off at Miss Kristi's for a little while yesterday so I could run a few errands.  Afterwards, we went to Bebe and Papa's to hang out and eat some pizza.  Our cousin, Rebecca, brought over her little boy (Graham) to visit and play with Anniston.  These two are absolutely the cutest babies.  Graham is at such a fun age (almost 8 months) and he was cracking us up all night.  Here are some pictures I took of the night:

I think they liked each other...

 How cute is he?

B made it home last night instead of tonight so I was thrilled that he would be able to make it to her 4 month appointment we had scheduled for today.  Surprisingly, she did great with the shots this time around.  She cried for maybe 2 minutes and then was over it.  I had a bottle waiting for when she was done and she was much more interested in eating than she was at crying over some silly shots.  Thank goodness.  Here are 2 pics I snapped with my iphone:

We somehow made it into the office with only 1 sock.  I have no idea where we lost the other one and it has yet to be found...

We did learn that A is, in fact, ready for more big girl food than I originally thought.  After discussing it with our pediatrician, we are ready to incorporate more solids into her schedule.  She's been waking up more frequently during the night these past two weeks and the doctor seems to think my hungry baby is ready for more big girl foods!  Her ears checked out great this time so hopefully (fingers crossed) we can stay OFF antibiotics for a bit.  Overall, her check-up went very well and I'm very pleased with how great she is doing.  Tonight we are going to order some take-out and have a family night here at home - whoo hoo!

Photo Challenge Catch-Up

I'm playing catch-up with my photo challenge today!  Here are the last few days:
Day 10:  Self portrait

 Ok- not the best self portrait of myself.  I'm having a bad hair month day- so whatev...

Day 11:  Makes you happy

 How can this beautiful smile not make anyone happy?

 

The sweetest, cutest dog in the world always makes me smile...

 

And, of course, my husband always makes me happy!

Day 12:  Inside your closet

 

This is our linen closet made into my shoe closet!

Can't wait until we get a bigger house so I get a bigger closet.  Although this one is not a bad size considering the age of our house...

Day 13:  Blue

Yeah, I was totally uninspired for this one.  I went around for days looking for something that was blue and cool to take a picture of.  Nada...

Day 14:  Heart

This was Anniston ready to celebrate Valentine's with B and I on Saturday night.

Happy Valentine's Day

Miss Anniston wants to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

My Family

I'm linking up with Neely today over at A Complete Waste of Makeup to share more about me and my family.  Since Valentine's day is tomorrow, I thought I would share a little about my husband and I, how we met, and about us starting our family.

In 2004, I was a second year pharmacy student at UT College of Pharmacy and Brandon was a logistical sales rep for a world-wide shipping company.  On my 24th birthday, some friends and I decided it would be fun to go sing some karaoke.  We ended up at a small, hole in the wall place and sang our hearts out.  Brandon had attended an engagement party earlier in the night, and a group of them decided to continue the party by singing some karaoke as well. (Well- his friends did but B opted out.)  A group of us girls got up to sing "Love Shack" (and quite terribly, I must add.)  That's when Brandon noticed me and an hour later as we were leaving he followed us out to the parking lot asking for my number. I had just gotten out of a relationship and was not about to give some random guy that I had not even talked to my phone number.  My friends, however, thought he was cute and looked normal enough so one of them slipped him my number as we walked off.  Looking back, I'm really glad they did.  He called me the next night and we talked for an hour or two just getting to know each other.  After a week or two of phone conversations, we had our first date. Obviously, it went well.  He called me the next day to ask if we could go out again.  I knew he was going to be special because he didn't even follow the 3 day date rule!  (The unspoken rule that you must wait 3 days before calling after a good date so you seem aloof, breezy, and cool.) 

One Saturday in June 2006, I arrived at his house after a very long day of work at Super D Drugstore.  I was in my fourth year of pharmacy school, in the middle of rotations, and working there as a pharmacy intern on the weekends for a little extra cash.  I was exhausted and stressed from a 6 day work week and was under the impression we were going out for a nice dinner.  When I walked in the door to his house, there were red roses laid out in a path leading me to the living room.  There were candles everywhere and the lights were dimmed low.  My first thought was that he was doing something nice for me because he knew I had a long week and was super stressed.  He had ordered pizza and had a blanket set out on the floor for us to have a little picnic.  We sat down to eat and he handed me the pizza box.  I grabbed a slice and immediately started chowing down because I was so hungry.  He looked at me strangely and handed me the pizza box again.  "Look in there again" he said.  I opened it back up and sitting in the corner was a black velvet ring box.  He took it from me and proposed!  Honestly, he couldn't have picked a better way.  I was so surprised, which made it even better.

Here are is a snapshot of my ring and a couple of photos from our engagement session:

We decided to wait until September, 2007 to have the wedding so I could finish up pharmacy school and get settled in at my new job.  I wanted to be able to fully concentrate on my last few months of school (and pass the boards) before starting the stress of planning a wedding.  Our wedding was everything I had hoped it would be.  Sadly, I don't have any digital copies of our professional wedding pictures but I do have some random snapshots of the festivities.

Engagement party

Rehearsal dinner

getting ready!

This was actually a pic taken for my bridal portrait shots.  For the day of, I had my hair up and a beautiful veil:)  I got to walk down a huge, southern-style staircase and pretended I was Scarlett from Gone With the Wind.

My beautiful bridesmaids

In December 2007 we welcomed the first member of our family- our beautiful boxer, Ruby.  I spoil her every chance I get.  She is seriously the best dog I know and we love her so much!  Here are a couple of her puppy pics from the first day we got her:

B and I had four wonderful years to enjoy just being "us."  We traveled, had plenty of date nights, and sometimes just plain goofed off.   It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we waited awhile before having kids.  We were both so ready for parenthood by the time Anniston.

Fun times with just the two of us:

Honeymoon- Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2007

 Go TIGERS!

Biltmore- Asheville, NC 2006

San Francisco 2005

In October 2011, we welcomed our first child, Anniston Ruth.  Read all about her arrival here.  Our lives couldn't be more complete right now- and I have a feeling it's going to keep getting better!

Like Mother Like Daughter?

I came across some of my baby pictures a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at how much they reminded me of Anniston.  This picture is definitely not one of the best shots of Anniston (or me- hello, double chin!) but we are in a similar pose so I thought I'd use them.  What do you think?  Do we look anything alike?