If Your Happy and You Know it....

Playtime

We've almost mastered a roll- we get so very close! He loves tummy time in the mornings and only if he's happy haha!

Just a picture of my cutie

This was one morning last week while we were playing!

Aww rest

Yesterday Kevin and I took Tristin on a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby and Target! Getting out of the house felt amazing to say the least!
We went into Hobby Lobby to buy outside Xmas lights!! The big bulbs for the front of our house! You know from previous blogs how excited I am about Christmas so this put me over the edge when Kevin said he'd put up lights!
So we went in and got the lights-now I also needed glass for some frames I had purchased earlier in the year which have been awaiting Tristins arrival and his pictures! We picked the glass up and then I recieved a call from my sister about making stockings this weekend and so I quickly began hunting down fabric and ornaments for our stockings!! What fun! Needless to say we march up to pay and my few small purchases came out to be an expensive trip!

Once we got out it was time for a feeding so we sat in the car and watched Tristin gulp until he was satisfied!

Next stop Target! We went in originally to return diapers and get new ones! You see since our little guy is growing so much we didn't need our last box of 2 s and I had two packaged of 3 s that were huggies- which I hate!! These do not work for us! Hillary didn't care for them and I thought at first I was biased but after talking with Jan, she hates them as well. Anyways at wal mart you can only exchange diapers for diapers which is perfectly fine by me- however target gave us the gift card- o how I love thee! Well we picked up a package of 3s since they can start at 16 pounds and I'm guessing Tristin is around 14-15 so he'll be in those before you know it!! We then got infant Tylenol bc we never bought any and some gripe water which I heard works great!! We also picked up a paci clip since he is starting to use his more and I hate searching for it!!

We then made a run to Jasons Deli my fav and then home to pick up/clean and enjoy our outside Xmas lights Kevin put up!! I love them! So merry and bright!

Tristin did well and stayed up a bit this evening and well let's just say for the record since this will prob never happen again- I fed him at 9:30 and a little more to calm him down at 10:30 and after going to bed he didn't wake up until 4:45!!! What happened??? Let me just say the sleep was amazing and it's 6 and I feel o so ready to go for the day!! Yipee

I'll end on that wonderful bit of information!!!

Pregnancy-anxious

I just had the opportunity to sit down and read Lacey's blog over the wonderful joys pregnancy brings us-the gas(I had it major)-the extra hair-the awkwardness during your first few months, because you feel huge, but don't look it at all, and you do have a beer looking gut for a long time,-however you also feel everyone should be able to tell your expecting and comment-but if they do comment, you think you must look awful and really big since deep down you know you aren't that big yet. Wow..It brings about anxious minds, from the day you find out your expecting. You worry/are anxious for the first 3 or so months, hoping everything goes as planned, then once you cross that milestone you are anxious to know the sex, then once you find that out you reach the anxious stage of really showing, that moves quickly into wanting he/she out, and you left anxious and wondering what he/she will look like. Then when they arrive your anxious to get home and start your family, and very soon reality hits and your anxious to get sleep-the sleep you thought you weren't getting in the last weeks before their birth-o if I would have only known.

I love my little boy-I enjoy watching his milestones, but once again I'm left anxious because I can't wait for him to laugh, or roll over, or sit up, and crawl. I honestly can't wait to see him in his carhart overalls and cowboy boots, walking beside his dad as they "work" outside. I can't wait to see his face the day he discovers mud, or the day he looks at me from being away-and comes running to me. I am anxious to see his first school picture, what sport if any (he better in our family) choose to love. I'm anxious to hear stories of a day spent with his dad. I'm anxious to watch him grow-But most of all I'm anxious for it to not go so fast. I want to treasure it all.

I have to say-Lacey if your reading this-enjoy it. Be anxious-but don't let it get to you. I believe my mom now when she said it will happen when it happens-or to relax. Go out and have fun-even if you are tired,or have gas. Go to the movies-out to eat-not getting to do these is life changing-but worth it-but I do wish we'd been a little more adventurous!!

I know now when number 2 comes (it will be a while) that I'm going to try my best to enjoy it-I know I'll have new circumstances with a little boy to take care of at the same time-which I'm sure will still leave me anxious.

Christmas Decor

What a joy it is to be able to decorate for Christmas. I absolutely love this time of year. I enjoy decorating, the scents, the food, the tree, the belief that there is a Santa Claus-which I can't wait to start with Tristin, and I will hurt who ever tells him he isn't real-the traditions, the time shared with family-everything.

Christmas always started early for my family. We always got to spend Thanksgiving with my Mamaw, my mom's mom, and her entire family would come and we'd have Christmas! It was a blast spending the week with my family. We spent time with everyone, each of my moms brothers and sisters were there and their kids-and their kids kids who were more my age!!We would eat lunch, sing songs, watch football, ride on my Uncle Terry's wheelchair, play dress up, and sing more songs. We were an eclectic group let me tell ya. Anyways-it was always fun coming back to school and writing on the topic of-what did you do over your thanksgiving break, b/c I got to write about having Christmas.

Christmas would soon arrive, and I can remember the joys of getting into our footed pjs-sleeping in the same room as my brother and sister anxious for what Christmas day had in store for us. We would watch Troy on the weather before bed, to see where Santa was-I swear my sister/brother/and I heard Santa on the roof one night ;). The joys of getting the Oreos out and milk-(I wonder if my parents really ate/drank our treat?)

The joys of waking up in the morning and seeing what had been left-I remember one Christmas morning I woke up supper early-it was the year I received my little tykes play house-and I played with my playhouse for an hour-then went back to bed, and woke up when my brother/sister woke up and acted soo surprised. I mean I was-I had wanted this doll house for so long-I remember playing nonstop with that set-I hope I can get Tristin good gifts like that.

Now-Kevin and I get to begin our journey and traditions with Christmas. I absolutely can't wait! I get all giddy inside when I think about it!

Here are some pictures of the house-which by the way took me all day-since Tristin needed feeding assistance from time to time :). Enjoy-

This tree is in our study-it has all of our (my)Hallmark ornaments on it. Each year mom would get us an ornament that was part of our collection and we add to it yearly. I collect puppy love :) Since 91 I believe. We haven't found a good one for Kevin yet-they don't fit his personality. I can't wait to start one for Tristin!
Our Living Room tree- The star hasn't made it to the top yet-b/c I can't reach it!!
Kitchen table decor
Can't see a whole lot, but some decor-
I love these stockings
Our dinning room-
Our newest stockings-Kevin, Me, Tristin, and Kooper(our dog)
Aww..my snow people!!!

Holidays

We got to spend Halloween this year in Hamilton. I wanted to be able to capture some pictures with his cousins, who also got dressed up on Halloween night to travel from door to door yelling...Trick or Treat!! How fun...now with that being said growing up I HATED HATED HATED Halloween. The idea of getting dressed up and actually going to ask someone you really didn't know for something horrified me. So-I inevitably would stay inside the car and allow my brother and sister to trick or treat for me. One year I was made to dress up like a clown (which I despise-b/c my brother and sister used to put me in a closet at my grandparents house and throw this clown (that looked SOOOO scary and laughed sooo mean )in on me all while it was chuckling its evilness. Needless to say this Halloween I was made to dress like a clown I broke out into a rash and got SUPER sick and cried and cried and cried. So this year I planned to attempt to like Halloween for Tristin and thought with the help of my sisters that I could get through the holiday. I survived-even though a rode around in the car with Tristin and we stopped at 3 houses. The kids had already gone up and down a street when they came to pick me up-so no worries :). I forgot my camera that night, and haven't gotten them from my sister yet, but when I do will post with all the kidos!!! These are just for fun pics, even though Tristin didn't have much fun taking them..hehe.

He has a hat for every Holiday this year-so here is to hat number 1!!

He was the cutest football ever..haha!

Now on to more Holiday thoughts and questions....please chime in

I knew the Holiday traveling scenario would one day come up-and even though we've had things planned I knew once again-things would surface and complications arise. Where do you spend your holidays?

When is going from one family to another tooo much? I hate driving, and with an almost two-month old-I don't anticipate driving and packing around all of our stuff very exciting for this upcoming Thanksgiving. This past year Kevin's family decided to do something small-which is wonderful for his family-and my family for years has either spent time in Anson,having Christmas with my moms side of the family or in Hamilton with my dads side. This always intrigued Kevin-going to my house-b/c he could hunt with my brother-so knocking out two birds with one stone is always the route to go I think. So when do we say we are rotating thanksgivings, or just skipping a thanksgiving, because driving in a car for and hour and a half one way then three hours another is TOOOO much for me to pack and un pack and well I feel like a circus already.

The next topic Christmas....for the past 7 years we've continued to have Christmas on Christmas day with my brothers and sisters because we didn't think it was fair for Dillan to get his Christmas shanked since we were all grown up. Its worked out nice-but has always been hectic and left us super tired from all the driving..youll see below. When Kevin and I talked about having a family I stated how important it was for me to have xmas eve and xmas morning at OUR house with OUR kids. This time of the year was always so special to my family and I wanted to keep up the fun traditions. He agreed, since he defiantly knows how much I love this holiday.

Kevin's family does xmas a little different. Now his parents are open to any day of the week, while his grandparents have had dibs on xmas eve and xmas morning. Looking at his family I can see how this worked. They all live within a few miles of one another and if they wanted to have xmas morning at their house, or do something special for xmas eve, they could arrange both b/c they don't have a lot of driving involved, being 20 min. at the most. This unfortunately isn't going to work for us, since we've started our family-because we live hours from his. It will always work for his immediate family,but for those who are venturing away from the likes of LaGrange, too bad so sad.

This then brings me to this year-I totally understand Tristin isn't going to remember or know where we spent xmas eve or xmas day at-but when do you say enough is enough...Our days would run like this...Kevin's parents xmas eve day, Kevin's moms parents xmas eve,Kevin's dads parents xmas lunch-pack up a child who has been held way too much,and is cranky, drive three hours to spend xmas day evening with my dad, little brother and family, next afternoon mom's xmas, then xmas with my grandparents the following day.....YIKES!!! And we don't get to start our traditions this year, which yes I can get over, but I'm so excited and want to start them up already. So when do you plan your move away from holidays? When is dragging your family around turn into not being fun and being more of a showcase?

I thought for the sake of things we should just reserve his family for the weekend before any my family for the time/weekend after xmas-giving us xmas eve and morning to spend together. And starting it this year would solve a lot of stress!!!

One month Old

Where has my time gone? I've been trying to sit down and blog for the past two weeks. It actually gives me time to unwind, however I haven't found this unwinding time readily available. When I do log on, I spend time reading my fellow bloggers blogs, and then run out of time to finish or start mine.

Motherhood is wonderful! I love my little boy a little more each and every day, and I didn't think that was possible. Even when he keeps me up like this morning. We did get to spend some quality time swaying back in forth which in the end was worth it.

Tristin is growing faster each day. He's been walking for the past two weeks..haha...with just a little help on my lap....and has said mommy-somehow it just sounded like ooohh though. I do know that is what he was trying to get across and we celebrated! I do enjoy his more alert sperts and wondering looks. He loves this sepia picture we have in our room above our bed-good purchase Kevin-he will stare it it non-stop!

I've added a few pictures here to show how big we've gotten, which seems to be rather large. I'm guessing we are around 12 pounds maybe a little more. We have outgrown our size 1 diapers, however daddy opened a new BIG box of them, so we are going to squeeze into as many as we can-and I suppose we can save the other half of the box, or gift them to someone else in need. :)

Enjoy....

Bath time-we like better in the sink than our tub...but we are getting tooooo big for the sink :(

Weird photo I know....but this was actually on his One month b-day party...haha!

Meeting Kaiden

I just wanted to post really quick on meeting up with Kaiden!!!

Kaiden and Tristin are just 10 days apart (I believe) and they got to meet up this weekend. I'd wanted to get them in their Halloween outfits, but considering mine put his on for 2 sec. and I didn't even get a picture, and that we were driving around Hamilton with the cousins-who were sooooo cute-we didn't get a chance to stop by.

We did stop by on the way home and the boys had a photo opt. Here are a few pics!!

Rash

Well..lets just say I've been trying to post about my lovely rash for the last week. Every time I log in, I can't pull up pictures to show,or I fall asleep, or my little precious boy needs loving. So I'm going to attempt some much needed blogging.

It all began a few weeks ago-I noticed something itch itch itching on my breast. I honestly didn't think much of it with all the changes and new things that pop up after having a child, and passed it off with my mothers suggestion as stretch marks. (I just knew it itched). I had a few dry spots on my legs (or so I thought) and attempted to keep lotion on them. Now with that being said, I usually only put lotion on after a shower/bath, and well lets face it, I had some days without a daily cleansing. :( Meaning-no lotion, so I'd scratch here and there.

I then went home to Hamilton last weekend to finally show my mom, sister, and sister-in-law my "stretch marks-on my breast" and they replied with their "i'm sorry"look but told me they'd clear up. I lowered my shirt, to see how far they came out and was satisfied to see I still had an ok cleavage line..haha...

Well the day progressed and I began to really itch...I then showed my mom my legs, and that was the deciding factor that I didn't have stretch marks, but a rash!! It was itching all over..my legs, my arms, my back! We trekked up to the local Hamilton ER, since it was Sunday-and after sitting for a little over an hour-decided to fix it with some over the counter meds, my OB said were ok and call it day. This didn't last long-Kevin and I got ready to leave and the tears ran down my face I itched soooo bad...WHY though?

We stayed the night with mom again to get up in the morning and swing by my OB-who didn't have a true cure-just meds-and a stumped look. I don't remember much this day-I slept a lot from the medication and car ride, and from staying up with Tristin.

Mom came that night to help out, a huge relief,and then I went back with her Wednesday to continue getting help! I went to the doctor in Hamilton on Thur. to try and get more answers, since I'd cancelled out all food changes, we'd re-washed clothes/sheets, and I couldn't think of anything else to cause a rash. Once again, we had no idea on the rash, or the cause, but we did bump up the meds. :)

Its getting a little better....it doesn't look so bad, but it still itches!! I pray it goes away by the end of next week-when the meds run out!! :)