Family Shots

My side of the family, at Jenny's high school grad.
Ryan's side of the family

Our cute little family!
Taking a snooze!







This past week Ryan was gone from Monday night until tonight. Hence why I haven't been online much. :-) Beth has behaved nicely for the most part, although last night she woke up every.single.hour. We've been going for morning walks around the block, at around 7:30 before things heat up. She's been doing so much better in her stroller! It's really made me thankful, and now I'm contemplating buying a jogger stroller, although I'd like to find one used! Tuesday we had a nice day- we visited my old office and chatted with the ladies, shopped in the village (so many cute baby things!), visited Uncle Josh and Uncle Tam, and had a lovely dinner with Nicole. I really enjoyed being in the "city" again, and I was so happy to see all of my old friends!

What we do

This is what we do to entertain everyone in our household at once, when Ryan is gone at work:
Our beautiful lawn (I cut it this time!)

Vegas fetches ball

Beth watches Vegas

Nova wishes he could be part of the fun!

5 months old!

Trying to sit up in her swing
Sitting up (sort of!) on the bed.



Can you believe she's 5 months old already?! I sure as heck can't! It's becoming so obvious though, as she's looking more and more like a little person and less like a little baby. And she's working on things like sitting up and rolling from back to tummy. She can roll tummy to back just fine!

9 years ago today I was on my way to Rome to visit Pope John Paul II for Pentecost. It was such an amazing trip! We celebrated Pentecost mass at St. Peter's and I came this.close to touching John Paul the Great as he drove past us on his pope mobile! I'd scan the picture but we don't have a scanner. Pentecost will always be special for me because of this. John Paul the Great, pray for us!

A bit of a change...

I want to change my blog up a bit. I am constantly striving to be a woman of the Lord and I'd like to begin incorporating that a bit into my blog. Of course, I know most of you come here for photos of Miss Bethany Grace, and I plan to continue providing them for your viewing pleasure. :-) But I want to also add reflections and other thoughts I may have about our faith and my family. I hope you enjoy!

Two weeks

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. My last 2 weeks have been too busy. First, we visited my family's house because my sister was in her school's production of Les Miserables. She was amazing. Right before we left to see them I found out my great grandmother died at the amazing age of 98. After we saw the play we left to go out of state for her funeral, and have Beth meet her great-great grandmother for the first and only time. Then we were home for a day, and then left to visit DH's parents and uncle who visited from out of state. This was his first time to meet his great niece and he loved her very much! That was a short trip because we threw a party for some very dear friends who are moving out of state, and then the next day I left to go back to my parents house (with only Beth) for my sister's high school graduation. And I got home yesterday. So that's been my last two weeks- now you know why I haven't been able to update!



All of the people that I love!

5 generations of beautiful women- Beth, me, my mom, my grandmother, and the swing of my great-grandmother, where she spent a lot of time outside of her little white house.

Her first feeding with daddy and some pumped mommy milk. She did very well!

A beautiful picture with her Mamaw

Cute!

She's so amazing! I can't believe she's my baby!


Meeting Uncle Dan
Snacking on some toes.

Our dear friends, Michael and Kyla, at their goodbye party. We are bonded to them forever in a special way only they know about. ;-)

Lots of pictures!

Bath time! She loves to take baths!
Her very first bottle with the 1/3 ounce I was able to pump out! She took it like a champ!
The "excer-sacuer". Vegas was very interested in it.
The closest picture I've gotten to the famous Beth pout. Her lip isn't quite out as far as it should be, but it's pretty close!
Precious

Playing with Myers
She's always so happy in the morning!
Eating her poor bunny slipper

More pics...

Taking a ride with Daddy!
Pretty baby
Toes!
Housecleaning with Mommy!
A visit to Anil and Mithali's house with Uncle Josh and Aunt Ramona

Toes

Someone found her toes this week! Every time she is placed on her back, her feet immediately go up in the air and she grabs her toes. It's so cute! They haven't made it to her mouth yet, although I've seen her try to pull them up to her mouth one time.

Last week Beth and I mostly stayed home. In an effort for me to try to help her sleep better, we cut out all road trips and just stayed in. It helped! She went from napping very little and unpredictable to napping a LOT and sort of on a schedule. It's a bit easier for me to read her sleepy cues. I checked out some books from the library to try to help her sleep more, but I realied the more I read the more I thought something was wrong with her. I tried thier methods to "fix" her and it made things worse. I realized through prayer and some great friends that there was nothing wrong with her! So she wakes up a lot during the night, the good news is that she's right there with me since we cosleep, and she nurses right back to sleep. I get more sleep while she's cosleeping because I'm more relaxed and don't have to get up to get her. So I came up with sort of a compromise- she falls asleep at night in her crib in her room and I bring her into bed with us when she wakes up after we're in bed. It's nice because we don't have to tiptoe around in our room at night and I only have to walk across the house to get her once.

Saturday, DH and I had a nice day! Grandma and Grandpa came to stay with miss Beth while mommy and daddy headed out for our first post-baby alone outing! We went to a nice lunch together and did a little shopping, and came home to feed Beth once during the day. I know Beth loved ALL the attention she was showered with while they were here, and it was so nice to be able to spend alone time with DH!

On a separate note, we are looking to rehome our 2 kitties, Jezebel and Nova. They are nice, good kitties, but taking care of the animals plus the baby plus the house is too much for me right now! If you or anyone you know is interested in taking them, please let me know!!! They are indoor-kitties only!

Laughing!

Pacifier Clip

I bought one of these from a store and it was obviously homemade. So I made another one using hot glue and the same pieces, just different fabric. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out!
This is my favorite thrift store find so far. I adore this dress, and it was only $2.99! Kid to Kid rocks!





Beth had her 4-month doctor appointment today (even though she's not quite 4 months old!). She weighs 13 lbs 8 oz and is 23.75 inches long! Almost 2 feet tall, hehe. He said she looks like a happy, healthy baby!

Beth and Vegas

Ok it's mostly Vegas, but it cracks me up!

Her first cold

She's almost the right size for the Jumparoo!








This week Beth had her first cold. Actually she and I both had colds- poor girl was so very congested. Her sleep at night has been interrupted since she was having a hard time breathing out of her nose. I have similar symptoms, only mine is developing into a sinus infection, I think. Beth sounds a lot better now, she and I split a bottle of nose spray, lol. She does NOT like the bulb syringe used to clean out her nose, in fact, it's lead to the infamous "arching of the back". Whenever she's displeased in anyway, the back arches and I have to hold on tight! She's hard to hold like that! But now that she's feeling a little better her big smiles are back. :-)

Currently Beth's favorite game is Peek A Boo! She's also started to roll over- the easy way! She's rolled from her tummy to her back several times. She's also laughing a little more often, but at least 75% of the time it's at the dog! She loves to hear the dog growl at a ball. DH and I are feeling very good about the relationship between Beth and Vegas right now- Vegas is very fond of licking Beth's toes. :-)

Easter

We had a wonderful first Easter! Our family had our annual crawfish boil on Holy Saturday, and although the weather was terrible, we still had a great day. My parents and siblings visited town and very much enjoyed holding their granddaughter. :-)

Last pics from the old camera

Taking a ride in the stroller.
Waking up with Aunt Jenny. Her first stay away from home!


These two pics are from a couple of weeks ago- during spring break when Beth took her first vacation with me to the beach. We went with my side of the family to an aquarium since it was raining the full day we were there. :-/

Cute little outfit! I love these kind from Carters.




Last night we had our neighbors over and they have a son who is about 6 weeks older than Beth, his name is Myers. So far they don't really interact with each other but in a few months I know they'll be excited to have a friend!

We plan to have some pictures taken in the Bluebonnets tomorrow hopefully, the weather has been sort of overcast so I'm hoping it will clear up a little bit.

Beth is still not sleeping very well, though she is going to bed around 7:30 which is nice for me! She's cooing a lot more, drooling a lot more, and as cute as ever! I just bought her first teething ring the other day, and she'll chew on it although I'm pretty sure she's not teething yet. She's just starting to put whatever she can get her hands on in her mouth.

New Camera

We have a new camera! We couldn't find a place to fix the old one, so we purchased a Kodak C743 and I really love it so far. It's so user friendly and small. Unfortunately right now Beth is demanding my attention so I will try to post the new pictures later today!