Christmas 2010

Wow.  So much has happened since I last posted, besides my Merry Christmas post!  I don't even know where to start so I'm just going to recap our Christmas!  We started celebrating at Brandon's parents house on Christmas Eve!  Caden got some cool new toys and I think we all had a blast.  I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pics!  As soon as we got home, which was pretty late, Caden set out cookies for Santa and some veggies for his reindeer!  He actually went straight to bed with high hopes of Santa coming soon!  I enjoy Christmas eve so much, playing Santa, and getting everything set out!  I didn't sleep much that night, I couldn't wait for Caden to see what Santa brought him!  Caden woke up around 6:20 and it was non-stop from then on!  We also got a surprise snow storm!  I couldn't believe how much it snowed and was still snowing. 

(It took forever to upload these 3 pics, so I'm going to do another blog with pics only!)

We headed to my parents around 8:30 that morning and it was pretty rough driving over there!  The roads were super icy and slick...I almost got stuck!  We did Christmas with my folks and I headed to work around 2ish!  We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed being with family. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from Alabama!!!  We woke up with snow this morning!  It hasn't stopped yet and we've probably got 5 inches or so!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

1 down, 2 to go!!

Trimesters that is!!!  I'm 14 weeks today and starting my 2nd trimester!  Here's some things going on right now:

• still sick, mostly in the mornings now, but still throwing up as soon as I wake up
• went to the dr. at 12 weeks and they couldn't hear the heartbeat with the doppler, so we got another ultrasound....babys heartbeat was strong, 159, and baby looked great
• I measured right at 12 weeks
• lost weight...I was happy, but I guess I should be gaining a little
• have a few names picked out....stay tuned!!!!
• starting to pick out nursery bedding and decor
• should find out the gender the beginning of January...my OB likes to wait till 20-22 weeks
• felt the baby move two days ago for the first time=)
• Caden has been starting to rub all over my belly and talks about "his" new baby alot

Stay tuned for more blog posts!!!  Life has been super crazy and I just haven't had the time or energy to post much!  I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year so I must go prepare!!  I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving!  We all have so much to be thankful for!

11 weeks and counting

As of today, I think, I am 11 weeks!  I say, I think, because every time I got to the doctor, they change my due date!  We are still so thrilled about a new little addition and blessing to our family.

Some preggo things:

• still wearing my pre-pregnancy pants, just with my bella band...I bought my bella band when I was pregnant with Caden and love it! 
• still very sick...morning, noon, and night...and still taking Zofran like its candy
• extremely tried
• haven't gained weight yet
• my belly is def. sticking out
• baby is approx. 1 1/2 inches long
• haven't had weird cravings lately, no food sounds good...just trying to eat saltines, pretzels, sprite
• we started cleaning out the guest bedroom to get ready to start on baby b's nursery
• I go back to the doctor Nov. 15th, hopefully we will get to hear the heartbeat again!

Tate Farms

Every year we take a trip to Tate Farms.  We've been going since Caden was 4 months old and it has definetely become a tradition, which by the way, I love traditions!!  So Friday we headed to go have some good ole' fun.  I love Tate Farms.  They do it up right....combine for kids to play in, corn crib, corn train, hayride to go pick your pumpkin, huge slide, hay maze, and so much more!  One reason I really enjoy going there is you actually have to cut your pumpkin from the vine or stalk.  All the pumpkins are fresh and its so neat going to the patch where all the pumpkins are grown.  Caden could've spent hours there!  And then there's the food...fantastic!  I really enjoyed my fried peach pie...yum yum!  Nothing tastes good these days, but for some reason I gobbled that pie down in about 2 seconds!  It was a great start to Halloween weekend.

Harvest festival

Been a few weeks since I've blogged....we've have been super busy with fall festivities and honestly, I've been exhausted here lately.  I'll try to be better about blogging.  Two thursdays ago, Caden's school held their annual harvest festival.  He was super excited and had been talking about it for some time.  They had all kinds of games, train rides, petting zoo, and a haunted hay ride!  Caden had a blast.  He loved getting his hair sprayed white and black. 

The above picture cracks me up....we were on the haunted hay ride and he was making scared and silly faces! 

My little olive

My little love is 1 inch and about the size of a medium green olive!

                       I'm very bloated at the time of this picture and have a baby bump already!

8 weeks

As I write this blog, I'm actually 8 and a half weeks preggo! We went to the dr yesterday for my 2nd appointment!  We had another ultrasound and got to hear my "love"s heartbeat....175 beats and beating strong!  He/she was also moving around like crazy!  The baby is about the size of a kidney bean right now and most of the vital organs have formed.  So amazing to me!  My due date got changed from the 28th of May to the 26th...go figure.  I'm pretty sure I won't go to the 26th, my dr is very kind to induce around the 39th week!  My belly has also popped out this week.  I didn't show with Caden until I was almost 5 months, but i'm showing at 2 months already with this little love!

Preggo stuff:
~haven't gained any weight yet!!!
~still wearing pre-pregnancy tops and wearing my normal jeans with my belly band
~morning sickness or all day sickness has gotten the best of me....thank goodness for Zofran or I wouldn't keep anything down
~all i want to eat is cherry or coke icee's and clausen pickles
~have no energy
~had some dizzy spells, but I've read thats completely normal
~Caden still thinks the baby should be here NOW!!

Brandon and I are so goofy, we started doing all these gender quizzes online to see what we are having.  Everything we've done and quizzed ourself on is pointing to a girl!  I did the chinese calendar and it also said girl....so we will see if any of those are correct!  I will post pictures later today or tomorrow of baby b and some belly pics!!!

Big thanks to my hubby!!!

I really do have the greatest husband ever!  Ever since I started working on weekends, he does the laundry and goes grocery shopping for me.  This past week I starting feeling awful.  I drug myself to the dr. and found out I had walking pneumonia, I guess a perk of working with germy kids!  Having that on top of morning sickness, was just plain awful.  Brandon was so wonderful...he did everything!!!  He took Caden out of the house so I could sleep for almost 48 straight hours, he cleaned, he organized C's closet, he ran out and got me take out, rented me a movie, and he stayed home to pamper me the opening weekend of hunting season. Some of you may think "ok whats the big deal with hunting", well he has always gone hunting especially opening day, its a ritual for him.  I told him to please go, we'd be fine and he insisted he needed to stay home!  He truly is the best husband and dad we could ever ask for!  Just wanted to give him some much deserved credit!!  I love you Brandon.

Listen to ashleybailess Playlist

Something besides my kid....

I blog alot about Caden....so I decided to write about my job! I love my job, couldn't be happier working. Even though its time away from B and C, I still enjoy getting away and having some "me" time. I never would have thought working would satisfy my "me" time!!! I work at Huntsville Hospital in huntsville and I specifically work in the pediatric ER. We are a level 2 trauma center, which means we handle almost anything and everything from near drownings to strep throat. We are the only hospital in north alabama to do level 2 traumas for children. We get tons of kids from all over north alabama. We also refer children out to many different place...st. judes, vandy, oncology hospitals etc. The people I work with are super awesome, we know how to have a good time and we know how to kick butt in helping kiddos! The job can be emotional at times, but the good out weighs the bad. I love feeling like I've made a difference in a child's or a families life! Of course, no job is better than being a mommy, so thats still my #1 job!!

You can go here http://www.huntsvillehospital.org/womenchildren/childrenservices/pedser/ to read more about where I work!!!

A new little blessing....

Will be arriving in May!!!! Brandon and I are expecting our 2nd baby May 28th!!! We are so excited and thrilled! I have known since Sept. 14th I was pregnant but we wanted to wait till after my first dr. appt. to share our news! They thought I was 7 weeks along but after the ultrasound yesterday, we found out I was only 5 weeks and 5 days! I get to go back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound...yipeee...my baby was too small to really see! Caden is super excited he's going to be a big brother and has names the new baby some interesting names!!!

I can feel it in the air....

Fall!!!!! My favorite time of the year! Everything around me just feels like fall...Auburn football, mums, the 75 degree weather, pumpkins at publix, and the fair!!!!!! We headed to the good ol' Lincoln co. fair last weekend.
So glad my kid loves the fair as much as I do! I can remember going to the fair as a kid in GA every year! And now I can pass this on and start traditions with my family!!

Soccer

Caden started soccer at the beginning of September! I was so excited when I signed him up and couldn't wait for the first game! Well, he did NOT enjoy his first game. It was so hot and he didn't want to run and didn't get the whole team thing. He thought he was supposed to kick the ball by himself in the goal, bless his heart! After some tears, lots of water, and some bribery from his MiMi, he did much better the second half. We've had 3 games so far and he's improved so much since that first game! And we've laughed alot, watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds trying to kick the ball is hilarious! I'm so proud of him. He is really enjoying it now, which does my heart good! I tried playing, key word here is try, my freshman year of highschool and loved it...too bad i sucked! I mainly did it with my friends to have fun....I certainly didn't do it to run the many laps we used to have to do! I'm sure all my friends still remember those soccer days=) Anyways, this whole chapter of starting sports with Caden is so much fun and just reminds me of how BIG my baby is!!!

blog help

Anyone know how to change layouts? I tried but it never works....and my pic is so big...anyone who is intelligent with computers please help me out!!!

Part 2...vacation

I took a ton of pictures...so the rest are on FB!!

The rest of our vacation

I decided not to post about every single day of our vacation! It was getting to time consuming, and my blogging time is very limited these days! Day 4, thursday, the 4 of us got up and headed to the beach! We played and played in the sand. Caden was so much happier with his daddy there to bury him and build sandcastles with him! My grandparents were joining us today so we had to head back to the house to make sure they got there safely. Pop is 86 and Nonny is 84! I was shocked when they told us they wanted to come for a couple of days! They finally made it there around 5ish...we were all getting worried they were lost somewhere in FL! We ordered pizza for dinner and oh how I had missed some hungry howie's pizza! Brandon and I went bowfishing later that night. I had a blast. This was something he had been wanting to do for a while. He ended up shooting a 100# stingray! We didn't get home until 4 am! I guess you can do that on vacation :)

Day 5: We had beach time, pool time, and I cooked fajitas for dinner!! I really enjoyed not going out for dinner...that meant I didn't have to shower and get ready! And we stayed out @ the beach alot longer!

Day 6: My dad, brother, and his friend joined us the wee hours of the morning. I think everyone was exhausted. I know I took a long nap on the beach....it was fabulous! My dads birthday was the 3rd, so we grilled out chicken for dinner and celebrated his birthday. We took my brother and his friend to pier park so they could go to Ron Jon's. I had so much fun shopping around. Caden is at a fun age and every hat he saw he would model it for us!

Day 7: Was spent at the beach again. The weather the whole trip was wonderful, ocean was perfect and calm today. I was beginning to get used to the lazy beach life and was starting to dread having to go home! There's just something so calm and tranquilizing about being at the beach. No worries and no schedule:) We decided to eat at capt. andersons! We only had to wait about 10 min....I was so surprised with it being labor day weekend! Of course, we all ate way to much. Caden liked seeing all the boats at the marina! Afterwards, we played putt-putt and let Caden ride go-karts.

Day 8: last day:( We got up pretty early and headed out to the beach for one last swim and play in the sand. I was really sad our vacation was ending. We will def. be coming back again! After packing up the cars, we ate a quick bite of lunch and headed back home around noon. Traffic was horrible. The 5 1/2 hour trip took 7 1/2 hrs...Caden was perfect though. He entertained himself and would make the 18-wheelers honk at us! We had a fabulous trip...it was awesome getting to spend time with family, especially my grandparents who we don't see often! Stay tuned for more pics!

Day three

This was the day that Brandon arrived and joined in on all the fun! I was really starting to miss him, so I'm so glad he got to come! Caden, mom, and I, all went to the beach till lunch time and as we were packing up, Brandon called and said he'd be there in 10 min!!! (I didn't expect him until late afternoon) After he got settled in, we all went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon. We ate Sonny's bbq for dinner and came home and crashed! Vacation will wear you out!

**sorry about the huge picture in the header....not sure what happened!**

Day two

Caden woke up early tuesday morning ready to hit the beach! Mom let me sleep in, she had everything packed and ready to go once I finally got up! We headed down to the beach around 8:30, yes thats late for me! We are usually up at 6 am. The beach was pristine, no oil at all. We did see the BP guys walking the beach. That has got to be the easiest job and I'm sure they get paid pretty well to just walk up and down looking for oil! We headed in around 4 to shower and rest up before dinner. Caden insisted we go to pier park again. We found a delicious italian place to eat and let Caden do some more carnival rides!