6 months already

Today, Raelyn, you are 6 months old, I cannot believe it. You have grown so fast, and I know it will only get faster. You are everything we could have ever asked for, and more. You are adorable, sweet, happy, fun, loud, exciting, expressive, and much much more. You are now eating solids, you started with rice cereal, barley cereal, and oatmeal. Then we added veggies like peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and yesterday you began your fruits with bananas. You love to sit in your high chair, and eat! Here you are enjoying some sweet potatoes!



Once you figured out how to roll onto your tummy you have loved it! Anytime I put you down, you immediately turn onto your belly, and for weeks you have been seriously moving those legs and arms, and wanting so badly to be mobile. Friday, September 3rd, you finally took your first "steps" to crawling. I am so happy I was there to witness it and I even got it on video. Thanks to you spitting up on mommy and our bed last week, I stupidly threw my phone in the washer with all of the laundry and destroyed it. Your dad made me buy an iphone 4 which takes nice videos, so I caught you. Here you are, finally getting those knees up and arms moving at the same time!



This was the shortest video that I had that showed her doing her thang ;) Please excuse the obnoxious voice in the background...I was a little excited!

Once you realized you could move around, you were all over the place. Sometimes you will scoot yourself, sometimes you "army crawl" and sometimes you actually get your knees up and arms moving at the same time. Either way, when there is anything nearby that you want, instead of whining/crying for mommy or daddy to come give it to you, you get it yourself! It's very fun, yet scary all at the same time. Yesterday, we tried to "baby proof" the house, but I'm sure we're not even close to being prepared for you to be truly mobile.

You were born with a ton of hair, and it just kept getting longer and longer. It was truly a mess, the back kinda resembled a rat tail...so this past weekend, your daddy gave you a trim. I, of course, was holding you while Daddy was trimming your hair. So the only evidence of the hair "trim" is this...


Before the haircut....


And after...


Your daddy is the apple of your eye, truly. I absolutely love the weekends because I get to get you up in the morning, see your smiling face and just spend that time with you. I miss it because I'm gone to work by the time you wake up. The mornings that I get you up, I get the big, happy smile, half wave and heeeeeeeyyyyy which melts my heart! Then I change your diaper and head downstairs to feed you...but when you see Daddy, you squeal, smile from ear to ear, and your arms and legs are just a going. It's just so adorable, I would be jealous, but I love your daddy too and I know you bring such a joy to his life and he would do anything for his little girl!

Here's some random pictures that we have taken the past couple of weeks...enjoy!

She loves her jumperoo...


Raelyn's crazy hair after her bath


Climbing off the side of the changing table (Yes I was right beside of her while Evan was on the floor taking the picture)


And here you are playing with your pal Sam


We've had a couple "play dates" with Sam and even all of the "four-pack" but this past weekend was the first time I think Sam & Raelyn started playing together. They were on the couch and they were both just looking at each other, Raelyn would crawl/scoot/maneuver (whatever it is she does) over to him. They were touching each other, and Sam was playing with her hair (until he pulled it and she screamed, lol). But, it was so cute, and I can't wait for more play dates with your friends :)

We love you Raelyn Austin! 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 9:18 PM

Raelyn -- you are 5 months old!

Oh Raelyn, your mommy is a busy lady and has been very bad at updating this blog. I believe you are ok with that as I have had more time to spend with you, but here's to trying to keep up with you and all of your many achievements thus far.

I talk to a lot of Mommies and have been around a lot of babies and can safely say that you are one of the most active babies I have ever met! We knew you were going to be very entertaining early on. You were so alert when you were born, and already turning yourself completely around in your bassinet while you were sleeping at 1 week old. Other than the constant comments about how much hair you have, everyone always commented on how alert you were, always looking around, finding new things to look at and analyze. Now everyone comments on how happy and smiley you are. You have the most gorgeous smile (little partial here, though) with a very pronounced dimple on your right side. When you laugh/smile really big, you can see your dimple on your left side too! You are just one happy baby, and you make mommy, daddy, and everyone you meet happy!

You were always such a good sleeper, Mommy and Daddy are so appreciative of this! You started sleeping through the night at about 1 month. After about a week of this, you were moved up into your new room. There were a couple nights that you woke up (when you learned how to roll on your stomach) but all in all you have slept through the night wonderfully :) You started "talking" at about 1 month old as well, and you haven't stopped since. It is amazing how much you "talk". Daddy used to take videos of you rambling in the morning (this is your happiest time) and post them to facebook or e-mail them to Mommy at work so I could hear you since I missed you so much.

Morning times are the best, have been and continue to be. You have always woken up happy. When I hear my sweet angel "talking" into the monitor, it makes it that much easier to wake up. Then when I walk upstairs to get you, you roll over and flash that huge gummy smile that melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Those are the moments I never want to forget. This is what I miss the most about those short 6 weeks home with you. I miss my mornings with you because I have to be at work at 7:00am and daddy doesn't have to be at work until 9:00am. Daddy is so lucky to spend this time with you, but I get to pick you up and see you smiling and getting so excited that we get to go home and play! Since I don't get the mornings, I really enjoy my nighttime's. You have started reaching out and touching things (the blinds, faces, hair, etc.) and at night you are so cute, you are so tired and just stare into my eyes and rub my face. I absolutely love how peaceful and sweet you are before bed.

You are 5 months, and there is hardly any quiet/down times in the house. You are constantly making noises, laughing, talking, squealing, whatever you can do to hear your voice. You have very healthy lungs that's for sure. You say so many sounds now, everything imaginable except "mama". We're working on that one, but I am amazed at all of the sounds you can say already. It is funny how loud of a baby you are, always talking and making noises, yet when we take you out in the real world, or to someone's house you act all shy. You are so silly!

You love to be in your jumperoo! Your aunt Amber let us borrow this since you've loved to kick your legs and now every time someone stands you up on their lap you just go to town jumping. She thought you might enjoy this, and boy was she right!! You can jump in this for 30-45 minutes at a time now, you just love it, plus it has toys for you to play with. This is more fun for you, and less tiring for mommy and daddy, ha! If we lay you down anywhere, you are moving all around. There is no sitting still for you (unless it's right before nap time or bedtime). You learned to roll over the day you went for your 4 month check-up. You would roll over to your belly but it took you a few days to learn to roll back. Those were the few days you would wake up in the middle of the night, you would roll to your tummy, wake up and freak out because you were on your tummy, and then we would have to go roll you back over, haha. Now you LOVE your tummy, and haven't slept on your back in weeks.

You are one rolling machine, and I can tell you so badly want to crawl. You get up on your knees but when you try to use your arms you just collapse. Don't worry baby, it won't be long. You are so determined to get that toy in front of you that you will roll back and forth as many times as it takes to get you within arms reach of that toy. Changing times are getting harder and harder, you just roll back and forth and kick/grab your legs while trying to change your diaper. I can see your changing pad moving from on top of the dresser to the floor so you don't decide to jump off, lol. You are one motivated 5 month old that's for sure, I can tell that you are going to be a very determined little girl, you seem like you know what you want and will do anything it takes to get it. This excites me :)

We had some difficulties with your feedings to start with, it was frustrating for sure, but with a lot of experimenting we figured out how to get you to eat better. Well now you are such a good eater! You are no longer on breast milk and although that took Mommy a while to be ok with, you are such a healthy baby. We started you on rice cereal 2 weeks ago and you have been doing AMAZING. You have eaten it for 2 weeks straight now (once a day) and you're like a pro now! You eat about 2 teaspoons in a sitting and it's gone in like 3 minutes flat. You open your mouth so wide and swallow so fast. I can't believe how fast you took off with eating rice cereal! I can't wait until you try the homemade baby food made by most of the 4-pack! You look so cute in your highchair too, and you get soooo excited when you see the bowl coming :)

What else do you love? Oh, you love your niece Mackenzie, you will watch her the entire time she's in the room. She's very active, always trying to get your attention and play with you, and you will just stare at her. You also love your dog Anabelle, she's black and white so very early on you liked to look at her, now you like to hold your hand for her to lick (yuck!) I can tell you're going to love to play with her. Daddy thinks you're going to ride her pretty soon, haha.

Oh Raelyn, I could go on for hours about all of the things you do, but that would be boring for the readers, I've probably already lost some as it is, haha....but hopefully my next post I will not wait so long. Hopefully you will let me take some pictures and videos so I can show off my little girl, but right now you go from laughing/playing/smiling to blank stares at the camera. You would rather analyze that thing in my hand then continue to do whatever amazing thing I wanted to capture. Plus, my camera is not baby friendly, but one day (hopefully soon) we will invest in a nicer camera. Until then, here are a few of my favorites from the past couple of months....




1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 4:41 PM

One thing I forgot

At the ultrasound tonight, I simply asked in passing if the technician could tell how big she was just by looking at the ultrasound, and she said no they have to measure to find that out. At the end of the 48 minutes (it was only supposed to be 30) she said well let's do some measurements and see how big she is, after measuring her head, abdomen, and leg I believe, it was estimated that she was 4lbs 14 oz and measuring just 3 days shy of her real due date, which she said was fine and probably just meant she was going to be a smaller baby! She's almost 5 pounds!!! No wonder I feel every movement, no wonder she keeps me up at night, no wonder I'm so tired. I don't mind though, she can stomp on anything she wants for the next 6 weeks :) Then she's all mine...well, I suppose I will share her with Evan! 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 9:58 PM

So in love...

I am just in awe of this little girl in my tummy, and of God who created her so perfectly, like He did all of us. Evan and I just spent about 48 minutes watching her on the 3-d ultrasound, and she already has quite the personality. She was going non-stop the entire time, moving around, kicking, playing hide and seek, it was amazing. All we could do was laugh because she kept opening her mouth, sticking our her tongue, putting her hand in front of her face, it was great! The tech. told us that a lot of times babies are so uncoordinated but they open their mouths and throw their hands and feet around trying to aim for their mouth, well she found hers! It was so cool how you could see her fingers/hand in her mouth and see the sucking reflex.

All 3 of us were laughing the whole entire scan because she was just moving like crazy, and she kept putting her hand in front of her face. And just when we thought she had moved her hand, nope it's back. She is definitely going to be a handful, full of energy and spunk. I can't wait :) It was the most awesome experience to just take a look in on what our little baby is doing inside of my tummy, and I felt like I was truly getting to know my daughter, it was worth every penny :)

This was actually a re-scan, we went for our appointment last Thursday @ 3:00pm and she's generally not very active at that time but that's all they had. We were there for about 15/20 minutes with not really any good pictures, I was kind of bored, and getting disappointed. Her head is down pretty low and she was looking towards my back so we couldn't see her face until the last 5 or 10 minutes but we did end up getting a couple good pictures. After it was over they offered a re-scan which had to be done within a week but they would pretty much do the exact same thing over since we didn't get very good results.

Here are some of the pictures from the 1st scan

Do you see how she's puckering our her lips, and her full cheeks, isn't she adorable? I think she has my niece Mackenzie's little nose.


Most of the pictures look the same, but I think she looks so peaceful. We have a ton of pictures from the 2nd scan too, she gave us thumbs up, showed us her feet, toes, fingers, everything, but they are not on the computer yet so I'll have to keep you in suspense. We have 2 DVD's now, over an hour of both of the scans which will be so cool to show her when she's older how she looked and what she was doing in my tummy!

In other news, for those of you who haven't heard yet...WE SOLD OUR HOUSE! Yes, God is good, and has perfect timing. Last week was so frustrating and tough countering back and forth but we finally came to an agreement Friday night. We went to see the house Evan and I have had our eye on for about a month now in Apex, make an offer, and wait. Because the house is a relocation house, we had to have the owners agree to a price, and then afterwards the relocation company had to agree and then we would have a contract! Sunday night we came in agreement with the owners, and it went to the relocation company which takes a while, but as of tonight it looks like all is well, just had to sign a couple more papers, and we should know definitely by tomorrow, but I'm not worried. We're scheduled to close on our house on February 18th and depending on how quick our loan, paperwork etc. goes through will depend on when we can close on the house we're buying. Yes that only leaves 2 weeks until our little girl is supposed to arrive but it will all work out! Either way, we are ecstatic that everything is working out, and feel so blessed! Here is a picture of the front of the house in Apex, and Evan's favorite part:


The backyard is fenced in which is so nice for the doggies, there's a deck and a pergula which is what you're seeing in that picture. It's on a corner lot which is nice, and it's huge compared to the lot we are living on right now!

I'll get the 2nd set of 3-d pictures on the computer and post them soon! 43 days to go, aaahhhh :) 2 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 8:42 PM

33 Weeks

7 weeks to go...how crazy is that? Less than 2 months, the closer it gets, the more real it gets. I'm getting pretty anxious, but more so about the actual labor than the "being a mom" thing. Evan and I have been going to a labor & delivery class at Wake Med where we're delivering and we have learned so much, sometimes too much, but overall I think it's been good!

Just to set the record clear, we have NOT decided on a name yet. Although I love everyone (and I mean everyone) commenting on how cute I am, and asking when I'm due, and if it's my first...I dread the question after the "do you know what you're having". It's always followed by, "have you picked out a name yet?" It just reminds me that no, we STILL have not decided on a name for this precious little girl. What we have finally decided on is what we want to do with the nursery. We are going to put up chair rail molding, the top will be green, and the bottom will be varying sizes of pink, brown, and green stripes. I also would like to get circle/bubble stickers or whatever you call them to put behind the crib and her name, and maybe a couple on another wall, not too many though. The only bad thing is, we are not spending the time, money and effort to do that on this nursery when our hope and prayer is to move ASAP! So, we will have to be patient and wait for that house to decorate the nursery. Evan and I want so badly to have her room completely done by the time she's here, but she will never know, so we'll have to get over it. Here is a quick picture (not of good quality, just snapped real quick) of what the nursery looks like now, no decorations or anything on the walls, just the typical things, but I can already see how cute it will be when it's done! We put a stuffed animal net up in the corner because she has so many cute stuffed animals we wanted to show off but we had nowhere to put it. Then we bought that white cubical storage thing from Target for a little more storage and places to decorate. The dresser/changing table is on the opposite wall from the crib (currently it houses all of my pregnant friends baby shower gifts so I couldn't take a picture of that) and then the other wall has her closet and the dollhouse/bookcase I have previously posted pictures of...so I think it's coming along!














Speaking of the house, I don't know if I've posted anything about this since I can't even remember the last post...we had some people look at our house the week before Christmas and the realtor's feedback was that our house was on his clients top 3 list -- probably the top one, but they are out of state and are about to go back so not to expect a decision yet. That was the last showing we've had so I have been losing hope, we had so many people looking at it, then it stopped. We heard from those clients realtor today, he said that he is working on writing up a contract for our house, but again the client is out of state and they haven't pinned down a number yet, but as soon as that happens and they get it signed they'll send it over! So...it sounds promising for a contract, who knows if it will be a serious offer, a good offer, or if it will be crappy. Plus, if it isn't that great of an offer, we already know these people have 2 other houses they are considering, so they could just go to the next house and be done with us. I am trying not to think about all the "what-ifs" but my mind just keeps going. I am trying to be patient and just wait to see what happens, but it is so hard! Please pray for this situation, and for my sanity! I have 7 weeks left until my due date, a typical closing takes 4-6 weeks so if this did happen for us, it would be craziness but we would make it work! Anyways, just pray for us this week as we anxiously await this offer and figure out what to do. The house that we really really like in Apex is still available, we check on it almost everyday, so if we have a contract on our house we can make an offer on that one!

We have been so crazy busy lately, things to do every night, every weekend, as if I'm not tired enough, i've been getting to bed at 10:30/11:00pm it's been pretty rough but I think it's slowing down a little. Last week the 4 pregnant ladies had dinner, Evan and I went to the NCSU vs. Holy Cross basketball game with my sister, Marc and Kenzie, I had a baby shower in Greensboro with my mom's famiy, and I went to Casey's baby shower which was all lots of fun! This Thursday we're getting our 3d/4d ultrasound which we are completely stoked about! We will get a 30 min. DVD, a CD of pictures, and printed pictures as well of our little girl, I cannot wait! Then, Saturday is Lindsay Hege's baby shower, and my Granddaddy's 80th surprise b-day party in Greensboro, Sunday is Lindsey Davis' baby shower! I have a very exciting weekend ahead!

Just for fun, here is a picture from tonight, in my typical household outfit...PJ pants and a long sleeved shirt, I seriously live in these ;)

In the background is part of our swing that we got at the baby shower this past weekend, it's adorable and matches our living room which is cool because that's probably where it's going to stay. It has little turtles on the mobile and is the perfect gender neutral but cute color! I love it. We also got all the bottles/liners we need, a tummy play pad, some cute clothes, a few diapers, teethers, paci's, receiving blankets etc. We feel so blessed to have so many friends and family showering us with things for her. We really appreciate everything! 2 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 7:51 PM

OUR FIRST BABY SHOWER!!!!

After our mostly uneventful black friday shopping, we headed up to the mountains. We normally alternate Thanksgivings with mine and Evan's family but this year we got to see everyone because they were throwing us our first baby shower! It was seriously awesome, they went ALL OUT! They made candies in the shape of bottles for the cupcakes, and not only made, but also PAINTED some candies in the shape of ABC blocks, teddy bears, cradles, giraffes, hippos etc. There was so much good food, the whole family is amazing!



Above is a picture of the table where Stephanie made a board with a timeline of mine and Evan's life pre-each other and when we met and after, with pictures. She did a really really good job! Then there was a jar of pink M&M's for everyone to guess how many was in there, and the person who was the closest won them. And there was a sheet for everyone to sign that would go into a photo frame afterwards, another adorable idea. I'm really bad at describing things, I'm noticing that as I'm reading this back, but you'll have to take my word on this ;)

Here is the cake, yes it is a dinosaur shaped cake and it was awesome! Evan had a dinosaur birthday cake when he was younger, and since everything was going to be all pink and girlie, I guess they thought throwing in some dinosaur shaped cakes, and chicken nuggets would help! The table was all brown/pink and cutsie, loved it :)

Here is the beginning of the presents, and the woman in charge of the organizing this fabulous baby shower, Stephanie! She is now telling Evan that although baby showers are typically for the women, Evan is here because it's his family and he will get the honor of opening the first present, but the only stipulation is that he has to wear everything he opens! Here is what he opened:

If you can't tell what this is, it is a monkey suit! It is perfect for a Halloween costume because it's 6-9 months, there's a whole for her head to go in and stirrups for her feet, and even a built-in tummy! It is so cute! Well he couldn't fit that on, but his next present was a black shirt saying "Real men change diapers" and he had to wear that the rest of the shower :)

I won't bore you with the hundreds of pictures of all of the presents we got, but here is something really cool that we weren't expecting. Stephanie got us a bookcase/dollhouse that is really really cute. It will work as a bookcase, and then when she gets older it can be a dollhouse for her. We really needed a bookcase but hadn't really picked anything out yet and this is just adorable. Evan put it together yesterday and it brightens her room and makes it look all girlie, I love it!

Our daughter is going to be one stylish chick, she got so many clothes just at the first shower, I was so amazed. Here is a preview of her closet with all of the clothes hung up and her furry friends above.

Thank you to Evan's family who spent hours preparing for the shower, and for everyone who came and brought us gifts. A special thanks to Stephanie who I know organized the whole thing and spent countless hours preparing down to the very smallest detail. We are so blessed to have so many people who love and support us! We love you all :) 4 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 9:02 PM

Where do I even begin?

I have a lot of stuff to update on, we've had quite a few busy weeks. I kept telling myself that I was going to post so I don't forget anything, and I kept forgetting. Now if I update on everything we did this would be incredibly long, so I'll try to spare you and give you the short version.

About a month ago my sister gave us a onesie that was sooo cute. I can't find a picture of it online and my camera batteries are dead so I can't take a picture of it, and I'm out of batteries, so I'm completely out of luck. It's a black onesie that says in pink letters "I can't wear pink everyday." It's adorable though, and Evan loves it :)

My co-worker Dawn gave us a sock monkey! We love sock monkeys, especially Evan, and we were going to do a monkey themed nursery if we were having a boy so we really like monkey! The one she got us is adorable! He has magnetic hands, feet, and hat :) How cute is JoJo? He even has a whole family, and Christmas ornaments and everything!



Thanksgiving was awesome, as usual. This was my family's year for Thanksgiving, we alternate between my mom's family, and Evan's mom's family because those are the only 2 that really "do Thanksgiving". This year was a little different though, my dad decided he wanted to go to his family's Thanksgiving in Reidsville so Evan and I rode with my parents for lunch on Thanksgiving day. I don't see my dad's family very much (none of us do, but he's trying to change that) so I didn't really know that many people but I got reacquainted and that was fun! Then we headed to my Grandmother's in Greensboro for Thanksgiving dinner. Every year the family keeps growing, we're practically running out of room to have everyone eat in the house, we have a big table in the formal dining room, a small table in the kitchen/dining room/living room, and a small table in the family room. We are outgrowing that house very quickly. All in all it was a fun day with lots of food and family, and I absolutely love my family.

Black Friday was almost uneventful for me, I'm usually a hardcore shopper with a timeline and a plan for every store I'm going to hit with the appropriate coupons etc. Last year I went out to Smithfield outlets at midnight to start the night off right ;) but this year, I'm pretty pregnant, and waking up at the crack of dawn just didn't appeal to me. Neither did standing in line or getting pushed around, so there was no plan of going out shopping...BUT of course I had to look at the sales papers, I mean who doesn't? I found a couple things I would love to check out but decided that I would just let myself wake up whenever and if the deals were still there when I went there, then great, and if not, no big deal. I wanted to check out bikes for Evan and my dad, a GPS for my father-in-law, and a Keurig for Evan. Evan didn't like the idea of me going by myself so about 8:00am we went to Wal-mart, CompUSA, and Kohl's, pretty much striking out everywhere. I did buy Evan his Christmas present at Kohl's, which he was unaware of until I walked out of the store with it in my hand as he was picking me up...I said "Merry Christmas, you won't let me go shopping by myself so you get no surprises ;) " He was excited either way, and so was I...I got this Keurig Elite for HALF PRICE! I was so excited and I've yet to see a better deal thus far! If anyone sees it for less, DON'T TELL ME :)


I really like this thing too, I don't drink coffee but they have teas and hot cocoa (which is my favorite!) and it's so quick...so I can just throw my thermos under there while packing my lunch in the morning and I have hot chocolate on the way to work!!! LOVE IT!

I don't guess that was much, but I skipped a lot 1) because I don't remember everything and 2)I don't want to bore you.

Coming up on the next post: OUR FIRST BABY SHOWER! (This one's going to be long and with many pictures, so beware) 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 6:56 PM