All about McKinley

Wow - time is flying

2010-05-18T08:10:00.002-04:00

Ok i admit i have not updated this as much as i did pre-facebook. McKinley is doing GREAT. She is growing by leaps and bounds. She is learning so many things daily. I promise to try and update more. We have been to the GI dr and the Peds lately. She is off all meds except her singulair meds for her allergies. We are amazed how well she is doing.

Updates - Mckinley is still in size 3 diapers. She is working on potty training. She is officially in a toddler bed because she was climbing out of the crib on friday. She is just over 20lbs. She goes to the allergist on Wednesday to see how she is doing. We have introduced her to Raw Goats Milk in the last week and she seems to be handling it well.

Blogger is not letting me upload pics at the moment but once it will look forward to it

Craziness

2010-02-16T12:42:00.003-05:00

It has been crazy in our house the past week. McKinley was very sick most of the week ... so we spent alot of time at the drs office for testing.. we concluded it must have been something viral.

Our refrigerator died on us on Wednesday morning... we lost everything. All of McKinleys food that we made for her.. all of my stockpile.. it was a very traumatic experience.. and if i didnt coupon it would be very hard on our budget to replace all that was lost. So we lived out of a cooler for a few days waiting for our new refridge to be delivered. It was delivered Sunday so we are now in business

Then it snowed.... yes SNOWED in Summerville Friday night. I will post pics later but McKinley had a blast and we had a blast playing in it. Work has been crazy busy this past weekend and i had coupon workshops to teach so we have been slammed but in a good way.

We made a trip to publix and saved 140 and spent 11.00 - in one transaction :) so that made the weekend.

Tot School

2010-02-05T12:59:00.010-05:00

We have been soo busy lately. I feel sometimes i quit my full time job to work another 2 full time jobs with all the couponing and then tot school Mckinley. We are changing a few things and getting better organized and are doing GREAT with the coupon classes.

Here is McKinleys updated Tot School for the past 2 weeks. We go to the library once a week for story time and Rollie Pollies for Music and Class. We are also normally doing 2-3 activities with my moms group so we are very blessed to have McKinley in so many activities.. Here are a few pics from the past 2 weeks - We attended the Children's Museum and The Aquarium :) McKinley is running now and these will be the last pics you see in this stroller. We have upgraded to a nice Graco Mosaic Stroller after trading her her infant car seat at Babiesrus.

Enjoy...McKinley at RP Music Class - we have attended 2 weeks in a row and she now understands the maracas and the sound they are making.
Here she is at the children's museum - she loved the water tables and then grocery shopping. We learned how to scoop and pour the water and how water can make things move.
She also is obsessed with my sandals.. she loves to dress up in them and walk around the living room with them.. warren caught these pics while i was out.
We also started the Bright Beginnings bags with McKinley - she mastered the toys very quickly.. we also bought her new educational toys from our local homeschool store.Mckinleys awake now.. i will upload aquarium pics later :)
Thanks for checking in on us

Oh Where is my Hairbrush....

2010-01-22T21:40:00.008-05:00

If you are a veggie fan like we are you are now singing that song at the moment.. McKinley had her first BIG GIRL HAIR CUT tonight... she soooo needed it. Her hair is very thick and her bangs were almost touching her nose - so off to Mrs Lindas to get our haircut. (side note Mrs Linda has been cutting Warrens hair for more than half his life... and warren gets his haircut every 3 weeks and will miss just about anything to not have to reschedule his haircut) so she was gracious enough to agree to cut little misses hair tonight... She sat perfectly still and was GREAT - i was worried but once again she was amazing.

Here are before pics.

Here are after pics

Prayers Needed

2010-01-22T16:01:00.002-05:00

We have family friends that are going thru the worst thing imaginable right now with their little boy at MUSC. He was diagnosed with Leukemia this week and will start treatment. They need our prayers more than anything right now... He is 2 and they have another child also.. Please keep the whole family in your prayers as this is a long road ahead.. we have faith that he will be in remission in 3 years.

It is so ironic that our moms group just walked in November for the Leukemia foundation and now one of our own is in this situation. Prayers for the drs and staff at MUSC as well... thanks guys...

McKinleys issues are so small in comparison - this is another lesson in life that when i think we have it so hard - that someone else we love is going thru something worse.

Storytime Take 1

2010-01-19T12:37:00.002-05:00

We went to storytime this morning at the library for children walking-30 months old. McKinley had a blast. We sang 4-5 songs and the teacher read 3 books to us. We worked on sitting on a purple mat on the floor and then cleaning up afterwards. I was nervous as Mckinley has never had a group time activity.. she was amazing. I should have not worried one bit. She did walk around a little bit but for the most part we stayed seated and listened to the story. One more moment in time that shows she is growing up and that i need to let her grow up, lol. I am loving our library experience more and more :)

Tot School Week 1

2010-01-17T13:31:00.009-05:00

We are having a blast with McKinley these days - Also make a HUGE note McKinley is now forward facing in her car seat and now in size 3 diapers for the first time this week.. this is HUGE for us.. we have 65 packs of diapers in size 3 so we will not have to buy diapers for a very long time (if ever) :)

Tot School has been good this week, we worked on puzzles, and picking items up and putting them away. We also ordered the last of her curriculum for the summer. :) My laminator is getting a workout. I also attended a class at the library which now allows me to check out the bright beginnings bags (they have theme bags with 2o books, cds, dvds, games, and toys in the them) so now we have a whole lesson plan on colors. We start with Blue this week.. so come back next sunday to see what all we have done.

This past week we played alot as well. McKinley and i attended Divitas (a local gymnastic center) , a Rollie Pollies open Gym, and the Just Like Home Playhouse with my moms group :)
We had a blast.. here are a few pics from the week

We worked on our colors while at Rollie Pollies with the Stars.. We worked on balance and walking up and down an incline. We also worked on pointing to our eyes, mouth and nose. She has picked this up pretty quickly. While at the playhouse we dressed up as a princess and enjoyed being a mommy for the afternoon.

Im soo going to miss this

2010-01-13T21:50:00.002-05:00

Get your tissues ready - this is an emotional post.

It happened this week to warren on monday then to me today.. where is the time going. McKinley can now walk to the car while holding your hand to get into the car. We have always carried her stuff and her to the car.. now since we are miss independent she wants to walk beside you where ever you go. I can not remember the last time she didnt respond by signing or pointing to what she wanted or didnt want. I just want to cherish the time that she is actually talking to me.. as a teen or preteen who knows ..Its been a year since she was born (almost a year and a month) but im so missing her needing me.
I complain sometimes that it was a bad day or that the laundry isnt done but im not really sure why.. as the reasoning normally is because we were playing or enjoying McKinley. I need to cherish our bath time routine as i know in a few years she wont even need me to help. I want to remember every time i got her ready for bed and brushed her wet hair. What i would have given when we were trying to have a child to have these moments and i want to remember everything about it.
As we are ever changing so is McKinley.. she has been walking for such a long time (at least to us) but she is now working on colors and we are pointing out everything.. will i remember this moment when she didnt know anything and wanted me to teach her and answer every question. Will i remember watching Veggie tails or Santa Paws over and over again because she laughs and dances over and over to the music. Please lord let me never forget her holding her hands up to want me to pick her up.. even in the moments when she is a teenager and screaming at me. I took for granted that she could fall asleep on me as a young baby and now she needs to be sleeping in her bed to get comfy.

So this is a post to make me stop and not complain to waking up at 2 in the morning on a night i really would like to sleep in. Or having to carry meds around all the time because of her allergies... or the thousand of other things i could complain about and just want to cherish the smell of her hair and the the smile on her face when she sees you.... im soo going to miss this.

Catching up

2010-01-07T09:50:00.003-05:00

We are almost ready to start McKinley with our tot school (me teaching her) and will kick it off on Jan 12th. We have been crazy busy getting everything put up from christmas and her birthday (i will post christmas pics later) and my coupon business is growing with leaps and bounds. We are now selling them on Ebay (ebay id crazyastaz) - and im teaching more classes and enjoying helping everyone saving money. If you or someone you know would like a coupon class at their home/church please email me. It has been so cold and i cant wait till it is warmer so we can go outside more with McKinley.

We have had a few changes in McKinleys diet and we have been to the allergist multiple times in the last few weeks. We are now feeding more finger foods to McKinley - she is part of the clean your plate club and will honestly eat anything you give her.. she loved collards and black eye peas for new years. She still can not have Milk/Soy but we have found a few things she can have a local healthfood grocery store. She had chocolate chip cookies on New Years day as well to celebrate Warrens Birthday (happy birthday darling) and she enjoyed every min of it.
The allergist changed her meds from Zyrtec to Singulair - We have noticed a dramatic improvement and he thought she had some indoor/outdoor allergies as well and tested her yesterday for it. We had great news- she is not allergic to the dogs, mold, or carpet. She is allergic to GRASS - more Bermuda Grass but all grasses in general. So we are going to stay on Singulair and see him again in 4 months to see how our spring is going.

Quack on over to

2009-12-18T14:13:00.009-05:00

McKinleys First Birthday party.. she loves taking a bath and we thought the rubber ducky theme fit perfect. She had a perfect time. She even had her own birthday cake that she could eat. We found a mix that was dairy/soy/gluten/nut free :) It was chocolate with Vanilla icing. All of her grandparents and great grandparents came in for her amazing party. It was great to see so many friends and family celebrating our "miracles" birthday

McKinleys Tot School

2009-12-18T14:03:00.002-05:00

We have been collecting items for but today I offically ordered my first tools for Tot School. (i will be linking up to the main site weekly) starting in January. We ordered her the full set of color learning pack (all 10 colors) printables from http://www.meandmarie.etsy.com/ They look amazing and we will be learning our colors the first part of the 2010.

WHOA...

2009-12-18T13:40:00.002-05:00

I have not blogged in a while so this is going to be long.. and since im in a better routine with Mckinley we can blog more. I will do a seperate post of her birthday pics. (thanks everyone who came out and enjoyed the day with us). Mckinley is doing great. We did a milk trial with her 2 weeks ago we did not pass.. she can not tolerate milk or lactaid yet. So we are changing her formula again- now to NEOCATE. We can purchase that from the manufacturer - it is not sold in stores. I have been finding more recipies that she can have.. who would have thought she could have mac and cheese (well sorta mac and cheese - just no cheese or milk - but they say it tastes just like mac and cheese) so we are trying out new recipies. I have been staying at home and loving it. We are attending way more playgroups and im getting all geared up to start teaching McKinley in "tot school" starting in January.. its not really school its more activities and playing with a purpose.. learning colors, shapes and such for 15-20 mins a day. She is receiving alot of gifts for this purpose We are geared up for Santa to come to our house.. although McKinley hated santa (both times we tried) so no christmas card pics this time.. we are going to send out new years cards with better pics.

We have weaned Mckinley off of her Zantac - we did have to up her prevacid but her GI dr prefers that than on Zantac 3 times a day and the prevacid once a day. She is growing just slower than most kids.. (well she is in the 5-10% in growth) when we went to our 1 year check up. She however is not 20lbs so no turning around yet (or using our cool new carseat) and per the dr if she stays on this growth curve (which she has for the last 12 months) it will most likely be another 2-3 months before she hits 20lbs.. she currently is 18lbs 12 oz.

It is getting harder at playgroups with Mckinleys allergies - i am become a hawk at watching what mckinley picks up but also what other kids drop. I just have to keep reminding myself it could be so much worse.

She is picking up on her sign language as well. We are watching Signing Times daily (rented from the library) and she loves it.

Okie dokie.. i will upload all the birthday pics next.

Wow what a day

2009-11-10T21:35:00.003-05:00

I know i need to post more(pet sitting and working crazy hours and a mobile child has been taking all my time and planning her bday party)... and as it turns out i will be able to. We loved our daycare up till 4 weeks ago when McKinley moved into her new classroom. We have had problems ever since,.. yesterday was the breaking point and she was not fed for 5 hours. I talked with the director today and nothing really was resolved so as of Friday ---- McKinley will no longer be in daycare. We have a week of vacation to cover next week (we have to give notice per our contract) and as of Thanksgiving week i will only be working 1 weekday a week and on Saturdays. Yeap you are reading that correct, i am going to be a stay at home mom. I have a great friend watching McKinley on mondays - she is coming to our house to watch her. But this is still uncharted territory for me. I have always worked and i have found some odd jobs to make up the difference. Oh thank the lord i coupon.. and who know i may start selling them on ebay (well the time to cut them.. as coupons are free) . If you would have told me 11 months ago that i would be doing this i would have laughed in your face... i would have laughed and said mckinley would not be walking either.. but we are doing both. So we are going to enjoy this time and enjoy our time together.

preview halloween 2009

2009-10-27T22:07:00.002-04:00

here is a preview of her in her minnie mouse costume. Please note the cheezy smile... as soon as she sees the flash come on this is the smile we get.

these shoes are made for WALKING

2009-10-20T20:55:00.002-04:00

I will post more later but today it is offical McKinley is WALKING..Mark it in stone. She is walking at 10 months 1 week :) Our house will never be the same. lol I have been super busy and house/doggie sitting for the past week but promise to update more later.

Jump Jump Jump

2009-10-10T08:00:00.002-04:00

My Sister took Mckinley on the bouncy balls while we were in the corn maze getting lost... never leave me with a map. I would never win the amazing race.

First Hayride

2009-10-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

McKinley enjoyed her first hayride around the HUGE corn maze..

The Great Pumpkin .. Mckinley

2009-10-08T08:00:00.003-04:00

McKinleys favorite food in the whole world is Pumpkin. :) So here is Mckinley and the great pumpkin - side note yes McKinley is in orange (no she is not cheering on clemson.. just dressing up for fall. LOL)

"Fall"ing for McKinley

2009-10-07T08:00:00.005-04:00

We enjoyed the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze this past weekend. They also had a petting zoo. McKinley enjoyed looking at all the animals and with some help even feeding the animals.. This brought back memories of taking her on her first field trip to bee city when she was just weeks old. Enjoy the next few days of pics. McKinley looking at the chickens

Here is McKinley looking at the Goats. This is a flashback to Bee City - McKinley with the bees.. oh how she has grown up.

I want this

2009-10-06T16:08:00.003-04:00

McKinley is learning fast to read and pick out what she wants for dinner.. (just kidding she is still eating baby food) but loved reading the menu when we celebrated MeMe's Birthday.

The Childrens Museum

2009-09-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

We had a blast at the CM of the Lowcountry. They had a freebie friday which was awesome. They opened the musuem and we enjoyed it very much. McKinley crawled around the play area and played in the Marketplace- sponsored by my favorite store Publix. In the market you are able to follow a shopping list, check out and pay and even use coupons.

9 month old Bday Pics.

2009-09-29T16:03:00.004-04:00

Sorry these are posting late.

Major Milestones

2009-09-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Mckinley is crawling ..crawling and crawling some more these days.. but last night she stood up by herself and surfing on the furniture ... so at todays drs visit for her vaccines.. she has reached all of her milestones. It was a interesting past week as i was getting ready for a huge consignment sale.. i remembered events where she was using things i was going to sell. like our famous pink bouncy seat- i said goodbye to it to sell it, because mckinley is crawling all over it. She slept so many nights in it.. so as all things good its a sad time to see her reach all the major milestones.

also on a side note. she got her first tooth the night M Jackson died and started pulling up and standing alone the night that Patrick Swayze died. Major dates we will never forget.

Swimsuit Model

2009-09-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

Mckinley spent some time in the pool this past weekend.. but enjoyed the drying off in the chair more..

Watch out

2009-09-21T08:00:00.004-04:00

Mckinley now has her own car... watch out. I cant imagine her in 16 years and actually driving.This was the day that USC played UGA.. well McKinley went to the game in Neutral colors-- BLACK.. but not just black top.. a top that aunt krissy got her saying this is my little black dress. if you have went to any of the usc games you know all the girls dress in little black dresses for the game. And to be completly neutral -Congrats UGA for wining.

Happy 1st Birthday Ada

2009-09-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

McKinley went to her first birthday party this past weekend. Happy 1st bday Ada. This a picture of Me, McKinley and Ada.

Happy Birthday MeMe and Go Dawgs

2009-09-18T08:00:00.002-04:00

This is a very late post but happy birthday MeMe. Also we celebrated the adoption finalization for our friends two weekends ago. - Congrats Johnson Family!

Also this was the same day that we got to see UGA play.. McKinley was dressed up again for football.... As you can see she never has her picture taken (that is why she has a cheezy grin every time she sees the flash come on... LOL)

A Family Tradition

2009-09-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

As the previous post said its football season but its also a time for family traditions. I have been going to SHS football games since i was born. Literally i have a 12month tshirt that has my name on the back. Both Warren and I graduated from there and also my mom and my sister did and its been a family tradition. Friday nights at the stadium. We sit in the same seats every week. I could never imagine just a few years ago that McKinley would be enjoying this with us.We were able to experience that with McKinley and trust me - she had the time of her life. I think she is destined to be in the band. She loved the music and even tried directing them for a few mins.. *aunt krissy would have been proud.She even has her own stadium seat (aka her bumbo)

The island is calling my name

2009-09-16T08:00:00.003-04:00

Mckinley knows the island is calling her name. Here she is sitting on the dock enjoying the sunset. One of my new favorite pics.

its FOOTBALL time.....

2009-09-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

So you know what that means.. GOOO GREENWAVE.... GO GAMECOCKS and GO DAWGS.. and that means countless hours watching the game on tv. Oh the season of football ... There will be multiple post on football watching and dressing for the game... i hope you enjoy the season as much as we do.

Here is opening night with USC vs NC State

This is a funny pic because i was showing McKinley how to the spur and she looked at me funny... also when she was days old she did what my sister would call pirate eye.. and hasn't done it since.. enjoy aunt krissy.

Also that same night. My dad (aka GDaddy) found my old rocking chair and brought it down from the attic for darlin McKinley. My parents have pics of me sitting in this same rocking chair. McKinley was a natural- rocking back and forth

Oh the places we will go

2009-09-15T15:19:00.004-04:00

McKinley is getting rides around the neighborhood now in a big girl waggon. She holds on to the side and loves the wind in her hair.. oh the places we can go now.

Welcome to the World Little Bit

2009-09-15T14:50:00.003-04:00

Ok im back from no post land to actually having a few mins to post. Kelly and Trey had "Little Bit" on August 28th. Zachary Milton Truluck weighed in at 8 lb. 12 oz. and was 21 inches long. Here are a few pics of him with Warren and I but go over to Kellys blog http://treyandkelly.blogspot.com/ to see more cute pics. Welcome to the world Little One.

Playdate

2009-08-31T08:00:00.001-04:00

We had a great day at the gymnastic play date on Tuesday. McKinley and i met the moms group for playtime. McKinley had fun playing on the floor that bounced and watching all the older kids play on the equipment. She also became her first bully today.. she would constantly take toys from another little boy today. I see this is a trait i will have to work on early. This is a pic of the two kiddos playing.. he is only 6 1/2 months old but is bigger than McKinley

Big Girl

2009-08-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

McKinley is becoming a big girl in front of our eyes.. Zsa Zsa bought a new toy to the island and at first i thought McKinley is too small for it but look what little M can do.. can sit up and rock on the big blue doggie.

She is also has mastered the raise your arms for someone to pick you up move. When she is in her exersaucer or jumperoo she will raise her hands up to be picked up when she is finished playing. Here she is after being done with the doggie.

Up Up Away

2009-08-29T08:00:00.006-04:00

McKinley loves to swing and she was able to swing at the island next to Alicia. She was tickled pink to keep going higher.

Island Life

2009-08-28T08:00:00.007-04:00

We have been staying/visiting at the island this summer and McKinley is enjoying the pool. Here is darlin girl all ready in her swim suit.This is a good picture of McKinleys bottom teeth. total she has 2 bottom and one on the top (we can see the one on top and feel it but not as well as the bottom 2) and she is getting another one on her bottom right side.. her tongue is always out these days.

Our Darling Pink Dress & Little Bits Shower

2009-08-27T08:00:00.004-04:00

We had a great shower for Little Bit at the begining of Aug. We enjoyed fellowship with friends and family and showered Kelly and Trey with love and gifts for Little Bit. We are anticipating his arrival this week :) Here is McKinley all dressed up for the shower.Here is Kimberly, Kelly and Me at the shower.

Progression

2009-08-25T20:16:00.011-04:00

one month oldtwo months old three months old

four months old
five months oldsix months oldseven months old

eight months old

sniffle sniffle.. its amazing how old she looks to me now.

8 months old :)

2009-08-25T09:52:00.007-04:00

McKinley you are 8 months old :)
You are 16 1/2 lbs.
We just started using size 2 diapers. They are still big but you are fiting into them
You wear size 6-9 months clothes. The thing you have grown out of the quickest is your footed PJ's - probably because you are so long.
You are eating like a champ. 5 oz every 4 hours (with 2 tablespoons of rice to thicken) and 2-3 servings of baby food.

You still are not sleeping the whole night thru. But it is getting better. You have had a cold/ear infection lately and it has affected your sleeping.
You have been to columbia, atlanta and the island in your short 8 months . You travel very well.

You love to sleep in your carseat.

You like to be out and about. You are very inqusitive and love to people watch, just like your mommy.

You are almost crawling.. you can move from your back to sitting up and back down. You can rock on your knees and you can roll over to what ever you want. You can stand holding on to something.

You love the jumperoo and the exersaucer- and you love just to play on the floor with your toys.

This week you had your first interaction play with Rylee. You played tug of war and i could not be happier to see the both of you play.

When we listen to you wake up in the morning you just tap the mattress or play with your horse until we get there.. no crazy screams *except when you were sick.

You make noise constantly when you are by yourself.. you love to hear yourself talk. i know you are getting that trait from me but im worried once you start talking you will not stop. And last but not least McKinley does not like my birthday hat anymore. She wants to take it off.. so here she is without her hat on in- in her jammies.

Where did my little baby girl go.. sniffle. and when did she get so much hair. This is her 1 month old bday pic just to reminisce.

Diva of Coupons

2009-08-15T15:25:00.002-04:00

It has finally happened.. couponing as i know it will come to an end on dear McKinleys blog. This will become what i set out for it to be... a blog about our dear little angel. I have set up a new blog www.divaofcoupons.blogspot.com for all couponing. I hope to see most of you over there as well. :)

shes getting so big

2009-08-13T22:23:00.003-04:00

I forgot to add. McKinley started gettting sick last thursday so she and warren made her rounds to our peds office. She offically weighs 16 pounds 4 oz. She is on her way to feeling better. Gotta love the amoxi.

Work Work Work

2009-08-13T21:54:00.002-04:00

All i seem to do these days is work.. not that im complaining. I am getting overtime weekly. I am just not getting alot of other things accomplished at home. We celebrated my birthday this past weekend and McKinley actually walked in the walker over the weekend (backwards and forwards) - I will try to update pics this weekend. I am working very hard on the coupon workshop that im teaching on tuesday. We celebrated little bits monkey shower this weekend and it went off without a problem. I am working on a different blog to keep my coupon savings and my little McKinleys blog separate. This past week we did GREAT.. almost 300 worth of groceries for 30 dollars.. that included 85 jars of baby food, 3 packs of diapers and formula... plus all of our normal groceries. I will let you know once it is up and running. I am also going to try to update this blog 3 times a week so we will see if i can get this all accomplished and work crazy hours.. one can hope right.

Georgia is home

2009-08-07T07:08:00.001-04:00

Georgia is doing good and home for good. She is on 2 oral meds for a week but overall she is doing good :)

Our Georgia is in the hospital

2009-08-04T16:30:00.002-04:00

Our little girl doggie Georgia is our precious little puppymill rescue that is the real reason i got into vet work because after her we started fostering and you know how that story ended.

Well our little girl has HGE/pancreatitis - She will be fine (because we caught it early )but it is so hard to see her on IV Fluids and know the only reason she can come home at night and not go to the ER is because im a vet tech. She will be NPO (no food or h2o) for 3 days and we will start slowly feeding her again. She started vomiting and i brought her to work and her bloodwork was off the charts. We take her for granted daily and cant wait till she is better.

We had no idea how she would be with McKinley but she has taken everything in stride.

Confession

2009-08-02T15:38:00.002-04:00

I have been swamped lately and not updating the blog like i want to. I have been working way OVER time at work and looks like i will be for the next 2 weeks. I accomplished my goal of getting the invites out on the day i wanted this past week for an upcoming baby shower :) Handmade of course. so that took some time. I have been also trying to coupon like crazy to keep our totals within budget while warren is out of work. I have also been working on my coupon class. It will be Aug 18th. Email me for more info. I am working on getting all my material together for all these couponers. and all the while i have not been updating the blog.

McKinley is doing great. She said MaMa on Wednesday.. not really meaning me but she said it out of the blue with out be saying it first. We will see if she continues it and if she knows she means to call me. She is becoming more mobile daily. She can roll around very well and never stays where we put her.. thank the lord for pack n plays. She is not crawling yet but will be soon. Oh how proud i am of her. She has been eating like a champ and we could not be more proud.

Coupons.. Coupons

2009-08-02T10:53:00.004-04:00

We have went shopping today and a few days last week to food lion and saved a ton of money.. and bought alot of good things for taking to the island.

Food Lion this week we spent 5.76 saved 28.97 83% savings :)

Publix this week our totals are off because we bought formula for Mckinley. They are redesigning her formula and reducing the amount in the cans - so we are trying to stock up on the larger cans

Publix # 1 spent 16.20 saved 7.00 (one can of formula) 31% savings

Publix # 2 and #3 Qualify for the 10.00 mail in rebates so totals after the rebates 12.30 spent saved 81.64 (included 20 boxes of pop tarts, 6 pastas, and 2 cans of formula)

Publix # 4 spent 29.01 saved 120.18 (one can of formula and groceries ) 81% savings

Totals for this week Spent - 63.27 and saved 237.90 averaged 79% this week alone :)
Mckinley went shopping with us and went fast asleep when we got home.. couponing is such hard work lol.

This weeks savings

2009-07-26T13:13:00.003-04:00

I promise not to hijack this blog from my darling baby girl. She is doing great :) All smiles and rolling over like a champ. She can give high 5 and occasionally give kisses.
I am saving/couponing like a mad woman these days.. I did 3 transactions at Publix this morning. Totals 125.06 of groceries for 19.76 :) 84% Savings - We bought a great amount of fresh produce this week. Yummy.

Pics and Happy Birthday.

2009-07-21T20:55:00.003-04:00

First off.. Happy Birthday Uncle Trey :) We had a great time at dinner on sunday :)

I have had many emails asking what did i buy to get my totals that low.. here is my picture proof (minus 3 dr peppers and 3 bandaids from our 3rd trip to publix this week)

Bilo - I bought 3 cheerio in a cup 1.00 each - had 1.00 off each cup (and when you bought 3 a Catalina printed for 2.00 off your next purchase)
Vienna Fingers (2 - b1g1) i had .55 cents off each that doubled
3 Dr Peppers (.80 each no coupons)
SH Vingar on sale
Sure Deo/antiperspirant (it was b1g1 - i had a 2.00 off coupon so i made .90 cents buying it) also it had a try me free on it which i will get back 2.00in rebate

Publix - I made a 3rd trip after i got home to buy more dr peppers with overage. i had 2 5 off 25.00 Rite aids for both transactions and i had a 5.00 off 40.00 from piggly wiggly. I bought alot of stuff that made overage..
MONEYMAKERS

6 J&J $1.79 ea($3/2 Q (blinkie) & $5/3 Publix Q Green Advantage = FREE + $1.18 overage ea.)

9 Band Aids $2.19 ea($1/1 Q (6/28 SS, 5/17 RP, 4/26 RP) + $5/3 Publix Q Green Advantage = FREE + $.48 overage ea.)

2 Texas Toast $.75 ea ($.50/1 Q (4/05 RP) = FREE + $.25 overage ea.)

Muir Glen Tomato Sauce (1.00 Q + FREE + $.22 overage

I had a rain check for simply potatoes b1g1 (4) and coupons FREE
Kraft 2% cheese
Publix egg noodles
Bic Mechanical Pencils 2 FREE
Beachnut 10 jars
Viva Big Paper Towels
Buitolo Pasta
Hormel Pepperoni
Sliced Portabella Mushrooms
Stoffers Skillet Meals

Publix Half and Half
Glad Trash Bags
Pizza Mix Chef Boyarde
Publix Frosted Flakes Penny Item 3 (did 3 transactions)
Publix White Bread (after coupon .13 cents)
Oscar Myer Turkey Breast
Taco Bell Dinner Kits (4)
McCormick Grinders (4) FREE
M&Ms Birthday Card (this is one thing i did not have a coupon for)
Dr Peppers (3)

Grocery Challenge Week #2

2009-07-19T21:43:00.003-04:00

We had and AWESOME grocery trip this week. Here are my totals -

Bilo - Total before coupons 21.90 - After coupons 1.68 (also i have a try me free on suave product for 2.00) 92% savings

Publix Trip #1 Total before coupons 35.78 - After coupons i paid .54 cents (pre tax they owed me .13 cents) 98% savings

Publix #2 Total before coupons 78.45 After coupons i paid 9.68 - 88 % savings

Publix # 3 Total before coupons 16.83 After coupons i paid 2.46 - 85 % Savings

So total today groceries cost me 138.60and i spent 14.36 Grand Total of 91% Savings
I am way within my 75.00 budget this week. lol. 60.64 less. lol. We normally spend more at a fast food restaurant than i did grocery shopping. I will add a pic tomorrow of all the stuff :)

Grocery Challenge / Coupon Workshops

2009-07-15T08:00:00.002-04:00

I have taken the challenge... All You Grocery Challenge that is.
The rules are Show off your shopping smarts by spending no more than $25 per family member per week on groceries over a four-week period beginning July 13. That's $100 a week for a family of four. You could win a $1,000 grocery card plus a year's supply of Knorr side dishes and the chance to appear in ALL YOU magazine. During the contest, groceries that you purchase count toward your weekly total. However, feel free to grow, barter or use stockpiled food to supplement your meals. Creativity and ingenuity count!

I think we can eat for 75.00 a week in groceries but we normally eat out once/twice a week so we are cutting that out as well unless we have extra spending money. We need to be eating under that a week anyway.. so im glad this came around when it did.
Here are my totals for the week so far
Bilo Total Before coupons - 75.45
After Coupons 35.59 (plus i we earned 0.05 cents more fuel points)

Publix Total Before Coupons - 38.17 (this included 8 packages of Rice to thicken Mckinleys formula)
After Coupons 27.14

CVS Total Before Coupons & ECBS 39.75 (this included a pack of Huggies)
After Coupons & ECBS 3.56

Total Spent - 66.29 with 8.71 left to spend this week. We stockpiled alot of stuff this week as well for meals. So hopefully next week will be even lower.

Also I am now starting to teach coupon 101 workshops. If you would like for me to teach you and your friends just let me know and we can set up a date. I am currently saving 69 % in groceries weekly and want to teach more how to use coupons effectively. I come to you and it includes all materials for the class :)

Happy Happy Birthday

2009-07-14T16:41:00.008-04:00

McKinley turned 7months old today.. where is the time gone (thats another post)- Here are her monthly pics :) Also you will notice she can sit up all by herself now and shakes her head no no no.. Look at the pic on the sidebar of last month.. she looks so much older to me. Oh the things she is learning.

More Fishy Pics ..

2009-07-14T12:09:00.008-04:00

The beautiful Belugas.. we actually were able to sit at the glass and have them come right up to us.
One of my favs with McKinley...
Our visit was finally over and Mckinley fell asleep just a few moments before taking this picture.. We loved our trip to ATL and cant wait to go back.

Our Change

2009-07-13T21:13:00.003-04:00

We interrupt the ATL trip pics again to update with something that is tugging my heart. Our life is in change at the moment.. as the corporate world calls it.. restructuring. Things are changing and we hope for the best but as i read another blog tonight she posted this

Never give up. This may be your moment for a miracle

So as our song says.. God Bless this broken road that lead us straight to you.... i know that this is just another broken road that he is blessing in the end.

We have become so strong since McKinley was born.. who knew we would know as much as we do now. Not just about medical terms. *trust me ... we have been either in the hospital, at drs office or giving Mckinley meds more than i can even imagine. We now read every label that goes into McKinleys mouth.. she has only had 3 sips of H20 that was not special nursery h20. I kept hearing in the class you will understand her crys .. well sometimes but McKinley really only cries if something is major wrong.. so you have tried everything else before she starts crying. And i knew if we ever gave up she would not have been born.. we strived and survived the hardest pregnancy i EVER want to go thru. So i know this new adventure will be good in the end we just have to get there. So no im not stressing but i want this captured in time.. Mckinley you are the most important thing in our life and we do everything we do for you.

The Big Blue G

2009-07-13T08:05:00.002-04:00

We went to the ultimate aquarium .. the largest aquarium in the united states. Warren and I have been before but this is McKinleys first time. This by far is the first thing she really experienced. Most had been joking that when i took Mckinley to Bee City she was so small and just sat there and i took pics but she did not really experience it. This time she was totally awake and enjoyed seeing all the fishy. We even had a almost "private" show in the ballroom. Our family friends went with us as well. Enjoy the pics :)

Mckinley with DeepoMckinley looking at the stingrays

She had a great time watching the beaver puppet.. Bob and Becky bought her this same beaver when we left.. she loves it.. i love the smile on her face.The magnificent Beluga Whales.

Come back tomorrow for more pics. :)

Whatyahave... the Varsity

2009-07-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

We had the ultimate lunch at the varsity.. if you got to ATL you have to eat there. The frosty orange is my ultimate favorite. The servers are screaming whatyahave.. we go here every time we are in town. McKinley had to wear a hat...

Mckinley did get sick at the varsity.. she knew she was allergic to EVERYTHING on the menu.. but she was a champ afterwards.

Happy Birthday Kristen

2009-07-09T07:13:00.003-04:00

We interupt our regular blogcasting to wish Aunt Kristen a very happy birthday!!! She is amazing with McKinley and i know once she starts teaching she will be the kids favorite teacher. Happy Birthday little big sister :) -Jaim'e

4th of July - Stone Mtn

2009-07-08T08:00:00.007-04:00

To start the day. McKinley tried Apple Juice for the first time.. last week she had pedilite for the first time while she had a small stomach bug but this was the first official time of juice.. and she used her sippy cup great as well.
As little girls Kristen and I can remember going to Stone Mtn for the 4th of july. Picnicking on the lawn and watching the laser show. We accomplished what the travel books say is in the top 20 events to experience with your child. It was a hot day but cloudy. We lathered up the sunscreen and went to enjoy the day. We enjoyed the Skyride to the top of the mtn and could see miles and miles of the skyline. If you know me, you know i don't like heights. I rode up and down without getting sick but will be honest i didn't look out these pics are thanks to kristen. We also rode the train around the base of the mtn (5 miles) Mckinley enjoyed sleeping on the train.. lol. even after it was blowing its horn. McKinley watched about 15 mins of the actual laser show but slept the entire time during the fireworks. We could feel the fireworks in our chest they were so close but our darling just kept on sleeping. blogger will not let me upload any more pics.. come back tomorrow for firework pics and our varsity and aquarium pics.

On the road again

2009-07-06T20:46:00.008-04:00

We embarked on an adventure of great memories over the weekend. My family has gone to Atlanta over the years hundreds of times and most of our favorite memories (traveling) are there. We loved going and experiencing things new or things we did not have at home. We decided to go to ATL for 4th of july to let McKinley experience all the fun things we (kris and i) remember about growing up.. and to see the largest fireworks show. We (Warren, Me, Mckinley, MeMe, G-Daddy, aunt Krissy) rented a van and packed everything (that is why i have not updated recently) and set off thurs after work. McKinley traveled well, we did have to stop more often to give her meds.. and when we woke up the next morning we understood why... she cut another tooth overnight.. so she now has 2 bottom teeth.

Friday- We got up early in the morning and started the day.. we went grocery shopping but not just grocery shopping but we went to 2 organic grocery stores. I wanted to get Mckinley different foods that she could eat and also be grown organic. We hit the motherload and found teething biscuits and 12 jars of combo foods that she can eat with no other additives, and rice cereal on sale.. so yes i shopped without coupons but still found great things on sale. We ate Steak and Shake... can you say yummy milkshakes.. this is a definite anywhere we go.
We then went to our family friends mountain house.. She did well the entire ride. She had her first biter biscuit there.. it has no dairy, no soy, no wheat. AND it was flavored Maple Brown Sugar... she loved it. I am going to search locally where i can find them or buy them online. I will not have to make them if i can find them :) We then watched fireworks over the lake.. it was beautiful.. (Mckinley slept the whole time)

Updates --

2009-07-06T20:39:00.003-04:00

I am going to get you updated as you can see it has been over a week since i posted. We have been traveling to new great adventures with McKinley. She cut her first tooth on the day the Micheal J died.. (also Farrah but we keep hearing about MJ). We will always remember where we were for this. She can say MA MA but not in relations to me.. but still it melts my heart. She also received her first book for reading at the library 2 weeks ago - curious george. We are continuing to read to her daily.. its our quiet time that i love. She was a perfect little lady on our traveling adventures. I am going to try to show you tons of pics of her new adventures.. Hopefully it will update daily with different post so check back often (im going to try a new feature of blogger)

Happy Daddy Day

2009-06-21T21:19:00.003-04:00

Happy Daddy Day Warren! Happy G-Daddy Day (my dad)! and Happy Gramps Day (Floyd)!

I can not say enough about how amazing Warren is as a dad. He has taken charge of making all her bottles, packing her bags, and overall anything that McKinley needs.
Warren first showed how amazing he was during our infertility days, then even the better during all of the paperwork and things that we needed to do for our adoption process. He stood by me every step of the way during our difficulty pregnancy, during our first weeks of McKinleys constant crying until we found out she had allergies. He has went to most of our drs appts and takes off anytime that is needed when she is sick. He has done our late night feedings since the beginning. I could never do this by myself.

Warren has had great father examples during his entire life. Both G-Daddy and Gramps are doing a great job now.It is sad that his dad could not see McKinley, and i know how much warren misses him.

My Dad has also been amazing and is always showing warren how to raise great Girls.. my dad learned how to curl hair, teach cheerleading and overall amazing coach and dad. So i know this will come in handy as McKinley grows up.
So Warren i love you more daily as you take care of our little girl....
JNS

McKinley you are 6 months old!!!

2009-06-20T16:23:00.004-04:00

WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THESE DAYS??? ( i borrowed this layout from a blog i read)

You weigh 15 lbs 2 oz
You are 26.25 inches long- you are long and lean!
You wear a size 1-2 diaper (Huggies size 1 still fit and the 1-2 fit but the just size 2 are still to big
You are pretty much in 9 months clothing with anything that has feet (pjs and such and 6-9 month dresses.
Your eyes are blue
Your hair is blonde (but in the right picture it has red tints)
You are now sleeping all night long (or at least the last few nights you have.. hopefully im not jinxing us.) We now get up at 5am every morning instead of 3 am.
You LOVE when I sing to you or talk to you - I realize my voice is bad but you will smile the entire time I sing - your favorite songs are veggie tale songs

If I lay you down anywhere - you are a rolling machine. You can do a push up really well and if you were just a tiny bit stronger - you would crawl. You grunt and work hard on trying to..
You sleep with one arm up in the air just like your utrasound pics to this day if you are sleeping on your back.
You love to sleep on your tummy
You still have NO TEETH! - but have been a teething machine. Everything has to go to a taste test first.
You notice Rylee and Georiga. You will turn your little head and just watch him. I wonder what you think about him/her? You also like to pet Rylee
You love to hear yourself talk - amd you talk more when you are sleepy
You LOVE to Jump.. i mean you would jump all day if we let you. You are sad sometimes at daycare as they do not have a jumparoo. You try jumping in the exersaucer but its not the same.
You LOVE VeggieTales DVD's and will watch them over and over. (Daddy knows all the songs..)
You are a total momma's girl and maybe a little spoiled - but I wouldn't have it any other way!

I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST YOU ARE GROWING!

Mckinleys Half Birthday.. Happy 6 months..

2009-06-14T18:49:00.008-04:00

This week and weekend has been jam packed with things for Mckinley to do. She is now an official library card member. She can check out books and is signed up for the read-2-me program and after 15 days gets a free book, 30 days a gift card, and 45 days another free book. We are reading at night so we are on our way to a free book. :) She spent Friday night at Zsa Zsa and Gramps and then spent Saturday night at MeMe and G-Daddy. So mommy and daddy got to sleep all night. We are very refreshed. She took her jumparoo to Zsa Zsa's and showed off her galloping skills. :) She went "swimming" today at MeMe and G-Daddys. We plan to go to the big pool tomorrow if she is feeling well.

Also As always.. here are her birthday pics.. She loves jumping in her jumparoo .She jumped for over 2 hours this week. I tried to take pics but all she wanted to do was jump...

I can not believe we are parents of a 6 month old. Where has the time gone.. how quickly it is passing us by. I am amazed daily of the new things she is learning. We are growing as parents and even sometimes it feels we are walking around with a medicine cabinet. I would not change anything with her being sick or having allergies. I had no idea going into this pregnancy that i would be making her food, reading labels as if i was a scientist. We now take our own essentials (bowls, spoons, bibs, etc) to daycare and knock on wood it has cut our projectile vomiting down to almost nothing. I am waiting to talk to our allergist (we have an appt on the 29th) and our GI but i think it was cross contamination with something she was allergic to that added to our reflux issues.

She also tried pumpkin this weekend. We made ice cube trays of pumpkin and green beans this weekend as well.

Happy Half Birthday Darlin. You are still the little miracle that your dad and i wished and prayed for. I cant wait to see what you will accomplish in the next 6 months.. stay tuned.

Look at Me Dr B

2009-06-08T13:11:00.003-04:00

Today we had a recheck with Dr B and since she needed shots on monday as well, we did her 6 month check up today as well. She is feeling much better. Although while Dr B was looking at her she found out she has a bad ear infection. (read another round of meds) but McKinley is a trooper and will sit and take just about anything. We also had to go and get more Lab work done to check her Bloodcount and such but Dr B thinks everything will come back fine. She doesn't look like a patient that has HUS (what the drs are worried about with the E Coli) but we will know more this afternoon. She received 2 shots today, blood drawn and ear infection and still came home in a semi-decent mood. Once again my "favorite place to shop/where shopping is a pleasure" her antibiotics were free.
Here are her stats

She weighs 14# 10 oz 10% percentile
She is 26 1/4 inches long 75% percentile. The nurse measured her head circumference but did not write it down. I will get it later for stats. Also Dr B wants to send us to an allergist early so she is making the referral.

She grew in the last 2 months
1Lb 14 oz (almost 2 lbs)
2 1/4 inches

Pics Pics and more Pics

2009-06-07T21:04:00.016-04:00

Since i didn't post pics from Memorial Day.... Our First Sips of Sweet Tea We went to Ken and Ritas Bday Party.. McKinley "played" with her first Light sabre (i made sure the spelling was correct..lol) Warren had a blast watching her with them.

I posted that i made Green Peas for our darlin Princess.. since most know i am not a cook.. that my darling husband is definitely the cook in the family.. i took pics to prove we (mom and I) did it... don't these look yummy. Plus i bought the peas for FREE with coupons :) :) :)

We also moved McKinley into her Big Girl Car Seat... she is still rear facing (will be till a year old) but she has alot more room.. shes digging it.

And the following are pics taken from the hospital stay. She had an IV in (see green sock covering it) but she was way more obsessed with getting her allergy bracelet off her ankle than the IV that was in.. Mr Horse never left her side.

"Look mommy my boo boo" They drew alot of blood while there.. also this pic shows her in the "cage" as some of my mommy friends call it.

The great nurses brought us an exersaucer to play in and a mobile for her crib.. she could hit the mobile with her feet and it would shine stars on the ceiling..We had McKinley try a real peach yesterday... here is her face..Also Happy 50th Birthday ZSA ZSA!!!

We are home

2009-06-04T21:39:00.001-04:00

just a quick message for everyone that reads the blog we are home. I will post later with pics and updates.

Day 3 at MUSC.

2009-06-03T08:35:00.002-04:00

McKinley is doing good. She has been very fussy and not eating well (only eating 2 oz instead of 5) but she is having good wet diapers. We are still having very FRANK bloody diarrhea but we now have more answers.. she has both Salmonella and E coli. I know your next question is mine.. how did she get it. We have really no idea - we just need to be careful so we dont catch it. (by washing our hands constantly) She has an IV in and we are currently not on fluids but we maybe after morning rounds. She also caught a cold while here, so now she has a running nose and had a fever yesterday. Our GI dr had been called to see if he thought we needed to go on a more elemental formula but as of right now he is happy with the nutramegin. Once i know more i will update. They brought up an exersaucer and a mobile for her to play on. She had more blood taken this am - so we are waiting for the CBC to come back to make sure her infection is localized and not affecting her kidneys. Once we are home she will not be able to go to daycare until we have a negative stool sample, so aunt krissy will be watching her. They are talking that we may go home today but maybe here till saturday.. so we are still up in the air about that. Thank you all for your prayers.

McKinley is at MUSC :(

2009-06-02T08:30:00.005-04:00

We have had our "special" needs with McKinley but we always just got by going to the ped, Ped GI or to the MUSC ER. Well yesterday was not the case. McKinley as i posted before had bloody stool well over the weekend she was good but sunday night/monday morning she was very fussy and just not herself. She was having more stool than wet diapers so i took her in to the peds. They received the results from the stool sample. She tested positive for E Coli. So they placed an urinary cath and collected urine which showed blood. They thought the E coli was attacking her kidneys and we were rushed to MUSC.
Once we got here the drs think it may be E coli (but we have normal e coli in our stool) so we are waiting for more cultures to grow here. or it maybe an allergic reaction to something.. we have not tried anything new in the last week but we have no idea what it could be. We will be here a few days ..maybe a week.
Last night she had a IV cath put in for her bloodwork to be drawn and for the antibiotics once we know what we are fighting to go in. She was also had a urinary cath in for a bit to collect urine for samples for them to test as well. She is seeming to be hydrated and not running a fever. I am unable to upload pics from here but our little girl in the "cage" of the crib and the IV cath is hard to see as well. She is obsessed with her hospital bracelet that says ALLERGIC on her ankle not the IV cath so that is good. We know we are in the best place so we just have to wait and see what all the cultures come back. I will try to update here as it makes it easier for everyone to read. We just need prayers right now.. for the drs to find out what is wrong and for them to be able to fix it.

Cross Contamination

2009-05-28T23:04:00.004-04:00

Thats what we think that sent us rushing to the peds office today because Mckinley had bloody stool at daycare this morning. Our ped is sending off a stool sample to check for salmonella but since McKinley now has diaper rash (she has never had really a diaper rash.. just red for a day and it would be over) and a small rash on her body that since daycare uses the same bowls and spoons (they wash them between children) that there was a residue on the bowls with something mckinley is allergic to and/or had milk or soy in it. She was cranky the night before but since now on benadryl every 6 hours for 2 days we hopefully will kick this in the butt. If it is a parasite we will address it at that time, no daycare while positive and such but we are pretty sure this is the cause. She has also started vomiting more at daycare. due to the allergies as well? im not sure but we are now sending our own bowls, spoons and bibs that will be washed at home in the dishwasher at high heats to make sure we are doing everything we can. WE did not need our epi-pen but it will always be with us. I have also ordered her medical alert bracelet that she will wear everyday for the rest of time. It has wording on it about severe allergies - do not feed without asking and EPI Pen and Benadryl is in her bag at all times as well. Hopefully we never need it but with her unable to eat alot of the foods most babies and toddlers eat i need everyone aware.

Side Note- I will post pics later. (it is 11:09 pm) Mckinley tried Sweet Tea this weekend at my parents.. she had 3 little sips but wanted the cup.. a girl after her daddys heart.
Also It was COUPON WORKSHOP night.. we got to spend time learning even more from Jenny and hanging out with my moms group and friends.. My life goal now is to have everyone save money.

Look what McKinley can do....

2009-05-24T12:09:00.005-04:00

McKinley can now sit at the table in a high chair when we go out. She has enough control to sit up during our whole dinner. We went out to dinner with Kristen on friday night and she sat up the whole time.

She has be rolling over for weeks now but she is now sleeping most nights on her belly or rolling over in bed when she is waking up. Her hair is growing by leaps and bounds and now waking up with bed head - lol. She pulls on her hair when shes sleepy. i will take a pic of that later.

She is eating very good these days- She can eat Carrots (by far her favorite- thanks colleen for making her organic carrot goodness), Green Beans, Avocado, Sweet Potato, Bananas (she is not crazy about these but will eat them), apples (same as bananas - eats but doesn't really like). I am making her avocados and bananas daily. She currently eats 2 meals of cereal and 1 fruit/veggie combo but still seems a little bit hungry (she is still getting bottles every 4-5 hours) so we are going to 1 meal of cereal and 2 meals of real food. Our schedule still has a 3 am (not great for mommy) feeding but overall she is doing great :) I will try to upload more pics of her from this weekend.

Our summer plans are falling right into place. We are planning a trip out of state in July. Swimming Lessons and Playdates with the Moms Group, Staying at the Island in Aug/Sept. I am going to get her signed up for the reading program at the library next week. I am also going to start working with her learning sign language in the next few months.

Happy 5th month Birthday :)

2009-05-17T08:28:00.003-04:00

McKinley turned 5 months old this week :) Here are her bday pics.

Kristens Graduation

2009-05-17T08:06:00.008-04:00

We had the opportunity to experience something that only happens once in a lifetime with someone. Kristen and I are sisters 'duh so we got into arguments alot as kids.. we can still tell stories about the whos bigger than who. (now doesn't count lol) There is 5 years difference between us so we were always at different stages in our lives. I joke that Kristen and i became friends after i moved out. She has become a rock in my life. She has stood her ground on what she believes in and from the start of college to graduation has become a well rounded adult. We (actually this was one of warrens first adventures with the hilton group) moved her into her dorm 4 years ago.. - memories of moving her stuff up 9 flights of stairs will never be erased. To the tears we shed every time she would leave. To watching her march the first time in Williams Brice to moving her to her own apt... to eventually watching her march her last time in the stadium. To her now teaching.. She spent the night with us the first night home with McKinley .. what a ride. She is now all grown up. Has my co-parenting (a funny term we used growing up) ended.. I can not even imagine McKinley graduating from college. I cried the whole ceremony with kristen. So this is a collection of pics from graduation. I could not be more proud of the person Kristen has become. I love her with all my heart!!

Mothers Day 2009

2009-05-13T21:15:00.002-04:00

(disclaimer... i promise to upload pics soon.. i know you come here to see Mckinleys face not just read my ramblings.. and also you may need a tissue after this post)

I missed writing a Mother's Day post and i really need to write this.! I remember not that long ago when I would dread Mother's Day. For years I wanted nothing more than to be a mother and wasn't. Everyone knows our story.. from fertility drugs, to adoptions that didn't happen.. each mothers day would come and go and we would still be childless. I know it sounds crazy (it honestly does) I would cringe as my friends and family would announce being pregnant I was happy for these women that they had/having children , but my heart hurt. I remember going to alot of baby showers and leaving in my car as tears rolled down my cheeks. I imagined myself in every situation possible.. the kid crying at the store, kid sitting in santas lap - how would i respond or do things differently. I imagined what the day would be like when we would stand before the church with a baby of our own. My heart ached for the child who would go home with me at the end of the day, a child who Warren and I could share our love, our home, and our life with. I longed for sleepless nights, for dirty diapers, for toys scattered all over my house and dishes piled in the sink, for playdates and bedtime stories. I longed to be a mother.This Mother's Day was so special as I celebrated my first Mother's Day with McKinley. This Mother's Day, even though McKinley was crying most of the day.. i would not trade this for the world. She has been a handful in certain areas but when she curls up on my shoulder and just looks at me the day changes. I would give anything in this world to stay home with her but since i cant i cherish every moment i have with her.This Mother's Day was such a sweet day. :)Warren had cards from him, the dogs (located on the door for them to go outside) and Mckinleys (on her stuff to make her first morning feeding) so i would find them during my morning routine. Throughout the day Sunday I prayed. I found my heart hurting for all of the women in this world who long to be mothers, for those who want children and have not been able to make that dream come true, for those who are waiting for little ones through the blessing of adoption, and for those who are missing your children in Heaven. I also prayed for those of you who have been blessed with children who are here on Earth. May those of you who are waiting continue to have the hope in your heart that your dream will come true, and may those of you who have children, whether by birth or through adoption, hold them a little closer and hug them a little tighter as you thank God for the gifts you've been given.
Happy belated Mother's Day!

Busy....

2009-05-12T13:13:00.002-04:00

Ok I'm singing I'm Late, I'm Late for a very important date in my head.. i have not updated in a while. I need to upload pics but as im on my lunch break at the moment .. no pics. McKinley is getting HUGE.. literally. She had a growth spurt over the weekend before last (i know i should have updated before this) she is now in 3-6 (if just onsie type of outfit) 6-9 (mostly 9 month in anything that has feet - like footed pjs and such) month clothing. She is outgrowing her socks she just got for Easter. She is eating great :) And we are getting on a schedule very quickly thanks to daycare.

We wanted to wish Aunt Kelly and Aunt Dawn a very happy birthday! I didn't realize it till i looked at the calender they share the same birthday... so sorry ladies that it is late but happy birthday.

Also congrats to the Johnsons- they added a little girl to their family this week as well. They have trully been blessed 2 children in 6 weeks :) We are also going to be an aunt and uncle to a little BOY - Kelly, Trey and Alicia found out this week.

Kristens graduation was this past Saturday - this will be a separate post when i have pictures. McKinley did great as usual.

Mothers Day was a different story.. Mckinley woke up at 3am like she always does but would not go back to sleep. She was up till almost 2pm and screaming like no other. We tried everything and she finally cried herself to sleep. I love her and she is getting so big in front of our eyes. But i was glad to see Monday come and she was back to her normal self.
We went to a playdate and went to see my old work for a few mins. She did wonderful in the car.

Do you really know whats in your food....

2009-05-01T17:19:00.004-04:00

We went to the peds this morning to have M checked out as her face was still swollen and still splotchy (if that is even a word) and her nose is still draining an clear discharge. She weighs 13 pounds 10 oz. Can you tell shes liking her new food schedule lol. Our dr agreed that it was an allergic reaction to pears... (pears are very very low on the allergic reaction scale) and she maybe allergic to other foods as well. We can not have true allergy testing till shes one year old. The results are not as accurate at this age with the skin testing. However if she does react to another food, our GI dr will do more blood work and make other recommendations.

We are now an EPI-PEN carrying family. She was prescribed one and will be with us at all times. Our drs office is actually opening a second location which is almost next door to the daycare and our dr graciously gave the approval if needed at daycare he would rush right over to check on her if she was needing the EPI-Pen. I hope to never have to use it but we need to have it if needed. Also i learned she has a higher risk of being allergic to other foods. Which brings me back to making her food. Reading the labels is not as easy as we thought.. this is from a website wwww.wholesomebabyfood.com that is amazing with making and allergic foods... i had no idea that brown sugar flavoring had milk protein in it..

SOY FREE DIET
Avoid foods that contain any of the following ingredients:

miso
shoyu sauce soy (flour, grits, nuts, milk, tofu soy bean sprouts)
soybean (granules, curd)
soy protein (concentrate, isolate)
soy sauce textured vegetable protein (TVP) tofu
Ingredients that MAY indicate the presence of soy protein:
flavorings hydrolyzed plant protein
hydrolyzed soy protein
hydrolyzed vegetable protein
natural flavoring vegetable broth
vegetable gum
vegetable starch

Studies show that most soy allergic individuals may safely eat products containing soy lecithin and soy oil.

MILK FREE DIET
Food completely without diary products will say "Parve" on the package.
You will usually find these foods in the kosher section amongst your other favorite sections in your local grocers.

A "D" on a product label next to a "K" or circled "U" may indicate the presence of milk protein.

Avoid foods that contain any of the following:

artificial butter flavor butter,
butter fat,
buttermilk casein caseinates (ammonia, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium)
cheese cottage cheese
curds
custard
half and half
hydrolysates (casein, milk protein, protein, whey, whey protein)
lactalbumin,
lactalbumin phosphate
lactoglobulin
lactose milk (derivative, protein, solids, malted, condensed, evaporated, dry, whole, low fat, non fat, skim)
nougat pudding
rennet casein
sour cream, sour cream solids
sour milk solids whey (delactosed, demineralized, protein concentrate)
yogurt

Ingredients that MAY indicate the presence of milk protein:

brown sugar flavoring
caramel flavoring
chocolate high protein
flour margarine
natural flavoring
Simplesse

Many commercial baby foods as well as foods targeted to babies and toddlers contain allergenic ingredients! If your baby has a food allergy or your family has a serious history of food allergies - read the labels when purchasing commercial baby food!
A few examples:
Cheerios (wheat, soy protein)
Instant Infant Cereals (soy)
Stage "2", "3" and Toddler Meals (wheat, soy, casein (milk protein), albumin (egg)
Gerber "Puffs" (wheat, soy)

Ahh.. Attack of the Pears

2009-04-30T22:34:00.002-04:00

It happened today, the pears attacked McKinley. She has been doing so well with her new feeding schedule. She can eat sweet potatoes, and carrots. We tried Pears today for the first time.. I thought she had veggies all week she will love the sweet taste of pears ... She had an allergic reaction to them and not just a small little reaction.. her whole left side of her face was swollen and a red rash was on her left side. Her left eye is swollen and red. We called the ped on call and yeap NO more pears for at least 4 months. Her mouth did not swell so we did not have to go to the hospital but on the nurses recommendation we are going to get an epi-pen tomorrow from the peds office. I am having to be extra vigilant in reading labels. It could have been so much worse but thank you lord it wasn't.

Flashback Wednesday

2009-04-29T07:08:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was our anniversary ( i needed to post this yesterday but just got to busy). Warren is an amazing guy. He takes a major role in McKinleys life and even last night while i was with my moms group for a MNO (moms night out) he fed her, gave her a bath/ dressed her, had story time and put her to sleep all by himself. I am so thankful for that. He is an amazing partner and we takle almost everything together. So this is a flashback two years ago. I love you so much Warren and Happy Anniversary. ~JNS

What a busy weekend ....

2009-04-27T20:39:00.011-04:00

Friday- We started out with going to the GI dr on Friday. He is happy with her weight gain but we are having more issues with her reflux. She is projectile vomiting almost every day now (yes only once but once to many for mommy) He advised us to start solids - we had already started rice but we can now feed jars of food . This is the tricky part- Mckinleys jars of baby food have to be read and made sure it contains no Milk or Soy. (which gerber is known for.. she cant eat gerber rice cereal because it has milk in it) or produced in a factory with any milk or soy. So after we use the baby food i have accumulated "free" from publix with coupons i will start making all of her food. It will be organic and we will know what is in it, and not have to worry. She is now going to be eating 4 meals a day plus bottles (2 rice, 2 either veggie or fruit) We are also trying new foods in a 4 day period to make sure she is not allergic to anything else. Here she is trying Sweet Potatoes for the first time.We spent Friday night at the Y pool. McKinley looked sooo cute in her bathing suit (but i forgot my camera) so we had another pool day at MeMe's and G-Daddys on Saturday in the baby pool. She played in the pool friday night so hard that she feel asleep on my shoulder while still in the pool. She doesn't want to miss any of the action.

Also on Saturday Nannys church had a Mother/Daughter LunchWarren and I celebrated our anniversary (early.. i will post tomorrow more on the day) downtown. We ate a great dinner, enjoyed our favorite desert place, and watched our FAVORITE improv group preform. Little known fact this was our first date event (they have changed locations now) but it was very nice to enjoy the evening.

Sunday.. We drove up to see Aunt Krissy conduct her last performance at USC. McKinley is now an "interstate traveler" as meme says. She rode perfect in the car both ways. She ate well, played well and even moved her arms when kristen was conducting.. she loves music just like her aunt. Also Kristen took her Cap and Gown pics as graduation is less than 2 weeks away. I can not believe it.

Rolling Rolling Rolling

2009-04-16T22:22:00.002-04:00

Yes you read that right. She can roll over now.. she did it once for me on monday and i kept it quiet till tonight were she rolled over and over again for her audience (daddy, meme, g-daddy, and nanny) she can roll from her tummy to her back in both directions.. she has not yet mastered the back to the front roll but just give her time.

This week

2009-04-16T16:50:00.005-04:00

We spent Monday with Aunt Kelly and Alicia...

Then we celebrated McKinleys 4month Bday with pics - i took these pics a day early so she is in the same dress lol

And we went strawberry picking at a local farm with my moms group - Mckinley liked how the strawberries felt. ...

Also it was a year ago today that we found out we were pregnant with snugglebug (as she was known as until we found out she was a she) i can still vividly remember taking the test and telling warren. :) what a major milestone in our life.

Good Friday - Easter Weekend - Adoption Party

2009-04-15T12:45:00.019-04:00

It was a very eventful weekend. We spent Good Friday with W grandma that came into town. Saturday we had the "welcome home" party for our best friends and then we had Easter Sunday. This was the first time McKinley has went to church. I have been listening to the services online while waiting till she was a little older before going to church. She slept thru most of the worship music and then awoke.. she went to the nursery (im super happy with the nursery.. and wonder why i even worried at all) Here are a lot of pics of the weekend. Hope everyone had a great Easter! Yesterday was McKinleys 4 month bday.. i will upload pics in the next few days.

Sporting her new sunglasses while getting ready for the party :) (thanks meme and g-daddy)

Hanging with Aunt Krissy and playing in the exersaucer :)
One of my favorites of herAunt Krissy with Riley Easter Basket Time (at our house) - she was more interested in her dress lol.Up close of her dress

Easter Basket at Zsa Zsa and Gramps4 generation pic of Warrens Side

Our Family Pic

McKinley and Easter Basket from MeMe and G-Daddyup close of her bow

So Big

2009-04-09T16:48:00.003-04:00

McKinley had her official 4 month ped visit today for her shots and overall physical exam. She has been having more reflux (nothing like it was before but it has started back a little) and her meds are being increased because she has gained more weight and outgrowing her dosage at the moment. We will continue to give her the 2 meds (poss. prevacid twice a day.. we will see once we see the GI dr at the end of the month) Prevacid and Zantac - we are increasing the dosage to 1ml TID (three time a day) .
She recieved her 4 month shots today -
diphtheria tetanus & pertussis DTaP
Pneumococcal Conjugate
Haemphilus Influenxae type B - Hib
Polio Vaccine
Rotavirus

Here are her latest stats
She weighs 12 lbs 12 oz -- 25% percentile
She is 24 inches long -- 50% percentile
Her head circumference is 41.7cm -- 75% percentile
I plan on taking alot of pics this weekend... with the adoption party, Easter and her bday coming up (next week) so look forward to some pics.

Also many have asked.. when is your last day at work. It was yesterday. I was very emotional leaving such a great practice and dr staff but im looking forward to starting the new job on TUESDAY. My AMC family will always be important to me and life long friends :)

The Bunny...

2009-04-05T21:41:00.005-04:00

We saw the bunny today.. (singing the bunny veggie tail song in my head lol) She looked gorgeous in her little dress and matching Easter bunny bloomers and bow. I will take up close pics this weekend. :)

Flowertown Festival

2009-04-05T08:56:00.008-04:00

We had a great time at the festival yesterday. McKinley slept well, ate well and enjoyed herself. She rode and slept well in the big girl stroller and did equally as well in the front pack carrier. She spent the day with the whole family... we had meme, g-daddy, zsa zsa, aunt kristen and uncle neal, aunt dawn and uncle nathan and their darlin little (am i allowed to use that for him if hes 10?) boy Riley. This was our first visit with him and we fell in love with him as well. :) I volunteered at the baby changing station that our moms group sponsors and it was a great time all around. Warrens co-worker took these great photos of him with McKinley and sent them to us.. we saw them as well.. enjoy. I will be updating with more pics of meeting the easter bunny (today) so stay tuned.

Daddy and McKinley after a long day at the festival :)

Coupon Workshop and meeting my idol

2009-03-28T21:52:00.002-04:00

I say this with all fun intended.. i met my idol today.. The organizer of www.southernsavers.com hosted one of her couponing 101 and extreme couponing workshops today.. and we drove to columbia to see it. (she will be in charleston for one coming up.. register now .. it is so worth it) She feeds a family of 5 on 50.00 a week. this includes diapers and formula. She buys meat and such and doesn't just eat boxed items. She stockpiles like i do but on a much bigger scale. I would love to see pics of her stockpile. She taught today to buy enough for 6-8 weeks as it is not going back on sale that cheap again... I am also going to start trying to shop at the drug stores more to get more free items. We are averaging weekly saving between 65-90 dollars a week. That includes all my free items and overages and we are only spending 60 dollars a week but i want it better, lol. She is amazing and if you do not already follow her... you need to. Friday night Warren and I reorganized my coupon binder and completely re-did the way we are clipping coupons. We now clip all coupons..as we learned in our class... we dont have a cat but cat food is free plus overage this week so we are buying cat food.. and will donate to someone or the spca. I would have been mad to not have had that coupon. I still cant believe we met her in person and she told us she donates all her items that she will not use to the womens and mens shelters in columbia. It was like meeting a celebrity. lol I wonder if there is a couponers anonymous.. i know what you are thinking.. lol. We are now going to keep a running total of how much we saved on the side of our blog.. stay tuned. :)
ps Mckinley has not been feeling well. She spent the night with MeMe and G-daddy friday night so we could leave early on sat morning and was basically up all night with tooth pain. I wish the tooth would make an appearance already.. but today she was up and playing in her exersaucer and on her play mat. so hopefully we are feeling better :)

Amazing Day

2009-03-26T20:31:00.003-04:00

Mckinley and I had an amazing day today. I will try to upload some pics later. Im working on the layout of the blog as well so bear with me.

Today we went to the Tea Room with the moms group. It was very nice to have a good lunch and great company. Then we came home for her nap and then we went to the park to play.
I will say today is the first time i ever had to use the im late because of mckinley.. (i know it wont be the last time) she had a small melt down in the parking lot before lunch. The park was very nice. We spent time on the swings and even sat in the sand box. LOL you have to give me credit shes only 3 1/2 months old but does everything the big kids do in my moms group. She even sported her new nike shoes :) She is learning so much these days. she opens and closes her hands. reaches out for things. can roll from back to side.. and side to back just not all the way over. She is outgrowing her pjs these days. good thing we stocked up on the next size up.
All in all a great day.

also do you like the new change of layouts... G-Daddy keeps calling her monkey so i thought it was fitting to have a monkey theme. plus its aunt kristens favorite animals. :)

Change...

2009-03-25T19:48:00.002-04:00

Change is the topic and everything is about to.. Some of you know i have been looking for a new job. Well the call came today. I have had multiple interviews and I landed a job in Summerville (yeap no more driving an hour and 15 mins each way) at a vet clinic so i gave my notice today and will start the new job on April 16th. I am very nervous about this as this is a smaller clinic than i am use to but it will be amazing. It is less than 2 miles from my house so Mckinley will benefit that i do not have to drop her off at 630 in the morning. I will be able to pickup and even go home for lunch.. it has been years since my doggies have been let out at lunch. I will still be doing what i love just with different clients. Please keep me in your prayers that everything transitions ok. It has been over 3 years that i have made the faithful drive to Mt P. so this is makes me very nervous to start all over at a new clinic.

Yummy Yummy in my Tummy

2009-03-22T22:30:00.011-04:00

Tonight was the night.. we started cereal (not just any cereal.. the organic happy bellies no milk no soy one) She had a bath and enjoyed as much as she could of the cereal ... She has the swallowing technique down she just needs to learn to open her mouth more.. or mommy needs to learn a new technique so she doesnt wear more of it :) Tooth update we can feel a large spot on her right side upper that has almost broken skin.. but nothing official yet.

All done :) and my impression of superman flying thru the air.

Kid Fever!!

2009-03-20T21:47:00.002-04:00

We are pleased to announce Mckinley will be having 2 more cousins in the next year.
Our Brother and Sister in Law (kelly and trey) are having a darling baby due in September and we cant wait for "little bits" arrival. You can go here to see the ultrasound pic. Keep up the good work kelly. http://treyandkelly.blogspot.com/

Also my best friend got "the call" this week and is adopting a darlin boy. Dawn and Nathan have been right beside us in our adoption journey and started their journey just a few weeks after us. They are going to be blessed with a 10 year old little boy and we could not be happier. They are going to be great parents. "aunt" jaim'e and "uncle" warren can not wait to spoil him like no other. St Pattys day will always be important to them :)

So baby/kid fever is going crazy around this place. Our family is extending and i cant wait till McKinley can have playdates with everyone.

Happy St Pattys Day

2009-03-19T11:33:00.002-04:00

Here is darlin mckinley on her way to daycare all dressed up for St Pattys Day with her handmade bow (thanks meme)

Happy 3 Month Birthday

2009-03-15T22:01:00.003-04:00

McKinley is getting sooo big. She is finally out of newborn diapers (as of last week), She is growing out of her newborn and 0-3 clothing. She has put on a little weight in the last few weeks and now up to 6 oz bottles. We had a crazy weekend with her still teething. We hope the tooth will hurry up and get here. We have now started using the teething tablets..

Happy 3 month old Birthday! You are a dream come true and a miracle from god. We love you- Mommy and Daddy.

She played in her johnny jump up today.. (she is slowly growing out of the bouncy seat :( )

Arts and Crafts Night

2009-03-15T21:51:00.005-04:00

Our daycare had arts and crafts night and book fair this week and it was darlin. Her teachers are amazing and went all out for the night. Here is her craft.. the 10 mo.st wanted (there are 10 babies in her classroom)

Here is her up close pic. She was the 3rd one down on the right hand side.

This is the window to her classroom

Where oh Where is McKinley Been

2009-03-08T20:00:00.016-04:00

She has been everywhere and (i being the bad mommy i am) have not updated the blog in over a week... can you believe it. So here is another really long post but lots of pictures :) Also McKinley is teething, so its been a little crazy around here this week.

The funny faces of McKinley (she now laughs/smiles/giggles at you)

Thanks "Mama" Inge and Debra for this darlin handmade blanket (they also made a darling matching hat) It is the perfect size for her carseat. Thanks again :)

McKinley has now learned how to grab the handle for music to play while she is in her bouncy seat. This shot was taken when both Warren and I were in the kitchen and then started hearing her bouncy seat make music ... and it is not a one time thing she has repeated this new talent multiple times :)It was cold most of last week but we tried out our "new to us" jogging stroller at MeMes and G-Daddys.

This pic taken on Sunday (warmer day) Thursday we went and had our haircuts (MeMe and Me) - Our friend cuts our hair and this is her ooohh so cute little boy Mackenzie holding McKinley. Our warm weather this weekend had McKinley all dressed up in her new shoes and polo and khakis.

"Aunt" Dawn and "Uncle" Nathan had this blanket made for her and she loves the way it feels.

She loves to watch her mobile in her crib.

And last but not least ... we put the swing on the playset at MeMe and G-daddys this weekend on the w. She enjoyed swinging.

Our First "Field Trip"

2009-02-27T16:06:00.008-05:00

Ok i know most of you are LOL but please hear me out. I was called today to not come into work because we were slow and my moms group was going on a "field trip" to Bee City today. So i decided to go and pick her up from daycare and drive out to Bee City. I did not arrive until late but i still enjoyed great conversation and McKinley enjoyed riding in her stroller and looking at the animals and the WARM weather. :) They have alot of exotic animals (monkeys, wildcats, walabees) Here are a few pics of our field trip.. i cant wait till she is bigger to feed all the animals.

Mckinley looking at the goats.

McKinley with the Bees :)

I had to take this picture G-Daddy calls McKinley Monkey so when the monkey was sitting next to the sign i laughed and had to take this pic.

McKinley with the Mini Horses and donkeys

Looking at the baby goats :)

Lookie Lookie

2009-02-27T15:54:00.003-05:00

McKinley brought home her first book fair order form. This brought memories back for MeMe about when i and kris would bring them home and how we would pick out which books we wanted. I loved hearing the stories of our childhood. So welcome to the world little one we have had school pics and book fair order forms in the 3 short weeks while at daycare... and in march there is an open house/Art project night at daycare where we all go to see her little artwork:) So to mark this occasion here is her with the form lol.

Savings... 85.00

2009-02-23T10:33:00.003-05:00

I know you come to look here to look at pics of McKinley but we have been saving so much with coupons lately that i had to post this. This is the trip to publix today - before coupons 142.26 -- I saved 85.00 with coupons so my grand total for everything in this picture is 57.26. We save more on other trips to other stores but this by far is the most i have saved for the amount of stuff we purchased :) This is 60% off :) YIPEE! This includes items that i did not have coupons for - for dinner this week.

Pictures Galore :)

2009-02-23T10:11:00.007-05:00

Last week as you know McKinley was sick and we took turns staying home with her. I will say the doggies knew she wasn't feeling good and would jump at the slightest cry to let us know she was awake. Rylee was great and would lay next to us and just lay there and be as calm as could be. Well i took this picture as he snuggled up under her hand and slept there for an hour. :) This is a picture from Saturday. She is wearing her new overalls :) and sitting in her bumbo

Here is McKinley at the BBQ restaurant using her bottle prop and pics of her bottle prop itself :)

M is feeling better

2009-02-22T10:00:00.003-05:00

I only have a short time to update but update i will.
McKinley is feeling better. We went back to the peds on thurs to find out she has bronchitis and a fever so no daycare for friday either. Thank you lord we have no all gotten sick. So Gramps came to the rescue and watched our darlin and gave all her meds (thanks again gramps) on friday so we could go back to work. W took off on tues, i took off on wed and had off on thurs so Mckinley did not get to go to daycare all week. BUT the update is she is feeling better.
We went to lunch on sat with Dawn and Nathan and enjoyed getting out of the house.. we also started christmas shopping. Toys R Us had a great sale buy one get one free on their fisher price toys. So we bought some of our christmas items :) Great way to start the weekend by saving money. We then went to dinner with MeMe, G-Daddy, Nanny, Aunt Krissy and Uncle Neal to a new BBQ place on the way to Moncks Corner. It was good and we actually used her bottle prop she recieved for christmas (ironic it is a pink pig, lol) She enjoyed herself and we enjoyed the company. I have a ton of pics to upload so come back in the beginning of the week.

She is sick :(

2009-02-18T11:02:00.002-05:00

I will first start my post that M had a great weekend and spent the night Sunday night and all day monday at zsa zsa and gramps house. She came home coughing a little and sneezing. Well monday night progressed (we started with the humidifier in her bedroom)and she was feeling worse, so tuesday W took off to take her to the peds. She vomited on W before they left and while at the peds.. (W is a great dad :) )

She is officially 10lbs 6 oz (I totally thought she weighed more) she has a cold and they gave us a script for nasal spray that had to be compounded for infants. She started with a small fever last night and continued to this morning. She is coughing more and sneezing more but the dr said it may get worse before it gets better, so i took the day off today. She did sleep a good amt last night so hopefully she will sleep good until she feels better. Im just happy she can sleep with all the congestion going on (even with the humidifier in her room on full blast) Thanks for the thoughts we are going to be hunkered down for a while till she feels better so no go to daycare, and no pics today as we are just hanging in our pjs

Happy Birthday Little One

2009-02-14T21:30:00.005-05:00

McKinley turned 2 months old today.. happy happy birthday :) She is starting to coo at us and will start smiling as soon as you start talking to her.. so enjoy the day darlin we love you so much :)

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T21:27:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentines Day! We actually spent the night celebrating M's 2 month bday and valentines day at olive garden. Hope you enjoy the valentine :)