This Time Last Year

As I was lowering the mattress in the Pack n Play while listening to Christmas music tonight, I couldn't help but think about this time last year. I was 5 months pregnant and still feeling mixed emotions about having another baby. It's pretty accurate to say that my emotions were like a roller coaster. As the days and months went on, I experienced longer highs and very few lows. I got caught up in watching this little one move from side to side of my growing belly and purchasing necessities for when we brought our #3 home. My goodness how I had NO CLUE what life would be like once SHE got here. And I'll be honest... when I saw that she was a she, I was a little scared, but like God always does, He immediately took over and changed my heart. I love my 3 kids with every ounce of my being and I am so so very blessed to be their Mom.

Summer Vacation 2013

I absolutely cannot believe Summer vacation is coming to an end. It has been absolutely wonderful. Jeff has been at home with all 3 kiddos all summer and while he is ready to go back to work (he really enjoys the structure and routine), I'm not ready to be running in a million different directions with all 3 of the kids at different places. Preston will be at the elementary school, Emily will be at the primary school, and Callie will either be at Dana's house (she will keep Callie 2 days a week) or at Linda and Roy's. We do what we have to do, but it's hard on a Mama's heart to know that her birds are all spread out when out of the nest. Nonetheless, we are all a bit ready for some structure. We've had a summer full of lake trips, sleeping in, afternoon adventures, visiting lots and lots of family, a Cardinals game, and pretty much anything else we could think of. We went to visit my Mom in Oklahoma for several days during the 4th of July and then drove to Springfield where we visited with my Grandma and then got up the next morning and caravanned with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin and her family to St Louis. We met LeeAnn, Barrett, and their kids and had a full weekend of fun. We watched the Cardinals play and win and went to Grants Farm and then let the kids take full advantage of the hotel pool. It was a very full weekend, but I was so thankful to be able to spend it with family. Just this week, I met Jeff's cousin and her family from Chicago. They drove down with Jeff's Aunt and Uncle and we've spent several days with them. Yesterday we spent the afternoon in downtown Memphis showing them around and eating. It was fun. They have 2 children, Becca (13) and Caleb (10). Both my big kids really bonded with them and can't wait to see them again. Hopefully we'll get up to Chicago before too long. Callie is doing great. She's had a few hard nights lately, but we think it's a combination of growth spurt and full moon. :-) Hopefully these hard nights will end soon. And by hard, I mean up for about an hour. I know that's not really hard when talking about an infant, but for someone who has slept well her entire life, this is new and hard. She's such a happy baby that it's hard to hear her cry at night.

Photo Drop

I finally found an app that would allow me to make a collage so I've made a couple. The first is one from the other day when Preston got home from school. Callie loves her brother and sister and I was finally able to capture her love for her brother on camera. The second is Callie's weekly pictures starting at week two. My goodness how she has changed!! Here are a few from Mother's Day. Jeff took us bowling and we had a blast!

Mother's Day 2013

As Mother's Day is approaching, I have been thinking a lot about the 3 little blessings that call me Mom. Being a Mom is something I always knew I wanted. I have been blessed to have a wonderful example of what a Godly Mom looks like and want to be that to my kids as well. Since Preston, Emily, and Callie are the reason I get to celebrate, I thought I'd share some of my favorite things about them. I'll start with Preston. Preston is Jeff's mini me. Always has been and I hope he always will be. To have another man in this world like Jeff Shands would be a blessing. Especially to his future wife. :) Anyway, what I love most about Preston is his desire to learn. He loves school, reading, and doing math problems. He recently told his friends that he wished he could go to school all year long. He MOST DEFINITELY doesn't get that from me! He's very competitive in his school work. Hopefully that will carry him a long way in life. I also love watching him with his sisters. Yes, BOTH of them. We went to our city carnival a couple weeks ago and he and Emily did the big swing thing. He helped her in every way he could since Jeff and I weren't riding. With Callie, he's a natural. Oh my goodness. He's so gentle and calm with her and she loves loves him. She doesn't typically like riding in the car in the late afternoon/evening, but most of the time it doesn't bother him. He just talks to her and holds her tiny hand. I think he likes having a baby sister. :) On to Emily... Sweet sweet Emily. She has such a loving and affectionate personality. She is friends with everyone and loves on everyone. That's not always the best thing, but we are working on that with her. She just has so much love to give. My favorite recent memory is how she would kiss and hug my belly every morning and tell the baby bye. I hope that memory never fades because it's such a sweet one. She's growing up too quickly and has done remarkably well in Kindergarten. She is reading everything and her teacher, Mrs. Lori, said that she is ready for first grade! We are very proud of her. She's had a lot of changes over the last year and she's handled everything beautifully. My sweet Callie. I've said it a hundred times, but I'll say it again. God definitely knew what He was doing when He gave her to us. She is an absolute angel, but my favorite things about her are the way her paci falls out when she smiles. I also love her breath!! There's just nothing like a breastfed baby's breath. I wish I could bottle it up. She's such a happy baby and I'm so thankful. I strive to thank God every day I have with my family because I know each day is a blessing that I don't deserve. Of course, none of this would be possible without my wonderful Jeff. There aren't enough words to say how thankful I am for him. He's my rock and my hero. There aren't many men out there like him. I am blessed....

2 Months

Here's a look at what our 2 month old looks like... She's is really the perfect baby. Sure, we have had some tough days, but I can still count those on one hand. She typically sleeps from 8:30pm-6:30am and naps a lot in the morning. The evenings are a little bit harder. I haven't figured it out yet, but she tends to have more awake time and it's not always happy awake time. It could be due to the fact that her brother and sister get home and want to be loud and crazy. I started working from home May 1st. It's definitely been an adjustment going back to looking at a computer for 9 hours, but Callie has been wonderful. She pretty much sleeps in my lap all day and demands very little. I will go back to the office on June 3rd. As much as I would love to stay at home with my sweet baby, I love my job and I'm thankful to have the opportunity to work. In the meantime, I'm going to soak up every second I have with her. Her stats at her 2 month appointment: weight 10lbs, 14oz (50%), 23 inches long (75%), and 14 1/2cm head circumference (5%). She looks a little different now in her "Callie" gown than she did in the hospital!

8 Weeks

Gracious how time is flying by! It's been 8 weeks since we welcomed our Callie Grace and it seems like I was just sitting in the rocker trying to rock myself into labor! What a sweet and perfect explanation point she is to our family. She's been sleeping through the night since pretty much 2 days old. There were a couple of nights when she woke up around 2 or 3am, but for the most part, it would be 5am. Now she sleeps from 8:30pm-6:30am. Yeah, we are BLESSED!!! Jeff and I were just talking about how we don't feel like we experienced the typical sleep deprived newborn stage. There are no complaints here! We know that God has graciously blessed us with a good sleeper. She still sleeps a lot during the day, but mainly in the morning. The afternoons and evenings are more full of awake time. I'm still trying to figure out a balance because I think sometimes the afternoon awake time gets a bit overstimulating to her. She has lost a lot of her hair which makes me sad, but still has a good amount. She's also lost that newborn look. She smiles ALL THE TIME and has recently discovered her tongue. She's such a fun baby and really goes with the flow. She's been to Preston's baseball games, practice, Emily's school program, and I'm sure many other events I cannot remember right now. She likes her bedtime of 8:30, but can be stretched if needed. Preston and Emily are still having fun playing with her, but the newness has worn off and they aren't arguing over who gets to hold her anymore. They still take turns sitting by her in the car and love showing her off to their friends. They are huge helpers which is another huge blessing. I think it's safe to say that all 4 of us are in love with this sweet baby girl. :)

1 Month!

It's so hard to believe, but Callie is already 1 month old. This last month has been such a blessing and I sometimes pinch myself to see if it's all real. Callie has been sleeping like a champ since we came home from the hospital. We have had a night of 10 hours uninterrupted sleep, several 9 hour nights, but mostly 7-8 hour nights. She's been smiling since 1 week (even Dr. Catherine noticed). This week she has realized that she can make sounds other than crying. On Callie's 1 week appointment, she weighed 7lbs, 13oz which means she gained 10 oz in 1 week. We had to take her back the next week because her belly button had to be cauterized and at that appointment, she weighed 8lbs, 3oz. She definitely an eater, but if that means she'll sleep all night, I'll feed her all day long. She is still wearing newborn sized clothes, but has moved up to size 1 diapers. She's such a blessing and we can't remember what we did before her!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Callie Grace Shands entered this world on Tuesday, March 5th at 2:56pm weighing 7lbs, 3oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. She has beautiful light brown hair and has completely captured all of our hearts. I ended up being induced a little earlier than I would have liked, but everything went perfectly. Jeff and I got to the hospital at 6am and by 7:00, I was all hooked up to the pitocin. I was still 2 cm and baby was still pretty high. Dr. Cole was supposed to come to the hospital at 8 and break my water, but at 9, the nurse came in and said that Dr. Cole was in the parking lot to come see me when she got called to do an emergency surgery at Baptist. The nurse said she wouldn't be there until 12 Noon. I was disappointed, but knew there was nothing that could be done about it and so I asked the nurse if my water could break on its own. She said that it could, but most of the time it doesn't happen on its own in inductions. So, we sat down and got mentally prepared for a long day. I decided to go ahead and get my epidural at 10:15 because I wanted to get it out of the way and my contractions were starting to get pretty strong. At 10:45, the nurse checked me and I was 3 cm and my water had broken on its own! That was an answer to prayer! At noon, Dr. Cole came in and checked me and I was now at 5cm and 70% effaced. I was a little disappointed with how slow things were going, but knew it was out of my control and I was feeling fine so I just enjoyed the quiet time with just Jeff. The nurse came in at 1:50 and checked me and I was up to 8cm. She started to get a few things ready in the room and I started to get more excited (if that's possible). Shortly after 2, I started to feel a lot of pressure and knew that meant one thing... I had to be 10cm. I called the nurse and she checked me at 2:10 (20 mins after she had checked me and I was 8). Sure enough, I was 10cm and it was baby time! Dr. Cole got there and I started pushing and 8 minutes later, Callie was here. Linda brought Preston and Emily up to the hospital when they got out of school. I think Preston was a little bit disappointed at first that it wasn't a boy, but he got over that REALLY fast and became as smitten with her as Jeff, Emily, and I were/are. In fact, he took my phone to take pictures of her getting a bath in the nursery and ended up taking a 7 minute video as well as multiple pictures. Before he left to go to the Shands that night, he came up to me and said "Mom, she smells so good." He told us the next day that he cried on the way to the Shands that night because he didn't want to leave her. Oh, my heart! My sweet baby boy was being so sensitive and loved his new little sister. We had several friends celebrate that night and the next day with us and it was truly a special time for us. We left the next day at 4pm (pretty much 25 hours after she was born). We were so anxious to get home and be a family of 5. More on that in another post. Since then, we've been completely overwhelmed with all the calls, texts, meals (amazing and delicious meals at that), and sweet gifts that have been given to us. Although Jeff and I did not plan Callie Grace, we are so thankful that God did and that He knows exactly what we need. We definitely needed this sweet baby girl!

10 Years!!

On December 28th, Jeff and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. I can't believe I haven't blogged about it until today because it was such a fun time. We got up early that morning and said good-bye to my sister and her family and then headed to Nashville. My Mom stayed a couple days extra so she could take care of P and E. We got to Nashville around lunch time and decided to go on to the mall and eat because we had reservations at a nice steak restaurant for dinner and we didn't want to spoil it. So, we ate in the food court. Real romantic. :) We walked around the mall for a while, but didn't buy a thing except or the 2 small chunks of fudge we got at Bass Pro. We left the mall and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Hermitage Hotel as a special treat. It was the nicest hotel we've ever stayed at and we really felt like royalty. At this point, it was raining pretty hard so we decided to stay in and enjoy the room and watch a movie. We got ready for dinner and headed out. I had done a lot of research to find the perfect restaurant for us. I knew it would be expensive, but it was 10 years right?! We went to a local restaurant that looked very romantic and nice. Let me just say that I learned (again) that you can't always judge a book by its cover or website! We walked in and were practically seated IN the fireplace and on top of other people dining. We were so close we seriously could have had conversations with them. Ok, so no big deal right?? We ordered our food. We both got filets with a baked potato, mine was medium well and Jeff's was medium. Well, mine came out charred and Jeff's was bleeding. We did have lots of laughs between the fireplace, too close for comfort diners, and the horrible steaks that were barely eaten, but left there disappointed and still hungry. At that point, it was still fairly early in the night, but still raining so we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory for some dessert. Just to prove that I'm pregnant, I had to order a side of fries with ranch dressing to go along with my delicious cheesecake. It's sad to say that the fries and cheesecake were the best food of the night! We left there and went back to the hotel where they had prepared our room with romantic music, slippers, little cookies on the bed, and bottled water. We woke up the next morning and decided to go home. We walked outside and it was snowing. Not a ton, but enough for me. It actually snowed on us while we drove home until we got to the other side of Jackson, TN. It was a great 24 hours full of laughs and relaxation. I'm so thankful God chose Jeff for me and feel incredibly blessed to be doing life with him.

We're Almost There!

Well, today marks the beginning of week 38. I'm officially over being pregnant and ready to see this little one that's been so active in my belly. It's been a wonderful pregnancy with very little complaints and I've thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm so ready to find out if we have a little boy or little girl not to mention hold him/her in my arms. I also can't wait to watch Preston and Emily with him/her. They are both still very excited. The house is ready for baby. We've rearranged furniture and done everything we can think of to transition easily once we get home. I went to the Dr today and I have lost 2 lbs and have started progressing!! WHOO HOO!! I've had contractions all day so we decided to eat mexican tonight. Maybe it will help with the laboring or maybe it will just continue to give me heartburn. :) Either way, it was nice to go out to dinner as a family of 4. I wanted to set my induction for March 8th (my due date), but the hospital was booked so I had to bump it up to the 5th. My prayer is that I will go into labor on my own before then, but I don't want to go past my due date so I'm just praying hard that God will grant me my desire. :) God wants us to pray boldly right?! At least that's what our Bible study was about on Wednesday night. Either way, we will be a family of five by/on March 5th!

Chick-fil-A Kids Night

Every Tuesday night, Chick-fil-A has kids night. They give free away free kids meals and do a craft for the kids. Our family has always enjoyed going because the kids have fun and Jeff and I always get to sit and talk uninterrupted. This last Tuesday night, we went and Preston decided to keep his book this time. It was a Mad Lib booklet and we had a lot of fun filling them out. He laughed and laughed at the story and I couldn't resist taking his picture. It's not every day that we get to see this laugh and smile so I felt it necessary to blog about it. Preston is a happy boy, but he is just reserved.

32.5 Weeks!

WOW how time has flown by! It's so hard for me to believe that this baby will be here in less than 2 months! I have gotten so much done, but feel like there is still so much that needs to be done. Especially when it comes to loving on Preston and Emily before this new little life joins our family. I remember being overwhelmed with a guilty feeling the night before we had Emily. Preston was my baby and he was no longer going to be the baby once she got here. The kind of emotions I'm feeling now isn't that Emily won't be a baby anymore, but that Preston and Emily are going to have to share their time with Jeff and me even more. They have no idea how much time and effort will go into this baby. So, I just have to pray that they will be reminded each day how special they are to us and how much we love them. I do think they will be tremendous helpers and I know they are both so excited. We put the Pack n Play up in our bedroom on Sunday and Emily has loved playing with it with her baby dolls. Another prayer of mine is that this baby will ease right into our lives and home. Emily was such a hard baby and it was hard to do much of anything without a crying baby. Yesterday we had freezing rain pretty much all day so schools were closed and I worked from home. That evening, Jeff and I started going through Preston and Emily's clothes so we will have them split up and whatever gender this baby isn't, we'll take those clothes to Goodwill. It's such a grueling process, but we had to do it so we would know what we still needed for this baby. That being said, and after discussing it with a couple of people, I have registered at Target. I really debated because this is our third baby, but there are still things we need and several friends have asked. There are a couple of "fun" things, but it's mostly things we still need. Thankfully, we have been able to buy a lot along the way and Jeff has a teacher friend that we were able to buy several things from. It's not something we will "announce", but will be there if someone asks. Other than all that, I'm feeling pretty good. Definitely feeling pregnant, but can't complain. My belly is getting huge although people are telling me that it's still small. My face is huge including my nose. :) I'm still able to wear my rings and most days they are still pretty loose.