Just a few days behind!

Hey ya'll! Sorry, I'm behind on posting the 365 update! Check it out!

141/365

142/365 playing with the macro

 

  143/365

She thought the spaghetti was hilarious

 144/365

Mommy & Me session with my friend Holly & her daughter Max.

 145/365

Morning.

 146/365

Baths

 147/365

Bubble time

148/365

I'm going to get you mommy!

 149/365

 Like my bubble beard?

 150/365

Feeding daddy pancakes

 151/365

Hi!

152/365

Watch out! I'm coming through!

153/365

Finding the light.

 154/365

Four.

155/365

Looking at mommy's car.

156/365

First lake trip. Strolling around.

 157/365

Ahhhhhhhh. Boating.

 158/365

Storms at Nolin

159/365

Relaxing at home with a book after a fun weekend

Thanks for looking! I'll be back soon with an update!

I've been busy.....

Hello friends! Hope everyone is having a great week! I know I am. Well, it's super rainy and dreary today but that's ok because it gives me time to update the good ol' blog or blob as my dear husband calls it.

It's been a busy week time since I posted last Thursday. On Friday Charlie and I drove out to my sisters for an awesome Mother's day dinner that she cooked for me, my mom and my grandma. It was so sweet of her. She also got us each these cute little gifts! I felt awful, I didn't even get her a card! She knows I love her though and that I think she's the best! Charlie started the usual fussiness around 645 so as much as I hated it I knew I had to eat and run. She started her squealing about 10 minutes from home but once we got in she was ready for bed. Whew. Friday was fun.

On Saturday I was supposed to have a mommy and me session with a friend of mine but that got postponed and we are now doing it this Saturday. The weather last Saturday morning wasn't great for an outdoor session that's for sure. Saturday morning I ran errands, went to the grocery and then that night I watched two friends get married and it was BEAUTIFUL! Jamie and Cody got married at Mellwood Arts Center in the same room where my wedding reception was. I love how they can curtain that room off for the ceremony and reception. I had never seen it done in person but now that I have I can say it was very pretty! I had to go to the wedding solo because hubby stayed home with the baby. We didn't have a sitter and I kind of wanted to wake up on Mother's Day with my little girl there with me. Anyway, after the wedding we danced and tore up the dance floor until I finally had to get outta there around 11 or so. My friend Brian thought I bailed early when I was outside talking to friends so he was blowing up my phone. (He always says that I leave events super early now because I have a kiddo (He has none so he doesn't get it lol) ) Told you I didn't leave B! Haha.

Sunday morning I got up around 630 and decided to try and go for a run. Yeah, that was a terrible decision. I think I maybe did 1.78 miles. Ha! I should have known better. I didn't drink much the night before but I did have some wine so that wasn't great to run on. After my run I came home to my loves and then Ryan went to church with his mom, dad and my bro and sis in law. I would have went but my daddio and mamaw were coming over to visit me and Charlie. They hung out for a while until  Charlie got fussy and needed a nap. I tried to catch a nap before Ryan got back but that didn't happen. He got me some yummy food from Cracker Barrel and it was delicious!

We all rested for a bit then went out to my bosses house for her son Ethan's homecoming. He just graduated from Marine Corps bootcamp. It was a lot of fun and it was nice seeing him again and asking him all kinds of questions. He and Ryan talked for a while of course because Ryan is a Marine Vet and wanted to know all the details of the San Diego bootcamp and what he thought of it. Ryan went to boot camp at Paris Island and he claims it's the "Real" bootcamp. Ha! Charlie was such an angel during this little outing. She played with her toys and had a good time talking to all the dogs. I was really impressed with how well she just took everything in stride. She didn't even get fussy until around 7 and then we decided we should head home. Mother's day was awesome.

OH!

And I got an awesome Mother's Day Present. I'm currently taking a workshop over at In Beauty & Chaos called Capturing the Everyday Environmental Portraiture with Children. You can read more about it HERE but a friend is teaching it that I've gotten to know over the past year through her photography on our 365 group. Kerry is awesome and I'm already loving this class! So that was my Mother's Day gift from Charlie and Ryan. He knows the way to my heart is through cameras, lenses and of course education and workshops! This workshop deals with Children so obviously you're going to be seeing a lot of Charlie pics on my 365 project over the next 4 weeks. Hope ya don't mind! :-)

Ok, this is a LONG blog post. I swear I keep telling myself I need to write more and stop letting it all pile up! Oh well. Let's finish this post with a 365 update!

Hope everyone has a great week and weekend. I'll be posting again soon.....

128/365

In motion.

129/365

Blueberry Snacks.

130/365

Welcome home Ethan!

131/365

Tiny & Wild is RIGHT!

132/365

Dramatic Light.

133/365

I know I've told you how much I love my in laws sink. More proof. (Engaging my subject)

134/365 

Dinner time. Again, engaging the subject and setting the scene.

 xxx

Ryan

Derby Week Monday!

I've decided that I'll probably blog every day this week because I'm so anxious and excited for the weekend that I need to kill some time and stay busy. :-)

Today was another eventful day in the Cecil household. Alarm clock was blaring at 530 and I hopped out of bed to crank out some Cardio T-25. I killed it and felt great. Apparently it must have been sleep in day at my house because Charlie and Ryan didn't bother rolling out of bed until 8 which was GREAT for me! I actually got to relax a little this morning and enjoy a cup of coffee which I normally don't do. Most times I'm rushing around, making lunch, straightening the house, feeding the baby, getting the baby dressed or doing some other random thing around here. So anyway, when those two sleep in, I enjoy it.

When Charlie finally decided to wake up I was changing her and noticed a rash all up her belly and her back to her hairline. I was like oh great, what terrible thing is wrong with her now! I was hoping it was just a little reaction to her medicine or maybe she had a reaction to some mandarins that she tried for the first time Sunday. I wasn't too concerned because she seemed fine so we got ready and off to daycare we went. When I got there I was telling Miss C. about the rash and then Ms. T came out and told me that it could possibly be strep rash. WHAT?! She was tested for strep last week when we were at the doctor but they had me convinced that this is now what she had. Ugh.

They let her stay and I told them I would call the doctor so that's what I did when I first got to work. Of course they said they needed to see her so here goes another half day at work. Thankfully my bosses have been understanding and haven't minded me leaving to take care of the little one. They have a ton going on so I really appreciate them on days like today when I'm stressing out and worrying about the little bug. I left work at 2 and picked up the kiddo and we ran over to the pediatricians office. It was really crowded when we got there but we had an appointment so it didn't take long to get back and see Dr. Rash. Ha. Her name is Dr. Rash and we were seeing her because Charlie had a rash. That was ironic.

As soon as she walked in and looked her over she said immediately that Charlie didn't have strep and even if she did the antibiotic that she has been on since last week would have already knocked it out. Well, that's nice to know. She informed me that Charlie has a touch of Roseola which if my mother in law hadn't called me earlier in the day to tell me that this was something Ryan got when he was younger after a fever I would have looked at her like a deer in headlights. Instead I felt pretty informed and grateful that it was nothing to worry about! (Thanks Jan!)

When we left the doctor I was so relieved. The last thing we need during Derby week is Strep and a sickly baby! We came home and she immediately went down for a nap and I tidied up a little since I had some unexpected free time at home. Today has been so rainy and dreary so I haven't really felt like doing much except sitting around. Glad I knocked out my workout early.

Next topic. A friend and fellow blogger has entered a cute little picture of her and her daughter in a mother/daughter photo competition and I think you should go vote for them. The link to her blog is HERE and the voting site is at the bottom of her blog. Feel free to browse around. She's always blogging fun stuff!

Well, I think my husband is on the way home so I guess I better wrap this up. Hope everyone is having a great day despite the rain (here in KY).

118/365

As long as it stops raining by Friday we will be in good shape. 

xxx

Ryan & the rashy babe

Oh no, not again!

I had fun plans for me and Charlie when I got off work today. We were going to go to the park and play, well she was going to swing and I was going to push her. It was going to be so much fun.....until daycare called......

I got a call right at about noon saying that the bug was running a fever of 102. CRAP! I was hoping it wasn't anything serious but I called the pedi and they were able to see us at 230. I left work at 1 to relieve Ryan of his duties so he could go to work and when I got home Charlie settled in for a little nap before we had to go.

I woke her up at 2 to get her ready to go, gave her some motrin because her fever was now 103 and then got her strapped in the car to go. We got to the doctor at about 215 and got back into a room pretty quickly. The nurse poked, prodded and weighed the little one and that set her off and she cried for pretty much the remainder of our visit. When Dr. Rash came in and started her examination she said the words I was hoping I wouldn't hear.....double ear infection.....AGAIN?!?! We just went through this last month! She wrote us a script for something a little stronger than the amoxicillin but I'm pretty sure we haven't seen our last ear infection. We were doing so good for the first 10 months and now it seems like she keeps getting things. Hopefully this isn't followed by another stomach bug. That was AWFUL! So anyway, hopefully she doesn't have to get tubes in the future but I'm starting to think that's very possible.

So anyway, that's what's been going on with me today.

Hopefully tomorrow my girl is feeling better tomorrow.

Day 113/365

xxx

Ryan

Hey-o friends!

I love saying that I'm going to keep up with my blog only to forget about it for 6 months and then realize that I should write something.

Well....duh dun duh.....I had a baby! Miss Charlotte Leigh Cecil was born on her due date, April 14, 2013 at 12:31 pm. She weighed 8lbs, 2 oz and was 19 inches long. She was totally perfect and had the most hilarious cone head for a good couple of hours after she came out.

The day prior to me going into labor was UofL's spring football game. At this point I was convinced that Charlie was never going to make her appearance and I was already planning her first birthday inside the womb so I decided to waddle my 9 month preggo butt down to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium with Tiff & Fredie and have some fun. After the basketball team was announced during "half time" we decided to split and go get some food. We went to The Cardinal Cafe to grab some grub.  My back was starting to bother me just a little when we were eating so I was ready to get home and relax.

April 13th was opening day of Turkey Season so Ryan had been hunting all morning and he managed to wrangle himself a bird. So he was dealing with that most of the day. We went to bed that night and around 1230 I woke up having contractions. I was always worried that I wasn't going to know when I was actually in labor but I knew that it was going down! I started timing my contractions at 8 minutes apart. By 2 am they were 6 minutes apart and then by 3am they were 4 minutes apart so I knew that we needed to head to the hospital. We put Rexie outside, grabbed our bag and then got on the road.

As we were driving my contractions were getting worse so Ryan started making the phone calls to let our parents know that we were heading to the hospital. When we got there, they examined me and told me that I was going to be having a baby today. That's when shit got real! Yikes!

I got my epidural around 530 am and after that the rest of the morning was a breeze. We had family in and out to visit and I was eating a ton of popsicles so all was good. Ryan took a nap and I played Candy Crush most of the morning. I was too excited to sleep.

My doctor came in around 1115 am and told me we were going to get this show on the road. I was nervous! After an hour and some change of pushing our little baby girl came out and it was the most awesome thing ever. I asked if she had all of her fingers and toes (she did) and I asked if she was cute (she is) haha. After that almost everything else is a blur. I remember hanging out, then being moved upstairs, then eating some food and we had a lot of visitors that day. We have a huge family and some awesome close friends that came to visit us that first day.

We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday and then finally got to come home. But that's worth a whole seprate post. Those first few days were rough.....more on that later. I'm blogged out for the day. I really do plan on keeping up with this....haha.

I'm a tiger. Rawr!

Until next time...........................

I Promise...

Hey-o friends! I've finally crossed over to the "I don't want to be pregnant anymore, please get this child out of me" phase of my pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, I love being pregnant, I really do, but doing the smallest things these days is SUCH a chore. Yesterday I vacuumed the rug in my living room and swept up the floors and after that I sat in the chair and actually fell asleep. Knocked right out. Granted, daylight savings time threw me off yesterday and we did get up and go to church super early but seriously....I never fall asleep sitting up in a chair. Haha.

This weekend was really nice. Not only was the weather gorgeous but Ryan was home the whole weekend! Even during the day! Haha. Saturday night we had our maternity pictures done by my sis in law's sister Candace and I cannot wait to see them, Ryan said Candace is now in charge of doing all of our pictures because she doesn't make him do weird things and pose in weird positions haha! I just love him.

But anyway basically what I wanted to write about was our experience at dinner on Saturday night. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings on Dixie and we had a good time. The food was good, service was good and it was just a good time. But while we were eating there was this guy sitting behind us with what looked like his son. They had placed their orders and they were waiting on their food I guess. The guy was probably our age, maybe a little bit older and his son was in the 7-10 age range. Old enough where you can have a conversation and talk with them and they know what's going on. Well this guy sat at this table behind us and played on his phone the entire time they were sitting down waiting. He didn't even acknowledge his son that was sitting directly across from him just staring off into space looking bored. It broke my heart. I told Ryan that I really wanted to say something to him or at least strike up a conversation with the little boy so the dad would know what a dick he was being by playing on his phone the whole time and not giving the kid the time of day. 

I know we live in an era where technology is all around us and it's part of our everyday lives, but when did we start putting technology before our children? When did people stop caring about what was going on with their kids and instead all they cared about was who was posting what on Facebook or Twitter. I sit here and think about all of these children taking guns to school and the ones that are bullied that end up committing suicide and I think to myself, what if they tried to talk to their parents about what was going on in their life but all the parents did was play on their phones, tablets and computers all the time?

At another table across from us in the restaurant there was a family of four,  a mom, dad and two little girls eating dinner as well. The little girls looked about 4 and the smallest was about 7 or 8 months or so and those parents did not have their cell phones out once. They were actively engaging their kids in conversations, playing with them and devoting all of their attention to them. I don't even know who these people are but I left there feeling grateful for them and the good job they were doing parenting those children at that time.

I'm a child of technology. I love my Kindle, my iPhone, my computers and all of that mess but I can promise you that I will never put any of these material things before my daughter or before any of my future children. I will talk to them, play with them and give them my undivided attention whenever they need it or even when I think they don't need it. So what if I miss what's going down on Facebook? Facebook and social media will never be more important than my child(ren). 

So if you see or hear a little less of me online after April, it's ok. I'm just enjoying precious moments with my family that I will never be able to go back and re-do.

Until next time........