Our Carli is a Blessing - A Gift From Heaven Above

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A WEE BIT OF HEAVEN DRIFTED DOWN FROM ABOVE

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YOU LIGHT UP THE WORLD WITH YOUR SWEET BIG BOY CHARMS

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You're So Precious to Me, Sweet as Can Be, Baby of Mine

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Thursday, December 31, 2009

14 Months, 29 Days...

And we finally have two teeth! Wahoo!!!

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas in Amarillo

We came up to Amarillo to spend Christmas with Naggy and Pappy!



It took a bit of maneuvering to get us here, as we were flying and American cancelled all flights to Amarillo on Christmas Eve. Naggy and Pappy were having none of that - and we flew to Dallas on American from Tyler, then our good buddy Michael came and picked us up with his new fiance Kelly and took us over to Love Field to catch one of the last flights being allowed out that day! Boy were we lucky! Turns out the weather wasn't so hot, but we made it to Amarillo and that's what counts!

We packed some very important things in our luggage, including our caterpillar that Carli sleeps with every night - there are some things you simply make room for!



Christmas Eve was nice and cozy. We got to Amarillo just in time for dinner with everyone and since Carli had slept all of 30 minutes all day - she had some quick bonding time with Uncle Kevin and it was off to bed so Santa could come!


Santa was good to everyone this year. Wouldn't you know that one of Carli's favorite gifts from him was her Mardi Gra beads! :) She also go some books and clothes and Naggy made her a bow hanger for all those bows that we sometimes wear!


Uncle Kevin and Megan got Carli an awesome rocking dinosaur - we call him Yoshi. He will have to join us later in January when we hope that Naggy and Pappy come to visit!


And our favorite activity of the weekend was to crawl on the back of the couch and play on the window that looked into the kitchen!


And the things these Grandparents will let their grandbabies do! Naggy said she refused to let her boys play with her most favorite toy - but look what Carli thought it was for!


Carli and Uncle Kevin had good bonding time all weekend!

Carli helped make Sugar Cookies too!


Christmas wasn't over on Christmas day - nope! Saturday we headed over to celebrate with Pappy's side of the family. Here's a picture of our group...

They had lots of kids on that side of the family so Carli pretty much entertained herself with all their toys! Like this Christmas outfit? We had to change twice a day to get all the outfits in!

Naggy was worried about not having any toys for Carli to play with - but no fear! Carli found things to play with! On of her favorite was the mini wagon that Naggy had for decorations that had stuffed bears in it. Carli quickly took to loading things inside and pulling them around the house.

We had a great time in Amarillo - but are looking forward to heading home to see all our puppies! Carli has done an awesome job sleeping away from home, even taking naps! We pray that our flight tomorrow does not take the 12 hrs it took for us to get up here!


Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!


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Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas to Us!

Despite my OB's best efforts, the determination of one pregnant woman with the help of two persistent nurses, we were able to convince him to allow us to do our gender/growth sonogram 3 weeks early. Bless his heart! We wanted to be able to tell our parents in person what we were having this time as well and with the holiday's we knew that this would be the absolute best time to do it!


Going on the faith of what our Intellagender Test told us back in Oct was correct and that we were having a boy - we went ahead and got our mom's their James Avery lockets to add to the one we gave them when we were expecting Carli. When the baby is born, they engrave his name on it as well as the birth date. We had a name picked out: Drew Bennett. Keith had visions of a baseball nursery dancing in his head.


On the way to the doctor on Tuesday we joked about what we would do if we had another girl. But I told him I seriously doubted such a thing would occur. I had not been as sick at the beginning of this pregnancy nor was I carrying this baby as high as I carried Carli. Surely we were having a boy!


Wouldn't you know? The sonogram lady looked once, twice and more than three times to confirm, but there is simply no doubt. We are having a little girl! Ha! Poor Keith - to say he was disappointed would be an understatement. He has gotten much better as the week has gone on and his spirits have lifted. After all, for now, we are saving money being able to reuse everything we used with Carli and he has blocked off the idea of 20 years or so down the road that he would be paying for two weddings! :)

Nothing there...most definitely a girl!

So, needless to say, Keith has to return our little boy shoe lockets and get some little girl ones. Michelle has given him some hope in that she had a friend who was told they were having a little girl and in the 9th month a sonogram revealed they were in fact having a boy...oh my, I hope that does not happen to us! We were able to tell my parents on Tuesday and give Mom her locket on Wednesday night. Tessie's locket is a gift to her from Carli b/c they had no idea that we were going to find out early - what a surprise!

**Sorry the sono pics are not very clear, they are pics of pics b/c I don't have a scanner at home.


We do ask that you please send up some prayers for this little one when you think about it. She is breech, which is not a huge deal b/c we have 20 weeks for her to change position. We learned that she is very happy to camp out on my right side and kick my bladder - this we witnessed on the sonogram and the lady was cracking up. I had to go to the bathroom,it was not funny! Anyway, we learned that a baby's umbilical cord should have three blood vessels, our little one has two. She is missing one. The doc said this is not common but is not something to freak out about. He has had cases like this before and really the only thing they do differently is to make sure she is getting enough oxygen and blood as well as developing correctly. Because of this, we will do a sonogram every 6 weeks to check on her and her development. He said that probably the other blood vessel got clogged in the beginning and it just shut off. So, please send up a prayer or two when you think about it for this little one.

We don't have a name picked out - after all this was suppose to be a boy! We don't have nursery plans, but are working on it...in the mean time - we just smile b/c God's plan seems to be prevailing in our lives!
Merry Christmas Everyone!

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Carli's Christmas Gift

We decided to give Carli her gift Tuesday night since we would be packing Wednesday night and heading to Amarillo Thursday. We gave her a little chair - it is super cute! She LOVES to sit on things and absolutely loves it when they are just her size!

Carli and Daddy enjoy a nice book on her chair.

And of coarse, we had to enjoy the box it came in as well, it was part of the gift after all!

For my gift, Keith has taught Carli how to put her clothes in the hamper every night before her bath. They actually just started doing this this week, and she picked it up really fast! Check it out!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

When Mom is on the Phone...

Carli ignores ALL the toys she has, and has the time of her life playing in the Kleenex!


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Pretty Sure This is How I Feel Sometimes...

Carli rarely falls asleep prior to our bedtime routine, but after our trip to New Braunfels she was exhausted. We got her to the changing pad, laid her on her back and attempted to get her undressed, diaper changed and PJ's on. After we accomplish each step, she immediately would roll over and assume the most comfortable sleeping position ever! It took awhile to get the PJ's on and she never woke up! Talk about a tired baby - wish I could sleep that hard!


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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Reading with Pawpaw

This last week was our first full to have Grandma & Pawpaw back. They got new floors in their house and had to go stay with my Aunts for more than two weeks. We missed them SOOOO much! I am not sure who missed who the most, but for sure Carli missed seeing Grandma and Pawpaw!

I was a little worried that Carli may have to readjust to staying the afternoons with them after they were gone so long. But seriously, we got there and when it was time for me to leave she ignored me and was totally engrossed in playing with Grandma and Pawpaw. She never even missed me! Talk about an ego buster for Grandma and Pawpaw! ha! At least when I come back to get her to come home she will go with me! ha!

Last Thursday I was getting ready to leave and was going to tell Carli good bye, but she was a little preoccupied to pay me any mind. I just loved these two...it's just priceless.



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Monday, December 21, 2009

18 Week Belly Picture

Ask and ye shall receive...forget to ask, and I'll surprise you and do it anyway! It is time for belly pics. This time I feel like I have "poofed" a whole lot sooner than I did with Carli. Lots of ppl tell me that's normal, but I feel HUGE! And still have more than 20 weeks to go...shew. Here we are with my little helper at 18 weeks 4 days...

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Yum...Crayon?

I got the crayon's out after Thanksgiving to do thank you cards and Carli was pretty stoked at the sight of a new toy. She loves to play with my pens and gets kind of frustrated that they don't write for her (I put the lid on them). So I thought that crayons may not be so bad. Carli has never been a "put everything in her mouth" kind of baby...but just when you think she won't, she will...

If you look really closely, you can see her green mustache - and her gums were green and the one lonely tooth, yes, it was green too. The front of her shirt had nice spots of green drool on it also.

Thank goodness she got some baby crayon's from Grammy for Christmas!!


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Saturday, December 19, 2009

We've Learned to Like Hats...

Carli can tell you where her ears, eyes, mouth, nose, toes, head and hair are...she can also very successfully pull bows out of her hair for some time now and very strongly dislikes it when I attempt to use the headbands on Sunday. Thus, we have resorted to the "Bam-bam" ponytail with the occasional bow that I can sneak on sometimes.

So I was not surprised that when the cold rolled in that Carli objected very loudly to putting a hat on her head. We had to try all sorts of distractions to get her mind off her head and the object that rested there. I guess our persistence has finally paid off as Carli actually asks for her coat and hat when it is time to go outside....

Carli will even leave her hat on in the car for most of our drive to Alto and when she takes it off, she will try very hard to "put" it back on...most of the time it ends up resting on top of her head...

She did successfully get Daddy's beanie on one Saturday...she was walking around like this! She just barely can peer out from underneath the beanie!

If Daddy does it, so will Carli! Daddy came in for a break Carli kept his beanie nice and toasty for him while he rested...
And our new favorite hat...the coon skin we got from Paw for Christmas. She proudly wore it throughout our present unwrapping and off and on the rest of the weekend. The dogs tend to like this hat too, so we have to keep it in a safe spot until we are ready to wear it - otherwise it may end up in the yard!

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Christmas Decorations

Carli is LOVING the Christmas lights all around our neighborhood. She especially loves the display next door - our neighbor has a Pooh inflatable that moves and every time we get out of the car and he has it on, we hear a "Ohhhhh!"

Pretty sure the face says it all...


Last year we were gone most of December, so we did very little decorations. This year, we are home a little more, but since I work from home putting up a tree really wasn't an option. I would never be able to get all my work done and referee a one year old and three dogs with a Christmas tree, I'm pretty sure the tree and I would have lost! It would have been begging for a disaster! So, this year we improvised. We decorated, but we put it all out of the reach of both dogs and baby...not too shabby!


We even got a few lights up outside. Carli liked watching Daddy hang our snowflakes!

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Schlitterbahn Hill Country Christmas

Part of our gift from Mom and Dad was to go down to Schilitterbahn and visit their Hill Country Christmas Display. It was really neat, and the weather was pretty good. Carli had a good time and enjoyed all the lights.

She was really, really excited about the carousal. She got extremely excited when she saw all the lights on it.

Riding the carousal was a little different and she wasn't too sure about that. She did finally understand that Paw and Grammy were waving from the side and got pretty excited every time we came around.

Family Picture!
Carli and Logan were admiring something...
Getting some love from Uncle Andy
Very interesting...
She wasn't so sure about Santa...
Actually, she was pretty freaked out by him!
Shew, recovering from meeting Santa!
Daddy and Carli under the lights

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