McAllister Marvels

Pre terrible twos

2012-02-03T20:41:00.001-06:00

Reese has really been testing us lately. Hitting, biting and completely melting down have become the norm. 90% of the time she's the most precious, smart and amazing toddler and the other 10% she is really testing our patience. I think we need a parenting class on exactly how to handle these situations and how to be consistent when you are juggling two. I love her so much and want to be doing what it takes for her to grow up to be an amazing little girl/woman.

This is an adorable picture of her brushing her teeth while "practicing" going pee-pee on the potty last night. I love this little girl with all of my heart.

2 weeks

2012-02-01T19:43:00.001-06:00

We close in only 2 weeks and 2 days!!! I could not be more excited. A few picture updates below.

Back to work

2012-01-17T15:57:00.001-06:00

My first day back to work was last Monday. It has been nice to be around adults more, to be able to take a bathroom break anytime I need to (not have to hold it until I'm done nursing or until I've gotten her completely asleep by bouncing her), to get a shower in at least once a day and to be back to more of a schedule/routine. I LOVE our day care and fully trust that my girls are well taken care of. BUT, I miss them so much. I do love my job but maybe one day I can find something that requires a few less hours so that I can feel that I have more of a balance between work and home.

These are the super sweet and pretty flowers that Neal, Reese & Ella sent me my 1st day back to work.

a new home for Baxter?

2012-01-08T11:01:00.001-06:00

Well my Inlaws came up this weekend and took Baxter home with them because they have a potential new home for our little guy. We are feeling pretty good about the situation & hoping that it all works out. Neal worked at a country club when he was going to community college in central Arkansas & one of the members that he knew goes to church with his mom. His mom mentioned to this man that we are having to find a new home for Bax and he said he has a shih tzu and they were wanting o get theirs a friend. His kids are grown and we fully explained Baxter's moody personality. So, he is going to have an overnight interview tonight, mainly to see if he gets along with their current dog. Now we just have to wait & see if this new home works out. We are really hoping this works out!

Needless to say we were a mess yesterday afternoon when it was time to say goodbye to him. We will miss him so much but we think he will be happy in this home. We got a couple of photos with him before he left.

baby talk

2012-01-06T20:59:00.003-06:00

Today was my last day of maternity leave. I will be so sad not to get to spend so much time with Ella but we have had a great three months together. There are things that I look forward to about being back at work next week but I will really miss my precious girls. We are so blessed to have two amazing little girls and my heart swells with joy, pride and awe when I look at or think about them.

This morning Ella had a lot to say about starting day care on Monday. I assured her that the day care we have chosen is great one and her teacher is so good with little babies.

House

2012-01-05T16:45:00.001-06:00

Disclaimer- I'm uploading all of this from my phone app so I have no idea how it will all turn out but I thought I may as well try it at some point.

The house has reached the exciting point! Cabinets, built ins, brick, closets, trim & flooring is what I've been waiting for. Although I know they are incredibly important slab, framing & insulation just haven't been nearly as exciting. I forgot to get an exterior shot with the brick on but I'll do that soon. They should be painting and putting down hardwoods next week. I just cannot wait to move in. Below are some pictures:

a sad end to a great Christmas break

2011-12-29T10:33:00.012-06:00

This year we spent Christmas with Neal's family in Little Rock. This year was really fun because even though Reese doesn't fully understand she is more into opening presents and gets really excited about certain things. Below are some pictures of some fun memories of a great Christmas. Visiting Santa (the amazing elves convinced her that it was okay):

Christmas jammies:

Papa & Reese:

Mimi & Ella:

My sweet family:

Papa & Ella:

I LOVE this one:

Sweet Sisters:

Her reaction when 1st seeing Santa:

Fun with cousins:

We have always alternated each Christmas between my family and Neal's. Although it wears us out to travel for every single Thanksgiving and Christmas it has worked well. We have always known that once we have kids we wanted to spend some holidays at our own house. Next year is the year that we start this and we are going to do both Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. I am hoping that my family will come up for Christmas some years, maybe every other which would make it every 6 years for them. I know that Neal's family will come to our house for Christmas since he is an only child. Even if my family decides not to come, I will miss them greatly, but I am so looking forward to getting to stay home. Traveling with kids is tough and it will be nice not to have to use up so much of our vacation time.

On to the sad part. Baxter bit Reese pretty bad the day that we got home from Christmas. Maybe he was mad at us for being gone? We have always wondered if this day would come since he is a pretty moody guy. He has done so great the past 20 months and avoided so many fights. He got so good at just walking away when she tried to bother him. BUT we know that we are going to have to find him a new home now that this has happened. We don't want to constantly live in fear of what might happen as we know that it could be worse next time, that would make us bad parents. He is making it harder on us and being ultra sweet the past couple of days. He's given me lots of kisses and been extra cuddly. We are so sad and have cried many tears in the past few days while trying to find him a home. Let me know if you know of a good kid free home!

2 month shot comparison

2011-12-29T10:27:00.004-06:00

I dread taking my girls to get shots. It is terrible to see them in pain. I took a photo of each of them just after getting their 2 month shots. It is interesting to see the similarities. I really think they look alike but Reese is a bit fuller, see below.

Reese:

Ella:

an overdue update

2011-12-09T21:29:00.013-06:00

Many things have happenend in the past couple of months and I am going to do my best to recap below. I have been so bad about keeping up with the blog lately, although I do have a pretty good excuse. I am going to try to commit to updating the blog bi-weekly to avoid such long posts. I don't want to miss capturing any of our sweet memories because I know how fuzzy it gets just months later.

House: Biggest news is that our house is well under way. It has a foundation, a frame, raw plumbing, most of the electrical, windows, insulation, a roof, soffet and facia and I suspect we will have brick any day now, I am very excited to see it with brick because that will give me a good idea of how it is all going to come together. They have laid tile and installed cabinets. Today they were starting on trim and templating for the granite. It sounds like we may be able to move in sometime in March, at best February. Below are some pictures along the way (I will update with interior soon!).

Halloween: Reese had a fun 2nd Halloween. She was a ballerina this year. She went to a baby Halloween party the day before Halloween (which was so fun, one of our friends throws amazing parties), a school Halloween party and she trick or treated at a handful of houses on the street where we are renting. One of my very good friends came by to meet Ella on Halloween and it was good to visit with her and catch up while Reese was out trick or treating with Neal and Gigi.

Thanksgiving: We had a great time in Houston over Thanksgiving. Parts of it were bittersweet as we recently lost my Uncle John, which has been extremley painful for many in our family, but overall we had a great time. 10 days away from home may be too long but it was a great visit. Reese got her 1st pedicure, Neal, Chelsea, Carrie, Alex and myself got to go out to dinner and a movie, we got to hang out with an old Walmart friend and her 2 year old one morning, we got to spend lots of good time with my Mom and my Sisters and the highlight for Reese was Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Ella: Ella is growing like a weed. I cannot believe that she will be 3 months old soon. I am having such a good time at home with her right now and am dreading the end of my maternity leave in less than 2 weeks now. She is such a pleasant, content and somewhat easy baby. I love both of my girls so much and am looking forward to moving in to our fun new house with two children. Below are some great pictures of my sweet baby girl.

Ella!

2011-11-12T21:32:00.004-06:00

I am really late getting this up as Ella will be 4 weeks old on Monday (cannot believe that) but better late than never. Ella Brennan was born on October 17th at 10:33, weighing 7 lbs. 10 ozs. Labor could not have been smoother. She has been such a sweet baby and an amazing blessing. We definitely feel that our family is complete. Below are some pictures of our sweet baby girl.

Ready!

2011-10-14T12:35:00.002-05:00

I think I can say that I am fully ready to have Ella at this point. Until now it has felt like there were too many things that I wanted to get done before she came but as of last night I think that all of those things have been checked off of my list.

We sold our house...this in itself is huge!I was let off of bed rest about two and a half weeks ago. Since my doctor really felt like I was going to have her at any moment I crammed a bunch of activity into that weekend in order to check many things off before having her. That Friday evening Neal and I took Reese to Farmland Adventures with our old neighbors and friends. I really wanted to take her to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin and this was a great place for this. She got to go on a hay ride, she rode a pony multiple times, she fed animals, picked out 2 pumpkins from the patch (really it was Neal and I that did this as she was more interested in riding around in the wagon), she ran around in a mini maze- truly a mini maze made out of hay bales…perfect for a toddler and her favorite part of all was the corn box. They had a big box full of corn…I really liked this much better than a sand box, not so messy.

The next day was the Arkansas & A&M game. It was a very exciting game and I am so happy that we won because my silly husband made a bet and if we had lost my girls would have had to wear A&M shirts, photographed and displayed on facebook, that would have been terrible. After the game we headed out to the Gentry Animal Safari. We had a good time but I don’t think she is quite old enough to enjoy this as much as I wanted her to. We did a little shopping and went out to dinner. We had a great day although we were supposed to have gone to one of my best friend’s daughters first birthday party this day. The party was in Conway and while my doctor was fine with me traveling to Conway for the day a couple of months ago he changed his mind after discovering how far I had already progressed. We were sad to miss her first birthday party. Sunday we went out for donuts and then went to church. That afternoon we took Reese to the playground and then had a relaxing evening around the house.

Last weekend I got to go on a fun date with my wonderful husband. We had dinner and then went to the Need to Breathe concert. The concert was a birthday present that he got me back in August. Ben Rector opened for them and though we had heard of him we really did not know any of his music. We discovered that he is from Fayetteville, well went to the UofA anyways. They were both so good. We left the concert a few minutes early and went to Kohl’s, because they are opened extremely late, to use our $10 coupon on a new outfit for Reese since we had pictures the next day. Saturday one of my very generous co-workers took pregnant pictures of me and family pictures. She did such a good job, I love how they turned out. That evening we watched the Arkansas & Auburn game…we won(!), causing us to now be ranked #10.

The biggest stressor that I really wanted to have put to bed before Ella got here was the contract and house plans on the house we are building. I can now say, that as of yesterday, we have a final house plan and a contract, that we feel very comfortable with, in place. This turned into a frustrating ordeal on the front end, mainly due to the realtor that was initially involved. We are not happy about how it all happened but we are happy with the way that it ended up that the realtor will no longer be representing us and we will be able to deal directly with the builder. We are so excited about the house we are building and hoping that the process goes smoothly from here on out.

Yesterday was really a great day. In addition to getting the house plans finalized & contract in place I got to spend some precious time with Reese as her last day as an only child without company at our house. Neal had to work late so I planned a fun evening with her. After picking her up from school we went to a really fun playground that we discovered near our rent house. We spent over an hour at the playground. There were two other 18 month olds out there as well as a 3 year old. She had a lot of fun playing with all of them. After the playground we went and ate some Mexican food. She wanted to dip each of her chips in the salsa and then began grabbing handfuls of salsa and putting them in her mouth, I guess she likes salsa but this made a mess. After dinner we headed home and ended up getting there about the same time that Neal got home. We got her a couple of new toys to play with before she went to bed. We spent 20 or 30 minutes playing and then put her down to bed together.

Last night we got the car seats out and plan to put those in today, we assembled the bouncer and got the swing set up. All things that will be necessary when she is here. The problem will be that Reese really wants to get in the swing. I am trying to convince her that it is just as fun to let her baby dolls swing instead.

I have gotten so many things accomplished: we sold our house, the pumpkin patch, Gentry Animal Safari, date night, pregnancy pictures, house plans & contract in place and very important some good quality time with my precious baby girl. Now I just have to wait until Monday when I will be induced…unless she decides to come on her own over the weekend. We cannot wait to meet Ella!

bed rest

2011-09-14T16:01:00.002-05:00

Last Tuesday afternoon I went in to my regular weekly doctor's appointment. Towards the end of the appointment I mentioned to him that I had been feeling some minor pressure...nothing I was too concerned about just something that I never felt with Reese so I thought I would mention it. He said that this being my second pregnancy my muscles are not as tight to hold the baby as high and she may be carrying lower causing some of the pressure. He didn't think it would be much of an issue but since I was complaining of pressure he was going to check me. When he did it turned out that I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced. So he immediately admitted me into the hospital for 24 hours of monitoring and 2 rounds of steroid shots. They were able to determine that I was not in active labor and getting in the 2 rounds of steroids will greatly improve her lung functioning if she does come soon.

He released me on Wednesday afternoon to complete bed rest until I reach 36 weeks. He said our initial goal was to get me to 34 weeks, which is today. While 34 weeks is way too early her survival chances are very high. Our next goal is 35 weeks and our ultimate goal is 36 weeks. Who knows maybe I will make it to the end, she just wanted to scare us a little.

Bed rest has definitely gotten old. I know I am doing great things in growing this baby but it makes me feel worthless to lay around all day long. In the middle of all of this Neal is moving us into a rental house as our house is under contract and scheduled to close on September 26th. My husband is so amazing and has worked so hard every spare moment he has had to get us moved. Because of him I really have not been stressed through all of this and I appreciate that about him so much.

Reese hasn't seemed to notice much of a change but I make sure to hang out with her in the evenings. We lay on the couch and watch Yo Gabba Gabba, she gets to eat dinner in the living room (we roll her high chair out) while I lay on the couch and eat and I lay on her floor while Neal and I do bedtime together.

I am so excited about getting to begin the building process. We are not starting a thing until our house officially closes and we know that it is a done deal. That should all take place in the next 12 days or so. We are so close to getting to begin something that we have fantasized about for such a long time.

a blast in Branson

2011-08-15T20:15:00.008-05:00

Neal and I have gone to Branson in the past a few times. We have always had a good time but I think it is going to become a more regular place to visit now that we will have kiddos to enjoy it with. There are so many fun things to do with kids. It is funny the things that we notice, now that we have a baby to enjoy things with, that we never noticed before. In the past we might see a show, do some eating and do a lot of outlet shopping.

Shopping definitely had to be done in short shifts on this trip. Reese can only stand so much and luckily they have a ride on toy about every hundred yards at the outlet mall. We got lots of cute clothes for the girls and my favorite would be the matching pink skeleton pj’s for Halloween. We did the outlet mall in two short rounds and did a little shopping at the Landing.

We headed to Branson Thursday late afternoon. We did the Landing the first night just as we got into town. We ate at White River Fish House which is Bass Pro Shops restaurant. It is on the lake and has lots of interesting things hanging from the walls to keep Reese’s interest including boats and moose heads. After dinner we walked through Bass Pro Shop, which Reese thought was the most amazing place she had ever been, and we then did just a little shopping.

Friday morning we cooked breakfast at the condo and then headed to do a little shopping at the outlet mall and then off to the indoor/outdoor water park. The park was fun but the inside part was kept at around 75 degrees and the water felt as if it was 40 degrees. So, it. Was. So. Cold! Reese was pretty uninterested in the water due to the temperature. She had a blast in the outdoor portion though. I wish I had gotten more pictures of her playing in the water but I was busy playing with her. It took less than a minute for her to fall asleep in the car on the way back to the condo. While Reese slept Neal and I made BLT’s with some tomatoes that we picked up from a roadside stand on our way into town…they were really good. When Reese woke up we fed her lunch and took her swimming in the condo pool. There wasn’t a whole lot to the pool but she had about as much fun in this pool as she did at the water park. We then went up and took a bath and go ready to head out to dinner.

On our way to dinner we did another hour and a half or so at the outlet mall. We then ate at a steakhouse. Reese was much more interested in eating ketchup by the handful then she was about eating anything else. She is turning into a finicky eater and it breaks my heart. I miss my baby that eats anything and everything set in front of her.

Saturday Neal made pancakes and sausage and after eating we headed out to the golf course for Reese’s first lessons. We stayed on the Payne Stewart golf course in the condos. We stayed in the Villas last October with some friends and their babies and I don’t know if we will be able to stay anywhere else. The location is great and the amenities are wonderful. Back to the golf lessons, this was the highlight of the trip for Neal and I have to say that Reese and I really had a great time as well. He taught her how to hold her plastic clubs correctly and they hit the ball quite a few times. I cannot say that she can do this on her own but practice cannot hurt and I bet in a year’s time she will be quite the golfer for her age. We then took a long walk to the club house and took some photos on the first hole, it is really a beautiful course. We headed back for Reese to get a nap in and then packed the car and headed home. We had a great trip and look forward to many trips to come as a family of 4!

a fun trip to Houston

2011-08-04T10:34:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Reese and I got a chance to go to Houston for the weekend. I had a great time hanging out with my family and spending time with Reese. Although, Reese did not feel especially well. She had begun breathing funny and kind of wheezing and coughing the Tuesday morning before we left. Daycare called mid morning to let us know that she was having trouble breathing while her binky was in but it wasn’t worth it to her to take her binky out…silly girl. They said overall she had a good day just got very congested through the day. On Wednesday she was still sounding pretty bad so we decided to get her into the doctor before I took her to Houston. The doctor said that he thought it was just viral but that he was going to prescribe an antibiotic just in case. He prescribed Cefdiner (a penicillin), which she had been on once before. That night she began running a fever as well. We began the antibiotic on Thursday morning. By Saturday she was still running fever off and on so we were thinking that surely it was viral and not an infection since the antibiotic was not really helping out. When she woke up on Saturday she looked like this!!!

Only her face was affected. Our best guess is that she had a reaction to the penicillin. We stopped the antibiotic and started Benadryl. Being home with my 2 nurse parents during this ordeal really came in handy. Through the entire thing she acted a little bit clingy and a bit more fussy but she seemed to have a good weekend. When she woke up on Sunday morning it looked like nothing had ever happened…her face was completely clear.

Outside of Reese’s being sick we had so much fun being home. We ate lots of good food, had a big family get together, went swimming at a really fun pool, Reese did lots of swinging and did a little shopping for the new baby girl. I only wish we could get down there more often.

a very long time

2011-07-17T20:04:00.011-05:00

I know I have gone way too long without updating and I really have no good excuse...life is just busy. Many things have taken place over the last few months.

First of all, we found at in late May that we will be having another baby girl. Honestly, we were hoping for a boy, just so that we would have one of each, but as soon as we found out that it was a girl we could not have been more excited. We have had so much fun with Reese and I know that it will be a blast for two girls to grow up together. so close in age. The new baby girl will be named Ella Brennan. We cannot wait for her arrival in mid October.

For Mother's day Neal bought me everything needed to plant a garden. This is something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. We both have had so much fun with it. So far we have gotten a lot of green beans and two tomatoes. We have many tiny cucumbers. We have cilantro, basil and parsley that is ready but we have not yet cut any of it. It is funny how excited we get with each thing that pops up. We hope to have yellow tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, jalapenos, onions, egg plant and serrano peppers in the near future.

Reese is growing like a weed. We have noticed here recently that the rolls on her thighs, that we refer to as sweet meat, are quickly reducing. She is looking more and more like a toddler and no longer a baby. She is so much fun and each new development is a blast but it is sad that she won't be my little baby much longer. She is talking up a storm...more, dog, hi, hello, bye-bye, book, baby, whoa, ball, dada, mama, daddy, mimi, belly, bubble and she can also make the animal sounds for the dinosaur, lion, tiger, bear (she loves to growl obviously) and the cow. Neal has been teaching her her vowels and she actually will say a-e-i and then she stops. He started this as a joke and when she picked it up he continued it. Out of all of these words baby is her absolute favorite word as well as thing. She has mastered walking and has moved on to trying to jump. She began scowling and practices all of the time...Neal says she gets this look from me.

Neal and I were fortunate enough to have gotten to go on vacation last month. We went to a resort in Cancun, for a week, that we have been to twice before and love. We had a very good time but it was not without a few glitches. The first 2 and a half days of the vacation it was raining. Not only raining but pouring so hard that an umbrella hardly did any good. Since there was no chance of pool or beach time we spent the first day shopping. Shopping in Cancun is usually a blast but most of it is at an outdoor mall so running from shop to shop in the pouring rain wasn't my favorite. Being 5 months pregnant and walking all over in the pouring rain is also kind of scary. They do not use the best material on the ground for rain. There are very slippery tiles in many places. I ended up falling pretty hard the 1st day we were there. I luckily hit on my hip and there was no trauma to my belly but this scared us both pretty bad. Aside from some pain and a pretty bad bruise, everything ended up being okay. The 2nd day I spent at the spa having a pre-natal massage and facial...this was spectacular. Neal spent this time relaxing in the room reading. By the 3rd day we got some good weather and we could not be any happier. The ocean was terrible due to all of the sea weed that the tropical storm brought in but luckily the resort has amazing pools. I spent my time by and in the pool and Neal spent the time playing 27 holes of golf. We were both very happy people this day. The remainder of the vacation was very good. I think we both realized that week long vacations are going to be most enjoyable with our kids, in the future, and we will take long weekend trips together as we can. Reese was in great hands though. She had both of her grandmothers hanging out with her at our house for the week. They did all kinds of things including a trip to Eureka Springs, the Bentonville Splash Pad, the Springdale Aquatic Park and baby reading hour at the Fayetteville library. She had a great week. Coming home we both got violently ill, this part was miserable. I am not sure what we ate or drank but it was definitely bad.

Lastly, we have found a lot that we are in the process of contractually holding!!! We also found a house plan. Now that all of this is in place we are more eager than ever for our house to sell. Our house has been for sale by owner since February. We have had interest off and on but it has been remarkably quiet lately. We have loved this house but we are so ready to move on to something with more space.

My sweet baby girl is 1

2011-05-03T19:31:00.007-05:00

Everyone has always said to cherish every moment because it will go by so fast...and it is so true. Reese turned 1 on April 12th. I cannot believe it. In the last month she has begun walking, quit drinking formula, gotten 4 top teeth and is clearly saying a few words. It is like she is no longer a little baby and now becoming a little girl. We are having so much fun with all of her new developments but it makes me sad. She is such a precious and sweet little baby girl.

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday. We woke her up by singing happy birthday. She scowled at us the whole time and did not want to wake up. We got her from daycare at lunch and took her to Chuck e cheese. She thought it was so great and we also had a very fun time. They sang to her many times at daycare and they said that she would clap every time. They made her the most adorable card at daycare with each of her school friends hand prints and names. For dinner we took her to a restaurant that we knew would sing. It was so cute, she was watching the waitstaff as they announced her birthday and then she looked around and realized that everyone was looking at and clapping for her and she put her face on the table and her hands on her head. Once they started singing she watched them and she clapped for them at the end, so cute.

The following weekend was her birthday party weekend. My parents, Neal's parents, my sisters, brother in law and nephew all came up for the event. We went out to Monte Ne on Friday night and then came home to celebrate Carrie's birthday, she turned 25 on the 17th. The main event was on Saturday. We had the party at the Little Gym. Reese had a blast and everyone else seemed to have a good time as well. The Little Gym was an amazing place to have a party, they do everything for you. It was truly stress free. Overall, we had a great weekend with all of the family in town and had a great time celebrating Reese's first year of life.

I am so thankful for Reese and feel so blessed to have another precious baby on the way.

So blessed

2011-04-02T20:26:00.005-05:00

Reese is going to be a big sister! We are so excited that God has blessed us with another precious baby. After trying for so long to get pregnant with Reese and becoming pregnant after the second round of IVF we really did not know if we would have any more than one child . We knew that we deeply wanted two children and planned to go through IVF again if that was necessary. When Reese was around 8.5 months old we decided that we might as well quit being so careful not to get pregnant because it could take years and we really did not want them to be too far apart. Just over a month later we were pregnant! We are thrilled! We will be overwhelmed, for a while, I am sure. I am happy to get all of the diapers and sleep deprivation behind us and to move on to the fun stuff. I am almost 11 weeks. The due date is October 26th. Reese and the new baby will be 18 months apart, which I think is going to be so much fun. We will find out if it is a boy or a girl at the end of May. Of course, we are hoping for a boy but either way we are 99% sure that this is the last one. God is so faithful and we are so blessed!

Valentine's Day, my second or third favorite day of the year.

2011-02-16T13:34:00.006-06:00

I know I have been completely delinquent with updating this. I have missed Christmas, New Years, crawling and pulling up. I am just going to tell you that all of this has happened and move on the Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day happens to be one of my favorite days of the entire year and this year was probably better than all of the others I have experienced (and Neal has given me many GREAT Valentine's Days). This year I have Reese though and Neal and I have someone to focus on making the day special for together. Plus, this someone being Reese is experiencing all of these things for the 1st time ever which is so much fun for us.

Before having Reese I knew that I was going to love my child so much but I never imagined that it would be this much. Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love and we had a great time doing just that. She did get a few gifts...we got her a balloon, a Vday stuffed puppy dog, a piggy bank, a baby set of plastic golf clubs (guess who got her that), some socks and a card. She loved all of her gifts. She has played for many hours with her puppy, balloon and golf set. I love this girl so much and think she is the most adorable thing I have ever known.

Neal's 30th

2010-12-18T17:41:00.006-06:00

I want to start this post by saying that I really do have the best husband in the world. He is such a support to me and this family and I don't know how I would do this life without him. That being said I really wanted to make his 30th birthday the best I could.

On Thursday December 9th I took a day of vacation all while Neal thought that I was at work. In reality I was running around like my hair was on fire getting everthing together for his suprise party that evening. He knew that his parents were coming in for the weekend to take him out to dinner for his birthday. He kept suggesting places he would like to eat but I kept telling him that there was a place that I really wanted to go as a suprise to him. I sent out an e-vite to everyone asking them to be at the Back 9 Golf Academy in Bentonville by 6:15 and that we would arrive at 6:30. Early in the day I put together a spread of food and picked up the cake and dropped it all off at the party location. I also did some decorating. My wonderful friends and sister (Ashley, Erin, Chelsea and Brandon) got there a little before 6 to set out all of the food and cake that I had made and dropped off there earlier in the day.

Neal's parents, Neal, Reese and I all got in the car to head to dinner. About the time when we were going to exit 540 we made him put a blindfold on and at that point he knew something fishy was going on. Once we exited the freeway I made a lot of extra turns to confuse him and I think it worked because he says he was very suprised by where we ended up and was so happy with it all. We all had a fun time.

The real reason that Neal's parents came in was to take care of Reese while we ran off to Miami for the weekend to celebrate his birthday in the sun. I have never laid out and swam in December before but I do think I will plan to do it again one day. It was such a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. We did a lot of eating, some shopping, some laying by the pool and swimming and even got a massage by the ocean. It was a great weekend!

For his actual birthday, the 14th, Reese and I brought him breakfast in bed. We also cooked him his typical birthday dinner, hamburger steak, sauteed mushrooms and fingerling potatoes. It was Reese's Christmas party at school that night as well so we took her to see Santa, which was a fun thing to do on his birthday as well.

All in all I think he had a good birthday week. I am so thankful for him and hope that I spoiled him enough for his 30th celebration.

Cutest spider ever!

2010-11-13T13:43:00.004-06:00

I am a little late posting this but I couldn't skip getting such cute photos of the cutest spider I have ever seen. She didn't love her costume as it was a bit hot but she looked so darn cute.

Fall

2010-10-18T20:31:00.003-05:00

I love Fall! There are so many things about it that I love...soup and chili, the cool air, the gorgeous foliage, putting out a mum, carving or paining pumpkins and the thought of Christmas being just around the corner.

A group of friends and us took a trip to Branson last weekend with 3 babies. All of the babies did so well. We took one trip to the outlet mall with the 3 babies and the moms. I had a realization that shopping is not the same by myself with a baby. Neal is so much help and I appreciate him so much. I was worn out Saturday evening after running around all day with Reese and without his help. Overall it was a fun trip!

Tonight we sat outside with Reese and painted pumpkins. Enjoy the cute pictures, we are so happy with the way they turned out.

Neal's Precious Grandparents

2010-09-10T20:46:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Neal's sweet Meme and Papa came to Northwest Arkansas to visit. This was such a special visit for Neal. They had never been to NWA before. Neal deep cleaned the house and cars in preparation for the visit and so wanted everything to be just perfect.

On Friday night we cooked dinner for them and hung out at the house. Everyone had fun just hanging out with Reese. Saturday we rented a car that everyone could fit into and we took them on a tour of the area. We drove by the UofA and showed them Neal's name in the sidewalk (mine was too far of a walk). We stopped for a lunch break at Panera, took them to see Walmart headquarters (I know so exciting) and stopped by a couple of other places. Saturday evening we ate at Monte Ne Chicken, which is always good.

The visit was so much fun for everyone. Who knows if they will get up here again but I am so glad that we were able to do it and that we got some great photos:

Her new found voice

2010-08-03T21:04:00.003-05:00

So this video is really long but Reese has discovered that she has a voice to use and boy is she using it often the last few days. She is SO cute!

Sorry that the blog no longer has a cute background. For some reason my background was deleted and I cannot figure out how to add another one. If anyone has suggestions let me know.

Back to work

2010-07-25T20:56:00.002-05:00

Going back to work has been easier than I thought it would be. While it is very sad to miss all that I will I am kind of glad to be back to a routine. Reese did contract a rash the second day of daycare, which was nerve racking, but things could be a lot worse. She seems to be fine with day care and her teachers really seem to love her. I get to go see her at lunch every day and spend about 40 minutes with her and feed her. I think this makes it a lot more tolerable. I love her so much and miss her every moment but for now I know we are doing what is best for our family. I love my job but hate that I have to spend so much time away from Reese. Maybe in the future I will find something that requires less hours but for now this is where we are at.

Cutest Smiler Ever!

2010-07-10T15:53:00.003-05:00

While I was in the restroom at a restaurant the other day Neal took the time to video Reese smiling. Keep in mind this video was taken on his phone so the quality is not the best but it is still the most precious thing. I love her!

The dreadded shots

2010-07-01T15:23:00.004-05:00

Reese is 11 weeks old this week. She had her 2 month check up on Monday. She was so happy the entire visit until it came time for her shots. Once the first shot went in she dropped her pacifier out of her mouth, turned red and began screaming at the top her lungs. She was completely inconsolable and it was so sad. This photo is after I have been trying to comfort her for 5 minutes or so. Neal ended up taking her to the car and sitting in the back with her while I scheduled the next round of shots. She cried herself to sleep after a few moments of being in the car with him. I am not looking forward to having to do this again in the future but next time I am going to nurse her as soon as the shots are administered. After she woke up she seemed to be just fine and didn't have the normal bad effects like soreness, fussiness and fever so I am thankful for that.

She weighed in at 12 pounds and six ounces which is the 75th percentile on the growth charts. She is 24.5" tall which is the 97th percentile and she was the 90th percentile for head circumference (Neal said the big head is thanks to him). She is growing perfectly!

My assignment for the next 6 weeks is to eliminate one of the two night feedings. She has done this for me the past three nights which is a blessing. Last night she slept for 8 hours straight and went 9 hours and 50 minutes between feedings!!! I won't count on this happening again but it was really nice.

I love this baby so much and am so happy for a good report. Thinking about going back to work in just over a week is not an easy thought. I am hoping it goes well!

Home

2010-06-22T11:50:00.011-05:00

I got to go home to Houston for an entire week last week! It has been a long time since I've been able to go home for that long and just relax. I had a great time with my family and I'm so happy that everyone got to meet Reese.

Reese took her 1st flight on the way to Houston. Neal flew down with us but he only stayed for the weekend so we flew back alone. She was perfectly behaved for both flights. Coming back I was especially nervous for two reasons...one she had been fussy all evening and two the flight was completely full and I was alone. She was so fussy when we got to the airport that the airline graciously allowed my Mom through security to help me out until we got on the flight. She cried all the way until we stepped on to the plane and was then perfectly content for the entire flight. She didn't sleep except for the last 5 minutes but was so good and happy. I was SO relieved.

While in Houston I got to do all of the things that I really wanted to. I got to hang out with the whole family and they got to meet Reese, Reese and I got to spend a lot of quality time with my Mom, I did some shopping and found some clothes that will fit me and my new and unimproved size, I got to hang out with Carrie one afternoon and had a very fun time with her, I got to eat the chocolate cake that I saw on the show "The best thing I ever ate" (it was $16!, I couldn't believe it), my Mom and I got our nails done, we went to Costco and I got to eat at all of my must haves. It was a great trip!

A week from tomorrow my Mom will be here and the rest of the family will be here for the following weekend for our annual 4th of July festivities. I am really looking forward to it and I will post some photos soon after. Happy Summer!

Sisters

2010-06-01T14:19:00.009-05:00

My Sisters finally got to meet Reese! They have both been to NW Arkansas in the last week to visit and we all had a great time.

Chelsea came in to town two Saturdays ago and stayed with us through last Friday. We had a great time with her and she was such a help. She even took Reese in the morning a couple of the mornings and let me sleep, which any Mom knows that is a blessing. We made a picnic lunch one day and took it out to Lake Fayetteville, we went on many walks, we went to a lake in Springdale and Neal fished while Chelsea, Reese and I walked, we did a little shopping and lots of hanging out around the house. It is so good to have Chelsea back in the country and Reese loved spending time with her Aunt Chelsea.

Last Thursday Carrie, Alex and Jacob came in to spend the weekend and we also had a great time with them. It was fun to have them around for a few days and Carrie definitely has a great touch when trying to get Reese to sleep. She helped rock her to sleep multiple times and it was nice to have extra people around that were eager to hold her...I was actually able to get some other things done. I was able to get out of the house with Carrie and Chelsea and do a little shopping. They got a pool for the back yard for Jacob to swim in that we all enjoyed and we went out for some Monte Ne Chicken, which is always good. We took Jacob out to fish but he got his lure stuck on something within minutes and the line broke so that was short lived. It just turned into a long walk, which was also fun.

The past week or so have been really enjoyable. Reese has turned into a really content baby. We even took her to Tulsa yesterday to shop and she was so good. I am feeling better about the flight that we will be taking with her in a couple of weeks. She also slept from 8:30 to 8 last night with only one feeding in the middle and she went back to sleep after the feeding in about 15 minutes. I cannot count on this to happen again (it is not her normal at all) but I am so grateful for it. It at least gives me hope for the future!

I've never wanted to grocery shop so badly

2010-05-11T16:24:00.004-05:00

I have found that now that I have a baby I will go to great lengths to accomplish something that I never would have put so much effort into before. Today I really wanted to accomplish grocery shopping. I was actually looking forward to it because it would get me out of the house for a couple of hours. I have found that typically if we are in the car for longer than 15 minutes Reese will fall asleep and once she falls asleep in her carrier she is usually out pretty hard for a good while. So, I decided to go grocery shopping in Siloam Springs...I never before would have driven to Siloam to go to Walmart but this was going to give her enough time to get good and asleep. I fed her before we left and made sure I had my grocery list, wallet and all of the other things that have to go with us now that I have Reese.

When we first got into the car she was pretty happy but by the time we were to Tontitown she was fussing and once we reached Siloam she was screaming. I was not about to attempt grocery shopping with her this upset so we parked in the parking lot and I got in the back and calmed her down and got her to suck on her pacifier and begin falling asleep. I then decided to drive back through Springdale and head to Fayetteville to grocery shop, thinking she would be asleep by the time we got there for sure. She lost her pacifier as soon as we began driving again and she started crying again. Once we got to Springdale I decided to take 112 since it is a windy 2 lane highway. I thought the turns may soothe her??? It actually worked. She fell asleep soon after we got on 112.

She was out until we reached Walmart's parking lot. She woke up and was fussing again. It was only fussiness and not full blown crying so I decided to try it. I thought she may enjoy sitting in her carrier in the basket and looking around since that is kind of like riding in the stroller and she usually enjoys that. No luck, we made it through 4 items on the grocery list and then decided we were going to have to leave. I guess we will just have to try this again another day. Of course, she fell asleep on the way home and she is still sleeping now.

My very 1st Mother's Day

2010-05-09T19:40:00.003-05:00

I have had such a great first Mother's Day! I think the best part was that Neal took over Reese duty all night last night and I got to sleep from 11 to 7 and it was soooo wonderful. He woke me up at about 7 to nurse Reese and while I was doing that he made me breakfast and gave me my gift and cards. Baxter and Barkley got me a card, Reese got me a card and he got me a card...they were all so cute. He also got me diamond earrings!!! They are so pretty. The idea is that these are my first diamond earrings that I will wear until Reese is 18 and at that time I pass them on to her and I get bigger ones. I thought this was so sweet and also a special idea. For lunch we went and ate at Primo and Reese was pretty good for one of her first restaurant outings.

While I have had a great day it has also been difficult thinking about how far away I am from my family today and every other day (especially holidays and worse now that I have Reese). I wish so badly that we could quickly get there and I want my extended family to get to meet her. My Dad and Sister's still have not met her and that really kills me. I know they will in time but it is hard. Even if I could be just a few hours away as we are with Neal's family it would make it a lot easier. I LOVE living where we do but this is one part of it that I do not love.

As great of this day is for so many I feel for all of those who have either lost a child or long to have a child. I know what it is like to long to have a child and be so frustrated on Mother's Day. I cannot imagine how hard this day would be if I had lost a child.

I made it...

2010-05-05T16:47:00.007-05:00

This past weekend one of my close friends got married. She asked me to be in the wedding months ago and although I knew it would only be weeks after Reese was born I knew I wanted to do it, I was concerned about how it would go though. It ended up going perfectly.

The wedding was outdoors at this gorgeous barn just east of Fayetteville. I had to bring Reese with me to the rehearsal because it was at 5 and Neal could not get out of work early. Reese was a perfect angel. She slept through the entire rehearsal, woke up at the end and ate and went back to sleep on the car ride to the dinner and slept the remainder of the evening. The day of the wedding Neal took care of her the majority of the day as I had to get myself ready and get out to the wedding location for photos. She was a good little baby for her Daddy. Neal brought her to the ceremony and about an hour of the reception. She was so good! He brought her home after all of our friends that wanted to hold her got to and she ended up falling asleep in the car on the way home and stayed asleep until I got home and she wanted to eat.

I am so glad that I got to participate in Helen and Brett's beautiful day, it was so pretty and so much fun. Congratulations Helen and Brett!

A few photos

2010-05-02T12:46:00.006-05:00

She is not a fan of bath time.

We were both so worn out when we got home from the hospital and fell asleep on the couch.

I love her big, pouty, red lips.

Our little family, minus Baxter.

Sweet baby.

We are so in love

2010-04-22T21:11:00.004-05:00

I haven't updated the blog in a while for good reason...we have been busy with a new baby! Last time I updated the blog was a few days before we were scheduled to be induced, on Tuesday the 13th. My Mom flew in the prior Saturday so she would be there in case I went into labor early. On Sunday my Mom and I went for a long walk, hoping that it may spur on natural labor. While we were on the walk I felt what I thought could be my water leaking but was not sure. Later that day we decided to go into the hospital just to have it checked out. The hospital said that it was not amniotic fluid but as a routine they hooked me up to the monitor before releasing me. Everything was coming back normal on the monitor so they were filling out the paperwork to release me. Just as I was about to be released I went into a long contraction and Reese's heart rate dropped to a level that was not okay. All of a sudden there were 6 nurses hovered around me and they were paging the Dr. They started an IV and hooked me up to oxygen. Needless to say I was very freaked out and wondered if my baby was going to be okay. They said they needed to keep me hooked up for at least another 3 hours to make sure that did not happen again. About an hour later it did happen again and they said they were going to hold me over night to monitor me and let my Dr. decide what he wanted to do when he was there making his rounds the following morning. Later that night the on call Dr. went ahead and made the decision to induce me the following morning at 5, since it was only a day before I was scheduled to be induced anyway. Even though they gave me a sleeping pill I did not sleep very well...being 9 months and 3 weeks pregnant I had to pee every hour and to go to the restroom I had to drag an IV with me and unhook 4 cords and wear them around my neck to the bathroom and re hook myself before getting back into bed. Also, everytime I would shift they would lose Reese's heart beat and a nurse would have to come in and adjust the things on my stomach so that they could get her heart beat again.

The next morning at 5 a.m. they began pitocin in my IV to induce contractions. At 6 they gave me my epidural. By 8 I was 5 cm. dilated and 90% effaced, my Dr. came in and broke my water at that time. They decided to check me again at 10 and they said it was time to push. I could not believe it went that fast and thought they must be joking when they said it was already time to push. They spent about 30 minutes getting everything set up- they brought in so much equiptment and there were around 14 people in the room (my nurses, pediatric nurses, a nurse trainee and her instructor, some EMS trainee that had to watch one birth to complete his training, Neal, my Mom and Neal's Mom and later my Dr.). I began pushing at 10:35 and after pushing for about 15 minutes my Dr. got there and by 11:09 Reese was born! It all went so smoothly and I really never felt any pain, mild discomfort but no pain. The worst part was my heart burn.

The last 10 days of Reese's life have been amazing, tiring by amazing. She is such a precious baby that we love so much. She has her days and nights a bit confused but we are working on that. Below is a picture of our precious baby, I will post some more of our favorites later.

April 13th!

2010-04-02T06:41:00.003-05:00

My Dr scheduled to induce me on Tuesday April 13th (at 4 a.m.!) I have already scheduled to start my maternity leave on Monday April 12th since I will have to go for pre-op that day anyways. I cannot believe that in 11 days, or less, Neal and I will get to meet our child that we have been waiting and praying for for so long! I am really excited!

As of Wednesday I am now 3 cm. dilated and 80% effaced so it is very likely that she may come before the 13th. We are now just anxiously waiting!

Waiting Game

2010-03-27T22:37:00.003-05:00

I am 37 weeks today! If Reese were to come any time after today she will be considered full term. I am so relieved to have made it to 37 weeks and to know that she should be completely healthy at this point in the outside world. I know it is way too much to ask but I wish I could know when and how this whole birthing thing is going to happen. I am having a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions but nothing else to report. When I went to the Dr. last Wednesday I had no changes, still 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. He said I could have her that day or I could end up holding until my due date. He assured me that he will not let me go past my due date so he will induce me sometime around the 18th of April.

35 weeks

2010-03-18T19:43:00.005-05:00

I am 35 weeks, almost 36 weeks. The Dr checked me for the first time today. He considered waiting to start checking me until next week but was glad that he decided to today because I am 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. He will be in Europe next week for Spring break and he moved me to the top of the list of patients that may deliver while he is out. According to the ultra sound they say that she weighs about 6 lbs. 8 oz. They said that I am far enough along that she should be just fine and they will not try to stop my labor, if I do in fact go into labor. I have been having a lot of contractions the last few days but they are not painful just an extreme tightening of my belly so I assume these are just braxton hicks...hopefully I will be able to tell when they are real contractions. They sure did seem to think that I will be having her soon but I have known quite a few women who have remained 2 or 3 centimeters for a matter of weeks...we will see. He assures me that with my gestational diabetes they will not let me go a day past my due date so at least I know that we will be meeting Reese soon!

Restroom Revamp

2010-03-11T19:55:00.006-06:00

Most of our focus over the last 34 weeks has been on baby preparation but we have recently taken some time to re-do our guest bathroom. I so wish that we had taken some before photos but I do not have any. 5 years ago we thought it was a good idea to paint the bathroom bright red. Wow how our taste has changed over these years. We did this room very modern and we definitely liked how it turned out at the time but over the years we have become tired of it and have veered away from the modern style that we once really liked.

The new bathroom could not have turned out better. I am so lucky to have wonderful In-laws that volunteered to come up and paint our bathroom and laundry room for us since I am unable to paint being pregnant. This was not an easy project being that the bathroom was a deep, bright red. My Father-in-law painted the entire thing with a brush so that he could get it covered in one coat. Although he does not really like to paint I could not have picked a better person to do it since he is such a perfectionist and very handy. The plan was to take down the glued on mirror and I was going to put up two framed mirrors but he realized that they had applied so much glue that it would have really torn up the wall. So, plan B is that he has taken measurements and is building a frame to put around the glued on mirror to make it look better.

I really appreciate having so much help and could not be happier with the way that our bathroom turned out!

The most adorable big lips

2010-02-27T11:43:00.007-06:00

One of the upsides to gestational diabetes is more ultrasounds. If I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy I would most likely not have any more ultrasounds after the one that I had at 21 weeks. I have posted some photos below of the ultrasound that we had just over a week ago, at 31 weeks. Neal and I could not believe how big her lips look. I think that ultrasounds slightly distort things and this photo does not show the full extent of how large they looked. I would be thrilled if she has really full lips just like her Daddy, we found it really cute and funny.

Cute little foot:They say (at 31 weeks) she weighed 4 lbs. 7 oz., this sounds large to me. My doctor said she is weighing about 10 days large. So I may be induced early or maybe her growth will slow some, we will see. Everything checked out perfectly healthy so I am grateful for that. The ultrasound technician was kind of snippy this time...I asked her where the baby was positioned and her response was "in your uterus". Neal and I kind of looked at each other like did she really just answer that question that way. The doctor warned us that she can sometimes lack in people skills but that she is excellent at what she does. We didn't see this during the first ultrasound but caught a glimpse during this one, maybe she was just having a bad day. I responded with- is she head down, head up, sideways??? Reese is head down and in perfect position, hopefully she stays this way.

Her profile:

I will be 33 weeks tomorrow, only 7 weeks to go!!! I cannot believe we are this close and cannot wait to meet her. Being the planners that we both are we already have our bags packed and ready to go and Neal has installed the car seat. Now we just need the baby.

Reese's nursery is 95% complete...

2010-02-07T16:37:00.010-06:00

We have all of the major projects complete in the nursery. We have a few more things that we want to do but for the most part we are finished so I thought I would post a few photos!!!

Gestational Diabetes

2010-02-07T16:17:00.003-06:00

I found out last Monday that I do in fact have gestational diabetes. I have to say that I did not react to this news very well. I have been struggling with this. Selfishly I feel like I have been through enough to become pregnant and I have been poked with too many needles at this point, due to IVF, to want to think about having to do that anymore. I know in my heart that I should be so thankful that I have a healthy baby inside of me and should not be so frustrated with this but it was hard to come to terms with.

After the initial shock of finding out that this is going to be a part of my pregnancy experience I have been dealing with this much better. I have to completely trust God for the health and safety of this baby. I feel that this is just another step in learning to fully trust Him. I learned so much about trusting him in becoming pregnant and now I will just continue to trust that He has a perfect plan.

I met with a diabetic nutritionist last week and while I will not get to eat all the good things that I was looking forward to eating while pregnant (since I had a good excuse) it will cause me to eat much more healthy. I am now checking my blood sugar 4 times per day and have been managing it pretty well since I began doing this on Wednesday. I will begin being hooked up to a monitor once a week starting week 31 (I am 30 weeks today) so that they can monitor Reese's stress due to the diabetes as well as her heart beat. I think that there are other things that they will be looking for but I am unsure of what all of that is and plan to ask at my Dr.'s appointment this week. I am hoping that I will be able to continue to manage the diabetes with diet alone and will not have to begin taking insulin shots, we will see.

I am truly grateful for this pregnancy and trust that God is going to protect Reese completely!

Bedding and Bows

2010-01-06T20:19:00.011-06:00

Many people have been asking me to post photos of the bedding but I haven't had a sheet so it has not looked finished. One of the sheets that I ordered came in so I have decided to post some photos. I am so excited with how it all turned out!

I have also gotten completely carried away making her bows and tu-tus this last week. Below is her Razorback game/Christmas bow and tu-tu and a couple of other miscellaneous bows that I've made her...

Lastly, Neal also decided to use his creative brain cells and decided to take the light switch covers off of the wall, cover them in some of my left over fabric and put a clear cover on them. I think they turned out adorable and are such a cute touch!

There is still plenty to do but it is really starting to come together. I will post more once we actually have things on the walls.

Movement!!!

2010-01-01T10:47:00.003-06:00

At 24 weeks I finally have begun feeling Reese move consistently. This is such a blessing because now I have reassurance that she is doing just fine inside of me. Wednesday December 23rd was the first time that I felt something that I was pretty sure was her. However, I didn't feel anything again until Christmas morning. Christmas morning, while sitting on the couch at my in-laws house I was feeling her over and over again. Just really light taps but it was something that I had never felt before and was pretty consistent which caused me to know that it was her. I felt it again in the night that night and have felt it off an on since then. This Wednesday I worked from home and while sitting on the couch working on my laptop I felt her like crazy and could even see my stomach making the slightest contortions from the outside. Since then she has consistently been moving at least 3 or 4 different times during the day. Neal even got to feel her move yesterday. I have been waiting for months to feel this and am so excited that it is now here!

Christmas Away From Home

2009-12-30T17:27:00.014-06:00

Spending Christmas away from my family is always hard. Although this year was hard, just like any other, I was looking forward to a quieter Christmas with my In-laws. Christmas at my family is always very chaotic, loud and crazy. I usually look forward to this and always have a great time but this year I was ready for a quiet laid back Christmas. Neal and I had a great time with his family.

We didn't go down until the evening of Christmas Eve. We ended up leaving work earlier than planned due to some bad weather that was moving in. We headed to our house around noon and loaded the puppies and luckily we just missed the weather and made it to North Little Rock with no problems at all. We did dinner with Bill and Sissy Christmas Eve and the next morning opened all of our gifts. We got our camcorder which will definitely come in handy with a baby on the way. I got a food processor and a few other great things and Neal got cologne and some other good things. The one that really made out like a bandit for not even being here yet is Reese! She got some adorable clothes from her Aunts (we exchanged gifts when we were home for Thanksgiving) she also got her video monitor and some ornaments for her Christmas Tree from her Nana and Papa. Her Gigi and Pops got her a couple of sun dresses, some ornaments for her Christmas Tree, some pink slippers with cute little butterflies on them, some flowers to wear on her head, the cutest little gold ballet flats and an adorable little green stuffed monkey. I am so excited about some of the cute things that she got so I have taken some photos to share with you.

Later on Christmas day we went to Neal's Mimi and Papa's house to do Christmas lunch with the family. Neal's cousin Lori found the cutest little Shitzu that Papa and Mimi have taken in as their own that they have name Bogie. He is such a good addition to the family, he is so cute and was very sociable. Christmas night we went to see Brothers with Neal's parents, pretty heavy but a good movie.

We did a lot of shopping the day after Christmas. Reese again got a lot of new clothes. We also went out to dinner at a great steakhouse for Neal's birthday. Overall it was a great Christmas. I am very excited about Christmas with my family next year with an approximately 8 month old baby girl!!!

A growing belly

2009-12-20T14:54:00.008-06:00

We recently had another ultra sound and they confirmed that Reese will in fact be a girl. I went ahead and bought all of the fabrics for her room and dropped it all off to be made into bedding (I will posts pictures once I get it all together). This was a bit scary due to the fact that one of our friends, who was scheduled to deliver Lucy a couple of weeks ago, delivered a healthy happy baby boy even though their ultrasound confirmed that they were having a girl. I am really hoping that the two ultrasound technicians that we have had are correct in their girl predictions.

My belly is really beginning to grow faster so I thought I would update my blog with a photo!

Reese Kennedy!

2009-12-06T17:03:00.007-06:00

On November 17th we were so blessed to find out that we will be having a baby girl! I would be thrilled either way but I have to say after doing a few weeks of shopping it is going to be so much more fun to shop for a baby girl.

It was so amazing to get to see her on the ultrasound screen. In one shot we could clearly see her delicate little spine and towards the end she even stretched her tiny arms above her head, it was really cute. She has already gotten a few outfits and I have picked out all of the fabrics for her nursery. We have another ultrasound on Friday the 11th so I am waiting to buy the fabric or do too much more until they confirm one more time that she is in fact a girl.

We have decided to name her Reese Kennedy. It feels so much more real now that we know she is a girl and that we can call her by name. I find that Neal and I talk to her more often now that we can all her by name. I am now 21 weeks and I haven't felt her kick yet and I am SO ready. I want to have a way to know that she is okay. I know that everything says that you may begin to feel you baby sometime after 20 weeks and that you should not worry about it (especially with your first baby) until 26 weeks. It is hard not to worry but I trust God that she is just fine. I cannot wait to see her on the ultrasound on Friday so that I can know that she is just fine and maybe I will get to start feeling her move before then. I feel so blessed to get to experience all of this and to get to have a baby that is half me and half Neal. I was so fearful that Neal and I would not get this experience but God was faithful and I am so grateful.

So, Neal is the only chance in his family to carry on the McAllister name and we are pretty sure that we only want two children and the first one is a girl. So we know what the expectation is for baby number two. We will hope and pray for a boy the next time around but either way we will be so thrilled. Who knows if we have 2 daughters maybe one of them can convince their future husbands to take her name.

My belly is finally becoming noticeable...

2009-10-17T11:22:00.005-05:00

I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and I am just now really starting to show noticeably. I have been asked by two people at work, who did not already know, if I am pregnant. Many people that do know have been making comments lately about how evident it is starting to become that I am actually pregnant. I am so excited to be getting a tummy I just hope that I am able to work it off once the baby gets here!

Oh, look at the cute pumpkins that Neal and I carved at a party last night. Neal did the bigger one and I did the smaller one.

Weekend in Dallas with the Fam!

2009-10-17T10:54:00.009-05:00

Two weeks ago Neal and I flew to Dallas for the weekend to meet my family and I running behind on updating this blog to include the weekend. We all had a great time and it was so good to get to see my family. It was the first that most of them have gotten to see me since we found out that we are pregnant.

We got into Dallas around noon Friday afternoon and Carrie, Alex and Jacob met us there soon after. Alex managed to get us some great hotel rooms in a perfect location that may or may not have had a free snack bar but we treated it as if it was free (my family will understand what this means). After checking in we headed off to the Texas State Fair. We were only there for a couple of hours but had a great time. We got to see a stork which is a really strange looking animal. We all rode the Ferris Wheel which was a bit concerning at first because it appeared that Jacob was not going to be okay with it and was going to lose it once we got on. He ended up loving it once we were in the cage and had such a fun time. Alex and Jacob also rode an airplane ride which Jacob loved and was very upset when told it was over and he had to get off.

Chelsea met us just before dinner at the hotel and we all headed out to dinner. Our parents arrived towards the end of dinner. Saturday we all went to my Dad's twin sister's families for lunch and the entire group went to the Arkansas VS. A&M game at Texas Stadium. We all had a great time and Arkansas totally embarrassed undefeated A&M, it was great.

I had a great weekend and am so glad we got to spend some time with my wonderful family!

NYC!

2009-09-12T16:41:00.007-05:00

As long as both Neal and I can remember we have both wanted to visit New York. I am so glad that we were able to do this before we started our family because I know that travel will become less of a priority once the little one gets here. We had such a great time and got to do just about everything we ever though of doing there.

We ate great pizza, saw ground zero, went to the MOMA store, did lots of shopping, saw China town/Canal Street, went to Little Italy, ate lots of great food, saw the Statue of Liberty, did Battery Park, went to Central Park, saw Times Square, Rockefeller Center, ate at Bobby Flay's retaurant Mesa Grill, saw the Financial District and the famous bull figure, did a double decker tour of the city, got on the Letterman Show and saw the Broadway musical Rock of Ages. We were busy bees for about 4 days.

We were selected to sit in the front rows on Letterman and we saw ourselves a couple of times when we watched it last night. The guests were Michael Douglas and Leighton Miester who were both entertaining.

We luckily were able to stay at my friend Crystal's apartment for free! Her apartment is very small but the living room was the perfect size for an air mattress and it worked out great. Thanks Crystal!

Overall we had a great time in New York and are so glad we finally got to go!

Great Friends and 1 baby McAllister

2009-08-29T16:13:00.005-05:00

So, Neal and I have some really great friends. My college friends threw us a congratulations party since it has taken us so long to get pregnant and they have been rooting/praying for us the whole way. They threw a party for us last night- they cooked some great food, their kids provided great entertainment, we had a fun time visiting and catching up and they got us some of the cutest gifts. The baby got a little Razorback hat that is the smallest thing I have ever seen, a cute little blanket in Razorback colors, a cute little shirt that says "Hogs and Kisses" and I got a pregnancy calendar that I can record all of my little changes/events in for the next 40 weeks.

We also had our first ultra sound this week to determine how many babies were in there. There will be only 1 McAllister! We are thrilled, I am sure God knows exactly what we can handle and more than 1 would have been overwhelming. The doctor said that it could still split up to 8 weeks (which I find strange). I am currently 7 weeks tomorrow and we are due on April 18th. We even got to hear the heart beat which was such a blessing! We could not be happier people right now and are SO thankful for this pregnancy!

Finally Pregnant!

2009-08-23T16:58:00.005-05:00

After 3 and a 1/2 heartbreaking years of struggling with infertility Neal and I were thrilled to find out the God has blessed us with a pregnancy!!! I didn't know if I would ever get to see the plus sign on the pregnancy test, that we both so badly wanted to see, but on August 9th we finally got the plus! We didn't want to get our hopes up too high since I had so much hormone pumping through my body as part of the IVF process, that could alter the results. On August 10th I had a scheduled blood test to officially find out if the IVF process had worked. I went for my test first thing in the morning but we had to wait for the local clinic to get the results over to Tulsa Fertility Center and then TFC had to call us to deliver the results. I had a meeting that I couldn't miss at 1 and we still had not heard from the clinic. I gave Neal my phone and went on to my meeting with instruction for him to e-mail me the results if they came so that I could find out via my work blackberry. About half way through the meeting I got the e-mail from him that said "Congrats! We are pregnant!" I was fighting tears in a room full of people. I forwarded the e-mail to my boss and co-workers who were responding telling me that I should leave the meeting and go find Neal. I was in the back of the room and would have had to ask multiple people to move to get out so I decided to wait another half hour until it was over. A couple of minutes later my boss stuck her head in the meeting room, interrupted saying "Kelly, can I borrow you we have a crisis we need to take care of". I knew what she was up to and sure enough she had Neal with her. We were so excited!!!

After going through IVF twice now I don't know that I will do it again but after achieving pregnancy I have to say we both feel that it was totally worth it. We find out Wednesday how many babies we will be having and we may even get to see the heart beat (or beats). We are hoping for twins but will be so excited to have one healthy happy baby.

I am counting down the days until I get to stop all of the shots and medicines but I know it is all being done for the health of the baby/ies since my body does not know to produce what it needs to on its own. It has been a long and frustrating journey to get to where we are but we could not be more thrilled!