Meeting Emmalee

Completing Reese's 11 month post took me forever due to some internet difficulties last weekend so I didn't get the chance to tell y'all what else we did. So after we (HE) let Reese fall off the bed we took her to get her first sugar high eating cake. And I know I already told y'all about the pictures, but really they are so cute. I can't wait to show y'all. If I don't stop talking about it I might overrule my own rule and post a little preview picture.

So anyway, our friends LaRae and Kyle had baby #2 and we went to see them. And now thanks to LaRae everybody is going to start expecting the rest of us to have a second baby and, really, that is just more pressure than I can stand. Just as everybody expected Emmalee is just as precious as her big sister Anna Kate. While we were there Reese fell in love with Anna Kate's princess couch. She sat there forever chewing on the Starburst that we brought for AK. (Because what kind of people go to meet the new baby sister without bringing goods for the big sister? No us. We are unapologetic suck ups to the babies in our lives.) Reese also really liked Emmalee and wanted to pull her hair.

Since we were so close to Auburn we decided to go and have dinner and do a little shopping. I love Auburn and not just because of football. Actually it has very little to do with football. Mostly I love it because that's where Adam and I were just a couple of crazy, young, and most importantly, thin kids in love. Adam likes to go there because we ride around and look at all the ways things have changed since we left and he reminds me of every place he worked fires and car wrecks while in the fire department. It is entertainment at its finest. And honestly if our baby girl doesn't want to go to school there one day I will be devastated. That's why I'm going to do my best to brainwash her while she's young.

Otherwise my life consist of 1 thing right now...birthday party planning.

11 Months Old- Record Day

At 11 months she:





Weighs: 21lbs



Height:27 inches

After 11 months she finally realized when I would stick the stickers on her shirt. She would not leave it alone.

Drinks only from a cup which was way easier than I had expected it to be.

She got her pictures made this morning (which I really want to show y'all, but I have to wait till the big birthday week) and she was NOT in a good mood. We are fairly sure she is cutting another tooth. Some how MeeMaw got this one of her smiling.

She shakes her head no anytime she doesn't want us to pick her up, or when she doesn't want to eat. If she is sleepy and we go toward her room she will shake it no. So cute.

I wasn't going to tell this until I could show the pictures, but we let her eat a cake for the pictures and she was only slightly impressed by real sugar. Seeing that gave my heart hope that she isn't going to be a junk food junky after all.

Can things I say on the blog be used against me in a court of law? If so I am about to self incriminate. Reese got to help her daddy drive to day care one day this week because her brilliant momma took the car seat with her. (Disclaimer: Before you go marking us off of your babysitter list for letting our 11 month old drive to day care they were on the dirt road (so redneck) the whole way and they didn't meet any other cars if that makes it any better. Which honestly, I think we've gotten a little up tight as a society. I spent my childhood doing the same thing around the same dirt road and no one thought anything of it. Starting at a young age has got to be why my driving skill far exceed her daddy's.) To ensure that doesn't happen again we went ahead and bought a convertible car seat yesterday for Adam to keep in his truck. And just like when her daddy was little and got a new pair of shoes he had to wear them out of the store she just had to ride in her new seat on the way home.

The verdict came back on the car seat....she thinks it's a mini Lay-Z-Boy.


(Please notice how she is hanging on to the cup holders with both hands. That was because her daddy was driving and things get scary when he's our pilot.)

She will tolerate baby food and even some real food, but loves puffs and Parents Choice Munchies in any flavor. I tried to give her potatoes and cinnamon rolls and she shakes her head no after 2 bites.

Gives the sweetest love! On demand she will "give love" which usually means putting her head on your shoulder and patting your back. Sometimes, if we're lucky, she will kiss us but she got tired of doing that after the 89th time we asked her to "give us sugar".

We went outside to eat watermelon this week and she loved it!

She usually has to watch her daddy cut the grass from the porch, but Friday she got to help. (If she can drive a car she can sure drive the lawn mower.)

Getting into our routine has been rough this week. She has needed a nap several afternoons.

After a couple month hiatus she is back in love with her Bumbo seat. She likes to climb on it and talk on the phone and read her books.

Besides getting to eat sugar for th first time today and getting a big girl car seat we also had another first today. She fell off of our bed this morning. I'm not going to say who let her fall off because I don't want HIM to feel bad about it. And since we got a king size the fall was farther than it would have been a few months ago. It was an ugly fall, but she recovered in a few minutes.

Dave Ramsey would be proud

I would like to thank all of you that advised me on the splinter issue. This weekend we will be going to the pool to soak the toe. If that method doesn't work we will move on to other recommendations. I'll keep you posted.

There is something that has been going on in our personal life that I have been reluctant to discuss. It has been on my heart to share it with y'all, but I kept putting it off out of fear. Fear that y'all will once and for all know just how crazy I am. Fear that y'all will try to have me committed. Fear that I will forever bear the cross of being labeled with OCD. And fear that y'all will wonder why my sweet A-master ever wanted to marry me.

Now before I even type it out for the whole world to see let me go ahead and say that I am not trying to push my lifestyle on anyone. You ladies are free to run your kitchen in any way that you see fit. However, I just want y'all to know the great thing know as a monthly meal planner that has happened at our house.

Here's the situation. As my parents will be quick to tell you I've never been one to love living on a budget. When we got married the one thing that shocked me the most was the grocery bill every month. I consider the grocery bill anything that is purchased at Wal Mart. Or The Wal Mart if you want to really sound southern. Things such as shampoo, soap... I laughed in his face when Adam said he thought that roughly $50 a month should cover all of our needs. So, as I have mentioned, we did a little Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University in our Sunday School class. When we started adding up what we spent in groceries and eating out every month I had to sit down to keep from blacking out.

Let me go ahead right here and confess my love of eating out. I would eat out 3 meals a day if I could. It's not so much that I don't want to cook, but something about handling raw poultry and or meat products takes away from the dinning experience. Do you agree?

So anyway I decided that for the month of August we would follow a meal plan that I had made out. The main point was to go to The Wal Mart one time for the whole month. We agreed to only go to the grocery store to pick up bread or milk throughout the month. We dedicated ourselves to try it out for one month and see the difference in our grocery bill. We also agree to cut back on eating out. Adam wanted to only allow going out to eat 1 time. But I asked him why he wanted to put us in marital counseling over our grocery bill?

Here is the monthly meal plan. I made a categorized grocery list in order to buy everything that was needed for each meal. (Which by the way reminded me so much of my childhood. My momma went grocery shopping once a month. And hear me when I say that that buggy was rounded off with food.) Here are a few things on the menu: chicken spaghetti, hamburgers, tacos, pizza, lasagna, breakfast for dinner, and sandwiches. Clearly we are delicate eaters.



At the beginning of the 4th week the menu starts over. As you might (or might not) have noticed I didn't plan meals on the weekends. That's because I had high hopes of going to eat mexican, fried chicken salads, and Firehouse subs. So far none of the sort has occurred. (But I do have a birthday coming up and I have my heart set on going somewhere fancy like Arbys.)

So far we have stuck to the plan. If we don't wants what's on the menu for the night we will swap it with another night.

And you know what? I love it. It gives my brain a break throughout the day. I look at the menu in the morning and then I don't have beg Adam to tell me what he wants me to cook. It has simplified my life immeasurably. Ido understand that this is a little too predictable/boring for some of you and I don't want to be pushy, but if any of you decide to try it (or if you already implement this method) let me know what y'all eat. I am going to need to add a little variation to the plan or I'll be tempted to stop by Subway on my way home.

And I'll leave you with this picture. It takes a true southern lady to eat watermelon with this kind of grace.

P.S. I cheated the meal plan system and stopped by the Pig today and got this watermelon. Don't hold it aganist me.

A thorn in my side

Well actually it's a splinter in Reese's big toe and another one in her heel. If any of you have suggestions as to how to remove splinters from a baby's foot please leave specific directions in the comments.

P.S. Please refrain from comments such as, "my cousins best friends little girl has a splinter in her foot and they didn't get it out and it set up an infection and her toe fell off." I can go to places of fear right by myself. Thank you very much.

I can't determine exactly where the splinter came from, but it's highly likely that it came from MeeMaw and PeePaw's porch. Or I heard a rumor that she ate a huge handful of dirt at daycare on Tuesday which leads me to believe that she was outside which sets up the potential scenario of getting the splinter. I'll never know, and really, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it must come out. It is slightly reder (is "reder" a word? I am leaning toward no. ) than the rest of her toe. And I don't really know why that matters but Dr. A-master pointed that out as if it was of importance. Therefore, if you've been down this road with your baby, or anybody else baby it is imperative that I hear from you.

On another, less dramatic note, school is 3 days in and I must give a report. Cutting out a 2 hour commute everyday is nothing less than LIFE CHANGING! If you've ever driven an hour one way to work then you know what I mean. It's almost like I don't go to work at all. Except I do. Does that make sense? Probably not. Just know that I am loving it. (It is so worth the risk of not having a job next year. Remind me I said that in May.) On the other hand (no pun intended) my fingertips are so sore from opening lockers all day. You might not think it but pulling up on the handles does a number to your digits. It concerns me for the future of our country that these kids don't know which way right is when I am explaining how to work the combination. But then again it might or might not have been sometime during the 8th grade before I was confident which was right was.

A new year and a picky baby

School hasn't even started and I am exhausted. The last 2 nights I have been wide awake at 2am with a list of things I have to do running through my head. That list kept running and running until somewhere around 5am.


I had big plans of showing y'all some pictures of my classroom, but it ain't happenin' tonight. Mainly because it would require the effort of me going and getting my camera. Honestly, I am not sure I would make it back to the bed. Maybe one day next week.


I will say that there is nothing like the feeling of going back and teaching with the people who taught you. Every time I walk in the building I feel like I am 17 again and about to start my senior year. And Lord knows that was a time in life that I knew it all. What I'd give to feel that way again.



I have loved every minute of being at LHS this week. Granted the kids haven't come back yet. This time next week I may be singing a different song. Here's the thing. For the past 3 years I have taught 10th and 11th graders. In my opinion the older the better. This year I will be teaching 7th and 8th graders. When they came in open house today and I had to look down at them I knew I was in for a LOT of change this year. They are just little babies. But the beauty of it all is that they are little babies 10 minutes down the road as opposed to big babies an hour away. It's a beautiful thing.

I didn't really mean for this to happen, but we are without bottle now. Two weeks ago (or last week I honestly can't remember at this moment.) I tested her out for a day without the bottle. I thought it was going to be a tramatic experience. She never missed it. And I'll tell you what I won't miss....



This mess sitting out on the counter. I also won't miss washing the 16 different parts that are included with the Dr. Brown bottles. From a marketing stand point I can't believe people buy these things. Sometimes I would even have to get out q-tips to clean the straw that goes down the middle. Our next major obstical is the binky. Reese E Cup LOVES her binky. She only uses it at night, but it is a requirement for going to sleep and staying asleep. I should have taken it away while I was home this summer, but I was busy (doing what I don't exactly know. But just be sure to know that I was a busy lady.)

We've been getting ready for football season around here. The first day that it drops below 85 degrees my fall decor is coming out and we're having chicken chilli for supper. I can't wait.


I can't imagine where she gets this from, but our girl is PICKY. She refuses to eat her baby food, but loves all the baby junk foods like Puffs. See for yourself.

She got some bling

Oh me. I don't even know what to say. Other than I was a nervous wreck. Last night we went to eat with our peeps, Adam and Adrianne, and then we headed over to the mall to....drum roll please....pierce our girls ears. Up until the moment they pulled the trigger I wasn't sure I was going to go through with it.

Adrianne played photographer and I owe her because if not for her we would have no pictures. Mainly because this momma was slightly unnerved.

Here I am signing off that we wouldn't sue if something went wrong. Over dinner I had already been pondering how I would live with myself if she got some type of infection and her ear fell off or something else of equal horror value. I obviously wasn't that worried about it because we went through with it. We meaning me because her daddy wasn't completely on board. (I think he was hesitant so that on the off chance that something did go wrong he could point the finger at me.)

I wanted to go ahead and get this over now because if she has an ounce of her momma in her she will have a zero pain tolerance later in life.

She wasn't happy about them trying to hold her head still. But she was much more tolerant once the bottle came out which was all I had in my arsenal. (Getting a bottle in the middle of the afternoon is a treat these days because since Monday she has only gotten a bottle at naptime/bedtime. Otherwise we are all about the sippy cup.)

Once everything was ready it all happened so fast that I almost missed it.

And it was over just like that.

She cried for about 2 minutes and then she was a happy girl again. With beautifully pierced ears.

After it was all said and done they told me the post piercing procedure: turn and clean with solution 3 times a day for 6 weeks. In other words if you need me anytime in the next 6 weeks there is a better than average chance I'll be overseeing her ear maintenance.

If there's ever a next time

In the unlikely event that we ever add to our family I would like to be able to look back at this and remind myself of a few things:

It isn't necessary to have a come apart after rocking her for an hour, finally getting her to sleep, laying her down, and hearing a massive explosion in her diaper. She'll go back to sleep. Eventually.


Don't watch the scale for 9 months. It isn't worth it. Instead go eat a brownie. It's a better use of time.


Don't panic when delivery is 2 weeks away and there is no coming home outfit.

Don't feel guilty for sitting and holding her (yes, I am referring to our potential next child as a girl because I feel destined to raise a house full of them. Which I am sure will give my momma a great deal of pleasure to see me pay for my raisin') all day everyday during maternity leave.


Don't freak out when unexpected visitors stop by and the house isn't perfectly clean.

Expect unexpected visitors.

Sleep with a night light on just to see her face and don't be ashamed to admit it. Even after 3 months and the bulb blew and had to be replaced.

Those up-all-night nights are fleeting (no matter what that voice in your head tells you at 3 a.m.).

Even if it means no pain medication do not let the same guy administer the epidural. That is an experience I will never forget no matter how much time passes.

When a tooth seems to be coming through and she also has symptoms of a cold don't go to the doctor. They won't do anything for you. And it could result in a tramatic leg experience.

Don't panic if she puts a dead worm in her mouth.

Once the cry it out method is in action don't feel too bad about her crying for an extended time because it's the best thing for everybody.

I think the record shows how much I love and adore our girl. And although labor an delivery was an amazing experience I don't plan on doing it with any frequency. But I do feel obligated to give her a sibling (one day a long time from now). That feeling of obligation might or might not be attributed to BFF Steph pressuring me to have a big family.


These are a couple of random pictures I had on my phone that I wanted to share.

After a long day at the pool all she had to show for it was pruned piggies.



Since she became mobile she a busy little girl. Lately if she gets quiet she is usally resting her head on the floor. This is a good sign that a nap is in the near future.


Tomorrow is our last fun filled day of summer nothingness. Sigh. It has been SO much fun. And although I am thankful to have a job I am going to miss her so much next week! I am going to let myself believe that she is going to miss me too.