1 Year Pics!

It's crazy that a year has already flown by! I look at newborn pics of Caylee and she looks so completely different.... it's the hair, it's changed so much since she was born!  Anyways, we were down in Texas and Sherry takes some really nice pictures, so we headed up to A&M campus and got some great shots.  I love that you can see her two front teeth with their little gap in these pics too.  It was a little windy out and her hair is crazy anyways, but it totally fits her personality.  ENJOY!
 
 
We asked her to stick out her tongue... she's very good at this "trick" :) 

 
Love this one! This is one I will blow up for sure... That is a very typical happy smile for her, show's who Caylee is perfectly.   

 
So sweet :)

Not sure what we are doing... I think Melanie and I were trying so hard to make her smile she was just curious at our sounds!

 
Blankets are a challenge because she wants to crawl off and roll over, but this was a cute shot.

Love how straight she's sitting!  She's already meant for A&M bc she said "hi" to everyone on campus, just need to teach her "howdy" and she'll fit right in. 

Don't you love the building in the back?  So pretty!

 
At the MSC fountain, this spot did not work, there were too many leaves and the water was a HUGE distraction. 

 
Of course, one with Melanie... who reminded her everyday, "I'm your favorite" :)  So fun!

TEXAS!

Finally getting around to posting about our Texas trip!  I had a MASSIVE migraine all weekend and it's finally starting to go away a little. 

Anyways, we were in Texas from 10/4-10/10.  We had a BLAST!  I love it because of the friends I get to see and the break I get... they love spoiling/playing with Caylee and I love relaxing/napping :)  Of course we stayed with our sweet friends/ extended family the Maggard's.  They treated us all week to everything we don't have.... Whataburger, Blue Bell, Wings N More, Target and of course them!! We also saw some other friends while we were there and had fun with everyone we could see in a few short days!

I mentioned in the last post that when we flew down there, Caylee had an ear infection.  Poor thing.  That made for a rough first day, but then the medicine seemed to make her a little happier.  (Once we switched meds- she was allergic to the first stuff!)  She was super friendly (I always worry a little about her reactions to others bc 24 hrs a day she is with me, rarely is she in anyone else's care).  However, she LOVED Sherry, David and Melanie--it was so fun to see her say "hi" to them and smile everytime they came through the door or around the corner, she really loved seeing them so much!
... and she really LOVED Lucy, Melanie's puppy... unfortunately, Lucy weighs a lot less than our dogs and is not as durable, so she kept her distance from Caylee (smart dog). 

Lucy is the perfect size for Caylee though...

 But unfortunately, Caylee's version of "gentle" is not the same as Lucy's... as she slams her head down....

 
The weather in Texas was perfect.  They had a "cold" front come through while we were there.  It did get chilly, but it was about what we've been experiencing in Ohio.  However, it quickly warmed back up into the 80s and Caylee got to spend a few evenings walking up and down the driveway.


David and Sherry took turns taking her to get the mail and the paper and whatever else they could find outside.  She loves being outside! Plus, they have 3 other outside dogs that she liked to "talk" to. 

 She'll go anywhere with a push toy!  She figured out how to make a circle from the kitchen to the living room inside too...  she's happy walking around that's for sure!

We are so close to Caylee's 1st birthday, that Sherry was sweet enough to get some friends together and had a birthday party for Caylee! 


Opening presents, Reed is helping her, but she is not super interested!

 Not sure what the other kids are doing, but she was about to go take that walking toy away... (She'll learn to share when Micah comes!)

 Reed is showing her his card for her....

 LOVED the strawberry cupcakes and icing...

 Her friends.... Calli, Caylee, Faith and Reed... We were SO thrilled y'all came!

We love you! Thanks for the wonderful week and birthday!!!

The next post will be of Caylee's 1 yr pics... they are FANTASTIC, Sherry took them at A&M campus of course :)  That about wraps up our trip.  The next time I go back I'll have 2 with me!  Crazy to think that... they will certainly have their hands full next time :)  See y'all soon!

Airport Travel with an Infant

We just got home from our week trip to Texas!  We had a blast as always and I have other posts that will have tons of great pics and all the things we did... but this post is about traveling with an infant (and being 22 weeks pregnant), definitely not the easiest combination, but so worth it to see friends!

This trip marks Caylee's 4th airplane trip.  We (Caylee and I) have been twice to FL, and now twice to TX.  She is REALLY good and I am REALLY lucky! 

Going Down.....

We flew out of Columbus and had a direct flight to Houston.  From there the plan was to jump a quick plane to College Station.  That didn't exactly work out bc the plane to CS was over an hour delayed! Oh well, I bought some frozen yogurt and Caylee and I shared that.  The ride from Columbus to Houston was about 2 1/2-3 hrs long.  That's a LONG flight for a child who doesn't realize we have to stay in our seats.  She was less than happy... part of that was the fact that 2 hours before our flight I found out she had an ear infection! Our first sickness!  I felt really bad, but the doctor said she was fine to travel and even to give her benedryl and tylenol to sleep.  Well, 2 doses of each later and she was still NOT asleep.  Poor thing.  However, in the airport she did AMAZING!


She loved walking around with her stroller... we did that for about an hour!  She would walk and say hi to people too, very sweet.  (Yes, just socks, no shoes... I didn't want to lose too much!)

 Looking out the window was great.  She saw he people and the planes and seemed to enjoy that.

 Picnic lunch in the airport... she wasn't super hungry because she didn't feel well, but we had our lunchables prepared!

 On the plane.  We tore up 3 SkyMall's on that flight... thank goodness they are free!  We were also SO lucky that the gate agent gave us a seat with no one next to us, that worked so much better than her sitting with me the whole time.  Kids can fly free until they are 2, but sometimes the money for an extra seat might be worth it... this flight would have been worth it, but we were fortunate anyways! (Always be nice to the gate agents and ask kindly, they can do A LOT for you!)

Coming Home...

Caylee felt much better coming home and I imagined a quick and easy day.  However, it turned into 8 hours at the airport waiting for a standby flight (not anyone's fault, just the chance you take on a buddy pass, so I didn't mind) and then a 3 hour flight and a 2 hour drive home. That's a 13 hour day if you're counting!  Caylee was AMAZING.  I met some very sweet people too.  One lady offered to buy me food bc Caylee was playing so nicely that she didn't want me to have to get her up and go get food.  That was really sweet, but I turned her down of course.  By God's grace (bc no one else could have made this happen), Caylee slept in the stroller for an hour and 20 minutes!  I have no idea how that happened.  I had brought snacks and meals for Caylee, so I picked up a bagel for myself and we were good to go.  She had a blast playing with her little purse that I brought and spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to put the keys inside it (never could figure it out, but it was cute!).  On the plane (this time we just flew from Houston Columbus and skipped the CS flight),she actually looked through the Skymall to find the dog pictures.  Then she said hi to the guy next to us and his wife (A LOT of "hi's")... finally, an hour and a half into the flight she fell asleep!  AMAZING...

Playing with her purse...

Overall I learned:
1 Every flight is different so be prepared!
2 Pack plenty of food and snacks
3 Bring suckers and other candy for the very desperate situations (like Caylee not sucking anything and her ears popping, sucker worked great!) 
   **Sidenote:  No Caylee does not get candy at all, so this was very rare, but very necessary. 
4 Be super nice to gate agents bc they can really help you out!
5 Let kids play on the floor (yes, it's super dirty, but they can't be confined for that long and you can wash everything later- Just wipe hands before eating)
6 People are generally nice and will help you if you ask for it!
7 Trips are so worth the travel!!! (I will learn to do it with 2 kids too! It's good for them AND me!)

Pumpkin Patch!

Sooo many pictures, so I'll explain as I go....

Today we headed out to Suter Farms.  It's about 35 minutes from where we are (maybe 40), and they had a corn maze and hayride where you pick your own pumpkins!  It sounded like fun online, so we had to check it out...


They had a Corn Box.... this is a large wagon FULL of corn kernels, like a sand box... it was AMAZING! Caylee loved it! 

On the hayride, she was trying to look over.. she really enjoyed picking at the straw too. 

The hayride took us back into some woods.  They had different types of trees labeled (for those that want to know what type of tree they are looking at), AND our guide stopped and did hand-puppets for us.  He had various animals and told what they did and stuff.... very cute idea!

Finally, the ride dropped us in the pumpkin field to pick our own pumpkins! I have never picked my own pumpkin and it was sooo fun.  Matt and I were picky, the one on the left ended up going with us!  Isn't it perfectly large, round, orange and has a great stem!?!?

Check out ALL the pumpkins!  We were glad we went early in the season, there were plenty of good ones left.  We bought 3 small gourds for Caylee to play with too. 

Hayride back to the farm with our pumpkin!

They had a large corn cob made with some sort of plastic jugs... neat idea!

We were really glad we chose to skip the maze.  It would have been really boring for Caylee at this young age, plus all the other stuff they had for little kids kept us entertained for 2 hrs!

See how tall the corn cob was?!?

 

 

They had several rocking horses and bouncing horses out for young kids too.... 

Back in the Corn Box... she was serious about playing in here and had a really really good time...

 Standing near the corn maze to show how tall the corn is... (Matt is 6ft, so you get the idea!)

And finally, some great pics in the pumpkin wagon....  I wish she'd look directly at the camera, but what can you expect from an 11 month old! We were happy we got her to stay in the wagon for a short time...

Closest I came to her looking at the camera, she is still looking off in the distance at others...

That was our awesome trip to Suter Farms!  They also had fresh apples and apple cider, we skipped out on that because it was getting late, but next time.  This will definitely be a Fall tradition for us, we all had such a great time! 

11 Months!

Wow... almost 1 year old, Caylee is growing so fast!  This month she has mastered walking around with things... anything, a toy, a box, the dogs, my hands.  She has also begun taking steps on her own without help.  Sometimes I don't even think she realizes she is walking fine, until I say "good job!" and then she falls.  So close to walking completely on her own...

She has also learned the sign for "more"... apparently, I never feed her enough so she is constantly doing the sign.  For other things, like milk and her pacifier, she uses real words (well, others probably couldn't understand her, but I can.  As for food, she eats anything and everything.  She is such a good eater!  If I put it on her plate she will usually eat it, it might take a few "test" bites, but she does really well.  It's nice having her eat so much, helps me eat healthier too!

Every morning she loves seeing her dogs.  And thankfully, her mornings are not starting until 7 or later!  That's a huge change from her waking up at about 6:30 and me making her wait until 7.  Today she slept til 8!!  The bedtime process begins at 7:30 and she is usually asleep by 8, so almost a full 12 hours of sleeping.  This means, we have just about dropped the morning nap, but she still takes a 1-2 hr afternoon nap (2 hrs means she'll be a lot happier until bedtime, 1 hr is not great news for me).  She seems a little young to drop the morning nap, but if we run errands and she falls asleep for 10-15 min on the way she is just fine!  (If she wakes early, or at 7, I still do a morning nap).   

She's in her 12 month clothes, which is good, because most of them are fall/winter clothes and it's getting cold here.  We go to the park quite a bit.  She likes to play with the mulch and swing, but she prefers pushing her stroller around the entire time. 

It's crazy to think she is 11 months, but she's doing so great and I'm so proud of the accomplishments I see in her.  I love watching her figure things out and master new tasks.  This is a great age and it just keeps getting better :)


Pretty girl!  Watching her dogs outside before church one morning...

Signing "more".. we had just had breakfast, guess she wasn't quite done, but she had a lot!

Getting her stroller ready to push

 So fun!

Eating lunch... yes, the socks are a mess bc I don't put shoes on her... I just forget, but I need to try to remember bc the mulch stuck to her socks!

A little blurry, but I love seeing her top teeth come through with their little gap! :)

 

Happy 11 Months Caylee Ann!