She is a YEAR OLD!!!

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Well here we are...a year later. I cannot believe it!! How has it been a year? I still am in awe.

Well our little one had an eventful birthday. Not exactly what he had planned but we made it special. The week of Sophie's birthday, she came down with a very high fever. 103 with Tylenol and Ibuprofen on board. She was so sick. We went to the Dr. They said her throat looked bad and had exudate on it. They did a rapid strep and a culture. They both returned negative. Three days later she was some better but still struggling. I had to go back to work. I felt terrible leaving. She cried so much when I walked out of the door. I asked My mom to take her back to the Dr and do another strep test. It came back positive this time. So she was put on antibiotics this time. Needless to say she wasn't up for having the party. I think Gray and I were more sad than she was. That's life though, right?

We had a few small parties with family, which she seemed to enjoy very much. Her actual birthday day was filled with sweets,, presents, and lots of love!!! Gray was so sad he had to work, but left specific instructions~ Spoil her rotten!! We spent the whole week doing just that!!!


Thanksgiving and continuing birthday celebration was spent in Myrtle Beach with my family. We had a great time. Sophie decided that she really loves cool whip, a favorite shared with her great grandmother Mary, also her namesake.

She is feeling so much better and Gray and I are so happy. We are finally catching up on some much needed rest. ;)

We are so happy that the Holidays are coming up. Excited to spend it together and with our family. We are sad Catherine, gray's sister cant come with her little girl to be.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Hugs to ALL!!!!!

Fall baby~ Upcoming holidays!

Wow!!! Where has October gone?? It seems like I was just saying that I was sad about summer's end and now Christmas!!

Sophie has been a MESS!! She has been so active!! Dancing~to everything, crawling, almost walking, and getting sick :(. In the past month she has been sick twice!! With teething in between...seems like she can't get a break! She has 6 teeth now. What a BEAUTY! The last "bug" she has had has been accompanied by HIGH fevers...cool bath fevers. Poor baby has hung in there like a champ. She is tough!! Just like her mama, who did not yell one time during labor (applause here).

It has been such a busy time for us all. The last few weeks I have been working nights!! I despise this, but sometimes we have to take one for the team. So Gray, being the AMAZING dad that he is, has done it all by himself, with help from GIGI during the day... so mama can sleep. Thank the Lord only 2 days a week!! YAY Benefits!

Poodles (what we are calling her this week), was a BEE for halloween. The cutest Bumble bee ever. SHe loved trick or treating and got so much candy. We let her have NONE of it!! Poor baby..so deprived.

On my soapbox now..Please watch what your children eat. Try organic...if nothing else, Dairy and meat. There are too many illnesses that I have seen in my profession that I truly feel are DIRECTLY related to food mass production. Digusting Tradgedies...THAT CAN BE PREVENTED!!!

We are excited about this cooler weather, christmas lights, family time and togetherness, yummy food, our baby NEICE, and the holidays. We could not be more blessed. No matter how tough it is. It could be worse~ I have seen it worse!!! Lets count all of our HUNDREDS of blessings! Welcome the Holidays and the upcoming months with arms and eyes wide open, hearts warm, and full of love. Thats the biggest gift of all!!! Gray, Soph, and I wish everyone a awesome begining of November!! Spread the LOVE!!!

Sweet Sophia!!!

Puppy~ aka "the bald sideshow"

afternoon walk with gigi, and puppy

Kindermusik!

All by myself!!
At the pumpkin patch!!!

Attempt at a birthday present!! Not so much!

I am the cutest!!


Watching the BMX stunt show!!

Mama and soph at the Mum Fest!

Our sweet baby girl is one busy Philly! Gray calls her the "mackerel". He says when he dresses her its is like trying to dress the King mackerel fish that he just reeled in on the boat! This usually makes us laugh, and takes away the frustration of it taking us 20 min to dress her as a team...sometimes 30 on our own. She had a cold this past week which was pitiful. Gray said that even the snot that runs out of her cute baby nose is perfect!! I would have to agree. We went to the Mum Fest in New Bern. She loved the BMX stunt show, all the different people, and the music!! She danced for about 2 hours. Even with her baby cold!
She loooves our new Kindermusik class. It's every week and gives her a chance to be with other babies and be cute, which seems to come very natural. We are a touch more exhausted at the end of the day, her crawling is getting faster and faster! As always, we think this is our favorite stage, just as every other stage has been! We feel so blessed everyday. We are able to provide for our baby, ourselves, and can't complain in the least!! All in all we are so in love with our baby, and each other!! Life is very very peaceful, loving, and we are excited about every new day!! LET LOVE RULE!!! No room for hate!!!
Stay tuned amigos!!!!

The past week~ end of september

Bruise on my forehead from crawling! :(

I am a big crawling girl!!

I have already composed many musical masterpieces~

This week our little sweetie did so may things! We can barely keep up. She started crawling, said "mama" and started to "pull up". She is growing up so fast! I got a little tearful that my little "baby" is almost a toddler! Man, where has the time gone?? We are so excited for some cooler weather, lots of outside time, dressing up for halloween, fun upcoming festivals, and the Holidays! What an exciting time for all of us!! I love watching Sophie learn, it makes me appreciate new things all over again. We love you so much Princess SOPHIA, more than words can even describe. More than you can imagine!

She's trying!

Yoga time!

yummy cheesy!

After yogurt and some yummy waffles

She is trying so hard to crawl. She spends most of her day in the downward dog postion, thinking hard about it!! She looks so cute every morning waking up with her hair straight up in the air. We like to call her alfalfa when she looks like that..that is a word that amuses her anyway so it works.

9 months!!!

What an amazing time!! Our little sweetie is 9 months old! She is trying to crawl, has 4 teeth and brings us such joy everyday. We had a wonderful summer, many trips to see family. Tons of beach time and yummy new foods that she got to try and loved. She refuses to eat baby food so we just let her eat what we are eating... Only Organic of course! :) She got her first "goose egg" on her head trying to crawl. My mama says she isn't crawling cause she doesn't have to move, that I bring everything to her! So of course I let her do her own thing, then, BONK!!! She had a big bruise on her sweet baby head.

Sophia,( is what we are calling her now) is getting very artistic. She made a very nice finger painting in her bed when she was suppose to be sleeping, with her own poo poo! Needless to say she was proud, and I spent half the day cleaning it up. We are starting Kindermusik and swimming baby fun this week. She should love being around so many other energetic babies. We are working on being nice. She still doesn't understand that when you pull other's hair and try to rip their face off, it hurts! She also says dada, when she sees Gray, which melts his heart. Waiting for her to say mama. Instead she looks at me and giggles. which will due for now! She likes to dance to music, and tries to sing along. We KNOW she will have a angelic voice. It runs in the family! She is always happy, she only cries when tired or hungry. What a gift to us. He favorite thing to do is walks with mama, and dada. Or anything with all of us together, seeing her happy makes everything so worthwhile.

We are looking forward to having another little cousin! Catherine, Gray's sister, is due in March. Although she lives in California, we are hoping that we will see more of them when little Baby J is in the world.

We are looking forward to this holiday season more than ever! Sophie will be mobile, learning and curious. We will try to teach her that Christmas is about love and giving, not only Santa and getting gifts. We want her to understand the significance of that special day, the day that Jesus was born and what it meant for all of humanity, and her. I'm sure she wont quite get that yet!! However, we will spend our days joyful, full of love, and peace. We will also be praising God for this gift, our magnificent sweet girl, who changed, shaped and completed our lives. For all his gifts, we are amazingly grateful. We live in a place where we always have food, a roof over our head, modern medicine, warmth, clothes, love~ Yes corny, but very, over abundantly true.

We are excited for every new day. I am keeping up with our Sophie blog now so hopefully will keep more up to date!