LJ's first thanksgiving

I don't have much to say about his holiday other than it was just fabulous. I LOVED being able to spend time with my lil' family and my big ole' family in Denison. I got lots of rest and ate lots of food. Perfect. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

LJ and her turkey outfit. SO CUTE!

I may have punched Cade and told him to smile.. this is what I got. Ha. 

Looking at black Friday ad's. Yes, we do 'that'. 

Momma!

Doober. :)

Great Grandpa, Lyla, and Thea

LJ

Nom, nom, nom. 

Mom playing with LJ. Check out that bald spot. Geez. Haha

Grandma and Megan

Dad and Megan

The cousin's, my aunt and my grandma

We did lots of this over the holidays. :)

Pissed. Ha. 

Our tree. Almost done decorating! I love it!

Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. 4 WEEKS TILL CHRISTMAS BREAK! YESSSSSS!

-Amanda 

4 Month's Old

Holy CRAP. I don't think I will ever be able to write a post about how much you've grown without beginning it with a shocking phrase. You are forever changing.

You, beautiful baby girl, are 16 weeks old. And by God, you have earned every single day. You are weighing close to or right at 15 lbs. Obviously, you are starving. You go down for the night at 7:30. We wake you up and feed you at 10 and you sleep until about 6:00. So far, we are SO thankful for your sleep schedule.

You are becoming your own little person. Now, you smile at strangers, you big ole' flirt. You are a sweetie-pie and I personally CANNOT get enough of you. Your little cheeks run my life. Ha!

You were taking an 8 oz bottle and your ped. was like WHOA monster and we backed you off to 7 - 7 1/2 oz now. I have a feeling you'll be REALLY happy to able to start eating more than just milk in the near future. :) You eat 6 times a day.

Last week you rolled over from your belly to your back! The day before thanksgiving you rolled from your back to your belly. Whenever you get extra pissed at night you flip yourself onto your stomach and get REALLY mad about it. Oh well. You'll figure it out punkie. :)

You got a cold about 3 weeks ago so you've been sleeping in our room in your pack and play because you would wake up frequently. Plus, your mom is a big ole' pansy and likes having you right by the bed! You are back in your crib as of yesterday. Your bedroom feels like it's 100 miles away at night.

You are getting better at playing. You really LOVE this giant octopus that rides with your in your car seat. You and that thing are besties. You chew on it's legs... gross. I still love you. No judgement here. You just recently started hanging out in your exersaucer. You get pissed at the toys on it because they only play music when you smack it and you've not figured that out yet. Haha. It's like your cussing them until I come in a restart the music. Then your good.

I am looking forward to your milestones like being able to sit up on your own and recognizing me when I pick you up from daycare. Which, by the way, is NOT getting easier. Either way, you are beautiful. We love you. Until next time!! :)

Melting my heart. I mean good Lord. That face. 

- Amanda 

I am a THANKFUL woman.

I spend WEEKS talking with my 3rd graders about being thankful and trying to get them to write about what they are thankful for. This got me thinking about what I'm thankful for... TOP 10...

1. For sweet, beautiful, growing baby girl- Lyla Joy.

2. My husband. He's HOT and a super dad. 

3. My family. My healthy dad, my beautiful sister (who is kicking ass in nursing school), and my funny momma. 

4. Our baby girl's grandparents. They love her so very much. LJ is lucky to have to have 'em. 

5. My job. I am grateful to be employed and to be able to help give my family a happy, comfortable life.

6. Lyla's aunts and uncles... They are such special people. She is lucky to have such cool family members. :)

7. I'm thankful for my family's health. As of right now, we are all healthy and happy. I thank God every single day for this!

8. My friends. We may not have many, but the one's we do have are really wonderful people with hearts the size of Texas. 

9. My students. I genuinely have a PHENOMINAL class this year. They are wonderful and I got lucky this year. Especially with being gone for the whole first part of the year.

10. I am thankful to always have the holidays off with my family!!!

Well, there ya go. I am a thankful woman. I am able to step back from my life and see that I am very blessed.  I hope you all think about what you are thankful for... tis the season. :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Gobble Gobble y'all. :)

- Amanda 

Just a little update!

Hi Everyone!

We are alive and well. Lyla is beautiful, Cade is busy working on his next big play- Sweeny Todd, and I'm studying away. It's been C.R.A.Z.Y. I won't lie to anyone, if I wasn't one class and an internship away from achieving my degree, I'd bow out of grad school immediately. It's definitely required some prayer and will power. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving break.

Lyla started rolling over this week! Eek! She rolls over but gets mad when she realizes she's on her belly. Ha. Its hilarious. She'll be 4 months old next week! WHAT! I feel like she was just in my belly. Now she's laughing, making sounds, and rolling over. Geez. Anyway, here are some recent pictures of our little chunk. :)

Hanging out in her bumbo... so chubby. I LOVE IT! Ha. I love the bottle of wine behind her... this is the life we lead. :D 

 This hat is officially good luck- this was on the day A&M beat Alabama. WHOOP!

 Gobble gobble. Ha!

 Lyla in a part of her costume for Sweeny Todd. :) She was cast as baby Johanna. 

Punky and her piglet. Nom Nom Nom. :)

 Frisco Square. 

Lyla's first Halloween! 

:)

I'll post Lyla's 4 month post next week. I hope everyone is doing great!! 

Lyla's Baptism

In the beginning of October Lyla was baptized into the Methodist church. We were so very happy to see her become a part of the Christian family. As soon as she is old enough she will be able to re-dedicate her heart. Here are some pictures!

Dad holding LJ. :)

Miss. C, Ro and JJ's baby girl.

Cade, LJ, Roy and me

BIG smile. :)

The Vacante Clan. LJ's God parents. 

Aunt Megan

Mimi & Papaw and Nana & Papa

LJ and all her Aunts and Uncles

:)

LJ and her God parents. These guys are wonderful.

:)

 Everyone who came to see her!

Yep. All the time. 

Guess who has started chowing down on her thumb? :) So cute!

Hope everyone had a great halloween!

-Amanda 

3 Months

Dearest LJ,

You are 12 weeks old. 3 MONTHS! You are growing like a weed. So quickly... every night when we are  giving you your bath, you always seem so different. Everyday you grow and change. Sometimes I feel like it's going by too quickly and I think CRAP, you grew some more and I didn't even realize it! 

You are EATING breast milk and formula. Still half and half. Growing like a stinking weed! You eat incredibly slow. You like to cherish every drop and I like to think its because you like to be close to Mom. :) When you are take a bottle, you eat 7 oz. 

You are SLEEPING pretty good. I think back to the first few weeks we brought you home and in comparison you are sleep like a champion! You go down around 9, get up around 3 a.m. to nurse and then go back down till 6 or so. You are officially in your crib. We slept upstairs in the guest bedroom so that I could be close to you. You slept beautifully- it was Mom who worried the whole night. :) Your Dr.. wants us to put you down around 7, wake you up at 10:30 to nurse you and let you sleep the night but you said HELL's no to that. SO, we are working with this schedule for now. 

You LOVE to watch Mom and smile and growl at her silly faces. I stick my tongue out like a snake and you just smile. :) Melts my heart. You can hold your toys now. You know that they make noise but you haven't quite figured that the two go together. :) You have also started trying to eat your hands. I mean, its hilarious. At night we can hear you chowin' down on your fist through the monitor! Haha. You still love bathtime. You can be in the middle of a fit and if I take you upstairs and turn the water on, you immediately go quiet and wait. :)

We are working on holding up your head. You have gotten a lot better at tummy time. You've figured out how to roll over from your tummy to your back so that you don't have to stay on your belly for long. Lil' toot! 

I started back to work this week. Leaving you that first morning was like being run over by car. I couldn't catch my breath, I was very upset. I had this irrational fear that no one would ever be able to love you and take care of you like I would. But, fortunately, your daycare ladies are wonderful and I'm pretty sure they have fallen in love with you too. :) You are going on day three and according to them, you are doing great. I miss you every single second of every day. It's so hard to be away from you. Everyone tells me it will get easier but... I'm still waiting. Here you are about a week before your 3 month birthday.

We love you growing baby girl.

  

Love,

Mom and Dad

Just Because...

Because my daughter is just GORGEOUS and growing so quickly, I took a crazy amount of photo's for you all today. She is 11 weeks old this week. Shesh!  :)

She's started smiling so much now. I managed to get a half smile on camera. 

Another halloween outfit. :)

Tummy time

Hahaha

NO crying!! We are making tummy time progress!

getting chunky. I love it. 

Holding her toys now!

GAH! This face. I'm in love. 

Olivia decided that she wanted to lay on the blanket too. 

And eventually we got tired. 

Happy fall everyone! 

- Amanda