Family Comparison

Whenever a couple has a baby everyone says "Oh he looks just like his dad" or "She looks like her mom". So I sat down and decided to compare baby pictures for our little family. It is surprising how little we all look alike. Some families the similarity is striking - but for us I don't see it! Let me know if you do. You can click on any collage of pictures to view them larger.

Here are a series of comparisons (ages are unknown for mine and Alan's pictures):

First is Adeline's baby picture compared to Alan and I:

Then comparing Abel to the same pictures of us:

So what do you all think? Who do Adeline and Abel look more like as babies? I think they both have my baby cheeks!

This past week Abel turned a month old! So here is a comparison picture of Abel and Adeline at a month old. It is crazy how big of a difference there is between the two! Adeline was still wearing Newborn (and it was big on her!), Abel is wearing 0-3.

I went ahead and looked forward to Adeline's 2nd Month picture and it is a better picture to look at to compare how close they look alike since Adeline didn't start filling out until then.

Then for the comparison that I promised on Facebook a couple days ago that got this blog post in motion. Alan and Abel both wearing the same outfit. The funny part is that Alan is 3 months old when this picture was taken, and Abel was only 1 month old!

Adeline's Big Girl Room

Before we were expecting baby #2 Adeline had a great set up for a playroom in the 3rd bedroom. She played in there quite a bit, but frequently brought toys out to the living room anyway. So when I told her we were going to move some of her toys to her bedroom and some out to the living room she was all for it! I try to tackle big changes like that when she's not here so when she comes home its an all new place to explore.

For her bedroom I had to rearrange her bed to another wall to accommodate her big bookcase. I try to put all furniture on sliders so it's easy to rearrange when I want to, which is typically when hubby isn't home! Only thing he had to move for me was the big bookcase. She has always slept with one side of her bed against a wall, so this is a big change for her, we put up a rail on one side until she gets used to it!

For the rest of the toys they went in the living room in the space we have behind our couch.  Before she just had her table there, now she has several of her larger toys there with her. I put down the rug temporarily (it will go in the Nursery), until I can find the exact one I want. She likes it a lot so may get one just like it but in a better color.

She spends a lot of time back here playing and coloring. Alan's dad built some longer legs to put on her table so now it will sit higher and we'll get a bigger chair for her so she'll be more comfortable at her table. She is growing up so fast!

Adeline's 4th Birthday Party

Today we had Adeline's 4th Birthday party! Her birthday is actually November 19th, so we had her party the following weekend. This was her first party in Bristol inviting all her new friends from preschool.

For months Adeline has been requesting a party at "Bounce Bristol", which is a place at the mall with several bounces. But we've been to a couple parties there already this year and didn't think the environment would be good for the grandparents and other adults coming - just too loud and wild! I don't mind taking Adeline there at all, but wanted something a bit more laid back. So we found a great place (Catch My Party) that provided the space and a bounce house (just the right size for Adeline and friends) for a very reasonable price. They would have decorated the space for additional $$, but I figured I could handle that since we had several weeks to plan. But their decorations for a Frozen theme party look pretty cool. Adeline was just happy to have a bounce house! I was happy to not have to plan games for 4-5 yr olds!

Adeline end up having 6 friends show up! We were only expecting 4, but it was great that 6 came and I had enough goodie bags! I was pretty happy with the decorations and food we had. Here is the set up:

I made this stats poster for her party and had it printed poster size for the party.

I decided against a big cake and just made cupcakes with sprinkles, all the kids eat is the icing anyway! Here's Adeline's candle and cupcake on of course an Elsa plate!

Had to light it twice, she was too excited and blew out before we could sing!

Adeline was certainly blessed with lots of great presents from all her favorite people! All the kids had to help Adeline open her presents! Love that Elsa cape draping out behind her! So cute.

Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated with us. Adeline is one very blessed little girl to have so many people who love her.

Baby # 2 - 16 Weeks

Most people don't know about the struggle we've had for the past 3 years. We were blessed in November 2011 with our first child, Adeline. We always said we wanted more than 1 child and wanted them somewhat close in age, but not too close!

Well when we got pregnant with Adeline it took us a year once we started trying. Once it had been a year we went to our Doctor and asked for help! We were going to start the whole testing process to determine the reason for infertility, but before we could get started we found out I was pregnant!

Pregnancy was not easy, but really when is it? Most of it was uneventful except when I got to the end the horrible hip/back pain started, then I started having issues with swelling and high blood pressure. I spend many hours at the doctor and in the hospital under observation. Eventually I had full blown Pre-Eclampsia and had to be induced at 38 weeks. Adeline was born healthy and only spent one extra night at the hospital to deal with Jaundice.

Once Adeline was around a year old we started trying for our second, knowing it might take awhile like it did the first time around. By Summer 2014 we decided to go to a Fertility Specialist, but it turned out we moved right after our first appointment so we put off until we got settled in Bristol.

So in February 2015 we'd finally decided it was long enough and went to a doctor for fertility help. Since we'd already had one child together we didn't have to start with all the testing we were going to have to do before our first pregnancy. The doctor immediately started me on Clomid 50mg 1x day on cycle days 5-9 and the first round I ovulated!!! So we continued with that for a few months. Also I did some blood work as the Doctor thought I may have PCOS based on a few things. So I was happy to find out I did have it, as that was probably the reason I was having a problem getting pregnant. I cannot believe I've gone years without this diagnosis! I started on Metformin after a couple weeks.

We ended up doing 4 rounds of Clomid. After the 3rd round was a big fat NEGATIVE. I was referred to a specialist in Johnson City. Since the Clomid wasn't enough for me we decided to switch to Femara. So we decided after my next cycle we would start Femara, however that never came and I had a POSITIVE pregnancy test on June 16th!

I am now 16 weeks a long in this pregnancy and I've had it pretty good. I did have hip pain that started pretty much immediately, so I've been seeing a Chiropractor for almost 2 months now and that has helped a ton! I'm also very tired and can't focus much. No "real" food aversions other than I still can't eggs much, which started when I was pregnant with Adeline.

We will find out the gender on September 29th, I will definitely post the results! Adeline is inssitent that she is having a baby sister, won't even consider a baby brother. She is so excited to be a Big Sister! I don't care if boy or girl. I want a girl mostly because I have saved Adeline's baby stuff and won't need much but the big items (dresser, car seat, monitor, bedding, etc.). I'd like to have a boy though so Alan gets his "mini-me" which would be so cute and I think the dynamics between Adeline and a brother would be better than if there were 2 girls.

While at my parents this Labor Day weekend we took a couple pictures. I never did the pregnancy pictures with Adeline, because it took awhile for me to look pregnant, not just fat! But this time my belly has jumped out already! So its going to be interesting to see how big I get this time.

  

Daddy and Daughter Fishing Excursion

Wow I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted on the blog. I'm hoping to post more than I have lately.

Last week Alan decided he finally wanted to take Adeline fishing for the first time. She's had her own fishing rod (Princess) since Christmas, but we hadn't taken her yet. We took her to the Pond at The Pinnacle in Bristol, TN which is below the Bass Pro Shops.

We had the whole pond almost to ourselves, it's a pretty big pond but we stayed on the lower end for Adeline.

She had a lot of fun, she tried to throw in her own line, but we quickly determined that was not a great idea when she caught Alan's shirt! So Alan threw her line in for her and helped her hold and reel in.

She caught a ton of fish, basically every time the line was thrown out she caught a fish. She refused though to touch the fish! Oh well, she'll get used to it and hopefully be a pro like daddy handling those slippery fish.

After a fun filled evening at the pond we headed home for a popsicle and she got to play with the neighbor's granddaughter.

April Farm Life

Basically every time we go visit my parents Adeline has to go to the Farm to see her Thunder. We went down last weekend and took Adeline down to the barn so she could meet the new calf that my dad and brother were having to bottle feed. She was hesitant at first but since Pa-Paw was with her she pet the calf. They'd already fed it so she didn't get to see that, but I'm sure she would have loved it.

Pa-paw got a fresh load off gravel for the farm and Adeline is not one to get herself dirty. Mom and I jokingly told Adeline to climb the gravel and after seeing her Thunder and the baby calf she was all over that gravel! She got so dirty, but she loved it.

I love seeing her grow up on the farm. She loves her horses and could spend all day with them I think. She has to wear her cowgirl boots whenever on the farm. Soon we're going to have to buy her some new ones - we're lucky she's so petite and hasn't gone through a huge growth spurt!

Here is the precious Thunder getting a brushing from Uncle Scott after a snack.

Adeline Play Room Re-do

If you don't know me very well you don't know that I like to rearrange. We've been in the house a little over 6 months and I've redone Adeline's Playroom 3-4 times already (1 was moving from basement to upstairs). But I'm hoping that this most recent redo will be good for awhile as it took most of the day!

Adeline hasn't been spending much time in her playroom, so I start looking at why. A couple of her big "toys" were in the living room and when she did play in the living room she sat on rug or couch. Her playroom just had hardwood floors. Right now I don't have the funds to buy a big enough rug for the space, so thank goodness I still had her foam floor from our Roanoke house basement. So I laid down two sets of the flooring and only needed a few more, which we can do without.

Lately Adeline has been  huge into coloring and painting, so I decided to move her table to the living room to free up some space in her playroom and to keep her from painting/coloring on my dining room table. She loves it! Now she has her own space to do what she wants and it's all out anytime she wants to color!

Here is the final results!

In the afternoons when we get home or even on the weekends I ask Adeline what she is going to do and she always says "PLAY HARD", we start this awhile back and it's our little thing. So I made her a wall decal for the entrance to her play room.

Adeline was very happy with her new playroom set up and coloring station. She came back from a weekend with Nana and PaPaw Weeks to a whole new playroom to explore.