Finished

My summer officially began yesterday at 11:30 a.m. I am not exactly sure how I made it, but I did! I cannot believe this school year is over. I had a class for the record books this year, and I feel like I need to share parts of my journey with you all. As I was watching television last night I began to come up with one word to describe my class/my year. I was not able to come up with one word, but several words to describe what all transpired over this past year in my classroom. Those words are: fun, character, chaotic, potential, tough, energetic, aggressive, exhausting, busy, challenging, opportunistic, active, blessed, and memorable.
When I started the beginning of the school year back in August I truly felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Maybe it was that I was on maternity leave for almost 4 months and that I didn't think much about school that entire time, or maybe God just was giving me a class that truly needed my help and guidance. I'm hoping it's the second, because I fully intend to take as much time off with my next child as I did with Adelyn. With that being said, I know that God put these 23 children in my life to show me several things.

Almost all of my students needed me in different ways. There are many days where I felt like I was being pulled in all directions and I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it. Not only was I sleep deprived the whole first semester, my brain was on overload all the time. I had to figure out how to sort out all of the different situations that were arising and how to best help each and every one of those kids in my class the best way that I could. I won't lie, there are some days that weren't so pretty and I had several come to Jesus talks with several students, but when I look back now there were also several days where we really just had fun. I had the most energetic group of boys and they were so excited about pretty much everything and they let me know about it very loudly!

Somewhere towards spring break (I was sleeping much better at this point), I began to realize my love for these children. I began to fear what would happen to them next year because I know that many of them are going to have quite a journey of their own. I know their adventures will lead to hard times down the road, and I hope that I was able to give them enough positivity, courage, and strength to face the many ups and downs in their futures.

You know the saying "God won't give you anything you can't handle?" Well God sure did trust me way too much this year. Even though it was tough, and exhausting, and emotional we all survived this year. My team and I worked our tails off and I know it showed because I got 100% on reading and dibels for the first time, and when I begin the school year I wasn't sure that was possible.
I have learned so many things from this school year. I think being a first time mom made me see a few things in a different light. I have always had patience for little ones, but my patience and understanding grew by leaps and bounds this year. I have learned that nothing is ever as it seems. I have learned to have fun while lesson planning and don't spend too much on TPT. I have learned that tomorrow really is a new day and it's okay to totally change everything up and redo it. Most importantly I learned that teaching is a team effort even if your team isn't in the classroom with you.
I am truly blessed that God gave me the opportunity to work with some amazing kids and I will never forget them.

But I couldn't have survived this school year without some amazing people in my life.
First, to my husband for listening to me complain, talk, and tell my funny stories everyday.
Second, to my mom, she is always my biggest supporter and always knows the right thing to do.
Third, to my amazing team. Joanne, Christian, and Sherry...never have we all had to lean on each other some much as we did this year. Everything fit together and I survived with all of your help and support and I am so lucky to have such good friends.
Fourth- to my babysitter. I truly could not go to work every morning if I didn't know that my baby was safe and well cared for. Not once did I worry about Adelyn's whereabouts because I know that Adelyn was her number one priority. My sweet girl loves her babysitter and is always so happy and has learned so much from Mrs. Cameron! We are so lucky that we get to go back next year!
And last but not least, to my sweet Adelyn. I made it through everyday because I couldn't wait to see the bright smiling face that she always has for me. Every day when we went home and played together she helped to remind me that my class was still a group of babies that needed my love and support.

Well it is time to go and enjoy my summer vacation! If I have time, I will post about my summer fun, but if not, then see you next August!

Adelyn's first birthday!

Okay so I know I am the world's worst blogger, but my life is just so incredibly busy. But I feel like if I don't blog about this huge milestone, then I will not forget it, but I will forget the details and I never want to forget those.
I knew that becoming a mom would change me forever, but I really didn't know how much until I sat and held my baby girl as she fell asleep on the night before she turned one. This past Thursday, I had the kindergarten program at my school (my kids did awesome), so I had to be home late. I told my husband that he had to keep Adelyn up until I got home because I wanted to rock her to sleep before she turned one. My husband thought I was crazy, but being the loving man that he is, he did it anyway. When I got home, she was still all smiles and I quickly made her a bottle and began to rock her to sleep. As I sat there holding her, thousands (and yes I mean thousands) of memories started streaming through my brain. How could I, being the quirky person that I am, have created such a masterpeice. My brain went over everything that I have experienced with her: the awful back labor I endured for way too long, seeing her for the first time, bringing her home, watching her roll over and cheer like Tech just scored the winning goal, eating rice cereal, taking her first big girl bath, crawling towards the shiny Christmas presents, eating her first meal of mac and cheese, and most recently her walking ALL over my house. It just amazes me what all can happen in one year.
My heart has grown so much since I've had Adelyn. Every time I look at her, I get a giddy feeling in my stomach. She and my husband are the best things that have ever happened to me. A teacher I work with told me that when she had her first baby, every day when the bell rang it was like she had to get all of her work done quickly so she could get home to a hot date (her baby). I feel this exact same way and as I was driving to pick her up the other day, I told myself that I will be looking forward to this hot date everyday until Adelyn goes to college. I LOVE picking her up and hearing about her day (she tells me on the long ride home in a babble!). We get home and start cleaning and then we sit by the window with Sadie and Chloe and wait until we see Daddy pull up in his truck. Then we peek on the window and Adelyn puts on her big grin and waves to her daddy! I mean can life get any better than this?!
I have mixed emotions about her turning one. I'm pretty sure I've never been more excited about a birthday party that wasn't mine (details to come in another blog entry). Adelyn has grown so much in the past year. I am not a very emotional person, but just thinking about how much time has passed makes me cry. I've created a perfect little girl and I am the lucky momma who gets to help her grow up. I get to teach her how to ride a bike, hold a pencil, how to read, among many other things. I am so glad that God chose me to be her mom, because I just love everything about her and my life wouldn't be the same with out her!

Okay now that I've forced tears out of my eyes, I will stop. Coming up soon (pictures from Adelyn's awesome Minnie Mouse party) and details about what all I did to prepare!

My first night with 3, nine-month old babies!

So Rene and I agreed to watch the twins for one whole night, I repeat one whole night, for Sarah and Robert so they could go out for their one year anniversary. I teach five year olds all day and am very used to a loud atmosphere so I was just thinking no sweat---boy was a I wrong. Here is my account, from the beginning, of our first sleepover with my neice and nephew without their parents.         
Sarah and Robert dropped the twins off around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. They stayed for about 20 minutes to tell me the different schedules including what to eat for dinner, how much to feed them, when to put them to sleep, how to put them sleep even though I assured them I knew exactly what to do (I mean I do have a nine-month old myself). But I quickly learned that L and E are not quite like my baby, who I am used to every single day. Luckily, my amazing friend Hannah decided to come over to help us conquer this. While I waited for Hannah, I sat on the floor with all three and tried to take as many pictures of possible, while my husband was glued to the tv (some help he was). I didn't get to take nearly enough pictures because I spent the hour walking to move Adelyn away from the fire place, running to get Leighton away from the dog food, and stopping Adelyn and Leighton from stealing ALL of Easton's toys (poor guy)! I was pretty much exhausted by the first hour. Hannah arrived around 6:00 and another hour began. I had to feed all three babies, because Rene and Hannah could not stand the smell of the broccoli and cheese that my sister had brought for the twins (they are such weenies). Once all three were fed, we finally got to eat ourselves. Rene and I took turns eating while Hannah sat with the babies since she wasn't in the pizza mood.
Once we were done (7:00), we started to put the babies in their pajamas. This really wasn't too difficult (other than Leighton trying to pull out Eastons hair). Around 7:15, I decided it was time to put these crazies to bed. Hannah took Easton, I took Adelyn, and Rene took Leighton. Easton was out in about 5 minutes, Adelyn took about 15, and Leighton took about 20. No sweat right!! Things were looking good until......Adelyn took a poop. Well of course that woke her up. I told Hannah to go put Easton in the rocker and I will take care of Adelyn. Rene came out of the bedroom to put a sleeping Leighton in the pack n play....and you can probably guess who started talking at this point --Adelyn. Rene laid Leighton in the pack n play and she immediately started screaming, and then the fun began. She screamed and screamed and screamed.....Rene started yelling at me staying that it was my fault that I couldn't get my own baby to go to sleep and I tried to explain to him that it wasn't my fault she had to poop. So luckily Easton was sleeping through the whole thing. I changed Adelyn and tried to rock her to sleep again.....well Rene also tried to rock Leighton in the other room. Lets just say it didn't go so well. Leighton would start screaming and crying and as soon as Adelyn heard her she started screaming and crying. Leighton would stop for a minute and then Adelyn would and her eyes would drift to sleep. Leighton started screaming again and immediately so did Adelyn. This went on for a good 30 minutes (by this time Easton was wide awake just watching tv in the rocker). We finally had to give Leighton some tough love and put in her pack n play and close the door. She cried for almost 20 minutes and then it slowly died down to a whimper. It was then that I put Adelyn in her room and let her kind of put herself to sleep. Easton was wide awake so we took him out of the rocker and he just started laughing. He just smiled and smiled at us until eventually he got tired and fell asleep. (Thank goodness for one easy baby). FINALLY by 9:30 they were all three asleep and we were exhausted. Hannah left for the night and Rene and immediately went to bed. I could not sleep at all-----I kept coughing and I was paranoid about Leighton being in the other room with no monitor that I felt like I didn't get any sleep. Leighton started crying around 5:30 so I told Rene he had to get up and go get her so she didn't wake the others. Lucky for him she fell back asleep. Then at 6:43 on the dot, Easton woke up, followed by Adelyn at 7:00, and Leighton at 7:15. Whew.....thank goodness they slept all night!!
The morning wasn't too bad, though every time I would pick Leighton up, Adelyn would burst into tears because she was jealous. Then Easton started doing the same thing (spoiled much?) Then around 9:00 they ALL got hungry at the same time. Easton was screaming at the top of his lungs. I grabbed him and put him on the couch with me, while Rene made a bottle. Leighton started SCREAMING so I put her up there with me, well I bet you can guess who didn't like that. Adelyn crawled to couch and wiggled her way up and they ALL three cried at the same time. I have been around loud, I mean I teach kindergarten for a living so I'm used to it, but this was completely different. My ears were ringing for pretty much the next hour. What was worse was that Easton would not take the bottle. Trying to feed all three took some work. I finally put Adelyn down and let her cry and fed Easton.  He was able to fall asleep, and Rene had to once again show Leighton some tough love and put her in the pack n play. I was afraid that she would start crying and Adelyn wouldn't be to take her morning nap so Adelyn and I went to Starbucks for a quick drive! By this time, I needed it. Adelyn fell asleep the second we left the house. When I returned Easton and Leighton were both still sleeping and so was Adelyn. I got to take a shower and clean!!!! What what. They all three took about a 2 hour nap. When they woke up they were all happy as could be! We spent the remaning time chasing Adelyn and Leighton and protecting Easton from the girls!

For my first sleepover experience, I was overly exhausted. Rene and I will probably be recovering for the next week! I hope you enjoyed my account and it gave you a few laughs (it does me when I think about how ridiculous we must of looked), but I am so grateful for such a perfect baby as well as perfect nieces and nephews!

Christmas 2012

I truly cannot believe yet another Christmas has passed. I hate that my favorite time of the year goes by so fast. This year it seemed to go even faster. I really didn't think Christmas would be any different having a baby there but it sure was. We were lucky enough to have two Christmas's with both of our families. On Friday December 21st, my mom cooked a yummy dinner and my sister and I brought all of our crews to my mom's house for the evening. My mom has been telling Sarah and I not to buy the kids toys because they won't play with them that much and my mom bought Adelyn so many toys it was unreal! She got a storybook, a driving car, a tea set, lots of clothes and possibly her favorite, a pink rocking horse. Adelyn loves this horse--it makes noises and it cracks me up because Adelyn kicks her feet like she is riding the horse everytime she gets on it! It was so weird watching 3 babies attack the wrapping paper. Leighton was crawling over everyone trying to get the perfect peice of wrapping paper, Adelyn was rolling in the paper, and Easton sat there playing with this awesome music/drum set I got him. It is going to be so much fun when they are all walking and know how to open presents. Even though it wasn't Christmas yet, it felt just like Christmas at my mom's when we were little. She always goes above and beyond and I'm never dissapointed!
Early the next morning we made the drive to Hondo for Aelvoet Christmas!!!! Adelyn got to watch her daddy feed the cows for 2 whole days. She loved looking at the cows.We also got to play with her cousins Lynae and Lynette--they sure had fun together! I bought Adelyn the cutest Christmas outfit months ago and I couldn't wait to put it on her. She looked adorable (even though I didn't get one GREAT picture with her in it because she wouldn't smile). On Christmas Eve we went to the Catholic church with the entire Aelvoet crew. Adelyn decided to become quite the singer early in the service so we did the walk of shame to the cry room where she proceeded to sing even louder. Let's just say I was thankful when it was over! After the service we headed over to Rene's grandma's house for Aelvoet Christmas Eve!!! Adelyn had a blast. She actually fell asleep right before Santa appeared on the roof, but they did call out her name and tell her what she was getting for Christmas! Once we were all warmed up and back inside, Adelyn decided it was time to play again. She was the highlight of the party! She sat in the middle and danced and laughed as all of the cousins sang Christmas carols. She was loving all of the attention (shocker!). Matt drew Adelyn's name in the drawing and he gave her a super cute Texas Tech shirt with her initials on it and a red and black tutu---it's adorable! Adelyn gave her cousin Lane a wii game and he was so excited that he screamed when he saw it! Shortly after that it was Adelyn's bedtime!!!
Just as babies should, Adelyn woke up bright and early on Christmas morning! She spent the morning crawling over, through, and around all of the presents in the living room. She had an absolute blast opening her presents with her Grandpa! She got a new walker and lots of super cute clothes that we can't wait to wear! Christmas with Rene's family is always so much fun and I look forward to it every year!!!
Even though we had so much fun in Hondo we did have to go back home and return to normalcy. Rene had taken off the whole week through the day after New Years so we got to play! We went to Rain Forest cafe, shopping, and more shopping! We sure enjoyed having our daddy home with us! We enjoyed a quiet New Year's Eve with our week long guest, Adelyn's godmother, Jess.
Now that I am back at work and things have settled down I can't wait to start shopping for next year's Christmas! I know there is lots to come before then, but I've got lots of people to buy for so I have to start early!!!



P.S.- my new year's resolution is to do more pinterest projects.......so someone please encourage me to do this!

Something is wrong with blogger and won't let me post any pics.....I will post as soon as it starts working!

My how 6 months flies......

I apologize to anyone that even glances at my blog because I never have time to write on here. My life is so crazy when I get home I never even think about updating my blog. What's worse is that I can't believe it is almost the middle of November! That means that football season is almost over :( I love, love, love football season. I could sit and watch college football every Saturday the entire year. Unfortunately it is a lot harder to watch football with Adelyn, but we make sure to give her a good nap during the Tech game! Adelyn  made her first road trip to College Station for the Aggie/LSU game. She was wearing her purple and gold to support our Tigers, which did come out with the win by the way. I was pretty nervous because I knew it was going to be loud and she wouldn't be able to take a nap (she is a very light sleeper). Lucky for her during the game, no one was at the tailgate so she took a good two hour nap in her stroller. She even napped in the RV while the frat party next to use blarred their music as loud as it could go for about 30 minutes. The same day as the Aggie game Adelyn turned 6 months. I truly cannot believe that she was not even in this world 6 months ago (now almost 7 months ago since I'm so behind on updating). I honestly could not imagine my life without her anymore! I am so ridicuously in love with her. I'm sure every mom is, and I know why: your baby is just the best thing ever. If you've had a bad day, you can look at that grin and you pretty much forget everything else that happened that day. If you know that your husband keeps telling you to stay in budget and you keep telling him that it was your baby's fault then you just know she is well taken care of. I mean she grows like a weed!
At her 6 month appointment, she weighed in at 17.4 lbs and 25 1/2 inches long. She is 70% in the weight and 35% in height. This was shocking to us because Rene and I are both fairly tall people and I'm pretty sure niether of us were ever below the 70% range when we were babies. Adelyn's Mimi (Rene's mom is rather short), so if Adeliou is a shrimp we know where she got it from! She is still going to physical therapy twice a month. She went today and they said that she was looking good, but still needs to keep seeing the PT.

In her 6th month, her sitter took her to a fall festival and she had so much fun! I just love that she is so curious about everything! She tried to eat the pumpkins since she thinks everything is for her mouth! She doesn't have any teeth yet thank goodness because I'm not sure I'm ready for the teething stage.
I tried to stop nuring her when she turned 6 months, but I just couldn't do it. I just love nursing her and giving her the best of what i've got. I've told myself I won't go too much longer because it's a lot of work. I am so glad I have nursed this long because I have enjoyed the whole experience plus I have lost all my baby weight plus more!!! We did finally start her on baby food with the help of a great cook friend of mine, I was able to make her food and freeze it. So far we have tried peas, which she hated, she loved the sweet potato, and we just recently tried broccoli (only because I defrosted the wrong one) and she liked it the first day but then said "no thank you" the second day. We will keep working on that! Next up is carrots. She is also still taking prevacid for her reflux but it has gotten tremenduously better!

I think the absolute best thing about her turning 6 months is.................................................................................she is finally sleeping through the night and..............she is sleeping in her crib! She slept through the night for 2 straight weeks then got a massive cold and could barely breathe so we moved her back to the rocker for about a week to help clear the congestion. She finally made it back to the crib last night and only had one coughing spell at 1:40 am, though this whole time change thing is not for babies. It would be my luck that she prefers to sleep on her stomach, so I have to get up around midnight to check on her, but I am so glad to finally be getting some much needed sleep! Video monitors are truly a great thing. If you have debated about getting one, I highly recommend it.

Now that I'm getting some much needed rest, I feel like I'm actually doing much better at my job. I have been giving it all i've got since the beginning but at least now I don't feel like my fuel tank is running on empty. My class is progressing so well and I have fallen in love with all of the sweet kids in my room. Sometimes they can be crazy, but they are so kind hearted and are always asking about me and Adelyn, so I know how much they care!

Well it's an early game day, so we are headed to our friends house to watch the Red Raiders!

Sleep deprived....

The past month has been one of the hardest months I've ever had to endure. Working full time, trying to breastfeed and pump and be a mom is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.
I have a brand new class this year with lots of new opportunities! I have never had a class quite like this one before and though it is taking us longer to get to where we need to be, I know we will get there :) Trying to pump while work is taking quite a toll on my daily to do list. I pump right before I leave my house, I pump during my lunch break, and then right after school. When you add all the time up it's almost an hour out of my busy day that I could have spent planning/preparing things for my classroom. While I'm not complaining, I will just be glad when I am finished with it. I really thought I would stop nursing all together this past week, but for some reason I have decided to keep going until Adelyn is 6 months old. This is only another month and like two weeks so I know it's doable. By the time I get home, cook dinner, give Adelyn a bath, feed her and play with her I'm absolutely exhausted. (I don't know how those with more than one do it!) I then have to pull out my laptop and finish all of the things I didn't get to during the day. Unfortunately for Rene and I, Adelyn is still not sleeping through the night. She wakes up sometime around 12, 1, 2, or 3 for a feeding and then around 5. Though sometimes like last night, we were up from midnight until 2:30 with some major reflux and then she was hungry again at 4:00. So I basically got like 2 hours of sleep at night. When you work with five year olds all day it is so hard to be tired because they just keep going and going. And yes people constantly tell me "put her on formula, swaddle her, read her books, blah blah blah" YES....I DO ALL OF THESE THINGS. Her last two feedings before bed include formula and rice cereal. Her problem is that because of her reflux she is just not a big eater. She rarely takes more than 3-4 ounces in one feeding, when at this age she should be taking 6-7. So she gets hungrier often. I keep hoping that one day I'm going to wake up and realize I slept 8 hours! As soon as this happen, trust me, I will announce it to the world!
On another note, Adelyn has started physical therapy to hopefully fix her torticolus. She has a 10 degree tilt in the right side of her neck. Because of this she has to go to one hour of physical therapy once a week for 4-6 months. One hour is a very long time for a little one such as herself. The worst part is we are supposed to do lots of stretches with her and make her do one hour of tummy time everyday. She is not a big fan of tummy time and does NOT like her stretches at all. I keep telling her that it's for her own good and she will thank me later!
She is also rolling over from her back to tummy and vice versa. She first learned how to roll from tummy to back and then two days ago she rolled from her back to tummy. It's so cute when she does it because she has such chunky arms and legs that her arms get like stuck under her belly and she can't figure out how to move them!
I know I have said it a thousand times but she has grown so much and her little laugh is my absolute favorite part of my day! Every time I make myself and after school to do list and check everything off as soon as I can so I can go and pick her up. I love teaching kindergarten and being able to guide them but I also love being a mommy! Now if I could just find the perfect balance between the two then I would be a much happier, wiser, and well rested teacher and mom!

She's getting too big!!

So my little Adelyn is four months old today. We had a full day of shopping planned, but little missy has not been a happy camper. Friday she went to the doctor for her four month check up. She weighs 15.3 lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long, and she had to get four shots. Saturday she woke up with crusty junk all over her nose and then her nose was runny all day long. Then today she woke up again sneezing and was fussy all day. Her neck ended up locking on her again and my shopping adventure was cut short so that I could go home and basically rock her while she slept all afternoon. After two go rounds of tylenol she woke up around 5:30 feeling much better!!! She was laughing and talking up a storm!
At her doctor's appointment we found out that Adelyn needs to have a little bit of physical therapy to help her neck situation. She severly leans her head to her right side pretty much of the time. The doctor thinks she will grow out of it eventually but recommended we do a couple of therapy sessions to be sure. Thankfully, her Bella will be able to take her to PT.
The doctor also told us to start her on rice cereal since she still isn't sleeping through the night. I'm clueless about this stuff and of course my husband didn't ask any questions. I mean I don't know how to give the cereal and when and how much. So a call to the doctor is in order for Monday!
Adelyn is a super big girl except that she's still kind of on the short side. She can still wear most of her three month clothes but we are having an issue with the 6th month clothes. In the 6 month clothes she is close to the end of the weight limit, yet she is at the very bottom for the length. So things are kind of tight around her chest, yet like 5 inches too long! The clothes that fit her best are the ones labeled 3-6 months! So we have been in search of those clothes this past weekend!
She is getting so much better at tummy time finally! She loves to grab things and puts pretty much everything in her mouth. She prefers our fingers to her pacifier now, though she always takes her paci when it is bed time. We are still sleeping in the swing.....I can't let go just yet.
I had to go back to work this past Thursday and it was awful. I told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but I cried the entire way there and then for about another two hours after I dropped her off :( The first day I picked her up she wouldn't even look at me....she was looking at her sitter with big smiles. I won't lie, I was super sad. But the next day I picked her up she was crying and as soon as I grabbed her she stopped, so that made me feel much better!!!!! I was also able to successfully nurse while at work. Our schedule is going to work out perfect in order for me to able to nurse for the 6 months that I want to!!
Though I am sad about not getting to see her all day long, I'm glad for some normal adult interaction in my life again. I will be making the most out of my weekends that is for sure!

Now that school is about to start we are getting ready for football season and we will make sure Adelyn knows which teams to root for!!! GEAUX TECH!!!