11 Months!

I started this posting with good intentions of getting it posted to the blog weeks ago. Instead of re-writing it, I’m going to just post what I originally started.
Carden is getting more independent by the day. Gone are the days where she will sit calmly next to Matilda for her monthly photo. She is too busy exploring to let me take a photo of her.


Just one more month to go until Carden Elizabeth turns ONE! I just ordered her birthday outfit—it was so hard to decide on something, there are so many cute things, but the prices are outrageous. The best thing about this one is that it is reversible, so she’ll get to wear it more than once! Since the outfit has a cupcake on it, I’m using this as the “theme” for the party. I ordered these invitations from a local party store.

Carden had her first trip to the Huntsville Botanical Garden’s Galaxy of Lights. She slept through majority of it, but did wake up in time to visit with Santa. Speaking of Santa, I booked Santa photos back in May at Heather Bookout Photography! I’m so glad I did. Carden’s pictures are incredible. It was so hard to narrow them down. How many photos do you really need of your child with Santa—we narrowed it down to 5 different poses. People tell me that after the first year you won’t be so emotional when trying to pick out photos and if you have a second child, you’ll be lucky if they ever get a picture taken—my problem won’t be getting the picture taken, it will be narrowing it down to place a reasonable order. This is coming from the person that still, after 8 years of marriage, has not ordered wedding photos! I’m happy with all the 4x6 proofs!

Trick or Treat

Our Little Lady Bug on her first Halloween!

Happy Fall Ya'll

Here are some fall photos of Carden. She is getting so big and so independent. I'm trying to take full advantage of any time that she is willing to snuggle, which isn't much these days! It is really starting to hit me that she will be turning 1 soon. Where has this year gone?

10 Months!

Carden Elizabeth is starting her 10th month of life with Hand, Foot, and Mouth! What fun! Plus her top two front teeth are coming in. Everyday it is something new. She continues to love to play Peek A Boo, clapping when we say Yea and playing Patty Cake. She constantly babbles. Her vocabulary consists of DaDa, AHHHH (at three volumes--soft, normal range, and a high pitched squeal that could break glass), Buh Buh (for Bye Bye), and Uh Oh. On rare occasions we get MMMMMAH. We are working on giving kisses and sugar—it is usually given to one of her stuffed animals.

She's also picked up this trick:


We recently left Carden for the first time with a babysitter that wasn’t a family member and I did very well--thank you very much! Mallory, one of the young ladies that use to keep Carden at Miss Marcia’s came over to watch her while Jason and I got in touch with our hippie roots and went to the Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic show in Birmingham. The show was awesome and we got a number of good laughs people watching! It was a much needed night out! We need to make more time for just mommy and daddy!

This is the big rivalry week-- UT v. Bama. Carden has so many cute UT outfits but hasn't been able to show them off since she isn't allowed at Miss Marcia's due to the Hand, Foot, and Mouth! Guess we'll have to do wardrobe changes during the game! Hopefully we'll be able to wear one of them on Monday as a result of a UT Victory. I’ve tried to teach CE to raise her arms straight up when I say Touchdown Tennessee—unfortunately Tennessee isn’t scoring that many touchdowns so we aren’t getting much practice, maybe we'll get the chance to work on it some more on Saturday!

We are enjoying the cooler fall weather--makes going on walks and sitting on the screen porch much more enjoyable!

We are looking forward to November because Uncle Phil will be coming home for Thanksgiving and we will be awaiting the arrival of a new cousin, Madeline Kelley. Madeline will even out the great-grandchildren to 3 girls and 3 boys!

Babyzilla

Bath Time

9 Month Update

9 Months! I’ll be planning Carden Elizabeth’s 1 year birthday before I know it. Recently I had a freak out moment about being a working mother and what do you do when you baby is in 1st grade and gets out for three weeks at Christmas. What do you do? Luckily my parents live locally, so they can help out but what do people do that don’t have any relatives that live near by? Can you sign up for day care to watch them just on holiday breaks? Do moms have to take a leave of absence from their jobs? Thankfully I don’t have to answer these questions next week—right now I just have to make sure I have enough vacation time to cover the times that Miss Marcia’s will be closed over the upcoming holidays.

Carden is on the verge of crawling! She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. We’ve had a couple of nose dives into the floor but nothing that has left any bumps or bruises.

Bath time continues to be one of her favorite activities. I’ve heard so many horror stories about babies being terrified of the bath--we’ve had a couple of melt downs when we’ve pulled her out of the bath. I’m thankful that we aren’t trying to wash her hair while she is screaming mad.

We are heading up to Knoxville for the UT v. Auburn Game. We are looking forward to catching up with old friends. I’ve ordered Carden a cute UT Dress from the Etsy website to wear on game day.

8 Months and a Girls' Trip to the Beach

Carden Elizabeth turned 8 Months Old on August 19th and her slacker mother is very late with the posting—time just escapes me! She has moved up from the infant room at Miss Marcia’s into the Creeper Room. She is adjusting very well to being with older babies; it is taking me a little longer to make the adjustment. I’m just not ready for her grow up so quickly. I’m just glad that her friend Mollie moved up with her, so Carden Elizabeth isn’t the youngest one in the class. She is starting to learn things from some of the older babies—like how to squeal at the top of her lungs, make all kinds of grunting/growling sounds, and blow bubbles with her mouth—I’m thinking the little boys are responsible for teaching her this un-lady behavior. She has mastered saying DaDa and we occasionally get an MMMMMM out of her but usually it is when she is upset. She is good about letting you know who she wants to hold her by reaching out to that person and I’m happy to say it is usually for me! That’s payback for her first word being DaDa! We’ve been working on Bye Bye and waving our hand. Can’t say Bye Bye, but is starting to imitate us when we wave.


Carden and Daddy bonded while I took off for a 4 day girl’s trip to Orange Beach. This was the longest I’ve been away from Carden and I did surprisingly well (thanks to the cocktails!) We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather—the condo on the other hand was another story. If you are ever in the Orange Beach area, you must go to the Flora-Bama. It is a bar but it looks more like a shanty town on the Florida-Alabama State line. Go with an open mind, don’t over dress because you’ll stand out, and be sure to drink a Bushwacker! The Flora-Bama also has an interesting bra collection, which none of us added to.
It was so nice to get away from all the stresses of work and just enjoy some down time with the girls!

Girls Weekend

Carden and I had our first Girls Weekend while Jason went off with our friend David for 3 days of camping, canoeing, and fly fishing. It was nice and relaxing to just be able to hang out and not have a list of things to do. Carden and I had a slumber party every night--she got to sleep in bed with mommy! We spent time visiting and catching up with Allison Gregg on Friday night and then met up with Jessica Berkholtz for a leisurely lunch on Saturday.

Once Daddy got home on Sunday, we had some fun in the sun. Carden loves bath time, so I bought her a plastic pool on Saturday. We were only outside for 10-15 minutes due to the heat and my fear of her getting sun burnt (something I know about all too well.) I had her lathered up in 2 or 3 coats of sunblock from head to toe! She loved splashing around. We are #72 on the Blossomwood Pool Waiting List so hopefully we'll be able to get in by next summer so she can enjoy the big pool! Guess I better start really getting serious about working out if I am to be in a bathing suit in front of my neighbors.

7 Months! (Better late than never, since Carden is now almost 7 1/2 months old!)

Carden Elizabeth is now 7 months old! She continues to be a very happy and laid back baby. She now has two bottom teeth. She isn’t crawling yet, but sure can get around by rolling and scooting on her back. She absolutely LOVES her exersaucer, it has a green dragon puppet attached to it and she squeals with joy when you make it talk to her. There is no telling how many hours we’ve spent just watching her play in the thing! Thank you Faye & Jeff Wishik for getting it for her, she is putting it to great use!

We surprised Mimi & G (Carden’s great grandparents) by attending this year’s Chafin’s Reunion. They were both in tears when we walked in the door! I think it was something like the 87th year for this reunion. It was nice to catch up with the family that you don’t see on a regular basis. Here is Carden with her cousins Brenden, Reilley, Amelia, and Andy--what a crew!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Carden made her first road trip to North Carolina. We spent the weekend with Jason’s parents and found time to squeeze in a picnic and short hike with the Koontz Family up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was great to catch up with them and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery of Western North Carolina. No trip to Asheville would be complete without a trip to Tupelo Honey. We were disappointed to learn that Sharon is no longer the owner and they no longer serve breakfast all day, but the food was still wonderful!


Is it wrong that we find humor in feeding her green peas and watching her make the gaging faces? Other than green peas, she is a great eater depending on who feeds her. There are times when I think she ends up wearing more of the food than getting it into her mouth. I just can’t bring myself to feed her the meats--kind of makes me throw up a little bit just thinking of it--meat flavored pudding! GAG!

6 Months!

Has it really been 6 months? She is halfway to a year already!
We’ve recently experienced a number of first:

*1st trip to the Pediatric Emergency Room due to Pink Eye! Carden had a mild case which she spread to Mommy who ended up with a really nasty case!

*1st time to try baby food. Carden loves Sweet Potatoes and Squash. We are starting with yellow/orange foods and slowly moving onto other flavors/colors. Introducing all veggies before we move onto the good stuff—fruits! We are sure about the baby food meats--it kind of makes me gag just thinking about them.

Here's what she looked like after Daddy's first attempt to feed her Sweet Potatoes!

*Mommy’s 1st overnight trip away from Carden, leaving daddy completely in charge!

Carden is growing like a weed. She is almost too tall for her infant car seat. We’ll be heading to the MD for her 6 month check up next week so we’ll know her "official" height and weight then. Now that she is eating baby food, she is starting to fill out a little more—this is evident by her even rounder face, but she is still really skinny so 6 month clothes are too wide but are the perfect length (I wish I had this problem!)
She is babbling constantly. Jason swears that she is saying DaDa! Anything that she can get her hands onto immediately go into her mouth—hands, toys, clothes, blankets, hair. We are constantly trying to keep her from sucking her thumb for fear of future orthodontic problems.

5 Months

Carden recently turned 5 months old and we are so looking forward to what she will be doing at this stage in her life. During her 4th month, she learned to roll over, got more chatty, and started to sleep through the night. She also discovered that most things can fit into her mouth--her hands, feet (oh to be that flexible), toys, and anything else she can get her hands on. She loves to grab a hand full of my hair if I don't have it pulled back out of her reach.

To celebrate turning 5 months old, we started her on rice cereal. What a mess! Note to all first time moms, don’t try this when the baby is really hungry because it will just frustrate them and cause lots of drama. She did much better after being nursed and had a little something already in her belly. She is getting much better eating from a spoon each time we feed her!




Philip came home for a visit and was able to spend a lot of quality time bonding with his niece. He hasn’t seen Carden since she was born, so he enjoyed playing with her since she is so much more interactive. I love how much he adores her! We are going to be in trouble when he come to visit when she is a toddler just based on how excited and silly he gets her at 5 months old.

WhistleStop 2009

Torrential rain storms and tornado warnings can't stop Team Pork Man! What a muddy mess this year's WhistleStop Festival was! Thanks to Pork Man Chef/Ring Leader Joe Wallace we actually had a plan when it came to cooking our chicken and ribs and it paid off. We placed 27th overall compared to last year's 70th!


Our friend Jenny Askins is running for Alabama House Seat 6. Unfortunately this is not our district, but we all wore her stickers to show our love and support for her! Good Luck Jenny!

I can roll over now!

Carden is currently mastering the technique of rolling over and of course I had to document the occasion by taking lots of photos! This allows her to grab toys on her own instead of relying on mom and dad to hand them to her!

Four Months

It is hard to believe that Carden is already 4 months old. Her smile and baby talk just melts our hearts. She is doing very well at Miss Marcia’s, which makes dropping her off their so much easier! They tell us that she is the most laid back one in her class. I’ve met a couple of people that have babies that were born a few days before Carden and it amazes me just how different babies can be. I think all 4 month olds should be as tall as Carden but then when I see the little chubby 4 month olds I get concerned that she is too thin. I was talking to another mother that gave birth to a big baby (10 lbs 3 oz) and we both agree that our perception to judge other babies is way off since our kids were so big. I don’t know how many times I’ve confused a two month old for a newborn!


The Easter Bunny made a stop at our house and left some goodies in Carden’s Easter Basket (which required me to call every children’s store/gift shop in town to find.) Since Jason and I aren’t up to date on our nursery rhymes, EB brought a book of nursery rhymes as well at a book titled Someday by Alison Meghee and Peter Reynolds. I read this book in the store and it brought me to tears. It is a great book about a mother’s dream for her daughter--I highly recommend it to all you moms out there!


We are still unpacking boxes, but the house is coming along nicely. It is easy to get distracted having a baby to pull you away. Once we get pictures hung, I think I’ll feel more settled. Here are some pictures of Carden’s nursery. The painting was a present from Uncle Phil. He has a friend in LA that created it for the nursery.



May is going to be a busy and fun month, so I hope to do a better job of posting updates and photos.