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.

Happy Easter

Three Months!

Where does the time go? I can’t believe Carden Elizabeth is Three Months Old!
I think Carden will be able to start her own construction business by age 2. She has been exposed to more decisions about building materials, granite remnants, light fixtures and knows more people that work at Lowe’s, Home Depot, City Lumber, and Parks Plumbing Supply than most general contractors.

The house is remarkable-I promise to post pictures soon. It is better insulated, has a new roof, endless supply of hot water thanks to a tankless hot water heater, beautiful soapstone counter tops in the kitchen, a great master bathroom and walk-in closet, more cabinets in the kitchen and the over all the flow of the space is a better fit for us. While it’s great to have a nice home, the shell isn’t nearly as important as the lives that are lived within and we are so excited about the life we have with Carden! Now if we can just get the boxes unpacked so we can start enjoying our new life!
My parents graciously put up with the two of us, a newborn, all of our laundry, and our two dogs during our renovation process, but I know they are secretly going to miss the chaos. I know they already miss seeing their granddaughter on a daily basis!

I started back to work on Monday, March 16 and it is quite an adjustment after being gone for 12 weeks. So much has changed since I’ve been gone, such as complete reorganization of our department that resulted in all new bosses/management and employee turnover, I’m just happy that I didn’t get lost in the shuffle and had something that I enjoy to come back to. Trying to live by a schedule was so burdensome in the past but is a necessity when you have a baby that you are trying to feed, get dressed, and dropped off at nursery school before going to work at 8 AM. Guess my days of hitting snooze to try get an extra 30 minutes of sleep are over!

Carden is getting more interactive every day. We could sit and watch her coo and smile for hours. I wish someone would have told me to go back to work when she was two weeks old and to take maternity leave about week 10. I hate to think of what I’m missing out on while I’m at work. She is rolling onto her side, sucking her thumb when we let her, likes to play with her hands, hair, ears, and Ike the pig puppet we got from Ikea. She has also managed to grab a hand full of my hair in her tight little grip—I for see a hair cut in my future!

We had to make a trip back to see Dr. Haley to get Carden’s Hib vaccine since they were out of them at her 2 month check up. Carden is growing so fast, she is now 26 inches long and 12 lbs 3 oz!