The curls are gone

Monday was a sad day at my house. It started off as a normal haircutting session with Noah and Johnny. I set the clippers down for a second to check on Miley and when I came back, my adorable could be curly headed baby model had whacked the side of his hair off forcing me to cut the rest. I cried my eyes out. I cried myself to sleep and my husband just didn't get why I was so sad. I saved a handful of the curls for the baby book, and I am getting used to the new look but oh how I miss seeing my curly headed little man running through the yard. It is just another reminder of how quickly they grow. I'm just glad I got some good pictures of him before this happened.

Speaking of growing, I take Miss Miley for her checkup Friday and i am interested in seeing what she weighs since she is a week away from 2 months and can still wear newborn clothes (by this time with the boys the newborn sizes had been long gone) but I like her being little. She still looks like a baby doll and as long as she's healthy I am happy.

I'm still working on loosingnthe baby weight. I walk 6 days a week and do yoga and ab work throughout the week as well. My husband says I an anorexic because I never eat but I think he's crazy. I just don't eat as much as he thinks I should but anyway!

Hope everyone has an awesome Easter :)

Just a few of my photography pics

 

I've been sitting here for the past hour watching the weather on TV. It makes me wonder when did I get to the age that I could sit and watch the weather for this long and actually get hooked on it??? My kids have all piled on the couch with me, and well they are still at the age that this stuff bores the crap out of them, so all of them (including baby) are passed out on the couch. I figure I could take this moment of peace and quiet to share with you a few of my photos -- I'll start with my sweet baby girl Miley Gayle - whom I've nicknamed "pretty girl" the past few days.

I'll add more later. My computer has decided to act crazy and not let me upload any of the others I wanted to share.

Happy Easter, and hopefully the weather will skip my area like it's done pretty much all day!

UPDATED BELOW!!

Just wanted to clear my mind

I haoove a lot of things on my mind, but I'm at a loss as to how to fit them in an order to where they'd actually make sense in this blog.

I guess the thing that bothers me most at the moment is fake people. It seems as though social networks have become a breeding ground for them as well. I mean, do these people honestly think we don't know the real them away from these sites? And what happened to just being you? I don't get why people are trying so hard to put up a front and portray themselves in a way that everyone knows they're not. Why try so hard to impress people? People like you for the real you not the fake "look at me look at me" type you.  It just irritates me to have to sign on everyday and have my news feed cluttered with the BS of a fake person. I guess I should hide their posts, huh?

With that off my chest and completely switching gears to something else, I'm loving the photography thing. More and more people are telling me about how beautiful the pictures were of Miley and how I should really pursue this as a side if not a full-time job. So I bought a few Easter props, and I'm waiting on Miley's specially made Easter outfit and I plan on taking a few more pics of her (and the boys too). I also plan on taking some photography classes when I go back to school this fall. 

Keep watching my blog, it'll get more interesting I promise, and I plan on posting some pics from my photography hobby soon!!

Babies, Photography and life in general these days

So it's been a while since I've posted anything on here, but since I last posted a lot has happened! For starters, Miss Miley Gayle made her appearance on March 1, 2011 after months of battling constant nausea, vomiting and heartburn along with the occasional blood pressure issues, Dr. Purdy decided to put an end to it all at 37 weeks. I had her of course, via c-section, and she was born with a slight issue with her lungs, but today she is perfectly healthy and absolutely beautiful! Everyone tells me she's perfect and looks like a baby doll, and I of course have to agree!

The question I get asked more than anything is, "where did the name Miley Gayle come from?" -- well it's simple (but a bit detailed too) Since I was a little girl playing with baby dolls I knew I always wanted a little girl of my own. As I grew older and my mom came more than just a mom to me and more of my best friend, I really wanted a little girl. Someone I could share the same mother/daughter bond I've shared with my mom. Someone that I could, like my mom, come check her out from school one day just to take her shopping. Or one day in the future go on what we like to call "field trips" with my grandchildren and her. Also, I knew that even though I'm sure Noah and Memphis will always love me and care about me, a daughter is just going to see about you and take care of you in a way different than a son will. I've also noticed already, that there is just something different about having a daughter. With all that being said, I wanted Miley's name to have meaning. I wanted her to know that she was named after 2 women who were strong, independent women. Two women who valued life and knew the meaning of love and family. So who better to name her after than my own mother (Wanda Gayle) and my grandmother (Janice Miles Mosley). Obviously I couldn't name her Miles, so we dropped the "S" added a "Y" and gave her the same middle name as my mom.

So I now have 3 children all under the age of 5, and yes it's a lot of work, but I wouldn't change it for anything. My children are awesome and I love spending time with them. While I will be glad to return to the working world, I will also miss them and their sweet little smiles.

Speaking of working, I've decided to go back to school and finally pursue this LPN thing I've wanted to do for a while. I love my husband to death for supporting me in doing it. It will take about a year, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. While I'm there, I'm gonna take a few photography courses too. Everyone has told me I should look into doing professional photography. I've never thought I was that good at it, but my mom, my in-laws and several friends of mine have told me I take awesome pictures.

It makes since, because there again when I was little I used to love taking pictures with disposable cameras. Right now I'm using a Nikon Cool-Pix camera because something happened to my nice, expensive camera, and I haven't thought the pictures I were taking were all that wonderful, but here again people have gone on and on about the little photoshoot I did with Miley, and my husband has told me that "it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, a true photographer will have an eye and the creativity to take an awesome picture no matter what they are using."

So maybe he's right. I subscribed to some really awesome photo software last night that I'm excited about and Johnny says he's gonna buy me a nicer camera than I had last go round with professional lenses and all, and I guess now I'll make a few trips to the fabric store for some different back drops and experiment more with this "hidden talent" of mine, and see what happens.

So that's pretty much how my life is going these days. My health does seem to be improving thank God, and I was diagnosed with post-partum depression, but with the "happy drugs" I'm feeling better than ever these days. I love my life, my family and all my awesome friends and things really seem to be looking up these days!

Keep watching my blog, I think I'll start displaying my photography projects on here ;)

Not sure how to title it...

So I've spent this past week being sick. It started off with me thinking it was extreme morning sickness, only that was odd since I'm 21 weeks pregnant and have had very little morning sickness up to this point but when the Zofran failed to work, I went to see my doc anyway. He too assumed it must be morning sickness and figured I had built up an immunity to morning sickness and switched me back over to phenogran. This didn't work either, and after 2 additonal visits to my doc, he admitted me to the hospital and hooked me up to an IV and began running tests.

In the middle of all this testing, he came in at one point and asked me if I had experienced any heartburn during this pregnancy. Well, of course I had, but I assumed that was just part of being pregnant -- would you believe it's actually not a good thing if you are having it frequently?! Turns out my 5 to 6 times a day of heartburn was  what as making me so sick. In fact, he thinks I probably have a heital hernia that I never even knew I had and was just made worse by pregnancy --- so after 3 days in the hospital and almost 5 of being sick I was sent home with heartburn meds, a new script for Zofran (the dissolvable kind) and feeling much better. The only other thing that was discovered during my stay is that I'm anemic.

I'm feeling a lot better now but I have to stay on a more bland diet until Miley's arrival to keep me from getting so sick.

The one bonus in having problems and having to go to the hospital (not that I was happy about all the additonal problems) is I got more ultrasounds and more pictures of Miley.

So now, I'm focused on finishing Christmas shopping, possibly putting my tree up next week and working on Miss Miley's room!

Car Shopping

One of my favorite things to do late at night is go to car lots and car shop. That way, you don't have to deal with annoying salespeople and it gives you a chance to really take time and check all the vehicles out.

We are currently in the process of finding the perfect vehicle for us. I've had my Mustang since I graduated from Mississippi State in 2006, and 1 husband and 2 (almost 3 kids) later, I think it's time I got a more grown up vehicle.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mustang and have had a ton of great memories in it (bar hopping with college friends, trips to the casino, driving to fla in it after getting married and having the GPS go haywire on us, the birth of both my children, and the list goes on) and I don't regret buying it one bit. It was one of many dreams I have had that I accomplished. Needless to say though I've definitely outgrown it with my constant growing family.

I have fell in love with 3 different Tahoes. My fav and the one I'm getting my husband to check into today has leather seats, a navigation system and a DVD player (which of course is perfect for a mom with 2 small kids and another on the way!). I also fell in love with a black Landrover, but with all the problems my mother has had with her and the cost of repairs on one, I'm not sure if it's worth the buy.

We had a great night last night car shopping, and my children especially enjoyed running around the parking lots looking at all the cars. I'm super excited and can't wait till we finally bring one of these vehicles home!!!!!

Memphis Grey

When Memphis was born, I have to admit, I was terrified he wouldn't make it out of that hospital alive. He was born via c-section on March 19, 2009 @ 9:22 PM - this was after me being in "induced" labor for 24 hours. After being in labor for that long, having had my water broke, and me still not dilated past 2.5 cm, the doctor decided it was best to go ahead and take him.

Of course, when he was first born, I was so drugged up it never phased me that his feet were as black as a Crayola crayon. It never phased me either how quickly they rushed out of the OR either. In fact, it wasn't until about 5 hours later that night when I still had no baby in my arms that I begin to realize that something wasn't right. 

At around midnight that night, a nurse practicioner came in and informed me that Memphis was currently under an oxygen box, and that not only was he born with wet lungs, but he was severely malnourished form his cord being coiled as tightly as a telephone cord. Still, she seemed positive and made me believe within a couple of hours, I would be holding a baby.

A couple of hours later, a doctor walks in, but no baby is with him. It was at this point I was made aware of how serious this situation was. I was told at this point Memphis was on a ventilator and would remain there until he could breathe on his own. To me, anyone I had ever known that was on a ventilator never made it out of the hospital alive. My whole world came crashing down, and what made it worse was I had only seen - not even held my baby for a whole 5 seconds.

It was at that point, I became determined - I overlooked the pain from my section and stayed focused on him. I was in that NICU every second I got. Talking to him, praying for him, rubbing his tiny back with my fingers, and at 2 weeks, I finally got to hold him and rock him and by that Friday, he was able to come home with me. 

Today, Memphis is perfectly healthy, and a sweet little boy. He LOVES to dance, and will come running out of any room and into the room where the music is going. He has a head full of curly hair, will eat anything you put infront of him, and has a smile that will truly melt your heart. He has become my cuddle buddy, and amazes me at how content he can be with just sitting by me on the couch and watching TV with me. His biggest thing now is giving me kisses. I love watching him outside discovering the world, playing in the grass, petting the animals, and hugging his best buddy, Noah, his older brother. 

I thank God everyday for him. He is truly a miracle baby and has made my life even better by being in it.