the golden birthday

Best birthday ever getting to celebrate with our son

well.. today marks my Golden Birthday! (27th birthday on May 27th.. making it my Golden Birthday as Camille reminded me) I think its my best birthday yet seeing as I got to wake up to this precious face and celebrate with him all day long. I truly feel blessed.

So in honor of it being my Golden Birthday we are taking River to get all his 2 month shots!! Happy Birthday mom! Am I right??

No idea why I did that to myself. I should have kept his appointment for June like it was originally planned. Problem was if we waited until June - Freeland couldnt come and Im definitely not going to watch them give River all those shots by myself.

So lets hope River handles them like a champ & doesnt get too fussy.

(I also went to lunch with Camille & Freeland is taking me out tonight.. dont worry the shots arent really all Im doing for my birthday)

And another exciting Birthday event - My dad & Tracy are also getting in town tonight to meet River for the first time! (My brother comes in on Saturday) I cant wait.

annnnd T - minus 2 days until Freeland's boards! Then the celebrations can REALLY begin! Pee my pants excited for that! Seriously!

redneck baby

business in the front:

staring at his dad

party in the back:

(his little mini mullet)

Here you can see it better in this picture:

River was born with strawberry blonde hair. Its actually the first thing our doctor said when he delivered him "he's a red head" WHAT??? I was shocked. Somehow the possibility of him having red hair never occurred to me. It was a fun surprise. And if you look close in the pictures above you can actually see exactly where he gets it from :)  Like father - like son.  (freelands beard in case you cant tell what Im talking about)

Well all of it has fallen out except the little "rats tail" (just kidding) in the back. It looks like its coming in blonde but I guess only time will tell. Either way i think his bald head is pretty darn cute.

oh and just for kicks here is a picture of River smiling:


Actually thats just him starting to smile. His real smile is HUGE and with his entire mouth open. I love it. I posted more pictures of him smiling on twitter.. you can always see those by clicking on the link over there on the right
*thanks Dawn for the PJ's ;)

Meeting little Jackson Lee

As you may remember our friends Bill & Christie had their baby earlier this month. Such a huge reason to celebrate since they have been praying for this little guy for a long time!

It was our first time back to the hospital since River and I was SOO excited to get up there & meet him.

Jackson looks just like Christie (we saw her baby pictures) and Christie was a trooper waiting for him to arrive and working hard during labor! Major props to her!

Here's Jackson and River meeting:



can't you tell how much they love each other already?

and here are the proud dad's holding their sons:








So sweet! I love it.

It was CRAZY how much bigger River was and he was only a month older. I loved it though because Jackson weighed the exact same as River did when he was born so I was able to hold him and see how much River really had grown. And then I was devistated because I realized exactly how much River really had grown.

how I spent my 1st mothers day

pretty much like this:



eddie joined in too:



Mothers day was great. Especially considering Freeland still had to study the whole day. He did everything he could to make it special. That morning we woke up and went to church (our first time back) River did wonderful. Of course we were super sensitive to any noise he made during the service.. (paranoid much?) then I relaxed the whole day & that night we went to the most classy dinner ever.. at Applebee's. Wow. In our defense we had a gift card so thats why we went there. (nothing against applebee's its more of a joke between us)

It was special to be able to celebrate.. and at the same time I definitely felt like I didnt deserve it seeing as I had only been a mom for just over a month. My mom, my Nana, and my Grandma all sent me my first Mothers Day cards in the mail. And my Mom had flowers sent to me also. It was nice how many text, emails, etc. that all our friends sent too. I couldnt believe how thoughtful so many people were.

And now Im definitely looking forward to Freeland getting to celebrate his first Fathers Day!

6 weeks and 4 days but who's counting?

I cant believe this much time has already gone by. Its all happening way too fast.

In an attempt to get caught up I thought I would just post some pictures from River's first month of life. Looking through them all made me realize that I really dont take near enough pictures of him.. and that he has changed SO much already! He seems so tiny in these pictures to me!

Freeland & I are so grateful because River for the most part is an easy baby. Of course there are times when he fusses, nights where I dont sleep much,  and moments where we have no clue what we are doing but I am fully aware it could look very different so Im beyond thankful.

As you can see from some of these pictures most of River's first month consisted of sleeping.


all that hair on top is gone and its just peach fuzz now. I cant wait to see if it comes back in strawberry blond or blond


River sleeping on my moms shoulder






playing with his tongue.


his first sponge bath - he very much disliked it. But he likes the bath now.


we think he is going to be a thumb sucker. He's close to finding it!


freeland & maddie putting River to sleep at night


Rivers first walk


He fell asleep while we were changing his diaper.. with his WubbaNub on his face. Must have been tired.PS. for those who have asked.. yes I LOVE the wubbanub. I'll have to post more about it soon!







And at exactly 4 weeks & 1 day he smiled at us! A real true smile (not just an "i have gas" smile) where he was looking directly at me and responded to us. Now we can get him to smile all the time and its my favorite thing in the world. It completely melts my heart! Other favorites include.. letting him sleep on me, when he coo's, watching him & freeland, oh and definitely when he toots - It cracks me up that something so little can produce such a loud noise!

Im really hoping to get back to updating my blog more often. I realize there is so much Im leaving out when I go this long. So hopefully this week I can post more updated pictures & about everything else going on! 

the light at the end of the tunnel

River & Freeland studying for boards

Today is officially the last day that Freeland has to go to class at Lecom!

Can I get an A-men?

Now please let me clarify, he isnt done with med school. He still has 2 years of rotations to complete. Then his residency.

But as of this afternoon at 5:00 he no longer has to sit in the classroom.  Ever.

Not that Im wishing this season of our life away. I actually really enjoy it but I wont even tell you the total number of years Freeland has been sitting in a classroom. Lets just say I think its time he is out of that darn classroom!

umm lets also not mention that his boards are in 2 weeks.. thats a whole different tunnel that we need to get through! :)

Smith Randle Bailey

Im sure you all already read this on Monday but my heart is just broken for Kori & Jon.

"Smith Randle Bailey saw Jesus at 10:50 AM. He is now in the loving care of His Creator. We were honored to have him as our son.

God is still good,
Jon & Kori

— 1 Corinthians 15:55"

Words cant describe all the different emotions I have or make any of this easier so I wont even try. I do desperately wish I could be in Texas today.

I love what my friend Kelly said.. "I saw that today Smith has been healed" such truth & something to hold on to.

Please please continue to pray for them and their families. Especially today and then through the coming weeks & months as the process everything they have been through. And praise the Lord for his unfailing Love and that Jon & Kori are able to lean on him through all of this.

please keep praying

Please keep praying for sweet little Smith Bailey & his parents! If you havent had a chance to check their blog lately - its being updated everyday! (http://smithbailey.tumblr.com/) Jon posted the following news on Friday:

Family & Friends

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Yesterday we were given very bad news. Smith’s sonogram showed extensive bleeding on his brain. There are four levels of bleeding, four being the worse.

Smith was a three on his right side and a four on his left side.

Please pray for Smith. Please pray for Kori and I as we go through this terrible struggle. We love you and thank you for your prayers and support.

God is still good,
Jon

If you have a chance to visit their blog feel free to leave them a comment letting them know you stopped by & are thinking about them. I imagine its incredibly encouraging hearing that people from all over are joining in & praying with them.

please step away from the scale

I dont know what I was thinking before I had River but I seriously just expected all the weight to just magically melt off right after I delivered him.

I guess because I read about other people (who will remain nameless) who were back in their regular jeans & clothes by the end of the first month? And everyone always told me "breastfeeding burns sooooo many calories that I could just eat what I wanted and the weight just kept coming off." Who are you people? Really?  :)

I seriously came home from the hospital the same weight that I was going in to deliver. Ignore that I just had a son who weighed 7lbs 11 oz & that I lost a lot of fluid etc... nope the weight was still there somehow or I gained it back eating hospital food? Its a mystery to me. (obviously I have lost some of the weight by now but just not what I thought I would have lost by this point.)

So now Im trying to tell myself 9 months on - 9 months off. And Im also promising myself that I will stop stepping on that darn scale in our bathroom every morning because its getting me nowhere.

The bag of double stuffed Oreo's that I cant stop eating probably isn't helping either.

PS: Trust me, I realize there are much more important issues in life. And while I was pregnant I feel like I really did learn a lot about how I viewed my weight, the ways my clothes fit, bad hair days and all that jazz. I was SO thankful to learn how horrible my self image was before I was pregnant -  It really felt freeing to figure that out. So thats what Im holding onto now :)


And to those of you who didnt magically fit in your regular clothes right away either - hopefully it encourages you to see that there is someone else who didnt too.

you're welcome

Im sure we all remember the parents with swagger.

Freeland even laughed at this one:



Ohh mmmm geeeeee. I love it.

Freelands first half marathon

Its true! Freeland did his first half marathon this weekend .. along with Student Doctor Adam Jennings in Pittsburgh. Originally Camille & Adam registered for the marathon but then Camille went and got knocked up so she couldnt run it anymore. (darn!) Thats where Freeland came in. He took her spot.

You know what that also meant? I had my first night alone with River. Just us. At the casa. Alone. With out a husband/father. (because Pittsburgh is 2 hours away so they drove up the night before for those unfamiliar with this area) And we made it. We actually had fun. Party with out the disciplinary. I let him stay up soo late and eat a gallon of ice cream and watch lots of TV. I kid. But we missed Freeland. I dont know what it will be like when he does his 4 week rotations away! Yikes.

Im proud of Freeland for running the marathon. I wont even begin to tell you what his training schedule looked like because trust me it will make you very mad at him. What a pro. He is a natural runner. Now if he could just find the time to actually run!

Oh did I mention it poured rain on Freeland & Adam the entire race? Not fun. 

In other news - Christie Lee is having her baby today!!! (her due date was April 25th!) River cant wait to meet little Jackson!

Smith Randle Bailey

As I mentioned in my last post one of my dear friends, Kori, from high school had her precious son this last week.

Smith Randle Bailey

Born April 29th 2010 at 3:14 am

1 lbs. 8 oz.

12.5 in long! 

For the last 9 days before Kori had him she was in the hospital fighting hard with her husband Jon for sweet little Smith. And at 23 weeks & 6 days she delivered him. 

What a miracle. 

As you can imagine it is going to be a long road for Kori & Jon. Im posting this to ask you to pray along with them for their son Smith. Jon set up a blog so I will let them be the ones to share their story & tell you all the details & what you can specifically be praying for.  

http://smithbailey.tumblr.com/

Please remember Smith Randle Bailey! I look forward to seeing all the miracles God provides each day and I have no doubt that God is going to do mighty things in their family's life through this! Jon posted this verse on their blog so I will post it here also:

"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." Psalm 145.18

Praise the Lord! 

my grandpa

This week was a little more emotional than I expected it to be. One of my friends had her baby and we have been praying for them & their son (more on this asap) Also, my grandpa passed away this week.

He died very peacefully and and with his family right by his side at the hospital. Although I was sad that I couldn't be with him & even more sad that River never had a chance to meet him, I am thankful my dad & the rest of our family were with him & he was surrounded by all the people he loved most.

grandpa letting me play with his hair

He was one of the sweetest men. Always calm and always positive. He loved my grandma well & everyone else around him. Ill always remember riding in his truck & him letting me drive the lawn mower for hours on end (which when I was young - I thought was the coolest thing ever). I honestly dont think there was ever one negative word spoken out of his mouth. And as my dad says.. if you didnt know all the hard things (physically) that he was going through, you would never know because he was always so positive and never complained.

More than anything Im thankful that I know he is in Heaven now so it really is more of a celebration of that & of his life! Im glad that we can all rejoice that he is with the Lord.