What a weekend!

Talk about getting things done. This weekend was action packed. Friday night Josh did not get in until late that night because he traveled to Cheraw, SC where he toured a plant that manufactures some of Stanley's hand tools.

Saturday morning we did house work and then went shopping. We found 2 great discount furniture stores near us. At the one store we bought a new kitchen table. While our old one was functional, it just didn't look great in our kitchen and had seen better days. Our new one is almost the same shade of wood as our cabinets and it is very trendy. It is one of the new styles that is at a bar height. It is also a square shape and can fit up to eight people around it. Then at the other place we bought a new entertainment center for our family room, because we had a large wall that needed to be filled. After that was the most shocking part of the day...Josh Cowley purchased a large, flat-panel TV. I was very impressed and the flat panel TV is awesome. This is something we have pondered doing for some time now and actually did it.

Sunday, I hung drapery panels in the Sunroom and then we had to pick up our new entertainment center (because we didn't want to wait a couple of weeks for it to get delivered). So Josh, Jenna, Haley, and I drove down to my parents' house. Josh took the llama trailer and went to pick up the new furniture, while Jenna and I hung out. We got to see my brother's house that is under construction and Jenna took her first nap at her grandparents' house in the crib they have set up. Let me just say how exciting this is, because it means Jenna will be able to go anywhere and sleep anywhere! Yeah!!! All in all is was a very productive weekend.

Jenna's First Word and Arrival of Henry Marshall Phillips

What an exciting day we have had today. Jenna said her first word!!! I have a witness, since Josh was sitting next to me. This morning Jenna was sitting on her play blanket and Josh and I were sitting on the floor in front of her. I was showing Josh pictures on a camera, and Jenna out of the blue said "Ma Ma"!!!! It was so distinct and the only thing she said. Now I know she wasn't directing this at me since first words will be said to anything and everything, but it was an exciting moment. The rest of the day I tried to get her to say it, but she only smiled at me every time I said "Ma-ma" back to her.

Today was also the arrival of Henry Marshall Phillips who arrived this morning at 10:12 am and weighed in at 5 pounds 1.3 ozs (I originally was told 5 lbs. 13 ounces, but apparently there was a misread and the little man is even smaller). Now this might not seem like an unusual arrival, but let me just fill you in on what a miracle Henry is. Henry's parents, Elizabeth and Sloan, went through surgery and 3 rounds of invitro fertilization to conceive Henry. Then in the middle of February, Elizabeth was admitted to the hospital since she was having contractions and was dilated 2 cm. She was only about 24.5 weeks pregnant and Henry needed to stay put. Elizabeth has been in the hospital since then. The first half of her stay she was bedridden and on an angle tilted down on her head. She just recently got "potty privileges" to be able to get out of the bed and was given an additional shower which would make three 2 minute showers a week (I think). Needless to say, Elizabeth is one of the strongest mothers I have ever known having to do this so that Henry would grow healthy in her womb. His healthy arrival is a blessing and now prayers for Elizabeth's recovery and regain of strength in her muscles is needed. Being in the hospital on bed rest for over 69 days has taken a toll on her body. Congratulations again to the Phillips family!!!

What a great weekend!

Well, we survived and had good times on both ends. Josh and Jenna had a great weekend and this was a great time for them to bond. Josh learned that he is a great dad (which I have always known) who can handle Jenna from sun up to sun down. Friday night went well. Saturday Jenna napped for 2.5 hours in the morning and another nap in the afternoon. They hung out and even went to the Rusty Rudder, a great restaurant/bar on the lake, with the Yates. Biggest discovery was that when Jenna has eaten well and is well rested, she is just a happy baby (funny... sounds just like her mom).

I had a great weekend with the girls in Charleston. Yes, it was sad to be away from my little sweet potato, but it was much need. Saturday morning we headed down to downtown Charleston and got crepes for breakfast from the farmers' market. Then we shopped and had lunch at a rooftop restaurant. That night we had a lingerie shower for Cameron and then went out to dinner at a tapas restaurant. Afterwards we hit the bars and even created a dance floor in one of them. Sunday morning, Jackie and I got up and hit the road to come back. Once home, I couldn't give Jenna enough kisses. As my friend Elizabeth says, "You need to leave your baby every now and then so she will know that you will come back."

First Night away from the little girl

Okay so it is Saturday morning at 7:30 and I have now spent my first night away from Jenna. While Josh and I have been apart due to his traveling for work, this is the longest I have been away from Jenna since she was born.

I am in Charleston with the girls for my friend Cameron's Bachelorette weekend. We had a blast last night! We went out to a restaurant called Vickery's (?). Good food, good times and it was so much fun being with the girls. We laughed a lot, but as we noted we are getting old since we were in bed asleep by 11:30. Since my body is just used to getting up, I am down stairs in the hotel lobby writing this, Jackie is out walking and everyone else is still sleeping. I miss the days of being able to sleep in, but I knew if I did I would get myself out of my routine.

A BIG thank you to my mom who came over to help watch Jenna as Josh also needed to go help friends move. My mom and Jenna played and were together until almost 7 pm. Josh then got home, spent some time with Jenna and put her to bed himself. I haven't called yet this morning to know how the night went, but I know they did great!

While I am having a great time and needed this, I do miss that little cutie pie!

But I don't like PEAS!!!

Jenna continues to make us laugh. We have known for some time that Jenna is a little drama queen and last night proved it again. I tried to feed Jenna peas for the second time. The look on her face was pure disgust! So as a good mom who wants her daughter to have a well rounded diet, I ignored the faces and continued to feed her them. By the eighth spoonful she make a gagging noise. I figured she had enough and gave her some sweet potatoes which she gobbled up.

Crawling will be coming soon as Jenna can push up on her arms and starts to kinda rock on her knees. Nine times out of ten she gets frustrated because she wants to move forward and finds herself moving backwards even farther away from the object she wants.

Jenna now also has her first baseball cap. While it is dark pink, it is an Adidas hat (this make it okay for her dad even though it is pink).

Since some family members are far away, I thought I would give a sneak peek into some of the rooms in our house that are unpacked and decorated. The first will be Jenna's room. It is actually the only one that is completely done (ie. painted walls, curtains, and decor). It is such a fun bright room and we love it. I only wish the little one could tell us how she feels about it. Enjoy!

Jenna Shea is 7 months old

What a great weekend and man do we love our weekends. Friday night we had the Yates family - Patrick, Allison, and Ethan (who is 1 yr old) - over for food, drinks and good times. It was nice to get to spend time with friends. Ethan is so much fun to watch as he is now walking and can go everywhere! Jenna just watched him walk around in amazement. Notice how the picture is a little blurry on the left side as he was on the move! Before I know it Jenna will be doing the same.

Saturday, Jenna and I went down to my folks and spent some time down there. I was able to witness the early stages of Clay and Nicole's house construction and helped set up their blog too. The site is http://cnbswindler.blogspot.com/ if you want to check into their site as well to keep updated on the construction process. (It is still in the set up stage and not quite sure what they have on there.) Then that night Josh and I actually went out for a glass of wine. Now granted it was early and we had Jenna, but it was nice to get out. We went to a place called "The Grape" and had a glass of wine and some appetizers. The most exciting part for me was I had tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Now make sure you read that right...I had CHEESE! My first taste of dairy since October when we learned Jenna had a dairy sensitivity. Now that she is completely weaned I can have dairy again. What a happy day.

On Easter, my parents, Clay, Nicole and Brianna came up to our place and we had a great dinner. Afterwards Brianna got to search for some eggs. It was nice getting to have them up. It was also exciting because my mom was able to give Jenna a bottle. Now that the bottle is king, others have a chance to feed the little girl.

Jenna Shea is also 7 months old now as of April 8th. It is hard to believe that much time has passed. Wow!

What a week we have had! I truly do not like having a baby who is sick, but even more do not like it when our little ones is throwing up and having diarrhea. You feel so bad for her and she cannot tell you what's wrong or how to help her feel better. You almost feel helpless and it is even more frustrating when all the doctor/nurses can tell you is it is a bug and you just need to let it pass.

Since Tuesday morning we have been giving small amounts of fluids trying to keep Jenna from getting dehydrated, but not giving her too much that it upsets her stomach. Watching Josh with Jenna warmed my heart, because he was so concerned about her.


Wednesday I learned the hard lesson that when baby gets sick, momma will eventually get sick. That morning we thought she was getting better, but then it struck again in both Jenna and then me. So Jenna and I spent most of our next two days resting together on the couch with her sleeping on my chest. She would then slept at night in her bed but we had to get her up periodically to make her drink some fluids. (I know what my Nana is thinking, you never wake a sleeping baby. But the doctor made me do it!)

Now it is Friday morning and I think we can see the light. Jenna has now successfully had 4 ozs. of milk within 1 hour and hasn't gotten sick. The best signs are that she is actually babbling again, watching Haley and wanting to play with her toys!!! So I pray that we are done being sick. I am starting to feel better, but what I have also learned through all of this is that mommy is not allowed to get sick. I wasn't going to take this picture, but I felt I needed to document us getting through such a tough week. Hopefully I will be able to style my hair and maybe even put on some makeup again. I know this sounds silly but every now and then it is nice to feel like a lady and not just a mommy taking care of baby.

I usually try to find the silver lining in things and from this I think Jenna is done nursing since she has only had the bottle since Tuesday morning. Probably a hidden blessing since we were struggling with that and that first tooth keeps getting bigger. Also she slept last night with a light blanket on her for the first time. So we have gotten used to a blanket and the bottles are not a struggle now. YEAH!!!!

What a day we had today! Little Jenna does have a virus and the vomiting continued most of the morning. We went to the pediatrician who checked her out and said that she just had a bug that needed to work its way out of her system. The big concern was just keeping her hydrated regardless of what the fluid was. My whole day was spent holding her, comforting her, and making sure she had small amounts of fluid in her. Jenna spent the whole day sleeping on my shoulder and wanting to cuddle with her mom. After the day we had I feel like I need to go up to my own mom, give her a BIG HUG, and say thank you for what I know she did for me too when I was a kid.

On a sad note, we learned that Josh's great-uncle Billy passed away. He was really close with Josh's Gram and will be greatly missed. It's a reminder to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you and take advantage of every opportunity you have to see each other.

On the house note, we discovered we have a defective toilet. Now you may be asking yourself what is a defective toilet and I have no idea. I just know that the plumber who came to look at the leak we had said it was defective, he hadn't seen one that bad before, and we had to get the builder to replace it. Isn't home ownership fun?! In the grand scheme of things it isn't that bad, but in the moment it seems to be irritating.

O-H...I-O. Let's go Bucks!!!

Even though I am a Tarheel, I have roots with Ohio State. This evening it will be time to cheer for the Scarlet and Gray as they play for the Basketball championship.

Today we met Jenna's new friend Elizabeth Grace who came home from the hospital. It was funny that I was nervous to hold her since I thought she was so small, as if I forget that Jenna was once that small too. So that was a high point of the day.

Then when we got home, we got a call from my Grandma Esther who lives in Oregon. My grandparents are amazing folks who are always on the go. Getting to talk with my Grandma was another high for the day.

Then came the low point. This evening Jenna decided to get sick all over the place, which is very unusual for her AND she was just wanting to lay her head on our shoulder or chest when we held her. That was completely unusual for her as she usually is non stop and wants to just go, go, go. Hopefully she will feel better in the morning, because seeing her this way is just breaking our hearts.

A little at a time

Well, Sunday is almost over and we have gotten some more things done around the house. My amazing husband completely unpacked and organized the garage. This was a huge undertaking as this was the space where everything was just thrown. He not only organized it, but also swept it out and cleaned the cars that were getting parked in it. I in the mean time tried to organize my home office. With client files and a hodge-podge of miscellaneous papers and boxes in it I made a really good dent. I just need to get lamps so I actually have light in there at night and I need to hang pictures to get them off of the floor. Once again juggling Jenna made this a task, but we made it through.

"Mom, it really isn't that bad. I just like your attention."

Jenna's first tooth is starting to show even more, but she sure is in pain. I tried to explain to her that she has a whole mouth full to go, so I hope the pain from this one really isn't that bad. We will just have to see. This morning we also introduced apples to her. Not so sure how she feels about them, but I will say she likes them better than peas!

Love to you all!

Arrival of Elizabeth Grace Gerin

It's a girl! My best friend from High School (Kathy Curtis now Kathy Gerin) gave birth to a little girl on Saturday, March 31st! Jenna now has another new friend to play with. Josh and I are so excited for Kathy and Mike and wish them well wishes as they embark on this exciting, yet challenging, new life path of parenthood.

Our Saturday was busy with trying to get started on taking care of our new yard and cleaning around the house. All of these things now take more juggling as Jenna requires attention and wants to be a part of the action. One of these days we will finally get unpacked and settled.

Another exciting bit of news is construction of my brother and sister-in-law's home has now begun! The footer have been constructed and the foundation is almost complete. They are subcontracting everyone and seem to be on track to have the whole house framed out by the end of April. This is a VERY exciting time as they have been working towards this for so long. I am going to help them set up their own blog to let people share in the various stages of construction.