christmas

christmas was amazing this year... as always. we are so so blessed to have such amazing families. christmas was also hectic (as always), but it was fun nonetheless. on thursday, we drove to saltillo to have christmas w/my mom and stepdad. it was very laid back, which was great.... we ordered bbq from eli's in tupelo and stayed in comfy clothes, which is always my ideal outfit :) we were supposed to have it w/all of my mom's family but my uncle and his wife had their 3rd child earlier last week so we had to change that christmas to this week. then on friday we headed to aberdeen for christmas w/my dad and stepmom. we always have breakfast on christmas eve then open presents.... it was wonderful as well. not long after breakfast, we had to pack up and head back home. lucy was so exhausted from the past 2 days, i, of course, hoped she would nap the entire way back. did she?? of course not. too tired, i guess. so we played w/some of her new toys when we got home then she took a long nap (thank goodness :) while i was very thankful she napped, we missed the christmas eve service at our church..... i knew she needed sleep b/c at 7 we have christmas at ju's granddad's w/all of his family. i was sad to miss the service though :( christmas at his granddad's was great, and lucy was pretty sassy! of course bedtime came late (about 10!) but at least we were all able to sleep in our own beds that night! then christmas day morning we went to town to ju's parents' house to open presents there before heading to his aunt's house for christmas w/just about the entire roberson clan. we played some at mimmy and pa's (ju's parents :) after breakfast before coming home to crash... well lucy crashed. ju went hunting and i semi straightened up the christmas tornado that hit our house. luce loves all of her new toys! she got soooo many! overall, all 3 of us had such a wonderful christmas and are blessed beyond what we deserve. very thankful for our families.

here are just a few pictures from our 4 day chrismas spree....

 christmas eve... getting ready for bed in our christmas pjs :)

christmas day... lc playing w/mimmy

 cousins!

 luce reading one of her new books... i think she likes it :)

daddy and lucy... saints vs falcons game

so that's just a few pics... the rest of them are on facebook.

tonight is our west point girls' christmas at anthony's!! i'm so so excited :) hopefully i'll actually take some pictures tonight so i can post them.... we'll see though. 



we're back... for now.

well we're back... for now. my last blog post was june, which seems like was quite a while ago. oops. life is busy... what can i say? here's a quick catch-up.....

i started school. again. i'm taking a few prerequisite classes so that i can hopefully get into nursing school next fall. (fingers crossed.)

lucy turned one. (i'll post pics from her awesome party as soon as all is settled down from christmas.) it was bittersweet.... she's so big now. i love watching her grow; however, i grow sadder every day. she's so not a baby anymore :( one thing she is though... amazing. absolutely amazing.


so that's a really quick recap. it's all i have the energy to do tonight. we leave tomorrow to go to saltillo to have christmas w/my mom and stepdad then to aberdeen friday for christmas w/my dad and stepmom then back here christmas eve day for christmas here, which is christmas eve service at church then on to ju's grandfather's for christmas w/his whole fam then breakfast christmas day w/the rest of the roberson family. wow--i'm exhausted just typing it. but i'm looking forward to it. christmas will be so much fun w/lucy this year :)


merry christmas,
molly

summer!

i can't believe it's already july. and i can't believe lucy is almost 9 months old! where does the time go?! i'm so thankful that i am able to stay at home with her... i don't want to miss anything! right now, she is crawling-sort of... she can do her legs and then move her arm one or two steps before collapsing. i bet in the next few days, she'll have it down though. she also is pulling up to stand up. this past sunday in church, she stood up and held on to the back of the church pew the entire service!

ju's sister had her baby! ara elizabeth harris was born on june 30th at 8:18pm and was 7lbs 1/2oz and 19 1/2 in. both mom and baby are healthy and at home. we went to visit this past monday... it's so weird to see/hold a newborn after toting around an almost 20lb baby! lucy looks like a giant next to ara. and holding ara felt like holding a feather! she's so tiny! and did i mention she has a head FULL of hair?! so so precious! i can't wait to go visit her again.

i've started planning lucy's 1st birthday! (yes, i am aware that her bday is 3 months away.. but you can't plan too early! especially if you want it to be a fabulous party :) i finally decided on a theme and a date (well i hope the date works. with a husband and a father-in-law farming, you never know..). i've started on the details and have been on the internet for hours and hours looking at blogs on bday parties and at diy ideas. i'm actually having a lot of fun so far! i'm getting the invitations done by jenny holloway designs... she is so talented and everything is custom! i'm excited to be able to send her by ideas/inspiration and her to create something just for us. a local lady, katie crenshaw, is making the cake. and the cookie mama will be making the cookies. i'm really excited about everything! especially started the diy projects for the party that i've lined up! i hope to start them in a few weeks.

in a week and a half, we're going to the beach w/my dad and stepmom and her family. i'm super excited to go back to the beach! we went when lucy was almost 7 months old and she didn't like the water, which, i do have to admit, was a bit chilly. i'm hoping she'll do better now! but she did enjoy the sand and people-watching (which she got honest!) so fun will be had, water or not!

here are a few photos that i'd like to share.....

 father's day :)

 this was the best of about ten we took!

 smile :)

sweet baby ara!

(please disregard the black smudge on/under the left eye.. i dropped my camera and now that smudge is there)

'dada'

well, it happened! lucy said her first word :) she said 'dada!' she's been saying it almost non-stop for 2 days now. no, she doesn't look at ju and say it; she doesn't quite get the meaning yet. sometimes it's just 'da' and others is 'dada.' and then 'dadada.' but, nonetheless, she said it!

i know it's been since february since i last blogged, so lots has happened since then. i'll just hit the high points...

lucy is such a big girl now! she's at such a fun age :) she loves to play w/all of her toys. and she loves to eat baby food. and she loves her walker. she is the happiest baby! she laughs all the time :) she likes to be scared (playful scared, not terrified). oh and sometimes she fake laughs or fake coughs--it's the funniest thing! also, she has 2 teeth! she's growing so fast; she's almost 18 lbs! a couple weeks ago, we went to the beach. it was me and lc, ju's mom and his sister. we had a girls' trip to santa rosa beach and had a fabulous time! lc did soooo good! she didn't like the water (ocean or pool); it was too cold for her liking but she loved sitting under the umbrella and playing w/her toys and just looking around. (she loves to people watch.. she gets it honest.)  we're going back to the beach in july w/my family, and i'm hoping she likes the water more by then. i may start taking her to the country club pool so maybe she can start getting used to the water. here are just a few pics from the beach....

1st day at the beach



duck swimsuit :)



:)    (i got sunburned on the 1st day.. that was a blast.)



you can kind of see her teeth!



 

this past monday we went to ridgeland to have lc's pictures made. it was so much fun! they were done by lisa siddall, and i just know the results will be amazing. i cannot wait to see them!!!!

another big thing that's happened is that luce has started eating baby food! she loves it!! so far she has tried squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and peas. we were going to try green beans this week but when i made* them, they didn't puree quite like i wanted and i was afraid she would choke on them. so we just brought back squash and carrots until i run back to the store to get some fruit.

*i'm making her baby food. it is sooo easy! and cheap too :) everything i've made so far has been in batches-my mom got me these food storage trays, which essentially are ice cube trays w/lids. so all i have to do is go to the freezer, pick the food, pop it out of the tray and warm it up in the microwave. it's super easy. yesterday, i made 2 trays (24-1oz cubes) of squash, 1 of carrots and 1 of sweet potatoes... and it took maybe 30 minutes (minus baking the sweet potatoes). it's so good for babies too, since you know exactly what's going into it. no preservatives or anything like that to help maintain shelf-life. and you think of how much baby food costs..... this way is so much cheaper. the package of squash i got at our grocery store was maybe $3.50, and it had 2 large and 1 medium. it made 24-1oz cubes, which is about 12ish servings (usually she eats 2oz of each food).  

well, duty calls... more next time (whenever that may be :)

lucy's big day

this past sunday was lucy's christening.. technically, 'christening' is used in catholicism; 'baptism' in methodism and others. so, lucy was baptized this past sunday. all of my parents came and so did my grandparents. it was so nice to have everyone together.

before church, everyone met at julius' parents' house, which is a short walk from the church, to drop off food and have a quick hello. then we were off to the church. the baptism was at the beginning of the service. lucy did SO good! she was awake and just looking around the whole time. my mom said that she kept looking at the preacher when he was talking. then she would look around at all the people then back at me and her daddy. she didn't cry or fuss at all. she was an angel! after her baptism, she was passed to 'mimmy' (ju's mom) and she fell asleep. she woke up just in time to take a few pictures before heading back to the house for lunch. we had finger foods and everything was so delicious. now for the best part of lunch--the cake. i had been looking forward to this cake ALL week long... just ask ju. he was so tired of me talking about it. i actually dreamt about it.. twice. yeah yeah yeah, pitiful. i know. but what can i say?! i LOVE sweets!! after eating lunch and having dessert, lucy went to sleep, and the rest of visited. it was such a beautiful day. so sunny and just the perfect temperature. i spent most of the time on the porch, which is probably my favorite place at their house. all in all, the day was perfect. the only thing that would have made it better would have been if lucy has stayed awake longer... but everyone did get to see her happy and smiling before she went down. here are a few pictures from the day. something was going on with our camera, so the all of the pics are blurry except the few i took w/my phone.

 our family :)

 mommy and lucy

 our sweet family again

me, my mom & luce

 scrumptious cake

 close up

holding her tulip :)

the rest of the pictures can be seen here. enjoy!

snow! and tears :(

how about that snow?! how exciting!! i love snow. and since we never ever ever get snow, it makes it that more special when it finally does! we got about 4 inches, which, to me, is just about the equivalent to the result of an avalanche. the only sad thing about the snow this year.... lucy isn't big enough to play in it or even experience it :( booooo. she's only 13 weeks, so ju and i felt that it wasn't a good idea to take her out in it. we contemplated just a quick visit outside so we could take her picture, but then decided that it was too cold for that. (maybe if we had a scarf and some gloves for her but we only had a hat.) so ju came up with the idea of putting her in her bumbo in the window and raising the blinds to take a picture--perfect idea :) but she was napping at the time and by the time she woke up and was fed and happy, i had completely forgotten about it. go me. but there is still a good bit of snow on the ground so perhaps i can get my act together today. 

 our house :)

 sammy wasn't sure what to think

 ellie kept hopping around in it

 sammy and ellie "attacking" bear (the shop dog)

sleep. it's an essential ingredient to a happy day for an infant. and for happy parents. unless, of course, your baby likes to nap in your arms.... it's sweet for a while, but then it becomes a "job" and ends up wearing you out. lucy is the type where she likes to be held while she sleeps-aren't they all until a certain point? and i've been obliging her until this past sunday. see, i hold her for an hour to hour and a half to make sure she's good and asleep then go put her in her crib. the problem with this is that 1)she's spoiled; and 2) i need her nap time almost as much as she does (to take a nap myself or to do things around the house or to just be me-baby free-for just a few minutes). so what's happening is that i get her to sleep then hold her to make sure she's good and asleep and then go put her in her crib. she'll sleep for maybe 30 minutes then wake up crying. now it's filtering into her bedtime routine as well.... she's been doing great at night... once i put her down, she's been sleeping all night. occasionally she'll have a bad night and wake up once, but for the majority of the nights-since she was about 9 weeks old-she's been doing great. until lately. since i'm so tired by her bedtime, i would get her to sleep by rocking her then would go to my bed and hold her until she was good and asleep and i would fall asleep too. then wake up in a couple hours and go put her in her crib. seems like a reasonable thing to do for an exhausted parent, right?! wrong. very bad idea on my part. at first i would just hold her for like an hour.. then it was an hour and half.. then 2 hours. then she realized that she would much rather stay in my arms then sleep in her crib. so i made the decision that it was time to let her cry it out. there are many thoughts and opinions on letting an infant cry it out... lots of people are against it. but as long as i know nothing is wrong with or hurting her, i think it's ok. no, it's not easy for me; but if i don't nip this problem now, it will only continue getting worse, which only makes it harder in the long run. i do, however, have a few mixed feelings on the whole method.... my main problem is thinking that she'll think we've abandoned her by not responding to her when she's crying. but i have to put my big girl panties on and realize that if she's not hurt and not needing anything, then she'll be ok. 

sunday, day 1... she cried off and on (and never a real cry.. more like just loud whines) for 40ish minutes before she went to sleep. then only slept for 10. then resumed crying. the only good thing to her taking a very short nap--she was exhausted by bedtime and slept all night w/out waking up after she was put in her crib. 

monday, day 2... awful. she cried what sounded like a terrible cry almost the entire time. i was really upset. ((side note: we have a video monitor so i'm able to look at her the entire time to make sure she's not hurt or what not.)) i could see that she was crying a combo cry-mad/spoiled cry and sleep fighter cry. so i let her continue to cry. it took about 40 minutes again until she finally stopped and went to sleep. she slept for 30ish minutes then resumed crying. it was the bad cry again. i let her continue as i finished my snack then went to get her and she was up for the afternoon. last night, i held her for about 35 minutes then put her in a crib. she woke up about 2 hours after i put her down and was crying. cried for like7 minutes then went to sleep. and slept all night. 

it's supposed to get easier every day... supposed to being the key word. i'm optimistic though (otherwise, i might cry!). so we'll see how today goes.

in development news, luce has discovered how to roll from her belly to back! but she can't quite grasp how to get back to her belly! soon enough though. also, she's sitting up so well in her bumbo! she's getting bigger every day, which is really fun and really sad at the same time! 

 on her activity mat.. looking in the mirror

 big girl in her bumbo! 

sammy wants in the picture!

lucy is here!!!!!!!!

announcing the arrival of lucy caroline roberson! born 10.12.10 @ 6:10pm.7lbs 5oz, 19in.

 first picture 

proud daddy :)

so... labor is tough! we had to get to the hospital at 4am on tuesday, october 12. they started the medicine to induce labor at 5 and my dr broke my water at 7:30. 10 1/2 hours later, still no baby :( dr said i would more than likely have to have a c-section but i could wait a little longer to see if i would progress anymore-if i wanted to. i tried to wait, but the pain was so intense. called the dr back a mere 30 minutes after our previous c-section conversation and said ok. it took another hour for him to get ready for surgery (he was at work at the women's clinic right next door to the hospital). at 6:10pm lucy caroline roberson was born. 

she is perfect. she is precious. she is amazing. she is everything i could've imagined. being a mother is the most wonderful thing in the world. even though being pregnant for 40 weeks (which does equal 10 months for those of you who think pregnancy only lasts 9 months!) and going through 13 hours of labor was so miserable (and recovering from a c-section is no walk in the park either), it is (obviously) worth it all. lucy is changing every day,which is both amazing and sad. this past tuesday, she turned 12 weeks. holy cow! it's been 12 weeks already?! i don't know how it goes by so fast :( i am so very thankful that i have such a wonderful husband (who is also an amazing father) who is letting me stay home with her. that news came 2 days before christmas and was, by far, the best present i have ever received. i couldn't imagine being at work and missing her first everything... not many moms get to stay home these days... i am truly so thankful. and blessed! 

so this post is short. hopefully i can update again soon..... but no promises; life is hard with a newborn. lucy consumes every minute of my day (which i wouldn't have any other way :). i'm still getting adjusted. you'd think after 12 weeks that i'd have the hang of it. but it's hard. i'm a lot better now than i was at first though! here are a few pics of luce. while i have at least a million, there's not enough time to post them all! 

enjoy!  :)

 last pic of belly! (please disregard the toilet in the background :)

proud grandads! ju's dad, pa (above); my dad, bobo (below)

 lucy and josie kate trying to figure each other out

birth announcement and christmas card :)

4 weeks

9 weeks

12 weeks