Hilton Head Island

We loaded up and headed to HHI for a week's vacation with Kevin's mom, dad, brother and his girlfriend, and our crew. I didn't realize how much I needed to just get away and relax some! We all had so much fun!

Here's what we did:

Road in the car 7 hours there and back!

Strolled around Harbor Town (and shopped!)

Went on a dolphin excursion and saw TONS of dolphins!

Played on a cool playground and thoroughly enjoyed the swing!

Went to Savannah for a day. We shopped, strolled, pet the horsies, ate, and took a tour of Savannah!

Kevin and his dad played golf!

Spent lots of time in our swim suits!

Relaxed on the beach and played in the sand making lots of castles!

Had so much fun playing in the pool and finding it quite humorous when daddy did flips into the pool!

And though there are no pictures we did a lot of bike riding around the island!

It was a great week and went by way too fast!

Hadley 3 Months!

So it dawned on me today I never got around to posting Hadley's 3 month post! I am still behind on posting pics from our Fourth of July but I'll just have to back track seeing that I am rapidly approaching the 25th of the month and will have another month to post for Miss H. So here is her 3 month stuff!

Hadley,

At three months you weighed in around 12.5-13 pounds I think. We don't have an official weight because we didn't see the pediatrician this month!

You are wearing size 2 diapers but they are a little big. Most of the time it is still cloth but you moved to the second snap on those!

You are still wearing size 0-3 month clothes. A few are getting snug but they fit pretty well!

You sleep in our room in your bassinet and love it. You love to be swaddled too. I forced Ayda into her crib at 3 months because I was going back to work so it is nice not having to rush with you. Makes night time feedings so much easier having you right there next to me.

You are smiling a TON and "talking" so much more.

Yes, you still HATE the car!

You wakes up 1-2 times at night to eat but usually goes right back to sleep!

You enjoy playing on your play mat and checking out all the toys on it.

And you is showing some signs of teething already. Monkey's shoulder was briefly used as a teething toy for this pic!

Overall, you are a happy, easy going, fun little girl!

(And of course here is Ayda at 3 months!)

Hadley, time is going TOO fast. You are growing so much each week and especially each month! We love you and are so proud of you!

Friends Forever

My best friend, Jen, came to ATL to spend the afternoon with us! It is so crazy to think we have been friends for almost 25 years. In one sense it makes me feel old saying that and in another sense it makes me feel really blessed. We have been through so much together! Through all the chapters of life we have seen each other through, motherhood has been my favorite. Growing up we always said she would be the one with girls and I would be the one with boys based on our personalities...and we assumed I'd have the blonde haired kids and she would have the dark haired kids. And so we laugh now as we see God had such different plans for use! I love watching her with her boys!! And I would not trade my girls for anything!

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon chatting and playing with our kids. It was so nice to have a conversation with her and not hold a phone up to my ear to do it! Her youngest son's birthday is in a few weeks so we celebrated early with a present from the Lins. I had to laugh when her oldest, Nathan, took the gift to play with it leaving Andrew to play with the packaging...second child! hehe! They are sure sweet boys...I just wish we lived closer so our kids could play together more!

Thanks, Jen, for ALL the years of friendship!

A Trip to Meet Micah...and see the rest of the fam!

My dad, step mom, sister and brother all came to ATL to meet Hadley. They live in CT and we decided meeting in ATL would be best because then we could all head over to Bham and see my brother's family. The day was so much fun and it was awesome to finally meet my newest little nephew, Micah!

Uncle Josh giving Hadley some sugars!!

Micah is absolutely precious. He has such a sweet personality and is so laid back. It was so much fun playing with him and taking in that sweet smile!

It was also Micah's first birthday the day we were there! I am so happy down here in FL but one thing I miss so much is getting to go to my nieces and nephews birthday parties. This meant the world that I was able to celebrate with this little guy on his first!!

The whole gang (minus my two sleepy heads and our photographer)!!!

It was a busy day and we were exhausted once we got back to my mom's house but it was worth it for sure!!!

Hadley and Gracyn

Our friends in ATL had their baby girl, Gracyn, 5 days after we had Hadley. In fact, Hadley stole G's due date. Josh and Kaitlin are good friends of ours and it has been so hard not to be able to meet each other's little ones for three months. So we had a blast when we finally got the girls together!!!

Getting a good pic of both of them was challenging. At one point Hadley started chewing on Gracyn. Needless to say Gracyn was not impressed!

Ayda joined the picture attempts. I know she will have fun leading these two around in years to come!

Our sweet little girls. We have decided they are linked on a weird level! Kaitlin and I's pregnancies were very similar and the girls seem to have very similar opinions about stuff. It is funny! I know they will be good friends!

Cocoa Beach

My mom came into town for a few days and then to help me drive to ATL. We picked her up at the airport and headed to a girls night at Cocoa Beach. We ate at our favorite restaurant, stayed in a hotel and then hit the beach the next morning. It was lots of fun. Ayda of course loved the beach. Hadley was not impressed at all. After crying/fussing for about an hour, she finally went to sleep in the swing (yes we lugged it down to the beach!). It was still nice to play at the beach for a few hours. Then we headed home!

Finally taking a nap on the beach!

Me and my girls!!

Mystery Diagnosis...

Back when I used to have time to sit and watch tv I loved the show Mystery Diagnosis. I loved watching it and trying to guess what the person had. Rarely was right but I liked the medical stuff they talked about it (yes some of it was bogus but still...). However, when my own kid is a mystery diagnosis it was not nearly as entertaining.

Last week Ayda started limping all of a sudden after going for a walk in the garden. She didn't do anything that anyone saw and she didn't cry out in pain at any point that whole day. So we put her to bed and figured it would be fine in the morning. Thursday she got up and was still limping so we took it easy all day.

Friday, still limping. Kevin and I were concerned because she has never done this and we had no idea what it was. We decided to take her to his office to get some X-rays to see if we could see anything there. When we asked if something hurt she really didn't answer. I also called a friend of mine's husband who is a PT. She really had us stumped as we saw normal X-Rays and all the range of motion tests we did were fine. Friday night I made the mistake of getting on the internet to try to find something. You know, cause Dr. Google is very reliable! AH! It was not good. I got myself freaked out and Kevin was out of town and unable to talk. So no one was here to talk me down. I finally headed to bed at midnight.

Saturday we stayed home and I tried to keep Ayda off her foot. Yea right...not easy to do with an active toddler. I spent the majority of the day staring at her leg and saying "Ayda no Jumping", "Ayda don't run", or "Ayda you need to sit down and rest". I was exhausted. Kevin got home late Saturday night and we decided to keep her chill Sunday and then take her to our Pediatrician Monday.

I asked some family and close friends to pray for us as we went into Monday. I didn't know what to expect and prayed for a smooth day and for an answer. The prayers were so felt. By noon pretty much all of what I asked for specifically was already answered. We got in with our Pediatrician at 9:40. She was so sweet, as always, and decided to refer us to a Pediatric Orthopedist. Not only did she make the phone call and set up the appointment, she explained everything going on to the doctor, gave her all our info including insurance, and we were totally set! Saved so much time. And the appointment was at 1:45. Perfect for Kevin to be able to come with us and perfect for Hadley to stay with our friend Tauny and nap. It was great.

We made it to the appointment and got checked in so fast since our peds dr had given all the info already. The ortho doctor was super sweet and gentle with Ayda. She decided to take a few X-rays and go from there. Ayda didn't like that I had to leave the room for xrays and that was the only time she cried. I was SO thankful that Kevin was able to be there tho and he stayed in the room with her and held her hand. She would have been a mess if he was not there and I couldn't stay. After xrays we just waited for the dr to give us the verdict. I was fully prepared for it to be a break and us leave with a cast. The Dr came in and said she didn't see anything and that she was fine with us going home without a cast since we didn't really know where the issue was. Said we should see improvement by the end of the week. At first I was frustrated because we still don't know why she is limping. BUT after thinking about it some I realized we have ruled out anything bad at this point. That is a great answer right there. And she doesn't have a big cast on in this 95 degree weather. I'll take it!

So my child is still a mystery but that's ok. And yesterday I saw God answering prayers the whole day. We ended our adventure with ice cream with our friends Taunya and Easton. Ayda loved being center of attention all day and getting a sucker, two stickers, a toy, and ice cream. She thought the whole thing was fantastic...me on the other hand...I was in bed at 9:30 last night and didn't move till Hadley woke me up at 2:45!

Snuggles with Daddy

Getting to pick a toy out of the treasure chest after Xrays!