9 Month Pictures, Birthday Party, and Mother's Day

Happy Friday everyone!  This has been a really crazy week. Kris was in Orlando all week and we were very busy at work so I for one am very happy it's the weekend. I meant to update the blog on Monday but that didn't happen. The week just go away from me. I had mentioned that my friend Jen Skipper took Scout's 9 month pictures at my parents house while we were in TN. She had been wanting to take her pictures for a while and I of course wanted her to also, but since we live in different states and it's so hard to block the time when we do come to Tennessee it isn't really an easy task. I am so thankful that she got to capture Scout's 9 month pictures! Jen did an awesome job! Not that I expected any less...she is very creative and so patient! Are these not the most precious pictures ever? I added a few and then there is a link below with more of the pictures and a sweet little video.It's under the "Grins and Giggles" posting.  You just have to scroll down a bit. Thank you JJ!!! I love you girl!

 

http://blog.skipperphoto.com/?p=371

  Last week my friend Jillian flew in from Nashville to hang out for the weekend and continue to celebrate my 30th birthday! I was happy to have her here. On  Friday night her and I went to Fort Worth to the rodeo, then we hung out in the Stockyards for while. After that we went to Sundance Square. Fort Worth is cool. It's what I always imagined Texas to be like before I moved here. Dallas is cool too...for shopping...eating out...but Fort Worth is TEXAS. I like it. We had a really good time and the weather was perfect!

  On Saturday, Jillian, Kamden, Scout, and I hung out most of the day. We did some drawings in the morning with Kamden and then went to the gym and worked out....

Me showing off my dwindling basketball skills to Scout. Clearly she was more interested in eating my phone.

Kamden on the climbing wall. He almost made it to the top but then he said he was scared.
I think it might have also had something to do with the fact that he was the only one climbing
at the time and we were all watching and yelling "almost there...keep going!"  We will
try again next time. He enjoys it and it's really good for him to help build up his strength.
One of the many great features at Lifetime!


Saturday night my wonderful husband ( with the help of his mom and siblings) threw me a 30th birthday party. It was fun catching up with everyone and watching all the babies run/crawl around. My how our lives have changed in the last two years!

Emily and precious McKinley :)

Jonne and Amelia

Vince

Scout and her birthday twin, Jordan

Me and Jillian

Then on Sunday we went to lunch at Babes for Mothers Day, ate way too much, and then we came home and took a nap. It was a good day. I feel very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Motherhood is amazing. It's complex, challenging, exhausting, and beautiful. I love it. All of it. I have been blessed with a wonderful Mother and now a wonderful daughter. I feel so lucky to have had such nurturing and caring women throughout my life and I thank God every day for the opportunity to take on one of life's most challenging and rewarding roles.  I hope all you Mom's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! ( I know it was a week ago...but I meant to post this on Sunday :)

Scout is officially a crawler now. She has it down pretty good and man is she ever nosy about every.little.thing! Kris says he wants to find her baby straight jacket :) She has to touch and grab everything! She loves to roll her ball back and forth to you and she is talking constantly. About what? I have no clue, but she is excited and very serious about it. She is a busy baby! She makes us laugh all the time and she definitely knows what "no" means and she likes to see what she can get away with. Already :). She is so much fun right now! Everyday is a new adventure and I love watching her discover things. I totally get a kick out of her having a discussion with her stuffed animal, block, water bottle, book...you name it. She has something to say about it :) We did find out last week that she does have Kidney reflux. (The medical name is vesicoureteral reflux). On a scale of grades 1-5, 1 being the least and 5 being the worst, she is a grade 2. Children almost always grow out this by the time they are four or so. Sometimes they will be put on antibiotics an extended period of time but since Scout has only had one infection so far we aren't going to put her on anything for now. We have been referred to a pediatric urologist that we will visit in a couple of weeks. Basically we will just need to follow up with him every six months or so to see when and if this problem corrects itself. If she continues to get more infections then we will go from there. She didn't have any scaring in her kidneys which is really good. Hopefully she will not get any more infections but we will have to keep an eye on it and call the Dr. if she runs a temperature over 101. So...thats that. The appointment at Cooks last Friday went really well! We did the ultra sound and Scout was wonderful. She just laid there and looked around and occasionally tried to help the tech by putting her hand on hers as she was gliding the wand across her belly.  I was mainly dreading the catheter part again. It went really smooth. I was pleased. Scout cried out two times and she was clearly not comfortable...but she was not in pain. I could tell. They got it in very quickly and once it was in she was cool. The nurse in the room next to us could not get over how calm she was in comparison to most babies/kids. I assured her that it did not go down quite that pleasantly in the Pediatrician's office.  This time was much better. I do think Scout is a pretty tough cookie though. She can throw herself into an academy-award winning display of back arching and grunting when she is unhappy about something sometimes, but she always settles down easily.  Typically you can make her laugh and she just forgets why she was upset in the first place! She is so awesome and I am one proud Momma! :)  

Kisses from Knox :)

I want to ask for some very special prayers for my Uncle Bob and Aunt Bev. They live in Michigan and have always been involved in our lives my whole life. My Uncle Bob has had a really rough year. He has had some pretty major health problems dealing with his lungs. Last year he had surgery because his insides were all out of place. I know that sounds weird and like I just made it up...but thats basically what it was. My Granny would know more of the details. They don't really know why. He played football for Central Michigan and was actually drafted by the Chicago Bears back in the 50's I believe.(did I get this right Aunt Bev?)  He got hit really hard in college and suffered a major injury and I have heard my Grandmother mention she wondered if that might have caused some of his problems. Only one of his lungs is functioning and it isn't functioning very well. He has never been a smoker and his heart is healthy. Anyway, he has been in the hospital the last several weeks and he is struggling to get much better. He is one of the nicest, sweetest men and it breaks my heart for them. To top it off, my Aunt Bev found out last week she has breast cancer and has to have surgery on Monday. They have a had a really, really rough few weeks and I just want to ask that you keep them in your prayers. They are wonderful people!

I guess thats it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!!!