Welcome Katelyn Elizabeth!!

I have not posted in a while, but we have very exciting news to announce. The Lord blessed us with a very special Christmas present this year, one week before Christmas. Baby Katelyn Elizabeth was born December 18, 2011 at 5:04 p.m. She weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and was/is 20 inches long. She is just beautiful and we are so proud to have her join our family. Another thing that makes her birthday special is that she shares it with her Great Granny Wilkes! Granny is just delighted that she was born on her birthday. :)
Katelyn is already so strong; she started holding her head up while in the hospital within the first four days of her life, and boy does she have a set of lungs! She also has long feet, toes, and fingers so we think she may take after me and play the piano, or take after her Boboo (and Ya-Ya) and play basketball. Only time will tell! Here are a few photos of our little Christmas blessing.

Jackson is a great big brother and loves to hold her and help me with her. My parents have been kind enough to keep him for a few days while Katelyn and I get adjusted to our new routines, and I am thankful for that; although Monday I had a very good day with both of them here with me.
I must say it has been quite an adjustment for all of us; life is really crazy right now, but we have a great time working through everything! Jackson is just wide open these days and his favorite phrase is..."Hey Mommy.....fill in the blank" He asks so many questions and learns so quickly; he also has a very creative imagination. I love to play with him and don't want him to feel left out or that he's not getting the attention he deserves, but it's hard sometimes when you're trying to nurse a newborn! I tried nursing with Jackson, but he never latched on well and then my milk supply couldn't keep up with him demand - and I was just worn out overall! I'm determined to stick with it this time, but so far the biggest challenge - other than milk production - has been keeping Katelyn awake while she's nursing. Meanwhile I am trying to pump every 2-3 hours to keep everything up. I figure since she takes the bottle pretty well, and stay awake, I can at least give her my milk that way. Maybe too much information, but that is what's on my mind!! Sorry!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I wish everyone (whoever you are) a Happy New Year!

Counting Down....

I'm not sure if anyone even reads this blog, but I will continue recording life's happenings for my future reference at least!

For the time being, I am finishing up my last few days at work before I begin my maternity leave next week. On that front, things have been rather hectic because the managers here have waited until the last minute to hire a temp. for me to train, so it's coming down to training sessions my last two days at work! Of course, that seems to always be the pace around here, so I shouldn't have expected anything less.

In other news, our "new" home at 405 Mandalay is coming along; the progress seems rather slow, but any progress is good progress, right? So we closed on the home November 16th and Andrew has spent the majority of his spare time there demolishing things we will be changing, which is most of the house, and preparing it for renovations. The foundation crew is out this week repairing the foundation for the addition/living room area, the new walls for my kitchen and our bath shower have been put up, and the drain for the kitchen sink has been moved. We are still waiting on an additional short wall in the kitchen to be added so that the plumber can finish his work for the sink, and while he's at it, we will try to have him install our shower unit. Unfortunately, there has been a delay in ordering that and other things because we waited until this week to open credit accounts with Lowe's, Home Depot, and Chase. So, we have to wait until the cards get here, and then the additional time it takes to ship the items before we can start on those things. Needless to say, this has been a very good learning experience for us! I keep reminding myself to be patient and we just keep plugging along.

Our plan was/is to rent our current residence as soon as we move into our new home, and the Lord has answered our prayers there by providing a very interested tenant who will be returning from Iraq this month and reporting to Camp Shelby next month for duty. Praise His name!! That has relieved some stress for sure!

Of course, on the forefront of my mind is the arrival of our baby girl, Katelyn. My due date is 9 days away and the doctor still hasn't given me the good news I've wanted to hear, which is that I've started dialating and preparing for labor. The 16th is the expected date of her arrival, but I was hoping she would come a week early. I guess it could still happen with the full moon around the corner this weekend; I'm being hopeful at least. I have my hospital bag packed, a bag packed for Katelyn, her nursery is ready, and all we have to do is install the car seat to bring her home!

Jackson seems to be excited about the prospect of having a baby sister, and being the big brother. He asked me last week when we could go to the hospital to get baby sister....too cute! I told him she was still in Mommy's belly and we would have to wait until she was ready. He has been such a joy these days and has really enjoyed his new elf friend, Boyd. His Ya-Ya heard about this Christmas trend from other friends and couldn't resist getting one for Jackson. It is the Elf on a Shelf and he has enjoyed it much more than we imagined. The story of the elf is that he has magical powers that allow him to report back to Santa each night and let him know if the child has been Naughty or Nice. If you touch him, he loses some of his powers and cannot report back to Santa. He appears in a different place in your home each day, and Jackson loves to see where he will show up each morning! I thnk this Christmas will be more exciting for Jackson than his first two, so I am really looking forward to that!

Until next time...