The start of May....

May 3rd: I turned 24 this year. No, I do not feel any older. I feel exactly the same :) I started off my morning by going to church. Let me just tell you right off the bat - I was not in a good mood that day. I was soooo tired because Sophia had been getting up every 2-3 hours for the previous week...thank you incoming teeth. So after church Sam, Sophia, and I went out to Firehouse Subs for lunch with a few church-going friends. I ate a foot long sub and it was muy deliciosa. After that, we went to Walmart to get a few ingredients to make my birthday cake...banana cake. When I got home, I attempted to take a short nap, but Sophia was crabby and fussy. Sam started helping me make the cake, but Sophia was just too cranky, so I made the cake myself, then started on dinner (tilapia, baked potatoes, and creamed green beans). While dinner was baking, Sam helped me pick out some pictures to have printed for all these frames I bought at Michael's....months ago. Lol. We managed to pick out pictures for 4 of the frames. We ate dinner, gave Sophia a bath, and put her to bed. Sam lit my candles, sang happy birthday, and we went to bed after having a piece of cake and milk. For my birthday, Sam got me a Vera Bradley camera case, wristlet, and tote bag. I think I already wrote about this in a previous blog...now that I think about it. Oh well. I'm not erasing it all.

Sophia got a new jumper/bouncer from Sam's mom. She's starting to like it more, but still doesn't stay in it very long. Pretty sure she's got a short attention span, but it's ok, she's a BABY. She also doesn't sit in her bumbo seat that long. Maybe this all has to do with her being more cranky than usual. She just wants to be held a lot - or at least have you sitting right next to her, looking at her, and not doing a darn thing else.

May 10th: My first Mother's Day!!!! The weather was beautiful, but to be perfectly honest (and I really don't want to sound like an ungrateful whiner) it was a rather downer of a day. I got ready for church - curled my hair and took time to make myself presentable, went to church, took a couple pictures with Sam and Sophia after church, then came home. Sam gave me a gift certificate to get a massage - so I'm looking forward to that. Then, off Sam went to work the 2-10 shift. And thus, I was alone with Sophia. Kristin was hanging out with her family because Mark was leaving the next day (today) on deployment again. Sue and Ben were out getting a late lunch together. And that's all the family I have here :( So, I returned some stuff at Michael's, used my gift card to the Limited, used some gift cards at Kohl's (sunglasses and 2 pieces of clothing for Sophia), and then went home. I TRIED going for a walk with Sophia after we got home. I put her in the front carrier and the walk started out really well. She made it about 15 minutes, just happy as could be. Then her sleepiness kicked in and she was ticked. She started screaming and crying and I could not get her to stop. I took her out of the carrier and carried her the last 30+ minutes on our walk....still crying. To make me feel even worse, there were about a million people out for a walk since the weather was so beautiful. Crappy. That's all I gotta say. She was still cranky when we got home so I gave her a bath, fed her, and put her to bed by 9:30. I sat around til Sam got home and then we went to bed. That was my day. Just let me get on my soapbox and don't judge me. I am thankful for all the wonderful texts, and even a phone call from my mom, but I was so sad to only get one card (thank you, Caitlin!!!) for my very first mother's day ever. Please don't think I'm ungrateful. I am so thankful for all the people that love me and are in my life, but wouldn't you be sad if you got ONE card for your first Mother's Day?? Oh well. I enjoyed getting to make cards for the lovely mommies I know (homemade and some photo greeting cards on Snapfish) and I hope they all loved them too. I hope all the moms had a GREAT day yesterday and know how much they are appreciated!

That's pretty much it for news. Tonight I'm going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and a drink with Kendal and Amber, so I'm looking forward to that. I always feel guilty leaving Sophia with someone though while I'm out by myself. I don't know, it just feels selfish to me.

Enjoy the pictures!

At one of the boys' baseball games

On Mommy's birthday...ready for church

Lighting my 5 candles

Ready to sing Happy Birthday

Mmmm banana cake

Sitting in her new bumbo chair

Sucking on her pinky

Playing in her new bouncer/jumper from Sue

Out for a walk...again

Being silly

All clean!

She loves her piggies

Smilin' for the camera

My first Mother's Day! ...before church

Family photo after church

Sophia and Mommy

My handsome husband!

Tummy time!

Look at me Second

Looks just like her daddy

mmmm hannies

Beautiful baby blues

Sam's first time giving her a bath at home 4-2-09

Grandpa's first time holding her EVER! 4-5-09

5 months old 4-22-09

Exactly what her shirt says

Big blue eyes

At Connor's baseball game

Cutie Patootie in her hand-me-down dress!

Love this picture so much

Super cool at baseball again

After church

First trip to the beach....but she's not wearing her swimsuit

Family picture at the beach

She loves her giggle bunny from her Great-Granny

Her VERY first time grabbing her toes!

Out for a walk

Ok, so I forgot to add all the pictures from our trip home to Wisconsin...forgot they were in a different folder. I'll add those the next chance I get - and I have new pictures that are still on my camera too.

Read me first!

So yeah.....a month and a half later and I'm just updating the blog. I suck. It's been a busy month and a half. Sam and I are still house hunting...with no luck. We can't find something we can afford that is in good enough shape to pass the NRHA inspection...plus it has to be in a good neighborhood with enough room in the house for us to grow into. Aside from that, Sam's job on the police department is going really well. He is enjoying it thoroughly and I'm so proud of him. I went back to Wisconsin for almost 2 weeks in April. On April 9th, my sister, her kids, Sophia, and I left Norfolk and drove to Wisconsin. Sophia did soooo well in the car! While home, I got to see lots of friends and family, and Kristin threw a baby shower for me! Awesome! I ended up staying longer than Kristin could, so I flew home with Sophia. We missed our flight home though because of unbelievable traffic. We got put on a later flight that had TWO stops. Thankfully we didn't have to switch planes at all, but it still was a very long day with a baby. We got to Midway at like 9:30 and didn't get to Norfolk until 6pm. Yuck. Sophia didn't cry at all until the very last leg of the flight. She started screaming like crazy as passengers were boarding. I felt horrible. I've been in their shoes where you're wondering, "ok lady, seriously, shut your kid up." Oh well. I tried giving her a bottle, tried nursing her, tried burping her, but had no success. As soon as the plane started moving, she fell right asleep though.

On April 27th our friends Kendal and Mike welcomed their second son into the world....a month early. Little Colin Michael is doing great though and was able to go home right away.

Kristin took me on Thursday to get a pedicure for Mother's Day- and it was fabulous. My toes look great!

Chels and Hori had their baby girl on Saturday, May 2nd!!! Yeah yeah yeah! So excited. Tanner Quinn was born at 5:59 pm and was 20" long and 8lbs 15oz! She is ADORABLE and I can't wait to get home and give her some love. Hopefully I'll make it home this summer for a week and a half to 2 weeks or so.

I recently just had my 24th birthday, woo hoo. It was a low key day. I woke up, got Sophia and myself ready for church. After church we went to Firehouse Subs with a few church goers. We came home and I took like a 45 minute nap, made banana cake with Sam, ordered some photos to put in frames, and made fish for dinner. Sam played the guitar and sang happy birthday to me after we finally got Sophia to bed. I'll post that video on facebook. It's so sweet. Sam also took that day off of work to spend with me :) I got a beautiful necklace from Kristin. Can't wait to wear it! I also got a check from my grandparents for $1000. Kidding, but I won't tell you how much it was for. I got a gift card to Kohl's from my mom....which I spent on the day after my birthday (got 3 tops, a dress, and a dress for Sophia all for under $75!). I also received a family membership to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and a giftcard to the Limited from Sam's parents. Can't wait to hit up the gardens! Yessss! I'm hoping Sam and I can make it next week on one of his days off if the weather permits.

Sophia has been changing SOOOOOOOO much since the last blog. Here are some new skills and behaviors since then: started "talking" tons, blowing bubbles, putting her hands in her mouth, trying to roll over, grabbing her feet, trying to put her feet in her mouth, tries to walk when you stand her up, is pooping more regularly, weighs close to 13lbs probably, laughs a ton, etc. I'm sure there are more that I'm totally missing. Oh DUH, big one - pretty sure she's starting to TEETHE. Great. She drools a ton, always has her fingers in her mouth, and is getting a rough spot on her bottom gums. I know I personally was hoping she'd get teeth late in her first year lol. She's still in size 1 diapers, but quickly outgrowing them. We're also almost out of o-3 month clothes! Wowie. She's getting longer - 24.5" at our last doctor's visit.

Since there are sooo many pictures to put up, I'm just going to put them all in the next blog.

Some pics and new updates!

I told you I'd post pictures that were still on my camera and I also told you I'd probably forget to write about something really important. So here we go:

Sam's sister Kanani got to meet Sophia for the first time on March 9th! Yay!!! She thought Sophia was so little - imagine what she would've thought when Sophia was just born. Hahah.

Before we get our medical bills in the mail, we always get an "explanation of benefits." This basically explains what was covered and how much we are going to owe. Well, ONE of the EOB's we just got said that the total was >$151,000. Yes you are reading that correctly. It was for over $151,000. What portion do we owe of that you ask? Well, we owe approximately $350. And yes, you're also reading that correctly. Thank goodness for Sam's good insurance coverage. PHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW. We get the EOB's almost nonstop in the mail. Keep in mind that this was just ONE of the many. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to share that little tidbit with you.

I know I posted a picture of our leaking bathroom ceiling last blog, but I can't remember if I ever told the story that goes with it. On February 22nd, I got up at like 6am to feed Sophia. I went to the bathroom, and sleepily sat down. And bam! What the heck! Water was leaking out of our ceiling all over me. Turns out that our neighbors upstairs had water leaking down the wall by their bathtub. So we called our landlord. Our ceiling didn't get repaired until this past Thursday. Talk about speedy huh. I was thoroughly ticked off. The ceiling looks great now. Too bad they couldn't fix our bedroom and living room ceilings too! Our landlord is too much of a cheap a$$ to do that though.

More new news: Yesterday Sophia held her own bottle to eat for the first time :( She's growing up so fast. Hopefully it was just a fluke and she'll wait a little longer to hold her own bottle. Also, Sophia went like a day and a half without pooping and she was VERY uncomfortable. Poor little girl. So I called the pediatrician's office and they said to put 1/2 oz in her milk when I fed her. About an hour later, the apple juice worked....a little too well. She managed to poop all down her leg and it was the most awful smelling diaper I've ever changed. Sooooo, she got a bath and was one happy camper! :)

Ready to leave for Sam's academy class graduation party

At the partay

Chaney, Trinity, me, and Sam

Sam's first morning on the streets!

It snowed! It snowed for Sam's first day of work :)

Daddy time

So darn cute

There are no pictures of us together unless I take them myself :(

Suh-wheat shades!!!!

Like mother, like daughter

Grandma and Sophia

Auntie Kanani and Grandma with Sophia

What a ham. Check out the chin pimple.

Holding her own bottle!

Some tummy time