Happy Birthday to My Love!

Today is the first time in 4 years I have not been able to do anything for Brandon's birthday, so I am feeling a little down and pretty weird.

So to Brandon:

I hope you have the best birthday, and have a great time with the family. My love for you grows by the day. You have helped me to be a calmer person and more understanding. I love to sit and watch you play with Maddyson and can't wait to see you with Payton Claire. You are the most amazing man I have ever met. You are my best friend and a wonderful Husband. I would not want to spend my life without you right there with me. We have been through so many trying times as well as happy beautiful times. We make the best memories and I am thankful God has blessed me with you.

Happy Birthday Babe!!

3 weeks til RELEASE!!

Well I have made it to 31 weeks and 31 days in the hospital. I will be released on August 14th, if I have not had Payton Claire by then. There have been no changes to my cervix and no consistant contractions. I am trying to make the bst out of this and get lots of sleep so that I am REALLY prepared when I get home.

Here is a picture from today...my belly just does not get big. I promise it feels HUGE!!!!

Where we are supposed to be

Day 27

Let's see...last Monday we had a bit of a scare, but nothing happened. Payton Claire is still doing wonderfully cooking in my belly!! Last Monday they also moved me to post partum becuase Labor and Delivery was overflowing with patients actually having babies. It has been very different down here...I miss my L&D nurses. My doctor says she thinks I'm going to make it to my 34 week mark and as of a week ago, Payton was weighing in at an estimated 3.7 pounds. At 34 wks, I get to go home!! woohoo, only thing I will probably just turn right back around and deliver. I am starting to get bored. I have things to do, but after almost 30 days of sitting in the bed doing nothing it gets old. Other than that we are all doing great. Maddyson is in a cheer camp at school and is having a blast. She is so cute doing her little cheers and dances. She is loving it. Brandon is very busy at work learning new programs for his mapping position as well as doing his current job. He is also doing a great job with doing both our roles. His birthday is on Friday too and this will be the first time I don't get to have a big party for him. But I guess it is for good reason. I got him a great gift though!! We will keep you all posted on the progress.

Day 21 and still baking.....

Well, we are still continuing on. Ashlie has now been in 21 days. She is doing great. I am so glad she has not gone bonkers yet. I know it is very difficult and we are there for her in every way possible. Yesterday there were some nervous moments cause she was feeling a lot of pain from some contractions and some ligament pain in her belly. With the inabillity to really move around and stretch or take a nice bath, she has had to just fight through the pain. The doctor did an exam and she is 3 1/2cm dialated. Payton is really low and ashlie has a bulging sac, so we dont want it to break at this time. This is one of the main reasons why she is on strict bedrest. She is feeling better today than yesterday. The baby is measuring 30 weeks, but by dates, thursday is 30 weeks. She weighs 3.7lbs at this time. More updates to come....

12 days in counting......

Well, Payton is still baking. Here are some pictures of Maddyson and Mommy in the hospital. Things are going good. Ashlie is getting a little overwhelmed at some points, but i'll let her explain how she feels in her words. We are just pluggin away.

Updates

Well not much has changed. Baby Payton Claire is very active for her age according to the doctors and nurses. She can be heard throughout the hospital when being monitored. I am only being monitored twice a day and have been taken off all medications and fluids. My contractions have not come back and I came off the contraction medicine Friday at noon. Thinking back I only had contractions when I was up and moving so I guess bedrest is helping. I do have to say for anyone that knows me THIS IS MAKING ME CRAZY!!!!!! I don't sit patiently. :) But at this point anything to keep Payton Claire in is what I will do to make her more healthy. I will continue to keep you posted.

Prayer for Ashlie and baby!!

Ashlie was admitted to the hospital today for pre-mature labor. She's not actually in labor yet, but her body is producing symptoms and reacting as though the baby should be coming out when its not. She is at 27 weeks right now and she is 3cm dialated. They are giving her indocin to slow the labor contraction and steriods to promote the necessary developments for the baby. As of right now, the sac around the baby is perfectly in tact and baby is doing good. There are milestones that the doctors would like to hit for baby development. These weeks from now until 34 weeks are crucial for part of the brain, lung, and heart developments. She is at Centennial hospital in Frisco and will be there until the baby is born. This could be 1 week - a couple months. Hopefully it will be a couple months for the baby's development. Please pray for the health of Ashlie and Payton (baby) through this time.

Sea World Trip!!

This past weekend we went on a short family vacation down to San Antonio to visit Sea World. We had such a wonderful time. We stayed on the riverwalk at the Hyatt which was awesome. Saturday we woke up and drove out to Sea World early in the morning. We got 2 day passes, so we decided that Saturday we were going to do all the shows and exhibits, then on Sunday we just spent the whole time at the waterpark. There was a lot of walking around, but it wasn't too bad. Ashlie was able to make it and survive being 6 1/2 months pregnant. Maddyson loved everything, but she'd probably say her favorite things were Shamu and the waterpark. Here are a few pics from our trip.







She was on the inside, you just can't see her cause it tilted inside. She had fun though.

Maddyson after a hard days trip.

On the riverboat on the riverwalk.

Strut Your Mutt

This past weekend we went as a group to the SPCA Strut Your Mutt in Fair Park. We had a good time walking all our dogs and seeing the thousands of dogs that showed up for the annual 3k walk.

Football Stool @ Home Depot

The first weekend of every month Home Depot has a project where you can take your kids in and build something. For February they had us make a football stool for reference to the Super Bowl. All materials are free. It is a great chance to get out and have you kids get into building. Here are a few pics.

Christmas

Well, i know its been a while, but i'm going to post this for history purposes. We had a great Christmas. We celebrated early with the Rich family and opened presents and all. Then we went down to Katy with the Reynolds-Boni family to celebrate Christmas down there. We had a great time opening presents and taking family pictures with all the family down in and around the Houston area.

Thanksgiving

Well yesterday was Thanksgiving, we enjoyed our day at the Rich Family household! We have so much to be thankful for right now. We have great family that help us so much with Maddyson while I am going to school. We have each other and best of all we have love! We had a great time doing something different and Maddyson had fun playing with Lindsey and Chelsea.

Turning 3!!

I can't believe 3 years have gone by since Maddyson was born. It is hard to grasp. On her birthday she was with my parents since I had school and Brandon had just got back in town. I called her at the time she was born and the poor thing was still sleeping. She called me back a little bit later and I got to sing her Happy Birthday. When I got home that night Brandon and I had a little party...just us three. Brandon and Maddyson made her birthday cake together. We got her presents together and her bike and put them in the playroom and got ready for her to come in. She was so excited to get a bike...she had been talking about getting one for about a month before. Due to Brandon doing so much traveling and my school we had her real party just last Sunday. It was a big hit...you would have thought it was Christmas at the house. She got so many toys and clothes. We had the bounce house out and her and her 2nd cousin Ryleigh had a great time playing together. Check out the pics from both parties.

Pretty Pretty Princess

Click on Cinderella to see more pics of her Halloween excursion.

Brain of Sponges

Ok, so i ask Maddyson what she learned at school that day. Her typical answer is, "just played, colored, or I dont know..." Well, today she spatted off the names of all the planets in the correct order. I was pretty shocked because i really wasn't actually expecting that kind of answer. It is pretty amazing how much they can learn at this age. She is now going to dance and tumbling classes at school. She has leotard and a pink ballet outfit that is pretty cute. I will post pics of her in them later. Her 3rd birthday is coming up this month. She is super excited about it.

The pic has nothing to do with the post, just wanted to post a cute pic.

Porch

Here is the before and after of what our back porch looks like now. Things are still left to be done out back, but the main structure is up and covered.

Weekend and New Job

Well I started my new job today and boy oh boy it was hectic. I will eventually like working there but right now it is hard. It is a brand new school and they are still working out the kinks and teachers. I have 10 children and they are fun.

As for our weekend, I had my first 13 hour class on Saturday. Wow...it was a long day. Sunday my brother Chris came over Sunday and helped Brandon and my Dad try to finish the patio cover, well if you live in the are you know it rained on Sunday...it was a mess. Our already damaged interior wall began to leak from the roof again. Then it stopped they all went back out to continue and well, within the first 10 min of being out there my Dad dropped a piece of metal roofing into his shin and sliced it open pretty good. I took him to the ER and well I will have a great story to tell in class Tuesday. As the PA cleaned and preped to stich it up, he was making sure the tendon was not severed and saw bone so there I was standing right over it looking at the shin bone and tendon moving (it did not sever it). It was pretty darn cool. Well once we got back, Chris and Brandon had a good bit done and were still working, into the darkness. They had to quit for saftey and didn't get finished. Today of course it rained and now we are REALLY going to have to replace almost the whole wall from the rain running right into it. You know, I have realized that nothing can surprise me when it comes to this house we love so much. We literally have been remodeling ths house since July 2006, the month we moved in. Not all because we choose to either. Oh well....Life happens right!!! Thanks Chris for spending you Sunday on My roof and staying so late, and Thank you Justin for coming today and trying to stop the water from coming in!! love you both.

Cheerleader

Even though I'm a UT fan and her daddy is an Aggie, Gumps (one of Maddyson's grandpa's) graduated from OU and bought an OU cheerleading outfit. We had Maddyson wear it today to support Gumps and his team. She looks adorable no matter what team she is wearing.

Expectations

Brandon and I are actively involved in church at Firewheel Church. We just became members and are attending a class called Firm Foundations. It is on Wednesday nights and is a really neat class. I know, I am learning a lot. Last night we talked about expectations. I suddenly realized that my OCD has me set with really high expectations of Brandon for one and for everyone else I know. I do have high expectations for everyone and realize that I shouldn't. Reason being, if I hold everyone to my high expectations and then they do not live up to it, then I am upset, mad, or even become resentful of that person. If I learn to not have a particular level of expectation, then I will no longer be disappointed...all the time. I have to learn to handle every situation differently and think before I react. Even with parenting little miss Maddyson. The class had some really great points that show how to not speak expectations through your discipline, I.e. your room is a mess, you are such a slob...when you grow up you are going to be a dirty slob. Sounds harsh...well I know from hearing those words many times in my life that it is true, parents speak the most awful things to their children and don't even realize what they are doing. I feel I am rambling on, so I will quit, but just always remember to hold your expectations to yourself and not always show them, for you may walk and live in disappointment.