Holiday Happenings

Even though Hadley was sick, we had a great Thanksgiving. I love good food and getting to spend time with our family. Family is so important to me, and I want Hadley to be close to her cousins and other family members. As usual we ate more than we should have, but I don't even regret it!!! It is great... we had all of our favorite things in one dinner!

Hadley has been having a cold for a week. We have to suction her nose quite a bit, which she does not like in the least bit. It takes both Jared and I to do this. Hopefully she will get better soon.
We did get her first Christmas tree this weekend. She felt the branches, but I think she thinks they are too picky. She really hasn't wanted to touch it much since we put it up. She likes it from a distance. Score for me!!
She is getting her two top teeth. One is out and the other one is on its way. She also knows how to do the touchdown sign( both arms up). It is pretty funny. This is one pic, but she can do it better ( as you know, it is hard to get pics of kids doing things like that!)
Jared and I had fun at our last LSU game despite the cold weather. We were so glad they pulled it out in the end. Looking forward to some improvement for next year!
I finished my last two projects for this semester today! Yippee! I am so glad to be done with that. Ready for a break from school!! Still have some Christmas shopping to do and Christmas cards! I gotta get on top of things! I can't believe it is already December!! When did that happen?

Nine months old!!

Wow! How time flies by so quickly! Jared and I were just talking about how when we were kids it seemed as though Christmas would never get here. It's funny because as adults it seems as though we were just taking down the Christmas tree and now it is time to shop for another one.
Hadley turned 9 months old yesterday. I still can't believe it. We are so blessed to have such a sweet, happy, and healthy baby girl. Her favorite things to play with are empty propel bottles, newspaper and magazines( or any paper things), anything electronic such as cell phones, cameras, remote controls, etc. She smiles right away when the light on the camera comes on because she knows you are taking her picture... you think that has anything to do with the fact that I am constantly taking pictures of her;) She loves books! We read to her a lot. She can sit up and stand up in her bed when she wakes up- don't worry her daddy has lowered the bed to its lowest level. She is crawling around everywhere. We are trying to post a video and hopefully we will be able to get that done soon. She also really likes Rusty, our golden retriever. He lets her pet him or should I say pull his hair. We fed her the baby food meat for the first time the other night. I will post a picture that will show you exactly what she thought about that. I can't say I blame her.. it smelled horrible. She is down to two naps a day and 4 feedings a day. She eats and sleeps well. She has been sleeping through the night for quite some time now. We put her in bed at 8:00 p.m. and she sleeps till around 6:30 or so every day. We are so blessed to have such awesome family to help us and to make her feel loved. We can't wait to share the upcoming holidays with you guys.

The latest at the Walker house

Whew! I have been so busy with school and chasing my little darling. Yep.. she has finally learned to crawl. She is non-stop and having a blast. I don't have quite as much free time as I used to now that she is more mobile and takes less naps. She is sleeping and eating well, and she is getting a new tooth on top. This will be her third one. She has really handled teething well. We have been to the Bengal Belles luncheon twice since I posted last. She loved the band and the cheerleaders. The semester is winding down and I only have one more project in each class and then I am done! Yippee! I am ready for a break before next semester. Looking forward to a big fat Thanksgiving dinner and some time with the family. LSU has left a lot to be desired these last few games... let's hope that they can shut down Ole Miss. It won't be easy, but I am trying to stay hopeful.

I am still alive!

Wow! It has been a while since I have had time to post. School has been keeping me busy in addition to cleaning house and taking care of Hadley. Recently Hadley and I met Raynell and Rex at Harb's Oasis to take pictures at their cute pumpkin patch setup. It was extremely hot, but I think the kids had fun anyway.
Of course it is football season so we have been going to the LSU games. The only way we could possibly do this is if our parents watch Hadley. We are so grateful to have such amazing parents. We truly don't know what we would do without them. We are secretly hoping the Tigers learn some new offensive plays this week because they are struggling!!
We actually got some tickets to attend the Saints vs. Jets game and were able to go ! That was pretty fun too! Go Saints!
I actually left Hadley in the nursery at church last Sunday! Jared was so proud of me... I did have to confess to him that the only reason I did it was because there were only two other babies in there!! She is getting a bit too squirmy and vocal to stay with us. I am trying to let go, but it is hard.

Mommy moment

Well, I did it. I left my baby girl in the nursery at church for the first time. I cried and she didn't. Go figure. I decided to join the mom's bible study at our church. This is just one of the many perks of being a stay home mom. You actually have time for this kind of thing! The devil was doing his best to keep me from going. Here is how the morning went: I got up before Hadley and got dressed. I was opening her sweet potatoes when the top caused the sweet potatoes to fly all over my shirt! AHH! So I tried to keep my cool and press on. I changed my shirt and continued getting her food ready. Then she wakes up, so I go to pick her up to change her and .. yep.. you guessed it .. a big nasty diaper... you know the kind that leaks out the side....yuck... so I take off all my clothes so as not to get them soiled and proceed to bring my little princess to the tub where we wash her off. We get the funky clothes into the wash, and I put her in her diaper and a bib to feed her then we get her dressed and ready to go. Needless to say we were fifteen minutes late, but God gets the win!! I fed her the bottle for the first part of the study and then decided that I needed to let go and bring her to the nursery. I have been building up to this moment. It is so hard for me to leave her because I have never left her with anyone else except family. I began to tear up as I handed her over, but she was fine with it. They took good care of her and I cried for a little while in the lobby then got myself together and went back in. Win for mommy!

Yesterday's message

Being parents has affected our lives in many ways. When you are a parent, you want to do what is best for your child. You want to watch over them and protect them and do whatever you can to give them the best life possible. Jared and I have always attended church, but since Hadley was born we have really begun to evaluate our spiritual lives. We have continued to pray each night before we go to bed and pray over her before she goes to bed. But we also started reading the Word again on a regular basis. Our church gives out a monthly Bible reading schedule, so we decided to start there. For the past month, we have been reading Proverbs each night. The main theme in Proverbs is wisdom. So naturally, we have been praying for wisdom in all our decisions. Dino has been preaching in a series called "I have a friend who..." . Last week was about healing and this week was about making bad choices. I know, as parents, Jared and I, are really trying to evaluate each word we say, choice we make, or step we take because we have a strong desire to be Godly examples for our daughter. I just wanted to share yesterday's message because it really spoke to me and I hope it will be of value to others. So here goes:

He began with Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your OWN understanding , but in all your ways acknowledge Him and HE will make your paths straight." (I love this verse!) Then he had us think of what the opposite of this verse would be.... I am going to sum it up the best I can. It went something like this... "If you do things YOUR way and do not trust in Him, you will end up in one big cycle of pain, confusion, and fear."

Then he talked about the verses in Romans (7:17-20) that talk about the spirit vs. the flesh. Then he listed the top four areas that people usually make bad choices in: relational, financial, sexual, and result of a bad environment.

He then went on to talk about why we make these bad choices:
1) fear(loneliness, rejection, failure, etc.),
2) impatience(not waiting on God's best for our lives),
3) not using wisdom to make our decisions ( knowing what is right but doing the wrong thing anyway),
4) caught in a stupid moment,
5) pride ( too prideful to listen to others who are trying to speak God's truth to you)
6) lust
7) the company you keep.
Wow- when I look back at some of the bad choices I have made in my life I can see how true these really are!! Funny how easy it is to see now! But the bottom line is HOPE!! There is hope in Christ!!
Dino gave us a few reminders:
1) You will never change what you continue to tolerate! Quit making excuses for things that you know are not pleasing to the Lord! You have to be willing to make a change.
2) Right voices equal right choices. Listen to God's voice/ His Word. Compromised voices equal bad choices.
3) You can't turn back the clock. What is done is done, but you can accept what is and move forward accepting God's healing letting God use your bad choices as a lesson to help you grow. 4) The Bible is a book about people who made bad choices and allowed God to redeem them.

He provided us with tips on how to help if you know someone making bad choices:
1) Have patience.
2) Love them by speaking God's truth to them.
3) Forgiveness
4) HOPE- decisions are not final. God's mercies are new every day! Thank goodness for that!

Interesting week

Well to begin with, school has officially started for me. I am taking two graduate level classes at LSU; one on Wednedsay nights and one on Saturday mornings. I am learning lots of new things in the field of Library Science... I didn't know much to start with so I have a lot to learn. Besides the fact that I worked on one assignment for a whole week only to find out that I would have to redo the whole thing, the classes are going pretty well.
Jared has been sick with a sinus/ear infection all week. Now Hadley and I have caught the crud from him. So we are hoping that we will all recover this weekend. Despite the runny nose, Hadley is in a great mood. She has been squealing alot lately. It is pretty funny! She loves chasing Rusty around the house in her walker. We took her to a professional photographer for her 6 months pictures. She hammed it up big time. I came home and told Jared to get ready because we are going to be broke after this one!! I was really excited because last time was a struggle. Let's just say she wasn't in the mood for her picture to be taken! We are continuing to feed Hadley new foods. We can now add green beans to the list of foods she likes. We are looking forward to watching the Tigers play Saturday night even though I may be sleeping at half time because the game starts so darn late. What were they thinking! Let's hope our offense can bring something exciting!

Movin' on up

Hadley has recently moved up to eating other foods besides breast milk and rice cereal. Her first venture was to carrots. She seemed to have no problems with these. Since it was her first experience with a different flavor, she smacked her lips some trying to get used to the new taste. Next on the list was sweet peas. She immediately had a negative response to the peas. I must say that I can't really blame her- those suckers smell terrible! Jared and I got a kick out of her facial expressions. She would close her eyes and shake her head. She would thrust her tongue, or just let the peas sit in her mouth. But our absolute favorite was when she would actually drum up a gag reflex. Poor baby! We actually had to end up chasing the peas with breast milk so she would eat them! After a few times, we gave up and fed her bananas. OOhh boy did she like those. She must take after her mommy; I don't like peas either. Anyone else have a food that their child didn't like?

Houmas House

Yesterday Hadley and I met Aunt Alyssa and Mrs. Raynell and Rex at the Houmas House for lunch. The trick is : you go for lunch (which is really yummy) and then you get to walk around the beautiful grounds and take pics of your children for free! Here are a few pics of us!!

Our baby girl is 6 months old

Hadley turned 6 months old yesterday. She is such a good baby. We are so blessed. She has remained healthy and she is growing each day! She loves her baths and swimming. She has two teeth. She is eating rice cereal twice a day. She is sitting up on her own. She has been sleeping through the night pretty consistently lately. Yippee! She loves running around the house in her walker. She likes grabbing her feet and putting things in her mouth. She loves to babble like her mama. No real words yet, but she is working on "dada". Her eyes are still a hazel color; they have not turned brown yet. She still has lots of hair and she still lets me put bows in her hair! One of my favorite things as a mommy is to get her out of her crib once she has awakened from her nap; the smile on her face melts my heart. I love it. She is such a happy baby; she smiles all the time! We love her so much! We can't wait to experience the next 6 months with her!

Hadley's first time swimming at camp

We went to the camp in Stephensville this Sunday. Hadley was able to swim with her cousins, Rylie, Aubrey, and Dagan. They taught her how to splash and pour water on each other. They had lots of fun together. Rylie helped to feed Hadley and she held her in the pool. Thanks Aunt Judy and Uncle Gary for having us! The food and company was great!

Pictures from Michelle

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Wedding Reception and Honeymoon

I know I am a little behind on the blog hop, but I guess it is better late than never , right? First of all, anyone who knows me knows that I- like most females- had my wedding planned for many years before I actually got to implement my plan. With the exception of the birth of my daughter, I will say that my wedding day was the happiest day of my life. It was perfect! Not only did I end up with the most amazing husband ever, but all the plans went smoothly. The reception was filled with food, family, friends, and fun.... lots of dancing!! I think some of Jared's friends were shocked at his new dancing skills. I taught him how to jitterbug and do some of the most popular line dances. I have to laugh at myself when I think that one of the requirements for a husband was that he like to dance! There are so many more important qualities to wish for... luckily Jared has all of those and he dances!!! Sorry ladies... no brothers!

Anyway, back to the reception. I don't have very many pics on the computer , but I will post a couple.

The honeymoon. We went to the Couples Swept Away Resort in Negril, Jamaica. It was awesome! All inclusive is the way to go! We loved all the water sports, especially snorkeling and the Hobie Cats. We ate and ate and ate... Our favorite was the banana stuffed french toast. We still talk about that. Yummy! We went to a few shows at night and layed out on the beach during the day and read or did water sports. We would love to return one day!

Mango Tango Black Bean Salsa

Great dip for summer time. Healthy too. We also bought some flour tortillas and grilled some chicken on the George Foreman and added the salsa for a meal. As a salsa, it can be served with regular tostido scoops.

Prep time: 10 minutes

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn with peppers, drained
1 medium mango, peeled, pitted and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin( I had this on my spice rack from our wedding)

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir! Can't beat that!!

Coming next 2 quick and easy party dip options!

Quick, Easy, and Yummy Recipes

For those of you who know me well, you know that these recipes really are easy- meaning they don't take very long and they have very few easy to find ingredients and they are yummy! That's how I roll!! I have tried them on others and they have proved successful.
Recipe #1: Easy Cinammon Vanilla Pancakes
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5- 10 minutes for multiple batches
Serving size about 12 pancakes

Ingredients:
2 cups of all-purpose baking mix (which I now know means Bisquick!)
1 cup of Fat-Free Cinnamon Vanilla Creme flavor Nestle Coffee Mate Liquid coffee creamer
1/2 cup of 100% pure pumpkin
2 large eggs

If you like maple syrup on top, you can add that.

Directions: Combine baking mix, coffee-mate, pumpkin, and eggs into a large bowl. Stir until blended.

Spray some Pam or grease a griddle or large nonstick skillet. Heat over medium high heat. Pour 1/4 cup pancake batter onto hot griddle for each pancake; cook 2-3 minutes on each side until golden. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with syrup.

Coming up next: Mango Tango Black Bean Salsa

Enjoy!

P.S. Another fun idea we have implemented lately is root beer and coke floats. We brought this to a party for dessert and everyone was having so much fun with it. They said they haven't had a root beer float in years. I know it brought back some memories for me as a kid. How fun!! Easy too!!

Hadley's first road trip

Hadley and I decided it was time to take a road trip to see Karla and Riley in Pineville. I was a little nervous about taking the baby by myself, but I wasn't about to miss a chance to see Karla and Riley, so we ventured out, said some prayers, packed up all the necessary baby attire and equipment, and hit the road. The Lord definitely answered my prayers because my sweet little angel slept the whole way to Pineville!! Thank you Lord! We arrived about 11:00 am. We had lunch and visited and swam for a little while and then played and visited some more. Hadley and Riley got along well. It was great to see them together. CAn't wait until the next visit! We had lots of fun! The ride home went well too, until we got to Baton Rouge during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. She did well, but I was about to go crazy from the traffic and road construction. Overall, a great first road trip!

5 months

I can't believe my baby girl is already 5 months old. She is so much fun. She is cooing lots.... before long she will be talking like her mama. God help Jared! She is playing with her feet constantly. She has her first tooth coming out on the bottom. She has been sleeping well. Occasionally she will sleep through the night, but usually she will wake up once. She is a sweet baby; she smiles a lot. She loves to hear the ABC song. She is enjoying her walker. She can scoot around the house in it. She and Rusty are becoming a little more aware of each other. At first, they were somewhat oblivious to one another, but now I let him get a little closer(under my supervision of course) and he will lick her. She doesn't mind. We took her swimming for the first time a couple of weeks ago. She seemed to like it. We can't wait to take her back.

FYI-Viewing slideshow pics

For those of you who wish to view previous slideshow pics- Even though it appears that you cannot view this pics , if you click on the click here to view larger words ,you should be able to access these pics! Enjoy!

Hadley 4 months old

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Fourth of July

Jared, Hadley and I spent the fourth of July at his parents house. I decided that this would be a fun time to take a festive family picture since his parents have a cute red shed in their back yard. He humored me and wore the matching attire! What a great husband! We are learning that using the continuous mode on our camera is much more effective for photographing a baby than the single shot mode.

Summer time

Things have finally settled down a little. I have completed my first graduate class in the Library Science program. I will never look at a children's book the same again. I really did learn a lot. We have been extremely busy. JAred and I are playing in a mixed doubles tennis league once a week. Lord knows we need the exercise! We are now 1-1. We are on our last week of east coast swing/ Jitterbug lessons. We are going to take a break and cash in on our private lessons until tennis is over. Hadley and I are enjoying our time together this summer as we shop and visit with the grandparents, friends, and family. I am in awe of her. She is so amazing. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I know that I will miss her as a baby. I love holding her close to me. She is almost rolling over on her own. She is cooing like crazy; it is so cute. Hopefully I will be a little better at posting more often. I spend all my time reading other people's blogs instead of updating my own.

Pictures from Michelle

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Hadley's first tea and baby dedication

On May 2, 2009, Hadley attended her first tea! Every year, Mrs. Sandra's church hosts a Mother's Day tea. It is lots of fun! This year was really special because now I am a mommy and Hadley was able to come too!

Later that evening, we had Hadley dedicated at Healing Place Church. Grandma and Grandpa, Granna and Pop, Aunt Summer, Uncle Chris and Aunt Alyssa were all there to support us. It was a really special time and it meant so much to us to be able to share it with our family. Hadley wore my christening gown that was given to me by my godmother.

Pictures from Michelle

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Good news!

I am so excited. This week I found out that I have been approved for an educational sabbatical for next school year. What does that mean? Well I will be attending grad school at LSU at night and on the weekends and more importantly, I will get to stay home with my baby girl for a whole year. We are so excited and are so blessed to have this opportunity. This news has definitely made my return to school for these last three weeks worth it! Thanks to all who prayed for this to work out!

Trip to Houmas House

The pics of Hadley and I are from our trip to Houmas House with Raynell and Rex. The grounds are absolutely beautiful here. We will definitely be going back for other photo shoots here when she gets older.

Update on life:
I have recently been accepted into graduate school at LSU. I am trying to obtain a library certification. It takes about 18 hours to do that. ( some of you are probably laughing at the thought of my big mouth being a librarian... I must admit I find it kind of ironic myself! but anything is better than grading 90 senior essays!!) I have applied for an educational sabbatical for next school year and I am really hoping to get approved for it. Please pray that it happens. It goes up for approval on MAy 5th. If I get approved, I will get to stay home with Hadley next year. I go back to school May 1st for the last three weeks of school! I am not looking forward to leaving my baby girl, but I am trying to look at it from a positive standpoint... 3 weeks now in hopes that I will have a year with her later! God has gotten me this far! Thanks to Granna, Grandma, Nannee Red, and Raynell for watching her while I go back to work! We really appreciate your help!
Hadley is doing well. She is growing so fast! She is smiling and cooing a lot now. She is two and a half months old already! She is sleeping for about 4 hours at a time during the night, which is great!
Jared and I are so blessed to have such an amazing little girl and a loving family who is very supportive and always willing to lend a helping hand.

Pictures from Michelle

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Update on Life with Hadley

I am not the best at keeping up with the blogging, but I am trying! Hadley is just over one month old. She is growing so quickly. She recently went to the doctor and received her first vaccination! OUch! I think I was more upset about it than she was. Next time she has to get three shots!! Hopefully daddy will get to come with us again to hold her because I am not too good at that! She is doing great. We love our pediatrician. She had all good, healthy reports for us. Hadley now weighs 9.85 lbs. and she is 22 inches long. We are so blessed to have such a healthy and beautiful little girl!
We have scheduled her three month pics, and since I have scoped out the website I now think I am a professional photographer and I have started having mini photo sessions with Hadley. Daddy says I am going to make her blind by age two if I don't stop with the constant picture taking. I simply see it as practice for the real session, developing her photogenic skills. Besides, she is growing so fast and I do not want to forget one minute of her precious little existence. Okay, so maybe I want to forget when she cries for 15minutes straight!! Fortunately that doesn't happen often! She is such a good baby. Jared and I have established a routine for the night time . He takes the first shift and I take the second. This tends to work pretty well allowing us to get constant sleep for a few hours at least. I never thought I would be so excited about getting 4 hours of sleep in a row. We have been on several outings. Shopping and visiting friends and family, and meeting daddy for lunch are our favorite pasttimes together. She tends to prefer eating, sleeping and pooing for her top three!

Hadley Kay is here!

Well as most of you know, Hadley entered the world on February 19, 2009 at 7:49 a.m. She was 7lbs. 10 ozs. and 21inches long. She has a head full of black hair just like her mommy. She is so perfect and we have really been enjoying our time with her. Jared was able to take off two weeks to stay with us and help us get into a routine. Thank God for my amazing husband; I would probably be going crazy if it weren't for him. Giving birth was an awesome experience. It is truly a miracle. Epidurals are the best!!!
We had to stay in the hospital one extra day to get the breastfeeding thing straight. It is not easy. We have tried several different things and we have decided to pump and feed her the breastmilk in a bottle. It works the best for all three of us.
Since we have been home, we have been trying to get a routine established. We are doing pretty well; however, sometimes our little princess decides to remind us that we will have to do things her way. We are sleeping and eating and feeding and in the couple of hours in between we are trying to get things done around the house. We have enjoyed having a few visitors here and there. I must admit that I am ready to get out of the house. It has been too cold to really take Hadley out yet. We go to our first doctor's appt on Tuesday, so that will be nice.

The Final Countdown

Well, it is closing in on the last few weeks. My official due date is March 3rd. We are still preparing for her arrival. We have a few more things to do to the nursery, but for the most part we are prepared with all the equipment and supplies necessary for the moment. Jared says that Hadley has more clothes than he does! There is nothing wrong with that!!! We went to the doctor today; I am 1 centimeter dialated. This sounds really exciting and it is; however, people can be 2-3 cm for over a month. It is a start and definitely makes things real.
We are staying busy with the baby preparations and studying for the GRE(pray for me... I will be taking this on Valentine's Day- No love there!) as well as working and trying to attend family functions and other events. Just wanted to send an update. It won't be long until we will be able to post pics of our little princess! WE CAN"T WAIT!!!!

Getting closer!

We are steadily working to prepare for Hadley's arrival. Who would have ever guessed there could be so much to do for such a little baby!! The to-do list never seems to end- between work, trying to apply for grad school, prepare for Hadley to get here and do all the other things we normally have to do.
The pregnancy is still going well! Getting bigger! Sleeping is not as easy as it used to be... I guess I better get used to that!! We go back to the doctor tomorrow. I am going every two weeks now. Only 6 weeks left!