My cousins Nick and Drake

Sydney got to spend some time at her Aunt Jamie and Uncle Rodney's house this week. What can I say- she LOVES it there! She slept like a champ and was a perfect angel for them. Her cousins Nick and Drake got to love all over her and we can't wait to get together again soon!!! Thank you all for giving Mommy and Daddy a date night!

Happy 4th of July!

Brent, Sydney and I went over to my parents for a 4th of July cookout and swim. Great burgers and company! I got in the pool with Sydney and she liked the water I think. Maybe a little cold though. Oh, and we put Sydney in an exersaucer that Mom had and she went to town on the toys! It was so cool to see her interact with all the toys and know just what to do with each thing already!

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today, we had a great 4th of July weekend at the lake. Then we came home and found out we were pregnant with Little Miss Sydney! What an exciting and challenging and blessed year it has been!

Sweet Baby Girl

Before Sydney headed to Emma's party, she stopped by her Aunt Erin's to show off her party dress and shoes. Erin captured her sweet expressions perfectly!!! Please see Erin's blog for witty comments and more pictures...

Sydney went to a birthday party

Sydney got invited to her first birthday party. Sweet Emma turned 3 over the weekend and had a great party at the Wonder Place. Sydney was a little overwhelmed by everything but had a good time watching all the big kids play. Emma was WAY to excited to take the time to take a picture with "Baby Cindy" as she calls her :).

A wagon ride makes everything better

No major news! Her white blood cell count was higher today, which seems to just show an infection of some sort. We are just supposed to treat any fever with Tylenol and love on her. Gigi came over and took her on a wagon ride in her new wagon- which she loves! I have a feeling I'll be making lots of laps around the cul-de-sac with it!

Update on Dr. Visit

Yuck! What a morning we have had!!! As I mentioned before, Sydney has been running a temperature between 99.3 and 100.1 for 7 days now. I didn't know this until I had a baby, but they don't consider it "a fever" until it is over 100.4. Anyway, we have just been monitoring her and giving her Tylenol when her fever is up. So we went today, and her ears, nose and throat looked great. Dr. Wilson said that she is still young to be teething, and her fever shouldn't have lasted for this long if it was that. So... she wanted to do a workup on her, which meant she had to have a baby catheter and blood work!!! It was really bad- it made shots look like candy. It took 2 nurses and me to hold her down for the catheter, and she screamed the scream like... I'm going to hold my breath and turn as red as a tomato... tears shooting out of her eyes sideways kind of crying! They got that done and I had a bottle ready to help soothe her. Then we had to go to the lab for a heel prick, which I thought was a one second deal. No, they punched her heel and then had to squeeze a drop of blood one at a time out, scrape it into a little vial, squeeze, scrape, squeeze, scrape for several minutes before they got enough. Needless to say Sydney was screaming. She recovered well though, and was smiling be the time Dr. Wilson came to find us with the results. She doesn't have a Urinary Track Infection but her white blood cells are elevated, meaning she does have an infection of some sort. Probably viral not bacterial, which means medications wouldn't really help. I don't think it is a major big deal, but the worst part... I have to take her back in the morning for more blood work to see if her white blood cell numbers have changed. Think of us in the morning! I'll keep you posted tomorrow on what the results are.

Super Daddy & "Mini Me"

I am helping lead the 2nd graders at Vacation Bible School all week, and we are having it at night to help families that work. So, I've been gone all week from about 6-9. Of course, super daddy has everything under control and the Princess has been bathed and in bed before I get home. I did catch them watching ESPN before I left last night though. Do you see the resemblance between them that I do?

Funny Girl

Sydney's personality is really starting to emerge and she is SO HAPPY and funny! I love that when we are out running errands, she smiles at strangers. And of course, nothing can melt my heart than when I peer over her bed after her naps and she is just grinning back up at me. She will be starting school full time in August when I go back to work, but we will be paying for 2 days a week all summer. So, last Thursday and Friday I took her for half days. I was pretty nervous (of course) about leaving her, but all of her teachers were so supportive and wonderful. When I came to pick her up, she had the attention of 2 teachers (the other kids were down for naps) and she was just smiling and laughing with them. She was happy, clean and safe- what more could a Mommy ask for in an infant center?!?! I am really blessed with the school that she got into. The only bad thing... she has been running a low grade temp. since Friday! I'm trying to be thankful that I'm not back at work yet, and I have all summer to help her little immune system strengthen. I have called the Dr. a couple of times, and we are going to go in the morning just to make sure she doesn't have an ear infection or anything. She is still putting everything in her mouth and drooling more- so maybe she is starting to teeth???

Some bunny is so cute!!!

Emma is a DIVA!

Ashley and I took the girls to the waterpark again on Monday morning. Sydney really did like the jump-a-roo thing, but by the time I ran to get my camera she wasn't so sure about it. We played in the water for about 45 minutes, and as you can see, I changed her into dry clothes and she was asleep in the stroller before I could get our bag packed up. Please look at Miss Emma! She is already quite the Diva! * Technical Note: I upload the pictures and rotate them in Adobe, but for some reason everytime I open the file in blogspot they are sideways!!! I don't have time to figure it out right now. Does anyone know how to rotate a picture once you upload it into blogspot?*

What a sweet pea!!!

Sydney is such a sweet pea these days! I can say that her colic has passed, and she just smiles and laughs and coos all the time! We are loving every second with her, of course! She is still rolling over and holding her head up really well. Last night I put her down in bed and I could hear her "talking" and rolling over, and when I took a peek into her room she was on her stomach looking up at me just like this with a big grin on her face. We had a great Fathers Day today. We took Sydney to the nursery for the first time. I was very nervous, but she did great and was asleep in her car seat before we pulled out of the church parking lot! Lets see... what other updates could I tell everyone??? She is still in size 1 diapers, and most of her 3-6 month clothes are still a little too big. She is putting her hands in her mouth non-stop, and is starting to mouth on her clothing and bows if she can make them to her mouth. Brent and I just love to listen to her "talk" and smile at us. She still really belly laughs at her daddy more than anyone else, which he loves of course!

Sweet Carlee is here!

While we were in Fayetteville, I got to see sweet Carlee. She is the tiniest little peanut I have ever held! She is so sweet and I could not be more thrilled for the Boyd family. I got a picture of us together, but for some reason Blog Spot isn't uploading it. Caroline was already such a good big sister, too! Congrats Boyd family!

Wonderful Road Trip

4 Generations
Sydney's Great Grandfather

Sydney's Great Grandmother

Mom helped Sydney and I make a wonderful road trip to Fort Smith so that my grandparents could finally meet Sydney. What a blessing to have such a legacy of love for Sydney to learn from. We spent the day at the Fry's and then traveled on to Fayetteville to see Aunt Sherri and Britton. Sydney did great in the car, slept in her pack-n-play almost all night, and performed all her smiling, laughing, rolling over, and cooing tricks for everyone perfectly :). Thank you Mom for helping us make it in one piece!

Sydney and Elli

" I am having so much fun at your house!"
"Hey look- your mom wants to take our picture"

"Elli sure does do a good job making all her toys play music"

We had a great time with Elli on Wednesday. Elli is 9 months old, so she was all over the place playing with her toys. It was the first time that Sydney really paid any attention to another baby. She just loved watching Elli! Of course, we will keep her again anytime!

Sydney and Daddy's Big Weekend

I love my husband. Seriously, I am the luckiest wife and mommy. Brent is so great with Sydney and we are so lucky to have him! I went to San Antonio this weekend with my mom, Corbin and her mom, Erin and her mom, Julia and her mom, and Mika and her mom to celebrate Julia's upcoming marriage. I won't lie, it was the hardest thing ever to leave Sydney, but we have had this planned since before Christmas and I knew Brent had everything under control. I walked in the door to a clean house (including laundry done!) and Sydney was down for her afternoon nap. Brent had kept a faithful log of every time she ate, napped and for how long she slept. Not only did she sleep until 5:00am each morning (a record for Miss Priss), but he did a better job than Mommy on keeping her on a schedule. AND he worked on having her put herself to sleep, so that tonight after her bath and bedtime setup, I put her in her bed and she rolled over, curled her legs up and went to sleep with NO CRYING!!! Words cannot express how thankful I am for such a wonderful husband and father to my daughter.

Waterpark fun!

Ashley and I took the girls for their first trip to a waterpark. Don't worry, I sat in the shade most of the time, and found the perfect spot with about 3 or 4 inches of water to hold Sydney. She seemed to really like the water, but really liked looking around at all the toddlers and other babies playing, splashing, and screaming. 2 problems: her swimsuit was a 3-6 month and was huge on her, and they don't make "swim diapers" smaller than 15 lbs. that I can find. I can't wait to keep Elli tomorrow and I'll post pictures of the girls!

What a cutie!

Such a big girl...

Since Sydney is holding her head up so well, I thought we would try her Bumbo out. She was so funny- she opened her eyes up really big and stared at me like "This is pretty weird Mom" and then sat for almost 10 minutes just enjoying the view I guess. Misty didn't know what to think about it, but was so sweet and smelled Sydney's head, then laid down beside her like she was protecting her.

Catching up on last weeks pictures

Thank you Gigi for getting me all ready for Baby Carother's shower on Saturday. Your house is like Disneyworld already!

My Aunt Erin is SO FUNNY I was belly laughing (and we were trying to get a picture of her dimples).

I love to visit and eat with my sweet friends!

Dayle is going to be a great mommy and we can't wait to meet Karoline in October.

Please note Sydney's precious shoes (from Dayle the night she was born)

We have had a crazy busy week and weekend and I didn't get pictures of everything! Jennifer, Julie Carter and Scarlett were here this weekend and I didn't get a single picture of them with Sydney. Sorry guys! I did get some pictures from Amber's when Megan was home. Amber, I'll come over for chocolate fondue ANYTIME! Also, thanks to Gigi who did a great job getting Sydney to Julie's baby shower safely, even if she did forget her bow :).