We bought a house!!

We are so excited to have bought our first house!  We are being stationed back at Fort Bragg, NC!  We were tired of renting and having rules, so we made the plunge!  We absolutely love the house and can't wait to make it our home.

People in glass houses..

We all know the saying, but I think a lot of people sometimes forget to apply it to their lives.  Now I am in NO way saying that I have never and will never pass judgement on somebody.  It is human nature, we all do it to some degree.

Where the problem arises for me is when people become arrogant enough to think that they need to share their opinions on your life with you.  Do I have opinions about how others choose to live their lives??.. Sure!  As I'm sure others do about mine.  I however, do not feel as though my choices are right for everyone.  So I do not share those opinions with others.  And everybody can go about their business happily.  When you begin sharing your opinions with others on how you think they should live, you become an a-hole.

I have been trying over the last year or so to make myself a better person and try and change some of the negative things about myself.  And I feel like I am doing well, so far.  Trying at least!  I have calmed down a lot, learned to let the little things go, and how to say that I am sorry.  I also figured out just to mind my own business.  Everybody's lives are different, and you have no idea what really goes on in something that you aren't a part of.  So who am I to say what I would do?..  Nobody.  Me and Chris like to keep and chill and relaxed environment in our house.  (It's the Parrot Head way after all)  And part of that is just not worrying about other people.  Our family is our priority and that is the only thing we can control.  It is easier for him to ignore other peoples drama, as I think for the most part us gals just like to be nosy at time.  But, I have gotten better!

So my only advice to people is to calm down, and not worry about things that don't affect you.  Live your life how you want to, and I will do the same!

KINDERGARTEN!

Kiley's first day of school!

Kiley started kindergarten recently, and I still can't believe it!  She was so excited to start and has really enjoyed it so far.  Her teacher's name is Mrs. Pittman, and she is very sweet.

Her first day came and we had her clothes ready, had breakfast, and got ready.  She was pumped, and I was anxious.  I just couldn't imagine her being there without me all day.  I guess she doesn't need me quite as much as she used too.  Growing up so fast!  I didn't cry though, I did pretty good.  Just still can't believe she is in real school.  :)

2nd day!  Love that shirt!

I'm the worst blogger ever..

Well since my last blog post, we have moved to and back from California.  We moved to Monterey, California so that Chris could attend the Defense Language Institute. (DLI).  He changed his job from infantry to linguist.  He learned Indonesian and has done very well with it!  He has impressed me so much!  We knew we would only be there a short time as the school was about 12 months long, with the last 4 spent in Texas.  We chose to go ahead and come back to Alabama while Chris completes those last few so that Kiley could start KINDERGARTEN and not have to go to 3 different schools in one year.

We were extremely excited to get to Monterey.  I had at that point never been anywhere!  Lol.  It didn't quite meet up to expectations but it was definitely an experience.  I wish that I would have blogged while there, but you see how that went.  So I will simply promise to keep up with the blog now in this new chapter.  That, and show you some pics from our time there!..

Chris and I in Pebble Beach.

 

 

That is a whale!

Hiking in Hollister, Ca.

 

 

Chris and Kiley at The Fisherman's Wharf.

The new family of 4!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am blessed to have a photographer for a best friend.  And luckily for me, she loves my kids and loves taking pictures of them.  :)  Her name is Adrienne Holloway and if you are looking for someone to capture your special memories, I totally recommend her.
Adrienne Holloway Photography
With that being said she also came to the house a few days later and took some family pictures for us.  I haven't seen them all yet but I know they will be great!  Here are the ones she has posted so far:

The Howards

Sweet sisters

Daddy's new little girl!

I LOVE THIS ONE!!

 

Audrey Caroline Howard

On December 27, 2012 we welcomed our sweet Audrey into the world.  She is the main reason for me starting the blog back up, because mainly I wanted to be able to share her birth story.  Because I love reading other peoples.  :)
I'll start back a little.. We found out we were pregnant mid April 2012.  We had decided to start trying but it was still quite surprising to us because once we started, I was pretty much pregnant immediately.  Quicker even than my OB said would be possible.  So obviously, she was meant to be here.  I had a very easy pregnancy, just like my first.  Lots of heartburn this time though (which the old wives tale about that meaning lots of hair proved very true for us!)  We were still stationed in KY but I was using my doctor in Birmingham because he is so great.  So I was traveling back and forth for all my appointment, but it was totally worth it for Dr. Robinett!  That is probably enough back story so here is Audrey's birth story:

I had a scheduled induction planned because my incredible doctor knew we were moving soon, so he took her out just a little earlier than her due date.  I had been induced in the exact same way with Kiley, so I wasn't very nervous.  Except maybe like the 10 minutes in the car on the way to the hospital.  Just some sweaty palms, nothing major.  Lol.  We got to labor and delivery and checked in at 4pm.  It was very crowded and at first I just had to sit in the waiting room with all of the family members waiting on babies to be born.  After just a couple minutes, they called me back.  My first nurse Tameka, took us back to our room, got me all signed in, and asked 1zillion questions.  After a little while, Dr Robinett arrived to start the process.  They started a catheter that has a balloon attached to the end of it.  The balloon is filled with saline, and holds pressure on the cervix to get it to start opening.  I was only 1cm when I got there so we needed a few more.  He said if it worked perfectly, that in the morning I would be around 4cm.  He gave me a hug, and said he would see me bright and early in the morning.  I started having contractions pretty soon after that, and after about an hour I requested a little something for some pain.  Contractions hurt!  And those were just little bitty ones.  By this time, Tameka had left and now Amanda would be my overnight nurse.  She came in put my IV in and I'm not sure exactly what happened but I started pouring blood down my arm and hand when she did this.. but it didn't hurt so oh well.  While she was still telling me about the medication, I had already started feeling it.  Lol.  I felt "slightly drunk" which at that time was just fine with me!  Things were pretty calm after that, Chris and I both went to sleep fairly early.  Although I seriously felt that I didn't sleep a wink.

At around 7am, it was time to be checked!  Now my nurse was a young, cute, and very sweet girl named Meredith.  She would be the one to be with my during delivery, and I was glad because I liked her a lot!  She introduced herself and got down to business.  She checked me and I was 3 and a half cm.  Apperantly that was good enough to start inducing.  She and Dr. Robinett removed the catheter and started petocin.  That stuff works quick, and I started to have real contractions.  I'm not sure why but I felt it in some weird way, I owed it to myself as a woman to try and tough it out for just a little while to see what real ones were like.  I had like 4 and literally told everyone that I was "tapping out".  Haha, that was enough for me.  Those things are no joke!  Meredith called and anesthesiologist, and he happened to be right there waiting so he was ready to do the epidural right then.  (at Brookwood they make the dads leave for epidurals) So he was behind me and I was hugged up on my nurse.  Epidurals aren't as bad as people often make them out to be, but they do sting a little and are slightly nerve wracking, with the whole chance of being paralyzed and all..  He got the needle in but couldn't get the catheter to thread through and told me "I'm going to have to do another spot.)  Yay!  But I wanted the drugs, so that's what he did.  So he inserted the needle again about 2 inches lower down on my spine.  This one worked.  After the epidural got started, smooth sailing!

Everything went pretty fast from then on.  Every time Meredith checked me, I had progressed.  I went from 3cm-10cm in about 2 hours.  I was surprised when she said "Ok, we can go ahead and start pushing.  When she gets close, I will call the doctor."  I pushed twice before she decided to call him because the baby was coming fast.  Chris and Meredith kept saying that they could already see LOTS of hair.  Dr Robinett got there in just a couple minutes.  He scrubbed in and we were ready!  I pushed and pushed, often times feeling like I wasn't doing anything at all but they all kept reassuring me that I was.  After maybe 10 minutes of pushing, SHE WAS HERE!  Audrey Caroline Howard was born at 11:31 am and weighed 7lb 6oz.  She was absolutely beautiful!

Once she was here, they took her over to the warmer to get her cleaned up.  I noticed her being slightly blue when she came out but I thought that was relatively normal in some babies.  While she was over there with the baby nurse, she pinked up a little.  But not enough to the nurses liking.  She asked my l&d nurse what she thought.  She said that she looked fine to her.  Dr Robinett agreed.  But the nurse still wasn't happy.  She called for somebody to bring a portable oxygen machine to check her levels.  Even that nurse that brought the machine said she looked fine.  But once they hooked Audrey up, she saw that something wasn't quite right.  They obviously want your oxygen levels at 100% and Audrey's were only in the 60's.  So the baby nurse was right!  At this time, I was oddly calm because I was going off my l&d nurse and Dr Robinett's reactions and they didn't seem to concerned at first.  They put the mask on the baby and still couldn't get her stats to stabilize.  The nurse put a tube down her nose and throat and pulled a full 10cc syringe of amniotic fluid out of her stomach.  Still didn't bring them up.  At this time she called in the neo-natal respiratory therapists.  A whole team rushed into the room, at this point I finally realized that they were really concerned with her.  I was really afraid that they were about to take her down to the NICU right then.  They decided to try a few minutes of skin to skin time with me, as they say sometimes that can calm babies down.  So they placed her on my bare chest and I cuddled and bounced her.  Almost immediately she started to calm down and her levels started going up.  And after about 15 minutes they were staying where they were supposed to.  It was really incredible to both Chris and I, how just the natural process of motherly love and knowing she was with my, physically healed my sweet angel.  So no NICU!  Thank God!

After that commotion, all was fine!  We waited about another 30 minutes and they moved us up to maternity.  That is when all the rest of the family came in to meet this sweet girl.  I forgot to mention that I was blessed to have one of my very best friends (who is a photographer) in the room during the birth.  She captured it all on film for us and made the most beautiful slideshow for us.  It is something I will treasure forever!  I will get that posted as soon as I get the disk.  But here at some great pics of our new little angel!

2013 is here.. Lots of changes!

Well, I am BACK!  It's only been a little over a year since my last post.  And boy, has a lot changed in that year!  :)  For starters, we welcomed a new, beautiful baby girl into our family on December 27, 2012.

Isn't she perfect?  As soon as I finish this post, I will post one just for her!  This post is just to catch you all up on our lives.

Another big change:  we are no longer stationed @ Fort Campbell.  Chris was accepted into the DLI (Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, California.  It is a year long course, after which he will be able to speak fluent Indonesian.  Impressive huh?  I am very proud of him and this is a really great career move for him and our family.

I'm sure lots more has happened in the last year, but those are the biggies!  Now to write a post about my sweet, new baby girl!