Happy 1/2 year Birthday!!!!

I'm in awe that Carsyn is already 6 months old. No one has caused me more amazement, frustration, pride, self doubt, joy, fear, satisfaction, wonder, sleepless nights, early mornings than this little baby.
Carsyn you at 6 months in a glance:

• rolling all over, but you like your back the best
• You are starting to sit up by yourself. A few seconds count in my book!
• FINALLY sleeping in your crib. This is mostly my fault. I liked you in our room, close. But you can take a little responsibility through the screaming you did every time I tried to get you to sleep in your crib before.
• You LOVE your jumperoo! You will jump in that thing for over an hour.
• You still enjoy your Wubbanubs (Senior Frog, Mr. P, Clifford and Ducky), but more for toys than pacies. You've begun to suck your thumb instead.
• You are very comfortable holding your head up, crawling is in your near future.
• Organic Rice, Rice Baby - enough said
• You love to swim. You have 3 bathing suits, a cover up, flip flops and a baby pool at Granny's house. You've already been in three different pools. So social.
• Morning is your best time. You laugh and play. Thanks to the rice you wake up laughing and cooing instead of crying.
• You play hard in the morning and usually take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. Then you're ready for a bath by 8 and bed soon after.

Your daddy and I love you so much. Just like we told you last night, we will always love you. You can trust us. Nothing you do will make us go away ;-)

Hello Callen

I wanted everyone to meet Carsyn's best friend. Callen is her buddy at daycare. They are only 10 days apart and love each other. They hold hands, give kisses, pat arms and laugh with each other. Good times!

Home Team

***Sorry for the blog delays. My office has change the internet policy and I can't upload posts from there. Nuts!***

Saturday night we had Home Team with our Sunday School class. A few couples get together once a month for 6 months to get to know one another outside of church. We are a team and we meet in homes. Get it? Great.

We met at the Franklin's beautiful home with their pool. The Langley's brought their 4 week old son, Jack. He's going to be Carsyn's buddy in the nursery. He was so cute and has a TON of hair!

Carsyn loves the pool. She played so hard that she needed a nap!

Call Her Nemo

Our family went over to Brad and Crista's last night for supper and swimming. The food was amazing. T-bone steak, baked potato, corn on the cob all cooked on the grill. Salad, rolls, brownies. I would have taken a picture, just as the table was being set, Carsyn felt the need to eat too. That's how it goes ;-)

Baby's Got a New Bow

It's huge and I love it. . . She does too.

Thursday Cutie

Yup, her shirt says "I cry when ugly people hold me". I was feeling really good about myself that morning. No crying baby. But my ego was shot that afternoon ;-)
So I just covered it up with a super cute OU bib. See, OU makes people happy!

Peek-a-Boo

Quick Visit

My parents came to town last night. There was a funeral they had to go to early Thursday morning and they needed a bed to sleep in. (who am I kidding. they really wanted to see Carsyn).

Here are a few pics of their visit and of Carsyn helping Papa T open his Father's Day gift.

Fruit Salad...Yummy Yummy

OK, it's not quite fruit salad. But it is homemade baby food. I have to admit, I'm really proud of myself. My friend Catherine has a little boy 11 weeks younger than Carsyn and we made baby food Tuesday night. Cason isn't ready for solids yet, but we can freeze this stuff for 3-4 months. Carysn probably won't start until the middle of July, but this is when Catherine and I could get together. I'm not sure what possessed me to want to make her food. I thought I'd just see how it went. No pressure. No judgement. Tony and my mom were supportive, but I think a little skeptical.

Catherine's mom got us off to a good start by roasting the butternut squash and sweet potato for us. Then Catherine used her super cool baby food maker. It's pretty sweet. Does all the cooking and pureeing in one bowl.
I brought over my high-tech plastic steamer that I bought at Wa-Mart for $10. This knocked out the peas and zucchini and apples. Then we used a food processor to puree. After we got them to a good consistency we filled ice trays up to make single servings.

Catherine and I bought assumed it would take us FOREVER. In fact I brought over my tooth brush and sleeping bag. Surprise Surprise...it only took 2 hours.

I think the results are great! and the mommy's look pretty darn good too!

Happy Father's Day

We had a relaxing Father's Day. Carsyn and Daddy got to snuggle. She got him all kinds of cool stuff from Best Buy. Noise cancelling head phones. Screen protector for his phone. Case for his iTouch. She is all about keeping her Daddy and his things safe ;-)

I changed Carsyn's toy up a little so she can play with it while sitting up instead of flat on her back. Gotta love 5 in 1.

Night Out in the Big Town

Sorry to be so long in posting.

Friday night Tony and I got to get away. His parents came down from OKC to watch Carsyn for us. (Sorry I didn't get any pics of grandparents and Carsyn. Donna, if you have any, please email me)

Tony and I went to Fort Worth and stayed at the new Omni. It was beautiful. We met some friends for dinner at Bob's Steak and Chop House. Very Good eating! It took almost 2 hours to eat and no one cried. I wanted to take more pictures so you could see the awsome bathroom, but we were running late for dinner.

Then we had the most fantastic breakfast, did a little Father's Day shopping and went home to see our baby.

Thanks MamMaw and PapPaw!

Rice Rice Baby

This is Tuesday night. Carsyn eating cereal for the first time. She is all about that spoon. She really wants to be in control of it. She really likes the cereal, but there wasn't a ton of it to eat. Brandy said she had 5 bottles again on Wednesday, so I said 'Bring on the Cereal'. This growing baby is ready for more and now she'll have cereal during the day and at night.

The video is from Wednesday night. Isn't Tony doing a great job! He's a fantastic Daddy. Carsyn just grins and laughs when she sees him.

Emily- did M.L. Cool T rap when he fed you cereal? I'm a little nerveous if this is where it all begins.

Tony is saying 'organic rice, rice baby'. It's how we roll in our house.

This is the 'after' picture.

My Big Girl

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but Carsyn is getting bigger. She's looking more and more like a big girl than a baby. If I'm struggling with her changing at 5 1/5 months, I can only imagine the anguish in my future.

On a brighter note, doesn't she look so pretty in pink!

Waking Up is Hard to Do

After I finished feeding Carsyn yesterday morning, she played in the floor while I was getting ready in the living room. I went back to the bedroom to change clothes and came out to find her rolled over asleep. I'm going to suggest that getting up at 5 am is too early for a little girl. It wore her out.

Hello Spoon

Carsyn is 5 1/2 months old. So far all she has eaten is mommy's milk and a bottle of formula at daycare if she needs more than 3 bottles. I was doing really well until Tony's week in the hospital. Apparetnly stress and lack of sleep decrease the milk production. So I was having a hard time keeping up with normal while Carsyn was needing more. Sunday afternoon I thought we'd 'practice' with eating solids. I got her in her bumbo chair and gave her a spoon. Then we put it in her mouth! Imagine. Can you just see her little brain growing? What is this? I can put this in my mouth too? Mommy is actually doing all the work for me. What a deal. Enjoy the videos.

Nap Time

I'd just like to share that Carsyn let her mama/momma (how do you spell that word?) have a nap on Sunday afternoon. She slept from 1 pm - 3 pm except for about 10 mintues of gassiness. It was great. I thought she needed another nap around 6pm. Went into her room to check on her... the video says it all. not only because of the image, but I've also narrated ;-)

Back to Church

Tony and I got to go back to church today for the first time since his knee surgeries. It was wonderful. We love our church! The chance to worship God with other believers is an encouragement and so refreshing.

God used the songs to speak to my soul. Just encouragement that God is stronger than our struggles and that He'll never let go of me. Between Tony's knee and my heart hurting because of working while Carsyn is changing daily without me, I've had my share of frustrations this year. Tony's knee is almost back to 100% but I'm still working full time. That hasn't gone away, but I can trust that God has a plan and I can have peace while I wait.

The sermon series is on LOVE. 1 Corn. 13 - it was a wonderful reminder for me to say out loud to Tony and Carsyn, I love you ... forever. I'm not going any where. My love for them should provide security, trust, confidence and hope.

Here is a picture of Carsyn in the nursery. She does so well in there. At least that is what they tell us ;-) One of our blogger friends stays in there with her. We'll have to ask Brittnay if she's really that good.

Saturday Activities

Carsyn and I (I use the term 'and I' loosely) got up about 7 this morning. "We" were hungry. Then we played and napped. Around 11 we went for a walk. We went down by the pond and walked about 1/4 mile. It was really hot so we headed back to the house and took a bath!

After our bath, Carsyn got very sleepy. I laid her down in her own room in her very own bed. It was a successful experience. She slept. It was her 'normal' nap time. I'm pretty sure Carsyn's babysitter, Ms. Brandy, feels bad for me and Tony. I can't count the number of mornings we've stumbled into her living room explaining how our baby girl didn't sleep. So, she has taken it upon herself to get that baby on a schedule. It's about time someone did. Now Carsyn takes one big girl nap around noon, give or take an hour, and is up by 3. It's really working. This week anyway. We're just going to roll with it and hope it works this next week too!

I got to use that fancy video monitor. I love that thing. I can watch her breathing without getting too close. She has fantastic mommy radar.

She appears very happy about the whole thing. Look at the big grin.

Tony came home while she was still napping. He played golf...shot a 67! While that is exciting, the most exciting part is...mommy go to leave and get a mani pedi!! Hip Hip Hooray! Carsyn played while I was gone.Daddy had a great idea of taking the whole family for take a walk to the pond. I got Carsyn and Tony got the dogs.

Carsyn has her baby blues and Mommy has hazel. She looks a lot like me, but has her daddy's eyes.

Wow! 9 pictures. We were very busy. You're always welcome to come join us. Don't set your expectations too high though. I realize I've embellished and glamorized our Saturday. It was really ordinary.