Quick Update

We are all great. Many people are still without power in the area around us. For those that don't know we had a terrible wind storm that was a remnant from Ike that hit the Louisville area on Sunday afternoon. It blew down MANY trees. Alot of damage from trees landing on cars and houses, etc. Grocery stores, business, schools, and daycares, etc. have been closed this week due to no power. Adam is out of school all week. Some friends of ours from church (Evan, Leah, and Kendall) still don't have power and they are coming over now to stay the night and they are going to wash some clothes and we are going to cook some meat that they need to use since they have no freezer. We managed just fine. We mainly missed the refrigerator the most. It was just so hard to keep everything cold and it was about impossible to find ice at first. But we did find some Monday morning.

As for Grace. I have been trying to upload a video of her eating her first vegetable (carrots) from the other day. It keeps having problems loading and I was trying for the second time this evening and I believe it has failed again. I will have to work on that more tomorrow maybe. It is a little longer than some of our videos so that may be why (3 minutes). Grace also turned 5 months old last Friday. I will have to post more later on what she is doing. I'll post some pics for now.

Power IS on!!!!!!

We had been without power from Sunday morning to this morning besides a 2 hour window when we had power yesterday and then it went off, what a tease!!! There are still 300,000 in KY with no power and 800,000 in OH. Plus with all the damage in TX, we can consider ourselves blessed and spared. We do have perfect weather for this to happen, it has been in the mid 70's during the day and cooler at night. We did have some siding come off and some is loose, if I can get a ladder high enough I can fix it myself so I won't have to pay somebody. It is the last row next to the roof (second story) so it is HIGH! Anyway, we'll get some new stuff on here soon. I've been busy just trying to keep food and diapers and such in stock! Grace is great, she is now eating carrots and oatmeal cereal, many new food adventures to come!!!

Adam

Football Social

Adam and I decided to invite everyone over to our house from our Adult Bible Fellowship at church for a football social on Saturday night. It started with us going to invite Evan, Leah, and Kendall and we were going to get pay-per-view of College Gameday so that we could watch AL and the Arkansas game. (They are AR fans). We decided to go ahead and invite everyone at the last minute and about 4 couples plus children were able to come. I made spaghetti, and someone brought salad, dessert, drinks, garlic bread, and I bought just some chips and salsa to snack on before we ate. We had two T.V.'s set up in here so that both games could be watched because both of the games came on at 7pm our time. We had a really good time. Grace ended up sleeping most of the time. She was getting tired before they got here and then when some of them got here she entertained them for a while by laughing and smiling at them and then she ate and went down for a nap before we started eating and she slept the whole rest of the time. Everyone left by half time since it was late and with kids, and church in the morning. We had a really good time. I made a few pictures of us except I didn't get the camera out till after one of the couples left because I forgot and Grace was asleep at this time so the pictures I am posting are of her before everyone got here that day.

Oh, this first picture she is showing you how she likes to stand now and she can hold her weight standing for a while on your lap or hard surface.

As you can see, we had some Auburn friends over in the orange. (Yuck!) They are from Gulf Shores, AL.

More Pictures

Me and my Granny Brown

Joann, Carey, Granny Brown, Grace, my Mom, Holly

Grace with her Aunt Carey

This is Grace with Granny Brown and her Great Aunt Dorothy

This is Brandon (Carey's husband), Carey, Granny Brown, My Dad Gary

AL visit

Adam, Grace, and I just got back from AL late last night. We hated having to go home because of his Papa's death but it was nice getting to go home and be with family. We will miss Papa Brown and I know Granny Brown will surely miss him. They were married for 61+ years. It truly reminded us how important family is. It reminded us that we are here for a very short time and then we will go on to a much better place. But we must cherish the times we have with our family! A lot of times when we go home we are so rushed and just tired from the trip. This time we did not "go" too much especially since we have Grace. She was tired from the trip but she did really well. Everyone just had a "fit" over her. How she smiles and laughs and just how she is growing! She started bearing weight a lot longer on her legs on your lap or a hard surface (to stand) a lot better the past couple of days. She can stand longer on your lap or surface longer without her legs collapsing. And she enjoys this! Oh, and she rolls to her side but that is as far as she can go. She also hold on to her feet all the time. She bends her knees up and holds on to her feet and Adam says she is "helping" hold her legs up while we are changing her diaper! LOL

Great Aunt Marsha seeing Grace for the first time

Grace with her Great Granny (Adam's Grandmother Cason)

Grandma feeding Grace her rice cereal.

Grace with her cousin Duane

Grace's new discovery. Rolling to her side.

Grace playing in the car on the way to AL

Grace with Great Grandma Ledbetter

Cousin Emily gets to hold "baby Grace" (as she calls her)

Our Bama Baby

Grace got to experience her first AL football game. We put a little AL "garb" on Grace. She slept through most of the game since the game did not come on until 8 pm. Adam and I had to contain our cheers during the game so that we would not wake her up! She says ROLL TIDE! And we did ROLL, did we not!!!!!

Papa Brown

My Papa Brown passed away this morning. Please be in prayer for our family.

Grace Laughing

This video may make you all dizzy. I have been able to get Grace to laugh a lot lately but what I am doing that she is laughing at is moving in to her, so you can see the camera moves a lot because I was trying to do this myself. It is still good of her laughing though!!

More "Talking"

The previous video was some of her new sounds. The "bubbly" sounds! This video shows how she has learned how to squeal! The video starts out from far away because this day every time we got close and turned on the video she would stop talking, so we had to do it when she didn't know! (Our little stinker!!!) Of course, when we moved up close, she stopped!

Tell 'em about it

Kid's Sale

Adam and I heard about this consignment kid's sale that happens here in Louisville twice a year. It is called Little Treasures Kid's Sale. Me, Adam, and Grace went Wednesday morning and then again this afternoon. It is going to be going on from Wednesday through Saturday for the public this week. We were truly amazed at all the stuff they had for infants, toddlers, and kids. They even had maternity clothes, boppy pillows, etc. I had heard that there were 700 consigners this year. Anyways, they had shoes, clothes, toys, strollers, high chairs, swings, bouncers, cribs, kids furniture, books, hair bows, hats, blankets, bedding, etc, etc, etc. Adam and I both said it sure would have been nice to know about this last year BEFORE we had Grace. But nevertheless, I loved it! I was like a huge yardsale of gently used stuff for Grace! Adam and I found some "steals". We have been wanting to get a exersaucer for Grace soon because we knew she would like it soon enough and we found one for $10!!! We also bought her a little activity table for her to be able to stand at later and play. Today, I went back to look at the clothes when I had more time. I was wanting to get Grace some winter clothes in 3-6mo. and 6-9mo. because I know it will be getting cool here before long and she doesn't have much. I found a ton of clothes and only spent $45 total on them. Just look at my pics! (You can't really see them good in the picture, but you get the idea of what all I got. Of course, they are a lot cuter in person).

For some reason it is turning this picture sideways?!!

I just wanted to post these pics because I thought they were cute!! This is a onesie that her Grandma sent her. Just look at her thighs!! LOL!!

This is from church last Sunday. (She knows she looks beautiful!)

4 month checkup and solids

Grace went for her 4 month check up this past Thursday. Everything looked great with her. She weighed 12lb. 12 ounces, 23 1/2 inches long, and her head circumference was 15 inches. She was in the 25th% percentile for height and weight. Her development is perfect. She really put on a "show" for the Doctor. She sat and looked at the Doctor the whole time and smiled at her while she was talking! She talked to us about starting solids with her with starting rice cereal first, then vegetables, then fruit. She said we could start with rice cereal anytime now. So guess what we did?!! We went out that day and bought rice cereal. She started her first solid (rice cereal) on Thursday. She was very funny with it. She don't quiet understand the spoon in her mouth. She gave a funny face and I am going to post some pictures of her first bites of rice cereal. Sometimes she gets kind of ill because she tastes the formula in the cereal but she is not getting it like she is use to, she wants to suck it down. The doctor said some babies may take a month or two to even get use to the spoon and swallowing the food. She has to learn all of that. She has swallowed a little tiny bit but of course most of it runs out of her mouth or she pushes it out with her tongue! LOL

Grace at 4 Months old:

• Smiles all the time
• Laughs out loud.
  
• Reaches to grab things like her toys and brings them to her mouth.
• Enjoys her soft stuffed doll (Sally), rattles, soft books, and being read too, and sang to.
  
• Loves T.V. and Praise Baby! (Ohh, No!)
  
• Has good control of her head
• Pushes up on her arms when on her tummy
• Has learned how to yell, and squeal.
  
• Makes bubbly noises all the time
• Kicks one leg and goes to one side appearing to start to try to turn over
• Scoots all around when lying on her back. Found in funny positions in the crib. Completely sideways at times with her feet pressing on the bumper pads. Will scoot in a complete circle at times.
• Started rice cereal
• Takes about 2-4 naps a day. (Depending on how tired she is and what has been going on)
  
• Sleeps 8-10+ hours a night.
• Has 6 feedings a day, not counting the rice cereal.
  
• Weighs 13 lbs now on our scale.
• Drools all the time and sticks her hand and things in her mouth all the time!
  
• Grabs her right foot all the time now.
• Likes the ceiling fan
• Like to watch Mom blow dry her hair.

Gulf Shores 2008

I will elaborate more on the trip to Gulf Shores. The three of us traveled on last Wednesday in the wee hours of the morning because we figured that way Grace could just sleep most of the time which she did on the way to Southside, Alabama where we saw Adam's Papa and family. We left about lunch time to head on to Gulf Shores on Wednesday. She was really tired from the trip and you could tell towards the end of the trip going down there and coming back that Grace was getting tired of the car (as of course, we were too!). We got Grace out about 1-2 hours a day to the pool or beach but we just sat with her in the shade of course. All of the sites, smells, water, sun, or stimulation that she got from being outside made her really tired too. So she wanted to sleep a lot when she was in. So she napped frequently. She was very good though. We got in the pool and put her in her float but she really couldn't sit up good in the float since she can't sit up yet by herself. We kindof had to hold her up and she kept her eyes closed a lot and would look down due to the brightness, I guess. She liked being outside though! She always has! (Like her Mom! LOL) Grace's cousin Emily and my step sister Kelly got to come and she LOVES Grace. She was absolutely precious. She was always going to see what Grace was doing and would just watch her when she played, etc. She wanted to "help" take care of her! She calls her "Baby Grace". We all went out to eat after Mom and them arrived on Friday and we also went out on Saturday. Grace spends alot of time now just looking around at people. This is what she does in public. (But when she has a clear shot of her Daddy, she prefers looking at him the most!!!) AWWEEEEEE!

We had a really good time. It was a different trip with all of our circumstances and of course, it was mine and Adam's first vacation with a child. We see how vacation isn't quiet the same anymore. You can't just jump up and go. A lot of planning, thought, and "things" have to go with it! It is humorous how much stuff we bring now on our trips! Our car is loaded down! Now I guess I know why people get mini vans after they have children! We are totally blessed though and thankful! - Holly

My Step-Sister Kelly and niece Emily. Aren't they pretty!

Grace's first feel of the ocean! As you can tell, she didn't know what we were up to!

Our cutie!

Isn't this just priceless! I absolutely love this picture!

We saw this stingray close to the shore on our walk one morning.

Grace exploring her float!

Prayer Requests

As you all know, Adam, Grace, and I got to go home to AL to visit Adam's Papa Brown who is dying from cancer. He was told about a week and half ago that he has 30 days to live. When Adam and I went in to see him for the first time after this diagnosis, he looked VERY bad. He was gurgling and was also pretty sedated from the Morphine. He was not responding really to any of us. He looked very pale and "lifeless" already. Of course, it was very hard for us to see him that way. As the morning went on, he started to wake up a little bit and was responding just a little with "yes" or "no" or few words. We ended up getting to stop back by on Sunday, on our way home from Gulf Shores and we had got word that he had actually been more alert and talking more. He did talk some and we were able to hug him and tell him we love him one last time. We did feel better after being able to see him and talk to him. I tell you, it is very hard though, when you have to say goodbye to someone you love and you KNOW that you will never see them again. Just pray for comfort, peace, mercy, and grace on him and his family. Especially those caring for him too.

Another HUGE prayer requests is for Leah Smith and her family. Leah is a really good friend of mine here in Louisville and she and her family are from Arkansas. Leah lost her Mom unexpectedly this past weekend. Her Mom has been sick for a while now with Pulmonary Hypertension and they were working on doing many tests, etc. for her to have surgery to possibly "fix" some of her condition. She was headed out to San Diego this past week for some testing and wasn't feeling well and actually collapsed in a hotel room in Arizona and died. They have found that it appears she died from multiple blood clots in her lungs. She was only in her lower 50's! From what people have said, she was a VERY Godly woman and we can rejoice in the fact that she is in Heaven. This news has still been weighing on my heart every since I found out when we got back from our trip on Monday morning. I truly can't imagine what she is going through as well as her family. My heart is truly breaking for her and her family! Please pray for them! You can see more of her and her Mom's story on the links on the right column for the Evan, Leah, and Kendall's blog, and Jan's Journey blog.

Update

Sorry posts have been scarce. We've been on the road a lot lately and school started back today. Grace is fine, she is 4 months today. She has been tired from all of the traveling. All this with my Grandpa Brown has been rough and our friends from church (Leah and Evan) have just lost Leah's mom. These times have given me a greater appreciation for family and remind me that we only have a small time here with relatives and we need to cherish them while we can. Papa is still with us as of today but he can go any day. We got to say goodbye to him and he knew we were there and talked a little bit. He wanted to come with us to KY. The hardest thing was saying goodbye while he is still with us, what do you say? He knows we love him and he loves us. I just pray that he isn't hurting and goes in God's perfect timing. We did go on to Gulf Shores but it was hard to get really relaxed with all the other stuff happening and Grace was so tired also. I need to get some sleep now so we'll talk at cha later.- Adam

Don't Worry

Our service at church today was about worrying. Man, did that hit home! The preacher showed a little video asking people if they worry and what they worry about and it reminded us that we all worry about so many things! Of course, Jesus told us not to worry, but we all struggle with this. I was just reading another girls blog that has had a baby in the last month and all of her trials and tribulations of her first few weeks with her new baby girl. It reminded me a lot about things I have dealt with and are continuing to deal with.....

Breastfeeding. I am still breastfeeding but I have been struggling a lot lately about wandering if I should just give it up. I haven't really talked about this on this blog but we started supplementing Grace with formula when she was 6 weeks old because she wasn't gaining quiet fast enough and she started to appear hungry after her feedings. She would cry after her feedings. The doctor wasn't real concerned with her weight and wanted me to try all kinds of things to boost my supply which I started doing but it just wasn't working fast enough for me, or Grace, because she still would cry after her feedings sometimes and still seem hungry. I couldn't stand the thought of her being hungry so we started supplementing her with formula after her feedings with 1-2 ounces of formula. Over time, it has went up on the amount of formula that she gets because of course she requires more now that she is bigger but also I have tried different things like breastfeeding only every other meal or 4 times a day. After doing this, it was of course more convenient, but it seems like my supply is diminishing some, which we were afraid of. So I have started trying to nurse her every feeding again, but we have to give her formula each time too. I was taking the herb Fenugreek to help with my supply and found out that it can cause your blood sugar to drop and since I have a history of this, it was kind of scary because one morning it dropped pretty low on me.

With all of this said, I have wondered if I am just fooling myself to think that I am still breastfeeding when I know she doesn't get that much from me. As of now, it is going fine but I just pray daily that a miracle could happen and something that I do, or the Lord, that could boost my supply( But, do I really believe that? No!) (Oh, Lord, help me with FAITH!). I just yearn to have a better supply! After reading this girls post, I realize that some people have it even worse than I have. I don't really know why it means so much to us ladies to breastfeed? I always thought that I would just try it and if it worked ok, and if not that was fine too! I THOUGHT I was not real "bent" on it. I never knew of the emotional attachment it has to a Mom. Of course, we all want what is best for our child and Grace is growing and is 12 1bs now but I have to give credit to the formula. I think giving up does make you feel like you are a failure (although, obviously you're not), and when I think about the problem I just feel like there is something wrong with me, and then I think even the liitle bit that she gets is good for her for the immunity and brain development. But then I think formula is probably just fine too for those things? I know it is a pride issue!

So after being at church today, it reminded me to put everything in God's hands and TRUST Him and allow him to guide and direct us with all aspects of our lives and to not worry! This is just one thing that I have been worrying about lately, but this has really weighed on my mind. I thought I would share because I was reminded today that so many others are going through very similar situations. Please pray for me to just put this in the Lord's hands and allow him to make it clear what I should do and His will be done in this situation and to give me peace about it no matter what happens! I praise the Lord though, that Grace is happy and healthy!

Update

Holly asked me to post so here we go. Things are normal today but after this week we are headed to AL and then school begins again. Also, please be in prayer for my Grandfather (James Brown). We just found out he has cancer in his lungs, kidneys, liver and bones. We are waiting to hear from further tests to see if any treatment, etc. can be done. We also put Bud outside for good last week. His shedding hair and hyper ways were just too much with Grace. She will be crawling soon I know and we don't want to limit her or keep Bud put up all the time either. He has a nice backyard with a roofed kennel and house and a pasture and shade trees and cows to mess with, he's good. Plus we go outside, esp. when we are letting Allie out and sit with Bud or throw the frisbee or ball to him and play with him.

Grace. She is making leaps in development. She has a new doll named Sally. We likes to call her Silly Sally. She likes to chew her hand and play with her hat. Grace also loves to sit up, with assistance of course. She can also pick up her doll and throw her in the floor. She also loves to talk all the time too! She is working on 12 lbs, probably will be there next week sometime. Enjoy some pics!

Grace and Sally, how sweet!!!

Grace in her Gilligan hat

Here is Grace in her first bathing suit her Aunt Kelly got for her!