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Remember me??

I know I said it wasn't going to be long for pictures but it was. I need to apologize to Garris for not blogging about him the way that I should but he is just too stinking cute and he takes up all of our time! Now, ON TO BLOGGING!!!

Happy fall!! Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here?? I cannot but I know it is coming because I see pumpkins and mums!! But, I have to be honest... I think that I have the cutest pumpkins in the patch! Here is our latest family photo!

Like I said, I think that we have the cutest pumpkins in the patch!!

Garris has been doing better with his reflux. For a while there, he was throwing up almost every day, several times a day. It was nasty!! But, he has been on some medication for almost three weeks now and it seems to be doing the trick! I cannot believe that he is already 2 months old! It seems like we just brought him home yesterday! He is holding his head up really well and is cooing away! He is so fun to talk to because he just smiles and smiles and ugh, it will melt your heart!! Garris went on his first beach trip a few weeks ago. We went to Myrtle Beach in S.C. and had a blast. It was a girls weekend plus Garris... Me, my mom, my aunt, Chayse, and Garris. While Garris did a lot of sleeping, Chayse did a lot of swimming!

Here is Garris, smiling... while it was night time, it was his first ever look at the ocean!

And these were taken on the same... Chayse and I walked down the beach at sunset and then we went and played in the hot tub!

Lots of things to post about and new pictures to come soon!!

Agh!

Time has gotten away from me yet again. We have been super busy since Garris was born! We have had family in town, we have been out of town, we have had lots of company... it has been hectic! Things are finally slowing down now though! Everyone is good, Chayse is adjusting wonderfully to having a baby in the house and the baby is doing great! We couldn't be happier if we tried! I will post pictures soon... baby is crying so I need to run!!

Our newest family member...

I am excited to say that we welcomed our son into the world this morning! Garris Noland was born at 12:15 am weighing 8 pounds even and he is 21 inches long. He, well we, had a rough delivery but he is here, safe and sound and that is the name of the game! He is doing great and we are hoping to go home later this weekend. Garris is my great grandmothers maiden name and Noland is Nathan's mother maiden name... Here are some pictures, more to come later!!!

Stats on a growing little gal...

We went for Chayse's 15 month check up today but in reality, it is her 16 month check up as she will be 16 months on the first... still hard to believe that she has been here that long! It seems like yesterday I was trying to finish getting her nursery ready!!

Almost 16 month stats on a growing girl!

At Birth: 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches
At 2 months: 11 lbs 10 oz (60%), 22.5 inches (45%)
At 4 months: 14 lbs 3 oz (50%), 24.75 inches (60%)
At 6 months: 15 lbs 7 oz (30%), 26.25 inches (60%)
At 9 months: 18 lbs 2 oz (30%), 27.5 inches (35%)
At 12.5 months: 19 lbs 7 oz (20%), 29.75 inches (65%)
At 16 months: 22 lbs 1 oz (32%), 32 inches (85%)

Really, a month??

I cannot believe that a month has passed since I last posted! Where is the summer going? I cannot believe it is August already and that my little baby girl is 15.5 months old! AGH! Slow down time, slow down! Chayse is WIDE OPEN! She is running and into EVERYTHING! She is so much fun to watch and play with but man oh man, does she make me crazy some days!!! She is going to be the reason I have gray hair someday! She has cut FIVE teeth in the last WEEK! She has been kinda crabby but I think that a mouth full of teeth is a good reason to be a crab! She has also been on a MAJOR growth spurt. She has grown over an inch and a half in the last 6 weeks!!!! NO JOKE! We won't go to the doctor's office for her 15 month check up till the end of the week so I will let you know her growth status on the growth curve when we get it.

We have been very busy trying to get the upstairs finished and I am very pleased to say that we passed our final inspection!! YIPPIIEEEE!! We have a CO! Can I get an AMEN on that!?! We are sooooo thankful to have much of the project done. We still have some cosmetic things to do, like put carpet in the stairwell, touch up some paint spots, and we need to get the rest of stuff out of storage but all in all, we are "done". What a relief that is! I will get some updated pics this week with the furniture in and post those soon.

Baby Boy and I are doing well, tolerating the heat as best as we can. He has found my sciatic nerve over the last few days and gracious, is that a painful thing! We are getting excited and are beyond ready to meet him! No news on when he will get here though... soon though we hope... at least we know he cannot stay in there forever!! Here is a shameless belly shot from the park last week at 38 weeks into this pregnancy!


Nathan and I celebrated another year of wedded bliss this past week. It is crazy to think how much things have changed over the years and yet know it will change even more over the next year as we adjust to another little person being in our lives... We have traveled more paths that we never planned on going down in our time together than most people experience in a lifetime together. I am still so grateful to have this wonderful person in my life and be able to call him my husband.

Before and After...

We are still not done yet but here are some before and after pictures....

This is what the stairwell used to look like. It was nice and dark!

And this is what the bonus room looked like after some of the furniture was already taken out...

This is what was on the other side of the door from the bonus room... lots of empty space that we used for storage.

Now, this is what the stairwell and bonus room area look like without the stairwell and wall there.... a whole lot brighter and a whole lot more open!!! We took out the walls and the door, added columns with rails (they are not done yet) and had hardwoods laid throughout the upstairs... they are currently being sanded and stained so it will be a few days before we can get any more pictures as we are not able to walk up there for a while...

When you go down this hallway, there is an open area on the right, a bathroom to the first door on the left, a closet on the second door to the left, then the second floor kitchen, the den/family room, and the sitting area. There are two doors in the family room... one is a crawl area for access, the other is a storage closest that runs the length of the house.

Again, this was before...

This is the after....

This is the bathroom...

This is the closet...

This is the kitchen area...

This is the den/family room...

This was the before area of the sitting room... we had to rip out some of the roof support line and rebuild this area to open this us!

Can you tell we have been busy?? Chayse is having so much fun running around up there through all of the open areas. She went to the doctor this week and has reached 21 pounds! She is growing away and is so much fun to watch. She has recently started walking on her tippy-toes, she dances all the time now, she is very vocal (although we are still not sure what she says half of the time!), and she LOVES to be outside. She could care less if it is 110 degrees out there or not... that is where she wants to be!

The bean is growing away, and I do mean growing. He is consistently measuring larger that I am as far as his gestational age. I am still having contractions but he is not engaged, I have not dilated any and am not effaced so that is a great thing! So far so good!! It is hard to believe that in just a few weeks we will have TWO little babies in this house!! Once we get construction done upstairs, we will be cleaning out the guest room and office so that we can start his nursery.