Our Bunny Trail!

Palm Sunday outfit...

Learning to stand...not crawl, but stand!

These little Carter's outfits bring back memories of when Brookie first came home!

I have dreams of headbands, barretts, and ribbons in her hair - for now, we'll settle for combed-over 'peach fuzz!'

Mommy and baby - helping Josh find eggs in Nana and Pap's yard!

Pap on the deck watching us 'hunt!'

Still not a big fan of the grass...we're working on that!

"Pap! I found a green egg!"

That big old basket got too full for Josh to carry!

Success!

"Uh oh! It's more candy!"

Playing with Nana...

...and Pap!

With Aunt Meg at church! Don't we look so pretty?

Geesh... All the Mommies wanted was an Easter picture of the kids!

Happy Easter, everyone!

(Please note : YES, Brooke has a "Baby's First Easter" bib - would she be BROOKE without one??)

Oprah...

Thank Heaven for Oprah...
Weird - but I have TWO things to say regarding Oprah... Ready?

Eh hem.

#1.
Life is rough these days. Teething sucks. Hardly any sleeping has occurred in the last few weeks. Teething sucks. Brooke is miserable and while Zig and I try to do everything we can for her, she continues to be miserable all through the night. Teething sucks. She puts on a good show - I have to say! She is fantastic through tub time, bottle time, and goes right to sleep for Zig... It all starts about 3-4 hours after that. She's awake. And M-A-D. As for me, the second I'm awake during the night time hours, I'm mad too. Zig is very calm and patient during the night. Thank God for that. Because I'm not. So, since teething sucks, motherhood sucks. This is truly the hardest job in the entire world. Fortunately, it's a job with tremendous reward...a beautiful child...but no one said it's an easy one!
So - to get to the point of this post -
While attempting to rock Brooke to sleep one of the dozens of times during the night last night, I decided to watch a recorded Oprah from yesterday. (The reason that Oprah is being recorded this week is coming up! Keep reading...) When I saw that the show was all about "the good, bad, and the ugly in motherhood," I almost cried. Not only was it a show devoted to Moms, it featured the authors of my latest favorite book - "I Was A Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids!" There they were! The wonderful women who helped to bring me out of my funk, just by reading their book! The words from this book that my sister shared with me truly helped me to overcome what truly may have been a bit of post-partum, just by making me realize that I wasn't alone in this big world as the only one having trouble with this whole Mom-thing. Being a Mom is hard, and I loved hearing the stories of other Moms who are going through the same thing I am.
I'm now on the hunt for the other 2 books from these Mommy authors - one titled "I'd Trade My Husband For A Housekeeper." Yep - ME TOO!! (Just kidding! Love you Hunny!) But some days, I'd trade just about anything for a little bit of help! My husband is fantastic and GOD BLESS HIM for putting up with me... Because, let's face it, I'm not nice. Especially on zero sleep.
So, THANKS OPRAH for yesterday's show! THANKS to the Mommy authors who wrote the awesome books, and THANKS GOD for guiding me to record Oprah this week - since I would have missed this otherwise.

And now...for #2.
Oprah is on record this week for one of the coolest reasons ever!
Quick family background on the way...
My dad's sister's oldest son, Scott... Got that?
My cousin Scott and his wife Amy and their two kids, Jordan and Olivia... Got it?
They live in Tennessee. Scott is now retired from the Army, but they remain far away where Scott was stationed for so long in the service.
Unfortunately, we don't get to see Scott and his family very much - but oddly, Brooke has been compared to Jordan a lot lately! Much of our family think Brooke looks a lot like her! She's awfully cute!

Anywho -
To make a long story short, Amy must be an avid Oprah fan...
Amy responded to a topic on Oprah's website regarding young children and the topic of 'sex.' Yikes.
Jordan is approaching the wonderful adolescent years, and I'm sure that Amy is up to her ears in questions from Jordan - or just absorbed in how fast the girls are growing -
So, Oprah must have liked Amy's response since she and Jordan were almost immediately flown to Chicago to be on a live recording of the show.
Well - the show airs THURSDAY!

I've set the DVR to record Oprah all week, just in case there were some commercials with Amy or Jordan, but none so far!

So, for anyone interested, tune in to Oprah on Thursday, (or set your DVR's or TIVO's to record too!) it ought to be great!

YAY for Oprah!
YAY for Amy and Jordan!
YAY for sleep deprivation!!! Wait...what??? (yawn...)

Firsts...

A few new firsts for our gorgeous girl...

First time in Grammy Joyce's old-fashioned high chair...


First attempt at crawling...though unsuccessful...we're still working!

First rock in Pap's huge chair...

First touch of grass...short-lived happiness!

Ah, yes... It was nap time!

Happy Friday everyone!

One new 'first' that I can't depict is our very first FEVER caused by... TOOTH NUMBER 2!!

Yesterday was a rough day for us around here!

Brooke was a trooper as my Mom and I carted her off to Walmart, JoAnn Fabrics, and IVMS to take care of a few things... She took 2 fantastic naps... Enjoyed a relaxing walk with Mommy after supper... And that's when it all went down hill!

My beautiful, playful Brookie turned into the 'teething monster' (Right, Lindsay??) and she seemed to think the world was coming to an end!

She spiked a fever - highest was around 100.2 - and fussed through her tub. She fought me on her bottled before bed, but eventually went right to sleep for her Daddy.

She slept fine from 9pm-3am... Not so fine after that...

I was up with her from 3am-6am. She was asleep a few times, but would wake up as soon as I laid her down. Her fever had broken by 6, but since this was the 2nd night in a row of this madness, and we can feel that second little jaggy tooth coming up beside the first, its quite obvious that the tooth is to blame!

Have I mentioned that I hate the teething stage??
But I love my little girl - more every single day! (Even though she's not a very nice teething monster!)