Mommy's Little Girl

Knowing that we have another little one joining our family this coming September has made me appreciate my one on one time with Lillian even more. With Shaun having started a new job and taking three classes this semester, Lillian and I have been on our own a lot these last few months. We are so grateful for all Shaun's hard work for our family, and not having him home on the nights and most weekends has been hard. Lillian constantly asks about her Dada and when he will be home. But honestly I have enjoyed my Mommy/Lillian time, and Lillian has become such a Mommy's girl. While I am so excited and feel so blessed to be pregnant again, I know that once this sweet baby arrives it will never be the same in our home. It will never just be me and Lillian running errands, or staying cuddled up at home on rainy days. I so value the time that I have with my little girl and am forever grateful for having the opportunity to stay home with her. Shaun and I know that she will be a wonderful big sister, and cannot wait until the two of them are running around together.



Miss Lillian LOVES suckers. She is always trying to get me to give her one...or five!

she had found a sucker in her bag and was hiding to eat it.

looks at those curls!

** Sense Shaun usually isn't home before Lillian goes to bed most nights, I take these little videos of Lillian talking about her day and show them to Shaun when he gets home. He loves to watch them; she is growing up so fast.

Oak Mountain Fun, Petting Zoo, But No Ducks!

Lillian has been obsessed with ducks lately. I do not know what it is about them, but she literally cries to see them. So when we made plans to meet the Long/Hays family at Oak Mountain after church this past Sunday, I spent the whole morning talking up the ducks that I just knew we would see around the park. All the way to church I would say, "Lillian after church we are going to see some ducks!". She would get the biggest smile on her face and say, "ducks, ducks, ducks Momma". When I picked her up from nursery after services the first thing she said to me was, "ducks Momma" and of course I reassured her that of course we were going to see ducks. Shaun had to study so after church he went home and we headed to Oak Mountain. We missed him!

Well we got to the park, did a little creative changing in the car from our church clothes, and were ready to have some fun with the family. We were grilling right next to a lake where one would think ducks would be swimming. Lillian took one look at the lake and said, "Oh no, ducks? Oh no, ducks?". Not wanting her to get upset I told her that the ducks were at the petting zoo and we would see them after we ate. The food was great-thanks Travis and Ryan for grilling- and after we cleaned up and walked around we headed for the petting zoo only to find that there were NO ducks there either. I tried to pass a roster off as a duck, but Lillian wasn't buying it. Luckily she was pretty distracted by all the other fun animals there and didn't seem too upset that the ducks were MIA. But of course the second we got in the car to go home she started saying it..."ducks, ducks, ducks".

This Mommy promised her little girl ducks, so even though I was beyond exhausted from a hectic morning and long afternoon I was going to find my baby some ducks. I was not going to be made out to be a liar over some stinking ducks. So we headed to the only place I knew they would for sure be, Star Lake in Hoover. It was so worth it, Lillian's face lit up when I took her out of the car and she saw those silly ducks running. We stayed there for TWO hours chasing them, feeding them, and climbing all over the place. We didn't even get home until almost 5:30 that evening.

Star Lake!

chasing a duck off the dock...

check out this cute shirt that I had made for Lillian when we found out we were pregnant!

she must have gotten hungry because she sat down her and said, "eat Mom, eat".

feeding the ducks

offering to share an M&M with her Mommy

she was dead a sleep two seconds after the car started moving.

but she was happy to see wake-up and see her Daddy had made her dinner.

*please excuse the long post about duck drama, but I tend to ramble these days.

A Few Pictures I Have Been Meaning To Post

These are just a few pictures that I thought were cute and have been meaning to blog.
Enjoy.....

wearing her crown that she made at Temple





Lillian insisted on leaving the house with all of her favorite things...


she was not willing to leave any of it at home

and had to have it all in the car seat with her.

eating lunch with Daddy

this is how she likes to ride on the cart @ Wal- Mart

Baby Hays' 11 Week Appointment

Yesterday I had my 11 week appointment with my regular doctor. I was so excited to go back and see Dr. Straughn, considering the last time I saw her I was border line crazy on clomid and crying in her office over our struggle to get pregnant. So she was so happy to see me and to see me PREGNANT! She kept joking that Alli must have "laid hands" on me or something like that.

Shaun couldn't be there with me, but he made me call him on my cell so that he could hear our sweet baby's heart beat for the first time. Even though we had seen the heart beat on the ultrasound at the fertility doctor's office, they did not have sound on their machine so we had not gotten to hear it yet. It was the most amazing sound...and was beating at a perfect 160 (Lillian's was 162 the first time we heard hers at 8 weeks).

I will not go back for five weeks, but because of some abnormal blood work I will have a high powered ultrasound during my 12 or 13 week to check on the baby. It is nothing to be concerned about, but my doctor thought it would be a good idea just to put our minds at ease. If Shaun and I intended on finding out the sex of the baby we could actually find out at that appointment! The ultrasound machine is so powerful it could clearly see little boy or girl parts at that time of gestation. Too bad we have no desire to know or this appointment would be much more anticipated.

11 Weeks!

I cannot believe that I am 11 weeks today! People were right, you show SO much quicker with you second pregnancy than you do with your first. You can ask anyone who knew me when I was pregnant with Miss Lillian, I did not even have the littlest bump until I was 20-21 weeks! I swear on my life that I am already as big now at 11 weeks with this little baby, as I was at 21 weeks with Lillian. I can't say that I mind though, I love seeing our little baby grow everyday.

I am so thankful to also report that my morning sickness is 100% gone! Of course it was much more bearable with an RX for Zofran- thanks Elizabeth. Now if I can only get back some of that energy I have lost over this first trimester I will be on top of the world. On Thursday I will see my actual OB for the first time this pregnancy. I had only been seeing my fertility doctor sense we found out, so it will be nice to be back at my regular doctor's office with the other normal pregnant women. I absolutely cannot wait to hear our sweet baby's heartbeat. Honestly, can you not think of a better sound?

Zoo Trip

Last weekend's weather was so incredibly beautiful that of course there was only one place to go...THE ZOO! Apparently a lot of people had that same idea, because it was packed on Saturday. Shaun had left the house at 6:30 that morning to go to the library to get some work done for a presentation he had this past Monday-it went GREAT- and then he met Lillian and I at the zoo around lunch. We had such a great time just following her around, watching her explore and discover all the animals all over again. It has been so long sense we have been I think she forgot about how much fun the zoo was. We fed the birds, played on the playground together, grabbed a bit to eat at the cafe and saw the monkeys. But we pretty much spent most of our time looking at the ducks! Lillian was OBSESSED with those stinking ducks! We would look at them and then start to walk away and she would say, "Ducks, ducks, ducks, ducks!". It is not even like ducks are a real zoo animals; we can see them almost anywhere. It was pretty funny, and she has talked about those ducks for a solid week now. Hopefully, that wonderful warm and sunny weather will return again soon, and when it does you will be able to find us at the zoo. Most likely around the ducks.

trying to give the monkeys a hug.

*The girl loves her ducks.

Dinner @ Church And An Ash Wednesday Play Date

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and we went to eat dinner with Alli, Korey and Eli at their church. It was very good, and I think that Shaun, Lillian and I might start going with them every week. Good food and only $8 dollars for our entire family to eat! Afterwards I took the kids back to Alli's house so that her and Korey could attend Ash Wednesday services. Poor Eli cannot go to the nursery because of his cast, so he and Lillian go to have a night time play date! They were so cute together...they wanted to get in the bed with the cat and Lillian kept tucking Eli in, pulling the covers up to his neck and giving him his sippy cup. When he started to cry she rubbed his head and said, "shh,shh". She is going to make a GREAT big sister! I cannot wait to see her interact with her new little brother or sister.

of course she wore her hat again all day yesterday.


has to take her baby stroller every where!



she likes to cover up with a blanket when she is in her car seat. Just a new little quirk of hers.

cuddling Eli....

giving Eli his "juice"

*Lillian calling for the cat at Alli's house. Notice how she smashes her checks with her hands; she is actually trying to cup her mouth like you or I would do if we were calling out to someone. She is so smart; I don't even know where she picked this up.