Sleeping In

It's 8:30 am, and Ann Reese is still snoozing, so I guess I should use this time wisely to catch up on laundry, sewing, mopping! Nah, I think I'll blog instead! 


We had an awesome Easter in B'ham this year! The Grote's always make our trip to Birmingham wonderful!! We eat like kings (I swear I gain 5 lbs. every time I go there), David plays WAY too much golf, and Ann Reese plays, plays, plays! 


This year the Master's was on during this weekend, and if you know David's family, you know we watched every second of coverage!!! I actually have learned to enjoy watching golf, but I just can't do it for a whole weekend! 


Ann Reese is stirring....be back soon! 


So, it's 1:40 now, and I'm back to writing!! LOL, we had an eventual morning! I cleaned while Ann Reese played, then I decided to take her to a movie about pirates. BIG mistake!!! She did great the first time I took her to see a movie, but this time was a lot different!!! She was BORED and wanted to walk around and play! Yikes, we left after about 45 minutes!! I don't think she's into pirates as much as penguins! LOL! 


Anyway, back to Easter. Here are a few pictures of our fun weekend!! 

Easter egg hunt in Greystone where David's family lives. It was sooo much fun for Annie! 

She hated the Easter Bunny! I don't know why I'm surprised, because she wasn't a fan of Santa either. 

All smiles with Daddy!! 

Ann Reese sure loves her Honey!! We video chat with Peggy a lot, so Ann Reese will pick up the Ipad and say, "Call Honey!!" Too cute! 

Honey, Granddad, and Ann Reese ready for the egg hunt to begin!

My sweet, cute, smart, and sassy little girl!!! I love her sooo much! How do you like her mommy made outfit?? 

Ann Reese loves her Tippy! He loves playing with her. 

Ha, nice look here, huh? This was after she looked at everything the Easter Bunny gave her and decided it was time to eat all the candy in the eggs. The EB put Cheerios and jellybeans in the eggs, but Ann Reese dumped out all the Cheerios and went for the jellybeans. Silly girl!

Ann Reese's goodies from the Easter Bunny!! She has gotten beach stuff like a swim suit, coverup, towel, beach toys, and sunscreen every year from the EB. It's sooo awesome that the Easter Bunny monograms and appliques just like mommy! :) 

Ann Reese had a blast hunting and hiding Easter eggs in Honey's garden! 

Ann Reese and her main guy, Daddy! I love this picture of these two! 

What did we do on a rainy Saturday while Daddy worked??? Well, we went to Jenna's house for a movie and pizza making play date! These two girls sure do love each other soo much, and I really enjoy Jenna's mommy, Katherine, so it's a no brainer to hang out with them!! A couple days before this, we had Jenna and Katherine over for a science experiment afternoon. I'll post those crazy pictures soon. The girls LOVED it!! 

I caught myself looking through my photo and video albums on my computer the other day, and it really made me stop and think about the fact that my baby is now a little girl! Where did the time go?? I can't believe she's using full sentences, has little buddies that she really loves, and is moving to the 2 year old MDO class soon. It makes me miss the days when she was a baby. Although, these days of having a funny 2 year old have been my favorite thus far!

Warm Weather!!!

Wow, it's been way too long since I blogged, so here goes....

It's been an amazing 11 months! Yep, it's really been 11 months since I blogged. That's just terrible! I'm REALLY going to try to do better, promise! We have had a great year with our sweet 2 year old, and we have sooo much to be thankful for!! 

First of all, we are loving this wonderful, warm weather while living at the beach! I couldn't have asked for a better place to live. David is not as "in love" with the gulf coast like I am, but it's growing on him. We have made the most amazing friendships, always have something fun to do (sometimes too much), and have spent a lot of family time together! I know that our journey will most likely take us back to B'ham eventually, but for now, I'm soaking up the relaxed life at the beach! These are truly some of the best times of my life! 

What could be better than Lulu's and the Hangout being right down 59?? We have a lot of lunch dates at Lulu's with mine and Ann Reese's friends and go to the Hangout or the beach most weekends for fun in the sun. Corny, I know! Ann Reese's favorite part of the Hangout is the foam party! She says, "Bubbles, Mommy!". So cute! 

Ann Reese absolutely LOVES the beach! She loves to bury her feet, dig holes, and splash in the water! My sister and her family came down last week for their spring break, and we had a blast at the beach then fishing. 

 Small Nice catch, Daddy!

 Enjoying a morning stroll on the beach together!

Ann Reese with her cousin, Kyle, playing at the beach! Great times!

Another thing we LOVE to do down here is go to the zoo. We go just about every week and usually meet friends for play dates. Ann Reese knows all the animals at the zoo and where they are! Her favorite is a deer. She could feed him for hours. We actually had her 2nd birthday party at the zoo in January, and she had a blast! She showed all her family and friends around! 

Ann Reese loved sharing the zoo with all her friends and family during her birthday party! Here's a few pictures of our fun day! 

Ann Reese and Aunt Dot sure love each other!!! She spends a lot of time at Meme's house. We are very blessed to live so close to family! 

This bunny runs loose, and Ann Reese chases around every time we visit the zoo. It's her second favorite animal at the zoo. 

Amy, Katherine, and Laura are the sweetest girls. These three plus a few more (not pictured) are huge blessings in my life. Plus, they all three have little ones very close to AR's age that she has a blast with! LOVE these girls!!!! 

One of our favorite places down here! 

Lovey and Ann Reese sure do love each other! We get to go on a lot of shopping trips, lunch dates, and swim in Lovey and Papa Dane's pool.

Another fun thing we have been really enjoying down here is the fact that everyone loves coming up with an excuse for a crawfish boil! We are making so many fond memories down here! 

Amy, Katherine, and Abby! Abby has been such a great friend and co-worker at my new job at Orange Beach Elementary! Thank you, Abby, for showing me the ropes! 

Jack's birthday party!! Ann Reese, Jenna, and Jack have so much fun together! Amy and I have many sewing parties either with wine at night or coffee/coke on a Saturday morning!

Ann Reese and her best friends! 

Ann Reese and Jenna Shaver!

These two have been besties since they were just a few months old. They have had so many fun times together and have so many cute pictures like this together. This one is my absolute favorite! Thank you Katherine and Tucker for sharing your sweet girl with us! 

I took a break from Barefoot Designs this January to take a temporary teaching position at Orange Beach Elementary. It was a much needed break from sewing, but I'm really glad to be back to it. I am still working 3 days a week (19 hours) as an aid for 5th grade, but I'm so glad to be back to spending more time with AR and trying to get some sewing done. Although, it's pretty hard to sew when I have this little one as a helper! Maybe one day she'll help mommy sew!

It's Been a While!!!

Wow, it's been well over a year since I blogged about our lives! I guess I have been too caught up in being a wife, mother, seamstress, getting settled in a new place, and the list goes on and on! I have a very ambitious goal to update my blog with the last year's events! I want Ann Reese to be able to read it when she's older to see what we were up to! It's been a roller coaster of excitement, especially watching our baby girl grow and develop a little personality of her own! Here's a small sample of her up-to-date pictures.

We are in Birmingham for a visit with Davey's family, and Ann Reese is having a ball! She's loving playing outside with Honey. I captured a few pictures in the backyard before the water hose was brought into the picture! Ann Reese has such a sweet spirit, and it really shows up in these pictures. She loves holding your hang, loving on her babies, and giving HUGE bear hugs! She's very trusting and will go to complete strangers. A little scary, but I'm glad she feels safe! This little girl has captured our hearts in so many ways. I never thought I'd see Davey playing with purses or dolls, but she's turned him into a total softy! It's just adorable! I guess if we have a boy he'll be saying the same about me playing with balls, bats, and G.I. Joe (or whatever boys play with)!

Our New Life!

Ann Reese Grote was born on Jan. 18, 2010 at 12:07 at Saint Vincent's hospital. She was 7 pounds and 15 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. Travis actually guessed her weight in our pool. Too bad for him that we didn't bet money! It was a VERY easy labor and delivery. I was very blessed to not have a crazy long delivery with complications. Those came 4 hours after delivery, though. Ann Reese inhaled fluid when she took her first breath which caused her to have fast breathing. The fast breathing caused her blood sugar to drop because she couldn't eat. She was sent to the NICU around 5. It was the HARDEST thing I've ever had to go through. All moms have a perfect picture of what they think it is all suppose to be like and this was just not it. My poor baby was not healthy enough to stay with us and that was very worrisome. We didn't know what to expect over the next few days, but we did know that our wonderful family and friends were by our side. We got to go see her at 8 that night, and it was very tough to see her there hooked up to monitors and with an IV in her little foot. We were hopeful to get her out in 2 days, but we weren't sure. We got to stay with her in the NICU on Wednesday night thinking we were going to get to take her home on Thursday. On Thursday morning, the doctor came in and said she had to stay due to high levels of jaundice. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? This devastated me! I had been discharged from the hospital meaning we would have to walk out of there without our baby with us. I had dreamed of when we would be able to bring her home and this was not that day. I must have looked like a crazy person leaving the hospital with emotions flowing. I was so thankful for my mom being at my house to keep me positive and uplifted! 6 days after she went to the NICU, we finally brought home Ann Reese. Me, my mom, Dane, Peggy, and Davey all went to the hospital to get her. Only Davey and I got to go into the NICU to see her, so it was very exciting for our families to see and hold her once she got out of the NICU doors! A lot of tears flowed! It was the best feeling to pick her up without a nurse telling us it was okay. It was also a very sad moment thinking of all the other babies in the NICU that would proabably be there for a very long time and some not even make it out. Davey and I spent a lot of time praying for these little ones and thanking God we had a healthy baby compared to these tiny babies. We went through all the wonderful moments such as showing her all around our house and her precious room. It's been 6 months now (I'm horrible for just getting this written) and life has never been better! I love being a mom and having amazing family support. I love you all!


Our baby girl the first time we saw her in the NICU.

div>

Thankfully, two days later we finally got to take our baby girl home. It had been 6 full days in the NICU. Honestly, it was the best feeling in the world going to the hospital with my mom, Dane, and Davey to pick her up. We were finally getting to leave the hospital with our baby girl!