Our Little Turkey

Sarah and Weston Resting!


Great Grandma Webb and Family


Great Grandma Potter






Just had to share this funny picture of Nala, she wished that this was her thanksgiving!:-)

This Thanksgiving we headed up to Michigan this year. It was a long drive. It only took us an extra hour, not to bad with a 3 month old. The weather was cold, and I loved it. The weather in TN had been in the 70's so a change was kind of nice. On thanksgiving though it rained, and I was happy that we didn't agree to run in the turkey trot. I hate running really, but a 5k isn't to bad. However I would never agree to run in the rain. I don't care how much I paid for the race if its raining I am not doing it. Enough about that.
Brandon and Weston watching football all weekend, the rest of my family went shopping. (Brandon doesn't care to shop, so he was happy staying at home with the girls and Weston) We got some great deals. We got out early, but no as early as my family would have liked to have gotten out on black Friday. But life has changed a little since we had a baby, and have a feeding schedule.
Weston got to meet a lot of people that weekend. He got to meet two great grandma's, a Great Aunt and a Great Uncle. He did very well.
On Saturday the big game was on, I shouldn't say big because we pretty much new that Ohio State was going to beat Michigan. Weston was supporting Michigan and Michigan State. I don't have a picture of him in his outfit Sarah got one with her camera, but he had a Michigan hat on with a Michigan onesie, with Michigan State Socks. His Aunt Sarah is an Alumni of Michigan so she got him some Michigan wear. But I have been a big supporter of Michigan State since I can remember. So Weston was a baby divided. Michigan state played at the same time and they won.
The drive home took the same but we got stopped by a bad accident. We were thankful that the accident only held us up for 45min, it could have been even longer. We saw some big backups, we were just thankful we made it safely to our destination.

Thankfulness

We are so Thankful for this little guy!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and when I take a look back and see everything that has happened in the past year we have so much to be thankful for. It's a great feeling to know that God is in control of our lives, and that he knows the plans and the direction of our lives. A little over a year ago we went on a trip with our friends from college. We headed to Las Vegas, if you have been following our blog, last year you would have seen the pictures of our trip. We always have a great time together. There were three couples there and we were all trying to get pregnant, one couple announced while they were there that they were having twins. That left us and one other couple still trying to get pregnant. We all have been to different doctors, so we were comparing stories and all the different drugs the doctors were putting us on. Also last year at this time, my cousin was also trying to get pregnant and having a difficult time as well. So its been over a year and I am happy to report that we all have had our babies. Out of the 4 of us we have 4 boys and 1 girl and are all healthy. What are you thankful for?

No more 20's in this household

Weston and Samuel we hope they become good friends.


Look at his arms!


Resting on Uncle Jonathan


Brandon blowing out his candles, he did a better job than I did.


Last weekend when Brandon's family was in town, he turned 30!! We are officially the same age now. So we celebrated. I made his favorite cake, red velvet and his mom made the icing (which I love). Also on his birthday we went to see our friends Matt and Ashley and their new baby Samuel. I can't believe the difference between a two month old and a newborn. Its crazy.

The weekend was a lot of fun, it was great to have them here to help celebrate his birthday. Ali our niece wasn't to fond of Weston (mainly because he is a boy, and she is afraid he is going to pull her hair), but she loved out girls. She wanted to take one home with her! LOL We couldn't part with them, and there was no room in Grandpa's car to take one with her. So here she is loving on Nala!

Pumpkins and Monkeys!

Grandpa Hoop and Weston

Can you see my tale?


Weston is thinking "What are they doing to me?""How many more years of this?"



Jonathan, Ali, Brandon and Weston


Great Aunt Jackie and Great Uncle Roger


Our pumpkin in the pumpkin patch!


My in-laws with Ali feeding the goats


Trying out the carrier before heading out that day.

This weekend was crazy! My In-laws along with my niece and brother-in-law came into town and we were busy. When I look back on what we did though, it doesn't sound busy but on by Monday night we were exhausted. On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch, and we were there for a couple of hours. They had hay rides, petting zoo, kids zone, and a train ride. The weather was perfect this weekend as well. We couldn't ask for a better weather. After we left the pumpkin patch with our pumpkins, we headed home to rest for a bit. While home we got a brief visit from my Uncle Roger and Aunt Jackie. They were driving through TN, and wanted to see Weston. It was nice to see them, and chat for a bit. Than that evening we headed to a Japanese Steakhouse, where the food is amazing, but you are so stuff that you can't finish it all. That is why you ask for box, and you eat the rest another night. Sunday we got up and went to church, after church we headed to a horse show to see a friends Daughter perform. It was great to watch, but we didn't have any idea what to look for. After we left there we headed to Jonathan's Grill. My Brother-in-law was in heaven. They have the NFL ticket, and if you know Jonathan he lives for Sunday football. Of course he would have really enjoyed himself if the Bengals would have won, but as we tell his daughter Ali "the Bengals are stinky". We can get her to say it every once and a while as well. Once we got home we all tried to rest for a bit. That is usually what Brandon and I do on Sundays anyway. But we had to get up to get ready for trick or treaters. We had to carve the pumpkins that we picked up on Saturday. Lets just say these pumkins were so tough. It took us a while to carve these. I have never had to work so hard to carve them, thank goodness Ali picked out easy designs. We couldn't be to creative with these ones.
More to come on next post!

Old Friends

Lindsey and I

Lindsey, Travis, Tyler, and Weston

Tyler holding Weston

Lindsey and Weston

This past week an old friend of mine from college came to visit. The last time I saw her was when her son was born. Which was over 2.5 years ago. So her family came down to see us all. Her son Tyler was so cute with Weston. He was so concerned about him and always wanted to see him. Tyler is going to be a big brother soon, so hopefully this helped in prepare him a little. We didn't do much, just hangout and went to eat. The weather wasn't the best, and Opry Mills Mall is still shut down. We enjoyed hanging out with them, and we hope they had a great time with us as well.

Two Month Check Up

Tuesday Oct. 26th was Weston's two month birthday and check up. He weighed in at 11 lbs and 6 ounces. He was 23 inches tall. On all the charts weight, length and head circumference he is average. Our Doctor said this is right were he needs to be. Of course on his two month check up he had to get his shots. He had two in one leg, and one on the other. I have never heard him cry so loud and hard when he got them. Poor guy. I can relate, I hated shots growing up and I still hate them to this day. I remember when I was in junior high I had to get a tetanus shot, and my mom and sister were with me in the room. I was looking the other way trying to not focus on what was going to happen. When the nurse was getting ready to stick the needle in my arm, Sarah screamed. So what did I do I flexed my muscle and the nurse forced it in. Than she proceeded to tell me that because I flexed my muscle she had to do it on my other arm. So I wasn't to happy about that, and I had a huge bruise on my arm later because of it. As you can tell I still have issues with shots! LOL Later that afternoon he was a little fussy, so I gave him some Tylenol. But by the end of the night, he was having a little conversation with dad and telling him all about his day!

Cuddle Time

Not a bad picture since I took it myself :-)

Brandon and his cuddle time.

Yesterday we had some cuddle time. I love to cuddle with Weston! When I thought about having kids and the baby stage, I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I was never one that was over enthusiastic about babies, I always love to interact when they get a little older and start to show their personalities. Well having your own has changed that. I love the baby stage, minus the late night feedings and no sleep. I have enjoyed holding Weston, and love to have him rest on my chest. I love it when he curls up into a little ball. Brandon says I will love something at every stage of his life, and I know he is right. But we have enjoyed cuddling with him.

A Fall Weekend in Ohio

Ali giving Weston her present.

Brother's and their Kids.

The McGuire's and The Hoop's!

Great Grandma Donalson

Great Grandma Hoop

I love the fall, but really I love all four season when they first come around. I say first because I love the first snow fall as well, but I wouldn't like months and months of snow fall. Anyway..this past weekend we made a quick trip to Ohio. Its the fall and I love going home for it and getting to the apple orchards however this year we didn't make it, but we did make it back to Ohio for the apple butter festival. It was the perfect day for it, and everyone in coshocton was out enjoying it. Weston and I went and met up with Julia and her two kids. We got to meet Amaya, who was born 6 weeks before Weston. I have to admit I give her props, Josh her husband was at a work event and so she had two kids all by herself. Her son Ethan is 3.5 and as you can imagine wants to see and be into everything. Amaya was so content, and Weston well he was sleeping. He had a very busy morning. Saturday he got to meet both Great Grandma's, and his Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Alayna, and his Cousin Ali along with his Great Uncle Gary and Great Aunt Ruthanne. He also got to meet our good friends The McGuire's and their son Cale (who is 9 months older than Weston). By the end of the night he was so tired, he was fighting sleep. I wouldn't blame him, I was tired as well. Sunday we got up and started the process of getting everything around for our trip. It took forever to get everything pack up. Weston did so well on both legs of the journey. He slept pretty much the whole time, even trying to feed him sometimes was like feeding him while he slept.

A Night Out with Weston

At the end of the night. Weston was a sleep in his carseat.

Weston just chilling


This past weekend we actually went out, and we had to dress up. On Saturday one of Brandon's co-workers got married and we were invited. Lets just say with a newborn it basically took me all day to get ready for this evening wedding. The wedding started at 4:30pm and we left the house at 3pm. We had to get a card, a gift, and feed Weston before the wedding started. We got that all accomplished. He was great during the wedding, toward the end though he did have the hiccups. But we sat in the back, so no one could hear them. The wedding was beautiful. We stayed for the reception, but basically we sat down and ate the appetizers because with the time constraint we had we left just after the first dance.
Weston was wearing a outfit that his new friends Landon and Jordan got him. Landon and Jordan are friends that he doesn't even know he has yet. Our good friend Lindsey and Erica had twins in May, if you want to see them check out their blog on the side.
Here are some pictures of the successful night, they did have a photo booth and we got pictures taken they turned out really cute. I am having problems though scanning them in and uploading them on my computer. Hopefully I can figure it out soon, then I will re-post them.

Da Bears!!

This past monday night the Chicago Bears were on TV. Brandon was out of town for work, but Weston dressed up for the occasion. We headed over to our good friends house and watched the game. Well Weston didn't really watch the game, he slept right through it. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the back of his jersey, but when you are by yourself its hard to do that. The Bears are on this sunday night, so we will attempt to get a picture and post it later.

My 9lb butterball

Watching College football on Saturday with my Mom. We were watching the Michigan game!

Brandon stopped by for a hour this last week while he was in town or a brief meeting, before heading back out for the rest of the week.


Ever since Weston came home for the hospital he has had a hard time gaining weight. Two days after we left the hospital we had to head to the pediatrician to check his weight. Remember he weighed in at 8'11 when he was born. Well he was 8Lbs. So they had me feed, and than we reweighed him. He jumped up to 8lbs 3oz. Not to bad the doctor said. But we had to come back the following week to check his weight again. We came back and we thought for sure he was gaining weight. He wasn't fussy at night, and he was pretty content. We walked in and weighed him again...again he was 8lbs 3oz. Our Doctor informed me my job was going to be harder. I had to wake him up every 3 hours even in during the night to feed him. Than I had to pump after feeding him, and give him whatever was left. At night it took me about 30 min to wake him up. He just loves to sleep. So the next week we went back again. He weighed 8lbs 6oz. The doctor was still not impressed. He said he should be gaining an ounce a day or a minimum 1/2 of an ounce. So we still have to continue what we were doing, but this time we had to start adding a formula supplement. The next week we finally had good news. He was at 9lbs. So now I don't have to wake him up at night to feed, he wakes me up. Which makes feeding at night go so much faster. He sleeps about 4 hour stretches as night. We still have to supplement when needed, but we don't have to see the doctor until his 2 month check up. I told him man we are going to miss coming here every week! LOL It does worry me though now about his weight still, but hopefully we are on the right track now. Yesterday he turned One month! I can't believe it. I looked at video's I took of him and you can tell he is getting bigger. He has out grown one of his NB outfits, he will probably out grow the rest in a week or two. He is getting so long.
Sorry I have updated the blog in a while, Brandon has been gone pretty much the last two weeks for work which makes my job a lot harder and less time to do extra things. Enjoy the video and pictures!

Grandpa and Grandma Potter Visit

They left at 6AM on Saturday, Weston was wide awake!


Grandpa and Weston napping on Friday afternoon!


Grandma was trying to keep Weston awake during the day, he rolled over to that position but didn't know how to get back on his back.

Last week Brandon had to go out of town for work. Not exactly what one would like to hear when you have a 2.5 week old baby, but what can you do when work calls. So he left on last tuesday and would be home until Friday evening. I had talked to my mom about things, and expressed to her how this was going to be stressful for me and wasn't looking forward to him being gone. One of the reasons it was so stressful for me was that since Weston had left the hospital he hasn't gained any weight. So the doctor told me I needed to feed him every three hours, and that included feeding him at night. Than I had to pump and feed him what I had left over. So basically every three hour window I would be lucky at times to have 1.5 hours left to do what I needed to do. One week went by doing this, and still no significant weight gain, so it was now time to supplement. So when my parents came I had to feed, pump, and give a bottle. Very time consuming, plus take care of two dogs, and Nala was sick at the time. So on Wed evening my parents arrived. It was so nice to have them there for the short time they could come. They helped me get out of the house, take care of Weston and clean my house. Cleaning a house goes so much faster when you have three people tackling it. They stayed until Saturday morning, but Brandon had made it home late Friday night.

I'll Wait For You - Michael W. Smith

Two days before Weston was born, and actually the day that I was due. A friend called who works at a record label saying they needed a pregnant person for a video that Micheal W. Smith was working on. So here it is. I would have to say that I didn't realize how big I looked until I saw this video. Oh well!

Weston and First Tummy Time

This was Weston's first time doing Tummy Time. Enjoy

Tummy Time

Last week we had our first night of tummy time. He is so strong, as you can tell in this picture. While at the hospital the pediatrician was amazed at his head control for the second day.

Who does Weston look like?

Weston

Brandon

Rachel

So you know the question everyone ask....who does he look like. Well I will give you some picture to ponder your decision.

Family Time

Brandon and I were so blessed to be able to have our families come and be apart of Weston's arrival. We weren't sure how it would have all worked out timing wise because they all had to drive 7-8 hours. Brandon's parents arrived just before we were taken into surgery, and my parents arrived just as they received the texted from Brandon letting them know he arrived and we were doing well. Sarah was able to fly in Friday morning and stay until Sunday. My parents had to leave sunday afternoon, because my mom's school started on Monday and she wasn't allowed to miss. Patty was able to stay this whole week and help us out, which we greatly appreciate as we are adjusting to this new world. I know next week will be really hard though as she leaves and we try to do this on our own.

Aunt Sarah

Grandpa Hoop

Grandpa Potter

Grandma Hoop

Grandma Potter