Raelee

Wow, I can't believe my little Rae bug is ONE! Where in the heck did this last year go? I just hope the next semester goes by as fast and then time needs to SLOW DOWN. We celebrated Raelee's birthday early in the month due to Christmas and family members that work in healthcare(schedules for nurses are not very fun). Raelee was so funny when we sang to her, she sat there with her wide eyes, super serious. And blowing out the candle? Forget about it! She didn't even want to eat her awesome cake that my dad made for her. She kept trying to give it to me. However, she LOVED/LOVES her presents. She was good about sharing her new toys with Miles and Stokes too.
     On the 21st(Rae's actual birthday) I had to work, sad. But it was cool, because with Brad's new job he has the 2 weeks around Christmas off, so he was able to be home with her. I woke Raelee up before I left for work(probably not very nice, it was 6am), I wanted to see her before I was gone for the next 12 hours. We sang happy birthday to her and she was sooooo super excited and happy. Brad said the whole day she was just happy as could be, never even cried.  It was fun at work, because I took care of patients that their new babies now have the same birthday as Rae, and one of them was in the same room I was in a year ago. Sweet memories!

  

Fun times!

I am soooooo excited to have the next four days off. Sorry CRMC but I will not being answering my phone when you call to see if I can come work extra. This time of year is CRAZY in the baby business. All our rooms have been full almost every shift I've worked the last few months. And the days I work in the nursery are INSANE. I love my job, but man, I need a rest. This morning I washed all my uniforms, pumping supplies, and Raelee's bottles to put them away, not to be seen or thought about until Tuesday. We have a full and fun packed weekend ahead.

    

A morning before I left for work about 1 month ago

Blessings

For Thanksgiving this year, we were able to travel to Alabama where my mom's side of the family lives. I worked last Thanksgiving, and then had Raelee just before Christmas, so we hadn't been there for a major holiday since 2008. What! Craziness! Ya'll don't even know, but my grandma and family cook some of the best food there is. I seriously wanted to cry when I tasted the feast! The turkey was the best I've ever had, and the veggies, yum yum! Butter beans, field peas, collards, creamed corn, I would keep going, but I'm making myself hungry. This probably sounds bad how I'm going on and on about food, but ya'll it.is.soooo.good! It was awesome to be able to see my family too. My uncle just had his first child this year, she's 5 months old now. Raelee looked so grown next to her. It made me realize Rae's not a little baby anymore. sad :( It was fun to see my grandma, Raelee even let her hold her for a bit.
Anyway, Thanksgiving is such a great holiday to make us realize all our many blessings. Basically everything we have. But this year I am especially thankful for my little Raelee and for awesome peeps to watch her when I have to work. On that note, I'm also thankful for employment and being able to contribute to our family income and help pay the bills, so all that stress isn't on Brad. I'm soooo thankful for Brad's new job, it's truly a blessing how it came about. And lastly, I'm super thankful that Brad only has one more semester(for now) of school!! WhootWhoot! It'll be great to have somewhat of a normal schedule once he graduates.




















The feast














our fixin's, round 1




















nap time with Raelee's uncle's




















Raelee with her great-grandma St. Mary















Us with Grandma

zebra time

Raelee was loving this zebra at this Blimes's last night. She was soo funny, I didn't catch the best parts on video. Oh and she's in just a diaper cause she was eating a lollipop and was VERY messy.

Halloween

Raelee with her pumpkin. Couldn't get one of her looking at the camera too, silly girl.




















Raelee was the tooth fairy and she took our teeth while we were sleeping.















The little tooth fairy




















Her hair is finally long enough for pigtails. I lOVE them...
















...however, her hair is not so cute when they come out. This is her first time brushing her own hair.

Gap casting call

Raelee needs your votes. Go here once a day to vote. This pic by LindseyLou

Seaworld

We spent the weekend in Orlando with Brad's parents for their 29th wedding anniversary. We spent two days at Seaworld and had a BLAST! I hadn't been since I was a child, and Brad had never been, or Raelee :) It was so neat to see all the marine life. We were able to touch a dolphin and stingrays. The stingrays are kinda freaky feeling. Raelee loved everything! She would put her little finger against the glass and point at the fish, dolphines, or whatever was on the other side, sooo cute! She was so good too, never cried, she sat in her stroller looking at everything. When she looked tired, we would lay her down and she would just close her eyes and go to sleep. I couldn't believe how good she was. The weather was GORGEOUS while we were there too. Still hot, though that was expected, but with a good breeze. It was the perfect vacation.













During the shamu show





















Happy 29 years!
















Self pic















in the artic at the bear caves

FAMILY

It's been a fun weekend as a family. It seems like I've been working alot of weekends or when I've been off, we've had a crazy amount of things to do. It was fun to just chill. To be able to not set an alarm clock and to cuddle with Brad and Raelee on Saturday morning. To go visit new shops just for fun. To dress up in our game gear to go watch the FSU game at Brad's parents. To eat some of the best BBQ pork I've ever tasted. To watch Raelee practicing her new skills, crawling, clapping, waving and pointing. To go to dinner and celebrate my brothers 28th birthday. BTW 28? Holy cow, we're all growing up! To loose our softball game, but to make my first pop up catch of the season. To be able to see our BFF's and family at Friday night softball. To be able to go to church today. Having a normal weekend was fun, relaxing and much needed.
P.S. We had pictures taken by the AMAZING Lindsey Lou.
P.P.S Can't get the underline to turn off. This happens every few months, sooo annoying,

first football game

By Raelee Wonsch:
Yesterday was my first FSU football game. I know daddy and grandpa have been very excited for football season and now I know why. You get to wear cute outfits and hair bows and have everyone say how cute you are! You also get to spend the whole day with daddy and grandma and grandpa, and get to watch daddy and grandpa, yell funny things and jump around the living room. I think I'm going to like this football thing.

Happy Birthday Brad!

We celebrated Brad's birthday with not 1, not 2, but 3 parties! We have pretty crazy schedules between Brad's night classes and my 12 hour shifts, and then to throw in family and friends schedules, there was no way to make it happen with 1 celebration. We started with a surprise party with friends on July 30th. Brad was so surprsed that after we yelled surprise, he thought the party was for someone else and I hadn't told him, lol! Then, we celebrated with my family on August 8th. August 10th, was the actual birthday and then last night we celebrated with Brad's family. His parents brought home made chicken wings, soooo yummy. That mixed with way too much cake made for full bellies today. Just in time for our cruise, lol!

Sounds of Pertussis

I attended a class today at work on pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough. This illness is on the rise. There has recently been 2 cases in Leon County. Apparently, all us adults were last vaccinated in the 7th grade and recent studies have shown that the vaccine wears off after approximately 10 years. So the majority of adults in the United States are not vaccinated and are able to contract and potentially spread whooping cough to our little ones. The CDC started its campaign in 2006 to vaccine adults in the United States. 3% have now been vaccinated. Those are scary statistics! Children are vaccinated for this illness starting at infancy, but are not fully protected until around the age of five. This is a totally preventable illness. Ask your doctor for the adult pertussis vaccine, also known as the Tdap vaccine. It's especially recommended for people who live with or take care of infants less than 1 year of age, women who might become pregnant, new mothers, and health care personnel. Most babies are infected by their parents or close family members. I was vaccinated last week, how about you? Have you had your vaccine?

So easy baby food and six months stats

We are making Raelee's baby food and are loving it! We made this decision based on two reasons:
1. Cost, it's waaayyy cheaper.
2. Health, did you know baby food jars can be 3 or more years old before you're feeding it to your baby? Also, all the preservatives that go into the jars, yuck!
Now I am not a cook, Brad usually does all our cooking(lucky me). So I was a little hesitant and overwhelmed feeling when it came to making Raelee's food. Plus, there are so many foods that can't be introduced until a certain age, etc. I took a class at Best Beginnings
and bought the so easy baby food kit there. This book breaks it down and really does make it so easy! So far Rae has had bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, oatmeal, and tonight she'll start butternut squash(which I had never tasted in my life until today. It's pretty good). I have so much fun cooking her food, maybe I'll start cooking grown up food too, maybe :)
Raelee's 6 month appt was Wed. Here's her stats:Ht 25 inches-20%, Wt 14lbs 15 oz-30%, HC 43.8 cm-90%. This girl sure has a big noggin! At least its down from the 92%, which is what it was at 4 months. She has hit all her developmental milestones. She loved going to the appt, everyone was giving her so much attention. And she barely even cried with her shots! Such a big girl

I can' t believe little Rae is 6 months old today. She's growing so fast, everyday it seems like she's learning a new skill. She is so much fun, I'm so lucky to be her mom. She has such a little personality, it cracks me up all the time. She's the perfect little girl for Brad and I. These are some pics we took over the weekend. I can't get enough of her little chubby cheeks and smile. I love you Raelee!
P.S. I still can't get this underline thing to stop. Anyone have any suggestions?




















Raelee with her new hat.




















Grandpa put her britches on her head. Raelee thought it was soo funny.




















With her sock monkey, FiFi.




















Chillin on the porch.

Braids

I've been trying to create this hair style from this lady here, http://thepolishedpickle.blogspot.com/2009/06/hair-style-tutorial.html for about six months now. She always has the cutest hair(and clothes). Well, I have not been able to successfully do a french braid in my hair since I was nine and fractured my wrist. I have tried and tried and tried. Well.... this morning I was able to fix one side in a french braid part thingy! I was soooo super excited and wanted to braid the rest, but it was 6am and I have to be at work clocked in by 0645am.Tomorrow, I'm going to try to braid the rest, that's a good goal for a Friday I think. I would post a pic, but any hairstyle does not look so great after twelve hours working in a hospital.

Happy Weekend!!!

Raelee has a favorite toy. Her Sophie Giraffe. She loves to chew and drool on it. So fun! She started sitting up by herself almost 2 weeks ago, and it has changed her world. She thinks she's the coolest now. She just sits there and grins, its so cute. On a side note, I don't know why everything I type is underlined and I can't get it to stop, so sorry! Enjoy the weekend, I know I will!!!

















On her new play mat from IKEA

Catch up

I'm in a blog funk. I feel overwhelmed cause I've let so many things pass that I haven't blogged about. Sigh... where to start...Raelee has started on solid foods and loves it! She had started acting like she was chewing whenever we would eat and was always hungry acting, so we decided to try solids. She so far has had baby oatmeal and bananas and LOVES them. We're going to try sweet potatoes next.
She loves sitting in her bumbo that her friend Miles is letting her borrow.
Rae loves her new play center. She has a hard time pushing the buttons to get the music to play, so one day she started using her head to push the button! Such a funny girl.
Our good friends, Danny and Stephanie White came to visit with their little cutie patootie Parker. We were so happy to see them and meet their little boy.