Zoey's 1st Camping Trip

One of Ryan's favorite things to do is go camping. Over the years I have learned to enjoy it also. It is so peaceful and nice to disconnect from everything and everyone for a couple of days and just spend time together. So many parents think that they can't do the things that they love to do once they have kids and Ryan and I were determined from Day 1 of being pregnant to not let that happen. We can take Zoey along with us and still do the things that we enjoy. First case in point of that was for our anniversary this year. We decided to go to Springfield so we could use some of gift certificates that we had and go out to our favorite place to eat, Texas Roadhouse. We had a blast that day with Zoey and it made our anniversary that much better to be able to include her. We couldn't wait to take her camping and I told Ryan that was what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. She had a great time on her first trip. It did take some extra planning on my part to pack for her and I did forget a few things for our trip, but luckily nothing we couldn't live without. Her favorite part of the trip was being by the water by the camp site. She loves to be outdoors so we knew that wouldn't be an issue. She looked so cute all cuddled up in the tent between Mommy and Daddy.

                                                              Such a happy little girl!

 She just woke up and Daddy had to take a picture of her 1st morning waking up from camping.

                               Staring at the water and couldn't get her attention to take her picture.

This is my favorite picture of us to date! She was in the middle of talking, if you can tell! Too cute. On Sunday, Mother's Day she decided to wake up the entire campsite. She woke up talking and making all kinds of loud noises and woke them up. It was happy noises, but still we were embarrassed a little bit. We decided that it was time to pack up and head home after a nice weekend.

Full Time Stay at Home Mom

Well, I've officially become a stay at home mom and I love it! I never thought that I would and always thought that I would get bored, but really that's so hard to do. For anyone that says you'd get bored, hasn't tried it. I've learned that I'm a better stay at home mom than stay at home wife. Zoey gets better taken care of than my house does. I've always been one that has to be in the right mood to clean and that hasn't changed one bit!! Zoey loves to be on the go and makes me laugh, because I was the same way growing up. It's been so cool just to see the things that she does and doesn't like or do that are just like Ryan and I.  She loves to be outdoors, sleeps just like Ryan and looks more like him than me. She loves to be on the go, hates to be ignored, has to have a pillow and blanket to sleep with every night, and since developing her voice loves to be heard. She also has started to want to do everything herself and she's only 6months old! I thought that wouldn't happen til she was a little bit older, but I guess not. She can hold her own bottle, but only when she wants to. She has started to grab the spoon when I feed her dinner and has started eating baby Mum-Mums and is so proud that she can do it herself. They have helped her develop getting her fingers in her mouth more and actually getting them in her mouth instead of her eyes or nose. She is just such a joy to have in our lives. It's so hard to be upset when she's around and we get offers everywhere we go to take her if we decide we don't want her. LOL I worked way to hard for that little girl to let anyone have her!!! Zoey sleeps through the night and only wakes up once at about 5am to have a bottle and then sleeps til about 7:30am. She LOVES the t.v. and will turn her head in any direction to try and find the t.v. if there is one on in the room.
  I went and got her a baby pool the other day and was so excited to see how she would react. She loves the water at bath time so we were hoping that she would enjoy it. Luckily, she did and she was too cute in her swim suit. Daddy wasn't to happy about her 1st swim suit being a 2 piece, but it covers her little tummy and works just fine. Once he saw her in it, he loved it. Here are some pics of her and her pool:

                                                             Too Cute in her swim suit!

We had fun and Ryan played with her in her pool the next day and she still enjoyed it. I'm excited to celebrate my 1st Mothers Day this weekend with my little princess! We are going camping for the weekend so it should be a great weekend!

Big Girl Food and Tummy Time

Zoey is just growing like crazy! She is picking things up and learning new things every day. She hasn't quite gotten the whole rolling over thing, since she hates to be on her tummy. So I've had to get creative and try new ways to keep her entertained and not think that she's on her tummy. I've put her on my legs on her tummy and move them back and forth. I've also got a musical snail that has been amazing for tummy time. It has a mirror on it so she can look at the baby in the mirror, it plays music and lights up. I think that she likes that it lights up and plays music the best because she will stare at the lights and kick like crazy. It seems to distract her so that she doesn't have time to cry about being on her tummy.
   She has also started eating big girl food! Zoey has always had so sort of reflux/spitting up problem since she came home from the hospital. It was getting so frustrating to feed her and have her spit up half if not more of her bottle. She was also just always so hungry. I decided as her Mom, with no help of her Dr. which was frustrating, that she was ready for Rice Cereal in her bottle. So on March 22nd we started her on Rice Cereal in her bottle. It was a a miracle that the rice cereal helped keep her formula down and NOTHING came back up!!!!! I only wanted to start rice cereal once a day, but the next feeding we gave her a bottle without the cereal and she was hungry with in an hour and spit it up again. She went through 12 ozs. of formula before she was finally full and happy. That first night was a rough one because we didn't want to feed her too much rice cereal to start with, yet she was desperately wanting more filling foods. I gave it about a week and on March 29th we decided to give her real food. Her first food was sweet potatoes and after the first bite, she licked her lips and gave me a huge smile, like "Mom you finally gave me the good stuff." She has been such a happier  baby now that she gets to have real food in her tummy. We usually give her fruit with Oatmeal Cereal in the am with her morning bottle and a veggie for dinner with her bottle. She LOVES her big girl food and we are so happy to give it to her. She has done so great with the transition. She has also done better since we have had a routine of her lying down and taking a nap everyday at 2:30pm. She seems to be a happier baby when she gets that nap at the same time everyday.

                                                     Eating sweet potatoes for the first time!

                                                     So happy to be getting fed real food!

 We did have a little trouble with her wanting to stick her fingers in her mouth while having the food in there. She is learning to get her fingers out of the way so that she get more food.

                               Eating breakfast in the morning. Umm.....oatmeal cereal and pears!

So far she has eaten sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, squash, prunes, oatmeal cereal and rice cereal. All of those she has really seemed to like. I think carrots are her favorite because she will eat a whole container of those in one sitting compared to about half a sitting of the rest. I have tried to switch it up so that she gets a variety of fruits and vegetables. We've also tried peas and green beans, which have not been a success! The peas she took one bite of and gave me dirty looks, like why was I feeding her something this gross. Green Beans she actually spit them right in my face!!! So as for the greens so far they are not ones that she likes at all. She must get it from me, because I'm the same way. I'm going to try them both again here in a couple of weeks to see if maybe she will like them then. She will be 5 months on Tuesday, can't believe the time is going so fast with her!!!!

Zoey's Baby Blessing

This past weekend was so wonderful! It was so nice to have so many people come in town just for Zoey and celebrate with us! It was a weekend full of first time meetings of Zoey and of course some spoiling time. Friday night my Aunt, Uncle, and Grandpa got into town just in time for dinner. We headed to Fred's Fish House and ate some really yummy catfish. Aunt Marcy got in town alittle while after dinner and then at about 11pm my 2 sisters, our Nephew, and my sister's boyfriend all got into town. We spent the evening hanging at the hotel and playing with Zoey. After everyone finally got in town, we talked for a bit and then headed to bed. Junior Auxiliary's Annual Easter Egg Hunt was early Saturday morning. It was the first year that it was actually not freezing cold or rainy! Cayden loved getting eggs and had a blast at the carnival afterwards at the Youth Center. Afterwards we headed to lunch and then everyone headed to our house to hang out for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon playing the Wii and everyone took turns stealing Zoey time! :) We had such a great weekend with everyone that came to town and I'm so happy to have so many people love our little girl!!! My best friend from childhood came in town for Zoey's Baby Blessing and her Dad was the speaker for the day. My nephew Cayden is so cute. He's 5 yrs old and very smart and says the funniest things some times! On Sunday during the Blessing I told him that the man at the front talking was my childhood friend's dad. He looked up at the front and looked back at me and says "Jesus is her Dad?" There was a picture of Jesus at the front of the church right behind her Dad. It was the cutest thing I think that I have ever heard! Here are some pics from the weekend:

                           She's ready for Easter with her Easter Bunny from Grandpa Hillers.

 Aunt Cammie had so much fun playing with Zoey early Saturday morning and wanted to put the Pooh bear that she gave her on top of her head. Every couple of hours Aunt Cammie enjoyed playing dress up and changing Zoey's outfits! So was so good with Zoey.

                                                                Zoey's Baby Blessing

                                         Grandpa Hillers and Aunt Melanie doing Zoey's Blessing

                                                    Cammie and Cayden being silly!

                                   I love them and have so much fun every time were together!!!

                                    I'm totally in love with my Baby Girl! Such a Proud Mommy!

                                                                 Our Little Family

                            She looks so cute! The hat didn't stay on all too long, but it sure is cute.

                                                           He loves her sooooo much!

                                                                Stephanie and Stephanie

                   The Fam that came in town to see us! Okaye, the family that came to see Zoey!

3 year Anniversary!

Yesterday Ryan and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary!!!! We have had alot of ups and downs in the last 3 years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything because we are both better people and are much closer because of the things we have gone through together. It feels like so much longer than 3 years. I have a crazy tradition that every year on our anniversary I watch our wedding video. Ryan thinks I'm crazy but hey, I enjoy it. Yesterday I actually got to watch it at exactly the same time as our actual wedding 3 years ago. Pretty cool if I say so myself. LOL This is actually the first anniversary that we didnt go away for the weekend on a mini getaway,  but we enjoyed what we did do instead. We really didn't want to have someone watch Zoey, we wanted to enjoy the day with her. So went went on a road trip to Branson and Springfield on Saturday. We started the day by sleeping in a bit and then got up and drove to Branson to eat at Panera Bread for lunch. That place is our favorite place to eat and eat there every time we go to Branson. After lunch I wanted to head to Old Navy and pick up some cheap flip-flops for the summer. Then is was off to Springfield we go. We headed to Bass Pro and we had a blast! We spent 2 hours just walking around and looking at everything. Zoey LOVED the waterfall and ducks that were in the water. She just sat in her stroller eyes wide open just watching the ducks swim around. I think we are going to have an outdoors girl. Ryan's happy about that one! We each found something we just had to have there. We found Zoey a cute "My First Fishing Hat", Ryan found some sunglasses and I found some shoes that I have been wanted, but they were at a lower price!!! I love that I'm a bargain shopper! Ryan does too! :) We then headed to Toys R US. Zoey had gotten a swing at one of her showers and we already have one and she hates it, so there was no point in having another one. So we finally got to take it back and Ryan and I got to have a little shopping spree for her. It was a Toys R Us/Babies R US combined so it had everything she could possibly need. We got her some cute summer dresses, summer outfits, a swim floatie for us to use at the lake this year, a jumparoo that she can use to help strengthen her legs, some bowls for when she starts to eat baby food, spoons to go with, and some rice cereal that we are hopefully going to start her on here soon. We also spent about 2 hours in that store. It was fun for us to go around and find things for Zoey and we still have some money left over to come back and get her more stuff when she gets a little bigger. After all of that shopping it was time for dinner at one of our favorite places, Texas Roadhouse! It was yummy as always and Zoey was full of smiles the whole dinner, especially when the country music came on!!! Thats my girl:) We didnt get back until midnight but we had a great day together.
On our actual anniversary yesterday we both had to work. But we did get to go out to dinner with Ryan's parents and all 4 of us celebrated our anniversary. We got married on their 38th Wedding Anniversary so it was kinda cool to get to celebrate both anniversaries last night! I didn't get any pics from either day but here are a few from our wedding day!

                                             Ryan waited for me to walk down the aisle to him!

          Walking down the aisle with my dad. I so thought that I would cry down the aisle but I held it in.

                                           Staring at each other for what felt like forever, LOL.

                                               Our Wedding Party right after we got married.

                                             The Newlyweds, Mr and Mrs. Ryan Kaye!!!!!

                                         We are still so much in love, as we were that day!

                                        Right as we walked into our reception, can you tell I'm happy?

That was a great day, but so stressful getting ready for everything, but happy that it all turned out great!

Milestones

Time is flying by! Zoey will be 4 months in just a couple of weeks and it's crazy to think she has been in our lives that long! She is growing like a weed and discovering something new it seems like everyday. For the first 2 months that she was home she refused to sleep in her crib. She has now gotten use to it and sleeps in it every night with one except.....she has to sleep on the pink and black blanket that I made or she won't sleep at night. I think that she likes it because it smells like us. She is like her Mom and Dad both in the fact that she loves to be cuddled up with a blanket to sleep. Most people say don't put babies to sleep with a blanket, but this baby won't sleep without one! I've learned to take what the "experts" say with a grain of salt sometimes. You have to learn to do what works best for your baby and sometimes it doesn't go with what the "experts" have to say about the topic.
  Two weeks ago was a sad day for Mommy. I had to finally go through her clothes and take out what didn't fit anymore and that included moving up a size in diapers. No more Newborn clothes or diapers for this little Kaye. TEAR!!! It was kinda hard, but at the same time I know that it means that she is getting bigger and getting healthier, or chubby. LOL She kicks her legs and moves her arms now, like its no body's business. She looks like she is trying to take off and move. One baby step at a time, this Momma aint ready for her to pick up and become mobile just quite yet. Zoey has also just this week become interested in toys and grabbing on to things. As a mom it is so cool to see her do something new that she wasn't able to do just the day before. I have a feeling that the video camera will now be permenantly attached to me seeing that I don't want Daddy to miss all of the cool things she is doing during the day, while he is at work.
 As of this weekend we in the Kaye household have 2 big announcements!!! Zoey has started teething this weekend. I really can't believe that she has started this early. She is just getting so big. AND...... she has started sleeping through the night! She slept for the first time on March 5th for 7 hours straight!!! I still got up to check on her to make sure she was still breathing. Yes, I am a 1st time Mom, can't you tell!!! The next night she slept 9 hours!!! Ryan and I were totally blown away!!! I can't believe it! It has been such a huge week for her, I don't know what to expect from her next. She has definately been such a huge blessing in Ryan and myself's life. Sorry, no picture this post, my computer cord isn't charging right and waiting on a new one to come in the mail!

Busy Bees

That would describe our live the past few weeks. My dad and his gf came into town two weekends ago and boy was Zoey spoiled! She was held almost the entire weekend and she loved every min. of it! She is definitely one very loved little girl!

 So was so comfy in Grandpa Downey's lap. She looks so tiny on his chest.

 Grandpa Downey trying to give her a Blvd Wheat already and she's only 2 months old! Guess we're starting her early. LOL

He's such a proud Grandpa! I learned after we were home and out of Little Rock that every time he left my hospital room he went to go see Zoey and he left quite alot of times! I'm glad that she had people there to keep her company when her Mommy was too sick to do so!
 Zoey's big present from Grandpa Downey and Nana was her activity center. It's fishy themed and really cute. I can't wait until she's big enough to play in it. It won't be before too long. We had a great visit with them while they were in town and it was so nice to get to show them Mountain Home and where we live. We ate out, watched KU pull out a WIN and just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company for the weekend.
 Last weekend Zoey had her 3rd and final shower. We missed 2 of her showers because she decided to come early, but that just meant she got to be there for the make-up showers. Our church threw her a shower back on my birthday, January 8th and then the ladies of the American Legion Auxiliary threw her a shower last Sunday. When my mother in law said that the ladies wanted to throw Zoey a shower I was very shocked and honored that ladies that have never met her wanted to met her and shower her with girfts! Here are a few pics from that shower.

 Zoey's diaper cake and "money tree". Now, when she grows up she will be able to say, "See Mom, money does grow on trees." LOL I thought the tree was such a cool idea and had never seen that before.

 It was such a pretty set up of cupcakes and cookies and the gift table on the side.

 Of course she did what she does best and sleep through most of her shower except when it was time to eat of course. She wasn't about to let everyone else eat and not her.

 All of her gifts after I opened them for her. She got tons of cute things and outfits. Thankfully she got alot of clothes that were bigger sizes that she can grow unto. That way she won't have to go naked once 12months clothes start to fit her, which of course makes her Daddy happy.

                                                           Such a proud Grandma Kaye!
During the shower her Daddy got a call saying that he had got the job that he had interviewed for on Friday afternoon! YEAH! Ryan now works at Discount Towing as a tow truck driver and after his first week he loves it! He goes on calls and tows cars and trucks and during his down time he gets to take cars apart and disassemble the parts. To me, it just sounds like boys getting to play with their toys, which of course he loves to do when to comes to anything hands on. It's nice for him to have a full time job that's 40 hrs a week and where we know he's got a steady paycheck every week. I'm working only two mornings a week right now, that way I can stay home and take care of Zoey since we don't want her to go to daycare. The days that I do work she stays with her Grandma and Grandpa Kaye and I'm not sure who benefits from it more her or her grandparents. She loves to go over there and is always so good for them so that makes Momma happy! It's nice to be able to get out of the house and work for a bit but come 12:30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, I'm so ready to go pick her up and spend the rest of the day with her.
 We have finally seemed to have some what of a routine with her and she knows when things change from her routine. I get up with her at night and while some nights she has me up almost all night, I really do enjoy the mommy and me time that we get to spend together. It's so nice just to be able to hold and cuddle with her right after she's had her bottle and before I put her back down to sleep. I don't think I'd let Ryan get up and feed her now we have a routine because I really love the "just us girl time". Ryan will usually do the 6am feeding because that's when he gets home from the paper route and Zoey has come to expect that is when she gets her and Daddy time. She also now that Daddy has started his job gets him all to herself when he gets home at night and he usually is the one to put her to bed. This has seemed to work pretty well for us. She did have a really rough week this last week. She had days where she would just cry and cry and cry for hours on end. Now, this is not my sweet little princess! She is very good and only really cries when you are getting her naked or she is hungry, besides that she is so good. For whatever the reason this was not the case this last week. She was so fussy! My heart was breaking for her as a Mom because I could not settle her down and had no clue what was wrong with her. The only thing that seemed to work was putting her in her car seat and taking her for a car ride. There were a couple different times that it was my last resort but I ended up doing it just to get her to go to sleep after hours of crying. We did change her bottles to the drop in kind to hopefully get rid of some much air and she has stopped spitting up so much so they seem to really be working for her. We also have been giving her gas drops to help her and they seem to be helping also and she loves them! She will lick her lips for 20 mins. after you give them to her. It is pretty funny to watch! Last night I did move her blanket from the couch where she has been sleeping to her bed and she actually slept in her bed with no problems last night!!!! WOOHOO!! Hopefully all she needed was her blanket that smells like us in there with her and she will continue to sleep in her bed instead of on the couch every night. Yes, she has been sleeping on the couch for the past month because every time you put her in her bed she'd scream. There are so many books out there and parenting websites that tell you should do this and don't do that. Well, I've decided that while those are great as guides whatever works for my daughter is what we are going to do. If her sleeping on the couch doesn't harm her and it helps her to sleep then that's what we are doing. She also sleeps with a light on and that works just fine for us! Every child is different and different things work for each one. Just like the Dr tells me that since she was a preemie that her development will probably be slower for her actual age. I don't believe that one bit. She has had strong neck muscles since day 1 and she has been moving her hands like crazy since then also. She is a fighter and has proved that in the hospital in Little Rock. My baby is doing great and is actually a head of where she should be for her adjusted age. To Ryan and I, she's perfect, but we are just a little bit bias! :) I guess that's all for now! Zoey and I have a big weekend planned for next weekend! We are taking her first road trip to Kansas City for Cayden's 5th Birthday and she gets to meet some family that she's hasn't met before! I'm excited but a little nervous at the same time! I should be taking lots of pics. Please pray that we have a safe trip with very little drama!!!!