Paradise.

Ah....where do I begin? There is so much to update you on. First of all, sweet Ady celebrated her 7 month birthday while we were down at the beach. She just wanted to play with her "7 month sign". So sweet. So.....what is going on with Ady at 7 months? She's sitting up 100% by herself. And I had an "oops" mommy moment this past week. I've not allowed her to "spread her wings" as much. I've always kept the Boppy behind her, but she doesn't need it (and hasn't for a long time). I realized this on vacation. She's such a big girl. She looks EXACTLY like Joseph in this picture.



Gramme bought her 3 Disney Princess diving sticks. As you can see, Ariel is her favorite.

Her food intake is the same. She gets cereal and a fruit at breakfast and supper along with a 4 oz bottle. She gets a vegetable and 4 oz bottle at lunch and then she gets an 8 oz bottle around 8:00 for bedtime. I'm not sure if this one will once be dropped? I really don't know what I'm doing, ha. But...she's gaining weight and hardly spitting a drop. I'm dropping her to one Prevacid dose this week and I truly believe that she will be completely off it in a month. I feel like I dreamed all her crazy reflux days. I was a mess, that's for sure. But, she's making up for lost time and is the happiest, most content baby ever. You would never have known how her life started off based on how she acts now.

She's scooting/crawling and I know it's just a matter of days until she's doing the busy crawling. She's into grabbing everything within reach. She is standing and pulling up on things. I'm just in shock. I can not believe she is growing so much. She loves to talk and babble and smile......all the time. She has a beautiful smile. She's just the perfect 7 month old baby! :)


Vacation....ah...how I miss it already. I took over 600 pictures. :) We left at 6:00 Friday evening (April 1). Our reasoning in traveling through the night was so that Ady wouldn't have to be in a car seat during waking hours all day. So...all 7 of us loaded in my parents van. And took up every seat. That's right. My dad, my mom, Joseph, myself, Ady, Caden, and "Aunt" Heather. It was a tight squeeze, but we managed! I had everything strategically packed for Ady. A bag for when we got there, an emergency bag, my purse (which covers the two previous bags as well-ha!), and then an "on the road" bag. In that bag you could find two bottles, two spoons, a bottle brush, a travel size of dial soap (to clean the bottles with on the road-something I do not miss doing now! It was a task! Of course her bottle has about 7 compartments to wash!), a dish towel (to dry the bottles so there wasn't water standing in them for extended periods of time), a spoon to measure her Prevacid, a spoon to poor it into, a small water bottle for her medicine, formula, cereal, and enough baby food to last us even if we got stranded and couldn't make it to the grocery for a few days to get the remaining food. Whew! It was a task, but so well. Nobody really slept much. Just a couple 20 minute cat naps. I'm sorry....Ady and Caden slept great! Nobody else really slept much! Ady got up about 7:00 (her normal time) and I gave her Prevacid (on the road!). We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and she tried Orange Juice and LOVED it.

And then tried strawberry lemonade. It must be a Southern thing because I don't see it here, and she loved it too! She was hilarious! We arrived about 10:00 the next morning and headed straight to the sun!!! The place we stayed in was a mansion. It is the nicest place I've ever stayed in, and the town itself, Palm Coast, is one of the most beautiful towns I believe I've ever seen.


There was nobody there. Most days we were the only people at the pool and the beach was like a ghost town. Check out this picture. Perfect for a family vacation. Nice and quiet.


Ady is her mommy's child for sure. She loved, loved, loved the sun, the water, and the sand.

She was squealing and clapping when her toes touched the sand!

Mommy and Ady didn't want to be splashed!


Ady looks a lot like Caden, a lot like Joseph, and a lot like my dad. BUT, in this picture, she looks just like I did as a baby :)

Does it get any sweeter?

Ready for the sun!


Her favorite play spot!


With my best friend, Ady :)

A very proud daddy!


I love her tutu suit :)

Clearly, Ady looks the best in a hat :) But, mommy's face was burned!


My sweet little family :)


Playing in mommy's Lilly bag :)


Waving to the ocean :)

She was very into the menu at dinner one night. :)

And you probably won't believe me, but she didn't cry the whole week. She was the most content I've ever seen her. She woke up at 7:00 each morning, played and ate until around 9:30. Then she took an almost 2 hour nap every day! WOW!!! While she napped then, I headed down to catch some rays while Joseph stayed up in the room playing video games (he was happier up there!). Then, she'd wake up around noon, I'd go up to the room, put her in her bathing suit and load her up on sunscreen, then make her bottle and sweet potatoes to take down to the pool. I"d feed her and then she'd play down there about 2 hours. Then, she'd usually take a cat nap in her stroller. Wake up and play until around 5 or 6 when she'd take a cat nap then. Then....be up and happy when we'd go out to dinner and fall asleep whenever we got home (or on me!) around 8-9. I'm telling you, she was perfect. It could not have gone better!


We all were on board to surprise Caden with a trip to Disney World. We were going to go on Tuesday, but the weather was predicted to be rainy in Orlando, so we decided to wait until Wednesday. We woke up that morning with everything packed and ready to go. My mom had written a note to Caden from Woody and he read it, but he didn't really have much expression after. He just went back into his room. My mom felt him and he was warm. She didn't have a thermometer (and he couldn't use the rectal one I packed for Ady-ha!), so my dad went to Walgreens and bought one. He had a fever. They took him to an Urgent Care type place and he had a bacterial infection. He had strep a while ago and either it didn't get out of his system, or he picked up something else. We were hoping to go to Disney on Thursday, but that morning he still wasn't back to himself. On Friday we already had plans to go to Daytona to visit my brother for the Nationals. So...we were sad (mostly me!), but we are making plans to go there VERY soon. A lot of people say you shouldn't take a 7 month old to the beach, or Disney, I'm telling you, she was perfect. I'm convinced I could have taken her to third world country and she would have been just fine! :)


We got our picture made in front of a castle in Daytona.
That was my fix until we head back :) We got to watch Austin and the cheerleaders perform and it was awesome! The girls LOVED Ady. And Austin said after we left the girls just kept going on and on about how precious she was. They one first place for their division! Yay!!

I love the look on this cheerleaders face :)

Go Austin!

Ady was soaking it all in!

And kicking up her feet like the girls do :)

The ride home did not go as planned. We were going to leave Saturday night and drive through the night, but I thought it'd be just fine since Ady had been so happy, to leave that morning and be back in our own beds that night :) But.....terrible, terrible, terrible traffic kept us from that. We were held back 3 hours in traffic in Atlanta. We left Palm Coast at 8:30 that morning and made it to Nashville at midnight. We were so tired we just couldn't make it the whole way, so we stayed at Tatay and Biggie's house for the night. They were just elated to see their precious Ady.
We left around 9:00 that morning, made it to Louisville, loaded up our car, and made it back to Lexington at 2:00. So...the 13 hour projected drive home ended up turning into a 30 hour drive. And Ady didn't cry on the way home. She was the happiest of anyone in the car. Ha!! At one point I let her out of her seat when we were just stuck in traffic. She loved watching outside. :)
So often I talk about Ady, but those of you who know me well enough, know just how special Caden is to me. I have loved him as if he was my own from the second he entered into this world.
I am so thankful Ady has been able to spend a week with him. She adores him and he does her as well. It is so precious to watch them together :)
We couldn't have asked for a better vacation. It was a GREAT time with great family and friends. I am so thankful we had the chance to go. We're already making plans to head back there next year (if we don't move there first!!!). It was just beautiful. We'll be heading to Florida again in August with my parents and Ady will be almost a year old. I can't wait to watch her running up and down the beach. :) She is just so much fun and I love, love, love being her mommy. And....my surgery has been cancelled. Not by my doctor, but by me. But, that's a post for another day. :) Thank you to those of you have already been praying for us!
I just love my life and my precious family. :) I am once again in awe of my Savior for his endless blessings to our family. I could not ask for more.