miss b and her garden

Short and sweet tonight. Most importantly...if you haven't already donated to Dale & Suzanne's March Of Dimes RIDE...you still have time. (click on the link and do it now!! :)
With that I'm just going to leave you with some pictures of Brianna playing with her garden. Isn't she cute!!! :) I'll try to write more at some point this week. Our love to all!

almost monday already???

As you can see...Brianna had a tough weekend! :) Wait...was there a weekend?? Did I miss it? Anyway, I was home very little this weekend. Thursday night I got my hair cut, Friday night we piled into the car and went to the Step By Step PTA resale. This is a group I got involved in about a year ago, and twice a year they have a big resale, and since I volunteer I get to shop the night before. There is a lot of great stuff there, I ended up getting a bunch of clothes, a couple winter coats, and a pair of shoes for Brianna and also a bunch of clothes for Braden. Oh...and Halloween costumes :), and the most fabulous item (at least in Brianna's eyes) the Little Tikes Activity Garden. They have one of these at daycare, and apparently she is the "queen of the garden". Her eyes lit up and she got this huge smile on her face when I brought it in the house. She has played with it all weekend. The garden however, is going to be making its home and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nancy's...so I know she'll enjoy it when she goes there to visit :). So Saturday I volunteered at said resale from 7-4:30 (I was supposed to be there until 5 but they told me to leave early). So, we definitely didn't do much last night, and today was spent going to church and setting up my new computer! :) There are some changes going on around here...(and no I'm not pregnant) I have officially enrolled in a course to become a medical transcriptionist. I've been thinking about it for a while, and finally decided to take the plunge. It will enable (hopefully) me to do some work from home and earn a little extra money, with the potential to maybe someday allow me to stay home and work, but that is in the very distant future, but I'm excited about my new little adventure. Other than the outpouring of money at the beginning (the course and the much needed new computer), I'm very optimistic that this will be a good change for me. But other than that I guess there isn't too much else going on. There are a few new pictures in the album, but I'll try to be better about taking more!! Have a fabulous week everyone!

Congrats to Jill & Chris Curry on the birth of your baby girl on September 8!! We're soo happy for you, can't wait to see her!! Love you all!

just another day...

Hello All! So things have been pretty quiet(not literally quiet, but you know what I mean!) around the Carroll household lately. No big or exciting news, Brianna still isn't walking or talking, although she does babble quite a bit. She's learned some new things, like if you ask her where her belly is, she will point (or slap) her adorably round tummy and laugh. She also will give kisses when you ask, although most times you get a big open mouthed slobber! :) and when she blows kisses she now makes the "kissy" sound. It is all quite adorable (of course)!

Anyway, Brianna now has 8 teeth and we are figuring out what what she can't eat (and that is A LOT of stuff!) But she is doing well, as are we. We had a very lazy weekend this past weekend, but it was so nice to stay home and spend time together. Well, I guess there isnt' too much else going on, so I guess I should sign off for now! Hope all is well with all of you out there! All our Love!

OH...there are new pictures in the September 2006 album, check them out! :)

the shirt says it all...

"As a matter of fact the world does revolve around me"

ok...i lied

OK, sorry, one last thing. For those of you who read my blog and not Dale & Suzanne's (not sure how many people that is) I'm posting an email that he sent here. Please if you can, find it in your heart to donate to this WONDERFUL cause. You can see by these two pictures how your money can really impact lives. Here is his email in its entirety, cause he can say it better than I can. We love you guys!


Hello All,

For those of you who do not remember me, I am the very proud father of McKenna Arlene Felton. At one point or another, you all signed the guestbook on her website. The reason for this email is because I am reaching out to you asking you for your help. On September 23rd, 2006 I will be participating in a March of Dimes motorcycle ride. All of the proceeds go to the March of Dimes to help fight premature birth. Without the help of the March of Dimes, McKenna may not be with us today, instead she is a very healthy little girl. She has continued to thrive outside of the hospital where she spent 112 days. We are very thankful every day for the care that she received and for all of the research that has been done thus far to help tiny babies like her to make it. This year I have 2 very important reasons to ride. I participated last year after loosing our son Ian due to premature birth and I collected over $2,200 dollars, the most any individual has every raised for this particular ride, and I would like to do more than that this year riding for both Ian and McKenna. We still continue to document McKenna’s life on her website (http://dsfelton.blogspot.com/) and I have also set up a website through the March of Dimes for this fund-raiser (http://www.marchofdimesride.org/dsfelton). You have multiple ways of donating, you can choose between credit card, check, or cash. The best part, donating is a tax write off.

Thank you all for your recent support. Without all of you sending us encouraging messages it would’ve been even more difficult than it was. Please feel free to pass this on to any of your family, friends, and co-workers, and with your help, I should have no problem going over last year’s total. Also, for those of you that have motorcycles, you are more than welcome to ride with me. Please email me if that is something you are interested in and we’ll work out the details. Thanks again!

Take care,

Dale, Suzanne, & McKenna
P. S. – I have attached a couple pictures of her. One is a picture of her shortly after she was born, and the other is one of her 8 month pictures.

brianna update & last post of the day!

OK, so one last post. Brianna went to the allergist last Monday, where we found out she is in fact allergic to milk/dairy. So, the first week has been pretty strange trying to figure out all the stuff she can't eat, because I think we (or at least I) didn't realize how much stuff has dairy products in it. The doctor said he wasn't overly concerned about her, (in fact he was quite shocked that she was allergic since she has been on milk based formula since she was born and has eaten ice cream, cheese, etc without incident), but he wants to be very cautious with her, given her history of breathing issues, etc. But good news is that she seems to like soy milk, so I guess that is a plus. Her pediatrician called us last Friday and let us know that her iron isn't as low as initially thought, but we do have to have her on an iron supplement every day. Other than that she seems to be doing quite well and I think she wants me to stop being on the computer because I think she has succeeded in pulling every single game we own off the shelf and has throw 3 decks of cards in the garbage, so I'd better get back to her. Hope all is well with everyone and I promise to try to do better about the posting. Our love to all

canoe-a-palooza 2006

At least once a year (which is not nearly enough if you ask my opinion) a group of six girls (including myself) get together with our spouses, significant others, etc. Most years however, at least one of us is missing, because some people have to live all the way out in Boston! :) This year I had the bright idea to go canoeing. There is a canoe rental place about 10 minutes from my parent's house in Iowa, and its fairly cheap and everyone seemed excited about it, so I began the planning. First of all, planning something with this many people is tough, we had about 2 weekends all summer that everyone thought they would be able to make it. When I called to reserve canoes for a Saturday they were of course already all booked up. So back to the drawing board. To make a very long story short, after many emails and phone calls, we finally decided on Friday August 11 for our canoe trip.



We got started about 12:30 Friday afternoon and floated down river for the next 6 hours. We had an absolute blast! I won't bore you with all the details of the day's events (because I don't remember a lot of them :) ) Afterwards, we had a cookout/bonfire at my parent's house and spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, & eating! :) There was only one bad thing about the whole weekend, Ben wasn't able to come canoeing :( . But he did drive to my parents house after work, so we got to see him for a little while. Everyone else made it though, even Jenn came from Boston! It was great to see everyone and I think we've decided to try to make this an annual event! Plus we all promised that we'd try to see each other more than once a year!

It was a great time and I'm soo glad it worked out and that we got to see everyone. I love you all so much, and miss you lots!

There are some pictures in the August album. (please excuse the blurry pictures (it was my old camera) )

relay for life and other family fun

Its been a while since I've posted anything, and now I've forgotten all the things I wanted to tell you! :) So I'll go back a couple weeks and tell you the stuff I've been meaning to. (This may be a couple of posts, so they are all not horribly long.)

The Relay for Life was a huge success. The teams that participated raised over $85,000! It was a really wonderful thing to be a part of, I'm excited to do it again next year. Brianna and Braden stayed the whole night with us, and seemed to have a lot of fun being pushed around in their strollers having everyone comment on how cute they are! It was such great experience.

We took the kids to get their pictures taken after the relay for life (we were back at mom and dad's about 7:30-8:00 and then had to leave by 11:30) Not much sleeping. The kids were pretty good (if you count pretty good as Brianna stealing Braden's puppy, trying to push him off the table, and trying to fall/crawl off the table herself) But we did get a couple of pretty good pictures. I also had Brianna's one year pictures taken (I still can't believe she is one!)

Then on Suday we had the Egloff family reunion. It was nice to see people I haven't seen since the last family reunion I went to (which was probably 5 years ago). We had to leave early and head back home so we could get to work the next morning. So all in all it was a great weekend with lots of family, who could ask for more? :)

Coming up...Canoe-A-Palooza, you won't want to miss this!!

Now that August is almost over, I'll have the new August photo album up shortly, keep your pants on! :)

a couple of pics...

We had a couple of uninterested kids this day...but I guess we got a couple of good ones!

motherhood is not for the faint of heart...

Its been a long two days here in the Carroll household. Yesterday I picked Brianna up from daycare and they told me that she was pretty congested. No biggie, this is pretty commonplace for us these days. As I picked her up and took her out to the car, I listened to her wheeze and try to catch her breath. Now, I'm not one to scare easily or overreact, normally when she wheezes we give her some nebulizer treatments and if they don't work we take her to the doctor. This time was a little different. I drove home crying because she sounded so terrible. She couldn't even really cry because she couldn't catch her breath enough to let out a good wail. I immediately called the doctor and got their only available time of 8:10 when we got home, great...I had over 2 hours to wait until she could be seen by a doctor, so I gave her a nebulizer treatment and waited for the nurse to call. She called and since Brianna wasn't much better after the treatment she told me to bring her in right away. Of course the only office open at that time is the one that is 30 minutes away. We got to the doctors office and they proceeded to give her another treatment, and a prescription for an oral steroid. She was acting much more like herself, but was still wheezing. She was scheduled for her year checkup for the next night (tonight) so I asked if I should even bring her in and the doctor said it wouldn't be a bad idea so they could recheck her breathing, but that we'd have to bring her back in another time to get her shot. Anyone that has children that have had to take these steroids will tell you that they make kids (and really anyone) bounce off the walls. Besides this wall bouncing steroid, we also had to get up every 4 hours to give Brianna another treatment.

So that brings us to today. I decided that it was probably best for Brianna if she didn't go to daycare today, so I brought her to work with me. She was one cranky little girl for the majority of the day. She didn't want to sleep (I think mostly because she couldn't) and was very much not her normal happy-go-lucky self. So after work I took her to her one year checkup, at which they do a test to make sure the child is getting enough iron in their diet. Its a simple finger prick, no biggie, actually Brianna didn't even make a sound. (OH and she weighs 21lbs 6oz for anyone keeping track...I didn't get her length, I was quite distracted, all I know is that she is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head size). So the nurse comes back after the finger prick and says that the quick test came back with low iron, so she needed to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. She got more blood from the same finger (no prick this time) and then the Dr. came in and said that Brianna was quite anemic. Fantastic! She's been on the same formula with iron since she was born and has only since yesterday had anything but formula and some occasional juice. So the Dr. tells me they need to do a more extensive blood test because depending on what was going on Brianna may need to be on a prescription iron supplement. Wonderful! Then I mentioned to the doctor how strange it was that her episode yesterday came on so fast, cause usually its days before we need to bring her to the doctor (not that we ignore her symptoms, but we try to treat her wheezing before it gets too bad and when it seems as if what we're doing isn't working, we take her to the doctor). And the doctor asked if she ate anything differently, and I told her the only thing that was different was that Brianna had milk for the first time yesterday, so now they are sending her to an allergist. The doctor thought that it probably wasn't the milk, but just to be on the safe side she needed to get tested. After all this I take Brianna to the lab to have the blood drawn, cause the doctor wants to get the results back asap. Of course Brianna has inherited my veins and they couldn't get any blood from her. The lady stuck her once and was trying to find the vein, and my heart broke, and I wished that I could trade places with my baby girl. (And for anyone that knows me, you know how much I love having blood taken, it always ends up in at least 2 sticks, and just for an example to get my IV going when I had Brianna, it took over 1 hour, 2 different nurses and 5...yes 5 sticks, plus the next day I looked like someone beat the crap out of me.) But I would have traded places with her in a heartbeat. Needless to say we have to take her back tomorrow to have blood drawn. My poor baby. She is such a trooper, in her short little year of life she's had ear infections twice, has had nebulizer treatments of at least 1 kind of medication (2 when she's wheezing) at least once everyday for probably the last 6 months, has had more steroids in her than Barry Bonds :) But still keeps smiling. She's my hero, when I grow up I want to be just like her. I know that this is nothing compared to what some parents go through with their children, and they have my utmost admiration and respect. I know we all wish we could take away our children's pain...The thing that sucks about being a parent is...that we can't.

OK, enough rambling, I will try to post more about last weekend's fun filled family events, but I'm entirely too tired tonight. I also have pictures (mostly of Brianna) that I hope to have posted before we leave for IA on Thursday night.

If I don't...stay tuned next week for accounts and pictures of Friday's Canoe-A-Palooza debauchery! :)

Our love to you all, stay safe and healthy!

oops...almost forgot

Congrats to Adam, Traci, & Laura on the birth of your new baby girl, Allison Rose (sorry if her name isn't spelled correctly...I didn't get all of the particulars!) on Thursday, July 27! Can't wait to meet her! Our Love To You All!

1 already....

Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby Girl!
I can't believe it has been a year already. One year ago today, you were a teeny, tiny little baby (well, technically you weren't really born at this time one year ago, but you know what I mean!) and now you are a strong, independent little girl, who has no fears! You have amazed me so much in the past year, and I so have enjoyed watching you grow into the little girl you are today. And I can't wait to see what is in store for you, because I think you're going places little girl. You have so many things in you that are just like your daddy, things I admire, your strength and determination, to name a few. I see your daddy when I look in your eyes, you are the best parts of him (not that he has any bad parts...except maybe his patience while driving...but we don't have to worry about that for a little while :) ) I hope as you continue to grow you take on more of your daddy's traits, and a few of mine too :)You are such a beautiful little girl, with such a happy demeanor. Every morning I look forward to seeing your smiling face when you wake up. You are so smiley and happy that no matter what mood I'm in, you can immediately make me smile and laugh. And even when you're doing something you shouldn't, its hard for me not to smile, because you usually figure out a loophole in what I tell you not to do. Like when I tell you to stop touching something, so you touch it with your feet instead of your hands. You can race up the stairs now, and have no fear of falling, you will plop down on a step, look back and smile. (and yes, I am there watching her, for all of you reading this who think I just let her climb up the stairs alone!)You absolutely love daycare and the kids and teachers there, you practically jump out of my arms in the morning, I love that you love it there and that you are happy when we can't be with you. Everyone always told me time would go fast with you, but I didn't realize how fast until I woke up this morning. You are such a joy in my life and I love you so very, very much. I could go on and on forever, but right now you're being a little cranky...(I love that about you too) I hope you have a wonderful birthday little girl. Know that you are loved with all my heart!
I love you sweet girl!
Happy 1st Birthday!
Love Always and Forever,
Mommy

days go by....

Enjoy the little montage of Brianna's first year. Yes, I know that she isn't one for 2 more days, but turning one is cause for more than a one day celebration. :) Make sure you check out her little post of the weekend events below. Hope you enjoy watching our little one grow (in a slightly condensed version!) as much as we have!


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its my party...

Hi everybody! Its been a while since I have written, but mommy said since I'm almost 1 I could try another one! Yesterday was my birthday party. Lots of people came...and it was a lot of fun. Before the party mommy, daddy, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Angie took me and Braden to get our pictures taken together. We didn't really want to do that so we just sat there and didn't smile, and they eventually gave up and we didn't have to sit in the hot room anymore. Maybe we can try again later, but we just really didn't want to have our pictures taken yesterday. So we came home and got ready for the party. Mommy made lots of food, and she made a special ducky cake just for me. (It looked kinda weird, but she tried hard and I love her for that!) I got to eat it while everyone watched, (I only ate the frosting! :) )
I was very messy and right after I was done daddy gave me a bath. Then I came back to the party and got to open presents. Everyone was very nice to me, and I got a whole bunch of cool toys and cute clothes. I can't wait to wear all the clothes, and play with the toys (although I've played with a lot of them already!) Well...I haven't slept much this weekend, so I'm going to go...I'm very tired. Mommy put lots of pictures up(thanks Stephie), check them out here. Talk to you all soon, I'm sure mommy will write again soon. Thanks again to everyone who came to my party. I've gotta nap now...night, night!

visitors from another planet....uhh..i mean state

Hello All! We had a fun weekend, with lots of visitors. Friday Dale, Suzanne, & McKenna, along with Jill, Chris, & unborn Baby Curry all stayed at our place Amanda also came over to hang out. It was a pretty laid back evening and we even got to play Scene It Friends edition. Apparently they all think I watch too much TV and decided They would be one team while I was my own. 6 on 1...real fair. I was up 7 to 1 at one point...so I guess I do watch too much TV :)
Anyway, it was lots of fun. Saturday Bob and Chris played golf, and Dale, Suzanne, & McKenna left to go visit some friends in Algonquin. Jill, Brianna, & I went shopping for a while and then we all just relaxed for the rest of the day. It was a pretty laid back weekend at home, with great company. Amazingly enough...I took absolutely no pictures while everyone was here, there are a few "new" pictures... (new as in the last 2 weeks or so). Hope everyone is well and we hope to see you soon! All our Love!

Dale, Suzanne, McKenna, Jill, Chris, & Baby Curry~ Thanks for visiting us...it was tons of fun!

Jeff, Susan, & Ethan~ Congrats on the birth of your new baby girl, Rachel. She is a cutie pie, can't wait to meet her!

happy 4th of july!!

Can you believe it is July already? And Miss Brianna's 1st birthday is just around the corner. Its amazing that she is almost one already. She has quite the little personality. She thinks it is very funny when mommy tells her "no". Of course everyone thinks its hilarious when she gives me that little smile when I tell her no. Apparently those things are funny when its not your kid! But overall she is a pretty good little girl.

We spent the weekend in Iowa. My Uncle Denny & Aunt Glady had a little gathering to celebrate their 35th anniversary and also to celebrate McKenna's journey and also the birth of the newest addition to their family little Sophia. It was so great to see everyone, all the little ones are growing so fast! There are some new pictures in the July 2006 album.

Speaking of the new pictures...I need to explain a couple of them. In a few of the pictures Brianna & Braden are wearing the "other" Chicago baseball team's hat. Now, the Carroll's and the Creech's are in no way, shape, or form fans of "that" team. (I can't even say the name...it may cause my laptop to crash and be rendered useless, much like the team) :) Anyway, my Aunt Jean & Uncle Vic thought it would be funny to put the kids in those hats. By the looks of the pictures however, the kids were as unhappy as their daddy's were when they found out about the pictures! :)

Well, I should probalby end for tonight...I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th! Have a great week at work! Our love to all!

she's on the move...

Hey All~ Just a quick post tonight to update you on the happenings at the Carroll household. Brianna has officially started crawling, last night we were trying to get her to crawl to come get a teddy bear, and she did!! This morning and tonight she has been crawling whenever she gets the chance. So tonight we had to go out and get some gates (yes, I know we probably should have done this ages ago, but we didn't...so get off our backs! :) ) Anyway, that is our big exciting news for the week, other than that we're just doing the same old. We are heading to Iowa on Friday, so you may be blessed with some pictures next week! :) There are a few new ones in the June album. Enjoy! Our love to all!!

relay for life

While in college I took a course entitled "Death & Dying". Yes, I actually took this class, and I yes I really enjoyed it. During this class we had to create a "family tree" of sorts that made us talk to our families about death and to actually find out how members of our extended family had died. In doing this project, I discovered something I found quite alarming...cancer is quite prevalent on both sides of my family. Although until that point cancer had only touched my life in one way...my grandma had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she had battled and won. Then as some of you know, in December of 2004 my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer. He battled with everything he had, but a short 7 weeks after his diagnosis, the cancer took his life.

On August 4 I will be participating in the Relay for Life. The Relay for Life is an overnight walk to raise money for cancer research. If any of you out there would like to donate money to this wonderful cause please email me using the link to the right (thanks Dale :), and I will contact you with more details. I know a lot of you that frequently read my blog are individuals I will be walking with that night, but for those of you who are not, I'm asking you to look into your hearts and donate to this more than worthy cause.

I'm usually not one to ask people for money, it actually makes me quite uncomfortable, so you have to know how much I believe in this to be asking.

I can only hope that one day, my daughter will not have to know what its like to lose someone to cancer. That is something that will only be possible if we continue to raise money to fund research. Then maybe one day all of our children will grow up in a world where cancer is just something they read about.

how did mom have 2 of us so close together??

So, I told you the other day there was an incident at the grocery store this past weekend. So, now that I can think about it without my heart beating at an alarming rate, I decided to share my little story. Saturday mornings Bob usually golfs with his dad and brother (when we're in town, which lately has not been that often), this Saturday was no different, other than the fact that we were having guests pretty much all weekend long, starting shortly after Bob finished his round of golf. We spent much of the week preparing for our guest, cleaning, doing laundry, making grocery lists, and deciding what foods to make. Friday we ran out of time to actually do the grocery shopping, so I decided that I would take Brianna on Saturday while Bob was golfing,(Side note...Bob does 99% of the grocery shopping in our house) as I needed to go out to get some things anyway. So Saturday morning, Brianna and I headed off to Super Target, figuring we could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Unfortunately, by the time I had gotten everything else on the list, there was no room in the cart for any sort of groceries, and during this time, Brianna thought it was fun to take things out of my purse, play with them and then drop them on the floor. Needless to say, mommy didn't find this game so fun. I must note that she wasn't screaming, crying, or anything else, just dropping things, so I was a little upset with myself for feeling very frustrated with her, but I was really only frustrated because everything was taking me 5 times longer than normal. (I realize this happens when you have kids, so stop laughing at me) Anyway, I had decided to skip the groceries and wait until Bob got home to send him out after groceries or to have him watch her while I went back out to get the groceries. On the way home, we passed the grocery store and I decided I was already out, the list wasn't that long, I should just get the groceries now and be done with it. So, we got out to get groceries. This was a mistake. After about 1 hour in the grocery store to pick up about 30 things, we finally headed to the checkout line, my patience very thin...again, not because she was doing anything wrong, just because it took so long, and the dropping game was getting VERY old by this point. The checkout lady asked if I had a Jewel (thats the grocery store) card, and of course I do, its right there on my key chain....wait....where are my keys? Oh no, Brianna must have dropped them...I am frantically looking for them, when I spot them...the are stuck between her belly and the front of the cart, whew...crisis averted. So then the lady asks for my ID to purchase the beer I was buying (and at this point really wanted to open!) just a second, its right here in my purse...wait....where is my wallet? Oh my gosh...she really did drop my wallet!! I'm frantically looking in the cart as I'm getting annoyed looks from the people in my checkout line. Nope...no wallet. I grab Brianna out of the cart and start running up and down the aisles looking for my wallet...there is nothing, I go to customer service, ask if anyone turned in a wallet...nope, nothing like that here. The manager asks me if the wallet could be down Brianna's outfit, again with an annoyed look on her face, I wanted to punch her in the face....hello, its a wallet...its not small! I again start looking up and down the aisles, go back to customer service...again nothing. I go out to my car, in tears to look there, nope nothing...meanwhile I call Bob and he is on his way to the store but won't be there for about 30 minutes or so. Oh, and did I mention that during all of this I'm also carrying Brianna who now weighs over 20lbs and also that I got maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before...I'm tired. I tell the manager my husband is coming to pay for the stuff and she asks if I want to keep looking in the aisles, what else am I going to do? So I ask again, are you sure no one turned anything in...holding out hope that there are good people in the world. So she goes to check...oh...here it is! I let out a breath, and realize I've kind of been holding my breath for the last 30 minutes. She hands it to me and says "I don't know if anything is missing" I anxiously open it, afraid of what I might find, or not find...and there it is, my driver's license, my credit cards, my atm card, my cash...all where I had left it. So back through the checkout we went.

So to that wonderfully kind person who turned in my wallet, thank you. You made one very frazzled mommy very happy. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

I guess it made it all worth while when on Saturday night Brianna said her real first word...mommy.
Yeah right in my dream world, well, she did say her first word, but of course she said daddy! She can say nothing that even remotely sounds like mommy.

But it was actually very cute, she was sitting on the couch with me, Bob was sitting on the floor in front of her when she tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and she said da-deeeee!

OK, sorry for the long winded post, but its my blog and I'll make my posts as long as I want to! :)

father's day, old friends, & of course...golf

First of all, I want to say Happy Dad's day to all the dad's out there. The word father always makes me think of this quote "Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a dad" (or it goes something like that) and the following people are definitely special enough to be dads. First of all to Bob, you are such an amazing daddy to Brianna. She absolutely lights up when you are around (as you do around her) and seeing you with her makes me love you even more (and I didn't realize that was even possible!) I know I never tell you enough how much I appreciate everything you do for us, but we both love you so much, and I'm amazed by you everyday! You are a wonderful husband and father and I love you more and more every day. To my dad, I don't even know if I could ever have the words to thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for me (and my family). I know you think the stuff you do is "no big deal" but it means a lot to us, and we could never repay you for all you've done. I'm sure I don't say this enough...but Thank you, and I love you. To Bob(my other dad), from the moment I met you, you welcomed me into the family with open arms. You do so much for us, from watching Brianna, to mowing our grass, and all the things in between, we appreciate it more than you know and we love you so much! Both of you (dad & Bob) are wonderful Grandpas to Brianna, and I know she will feel as blessed as I do, having had such great relationships with my grandpa's, and such wonderfully precious memories.

As I was writing this I realized that I never said thank you to the mom's in my life at Mother's Day, so I guess now is as good as time as any...as long as I'm in the sappy mood! To my mom, you know I love you lots! :) You're always there when I need to talk to someone, to complain, or to tell my funny stories to, or just to chat about nothing. You do more for me than you know, and for that I'm truly grateful. Nancy, you too, have welcomed me into the family and made me feel at home in your home. We both appreciate how much you do for us and for Brianna. We love you lots! You are both such good Grandmas and Brianna is so lucky to have you, and you have both been so wonderfully supportive while I have been figuring out this whole motherhood thing for the last year, and that means the world to me. And to my grandmas (both by blood & marriage), I love you all so much!

OK, now that I'm done with the sappy stuff... :)

This weekend was such fun (for the most part...there was an incident at the grocery store, but I don't have the energy to post about it now...maybe tomorrow).

Sunday, the Carroll family came over for lunch, along with our buddy Garth, who was staying here for the weekend, and then of course we watched the final round of the US Open. Sunday night a bunch of Bob's golfing buddies came over so they could hold their fantasy football draft. Yes, it is June, and they are talking football already. They are a little crazy about the fantasy football, but it was great to see all the guys. Holly and I left the boys to their draft and went to see "The Break Up", which we both enjoyed, and Brianna stayed here and kept an eye on the boys! :)


Yesterday, both Bob & I took the day off, so we attended the Knosher Golf Outing (this is a Knox Alumni event, for those of you who don't know) Bob played and I walked & watched. Knox golf was such a big part of Bob's college years (although if you know him at all, this is not a surprise to you) These guys are some of Bob's best friends (and also mine too) and they are the nicest guys anyone could hope to meet. It was such a blast to hang out with all of them and talk about old times, there were lots of laughs! :) And of course the day was topped off by the fact that the team Bob was on won! (well, they won the gross score). Needless to say a good time was had by all.

Well, I think I've rambled enough for tonight.... Lots of love to you all...

have you missed us?

Yes, I know...I know...its been a while. But I've finally got some new pictures. Brianna is getting pretty big now, and while she's not yet crawling, she sure does seem to get into a lot of stuff! This past weekend Brianna & I went with Amanda and her mom to the Wilton tent sale (if you don't know, Wilton makes cooking/baking supplies) I was thinking about what kind of cake to make Brianna for her birthday and while walking up and down the aisles I spotted a 3-D duck. Well, Brianna saw it and immediately got this huge smile on her face and was laughing and playing with the box. I almost couldn't get it away from her to pay for it! So, I bought it and decided to do a trial run to see if it would actually work for her birthday. It actually didn't turn out half bad. It will hopefully be decorated much better for her birthday( I only had chocolate frosting in the house), but Bob made me take a picture of the practice one before he started eating it!

Anyway, I've got a bunch of stuff to do around the house tonight, and its almost bath & bed time. But there are some new pictures in the June 2006 album. Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far. Our love to all!!

2 in one day...aren't you lucky?

As I said in the previous post, it was a long week last week. Besides flying back Monday morning and going to work, we took Brianna to the doctor, because she's had a rash that we couldn't get rid of and also started wheezing a bit on Friday. Well, by the time we got her to the doctor on Tuesday, her wheezing had worsened, and she almost ended up in the hospital because her blood oxygen wasn't going up. In the end she didn't have to go to the hospital, and is doing much better now. She is on a few medications (she also had an ear infection), but is doing much better. So, like I said...long week.

So, as you can see we got Brianna her own little pool yesterday. She's a little too young to use some of the stuff, but she seemed to like it. We don't have much planned for today, probably taking Brianna back out into the pool. Well, I guess I should get some stuff done around the house. Have a great day! Love to you all!

GW Graduation

I know, I know...so its taken me a week to get this stuff posted, but give me a break...it was a long week. We had a great time in D.C., although it was much too short. Graduation was really nice Former President George H.W. Bush & Former First Lady Barbara Bush were the commencement speakers. Their speech was actually pretty entertaining. It was a beautiful day, and of course I got sunburned, but it was a great time anyway. There are a few pictures from graduation and some from Brianna swimming in the hotel pool, which she loved! :)

Congrats Brian on your graduation!!

Congratulations Dawn, Jim, Cameron, & Clare on the birth of your daughter (and little sister) Sophia Marie! We are so happy for you. Can't wait to see pictures!

on our way out the door....again

Hi all, this is going to be short and sweet. We are leaving for DC in 3 hours (and still need to pack), but I just wanted to let you know that there are new pictures in the May 2006 album. Hope you all have a great weekend! There should be new pictures from DC and graduation early next week. We don't fly in until Monday morning, so give me a couple of days! :) Our love to all!

new pictures....

Just wanted to let you know that there are new pictures of our cutie pie in the May 2006 album. I was playing around with my camera, thats why all the pictures are in black & white or sepia. But I really love the way the pictures look in those two settings. She is such a little angel...well most of the time :) I hope you enjoy her new pictures. Lots of love to you all!

a stroll down memory lane..

So, it was another weekend out and about for the Carroll family. Last weekend Brianna spent the weekend with Grandpa Bob & Grandma Nancy, and this weekend she got to spend some time with Grandpa Lester & Grandma Susan. I had Friday off as Alli and I had planned to travel to Knox to see our Knox Moms. We had a great time and it was so good to see them all again. We spent a lot of time in that office and we miss them all so much. So it was great to catch up and talk about old times, and it gave Alli and I a great chance to catch up, because we don't get to see each other nearly enough. Anyway, I had a great weekend hanging out with Alli, seeing our Knox Moms, and strolling around good old Galesburg. I think we need to make this an annual thing.... :) We hope everyone has a great week...our love to all!

greetings from iowa

Just a quick note to let you know I've added some pictures to the May 2006 album. I will have more to add once we get home. But hopefully these will appease the masses for the moment. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Lots of love to you all.

another weekend in the books...

Hello All! I know its been a couple of weeks since I posted, but like always things are quite hectic. You would think now that tax season is "officially" over work would slow down, but no such luck. In fact I just got home from the office. We got back from St. Louis about 7:30ish, at which time I drove over to the office to do a bunch of filing that had been piling up for about a month now. Unfortuantely, the filing turned into me having to reorganize the cabinets, etc, etc. So, four and a half hours later I am finally home, and get to go back in a few hours...yippee. Besides that, we had a very good weekend. We were in St. Louis for a wedding of some friends of ours from Knox. The wedding was beautiful and we all (Ben & Amanda rode with us too)had a great time. We stayed with Angie, Nick, & Braden on Friday night (well it was actually Saturday morning by the time we arrived), so it was great to be able to see them for a little while. Brianna got to spend the weekend with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nancy, and it sounds like they all had a great time as well. :) There isn't too much else to report with Bob and I. Since this is actually posting on Monday May 1, I guess I should be the first to wish Bob a very happy birthday! Brianna is getting more teeth!! Her top two front ones broke through last weekend. She has actually been really good with these two too, so we're very lucky on that. Other than that, there isn't too much new. She is still growing like crazy and will be 9 months old on Tuesday. Time sure does fly. She goes to the doctor on Wednesday, so we'll see how big she has gotten in the last 3 months. She has been picking things up like crazy. If you notice her tongue in the picture to the right, I don't know where she got that from but she has started doing that all the time now. She is such a little ham, as you can see. Still no crawling, but her legs are getting stronger, she'll stand against the couch for quite a while. I gues there isn't really any more "Brianna News". There are some new pictures in the April 2006 album, from the wedding, and of Braden, and a few of Brianna. I got a new camera for our anniversary/mother's day, so this was the first weekend I got to try it out. Hope you enjoy the pictures. OK, thats all for tonight, I should get to bed, so I can get up and get back to work! :'(

Brooks & Erin~ The wedding was beautiful...thanks again for inviting us! We hope you guys have a great time on your honeymoon!

Bob~ Happy 26th Birthday! & Happy Anniversary on the 3rd. We love you lots! :)

happy easter...a day late

Well, I got the blog fixed and have uploaded the pictures. Hope you enjoy. There are new pictures in the April 2006 album both at the beginning and the end. I'm not sure why they didn't all stay together, but they didn't, so just scroll to the end to see the rest of the new pictures. Anyway, I'm not going to write any more, I'm exhausted and Bob needs the computer to do some work. Hope you all had a good Monday and have a great rest of the week! Our love to all!

happy tax day!

OK, so I tried to remove the counter and somehow the top of the blog got all screwed up, and it is really bothering me!! Unfortunately, I won't be able to fix it until I get home tonight. Hopefully I'll get home at a decent hour so I can fix that and also get the new pictures up. I hope everyone had a good Easter! Ours was pretty low key, Bob, Nancy, & Grandma came over for lunch/dinner, it was a nice little gathering! I can't believe its Monday again...ugh! Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I will be fixing the page, because it is very, very annoying and that hopefully tonight there will be new pictures posted!
Love to all!

early easter

So, since I heard a lot of you complaining today about us (me, Angie & Nick, and Dale & Suzanne) not having enough new posts, I thought I'd better get one up here. But just in our defense, we could not post at all, then where would you be? :) Anyway, we made a little trip to Iowa yesterday to attend Felton's Easter today. It was so great to see everyone! We definitely don't see everyone nearly enough :( We had a great time and Brianna enjoyed meeting all (well, alot) of the Felton clan, including the 6 other babies that were there. There are 7 kids under a year old! Caden was born in May of 2005, Anna in June of 2005, Brianna in August of 2005, McKenna & Braden in November of 2005, Noah in January of 2006, & Kelsey in February of 2006. The one room in Denny & Glady's house looked like a nursery. You have never seen so many carseats and diaperbags in one room! :) There are also three more babies due this year. Dawn & Jim's little one in May, Jeff & Susan's & Adam & Traci's little ones both due in July. So the Felton clan is ever expanding, but everyone is loving it! Well, I guess I should get going and get to bed, need to get to work early tomorrow! It was great to see a lot of you this weekend and we love you all! :)

There are new pictures in the April 2006 album.

time flies...

So it seems like just yesterday that I was graduating high school, heading off to college, turning 21, graduating college, getting married, having a baby. And now, I've been out of high school 8 years, out of college 4 years, married for 3, my baby is 8 months old, and I have turned (as of 7:13 this morning) 26. I am officially closer to 30 than 20! Yikes, where does the time go? Well, enough about all that, There are some new pictures of our cutie pie, check them out in the April 2006 album!
Love to all!

quick note

Hi all, I know its been a while since I've posted, but things have been quite hectic around here. Nothing really exciting, just lots and lots of work. Oh, excuse the dirty laundry in the background of this picture, but hey, what can you do? I think 12 people dump their laundry here, because there is no way the three of us can produce this much dirty laundry. Sorry but I don't have too many new pictures, like I said, its been busy. Speaking of Miss Brianna, she is 8 months old today. She is growing so fast. She still isn't crawling yet, but is getting close. We were back in IA last weekend, and it was great to see some family & friends. Other than that we haven't done much besides work and sleep. Tax season seems to be a killer this year, and even though the 17th is the official deadline, we'll have tax returns to do until October probably, but at least it won't be 12 hour days anymore. Well, I told you this would be short...I hope to write more soon, and I promise to take some more pictures soon! Hope you are all doing well. Our love to all...

the good life

As we sit here eating dinner, watching Harry Potter, with Brianna fast asleep in her crib, I can't help but think about how very lucky we are. I was giving Brianna her bath tonight, and actually letting her play in the tub, without hurrying through the whole process, because we needed to get ready to leave for somewhere or needing to hurry to get her ready for bed. As I sat back and watched her play, laughing and splashing and reaching for her tub toys, I realized that it was moments like this that make life so wonderful. Its strange that such a run-of-the-mill thing brought this on, and I guess not many 25 (OK, almost 26) year olds would find a night of baths, bedtime stories, and Harry Potter exciting, but to me, this was an absolutely perfect night. I guess maybe I've been working so much that I was thinking of these things as just things I needed to do, without really enjoying them. I don't mean to take these things for granted, but sometimes after 11 hour days, I just want to fall into bed at night. But then I see that little girl smile at me, and the stress of the day just melts away. I know these things all the time, but sometimes you just need a moment like the one I had tonight to stop and say "this is the good life".

Dawn, Jim & Baby~ You are in our thoughts and prayers, we love you so very much!

best buddies

OK, so I couldn't get the picture to post but in case you haven't seen the pictures on my sister's weblog, you should check them out in the March 2006 album. Brianna & Braden's pictures are adorable. (not that I'm biased or anything) :o) I hope you're all having a great week!

Welcome home Miss McKenna! We hope you're settling in to your new home, and we're sure your mommy and daddy are having the time of their lives with you at home! We love you all so very much and can't wait until we get to see you and finaly meet McKenna!

Miss Kelsey, you should tell your mommy that she needs to start a weblog too, so we can see pictures of you as you grow too. Tell her to get with the program! :0) We love you guys and hope you are doing well.

Night All!

(I got it to work this morning!)

on a roll...

Two posts in 4 days, wow...aren't you the lucky ones. :o) I've added a few new pictures into the March 2006 album. There hasn't been too much going on here, so I don't have a lot to report. I spent all day Saturday at the Spring Resale that Step By Step PTA organizes. It was absolute madness! I got there at 6:45 to work the resale which started at 7:15 and there were people lined up around the building. They do have lots of nice stuff, but it was insane!! Needless to say I was exhausted when I got home, was home for about 1/2 hour, then went to church. Bob played basketball on Saturday morning, then golf in the afternoon with his dad, as it was beautiful here, so Brianna got to spend the day with Grandma Nancy. We were all pretty exhausted from our respective days out, so I think we were all sleeping by about 8:30 last night. Haven't gotten a lot accomplished today, I did bring some work home, but haven't mustered the energy to actually do it! Maybe I'll start soon. ;o) Well, I guess thats about all. Hope you all had a great weekend, and are all ready to start a new week! Love to you all!

Miss McKenna is very close to coming home, keep praying that she'll be home very soon. Dale, Suzanne, & McKenna you are never far from our thoughts, we can't wait until you have that beautiful little girl home with you, we love all three of you!

Happy Birthday Mom! We hope you had a great day! We love you!

finally....a new post

I know...I know...its been a long time. What can I say, we've been busy! :o) Plus, there isn't a whole lot exciting going on here, I've been working like a crazy person, and we've been gone the last few weekends. The last weekend in February we went to Angie & Nick's for Braden's baptism. He has gotten so big! It was nice to spend some time with them. Although, the Thursday before we left we took Brianna to the doctor as she had been very wheezy and not sounding very well. She ended up having a double ear infection, which we wouldn't have known about had it not been for the fact that we decided her wheezing needed a doctors attention. She seemed perfectly fine and didn't do anything abnormal that would have caused us to believe she had ear infections. Anyway, she was put on an antibiotic for that and then 3 different meds for her wheezing. She wasn't a very happy camper the weekend of Braden's baptism, partly from the meds and partly from her schedule being all mixed up. She ended up having to be put on a different antibiotic for her ear infections as the first one didn't help at all. But she is doing much better now. She has 2 more days of the antibiotic left and a few more weeks of one of the meds for the wheezing. But like I said, she is doing much better now. We had the kids's (Brianna & Braden) picture taken together on Monday. They were so adorable, and the pictures turned out fabulously! We can't wait to get them back, you would swear they were twins, because they are the same size!! :o) Last weekend Brianna and I took a trip to Iowa. I met up with some friends from high school for the weekend and Brianna got to spend some quality time with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Lester. It was a great weekend, except for the awful weather that showed up just in time for our drive back to Illinois! Oh well, we made it safe and sound. Other than that, I guess there isn't too much going on. I've added some new pictures, click on the March 2006 link. I know they aren't all from March, but give me a break! :o) Next week is corporate tax deadline, so don't expect too much out of me before then. Sending you all lots of love!

Happy Birthday Mom on the 12th!

Congrats Audrey & Seth on your tiny little bundle of joy!
Kelsey Ann born 2/24/06 5lbs 3oz 18 inches
She is an absolute doll!!

more changes

Well, as you can see I (we've) made more changes. I think it will stay this way for a while. Especially since I've pretty much spent all weekend working on it! :o) I hope you enjoy the new colors and setup. The frogs on the top and sides are actually the border in Brianna's room. It of course isn't even close to perfect or professional looking, but I'm very happy with it and my first attempt at doing something like this. Let me know what you think and also let me know if there is anything you think I should change. I'm up for suggestions! Have a great Sunday all!

new milestones...

Well, I've heard that the background makes it slightly difficult to read the posts, but I haven't had time to change it again. I will keep looking for new backgrounds and hopefully will find one that works better. As for the milestone mentioned in the title, this morning I realized I hadn't checked to see if Brianna had cut any teeth in a while. Yes, I do this every so often, because people have been telling me for months that she was probably cutting teeth. Well, as I was checking out her mouth, I about cut my finger on two tiny little teeth! Yup, her front two bottom teeth have cut through. I can't believe I didn't know that they were coming through. She has been in a very good mood and hasn't been acting different at all. Anyway, thats the big news around here. I can't believe how big she is getting. I added this picture plus four more in the February 2006 album. Check them out. Have a great weekend all! Lots of love!

work in progress...

Well, I'm still not 100% happy with it, but at least the links are back up. Thankfully that was not hard to put back. It was trying to find a template that I liked that took me forever. And I'm still not really sure about this one, but it'll have to do for now. I wish I was somewhat knowledgeable in HTML coding, so that I could come up with something on my own...but I have only a few talents and that, my friends, is not one of them. I blame it all on Dale...if he wouldn't have changed their blog, I wouldn't have had the desire to change ours! :o) Thanks a lot Dale! :o) You know I'm just kidding, we just needed some change, too many dark colors. Anyway, since Bob and Brianna have both been sleeping for hours I guess I should either go to bed or figure out something else to do for a while. Let me know what you think about the new background. I promise you won't hurt my feelings, like I said...I'm a little iffy on it. Night all! Have a great weekend. OH...and if anyone can tell me how to get rid of all that space between the post and the blog name, I would really appreciate it, it is driving me crazy!!

PS. Notice the new counter...

some changes

Seeing Dale & Suzanne's blog has prompted me to make some changes in ours. The photo albums are a little out of control and in need of some restructuring. And to be quite honest...I tried to change the template to brighten things up (yes, I am a copy cat!) :o) and it removed all the links, etc. so now I have a definite reason to update things. Hopefully this will be done by the end of the weekend. Sorry for the mess! :o)

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
We Love You!

concert & random other notes

Friday night I went to the Keith Urban concert with Amanda and her two sisters, Emily & Stephanie at the Allstate Arena. Amanda (& Ben) gave me the ticket for Christmas. It was an amazing concert. So much fun. And apparently Nicole Kidman was there as well, although we didn't see her. Anyway, we had a great time at the concert, that is about the only exciting thing that has happened in the last few days, so I guess I don't really have much to post about.

If anyone checks on little Miss McKenna, (I know there are alot of you!) she has reached the 5 lb mark. Yay!! We are all so excited for Dale, Suzanne, & McKenna. Pretty soon that adorable litte girl will be going home!

Miss Brianna is doing well, jabbering up a storm and she is now sitting up pretty well on her own. Other than that there isn't too much to report. I have added new pictures to the album, more from the concert and a few of Brianna sitting around and playing.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love to all!

brianna's sixth month checkup

I knew you all were anxiously awaiting Brianna's latest stats...so here they are. She is now a whopping 16lbs 9oz (75th percentile for weight) and 25 1/2 inches (45th percentile for height). It is hard to believe that at her 1 month appointment she was in the 10th percentile for weight!! Its hard to remember just how small she was! :o) We took her to get her 6th month pictures taken yesterday. They were running WAY behind, so we had to wait for about an hour and by that time, she was starting to get cranky...but we got a couple of good ones.

Speaking of this...I just have to vent a little. We take her to JC Penny's to get her pictures taken and are members of the portrait club, cause its a decent price, etc, etc. They schedule their appointments 10 minutes apart, which frankly is not long enough when you have a child that can't smile on command, so this immediately puts them behind schedule. Add to this that they now have a policy that the photographer has to stand there while you make your decisions about which pictures you purchase. They had 2 photographers there, so at many points during the day they are both helping people pick out pictures, which leaves the studio empty and customers piling up. I realize they are trying to make money, but if they allowed extra time between appointments, I would think they would be able to stay a little more on schedule and thus, having happier children, thus having better pictures, and happier parents that would spend more money. And let people pick out their own pictures for crying out loud...I don't need to feel hurried and pressured while I'm trying to figure out which pictures I want and who I'm going to give them to. It doesn't make me want to spend more money, it makes me want to spend none at all!! OK, enough with my ranting.

Needless to say, Bob and I weren't completely overjoyed, but there were a couple of good ones of Brianna, but thats just because she's so cute anyway! :o)

OK, gotta get the house picked up so we can get ready to go to Ben & Amanda's for the Super Bowl. Its a good thing we planned on going over there and not having people here, because the receiver for our dish went out on Friday (we lost all the movies we had recorded on our DVR) and they will be shipping us a new receiver in 3-5 days. Great timing huh? OH, well...there are definitely worse things...

Everyone have a great Sunday, and hopefully I'll post again soon!
Love to all!

its my 1/2 birthday!!

Yep...that's right...I'm six months old today! Since my little cousin McKenna gets to write on her mommy and daddy's blog, I told mommy that I wanted to write too, since I'm older! :o) Mommy and daddy say that I'm growing like a weed...I'm not sure what that means, but they sure think its funny. Mommy says that I am growing up too fast and she tells me to slow down, but I'm not sure how to do that, so I just smile at her and that seems to make her feel better. I've been going to a place that has lots of other kids while mommy and daddy go to work. Mommy used to take me to work with her, and that was fun for a while especially when the big, white, furry dog was there, but then it got boring, because she was busy and couldn't play with me all the time. I like the place with all the kids, but I miss mommy and daddy. Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nancy come and pick me up every now and then and play with me until mommy and daddy get home. Mommy has been working a lot because she has to do something called "taxes" it doesn't sound very fun....I wonder why she does it? Anyway, daddy has been busy at work too, but he comes and picks me up every day and I really like that. Mommy and daddy say we get to go visit Grandpa Lester, Grandma Susan, Aunt Angie, Uncle Nick, & cousin Braden soon and my Great-Grandmas Kramer & Felton too, that makes me very happy, I like playing with Cousin Braden! I heard mommy and daddy talking before and they said I have to go to the doctor tomorrow for my 6 month check-up. I don't like when they weigh me, and I think I have to get shots too...ouch! Good thing Mommy and Daddy are there to give me lots of hugs and kisses when its over. Well...I'm getting sleepy so I'd better say goodnight... This writing thing is tougher than it looks, so I think I'll leave this to mommy for a while. I'm sure she'll tell you all how much I've grown, she gets excited by the little things...she's silly. Goodnight everyone! Lots of love to you all from me!!

McKenna~ You're much better at this than me...maybe when you get to go home with your mommy and daddy we can have a play-date and you can teach me a few things about writing!

"Auntie" Amanda~ Hope you had a happy birthday yesterday, I'll see you on Sunday!

Oh...and mommy put some new pictures of me in the latest and greatest album (like there aren't enough pictures of me) she always has that stinkin' camera in my face.

OK, I'm really going to bed now...night...