Home at Last

Our family was recently called to visit and eventually become members at Jersey Village Baptist Church. While at first we didn't quite understand the direction and plan He had for us, we were obedient and kept our hearts and minds open. Everything He had planned was perfect! We have reached an all-time high in our spiritual lives both individually and as a family. God is so awesome and I'll forever praise him for his beautiful work in my life. We are home at last and flourishing in the love and new friends that we have made. Thank you, Lord! I pray that I am able to share this graciously with those that I love.

The girls are growing up so quickly. Charlotte is 5 months old and has sucessfully made it into the clothing that Harper wore when she was 12 months. She is so chubby and loveable; you just want to squeeze her. Her giggles and smiles light up my world all day long. Harper is such a smart little girl and always testing her boundaries. I am working hard to not have the word "no" come out of my mouth every few minutes of her life but wow, that is a challenge. Please pray for patience throughout our journey in year number 2. Potty training has been going wonderful but boy can we can breeze through underwear like no other. Almost there!

Sweet girl and her ponies

Pretty Blue Eyes

Sweet Cousins

She Gets Some Wild Hairdos

A LOT has occurred since my last post. Our sweet baby girl, Charlotte Louise Nail was born on Wednesday, May 24th. Charlotte because it's a name we love and Louise after my awesome mama.

Although I had a scheduled c-section for that same week, she decided to make her debut a bit early. Almost on Pawpaw's birthday! On the morning of the day I went into labor, Mom and I were at Harper's school for splash day. I kept having contractions but nothing out of the norm. I didn't think anything of it. We decided to meet Grandma Lou for lunch and it was there that mom said, "I think you need to call your doctor". I started to time my contractions... 30 mins became 10 which became 8 mins and then I came to the quick realization that this may be it! Of course, I denied it stating "I'm not in active labor" "these are just Braxton Hicks, nothing to worry about", "I can't be in labor -- my doctor is out of town - eek!". I made the call and sure enough given my surgery history and symptoms the on-call doctor scheduled a c-section in just 2 short hours. What? I didn't have my bags packed, I was sweaty and gross form being outside all day with Harper.... Not what I had planned for on my delivery day! I called Grant and said it was time. We zipped home to grab my things and off we went to Women's Hospital. I was bummed that my doctor wasn't in town but no time to worry about that. By the time we arrived my contractions were 4 minutes apart and I had a lot of pressure. She was coming whether I was ready or not. At 4:35 pm Charlotte Louise was born. Another sweet girl!

All along everyone had told me that the baby was a boy. My pregnancies couldn't have been any more opposite so I can see why but for some reason I always told Grant that we were having a girl. In fact, I told him the next one would be a girl as well! We shall see!

We brought Charlotte home on May 27th and couldn't have been any happier!

Moving Along

I have been TERRIBLE about updating the blog. Where does my time go?? I'm sure having a 16 month old, or being pregnant or working full-time has nothing to do with it! Amongst all of the chaos, I love my life and wouldn't trade it for the world. Some things will just lag behind a little bit :)

Grant and I took the plunge and moved -- again! We doubled our square footage, are closer to my mom and Harper’s MDO and both of our offices are right down the street so it has been a nice and easy transition. We aren’t quite settled but getting there.

Harper is changing every day. At her last check-up the pediatrician told me that she has the vocab of a two year old so we must be doing something right! He was impressed and so were we. We knew she was a little more advance than children her age just from observation in the church nursery or at school but it made us proud to hear it from our pedi. If you say something to her, she repeats it to her best ability. Things like the word school are “scoo” and sitcker is “sicker” but all-in-all she seems to be a pretty bright kid. She had her first visit to the dentist a month ago and received a good report. No more bottles, not a big juice drinker and we are okay with our paci timeline. The dentist agreed that it would be a challenge to wean from the paci with a new baby on the way. How could you explain to a 16 month old that the baby can have one but she can’t? I would feel bad but then again…. the parents are probably more heartbroken from the weaning than the child. I will be the first to admit that I am not ready!

Harper doesn’t quite grasp the idea of having a new baby around. She will point to my belly and say “baby” but I know that this is no indication to her of what really is to come. I think she will be a great helper as she does a pretty good job with her baby dolls. Sure she can be a bruiser at times and the words “gentle” and “easy” will be used 100 times a day but I think she will really enjoy it. We have started to introduce the potty and so far she has done a great job. She pretty much uses it every day and we praise our little souls out to her. I am not yet ready to take on the every 30 minute thing but I’m sure that will come soon enough.

My pregnancy has flown by and it has been so easy. Now, being pregnant with a toddler has not been the easiest task but we’re here and we’re doing it so…. there you go. I can’t imagine not having Grant around. He helps me out so much and I couldn’t do it without him. Having a supportive and understanding husband is such a blessing. There isn’t a task that “isn’t his job” etc. He is a man that wears many hats and I would bet not very many women can say that.

We were able to see our sweet baby yesterday on ultrasound and yes, the sex still remains a surprise. It really hasn’t been that challenging to not know the sex of the baby but I will say for the planning portion it has really put me behind. We really haven’t done much for this little one. I did go out and buy a few blue things just in case but that is about it. I plan to do the nursery after the baby gets here while I’m on my 12 week leave – woo hoo! We are schedule to deliver in 6 short weeks and can’t wait!

A day at the Beach


Hanging out at Mimi and Pawpaws


Baby Nail

Miss Chatter

Harper is changing so much lately. She has always been a chatter box and pretty outgoing but now she is starting to make sense and it is awesome! Some words that she says:

pease - please (although she thinks she can have whatever it is just because she says please- Grant and I can't resist!)
mommy or mom at times
hey!
hi
bye bye
Babu - blueberries - her absolute favorite food
Baby - this has been going on for a while. Everything used to be a baby.
Boy
Mo - more
bi - Bite

She goes to school now at JVBC a couple days a week and loves it, I'm sure. It is a great way to get her socialized after being at home with a nanny for the first year. Although that was great while it lasted it is nice to get her in with other children her age and allow her to learn and absorb it all in. Although sharing is not really on a 14 month old's agenda, she does a pretty good job at it. Harper has such a kind spirit and heart that she generally will just give what she has to the other kids. One exception is her cousin Walker, now those two can go at it. They fight for Gigi's attention, snatch toys from one another... you name it. They are just like siblings!

As for the pregnancy, we are smooth sailing. I start my progesterone shots this week and will continue those until 37 weeks. I feel wonderful and have zero complaints! Can't wait to meet this sweet little baby in 4 months.

Catching Up

Three months have flown by. Blogging is last on my agenda as you probably have noticed but I had a few minutes and thought I would write a little to our friends and family.

Harper celebrated her first birthday and we had the perfect day and weather for her party. She had LOTS of guests and more presents than you can imagine. Her favorites lately have been her baby dolls. She will carry them around saying “awwww” while she pats them on the back – it is so sweet to watch. We are also using these sweet baby dolls to teach her about her new baby brother or sister that will arrive in May. She hasn’t quite grasped the concept but she sure knows the word baby! Everything has become baby, Santa is baby, any kid is a baby…. You name it…. It’s a baby. She has a few others that she says like “bi” for fish, she knows woof woof, moo, baaa, she will also mock us when we say “I love you” one word at a time. So stinkin cute~ Before we know it she will be speaking in full sentences.

Thanksgiving came and went and can you believe that Christmas is next week?!? We surely cannot. Most of our shopping is done so that is good!

My second pregnancy has been an absolute breeze. I was tired at the beginning but have had no sickness, no food aversions…. Basically I feel awesome!! What a difference from my 18 weeks of sickness with Harper. Although I have not had inkling on what the gender might be Grant and I are leaning towards a boy since the pregnancies have been so different. And, no, we are not finding out!! What a neat surprise for us in May!!

We are still on the hunt for a new nanny that fits our family just right so if you know of anyone or maybe your maid or whatnot knows of someone, we would appreciate the referral. Bilingual, English, whatever – we are open to interview anyone who is interested in the position.

Ready for the Cool, Crisp Air!

Every year Grant and I look forward to the fall and winter seasons. The weather cools off, the leaves turn beautiful deep shades of red, oranges and browns and there is a lot family time to be had. Labor Day has come and gone so let's get the cooler weather show on the road!

Grant and I are in our busiest months at work so we have had a lot of late nights, some weekend working – you name it! Harper is growing up so fast with her first birthday approaching soon. It feels like we were cautiously driving down the highway from the hospital about a month ago with our sweet baby girl. She is almost walking, talking a ton and has a wonderful personality that really shines for the world to see. She is truly such a happy baby and that makes things a little easier on us. We did have a visit with both the dermatologist and eye doctor at TCH and things are progressing well with her hemangioma. Some days it looks better than others but the good news is that it has completely stopped growing and it should be downhill from here! Harper’s vision continues to be perfect so we are grateful for that as well. Thank you so much for the continued thoughts and prayers.

We have a lot of activities coming up in the near future so we will have lots of pictures to show. Here are some recent ones for you to enjoy….





She has 5 teeth and three more on the way!


She absolutely loves her baths!


Emptying her toy basket


She can reach everything now

So Long Summer!

Summer has come and gone so quickly for us. We had a nice vacation, enjoyed lots of pool time and have really enjoyed our time with Harper. Grant and I are entering our busy season at work so both of us will be buried probably until the New Year is here.

Our little sweet pea is growing up so much. She amazes me with her brain power and diligence to get something done. She’s very inquisitive and an absolute busy-body. Her favorite thing to do lately is empty her toy basket. She stands in front of it, tossing each item out over her shoulder without ever looking back. Definitely on a mission I’ll tell you. Harper is really into playing with her toys now. She can hold a phone to her ear, push her new stroller/walker a few steps and hit the nails on her workbench with the hammer. She talks and talks all day long – I wish I could make out what she is saying. Grant and I can’t wait to hear what her little voice is going to sound like. Harper’s newest accomplishment is waving and saying “bye”. Sometimes when she wakes up in the morning it’s the first thing she does when you get her out of the crib. You can tell that she is so proud of herself. Lately she has also begun to sing so in the car I turn the radio off and listen to her sweet, songbird voice sing away. It’s all in “German” but it’s still cute! Mom still keeps Walker and Harper each week so they get to see each other often and they are pretty funny together. Although Walker is 6 months older, Harper seems to win the battles over toys etc unless he runs off with them. She has a strong grip and a strong will! She has become kind of feisty when it comes to sharing so I guess we need to begin working on that.

That’s all for now… toodles!

Birthdays Galore

A lot has happened since I last posted. We celebrated 4th of July, Landon's 9th birthday and mama's birthday as well. For the 4th of July, we did our usual and headed up to the lake to see mimi and pawpaw. We take the boat out on the lake for the fireworks and Harper loved them. I thought for a moment she would be scared but she sat quietly and watched in my lap. Although it was a bit past her bedtime so I'm sure that played into her mood as well. Landon had a fun swim party so we got to see the entire family and just hang out in the sun. Harper loves being in the water but don't come too close to her when you're wearing goggles... She is so afraid of them! We celebrated mom's birthday this past Sunday with a nice lunch at Pappasitos - it was very relaxing.

Harper is changing so quickly. Her hair is starting to fall out yet grow in and it looks like she's going to be a full-blown brunette. Her face and legs have thinned out a bunch since she's started crawling. She is eating a lot of different foods but her all-time favorite has been blueberries. I have to wait until she's eaten a good portion of her dinner before I put the fruit down or else that is all she eats. She loves grilled cheese sandwiches, any kind of beans - like pinto beans, broccoli, peas, and carrots. You name it - she eats it! She even had some of my curry the other day since I ordered it with no spice.

Harper is officially into anything and everything she isn't supposed to playing with. Never mind the 50 toys that she has, she's playing with mom's fake plant or chewing on the piping of the couch. Grant got pretty clever the other day and took the batteries out of an unused remote and let her play with it. I'm sure she loved it as she is always wanting what we have - cell phone, remotes etc. She babbles a lot lately and screams to manipulate you into giving her what she wants. We are working on the signing so she can communicate with us when she wants more food or wants out of her high chair. She is catching on and it makes us proud.

Grant and I actually had a little time to ourselves this weekend to celebrate my friend, Sarah's, 30th birthday. Mimi and pawpaw watched after Harper sp we were able to really kick back and not have to worry about naps, eating etc. It was very nice and we agreed that we need to do it more often.

Father's Day and Florida

We celebrated Grant's first Father's Day this year, yay! Harper bought daddy a new set of golf clubs and he is excited about learning to play golf. I also took Harper out to have a surprise mini-session with the photographer I used for her newborn photos - Jennifer Knapp. He absoltuely loved that as well. I hope to have the proofs to post from that soon so you all can see what a ham she is in front of the camera.

I threw together a little slide show of our recent vacation to Florida with Mom, Todd and Landon. Harper had her first plane ride and did wonderful. It took me a little bit to get her to sleep on our night departure flight out because she's nosey and there was so much to see and hear. But eventually she caved and I won :) We spent a whole week in Florida and didn't want to come home! The beaches were beautiful, the sun was hot and we got to spend some wonderful time with the fam. We didn't see any oil or tar balls however they did have some just a few miles up the beach. It was perfect. Harper loved the water and was such a trooper throughout her schedule being out of whack and teething.

Speaking of teeth, she almost has a full tooth up. It's the bottom, second left tooth. Weird that her front teeth didn't come first but we'll take it! We can see the front ones coming through so I'm sure she'll have a mouthful soon. It's like they're all coming in at once. We have had a few cranky moments and sleepless nights but all-in-all it really hasn't been that bad. I'm probably saying that because I have such a supportive husband who gives me a break when I need it! Harper has tried all types of foods lately as we have literally skipped over the baby food. She wasn't having it and I was okay with it. She likes sour things like lemon, pickle, lime etc. I don't give her a lot of it but an occasional lick here and there doesn't hurt. So far we have had good luck with broccoli, bread - like her gigi, sweet potato, peas, carrots, apples, pears, peaches - lots of different types of foods. She even tried gnocchi and veal marsala - ha ha! She is crawling everywhere and pulls up on whatever she can whenever she can. She'll just hang out holding on with one hand like she's the star of the show. Like I said before, she's fearless! She'll go from the ottoman to her toy basket to the couch in the blink of an eye. Harper has a new found love for hearing her own voice. She screams at the top of her lungs and thinks it's so funny! or if she doesn't want to be in the jumperoo she'll let you know very quickly with a high pitch squeal. When we were flying back from Florida she kept screaming then would laugh at herself. I guess it sounded funny in such close quarters but I didn't catch any others around us thinking it was too funny. Hope you enjoy the pictures. We had so much fun on our vacation!

Memorial Day Weekend

The Nail family has been super busy lately. Harper is such a joy and so precious. She is crawling ninety-to-nothing and pulling up on everything. I am sure she will be walking in no time. She is a confident and determined little girl! You can't leave anything within her reach or she is into it in seconds. She says mama, baba, papa and her newest word is uh-oh and she says it for everything. We have yet to hear da-da but I'm sure it's coming. Today we have her 6 month appointment (almost a month behind) for shots and to recheck the ear infection she's had. We haven't seen any teeth yet but I am pretty sure they are on their way. She has been fussy off and on lately and that is very unusual for Harper. She doesn't even cry when she's wet or dirty. Our little angel baby.

We kicked off the summer celebrating Memorial Day Weekend and my Pap's 49th birthday - uh oh!! All of my siblings were able to make it up to the lake and it was wonderful to spend time with them. Here are a few pictures:

Daddy and Harper



Lando



Shwimmin in the Lake with Pap



Al and Walker - Big Boy!



Miss Thang






Lando's First Time to Wakeboard and He Was A PRO



Our attempt at a photo



Walker Tuckered Out



Mimi and Harper



Happy Baby



She Totally Knows What a Camera is

Sisters Day

My sisters and I had a girls day two weekends ago and took some pictures of the kids at the park. It was fun for us to spend the day together and catch up. Walker and Harper are getting be to so much fun. It's so neat to watch them grow up together. Sweet cousins!

We had a follow-up appointment for Harper's hemangioma and the tumor is shrinking. We are VERY happy about this news and now know that we are on the road to it being gone. The red area may need some laser treatment at the end but I am relieved that we are most probably not going to have to use medication to shrink the actual tumor.

Harper is such a joy for us. Such a happy little clam. She is talking a lot and becoming mobile - scooting her way around the living room. It won't be long before she's crawling. I will love it and hate, I'm sure. She is growing up too fast!

Birthdays!

Last month we celebrated my sister's 27th birthday and my grandmommy's 70th birthday. I love when we have birthdays because our entire family gathers and we have fun talking about old memories and just hanging out together. For Michelle's birthday we (40 of us) went to dinner then headed to the Miller Outdoor Theater to "watch" cats. After dad and grant drew whiskers on their face, I knew it was a lost cause and that we should head to the parking lot to beat the crowd. It was a good idea but probably not so good for the guys.

Harper is changing every day. She is doing an army crawl, sitting up with no support, drinking through a straw and eating baby food. Her favorite so far seems to be sweet potatoes - just like her mama.

My Beautiful Sister, Michelle








Four Generations

Baby Dedication

We had Harper’s baby dedication a couple Sundays ago and it was such a nice day. About 15 parents and newborns participated in the parent/child commitment ceremony at Second Baptist Church. This was an opportunity for Grant and me to commit ourselves to raise Harper in the discipline and instruction of our Lord. It also provides an opportunity for our church to commit to partner with our parents and assist us in laying a strong spiritual foundation for her. Everything turned out perfect for that day. The weather, her dress and of course excellent company. Here are a few pictures of Harper’s special day.

Hemangioma Update

Thank you for all of the prayers and support. We had a very good visit with Dr. Metry of Texas Children’s hospital this morning. Although Harper’s hemangioma is growing rapidly, the placement and shape of it is actually doing great. Until it moves down onto the eyelid, it will not cause any damage to her vision. We have a follow-up appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist in a couple of weeks just to be sure all is on track but we’re not expecting anything negative to come about. Dr. Metry said that Harper’s Hem. has very little surface area (which is the red part) which will leave very little scarring later on once it does go away. She said it is deep but that it is not growing into the bone and should flatten out nicely. The tricky part is knowing how long it will take to flatten out. Most Hem. grow for about 5 to 6 months then gradually flatten out by the time they are 2 or 3. If it hasn’t gotten better by this age then they will surgically remove it. Our options are pretty cut and dry right now; let it flatten out on its own or give meds twice a day (propranolol) to speed it along. While the medication is not FDA approved to treat hem. they use this on patients every day and have seen significant results. For now, Grant and I are going to see what it is going to do on its own to try and bypass introducing any medication to her. For those of you wondering, the Dr. also confirmed that it does not hurt or cause any harm to her in any way, even if she bumps it. She said it could split open and you would treat it as if it were any other wound. So, now we are scheduled for an appointment on May 26th to re-measure the growth and will give you another update then.

Great news for us! God is Good!

5 Months!

Our sweet pea is 5 months old! She is growing up so fast and changing daily. I have no idea as to how much she weighs these days but I know she's getting heavier when I'm toting that car seat around plus she has moved up a size in diapers to the 2-3s. My right arm is going to be huge by the time she's a year old :) Who says new moms need to pump iron? Harper is still in "snack mode" as I like to call it. She eats every three hours and if we're lucky she'll eat 4 1/2 ounces. Dr. Lange would like for her to make it to 6 or 7 so she will sleep more through the night but hey, I'm not force feeding her nor do I want to develop bad eating habits. For now, mama is perfectly fine taking an hour twice a night to feed our little pumpkin.



Harper laughs and babbles away every day. Makes Grant and I smile every time and she has developed such a sweet little personality. She is in love with her feet and her cute little toes and sometimes they make it into her mouth. Pawpaw says she better enjoy that now because when she gets older, no can do buckaroo. Some of my favorite time with Harper is in the morning right after she wakes up and her bath time. Every morning Harper wakes up goo and gaaing away. We sit in her rocking chair and rock for about 20 minutes to make sure she's good and awake before I plop her on the changing table. She is so cuddly in the mornings and every day my heart pours out for her. We've introduced rice cereal into her diet and that can be quite hilarious too. The other day she decided she was over the cereal but I kept trying to offer it so she clinched up both fists and make this face with a squeal to say, "no more"! Can we say Attitude?!







Crawling and sitting up have been the latest on her agenda. She can get anywhere going backwards and pretty darn quick. She will get up on her hands and knees but I don't think her legs are strong enough to do the rocking back and forth. She is doing a pretty good job at sitting up as far as support goes but she is very wobbly.

Learning to hold her own bottle



Harper brings such a joy to our life and we thank God every day for our little miracle baby!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter with the family this year. Harper didn't have a clue as to what was going on but next year should be a lot of fun! The Easter bunny brought Harper some new play clothes since she is quickly growing out of her wardrobe. Allie and I took the kids to the mall to get their picture taken with Mr. Easter Bunny. Walker was SO not impressed and Harper didn't have a care in the world. 15 years from now, they will look back at the picture and just laugh. Mom's side of the family had a picnic out at Meyer park so we all met for lunch and had an egg hunt. It was a beautiful day; we couldn't have asked for better weather. Here are some pics of the bunny and park.

Walker and Harper at the park



Uncle Stephen



Aunt Meesh



Harper loves to put everything in her mouth now



Cousins!



Walker trying to share Harper's favorite toy, Sophie



Uncle Stephen and Ashley



Good Ole Easter Bunny



My love!