Happy Birthday Hannah!

On Sunday we went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop in Eastdale Mall for Hannah's 7th birthday.


Katelyn was so excited! She gave life to a new friend that she named "Allie". Allie has not left her side in the past 24 hours. They do everything together! :)


Hannah had a wonderful birthday! She seemed to be having such a great time at her party! She is growing up so fast! It seems like just yesterday we found out Cameron was getting a little sister! Happy Birthday Hannah! We love you!





For more pics from our fun time, click HERE for the web gallery.

Back to School

Well summer is officially over! Katelyn started back to school this week and she loves it. She will be back at First Baptist Church Child Development Center in Wetumpka going 3 days a week (Mon, Wed, & Fri). Her teachers are Mrs. Bamburg and Mrs. Edwards. She had a great first day! My little girl is getting so big!




More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/lorimercer1/FirstDayOfPreschool3?authkey=xdZxI4Oep_E

Katelyn loves the cows!

Since Katelyn was just several months old she has always been fascinated by the cows near our house. Whenever they are grazing near the fence we always have to stop and "talk to the cows". The other day I just happened to have my camera ready when we stopped. So cute!



MOOO!!!

Lady in Waiting

This past 4th of July weekend Ruthie's boyfriend Aubie came for a visit. Ruthie was so excited to see him!


We are pleased to announce that she is expecting her second litter of puppies sometime around the first part of September! Dr. Blue Brawner of Carriage Hills Animal Clinic confirmed that she is carrying 3 maybe 4 puppies. She had 3 with her first litter. Here's our look at one of her babies! How cool is that?!?


Last time she was pregnant she surprised me with the puppies before I could get a chance to take a picture of her pregnant. This time around she wants nothing to do with having her picture taken. I tried on several occasions and as soon as she sees the camera she runs to hide. I kinda know what she feels like! The other day I snuck on her enjoying the sunshine.


Stay tuned! It won't be long! I'll give another update when they are here!

Physical Therapy

We went back for our second physical therapy session last week. Ms. Brenda was very impressed with his progress. He is starting to turn his head to the left more often and his tilt has gotten a little better. She told us to continue with his stretching as much as possible now before he gets older and no longer will want to tolerate it. We go back again in another two weeks.

Excersize!

Since Owen is our second child we have been able to use much of the items we had for Katelyn. However I decided he deserved something new and his very own. His physical therapist recommended that we give him lots of opportunities to be upright to help his head control. Thanks to a great 20% off coupon at Toys R Us last week I was able to get Owen a new exersaucer. It's pretty neat! He loves to play in it and has already figured out how to make the lights and sounds go off! Smart boy!

FOUND!

Owen has found his voice! Now I wish we could just find his volume control! :) Sometimes he can really get wound up! Here's a quick clip I took the other day while getting my nails done.

Quality Time with Poppy

Last Sunday while Bart and I were hosting the Frazer Journey Singles class at our house for Lake Day, Owen got to spend a little quality time next door with Poppy and Gigi. When I went over to check on him that afternoon this is what I found...




They were watching the Olympics and getting ready to take a little afternoon nap. So sweet!

Girl's Day Out

Last Saturday Jennifer, Emily, and I traveled to Birmingham to hear Sherry Burgess and Betty Bussey (the wives of Rick and Bubba) speak at the Shades Mountain Baptist Church Women's Ministry Kickoff. Carianne met us at the church. We had such a wonderful time together! It was so nice to get away and spend get much needed "girl time".



Sherry and Betty's talk was very uplifting. Our hearts were touched by what they had to say. Rick and Sherry lost their son Bronner in a drowning accident back in January of this year. It was moving to see the Lord working in her life. She has the most incredible strength. Here are a few images from that event.

Betty Bussey talked about organizing our spritual lives by deciding what to put away, throw away, and give away.




Sherry Burgess shared her powerful testimony of how her life has changed since the passing of your youngest child Bronner.




Afterwards, we went to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Emily's birthday. They brought her a scrumptious chocolate chip cheesecake on a beautifully decorated plate. YUM!!



Thank you girls for a truly wonderful day!

New Point of View

Owen has a new point of view these days - he is sitting up! Now that his head control has gotten much better he is enjoying sitting up (propped of course) more and more. This can only mean good things for his reflux. As soon as Katelyn started sitting her reflux pretty much cleared up completely. Here he is in his crib sitting like a big boy!



There are more pics on the web gallery - http://picasaweb.google.com/lorimercer1/OwenSittingUp81608?authkey=6AQpC-DIAV4

Katelyn is going to be a flower girl!

I was so excited to hear the news that our dear friends John Matson and Lauren Bethune were engaged to be married! Katelyn and I were even more excited to get this in the mail...

There were a few tears of joy just at the thought of my little girl being a flower girl! How exciting! John and Lauren are planning an April 4th ceremony in Gardendale, AL. We can't wait!! :)

Catching Up!

WOW! Where have the past two weeks gone? Amongst the craziness I've let my blog slide - surprised? There has been lots of exciting things going on so I'll do my best to get it up to date.

I've been tagged!

Okay I'm game for a little tagging! I was tagged by my sweet friend Lauren on her blog so I'll succumb to the pressure! Here goes...

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1 - I worked at Wal-mart in high school back when the stores closed at 9pm and were only open 12-6 on Sundays. Anyone remember those days??

2 - Growing up I always wanted to be a school teacher. My friend Stacye and I would "play school" for hours and hours. We would bring home extra worksheets from school for our "students".

3 - I hate shredded coconut - it is what I think grass would taste like! Yuck!

4 - I purchased my very first 10-speed bicycle using the lay-away program at Fred's. When I finally got it paid for and rode it the first time I immediately fell off and hit my head on the pavement sending us to the ER with a bloody head. I was stressed to the max that I would have to have a shot only to find out that my "wound" was only a small nick.

5 - I was an extremely picky eater growing up. My favorite meal was a plain hot dog ("just the weinie and a bun"). My mom always teased me that I would be so embarrassed ordering that on a date. Wouldn't you know I found a kindred spirit that also loved the same thing? He and I went on our first date for hot dogs! HA!!

6 - The first book I ever read by myself was "Curious George Rides a Bike". Now my daughter loves Curious George (or "Monkey George" as she call him).

So there! I did it! :) So now I'm tagging Wendy, Suzanne, Jill, Amy, Jennifer, and Carianne!

Perspective

I have always been intriqued by perspective shots of babies. That is actually how the monthly mini sessions began - to photograph Katelyn and now Owen in the same place every month over the course of a year. I decided to try something a little different this time. I started with a sleeping baby but as soon as I put him on the dresser he woke up. Oh well so much for that! The angle is a little off but you can see how much longer he has gotten in just a short time. Check out the difference 8 weeks makes! :)




Here's another take that was just too cute not to post. He is such a little ham already!

Precious!

DX: Torticollis

In my post just a few days ago, I mentioned that Owen has developed a tendency to turn his head to one side and it is becoming very prominent. We've just begun to notice it more as he is beginning to get more head control. He always seems to favor the right side. Now that I look back at pictures of him since birth it was there all along but has just become to be more noticeable. I took him to see Dr. Blakeney about two weeks ago because something just didn't seem quite right. She also noticed these tendencies but didn't necessarily say what could be causing it. She said to start doing some small stretching exercises and to let them know if it doesn't get any better. So I started intentionally trying to do things to encourage Owen to look in the other direction such as putting his mobile on the other side of the bed, holding him so he is encouraged to look in the other direction, and doing some slight stretches. He just didn't seem to be getting any better and my motherly instinct kept growing stronger that something was not quite right. I felt like something more needed to be done. I didn't understand why this was happening. Was I doing something to cause this? On Monday I was talking to a dear friend (whose husband is a pediatrician) about my ongoing concerns about Owen's motor development. She kept the kids for me Wednesday while I had to work at the consignment sale. I asked her if she noticed anything about Owen and she said that she definitely did. Her husband was so kind to look at him for me also and immediately stated it looked like torticollis. I went home and googled it and sure enough - most of what I read about the condition was the same symptoms that Owen was exhibiting. He said it really wouldn't get any better without some physical therapy and recommended a top notch physical therapist (Brenda at Baptist East) that we ought to see about getting a referral to see. I called Dr. Wood's office to let them know that Owen was not any better. The phone nurse called me today at 3pm and said that due to a cancellation we had an appointment with Brenda at 4:15pm TODAY! Yippee and YIKES! We had to step it up into high gear in order to make it. We met with Brenda who also confirmed that she was seeing torticollis. He has a slight head tilt to the left and turns his head to the right. She showed me some stretching exercises to do with him and suggested more tummy time and activities that would get him in a more upright position (jumper, bumbo seat, etc) to help strenthen and stretch out his neck muscles. She said that he was at a very good age to start these exercises now before he gets older and starts to resist wanting to do them. She said this may be something that can be corrected in a few short weeks or it may take several months. She said it was likely that this condition may have been caused by his fetal position in the womb being that he was a large baby and didn't have much room. She also noticed very tight muscles in his legs and hamstrings. She gave me stretching exercises for this also. We go back in two weeks for a followup visit. What a day this has been!

Happy Snaps

My poor children just never get a break from their 'ole momma always wanting to take pictures. Katelyn has had "photographer's child syndrome" for quite some time but is finally coming back around again. I hope Owen hangs in there with me for a while. They are both such beautiful models! Here are a couple of snaps I got today while waiting for Daddy to get out of a meeting.

Guppies!

On Tuesday we met some friends at the Bell Road YMCA pool for some much needed heat relief. Katelyn surprised me when she asked to jump off the diving board. Again, NO FEAR! She was amazing! Later Kinley, Will, and Katelyn all decided they wanted to go in the big pool and swim like the big kids (sans floaties or lifejackets!). They had a big time jumping off the side and practically drowning us mommies! We all had our hands full with two kids each! Here are some pictures from our fun day.

Direct link to the gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/lorimercer1/8508BellRoadYMCA

Little Artist

The heat has been driving us all crazy because Katelyn can't go outside to play as often. She has been climbing the walls! Monday afternoon she decided to brave the heat and sat down on the first porch with her bucket of chalk. It was so sweet to watch her play.

Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!

Owen reached another milestone on Monday - his first time in the jumper! I think he liked it! His feet touched the floor and he pushed up making himself bounce. Yeah Owen! His head control is gradually getting better and that is the main thing holding him back at this point. He looks so big in these pictures!

OH MY!

Since Katelyn's recent confidence boost at the water park last week she has turned into quite the little fish in the water! This morning I decided to try a few swimming lessons with her without her life jacket. She totally amazed me and took off swimming on her own. Now I must say its a darn good dog paddle but WOW! I stayed right there with her because she does seem to tire easily. She started jumping off the side and doing cannonballs and bellyflops! Absolutely no fear!! I couldn't wait to get her back out there this afternoon for some pictures. Poppy and Gigi came out to swim and she put on a show! Check out the "air" she got here!



Here are the rest of the pics from our day.

Direct link to the gallery - http://picasaweb.google.com/lorimercer1/OurLittleFish

One little monkey...

...jumping on the bed! Katelyn is a typical 3 year old and loves to jump on the bed. Normally it gets her in trouble but on Friday I decided to play with some action shots. This time I actually WANTED her to jump on the bed and then she decided it wasn't as much fun! She is such a mess! :) I was able to snag a few shots before the fun was over.

Three Months

WOW! WHERE have the past three months gone? It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant and now he has been here three months?!? He is growing up way too fast. Someone please make it stop! :) Anyhow, here's a look at him today during his monthly mini-session. He is changing very fast these days and losing his hair just as quickly. I think it may be getting lighter.

Owen is such a good baby. As long as his tummy is full he is just as happy and content as he can be. He is smiling, cooing and talking up a storm. You would think he is carrying on a conversation with you sometimes. He's trying so hard to hold his head up more and more.

Since his is holding his head up more, I have noticed recently that he has a pretty noticable preference to turning to the right side. I don't know if it is from laying in the pack and play with the mobile on the right side for so long or what but I took him to see Dr. Blakeney and we are now working with him to condition him to turn his head more. I've moved his mobile to the other side of the bed and we try to be very conscious to keep the stimulation to his left side forcing him to look in that direction as much as possible.

Here are his first and second month pictures for comparision.

At the Beach - Day 3 (FINALLY!)

Whew! We got back from the beach on Tuesday and it has been non-stop since! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to finish posting the rest of our beach pictures.
On Monday we had a fabulous time at Big Kahuna's water park. We rented a private cabana for the day and it was absolutely awesome! It was in the shade with a slight breeze and overlooked the wave pool and toddler area. We had our own personal waitress (Millie from Belgrade) who fetched us food all day and anything else we needed. If you go to the water park in Destin this is the way to go! Well worth every penny!!

As we were chillin out under the cabana you couldn't help but notice the lifeguard monitoring the wave pool. They were all very attentive and did a constant sweep of the entire area the whole time at their station. It was kinda funny to watch and I couldn't help but video one of them to show what it was like. I can't imagine doing that all day! How exhausting! Check it out!


Katelyn loved the water and was not afraid to do it all. Here is a clip of her ride down the "big slide" with Hunter. No fear!


One of the much anticipated rides in the park was the new Honolulu Half Pipe ride simulating surfing. Adam, Lindsey, Hunter, and Andrew couldn't wait to try it out! It looked like lots of fun! Click on the arrow to play. The clicking throughout the video occurs as I'm taking still images while videoing.


It was a fun day! Here are are the rest of the pictures. Click on the arrow to play.

Here's the direct link to the gallery - http://picasaweb.google.com/lorimercer1/DestinJuly2008Day3

Thank you Aunt Kaye for letting us stay with you guys a few days! We had a wonderful time! Love you!