New Motto

I guess with time you do learn new things and what makes life easier. I don't know why it takes an occasional slap on the hand sometimes to figure out things. I wanted to share 2 of my new mottos: "Wait for it, Wait for it" and "Must Do Better". I am constantly saying these things in my head. :)

I think this guy might need to trash one of my mottos and hold true to another. :)

Gobble GOBBLE!

We did the usual Thanksgiving festivities. We spent the night with my parents Wednesday, then headed up to Don's aunt's house for a 11:00 meal then back to my parents by 2:30 for another meal. We keep the road HOT! About the meal and my contribution...I actually made a food dish this year, can we say domestication!?! What a difference a year of being home and on a budget has done to "The Farm". Well I am not quite Martha Stewart stature yet, but my Sweet Potatoe Casserole was enough to make you slap your momma over!

We stayed over at my parents that night to watch the Iron Bowl on Friday. It was a very tense game. The Auburn Tigers played well but the Crimson Tide pulled through at the end with a score of 26-21. If we can find a way to beat the Florida Gators this weekend in the SEC Championship Game, we are Pasadena/BCS National Championship Game Bound. You can bet there will be some tension in our house come this Saturday. Also some holding of breath by yours truly. Anywho, here are some pics of Kate with her cousins/2nd or 3rd cousins:




Kate with her Great Uncle Lee and her 2nd or 3rd cousin, Cade (5 months older than her)



Kate with cousins Ryan and Reid and her Pawpaw and a Great Great Aunt :)


OH YEAH, I also bought my Christmas present online...a MacBook Pro. Wooohooo! It should be here sometime this week. I am so excited about having a laptop and that I can use it to skype with my brother in Colorado. Speaking of bro, here is a picture of him (and his lovely wifey Gretchen) watching the Iron Bowl in Denver...I like how when people move off, it intensifies their love for the sports back home.

Don't Stop...Believing...

We loaded up the Chevy and headed to T-town this past weekend for Kate's very 1st Bama game. Due to the possibility of every type of weather situation you can imagine, we dressed in layers and brought sun hats and toboggans. As you can tell in the pictures, Kate's sun hat was a slight bit small. :) Kate loved crowd watching, just like her momma and Mamey. We stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter (Bama ended up winning 45-0 over UTC) then left to meet a realtor to look at some property. I think we are back to square one on the property situation as all the property we looked at this weekend was 20+ acres that could not be subdivided. We would love 3-10 acres, but 20 just seems excessive to us because we don't plan to have cows or farm the land (unlike Don's ancestors).

Oh yeah, and I saw New Moon this past weekend with some church friends. It was SO much better than the first one. I guess that goes to show what a bigger budget can do for you. I NEVER thought I would get into anything vampire related. I think the romance is what turned me on to it. I love a good romance. I was watching the author of that book on Oprah the other day and she said it was a dream she had one night. Can you imagine having a dream that turned you into a millionaire? I think the real question is what type of activities did the author partake in before going to sleep that night. I mean really!?!

We are excited about our upcoming Thanksgiving activities. Lots of spending time with family, eating, and watching football. Roll Tide Roll! Blog title refers to our belief in the Crimson Tide. :)



We're #1! We're #1!



Kate and her Sweet Pop



Kate with Mamey and Pop

**One more thing of note, Kate got her 2 back lower molars in last week. Yay(sarcastically)! :)

Cougar Baby

We saw little Colton Key Monday night at UAB. He was born Saturday, November 14th in the 9o'clock a.m. hour. Weighed 5lbs10.8oz and like 19 1/2 inches long. He entered this world a little early because his mommy was showing signs of preclampysia. She also was considered high risk because of a blood clotting factor she has. They induced Friday night in the 6'clock hour. After about 15 hours of labor, an emergency C-section was done because his heart rate would decrease with contractions. Later they found out that was due to the cord being wrapped around his neck. Colton is no other than a rich blessing from God. He was prayed about for many years. Thank you God! And thank you for Kelly recovering well from surgery. Here is a picture of my giant and lil bitty Colton...



Of course the title of this blog refers to Kate being interested in Colton as the older baby. :)

I snapped a picture of Kate and her friend Jake in Cradle Roll class last night. I came in and this is how the dads were sitting...so cute!

Something to Talk About...

This past weekend was crazy yet fun. It took us our whole day of rest to recover. Kate, Petey, and mine started Thursday afternoon when we headed up to my parents only to drop Petey off and pick my mom up. We then headed to Superior Grill on Hwy 280 to meet a high school friend and her mom. It was fun just catching up and Kate did great. While we were there a huge group of LSU fans came in all decked out in purple and gold wearing Mardi Gras beads. There were all loud and cheering. I couldn't believe they felt that comfortable in enemy territory. Crazy if you ask me! We spent the night with my parents that night and Don was left home as a bachelor. He didn't even go to sleep early...what was he thinking? So Friday morning, Mom, Kate and I headed over Pine Mountain to Homestead Hollow in Springville. I seriously haven't been there since I was like 8 years old. All I can remember was eating sweets and watching some young girls clog. I thought the clogging was the coolest thing ever. I didn't spot them this time though. There were rows and rows of Arts and Crafts along with old fashioned houses and scenery. The weather was perfect too. We all met my grandmother, 3 aunts, 2 cousins, and 2 great grandkids (not including Kate) over there. It was fun just having all of us together before Thanksgiving. Mom and I didn't buy anything but my aunts and cousins sure loaded up. I am on a spending freeze unless it is for someone else for Christmas. I will blog later about the reason for my spending freeze. :) So after Homestead Hollow, we went and ate Mexican then headed back to my parents. There we all took naps. After the nap, Don called to tell me he lined up eating out with some good friends at Costas Mediterranean food. Sounded good to me but that meant hitting the ground running. And that is exactly what we did. We enjoyed catching up with the Hills and then home for rest.

Saturday morning, Don left early to meet a buddy that was in town from Pensacola for golf. I met his wife for lunch with some other friends. After lunch, she headed over to our house where we watched the Alabama/LSU game. What a slugfest! Thankfully the good guys won! Wooohooo! Then after that game a bunch of other friends joined us at the house where I made some chili and we watched FSU play Clemson. Everyone left close to the end of that one.

Sunday morning was church then a long afternoon nap followed by more church. We were SO worn out! What a great weekend.

We don't have much planned for this weekend. Mom and my grandmother are coming over Friday and we are going to go look for some property for Don and I's future home. Saturday will probably be some football watching and maybe visiting Colton Key (we'll see)! Don and I so anxious to see how the end of this football season plays out. Sunday we have church and a housewarming party.

Here are some pics from recent happenings:

Filled With Emotion

1 year ago I brought my sweet baby girl home from the hospital. She came 6 weeks and 5 days early. I wasn't prepared for that. She is our first baby and I am still learning the ropes of being a mother. Yesterday I pulled some pictures off my phone from Kate's 1st month. I got emotional as I downloaded each one. I am now as I type this. It is the weirdest feeling in the whole world to have a part of you pulled from you and then to leave the hospital without that precious baby that had been with you for 8+months. You feel as if she doesn't belong to you when you ask the nurses if you can hold her and when she ate last and when her last diaper was changed. I am not sure if it would have been easier for me if it was my second child that stayed in the NICU rather than my first. I remember breaking down the day I left her in the hospital. I will never forget that feeling. I wasn't expecting it but it came on very strong. I guess I was full of emotion because I felt like this wasn't how it was suppose to be. Kate was to leave the hospital when we did. She did great in the NICU but I hated going up there. I never felt as if I handled her correctly or got enough time with her. It was very hard for the first 2 weeks for me to walk the parking deck, go up to elevators and then walk the long halls to the NICU due to my C-section. We could only go at certain times and visitors even less then that. I called multiple times to check in on her and make sure she didn't have any destats (when her heart rate when drop unexpectedly, but luckily she always pulled herself out on her own). I never felt like I washed my hands enough. I saw other parents kiss their babies but I wouldn't even touch Kate's hand for fear of her getting some kind of illness that she could not fight. Don and I both took turns of getting sick with raging colds and we both couldn't see her for 4 days at a time. Then we were told she was to come home after 3 weeks of being in the NICU. We were so excited yet so scared. The day we were to get her, her nurse calls very early in the morning. Her first statement is "Mrs. Farmer, everything is alright with Kate, but she did have a braidy last night and she will need to stay 7 more days for us to monitor her." As you can imagine my heart dropped to the floor. We were so close to having her home and our life to move on but, it wasn't time for Kate. Luckily, little Miss Kate came home with us 6 days from then...Election Day 2008. I was so very uptight. Things have calmed majorly since then. Our girl at her 1 year checkup was 21 lbs and 29 inches long. That is the 50% and not adjusted for her being a preemie. She has come a long one from her entrance into the world at 4 lbs 8 ounces and 16 and 1/2 inches long. Confession: I didn't take alot of pictures from her first month because I didn't want other people to see them and think I had a sick baby. She wasn't sick, just needed some time to develop. Here are a few pictures from Kate's first month:

All Hallows’ Eve

If you haven't guessed, we were Jon & Kate + Kate. We enjoyed ourselves over at Kayne and Taylor Swift's crib (see here). Thank you Brooke and Rick!

So I just watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and squalled my eyes out. I wasn't prepared for that. Can you imagine if you grew young while everyone else grew old? Wow! I have often thought of what it will be like on this earth when only my children and hopefully grandchildren left. My parents, my husband, and my friends gone. Anyway, good movie. Rent if you haven't.