Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Some More Administrative Notes

Last night, Leigh had a home party in which the product being sold was stamping kits. These kits can be used in scrapbooking, card making, etc. At some point during the party, Leigh broke out her scrapbooks to show off (she's VERY good at it...when she gets the time).

This morning, I was flipping through them and became inspired. Since I'd promised this to be an online baby book/diary, and since the weather here today is crappy, I decided to add a bunch of updates to the blog.

Mitchell's birth story has been added, as well as some new (old) pictures, check-up results and other updates. This will be a work in progress (as far as updates go, I'm only through November right now) but, hopefully, this will be a little more complete very shortly.

Since no update is complete without a picture, I added a picture of Mitchell with his friend, Grace above. She came over last night with her own Mommy for Leigh's party. Mitchell was very excited to see her and, at one point, they sat across from each other, flashing their best "come hither" looks to each other. Adorable, I tell ya!

No More Physical Therapy!!!!

Kam reached her own milestone on Wednesday: after several months of hard work (and expensive bills), Kamryn has finally completed her physical therapy!

After a lifetime of walking on her toes, she'd managed to acquire a little shortening of her calf muscles and achilles tendons. In order to keep this from being a problem as she gets older, we put her in physical therapy back in November. She's been doing this every week since then.

In addition to her weekly appointments, she had to do stretching and strengthening exercises at home every night. Overall, she handled it very well with only a few complaints. Now it's all over...and she has the certificate to prove it!

She'll still have to do some periodic exercises and we still have to remind her to get off her toes sometimes. In order to remedy some pronation problems she has (now that she's off her toes, she gravitates to the sides of her feet), she will be wearing some plastic braces under her shoes for the next few months. She tolerates these pretty well, too!

Mommy and I are SO proud of our little girl!

Happy Easter!!!

After several months of being delinquent in my duties to update this little corner of the web, is it sacrilegious to go for the obvious joke that Easter seemed an appropriate time to resurrect this blog? Nah…I don’t think so!

The truth is, with hectic work schedules, out of town guests, multiple illnesses that have hit the Talley’s almost constantly since Christmas Eve and various and sundry other excuses I will not bother to mention, we’ve also been delinquent in taking pictures of the two most beautiful children ever and I acknowledge that this, in and of itself, is almost an unforgivable sin. And if not a sin, it’s at least caused some grief from the Texas contingent. We’ll try to do better from now on, I promise!

Mitchell is now 6 and a half months old and, on his 6 month check-up, weighed in at a sturdy 17 ½ pounds. He now sports 2 bottom teeth (one of which, literally, sprouted overnight) and takes great pleasure in biting anyone who endeavors to go near his mouth. In addition to being one of the happiest kids I’ve ever seen, he’s also a pretty healthy one with the exception a pesky little RSV virus he picked up somewhere along the way. This causes him to get a little wheezy during the day and congested at night. A couple puffs of Albuterol, though, and all is well.

His list of tricks includes rolling over, sitting up, standing in his ExerSaucer, drinking from a sippy cup and, after 6 months, FINALLY sleeping in his own bed (Mom and Dad, not being big fans of babies gagging in the middle of the night, opted for a co-sleeping arrangement for a while). He’s also been given the gift of gab and enjoys regaling anyone who will listen with stories of his daily adventures.

His likes include avocados, mangos, bananas, things he can chew on, car rides, heavy metal music and women he can cuddle up to…pretty much making him his Daddy’s boy. His greatest love, though, is his big sister. There’s a mutual admiration society happening there and you’ve never seen two more giddy children when the other enters the room. He thinks his Mom and Dad are pretty cool, too.

His dislikes are mostly limited to sleeping through the night and his Albuterol inhaler. And sometimes sweet potatoes. And anyone other than his Mommy after 8:00 pm.

Kamryn is fast approaching her 5th birthday and is getting a head start on her studies. She’s learning to sound out words, can write her ABCs and counts to a million just for fun. She dazzles her parents with a super-human memory and knows all the words to “High School Musical 1 and 2”, “Mother Goose Rocks volumes 3-5” and a dozen other Disney movies.

Her likes include sushi (and anything else that isn’t nailed down), Hannah Montana, Scooby Doo, drawing, writing, reading and hanging out with her friends and her baby brother.

Her dislikes are getting up in the morning, not talking for more than 30 seconds, doing her physical therapy exercises to keep her off her toes and Jeff Gordon (“He’s a whinypants!”).

Leigh and Bill are just Leigh and Bill. Work keeps us very busy for 40-50 hours a week but the rest of the time we revel in being the parents of two smart, sweet, healthy, beautiful children. Last night, while having dinner with friends, we discussed the fact that none of us could recall what life was like before the babies came along…but it must have been pretty dull.

That’s all for now. It’s Easter Sunday and the kids are heading up for a nap. Think I’ll take advantage of the time to catch a few winks myself!

Grammie sent the kids some outfits and we tried them on. For church, Pastor Sid asked the congregation to take pictures with their palms so we did.





Grammie sent the kids some outfits and we tried them on.





Mitchell saw the Easter Bunny for the first time and could not take his eyes off of him.

6 Month Check-Up

Length: 26 inches (25-50%)

17 lbs, 6 ozs

3 shots

All is well!

Four Month Check-up

Mitchell had his 4 month check-up on Thursday (1/10).

25 inches long (50-75%)

15 lbs, 8ounces (50-75%)

Four shots and a prescription for a reflux medicine (although it's obvious from the boy's size that his reflux isn't THAT bad).

Most importantly, a go-ahead to start on cereal. Mitchell is a happy boy!

We Clean Up Pretty Well!

A few of the pictures we had taken on Saturday...

Mitchell Gets Baptized

Here are a few pictures from Mitchell's Baptism this morning. In addition to Grammie and Bobo, John, Bonnie, Bill and Bobby stopped through on their way home from NC and Mary Beth, Ashton and Bella came along as well. It was all very nice and Mitchell did GREAT...even though he was wearing a "dress". He even got a little ribbing from Mr. Sid about that. Apparently, christening gowns are not very common in the Presbyterian church.

Immediately after the service, Grammie and Bobo hit the road for a long drive back to Texas. The Mitchell's stuck around and had some lunch and then, they too, had to hit the road. Because of Thanksgiving traffic, they were able to make the 3 hour drive in 6 hours. Yuck!

A little note about the gown: It was made from Great-Grandma Talley's wedding dress and lace from Grammie's wedding dress. Kamryn wore it at her baptism. It's a good thing that we had Mitchell baptized when we did...another couple weeks and it wouldn't have fit the big boy!

Thanksgiving Week

Posted 3/29/08.

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and, in typical fashion, it was a busy one in the Talley house.

Sunday night, Daddy's friend Jack (with daughters Brittany, Jacey and Cassidy in tow) stopped in on their way from Texas to New Jersey. Despite Daddy pointing out to Jack that Atlanta was not on the way from Texas to New Jersey, they decided to come by anyway to spend the night. Kam and the girls got along famously and acted like old friends. While it is technically true (they first met when they were a couple months old), they haven't seen each other since before they were a year old. No matter, though.

Grammie and Bobo made it in from Texas at dinner time on Tuesday night and were SO excited to see their grandbabies. It's been a whole two months and they were chomping at the bit.

Daddy and Bobo played golf on Wednesday while the girls (and boy) finished up with Thanksgiving shopping and relaxed around the house.

Thursday was a day of gorging ourselves on an outstanding Thanksgiving dinner. Daddy roasted the turkey and stuffed it with an andouille/portobello/artichoke dressing that was out of this world and cooked the green beans. Mama handled the sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Grammie made her cornbread dressing and Kamryn helped her made some pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese dressing. YUMMY! Mitchell was only able to drink milk but had no real complaints. Next year he'll be able to join us!

Friday, Grammie and Mama went shopping while Daddy and Bobo stayed home with the kids. Much "CSI: Miami" was watched, as was "Live Free and Die Hard".

Today, the Talley's went to have their pictures taken and, afterwards, went to the movies with Grammie and Bobo. The girls agreed on "Enchanted" and Daddy and Bobo put up little resistance. Mitchell handled his first movie theater experience like a CHAMP! Afterwards, it was wings, sweet potato fries and beer at "Buffalos".

Tomorow is Mitchell's baptism! Big day!!

Pictures with Santa!

Two Month Check-Up

22.5 inches long (25-50%)

11 pounds, 13 ozs (50%)

SIX shots. Yuck!

Big Sis Through The Years - Halloween Edition

Happy Halloweenie!

What a fantastic Halloween we had!

In order to tackle two separate neighborhoods, Kamryn needed a little help. Kamryn elicited the help of her baby brother (Superman) while MARY BETH brought in reinforcements in the form of Darth Vader (Ashton) and a second ballerina (Bella). Daddy, Mama and MARY BETH proudly paraded these gorgeous kids around our neighborhood.

After hitting a few houses in our neighborhood, we hit Ashley's neighborhood where the majority of the trick or treating was done. EW (the other neighborhood) has way better candy and people REALLY do it up out there...haunted houses and all.

After filling up the buckets, we headed back to Ashley's house for a couple beverages and a little unwinding time. Around 9:30, we parted ways with MARY BETH and her crew and returned to our respective homes for a little rest.

I'll be recapping the rest of the week a little later on. Lots to talk about!

P.S. to MARY BETH: Are you feeling less neglected now? Kisses (even though I know you HATE being touched..)

Another week goes by...

The whole Talley crew managed to survive the first week of "get-back-into-the-real-world" life.

As predicted, Leigh had a rough first day away from her baby boy. Mitchell's first day, however, went swimmingly. Frankly, as long as he has a little chow and a few cuddles with someone of the feminine persuasion (that's my boy!), he's happy wherever. Kamryn managed to get over whatever bug she had but we had a good day together. Kamryn stayed occupied by Scooby and toys in the living room and Dad was able to get some work done in the office. All was well. Once the first day was over, Mama did much better and finished off the week with some semblance of normalcy.

Overall, the work week was pretty uneventful. The weekend, however, was a little more hectic.

Kam and her Mom went to a birthday party on Saturday morning while Mitchell and Daddy hung at the house. Afterwards, the whole family went to the Fall Festival at our church. One of the booths was for free chiropractic adjustments and Mitchell got his first real spinal adjustment.

While one might think 7 weeks is a little young for a spinal adjustment, the chiropractor (who is also a friend of Leigh's) indicated that simple manipulations can assist with gastro-intestinal issues. This sounded like a winner to us as Mitchell is a 4 day pooper and, undoubtedly, one of the gassiest babies I've ever seen. Regrettably, it didn't work. He seemed to enjoy the attempt, though.

**As an aside, we keep hearing about how we're in an energy crisis and everybody is on a search for the perfect alternative fuel. Without getting into a political rant about the uselessness of ethanol, I have a different idea. I'm willing to offer up a few ounces of Mama's milk to any scientist who would like to identify the exact chemical make-up of said milk. Another group of scientists can work to replicate Mitchell's digestive tract to act as a refinery of sorts. If the milk can be mass-produced in crude form, it can then be refined through this large-scale version of Mitchell's intestines and the resulting product will be a powerful (and plentiful) alternative fuel source. The only downside to this would be the foul odor resulting from the burning of this fuel but, hey, it is but a small sacrifice to make us energy-independent.

Before I start to peddle this idea, I should probably confirm whether or not Mitchell's gas is even combustable. Maybe he and I can hang out on the couch tonight and, when he starts to scrunch up his face, I'll light a match and see if he can make a blue flame.

Alas, I digress.

Sunday was a fairly typical Sunday. We went to church, watched the race and, at 5:15, I left for youth group. Last night's activity was Trick-or-Treating for canned goods for the food pantry and, after several years of not dressing up for Halloween, I decided to re-visit my own youth and dress up. After racking my brain on what to wear, I settled on being a Goth Club-Kid and, if I say so myself, looked pretty Goth Club-Kid-y. Kamryn was unfazed over the fact that her Daddy was wearing earrings but was a little put-off by the fact that I'd painted my fingernails black and was wearing make-up. She seemed relieved after I came home, showered and started looking like Daddy again.

While I was gone, Kam hit a major milestone in that she wrote her first AND last name all by herself. The "Y" and the "N" need a little more work but how many 4 year-olds do YOU know who have perfect penmanship? That's what I thought. Watch out Kindergarten!!!!

Mitchell didn't have any real milestones this week. He's just hanging back and taking it all in.

Mom and Dad didn't have any more milestones either. We're just sitting back, scratching our heads and trying to figure out what we did RIGHT to get two of the smartest, sweetest and most beautiful children to ever grace this joint. Leigh must've stored up some really good karma because I'm pretty sure it wasn't from me.

That's all for now. More updates after Halloween!