Baby Kylie Brizendine

Our good friends Mike and Ashley Brizendine just had a new little baby girl on Friday, July 6 at 1:26 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz of beautifulness! We are SO happy for them. Ashely did wonderful and I'm so proud of her :) We have gone through our whole pregnancys together and I'm a little jealous she's already done, but I'm not too far behind!!

The new mom holding her princess!

Beautiful Kylie only a few hours old!

Doctor's Appointment: 32 weeks

On July 5th I went in for my 32 week check up. I had to see another Doctor this time since I'm getting close to the finish line and need to get familiar with the other Doctors in the practice in case mine isn't on duty when I go into labor.
The Doctor said everything looked perfect! My stomach was measuring 32cm (and I'm 32 weeks!), Caiden's heartbeat was in the 150's (which is great!), and I only gained 1 pound! I still feel great, which is a relief. I'm now 33 weeks with only 7 more to go!!! Come on Caiden we can't wait to see you!!!

Welcome Isabella LuJia Rhodus!!

That's right, Eric and I are officially and Aunt and Uncle! Eric's sister Tish and her husband Chris just got back from China on July 5th with there new little girl, Isabella! We are SO happy for them and can't wait to meet our niece. She's a gorgeous little girl who just turned 1 year old on June 21st.

Here's their website about their journey to their daughter with some pictures as well!

http://www.thestoryofyou.net/ChinaGirl.html

4th of July

For the 4th of July holiday we went to Mike and Ashley's pool for the day for some fun in the sun, swimming, horse shoes, volleyball, hamburgers, watermelon and corn on the cob! It was a wonderful day with all of our friends and their children. Most of the day was spent IN the pool until around 8 o'clock then we figured that if we wanted to SEE fireworks we better get going! We didn't get to see the BEST show, but we were able to see some and the kids loved it. This was the first year Tyler was actually excited about seeing the fireworks. In the past he's always said they were too loud. This year, he was chanting, along with his pals, "fire-works, fire-works!" It was a wonderful day :) Next year though we will make sure we DO catch the big show!!

Here's a slideshow of our day!

Beautiful Wedding!!

Last Saturday, June 30th, Eric's dad Dave got married to the lovely Rachel at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach, Florida. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony on the lawn overlooking the marina. Rachel arrived by a water taxi and was escorted by her son, Matthew, down the dock. Following the ceremony we all ate at delicious meal at the restaurant upstairs on the balcony at sunset. We had a wonderful time that weekend. Congrats and Best Wishes Dave and Rachel!

Palm Beach Florida

Also on our trip to Palm Beach, FL we went to the beach and climbed the lighthouse in Jupiter. We had a wonderful time... especially Tyler, he LOVES the beach. In the past, he's always just played at the breaking of the waves, but this time Eric took him out into the ocean and Ty loved it. He was putting his head under and everything!

Enjoy the slideshow!

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

June 24, 2007

Here's a slideshow to bring back memories of one of the most wonderful days of our life!!

On Saturday Eric and Tyler put up the baby crib! Tyler was so excited he was dancing... here goes!

On June 9 my very good friends Morgan and Stacy threw me a baby shower for baby Caiden! It was SO great. The theme was "pickles and ice cream" and each guest had to write down advice for me when I'm "in a pickle" and there was a buffet ice cream and toppings (Y-U-M)! We played lots of fun games and opened wonderful gifts! It meant so much to have everyone there! I had friends and family come from Clearwater, Orlando, Charleston, Columbia, Jupiter (FL) and good 'ol Charlotte to help celebrate! Thank you all again for coming!

This is me before the shower, 28 weeks preggers!

Rachel, Kate, Tyler, Mimi, Erin, Robin

Summer of fun at Carowinds! We got season passes this summer so we can go whenever we want to! We've gone twice so far and are going to try to go again tomorrow if the weather behaves! Tyler LOVES it. We usually spend most of the day at Boomerang Bay (Water Park) then later ride some rides. Tyler rode his very first roller coaster and loved it. Unfortuately I couldn't ride with him because of the bun in the oven, but I took videos and pictures. He rode with his hands in the air and had a smile on his face! When he got off he said "whooh, I almost got sick" and still wanted to go back on again!
My cousins met us there another day. They're visiting Nana all the way from Texas and Louisiana. It was so wonderful seeing them; man they've grown up so fast! It's hard being far away from family, but it sure is nice when we can all be together any chance we get.

Here's a slideshow of some of my favorite pictures!

Atlantic Beach

For Memorial Weekend we went with some good friends of ours to Morehead City, NC. We went to the Atlantic Beach, camped outside, and Tyler got to catch some crabs! It was a wonderful trip and we were so lucky to have the chance to go! Tyler had a blast because his good friends Tyler and Abbi were there! We spent whole days at the beach and the 3 kids couldn't get out of the water and sand... they were having too much fun! Nights were spent riding bikes, setting off sparklers and eating fresh fish! It was a fantastic weekend and we can't wait to go back....

Enjoy the slideshow with some more pictures

I had my prenatal appointment yesterday and everything is still going great! I'm 28 weeks now, in my 7th month of pregnancy and still feeling wonderful. It it harder to get up from the couch and shave my legs, but I manage! The baby is moving around like crazy; constantly turning and stretching. I can always feel him on my upper right side (by my ribs) and lower left. He's about 14.5 inches long and weighing about 3 pounds (according to a chart I found online.. not sure how accurate it is though). The appointment was a long one yesterday because I had to do my sugar test to see if I have gestational diabetes. They gave me a choice this time of an "orange soda" or "fruit punch" drink. I chose the fruit punch this time, since I drank the orange with Tyler. It was gross! Ugh! And I had to drink all of it! Boy was I glad when it was over. It was really really sweet, and lately I don't like really sweet things, not even sweet tea (I know, I'm crazy)!

Other than the drink, I had a normal check-up. The baby's heartbeat was nice and strong, man I love that sound! Only about 12 more weeks to go!

Here's a couple pics of me over the last 2 weeks:

26 weeks 27 weeks

I GRADUATED!!!!! That's right, On Saturday May 12th I graduated from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics!! It was a long long process, but I finished and am very excited!!! I'm looking forward to my time off this summer with Tyler before our new baby comes in August. I plan to eventually begin teaching Math to middle or high schoolers in the spring or next fall! I've always dreamed of becoming a teacher and I'm one more step closer! It was so wonderful to have all my family and friends there to support me and celebrate with me. It meant everything to me and I couldn't of done it without you all! Thank you, thank you, thank you :)

Say "Ahhhhh"!

Tyler had his very first dentist appointment last Monday and he did an awesome job! He was so excited about going and constantly wanted to brush his teeth (no complaints there!). The Doctor said his teeth looked great; no cavities, Hooray! One our way out Tyler got a goodie bag with a new "Cars" toothbrush, tooth paste, floss, a dinosaur toy, T-shirt, and they took a picture of him getting his teeth cleaned. After the appointment, we had to head back to school and he was so excited to tell all his friends and his teachers!
I wish I was as brave as he was! We are so proud of him:)

He's got his "ticket" and ready to go!

Nice smile Tyler!

What happened in April??

April was a really great month... Spring Break, beach, family in town, Easter egg hunts, etc! We had a great time with it all.
Let's see, where should I start off?? After we found out we were having another boy (YAY!!) we left for Sunset Beach that weekend with the Sykes and my family that was in town from Florida! It turned out to be a perfect sunny weekend at the beach. The house we stayed in had everything from bikes, sand toys to Nintendo (hadn't played that in 4-EVER). We'd stay at the beach all day an only come back for lunch and potty breaks (the water was too cold LOL!). The boys had fun running in the water, building sand castles and playing Frisbee. The adults enjoyed the competitive game of paddle ball with a court and boundaries and everything. At night we'd stay up late playing cards, poker and just mess around chatting and such. It was such a great time and we were so lucky to have wonderful friends to allow us to vacation with them.
Here's some pictures we took.... I'm still missing the one's from my mom's camera.....

Cool Slideshows

Tyler goes to college....

Yep, I took him to school with my one day and we had a great time! He packed his book bag with coloring books, paper, crayons, snacks and so forth and he was all set to go! He did great in the first class, just sat their quietly coloring and eating his fruit cup. When that class finished he asked me, "Mommy, do they take naps at your school?" He was happy when I said no, because he's not a napper.... then he asked, "Do they play games at your school?" He was in luck, because the next class was Child Psychology and I had told the professor that he was coming with me so she could prepare so questions to ask him in class. We were learning about Gender Development at the time. One of the questions she asked Ty was, "Who plays with you?" and Tyler said, "Mommy" , "What games do you play together?" Ty said, "baseball". "And who cooks dinner" Ty- "Mommy and Daddy" .."Daddy cooks chicken and mommy cooks salad" .... I thought that was soooo cute. He did so well and wasn't shy at all. She's ask him questions throughout the lecture and he was right on! I was so proud of him. After about 45 minutes or so he was ready to go get some lunch. On the way home Tyler said he wanted to come back to school with me because he had lots of fun..... I wish school was fun :) Atleaset I'm ALMOST done! Yay!!

LOL- Tyler tried on my glasses!
Walking to class....


E A S T E R

Next came Easter weekend. We painted eggs, made cookies, went to an Easter Eggstravaganza on Saturday and Ty got LOTs of candy... it was funny because all he wanted was the plastic eggs and I kept saying "go for the chocolate... mommy wants some chocolate :) " Then he looked over at the next field and saw lollipops, so he crawled under the rope and started picking up those... too cute! On Sunday we went to Church with Morgan, Justin, and Peyton and I was a nice service. Then we came home and relaxed the rest of the day :)