How horribly sad... it's been how long?

I haven't posted a single thing since I got my Iphone. It's just WAY too easy to take pics and post onto FB! I promise, pics to come soon.
Sadie's now 15 months old. These past couple of weeks, she's suffered from a croupy cough, double ear infection (with fever for 3 days), and now the snottiest nose ever. She now have 12 teeth. Front 4 on top and bottom, and now 4 more molars. Whew...it's no wonder she's been sick.
She weighs a little over 24 lbs, and is 32 inches long. She's now officially HALF my size. She's gonna be a tall girl for sure. She's still in the 90th percentile.
As for me, since August I've lost almost 40 lbs. Yep! It's true! I've been a part of two weight loss contests, the first in the fall up to Thanksgiving, and now up through April 9th. It's helped me SOO much. Me and my "prettiest losers" are having a great time. They're my strength! I'm so thankful for my Praise Team girls. Their prayers, encouragement, and constant support are getting me through this weight loss! I've also been attending Jay's Boot Camp for the past 2 1/2 months...and THAT has helped a TON! I love it!
Daddy's doing great! He's super busy, I'm super busy, and baby longs for nights when we're both home at the same time. She looooves when mommy and daddy are together with her!
That's it for now. I have to figure out how to upload my Iphone pics so I can show you how big she is. And of course, I may have to have Craig take a pic of me... :)

It's Official: WE'RE CRAWLING!!!

And we are INTO EVERYTHING!!! Wow! In one week's time, we have gone from two little crawling steps to all the way down the hall, with a few trips along the way...silly clothes get caught on her knees. It's time for a play pen...if anyone has one that they aren't using right now...we'd love to borrow it!!! I can NOT keep her in one spot!!! She wants to eat the cat food, play with the cat's toys, CHASE THE CAT!! He's a bit freaked out by her mobility...as he should be. She wants so badly to pull that long tail of his! She's no longer interested in her toys...she wants whatever's in the drawers, cabinets, doors, etc!!! It's fun to watch, but boy am I already tired!!! She's REALLY fast!!!
She's clapping now, too. After her 2nd cousin Rhealyn's 1st birthday party, she decided she needed to learn how to clap like everyone else. She thought maybe she'd get some presents, too... Rhealyn claps, she got a present... Sadie claps, nothing, but awwwww... Funny!

Into mommy's purse!! Whoo hoo, lip gloss and jewelry!
Trying out my new ride... Eeeerrrkkk...slow down!!

Being a cautious driver

La la la la!!! Singing to the radio!!

Look Left!

Honk honk...

Checking out all the stuff on the dash board.

Sadie's first swim lessons...

Sadie started her first swim lessons on Thursday. Jacie is taking them with her, so they can help each other out. Meanwhile, Kristi and I are telling each other to be strong! It was kind of hard to watch my little girl go under water for the first time... the fact that she had her mouth wide open didn't help either. She swallowed a LOT of water...kind of freaked her out, but she got really good at it after a few times.

Later, she got to show off those skills on Friday evening, when Bob and Bee invited us over, which is where she's taking her lessons. So it was familiar to her, and I think she did better and was much more accustomed to the water. Mommy and Daddy are very proud of our munchkin!

My silly little girl showing off her swimsuit.










Miss Paloma, after pulling Sadie off of the side for a "jump".

Miss Paloma telling Sadie to "kick, kick, kick, kick!" to go get the toy.

Ireland Pics - towards the end of the trip...patience please. :)

More to come.... it takes Blogger so long to upload 5 pics at a time, then you have to sit and delete all the space between them... grrr...so here are a few! This is toward the END of the trip... b/c I was trying to outsmart Blogger by putting them in backwards... you can see, I lose again.


Belfast

Belfast

About to eat some grub!!!

Beautiful countryside.

Sadie and her boyfriend, Jake, born on the same day.

Jessica, Sadie's new friend...awesome little girl. So helpful! Yes, my husband is in jail...LOL... visited the jail with a couple of friends.

Visiting with Stacy at Jack and Rosemary's for lunch

Sadie just received a new gift, one of many we came home with! Us with one of our girls we hosted last summer, NikiUs with Rosemary and Jack Audley - choir leader for GMYC

Bill,(our host), with Pastor Kilpatrick and his wife. Mimi Wilma (our host) trying to take Sadie away to keep.We WISH Sadie had her own seat... only just while waiting for our new stranger friend to come sit by us... the one we apologized profusely to before he even sat down.

Sadie after being home an hour... knocked herself out!

We're BAAACK!!! Home Sweet Home!

Well, we are back home safely from our Ireland trip! It was absolutely AMAZING! God had a HUGE part! We were in awe of the beauty of their land, He was very much there at every concert we did, and He made sure we got everywhere we needed to go safely! This was HIS trip! Without Him, it would have been oh so bland.
The food was amazing - the only place I've ever been where they serve two, sometimes three types of potatoes at every meal. I was in LOVE! Can you believe we didn't gain ANY weight...WE WALKED SEVERAL MILES per day!!! Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd fit in my clothes to get home. Sadie LOOOOVED the food. She ate off of our plates most meals, especially our desserts. She also had THEIR baby food... in which she gobbled up every time! Her diapers were unbelievable!!! Yesterday, she had FOUR dirty diapers...she's just trying to get it all out of her system! She's probably the one who gained weight! She left a baby, and came back a little girl. She's pulling up on us now and standing!!! She's crawling backwards!! She's sitting longer than ever! We saw her develop more in Ireland than here at home. Her hair even looks like it grew an inch!
She was the STAR of the show EVERYWHERE we went. Even strangers commented that she was "GORGE"...short for Gorgeous. Literally, everywhere! Waitresses, people in the elevator, people in the airport, people on the plane... EVERYWHERE. We know we have a pretty little girl, but boy was she popular. She is SPOILED now! She was held by EVERYONE on our trip. We will have pics soon...we have A BAZILLION to download... be looking out for it!

Be sure to follow our Ireland Blog!!!

http://irelandmissiontrip-praise.blogspot.com/

We will make sure it's updated daily while we're away. Our friend Kate will be doing all of the updating. So if you see a bunch of faces you don't know, just be watching for our's ... I'm sure Sadie will make the cut most days... she has a big following! ;)

It's already up and running - we are leaving this next Thursday, June 25th at 3:25. Pray for safe travels, and many blessings. We hope to come back truly changed by God's amazing works!

Here's a farewell for now from Sadie. She says, "Gimme a great big hug!!!!"

Here's another couple I just love...this is her new sleep position...

Sadie and her new past time...

Sadie loves banging things together as of lately...so I figured, why not? Who needs a quiet household anyway? I gave her a metal bowl, two metal measuring cups, and a wooden spoon...and watched her go to town! She loved it! She was so good at putting in the measuring cup, then taking it out, then eating, then doing it all over again! She's our funny little girl.

She now has TWO teeth, still working on the top ones. These have been tougher on her than the first two... I was hoping they'd come in before we left for Ireland... We still have 10 days as of today... So we'll see.

She had her first ear infection last week... It was caused by her allergies, which were caused by her teething. The fun thing with this one... boogers literally coming out of her eyes. We thought maybe she had pink eye... No. The doctor said her sinuses were SO backed up, that boogers were coming out of her eyes, b/c they had nowhere else to go... YYUUUUMMMYYYY!!! One dose of Amoxicillin, the gunk was gone. I'm a believer!

She's really trying to scooch her way around right now. She definitely finds her way around her crib. One minute she's got her tooshy sticking in the air in the upper right hand corner of the crib, the next minute, she's on her back in the lower left hand corner... kicking the monitor. Lovely sound at 2 AM.

Last night she went down at 9, mommy tried to wear her out...she's been going to bed around 11 or midnight for about a week or so. She was exhausted. However, she slept until 1...and wanted to play. She would not go back down. Really cute sounds coming from the monitor, but not at 1:15, 1:30, puking at 1:45, crying at 2, playing at 2:15... I was utterly exhausted this morning. And b/c Craig goes to work so early, I got her and me ready by myself this morning... My hat goes off to single moms... you guys rock. B/c there are days, I'm not sure I'd know what to do without Craig's help! It was by the GRACE OF GOD that I got up by 6:45, got myself ready by 7:15, woke her up at 7:20, bathed her by 7:30, fed her at 7:40, burped her 3 times (wow for her), and was out the door by 7:57 to go to Daycare. That's all while running my clothes in the dryer to UNwrinkle, making sure the humidifier was emptied. I never got to undo her sheets with puke on them... but hey...I was doing good to do the humidifier.

B/c I'm working Mother's Day Out Summer Camp Mondays and Wednesdays, it's really hard for me to get her to daycare by 8:15, and back up to the church by 8:30. I'm telling you, God's hand guided me all morning. All while feeling as though I needed to puke, as I had caught Craig's bug from last week. I would say I was proud of myself...but it was truly God's hand in it!!!