Love bug season

A midst all the love bugs floating around here in Tampa lately, I am reminded of all the love bugs in my life.  You met two of them in my last post, Brody and Ryan.  This post is dedicated to my love bugs in Ponte Vedra, who I get to see this weekend!!!  I have grown to like and appreciate living in Tampa more and more over the last five years or so, HOWEVER, I will never lose the love and affection I have for my deep roots in PV.  Going home is such a joy and blessing because it is not too far or hard a trip.  Luckily, we get to do it pretty often...it helps that we get treated when we are there!  Mimi, G-daddy, and the whole gang are so good to us.

This picture is not incredibly recent...but not much has changed as far as the cuteness factor and wild woman that is Isabelle Grace Whitaker.  Love her love her love her.  The original Whitaker offspring.  She is now 4 and a half and has a little brother...

Curran Edward Whitaker was born July 10, 2011.  He is almost exactly 4 months older than Wyatt...YES another boy cousin to rough and tumble with in a couple of years!!!  Curran was given a family name in honor of my grandmother, Kate. Curran is her maiden name.  It means something really awesome in Irish and I am drawing a blank at the moment....

 Thrilled to have a little brother!

Thrilled to have a nephew!  I was quite pregnant in this picture from what I recall...

 Jeff Whitaker reincarnate.

The whole fam came to visit Wyatt when he was born, this was taken the day after he was born.

Wyatt and Curran...sounds like they could star in a Western film together...certified hunks.

Sweet Isabelle, a night out in St. Augustine to see the Christmas lights, 2011.

 Curran the chunker dunk at the beach, chillin.  

Love this one of Curran and Isabelle, pretty sure Mickey Mouse was involved in this photo somehow...

More recently...Isabelle has been taking dance lessons and her recital is this weekend!

What a doll baby.

G-Daddy with his grandsons.  Hand full of stud muffins right there.  

Curran Edward

Love that face, ALWAYS smiling.  

Will post some more recent pics soon.  We will be visiting with them this weekend for Memorial Day and I'm sure there will be some good ones.  

Happy Memorial Day to everybody...spend time with family, eat some watermelon, go to the beach, and be thankful for a country where we are free and be blessed by those who sacrifice to keep it that way.

"How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands.  Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.  They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will last forever."  Psalm 112:1-3

If this is not wealth, I don't know what is.  

Peace!

Anyone else think this is the most gorgeous orange and blue you have ever seen?

War Eagle Baby

Family Fun

A quick post in acknowledgement and celebration of Mimi's 60th birthday!  Tampa Mimi, as opposed to Ponte Vedra Mimi....Wyatt is blessed with two Mimi's!  We gathered at the Hulling residence for Mimi's birthday and it was fun filled, loud, spontaneous, and a fabulously gorgeous evening overlooking their lake.  Here are a few pics of the boys from this evening.  I want to introduce everybody to my little cutie patootie nephews Brody and Ryan.  They are twins and were born almost exactly a year ahead of Wyatt.  Got a lot of little boy sugar runnin' around the Hulling households these days.

All the Hulling boys

(Mimi and Ryan below)

Nick and Wyatt

(below) 

Meet Brody Charles

(below)

and Ryan Craig

(below)

What a gang!  Goodnight all!

Wyatt's first 6 months

I am a little behind on documenting everything that has been going on in Wyatt's life for the first 6 months of his life.  I'd like to be able to look back on this blog as a sort of baby book in a way.  I am going to be updating photos and stories from these past few months slowly, but my hope is to get caught up with our current place in life!!  So here goes...

There he is...the king of our hearts.  Born November 4, 2011 at 8:38 am in St. Joseph's Women's Hospital. He was 7 lb 4 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  GORGEOUS!  Probably the only cool thing about a C-section is the fact that his head came out so perfectly...even yesterday roaming around Publix I got stopped by constant baby ooglers saying he looks like the gerber baby.  He came out of the womb with absolutely gorgeously symmetrical features.  We are so blessed and fortunate for a healthy baby.  He was born two days before his due date.  I would call that on time!  I was determined to not be one of the many who are miserable a week post due date still trying to "walk that baby out."  So, at 10 pm on November 3, (which is his twin cousins' birthday!) my water broke (which was hilarious) and we were off and running!!  I have to admit we stopped on the way to the hospital for me to "fuel up," because I kept hearing that once you're checked in no more food or water.  That was not okay with me, so we stopped and got me a hot dog, french fries, and a huge gatorade on the way to the hospital.  AWESOME!  For those of you unfamiliar with the birth story of Wyatt James, it was quite emotional, traumatic, and kind of a whirl wind.  I was not progressing enough with my contractions and they were very irregular.  I have an unruly uterus as it turns out.  My contractions were lasting up to 4 minutes long causing Wyatt's heart rate to drop dramatically because he was not able to get oxygen or nutrients at that time.  I was unsure of exactly how serious the situation was, otherwise I would have demanded a C section the first time it happened.  This continued to happen two more times over the next few hours and finally the third time his heart rate dropped there was a surge of nurses in our room whisking me away telling me I was going to have an emergency C.  His heart rate had been down for almost 5 minutes and baby needed to get OUT!  I was about 30 away from having to be put under anesthesia, and am so thankful that I was able to be awake to hear/see my precious newborn enter the world.  

Three days, and many apple dumplings a la mode in the hospital later, we came home.  

The first few weeks were so hard and joyful at the same time. Pictured above are some of my favorites from the very beginning.  The first one is the sweet face that day he was born all wrapped and swaddled ready to be snuggled.  The second picture is from Wyatt's first bath once we were home.  He was about a week and a half/two weeks old and my mom came in town to help for a week.  She was holding him in this picture helping me bathe him as I was still not getting around very well post surgery.  The third picture was a sweet moment captured by someone in my family who had a camera ready at the right time...Nick adoring his little man just hours after he came into our lives.  We were blessed to have family and friends come visit us in the hospital.  As soon as my mom got the call at 10 pm saying my water broke, she was in the car leaving Jacksonville.  She made it to the hospital not long after we did.  Pretty impressive.  Nick's parents were also right on our heels at the hospital, almost beating us there all together.  Blessed to have such excited and loving grandparents on both sides of the family!  My dad made it down later in the day when Wyatt was born, which was nice because we were able to spread out a little of the family being in the room all at once!  Some of my favorite memories from the very beginning include...

1.  Snuggling with my little baby on the couch and bed all day long if I felt like it.

2.  Being blessed by friends from my bible study with fresh hot meals the first two weeks of Wyatt's life.

3.  Seeing my husband evolve into a doting, serving, loving, and protective father. 

Well, it's a good start at least....many more memories than just those but I'll get to it.  Here are some more pictures that I LOVE. 

Everything I need

It's hard to believe this handsome little man stole his way into our hearts over 6 months ago.  His latest accomplishments include being able to sit up on his own...which he began doing the night before he turned 6 months!  He is still practicing and can't do it every single time without tipping over a little but it is just so cute!  He definitely will be crawling soon.  I'll make sure I document that when it happens.  He's up on all fours rocking and trying to scoot but not getting anywhere yet.  We have had some feeding challenges lately with his reflux flaring up again.  The acid reflux started when he was about a month old and he was on medication for three months until we seemed to get it under control.  It has shown its ugly head again and actually prevented Wyatt from gaining much weight in between his check ups.  The burning sensation would keep  him from wanting to eat and was incredibly fussy even trying to nurse.  All is well now, each day gets better as the medicine kicks back in.  This baby boy has a healthy appetite now!  I hope and pray that anymore children I have do not have this battle!  After researching, I am convinced that it is related to his intolerance for cow's milk proteins.

Since discovering his reflux/intolerance I gave up all sources of cow's milk in my diet.  At first that was so hard I almost gave up, as I was not sleeping and was ravenously hungry.  I was discouraged when I realized SO MANY of my quick snack foods had milk in them. (yogurt, whey protein shakes/bars, any baked goods, frozen meals, cheese of any kind, and obviously milk, many cereals, even instant oatmeal.)  Talk about the biggest challenge I have ever faced!  Turns out, there is a lot you can eat that doesn't have milk in it you just have to be creative, and not surprisingly, it is healthier in general to eliminate dairy from your diet.  I highly recommend cutting back at the very least.  That said, if any of you moms out there ever have a similar struggle take heart!  I can help...and it can be done.  I can't tell you how many women I hear say that they "couldn't breastfeed" because their child had a "lactose problem," which is not entirely the situation, but I can't say that I blame them.  That couple of months was absolutely horrible and without my supportive husband rooting me on, a determined attitude, and strength from God above, I never would have stayed committed.  I can honestly say that I am so glad I did and it was been well worth the challenge, tears, sleepless nights, and frustration.  I'm not planning to breastfeed extensively, but will stop when I/he is ready.  Enough about that...

we recently went to Sarasota and took Wyatt for his 6 month photo shoot with our beloved photographer...www.samanthawackerphotography.com  for those of you who are interested.  We got a couple of sneak peeks from her but I am still waiting for the finished disc with his color/black and white photos on it.  What treasured moments!!  We used credit card point and a sweet discount my hubby gets through his company and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota....HELLO!!!!  It was all that it is cracked up to be.  It was a nice little vacay, even my mom and nana came to stay with us.  The beaches down there are absolutely breath taking, I highly recommend you visit.  

I realize this is a long blog..I am catching up quite a bit and promise to be better.  I am looking forward to a date night with my man tomorrow night!  His loving, generous, appreciated (hi mimi) parents are coming to kiss on and babysit Wyatt.  We are on a tight budget these days so hoping to get creative in our date nights...Any fun ideas??  If so, leave them in my comments.  Love everybody.  Thoughts from my quiet time today..

"The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Can you honestly say that God, and not money, is your master?"  Matthew 6:24

"Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."  Matthew 6:33

Amen to that.  All I need is all I need.  Sounds good, right?

Peace,

Meg