1 Year

Exactly one year ago today I gave Reagan a big hug and kiss and walked out the front door knowing that the next time I walked back through those doors our lives would be completely different.

Stephen drove me anxiously to the hospital to give birth to our son. I was checked in and given a room and before I knew it, it was time. I lay on an operating room table holding Stephens hand, waiting to hear that sweet melodious cry of a newborn baby... but I never heard that cry. Instead I heard doctors rushing around talking about my new baby not breathing properly and before I knew it he was whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. All I could do was cry, I was still being put back together from
C-Section and Stephen didn't know whether to go to our new baby or stay with me.

After what seemed like an eternity I was out of surgery and wheeled down to the NICU to see my baby for the first time. It was a scary place and all I could do was cry as I looked at my sweet new baby, fresh from heaven, hooked up to so many machines...so many tubes. What did they all do? How long would he be like this? When could I hold him? Could I have done something to prevent this?

8 days later we brought Brody home. Happy. Healthy. Our little piece of heaven. And our lives haven't been the same since.

Happy Birthday Brody!!!

I love you more than you will ever know.

Zoo Much Fun!!!

Yesterday was Stephens birthday so he took the day off work and we took the kids to the Atlanta Zoo. Reagan had a blast looking at all the animals and Brody was a trooper most of the day. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Reagan LOVED the baby panda. ( Not this one...there was a real one there =)

Sharing her cotton candy with the giraffe.

Reagan with elephant ears.

Me and Brody with the elephants.

Reagan petting the goats at the petting zoo.

Girly Things

I took Reagan to the nail salon to get her fingers and toes painted the other day and she hasn't quit talking about it since. When we got there the nice little Vietnamese lady told her to pick out a color... "Purple" she said and then proceeded to pick out the brightest most annoying color of purple that they had. There was no reasoning with her, she wanted what she wanted and there was no changing her mind. She sat so still for the lady (which she never does when I have tried to paint her nails). Now I think I have created a monster. She is constantly looking at them and letting me know when it has come off and that I need to fix it. She tells me we need to go to the "nail paint store." At least they only charge me $3.

The color looks pink here but I can promise you it was BRIGHT purple.

Easter Pictures (I know I am a little late)

We had a great Easter this year but had something come up right after Easter which is why I am just now getting to posting these pictures. We had my family over on Saturday for an egg hunt, lunch and a few games of pool =). My sister was in town with my little boy, Damian which always makes for intersting times with Reagan and Damian. They have kind of a "love/hate" relationship. They play like friends but they fight like brother and sister. Regardless its always fun when they come.

Eater Sunday we woke up to Easter baskets and went to church. The kids wore their very cute Easter clothes. Here are some pictures.


Brody looking oh-so-handsome. His clothes were so hard to find. Everything was either to sissy-looking for my taste or didnt really look like Easter colors to me. I finally found this adorable outfit the week before Easter...and it was on clearance at BabyGap. Gotta love that.

My two cutie pies

Reagan working on her smile...its getting better but I have to ask her to "show me her teeth"...if I say "Smile" she closes her eyes. She loved her dress...she kept spinning in it and didnt want to take it off when we got home. The head band, however lasted about 10 minutes before she was pulling it off, I knew I should have bought the bows that matched the dress instead.

Brody playing with his Little Tikes car track that the Easter Bunny brought him

Reagan got a lot of Littlest Pet Shop figures (the Easter Bunny hit KB Toys when it was going out of business earlier this year and got a GREAT deal on all of it.) Lucky for her the Easter Bunny watches for sales =)

Brody with my dad (Bop-Bop) during our easter egg hunt

Our easter eggs- it was kind of a messy activity for 2 year olds

My mom has really been wanting a picture of all 4 grandbabies so this was the best of about 25 we took... Brody kept trying to climb off the couch, Reagan just wanted to hold Aiden and Damian was not a happy camper... oh well better luck next time I guess.



The egg-dying

Reagan kept throwing them in the cups and splashing dye everywhere but she had fun and I was smart enough to put an old tshirt of mine on her.

HAPPY EASTER

Love-

The Wooten Family

Truly a Rare Moment

I FINALLY captured a picture of both Reagan and Brody smiling together at the same time. This is the only picture I have like this . Geez they are cute kids!

(Forget about the fact that they are both naked.)

Project Mancave: Complete

Well the basement is finally finished. It has been done for over a week now but it took us a while to get it decorated and cleaned up before i wanted to take pictures of it. Here is the new and improved basement.

This is the gym...it was there before but it is so clean now that everything is not being stored in it that I had to take a picture.The pool table and kitchen area, this is where a wall used to be that got knocked out to open up the two rooms and I love it this way, it feels so much more open now.

The new entertainment center (put together by me and Stephen helped a little) complete with 67 inch TV, surround sound (thats what those little black circles are on the wall, they will be white but the covers havent come in yet) and Blue Ray player/ Play Station 3 ( I have watched a blue-ray and I honestly cannot tell a difference but I am told by all of Stephens friends that have watched one at our house that it is "so much better"..... Whatever, must be a man thing =)

The little hallway that leads into the new TV room. The wall the little table is on was a lot smaller... not that its huge now we just moved some things around to make the new couches fit better. The new couches and ottoman. They are sooooooo comfortable. They recline and the seats are called "scoop seats" so they are nice and formed to your bum when you sit on them. We are still looking for something to put above the couches but cant agree on whether or not to center it on the wall or with the couches. If it is centerd on the wall it wont be centered over the couches and if it is centered over the couches it wont be centerd on the wall... anybody have any thoughts on that? The coveted pool table that has already been used more than I thought it would.

The kitchen/bar (whatever you want to call it) that we added and custom designed. Notice the TV on the wall that Stephen HAD to have because he wasnt sure if he would be able to see the 67 inch one that is like 7 feet away. Geez, wouldnt want to miss a second of the game.

Myscrapbook room/ craft room is also down here but it is a disaster and next on the list of projects. I didnt want to post a picture of that becasue well, like I said, it is a disaster.

All in all we are so happy with how everything came out. It is already being put to good use. It was a pain while it was going on but now that it is done I LOVE IT!!!!

Super Staller

Reagan is usually very god about going to bed but lately she has discovered the art of stalling. Here are some of her techniques used on any given night:

*"I need a cup of juice" (said in a voice that sounds like she is dying of thirst)

*"Sing me a different song" ( I ususally sing her a song but what happens with this is that right as she knows the song is about to end she says, "No not that song a different one")

* "I need some socks" (this one is totally a stall tactic because she hates wearing socks) She will go on to tel me that her feet are cold and she will get sick.

*"Mommy braid my hair" (again another stall tactic for sure since I wrestle her down every morning to fix her hair so the idea that she voluntarily wants me to do anything to her hair... not buying it)

* "I need my little lovey" (Reagan has like 15 lovey blankets but she has one that is a small version of her loveys for taking on the go... she calls it her "little lovey" and it is her favorite so its always missing because she has taken it somewhere. She almost always remembers where she had it so this need for "little lovey" results in her getting out of bed to find it herself.

* "I want a different baby" (She takes a baby to bed with her every night and in order to buy herself time she acts like she needs a different baby than the one she has.

* "I want my Daddy" (This one worked for a while until we realized that once Stephen got in there to lay down with her she "wanted her mommy" immediatly.)

*Rub my belly" (along with this one goes "tickle my arms" "Tickle my face" and "Tickle my back" )

*And finally "I have to go potty" (This one drives me nuts because I never really know if she has to go. She will go right before bed time so my first thought is there is no way she has to pee but she goes on and on until I let her get up and go. To my surprise a lot of the time she goes but I guess this one drive me so crazy because ever since she potty trained the whole idea is to go in the potty but at night when she has on her "night night panties" (that is our fancy name for a pull-up) I cant just tell her to go in her panties because that is the opposite of what I am trying to teach her.

I am sure it will only get worse as she gets older and but I thought this would be funny to go back and read one day. =)

Tonight Reagan told me

that she wants a baby sister.....

hmmm.....

wonder if Daddy will give into that one.

And NO (Stephen when you read this), I did not ask her, it was all on her own...out of left field.