Easter Bunny

Easter is quickly approaching and celebration of Maddox's first anticipated visit from the Easter Bunny, we felt it was necessary to track the ol' fella down at the mall for the obligatory picture. Enjoy!

Update on Bethany

Sorry for the delay in posting an update on Bethany's surgery last week. The surgery went well and she is well on her way to recovery & reconstruction. As you can imagine, she's sore and dealing with the normal after-effects of a major operation but she came through it with a positive attitude and outlook. Thank you to those of you that have made a donation to our Relay for Life team (Bethany's Bosom Buddies). We are so grateful for your generosity and our team is looking forward to the Relay for Life event in mid-May.

A few new pics

A little off topic...

As you may already know, one of my best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago. She's only 25 years old. Luckily, it was caught very early and she is going to have surgery on March 18th to begin her road to recovery. When something like this happens, many of us feel a call to action and want to "do" something.

Here's what you can do:

*First and foremost, PRAY! Specifically, please pray for: a successful and complication-free surgery, strength for recovery, and strength for her husband Brett, daughter Addy, and parents/siblings as they support her in this process. If you know Bethany and Brett, you already know that their faith is something that we all admire and strive for. I've never met two people with such unwavering belief in God and all of his miracles.

*Second, if you have the means to financially support an amazing cause, please consider donating to our Relay For Life team, Bethany's Bosom Buddies. You can make a secure online donation (minimum amount is $10) at this link- http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY10SA?px=14590660&pg=personal&fr_id=24677 As always, your donation is tax deductible and I've made a personal pledge to match all donations that I get. This cause is near and dear to my heart and I sincerely appreciate your support!

If you have any questions, please email me at garrett.crystal@gmail.com.

These are a few of our favorite things!

Our Favorite Things (Birth-5 Months edition)

1. Zip-front sleepers from The Children's Place (These sleepers are the best, very easy to get on and off for late night diaper changes- sizes seem to run a bit small)















2. Boppy (This is one of those items that I thought I'd never use but boy was I wrong! From day one, this was great for feeding and he loved naptime on the Boppy when he was smaller. Now, it's helping him learn to sit and he likes to have tummy time on it.)















3. Seahorse (The seahorse is a lot like the old school Glo-worm. The difference is that the music is more soothing and plays a lot longer.)
















4. Winkel & Sophie- Maddox's favorite teething toys (both are over-priced and fad toys but have proven to be worth it in our household!).

5 Months!

Happy 5 months to our sweet little Maddox!! Unfortunately, daycare left him completely exhausted today so we'll have to take our official 5 month pics tomorrow. Maddox celebrated the occasion by flipping from his back to his tummy for the first time today! Brandon and I have been wondering when this would happen and we sounded like his own personal cheerleaders when he finally did it (then we kept flipping him back over so that he'd do it again). This time last year, Maddox (or Tiny G as we called him) was approximately the size of a strawberry and I was finally getting some relief from morning sickness. It's amazing how much our lives have changed in one short year- I say it all of the time but I'll say it again: we are incredibly blessed!

Germs, germs, and more germs!

If you've driven by our house in the last few days, you may have noticed green fumes leaking out from the doors and windows. Finally we are on the road to recovery but this has been one butt-kicking bug! Thursday at daycare, Maddox only ate half of all of his bottles and napped more than usual. Thursday night, he vomited but seemed to feel okay. He went to daycare as usual on Friday but didn't eat well and slept for FIVE hours while he was there. At that point, I knew something was up so I picked him up a couple of hours early and headed straight to his pediatrician's office. As soon as we got settled in the waiting room, I picked him up out of the carrier and he vomited all over me again (it was EVERYWHERE!). After looking him over, we were sent home with instructions to give him pedialyte in place of milk for the next 12 hrs and to come back at 9am on Saturday for a follow-up visit (apparently, vomiting in infants under 6 months is a big deal). That night, he threw up again so we were back in the office Saturday morning. I'll spare you all of the details but basically we spent all day Saturday getting tests, x-rays, and ultrasounds to rule out all of the worst-case scenarios. I had a feeling all along that it was just a stomach virus (even though none of the kids at daycare had it, he must've picked it up somewhere) and remained pretty calm. No sense in getting all worked up over what I was pretty sure was nothing. As I thought, all of the tests came back normal and it was diagnosed as a "nasty stomach virus" and we were told to go home and Lysol our entire house because its highly contagious. We followed the instructions but on Sunday, Brandon and I both went from feeling fine to feeling like we were knocking on death's door within an hour. Again, I'll spare you the details but neither of us could even keep down water and had chills, very bad body aches, stomach pains, headaches, etc. It was awful. Definitely the worst virus I've ever had. We were down for about 36 hrs (and are still feeling pretty weak). Maddox got to spend the day/night with Mamaw and Papaw last night and even though we missed him, I know they all had fun and Brandon and I were able to try to sleep it off. Brandon is still home sick from work today but hopefully we'll all be back on our normal schedule of work and daycare tomorrow. Unfortunately, Bethany also caught the bug but hopefully she's feeling a bit better today. Maddox definitely didn't mean to get his sweet "Aunt" Bethany sick (but loved all of the kisses and cuddles she gave him Saturday night). So far, Kristi, Cortney, and Ali have dodged the bug (they were also loving on him Saturday). Let's just hope it stays that way because we don't want anyone else to fall victim to this nasty, nasty virus!

As soon as I'm fully recovered, I'll post more details on how much Maddox is changing and growing. We're still happy as can be with daycare and they've even managed to get him on some sort of napping schedule. He's almost sitting up on his own (can sit for a little while but is a little unsteady) and will be 5 months old in just a few days. The past 5 months have flown by but have been better than we could have ever imagined!