Camping at Brady Mountain

Brinlee got to float in her little floaty boat and she also wore the little bathing suit that I bought back in 1986 when I was pregnant with her Daddy! I thought I'd surely have a little girl back then LOL. Morgan also wore it when she was first born, I just love seeing it being put to use!

Dipping her toes in the water with Daddy!


Morgan and Alexx playing in the sand.

Another baby!

Kyler James arrived today at 11:11 am and 7 pounds, Mommy and Baby are doing just fine!

We are heading to the lake for our camping trip, more pictures to follow!

Photo Shoot #2 with Mommy & Daddy

As promised, Family pictures with Brinlee!

Brinlee's First Photo Session

Derek and Jessica spent Father's Day at our house, all the kids were here so we were very blessed. Jordyn's baby will be here in about 3-4 weeks, Jake and Nicole were here too, their baby is due December 25th so things are hopping around here for sure! Today we did some pictures of Brinlee in the studio, we will do several sessions for her newborn pictures, there's just no way to do everything I wanna do in one session LOL. We are going to have mommy and daddy in some later this week so be sure and check back to see those! For now, here's a few from today at 5 days old. Isn't she just delicious?

This picture of Brinlee in the breadbowl is very special to me, this breadbowl belonged to Brinlee's Great Great Great Grandmother, she used it over 100 years ago for her bread making, oh if this bowl could talk! I feel very blessed to have the bowl and to be able to use it in Brinlee's pictures.

Here is me and Brinlee at 1 day old, needless to say, I'm crazy about this girl!

Big News! She's HERE!

We have had a busy 3 weeks! June started with Morgan's birthday party, then we decided on a whim to try to get a camping trip in before the baby comes. So Suzanne and Alexx came up with their camper and Morgan and I (& Jessica) met them and we set up our campers at Brady Mt. Mike came up and helped us, we could not have done it without some man muscles LOL. Anyway, for the first night, it was just us girls, Jessica stayed with us and then my Mike and Suzanne's Mike came up and stayed after that first night. The girls rode their scooters, swam and had a ball! On Friday night, Jessica was planning on staying with us again, because Derek and some friends were out fishing all night, but about 2:30am she woke up hurting real bad and had him come get her about 4am. They ended up not going to the hospital but we thought it might be time! Then on Saturday evening they came back out and we all ate and swam, Jessica had a great time swimming and said it felt so good to get some relief on her back.

Sunday we packed up and went home, I spent all evening doing laundry and bright and early Monday morning (June 15th) she woke up with harder contractions. Derek brought her over here to me and he went to work, since we had so many false alarms, we thought it was best that I take her to the doctor if she was still having contractions after a few hours, she was so at 9:30 we went to the clinic. She got to see the Nurse Practitioner and they checked her, (3cm) and put her on the monitor for about 30 mins to see if the baby was doing okay and then sent us home to walk and come back to see the doctor at 1:00, by then Derek was off work and showered and met us there. We thought she was gonna get to see Dr. Henson but as bad luck would have it, it was Dr. Cardenas and she was not happy about that. He sort of blew her off, said she was still 3cm and said go home. She was MAD! LOL So they went home and I came home to do more laundry. About 6:00 they called, said she was still having contractions, (since 7am mind you) and said they were going back to the hospital. I met them there about 7:30 and were we happy to know Dr. Henson was on call and in the building! WOOHOO! He checked her, put her on the monitor and said "we're gonna have a baby". Long story short, it was a long night, he broke her water the next morning and started pitocin about 5:45, 6:50 she got the epidural, 8am - 4cm, 10am - 6cm, 11am - 8cm, 11:35 she was ready to push and the baby arrived June 16th at 12:18pm, Jessica did such a great job, it was an awesome experience and we are all so proud to announce the arrival of Brinlee Dawn Toland! 7 lbs 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long! She is absolutely beautiful as you can see! I know I'll more pictures to share soon so stay tuned!

Out with May Showers, in with June blooms!

As June approaches, this means 5th grade graduation, and a birthday party for Morgan as well as a Dance Recital that this year will consume 2 days of dancing and the big event will come in June with Brinlee's arrival, although this week we have our doubts that she'll wait until June. Tuesday night after Morgan's graduation, Jessica was feeling a lot of pressure and just didn't feel good at all. About 10:00pm they called me and were headed to the ER because she was hurting so bad and she had not felt the baby move in a couple hours, which had her (us) a little alarmed too. To sum it up, they kept them until about 1:30am and she is dilated to 2 cm and 70% effaced so that is a good start. As this week has progressed, she's become more and more miserable so we are thinking it could happen at any time, or might not happen for 3-4 more weeks. Personally I am hoping we can at least get through this weekend's dance recital and maybe even through Morgan's June 6th birthday party.

Here is Morgan getting her diploma, she also received a Presidential Gold Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. We're so proud of her and can hardly believe next year she'll be a 6th grader!

Morgan and Mrs. Vaughan, her 5th grade teacher, it's been a great year!!

Today Jessica and I finished up the t-shirts that everyone is going to wear at the hospital. Mine says "Brinlee's Nonni" Mike's says "Brinlee's Papa" We made one for Derek that of course says "Brinlee's Daddy" Morgan got one too and has decided she'll be called "Aunt Sissi". Us girls are wearing pink tshirts, the guys have gray, and all the letters are pink. I'm also trying to finish up her baby booties, I started them about 3-4 weeks ago, and sort of forgot about them, so I'm eager to get those finished! I have made these same booties for friends and for myself when Morgan was on her way. They're so sweet and really special, I still have Morgan's and I hope that Brinlee's will be a keepsake she'll always have. I can't wait to see her wear them home from the hospital! I'll take some pictures when they're all done.

Wedding stuff

Well, the wedding came and went without a hitch! LOL, except for the 2 that actually got hitched! The weather held out and was actually very nice, I did get a little stressed while setting up and decorating, I sort of got emotional while decorating Derek's grooms table,

I wanted it to be special for him (and it was) and things were not going exactly how I had envisioned and I started squalling, but Suzanne said just do what you can with it and I'll finish it up. So that's what I did, she had to make me leave so I could get back home and clean up and get the cakes and then get back out to the park in time so it's a good thing I had her there keeping me in line. I left there knowing the decorating was in good hands. It was 3 minutes until 6:00 though when I got back with the cakes and wouldn't you know the top layer on the wedding cake had slid and it got a little messed up, but I just sent it to the table and some little angels swooped down and repaired it as much as possible and it was fine. Once I realized that I didn't arrive with all the guests already seated and staring at me as I drove up, my stress level went down and I relaxed. I actually sat down and enjoyed the ceremony and did not stress at all once things start moving. Jessica was beautiful and Derek was dashing :) AND I'll tell you one more thing I did not do, I did not shed one tear! Believe it or not! Most of you know that I'm a real squall bag, I'm not sure what happened, I even had my "Mother of the Groom" hankie in hand and ready. I think I probably held it together because I had read, written and printed the ceremony and vows over and over so many times that it wasn't that emotional to me. I did cry when I read them the first time LOL. Oh and I've cried several times since then talking about it to others. My husband cried LOL, he performed the ceremony and got all choked up a couple of times while doing the ceremony, then he told me later what caused it, the first time was because he looked up at Derek's face and saw that little boy (okay now I'm crying again) that played in the yard with the unruly Dalmatian, and the same little boy that he spent the day with, hitting pears down into the woods using baseball bats. Then he got himself composed and in a minute or two, he looked over at Derek's dad and he was just a boo hooing, that did him in... So ANYWAY, sniff sniff... It was beautiful, we got some gorgeous pictures, (Thanks Suzanne and Mike) we had wonderful food, (Thanks Donna) The decorations were beautiful, it was all just great! Derek behaved himself too, I was afraid he'd play some sort of jokes or something LOL, and he didn't complain about taking too many pictures (he really hates posing) and I he didn't get cake on Jessica's face LOL. I was so proud of him, he looked so handsome, it's hard to believe he's grown and married already... Well enough chit chat, now for a few pictures!

Okay, this picture needs a little explaining I know, there are a whole series of these and they are just priceless but this one sort of sums it all up. Derek had this big huge pair of panties tucked inside his coat sleeve and when he went to take the garter off her leg, he whipped out these big panties, the crowd roared and Jessica was shocked! LOL Good times...