Reese's cake

Here ya go Shaunna...

ingredients:

1 chocolate fudge box cake

Reese's peanut butter

creamy supreme chocolate fudge icing

Reese's cups (miniature or regular)

Bake the cake in two round pans. After they're completely cool, cover top of one in the peanut butter. Any will due, but the Reese's is worth the little bit extra money. Stack second cake on top, then cover entire cake with icing. Chop cups in a nut chopper and sprinkle on top. Complicated, huh? Cameron suggested that next time I also put a layer of icing in between they layers, just because there's not quite enough chololate;) Make sure you've got an entire gallon of milk on hand, this cake is really rich! Enjoy!

It's fall!

Today is the official start of fall. Why today, you might ask? It's August (still summer)... it's still really hot (still summer)... it will still be hot for a couple months, thus, still summer. So what makes today the official start of fall? Today marks the start of high school football, which of course is the most important element of fall. College football starts tomorrow, dove season opens monday, and it's only a matter of time before cooler weather hits and it's deer and turkey season! (I couldn't find a football background, camo will have to do.) Fall is by far my favorite time of year. (When asked my favorite season, my answer is always football!) My favorite holiday is thanksgiving and I love the cooler weather clothing. Fall also motivates me to get in shape. Weird, I know, for most people it's summer, but I always want to look really good by the time the holidays roll around, that's when you see a lot of people that you don't see very often. And with the weather letting up, maybe D'Laney and I can start walking in the evenings. That's the only exercise I can tolerate anymore. Speaking of the munchkin, she's up! Have a great 3 day weekend everyone!!

Birthday weekend...warning: lots of pictures!

What a weekend! We went to Maddie's birthday party on friday afternoon and then my dad's football scrimmage friday night. Saturday was D'Laney's birthday party. We had lots of family and friends there to help us celebrate, and D'Laney got lots of goodies. We were supposed to take family pictures Sunday, but all the rain we got this weekend forced us to reschedule. My parents' 25th anniversary is in a couple weeks, so we're giving them these pictures. I'm really excited about them, whenever we finally get to take them. But anyway... here's lots of pictures from this weekend!

Cameron and I had a big birthday dinner on D'Laney's birthday, which she slept through. But that was great with us, we got to sit and enjoy each other's company and have a great meal. I cooked our favorite, chicken fried steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. And I made my reese's cake, which was awesome, if I do say so myself.

Ok, here's just a bunch of pictures from the party!

Happy birthday, D'Laney!

1 year! She's such a big girl. Something about turning a year makes me think of her less as a baby and more as a toddler, and that kinda makes me sad. I can't believe how fast the first year flew by, but at the same time, I feel like we really took the time to enjoy each stage. Here's a little bit of the basics on where we started and where we are now:

• D'Laney Dale Holifield was born at 9:01 am, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, TX. She weighed 9lbs 0.4 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. We had a c-section mostly due to her size, but she and I both had an adverse reaction to an induction medicine the night before. I had some great drugs, I didn't feel a thing, but I also don't remember a thing. I have flashes of memory from the delivery, but it's sketchy. We stayed in the hospital 4 days, then came home and it's been smooth sailing from there! She was quite a laid-back baby, never cried, didn't have to be held all the time, though she was, and was very go with the flow.

very first picture...the date on the camera was wrong



new little family...don't I look a little dazed?



This is probably my favorite picture ever.
These two are still crazy about each other.

• Today, at one year, she is 28 inches long and weighs 18.5 lbs, we think. Quite an improvement from last week, huh? She is walking most of the time now, very rarely does she crawl anymore. She has about 6 or 7 words in her vocabulary, but she really just says one...daddy. Over and over and over again. But it's not just babbling. She'll pick up an old snuff can and hand it to me and say, daddy? or the phone will ring and she'll get really excited thinking that it's him. She loves him so much, and he is such a great daddy. He had to spank her a couple days ago and it almost brought him to tears, but he did it and he'll do it again. D'Laney has begun singing. I'm not sure what it is, but she sings it all day long. We started singing the ABC's, and she'll sing along for a minute, but she loses interest pretty fast, it's a long song. Of course she's not really saying the abc's, it's more like just grunting, but she gets the infliction right. Her favorite, I think, is Old McDonald's farm, she'll sing the E-I-E-I-O part with me, and it sounds just exactly like it should. D'Laney has no patience to sit and read books, but she loves to carry them around, sit down and open a page or two, then close them and get back up with them. She has, however, developed some interest in cartoons, the ones with animals and bright colors. She has begun climbing on everything that she can, but because she's so small, she can't get up on much, thank goodness. Parents who just go on and on bragging on their kids have always bugged me, but I certainly understand the urge now. I do think that in most situations, that urge should be at least toned down some, but today's a special day, so forgive my bragging. Any other day, though, if I get to going on about D'Laney, just tell me to shut up. She might be the coolest, smartest, prettiest kid in the whole wide world, but she's certainly not the only one. OK, rambling over, now pictures!

Daddy getting sugars before he left for work.

I took this video when I got her from her crib this morning. There's nothing special about it, just a happy baby in the morning.

A very stressful day...and a very long post

We have been so blessed. D'Laney has hardly been sick, she's hit all her milestones, she's pretty advanced in several areas. So yesterday when I went to angelo for her 1 year well baby I had every reason to believe that Dr. Patyrak would just brag on her and tell her how smart and pretty she was and that would be the end of it. That's about as opposite as it could be from how it actually went. She's grown to 28 inches long, which is in the 15%. But she still only weighs 16lbs 11 oz. That's exactly what she weighed three months ago, which is not good. He also thought she looked very pale and mentioned the dark circles under her eyes. I thought they were because of allergies, given my history. But he said they're often a good indication of anemia, as was the paleness. That, coupled with the low weight, had him concerned. So he ordered a full blood screen and I got some orders. Apparently, I'm not producing nearly enough breastmilk. He gave me some formula, a special kind that they give to preemies, and I'm to quit nursing immediately. If I were to try to gradually wean, D'Laney would never take the bottle of formula and we'd be looking at a more serious situation. This child has never had a drop of formula, and we skipped the bottles altogether. She went straight to a sippy cup. Now she can drink out of a straw and even out of a regular cup with just a little help. But now I have to introduce a bottle with formula. I was pretty upset. I know it's not my fault and there really were no signs to clue me in, but technically, I've been starving my child. Well, not starving, she was getting enough to sustain her, but underfeeding. This probably explains why she's so reluctant to advance with solids and why she's still getting up so often at night...she's hungry!
So, we had to go to the hospital for them to draw the blood. My mom came with me, and she had to hold D'Laney down while they did it, I couldn't do it. But she didn't make a sound! She just watched them find the vein, but the needle in, take it out...the whole process without so much as flinching. Let's just say she handled it way better than I did, but I had quit crying by the time we got back to the car. We went to walmart and got some bottles because we don't even own any, and went back to my mom and dad's so mom could try to feed her before we headed back to Stanton. We thought D'Laney would take it better from my mom instead of her's with the boobs that have what she really wants. Cadye ended up being the one to feed her, and it took about 2 hours but she got about 6 oz down. I was terrified that it was going to be a very long night and next couple days, but we got home and I gave her another bottle around 10:30. She took the entire 8 oz, then fell right asleep with the paci and rocking for just a few minutes. She slept until 4 (yay!) took another 8 oz, and slept until almost 8. I am so proud of her. This is a pretty tough kid we were blessed with. Dr. Patyrak's office called early this morning and said that the tests came back perfect and just to keep up with the formula and he's see her again in a month to check the progress. Hopefully, after that month, we'll be able to stop the formula and go to cow's milk and foods, hopefully.
I wish I could say that I was handling the weaning as well as my daughter. Cold turkey is NOT the way to go, but in this situation we really had no choice. I was about ready to try weaning anyway, so mentally and emotionally, I'm doing great, as far as that goes. But physically? Very, very different story. I was hoping that the only good thing about me not producing much anymore was that maybe this process would be pretty easy. I was wrong, so so wrong. I feel like I'm walking around with bowling balls under my shirt, both in size and density. I do not envy women with large breasts. And produce in my bra is a very strange feeling! But I do think it's working. Thank goodness I'm able to stay home and don't have to go through this in a workplace. I'm really hoping it goes down pretty quick, we're going out of town friday, and this would make for some miserable traveling.
Wow, long post! 2 quick, much lighter notes: We moved D'Laney into a forward facing car seat yesterday, and she loves it. Even short trips into Midland were getting to be miserable. She really likes being able to see where she's going. I know she's a little small, I mean, we really know now, but she fits just fine, and even slept a while yesterday and her head stayed upright and to the side, so I think she's fine. Secondly, today is Cameron's last day driving a truck for Trey. He'll have a long weekend off, then he'll start his new job on monday! We're really excited. I'm planning a big supper and cake tonight for him. We're leaving friday afternoon to go on vacation with his family down to Hunt, TX...with lots of formula in tow!

As promised...

We tried getting D'Laney on video walking tonight, and got a few little steps. She just wasn't in the mood tonight. But we got a little walking, a little dancing, a little falling, just a little of everything that keeps us in stitches most of the time!

And I just love the way D'Laney is looking at her daddy in this picture. They're so crazy about each other, I think it really shows in her face here.

It's been a while

• Let's see, where do I start? It's been so long since I blogged! D'Laney and I spent all of last week in Angelo helping my parents get ready for their big move. Mom already had a lot packed so we mostly just moved things, sorted them once they got to the farm, and spent a lot of time sitting around being entertained by D'Laney. But I think with all the craziness, it was good for my folks to have a break. Two-a-days started today, so Dad wanted to get almost everything done before that started, and I think all they lack are the cabinets and some plumbing and they'll be ready. They should be in by the end of the week...should be.


• We went to a baby shower for Shyanne and Kylee while we were in town. I didn't take any pictures at the shower, but here's the gift that I put together...

bath stuff for mom and baby

• Cameron got a new job. He ran into a friend of his a couple weeks ago who asked him if he was still looking for a new job. Last John had heard was when we were trying to get out of welding. Cam said he had one, but he wasn't entirely happy in it. He got out of welding so that he'd be home more and wouldn't miss D'Laney growing up. However, in this new job, he's home even less. Because D'Laney goes to sleep around 9 and he usually gets home around then or later, they'll go days without seeing each other. And with a college degree and all his years of work experience, he felt like he should be doing more than just driving a truck. So anyway, John said to come by his office when he had a day off to talk to him, which he did, and friday John called and offered Cameron the job. This company installs satellite internet and phones on drilling rigs. Cameron's job will be to follow up on the installation, get tickets signed,make sure everything went well, etc. His job title, as best as we can tell, will be account manager/salesman/PR guy/ whatever else they need. He'll get a company truck, expense account, blackberry, laptop, the works. It requires a little bit of office work and a lot of field work. This job is truly an answer to our prayers. We uprooted everything and moved only to be in a worse situation than we were before. I think it was just God putting us in the place we needed to be until this other came along. I know Cameron is struggling with the fact that he's leaving the family business, but they all understand that when an opportunity like this comes along, it would be irresponsible to turn it down. So we're pretty excited about it. He starts in two weeks!

• Let's see...what else...not a whole lot, except that D'Laney is WALKING!! She took her first forward progress steps on the 24th of July, 3 days after she turned 11 months. She's up to about 7 steps before she falls, but she'll stand right back up and try to keep going. She still crawls the majority of the time, but she's getting bolder with her steps. She's standing up and turning around without holding on to anything, and she's starting to catch herself before she falls. She'll stop, steady herself until she's back upright, but then it's usually only a couple more steps and she's down again. But she's making really fast progress. I know a lot of kids just get up and start running one day, but the majority take, well, baby steps. I have no doubt that she'll be walking really well by her birthday. As excited as I am, and as proud as I am, I'm also scared to death. She's already into everything, is lightening quick getting to things, and I know that it only gets worse once they're completely mobile. But I know it's just growing up, for both of us. I'll try to get some video of her and get it up here. I've got some on our video camera, but I don't know how to download those tapes onto the computer yet. All the ones I have on here were taken with the digital camera. But I'll get it soon!