A great day!!

As crappy as yesterday was, today more than made up for it. It was a wonderful day just hanging out with my little family. We slept until 9:30 or 10, then got up and went to town to eat "breakfast" at the Cracker Barrel. D'Laney and I had hair appointments at noon, so I got a little trim and my baby had her first hair cut! She was working on quite a mullet, so I decided the back needed to be worked on until the front could catch up. The girl that cut it is married to a guy that I grew up going to church camp at Blue Haven with, so we had a nice visit and I got to catch up on the Broyles boys. I charged my video camera to capture this momentous event in D'Laney's life, only I forgot to check the disc. Sure enough, it was full and we didn't get any of it on film. However, I did remember the little keepsake box that we had for her first hair cut. Luke's girlfriend, Sam, made a box when D'Laney was born that has a lot of smaller boxes in it to keep things like the first curl, first tooth, baby shoes and jewelry, etc. It's so cute and we just unpacked it a few weeks ago, so this is the first thing that we've actually put in it. D'Laney's hair looks good, it actually looks like it has a little style to it, and it didn't make her look like a boy like I was afraid of.

After we got our hair done, I wanted to get my nails taken off. I just don't have the time for the upkeep, and my nails grow really fast, so I have to get them filled every other week just so they are presentable. D'Laney was asleep so Cameron just dropped me off. He got back just as the paint on my real nails was drying and D'Laney was carrying a little plastic bag. When they got to my station, I saw it was from Circuit City and had the Apple logo on whatever was inside the bag. They had gone to Circuit City, which is closing, and Cameron got me an iPOD Nano!! It is awesome!! He got a Classic last year for Christmas, but we just now got around to messing with it. He said I was trying to take it over and he didn't want to fight over it, so he just got me my own. But he was just being sweet. He doesn't do things like that very often, or at all, so I was really surprised. I love that man.

Ugh...

This day has majorly sucked. D'Laney didn't nap yesterday afternoon and finally crashed about 6 last night. I didn't think she'd be down for the night, but she was, only to wake up at 4 this morning. Bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to play. I had a really bad headache last night and the only Advil in the house was PM, so I was in a coma by 9:30, and the medicine did not wear off by 4. I vaguely remember making her some waffles and Cameron and I some cinnamon rolls, but I do remember making Cam some coffee because I burned my hand on the steam. After D'Laney finished and Cameron got off to work, around 5, I made sure D'Laney couldn't get into anything and was pretty occupied with her toys, and I got my pillow and lay down on the couch, not really caring if I dozed off. I kept the TV on, I can't sleep very deeply with it going, and sort of kept an ear on her while I slept. She played pretty well by herself until 7, then started whining, so we both went back to bed for about another hour and a half. Then she was up again and just now slowed down enough to take a nap. I think I'll probably nap as well, this headache is only slightly more dull than last night, and I just cannot function on so little sleep. So anyway, so far, today really sucks.

But enough of that, on to flashback friday. This picture is of all the Cauley grandkids. It was taken somewhere around 2000, I think, which puts me around 16. This is my grandparents back yard on my granddaddy's wagon. It is an authentic cowboy chuck wagon that he restored. He used to compete cooking out of it, but he hasn't done that in several years. We used to take pictures in front of it every year since long before I was born, but this was the last one we did for some reason. It's hard to get everyone together and when we do, someone always has to rush off as soon as the presents are opened or supper is over.

baby contest

The San Angelo newspaper is putting on a cutest baby contest that for some reason I decided to enter. I uploaded a picture of D'Laney, then it had a box for a description. I put who her parents were, grandparents, and great-grandparents and what she was doing. I don't' know why, I just thought that's what it was asking for. Wrong! After it was all finished and submitted, I looked at some of the other pictures, and none, NONE, of the other descriptions were anything close to all that mess I had written. I feel like an idiot, but oh well, like I told my mom, maybe some people will recognize some of the names and vote for her because of her impeccable breeding! Anyway, here's the link, you can see how dumb I look...
http://standard-times.upickem.net/engine/ApprovedSubmissions.aspx?PageType=APPROVED&contestid=4606

Well, that backfired.

OK, folks, encouragement was not what I needed. You were supposed to say things like "no, Amy, you need to wait, D'Laney is still so young." "The doctor said to wait 18 months before you even begin thinking about having another one. You should listen, your body needs time to recover." "Cameron just started a new job, wait until things settle down." These were the things I needed to hear... Even Cameron is getting in on it, saying that if (heaven forbid) we have another girl, he suggested a name that I love. I wanted to scream at him, YOU'RE NOT HELPING!! It's funny how he didn't even want to hear the word baby for so long, but now that we already have D'Laney, he talks about another one all the time. The difference is, he can talk about it in future tense and be fine with that. And I can too, really, because all I have to do is look down and see that sweet, beautiful little girl wrapped around my legs and be thankful for what God has already blessed me with and be patient until we're blessed again.

Flashback Friday returns!

I have got some serious baby fever. I don't know why, but all of a sudden I'm so ready for the next one. I think because the plan was to get pregnant again sometime in 2009, and well, 2009 is here. I miss D'Laney being a baby. And I think she would love to have a little brother... Cameron said the other day we need to start saying the next one will be a boy, something about the power of positive thinking! I'm trying to combat this fever by remembering all the negative about my first pregnancy. I was very, very sick the whole time. I lost almost 30 pounds in the first few months before we got it under control. I was hospitalized for a week at around 6 months for a kidney infection. My hips and pelvic bone began making room at around 8 months, and I go to take a step and my leg would fall out of my hip socket and man did that hurt. And I was extremely, excruciatingly huge. I carried completely straight out in front of me, and the number of people that asked me if I was having more than one was in the dozens. XL maternity clothes were stretched to almost see through over my big belly. D'Laney was over 9 pounds, though, so all that I went through didn't hurt her any at all, and really, it wasn't that bad. I'd do it 10 times over. But for now, I'm telling myself how terrible it was and how awful I looked, and looking at these pictures to remind myself!

See? Massive!

Oh yeah, how could I forget the Braxton-Hicks?

Even swimming did nothing to alleviate the weight or pain in my back and hips.

We have a job!

Cameron started welding again on Monday. Things are a little different this time around. Instead of being self-employed and contracting himself out (as well as paying self-employment taxes) he is an employee of a oilfield construction company that is owned by a good friend of his. The company provides the truck, welding machine, all the equipment, etc. All Cameron provides is the labor, and while they pay is less than a contracted welder, when you figure in expenses like truck payment, supplies, and then the whopping taxes, none of which we're responsible for anymore, we're more than likely going to be doing better than before. It's a win-win for us and the company. We have been so blessed. We had faith that God would provide something for us like He always does, and I think he rewarded that faith with this job. There will be a little bit of travel involved at the beginning, but it won't last long. We'll stay here in Stanton because this area is where the work is. And that's where this house is, and we'd sure hate to leave it.
I took D'Laney to see Dr. Patyrak yesterday. She had some chest congestion and was coughing, and I wanted to catch anything before it got too serious. I had bronchitis and pneumonia many many times as a kid, and Cameron had croup so often and so badly that he was hospitalized a couple times, so we wanted to stay on top of anything. She does in fact have bronchitis, although a pretty mild case of it, so we're on antibiotics for a few days and it should clear right up. I'm afraid that I'm catching it, though, I feel awful run down today. Hopefully I just haven't recovered from the holidays.

Holiday pictures

I don't have many, but here are a few pictures from our Christmas travels

Yay! It's almost Christmas!

My mom made me and Cadye these little outfits when we were little. Cadye's fit D'Laney this year so she wore it one night.

It's like he's allergic to taking a serious picture.

Nobody was up for taking pictures this night.

My mom and dad got D'Laney this little table. She loves it!

Waiting for Daddy to put together her little stroller. The kitchen that Santa brought is in the background

With her cousins on the Holifield side. From left, Drake and Loren (Cameron's brother's kids) & Ryder and Orin (his sister's)

She still loves her music. She took these headphones from Cameron and put them in her own ears and was jammin'. Hopefully her interest in music will make us, oh I mean her, some money someday;)

Luke is so ornery. And heavy!