Reading

Isn't this sweet? Ann Rae was reading to her baby brother. I love these moments.

New 'used' car!

We finally traded in our 2000 Ford Windstar and the 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a 2007 Toyota Sienna. It was a bitter/sweet day. It was sad getting rid of the jeep because it is the vehicle that we brought both babies home from the hospital in. Ann Rae was sad to get rid of the van but she likes the new van too. I love the new van. It has a lot less mileage and I pray it will last us at least 10 years. I like to drive a car to death and not have a car payment!

Dedication

We had Spencer dedicated at Church this past Sunday, Father's Day. It was a beautiful dedication, Spencer was an angel. Ann Rae on the other hand, couldn't stand still. We followed it with a cookout at our house. We got Tim the Nitendo DS Lite with the game Brain Age for Father's day.

Gymnastics

Well it is finally here. Ann Rae has been patiently waiting for weeks for gymnastics to start and she was not disappointed. I was surprised, they actually teach 3 year olds a lot. She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays and gets completely worn out. YEAH!!!!

last day of preschool and lake

May 22nd was Ann Rae's last day of 3 year old preschool. She was excited because that meant gymnastics was here. I am sad because I grew to love preschool, it gave her someone else to play with other than boring old momma!

Memorial day weekend at the lake. This is 'miss America' posing. She begged us to get the slip n' slide out all week and when we finally did she wouldn't go down it. nut.

Spencer's first time on the boat. I was too nervous to take him out into the water with all the traffic so we stayed in our little cove and had a picnic. He liked it, he slept like a, well...baby.

Mother's Day.

Aren't these pics funny. I love Spencer's expression. I couldn't decide which one was the best.

I had a really nice Mother's Day, even though it was cold and rainy and we didn't really do much. Tim and the kids got me a beautiful new mother child necklace with Ann Rae and Spencer's birthstones. I love it. After church we went to Panera Bread and then Books a million (Ann Rae choose). It was really nice family time. Then we came home and assembled Spencer's crib and had to rearrange furniture to make it fit, believe it or not, it was all I wanted for Mother's day. Actually we were supposed to go on a picnic, but the rain spoiled that.

Mom and Dad came over Saturday night and we celebrated with them having a cook out at home. When we go out to eat I tend to spend half of the time in the bathroom with Ann Rae (she always goes twice in restaurants) and the other half in the car nursing Spencer. Not much fun. It was nice to stay home and be casual.

On Friday we went to a local restaurant with Judy and Danny to celebrate with them. Yummy veggie pizza! We had a good time, and yes I spent half of it in the bathroom and in the car.

I do LOVE being a mom!!!

Happy Fake Birthday Ann Rae!

Since Ann Rae's Birthday is in August her preschool class celebrated it in May. I made brought cookies and grapes (Ann Rae's choice) and she got to blow out candles on the pretend cake. It was really sweet all day she was called the Birthday Girl.

New bed

It may sound aweful but we are just now getting Spencer's crib up. He has been sleeping in the bassinet, even though he is way too big for it. This is him trying it out.

finally

For those of you that are faithful in checking to see if I have added any pictures - thank you for hanging in there! It has been a crazy 7 weeks. Can you believe that Spencer is already 7 weeks old?!?!

This is a family pic taken at Sara's Rehearsal Dinner.

Ann Rae and Isabella. They only see each other twice a year, but when they do it is instant best friends. We miss her very much!

GO HOKIES!!!

Ann Rae is ALWAYS hugging on her baby brother. I think his expression says "Here we go again."

Easter morning.

more pics

This is the only way he sleeps. It looks very unnatural. Head is always turned to the right. The right side of his head is getting flat. But he is happy, so I don't care!
This is a cute pic of Ann Rae at one of her Easter Egg hunts.
This is a good pic of Ann Rae and I at Sara's wedding. She was a flower girl and I was a bridesmaid. Fantastic wedding!

some pics

He's here!

On Monday, March 3rd 2008 at 11:20 am, Spencer Boyd Sisson arrived! He weighed 9 lbs and 9 1/2 oz, and 23 inches long. Big boy! He came into this world via a lot of excitement. I was induced at 5:45 am, by 5:50 am I was in excruciating pain and was begging for drugs (no kidding) then things started to get a little scary. The doctor broke my water around 9ish and (sorry to be graphic) I started to bleed very heavily. The next hour the baby's heart rate kept dropping below the dangerous line and I continued to bleed in excess. The doctor called in the surgeon and he said that I needed an emergency c-section, STAT. (by the way when a dr says STAT, people go berserk) They prepped me in no time and wheeled me into the OR. I was a wreck and completely terrified. There were about 15 people scrambling around me and when they put me on the table and started pumping more drugs in me the surgeon said that he needed to check me before cutting, and he saw the baby's head. He asked me if I could push and I did and he said this baby is coming. They scrambled to find Tim and he walked in just in time to see his son born. It was crazy. By the time he came out I had so many drugs in me for the c-section that I couldn't tell if I was doing anything. Praise God that we were both fine. Come to find out my placenta was low-lying (a problem I had a couple of months ago and we thought took care of itself) and that was causing the blood loss and the baby was sideways and holding the cord, that was what was causing the heart rate to drop. The surgeon came up to me afterwards and asked if I was praying and I said "Yes the whole time" He asked Tim and our family in the waiting room if we were praying and everyone said yes. God does answer prayers!!

We are adjusting here at home. Ann Rae is a fabulous big sister and adores her baby brother. We are getting zero sleep at night and his Billiruben (Jaundice) is high so we had to go back to the hospital twice to get blood work. I am actually waiting for the hospital to call now and let me know the results from today's blood. Poor little thing has been picked and prodded so many times, It just breaks my heart to continue putting him through this.

Well as I mentioned above, we are getting very little sleep (if any) and I am too tired to reread this email for errors, so I apologize now for all my mistakes.

Snow days!

Snow day! This was actually a couple of weeks ago. Ann Rae LOVES the snow (like all kids) but after sledding down the hill with daddy, while it was sleeting, she does NOT love sledding. She was very angry by the time they got to the bottom and that just made it even funnier, and our laughing did NOT make her any happier. Poor little thing, the sleet stung her face and she had a lap full of snow. Not a good time. Oh and by the way it is not a sled but a "sleigh". (Christmas must still be on her mind)

Christmas

I am skipping right over Thanksgiving to Christmas. I have sooo many pictures - enjoy!

Cozy by the fireplace trying to get that perfect picture for our Christmas card.

Preschool Christmas program. Ann Rae is the Rudolph with the pink dress.

The girls making their Gingerbread house. (Elli, Ann Rae, and Lilly)

Sunday morning before Christmas.

Christmas II

Making cookies for Santa!

Christmas Eve at Grandma's and Granddaddy's. I don't know what Tim had them say, but he caught them with their mouths open. (Julia, Ann Rae, Mary Beth and Scott)

Christmas morning. We thought this was a cute shot of Ann Rae digging under the tree for more presents.

Christmas III

Christmas day at Nana's and Papa's. Maci and Ann Rae into the make-up. All Ann Rae asked for Christmas was make-up and our fabulous family complied. Thanks.

Christmas night at Great-Granddaddy Sisson's. Ann Rae got a Hannah Montana wig. GiGi helped her put it on. It was so funny because she did not want the bangs in her face.

After it was all over Ann Rae had to try out her easy-bake oven that she got from Santa. She LOVES to cook!

Cute

Last night Ann Rae and I were lying in bed watching the Dancing with the Stars Finale (Yea!! Marie didn't win!), when Ann Rae leaned over my belly and said "I love you baby" and then while peering into my belly button "Momma, I see his nose!". Soooooo cute! What is not cute is the same question she keeps asking me "Momma, how is the baby going to come out?" one of my favorite responses "The doctor will take it out." not satisfied, comes back with "Will your belly tear?" uuuhhhh "No, he will come out from under my clothes" (Roll your eyes if you want but until you are in that situation with a 3 year old, you have no idea!!) surprisingly that ended the conversation. Either that or she just gave up because she already thinks she knows more than her mother. HELP! Any ideas are welcomed, it WILL come up again!

Alabama

Well our trip to Alabama has come and gone. Everything about it was fabulous. The weather, the beach, the food, the sightseeing and, okay I guess the people too;) Ann Rae is a pro at flying now. Funny story. On one of the planes we were sitting in the first row behind 1st class. Well the way the aisle turned it was like Tim (who was in the aisle seat) was sitting in the aisle of first class. When we were ready to land he laid our magazines, coloring book and book on the floor next to his feet. As soon as we touched down the stack slid all the way down the aisle of first class and bumped the cockpit door. The looks on peoples faces were hysterical. They slowly watched it go by then they all turned around to see where it came from. I wanted to die! Tim was laughing and I was horrified. The flight attendants had to leave it there for a few minutes until they could unbuckle their seat belts.

(Ann Rae 'found' this shell at the beach. Her cousin Brown went and bought it at a local souvenir shop and hid it in the sand for her to find. It was so sweet of him. We might tell her when she is 20 years old, but right now she thinks she found the best shell on the beach!)

Mobile is a beautiful city. We didn't do as much local stuff because we just enjoyed relaxing and hanging out at the Alabama Sissons' house. We did, however, tour the coast at and around Orange Beach. We stayed one night down there and took a Ferry ride and even ate at LuLu's in Gulf Shores (Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant) a really fun place to visit and eat at. It was a great trip all in all. I was sad to leave and getting on the plane in 80 degree weather and getting off in 40 degree weather didn't make it any easier.

Pumpkin Patch

We really scored this year at the pumpkin patch. We decided to visit Lacy's because we heard they had a great haybale maze for the little kids. We went on a Saturday afternoon and figured it would be packed. Well when we got there it was empty. I went up to the greenhouse and I asked where is everyone? The lady told me that they only open during the week for the school groups. Well I was bummed, until, she said go ahead and pick out a pumpkin and feel free to see the animals and the maze. We had a great time! We had the whole place to ourselves and Ann Rae went through the maze at least 10 times.

Halloween

Halloween was fun. As you saw before we had to make it an early night due to a very early flight the next morning. Ann Rae dressed as Mulan. For those of you that are 'out of the loop'. Mulan is a Disney Princess (Actually a Geisha) that joined the Emperial army to save china. Quite the hero. Anyway, Aunt GiGi came and did Ann Rae's make-up which was so funny because she is terrified with any masks, clowns, etc. She wouldn't even look at herself in the mirror because the reflection scared her so much. And poor Bubby (Michael, Cousin) he was an awesome clown and she wouldn't allow him in the same room as her without screaming. We trick-or-treated with Michael, Maci and Daniel (ex-neighbor, still good friend) and had a great time!