A Bloody Mess

For the last 9 months we have been extremely blessed that AL has not been sick or had any major accidents. Of course she has had a couple bumps & bruises, but until last night no blood. Last night AL was taking a step towards Brian & fell. B was sitting in a chair so when she fell, she hit her chin on B's knee. Those two front teeth hit her top gums. Ouch! There was A LOT of blood. We gave her some ice to suck on & once she calmed down, she has been acting normal ever since. So nothing major, but blood none the less.

What is the word that describes when an anouncer says, "the kicker hasn't missed a field goal all year", and then the next kick that kicker makes, he misses? Well over the weekend, we went to Brian's parents & on Sunday, his mom asked if AL had bled yet. I told her no! HA! The next day, AL bleeds!

Speaking of, we had a great weekend! B went hunting with his dad & actually shot a doe! Yay Brian!!!! His first deer of the year! Last year he didn't shoot a thing. While they were hunting, his mom, AL & I went to the Zoo. AL was just as interested in all the people and other kids as she was with the animals, but she started laughing at some little monkeys that were running through the tree branches. Here are some pictures of the animals we saw....

AL watching the Bears

As a side note, when I was AL's age, one of my favorite things to play with was the colander. Over the weekend, AL found Grandma's colander & I think she liked it too.

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Quirks

I've been tagged by Kristen. She asks that I list some of my weirdo quirks. So, here goes....

1. To-Do Lists.
Like Kristen, I too LOVE "To-Do" lists. Well, really I love all kind of lists. I make them for EVERYTHING and sometimes I even write the same list more than once. I love seeing it all laid out in front of me. I make lists of things I need to do for each day, grocery lists, packing lists, things-to-do-around-the-house lists, weekend lists (what we have planned for each weekend through the next few months), etc. In fact, I actually made a weekend list on our way home from my in-laws today. Brian has come to love my lists. He asks me to write them often :)

2. Sleeping Requirements.
In order to sleep, I have to have the covers tucked in at the end of the bed. Not the sides, just the end. My dear husband can not stand for the covers to be tucked in. This drives me CRAZY!!! I like my covers in order, not messy.
The other thing I need is my "bunny". Yes, I still sleep with by baby blankie. Brian finds it quite weird that I, who now have my own baby, still sleep with my baby blankie. Let me make this clear, I don't care what anyone thinks; I love "him" (I don't know why I refer to it as male but I do & always have).

3. Reading Magazines/Catalogues.
For some reason when I read magazines or catalogues, I flip through backwards. Now if I actually read an article, I start from the beginning & read normally. It's just the flipping through part, I go from back to the front.

4. Eating with Utensils.
This is one that Brian insisted I include. I suppose when I eat off forks & spoons that I scrape the food off with my teeth instead of my lips. It's really just when the food's sticky or you know, sticks to the spoon or fork. Like grits. That's the only example I can think of off the top of my head. I can't stand the sticky feeling on my lips.

5. Who wants the last sip?
I never take the last sip of a drink, especially with sodas or beers, or when sharing a drink. I'm pretty sure this is all mental.

6. Me & Stairs.
By nature, I am extremely clumsy, but in particular, I have a weird relationship with stairs. All through college, to get to many of my classes, I had to use the stairs. On many occasions I not only fell down the stairs, but I would fall up them as well. The night I met Brian, I fell down the stairs (he had already left thank goodness). On our wedding day, I fell down the stairs. The day we moved in to our Stockbridge house & the day we moved out, I fell down the stairs. There are many other times, but I feel these are the most meaningful. I did slip a couple times while pregnant, but thank god I never fell down the stairs during that time.

Okay, per Kristen's request, let's keep the crazy going. I tag Mary, Heather, Melissa & Meredith. Go!!



Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Tricks of the Trade

AL can now eat just about anything so today for lunch she had chicken nuggets, strawberries & oranges. She loved it, but couldn't pick up all the small peices of the fruit. So she improvised....

I thought this was hilarious! Hopefully she didn't learn this from the dog!

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Homemade Photo Shoot

Yesterday AL & I were waiting for Brian to get home, so I decided to take a few pictures. They turned out super cute. There are more on AL's website, but here are just a few....

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Kristin & David get Married!

Last Thursday, October 16, AL had her 9 month appointment. She weighs 20 lbs 6 oz & is 28" long. The doc said she looked great! He also said she could eat anything except milk & honey. Yep, that includes eggs, shellfish, regular fish, anything but milk & honey. CRAZY!!! I didn't think that would happen until she turned a year old. So, since then she's had grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, ravioli, turkey. Not all in the same sitting of course:)

This weekend Brian's sister got married! The wedding was in Columbus, GA. They got married at the same church that her parents (also Brian's parent's :) ) got married in & the grandparents got married in. Very sentimental & special.

On Friday, I planned the Bridal Luncheon for Kristin.

AL w/ the Bride to Be

AL w/ Grandma Middlebrooks (her Great Grandma)

The wedding was beautiful & we had a wonderful time! I was the Matron of Honor & Brian was a Groomsman. And not to be THAT mom, but AL was absolutely ADORABLE!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Kristin & David!!!!

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Out with the Old, In with the New...

So...I just noticed that when I changed my background, I lost the poll results. If you are interested, I think the results for AL's ear piercing reflected 13 for "yes" & 10 for "no". As for who AL looks like, I think majority was for "Brian", "Lauren" had 1 vote & a few votes for "Both".


Brian & I have always been quite annoyed with how popular both of our names are. Throughout high school, I was known as Campbell because in our little group of friends I was one of three Lauren's. Even in college, I had a roommate named Lauren. As for Brian, between the two of us, we know 8 or 9 Brian's. With his friends, Brian is known as Brooks.

When we got pregnant & started looking at names, we tried very hard to find a name that was extremely uncommon. We thought we had succeeded with Ansley until the day we decided for sure that Ansley was THE name. From that day on, I hear the name "Ansley" all over the place. As of a couple months ago, I started calling our daughter Lawson because I hear Ansley so often & as stupid as it may be, it irks me. She responds to both names because Brian still calls her Ansley and I have gone back & forth because I'm slightly embarrassed to tell people that I want to call her by her middle name now. But as of yesterday, I am sticking with Lawson. We were out shopping & on two separate occasions, I heard "Ansley".

This is part of the reason I have been using "AL" on all the blog entries. As for Lawson, we chose this name because it was my Nana's middle name & her mother's maiden/middle name. I have wanted to use Lawson as the name of my first born since the moment I heard it. I wanted to use it as AL's first name, but Brian liked it better for a boy's first name.

So after all that, I just wanted to get it out there, so in the future, when you hear me calling our daughter "Lawson", you know why. But, like I said, she does respond to both names, so feel free to call her what ever you'd like.



Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Fall is Here!!!

This weekend was super busy, which was actually unexpected, but great. Saturday morning we met the Woods family & the Foregger family at the pumpkin patch. It was a blast!

I know I have said this before, but every month gets better & better! It is so much fun seeing AL interact w/ other kids & it's absolutely amazing to watch her learn & see new things. The kids played on the playground for a bit & AL watched the baby animals (there was no petting b/c "they bite"). Then we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Since fall is just around the corner, the grass has gotten harder & she didn't like that at all. We sat her next to the pumpkins & she kept touching the grass & then would look up at us and whimper. She did this a few times until we were able to interest her in the many pumpkins all around her.

Tyler (Woods), Walter & Grant (Foregger) were so cute & GREAT w/ AL. All the boys wore matching outfits & AL was intrigued by everything they did. Brian was camera happy so we got a lot of really good pictures, here are just a few....

After the pumpkin patch, we took AL home to eat lunch & take a nap. Once she woke up, we headed over to my brother's house. He was having people over to watch the games. We were supposed to go to the Bucket Shop too, (Buckhead's Auburn Bar) but I misplaced my phone. We had a great time though & all "Uncle Bud's" friends LOVED some AL.


Today, Brian went to the gun club w/ Papa, so AL, Mimi & I went shopping! Yay!! AL got her first pair of real shoes. Some keds, they are so cute & make her look like such a big girl. We have all had a big weekend & are exhausted! But it was wonderful & I hate to see it end, although I'm sure there are many more to come.

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Determination at it's Finest

Our little girl, aka "Monkey"....there is no restraining this one! These pictures are of Brian trying to keep AL out of the kitchen. For really no other reason than "just because".

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Happy Birthday Caleb!

I can't believe Caleb is 5 years old!!!

His birthday was October 1 & we had cake & ice cream to celebrate!







Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

While wifey's away, Brian will play...

While in Chicago, Brian decided to work on our backyard. It was a "surprise" for me.

There wasn't that much wrong with the yard. It just had two sunken holes towards the back & one on the side. So Brian got to play on a bobcat leveling out the yard.

It does look much better...well, once the grass grows back, it will look much better!

Ok, here are a couple pictures of before...I know you can't really see them, but they are there :) I have marked the two in the back w/ red arrows. Excuse Kahlua, these are the only before pictures I could find.

Here is what it looked like after....

Well, now that the pictures of the yard are posted, I realize that you really, really can't tell any difference. So you'll just have to take my word for it. But for laughs, here is Brian driving the bobcat....

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley

Windy City...

Two weeks ago, I left for Chicago w/ two of the BEST girls I know, Krysta & Stephanie. We have all been friends since high school, but all live in different states, so we don't see each other much. We had such an amazing trip eating & laughing our way through the city. We did A LOT of walking too. So much walking that I got a blister & it was bleeding by the time we got back to the hotel. Stephanie had flip flops on & was sweet enough to switch shoes with me. I overpacked, yet still didn't bring to right footwear!

As a whole, we took a lot of pictures, but I think most of them are on Stephanie's camera. Here are just a few that I took....

The view from our room @ the FourSeasons

Um...Chicago can grow palm trees?

trying to take a picture of ourselves in the Kidney Bean...

One of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen...

Cheers...best margaritas I've EVER had!!!!!

Much Love,
Brian, Lauren & Ansley