Annabelle in the Mirror

Annabelle plays with her favorite friend in the mirror!

Caption This!

I take a ton of pictures of Annabelle.... I mean A LOT! So sometimes Stephen and I play a little game called "caption this." (Since not all photos are winners!) I send him a pic while he is a work and he sends back a funny caption. I thought I would shard just a few...

Hop on Tillie, I will help you get that squirrel!

Ahh! Mom, Tillie is trying to get Sophie! Get her away!

How did this room get so messy??.... Tillie!!!!

Annabelle's Racetrack

Bluebonnets!

Our little native Texan had to have her picture taken in the bluebonnets! So, Stephen, Mimi, Annabelle and I packed up last Saturday and drove to Garland to find some big patches of our state flower. Here are some of the best pics that we took. Love, Love, Love!!!

South Carolina on My Mind Part 5

One last story about our trip to SC. Stephen and I love Groucho's Deli! The love goes back to our college days at USC. We used to go to Groucho's in Five Points almost every week. To be truthful pretty much everyone did! So, every time we head back to SC we hit up the local Groucho's. Unfortunately, the closest restaurant to us this time was located on the Clemson University campus. Boo. Annabelle's first experience with the greatest sandwich shop ever.... in the land of the orange paw print! Sad.

Anyway, we made Groucho's the first stop as soon as we rolled into South Carolina. We couldn't wait to get a delicious STP and Apollo sandwich into our mouths. We walked inside the restaurant and grabbed a booth surrounded by orange Clemson paraphernalia. The minute we sat down and got comfortable... Annabelle promptly puked all over the booth and all over Stephen. I know that she wasn't felling well... but I choose to believe her stomach was unsettled by all the orange and purple! HA!

We still enjoyed our visit to Groucho's. I hope its not another year before we visit again. Yum!

South Carolina on My Mind Part 4

Meet the relations! We loved seeing all our wonderful family. Here are some pics. More to follow.... Stephen has some pics on his phone.

Cheers!

South Carolina on My Mind Part 3

The Wedding: Yea- Happy wedding day to Woody and Melissa! The wedding was beautiful. Cheers to a fantastic life together.

waiting for Melissa at the alter 

The happy couple 

Stephen giving his best man toast

South Carolina on My Mind Part 2

As I mentioned in the previous post we stayed with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna in Anderson while in South Carolina. They have a beautiful lake house and it was so nice of them to take care of us. Here are a few pics of us around the lake house.

oh the water!

walking with dad 

playing with dad on the floor- we took a lot of toys to SC with us!

best ride in town- dad's shoulders

rocking

watching all the model trains

welcome sign! Says: Welcome Annabelle and the others that brought you!

South Carolina On My Mind Part 1

We had been looking forward to our trip to South Carolina for awhile. Stephen's best friend, Woody Crenshaw was getting married and we were all set to make the trek across the country to join in on the festivities. As a bonus- we would be able to see all of our family along the way. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna live on the lake in Anderson so we stayed with them for most of our trip. FYI- Stephen and I both have family that still live around the Greenville area. I will fill you in on all the relations in a later post.

Stephen and I decided that driving was the best option for this trip (due to all of Annabelle's gear) plus we needed a car in SC to get around. Ideally we would have two days of driving - about eight hours a piece. For the most part the driving wasn't bad. Annabelle was great the first day.... didn't sleep but maybe 45 minutes of the ride but seemed happy and content to go along with our shenanigans. The second day however was a bit different as that was when we noticed her mood change- she had caught Stephen's "sickness." She slept a lot more in the car the second day but she wasn't interested in eating and ran a slight temperature. To be fair I had noticed that she was starting to get a tooth on the bottom gum. Elevated temps and loss of appetite are also symptoms of teething. But, I knew this was more. She wasn't as energetic as normal and I worried she may have an ear infection.

We got to the lake house late on Wednesday night. She was happy to be out of the car.... we were too! We had all day Thursday to relax and play at the lake and that is exactly what we did. Annabelle was great during the day. Her temp seemed stable at 99 and so I didn't take her to the doctor. I regret that now... should have gone sooner. That night she was up and down - her nose stopped up and she was congested.

We took her to Anderson Medical Hospital on Friday morning. Turns out she had a sinus infection and a double ear infection. No good. We got some meds and were hoping that she could get a little relief and sleep Friday night. I was most concerned as she couldn't keep any of her food down. I ended up not going to Woody's rehearsal dinner in Greenville because I didn't want to leave her and I was also starting to feel poorly.

Saturday Annabelle still wasn't feeling better and we didn't get that much sleep. Stephen had gone to stay overnight with Woody so I was on my own. We were however excited to get to visit with cousins Saturday afternoon. Annabelle got to meet Isabelle and Lilly for the first time and it was so fun to see them play together. I have pics on that to follow.

Saturday afternoon I headed to Greenville for the wedding- which was lovely. Congrats again Woody and Melissa! Annabelle was going to come with us to the wedding but she still wasn't on the mend so Mike and Donna graciously babysat for us.

We ended up leaving for home on Sunday morning. Annabelle was doing better keeping her food down but was starting to get a cough. I was getting worse.... and my ears were hurting like crazy. We drove to Mississippi to stay with Stephen's sister Angie. Annabelle and I slept most of the way. Poor Stephen had to drive the entire trip! At least he was starting to feel better!

After visiting with Angie and her family a little while Sunday we left Monday morning for home. We arrived in Dallas about 4pm. Home sweet home! I went directly to the doctor....(sinus infection and ear infection) and Annabelle went to the doctor Tuesday morning (sinus infection, ear infections and upper respiratory infection). We were in such bad shape when we got home that I had to ask my mom to come and help out!! Thankfully she did! Mimi to the rescue!

We are on the mend now though and so happy for it. I can't thank Mike and Donna enough for letting the sickies stay with them. They were amazing, cooking for us and babysitting Annabelle while Stephen and I went to the wedding. We are so blessed to have a wonderful family!

More posts to follow on our trip.... we did have a little fun! Oh, SC I hope we get to visit again soon!

Annabelle got a rattle from the nurse  at AnMed to distract her. She liked it for about a second 

sick baby

sick baby girl

Dad to the rescue at the hospital

Sleepy girl...

Annabelle learning how to drive at a gas station in Alabama

Here comes my first tooth!

We are alive!

Just in case you were wondering.... the Nickles family is on the mend. We had a rough last couple of weeks dealing with sinus infections and ear infections but we are coming out of it! I have a ton of stuff to fill you in on about our recent SC trip. That will come soon. Also.... Annabelle is on the cusp of crawling and using her walker like crazy all around our house. So fun! Videos to come soon.

Love, Love, Love
Katie

Where is Winter?

Sunny and 70 in January and February? Yes, please!!! I guess Texas decided to skip winter this year... fine by me! It gives us the opportunity to be outside.

Here are a couple pics of us taking advantage of the sunshine at the lake, park and in our backyard.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Who's that baby inside the mirror? Oh, it's me!? Humm, ok. Let's play!

Story time

I absolutely love that Annabelle enjoys reading time. We read to her every morning and go to the library as often as possible. Here are a couple pics of Annabelle enjoying Baby Bounce- a class at the library where parents of kiddos 0-24 months read books, sing and dance together. When we first went to this class she just sat there observing and taking everything in. Now, she gets so excited and shakes her little props and jumps up and down. She loves it!

8 Months

Annabelle is 8 months old as of March 7th. I am not sure of her weight since we don't have our next official DR visit until 9 months but I think its somewhere around 16lbs. She definitely has put on some weight since we weaned her over to formula. She is, as of Feb 28th, completely transitioned into formula. She still has four bottles a day, 8 oz in the morning, two 6 oz in the afternoon and another 8 oz before bed. Lately, she hasn't been drinking all of the bottles usually leaving 1 to 2 oz but when she is going through her growth spurts she can't get enough!! For example, about a week ago she was hungry all the time. She had four 8oz bottles three days straight. It was crazy! But you can tell now that she was growing taller. (That seems to be the trend for her. Grow out then shoot up!)

Annabelle has come out of her shell verbally... She screams and babbles a lot with her goos and gaa's. She can say baa's and occasionally mama's. I am super excited about the mama even tho I know she isn't doing it on purpose. No dada's or lala's yet which baffles me because they are usually easier  for babies to say. Every chance Stephen gets he is asking her to say daddy or dada. It's adorable!

Still not crawling. She has pushed up several times but has no interest in taking the leap forward. Annabelle is still happiest being walked around the house. Stephen and I are very curious to see if she will skip the crawling phase altogether and just start walking. She loves it that much! Stephen was also an early walker (8 months old) so we wonder if she will be the same.

Annabelle loves to play with her toys and books- same as always. She has much better control of her hands and fingers. She can pick up smaller toys and snacks like mumums but is still working on puffs and cherrios. Annabelle is learning to use her new walker. She has the going backwards down but still working on moving forward. I have started putting her in her pack in play to get her ready for when she is mobile. I figure better safe than sorry. She likes it but would rather be out on the carpet.

Just in case you were wondering, Annabelle still doesn't have any teeth. I keep thinking that they will pop out anyway now. She likes to put everything in her mouth and loves to chew and drool so I never can tell. Guess we will just have to keep waiting!

Here is her 8 month pic!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Stephen turned 31 on Wed., March 7th but we had two celebrations for him. One, when my parents came into town last weekend and two, on his actual birthday date.

For the weekend celebration we all took part in our traditional Pappasito's experience-complete with margaritas, fajitas and mexican hats! I even saw Stephen do a little shake, shake dance while the wait staff sung happy birthday to him! It was fun times as always. AND Annabelle got to have some tortillas and wear a funny hat. Awesome!

On his actual birthday Stephen wanted to go get a Keurig coffee maker and have pizza at his favorite pizza spot, Grimaldi's. (He is such a high maintenance guy! HAHA!) So, that's what we did. Again, fun times!

Here are some pics of the two celebrations.