Catharsis...

...I had 85 days left being pregnant w/ our sweet baby girl and she decided to enter the world!  Many of you that follow my blog most likely are friends w/ either Steve or myself on Facebook.  We set up a Facebook Community page to give the run down on what happened and updates about our sweet baby girl.


Monday, July 28th, at 9:02 am Mary Annalise Middleton was born!  2 lbs. 15 oz. 15.3 in.  Mary, you surprised us all.  We're so delighted you joined our family little lady!


Woohoo!  Dr. Cowan was able to deliver you!



You've been in the NICU since your birth.  Since you're 10 weeks early you'll be vacationing in the NICU until your due date (October 7th).



In the meantime you're sleeping, growing, eating, sleeping, and growing some more!


We love visiting and snuggling with you!


I love that you're a brunette and look a little bit like me!

Happy Birthday sweet baby Jack!!!  Please don't think we forgot about you little boy.  It's been almost a month since we started celebrating you turning one.  A lot has happened within the past month but for now I want to focus on YOU and the many CELEBRATIONS we had for your ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY!!!



Birthday presents for the birthday boy!


Happy Birthday boy with his Birthday shirt and a hammer Daddy bought him.  We sure love that you love to stick out your tongue at us.  You look like a lizard...a cute lizard.


So, so, so, so tall!  Stop growing sweet boy!

 Here are just a few of my favorite Jack pics.  Thanks for making me such a happy mama!


Birthday lunch with daddy during his lunch break!


Hmmmmm, what's going on here?  Do I really need to stick here?  Yes sweet boy you do!


Weeeeeeeeee, Jack's new car.


Birthday waffle for dinner.  First time eating whipped cream and a lemon poppyseed waffle!


Birthday cupcake with Grandma and Grandpa Middleton and Aunt Nessa.  Thanks to Aunt Nessa for making your first sweet treat ever!


Ooooohhhh, we love your expressions.  I'm thinking you like the cupcake!


And it's presents again!  You're so wonderful and did such a great job opening presents and saving the wrapping paper/tissue paper.  You must be watching your mama during the holidays!




Stacking blocks from Grandma & Grandpa Middleton!



More things to hit!


Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks.  I wish you could stay this small forever...but I guess we have no choice.  You can grow Jack.  Just not too fast!


We love watching you watch Curious George.  It's the only show I approve of you and Daddy watching.  You're so sweet, handsome, and obedient.  Thanks for being such a wonderful baby!


Ravioli, yum!


Sleeping baby in the car.  You're so sweet!


Daddy caught this picture of you.  Really, how are you so cute?  And how did you get so much personality!?!?!  We love you baby Jack!

...85 days to go until our sweet baby girl joins our family!  who's excited?!??!  how high can i raise my hand?  i feel like i've been pregnant for two years straight.  ugh.  the return gained though is totally worth it.  after watching a few of our favorite videos of jack last night we're thrilled and looking forward to watching another little human develop, grow, and steal our hearts.

...two blog posts in one day!?!?  how does that happen? 

jack's still sleeping and i thought in order to redeem myself (since i really do love blogging and hope my posterity will read this and will replace having to write in a journal) i decided to blog on about a happy moment this morning.

what's one of your guilty pleasures relating to food?!?  one of my is the sausage mcmuffin without egg from mcdonalds.  this morning jack and i got our hair cut (and can i say my little boy looks like a lot older now w/ his cut and i wanted to cry but abstained so my friend didn't think i was more crazy than i probably acted) and following i noticed there was 20 minutes left of mcdonalds serving breakfast.  hooray!

double hooray because we made and i was able to order my guilty pleasure.  typically the combo meal (b/c these days a coke 1x/week really helps my energy level) is $4.86.  this morning the gal that rang my order quoted only $2.80.  i decided to go w/ the flow after confirming i'd get my hash browns and coke.  as i reached the window to pay she gave me specific instructions as to what to order in order to save $2.  really!?!?  i'm lovin' it.  then this nice lady told me she's a mama on a budget!  ha!  made me laugh.

as i drove off, happy as a clam, i decided to say her verbatim terms in my phone for the next time i order my breakfast guilty pleasure.  hmmmmm, hmmmmm.  now that you've had time to either feel sorry for me b/c this is my guilty pleasure (regardless of being pregnant i love it) or you agree it's a tasty guilty pleasure...have you thought of your guilty pleasure for food?  what is it?

Has it really been almost 4 months since I blogged?!?!  Yes, I suppose it has.  What have I been doing during this time?  Continuing to play and laugh hard everyday with our little Jack.  He's such a delight and has such a wonderful, sweet, and loving disposition. 

Jack turns 1, been alive for 365 days, in 2 days.  I can't believe it's been that long and that he and we are still alive to speak of it!  Thankfully he's such a handsome, good, goes w/ the flow baby that he's made being a mama easier than I could have ever imagined.




Thanks for loving us unconditionally Mr. Jack.  You're so new at life...and patient that we're so new at being your mama and daddy.

Happy 8 months little boy!  Thank you for your endless smiles, unconditional love, "old man" faces, and easy temperament.  We're so blessed to have you as ours!


Hi, I'm Jack.  I love exploring and crawling through Thor's tube!


I'm so handsome and all the ladies love my smile.  It doesn't take much to get a smile out of me!


I'm such a big helper to my mama.  Costco is fun because of all of the things and people to look at.  Plus, my mama stops and feeds me cereal as a snack in the food court.


I started crawling at 7 months 1 week old.  I'm not sure where I'm going most of the time, but I enjoy being on the same level as Thor.  We race around together!

We're so excited to announce another Middleton is in the works!  Jack is going to be a big brother and we couldn't think of anyone better than him to fulfill this role.  He's such a great little helper (at 7 1/2 months that's a feat), loves to give everyone smiles, and is so patient.  Our little worm keeps growing and has helped the transition of us being dog owners to parents.

Baby #2 is due October 17th!  Woohoo!!!  15 months apart will be crazy...but why not, what else are we doing?!?  And, let's be honest, I've never been one to choose the easy route in life.  Thank you for all of your love and support!

life just keeps moving along and i found myself becoming worse and worse about blogging!  our little cutie continues to make us smile.  he's darling and giggles all the time.  this little heart breaker makes friends everywhere he goes. 

 happy 6 months!



jack takes after his mama...he loves reading!


what a little ham!  daddy took this awesome pic!


we work double time on Sunday's at church to keep this little cutie occupied!


fiber, it's good for the soul.


happy 7 months mister jack!  you've been continuing to grow, roll, and started crawling a week ago!  what in the world are we going to do?!?  we're rolling with it!


jack you finally love taking baths and playing with the water!


hooray!  you're so fantastic with doing the splits!  baby jack, keep our hearts full and humble.  we love you!

life is so much more fun w/ a baby!  especially when he's the spitting image of his daddy!  jack you're loved by so many. 


we scored with a happy Santa picture!  Ho Ho Ho...you've definitely been a good boy!

 thanks for helping mommy and daddy decorate the tree!


twas the night before christmas lights...we were cutting it close with your bed time and you may have been asleep for this ride.  we loved some family time!


this is what happens when you have a new baby!  we're very blessed and thankful to the many people that love us and our baby jack.


your daddy surprised me with a mini-christmas tree!  we decided anything mini needed to be in the mini's room.  Merry Christmas baby Jack!