The Begley Blog

One. Big. Update.

2010-06-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have totally abandoned this blog! Serious this time...I am going attempt to keep this place up to date because Sophia's 1st BIRTHDAY (eeek!) is quickly approaching and I'm already forgetting things.

Anyways. Soph is taking steps but not walking just yet. She loves to climb up the couch and jump around like a silly girl. She LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, clapping, waving and saying "bah bah" (bye bye). She is in such a fun stage right now and just so happy. Everyone comments on it everywhere we go!

Phia's 1st birthday plans are starting to come together and I'm getting really excited :) We rented the picnic shelter at Activity Center Park. It has a spray park which is going to be awesome for all of the kids, especially in August. How cool is this?

Here are photos from the last couple of months. I can't believe how much she has grown!

Here's the 3 of us (this rarely happens!) -- I ordered this on canvas :)

Here's Fi-Fi in her favorite jammies

Love her smiles!

Here are Sophia's 9 month photos. Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

Vote for Sophia!

2010-04-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

It would be really awesome if you voted for Sophia by going here: http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/246473

She's got some major competition and needs the votes :) You can vote daily!

Oh and here's some recent pictures! Our friends Carrie & Rick got married over the weekend:

Erin & I at the reception:

Our family :)

And Sophia's "official" 8 month photo:

Call me crazy

2010-04-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

...but I'm already starting plans for Sophia's 1st birthday. I have no idea why I'm so excited about it because all I do is talk about how she's growing up way too quickly. I realized the other day that she is going to be 8 months in just a couple days, so she's going to be one in 4 months. Holy moly. Seriously, where does the time go? I swear we just brought her home from the hospital last week.

So far I know that it's going to be a cupcake theme - so, lots of cupcakes, sweets & pink. I want a Smores Station (seriously, I'm so excited for this):

A photo booth complete with mustaches (this is going to be a work in the making, I hope I can pull it off)

and some other fun things that I'm working on. I'm way too excited for this...

I haven't updated with photos for a while. Here are a few recent ones:

Our little fam on Easter:

Sophia at 8 months (a few days short, but who's counting?):

Me and my little nugget:

My 24th

2010-04-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

It was absolutely beautiful outside for my 24th birthday! Jordan surprised me with a Funfetti cake and a card from Sophia :) We also took Soph to see the Easter Bunny (she did so well, even smiled!) - I'll have a picture of that tomorrow.

Soph will hate me later on in life for pictures like these :) Here's a picture that I quickly snapped of Fifi with her bunny ears on

My yummy cake from Jordan

My card from Sophia...Jordan left Soph "draw" on it

Me and Soph on my birthday before we left to visit the Easter Bunny

Kisses!

7 Months

2010-03-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

I've had no time for updating this past month...It's been a whirl wind of working & traveling!

Sophia flew in an airplane for the very first time. She did so well!

Soph is now standing and pulling herself up on everything. Here we found her standing in her crib "singing" away as she always does:

Thanks to a nice bruise on her forehead, we've had to move the coffee table out of the living room. She also has some blonde hair coming in under her "mohawk". While I'm happy that Soph will no longer be rocking the old man comb-over, I guess we'll have to get used to the skunk look of dark brown & blonde hair :)

I tried to have a little "7 Month" session with Soph but it just wasn't happening. She's way too mobile now and is totally obsessed with my camera. She just wants to nom on it. Plus, it was so cloudy & dreary outside...I had horrible lighting. This is the best I got:

This is such a standard Sophia look

Sucking in her lips

Check out my toofers!

Another classic Sophia look

I call this one "E.T."

and my favorite one

So sweet

Checking something out...

Then we headed over to mammaw & pappaw's to enjoy the beautiful spring weather we've been having. Here's Soph and her "Aunt Ca-Ca"

Soph's crazy hair

My handsome hubs

Soph loves her cousin Colton

Mama's girl

Okay...we've been trying to capture this face and I finally got it! She's making the "bbbpppffffff" sound with her lips

Eating some nanners at mammaw's

6 months

2010-02-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? Everyone tells you to enjoy them while they're so little, it goes by so fast. That can be a hard thing to believe when you're living on 3-4 hours of sleep with a screaming newborn in your arms. I thought for sure I would never miss the "newborn" stage. Well, here we are 6 months later and I just can't believe it. Fifi (or Pee Wee...weird, I know), as we like to call her, is ready to crawl anyday now, loves to say "dadadada", "babababa" and as of very recently FINALLY "mamamama". I'm so excited for what's next!

1st cart ride!

2010-02-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

Such a big girl! We were doing some shopping for our cruise (2 more weeks!) last weekend and decided to let Soph try to ride in the cart for the first time. She did very well! She just sat there and hung out...looking all around and nomming on her bunny blanket. It's nice to know she doesn't mind sitting in the car and that we don't have to lug around her gigantic car seat into every store we go into. Soph is up to 16 pounds now and it's getting harder and harder to carry that seat around!

Here's a picture from my phone of her riding...and then another of her trying on some sunglasses :)

Sophia bites the dust!

2010-02-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

Poor thing. Sophia is really determined to crawl...we're waiting on her to take off any day now :) I decided to grab the camera in hopes of catching it on video. Here's a video where she takes a big leap and ends up face planting into the floor. Hopefully it didn't scare her too much!

Snow Day

2010-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Thanks to "Snowmaggedon", I got to stay home from work yesterday! Well, I still ended up working because I spent the entire day editing photos from a wedding...it was still nice to be home with Jordan & Sophia all day.

Sophia has tooth #2 coming in and she hasn't been handling it too well. She's been better about it within the last day, thankfully. Here are just a couple random photos I snapped of Sophia and her pig tails yesterday along with some pictures of her new shoes:

Growing so much!

2010-02-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent photos of Soph...still haven't managed to get a picture of that tooth yet!

We attempted to take a picture together, didn't quite work out :)

Mommy likes to play with my hair in the bath tub :)

New updates

2010-02-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated this blog nearly as often as I had planned. I really wanted Sophia to have something she could look back on when she's older and see tons of photos and read all about herself...That, and I love showing her off :) In order to get myself back into blogging a bit more, I'll be doing these survery's every so often. I'll be posting new pictures at some point today as well!

Age: 5 months, 2 weeks - growing like a weed!
Sleeping Habits: We were very spoiled because she slept through the night at a very early age. Soph usually wakes up at about 3:30am for a bottle and then again between 7:30-8am. Sometimes she'll go right back to sleep for an hour or so but usually she's up for the day! Don't even think about trying to get this child to lay down for a nap!
Eating Habits: We've started rice cereal once a day, which we think is giving her gas. We got some oatmeal last night and we're going to see how that treats her.
Favorite Activity: Definitely the Exersaucer! She jumps & screams in that thing and loves every minute...it's also just about the only time we're ever able to get anything done around the house :)
Cutest Moment All Week: Sophia trying to crawl! Sophia was visiting her mamaw and papaw and we all were dying laughing watching her try to crawl. I think she'll be doing it for real within the month - She gets all the way up on her knees but gets stuck and very frustrated.
Milestones: Starting to laugh A LOT more.

Couple of new pictures

2010-01-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

I attempted pig tails on Soph and they looked pretty silly :) I was really surprised she didn't try to pull them out! She's always playing with her hair, petting herself.

In other news, Sophia got her first tooth on Tuesday! It's a tiny little thing and not quite all the way through yet. It doesn't seem to be bothering her too terribly much. She got a little warm & fussy yesterday but Tylenol had her feeling better in no time!

Such a serious little girl :)

Time flies...

2010-01-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Sophia is 5 months old! I meant to post yesterday since she actually turned 5 months then BUT I got stuck with work and couldn't get around to it. I also have no 5 month pictures yet, coming soon!

Sophia's favorite things are baby talk (she now says "hi" and "yeah"), grabbing both of her feet and eating/licking them, playing in her exersaucer and jumparoo, her Glow Worm and Sea Horse and laying on the living room floor so that she can roll all over the place. She watches our mouthes very intently while we talk and tries to mimmick it. It's very cute :)

On the other hand, Sophia does not like to cuddle for very long. She always wants to be standing and bouncing. Come sleepy time, she's very cuddly and rubs her little face all over your shirt. She also does not like kisses, at all...especially from daddy or papaw. She loves when we blow raspberries on her tummy or neck though!

She is sitting up on her own for a minute or so at a time. It's so funny because she looks too tiny to be able to do it. She is really starting to form her own personality...and she's sassy, that's for sure. This is a very fun stage and though I'm sad to see her growing so quickly, I'm excited for all the fun that's to come :)

Well, at least we can say...

2010-01-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

we tried! We gave Sophia rice cereal for the first time yesterday and we'll just say it was an experience. Sophia's pediatrician said we could start with a spoon and see how she does. As these pictures show, I think we'll be trying it in her bottle next time :)

Sophia's nusery & a few new pics!

2010-01-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

I guess it's about time I share pictures of Sophia's nursery! These were taken on a really dark dreary day so the quality & colors are pretty horrific but you still get a good idea! We also haven't gotten around to installing the baseboards. Add that one to the To-Do List.

We moved the chair out (that I never used) and replaced it with Sophia's mini-me chair that she got for Christmas. Her Shabby Chic rug is also missing from these pictures because Sophia decided she wanted to barf on it :) I also included a couple recent photos of Miss Soph at the end.

I also had to share the fun new stuff I just got awesome deals on :) There is a children's boutique near my house that is going out of business and they had everything marked 30-50% off so I got:

This super cute Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag clutch.

This adorable owl outfit:

..and my FAVORITE! This poofy skirt thing to for Sophia to wear on her 1st birthday. I am in love with this thing. I go into her room just to look at it.

And here's a few recent pics of Soph...

Worn out on New Years Day

Playing in her Exersaucer, her favorite!

Sitting up like a big girl! She sat like this for a good solid minute or 2. Don't worry, Jordan was standing right by :)

Playing catch up...

2009-12-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

This poor blog. I really thought I would update weekly but things have been so hectic, I'm lucky to post once a month.

Sophia is almost 4 months old! I can't believe it! She is starting to develop a personality now and loves to be naked :) She loves to "stand" and grab my hair and try to eat it. If you give her anything, it instantly goes into her mouth. She loves to "talk" and smile at anyone and everyone. This is a very fun stage! She gives us some very sweet giggles every once in a while.

Here is a video we took of Sophia attempting to sit up on her own. She's working on it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jADyDfmLVGI

Here's some random photos. There are so many more!

1st Family Photos!

2009-11-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

We just got back our teasers from Cameron Braun and we couldn't be happier :) Poor Jordan, before we even got our pictures back from our first session I had already scheduled a mini-session for Christmas pictures. Hee-Hee. We're having those done on Saturday! Here's what we got so far, there's more to come.

New pictures!

2009-11-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Gosh, Sophia is getting so big...it's exciting yet so sad at the same time :( Here are some recent photos!

Some newer photos...

2009-11-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

I haven't had time to update in a couple weeks, so I just wanted to make a quick post of some recent photos of Miss Sophia. She's 11 weeks old today! Enjoy!

We think Sophia secretly plays with light sockets...

2009-10-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

because nothing else could explain this hair!

Ghosts & Pumpkins...I love fall

2009-10-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

I always dread the coming of fall because I know what follows it...but then I'm reminded how beautiful the fall can be too! We've had great weather the last couple of days and the trees are gorgeous. I find myself taking the long way home from work just so I can look at all of the pretty trees.

I made Sophia's halloween costume and I think it turned out pretty good for my first try! She is going to be a little ghost :) It's hard to tell in these pictures but she has a ghost face on her shirt.

We also did some pumpkin carving the other day. I didn't take a picture of my pumpkin because I'm seriously embarassed...it's pretty pathetic looking! Jordan's turned out good though :)

I think Sophia is officially sleeping through the night

2009-10-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

As I say this, I'm contemplating running all over the house and knocking on every piece of wood that I can find! We have started a new bed time routine with Sophia that is basically a bath at 9pm (she LOVES baths, especially having her hair washed), lotioned up, load up the Desitin, fresh diaper, jammies, put her in her SwaddleMe (these are seriously a life saver, worth every penny), bottle and if she isn't already asleep by the time she finishes her bottle then we rock for a few minutes and she is totally out. So far the last couple nights she has fallen asleep at about 9:30 and sleeps until 5 or 5:30 for a bottle but then goes right back down to sleep until about 7 or 8 - amazing!

I love Etsy...

2009-10-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

I really do! I could seriously spend an entire day looking at all of the cool stuff on there. It's starting to get cold so I wanted to get Sophia a car seat cover to help keep the wind off of her. I couldn't find any that matched her car seat, so I took a look on Etsy and of course I found one to match! I just bought this car seat cover from Etsy seller "hblackberry". Another cool thing about it is that the flower is detachable and can be put on headbands, hats, etc. Love it!

Sophia showing off her Baby Legs & flower headband!

2009-10-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I could be in some trouble because I've developed a really bad obsession with Baby Legs and headbands! LOVE them! Here are a few pictures of miss Sophia while I was getting her dressed on Saturday:

A trip to the pumpkin patch

2009-10-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we went with a couple of friends to a pumpkin patch and dressed Sophia up in her Pea in a Pod costume :) She slept through most of it but we got some pretty funny pictures! We also picked up 3 pumpkins to carve - one big one, one medium sized one and a little one for Sophia. I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin so this should be an interesting experience! Here are some pictures from our trip:

**Note: I didn't have time to resize the pictures so they are cut off but if you click on them you can see the full image!

This picture cracks me up, she looks like she's throwing up gang signs!

Yawn!

Pretty much over it at this point...

Our first family photo since the hospital, it's about time!

A few pictures!

2009-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Wearing her OSU outfit from Steve & Andrea

I love this little pink robe on her!

Jordan hanging out with Sophia at Kendra's wedding rehearsal

Sophia slept through the night!

2009-10-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

...and I woke up in a panic because I thought she died or something! I immediately checked to make sure she was breathing and as soon as I saw her little tummy moving up and down I was relieved, then ecstatic! She has never even almost slept through the whole night before, so this was such a nice surprise! I don't have high expectations that she'll keep it up...but I'll take that free night of sleep any day!

A new blog!

2009-09-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, now that Sophia is here I figured it was time to start a new "family" blog to keep everyone up to date. So if you followed my pregnancy blog, make sure you start following this one now because I won't be updating the old one anymore.

I know I probably sound like a crazy woman when I say this, but giving birth is the coolest thing ever. I should add that I had an epidural (which was ah-mazing!) so that's probably why we had such a great experience. I think the anticipation and worrying about getting the epidural was way worse than the actual birth...I didn't feel a thing! Well, I did feel pressure but it didn't hurt at all. We got to the hospital at 5:00 pm and got settled in and then around 6:00 pm they applied a gel to my cervix in order to start my contractions - they started almost immediately! They were bareable for a while but then they started the Pitocin at midnight and it wasn't long before I asked for the epi. I was so incredibly nervous to get the epidural and it scared Jordan so much that he couldn't even watch or hold my hand. Luckily Kettering has awesome nurses and my nurse held my hand and calmed me down because I was so tense. The epi didn't take too long to get in and before I knew it I was completely pain free and could finally get some sleep.

I'm not sure what time it was because I was 1/2 asleep but they came in a little while later to break my water. This really got the ball rolling! I went from 5 to 10 cm's within a little over an hour! The nurse wanted to do some practice pushes until my OB could get up but we had to stop after about 2 because she was coming so fast! She almost took my legs out of the stirrups and then she got a call that my OB was coming up the elevator so we just stopped. I heard her say "No he can't change into scrubs, get him here now!" - it scared me at the time, but now we laugh about that :) Dr. Altman came running into the room, we pushed a few times (I was told I'm a "great pusher", apparently) and she was here at 7:52 am! Jordan and I were both in tears and Dr. Altman immediately put her up to me so that I could give her a kiss, Jordan cut the cord and then he got to hold her for the first time. We were able to hold her and kiss her for a while before they took her to be checked, weighed, etc...which I loved. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces and she was 22 inches long -- so a pretty good sized little girl. I don't think it could have gone better!

It's been just over a month since Sophia was born and it seems like we've had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows since then. Lot's of stuff going on and a lot of changes! Sophia has been wonderful :) She is such a sweet little girl and has started giving us little grins within the last couple days...it's the cutest thing! She is so much more alert now, it's incredible. She loves to stare at lights or the ceiling fan, I wish I could be so easily amused! Sleep was really hard for a while. This week she is finally sleeping much better and only gets up once (usually around 3 or 4 am) for a feeding and then sleeps until about 7 or 8. I'm definitely looking forward to the day that she sleeps through the whole night :)

We have really sad news as well...We had to put down our little chihuaha, Tyson, on Friday night. We're still not exactly sure what was wrong with him but his vet thought that it was likely his liver or kidney's. He wasn't eating, throwing up a bit and just not himself at all. It was a really hard decision but we had to put him down so he wouldn't be sick anymore. It's been really hard on us...I hate that he died so young, he was only 4. So far Lola (our other chihuaha) has been fine, I'm not sure she realizes yet. We've just been spoiling her and giving her extra treats lately.

Anyways, I think most have already seen these photos but here are some pictures from a little session I had with Sophia at the house - she slept through the whole thing! I have lots more candid shots from over the weeks that I need to upload, I'll have those up soon as well! I'm sure there are some grandma's who want to see those :)