There is a blogger in our "blogging world" that everyone knows and loves. Her "real" name is Jennifer and her bloggy name is "McKMama". She is a gifted writer, amazing photographer, a Christian warrior and the Mommy to 4 little munchkins. Her youngest has been fighting SVT (a very irregular heartbeat) since before he was born. They never thought he'd be born and make it in the first place. He is here though and he is a precious little guy. He has been in and out of the hospital several times. He is there again right now and this is about as bad as he's been. Things aren't looking good for him. For a little boy doctors said would never be born alive though, he's a fighter. God can do anything and I'm praying for a miracle. If you'd like to read more about Stellan, click here. If you don't have time, please say extra prayers for a little boy named Stellan and his precious family. As I sit here with my own little one napping by me on the couch, my heart breaks for a family watching their baby sturggle like this.

Way back Wednesday

My friend Janelle does 'way back wednesday' and I thought I'd follow in her trail this week. I am so bad at blogging now with facebook so easy to use and so many friends and family members on there. The bloggie is neglected, I'll try to do better.


Here is a picture of me with my Grand Daddy in 1977, I was three. This was Christmas and he'd bought me a doll. We were tight, always were. I have a 2part huge long tribute post to him click here

I miss him bunches, he's looking down on us from Heaven for sure. It breaks my heart that Cole will only know him from pictures and memories, Grand Daddy LOVED LOVED LOVED babies and kids and they LOVED him back!! Having his own Great Grand Baby would have thrilled him to no end.

Andy & I say that Grand Daddy is the reason God sent us Cole. Grand Daddy has been in Heaven on the phone with God (Grand Daddy's favorite form of communication was the phone and he called me every day of my life pretty much) and bugging God to send us a baby. That or sittin' in rocking chairs with God telling him the same thing.

He would have loved Cole so much! They would have been so close. Breaks my heart I say~


And here we are a few Christmas' ago. Still sittin' with him and he was still buying me toys for Christmas. I loved it as much as he did!!!

Pictures at Target

Let me start this by saying, things that may seem so mundane and normal to you.... are so huge and exciting to me. Keep in mind I've been watching friends (and strangers alike) take their little one for pictures for 10 years with jealous eyes. So... to have last night arrive and take our own Little Toot for pictures was quite the landmark event in the Tanner house.

I am mad at myself for not going when he was tiny, but what can I do now? I take SO many pictures DAILY (bless his heart) that I hate to spend money getting 'em done too often. Plus, my best friend since childhood, shout out Amy, is a professional photographer. She has been trying to bring her studio to our house for weeks, but life (lives an hour away, surgery, 3 kids and travel) have made it impossible so far. I was lucky she got to visit and meet him the week he arrived. I finally made the decision to get on it and make an appointment before he turned 6 weeks old, which happens tomorrow. Where does time go???? (I've been a Mommy for 6 weeks, Holy Moly)

Anyway... there are dozens of places to get 'em done, as you know. For me it ended up being all about being close and easy to get too after Andy got home from work. So off to my favorite Target we went. I was very pleased. They offered tons more options than I went for. Cole being a little guy and not able to "pose" too much, she had many ideas. I opted to skip the traditional newborn "mushy" shots. I can't stand (no offense to those who have them, they are just SO NOT us) those pics with parents staring lovingly at baby, baby on naked shoulders, yadda yadda. They are sweet, but so not us. So... we didn't take a ton.

I really liked the lady who took them, she seemed to have a creative spirit (wether or not she was following the script) and she was very friendly. She was great with Cole and I enjoyed her. Target offered tons of options for printing, tons. She showed me how to work her computer to edit the pics how I wanted, make my own layouts and price the entire thing as I went. Was nice to have control. However I could have spent HOURS playing with them and Cole was finished shopping with Daddy. ---- He was WONDERFUL for the pics, played right along. What can I say, he's getting use to it. Then he & Daddy went to look at golf stuff, match box cars and bought an icee... then they took another stroll b/c I was still playing....then they come back DONE. I wanted to edit more and ran outta time. I think it could have been Andy done more than Cole..anyway, I digress.

The prices are about average to what other studios offer, it does take a week instead of printing on site. You can view them online, I had an email by the time I got home with the link. They are little low resolution view shots, but that's great to see what they did. Plus you can order more from online and they even hand you a sample sheet. It's not pics per say, but just printed like a screen shot on regular paper. Again, nice to look at and at least see what you ordered b/c you forget.

Now... I would have loved a professional session away from a "box store", but again.... I want them done often and can't afford that. So.... eventually... for now I'm happy.

Who can talk so much about pictures other than me?

I also didn't want him in a pastel blue or white baby outfit. It's so not him. He's a little tough guy and doesn't even own a "baby boy" outfit like that. So I chose this little green & white outfit that fits him well and I thought would work just fine.

I'll stop rambling and show ya a few favorites.








Ok, more rambling-
I also wanted at least one picture of us together. I didn't really want a "formal"ish portrait of any sort. I wanted it to be kinda fun and playful. So... I went with a football plan and am SOOO glad we did that. I think it's adorable. The little jersey was from a lady Andy works with and if we wouldn't have put it on yesterday, he never would have. It's already really too small (didn't think I'd ever get it back off, oops) He is growing so fast! Again, we didn't need a huge variety and I sure didn't need more options to have to choose from. So we only took a couple. I think they are a pretty perfect representation of us though! (only thing better would have been a Disney picture and don't think we didn't talk about it, but we're going in a few months....so I resisted)





So... enjoy our Little Toot and newest baby Bulldog!

Happy 4th of July Yall~

Hoping you enjoyed a beautiful day filled with good friends or family, good food and good times. Hoping you took time to thank God for our country, freedom and those who fight to keep us free!!

What does he weigh?

I'm taking votes on what Little Toot will weigh today at his Dr. visit. I have people voting on facebook and will give ya a chance here too. He weighed 4 lbs 14 oz at birth. Two weeks after that he weighed 5 lbs and 8 oz. That was a little over two weeks ago. He's eating about 4oz at a time typically and about 7 times a day. The picture is of him earlier this week. We're finally wearing our cutie newborn clothes instead of preemie, yipee~ He was seriously the one to say "Mommy, I have sooo many clothes in my closet and not a thing to wear!"

Proceed in voting in the comment section, prize to follow for winner here and at facebook. (Once someone has picked a weight, please don't chose the same one again)

Do it quickly because I'll close voting and have a winner later this afternoon.........