Ok ok ok...

Ok ok...I haven't blogged in forever.  I'm like the horrible online guru blogger.  I like to look at everybody else's blog and then think to myself about what I should blog about...until I've realized I've been contemplating for hours and so it's time to go to bed.  This has been my life for the past several months ;) 

Updates to our life: 
We now live in the beautiful state of North Carolina with all the trees (yay) and all the traffic (yuck)!  But nonetheless, we love it so far!  Our child is now almost 16 months old and has an attitude at times to prove it, more updates on her in a different paragraph.  Amanda started at UNC and as she put it...and she made it through her first night on call with 55 babies, I would say that is a success!  I have transferred with Regions and now work in Raleigh, stressful, but good...some days are harder than others I suppose.  Rebound likes his new house, except for the stairs, but definitely enjoys barking at the bunnies and the deer that come into the yard.  Our life has settled down a bit and we now feel like we're home...except for our neighborhood...boy do we miss our neighbors in Nola. 

Onto Regan: 

She will be 16 months in 4 days and I cannot believe where the time has gone.  Quickly time flies when you have to keep up with a little girl who's hair is starting to turn wavy, giggles if you dance in front of her, watches tv with us and claps at the appropriate times after a dance on 'So you think you Can Dance,' throws the ball mostly in the right direction, slides down the stairs...and then goes back up the stairs, knows exactly what she wants but doesn't have the big girl words to tell us, gives hugs and kisses, loves shopping, plays on playgrounds, sits at the big girl table, drinks out of sippy cups that are not meant for her age, eats gogurt (with some help of course), loves her sunglasses, and her puppy...and so much more.  Our life has continued with more adventures.  Never did I realize that Regan would be able to turn me into a Mama...a person that I longed to be for so long, but didn't truly understand the meaning until she came into my life.  I had my perceptions of what parenthood would be like, but it has most definitely been more than I could have ever imagined and I am so thankful to continue all the fun we're having :)  Amanda and I are so proud of her, for the learning and the growing that she has done in just the past couple of months...cannot imagine what is too come, but we're ready! 

Promise that there will be more updates to come...I will be better about putting my thoughts onto the blog that I'm quite sure everyone wants to read about it :) 

Love, 
The England's (AKA...Cheryl)

Here's some pictures...

Before church :)

Cuteness!

New pool!

Aunt Tristan playing with bubbles on 4th of July

Cousins :)

Regan's Doctor and our friend Cat :)

Meesh & Brian...miss them already!

So pretty!

1/2 year old!

A ½ year old and the time is passing by as quickly. We are both trying to enjoy her as much as we can so because we know that this time is so precious and we’re never going to get back the silly little moments or the sweet grins. Since Regan has come into our life things have changed, but it’s changed so much for the good with bathtime and sweet giggles and precious smiles, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Regan now weighs in around 16 lbs. She’s officially in 3-6 month clothes and some 6-9 month, depending on the brand. She wears shoes most of the time when she is with us and she wears a size 2, but size 3 is coming pretty fast. She is about 26 inches long, above average for her age. When we went to the doctor she was so good. She played with all of her toys forever while we were waiting on the doctor to come in…silly doctors!

We have officially started her on solid food, besides the Oatmeal cereal that she was getting…which she loves by the way! I was so excited to see what kind of new foods she would eat. I knew I wanted to make her food even though I had no clue how I was going to make it. Mom gave us her Bullet and we bought some ice cube trays to freeze it and some little Tupperware bowls to bring it to school everyday. It actually wasn’t that hard at all…much cheaper too! We started off with Green Beans, and boy my bubble was popped quickly…she hated it. It was a horrible experience, she cried the entire time. We tried again and she did a little better, but she was definitely not a fan. Next we moved onto Zucchini and this turned her around…oh man, she loves it and even smacks her lips…too funny. Limas, depends on the nights, sweet peas (she’s only had these out of the store jars) she ate in NC and she liked them, and asparagus…which she loved! Gotta admit…the kid likes the “weird” veggies…good for us!!! We’re onto a different color tonight and Carrots, we shall see how that goes. It has definitely been fun feeding her and it’s neat to see her funny faces when she’s not a fan and when she likes something. I cannot wait to feed her fruit. And she will definitely be ready for some Thanksgiving food and Christmas Dinner

This past month she has become her own person. It is so fun to watch her grow as a person and learn new things everyday. She’s starting to crawl and it’s so funny. She was army crawling for a while, but she is definitely now officially crawling…now, it still takes her a while and she gets tired, but it’s happening…especially if she’s after Rebound…so cute! I am amazed at how quickly she has caught on. Of course I have no concept as to how long it should take, but I think it’s amazing!!! Amanda says I shouldn’t have wished it so soon, but it will be neat to tell her…”come on” and hopefully she will follow…ha, we shall see how that all works out. I’m excited for her, but I sure Rebound won’t be too excited when she will be chasing after him ;)

We went to Raleigh last weekend and Regan got to meet so many new people and she got to see where she’s going to live starting next year with cooler weather. We had an awesome weekend with awesome people.

She is the most wonderful thing!!! So proud to be her Mama :)

Regan definitely entertains us :)

This is what we see from our couch :)

Here are a few of my favorite things about Regan...

Here are a few of my favorite things about Regan...

Her smiles in the mornings. The twinkle in her eye. The way she giggles. The look of delight when you hand her a light up toy. When she is in the Bjorn, how she kicks her feet constantly. I love when she looks in the mirror...she has no idea that she's laughing at herself. Her little outfits are the best. The sighs she makes when she's on my shoulder about to fall asleep. The smiles she has when I pick her up from daycare. Feeding her breakfast, she says mmm... and she gets so excited! The look of enjoyment in her eyes when Rebound gives her kisses. I absolutely love going in her room at night to watch her sleep, one of the sweetest times we have. I am so in love with this little girl. She completes my world.

4 1/2 Months

Newborn picture

She's almost 5 months now!

Ok, so I have been such a slacker in posting on the blog that I have just got to do better. Regan is 4 1/2 months old...so here is an update of what has been going on around our house.

In the mornings when you go into her room she is on her belly looking up at you and grinning from ear to ear. If you roll her over, she will just smile at you and try to roll back over. Some days you have to wake her up and she is a hard one let me tell you...she will rub her eyes for 5 minutes trying to wake up and Amanda always says that she's going to be a hard teenager to wake up, haha!

She loves her food and when she wants it...she wants it right then. She started on Rice Cereal but she was having some reflux so we stopped it this week to see if that would help and it did, so we're going to try something different next week...Oatmeal, yummy! We shall see how it goes.

Bath night = the most fun Regan has anytime. She absolutely loves kicking, splashing, and giggling at our silly songs we sing to her...I think it's the most fun any of us have :)

She is starting to scoot around, well kind of. She definitely wants to crawl, she came home from daycare one night and she must have seen some of the babies crawling around and so she tried to figure it out...ha, it's so cute. Amanda says our life is about to be over when she starts crawling around.

We take walks pretty regularly with our neighbors and Regan is almost always in the Baby Bjorn and she loves it. There are 2 things that will happen, either she will fall asleep or she will kick her legs the whole time and laugh.

Rebound and Regan are becoming fast friends...well, at least Regan thinks so! She loves to tug on him and pull him. We keep telling him that once she starts crawling she is going to come after him, because right now he walks away if he gets annoyed...things will be changing soon!

That's just a few things and here are a couple of pictures of how quickly Regan has grown up in the past 4 1/2 months, crazy how fast time is flying...probably because we're having so much fun!!!

Much love from Regan :)

3 Months Already

Man...Regan is 3 months already. She is doing so great. I look at her pictures from when she was born and I think to myself...wow, I cannot believe how much she has changed and it's only been 3 short months. I have no clue what is in store for us, but change is inevitable.

Regan loves to eat. She loves to sleep through the night, which her mommies are happy about. Daycare doesn't seem to bother her and they tell us that she has a good time. The morning is her favorite still, and I'm glad Amanda got to be here the other morning to see just how happy she truly is. Rebound gives her kisses and she smiles now at him. She doesn't like to be cradled anymore...she is definitely one that likes to look around. She is interested in everything. We went out to eat last night and she took forever to take her bottle because she couldn't stop watching things long enough to pay attention to her bottle, ha. She loves water. We took her swimming last weekend and she had such a good time. She laughed at Harper because she kept jumping in the pool. The other morning the wind blew the blanket off her carrier and the rain got in her face and she was grinning from ear to ear, such a funny moment. Bath time is still her favorite, she can stay in there over 30 minutes if we let her. She's not too much of a fan of her carseat and heaven forbid you have to stop at red light...she's not a fan of those either. She loves her paci, but loves her hands more. We still swaddle her at night because she sleeps through the night like that, but we're thinking that we need to transition to not doing that soon, maybe tonight. She is in love with being outside, the bugs don't seem to bother her. The playmat is becoming her friend with the songs it sings. She's sometimes ok with her bumbo seat, sometimes not so much. The child does not like to take long naps, it's more like cat naps throughout the day, she doesn't want to miss anything.

We are just amazed at every little thing she does. It's so much fun seeing things through her eyes. Being her Mom is the most special thing :) We are so blessed that we have a daughter that is so good, most of the time! Regan is doing just great and we are so thankful to have her in our lives!

Much love from Regan :)

12 Weeks Today

Well, she's not 3 months in terms of the months, but she is officially 12 weeks old today. I cannot believe it!!! :) Regan is growing each and every day, that it's crazy. She's starting noticing her feet and the fact that she moves them, which is funny. She's drooling more...guessing the teething stage is coming faster than we realized. She loves to pull hair, necklaces, etc...except she doesn't grip toys all that well yet. She's a happy baby in the morning, she's a happy baby in the bathtub, she is a happy baby when you go outside...she's not a happy baby when you stop at red lights sometimes, she's not a happy baby when you take her out of the bath, and she's not a happy baby when we make her do tummy time. She's sweet and cuddles, but only when she wants to. She loves to look at Rebound and loves to be up on your shoulder to look around. Her personality is definitely shining through.

A little bit after her 2 month "birthday" we took her to the doctor and she weighed in at 9 lbs 3 ozs, but we know she's gotten much bigger since then. She's much longer and she's definitely in 0-3 month clothes. Amanda and I both had to work one weekend, so Lauren kept her and Jenn came over to play...they said she was good, so here's hoping to her being a good girl. I was off for Memorial Day, so me and Regan hung out all day long. :) My Mom flew in for a weekend so that she could spend so time with Regan because she just couldn't stand seeing pictures and how much she had changed. Amanda and I had Med-Peds Graduation to go to, so one of our church friends, Maryann Chrestman, kept Regan. We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives to watch little Regan and be excited to do so. Tristan came this weekend, Russell wasn't able to get off of work :( We did however have a good time just talking, playing with Regan and laughing. It's always good to get a good dose of North Carolina :) We have many trips planned for this summer as we travel around the Southeast it seems to visit family and let Regan meet her extended family.

The time is definitely flying by. Regan is getting so big already and it seems like we will be planning her 1st birthday before we know it!

Love from Regan