Picture This

My dear friend recently blogged using pictures from her phone. Great idea! I have well over a 100 pictures on my phone, and though I post many on facebook, none of them ever make my blog! So here goes:

                                                   A much younger Maddie and I, before church!

Playing with daddy on the soccer field

Reindeer antlers

Silly

That's my girl!

A favorite book

Cutie

With Uncle Monkey in Wisconsin

:)

A Rangers fan!

:)

Pregnant with Brooklyn...Super Bowl

Wearing mommy's shirt, watching a game

Meet Brooklyn Hope

Love this!

Sailor Josh Templin.

Yes, she's pretending to nurse her baby doll.

He takes care of the baby AND washes dishes!

Rock Star

My sweet girls! Love, love, love them!

Whew! That wasn't quite a 100+, but still a lot of pictures! Hope you enjoyed!



Memory Lane

BEWARE, this is a lengthy but fun post!

I just LOVE looking back through old pictures and watching how mine and Jaime's relationship has grown over the years! I couldn't seem to access all the photos I wanted but was able to retrieve enough to have fun! Im starting in June of 2006. Jaime and I had been dating for over a year (we met in May of 2005) and we headed to Washington for his sister's wedding. This was the second time I had met his family (we spent the previous Christmas in Wisconsin). Back in Texas, we had already picked out my engagement ring and I was looking at wedding dresses, waiting for him to officially propose! Here is a look back:

The Seattle airport, where family and wedding party all met up.

Spent a day driving up to Mt. Baker.

                                                We drove into Canada where we played putt-putt

A much skinnier US!

The Crouse family

Upon returning to Texas, Jaime proposed! It was July 7, 2006 to be exact and we quickly decided that we would get married on December 30th of that year! I always wanted a Christmas wedding so it was perfect. I picked out my dress and began making all the plans!

In October, I had my bridal pictures taken at the Rose Garden.

Two months later: our wedding

I was still in college when we got married. I was finishing up at ETBU and Jaime was a soccer coach and dorm director there, so we both had to get back. We took our official honymoon in March over Spring break.. We went to Oahu, Hawaii!

                                                          Waiting in line at Pearl Harbor

                                                              Sunset at Germaine's Luau



It didn't take long for me to get baby fever. By June of 2007, we were pregnant...roughly 6 months after getting married!

Baby Crouse @ 10 weeks

And our next sonogram....IT'S A GIRL!

                                                                     Madison Elizabeth

There were baby showers (and a 40 pound weight gain...eek!)

                                                                 The big day~3.13.08!!

After Maddie is born, we leave Marshall and move back to Whitehouse-renting a home from my dad. Here is chruch softball night!

                                                                Curtis and Erin's wedding

                                                                          5 generations

                                                                        1st Father's day

Jaime teaches and coaches in Hallsville, even though we live in Whitehouse. Here is a Friday night football game!

                                                                1st Halloween...a ladybug!

Our 1st Christmas with Maddie

In January of 2009, I started working for Smith County as an adult probation officer. Two months later, Maddie celebrated her 1st birthday!!

That same month, we were pregnant again, only to then have our first of three miscarriages.

In March of 2010, we bought or first home and moved in just in time for Maddie's 2nd birthday. We quickly learned we were pregnant again and as you all know, we now have our sweet Brooklyn Hope! We've been in our new house for over a year now and Im a stay-at-home mom again, spending my days with both my girls! Jaime and I are approaching our 5th wedding anniversary in December. What a great life we have had so far. I look forward to many, many more years!!

It's my party~

and I'll cry if I want to!



Such a rare occurence by my sweet Brooklyn. Therefore, it HAD to be documented! :)

4th Month

Happy 4 months, Brooklyn bear!
You have had an active and fun time lately! Today, we went to see Dr. Smith for your well check and those dreaded shots. As always, you got nothing but a good report and were a champ! Here are all your recent stats:

-wear size 1 diapers
-in 3 month or some 3-6 month clothing
-weigh 13lbs. 5oz (about average percentile) and are 23 inches long (10th percentile)
-nurse every 2-3 hours
-started cereal
-sleep anywhere from 9:30pm to sometime between 6:30 and 8:00am
-roll from your back to your tummy
-grin and giggle constantly
-rarely spit up, unlike your sister when she was a baby
-trying to grab at and hold onto toys

You are a wonderful baby! I find myself being extremely patient with you (probably more so than I ever was with your sister as a baby). I don't have much to complain about to begin with. Im blessed with good babies. But even when you are fussy or I am tired, I remind myself of everything I went through to get you here and all the pregnancies I lost. That will usually change my outlook on things, quickly!

Here are some recent pictures:

I suppose she knows a pretty baby when she sees one!

Wished I could sleep that

Yummy cereal

Big bow, cute outfit, gorgeous baby girl!

My sweeties!

4 months old!! Time needs to stop for a little while...



Lately...

We've been busy bees in the Crouse House, lately! Jaime has been in full swing with two-a-days for football. Bless his heart! I couldn't imagine coaching in this heat. I like highscool football but hate it as the wife of a coach. Im bracing myself for him being gone a lot, again. :(

We started the P90X dvd workout series. It is hard and I am so sore! I am convinced though that I will get healthy and will lose the rest of my baby weight. I dropped a lot of pounds right after having Brooklyn, thanks in part to my gall bladder surgery. Now Im ready to lose the rest and want working out to be the way I do it. I lost all my weight with Maddie at about the 6 month mark. That's when I stopped nursing which seemed to help me adjust the rest of my weight. But I always kept my little baby pooch! I don't worry about shedding the pounds. I've done it once, I'll do it again. And I know that when I stop nursing, that will help once again too. (Im wearing an insane bra size right now!) But I'd like to tone a little better this time. My philosophy is that you should always get down to a good size before you ever get pregnant again. And yes....I do want to be pregnant again someday. So I better get busy! Besides....I'll be 30 in about two years and I certainly want to be as fit as I can be as I get older!

Maddie ran into a wall today and got herself a pretty nice shiner. The saying "watch where you're going, not where you've been" gets said a lot these days!! Poor girl....

I suppose that's it for now. Hopefully next time I can share some more pictures and talk about something far more interesting!!!