Saturday, October 1, 2011

Shelby's Newborn Photoshoot

I knew if I didn't have a newborn photo session done for Shelby when she was just a few weeks old I was really going to regret it. So, since we headed up to Grammy and Pops for a few weeks right after Shelby was born (our house is still under construction) I decided to use a photographer in the DFW area last minute to get those irreplaceable pictures taken and here are just a few. :)








She really is just the most precious little girl. God truly blessed us with an easy-going babe. She is currently 5 1/2 weeks old and she is sleeping from around 6:30 pm to 3:30 am, 9 hours, before her first nighttime feeding. Now, that isn't every single night, we still have a few nights here and there where she is hungrier than others, but overall, she sleeps a long stretch and lets her Mommy and Daddy sleep as well.
She is starting to really focus on our faces and her sisters' voices. They are always in her face talking to her, so not noticing them would be impossible. :)
Baylee has taken to walking around the house saying "Ohhhh, Shelby. Ohhhh, Shelby...it's ok" at various times during the day because I'm sure she has heard me say that a time or two. Reagan is always concerned about Shelby's paci, as well as her own, but she always wants to make sure I know where Shelby's paci is in case she needs it. Addison likes to play with Shelby's feet, she thinks it's funny. I keep telling her to just leave the baby alone but no one listens to me. :)
I don't know how much Shelby weighs right now, but I am sure it is somewhere in the 10-12 lb range.
Things upcoming for the Huse family: The older girls' actual birthday party (a few weeks late) we are having an Olivia the Pig themed party because the girls L.O.V.E. Olivia, the completion of our house estimated to be in about 20-25 days!!!, and Halloween! It's already been a crazy year for us and the next three months aren't slowing down at all.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Shelby Dale :)

You were born toward the end of the longest streak of triple digit temperatures in Texas history...and I was feeling it every day :). So hot!
I was pressing Dr. Beaird all the way through my pregnancy with you to allow me to deliver you naturally, but as we found out about a week before your due date (August 24th) that you were most likely already over 9 lbs. we decided it would be best to go ahead and schedule a c-section for August 23rd rather than wait for my body to go into labor on its own.
You were born August 23rd at 10:38 am weighing in at 9 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 21 inches long. You were precious and you still are! You had so much dark hair, like your Daddy, and everyone in the operating room was commenting on how beautiful you were. Such a pretty baby! :)



Pop and Grandaddy's first look at you :)
A lot of your family was able to be there the day you were born. Your Pop was the first to get to hold you. :)
Aunt Missy, Uncle Clark and your cousins CJ, Mark, Peyton and Mackenzie came to Waco just for your arrival.
Grammy, Gran, Grandaddy, Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Adam were all there as well to welcome you into the world and into our loving family.
Grammy holding you for the first time
Gran with her 4th grandbaby :)
Uncle Adam and Aunt Elizabeth
Your older sisters were able to come visit you at the hospital later that day and they weren't too sure what to make of the whole situation. Seeing Mommy all laid up in bed in a strange place was a little overwhelming for sure. But, they have started saying your name although it sounds more like "Selby" and most of the time they just call you "Baby." They have started loving to help me take care of you and be wherever you are when you aren't napping.
Your Daddy has been doting on you and singing songs with only your name in them since the minute we were alone with you.

Shelby Dale - 26 days old


You have been such a blessed addition to our family. You are such an easy-going baby and you don't make things too hard on your Momma :). We can't wait to watch you grow, but not too fast. ;)

Regardless, you'll always be my baby girl.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Anticipation!

I know, it has been FOREVER since I have posted anything. As my Mother so sweetly reminded me the other day, "You haven't blogged in a while." Sorry Grammy! Things have just been NUTS around here for us. I feel like things are in a tailspin all the time and I am just trying to keep up.
Lately, our life has been all about anticipation. We are anticipating the arrival of our sweet Shelby Dale. Any day now, she should make her appearance, we hope. I am hoping and praying to go into labor on my own and not have to go through another c-section.
I am currently 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant and things aren't progressing as my OB had hoped for this point in my pregnancy. So, he's a little discouraged but hasn't completely given up on my desire to deliver naturally this time. He said at my last appointment, "I'm still walking down this path right with you, but there may come a point when you reach 40 weeks that I might have to counsel you on just scheduling a c-section." I trust him and he has been more than on board with me the entire time, so I know if he thinks it's time to just do the c-section, then it is time. But I'm not giving up until that exact moment!
Also, this week we are anticipating Baylee getting tubes put in her ears. We have known for a few months now that Baylee has been getting more than her fair share of ear infections and we finally got our pedi to refer us to an ENT here in Waco. He took one look in her ears and said she needed tubes for sure. I wish so much we had done this sooner because I am convinced the fluid and infections in her ears has played a part in her speech development. She just can't hear us correctly! So, we are hoping this will help Baylee Boo hear better, speak better and be just an overall happier kid.
We are also anticipating the completion of our new home! Everyday we can see progress being made and it is so exciting but also makes us want it to be completed that much sooner so we can start enjoying it. I have been spending time picking out doors, windows, hardware, fixtures and appliances trying to get all of the BIG STUFF picked out and ordered before Shelby gets here. So far, I think we are on track. The only things I need to worry about now are paint colors, but that will come at the VERY end, so I can relax for a little while.
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks to a month (sorry about the quality, all of our "good" cameras are packed up in the hospital bag so we have been using our cell phones for the every day shots).
Brent sharing his sucker with the girls-their 1st sucker :)

The Girls' Favorite Snack - PUDDING!
Baylee
Addison
Reagan
Playing with sidewalk chalk
Their new picnic table
Practicing holding hands to walk into MDO

Learning to catch with Gran - for some reason they think they need their backs against the wall to catch the ball :)
And some progress on the house:
Brent dozing the ditch out in front of the house
Drilling Piers
Framing getting started :)
More Framing..
Windows going in and more framing...
Roof decking and house wrap going on...
So far, over the end of last week and the weekend, a lot of the electrical has been installed and the duct work for the A/C has gone in. Today, they have been installing the black paper for the roof and hopefully this week we will see some roofing happening and possibly some stone work on the outside, maybe?! Oh, and I am totally obsessed/ecstatic about our bay window area in the dining room, finally I have an awesome place to put our Christmas Tree! I know, such a random, stupid thing to be excited about but I just can't stop talking about it to Brent. Every time we go look at the house, I comment on it. :)
The next time I post will most likely be with pictures of our new baby girl!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Story of Us

I let mine and Brent's 5 year anniversary get away from me without posting a blog about how we met in the first place.
Girls, this long narrative is all for you.
One of the things you hear when you start as a freshman at Baylor University, where your Daddy and I went to college, is that you are highly likely to meet your spouse there...same as any college I guess.
I didn't think that would be me. I dated a little in college but by my senior year I had pretty much given up on meeting the Baylor guy of my dreams...until one night in December during the week of final exams :).
At a wedding in West, 2005
Let me back up, your Daddy and I were both business students so we had relatively the same degree plan. We both opted out of taking 4 semesters of a foreign language and took classes in Communication instead. (A big mistake girls. We both agree learning to speak Spanish fluently would have served us much better in our careers and life and those communication classes we took instead were pretty much a joke...yet, it did bring us together, so everything happens for a reason.)
Seeing The Piano Man at Treff's in Waco, 2005
Your Daddy and I had Small Group Communication together in the Fall of 2003, our Junior year. We happened to be paired up in a group project together. Daddy, myself, a sorority sister of mine and another female classmate were assigned to create a presentation displaying the dynamics of a small group in a movie and we chose the movie "Ocean's 11."
I have to admit, your Daddy was quiet in our group meetings, he didn't say much unless he had something important he wanted to contribute. He also wasn't really excited about the project in the first place so when we assigned him to place the appropriate clips from the movie in our PowerPoint presentation (a major part of the whole project) and bring the finished product to class the day of our presentation, my sorority sister and I were a little nervous. :) He came through big time! The presentation was a big hit and we got an "A".
We didn't see much of each other in the Spring semester or that next Summer other than occasionally out on the town with our respective groups of friends. We'd always wave and say hello as we passed by.
This leads me to the Fall of 2004, our Senior year. The first day of our 8 am Public Relations Writing class, your Daddy and I discovered we were classmates yet again. We sat next to each other because we kind of knew each other and each day after class we'd wait for the other to walk back to the business school together. We'd talk about our classes, our friends, our weekends on our walks and we would e-mail each other if one of us missed a class to find out what we needed to know for the next class or test.
Bluhm Rd, 2005, who knew we'd end up building a house here years later :)
Your Daddy always wore a hat to class (what I later found out was due to a head shaving incident with his buddies and he was trying to let his hair grow back out) and I thought he was funny, sweet and really cute but I never imagined he was the slightest bit interested in me.
Until one night during Fall final exams week. I was out to dinner with a group of friends when I got a text from a phone number I didn't immediately recognize. (this was back in the day when the name of the person texting you didn't show up on the text, just their phone number.) It said, "Have any plans for tonight?"I turned to my friend, Steve, and asked if he recognized the number on the text. He said no, but if I hit "call back" and that person's number is saved in my contacts on my phone then their name will pop up. I hit call back and "Brent Huse" popped up on the screen. I was surprised but happy surprised :). I texted back that actually, I did have plans, I was going to a party at a friend's house and then we'd probably end up at Scruffy Murphy's, a bar across from my apartment, before the end of the night but he was welcome to meet up with me there. Your Daddy said he was with some friends right then but he'd try to catch up with me later that night. I have to admit, I was disappointed when I didn't see him at Scruffy's that night. (I later found out that he did drag his friends over there but I had already left. :) Your Daddy texted me late and said he was sorry we didn't meet up and asked would I mind if he called me sometime. I said sure but that I'd be studying for the GMAT the rest of the week and I was taking the test that next Wednesday. He said, "How about I call you Tuesday afternoon and we can make plans to go out after your test on Wednesday?" I agreed. And, your Daddy did exactly what he said he was going to do, he called Tuesday afternoon. (Bonus points) We were discussing our date the next evening and I was pleasantly surprised that he had already thought it through and made plans instead of all of that, "Where would you like to go?" "I don't know, wherever you like to go..." stuff. I hate that. Instead, he said, "I was thinking I'd pick you up and take you to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we can go to Crickets to meet up with some of my friends." Excellent, I thought, a guy who isn't afraid to make a decision. (More bonus points)
I took the GMAT on Wednesday morning (I didn't do great on it, I don't think my heart was fully in it) and your Daddy picked me up right on time Wednesday night. (He picked me up in Grandaddy's truck. Your Daddy drove a silver Chevy truck through college that he worked hard to buy himself, but I guess he was already trying to impress me by taking me out in Grandaddy's nicer truck. :)
We had a great dinner together and it was so comfortable like we had known each other forever.
After dinner, we went to Crickets in downtown Waco to meet up with your Daddy's friend, Pav, and his girlfriend. We had fun and I think we went a few other places before he drove me back to my apartment, when I realized I had locked my keys in the condo and had no way in. I had NEVER done that before and I was really embarrassed. I had to call my roommate at the time, Megan, and ask her if I could come get her key from her. Your Daddy sweetly drove me across town to pick up the key and then took me back home.
Graduating from Baylor, May 2005
Unfortunately, since our first date was right after Fall Finals, I was leaving the next day to spend Christmas vacation in Brady, TX at Grammy and Pop's ranch. Your Daddy and I spoke by phone over the break but didn't see each other again until Spring rush, a week before school started in January 2005. From that point on, we were pretty inseparable. We spent all of our free time together and eventually had to designate study nights away from each other so we could pass our classes.
We were head over heels for each other FAST. The first time we said "I Love You" was on Valentine's Day 2005 and we both knew that was it, we'd be together forever.
We both graduated from Baylor in May of 2005 and were engaged by September 28th.
New Years Eve 2005
Engagement Picture
Our wedding was May 13, 2006 at Balcones Springs Resort in Marble Falls, Texas.
At the Rehearsal Dinner at Balcones Springs
Happy, Happy! Wedding Day, 2006
Honeymoon in St. John, VI, 2006
After 5 years of marriage, 3 baby girls and 1 on the way, your Daddy and I still hold hands all the time, we talk about everything and we can still make each other laugh so hard we cry.
Addison, Reagan & Baylee's Newborn pictures, 2009
Addison, Reagan & Baylee's first Easter, 2010
And most of all, we love you girls more than life itself.

Addison, Reagan & Baylee's 1 year pictures, 2010
Mommy's 10 Year High School Reunion Trip to Vegas, 2011
7 Months Pregnant with Shelby Dale