A special thank you...

**disclaimer** This post is about breastfeeding, so if you don't feel like reading about breastfeeding you might want to skip this one ;) And it's pretty long too ;)

I wanted to give a special thank you to my sister-in-law Amy. ** A little backstory, Amy and I have been best friends since 4th grade and ended up marrying brothers! How lucky are we?!?! **I would have never made it through breastfeeding both kids without you. You have no idea how much you helped me and it wasn't just with breastfeeding~parenting advice (ALL THE TIME!), friendships, marriage advice...you name it and I go to Amy. But, I mainly wanted to thank you for your help with breastfeeding b/c I am weaning Bailey right now and I have been thinking a lot about all your help. As it all comes to an end it's so bittersweet. I had always planned on weaning her at 6 months. I am so blessed that it went so much better this time around (it still hurt like nothing I have ever felt before for the first 3 weeks, but much better compared to 8 weeks of hurting with Jackson) Jackson stopped BF on his own after about 4 months, then I weaned him until about 7 months. At about 4 months he would just scream and scream anytime I tried to feed him and when we would give him the bottle he was fine. I remember vividly crying sitting in our recliner one day trying to BF him and he was screaming, I just didn't want to give up. John came in the room and said "if you don't give him a bottle, I will". And he was totally right, what was I doing to myself and Jackson?!?! Why are we so darn hard on ourselves about breastfeeding?? I promised myself this time around that I wouldn't be like that, and I wasn't. I try to be the calming voice of reason for other Mom's I talk to that are having issues with BF. I try to repay the favor and knowledge that Amy gave to me. It is not the end of the world to give you baby formula and you are no less of a mother! Amy helped me to see that and she did not sugar coat anything either. She told me how bad it hurts, how often you have to do it, and how dedicated you have to be. She also comforted me & told me how good of a mother I was when I had to stop with Jackson. And she is doing the same this time around with Bailey. She never made me feel like less of a mother, and you would be surprised at how many woman do make you feel like that! I will be excited to have my body back to normal size again soon. Also, Bailey has been biting me like CRAZY all the time! Jackson only bit me one time and I naturally screamed, he cried, and never bit me again. Bailey on the other hand laughs and smiles when I yelp...go figure! I started weaning her on Saturday. I thought that weaning would take a while like it did Jackson, but I am already down to 1 feeding a day and then 2 when she wakes up at night. I am excited that other people, including Jackson (as you can see from the pics above, he is soooo excited about Bailey's milk) get to feed her now!! I don't want to leave anyone out that also helped me...also a big thanks to Janet and even other people that were just there to just lend an ear like John (who had to hear it even when he didn't want too ;) my Mom, Mrs. Moe, Jessi, and all my high school girls. I can't believe she will be 6 months old in a few days! I gave all my maternity clothes and breast pump away and can't believe how emotional it was for me to part with. Who would have thought those clothes that I hated to wear and that breastpump I hated to use would make me emotional?!? I guess we had been through a lot together ;)

Thank you again sister! Love you!

My very own Handy Man

This is John's newest project, which made me want to write a whole blog post about some of the things he has done for us! This is a water faucet that he put in at the top of our driveway.

Cooper is standing in the background where he routed the water from to do the faucet. He had to dig the ditch, connect the pvc piping and all sorts of other stuff (I am TERRIBLE at explaining his projects if you can't already tell...they are just so complicated~to me at least!) Eventually John is going to put in a sprinkler system (I know!),but this is a start.

John rewired every room in our entire house with CAT5, phone, cable, and Internet.

Yep, this was once open and went into the garage, it was so silly that it was ever there and John put up drywall and covered up the doorway. I know the paint is a different color, but the whole hallways needs to be repainted anyways. (gotta love that Cooper posed in front of it for me!)

John built this cool holder for the boat motor, so it can now be in our garage and off the floor.

He put up this air hose reel (oh, and yes he has a HUGE air compressor for all his projects), an extension cord reel (one of the best gift I came up with for him!) and yep, he did all that copper piping to route the air to it from the air compressor.

He put garage door openers in our kitchen so we can open them from upstairs (soooo helpful!) and he also rewired and programed our alarm system himself!

Not sure if I ever posted the finished product of the drain he put in outside our garage...looks so great huh? I did think it was a little overboard at first, but now I love it!

He put up this hose reel outside the other day. I know this doesn't seem like that big of a project, but did you see how he put up boards to mount it and painted them too?!?!

What your looking for is the post by the tree. If you look closely you will see that John installed a thing (don't know the name for it) that beeps when anything goes down the driveway. It's for safety for the children in case they are playing at the bottom of the driveway and it helps us know if an intruder or anything is going down the driveway...it does a loud BEEP when anything crosses in it's path.

John planted blueberry trees that his Mom sweetly gave us. And if you look in the background you can see the faucet up at the top of our driveway (I know...WHO else can say they know how to do that?!?!)

He fixed the mailbox that I gently nudged and it happen to fall onto the ground ;) (sorry about blurring our #, but there are are some creepy people in this world)

He put together our new grill that we have been waiting 6 long months to buy. And yep...he even routed our gas line through the basement up into our deck so that we never have to buy another gas tank!! He said that was one of his hardest projects he has done.

He replaced the timing belt on my car a few weeks ago. He also change a bunch of other belts and all sorts of other stuff too. He does all of our brakes and you name if for our cars (he was a certified mechanic all through highschool). All of these projects are both recent and from past years. I am sure I am butchering the wording on what he has done,but I didn't want him to know I was doing this post, b/c John doesn't like/expect that kind of attention...but he deserves it ;) I should also add that I am sure a lot of these are not completely finished and he would not want you to judge him on things that are not perfect yet! To that, I say he is amazing. No one else I know would even know where to start on ANY of these projects!! There are a million more things he has done for us over the past almost 7 years since we have been married, but it would be way too long of a post if I named them all~seriously. I know I complain sometimes and tell him his ideas are crazy and the time it takes, but he always does them perfectly. I usually eat my words,b/c I usually end up loving what he has done! I just wanted him to know how much we all appreciate all the things he does for us and how much I love my handy man :)

Diddy's Birthday

Cooper (or Toopa's as Jackson has affectionately been calling him...actually we have too) came along with us to Janet and John's and stayed in the basement while Layla (Bud's dog) was out back. Janet went downstairs and was suprised by Cooper peeking at her like this ;) LOL We all got a good laugh from this picture!

We went to visit Grandfather and he got to meet his newest great-grandchild!

God blessed us with a beautiful day for our visit :)

We had such a great time! Jackson even said a prayer for Diddy's Happy Birthday Cake and Ice Cream when he went to bed the next night :)

Yellow River Game Ranch

All 5 Ballard Grandchildren. This one is going to be a classic...I can already tell ;)

Last week was spring break for Auburn, so we went to the Game Ranch with Amy & the kids, Mrs. Spinner, and Janet. It was such an awesome time! Jackson did great! He went up to all the animals and wasn't that shy. They have picnic tables and a playground outside, so we packed a lunch and played for a while afterwards~I wish we lived closer to our family, but we are lucky we get to see them as often as we do!

St. Patrick's Day

We were lucky that John was working swing shift last week and he got to be home for St. Patrick's Day. He took Jackson to school for me both days and on St. Patty's Day we even took Bailey to eat Mexican for a "lunch date". Yes, I know Bailey was with us, but believe me...it is like a date with one baby ;) If we only realized that with Jackson...I am sure every parent says that! **please give my family a break on the picture, it was just after we had all got up in the morning! :)

What a difference two years makes. They were born 5 days apart, so of course the Jackson's St. Patrick's Day shirt fit her too :) They actually look about the same size too. I can't believe how fast they grow!

5 Month Pictures!

I want to thank my Aunt Beth and Uncle Cal for sending this BEAUTIFUL bucket to Bailey! The moment I opened it I knew I was going to take pictures of her in it! In one of the pictures Bailey is biting the bucket for a good reason, she got her 1st tooth the other day! She is growing too fast!!

Bailey's 5 months

My Aunt Mary made her this beautiful hat!! And my friend Dana from bunco gave her the super trendy outfit :)

This is how we have done bath time for a while. Both Jackson and Bailey LOVE it! He basically pours water on her feet for 30 minutes :) He begs me and says, "Bailey take bath! Bailey take bath!" Oh, and she found her feet this month too!

This is Bailey with Carson's new baby sister Camden! Carson and Jackson have been friends since birth, they are only 5 days apart. He calls all little boys he sees "Carson"! Bailey is almost 5 months in this pic and Camden is 6 weeks! Can you tell why I think Bailey is small?!?!

This is Avery and Will holding Bailey's hand, so sweet!

Jackson LOVES to watch Bailey eat! He pulls the stool from the bathroom into the kitchen so he can have a better look. This is basically how it looks every time I am feeding her. He is such a good big brother! Bailey's favorite thing to do is watch her big brother. She watches him with a big smile on her face and is amazed at all he does. I can totally see why I wanted to do everything like my brother when I was little. He is still VERY protective of her and loves to give her kisses. He still says, "Mama hold Bailey!" over & over when someone else (besides family) is holding her...basically saying "get your hands off my sister!". Bailey is doing great with solids :)

Looking like her Mama

My friends that have know me forever & family comment all the time on how much Bailey looks like me. I found these three pictures from my wedding slide show and tried to match it up with similar ones I had of Bailey. I think she does look like me as a little girl, but I will let you be the judge...