No Tax Break in 2009?!?

Well, unless Graham decides to make his entry into the world in the next 11 1/2 hours we will not be getting a tax break in 2009. I am now 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and went to see my doctor yesterday. She feels that he is going to hold out until the scheduled c-section which is Monday, January 11. Only 11 days away!! I am still thinking that he is going to come early because I have been having frequent contractions, but we will just wait and see! We are praying for a smooth delivery and healthy baby boy, regardless of when he arrives. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Morgan is at such a fun age and enjoyed every second of it. I am sure it will only become more fun in the years ahead. This year we stayed in town since I am so close to my due date. I missed spending time with my family in El Campo but there will be plenty more years to come to celebrate with all of them. On Christmas Eve morning, Bryan’s mom called and told us that Blake (Bryan’s brother and his family) just got into town after their 18 hour drive from Tampa. We were all still in our pjs but just packed up and went to visit. We were excited to see them!! We hadn’t seen them since our beach vacation with them at the end of July. Morgan enjoyed visiting her cousins, Austin (2 ½ years old)and Callie (1 year old).



While we were there it starting snowing!! Who knew that would happen?!? Morgan borrowed Daddy’s sweater cap and ran out to play. She loved it!





After playing for a few hours, we headed home to let her nap before church and Christmas Eve at the Baughman’s. She played a little more in the snow before heading to bed. She was so excited!!



A White Christmas Eve that we won't forget!!



Our family pic after church.



More pics from the evening.

Morgan and Austin...



Callie and Morgan...



Gammy and her grandkids (It was impossible to get them all happy and looking at camera, but we tried :))



On Christmas morning Morgan was excited about opening her presents. As soon as she saw a new toy, she wanted it out and put together. We had so much fun watching her! There is nothing better than seeing Christmas through the eyes of a toddler.



Little People Happy Home...



Playing with tea set...



Her 1st camera...



Morgan's 1st scooter...



Bryan and Morgan went out to run on the slippery sidewalk after opening presents...



We went to Brent and Julie’s on Christmas Day around noon. It was fun to spend more time with Bryan’s family. Here are a few pictures.







Mema with great grandkids...Again, it is impossible to get 4 toddlers under the age of 3 to pose for a picture.



On Saturday morning we went to tell Blake and his family bye. Morgan and Austin decorated a birthday cake for Baby Jesus because we didn't get to it on Friday.



Later that day my mom, Bobby, Kristie and her baby, Colton (11 months old) came to visit. It was so nice of them to make the trip to see us since we were unable to travel. Morgan was super excited to see them! We managed to get her through opening all her presents from the El Campo crew after about 2 hours. She loved all of her gifts!! Here are a couple pictures.





Morgan's new kitchen from Grams and Gramps. It is hard to get her out of her room these days because she is always cooking up something. :)



Colton and Morgan playing...



We are so thankful for all of our family. We love spending time with you all and so does Morgan!

Santa, Mrs. Claus and the three of us

This morning we took Morgan to Walnut Creek Country Club for Brunch with Santa. Last year she didn’t care for Santa and this year was no different. I thought we might have a shot at getting a good picture because she has been excited about seeing Santa on TV, playing with Santa toys and seeing Santa around town while looking at Christmas decorations. She calls Santa “Anta” and gets so excited to see him, until this morning when she saw him in person. We thought that Brunch with Santa at the country club would be our best chance at getting a good picture of Morgan with Santa since she is familiar with the environment and we wouldn’t have to wait in line. She was in a great mood and having a ball until she saw Santa and Mrs. Claus walking towards her. She started crying right away. We were not going to get her in his lap so we decided to all jump in the picture. We need some sort of picture with Morgan and Santa each year, regardless of if it is her by herself, all of us, smiles or frowns and this is it for this year - Morgan's 2nd Christmas.

Baby Graham

For us, picking names for both Morgan and our baby boy took some time. Their names will last a lifetime so we took our time in making a decision. We have decided our little boy’s name will be Graham. We have liked Graham all along and I like the idea of using Bryan’s initials for our little boy so that is what we have decided to do. For those of you who didn't know, Bryan’s first name is George. Our baby’s full name will be Graham Bennett Baughman. It feels good to finally have a name! How we just have to wait and meet him to make sure the name is a good fit! :)

Thanksgiving 2009

We went to visit my family in El Campo for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a wonderful weekend filled with family and food. Morgan enjoyed visiting with everyone and had a blast at Gram’s house. The weather was beautiful so she spent a lot of time playing outside. Morgan loves playing on Gram’s swing set and is also very entertained with all of the balls and tricycles that she has. We were all sad that we didn’t get to see Aunt Kristie, Uncle Brian and Baby Colton. Baby Colton was sick so they stayed home so that his illness didn’t spread. Hopefully we will see them sometime soon!! This was our last trip until after the baby is born. We will miss you all!! You all are welcome to come visit us. It is hard to believe that next time we make the trip to El Campo we will have two kiddos!







We are so thankful for all of the many blessings we have been given in our lives. This year has been one of the best years of our lives watching Morgan grow into the sweet little girl that she is. She is such a joy and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with her.

Morgan's Big Girl Bed

This was a BIG week in the Baughman household. We moved Morgan to her new big girl bed on Wednesday night. As many of you know, Bryan and I were dreading this day for the past couple months. We knew that we wanted to move her out of her crib to allow her time to get comfortable in her new bed before her baby brother arrives and needs the crib. This was hard for us though because she has been the best little sleeper and we didn’t know how she was going to handle the new bed and we didn’t want to mess up her great sleeping habits. Morgan went to daycare on Wednesday and when she got home we had her new bed set up and ready for her. We have been making a big deal about her new room and when she got home she walked in her room and a huge smile covered her face. She was so excited and wanted in her bed right away. We played in her room for the majority of the evening because she didn’t want to leave her new bed. After a couple hours passed she found the crib in the nursery. As soon as she saw it she said…baby bubba. She seems to understand that the crib will be the baby’s bed and she doesn’t seem to mind one bit!! Thank goodness. Wednesday night we went through our normal routine and put her in bed after reading a book and she was sleeping within 10 minutes, just like every other night. She didn’t make a peep all night. She did great and we were so proud. Thursday morning I was up early waiting for her make her first peep so I could go in and get her before she tried to crawl out of bed. It worked perfect. Hopefully she will learn to start calling us when she wants out rather than trying to climb out. We will see. Thursday during nap time she was humming herself to sleep and I heard a big thud following by screaming. I ran in to find her on the floor beside her nightstand. Poor baby…she did fall out. We have a bed rail but it doesn’t cover the entire length of the bed. She must have slipped through the crack. She was fine, we rocked a little and she was fast asleep and back in bed. No more falls since then. Hopefully she learned her lesson?!? This was really a big step and we are thankful that it has gone so well and hoping that it will continue. We are so proud of our little girl!! Here are a couple pictures of Morgan’s big girl room.

8 More Weeks...

Today we went in for my 31 week doctors appointment. All is good! We always have a family outing to my doctors appointments. I am so lucky to have such a caring husband and daughter to go along with me. I always tell Bryan he doesn't have to go because they are pretty uneventful but he refuses to miss one. Such a great daddy! I think Morgan enjoys the visits too. She is just happy we aren't visiting her doctor. She gets very quiet and has a huge smile every time we get to listen to the baby's heart beat. So cute! My doctor told me today that she is fine with us traveling for Thanksgiving so we will head to El Campo to be with my family but after that we won't stray far from home, just in case our baby decides to come early. My c-section is scheduled for Monday, January 11th at 12:00 p.m. Unless there are any signs of early labor or a reason to move the date, this is when our baby boy will arrive. I know these next 8 weeks are going to fly by with the holidays and all. We can't wait!!

21 Months

Morgan is now 21 months old. She is getting so close to turning 2. She is a ball of energy and keeps us on our toes. Morgan amazes us every day with all the new words she says and everything that she can understand. She is even starting to put a couple words together. She loves for people to read to her. Her favorite books right now are mostly animal related. Old Mac Donald is a favorite. She randomly says “EIEIO, moo moo here…” She also likes her Eight Silly Monkey book. From that book she has learned to hold her head and says “Mama…No More” from the story that reads Mama called the doctor and doctor said “No more monkeys jumping on the bed.” So cute. Morgan likes when we sing the ABC song. She says A, B, C when she is ready for us to sing. We have been working on counting for a while now but she really hasn’t caught on yet. When we count she says 2 and puts up 2 fingers. I guess she is ready to be 2!

I have been home with her full time now for about a month. We are enjoying our extra time together. We have started going to the MAC (Mansfield Activity Center) at least once a week and she loves it. Every day when we are getting ready to go bye bye she says MAC? She would go everyday if she could. They have lots for toddlers to do (bounce house, balls, mats…) Very good place for toddlers to run around and have fun. She still goes to her babysitter's once a week. April has been very nice to let me continue to bring her to play. Morgan loves everyone there and I didn’t want to take that fun time away from her. This also gives me a day to get some stuff done. We try our best to have something planned each day. Morgan and I both like to get out of the house and do fun things…we can’t stay home all the time. I am blessed to have a few friends that also stay at home that we can meet up with and I have joined an Early Childhood PTA group that also has lots of activities for us to do.

One funny thing Morgan is doing right now is telling everyone that her name is Emma. Emma is a friend of hers. We were at one of her friend’s birthday party this past weekend and a mom was calling her daughter Emma and Morgan turned around and said “huh??” She does answer to Morgan too, but I am starting to get a little concerned. Are we going to have to rename her?? I think she is doing the Emma thing to be silly?!?

I really think Morgan is starting to get excited and understand that she is going to have a baby brother. She kisses my stomach and says Baby Bubba. I was doing laundry the other day and she found some onesies for baby and Morgan said Bubba. I think she is going to be wonderful with him.

We are moving Morgan into her twin bed next week. I will keep you all posted on how that transition goes. We are hoping for the best. We have been putting this day off for a few months now because she is such a great sleeper and we don’t want the new bed to throw her routine off. It might, but hopefully after a little time she will love it as much as she does her crib.

We look forward to each new day with Morgan. She is such a blessing and we love her so much.

Morgan's 2nd Halloween

Morgan had a Happy 2nd Halloween. As expected, we didn't get her bumble bee costume back on her. Honestly, we didn't even try. She was so unhappy the day she had it on for pictures that every time we talked about the costume or she saw it she would get upset. It just wasn't worth the fight. We just wanted her to have a fun evening. We planned all along to let her wear one of her halloween t-shirts with jeans but at the last minute I was talking to Betsey, our sweet neighbor and she asked if we/Morgan wanted to borrow her daughter's cheerleading outfit that she wore a few years ago. We took her up on the offer and Morgan didn't mind it at all, I think she actulally liked it. Thank you so much, Betsey!! Maybe this is a sign that she will be a little cheerleader one day?!? Our neighborhood had a block party so we took Morgan to play with all the neighborhood kids around 4:30. They had a bounce house and lots of other fun games. Morgan LOVES bounce houses so that is where she spent the majority of her time. She was jumping, falling, rolling and just having a ball! Around 6:30 all the kids left the party and went trick or treating. Morgan loved that too. She didn't really like the idea of putting her treats in her pumpkin...she wanted to eat everything as soon as she got it. :) After trick or treating we went back to party and had dinner, let Morgan jump a little more and then she was ready to call it a night. She had a GREAT, HAPPY Halloween and so did we.

Our Little Bumble Bee

This morning I took Morgan to Studio One in the mall. All I wanted were a couple pictures of Morgan in her bumble bee costume, but boy...she wasn't having it!! She DOES NOT like her costume this year. I think it is the tulle skirt and the fur around the neck that irritates her. I couldn't even get her to keep her wings or headband on. This really might be the only pictures we get of her in the costume because I don't forsee her letting us put the costume back on. She pretty much screamed the entire time the costume was on. Such an unhappy little bee!! I even brought some smarties along, because candy usually makes her happy...not this morning!

Oh well, we got a couple pictures of her 2nd halloween. Maybe by next halloween she will be crazy about wearing a costume?!?

We have a funfilled weekend planned. Tonight we are going to YMCA's Halloween Fun Fest, tomorrow evening is Boo at the Zoo and Sunday is our chuch's halloween carnival. Lots of opportunities to wear her costume if she liked it, but we will just opt for a halloween shirt and jeans. I don't think I will bring the costume along.

If I happen to get more pictures of Morgan dressed in her complete costume, I will post...but don't hold your breath!!

http://www.holdmymemories.com/my_familywebsite/moment_page/1549472?familyname=Baughman&page=5#

Baby Tumbler

This summer we enrolled Morgan in a Little Gym class. The class was at 8 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Morgan is not really a morning person. It takes her awhile to wake up, so this class time was not ideal for her. She was very clingy to mommy and daddy, especially at the beginning of class. She didn't like the structured part which consisted of sitting in a circle, singing songs, playing with bells, etc. She would have been happier if she could have walked right into class and starting climbing on the equipment, etc. She did enjoy the second half of class, which was just that...running around, playing on equipment and playing with balls. Her favorite equipment was the balance beam and the climbing wall. We did practice forward rolls with her at class and at home. She has now begun rolling around on her own. It is so cute. Here is a link of her showing off her skills. We will check back into getting her enrolled in Little Gym at some point in the future, we just won't choose the 8 a.m. class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6gcmWyNftk

Morgan steals baby gift :)

On Wednesday evening we came home to find a UPS package at the front door from my old co-worker, Amy and her husband, Jeff. After dinner we were sitting around and I decided to let Morgan open the package. I don't believe she has tried to unwrap a gift since her birthday and at that time she still needed a lot of our help to get the gifts unwrapped. Bryan and I sat back and watched her attempt to open the gift and she did great unwrapping the box all by herself. This Christmas should be a lot of fun!! It didn't take long for Bryan and I to realize the gift she was opening was for our little boy. Bryan kept whispering to me "The gift is for the baby." I realized that but Bryan thought it was going to make her sad that it wasn't something for her. Lesson learned - we are going to have to give her some little surprises when we bring things home for the baby.:) I bought her a Big Sis gift earlier this week to give her in the hospital from her baby brother! Anyways, she didn't get sad at all and she didn't even realize the gift wasn't for her. It was the cutest pair of grey and orange Nike shoes. Morgan LOVES shoes and wanted me to put them on her right away. They were size 5, which she still fits into so I did let her wear them around the house. We always find her in our closet trying our shoes on. She does pretty good walking in my shoes, even my heels. Trying to walk in Bryan shoes/boots are quite the challenge for her. They are just to big and heavy but she loves to try!! Anyways, Morgan loved the gift and I know our little boy will too!! It was so hard to get the shoes off of her for bath time that night but we eventually did. While I was bathing her Bryan hid the shoes in our little boy's closet and will save them for him. Thanks so much Amy and Jeff!!

Today I went to my doctor for my 27 week appointment and everything is still going great. My doctor said she will plan my c-section at the beginning of November (probably my next appt) for the beginning of January. Unless there are early signs of labor, we will stick with the date that she schedules. As far as a name, we still haven't decided but Graham is the front runner because we like the name and if that is the name we decide on we will give him Bryan's initials (GBB).

1st Trip to Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday morning we took Morgan to play at our church's pumpkin patch. This was the first pumpkin patch visit of the year, but there will be many more visits in the next couple of weeks because she loved it! She loved running up and down the aisles of pumpkins. She called the small pumpkins balls and she was throwing them everywhere! She also had a great time playing on the horse of hay. Here are a couple pictures of our fun morning with the pumpkins!

Zoo time

Now that fall is here, trips to the zoo will take place more regularly. We didn’t go much in the summer because it was too hot. It is always fun and easy entertainment for Morgan. This morning we met our friends Lisa and Addyson out there. It is always good to see them. They are old neighbors and we don’t get to see them as much as we would like. The girls had a good time and it is always fun to catch up with Lisa. She and I are both now expecting baby boys. It is going to be a handful when we both have two kiddos to keep up with at the zoo. It was a bit of a challenge for me today…Morgan doesn’t like to stay in the stroller these days…she would rather walk/run through the zoo. Lisa was smart and brought popcorn for the girls so that helped keep Morgan in the stroller for awhile…whatever works!! :) Morgan had a great time and that is what matters. She is really starting to like animals a lot and imitate them by making her noices, so it was fun for her to see some of her favorite animals up close. The whole trip home she was making monkey noices…so cute! Here are some pics from today of Morgan, Addyson and Addyson’s cousin, Haley.

New Chapter in Life

It is time to start a new chapter in my life. I found out yesterday that I got laid off from KPMG as part of a reduction in force. My last day with the firm October 13th. I am very sad to be leaving the firm. KPMG has been my life since graduating from college seven years ago. I am not sure how the transition will be but I am hoping and praying for the best. My time at KPMG has been blessed. Not only has KPMG provided me challenging and rewarding work opportunities, I have also had the privilege to work side by side with many bright and talented individuals. I have had the distinct honor of seeing many young faces start their careers straight out of college. It has been a joy to see them grow into their profession. People have come and gone throughout the years, and each one of them holds a special place in my heart. I take pride in the fact that many of my past and current co-workers are not just co-workers, I consider them friends. It is so hard to say goodbye to them, but hopefully we will all continue to keep in touch. My new personal email that I will be using is tammybaughman@sbcglobal.net. As I begin this new chapter in my life I will focus exclusively on my family. I have an amazing family and I will spend my time and energy raising my two children and being here for my husband. I know I will find so much joy in being here for my family as a full time mommy and wife. We really appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers during this time.

Garage Sale

We had a garage sale at our house this past weekend. Bryan tried to talk me out of having a sale for the longest time but I just thought it would be fun to try. It was a great weekend for it, weather wise. My sister, Kristie and her family came to town to help. We did pretty good, got rid of quite a bit, but I am glad it is over. Mission Arlington came to pick up everything that we didn't sell this morning. So glad that everything is gone!! We also sold some larger items on Craig's List the past couple weeks. We are fans of Craig's List!! I have been on a mission to get rid of stuff that we don't use and just have sitting around. We have to make room for our new addition to the family that will be here before we know it!

Dove Season is here...

It was opening weekend of dove season in El Campo this past weekend. We made the trip to visit my family so that Bryan could partake in the hunting festivities. Bryan had a blast hunting dove and duck! So much hunting, so little sleep but he didn't mind that one bit!! It was a great weekend for Morgan and me too. We got to spend a lot of time visiting family, which is always fun!! Here are a couple pictures of Morgan and her cousin Colton. Aren't they just adorable?!?!

Play time!!

They love to swing!!

Their 1st bath together!!

And they loved it!!

Morgan was worn out after bath and Colton was still truckin! Is this the difference between little boys and girls?!?!?