The First with Taylor!

Taylor has had a few first. I was luck enough to catch a couple on camera. She had her first smile on June 30 and of course it was with my Dad. I don't know what it is about my Dad and Royann's Mom, but they get the best out of these children.

That first smile!

I was a little late on this one.

Her first time to swing!

Her first bath.

I love all of my girls with all of my heart. I couldn't ask for a better family. It is always fun around the Leflore house.

First Day Back to Work

Well we didn't take off very long with Taylor as with Ann Fleming. We had Taylor on June 8 and went back to work on June 27. The nice thing about the vet business is the nice big office we have and being able to take the kids to work with us each day. We are able to work with them and teach them counting, abc's, bible verses, songs, love on them, and about praying. I know some of you may think they are to young for this, but they absorb everything just like a sponge. So my advice for other parents is start teaching them early, start teaching them often, and stick to it.
God has great things in store for our kids. That has been my prayer since even before they were born. I have prayed for their salvation each day and that they would do great things in their life. Now the great things I am talking about are not our standards of great here on earth. I pray they glorify God in all the things they do. Being together as a husband and wife every day all day makes it tough sometimes, but I don't think I could ask for a better life.

The fam at the clinic

Family Vacation!

Everybody needs a little break every once in a while and just get away. In our case even if its not but for a day and a half. We decided about 8:30 on Tuesday night to make a trip down to Gulf Shores on Wednesday to stay for a couple of days. We had been contemplating it for a while since my second family, The Pullen's, were already down there for the week and Royann was off with having had Taylor the previous week. I had been wanting to play some golf while we were off from the Vet. Clinic and this was the perfect opportunity. We got everything together and called my Mom and asked if she wanted to go. She being not very excited about it agreed to go and help with the kids. We left about 8:00 in the morning that Wednesday and headed out with a quick stop in Madison for Taylor's two week appointment. Since we weren't staying but two nights and not going to be in the room anyway and most condo's require a minimum number of nights, I just got us a suite at the Holiday Inn in Gulf Shores.

We arrived in Gulf Shores around 4:00 and got unpacked and at around 7:00 we decided to take Ann Fleming to the beach for a little while. Taylor and my Mom decided to stay back at the hotel to rest and eat. We didn't know what we were in for. We knew Ann Fleming had always loved baths and swimming pools. She is even brave enough at a year old to jump off the sides of the pool. We get out of the truck and as I am holding her and walking to the boardwalk she spots the water. Now whenever Ann Fleming is excited she will let out a UUGGHH sucking in air and then a five pitch giggle out.  She did it three times in a row. So I knew she was pretty excited. We get down to the edge of the water and I can't even get her shoes off without tripping her up while she was trying to get to the water. I get her shoes off and she bolts down the hill at the edge with me trailing behind her and just falls and splats her butt in the first wave that came in. She gets up and then goes a little deeper with water up to her knees and this wave has a little force on her baby body and knocks her down. She gets up runs up beach to her Mama and lets out a laugh and runs back down the beach edge and literally chest bumps the next wave that comes in. It was fun and funny watching her.

Ann Fleming after I got her shoes off. See the excitement.

It is so fun just watching these kids.

Her taking off to the Gulf

Me catching her

Ann Fleming splatting the first wave with her butt

Taking off a second time

Wave knocking her down

Third time after laughing at her Mama and going for the chest bump

No pictures were taken of her chest bumping the wave we were both trying to get to her. The camera luckily didn't get wet when Royann came in the water.

Ann Fleming thinking it was funny

Me holding on to her after the chest bump

So the Pullen's and I got up early the next morning and headed to the golf course, The Plantation, for a little golf action. We joined the Bridger's family that were down there also for a little golf tournament. Of course Uncle Ricky and I won the two man scramble with the best score. One of the best things to watch is my cousin Russ fall apart if he is losing a sport. He goes "ape mad". We got through with the tournament and collected our winnings, which was nothing more than just saying we won and to rub it in to the rest and we headed back to the Pullen's condo. We all got ready and headed to the beach. Ann Fleming acted just a little better with the water, but had to be put on a very short leash. Here are some pics:

Excited again!

Loving the wave action.

We went out deep in to the blue.

We went out to right were the waves were breaking!

Aunt Jan taking over for a little while

We both had to hold her back.

Worn out and asleep. She just fell asleep while we were out in the water.

Out like a light!

We enjoyed our trip and plan on going back down this fall while it is not so busy and hot. 

Week Three of "Drop It"

Alrighty then! It has officially been three complete weeks now since I have been on a diet. I changed up this week on how I got my proteins. In week two I got most of my proteins through red meat. This week I wanted to change it up some and see if chicken would make a difference in weight loss versus red meat. I think the only positive of eating the grilled chicken versus red meat was the ease on my digestive system. What I mean by that is not the bathroom part, but how my stomach feels after eating these types of meat. I have had problems in the past with acid reflux and it seems that happens less with chicken.

I stayed with the all water part of my diet. I can really feel a difference with drinking nothing but water every day. I have gotten used to having nothing but water. Its kind of like now my body expects to drink water at a meal. One thing I really have been practicing with the water this week is drinking 20 ounces 30 minutes before each meal. I get full faster with eating and I think it really aids in digestion. I have been having around 100 ounces a day of water. I also started taking Flinstone vitamins this week just to get other nourishment. This was doctor recommended.

I have not been hitting my target most days on carbs. I will fall just short by one or two servings with like eight or nine servings of carbs. Some days I have also been falling short on my proteins only hitting the twelve to fifteen servings mark. I think I am more worried about not getting my proteins than I am about the carbs. With the exercise program I have been doing I need all the proteins I can get. I have been walking or jogging about 4 miles a day. Yes I came up on the distance this week. I was only going two to three miles in past weeks, but I moved it up to around four miles this week. I have had to use the treadmill in my exercise room this week with all the rain we have had. I am a outdoors person when it comes to walking, but being in the delta there is not really much you can do about the incline. I really like being able to change that setting on my treadmill and getting the burn on. So I have been walking outside two miles and two or a little more on the treadmill with lots of incline. So lets get to the nitty gritty:

 I started the diet weighing in at 299 

I now weigh, drum roll please:

272

Total weight loss of week three is 10 pounds

So the total weight loss so far since July 8 is 27 pounds

Two Week Visit

Taylor, had her first visit to the doctor's office two weeks after she was born. She is seeing Doctor Smith, in Madison, just like her big sister Ann Fleming. We can't say enough good things about Dr. Smith. We both wish he was our doctor. Everything checked out great on Taylor. "She is as healthy as any baby could be", the doctor said. With Ann Fleming, she lost weight from birth to her two week check-up. Taylor gained about 6 ounces and grew about 1 inch. So at her two week check-up she was 8lb. 4oz. and right at about 21.5 inches long.

Getting the Length

The Weigh In

Not Real Happy

Dr. Smith and Taylor

Watching T.V.

     Watching television at our house has really changed over the past year. Previously it was CSI, Seinfeld, Food Network, etc., but now that we have a child that likes t.v., it has changed what we watch. One of the reasons I think it has changed it just simply for the morals. I am a firm believer of what you put in your brain is what you get out. So if you put garbage in, you shouldn't expect to get anything else out of it. So I don't want her watching anything that could corrupt her little mind.     Second, I never thought I would put a child in front of a t.v to be able to get some things done around the office or the house, but now I see different. I used to think that parents that did that were bad parents. I see why they do it now. Let me say this though, the shows I am letting Ann Fleming watch are constructive shows whenever she is watching t.v. She is learning something good for her brain, such as counting, letters, colors, etc. Her favorite show is a show called "Bubble Guppies". It is a show about little mermaid people under the sea that go to school and learn something each day while teaching the viewers. They have a teacher and his name is Mr. Grouper. I watch it with her every night before putting her to bed. I just wanted to show you what is like around our house when the show comes on. Excuse the dirty baby in this video. We had just came in from outside. Just watch these dance moves! FYI- No babies were hurt in the making of this video.

Week 2 of "Drop It"

Week 2 didn't go as good as the first one. I am still eating about 100 grams of carbs a day and and about 119 grams of proteins a day or less. The thing I think that hurt me the most this week was the proteins I took in. I took in proteins, like steak, that has lots of fat in it. I have started this week to eat more meat like chicken breast to get my protein grams that doesn't have the fat as some red meats. I have still been keeping my carbs in check. I have also been drinking lots of water. I haven't had any soda's with sugar in them and only a  couple of diet drinks. I also found some candy made with no sugar that is pretty good. I am still walking 2-3 miles a day and have never felt better. I wasn't hoping to drop all of this fast and all at once, but I feel it is going nicely. The only thing I think I hate about this diet is there are really no low carb options for side items to go with my meat at dinner. Eating the same vegetables kind of gets old. So this week I have dropped a total of

Drum Roll:

4 pounds!
Total weight Loss- 17lbs.

I now weigh 282. Like I said it is not as much as last week, but I am getting closer to my target of 225.

Ashley Buse A.K.A "Little Hank Lamb"

We recently went to Tupelo for Foley's dedication at church. So I knew we had to get Ashley, Royann's talented sister, to take some pictures of Taylor while we there. Here are a few examples of her work:

Random Pictures of Taylor's First Few Days at Home

Aunt Jan A.K.A. My Second Mom growing up

My brother Mitch with his children and Taylor

Aunt Mary Ann with Taylor

Ann Fleming teaching Taylor how to nap

Aunt K.K teaching AF and Taylor how to nap

AF showing Aunt Jan and Uncle Ricky how to kiss the baby