Baby Blessing

Alpha received her name and blessing this Sunday at church. It was a beautiful blessing full of so many hopes we have for our baby. Lots of family and friends came to help celebrate this special day with us. Unfortunatly we forgot our camera at home, but thanks to Jimmy we at least got a shot of the McArthur Photography crew in the lobby.

photo booth fun

Rat Tail

It has been concluded that my little baby looks nothing like me - she inherited all of Tyson's looks. I like to call them my twiners.

But there is one thing she got from my genes - no not red hair, short stature, or fair freckly skin - she seemed to have only inherited my Alabama redneck heritage - through the rat tail. poor girl.

Alpha Rane Ward

name: Alpha Rane Ward
d.o.b.: March 9th 2010
weight: 7 lbs 6 ozs
height: 20 1/2 inches

Push Present

Since moving to Chicago I have learned about the wonderful thing called a push present.

according to wikipedia:

A push present (also known as a "push gift" or "baby bauble") is a present a new father gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child. In practice the present may be given before or after the birth, or even in the delivery room. The giving of push presents has grown in the United States in recent years.

From what I understand there are no rules or expectations to push presents although jewelry is often the gift of choice. My husband knows me very well and so the other day I came home to a box containing this on our front door step (unfortunately Tyson was out of town so I had to somehow carry this up our very skinny stairway).

Yes, it is a knockoff - and no that does not bother me. Ever since we found out we were pregnant I have dreamed of having this modern little jewel in the corner of our very small nursery.

Thanks Tyson.

Baby Names

We thought we would put a few of our favorite baby names out there for the vote. Not that we are going to do what the outcome says (in fact we may be convinced to do exactly the opposite). Just thought it would be fun.





Duran Duran's video for Rio doesn't inspire the wholesome, down-to-earth image we'd like for a name -- Tyson.

Teen Mom

Sixteen and Pregnant, Teen Mom - both some of my newest closet reality tv obsessions thanks to my friends Alicia and Sarah. I look forward to catching up with these girls every week and must say I have become quite the fan. So when I had my own teen mom experience a couple of days ago I couldn't help but share the drama with you.

This week I decided to go with Tyson on his work trip to bustling southern Illinois for a few days. While trying to burn a couple hours on my own in a small town of 2,000 I stumbled upon a thrift store. After a bit of worthless browsing I exited and sat in my car for about 10 minutes as I used my gps to find anything that I might be able to do for the next bit of time.

Suddenly there was a knock on my window and I looked up to see an elderly woman smiling at me. As I rolled down the window she asked me if I was pregnant and if I needed any maternity clothes or baby clothes. At first I was thinking how nice it was that in a small town like this a lonely lady just wanted to talk and I was happy to be nice and give her some company. As she kept on talking I soon realized that her motives were not as I first suspected. She was there to lend support to me. She thought I was a teen mom! She gave me directions to her church where they have abstinence counseling and a room set up for "girls like me" to pick out maternity clothing and baby items. She assured me that they would take care of me through support groups and some free ultrasounds. She really wanted my phone number so she could come and drop off some of her baby's clothes to me (I took hers instead). As I sat there and she kept on going on and on about her youth pastor I felt shocked. Part of me wanted to scream - I am 28 and married and have my own business! But another part of me, the part that won over, touched my heart. I hid my wedding ring from her view as I thought about how hard it probably was for her to approach me, and how her intentions were really pure. The last thing I wanted to do was embarass her or discourage her from approaching someone who really did need her help.
So I just kept my mouth shut. Finally she finished and I drove away - a bit shocked (and excited to watch Teen Mom that night.)

Blog Revival and Christmas 2009

It's that time. With a baby just around the corner we've decided it's time start using our blog again to keep family and friends informed about what is going on in our world. To start here are a few pictures of Christmas 2009 at the Ward household:

Here is our Christmas tree. I know it is kinda sad, but we love it. I have always had a really hard time spending money on something that is just going to die and make a mess. This is the closest we have come thus far to having a tree. Maybe next year once we have a kiddo, but I seriously doubt it.
Ours was made two days before Christmas out of Green posterboard from the dollar store and a lot of strung popcorn - my very favorite thing on a tree.

We woke up in the wee hours of Christmas morning - 9am - to open presents.

And here we are sporting our favorite Christmas presents - real luchador masks that my brother Robbie brought us from Mexico. I am now on the lookout for stretchy pants to complete the outfit so we will have stellar halloween costumes this year. Maybe our baby can be one of those crazy midget monkey things from Nacho Libre.


And here I am counting our change (it was the end of the month) as we started our first Christmas tradition - Go out to eat Thai on Christmas day. I am already looking forward to reliving the tradition next year.