Count down to Baby P (AKA Anna Banana)- Weeks 31 & 32

Week 31- Baby Shower!

Two major things happened this week.Gentlemen please skip to major thing #2.

1.  I had to buy the most enormous underwear on the face of the planet this week! I couldn't handle it anymore! I was SO uncomfortable! So I said to heck with it and now I own underwear large enough to ensure the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria all would make it to the New World safely! :)

2. I had the most amazingly wonderful baby shower! Several of my sweet friends put together a wonderful celebration for Miss Anna. It was a really sweet day. We had a very girly tea party and so many great people came to be supportive not only me, but of my mom and of Kaytie's memory. Anna has so many things to get her little life off to the right start. She is so loved and that makes her mommy so thankful!

Mom & I

Tea Party

Lauren, Monica, Me, Janelle, and Christine

Jana, Vicki, and Mom

Kimberlee Sue friends since Sophomore year of SNU!- *Side note: She moved to Seattle and I miss her! :( 

Surrounded by Friends and Family

Boston was the only dude at the party, but it was okay because he was cute! :)

Jane & Deb

My beautiful hostesses, some of who had to break out of their shells and became quite crafty when it came to decorations! :)

Lauren & Christine- The four (me, Christine, Lauren, & Kaytie) of us have been friends since we were little girls and have managed to be there for each other during life's big events all these years later. Not everyone gets to experience that in their lifetime.

Kaytie Lenee's girlfriends came to the shower to be my little connection to Kaytie. I love them all so very much and I am thankful they were there for me & Anna.

Laureen & Erliiene treated me and mom to a wonderful lunch at the tea room prior to the shower! It was so sweet and so fun to catch up with these two ladies my mom loves!

Beautiful UCO Ladies plus Boston and Anna technically! :)

I refer to these girls as the Galveston Girls. Our lives will forever be connected because of that experience and I will hold them close to my heart forever because of that. I love that they came to celebrate Anna and to spread some of Kaytie's love to her niece.

Kristen & Madison- I have known Kristen since kindergarten. She is another friend that has been there all along the way through life's triumphs and tragedies. We've gone to school together our whole lives and even lived together in college. I am very thankful for her and our sweet friendship.

Kelly and I go way back to Middle School and High School days! :)

Goodness! Renee and I go way back as well! Our friendship was really solidified when we had to work on our Oklahoma History Day project and went to Elk City with Miss Hall. 

Go Bronchos! :)

Aunt Sally & Aunt Becky

Sally, Derice, and Becky

One little funny gift I received, was a book called Anna Banana & Me. I read it when we got home and it turns out Anna Banana is a little stinker in this book! It made me laugh, because I can only imagine the trouble my little Anna Banana is going to cause some day! :)

As you can tell, the shower was so pretty and there were so many people there from all parts of my life, mom's life, and Kaytie's life. Some of Kaytie's sweet friends purchased our stroller. I had wanted a jogging stroller because I do want to continue that part of my life and in the card they wrote that this was something Kaytie would have gotten for Anna and they are giving it to us in honor of Kaytie. It made me cry, for so many reasons, because Kaytie should have been there, because all of her friends loved her so much and she loved them, because the day was amazing, but so hard. Words will be never be able to fully describe the love and kindness and thankfulness that I truly felt and experienced that day. Thank to everyone who made that day special for my family.


My Kaytie Moment- Week 31

It's interesting how most of my shower blog was about Miss Kaytie, but it was hard for it not to be when her absence was so noticeable. It wasn't but a few months ago that we were celebrating her with her wedding showers. She was on cloud 9 and was surrounded by the same people that came to my baby shower. I can only imagine the roller coaster of emotions that filled that tea room. So many of those people there were touched by Kaytie. So many of them were on the same wedding train we were on celebrating the marriage of Kaytie and Nick and now they were at another shower celebrating her niece without Kaytie there. It is astounding to me the emotional roller coaster that life is. It is filled with such highs and lows that all can take place simultaneously.

I miss Kaytie. I miss my best friend and partner in crime. She should have been there and in the big middle of all of this. She should have been the excited Aunt talking about how she was going to spoil Miss Anna and steal her from me. She should be here to celebrate this life with us.

Katyie's Wedding Shower in March. Anna was barely a bun in my oven. Kaytie told me this day she thought I was having a little girl. :)

Christine, Casslyn, Kaytie, and Me-Friends since we were little.

Here is a link to my blog from the day of her shower. In my true big sister fashion I was complaining about her. :) I wish I had explained more of that day and wrote down all of the little memories.


Week 32-Mill's Family Reunion

It's time once again for the 2nd annual Mills Family Reunion! I drove my big ole pregnant self and my mom down to southeast Oklahoma for the weekend. Who are the Mills you are wondering...come on I know you are. The Mills are my Grandma Norma's side of the family. She was born a Mills in the hills of southeast Oklahoma. My Aunt Mary is the only one who remains out of all my Grandma's brothers and sisters and Mary still lives in the hills! A long time ago my Grandma and Grandpa Calfy have purchased a trailer home on top of a hill in this part of the world. Back in the day when my family (me, mom, Kaytie, and Jacob) didn't take vacations to places like Disney World, Ireland, or Hawaii we would go stay at the trailer in southeast OK. We had a blast! We would be forced to make our own entertainment because TV was non-existent. This resulted in many hours playing in the lake, mom telling us crazy Super Delilah stories where she had to continually save baby Becky, and visiting all of the surrounding family.

*Side bar: I feel I need to expand on Super Delilah. Mom would told us she used to Super Delilah and baby Becky (my Aunt/her little sister) was always getting into trouble. Super Delilah once had to save baby Becky from a falling grocery store shelf! If she hadn't baby Becky would have been squished! Super Delilah was so Super that one Christmas, when all of her family was staying at the trailer in southeast Oklahoma, Santa even brought her a special pin that said SD that she could wear! :)

ANYways, we loved going to the trailer, but my Grandma Norma had her sights set on the cute a-frame house that was sitting next to the trailer on top of the hill. She told Grandpa Frank she wanted it. It was the best house. It had a tree swing, a wishing well, a balcony, it was two stories and didn't smell like moth balls!! One day my Grandpa bought it for her and to this day our whole family still uses it a couple of times a year to go and relax and get away from the craziness that is the big city life and we have a place to stay and visit with all of our Mills family.

The reunion was fun. Me, mom, Tim, Becky, Derice, and Kenny all stayed in our little a-frame. We got up the next morning and went and claimed our spot down by the lake. Last year it was stolen from us! We staked our claim and hung up signs and someone else decided they would have their party there. How rude! Not this year!

This year we had right around 25 people, small children and babies included, come to the reunion. It was so nice. I got to meet Kalea and Chet. They will be two of Anna's cousins who will be almost exactly l year older than her. I am excited for them to get to play together at future reunions. It was a nice time to come together as a family and catch up. We need each other and I don't want to lose sight of that. There aren't many of the Mills family left.

Other than my massive baby mountain (we have graduated from a cute bump) showing up in pictures, the pregnancy part of the trip wasn't too bad. I did feel bad for mom since we shared a bed. Getting up and down all night to pee isn't a good way to get any sleep for the person next to you. I did have some contractions on the way down! That was fun, but they were in-frequent and I pretty much have this part of pregnancy down now. I know what a real contraction feels like and I know what braxton hicks feels like and as long as I don't have 5-6 in an hour we are good to party! :)

Back Row Left to Right: Gary, Gayla, Tim, Derice, Jimmy, Carol, Becky, Kenny, Emily, Kalea, Alfred, Chet, Summer, Mark
Front Row Left to Right: Leigha, Anna, Delilah, Matthew, Chance, Aunt Mary, Doris
Not pictured, but they were there: Renee, Pansy, Allen, Preston, Jase

Baby Cousins Picture! I'm only in it because without me there Anna wouldn't be in the baby cousins pic!

Mom and Cutie Chet!

The New Moms Club: Emily, Me and Summer

Kalea and Mom! Next year mom will have Anna the whole time!

Pansy, Me and Becky

My Kaytie Moments- Week 32

Welp you guessed it. Kaytie was at the reunion last year. So my Kaytie moment is that Kaytie was missing. The whole way down to southeast Oklahoma there would be little things that would bring us back to reality. When we passed the Cracker Barrel we had lunch at on our way, when we stopped to get a dipped cone at that McDonald's, when we stopped to get sno cones in Rattan and Kaytie taught them what a Salty Dog was, when we stopped at the Amish store and got a ton of fudge. We apparently like to eat every few minutes when we are on the road. :) Then we got to the cabin. Mom and Kaytie had shared a bed last year, so that was hard knowing the last time we were here, she was here. Seeing people for the first time since Kaytie passed away is also hard. The look of sadness in their eyes when they see us, the hugs, the tears. It's a hard moment to get through. It was also hard seeing all of the babies and potential babies. Kaytie should be here, be married, and talking about her potential babies. Her babies should be part of the cousins. She wanted to be a mommy so bad. It's not fair. She would have been a great mommy.

Years ago when my grandparents were still alive, we had a notebook that we would leave messages for the next people to read when they came to stay. So in this book you have a mix of my family members leaving notes to the "Weary Traveler". Some in my grandma's handwriting, some in mine, some in Sally's or Becky's all writing about their trip to the cabin. Last year I wrote about our family reunion and how Kaytie got stung by a wasp and took too much benedryl and nearly fell asleep at the reunion. I also talked about being excited about babies at the next reunion and how mom cheated when we played Speed. I am so thankful that it was tradition to write stuff in that book. I had forgotten what game it was Kaytie had taught us to play or that she got stung by a wasp.

I love Kaytie. I love that we got to experience life with her. As this blog goes along, it becomes more and more evident that we lived. We didn't sit back and wait for life, we made life happen. The hard part now is continuing to make life happen, to continue to laugh, and enjoy moments, to experience this life without Kaytie in it. It's hard to do things when you have a missing piece to the bigger puzzle.

Me, Aunt Mary, Kaytie & Mom-Mills Family Reunion 2013

I encourage you to live your life. Don't waste it. Be thankful you are here and that you have your family. Be healthy and take care of yourself and realize that life isn't about how much money you make or having the next biggest and best thing. It's really about family and the experiences and memories you create with them, because that is all you have when they are gone. I look back at mine and Kaytie's relationship and I don't have regrets. I wouldn't change anything, because we talked nearly everyday, we lived together, laughed together, fussed and fought together, we cried together, and loved each other. The only thing I long for now is to have her back and to have that relationship back. I want it to continue, not to end. And if you think about it, write about the moments of your life. Kaytie and I have so many moments that were written down throughout growing up then later on. It's a treasure to go back and look and read in her own words and my own words how we saw each other and our relationship. You don't realize how incredibly invaluable those words are until someone is gone. I am so thankful we were blessed to have such a good relationship and that I can look back and smile and laugh through this sadness. Don't waste it. You don't know how many hugs, texts, and phone calls you have left.

A story: 

I am going to end this blog with a funny Kaytie story. I was blessed to be given a silly sister and spend 27 years with her. I have so many stories! So, I want to write some of them down separately if they don't fit into the topics I am writing about at the time. Plus, I want Anna Banana and her siblings to be able to look back and read about her!

Rewind to the year 2000ish. I was 16 and just spent the whole summer working at a sno cone stand to help buy my first car. The super awesome green Honda Accord, that for the record I drove until it died two years AFTER I started work at UCO. Anyways. I am 16, Kaytie is 14, Jacob is 10. It's Halloween. Kaytie and I want to use Jacob as an excuse to go trick or treating! We want CANDY! We are much to old for this activity meant for young kids but...now we are teenagers up to no good.

It doesn't take us long to realize that Kaytie's short stature will actually help us in this situation. Candy with one little brother is great, but when you have two people getting it, that is even better! We dressed Kaytie up in some of Jacob's overalls and a scary mask. They were about the same height and with her mask on no one would know she wasn't a kid! Genius!!

We set off on our adventure. The honda only had two doors, so everywhere we went Kaytie had to let Jacob out. In order not to be discovered we went to neighborhoods where people wouldn't know us or my car. Well, we are going along our merry way, checkin out all the candy we've gotten, having an all around great time ripping off the grown ups and small children the treats were meant for!

We pull up to the next house and I get out this time. You know, so it looks legit. Like I am the responsible older sister taking her two younger siblings trick or treating. Knock on the door, trick or treat, get candy, head to car. If only that was all that happened. I start walking back to the car ahead of Kaytie and Jacob. I unlock the car and turn to see Kaytie running towards me, poor Jacob trailing behind. The door fly's open and she is stuffing poor Jacob into the back seat and all she is saying is "PPPiiggg! Pink Piggg!" She is laughing so hard I can't get her to tell me what is happening. She is in hysterics and finally I get the story out of her. She said there is a giant Pink Pig trick or treating! It has to be our age and it just oinked at me!! She then proceeds to point out this huge Pink Pig to me. By this time I am rolling laughing because she is laughing so hard and poor Jacob is just wanting to get out of the car. So we are sitting there laughing and laughing and next thing I hear is "Oh no! I am peeing!" That's right folks, Kaytie peed her overalls...in my car! This leads to more hysterical laughter and a rush to get home. I make her dump out her candy and sit on her sack. Still laughing all the way back to the house. Randomly saying "Pink Pig" in between laughs and gasps for breath. Mom was shocked to see us back so early and honestly that Kaytie had peed her pants, Jacob was mad that we ruined his trick or treating, and Kaytie and I just kept laughing and laughing.

This "Pink Pig" story would be referenced often throughout our lives and would always result in a fit of laughter. Kaytie even made this sign for me:

I signed this picture like I had made it. That's a lie! She did! Luckily, I had saved it and put it in our sister scrapbook all of those years ago! 

This photo isn't from that night, but it is from around that time frame. I had a crazy perm around the time I turned 16...I thought I was cool! :)

Until next time,
Leigha Denee