Best Day Ever

Today is a fabulous day! Like seriously, one of the best days in a long time. I'm so happy I could just burst!

And here's why:

• It's a gorgeously, hot beautiful day. I absolutely love hot weather! It feels like summer has officially arrived in Texas and I could not be more happy about it. I just love the feeling of the sun shining down on my skin. It feels like God is smiling down on me :-).
• My poor little Char Char has been sick the last couple of days but she is on the upswing today! Happy, smiley and ready to play. And there's no better feeling than when your baby is healthy and happy.
• I got to get my yoga on today with one of my most favorite instructors ever! Sometimes I feel like yoga is equivalent to getting a massage. My body feels all stretched out and happy.
• Did I mention yet that I won an ipad?! I got an email yesterday saying I won one for filling out a survey. I was a little hesistant to believe it at first, but it was confirmed today that I did indeed win! Woo hoo! ipad = A-MAZING but a FREE ipad = double A-MAZING!!!
• Also, the half yearly sale is going on at Nordstrom right now and I think I'm going to treat myself to this cute purse:

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? And it's on sale!

I thought my obsession with turquoise would be over by now, but I think it's safe to say it's still going strong. I think because it was one of my wedding colors it will always make me happy.

• And last, but certainly  not least, I got to eat a yummy lunch with my bestie today and big, exciting things are happening in her life. I can't divulge just yet, but let's just say I'm so super excited I almost can't stand it!!! She's the closest thing I have to a sister and I feel like her joy is my joy.

Not a bad way to start the holiday weekend!

I think I may have used the word 'happy' one too many times and I'm pretty sure this blog is about to explode with all of the exclamation points, but I seriously can't stop smiling! One more just for good measure ;-)

Hope you all have a safe and happy Memorial Day!

Living my Life One Weekend at a Time

If I could live my life in weekends, I'd be set. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I've gotta work for a living. But maybe that just makes my time off that much sweeter. Maybe I wouldn't fully enjoy the weekend if I had every day off. Oh who am I kidding, I'd probably love every minute of it. It's Monday and I'm already looking forward to the upcoming 3 day weekend. Yay for Memorial Day and double yay for having an extra day off!

Big stuff has been happening in our neck of the woods lately. Big stuff, I tell ya. New neighbors just moved in next door to us! Not just any new neighbors, but neighbors our age with a baby on the way. YES!!! I seriously cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I am certain that we are going to become the best of friends. They just don't know it yet ;-). I'm planning on taking over some freshly baked homemade cookies tonight to welcome them to the neighborhood. Warm cookies = fast friends (I hope!). But seriously, we need some coupley friends our age and in the same life stage as us.

Here's what our weekend looked like:

Char standing and playing with her Fisher Price table. Learning Espanol I might add ;-)

Just checking out the view in our backyard

Shopping and checking out the patio furniture at World Market

Her first pair of shoes!!!

Yes, I'll admit our child has not worn shoes until now and she's 9 months old. Now that she's standing I thought it was necessary for her to start wearing shoes so we headed to Stride Rite and bought her 3 pairs. I picked a pair, Grammy picked a pair, and she picked a pair of silver glittery shoes. That's my girl! We couldn't pry them away from her. She was mesmerized by the all the sparkles.

My parents also came over and grilled fajitas for us on Sunday.  They were so delicious!

My Dad - the best griller ever

Pops & Char

 Mops

The family. I think that's a half smile from my brother. He's such a cool 11 year old :-)

Family, food, and shopping - that's my definition of a great weekend!

Mother's Day



I hosted brunch at our house for Mother's Day. I realize this makes me a little crazy to voluntarily offer to cook on Mother's Day (it should be my one day off, right?), but I just love having our family over and breakfast is my favorite meal of the day (besides dessert of course). My mom helped cook so it was fun preparing lots of yummy food together. We made our own version of egg McMuffins, pigs in a blanket, peanut butter and jelly monkey bread (to die for!), apple cinnamon and blueberry muffins, and fruit. It was sooo delicious if I do say so myself ;-).

After eating we just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. Oh wait! I almost forgot. My Aunt helped me decorate the top of our kitchen cabinets. Re-decorating is on my 30 before 30 list so I'm trying to knockout one room at a time. The kitchen is almost complete. Hubby was a great sport and stood on top of the counters to help place things where we wanted. It went something like this, "Can you move it a little to the left? No wait, too much. Go back. Can you angle that piece a little to the front? Actually no. I don't like that. Can you move it back?" Hubby never even complained once. Maybe because it was Mother's Day? Not sure, but I think he's got a future in interior decorating. Charlotte missed all the decorating fun because she took a nice long nap on my other Auntie. Char was in heaven! She is such a little snuggle bunny.

I'm a little bummed that I forgot to take pictures on my first Mother's Day. I remembered right before we put Char to bed and was able to snap a quick pic:

I think this picture captures me perfectly as a mother right now.

Exhausted (we're both in our jammies) but oh so happy!

Sometimes I still don't believe I'm a mother. I look at Charlotte and I'm just in awe that she is my baby. She is mine and I am hers. How is it that she was in my belly this time last year and now she's here smiling and shrieking and giving me her wet kisses/bites? I feel so blessed.

All of the cliches about motherhood are true.

You will never experience real, unconditional love until you're a mama

Your life will be changed forever

Being a mom is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world
You'll understand when you have a baby

Yup. They are all true. And there's no way to understand it until you have a baby. I thought I knew how much I would love Charlotte and enjoy being a mother, but I seriously had no idea. Not until they placed her in my arms did I really get it. I would do anything (and I mean anything) for my sweet baby girl. She is my world. I am so thankful that God chose me to be Charlotte's mama. I can't wait to spend many, many more Mother's Days together as a family.

9 Months

My Sweet Baby Girl,

You are 9 months old my love! This past month has by far been the most fun yet. You have learned so much and your personality has just blossomed! Actually, to say blossomed is probably an understatement. You have a very strong personality and are super expressive in telling us how you feel (more on that later). Here are the stats from your 9 month check-up:

Weight: 17lbs. 6oz.

Height: 27.5 in.

Head Circumference: 43.5cm

You're right at or just under the 50th percentile for growth. Basically, you're right on track :-).

Here are some things I'd like to remember about you this month:

• We're still nursing in the morning and at night and you're getting 3 bottles of breastmilk at school. You're also eating 3 meals a day of cereal/oatmeal and baby food. You're eating little cereal puffs and we're trying to add in some table food. The doctor said we can start giving you yogurt, cheese, and meat so we will gradually start adding that in too.
• Sleep is kinda hit or miss. You go to bed around 7:30pm and sometimes you sleep until 5 or 5:30am. You wake up to eat and then you usually go back to sleep until 6:30 or 7:00am. That's on a good night. On other nights you'll wake up around 2:30 or 3:00am and again around 5ish. I know some babies sleep 12 solid hours at night, but you're just not one of them and I'm totally okay with that. You just need some extra snuggles at night and I'm more than happy to oblige. I know these moments won't last forever so I'm trying to soak them in as much as I can.
• You started crawling at the beginning of this month and now you're all over the place. We can't keep up with you! You've also started pulling up on furniture and are slowly side stepping while holding on. You're a little daredevil and like to lift one leg in the air and hold on with just one arm. I think you're just working on your core strength and balance ;-).
• You have a fiery temper little Miss! You growl and clench your fists when you're mad. It makes us laugh, but also makes us a little nervous for the future. I'm hoping we can tame that temper a bit.
• Your teachers at school describe you as feisty, scrappy, and a little bossy (in a good way). Heaven forbid someone try to take your toy. You will not have it! You put one of your little friends in a headlock last week and you also bit someone. Yes, you are that baby. I have no idea where you get this from. I'm blaming Daddy :-). Needless to say, we're working on using soft touches with our friends and not biting.
• You absolutely adore your Daddy and love to snuggle up in his arms. This is about the only time we can get you to sit still (and it only lasts for about 5 minutes). You love to throw your little balls to Daddy and I must say you've got quite a little arm on you!
• If I had to sum you up in one word it would be intense. You do everything with such intensity. You smile big, shriek and squeal at the top of your lungs, grunt and growl, and are on the go from the minute you wake up until you go to sleep.
• Here are some of my favorite pictures of you:

You're beautiful smile

This is how you fell asleep at school the other day. Sitting up because you didn't want to miss any of the action. Silly girl!

Standing with just one hand like you've been doing it forever.

(I believe this was day 2 of standing for you)

We love you so much baby girl! You are a bundle of energy and make us smile and laugh every single day. What did we do before you? I have no idea. You are our world and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Love Always,

Mama

'Round These Parts

I haven't posted in over a week-yikes! So in an effort to to get everyone caught up (and by everyone I mean the 5 family members/2 friends that read my blog. Ha!) here's a quick roundup of what's been going on:

I had a Girls Day of Fun with my bestie Jessica! We got massages, ate yummy fajitas at Chuy's, went shopping, and got our nails done. It was sooo much fun and just what I needed! Oh and did I mention we got a disco nail?

We finally got on board the 1 nail glitter trend and it is oh so cute! Pretty sure the correct terminology isn't "disco nail" but we happen to like it so we're hoping it takes off ;-)

I also ran the Chuy's 5K on Cinco de Mayo. It was my first race back after having a baby and it felt so good to run again! My goal was to run it under 25 minutes and my time was 24:41. I'll take it!

Hubby, Char, and my mom came to cheer me on. I can't wait until Charlotte can start running the Kid K's.

And speaking of Char, from one week to the next she started crawling all over the place (quickly I might add) and now she is pulling up on everything. We can't keep up with her!

It is Teacher Appreciation Week at Charlotte's school so we have been very busy getting things together for the teachers. Have I mentioned lately that we absolutely LOVE Charlotte's daycare and all of her teachers? They are beyond amazing and we couldn't ask for a better place to send our baby. She is so happy when we drop her off in the mornings and she is just learning so much. Thank you Lord Jesus for helping us find such a great place! One of her teachers sends us pictures of her throughout the day. Here are a few a lot:

Charlotte and her little friend Evan

Just catching up on some reading

My classy little lady with her feet crossed ;-)

Charlotte is at such a fun age right now! Unfortunately, she has a new tooth coming in so the past couple of days have been a bit rough. She hasn't been sleeping well and she cries out in her sleep from the pain. It breaks my heart :-(. I think the tooth has cut through a little so I'm hoping the worst is behind us. Darn teeth!

So that my friends (and family) is what's been going on around these parts. I'm hoping to do a better job of posting on the reg, but you know how that goes...life gets busy.

Wildflower Pics

A couple of weeks ago we got up super early to take pictures in the wildflowers. As a Texan it is absolutely necessary to get pictures of your baby/children in the bluebonnets every year. So that we did! Prepare yourself for a picture overload...

This captures our girl perfectly!

Those eyebrows ;-)

Bluebonnets!

She loved the hat

All smiles!

Me & My Girl

Our happy little family of 3

I am a firm believer that you can never have enough family pictures.

Or really just pictures in general.

Good thing we have over 1,000 pictures of Charlotte already :-)

Pigtails

Workin' the pigtails!