7 months and Christmas fun!

So this is just a little late, but here are the pictures of Blakely at 7 months.  I forgot to make the little sign I usually put in the picture with her.  Oh well, it would have probably been slobbered and chewed on anyway!  Miss B is sporting one of her festive Christmas ensembles.  I can't get over how big she's gotten!  She has two little teeth on the bottom and the first upper tooth is trying to break through...oh so fun!  I may or may not have drugged her the other night so that both of us could get some sleep.  Don't judge.


"Oh man, I am so freakin' cute!"




"Oooo, what's this?!  I MUST have it in my mouth!"




"Um, mom, I can't reach it when you put it way up there."
*Cutest little profile EVER*




"Oh yeah, we were takin' pictures.  Ok, cheeeeeese!!"

 We have some pretty awesome holiday plans!  For starters, Jeff is done with this semester (YAHOO!!!)  and today is is last day of work for 9 whole days!!!  He'll be all mine!  We have a Christmas party to go to on Saturday, a white elephant exchange to be exact.  This is the kick-off to our Christmas-season-of-fun!  My best friend is hosting at her beautiful home and it promises to be filled with good food and bad gifts!  We still have to get our gift.  I'm not sure we can top last year.....a three foot tall statue of a shepherd.  Pain in the @ss to wrap!  Hilarious to give away! 
The very next day, Jeff, Blakely, the dogs and I are off to the mountains!  We are staying in a cabin in Blue Ridge for a few days.  We're packing up all of our crap and hittin' the road!  We can't wait!!  We haven't gone any where this year so we are desperate for a little get-away!  {Side note--I am never letting this much time go by ever again without traveling.  It's necessary to my soul to see the world.  Not to mention I have to show miss B what's out there}  I will say that planning even a small trip with a baby is not exactly a breeze.  I just don't want to forget anything....good thing we have a big vehicle!
Once we get home we have a bunch of family coming to town {all from my side} that I can't wait to see!  Blakely will get to meet my grandmother for the first time.  I plan on getting some great pictures of the four generations together! 
I realized that through all of this, what I am most excited about is just spending time with the ones I love.  My family and my friends.  Sure, gifts are nice, but I have known for a long time that quality time is my love language, and this year that's exactly what I'm getting!

Merry Christmas!!

Weekend recap

I'll start off by saying I have the most amazing husband in the world!  I really do.  I love him.  We had a little "date" night on Friday when he got home from work.  We went out for some yummy bbq, Blakely was as cute as ever and quietly chewed on some saltines.  She loves to use her little chompers!  Then we made our way over to homegoods and strolled around.  Normally Jeff wouldn't be all that excited to go to homegoods, but we were looking for the perfect white elephant gift.  We happened to find the best one there last year....a three foot statue of a Shepard that weighed about a million pounds!  Well, no such luck this year.  We didn't find our white elephant gift, but I did find this cute little bowl and a new mug.  So, success! 

Saturday, Jeff had to start studying for his finals this week so I was off to shop with miss B.  We headed over to Target, and let me tell you, that place was a zoo!!  However, despite the ridiculous amount of people there, everyone seemed to be very happy and nice....maybe a little holiday cheer??  Anyway, I had about 7 people tell me how adorable Blakely is {like I don't already know!} and I had some lady offer to take my cart back for me once I had gotten to the car.  Never happens!  It put me in a great mood to see and feel strangers being so nice to one another.  I wish people were in this great of a mood all year.

Sunday was great!  Blakely is now 7 months!!!
I can't believe it!  She's such a big girl!  Jeff and I lounged around made a delicious breakfast while we watched the snow flurry outside.  How perfect!  I got around to getting showered and dressed and Blakely and I headed to church to meet my mom for the churches annual Christmas concert.  It was freezing and snowy, but oh so wonderful!  It was so funny to see Blakely's face light up as she listened to the music and jumped up and down on my moms lap.  Her first Christmas is already magical and it's only going to get better!! 

So, for a little up-date on my 7 month old!  She is sitting, standing (while holding onto something), rolling around, laughing, babbling, screaming, teething, eating, clapping, smiling, basically being the best baby she knows how to be, and I love this child more than I can put into words!  People are starting to say that she's looking more like me.  LOVE. IT.  I think she's acting more like me too.  My mom has always told me that when she nursed me as a baby I would reach up and twirl her hair in my hand.  Blakely has started doing this, and I can't tell you how sweet it is.  I haven't taken her "official" 7 month pictures yet, but I took these over the weekend.    

Not much to say...

so I'll just show you some pictures instead.  Enjoy them, I do! 

Can you handle all of this cuteness?? 

Also, she can stand now.  Just look at that adorable little bubble butt!

Blakely sticks out her tongue when she's concentrating.  I might die.

I love this little girl, like a lot.

Have a nice day!

December...really?!

Well, I know I'm not the only one thinking it.  Is it really December already??  This year has flown by!!  But what a spectacular year it's been.  The best yet.  For some reason even years are always really good for me.  For example... graduated high school 2002, graduated college 2006, got married 2008, had a baby 2010.  You see the trend.  Not that odd years aren't cool too, but I really like the even ones.  Sorry, I know, random.  This month is going to be great and I'm excited to see what 2011 brings.  Life with a baby is just more exciting.  Little miss is learning so much every day, she's amazing.  I love her and she loves me. 

Speaking of miss B, she has been a hoot lately!  This little bean sprout has a BIG personality.  She grabs our faces and attacks!  She snarls and snorts and buries her little face in mine.  We got her one of those saucer jumper things with the toys all over it and she loves it!  She loves to stand, so toys like this one are perfect.  

See, look how much fun she has 



She's screaming.  Might just be my favorite!



We have been dealing with teething lately.  Not so much fun.  She just doesn't sleep well when a new tooth is coming in.  She cries, I sooth her back to sleep.....repeat every 3-4 hours.  I feel so sorry for her.  Thankfully, the second little chomper on the bottom finally broke through and now we are sleeping through the night again.  Ahhhh, sleep.  Glorious sleep.  We both feel better when we've been able to get a full nights rest.  So to all you new mommies out there....enjoy the time when their all nice and gummy.  Teething is no fun, for anyone.  Although, little smiles with two little teeth are ADORABLE!!! 

Us Lately

So, I know it's a little late, but I thought I would share about our Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful, and everything a  holiday should be.  Filled with food, laughter, football, more food, and family.  We spend the morning cooking the last of the casseroles, and the rest of the day playing with the kids and eating.  Only a slight mishap when we mistakenly sprinkled cumin instead of cinnamon into the sweet potatoes.  We were able to scoop enough of it out that they turned out great!  We may have created a new recipe.  My nephew Grady had made pilgrim and Indian hats at school so we put them on he and Blakely and had a good laugh!

My mama with the grandkids.  This makes me laugh!

Jeff and I spent the rest of the weekend lounging around and watching movies and cuddling with our girl.  We decided NOT to go out shopping for black friday.  We decided that there was nothing that we needed that badly to have to go out and deal with crazy shoppers and long lines.  I was totally not in the Christmas mood up until Thanksgiving, but then all of a sudden I got really excited about it.  I finally turned on the Christmas music and got out the decorations.  I need more.  It's kinda sparse.  I guess I realized that this was Blakely very first Christmas and I want everything to be perfect for her, even if she wont remember it.  She'll have no idea that it's different than any other day, but I will.  I want her to grow up with traditions and memories.  Also, we have my family coming into town this year.  I'm so excited to see them!!  They will all be meeting Blakely for the first time.  I will be camera ready!  I will leave you with these.  My life, my loves.



How sweet is this?!



30 days and counting

With Turkey day behind us, it's time to focus on the next big holiday Christmas!!!  I love everything about this holiday.  It's the only time of year that I like the colors red and green together!  I love the Christmas cards, the shopping, the music, the decorations, the food.  Most importantly being with my friends and family throughout the whole month.  There is nothing like it.  This year, we are not able to fly out to Utah (We usually go every year to celebrate either Thanksgiving or Christmas) to visit my in-laws.  I am lucky enough to have fantastic in-laws.  I love them all to pieces.  Seriously.  This year it's even harder not to be out there with them because this past May, we welcomed our first precious baby girl into the world, and we want everyone to meet her.  Of course my mother and father in-law have been out to visit her, but the rest of the family...and believe me there's a lot of them, have still not been able to meet her.  

That's where shutterfly comes in!  This year we had our family photos taken and are going to be making a family Christmas card by Shutterfly (look here: Holiday Cards ) to send to our whole family! Go to Shutterfly to find your Christmas Cards.  I loooove the holiday design we picked out.  So classy and elegant.  It's called Pine Cone Toile Christmas Card.  I have used shutterfly before and am always so impressed with the work they do.  I get everything on time and exactly how I ordered it.  Plus, their website is super easy to use and you can change and edit your order until it's just right.  Perfect!!
I love shutterfly so much that I'll probably be using them again for my daughter's first birthday....only 5 1/2 months away!!  I'v already been scoping them out and they're all so cute!  Check them out here: Birthday invitations .

So here's to our friends at Shutterfly!  Thanks for making it so easy to send our love and Christmas wishes to family and friends that are here and far away!  Marry Christmas!!

Thankful

This is what I'm thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

hello nature, you're pretty.

The little bean sprout and I take walks almost everyday.  We have girl talk and just enjoy the beauty around us.  So easy to do when the weather is gorgeous and there is a crisp cool breeze in the air.  Gotta love Georgia in the fall.  It's times like these I feel blessed.  Close to my creator.  Peace.  I think about my family.  Man, I really love my family.  I can't wait for the holidays this year.  Sadly, we are not going on our annual trip to Utah to visit with Jeff's family.  BUT we are going to have some of my family in town and I simply can not wait to see them.  Until then I will enjoy my walks with the sweetest little girl I know! 

Jeff is about to be home, so I will leave it at that.  I love Wednesdays.  I get to have dinner surrounded by my loves.  Oh yeah, and tv on Wednesday nights is awesome!!

Rainy day, quiet house, sleeping baby

I love it when it's quiet.  It's usually doesn't last long, with three dogs and a baby somethings always making noise.  I'm just sitting here thinking about what I want to do today.  I should work out.  Maybe if I just get dressed in my work out clothes I'll feel more motivated.  I should clean too.  It's such a mess, how does it happen so fast?  I also should find a good recipe to make for Jeff.  You see, we had a conversation the other day about cooking.  I admit, I'm not exactly Betty Crocker.  I've put a pizza in the oven before with the cardboard still on the bottom!  Who does that?!  Anyway.  Jeff comes from a family of some pretty amazing cooks, as do I.  I know he is longing for some delicious home-cooked meals.  So where did this talent get lost on me?  The point is, I'm going to try really hard to be more adventurous in the kitchen.  I own it to my husband and daughter.  Now that I have put it in writing maybe I'll be more determined to do it.

6 months

Yep, it's true.  6 Months  My life is offically going in warp speed.  I can honestly say that the past six months have been the best in my life.  I know I gush about Blakely all the time, but she totally deserves it.  Every word.  Jeff too.  I can't begin to explain how much closer I feel to him and more in love.  I thought that was impossible considering we've been together for 10 years. 

So the little miss has had some major firsts this past month.  I'v blogged about a few of them, but here's the run down...
first tooth
first time eating solid food
first time sleeping in her own room (don't judge...I know it took a long time)
first time rolling over
Not to mention all of the places she's gone for the first time.  Basically, she's already a grown up!  No, not really.  She's still our little baby that loves to be snuggled and held and rocked.  She says "Mama" too.  Now, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know that's me, but how long do I have to wait until I consider that her first word??

Since we have offically started teathing Blakely has not been sleeping through the night like she used to.  Ugh, so tired.  I was majorly spoiled with a child that is used to be a great sleeper.  She has started waking up every 2-3 hours wanting to nurse (probably just to be soothed, not necessarly fed)  but with that new tooth, if she decides to bite down.... OUCH!!!  Nothing like a tiny jagged bone clamping down on you to wake you up!

I love you my sweet girl!

What a week!

Well the little miss and me had a wonderful busy week.  It all started last Friday actually.  We went to visit my friend Sarah and her adorable new baby boy, Brett.  She is such a cute new mommy and Brett is still just a tiny little bundle!  He is just precious and looks so much like his daddy.  It was such fun visiting with them and hearing more about his birthday.  It made me think about Blakely's birthday and how long ago that seemed.  I miss holding a tiny newborn.  It's a good thing I have friends that have and are having babies so I can get my fill, cuz my baby is huge now!  

Monday rolled around and I went to visit more old friends--the Mrs. Nelson's.  Katie and Carla are long-time buddies that I had not seen in FOREVER.  They are best friends and married to brothers, it doesn't get more perfect!  Carla just got back from her honeymoon and made a ridiculously stunning bride.  Katie is pregnant with her first baby boy and has just the cutest little belly ever!  We talked about pregnancy and L&D and I probably scared them to death with all of the gory details...what are friends for?!  Seriously though, it was so fun to see them again.  I'm not sure how we let so much time go by, but I'm glad that I'll be seeing more of them...we already have our next "date" scheduled :)

Wednesday, Blakely and I went to Athens to participate in UGA's Psychology Infant Lab for a study on visual recognition.  She basically just watches a TV screen and they track her eye movements to see if she prefers new images to old ones.  What is so cool about it is that I used to run the same lab when I was a student there.  Kind of a full-circle moment for me!  I also visited some of my friends from the vet I used to worked at.  I really miss Athens and all of the awesome people there.  It was also really fun to show Blakely where she will go to school one day :)

Friday, my sister-in-law, nephew, friend, Blakely and I all loaded up and went to the ZOO!!  I love the zoo!  It was C.O.L.D.  I had to bundle Blakely up like a little burrito.  I made her a hat just for the occasion, it's adorable.  What was so great about going when it was chilly out was that there was no one there and all of the animals were feelin' frisky and running around all over the place.  It was so cute to watch my nephew, Grady, stare at all the animals.  Blakely didn't appreciate the zoo as much as the rest of us, but she still had a blast.  She's a happy girl no matter where she is!  Here are a few pics... enjoy!



My happy girl, having a blast at the zoo!





I love the way Blakely is staring at Grady and his sucker!



I ended this busy week doing what I love most...hanging out with my husband and baby.  Jeff is just the BEST.  He's a wonderful hubby, he's always making me laugh and always seems to know exactly what I'm thinking.  But most af all he's an amazing father.  There is nothing that warms my soul more than to see those two together.

    

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween!!  It's so fun.  I have the best memories of this particular holiday all throughout my childhood!  So last year for Halloween Jeff and I were expecting and we thought a good way to tell people, my mom mostly, was to carve it in our pumpkin.

Pretty cute, huh?!  Well, that was last year.  We don't have any big announcements this year so a regular 'ol jack-o-lantern will have to do.

I blogged earlier this month about my inspiration for Blakely's Halloween costume.  I just love the way it came together!  She's my sweet little lamb!!

We had a great Halloween weekend.  Despite Georgia's terrible loss to Florida.  I love spending time with my family!  There is nothing I'd rather do.  Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Yummy, sweet potatoes!

Life with a baby is full of firsts.  They are all exciting, but as a mom, some make me kinda sad.  It's hard to explain because I love watching her learn and explore new things.  It's just that with each day that passes she seems to become more independent....I know, I know.....that's a good thing, but I guess I'm afraid she wont always NEED me like she does now.  I am being totally selfish, I realize this, but I can't help it.  But I guess deep down I know she'll always need me, I'm her mama and a girl always needs her mama. 

I have breastfed Blakely exclusively, she despises bottles and paci's, basically anything rubber.  So I have been her only source of food, her "lifeline" if you will.  I have felt bad at times for Jeff because he has not been able to share in the bonding of feeding our daughter.  But I know it is the BEST thing for my baby, and I have loved being the only one to be able to give her exactly what she needs.  I say it's a perk of having had to go through labor and delivery, so there!  Recently, Blakely has been showing more interest in our food.  She reaches out for our forks when we're eating dinner with her mouth wide open....couldn't be more clear than that, I suppose. 

So, I decided it was finally time for her first experience with solid food.  Hilarious!!!  She enjoyed a bowl of Gerber's finest, sweet potatoes!  LOVED. IT.  The first few bites were taken cautiously, and with a few shivers, but she soon got the hang of it and ate the whole bowl full!

Not so sure about this stuff.



Mid-shiver!!





Lovin' some sweet potatoes!

 Oh Blakely, you are so funny!  I guess it had to happen eventually, and I'm okay with it.  I mean, really, I didn't want to be one of those weird mothers who is still breastfeeding when there kid is like 4.  Blakely is still nursing mostly, but we'll continue to try some other fruits and veggies along the way.  But remember....

p.s.-- That's my brother-in-law posing under the billboard! 

Fall fun!

Jeff's parents were in town for a long weekend and boy did we have some fun!  Jeff's mom, Lynn, came in on Wednesday of last week and we had some girl time with Blakely.  Lynn hadn't seen Blakely since she was born, she has changed so much so it was really fun for us to spend some time together.  We took Blakely to a pumpkin patch and took some adorable pictures!  It was such gorgeous weather outside, perfect for fall!  The next day we took Blakely to Ellijay.  We had a great time walking around and old antique shops and finding cute salt and pepper shakers (Lynn collects them).  We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and relaxing.  We also fed Blakely solid food for the first time!!  That requires a blog of it's own!

There are tons more of the pumpkin patch, but those are just some of the cutest!  We had a great time in Ellijay, there's just somethin' about those small towns that is so charming and so southern. 

I'm amazed at how much love I feel for her!

Blakely just loves her grammy and poppy!  I wish they could see her more often than they do, but it does makes the time much more special when we get to be together

. 

Finally, a family photo!  Usually I am the one taking pictures so I treasure this!