The Fastest, Bestest Year of My Life

Y’all.  My sweet baby girl is turning one on Sunday. 

One.

As in she’s been here in this world for 365 days.

I feel like it was just yesterday she was a squishy little newborn.  But on the other hand, it seems like so long ago.  Some days I can hardly remember her being this small.

Now she’s a toddler.  Long gone is my baby who would contently lie on the floor in one spot.  In her place is a babbling, wannabe walker who wants nothing more than the walk around the house ALL.DAY.LONG.  

 

Needless to say, a lot has changed in one short year. 

I became a mom.  Something I still can’t believe.  The fact that I have a child and have been entrusted to raise her still floors me.  The responsibility of it all overwhelms me at times, but I know in my heart God gave her to me specifically because we were a perfect fit.  She was my missing piece.  And now my heart is fuller than I ever thought possible.

You know the totally overused line of “I never knew I could love anyone so much!”?  Well, crap.  It’s true.  Through all of the frustrations and moments of lost patience on my part…I still find myself thinking about her and smiling.  Or missing her when she’s sleeping.  Or wanting to snuggle her up into a little ball and keep her this size forever.

But she’s growing up.  And I truly am excited to she her learn more and more each day.  It’s just sometimes a little bittersweet watching her become more and more independent.  But I’m proud of the sweetie she is becoming.  And gosh darn it, the girl is a hoot!

I’m in serious party planning mode over here.  All of my immediate family is coming and staying with us so it is going to be a lot of fun…and a lot of work.  But I want to make sure we focus on the reason for the party.  The celebration of my sweet baby girl who has brought so much joy into all of our lives.

Can’t wait to share more with you all!

Rip Van Winkle Wannabe

Do any of you have snoring spouses?

I didn't.  I was lucky.  Until Christmas.  Suddenly my silent bed partner turned into a wake me up out of a deep sleep bed partner.  

And he's still here.

At first he blamed it on congestion.  And I bought it seeing as he was actually sick.  But even since the "sickies" left, the snoring remains.  What's up with that?

I've been having to get up in the middle of the night and move to the guest room.  A guest room where I haven't put sheets back on the bed since we last had guests.  They're in the room, mind you.  Just not on the bed.  So I've been sleeping on top of the comforter, using the sheets as blankets, and sleeping with my robe on because it's so cold.  

Poor, lazy me.

But seriously.  What can I do about this?  I am beyond sick of leaving my warm bed in the middle of the night.  And I know Matt feels really bad.  Do those Breathe Right Strips work? 

source

That couple looks really peaceful, huh?  Oh how I want that.

So what's a sleepy mama to do?

Natalie's First Christmas!

I know this is super late, but if only for my own memories I’d like to recap our Christmas vacation.

Matt was involved in a trial down in Akron for most of the month of December.  We were concerned about it interrupting our Christmas travel plans, but luckily it wrapped up just before the holidays.  And he won!  It was a big case not only for him but for the firm and gave him such great trial experience.  It’s funny how before I met Matt I just assumed all lawyers tried cases like you see on T.V.  Believe me; it is not at all like that.  So not the glamorous job it is portrayed to be.  But in this instance it kind of was.  He actually got to cross examine witnesses and everything!  I am so proud of him and the effort he puts into his work.  Natalie and I are very lucky to have him.

Side tracked a bit, huh?  Since we were celebrating the holidays out of town, we had our family Christmas morning on the 21st.  Natalie had her first fever so she wasn't really into opening presents, but it was still nice to have that time as a family.







Her favorite gift, the bubble wrap.  Of course.

We headed down to Indianapolis on the 23^rd to start our week long stay.  I had my annual Christmas dinner with my high school besties and had an absolute blast.  We’ve grown apart over the last few years…it’s easy to do when you live so far away…and the little addition we have doesn’t make this easier…but I felt a closeness coming back to our group and I hope that sticks around.

Every year we go to Christmas Eve Mass at the church I grew up in.  Even though I’m no longer Catholic, I still enjoy going.  We attend the children’s service where in place of the sermon…the priest has all of the children come up to the front and he reads a story about the birth of Jesus.  I took Natalie up to the front this year and even though she tried to walk away the entire time…and left a pile of Cheerios in her wake…it was kind of a dream come true.  I cannot tell you how many years I have sat in the pew and watched those sweet kiddos run up to hear the story and dreamt about it being my little one.  It was awesome.

That evening we went to dinner with my whole family, Matt’s parents, and some of my dad’s extended family per our usual tradition.  Natalie was pooped though and she was having no problem showing it to the entire restaurant…so she and I scooted home and I put her to bed.  It actually worked out well seeing as she was fast asleep when everyone got there so I could enjoy the gift exchange…and wine J

Unclear why, but Natalie had a r.o.u.g.h. night that night.  I’m not sure if she was over excited to see Santa or what but she was up almost all night crying about something.  Not so fun.  But we rallied in the morning and opened presents with my parents and siblings.  Girl got some sweet loot!

Later that day we headed over to my aunt’s house to celebrate with my mom’s extended family.  We had a lot of fun and it was nice for some of my family members to get to meet Natalie for the first time. 

We finished out our celebrations with Matt’s parents the next morning.  We had such a full week of love from everyone and it was just a fantastic experience to celebrate Natalie’s first Christmas with us as a family.  Love that girl to pieces! 

 

A New Start-January Goals

I mentioned yesterday that I had some goals for 2012.  I hesitate to call them resolutions as I feel as if I'm setting myself up to fail.  But clearly, that's what they are.  The coming of the new year brings with it a sense of change so I'm stepping up and sharing with you some things I've been wanting to do in my own life for some time.

1.  Go to the gym/work out at least 5 X a week.  

I had a pretty good routine of 4 X per week going before Christmas hit so I'd like to bump that up a little bit to get in some more cardio.  With this goal also comes the obligatory goal of losing weight.  I put on some pounds during the holidays so I have some serious work to do.  I actually took a before shot of myself yesterday morning and intend on doing an after shot on my birthday (6/3/12) 5 months from now.  Lord, let me look better than I do right now.  It was not pretty.

2.  Read my Bible everyday.

When I was working I had the perfect set up.  I read the Word during my breaks and at lunch and finished the entire thing in a year.  But since then, I've kind of been lackluster in my reading.  And honestly, I've been lost at how to approach it.  I found a Bible I was gifted when I left my job in a different translation than my regular one so I'm excited to get into it.  It has a reading program in it so I think I will follow that for now.  My plan is to do it as soon as Natalie goes down for her first nap before something else comes up.  I started yesterday.  So far, so good!

3.  Give up pop.

I'm not a big pop drinker.  I gave up caffeine when I got pregnant and have pretty much stuck to it as I've continued with the breast feeding.  But some days I just really want one, you know?  I know water is much better for me so I'm going to try to bump up my intake of that instead.

4.  Organize recipes that are winners.

I'm a meal planner.  And probably uniquely so, I exclusively make new meals.  Okay, that's not entirely true...but for the most part I'm a one and done kind of girl.  I'm not sure why, but I just have so many recipes waiting to be tried that I have never even thought of keeping a list of those that we loved.  Kind of stupid when you think about it.  So I'm going to start a folder on my desktop to compile those I would make again.  And, you know, make them again.  Does anyone have any other easy way of keeping track of this?  The folder idea's all I've got.

5.  Finish Natalie's 1 year photo book, keep up with her baby book, and print pictures to put in albums.

I'm about half way through Natalie's photo book in Blurb, but I recently got a Shutterfly coupon code for a book so I'm not sure what to do.  Anyone made one on either of these sites?  Recommendations?  

I'm fairly good about keeping up with her baby book but I have yet to print any pictures to put in there.  I'd like to get that done.

Also, I do want to print out all of our pictures and keep them in really nice leather albums just so we have them.  Do any of you do this?  Suggestions for great albums to use?

6.  Get an Ohio driver's license.

Okay.  Confession.  I have lived in Ohio probably 6 years now and I still have an Indiana driver's license.  I know.  I'm hanging my head in shame.  I do have Ohio plates though, so that's a start!  I have lots of excuses as to why I haven't done this...such as I didn't want to do it when I was pregnant...or before I lost the weight...or I didn't want to take the lame written test.  But it's seriously, seriously time.

That's my list so far.  I want to check back every month to keep an updated list of how things are going and perhaps add some new idea that come to mind as the year progresses.  Keep me accountable, okay? 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends!  So sorry I disappeared from the blog world.  It wasn’t particularly intentional, but I was going through one of those periods where I felt forced to blog rather than really wanting to blog, you know? 

Well, I’m back and feeling refreshed!  Perhaps the coming of the new year has renewed my spirit?  Not sure, but I’m going with it!

I have a lot of goals and aspirations for 2012.  My sweet baby girl turns 1 in just 12 short days, weight loss is always an issue, and my spiritual walk needs some serious work…just to name a few.  Want to follow along with this crazy journey I call my life?  Stick around!

P.S.  You'll get a steady stream of pictures of Natalie.  That's enough, right?  Girl holds my whole heart...

Confessions

1.  I have never left my child with a babysitter.

Now hear me out.  I have left her before.  Matt puts her to bed when I have a meeting, she's stayed with my in laws for almost an entire day, she goes to the nursery at the gym almost every day.  It's not like girl is attached to my hip.  Well, she kind of is.  I mean, she has to be if I want to take her anywhere, right?

But this month I have been invited to several holiday celebrations.  And my dear, sweet husband is in trial out of town and will be gone practically all month.  Not to mention the fact that we have no family within 350 miles of us. 

It was time.

I hit up my favorite mommy friends and got some recommendations.  I have an official babysitter scheduled for Thursday evening and I'm throwing her in head first by having her put Natalie to bed.  Ha!  Should be interesting considering I'm still nursing and girl thrives on her nighttime routine.  But I've got to start somewhere. 


2.  I have no idea what to get my father for Christmas.  Really, I never do.  He's so not the typical dad.  You know the kind that golfs, grills, or needs office supplies?  Nope.  Not Pops.  He more sits, drinks beer, and watches sports.  And I have gotten him enough sports memorabilia that is collecting dust.  Ideas?


3.   My Christmas tree is still sitting in the middle of my family room with no lights or ornaments on it.  It's in this weird, leaning position and I have not been able to fix it myself so I am waiting until Matt has 0.2 seconds so he can help.  I will have the lights up this week.  I WILL!


4.  I'm not a fan of bath time.  There.  I said it.  It's completely out of pure laziness as Natalie really likes the bath and is no trouble at all.  But if it was socially acceptable to bathe your child once I week, I'd be all over that.  For now, I'll stick with every other day. 


5.  I tried a new recipe for cookies yesterday to send for a cookie exchange.  I'm pretty sure I messed up measuring how much flour I was supposed to use because the cookies spread like WHOA.  I mean, like WHOA.  But they still tasted good so I sent them anyway.  There was no way I was going to go out to the store to get more ingredients to make something else.  And like I said, they still tasted good.  Karma's probably going to screw me and I'll receive some gross thumbprint cookies with fruit in the middle.  Ick.  Give me chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday friends!  Matt's has been working weekends for the last two weeks so my days are all messed up.  Besides the fact that Natalie and I spent the majority of our day yesterday in pajamas which is more common on the weekends, I thought it was Monday all day.  I feel a little off.  It could also be all of the Thanksgiving food I stuffed myself with all weekend.  I'm in need of a food intervention.

We headed down to Indianapolis Wednesday evening and spent all day Thursday at my parents' house celebrating with my in laws and my family.  We had so much fun and so much food...and it was a super fun day filled with lots of love.  

 

I made this Pumpkin Spiced Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and it was so yummy!  I ate the leftovers for breakfast for two days.  Yep.  That was only the beginning of my sweet issues.  I think I may need to give up sugar.  After Christmas of course.

To say that my mama loves her granddaughter is the biggest understatement of the century.  They had such a great time together spreading the love.

Until Natalie got a hold of my brother, her bestie.  These are probably my favorite pictures ever. 

After dinner we played some games, drank some wine, and played Just Dance.  In that order.  Which explains why my moves on Just Dance were less than stellar.  Or perhaps it's just that I can't dance.  Either way...complete and utter suckage on my part.  

We headed back to Cleveland on Friday and stopped to get our Christmas tree on the way home.  It's Natalie's first Christmas this year so we're soaking in all of the experiences together as a family.  Can you believe how nice the weather was?  I mean, last year it was so cold and raining.  This year girl didn't even need a coat!

Saturday I hosted my very first Thanksgiving for a group of our friends and their kiddos.  We had an absolute blast.  I forgot to take any pictures because I was rushing around all day prepping the food and such but I did manage to snap a blurry phone pic of the cupcakes I made.  Happy Turkey Day!