1 Year Old!!!!

One year ago the very minute this blog posted I saw this for the very first time.
...




I fell 100% madly, completely in love. Like nothing I imagined would ever be possible.






Over the last year that love has grown so much it makes me cry if I think about it too much. (I'm not scared to admit it.... I'm sappy and emotional.) Brynn makes me so happy! She is the sweetest thing in the world. I mean seriously so sweet. I haven't ever seen another baby who likes to hug and kiss as much as this little girl does. She does laps around the living room hugging and kissing her toys, her dad and me. We LOVE it! The funny thing is she won't kiss you if you are holding her. She will kiss anyone else though. And hugs... oh they melt my heart over and over again. She loves to pat your arm or back as she is hugging you. If she hugs her dolly or her stuffed Sully she rocks back and forth So.Cute!

But back to how she has grown... She was born at 8lbs 4oz and 20" long at 12:27pm on June 30th. As of June 25th she is about 28" and 18.5 lbs we will see what the DR says at her 1 year appointment next week.

To brag about my little Brynnie a little bit here are all of the fun things she is doing these days...
Walking (getting to be more like running) EVERYWHERE
Playing with all of her fun toys a while ago she figured out her shape sorter and stacker, she loves her stuffed animals and makes them talk to eachother.
Reads - well she makes all her giberish noises while looking through books. It makes my day.
Climbs the stairs
Gets up onto the sofa and divebombs off of it.
Laughs hysterically at the dogs. Especially the littlest dog at my parents house.
Loves wearing her links like a necklace.
Eats or drinks pretty much anything you set on her tray.
She waves and dances when you ask her to.
She dances anytime she hears music. (It basically makes me die laughing.)
She has a pretty good vocabulary for a 1 year old. She says Dada (says that the most), Mama, Dog, Thank You, Car, Good, Done and Hi. Her favorite phrase is Hi Dada! She screams it when he walks in the room.

There are so many other fun things my girl is doing it just blows my mind. I have to go now so I can spend the day with my girl celebrating her life. But what kind of mom would I be if I didn't leave you with some more pictures?! ;) Oh and if you are interested her birth story is in a tab above.

(What do you mean I'm going to be 1 tomorrow?)






Happy Birthday Brynn! I'm am so proud to be your mom. You make all the hard things in life totally worth while. You make all the wonderful things in life even better. I hope you are always the happy, sweet girl that you are now. Daddy and I love you so much we can't wait to watch you grow. Big hugs and kisses.

I love you so much!


xoxo...P

Earth Friendly Baby Stuff #3

And I'm back with a Baby Related Post! :)  

Baby wearing!
So it isn't really earth friendly exactly but alot of earth friendly mamas love it so I figured I would include it. I LOVE to wear Brynnie. It is so convinient and such great bonding for me and my girl.

There are so many different options on how you can wear your baby and I couldn't even tell you how many products are on the market. What I can tell you about are our 3 types of carriers.

When Brynnie was little bittie we used a Moby Wrap. That thing was a godsend when I needed to get things done and she was fussy and wanted to be held. I would vacuum while wearing her and she would fall right asleep. That thing was seriously great.

Well now Brynnie is a bit bigger and I feel like she is a bit too heavy for me to feel safe with her in the Moby so my go to is the Ergo. LOVE LOVE LOVE! It is amazing. The shoulders are padded with memory foam and they way it sits on your body is so comfortable. Plus it is the most ERGOnomically correct carrier for your baby. Similar options (like the Bijorn) aren't very good for babies hips. The Ergo is just great. It can hold a child up to 40 (or 42?) lbs and you can use it as a front carry, a back carry or a side carry. Seriously just LOVE this thing.

And finally we have a sling. I have only used it a couple times because I got it after I got the ERGO and Moby but it seems ok. B is too big now to do some of the carrys with it and just a little too small to do a sitting hip carry.

Training... Father's Day... and a question...

What am I training for?

My very first 5K. I don't know what I'm thinking but I'm going to do it.

I'm doing a variation of the Couch to 5K program and went on my first run/walk yesterday. Though maybe I should have called it my first walk/run because there was for sure more walking than there was running at this point. But that is to be expected and how the plan works.

I was out for about 1/2 hour and went approx. 2.2 miles.

I'm so proud of me. :)

The 5K is September 25th at the zoo.

Wish me luck everyone.



Now onto Father's Day.
Brynn and I are so greatful to her dad. J is just amazing with her and he loves her so so so much it is the best thing to watch them together. One of the best things for me to see is the way that girl lights up and yells (and I do mean yells) "hi dada" when he walks in the room. It is awesome.

For Father's Day J wanted to spend most of the day just chilling out with us so we did just that. All 3 of us even took a nap. About 3:30 that afternoon we took a drive to the place we got married. Starved Rock State Park. We love it there and they have delish food. So we ate dinner and I may or may not have snuck into a wedding because the DJs that did our wedding were there. :) It was great to see them.

J hasn't gotten all of his present yet because it isn't here yet but when it gets here I will show you. It is way cute. One of my friends Heather inspired me. :)

Here are some pics we took. I was shocked but I accidentally left my camera at home so they are cell phone pics. :( (Still cute though!)


This picture of the 2 of them melt my heart. <3!


And my question is simply this....

HOW IS MY GIRL GOING TO BE A YEAR OLD ONE WEEK FROM TODAY?!!

Here are some other cute pics we took recently - also cell phone pics because I haven't taken pics off my camera recently.
First pigtails!


I just loved this outfit!

How can you not love this face?!


xoxo.... P.

Life...

is getting in the way of blogging. :) Not that that is a bad thing. All the time anyway.

We have been crazy since I last posted. We have been fighting with GM... my car is, well was, a 2008 Chevy Equinox. NOT ANYMORE! It had just over 50,000 miles on it and within the last month and a half has had 2 new motors put in it. Clearly at that point I decided heck no I'm not driving it anymore. It isn't reliable and I don't want my precious little girl in it. Sooooo after some long drawn out bargaining with GM (ending with GM, not us, getting the better end of the deal) and figuring out some things on our end we are the proud owners of a brand new 2011 Chevy 2500 Silverado.

Pretty huh?! (Don't ever tell J I called the big manly truck pretty!)

So you might be asking yourself... your going to drive that all the time? Well no. We are getting rid of Jeff's old truck and planning on getting me a Jetta TDI wagon. :)

People crack up seeing me in the truck though. I have had more than one person comment on how little I look driving it. To them I say you think I'm little? Check this out...






**Disclaimer These photos were taken in our yard driving through our grass. We were not on a road being reckless. And the photo of her in the bed of the truck is while the truck is in park. We were using it as a "play pen"! haha**

In other news we have been working around the house constantly trying to get things better organized and make improvements since we are stuck in this house for a while.

And.... I have been planning B's 1st Birthday party! My girl is almost 1!!!! How how how did that happen?
For some completely bizarre reason I can't get a picture of her invite to post but I will figure out a way after her party.

I have some great little decorations all set ready to go and her outfit is soooo cute! I can't wait to see her in it. I have adorable plans for her cakes so lets just hope they turn out ok. haha. I can't wait for her party but the day of her actual birthday I think I will probably cry.

I can't believe the little girl my baby has turned into. She amazes me more and more every day. I just adore her.

I promise the next post will not be so far off. Things have just been crazy.

xoxo... P