Christmas Recap

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love holidays in general.

  But Christmas. The season. The hype. The presents. The family. 

All of it.

I LOVE.

So, of course, I couldn't wait to share our first Christmas with the Bean!

Surprisingly, she handled it quite well being the Mama/Dada anxious baby that she is.

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house visiting with family, eating an AMAZING dinner, and opening our first round of presents.

Christmas morning both of our immediate families came to our house for Christmas morning. We had a pretty yummy breakfast spread set up, then spent the morning opening presents, and celebrating.

She was really into opening each package.

Then the toy.

For about 10 seconds.

Before she was ready for the next.... and this is how the morning continued.
(very excited to ditch my Coach diaper bag for my new Storksak!)

We then took a trip down to Tucson to celebrate with the Rimsza side of the family. While I was worried about Ellie and the drive, she did great.

She suckered everyone into walking her. She's real good, guys.

We had such a wonderful holiday spent with our loved ones. 

I can't wait to see how much more excited Ellie gets for Christmas next year!

Please vote for us, friends! :)

Thanksgiving Recap

Get ready for a WHOLE LOT of update posts.

We went out to lunch with my in-laws at one of our favorite restaurants, Seasons 52.

Ellie thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving meal.

Please excuse JP's creepy mustache, thanks No-Shave-Movember.

Stepping on rocks. Shocker.

We then went to my mom's for Thanksgiving dinner, where Ellie proceeded to enjoy her SECOND Thanksgiving meal.

We let her have her first taste of dessert - ever. None other than my personal fav, pumpkin pie. :)

Inspecting..

Alright, I approve.

Her 'where are my stretchy pants?' face.

We had a great little first Thanksgiving as a family of 3. :)

10 months!

My beautiful little pumpkin baby is 10 months old!
(this was obviously written well over a month ago)

They weren't kidding, folks.

TIME FLIES.

Ellie's latest and greatest:

has 2 teeth

crawls like a maniac everywhere!

pulls herself up onto everything

can legit sit for an entire episode of MMCH without blinking budging

(Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for my non-mama friends)

Disclaimer: we don't let her watch this much tv, it's on occasion folks

weighs about 23 pounds

can finally drink out of a sippy cup
tries (keyword) to climb up onto things

LOVES water

eats 3 meals and 2+ snacks a day

although it hasn't replaced her love for the boob

still takes two decent naps a day

walks along pretty much anything and everything she can

moved up to the next level at Gymboree
sort of waves and high-fives, but I'm still trying to decide if she understands or it's a fluke
still wakes up once (occasionally twice) a night
I've been told breastfed babies can take up a year to sleep through the night - grrrreat

 is so spoiled - her Christmas gifts are already taking over the guest bedroom

For the record, it is getting increasingly difficult to take pictures of a baby that sits still. It was so much easier to manipulate her poses and the camera when she didn't move. 
Hence, the quality, isn't quite up to par.

The pictures start out like this... stone cold fridge face.

Finally, I do something funny.
Then, I have to offer her food.

And, then a toy break...

Alright, this isn't working. Time to lay you down, Baby. You.will.not.move.

Just kidding. Back to the toys.

Window break!

Finally, she stopped moving.
I think she's checking out her Buddha belly.

Just kidding. She found the iPad. Then, somehow opened the videos - on her own. Seriously.
And didn't budge for a solid 5 minutes while I pressed replay 528 times.

Daddy on the iPad?!
Mind.blown.

And that's it folks. I wish I could say I took all these photos in a five minute time period.
But then I'd be lying.
It may or may not have taking an hour to get these stellar photos.

It's a good thing she's cute.

My Beautiful Baby,

You're such a sweet little girl with a bit of drama queen on the side. While you're pretty easy going about most things, you make it quite clear when you want (to continue walking) or don't want (anymore food). We love seeing these little personality traits develop. We're so excited to have you here this holiday season to join in our love for the holidays. If I thought the holidays were great before, I'm a million more times excited to have you with us this year. I'm really starting to struggle with the fact that you're just two months shy of turning a year old. This has been the best year of my life and I've been in denial (hence, I've failed to start planning your birthday party - I just haven't been ready). But at the same time, I equally look forward to what's to come. Each night after I nurse you before bed, you're not quite asleep and while you typically want to lay down in your crib to fall asleep, I've been rocking you for 10-15 minutes. You're wide awake and we just quietly rock together, listening to your little hums. This has been my favorite moment of each day lately. It's not too often that you just want to lay and snuggle anymore (other than first thing in the morning), so I'm taking FULL advantage of these moments. I may or may not do this same thing (against your will if need be) when you're 16. Just a forewarning, if you will. I love you, Sweet Baby Girl.

Love, Mama

Update - Sorta

Hi, loves.

 

I swear, I'm still here.  We're all alive and well. We're just in the middle of a laptop disaster and sending it out to be repaired tomorrow actually. Hence, the lack of posting and me being (two weeks)late for Ellie's 10 month update. The thing is - the blog post is written - the pictures have been taken.

I just can't upload them with the current said disaster.

 

Not to mention, this itty bitty baby body is NON-freaking-stop.

She is always on the go, on the go, on the go.

Energizer Bunny.

No joke.

 

Therefore, the free time I have to blog is very limited.

 

So, it will have to wait.

 

 In the meantime, I spent some time recently going back through photos over the past 10 months and cue the tears, but I can't believe this itty bitty baby is almost a year old. While I love the little girl she's becoming, it breaks my heart how quickly this past year has gone by.

 

She was SO tiny.

 

Where'd my baby go, y'all?

 

 

There are literally thousands of pictures, but these happen to be two of my favorites.

Valentine's Day, just a few weeks old and one of her newborn pictures just 9 days new.

 

 

Much love.

xxoo

 

(take a second and please vote for us on Top Baby Blogs - just click the brown box in the right corner)

THANK YOU!

On My Heart: Infertility

My heart is SO heavy tonight.

Over the course of my pregnancy and since having Ellie, I've found and met many amazing women through both pregnancy groups and the blogging world. Since I didn't have many close girlfriends pregnant, or even with children for that matter, I became very close to some of these women.

The women that I met online through these groups and/or blogging have become some of my closest friends. Call me crazy, but I love them all dearly and hold them close to my heart. They've answered my questions, eased my fears, and have been a sense of comfort for whatever the reason may be. We've laughed together. Cried together. Drank wine together. You name it, we've done it or talked about it. I absolutely cherish these women.

The reason for my post tonight is because throughout this whole experience I've become a lot more familiar with the world of infertility through these groups. While JP and I haven't had to experience infertility, I've witnessed account after account of women that have. One in particular lost her third and final triplet at 21 weeks tonight, after 3 years and many, many losses later. My heart absolutely breaks for her and her husband. I truly cannot imagine going through a loss like that. I admire her for her strength to continue on, because in all honesty, if I were there, I don't think I'd be able to do it.

I am not one to ask for prayers, but if you pray, please pray for this sweet family that they may find peace and the strength to move on during what is the worst thing they've ever had to experience, despite 3 years of losses and infertility struggles.

I know I say this a lot, so I apologize.

I am SO incredibly thankful for my sweet Ellie. She is the light of our lives. What they say is true -- having a child is like having your heart walking around on the outside. She has my heart. I always feel like my love for her cannot grow any deeper, yet each and every day it does. I don't do this enough, but I thank God for choosing me to be her Mommy. I couldn't have asked for a more precious, rewarding, and loving gift.

There are so many women that struggle in this world plagued by infertility and it breaks my heart. I wish I could put into words the love and emotion one experiences with having a child, but I cannot. All I can do is pray that there are more cures found to these problems and that all of these deserving women are able to eventually to feel those emotions and have a baby of their own. While I wouldn't want any woman to experience infertility or a loss, I pray that all of the women near and dear to my heart get to have children of their own some day.

For those of you that already have your little ones, your take home babies, please hold them close tonight. We are SO blessed.