4th of July

Happy (belated) 4th of July! :)

The last 3 years we went to Topsail, and then Chicago- but this year we spent at home! We had a cook out with our neighbors Dawn & Brandon right next door and invited their families, ours, and Brittany & Zach too!

(the set up!)

We share the side yard, so we set everything up there- tent, chairs, grill, tables, corn hole,pack n plays, etc! We had a ton of people come and it was a blast! We ate, played corn hole, and once it got dark everyone got to play with sparklers, then the guys set off the big fireworks! Adelynn did great- she hung out outside with us for a while, took a cat nip here and there, and was just her happy usual self!

and if you notice in the pictures- I have three different outfits on haha. Which is a great thing about being at home ;) My first shirt was super cute and patriotic but I was getting glitter ALL OVER Adelynn, so it had to go! Then I changed in to one of my dad's old army tshirts, but changed AGAIN into running shorts and a new tshirt cause it was just so dang hot!

(getting ready, the glitter shirt!)

I can't say enough how blessed we are to have awesome neighbors. Our kids are close in age, they are our age, and a lot like Joey & I. We get along so well and have a lot in common. Its what I've always wanted- neighbors to get close with, hang out with, raise our kids together, etc. I see them becoming life long friends for sure! Brandon even told me "you know Adelynn's gonna call me Uncle right?" and I wouldn't have it any other way!

(Me, Dawn, and Colton!)

Growing up Brittany and I always said we wanted to work together and live in the same neighborhood, who knew it would ACTUALLY happen? Britt and I went to highschool together, college, been working together since 2010 for the same company, and living in the same neighborhood for the last 2 1/2 years. Her and Zach live right down the street, and its so much fun!

(Zach and Britt!)

(Me & Britt, friends since 2000!)

I just love having awesome friends/neighbors, its the picture perfect life I always dreamnt of! I'm so grateful Adelynn has all of these people in her life, and she'll get to grow up with them!

We had a great 4th of July, and look forward to doing it again next year!

artbookmarks

Ever since Adelynn was born, I've been writing to her in a journal. Memories, I add pictures, mementos from various things I tell her about,etc. I loved going through old family pictures (and still do) when I was younger, and asking my parents/grandparents the stories behind everything, and who was who, etc. I decided to keep journals for Adelynn throughout her life so she can have them one day and know all about everything!

The journal I'm writing in right now is one my Aunt gave me when she came to visit in the hospital- and I love it, it is so beautiful.

I browse Etsy often for various things, and came across ArtBookMarks store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbookmarks

Maria is the seller, and she does amazing work! She is located in Greece, and hand paints everything she makes with oil colors. She does: bookmarks, notebooks, calendars, and diaries. She let me know she loves custom orders as well- she was a joy to work with and nail down exactly what I wanted! I immediately knew I wanted one of her journals, for my next journal for Adelynn. The hard part was nailing down which one I wanted, because they were all so beautiful! All the journals are of course hand painted on Italian canvas, but ALSO hand stitched with cotton thread. They also come in different sizes, 8.5z6.1in or 6.1x4.3in.

The bigger journal is $35 and the smaller one is $29.

I contacted her and let her know which one I liked, and she let me know she could customize it how I wanted! I picked the larger journal, with beige colored paper, and asked her to write "Dear Adelynn...." on the bottom of the cover. I had told my MIL about it a while ago, and she decided to get it for me for my birthday (tomorrow!). I WAS SO EXCITED to finalize everything with Maria and order it!

Here are some pictures of the final product, Maria shipped it out today so I will be anxiously awaiting this package in the mail!

I haven't seen it in person yet (obviously) but I already know I LOVE IT. The pictures are beautiful and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Maria was so sweet and awesome to work with on this. This is going to be SO SPECIAL for Adelynn one day :) Thanks again to Maria- you did an amazing job!

Head over to her site and check out everything else she has to offer, you won't be sorry! Again her site is:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbookmarks

“We let ourselves loose on that simple blank piece of paper, and our bodies spill. The terror, the love…embodying our stories page after page. In a sense, the pen was our tongue, it is how we delineate the world.”

-Coco J. Ginger

12 weeks old!

3 months old already, wow. hard to believe! my sweet girl will be 12 weeks tomorrow!

At 12 weeks heres some random facts about my baby:

- She found her feet, cutest thing ever. she stares at them and is so amazed! and of course she tries to eat them too ;)

- She MIGHT be teething? Shes drooling all over the place, and loves rubbing her gums on our knuckles, her hands, her feet, her teether, she KNAWS on her paci! so who knows, may be some teeth in our future!

- She is sleeping through the night still, and eats 8 oz! We're starting her on cereal soon, can't believe it.

-She is still amazingly happy & smiley ALL THE TIME. still hardly ever cries, we are SO blessed.

-She still looks like her daddy's twin, but I see a little more of me now :) We've decided she has my eyes! both Joey & I have blue eyes, but different blues (hard to explain) and Joey's tend to change colors too.

-She is still a mama's girl, and I'm soaking it up cause I know one day she'll want nothin' to do with me and will be a full blown daddy's girl!

-She LOVES talking...err... "talking" , its def my favorite thing every day when I get home, to just sit and talk to her.

-She doesnt like being held like a baby anymore unless shes sleepy, or eating. She loves to sit up and look around. Shes gotten some muscle going too- holding her head up like a champ (she sat in her bumbo for the first time and loved it!), putting weight on her legs and 'standing' on our laps. Shes growing so fast.


I'm obsessed with her, plain and simple! I adore her more than ever, and she is the best part of my life! We are so blessed to have our sweet girl, and we never take it for granted!

(Finding her feet!)

(First time in her bumbo, she LOVED it!)

(12wk photo shoot!)

Beads n Bows/Silver Lush

So I don't normally brag on vendors, but I had such an amazing experience with Jennifer I had to share!

Jennifer owns Beads N Bows (on facebook) / Silver Lush (on etsy) and her stuff is amazing. I stumbled across her facebook by chance and I'm so glad I did. I spotted a necklace I wanted on her site and drooled over it for well over a month. I worked with her to customize it exactly how I wanted. She was so nice, patient, and a pleasure to work with! All of her stuff is one of a kind, and SO reasonably priced. Here are a couple pictures of my purchase:

I saw this 'you are my sunshine' charm and fell in LOVE. I knew I had to have it! When we were dating Joey always called me his sunshine (and still does), so its always been our thing. When Adelynn came along she adopted the same nickname ;) I had Jennifer add a hammered bar with Adelynn's name, and her birthstone (April) to go along with the sun charm, and 'You are my sunshine'. It was a steal at $32.00!

I received it in the mail this past Saturday and could NOT be happier with it. I tore the package open and put it on right away, I absolutely love it. She included a business card with all her contact info, and even a little card that has info on how to take care of your jewelry.

I have a couple friends who have already told me they are placing an order with her- and I just had to feature her on my little ol' blog :)

She is very open to custom orders, everything is hand stamped, and she has an incredible creative eye! She is located in Rock Hill, SC -- southern girl like me ;) Make sure you check out both her Etsy shop and her Facebook page-- she has bows for sale as well on her facebook, and they are just too cute not to take a look at!

Here are links to her sites:

https://www.facebook.com/beadsnbowsSC

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverLush?ref=seller_info

I will most definitely be placing another order (or 5!) with her in the future. Go over and check her stuff out, you won't be sorry- I promise!

runnin' on E...

sleepy. like more sleepy than i was with a newborn, or when i was pregnant...THAT is pretty darn sleepy.

i've been back at work 3 weeks now and its starting to wear on me! it was so much easier to keep a clean house, have dinner ready, and enjoy my baby while i was home on maternity leave. now i feel like i'm just always moving, always doing something. i don't even get to see adelynn until 5:30 everyday when i pick her up, cause she's still sleeping when i leave for work :( this is what my day looks like:

-6:45 am wake up and get ready for work, make coffee, let the dogs out, get dinner started (if its crockpot!)
-7:20 am out the door and driving to work
-8am-5pm CRAZY day at work (especially right now cause we're in the middle of moving offices,so its chaos!)
- 5:30pm pick up adelynn and head home
-6pm start dinner
-7pm eat dinner
-7:30-9ish pm do the dishes, soak up as much time with adelynn as possible

and i'm usually in bed anywhere from 9:30-10pm.... then wake up, and do it all over again. Weekends should be my saving grace, but lately they've been packed with plans and SO busy; throw a sick baby, laundry, dishes,etc. on top of that...and its not much of a weekend.


and all i really want to do is spend time with joey & adelynn, that is my priority. but its hard with so many other obligations getting in the way.

i know my coworkers are probably wondering why i look such a hot mess everyday- i gave up on makeup! my hair is easy, it dries curly...but ive been lookin ROUGH, and i just dont even care. i'd rather sleep a little longer than worry about makeup.

i don't really see life slowing down till September either- i have stuff on my calender almost every single weekend! insane. i miss my baby, so much. no more tears in the mornings- but during the day i just miss her. my heart aches!

friday night we have a double date with B&Z and i'm SO looking forward to it, its been a long time since joey & i have gone out. but feelin' a little torn, cause Meme is babysitting and its really the first time we've had to get a 'sitter'. feeling a little guilty about leaving her when thats time i can be spending with her. but i know itll be good for joey & i and its necessary to have that time. so im going to try and not think about it, and just enjoy it. i only have one other thing going on this weekend (Neen's dress fitting, woo!) and after that i'll have the rest of the weekend (i hope) to relax and spend time with my two favorite people.

this working mom stuff is no joke. still hope one day i can be a SAHM, that would be AMAZING!

Rough Weekend.

This weekend went WAY too fast for me.

Friday I picked Adelynn up after work and she was pretty congested, and had gunky eyes- poor baby. she never fussed, still her smiley self, but she just could not breath. we gave her a nice warm bath, bottle, and put her to bed. we turned on her humidifier for the first time hoping it would help. NORMALLY she sleeps through the night, but joey heard her over the monitor kinda choking so he got up to check on her. then he woke me up cause he said he felt like her breathing was really shallow- i agreed. normally you can see her chest rise/fall and hear her breathing clearly. so we called a 24 hours nurse line and chatted with them for a while, they suggested we call an ambulance and get her to the ER. we decided to jump in the car and take her ourselves, we made it in RECORD time. thankfully they weren't busy we we went right back to a room and waited on the doctor. she saw the doctor on call along with a respiratory doctor. they both said she was definitley congested, but it was something we just needed to let it run its course. they said she was probably choking on mucus. poor baby! so 4 hours later we finally headed home, it was just turning day light and we all crawled back in to bed at 6:45am and slept till about 10. we were WIPED out. but worth it, we'd much rather be safe than sorry.

they told us to keep an eye on it, and try to keep her nose as clear as possible, suctioning out everything we can.

when we got up later Saturday, she seemed a lot better. So we decided to keep our plans and head out to Marietta to see EE. We had an awesome time :) .... until later that evening. she started screaming and crying like never before, and nothing we were doing was calming her down. i got so upset that i started crying! it was breaking my heart seeing her like that, cause when we say she never cries...SHE.NEVER.CRIES. and usually i can figure out what the problem is and calm her down- nothing was working. thank god joey was calm, he told me to leave the room and calm down lol...so i walked outside called my SIL and just cried! i know that sounds so silly, but it was breaking my heart. i walk back inside and shes calm and quiet, joey just looks at me and says "shes fine babe. and you're NOT a bad mommy!" i kept saying over and over "i feel like the worst mommy right now cause i cant make her feel better!"

i think (looking back) she got over stimulated from being passed around all day and being outside all afternoon. i think between shots on thursday, being sick, ER on friday night, being passed around/outside saturday... this little girl had just had enough! i dont blame her!

Today we were planning on going to Brittany's college graduation, and i feel like the worst friend ever but i made the call to stay home. i felt like adelynn just needed a very CHILL day, and i didnt want to leave her. we stayed home all day long-- we did leave for about 2 hours for our weekly family dinner- but we didn't stay long, pretty much ate and ran! i didnt want her getting over stimulated again so we just made it quick and headed home.

i'm hoping tonight goes okay- she didn't finish her last bottle of the night so i'm wondering if that means night feeding tonight, we'll see. CRAZY weekend.

Speaking of the doctor- at exactly 10 weeks old she weighed 12 ibs 2 oz and 24 inches, she is consistently gaining 2 ibs and 2 inches between each doctor's visit! growing girl! the doctor said shes perfect and kept commenting on what a good baby she was. the nurse said the same thing and kept telling me how pretty she is! i mean, i of course agree ;) but it was cool hearing it from strangers- made me feel very proud!

it was so sad when they gave her the shots (one in each leg!) she cried, the type of cry where it was so hard no sound was coming out! i hugged and kissed on her for a bit and she calmed down, she was asleep in her car seat before i even checked out! she is amazing.

i love her so much. i can't say it enough. i just hope my baby girl feels better soon. and i hope this week FLIES so we can enjoy next weekend with her!

Father's Day Weekend!

What a weekend- and its almost over! :( Went by way too fast for me- but glad I got to spend so much time with my baby girl :)

Friday night we went over to the Freeman's for dinner! We hung out, ate, and watched some stand up comedy- so fun! But Adelynn started fussin, poor baby was gassy-- I could hear it and feel it in her tummy :( So we went home to give her a warm bath and calm her down-- bout 10 minutes later she was fine! So we told Britt and Zach to come on over to our house (they live in our neighborhood!) and hang out cause it was so early and we weren't ready to call it a night. Its easier here cause we have all baby's stuff here, and she went to bed shortly after so we stuck her in her crib and flipped the monitor on. We had so much fun with B & Z!

(Baby girl asleep at Britt and Zach's!)

Yesterday was super busy! We spent the morning just hangin' out, but then left to go run some errands. We took back a BUNCH of diapers to exchange at buy buy baby, so we could get the ones we prefer. Turns out they have an "as-is" section (who knew!?) so we got two boxes of Pampers, 234 count, for the price of ONE just because the boxes were damaged in shipping. um...THANK YOU! double the diapers for the same price, I dig it! Then we went by Absolutley Specialties to see my mom and Mrs.Elaine, but we couldn't stay long cause it was time for baby to eat!

Then Adelynn & I dropped daddy off at my in-laws. Him and his Dad were going to the Braves game last night! My College (YHC) had an alumni event, and so they had a full buffet, GREAT seats (or you could watch it at the 755 club), and the kicker...a meet & greet with Hank Aaron! As soon as I heard about it I knew it would be the perfect Father's Day gift for Joey and his dad!

(FIL, *Hank Aaron*, Joey)

Adelynn and I headed over to Neen's Wedding Shower! It was awesome seeing everyone, and for them to all finally meet my baby girl!

(All dressed up for the wedding shower!)

Afterward baby and I came home to hang out for the night, and I got her talkin' to me again- so managed to get this little video! (Sorry for the shaky camera, she was wigglin!)

Oh I just love her :)

and now, Father's Day! Joey & baby are still sleeping :) His gift was the Braves game with his Dad, and a new tervis tumbler covered in pictures of our baby girl!

The pictures really doesn't do them justice- they turned out AWESOME! Joey & I both use tervis tumblers a lot, he takes one to work everyday. Once I found out you could go on their website and 'design your own' I knew that would be perfect! (and of course...I had to get one for me too!)

Today we're plannin to be lazy this morning, then around lunch time head over to Wes's house to have a Fathers Day cook out with my mom's side of the family. Then we're doing dinner at my in-laws! My Dad and brother are both at the beach right now (wish we were!) so I won't see either of them today :(

I also want to do a little craft I found on Pinterest: http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2011/06/salt-dough-footprint-keepsakes.html

easy and fun! :)

So Happy Father's Day to all the daddys out there! Especially Joey ;) Adelynn loves him so much, and he is the best daddy to her. I love seeing them together. I couldnt have hoped for a better Father to my child!

(I love you babe!)