Brynlee meets Santa...

This weekend we got together with a mommy group that I started on Facebook to meet Santa. I started this group about 5 months ago with just 15 girlfriends, I told them to invite people they knew with kids and it has somehow grown to over 185 members! Crazy, right?!

Well anyways, one of the girls on there put together this amazing event. She knew somebody who was a retired vet that dressed up as Santa! She decided $10 was a fair amount to take your OWN pictures with Santa, at a lovely park here in Gilbert. It was an amazing idea, we raised over $340 for an Angel family, and also had tons of canned goods and clothes donated. Thanks again Karen, for putting this together!

As for Brynlee meeting Santa... she did surprisingly, GREAT! She didnt cry at all. Just had a very serious look on her face then entire time and would just stare at him like who the heck is this guy?! She really did good! I was proud of my lil munchkin. She was one of the few, who didnt happen to scream her head off. Most babies do though, so I get it :) My little one on the other hand, is just as curious as ever! Here are my favorite outtakes!

Trying to figure him out :)

She loved the teddy bear that Santa gave her!

So cute. She liked him!

Waiting in line to meet Santa

Family Pictures

We had such a great time taking our family pictures! Our photographer was Mary Lessig and you can check out her blog at http://marylessigphoto1.blogspot.com. She is an amazing photographer. We took our pictures at The Groves. It was actually a pistachio grove! So neat and totally not Arizona! I had one friend ask if we went up north because it looked like we were in the woods... totally the look we were going for, success! 

Enjoy :)

Whats Happenin?

How could we pass this adorable little hat up????

Happy Friday!!!!

So glad the weekend is approaching! Did you not die when you saw the picture above? Pssssh someone is ready for wintertime! We snagged that adorable little hat at Old Navy for winter and for our trip to Michigan! We also got her some snowpants and a puffer jacket. Its going to be so cute to see her all bundled up!

This last weekend we had our housewarming party and things went great! Minus the fact of me getting super sick from too much wine and no food... it was a blast! We had a great turnout with a lot of people, food was gone (which is always a good sign in my eyes), and everyone said they had a great time! It was fun to hang out with all of our best friends for the evening. Having the housewarming party really pushed us to get the house done just in time for Ryan's parents to get here! They come next Friday and stay for I believe, 9 days!

I started back at bootcamp 2 weeks ago and I am loving every second of it! I can already feel my body toning up and I have already lost 3 pounds! And did I mention I am back to my pregnancy weight less a pound or two? Woop woop!!! I start an 8 week challenge tomorrow and I am not going to lie, I am pretty nervous about it. It's definitely going to be challenging but they claim to see amazing results over 8 weeks. On average women loose about 15-25lbs. I am going to do my best at it, see if I can keep up with it and we will just go from there. I know one thing, I wont ever kill myself over a diet so if I start it and feel like its not for me, I will continue on just with the bootcamp. The whole goal of the challenge is to slightly change the way you eat (while still eating what you like) and going to camp at least 3 times a week which I am doing already right now. So might as well give the eating thing a chance and see how it goes! I will keep you updated ;)

 This weekend we have a 1st birthday party, family pictures tomorrow and hopefully a pumpkin patch on Sunday! Woo hoo! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!! Enjoy some pics!

Such a cheeseball! Ugh, I am so in love with our girl!

Love this picture of my mom and her... I think she will love it someday too!

The night of our housewarming party :)

It's Friday!

 

Happy Friday Everyone!!! I dont know about you, but I am loving the new Blogger dashboard. So much easier to use! Anyways, this weekend we are going to enjoy the cooler weather together as a family! We plan to assemble our patio set, let Brynn play in the new grass a little and enjoy some wine outdoors! We might even try to hit up a pumpkin patch this weekend to get some cool pics with Brynn for fall. Love weekends with very little plans. Lets us relax and play every hour by ear. Hope you all have a great weekend and now that there is this new blogger, I will probably be even more motivated to do the post on the headboard. 

Cheers and Happy Friday!

Cheers to the freakin weekend...

Haha love that song. And once again, its been to long since I've blogged.

I honestly think about it all the time, but lately I just really havent felt like writing! There is so much to say but once you get so behind you feel like you cant catch up with these things!

So starting FRESH.

Can you believe our sweet girl is going to be 7 months this weekend??! I cant! She is getting SO big. Things are really moving to fast for my liking. She started crawling full force at 6.5 months (a little advanced for her age, thats for sure) and is now pulling up and wanting to stand on everything. She is quite the rascal. When we try to change her diaper it takes about 10 minutes most times... bc she wants to roll over, crawl and escape from us! It is aggravating some times but usually it means I get to see her cute lil butt cheeks! Not only is she fully on the move but she is getting her own personality perfected. She is quite the drama queen at times! She fake coughs and cries... and knows exactly what to do to get attention! Most of the time we just laugh at her or fake cry/cough with her so that she knows it ain't workin. She usually smiles back, just the diva in her! She has been on solids now for a while and she loves them and she doesnt. I started making my own food which started out great... but as time went on, I realized, she really doesnt like MY food. When we went to Michigan we bought a few jars of food for the trip, and she ate those down with no problems at all. I guess thats the American in her, we like the stuff that ain't necessarily good for us. Not that its bad, but I like the idea of my food being raw and not sitting on the shelf. Sooo we have been playing with both my food and some jarred foods. She also has been having a hard time going potty so we have to only feed her foods that start with P! And also giving her pear or prune juice in the mornings and night to help her little tummy work through these solids. Poor thing! She cracks us up on a daily basis, still loves to snuggle on me sometimes (which of course melts my heart), and can make any bad day, better. I dont know what life was like without her and I dont want to remember life without her, because she just always makes it better!

Our house is really coming along and we are almost done with the beginning stages of it being "done". I feel like our house will never be "done" because we will constantly make changes to it I am sure, especially as our family grows. But as far as moving in... and getting settled in, we are almost there. A few more things to do and we will be good. Then I can really start getting crafty! We are getting our backyard done next week and I cannot wait to see what it will look like with grass, trees and rocks back there! Maybe I will open my windows more often ;) We are having our housewarming party on the 15th so I need to buckle down and get things moving!!!

Ryan and I... well we are great as always. Love my husband more than anything as he is my support, my rock and my best friend. I wouldnt want life to be any different than where we are right now!

Oh and I promise, I will post how I made our headboard... SOON! Hopefully this weekend... if I can find the motivation :)

TGIF!

Michigan Bound!

Tomorrow morning we are headed to good ol' Michigan! I am SO excited. This will be Brynlee's first airplane ride, and I am getting pretty anxious about it! She is such a great baby so I think she will do great, but I just hope what I think, becomes true!

Some things I am really looking forward to...

• Seeing all of our family... Nana, Nonno, Grandpa Jim, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins etc etc
• Seeing our friends... Pete, Kay, Dave, Dee, Nick, Emily etc etc
• Cooler weather, supposed to be in the 60, low 70's ALLLLL week!
• Hot tubbing with my inlaws... we always have the best time just hanging in the hot tub, drinking some wine, good conversation and bonding! We are bringing Brynn's monitor so we can hot tub while she naps and sleeps at night, woo hoo!
• Jimmy & Tiffany's wedding! They are getting married Saturday and Ryan is in the wedding of course. I cannot wait to witness their special day... and to get Brynn all dressed up of course too, she will be a highlight of the night I am sure!
• Shopping in downtown Royal Oak... LOVE the shops there and hoping to find some cool art for our house and maybe some goodies for our cute little muffin, B, too!
• Seeing my in-laws new house! They remodeled their house from a 1-story to a 2-story and I cannot WAIT to see the progress and how its coming together!! Oh and we get our own bedroom this time, woo hoo!!

All in all, I am looking forward to a great week! I will of course miss our best friends, Bre & Mike & Cash too, who we have just so been happening to be seeing EVERY weekend. Now that we live close it rocks and the babes love to play together. We have good times, every single time with them. Never a dull moment and always a good laugh!

While traveling if I can get wi-fi I will do the post on the bed frame too, sorry its taken me forever!! If not, I will do it as soon as possible!

Pics to come from our amazing trip!!! :)

Brynlee's 6 Months!

I cannot believe my baby girl is 6 Months!

My oh my has she changed in 6 months and I cannot believe we are already halfway to her first birthday!! Some of her latest tricks are fully sitting up on her own unsupported, holding her own bottle and knowing exactly what it is. I swear, she see's it and whines till it's in her mouth, cracks me up every time! She is trying and VERY close to crawling. I am so proud of her since she is such a young crawler! She lunges forward and has reverse action down like it's nobody's business. Oh and rolling over and over and over and over again until she can't roll no more. The girl I tell you... is crazy. She cracks us up on a daily basis and always has a way to put a smile on my face. I was sick for a week in August and for some reason everytime I was around her, I felt perfectly fine. She was my medicine. There is nothing better than picking her up from daycare and seeing her smile and put her arms out for her mama. She know's it's me and thats the best feeling in the world. I am hers, and she is mine.

I feel like it was yesterday we were heading to the hospital as my water broke and knew our baby was on her way! I will never forget that moment and wish I could relive it 10 million times over! Time goes incredibly too fast. You blink your eyes and they go from being this snuggly little newborn to almost crawling, eating baby food and sitting up, in the just 6 short months! I dont even know what a year will bring but I am sure within 6 months, I will be running after Brynlee! :)

And this blog title finally makes sense to me... Let them smile, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle... they get so big so quick and life is too short! I strive every day to be the very best mom to Brynn. She has my entire heart and I would do anything for you baby girl!

Look at our little peanut at 1 week old... Love her little chicken legs here!!!

And now she has transformed into this crazy little girl that I am so in love with...

I love you Brynlee Madison, cannot wait to see you continue to blossom into a little girl. Love you to the moon & back...