One Year & Party Time!

Oh my goodness, it's here and I'm in shock.

My baby girl is a year old today.

Time has never gone by so fast and it just really needs to slow down.

I've been reminiscing all weekend about this time a year ago

and how sweet, exciting, scary, exhausting, and heavenly it was.

Chris is literally the sweetest husband in the world and indulged me

by reading Scarlett's birth story blog out loud to me as I teared up

remembering all the details and emotions of that day.

 

It's been the hardest and most amazing year of my life.

Being a mom has taught me selflessness, patience, and unconditional love.

Chris and I feel so blessed to raise our little angel.

 

It makes me so sad, but Scarlett doesn't even seem like a baby anymore!

She's rapidly becoming a kid , and that is so weird to me.

Her biggest new developments are:

-she's walking/practically running alllll over the place.

It was literally in a span of two days when she went from taking several

wobbly steps to completely ditching crawling and taking laps around the house

like a pro.  It's amazing.

-She's starting to get some stranger danger.  Not a ton, she's still

a super happy baby that loves attention from others, but occasionally cries

now when other people try to hold her and just wants mommy and daddy.

(not gonna lie, it makes me kinda happy)

-She eats some big people food.  I ordered her first kid's meal at a restaurant and she

was in heaven with her mac and cheese.  I know, big news :)

 

 

Soooo I may or may not have gone a bit overboard with her party on Saturday.

But what the heck, she'll only turn one once, right?

And it wasn't like I spent a ton of money, in fact I hardly spent anything!!

It was mainly just a time factor, but I had the time, so why not?

I doubt I'll make a tradition of big parties like this, but it was fun to do once :)

 

It was Alice in Wonderland themed, emphasis on the "ONE-derland"

Which mainly just meant it was a tea party.

(Chris apparently has a hidden talent for invitation making and made this from scratch!)

(Black bloxes aren't for decoration, just to black out personal information)

 

 

My cute little "Alice" :)

I looked online for a tutu, which ran for about 60 bucks.  No thank you.

Made this myself for five dollars :)

Take that, Etsy!

 

Scrapbook paper was my best friend for decorating,

including this "Happy Birthday Scarlett" banner.

 

 

Coloring station for the little ones.

Paint the roses "Scarlett"

 

"This Way, That Way, Wrong Way, Right Way"

 

Don't think I'm a crazy person, cause this isn't a real cake haha.

My mom decorates fake cakes for weddings,

so with her expert guidance I decided to take a shot at decorating

one myself, just solely for table cuteness.

I was pretty proud of how it turned out!

 

"Eat Me!"

 

We found these adorable cupcake holders shaped like

teacups and I was instantly obsessed.

 

Decorated her real smash cake myself!

(Also with help from my sweet mama)

 

"Drink Me!"

 

I love little details to make things extra special.

A simple piece of scrapbook paper can turn an ordinary water

bottle into a cute table item to go with any theme.

 

We also had an Italian soda bar.

One of my best friends got married a couple of months

ago and did this at her luncheon and I thought it was the greatest

idea ever.  I borrowed her cute signs to recreate the awesomeness.

 

 

I kinda love my little Alice and my Mad Hatter.

(Chris was such a champ with this whole party.

Not only did he agree to wear the hat, he also stayed up

with me until 3 am the night before making dip, cooking, and chopping

vegetables.  I think he's really glad this party is over haha)

 

 

They look so much alike!

 

It wouldn't have been a party without special people to share the day with us.

Thank you to everyone who came and also to my parents

and my in-laws (who came all the way from California) for all of their help!

Especially to my sweet mother-in-law for taking all of these fantastic pictures!

She says she doesn't know what she's doing, but they turned out great

and captured some priceless moments for us.

 

Scarlett loves my friend Stacy.

She couldn't keep her eyes off of her.

 

It was the busiest day of the year at the family fun center,

but my sweet daddy snuck away to be there for Scarlett's special day :)

 

Opening gifts, what a spoiled girl!

Chris and I only bought her one gift and then just wrapped

up some things she already had so she would have more things to open,

but family and friends were very generous to her!

 

Her one and only gift from us, a slide!

She's a climber, and she was instantly obsessed.

Best money I've ever spent.

 

Cake time!  Scarlett was exhausted and yawned through all the pictures :)

 

She wasn't quite sure what to think about this gigantic thing at first.

 

Yummy!

Too bad she had some kind of allergic reaction to the cake

and ended up getting a rash all over her body, poor thing :(

Thankfully it cleared up on its own after a half hour.

 

 

 

Such a mess, but so worth it.

 

Squeaky clean!  Love my bath-time snuggles.

 

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!!

We love you more than anything and are so happy to have you in our lives.

 

** I was planning to have her official one-year-old pictures done today,

but unfortunately yesterday she tripped, bonked her head, and got a huge goose egg

right smack in the middle of her forehead :(  So they're going to be postponed a couple

of days.

 

 

 

 

 

 



11 Months

A day late, but our little bean is 11 months old now!

I can't believe she's almost a year old, where has the time gone?

She makes life entertaining and definitely keeps us on our toes.

 

 

Biggest news for this month is that Scarlett took her first steps!

I think she could really start walking if she wanted to,

but she'll do one round of taking a couple of steps

and then just decide she's done practicing and refuse to use her legs.

This is the best picture we could get of her standing :)

 

 

She also got her first teeth finally!!

The second bottom tooth just started to break through,

so she's a drooling (and often cranky) machine.

 

 

She climbs anything and everything,

she even discovered that she could climb over our

stair barricade so we had to revise our strategy a little bit.

 

She's started to say "daddy" pretty dang clearly.

It's super cute, but I'm still waiting for my "mommy".

 

 

Her favorite food right now is macaroni and cheese.

She's only tried it a couple of times when we've been out

to dinner, but she's obsessed and throws a tantrum when it's all gone.

 

 

Speaking of tantrums...yep, she's started them.

Anything that doesn't go her way, she'll throw her body to the floor,

bury her face in the carpet, and give a pretty pathetic cry

until she realizes that  we won't give in :)

 

This next picture is how she often looks nowadays with her teething.

Open mouth and drool hanging down, I love it :)

 

 

Scarlett LOVES music.  She starts dancing as soon as it turns on,

and she recently discovered how to turn on the radio and turn the volume up.

Smarty pants!

 

 

She also came up with a new dance move, luckily it only lasted for a day.

I probably shouldn't have recorded it, but it was too funny.

 

 

This little one is our pride and joy and I'm grateful

for every day we get with her!

Happy 11 months Scarlett Claire!



First Steps and Fourth of July

It finally happened, Scarlett took her first steps!

July 5, 2014 to be exact.

She's been standing on her own a lot more but then would

just fall into our arms without moving her feet.

But last night she just took off!

She only took three steps, but still, I feel like it was a breakthrough

for her and hopefully she'll really start getting the hang of it.

I was sooo proud!!

We didn't get the initial good steps on video, but we got a little

snippet a few minutes after.

 

We also had a happy fourth of July!

I unfortunately had to work that night so I didn't get to see

her reaction to the fireworks,

but we had a family BBQ earlier in the day and it was a blast!

I'm terrible and didn't even think to get her a cute 4th of July outfit

(ha, kidding..kind of)

But I remembered she had a hand-me-down red, white, and blue

outfit that worked out perfectly, so naturally I had to take some pictures.

 

 

Happy 4th!!

 



Nap Time

Nap time is probably the greatest time of day.

Don't get me wrong, I completely adore Scarlett and

love the time I get to spend with her,

but I'm also convinced that nap time was invented to maintain a mom's sanity :)

Bar none, the hardest decision I have to make every day

is what to do with my precious 45-90 minute break while

my precious babe gets her beauty rest.

I almost always want to take a nap with her, and sometimes I do.

But it's quite disappointing when it takes me a while to fall asleep

and then she starts crying as soon as I drift off.

So do I try to work out quickly? 

I could...but then I usually don't have time to shower

afterwards.  So it takes up two naptimes, a total of about five hours,

to work out and then look like a mess until I am able to shower and get ready

when the next nap comes around.

And then there's cleaning....

Cleaning and folding laundry is nearly impossible when she's awake

because she conveniently follows right behind me to undo everything I've just done.

Plus... do I really want to use my precious alone time to work more?

...Not usually :)

SO, I usually just end up being a bum and watch TV, edit pictures,

or in this case, use naptime to blog about what to do during my next nap time :)

 

Random thoughts from a sleepy mama!

Happy Saturday!

10 months

10 Months today!!

Scarlett has been so much fun this past month.

She entertains herself much more, so she doesn't get

as grumpy when we're not holding her

(Thank goodness, cause she is getting heavy!!)

Last appointment she was 20 pounds and 28 inches long,

that put her in about the 50th percentile for weight and height

(thinning out!), but still 90th percentile for her large head :)

 She is so curious and can't stand staying still.

Yesterday I went to Kohls and the strap on the baby seat in

the stroller was broken, and she was trying to stand and climb and turn around.

I eventually had to just carry her in one arm (while she was trying to grab everything

in reach) and try to steer the cart with the other hand. 

I was literally sweating and panting by the time I got done.

It's a workout trying to keep up with her!

 

She loves anything to do with music-

whether it's banging on the piano keys, playing her xylophone,

or dancing and wiggling everytime a song comes on.

 

She's learned to clap and is quite proud of herself for it.

 

She's finally figured out her walker!

She pushes that thing all around the house,

and today she took some steps just holding onto my dad's finger

with one hand.

She can balance standing for a few seconds at a time.

I have a feeling it won't be long until she can walk all on her own!

 

 

She's also become quite the gymnast.

Just in the past couple of days she's started doing head stands.

She also climbs over everything and isn't afraid to tumble

over things.

So photogenic :)

 

Some highlights from the past month:

Scarlett played with her first puppy,

and we were so smitten that we seriously considered adopting it.

 

 

 

To my delight, she was able to squeeze into her size NEWBORN romper, haha!!

A little snug though :)

 

She's enjoying bathtime more and more,

post-bath snuggles are my absolute favorite!



 

Her hair is growing!!  It's just so thin that you normally can't tell,

but when it's wet, I can put it in a little Mohawk :)

(Still no teeth though!)

 

Pool time is hit or miss with her.

She'll usually tolerate it for a while, but then just wants to get out and

play in the sun.  Like mother, like daughter, I guess!

 

 

Happy 10 months sweet thing!!

 

 

Pool Time and a Make-Over

I gave my blog a little makeover last night.

There's still some tweaking to be done, but I was pretty happy

with it, so I had to celebrate with a new post!

It's SUMMER!!!

I love nothing more than warm weather, basking in the sun,

washing the car, eating snow cones, smelling like sunscreen, being barefoot,

playing on the swingset, and everything else that comes along with summertime,

including pooltime!

             

Pooltime is a little different now that I have a baby- It's all about Scarlett!!

but it's so much fun to watch her have fun in the sun.

           

                   

It actually got pretty hot, so naturally I had to join her in the water to cool off.

                     

Scarlett AND Chris were having fun playing with the new pool toys

                

Today my sister and her little cuties came over for some swim time,

love these two little best friend cousins!

I looooove lazy Summer days!