4 months!

I can't even believe that the first 4 months have already passed!  Alexa has, um- how shall we put it, quite the personality.  She is such a sweetheart, but make no mistake, she is the boss.  Just ask her, she'll tell you!  

Hey- I said no photos!





If you insist...

 She loves to cuddle, smile and coo.  She is friendly and fun but she still is a little mystery.  From the color of her eyes, to her likes and dislikes- it all seems to vary depending on the day.  I'm enjoying the surprises she brings!



This duo cracks me up!

Ellie is absolutely fantastic with her.  You can really tell she enjoys being the big sister.  I'm not sure how she'll take to being bossed, but she's a laid back kinda kid.  Plus, I really do believe that the younger siblings are ALWAYS bossy.  Mine was!  (Sorry, Adrienne- you know you were!)

Meanwhile, Princess Ellie is coming into her own.  She is quite the girlie girl, and I am surprised to say that I am absolutely loving every minute of it!  If I'm being completely honest, I always thought of myself as a mama who would have sons.  Being a mama to two girls has probably been the best gift God has ever given me.  If I knew how much fun they'd be or how much I would truly enjoy them, I would have saved myself the anxiety that I had when we learned their genders  Who knows, maybe I'm more of a girlie girl than I ever thought!  Not necessarily a bad thing...

She made me put every bow on her head!

October Outings!

Boy, I have to say work has been downright cah-razy!  I'll save that for another post, though.  The month of October was fantastic.  We are at the point where it seems like with both of our children, each month is better than the last.  Lil' Lexie Lynne turned a corner at the 3 month mark and with the Holidays fast approaching time really seems to fly.

This is my favorite time of the year.  I enjoy the south Florida fall.  Plus, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and that is my favorite holiday of them all.  I like that it is a time to be with family and to celebrate them all without the expectation of presents. 

We took the kids to their first Pumpkin Patch.  Truth be told, it was my first time as well.  We all had a great time.  It is something we will do again next year for sure. 



Do you know how hard it is to get to kiddos to sit still?




Take Two!




I'm in LOVE with this bald lil' head and chubby lil' cheeks!




...and so is Daddy



The Switch

Wow!  I can't believe that it has been over a month since I've posted.  It has been crazyhecticbusy with me going back to work and all.  Even with all the insanity, I've been feeling uninspired.  But this weekend was great and worthy of a post!

I'm 3 months!!

Alexa had an awesome weekend.  Wonderful, actually.  I swear that there must be a switch that flips when my children reach the 3 month mark that causes them to stop fussing.  She has consistently been sleeping through the night.  The night time colic has virtually stopped and I feel my blood pressure returning to a normal level.  It is funny because Ellie was the same way.  Tears and screaming are replaced by smiles and cooing.  This is the part of mommyhood that I love.  She's not a "newborn" anymore.  I can't say that I'm sorry to leave that phase behind.  I know all of the wonderful things that are coming and I'm so excited to watch another first year unfold.

R&R

We had a great weekend.  My in-laws came down to stay with the girls while Marshall and I took our belated wedding anniversary trip.  Our anniversary is in May, but I was very pregnant and very miserable (just ask him) so we decided to wait until after Alexa arrived to take a little getaway.

We were gone for two nights and stayed at Il Lugano, which is a fantastic little hotel on the intracoastal and only about 8 miles away.  I am so glad we ultimately decided to stay nearby.  The two days were just what we needed to reconnect.  We relaxed, had some delicious meals, got asked for ID when we went to the wine bar and had such a great time.  It was nice to get away and be us.  It is amazing that we still know who we are independent of being a parent.  Sometimes you lose yourself in that role and forget who you are.  I try to look parenthood as adding another layer to who I am  rather than replacing myself entirely with the updated "mom" version of me.  I mean afterall, being a parent does change you, but it doesn't change you completely.  Frankly, I don't want it to.  I like who my husband is and I assume he likes me most days.  That's probably why we got married in the first place.  Why should all of that disappear?

I know how hard it is with the girls, the house, our jobs to stay connected.  Marriage is hard by itself, let alone adding everything else into the mix.  Anyone who is married knows that.  I do not want to be the married couple who after the kids are gone realize that we don't know each other outside of the role of "parent" and during these years we have drifted so far apart that we no longer have anything in common.  Afterall, we are the foundation of this family. 

Sometimes it's easy to forget the root of it all especially after seeing how far you've come in 3 years.  I'm sure as the years go by it will get harder.  We will be more wrapped up in their lives.  School, extracurricular activities, Saturday night stake outs when they're on a date with a boy who you just know is trouble.  (Beause they all are, of course!)  All of these things will keep us occupied.  So it is especially important every now and then for Marshall and I as individuals to get together and remember why we decided to do all of this in the first place.

Daniela and Aryana's visit

When I think back on my life so far, I have a feeling of joy.  I don't have really any complaints about my childhood, which is great when you all the craziness that came along with it.  Hell, if I came out of my youth unscathed hopefully my children will too.  :-)    College was a great time for the most part and I must admit, I am enjoying my thirties more than any other period of my life.

Thankfully, I've had a friend who has been there through most of it all.  Daniela and I met in junior high school when I would copy off of her science homework every day.  She was kind of shy and quiet and I've never met a stranger, so I am positive I talked her ear off.  I still do.  Let's face it somethings will never change.  Once highschool rolled around, we became inseperable.  We had the best times together.  We were yin and yang.  She was definitely someone that I looked up to. 

She went off to Memphis for college after highschool graduation.  At that point, it probably would have been easy for us to fall into our own lives and drift apart.  But it didn't happen.  When we did see each other, it was like we hadn't missed a beat.  It is still that way to this day.

We were in each other's weddings, we've seen our children grow, we call each other after a fight with our mothers.  Daniela is a wonderful mom of 3 children, so she is my trusted authority on all things baby.  She has answered her phone in the middle of the night when I'm driving around a screaming child and I'm crying myself because in that moment I don't think I'm cut out for motherhood.  Everyone should have a friend like this.

She and her daughter Aryana came for a visit last weekend.  Aryana is 20 days older than Ellie.  Eventhough we live in different states, it was so awesome to go through pregnancy with your best friend.  It was so cool that we both had daughters and that they are so close in age.  I get to see Daniela and her family roughly twice a year, sometimes more, but we have promised ourselves that we will get all of our girls together every year for a weekend in Florida.  This is a tradition that I am so excited to begin.

These little girls had a blast.  I don't know if they had more fun or if Daniela and I did.  They sat on Ellie's little princess couch, shared everything from toys to sippy cups, and chattered in toddler babble.  It was such a crazy thing to see, the two of us with our daughters.  These are the things we as girl's talked about growing up.  "When we get married..."  "When we have kids..."  Now we are those women.  It is almost beyond my comprehension.

I wish so much for my daughters: happy healthy lives, much success, friendship, love, wonderful families of their own one day.  But I also wish for them that they have a best friend like I do.  Someone who knew them during their formative years, someone to share a limo at their proms, someone to visit when they all go to college, to stand beside them at their weddings,  to share the joys and frustrations of marriage, parenting, and everything else, someone to call up and bitch about their own crazy mother... 

1 month! (Sort of...)

Alexa was 6 weeks and 1 day when I took this photo, but I didn't have the stickers for the onesies yet.  Woops, sorry Alexa.  Your mama stinks.  The second child syndrome is already setting in.  I notice how different I was with Ellie.  I was on top of it all.  Okay, not really- but I was way more diligent with things like this.  Alexa is lucky she got a baby book, and even luckier that it is somewhat filled out.  Maybe it is a blessing for her.  Sure, she'll get all the hand me downs, but won't we be more relaxed since we are supposed to have a better clue as to what we are doing with our second.  Or are they so close together that it won't even matter?  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm feeling more comfortable with 2 children.  It seems like we've almost hit a stride.  Well, not a full on stride, more like a limp or a hobble but we are making progress is the point I'm trying to make. 

So happy 1 month (6 weeks and 1 day) to Alexa Lynne.  I'll do better at your 2 month photo, I promise!

Ellie's 1st Birthday

I know that her birthday was in May, but I really wanted to show it on my blog.  I know first birthday's are more for the parents than the actual child and this birthday was no exception.  I wanted to really celebrate her first year and go all out.  I wanted to celebrate her life, the love she has given us, and the fact that she appears to be doing very well.  Although it is too early to tell what permanent damage she has suffered for having me as her mom.  :-)

The dessert table

We went with an owl theme.  I did a lot of the projects myself.  I had so many more ideas, but like I said in my first post, I lack execution- so we had what we had!  I made the banners and the topiary that was on the dessert table as well as her high chair banner that we ended up placing behind the high chair.

It says "I am 1"

Ellie's little birthday outfit was so stinkin' sweet.  I ordered the cutest onesie, hairbow, and personalized owl bloomers from Bella Claire Baby and I made her tutu myself!

I tried to make her smash cake all by myself.  Lord knows I tried, but I failed!  I can't ice a cake worth a damn!  So off to Publix I went with photos of my idea and they made it happen.

Ellie's smash cake

 Needless to say she enjoyed her party!!