Our Sweetie at 15 months

Our little one is 15 months old. She is now 20 pounds and 29 inches tall. For many babies, the 20 pound milestone is when they are turned to face forward in their car seats, yet our little one will continue to ride rear-facing for as long as possible because research has shown it to be five times safer. Since she only has three more inches of room in her infant carseat, I am in the midst of searching for her next carseat. My primary criterion is that it hold a child of up to 40 lbs facing the rear.

While she is a one year old, I am attempting to get her pictures taken quarterly plus family portraits at Easter and Christmas. For you military moms, you get a waived sitting fee, a free 8x10, free little digital pictures, and four dollar sheets at JC Penny's. Many times I have walked away with precious pictures for five dollars or less plus my digital mini pictures. When she is two through five I hope to go twice a year and then graduate to her yearly home school portraits. That might look something like this :)

Or like this :) How studious she looks!

Here she is with her baby cup that we bought in New Orleans.

Our little dancer- Baby actually loves to dance to music. I hope to capture it on camera to share with you. My cousin handmade this tutu for her birthday. It was so sweet of her! I am sure baby will have years of fun playing dress up with this tutu.

I love that this pictures captures her rubbing her hands in her tutu. She really enjoys exploring and touching different objects.

I have never been tempted to purchase a thumb picture like this one, yet it does show our true little girl. Since she is such a calm and happy baby, I believe that her love of her thumb has contributed greatly towards our quality of life and quantity of sleep. As thumb sucking can contribute towards a crossbite, we recently started a savings account for her braces. We have six more years of saving for that expense. She is becoming much more compliant during teeth-brushing. Formerly, it was a reoccurring battle. Now she almost enjoys it.

Baby's First Snow

This weekend we had the rare privilege of being snowed in. This snow storm gave us seven inches of snow and was the largest storm around here in twenty years. Thankfully, we had no where to go and could enjoy our time together safe and snug at home sipping hot cocoa, baking brownies, and watching movies.



Our lil snow bunny and my handsome husband
Here is her bow for Mommom to see

Love them!

My precious little daughter, you make me smile a thousand times a day!

Baby and Her Toys

You may have noticed that Baby's toys look a little different than the average toys you might see. We have a few guidelines that work for very well for us (and are certainly not for everyone). Baby, being the sweetie she is, has done a lovely job of showing that wooden toys are fun too :)

Blocks are the best! After watching Daddy stack her blocks for months now, Baby has just started stacking them too.

The more antiquated looking the better: Here is a picture of my grandmother as a baby - O, excuse me. That is my baby girl with her silver rattle:) My taste is so 1810 rather than 2010. Laugh if you wish (we are used to it as our family makes plenty of fun over our vintage ways).


This Plan Toys punch and drop is her favorite.
To dye and not to paint: Plan Toys is my favorite toy company. They have a wonderful selection of high quality wooden toys. Their toys are made from solid wood and colored with stains which cannot chip off while most Melissa and Doug toys are colored with paint that chips and ends up in little mouths.


Wood is fun: Although these toys do not dance, sing, and light up, baby girl herself does while playing with these toys.



Less is more: We prefer to acquire fewer nice toys for our baby rather than a house full of disposable toys.


Plastic in moderation (and at Mommom's house): Where would we be without Bitty?

Welcome to Her Crib

Baby girl's nursery has been a work in progress for a while now (before pictures here and here), yet it is finally all finished!! I love it to pieces!! ( Pro pictures really make it sparkle extra pretty :)

Baby in her Caroline crib. I call it my forever crib because I dearly want it to last through all our children (many may they be!!! :). This dream nursery set was a generous present from hubby that we were able to afford as we found it amazingly discounted and used our baby's tax deduction.

The picture above her crib is the two of us right after her baptism.
I used my military discount at the goodwill to get this beautiful mirror and had the fun of painting it silver from gold.



Her cradle which was in our room for her first seven months, and prints that I took out of Maud Humphrey's Mother Goose book. I bought the 2005 edition on ebay for sixteen dollars and got over twenty prints rather than paying thirty-five dollars a print at art.com.

The dress on the wall is my mother's baptismal gown. It means so much to me to have my mother's dress in my baby's room. On the tall dresser there is a bowl from our wedding, a vase from her baby shower, my baby cup, her baby cup, books, a maternity picture, and a sonogram picture.
I really love how these plaques (a clearance bargain) frame the french doors to her nursery.

This is a before picture taken in October 2008.


This is how it looked on move in day in March 2008.

Sweet Moments

With these two by my side I feel as if I can achieve all that I desire

These AMAZING family shots were taken by a most AMAZING photographer who I have the privilege of calling my friend. Thank you, A!!! Does this one look familiar? This is the same spot were we took a few from the maternity shoot in 2008.

These shots were taken in August when Baby was nine months old. Looking at them now is making me warm and long for summer.


We will always be there for you, Baby

She lights up our world

Such a smiley baby



Where's Baby?

There she is!

YES!!!!!

Four years ago today on January 27th, 2006, my love while on bended knee asked for my hand in marriage. "YESS!!" was my reply :)

He took me for a beautiful walk in the woods. This was particularly special to me because we loved talking walks together and because even in the middle of winter we were surrounded by the beauty of God's creation.

This spot overlooked the city of Philadelphia where he was presently attending college.

The hand which he now possesses.

Exactly two years later on the 27th of January 2008, here I am waiting for my ship to come in. I really like this picture because I think it artistically shows how I felt those six months fenced away from my love. How fitting that on the anniversary of our engagement my husband returns from his sixth month deployment!! (My favorite blog post.) He surely knows how to give great anniversary presents:)

Together!!

Here I am visiting him on his ship during his duty day a few days after he came home.

Happy 3rd Anniversary!!

This year hubby and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Can you guess where we went?

I enjoyed my amazing Thai Lettuce Wraps.


Hubby had his favorite selection the Herb Crusted Salmon and Steak Diane.


For me, a visit couldn't possibly be complete with out these delectable avocado rolls.

A close up of the rolls and a Gerber spoon.
O, yes! Did I mention baby girl came along for our romantic celebration dinner? She made for very pleasant company (as she was wonderfully well behaved and quiet) and just like her mama... she LOVED the avocado rolls too.

Our cheesecake of choice was the Lemon Rasberry Cream. This one was amazing!! Then again I have never met a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake that I didn't enjoy :) N gave me a beautiful pair of dangle earrings. He mentioned a while back that he would like to see me wearing earrings other than my classic studs. If you have seen me recently, I was probably wearing them :) I bought him two Dillard's suits that I got for 75% off.


And for a little walk down memory lane. Here we are in Philadelphia on our wedding day in 2006.


1st Anniversary in 2007. Since Hubby was deployed to the Middle East, my girlfriends were there with me to celebrate. We had a wonderful evening out, and they (along with many other friends and family members) were a great source of comfort through the whole deployment.

Great friends, D and A, with our Pumpkin, Oreo Mudslide, and Key lime cheesecakes.

2nd Anniversary 2008- Instead of celebrating with a dinner date, we decided to go all out and celebrate by having a baby! It was far from a glamorous evening out on the town, but it was the most beautiful day of my life!!!

Dearest Husband, these past three years have been wonderful, and throughout everything you have been my rock. Thank you, my love!!!