Beach baby!

Last summer (if you want to call it that), we had constant rain. It was a drag and a major summer buzzkill. Seriously, the week I was in the hospital after having Aubrey (I had to stay longer because I had a c-section), I was in a bed next to a window where the only view I got was the raindrops falling on the window. This summer doesn't look very promising, either. It's supposed to rain for 5 days straight next week. I checked accuweather & weather.com and they both said that the day of Aubrey's party is supposed to be sunny and in the low 80's. I'm praying that it stays that way, though I know that there is a lot of room for that to change. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Aubrey & I went to the beach on Tuesday with her auntie Christina and Christina's friend, Jen. It was fun. We laid out in the sand and got a little sun. I actually got some nice color instead of burning, which was nice. The water was cold so we didn't go swimming, but we did get our toes wet!

Fun in the sun shade!


All the fun wore her out!


We also went for a walk at a local park/walking grounds called Mine Falls. I was excited to use the backpack carrier I scored for $10 at a yard sale last month.

Clearly, she loved it!


"Hi Dad!"

The last few days have been spent doing crazy party planning. I got a huge dent done out of my "Party To-Do" list but there is still a lot to do. I made a list of the things I need to buy for food, decorations, and gifts for Aubrey. I already have some things for her (tote bag that I am going to sew a "sweet pea" (her nickname) patch on, a ton of summer clothes, a pair of sandals, a Little People car, and 6 "Little People" (even though they're animals..). I still want to get her another Little People car, a Little People building, a booster seat for the kitchen (because her high chair takes up so much space!), books, a few sippy cups to try to get her away from the bottle, a pool float, sandals & sneakers (because she has outgrown the ones Grampy got for her not even a month ago!), some letter magnets for the refridgerator, some snacks, and maybe some new bedding if I have some money leftover. Yes, she is spoiled!!! Now I just need to wait til Tuesday when I get paid to go nuts :)

I'm off to go watch Michael Jackson's This Is It. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest it. I may be biased cos I was (still am) a huge MJ fan.. but ah well :)

D'oh!

Okay, so I was reading Pam's blog [theburrusfamily.blogspot] just now, and realized that she nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award a while ago (I should really keep up with this!!). Thank you, Pam!!!

The rules for the Beautiful Blogger award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you

2. Copy and paste the award to your blog

3. Link the person who nominated you

4. List 7 interesting things about yourself

5. Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers

Now, 7 interesting things about me... Oh man this will be tough.

1. I can't stand cold ketchup. It has to be room temperature or I will not eat it.
   
2. I spent my childhood summers at fairs with my father. He had a concession stand selling soda, cigarettes, and whatever else he had that year (he was definitely a businessman. He always had something going on.. whether it be statues, Disney movies, gumball machines..). He would stand me up on the booth and make me yell "cold soda, cigarettes!". I also learned how to and made my own fried dough when I was like 10 because he was buddy-buddy with "the fried dough people", who now have a fried dough stand up at the beach I go to every summer.. so I get free fried dough (or my new favorite, funnel cake!) whenever I go up there!
   
3. I am still afraid of the dark. I'm determined that there is someone waiting in the shadows to kill me.
   
4. I played Harriet Tubman in a 5th grade play. They put a ton of brown makeup on me. I wish I could find pictures to share.
   
5. I have a really bad shopping problem. I spend more money on Aubrey's clothes than I will ever admit. I pay more stuff for her clothing than mine (and I know I won't outgrow mine!)
   
6. I'm very crafty. I'm trying to open up a little business but I need funds before I can start.
   
7. I have an unhealthy addiction to these (clickable) frosted sugar cookies. Whenever I go shopping I need to distract myself from the aisle; especially now since I'm doing a "Biggest Loser" competition for the summer with a group of friends.
   

I nominate...

1. Bethany @ Her Little Pearl
2. Miri @ Here We Are Together
   
3. Cheryl @ The Midkiff Family Blog
4. Adriana @ A World Of My Own
5. Rachel @ Mrs Rachel Holmes
6. Tasha @ Surprising
7. Katy @ Tangerine Hearts
   

On May 19th, I promised a "huge update very soon". It is now June 11th. Yikes.

Since Aubrey has started crawling, I don't have much computer time. She hates to be confined to her high chair, even when we're feeding her dinner she keeps trying to twist & turn her way out of it. She won't even sit in her seat to watch an episode of Wonder Pets. In the words of Ming-Mind duck, "this is sewious". I have to have my eye on her at all times. I take back the part where I said that motherhood was easy. It is far from easy, but it's the best damn thing that has ever happened to me.

Can you all believe that 2 weeks from tomorrow is her first birthday party? I have been spending the past 2 months thinking of things to do to make it perfect. Yes I realize "she's only one, she won't remember it." But guess what? A camera and my Flip camcorder will help her. In years to come it will show her how excited I was that she was growing up (as much as I hate to admit it). I've got every single little detail planned. I still have a ton of stuff left to do but it's keeping me busy at night while Aubrey sleeps & Keith plays Modern Warfare 2. I've been working on a scrapbook of her first year that I will finish before her party so people can look at it. I also made a slideshow DVD of pictures and videos.. from pictures of the positive pee sticks (yeah, I'm that girl), to my ever-growing belly, to hospital pictures, to videos of her cringing at the tartness of cranberry sauce. I've got it all and have it set to play to four songs ("My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw, "My Girl" by Jackson 5 [of course I had to get some MJ in there], "Let Them Be Little" by Lonestar [I haven't made the DVD yet, so I may change this one and put a faster-paced one in there] & "Forever" by Jesse & the Rippers [yeah, I went there!])

June has been such a crazy month so far, and it's not going to get any better. Whether it be a graduation party, baby shower, Father's Day, or of course, Aubrey's birthday party, we have something to do every weekend this month. Some weekends have 2 events. It's so crazy. If I knew June was going to be so jam-packed with things, I definitely would have had Aubrey's birthday party in the middle of July after the 4th plans have all died down.. but by the time we got wind of all of the things going on, invitations were already ordered and in my hand. There were so many things that I wanted to buy for her as birthday gifts, but I'll have to wait until after because I had to buy graduation gifts, shower gifts, & a Father's Day gift for Keith.

I wish I could post pictures things that I've done so far for the party, but I know that a lot of people that read this are going to be going and it would be nice to not spoil everything.. but I will post this picture, which was one of the ones we used for her invitations.


Anybody who has me added on Facebook has already seen this, but that's okay. It will be fun to look back on :)


One last thing before I sign off, I wanted to share that I am part of a 3 month weight loss comptetion.. "Biggest Loser" style. There are 12 girls and we each put $50 in. The person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight come the beginning of September gets $500 to buy a new fall wardrobe, and the second place winner gets $100. Tomorrow is our first weigh in so I'm really excited to see how everyone is doing. I cheated and looked at the scale last night and I've already lost 4 pounds this week. :)

I promise you'll hear more from me before another month passes!

I love Giveaways!!

I have been so busy lately. I promise a huge update very soon!

But until then, head on over to Divine Image Photography's HUGE Multi-Giveaway post and try your luck! They have some fabulous gifts up for grabs.

Wow.

i'm not quite sure how i let this go for almost a month. things have been absolutely crazy around here the past few weeks. i've been falling behind on everything, not just this. this morning i uploaded over 100 pictures to my facebook because i had been slacking on it. i uploaded pictures from aubrey's first trip to the park, our trip to the new england aquarium in boston, just random pictures that i take during the day, and of course her first easter, which was yesterday! we had a lot of fun with her. feel free to take a look at my facebook to see pictures. i wish i could post them all on here but i'd be here all day.

my sister had an early easter dinner on saturday because my neice is up from virginia. i don't know if you all remember when i posted about my great-nephew, owen, being born.. but we got to meet him for the first time! he is such a doll:


we recieved our beautiful layla grace dress last week from pick your pocket studio. her facebook page was running a contest a couple of weeks ago and aubrey won 12 free dresses! i can't wait to order them. :) i will share with you the layla dress, which aubrey wore for easter:

this is the best shot i have of it right now. i will post another one when i upload it from my camera.

last night was opening day at fenway park! the red sox played the new york yankees. it seemed that the yankees were going to win, but the sox came back and won! we are big red sox fans in this house.


aubrey is thisclose to crawling. by the time she starts, walking will be right around the corner, i'm sure. today is her 9 month birthday! we've already set a date & location for her 1st birthday party. it's crazy how fast this year is going by. we already bought the dress she is going to wear, plus napkins and thank-you cards. they go so perfectly with our theme we couldn't resist getting them a little early. she is saying 'mama', 'dada', and 'baba'. she understands what a baba is. she understands who 'madden' is (our dog). she is just getting so big so fast. watching her grow and learn every day is absolutely amazing. i'm so blessed to be able to stay home with her and i hope i can continue to do so.

hope you all are doing well.
<3

Rest in Peace, babygirl.

sweet little layla grace, you accomplished more in your short time on earth than most people would ever dream of. you've made me look at life in a different way. while i am deeply saddened that you are gone, i am so thankful you are no longer suffering. have fun playing with the angels, babygirl.. and watch over your family. lord knows they will need it.



11/26/07-3/9/10
gone from this earth, but NEVER from my heart.

Recap Sunday

this week was pretty busy! i was sick monday and tuesday, so late tuesday morning i went to the doctor's. they did a throat culture to make sure it wasn't strep. it wasn't; just a viral bug.

tuesday night, i went to a lia sophia opportunity night. i have decided to join this fabulous company and can't wait until my starter show & to get my kit to start doing shows of my own!

wednesday night, we just relaxed and had a movie night.

thursday night, my sister came over and watched aubrey while we went out for dinner at american joe's.

friday, i went to christina's house for her lia sophia party. after, we went out for drinks & dancing, which was fun. we're pretty bummed that we didn't get a chance to do karaoke, but next time for sure!

saturday [yesterday!] was fun! jeannie came over again so we could go to the movies. we were going to go thursday night, but by the time she came over it was too late for us to go see one so she said she would come over so we could go this weekend. we saw alice in wonderland in imax 3d and it was pretty good!

today, it is absolutely beautiful outside. i'm trying to get keith to come to the park with me & aubrey, but he is saying it's going to be too crowded. we are also going to go to walmart and get a new trash can and some dirty clothes hampers. we've had our trash can since we moved in here in 2007 and it's starting to smell, and the hampers we have are the mesh ones and they are all ripped and tattered. i am also going to look for magenta-colored shirts for the blood drive my friend, chrystyana, and i are doing in honor of layla grace. this guy that works downstairs from the place i used to work designs t-shirts, so after i buy them i will give them to him and he's going to put "team layla" on the front, and then on the back we're getting our names with the number '2', baseball style (because layla is 2 years old). i'm also having one made up for aubrey so that will be cute! i can't wait to get her "layla" dress in. it is absolutely adorable, and $10 from the sale is going towards layla's family for her medical bills, so it's for a good cause.

hope you all had a great weekend!

Cook-With-Me Saturday!

whenever we're in the mood for chocolate chip cookies, this is the recipe i always go by. they come out so yummy and are super easy to make!



oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
[makes 3 1/2 dozen]

ingredients:
1 cup of shortening or butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
2 cups rolled oats
[before you start making the cookies, make sure you don't have instant oats! the first time i made these, i accidentally got instant and when i took the first batch out of the oven, it looked like one big cookie because they all formed together!]

1. preheat the oven to 350º
2. in a large bowl cream shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. add eggs & mix thoroughly.
3. combine baking soda, salt and flour and stir into creamed mixture.
4. add oatmeal & chocolate chips and stir until well blended.
5. drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet & bake for 15 minutes

Grateful Friday

this week, i am thankful for...


my little sweetpea. she is 8 months old today!! i don't even want to begin to think where the past 8 months went.



i'm also thankful for all the extra "help" i got in the kitchen today while making rice krispies treats!




hope you all have a lovely weekend!

[ps: i totally had this typed out on friday and right before i posted, my computer froze and i forgot to come back and post it!]

Must-have Thursday!

this week's "must-have" is:


i found these on etsy and fell in love! i am currently waiting to hear back from the seller to see how stretchy they are so i can order them for aubrey. it says "newborn" crochet hat, and they are priced by the dozen@ only $20.99! if these will fit her for a while and i can choose the colors i want, i am ordering them asap! i fell in love with these when i saw miss layla grace [laylagrace.org] wearing them. i should really learn how to make them, but for now i'm happy just buying some.