11 years already?!

Tomorrow Vince and I will have been together for 11 years.

Sometimes I'm not even sure how that's possible. Where did the time go?

Looking back to when I was 15, I never could have imagined just how far we would have come.

Starting off as kids just trying to survive those crazy high school years. Then somehow managing to make a long distance relationship work while living in different states for 4 years during college. To finally graduating, moving home, finding jobs, getting engaged and then married. My family moving away. Buying our first house, then choosing to sell it. Me starting a new job. Buying our second home just to have the builder go bankrupt and take half of our money. Getting pregnant! Finally settling the house issues and looking for a new place (after a year of legal battles). Having our beautiful baby girl and learning the joys (and at times stress) of being first time parents. Moving into our new home. Vince finally getting the job he wanted (after having to work part time at night for a year and a half to get it). All the while still trying to figure out life, love, marriage, and all of the things in between.

It has not always been easy. We've had our fair share of ups and downs along the way and we have things we still need to work on, but at the end of the day we're happy. He's my best friend, an amazing father, and my partner in everything. There are a ton of things we want to accomplish and dreams we hope to reach one day, but for now I am just proud of where we are. 

So Vince, while we may not celebrate our dating anniversary anymore I want you to know that you mean everything to me and on October 8th I will always love looking back and remembering just how far we've come.  I love you always and forever.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

The fall/halloween decorations in and outside my house that I finally put out this weekend. I wasn't able to decorate last year since we had already sold our other home and weren't in the new one yet, so it's nice to be able to do it again :)

Catching up with a good friend through numerous emails (all of which had me laughing about something) and making plans to get together. Yes, Michelle I am talking about you... I know you read this, now it's time to start your own blog so I can stalk you ;) lol

This protein pack from WaWa. I don't normally eat breakfast, but the other day happened to stop in to get tea at WaWa and found this. It's the perfect little breakfast. It's not something I plan to get daily, but once in awhile when I need an extra boost in the morning this seems to do the trick.

Speaking of food, I am also really liking these McCormick Grill Mates Marinades. You just mix them with oil and water and marinade the meat for like 20 minutes.. super easy! Last night I used the mojito lime one and it was SO good. I broiled the chicken instead of baking it so it was done in less than 15 minutes. Quick, easy dinners are always a good thing around here.

That I did my hair for $20 as opposed to the normal $150 I spend. It actually would have only cost $10, but since my hairs pretty long right now I needed 2 boxes of dye. I still plan on going to get it done, but every once in awhile it's nice to save the extra cash and do it at home instead.

That we only have 2 more weeks of Vince working nights. It has been a very long 18 months with him working 15 hour days and I am SO excited to have my husband home again. Kaylee is of course excited to see more of her daddy too ;)

And last but definitely not least.. I'm loving lots of things about Kaylee. Like adorable fall clothes and tutus, watching her learn how to do new things like rolling over and sitting up (it looks like I am holding her in the picture, I'm actually just sitting there in case she decided to topple over.. which she did haha), and of course those adorable chubby cheeks of hers that I can't help but to kiss all of the time.

(and yes they are all iphone pictures.. I know I said I wanted to start using my real camera more, but apparently it's something I'm still working on haha)

Dinner in or out?

If you asked me that question last year I would have most definitely said OUT.

Vince and I used to go out to dinner all of the time. Now, we hardly ever go out.

When I was pregnant I thought I would miss being able to go out whenever. And of course at times I do, but to be honest I now love staying in.

I like staying home and making dinner together. We eat early, spend time playing on the floor with Kaylee, give her a bath and rock her to sleep. Then on the weekends we usually end up sharing a bottle of wine and watching a movie.

When we stay home it's easy. We don't have to pack bottles, diapers, and toys. We don't have to rush and  try to keep her entertained long enough to finish our meals before she starts squirming to get out of her seat.  At home we can relax.

She has her all of things there and is always so content. We don't have to worry about her getting fussy and annoying other customers. She's just happier at home. So we have become happier at home too.

Don't get me wrong we still go out and she is usually pretty good while we're there, but I just don't ever feel like I can sit back and enjoy dinner. I know it's more in my head than anything else, but I'm always nervous she's might start screaming for no reason (which she doesn't) so I want to order, eat and get home.

So these days when given the option I almost always choose to stay home. A year ago I probably would have thought it would be boring, but these days? I really enjoy it. A weekend at home with my family is perfection. Plus as an added bonus we save some money and I'm learning to cook more ;)

Internet Detox

My mom flew in to visit on Thursday and went back home this afternoon. While she was here I decided to spend the 4 days without getting on twitter, facebook, blogger, etc. I needed a little social media detox, and I must say it was kind of nice. 

The past couple weeks have been kind of like a roller coaster for me and I really just needed some quality mom time without the constant interruption of the internet or my phone to sort some things out. Just a few days to clear my head and breathe a little.

We spent time playing with Kaylee a ton, shopping, cooking, dying our hair, watching movies, and just relaxing. My phone was on this weekend, but other than to talk to my sister (who just finished rush this weekend and is now a Pi Beta Phi at Ole Miss.. yay!), and to take a few pics of K it really wasn't used at all.

Before my mom got here I was feeling overwhelmed and really stressed and after only 4 days of just hanging out I feel so much better. I feel like my normal self again. It was just what the Doctor ordered.

It's amazing what a mom can do ;)

So What Wednesday

Today I am joining in Shannon's So What Wednesday posts.

So what...

If i joined pinterest just to deactivate my account 5 minutes later. I like randomly searching on there for ideas, recipes, and things like that... but I don't really see the need in pinning and repinning and all that stuff. Just not my thing, or maybe I just don't get it. Oh well.

If I am in a crappy mood today. I just can't seem to shake it and I am allowed to be in a bad mood once in awhile. Right?

If I am SUPER excited to see my mom tomorrow. Unfortunately I have a golf outing for work all day and her flight lands in the morning so I won't see her until tomorrow night, but I'm just happy to have her here for 4 days :)

If last night when I was putting Kaylee she fell asleep halfway through her bottle so I just continued to hold her and rock her for awhile. Normally I try to lay her down somewhat awake, but last night she looked so sweet that I just didn't want to let her go.

If I can't make up my mind about what I want to do with my hair. One day I like it blonde and long and the next day I want to chop it off and dye it dark. I like changing up my hair (it is just hair after all and it will grow back) so I'm sure I will do something to it eventually I just need to decide what that will be.

If for the past 2 nights I have been way too lazy to make dinner. Thankfully we have soup and leftovers at the house so we haven't gone without eating. Tonight I have all intentions of actually cooking.. maybe.

If yesterday I accidentally called Kaylee my sisters name. Twice. Apparently I must be missing her a lot. Hope to see her soon!

If I am already getting overly excited about decorating for Christmas. I have a few fall decorations out now, but I just can't seem to get into it.. but Christmas? That's a whole other story. I have lots of boxes of decorations that last year just sat in our storage unit, so now that I have a house to actually decorate again I plan on going all out.

 

Make sure to go here to join in :)



Starting Solids

At Kaylee's 4 month appointment a few weeks ago the Dr gave us the OK to start trying solid foods. I was a little nervous about how she would do with it, but at the same time looking forward to seeing her start to learn about different foods.

The first week we started with just rice cereal and it was not so good. She spit almost everything back at me and would fuss until I gave in and got her a bottle instead.

The second week started off better. We added some bananas to the cereal and that seemed to do the trick. She started actually eating the food and not just spitting it back at me. About 3 days into week 2 is when she got sick. Since we were already dealing with that, I decided it was best to hold off on the solids for a little bit.

Now that she is doing I started trying solids again last night. At first I gave her just rice cereal and it ended up all over her face. So I added the bananas and she started smacking her lips for more. She still ended up with a lot (probably most) of it on her face, but at least she was enjoying it and opening her mouth everytime she saw the spoon.

Hopefully it continues like this and we can start trying to add a couple different types of foods and see what she likes. (and maybe she will start learning to actually keep the food in her mouth rather than on her face.. haha)

Vince was working last night so it was just Kaylee and I. Since she kept wanting more immediately after every bite it was a little hard to get many pictures. But I hadn't taken any of her eating before and wanted to at least get a few of those cute cheeks all covered in food ;)

Before food:

First bite.. Mmmmm :)

All the messy goodness...

I love those chubby cheeks ;)

Kaylee's First ER Trip

As always the weekend went way too fast. Thankfully we had nothing planned so I was able to spend all weekend taking care of my sick little girl.

On Friday around 11am Kaylee spiked a very high fever and started screaming uncontrollably. Vince was at home with her since she had been sick since Tuesday with what we thought was just a cold. So I left work, called the Dr's office and since they couldn't get her in right then they told us to take her to the hospital. We ended up being there until about 5pm. By the time we left she had calmed down, her fever got a little better (still high, but not like before), and we got some antibiotics to help her get well.

We were all so drained that night that Kaylee fell asleep quicker than ever, and Vince and I were both in bed by 10pm. (unfortunately the nights are still rough... with her being sick she is getting up multiple times, but is finally starting to get better)

Vince worked a lot this weekend so Miss K and I spent a lot of time snuggling on the couch. The only upside to having a sick baby, was that she was so much more of a cuddle bug. By this morning her fever was mostly gone and her enegry seems to be getting back to normal.

So after almost a week of some very long and at times stressful days I think we managed to survive her first time being sick. I know we will have many more days like this in our future, but for now I am just glad to have my happy healthy baby girl back :)

**Thanks to all of my friends who sent messages/tweets this weekend checking on her, I really apprecaited it!