Randomness .. and links.

I feel like I could have numerous blog posts with this same title.

I wish I had more time to post on here but working full time and taking care of this dark eyed curly haired girl keeps me very busy.. but I'm ok with that. 

When I go days without blogging I feel like I have so much to blog about that it just becomes random stuff. So this is exactly what this post is 
... just randomness, and some links.

** First I'd like for everyone who reads this to PLEASE PLEASE vote for Sophia at Tiny Prints. I'd.. We'd really appreciate it. I mean, who wouldn't want to win $1,000 and $500 towards Tiny Prints? I love them. 

Just click HERE, like them and Vote.

{ Get all your friends to vote too :) }

** I entered in the Little Gray Pixel's Blog Birthday Giveaway and actually won something!!

I won a custom blog banner from IROCKSOWHAT!!!! Very excited about that bc I recently just started following her blog and she's so talented. I'm so excited to see what she'll make for me. I know I'm going to love it. Thanks SO much to the both of them for the giveaway!

** One of my {very few} but sweet blog followers, Breena from Life as this Mommy knows it, gave me a blog award on her website. I was very happy about this bc it's my very first blog award ever. The award is The Versatile blogger award. It goes out to blogs that arenewly discovered and offer some fun or inspiring ideas. So thanks again Breena and everyone check out her blog, she takes some amazing photos and has two beautiful little girls. I will be posting more about the award in a later post. 

** I love Pinterest. My fiance hates. Only bc I spend a lot of time on it. Well, I started pinning foods but never tried one until Monday night. I made Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese. Mmmmm. If you like quick and easy recipe's I suggest making this.

You can find the recipe here.

via.


** I can't believe today is the last day of November. Where has the year gone?
I am very excited for Christmas this year. Gary and I decided to write a list of everything we wanted for Christmas. I started my list already. And ... it only has one thing on it. 
I have stared at the paper and thought and thought.. and all I can come up with is slippers.
What's wrong with me? I guess that means I have everything I need. 


** And speaking of Christmas. I can't wait to do this when Sophia gets older.
Such a cute tradition to start. Does anyone else do this?

** It is officially winter here in WV. It was freezing last night and it actually snowed a little this morning. I'm not ready for it esp. now that we live so far out in the country. How is my little car going to get into town when it snows? New car? That'd be nice.

** Gary got me a new lens for my camera. And I'm still learning everything about cameras. I wish I could sit down for a whole day and just research stuff on here and play with my camera. I hate working sometimes.. bc I'd rather sit at home and play with my camera. 

But at least I get to practice after work on my baby girl... like when its bath time.

Hey, I'm still learning. Any advice on anything would be great. 

But this rambling randomness mommy is heading to bed .. or I'll be grumpy tomorrow.

Don't forget to vote and check back soon to see my new blog banner from IROCKSOWHAT.

{I'm very excited about it, if you can't tell}

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE.

❤

Wordless Wednesday {3}

Sophia finally got to meet her new best friend Zoey.

Linking up with: and then she {snapped}, the paper mama, live and love out loud, jenni from the blog, baby baby lemon.

13 months

Dear Sophia,

You are now 13 months old! Well, 13 months and 6 days but mommy is a few days late writing to you. The months are still flying by and you are still growing and changing so much. Your grandparents bought you this cute little chair and I decided that's where we'll be taking your monthly pictures from now on. 

Sophia, you are growing into such a fun, loving beautiful little girl. Sometimes I look at you and see a girl, not a baby. At times I get sad but I have to remind myself that you are going to grow no matter what but knowing that you're growing into such a perfect little girl makes me happy. My little baby is not so much of a baby anymore.

At 13 months you love to talk. You're favorite word is dog. You wake up in the morning and that's the first word you say. You hear our dog Rico make a noise and you yell it. You'll even call the most random things dog too. I caught you calling your grandma it. It was so funny. We'll walk by the pet section at Wal Mart and you'll yell it at the top of your lungs. Your second favorite word it book. You know what books are and when you see them you'll say it. You've started to say Baby this month. It's so cute when you say it. You'll see a baby doll and say "Baby". Yesterday I was doing my hair and you were just crawling through the house saying "Baby, Baby". I love your cute little voice. 

You also learned how to say "Gobble Gobble" for Thanksgiving. I was pretty impressed by that one. And you now know how to say "Hi" it's more of a "Hiyeee". You will pick stuff up, like your shoe, and put it to your ear and say "Hiyee". You've been saying "Bad" while waving your pointer finger. You'll say "Bad Baby" and "Bad Dog" I'm guessing I say these two a lot. You still say "Mama" and "DaDa" which are mommy and daddy's favorites.

You have 8 teeth now. And you love to use them, both good and bad ways. You use your teeth to eat A LOT. We can put anything in front of you and you'll eat. You've always been a good eater. You're favorite things to eat at 13 months {besides everything} is Cheerios, cheese puffs, corn, gold fishes and strawberries. The bad thing about your teeth is you have been biting. You bit me the other day on my stomach and it hurt bad. I said "Bad Baby" and you smiled with all the little teeth that I now had marks of on my stomach. You also bit the other babies at Daycare too. The other babies at daycare bite too and I understand it happens but I don't want you to be the one biting. So hopefully you were only doing that because you were teething. Hopefully no more biting.

You are starting to get lots and lots of curly hair. It's a crazy mess in the morning but it's so pretty. You're going to have the curliest hair like mommy. Your daddy's whole side of the family has curly hair so I couldn't imagine you not having it. When you get out of the bath it's SO curly. I have been putting a bow in your hair. You hate them. You'll reach for them with a smile on your face, grab it while saying "Oooooh" and hand it to me with a smile on your face. The trick is to distract you while I put it in. I have to do the same trick while putting on your shoes. Man do you hate shoes. I don't know why, I'm pretty sure you have the cutest shoes in the world, and lots of them. But you'd rather be barefoot. I guess that's ok, only because you have the cutest little feet. And they are still my favorite, even after 13 months.

You are very goofy. Which is ok because I'm goofy too. You laugh at everything and you are always trying to make others laugh. That's such a good personality to have Sophia. Your daddy and I are always laughing at everything you do. And your giggle, I could listen to it all day, every day. Such a perfect sound.

You still aren't walking but that's ok, you'll be very soon I'm sure. You practice with Daddy all the time. Mommy says you can crawl as long as you want. Walking just means that I'll have to chase you even more and that you really aren't a baby anymore. I'm sure once you start walking you'll never want to sit down. We'll run after you when you're crawling away and when you hear us you squeel and crawl faster. I can't imagine when you start walking.. running from us. It's harder now to keep you to sit down. You are always wanting to squirm away from me. Changing your diaper and getting you dressed is a lot of work. I break out in sweats just doing these. You hate it so much. Even taking these pictures you were climbing down and trying to get away. You're such a lil monkey.

We have to keep you strapped in your high chair now because you like to stand up backwards in it. Your not afraid of anything now. I hope that changes a little when you get older or I'm really going to have my hands full. Daddy can throw you so high up in the air {while I'm screaming for him to stop} but you'll laugh the whole time. Daddy says your going to be a tough little girl. That's ok with me, as long as you be girly with me :)

You're most favorite thing to do is dance. For being only 13 months you've got some moves girl. You're favorite song to dance to We Found Love by Rhianna. We probably play 20 times a day and you just go crazy. Any song that has good beat you'll dance. You'll nod your head and move your little body. Sometimes you'll get so excited you don't know what to do and you'll just crawl as fast you can everywhere. It's so funny.

You are in size 4 diapers, size 3 shoes and still 12 month clothing. You only use a bottle at night {sometimes} and mainly just use a sippy cup now. You've gone a few days without the bottle but then we'll break that and give you one at night. You still use the binky but only when you're sleeping. You still wake up in the middle of the night but only for a few minutes while I hold you and put you back to sleep. You take about two long naps through out the day. You still love to play with your books and unpack your diaper bag. 

You also learned how to give kisses. We'll say "Sophia, give me a kiss" or "Sophia, dame un besito" and you'll open your mouth onto our cheek. It's not really a "kiss" but it's close enough. We love getting our wet kisses from you. I love that your grandma speaks spanish with you. You already understand some. 

Mommy can go on and on about everything you've learned and have done this month but this sums it all up. Every day with you is so much fun. I love that even though I'm teaching you everything about life you are doing the same for me. I love watching how you react when you see or learn something new. You are so smart Sophia.

Thank you for another amazing month. I love you so much Sophia. Thanks for bringing so much life, love and happiness into my life every day. Thanks for loving mommy with kisses and cuddles at the end of each day. Thanks for entertaining me and making me laugh when you know I'm having a bad day. Thanks for being you, perfect little you.

HAPPY 13 MONTHS BEAUTIFUL!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Like I said I'd post about our Thanksgiving. I was planning on having lots of pictures to post and to remember each year for Thanksgiving BUT that didn't happen. I actually only got one picture, which is not like me at all. This year I tried to enjoy Thanksgiving without worrying about pictures. I have my memories to remember this Thanksgiving. Here's the only picture I have. Here is my goofy crazy hair girl and I on Thanksgiving.

We had a good Thanksgiving. It was small but good. We enjoyed all the food, sat around full then all took naps. It was very relaxing. We also watched The Great Outdoors. I can't believe I've gone all these years without seeing that movie. I loved it! 

We spent most of the day at my parents and decided to head home. We decided to put the Christmas tree up when we got home. I want to make it a new tradition with us. This is our very first Christmas tree as a family in our new home. 

I'm stil buying stuff to decorate the house. I love this time of year!

 Soph was everywhere while we were putting the tree up, even in the box.

Soph is into EVERYTHING now ever since she has started crawling. She's been crawling for a couple of months now so it's been non stop with chasing her and telling her "No" or "Don't put that in your mouth!". She's always looking for something to get into.

These next few pictures are of her being sneaky and putting things in her mouth.

We got almost everything up with the Christmas tree except for our bubls. The bulbs I bought didn't come with hooks. I don't understand why they'd sell just bulbs. So once I pick those up the tree will be finished. Here's the tree as of now. 

I am so thankful for everything in my life right now. I am thankful for another year with all my family and friends. I am thankful for my healthy, fun filled baby girl and her loving daddy. I am thankful for all of my family and all of my friends, both old and new. I am thankful for Gary and I to both have full time jobs so we can support our little girl.

I can go on and on about everything I'm thankful for but I'd be blogging for hours.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. 

Smile

Entering in The Paper Mama's Photo Challenge this week.

This picture was taken in Sophia's new chair from her grandparents.

She loves it! and I love her and her beautiful smile. :)

And you can still vote for Sophia at Tiny Prints.

Just click HERE, Like them and Vote!!

Thanksgiving Morning

I can't believe how fast this year is going and that it's already Thanksgiving.

I'm enjoying the holidays more now that Sophia is getting older.

Last year she was still a newborn and we were still learning so much about babies 

and how to be parents. We were very stressed. We spent last Thanksgiving in VA Beach.

It was our first vacation as a family of three. We had a great time visiting with Gary's family.

Here are some pictures from last year's Thanksgiving in VA Beach. 

Look how much Sophia has grown in just a year.

We were laughing so much at the time of this picture. Poor Sophia.

Sophia got to meet the rest of her family.

{i had a crappy camera at the time so the coloring is all messed up}

It was also Sophia's first trip to the beach.

I'm so thankful that we were able to visit with them last year for the family.

We aren't able to this year because Gary has to work today and tomorrow. 

But hopefully we will be able to soon.

We are going to spend Thanksgiving at my parents house today. I'm so excited to eat.

I haven't eaten too much yet this morning because I want to save room for all the food we're going to it. I'm excited for this Thanksgiving because Sophia can eat everything we eat now and I'm sure she'll be eating LOTS. We made a Thanksgiving shirt for Sophia today of her hand print. It didn't turn out the greatest but it's cute for her. I kind of ruined it by "trying" to write Happy Thanksgiving on it. :( Here it is before I thought I'd get creative.

We are going to finish watching Beauty and the Beast and get ready to head over for Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully Gary only has to work till 1 so we are able to all be together. I'll upload tonight with pictures from today.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

VOTE!VOTE!VOTE!

Sophia would love for everyone to vote for her in the Tiny Prints Talent Search!

This picture was taken when Sophia was around 3 months old but it's still one of my favorite pictures, EVER! So I thought it'd be perfect for the contest.

I know this blog doesn't have many readers but for who ever is reading this PLEASE vote for us! We'd love to get as many votes as we can! You can vote daily too.
 And would love to know if you did so we can thank you!! :)

{ Just click the HERE, like them on Facebook, and VOTE! }

Here's what the picture looks like in the contest. 

I know the colors don't match too well but I still love it!

I know I haven't posted in a couple of days but the work week has begun and I'm exhausted again by the time I get the computer out. Tomorrow is my last work day this week so I'll be able to post then. Hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

Up Early

Well Sophia decided to get up REAL early this morning. She woke up a 13 month old today. I will have to post about that later today with a picture and some updates about what she has been up to. But here are some random stuff that has been going on.

Oh & I changed up the blog a little and added a blog button that The Paper Mama made for me. I love it!! I am going to be sponsoring her blog starting in December :) Feel free to grab it and leave a comment if you did! I'd love to know! 

 First off, I finally went to see Breaking Dawn. It was my first movie in over a year. I used to go ALL the time but motherhood happened and now I never have time. I'm very glad I got to go this weekend. I with my friend Jesseca. We went to dinner at El Mariachi with Lindsey. Mmmm .. I love Mexican food. I also treated myself to a jumbo margarita. It was perfect. We headed to the movies after and I fell in love with Twilight all over again. I can't wait for the second one to come out.

Yesterday I woke up early and headed to the grocery store with my grandma. Then met my mom and sister at the mall with Sophia. I ended up switching cell phone services and getting a new phone! I got the iPhone 4! I LOVE it! I had the iPhone before but an old one and I love that I can better pictures and videos. Perfect for having a baby. I also have service at the house now so I can use my phone here. I've been a happy girl messing around with my phone. I bought Gary the new blackberry and I'm pretty sure he loves it too.

We spend the whole evening just lounging around and playing with out new toys. Now all we need is a bigger car. I really want the Chevy Equinox but we'll see.

Here are some pictures and videos that we took while trying out the new toy :)

Sophia was so exhausted from shopping that she passed out in her high chair with a cheerio in her hand. Poor thing.

This is Sophia's favorite book. She loves all books but she's always wanting this one. I hope that one day Sophia wants to be just like her mommy :)

Good night kisses for my sleepy girl.

All these pictures are on my Instragram as well. I didn't know you could follow people. I added mine to my sidebar on the left. 

And now for some videos. I got a video of Sophia babbling and saying baby :)

Now that I have this new phone I see lots of pictures and videos in the future. Which is a good thing because I am using this blog for those reasons, to remember our every day lives. And what's better than actual pictures and videos from that day?

Hope everyone has a great day!

Wordless Wednesday {2}

Someone stole my Doritos and loved them.

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Linking up with The Paper Mama, and then she snapped, live and love out loud, jenni from the blog, and baby baby lemon.

Zoey's Here!

Wow what a weekend. I'm still exhausted from it and can barely keep my eyes open typing this but I know it's been a few days and I need to update.

This weekend my best friend Kayla brought Zoey into the world!! I blogged about Kayla being pregnant before. She found out she was pregnant the exact same day I did a year later. You can read about that here. 

I got a text from Kayla on Friday that said she had preclampsia and the Dr.'s were inducing her. I was at work and still had a few more hours. I was so anxious the whole day to leave. I even left 30 min early. Stephanie was in town so we headed to Huntington together to be there for Kayla.

Poor Kayla had a rough labor. She was in labor for almost 26 hrs before they decided to do a C-Section. But finally on Saturday November 12th Zoey entered the world.

I wasn't able to get too many pictures because it was a rough time for Kayla and I didn't want to be in the way. But I got as much as I could before I had to be back home to my baby girl. Kayla was out for a few hours after Zoey was born so Zoey had to stay in the nursery so I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures of her :( I did make a slide show for Kayla of all the pictures I did have. She mentioned how much she loved the song I used before she went into labor.

Sophia and Zoey are going to be best friends. We've known this before Kayla and I became mommies. I am so excited for Kayla. I'm so happy that we get to experience being new mommies together. I know our babies our a year a part now and it seems like such a big age different but once they get older it won't seem so different. Kayla and I are a year apart. Zoey is so perfect and beautiful and I can't wait to visit them again. 


It's back to another work week. It's only Tuesday and I'm exhausted. This tired momma is going to sleep while the baby sleeps. I'll have pictures of my baby tomorrow. Also, I entered Sophia into a contest that voting starts tomorrow. I'll have the link on here tomorrow and hope that the {very few} that do follow this blog will be able to vote! 
Good night everyone.

Fall

Entering in The Paper Mama's Fall Photo Challenge.

This picture was taken one evening and it reminds me so much of Fall this year.
Sophia loves to go outside and play with the leaves.

Old Toys

This post was posted late. This is for {Thursday November 11, 2011}

Today was a good day. Mommy went to work while you played with all your friends at daycare. Mommy's best friend Stephanie was in town so we made plans to see her after work.

Stephanie and her family invited us over for dinner. They are all so nice. We had salad and delicious stromboli's. Stephanie's mom, Mona, held you the whole time while we ate. She fed you apple sauce and cheerios. She was so happy to have you there. I'm glad that people get such joy from just being around you like she did. She's SO good with children! And also has good baby advice. Stephanie has learned so much from her and she will def. be a great mother one day. Steph, I know you're reading this, your having a baby when I plan for my second :)

After dinner Mona got you books and toys from when all her {4} children were babies. I'm going to be like her and save some stuff. You loved all of it! Stephanie played with all those toys that you were playing with when she was a baby. I thought that was so neat. And you played so good, you're getting so smart Sophia.

{The quality of these pics aren't good bc they were taken from my phone}

They have two of the cutest dogs. You used to be so afraid of them but you're starting to like dogs more now. One of their dogs is in love with you. Steph and Mona watched you one evening and they their dog never left your side. He watched you while you played tonight and even laid down beside you while you played. He's in love.

Maybe we'll need to get a dog like that for you. We stayed there till around 9:45. I'm glad I got to go over. I really enjoy going over there with you and hanging out with them. They are such great people! You fell asleep as soon as we got in the car while mommy drove the 15min car ride home in the dark through the country. Most of the time I hate the drive but tonight I enjoyed it. I turned the radio off. It was relaxing and I had time to just think.  Mostly about you. I thought about how much Mona enjoyed seeing you and knew that when you are older and no longer a little baby, I'd be the exact same way. Thinking about all this made me miss you even though you were right behind me. I would reach back and touch your warm face every couple of minutes and then feel all your hair. Just what I needed.

And then I thought about how much I enjoy the age you are now. Yeah, sometimes it gets crazy but I love how new everything is so new to you. I love that even though your so into exploring and crawling everywhere, you still want me to hold you and cuddle with you when your done. I love that you know I'm your mommy and that you need me. Mommy needs you too. And mommy needed tonight. It was relaxing and nice to get out of the house. Mommy's excited for Stephanie to move back to town. Maybe that'll mean more nights like tonight. 

You've been asleep since we got home. I'm going to kiss you goodnight one more time and go to sleep too. I love you, my sweet girl.

worless{ish} wednesday{1}: phone & a video

This my first time linking up for wordless wednesday. Here's my wednesday, with pictures .. and some words.

I took another walk during my break at work through the historic neighborhood nearby. Def. needed it. 

Then I picked up my baby girl and headed home. Gary's working so it's just the two of us this evening but we played, ate, Sophia drank from her sippy and she talked on the phone.

Sophia's new favorite thing is playing with the phone. 

Hope everyone's having a wonder wednesday.


Linking up with: The Paper Mama,and then, she {snapped},jenni from the blog/supermom,live and love...out loud,Angry Julie Monday

Change

I am not used to this time change at all. I know that I've been doing it for 22 years now but for some reason, this year it really feels different. Maybe because I'm a mom now and it's not just me that's not used to it, but it's messing with Sophia too. I don't know what it is but we're all messed up with our sleep.

We must have had an exhausting weekend because as soon as I came home from work and the grocery store we were asleep by 8!! We only fell asleep because Sophia did and here lately she's been fighting sleep so we decided we'd just sleep when she did. Bad idea. Soph was up at 4 am. So I stayed up with her all morning. But I can't complain because she looked so cute in her pink footie pajama's.

I had to be at work at 8 but for some reason I wasn't tired at all. We played all morning and we got ready and headed out. I dropped Soph at daycare and spent the next 8 hours at work. It was such a nice day outside. I got to take a walk through the historic neighborhood behind my work building with another employer. It was so beautiful. I'll try and take pics if I'm lucky enough to get to go on another walk before it gets too cold.

The weather has been perfect here during the day but when I get home from work it gets cold. I'm really not looking forward to the colder weather and snow. Why can't it be fall all year round?

The past few days Sophia has been real needy. She won't play with her toys and when I sit her down she cries. I saw that she had a tooth coming in but she wasn't like this with her others. She also bit me the other day and also bit another lil girl at daycare. I hate that. I know she's a baby and doesn't know but I don't want her to be the one kid that bites at daycare and no one likes. I talked to another mom who said that her baby bit only when she was teething so I REALLY hope that's why Soph is. Has anyone had any problems with their baby biting you or another baby? She hasn't been sleeping much either. I'm hoping it's just her teeth and she'll be back to sleeping more at night. 

We got her to sleep just fine tonight. So maybe things are getting better. Either way I'm exhausted but I love my little girl with or without sleep. Have a good night everyone!

Oh yeah, I forgot to add another video of Sophia dancing to Hopeless Place. She's too funny but I have to say she does have rhythm. Check out her other dance moves here.

Perfect Fall Evening

Today we did a whole lot of nothing. Daddy had to work and we didn't have any plans. You were up a lot last night. You have a tooth coming in, and you woke up real early this morning. Mommy is tired. You crawled and got into everything that you weren't supposed to and then we went outside. The sun was shining perfect and I decided to take some pictures. {with the help of your grandma who came over to visit} I also added two of the pictures as my new banner on here.

We came inside and your grandma left. I put on some Rhianna and you danced away.

You fell asleep around 8:30. I'm hoping you went to sleep early because you didn't sleep much last night and hopefully you won't be up all night. Mommy needs her sleep before work. You've worn me out the last couple of days. But I love you. 

Linking up for the first time with { Life as this Mommy knows it }

These are my favorite pictures of the week .. and ever .. at least for now :)