Eisley's First Birthday Party!

My daughter turned one last week, and we celebrated that milestone this past weekend.  It was a little bit surreal to sing happy birthday to her and light that first birthday candle.  She had a great time though, and a bunch of our friends came out (despite our foot of snowfall a few days earlier and the fact that they'd still only plowed one lane on our street).  I had a lot of fun making decorations for Eisley's party, and I think everything looked super cute!  I just had to share a couple of photos from her party.  I think it was almost pinterest-worthy!  ;)

As always all photos are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.  

I've dropped off the face of the earth, and other holiday happenings

Man, I pretty much missed the major holidays completely, didn't I?  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years... gone in the blink of my very sleepy eyes.  Oh well, such is the mommy life, right?  

I've admittedly been preoccupied lately.  New business ventures (Mary Kay), plotting how to revive old ones (portrait photography!  yay!), and lots of time enjoying my babe (who will not be a baby much longer, eek!).  I'm going to be better about posting this year.  New Years resolution.  *wink*

So in a nutshell, here's what is going on with me right now.  I'm fat.  No really, I am.  Don't feel like you need to post a comment telling me I am not.  I'm totally not being self-deprecating here, I'm just being honest with myself and all of you.  It is, sadly, a fact.  SO.  What does that mean for me this year?  It means I have a lot of work to do, because the hubs and I would like to start trying for baby number two probably some time this summer.  And I don't want to be ridiculously overweight while I am pregnant.  Not fun.  At all.

So my goals for this year (notice I am calling them goals and not resolutions...  who the heck ever sticks to their resolutions?  Not me!) are to get my eating habits (and sometimes lack of eating) under control, and to exercise way way way more often than I do now.  Which is to say, I am going to start exercising.  Because I stepped on the scale this morning ladies, and while I am not quite honest or confident enough to admit the number, I will say that it is not good.  Not good at all.

I almost peed myself.

SO.  Today begins my new lifestyle.  I'm going to juice fresh fruits and veggies, eat whole and healthy foods, and take Eisley for lots and lots of walks when the weather is not too frigid.  It's probably going to suck completely at first.  Let's be real here.

But I don't want to be a horrible example for my daughter as she starts to become more and more aware of everything I do.  The child watches me like an adorable little hawk, and I see her taking it all in.  I don't want to pass bad habits, poor self image, and most of all poor health on to my daughter.  Not the kind of legacy that I am looking to leave.

I would love to hear your success stories, tips, tricks, and motivational anecdotes (as well as any awesome juicing recipes).  We could all use a little encouragement sometimes, and I am sure I'm not the only one in this boat.  We can do it ladies!

Now wish me luck, because this is going to be a long hard journey, though completely worth the struggle.  Someday, hopefully some day this year, I will step on that scale and not have to fight the involuntary pee-myself reaction.  Someday (soon!) I will be able to shop at whatever store I want for clothes.  Someday (starting today!) I will have more energy to be a good mom and chase my little princess around.  Here we go...

OH!  And should you want to make some of that delicious looking juice for yourself, it's super easy.  Just juice two oranges, two apples, one big carrot, and about a cup and a half of spinach.  Yum!  That was my breakfast this morning, and it was amazing.

THE TOOTH!

The Things I've Learned- Five Month Edition

My baby girl is growing up so fast! Holy cow, has it really been 5 months already? Eisley has just gotten more and more hilarious and full of personality this month.

 Her new favorite pastime is to constantly do what seems to be a mix between blowing a raspberry and making a fart noise with her mouth. Sometimes she will do this for 15 minutes at a time, or I will wake up to hear her entertaining herself with this lovely little trick over the baby monitor while she is still in her crib. The kid cracks me up. She is just such a beautiful little girl, who I very affectionately and without even a hint of irony love to call my "Pretty Princess."  She still has gorgeous blue eyes, and I'm just waiting to see if they are going to stay that color. It looks like she will have some teeth soon, and sometimes the teething monster likes to come out and play, but she's been doing a lot better with it, poor little bean! She also loves to grab anything and everything in her path. She pulled my plate full of food off of the table the other week. Luckily it was a paper plate. yeesh!

 She just grows and changes so much. It's amazing to me, it really is. I just love learning all about life with her, and my husband and I just can't get enough of her silliness. Of course, now that I've been a mom for five months, I've got it all figured out, so this will be a short list of things I've learned this month.

 Kidding.

 Obviously.

 I have so much to learn still, but here are a few of the things I've learned this month.

 1. Remember when you thought you were going to be able to effortlessly lose all of your pregnancy weight and flab and extra skin back when you first got pregnant?
 Yeah, I'll pretend like I don't remember my delusions too. We can pretend we never said that to ourselves together.

 2. Enjoy being period-less while you can. One day it will sneak back into your life like a red thief in the night, and you will be sad. *sigh*

 3. Remember before you had kids, and before 10,000 people and their moms saw you naked and giving birth, and you were embarrassed to talk about things like your period?

 4. Babies are strong. It's going to hurt a lot worse than you think it will when they grab hold of your hair and give it a good tug.

 5. Eventually your baby won't poop five million times a day like they did when they were a newborn. You will be both overjoyed and worried. You will probably think to yourself at least a few times, "does my baby poop enough!?" Yes. This is what your life has come to.

 6. Even if you were, in your previously child-less life, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type person, you will now be a big fan of The Schedule.  You will realize that a happy baby is a baby who has napped at least twice.  And a baby who naps at least twice without fighting you tooth and nail, is a baby who is on some sort of a schedule.

7.  Time goes too fast.  Blink and another month has somehow come and gone.

8.  100 degree temperatures suck.  Especially when it stays that hot for weeks on end.  If you're like me, you probably won't even leave your house some days, for fear of baby heat stroke.  OR just general fussiness.

9.  Teething is your enemy.  It needs to be fought with all you have, and banished with things like baby tylenol, teething tablets, and amber teething necklaces.  It has the evil super-power of being able to turn your sweet angelic baby into a raging monster.  It must be stopped.

10.  There is nothing more gratifying than when a baby thinks you're funny.  When they giggle at your stupid faces it is just the best thing.

I just can't believe how much more I love her every day.  I also can't believe how steep the learning curve can be at every step of the way.  I feel like I have learned more about love, myself, and life in 5 months than I learned in the past few years!

Tonight, We Ride!!!!

I do have a real post ready to go, I really do.  It's just waiting on me to upload E's 5 month photos.  But in the mean time, I came across this photo of her while I was trying to clear up some hard drive space.  She's a month and a half old in this photo, and it cracks me up every time I see it.

I think it needs a caption, but I just can't think of a darn thing outside of  "Tonight, we ride!!!!" which is pretty cliche and generic.  Suggestions?  I'll do it up all pretty with whatever suggestion I think is most hilarious from here and good old facebook.

Aaaand Go!