Whew...

So. The wedding is over..and has been for almost two weeks now. Life is mostly back to normal, Sophie is just now settling back into routine and being a happy girl!

Whew...so I had a moment of clarity and realized that the reason that I have felt like this year is so crazy and busy and out of control is because. It. Has. Been. Just in big life events alone...not to mention all the other little things.
My baby sister graduated from high school.
My daughter turned one.
My older sister got married.
And this Saturday is my 5th anniversary.
I know that last one isn't exactly a huge life event but to me its a pretty big deal. But more on that later.
For now here is a random hodge podge of wedding camera download!

I had the privilege of taking some pictures of my sister and her fiance two days before the wedding so we would have some shots of them to use at the wedding.

 

They are sooo cute!

Below are some pictures of wedding day prep and hair and makeup that my wonderful husband took for me!

And so just as we return to normal life we are going to leave it behind again....Trevor and I are leaving Friday for our anniversary trip....to....DISNEY WORLD! And no...we are not taking our 14 month old with us !-)

While we are extreeeeeemlyy excited we are not looking forward to missing our girl for 6 whole day's!

There is so much more to share...and so little time with which to do it!

State of being.

So this is the state we are currently in.

If it looks like a tornado came through and piled up/scattered about all of our stuff you would be completely right.

We moved in Thursday of last week and thanks to the wonderful and greatly appreciated help of family and friends it was fairly smooth and painless....however due to the fact that we were/are not quite done with some of the work on the house we had to simply put things were they could go.

Which means we are currently playing a wicked game of furniture/stuff tetris. Fortunately I happen to be really good at tetris (seriously back in my prime I could make it to level 18 and above) and am spinning and placing the pieces hoping that a strait piece will come along soon.

Working on the house, packing, unpacking and the like have consumed us for the past month and a half and its not over yet, there is still much to do and nothing is truly complete (which is nagging at me) but I am loving that its ours, its amazing and its a HOUSE!
Oh and Sophiekins makes everything better....these were taken the day before we moved. She was playing (she does that now, like really play's) while I packed!

Happy New Year everyone!

just have to. make. the. best. of. it.

We are still alive (I think) just limping along.
So much has happened since Nov 30th...let me explain...no wait there is no time let me sum up...
I missed Sophie's five month post. She is now five months three weeks and oh my how much has happened.

 Helping to pick out her first Christmas Tree!

She rolls over! One day several weeks ago she rolled three times from back to belly. And of course Trevor and I missed it all three times! She has been rolling steady ever since however she is still not great at going from belly to back so she gets stuck and starts crying!

Baby's got teeth! Her two bottom front teeth have come through and soon should be showing in her sweet little smile!

She is doing a great job starting to sit up on her own. She still wobbles and falls over (the slow face plant) quite a bit but is doing a great job!

We had our first family cold...poor baby had a runny noes and a bit of a cough. Fortunately it was not too bad and everyone seems to be on the mend.

We were scheduled to close on our house Nov 30th but due to the incompetence of Chase bank (FYI never ever use Chase for any reason they were horrible) we ended up closing on Dec 3rd. And then we ran smack into the three rules of house/construction projects.
#1. It will always, always, always take waaaayyy longer than you think it will.
#2. If something can go wrong it will go wrong.
#3. If something outside of your project can happen or go wrong it will.
We were hoping to move the second week of December. We are now planning on moving next Thursday. We also had a bit of a case of bite-off-a-bit-more-than-you-can-chew-itis.
I could write paragraphs about my emotional upheaval during this whole thing but it all boils down to this.
We just have to make the best of it.
So Sophie's first Christmas is not the perfect picture I imagined and wanted to make it. So. What. Its her first Christmas, uniquely and completely, box filled and in the apartment that we first took her home to.

Box filled Christmas

The only other Christmas deco I put up

Someday when I am 90 years old and looking back on my life I bet I wont even remember how disappointed I was but I know I will remember my sweet little first born girl on her very first Christmas that she will not even remember except through the stories that we tell her! And hey at least those stories will be interesting!
And so whether your making the best of it or enjoying your picture perfect Christmas.....may joy fill your heart  and have a Merry Christmas!!!

 P.S. There are two movie quotes for this post... a partial one in the title and a paraphrased one in the body. Look at me go!

Home at last!

So uhh yeah we are buying a HOUSE!
I have not posted much about it because well there was not much to say for a while and now when there is much to say its stressful and I usually like to try and ignore stressful things as much as possible.
We close on Nov 30th (hopefully!) its pretty small and needs a lot of work.
I am however despite the stress extremely excited! We have been living in apartments now for a little over five years and its really starting to get old.
Things I am looking forward to:

A backyard!!!!!
A real mailbox.
Storage space.
Not hearing music from upstairs at midnight.
Walls that are some color other than WHITE!
A kitchen that is not a closet.
Having enough space to have people over.
Finally having a home not just a house!

Here is what you all really want to see pictures!


Front door:

Dining room:

View of living room from the dining room:

Kitchen:

Sun room:

Bathroom:

Bedrooms:
    

Backyard! Its huge:

We have some pretty hefty remodel plans that we are trying to accomplish before we move in Dec. Plus of course we have to pack and then there is Thanksgiving and then Christmas! So the next month should be.......intense.

Its a good thing I am an intense person :-) 

When good days go bad!

So last week due to the magic of the Baby Bjorn I was able to go to Wal-Mart for a whole 45 min with NO problems! Sophie did great only fussing a bit towards the end.

It was so funny when people would notice her and say something like "ohh what a cute baby" I wanted to say.... "Thanks so much I would stop and let you look at her but if I do she will start crying, sorry!!!!" but I just smiled said thank you and kept walking!
So after the wonderfully successful Wal-Mart run I put her in the car and she fell right to sleep. Really good sleep where she stays asleep not the kind where she wakes up every time the car stops moving which makes red lights go from being a minor annoyance to evil torture that will surly never end!
So I bravely decided to drive buy a couple of parks so I can see the pavilion's available so I can decide which one to have Sophie's dedication at. We make it to one park no problem! Then I stop to get gas also no problem.....until.....I went to start the car up and. OH DEAR. The car would not start.
Now I have had my share of dumpy cars over they years so this is not the first time that a car has not started for me. This is however the first time that a car has not started with a two month old baby with me! Its a whole new experience!!!
I called Trevor and we tried to figure out what was wrong with no luck. Fortunately I am blessed to have an abundant amount of family that lives in the area so I called my mom and she and my dad were able to come out and help me.
We went into the gas station to get out of the heat and I walked Sophie around the isles as I laughed to myself about the whole situation.. Of course it was a gas station with a nasty bathroom with nowhere to change Sophie!
Mom and dad got there pretty quickly and it turns out that the battery just needed a jump Sophie and I went right home after that and took a nap!

Mommy and Grocery Store VS Baby Sophie Round 1

Soooo venturing out from the home cocoon doesn't always go perfectly!

I was going to go grocery shopping today. It was time. We really needed groceries and Sophie is over a month old now so I want to start doing such things as going to the grocery store.
I planned everything out as detailed as I could getting ready to go while she was napping, timing her feeding for just before we left, getting the list together and having in in my purse.
SO everything was going well I made one small mistake and was hungry by the time we left. I have to start remembering that I should eat before I go anywhere even if I don't feel hungry because most likely I am distracted by getting ready and don't feel it!
When I got to the store and was taking Sophie out of the car I realized I had for the first time forgotten the diaper bag.....du du dunnn. I was beginning to start thinking that perhaps this trip might not turn out so well. Then once I got my cart and had Sophie's car seat set in it I realized that I had also forgotten my reusable shopping bags. Not a problem unless you are shopping at Aldi where you bag your own groceries. They have bags that you can purchase but they are not big and huge like my reusable shopping bags so it would take me a lot longer to bag the large amount of food I was going to buy! At that point I almost turned around and went back to the car.
But I did not want to waist all the prep time I had already spent (preparation that did not include remembering the diaper bag or the shopping bags!) so I thought what the heck I will try it!
I bravely pushed my cart with my fussy little girl down the first isle. We made it down the second isle with a happy baby but......by the time I hit the end of the second isle she was starting to fuss. I made a break for it! By the time we were in the checkout lane she was crying and by the time I was done checking out she was screaming! I know that will not be the last time my child is screaming in some store somewhere but I don't think it will ever get more comfortable.
Sorry everyone my daughter is screaming....deal with it!

Round one goes to baby Sophie~

Danger of book reading!!!

I got four baby books from the library.......and as is typical of me I am now overreacting a bit to the information and struggling to use the best parts and leave the rest.
Our biggest difficulty right now is that Sophie for some reason starting about a week ago forgot how to go to sleep! She struggles against it crying because she is so tired but rocking, bouncing, pacifiers, swaddling, shushing, singing and everything else seems to only have varying levels of success. Once she finally falls asleep I carefully put her down and she either wakes up immediately or about 5 -10 min later sometimes. After about and hour to an hour and a half of this she will finally fall asleep and stay asleep!
Other than that she is the sweetest bundle of love ever as can be seen below!


Look she is sleeping! Yay!


I was so upset that this came out so fuzzy! I need my new camera! Only $250 to go!


Her sweet little hands.

And I know that This to shall pass :-)