On the Eve of Toddlerhood

 Dear Presley Elizabeth,

I knew this day would be here before I knew it. Everybody warned me, and boy, they were right. I feel like it was just yesterday, we were checking into the hospital. It's funny how I sometimes have trouble recalling what I had for dinner last night, but I can remember every single second of your birthday. It was truly the most perfect, special, amazing day.

We checked into the hospital on this day, a year ago to prepare to be induced the following morning. We didn't think you would be here until evening time the next day, but you had other plans. My water broke at 2:30am and the first thing that I felt was excitiment. I knew that could only mean one thing. You were on your way, and I was going to get to meet you sooner.

Four hours later at 6:33 am, you were here. I can not even begin to describe what it felt like to see you take your first breathe, or what it felt like to touch you for the first time when the doctor laid you on my tummy. There is nothing like that moment.

At the time, I had no idea how a tiny 7lb.12oz. bundle could completely change our lives. You have brought more love, pure joy, excitement, and laughter in your short 1 year than I ever thought possible. Each day with you just gets better and better.

 You are our sweet gift from God and love you more than you could ever know. Happy birthday eve, sweet Girl!

Walking in a...

Yes, a few of you guessed correctly...

Presley's 1st birthday is going to be a

Winter ONE-derland 

I hear a few people gasping in shock...especially some close family members. Yes, I'm actually doing a theme. I know, crazy!!! If you don't already know, I am not a themey type of person. Nothing against themes, it's just not my thing. However, I happened to be browsing Etsy and fell in love with a certain someones decorations (she will be revealed after the party). I decided to go with it, and holy cow, did I ever.

Let's be honest here though, I am well aware there are a ton of winter babes doing this theme too. I have a few reasons for picking it anyway. One, it snowed the day Presley was born. Which, for a lot of places, that's not anything special. For Texas, that's rare. Two, I love winter and would like to extend it as long as possible in my house (in the form of decorations).

Here is yet another sneaky peaky...

The invite

I apologize for the giant black-out rectangles. Believe it or not, there's just some stuff I'm not comfortable with hanging out in the interwebz for everyone to see.

 And for the record, The picture below is a snowball (marshmellow covered chocolate cake with creme inside) From my Clue #2 post. I personally think they're disgusting, but oh so fitting for P's theme.

Santa Came Early

This morning  I woke up, made my coffee (see my priorities) then started to make Presley's bottle. When I opened the lid to the formula, there was a note from Presley. Now, I know my child is smart, but say what???

This is what it said:

Hey Mommy, 

Dada left you a present by the tree. He said you should open it in front of me.

<3 Presley

I got P out of bed, and walked over to the tree to find a box wrapped just for me. I already knew what it was and couldn't wait to use it this morning. Just yesterday, I sent Brandon an email with the exact Tassimo single serve coffee maker that I wanted.

First, I opened the card that was on top of the present. 

This is what it said:

Ashlie,

Just over a year ago, you gave me the best present I could have ever wanted. I know it has been a year of hard work for you, so I thought you deserved your present a little early. I hope this helps make your mornings a little easier.

Love,

Brandon

His note in the card meant way more to me than any coffee maker in the entire world!!! Presley and I ripped into a box just the size of my Tassimo. I pulled out the stuffing and....

This is what was inside:

My ipad!!!!!

I was completely and utterly surprised!!! I have the best husband EVER, by the way.

Presley was pretty stoked about it, too.

Like I said above, the effort he went to surprise me and the note are what meant the most (the ipad was just a super cool bonus). I feel more blessed than ever this Christmas, and can't wait to spend our first one together as a family of 3.

Merry Christmas ( a little early) everyone!

Favorite Things Friday

This post was originally supposed to be my Christmas list, but I just keep buying off of it instead. So, I just switched it up to "Favorite Things Friday" . Let's have a look, shall we?

Toms.

I love a little sparkle and couldn't resist (plus they only had one pair left), so I bought them.

In gold...

  and (cringe) in pink...

 And to top it off, they have Tiny Tom's!!! Presley and I can have matching shoes!!! well, if I can find them anywhere. Let me know if you spot some.

 I would also like to add that I don't feel the least bit guilty for this purchase. For every pair of Toms you buy, they donate a pair to a child in need. Love, love, love.

 Whippy Cake.

 

I love all of her fun and funky hair accessories AND they are totally customizable. Yes, she makes them for the little babes too. I'm also a tad obsessed with her and her blog. I want her hair, her clothes, her fashion sense and her adorable family Christmas picture...

You can go here to check out the blog.

Sweater Tights.

Aren't these fabulous!?! They have all kinds. I even found a pair with hounds tooth. I would like these on my legs now. Thank you! Also, I have seen patterned tights everywhere, but forever 21 has some of the cheapest.

Uggs.

So I may already have these, as well. I am truly obsessed. They look cute in the pic above, but I like to roll mine down so you can see the fur. I probably wear these 5 days a week (the other two are reserved for my Tom's, duh?).

ipad.

I'm pretty sure there is no explanation needed. After using my Mom's and sister-n-law's, I have become obsessed. I wan't one...bad!

  

Erase Paste by Benefit.

This stuff is amazing. I schlep it under my eyes first thing every morning. It makes me look wide awake, which for the record, I haven't been since Presley was born.

Happy Friday, Y'all!

Wordless Wednesday: Let's Arrange this Marriage, Please.

Clue #2

 

This is a much better clue than yesterday!

Birthday clue!

Well, I have been busy!!! Very busy. I knew this would happen with baby's first Christmas, and Baby's 1st birthday just days apart. However, it's been so much fun getting everything planned, prepared, and ordered.

Her birthday theme isn't really a secret. Pretty much everyone that has been around me knows, but I don't think I have said anything about it on the blog?? So, how about a little sneaky peaky...

 Any guesses?

I snow, I snow...that wasn't much of a clue now, was it?

On Being a Stay at Home Mom...

 I found this on B's blog and had to share. I get the "what do you do all day" question every now and then. My answer wasn't quite this good...

Carolyn:

Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.

Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.

(article from the Washington post)

Snow Way!

Yes.

It is snowing on my blog. This thrills me...like really, really thrills me.

I hope I can help spread some of this joy to you, friends.


Snow (sorry, I had to do it) as an early Christmas gift , I give you SNOW...

Wordless Wednesday: Sock Monkey

Show Me your Christmas Tree

The tree is up, and has managed to stay that way without too much trouble. Don't get me wrong, Presley has taken a few ornaments off of the tree and occasionally likes to poke at the branches. However, she knows it's a "no-no" to mess with Mama's tree. In fact, she will touch it and then see if I'm looking. If I am, she shakes her finger at me and tells me "no, no". She's so stinkin' cute that it makes disciplining her with a straight face almost impossible. Anywhoo, I love me a Christmas tree at Christmas time.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...

Now let's see yours!

If you would like to link up and see lots of other Christmas trees/decorations, click the button below.

Revealed!!!

Well, this was actually a while ago, but I am bound and determined to post about it.

The week before Thanksgiving. Grammie, Miss P and I all flew to Georgia to see my sister and brother in law. While it would have been a special trip no matter what, this one was extra special!!!! We were there for the gender reveal party and the big ultrasound.  You all already know that it was a boy because I posted about it in my wordless Wednesday, and you all also know that I was sure it was a girl. Ha! We were all pretty surprised.

On Friday, we got to see baby BOY Landon, and that was the best! Ever since having a baby, I could look at ultrasound pics all day. It just still amazes me that you can grow a little baby inside of you. When it came time to determine the sex during the ultrasound, Brittani had us all look away (her and daddy to be included). Then we had to wait until the next....NIGHT....to find out what the $$$ shot revealed. I thought I was going to die!!!!

Saturday rolled around and actually went by pretty fast. I took some Christmas pictures of Brittani and Heath, so that helped to distract us a little. Everyone met at Johnny Carino's for the Gender reveal party, and almost as soon as we got there, Presley blatantly pointed to the boy balloons. Hmmmmmmmmmm....I started to second guess myself. Anyhoo, Here are the pics of the big reveal. They pretty much speak for themselves...

Now have you ever seen a bluer cake, honestly??? There was no doubt that it was a boy. You could see it from space.

This will be nephew #2 for me, and I'm so excited!!! We can't wait to meet you Landon Dean.

Thankful

I know, I know...I'm late. Anyway, another Thanksgiving has come on gone. Although, I'm still eating like it's November 25th.. Ughhh, it's so hard to go back to regular food after the unhealthy deliciousness that is Thanksgiving.

Last year, I was cookin' my own little turkey, and I looked like this:

Which totally rocked over the holidays because I could eat all I wanted, and no one could tell how completely stuffed I was.

So speaking of my little turkey,She sits on the very top of my thankful list. I am so super duper incredibly thankful for my beautiful healthy baby girl. I am thankful to God for trusting in us to be her parents and blessing us with the sweetest gift from above.

And unfortunately, I was so busy eating being thankful that I barely picked up my camera. This is pretty much the only shot I got of Presley on her very first Thanksgiving. Of course, she would have no pants on in the picture to top it off.

Oh well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Oh Holy Cuteness...

 I apologize, but today I am THAT Mom. You know, the one who is completely bragadocious over all the cute things their child is doing. Wait...maybe I'm THAT Mom quite a bit. Oh well, enjoy the cuteness!

 This video is super short, but I think it's so stinkin cute to watch her sign "more"...


 Presley loves to play Peek-a-boo with us now. I love it equally as much, if not more. Pardon the fussiness at the end of the video...

By the way, it's DECEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!