It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

Well...At least in our apartment it is! Not so much outside...Did I mention I lived in Rexburg, Idaho for 6 YEARS? That's a lot of years of adapting to winter being COLD and there being snow on the ground during Christmas time. Let's just say I got a little use to a white Christmas...And I'm having trouble finding that loving feeling for a warm Christmas. We've still been in the 80's here, and though I should be counting my blessings, I'm not. I told my husband just yesterday, "How can I appreciate those first days of warmth and Spring if it never goes away!?" I'm a cold type of gal...I like my sweaters and my comfy sweat pants and snuggling under blankets, and right now...I'm still cranking my AC on...

It's real hard to feel Christmasy when you go from this to this...

Oh...And did I mention that I'm one of those cool people with an app that can splice and put pictures together and all that jazz? Ya...I'm pretty legit now. Oh, and how cute are we!? That was like our first married Christmas...Ahhh so young and cute!

So Christmas has been a little harder to get into the spirit of this year...But that doesn't mean our apartment isn't adorned with festivities from wall to wall. Here are a few of my favorites...

I love the lights, I love this old "Joy" sign my mother-in-law gave us, and I love nativities. Especially this wooden one. And notice my crafty snazzy abilities again will you.

You won't find any snowflakes here in AZ, but we did put a few up.

And Robby likes them. He'll stand there for minutes on end touching and just looking up at them.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the tree! Specially at night when the lights are on. I could just turn all the lights off and sit with the glow of the tree. Love it.

Robby even helped decorate! It was so funny to watch him...Most of his ornaments he just threw, but a few landed on the tree limbs.

When you ask Robby, "Is that the Christmas tree?" He makes this nervous sounding laugh and smiles. I'm not sure if he's scared of it or likes it alot. He won't even go near the thing! Which I guess works to our advantage! He's such a hoot.

Another thing I love are these stockings I made! I'm just so proud of them and they're super cute hanging in our apartment.

My intention was to fill this and put it on the table so it'd look pretty and festive. But you can see what happened just a few short days later...Hubby *cough* Hubby *cough*

I'm not even going to both filling this little guy! Someone would be in a sugar coma before it was empty! But he sure is cute!

Another cute yet sketchy member of the Christmas decor is this cute little Santa. Robby still won't touch him, and he's on the floor in free range of bebe.

When asked if a certain little man was excited and ready for Christmas this is the response I got...

Ahhh ya he's excited! Bring on Christmas and all it's festivities mommy!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (I get it says that "Happy Holiday" garbage...But I still think it's a pretty little sign)

1 Year of 1 Baby

I can not even begin to tell you how fast this year went. There's no way 365 days have gone by with Robby in our lives, just no way! I remember way back in the beginning (during those insane in the middle of the night feedings) thinking I couldn't wait for it to be over. I couldn't wait for him to sleep through the night and to sit up and this and that. Well...This and that is now HERE. There's just no words to describe how happy and yet how sad I am that my baby is gone and is transforming more and more into a toddler each day. Thank goodness I have more baby days to come!

To kick things off some little man did just have his first birthday! Even though Robby was pretty much oblivious it was even his birthday, and could have cared less if there were decorations or not, mama couldn't resist! I just HAD to decorate and go all out for his birthday! I mean come on...It's my baby's 1st birthday! You only get one of those!!

Cute little table decorations

High chair decorations, got the idea from Pinterest.

Woo party central!

We love our birthday boy!

The cake I made for bebe. I think it turned out cute! My first cake decorating experience!

Our silly little birthday man.

Cake, cake, cake!

He really got into his cake as you can see.

Little cake beard!

His birthday was ALOT of fun! We were almost able to have all of our family there is some way, shape, or form too! My mom, brother, and sisters were able to be there in person. Then we had my dad on skype, Robby's parents on skype, Kristen, Lance, and Liam on facetime, and Bryan and Michelle on Xbox live. It's amazing what technology can do for us!

Robby had SO many presents from all his family! He didn't exactly get the concept of opening presents, but he did alright with a lot of assistance from me! He has certainly enjoyed all his toys he got. Before his birthday he just had alot of baby toys, rattles, soft plush toys, and teething stuff, so the big boy toys have been much enjoyed for sure!

As you can tell from the pictures Robby really enjoyed his cake! At first he was a little hesitant to even touch it, and the first couple bites were just sugar dots from the decorations, but after he realized it was OK to touch it game on. He demolished his cake and it was SO fun to watch! Well worth the effort I put into it and the mess we had to clean up after :-)

So much has happened and I can't even believe we went from this little angel...

To our big boy!

 

Robby has been SUCH a joy to raise and watch grow this past year. He has truly made us into a family and I couldn't even imagine being a momma to anyone else! The love I have for this little guy is indescribable, and I'm truly blessed to have him in my life! He has definitely taught me how to be a mom and helped mold me into hopefully a good one! His siblings will have to thank him later that he took one for the team and was our guinea pig! So here's a little bit about our stink-a-booty.

He's SUCH a snuggy bear!

Especially with his blankey, which I have decided is his lovey. He LOVES anything soft, but especially his blankey.

He LOVES to look at books! We keep his books on the bottom shelf so he can go over and get them anytime he wants.

Robby loves to eat, especially if it's self feeding. He does very well at feeding himself finger foods.

He loves to be outside! Anytime we're outside he just looks around and is fascinated by his surroundings. He's very happy to go out and about and just talks up a storm when we go somewhere!

Robby loves to laugh and smile. I'm pretty sure if he can make any situation happy and laughable he does. He's just full of so much silliness and often we call him our "ham" cause he's just such a goof!

 A few other facts about Robby:

• He has 7 teeth and is working on getting another one. 4 on the bottom and 3 on top so far.

• He LOVES his sippy cup!

• He takes 1 nap a day.

• Since birth he has gained 12 pounds and grown 8 inches. (Birth he was 9.3 and 21 inches)

•  His favorite sounds right now are "momma" "da-da" "t" "th" "b" "baaaa" and "pf"

• He likes to make clicking sounds with his tongue. 

• He knows how to give high fives, waves, and can clap his hands. 

• He hates being alone! I'm pretty sure he's going to be a social butterfly the way he always wants to be around people.

• He understands the words: no, sippy, eat, go outside, bye-bye, blankey, more, wave, sit, show your teeth, his name, momma, dada, show me, and come here.

• Robby is an avid crawler and at this point prefers it over anything. He can stand for 10 seconds at a time and LOVES to travel along the couch. He also loves to climb, but has no interest in walking as of right now. He just sinks down when you try to make him walk. :-) 

• Since birth Robby has had 2 hair cuts, 2 trims, and went from a brunette to a blonde! 

• He nursed for 12 months and now drinks whole milk very well. He loves his milk warmed up.

•  He sleeps through the night! This is something we're all proud of. His bedtime is 8PM and he puts himself to sleep with no problems. He sleeps usually till 9AM.

• When you say "Show me your teeth" he does this hilarious little motion where he puts his front teeth together and bites up and down. He's very proud of his chompers.

• Robby loves to be read to and loves to turn the pages.

• He's VERY curious and likes to be involved in whatever everyone else is doing. He will follow me from room to room all day.

 

That's our happy, curious, handsome big boy thus far! I'm so proud of him and thankful he came to us!

IT IS FINISHED!!

I'm proud and happy to announce that bebe's room is FINISHED! Months and months of preparing the nursery (For my 10 month old, ha) and his room is done! There's only one more thing we need to get I want to get and then it's done! So happy to feel like it's complete and I love his room! I'm kind of jealous! You'll notice in the pictures that I added little decals to the walls. I found ALL of them in a set for $9 at Burlington Coat Factory, I love when I find a good deal!

Things left to do:

1. Get this for extra toy storage, because we all know the toys he has right now aren't going to be the only toys he ever has...Specially with someone's birthday coming up in 2 months!!

Comes with the bins and the colors will match perfectly in his room!

 2. Put pictures on his little giraffe board that I keep procrastinating forgetting to do!

Anyway...I'm done with the decorating portion...Just a few minor things and I'm closing this chapter of my craft/design brain! Onto another room and more projects! :-)

Some of you may remember the material was upside down...I'm happy to announce I switched it to the proper side, ha.

These windows were a tad longer (14" to be exact!) and so I had to lengthen bebe's curtains. I was so excited when I came up with this idea! They turned out super cute I think!

Meeting his new little friends for the first time. 

He went right to the little lion and started touching it and talking to it.

He sat there talking for at least 5 min. Best friends for sure!

He loved the giraffe too!

The monkey and giraffe are my favorite for sure, how cute are these!?

And of course to keep the jungle theme going...We went with monkey's in his bathroom! (Did we mention he has his OWN bathroom!? What 10 month old has his own bathroom? Jealous.)

He LOVES his monkey rug!

Mommy got off to a good start this week and worked out...Hopefully it's a sign of a good week!

Have a great week everyone!

Lets Start From the Very Beginning...

Lets start from the very beginning....A very good place to be. That is unless you're talking about weight loss...Then from the very beginning is NOT a very good place to be. Yes..I'm going to rant and yammer on about weight loss AGAIN. And if you haven't guessed I regret to inform I'm pretty  much back to square one in weight loss! Back to the very beginning indeed. Back to no weight lost. Back to feeling frustrated. Back to an endless cycle of eating poorly, making excuses, and being lazy. Back to the beginning! I'm going to make a few excuses as to why this happen, because frankly, I'm good at it. But really I have no excuse for NOT already being 20 pounds thinner. I have no excuse, but I'm going to make some anyway.

Excuse #1: Family in town. Ever since the beginning of August we have had some form of family visiting. And I LOVED it don't get me wrong. But for some reason family just kind of throws me into a funk and I feel like I'm on holiday all the time. And what do we do during the holidays? We celebrate and eat and relax and well eat and enjoy one anothers company and well EAT. And I did a whole lot more eating than I did exercising. Lots of food + No working out = Losing weight (Uh....Sorry but NOPE.)

Excuse #2: I was moving. I'm happy to announce we've moved into our new place and are LOVING IT. But sadly packing and un-packing and just moving in general made little time (in my head) for working out and lots of take out (in my head...once again...thought it was a good idea). I'm still un-packing and trying to get things the way I want them. But I'm hoping to do a video tour (lucky you!!) on my blog to show you guys our new place. SO happy to be living here!

Excuse #3: I have a mobile 10 month old. Ya...For some reason he's always my default excuse for why I can't eat good and work out. Like the kid is forcing me down and spoon feeding me ice cream and processed foods? Get real! He may be mobile and have me wrapped around his finger, but I am in control of what I eat. As for the working out..Ya..he makes it a weeee bit difficult, but not impossible.

So there you have it..my glorious excuses for why I'm still fat and have back tracked juuuust a wee bit. So now that we've addressed why I'm very chunk-a-licious, here's me re-dedicating myself once again. And I'm serious!! I mean it this time!! I'm going to lose the got dang weight! For realz...

So here's me taking more horrifying pictures that help me realize just how disgusting I am. Sorry you have to endure this again. But I wanted new accurate pictures so when I'm hot and thin I can look back and barf ;)

Yum-o

So this may be crazy talk...But I've decided I'm going to get my big booty up at 5AM and go down to the gym. We have a gym at our awesome new complex and I intend to use it! If I go down at 5AM I can get a good solid hour in before Robby has to leave for work. I see this as my only option honestly, because as the morning/day drags on I just end up making more and more excuses. Now come next month I'll get lucky enough to work out at 7 or 8AM because Robby goes to nights. Not so happy he's going to nights...But it means someone will be home during the day so I can go work out, hip hip hurray! So lets pray I can make this work! Because I think it would be really good for me!

So other then me still chubb-a-licious and us moving to a new place the only other thing to talk about is my adorable son! He's still trying at times..And we've been battling alot of ear issues with him. But he's still awesome and soooo cute!

Hello little one!

This may sound weird but...I love his little body. I think he's cute with his little waist and belly sticking out.

I also think he's cute when he squats.

And now for some pictures with mommy! We like to do black and white with mommy because she likes how you can't see her terrible skin and red blotch-i-ness in the black and white photos.

LOVE him!

He puts up with me...Even when I smother him. 

Oh...And you may have noticed a blog title and "theme" change. I'm starting fresh tomorrow so I figured I'd change things up a bit in my blog. I'm going to be writing more often (hopefully) and just doing things a little different. After my "last supper" tonight it's go time. I'm serious! Don't laugh!

Have a great week everyone!