Beach trip 2014

This year we were invited to spend a week at the beach with my uncle and his family. We stayed at a beach house at oak island, nc. It was a beautiful place and a great family beach. Sadly because Michael had just started a new job he had no vacation time which meant he could only stay for the weekend. 

To give Michael some extra time we left Friday as soon as he got off and stayed overnight in a hotel so we could hit the beach 1st thing Saturday. The ride up had us hit more traffic than I expected it took us 3 hours to get to Matthews. Thankfully we have friends there and stopped to have dinner with them which gave Addie a break and helped us keep our sanity! It made us get there late, but also let Addie just sleep the rest of the way which is much better than what she did on the way home... We got to the hotel around midnight and crashed. 

Next day we got up and hit the beach 

Addie didn't like the waves especially at first but she loved the sand!

We had a great morning on the beach just the three of us. We then headed to get some seafood for lunch (the hubby and mine favorite part of the beach) and headed to get settled at the beach house .

Addie really bonded with aunt Sarah. She as stuck to her hip all week. I think it had something to do with aunt Sarah being the one to go to for snacks :) Addie also got to play with her older cousin Lily. She wanted to do everything Lily did of course, and Lily should get a gold medal for putting up with and being so sweet to Addie all week.

The house we stayed in had a great private pool we loved. Addie didn't really like it at first but once we got her a float she really warmed up to it. Her favorite part was to just throw all the toys in the pool though. 

I even had her jumping in to me by the end of the week. 

The beach was a lot different this year. Addie was everywhere! It was a lot more fun but a lot more work for me ! She loved to play in the sand and run up and talk to strangers. (She is so social) by the end of the week she was even brave enough to run straight at the waves. By the end of the week I was exhausted and so glad to come home Michael . It's much easier with 2 parents. I won't even get into the worst car ride of my life driving back just the two of us... Let's just say never ever again will I drive that far without back up lol! Over all it was a great trip and I am so glad to have the opportunity. Thanks uncle Dan and aunt Sarah ! 

17 months

So I think I get a failing grade at this blogging thing. Between keeping up with Addie and school I'm stretched pretty thin. I want to go back and make up for all I missed, but for now I will just start with what is current.

Dear Adelyn, 

You are almost a year and a half old! I can't believe how much you have grown. It's hard to remember the days of crawling or scooting. It feels like you have been walking no running the whole time. You sure keep us busy! I am truly amazed everyday by you. You just seem to soak everything up, and you are learning so much. I swear you are a genius which I know all parents claim, but   I really think you have them all beat. You can say probably 20 - 50 words and can pretty much repeat anything. Your daddy and I are being really careful what we say these days. :) 

You have such a little personality. I swear you are just like your daddy. Which means we are in HUGE trouble. You think it is funny when someone gets hurt... Really you have this sort of evil laugh you do which is really funny but not when it's you getting hurt. 

You know how to get what you want already . I mean it is kind of scary how good you are at it. The other day you brought grandpa a ginger ale not for him but because you knew he would give you some. You also have this please thing down. It is really cute you say it like peease! Lol and I love that at least you have some manners. It can also drive me crazy though!  When you want some thing that's all we hear please please please. 

Your favorite foods are chocolate and French fries and boy are you good at finding them. Just the other day I was ordering at zaxbys and before we even got our food you were saying fri fries fir fries (that's what you call French fries). I guess you could smell them. Daddy said you even woke up the other morning and said fri fries. Fri fries peeeese! He guessed you were craving them. I mean who could resist that? You also love peanut butter, yogurt, eggs, and all kinds of fruit. 

You love to go outside even when you were a tiny baby it would calm you down. Now you love if even more. You love to run around with Sam in the back yard and ride on your smart trike Nana and Pa pa got you. I even got you a seat so you can ride with me on my bike. You seem to like that too. You cry any time you have to come in and ask to go outside all the time. I hope you keep you love for the outdoors. 

You also love to "watch the baby" which is to watch videos of yourself on your nanny's phone. You love it! You will just smile and laugh and watch the same ones over and over. You will ask nanny "baby" "baby" and reach for her phone. I don't know why you like watching yourself so much well.... Maybe I do. After all I love watching you too. 

1st Birthday Continued

For as far as the actual party goes, I think we had a simple but fun little get together. Addie is the only grandchild on both sides so with her being the only child to entertain I didn't plan any games or activities other than the usual food, cake, and presents. We got some blocks out of the nursery for her to play with and she was happy as can be.

For food we tried to keep it simple. I made some pulled pork in the crock pot and we had some other assorted finger foods. We ate and watched Addie play and of course passed her around for everyone to love on. Did I mention she is the only
grandchild??? Here she is with several of her guests.

 Uncle Matt :)

 Mimi :)

 grandma :)

 Grandpa :)

And of course Daddy :)

Before long it was time for the part everyone was waiting for cake!

I helped you blow out the candle and it wasn't long before this...

 You had a very serious face the entire time. It was like you had to concentrate really hard, but I'm pretty sure you enjoyed it becasue you destroyed that cake :)

You were also getting very sleepy by this point. So we changed you into your 2nd outfit and opened your presents.Thank you everyone for spoiling my little girl.

 Elmo was from your great mema. You love him becasue he sings and you love to dance to it.

 This adoreable dress and coat were from your great grandpa and grandma Kees. You look so cute in them, and have worn them several times now.

 The stuffed dog was from great grandma and it is your favorite. You snuggle with it all the time :)

I got you a book called If I could Keep you Little. I literally cried when I read it in the store, but it speaks a truth about how I so wish I could keep you this size forever, but at the same time I know if I could I would keep you from experiencing so many things. I know that time is not going to slow down one bit, but I keep praying it will. In the mean time I am soaking in as much as I can. I am so proud of the little person you are becoming. You truly amaze me everyday with the things you are learning to do. I know that even though the first year is over we still have so many new 1st and milestones as you grow. Mommy will do her best to meet them all with a smile, but I can't guarantee I won't shed a few tears along the way. 

 

Adelyn on the day she was born

Adelyn on her 1st Birthday 

Wow look at how much you have grown! Thank you everyone who made Addie's Birthday so great. Those who came and those who couldn't. Addie you are one loved and blessed little girl :)

1st birthday

It still doesn't seem possible that my little girl is already a year old! I know it has been almost three months now since our celebration, but I am finally getting some down time to update by blog and I wanted to share our sweet girls big day. Those of you who know me know that when I get an idea in my head I usually have to have things that way well... I blame pinterest. I found so many great ideas and I really wanted to use them all. Time was my biggest limitation with school work being crazy and Michael working full time as well I wasn't able to include all the touches I wanted but I think it turned out great and I know we all had a good time. Again I blame pinterest for making me feel like a 1st birthday has to be extravagant. Truth be told it doesn't and with it all said and done I think it was more important to just have fun and enjoy the day with your baby. (okay off the soap box) so here are the simple details of the event.

We decided to have the event at our church Tapestry for several reasons 1. we invited lots of people and our house was too small 2. it is kinda centrally located for everyone 3. our church is awesome and they let us use the building for free!
I think it turned out to be a perfect location 

 As far a theme goes I couldn't really come up with one. I liked little bits of different themes mainly the dots and chevrons oh and pink of course. So I guess you could call my theme was pink, dots, and chevrons or rather whatever mommy liked lol

 


 This is the present table I made the ONE letters for the photo shoot we did for the party invitations I think they made a great addition to the party decorations. Props to my in-laws for coming up with the idea for hanging the letters like that.

We found the dog at party city and Adelyn loved it from the moment she saw it. She pointed and said dog and as soon as we let her hold it she cuddled it, and well then we had to get it. We had everyone at the party sign it and I think it will be a sweet little memento for her to have over the years.
 
 This is the highchair and photo time line. I was not one of those moms that took a picture every month of the first year and labeled it and had the same outfit and all that. I of course took pictures (many many pictures), but and I know this probably isn't an excuse but I'm a teacher and well I don't have a lot of free time. I immediately felt like a terrible mom when I saw all those cute time lines at fist birthday parties with all the pictures (once again thanks pinterest!) I really wanted one at the party so my solution was to print out a bunch of photos and line them up chronologically (or as close to chronologically as possible) The end result was very cute. Though I think this is a detail few people noticed so for all the slacker moms out there like me worrying about not having time lines... Don't worry about it! Your probably one of the only ones who will notice. :)

The Birthday girls highchair. I made the tutu part for the front. SUPER easy and much cheaper than buying it in store or online. Pretty happy with how it turned out, but if I had more time I think I would have made it go all the way around.

 

I ordered her cake from publix. It was delicious and super cute too. Plus the smash cake was free!


Smash cake- simple free what more could you want?

This was probably the coolest idea I found and I'm sure you know where I got it from... I bought a box of cards that were blank on the inside. I labeled 17 enveloped with numbers 2-18 and laid them on the table. I asked each guest to pick a number which stood for one of Adelyn's birthdays and write a little note to her on that birthday. Each year on her birthday she will get to open up one of those cards and read what someone wrote to her on her first birthday. I called them birthday love notes, and I think I will be more excited about them than her. I think I still have a few birthdays to fill up though because we didn't have quite as many people at the party as I expected so relatives and friends if you want to get in on the birthdays still unclaimed let me know.

That brings us of course to the cutest part of the whole set up... The BIRTHDAY GIRL

I made her outfit. Which consisted of tutu onesie with name, 1, and cupcake (All iron on decals) The only things I did not make are the leggings and bow which I bought at this really cute boutique near our house.

 

This pictue is my favorite. It took us a few tries to get one of you that was still enough but I love this one because it even looks like your are holding up one finger for 1 years old :) 

Stay tuned for the next post on the actual festivities. 

Halloween

Okay so I know I am behind a bit but I have to share some photo's from Adelyn's 1st Halloween.

Can you guess what I am???



Yes, I know a ewok is a little out of the ordinary, but we wanted a little something different. Plus you have to admit she is super cute!!!





We found the bear costume at a consignment shop for $3 and I made the head part myself for very cheap. All together I don't think we spent more than $10 on her costume and it turned out just like I invisoned. On Halloween we took Adelyn to my dad's and helped him give out candy to all the trick or treaters that he gets. We get very little in our neighborhood. We had planned to take adelyn trick-or-treating, but after two houses we decided it was not worth it lol. She is still too little to understand it anyways. Her favorite part of the night I think would have to be her first piece of candy. A sucker blueberry flavored.

She would not let us take it out of her mouth. Probably the longest he had sat still since she was really little. lol Over all we had a good time. I know your daddy enjoyed himself! :)

                                  Happy Halloween!!!