New Words & Tricks

I keep wanting to document this, and I decided today I shouldn't wait a minute longer.

Here is a list of words Julian can say:

• apple
• light
• puppy
• book
• duck
• hot
• "ho ho ho"
• iPhone
• bathtub
• what the monkey, cow, dinosaur, sheep, and puppy say
• mama
• dada
• "hi dada!"
• button
• Spot
• ball
• up, down!
• baby
• boat
• cup
• pretty positive he said "fire" the other day (I always think he said something, but think to myself "no, that couldn't be!" So it helps when there are other people around who reassure me that he did, in fact, say the word I think he said!)
• he tries really hard with "banana" but right now it's "badabadaba"...I hope it doesn't change for a long time! :)
• help me out here peeps...I know I'm missing something(s)!

He really likes to pronunciate the endings of words, so "light" sounds like "lightttuh" and "duck" sounds like "duckkkkuh" and "boat" sounds like "boattttuh". For a good video of this, go to my facebook profile and watch the 15 second video my friend Amelia posted the other day of him saying "light"...it's so cute! I will try to get a good video of him tonight doing his tricks.

Every time I say "milk"...even if he's not even in the same room as me, he makes the sign for it. It's so cute. He learned it once and it's stuck with him for life!

EVERY single time he hears any semblance of music, he starts dancing. From the doorbell ringing, to the cell phone ringing, to actual music, he is ready to boogie! This isn't really new at all. I just don't think I ever wrote it down before.

He has also learned how to give "loves" and hugs" which he demonstrated so beautifully on Christmas Eve with the new stuffed monkey he got!

We had a wonderful Christmas, but it is sure nice to be home. It feels good (for my sanity) to get back into a routine, and of course, Boo Boo just snaps right back into it. Last night was the first time in his crib in several days, but he slept for 14 hours in it last night like it was no big thing. He is de besht little Boo Boo Bear I could ever ask for! And I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging! This is my "journal" and if I don't write it here, it won't get documented.

He is the BEST little kisser now! He has switched from the open mouthed kisses he has been giving (which he learned to do on a little piggy puppet!) to closed!

I can't get enough of my little curly headed cutie pie!

Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking

Thank you to my sister, Marissa, for getting Stace this awesome t-shirt for Christmas:

I think she was spot on!

To me, he just gets more and more ridiculously good looking everyday!

PS: he's gonna hate me if he finds out I posted this...tehehehe...Merry Christmas hotstuff! :D

Sharing is Fun!

Here are some of the projects I have made and published for Christmas! I am so excited to give them to the recipients!

Here is a book I made for my dad and stepmom of the recent trip they took their friends on to France. They have NO idea whatsoever! The only reason I even have all of these pictures is because my dad gave me a bunch of CD's of pictures from his trip to find some we could use on his Christmas cards. After looking through all 2,000+ pictures, I die and ask myself, "WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE HIS KIDS INSTEAD?!" ahhh! hahaha. maybe because none of us drink, and it had a lot to do with wine tasting? oh well. Actually, my little sister drinks. She told me last night he invited her and SHE TURNED HIM DOWN. What in the world, Jess? What in the world?

Here is a book I made for my niece all about her baptism day back in August. I am so excited to give this to her, and I know she will cherish it always.

Here is a little activity book I made for my niece, Kate. I think this will be fun for long car trips!

Here is a little swatchbook I made for my niecec Georgia:

Here is a square flipbook about colors and counting I made for Julian. I made one for my nephew Benjamin, as well:

And, I saved my favorite for last. Here is the board book I made for Julian that I gave to him for his birthday. We had it last week at church and he seemed pretty into it. I know he will love it more as he gets older, too!

Scales and Apple TV

Stace purchased the new Apple TV ($100) recently with the money he earned on his own. While we were waiting for the nice UPS people to bring it, we joined the gym. That night we laid in bed and Stace said he wanted to make little benchmark goals & rewards for himself to work towards so that he could stay motivated. He said his first goal was to lose 12.5 pounds to get down to a certain weight. I suggested his Apple TV for his first reward. He cringed, but knew it would definitely motivate him, so he went with it!

I am so proud to say that he hit his goal yesterday! He has lost 13.5 pounds! So tonight he is enjoying his new little gadget! Yay Stace!

And I'm excited to say I've lost 8 pounds and have gone from a size 6 to a size 4! I couldn't believe it when I walked into Banana Republic and Gap and the size 6 jeans were too big! YEAH!

It is so fun to work towards a goal, even though sometimes you hate your life and you just want to eat a dang cookie. ha! The funny thing is though, neither of us have really cut out sweets and we still most definitely eat bread! We enjoyed delicious cupcakes last weekend at our friends' little girl's birthday party, and ate our weight in cake the weekend before at Julian's! This newfound ability to still eat "fun" stuff but not lose the motivation to workout and still strive to eat healthy is like a whole new world for me! I'm lovin' it. (HA! For the record: I hate McDonald's...;)

That being said, I'm a little nervous to get around all of the delicious holiday foods that I know await me this weekend and beyond. And I may or may not have just eaten WAY too much homemade bread my visiting teacher brought over. (I mean, way too much.) But, that's ok!!! I can't believe I'm saying that and that I actually know it, too! Sorry if it seems like I'm making this more of a big deal than it actually is. This is a lot of fears and years and tears worrying about food conquered y'all. It IS a big deal.

I would like to thank a few people for helping me to realize this:

photo credit: Kimbe Photography

My sweet Rachael! She is one of the most inspirational people to me ever when it comes to being consistent and staying motivated. I LOVE her so much for that, and for so many other reasons. She has taught me by her example what it means to maintain a healthy & active lifestyle, while still allowing yourself to have fun baking in the kitchen and giving yourself treats. I have watched her disappear before my eyes, and I am so proud of her! When she allows herself those treats, she just gets right back on it like it's no big thang. Thank you so much, Rachael. You are amazing.

photo credit: K. Lunt Photography? ;)

This is my sweet friend Amelia! Amelia, Amelia, Amelia. You are the best! She was so welcoming to me as soon as I joined the gym and even beforehand! (She invited me to go with her as her guest while we tried to decide whether or not to take the plunge.) I used to think I didn't like having workout buddies, like it was something I needed to do by myself. (I had in my mind that it was my time to think and, if I was out of breath, I wouldn't be a very good conversationalist anyway, right?) I have learned how wrong I was because of Amelia. She is so much fun to workout with, and she inspires me! She also allows herself to eat the "fun" things and just gets right back on it! (I'm noticing a pattern here. This must be the way to do it! It's still novel to me, y'all.) Thank you, Amelia! I love you!

photo credit: Lindsey Lou Photography

Katie Newman!!! Katie is also an awesome example to me of consistently exercising, yet she keeps chocolate around the house! It's FANTASTIC! Katie is such a good mommy and is setting such a good example for Kiley of what being healthy means through her daily actions. She runs pretty much everyday. Katie is a professional tennis player (literally), and as soon as quit her job to be home with Kiley, she signed up for a tennis league. She doesn't waste any time when it comes to being healthy! Thank you Katie! Your actions speak louder than you know! I love you!

My sweet Stace! I want to thank Stace so much. He always makes me feel good about myself. Many times when he looks at me, he acts like he's never seen me before...that makes me feel so special and so loved. He helps me stay on the bandwagon with him, even though sometimes I'm kicking and screaming, but I appreciate him so much for that. I love you Stace! I am so glad you got your Apple TV! You deserve it!

Julian's First Birthday Party!

Julian had his first birthday party last weekend, and it was a blast! It's kinda funny because when I first started thinking of his party seriously, I thought to myself "it's just going to be immediate family members, cake, and we're done." I had in my mind that doing anything bigger or more elaborate would be a lot of no-fun stress. BUT...then, the idea for the theme of his party came to me: SPOT! I also realized: I might not have another baby. I wanted to do it up for this baby boy in case that would be true.

Spot books are his FAVORITE books! He's loved them since he was a brand new baby. In fact, I'm sure Spot is the reason that "puppy" was Julian's first word. I was so excited about the theme, I couldn't help myself with all the planning and preparing! And I had so much fun doing it! AND, as his sincere and undying love for BEACH BALLS presented itself more and more each day, I knew I had to incorporate them into the party too. Lucky for me, one of Spot's favorite toys is a ball! (Which I forced into being a beach ball:) I was nervous up until the day of because I had had all of these ideas in my head and I just took as many as I could and ran with them, but I wasn't sure how it would all tie together.

It seemed like each day I had a new thing to do to prepare for the party, and I stayed busy doing so! But of course, I was still up until VERY late the night before the party with my awesome sister-in-law Candace, friend Keri Snyder, mother-in-law Elaine, and baby daddy, Stace:) They all helped me pull all the ideas together sooo much, and I am so grateful for them! Candace, Keri, and Elaine pretty much headed up the cooking and creating of all the food! YUM! They did an amazing job, too! Oh yes, and of course, Elaine and the family hosted the party in their home, which I was very grateful for!

So first I designed the invitations, and once I sent them out to our close friends in Tallahassee and our huge amount of family members, I realized: "oh wow! there's no turning back now!" eek!

So December 4th came and so did the guests! As they arrived, they saw lots of balloons on either side of the walkway leading up the front door, and then this:

Upon entry, you saw the painting on the left (below)! This was the first thing I painted for the party, and probably my favorite. Stace says we have to hang them in his room, but I say if we do, we'd just hang that one:) The one in the middle below is a painting of Spot on his birthday (from the book "Spot's Birthday Party" which was also displayed at the entrance).

To your right you saw Spot's Reading Nook (below) and on the other side of the room "Pin the Spot on Spot" (above). There was also a penant banner (see two pictures down) that said his name and had a little sparkly paw print on each letter leading into the reading nook room.

So below left is that penant banner I mentioned. The cutout Spot below was on the piano next to the first photo book I ever made of Julian. I made him out of foam board and acrylic paint (just like the "Pin the Spot on Spot" sign). The banner at the bottom of the collage below is the first thing I made for his party, other than the invite. I mounted each letter of "Happy Birthday" on brown card stock, and then the card stock went on alternating colors of card stock. I found a little "paw print" puncher and punched each of the colored card stocks papers along the edges.

The collage below is of the banner I made of pictures of Julian reading Spot books throughout his little life! That highlighted one of my favorite things about the party-- that if he could talk and could tell me what kind of party he wanted, he probably would have said a Spot and a beach ball party. :) That banner was the last thing I made, and I'm glad I decided to because it was probably my favorite decoration!

The room with the painting of Spot on his birthday was also the "decorate your own birthday hat" room! I made a "Spotty" table runner using yellow & brown felt:) There were also lots and lots of balloons! Julian was in heaven!

This was a hit at the party, so I'm glad we did it!

Outside there was "Spot's Beach Ball Bounce!" I found a tarp on Oriental Trader (along with the tons of beach balls, and hot dog holders) like the ones kids use in P.E. to bounce balls with. So I thought that would be a fun activity to incorporate the beach balls:) There were beach balls hanging in the trees, and two little Spot puppy dogs (again, made from foam board & acrylic paint) "playing" with beach balls hanging from the back porch.

I found a circle puncher on sale at Michael's and so I thought it would be cute to make "spotted" water bottle labels. And, so we did! We made waay too many, too! Tip: did you know that Lowe's has 24 packs of Zephryhills water bottles for like, $3.95?! AWESOME. Of course, we had to do hotDOGS! :) And then I found a bone shaped cookie cutter, and these little bone shaped dishes in the $1 aisle at Target! I at first wanted to do Oreo balls in all the colors of the party (red, yellow, blue, light blue, and green), but realized as the baking commenced that was just too much, so Candace, Keri, and Elaine just dipped them in yellow colored candy melts and milk chocolate brown candy melts. Candace and Keri made the bone sugar cookies and the AMAZING 3 layer chocolate Spot cake above! It was so delicious and decorated so perfectly! And then they also made the three layer white beach ball cake below, and made homemade marshmallow fondant to decorate it with!! They put so much time into the cakes; how can I ever repay them or thank them adequately?! No idea. But I'll try!

Julian had his own little penant banner on his high chair that matched the "Julian" banner. He also had a birthday crown like Spot's! And by the way, he LOVED the cake! It was hilarious! He had never had any refined sugar up until this day! He sure found out that we'd been holding out on him!

Daddy made Julian's bib by printing out a picture of Spot and his friends and then ironing it to a plane white bib. I got Julian's shirt made by a vendor on Etsy. I am so grateful for our family! And PS: I think my husband gets better and better looking, (ok, can I just say "hotter"?!) with age. haha! ;D

The picture on the top left is a detail pic of the blocks I made for the party and for his room. Each letter block has a picture of each of the first 12 months of his life:) Those were a LABOR of LOVE! Way more time was spent on them than it looks like:/ it's a little embarrassing. Then it was present time! It was so fun! He really knew just what to do! He took that tissue paper right out of the bag like it was his job, and had a blast looking at his new toys!

Above are pics of Julian's cousins Georgia and Levi playing with beach balls, and Julian playing with them and his Aunt Kathleen:)

Above are pics of some of the party guests, including Julian's Aunts Jessica and Marissa (we were laughing in this pic), my friend Hannah, Julian's cousin Caroline, and me with both of my "2nd mama's": my MIL Elaine and Marci Beck:)

Party favors were doggie bags filled with "puppy chow" (cocoa puffs and little red, green, blue and yellow dog bone candies-- also an Oriental Trader find), a beach ball, and then the babies got their very own Spot books that came complete with a modged podged picture of Julian that said "thank you for coming to my party!" I found the "spotted" cellophane bags at Target! I was very excited when I found them! Above is a picture of Julian's cousin Kate and she and her sisters' doggie bags.

To close out the party, he got a little bit of Aunt Sasa lovin, which he always loves! The middle picture above was us after church the next day, and the picture to the right was him right before bedtime on the day of his party. It was such a wonderful day-- I didn't want it to end! And I'm pretty sure he didn't either!

New Favorite Hymn

Today while singing in church, I realized the song we were singing has become my new favorite hymn. It's always tough for me to say exactly which is my favorite. Always tops on my list have been "I Stand All Amazed", "Because I Have Been Given Much", "I Know that My Redeemer Lives", "The Spirit of God", "How Firm a Foundation" and a couple others. I remember singing an absolutely beautiful arrangement of this new favorite hymn when I was in Tallahassee 1st ward choir, and I just loved it. But never have I given it the title of "favorite hymn" until today. It's exactly how I feel. The title alone fills my heart with love and gratitude for my Savior:

Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee

Lyrics:

Jesus, the very thought of thee

with sweetness fills my breast;

but sweeter far thy face to see

and in thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter sound than thy blest name

O Savior of mankind.

O hope of every contrite heart,

O joy of all the meek,

to those who fall, how kind thou art!

How good to those who seek!

Jesus, our only joy be thou,

As thou our prize wilt be;

Jesus, be thou our glory now,

and through eternity.

My Heart is Breaking

I never would have understood a post like this before I became a mother, and got my mother heart. Tonight my mother heart is aching.

The same God who gave me the most precious blessing of my sweet baby boy, which news filled my heart with the most inexplicable joy and excitement for the future, also gives me the the duty to watch this perfect baby grow up into toddlerhood and beyond, which fills my heart with the most inexplicable sorrow. My heart literally hurts, and it breaks a little bit more every time I think about how quickly he's growing, that he'll only continue to grow.

That one day he might...ok, probably most definitely will, ask me not to give him the nonstop kisses I layer his precious, soft, chubby cheeks with each day now.

Oh geeze, I started crying big time when I finished typing that last sentence.

He's so pure and innocent and perfect. Please, baby boy, stay as sweet as you are always...please. I can't bear the thought of you not being my baby forever...that I won't be able to hold you, to rock you to sleep, to nourish you, to be the one who lights up your eyes and teaches you and plays the silliest little games with you.

Oh sweet baby boy, I love you so much. Please, stop growing. Can't I keep you as my baby forever? I don't know if my heart can handle one more inch. No. It definitely can't. I'm begging.

I know there's so much to look forward to. But right now, I just need to cry on this. My tear-stained cheeks need washing. Good night, sweet boy. I will see you in the morning.

I am so incredibly thankful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This Time

"It goes by so fast; can't get it back.

There ain't no time like this time.

Yeah, I just want to tell ya

that my heart is burstin at the seams, yeah,

and I can't wait another minute

Life is short,

love is sweet,

ain't no time like this time baby,

my little baby..."

-Carrie Underwood

*slideshow set to this song is in the works. It's perfect for how I feel!

A Chunky Year in Review

As Boo Boo's first birthday nears, I find myself remembering & reflecting more and more on what life was like this time last year. I can't believe that one year ago, I had never even met Julian. He is the light of my life now, and adds so much to each minute of every day. Was my life just cold, dark and boring before? No, I know it wasn't; but I know that it is so much richer now.

Today I noticed that the hospital Julian was born in is now putting up their Christmas lights around the duck pond. I remember when they did that last year as my belly was huge and as I awaited King Julian's arrival. The weather looks & feels the same as it did last year. I am again scurrying about getting Christmas presents figured out. He was with me last year as I did these things and made these memories, but this time I'm carrying him in my arms-- not in my belly.

Mr. Julian is so funny and so sweet. He has always liked to laugh at the silliest things...so it's a good thing his parents are so weird...we keep him entertained! He has always been my little CHUNKY MONKEY boy, but as he grows and exercises with that beach ball (see previous post) his little chub stretches out with him. I was looking at pictures this morning, and was almost flabbergasted at how seriously chunky he was! How easy it is to forget. Of course, I remember he was a chubbsters, but it's not until I see the pictures and videos that I REALLY remember. How grateful I am for cameras. Please enjoy this year in review of Sir Chunks-a-lot:

December-- So he actually started out pretty skinny:

January-- but that quickly changed!

February-- and it didn't stop:

no...it definitely didn't:

March-- and he was the cutest little Babooshka in all the land!

April-- always so sweet...

and funny, too!

May-- a ponderer of life's greatest mysteries....

and very much interested in SPOTS (he once tried to take the little black dots off these pants of mine! He'd rub them and then look at his pointer finger and thumb, which were pinched together, to see if he had picked them up!)

quite the comical Chunkmeister indeed!

June--he's always been a lover of the written word:

and individual letters! (Seriously...every time we changed his diaper during his first few months of life, he could do nothing but stare at his big red initials hung above his changing table!)

July-- Perhaps he got his Grandmommy's and Aunt Candace's mad cooking skillz:

and I'm thinking for sure he got his dad's side of the family's mad math skillz...

August-- In August he crawled for the first time, and thus the dwindling of the chubs began to take place!

September--as his curls grew longer, so did his torso and legs...

October-- he's an appreciator of God's tiniest creations...

November-- and of man's most ingenious ones:

His first birthday is in two weeks and two days. My sweet boy. I love you SO much!!!

PS: lest you're worried the chubs is gone completely: I will tell you a cute little story! A couple weeks ago we were visiting our sweet friends, the Carr's, down in Tampa. Mary Ann and I were feeding Julian, and as I went to give him another bite, Mary Ann cautioned me that he still had food in his mouth. Oh wait! Nevermind! That's just his HUGE cheeks! :D