Hot Messing it all up in here.

Hot Mess Monday---and yes, I realize that it's almost Tuesday when I'm posting this.  It's been a "hot mess Monday" in every literal sense of the word!  Onto the update!

Original weight:  142.5
Last week:  138.8
This week:

Wow.  Pedicure, anyone?

Weight loss from last week:  2.2 lbs

Overall weight loss:  5.9 lbs

Pretty darn good, if you ask me.  But I have a loooooong way to go.

Biggest challenges this week:  Portion size.  I am a terrible judge of how much of a particular item I'm supposed to have.  I'm seriously thinking about signing up for Weight Watchers Online to help me with that.  

How I've lost weight this week:
{1}  I've tried to make a conscious effort to before more active.  Less snacking, less TV and sitting on the couch, more cleaning around the house and dancing to music on my iPod (yes, really).
{2}  Less fast food.  I'm really trying to get to the point where the idea of the McDonald's Drive Thru turns my stomach.  Baby steps.
That's about it.  Between my daughter's birthday and my cousin's wedding, I haven't even had time to think about working out, much less do it.
Now, here's my "before" pictures.  I just want you to know that I had to actually give myself a pep talk to post these on here.  These are more for me than anyone else.  It's pictures for me to look at and use for motivation.  *deep breath* I cannot believe I'm about to do this.....

This outfit is one that I wore back in my ballet days.  It's my hope to fit into it again....and look skinny in it again. 
Goals this week: 
-->Work on the baby fat.
-->Tone my arms.  I've noticed in recent pictures that my arm looks gigantic...and unproportionate (is that a word?).  My arm looks like it's taking up the entire picture and it's the first thing I notice when I see a picture of myself.  That's gotta stop.
See you guys next Hot Mess Monday!

To my Avery, on your first birthday.

My sweet Avery girl,

I can't believe you're already a year old!!  A year ago today, I was laying in my hospital bed wondering how I could ever love anything more than I loved you at that moment.  I'd known you less than 24 hours, yet you were completely perfect and I knew that I had been put on this world to be your mommy.  Over the last year, I've watched you grow and learn.  I've watched you develop a personality (and an attitude!).  It's so funny to watch you learn something new...you're so proud of yourself whenever you finally master it and you look over at your daddy and me to make sure we're watching you.  You're so smart (doesn't every mother say that??).  You bring joy to everyone around you--your personality is contagious!  Your entire family loves you beyond words and spoils you to no end....all you have to do is point and grunt and people go running to get you whatever you want!  It's been a joy to watch you learn different stages---rolling over, crawling and now walking!!   To watch you learn new words and phrases (your favorite right now is "I want that!") and use them more and more everyday.  You go nowhere without your Minnie Mouse doll and we quickly have a panic attack on our hands when you realize she's not in reach.  Unfortunately for mommy and daddy, you still don't sleep well through the night and don't nap much, but you'll learn!  You are the complete spitting image of your daddy---busy, can't sit still, into everything you can get your hands on and completely adorable.  I know you've only been in our home for a year, but I can't remember what life was ever like without you.  I thank God every morning that I get to wake up and spend another day watching you grow.  Nothing matters more to me than being your mommy.  I love you so much sweet girl.  Thank you for making your first year the best one of my entire 26.  Happy birthday.

Love,

Mommy

High Fives!

This week has been insane.  My daughter is teething like ca-razy and no one in my house is sleeping.  Please forgive any spelling mistakes, jumbled words or incoherent sentences.  It's just my sleep-deprived brain talking.  Onto the good stuff!

1.  This isn't exactly new-ish news, but I'm driving a new car.  Back in December, my sweet hubby gave me an early Christmas present in the form of a Ford Edge.  Great for Avery, more room, beautiful, but so expensive when it came to gas.  When you're driving 60 + miles everyday, you need something that gets better than 18 miles to the gallon.  I was so sad thinking of giving up all my extra cargo space.  Insert HHR!  No, it's not the most beautiful vehicle I've driven.  Yes, I get a ton of jokes about it...it looks like a hearse/gangster car/smooshed SUV....but I love it.  It's unique, it's roomy, and it gets 25 miles to the gallon on average.  Laugh all you want.

2.  I visited my local Farmer's Market on Thursday morning.  I was only there to buy sweet corn, but the garden fresh tomatoes were calling my name.  As were the sunflowers, okra and green beans, but then my wallet yelled at me and I had to walk back to my car.  Find your local Farmer's Market.  Your belly will thank you. :)

3.  My cousin is getting married Saturday!!  Today will begin the wedding festivities and I can't wait to stand by her side tomorrow and watch her become Mrs. Miracle!  Hooray weddings!

4.  VBS came to an end this week.  I love watching little kids learn about Jesus and all the wonderful things he does for them. 

5.  I saved this for last because I don't know how much I can talk about it without becoming a weepy mess.  My sweet little Avery turns one tomorrow.  How is this even possible!?!  Sometimes, I can't really remember her being a tiny newborn, due to the sleep-deprived fog I lived in for her first three months of life.  Other times, it seems like only yesterday that I was standing in my bedroom (one year ago today!), folding clothes while Marty gathered our hospital bag, took a shower and counted the minutes in between my contractions.  It's unreal.  If you see me tomorrow and I'm blubbering into a Kleenex, ignore me please. :)

Happy Friday all!!

Hot Mess Monday!

It's Hot Mess Monday!  Did I lose any weight? 

Last week's weight:  142.5
This week's weight:  138.8 (I apologize for not having a scale picture here....I weighed myself this morning and forgot to take a picture....next Monday!)
Total loss:  3.7 lbs.

Biggest challenges this week:  Finding time to work out and eat healthy and staying away from extra Cokes. 
How I've done it:
{1}  I've cut my Coke/soda intake WAYYYYYY down.  I was probably drinking 3-4 sodas a day before I committed to this challenge.  While I haven't been able to quit cold turkey, I'm slowly weaning myself off.  I have only been drinking one can of Pepsi/Dr. Pepper a day.  Which is a big deal, considering my kid decided to develop the sleeping pattern of a newborn this weekend.  Any time I felt the urge or the want for a Coke, I made myself a big glass of water or a very small glass of sweet tea.  I really believe this is probably the biggest reason for my loss this week.
{2}  I haven't joined a gym or started any kind of work-out regimine, but I have been trying to work in little exercises during my every day routine.  While brushing my teeth in the morning and before bed, I will stand in front of the mirror and rise up on my toes and then back down.  If I'm playing in the floor with Avery, I'll do some crunches or bicycle exercises while she's busy.  I've even incorporated Avery into my exercises.  Lifting her up and down off the ground 10 times is the equivilent of having a 20 lb weight...and she thinks it's hilarious!  
{3}  No more McDonald's.  I did have to run through the drive-thru yesterday because I wasn't home and was headed to church to help with Vacation Bible School.  But I chose a chicken option and kept my drink small (darn you McDonald's and your automatic large drinks you give away!)  I really think this is where the majority of my extra weight comes from and I look forward to more falling off as I break up with the McDonald's drive through.
{4}  Choosing healthier lunches and snacks.  I've been making sure to fit more veggies and fruit into my lifestyle.  Last week, I made a lazy lasagna chili for dinner that had zucchini and onion inside.  Not only did I get veggies in for dinner, but I sauteed the leftover zucchini and had it as a side dish for lunch the next day. 
That's all I've done.  I do plan to find a work out routine that I can fit into my crazy mommy lifestyle that's more structured than lifting a laundry basket or ballet moves while I'm brushing.  Despite my loss this week, I feel flabbier than I did last week. 
Here's my before picture.  Lord, I cannot believe I'm about to do this.  I don't take pictures of myself.  Ever.  But this is a rare moment when a picture was taken at one of Avery's friend's birthday party.....

Now, before I get a ton of comments, I know I'm not fat, okay?  These are simply areas that I do not feel comfortable with and want to change.  Do I know it could be worse?  Yes.  But do I know that it could be better?  Absolutely.  Hence my "hot mama" journey. 

P.S.  Have you checked out Sarah and Leticia's progress yet??  We're just three mommies trying to lose the weight together!  Wanna join us?  The more the merrier!  On to Week 2!

High Five! {4th edition}

It's finally Friday!  High fives all around!  And these are a few of my favorite things.....just from this week.

1.  I may be getting an iPhone soon....key word being MAY.  That didn't stop me from checking out cases and covers for a full day.  My favorites:

Grey Chevron; Vintage Little Mermaid (drool!!!); Mint Green Polka Dots; Mickey Mouse; Audrey Hepburn; Kate Spade Polka Dots; Fisher Price Baby Toy/Phone Protector (for Avery, of course); Color Bursts; Up

2.  Thank God for Target and their squeezable baby food pouches.  Helps when your kid gets all "sassy pants" and decides she doesn't need you to help her eat.

3.  I finally broke down and bought myself a Tervis tumbler.  They seriously keep your drink cold FOREVER.  And I have to have my water ice cold if I'm going to be drinking a ton of it every day.  I actually have drank more water since buying this cup.  A little on the expensive side, but soooo pretty!  Mine:

4. We went to a 1st birthday party for one of Avery's little friends Saturday. She practiced her party hat look :)

Speaking of birthdays, I finished her invitations and mailed all of them! 1st birthday countdown: 8 days. A WEEK from tomorrow. *deep breath* 

5.  Last Friday, the hubby, sister and I decided to spontaneously drive to Louisville to Easton Corbin in a free concert on 4th Street.   Isn't he adorable?  It's my goal in life to fix him up with my sister Dayna. 

Enjoy your weekend, friends! :)

Minnie Mouse Birthday Bash--Invitations {part 2}

You may remember my post from a few days ago where I made my own Minnie Mouse invitations.  Today, I'm sharing part 2 of making these labor-intensive, but freakin' adorable invites. 

I started by making a simple Microsoft Word document to make the actual invitation.

The "Mickey Ears" font can be found and downloaded to your computer here.  The other adorable font is from kevinandamanda.com.  Amanda takes handwritten samples that people send to her and makes them into downloadable fonts.  I love all of the "Fonts for Peas," which is where this one came from (Pea Rinnybird).  I just played around with wording and font choices until I found something I loved.
Because these invitations were long, I was able to fit two on one page of paper, when turned "Landscape" style on Word.  Print them out and cut the page right down the middle to give you two invitations---saves paper! 

I had to fold my paper invitations pretty small to get them to fit in Minnie's pocket.

After they were folded and stuffed into the Minnies, it was time to stick them in their envelopes! 

I made labels that coordinated with the font that was in her invitation.  Because the CD envelopes were so small, I used the return address labels to seal--working double duty!

And they're done (big thank you to my assembly line...I mean, family...for helping me put together all 31 invitations)!  Send them out to your party guests and listen to the comments you get back about how adorable they are...and you'll know all your hard work was worth it! 

Come back next week to see how I turn a Goodwill high chair into a Minnie Mouse chair fit for our birthday princess!

OOTW--bills, bills, bills!

I love Wednesdays.  It's quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week....because it's an excuse to look around my house, find what needs organizing and do it! 

This week, I'm tackling bills.  It's so easy for bills to get piled up or pushed aside and forgotten about until that dreaded "Payment Overdue" statement comes in the mail....or worse, when you notice a late fee tacked on to next month's bill.  When I was first on my own and had just a few bills to handle,  I was so overwhelmed.  How can you keep up with all of these due dates and amounts due and which bill to pay when??  And that was just the basic bills of a college student!  Then I grew up, got married, bought a house and found out what it REALLY meant to be in debt and have bills.  Marty and I have recently split accounts and bills for us each to handle.  It was a great way to keep up both accountable for where our money was going and it cut down on unnecessary "You spent HOW much??" kind of fights.   I thought I had it under control....until this month.  Marty, by the grace of God, has found a new job.  A new job that's going to bring a bigger paycheck (wahoo!).  But a bigger paycheck brings more opportunity for wasteful spending and little penny pinching.  So, to make a long story short, we're joining accounts again, under the stipulation that I am in charge of the bills.  Insert super organizational skills here!  To keep all of the bills, due dates and payments under control, I have corralled all of the monthly statements in this gorgeous binder:

Call me old-fashioned or not being earth-friendly, but I like having a paper statement in my hand every month that tells me exactly how much I owe and gives me the details of my charges.  Yes, I know I can go online and view all that information, but something about holding a physical piece of paper in my hands gives me a sense of satisfaction.  I have all of the statements separated by dividers and labels so I know where each bill is whenever I need to refer back to it. 

Now, this is my favorite part.  I made up a printable bill organizing checklist, so I can view all of our monthly expenses at once. 

I'm a visual person.  I won't believe that it's done until I see it written down and checked off.  I guess I'm a little OCD. 

Not only do I have the list of bills, but I also made a pretty list of when to pay which bills.  You see, when Marty starts this new job, our paychecks are going to be scattered throughout the entire month.  To keep me from paying too many bills out of one single paycheck, I have them scattered so we still have spending/saving money leftover.  This printable shows me EXACTLY when to pay which bill.  Super daggone helpful. 

P.S.  Both of these printables are free for you to take!  Print them off, make your own binder and revel in your organization!


Bills to Pay FREE printable! 

Hot Mess no longer.

I'm done playing around.  I'm done saying that I'm going to lose weight and do all of these things to shed the baby pounds and then pull right back into the McDonald's drive-thru the next day.  Where'd my motivation come from?  Check out Mama Laughlin's blog and her progress from "former fatty" as she calls herself to a size 4.  She lost 60 + lbs.  And has two kids.  I have no more excuses.  I'm tired of being all talk and no action.  I'm tired of being self-conscious.  I'm tired of taking forever to get ready in the morning because I hate how everything looks on me.  I'm tired of being afraid of new clothes and the dressing room.  I'm tired of not being confident enough in my body to even want my husband to see me without a shirt on (sorry if that was TMI).  So, I'm beginning my "Hot Mess to Hot Mama" journey.  Today.  I'm going to document my weight and take pictures and share my journey.  It's my hope that I won't be judged by my extra baby fat or how I look in my "before" pictures.  I just hope to build up a support team and feel good about myself again.  And this is how I'm going to do it:

Weight: 142.5
Biggest weaknesses when it comes to my weight:  fast food, Dr. Peppers, snacking, unbalanced meals. 
Goal weight:  120
How I'm gonna do it: 
{1.} No more Coke.  Not long ago, I said I was going to cut myself down to just 1 can of Pepsi a day.  So far, it's not happening.  I've found that I have zero willpower when it comes to drinking sodas and I can't have just one.  If I've had one, it opens the door to more and before I know it, I've had two cans of Pepsi and a large McDonald's Dr. Pepper.  No, my daughter still doesn't sleep well.  But there are other ways to stay awake during the day than a constant caffeine intake.  Water makes me feel good and that's all I'm allowing myself. 
{2.}  Work-out.  I don't know that I'm comfortable yet with going to a gym.  I'm slightly asthmatic and LOATHE running because I look like a dying cow with my thundering feet and wheezing breaths.  Maybe work out videos?  I'll keep you updated on what works best for me.
{3.}  Motivation.  Every week I'm going to do a "Hot Mess" update, complete with a picture of the scale and myself to show you if I'm making any progress.  It's easy to sit on the other side of this computer and vow to change, but if you guys never see me, I can go on pretending that I'm living this healthy lifestyle.  Through pictures, you will know if I cheated.  You will know if I've lost any weight that week or that month. 
{4.}  Having a support system.  This is the best part....I'm not doing this alone.  My friend Sarah from "Our Family of Three" and I are doing this together.  Her daughter is just 3 months older than my Avery, so she knows all about having the baby fat hanging around.  She'll be documenting her progress and will be guest posting on what works for her.
{5.}  Feedback.  I'm not a gym rat.  I hate working out, I hate sweating and I hate the idea of eating like a rabbit forever and never enjoying another burger.  But if I want to feel good about myself again, I have to suck it up.  But I need your help.  What works for you?  What healthy recipes do you have that you'd like to share?  What's the secret to building endurance and running without collapsing a lung and wanting to die?  I'm all ears. 
This won't just be my journey to lose weight.  I'm going to work on all areas of my life that aren't making me feel like a "hot mama" right now.  It's going to be a self-discovery and self-love trip as well.  I don't like myself much right now.  I'm a hot mess....minus the hot part. 
Hopefully, with all of these factors, I'm going to lose my Avery weight and have confidence again.  Flabby to fabulous, here I come!

H54F {part 3}!

Friday again peoples!  Linking up over at From My Grey Desk for another High Five For Friday post!  My five highlights of this week......

1.  Saturday, I invited several of my friends and their girls over for a baby playdate/Pinterest Potluck party.  Everyone brought a recipe that they had found on Pinterest, the babies played and we all stuffed ourselves full of sausage balls and pasta salad.  I love having mommy friends that totally understand my need to talk about epidurals and dirty diapers. (Forgive the fuzzy picture...we had to snap them as soon as we sat all the babies down.  No time to check for the right light or poses!)

2.  It RAINED yesterday.  If you're living anywhere in the continental United States right now in the middle of this excessive heat and drought, you know what a big deal this is.  I honestly stood at the door and watched it pour for a good 5 minutes.  Now, if I could just blow some home to my daddy's farm....

3.  I made Avery's 1st birthday invitations this week!  Time consuming but sooooo worth it.  Can't wait to finish some more projects for her Minnie themed birthday bash!

4.  Thanks to my friend Sarah over at Our Family of Three, I found a new blog to obsess over.  Meet Mama Laughlin.  She's a mom of two boys documenting her story from 180+ lbs down to her goal weight.  She's snarky, she's hilarious and she's motivated me to lose those extra 15 pounds.

5.  I'm seriously considering buying tickets to go see Wicked in September.  This will make the third time I've seen the musical.  It's amazing.  I rock out to the soundtrack on a bi-weekly basis.  Just pretend you don't see me if you pass me in my car busting out some "Defying Gravity" 'kay?

Happy Friday {the 13th!} friends!!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Bash--Invitation Tutorial {part 1}

Avery is turning one soon and I am in full-blown party planning mode.  Thanks to Pinterest and its abundance of Minnie/Mickey themed party ideas, I have a million things I want to do.  Obviously, people have to KNOW about the party, so I'm tackling the super-adorable-but-crazy-time-consuming-and-overambitious invitations.  And if you're crazy like me and want to keep some money in your pocket by making your own invites, then this tutorial is for you. 
When I first started thinking about themes and looking at invitations, I came across these:

{via}

I died.  Can words describe how cute these are??  I immediately clicked the link, searched through her Etsy shop.....wait.....does that say $27.50 for a set of 10 invitations??  Considering my family is ginormous and we're probably going to have close to 40 invitations to send out, that means I would be paying a whopping $110 for 1st birthday invitations!  Not happening my friend.  So I tried looking at other (and less) expensive options for my sweet girl's party.  I found nothing that I liked as much as these sweet invitations.  That's when I temporarily lost my mind and decided to make these invitations by hand.  For you penny pinching birthday planners like me, here are the steps I used to make my very own Minnie Mouse invitations.  {Warning....this tutorial is about to go picture and detailed description crazy.  I like step by step pictures because I'm more of a visual person.  Oh, you too? *friends*}  Ready?  Let's go.

{step1}  I started by purchasing black and red poster board for Minnie's head and dress.  If you're sending out a smaller quantity of invitations, you can also purchase red and black cardstock.  I knew that I would need to be making these in bulk, so I went with the poster boards.  I did splurge a little here and buy the posters at Michael's instead of from Wal-Mart or Target.  Reason being is the color is a little richer and not so washed-out looking.

{step2} I knew that these invites would be a little funky shaped, so I went to my nearest office supply store and bought the only square envelopes I could find--CD envelopes with the window (which needs to be covered up before mailing).

{step3} Next, I laid one of the envelopes down on the black paper and traced out the shape so I knew exactly how much room I had to work with and how big my Minnie heads could be.

{step4} After having the envelope size, I found a cup that was the perfect circle shape for Minnie's head. Laying it on the black poster board, I traced around the cup in pencil.

{step5} When I found the perfect circle shape for the head, I went on the hunt for a circular item for the ears that were in proportion to the head. I used one of Avery's bottle tops, but you can use any item laying around the house that is circular shaped and is about the right size. Trace around it with pencil.

{step6} Once you have your Minnie head drawn, cut it out.

  {step 7}  Take the same cup you used for Minnie's head and draw a circle onto the red poster board.  Cut out.

{step7}  Line the red circle up with Minnie's head that you cut out of the black poster board.

 {step8}  By eyeballing the red circle or measuring it out, cut it in half. 

{step9}  Glue a line in a half circle shape along the bottom of Minnie's head (kind of making a smiley face). 

{step 10} Place one half of the red circle on the bottom half of Minnie's head where you just placed the glue.  This will create a pocket for you to put your written invitation inside!

{step11}  Every good Minnie fan knows that Minnie wears a polka dotted dress.  To create the dots, I took a circle-shaped punch (purchased at Michael's) and punched out multiple circles out of white cardstock paper.  I randomly placed the circles along the red poster board and glued them on with tacky glue.

{step12}  Here's where you can get a little creative.  Minnie Mouse would not be complete without her signature bow.  I had originally purchased thin ribbon that was red with white polka dots to match Minnie's dress.  When I made the bow and held it up to the invitation, I wasn't happy with the overall look.  For a bigger punch, I decided to make Minnie's bow out of red poster board just like the dress.  I free-handed a bow shape onto the poster and cut it out.

{step13}  After cutting the bow out, I took a fine black Sharpie marker and added little details.  After that, I took a regular hand hole puncher and cut out smaller polka dots from the white cardstock and glued those onto the bow with a glue stick.  After that was completed, I then glued the bow onto Minnie's head.  Ready for the final product?  *drumroll*

I am completely aware that this isn't perfect.  I can't cut a straight line or circle to save my life and it's not as pretty as the ones I originally found, but they're close.  Better yet, I saved a TON of money.  All I needed was black and red poster board, white cardstock (which I already had) and the circle shaped hole punch.  All in all, I probably spent $15 on the entire project.  A savings of almost $100.  In my next tutorial, I'll be showing you how I attached the actual invitation with the party details.  Happy penny pinching party planning (say that five times fast!!)!

Organize One Thing Wednesday: Jewels on Display

It's Wednesday!  We're organizing!  Yipee!Today I'm tackling the mess that is your jewelry drawer.  I used to have one tiny drawer in my dresser that held ALL of my jewelry.  As my collection grew, I thought I might try to make it more organized by purchasing one of those small drawer sorters.  That corralled the problem...for a little while.  Soon, my earrings were everywhere, my bracelets were bungled and my necklaces were in knots.  And it drove me crazy.  Then, one day as I was going through pictures and items that were in my apartment in college, I came across a corkboard with ribbons that I hung pictures on.  You know the kind:

I really had nowhere to put it and thought it was a tad juvenile for our house, but I didn't want to throw it out.  And that's when it came to me.....jewelry holder!

Favorite part of my morning routine

Simple, a little eclectic and VERY effective.  All my jewelry in on display at once so I can see everything I have to choose from.  Because the board has a cork backing, it's easy to just push stud earrings into it and keep them in place.  For my drop, or "dangly" earrings, I just looped the back of the earring over one of the ribbons. 

Because no jewelry board would be complete without a Winnie the Pooh quote :)

When I first thought of this idea, I just had my earrings and brooches on the board.  I wasn't sure how to incorporate necklaces onto the board just yet.  Until I saw this idea on Pinterest (Not following me?  Check out my boards here!) :

Brilliant!  Shower curtain hooks on a towel rack to hold necklaces.  I knew that I had some shower curtain rings floating around my house somewhere from one of our wedding showers that were never used.  After locating the rings, I attached the clips to the bottom ribbons and hung my necklaces from each ring.  Problem solved. 

When I finished, I hung the board up in my bathroom where I do my morning routine.  Instead of walking back and forth from my old jewelry drawer in the dresser to the bathroom mirror, I'm right by the mirror so I can switch out earrings and necklaces with my outfit until I find what I think looks best.  Since implementing this organizing idea, my jewelry gets more wear because I can see everything in one place and I don't have to go digging for anything.  I love when organizing is functional AND pretty. :)  Have your own de-tangling jewelry solution?  Share it with me!  For the rest of you, go show your jewelry some organizing love. :) 

No better word for it...I'm FREAKING out.

I need some yoga calming techniques.  Or a good paper bag to breathe into.  Maybe some Valium or Xanax would do the trick.  Whatever the case, I need help.  My daughter is turning a year old in two and a half weeks and I am completely.freaking.out. 
Let me start by saying that I was not this way a week ago.  Heck, even yesterday I was a completely normal mother of an 11 1/2 month old and was (almost) totally okay with the fact that Avery's birthday was fast approaching.  I've bought the materials to make her birthday invitations (pictures and tutorial coming soon!).  I've picked out the perfect little birthday outfit and am going to order it on Friday.  I have TONS of ideas for her Minnie Mouse-themed party.  I've talked about her turning one, I've thought about her turning one, I've prepared myself for her turning one.  And, for the most part, I've been fine with it.  Of course, I've had little moments when I've been momentarily sad that she's getting so big and that she's learning to walk.  I've shed a few tears thinking about that sweet little newborn and that she'll never be that little again.  All in all, I've been almost ready for her to turn a year old.  She's at such a fun age and getting a major personality and I can't wait to see what other new things she discovers.  I'm loving watching her grow up into an almost-toddler.  All of that, however, came to a screeching halt today. 
You see, all along, Marty and I have been planning to buy her a brand-new, rear-facing/forward-facing convertible car seat for her 1st birthday.  My little munchkin is only in the 10th and 15th percentiles for her height and weight, respectively, and I wasn't worried about switching her until she turned a year old.  Over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed subtle changes in our little girl.  Her legs are getting a little bit longer, she's getting a little bit taller, and her car seat straps are getting a little bit tighter.  Basically, I could switch her over to a new car seat any day.  Even that seemed like a faraway thought because I still hadn't purchased a fancy (and expensive!) new car seat.  I had been price-checking and comparing the different brands between all the local stores.  I had cut coupons from Babies-R-Us and written down all the brands and prices that Wal-Mart and Target both carried.  I shopped online.  But I hadn't acted on anything.  Subconsciously, I think I was stalling for time and I didn't even realize it.  Until yesterday.  Marty and I were killing some time in town and we decided to stop at a local children's consignment store.  I was just going to run in, do my price comparison process and leave.  As we were checking out the available brands, one of the associates came over and asked if I had seen the gently used car seats out front.  Turns out, they had a like new, Britax Boulevard 70 car seat for only $80.  The new one just like it was sitting on the shelf with a hefty price tag of $379!!  Online, I've found them ranging from $250-$400.  I wasn't planning on buying it, but I couldn't pass up that price or that brand.  So now, I have this new car seat just ready to be installed in my car and be used by my growing girl....and I can't do it.  This morning, I saw the new car seat sitting in my back seat and my sleeping girl in her infant carrier and I lost it.  I am frozen with fear, all over a car seat.  I don't want to move her to this "big girl" seat because I know it symbolizes her growing up, growing older and eventually losing that "baby" status that I love so much.  I can see the progression now:  rear-facing now, forward-facing later, then a booster, then driving.  Literally, I can feel my blood-pressure rising just as I type this!  The fact that my girl is turning one and time has just flown by has hit me square in the face and I'm not ready.  Not ready at all.  If you have any tips to get me through the next two to three weeks, I will gladly welcome them.  Otherwise, my child is staying in her tiny little infant carrier forever.

High Five for Friday! {no. 2}

High fives!  It's the end of the week and I'm linking up with Lauren again.  What are you thankful for this week??

1.  I've started doodling in my planner.  It brings a little bit of color and excitement to a normally dull weekday.  Current obsession....Disney doodles. :)










2.  Avery is going to be walking.  Very, very, VERY soon.  She took 7 steps on Wednesday.  I'm a little afraid she's going to skip walking and go right to running.  There's no picture to go with because every time she starts to walk, I get out my camera and she stops.  That's a normal baby thing, right?

3. It's Farmer's Market season. My cousin Mark sells sweet corn, blackberries and farm fresh eggs. If you've never had straight-from-the-farm sweet corn, you're missing out my friend. Support your local farmers and go to the Farmer's Market. 



4.  I got gas yesterday at Kroger for $2.93.  I realize that it's because it's an election season and come November, it's going right back up.  But I'll take it while I can get it.

5.  Teething is happening hot and heavy in this household.  I'd heard that peeled veggies like cucumbers were good for baby's gums and thought I'd try it with our sweet little toothless wonder.  Avery disagreed......

Happy Friday!