You've had a birthday, shout hurray!

My baby is 1!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ZOEY!!!!

(at exactly this time last year, I was in a lot of pain, exhausted, and starving... but that's beside the point)

Everyone keeps asking me if this year just flew by.

Honestly, no.

And then I get a bunch of looks like I'm a horrible mom, so allow me to explain.

Can I believe that Zoey is a year old? Not really. She's pretty much grown out of being my baby into toddler-dom and fast approaching 20.

Yet... it seems like FOR-EV-ER ago she was a brand new babe. In a good way.

This year has brought so many changes, and for the first time in years I'm not looking back over the last year and thinking "holy cow where'd the year go." 

Zoey allows me to be more present. During the college years it was so easy to wish away the weeks and months til midterms were over, or this class, or the next vacation was coming, whatever. 

With Zoey, I feel so much more aware of each day (sometimes painfully so, as I'm dragging along trying to keep up) but more often in a wonderful way that I haven't enjoyed since before high school. 

We love our Zoey. She makes us laugh, brightens our mornings, keeps us on our toes, and has turned us into "those parents" who are convinced we hit the mega millions are far as cool babies go.

So here's an obscene amount of photos from a year in the life of Zoey... because it's my blog... and i do what i want.

More on her birthday party tomorrow!

Where are the plans we made

Ahhh it's that time of year again....

Coat time! (I know you hear me dee...)

My love affair with coats started towards the end of high school and was only cemented when I attended college in the frigid wasteland aka Utah.

Unlike most girls, I've missed the boat on purses, jewelry, and makeup. They're expensive items that take up room to store and slow down my daily routine. And although, I can appreciate cute shoes... I seem to always be slipping on my rainbows rather than finding the perfect match. BUT, coats...

I HATE being cold. I would take heat over cold any day, so coats are a must. And since I rarely take off my coat because I'm always freezing--a cute coat is practically an outfit for me. So despite the lack of funds and the warm NC winters, here's the coats I'd be debating about if I could...


https://www.tulle4us.com/secure/images/products/enlarge/J8144f2.jpg

This screams Jackie O. to me... and who doesn't want her style.



http://www.tulle4us.com/Clothes/Outerwear/coats/Single-Breast-Coat-p1926.html

I absolutely love my Tulle big button coat from a few seasons ago, and this one's on sale! I'm thinking red or yellow would be so fun and cheery during the dreary cold months.


http://www.victoriassecret.com/clothing/coats/hooded-duffle-toggle-coat?ProductID=74325&CatalogueType=OLS

Who doesn't need a good toggle coat? They're classic, and Victorias Secret knows how to make a coat look flattering and not oversized or frumpy. The real question: now that a messy toddler is in the picture, could I really tempt fate with a white coat? Fortunately it also comes in red or blue.



http://store.delias.com/product/duffle+coat+301683.do?sortby=ourPicks

Another duffle coat, I really like this color.





http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=5739&vid=1&pid=321953012

The moto jacket... simple, stylish, great match for the colored skinny jeans that are so trendy.

And of course there are double breasted, classic wool peacoat options abounding online, But you'll never see them on my blog. There's something about the double breasted that makes me look even shorter and squattier than I am--definitely not a feature I'm striving to accentuate.

Anyways, one last coat and then I'll nip this day dreaming in the bud...


http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=74683&vid=1&pid=557823022

Gotta give Old Navy props... they have some really cute coats online, for very affordable prices. And this one would work great for my preggo friends (or if I ever decide to try out pregnancy again).

Anywho, happy shopping and if you see some cute coats on mega clearance I should know about... let me know!

Girl let me love you

In Zoey News...

Zoey is a funny little girl. She sees the big kids jump at the park and now she walks around the house squatting and trying so hard to jump--but she just can't seem to make it happen. It makes me smile.
(The books all say that won't happen for another year and a half. Knowing Zoey, she'll make it happen sooner than that)

Zoey has also become quite the drama queen. She can go into meltdown mode instantly, but also snap out of it just as quickly. Other people find it hilarious....

Zoey story of the week: Zoey has a dirty diaper and won't sit down to let me change it. So I'm chasing her around the apartment to change her diaper, and she stops and turns toward me and points at me with all sorts of attitude and says "stay!" with complete conviction and confidence that I will. So ridiculous... I don't even know where she learned the word stay!?!

And since Cary doesn't make appearances on the blog too often. Here's Cary pulling a Zoey.

We are never ever ever ever...

Things making me laugh today:

1. My friend's status update: "It's taken years of hard work and sacrifice, but I am happy to report that I have finally pulled even with Lance Armstrong in Tour de France wins."

Bahaha

2. The book, The Forgotten Garden, pg 49 "It needed a coat of paint... the house had never received a full coat. Nell was fond of saying that she wasn't in the business of spending good money to give the neighbors a fresh view"

Tehe. Funny perspective... until you have to sell of course.

In other news:

We went to the fair. It was awesome. We have no pictures :( We ate fried oreos, snickers, kool-aid, and reeses as well as funnel cake, hush puppies, a burger, and nc state ice cream. The hush puppies were worth it, the ice cream was good and next time I want something fried should probably stick with the funnel cake.

We paid to have the guy guess Cary's age so we could win a prize to entertain Zoey... he guessed 39!!! Hahaha seriously... so funny. Cary said they always guess about 10 years off b/c he's bald... but 39 seems a bit ridiculous to me.

I also made Butterbeer cupcakes this weekend! I thought they were delicious!

Anywho, stay tuned... I've almost finished Zoey's room makeover and I borrowed my sister's camera so you'll get to see it!

Chasing the years of my life, fifteen there's still time for you

Today is Cary's Birthday!!!

(taken super early in the am...)

He is officially in his late twenties. 

I would make some joke about how old he is, but as our friend pointed out, he has a smoking hot wife (*adjectives may or may not have been added*), a cute baby girl, and is almost half way to a PhD. Not too shabby for 27 years of age. 

We've come to realize that our little family is all about food for special occasions. We hardly ever eat out, and try to make healthy choices 80-90% of the time... so birthdays are our excuse to go buck wild and enjoy the fried things in life ;)

We've decided our family birthday tradition will be a lunch at restaurant of choice with mom and/or dad ((because eating out is expensive, and we're poor) (and didn't you always feel so special when you got to go out with one of your parents alone)) and then of course homemade dinner of choice with the whole fam.

Cary had a meeting during lunch so we did breakfast. We went to sunrise biscuit for chicken biscuits.... mmmm delish. So much better than Time Out.

And for dinner, I didn't want to cook (I reserve the right to not cook for Cary's b'day or my own) so Cary chose Red Lobster because we LOVE shrimp.

Followed by some serendipitious frozen hot chocolate.... it's been a yummy day.
(No more pics cause this was the point at which zoey decided to break the camera :(

And to round out the birthday celebrations we're going to the NC State fair later this week and trying way more fried delicacies than any artery should have to endure--cause that's just how we roll. Stay tuned!

It's time for bed I think...

But summer is over, we were tangled in the morning sun

Between work and trying to finish the 600 page book I started... I missed blogging about Zoey's 11 month birthday, but that doesn't mean we love her any less ;)

HAPPY 11 MONTHS ZO!!!

Dang she's practically an old lady, and I've *almost* forgiven her for being two weeks late last fall :) 

I'm just kidding, we love her just the way she is and she does have a cool birthday we are looking forward to celebrating shortly!

In Zoey news... she's become an excellent walker and wants to walk everywhere! Translation: It takes us FOREVER to get anywhere... because girlfirend's got short legs. But, I applaud her zeal and marvel at her ability to never get tired and want to be carried.

... She also has a new hiding place. She still loves hide and seek, and thinks it's great she fits into cupboards. 

 ...We're already starting a rock collection...

... This is her, I'm not ready to get up mom! 

... Telling me she's ready for bed. Do babies come any more perfect? 

... Cute hoodie knitted by Grandma R. 

 ...All the walking leaves some scraps and bruises

...Ready for game day! Go Heels! 

 ... The latest development: tantrums. Not my favorite part of parenting. Let's hope we move through this phase quickly

... And taking pictures of tantrums makes her more mad.

And that's my Zoey!

Take your passion, and make it happen

Zoey Update:

 Girlfriend has pretty much mastered walking, and moved on to climbing! Yikes! At a friend's house this weekend she was content climbing the stairs (trying to suicide jump back down, but of course I caught her) and then climbing them again. Now, she is climbing the furniture. I think this is a game changer...

 In other news she says "up up up up" (really fast and kind of slurred) when she wants us to pick her up, probably because we're always chasing her. And now when she mimics me talking she picks up dolls and says "ya ya ya ya ya" Almost like yada yada yada--it's hilarious.

 She LOVES hiding in the curtains, and reading in the rocking chair (even though she doesn't weigh enough to rock it ;)

 She even is showing preference in picking outfits.

 When did my baby turn into a toddler?

 

This weekend apparently.

How did our eyes get so red?

My four readers have asked about the photography class I mentioned in the last post.

It was a church class, taught by Shallyse Gastelum, her website is http://freshpoppyphotography.com. And I happened upon a photographer that just wrote out the same tips on a blogpost friday. So for the excellent tips I learned (written better than I could have reiterated) go to http://www.martawrites.com/2012/09/10-expert-tips-for-better-photographs.html

A few other words of wisdom I found helpful:

-Catch all of your kids personality, the serious, the temper tantrums, the quiet moments, as well as the happy moments

-Toddlers will cooperate better if you give them two choices... i.e. would you rather sit on the couch or the blanket to take a picture

-Capture your day to day: bathtime, breakfast, playing with favorite toys... this will help you remember your children as they were at that age.

-Get in the pictures with your kids. SOOOO hard for me. I hate most pics of myself. But your kids will want to know that you were there playing with them, having fun, and it's great to capture the connection you share.

A little fuzzy, she still moves too fast for my point and shoot.

Check out those eyelashes!

Look at this photograph

I took a short photography class Saturday.

My pictures are generally awful, and I got a few good tips to really work on.

I'm a work in progress, but I was already a lot happier with the quality of this pic. No shadows, no blur, no red eye, and those pretty blue eyes... Now I just gotta catch a smile and the dimple on her right cheek!

So time to practice with all the tips, which means lots more pics of Zoey! (Let's be real, everyone only checks this blog for pics of zoey anyhow... :)

And I miss you, yeah I miss you

I got a job... cause we're poor. 

(I would think that would go without saying, but everyone keeps asking)

Cary says when I've been gone for an hour or two Zoey starts to wonder why I'm not back and goes to the door and hits it and cries while saying "mamamamamamama"

It breaks my heart.

I know she'll get used to me being gone more often, but that kind of breaks my heart too.

At least she gets to spend the time with Cary. They have lots of fun while I'm gone.

Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous

On pinterest I have a board titled "when I'm disgustingly rich..."

Sometimes something catches my eye and I think to myself, I want to try that, or I would totally buy that item that performs only one task--thereby making it only slightly more useful than the inconvenience of storing said item. Practicality keeps me from buying these things, and lack of storage space. (Yes, if I was a millionaire I'd own a lot of sold on TV crap... just cause)

Well... I happened to pin this little gem a few weeks back,

And I went down to my mailbox last week, and lo and behold, my friend had mailed it to me!

She was out yardsale-ing, and saw it and thought of me because I had just pinned it!

I can't even say how much this made my day. So ridiculous and simple, but pretty awesome.

Apparently I'm disgustingly rich with great friends!

Hopefully, I'll be able to pass on the favor someday--of course, then I'd have to go to a yard sale.

I believe that love is the answer

I watched the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

We read the book for my book club a year ago, and it was a nice wrap up to watch the movie as I remember 9/11.

It is a fictional story that follows the life of an 11 year old boy as he tries to make sense of the loss of his father in one of the towers on 9/11/2001.

My heart breaks for all the broken families of that day. There were so many people who lost someone close to them who's lives will never be the same. My thoughts and prayers are with the survivors. I pray they may be blessed with the love and comfort they need, and that they may know they can see their family again one day.

**********************************************************************************

On another note: My baby is 10 months old! I shlove (shlove is what cary and i say when we more than love something. Shlove is definitely bigger and deeper than love) it!

Zoey finally got teeth! TWO. They popped up last week.


And she is soooo excited to brush her teeth. She loves watching me brush my teeth and then wait to brush her two little nubs. It's funny.

She can take about 4 to 5 steps without falling down, but that is all. We're working on her balance.

Her favorite words this week are "baby" and "puppy." She loves pointing out all the puppies on our walks, and just about everything gets labeled baby... but she especially loves carrying around her own picture saying baby. Perhaps we should call her Zoey more often than baby girl.


She still likes to eat with her feet.

She eats lots of new foods, but her fav are graham crackers. And I love the baby/graham cracker smell.

Her favorite games are still peek-a-boo and playing chase. She loves being chased, and she loves being scared (if I pop around the corner unexpectedly). She also loves when Cary "flies" her around the room. The girl is an adrenaline junky and we're gonna have to start saving for her to go to an amusement park.



At any rate, she's a hoot. I seriously hit the jackpot when it comes to babies. She is easy-going, fun, and adventurous. Love that girl.


Ok, ok I'm done with the photos.

Good morning and goodnight/I wake up at twilight

I hate the pressure to blog sometimes.

I would make a great novelist.

I often suffer from writer's block. And then occasional spurts of "I have 20 things to blog about right now, and there's funny dialogue running through my head! But.... oh wait.... it's not really kosher to post more than once a day."

People don't read your blog if you don't post enough, or if you post too often, or if you say too much, or you don't have cute pictures, blah blah blah. Oh well.

Random ramblings rolling in my head this week:

-I'm exhausted and feel ill... my only logical conclusion is West Nile.

-I'm ALMOST (like sooo close) to my pre-pregnancy weight!
I'm contemplating a 9 months there and back post--for your viewing pleasure ;)
Or to horrify myself into never getting pregnant again! I joke. I joke. Really, as a pat on the back for all the hard work I've done.

-I'm doing the conference-talk-a-day-before-next-gen-conference challenge.
It's fabulous! My favorite quote so far "The most important of all the commandments of God is the one that you are having the most difficulty keeping today" - President Harold B. Lee (Arise and Shine forth by Ann M Dibb)

It just reminds me not to get cocky because I don't sin a specific way, and that sin can be a slippery slop that starts with weakness in any area. May we all strive to be a little better.

-Oh and I need your bestest cupcake recipes! I'm the birthday baker for YW!!! (and since cupcakes are trendy and what not...)