baby love

just one look...
oh this baby is so sweet and adorable. you will always love the smell of newborns. it takes you back right away to memories of your own. they are just so amazing, aren't they. without a word, they captivate you. the innocence, sweetness, and silence suck you in immediately. when you hold a baby, you have this amazing calmness come over you and for just those few moments, you feel like everything is once again ok in the world now that this miracle has happened.

my baby holding baby mafra (madeline francis)

sweet cheeks was smitten with her-


cousin, aunt, and big sister-


nana and her 3 granddaughters-

tuesday happiness

there have been several things that i have been happy for today, as well as the past few days. i thought i would share them-

1. today is the husband's birthday- i am thankful for him but sad he wasn't here today for us to celebrate with him.

2. today is my dad's birthday- i am thankful for him and happy he was here at my house to celebrate it.

3. today is the husband's grandma's birthday- sweet cheeks calls her GG.

4. today my niece was born- madeline frances. she is sweet cheek's 8th cousin and weighs 8lbs. she is absolutely beautiful and i can't wait to hold her.

5. today was pizza night. good stuff. sweet cheeks wore her cinderella dress and tiara for the occasion.

6. sweet cheeks spent 5 days with her grandparents. they were here with us and she loved every minute of it. i enjoyed so much seeing her enjoy them. she snuggled, hugged, and loved on them a lot. she will be sad when they leave tomorrow.

7. this past friday marked a big day for me. i, after being out of college for 8 years, have finally paid off all of my student loans. oh yea!

me you and everybody

could i have taken any longer to post again! one full week. the first few days of no posting was because i had forgotten my camera at a friends house. the last two days was because i had come down with something. laziness. i hear it is going around, so i can't confirm who i caught it from. i am a bit better today.

a friend of ours was kind enough to host a kid-friendly valentine's party saturday night. it was a perfect way to get the kids together, which kept them entertained, and allowed the adults to have some talking (drinking) time. it couldn't have gone any better. she even coordinated fun activities for the kids to do- cut and decorate heart cookies and hand prints on a valentine poem. it was sweet. all of the kids had a great time, including my niece who came along with us.

once sweet cheek's cousin arrived at our house saturday night, she decided to run upstairs to change, in order for them to be dressed alike. she did a great job of matching up the outfit. she even brought down a tiara for her cousin to wear since she of course had to wear one.



sweet cheeks eating pizza at the party. i love this picture of my sweetie.


all of the kids (and wow, there were a lot!)


**

sweet cheeks and i went to tj maxx together the other day. it was a fun trip. she was even patient enough to let me look at the home stuff. normally, she runs out of patience quite quickly and wants to head to the kids section immediately. so while we were there, we found this really darling dress for her that came with a matching doll dress. we could not turn it down. i knew she and phoebes would be the absolute cutest things in the world in them. oh was i so right.



***

if you didn't see last weeks snl episode in which alec baldwin hosted, you really missed out. it was one of the funniest episodes ever. can't say that i like him much as a person, but my gosh he is always phenomenal on snl! cracks me up.

this was the FUNNIEST SKIT EVER. i was in tears while my stomach was cramping from laughing so hard. (especially at "he has straight hair and his eyebrows look like they were drawn in with a sharpie)

sweet baby colors

i love this room. i saw it first at ohdeedoh, then went to the owner's website found at me & wee.

the color choices are phenomenal. warm, pretty aquas and yellows really make for a welcoming atmosphere in this nursery. i love the fabric in the craft rings. the "hooray" sign is also a sweet, colorful touch. everything in this room fits in perfectly with the non-themed look. though i like the slight animal touches throughout, found in the owl pillow, lamp, and picture, as well as the bird mobile and elephant hamper.

wish in action

i snagged this picture from my brother's disney photopass(hope they don't mind).
it is a sweet n' sour picture.
sweet is the family at disney, sour is the reason they are there.





my nephews, brandon & nathan

A-Dorable

i shared in one of my older posts the picture of the outfit i had purchased for sweet cheeks from a cute site on etsy called snuggle bug baby boutique. well it came in two days ago and it is even more adorable in person. i am thrilled with this purchase and the care given by owner nicole into making it.

sweet cheeks wore it to school today and i absolutely had to take a picture of her in it!

the "c" stands for cheeks! (sorry the image is a bit blurry)

take me to a park that is covered in trees

this past weekend was absolutely beautiful outside. we made sure to take advantage of the lovely days by doing a lot of activities with sweet cheeks outside to include bike, jeep, and scooter riding. we made sure that the dogs got lots of outside time too! though their outside time involved a lot of sleeping.

yesterday the husband had a great idea to do a picnic at the park. it turned out to be so much fun. we brought sweet cheek's bike and ball with us and ended up having a blast. plus, it was a great spot to people & dog watch!

i love this shot of sweet cheeks (and me- the one in the reflection of the glasses!)



a fun game of tag-


all smiles for our delicious lunch-


sweet cheeks actually does really well on the big kid swings now. even pumps her legs the right way!



**

i was looking at one of my favorite sites the other day, oh dee doh, when i saw a picture of a little girl wearing a kimono. it is the same one from lucky wang that i had gotten for sweet cheeks in ny about 2 years ago.


the same kimono is on sale now at lucky wang, along with a few other great ones. go take a look-


flashback: i love this picture of her in the kimono eating her oranges-

i'm a big kid now

it has been a lot easier than either the husband or i thought it would be. we have gotten sweet cheeks to go to bed... by herself. that is a big deal for us. prior to, our normal bedtime routine would average 1.5 hours. bath-pjs-teeth (30 minutes), 2 books(10 minute), small talk (10 minutes), and then wait for sweet cheeks to fall asleep (20-40 minutes). such a thing of the past. now we do the first few steps, but when it is time to sleep, we leave the room. she goes to sleep on her very own.

i won't say it was a bribe-free transition. for the first week, we had a reward basket
that sweet cheeks could pick from if she went to sleep like a big girl. it has been a bit over two weeks now and she is doing amazing. so much better than we thought. she is a kid after all and will get out of bed using one of the many excuses kids use, "i need water" or "i have to pee" or "can i give mommy one more kiss," but overall, she is doing great. we are so proud!

**

wednesday night was fish taco night at our house. so fast and easy to make, and just as easy to clean up. last week on taco night, sweet cheeks at her entire taco. that is a lot of food for this usually lite eater. so we were surprised on wed. when she wouldn't eat her taco. maybe it was the sour cream over the mayo this time, or the different tortilla. either way, she wasn't having it.

now i know parenting books and pediatricians will tell you that if your kid doesn't eat what they are presented, you do not make them anything else special. i would understand that much more so if (a) i had made a gourmet meal or (b) we had more than one child. however, neither of those circumstances were present, so i opted to make sweet cheeks oatmeal instead. i get to the point sometimes that i just want her to eat, so i will accommodate just to get food in her already tiny belly.

thankfully she did eat her entire bowl of oatmeal and trader joe applesauce.

dinner 1-




dinner 2-


yummy dessert- the husband made us some delicious chocolate shakes-


***

this was sweet cheeks before school yesterday. before you ask, no, i did not perm her hair :) she had braids the day before and refused to wear her hair up, so hence the messy do. we just go with the flow with this cutie. loved her little sweater though.

fun dip

sweet cheek's cousin gave her a fun dip a few weeks ago while we were visiting the grandparents. she absolutely loved it. what isn't there to love about dipping a sugar stick into flavored sugar and then licking it off?

she had her second one last night. the emphasis being on the "night" portion of that sentence. sweet cheeks was awake till 9:45pm! i think we learned our lesson there.

here she is, feet propped up casually eating her fun dip while wearing a very mismatched outfit.

life is sweet!






***

found a new, adorable shop through etsy called snuggle bug baby boutique, though she sells things for toddlers as well. go take a look.

i ordered this little outfit for sweet cheeks. instead of the flower, i am having sweet cheeks first initial put on it. i absolutely love amy butler fabric, for the prints and the colors. when we get the outfit, i will take sweet cheeks picture in it for you to see.