Tree is up!

We hosted Thanksgiving this past week so I put up our tree in honor of the holiday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Thanksgiving has nothing to do w/ Christmas, but they're so close together on the calendar and I just can't help myself. :) I love our Christmas tree and would love to have it up year-round; however, Jamie is Mr. Scrooge and he dreads the holidays and can frequently be overheard saying "Bah Humbug."

This year I was a bit apprehensive about putting up the tree mainly b/c we now have a 1-year old walking/running around the house and into everything. So far it hasn't been disastrous, but there are still several weeks to go. :) Amelia is fascinated with the ornaments and she often touches them and yanks on them. I only hung non-breakable ornaments w/in her reach and I put them on so they can't come off too easily. The tree is pretty sturdy so I have no fear of it toppling on her. We did snap a few pictures Thanksgiving day of her in front of the tree. Notice the new LED lights I purchased this year; I'm still adjusting to the blue-ish tint, but it is growing on me slowly.

This one turned out the best, IMO.

Here she is holding the FAO Schwartz teddy bear I bought in NYC while in HS.

Here she is w/ our dog, Bella; I took the picture with the wrong flash, hence the bright tree and no lights.

My Birthday

So my 32nd birthday was last week; this post was originally written just a day later, but time has flown and I don't seem to have the energy to keep up. :) Anyways, for the first time ever I didn't wake up with the initial thought of "Its my birthday!" I guess that's what happens when you have an adorable baby girl to dote on 24/7. :) My birthday was greeted with the hubby saying the obligatory "Happy Birthday," but then I received two gifts; one from him - an OSU white hoodie, love it(!) and a "Mommy & Me" frame from Amelia. I did work on my birthday, but thankfully it was a short day (only 5 hours, whoops!). I had lunch with my Mom; we went to the Mohawk in German Village. I had the greatest chicken salad wrap, even if it did have celery in it. :) I didn't have any birthday dessert, mainly b/c everything I want I can't have since I'm still avoiding dairy. :( Sooner or later this won't be the case, but for now its what is best for Amelia and I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit longer. I digress; for dinner Jamie made my my favorite spaghetti dinner. All in all it was a great birthday and I'm thankful to have such a great family to share in it with me!

Kiss of death

So all day yesterday Jamie bragged about Amelia's great sleep the past few days. I warned him against it & told him what would happen, yet he didn't heed my advice. And I imagine you can all guess what happened; yep, that's right, she didn't sleep thru the night. She woke up around 2:00 am & it took over an hour before she fell asleep again. Ugh. This morning I feel awful; my eyelids are heavy, my head hurts and I'm just plain exhausted! This morning I told him "I told you so" & he just said I was being superstitious. Yeah, he'll learn...I hope.

Out of ideas...for now

For days now I've tried to come up with some ideas to blog, yet my mind is blank. I have something in the wings, but it'll have to wait a while. ;-) Until then, I apologize for my lack of posts, as I know most of you are so anxiously waiting to see what's new with me and most importantly Amelia.

Nothing new on my end, but Amelia did cut a molar this week. Today she's been snotty and running a low grade fever; I don't know if its due to teething or an actual illness. Overall she acts fine and it hasn't really slowed her down. To prove it; here are a few adorable pictures I took of her today. She was given the balloon at our dinner last night and its been so fascinating to her ever since. She also began saying "Thank You" this week, but as of recently she's mum about it again. She goes back and forth with her words; one day she'll be saying something over and over again and the next day its as if she's never heard the word. She's always keeping us guessing that's for sure!

We hope to have her 1-year pictures taken tomorrow, 2 weeks later. However, she has another boo-boo; a bruise on her upper lip and two marks under her bottom lip from taking a tumble at the sitter. I'm also a little weary b/c of her fever and snotty nose today. Now I regret not having them taken 2 weeks ago when we originally scheduled them; she'll be going on 2 b/f they're done.

And to wrap things up, did you watch that game today?! Buckeyes tromped Penn State!! It was unexpected, but definitely deserved. Go Bucks!!

Happy Halloween!

Amelia's 2nd Halloween was yesterday and I do believe she had much more fun this time versus last year. If you can remember, this is her from last year:

She was only 9 days old and still so new!! Above is her scary ghost impression. :)

This year she was much more active and interested in the festivities. We dressed her up, let her walk around the house for a bit, she greeted trick-or-treat'ers, and then we took her out so the neighbors could ooooh and awwww over her. :) We were accompanied by my Mom and Amelia's three cousins. Amelia was a good sport riding in her Red Flyer wagon and holding her light-up pumpkin and juice cup the whole time. She only tried to escape a few times, thank goodness for the seat belt. :)

She didn't score any candy, although several neighbors tried to give her some. Unfortunately her milk allergy prevents her from having most of the candy being handed out, plus she's still just a baby and all that sugar is unnecessary. We walked for approximately an hour while my nieces filled their bags with goodies and Amelia watched from her cozy seat.Here she is in her bee costume. I bought it at Once Upon a Child for $6!!

And here she is modeling her new, hand-crafted OSU trick-or-treat bag. Thanks Kimberly!!!

I hope you all had as great of a Halloween. My husband can attest it is one of my favorite holidays!! Happy Halloween, one day later. :)

1st Year Pictures

I know you're all anxiously waiting to see Amelia's 1st year pictures, or at least I think you are (LOL!), but we decided to put them off for a week. We made this decision for two reasons; one, we're extremely busy with all the other activities we have planned this weekend and two, because she still has that nasty bruise on the bridge of her nose and we want it to heal before photographing the evidence. J/K!! So we plan to do them next weekend when things are less hectic.

Today we're preparing for tomorrow's party. That includes cooking, cleaning and pulling out our hair in the process! Whoever voluntarily chooses to host a 30+ people (1/2 being kids!) at their house needs their head examined, so I'm signing myself for one later today! :-) Once its over I'll breathe easy, but until then I might just have to drink lots of wine. J/K, maybe. ;-)

And for those of you who missed the 1st birthday photos here are a few we took that day:

Me and her waiting for the baby judging contest, with her birthday sign.


Drinking her juice in her adorable outfit.


The priceless look on her face when presented with her birthday cupcake!


And her adorable face when she realized it was hers! :)

One Year Ago Today!

Our little girl burst into our lives at exactly 9:46 am. She weighed 7 lb 5 oz and measured 18 1/4" long. She had a head full of hair and a face that instantly touched my heart. You can read her birth story HERE. This first year of her life has been magnificent, joyful, and at times trying. :) We now can't imagine life without her and each day brings a new joy while watching her play and "talk" to us.

In honor of Amelia's birthday a party is scheduled this Sunday. I hope it goes smoothly and my only fear is that I'm not yet prepared and its in just a few days! I'm going to tackle making the cake myself, which anyone who knows me knows I'm not a baker. However, I can follow a recipe and hopefully it'll turn out great!

And tomorrow we are having Amelia's first birthday photos taken at Portrait Innovations, which is where we've gone the last 3 times. They do a wonderful job and we can never narrow it down without a lot of hemming and hawing. I'm still trying to decide on her outfits (they allow 2); however, I know the pictures will be beautiful regardless of her dressing changes. :)

Happy Birthday darling baby girl! Don't grow up too fast!!