Archive | July, 2012

Happy 2nd Birthday Zoey!- A Letter From Your Mommy

27 Jul

Zoey,

Happy 2nd Birthday from your Mommy! I can’t believe my sweet little girl is two years old. It is crazy to think how far me and you have come over the past year. This time last year you were scared to death and clung to me and your daddy for dear life. You had some fun times but seeing your personality come out this year has been so amazing to witness. Words cannot describe how special it was to see you come to life with us. We are over the moon in love with you and you have us wrapped around your little finger for sure.

So you turned 2 this month and I am telling you that THAT DAY you became really independent. It all started in the Target parking lot where you let everyone probably in Birmingham know that you were not happy when you accidentally spilt your peanuts in the parking lot. Or the next day when we went shopping at Publix and you decided to grab a pack of Tic-Tacks and open them up while I was putting the groceries on the counter. I found you chugging the entire bottle and as I scrapped globs of them out of your mouth you let everyone know again how independent you were! It got so bad that the Publix employees asked me to go ahead and swipe my debit card and wait outside where they would meet us with our groceries…yep girl you are sure giving this mommy a run for her money! I may have gray hair by my 30th birthday.

So, yes me and you are sure liking to butt heads lately but thank goodness right now you are totally smitten with your daddy. For example you don’t like the way I dress you and fix your hair in the morning but you will just laugh and giggle if your dad gets you ready.

I have to say as much as it drives me crazy your strong will about everything makes me love you even more. I am just glad your fits are only few and far between! :) You just like to really make them memorable when they do occur…ha!

We have had some crazy fun times since you turning two. You learned how to swim one week after turning 2!! We were all REALLY impressed with your swimming skills. You also can climb on and off any and everything at the park. You are one SUPER brave little girl. If I am honest it scares me quite a bit your lack of fear. You are a climber and I even found you on top of the stove the other day. I am still not sure how you got up there but you did. Every day we are all just fascinated with your will and determination to anything and everything you decide you are going to do.

So some other interesting things about you lately…You all of the sudden love your baby doll. You liked toys in the past but this certain baby doll you have to take it to school every day and to bed at night. You are still my big eater and I would have to say eggs and rice are still your favorites but you will pretty much eat anything I give you beside sandwiches for some reason.

You are quickly becoming my little mini-me! I love it to pieces…Your mannerisms, words, well everything just about are mimicking me. You have even started to talk and comment on things like I do. I still can’t believe you are mine and mine forever. I am loving the fact that you want to be just like me even if it scares your dad half to death. I know you wanting to be like me will be short-lived so I will soak it up for all it is worth while I still can!

Another big thing with you right now is that you love to dance…you really, really love to move anytime you hear a beat! You dance anytime and all the time. And you are pretty good too compared to other kids your age! Girl you can groove like it is going out of style. I wish I had your moves and confidence! I pray you never lose the excitement and passion when dancing. The other night we were driving home late and you were pretty much asleep but then a good song came on the radio and your shoulders started moving. It wasn’t much and you didn’t even open your eyes but you just couldn’t let a good song go by without you giving it some kind of dance move.

But out of all things you are doing and accomplishments you have had lately the one thing I am absolutely most proud of is your compassionate heart. You will always feed me bites of your food, share your stuff with me, you care about my opinion (well at least most of the time) and you care about others feelings too. I have never been so proud of you then the day your teacher said there was a new kid in your class having a really hard time and was crying real bad all day. She said that all day you took her toy after toy and snack after snack trying to make her happy. I was SO proud of your empathetic and loving heart! And that is just you baby girl. Now don’t get me wrong you are two and you still really struggle with sharing your favorite toys with your friends but for the most part you care about others and it makes me beam with pride!

I worry to death and think and over think how I am raising you and pray that I am teaching you to be a well-rounded, fun personality, and a loving  godly woman. Every morning we pray on the way to your school for lots of things but we always wrap it up by praying for us to display the fruits of the spirit that day. I pray as you grow up you exhibit Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, and Self Control with every word or action you do.

I know life is tough and baby girl you had a very rough start to your life and there have been bumps in the road along the way but your resilience and brave demeanor through it all has been so awe-inspiring. I love you more than you could ever know! I pray I can give you the life that you deserve because you are one amazingly special little lady!

Happy Birthday Zoey!

Love you…

Mommy

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Week in Review: July 19th- July 25th, 2012

25 Jul

We started off this week by having Zoey’s  Aunt Felicia come over to visit. Z loved getting to play with her “Feshia” and had a great time at the park. I just hated it for Felicia that she got to witness one of Zoey’s big fits. You all know 2 year olds are really hard headed but don’t worry Zoey has met her match with this mamma. Every time she is throwing a fit I always tell her “Mommy will always win…just go ahead and give in now!” So even if that means Z has to sit in her chair till she calms down when guests are over then that is what it takes…ha!

The next day Z was in her mood again once we got home from work/school. Not sure why and I pray it is a bigger issue like she is teething or something because if not I am in trouble. See I will let you witness this fit… (Not sure why you would want to subject yourself to this video but this is real live here!)

But on Thursday night things started to take a turn for the better when we went up to The Summit to do a little exchanging on some clothes that Dana had got her. Like I have mentioned before Z loves to shop so I guess that was the reason for the turnaround! :)

Friday after work Z, Eric, and I went to dinner at Broadways for our favorite yummy baked potatoes then we HAD to visit Steel City Pops again. I am telling you these are some amazing all natural, organic, locally grown ingredients to make the most delicious popsicle.

Saturday Zoey had a fun morning hanging out with Eric while I ran some errands then we went to our neighborhood farmers market where Z had the best time jumping in the bouncy house. Saturday I had a photo shoot so Eric and Z went to the park while I was out working. After Z was in bed that night Eric and I had a great night staying up late and watching movies together.

Sunday we had a fun morning swimming at the pool and Zoey showing Eric how she should swim. You can see more about that here.

We were then back to work on Monday and Monday’s are typically really hard on both me and Zoey and we were both sound asleep and down for the night at 7:30. So needless to say on Tuesday we were both very well rested! After work we went for a walk around the golf course then came back to the house to do the exciting things like putting away mounds of laundry, dishes, vacuuming…boring! But I guess those things needs to be done.

So that leads us to the end of the week. Today after work we went out to dinner with me family to celebrate my awesome brother getting into Medical School. We believed that this was the year and had planned this dinner months before his acceptance letter. So it was about time we were finally able to have this feast! :) All I can say is that I am SO proud of my brother. He is not only an amazing man of God but his kind heart and determination is pretty incredible too. And I am so honored to be his sister! So it was a perfect way to wrap up our week…

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100 Hours till the Olympics + My Little Olympian

23 Jul

That’s right…it is only 100 hours until the Olympics!

So as you all know I am just beaming with pride for my little super star swimmer. So yesterday when we were at the pool Eric shot a bunch of movies of her swimming. Once we got home we got to talking about the Olympics because we are all super pumped around here of the big event coming up! I got to giggling about how funny it would be to make a movie of her swimming with the Olympic song playing in the back. So of course I had to make it…

It cracks me up each time we watch it (and you know Zoey has watched it about a million times) how dramatic the music makes her swimming.

So enjoy my little Olympian!

 

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Week in Review: July 12th- 18th, 2012

18 Jul

What an exciting start to this week!!! My sister Kendall finally had her sweet baby girl…Amelia Blake Ansley. You can read more about her arrival and see her slide show here.
So this week we spent most of our nights at the hospital hanging out with Blake, Kendall, and Tim. Eric was out of town at Comic Con for the first part of the week but he made it home Friday night so he could go up to the hospital to see her too!

We also had a great weekend! On Saturday Zoey and I got up early to go meet Liz and Hannah at iJump. The girls (and us) had a great time jumping around on all of the inflatables. After our play session we decided to go and eat lunch at Urban Cookhouse then had a SUPER yummy dessert at Steel City Pops. It was a great day and both me and Zoey took a long nap once home!
On Sunday Zoey and I got up early and headed on over to the pool. She has really been showing interest in swimming without her floaties. Well I should say she has REALLY been showing disinterest in wearing the floaties! So I figured I would try to teach her to swim and after about an hour my baby girl was swimming!!! She swims underwater and comes up for breaths but it is SUPER impressive. I had my first “really proud mom moment”. It was this excitement and just pride beaming from the inside for her accomplishment!! She was extra proud of herself too because others at the pool kept coming up and telling her good job! ☺
The remainder of our week we were back being busy at work, visiting the hospital, and just our normal nightly routines.

I hope all of you had a good week too! ☺

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Amelia Blake Ansley

16 Jul

My sister Kendall finally had her sweet baby girl…Amelia Blake Ansley. They are calling her Blake but I really want to call her Mills. :) Right now I am respecting their wishes but don’t worry my sweet girl I will call you Mills soon!

So after 9.5 months of waiting she found out on Wednesday that she would be having a C-Section on Thursday morning due to the baby being breached. I was SUPER excited but the only drawback was me starting my new job and not getting to take off. But since it was a scheduled C-Section then we at least knew what time. She was scheduled for 8:00 am and thought we would get to see the baby around 10:30 and she was just about right. So I made my work calls that morning then ran over just in time for the baby reveal to the family. And since I had to leave right at 11:00 all the family members said I could hold her first…what a sacrifice (especially for the grandmothers) but it was super special to me! :)

Now for those of you who don’t know my sister she is one tough woman…like really tough. She wanted an all-natural child birth but since she had to have a C-section she asked the doctor how to make it as natural as possible. They told her she could do an epidural only and no morphine so she said yes. I was like “You are a crazy lady! One thing to go no meds when you are doing it the way God intended but another when you are literally being sliced open!” but like I said before she is super tough and she did GREAT! I mean she was up and dancing in the hospital just days later with Zoey and the only thing she had taken since getting out of surgery was motrin! I am super, super impressed with her and think she really deserves a standing ovation for her bravery and determination!

Ok so back to the baby…she is SUPER cute and tiny and guess what?!? Not only is Zoey and the baby’s birthday only 4 days off from being the same day but Baby Blake was only 0.4 oz off from Zoey’s birth weight and the same length as her! It was so cool for me and Eric to see exactly how tiny Zoey was when she was born! And if she looked anything like Blake she was itty bitty then!! I left the hospital so in awe of how we are created and how our bodies work. I mean I “know” we all grow but to think Zoey just 2 years ago was that small and is now the size she is pretty impressive if you sit there and really think about! Us as humans are so cool! :)

We are so excited to have Blake as a part of our family. Zoey loves her already. She was cute “giving her massages” as Tim liked to call it when she was holding her. I am really excited about our girls being so close in age and growing up together. If they are anything like me and Kendall together we are in trouble! : ) I am envisioning these gymnastic tournaments in Honey and Granddaddy’s backyard…

Below is a slide show I made for Kendall, Tim and Black to document Blake’s Birthday!

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Week in Review: July 5th- 11th, 2012

11 Jul

Since I had to go back to work on Thursday and Friday of this week and Zoey’s school was closed Eric’s mom ended up keeping Zoey on Thursday. And Zoey had the best time playing with her Nana that morning and then later that afternoon she got to play with her cousins Taylor, Bella, Mae-Mae and her out of town cousins from Tennessee Nate and Ben! All I know is that she was having a BLAST with them because when I went to pic her up she did not want to go home with me…tear! :) But I finally got her out the door by promising to meet back up with the cousins later that night for dinner at Cafe Lazo. I was happy too because I got to visit with everyone then.

The next day Zoey got to go play at her BFF Hannah’s house. Of course she had a great time there too. She got to play at their house and go out for a fun lunch at Zoe’s. Again I don’t know what I would do without our families and my stay at home mom friends! :)

On Friday night Zoey and I went over to my BFF Dana’s house for dinner and to visit with our good friend Paula who was in town from Ohio with her family. Zoey had fun playing in Dana’s park with Paula’s little boys. It was great getting to catch up with them! But we had to head back home around 8:00 because I had to get ready for Zoey’s 2nd Birthday party the next day.

So the next morning we were up early working away but the party came together just about when the guests started showing up! I had pinned some ideas on Pinterest a while back but due to the job change and being in New York I honestly didn’t start planning the party until a couple of days before so I was super excited with how it turned out. It was a small little get together with our families and Zoey’s favorite friends. I KNOW she had so much fun and it made me so giddy seeing her. As I was sitting there watching her at the party interact with all of our friends and family it made me realize how far we had come in one year. Her last birthday party she was only home for 3 weeks and she was scared to death and we had to bribe her to take pictures with others but this year she was the biggest and most loving little camera ham!

She was also blessed with some pretty cool gifts too! Thank you so much everyone who came over to the party and blessed Zoey with gifts! It was so very nice of you!

For Zoey’s actual birthday on Sunday we had a yummy birthday breakfast, went shopping at her favorite store target (we had to get batteries to run all of her new toys), then we went home and played with all of her exciting toys. She had the best time that afternoon just playing around the house with her goodies! And not to mention eating the delicious cake from Edgars that Dana brought to the party the day before. We maybe had three pieces each on Sunday! :)

It was sad when the birthday weekend had come and gone and we were back to work but on a good note my job is going great! I am getting into the swing of things. Me and Z were gone from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night several days this week so it has been LONG days to say the least but we have still had some fun at nights with each other blowing bubbles, walking to the park, and playing with her new toys. What keeps me going is I know that things will slow down soon! Until then we just have to make it work!

I hope all of you have had a good week too! And another Happy Birthday for my amazing little 2 year old that we just LOVE to the moon and back!!

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Week in Review: July 4th, 2012

4 Jul

Happy 4th of July!!! I hope all of you have had a good week.

I started off this week by wrapping up my first week out in the field with my new job! A nice break in the week was Thursday night we went to dinner with Dana and Patrick. Dana had missed seeing Zoey too! By the time the weekend came along I was MORE than ready to spend some time with Zoey. We woke up early on Saturday and went to one of our neighbor’s yardsale. And we were able to get LOTS of cute clothes for Zoey! :) After the yardsale Zoey and I hit the pool to stay cool in this super hot weather. We then went home and both took a 4 hour nap…SO nice!

Later that night we went to my sister in laws engagement party! Woo hoo! Jillian is getting married! Zoey had the best time getting to dance around with her cousins and of course she said YES to being her Aunt J’s flower girl!

On Sunday we woke up and watched church online. Z loved worship so we ended up watching that part twice. Afterwards we headed on out to our neighborhood pool again where Kendall and Tim decided to join us. And let me tell you my sweet sister had everyone looking at her super cute belly! Baby update…Blake may be here as soon as next week. Crazy!

On Monday night I had the most terrible stomach bug known to man! I am not sure if it was a bug or food poisoning. All I know is that I ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor it was so bad! So on Tuesday I was still feeling so weak and horrible that I ended up having to take a sick day. I felt so bad taking a day so soon with starting the job but there was no way I could have made calls that day. I even called my dad to pick Zoey up from school because even when 5:00 rolled around I had no energy to even think about driving or feeding her.

So that leads us to today the 4th of July!! We came down to the lake this morning to spend time with my family. I feel back to normal today Praise the Lord that whatever it was only lasted a short time. We have had yummy food, fun in the sun, boat rides, fireworks and just a nice and relaxing midweek break. We all have to go back tonight for work tomorrow and Friday but it was still a fun 4th.

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