Wordless Wednesday: Shelby's Favorite Spot in the Kitchen

It's a good thing she's cute ;)

A Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving

Shelby finally decided to wake up at 9:45 on Turkey Day (she is such a sleepyhead these days, but I'm not complaining!!!), and we got on the road around 11am for Jackson. I had the plan worked out perfectly in my mind..the drive would take us 3 hours, which would get us there just in time for me to get Shelby her lunch and get her down for a nap at a decent time. Well, I totally didn't think about how hard it would be to get an adult, a nearly 30 pound baby, a pack n play, bumbo seat & tray, baby's lunch, mama's lunch, sound machine, blankets, diaper bag {there's a few more things, but I'm pretty sure you get the idea at this point..it was a LOT of stuff! Ha!} into the hotel room on the 3rd floor by.my.self. And I had to do it quickly b/c Shelby was hungry and tired. From the time we rolled into the parking lot of the hotel to when I got Shelby down in her pack n play was probably about an hour. But those 60 minutes...oh those were probably the most stressful, chaotic, and ugly 60 minutes of my life. It wasn't pretty, but I survived. And I learned my lesson...us girls will not be going to a hotel on our own anytime in the near future. Luggage carts were not meant to be loaded or steered with a non-walking 14 month old in tow. Period.

Okay, onto the enjoyable part of our day! Derek got off work and back to the hotel around 6:30 that evening, so we quickly woke Shelby up from her nap (I told you she is quite the sleeyhead!) and headed over to Cracker Barrel. This was hands-down the best behaved/most fun Shelby has ever been/had at a restaurant..it's like she knew it was a special holiday! As you can see by the pictures below, she loved sliding her menu {notice the blur in the pictures?!} back and forth across the table..ha! And we had a big milestone on this evening...tonight when we gave Shelby the crayons, she scribbled for the first time! We were so proud! {But don't worry..after about 5 minutes of scribbling, the crayons went straight into the mouth! Note to self: add non-toxic crayons to the long list of things I am thankful for!}

{I love how determined she looks about her scribbling in the pic below!}

We happened to run into one of the other residents from Keesler who is up in Jackson this month, so he joined us for dinner. Shelby was definitely hamming it up for our company! :)

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed some ice cream from the lobby to enjoy as a little Thanksgiving dessert before bed. Shelby wouldn't partake in any of our Thanksgiving dinner, but she was all about the dessert! :)



Daddy had to head to the hospital around 5:45am on Friday morning, but us girls slept in until around 9, packed up, grabbed some Chick-fil-a for this Mama, and hit the road around 10:30. It was definitely a whirlwind trip and road trips are never easy with a little one, but I'm so thankful the three of us could be together for Thanksgiving. And I'm thankful we got to spend some time with one of Derek's co-workers--it was nice getting to know someone that Derek spends his days with, and I'm glad we kept him from being alone on the holiday!

Hope y'all all had a great holiday weekend as well! I feel like I am so behind on the blog, but I have gotten all of Christmas decorations/lights up and most of my shopping done..and that feels so good! Hopefully I'll be back soon with Shelby's very belated 14 month post. Until then, happy Cyber Monday to you! :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shelby & I are packing up the car this morning and heading up to Jackson, MS. I think I've mentioned it before, but Derek has been there on TDY this month working at a civilian hospital. He has to work today but should hopefully get off around 6pm, and us girls will be waiting for him in his hotel room until then! Rumor has it that Cracker Barrel is open until 10pm on Thanksgiving Day...so depending on what time Derek gets off, we will either go to Cracker Barrel as a family to eat our Thanksgiving dinner or Derek will just pick some up on his way home if it's too close to Shelby's bedtime. So it definitely won't be a typical holiday spent with our families, but at least the three of us will be together..and I don't have to cook! ;)

And since I don't have any Thanksgiving-esque pictures to share, I will leave with you these pictures {I figured they're pictures with leaves, which represents fall, which is close enough to Thanksgiving right??} of two people I am oh so thankful for...

{playing in the leaves with Grampy when we were in GA earlier this month}

I hope this holiday finds you surrounded by family, friends, and yummy food! Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! :)

Wordless Wednesday

{having fun in the backseat with Auntie Em while we were in GA earlier this month}

Tuesday Tidbits

Here are a few tidbits to start your Tuesday morning! :)

--We are beyond THRILLED that our beloved Dawgs have clenched the SEC East...SEC Championship, here we come!!!!
--But it's also a sad time for the Bulldog Nation as we lost Larry Munson, THE voice of Georgia football, a couple of days ago.

--And for the last football related tidbit, how exciting is it that the teams ranked 1st, 2nd, and third in the country are all SEC teams! Crazy! And coincidentally, they're all SEC West teams...looks like we're going to have our work cut out for us in the SEC championship game! Ha!
--I finally made my DIY fall wreath that I mentioned HERE. I planned to make it in time to put up right after Halloween...but since we were out of town, it just got made this weekend. :) It will only be up for a couple of days before the Christmas wreath will go up!

To attach the pumpkins to the styrofoam wreath, I used paper clips. I just straightened them out and stuck one end in the pumpkin and poked the other end into the styrofoam. It was so easy! So now I think I can reuse this wreath in the springtime by popping the pumpkins off and maybe replacing them with Easter eggs or birds and switching out the ribbon? I'm excited about possibly getting more use out of it!
--For those of you that may remember, my mom flew out to Biloxi right before Halloween. Then, Shelby, my mom, and I drove back to GA together for about a week and a half. My mom helped us on the drive back to Biloxi last week, and she just flew home yesterday afternoon. She was with us for almost a month! Thanks for putting your life on hold to spend so much time with us, Mom! We miss you already!
--Derek actually got this past weekend off (he's been gone TDY this whole month) and came home. He headed back to Jackson a couple of hours after my mom left yesterday...so it's been especially quiet here today.
--Since my mom was here, Derek & I got to sneak away for a little date night. We went to see the new movie in the Twilight saga...what a sweet hubby I have to always accompany me to my girly movie choices. :) I loved the movie and can't wait for the next one to come out!
--I can't believe Thanksgiving is just two days away & that Christmas is a month from Friday..ahhhh!

I Heart JT!

If you knew me in high school or college, then you would know that I loved me some *NSync back in the day. Okay, who am I kidding? I still love them, and I still have all of their CD's in my car to prove it. I'm not ashamed! And if you've been reading the blog for long, you'd know that I previously had my walls adorned with pictures and posters of JT & *NSync {which you can see HERE}. In high school, I waited in line at midnight for the release of the new *NSync CD along my sister and two of my best friends.
Then in college, my friends and I did the same thing when JT released his debut solo album.
I always loved his music and of course thought he was oh so cute...but I think I love JT now even more than I did back then...and HERE is the reason why.

And on a totally separate note, I love that my best friends from high school are still my best friends today despite the miles between us. So thankful for those girls!

One Dress & Three Generations

When my mom was around 12 months old, she had her picture made in a little yellow dress. My mom saved that dress for 30 years and had pictures of my sister and me both wearing it at around the same age. Well, here we are 27 years later...and I just had my daughter's picture taken in the very same dress. What a special keepsake these photographs are of three generations of girlies in our family :)

my mom

me

my sister Emily

Shelby

I love looking at these pictures and seeing the similarities and differences between the four of us at roughly the same age. I definitely won the award for the most hair, and Emily wins for most teeth. And if Shelby were to get an award, it would be for the chubbiest arms. OMG. I thought it was an ordeal it to get this dress on for the picture, and then when it came to take it off...I thought we were going to have to literally cut it off of her. It was beyond ridiculous how tight it was on her poor little arms....lots of tears were shed trying to get it off! This girl definitely earned her spot in the 100th percentile for height & weight..ha! {Okay, truth be told she actually dropped down to the 96th or 98th for weight at her 12 month appt.} But I am happy to say, the dress is still in one piece and ready Shelby's future sister or cousin to wear one day :) I just hope it fits them better than it did Shelby! ;)

Business in the front....

. . . and a party in the back!

Shelby had some crazy post-bath hair last night, and I just had to get a picture of it! Ha! Her hair is really getting a lot longer & thicker..but only in the back! When her hair is wet, it looks like she has a rat tail or a mullet...but I hate to cut it since we want to grow. But I will say that it makes for some interesting looks sometimes! :)

Happy Veterans Day!

This nation will remain the land of the free, only so long as it is the home of the brave.

{Elmer Davis}
I have the utmost respect for all those brave men & women in uniform who have served or are currently serving our nation. You are what makes our country so great. I am especially proud to be the daughter of an Army veteran and an Air Force wife!

Here is my sweet hubby & me on the day he commissioned into the Air Force. {It was also our graduation day.} I had no clue what our future in the Air Force would look like, but I was so excited to begin this journey together!

And just for fun, here are two more old school pictures of us from ROTC Dining Out events...

Derek and I dated in college when he was in ROTC, and it was such a fun experience for the both of us! Little did I know that the Air Force would become our life, and I couldn't be happier about it. We are proud to call many of our nation's heroes our friends.
Happy Veterans Day!

Wordless Wednesday: A Trip to the New Orleans Aquarium!

And one last picture to share with you....just keepin' it real :)

A New Look!

In case you haven't noticed, my little blog got a makeover last week! I'm SO excited about the new look! Rachel from Uniquely Yours is the creative mastermind behind it all. She is wonderful--so easy to work with & super-quick with the turnaround! If your blog is in need of a makeover, I would highly recommend her!

And speaking of websites you should check out, go take a look at this Etsy shop! A super sweet bloggy friend of mine just opened up her own Etsy shop selling all sorts of custom & personalized Christmas decor items. She is amazingly talented & crafty, and all of her stuff is amazing! And to top it all off, she is hosting a giveaway on her blog this week..fun, fun!

Happy Tuesday to you! :)

13!

It's hard to believe Shelby's first birthday has come and gone, and we have a 13.5 month old on our hands! We are well over-due for a 13 month post for Miss Shelby. {I am planning to continue the monthly posts through her second birthday.}
Here is what Miss Shelby is up to these days....

--a couple of days after your first birthday, you started doing the official baby crawl! No more army crawl for you!
--you can now pull up to standing!
--you can also go from standing to sitting very well! You are so cautious about it, which just tickles me to death. I have always been the nervous/cautious type, and apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! I always see other babies falling down after they've been standing up for a while..not you! I could probably count on one hand the number of times you've fall b/c you are just so darn careful that it never happens!
--you are now drinking whole milk, and you love it!
--we stopped giving you Prevacid after your 12 month appointment with the pediatrician, and you seem to be doing great without it!
--at about 12.5 months, you started to drop your afternoon nap. Your morning nap was still long (2.5-3 hrs), but you wouldn't always fall asleep in the afternoons. I tried cutting your morning nap shorter to "preserve" the afternoon nap, but that didn't work! So we would just let you take your long morning nap, and then you would have your afternoon "rest time" in your crib. Some days you would fall asleep, but most days you just sit up there babbling and playing for about an hour.
--still booty-scooting all over the place! It is your favorite thing to do!
--you are still a very picky eater, just like your mama was! We still feed you the purred baby food at every meal b/c that is the only way we can get fruits {other than bananas, of course!} & veggies in you.
--you had a rough bout of constipation this month. We are still struggling with it a bit, but you are thankfully doing MUCH better!

We love you so much, Shelby-girl!

Top Five Friday: Halloween Memories!

It's Friday and I haven't done a Top Five Friday post in for-ev-er and I have an abudance of Halloween-related pictures/things to catch you up on....thus, the Halloween edition of Top Five Friday! :) So in no particular order, here are five precious memories that I want to remember about spending Halloween with a 13 month old....

5. Seward Farms.
We went to a farm in Southern Alabama one Saturday with Shelby, and her favorite part was standing up in the hayride and looking out over the rail.

4. Playgroup.
We had a Halloween themed playgroup the week of Halloween with our friends where all the kiddos dressed up in their costumes and had a little treat exchange. We thought it would be fun to get a picture of all the kiddos in their Halloween cuteness. It was no easy feat to get a picture of them all sitting still in the same place at the same time, but they sure are cute! :)

3. Pumpkin Patch.
And by pumpkin patch, I mean a bunch of pumpkins sitting in a church parking lot. :)
2. Trick or Treating!

We only took Shelby to about 4 or 5 of our neighbors' house to get a couple of pictures and of course to get a little extra candy to add to our stash to give out {we have a ton of kiddos in our neighborhood, and I felt like I bought way too much candy this year & last year but we ran out of candy both times!}. But she seemed to have more fun at home watching the other kids come up to our door!

1. Eating yummy things she shouldn't be eating! :)
We caught Shelby red-handed on Halloween night with candy corn in her mouth!
My mom baked Derek a pumpkin pie on Halloween for him to take with him to Jackson. {He will be gone TDY for the month of November.} I'm not a huge pumpkin pie fan, but my mom & Derek both decided to have a piece before Derek headed out...and it turns out Miss Shelby takes after her Daddy in her love of pumpkin pie! :)