Kylie's 1st year!

I can't believe she is one years old! This year went by so fast...I wanted to write about a lot of details so I can remember how I was feeling and what worked or didn't work for us in case there is a baby #2 :) In those first few weeks it is tough when baby doesn't sleep through the night what got us through was TEAM WORK! I take that back team work got us through the first year lol :) I would go to sleep around 9 pm and Paul would stay up with Kylie and change her, put her in her pj's, and feed her a bottle at 11 pm, then she would wake up around 3 am and I would get up to feed her it worked really well for us! We never really were sleep deprived. And lucky for us she started sleeping through the night at 1 month old! My sister gave us great advice to wake baby up every 2 hours during the day to eat and then at bed time put her in her crib and let her sleep till she wakes up. that helps get her on a schedule and know day time is for eating/playing and night time is for sleeping! Teething was really hard cuz it would come out of no where everything was fine we would say oh this is great she sleeps so well we have it easy then she would wake up for 2 weeks straight crying in the middle of the night and we were cluless. Was she hungry? need a diaper? Tylenol and a bottle always worked! And just when I thought I would never sleep again it passed and she slept 13 hours again! The 1st year is crazy! Always having to adjust especially first time parents who don't have a clue :) My exclusively pumping...oh boy. What was I thinking? lol jk...I'm glad I was able to pump and give her breastmilk for the 1st year of her life, it was worth it. What got me through was just taking it 1 day at a time. My goal was 6 months, once I got there I said why not another 6? I'm happy to say I"m down to pumping 2 times a day for 6 minutes and about to eliminate one of those pumpings! I'll be done in a week!!! I hope if we have another baby she will breastfeed from me! It would be so much easier but if not, I'll probably pump for a month and then do formula...I just don't think I could do another year of this! Kylie goes to bed at 7 pm every night and wakes up at 8:30 am every morning it is SO nice to have all that time at night with Paul! We stay up late almost every night just enjoying the 2 of us! Dates alone are very important! Cooking dinner together is a lot of fun too! Life with 1 baby is pretty simple and I have adjusted to it and I know if we decide to have another one we will adjust and love her/him just as much! But not any time soon! :) The only problem I had during my pregnancy was to eat breakfast right away so I don't get nautious. Also, Don't eat french toast, apparently miss Kylie hated it, I always got sick eating it, and she won't eat it even now lol. During labor I was told to relax and not fight the contractions and tense up but relax and let my body do it's thing...it really helped things progress quickly! I honestly don't think I could do it without the epidural, it's easy to think I only had 3 centimeters to go I could have done it, but I was in so much pain, I am an epidural kind of girl :) I think this is all... Ive had this on my mind to do kind of a letter to myself for the future...

One of my favorite....

memories from when I was growing up was going on our family vacation every summer to see my family in Illinois! I was inspired to write this because my grandma went to heaven yesterday :( It is hard to let her go and to think I'll never get another letter from her telling me about her beautiful flowers and her cute cats or another phone call asking me how I'm doing. I know she's in a better place. But selfishly I wish her and my grandpa and dad all were still here...If I could have just one wish it would be just for ONE day to be in that grey mini van with my mom, dad, brother, and sister driving on that turnpike heading north to grandma and grandpas! We did it every summer and we would leave around 2 AM and drive strait through! I would be so excited I could hardly sleep! I remember the nights before me and my sister would 'organize' our side of the car with our toys and my baby dolls :) Brian always sat in the middle bench by himself. My mom always packed some snacks and lunches and a cooler for all our food. We had music not CD's back then lol cassette tapes :) I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful scenery and counting down the hours and I always asked my dad "are we closer to home or grandma's?" at least 30 times through the trip! When we would finally reach the Mt. Vernon exit I was sooooooo excited and anxious to run out of the car and be first to ring the doorbell and always greeted by grandma and grandpa and Molly barking :) the house always smelled amazing! Grandma was always cooking or baking something yummy! I loved sitting around the dining room table with grandma and looking through magazines of clothes and house decorations that was a lot of fun and we had the same taste in everything! These are the memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. I love you Grandma! Thank you for everything you did for me and all the things you taught me. See you soon
*I loved sneaking up on grandma and scaring her when she was doing laundry she always laughed and said I was going to give her a heart attack!
*I loved when she gave me cookies to feed the squirrels!
*I loved drawing pictures for her!
*I loved when she let me help her when she was baking
*I loved when grandma told me stories! I could listen all day!
*I loved listening to grandma period. When my mom was on the phone with her I would get real close to hear her voice :)
*I loved that she was there for me at my dads funeral when I started crying because I didn't think it looked like him she pulled me to the side and said "when you look at him from this angle it looks like your dad"
*I loved watering the flowers with her!
Just a few of the million memories I have

Thanksgiving & Christmas tree

Thanksgiving was a great day! The food was amazing as always and it was fun to hang out with my family. I got to play madden with my brother and that was a lot of fun! I think miss Kylie enjoyed herself too she is very social and loves people! I gave her a tiny bit of sweet potatoes from my finger and a tiny bit of cool whip which she loved lol :) 

We set up the Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun! Kylie was very curious about the big box and she seemed excited as we were setting it up! Her favorite was the lights and putting the ornaments on with daddy! 

I went black Friday shopping with my mom, it was a lot of fun we got up at 4 (I know we are crazy) and headed off to Home Depot and Toys r Us and then stopped by JcPenney on our way home. I got Kylie these adorable socks with an animal on them and my mom got her a ginger bread girl from build a bear! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got up to go with her, Kylie stayed home fast asleep with my grandma and was still sleeping when we got home :)

1st Anniversary

I was inspired to write about it since I found my old blog and loved looking back so here it is! It started out with the doorbell ringing and me getting beautiful flowers with a note from Paul :) I remember it was freezing cold I think it was record cold for Florida! We went out to the mall in the afternoon and he bought me a white and pink pair of Pumas and then he bought a Hurley sweater and we drove to City Place! We walked around I think I had 4 sweaters on and I was still shaking :) We ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory and came home to eat our cake from 1 year ago! It still tasted good to us! :) Paul brought our mattress out into the living room and lit candles and put them all around the bed it was so romantic and a good change of scenery. We relaxed and watched a movie together! I remember being worried about Reesie being to cold, her cage was covered and we put a lamp right next to her cage for heat :) When we woke up that next morning our power was out and we were holding onto each other to keep warm! It was such a great day and night! Here are some pictures!

Proud Mommy :)

In my online mom group we have picture contests every other week and my angel won 3 weeks in a row I was so proud :) Daddy was very excited every time I showed him that his baby won :) Here are the pictures!

Week 1: Wild Card (Fav pic of all time)

Week 2: Naked Baby

Week 3: Messy Faces

This will be funny to look back on :)

So last night I was in the kitchen holding Kylie getting her bottle ready and I see a HUGE fly go past me it freaked me out at first and (with Kylie in my arms) I was running all around the kitchen and front part of the house trying to swat it with a paper towel that didn't work to well so I got out the broom I was hitting mid air and banging walls and Kylie thought it was the funniest thing I have never heard her laugh so hard..I guess it was pretty funny watching her mom try to kill a fly with a broom..I did end up killing it so that was our fun night lol :)*Always have to add pictures of my angel :)*

Baby names!!! :)

We have both decided that we are not sure we want another baby..we just want to enjoy Kylie for a few years and then maybe around her 4th birthday we'll talk about another one! But it's SO much fun thinking of future baby names :) I have a bad memory so this is for future reference in case I forget lol if we have a boy his name will be Landon Joseph we have had that picked out for a few years I don't care who has that name but that is non negotiable lol! And for girls..:) I loooove girls! I could have 5 daughters and be happy! My latest name I love is Reagan! Also I like Aubrey...We considered Jordyn as a name for Kylie but it's kind of manly for a girl. lol. Hmm Sydney, Lily, Taylor, but again kind of manly and Brooklyn :) Basically twin girls would be fun :)