Professional Family Photos

Mid-October we got our first professional family photos. I've been wanting to have a professional photo shoot forever and finally convinced Tim. We found an amazing photographer locally that had wonderful prices. We seriously hit the jackpot.

It was so hard to narrow down the choice and choose "favorites." I've been waiting to post these on the blog until I mailed out copies to friends and family...and I tend to avoid the post office like the plague, but the first batch are finally in the mail, I swear!

I will treasure these photos forever <3

Michigan Trip: The Wedding and a Whole Day Away from Baby Girl

Last month, while in Michigan, I was honored to be part of the most beautiful wedding. It was perfect. And magical. And fun. And gorgeous. And PERFECT.

Every detail was carefully thought out and executed. It was a dream.

I had the BEST time and will never forget it.

S and A were getting hitched and I got to be the matron of honor. I am so happy that I got to spend this day with them. I admire them and their relationship very much. They make it look effortless and seem like they truly have a BLAST together. I love it. They are perfect together and there is nothing fake or forced about it. They will still be this happy and in love in 60 years, I know this for sure.

A little bird poop on the groom right before the ceremony ain't no thang...

While I was at the wedding my dear friend M came and watched my baby girl. I've been away from Makaela before but this was the longest stretch (about 15 hours). At this time Makaela was new to foods, and was still drinking quite a bit of breastmilk. I was nervous about having enough milk for her, because as you may recall, some leaked on the plane. But I knew, worst case scenario M could always bring Makaela to me at the wedding for a quick feeding. Fortunately, it didn't come to that and there was plenty of food and milk to keep my girl going while I was away.

M was such a doll. She took Makaela swimming in the pool, took her on a walk at the beach, brought her tons of toys to play with, went out to lunch with her, facetime'd with Daddy and kept her happy all day long (all while she was teething! her first two teeth popped through 3 days later). She is a miracle worker. I never worried and knew that she was in good hands. I am so thankful for what M did. I am always blown away by my wonderful friends' kind hearts and generosity.

It was really nice to have this day be baby-free. I mean, I love spending time with my girl, but this day was for spending with my favorite bride!! We drank delicious coffee and ate yummy sweets while getting our hair did, we took a "detour" to the wedding venue which was full of laughs, we got ready in the bridal studio and jammed to old school Christina and other late 90s/early Y2K hits, and had a blast with her amazing photographers (they were so sweet, they even worked around my need to pump! haha).

Once the wedding started, the fun continued. S and A wrote their own vows, and they were the PERFECT (I know I keep using that word, but it's true) balance of funny and sentimental. They even snuck in a surprise tribute to their mamas. They made me get teary eyed in front of the whole crowd.

The reception was the best party ever. I didn't pass out or choke during my speech, so that was good. There was delicious food, yummy cupcakes, tasty local craft beers, late night pizza, smores at the fire pit, cigars on the balcony....I told you....every detail was perfection. The music was awesome and we danced the night away. That bride and groom know how to throw a par-tay.

Afterward, a giant school bus came and shuttled anyone who needed a ride back to their hotel or to the after party at Applebee's. Holla! I skipped out on the after party, but heard it was awesome. I'm not surprised.

Aplin Farms and The National Peanut Festival

Whenever there are special events or festivals around here we try to make it out to them, because, well there isn't a whole lot to do on an average weekend. At the end of September we went to Oktoberfest, which was conveniently held 2 blocks from our house. We envisioned drinking fun German beers and eating bratwursts and stumbling walking home. Oddly enough, they only had ONE kind of German beer and we were more into the Deep Fried Oreos than anything. It was that night that I decided I would try just about anything fried while living in 'bama. I like to call it embracing my new home.

Then there was our adventure to Aplin Farms at the end of October. We had the most perfect Fall day for our trip there. Turns out Fall does exist (in a very mild form) here! There were tractor rides, a pumpkin patch, petting farm, country store, games, and my favorite, the sunflower fields. You could pick as many sunflowers as you wanted for free. We only grabbed one, and spent time taking in the scenery. Makaela loved the wind blowing in her hair.

This past week we explored the National Peanut Festival. It was pretty cool; there were tons of food booths - a combination of traditional fair/festival vendors and countless stations set up by local churches, boy scout troops, HS bands etc. that were selling yummy foods. In keeping with my promise to devour all things fried, I of course had to try a deep fried snickers. Tim had a deep fried twinkie. 

It was so wrong it was right. 

Little did we know we would later stumble upon deep fried koolaid (yeah...I don't know how it works either), and deep fried peanut butter cups. Call me a failure, but I was a bit deep-fried-out, so I didn't give those a try. Whomp Whomp. 

We walked around for awhile, and laughed about the hilarious art on some of the rides. This one below was on a haunted house. Why are Lenny Kravitz and 50 Cent on there? We're not sure either.

Tim even won Makaela her first festival toy. It is a just-her-size-penguin and she loves it. Thanks Daddy!

The night we were there Easton Corbin was performing which was pretty neat because you could see his show, and all you had to pay was the admission to the festival ($6). We didn't stick around for the show, but we heard it was great. 

On the way home from the ol' Peanut Festival...excuse me...NATIONAL Peanut Festival... 

....we tried out a little diner close to home called Our Place Diner. It was delicious, super clean and we loved the family feel. The owners came around to each table and chatted and were so friendly. Oh and they were SO understanding and helpful when Makaela spilled my water allllll over the table. Sigh. Anyway, we'll definitely be going back there!

First time being sick

I was pretty excited by the fact that Makaela had never been sick, especially since we don't keep her in a bubble. I should have known it would only last so long though, and naturally she started to get sick the day before our Michigan trip....and was pretty much sick on and off again for all of October. Happy 6 months baby girl!

She had a runny nose and slight cough for most of the trip but never spiked a fever. Thankfully, my friend had an awesome Vapor Plug-In that helped baby M get some good sleep while we were there. I was obsessed with this thing, and ran out and bought something similar when we got home.

Once we got home she returned to normal for a few days then all of a sudden spiked a fever. The palms of her hands, her feet and her head were seriously on fire. All the poor girl wanted to do was snuggle.

Daddy was practically tethered to the couch because she was only comfortable sleeping on him like this. Fortunately, she never developed any symptoms other than the fever, but look how pathetically sad she looked....

She really wasn't whiny during this spell of sickness, she just wanted to be held and nurse all the time. Our routine during the 48 hours that she had the fever was pretty much to give her Pediacare every 4-6 hours as needed, keeping Vick's Baby Rub on her chest (even though she wasn't congested the scent seemed to soothe her) and keeping the Vaporizer plugged in. 

It was sad to see her so miserable, but we enjoyed all the snuggles. We are so thankful we were able to put things on pause and just love on this little lady for a couple days. 

Makaela's First Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! Hope everyone has some spooktacular plans. We are headed to Tennessee to visit Papa who unfortunately had an accident. Good news is he is doing much better, and we are happy to be able to spend extra time with him.

Makaela rocked a cute Halloween outfit yesterday, complete with a spooky shirt and pumpkin slippers. I asked her if she could make a scary face....she thought about it....

....and then did this....

Silly girl, you're not spooky at all!

But let's talk about her ACTUAL costume. It's the best on the planet. Bold statement, I know but I've officially turned into that mom that thinks their kid's (fill in the blank) is the greatest and is convinced if entered in a contest they WILL win. Take for example Kelly and Michael's Halloween Photo Contest, sure it's a nationwide contest on an extremely popular show, but I entered them, and they will win. I'm positive. 

I mean, c'mon....couldn't you just eat up that banana?!?! I'm pretty sure that Daddy Gorilla wants to!

We better start brainstorming ideas for next Halloween, because this will be tough to top!

Happy Monday!

In the event you need something to turn your "case of the Mondays" around, watch this...

Heck, even if you are having a great day already you should watch it...

Gotta love that baby in the mirror!!

Sensory Sunday Funday: First time Pumpkin Painting

Last Halloween I had a lil pumpkin in my belly...

And we put out our official gender reveal picture....

Now our lil pumpkin is here. On the outside. 

Oh the difference a year can make. One halloween she's on lockdown in the ol' belly, hiding behind a pumpkin shirt, and the next halloween she's sitting up wearing a spooky shirt of her own and finger painting her pumpkins. 

This was a super quick activity. Seriously, she got right to business. I think this masterpiece was created in 3 minutes flat. Talk about efficient. 

We got our pumpkins last weekend and then just picked up some Non-toxic Washable Finger Paint and we were good to go. We didn't want to use the edible paint we've made in the past because we worried it would attract critters outside. It is awfully tasty after all.  

I set out her don't-care-if-it-gets-messy blanket as usual, put small dabs of paint on a paper plate, made a painter's tape "M" and let the artist go to work. 

She was a big fan of mixing colors, so it looks mostly black, but there is a little red section to the left center to spice things up. I love how you can see her little baby finger prints all over.

After the paint dried, I covered it with Mod Podge to protect the washable color from any potential rain.

She was pretty excited about the pumpkin, and getting her fingers messy, but was even more excited about the stem. Rumor has it, it was pretty tasty.

Mommy and Daddy haven't tackled their pumpkins yet, but we might paint them this year too. Carving always seems more fun than it really is. You know it's true.

First Time Swinging at the Park

Makaela loves spending time outdoors, without a doubt.

It is one of the reasons I'm starting to like our new home; we can go outside daily and don't have to worry about getting all bundled up. In fact, I may or may not sometimes put her on the patio for a little afternoon siesta...

Walks relax her, and I certainly can't complain about getting some fresh air! We also enjoy some girl talk occasionally...

We are fortunate to live in a very kid friendly neighborhood. There is a playground across the street, behind our house, and another just a block away. A few days ago we decided to try out the swings for the first time. She is still much to small to use that swing the way it is intended, but we improvised :) She l-o-v-e-d her hair blowing in the breeze. 

Cheers to many more playground and park adventures as she grows!

6 month photos! (for real this time)

We are back from our Pure Michigan adventure and baby girl is finally starting to feel better so we got to work on those long overdue 6 month photos in a hurry.

This little lady is seriously my favorite person to hang out with these days.

She has me laughing all the time. She's been doing lots of babbling (especially to her puppies or other little peeps) and has taken more of an interest in learning to crawl. We aren't there yet, but motivation is 75% the battle, right?

She's now tried numerous foods, mostly purees but also a few treats that she chews on. Big girl in tha houuuuuuuse. She officially has bananas, apples, pears, pineapple, squash, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado and a few sauces and other condiments under her belt (or should I say - all over her face)!

Mak loves variety in her day. She likes us to switch out the toys and change up her environment often. She is so curious and you can just see her thinking and figuring things out non-stop. It is super fun, and also exhausting at times!!

She has also figured out how to take selfies. The girl is a natural. Just say NO to duck-lip-selfies in public restrooms please. C'mon say it with me. 

And she has discovered that playing some toys with her feet is just as fun, possibly even more fun than playing them with her hands. 

She has made some major leaps and hit some pretty cool milestones lately that we can't wait to share as soon as possible!!

Things I loved about this photo above....OBVIOUSLY the out of control mullet, those big honkin' feet, and how her baby onesie (the same one used for all of her monthly photos) can hardly hold her empty size 3 diap.