Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody!  Since Blaire won't be trick or treating this year, we decided to have a little photo shoot to show off her costume.  Little miss is a ghost this year! And I have to say, she's the sweetest little ghost I ever have seen. It's hard to find costumes for teeny babies so I made this little get up. I'm not crafty so it's probably the last Halloween costume I'll make but I'm happy I can tell her one day that I made her first costume.

{warning...photo overload. grandparents love pictures.}

Just for laughs, I thought you like might to see how our attempt at a photo session at the pumpkin patch went. Trying to take pictures of a baby who cannot sit or even hold her own head up is quite the adventure.

Doesn't her face just say "I'm not so sure about this..."

"How long do we have to do this?"

"Quick Dad, I'm tipping!"

Dad's solution - just dangle her over the pumpkins. She must think her parents are total morons. Poor kid.

Hope you all have a great Halloween!

the ghosts of pumpkins past

Happy Halloween!

We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch until Friday so our pumpkins this year remain sadly uncarved. Probably for the best as we got three - one big, one medium, one wee little baby pumpkin. I can't help but think of them as Brian, me and Blaire. Hard to plunge a knife into gourds you've made symbolic of your family. (Yeah, I probably need help.)

Instead, I thought I'd share pumpkins from years past.

2009

2010

I'll be back later with pictures of my favorite little pumpkin in her Halloween costume!

*Don't forget to enter my giveaway for 25 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. It ends at 5pm EST tonight.

blaire: 2 months

My little Blaire Bear,

You are two months old. And what happy months they have been! Being your mom is the best thing I've ever done. You are the sweetest girl and I have so much fun spending my days with you. I love you to the moon and back baby girl. 

xoxo momma

Here’s what you've been up to in your second month:

At your two month check-up, you weighed 10 pounds, 4.5 ounces and were 23 1/4 inches long. That's 50th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. You got six shots and were so brave.

You are much more alert this month. You are aware of your surroundings and watch your Daddy and me very carefully. I think you recognize our faces and voices. You have started to notice the TV too. This makes Daddy so proud when football is on and your eyes are glued to the screen.

You smile! It’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. When we make silly faces or noises, you will give us a big smile. I can’t get enough of your sweet little grin.

You like to blow spit bubbles with your mouth. I’m sure to most people there’s nothing cute about drool. But to your momma, it’s adorable.

The cooing has begun. Sometimes you look like you have so much you want to say, but for now you’re “talking” to us with your coos and noises.

You sleep through the night! What a great gift this has been to us. We put you to sleep at about 9pm and you sleep until about 9am, waking only once to eat. We are so thankful that you are so well rested and we appreciate that we get to sleep too. Thank you baby girl!

You wake up so happy. When I go into your room in the mornings you greet me with the sweetest smile. You stretch your arms up over your head and wiggle around until I scoop you up into my arms. Getting you out of bed in the morning is one of my very favorite things to do.

We play lots of games and sing songs. Some of your favorites are Patty Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider and This Little Piggy. After you eat you are the happiest girl. We sit and talk and sing our songs. You laugh when I blow raspberries on your feet and make silly noises and faces. These are some of my favorite times.

You finally like your swing. It’s one of your favorite places to nap during the day and sometimes you are happy just to stay awake and swing. It will even calm you down on occasion when you are upset.

You still LOVE to suck on your fingers. You aren’t interested in your paci but when you’re upset nothing calms you down like a finger or four in your mouth. You prefer the thumb but you’ll take any finger that finds its way to your mouth.

You are our long & lean girl. At two months old, you have finally started to fit into your 0-3 month clothes. You’re long enough for them but still have plenty of room to grow. We have so many sundresses that I fear you’ll never get to wear because you won’t be big enough until it’s cold outside. I better start shopping for sweaters and tights to put with them. You can still fit into a newborn diaper but size 1 works also.

Just like your momma, you love the water. You are so happy and peaceful in the bath tub. You love to float in the water as I bathe you. Getting out of the tub, however, is not your favorite thing. We wrap you in the towel as quickly as possible to keep you warm and happy.

And to keep Grandma and Aunt Jilly happy, here are a few more pictures of the little muffin:

monday thoughts

*Blaire turned two months old yesterday. I swear I gave birth to her yesterday. I'm afraid to blink and find out she has a driver's license.

*I could spend all day reading Mindy Kaling's website. The girl is hilarious. Her book (released November 1) is next on my reading list.

*Kelly Clarkson's new album "Stronger" is so good. I listened on Spotify this morning. I'm sure I'm the last one to the party but how cool is Spotify? I'm still figuring it out but so far, it's pretty great. 

*The weather has been absolutely gorgeous.  Low 80s and sunny, blue skies. I want to spend every minute outside. Blaire was a little under the weather today after her shots so we stayed inside but tomorrow we're going to for a long walk.

*Despite a garbage week, my fantasy football team managed to squeak by with a win. Chris Johnson remains a useless sack of crap. I'd trade him but I doubt anyone would be willing to give me a second string kicker in exchange for his sorry butt.

* The most recent editions of Southern Living, Food Network Magazine, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly are sitting on our coffee table, waiting to be read. I suppose if I got off the computer I'd have time to read them... So I will.

Happy Monday to all. I'm hoping to get Blaire's two month post with pictures up tomorrow. Until then - goodnight!

it's about that time...

Can you believe it's already time to think about holiday cards? Actually, if you're like me, you've been thinking about holiday cards for a few weeks now. The photographer is booked and outfits have been selected...I think. All that's left to do is choose a card.

Luckily, Shutterfly makes the process of selecting a holiday card easy. They have so many great cards in a variety of sizes, styles, and designs. The only hard part is choosing which card is your favorite! 

I used Shutterfly to design our holiday card last year and was so happy with the final product. (Except perhaps for my decision to use a picture of me wearing sunglasses. I'm still not sure that was the right call.) The design was perfectly suited to our beach picture and the cards arrived so quickly. As a perpetual procrastinator, I really appreciated the quick turnaround. Thanks to Shutterfly, I was spared the embarrassment of sending holiday cards after Groundhog Day.

I'm so excited to design our card this year because it will be Blaire's first Christmas. You better believe baby girl's face will be front and center on our card! I can't lie, I'm pretty excited I won't have to search for a picture of myself that I don't hate to put on the card this year. You know what I'm talking about... "Oh, that's a cute picture - but I've got a bit of a double chin." "I love this one - but my arm looks fat." "This one is great of me - but your eyes are closed. Think anyone will notice?"  Surely I'm not the only one who takes hours trying to decide which picture is least objectionable for prominent placement on the holiday card... am I? 

Once you decide on the perfect picture, Shutterly has a great selection of cards to choose from. Whether you're looking for something classic, contemporary, or whimsical, Shutterfly has a card to fit the bill.

I think I'll wait until I see our holiday photos to make my final selection, but here are a few of my favorite cards this year:

How cute would this be with a wedding picture?

It's going to be so hard to narrow it down to just one card!

Shutterfly also has some great photo gifts.

How sweet is this picture ornament? I know a few grandparents who would love this. 

Here's the good news.  The people at Shutterfly are incredibly generous and have given me three promotion codes for 25 free holiday cards to share with three lucky readers!

If you'd like the chance to win 25 free cards, just leave a comment on this post and tell me what's on your Christmas (or Hanukkah) list this year. Or, if you'd rather, tell me what gift you're most excited to give this holiday season.  All entries must be received by Monday, October 31, 2011 at 5:00pm EST.  I'll choose three winners using the random integer generator.  If your email isn't linked to your profile, please be sure to leave an email address in your comment.

Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

pretty in pink

Blaire and I had a little photo shoot this afternoon. Grandma asked for new pictures and I was more than happy oblige. My baby girl gets bigger every day so I never pass up an opportunity to capture this moment in time with pictures and video. She's already changed so much. I went to pick up dinner the other night and when I came back, I swear, she had grown. She should really stop doing that.  

Oh how I love this little girl.

weekend update

We had a good, low key weekend. Low key probably goes without saying because that's just how we roll these days.

Friday night we had dinner at home and caught up on some TV shows we'd recorded throughout the week. I'm loving Parenthood, The Good Wife, Harry's Law, and Parks & Recreation.  And I've watched this week's episode of The League at least three times.

That show kills me. If you're a fan of really inappropriate humor and fantasy football, you have to watch it. I realize that probably applies to about three of you reading this. And you're probably already watching. Okay, plug for The League over.

On Saturday, I snuck out of the house for a little while to do some shopping while Brian and Blaire watched college football. Typically, I'd prefer to be on the couch watching football too but I was in desperate need of a trip to the mall. I've been wearing dresses and yoga pants because really, that's all that works right now. (I tried on a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans and wanted to cry. Not pretty.) I need some transitional pieces that I can wear while I work on getting back into my old clothes. I bought a pair of jeans in a larger size, which I hope to only wear for a short time. I will be so happy to send them to the Goodwill when they are too big! I was also looking for some tops with sleeves to cover the arms, tunics, and long sweaters to cover the lumpy middle section. 

The trip was fairly successful. I tweeted the picture above because I wasn't sure about the striped sweater but everyone seemed to like it so I picked it up. I think it will work with black leggings (it's long) or skinny jeans, if I can ever fit back into mine. Plus, it's comfy. Win, win. I also got a couple tops with sleeves to hide the flabby arms. Hopefully the things I picked out will hide the mom body without making me look like a soccer mom. (Did I just offend the mothers of soccer playing children? I'm sure there are lots of actual soccer moms who dress far better than I do. Sorry soccer moms. Nothin' personal.)

I got home in time to catch the end of the UCF game, which was really nothing to see. We played like garbage and lost. Blaire and I were hopeful that the Gators would fare better.

They didn't. Our offense couldn't get going with our back-up freshman quarterback and our special teams were anything but special. Oh well, at least B looked cute. Thanks to Leah of Oh Sew Sweet Bowtique for the adorable onesie. 

Sunday was another big football day at our house. After a morning run to Target with Aunt Jilly, we settled in to watch more football. My San Fransisco 49ers won a big game against the Lions and my fantasy team had a big win too! Football wise, Sunday was a much better day than Saturday.

We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch for pictures and pumpkins with Blaire, so that's still on our list. I also need to get to Hobby Lobby so I can start on her costume. As you can tell, I'm a bit behind on the Halloween preparations. I'm going to try get caught up this week.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

my girls

I recently read an interesting article* titled The Fine Line Between Marriage and Divorce. On the whole, it offered a rather bleak outlook on marriage. The great majority of the women the author spoke to had contemplated leaving their marriage at one point or another and many contemplated divorce on a regular basis. To me, this was surprising and, frankly, quite disheartening. The author claimed that "who stays married and who doesn't is a question not always about commitment or deep abiding love -- it's about endurance." 

While I'm not sure that I agree with the author's conclusions on marriage, I did find one of her points very interesting. She says that "the wives with the highest marital satisfaction have a tight circle of wild women friends with whom to drink, travel and vent about their husbands." If that's true, I'm confident I'll be a happily married lady for some time.**

I am blessed with amazing girlfriends. We drink, we travel, and yes, on occasion, we even complain about the men in our lives. If that increases my marital satisfaction, great news. One more reason to love my hilarious, kind, supportive, fun, and amazing friends.

Allow me to introduce you to my "tight circle of wild women." 

Love you ladies! So glad our crazy, boozin' ways are good for something other than a good time!

Also, you're all welcome. I came darn close to posting a series of hilariously embarrassing pictures of all of us. There was some good stuff. McD, you should be especially grateful. Half of them are of you dancing. :)



*Thanks Katie for bringing the article to my attention. 

**I'm confident of this for other reasons. Namely, I married an amazing man whom I love very much. Not just because I've got fun, boozin' girlfriends. Just sayin'.