I am ME again.. for now anyway!

This week so far has been amazing! Avery has been sleeping through the night again, & I have been feeling like my old self again. The past few weeks have been terrifying for me... mainly because I have never had to experience taking care of myself while being sick, AND a baby... throw NO sleep into the mix and we were just a disaster! I seriously thought something was wrong with me, I was so tired. We are doing so much better & this week just keeps getting better & better!

We spent the day shopping yesterday with my sister in law Kara. She just moved into her new place so we have been decorating & getting her settled. So of course we made our rounds at Hobby Lobby! I also got a new car yesterday! I call it my mommy car! It's so nice, roomy, & fast! I love it!

Today was my girls lunch. My friend Danielle had all of us girls over for lunch & we all brought a dish. I brought cheesecake, it was yummy! There were 6 of us and we all enjoyed sitting around the table chatting & catching up! I got several pictures of Avery and her friend Kyah. Kyah's mommy is a special girl to me. Her name is Suzette & I actually met her blogging... come to find out, she lives in my area & is very close with some other gals that I know! Small world! So she followed my pregnancy & I followed hers, and now our girls are a week apart! How fun is that? We finally met after our babies were born & I can tell we will be life long friends! Isn't Kyah a doll?!?!?

The girls playing tummy time!

They had fun stickers all over them!!!

Aww, friends holding hands!

Kyah loved Avery. . .

Cheese sweet girls!

Tonight was our Thanksgiving Kitchen Queens. I am so full! We had so many yummy things to eat! I made green been bundles.. easy & simple! All you have to do is take long green beans, & wrap them in bacon. I prefer the maple flavored bacon for a twist, AND when you cook it smells up the entire house and makes it so warm! Pop them in the oven for around 20 minutes or so on 350 & you are golden! Here are a few pics from our fun feast!!!



Me & my sister in law:

I was hungry!!!

Me & Tara with her neice, Bree...

Sweet Bree!

Rachel & Amanda:

A few of us girls:

Even our dogs enjoy Kitchen Queens!!!

Chad is gone the next few days so I am hanging with mom & my sister in law Tiff. All the boys are going deer hunting for a week! So us girls have lots of baking planned, slumber parties, decorating, & even a fun weekend trip! I can't wait! This time of the year always makes me think of Christmas approaching... we like to start getting all the decor in full swing! Speaking of, mine is completely done so I will be posting pics little by little over the next few weeks!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas . . .

We are better.... mucho better! I am feeling so good. It's amazing how rest can do a body good. I feel like a changed woman!!!

Saturday Chad and I went to the Razorback game & enjoyed some time outdoors together for a few hours. I literally didn't leave the house but once all last week and needed some fresh air. You can't beat 75 degree sunny weather, & football at that. It was nice! Saturday night we ventured over to our good friend Chad & Melissa's house for a wonderful dinner party with several of their friends. It was GREAT! Im still uploading pics from that so I will do a whole other post on that another day next week! We are so blessed with good friends, I always say it but I can't stress it enough... God is SO good!

Me & my hubbs before the game:




With that rest, I must add that I got extremely bored. When my temp had been broken for almost 24 hours I decided it was time... time to put up the Christmas tree! I love Christmas, everything about it! I wait MONTHS out of the year for it, and then literally get to enjoy my decor a month. So each year, I start earlier and earlier, and this year, it was early November. So far I only have 2 tree's up, but here are a few tiny little looks. I am not yet finished, I still have place settings and other little additions to add to my tree's to make them how I want them! I like lots of stuff! So these tree's are crazy & full of anything & everything! I will have the rest of my decor up by the end of the week when I finish some shopping. Im working on finding brown zebra stockings that match the ribbon addition in my tree's, and getting them monogrammed! I also have to get Avery's tree going in full force, she's going to have a cute diva one to match her room perfectly!!! For now, here are a few looks at 2 of my tree's so far...

Saying goodbye to Fall....

...And hello to Mr. Tree, oh how I have missed you, you need ALOT of work!

A little look at our main tree in the living room area, not yet completed.. BUT, notice I added ZEBRA, my favorite! There are little splashes throughout:


I am having a funky fun purple & silver tree in my breakfast room this year, not finished yet...need MORE ornaments, imagine that!

Finally, I picked up Avery! I hated being away from my baby but I felt it was in her best interest because I was running a high temp and Chad had a sore throat with white pockets on the back. The doctor told us not to risk it.. so my parents kept her for 2 days! Although they loved it, I am sure they were ready for us to get her, they had a blast and looked exhausted!

Avery getting tons of kisses from mommy!!!

She had so much play time with all her fun toys!

Looking adorable in her sweet bird outfit, one of my fav's!



Today we helped my sister in law Kara & my neice Stella move into their new home! We had such a fun time decorating and playing with the babies all afternoon. My mother in law made this yummy soup and sandwhiches and we just all enjoyed being together as a family.

Im looking forward to the week, I have a few things up my sleeve for me & Avery so we can get out a bit. It's going to be a nice week!

One of my favorite places- Eureka Springs

Quick update- Chad and I are feeling slightly better.. still ran a fever as of 11ish last night, but nothing since then. We are laying low home today and relaxing watching TV and movies, later this evening. I am just trying to get my sleep and get this body back into mommy mode so I can take care of my little angel.

So while I am not doing much today I thought I would go ahead and post a few pictures from our weekend day trip to Eureka Springs on Saturday when my best gal was here. We love this place. It's so beautiful! Here are a few pics, but I must add that she took most of these pictures. She is so good at photography, I just eat her up. She's the best!!!

We are all SICK. . .

Yesterday I got chills around 3:00 all of a sudden. It hit me like a ton of bricks! I couldn't get warm enough! My mom came over after she got off work to hold Avery and I took a nice warm bath, still not able to get warm. The night progressed and I felt even worse. Chad said he wasn't feeling well either. I new it was going to be a long night, and that it was! Avery woke up once every hour again. I have been really trying to put my hands on this for a week now. Knowing she is teething made me think it was just that. Never in my life did I know it could be this hard, running a fever and being shaky, while trying to also be up with the baby every hour. WOW! I feel like I hero today because I survived...

...Today Chad and I both went to the doctor because I swore I had the swine flu. I have been running a temp of 102, all night! So we both went. Turns out, it is just a virus, but I am very contagious so the doc said to get Avery out of the house! My mom is so sweet and took off 2 days from work to help us out! But, while we were at the doctor, mom took Avery to the doctor for us. I new I couldn't be in her doctor while running fever because I didn't want to get the sweet babies sick, so she took her. Come to find out, SHE HAS A VIRUS! The doc said her throat was SUPER red, which explains why she hasn't been sleeping this past week or wanting to drink her bottle! I just KNEW something was wrong.

Anyway, I am sad today because Avery won't be with us for the next couple of days, but we have to get better. I'm thankful I am going to be able to catch up on some much needed sleep. The past few days I have been on edge, not myself, extremely grouchy, moody, etc... PMS mixed with all of this doesn't help, HAHA! Anyway, hopefully we are on way to recovery because we have some big fun plans with a bunch of friends this weekend!

For now I am going to be eating a lot of:

Drinking a ton of this and water:

Watching all my TV shows I need to catch up on:

While cuddling on the couch with a blanket:

Take lots of nice relaxing warm baths with candles:

...And finally, disinfecting this house!!!


I hope your day is a heck of a lot better than ours has been!

More Fall Pictures

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Last night we had my hubby's family over for dinner. We had Chilli & this wonderful Peach Cobbler that my mom made! Avery's cousin Stella is 11 weeks old so we took a few pictures of them playing on the bed. They were so stinkin' cute looking at each other!






We also got a few of our fall pictures back, Im trying to pick one of the below for a Thanksgiving card and just can't figure out which one I like best! Any thoughts?

Avery is 5 months old today!!!!

My baby is 5 months old today! I just can't believe it. It is amazing to look back on the past 5 months and see what God has truly blessed our family with. I am so amazed at the miracle God created inside of me, and now how quickly she is growing.

We have been dealing with a lot of sleepless nights here recently. The doctor says that Avery is teething but I think mixed with growing spurts & of course now the time change, she is all messed up. Last night we woke up 3 times an HOUR. My husband actually stayed home from work today to help take care of her and rest because we were both up all night. I always thought that the older they got the easier it would be. I am finding that the newborn stage was the easiest. Harder in a sense because I didn't know what I was doing, but easier because she slept all the time. She is now starting to show her personality and let us know what she wants and doesn't mind letting us know, loudly- haha!

At 15 lbs, we started introducing cereal & the #1 baby food full time to her about 3 weeks ago. She has taken to them well. She loves the pears, but after doing those for a few weeks we switched to bananas and that helped her tummy a little better. She loves them and does so well opening her mouth and swallowing. I found that feeding her with the spoon was easier than putting cereal in her bottle & she liked it a ton better! October 26th she rolled for the first time during her nap time. I creeped in there and watched her and she just grunted and tried so hard. It was the cutest thing ever. She is also now starting to reach for me and others. She loves pulling up and trying to grab for objects. Her main thing recently is faces. She loves grabbing for your nose, your mouth... and even scratches Daddy! Her favorite color is blue, she just eyes my blackberry and wants to hold my phone constantly! She also enjoys the computer keyboard and the remote control. She loves buttons & anything with patterns!

...I guess you could say I am just in love. In love with her, my life, and all that God has blessed me with. She is truly a blessing!

Kind of an odd post to hear from my viewers, but I am truly anxious to hear your experience is at the 5 month mark and any advice you may have. I'm pretty picky with how I like to do things and I am constantly offered advice, which is great! In the end I do what I want and what I think works best, but I would love to hear your thoughts! I have tried everything to get her to start sleeping, we are very routine... but I'm just not able to put my finger on why she is waking so often! So write me & tell me what you experienced and some things that helped. I also might add that I am trying to slowly wean her from the passy at night because I am finding she is waking up losing it and is 1/2 asleep wanting it and I am always having to give it to her to get her back to sleep. I am to the point where I am letting her cry it out but can't stand her screaming herself to sleep!!! YIKES!

This momma is doing, well.. OKAY. I am PMSing (yes had my first period since I was pregnant), and it's been HARD. My hormones are crazy, I am hot constantly, moody, exhausted, and feeling like a COW! Add restless nights in the mix and I am a nut case, ha! Nothing I can't handle but it's been a HARD 2 weeks! Sorry, a little TMI...

For now, here are some pics of my doll baby!

Our Ladybugs FIRST HALLOWEEN!

Our weekend was so good, but I had SO many pictures to post that I am splitting several posts up. So if you didn't see the wedding pics, check out the one before this one- we had a FUN night with all our friends!

Halloween was so special this year because it was Avery's first Halloween & my friend Linz was here to share the fun! She was so adorable in her ladybug costume. I just eat her up! She turns 5 months old tomorrow and I can hardly believe it, she is GROWING before my eyes! We had such a fun time Trick-or-Treating and then enjoyed a nice night of Mexican Food!









I still don't feel like this momma is too old (and never will be) to dress up. So me and my bestie decided to dress up as "COOKIES"... (COOK-E). . . GET IT? We are so silly but needed a quick costume that was CHEAP! I would say that $5.00 did us good. It was fun, and that was all that mattered!





I have some more fun pics of our trip to Eureka Saturday but will post those later this week! Happy Monday!

My Oh So Busy Wedding Weekend

This weekend was crazy, but so much fun! The weekend pretty much started Thursday night when my girl Lindsey came into town from Memphis for our friend Kim's wedding weekend. We all gathered at the place her reception was at and put the tables and arrangements together. Kim is a very shabby chic type gal, so it was a wedding that matched her personality to a T. Afterwards me and my sister in law Tiff & my brother & Linz enjoyed dinner at Chillis! My girlfriends kept texting saying they wanted us to meet them out so they could meet Linz, so we did that after Chillis. It was so much fun. Us girls all cut up on the dance floor to some fun live music! There was about 9 of us girls having a ball!

The wedding was Friday. I did the bride's make-up and her step-daughter Melissa's make-up. They look so much alike it's not even funny. It was exciting! We all had a good time getting ready. The wedding was at 5:30 at this adorable chapel in Fayetteville. It was so quaint, & perfect. The reception followed at this Bed & Breakfast in this old home. It was adorable. We all enjoyed cutting up on the dance floor for HOURS! My little toes still hurt! It was wonderful and lots of memories!

Of course Saturday was Trick-or-Treating time but I am going to do a whole other post on this because we also ventured over to Eureka Springs and I have way too many pictures to share.. of my ladybug! More to come!

Happy Halloween

Last night was our friend Kim & Patrick's wedding. We have some fun pictures but only had time to post a few! For now, here is a picture of me and my best friend, Lindsey, dancing the night away . . .

Happy Halloween!!!

A little prayer

Hello Friends.... I know, I am posting another post in the same day, but my heart is so heavy tonight. I am dealing with some strong emotions after breastfeeding which they say happens. I feel CRAZY again, HA! Very hormonal!!! Crazy how our bodies change. I have been doing a lot of reading on it and I am just trying to take one day at a time. I am so happy all the time, so the up and down's are taking a toll on me.

But also I want to ask that you all pray for my mother. She is okay so please do not worry. But she is going to be having some things done tomorrow and I just pray that God's hands will be over her and that the results will be nothing but perfect, & far from what it could be. I love my mother and praise God for our relationship. She has helped guide me to be the mom I am now today. I don't want to go too deep into the situation...But truly just ask that you pray for my mom.

Love ya'll & thanks for the prayers!!!

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him; according to HIS purpose"