ONE

I can't believe this precious girl is one. ONE. O-N-E. I have a ONE year old. I have been a mom for ONE whole year. I now know what people mean when they say that time goes by even faster with a child. In some ways it seems to me that I have had Campbell forever. I feel like she has always been part of me and I can barely recall what life was like without her. But in other ways I feel like she was just born yesterday. I remember it like it just happened.
And here we are. One year later. ONE. Wow. It happened so fast, I feel like she was 9 months old 5 minutes ago.
I have treasured every single moment of this first year. And it hasn't all been easy. But every second has been worth it and I wouldn't change a thing {ok, maybe I would change the fact that I spent her 1 month bday/our 4th anniversary in the ER with mastitis, but other than that...} there have been countless sleepless nights, hours of crying and moments of insanity but for each sleepless night I've had sweet cuddly naps with my girl, for all the crying I've had hundreds of sweet open mouthed baby kisses and for the moments of insanity I've had moments of uncontained joy and laughter with my daughter. I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. I love being a mother more than I ever thought that I would...and that's a lot considering that the only thing I ever REALLY wanted to do was be a wife and a mom. I feel so blessed that God has chosen me to raise this little girl!

Munchkin Monday

This is what we were up to all weekend. Her liking the sand like this lasted about 5 minutes, but we still had a great time! :)

Munchkin Monday

I am having so much fun with this little one lately...

She is so full of energy and always keeps me laughing....and on my toes! Look what she is doing already:

That's right...she's WALKING! Watch out world! 

She is also making the cutest faces lately, and I was so excited that I was able to catch them with the camera before she went down for her nap this afternoon. How can you resist this face?

I love how she just scrunches those little cheeks!!

Seriously! I could just kiss these cheeks off!!

Her favorite thing to do right now is point and say "who's that?" or "what's that?" {which comes out more that "psst that"....A-DOR-A-BLE!}

There is that scrunched up face again....LOVE HER!

I love how dainty and girly she is acting. I have caught her sitting with her little feet crossed so much lately and it's so cute!

Of course she doesn't always sit so lady like...

I don't know what this is about. Maybe she's stretching? Who knows? She is obsessed with her feet, sometimes I find her trying to bite her toes. Cute kid! 

Notice the shoes? I am trying to get her used to walking in shoes but it is not going so well right now. Anytime I put shoes on her she won't walk. All in due time I guess.

zucchini fingers

I tried something new for dinner last night. I have gotten bored with a lot of our normal meals so I've been trying to spice things up in the kitchen.
We {ok, mainly me and C} LOVE summer squash. I mainly steam it with some garlic salt and pepper for seasoning and many times I will add zucchini to the mix {mainly because I don't know what else to do with zucchini}. I have heard of people making zucchini fries and have wanted to try them for awhile but J always gets weird when I try to start talking about new recipes so sometimes it is best to just surprise him with one when he gets home and sees it on the table for dinner.
Last night was no exception :) It was a planned veggie night but he thought we were just going to have regular steamed squash and zucchini {and honestly so did I, until about an hour before dinner} but I decided this was the night to try zucchini fries. Except, we don't really eat fried food and I definitely don't fry it myself if we do so I decided to call these "Zucchini Fingers" {J is very particular about calling things what they are- in a silly sort of way- so I had to come up with a crazy name like this}. I looked around for a few ideas on the internet and saw a lot about breading them with Panko breadcrumbs {who has those just laying around on hand? not us} So I just decided to make my own recipe.
Here's how this went down....

Cut the zucchini in half width wise, and then into eighths length wise

in the food processor add a few ritz crackers {I had 2 zucchinis so I used about 10 Ritz} and seasonings {I used garlic salt, pepper and parmesan cheese- I just eyeball this, shake a little here, a little there so I don't really know what to tell you for amounts, just taste it til you like it :)} and blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs

 toss your zucchini with a little bit of olive oil

toss in ritz mixture

make sure the zucchini is evenly coated

place in a 9x13 dish and bake in the oven @ 425 for 25 minutes, shaking the pan half way

The verdict from J and C: YUMMY!!!

C even at the leftovers for lunch today. I am loving that she is on table foods now, she has become our little garbage disposal eating up whatever is leftover from each meal. They are the perfect portion for her little baby belly! 

I'm back...for now :)

I've recently been inspired to start blogging again. I have been reading so many other blogs and getting so many crafty/inspirational things from Pinterest that I thought maybe I should start documenting my advertures. I think the problem with blogging is that I will get so many ideas of things to write about and not have enough time post them resulting in me feeling overwhelmed and doing nothing...because my momma taught me, "If you can't do something right, don't do it at all." {ok, she didn't really tell me that, but we are both such perfectionists I think we could call that our mantra :) }
Anyways, here I am again, embarking on this world of blogging. I am warning you, I may not be very good at this but stick around and I just may get the hang of it this time. We are about to embark on the adventure of toddlerhood so I am sure to have many funny stories to post there, as well as my crafty wild hairs that I explore during naptime and some reinspired culinary skills. Get ready!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have never really done Valentine's cards before but having a kid this year gave us a reason to send an updated photo to our friends and family in the form of a Valentine's card from Shutterfly. We had a hard time deciding which pictures and design to use but we finally decided on this one. We are so proud of our sweet baby and loved making this card to send out! :)

Valentine's Collage Red Valentine's Day

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

OH how HE loves us...

Having a child has opened my eyes to a whole new level of the way that God loves us. I am constantly amazed at how my heart overflows with love anew each morning for this little one no matter how rough our night was. I have really started to even cherish some of those sleepless 2 am cries because I know that sometimes she just wants her mommy to hold her and how often in the future is that going to happen.

Last night was definitely one of those nights that she just wanted to be cuddled. It started about 11 and Jeremy took her and got her back to sleep and got back in bed. 30 minutes later she was up again for our usual midnight feeding, after that it was all downhill. Every time I put her down she would cry. She would be konked out in my arms and the second I laid her down she would start fussing. This happened just 2 weeks ago, for 5 nights in a row. I was so frustrated with her at night for those 5 days but instead of being frustrated last night I just soaked up the moment of this sweet little face with that adorable smile and oh-so-kissable cheeks resting on my shoulder. And that is when the realization of it all hit me. Doesn't God want this from us? Want us just to rest in Him? In only Him? Does He not cherish the times that we long to be held in His arms so much that sometimes He allows us circumstances so that we would do only that? Wow! What a love! Sometimes when feeding or rocking Campbell I will read or play on my phone and I find that those are sometimes when she is more difficult to deal with. Maybe because she wants all of my attention. Doesn't God?

Even with gifts, I have seen how God loves to lavish us with good things. {Matt. 7:11} Yesterday we bought Campbell a jumperoo activity center. I have been debating over this purchase for several weeks, hoping to hold out for the consignment sale but just this past week she has seemed bored with her playmat and bouncer because she wants to sit, stand and bounce on my lap constantly. We still had some baby shower gift cards and she got a $50 gift card to Target for Christmas from my grandmother so we took those and some of our own money and bought her the Baby Einstien Jumper Activity Center. This child was THRILLED when we put her in it yesterday! She squealed with delight the whole time she was in it and Jeremy and I were just as delighted, if not more so in watching her enjoyt it. And I thought, if we get pleasure out of giving our daughter something so simple, how much does God enjoy blessing us with things in this life. Isn't He good?