Jacob's 1st birthday pictures

I am so in love with these pictures! Jacob had such a blast playing with and eating the cake, and we definitely enjoyed watching him.

The fabulous Julie Renner did such a good job at capturing the love.  I will cherish these pictures forever.

 

Side bar- today is the last day of May. That means when I wake up tomorrow, it will be Jacob's MONTH! O.M.G.

Memorial Day 2013

This was the last first holiday for Jacob. Can you believe it? I certainly can't.

Saturday we went over to my sister and brother in law's house and had a nice little BBQ. Jacob had so much fun exploring a new house and getting into everything. He's walking really well now!

It rained most of Saturday afternoon, so Jacob and I took some silly pictures. He loves looking at the camera when you reverse the view (or whatever).

 

Sunday was spent chilling around the house, splashing in the baby pool and grilling hot dogs. How cute is Jacob in these whale swim trunks? Adorbs!
 

Monday we drove to Cleburne to take Josh's Gma to lunch and drive around to see the tornado damage. It was so surreal to see such devastation. Crazy! I would've taken pictures, but we were literally in town for an hour.

Such a great, family-filled weekend!! We are totally exhausted, but it was such a blast!

Weekend Recap

What a fabulously fabulous weekend. Gosh- as Jacob gets older, he just gets so damn fun! I commented earlier that as long as he sleeps through the night, I do not care if he goes to bed "on time" (whatever that actually is) or takes naps (especially on the weekends). I just love playing with him! Ahh!

Anyways- back to the weekend...

We had such a fun weekend! It started on Friday night with margaritas, fajitas and a little relaxing time.

Saturday we did some yard work, went to Target (where my husband proceeded to ruin my shopping experience- typical, and the last time he goes with us to Target) and then went to Jacob's friend's 1st birthday party! We had a blast playing with all our baby buddies- jumping in the bounce house, eating Chic-fil-A for the first time (OMG) and walking all over the living room (yeah!).

Sunday was spent pushing things to the limit and walking/falling ALL over the place. He literally took a 30 minute nap Sunday afternoon, because I know he just wanted to get out of his crib and walk around some more. Lord, help us! We did a little more yard work on Sunday morning and then had a little pool time (in his new crab pool- adorbs) in the afternoon. We finished the weekend just the way we started it- with more fajitas and margaritas! The perfect way to ring in summer!

Love my sweet little family so much, and can't wait to make so many funnnn memories this summer! We'll be spending tonight sipping some vino and booking our beach vacay!! Yayyy! More details on that later...

We have a walker!

...well, almost! He's been much more confident this weekend with letting go.

P.S. Please ignore my whistling- like he's a dog! 

P.P.S. Do you die over the tank top?? I do!!

Recipe - Monroe beergarita

As the temps soar here in Texas, cold adult beverages are a MUST! Don't get me wrong, I'm a wine girl at heart and you can frequently find me sipping a chilled Sauvignon Blanc with frozen fruit during the summer, but some days just call for a margarita!!

My parents have always made beergaritas, and I haven't ever tasted a better margarita. Honestly, not even Mi Cocina or Gloria's.

Here's the recipe:

6oz frozen limeade

6oz (or more) beer of your choice

6oz (or more) tequila of your choice

Ice

We buy the small cans of limeade that are 6oz, which makes measuring super easy. 

Dump the limeade into the blender, measure the tequila and then beer in the limeade can and dump those into the blender. Then fire up the blender and slowly add ice until its a creamy icy concoction. I'm drooling just typing this. 

If you want to get a little crazy, tip a mini Corona into your marg and you have a Coronarita! Yum-o!!!

My FIRST Mother's Day

What a special weekend it's been! Oh my gosh, I feel so incredibly blessed!! I love my boys and family so so much, they're the best!

After Jacob went to bed on Friday night, we kicked the weekend off with Campisi's pizza, a delicious bottle of Becker Cab-Syrah and watched Django Unchained. Talk about a long movie! But it was good.

On Saturday, Josh made yummy breakfast tacos (my fab breakfast), I got a mani/pedi and we went to linner (lunch/dinner- a common meal at our house) at Mi Cocina. Yum!!

 

On Sunday, Josh's mom, Gma and my sister came over and we went to brunch at The Pantry in downtown McKinney. Everything was delicious and we even had mimosas! Cheers! When we got home, Jacob took a 1.5 hour nap and so did mom and dad! Yay! Then that night, we went to our neighbor's house (her daughter and 3 boys were there) and we hung out and had dessert- a great way to end the weekend!!

 

 

 

And, bonus- Josh took Monday off because we took Jacob's 1st birthday pictures this morning. So we get to play for 1 more day!

 



The beautiful necklace Josh & Jacob got me | The Vintage Pearl

Loved these gorgeous flowers from Josh & Jacob as well!

Jacob - 11 months

P.S. these monthly pictures are becoming
tough to take!

Age: 11 months
Height: (we don't go back to the pediatrician until his 1 year visit)
Weight: 22lbs 15oz (this was 2 weeks ago) 
Milestones: He's still not walking, but he cruises around the house like a mad man. He will pull-up on the wall, and cruise along the walls to get where he wants to go.  It's so funny to watch! He can walk holding 1 of our hands, so 1 of his hands is free, but he still doesn't look ready to walk yet. And I'm ok with that.
Sleep: We've officially cut the nighttime feeding- thank GOD! Within the past 2 weeks, he's starting sleeping through the night more consistently, but occasionally he'll wake up and fuss/cry for a little bit. He still sleeps approximately 12 hours at night- usually 7-6:30. He's getting more consistent at nap time too- I can usually get two 1-hour naps out of him, typically around 10am and 2pm.
Eating: We're still nursing 4x/day- morning, after he wakes from both of his naps and before bed. And I'm proud to report that he's still 100% breastfed, no formula! Woohoo! I'm hoping to wean at 1 year, so we've introduced whole milk, but he doesn't like it. My goal is to get a little more consistent with offering whole milk this month, so hopefully he at least likes it by 1-year and we can start transitioning to that.  In terms of food, he's completely off baby food. He eats all table foods now. For breakfast, we do yogurt, oatmeal, fruit, waffles, pancakes, etc. For lunch and dinner we typically do the same stuff- turkey dogs, lunch meat, if we make meat for dinner we'll give it to him, fish, chunks of steamed vegetables, cheese and fruit. His current favorites are cheese (colby jack mostly, but he had pepperjack last night) and strawberries.  He will double-fist strawberries and shove them in his mouth chubby bunny style. It's absolutely hysterical!
Clothes size: 18 months - 2T
Diaper size: Size 5! We decided to stick with Pampers Cruisers. As tough as it is to change him, I'd rather wrangle him for 30 seconds than have to constantly battle diaper rash! This month we also switched to the Pampers overnight diapers; his diapers were getting really full at night and these seem to help.
Best Moment: This month has been a lot of fun- now that its warming up, we've been spending a lot of time outside. We took Jacob to the zoo for the first time, and we often eat dinner outside, or just hangout outside during the day.  He loves riding in his wagon in the backyard while I water the flowerbeds and he uses his pushcar to walk around the backyard with the dogs. So cute!
Worst Moment: Overall, things are definitely improving and "bad moments" are few and far between. We had to go on antibiotics again for a lingering green/yellow runny nose- it seemed to work overnight and he's doing fine now.
Favorite toy: He mostly likes pots and pans, and crawling/cruising around discovering new things. He also loves looking out the windows at the world. Josh bought him this turtle pull toy that he's been obsessed with for the last 24 hours. He drags it along as he cruises on the couch and coffee table.
Teeth: He has the 2 bottom teeth, and I think the top front 2 are moving because he's been pretty fussy lately and I can tell that his gums are swollen.
Looking forward to: his birthday party and all that comes with his birthday!! I have so many things up my sleeves, just hoping I can pull it all off.  Let the crafting begin! :)

Recipe - cheesy olive bread

I had a girlfriend and her daughter over for a wine happy hour yesterday afternoon, and I made this delicious bread. Us mommies loved it, and so did the 3-year old. Although the 3-year old didn't drink the wine. Duh.

I would've taken step-by-step pictures, but I had my (almost) 11-month old tugging on my pant legs the entire time. Plus its super easy.

Ingredients
1 loaf French bread
6oz can pitted black olives
10oz jar pimento-stuffed green olives
Green onion
1/2 cup mayo
1lb shredded monterrey jack cheese
1 stick unsalted butter

Directions
1) drain and rinse olives, chop and put in large mixing bowl
2) slice two green onions into small pieces, add to bowl
3) add in cheese, mayo and butter at room temperature
4) mix all ingredients together really well

5) slice loaf lengthwise
6) spread olive cheese mixture all over bread
7) place on cookie sheet and bake at 325° for 25 minutes
8) enjoy

(original source)

First shoes!

Jacob got his first pair of real shoes today. Sigh. My little boy is growing up!

We took him to Stride Rite to get measured and he's a 5.5 extra wide. Which is apparently super hard to find. Shocker. I mean, Josh wears a 16 in shoes and neither of us can buy clothes in stores (have to buy online), so I don't know why it shocks/annoys me that we can't just run into Payless and grab a pair of shoes for the little dude.

Anywaysssss.... We went to Nordstrom which has a great selection of baby shoes, especially wide sizes! The girl who helped us was super sweet and told me she was excited for a challenge (aka finding shoes to fit my man-child is a challenge).

All the Stride Rite shoes were too tight, so we settled on a pair of Keens. They're more of a sandal/Crock-like shoe, but I think they'll work great for the summer. And they're waterproof and basically indestructible. And they're pretty dang cute on his chubby feet. Hehe :)

We ended up getting a regular size (i.e. not wide), but went up a size to a 6.

How is it May?

Honestly... How is it May already? All I can think about is how last year at this time, I was celebrating "Jacob's month." (little did I know he wouldn't be born until June)

This is the last new month for Jacob. Yes, every 1st of the month we've been celebrating a "new month" with Jacob. In 1 short month, 31 days, it will be Jacob's month. He only has two new holidays to celebrate- Cinco de Mayo and Memorial Day. And then its HIS BIRTHDAY!! How. Is. This. Possible.

I leave you with my all-time favorite picture that floats around Facebook. It's JT and it's funny and I love it.