aunt katrina came to town!

originally joey was supposed to go to chicago on business so we begged aunt katrina to come and have a girls weekend with us. in the end, joey didn't have to go anywhere and i still got my girls weekend. so really, it was a win win either way you look at it, especially for me!

we took plenty of walks while katrina was here, someone has to walk the dog....

(even though she's not represented in either one of the above pictures)

 ^ went through the market (milly's first time) and ate lunch at la panier (tasty french bakery) 

^ katrina bought some famous salted carmel chocolates and milly made a new friend all while taking a nap! 

she's such a multitasker!

^ we tried a cro-dough, which is seattle's version of a cronut, which is a donut and croissant mixed. this one was banana flavored and it was awesome! we bought two but ended up splitting one because they were so sweet and rich! after the cronut we headed to the chihuly glass and garden museum.

 ^ amazing!!!

 ^ taking selfies....

 ^ a free photo from the museum, thanks chihuly 

(but seriously you weren't on the cheap side so this photo better be free)

but even more serious, this room where this photo was taken, was amazing. how awesome would it be to have a big party there or get married. someone needs to have their wedding here and invite me, k? thanks!

^ we went to a lavender farm where we probably could have spent 30 seconds but since we drove all the way out there we turned it into about 5 minutes....(it was like a 7 minute drive...)

^ can you say PEDICURES!!!! my first since having milly. 

big, BIG, thanks to joey for watching little miss while we had a girls night!

^ katrina and i went out to dinner after our pedicures...

as you can see she's very, very excited about her dessert! but honestly, who wouldn't be?

 ^ and then, milly was getting tired so she decided to chilax on the couch in all her polka dot glory

it was such a fun week, that flew by way, way too fast! why does time always fly by so fast. speaking of time flying by, milly is 7 months old today, 7 months! we miss you so much katrina, i wish so bad we lived closer...someday, someday. until that day, thank goodness for airplanes! love you lots! lastly i just want to say a big thank you to katrina for flying out here and spending time with us. she helped me update my wardrobe (which was desperately needed) and introduced me to bright colored lipsticks! why have i never worn bright pink lipstick before? it's so much fun and makes you feel so fancy! what would i do without you?

oh what a difference a year makes...

lets play catch up...

a month? really a month has gone by? well for starters, milly has been introduced to solids...

we started her off with banana, which she actually likes, not that you can tell from these still frames. so far, besides banana, she's had sweet potatoes, green beans, apple, and prunes. she seems to like them all except for sweet potato. i'll even give her a bunch of banana first and then swoop in with some sweet potato. she'll end up taking a big ol' bite and then gagging it back up once she realizes it's not her beloved banana. it's got to be the weirdest thing, going from tasteless milk to all the sudden something with flavor and texture. it's been a lot of fun trying new things, next up: MANGO! 

a lot of milestones for milly this month, besides starting solids, her first two teeth have finally cut through! remember this post? well all her pain and hard work have paid off and she has two little teeth showing through. i would try to get a picture but every time we try to take one, she sticks her tongue out and tries to lick our fingers. you'll just have to look for them in pictures we take where she's smiling, it can be a fun game, like where's waldo!

lastly, milly has become mobile! she's not quite crawling but she has figured out how to get around by log rolling all over the house and scooting backwards. she can also rotate but the whole crawling forward on her hands and knees? she still working on it. she gets her knees halfway up and then starts rocking back and forth. you can see it in her little face, she's trying to figure out how to go forward. she's such an awesome little girl! we love you little miss milly lou! 

below are some pics from the past month for you to enjoy! 

 ^ exploring....

^ various trips to target...

^ my current favorite picture...

6 months

what?! my baby's six months old?! what?!

to celebrate her half birthday we went to the zoo yesterday, i'll let the pictures tell the story...

milly, you are awesome! i love you so much and can't believe how fast the last six months have flown by. your smile is contagious and you share it with everyone you meet. you're a strong willed little girl and know what you like and don't like, stay strong little one, always be strong. and stay true to yourself. i never knew i could love someone this much and i have you to thank for that! you are my favorite and happy half birthday, little peanut!

birthday weekend part 2....just a little late!

my oh my where does the time go? for the second half of joey's birthday weekend we took the dog to the dog park, went out to brunch and enjoyed another family hike. all in all it was an awesome weekend, it was so nice to have the time together. (even thought the only pics i seem to have taken on the second hike are of milly and i...) i love this little family of mine and all the adventures we've been having. enjoy the pictures below. i'll try my hardest to update more often ;) after all, joey's birthday was about three and a half weeks ago...

and although it was joey's weekend, he bought milly a little present, because honestly, who can say no to that face?

birthday weekend part 1

i've been meaning to post pictures from last weekend (we have sooo many) for a couple days now, where does the time go? here's part one of joey's birthday weekend. we wanted to take full advantage of his time off so we started off with a trip to the aquarium and a hike. it's so fun watching milly experience things for the first time....and then she got really tired of looking at fish and fell fast asleep! i love her little silhouette in the second set of pictures. she was amazed and so alert looking at all the fish, it's so fun watching her watch the world around her. 

below are a bunch of pictures from our hike. once again, we wore that little girl out and she crashed in the middle of the hike, completely missing the falls. but isn't she just adorable? hanging onto my side while she sleeps, makes my heart melt! she crashed again on the car ride home and no, i can't get enough of her!

golden birthday

this year was joey's golden birthday! he took two days off work, which has turned into a five day weekend thanks to labor day. we {milly and i} couldn't be more excited to have him home all to ourselves. we've been filling our days with plenty to do, taking full advantage of his time off. we've also been blessed with some decent weather so we've tried to be outside as much as possible this weekend. before we know it the rain clouds will be here to stay! pictured below is just a sneak peak of how exciting our weekend has been. if you know joey at all, you know that for him, getting that jersey is one of the biggest highlights of his weekend! more pictures to come later!

teething

someone is teething, and it's not me....

the night before last milly was having a very hard time. we've been blessed with a pretty good sleeper, she was very close to consistently sleeping through the night and then....she started teething. i don't mean the part where she drools all over, because that's been going on for months now, i mean the part where those tiny little white things will show their painful little faces any day now. she was up every hour crying in discomfort. all she wanted to do was nurse and be held. so finally at three something in the morning, after waking up every hour with her and nursing her back to sleep, every hour, i gave in and slept in the daybed with her. boob out and all, she could have all she wanted. i'm sure we were quit the site but guess what, we got some sleep! and in the morning, when she'd get fussy from being tired and sore, we'd do the same thing. we napped a lot the next day and the only way she was comfy was if she was nursing. that's the only way she could get some sleep, so there we were, laying in bed, nursing and cuddling. there's something so beautiful about breastfeeding; something beautiful and magical. it was the only thing that brought her comfort and i'm so grateful and feel so blessed i could provide that to her, my body continues to amaze me. when we felt a little better we headed to target to find some relief in the form of orajel, she already has a sophie {the number one teething toy in the world), but sometimes the thing she likes to chew on the most is my chin, see below! the following night was better, which brings us to today. she was my happy little baby again but towards bedtime i could tell she was in pain so we busted out the big guns and gave her some children's ibuprofen. i hate giving her medicine, she cries and doesn't understand and it makes her gag which scares the hell out of me. i hate it so much i start crying because she's crying and there's no way i can make her understand that i'm only trying to help her... and then we're both just a hot mess. she's sleeping now and she was actually pretty happy right before she fell asleep. sleep tight little miss and i'll miss you till the morning!

day one

today was my first day of work....as a stay-at-home mom.
after much deliberation and prayer, joey and i both felt it best for our little family if i quit my job and stay at home full time with little miss. mind you, i will not be wearing pearls while vacuuming and/or holding joey's slippers out for him when he comes through the door but i am excited to get our house a little more organized and have more home cooked meals on the table. plus, who wouldn't want to hang out with this little peanut all day? look at how cute she is with her little legs crossed!?!!! everyday i feel so lucky and blessed. big thanks to joey, for making it possible for me to stay home; i hope you know how much you are loved and appreciated!

chop chop

it was long over due! i cut at least {at least} 5 inches off and it feels so good, so light and healthy!

also, selfies are weird to take...

weekend recap

i can proudly say that i ran my first 5k this last saturday. i ran the entire thing, which is a pretty big deal considering that's the farthest i've ever ran at one time. being blasted with color and have ashley there to talk too made it go by so fast, i couldn't believe how easy it was and how amazing it felt afterward. i want to do it again, and again, and again. joey and milly were waiting for us and it felt so good to see them showing their support.
thanks again, ashley! lets do it again, and again, and again :)

after the race, i cleaned up as best i could and we headed into seattle for the amazon summer picnic. as you can see i was pretty excited about the all you can eat cotton candy. not really sure what it is about sugar air but i love it. we took extra home with us, that's how much we love it. we also stuffed our faces with cheeseburgers and loaded nachos and then took in the sights of the stadium. there were photographers set up around the stadium to take pictures. as you can see, milly wasn't too impressed...she did better with the second time around...even though she looks exhausted!

why do we look so fake in the picture above?

7 years

this last weekend we celebrated 7 years of marriage bliss! i can't believe it's been 7 years since we tied the knot and in the same sense it seems like it's been a lifetime, but in a very good way. we celebrated by getting breakfast, shopping, takeout and a nice homemade dinner. we had a lot of fun hanging out as a family. watching this little girl grow and learn, seeing her experience so much for the first time is one of the most amazing things to be a part of. i'm so thankful for her and for her dad. we didn't manage to get any photos of all of us together but we did get plenty of our favorite little miss. thanks, joey, for 7 amazing years. i can't wait to see what the next 7 have in store for us!

**above, she's waiting for her daddy to try on some new shirts. below, she's with dad looking at fish at cabela's.