happy new year!

the happiest of new year friends! 2011 was a great year. our little family was blessed so much this year. we are so thankful to put a great year to rest and so excited to see where 2012 takes us! we have lots of exciting plans already for this coming year, including in feb daddy and mommy are leaving bennet overnight for the first time. i am both excited and very, very scared. my mom is flying down to stay with her and i am thankful for that...but we are talking 5 nights away from my little baby! ugh i start tearing up just thinking about it. i have to remind myself how great it will be for us to have some alone time and reconnect but still....

in april we are flying to california for pete's brother's wedding. we are planning on going up to san francisco for a couple nights too. this should be a fun filled trip! including a trip to disney land!

bennet will be 2, pete will be 30, we will celebrate 4 years of marriage and maybe (if i can talk daddy into it) i will be pregnant by the end of the year. haha

lots to look forward to. thanks 2011 for a beautiful year!

lately...in instagram photos

i wasn't feeling very good and Bennet knew that baby cuddles would make it better

cuddle time!

relaxing!

after nap it is always snack and cuddle time while watching a show.

snuggling with mimi on christmas.

we took bennet to the grand ol' opry to see all the christmas lights.

santa brought a play kitchen!!

daddy took this...i am sure they were getting ready to snuggle with a show. ps that is not all she does...it is just a good time to snap pics cus she is sitting still for a minute.

my adorable sister and her handsome men on christmas!

bought her a new hat!

Merry Christmas...a few days late

From our family to yours

hope everyone's Christmas was lovely! ours was spent in st louis with my family. sadly my sister and her little girl were down with the stomach flu so this was the 2nd year in a row that sickness kept us from all being together. we missed them but were determined to celebrate. bennet loved ripping the wrapping paper off her gifts. it was the cutest. she was so intense. she got lots of toys...tons of food for her play kitchen and tons of baby stuff. her favorite though would have the be the little stuffed Blue from blue's clues we saw the night before christmas at a grocery store. haha of course the $4 gift is what she loves.

it was a good year, but we decided to stay home next year and make our own traditions. it will be good for us and i really want bennet to wake up in her own house on christmas morning. we will be sad and miss our family but this will def be good for us.

Have a happy new year!!!

a letter

dearest baby girl,

first, i have to say that i am so sorry i don't write on this more. i have this blog so i can easily write stories about your life so when your older you will have an amazing thing to look back on. plus i want to always remember all these little and big things you do and accomplish. i promise to change that. it is laziness and also when daddy is gone i kinda get in a funk...i hope it doesn't show to you but i know as you get older it will be something i have to watch. it is something i am working on and with God's help i will get better at.

you are 16 months and 5 days old. for the first time you walked across the living room today! you took so many steps that i lost count! this is such a huge step. for the past few months i have been like "okay any day now she is gonna do it!" we worked on it but i also reminded myself that it was OKAY that you hadn't. it really taught me not to compare and not to worry about such a small thing. i knew it was mostly due to your personality. you are a very cautious little girl. any little bump or fall you take great insult too...not by crying (unless of course it really hurt) but you just give a dirty look to anyone around like "what the heck!" it cracks us up! you have a very impressive furrow brow (which you get from daddy) it was so great to see you so proud of yourself as you walked back and forth! every time you sat down you clapped along with us. we are so proud of our little walker!

you have so many words it is crazy. some new ones are...NO!, yes, mimi, night night. you mimic lots of words too! so many i can't even remember. the other day i asked you if you were ready for night night and you said "NO night night!" haha! everything right now seems to be NO! along with your famous furrow brow but we are working on yes. you have to be reminded of that one a lot haha. you also know where your eyes and nose are and can say the words! you know where your ears are but can't really say that one yet. you know toes, belly, belly button, foot too!

you love animals and love all their sounds. you do a mean lion, monkey, cow, dog, snake, bear, bee, cat, and pig. you fav as of this moment is monkey you love scratching your arm pits and going ooh ahh ahh! you also have grown very attached to a baby monkey toy. it actually was the first toy you would smile at. we haven't played with it for like 8 months and you found it the other day and now you won't put it down. you also know that santa says HO HO HO! this is the cutest!
you love your stuffed animals! you feed them and kiss them and dance with them. it is so darling. you have really been getting into imaginary play with them.

as i sit here thinking about all this i am just so thankful. i am so thankful for your daddy. you have a good one. he is so in love with you. he also is very hands on. he wants to get you up in the morning. he wants to put you to bed. he wants to get on the floor and play with you and read you books. he misses you so much when he is on the road. and when he gets home he fills all the time he can loving on you. i also want you to know that he cooks, cleans, changes the grosses diapers, and always puts us first. one of my biggest prayers for you is that the man God has for you is like your daddy. we got a good one baby.

i love you baby girl. you have been so fun to watch grow and change and get this fiery, loving personality. you are so fun to be around and i am so thankful for you. i promise to write down more stories.

loves and kisses

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

hello lovelies! hope you all had a great thanksgiving! we had a great time up in st. louis with my side of the fam. bennet loved playing with all her cousin's cool toys! especially their play kitchen, which i believe she is asking santa for this year. she has been such a little sweet heart so i am sure she will have something extra special waiting for her under the tree. ;) speaking of santa...we went to see him today! bennet warmed up quick to him. she just sat there jibber jabbering to him. it was so cute. santa went on and on about how she reminds him of his little girl (santa and mrs. claus have babies ya'll) you could tell santa was very content to hold her and secretly didn't want her to go. i think the feeling was mutual ;)

oh and here is a flash back of last year....

same santa, same girl...even though she looks so different! it really is crazy to see how much she has changed. still the sweetest little thing though :)

my little family

i love my husband. i love my baby girl. i love our kitty.

i am so in love with my little family.

they mean everything to me. i am so thankful that God has blessed me with such a fun bunch.

but...

i wish my husband was home. the days we have to spend with each other are few and go by too quick. some days are so hard to get through. and most days don't go by fast enough. i could write on and on about how hard dealing with my husband's job is. how hard it is to see your little girl cry and knock on the front door after dada leaves...again.
this tour is almost over and then we will have some time in december to all be together. and then it starts all over again in january. he will be gone 4-5 days a week till april. yep.

today i was daydreaming about what it would be like to have him home on the weekends. what would that look like? would we snuggle in bed and watch cartoons with bennet? would be get up and make the most of our day? head to the farmers market? do brunch? go on random road trips? stay in pjs all day?

there are a few things i want to say...
-obviously it is hard. days are long.
-if he is gonna have to travel for a job, it is pretty cool that he gets to do something he loves.
-i am thankful he has a job.
-there are perks.
-there are downers.


all this to say, i just am missing him...so is bennet.

this is my baby

{photo by ethan luck}


i am one blessed mommy