Easter Baby!

We had a great time celebrating Bailey's first Easter in Knoxville!

(photos by AK Vogel)

On our first day there, Scott and Mo were nice enough to watch Bailey while having mother/son bonding time:

Which meant that I could go and have some good bonding time with my mom!  First, we went Easter dress shopping for me, because I still can't quite fit into my cute dresses that would have worked  deserved to feel special on Easter too:

Then, we went to get pedicures and manicures (thanks mom and dad)!  It was so fun to just relax and hang out with my mom and get my nails done, and it will be even better when Bailey is old enough to join us.  We both got the gel/shellac type of manicure since it's supposed to last a super long time - but I've since heard from a couple of people that it may cause some issues with your nails when you want the polish to come off.  I'll keep you updated, but I have to say that I'm pretty impressed that my nails still look great now.  That's definitely a record for me, as I seem to always chip and/or smear my nails on the drive home from the nail salon, if I even make it that far:

 (3 days after the manicure! Amazing!)

Then, on Saturday morning, Scott, Bailey, and I had a photo shoot in the morning with the best photographer ever (which was when the above picture of Bailey in bunny ears was taken).  After that, Bailey had a fun playdate with some sweet Knoxville friends, Will Kizer and Anna Kate Petree:

 (I love this picture - Bailey looks so proper and girly and Will kinda looks like he's checking her out, ha!  Thanks Julie)



These cute babies had a lot of fun playing and I had a great time catching up with their moms.  Bailey had so much fun that when we were leaving, she gave Will one of her sweet open mouth kisses on the cheek, it was really cute (clearly I haven't taught her the never kiss on the first playdate rule).  I love the thought that Bailey, Will, and Anna Kate could be future members of the same high school class and group of friends just like their moms (and Will's dad).  I can't wait to move back to Knoxville and have more playdates with all the sweet babies there. 

On Saturday afternoon, Scott (a.k.a. the dog whisperer) started finding chores to do around my parents' house - poor guy has no projects or even lawn work to do since we're currently living in a cardboard box an apartment, so I think he loved getting to do some manly work:

Bailey got to hang out with her Mimi:

While Pops made some Easter eggs:

Then, on Saturday night, Mimi and Pops were so sweet to babysit while Scott and I went out and caught up with a group of my high school friends.  We had a great dinner at Pero's and enjoyed drinks on the patio.  While we may have stayed out past our bedtime, it was definitely worth every second and so fun to hang out!

On Easter Sunday, things didn't quite go as planned - because we had stayed out a little too late and didn't wake her up early enough kept Bailey's schedule on central time, she was still asleep at 8 a.m., and church started at 9 a.m.  (She slept SO well at my parents' house!  What the heck?)  So, by the time we got her up, fed, and dressed, and dressed ourselves, we were already 15 minutes late for church and didn't have time to get any family pictures of us all dressed up.  Then, while Bailey was wonderful and sweet and happy during church, she faded fast when we got out and fell asleep immediately on the way home, so we took off her Easter dress and put her down for a short nap.  By the time she was up, we'd all changed out of our church clothes.  Thankfully, Bailey, Scott, and I had worn our Easter clothes for part of our photo shoot on Saturday morning (in case you can't tell, I am SO excited about our pictures!), and so I'm quite certain that we'll have some excellent pictures of the three of us in them, but I'm kinda sad we didn't get any pictures actually ON Easter of us and Bailey with her grandparents while we were all dressed up.  Oh well, there's always next year.

After her nap, Bailey played with some of her Easter stuff:

And I overcompensated for my failure to get pictures of her in her Easter dress by taking a bunch of pictures of her with her great grandmother and grandparents in her casual outfit which we had to put on after she had a little "accident' on the cute bubble sweet Loucinda got her: 

Bailey and Mamaw (my dad's mom)

Bailey and Mo

Bailey and Pops

Bailey and Mimi

Bailey with Mimi and Pops (I wish this was a video - she kept smiling and laughing while jumping up and down in Mimi's arms.) 

I have honestly never seen Bailey as animated and excited as she was all day on Easter before we left Knoxville.  Maybe it was all the great sleep she was getting (seriously, what's up with that?), but I really think that she could sense that it was a special day, and I KNOW that she loved being the center of everyone's attention at my parents' house.  She was just SO happy - it was so much fun!

Happy girl with her dad!

Family picture! (obviously I should have kept my Easter dress on, as this one looks really tight awkward, and I probably should have showered done something with my hair - oops)

Bailey with the Easter Bunny cake made by Mo! 

(B definitely stuck her hand right into the bunny's ear right after this picture, it was classic)

 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay."  Matthew 28:6.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! 

Some Very Important Questions

First, some background:

Bailey may or may not be wearing 12 month old clothes to daycare today. Said 12 month old clothes may or may not be about the right length but a TEENSY bit tight.  Said tightness may or may not be a continuing trend with almost all the 12 month pants and shirts we have put on her so far (thankfully, the bubbles and dresses have been excluded from the tightness....so far).

Now, my Very Important Questions:  

Why is my little girl growing up so fast? 

Since we inherited most all of these clothes, could they ALL have been shrunk a bit?

Or.....does this mean Bailey should be wearing EIGHTEEN MONTH CLOTHES even though she will only be seven months old next week? 

Are we growing a giant superhuman?

If so, how can we capitalize on that?

More importantly, how in the world am I ever going to get pictures of her in all the ADORABLE 12 month clothes we have for her before she completely outgrows them?

Also, can we freeze time for a minute?  I really need some more baby snuggle time (although maybe not at 5:30 a.m., which has been her preferred snuggle time lately) before she outgrows me.

New Trick!

Bailey has a new trick:

(Please ignore my high-pitched, overly excited voice, but clearly I was, well, overly excited)

Also - here is maybe my new favorite random internet baby video - and in the words of Daniel Tosh, who is definitely cute and funny, "I'll have what she's having":



(Sorry, I can't figure out how to make this video a size that is not obnoxiously large, but one day I'll figure this whole blogging thing out!)

Funny and Cute!

Tina Fey is a genius: http://melodygodfred.com/2011/04/15/a-mothers-prayer-for-its-child-by-tina-fey/ This story (post? article? funny thing?) made me laugh.  Then the end made me cry like a baby.  Don't worry, it's not sad - its touching and funny and TRUE - crying is just what I do when I see sweet/touching things and am barely surviving on five and a half hours of sleep because I have terrible judgment and decide to rely on the fact that Bailey has been sleeping until at least 7:30 the last week or so by going to bed at midnight.  So if anyone sends me an email forward with a video of a dog rescuing his injured doggie friend from the middle of the street or a baby elephant getting pulled out of the water by the adult elephants just when you get all scared that the baby's never going to get out, some ugly crying may or may not occur (hint: it definitely will).   Just in case you were wondering, I'm not a genius.

Also - yes, this really happened last week:

Yes, that is Bailey, naked except for a diaper and in a grossly dirty bib and matching grossly dirty face (of course she would do a cute thing like this when she had food all over her and was not wearing one of her zillions of cute outfits), fast asleep (she was even doing a soft little adorable snore) in her high chair, halfway through her dinner.  Our sweet little baby who REFUSES to sleep at daycare decided she needed a cat nap to get her through the rest of dinner and bath/story time.  And that's ok. 

Also, this is not really funny, but it's pretty cute - the growing relationship between Reilly and Bailey is so fun to watch.  Bailey gets so excited when she sees Reilly and lets out a huge belly laugh when she watches Reilly chase her ball around the living room. Reilly loves to give Bailey kisses, and she's a lot more tolerant of Bailey's hair pulling than I am (when she gets a good grip, especially on the little baby hairs that won't go back in a ponytail, it really makes me want to say very bad words).  Look at this cuteness:

Weekend Comfort

Our little family had a wonderful weekend. On Friday night, we stayed in and Scott and I ate Mexican takeout from the Happy Mexican.  (YUMMERS - I highly recommend the Margarita Special, with the cheese on the side, we all know why).

Then, on Saturday, it was COLD and windy, but we got ourselves out of the cardboard box apartment and shopped around to find Bailey an Easter dress!  We've been SO incredibly lucky to have inherited the vast majority of Bailey's clothes from my sister and Scott's sister -  we've been completely spoiled by having our choice of super cute baby clothes without having to buy more than a few items.  I honestly think that's been one of the only things to keep my very frugal husband from completely going insane about all the random expenses of parenthood.  But, even though there are some really cute dresses in B's closet that would be perfect for Easter, both smocked and not, I decided that every little girl needed to celebrate her first Easter with a new dress (even though my husband thought I was crazy).  I got an Easter dress every year growing up, and I still remember feeling so special when I wore it for the first time to church on Easter Sunday.  So, I had to get sweet Bailey started off right! I can't post any pictures, first because we haven't put it on her yet, but also because I don't want to ruin the surprise.  But here's a hint - we got it from Janie and Jack.  

On Saturday night, Scott and I got a date night and Bailey got to spend the evening with Bubba and Deborah. Although we were unable to get a reservation at any of our preferred dinner destinations because my indecisive husband wouldn't make up his mind until Saturday afternoon prom kids had booked them all up, we still had a great time. We started off with drinks and fried pickles at Folk's Folly. Which, by the way, is a great start to a date night. The drinks were reasonably priced and poured generously, and they bring you FREE fried pickles! And, just in case you haven't had them, these are NOT your normal, fried appetizer plate from Newby's (oh sometimes I miss law school) fried pickles. Oh, nooooo. These dill-pickle-chip fried pickles are breaded and fried and have almost a funnel-cake-like consistency. Which sounds weird, but I've become a fried pickle connoisseur since living in Memphis, and I'm confident that these may very well be the best in the city. If I was a good blogger, I would have taken a picture, but just trust me and order a couple of drinks, nicely ask the waiter to bring you a side of ranch and to keep the pickles coming, and wear a dress so you don't have to worry about being able to breathe in your already too-tight skinny jeans you thought you could squeeze back into.

Since our dinner choices were decidedly limited, we ended up trying out SOB (South of Beale) a gastropub-type place in downtown Memphis.  Again, I realize any decent blogger (which clearly I am not) would have taken pictures, but, you have to take my word for it, I was pretty impressed. Granted, they got on my good side VERY quickly by starting us off with a complimentary bowl of oiled-and-spiced up popcorn, but the most impressive part of our meal was the seared tuna appetizer.  It was a delicious fried rice ball topped with seared tuna, avocado, and chive, served sushi-style with a large ramekin of soy sauce.  I honestly kind of wish I'd just ordered that for my meal, because after the fried pickles and popcorn, I was stuffed, but I still managed to put a pretty good dent in my pork chop and macaroni and cheese, and Scott enjoyed his duck and potato spinach gratin.  All in all, it was a great meal and a terrific night with my incredible husband - there's just something to be said for a night out together without a baby that, maybe because of its rarity these days, leads to honest and amazingly heartfelt conversations.   I highly recommend it!

Unfortunately, for some reason (ok, probably because we pretty much never go out), despite our decidedly moderate alcohol intake which was spread over 5 plus hours, our date night also led to terrible hangovers headaches the next day which left us both in need of some serious comfort food on Sunday night.  So, I fixed this: 

(Please ignore the gross counters - we all know I'm not a chef - but clearly I'm not a housekeeper either.  Oh. Well.)

So - this is my go-to, 4 ingredient, no chopping, man-pleasing, prepped in 20 minutes, all-time favorite recipe (thanks sister!).  It is so simple I'm almost embarrassed to share it, but let's face it, it's a great hangover cure comfort food and it's also an AMAZINGLY easy dinner to bring to those with new babies if you cut it in half and keep the other half for yourself (unless you're feeling generous), add some bread, a salad, and a bottle of wine, or you can make it and freeze it for yourself if you're currently pregnant and planning ahead (fyi, if I know you and you're pregnant and you live within 30 minutes of me, please know that there is approximately a 100% chance I will bring this to you when you have your baby, along with the aforementioned bread and salad and wine.  So, get excited!)

Here is the recipe - enjoy!

1 box penne pasta (I use the Ronzoni smart choice pasta)

1 lb sausage (I use the reduced fat Jimmy Dean)

3-4 cups shredded mozzarella (this is totally up to you - I usually use one bag in the pasta part, and 1 cup on top, but you can reduce as your waistline/metabolism permits)

1 jar pasta sauce (whatever you want)

Red pepper (to your liking, and only if you like spice - Scott is totally anti-spice, so I just add my own to the bowl after serving, and it tastes great either way)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Cook pasta al dente

- While you're cooking the pasta, brown sausage until it's not pink anymore

- Combine pasta, pasta sauce, 2 cups of cheese, and sausage

- Mix well

- Top pasta mixture with 1-2 cups cheese

- Bake for 30-45 minutes (until it is a little brown on top)

Then, if you're like me, prepare for the following: (1) your husband to eat 2 huge helpings, (2) you to "try" to eat one small-ish helping (and several small "bites" while cooking - you know, just to make sure it tastes ok), (3) your husband to finish off the WHOLE PAN the next night, and (4) to have no other plans for cooking the rest of the week.  

Oh, the glamorous life.  

The Baby Weight Chronicles - Part I: Packing It On

[Preface: This started out as one post, but then it got SUPER long and obnoxious - even for me - so I decided to split it up.  This is Part I - it ends before the losing begins.  So be sure to check out Part II (coming soon)!  And since the baby weight saga is not even close to being over, this will likely have multiple parts - at least until I lose all motivation and get a new wardrobe the extra lbs are gone.]

Before I found out I was pregnant, I was following a weight watcher points-type plan in order to maintain my weight (I've struggled with weight issues pretty much my whole life, and I have to modify weight watchers for it to be effective for me.  It recommends keeping track of your exercise and allowing whatever exercise you do to increase the amount of calories you can eat under the "points" model. This flat-out does NOT work for me - I have to get in an hour of cardio six days a week, minimum, and only then can any "extra" exercise be used to increase what I can eat.  Apparently I was MIA on the day God handed out metabolisms).  My plan, while requiring pretty serious dedication, allowed me some wiggle room on weekends and was maintainable, as long as I kept a close watch on the fat girl in my head (I love me some foreshadowing, a harbinger if you will).

Despite following my plan pretty strictly, I weighed about 5 lbs more than usual, thanks to the holidays, when I found out I was pregnant on January 22. But, unlike usual, I couldn't just get a little more strict with myself for a few weeks to lose that weight. After all, I was pregnant.

Like any good pregnant and paranoid lawyer, I extensively researched things like what the "experts" recommended for levels of exercise and calorie intake during pregnancy and increased my calorie intake based on that.  When I hit about the 8th week of pregnancy, my usual weekday 5:30 a.m. workouts became impossible due to my body's new requirement of 9-10 hours of sleep per night in order to be even marginally productive during the day, and after work I was usually so exhausted that I couldn't bring myself to do anything more than walk around the block with Reilly and Scott.  I wasn't one of those lucky pregnant ladies that can't eat, throw up a whole lot, and end up losing a bunch of weight during the first trimester (ok, ok, I know they're not really LUCKY, and I'm sure their sickness is far worse than my mere nausea, which was actually pretty miserable.  But that doesn't mean I don't sometimes think that I would trade the baby weight I'm still holding on to for a few weeks of miserable sickness).  Rather, I was one of those with constant, flu-like nausea during the first trimester that was only relieved by eating small amounts of cheezits, popcorn, "puff" corn, now & laters, watermelon, cereal, pretzels and cheese dip (seriously yum), and enything else I decided I wanted and was available within a .5 mile radius of my desk.  This snacking happened almost all. day. long.

Despite my almost constant snacking at work and lack of exercise, I had only gained 2 pounds (on top of the 5 extra I was already carrying) at my 11 week OB appointment, which was right on track with my plan to gain between 25-35 pounds during the 40 weeks of pregnancy.

After learning I wasn't gaining much weight despite my bad exercise and snacking habits, the the fat girl who lives in my head started sounding more credible and, unfortunately, I started to listen to her.  In short, my inner fat girl quickly convinced me that my workout/calorie management plan (which had helped me to lose the massive amount of weight I gained in college due to some extremely poor food and alcohol decisions AND which barely maintained my not-too-thin figure) was far too strict and clearly unnecessary, especially during pregnancy.

So, I didn't do anything crazy, but I did stop tracking my caloric intake and continued with my snacking, although it was less constant once the nausea subsided.  I maintained a reasonable(ish) level of exercise, but nothing like I'd done before.

Then, I think it was at my 15 week doctor appointment, the first during my second trimester, my weight gain JUMPED.  I'm talking 8-9 pounds in 4 weeks.

This was NOT, I repeat NOT, in the plan.

I tried to reverse it.  I tried to shut my inner fat girl up and get back to working out - even for just 30 minutes - every day I could get the energy to do it.  I stopped keeping my snacks in my desk. 

The weight kept piling up.  It wouldn't stop.  It probably didn't help that my inner fat girl was pretty much in control now and had me doing things like buying chocolate icing "for the brownies I would make while my nieces visited" (which I polished off a week before they arrived) and regularly eating half a watermelon in one sitting for my lunch "dessert" (don't judge me - it was summertime in Memphis, it was HOT (2nd hottest summer on record here!) - and they were damn good.)

I did test out of gestational diabetes, although just barely.  I failed the first test, then apparently passed the 2nd long test - even though the 2nd test made me so sick and exhausted I thought I had to have failed, and my OB mentioned at one point that she thought I was "pretty close" to having it.  It has occurred to me that I may have had a very minor case that somehow cheated its way through the second test.  I plan to be very cautious about this possibility during my next pregnancy, and may even ask to go on a modified GD diet just in case.  I'm not even kidding.

Anyway, the pounds kept coming until here I was, a full 52 pounds later:

(Confession: even though this post is somewhat complaining about my excessive weight gain during pregnancy, I actually love these pictures and the way my body looks in them, and especially the fact that they were taken only a few nights before Bailey arrived (even though I intentionally made them pretty small - blame it on a little paranoia about perverts the internet.)  Even though all the pregnant ladies I've seen lately, including the ones that are only a few short weeks away from their due dates, seem to be about half this size (including a girl having triplets - I mean really could she be any more adorable?), these pictures truly leave me in awe of what my body was able to do to bring Bailey into this world.  Plus my hair and makeup look pretty flippin' good.)

So...........how much weight came off after having Bailey?  Was ANY of it just bloat from that miserably hot summer? (Did I mention it was the 2nd hottest on record in Memphis? Because it totally was.) (Also, did I mention that Bailey was 8 lbs 13 ozs? Because she totally was.)

Check back soon for Part 2!!!

ZOO fun!

Last weekend, we found ourselves with a beautiful Saturday, temperatures in the 70's, and a beautiful little girl who had just turned six months old.  After I went to a fun baby shower, we had a gorgeous afternoon to kill and decided we should celebrate sweet Bailey's half birthday with her very first trip to the zoo!

Scott and I LOVE the zoo and were definitely one of those semi-creepy couples - or at least it seemed that way at the time - who would spend way too much money pretty Saturdays at the zoo just the 2 of us amid the waves of screaming children and exhausted parents, sitting through the seal shows and trying to catch a glimpse of the polar bear swimming past the window pawing at his big red ball.  

For the first time, we were the exhausted parents (the random couples aren't so weird, by the way), and the zoo was even more amazing!  Bailey is still too young to really appreciate the animals, but we had so much fun picking her up and showing her everything and (of course) taking fun pictures.  

First, we checked out the tigers: 

Then we checked out the giraffes - aka real-life Sophies 

Bailey was so excited after this that she threw her actual Sophie out of her stroller at some point, leading me into a slight panic that resulted in a new Sophie being purchased the next day - which was, of course, the day before the zoo called to tell us someone had turned in Bailey's Sophie (they called it "the giraffe that squeaks") to the lost and found.  Oh, the many, MANY unnecessary expenses joys of parenting.

Then we checked out the bears:

And answered the age-old question of "Does a bear poop in the zoo?": 

 (Answer....yes!)

Bailey got a little sleepy during our stroll past some monkeys:

We thought she was going to keep napping through the pandas....

But then she got a second wind: 

She and her dad had fun watching the orangutans (as fellow gingers, I think they share a subconscious bond):

She told her dad who was #1, while wearing her adorable sunglasses (thanks Mimi and Pops):

On our way out, we got to hear the coolest thing ever - this lion was roaring so loudly, it sounded fake at first:

Then Bailey left the zoo on her dad's shoulders, the happy place of all little girls: 

"Mom, are you coming too?"  

[Random, off-topic sidenote confession...these are the first pictures since Bailey was born (not that I've taken that many) that have really made me feel like I look like a MOM.  Not a fun, young, cute-dressed mom, but the real, kinda sleepy, knit-dress-wearing kind of mom that still needs to lose those last 15 lbs of baby weight (that's a whole 'nother blog post, already in the works).  Kind of bittersweet, but this little girl is worth any and every gray hair and spare ounce.  Look at that smile!]

The 'ville

As anticipated, we had an amazing weekend in Louisville.  

Bailey and her cousin Mary Preston had so much fun!  

Preston had a great time swinging with Bailey: 

Preston even shared her pretty mama (and their little min-pin Willis) with sweet Bailey:

(Does anyone else think Bailey's head looks a little, ahem, large-ish in this picture?  She's in the 90th percentile in everything as of her last checkup, so she's proportional, but this picture just cracks me up, head-size wise!)

She even let Bailey hang out with her dad: 

Preston also tried to suffocate Bailey shared her bath (and her bath toys) with Bailey: 

(really really trying to get this video to work - it said it did earlier so hopefully it will again?  Sorry if not - it's really cute!)

I can't believe how big Mary Preston (now mostly known as "Preston") has gotten.  

Preston was so sweet and such a good entertainer/sharer with Bailey, it was so fun to watch.  She has definitely gotten much more comfortable with Bailey since the awestruck/gentle baby poke stage.

It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time hanging out with Tracy, Omar, and Mary Preston.  Scott and I even had kind of a randomly awesome "mini-date" where, instead of heading to Preston's best friend's birthday party on time as planned, we drove around Louisville together in order let Bailey take a much-needed nap in her car seat.  It was wonderful to get some semi-alone time together and see some of the amazing houses of Louisville and a cool park.  

I *promise* to get my schmidt together this week and get a zoo post up and try to get to more of my mental blog posts.  Hope everyone enjoyed this amazing weekend!

Catching Up and Required Reading

Somehow it's Friday already and I haven't gotten a chance to put together a post on our super fun trip to the zoo last weekend.  And now we're off to Louisville to see Scott's sister this weekend and I know I'll have to do a post about that, since nothing is cuter than 2 little red-headed cousins. I also have some other ideas for posts on my "mental blog list" in my head that I want to get to next week.  But then it will probably be next weekend already.  Blogging is hard. 

We've had a pretty good week, but can't seem to shake what I call the "daycare curse" of almost constant sickness.  Bailey's actually been sleeping well (yes I am crossing my fingers behind my back to hopefully avoid jinxing this sweet, sweet blessing we have so very much enjoyed please please don't take it away).  But she's also been coughing, and snotting (pretty sure that's not a word, but you get the point), and yesterday she decided to refuse to drink her bottles at daycare.   Then she came home and scared the bejeeze out of me by falling asleep while jumperooing and taking a nap in her crib before having her last feeding, which she never does unless she's really sick. 

BUT then she drank two great bottles for me last night, slept well (or at least well enough not to wake me in the next room - our outrageously expensive video monitor crapped out on us the other night, so we've been trusting my mommy ears until the company sends us a new one, which is pretty safe considering the size of our cardboard box tiny apartment - which is a whole other post in and of itself, I need to write these down) and there was less snottage this morning, so I'm hoping we are on the upside of this mess. 

At this point, I don't remember what it's like to have a non-sick/congested baby, but I'm pretty sure it was kind of awesome. 

Anyway - if you're even still reading this -  that was not where was I going with this post, I don't know where that ramble came from. Here we go, back to the point - I'm obviously completely out of it today pretty new to this whole blogging thing (I only really started looking at blogs when my sweet friend from high school who has a great blog which you should check out told me about hers).  I'm really enjoying it, and I'm also having a great time finding fun new blogs to read, as you can tell from my ever growing list of blog links. 

So here are some links to blogs I have recently discovered and really like - for obvious reasons, most of them are mom-related, but I'm fairly confident even those without babies will find these blogs very entertaining.

Check them out and have a great weekend, y'all!

Rants from Mommyland: This is my current every day must read, and I usually end up reading several posts.  "Kate" and "Lydia" are have a great perspective on mommyhood.  They also almost make me pee my pants spew whatever I am drinking (hint: usually wine) all over my computer screen because they are THAT funny.

Spilled Milk:  A full-time lawyer and  mom (wow that sounds familiar) with an honest and funny blog.  She gets super extra bonus points for the Steel Magnolia's quote from Annelle as her blog tagline (I really want to match her with the "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me" quote, but I can't bring myself to be that big of a blog copycat. Yet.)

Elefantitas Alegres: Lawyer Kate married a lawyer and loves wine (hmmm that also sounds familiar).  She's basically that cool, well-traveled, organized, great at design, super-cute-dressing, menu-planning girl that I kind of want to be, but just am not. 

Ashley Quite Frankly:  Funny mama to two hilarious boys that really seem to be the boy versions of my two sweet nieces (older one is rule-following sweetheart, younger is, well, NOT).   I commented on one of her posts the other day that she should teach a class of "How to be an awesome mom and raise cool kids" or something like that and I firmly stand by that.

Her friends are sluts: I think when I first discovered this blog I ended up reading, like, a year's worth of her posts in one sitting.  Great writing.

Fun Etsy Finds

Ok, so I am definitely NOT pregnant, but I somehow just now discovered the absolutely adorable nursery wall art on Etsy.  When I was pregnant, Scott and I spent hours and hours searching the internet for cute wall art for Bailey's nursery.  Not only could we not agree on what we liked, but we pretty much only found the cartoon-ish, mass produced stuff like that found at babiesrus.  

I finally ended up finding some generic cute shape-prints at Babytime here in Memphis (and I think Scott about had a heart attack when he heard the price I we paid for it.)  We also got a beautiful cross painting from my sweet friend Julie at our Knoxville shower that we love, and I tried to get creative with some white trivets from Williams Sonoma Outlet by hanging them up as wall art.  But still, Bailey's room has A LOT of free wall space.  We just never found stuff we really liked at a reasonable price. 

For some reason, I never even considered looking at Etsy.  Apparently, this was a HUGE mistake!  While I was randomly (and very optimistically) searching for furniture on Etsy the other night (all the furniture we have, except for Bailey's nursery stuff, tvs, and a beautiful tv stand that we are not currently using as a tv stand, has been generously handed down to us from our parents/sisters.  And it shows.) for some reason this cute little elephant popped up: 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/59946627/my-elle-cute-elephant-nursery-art-print?

He totally piqued my curiosity, so I looked around and then found his two sweet friends:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/60051844/my-giraffe-cute-giraffe-nursery-wall-art?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61832413/my-monkey-cute-monkey-nursery-art-print?

So then while spending hours dreaming about our next baby's nursery I found lots of really cute nursery art!  Then, I went to a baby shower for my friend Laurie who is having her second little girl in just a few short weeks last weekend, and one of the hostesses had gotten her a super cute print from Etsy with a personalized message on it (I am not 100% sure, but I think it was from the same Etsy vendor who makes most of the amazing prints below - GalerieAnais).  LOVE IT!!

In an effort to prevent my favorite pregnant mamas from ending up with the same empty nursery walls, I am posting a few more of my fun finds - I wasn't super thorough, and I can't post everything I found, so I totally think all of you should go to Etsy and spend a few fun hours of your own!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71617750/tell-me-nursery-wall-art-print?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/57186197/twin-brothers-blue-background-nursery?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/64149730/bob-the-elephant-nursery-wall-art-print?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66121325/la-baleine-nursery-wall-art-print?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65046696/gigi-nursery-wall-art-print?ref=v1_other_2

Enjoy ladies (and babies)!

We love you Reilly!

[Sorry for the two "birthday" posts in a row, but I have to honor our sweet puppy dog Reilly's fifth birthday, which was on April 2.]

When we got Reilly, she was 5 weeks old, about 5 pounds, and would fit in one hand.  We drove all the way to Iowa after law school exams our second year to pick up this little ball of fur, and by the time we got home, we were smitten:

Reilly was quickly part of the family, enjoying all the fun activities we did as a new "family," including: 

Hanging out at the lake:

Partaking in some delicious beverages:

Seeing her cousin Maddie:

Hanging out in the yard (added benefit of me including this picture: motivation to lose. the. baby. weight.  I think I can, I think I can): 

Studying for law school: 

Cheering on the Vols and hating the Florida Gators (but then again, who doesn't?): 

Going on camping/canoe trips:

 

Loving being a daddy's girl (and she is NOTHING if not a daddy's girl, I don't think I've ever seen such a pair): 

And, finally, celebrating the news of our pregnancy: 

Ok, maybe she wasn't exactly celebrating, and those first few months, which are hard on everyone, may have been hardest on Reilly.  

Whenever Bailey cries, we all feel a sense of helplessness and stress, but Reilly's little heart just seems to melt.  You can literally see her stress level go up (and feel it as she walks all over your face if it happens while you're sleeping - she makes SURE we know when sweet Bailey is upset).  

I know it's hard on her that I just simply don't always have the energy to love on her the way I used to after a long day of taking care of our (human) baby, and it's also tough for her to no longer have a yard to sunbathe in and get away from that insanely loud crying baby. But, thankfully, Scott is still amazing with her and somehow finds the energy to make her feel loved and important every single day (this is making me sound awful, but I promise I try!).  Also, we are very very lucky to have the river park and, as often as we can, we take her down there, let her off leash (shhh don't tell), and get her (almost) enough exercise.  

I hope we'll soon have a new yard for Reilly (in East TN - please pray for us on that if you get a chance, thanks in advance!) and that, as I get more and more used to this "mommy" thing, my energy for loving on her the way she deserves will return.  

But what gives me the most comfort is my trust that, pretty soon, Reilly is going to realize that she's got a new best friend who will be a whole different kind of fun than we ever were: 

Here's to many many more years, sweet Reilly dog!