Costume Change.

I mean, seriously, I should probably just quit my day job and be a photographer. Several thousand pictures of tonight's shenanigans and only one where she's looking directly at the camera. I call my style "Quick get the camera, make the baby stand still while I try to get a picture. Oh shit it's blurry lets try that again and again...and again. Hold on, I'm sweating - she won't sit still! I guess that'll do..." I'm booking sessions for 2014 starting now so you betta sign up...

Anyway, Halloween Witch turned out to be a much better costume than "Mummy that doesn't quite look like a mummy" so I'd say G's first Halloween was a success. We had a good handful of Trick-or-Treaters although not as many as last year. I guess it's a thing around here that parents dress up in costume too as they take their children door-to-door so I better get started planning our stellar costumes for next year. Hopefully it won't be as big of a cluster as it was this year. First-time mom problems, I tell ya.

Mummy Fail.

And maybe a mommy fail, too?!

I was determined to make G's costume for her first ever Halloween and try to make it extra special - as if she would even remember. I take 13848384 pictures on any given day so even though she won't remember, she will be able to look back on her first Halloween and see how awesome her costume was.

So...I thought long and hard about what she could be; I didn't want to spend a bunch of cash on something she'd only wear one time and thought I could handle being crafty. I landed on dressing her up as a mummy. How cute would she be as a mummy?! So cute. I was armed with an idea in my head (girly, lace-y, fun headpiece, etc.), hit up HobLob, got out my hot glue gun and went to town.

I started with a white long sleeve onesie, white leg warmers, a plain white headband and lace. Lots of lace. 

Ok so it didn't look terrible sitting there on the dining room table and I still don't think it's awful but it sure did look goofy once I put it on the baby (she was a good sport, by the way)...

It totally looks like I just glued a bunch of shit onto a onesie. Not quite the look I was going for. And poor G. The lace was itchy and she kept pulling at it and taking her whack headband off. She was not loving life and I don't blame her. So here we are, back to square one in the costume department and Halloween is tomorrow. 

Luckily Grandma Sarah (who is really very good at being crafty) is to the rescue. My parents are coming down for the weekend and my mom is brining a Halloween tutu that she whipped up last night. We'll pair that with a few other items and turn Gracyn into a Halloween witch just in time to hand out candy to all of the neighborhood kiddos..and take 13844827 more pictures.

Happy Halloween!

Gracyn :: 9 Months Old

NINE months, baby! Full disclosure, these pictures are not the best - the little miss is allergic to sitting still these days. As soon as I moved her back to snap her pic, she was reaching, crawling, standing, yelling for/at something else. Luckily, Justin got home right as we were trying to play photographer and he was able to distract her for .43 seconds so I could get a somewhat decent picture. Gracyn lasted about 5 minutes and I took almost 100 pictures (rapid-fire is my favorite feature) and I only got a handful of pictures that were OK. All of the others had at least one body part that was a complete blur.

Month numero nueve has been quite exciting. She says "hi" every chance she gets, she is sprouting new teeth on the daily (I wrote up her chalkboard on Monday night and since then her 6th tooth has popped through!), and, did I mention? She WILL NOT sit still. Girlfriend is all over the place. 

She's mastering some mad balancing skillz. She'll be walking along the furniture and stop to play with something or chew on the TV remote and all of a sudden we'll notice that she's just standing there like it's no big deal. But then she realizes she's not holding onto something and does this little squat thingy where she tries to reach the ground. Eventually she just falls back on to her booty and goes about her day.

Not even lying, she took two steps last night, too. 

She's such a ham these days. We are lovin' the goofy faces and the things she does to get our attention. Grunting is her favorite - she'll grunt at you until you say "hi." Once you acknowledge her, she gives the cheesiest grin. Seriously, she's awesome.

G weighs 18lbs 5oz and is 28 inches tall, which means she gained 4 pounds and grew 3 inches in the last 3 months. Oink, oink baby. She has yet to refuse a food which means she'll eat anything you put in front of her. She still really loves puffs and this month we've started giving her whatever we're having for dinner. She still gets her purees but she's also had things like quesadillas, chicken, pasta, and ham. She gets angry if we don't give her a taste of what we're having so we at least let her try whatever's on our plate within reason.

Pretty pumped to see what she'll do next. I could be wrong, but I'm going to guess that she's walking by 10 months which is just absolutely nuts to think about but she's already standing on her own and she learned that trick in like 2 days.

I'm hoping her 2nd word is "mama" but since she has yet utter the "mmmm" sound it doesn't look good. "Dada" is definitely close - she's probably (technically) already said "dada" but it hasn't been as clear and consistent as her "hi."

Def looking forward to Halloween next week - I got her costume made and I'm anxious to see what it looks like once she has it on. And I'll probably try to take some more stellar pictures to post on this 'ol bloggity blog, which I know all 7 of my followers are looking forward to... No? Anyone? Oh-well.

Until then.....

A Day at the Farm

It was a bit chilly this morning but we ventured out to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead here in town to experience what life was like in the 1900s. Farm animals, a one-room schoolhouse and an old-time general store. It was pretty legit. I had been wanting to go for awhile now and since we rarely get out and explore our adopted hometown, I was glad we made the trip. Gracyn seemed to enjoy it too- saying "hi" to the goats and "hi" to the other little kids as she strolled by.

Get ready for a photo dump. Lots of farm animals and baby girl comin' atcha. Before we left, though, we had to eat puffs and be goofy. Justin's little sister Jessica is visiting this weekend and her and Gracyn are besties. G likes to wave and be silly with Aunt Jessie...

Weekend Happenings

It's Monday and I'm tired. Big surprise. We had a busy weekend filled with friends and family time and the weather was b-e-a-utiful. Really, in life, what more do you need?!

The weekend started a few hours early when Boss Hog closed the office at 2pm for a company-wide miniature golf tournament. The reason? Just because. Yeah, be jealous. I always say (mostly to remind myself that I really do have it pretty darn good and should keep my complaints to a minimum) that if I HAVE to work and be away from Gracyn all the live-long day that I have a pretty good place to go... We only have 15 employees and we are more like one big happy dysfunctional family so if the man in charge wants to close early to go play putt-putt and drink beers, who are we to oppose?

There were prizes but my team did not win, unfortunately. After golf, we picked up our significant others and headed to Boss Hog's house for dinner and more drinks. Gracyn was a big hit (I was the only one who brought their kid but it was cool 'cuz she's a baby) and she was a trooper staying out until 10pm. She slept until 9:30 Saturday morning so I'd say she had a good time.

On Saturday we headed over to Alyssa and Brian's house to watch the OU game (I don't want to talk about it- we're still recovering). After a short while, the girls said "Eff it, let's go shopping!" and we headed out.

Obviously we had to stop for a margarita and chips and salsa...

Soon after that Gracyn needed a change of clothes (too much fun with the girls) and this is the only thing I could find in the diaper bag: a whack Royals onesie from Walmart that was too big - it looked like she was wearing baby shoulder pads - and crew socks. No pants. A true fashionista if you ask me.

Justin later informed me that there were indeed pants in there, I just didn't look hard enough. I found them eventually. Luckily it was a nice day and she could get away with traipsing around town without bottoms for a little while. Maybe I should have only had one margarita...

Sunday included lunch with an old dear friend followed by family pictures. I spent the week fretting about what we were going to wear and even created "inspiration boards" on my phone to gather outfit ideas. Not sure if it really helped but I feel like we looked somewhat put together and I'm excited to see the finished images in a few weeks.

After pictures we hightailed it to Leavenworth to eat dinner with my parents, brother and his family and my aunt and uncle. We were all over the place and the only naps G had were in her car seat. She was over it by the end of the day and ready to get back to our normal lives where we don't do anything exciting.

This week should be pretty mundane which will be nice. The only thing on my agenda so far is to start working on G's Halloween costume. I'm going to make it (she's going to be a mummy) and I have a picture in my head of how I want it to look so I'm hoping it turns out. 

Don't worry, you know I'll let you know how it goes...

Things to Do, People to See

The hives have cleared (can I get an amen?!?) just in time for us to gear up for a rather busy and fun-filled weekend.

i love e-cards. they're hilarious.

First things first though, my sister-in-law and I are hitting up a consignment sale south of town tonight to try and score some goodies for the little people in our lives. The sale is held twice a year and by the looks of their Facebook page they have a ton of items. Should be a good time fo' sho'.

We have an all-employee miniature golf tournament tomorrow afternoon followed by drinks and dinner at Boss Hog's house (one of the many perks of working for a small company), football to watch, friends to see, shopping to do and last-minute family pictures to take as well. I'm gonna need a weekend to recover from the weekend...

Hives are a girl's best friend...NOT!

You know that glorious massage I blabbed about last week? Well aaaaaapparently, I'm super allergic to whatever godforsaken oils they used because ever since I have been one effed up hive-y mess. Yep. Hives. Hives on my arms; hives on my legs; throw in some hives behind my knees and around my ankles too for good measure because we can't contain the misery to just one part of my body. Nope, we have to be miserable allllll ovah... And I specifically said "do not massage my feet because I hate when people touch my feet and I will karate-kick you in the face if you touch my feet" and yet the top of my feet were breaking out too. What the hell is up with that?!

Take my hives plus seasonal allergies that on Monday caused my eye to swell to the point that it looked like I got into a fight (and lost) and, as you can imagine, I was one pleasant, attractive beast. I win the wife-of-the-year award too because all I did all week was complain and whine and complain some more about how awful I felt and how itchy I was and how I was pretty sure that I was going to die. Justin kept telling me to go to the doctor and he tried to make me comfortable. Gracyn, thank the heavens above, has been sleeping pretty much through the night (only waking maybe once) so it hasn't been all bad.

I went to the dermatologist on Monday (who didn't think it was related to the massage oils but that's what I'm blaming it on because that's the only thing that is/was different about my day-to-day life) and she had me start taking twice the dosage of Allegra plus twice the dosage of some heartburn medication PLUS benadryl. Holy antihistamines, batman. That would have been all fine and dandy except I'm pretty sure the heartburn medicine actually GAVE me heartburn because I was seriously having chest pains and difficulty breathing and I STILL had hives. Ain't nobody got time for hives plus a heart attack so I stopped taking that shit and went back to my normal generic OTC drugs. My eyes are no longer puffy and I can breath normally again but I'm still all itchy.

I'm home with Gracyn tomorrow so we might have a girls day and trek it to urgent care to see if I can get a topical cream or steroid or something 'cuz I am over it.

Everything I've read online (which is never a good thing because once you enter your symptoms into the symptom checker, they always say you have cancer or something) says people can suffer from chronic hives for 6 months or more (WTF!). I'm realllllly reallllllly hoping that this is not the case because I don't think I can mentally handle that sort of diagnosis.

Fingers crossed!