Watch Emma Grow - Month Twelve

Hi all.....sorry this is SO late. The month of July has just been absolutely crazy! That doesn't mean that I shouldn't round out Emma's first year with the last update. Can I just say that I cannot believe what an amazing year this has been. It is bittersweet to watch my baby turn into a toddler, but she becomes more and more fun with each passing day. Her beautiful smile, her laugh, her tiny voice....I fall more in love everyday!

She's become very inquisitive and loves looking into cabinets and pulling things out of them. Particularly the linen and tupperware cabinets. Those are the most fun. She also loves to pull the books and toys off her bookcase and spread them all over her room. Anything that has items in it, she has to pull the items out completely. It's pretty funny, but she leaves a mess in her wake! Lol.

She got really good at standing, so much so that she took her first official steps the day of her birthday party. Daddy and I were so excited, and now she barely crawls. We walk EVERYWHERE. She wants to do everything herself and gets upset when you try to do it for her. A very strong willed and independent child.

She loved helping with all the planning for her birthday and wanted to play with the firecrackers every chance she could. She tries to wave and loves giving open mouthed kisses, and I love getting them! Drooly drooly. We have a total of 10 teeth....man those molar are a buggar! I feel so bad when I know she's teething because I know she's uncomfortable. She's a snuggle bunny when she doesn't feel well and that's the only time. Other than that she is super busy busy. Always doing something.

She's a great eater and loves trying new things. We learned a few months back that we cannot put any type of fruit in front of her if we actually want her to eat her food. She will demolish the fruit and leave everything else. She still likes her veggies, but bring on the berries and the melons and she's all about it. She also loves melted cheeses (quesadillas, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, pizza) and pasta. She must be my daughter! She's not a big meat eater though. I try to get her to take a couple of bites before I let her move onto other things.

Sleep has been better, unless she's teething. Most nights we get a big chunk from 10pm to 3-4am. Then it's up and down for the remainder of the night. What will I do with myself when I sleep a full 8 hour chunk?! Be over-tired probably. My body is used to the broken sleep now! Hehe.

She's our whole world and I couldn't imagine my life without her! My precious girl who fills my heart with such joy. I love my lil birdie!

12 Month Well Check Stats
Weight: 18 lbs 15 oz (30%)
Height: 29.5" (62%)
Head: 18.5" (93%)

9 Month Well Check Stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 3 ozs (30%)
Height: 27" (24%)
Head: 17.5" (60%)


Milestones to date:
Bringing her home: July 2nd (1 day old)
First Bath: July 4th (3 days old)
First Holiday: Independence Day (3 days old)
Held Up Head: July 11th (1 week old)
Lost Belly Button: (8 days old) First Walk (2 weeks old)
First Smile: July 27th (3 weeks old)
First Trip: Lake Tahoe/Carson City (5 weeks old)
Found her hands: (6 weeks old)
First Swim: (6 Weeks old)
Laughed Out Loud: Sept 25th (12 Weeks Old)
Rolled Over: October 28th (3 Months Old)
Found Her Feet: November 2nd (4 Months Old)
First Teeth: December 3rd (5 Months Old)
Crawled: (Army: January 16th - 6 mo; Normal: March 17th - 8 mo)
Sat on her own: January 7th (6 Months Old)
Ate Solid Foods: January 7th (6 Months Old)
First Vacation: Florida March 9th (8 Months Old)
Stood on her own: March 8th (8 Months Old)
First Steps: June 28 (11 Months Old)

And for the monthly photo dump!

Daddy, where's the credit cards?

Makeshift highchair

First Birthday banner!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Walks with the family!

Our big 1 year old!

Urban Outfitters "In The Bag" Sale

Hi! I know I was supposed to share Emma's 12 month update, and I am still within her birth month so I have time! Not much time, but I do! It's been a crazy month and I will update you all when I can with all the craziness!

So I am always on the lookout for a great sale. I love shopping and perusing home good items #interiordesignproblems but I never pull the trigger and order things. I was alerted to the Urban Outfitters "In the bag" sale and I had to peruse, because up to 70% off is always intriguing. Of course some of the items I loved were already sold out! Check out the sale and here are some of my favs!

Ladder Storage Basket $69 now $49

Magical Thinking Geo Medallion Pillow $34 now $29

 Three Potato Four Wooden Wall Art $34 now $9.99!!!!! (Thinking I need this!)

Home Modern Media Center $629 now $299.99
For the love of all mid century modern! I wish I had a place to put this! LOVE IT!

Industrial Caged Organizer $79 now $59

Locust Copper Pendant $98 now $59.99 (wheels are spinning)

Plum and Bow Curved Lines Table Lamp $129 now $74.99

Still loving my teal!

Mid Century Vanity $349 now $159.99 (!!!!!!!)

Locus Monogram Hook $10ea now 2 for $15

Can I redesign my entire apartment now? This post isn't sponsored. I just wanted to share some awesome finds that are on SALE!

Making Dinnertime Easier

Since having a baby we have strived to bring more fresh fruits and veggies into our home. Yes purees and jarred baby foods all have their place, but Emma prefers fresh fruits and veggies as opposed to processed baby food. She also loves to feed herself so this requires chopping up of various items into sizes small enough for little fingers to grab.

I've always been used to dealing with dull knives. It didn't bother me to badly until I started putting them in the dishwasher and that made them even duller. After vowing to never do that again with our new knife set, I was irritated to find that my knives were still pretty dull after not much use. Come to find out the straight bar that comes with most knife sets is not a sharpener as the hubby and I thought. Cutting grapes, tomatoes, peaches, bell peppers....anything with a peal was proving difficult and irritating to cut into little pieces for our baby girl. We both decided that we needed a knife sharpener.

Enter the System Sharpener. We sharpened our large knife first to test out slicing meats....another issue in our home. It has two wheels, a diamond grinding wheel for professional sharpening and a ceramic wheel for fine honing. A little pressure to glide the knife through each side and voila, a perfectly even sharp knife! It even has a suction cup on the bottom so it will stay secured to your counter top! Seriously I was excited. I needed to try out my new knives with a recipe that required a lot of chopping. I chose my Tri Colored Rotini Pasta recipe because of all the veggies I needed.

Everything sliced like a dream and in a fraction of the time. Also I didn't squash my tomatoes! Hallelujah! I can't wait to start creating masterpieces with fruits and veggies so my family can eat pretty chopped foods!

This shop was compensated for this post by receiving a free knife sharpener, all opinions are my own.
#KnifeSharpenerSystem

Patriotic First Birthday - The Details

Hi! I know I promised I would be back with an update on which projects we were going to do for the party, but I got caught up in actually doing the projects that I didn't have time. I thought I would at least share with you a teaser post of all the details we did for Miss Emma's Patriotic First Birthday Bash. Mind you I will come back with an updated post detailing the day! I made a ton of crafty/treats and it was just perfect!

Here we go:

Streamers // Homemade Banner // G.G. Made Apple and Cherry Pies // Rice Crispies // Chocolate Dipped Oreo's // Jello Cookies

Cake Inspiration

 

Painted wood pallet

Firecracker Centerpieces with peanuts!

Tin can bowling, the kiddo's loved this!

Gigantic bunting decor

Corn Hole!

 Sack Races, with flag guides and handmade sacks

Miss Emma enjoying her homemade smash cake!
Banner inspiration here and here

More banners and balloons!

Watch Emma Grow - Month Eleven

Back to my old tricks of getting posts out late, but two in one week! Praise the lord! Yea I know.....this whole blogging thing has taken a back seat to the mommy/working thing so my time is limited. We have been having such fun with lil miss though it's worth it. I have so many posts I want to write, yet the time passes by. Have any momma's found those extra hours yet?

Lets get down to why your here. To hear about miss Emma's 11th month of life in this crazy world. So much happened in May that its kind of a blur. Emma was baptized in the Catholic faith at the beginning of the month, she helped celebrate her Auntie's graduation from Vet school, we went to the zoo, we celebrated Mother's Day and had a ton of craft projects and naps and snuggles along the way. Her baptism was so beautiful and was a great day, I will have to do another post just on that. We also went to the local strawberry festival and took our first trip to the beach.

She's become quite the social butterfly. Loves to chatter up a storm and dance with her toys. I think it's the cutest thing when she babbles on. She's getting really good at standing up on things and holding her balance and she's really quick to walk along furniture. Blitz speed on the crawling also. One second shes one place and I blink and she's in a whole other location. Still not yet walking but it's coming up really soon!

Speaking of the social butterfly...we have deemed her first word to be dog. It doesn't quite sound completely correct, but we know she saying dog, mostly because she sees and points to the dog. It's so cute to see how excited she gets to see familiar people, especially mommy and daddy. I makes my heart swell to know how much she loves us. She also loves to give open mouth kisses. A slobbery wet kiss is all good when it comes from your loving baby!

She cut another two teeth so we now have a total of 8 out of the 20 baby teeth we will get. At her 9 month appointment, her pediatrician said she was cutting molars and she's been pretty irritated with those bad boys. I wonder when they will make an appearance.

She loves to sort. Toys, blocks, anything. Sort sort sort. Playing with the pots, pans, tupperware etc. is the most fun thing ever! I think we need to get her a child set of pots and pans so I don't have to constantly be washing my dishes! Lol

9 Month Well Check Stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 3 ozs (30%)
Height: 27" (24%)
Head: 17.5" (60%)

6 Month Well Check Stats:
Weight: 14 lbs 7 ozs (20%)
Height: 25.5" (38%)
Head: 17.25" (84%)
Updated weight: 15lbs (24%)

Eat: Emma has loved everything we have put in front of her for the most part. She especially loves pasta and fruit. Any and all fruit. Veggie's are good too, but FRUIT! Same eating schedule as last month...she breastfeeds in the morning, then eats solids and either the breast or a bottle before her nap, has lunch and breast/bottle, then another a snack and the breast/bottle after her second nap, dinner with us before her bath. Then she nurses to sleep and through the night. If she seems hungry she gets either a snack or the breast/bottle whenever she wants. I try to get her to eat as often as possible because of how active she is becoming.

Sleep: On and off. Most nights we get a stretch from 10-11pm til around 3am which means mom gets a good chunk of sleep also!

Diapers: Size three's.

Milestones to date:
Bringing her home: July 2nd (1 day old)
First Bath: July 4th (3 days old)
First Holiday: Independence Day (3 days old)
Held Up Head: July 11th (1 week old)
Lost Belly Button: (8 days old) First Walk (2 weeks old)
First Smile: July 27th (3 weeks old)
First Trip: Lake Tahoe/Carson City (5 weeks old)
Found her hands: (6 weeks old)
First Swim: (6 Weeks old)
Laughed Out Loud: Sept 25th (12 Weeks Old)
Rolled Over: October 28th (3 Months Old)
Found Her Feet: November 2nd (4 Months Old)
First Teeth: December 3rd (5 Months Old)
Crawled: (Army: January 16th - 6 mo; Normal: March 17th - 8 mo)
Sat on her own: January 7th (6 Months Old)
Ate Solid Foods: January 7th (6 Months Old)
First Vacation: Florida March 9th (8 Months Old)
Stood on her own: March 8th (8 Months Old)

And for the monthly photo dump!

Being Baptized

With Auntie/Godmommy!

Strawberry Festival Stuffed Strawberry

Family Time at the beach!

Baby toes in the sand for the first time

Balloons are fun with cousins!

Toys galore and were going to play with a makeup bag.

First birthday photo shoot (for the invitations)

Water bottles are so FUN!

As are tupperware!

Psh...standing is easy mom!

Yummy Quesadilla!

I love those blue peepers!

Fun time at the LA Zoo!