No. 1

Our Magic Bands arrived this week! Such a big marker for an upcoming Disney trip!! :) We're so so excited! If you have any Disney advice.. I'd love to hear it! The best thing so far has been working with our Mouse Counselor, Andrea. She's gone above and beyond. She's essentially a Disney Travel Agent who has been my magical fairy. And it's free. Why not support her and let her do all the heavy lifting? She's been amazing. If you're thinking about Disney.. email her and tell her I sent you! andrea@mousecounselors.com (I don't get anything from you using her.. I just think it'd be fun to tell her where you got her name!)

No. 2

Something that people always commented on when I was pregnant is how our home will never stay nice with kids. A kind note: that isn't encouraging. At all! This article featured tons of women talking about their light furniture and how they keep it clean with kids. Obviously Beau is only almost 11 months old.. but he's thrown up on almost everything (just being honest here!) and everything always comes out. Many of the mamas in the blog post talked about liking things being lighter because you know when to clean it.. and I completely agree. The granite in our current house really disguises dirt and I hate it!! I want to know when things are messy so I can clean it up! 

No. 3

My sweet Beau has had a rough week.. he cut two teeth! He's finally acting more like himself.. but he's just been a sleepy little boy! Yesterday he completely fell asleep during the middle of his haircut. It was so adorable and crazy because he just let his head hang there and he snoozed. We finished the haircut and moved him into his carseat and he slept the majority of the time my hair was getting done. 

No. 4
It's been a long time since I've shopped at Lilly Pulitzer.. I wore SO much Lilly while pregnant, and it burnt me out a little bit. :) But I saw this dress and fell in love!

No. 5

A few of y'all have seen on the news about the Texas storms and checked in.. Sunday night this is what our yard looked like! The hail was nuts. Our neighbors had totally destroyed windshields. It's insane! I actually wasn't home at the time of the storm.. we had homegroup about 30 minutes away and I didn't see anything bad at all. Ben had stayed home because he had been sick and he and Beau had to "take shelter" while a tornado was close by. My heart about exploded when I knew Beau was in his carseat in the closet. Praise God for keeping my sweet family safe! 

Happy Weekend y'all!! 

All of my Friday posts can be found here.

What's Up Wednesday: March 2017

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:
Tomorrow night we'll have fajitas, and I made Buffalo Chicken Chili on Tuesday. I also made brownies because I hosted girls night for my home group girls. A few people have messaged me recently about wanting to know more about our home group.. is that something y'all would be interested in? Tonight we're eating with friends! :)

2. WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:
This is usually a really fun question for me.. but I'm honestly not reminiscing on a ton.. although working on my top five photos post maybe kind of took care of that.

3: WHAT I'M LOVING:

This is so random but SIGGIS y'all. A few of the flavors are a little too tart for my liking but the strawberry and raspberry have become my absolute favorite. I eat them for all meals of the day or snack, haha! For dessert, throw in a few dark chocolate chips and stir. YUM.

4: WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO:
I took care of this question in a huge, overdue life lately post last week! :) The short answer, though, is lots of sweet time with family, friends, and always snuggling our boy!

5: WHAT I’M DREADING:
Nothing :)

6: WHAT I’M WORKING ON:

We've got until Father's Day to master Beau's (hopefully) second word, haha! He's got mama down and even uses it to get my attention.. but he laughs each time we ask him to say "dada!" Thanks for the study material, Jimmy Fallon!

7: WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT:
Our trip to Disney is soon approaching.. and we cannot wait! Any last minute tips? Send them our way!

We're also working on so many sweet details for Beau's birthday party.. look at this precious sneak of his birthday poster! HEART EYES!! Sizelove Letter Co. KILLING IT! 

8: WHAT I’M WATCHING/READING:
Now that the lamest season of the Bachelor ever is over (yeah, I said it!!) I feel like my tv watching is kind of few and far between. I did just finish Eligible by Curtis Sittenfield and LOVED it.

9: WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:
The Risen Motherhood podcast is rocking my world lately.. the last few have just been really really good and I need to go back and listen to the old ones I've missed. Gospel centered chats on being a mama.. the best!

10: WHAT I’M WEARING:

Oh, I guess this question isn't asking what Beau is wearing, haha! :)  We're loving this new little romper for our sweet boy! I think with this crazy Texas weather my outfits have been boring lately.. a lot of jeans and striped tops! 

11: WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND:
This is our last free weekend before a season of packed weekends, so I'm hoping for lots of sweet time with my boys!

12: WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
What am I NOT looking forward to next month is a better question! Tuesday is my bestie Kayla's gender reveal (more on that after the event!!) and that kicks off the best month EVER! Then on Palm Sunday we're hosting an egg hunt for our home group at my in laws', then Easter weekend, then DISNEY WORLD weekend, and then Meredith comes to town for Beau's one year pics and her Dallas mini sessions, the next weekend is the first in May but it's Beau's first birthday party. SO much goodness!

13: WHAT ELSE IS NEW:
One of my closest friends had her BABY BOY!! Welcome to the world, Walker James!!

Bonus question this month: What’s your favorite spring wardrobe piece?

DRESSES!!! I love them. Being able to wear my precious dresses again is my favorite thing! Loft is in my humble opinion, killing it with dresses right now. I hadn't shopped there in awhile and ran in the other day to grab a pair of my favorite white jeans (they're the only ones I find to not look see through on my body!) and fell in love with their dresses! This, this, this, and THIS!
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My Top Five Favorite Photos

I LOVE this Show and Tell Tuesday prompt.. but I should have known I'd struggle to keep it to five photos. Gah! So tricky. I have a whole life to represent, here! :)

Y'all probably saw this first one coming.. meeting my boy for the first time. Best moment of my whole life. I'll forever be so proud that Ben captured this image. 

I love all of the photos from our pregnancy announcement, but this one is my favorite. It captures so well what we looked like at that time, our happy smiles, and I think I'll look back on the image as timeless. 

This is a random one.. in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on our second wedding anniversary. We were just about to try and get pregnant and I just think you can see the twinkle in our eyes. :) 

Modeling for Southern Weddings magazine OF COURSE had to fit in somewhere! :) 

Our amazing trip to Italy.. we found out we were pregnant on this trip, with our sweet first baby who didn't make it. I cherish these photos so much, they celebrate that life to me!

Beau's first Christmas Eve. Silent Night, Holy night!

When I found out I was pregnant, I had this image in my brain. Not exactly this one, but looking back I do think I always imagined a little boy right there. I imagined the three of us in a horizontal photo, huddled together like this. I sobbed when Meredith delivered this image to me. This image really marks in my mind the family that I have always dreamed of.

This photo just captures a real life day we'll never be able to get back. It shows so perfectly the sweetness of relationship with Ben and Beau.

My boy. This soft smile. I can't take it!! 

Beautiful Switzerland combined with a precious boy who needed a haircut... in JAMMIES. Too much sweetness! 

This girls trip to New York with my besties was one of the sweetest ever.. I was 10 weeks pregnant and for some reason just everything about this trip went perfectly. I remember it so, so fondly. I don't think we'll ever be able to recreate it.. it was such a precious time. 

This is another one of my favorite photos from Meredith. My friend Lyndsey commented that when Beau is older and needs to "bring a baby photo" for something.. it will be this one. That has really stuck with me. It's insane to me how different he already looks from this image. I'm so in denial as we approach one year old!

I had to have a Paris photo in here! Our amazing photographer captured us so relaxed and natural. I have many favorites from that day, but this is one of the top! 

Speaking of photos.. come hang out with Meredith and I for her SPRING MINIS! :) 

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Beau's First Birthday Party

Honestly, as soon as I found out that we were having a boy, I started looking at fun birthday party ideas and themes. I live for this stuff, and being able to plan sweet celebrations for my precious boy will be such a gift. Originally, I was really leaning towards a Kentucky Derby theme, knowing that the weekend of this celebration would be the one before Beau's actual birthday. The weekend of his birthday is Mother's Day weekend, and we wanted to make sure that all of our friends would be in town. The day of the party is also Derby.. but I think I'll save that for two or three when Beau can participate in some stick horse races with his little friends. Such a fun party theme for parents too, right? I digress.. what kept coming up for one was Farmer's Market. Beau's Granny and Pops live on a farm and have lots of space for us to do a sweet hayride. His Uncle Sam is building a fruit stand for fresh bounty... and I'm obsessing over all the "locally grown" details. I absolutely cannot wait for the next month or so of planning and preparing for this sweet event. We're working with our amazing friend Emily of Sizelove Letter Co (her shop is launching soon!) on the paper goods and I can't wait to show y'all the invitations! I am already planning on framing it in our home.

What do y'all think of our sweet little theme? :) I am also starting to plan two baby showers and a bridal shower for this summer, so stay tuned for lots of fun party planning things!

Friday No. 60

No. 1

Yesterday this little fella and I went on an adventure with his Granny. We had an appointment in Fort Worth at a baby boutique for a custom silhouette, one of the sweetest things ever. 

I didn't really know what to expect but the artist literally cut the silhouette out before our eyes. Beau had to stay still and sit up (but not stand) in my lap for about ten minutes. He did so well! I'm so glad I had put Beau in a sweet outfit.. I didn't think about the outfit being included but it was, and the collar is one of my favorite little details of the finished product. I'm so pleased with it!

Baby Beau: 10 Months

The photo above might just be my favorite ever.. until we have another one that steals my heart. I mentioned last month that I wanted to remember all the progress Beau made in the previous month, and I feel the same way about this month. Our baby boy is growing at leaps and bounds, and we're loving every minute. 

Ps. You might have noticed I took a little vacation from blogging.. Ben had off for a week and I needed to press the reset button in several areas.. but now I'm back! 

Weight: 

19.3 pounds 

Height:

28 inches

Clothes:

We're full fledged into size 12 month clothes. A few different brands of 6-12 are holding up but jammies in that size have about moved onto 12-18. This seems crazy to me!! It's been really fun for me to shop through all of the sweet Spring options for him, and to pick a few special items for Disney World next month. 

Sleep:  

Towards the end of his last month, Beau started to be a little bit of a stinker with his naps. Still excellent nighttime sleep, but 45 minute naps were not going to cut it! He's finally gotten back in his routine and is napping better than ever. He's really busy into playing so I think that's why he's been so sleepy! 

Schedule:

Two naps, three baby food feedings.. and a whole lot of puffs in between!

Health:

We've been doing so well.. knock on wood! No colds this month.

Crying:  

Teething brings out the big old crocodile tears for our boy! His top teeth are for sure coming.. but who knows when! 

Likes: 

pouches with fruits and veggies are his new favorite 

puffs 

eating some big boy foods!

pulling up and standing with mama and daddy 

practicing our walking holding hands 

being lifted up and down 

bouncing and jumping 

meeting your new cousin, Tom

Sophie Giraffe 

Dislikes: 

Those mean toothies coming in!!

Milestones: 

You said your first word, mama, on Valentines Day! You also went on your first date that day, also with your mama. ;) You lost your spot as the littlest cousin in our family and met your new cousin Tom. You're pulling up so well and are so close to crawling. You've moved backwards in crawl position a few times, but we're still working on it. You're getting so very strong! You become stronger in your sitting up all the time.. you're leaning forward and stretching and then returning to upright so much. You started being interested in toys while on your tummy and reaching for them.. a big feat for you because you're so laid back and don't like a whole lot of toys! We have so much fun with you, Beau William! 

We've also started feeding Beau some finger foods. Finger foods with him is a whole different ball game than the average child. Because of Beau's thumb condition, pincher grip is near impossible for him.. however, his mama has been feeding him a few new things and it's been really fun! 

Another fun thing from this month is that Beau was asked to be a RING BEARER (!!!!) in August. Tiny little tux. I die!!!

Places You’ve Gone: 

• to lots of high school basketball playoff games
• to Texas Tulips 
• on a Valentine's Day date with mama to Central Market 
• lots of family breakfast dates 
• to the hospital to meet your new cousin 

This sippy cup is the only one that has really worked for us so far! 

I'm really surprised that I haven't mentioned these bibs in a favorites round up before. I have a few other cheaper versions of the same thing and trust me, nothing compares to these wonderful bibs. They're soft around the neck, the velcro is easy to put on, they wash well, etc etc. 

This isn't a product per se, but Blogilates has become my new favorite thing for mama survival. These workouts are quick, don't have you counting away your time, and are easy to do with a baby nearby. Beau honestly loves when I do the workouts with him by my side, he thinks it's HILARIOUS. I have lots more thoughts about this for a separate post, but these workouts are perfect for me in this season of life. 

Beau loves these Happy Baby teething wafers.. I picked this version up because they were the only ones without banana in them (we have a suspected banana allergy!) and they've been awesome! 

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