Weddings and more...!

This has been and is continuing to be the busiest and most expensive year of our lives. On top of the second half of our son's first year of life, we have had event after event after event... Whew! 

Brayden is just down for his nap this morning and it just hit me that his first birthday is next week! After getting over my minor panic attack of this realization, I decided I wanted to write down all that has been filling our calendar this year. Here goes nothing... (italicized events are ones that we will not attend). There are few showers or other smaller events that we don't yet have dates for that are not on this list.

February:

-Justine's wedding shower and bachelorette party weekend (Williamsport, Pa)

-Sarah's wedding shower (Chicago, IL)

March:

-Justine and Steve's wedding (Williamsport, PA) - bridesmaid

April:

-Abby and Derrick's wedding (Memphis, TN)

-Sarah's bachelorette weekend (Egg Harbor, WI)

May:

-Sarah and Scott's wedding (Decorah, IA)

June:

-Jamie's shower and bachelorette party weekend (Pittsburgh, PA)

-Gary and Sharon visit Iowa

-Shea and Darin's wedding (North Carolina)

-Garret's bachelor party weekend (New York City, NY)

July:

-Brayden's first birthday party!!!!! (Des Moines, IA)
-Connie, Bill, Amanda, and Bonnie visit Iowa

-Michelle's shower (Texas)

August:

-Jamie and Dustin's wedding (Pittsburgh, PA) - bridesmaid

-Joe's bachelor party (Dallas, TX)

-Connie, Bonnie and Amanda visit Iowa

-Nicole and Joel's wedding (Montgomeryville, PA)

September:

-Libby and Greg wedding (Edinboro, PA)

-Garret and Jenna wedding (New York City, NY) - groomsman

-Joe and Michelle wedding (Dallas, TX) - best man and ring bearer

-Ashley's 27th birthday

October:

-Katie and Josh wedding (Des Moines, IA) -?

-Mandy's 30th birthday (Disney)

November:

-Zach's 28th birthday

-Thanksgiving

December:

-Seth's 30th birthday party (PA) - ?

-Christmas (PA)

I'm definitely forgetting a couple of things somewhere, I know it. It's only July, so I'm sure that there will be more things added to the second half of our calendar this year.. Whew! I think we're ready for a calmer 2013...

First momma's day

I left Zach and Brayden behind this past weekend to drive to Decorah, Iowa for my good friend Sarah's wedding. I arrived Saturday just before noon and got myself ready in the hotel before driving into the middle of nowhere for the ceremony. The reception was at the country club and it really was beautiful. Sarah was gorgeous as ever and it was a really great day.

This weekend really sort of made me realize how much my life has changed in the past year. In two months, Brayden will be one year! I had a blast at the wedding. I had a few glasses of wine throughout the whole day and we danced the night away. But I tell you, I couldn't keep up with all of Sarah's friends. Normally, this would have been an opportunity to drink the night away without a worry in the world and a free ride back to my hotel. But now, getting drunk was the last interest on my list, because I wanted to be able to get up early and drive back to Des Moines to spend my first mothers day with my little family. And I'm happy that I was able to do that. If you know me, you know I get nasty hangovers. It's crazy how things have changed, but I wouldn't give up what I have for anything. My family is the only thing that matters now.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Here's me posing for a pic for my
hubby.

Me and Sarah

The gorgeous bride

My mothers day gift, pandora!!

And mothers day picnic time!

Weekends don't get much better than this!

9 Month Photos

Here is the link that you can view all of the pictures at. You can order any that you like. It will be available for 90 days.

View photos here

My baby is 9 months old!!

I can't believe it! How time flies. Every new day is my favorite day and I just can't believe where the time has gone. My baby boy is so big! We have our nine month appointment on Monday so I will update on that next week. And we had a little photo shoot today that I will share when we get the pics back. Until then..happy birthday Brayden!

Catching up..

It's been awhile. I won't have any pictures for this post, but you can always see my facebook for those!!

Well we made it back to PA for Justine and Steve's wedding and after some planning conflicts the weekend was perfect. It was amazing to see my best friend walk down the aisle and to be a part of it. And it was really special to have my own son there. Who'da thunk it?? :-)

The very next weekend I left Brayden overnight for the first time. I spent the weekend in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin to celebrate my friend Sarah's last days as a single lady. I thought I would cry when I left Brayden and Zach, but I didn't. I didn't really have any separation anxiety until I went to bed that night and tried to go to sleep. But the next night was perfectly fine for me. It was great to have a girls weekend, I really needed it. I've been pretty busy these last few weeks. But I think I finally have a breather until my cousin Abby's wedding at the end of April. Can't wait for that one! All of the Mills' are really excited to meet our little guy and I always have so much fun when we all get to be together for a few days. That will be another long weekend.

I'm still down 21 pounds, even after stopping the diet pretty much since Justine's shower, so probably 6 or 7 weeks. It's reassuring that I have not gained any weight considering how I have been eating since then. But I still have a goal that I want to meet so I'm trying to get back to it this week now that all of those festivities are over. Hopefully I can get there before the next round of weddings starts so I can be done with it. I won't lie, dieting isn't exactly fun lol. So I'll be glad when I'm done. But it's been pretty awesome to lose that much weight without lifting one dumbbell or taking one walk/run. Just proves that it's not about working out like a fiend. I'll try to keep updated about all that.

Sweet Summer

With the nice weather so quickly approaching, I have to wonder if our lack of winter and early March "summer" weather is a result of global warming. A good friend posted on Facebook today, saying sure, who doesn't love the great weather, but don't forget about our ozone layer!

My first thought was, "I don't really care, by the time that becomes an issue (and forgive my ignorance because I know that there are actually issues resulting from our depleting ozone, I just don't know what exactly) I won't be on the planet anymore." And I don't mean that in a way to say that I don't care about the environment, because I really do. I can't throw anything that should be recycled in the trash can without feeling bad.

And then as I was showering this morning, I realized that it does matter to me what the world is like once I'm gone... Because my son will be living in it. And then a slight feeling of nauseous spread through my stomach as I thought about the possibilities of our future planet that is to be my child's present.

It's crazy what motherhood does to you and the way you see things.

Lots of "firsts" happening

The past couple of weeks have brought on a lot of "firsts" for Brayden. I can't believe how big he is getting and how he is growing and changing every day! He's started standing by holding himself up on something. He started feeding himself finger foods (which I am exceptionally excited about). And, his first tooth is making it's appearance.

Brayden has always seemed to have really strong legs from the beginning. He used to kick the crap out of my tummy before he was even born. He loves to kick and push with his legs and he especially loves jumping in his jumper. So now, instead of sitting on your lap he wants to stand and bounce. Or as we say, do baby squats. Here are a couple of pictures of him standing (he can't pull himself up yet, I stood him there). Isn't his chunk adorable?

The reason that I am really excited about him being able to feed himself finger foods is because a lot of times he gets really impatient when I am preparing his food, so I can hand him a little finger food and he can keep himself happy with that. Also, when we are out shopping if he gets fussy, one of these apple wheels keeps him occupied and satisfied for the time being.


Feeding himself an apple wheel. He loves these!


Little chunk standing at his new toy.


He's never in the same place in the crib when he wakes up. He's scooting and moving around!



Super baby! He loves this game!



Standing with daddy.