sweet simple & small

Dear Gracelyn, Oh my gosh. Where do I even begin?  My baby is one year old today. I can't believe my eyes. 1 year of beautiful life. 1 year that I am the worlds most blessed mom. 1 year of chubby cuddles. 1 year of firsts. 1 year of you.  My heart swells just looking at you and the gorgeous little girl you are. Being your  mom is the most painful, stressful and most rewarding thing I have ever done. You don't understand right now but every time I see you, my life lights up and my heart fills up with joy because you are mine. I have loved watching you grow up to be a happy little girl. You have always been so calm yet wild and I  love that about you. You're also adventurous and strong willed and I can only dream of what those qualities will bring you in life. I pray that your life would be filled with all the riches that our lord has for you. He is the only thing in this life that will never leave you or forsake you. My heart yearns for you to know Jesus and to love and acce

I cannot believe I will have a 1 year old in 12 days! That not only marks by baby’s first birthday but also 1 full year of breastfeeding! My original goal was to make it to 6 months and now we have doubled that goal!  It has bonded Gracelyn and I and I don’t want that to end anytime soon! I put together my favorite items for breastfeeding and just some small tips towards the end. Hope you enjoy. 1.       - Boppy Pillow: I had said I could do without the boppy pillow but David surprised me one day and came home with this. Since then I have used it at basically every nursing session and it provides amazing comfort and support while breastfeeding (OR bottle feeding). I think it would work for both. This is the one I have and I like that it has a zipper so I can remove it and wash it or change out different covers! 2.       - Medela Double Breast Pump/ Hand Pump: Both of these pumps are life savers! I used the hand pump for the first weeks while I waited for the electric one

11 MONTHS Height, Weight, Head: No updated stats but I did weigh her last Friday and she is 24 lbs. 6 oz. My chunky girl. Clothes: She is all over the place but she is generally in the 12-18 month range.  Eating: I'm proud to say that we are still going strong with breastfeeding! She breastfeeds 5 times a day and lots of "snacks" in between. She is eating more and more real food too and I have had fun watching to see what she likes and dislikes. She LOVES peanut butter and French Toast the best. She loves feeding herself which is awesome because that is what I wanted for her. I love that we don't worry about who will feed her when it comes to meals because she does! My advice to anyone is to skip purees and just let them feed themselves when they are ready- it is SO much easier and a lot of fun.   At Macayo's with Tio Marc! (By the way, she does sooo good in restaurant's too, we've gotten lots of comments from strangers about her!)

If you haven't heard this enough lately, let me tell you one more time: Happy New Year! The last twelve months flew by in the blink of an eye which makes me feel so incredibly blessed because I was able to share it with some amazing people. I wanted to do a little review of 2013 and highlight some of the best moments we had! Goodbye 2013, you were pretty awesome. We kicked off the year by having my baby shower! It was so much fun and I enjoyed celebrating my little girl. I can still remember the morning of- I had NO clue what to wear and thought I looked fat in everything! Those 30 extra pounds were getting to me I guess...I changed about a million times but the party ended up being amazing and I am still so very thankful for that day. All of these women mean so much to me. Sarah, Sarah, and Aubrey all play such special roles in my life. Oh! Addie and Piper too. Addie helped David and I open the box of balloons when we had our gender reveal.  A couple weekends later, my