Happy Birthday Mom:

I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to the most amazing woman I know, my mother! 

She is my role model, my best friend, and to be honest, the coolest person I know! I am so lucky to call her my mom, and I am even luckier that Charli gets to call her Nana!! 

I hope your day is perfect in every way, and we CANNOT wait for you to be here in TWO days so we can continue your birthday celebration!! We have a lot of surprises waiting for you and a fun filled weekend prepared just for you!! 

Happy Birthday Mom! xoxo

Weekend Update: A whole lot of Life:

We did not have any big plans for this weekend, as we were not sure how Charli was going to be feeling... We are happy to report though, that Charli's fever broke late Friday night, and she had no fever Saturday morning!! Woooo!! (And still no fever... Bigger Wooooo!!)

So with no fever Saturday morning, we knew we wanted to get out of the house and let her get some fresh air, but we didn't want to over do it, so we just drove into downtown Charleston, we grabbed some lunch, and we did a little shopping (and that alone wore the little out). 

After nap we headed back outside for some more fresh air and bubbles (one of her favorite things)!

Blowing on her bubble wand!

I absolutely love being able to capture all of these sweet moments with our little!

And those curls!!! Just look at those curls!!!!! 

After lots of bubbles we headed in for a little more playtime before dinner, then it was saying 'night night' to the puppies before heading upstairs for bath and bed! 

The love that Charli has for her puppies makes my heart melt!!

 And then after Charli fell asleep, Steven and I had a football date night, cuddled on the couch with cocktails in hand and we even turned on our fireplace! What a perfect Saturday night!

Sunday morning was our very first time ever leaving Charli in the church nursery...

The nursery has 2 rooms, a room full of toys and everything, and then this reading/learning area. She loved sitting in the chair like a big girl!

I felt so many different emotions leaving her... I knew she would be fine, but I also have never left her like this before. Her being right next door made it a little easier, but I still felt the urge to cry. She ended up doing amazing of course, and had so much fun! I am so glad we finally took that step to leave her, because Mommy and Daddy could actually listen and enjoy the service, without running down the isle after her! ;) Although from the very first time attending St. Thomas Episcopal, a few people from the congregation pulled Steven and I aside and said "We know it bothers you, but every noise she makes in here is pure joy to all of us, please do not worry if you think she is interrupting the service, we absolutely love it" (talk about pulling at my heart strings). From that very moment we felt a real 'home like' feeling at this church and have enjoyed being a part of it and look forward to the memories we will have there!

After service there was a picnic

And the weather even cooperated for some outside fun!

How Charli plays corn hole

Um, how stinking cute is she in her Lily shift dress playing croquet!

After a perfect Sunday morning, and a Sunday afternoon nap, we headed to the backyard for a little family pool time in Charli's new pool!! 

Yes, of  course I got in, and yes, we were playing with rubber duckies, and yes there were cocktails! ;) I am kind of obsessed with my awesome family!! 

After pool time, Charli got a bit dirty playing out back so what better way to clean a dirty baby than to throw her in the kitchen sink? (She thought it was the best thing ever!)

After she got all clean in the sink, we thought "Hey, it's Sunday, she can go nakey baby style for a little bit...", so we let her run around and play with no diaper... Until I hear from upstairs "Traci, come quick, EMERGENCY..." (Ummmm..... literally as my heart is racing and I am running up the stairs I am yelling... "What happened?", "Did she break something?", "Is she bleeding?", "Is she OK?"... Then immediately stopped and said "OMG, she isn't wearing a diaper..." and started busting out laughing because I could only imagine what just happened... Yep, you guessed it... Daddy caught her mid poop and is running to the bathtub! HAHAHAHA! So I am running around with disinfectant spray, carpet cleaner, bleach, just about anything I could find! LOL! It wasn't much, Thank God, and we got everything perfectly cleaned, but Charli lost her no diaper privileges from now on! ;)

But all in all, it was a perfect Sunday, it was a perfect weekend, and I am so lucky to have such an amazing little family! I love all of the little adventures and weekend adventures we go on together, but more than anything, I love the weekends like this one, where it is just 'Life', it's just 'Us', being a family, doing little things, but still making so many memories! 

I hope your weekend was full of lots of memories too! Happy Monday!


P.S. Happy 13 months to our sweet Charli Adele today! ;)
P.S.S My mom will be here in THREE DAYS!!! Wooooooo!!!!!! Can't wait to see her! 

Being a Super Mom with added ninja skills is not always easy...:

But someone's gotta do it!

Some of you are aware that Charli has been fighting some sort of virus for the past 2 days, but for those who were unaware, yes she has been fighting some sort of virus for the past 2 days. 

When she woke up yesterday morning, she was burning up, I took her temperature and it was over 101. We gave her some Advil in hopes that it would knock the fever out pretty quickly (if you can remember, Charli has only had ONE cold which was actually stemmed from her Flu Shots, and even then her fever was knocked out pretty quickly, and other than that, she has had a fever maybe 2 or 3 other times, all due from getting shots, but again knocked out pretty quickly), so yesterday morning we were hoping for the same... Not the case...

Charli's fever slowly got higher and higher (even though for the most part she was acting herself), she had zero appetite (and if you know Charli, this has never happened... home girl likes her food ;) not that you could tell right?!) :), she had really bad diarrhea (no vomiting), did not want to drink her water (and water is the only thing besides milk that she drinks), and only had 1 wet diaper in 5 hours... Needless to say I was in tears all afternoon, knowing my sweet baby girl was in pain and I was doing everything in my power to make her comfortable and feel well but I knew it wasn't working. 

Steven had already called the Pediatrician, and we had an appointment scheduled for later in the afternoon. When I was rocking her before her nap, she was burning up again (I hate seeing her so sick and me feeling so helpless...) I did not want to let her go...

Her fever spiked to 102.4, and she was trembling/shaking (which scared the bejesus out of me, because all I could think about was how babies can have seizures from very high temps like that... she was fine of course), but still, I was crying, called Steven, he rushed home, called the Pediatrician, and they had us rush her in just to be safe. Her temp was up to 103.2, but other than her being very sick and a high fever, she was healthy and looked good, and they were amazed at how happy she was with how sick she was. They are pretty sure it is just a virus and it has to run its course, but we are monitoring her because they may need to put a catheter in her to get a urine sample just to be on the safe side and make sure it is not a UTI or anything else.

After we left the Doctors office, we made sure we had plenty of Advil, Tylenol, and Pedialyte (in a couple of different flavors... which she absolutely hates all of them) on hand, and Daddy also got Charli a new little 'sick buddy' (stuffed animal), because getting a surprise always makes us feel better! :) And just having Daddy home early from work helps too I think... ;)

Then it was dinner (which she didn't eat much of), a quick bath, and an early bedtime for our sick little girl... or so we thought... She fell right to sleep on me like every other night, but as soon as I layed her down she was sobbing, I rubbed her head, her tummy, her back, but she just wanted out, and wanted me (but lets be honest... even to this day, when I am sick, all I want is my mommy too) ;). So I picked her back up and held her and rocked her and she fell right to sleep again... then layed her down... yep you guessed it, sobbing again. I didn't know what else to do, but to climb into bed with her (I have never had to do this before), but it clearly worked! She was wrapped all around me and sound asleep in minutes... Uh now what? How am I supposed to take her arms and legs off of me without her waking up, and then climb out of her crib quietly? Well friends, that's when my mommy ninja skills were out in full force. I was out of her crib and out of her room in minutes, all super quiet and she was sound asleep! (insert patting myself on the back) ;)

Our sweet girl had a good night sleep and I just knew her fever would be gone this morning... but it wasn't. It was back up to 102.4, and on to day 2 with a sick baby... 

Please keep Charli in your thoughts and prayers, and lets hope it is just a cold virus that has to run its course. 

There is absolutely nothing worst than seeing your baby sick, and I am sure it will never get easy, no matter how old she is.

Crafting Chronicles: Applique Wednesday:

Hi Friends! So as I promised yesterday, here is what I have been working on today...

Adorable Applique onesies!

This is something I have been wanting to try (main reason, to see if I could even do it), so when I was out at the fabric store, I picked up some fabric iron on adhesive, because I had some left over fabric lying around and thought I could put it to use! 

So I gathered all of my supplies that I was going to need for this project. Fabric, check, adhesive, check, scissors, check, iron, check, sewing machine, check

I then cut the fabric and adhesive into squares (just big enough that I could draw the shapes). Then apply adhesive onto the back side of the fabric with an iron. Let cool, after adhesive is bonded.

Then draw your desired shapes (make sure that if you are doing letters, numbers, or anything that could go "backwards", is drawn onto the paper side of the adhesive backwards)

Cut shapes out, lay them on the shirt to see where you want it and how it looks

Peel paper backing off of adhesive, and using an iron, apply applique to shirt. Keep the iron on the applique until bonded. Then voila! 

Then using a sewing machine, stitch around the sides of your objects for extra security and to create the finishing touch! 

This was just a "practice round" for me, so I started by making just these few, but I am very excited with the outcome, and can't wait to do more!! (I have so many more ideas!)

Happy Crafting!

Crafting Chronicles: Tutu Tuesday:

Football season is officially upon us, and if you know me, you know this is my favorite time of year!! So with that being said, we have to make sure our wardrobe is ready as well! ;)  

I was going through Charli's closet, and realized she had zero football attire for this season (since clearly she has out grown all of her newborn/3 month football clothes from last season) ;), so I have been on the hunt to make sure my girl is absolutley adorable this season (especially since this year we will actually be able to head down to Jacksonville for a few games since we are not that far away)!

So on to 'Tutu Tuesday'... My friend Jenny made the most adorable fabric tutu for her little girl Charlotte for her third birthday this year, and I think I told Jenny just about 10 times how stinking cute it was and that I wanted to make one for Charli one day! You can check out Charlotte's tutu here! So today was that day... and again, with football season finally here, I went with a Jags inspired tutu for Game Days!! (And since it turned out so stinking cute and was super easy, there will be an orange and blue one made very soon... Go Gators!) ;)

On to the tutu making...

I started with all of my supplies for this no-sew fabric tutu (yes, I still had my travel sewing kit handy because you will need to make a few stitches on the ends of the elastic to create the circle band).

I measured Charli's waist, and cut the no-roll elastic to that size, and stitched the ends of them together to create the circle band.

 Then I took all of my fabric, and cut them into strips (making sure that the strips are double the length of how long you want your finished tutu to be, because of how you loop and tie it onto the elastic band).

Then I took each piece of fabric and started tieing them around the band. Making an upside down 'U' behind the elastic band.

Then pulling the 2 strands in front of the elastic band and through the opening

Then pulling both strands downwards and tight. Continue with each piece until completed.

 Then voila!!!! You have a tutu!! I did this while Charli was napping, and it seriously only took me maybe 10 minutes!

I of course had to make her a leopard print bow for her hair to match!

How stinking cute is she going to be on Game Day? GO JAGUARS!!

(Stay tuned for tomorrow's crafting DIY project... Adorable Applique onesies... We will see how I do with those!) ;)

Weekend Update: Our weekend with Uncle Amia:

Well, Friday didn't go quite as planned... We did make it to Stroller Rollers Friday morning, but no pool time, as Mommy got another horrible migraine... And on top of that, Steven's flight was delayed 4 hours... Not the way I wanted to start our weekend. 

Good thing Uncle Amia was on his way up, and he was able to go pick Steven up at the airport Friday night around 9PM, since Charli was already fast to sleep. Thank you again Amia, you were a life savor! :)

Saturday morning Charli got to wake up to BOTH Daddy and Uncle Amia being here! She was so excited!! We started our morning with a perfect family breakfast, and Bloody Mary's of course, then we headed in to Steven's work so Amia could see it. The boys did a little working out, then we headed to run a couple of errands, then it was back to the house for some pool time before nap! 

While Charli was napping, we hung out in the backyard soaking up the sun and just spending time as a family! Then the boys decided to wash and detail the cars...

Perfect Saturday afternoon activity!

After Charli woke up from her nap we headed out to the baseball grounds to enjoy a Riverdogs game!

She loves her Uncle Amia!

She picked the most beautiful flowers for her Mama that I have ever received! Love that sweet girl!

What's baseball without a little ice cream? (Charli also got to try her very first hotdog too)

After we left the stadium, we headed to the playground that we parked next to, and let Charli play for a little bit before heading home!

After we got home, we did our normal bedtime routine, and it was so special having Uncle Amia be a part of it this evening! He even captured this picture that I had no clue he took until the next day... But it is so special for me to have! Thanks Amia!

It was all in all, a perfect Saturday spent with my family!

Sunday morning we made waffles and Bloody Mary's for breakfast, then headed out to another County Park (like the James Island one from our play date last week), but this one is about 5 minutes from our house!

We did a little 2 mile hike/walk on the nature trail before heading over to 'The Sprinkler' to cool off!

This area was just like the 'Spray & Play' area, but I actually liked this one a little more. I felt it was more for little ones, with the smaller fountains. Charli had an absolute blast!!!

I am sure we will be spending plenty of days at Wannamaker Park!! 

After having some lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, La Hacienda, we said 'goodbye' to Uncle Amia, and then it was back to the house for a nap, some cleaning, laundry, and yard work! After Charli woke up from her nap, we walked up to our neighborhood pool for a little bit

Just look at those baby flip flops!! I'm pretty sure they are the cutest things ever, and she walks in them perfectly!!

It was a wonderful weekend with family, making memories (because that's what it's all about right?), and we are so thankful that Uncle Amia came to visit!! 

Hope your weekend was just as wonderful! Happy Monday!