2012 Year in Review

I can't believe 2012 is over! It has gone by so quickly but is by far the best year of my life to date. Here are some of the highlights of 2012!
(You can click any of the red links to read more)

January:
 Nothing to exciting, but recouping from the holidays
February:
 Celebrated David & I's 5 year wedding anniversary
March:
My sister threw my baby shower for me, Got to see Delainey in 3D/4D, Took Maternity pictures
April:
 Last day of teaching for hopefully a long time, Took my last trip to the beach before baby D arrived, Did lots of nesting to prepare for the baby
May:
Delainey Marie was born, Took her to the beach for the 1st time, I celebrated my 1st Mother's day
June:
Traveled to Wisconsin for my cousin Melissa's wedding, Joined the blog world, Dave celebrated his 1st Father's day
July:
Spent a weekend in Savannah, Went to Seaworld, Went to the Keys for our annual lobstering week
August:
Delainey had her baby dedication, Went to New Orleans for Tony's wedding, Joined My Gym
September:
Joined Mom to Mom at the church, Delainey met her great-grandma Cora in Atlanta, Started our monthly girl's supper club
October:
I started tutoring on the side, My sister threw a surprise birthday party for me
November:
Went to Cashiers, NC for 4 days, Celebrated Delainey's 1st Thanksgiving, Started babysitting Dean
December:
Celebrated Delainey's 1st Christmas, Threw our Annual Christmas party

2012 was a fantastic year and I doubt 2013 will top it, but we can always try! I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve & Day!! Cheers to 2012 one last time!

BTW did anyone notice the amount of parties my sister has thrown this past year?!? 2 HUGE parties for me, the Christmas party, and I think atleast another 4 or 5 parties. She is definitely in the wrong profession :) Love you Kel!!

34 Weeks

 The Queen hit 34 weeks and it has been a very interesting week. She hasn't been sleeping well and by well I mean up between 4 and 6 am and she is WIDE awake! I try to snuggle with her in bed and she just kicks me and smacks me in the face repeatedly. I am not sure if another tooth is coming or maybe she is in the middle of a growth spurt. I am hoping this will pass soon though. See the pic below for one possible reason for the change in sleeping habits...

Delainey has decided that there is no need to crawl, instead she wants to start walking. All she ever wants to do now is pull herself up on things. This is how I find her during her naps or at 4 am when she is awake. It is very difficult to put her back to bed when she is wide awake standing up in her crib! David and I actually lowered it to the bottom notch today so she can't fall out. The problem is she doesn't know how to sit back down yet so it has been quite the week dealing with this new development.

In other news, she is loving her Christmas toys and is absolutely mesmerized by her doll's eyes. They open and close depending on if she is laying flat or upright. Delainey is obsessed!

Dave dressed her yesterday in her workout clothes to go on a run with him. How cute is this outfit we got from Uncle Gary & Aunt Steph!

Today was freezing outside, so what better day to pull out our fur for church!

I also started mixing some foods together for Delainey's meals. She has had a broccoli, brown rice, & cheese combo, a peach, yogurt, & applesauce combo, and a one pot chicken dish that has leeks, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She has loved all of them so far. They are much more exciting than bland peas or pears.

 

Another exciting event happened this weekend! One of my best friends since 9th grade, Jessica, got engaged and we were there to congratulate her afterwards. It was so sweet and I can't wait to help plan and do all the fun things that comes with a wedding! Here are 2 pics taken right after the proposal!

Christmas Recap - Part 4 (D's 1st Christmas!!)

I was so excited on Christmas morning that I woke up bright and early around 6:45. I knew we had a long day ahead of us so I took a shower and got ready for the day before Delainey woke up. By 8 am she was still asleep and I couldn't stand it any longer so we went in and woke her up. Dave helped her open her stocking from Santa, then she opened her presents from us and Santa. Of course she loved the paper and the boxes more than the actual gifts, but it was still so much fun watching her open her gifts!
Please notice poor Delainey's puffy eyes she gets when she sleeps. Clearly she just got out of bed! haha

After opening presents at our house, we got dressed and headed over to my parents (Grammy & Pops) to open gifts from them and Kel & Jeff. Once again she racked up from Aunt Kel & Uncle Jeff getting tons of toys, boots, vests, and clothes! Dave and I made out great too! We got a new bluetooth Bose docking station, giftcards to Lowe's, clothes, a new cabinet for Delainey's bathroom...to just name a few items! We did our traditional scavenger hunt, and had egg casserole and monkey bread for breakfast.

Then we headed over to Dave's parents house (Gammo & Dodaddy) to do gifts and hang out for the day. We do Christmas night dinner with them. Delainey got the radio flyer 2 person wagon and absolutely loved riding in it!

I think it is safe to say she had a fantastic first Christmas and is very lucky to be surrounded by so many people that love her so much! I am already counting the days till next Christmas! :)

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Christmas Recap - Part 3

David's sister Elizabeth came into town late Saturday, the night of the party, so on Sunday we hung out we them and had dinner at the McLaughlin's house. Delainey got to open 1 present early and she got blocks! We enjoyed dinner and played in the living room by the fire.

Then it was Christmas Eve. Poor Dave hates to shop and puts everything off until the last minute. I think he saw all the gifts I bought him and he felt bad so on Christmas Eve morning he took Delainey and I to the mall to go shopping. Of course when I have free reign to buy whatever I want, I end up with clothes for Delainey! I did get some new mascara and a make up kit from Sephora so that was exciting.

Like every Christmas Eve, we attended church for the candlelight service, then went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and back to the parents to play games and open a Christmas eve gift which happens to be pajamas! Delainey even got two pairs of Christmas pajamas!

After the games were over, we headed home to get some sleep before Santa came in the morning!

Christmas Recap - Part 2

 The Friday before Christmas we celebrated Christmas with Tony and Brandi since they were not going to be in town on Christmas day. We just had dinner at the house and exchanged gifts. Boy did Delainey rack up from her Aunt & Uncle!

She got a snowsuit to use when we go skiing in February.

She also got some Joe's skinny jeans (by far one of my favorite designer jeans brands!) She got a walker, a tea set, some magnetic letters, and her first baby doll! She was so sweet with the baby doll. She kept hugging and kissing it. It was precious!

Then Saturday night was our annual Christmas party that Kelli & I host. The past 2 years it has been at my house, but now that Kel & Jeff have their own place we decided to alternate houses every year. We had a great turnout!(probably more than we would have liked) There was probably 60-70 people that showed up to hang out. We ran out of food, ice, wine, cups, the keg, and almost out of liquor. It was crazy, but we had a great time! Here are some pictures from the night!

Middle School Reunion (friends since 6th grade!)

Some of my best friends!

33 Weeks

Last Thursday was a sad sad day for me! My beloved homemade blocks that I use every week to take pics of Delainey have failed me. I thought through all the possible dates when make them and thought I covered all my bases with only 2 dice. We apparently I was wrong! I do not have an extra 3, 4, or 5 for the weeks. I guess I didn't think about the weeks when making them. So from this point on majority of the numbers will have to be photoshopped unless I get crafty and make a third block in the near future. Anyways...

Baby D is growing up to fast. I swear something new happens every week and I can't keep up with what I have already posted. We finally cut through 2 top teeth this week. It was about 4-5 days of misery, but we made it through and the little queen is back to her happy self.
She has been waving and making the milk sign a lot lately. I don't think she knows the difference, but we pretend like she does.
She has been crawling a little bit more, but no long stretches across the room.
As far as food goes, we tried canteloupe which she didn't like the texture of and butternut squash and green beans. She is starting to get picky since she has tried other foods that she prefers much more. We have been doing lots of avocado, appelesauce, and puffs since they are so easy on the go during these crazy days. Other than that not too much is new!

Christmas Recap - Part 1

A lot has been going on since my last post on the 14th so I will recap the past 2 weeks over the next few posts. On the 15th, we went to Dean's first birthday party and Delainey was the Belle of the party. She was the only girl with several little boys so everyone loved her. Here is her outfit she wore to the party:

 Loved this tutu for Church:

 A few more Christmas outfits worn during the week:

Then we spent the beginning of that next week tutoring, doing last minute shopping, & getting ready for the Christmas break. On Wednesday the 19th, Kelli & Jeff came over and we made (or attempted to make) gingerbread houses for the first time ever. It was lots of fun, but we are not very talented in that department.

Then on Thursday, Tony & Brandi came into town so we had lunch at the French Pantry and did some last minute preparations for our Christmas party.

Thursday night was the monthly girls' supper club at Jen's house and she picked a Hannukah theme. I was alittle sceptical of some of the dishes (like kugel), but they were all delicious. We did our exchange of Panties & Booze like we do every year and then hit the town for the night. It was fun to go out with the girls, but I am definitely not as young as I once was. That Friday morning at 6:30 am was a little rough for me. :) So that is a very brief recap of some of the festivities...I will be back with pictures from the Christmas party and Christmas night with Tony & Brandi.

32 Weeks

Delainey is 32 weeks and boy has it been a week. She got one tooth on top and was perfectly fine. But under closer examination, she was also getting the tooth right next to it. Boy has she been a treat this week. We have been up every few hours at night and she has been really fussy during the day. We have tried orajel, frozen teethers, frozen wash clothes, and some tylenol. Some of these things worked for a little bit, but she gets fussy pretty soon thereafter. Luckily my boy Dean was a gem yesterday so that helped! Anyways  hopefully it will cut through the skin soon so we can go back to normal. On another note, she is developing so fast! She is starting to wave to people and just today in gym class she started clapping on her own! Still no crawling though.

Tomorrow we are going to Dean's first birthday party and just hanging out! I hope everyone has a great weekend. Here are some of Delainey's latest Christmas outfits! Only 10 more days till Christmas!! :)

 I wore this bib when I was a kid!

Christmas Crafting Projects

I completed 2 more crafting projects today. The first one was little gifts for Delainey's "teachers" on Wednesdays while I am at Mom to Mom. All 3 of her teachers have names that start with an S so that made life easy! I decided to make little peppermint hot cocoa mixes in mason jars. I used my Cameo to cut out the vinyl to put on the outside of the mason jars. I also used it to make the tags. I love that thing! They actually turned out really cute and it was so easy!

The other project was make a plaque that counted down the days till Christmas. I am going to put it in Delainey's room for years to come. I bought a plain wooden plaque, scrapbook paper, modge podge, and a square that I painted with Chalkboard paint. All you have to do is glue the scrapbook paper onto the plaque and paint the whole thing with modge podge  to seal it. Then I used the cameo to cut out the vinyl letters and put them on. Then I glued the chalkboard square onto the plaque and Voila! So simple!

Here is a pic of Delainey's outfit today!

 

My worst nightmare happened today...she realized she had a bow on and kept taking it off! No! I hope the days of bows aren't over! :)

 

We have another tooth!

Miss Delainey cut her third tooth on Sunday. It is her top left front tooth. She really didn't seem like it was bothering her in the days proceeding, but I had a feeling she was gettting another tooth. (Call it mother's intuition or maybe because she was fussy for a total of 30 minutes which is not like her at all)  I hope she doesn't look too much like a snaggle tooth with only 1 tooth up top. We were lucky that the bottom came in at the same time! I think it will be quite some time before I get a picture of it though!

Today we watched Dean and had tutoring. Aunt Emily came over and watched Delainey and now we are just hanging out watching the new Spiderman movie. Here is our outfit for the day! :)

I also just got all my professional pictures back of Delainey and the family. I am going to wait to put them up here because I want to send out Christmas cards first.  Have a good Tuesday!

Weekend Recap - Live Nativity & Xmas 5k

We had a very eventful weekend and I loved every minute of it! We headed out Friday night to go to the live nativity at a local church and out to dinner with my friend Alicia, her husband Mike, and daughter Collins. We had dinner at an italian restaurant called Napoli's pastaria. It was delicious...way better than the last time I went and I will definitely be going back. It is definitely a treat going to dinner with 2 babies, one 7 months and one 15 months. They had fun playing with each other though so the mess and fussing was worth it!

Then after dinner we headed to the Nativity. It is by far the best one in Jacksonville. It has become so popular that you have to park at the golf course nearby and ride on a school bus to the church. Delainey got her first ride on a school bus!

We sat through a little story and song and then headed to the back woods where it was all set up.

They had every kind of animal you could imagine, people dressed up and acting out jobs from way back then, and of course baby Jesus laying in the manger. The girls loved petting the animals and staring at everything that was going on. They also had free cookies and hot chocolate at the end. It is definitely being added to the McLaughlin's Christmas traditions list! 

 Saturday morning, we had breakfast and hung out in our pajamas and watched Christmas vacation. It was a very relaxing day and I did a little bit more crafting. Then we headed down to San Marco for the Festival of Lights 5k. There were TONS of people there dressed in all sorts of crazy christmas outfits. My tutu didn't really stand out, but everyone loved that D & I had matching tutus. A lot of my friends and their husbands did the walk with us too so it was fun. David, Jeff, and Gregg got a wild hair and decided to run it, but the rest of us had a leisurely walk through San Marco catching up and picking out our dream homes on the river.

After the race, we all went to dinner at Mossfire Grill in Riverside. It was a lot of fun, but by 10 o' clock I was exhausted so we got home and went straight to bed. Delainey got to meet a new friend at the race, baby Declan. He is a friend of mines son who is now almost 4 months old. He was a premie born at 2 lbs so this was the first time he has been out and about with us. He is so cute and doing great. He is now up to 12 lbs!

Today we did church and lunch with the fam and then I went to Kelli's to plan out the Christmas party that is in less than 2 weeks! Yikes! I can't believe how fast December is going by! Off to bed I go though because I will be up bright and early at 7 am to watch my main man Dean. Good night & I think this is Christmas outfit #4!