mid day pregnancy blues with a side of cheering up

not totally sure if there is such a thing and prepartum blues but if so, i think i had it for about 6 hours yesterday. i called husband about 5 times. apparently my need to cry incessantly spares no mercy at the fact that he actually has to work at his job. thankfully, the second i started basting myself with makeup (that's just how it goes when i'm pregnant in the winter) and put on some pants on... good grief, i spent the whole day in a robe and no pants!! well, then, things started to turn around. i took A to church with me to go through our christmas service rehearsal and 'carol of the bells' has got to be her new favorite jam. even though she heard it 3 times, she still clapped and cheered as if we were front row and center at a trans siberian orchestra concert. every. time. 

she was so easy going, we decided to risk going out to a restaurant past 8:00 pm.. i know! i'm looking forward to today seeing as it will be the first saturday we have spent together without being out of town in over a year! yay for family time :) happy christmas weekend to you and yours. 

here's a couples pics from the random-ness lately  

 run, don't walk to the gap for this stick on polish!

oh, hey december!

my heart is still heavy with the events of yesterday. and though it's necessary to take some time and pray for little lives lost and hurting and broken families, i also take this time to realize how blessed we are. great home, marriage, healthy kids, and i vow to enjoy every minute of it until my least breath!

***

throughout the month of december, we've gotten a christmas tree, decorated her, named her carly, told A not to touch her at least a thousand times, attended many christmas and birthday parties (with more to come), and just tried to slow down and soak it all in. 2013 is going to bring many.. MANY changes around here. the end of the year is always bittersweet. if i could whine and pout and get my way, the holiday season would never end. but i guess that's why we look forward to it so much.

^^ there's a bit of carly and a little snippet from our chrsitmas card pictures^^

golly. look at that beard! what a stud. i have a rule that he can't shave it. no way jo-sé.

 the tightest hug a thirty-pounder could push out. brb. melting.

merry christmas {right around the corner} ya'll!

**side note: the fact that it gets dark so early means we can never take pictures with enough natural light. hence our reddish toned skin. so let out a sigh of relief, my friends. you don't need your eyes checked, the time just needs to change back asap.

a post about my favorite little

this kid. 

she's the coolest member of our family. the filling to my oreo, the glitter to my polish, the cheese to my mac, and the joy that fills such a huge part of my heart! i've learned so much in the 23 months of being her mom. 

-i've learned that i will never look as good in my accessories as she does {why do i bother?!?}.

-there's a place in her heart for jake from 'jake and the neverland pirates' i could never take.

-same goes for elmo.

-no amount of nutella is ever enough .

-i can see little pieces of her character and personality that, i swear, are giving me glimpses into the future.

-her favorite words and sentences are: awight!, e you pants? (where are your pants?<-- is this not a normal question in your household?), boom! (for when she fist bumps you), amella (annabella), we daddy? (where's daddy)- to where she responds to her own question by saying either, "work, home," or "potty", and "sa-moo-moo" which apparently means watch-me-dance-with-my-butt-to-the-side.

-no kid on the planet can love their daddy as much as she loves hers.

-she's well aware of how lazy her parents are when it comes to diaper changes. she literally does her business and looks at one of us and says, "not it!". shoot. surely she should do her time in diaper changing before wanting to call 'not it'!

-her prayers.. i'll give you and idea of what they look like: "jesus, mumbles mumbles, rambling and more rambling. AMEN!"- i'm pretty sure that's the stuff gold is made of.

in the crazy and in the precious, i love being your mom, A. 

love, your non feeler/sentimental mama turned gushy slob and a half.

tips for taking great family photos

while wandering around blog land this week, i came across this post on onegoodthingbyjillee.com for tips on how to take great family photos. what i love about this is that it's just how i like mine- casual and kinda candid and all over cute!

read more here!

orlando part II

going to mickey's very merry christmas party is probably one of my favorite traditions and that's counting the fact that the last three times we've gone i have been either, pregnant, with an 11 month old, and this time pregnant again with an almost 2 yr old. i guess this means i really like that place. come on.

^^ i could eat them. but i wont. but i could.^^

a couple things i've learned over the past couple years about venturing into theme park land both pregnant and with a toddler.

do:

• stick to the routine.  even though you're on "vaca time", your child has no clue what that means
• if every bit of the scheduled routine crumbles, don't kill your husband (no joke there. you'll want to)
• dish out a couple bucks of that "one" souvenir. which in our case was a $10 blinking balloon. it popped the very next day but was worth every penny while it lasted
• if you typically let your little one play with your phone, try limit that as much as possible two day before. {when A would get cranky and we'd hand her one of our phones to play with, it didn't work it's usual magic}
• soak it all in

don't:

• think you're the only person in the park spending special time and creating memories with your family. everyone else is there for the exact same reason. i tried my absolute best to be as positive and nice as possible to any and all people that didn't know how to conduct themselves with proper manners at the park.
• go hungry. theme park food is crazy expensive and typically crazy gross.
• stress out
• rent the park stroller, take your own. those things are like, 40 bucks!

most if this is common sense but it still took me three years to learn and it also gets different every time. another thing that really stuck out to me was me was just how much i love husband. the way he cared for A, making sure she was having a good time, being proactive about taking her on the rides she could go on, and literally checking on her every two minutes to make sure she wasn't cold. it made my heart melt!

see you next year, mickey's very merry christmas party! -with two kids in tow... jesus help me.

coming your way: an obscene amount of pictures from orlando

oh, how i wish the times we spent in orlando lasted longer. i hope your holiday weekend involved lots of christmas tree decorating, jingle bell listening, and not getting trampled on by over the top shoppers. the weather was in the 60's and 70's and perfect. i managed to get a few snapshots of our first night out {where i decided to wear new, never worn or broken in wedges and eat the brick paved road} as well as some from our afternoon lunch. this was probably one of the most fun/most frustrating trips with A. seeing the enjoyment on her face while running around new spaces was adorable but the fact that she hated being in her stroller cause she wanted to "alk" everywhere, made me want to rip my hair out. 

 i tried teaching husband a tip for taking pictures and avoiding the not-so-sexy-double-chin and in his mind that meant, play statue. in turn resulting in the masterpiece pictured above. 

can you say glamor shot?

 ^^dear, tres leches, i will eat you again. that's a promise.^^

^^hey, look who's waking up!^^

up next:

mickey's very merry christmas party post and tips i've learned for taking a toddler to a theme park!

a late thanksgiving post

let's talk about my love for the holiday season. I LOVE IT!!! once i wake up thanksgiving morning, it's all jolly christmas music, a loud mix of brazilians and italians "conversing", and scarves and sweaters galore. we met up with our family where we had dinner and they've been with us since. we're in orlando now and excited to be making out way to mickey's very merry christmas party tomorrow night :) i could go on forever writing about what i'm thankful for but who would want to sit through that?! i couldn't be happier to have an ever enlarging uterus with baby Lucca growing and A, no other little could make my heart fill with more joy. thankful for my best friend and his love for me and most of all, my God. without Him, His mercy, and His grace. i am nothing.