11 months old!

Our Annabelle is 11 months old! I know all parents say this and it probably gets annoying to hear, but I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST THE TIME HAS GONE! I am kind of an emotional mess about it, but I'll save all of those sappy details for the big birthday which is now (one day less than) a month away!

Yesterday after I got home from work I changed my girl into a cute little dress, put an adorable flower headband over her tiny little curls and we had ourselves a fun little "photo shoot"to mark her 11 month of life!  

     I CAN'T get enough of these gorgeous eye lashes!

     I adore these toothless smiles!                    

Oh how I love this sweet girl. She has blessed my life in more ways than I will ever be able to express. She is growing so quickly! And although these constant changes that are happening too quickly are hard on my heart, I am also really enjoying watching her become this beautiful, smart, funny little girl that she is. I can't wait to celebrate her birth next month, to celebrate HER.





p.s. Thanks for the super cute headband, Rachel! And for the beautiful quilt that made an amazing backdrop, Auntie Camille!

Time goes too quickly...

To my baby girl,

We are coming up on the date that marks your 11th month of life! I came across a picture today of me when I was 35 weeks blessed with your little self growing inside of me. That picture was taken a year ago today. When I saw that picture today my heart literally hurt thinking of how fast the time has flown by. That picture made me realize that we are only 5 weeks short of your big first birthday! (well, one day shy of 5 weeks thanks to your "day-early" arrival!)

I never really imagined I'd be the kind of Mom who would be SO emotional about her baby's first birthday . But it seems I am! I have found myself crying at the idea of having a ONE YEAR OLD! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE watching you grow!! You amaze me everyday with what you are learning. You are an absolute joy to be around and you are becoming more and more FUN! You are still my little baby in so many ways and for that I am thankful. But I also see the little girl you are becoming, I see the best friend I have been longing for. Watching you grow into a healthy happy little girl is such a blessing. But my emotional Mommy heart is sad in a way too, because I am seeing how insanely fast this is all really going. When you were first born and even before that, people (other parents) always said "enjoy it, it goes so fast." and I would politely smile and say "of course" while thinking "obviously I'm going to enjoy it! If one more person says that to me I'll..." but they all knew something I didn't yet know. They had experienced this fast-forward motion that I am just know understanding. And they tried to warn me, they tried to make me understand with those simple words "enjoy it, it goes so quickly" but words cannot really make you understand. But I see it now, I feel it- that fast forward feeling- and I'd give anything to slow it down, to keep you my BABY for just a bit longer. However, even though your growing and changing and the time is racing by, there is one thing I AM doing- enjoying it, enjoying YOU.

Some things in particular that I am enjoying about you right now:

*the way you grab my face when we're playing to try and bite my nose.
*how you are becoming more brave in your cruising around the house, moving cautiously from one object to another, slowly letting go.
*the way you pucker your lower lip, make big deep breaths and let out big real tears when I have to say "no!"
*the way sometimes when I say "no" and accompany it with a head shake you get the biggest, cutest smile and start shaking your head too.
*that you still don't have any teeth.
* that you let me play with your hair, put bows and clips, headbands and hats on you, and you leave them there!
* the smile I get when I get home from work (sometimes tears too, but both let me know you really missed me and just want to be. in. my. arms. now!
* that you are still nursing. I am so proud of how far we have come. It certainly wasn't easy at first, and keeping it up while I am at work is not fun. But oh is it worth it. I love knowing that You need ME and I also love that it allows TIME for us to just BE together- quietly, relaxingly-close. It really is so bonding.
*how we laugh together now. Really laugh, full on belly laughs that leave my heart smiling too.

Oh, I could go on and on and on. But we'll leave it at that for now.



Back in the beginning of my pregnancy, in October of 2010, I came across a Mommy Blog for the first time and quickly started seeing many more of them. They inspired me to start my own, and so this little space of the Internet came to be. I made it for you, for us. For some reason I do not have many memories of my childhood, the ones that I do have are from pictures, home videos or stories that have been told and retold. This is why I wanted to start documenting your life, our life. I want there to be something you can always look back on. I want to look back at it with you. I have not done the best job here. I have not put it to use the way I intended. I am sorry, my girl, but I am going to make much more of an effort starting now. For you, for us.


I love you- my sweet baby girl.

Love,

Momma

Christmas (Finally!)

Finally getting around to posting the pictures from our Christmas!

Annabelle and I spent the week before Christmas up in New York visiting family and friends. We had such a wonderful time. I miss everyone so much! Trips home are so nice but they make me miss being there even more. It was so nice to see everyone- I love and miss you all!

The trip went way to quickly but was so wonderful! In a very short week we moved around a lot and saw lots of family and friends! After the Stevenson Family Christmas Party we had an all too short, few hour visit with my Aunt Darlene, Nanny, and Dad.

      (Great-Aunt Darlene)

Then it was movin' on up even further north to our wonderful hometown! Filled with lots of warm-welcomes, get-togethers, hugs, and a few tears!

                               (Great Grandma Bonnie)

                              (Birthday Twin and BFF!)

       Baby Play Date!

                              (Godmomma Bridget)

Lots of much needed time was spent with my parents, sister and brother. Words can't even describe how it felt to have all of these people that I love in one house together for a few days. I loved seeing Annabelle with them. I feel bad that she doesn't get more time with them, even though I know she knows who they are and how much they love her!

                                 Playing with Aunt TT

     Spending time with Grandpa!

And on our last day- it snowed! Annabelle's first snow! :)

This was the day we were leaving- heading out to airport actually- so it was pretty sad. I love my parents so much and miss being so close to them. But we had a fantastic visit and will be back again soon. (actually since I waited SO long to post these pics, that visit is now ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY!)

When we got back to Florida, it was the day before Christmas Eve- and after a busy week of traveling and visiting I was SO ready to relax and enjoy my all time favorite holiday!  And enjoy we did...

And- Christmas morning, my first baby's first Christmas! I can't put into words how much it meant to me. I have always LOVED Christmas, would go so far to say that I have a slight obsession with the holiday. But Christmas now? 1 million times better watching it all happen with my beautiful daughter at the center of it. All the Christmas trimming- the dressing up for Christmas mass, the delicious food, the mulled wine, the beautiful tree, the perfectly wrapped presents, the music- all of those things were better. They tasted better, sounded better, felt better, felt somehow even more enjoyable. I think having a child makes me realize all over again how much I love that this holiday brings families together. And having Belle here this year- made me So excited for Christmases to come. She is the reason I will make all of our future Christmases as magical as I remember the ones from my childhood. I can't wait to relive all of that magic with her. 

                                         Auntie Camille

     Opening presents with Mommy!

                                          "whatch'ya got there Grandma? Earrings for me to play with?"

And while our gorgeous little Christmas Angel slept, we DINED! Good food, good wine, good company, and a peaceful sleeping baby girl, DOES IT GET ANY BETTER?!

                                           Cheers to Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families! Thanks for reading and looking, even though this was more than 2 months ago!

A Day at the Park

I know I am completely skipping a bunch of things I should be posting about. I have a bunch of pictures to post and stories to tell. I am even skipping over CHRISTMAS right now! I promise, I WILL post pictures from Christmas. But that post will have to come later.  I have too many thoughts, emotions and words attached to the pictures from Annabelle's FIRST Christmas, and not enough time to write them all out right now.  But I took these pictures a little over a week ago, and LOVE them so much- so I thought I'd post them quickly.

These were taken Jan. 14th. We had  a little family trip to a park nearby. Daddy and Finn went to the dog park, while Belle and I went straight for the swings. I had taken her to this park to try out the swings back in November- she was NOT interested- cried immediately when I put her in BOTH swings.

This time? She loved it. She sat happily in the swing for a long time, smiling at me, enjoying the feeling of the wind on her face and in her hair. I love these pictures- I love how they make me feel. They make me feel incredibly lucky. I LOVE this stage of her life. She is becoming a little person with likes and dislikes, and clearly- swinging is one of her likes!  I know it sounds cliche to say- but EVERY DAY she becomes more of a joy. She is FUN to be around, she is FUNNY. Its such a nice feeling to "hang out" with her and feel like she is the best company. I LOVE love love spending time with my girl-making little memories- I am looking forward to all the little memories we will make together.

I LOVE being her MOM! <3



Here are a few shots from our day:)

Tried her out first on the big seat swing- thought she might feel more secure on there for her first try.

But she was more interested in chewing on the disgusting strap!

So we tried out the other swing...a bit unsure at first...

...but THEN a BIG smile!

                                 (There's a Daddy in the background!)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Christmas Post #1- Stevenson Family Christmas Party!

When I first posted this, for some reason I lost the whole post! I had worked on it for over 2 hours! Luckily, I was able to SOMEHOW retrieve a majority of it. Most of what was completely lost was a few pics in the beginning and a WHOLE bunch of writing. Which is a total bummer. Theres nothing like taking time to write out your thoughts and then having them all disappear. But perhaps I should take it as a sign and keep it short and sweet and let the  pictures speak for themselves for the most part. So here goes-




We've been M.I.A. for a while here in blog-land, so thanks for coming back to check on us!! 

Belle and I went home to New York for the week before Christmas. It was a wonderful visit, but of course went by way too quickly. Our first night up there was our Stevenson Family Christmas party. I posted about last year's party on here and now here we are a year later. It was cool for me to look back at the post from last year and see and think about just how much things have changed since then. TWO new babies have been added to the Stevenson family since then!  I was about 18 weeks pregnant at the party last year. Now I have my beautiful baby girl who was two days away from 7 months old at this years party! And my cousin Amanda, just had her baby boy 2 months before! 

We have a large family- a total of 16 cousins. Many of us are close in age and spent a lot of time together when we were growing up. I really treasure and look forward to our get-togethers. It has been so much fun watching our big, crazy family continue to grow. Since the cousins have gotten older, significant others have joined us and slowly, more babies! 

I love my family. We are far from perfect, but we are SO blessed!

   Belle was very interested in Aunt Sandy's decorative Christmas socks!

I love these pictures of everyone sitting around the tree, waiting to open presents. The scene used to be so much different when we were all little kids.  We have a lot of home videos that are so funny to watch. There were like 13 of us all within like 5 years of each other. We would all be crowded around the tree and our parents would tell us to sit back from the tree. But slowly we would all scoot forward, just dying to rip those presents open. So many times in the videos you can hear the adults saying "every body back up, scoot back!" Such chaos! But such beautiful memories. Now we are looking forward to having that chaos with our little ones.

My cousin Mike's son. Does anyone know what the relationship is between cousins kids? Like, Belle and Brayden are what in relationship? Its not second cousins? hmm...

                       ( I think he really liked this gift! Look at his face, looks like he's saying "ooooooh!")






My Uncle Johnnie and my beautiful cousin, Amanda!

Belle with my cousin, Sonya-

                       Stealing kisses <3






Newest member of the family, baby Logan- Amanda's adorable little boy. With his Daddy :)

Braydo sitting with his Daddy <3

My poor girl wasn't feeling well. You can see her runny nose :( She had a little cold and when we took her to Urgent Care the following day, we found out she had an ear infection too, poor girl. But even though she wasn't feel well she was SUCH a champ with meeting new people and being passed from Aunt to Uncle to Cousin and then back again! She was feeling the love, and giving it right back. My little lover <3

Annabelle's VERY FIRST Christmas presents! From her new little cousin, Logan! 

We could have wrapped empty boxes and just let her rip the paper off of them all day and she would have been JUST as happy. But, the presents are super nice too, and Mommy is happy to have them! :)

When I looked at these pictures the next day, and came across these next few of me on the floor with Belle, I think me heart literally stopped for a minute. They brought tears to my eyes. Look at me, on the floor, opening Christmas presents with my daughter. Maybe it sounds weird, but it got me thinking. You go through these motions sometimes, and although I was loving and appreciating this DURING the moment, looking back at it really hit me. So often I just go through the motions of daily life with a baby, not always stopping to think about what I am doing. And I am thankful for that comfort, for that "normal-ness" but then there are moments when I do stop, look and think about it- I have a daughter, and I do Mommy things. Like sitting on the floor, helping her open her first presents. I think these pictures really hit me most because I don't have many candid pictures of the two of us just doing things. Most of the pictures we have are of us looking at the camera and we only have them because I asked someone to take a picture of us. These were taken by my cousin, and are completely candid, and in the moment, and I love them. Thank you Mike- they might not be special to anyone else, but they mean SO much to me. 

Amanda bought these adorable outfits for Annabelle and Logan-

    ("Here, Logan, I'll pick you up!")

   My girl looks SO big next to him :(

                             I love me some baby feet!

My Aunt Diana and Uncle Johnnie- the newest Grandma and Grandpa in the family. Logan is one luck boy! <3

It was a long day- Annabelle and Grandma needed a nap. I love these pictures. 

New baby love <3

Seeing my cousin as a Mommy melts my Mommy-heart. I love my cousins and their babies so much.

                           ("I'm coming to get youuuu")

    Tiny baby fingers, love.






Annabelle and Logan Christmas photo shoot. Be still my heart.

                                       Yes, blurry, but I COULD NOT leave it out! <3

Mommy wanted pictures of Logan in his winter hat. I love love love these pictures. Is there anything cuter than a diaper-only baby?

I miss this newborn-sleep-anywhere thing. Seriously it's so CUTE.

Mommy snuggled right up to him and they took a much needed nap in the middle of the living room, in the sunshine. I obviously crept on them to get this pic :)

Logan's first bottle! Grandma looks so pleased!

So there it is! Lots of pictures! I filled up my memory card in ONE day- the FIRST day we were home! In the craziness of packing and getting ready for our trip I didn't pack the connector to put my pics on the computer, so I ended up having to delete a bunch so I could take pics the rest of the vaca. But these were my favorites- hope you enjoyed.

This is just part one of our Christmas. I will be posting the others sometime soon. So check back! 

Stevenson family- I LOVE you! <3