Wordless Wednesday.

{straight out of camera}

My 'lil lion.

As promised, here's a couple pics of Jax from Fall Festival this weekend!











We had an incredible weekend and had so much fun at Fall Festival at our church. And now we're looking forward to dressing up and doing it all over again this weekend for Halloween! :)
Hope you had a great weekend as well!

I'm so excited . . .

. . . That I just can't hide it . . .

My sister is in town!! The word "excited" is such an understatement... ecstatic may be a better one? I haven't seen her or really talked to her in so long, I am just thrilled to have some time with her this weekend. She's also watching my baby today and that in itself I love... she is perfect with him, I love the way she loves him!

Tonight is my "little" brothers football game which means my parents will also be here and stay for the remainder of the weekend. Tomorrow is fall festival at our church, which means lots of cuteness from Jax in his costume in store. Sunday we have no plans, a day to relax and spend time in Worship.

I don't know about you, but the thought of spending a weekend with family just makes my heart sing. I love being around people who love me, just the way I am.

8 months.

This post is a little delayed considering my baby boy is now closer to 9 months, but better late than never!!

Jaxon... At 8 months, you are:
- 18 pounds, 13.5 ounces
- an "okay" sleeper. You have your nights that you will sleep most of the way through the night, but then we'll have a few nights in a row that you're up multiple times. We'll keep working on this one this month. ;)
- more talkative than ever! We looove hearing all the "stories" you tell us!
- eating solids twice a day, plus puffs & other snacks. You take a 5 oz bottle every 3-4 hours.
- pulling yourself up and can stand unassisted while holding onto something
- obsessed with the dogs! you love to watch them play with each other and you love trying to pet and hold them yourself. They're not too sure about that yet, though ;)
- *this close* to crawling... you get up on your all 4's but have yet to take the first 'step'.
- putting consonants together, such as: dadada, papapa, and your personal fav... blah blah blah blah
- you are ornery! you growl and squeal when you don't get your way
- just like your Daddy in a lot of ways... you have to observe everything and everyone in the room before getting really comfortable. Then, after you've taken it all in, you are very intuitive and curious about everything.

It's hard to believe you've been outside Mommy's tummy for almost as long as you were inside her tummy. It is so cliche to say, but I can't even believe how fast time has gone. We have cherished everything about you and can't wait to see all the new discoveries you're going to make this coming month. Thanks for making my life brighter, my smile bigger, and for tugging at pieces of my heart that I never knew existed. I adore you and LOVE being your Mommy!

Wordless Wednesday.

A beautiful fall day.

We accidentally slept in too late on Sunday to make it in time to church, so we decided to go to the Arboretum instead. {yes, you read that right... my son actually let mommy sleep in! It never happens... hence the reason I didn't have an alarm set!}

We enjoyed God's beautiful creation, spent some quality time together, and had some devotions together as a family. Here's some pictures I snapped along the way... nothing compared to Kristal's, but hey, I tried!

All of the images are SOOC {straight out of the camera}, no editing... I don't even own an editing program, so I couldn't edit them even if I wanted to!










my sleepy boy!

hubby's loin cloth? lol

my fav shot!

an older couple walking hand-in-hand to have a picnic... love!

Jaxon's nursery.

I realized recently that I never posted any pictures of Jaxon's completed nursery on here! What a bad, bad blogger I am. Remember this post a million years ago when I talked about our progress on the nursery, and different ideas I had for it? Here's his completed nursery... hope you like it!
{These pics were all taken before he was here, so obviously at this very moment it's a little more 'lived in', but you get the idea!}









{i now have this glider instead of that rocking chair}

Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

Here's another delicious recipe that I got from a friend and tried out for our small group the other night... it was a hit! Let me just forewarn you that it's extremely addicting and it makes a HUGE portion, so you could easily cut this in half and have leftovers. Hope you like it as much as we did! It will definitely remain a 'staple' in our house for a delicious fall treat!



Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

1-8 oz. package Cream Cheese softened
13 oz. jar of Pumpkin Butter, or canned Pumpkin
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
1-8 oz. tub Whipped Topping thawed

Mix Cream Cheese in a medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Add Pumpkin, Sugar, and Vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in Whipped Topping and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with Fresh Fruit, Ginger Almond or Chocolate Cookie Thins. {I served with graham crackers}

Low fat version; substitute Light or Fat-Free Cream Cheese and Whipped Topping.

Wordless Wednesday.

My chalkboard pantry.

I bought a chalkboard Uppercase Living decal recently and when it came, it was huge. I wasn't thinking when I ordered it and should have measured it first, so last night just as I was sitting down to email the demonstrator saying I wanted to return it, an idea came to me. Ever since I saw all of these different bloggers make a chalkboard for themselves, I have been thinking about how I wanted to implement that into my house also. (See Leslie's here, Holly's here, and Jessica's here.) However, my kitchen layout is a little different and there isn't a lot of wall space for that. I decided to cut the decal in half and then size it to the molding on the cupboard on on the pantry... genius, right? Long story short, here it is:



The best part? For my non-committing type personality, anytime I get sick of it being there, I can just peel it right off. For now, maybe this will help me be a little more organized when it comes to meals. And maybe, just maybe, it will cut down on the multiple times my husband says weekly "we don't have anything to eat!" Nahhh... probably not.

The other half of the decal is now in our office. And maybe this one will help us be more organized with our busy and not-so-great-at-communicating-to-each-other lives. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

You know you're a {new} mom when...

- you carry socks, quiet toys, baby snacks, and pacifiers in your otherwise fashionable Coach bag

- you regularly discuss baby bowel habits, nursing tendencies, and things previously considered taboo (previously: prior to giving birth) as though you are discussing the weather outside

- your wardrobe is severly lacking because 1) you haven't returned to pre baby weight and 2) it's just more fun to dress up your baby than yourself!

- your parents no longer call or stop by for you, but for their precious grandchild

- you've seen more bodily fluids in mere months than you have in your entire life, and you don't even think twice about it!

- you tell your husband "No No" when he wants to play with the television remote or make a phone call

- you make extensive notes on how to care for your child, and proceed to check on child via neurotic emails and phone calls multiple times a day

- you can't remember the last time you slept through the night

- you have more of an intimate relationship with your breast pump than with your husband

- if you're up past 10:00, you comment about how incredibly late it is.

But best of all, you know you're a mom when you understand just how precious the innocence of a child is, the true meaning of love at first sight, and the definition of unconditional love.

I may wear my hair and makeup a little more sloppy, eat by the handful from the pantry as I stroll by, spend my nights performing a circus act in order to keep Jaxon laughing, let my obsessive tendancies slack a bit, but truthfully I have never felt more fulfilled in my life.























{note to self: start taking more pics of jax and i together! sadly these are the only pics i have with him, because i'm always the one behind the camera!}