Party On

We're halfway there! We had our 20 week appointment on April 21 and found out the baby's gender. We know, but hey, we're not telling. I ordered some adorable gender announcements that we sent out to family and will let our closest friends know before the whole world, but I will wholeheartedly share our chosen names. Our Girl Name is... Elodie  pronounced like Melody without the M, meaning  "foreign riches", chosen to honor my grandmother Eloise   Ann meaning Favored, Grace, chosen to honor Josh's maternal grandmother Mary Ann   If you've been following since our first pregnancy, you'll remember that this was our first pick for a girl back in 2013. Marielle Vi was a strong contender as well, since Marielle is a derision of Mary (again, Josh's grandmother) and Vi was a reference to my mother's middle name Virgine. The only reason we didn't go with this one is that her nickname would be Mary, and I'm just not a fan of that name all ...

I just got back from a girl's trip to San Antonio, which was so nice. Of course my son is retesting all of his boundaries, like I suddenly changed my mind and he is now free to plug in curling irons and drink out of the milk in the fridge- straight out of the carton nonetheless, but it was totally worth it! I did miss his sassy sweet face. My two sisters and sister-in-law all have birthdays in April and my mom sometimes likes to surprise them with trips and such. She's not the most tech savvy person in the world, so I came to the rescue and was repaid in a 5 day getaway filled with seeing my best friend, having delicious food (I mean, two steak dinners, TWO people), shopping, and some major sightseeing with my favorite ladies. We're more than family, I actually like them all and consider them friends. We went to the Riverwalk where we meandered and had a little boat tour, almost passed out at the Tower of Americas because I kind of forgot to eat, took a day trip to the b...

Oh man! So much has happened. Josh and I are expecting a new little baby this September- which is the most newsworthy information. We found out January 2 and I have been having morning (a hem- all day sickness, worse at night) since week 6. We heard the little 155 bpm heartbeat on February 23 and got the A-ok to share with the world. I wish I could tell you the gender because let's face it, I'm dying to shop, but unfortunately I won't know until late April. I have a feeling it's a girl- just because it feels different to me this time. With Eli I was exhausted all the time and had a little morning sickness which could be overcome with enough crackers and Zofran- with this one I feel pretty energetic but of course all the crackers in the world aren't enough and the Zofran is no longer an option. That's all I really have to go on- that and some wives tales- but I'll be happy either way.                  We didn't tell everyone in fun ways. ...

My project is officially done! Eli turned two just a few days ago and enjoyed partying with his friends and family. He ran around, played games, and ate a ton of cake. I can't believe he actually slept after consuming so much sugar. I really enjoyed this project, it helped me be more present with Eli and really pay attention to how he was growing and changing. I will still be blogging monthly and probably won't be able to stop myself from adding a few Eli related details here and there. This year I decided to create my own happiness project . Gretchen Rubin did her own project (and wrote a book about it) which has been on my mind for years. The goal is to identify 12 things you believe may benefit you in some way and choose one a month to focus on. If it helps you- you keep it, if it wasn't so helpful, ditch it. My original January goal was to do yoga daily and I'm failing miserably, but I am meeting another goal of ditching coffee (boo!). So let's pretend that...

November felt like a crazy month. I have been so blessed with more photo shoots this year and just recently (like Thursday) bought the beginnings of an indoor studio setup. Eli has had a good month, but the entire family has been sick off and on throughout, so he’s been a little cooped up. I definitely need to sign him up for weekly classes or something to get all that energy out. It’s almost Christmas guys! We just need to hang on for a couple more weeks. Well, we have one month to go before this project is done! I can’t believe Eli is almost two. Eli: 23 months I say new words like… I love you momma, “a-on” (meaning off), tiger, fox, tent, machine, coffee, shoes on, pick up, Santa, Chuggington, tv, Elmo (hangs head in shame- I don’t know if we’re actually watching more television, or if he’s just more cognizant of it. We honestly haven’t watched any Sesame Street since early October) My favorite food is I can’t say! He’s recently decided he “no like” everyt...

It was a good month! Eli was a shark for Halloween, we went to Boo at the Zoo, and we had a great vacation in Kauai, Hawaii. I think I pretty much covered the highlights already, so we’ll just skim on past and get onto Eli’s update. Eli: 22 Months I say new words like… diaper, ewwwww, mango, everybody, penguin, chicken, grandma, naughty, Optimus, good boy, button, buckle, pickle, pizza, sorry My favorite food is pickles My favorite toy is my penguin or my raccoon. I pet my penguin’s head while I go to sleep. I also like to feed penguin with my sippy cup and put him in diapers Some other things I do include… saying my first string of three words (“Where are you?”), buckling seatbelts, calling people ‘babies’ and most animals ‘meow’ (cat), making grandma and Papa hold hands, and going on my first 5 hour plane to Hawaii where I threw a train at a sleeping woman’s head. While in Hawaii, I realized I hate the ocean. I was very scared and would only go into it if Papa or daddy was hold...

So I’m a week and a day late- at least it’s finally October!! My favorite month of all. I love the crisp leaves, pumpkin spice latte’s, fall family pictures, and dressing Eli up for Halloween and this year- I will especially love being in Hawaii!! We are in the final countdown. We’ll have 9 days of sand and sun and quality time with Eli’s grandma and PawPa- not to mention we’ll see my sister and her adorably fun family for a couple days as well. I’ve uncharacteristically left the details undone until we are there- but I know we’re going to a luau and going on a helicopter ride. Speaking of fall family pictures- I went and set up the tripod like I do every year to take some photos. Y’all, the focus was wayyyy off in 90% of them. We have nice pictures of the leaves behind us while our faces look like blurry messes. This is why you hire someone- or gain some patience and try try again. In other news- I switched focus with my business and am solely focusing on photography. Check it out...