12 months

I realized I never did a 12 months update for Arya with her birthday posts.  This will probably be the last one, since i'm sure by now everyone is sick of seeing the monthly (it's mostly just for my reference since i forget what happened yesterday.)

At 12 month she is:

-a walking pro...she's doing the really fast walk that's not quite a run now.
- she's saying a few more words, but is still the queen of pointing to try and get what she wants.  her most used word right now is poop, yep my little princess.  Her newest is book.
- puppies are her latest obsession (pup pup).  she can spot a (real or fake) puppy anywhere and goes crazy. she has a new stuffed one that sleeps with her every night too.  babies are still a big hit as well.
- she still hates baths.
- she is on all whole foods and loves, i mean loves water.  We could never get Casen to drink it so this is a nice change.  she eats everything but fruit and veggies, those i have to sneak in somehow.  i think it's more of a texture thing, but she is the queen of meat, bread, and cheese!
- 12-18 months clothes and still size 3 diapers.
- she loves to fake cough and point to the fake "ouch" on top of her head.  and if you ask her where something is she throws up her "i dunno" hands.
- her and casen are still best buds.

and of course, we love her to death!  she loves to make us laugh and she brings so much joy to our home.*

Wordless Wednesday

she really is my mini mo!

Bompa and Monki came for a visit and as always I didn't take pictures.  We definitely had fun though!

We visited a really cool estate called Maymont.  We're excited to go back in the summer when everything is looking nicer, and hopefully i'll get more pictures.

And they watched the kids for us so Caleb and I were able to go on a date, (after kids that happens about once a year.)  We even got to go to our absolute favorite spot, the melting pot (highly recommend it to anyone looking for a really fun romantic date night.)

And the lack of pictures doesn't mean we had a lack of fun.  I just usually have a little one hanging on my arm so pictures don't happen as often as i'd like.

Before and After

We finally finished the dreaded upstairs "master" bath.  It was a big pain and it will be a long long time before it is painted again, so i'm glad I like the color.


                                      Before:

                                       After:  (The color isn't translating that well.  It's a brighter blue in person.)

My Valentine

I love my valentine!

I really hate on Valentine's Day seeing comments full of people complaining that your husband only needs to do something for Valentine's Day if they aren't good at showing their love the rest of the year.  I appreciate and love when my husband does the little things all year round (he seems to know just when I need that Pepsi and Snicker,) but I also love and appreciate when he thinks of me for Valentine's Day.  So Happy Valentine's Day, especially to my sweetheart of 7 years.
Also I just have to throw in year how completely amazing my husband is.  This year he went above and beyond!
I love black diamonds and he surprised me with this gorgeous ring (web pic is needed because I have ugly fingers.)  It's my dream ring! He has definitely spoiled me in the jewelry department in our years together :)

1 Year Photos

So I really wanted to get some nice 1 year pictures of Arya.  I am not exaggerating when I say that attempted 5 differen't "shoots" and I didn't get a single one that I wanted.  As soon as I set her down for a picture and picked up my camera she was already across the room doing something else.  And if I make her sit then all I get are crying pictures...so, anyways...this is the best I could get.  I will try to get some sent out so people have an updated one.  If anyone has preferences let me know.

Arya's Birthday

Both my kids had not so exciting first birthdays.  We ordered some pizza, had some cake, and opened some presents.  A simple birthday that they aren't going to remember anyway :)

the crown never stayed on long

 her present from us

 she was a princess about eating her cake too.  Taking it off little piece by piece.

I will get some pictures of the grandparent's gifts up tomorrow

Happy Birthday Sweet Little Lady

I can't believe our little lady is officially no longer my baby.  After she gets her present from us tonight (the cutest little wooden rocking horse) i'm going to try to set up a nice photo shoot for her one year pictures...yea right.  Her newest thing is shaking her head no when you ask her to say cheese.

She was sweet from the start

But is even sweeter now :)

We love you Arya Morgan :)

Finished Dining Room!

We finally have one room finished!  I think it's going to be my favorite.  Of course i'll eventually put more little stuff up and around to make it more homey, but the major parts are done.

Excuse the horrible pictures.  We're having a really cloudy day and the big window and picture frames don't like each other too well.

                           Before:

                             After:

Paint color is Bamboo Leaf by Behr

The "art" is used coffee bean burlap sacks.  I knew I wanted some sort of coffee theme in the kitchen/dining room, but I didn't like any of the typical things I was finding online.  I also knew I wanted to use burlap accents.  I stumbled across coffee bean bags in my burlap search and knew they'd be the perfect combo of the two.

Slowly But Surely

Still working on unpacking the last of the boxes and finding homes for lots of things, but things are slowly coming together.  Our new family room furniture arrives tomorrow!  And I've ordered all my decor for the dining room.  Caleb has a 3 day weekend last week so he got quite a few projects done and I think we spent a full 24 hours between Lowes, Home Depot, Target, and other home places.

We're making progress in the master.  I found this comforter set that was originally 100 dollars and was down to 15!  So it wasn't the color i'd normally decide as the accent, but you can't really pass up that price.  Once I get some art and decor in here I think it will actually make a really nice accent color, especially since spring and summer are right around the corner.

Casen's room has become much more enjoyable for him :)

I am loving my new washer and dryer!  I knew I wanted a top loader (I forget to throw stuff in until it's already started all the time.) I had no idea how far washer and dryers have come.  At first I was kind of bummed because I love the looks of front loaders and felt like I was going to have to settle for a boring option since I wanted a top, but I was wrong.  Top loading washers have officially become cool looking and I highly recommend this set from LG.

Caleb agreed to a quick trip to the Christmas Tree Store and we found this cute addition for our mud/laundry room.  Perfect for all the odds and ends things that get left at the door.

We finally got rid of the cheap tv stand.  I am loving having one that hides everything.

Thank you so much Jonathan and Liz :)  It was the perfect Christmas gift.  Our house feels like home.

I've been working on putting all the little stuff together.  Caleb is kind of hating the cluttered mantel, but i'm kind of loving it.

And lastly we finally agreed on a bathroom color.  We're going to do the second floor first and if we like it we'll do them both the same.  We bought the color last weekend...now we just need to actually get it on the walls.

Opal Silk by Behr.  Not sure the color exactly translates on the computer.