22/52 CJ's first vacation

Charlotte went on her first vacation to South Padre with Jim's family in June. Jim's family has a condo there and we stayed with Jim's brother, his wife & daughter in another unit in the same building. We had a ton of fun visiting during the summer time since last time we went in December. 

Here's the boys with their girls, their hair is cracking me up. Charlotte is so entertained by her cousin, she always wants to be doing what she's doing and makes little baby chat to her.

Don't let this picture fool you, she was not a fan of the beach. She didn't like having sand on her feet or hands and didn't like the splashing of the waves. She did really enjoy the pool though, and the water was perfect.

Overall we had a blast spending time with family at the beach. Charlotte didn't sleep very well, in fact she just slept in bed with me because I think she kept on waking up scared in her pack n play. I think by next summer she'll be big enough to enjoy the beach and ocean.

Lexi

11/52

25 weeks

We started Charlotte on solid foods this past week! We gave her a bit of avocado mixed with breast milk. She thought it was....interesting. I think maybe she just wanted to chew on the spoon and was surprised at what was on the spoon. 

Each time we feed her I feel like she likes it more and actually swallows some rather than just spitting it all out. I'm really excited to let her try new things and start to enjoy food as much as I do! She's going to be a foodie just like mama, I know it.

Lexi

10/52

24 weeks

Well after three weeks we are both finally not sick! Charlotte was sick for a week and then I came down with a horrible virus that I had to just ride out for 2 weeks, it was pretty bad.

I've mentioned before that we get a monthly subscription of dog toys/treats called Barkbox, well there is a baby version of that called Citrus Lane. I found a 40% off coupon for your first box and decided to give it a try. Her first box included a little snack container, a wooden block puzzle, baby wash, bubble bath, and a super cute headband! It's really fun getting things in the mail that you may not be able to find locally, so I think I may order a few more boxes. Charlotte obviously approves. 

We're going to start solids this weekend, I'm so excited because I feel like she is ready. The other night Jim and I were standing in the kitchen eating guacamole while I was holding Charlotte on my hip. Oh my goodness she wanted that guacamole so bad, she was reaching as far as she could to get some. We didn't give her any but I'm excited to give her some avocado!

Lexi

6/52 (Valentine's Day edition)

19 weeks

Charlotte is so fabulous she had multiple Valentine's Day outfits, these were just the two that I got pictures of her in! So we all had an interesting Valentine's Day this year. It started off with Jim playing a round of golf with a buddy, then he watched CJ while I went to lunch with a girlfriend. That may not sound like the typical romantic couple-ish thing to do, but we made up for it by ordering pizza that night and eating chocolate candies in bed ha! 

So anyway, I chose to spend my baby-free lunch at Piranha Sushi, which is my second favorite sushi place in Austin (first being Uchiko of course). Well this place is downtown, and there was a special event going on at the time so roads were closed and traffic was atrocious. 

We sure did enjoy our sushi, I mean just look at that picture! Traffic was so awful though that by the time we got back from lunch, CJ was starving and poor Jim couldn't do anything for her while she had a meltdown. :( 

Lessons learned: Always check traffic on googlemaps before venturing into downtown Austin, and always leave a bottle of milk even if I only plan on being gone an hour. 

The good news is that both Jim and CJ recovered from their traumatic experience, I may just need to find a favorite sushi place that is closer to my house.

Lexi

5/52

18 weeks

I'm surprised how well I've been doing posting a picture of CJ every week, hopefully I can keep this up the entire year. I'm sure it will be awesome to look back at these pictures and remember how small she was! 

I finally got a picture of her in her cute bulldog onesie before she outgrows it. That's the thing about baby clothes, they usually only wear each thing a few times before they've outgrown it. This particular outfit technically came from the boys side of the baby department at Target, but look how cute it is! I couldn't pass it up, so I put a pink headband on her so everyone still knows she's a girl. 

She's also sitting up in this picture. How crazy is that! She still slumps over sometimes and rolls on her stomach, but I think pretty soon she'll be able to sit on her own like a champ. 

So she had her 4 month check up earlier this week, she handled her shots pretty well. She is 14lbs and 24.75" long, such a big girl.

Bulldog feet, so cute

Lexi

Ch Ch Changes

New hair!

The other day I dropped CJ off at granny's house and I GOT A HAIRCUT....BY MYSELF...WITHOUT CHILD. It was awesome. Now I love my little mini me, but it was so nice to do something on my own. 

It's amazing how engrossing having a baby is. I thought it was hard to get stuff done around the house when I was 9 months pregnant, ha! I never knew how productive I could be in a short period of time until I couldn't get anything done unless CJ was asleep or Jimbo was home and playing with her. In that little window I can start a load of laundry (it's like the mail, it never ends!), do the dishes, maybe even cook dinner. I'm only able to write this right now because CJ is taking an abnormally long nap, which I am not complaining about.

Things sure have changed around here. The picture above is the closest thing to an outfit post I'm going to get to anytime soon. Top: an old V-neck from Target, Bottoms: Yoga pants. haha.

Until the next window of 'me' time,
Lexi

Charlotte Jade

Wow it's been a while. It sure is true what they say, the days go slow and the weeks fly by (or whatever the saying is). Sometimes I can't believe that Charlotte is already 3 months old, a quarter of a year! Other times, I feel like she's been around for much longer. 

She arrived in the most dramatic fashion on Sept 27, 2014. I haven't decided if I'm going to document her birth story or not. I had originally planned on it, but thinking about the whole thing gives me the shivers. It's the way my daughter came into the world though, so I may get around to writing it down. 

I would say the first month was the hardest and most stressful, not because of the lack of sleep or healing from surgery (yup, I labored naturally for 32 hours and then had a c section), but because Charlotte lost so much weight and had trouble putting it back on. When she was born she was 8lb 15oz (big baby), and she was 8lb 4oz when we left the hospital. This wasn't bad in itself, but it took her 3 weeks to get back to 8 15 and that took a lot of work. She just didn't want to eat more than every 4 or 5 hours, and that's about half as often as her doctors wanted. There is nothing worse than hearing that she wasn't thriving like she should be. After lots of weight checks and appointments with midwives and lactation consultants we finally got the hang of things and she got back on track.

Now that her weight is where it should be things are much better. Sure it is difficult and I have no idea what I'm doing, but as long as she's a happy, healthy baby I'm a happy mama.

Anyway, I can foresee this blog changing directions, less outfits and more posts about my life with a mini me. I'm looking forward to documenting Charlotte's journey here, she's already changed so much!

Lexi

The problem with nesting

Maternity photo taken at 33 weeks

This photo summarizes my life lately, just patiently waiting for CJ to arrive. I'm now 38 weeks and am officially done with pregnancy. CJ has 'dropped', meaning she is preparing for her debut by jamming her head on my pelvis. She also seems to be playing the drums on my bladder. 

As soon as I reached the third trimester my energy started slowly decreasing, getting less and less every day. By now, I feel like I'm operating at about 15% (I'm sure Jim would agree with this statement). Emptying the dishwasher and doing the dishes is now a two part event that requires a 30 minute break with my feet up. Speaking of my feet, has anyone's foot gotten so swollen in pregnancy that it just blew up? If not, I might be the first person to experience this because my poor feet are so swollen it's insane. 

As my to-do list grows, my stamina shrinks and each day that goes by is one less day I'll have to get everything done. I try to keep reminding myself that even if I don't dust all the blinds in the house before CJ is here, it won't be the end of the world and the blinds will eventually get cleaned. It's easy to feel that my life as I know it is about to end though, because it actually is. I'm sure once she's here the condition of the blinds in our house will be the last thing on my mind, but right now it's all I can think about while I'm stuck in bed staring at my blimp sized feet.

I'd love to continue complaining but I'm tired from typing, so it's break time. CJ, please hurry up and get here. 

Lexi

Life lately: pregnancy edition

32 weeks

I'm so glad to finally be in my third trimester! I've felt like the first two trimesters really drug on and on, this probably means that the third trimester will feel the same. Actually, it already does feel like it's taking forever. The last 8 months have just been really slow and Jim is so cute when he says that he wishes he could blink and CJ (her nickname)  would be here. Believe me, I wish I could blink and skip labor and delivery too. 

Speaking of labor, we've decided to have CJ at a free standing birthing center near our house. It's a decision we made before CJ even existed, and my trip to the ER in my first trimester just reinforced that this was the right decision for us. I'm just not a hospital person (I guess no one is), but it was a pretty traumatic experience and I knew I just wouldn't be comfortable giving birth in a hospital setting. Now with that being said, there is still a small chance that I will have to deliver in a hospital if my labor becomes complicated in any way (ex. she is breech, or her heart rate is too low). I'm really looking forward to this experience no matter where she is born, as long as the outcome is me holding her! 

I've spent most of the last two months getting the nursery ready, which meant I had to completely clean out our guest bedroom. Since we live in an older home, the closets and bathrooms are tiny. Because of this I've always kept all of my clothes in our guest bedroom, which hasn't been ideal but it worked. To prepare for the big 'merging of the clothing', we bought two new dressers for our bedroom and added more hanging space in the closet. It took a little creativity, but all of my clothes are happily stored in our bedroom and the guest bedroom slowly but surely got cleaned out until it was just an empty room waiting to be painted.

The nursery is about 90% finished now, it just needs some artwork and a few smaller things that I'm registered for. I'm sure I'll post a bunch of pictures of it when it's done because I absolutely love it already. 

That's what I've been up to lately, so ready for this little girl to get here!

Lexi

It's a girl!

At my 20 week midwife appointment we had an ultrasound and found out we are having a girl! We were both shocked, we were so convinced it was a boy in there all along. In my early pregnancy I had a few dreams about a baby boy with black hair. Now I should have seen this coming because I also had a dream that it was actually a cat so apparently my dreams aren't reliable. 

It took a day or two for the news to sink in, because I had been thinking it was a boy for the last 5 months. Once the news settled, we started talking about how exciting it's going to be to have a little girl. I can't wait for pigtails and headbands! Jim can't wait to spoil her, I'm going to have to keep the spoiling to a minimum though. I can't wait to see what she looks like, hopefully a little like each of us. 

Things are getting very real now that I'm in the second half of my pregnancy. Now we know she's a girl, and I can feel her kick every day. My bump is also growing and Jim says it looks like there's a basketball under my shirt. Pretty soon it'll look like there's a beach ball under there!

Lexi

Life lately

13 weeks

Well hello there, it's been more than a while since I've updated the ole' blog. I feel so silly because I just got done saying how I wanted to update my blog more often, and then I fell off the face of the earth. I had a good reason though, I promise! 

Jim and I are expecting a sweet little baby in early October! We're so excited to bring our little one into the world and can't wait to see what he/she looks like. We find out the sex of the baby in mid May, and are counting the days for that as well! 

So here's what I've been up to for the last 4 months! I found out I was pregnant on January 19th, at 5AM. I knew going to bed the night before that I planned on taking a pregnancy test the next morning, and when I woke up at 5AM I decided there was no time like the present! When the test was positive I was a little shocked, we had just started trying and so many people had told me that it would take longer to get pregnant. Of course, I was beyond happy that it happened so so quickly for us. I decided to wait until Jim woke up to tell him the good news, so I layed in bed wide awake until he got up around 6:30. I thought about doing something cute like putting a bun in our oven, or cooking a meal with baby veggies, but I ended up just blurting it out.

I was 5 weeks along when I found out, and for about 2 weeks I felt great. I even told Jim how it would be nice to experience some morning sickness symptoms just so I knew things were progressing. I look back at that conversation and laugh because soon after that I was hit hard with constant morning sickness. At 7 weeks along Jim even had to take me to an ER in the middle of the night because I couldn't keep down any food or even water. 

I spent all of February and March being sicker than I had ever been before. Getting out of bed was a task and leaving the house to run even a quick errand was an accomplishment. I was in a constant state of gagginess. Everything made me gag, even thinking about food made me gag. The only thing that made me feel better was food, which was the hardest part because the last thing I wanted to do was eat anything. 

When I hit the 12 week mark my nausea started to subside and I slowly got my appetite back. As long as I kept food in my stomach, I felt semi normal. One thing that seemed to settle my stomach was soda. Before I got pregnant I swore that I was going to eat organic food throughout my pregnancy and swear off anything bad for me like soda. Ha! I soon figured out that if a soda a few times a week helps me feel better, I'm doing it without looking back.

As I sit here and type this I am now 18 weeks along, just 2 short weeks away from finding out if super baby (Jim's nickname for the baby) is a boy or girl. Baby is definitely growing in my belly, as my belly button is now just a shallow dip on my stomach, getting more shallow every day and I love it.

Lexi

Life changes

The new year sure has brought many new changes with it. I feel like I've gone through more changes in the last month than I did in most of last year (of course, getting married was a pretty big change!). I'm normally not someone who enjoys change, I like predictability and pattern and shy away from the unknown. 

This month so far has really challenged me with so much change and I have been pleasantly surprised with what that change has brought. I think 2014 is going to be my biggest and best year yet, and that is something I am truly excited about! So I guess predictability isn't all it's cracked up to be, and new things can be good. Here's to embracing new and wonderful things this year!

Lexi

Hello 2014

2013 has been such a huge year for Jim and I. We ended 2012 by visiting South Padre with Jim's family. It was such a relaxing vacation and a great way to start the year. 

In 2013 we had our dream wedding, honeymooned in Maui, visited Victoria, BC (never got around to posting about that amazing vacation, I'm a bad blogger), welcomed 2 new nieces, had a cousin move to Austin, added a new member to our family, visited New York City, and bought a new vehicle! Whew.

2013 has definitely been the best year of my life, and I'm sure 2014 will be even better. I'm not really big on making resolutions because they never seem to stick, but I do have some personal goals and ideas for change in mind for 2014. 

One thing that I know for certain I want to keep doing is blogging. Even though I don't have tons of readers, it is still fun to look back at all the events I've documented over the last year and know that I will want to do the same for this coming year.

Here's to 2014!
Lexi

Have yourself a married little Christmas

Although this is Jim and I's 6th Christmas together, this one is very special because it is our first Christmas as a married couple. One tradition that I waited to start until now was sending out a family Christmas card and here is our first one!

My cousin Laura took this photo and it was the only one out of literally a hundred where both the dogs were looking at the camera. Who knew taking a photo with your pets could be so difficult.

Happy holidays everyone!

Lexi

Shopping for NYC

via

Jim and I are visiting NYC this December with our traveling buddies, Ty and Liz. This will be my third time visiting and I am beyond excited to see the city with Jim. While we're there we plan on seeing The Rockettes, eating in Little Italy, seeing the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, and tons more. 

I realized pretty early on that all of my Texas jackets are a joke compared to what I am going to experience when I get up there, so I've been on the hunt for a proper jacket for a while. Some requirements I've had are:

• Needs to be wool or wool blend
• Needs to have Thinsulate, which helps maintain your body heat
• Needs to be at least mid-thigh length
• Needs to be matched with black or brown

After much searching and pinning, I decided the perfect jacket for the trip would be the Jcrew Lady Day Coat. It met all of my requirements and I love the single breasted look, but I didn't love the price tag. After browsing Ebay for a few weeks I found my jacket for less than half the price! The previous owner ordered the wrong size and couldn't wear it. That's what I love about Ebay, you can find great deals on brand new items too.

Now that I've got my jacket, I can start looking for shoes. Lately I've been drawn to more 'grungy' winter looks: loose tops, moto style booties, messy hair. Love it all.  Here are the top two contenders for a daytime walking bootie:

buy here

buy here

I'm trying to justify just buying both......

Lexi

Giada at 10 weeks

Man raising a puppy is tough. These last 3 weeks have gone by super fast and painfully slow at the same time. I'd like to document her growth and what's new with her every few weeks. Here's what's new with Giada now:

STATS:

Age: 10 weeks old (born on August 16th, we picked her up on October 4th)
Weight: 12lbs (she gained 4lbs in 10 days!)
Food: 1/2 cup three times a day
Favorite thing to do: Wrestle with Rocco
Latest nickname: Giada Frittata (Jim came up with that one, since frittatas are an Italian dish and Giada is an Italian name)

UPDATES: 

-She's been to the vet twice for vaccine boosters, she loves it because she gets lots of kisses and treats while she's there.

-The first 2 weeks we kept her in a crate next to our bed at night and let her outside to go to the bathroom usually twice a night. She never really got used to her crate and seemed to really not like being in it, so this week we've been letting her sleep in her playpen at night.

-She seems to enjoy sleeping in her playpen a lot more. She has a puppy pee pad in there to use and she can sleep on her blanket or on the cool concrete floor. A major plus of this is...

-We no longer have to get up to let her outside during the night! Wahoo. Until she can hold her bladder through the night (she'll probably be about 6 months old when this happens), she can use the pee pad. 

-Her face is slowly starting to get more black spotting and her nose is almost all black now. She's started to get some black around her eyes too. 

-She currently has a little skin infection on her tummy that we're treating with medicated shampoo, and also has an ear infection that we're treating with ear drops. These issues are unfortunately common for bulldogs, and are something we'll have to keep an eye on her entire life.

-She is teething big time right now. She loves to chew on your hand, ankle, face, whatever she can get to. Her evil alter ego name is needle teeth. 

-She loves to wrestle with Rocco. He will be sound asleep, and she'll get a running start and jump on his face. He's been really good about being gentle with her, but sometimes he retreats into his bed for peace and quiet. 

Future Goals:

-We are continuously working on potty training with her, which she is doing well with. Hopefully she'll keep getting better and better until she is fully potty trained before the end of the year.

-We are teaching her the word 'no', so she knows not to chew on cords or Jim's guitar.

-We were taking her on nightly walks, but she broke a nail so the vet told us to hold off on walks until she is a little bit bigger. We're excited to try again soon!

Lexi

Meet our newest edition, Giada

Jim and I have been talking about getting a playmate for Rocco ever since we got him in 2009. At the time Chloe was 10 and Sammie was 11, and they basically wanted nothing to do with him. We knew we wanted to get a puppy but three dogs was our limit, so we enjoyed our dog family for the time being. Chloe suddenly passed away in 2012 and after we got over that shock we started to think about getting a puppy. Well shortly after that happened we started planning our wedding and decided we should wait to get a puppy until we had gone on our honeymoon. 

I had just started leisurely researching breeders when Sammie suddenly passed away in early August. Rocco was noticeably sad and had never been the only dog before. After that I put the pedal to the metal and finally found a breeder I was comfortable using. To be fair, I have to admit that I was being very picky about where this puppy came from. If a breeder's website looked a little sketchy, or they said something I didn't like on it, they were ruled out immediately. I'm not saying I found the perfect breeder (there is no perfect breeder out there), but I found someone who I think can give us the puppy we've been thinking about for years. 

Anyway, this picture if of little Giada, we get to pick her up in 2 weeks and we are beyond excited! We've been searching for her for 4 years and now she's finally almost here. Welcome to our family little Giada!

Lexi

Lately according to Instagram

Just look at this picture of Rocco with his little teeth hanging out.

 Recently it seems like we have a ton of pictures that need to be framed that have just been sitting on my desk for months. I have multiple rooms that I want to hang these pictures in, but I decided to start first with the guest bathroom. I finally picked out the poem that was read at our wedding as well as a little tree painting that I've had for a while. 

 I decided that for our upcoming trip to NYC, I would splurge on a new pair (or two) of booties and a new jacket. I'm currently torn between these booties, I can't decide which color I like better! Thoughts?

 A few weeks ago we had a storm in Austin and a tornado basically dropped on our neighborhood. This is a picture of what I saw when I opened the front door after a tree fell in our front yard.

I'm about to be an aunt again! My whole family is counting down the days until they can all meet sweet Isla! She's due to be here any day now!

 In this blog post I talked about the new juicer we got, and I'm still loving it! I've been trying to juice every other day. I've also been experimenting with different fruits, this particular mix has pineapple and raspberry along with the usual spinach and kale.

I had this wine one time at a friend's house and got it again only because of the cool label. It also tastes pretty fabulous. 

I got this little fancy coffee drink the other day while brunching with some girlfriends. It was so good, except it was the strongest espresso drink I've ever had and I was high on caffeine for 3 days afterwards. 

Lately according to Instagram

The other night Jim and I went to Milano Cafe, which is BYOB. We polished off this bottle of cab with our delicious Italian food.

Just a picture of Sammie being sweet, which doesn't happen super often. She has more of a cat personality and is pretty independent. Basically if you pet her where she doesn't want to be pet, she'll bite you.. actually she'll gum you because she doesn't have very many teeth.

Rocco got his BarkBox in the mail! This time it came with some treats and chew sticks, a bone shaped kong, a water bowl for traveling, and a smoothie treat.

Rocco has been pretty good lately about not jumping on the couch, but the other night he was acting really sweet and snuggly so I let him jump up. Probably not the best idea, because now he wants up all the time.

This is the inside of a new bar we went to called Whisler's. It's in East Austin, which Jim calls the dark side because parts of it are a little rough. Lots of new trendy bars have been popping up though and this place had amazingly unique drinks.

This little strawberry was my pride and joy, until I ate it. It grew from our tiny strawberry plant and we haven't gotten another strawberry from it yet, but I know the wait will be worth it.

Lexi