Happiness...

...it can be contagious. Go ahead and catch it :)

Randomness without any pictures

My parents are celebrating 36 years of marriage today. Their marriage is not always perfect (whose is?), but it has survived the ups and downs of life. Congrats to them!!

We did not suffer much from the crazy storms that hit the cities this weekend. So sorry for those who have damage or are without power. We lost power for about 2.5 hours on Friday night and I’ve never realized how dependent I am on some things…crazy!

We installed a rain barrel on Saturday afternoon. I bought one last summer and it’s just sat (in the front yard/backyard/garage) until Saturday. After the storms on Saturday night/Sunday morning it was full and overflowing – 50 gallons worth of water. If anyone needs rainwater – I’m your girl!

My good friend Sarah delivered a healthy baby girl on Friday. Welcome to the world Amelia Ivy! I can’t wait to meet you!

On another baby note, my old co-worker delivered a baby boy last week…11lbs 1oz. Holy buckets, that’s a big baby and her first – yowza!

Chris and I jogged 4 miles Saturday morning and 3.2 miles Sunday morning. I really liked starting my day out with those runs – so refreshing! Also, thanks hubby for sticking by me even when I’m dragging.  I’m beyond out of shape right now!!

Bailey Rose – thank you for being you. We love you beyond words. You bring an unimaginable amount of happiness/joy/laughter to our lives. You are simply amazing!

I’m trying to work on my health and fitness. I was doing pretty good and then I stupidly made Avalanche Bars. Chris has surprisingly eaten more of them than I have – which I don’t think has ever happened – EVER. I’m seriously considering throwing the pan away.

Work is crazy busy. I’ve been getting a lot of new responsibilities over the past few months. And then my most favorite boss ever decides to take a position outside the company. I think I’m still in denial that she doesn’t work here anymore. I’ve taken it hard personally because I consider her to be a friend and I’ve taken it hard professionally because she was a great mentor, knew my career path and was pushing me in the right direction. Now, I don’t even have a boss – unless you consider the temp who is here right now. All I know is that it’s going to be a loooong summer in the office L

I’ve been tempted to invite some fellow MN bloggers over for a super  casual evening of games/food and beverages. Anyone interested in that?

Thanks to all of you who leave me sweet comments. I'm pretty terrible at responding to them - so please don't take it personally if I don't. It's not you, it's me :)

Happy Monday!

7 months

Mama Mia is falling behind at these posts...here's a little recap of Bailey Rose at 7 months.

You made your first of many, many trips to Millie's cabin for Memorial Day weekend

lots of snuggle time with Nana

You really liked swinging

You made a cool drawing for daddy on the iPad for Father's Day

such an artist, you are

 You sat in the stroller like a big girl (face forward and no car seat!)

Hi daddy!

This is so fun (even in my pjs)

 You tried to score some of mommy's loot from the See's Candy MN Blogger meet-up

 You are still soooo close to crawling forward. You move in any other direction like nobody's business, but just can't move forward

 You have spent so much time with Great Grandpa who is visiting from Florida. He goes back on Thursday, June 20 - but has been here for 3 weeks. It's been so much fun having him around

sweet potatoes from Bumpa

We bought you a big girl car seat so daddy can have a car seat with a base in his car. Now that we're driving to Elko for daycare, we thought it would be a good idea for you to be extra safe with a base at all times.

 Another "big girl moment" - you rode in the shopping cart without a car seat. You're growing like crazy this month with so many new experiences.

You had so many people complimenting you on how cute and smiley you were. You're head will be growing too ;)

 We made a 2nd trip to the cabin June 7-9 for when Auntie Marcia arrived from Florida

You and Princess Claire dancing on the table

Mommy and Bailey on the pontoon

Family pic

Claire likes to feed you bottles

You got to sit in the mini cooper car - next summer will be a whole new experience at the cabin :)

Daddy and Bumpa take such good care of you

You did get to taste some of mommy's candy from See's. We let you suck on the sucker a few times and you experienced you first sugar high. It was pretty hilarious, but not something you'll be doing too often

yummy sucker

You are obsessed with your little feet. You love to pull them to your mouth and suck on your toes. You also sit and stare at your hands all the time. It's so dang cute

 You are more interactive with you puppies. They are unsure of how to play with you, but you will laugh at them and grab at their toys. It's about the cutest dang thing ever.

 Here you are eating some pears. You tried quite a few new foods this month. More to come in the next month.

 We met up with Sarah at PF Changs last weekend and you sat in the high chair for the first time at a restaurant. You thought it was pretty neat!

 Sarah has a c-section scheduled for Friday, June 21 since her baby is breach. I'm so excited to meet little Amelia and for you and Amelia to grow up together. Sarah and I have known each other since we were babies and it will be fun to continue the tradition :)

Sarah and Bailey at PF Changs

Other things to note

Height: unsure

Weight: unsure

Head: unsure

Places you've been: The cabin twice, your new location for daycare (in Elko - same lady), mommy's work

Doctor's Appointments: You don't go back until 9 months

Daycare: Still going well. The drive isn't favorable, but we're making the best of it. It's actually quite relaxing driving down there after work. Country roads and no hustle and bustle of crazy big city drivers to deal with equals a great way for mama to relax after work :) 

Sleeping: You're still doing so great in your crib! When we went to the cabin you slept pretty well there too. Sometimes getting you down took a little longer than normal, but you were in a strange place so I can't blame you at all. 

Eating: Still eating 6oz every 3-4 hours. We've introduced some solids into your diet and try to get you about 2oz of the food we're doing every day at lunch. You've had bananas, sweet potatoes, avocado (which you HATED and made you gag) and pears. Everything has gone good so far aside from the avocado. It might have been the avocado itself, I don't think it was very ripe. Mommy has made all of the food for you besides the pears. I figured I would see if you liked it before I pureed any for you. 

Clothing: Mostly wearing 3-6 month and 6 months

Diapers: You are wearing size 2 diapers when you wear regular diapers and cloth is still going great!

Things you like: your hands and feet are so much fun, going for walks, singing/talking, "petting" your puppies, playing with the puppy's toys, "swimming" on the carpet, playing with the cloth diapers and wipes, taking your paci out of your mouth and putting it back in, your mobile, sucking on your thumb/fingers, the song "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Trace Adkins, getting attention from others

Mommy likes: you love to pull mommy's hair and necklaces and suck on them, you try to give mommy kisses (which sometimes involves a tongue in mommy's mouth),
Daddy likes: cuddling with daddy, being goofy together, grabbing daddy's hair and ears (not his hairy ears;))

Bailey Rose - 

I can't get over how much fun you are! Every day it seems you are up to something new and entertaining us in a different way. You are a crazy, giggly goofball. I'm constantly getting compliments on your smile and your big blue eyes. You melt my heart. I can't imagine our lives without you. Great Grandpa and Auntie Marcia sure enjoyed spending time with you while they were visiting from Florida. I'm so thankful that you are able to see and spend time with Bumpa - he means so much to your daddy (and the rest of the family). I'm so excited to see what the next month has in store for our family. I love you sweetie!

Love, Mommy

Happy First Father's Day CT

Today we're celebrating Chris's first Father's Day. I made this slideshow for him capturing the first 7 months he's shared with Bailey. Chris used to dance around the house with Bailey when she was just an itty bitty baby to Home by Phillip Phillips, so that's my song choice :) I've cried watching the slideshow every time so far...

My favorite part of each day is watching these 2 together, such a blessing Bailey is to our family.

I hope you all have a great Father's Day!

Chocolate Lovers Dream

Last Thursday night, I joined up with some friends at See's Candies for a private party for the MN Bloggers.  Photos thanks to Carolyn my camera is constantly full, can't imagine why ;)

It was so nice of See's to invite the MN Bloggers group to this event and they definitely took care of us. We were greeted with trays of samples and then were instructed to belly up to the chocolate bar to have a sample of any of the chocolates we wanted and however many we wanted.


We learned some fun facts about See's on how it all originated and what the store is all about. We had a little competition where groups of 6 packed boxes of chocolates. Let's just say, I won't be submitting an application any time soon to pack boxes :) I'm very slow and they were far from pretty looking in there - haha!

When the event was over with, they were way too generous and sent each guest home with a swag bag loaded with chocolates. The other day, I made the mistake of opening the box that I packed up and proceeded to eat damn near the whole thing in one night - oops! The rest will be making it's way up to the cabin this coming weekend.

Bailey loved looking at the loot!

Carolyn and I (she looks amazing with that little baby bump!)

Carolyn, Kelly and I after the event in front of the cool See's car. They are the cutest pregnant ladies :)

If you are ever at Southdale, MOA or Rosedale mall - be sure to stop in and get your free samples. I don't know how you'll leave without purchasing something in there - yum!!

Thanks See's Candies for taking such good care of us!!