We're livin' it up!

So instead of rambling on and on about things we've been up to for a while, I thought I'd give ya the visuals! :)

Playing a little dress up... (at times with attitude ;) )

Celebrating a little father's day!!

Went to Nashville with friends to see "Sesame Street Live!"

Ty and Jaycee.

Doing a LOT of swimming!

And a lot of eating! :)

Will life always be this great?!?! I sure hope so!!

18 months!

18 months, a year and a half, 6 more months then she's 2. My goodness, any way you say it, she seems like she's getting too old for my liking! I absolutely love her at this age!! This age is fun. She is trying to mimic everything I do, she's trying to repeat anything I say, she has a memory better than mine, she is majorly in to pretend play and dress up....ahhh, I just love it!!

She looks like she's trying to pose, which wouldn't surprise me if she was. That is just her personality. This was her right before her 18 month appointment today.

I just LOVE that little dress on her, and her heels actually have a chunky heel on the back of them, so I'm counting them as her first pair of high heels. I told her if we're going to be petite, we have to start sometime!! :) She looked adorable, except for when you tried to watch her walk in those shoes!! hahaha.

18 months:

*Still sleeps 11 hours at night. Bed around 8, up around 7

*Takes 2-2 1/2 hr nap a day

*Weighs 23.3 lbs (30th percentile) So we did well! :)

*Is 32 1/2 inches tall (75th percentile) really?!?! (maybe we don't need the heels!)

*Is MAJORLY into dress up and carrying a purse now! I went to Target and bought her a bunch of dress up stuff, a purse, shoes, tiara, dressy gloves...the works, and she is obsessed! She loves going to show her daddy how pretty she looks, and he always acts blown away and that just makes her so excited!

*Completely feeds herself at her meals now, even if it involves silverware! :) I can actually put a plate in front of her and she doesn't try to throw it. She'll eat anything, as long as she can dip it in ketchup, which is fine by me if that'll get the veggies down!

*She is talking more and more. She says actual words now on her own when she wants something. When she's hungry and wants to eat she points to her highchair and says "eat." When she's still hungry for something she says, "more?" haha :) When we read books and I ask her "where is...." she is very well at pointing at the correct thing!

I think that's it for 18 months. I believe we have hit the terrible two's a bit early. The temper tantrums are mulitple times a day, or everytime I say no. At the doctor today, she was trying to open the door and kept saying, "go go" and I told her we couldn't and backed her away from the door and that resulted in one huge screaming fit, and about that time walks in Dr. Hurlock. hahaha. I looked at her and jokingly said, "I have to be doing something wrong!" She just laughed and said,

"It's all because she's a girl. Boys don't do it, girls are pros. Hold on, it's about to get a little bumpy for a while...." hahaha.

I once heard a mom say, "keep your feet grounded, your heart calm, your mind focused, one hand over your mouth, and the other on your bible!" "That is the key to handling the terrible 2's and 3's." hahaha. I plan to put that into practice (sooner than I was prepared to!) :)

5 year anniversary trip to Jamaica!!

So those of you who read this that have children, if you're anything like me, when Jaycee was around 10-11 months old, it was the hardest stage so far to go through in terms of not being able to get anything done! She was trying so hard to be mobile, but just couldn't get the hang of it, which resulted in multiple hours of the day with her crying, whining, frustrated because she couldn't follow me fast enough, which resulted in wanting to be held, which resulted in me screaming, "I need a vacation!!" hahaha. Ask and you shall receive. I guess my husband felt bad enough for me after seeing me several days in a row in the same pjs, no makeup, hadn't showered, he looked at me and said, "lets book a trip!" YAY! I think I had this trip scheduled within hours of him agreeing!

However, as the days approached before we left, and realizing I was leaving her for the first time, and not only that, but going out of the country, this mommy had a nervous, out of control breakdown! If it wasn't for my determined husband, my insisting mother in law, multiple pep talks from friends, and the invention of the drug dramamene for the plane ride, I probably would have bailed. However, we went, had the best vacation of our lives, reconnected as husband and wife, and came home refreshed to tackle life all over again!!

This resort is to die for!! We loved it. We went to a Sandals resort for our honeymoon, and we were actually preparing ourselves to be disappointed with this resort b/c we loved Sandals so much, but this place went over and beyond Sandals. It was fantastic. Staff, food, entertainment, drinks, friends....everything was PERFECT. It just opened in May of 2010, and so it still looks so new and everything is so updated and stylish. I was in awe. If you are looking to book a trip, please consider this place. They have a facebook page, so you should check them out. When I get the guts to travel without her again, we are definitely going back!!

So wonderful to have this time for Josh and I to just be "us." We have been so insanely busy this year that we really felt like we haven't even gotten a chance to connect with each other. It had been more of a "okay, what needs to be done, what do you still need help with" kind of relationship. We had gotten focused more in the parent role than husband and wife mode. I'm sure some of you out there can relate! But God sure blessed me with this wonderful man, and this trip made me fall in love with him all over again! (yes, go ahead and puke now).

This is a picture of some friends we made down there. All 3 of the other couples were on their honeymoon, so Josh and I kinda felt "old" in terms of married life. They were great people, and we are all going to try to stay in contact with each other and hopefully meet back up one day! Thanks to social media, this might actually be able to happen!





Paradise!! I couldn't contain myself. Thank you to everyone that made this trip possible for Josh and I to escape. It takes having alot of people that love you enough to take care of a little one so we can "run away" and we appreciate and love each of you so much!