Black Friday

This year I was so excited that I was able to actually go Black Friday shopping. My mom goes every year and I always try and go with her. The last 3 years I have not been able to go, due to having the flu one year, and having a baby last year. This year I was more excited to go shopping than I actually was for Thanksgiving. It was at my in-laws this Thanksgiving so I traveled down to my mom's house to meet up with her and my sister at 8:00 pm. We braved the crowds starting at 8:30 pm in Walmart, and ended our fun at 7:00 am at JCPenney.

Yes, we went ALL NIGHT.

This is my mom, sister and I right before we headed out. My other sister decided to sleep instead of come shopping with us....maybe one year she'll decide to brave the crowds and come with us.

We had so much fun! The atmosphere is so fun and exciting and of course getting a great deal is a thrill in and of itself. Next year, my shopping list will totally change due to a little girl growing up. I probably won't be standing around a bin at WalMart for an hour and a half waiting for 600 ct sheets (that I got for $19.99 thank you very much!) but it will be for TOYS TOYS TOYS!

Can't wait for next year mom and Michelle!

1 Yr Old Pictures

As promised here are Libby's 1 year old pictures. When you get things like this done, you can never just pick a few to post so I posted all the ones that I loved.

(her faces are endless and priceless!)

(again the open mouth...where does she get that!)

(showing the true cheeser that she is!)

(Aren't those shoes to die for?)

(These faces were too funny not to post!)

(One of my favorites with her belly hanging out!)

And for Libby's 12 month stats and info:

Weight: 25 lbs

Height: 32 inches long (yes my 1 year old is almost 3 feet tall!)

Fun facts:

*Drinks out of a sippy cup amazing now all by herself

*Says "dada", "mama", "baba" and a ton of other sounds

*has started calling me "MAAAAA" or "baa"

*If she hears a dog barking or airplane, she will stop whatever she is doing and say "puh puh" until she can't hear it anymore. Along with this, she now thinks the heater is an airplane and continues to say "puh" every time it goes off...we're working on that one

*Knows what she wants and shakes her head no if you give her the wrong thing or feed her something she doesn't want. How can a 1 year old be so opinionated and know what she wants and doesn't?

*If she wants something that you have, she'll hold arms out in front of her, wiggle her fingers on her right hand and say "uh uh"

*Will bring a book over and hand it to you if she wants you to read it to her

*HATES FRUIT. period.

*Top tooth is coming in, and other one is starting to be seen

*When hears the garage door open, she starts saying "dada" even if it is me coming home instead of her daddy.

*Will loves her blankies. She takes it every where and it has since come a security blanky that she takes to grandma's houses and in the car.

*She is literally OBSESSED with phones, remotes, and keys

*She is obsessed with my shoes and has recently wanted her shoes on constantly. (too bad that only lasted for a week)

*We gave her a little teapot set for her birthday and I showed her how to pour the teapot into the teacup and then drink it so how she does that all by herself. Too funny.

*Got 2 more dollies for her birthday and is OBSESSED with all of them.

*She HATES, I mean HATES putting on her pajamas at night. You would think after doing it every single day she would just give up fighting me on it, but every single night we have an all out brawl to put those stupid pajamas on. Sometimes I truly wonder if it's worth the fight.

*She is very strong willed, and knows exactly what she wants and what she doesn't. And if you do the wrong thing, be prepared to be told.

*If she is looking at something and you're not, she'll push your head so you ARE looking at it.

*She has recently pretty much started screaming every time I "TRY" and put something in her hair so no bows, clips or anything to look cute or to hold her hair back so it doesn't get in her eyes. I hope when she gets older, this will change. It better.

As much as Libby is stubborn, strong willed, and very determined, she is truly the best baby we could ever imagine. We love her more than anything.

Rainbow Brite

When I was growing up, my sister and I LOVED Rainbow Brite. It's not the same rainbow brite that is out now days. In fact I have mentioned before that I wish I would have kept my rainbow brite and strawberry shortcake toys from when I was little because they don't make them like they used to. ANYWAY, I bought these pajamas for Libby a little while ago and she is finally growing into them. But every time I put them on her, she always reminds me of Rainbow Brite so I had to snag a picture. And of course this morning her had this adorable flip on the side so I had to take a pic of that too. What a cute Rainbow Brite!

The Birthday

Ok so I finally found time to post about Libby's Birthday party. It was such a fun day. We don't have too many pictures of the day because I guess we decided to record it on video most of it instead. But what we do have is fun.

These first 3 pics are just how we decorated. I hung these tissue paper flowers on our ceiling everywhere. Libby loved them. I actually hung them the day before her birthday and every time she would come into the family room she would be mesmerized by them. It sure made it worth every second.

This was her birthday cake. She loves Mickey and so I made her a Minnie cake. Not bad for my first go around eh?

And this was the dessert table.

These next pics are after we opened Libby's presents. She sure is spoiled, but we wouldn't have it any other way for our Lynns.

Isn't this smile priceless?

This open mouth face was pretty much the whole day...

here it is again...

Libby is obsessed with babies. In fact she got two more for her birthday making her total of 5 baby dolls for being 1 year old.

And this picture just cracks me up. All her cousins that were there were over playing with her toys and Libby is laying in the middle of the floor playing with her baby doll. That is so Libby. She is obsessed with laying on the floor and rolling around.

This was Libby's birthday cake that I let her "go to town on". I didn't let her do that with the Mickey cake because I was worried about her being dyed black from the frosting. But I guess I should have not worried about it. Libby didn't DARE touch the cake and wanted someone to feed it to her. At one point I put her hand in the cake and she flipped out. Silly girl, can't stand anything on her hands and is so proper.

And this was after everyone left. My mom gave her a walker and it was so crazy. We put it together and she crawled on her knees with it for about 2 seconds and then stood up and off she went on her feet. She fell quite a few times, but she is doing really well with it.

Look at that chubby/skinny legs. I don't know how, but she kind of has both.

Look daddy I'm doing it!

Libby's birthday was so much fun. Thanks to all the family that came and supported us. We had a blast and we think Libby had a lot of fun too. She was all smiles all day and was just so happy and pleasant. I guess that was a good sign that she liked it.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! "Ba" and "Da da" love you!

1 Year Old!

My little baby girl is 1! How in the world did that happen? We had such a fun day and pictures will be coming soon. As soon as I can find some time to upload pictures, you'll see them from the day. Along with turning one and having a party, I wanted to get some fun pictures of Libby for her birthday. The day we took our family pictures, my sister-in-law tried to snag a few of Libs and most turned out where she was either crying (literally screaming) or not looking at the camera. I decided to see if I could do better (with the help of my other sister-in-law), and had a little more success of not crying the whole entire time. Here is just one picture that I got on my second attempt. I plan to post the others soon, but for now you can enjoy this one.

A new Family Picture...FINALLY

My amazing sister-in-law always gets ropped into taking pictures of my family when we get together. And this last weekend was no exception. The plan was to get my mom and dad with all their grandkids for their christmas cards and so I jumped in and asked for a new family picture too. We tried to get Libby's 1 year old pics but those are coming soon. For now, just enjoy my cute family! :)

I also wanted to post this before I forget, and before the post for Libby's 1st birthday. I'm tired of these papers laying around, just waiting for me to write them down. So here are things Libby could do at each month. Really, this is kind of boring, so don't feel bad if you don't read. I'm mainly putting this down for my records.

9 Months:

*Claps

*Can itch her arms, legs and head

*Hits toys together

*Amazing eater

*Babbles and talks up a storm...can make lots of noises

*Favorite toy is her little caterpillar and blue ring off her ring stacker, and her doll with hair

*Still petrified of the vacuum

*Loves to sleep on her side

*Finds the littlest things on the floor...strings, crumbs

*Very curious. Checks everything out but doesn't put anything in her mouth

*Puts her leg up on everything, just lounging

*Waves, but not on purpose yet

*Can drink out of a sippy cup (only took 2 days to learn)

*Scoots around everywhere

10 Months:

*Tries to drink her sippy cup by herself

*Hates her towel on after her bath so she flaps her arms until it comes off

*Insists on sitting backwards on her bath chair and falls over constantly

*Hew new trick is to hide something from herself and then find it

*Gets totally giddy when sees her bottle being made

*Loves pear yogurt

*Scoots everywhere and can now pull herself up on her knees

*FIRST TOOTH (well first 2 teeth coming in at the same time. Never was cranky, in fact I was lucky to see them pushing through one night while feeding her dinner, or else I would have never known until they finally came through)

11 Months:

*Definitely loves her blanky and carried it around with her everywhere

*Moves around everywhere now.

*Likes to stand but needs help holding herself up. Can now pull herself up but falls immediately if we are not there to help her

*Knows how to say "no no", and says it to everything

*When she's told not to touch something, she will not touch it, but go up to it and shake her head no-no at it

*She loves her dollies, and is constantly pulling the hair out of one of her dolls.

*She hates riding in the car but if I give her one of her blankies, she's fine for the ride

*Has started to not like fruit as much as she used to. Still loves her veggies, shockingly enough. Favorite things to eat are yogurt, any type of bread and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

*Loves to hide and push things under the couch (not so funny to us when we are trying to find keys or phones)

*Knows to put the phone up to her ear

*When playing with my purse or diaper bag, tried to put it up on her shoulder and scoots around with it

*When I let her play with her hair brush after I have brushed through her hair, she'll hold it up by her head like she's brushing it too.

*Pulls self up on feet to stand and doesn't need any help. In fact, she wants us to let go of her now

*Took 2 steps by herself while holding on the couch when she was 11 months and 1 week old

Ok that is our Libby Lynn the past 3 months. I think I'm all caught up on everything before her 1st birthday.

It's Been a While

I know, for those of you who actually check my blog, it has been a while since I have posted anything. With me going back to work, this seems to be low on priority list. But to hold you over for the next week or so, I thought I would post some new pictures of Libs that I have taken the past month.

A few weeks back, Libby and I went for a walk. We hadn't been outside all day and little did I know that it would be quite cold. So I threw a blanket on her and she was as happy as could be. She kept her legs and hands inside the whole time. She looked so cute that I had to snag a few pictures. The last few, she was making funny faces at the camera so I couldn't resist putting them on for everyone to see. What funny girl!

One day Jedd and I went to go get Libby up from her nap and realized that she knew how to sit up. Well that immediately made us put her crib down on the lower level. This was the beginning of September. The funny thing was we never knew she could do that until she started doing it in her crib. We didn't see her do it in front of our own eyes for about a week after, but it was quite funny. So here she is sitting up in her crib on the lower level. Much safer now!

And last, but not least....the other day my grocery store had an AMAZING sale on some pop. Jedd takes one of these to work everyday (I know, he's kind of addicted) and so instead of him buying one either in a machine or stopping at the gas station, I picked up as many as I could justify buying. It all wouldn't fit in my cart the first time, so Libs and I had to go back through again and buy more. We sure got some strange looks, but at least we are set for a while. I mean come on, I paid $0.27 for a bottle....AMAZING!

I promise to try and be better about posting pictures. Look forward to 1st birthday pictures coming soon. 2 weeks from today, Libby is 1!!

Triplets you might ask?

You might think that if you looked at our purchases for the day, but that is NOT the case.

Believe me when I say that we are not only NOT pregnant with triplets, we are NOT pregnant at all. This is the result of me being a working mommy. We needed a new/bigger car seat for Libby. Well since we no longer can take her in her infant car seat that just buckles in where ever, we had to purchase for a few cars. Jedd and I both take Libby to her grandma's house so they can babysit so we both needed a car seat so 1 of these black beauties will stay in my car, the other black beauty will stay in Jedd's car and the pink one will be left at grandma's while Libby is being babysat (just in case the grandmas need to go somewhere). We decided that paying for a few car seats would be better than unbuckling and buckling up EVERY SINGLE TIME we went some where or left Libby some where. It kind of hurt our bank account to buy 3 car seats, but what can you do, right? Have you installed one of these things in your car? They are not easy nor fun!

And just for your enjoyment, I was doing some work on the computer for school the other day and this is what I saw when I turned to look at my sweetheart. It's kind of blurry, but I hope it portrays the fun she was having.

We were playing with Libby's hair in the bathtub the other night and I had to provide myself with some entertainment. Too bad she is learning to shake her head "no" or else the hair would literally be standing straight up.

What a cutie!

I don't want to forget

Today is kind of a bitter-sweet day. I head back to school tomorrow and have to leave my little one at grandma's house while I work. And I know that my little Libby will be extremely spoiled and well taken care of at my mom's and mother-in-law's house but there is still a part of me that realizes I won't be the one taking care of my princess 24 hours a day 7 days a week. And given, I am EXTREMELY lucky and blessed that I only have to work every other day, not 5 days a week, but it is still hard to leave my Libby even for one day. I don't know what has happened to me, but since having Libby I have become a more emotional person than I used to be and today is a hard day for me. Actually it's kind of pathetic that I am emotional today, but to be honest, I am sad. I want Libby to look back on this journal and realize how hard it was for me leave her.

With that being said, I started thinking about how big Libby is getting and how she is only going to be this little for a tiny amount of time. This "little" phase is going to pass so quickly that I don't want to forget the little things in the day that Libby does to make me smile. So here is my list for journaling purposes. I think it will be fun one day down the road (a long long time down the road) for Libby and I to read this together and laugh at the funny things she used to do.

So my sweet Libby here is my list of things that I never want to forget about you at this age.

I don't want to forget....

*...the smile you get when you hear the garage door open and realize daddy is home from work.

*...how you laughed the other day because you put your binky in backwards (you are almost 10 months old and you thought it was funny)

*...how you hate to be wrapped up (you have since the minute you were born) and you flap your arms and kick your legs until the towel that I put around you after your bath is completely off.

*...how you always want to sit on my lap, lean on me, or lounge against me when we play on the floor.

*...how you can sit and read books with me literally all day, and how you want me to read your "Little Einstein's Cats" book over and over and over again.

*...that when we read books and I haven't turned the page yet but you are ready, you lean your head so you can see the next page, letting me know that I am going too slow for you.

*...how you are so adamant about sitting backwards in your tub chair, even though it drives me crazy some nights because you can tip over so easy.

*...how you can hide your toys from yourself under things and then find them, and this seems to entertain you forever. (Especially hiding your ring toys under your bath chair while you are bathing...last night it was at least 10 minutes of entertainment)

*...the way you are so interested in daddy's and my mouths, and how you love to push on my teeth. Daddy thinks you're going to be a dentist one day.

*...the way you giggle when you see me making you a bottle.

*...that you cry when you think that I am going to put you down on the floor (even though I am going to sit with you) before I even lean down because you still want to be held.

*...the way you make yourself laugh and flat out giggle when we are in the car and you are in the backseat all by yourself.

*...how you shake your head back and forth when I am trying to put a flower in your hair.

*...how one of your legs always has to be propped up on something when you are just sitting there.

*...that when I get you out of your crib after a nap or in the morning, when I pat your back and say "good morning sweetheart" you also pat my shoulder.

*...how you have become more snuggly then you ever were as a newborn and how you put your head on my shoulder for no reason.

And last but not least....

I don't want to forget how your smile can change my whole day and how the sight of you melts my heart.

I love you my sweet princess.

And here are just a few pictures of my princess. My sister-in-law took these for Libby's 9 month old pictures and they turned out so great!

I'm a Big Girl

We went to a family reunion on Saturday with my dad's side of the family. We went to a park and had so much fun seeing family and hanging out. It was such a hot humid day, but we still had fun.

Libby is getting so big and growing up so fast. She's only a week away from 10 months old, but she sure seems like she is getting bigger and bigger every time I turn around. We sat Libby in Hailey's (my niece) camp chair while at the park and she looked like such a big girl. She sat there for about 15 minutes just hanging out, she thought it was the best. She sat there and dangled her legs around and she looked so big. It melted my heart, but at the same time made me want to cry because she is getting so big.

And then for a minute she laid back and was totally just lounging it out. It's very common to see Libs either laying on me or her dad just lounging away. She loves to sit on my lap and lay back and just lounge. So I thought this picture was very telling of our little girl. And don't you just love that little belly hanging out of her shirt?

What a big girl!