Veteran's Day Thanks

Thank you to my dad, my hero and all of those who have served or are currently serving in the military to fight for our freedom.

Me and my dad

Gratitude

The president of the company I work for always says "gratitude is the best attitude." It's something I hear a lot. Fun to say (it rhymes.) But not something I practice enough.

I was reading an article yesterday that said that happy people live longer than pessimistic people. Taking time each day to think about why you are grateful can increase your happiness. Sure everyone has bad days, but there is probably someone out there having a worse day than you, so take the bad and turn it into something good.

I've decided that moving forward I'm going to end my blog posts with something I am grateful for. I need to live a long, happy, and healthy life for my little girl.

So today, I am grateful for lazy weekends...

Sure, my house may be messy, but I got to spend lots of good quality time with my little pumpkin after a hard first week back at work.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone! Hopefully I can find more time to post next week.

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Road Trip

Our trip up north was beautiful on Friday. I couldn't ask for a better way to spend the end of my maternity leave with the two loves of my life. Here is a photo recap of the trip.

Bell Rock, Sedona

My favorite peeps

Slide Rock State Park

Taking a stroll, we are probably the only people who
have ever brought a stroller on this path

Enjoying the cool, fresh air

Hot Daddy

Our Family

R.I.P. Grandma

On this day in 1996, my grandfather passed away. It was also his birthday. Yesterday, his great love, my grandmother passed on. She had a very long life but her health has been deteriorating since my grandfathers death. She has suffered from alzheimer's for years and hasn't remembered us, but last week she told my aunt she was going to my grandfather's birthday party.

My grandmother had 5 children, 10 grandchildren, and my daughter Rylie was her first great grandchild. Unfortunately they never met. I was named after her and my other grandmother who also passed on, Mary Teresa.

Grandma bought the heck out of Avon, she probably made someone a small fortune. She went to church regularly but loved her gambling. She played bingo, the lottery, and the slots in Atlantic City...and won quite often from what I remember. For whatever reason my favorite memory of her was the way she would say chinese food. She always left out the s. "Mary, would you like to order some chinee food?" So cute. She never drove a car in her life. I remember us taking walks to Friendly's for a clam boat and an ice cream sundae.

I think we have all missed the Grandma we remember for some time now. While it's sad that she is gone, she is in a better place.

Here's to you Grandma and Grandpa. Hope you are partying hard in heaven!

Grandmas Visit

Rylie's grandma left this morning to go back to NJ. We had a very busy 2 weeks during her visit and are exhausted!

We ate a lot of yummy food, including these delicious Oreo cupcakes we made for her birthday from Bakerella (one of my favorite food blogs)

Carters was having a huge Labor Day sale so we brought Rylie shopping. She has acquired quite a wardrobe and even has a Halloween Costume. I get so sad though when I go through her closet and realize how fast she is growing. She has outgrown so many of her clothes and my 2 month old monster is wearing nearly 6 month clothes! All except for Gymboree who I'm totally disappointed in. Does anyone else have this problem; Rylie has a good number of summer outfits from Gymboree in newborn sizes but they are HUGE on her. Thank goodness we live in Arizona so there is a small chance she will grow into them before the cooler weather comes.

On Saturday my mom babysat so my husband and I could go on a date. I haven't been to a movie since before I was pregnant so we went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was seriously a great movie, one of my all time favorites I think. We went to dinner after. Dates are totally different when you have a baby. The whole movie I was one of those annoying people who check their phones, but I couldn't help but worry that maybe something was wrong. Then when we ate the whole conversation was about how AWESOMELY CUTE our baby is.

I've been LOVING my new camera but am no pro at using it, so on Sunday my mom and I took a beginner photography workshop with Mike Maez Photography and took some great photos of some models at a beautiful place called Venue at the Grove.

Rylie took her first dip in the pool on Labor Day (photos to come) and she loved it. We dressed her up in her sunglasses and swim diaper and she chilled on the steps with her dad. 

Monday was the final full day of Grandmas visit so we went to the park to take some photos together.

You will rarely see pictures of me on here, it's very seldom that I like
having my photo taken, but in this shot I have to say, my hair looks FABULOUS!

That concludes Grandmas visit. Sadly, I now only have 20 days before I go back to work. I'm really hoping for a lottery win before the day comes. I don't want to miss a second of this baby's life.