I got a new toy!

KK and I went and picked me out a brand new bicycle today!!!

And I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!! I Loooooooovvvveee to ride bikes- and last summer I wasn't able to, being's as I was a gigantic preggo woman with our angel-baby. And when we dusted off my bike to get it ready to ride this summer, we decided that the 10 year old Mongoose had rode it's last ride for me, and we donated it to the high school. Today was finally the day that we replaced the old Mongoose with a new, shiny Schwinn! I can't wait for this afternoon, when KK hooks up the burley to his bike, and we take Ali for our first official family spin!

...And I'm not wishing her older or anything, but looking at all the cute little girls' bikes made me so excited for when Ali and I can ride bikes together! Fun stuff to look forward too... but I'm still living in the moment:)

...and just to reminisce a little bit...

Here's a fun picture of me last July...

And what I'm looking at THIS JULY!!!!

Amazing what a year can bring!

Viva la Diva

The major home-paint-project is still going strong. KK is doing a great job and has gotten the living room,dining room and entry way from the garage completely done. He is a worker-bee.. sometimes to a fault- but it's looking awesome and coming right along. With that said, I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL IT'S OVER!
I am feeling a little frazzled- taking care of Ali and keeping her out of the way in the main areas of the house has been the most challenging moments of her childhood. It also doesn't help that she is coming into her "diva stage" and does not understand why the world cannot be at her fingertips. We are definitely seeing her transition from a baby to a toddler. She is showing her opinion and determined spirit, that's for sure!
One thing I know for sure is that I am so glad I am not a single mom and that I have the support of my family. I can seriously feel myself mentally breaking down after a day of chasing her around/taking care of the household. Sometimes I just have to go into a room by myself, take a few deep breaths, and re-organize my thoughts.
I love the life I have and I am very blessed for a great husband and daughter, but sometimes I feel over my head! I hope I'm doing a good job and being the best mom and wife I can. Sometimes I feel like I mentally work myself up and wuss out.

Thankfully I woke up today feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep. I loaded up Ali into her stroller for our daily walk, and it was a beautiful morning. I am feeling refreshed and ready for another day... with the diva!
... and I've got a "date night" tonight with my good friend Jen. She has two kiddos that are 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 and they LOOOOVE to play with Ali. So KK and Ali will hang out with them while Jen and I go have some much needed girl time!

Paint!

We've started our grand project for the summer: painting the main floor of our house!! We're painting the main walls a latte color- and adding a dark tan accent around the spot where our TV pops out- right above the fireplace. We're also going to do a sage accent in the kitchen - there's a wall that pops out where the pantry is. The hubs has already painted around the fireplace and two window insets next to it- and may I say it looks fantastic! I unfortunately did not take before pics.. but I will proudly post after pics once we have at least one finished room!

Let me just say... painting with a 10 month old is not as easy as painting wihtout one ;)=

Basically, KK paints, and I chase/keep Ali out of the way. Now, we are in HER space with this painting, since we mainly spend all our time in the living room... but she is having a serious problem with not being able to be right next to daddy, playing at his feet, while he is working! So it's been kinda stressful for me- I am a helper! So I want to help KK and not make him do everything- but I've come to the understanding that's impossible. And I'm not useless, because my job is to entertain our princess while her house is being renovated. Thankfully, today is much nicer than the 55 degree weather of yesterday- so we will be taking a walk to the park and visiting Gramma, who has the day off.

My jardin!

I am having a blast with this garden! I've always grown tomatoes and peppers in pots, and of course flowers and general landscaping, but this is my first year with an actual vegetable garden. It has been very relaxing to spend time working it- I actually look forward to weeding- it gives me a little productive "me" time. .... and UNBELIEVABLY it is producing veggies! I was sceptical of my abilities in planting veggies from seeds... but everything has come up- Italian green beans; squash; cucumbers; carrots; green onions; cilantro; tomatoes and peppers (with the exception of one row of carrots) and now I'm seeing actual "fruit" growing!
Here's a full view of my little plot-

This is a close up of my squash

Italian Green Beans and some Cucumbers

And if you look closely- two baby heirloom tomatoes!

and peppers!!!

We'll be eating fresh salsa in no time!

win a photo printer from Kodak!!!

THIS is an AWESOME GIVEAWAY!

http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/2009/06/kodak-esp-9-all-in-one-printer-giveaway.html

What's new with us!

I cannot BELIEVE that my little bug is going to be 10 months old this Friday... it's amazing how fast her 1st year of life is flying by. I already notice her acting less like a baby, and more like a toddler. She is becoming so stinkin independent- especially since she has learned to crawl. She's also beginning to attempt to pull herself up onto everything- which is not soo much fun because that involves a lot of slipping and bumping of the noggin. She doesn't like that part too much!

All that I know is that I am totally in love with my daughter. And her little personality is fantastic. She is, however, displaying a bit of a stubborn, princess streak. She is now pretending to give me something (like her sippy cup, cheerios, or binkie), and the minute I reach for it, she will take it back. She also swats (not gently pushes) things out of her way when she does not want them. For example, her two front teeth are begrudgingly making their way into existence, and therefore I am doing everything I can think of to ease the pain for my girl. This is not an easy task. So everything I hand Ali, she swats out of my way, or hits me in the face with. Awesome. Here's hoping those teeth come in QUICK!

... and her new favorite book (one I recommend 100%) is called Peekaboo, Blueberry! It is such a cute book that is helping teach Ali where her eyes, nose, and toes are... plus it has a doorbell you have to ring on the very last page, which is apparently the best part. Here's some pictures of Ali's Daddy reading it to her (which, between the two of us, occurs about 1 bazillion times a day!):

Summer Break is Awesome!

My mom's been home on summer break for about 3 days now.... and we've been having some fun time together...

We get to eat breakfast later, and at a much more leisurely pace (yes, I'm still in my PJs)

I'm even pulling myself up on things now, to spice it up a bit!

I get to play all day in my favorite place- the shoe bin (and if you want an awesome bow like the one I've got in, - go visit my mom's bloggin buddy KIM here)

I also get to splash in my kiddie pool all day long

And get some rays- don't worry, plenty of sunscreen's been applied to this hott bod!

I bring myself to tears with the thought of it being all over! I hope this summer never ends!

... and guess what else? I STARTED CRAWLING TODAY!

2 new teeth and summer break!

Today is our LAST DAY of work until September 3rd!!! I am soooo looking forward to a long summer with my baby girl. She's actually coming to work with us today, as we only have to be there for about 3 hours, just to tie up some loose ends and do our official "check out" of school.

I can't help but be so thankful that I have job where I get to spend this time with my baby. I am so looking forward to watching her grow in the coming months- she's right at that perfect developmental moment- almost crawling/walking, and really coming into her own as an individual.

As I type this, I'm watching her play with her mini-kitchen (we call it her Ali-kitchen). I bought it for her at a garage sale last weekend- it is just her size- and came with plates,cups, hamburgers, bacon, etc. She loves the thing- especially when momma puts all the food in the sink and she can throw it out! She's also beginning to pull herself up onto it (and everything else) so we are excited baby has decided to go mobile! She's still not quite crawling yet- but she will get up on her hands and knees and sometimes go backwards, but mostly she'll transfer from on all fours back to sitting. But hey, progress is progress, right?

The downside to her development is she's cutting the top two teeth. Poor girl- yesterday they looked like two white blisters on the front of her gums- that has gotta hurt ! So I'm hoping those puppies break their way through in the near future, she keeps rubbing her nose and face and crying like they hurt so bad- ouch! I feel for ya kiddo!

What I love the most about our girl is, in the midst of all the pain from those teefers, she can still manage to give a sweet smile and have a good time!

4 more days till Summer Vacation!!

So today is the last day of finals for the Seniors at the high school I teach... and I thought I would leave them with some parting advice (not my advice, but some great stuff I found on the Internet). Here is what I will read to them today, during our last class together:

Dumbing Down our Kids by educator Charles Sykesa (a list of 11things you will not learn in high school)

• RULE 1 Life is not fair - get used to it.
• RULE 2 The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
• RULE 3 You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.
• RULE 4 If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
• RULE 5 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.
• RULE 6 If you mess up, it’s not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
• RULE 7 Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
• RULE 8 Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
• RULE 9 Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
• RULE 10 Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
• RULE 11 Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

To My Dogs

Dear Matty and Jack,

I just wanted to tell you guys how sorry I am that you do not get the lovin' that you used to before Ali came along. I also want to tell you that, even though I now spend more time with her than scratching you, I still love you so very much! I need to make it a point to spend more time giving you some much needed attention.
You guys are such good doggies, you just go with the flow- even when the "invader" pulls on your face and hair and gets into your space on a daily basis. It's so nice when she plays that you lay by her and give her your protection. Thank you for rolling with it, and accepting the new addition with grace and patience.
Also, just a warning for you guys: now that Ali is on her way to becoming mobile, she's probably going to be even MORE in your face and business, and probably ALL THE TIME. So just get ready for it.
And Jack, it's pretty embarrassing that you now have to wear a doggie diaper. Why do you think you should piddle on the floor? Ali's a part of the family, you don't have to mark your territory to let her know that it's your house.
Believe me, guys, she's taken over and EVERYTHING went from ours, to HERS.

All My Love,
Your Momma