2013...That's a wrap!

This year has been amazing.  Quite honestly I can't believe it's coming to an end.  We've made a lot of great memories...here's a walk down memory lane!

January

We rang in the New Year with our tiny newborn.  Oh my goodness how precious was that itty baby.  We watched Alabama win another National Championship. Roll Tide!  We had a SNOW day and I took by 3 week old baby out in it.  Celebrated surviving Barrett's first month. We wrapped the month up with Barrett's First trip to Church.

February

I fell out of a blogging routine and resorted to random photo dumps to stay on top of things. These continued throughout the year (and will probably continue throughout the rest of my blogging career!)  We celebrated Barrett's first Valentine's Day.  I finally shared Barrett's birth announcement.

Barrett turned two months old.

March

Barrett was baptized.  It was such a special day shared with family and friends.

Barrett turned 3 months old and Patrick and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

April

We celebrated Barrett's first Easter. SO much fun!  We watched Ava play softball.  Barrett made his first (and hopefully his last ;)) trip to Auburn.  Barrett turned another month older.

Patrick and I had our first date night since the baby was born.

May
Ally turned 5 years old.  I shared some Deep thoughts on becoming a mother and celebrating my very first Mother's Day.  On Barrett's 5 month birthday we headed to the lake for his first trip.

Finally we ended the month with some real food, Barrett ate carrots. 

June

I felt really old that it was already time for my 10 year reunion but we went and it was fun.

We took Barrett to the zoo.  We celebrated all the dad's on Father's Day.

Barrett turned half a year old.

July

Barrett enjoyed his first 4th of July.  I shared my thoughts on breastfeeding.  We went to the lake for the weekend with John and Hope and took the big dogs.  We finally had family pictures made of the three of us.   I was so excited about the royal baby. It was such a fun moment in history.  Barrett turned 7 months old and I turned 28.  We took Barrett to Tuscaloosa for the first time.

August

My childhood dreams came true when we went to the American Girl store and Bistro for our birthdays.

Barrett turned 8 months old.  Blast from the past when I got to see the Backstreet Boys in concert again.  It was just as thrilling as when I was 14!

September

We got to visit with my cousins from Florida that we don't get to see nearly enough.  I got real and shared my struggle with Mommy guilt.  We went on our first vacation as a family of three.  We had a blast!  Part 2 and Part 3.  Barrett turned 9 months old.  I took Barrett to his first tailgate in Tuscaloosa.

October

We went to Tuscaloosa for homecoming and I got to take Barrett to his first football game.  Barrett turned 10 months old and I started frantically planning his first birthday party.  We had a fun little family date to the pumpkin patch.  I left the baby at home and went to the Alabama/ Tennessee game.  It was a much needed mom day and he had a blast with his grandparents.  We wrapped up the month with a little Halloween get together.

November

I shared my love for Fall and some really cute pictures of Barrett in the leaves.  I took another trip to Tuscaloosa without the boys for the Alabama/ LSU game.  Barrett turned 11 months old and we celebrated his first Thanksgiving.

December

I decided I was crazy and would dress Barrett in a Christmas outfit everyday in December thus the 25 days of Christmas outfits was born.  We took Barrett to see Santa.  We watched Uncle John graduate from Alabama and celebrated Barrett's first birthday all in the same weekend.  He loved his cake so much!

Barrett's final monthly post and we all had a Merry Christmas!

Thanks for following along with our little life.  I love writing this blog, I love recording all these little and big moments for our son to read one day.  Hearing that other people enjoy it is just icing on the cake for me. We're wishing you all the best in 2014!

Merry Christmas

I knew there was no way to top Christmas 2012.  But 2013 showed up big time.  I love Christmas.  It's such a beautiful season.  It's even more special now.  I think it's this way for every new parent but I see Barrett in every nativity.  Every baby is him.  I think it's even more so that he is a Christmas baby and I've had the entire Advent season to prepare for Christ's birth.  I've also had the entire Advent season to prepare for Barrett's birthday. I know that the two do not compare.  But I can never think of the Christmas season and not think of 2012.  That day changed my life forever.  

Enough mushy stuff...

Christmas Eve we went to my Grandmother's house for lunch, we had a great time and I took zero pictures...moving on.

Patrick, John, Hope, Barrett and I went to Midnight Mass at 8:00pm.  Barrett did pretty good until he saw the girl in front of us had a snack.  So we gave him some cheerios and he was happy.  After Mass we went to my parents house to get Ally and had some pigs in a blanket.

Ally's Christmas dress.  I thought she looked so pretty! Day 24 outfit

Santa came.  I want to always remember Santa's first trip to our house.  It was so special.

The expression of joy. ha!

I had grand dreams of what our first Christmas morning would look like.  For example, in my dream Patrick and I would go and get Barrett out of bed and he'd be so smiley and happy to see us.  We change him and bring him into the living room where he'd crawl as fast as he could to see what Santa brought.  You can tell my dreams didn't exactly come true.  It was perfect though, he just needed a bottle first!

Ally, on the other hand, was more excited to see what Santa brought! 

Patrick and his babies.

After his bottle he was a happy boy, (well as happy as he could be with the terrible cold he's got)

This is a simple picture but it wins Christmas for me.  I love that of all the things we got him he was the most excited about the yogurt melts.

This hit me like a ton of bricks, you'd think a year later I'd be used to seeing "Mom & Dad" on stuff.  

Our annual picture in front of the tree.  I love it. 

I use the self timer exactly one time each year and I always have to look up in the manual how to set it.

(I need to do a post on all of our pictures in front of the tree!)

Day 25 outfit (they say 1st birthday) (By the time I put him in bed he'd worn 5 outfits today.)

Birthday breakfast.  He ate the entire cinnamon roll and loved every minute of it.

Gracie getting her bone.
Sam with his. They were happy dogs! We went to my mom and dad's house for brunch. This year we just bought for the kids. We had this book growing up and we wore it out.  I can remember fighting over who got to lift the flap on each page looking for Spot.  My sweet little brother got this one for Barrett.

I totally cried. (I might have cried again just thinking about it).  It was bound to happen at some point today anyway.  I was just so caught off guard.  

Then, I catch a sweet moment like this between my sister and Barrett and I teared up again.  I know I've said it a hundred times but seeing people you have loved your whole life loving on your child is one of the most special feelings.  I'm not really sure why, I knew they'd love him but it is still so special.

Luckily the same folks are there to turn right around and make me laugh.  John and Hope got our dogs this giant candy cane bone.  It's the size of a real walking cane.  Ally looks so unhappy it's kinda funny.

The birthday boy getting a nap.

Clay getting a nap.

Dad was sick and stayed in the bed.

John was helping Ava put her lego thing together.

Drew

Ava

S'mores

Porter

Harper

Our sweet little family.

John and Hope with Bentley and Hope's dad's dog that doesn't have a name but sure is cute.

Patrick and Leslie.

After we came home and recharged for a bit, we headed to the Horton's house for dinner.  Barrett was exhausted and sick but he was a trooper.  We opened gifts and then ate dinner.  Dinner was fabulous and I ate way to much it was all so delicious as usual!  It was a fun time but I was spent.  I was beyond exhausted.  The activity and emotion of the day was almost too much for me.  

We were blessed beyond measure this year.

I had the perfect ending to the day when sweet Barrett let me rock him before bed without putting up a fight.  It was like he knew I needed it.  He laid his sweet little head on my chest and just looked and smiled at me.  I never wanted it to end.

I'm sad it's over.  Luckily in the Catholic church we celebrate the Advent season leading up to Christmas and then the Christmas season for the twelve days after Christmas so I'll be soaking in the last few days of our Christmas season because Jesus is the reason for the season.

12 Months

One Year Old.  How can it be?  One whole year since they placed you in my arms for the first time.  I can say without a doubt that this has been the best year of my life.  I have loved every minute of watching you grow.  From my tiny newborn that loved to be snuggled to watching you roll and sit and eventually crawl.  Now you're pulling up everywhere and it won't be long till you're walking and running.  I'd be lying if I said it didn't all happen a little too fast.  Luckily for me you still like to snuggle and be held.  You have the sweetest personality and love to smile.  We love to hear your sweet laugh.

• You weigh around 20lbs even (25th percentile)
• You're still around 281/4" long (5th percentile)
• Head circumference 18" (50th percentile)
• Your eyes are still blue 
• Your hair is darker than blonde but lighter than brown. :)
• It still doesn't always lay down.  The front lays down but the back, not so much! 

• You're wearing mostly 6-9 or 6-12 month play clothes and 12 month dress clothes.
• Still wearing a size 3 diaper but I think we've bought our last box.  It'll be size 4 the next time we buy.
• You started pulling up about 2 weeks ago and you pull up on everything.  
• You can crawl so fast now.  You tried to climb the stairs in the basement this week.
• You love doors.  You love to swing them open and shut them. 

• Ally is still your favorite family member.  She loves feeding time.  In fact if we've eaten dinner somewhere else when we get home she runs to your high chair and barks like we forgot to feed you.
• You love to get her toys from her.
• You can throw her ball for her. 

• You eat everything that we eat.  Your favorites are green beans and chicken fingers.  We've been eating like crap lately but you still get mostly fruits and veggies.  You love mandarin oranges too.
• You're still taking 3 bottles a day (I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be off the bottle by now but I'm not really worried about it.)  One 6oz in the morning, one 8oz at lunch and another 6oz before bed.
• You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• You love cheerios

• Still not saying any words.  You make a lot of noise but no actual words.
• You have eight teeth!
• You love anything that makes noise.  
• Still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 

• We took you to see Santa this month and you weren't a fan!
• You love bath time.  We've got you a few toys and you just splash and splash
• You're still sleeping great. Usually 11 hours at night.
• You usually take either one 2.5 hour nap or tow 1 hour naps. 

• We celebrated your birthday last week with an adorable party.  It was so much fun!
• You wave all the time but not on command and not to anyone.
• You love my earrings.  When I'm holding you you'll turn my head so you can see them.  

Barrett,

You'll never know how loved you are.  You have changed my life in so many ways that I could have never imagined.  I feel like I'm a better version of myself as your mother.  I can't explain it really.  I just want you to be the best person you can be and I know that you're going to learn that from me.  Thank you for making me a better person.  As I reflect on the last 12 months I am overcome with joy.  We've had a lot of fun together.  There's been some tough times too but overall it has been a blast!  I love getting to experience ordinary things through your eyes.  It makes everything new again.  Sweet baby, thank you for making me a mom.  I love you to the moon and back.

Happy 1st Birthday!

Love, Mom