My little Ducky

Barrett hated baths for a long time.  He's finally gotten over that and now he loves bath time.  

Patrick took these cute pictures of him one day this week when he got out of the bath.  It was a spur of the moment thing and the pictures turned out so cute I thought.

This might be my favorite picture of Barrett and Patrick ever.  

Getting to know you...

(I don't know why this button is showing up weird in my post.  It looks normal in the draft. Ugh.)

1. What part of the state do you call home?  

We live in Northern Jefferson county, the Gardendale, Morris area.

2. How long have you been blogging? 

4 years

3. Why did you start blogging?

I wanted an outlet to record my feelings and to scrapbook our lives.  We had been married for almost a year and I realized that I was terrible at getting photos printed, dated and into albums and I thought this was a fun way to keep track of life.

4. What is your favorite part of being a member of the Alabama Women Bloggers community?
I like seeing my state through other women's eyes.  I hope to connect with women in my area and season of life.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Wow, in 5 years Barrett will be in Kindergarten.  Hopefully we'll have another kid (or two) by then.  We will have been married 10 years.  I expect to be living life, raising my kids and enjoying my family.  Nothing to crazy.  

6. If you could choose an actress to play you in your life, who would you choose and why?

I would choose Sandra Bullock.  I love her and I like to think we have similar personalities. Although I'm sure she is way cooler than me.

7. Name 5 things on your Bucket List that you hope you’ll check off before you die?

-See the Grand Canyon

-Travel to Hawaii

-Retire on a body of water (hopefully the lake)

-See my kids fulfill their dreams.

-See Alabama play (ideally win) in all 12 (14) SEC stadiums.

8. If you could be known for one thing, what would it be and why?
Kindness.  I truly try to live by the golden rule.
Can you imagine how much better this world would be if everyone just treated everyone the way they wanted to be treated?!?  I want my son to be kind and to treat others with kindness.

9. Describe the best moment in your life.
So far...the moment Barrett was placed in my arms for the first time.  Before Barrett was born I would have said receiving my diploma from Alabama and marrying my husband.

10. If you could “be” anything (no consequences, no fear), what would you “be”?
This question really got my thinking.  I've always wanted to be a mom and a wife.  That was always my biggest goal in life but if I could be anything I think I'd like to be a professional photographer.  Traveling the world, taking pictures of beautiful places.  Or I'd like to be in Broadcasting, ideally on the 4th hour of the today show with Hoda and Kathie Lee.  They seem to have so much fun!

11. What or who inspires you to blog?

My family.  I started blogging for me (and I still do) but I love having a journal for my kids to see one day and my family gets to follow along day by day.

12. We’re headed to your neck of the woods… what restaurant would you recommend?
There are to many restaurants to mention in the Birmingham area so I'll focus on Gardendale.  If you find yourself in our area for lunch you have to stop by Our Place.  Try the chicken salad sandwich or the Evelyn's special with a side of ranch.  They have the best ranch on earth.

13. What’s a southern tradition you and your family have?
I'm not really sure.  We have a lot of traditions but I don't know if any of them are specifically southern.  My parents cook a big lunch on Sundays and we eat together after church most weeks.  (Well I eat with them most Sundays everyone else is out of town so they aren't there every week) We tailgate for Alabama football games in the fall.  We drink a lot of sweet tea.  Since I've had Barrett I feel like I way more Southern just in the way I dress and parent him.

14. If you could pick your favorite blog post from your blog this year, what would it be?
Definitely Barrett's birth story.  My Mother's Day post was a special one.  I also love all of Barrett's monthly growth posts.  I promise I blogged before Barrett, a couple of my favorite posts from then...Saying goodbye to my college house and Patrick's truck.

15. We all love social media, tell us your links so we can follow you!
Twitter & Instagram @MaggieMHorton

6 Months

Seriously, half a year.  I can't believe my baby is 6 months old.
You've had a busy month.  You went to the lake for the first time, which was also your first night away from home.  You tried food for the first time.  This month has been fun and trying.  You've been more cranking this month but I think you were just frustrated trying to learn new things.  You've been way more pleasant the last week or so.

 

• You weigh around 15lbs 8oz (10-25%)
• You are around 25" long (10-25%)
• Still wearing some 3 month clothes but mostly 6 month stuff, I've put you in a few 9 month outfits
• Size 2 diapers
• Your hair is thinning out so much.  It still stands up some but nothing like it did.  It's also lightening up too.

 



• We tried solids but you aren't very interested.  We're giving it a little time.
• You've tried carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes and applesauce ( you don't eat anything consistently
• You're still nursing every 3-4 hours during the day and once during the night.
• You take one bottle a day it's usually 5-6 ounces
• I have been making baby food for whenever you decide you're ready for it

 

 

• Sleep hasn't been great. 
• You're sleeping about 10 hours at night waking once to eat.
• You usually take one good nap (1.5-2hours) a day.  Sometimes you don't though.  Sometimes you just lay in the crib and cry.
• We're having to retrain you to put yourself to sleep.  That hasn't been going well.

• You found your feet.
• You learned to blow bubbles and think it's hilarious
• You started rolling from your back to your belly but you forget you know how to roll from you belly to back, so you usually just lay and cry until someone rolls you back.
• You're trying to pull you knees under so you can crawl.  I'm not ready for that.
• You're not quite ready to sit yet.

• You know our voices and look when you hear us.
• You'll pet Ally if she gets close enough to you.
• We had family pictures made (finally) and you did great!
• You got to celebrate Father's day with you dad and both granddaddies.
• You started doing a fake cough for attention.  It's hilarious.
• You still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• You're starting to play with toys more

 

I feel like you have grown and changed so much this month.  Your personality is starting to really shine.  You are a talker.  You love attention and we love giving it to you.  I can't believe we're on the downside of your first year.  I know you are going to grow and change so much.  It's such a bittersweet feeling.  I want you to stay my baby but I love watching you grow and learn. Stay sweet my little love bug! 

Happy half birthday!

{almost} Wordless Wednesday

Little bit started rolling from back to tummy on Sunday, now he wants to crawl. This mommy is not ready for that!

Father's Day

We had a nice day to celebrate the dads in our lives.

First up was Patrick.  I took zero pictures of the morning opening presents and breakfast.  Patrick doesn't ask for many things but he'd asked for a cross necklace that matches the cross charm he got for me to mark Barrett's baptism.  So Barrett and I got it for him.  I think he was excited.  We also got him the stickygram Instagram magnets, for his locker at work.  He was excited.  I think his favorite gift was the fact that Barrett rolled over from back to belly for the first time.  He did it once at home and then several times at my parents house.

Barrett and I went to church and then to my parents for lunch.  It was just us and John and Hope for lunch.  We watched the race until Barrett started getting fussy.  Dad actually let Barrett watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  When we were little he never let us watch kid shows, ever.

(I told y'all I was obsessed with bubble suits)

Doesn't Ally look thrilled to be included.

I'm not sure what happened but I think it involved me ruining the pictures.

I love this picture of Patrick, his Daddy and Barrett.  They look so happy!

We had a fun day.  Barrett did really great.  I love that he's really a "schedule" baby, he likes to be on a schedule but he can be flexible.  It usually makes for a terrible Monday.  I call it "Monday morning detox"  after he's been held for every nap all weekend long.  So we've had an interesting day.  He went down right at 7:00 I'm hoping he sleeps all night.  

Happy Father's Day

Happy 1st Father's Day to the best husband and sweetest daddy around.

Watching you with Barrett has been one of the biggest joys for me.

These are two of my favorite pictures. 



We love you!  Thank you for being such a great daddy.

Zoo day

When I found out I was pregnant one of the things I couldn't wait to do with Barrett was the zoo.  Patrick was off today so we loaded up and headed there this morning before it got hot.  Of course we would choose the hottest day of the year to take our 5 month old to the zoo.

This was one of the first exhibits we walked up to.  Patrick and I were so excited this birds were right at eye level for Barrett. 

 

We pushed him right up to the glass and he just looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  It's going to take more than a couple of birds to impress this kid.   Next we went to the primate house.  These monkeys were as fascinated by us and we were them.  They were all playing together then one by one they just stopped and starting watching us.  It was pretty funny.
This is the first time I'd been since they opened the new "Trails of Africa" exhibit.  The elephants have so much room, I could have watched them all day.  Two of them were playing and aggravating each other.  It was fun to watch them.
My boys
My sweet boy.
Love my little family.
Our zoo has this Dinosaur exhibit with animatronic dinos.  I'm going to be honest, I wasn't that impressed. Peacock showing his colors.  It was beautiful.  I was wishing I had my real camera in this moment. This boy was worn out.  It was a really fun day with my boys.  Now we are both dreading going back to work tomorrow.

Last week's Fun

{I meant to post this Friday, as you can tell that didn't happen.  Here it is now.}

Friday morning I got up and started getting ready for work.  I noticed that Ally was acting weird but didn't think much of it.  Well after I watched her I realized she was sick, stomach issues.  Now I'm not one to rush to the vet so I was on the fence about taking her in.  The only reason I did was because it was Friday and I didn't want to have to make a trip to the ER vet if it got worse.  Turns out she had a virus.  She was pretty pitiful.  She got some meds and a shot and we were sent on our way.

I had to take Barrett with me.  I feel like I deserve an award of some sort of award.  He did pretty good.  He even slept a little in his carseat.

Friday night we went to the Kreider's house for a cook out.  I love getting together with our tailgate group outside of tailgates.  Barrett was up way past his bedtime but he did alright.

I took this picture one day last week of my boys napping.  I love it.

I guess that's all for this round of randomness.  

10 years later

10 years ago I graduated from high school.  In that moment I couldn't imagine anything in my life that would be more important.  Of course I hoped I'd graduate from college, get married and have some kids but my 17 year old self couldn't grasp how much bigger my life would become.  I loved high school.  I was a cheerleader and I loved being involved.  I loved Friday night football games in the fall, baseball games in the spring and basketball in between.  I loved my friends and all the memories we'd made in those short 4 years.  I loved homecoming floats and pranking the boys.  I loved it all. 

Boy did I have fun with these girls.

These are pages out of my senior book.

Peprallys and breakfast at my parents house.

 

Graduation memories.

Saturday night was my 10 year reunion.   It's so hard to believe.  We got dressed up and gathered with about 100 classmates to catch up and hangout.  It was a fun  date night.  Everyone told me that facebook has pretty much ruined the idea of a reunion.  Everyone kinda knows what you've been up to.  I did find one person that doesn't do facebook and didn't know that we'd had a baby. So much of my life has changed since that young 17 year old girl walked across that stage.  Some days I feel like a shell of that person.  I told Patrick before we went that I didn't really feel like I had accomplished that much in 10 years.  I'm not some powerful lawyer or doctor.  I don't have a job in my degree field.  I realized that those things aren't what make me happy anyway.  I have accomplished a lot.  I have a degree, one that I fought tooth and nail to get even if it isn't the most fancy or the most difficult to obtain.  I have a happy marriage and a beautiful son.  We are successful and happy together.

We met some friends before for drinks.

The girls.

The boys.

I didn't graduate with this sweet girl but we've been friends for a while.  She and I took gymnastics together in elementary school and her mom was out coach.  In middle school I started taking tumbling classes from her mom in her basement.  We cheered together in high school and it was so good to see her and catch up.

One of the tables.

 

I didn't get very many pictures, I was to busy talking. 

It was a fun night. We didn't stay out to late.  We couldn't wait to get home to our sweet boy.  He was fast asleep but we still got to snuggle with him a bit before bed.

It's been an eventful 10 years, can't wait to see what the next 10 years hold.