| ELC Showcase | Dancing Workbench

Now that we have officially have a toddler, finger food has a wholeeeee new meaning. 

Favorite activity: swishing all the food around on her tray and smashing it on her face. Gosh seriously kids are the best! This girl makes me laugh at least 40 times a day! 

So Karen over at Dancingworkbench on etsy sent us the wonderful, WIPABLE, personalized  bib for miss Emma (and really how cute is this pattern?!)

This bib now hangs on the back of our high chair, and has stood up through spagetti, eggs, and chocolate donuts...so it's definitely sturdy!!

In honor of supporting small businesses, please head over to her etsy site & take a look at all of her cute patterns for your little! These are the perfect stocking stuffer or gift for your favorite toddlers birthday 

Www.etsy.com/shop/Dancingworkbench 

Taco ScoOps!

Having a babe sure keeps you busy! 

Just stopping by to share a quick, delicious recipe today!

First, preheat your oven to 350*, and spread tortilla scoops style chips on a cookie sheet.

My favorite's are the multigrain!

Mix taco mix accordingly.

Cook meat and simmer taco seasoning mix

Scoop cooked meat into chips

Sprinkle cheese

and melt in oven about 5 minutes

This is our new favorite in our house! And this recipe is nice and quick I can even cook while holding Emma's attention! (while safely secured in the bumbo on a island far away from the stove.)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Mommy and me

This is a Blog Hop!

And you know what? Shes right.

At 4am this morning while trying to convince Little Miss to go back to sleep, I was wandering through my photo roll, I started out with a lot of pictures, and slowly but surely I have very few pictures with my Emma.

So here it is, my little piece of photo heaven with our little angel.

Hospital photos with our little girl 

My favorite picture from the hospital <3

First days home

Christmas time

This little girl has changed so much, and changed ME so much

Even if being a mom means my room is messy, my dog is ALWAYS underfoot, my baby is screaming (but looks freaking adorable, I mean that outfit...the cuteness!) in 20 years, I will be glad I stopped to capture the moment.

Mommies...I hope you join in and head on over to Little Moments Big Moments blog for her wonderful post!

Beauty after baby

Since having my little princess, I spend most of my days with my hair in a top knot wearing pajama pants. Glamorous, I know.

I treated myself to some new things as we get more acclimated to this new life (read: actually go out in public) to help me feel a little less frumpy & new mom like.

My favorite item here: Gap So Pink Body Mist- $4.50 $2.25

This scent is so fresh, clean yet feminine. Even if I feel a complete mess, at least I wont smell like it!

Face Items:

Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer & Under Eye Correcter-Cover up imperfections

Neutregena Face Makeup-Its not quite a BB Cream, but not as thick and cake like as foundation--love it!

ELF (target) Mascara-self explanatory, a little mascara goes a long way

ELF(target again) Bronzer/Blush & Brush-Accentuate those cheekies!

Even on the hardest days, taking just 5 minutes to refresh really makes all the difference, and adds a little pep to my step!

What are your new-mom beauty routines??

Things that change once your a mommy, volume 1

It is absolutely crazy how your wants change once your a mommy. 

Once I lusted for coach bags, high heels, and trips to the spa.

Now?

Rain boots, diaper bags and cameras. 

I used to religiously wash, dry and straighten my hair 6 days a week.

Now?

I'm lucky to wash it 2-3 times a week, and blow dry and straightening? Thats like a spa day all in its own!!

Every weekend, I would go out shopping with my girlfriends.

Now?

I havent been shopping in 8 weeks, and running errands is still a challenge! But we're getting better every trip

But do you know what else has changed?

My house is cleaner, a lot cleaner.

My relationship with my husband is stronger than ever

Speaking of husbands, I am more in love with him than ever watching him be a father

My heart is so so so full, its truly something you cannot explain

I want to continually better my life and prepare for our future

And the MOST important thing of all?

I don't care anymore. Wait, what?!

I don't care that my clothes have spit up on them, that my hair isn't crystal clean and straight. I don't care that I'm missing out on going out for drinks. But most importantly...

I don't care about people to don't care about us. I'm not going to beg people to spend time with us. Plain and simple, its their loss. Without going into great details, unfortunately a lot of people in our life have disappointed us lately. But you know what? The little girl in our lives truly lights up our lives, and the people who DO want to spend time with us, those are the people that matter the most.

And I cannot ever be grateful enough that I get to spend my days with these two.

2013 in review..a little late

So we will just go ahead and play the mom card here...its January 13th and I'm just getting around to this.

Disclaimer: This is yet another photo-bombing longest blog post ever. 

Your welcome ;)

2013 was by far the most life changing year of my life.

January was a month of snuggles. After almost two years, we used our fireplace :) We also purchased new bedroom furniture, and installed a new cork floor in our closet! Our pup got neutered and got a nasty infection, so we spent lots of extra time with puppy snuggles.

February was a HUGE month. Not only was I devastated by not being pregnant yet AGAIN, my parents moved. Saying goodbye to my childhood home was very very hard. Funny I fit in that pantry MUCH better when I was a kid. We added another fur baby to our family when my sister brought their little meatball Toby home to their new apartment.

March brought wayyy to much snow and was supposed to be the start of spring, and the snow continued right on into April, boo. Even though mother nature didnt get the memo, we did lots of spring cleaning and bough a beautiful entertainment center and new sectional for the family room. Swoon. I also discovered macaroni and cheese pizza...

April 1st was one of the best days of my life. Read about it here. The begining of my ten month blogging hiatus. Easter with our families, telling our parents and hosting a bridal shower for my best friend. At the end of April we attended a event for my husbands company honoring his sales for 2012--go hubby!

In May we told the rest of world about Baby C, This photo was my rendition of dressing up for a Bachelorette as my baby bump got bigger and bigger. May was pretty laid back though due to some wicked morning sickness and throwing up that continued right on into the second trimester.

June we celebrated my best friends wedding, it was an absolutely beautiful, 

In July we found out we were having a baby girl, my heart melted. I immediately started planning the nursery. Gosh my heart this flutters when I think of this moment. EVERYONE (except me and my dad) was convinced it was a boy, and because everyone was telling me that, I began to believe it too. When the ultrasound tech said, Its a Girl!; my husbands reaction was WHAT?! priceless. He is overjoyed and loves our little girl to pieces, but his reaction was probably one of my favorite moments of being pregnant. 

The rest of July and most of August we spent doing lots and lots of house projects, which included getting new carpet and painting the trim upstairs. 

The weekend after Labor Day weekend there is a dog expo at our local park, and they drain the public pool about halfway down and let all of the puppy dogs in the pool! It was so so SO fun! Im the pregnant lady in the back with the pink. We cant wait for this party next year.

September was more baby prep, painting the nursery and the nursery furniture, lots of cookouts. And too many baby projects to count. We spent my birthday eating good food and relaxing. September is always one of my favorite months because we have 3 birthdays, so.much.cake. :)

October flew by. Our washer broke. It was only 2 years old. Grumble. We celebrated my baby shower. I cannot express how grateful we are for all the people who came out to spoil our little baby girl. I began to feel very very pregnant in October, I'm pretty sure I never changed out of yoga pants, yep I even wore them to our shower, ha.

November I got voted down for hosting Thanksgiving (something about being 39 weeks pregnant and cooking a turkey makes people nervous, who would have thought?!) So we took advantage of not having 25 people at our house and decorated for christmas early. The rest of the month I spent trying to convince myself to get off the couch and cook food to freeze, and waddling around costco stocking up on every necessity known to man (nesting much?!). The day before Thanksgiving was my last day of work. That night we packed our bags and were ready to go.

December 4th 2013 at 9 am changed our lives forever. 

Welcome to the world Emma Lynn, words cannot describe how much we love you.

We spent the month doing nothing but snuggling and loving on our brand new baby and celebrated our first christmas, as a family of 3 <3

The story of my Bump

Since I didn't blog my entire pregnancy, I thought it would be fun to just see all of my bump photos at once!

Fair warning.. photo overload!

4 weeks...Ok time to clean up the floor Heather.

8 weeks...Gosh we really need new carpet. In the meantime, I'm going to pretend I have a baby bump !

18.5 weeks...Time to find out if baby is a he or she!

for those of you just starting to follow along..Baby C is a SHE!

24 weeks...Possibly still my FAVORITE bump photo!

and, we got new carpet, and painted all the trim :) 

Somewhere around 28-30 weeks....My go to sweater throughout my pregnancy!

33 weeks...At our baby shower with my amazing husband, yes I made him wear that shirt.

37 weeks...Discovered a new hoodie and wondered why I waited 37 weeks to wear it! I then proceeded to wear it about every day for the next 2 weeks.

39 weeks 5 days...at 4 am, on our way to the hospital to meet our little miss!! Cannot believe I was actually this huge. 

Looking back on this photo makes me miss my bump just a little. But I look at the little squeaking miracle next to me and cannot believe she is actually here. What an amazing thing our bodies can do!