She Said What???????

Doug and I went to Las Vegas last weekend for Presidents Day with his parents. We had such a fun time. I don't think we slept a wink, but who sleeps in Vegas?! We were there over Valentine's Day and I thought it was the best thing ever to count and see how many brides I could see on the strip. Doug and I made a list of things that we had to find while in Vegas. The list including things like someone being escorted out by security, a drunk bride, a gold digger, and a bunch more. Our list was so outrageous, but the sad thing was we found everything on the list but one! We did something similar to this at Disneyland on our honeymoon. When you don't drink, smoke, or gamble in Vegas, you gotta find something fun to do, right? :)

So...Doug and I went shopping at the Forum at Caesar's Palace. I went in to the Coach store to waste some time while we were waiting for his parents. I asked the sales girl where the diaper bags were. She showed me what they had, and than she asked me HOW FAR ALONG ARE YOU???????????? Whaaaaaaaaat the heeeeeeeeeck!!!!! I looked at her and was like, I'm not pregnant. My baby is 1! She tried to make up some crap about people buying the bag for all sorts of reasons, but that chick just failed sales 101! Don't they teach that in orientation? They should! I guess I gotta start exercising and watch what I eat a little more!

Anyway...on to happier events! Doug and I had the most amazing Valentine's Day in Vegas. Doug's parents were so amazing for taking Linkin for us! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Doug had a whole evening planned that he didn't even tell me about. It was a surprise. (This is huge for Doug, because he is terrible with surprises and secrets when it comes to presents.) He kept it a secret for an entire week. I'm so proud of you baby! Anyways, we went out to eat at an amazing steak house. (What can I say I'm a steak and potatoes kind of girl!) After that he took me shopping and I got a new pair of sunglasses. (I did need black ones. :) I lost my other ones in Mexico when a huge wave took me out.) After shopping, we went on a gondola ride through the Venetian hotel. We had the coolest boat driver. He was absolutely hilarious! It totally made an end to the perfect evening. It was so much fun! Thanks babe for an awesome night!

Here are some pics from the trip....

This is Alfredo our Gondola boat driver. He was awesome. We didn't get a pic with him and I'm so bummed!

When you go under this bridge your suppose to kiss (your husband not the boat driver!) and it is suppose to be a life of luck and prosperity or something like that. Or that's just something they make up and tell you so they can charge more! :)

Grandpa, Linkin, and Grandma

Holy Cow I loved these guys!!!!!!!! They had these people painted like statues and they would be perfectly still and when you would walk by they would move and it would totally freak you out! I walked by and I was staring at the guy and he winked and me and I seriously jumped! I wanted to get a picture of the statue holding Linkin so it looked like we put him up in a statue, but Linkin was done by this point and ready to go back to the hotel for a nap. Wouldn't that have been hilarious though?

Sorry no pics of Doug and I. We were lame and total slackers on the picture taking this trip. It was way fun though!

Linkin's Birthday Extravaganza

(Aunt Britany showed me the goods when my parents weren't around!)

This weekend was all about the fun for our little man. Not only did he have his first birthday party, he also had a fun Super Bowl party. On Saturday we had all of our family over to the park in Peoria. We played a little and ate some yummy cake. Here are some fun pics from the event.

He thought playing with those balloons was the coolest thing ever!

Linkin with his two favorite ladies (other than his mommy of course)

He could care less about the candle in his cake. He thought it was cool that I was getting him closer to the frosting so he could dig in! This cake was so cute. It was shaped in the #1. It was all a bunch of cup cakes that were frosted like a big cake. It was so much easier than cake and just as yummy!

What is a first birthday with out getting to play in cake, right?! He was like the cleanest baby ever! It was barely on his hands and a little on his face. The one time I wanted him to get dirty he held back. His life mission is to mess with me, I swear! :)

I'm a big boy now!!!!! I think it is hilarious to look back at him in his car seat now. It is so big and he looks so dang cute!

And I had to throw in our family picture at the Super Bowl party on Sunday. Yes, we are all wearing Cardinal jerseys. Monster.com is a partner with the NFL so Doug got us all jerseys at work. I was sporting my boy Larry Fitz, Doug was in Kurt Warner, and Linkin was just a Cards logo.

The First Year...

WARNING: CHEESY POST AHEAD! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! :)

Today my baby is officially 1 year old! I decided to take you through the roller coaster ride that is called, "Babies First Year." I'm doing this from memory, so I hope it's somewhat correct.

Month 1: I was so emotional right after he was born every time I looked at his perfect little baby face I would immediately start sobbing. This happened for like two weeks! I swear Doug that I was a crazy person. :) I could not believe that this perfect little baby was entrusted to me. I was completely over whelmed by the idea of me being a mother. I could not wrap my head around the idea that I was responsible for this perfect being.

Month 2: This kid never stops crying!!!! Linkin was a colic baby. He was one of the worst cases our pediatrician had ever seen. Linkin was either sleeping or crying! I would sit in our rocking chair rocking him to sleep and than not moving a muscle for fear he would wake up and start screaming again. One remedy that worked was sitting on a big bouncy work out ball and bouncing as high as I could. He loved the sensation in his tummy and would stop crying. (That's one way to work off my baby weight I put on.)

Month 3: Is that quiet I hear!!!!! Like your typical colic baby, Linkin settled down at around three months. He stopped the screaming all of the time. He also stopped the feeding every hour and a half through the night. Now it was an eight hour stretch than a four hour stretch. Life was starting to get good. I was also confident and knew I could handle this whole being a mom thing.

Month 4: It's Ferber time. At four months we did the Ferber Method and Linkin started sleeping through the night! Could life get any better than this???? Linkin also started rolling over and sitting up on his own.

Month 5: He was like a real little person! He started eating rice cereal and other baby foods. Teaching him to eat was one of the funniest things ever!

Month 6: He was on the go! He started pushing up on his arms and legs and rocking back and forth. We said he was revving his engine to go fast.

Month 7: And he's off!!!! He started crawling at six months, but by seven he was all over the place. I have never seen a baby crawl so fast. We call him turbo racer. When he wants something, he doesn't waste time in going to get it.

Month 8: I'm way to big for bottles. Linkin took himself off of bottles. He decided he was way to big and cool for bottles. He would only drink his milk if we put it in a sippie cup. Who am I to argue, right?! :)

Month 9: He is jabbering and talking just like the rest of us. The only difference is, his words don't make sense. :) It is so cute and funny to watch him in the car when he watches the Little Mermaid. When the music comes on he will try to "sing" with it. He was also pulling himself up and walking along couches, but doesn't want to take the plunge and walk alone.

Month 10: If it comes in a baby jar he refuses to eat it! He has realized the joys of real food. Baby food is gross and what mom and dad are eating is so much better. Get me some of what they got. He also got his first two teeth.

Month 11: In my big boy car seat now! We started this a little bit early because he was good and ready, and so was I! He hates the car, so anything that will make him happy works for me! The front facing car seat seems to help. (He still has to have on his movie though!)

Month 12: Where is my baby???? He's a big boy! :( Time for another??????

Happy Birthday Linkin! You are loved by so many! You are the luckiest little boy in the whole wide world. Could a mother ask for anything more? I don't think so! Love you!

What A Difference A Year Makes...

(This was Linkin at a few weeks old)

Last year at this time I was sitting on my parents couch "power watching" seasons of Desperate Housewives on DVD. Why you ask? I was on bed rest with Linkin. I went in for my weekly check up on a Tuesday. When the doctor came in the room, he asked me where Doug was. This was an unusual question for him to ask me and his demeanor seemed a little serious. I asked him why he wanted to know where Doug was and he responded with, "Because we may be having a baby today." (Internal: Holy Crap!!!!!! Not ready yet!!!!!) He sent me for some tests and determined I was fine but needed to remain on bed rest and come back in a few days for more testing. I went back on Thursday and they scheduled me to be induced Friday night/ Saturday morning in the middle of the night.

(This outfit is a preemie and it still is to big for him!)

I remember the birth being pretty easy. I was in pretty active labor after my three gels and once they started the Patosin I started going pretty quickly. They had to give me a shot to slow down my labor. I got to an eight and the contractions started getting through to me even though I had an epidural. I knew I was almost ready so I pushed the little button they give you for extra meds a few times to make sure I wouldn't feel a thing! I remember turning to Doug and asking him to go get a nurse. He asked me why and I said, "I think the baby is coming now." The nurse came in and almost fell over because she said, "holy crap there's a head there!" It was hilarious! Twenty minutes of pushing and we had ourselves a little baby boy. It was the scariest thing ever when I first saw him. He hadn't taken his first breath yet, so he didn't have the pink color yet. I was totally frozen and freaking out because I wasn't sure he made it. The nurse finally suctioned out his mouth and he started breathing/screaming. It was absolutely amazing to see the color come alive. He was the smallest baby I had ever seen. He was an adorable 5 pounds 5 ounces. None of the clothing we brought to the hospital fit him. We had to go out and get preemie clothing to fit the new little man. The one thing he grabbed onto and loved right away was his little binkie. It engulfed his entire face! It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. We love our little man so much and are so grateful to have had him for this amazing year. He has grown up so fast and is getting so big.

I absolutely have to post this because it is hilarious but if you're not a fan of TMI this may be a little TMI.... I was in labor with Linkin and I could not move at all. I was completely numb from the wast down. Doug had to keep rolling me over. (I had to be on my side on oxygen for a little bit, that's why he had to roll me.) Anyways, during labor Doug was holding my leg and he looked at our doctor and he actually had the gall to say, "Man, I'm really tired. My arms are getting sore." CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! I looked up at him with this look of absolute puzzlement. Than I started cracking up laughing. The doctor looked at him and told him that probably wasn't the right time to say that. I think he told him to man up too. Not sure though. That's my favorite story ever!!!!!! That's my silly hubby!

Funny Boy

I was out on the patio making some phone calls for Young Women's and Doug was inside watching Linkin. Linkin loves to look out our sliding glass window onto the patio. He thought it was especially fun because I was on the other side of the door. He started rubbing his face all over the window and smashing it against the glass. The more I would laugh the more he knew he was doing something funny. Here are some of my favorite pics from our adventure!

(Today Doug and I were driving home and we saw a CARDINAL land on a tree branch in front of us. It was beautiful! I have never seen one before. The red feathers were amazing! We were driving home from getting his wisdom teeth pulled but he was still able to shout out, "That's a Cardinal!" He took that as a sign the Cards will be winning the Super Bowl.)

Wanna See a Grown Man Cry?

Have you ever been jealous or bitter because of the love your husband has for his football team? I just don't understand the deep emotion that comes along with being a football fan. There is nothing at all I could possibly relate it to. The Cardinals will be playing in the Super Bowl on February 1. Doug is beyond words excited right now. Let's just say, after the Cardinals big win on Sunday he started CRYING!!!!! I am not joking! This man didn't even cry on our wedding day, but the Cards go to the Super Bowl and that gets a tear? Help me out ladies! :)

(The only regret I have was not getting a picture of my husband crying after the big win. That would have been priceless!)

With that, good luck Cardinals! I hope you win the big game! I don't know what Doug would do than, but I think it would be fun to find out. :)

Happy Birthday Alexandra

Alexandra turned 3 on Sunday. The family got together for a fun little party for her at my parents house. Britany combined Alexandra's two favorite things, cake and Strawberry Short Cake. There were Strawberry Short Cake balloons and decorations that looked so cute. Instead of singing Happy Birthday to her, the kids just stuck their hands in the frosting and took a few licks. (Alexandra doesn't really like being the center of attention.) The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to actually be allowed to stick their fingers in the cake and lick the frosting.

The cake was dished up and handed out, but the only problem was none of the adults wanted to eat it once the kids had their way with the cake....

Well, almost all of the adults. Jess and I picked through the parts where there weren't any finger holes and ate the yummy cake! I was only planning on taking a few bites so I didn't sit down, I just jumped up on the chairs. My sister took the opportunity to take an incriminating photo!