Life is SOOO different now...

Well apparently I thought I'd have all the time in the world to be blogging, posting pictures, eating bon bons, and watching soap operas being a mom... I was wrong. My life is SO busy in SUCH a different way. I went from working 9 hour days, running errands, ironing clothes, making dinners, going out with friends to movies, cleaning the house, working out at the gym, fun vacations with Brian to now only having 1-2 hours at a time to get anything done (while Carter naps). And let's be honest, when Carter does decide to nap, the last thing I want to do is exercise or blog haha. I'd rather take a nap myself take a much needed shower, or eat a quick snack. I barely have time to check emails these days. BUT I will say with 100% certainty, I have never been happier. I love my new life.

Loving Carter is a completely new kind of love. I am head over heels in love with Brian and he is my everything. But Carter is a whole new bag of tricks. A whole new kind of love. I finally feel what my mom and dad feel for me and my sister. I finally feel what all my other mom friends feel. It's fantastic!

Carter is 5 months old today. That blows my mind. Time has completely flown by. But I can say that Brian and I have relished in every single moment. We took 187 photos of his first bites of cereal. That is crazy. We take Carter and Penny for a walk together as a family every single night. Carter sits in his bouncy seat while Brian and I eat dinner at the kitchen table every night. We feed Carter his last meal of the night in the nursery together - while one of his gives him his bottle, the other is reading a night time story. We say our prayers together then put our little man to bed. Carter and I have lots of fun during the day when it's just us, too. We go to a mommy & me playgroup with 4-8 other babies and mommies a few times a month - these are some moms that I met while doing prenatal yoga. Carter and I go to a story & song playgroup at the library once a week. We run errands all over town together (usually only having time to run one errand at a time haha). We splash around in the baby pool on our back porch. We go for a morning walk with Penny in our neighborhood. The list goes on. I am soaking up every precious moment.

Carter is doing great. He has a WONDERFUL personality. Brian can make him laugh SO hard just by making silly faces or noises. Carter doesn't cry too much and when he does it's very obvious why - "I'm hot", "I'm tired", or "Don't change my diaper" are the usual reasons. He is doing SO well with sleep training and now sleeps 8 hours solid at night. I realize this may not be as wonderful as other babies that naturally sleep 10-12 hours from the day came home from the hospital haha. But Carter has come a LONG way and to be sleeping 8 hours solid is pure Heaven on Earth!

Alright, photo time...

Lydie came to meet Carter when he was just a few weeks old :)

My parents hosted a Sip n See when Carter was one month old for all my friends and family to meet our little guy. This is a pic with my teacher friends from work :)

I'm telling you, Brian can make Carter laugh like no other!

We took Carter to Santa Rosa Beach with my family when he was just 6 weeks old

our little family of 3
his first beach experience
dinner out as a family - we took turns holding Carter throughout the meal
Carter's first dip in the pool :)
meeting Aunt Chelly
meeting Aunt Emmy :)
tummy time with William, our bff

our 3 month photo shoot
me and my little 3 month old boy :)
bffs
Mary Catherine came to meet Mr. Carter :)
playdate with Everett (2.5 weeks older) and William (12 days younger)
4 months old
Happy Father's Day!
Carter LOVES bath time!
Uncle Marcus came to meet Mr. Carter & brought him this adorable outfit!
4.5 months old
eating rice cereal for the first time & loving it!
CiCi made us this adorable outfit
5 months old

St. Thomas

My family (mom, dad, sister) and Brian & I decided to spend Thanksgiving in St. Thomas this year! It was beautiful and wonderful. I LOVE to vacation with my family because they have the same "vacation style" that I do--> we like to lay out on the beach ALL day, eat out for almost every meal, watch movies while eating dessert on the sofa, and play board games. We throw in an occasional site-seeing something or other, but for the most part we are all low-key.

arriving in St. Thomas

St. Thomas was GORGEOUS! Brian and I have been to our share of tropical locations (St. Lucia for our honeymoon, Punta Cana for our 1.5 year anniversary trip, and we have also gone on separate cruises to Jamaica, Bahamas, Cocoa Beach, St. Maarten, and St. Croix) in the past. Each island has something different to offer but really in the end they all have white sand and clear waters. Don't worry about ever taking me on a skiing trip or to a cabin in the mountains... just take me to an island, really anything that starts with "St." and I'm set.

view from our condo
our condo

We truly ate our way through the island... we ate at Havana Blue one night which was featured in Gourmet magazine. It was such a cool atmosphere, very posh with blue lighting, on the ocean, all open air, candlelight, awesome bar (although I didn't partake), and amazing food. On Thanksgiving night we ate at Banana Tree Grille. Brian and my mom opted for the traditional Thanksgiving food (turkey, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, sauteed squash, etc) but I got filet and fried onion strings (I blame all my random food choices on the baby). We ate dinner at Room with a View and had the BEST waiter who kept us laughing all night long. I could truly talk about food for 5 more paragraphs, but I'll end it there.

Banana Tree Grille
Havana Blue

We spent our days on the most beautiful beaches you can imagine. Magens Bay is rated top 10 beaches in the world so of course we had to check that out. We spent a day each at Coki Point Beach, Morning Star, and Magens Bay. While at Coki Point Beach, we went snorkeling out in the ocean where we saw rocky reef and beautiful fish we could feed. We took a ferry over to St. John for a day and hung out at Trunk Bay. The waves were HUGE - Brian and I took full advantage of the body surfing of course. Baby Hake loved it!

This was an AWESOME trip! Brian and I are SO grateful to my parents for taking us. This was our last little getaway before Baby Hake arrives. I have a feeling our family trips will be a bit more like Disney World than St. Thomas in the near future :)

Hilton Head Island... typical

We took our annual family vacation to Hilton Head Island. I have been vacationing here with my family since I was a tiny tot and really love it. Brian has come with my family for the past 3-4 years. We had a lot of fun this summer and discovered some new restaurants. Let's be honest, going to the beach is all about laying out and eating. Two of my favorite things. If you travel to HHI, you must eat at my top 2: Red Fish & Tapas. We spent most of our nights either watching movies or playing games--> Apples to Apples, Loaded Questions, Mexican Train, Bananagrams, etc. We LOVE games and I love that my family plays together. Here are some pics from our trip...

dinner at Crazy Crab - my least favorite... a little too "kid-friendly"

Red Fish - one of our top 2 favorites on the island
Tapas - our new discovery this year...
I love my family.
Chart House... formerly known as Charlie's
Kiki and Gwen

xoxo

Sips n Strokes

My mom & I went for a fun night out on the town and did Sips N Strokes. We had heard such great things about it but we were very hesitant, as neither of us are artists. Seriously. We can't even draw stick figures, it's sad. We were pleasantly surprised with our finished products though. Nothing a bottle of wine & step-by-step instructions can't help...

mom's

mine