Friday Letters Virgin

I've been wanting to take a little stab at the Friday Letters bandwagon that I've seen on so many other blogs I adore.  So here goes...

Dear Elf on the Shelf: I.HEART.YOU. Whoever came up with this ingenious idea to create a stinkin' cute little elf that shows up before Christmas to keep your kiddos in check deserves a great big bear hug. AND to one of my fave sites, Pinterest, for showcasing creative ways mamas are setting up their elves, I thank you.


Dear Cruz: the "unrolling the toilet paper in mommy's bathroom every morning" move that was once (and by once I literally mean ONE time) cute and hilarious has now become extremely annoying. Please refrain from doing this effective immediately.


Dear Marilyn: I'm not sure how I have missed this perfectly fit quote throughout my years prior to now, but now that I've discovered it, I'm in L.O.V.E. My friends, you may see this all over everything I own.

Dear Grandparents: each of you have been a MAJOR help this week in lending a hand and a watchful eye over our little guy. To my parents who drove two hours Tuesday night to spend that night while I did some work and the following day with Cruzer AND woke up in the middle of the night when you heard the cries he was giving me, took over and told me to go to bed - thank you so very much. To Nanu and Grammy for coming through in the clutch to watch little man today so the hubs and I could get some work done AND to Nanu for whipping up some of his Sicilian sauce so Cruz and I had a yummy meal for dinner tonight - you both rock. And to Grandma Carol for making the trek down here tomorrow because you just want to spend time with our boy and allow us to do our thing (me: work; hubby: spend time with friends), you are appreciated. We love you all so much.

Dear Nails: we've had a love-hate relationship for so many years and I've been very mean to you, biting you down to nubs, destroying you with acrylic, etc, etc. I'm waving a white flag here. I want to grow you out and have pretty, long, un-bitten, adult nails. So all I'm asking of you? Grow, damn you, grow!

Dear Hubby: thank you for consoling our little coughing monkey in the middle of last night while I pretending to be sleeping. I needed a full night's sleep and was uber productive at work today because of it.

Dear Christmas Decorations: please put yourself up this weekend. I do not enjoy dragging you out of storage every year, lugging you upstairs, listening to festive music and decorating. Never really have and I doubt I ever really will. So please, do me and my family a favor and help me out here. And while you're at it, take yourselves down on January 2nd. Please and a very sincere thank you.


Happy Friday to all you normal folk out there. My "Friday" isn't until tomorrow and then I have Sunday and part of Monday off.  Cheers!

Feel Like Myself

It's been quite some time since I've really felt like myself. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind from little man being sick, the Thanksgiving holiday and work on crazy mode. I'm operating on very minimal sleep and work out/eat right kick I had been on in September and October has totally fizzled away for basically ALL of November.

So it wasn't until this morning that I actually have felt like myself for the first time in a long time. Cruz slept through the night last night! Well...minus a few coughing fits where I pretended to sleep and the hubs helped him through them (please don't think I'm a terrible mama, but I needed my sleep)...that and the fact that he slept with us, in our bed, all night. (We definitely aren't cool with this happening all the time, but if he's sick and it helps him and us sleep better while he's sick, then I'm doing it. It just cannot become a habit...or the norm. Because this girl needs her time with her man.)

Refreshed from a great night's sleep, I actually woke up when my alarm went off at 5am - whereas these past couple of weeks I set it at 5am and snooze until much, much later or just simply change it to a later time so I don't have to mess with that snooze thing. I was very, very , VERY quiet as not to wake up our sleeping boy and made my way downstairs for an at-home workout. I have been waiting for this workout for such a long time. I needed treadmill time (did I just say that? I hate the treadmill.) - not only for the purpose of a workout, BUT a while back I had promised myself that I would only catch up on my favorite blogs if I was doing some physical activity at the same time. No more laying on the couch late at night with a glass of wine, my iPad, my blogger friends and some snacks. No siree. I long for my blog time and knew that if I made this promise to myself, I would force myself to get off my booty and get some exercise in! So ladies, if you've noticed I've been a bit MIA not only from posting on my own blog (this cannot be done while on the treadmill) but reading and commenting on all of yours...this is the reason. And now you will know my little secret...if you haven't heard from me in a while, I've gotten back to my lazy ways!

So, anyway, this morning I caught up on my friend Heather's blog (sorry, girl, for comment overload!) and can't wait until tomorrow (maybe even later tonight...if I get bored enough!) to catch up with everyone else. And I have felt great all day at work knowing I got some sleep and finally caught up with my e-friends.

The Birthday Party of the Year

Last Saturday we had little man's FIRST birthday party at Dave & Buster's in Omaha. We had an amazing day with all of our family & friends. D&Bs was the perfect location - we had a projection TV in the party room, games for the kids and a bar for the adults. It was such a great day and went by so quickly...after the party - we headed back to our house to watch more football with the fam and made a late night of it. We had such a great day!

Cruz is so lucky to have so many people who love him to pieces and who shared in this very special day with him. I can't wait to see what the next year brings us!

Gift Table w/ Favor Bags 

Concession Stand

Vintage popcorn machine

52 Weeks of Cruz!

Entrance to party - Autograph station

Photo Area

Props

The birthday boy!

Cousins

Friends & SILs

Add caption

Cotton candy fun

Tess & the hubs

Birthday boy w/ Uncle Ross

Grandma & Papa with their silly grandkiddos

My sibs!

More goofing with the sisters

First bday smash cake - made by Auntie Morgan

Jersey birthday cake

Happy birthday baby!

Opening presents...the kiddos were tons of help

My happy family

Cake fun

Yummy - he loved it!

Nick forced Blake to show that he got 2nd place in basketball

Horse racing fun

Nine Month Photo Shoot

We finally got pictures back from little man's 9 month photo shoot (umm like 3 months ago)...and I'm in LOVE! He is the absolute cutest guy EVER and I can't get over how well these turned out. A big THANK YOU to B. Gallery Photography for spending the morning with us and capturing some great moments. I went to college with Barbie and have watched her photography skills continue to evolve - she is a rock star!

I'm way into the urban look and figured it only made sense for our pics to be taken this way. Barbie found a great location in downtown Omaha - and I love the brick background look!


Thankful For Everything

On this beautiful Thanksgiving day, I am thankful for many, many things. But what I need to clarify is that I'm not only thankful for these things today...I'm thankful for them every single day of my life. I am one lucky girl to be living the life I do and to be surrounded by some of the most amazing people and things I could ever ask for.

I'm thankful for:

• Our little turkey, Cruz. He has been the most amazing addition to my life and while this week has been tough while he's battling RSV again (I say battling, because this has been by far the worst bout yet), I still love being with him every hour of the day that I am able to. He is growing so quickly and learning so much. Every day brings something new and more things to love about him (if that's possible). 
• My hubby, Nick. He is truly the most perfect person for me and makes me better. He is laugh out loud funny, damn handsome, is crazy intelligent, determined to continue to make a name for himself, hard-working, helps me think logically, brings me down when I get out of hand, puts me in my place when I need it, the most amazing father, did I say handsome? I love this guy.
• My immediate family. I love every single minute I get to spend with them and I'm so fortunate to have amazing parents (you will see amazing often, it's my word and best explains really good things), three beautiful sisters, a punk ass little brother who is way taller than me - and I hate to admit it - funnier than me and the cutest nieces and nephews a girl could ever want. I absolutely love every minute I get to spend with all of them and wish it were more often.
• My extended family and family from marriage. I got damn lucky to marry into such a great family. My parent-in-law are too good to me, my SILs & BILs are such a blast and their kiddos are awesome.
• Wine. Need I say more?
• My friends. (Did I just put wine ahead of my friends? This list is in no certain order.) I am a very lucky gal to have some of the best girl and guy pals around. I'm not always the best at picking up a phone or communicating, but whenever I'm with any of them I'm able to pick right up where we left off. That, my friends, is why you rock.
• My health. I have been very fortunate to be a relatively healthy person throughout my life thus far (as has my family & friends overall...knock hard on this wood). I'm thankful that I'm able to run, which has been an area of sanity for me over the past year and especially that I was able to run, outside on this gorgeous day of thanks.
• A great job and co-workers. I lucked out in this department and while work is tough, challenging, frustrating and never-ending, I have been fortunate to be employed by this company and have the opportunities I've been given over the past 9 years.
• Sleeping a couple hours..in a row last night. This week has been a trying one with a very sick kiddo, work and no sleep, so I'm thankful to have gotten more sleep last night than the prior four nights combined. I am actually functioning relatively normal today.
• Blogging and the blog world. Starting this blog has been one of the best things I've done. I've "met" some cool people through blogs and it's been a great release for me. I love being able to document my life so that my family and myself can reflect back on all of the awesome little details one day.

I'm sure I've left many, many things out, but this is as good a start as any.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Craft Fair

(If you haven't noticed, I've been MIA around the blog world these days. I haven't been posting, reading or commenting on my favorites. Life has gotten the best of me and that along with a sick little guy, crazy work schedule and a big 1st birthday party - I just haven't had the time. Well, I'm hoping to be back in full force. Let's start with this little gem which was intended to be posted a couple weeks ago.)

A great little tradition that my mom, sister Tessa and I usually partake in around the holidays is the big Craft Fair at the CenturyLink Center in downtown Omaha. I can remember going to this with mom and some of her friends when it was held at the Civic years ago and for the most part we've tried to go every year since I've been out of college and back living in Nebraska.

Unfortunately, Tessa wasn't able to join us this year, but mom and I enlisted a new little shopper to come along. It was a great night...and we've decided that from here on out we will go on the first night every year...the aisles were actually maneuverable with a large stroller and we weren't bumping into people everywhere we went.

I was pumped and ready to find some great, crafty items this year. I swear sometimes it feels that I always leave there with food...ham sticks & cheese curds from Wisconsin, soups, kettle corn. I told myself I was actually going to find something good this year...and I did just that.

I got these really cute framed Christmas pictures - one had the message from The Grinch movie "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more" and the other says "Baby it's cold outside." Both, of course, were covered in sparkly snow...because I only get sucked into holiday decorations that are waaaay glittery. Mom & I both got a metallic orange wire pumpkin for our front doors. I, of course, got food: ham sticks from the Wisconsin guys, dips from another vendor and yummy soup mixtures from another. I bought a couple of these handmade rattle toys for some friend's babies. I found this great shirt - flowy, burnt orange material with gold stud detail and almost found myself buying yet another leather bomber jacket...and I would've had I not just bought two on my trip to Houston.

Overall it was a great success and we had so much fun. Cruz was excellent and loved that he got to be carried in our arms or the Baby Bjorn while we proceeded to fill his stroller with many great finds. Plus, he got to sample all of the food we did...and this boy is like his mama, he loves to eat!

Look at our loot!

It's unfortunate when your child doesn't fit in their stroller
any more due to the massive amounts of stuff we purchased!

After mom dropped me off at home and took off with little man to our hometown, I got busy unpacking and preparing Bachelorette Party fun for the coming weekend. And what's more fun than "wedding color" Jell-O shots or the fact that you have to sample said Jell-O shots to make sure they taste ok.