San Antonio

We took a short trip to San Antonio in the middle of the week last week so hubby couldn't join us. Karen came home from Cali, so we had a fun girl's trip!

Seaworld, San Antonio

Ready to have fun!

Watching a show

Gabriella was very interested

She loves the water

Pooped-after a fun day!

At our hotel

Sisters at the Riverwalk

Playing Catch Up! Summer Fun~

Wow, its been over a month since I last posted, shame on me! Honestly I blame it on Miss G, she keeps momma on her toes. Since I'm off for the summer I stay pretty busy with her and during her naps I take advantage to do stuff around the house or take a breather. We're doing swimming lessons at the Y, which honestly we just paid to have access to the pool because its pretty much just exposure to the water which Gabriella has had plenty of. She's such a little fish and loves the water! Hubby had been practicing putting her under water and she's quite a little pro at it.
Since I can't go back and post about everything we've been doing I will post pictures. We haven't gone on vacation yet but we will soon. Hubby and I will also be going to Vegas, yess-I've never been. So far we've been to Seaworld in San Antonio, boating, and doing the mommy and baby swimming classes. Hope you enjoy them!

Grandpa's Retirement Party from HFD!

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Momma's Day

Memorial day, heading to Lake Conroe

At the River, Memorial Day

With Auntie Karina

Our Captain aka Hubbs

Our Anniversary

We celebrate two anniversaries, but today is the most special one. We were married by court on June 17, 2005 while we were planning our wedding set to be on May 20th, 2006. Hubby was scheduled to go back to his duty station and finish up his last few months in the Marine Corps and receive physical therapy. We could not be apart anymore especially after his accident in Iraq so we did the unthinkable. One day he came up with a crazy idea of getting married and having me move to North Carolina with him. Thank god it was during the summer and I was taking classes oneline, so I was able to go with the plan. Two days before  he was set to leave we went to the Justice of the Peace and got married. We count June 17th as the day we got married, but celebrate it on May 20th, the day of our  wedding ceremony confusing I know. This was the day my dad walked me down the aisle, the day I wore my beautiful white dress, the evening that we danced all night long, and then took off to honeymoon in the Carribean the morning after.

We were married at the beautiful St. Paul's Methodist in the Muesum district and had our wedding ceremony at the Marriott galleria. Our wedding song was "Making Memries of Us" by Keith Urban.  We honeymooned in St. Maarten. Everything about our wedding was perfect.

So technically we celebrate today but count June 17th as the initial start of  spending our lives together, does that make sense? June 17th we will make 5 years. We do the traditional wedding gifts to each other to allow us to be creative. The first year was "paper", he got me tickets to vacation in Colorado. For the 5th anniversary its silverware (modern) and wood  (traditional). I'll post pictures of the gift I got him after today. This weekend we're going out in town to celebrate and have a nice dinner. Happy Anniversary to us!

Edit- I have to aw my hubby, he just had delivered a beautiful arrangement of red roses to my job. Although he buys me flowers all the time he never has them delivered. The last time and only other time he did was when I turned 20 in (2001) and we weren't even dating we were just "friends".  It was about that time,lol!

Gabriella is 8 Months!

This means that in 4 months, my baby will be a year old, how is that possible?  Seriously, where did time go and why can't babies stay little for at least 5 years or so, ha! Well Gabriella is quite a smart little lady with such a cheeful personality.  She has hit all her milestones right on time and continues to amaze me every day. A day after she turned 8 months she started crawling and there was no stopping her. This past Saturday she crawled perfectly. Her motivation of course was her daddy at the end of the hallway, she's such a daddy's girl. She continues to say "dada" along with other syllables, she's pulling up, and continunes to sleep through the night. Her new "thing" is to stand up in her crib and scream to get our attention. This of course is when she is ready to wake up in the morning or wakes up from her naps. In food news, her appetite is getting bigger. Although she has liked all the food that we have introduced, she ate like a little bird believe it or not. Her new favorite thing to eat are tiny blueberry panckes made  by daddy with blueberry or apple puree that I make. Other new foodst she has been introduced to are:

Ceam cheese
Mozerella string cheese
Pancakes
Waffles (Earth's Best organic mini)
Bagels
Corn
Acorn Squash
Kiwi
Mango
Papaya
Watermelon
Cilantro white rice
White potatoes
Spaghetti

Along with these

Peas ***
Carrots **
Sweet Potato
Green Beans*
Butternut Squash***
Bananas***
Apples*
Pears*
Peaches**
Avocado**
Yogurt***
Toast**
Chicken noodle soup***
Tiny bits of chicken breast**



I am going to make her first chicken and rice soup this weekend and hope to introduce her to more chunkier foods. I bought chicken breast, organic chicken broth, whole grain brown rice, carrots, peas, squash, celery, and potatoes. I am going to cut everything in teeny-tiny pieces and hope she enjoys it, pictures to come!

Here are some other things Gabriella has been up lately:
Months 7 & 8

Parents.com


Senses: A lovey rules just about now -- the familiar feel and smell of a treasured blankie or teddy is reassuring. Gabiella is not very fond of being covered with a blankie, she kicks it off. She soothes herself with my hair while I'm putting her to sleep.


Body: Your baby gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth, and may even crawl. Gabriella is crawling perfectly! She started crawling at Nana's houseat 8 months, 1 day.


Brain: Your infant has a crude understanding of cause and effect -- for instance, if you let go of something, it will fall. Gabriella has definitely learned about the cause and effect due to gravity, ugh! She drops her toys a million times and expects us to quickly pick them up for her.


Communication Skills: He responds to his name and probably looks up when you say "No!" Time to start setting limits, Boss. Your baby also whines when you take away a toy or (more likely) a forbidden object. Gabriella has known her name for a while now. Even when we're on the phone and say her name she looks up thinking we're talking to her. She gets very upset when you take any forbidden object away from her such as the remote, cell phone, or bottle( when she's spilling milk).


Aww Factor: She's crawling

Fave Toy: Pots, pans, cell phones, remotes - she enjoys the simple things in life and entertains herself with these objects.

"Dada"

"Daaada, Dada, Daadaada"! This is what Gabriella has been babbling nontstop since Friday-Happy Mother's Day to me, ha! It's really sweet though and I love to hear her voice. She seriously goes on and on and on having a "conversation" saying Daaada. She doesn't know that hubby is daada so she still does not refer to him as this, but its sweet nontheless. I however, cannot wait until the day I hear momma:)

Happy Mother's Day, Poem to my Mom

My Incomparable Mother


I often contemplate my childhood, Mom.

I am a mother now, and so I know

Hard work is mixed together with the fun;

You learned that when you raised me long ago.



I think of all the things you gave to me:

Sacrifice, devotion, love and tears,

Your heart, your mind, your energy and soul--

All these you spent on me throughout the years.



You loved me with a never-failing love

You gave me strength and sweet security,

And then you did the hardest thing of all:

You let me separate and set me free.


Every day, I try my best to be

A mother like the mom you were to me.


By Joanna Fuchs

As a mom I know first hand that it isn't an easy task. My mom however always made it look that way. I am blessed to have been guided with the love that my mother gave to me and hope to be just that to Gabriella. It wasn't until I held my own daughter that I even began to comprehend the meaning of a mother's love. Although Gabriella will always know how much I love her she will not truly understand it until she's a mother of her own. Motherhood is such a beautiful thing and I feel blessed as daughter and now a mother. Happy Mother's Day~

She's Pulling Up

I've been meaning to update and feel so bad that I haven't. I haven't even posted her 7-month pictures-bad mommy, bad bad mommy! Anyhow, I just need to update that Gabriella started pulling up last week (7months, 2 weeks). I was lying in her room playing with her and she started to pull herself up on me. Now she pulls herself up from everything! She cannot stay still especially during baths, which is a little scary. Yesterday she crawled for a second. I hope she starts to crawl soon, but that only means we'll be chasing her everywhere!
That's it, just a short post to "document" Gabriella's happenings. Happy Friday!

P.S. Hubby arranged a spa day for me tomorrow, cannot.wait!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

With that said, I'm going to happy hour for fajitas and ritas-yumm!

Our Weekend

Laying out on the boat in her pj's

Hanging out with Daddy while he cleans the yard

Going shopping with Momma

Showing off my jellies

Blueberries and Spaghetti...

Not together of course, but Gabriella tried both of them for the first time this past week. I wasn't planning to give her "table" food just yet and we still are not at this point but I figured I make my yummy organic spaghetti from scratch and its pretty healthy. I do want to keep her away from all the things that she cannot have until 1 year old, but I want to expose her to various textures and spices little by little. It is very important for her to get her nutritious fruits and veggies and that is foremost what her diet conists of. Here are some adorable pictures which shows she clearly enjoyed both very much!

I imagine this is what she is going to look like with "lipstick", ha!

Mancados!

That's basically mangos and avocados Gabriella loves them both-seperate or mixed together. These were her new fruits of the week. She ate them each alone, mixed with yogurt, pears and mangos, and then of course mancados, as we call them. I've also read that avocados and bananas are pretty tasty so we'll try that this week. We are introducing kiwis and blueberries next along with acorn squash. We'll head to Whole Foods tonight after mine and hubby's date night-romantic huh?

I Have A Plan

*Note-This is for mere personal satisfaction. I have always had a passion for traveling. In college I wasn't able to afford it, but as soon as we got married we started doing little trips here and there. My ideal job would be to travel the world taking photographs and writing about my travels. Ha, that would be in my perfect world. I want to go to Europe, Asia, the French Polynesia, New Zealand, Greece- oh my list is endless! Lucky my husband was in the military and was able to travel during his 4 years in active duty. We all know what's required to travel-time and money. Well I have the time being a teacher and having summers off, problem is teachers don't make enough to sustain the lifestyle of an avid traveler, so that doesn't help. We however have made traveling a priority in our household. That means we have a specific savings account designated for traveling. We are not into expensive gadgets or name brand stuff (unless of course its on sale), all in the name of vacation! So with that said, one of the goals that I have set for myselff and hubby is to visit all 50 states, hopefully it doesn't take us an entire lifetime! My plan is to tackle a few states at a time. I would love to do a cross-country trip one day and see how the country changes through the different states. I know once Gabriella gets older we will be able to take more road trips and such. For now I will highlight the states that I have been to, hopefully I can highlight more very soon.

*I have driven through many states  during our big road trips to Michigan, S. Carolina, and California such as Indiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona etc., but I do not want to count them unless I have spent the night and toured a city in that state.*

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

 Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

 Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Vacation Booked!

Let me first say that this (vacation planning with a child) was harder than I thought. There are so many things to take into consideration when traveling with a baby. Of course I want her to get used to traveling since mommy and daddy love to do so. We did not want to let Miss G stop us from traveling and the sooner she gets exposed the better. Plus everyone needs a vacation at least once a year and starting a summer vacation tradition is just the perfect excuse! We definitely wanted to do a beach vacation. We do one every year except last since I was pregnant and I'm dying to be laying out with my feet in the sand drinking a coctail.....and playing with G. Unfortunately I did not get Gabriella's passport earlier and by the time we actually considered an international trip it was a little too late and I did not want to stress over the passport arriving on time. Therefore we considered Puerto Rico, SanDiego,  Hawaii and Florida. I know I said I did NOT want to go to Florida but that is what suited us the best.

Puerto Rico was not a perfect fit for a vacation with a baby. It requires you to travel among the island to really get the best experience and there were not a ton of things to do with a baby. El Yunque Rainforest is a popular attraction and it would have been awesome except it probably would not have been the best idea to hike a few miles in very hot weather and a baby:( We decided not to go with San Diego since we've been there before and not necessary the "Caribbean" type beaches we were looking for. We entertained the idea of Hawaii for just a bit, but since we went there 2 years ago and Hawaii is not cheap it was easily discarded plus I did not want Gabriella's first plane ride experience to be for 8+ hours.

I did a ton of research and we ended up choosing to vacation in Naples and Fort Lauderdale/Miami for seven days. We wanted a family friendly destination with nice beaches, shops, dining, and nice resorts. According to my research Naples has beautiful white sand beaches (see the picture above) and is a very kid-friendly town. There is 5th Avenue with tons of shops and dining options and there is a zoo nearby. Captiva and Sanibel Islands are a short distance away and we will check those out too. We are staying at LaPlaya Beach and Gulf Resort and it looks fabulous. The resort is on the beach and it has excellent reviews.

We wanted to venture out a different city in Florida. We thought about Disney, but Gabriella is too young and I'm sure she will ask us to take her in a couple of years anyway. We decided to drive drive south to Fort Lauderdale/Miami and fly out of there. We'll be staying at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Although Miami is known for their nighlife there is plenty to do with the kiddos. We are planning to go to the Seaquarium, The Butterfly Observatory, maybe a baseball game, and of course have some Kilwins icecream. I also want to grab a bite to eat at Bongo's Cuban Restaurant.

I just booked our vacation yesterday and have to do more research and plan our itenerary. I will of course write a review after our trip which is not until mid-summer. I cannot wait for our first and much needed vacation with Gabriella!