Blissfully Brown: 1st edition

What an exciting and fun first year of marriage this has been for Blake & I! I feel like we have grown and learned so much more than we could have ever imagined in this first year of marriage!
I'm just going to recap the fun we have had starting from our wedding day. The happiest day of my life. Ever since I can remember I have always entered any change with resistance and nerves. Our wedding day is one of the first new adventures I have ever entered into with no resistance just sheer joy & excitement!

Our honeymoon was spent in St. Lucia. We had decided before our wedding that we wouldn't prevent trying to have kids after we got married. It was one of the most fun and relaxing trips!

We of course hoped that pregnancy would be a quick journey for us. On the way home we took these pictures jokingly. Little did we know we were actually pregnant. 

Much of our first year pictures were filled with pregnancy and Mason. But we did capture some of just us & our first. 

We celebrated our first Halloween where we could actually pass our candy together. Blake went WAY overboard on candy but it was so fun!  

We also celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Mason was really starting to show at this time which made it so much more exciting to us! 

Of course this was then followed by our first married Christmas together. When Blake & I first met it was the day after Thanksgiving. He was my neighbor & helped me carry up my Christmas tree. That same year he hid a special ornament on my tree, it was the moment I realized that he might actually be into me & one of my favorite memories. Since then he always got me an ornament for our tree that represents our life. I was also an emotional pregnant woman at this time with a husband that was travelling a lot for work. I joked with him about an "old faithful" shirt that was in bad shape & he needed to retire. For Christmas he made it into a pillow for me. It's safe to say I cried a lot at the thoughtfulness of my sweet husband at Christmas time. 

It is safe to say that Mason made a haul at Christmas this year & he wasn't even here yet. It was at this point we realized we were going to be chopped liver next to this first grandson & nephew on both sides. :) 

Valentine's Day was very low key. I was all of 8 months pregnant and uncomfortable so Blake recreated our first Valentine's Day where he set up a table with candles & had our favorite food ordered in. It couldn't have been more perfect! I unfortunately didn't get a picture but it looked like this from our first year. 

We then welcomed our precious baby boy into the world. 

We traveled through a lot in the first year of marriage. While some days have been hard there isn't a single day where I don't feel completely happy on our journey. In just 1 year we have watched ourselves go from engaged, to married, to pregnant, to parents. We have truly guided each other into becoming better people in this past year. I've seen my Husband's faith and relationship with God grow stronger as he has truly stepped up and been an example of what a leader of a family should be. I watched his never ending patience grow as I was hormonal & emotional. I've let him guide me into becoming more relaxed and patient. 

Thank you Blake, for loving me completely and totally unconditionally! For always not just supporting my hopes and dreams, but helping to make them happen. For being so completely and totally selfless in this marriage. For comforting me through any difficult time I've been through. For always rubbing my feet or back when I ask no matter how much you don't care for it. For listening to me when I speak. For making me laugh so much. For giving me our son. For being such an amazing dad & such an amazing husband and man. I love your heart & I love your character! I am so incredibly happy, lucky & thankful that you picked me to share your life. You have a heart of gold & I am so happy to continue spending every day laughing and loving with you!

Dear Mason: 3 month edition

Mason,
You are 3 months old today sweet boy! Time is starting to just fly by! I've continued to see you as this teeny tiny baby boy. However, we've been around some newborns recently and we have realized how not tiny you are anymore. :(

You are still continuing to grow quickly! You have gained 2 pounds this month and are currently weighing in at 14 pounds.

This month we finally found a good fit of medicine to help with your reflux. You were taking baby Zantac which you absolutely hated and it wasn't seeming to work. You would go on eating strikes during the day. This month we switched to Prevacid you don't mind the taste and you don't seem to be in pain after eating anymore. Your allergy to dairy seems to be pretty severe still. Mommy ate 1 bite of ice cream one evening and you cried the whole next day and went on your eating strike. We are still hoping this is something you will outgrow at 6 months but we are unsure.

While we are on the subject of eating, you had quite a growth spurt this month! You went from eating 3 ounces to 5 ounces during the day feedings and from 5 ounces to 7 ounces at your bedtime feeding. Daddy does all of the bedtime feedings with you & I love to watch your bond during this time.

When you are super tired you don't love to do your nighttime feeding. I mentioned to daddy that you liked to be sung to sometimes when you're eating. I guess that evening the only thing that came to his mind was "My Country Tis of Thee." We thought this was hilarious at first, now if you're grumpy during feeding daddy has to hum it for you to eat. We actually still think its hilarious. You're quite the patriotic one.

We have started a pretty strict schedule & you seem to be thriving off of it!! We start each day bright and early which mom is actually starting to love!
7:00-eat
7:30-8:30- play
8:30-10/10:30-sleep
10:30-eat
11:00-12:00-play
12:00-1:30-sleep
1:30-eat
2:00-3:30-play
3:30-4:30-sleep
4:30-eat
5:00-6:00-play
6:00-6:45- nap
7:00- bath
7:30- eat
8:00- bed for the night
You had a lot of transitions in your sleeping this month! The first big transition was moving you from the rock & play to the crib. You hated this transition! I was sure if we let you sleep in the rock & play for the rest of your life you would! But we conquered it and you are successfully sleeping in your crib. We also had to start sleep training you this month. This is a decision we went back and forth on for a long time! We did not like the idea of letting you cry at night but we were finding that we were rocking you to sleep, putting you down & the second you left our arms you were waking right up. After a night of maybe 2 hours of sleep and 8 hours of rocking we decided we had to find another way. We found a method that we were comfortable with & went with that. We now rock you until you are content, lay you in your crib & you fall asleep on your own. Last night mommy watched you just lay there and play with your little fox & paci quietly until you fell asleep. Since we've introduced your little fox to you, you don't want to sleep without it. During nap yesterday you cried and the second I brought your fox in you calmed down and went right to sleep.

At the same time as we started sleep training we unswaddled you. In our books we read that when you were busting out of your swaddle or 3 months old it was time to unswaddle. You were approaching 3 months and busting out of all your swaddles so we just bit the bullet and did sleep training and unswaddling all at once.
We still aren't consistently sleeping through the night but you are starting to get much better at it. The other night you slept 11 hours. We were so rested the next day we didn't know what to do with ourselves.

This month has been a fun month in growth and development. You have started to belly laugh at mommy and daddy. You think the funniest thing is when I wear my hair in a messy bun on top of my head and talk to you. You watch it move as my head moves and just laugh so hard.

You are also starting to "talk" a lot. We absolutely love to listen to all of the things you have to say. 

Play time is becoming much more fun! You still love kicking and playing around on your piano play mat. Recently you have really discovered your hands! You love to chew on them constantly! You have figured out how to take out your paci this fascinates you. Lately you lay there at night before falling asleep & hold your fox in one hand and your paci in the other. Sometimes you try to suck on your paci and a few fingers at the same time. You've yet to find success with this but you keep trying. You also started to be able to grab onto things. We have started to sit you in your bumbo and give you some toys to play with. You're becoming much more aware of your surroundings and starting to really be into discovering new things. 

You still absolutely love outside, however it is so hot now that we can't take you out unless it is early morning or late evening. You also still love your baths. You started getting so wild splashing around that we had to move you from the counter to inside the big bathtub so you wouldn't create such a mess. You really enjoy church, especially the praise and worship music. We are so glad that you do good in church! We are having you baptized in 2 weeks and are very excited! You are starting to enjoy being in the car more. When you are with daddy he rolls down his back window in the truck and you are in Heaven!! You enjoy running errands more, the world around you seems to fascinate you. You truly are the happiest baby & we couldn't be luckier!!!

Some highlights from this month:

*You had your first swim

*You went berry picking

*You met your Aunt Stephanie

*You are rolling over more consistently
*You still hate tummy time

*You discovered your hands

*You discovered your voice & your laugh

*You are mocking faces or mannerisms we do

*You are able to self soothe at naps and nights

*You celebrated Father's Day

*We survived daddy's first work trip

We continue to love you more every day my sweet boy! Your sweet smile & laugh brighten every one of our days!! I love to watch you grow & discover more every day. But seriously, you can slow down on your growing just a little! While you're loving your daddy more every day, you are still a big mama's boy! Mommy wants you to stay her little baby boy forever! You are the light of our lives my baby boy!

Love,

Mommy (& Daddy too)  

Operation Lose the Baby Weight Month 2

So I finished up my second round of the 21 day fix extreme. If I'm being honest did slack a little more on my nutrition plan this round during the weekends. But I was still thrilled to death with the results I got. This round I noticed results in my stomach but my more noticeable results were in my legs. I was so happy with that because I am most self-conscious of that area.
During my 2nd round with the program I lost 4.8 pounds and 13.75 inches.

My total progress for just 6 short weeks is down 13.8 pounds and 34.5 inches. I am loving every second of this progress!! 

Mason's First Swim

Several weeks ago we took Mason over to my sisters house a low country boil dinner & swimming.
Mason LOVES baths so we were hopeful that he would love swimming just as much! It's safe to say he definitely does! A few pictures and videos from our fun!