Beach Trip Part I

Whew, it's been a LOOONG week playing catch up after over a week and a half out of town! Last week, we were in Destin visiting Meme and Grampy, as well as attending a wedding for our friends Libba and Jay. Such a fun, beautiful wedding straight out of a movie set!


The week prior, I was in Charleston for a 2 day work meeting, and bachelorette party for our sweet friend Jen Taylor! May I digress, Charleston is AMAZING and FABULOUS, and I'm trying to convince Jason we need to move there asap. The food! The architechture! The nightlife! OMG the SHOPPING! King St is my new sanctuary, wow talk about dangerous... Anyhow, we've been going non stop, and I wanted to share some of our pics of LG from Destin. I am going to be totally honest, I had both my Panasonic point and shoot, and Nikon D5000, so I am being super lazy tonight and only pulling pics off the point and shoot. I will make you all wait with bated breath, and post the Nikons later :)

Little Girl, BIG ol' Chair!

Brunch in Seaside with Mommy and Daddy

My first taste of lemon! Haha :O

ONE YEAR YOUNG!

We are so thankful for this past year, and our gift from above... We had a fabulous time celebrating Leighton's first birthday on April 3. We planned the party at Thrasher Park in Historic Norcross, and had an Easter egg hunt and fun on the playground! So much fun, and so thankful for all of our friends and family who shared in the special day with us... The past year has been one of joy, tears, frustration, happiness, and overwhelming love and learning... And I would do it all over again! I heard a quote the other day that really resonated with me:

"Suddenly, through birthing a daughter, a woman finds herself face to face not only with an infant, a little girl, a woman-to-be, but also with her own unresolved conflicts from the past and her hopes and dreams for the future.... As though experiencing an earthquake, mothers of daughters may find their lives shifted, their deep feelings unearthed, the balance struck in all relationships once again off kilter. ~Elizabeth Debold and Idelisse Malave."

I thought this was such a beautiful and true summation of the past 12 months... Watching your child develop and grow is much like reliving your childhood and youth, and all your memories and experiences, both good and bad are 'unearthed' and brought to light, like it or not. It's been a great healing time for me as well, these past 12 months, to accept certain things for what they are, learn to love unconditionally, and live each day like it's my last. It has been a wonderful time for Jason and I both to grow stronger in our spiritual walk individually, and as a couple. Having Leighton has been such a great gift from God, and has recharged our love for our heavenly father and renewed our faith ten-fold. I am so thankful for all of our blessings, and all the special little moments with Leighton that we are so lucky to experience.

I know that each day, month, and year will continue to fly by, and she will be heading off to kindergarten before we know it. I pray that I am able to set a good example for Leighton, raise her as a beautiful, 'GRACEful', loving woman who loves the Lord and others, and one who I hope to someday share a close relationship with. This after all is my job as her mommy, and I am happy to fulfill it :)

Leighton and Cousin McKenzie

Love Daddy....

Not a happy camper :(

Molly, MK, and Leighton, future BFF's

Last Month Of The First Year...

I took these a few weeks ago, and as you can see, she's still going strong! Clearly, she still resembles her daddy more than anything! I can't believe how quickly our beautiful little angel is sprouting....

At 11 months old, she:

• Now refuses to let me feed her with a spoon! I was pureeing all of her veggies, and now I am having to cook, then dice them. Needless to say, it's been a challenge to get her to eat them :( We've tried lima beans, green beans, corn, carrots, and she just isn't into them :( She is a super healthy eater otherwise, but I guess she inherited my dislike of most cooked veggies!
• She's still a meat and cheese girl, still by far her favorites! She also loves watermelon, pears, and mandarin oranges... Definitely got my love of fruit! Sidenote: You will know if she likes a specific food, when she proclaims "MMMMM!" loudly while eating it! Love it!
• She knows how to get into the cabinet where the dog treats are, reach in, take one, and feed it to the dog! It is so precious, and reminds me that she watches EVERYTHING we do and will eventually mimic all of our actions... Eeeekk!
• She is walking well with her push toy, standing well by herself (on average for 10-20 seconds at a time), but has yet to take an actual step... She has let us know she would not like our help, and will walk on her own when she's good and ready! And guess what... it's just fine with me :)
• She can speak the words "dada","mama", "dog", "hi", and "bye bye".
• We have started to give her coconut water in her sippy cup (I have a weird thing about giving her juice, just don't think it's that good for them), and she loves it! We've also started to give her some organic cow's milk mixed in with her formula, and she has tolerated it very well.
• She is a great little sidekick to Jason and I! She does so well in public places such as stores, restaurants, etc. She loves to go out to eat with us, and we always let her try whatever we are eating which she LOVES! Daddy took his girls on a fun date night at Zapata on Saturday night, and she got to try fried cheese, Mmmm!
• She loves her well... her loveys! There is a specific soft bunny blanket someone and a small soft blankey I received at one of my showers, and she snuggles with them all night.
• She can now actually 'give' kisses on the mouth, and also knows how to blow kisses :)

Swinging!

Yellow River Game Ranch

On President's Day, we took Leighton to the Yellow River Game Ranch. It was much less expensive than the zoo, and we worried that she would be to young to really understand the zoo. The game ranch was great, because she could interact with all of the animals, and they are all 'people friendly'! I think her favorites were the roosters and the goats :) She already seems to have a strong love for animals, which is sweet!

Bath Time!