The Difference a Year Makes

I can't believe today is the last day of 2012. It has gone by so fast.

2012 was by far the most exciting year of my life. The previous years, with all their life changes, were nothing in comparison to 2012. I started the year off a new mom with a 6 week old baby and lots of challenges. And I stand here, at the end of the year, a mom of a toddler with a little bit of experience behind me.

So many changes in 2012 and so many hardships. My patience, resolve, strength and love were all tested at their maximum. We went through a lot in those first months with Molly, a time I will never forget because of what we survived as a family. Lots of milestones were met, pictures taken and memories made. And I am excited about 2013 as we explore what amazing things she has in store for us as she grows into toddlerhood.

I will always look back on 2012 as a year of victory.



What a different a year makes.

And in true New Year fashion, a bit of a recap of 2012.

January - Adjusting to life with a baby

February- A Love Story

March- Our first A Day in the Life

April- Bring on solids!

May- Surviving Colic

June- Being a Work from Home Mom

July- Bumps and Bruises

August- Leaving Baby Behind

September- Vacation!!

October- Coming to Terms

November- We have a ONE year old

December- Merry Christmas


Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve

Its been a wonderful few days of being back home in Oklahoma City with my family. I love staying with my parents because that means I have baby back-up which always leads to naps. Oh how I LOVE naps.

Most of the time we have just been lazing around and enjoying time together. Lots of eating, playing games and catching up. But we did take some time to get out for some holiday fun!

Downtown in December in OKC has become a very big deal in recent years and with the opening of a new park and skyscraper came new activities. Look at those pine cones, beautiful!

 









We hit up our friends annual Festivus party. Ugly sweater style.

 

And now we are prepping to have all our family over for Christmas Eve dinner. This year has been so much fun with Molly. This time last year I was bouncing her on a yoga ball and thinking I would never enjoy Christmas again. So glad those things actually do pass.

Tomorrow we are expecting snow. A white Christmas! And Molly's first snow. The holidays can be so magical. We hope everybody has a wonderful holiday.

Merry Christmas all! Love, The Vincents.

Simple Weekend

After the events of Friday I wanted a simple weekend with family and friends. I wanted to cherish what is important to us and get in quality time with the people I love. So we kept it simple.

A little visit to Santa to commemorate Molly's 2nd Christmas. (she was not a big fan of Santa)



Two trips to the park complete with her new found love of the slides!






Holiday date night out to a few Christmas parties.

And a late night of baking with a good friend.



Simple and perfect.

Tis the Season

We are in full on Christmas mode around these parts. Our live tree is up and decorated, our house is adorned with lights and yard ornaments, and every nook and cranny of our main living spaces has something to celebrate the season.

Last year was Molly's first Christmas but she was just a few weeks old and had absolutely no clue about anything, let alone the holidays. And this year she still doesn't understand a whole lot but she is curious enough and mobile enough to make it fun!

I have been thinking about and pinning things that could be traditions for us to start. I have lots of traditions from my family growing up but I want to start things just the 3 of us. I have yet to come up with anything that is just ours. So we are celebrating with the good ol stuff.

The tree! Complete with soft animal ornaments at her level that she is free to take off the tree.



And our favorite ornament...



We also started Elf on the Shelf this year. While Molly doesn't understand the rules yet she does have fun finding her and pointing at her, yelling dat dat dat!



We even wrote our very first letter to Santa. I had to help translate. I wasn't sure if Santa can read toddler writing.



And hosted our first holiday hot chocolate and cookies playdate.



This year is a little different than last year. So much has changed. And its making it all the more fun!



I am going to keep working on new traditions but in the meantime we are going to enjoy the ones we have already. Tis the season!

Sick Baby.

Yesterday morning was business as usual. I was up, coffee in hand watching Good Morning America and waiting for Molly to get up. I even had a delicious breakfast waiting on her.

Little did I know what was about to happen. The calm before the storm if you will.

I went in to get Molly up, we needed to get going to make our Kindermusik class. When I opened up her blinds and looked in her crib something was different than usual. There was throw up. Everywhere. Appears as though she threw up sometime in the morning and then proceeded to roll around in it. Alright, fun Thursday ahead!

I was hoping it was just a fluke thing so I went ahead and put her in her highchair to eat breakfast. She ate some but nothing like normal. But she didn't throw up. So we finished and jumped in the car to go to music class. About a mile into our car ride she started throwing up again. Dangit! This wasn't just a fluke. This was a stomach virus.

The next 24 hours have been a combination of a happy baby, a tired baby and a pukey baby. She can't seem to keep much down. And she won't drink the Pedialyte. 

While I like the extra cuddles I am getting, I just want her to feel better.

Hoping it passes today. We are supposed to see Santa tomorrow!

Her First Year: A Video

As part of my reflection on Molly's first year and a way to remember all of her milestones I created a video. It took me about a month to compile it all together and I cried every single time I worked on it. And I still get teary eyed as I watch it now. I wanted something special to have and watch as the years go on. Something to capture all the little moments of this first year. It has been an amazing journey and this video does a pretty good job of summing it up.

Its a little long (I had trouble editing it down) so you can just watch pieces of it, but I thought I would share with my readers who have been on the journey with us.

To Molly, on her first birthday, with love.


Molly: The First Year from ChasingHallie on Vimeo.

Happy Weekend!

We are enjoying some beyond mild temperatures here in Dallas. The high today was 72 degrees. It definitely doesn't feel like December or the Christmas season. While I am ready for the cold winter weather to kick-in you can't deny what God is giving you so we hit up the park during my lunch break.

If you give this kid some open space she takes off and there is no looking back. I can easily catch her for now but I think I am going to have my work cut out for me as she gets older.

















What a smile!

We are in full holiday decorating mode this weekend. Can't wait to get our tree and put out all of our Christmas decor.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Molly: 12 Months (aka ONE YEAR)

As many of you know by my sappy tweets, FB posts and earlier blogs Molly turned one. In the back of my mind I thought it just might not happen but alas it did. We had an amazing party which you can read about here and here.

I am going to wrap up my monthly updates and progress on Molly with this 12 month post. I will still post updates but no more official month posts.

Its hard to believe it all started way back when in December 2011 with her One Month old post. I almost can't remember her that tiny. Seems like forever ago and yesterday at the same time.

The past month has been a pretty big one around these parts. Our baby officially started walking and she hasn't looked back. I can't remember the last time I saw her crawl. And she has more of a run than a walk. She roams around the house all day carrying toys and stuffed animals. She loves to run around in the front yard. And the park is loads more fun now.

I am in awe of how much development has happened in one short year. Its amazing. She was a teeny tiny helpless baby who could barely open her eyes for more than 5 minutes at a time and now she is a goofy, smart, sassy walking little baby toddler. Wow!

This past month I feel like things have gotten a lot easier/simpler. I feel fully equipped to handle almost any situation. When we go out it feels like we are just two girls out having fun together. I no longer feel stressed, overwhelmed or anxious about anything we do. She is my little partner in crime. And we have so much fun.

To Molly, this past year has been unbelievable in every way and everyday we fall even more in love with you. I can't believe you can love someone so much but its true, its truly overwhelming. Time is flying by so fast and its all I can do to hold on to every little moment. We love you.



Stats:
 Weight- 19lbs 1oz (20%)
 Height- 28" (25%)
 Head- no more head measurements (they stop at 1)

Wearing 9-12mo clothing and some 12-18mo. Still in size 3 diapers but about to move up to 4.

Likes:
Walking (more like running!) everywhere
Picking up her stuffed animals and walking them around the house
Playing with the spoons in the dishwasher
Chatting with herself
Going to the park (and general being outdoors)
Bringing book after book to Mom to read to her

Dislikes:
Going down for naps
Getting Dressed and Diaper Changes
Not getting food when she is hungry
Not being able to reach something she wants

Firsts:
Saying Dada
Tooth! 2 little front bottoms poking through (finally)

Words: Dada was her first word. She talks all the time but not catching any real words yet.

Eating: Going strong. This kid can put the food away! It amazes me how much she eats for such a tiny little thing. We are starting to transition to milk and off of formula and also drinking out of sippy/straw cups during the day and not bottles. An entire post on this to come.

Sleeping: Naps are a little off. I think we are trying to move to 1 nap but she isn't sure what she wants yet. Night time is solid - goes down at 8 wakes up at 7:45.

Turning ONE: The Party (part 2)

Time for Part 2 of the First Birthday Party. I shared all the decorations and "theme" that went into the party in Part 1, now its time to see some party pics of the birthday girl!

We kicked off her birthday with last minute decorating the morning of the party. This meant we woke up the birthday girl to lots and lots of balloons in her playroom. She also saw one of her birthday presents for the first time, her new tent! She loves it.





Party pic in her Tiara with Mom and GG. We couldn't believe how long she left that tiara on.





After some hanging out and eating the party food it was time for cake! I made a very simple boxed (gasp!) strawberry cake. She loves strawberries so I knew it would be a hit.





She was a little confused by the singing and all the attention. But then she warmed up to it.





And started celebrating each bite...





After cake it was time for presents! She wasn't into the unwrapping all that much but she did get excited when things came out of the bags!





Then it was time to play with all her new stuff.





The party was an absolute blast and it was so much fun celebrating our little girl on her big day! We love her so much and we really wanted to have the perfect First Birthday party. It probably wasn't perfect but it was just right for her.



Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

Daddy Daughter Friday: Birthday Moment

We snapped this picture during the smash cake portion of Molly's birthday party. This perfectly captures the relationship between these two. Goofy and playful. I love this.



Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend!

p.s. Check out Part 1 of the Birthday Party.

Turning ONE: The Party (part 1)

This past Saturday, on her actual birthday, we hosted Molly's big 1st Birthday party. It ended up being perfect! But it was quite the work to get it all together and ready before the first guest arrived. And I have sworn off anything elaborate in the next few birthdays.

As I mentioned in a previous post (Birthday Party Planning) I have been planning this in my head since those first early months of her life. And by planning I really mean pinning. Pinterest is ideal for these types of things but it can't lead to a little craziness as well.

The non-theme theme I was going for was lots of bright and fun colors and 1's. 

With the help of my fantastic and overly crafty friend Laura we were able to re-create most of my pins. And it turned out to be one heck of a party!

In this Part 1 post I will share all of the fun decorations!

Welcome! We ushered in guests with the help of the balloon wreath. We plan on using this for many many years to come by simply switching out the 1.

Balloon ceiling! Molly really loved this and it was fairly easy. Its still hanging in our living room.

We used lots of tissue poms and lanterns around the house. And I LOVE the picture collage 1. It was an easy way to share lots of pictures over the past year.

My Mom made an awesome tablecloth full of colorful dots but left it in OKC so this was our last second back-up. Turned out pretty cute (its a small grey chevron pattern). For the food we kept it simple and kid friendly.

The menu:
-Pigs in a blanket
-Burger sliders
-Mini muffin pizzas
-Fruit kabobs
-Chips
-Cheese cubes
-Jello cupcakes


One of my favorite decorations was the monthly photo banner. It was so neat to see how much she changed month-by-month. Really shows how much time flies!


We don't have a mantle in our house (gasp!) so we covered the TV in DIY chevron paper and used the entertainment center as our mantle.


This hat is so adorable. Molly left it on for about 1.5 seconds.


The high-chair we kept pretty simple. A DIY chevron paper for the floor, a ONE banner and a single balloon. Too cute.

The decorations were a hit and Molly really loved all the balloons and pictures of the cute baby (herself) that were everywhere.

We had a great time celebrating our little girl. I will share more of the fun in post 2.

Stay tuned...