Halloween 2012

This Halloween was a lot of fun for us. Jaycelyn is old enough to enjoy it now and she had a blast. We started the day by going to story time and hearing lots of Halloween inspired stories. The book store shares space with our favorite cupcake shop, so of course whe got a cupcake as well. J had an orange one which she found very exciting.
Next stop was the pumpkin patch. We went to the same one as last year and J even wore the same dress! She did not exactly loving it at first, but after a little bit she did not want to leave. (It seems like that is the way it goes with everything these days!).

Once she warmed up to the place, we had a lot of fun. We must have walked around to each little pumpkin bundle 10 times. She of course picked out a pumpkin that she just would not put done, so we had to bring it home.

We even went out to Jaycelyn's favorite restaurant for lunch... Moe's! 

And when Daddy got home it was time to go trick-or-treating. Jaycelyn was very excited to put on her costume (which she calls Punzel because of the criss cross ribbon on the bodice). We decided to take her to the most popular street for trick-or-treating in town. And boy was it impressive. It felt like we were in a movie! All the houses were decked out and there were tons of people. We did not take anywhere near enough pictures. 

And Jaycelyn LOVED trick-or-treating. She actually went up to people all by herself! It you know J at all, you know how exciting that is for mommy. And she was all business too. Walk up, take candy, and move on to the next one. About a third of the way she discovered that she was collecting lollipops (her second favorite candy to Pez... she is so my child). And so we finished the rest of the house will the basket in one and and a lollipop in the other. She downed about 4 of them by the time we got back to the car! 

Despite a very stressful trip to Khol's, we had a very nice day. I think J really had fun and I can't wait to do it all again next year. 

Goodwood Halloween Bash

On Sunday, we went out to the Halloween bash out at Goodwood museum. I had always driven by this place and wondered what it was, and when we did the HootyCutie photo shoot there I fell in love. So I decided to take Shane and J there for their Halloween event.

It was the first time that Jaycelyn had gotten to wear her entire costume all at once. And she really loved dressing up. She missed her nap that day and was a little cranky, so you will have to ignore that unsightly binki. Every time we get it away from her she ends up sick and back to having it again. Ugh!

We had a great time strolling the grounds and Jaycelyn really enjoyed the tap dancers. She is so in love with dancing these days. I am thrilled! We also got to enjoy some popcorn while we watch. One of J's favorite snacks.

 We even went on a hay ride! (Which she did not enjoy as much as I thought she would :( )

Overall we had a very nice time and it was a great way to get J ready for Halloween!

Our Trip to NC, Part 2

As I shared in my last post, we made the trip up to North Carolina to see two friends get married. The wedding was so beautiful and we were so happy we made the trip to be there to celebrate with them.

The country side was breath taking and made the perfect background! We couldn't help but take advantage of it and snap some family photos.

And J was adorable as always! I am so in love with this picture Shane took of her. It just takes my breath away every time I see it!

And here are some more of her being her silly self.

After the wedding we were able to go out with the bride and groom for a drink. We actually left J with Mimi and went out! It was a blast for us. It is amazing how something as minor as that can be noteworthy these days. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

We made it back in one piece after a drive home that seemed much longer than the drive up. J was very cranky (and now that she has had a runny nose and fever all day I can conclude that she was getting sick). But we survived and had such a great time we are planning on going back next year!

Our Trip to NC, Part 1

This past weekend we made the trip to Statesville, North Carolina for the wedding of two of our very dear friends. The wedding was beautiful, but I will share more of that in the the next post. We took so many great pictures that I want to share with you that we really need to do this in two posts.

We headed up on Thursday. It was an interesting 9 hour drive. The GPS was set to shortest path rather than shortest time. So it took us at a diagonal through Georgia which made for an very interesting route. But we made it with only a little whining from the little one.

We went a day early so Shane could work in a business meeting, so we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. And with the weather as beautiful as it was, we wanted to spend some time outdoors. So we found a very nice park complete with a pond full of ducks! J loved them. In fact as I was sitting here making the collage bellow, J is pointing at the screen yelling, "Ducks... Ducks!"

We also did some swing and sliding which are a must at any park for J. I love the picture on the bottom right. She had slid forward in the swing and her face was priceless!

We did try to get some family shots, but the temptation of the surrounds were just to much for J. Here are a few we were able to capture by asking her to look for the moon (a new obsession for her).

And I am in love with this picture of J and I being silly together!

And Mimi went with us on this trip. It was so wonderful to have her help and be able to spend time with her. J really loves her Mimi and they were two peas in a pod this trip.

So I will be back in the morning with pictures from the wedding!

Our Little Nole Fan

Last week was the first football game of the season! If you didn't already know, we are big Florida State fans around here. We love to go to the games and J has been going with us since she was just a few months old. We only take her to late in the day or cooler games, but she loves to tag along with us.

And now it is really fun because she is interacting. Right before the game when they were announcing the starting line-up J started clapping after every player's even though none of us were. It was adorable!

It was super hot, so we had to try a few different things to try and keep cool..

J and Pop under their hoods

Dippin' Dots... a stadium must have!

But the best part of the whole day was when J started doing the chop and cheer (of course we did not get that on video!).

The game was great (we won 69 to 3 which made it so much better). We headed out a little early to get the little one to bed since it had been a very long day with no nap. And we got these really great shots of the little miss when headed back to the car.

J and her two favorite men!

Her new thing is walking with her hands on her hips...
it's so stinkin' cute!

Monster Bash Birthday Party

We had such a wonderful week this past week. It started with J's actual birthday on Tuesday and didn't stop. We had a positively wonderful visit from my Mom and BOTH my sisters! That never happens. And it was so great to spend time with all of them and J. She really loved having them all here. But the real fun was J's second birthday party! You can read all about the decorating details at my HootyCutie blog.

J is really shy around people, and the day did not get off to a good start. Poor Shane had to give her a bath while she screamed the entire time. But once the party started she cheered up some (I think it might have had something to do with all the presents).

Thanks to everyone who came. We really enjoyed having you all with us to celebrate J's big day. It wouldn't have been as special without all of you.

Jaycelyn Turns 2!

I cannot believe I am saying these words, "I have a two year old"! Happy Birthday to my beautiful, amazing, wonderful, creative, inquiring, full of energy, daughter. You are truly a gift from God.

We had a wonderful day today. We woke up early and got cleaned up. J's new thing is refusing to get in the tub. She yells "No, Bath!" and literally kicks as I get her undressed and into the tub. Then after 4 seconds she is splashing away. I'm not kidding about the 4 second thing! Then it takes us 25 minutes to get her to get out of the tub. And if you have to get her out before the 25 minutes are up... que the kicking and screaming.

After we were dressed, we came down and had breakfast and I told her we were going to see Daddy. She just loves to go see Daddy at work and have lunch with him so she was really excited. So excited in fact that it tuckered her out. That's right she feel asleep before we even began the day. (Please excuse all the upcoming crappy iPhone pics)

We had a very nice lunch with Daddy and headed home. We played for a few hours and waited for Shane to get home. The it was off to Moe's. Fancy, I know. But J just loves it. She quite enjoyed and was hamming it up for the camera.

Next it was off to Target to go shopping! My grandparents sent her some money and we thought it would be fun for her to go pick out a toy. And what did she pick? A Belle barbie doll. Apparently Beauty and the Beast really struck a cord when we watched it yesterday. She pulled it off the shelf twice, so we figured that was the right one. She insisted on carrying it all trough the store. It was absolutely adorable!! The box was bigger than she was and she had to keep taking breaks to re-adjust.

She carried the bag to the car in her usual style. I have no idea why, but my child LOVES to carry bags. Shane had to take the doll out of the packaging in the car all the while listening to her yell "Belle" over and over.

We came home and played for a little while and then we put the birthday girl to bed. She went right to sleep and I'm not surprised. It was a wonderful day and I am so blessed to spend days like this with her.

And get a load of these comparison photos. That's right, she is wearing the exact same dresses as she wore last year. My little peanut. But she has gotten significantly tall over this past year.

2 Year Photo Shoot

I thought I would share with you guys the photo shoot we did a few weeks back for J's birthday invites. This photo shoot was the whopper of all photo shots. All to get two simple pictures for J's birthday invitations. It spanned two days over two locations (several mini locations within those) with two cameras (and two iPhones). But boy did we get some great shots! So many of them simply take my breath away.

Mimi was here for the weekend, so she was in on the fun. The first day of shooting Daddy was at work, so the girls to a trip up to Havana to get some railroad shots. J of course was not all that excited about having her picture taken (hence the second day of shooting), but we did manage to get some really great shots. And Havana was such a beautiful back drop.

The next day we took Daddy along with the girls to a local park that is one of my favorite locals for photographs. I'm sure on lookers would have gotten a good chuckle from the three adults chasing after the one little girl shouting directions at her. But our craziness paid off.

It was a really hot day. We had sweat pouring down everything! So when we took J over to the fountain to get some shots...

It's not surprising what happened next! And I am so glad that we let her get in. These are my absolute favorite shots of her from these shoots. And they might just be my favorite shots of her all year! I love that we were able to capture her playing and get a glimpse of her real personality in some of these.

J's 2nd Year - Part 2

And with this post, the blog will be up to date. Who wants to take bets on how well I keep up with it?

In the last post we came to the end of 2011. So we will pick up with 2012! The first pictures I have a from a trip to the park in February (what do you know... pics of something other than a holiday!). I just love these photos. Something about the colors and the joy on her face just makes my heart melt. 

Next up... the unofficial first haircut. Since we only cut the rat tail, we are still holding out that Aunt Amanda will give her her first official all over haircut (that is if she would ever come to visit us!). But nonetheless, we document the occasion. Boy was Mommy glad to see that rat tail go!

March 4, 2012

Also in March, St. Patty's Day. J is so tiny that she was able to wear the same dress from 2011 (see a comparison in this blog post from the HootyCutie blog). Which was great because I loved this dress on her. And she wore an actual bow clipped to her hair for the first time. Huge milestone I tell ya!

On to her second trip to Disney. In April Shane had a conference in Orlando, and one of the beauties of being a stay at home... J and I went with him. The day we got there we went to downtown Disney and J loved running around there. Later in the week, my mom (J's Mimi) came up and we took J to Disney (Epcot and Animal Kingdom). We ended the trip by taking her to the T-Rex restaurant at Downtown Disney and she LOVED it. It was a wonderful trip! You can read more about the specifics in this blog post from the HootyCutie blog, but here are some of my favorite pics from the trip. 

Next up is Easter. These are some of my favorite shoots. She was having a very off day and cried for most of the day. But what I love about them is that she is pushing through the tears and collect those eggs. It was priceless. And in spite of her emotional tribulations, we did manage to get in a smile or two and overall the day was wonderful.

And guess what... the blog is caught up! You can check out my post about the 4th of July here. That brings us to August. I plan to finally share here 2nd year photo shoot here on the blog tomorrow. We are gearing up for her birthday party this weekend, so I will be sure to share that with you as well. Ta-ta for now!

Jaycelyn Turns 1!

It is amazing the transformation a little one makes from the day they are born from the day the turn 1. They go from little balls of sweetness to little balls of fire full of personality. The first year of Jaycelyn's life was a wonderful time for us. It was so much fun to watch her little personality develop as she learned to interact with us and the world around her. And turning one was a big deal around her. She had not one, but two birthday parties and a mini celebration (complete with a mini cupcake) on her actual birthday. I will cherish those days forever. I am enjoying revisiting these memories as we gear up for her next mile stone.

I posted about her birthday parties on my HootyCutie blog, so you can go read up on them there. 

Leopard/Zebra Theme Party in Sebring

Owl Party in Tally

Jaycelyn's 2nd Year - Part 1

So here we are on the night before J's birthday and I still have not finished my goal of catching up the blog before she turns two! So Here is a very quick recap of this past year. It has been an absolutely wonderful year. It is unbelievable the changes that a little one undergoes from the first to second birthday. J has gone from a baby to a little kid in one very short year! At her first birthday she only had two teeth, one said like 5 words, and could not even walk yet. The teeth are still slow coming (although she has way more than two now), she RUNS around talking all day now. Her vocabulary has really blossomed in the past two weeks. It is wonderful that she is able to voice her needs better now, but I do miss her sweet little miss pronounced words.

Again this will be mostly holidays due to the fact that those are the recognizable pictures. First up Halloween. We had a visit from Mimi and went to the Pumpkin Patch. J had just started walking, and she had a great time tottering around the pumpkins. This year the initial plan was for J to be Tinkerbell, but after much slacking on my part, we ended up as a simple fairy. But boy was she cute! She did like trick-or-treating... but that might have just been because she got to ride in a wagon.

Next up on a quick tour is Christmas. This Christmas was great. She loved helping decorate the tree and opening presents. In fact she loved opening presents so much that she opened one or two early due to some sneakiness on her part.

Decorating the Tree

Opening Presents with Mimi

Christmas Day at Bochi and Pop's complete with meltdown shot!

And this post is getting long, so I am going to cut it off her and add a new post in the a.m. But to finish up 2011, here is J's Christmas photo shoot pics.