Happy 9 months!

                  


Happy 9 months para mi princesa! The best part of having a "flowy-dress" is being able to play it with it right? She will crawl every way except forward. She loves to stand holding on to something. She is wanting to start using her legs and putting one foot in front of the other when we hold her up.
Her two front upper teeth seem to be wanting to make an appearance. It has not been as tough as when she got the bottom teeth. Maybe it's because we know what to expect and we are more prepared for it. She loves loves loves the water and so do I. Mainly because after pool time she loves to take an afternoon nap; and I get to catch up on my reality tv :) and chores of course.

Olivia had her first playdate here in Florida. She loved it. She was exhausted and had a four hour nap right after. I was checking on her every hour to make sure she was ok; because this never happens. She will nap once in the morning and once in the afternoon for 1 hour and a half to two hours. So, naturally I am trying to schedule a playdate every single day. For her benefit of course. She still sleeps thru the night (12 hours). She is discovering her love for other food besides sweet potatoes.

As for me, well I am very thankful to be finding mama friends with babies the same or close in age as Olivia. Seeing her interact with other babies is so much fun.
If you are a stay at home mom I highly recommend you go out there and find other moms that you can hang out with. Even for working moms, it is really nice to talk to someone that is going through the same thing as you are.

I am not shy about making friends. This was very important to me when we were thinking about moving; since I don't know anyone else but my sister and her husband here in Florida. I want to make friends, but more importantly I want to be friends with other moms.
It is so nice to be able to have someone to relate to. Mom community is the best.
If you have moved to another city or if you don't have any mom friends, don't be scared to put yourself out there. Some of the things you can do are: join a "mommy and me" class, join a Facebook group or go to "meet-up"and find some groups that you are interested in. Trust me this will save your sanity. Husbands and boyfriends are great and they are awesome supporters, but let's face it we as women need other women.
I am thankful to be meeting some amazing women that I get to call friends.

Thanks for reading, until next time

I want to....

One of my favorite things to do is to go on a hike or a long walk. Before I lived in Arkansas I wanted nothing to do with the outdoors; unless it was going to the beach.
Living in Arkansas definitely forced me to be outside more, and I couldn't be more grateful for it.

Tim and I always try to find some of the state parks and trails around us to go visit. I was super excited to find out that we have tons of trails around us where we live here in Florida.
One of my favorite ones is called the Seminole Wekiva Trail. It is 14 miles long and it goes through wooded areas, quiet neighborhoods, and busy streets with plenty of restrooms, water and food stops.

The coolest thing about this trail is the "Paint the Trail" project. Jeff Sonksenthe is the amazing artist responsible for this mural that includes almost 500 paintings.
I haven't discovered them all, they are all spread out through the trail. Every time I go, I can't help but stop and admire all the paintings. I eventually want to take a picture of each one.

        


This past Sunday we discovered a new set. In between all the paintings is the 'Before I die, I want to..." wall. Of course this got me thinking..what do I want to do before I die? I think we all think about this in different stages of life and in every stage we might have a new list we want to accomplish. Or we add more things to our bucket list as we cross out some others.

Now that I have Olivia my list has definitely changed a little. It was really interesting to read all the things that people had written on the wall. "Save a life" "Learn a different Language" "Travel the world" "Leave a mark" "Be Happy" "Make a baby".
I think is important to have big and not so big and fun things that can be easily achieved.
I want to jump in a pool with my clothes on, ride in a hot air ballon, and visit all seven continents to name a few. It is exciting to look back and see some of the things I have already crossed out on my list like "go to mardi gras" "kiss on top of the eiffel tower" "live abroad".

What do you want to do before you die? What are some of the things you have already done? Whatever it is don't forget we only have one life.Tomorrow is not guaranteed for anyone. What are you waiting for? Do some of those things today! Have fun at it. Have a purpose. It doesn't have to be this grand master plan, there are some things we can do everyday to feel accomplished.
That is one of the things I want to teach Olivia, the little things at the end are the big things. Laugh often! Enjoy the moment!

Have a great week friends,