Daytona Beach 2018 Days 1 & 2

Last week we took our first vacation as a family of 3! This was Liam's very first vacation. We kept it simple and headed for the beach. Our local airport does a quick, direct flight to Orlando Sanford airport, so we figured that would be great choice for Liam's first flight since it's just under 2 hours, and then we rented a car and drove to Daytona Beach, which is about a 40 min drive from the airport.

Day 1
Liam did great on the airplane. We gave him a bottle during take of and the landing to help with his ears popping. He cried a little during the landing, but just a few wimpers. We played with him and gave him snacks on the plane. We also downloaded his favorite show, Little Baby Bum on our iPad to keep him occupied for a few min as well.

Once we landed in Daytona, we got our bags and car and headed towards the beach! The hotel we stayed at was called the Nautilus Inn, and we loved it. It's nothing super fancy, but its right on the beach, clean, family-friendly, and all of the hotel rooms have a kitchenette (microwave, full fridge, small sink, oven, stove and some cabinet storage). This was great for washing bottles, etc.

We checked into our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and headed to the pier for some dinner. We grabbed a quick personal pizza, ate, walked around briefly and headed back to our hotel. We walked on the beach for a few min, and Liam was IN LOVE. We headed back to the room to put Liam to bed, and I had a grocery delivery scheduled from Publix, so we took care of that and headed to bed ourselves.

Day 2 was Independence Day! We knew everything would be busy, so we headed to the beach early, around 10am. We figured out this week that Liam has about a 2 hour beach span and then he starts fussing. So around lunch time we came in and Liam took a nap, while Lee and I ate lunch in the room. Liam slept for just barely over 2 hours, so Lee and I took a nap ourselves, caught up on some emails, and enjoyed the balcony view.

When we all woke up it was time to get ourselves ready and head for dinner. We chose to eat at Aunt's Catfish, and it was great. I would definitely recommend it. This was our favorite food of the trip.

Waiting for our table outside Aunt's Catfish

They had a small little playground for kids to play on while waiting, and a big dock to walk out on and enjoy the view

View from the dock at Aunt's Catfish

I had a frozen cocktail with dinner, YUM! 

The food at Aunt's Catfish was so good! I don't have pics of my salad plate, but they had a HUGE salad bar with both hot and cold items. You could totally make a meal out of this if you wanted. I chose the "Pick 2" option on their menu with coconut shrimp and clamp strips, and my meal came with two sides. I chose a baked potato and the salad bar. ALL of the meals come with a cinnamon roll, and they are DELICIOUS! I was too full to eat mine, so I took it to go and ate it for breakfast the next morning. Even the next day it was so good.

After eating Aunt's Catfish, we headed back to our hotel and went for an evening walk on the beach, Liam's favorite vacation past time, and then we watched a few fireworks from our balcony.

We watched fireworks in our jammies from the balcony! Look how intrigued Liam was with the fireworks! 

The fireworks were loud outside, so we put noise cancelling headphones on him. He tried to pull them off, but once he started watching the fireworks, he was distracted enough to keep them on. Thankfully, the fireworks didn't bother us while we were inside sleeping!

Check out my next post to read about the next 2 days of our trip!

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Weekend Recap: Date Night Edition!

Hello everyone! Its Friday, and I'm just now re-capping last weekend... some weeks just work out that way, right? Just go with it... ;)!  Here's a recap of our weekend: I took the day off work last Friday and gave myself a 3 day weekend. Why can't all weekends be 3 days long?!

Friday morning, a friend and her 2 sons came over for a couple of hours to play, and it was great to have some girl chat. Liam and I hung around the house the rest of the afternoon. I held him and snuggled through BOTH of his naps, and we got all packed up for the rest of our weekend. Then Friday night, we ran some errands: A stop at Target, some dinner to-go, and we headed home. It was a nice quiet day/evening with my cutie. Lee left for Nashville for a conference straight from work on Friday, so Liam and I were flying solo the first part of the weekend.

We played outside on our swing... 

...and we played inside with Elmo! 

Saturday morning, we got up and got ourselves ready. My MIL came over to pick up Mr. Liam, and I headed for Nashville. This was my first time leaving Liam over night, and I was really nervous, BUT I did great, and didn't even let myself cry. Liam LOVES his gma, and he got so excited when she walked through the door on Saturday, so that made me feel better about leaving him.

Once I got to Nashville, Lee and I dropped my stuff in the room and headed to the pool. We ordered a frozen drink, took a nap in the lounge chairs by the pool, and it was glorious. That evening we had dinner with the conference, and they provided tickets to the Grand Ole' Opry. We had never been before and we really enjoyed it.

Pool side with a frozen, fruity drink. Much needed R & R. 

The conference was hosted at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. If you've never been here, I highly recommend going. It is so pretty! We stayed here for our babymoon, and have just gone there to walk around other times we've been in Nashville, and it is enjoyable both ways. We got to stay there this past weekend, so on Sunday, we got up and had breakfast at one of the restaurants there and then spent a little time walking around looking at all of the flowers, went into a few shops, and picked up some souvenirs for our babysitters.

My love and I all dressed up for a night out. 

Artwork like this was outside of the Grand Ole Opry.  I posed with Keith Urban...

... and Lee posed with Dolly. 

After our breakfast and walking around the hotel on Sunday, we packed up and headed home to love on that baby of ours! It was so nice to get some one on one time with Lee, and although we drove separate to Nashville, we ended up talking on the phone with each other for an hour on our way home.

We spent the rest of Sunday playing with Liam, unpacking, and getting ready for the week. Our first couples getaway post baby was a short one, but we had a great time together, and I survived leaving Liam over night.  He must've played hard with grandma and grandpa, because he fell asleep around 6:40 pm on Sunday night, and woke once through the night for a bottle, and went back to sleep until 5:00 am Monday morning! Talk about a sleepy baby!

Family snuggles on Sunday with our sleepy boy. 

We had fun in Nashville, but we sure did miss this sweet face! 

So now that I've recapped last weekend, it's Friday, and I'm so excited about another great weekend planned! We are taking my niece to see Taylor Swift in concert tomorrow, and my little guy is going to spend the evening with my brother and his girlfriend. It'll be a kid swap for us! My nephew is MIA from us this weekend bc he's going to a friends's house for a sleepover, so we'll miss him, but I have no doubt he'll be having plenty of fun with out us. Hopefully next week I can tell you about our weekend sooner! Happy Friday, my friends!

Liam's Baptism

This weekend our little sweetie was baptized! This was such an exciting day for our family. We also officially joined our church. We've been attending for about 3 years, but never officially joined. A few weeks ago we took the class to join, so we got to make all of that official yesterday. Can you believe that this is the first church that I've ever been a member of? I really didn't grow up going to church regularly. I'd go randomly to church with friends or family, and my cousin and I went to church camp for several summers, and that's where I was baptized, but my family never went to one consistent church.

So not only am I excited to have joined our church, but I'm so excited that Liam got baptized! He was so cute and did a great job being in front of everyone. We met with our pastor last week to discuss the baptism plans and Liam and Pastor Scott became buddies, so I think that helped things go smoothly on Sunday, because Liam didn't feel like a stranger was holding him.

Liam grabbed Pastor Scott's arm when he put the water on Liam's head. It was so cute. 

After the baptism, we had our families over for some brunch appetizers and a big lunch! We had donut balls, apple danish, and fruit/dip to snack on until lunch was ready. For lunch we had bbq pulled pork, fried chicken, broccoli salad, hash brown casserole, corn pudding, and salad. We also had strawberry and white cake with whipped icing for dessert.

I had a feast for our lunch, but I actually did well getting an appropriate amount of cake! This was a 2 layer cake: 1 white, and 1 strawberry, with whipped icing. It was from Donut Bank, my favorite local bakery. 

Liam's grandparents and aunts & uncles spoiled him with a new pillow, prayer books, cards, a new outfit, and some money for his savings account. After everyone left, he napped for just over 3 hours! This was a huge blessing because Lee and I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep the night before, so we were thankful to take a nap as well. We stayed up late cleaning and getting our house ready for guests, and although it was tiring, I'm so glad we did, because our house needed a good cleaning!

I kept our party decor simple and non-specific so it could be used again. I put a little colorful banner on our TV stand and put a similar one in our dining room. I had a little chalk board next to the cake that said, "God Bless Liam", and a display of his baptism invitation in the kitchen. Then I put some fresh flowers on my dining room table and on this folding table, and called it good! I'm hoping that those 2 banners and this pretty table runner can be used again for another party since they are pretty neutral.

We had a great Sunday celebrating Liam's baptism, and I'm so excited for him. During our time of waiting for Liam, I prayed and promised God that when I became a Mama, that I'd raise my baby to know God and his greatness, and would encourage my child to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I realize that God is not the bargaining type, but nonetheless, I'm so thankful to be Liam's mama, and so happy to begin raising him with a foundation of faith. Praise God for our miracle boy!

This little guy fell asleep on our way home from church. 

Liam cheesin' with my in-laws

My brother and his gf always love playing with Liam. My niece and nephew couldn't make it, since my niece had an out of town softball tournament. 

Lee's grandparents came! I love seeing Lee's grandpa with Liam. He is always holding his hand or singing to him, which is so sweet.  Liam is a lucky little boy. 

I love this little cutie so much. 

My dad and smom made the drive to see Liam's baptism

Cousins! 

Little CJC and my smom were besties yesterday. It was so cute. 

I'm so thankful for these 2 boys. 

We had to snap a pic of Liam and his great-gpa holding hands

A family nap was a must after our big day. 

Liam 7 & 8 months

Well snap... the last 2 months have flown by! I was getting into a good groove of blogging regularly this spring, and then life just kinda happened, and I've been absent for a while. But now I'm back!

I missed Liam's 7 month post, so we'll do 7 & 8 months together. It seems like just yesterday Liam was 6 months old, and today he's 8 months! How can I make time SLOOOOOOW DOOOOOWN?? He has grown so much in the past 2 months!

Our 7 month old cutie! 

8 months and full of sass

Love that big smile! 

Liam now has 2 bottom teeth and one top tooth just barely showing. He's just started antibiotics for his first ear infection, and he has sleep regressed a little these past 3 weeks because of his teeth and ear. We're hoping once this ear infection is gone, he'll begin sleeping a little better again.

Sleep regression/teething has thrown our schedule off a little

I took this snapshot from a video so I could see those two bottom teeth! 

As of last week, Liam weighs 18 pounds! I is not crawling yet, but has this cute little army crawl/belly scoot going on. If you hold his hands he will pull himself up, and is trying to pull up on toys, in the bath tub, etc. If he crawls at all, I think its going to be a short phase, and he'll work his way right into walking. He loves to have us hold his hands and walk across the living room or down the hallway.

He started saying, "Da da" a while back, but lately he's just doing a lot of babbling.

He loves watching this show called Little Baby Bum on Netflix. He also loves the Ants Go Marching song, ABCs in both English and Spanish, and the Baby Shark song. Lee also has this silly boy scout song that he sings to Liam, and it seems to be a fav lately as well.

Liam's favorite toys include his jumper, and pretty much anything he can chew on. He loves playing in the bath, so that has become a fun past time for us as well. He also really enjoys being outside, so we've been playing a lot in his car.

My cutie playing in his car!

We love to sit in our backyard on our swing. 

As far as food goes, he LOVES bananas! Both in raw form and in puree. We give him purees a few times a week, but we also try to give him a lot of what we're eating. He is so curious, and wants everything we have, so we've taken a few tips from the baby led weaning trend. We try to cut food in a finger shaped form and let him practice pick up and chewing himself. We don't fully do baby led weaning, as we still give him purees, and there are some things we have chosen not to feed him yet, for example: we're not giving him salads, but we might give him a few veggies that we're eating in our salads.

Our big boy enjoying some spaghetti 

These past 2 months have been busy for us! We've celebrated Mother's Day, my birthday, and Lee's birthday. We took a day trip to St. Louis and visited my grandparents, and then we also took a weekend trip to the Chicago area to visit my bff and Liam's new bff, as well as my cousins! As if all that wasn't exciting enough, Liam was baptized yesterday!

Visiting with my cousins who live in Chicago 

During our trip to Chicago, we stayed in a hotel and Liam got to go swimming for the first time! 

This little guy is the light of our lives, and we are loving watching him learn and grow. He is so loved! Here are some more pics of the fun we've been having these past 2 months!

My grandparents were so excited to see us! 

Liam loves staying the night at Uncle J's house

Liam got to meet his bff Madden! I'm so excited that my best friend and I have babies close in age. 

Liam 6 Months

6 months... where did the past half year go? Time has flown so quickly since Liam was born. I can't believe he's already 6 months old. He is such a joy. I have random pictures of him inserted throughout the post. This past month with him has been so much fun!

His shirt says, "Snuggle this Muggle"

Gma did an Easter photo shoot and I think he loved the colored eggs

Liam sleeps so good at night. I am counting my blessings, crossing my fingers, and saying all the prayers that this continues. He will normally go to bed between 8:00pm- 9:00pm, and wake up around 5:00am. I don't mind the 5:00 am wake up, because that allows me to spend some time with my sweetie before I head to work.

Hanging with Grammy and Uncle J and his cousin's band concert

This cutie and I got out the stroller for a walk on Good Friday

His naps are a different story. He is NOSEY and always wants to see what everyone else is doing. So because of that, he does not always nap well for his baby sitters. When he's at home with Lee and I (we must be boring!), we can usually get him to take a morning and afternoon nap, and sometimes he'll take a little snooze during the evening, but not always. One thing we do struggle with is getting him to sleep. It's very rare that he will let us rock him to sleep. If he's going to fall asleep, its usually in the car or after we've fed him. If he's acting super fussy because he's tired, we'll sometimes even give him a 1 or 2 oz bottle because we know that will get him to fall asleep.

My little sweetie just before I dropped him off at his baby sitter's

I happened to be home with him yesterday, and I could tell he was tired because he was getting fussy and rubbing his eyes, but he just wouldn't fall asleep. I stuck him in the car seat and drove to Dunkin' Donuts, and he was asleep before I got to the coffee shop. It was a win/win because I got a caramel coconut iced coffee (YUM!), and Liam fell asleep! He ended up napping for about 2 hours.

Over the weekend, we started giving Liam baby food (green beans), and hes indifferent about it so far, but he does love his high chair! He eats about 6 times a day, usually a 5 oz bottle. Every now and then he'll eat an extra ounce or two to sleep, or even in addition to his bottle.

He was excited about his first time in the high chair.

He is rolling all over the place, and loves tummy time. He tries really hard to crawl, and gets so mad that he can't. He's not quite sitting up on his own yet, but he's pretty close, so I won't be surprised if he does that in the next month or 2. He is drooling/slobbering a ton, and he puts everything in his mouth. He loves watching tv, being sang to, and anything that lights up.

Happy boy playing in his jumper

This past month, he got to spend time with all of his grandparents, go to his cousin's dance recital, celebrate St. Patty's Day, attend 2 Easter Egg hunts, and celebrate Easter with both sides of our family. His bff Madden was born, and we are hoping to meet him in person soon. It has been an exciting month for all of us! Liam is such a happy baby! He has brightened our lives so much, and we love that he is the center of our world.

Happy Easter! 

The Easter Bunny found Mr. Liam