Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hampton's 1st (early) birthday party in GA

This past weekend we went to Daniel's Aunt Teresa and Uncle Jim's house for a little early birthday par-tay for the upcoming birthday boy.  She wanted to give him a party in GA for Daniel's side of the family who all live in GA.  A great time was had by all.  I will let most of the pictures do the 'talking' for this post.  Lord knows I took enough...
Hampton's going to be 1 on June 2!!!
 He has officially hit the stage where he LOVES balloons!
 Our precious boy!
 He loves dogs and it was no different with their dog, Calvin


 Aunt Teresa is the ultimate party planner and creator.
She did an amazing job with everything!
 The theme was crayons...
Hampton's first year...so colorful :)

"WHAT is this thing you are putting in front of me, daddy?!?"

"Are you serious?!"

I must admit, he was his momma's son when it came to his smash cake. 
It hurt my heart a little bit to think about letting this go on, but I think it hurt his too (just a little).
 At first, he just picked little pieces of it, then he began to get the hang of it.
 And he still didn't do much damage (considering what other 1 year olds usually do!)
 Theeeeen, he realized just how yummy this stuff was...
 We love you Hampton sooooo much!!!


Yaaaaaay, Hampton!!
 "Where'd it go?!?"

After a quick bath and a wardrobe change, we were all ready to open gifts!!
 He had fun tearing the paper :)
 Checking out one of the cute crayon books Aunt Teresa gave him!

So sweet.
 A big thanks again to Aunt Teresa for the fun birthday party!  Everyone had a blast!

We got back home late Sunday night.  Daniel had Memorial Day off the next day so we thought it would be nice to actually relax and have a little fun by Mimi and Papa's pool.  We grilled hamburgers and swam all day.  There were a few clouds, but for the most part it was sunny and HOT!!
 Our little water baby!!

Watching Papa clean everything up outside :)

I hope everyone had a fun, yet safe Memorial day weekend!

Monday, May 14, 2012

FIRST Mother's Day!

To say I am blessed would be an understatement.  I am BEYOND blessed and thank God everyday for His abundant blessings.  My very first mother's day is officially in the books and I must say it was such a special day thanks to my precious husband, beautiful baby boy, and family.  It was all I had imagined it would be and more.

From this moment...

to this moment...

to this moment...

my heart has been filled and overwhelmed with love and joy for this precious angel.  Words cannot describe how much I love being a mommy to this child.  Even though he doesn't talk to me yet (just babbles, coos, and TRIES to talk words) I can only imagine how sweet his voice will sound to hear him call me, "mommy."  My heart longs for that moment already.  He is the most precious gift God could have ever blessed Daniel and I with and I am forever grateful. 


Daniel so lovingly let me open my gift from him and Hampton on Saturday night.  Sunday mornings are usually rushed with breakfast, getting ready, and out the door ON TIME so we figured we could knock that out beforehand.  They gave me this beautiful necklace.  I must say, the picture doesn't do it justice.  It has a round of diamonds and a silver plate behind it that is engraved.  On the front side it reads, "Hampton Woods, 6-2-11 and on the back it reads, Mother's Day 2012.  Not gonna lie, I almost cried when I opened it.  It is absolutely beautiful!  Something I wanted, but more.  It is so special to me and I will cherish it and the memories of my first mother's day forever.  Thank you again, Daniel and Hampton.  I love you both more than words can say.


We celebrated Mother's Day by going to church and then a wonderful lunch at mother and daddy's.  I am SO thankful for my mom and all the lessons she has instilled in me.  It has helped me become the person I am today. 


I only hope that I am half the mother to Hampton that my mother has been to me. 
Mommy loves you sweet Hampton!



Saturday, May 12, 2012

11 months old

Hampton turned 11 months old on May 2 while we were in Pensacola.  I can't believe the next blog about him will be AFTER his 1 year old birthday party.  Craziness!!!



As of now...

he loves to stand by things and on his own, but no, he's not walking yet.



He loves to play ball or anything else for that matter, but throwing the ball is one of his favs.

He waves bye bye and hey.

He is in. to. everything.

You can ask him where his tongue is and he will stick it out.  It's way cute.

You can also tell him to "rock" and he will barely sway in a rocking motion.  Again, too cute.


He loves being in the pool in his float.
.
I'm sure there are several other things that he's doing or saying right now, but I'm having one of those brain freeze moments.  Probably due to the fact that I have a screaming and very tired 11 month old climbing up my leg that clearly is more important than a blog post right now.  So, that's going to have to be good enough for my memory of  his 11 month of life.

Mini Vaca to Pensacola, FL

Daniel has to be in Pensacola for the new computer system they just got with his job at Amerigas.  The training is for 3 weeks, April 30-May 18.  Whew.  That's a long time for everyone involved; daddy, mommy, and Hampton.  I was excited when he told me that we could tag along for the ride and stay with him down there.  We left on Sunday, April 29, all looking forward to our little mini vaca.  Of course Daniel was scheduled to be in meetings all day, every day so I had pumped myself up for some quality time with the little man, even if we didn't know where the heck we were going OR where the heck we needed to go. ;)  So, Monday morning rolled around and I kept our morning routine the same.  His morning nap is like clock work so I didn't want to mess that up in any way.  Afterall, we were all a little "off" living out of a hotel room for what we thought was going to be 3 weeks!!  After his nap, I got him dressed for the day, packed and ready to head out on our first adventure.  I decided to venture down to the downtown area of Pcola.  I had heard there were cute little shops and restaurants we would enjoy.  I'm glad we decided to because at the very end of main street we just happened to stumble across the Palafox Pier.  Forget the shops and restaurants, this was just what a little curious 11 month old needed.  There were big boats, a splash pad, PEOPLE, the bay, pigeons walking around, and tons of other stuff for his little curious mind to look at.  We walked down the pier and he loved every minute of it.  He spotted a boat coming in to dock and it was fun getting to watch his little eyes in amazement.  I could see his wheels spinning inside of his brain. 

"You still there, mom?!"

Spotted the boat...

"Wow, what is that big thing?!"

Those people are waving and yelling at me!!
"Heeeeeyyy!!!"

He was amazed by the water fountain, of course!

He was having a blast!

The next day, Tuesday, we ventured over to Pensacola Beach, which was about 20 minutes from our hotel.

Packed and ready to go!
Not a bad drive at all, considering it was interstate all the way there.  We went to the bay side of the beach where the water was calm and they have several pavilion's set up with tables.  VERY convenient when you have an 11 month old (who at this point is being stubborn and still not walking!) by yourself, not to mention the other 20 lbs. of "STUFF" you have to carry with you.  Anywho, this was called the so called, "mommy beach."  It's where a lot of moms and dads go with young children to take advantage of the "no waves" and the handy dandy pavilions I was talking about.  It was a lot of fun...for BOTH of us. 



In fact, so much fun, as soon as that tiny hiney hit the seat, he did this ALL the way back to the hotel. :)

Wednesday and Thursday were both blah days.  Cloudy and rainy so we opted for the big mall, Cordova Mall.  I didn't get hardly any pics these days.  Thursday morning, poor baby woke up sick.  The usual cold symptoms had taken over his little body.  Congestion, runny nose, sneeze, cough, and his breathing sounded horrible.  So, we definitely took it easy.  Friday, we had to be checked out by noon.  His company only paid for the room M-F so on the weekends you are on your own.  You could stay somewhere else or drive back home and come back on Sunday.  Therefore, we opted to stay on the beach side and make a little family vaca out of it.  We stayed at Holiday Inn Resort right on the beach.  It was extremely nice and I'm SO glad we decided to do that.  Fortunately, Daniel got done early on Friday so we went and picked him up and headed to our hotel.

By the time we got there, unpacked, and walked around and took in all the wonderful sights, sounds, and smells of being at the beach, we decided to head to dinner.  We went to a seafood restaurant, Paradise Bar and Grill.  It was amazing...just like several people had promised it would be.  I'm not sure which was better, the food or the view.


I'm not sure which was better, the food or the view.

After a well rested night, we were all up and at 'em the next morning bright and early ready to have some fun by the pool and beach.   Hampton LOVED the little bitty fountains at the edge of the pool.  They were just his size! :)
 He also LOVED being in his float in the pool.  Which makes this mommy VERY HAPPY!!!  I'm a pool kind of girl ALL the way.  Not so fond of the sand.  That works its way in every crook and nanny it can possibly find.  Ugh.  SO, it looks as if baby boy might have a little of my genes when it comes to pool vs. sand. :)

This time on the beach,
he really wasn't sure about this teeny, tiny, grainy stuff that was all over him. ;)

Don't get me wrong, he did play a little in it, but was not overly thrilled about it.  Hence, the face here.  haha!

So, not long after, we opted for the pool again.  I will let you decide by these 2 pictures whether he enjoyed the pool or the sand better! :)

That night, we decided to go back to Peg Leg Pete's (we had been that Monday night before and it was so good) and once again, it didn't disappoint. 

Having a little fun while waiting on a table...

We got back to the hotel, and soooomebody was still wanting to play.  He literally knew we were somewhere different and he took full advantage of it!  Here he is playing peek-a-boo in the mirror with himself.  It was hilarious to say the least.  I was just glad to see him feeling a little better.  He was sick all weekend, but was the best little trooper in the world!

On Sunday, instead of heading back to the other hotel, we decided it would be best if we call it quits for us.  Living in a hotel room with an 11 month old in an unfamiliar place was hard, not to mention him being sick.  I'm usually not a quitter, but in this case, I did what was best for my baby and that was coming back home, even if it did mean being without daddy for 2 weeks.  We made it back the next day safe and sound and Hampton has been on the mend ever since.  Another week has gone by with Daniel in Pcola and we're ALL thankful he only has 1 more.  At least it's not too far that we still get him for the weekend.  It was fun while it lasted, but boy was I glad to step foot in my own shower and lay my body down in MY bed.  ;)