Bristol is ONE!

How is my baby ONE already? Time sure does fly and that has been a phrase that I have said many times over the last year. I can't believe I had a baby a year ago. She is the biggest blessing, greatest joy and the brightest light in my life. Over the past year I have learned so much about being a mom and I am continuing to learn about being a momma and learning about Bristol everyday. We had so much fun together over the last year. There are many moments that I can remember that stick out in my mind. I remember when we gave her her first bath and during the bath she pooped everywhere, all over the side of the tub, I just laughed and laughed. OR the time that she cried and cried for hours on end in the middle of the night. I tried everything to calm her and nothing worked. At about 3am I took her to get a bath and that calmed her. I thought I was super mom. I remember the time that I gave her oatmeal for the first time, she did great. And the times when we went to physical therapy every friday, she did great there too. I anticipated Bristol getting teeth for almost her whole first year of life and then just over the last couple weeks 2 have popped through. There are so many sweet memories that I have stored in my brain that I will never let go of. I can't wait to make more memories with my sweet girl over the next 12 months.

 First family picture since she was a newborn, can you believe that? And by family picture, I mean professionally taken. It's hard for me to take our own family pictures :) 

 The cake table turned our great! We had the big cake, smash cake and 3 pictures on display. One picture was of Bristol, the next picture was of myself at my first birthday and the last picture was of Brandon at the age of 1. The cake was fantastic too. I HIGHLY recommend the company I used to make her cakes. She was BEYOND reasonably priced and it was very YUMMY!

 The cookies were made by Jolie Delights. They were a big hit with the guests, every single one was eaten. Bristol loved to look at them, I even gave her a little bite too!

 Big girl sitting on the pool table with all her gifts. I am so glad we thought about putting her on the table with all her gifts. Don't worry, there were at least 6 other adults there ready to catch her if anything happened. My aunt bought Bristol that minnie doll, it was a birthday minnie. She is holding a balloon and it sings happy birthday. Bristol loved it!

 Bristol was interested in every.single.present. She would smile every time I opened a new gift and showed her what is was. Precious girl got a lot of clothes ( yay for clothes! I LOVE clothes, especially for Bristol) and lot of "minnie" stuff.

 She dove right into the cake except she wouldn't put the icing in her mouth. She kept sticking her hand in the icing and would act like she was going to eat it and then would pull her hand away. I got the biggest laugh at her. FINALLY, she decided " what the heck! let me see how this tastes!" Once she got a good taste, girlfriend kept going back for more. I had to pull the cake away, I didn't want her to get sick. She hasn't really had any sweets until the week before her birthday for her birthday pics. But she loved it all!

 Can it get any sweet than this? Of course she wouldn't smile for us, but that's ok. Afterall, she is her mother's daughter. I wouldn't smile for ANYTHING. She smiled for all the inside pics just not outside pics. I guess I don't blame her, it was HOT HOT HOT and humid outside that day.

I love this collage, it highlights some of the decorations from the party. I seriously could have looked at all the decorations all day long. I think I told my mom that 56 times that day. 

Bristol's party went GREAT! Better than I expected to be honest. I loved every single thing about it. I worked so hard on her decorations and putting it all together. It was worth every late night, shopping trip and internet surfing to find the "perfect" idea/decoration, etc. She was so happy during the whole party. She had no nap and was not feeling well due to cutting more teeth. We had a great turn out and are so thankful to everyone that came and spoiled our sweet girl. She was showered with gifts but more importantly love. She is so blessed to have such awesome friends and family that love and care about her, more than she will ever know.

I am so thankful for this past year I got to share with my Boo Boo. I love her so much and can't imagine my life without her!

Happy 1st Birthday Boo!

Over the last year

Over the last year I have had my ups and downs, smiles and frowns and laughter and tears. Over last year, it has been a whirlwind of new life experiences - failures to triumphs and "let's try this again". Over the last year I have gotten to do a lot of things that "working" moms would love to do with their baby. Over the last year I have had to watch my spending and become "frugal". Over the last year I have had to completely give myself to a little baby in order to put her first. Over the last year I have had to learn how to juggle being a first time mom, wife, daughter, sister and lover of God. Over the last I have had to put me second and Bristol first. Over the last year I have had to learn how to take a 5 minute shower, apply my makeup in 1 minute and throw my hair up in a bun. Over the last year I have made many first time mommy mistakes. Over the last year I have realized that motherhood is a tough job, it's not for the birds. Over the last year I have realized that it is so easy to get wrapped up in to comparing your child to another child. Over the last year I have realized that finishing my degree is probably one of my biggest and most proud moments of my 28 years of life. Over the last year, that it takes a village to raise a child. 

Over the last year I have opened my eyes to so many things that I never knew before. I just named a few, but trust me, there are so many more things that I have learned over the last year being a stay at home mom. I am forever grateful that I got to spend the last year at home with my sweet baby. 

A new chapter begins August 13th. I start my new job. 

life lately

 Life is booming at the Barron household. We've been busy busy busy. We are trying to spend as much time together as a family of 3 before we both go back to work and Bristol starts school. We took a trip up to the hill country a couple weekends ago because my parents are looking for property to buy and build a house on in Canyon Lake. We had a great time with my parents, as usual. They spoil us beyond words and we are so blessed to have them in our life. 

The picture above is a little pallet I made for Bristol to play on at the hotel. She is definitely a mover and shaker now a days. She loves to crawl around everywhere. Just the other day, she crawled to the dog water bowl and poured it all out. I couldn't help but laugh. 

 Bristol sure is Grandaddy's girl. She loves him and her face lights up everytime she sees him, it's precious. This was our first stop on the "property search". Of course I had to take a picture of 2 of my favorite people.

 We rented a boat on Sunday to cruise around Canyon Lake. This was Bristol's first boat right. She refused to wear the life jacket, but don't worry, we had 2, yes 2 jackets for her if anything happened. She wasn't so sure about the boat at first, she was very fussy and cranky but she warmed up to it about 30 minutes into the ride. Bristol sure does love her "da-da" and "da-da" sure does love her. He calls her pee-wee, peanut and many other names that are too cute.

 I have realized over the last almost year, I don't have many pictures with Bristol. I have been in a rut with my apprearance and I haven't been wanting to be in photos, which is unlike me. But I have realized that being in a picture with my boo-boo is so much more important to me than "looking perfect" in a picture. Sounds to petty, I know. But I am facing some silly demons right now about myself and slowly but surely, I will get there. 

 Snack time! Bristol loves strawberries, well, she pretty much loves any food. I mean, look at her belly in this picture. You think she has missed a meal? I think not. :)

 Hello cheeks! Oh and double chin! i love it. LOVVVVE IT! Precious girl has grown so much over the last several months, makes me happy. She struggled to gain weight for the first 2 months of her life. In fact, she didn't gain any weight the first 2 months, well maybe 1/2 pound. So to see her thrive makes me so happy. I am still a "control freak" when it comes to what she eats and drinks but I am happy I am this way. She loves every thing healthy. She doesn't turn away much, the only foods she has turned away have been watermelon, cantelope and avocado. 

 Remember how I said she was fussy and cranky at the start of the boat ride? Well, that was partially due to her being extremely tired. Believe it or not, she fell asleep on me while on our cruise around the lake. I was shocked actually. She isn't the type of baby that just falls asleep anywhere, which can be frustrating to be honest. But she was so tired that she conked out on me and then I layed her down on the bench in the boat and she slept a little while longer. I went for a swim while she slept. 

 This sweet face just got a bunch of "prizes" from her Grandaddy. He went to Orlando and the hotel had a disney store. Can you guess what he got her? Of course she got another minnie and a fun placemat and plate. Spoiled? You bet. 

 Bristol has definitely taken her time to hit milestones such as sitting up by herself, rolling over, crawling and bearing weight on her legs to stand up. I work with her everyday and she is improving drastically. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about her attitude about putting weight on her legs. She didn't want to do it at all, not one bit. I have slowly introduced new ways for her to stand up and it's been helping, a lot.

 Getting ready for her birthday party with her minnie mouse ears. She knows exactly who minnie is and it's so cute to see her reaction when she sees something minnie. 

 Bristol wanted to help me get the favors ready for her party. I hunted high and low for the favors we got for the boys and girls who come to her party. Her party is a minnie theme, but we weren't going to give the boys minnie stuff, so we got a few mickey things too :)

 She loves to get into stuff, especially when she knows she is not supposed to. She loves pulling stuff out of bags, She hasn't quite grasped putting the stuff back in the bag but nonetheless, she loves bags and things in bags. 

 Yep, she is trying to put a plastic bag on her head. 

She is a mess, a sweet precious mess. She is so nosy, busy and always wanting to get into something. I definitely let her explore and figure things out but there are boundaries. I love seeing her grow and change everyday. 

I can't believe she will be 1 in less than 2 weeks. My sweet girl will always be my baby no matter her age. I am thankful for her and thankful I am her momma. I can't wait for her party on the 18th to celebrate the life of my Bristol Elaine.