NEW WORDS!!!

She's had a solid handful of words:
Mama, Dada, Dog, Hot, Hi, Bye, Wow, and Nana.

This week she's had 4 new ones: No, Thanks, All Done and Kick It!
I'd love to be able to say that I taught her Thanks by practicing with her every time I handed her something, but she got this word from just paying attention. I wonder what other words she'll say that I would swear I'd never teach her but she picks up on her own. Oh can't wait for those. Lol. At Target tonight we were totally that family that lets their kid play in the store with a ball (deal with it) and she was rolling the ball and told Gentry to "Kick It!" I missed it because I was too busy picking out piggy banks that were ridiculously cheap and I just had to have matching pink and blue ones. Did you ever notice when there's kids playing around in the store, if they're super cute (and not being super annoying) they some how get away with it? Raya definietly did. A couple times she'd take her ball and roll it like she was pitching it kick ball style to some random person walking down they isle and they'd die. It was so funny. That Target trip was quite eventful :) Seriously, who needs Chuck E Cheese when you can just go to Target!

These pictures are from yesterday. I set my oreo down and thought the dogs got it until I stumbled across this kid in a box behind the couch...and found my oreo.

She has no shame :)

Later that night when Gentry got home he found the side of the cookie that had no frosting (the one in her left hand.) It was on the couch. Guess she's a frosting kinda girl.

Finger Painting...then body painting...then tasting it :)

I've been waiting forever to let Raya finger paint. I felt like it was an activity she would love because she could be outside and get as messy as she wanted. And it was :) BUT, I thought I'd be clever and let her use brown paint on pink paper so her first masterpiece would match her room. (I may or may not have also chose the brown paint because I wanted to get rid of this color first because its such a poopy color ;) and I didn't want to waste the good colors until she was actually painting) The thing about brown paint is it looks exactly like chocolate syrup and trying to explain to a 16 month old why she can't eat it was impossible. The painting went great! She loved it. She painted some on the paper, painted a lot on her body, and tasted it about 5 times (wayyyy better than expected.) It was a fun little afternoon outside!

i LOVE when she poses 

This one's for YOU!

Because I'm a mom that "participates" ;)

Life Support is Re-connected

And by life support I mean Internet and Cable. Wow! 2 whole weeks. I made it. Thanks to my trusty iPhone I wasn't totally living in a cave, but still! I watched Raya's fav movie, "Elmo in Grouchland," at least 4 times a day. Times that by 15 days and, well, lets just say I know all the songs by heart.  Embarrassing. Numerous times I found myself searching for a new Elmo movie simply because I wanted a new one to watch. WHAT? This is Raya watching the movie. She's clearly concerned about Elmo's well-being.

And he's OK!

Anyways...we're all moved in. The unpacking process is movin along. Slowly, but surely. Raya has been soooo easy throughout the whole move, but I really can only leave her unattended for so long, so I don't get much done when Gentry's at work. She's had some dates with Nana which are amazingly helpful, so I know by the end of the month we'll be all settled in :)
This is what happens when we get too caught up unpacking...

Still totally into Elmo's adventure. Guess that's multitasking?!

I'm now 23 weeks pregnant and feeling good! Moving was exhausting, as expected, but Gentry made sure I didn't work too hard. And I totally didn't :) I did what I could, but by 10pm I was READY for BED! Gentry stayed up till like 4 every morning putting stuff away or setting things up...I'm a lucky girl. Looking forward to being all done!

Raya Recently

She's got a fake cry now, which is so cute and so funny. This is her pouty face. I'm trying to make her laugh here. Can you tell she's trying so hard to not laugh?

New Zebra Tutu! This is from my friend Krissi and her son Jordon. Jordon is 2 and we joke about them dating in the future. He's adorable and they'd make the cutest modeling couple. Raya's holding the picture of Jordon that Krissi sent with the Tutu and is about to put it in her trunk. I told Gentry I was going to frame it and put it in Raya's room. He was not impressed and didn't think it was funny at all. LOL! Like he got really mad at me for even thinking about it. Matter of fact he told me it was so inappropriate and he would absolutely not allow it and couldn't believe I wanted to do it. Oh gosh, I'm still dying over this conversation. This is why I wish our life was a reality show so that the camera man could have video taped this whole conversation and I could have it forever to watch over and over. Good times :)

We went to watch an MLS Soccer game this weekend. It was just us in the box. It was a nice little family outing. Raya really liked watching everything. And being in a box makes life so much easier! But why does my head look so ginormous in this picture?

HAHA! She is such a silly girl. I love her face here. It says it all.

Just a little Monday afternoon photo shoot. I love baby halter tops. I was taking these to send to Olivia and got some good ones of Raya. 

20 weeks and 16 months!

This week is the half way point. I'm 20 weeks along...only 20 more to go! Being pregnant goes by so much faster when you already have one baby. Yikes! I still haven't decided if that's a good thing or not. Last night he definitely had his first party in my tummy. So fun to feel him move. Gentry could've felt him if he had been a little more patient. He's a strong little boy, that's for sure. And as I sit here and type now I can feel him rockin and rollin.

I follow a couple other blogs and one of them is by a girl, Kelly, who has an 18 month old. Here's her blog: Kelly's Korner. Every month she makes a little post about her little girl's size, weight and what shes up to. I loved it. Especially as something to look back on. So here goes Raya's first one!

Raya turned 16 months on the 22nd. It's amazing how she'll be the "same" for a few days and then one day she'll be so much smarter than the day before. She still only says about 8 or 10 words, but that seems to be about average for her age. She knows where her nose, ears, eyes, and hair is. I can give her all kinds of directions and she knows just what to do. She also seems to have grown in the last few weeks. She seems to be getting taller. She wears a size 5.5 shoes, but since there's very few places that make 1/2 sizes for toddler shoes I've pulled out all her size 6 shoes. She can still wear her 5s if its a sandal. I think she has big feet for her age group. She's currently in the 90% for height and 50% for weight. I'm guessing she's about 32 in. and at least 22lbs. She still fits into almost all of her 12month clothes. She can fit into her 18month dresses and leggings because she's long, but all the 18month shorts and skirts are still too big. I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be able to fit into a lot of the summer stuff I have for her this summer next summer. A couple of my girlfriends mentioned that they're 2yr olds can fit some of their 18month clothes, so if that's the case that will be perfect!

Her Dad is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan...so her Grandpas in Dallas picked this little cheer leading outfit up for her. Too cute! Perfect outfit for 16 months!

Ruffled Butts

These diaper covers are the cutest thing ever! This little pink one is from 2 of my longest girlfriends. Adrienne and I met in 2nd grade and Jessica and I met in 5th grade. We've stayed friends and every time we get together to catch up its like we were never apart :) We met for lunch last summer and it was the first time for them to meet Raya. Raya was about 3 months old then. They gave her the Ruffled Butts and a little tie-die onesie that said "My Mom Rocks." Cutest little outfit. Raya wore her Ruffled Butt for her portrait session today. I had to have another mini-session when we were waiting for Gentry because I had to get a good one showing her little butt.

The shoes are pink sparkly converse. My mom got them for her when she was 1 week old :)

Portrait Session

First a little history: We have this dress from some friends of my Great-Grandmother. Its a sweet little white dress with pink flowers and pink detailing. It was a gift from Italy to my Great-Grandma for my Mom. We have a picture of my Mom in the dress when she was little and a picture of me in the dress around the same age. Today was the day I took Raya to get her picture in it. Just about all of my professional photos of Raya have been done by my friend/brother's girlfriend, Tara (Here's her website)- and I should've had her do this, but I figured it would be easier to take Raya to a studio because I needed the picture to match the ones of myself and my Mom that are clearly in a studio. I had some coupons for a Target portrait session, which has no sitting fee, so I figured I could take Raya there and get the smallest package because I just need that one picture.

This is my Mom in the dress- she's probably about 11 months old

This is me in the dress- I'm probably about 15 months old

Now to today's Events: So I book Raya's portrait session yesterday. The dress had been dry cleaned, I had perfect socks and I knew the shoes I needed were at Target so I'd just get those when we were there. Then this morning I think, oh, well since we're already going to be there I'll take 2 more outfits that are adorable and from her other Grandparents and see if she (Raya) will let us get a couple outfit changes in. When we get to Target I get her all dressed in her first outfit- and the only outfit that I really needed a picture in. It was ridiculously cute when she had it on. I was so excited. For this picture I needed her to sit at an angle and just smile. The simplest of all poses. Haha, yah right. Raya DID NOT want to sit. She didn't want to run away, she just didn't want to sit. We tried so many different things. Uh! I wasn't going to get her in the same position as my Mom and I were in our pictures. So, I gave up on that one because I still had 2 more outfits to get to :)

These are the only 3 cute ones I got in the dress. I don't think any of them look like what I need :( but they're still cute and I ordered a few.

Skip to the end: The session was a bit of a waste. She didn't want to do anything. For about the first 3 minutes she liked the girl taking the pictures and then for the next 25 she was freaked out by her. However, I still ended up with 5 or 6 pictures I just had to buy ;)

This is in the outfit from Gentry's Parents

This is my FAVORITE!

This is the outfit from my Dad and Alan

All ready for her interview ;)

So I guess we'll try again...Tara, if you're reading this I'm gonna need to make a date with you and your back drop :) So annoyed with myself that I still bought $60 worth of pictures, none of which are ones I actually really needed. But then again, how can you not buy pictures when they're so freakin cute?!