Happy 1st Birthday Dixie Jean!

I can't believe it, I am the parent of a 1 year old. Where did the year go? I literally feel like I was delivering her yesterday. Now here we are a year later and she's so big. People with kids always told me that they grow up so fast, but wow! Happy Birthday my sweet precious Dixie Jean. You are such a blessing and joy in mommy and daddy's life everyday. Thank you God for choosing us to be her parents. We are forever grateful and honored. Here is a brief look at the past year as she's grown up (hope I don't cry):

New Family

This past weekend my dad got married and I got a new step-mom (Erin) and a step brother and sister (Paul and Heather). I had actually never even met Paul until the wedding day.

It was a lovely intimate wedding ceremony at a Bed and Breakfast in New Orleans. We got there early Saturday and helped set up (right up my ally since I love to coordinate parties and such). I was the designated photographer, which made me nervous and I am not all that thrilled with the pics. I'm no professional. But here are a few from the evening (going backwards): Congrats Dad and Erin!

Seriously??????

Is it really possible that my baby belly is already popping out????? With Dixie I didn't really start showing till at least 16 weeks. I am 12 weeks now and my belly looks like it did at 16 with her. Granted, I had some leftover belly from my sweet daughter...oh yea and lots of junk food cravings.

But, if you have ever had a child before, you know the difference between belly fat and when you start to feel that slight tightening that is from baby growth. It just feels different and hopefully I have not eaten that many cookies.

It's already starting to get a little uncomfortable when I lay on my belly. I told Evan last night that if I am already popping out, I am going to be HUGE!! Not looking forward to that, but so thankful and blessed that this new precious life is growing inside of me.

Gender Dreams

Lat night was my second baby gender dream with this pregnancy. I only had one with Dixie (she was a boy). Way to trust those dreams.

I have not had a feeling as to what this baby is yet..it's only been 11 weeks. But this morning I woke up feeling convinced, at least till the next dream. Two dreams in a row have been a GIRL! Now seeing my past dream history record I guess I should not trust that.

Lately I have been leaning towards having a boy. Granted we would be Thrilled either way. I have always love the sisterhood bond but a boy and a girl would be fun I think. But then in my dream I saw that baby girl and called her by name: Savannah (yes that is our girl name) and was so smitten and in love. Also a little freaked out because she had already cut 4 teeth by birth (I bet nursing was going to be lots of fun).

It made me really excited about having this baby, but I will gladly wait till December. I want more time with my Dixie Jean to be my baby. She's growing so fast and I find myself getting teary eyed every time I think of her turning 1 in a couple weeks.

I can't wait to officially find out what this sweet baby is and hold him/her in my arms. We have a while to go. Any guesses on how many times I change my mind before December?

Dixie's New Playground

I knew the time would come when Dixie liked playing in the kitchen more than with her toys. You always hear of kids banging on pots and sneaking into cabinets. Well, the time is now. Here are her favorite kitchen areas right now:

The cabinets: Thanks to the previous owners of our house we have childproof locks on 4 cabinets. For some reason these are the ones she goes for. One day she will discover that the pot cabinet on the other side of the kitchen has no locks and surely she will be in for a treat. I think I'll let her figure that out on her own. No need to rush...right?

The cookbooks: This child scoots into the corner of the kitchen and loves to pull out cookbooks. She actually opens them and flips through the pages. Her favorite for a while was a cookbook my Mother-in-law gave me called: The White Trash cookbook (Yikes!!!) Yesterday she upgraded to the kids cookbook. I am hoping this means that mom and dad will have a chef on hand when she hits the teen years:)

The Lemons: "When Dixie hands you lemons.......you make lemonade." Well, that is if the lemons are real. Mine were bought at Michael's for $4 to use as a table centerpiece. I put the basket on the ground and she has a ball throwing them around the kitchen and putting them back into the bowl. She likes to hand them to people so that they say "thank you" then she immediately wants you to hand them back to her so she can say "thank you." Although she hasn't mastered the word, she says it pretty clearly and I about fainted when I heard it.

Here's to my sweet little Kitchen Kid!

Best Music!!

If you have small children or you yourself just LOVE old Disney movies and the silly songs from Veggie Tales, you must go onto pandora.com and play the Veggie Tales channel. Of course it is better if you buy a year subscription so you do not have to hear the ads after every song, which is highly annoying. You don't have to subscribe, but it saves you from going nuts.

Dixie bops her little body to the tunes and claps after every song. I have to admit that not only does Momma dance around the house, but I also belt out every song at the top of my lungs. I like to pretend that I am the Disney characters....yes, I am a slight bit crazy. Poor Dixie Jean is forced to listen to constant Disney karaoke and I'm sure she would plug her ears if she knew how. Praise God we don't live in an apartment anymore or surely the neighbors would be pounding on the wall for me to shut up.

If you're having a bad day this is sure to cheer you up. If you are having a good day, this will only make it better. Go ahead, what are you waiting for...try it out. You'll be singing and dancing before you know it too

Quack Quack

I forgot to post that we took Dixie to feed the ducks for the 1st time. Here are a few pics:

Mini update

I have been slacking at blogging:( Just for a short update:

• We had a great turnout for our housewarming party last weekend. It was great to have everyone over and celebrate our first home.
• I am tutoring 3 kids this summer (gets the teacher out of me and a little cash in my pocket)
• Bought Dixie a baby pool...tried to put her in and she screamed because the water was too cold..but boy did she look cute in that swimsuit:) We'll try again this weekend and I'll post pics.
• I am feeling pretty good overall. Still tired but not to the extreme that I was before and I don't feel as sick anymore. Only 2 more weeks of first trimester.
• Trying to plan Dixie's first birthday party. I think I am in over my head. The guest list is at 60 people...yikes!!! Should have done a small family thing but that's my party planning self.
• Sad because my baby girl is going to be 1!!!!!!! How did we get here???
• My dad is getting married this month...crazy!!! Looking forward to the wedding. I am the photographer..yikes hope I can pull that off.
• Father's day is coming up...any ideas for homemade daddy gifts????

I guess that's it for now. I leave you with a cute picture of all of the cousins ready for summer: