Oh YES...the 30's are the BEST!!

You have probably heard the saying "Oh No, the BIG 3-0" before but I have decided that for me it's more like Oh YES, the 30's are the BEST! Why you ask...well in no particular order...

• I have a beautiful baby girl which means I am a mom
• I have an amazing husband which means I am a wife
• I have loving and supportive parents which means I am a daughter
• I have the sweetest little brother ever which means I am a sister
• I have incredible Mother/brother- in-laws which means I am a daughter/sister in-law
• I have two awesome dogs which means I am pack leader. ;-)
• I have a job that I love and coworkers that I laugh with on a daily basis which means I am LUCKY
• I have faith that God is in control in my life which means I am a Christian 
• I have wonderful friends that are always there for me which means I am blessed
• I have my health...I have so much I could literally type all day!!! :-)

So my birthday was so nice! Michael surprised me by getting me a cake from Rick's and it was not only delicious it was HUGE!!  Here are the pictures

1-4-3 stands for I-Love-You!

Three triangular tiers for 3 decades and Delta Delta Delta! 

 See how big this guy is!! :-)

 

Only 3 more days till Michael gets home!!! :-) Then I have one more thing to be thankful for!! :-D

Be blessed

Only 6 more days!!!

Until Daddy is HOME!! I don't know about my sweet little girl but these 7 weeks have not been easy to say the least but I am very proud of myself for holding down the fort while he was gone. Could the garden's look a little better...sure, could the house be a little cleaner...you bet, could the dogs have walked more...yep, could Emma have been in better hands...I don't think so! :-)

I have been lucky to have my parents come up every few weekends and of course cousin Amber's visit so the weekends have flown by which is good since they are normally the hardest times for me and when I miss Michael the most. Not just for the help with Emma but for the company. I will be sooooo happy to have someone to talk to whenever I want!

Tomorrow is the BIG 3-0 and I couldn't be happier! I have never been the kind of person to obsess about age so to me it's just another day and I am just happy to have a wonderful husband, amazing daughter and the best family and friends anyone could ever ask for!!! God has truly poured so much into my cup that it is running over constantly! In celebration for my birthday Three friends and I went to see Katy Perry in concert in Tulsa at the BOK center and it was AWESOME!! She played for 2 hours and changed her outfit 17 times!! She even had Janelle Monae open for her and that was great too! I was only away from Emma for the night but she was in great hands with her NaNa so I was able to have a wonder time with Bethany, Whitney and Amy!!

Here are some pictures from the big night!

And then sweet baby Emma has been doing some great things since I last blogged. She is now sitting up unassisted and loving it! She jumps and jumps in her jump-a-roo!!, laughs all the time, she will sometimes reach for me when I come over to pick her up! All these things just make every day another adventure and I am so happy I get to see it all!  Here are some recent pictures!

What...I'm already 6 months old!!??!!

Love it!

Sophie doesn't stand a chance when Emma's teething

Trying out water...She is ALWAYS trying to take my cup from me so I thought I would try giving her one. :-)

Momma's about to leave but I am in great hands with great hands with NaNa

And Gabby wanted to get in on some photos!!

And I finally got to see the amazing photos that Jessica Ritchie took of me and Emma! Here are the ones she tagged me in on Facebook!

Until next week...be blessed!

Jill

PINTEREST...

So I know that lots of people have heard of this site but I just discovered it...and I am already hooked!! Tonight I made my first DIY project!!

Everyone has been making Razorback wreaths but being a "house divided" and I mine would have to say Go Hogs AND Roll Tide. :-) So I decided to go with red and white with a little black. For those of you who know about Alabama you will be able to see the houndstooth ribbon to give Michael something to smile about!

I worked to show you the steps from beginning to end in photos!

Hobby Lobby didn't have a round wreath so a green one from floral works fine! Favorite ribbons and straight pins round out the list of what is needed.

I cut most of the ribbons between 4-5 1/2 inches. I started out measuring but that quickly got old so I just eyeballed it.

 Then I just started layering the looped ribbon that I pinned to the wreath frame.

White

Red with sparkles

Some more white

Zebra with red sparkle trim

and lastly houndstooth for Michael! ;-D

Finished product hanging on the door.

I am very pleased that this only took me an hour and a half from beginning to end and it was perfect to keep my hands busy while I watched Project Runway!

Can't wait to try the next project!

Capturing Emma everyday

Like I mentioned before, since Michael is gone I have gotten better at getting a quick photo of Emma each day to send to him, his mom, my parents and my wonderful cousin Amber. This month has almost (but not quite) flown by and at 9:25 pm on the 28th I was shocked to receive a text from AT&T telling me I had gone over my text limit for the month...and I still had 6 days!! WHAT!?! I have never gone over my allotted 1000 texts but this month I did. :-(  And with this super sweet and precious little girl money is even tighter than normal. Thanks to the urging of my coworker Mary I decided to call and see if there was anything I could do. I was more than willing to switch to unlimited text messaging for just $10 more a month but I wanted to know if there was anyway they would be willing to backdate it to cover the month of August. Well the wonderful lady I spoke with did me one better (I wish I remembered her name!) she took off the $22.10 charge I had racked up with my 1,221 texts for the month AND gave me a $100 credit on our account to help us out!! All I can say is that God is good!! "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Ephesians 3:20 I really can't explain how that little act blessed my life not to mention helped make sure that Michael gets to see his smiling babies face at the start of each day!

I am sure that this weekend when cousin Amber came in to see us that the number of texts sky rocketed!! She took so many shots of Emma Jean on my cell phone and some great ones with her fancy camera. We  had such a GREAT time hanging out, talking, catching up and visiting local stores like Riffraff and The Mustache but by far the most fun was the photo shoots!! Here are some pictures from the weekend and you see right...Emma Jean is trying her hand at rice cereal! :-D Any tips on how YOU and your little one started eating solids would be welcomed! Right now she is having a little rice cereal at night but when should she start having more? how much should she get at each time? when do we move to veggies? I need directions! ;-)

 

Ready for cereal...

Yum...that is not half bad...

More more give me more!!

All done!! Do I have something on my face?!?

 

Just another day of being me.

 So glad Michael had this old quilt for me to use as a backdrop!

 I love this little girl!!

Amber had to get one in her white dress. :)

After being up for a hour and a half a small smirk is all I was getting!

It's so hard being this cute all the time. Sometimes I just have to sleep!!

We also had a mini photo shoot with a friend of mine Jessica Ritchie to benefit Mamie's Poppy Plates. I think that 15 minutes is the PERFECT amount of time for a 5 1/2 month old to be  happy in front of the camera! :-) I can't wait to see the proofs and am so happy to be able to contribute to such a sweet organization! 

Oh and this Sunday Mom is coming to visit!!! And that also marks 3 weeks remaining until Michael is back!!! So that means 21 DAYS LEFT!! :-D Can you tell I am excited!!

Have a great week and be blessed!

Jill