Quarterly Top 5 Photos: Quarter 3

I am clearly late to the game here, but I saw this over on Living Like the Kings and loved it (Kat is full of these wonderful link ups! 

Here is how it works..

• Linky begins Wednesday, September 26th and ends Wednesday, October 3rd
• Go through the photos  from July, August, September 2012
• Choose 5 and post them on your blog or Flickr account beginning September 26th
• PLEASE only use photos that include your CHILDREN and/or PETS 
• Accompany each photo with a short explanation of why you chose it
• Link up here at Naptime Momtog, Click.Pray.Love., or Ramblings and Photos
• Be sure to include the Quarterly Top 5 banner or button in your post to share the link up with your friends.

Now, I am, by no means, an expert photographer. The majority of the pictures I take are on my phone (because with a crazy little boy, finding the camera will inevitably mean a lost moment), regardless, here are my quarterly top 5! 

 For whatever reason, we are absolutely fascinated with the dishwasher. Generally he stands in his walker and pulls the silverware out (clean or dirty... doesn't matter!) This time I made the mistake of leaving the door down and walking away for a second. Lets hope he's this into the dishes in the future! 

 Is it wrong that I love this picture as much as I do?!? Preston had been sick all day and this was what he looked like 95% of the day, but I just couldn't get over his skeleton jammies and how pitiful he looked! Recently I have seen this face more than I care to think about so its losing its allure quickly! 

One morning I heard a banging sound coming from his room. Upon further inspection, I found him standing in his crib banging the blind adjuster against the wall. He was thrilled with his discovery! He also kept pulling the curtains back to look outside, which I thought was so stinkin cute!

We love to feed ourselves! You can see that he dumped his entire bowl of cheerios on the floor and is eating them that way (which the dogs love!). I also love how you can see his pink/zebra sippy cup in the background courtesy of his friend Molly! (Her mom gave us their old sippy cups so we could figure out which ones he liked before buying 1,000...of course he favors the pink and zebra). 

There is nothing really special about this picture expect for the fact for the first time HE LOOKS LIKE ME! Somewhere there is a picture of me, around the same age, crawling down the hallway. We look identical! We are still trying to unearth that picture, but I cannot wait to see them side by side! 

Toddle Along Tuesday - Things I Actually Say

Tonight I'm joining Kat over at Living Like the Kings and Melissa at Growing Up Geeky for Toddle Along Tuesday!

This weeks topic is Things I Actually Say! I love this because the older Preston gets, the more I seem to repeat myself (I'm sure it will only get worse!)


Things I Actually Say

"Preston James....you get your tiny little butt back in here"

"Get the dog food out of your mouth!"

"Stop climbing on Bella!"

"Preston, where's momma? Come find momma!"

"Are you {expletive} kidding me?!? -- (yeah, we are still working on the no cursing)

and more often than not...

"Is it bedtime yet?"

Birthday Planning Mayhem

I cannot believe that my sweet little boy will be turning a year old in just 2 months time! A mom I met during our travels last month put it perfectly -- she said, "the days are long but the years are short". How true!

For anyone who knows me and/or has talked to me about party planning knows that I have had the HARDEST time coming up with a theme for Preston's birthday party. This dismays Ed, because, initially we weren't even going to have a party. Being that his birthday is on Thanksgiving, we figured we would do a small family thing after dinner (and we may or may not have joked about toasting a shot of tequila to making it through the first year). After much deliberation, though, I won him over on having a party...now I am making him (and everyone else) crazy with the planning.

I wont bore with the details except to say that I have changed the theme approximately 863 times...often to a theme I had considered before. In all honesty, we have probably circled the same 5 themes. Fear not! I have settled on a theme and ordered invitations before I could change my mind! Fate intervened (thankfully) and I found this invitation on etsy, which actually matches the paper I bought to make the decor. Now all is right in party planning land!

Stay tuned to see how my decor progresses and just how cute my little gentleman is going to look ;-)

5 on Saturday: Because my #6 requires an entire post!

My friend Cameron does an awesome job keeping up to date on her family's life with "5 on Friday", which I absolutely love! As a variation (and because I tend to have more time on Saturday), I am going to attempt a 6 on Saturday!


1) Preston was "sick" this week, which was EXHAUSTING! I was amazed by the level of patience that is required to take care of a sick baby. I am still not sure what his deal is, but I have narrowed it down to either seasonal allergies or runny nose as a result of teething. Most of the teeth he was working on, though, have cut through, so I am thinking he got my seasonal allergies. I am going to pick up some medicine today to see if I can offer the kid some relief! He isn't sneezing anymore, thankfully, but he is still congested and has a runny nose.

2) Ed and I are going on our first date night in....way too long! We usually stick to the standard dinner and a movie, but we both seem to be feeling a little adventurous, so I think we are going to head downtown! There is a restaurant that I have been wanting to try -- Flight -- which is exactly what it sounds like. A flight is a grouping of 3, so you can try a flight of red wine (3 small glasses of different red wines), a flight of salad (3 different small portions of salad), and/or a flight of steak (3 pieces of steak prepared in different ways with different toppings). Its different than our usual. I am looking forward to a night out after spending so many weeks apart!

3) I have a secret first love. Okay, well its not really a secret, as she is one of the most spoiled members of our household...

 The Ring Bearer in our Wedding 

 Anyway, Miss Bella Frances is having surgery on Tuesday to remove a golf ball size fatty tumor from her armpit. The doctor seemed to think it would be a quick procedure and she wont even need a drain, which is good. I am nervous for her, though I know she will get around much easier without it interfering with her leg! Now to figure out how to keep Preston from climbing on her and Zoey from wrestling with her while she recovers...

4) I am still hard at work figuring out what the heck I am doing with our living room wall. As I have previously mentioned, once we moved our couches around the pictures that were hanging didnt look right. We also happened to buy some photographs when we were in Charleston in the spring. I have those hanging, but I still need to get the prints made to hang the smaller pictures I want up. I swear we will be moving before I finally get around to it. Last week I finally hung pictures in the hallway. We've lived here a year and a half!

5) Speaking of moving....looks like we will be heading north in May. As of now, we dont know where we will be stationed next and probably wont know until March or April, but we do know that we will definitely be going to CT for 6 months while Ed finishes SOAC (civilian translation: department head school [though I realize that makes as much sense to you as SOAC]). Ideally, we would stay in CT, but we are both well aware that the Navy likes to "surprise" us. Nonetheless, we have been looking at houses, which makes it super exciting!

6) I was going to regale you on Preston and my adventures to Connecticut over Labor Day, but looking at the pictures, I realized it required an entire post. Stay tuned for pictures of my future daughter in law, gorgeous best friend/bride, and naughty little boy taking over New England!



As a wrap up...our week in photos!

Bathing Suit Dread

Yeah, I've been MIA. Lots going on in these parts!

To fully understand the bathing suit debacle I am about to share, I must first tell you the story of our honeymoon.

Because the Navy is such a glorious branch of the armed forces, Ed and I were forced to take our honeymoon a few months after our wedding. Its common, unfortunately, and many couples I know never actually get to take a honeymoon because of the Navy's unending generosity. Regardless, we were married at the beginning of January and didnt actually go on our honeymoon until the end of March.

Approximately 4 days after I found out I was pregnant.

In addition to being pregnant, Ed's dad and stepmom were kind enough to offer us one of their time shares for a trip to Aruba, which happened to coincide with the trip they were taking to Aruba, at the same resort. Now, dont get me wrong...I love my in-laws they are wonderful, generous people, but being in Aruba with morning sickness, no alcohol, and an additional 5 lbs (I swear I started gaining weight the SECOND I found out I was pregnant!)....not quite what I had envisioned.

I digress. The point of all of this is that we are going on a cruise at the end of the year. Not just a cruise, but  a wild and crazy extravagant cruise to the Caribbean. We have been planing and talking and making arrangements for Preston and the dogs and just today it hit me....holy shit I have to put on a bathings suit in 3 months.

Everyone whines about how much weight they gain during pregnancy and how hard it is to lose. They do not joke. Now, I gained 65 lbs, which is about double of what you are suppose to gain, but as healthy as I ate I was huge. To date I have lost about 40 of it....leaving 25 that still hangs around.

I have started doing weight watchers again, which is how I lost the initial chunk of weight (you know, that, and actually giving birth) and I am training for a 5k thats in October. I am hopeful that I can at least get close to my goal weight by our trip but still the thought of putting on a bathing suit makes me a bit squeamish.

This leads to the question of where to buy a bathing suit when you 1) do not weigh 95 lbs, 2) bear lovely tiger stripes on your stomach from a sweet little boy, and 3) dont want to look like a skank.

I am open to suggestions. And in the mean time...I am going to go dream about cake.