Easter 2014

  Easter this year was so much more meaningful with Brielle being added to the family.  We love including Brielle in yet another "first".  I love that Easter is celebrating of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and even though Brielle is not old enough to understand what she is being taught, just involving her in the Church, definitely makes our hearts so full.
  This Easter we celebrated with Shane's side of the family here in Yoakum, and had SO much fun!! We haven't seen all of his Aunts and Uncles in so long, and Brielle meeting all of them for the first time made the weekend the best one in a while! It was so cute because she is now 10 months old and really interested in new things and learning how everything works means she definitely LOVED this holiday (the first one she really was into).  From searching the eggs, to opening them and seeing what was inside each one, to eating what was inside made for one HYPER, funny, no-nap taking baby girl! (She usually takes two a day so that was definitely surprising).
  Brielle also interacts with children differently, and learning how to play with other kids (older and younger), and learned that she definitely does not like when mom and dad hold another child, lol! Learning how to share, and practice patience is not exactly her strong suit, but she is working on it and will get there soon (hopefully)!  The food was amazing and the desserts just added to all of the goodness! I can admit that we took a plate home for the next day from the leftovers (still so delicious).  I can't wait to get together with everyone again, and share God's love and grace among family. We hope everyone had a great Easter as well!
  Here are some cute pictures from the weekend!

Showing Mommy her treasures!

morning before festivities!

Looking at all of her eggs :)

looking for Eggs

Egg hunting with Daddy

Brielle on top of the hay with her cousin Pariss

Why Not You?

  During the conference where I attended a couple of weeks ago and saw Jillian Michaels speak; what really resonated with me was her topics on health, happiness, and success.  She asked the audience to raise their hand if they could really give her an answer on all three of those topics and feel truly successful in each one of them.  Well, needless to say that only one person raised their hand--in about a 1000 seat audience so that truly did amaze me.  Then she said asked all of us "Why not you?", It felt like she was talking directly to me and I loved every single moment of it.
  Let's start out by saying that each one of us deserves to have all of the above.  Jillian stated that "so many of us give everything to everyone else and give very little to ourselves".  That phrase describes me and my life so much.   I feel that it's very important to give to others and do as much as you can possibly to help people--but she's right, we need to give at least the same amount of time and energy that we do for others into our self.  And no, it's not selfish to spend a little "me" time doing what you love and what makes you happy every now and then.
  I could definitely improve on my health by far, if you looked at all the lab results you would think that I am a healthy average 25 year old.  Well I have a long way to go and I want to lead and be the example for Brielle and any future children we have.  I definitely have in mind that after we are completely done having kids, I will finally get my body back to what I want.  It will take time, but I will get there!
  I am completely happy with God and my relationship with Him, my amazing husband and family, and my friends that have remained so close to me over the years.  I would be the one to tell anyone that my happiness cup is full and remains full 99% of the time.  Shane has taught me over the years to let go of things that I cannot control and really enjoy the moment that I am in, and with a lot of practice I have become much better at doing just that.
  Success is something I spoke about (here), where I explain how I measure success and how there can really be so many different meanings of the word to each and every person.  This is the area that I feel like has the potential for the most growth.  Right now I am focusing on growing my career and doing something that may take me out of my comfort zone, and also on all the new and different things Brielle is learning and doing in her life and wanting her to be as successful at it as possible.  (I seriously can't believe she will start walking soon on her own--she has definitely mastered the walker!)
  I can't wait to see what the future holds, but I know that I will continue to work on my health, happiness, and success each and every day!

Spring Is In The Air!

    I unfortunately had to work this past weekend when our gorgeous daughter had her photo shoot with Laura Morsman, (you can find her website here), and we decided to do the spring mini session for $40 which is probably the best money that we have ever spent! She did GREAT with my mom and Shane in the background, and I was definitely excited that I switched shifts so that I could go to Church and be home with my family on Sunday.  More on the photo shoot--it was outdoors, which as you can tell, is Brielle's favorite place in the world to be.  It wasn't that pretty of a day, but right around 1:20pm it ended up being perfect.  I can't wait to show all of you her pictures and we will definitely be a future customer! Thanks again Ruthie (you can find her here) for the reference on your fb!

Happy Spring everyone!!

Brielle is 10 months!

Seriously, where in the world has 10 months gone?? She is SO cute this month and like I say, every month gets better and better!! Her personality is hilarious and she definitely let's people know if she likes them or not pretty quickly, she doesn't go to everyone anymore! (especially my brother! haha)

Height: 29 inches

Weight: 19 pounds 2 ounces

Likes:
-She still LOVES food, and is not picky at ALL! She will try anything and everything, and will definitely let us know if she likes it or not!  She eats all finger foods and no baby food anymore!   Her latest eats are chicken nuggets, spicy foods (she actually loves it, surprisingly!),desserts.
-Her wubbanub still takes top priority with her during her nap times and bed time. (good thing she is TWO now-one at my moms, one over here!)
-Still Playing with puzzles (taking every piece out). Has not gotten the concept of putting pieces of the puzzle back in the board.
-Loves to walk around the couches and finding everyone.
-When we say "I'm going to get you!", she crawls SOO fast wanting you to chase her!
-Loud music and dancing to it

Dislikes:
-Waiting and praying that one day she will enjoy car rides! Kind of makes me think she might have the car sickness like her daddy!
-When she is determined doing something (throwing food off of tray, clearing things off of table top) and we say no. (she still arches her back and falls backwards!)

Teeth: 5 teeth! They are still bothering her, so more might be coming in!

Language:
Signing-More (she claps and I think she means more), All done (sometimes), dog--She has decreased her signs but understands the word that we are telling her, so hopefully she will start signing more soon!
Words- Mama, Dada, Baby, All done, Pa-Pa, Nanny(for her Nana), Stop, No-no-no-no (says it just likes us, so cute!),
Understanding- "Give it to me", "High Five", "Come here", "Where's Daddy/Mama", "Pet the dog or the cat", "Time to eat", and A LOT more things, just can't quite think of it all, she definitely understands a lot more then we may think she does!

Playing at the park going "weeee"

A little blurry but that's because she is an active child! ;)

All About Family

  This past week has been amazing to say the least.  Between working in Austin two days, seeing my best friends that are pretty much like family and going to see Jillian Michael's speak about maximizing your life(will post a later blog about that amazing experience), and seeing my family that live in Temple the weekend before, just made my heart feel so full.
  Keeping up with family that live about 150 miles away, definitely makes it difficult at times to see when everyone can take a day off of work, or just happens to have that day off already to be able to plan a get-together.  My brother and sister in-law had planned to get my nephew dedicated at their church, and even though the plans didn't work out we all decided to still meet up and do something fun.
  Shane had decided to come up that morning before on a Sunday so he could drive with my parents from Lockhart to Austin.  Since Brielle doesn't like the car too much, we try to make the trips as efficient as possible and take her to one location and stay for a while before leaving to another.  So we all headed for my brother's house for Bri to be able to play around for a little while before getting into the car again, and she definitely takes a WHILE to get used to my brother (the only person she really cries when he picks her up), while I find it amusing, I know in time he will be her FAVORITE person in a few years!
  We then decided to all go out to eat at Chuy's and meet our cousins there since it's kind of mid-way in Round Rock so they didn't have to drive all the way up to my  brother's house.  Bri was suppose to be asleep during that time, and she wasn't too happy so Shane and I kind of switched duties with feeding her, and then taking her and walking around for a bit and then returning to the table to that the other parent could eat.  We just don't like to have a screaming baby in a VERY filled restaurant, so we try to keep her as happy as possible. After some great conversations, we got cute pictures and then everyone went on their way back home.  It was so much fun, even if it was for a few hours! I can't wait to do it again!
  My parents and I also made a trip to Seguin to see how David and Pop are doing, and let me tell you--they make the BEST desserts ever, and my step-dad even gave me some top secret family recipes that I have waited for so long to get, and now they are mine! Can't wait to bake! :)  It is so good to see David do the things that make him the happiest even through all of his pain and struggle he is going through right now. Can't wait to see them again as well! ( I really wish I would have taken pictures, Brielle was so cute playing with all of their cats!)
  Even though I am not allowed to directly talk about my patient, I can say that I am one happy nurse with all the improvement that she has been making since I started working with her! It is such a rewarding job and I know one day in her near future, she is not going to need a nurse and is going to be just like all of the other kids her age! I can't wait for that day!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week:

All of us and our babies!

My cousins, Branch and Veronica with their son Braxton and my nephew Aiden

Kisses for baby Aiden!

My brother feeding Brielle, which lasted less then a minute before she started crying

Grandpa, his bird, and his grand-baby

Oh yes, our child likes to be in everything now! :)

Adriane, Lauren and myself (Best friends!)

Measuring Success

  As my mom was teaching English as a second language to her students across the world, I overheard her ask her students for them to state how they measure success where they are from.  Not one single student answered with something financial or materialist things.
  In the U.S I think many people measure success by materialist items, such as making enough money to afford their first house, their fancy cars, and nice clothes.  To me I look at success as something that I see in my surroundings.  I see it in my relationship with God, my marriage with Shane, our amazing daughter, and all my amazing close family and friends.
  Success in our marriage is the fact that no matter what Shane and I have faced in our almost four year marriage, we have managed to work through it and become stronger as a couple.  Some people would have pulled the plug if they had gone through what we have, but we didn't and that to me is a success on it's own and we know with God, we are more than capable to be life-long partners.
  When I look at my daughter's eyes I really see so much happiness, love, kindness and strength and I really do consider all of those items successful in knowing that we are raising such an amazing loving little child to grow to become an amazing woman. I know we will look back in twenty years and be so thankful she is the way she is.
  With family and friends success is measured differently because to me, each and every relationship is different. Making a point to continue to grow my friendships and my relationships with family by making more visits with them, calling, or even texting makes me know that I am still trying to keep all my relationships as strong as they always have been.  Those are all ways on how I measure success.

So a question to many of you: How do you measure success?