17 month cuteness

I've been slacking on blogging but I take lots of pics and post most of these on Instagram. But just wanted to share a few of my favorites from the past couple of weeks! My little girl is always keeping me busy and smiling!

16 months old

This precious girl is growing up so fast! 

Wearing 12-18moth clothes, size 4 shoe and size 3 diapers. Weighs about 23 pounds. Cutting her 12th tooth.

  She's talking and saying at least 20 words. Thank you and hi her favorites! 

 Her personality is really coming out and she has turned into a little girl!  She is independent and wants to do what she wants to do! I am going to have a headstrong little girl but she is genuinely so sweet! She gives the best hugs and always loves to kiss!

 She is truly my little buddy! I love my days with her and as tired as I am at the end of the day, I can't wait for her to get up the next morning so we can be together again! I have never been so thankful for anything in my whole life! 

Happy Easter from P and me! :) 

A day at the park.

Preslee and Romeo had a play date at the park this week! They both LOVED the slides and literally went down over and over again. We will be making many more trips to the park this spring! 

 How funny is this??!

 Sibling rivalry... Preslee was mad at Romeo because she wanted to go down the slide first! ha! 

This smile is the most precious thing in the world to me! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Riffraff winner is...

Congrats Cyndi! 

Thank you all for your entries and giving Riffraff all the love!

-Cyndi- Please email me (julee_bell@yahoo.com) asap with your address! Thanks! 

Riffraff Giveaway!

 One of my very favorite stores in Fayetteville is Riffraff! Kirsten is a sweet friend that I have always admired. She has worked so hard and turned a small business in to a huge success! 

After Matt died, Riffraff had a day of shopping where part of the proceeds went to Preslee's college fund. This meant so much to me and I can never thank the people that went to shop that day and Kirsten enough for their generosity! 

Riffraff has a huge variety of items from clothes, shoes & jewelry to household decor and furniture. If you are ever in NWA, you HAVE to make a trip to the Fayetteville square and shop! But if you don't get to go in person, don't worry... You can shop Riffraff online at www.shopriffraff.com! 

Now on to the giveaway...

Wouldn't  you like to wear this beautiful necklace on Valentines day??! 

Here is how to make this YOURS...

There are 6 ways to enter your name for the drawing! Leave a comment on my blog for each one that you do!

1.  "Like" the Riffraff facebook page. www.facebook.com/Riffrafffayetteville
2.   Follow @ShopRiffraff on Twitter
3.   Follow @ShopRiffraff on Instagram
4.   Follow Riffraff on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/shopriffraff 
5.   Follow Riffraff's blog www.shopriffraff.blogspot.com
6.   Join the mailing list via their blog

The contest ends on Tuesday, February 12th at 11:00pm. I will post the winner then overnight the necklace so that you are ready to go for Valentines day! 

For any local Northwest Arkansas readers, be sure to go to Riffraff on Tuesday to help celebrate their 4th BIRTHDAY!! I wish I could be there so go shop for me! :) 

Dr. Silber

2 years ago today, I met Dr. Silber. Besides God (obviously), he is the helping hand that made my biggest dream come true!

After tons of research and many friend's opinions, I made an appointment in St. Louis to see Dr. Sherman Silber at the Infertility Center of St. Louis. It's a day that I will never forget! His positive attitude and assurance that I would have a baby is something that I will never forget. I wrote more about him in my blog post about our IVF journey (read HERE).

I get many emails about why I chose this clinic. For me, it was where I felt the most comfortable. Hormones along with fear & anxiety made me a crazy person, so when I went and met with Dr. Silber and his staff and they took all that anxiety away. I knew it didn't matter how far I had to travel because this was where I wanted to be during my In-vitro process.

I was the first to complain about having to travel and it being more "work" to conceive a baby but it really doesn't matter how far, how long or how much money it cost when you feel confident and comfortable with your doctor! I would recommend him to anyone!

This picture was taken on March 12, 2011. I will never forget this day, when these three great men helped me conceive my precious Preslee! 

To find out more about their clinic... www.infertile.com

Hiiii!

Preslee has perfected the word Hi. She has many different versions of saying it as well. So thats why I am starting out with Hiiii! 

 I am sorry for the lack of post but this month was a long one! The holidays are always exhausting but add in the emotional fatigue and I am just glad I survived. But there are many special memories we made with Preslee this year and I wanted to document them so I remember there were some good days amongst the sad ones. 

We took P to her first Christmas parade! I grew up going to this parade so it was fun to taking her and seeing her enjoy all the sights and sounds. :) 

Then we sent to see SANTA! Obviously she really loved him. And to be honest, I love crying Santa pics. :) 

We have been so blessed by many of our friends coming to visit us. Jennifer and the kids have been down quite a few times and that makes our day! And that day, they just happen to be in Hot Springs so we met them for dinner at CFA! The kids had so much fun playing in the Chick-fil-a play ground!

 During the holidays, it was important to me to be surrounded by my closest family and to pour myself into Preslee and making sure that she had fun! I was really excited for her to get to play with my niece and nephew on Christmas Eve! 

There were many aspects of the holiday season that I could have just skipped this year but I didn't want Preslee to be affected by any of this. I want her to have memories and pictures just like she would have if Matt hadn't died. So... Santa came to see her even though he (she) didn't really feel like it! :) 

Then we headed off to do Christmas with Matt's family. She was so spoiled with all her new toys! :) 

We were at our 3rd Christmas by 1:00 and she didn't miss a beat! :) 

She is a gift to us all! She has become so affectionate and loves giving kisses! It makes everyone feel better! :) 

We ended Christmas night with SNOW!! I took a nap and woke up to inces of whiteness! It was so beautiful! 

 Preslee definitely brought so much joy to all of us during the first holidays without Matt.  Her smile and personality made us laugh instead of cry!

The new year brought on many different emotions. I found myself thinking about the past new year when we had a 4 week old baby and we just were starting a new chapter of our lives. My stomach hurt thinking about 2013 because it was a date that Matt would never be apart of. 

 Then, the week that had been dreaded.  Jan. 8 was Matt's 33rd birthday and Jan. 13 would have been our 6th wedding anniversary. I was really sick with virus that week and I decided that I would move to my new house that week too. I am not really sure what I was thinking but I just about killed myself trying to get things settled I guess I was just trying to keep busy so that I didn't let my thoughts and emotions of the week get me down. 

But that brings me to the fact that Preslee and I are finally in our own house! We love our little place and feel very comfortable and cozy here! I am going to do a whole post of the renovations of the house so you can see the before and after. After 3.5 months of living with family, I am just so thankful to have a place of my own again. My parents and MIL are absolutely wonderful and took such good care of us but it was just time to try to regain my independence and figure out what life looks like now. 

So now that I am somewhat caught up from the past month, here's to hopefully starting to blog more regularly again! Thank you ALL for you constant prayers and thoughts for us. They are so appreciated and I know are helping us get through this day to day! Love you all! 

Princess P's party!

I realized I never posted these pictures of Preslee's birthday party! It was a Princess crown theme and it turned out so fun and cute!

We had it at a local event center which was just a big open room. My dad grilled burgers and hotdogs, Lisa and her sisters made dips, pink popcorn, & pretzel rods. Then I got crown cookies, cake and cupcakes from our favorite bakery in NWA, Rick's bakery! The party was a great turnout and the kids had so much fun playing with all the riding toys! 

  

Loved having my friends and their babies there to celebrate!

 Aunt KK made that precious balloon number 1! 

 My sweet friend, Carrie and Emmett! Love these two and so happy to live in the same town as them now! 

 Uncle Andy and the birthday girl! 

 She loved the cake! 

 I loved having my family there to celebrate my baby's first birthday! 

 We sure missed Matt but I know he would have been proud that we still had a big birthday for our princess!

  Most importantly, I think P had a great 1st birthday!!