post pardom body

It's been almost 4 months since Violet was born and for about a month I have on purpose not worn my maternity clothes. Most of them are big now so I've officially put them away! I was just sick of looking at them in the closet! During pregnancy I bought very little actual "maternity" clothes, because shirts and pants were always too long. I ended up just buying larger size shirts than normal and buying maternity pants that were able to roll up to capris. This past month I bought a few new pants/shorts and tops to go into my new wardrobe. I still can't fit into my old clothes though. My whole body is just different. But what do you do with your old clothes? workout until they fit? pray until they fit again? give them away? how long are you suppose to wait until they fit again? I think that my physical change has been a hard thing these past couple of months. People talk about "oh so-and-so lost her baby weight sooo fast..blah blah blah. she's looks great!" What I want to say well good for them, everyone is different and please stop talking about this!" Bryson has been so sweet about it though, but he won't let me sulk about it either... It's been better though since getting a few new clothes that fit.

During pregnancy I did gain 50lbs (yes, you did read that correctly, 50lbs :) and I was still exercising the week before I had Violet. (Grace, remember our thought-out plan if I happen to go into labor walking those 3 miles around Town Lake?!) After recovering from a c-section, learning how to take care of an infant and getting use to living in htown again, I gradually started to exercise....I couldn't even do a sit up! seriously, pregnancy does crazzzzy things to you! It took awhile to build up those muscles! Since then I try to workout 3-4 times a week. Currently I have about 20ish more pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The old theory is "it took 9 months to gain it, give yourself 9 months to lose it." I guess that gives me until November, My goal would be September...we'll see what happens.

Lost and Found

On most mornings Violet and I will take a little walk around the neighborhood before it gets too hot in the day. On this particular morning this little dog ended up following us home:

She was clean, chubby and could do all the normal tricks. (roll over, sit, shake etc.) So we knew she wasn't homeless, just lost. She hung out in the backyard all day and stayed cool sleeping in the garage. I would go out and pet her every so often. When I would go inside I'd peek out the window and she'd be sitting just staring at the back door to open again. When Bryson got home my dad suggested we "let her take us on a walk." Meaning: see if she'll lead us back to her home. (did I mention for no reason we started calling her "Thelma") As we walked back to where I found Thelma she led us up to a house. We knocked the the man who answered said she belonged to a neighbor. We went to that house and the girl that answered was like "oh that's ________ dog across the street, I'll take her. She got out this morning too and I put her back, there must be a hole in the fence." We were sorta sad to see Thelma go, she was really cute and sweet. And well I was hoping my parents would want dog. As we walk back home at the mailbox center we see a flyer for a "Ginger" a missing dog. Sure enough our "Thelma" is really "Ginger" and probably happy to be back at home.

PS-the picture on the flyer showed Ginger at the bottom under a baby highchair with baby feet showing... I guess that's where she has been getting her extra snacks from.

Grocery Shopping

In the life of a new parent everything you do is an adventure. I mean just leaving the house can sometimes be a big deal! As we have all been grocery shopping we see parents with babies in a carseat on top of a grocery cart. Such as:


Well being 5 feet and 1.5 inches this is impossible to achieve! I can't see over the carseat if I put it in the cart! Therefore I've been taking small grocery shops since Violet/the baby carseat takes up most of the cart.... I mean I guess I could try wearing heels while grocery shopping. ;)

The Cut

If you have been one of my blog followers for the past year, you might remember me posting about my hair journey. Well the time has come!! It has taken me a while to write this, but I finally did donate my hair! It was actually pretty easy to grow it long (since it was long to began with) and then we found out we were pregnant so the prenatal vitamins helped keep it strong too. I was ready for a hair change, especially after having Violet. I had been talking to Bryson about cutting my hair probably since the middle of March. Honestly I was really nervous to about The Cut! I had grown attached to my long mane and feared hating the short hair. But finally after many weeks of talking about it I made myself to commit to finding a haircut place. And actually LOVED it! An old friend on facebook recommended The Salon. It's actually owned by a girl I went to high school with. (and I totally would recommend this place to anyone in cyp/nw houston looking for a great hair stylist!) So after I found the place I started looking up hairstyles. I did not have my heart set on a particular one, but I knew I wanted it about chin length. I ended up getting to The Salon 15 minutes before my appointment and they had a few hair magazines to browse. And found the perfect one!!
Before:

Once my hairstylist made the first cut of my ponytail, I was so excited about the results. Here is my 12 inch ponytail that I donated to Locks of Love:

If you are like me, after a hair cut I can't wait to try and see what all the hair styles will look like. So that night I spend probably an hour playing with ponytails, half ponytails, what it would look like on a curly hair day, etc. Finally I decided on a straight look:

I love my new 'do and so happy I was able to donate it!

Mother's day

Oh Mother's Day! It's crazy to think that now I get to celebrate Mother's day...because I'm a mom! It was a really fun weekend! My few of my best girls from college, Grace, Amanda, Corrie and Kim came that Friday. We had so much fun catching up, eating, baking and laughing....I just wish we could do this every weekend. On Sunday B, V and I went for our usual "Sunday Stroll", a walk around the neighborhood. Then I opened up a present from Bryson. It's a Flip SlideHD video camera! Then V took a nap (Grandpa stayed home with her) while Bryson and I went to see this movie: I had no idea I had fallen asleep, but I guess Bryson was excited to get it on our new camera! This was the end of a really fun, loved, and relaxing first Mother's day.

tags

.....can someone tell me how to add "tags" to my blog. for instance, if I was blogging about a recipe, I could tag "food" or if I was blogging about family I could tag "family" etc etc. I tried to look it up and didn't get it.

Thanks!!

Bread Pudding

My dad came home from work and told me and Bryson that he had bread pudding for dessert at lunch. Bryson goes on to say "I love bread pudding." So I suggest lets make some!! We found an easy recipe to follow. We didn't have raisins, but we added a cinnamon raisin bagel instead! The results: I expected it to be a little softer and sweeter. So for my individual bowl I added a little more milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar. Next time I'll just add more of those to the mix.

Firsts for V

It's the half way point in the week and so many things have happened! Let's recap:

-Sunday Violet rolled over for the first time! (My sister informed me that her dog, Sammy, rolled over the first time that day too! :)
-Yesterday I heard V laugh for the first time! oh my gosh, it was the cutest sound ever! I tried again when Bryson came home, but she just coo-ed and sang for him. I love when she just talks it up! It was so fun to hear and that just means soon she'll be laughing all the time!
-Also we finally found a pediatrician to go to here and went today. At 3 months Violet is 13lbs 6oz and 24 inches long! (again, my sister informed me that Sammy is 13lbs too! haha!)

Happy Cinco De Mayo! (or Cinco De Boden...whichever you prefer!)

Seriously!!

If you are a blogger or a blog stalker, you know there are tons and tons of blogs out there about anything and everything. I follow a couple of blogs, mostly of people I know and a few of others are cooking blogs. One blog in particular is a blog of a girl,who I went to college with Bailey (and we went to the same high school!) Anyways a few weeks ago she had blogged about a slow cooker Carnitas recipe. I'm a huge fan of slow cooking...especially now with a baby, when I try to make dinner, it takes me forever to finish it..if I finish it! But with a slow cooker, you just pop in the food and close the lid! so I tried her recipe and...oh*my*gosh! She wasn't kidding, they really are the "best carnitas eva!!" I snuck a few bites before Bryson came home from work :) You should definitely make these!!