Laughter

This is a clip from about a month and a half ago. My little sister Brianna (Aunt Bri) is trying to make Carmen laugh. It's really nice to have someone as energetic as my sister play with Carmen every once in a while. I love to play with her everyday but it's also fun to watch your baby laugh at other people.

Beautiful Girl

Can a baby be stunning? I think so. Carmen is picture perfect.  

I have so many nicknames for her:
1.  CariBelle (CAR-ee-bell)
2.  CariBaby
3.  Sugar Bunny
4.  Doodle Doo
5.  Pumpkin Doodle
6.  Sweet Pea
7.  Sugar Baby
8.  Doll Baby

She talks SO much! Almost as much as she smiles and laughs. It's captivating. I often want to video tape it but then I think, 'no, I want to enjoy this moment fully for myself," so my memory is full of her giggles, coos and smiles. Carmen is starting to grab on to her toes (I was worried she would have my inflexibility, but I think Michael's genes pulled through.) and is almost ready to sit up by herself. Right now, she's still falling over after a few seconds. I'm working on her baby album and actually just printed the first one. It turned out to be an album of only her first week of life because I has so many pictures. Oops. But like most things the pictures get less and less through time so I should be able to squeeze a few months into the next album. She's a dream come true!

So much love

One of my besties, Amanda turned 25 in January. Amanda loves red dresses and loves taking pictures so we had grand plans of dressing up, going out to dinner, doing a photoshoot and going out for drinks.  A couple hours into getting ready, Amanda decided on doing take out and staying home to cuddle Carmen. (The rest of the ladies did go out for drinks later, but I stayed home with my little lady.) We at least attempted a photoshoot:

Not a single picture was taken where we all were making the same face. 

And for my ultimate favorite picture of the night: what the heck was going on? And please note Carmen.

 Never a dull moment.

Edit

Um, ok. Somehow I misread #4 in the post below. Not only did I misread it, but I retyped it and continued to proceed with my incorrect understanding. I was going to simply edit it, but then I figured it was so stupid of me that it deserved a proper correction. Let's try this again:

4. What would I choose as my last meal? Filet Mignon cooked by my dad, mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, red velvet cake, homemade donuts and a pineapple.

Definitely NOT left overs. Who am I?!

TAG, You're it!

I actually like getting to know more about people through the blogosphere and had fun reading Aubrey's (Btw, I can't believe how young we were when we met!) facts and answers to questions, so now it's my turn! Here we go: 

First Things First, The Rules:

• You must post the rules.
• Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
• Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
• Tag eleven people and link them on your post
• Let them know you've tagged them!

Eleven Fun Facts About Me:

1.  I love Michael Jackson. And I mean LOVE. When he sings, I cry.

2.  I've lived in 14 different houses - from birth to where I am now. 

3.  Usually answering "I'm Australian," I'm actually just English. Not too many great great greats away, my relatives are from England and my dad got to visit our family's estate a few summer's ago. 

4.  I have 4 less teeth than most all people. I never got my 12 year molars. It's really easy for me to floss in the back! 

5.  Michael and I are coming up on celebrating 5 years of marriage! I got married my last year in college and loved it!   

6.  The only movie I've ever cried in was The Notebook.

7.  I drive a an SUV.  Gone are the days of the mustang!

8.  I speak Spanish. Well, I can speak it.

9.  Dancing is the most therapeutic thing for me. I love me some hip hop.

10. I love the color pink. Which is perfect because...

11. I have the cutest, most wonderful baby girl in the whole world - Carmen Isabelle! She loves to smile at people and it simply melts your heart. 

Aubrey's Questions For Me to Answer:

1. What's your favorite color? Oops, I kind of said that already...Pink.
2. What's your favorite thing about your husband / significant other? His striking good looks. :)
3. Do you have / want children? How many? Yes, 1! See #11 above, or practically anywhere else on this blog.
4. What would you choose as your last meal? From my fridge, I choose leftovers. Cheese Tortellini. 
5. What's your favorite bible verse, if you read the bible? Hmm, that's hard honestly! I would have to say I'm a fan of the whole book of Ephesians because we just went through it for over a year at our church.
6. Where is one place you'd like to visit before you die? Greece
7. Which room of your house is your favorite and why? I love them all, but  the nursery! 
8. What's your favorite day of the week and why? Friday, because Saturday is the next day and I could sleep in. That was before baby. Now all mornings are the same.
9. Which store can you never go in without buying something? Ah! Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Gymboree, Dunkin Donuts.
10. What is your favorite physical quality about yourself? Emotional quality? Physical - my hair? Emotional - I love to make people happy which therefore makes me happy.
11. If you could be any animal, what would you choose? A lion. 

People I've tagged: (And broke the rules because I didn't do 11)

Heather

Rebekah

Abby

Rebecca

Mallory

Gillian

My Questions for you:

1.  Where were you born?

2.  What the best meal you've ever made?

3.  Where did you honeymoon?

4.  If you were a Disney princess who would you be?

5.  What is your favorite blog to follow? Link to it. 

6.  Pick a fav: Thai Food or Mexican Food?

7.  What's more embarrassing to have happen: walk around with toilet paper stuck to your shoe (or coming out of your shirt in my case!!!) or fly down?

8.  How old were you when you got your first cell phone?

9. What is your drink of choice at Starbucks?

10.  Favorite song on the radio right now?

11. What is keeping you from selling your house and moving next door to me for life???

I found this picture as I was going through images from some of my past weddings. Here I am, working the wedding while nice and pregnant. I was about 5.5 months here. There aren't too many prego pictures of myself, besides the ones we took of the growing belly, so it's always funny for me to see a shot like this. I remember being really thirsty that whole day.

In other news, Baby C checked out well at her 4 month doctor's visit. She dropped back down in the 80 something percentile instead of the 97th (at 2 months) weighing in at 16lbs 11oz and 25.5 inches long. She's my sweet, growing girl. She's mostly in 6 month size clothing due to the length. Why oh why, do the brands not make sizes run bigger? It's pretty tricky to try and buy clothes ahead of time. Be careful of that new moms!

She's still blue eyed, cheerful and so pretty in pink!

Photo Shoot with MMP

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our photo shoot with Marcy May Photography. Marcy did a fantastic job! I am so thankful for her, she is super talented. We took these photos on the morning of Michael's 27th birthday when Carmen was 2.5 months old. It was so fun to have our first "family of 3" photo shoot.