Weekend 18 Recap! {Part 1}

This weekend we went to celebrate a wonderful friend's daughter's second birthday! Amanda and I have been besties for 6 years this fall. It's amazing how our lives have changed since the day we met! {PS check out her amazing blog!} I'll have to make an entire post about the birthday festivities, but until then this post will have to suffice!

Sunday night, we took our teething baby for her first swim! She has been teething BAD since Friday, but we decided we might as well try and distract her from the teeth issues. This was her first swim in a real pool! She really did awesome! I was pretty surprised considering our issues over the weekend!

 Kinley wasn't a fan of this floatie. Fortunately Mimi had more than one option! 

It sure is rough being a baby! 

She was SO over the pool at this point. Mom had to stop for a pic to document the moment though! 

Don't mind the fact that I was swimming in a shirt. I haven't been able to find a bathing suit top that can handle the girls! I'm way too modest to be showing these bad boys off! 

#breastfeedingproblems

After we got home and put Kinley to bed, our Frenchie Sara just had to go outside. This little guy was just hanging out on our deck. I'm sure Sara didn't really need to use the restroom, but that she could smell him from inside the house. Poor little toad didn't know what was coming! Sara proceeded to pounce on the toad! We saved him though! 

I can't wait to share the rest of our weekend with y'all! 

-Casey

Weekend #17 Recap!

Well weekend number 17 is in the books! It wasn't a terribly eventful weekend, BUT we did have fun!

 

Saturday Morning:

It was an early morning for me. Kinley decided to wake up at 6 stinking am. Don't babies understand what Saturday means!? No? Oh... Well, after she nursed, and I woke up, it was around 7:30. I decided why waste this precious time?? I tried to sneak out of the house to do some grocery shopping alone, but as soon as Kinley heard me getting ready, she was wide awake again. She normally takes a morning nap after her breakfast. Soooo little missy came along with me to the store. Lucky Daddy got to sleep in!

I grabbed a Starbucks and knocked out my shopping in under an hour. Kinley was perfectly content in her car seat in the basket. I think it's hilarious to see her practically buried under the groceries by the time I'm done shopping. (Why didn't I get a picture of her in the basket???) 

Saturday Afternoon:

I REALLY needed some new work clothes, so I drug the Mister out to Highland Village for a shopping adventure. There was a boutique that I really wanted to check out. We went to Apricot Lane, the aforementioned boutique, I tried on several things. I did end up purchasing one shirt but I was a little disappointed there weren't more things for me! I'm a curvy girl so their dresses just weren't cut for my body type. Whomp. Whomp. We did end up stopping into New York and Company, they are usually my go to for work clothes. I got a skirt, a dress, and 2 shirts!

On the way home we decided to stop by a huge home development in the area, Lantana. The homes vary in quality and price. We went into the show homes for the big boys! From $700k! You know, just dreaming of when we win the lotto and we can build a mega home. Ha! I really wish I could find the home listing to share with everyone. The kitchen was amaze-balls! Kinley was very fascinated by some of the light fixtures in the house!

After our shopping and home touring adventure we went home and took a much needed nap!

 

Saturday Night:

My lovely Mom was kind enough to keep Kinley for us so we could have a date night! It was nice to get out, just the two of us! We went to Wal-Mart, grabbed a $3 bottle of wine, and headed to Palio's pizza! They are BYOB. You know we keep it classy with the Lucky Duck wine! (Actually Lucky Duck is pretty awesome! The best cheap wine we've found!)

 

 

Sunday:

'Twas pretty uneventful. We had a wonderful lunch with my parents!

Smoked ribs and chicken thighs! YUM!

Actually, I say it was uneventful, BUT Kinley started showing signs of teething on Sunday afternoon. She was super fussy, tugging at her ear, drooling buckets, and gnawing on anything she could get her mouth around. I can't see any teeth nor can I feel any, but the symptoms couldn't be more classic. I REALLY didn't expect her to be teething this early, so it's been pretty rough on me. I just wasn't mentally prepared!

Since the teething has popped up I've been running around like a mad woman. I've gotten essential oils, the cold teething rings, and I've been searching for an amber necklace to no avail. Our local herbal store has some amber necklaces ordered and I can't wait for one to arrive. I've been really interested to see if these things are all they are cracked up to be. I will definitely keep everyone posted on that!

 

 

Man that was a long and wordy post!

 

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Look a-like!

Poor Kinley is cursed to look like her momma I think!

I ran across this old picture of myself and I was pretty shocked at the resemblance! 

BUT I will say I do see her Daddy's expressions in her all the time. She also has her Daddy's laid back personality too! Hallelujah! Maybe she is just a wonderful mix of the two of us?

Kinley!

Momma Casey!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

What do you have planned this weekend? Hopefully something fun!

-Casey

That one time I went to Italy...

Since today is throw back Thursday, I thought y'all might appreciate a post of the time I went to Italy. 

It was January 2011, I quit my very stable job, and went to Italy. I thought I was going to stay for 3 months (the max time a travel visa would allow) but, I'd recently met a guy. I had been planning my trip for a long time, so I did actually go, but I became very homesick and love sick the moment I landed in Rome. I stayed for 3 weeks, and then caught a flight home. I'm thankful for the experience because I got the best of both worlds. I got to travel and fulfill that dream, and I also got to come home to an amazing man that I now call my Husband. 


The Swiss alps from the plane flying into Rome

I know I'm probably going to catch some flack for the following statements... I was not a fan of Rome. I found Rome to be like many other big cities. Over crowded, dirty, graffiti practically everywhere, and just generally blah. Gasp!? You might say, but the coliseum!? The Spanish Steps!? The Trevi Fountain!? Yeah, the big ticket sights were cool but other than those, I didn't see the appeal. Actually the big ticket sights were so overrun with touristy riff-raff that it almost ruined those cool places too. Maybe I need to give Rome a second chance? Maybe I would like it better had I been at a different place in my life? I'm just not sure though...

THE best gelato I had while in Italy.
(It kills me that I can not find the name of the specific gelateria. Tragic.)

Stracciatella Gelato aka Chocolate Chip

St. Peter's Basilica

The real life Pantheon!

Pizza with cold Buffalo mozzarella on top
Seriously check out resturant Dar Poeta while in Rome. 

Off to Florence... 

The top of the Duomo in Florence

Florence aka Firenze. 

Now Florence was more my speed. Much more relaxed, less crowded, so very cute and picturesque. I spent several days in Florence and used it as a jumping off point to many other locations; Pisa, San Gimignano, Cinque Terre, Fiesole and Venice. I enjoyed Florence so much that I came back right before heading for home and spent my final couple days in Florence. 

The streets are medieval which is charming, but it makes it quite frustrating to find your way. I found this quite charming though! I had to make sure to always have a map with me or else I would be hopelessly lost.  I hit the usual sights, the Bobli gardens, Pitti palace, the Statue of David, Ponte Vecchio, and the Uffizi Gallery. My personal favorite was the Pitti palace, which actually had a great little costume/clothing museum built into the palace. 

THE best pizza I had in Italy

Ok Seriously. We need to talk about the pizza pictured above. I can not express how amazingly awesome this pizza was. I stumbled on this pizza shop while roaming around Florence. If you are in Florence and you don't go to Amici di Ponte Vecchio Da Stefano you are missing out. It's across the Arno river just across the Ponte Vecchio. Not only is it a fantastic walk to the shop, but you get AWESOME pizza in the end. I made several trips to the shop during my time in Florence.

About the pizza. The bread is fluffy, crunchy, thick, yet not overwhelmingly thick either. The herbs, the awesome olive oil, the fresh tomatoes... everything. Just perfection.

You can see, I was so excited about my piece of pizza that I forgot to take a picture before my first bite. My mouth is watering now just thinking of this pizza! 

Um? What?? This was at the Bobli Gardens in Florence.



Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Opposite side of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

I didn't realize how much I have to say about Italy! I can not squeeze it all into one post. I'm going to leave this post with just Florence and Rome. I will make another post to highlight my adventures in the smaller cities of Italy. Venice might even get its own entire post too! Hang with me while I ponder that topic!

I hope everyone is having a great week!  

xoxo -Casey

Exersaucer!

{Baby Yoga!}

{Poor Kinley being used as a shield from the evil paparazzi} 

This was Kinley's first time being in her exersaucer since she is big enough now! She could just barely touch the floor with one foot! She was fascinated by all the bright colors and things to touch! 

                             {Argh, focus Casey!?!}

 {She is going to hate me for this photo someday, but...}

 {Even Sara got in on the action! Check out that tongue!}

AHH! Those baby blues are melting my heart again! 

Weekend number 17 is creeping up on me way too quickly! What do we have planned??? Nothing at this point! I better get some plans put together! I'll keep y'all posted!

xoxo 

-Casey

Nightly happenings with Kinley!

I'm just going to photo bomb you all with pictures of Kinley today! 

These are just some recent happenings in our evenings together! The days are long, and the nights with family are so short! 

{Sucking that thumb!}

 {Hey Mom!}
That adorable onesie can be found here!

{Slightly over exposed, but look at those baby blues!}

 {Naked baby!}

{We had to throw in a picture of Sara for good measure!}

I've been using our DSLR camera much more now! I got an adaptor so that I can use my Fixed Focus Lens on our DSLR. It's an old school lens that I originally had with my old film SLR camera. I didn't ever think about the fact that I could use those older lenses with our relatively new camera. Luckily our local camera shop, the Denton Camera Exchange  had the adaptor in stock! I popped over and picked up the $9 piece and now I have the use of a fabulous lens! 

I found this article  about using old lenses on new cameras. This is a great read. I will warn you, it's pretty technical, but Prairie Rim Images does a great job of explaining old vs. new. 

I'm shooting my photos exclusively in manual mode now, so bear with me while I brush up on my focusing skills! haha! 


I hope you are having a great week! 
How do you spend time with your precious ones after a long day at work? 

xoxo -Casey

A Weekend Wedding!

On Saturday we had the privilege of attending my Sister-In-Law's wedding! Natalie and Chris were marred at Lake Kiowa, Texas in a very small and intimate ceremony. Even though we were there practically all day the time flew by so fast! Almost every decor item, the cupcakes, and Natalie's bouquet were made by myself or my wonderful Mother-In-Law. 

Let me tell you, making 96 cupcakes was no easy task! I spread it all out over several days. I made all the frosting Tuesday night, the cupcakes Thursday night, and then iced the cupcakes on Friday afternoon. I took a half day from work to make sure I had plenty of time to get them all frosted. Kinley was still at daycare, so I was shocked at how fast I was able to knock out all that frosting! Anyway! Back to the wedding festivities! 

I also took all the photos! I took a couple photography classes in High School, but honestly I haven't picked up an SLR in years, even though we have one. I had forgotten how much I absolutely love taking photos. Hopefully we will actually use our camera more! 

 Now presenting the Mr. and Mrs.!!!! 

Words can not express how genuinely happy we are that Natalie finally had the man of her dreams and the wedding of her dreams. 

You might have noticed that Natalie and Chris don't seem like the rest of us, and that is because they are not. Both Natalie and Chris were born with developmental delays that are lifelong. Their love story begins at a life skills class sponsored by the local community college. People like Nat & Chris go there to learn basic skills and master those skills. Simple things like putting on makeup, cooking simple dishes, and many other things that we all take for granted. They dated for 4 years before deciding to take their relationship to the next level. 

It was very hard for us as the family to come to terms with Natalie getting married and going off on her own. However, who are we to deny her happiness? All her life, my in-laws have only wanted Nat to be happy, and we all finally got our wish. 

I know there are many people out there who will vehemently disagree with the marriage of two disabled people. I will say it again though, why should anyone deny two people the chance at happiness? Why should we deny them the chance to live as normal of a life as possible? Of course there will be challenges, however we will overcome those as they arise. 

{Myself, Trey, Chris, and Natalie}

{Kinley slept through much of the wedding!}

{The happy couple driving away!}

The wedding took up much of our weekend! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend too! 

What did y'all do? Any fun or new experiences??

Weekend number 16 is in the books! Only 920 weekends remain until Kinley is 18!