We had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving and Matt and I loved how it all worked out this year. We went to his family's on Thursday and my family's on Saturday and had huge delicious and traditional dinners at both with a day of rest in between, it was perfect. The weather has been so nice and we took Elyse to two different parks one day. She loves to be outside, swing, and people watch.....the park meets every one of those little desires. The tree is up and decorated, Christmas music hums in the background on most evenings, and that "feeling" is truly in the air. Like most people, I absolutely love this time of year.

I continue to get more and more comments on how many people love the pictures I post, so I'll attach a few random ones from the last several days.

This is our french princess in her little beret. She can seriously make anything look cute, in my humble opinion.

This was taken on Thanksgiving day at Mark and Kathy's. It was so cute to see Kathy's grand kids all lined up in a row entertaining Elyse, and entertained she was.

Elyse with her Opa (Mark), he is tickled pink with her.

Okay, totally random picture here. This was me trying to be creative with one of Matt's favorites. He loves sloppy joes, so I tried to make a "sloppy joe bake" by using crescent rolls as a crust around it. Some things should be left well enough alone. It was good, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it I guess.

Matt ran a quick errand on Friday and came home with these "just because". I love the spontaneously thoughtful side of that man.

Elyse and I in front of her very first Christmas tree.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As soon as our sleeping beauty awakes from her nap we'll be on our way to Mark and Kathy's. I've already have so much to be thankful for just in this day alone.
1. Elyse slept until 8:30am. She is healthy, happy, and ours.
2. I woke up next to a man I love, respect, and am proud to be doing life with and in a marriage I have so much confidence in.
3. The weather is gorgeous.
4. I only had to make 1 side as my portion of the dinner today.
5. I am loved, undeniably blessed, and aware of it all.

It was still dinner to me

I made spinach-lasagna rolls on Sunday night because Matt requested something Italian for when he came home from the game. I told him what I made and described them to him.....mozzarella, noodles, spinach, egg, cottage cheese, etc. He proceeded to tell me in a joking manner, "That's not dinner if there isn't any meat in it." Now that's the encouraging husband I love! He is such a meat and potatoes kind of guy, I should have left the meatless part a secret because he really liked it in the end. I actually liked this much better than traditional lasagna. It was easier, cheaper, and healthier by far.....it is definitely going on the repeat list. I also like that it's something I can make ahead and refrigerate overnight and then just pop it in the oven for dinner. I feel like it's a recipe I could easily toy with by adding or deleting ingredients, and for me to feel bold enough to do that is a pretty big deal.

I've been neglectful of household duties lately so I'm committed to having 2 days of productivity before the holidays swing into full motion. I'm excited to be off for Thanksgiving and the days surrounding it....that's a first in almost 7 years for me, and yes, I'll enjoy it!

I got the feeling this was a common saying, but at church on Sunday was the first time I've heard it. "If it's on your mind, it's on God's heart, and if it's on God's heart, it's in God's word." In some ways I've had a lot on my mind, and in other ways I feel like I haven't had enough. For lack of better words, I've felt heavy lately. Not burdened per say, but just heavy, and I'm not quite sure why. Thinking of that saying last night prompted me to get out my bible before bed. I wasn't quite sure where to turn to, so I opened Psalm 139, it was hard to feel heavy after that. I often forget how well He knows me and my thoughts. He knows me better and more intimately than I'll ever know myself because He made me, today I'll rest assured in that.

We once again had a good weekend. Friday our small group got cancelled and since we had a sitter already we had a little date night out and met up with a friend. Both Saturday and Sunday morning Matt gave me the best gift ever! Elyse woke bright and early, I fed her, then he got up and changed, played, etc until he put her down for her morning nap. I slept until 9am or later both days! Sparkly jewelry, fancy dinners.....I'll take sleep over those any day. We spent time with his family on Saturday and Matt was able to go to the Bucs game on Sunday, the game was a complete blow-out, but he had a good time with his dad.

Time to get to my housework!

Our first day at the park......

I can't believe I haven't taken her sooner. I just figured there wouldn't be much she could do, but she LOVED swinging, the nice weather, and watching the other kids play. It happened to be a Westchase Mom's Club play date as well, so I connected with a few other mom's in my area. One of the girls I had met at the deli counter at Publix last week. Our daughter's are just 4 months apart and we seem to have a lot in common. We both got out of the house, Elyse had fun, I met a friend, and the weather was gorgeous....it just doesn't get much better than that.

This chicken dish looked almost too good to eat. It came out so juicy and tender, I don't think I've ever been able to cook chicken just right like that. As for flavor....it still just seemed like plain old chicken breast. Oh well, we still enjoyed it and it was pretty healthy.

The ever changing hair of Elyse

This picture was taken when she was one week old. She still had her head full of brownish, reddish hair.

By the end of her first month it was thinning out, but definitely still there.

In October "the mullet" hit. She was almost completely bald on top, but had very long, brown hair in the back. Matt would say, "Business in the front, party in the back."

Here she is this morning with quite a bit of very blonde hair making it's way in. It's still far too thin and short for fancy bows, but we're just happy it showed up.

She is very into grabbing and grasping things lately. She will try to lean and get to anything nearby, and of course, everything goes right to her mouth. She tries to take cups out of your hands and wants to hold everything to explore it's shape, texture, and sounds. While Matt was giving her a bath this weekend she became mesmerized by the water coming out of the faucet. She tries so hard to grab it, hold it, and put it in her mouth. She will concentrate and focus so hard on the little stream of water. She will hold her hands so steady and so carefully, she will leave them open under the water then quickly she will grasp and pull her hands to her mouth. It's so cute and so sad at the same time because she just doesn't understand why the water doesn't come with her hands.

Just getting around to you blog

This past weekend was very busy. Matt worked a half day on Friday so he could come home early and take over baby duty so I could go to a friends bachelorette party in Siesta Key. It was the first time I had ever left Elyse overnight and it went wonderfully. I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself and I was thankful for the little get away with the girls. For awhile now I've been saying that I would love to have a night without a baby monitor because although Elyse sleeps through, she will still make noises throughout the night that wake me. The thought of one long night of uninterrupted sleep sounds so refreshing. Well, I had no monitor Friday night, but I was sleeping on an old, creaky, beach bungalow pull-out couch next to my friend Rachel. We stayed up entirely too late and I would have slept much better WITH the baby monitor at home, although that wouldn't have been nearly as fun.

I came home late Saturday morning and the 3 of us just hung around the house. I was tired and actually managed to squeeze a nap in which was wonderful. It was a very lazy, relaxing day that Matt topped off by grilling burgers outside since the weather was so nice. We went to bed early because I had to work Sunday, so Matt had another full day of baby duty. He did all the feedings, naps, diapers, toys, bath, books, and even a load of dishes. My shift at work was smooth and fun and I came home that night to a delicious pot roast awaiting me. I sat down and started eating, it tasted so good and I was so thankful for the fact that he cooked it. I was eating away and Matt was sort of picking at his with his fork examining it. He said, "I think I cooked it too long, it looks a little over-done." He explained how he had gotten distracted by Elyse during cooking, etc. For the first time I think we both truly felt what it was like to be in the other person's shoes. I had worked all day, I was tired, I missed my little girl, and I was just happy to sit down with him for a hot meal. I didn't even pay attention to how the roast was cooked. I said to him, "Oh wow, is this what it's like when I cook and get all worried about it, do you really just sit down and appreciate the meal without thinking twice?" He said "Yes, definitely." That was such a refreshing moment to me and I'm glad we were both able to observe and appreciate a little glimpse of how the other person really sees things.

He did such a good job caring for Elyse, but I spent most of the day yesterday grocery shopping and establishing order in the house after a weekend of daddy daycare. To no fault of his own, the house was a mess. It's still not back up to par, but I can chip away at it today after Elyse and I go on a play date.