Pretty, Pretty Princess

 

Dad thought I needed some pretty princess dress up time today...I think he was right!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Heidi is one today! This has been the most exciting, heart-warming and wonderful year! Heidi has brought more to our lives than I could have ever imagined. She has taught me the true meaning of unconditional love and the unique love of a parent to a child. Heidi is an amazing, loving and intelligent little girl. She loves her Mom and her Dad and her doggie sisters Roxy and Coco. When she was a newborn she wanted to be swaddled and held at all times! Today she still loves to cuddle, but she's definitely on the move now! She has grown so much over the past year, and we can't wait to see how much she will grow and develop over the next!

I'm Walking!

I'm a walking girl now! I took my first steps to Mommy on Thursday, March 26 right before Mom and Dad left the house to go pick up Gigi Redda from the airport (she came into town for my birthday party). Mom and Dad have know that I was close to walking for weeks now, and were so super-excited to see me take my first steps! I'm not that steady on my feet yet, but every day I take a few more steps and get a little more steady.
Here is a video from last night...I'm so proud of myself after I successfully make it to Mommy!

I just love this magazine!

I finally like my sippy cup!

Mom has been trying to give me water in a sippy cup for months and I have inevitably pushed it away every time...until tonight. I finally like it. Yay!

Heidi - Photo shoot with LaTara

Mom's new friend from work, LaTara Johnson, is an amateur photographer. She is working on her portfolio, so she offered to take pictures of Moi (said like Miss Piggy) at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Here they are! Feel free to let me know which one you like best.
If anyone wants LaTara to take their picture - ask Mom and she will give you her contact info...she's looking for more babies pictures to add to her portfolio.

Mom's 30!

I can't believe that I turned 30 this week!  What a milestone birthday.  Surprisingly, I am quite happy about it.  Don't misunderstand, there is a part of me that feels nostalgic for my twenties...I mean what an eventful decade!  When I think back on my 20 year old self, I am amazed at how much I've grown and matured.  
Although I didn't realize it then, I certainly had a lot to learn and experience.  This "learning" and "experiencing" was not always easy, but wow was it worth it!  When I reflect on my twenties I can't help but associate those years with many wonderful moments, but also a lot of hard work and growing pains.  In my twenties I worked 40+ hours a week waitressing while going to college full-time... and I paid for every bit of it myself.  This is when I really learned the value of a dollar and the value of hard work.  I remember how I could almost never bring myself to go shopping for anything superfluous because I would always calculate how many tables I would have to wait on to earn enough money to buy it...I almost always concluded that it wasn't worth it!  I felt an enormous sense of pride when I graduated from college knowing I had truly earned that diploma.  Then I moved on to law school.  Wow, what a change of pace!  I traded in my waitress' apron for a suit and schlepped my way through full-time law school and clerking at a law firm.  It began to occur to me that this wasn't going to be as glamorous as I had imagined all those years before.  
I "re-met" my husband and had the greatest time as we courted one another, and it was in no time before I knew he was "the one!"  I got married to my wonderful husband.  I began learning what it is to be a wife (and I know this will be something that I will continue to do - learn - for the rest of my life!).  I relocated to a new state with my husband and faced many challenges stepping out of my proverbial comfort-zone to make this new town a home, and I couldn't be happier with how well we were able to do that.  I began my career as an attorney - again I began to realize that this wasn't quite what I had always expected it to be. And finally, the most amazing and wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, and will ever happen, is that I became a mom to my wonderful, gorgeous daughter.  She is my greatest joy and I could never adequately express my love for her ... but I will spend my life trying!  
My twenties were a wonderful time, and I am so happy with the many blessings I received in those years.  It is for this reason that I feel that I can truly embrace being 30, and I look forward to the many events and joys I have yet to experience.

~Missy