Happy Birthday, Sweet Gabrielle.

Dear Sweet Gabrielle-

My beautiful, free-spirited first child. My goodness, you are already one. Where has the time gone? One year ago, I saw your perfect little face & held you in my arms for the first time. I knew we would have something so special, something other Mom's may not experience. You are everything to me. In one year, I have not spent more than 3 hours away from you. Not because I can't, simply because I don't want to. Every morning I look forward to seeing your smile and spending my days with you. This motherly love thing is surely something spectacular. The way you will only lay your head on me, the way you will only reach to come to me, & crawl to me to want to be picked up really does mean what you feel for me is just as strong as the way I feel about needing you.

You continue to amaze me everyday. I am so thrilled to watch you grow & become the most loving, kind little girl, teen & woman. Today is a bittersweet day for me & your father. As much as I am happy to see you grow, I know I will never hold you in my arms as a 'baby' again.. but you will always be my baby. You have turned out to be such a happy, funny spirit. Such a personality! From a young age, you love to make us laugh & you respond so excitedly to a laugh. It is the sweetest thing. I am such a lucky person to have been blessed with such an extraordinary child. So innocent, and such an angel you are. When you walk into a room, all eyes are on you & in 20 years I can imagine that will be the same case. Don't change, sweet girl, you are perfect. You will do amazing things one day, I just know it. Happy 1st Birthday, Gabby.

Love,
Mommy.

Our Super Smart Girl! (& her tricks, too!)

It is really starting to sink in that our little cooing baby isn't so coo-y anymore. She is a talking, animal noise making, crawling boddler (baby/toddler!) I should have known with my talkative ways, Gabrielle would be a little chatterbox.. and with a name like Gabby, could you guess otherwise? From the minute she wakes up, it's non-stop chit chat. She tries her hardest to attempt every word we try to teach her. Gabby really loves talking.


We play a hand game with her that my parents played with me as a child called "Roundball, Roundball." She just loves it, and this week started saying "Rou-bow, Rou-bow" while doing the motion of the game. It blows my mind that she is just 11 months and has a vocabulary of about 10 words. I am totally having a braggy moment, so bare with me here, Gabby's my first and so so smart I can't resist! Maaaaybe this means she will be an English major? Singer? Public speaker?!

Gabby Graduated from the Army Crawl

Gabby started scooting, pushing off with her foot around 7-8 months. Over the months, her army crawl has gotten reeeally fast. She follows behind me all over the house just as quick as regular crawling. Everyone, including myself thought she would just go straight to walking since she was so comfortable with the way she crawled. Welp, we were wrong! In the few days she has been crawling, crawling! Yay, Gabs!!

Gabrielle's Room

I can't say that I've ever posted pictures of Gabby's room in our new house so I thought I would. Recently we switched rooms with her because the little girls next door were waking her up during nap time when they would play right outside of her window. We actually like it better for her & us! We did sacrifice the bigger room but we spend way more time in her room during the day than ours & the closet works better for her things. Enjoy!

When you enter closet you can walk to the left and right

Collage on the wall I made & changing area

This lamp was yellow and white and I painted it!

Books galore!

Looking at the closet

The trees are so nice outside 

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve

Weekend after weekend passed that we never visited Hemlock Bluffs when we said we were going to. We had nothing planned for Sunday which was very rare so we packed the backpack & headed to Cary.

 It was Gabby's first time riding in the child carrier backpack & she loved that thing! The trail was mulched & lined so it wasn't extremely advanced, which was a good thing because we aren't! When we started the trail I noticed we were going slightly downhill the whole time. We reached the lookout point and could see the lush preserve and the Western Hemlock trees. Pretty cool.

On the trail

Western Hemlocks

 Going back up hill for .5 miles was just short of suicidal. And to make the incline worse, we passed our turn off point and had to back track! Clearly pro hikers.

Yep.

It was really nice to do something different. We were both a sweaty mess afterwards & it felt great to get such a workout!

Surprise Visit

I always grew up closer to Daniel, my younger brother. We grew up hanging out with each others friends, telling secrets & having each others backs. We were both living at my Mom's house a little over a year ago when he announced he was moving to the mountains with his sweetheart of a girlfriend, Lindsay. It was no big deal then, but it's really starting to hit me now. It has been such a busy year for both of us. I had a baby & he is in school & working. It felt in a way like we drifted apart but he came home for a surprise visit this week that confirmed we were still as close as the day he left.

Uncle Daniel!

I see that smile :)

Daniel hadn't seen Gabby since Christmas and was so excited to see her! At first, the beard & long hair was a bit intimidating to Gabrielle. Soon she realized he was a trusting person who wanted to play & she opened up to him! Gabby still struggles with men. Lol.

Don't leeeeave! 

Daniel & Lindsay headed home after a short visit. It was so thrilling knowing they were in town & so heartbreaking knowing they were leaving. They are two of the most dear people to me. We love you guys so much!

Gabby's First Trip

Before being all sandy

After being in Raleigh for 18 months, we decided it was time to get out of Raleigh! Gabby has been more managable in the car and figured she could handle the 2 hour drive to the beach. Dan had already reached his 40 hours by Wednesday (long three days for me) so he decided to take a few vacation days. The forecast looked superb. All of the hotels were booked for the weekend before we decided to go on Thursday instead. We are so glad we were able to go earlier because the beach was dead and the traffic in Wilmington was a lot less than a typical weekend.

Sandy & Sad

Carrying a baby with beach gear was something we were not prepared for. The most excruciating walk. Baby, umbrella, chairs, cooler, beach bag. We looked funny. The beach was something new for Gabby and she was a bit hesitant. Ok, she was a lot hesitant. It started off great before she got all sandy & felt the water. There was no downhill from there. Despite the fact that Gabby was unhappy, Dan & I were still on cloud 9 that we were at the beach for the first time with our baby girl.

One thing Gabby has loved for months now, she got to do in Wilimington.. Go to the pool!!

10 minutes before I ate it. Lol

On Friday we got up early to visit the NC Aquarium. We drove 45 minutes to Fisher Island and had time to kill before it opened. There were rocks near the beach and I had an idea to get out and have a photo shoot! I climbed carefully on the rocks and had Dan pass me Gabby when I was up there. On the way down, I passed her back and slowly jumped rocks. One more step until I reached the ground & I went down with speed thinking I was home free. To my dismay, there was a raised rock that blended with the ground. I caught it and took the worst face dive imaginable into the gravel. It happened so quick I had no time to catch myself. My shoulder hit first. Bloody and crying, we still went to the museum & asked for a first aid kit. When I got back to Raleigh I had it x-rayed since my elbow was blue, swollen and I couldn't move it. I was shocked to find out it wasn't broken but so relieved too. The swelling is sticking around but its getting better! Next time I decide to climb on rocks I will be WAY more cautious.

We all enjoyed the aquarium & afterwards took the ferry that we drove our cars on, to Southport. It is my favorite little beach town. There are cute shops & yummy seafood cafes.

The next morning I got up early and ventured out to a few yard sales in Wilmington. Dan & Gabby stayed in the hotel room while I got my weekly Mother's morning out! I found some great deals!

The car ride home Gabby slept the whole way. It was a quiet, relaxing drive with minimal traffic. It feels good to be back in Raleigh even if it was for a few days but we are already planning our next trip to the beach! We had a blast.

Southport shoppes!