Happy Easter!

What an eventful weekend! It actually started on Thursday when our friend, Carrie, brought along the Easter Bunny for a visit with Sophia! Having been lucky enough to have such an awesome friend, we took full advantage and decided to get some Easter pictures done! Our little home mini shoot went great! We got some awesome shots of both Sophia with the Easter Bunny as well as Sophia by herself!

Man that kid is photogenic!

Then Saturday we took her to our neighborhood church to participate in her first ever Easter egg hunt! I wasn't really sure how she'd do since she's still so young, but as it turns out, she did pretty great! They split the kids into age groups and she was in the age 5 and under group. I was a little nervous about there being kids even as old as 5 but she did great and all of the other kids were super well behaved as well! And there were tons of eggs! Sophia found around 9 or so before all of the other kids had found all of the rest, but she did find one of the three Golden Eggs. :)

Afterwards, they had donuts and cookies and lemonade available. Sophia got to try her first donut and seemed to really like it!

When we got home from the egg hunt we worked on the yard a little, did some grocery shopping, and planted some more plants. Then I got to baking (from scratch) the most moist, delicious carrot cake I've ever tasted! See said yummy cake below!

Then today (Easter) we got up Sophia came out and found her Easter basket that had been left by the Easter Bunny! She took her time but she sure liked it!

After going through the Easter basket, we all got dressed and ready to head to my parents' for a yummy Easter lunch with the family. When we got there, she had another Easter basket waiting for her! 

So we ate and talked and were merry. Then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just lounging around. All in all it was a great weekend!

March Reads:

After reading through another little blog I found, I've decided to add some weekly and monthly updates. One of which will be known as my monthly reads/movies lists!

Here are the books that I read in March. 

Books

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Kris Jenner....And All Things Kardashian by Kris Jenner

14 Months!

My big girl is 14 months old today! She is such a great child! 

She's so smart, and wants to learn more and more! And she LOVES to help!

She's helps with everything now! 

She LOVES bubble baths! 

She eats anything and everything, but loves pasta, red grapes & goldfish! This month she got to attend a wedding, 

celebrate St. Patrick's Day, 

went to the airshow, 

got to visit the Easter Bunny, 

and got to participate in her first Easter egg hunt. 

Her favorite thing to do is read books, but especially Disney Princess books! While she hasn't quite gotten to see most of the movies yet, she's got quite a love of Disney Princesses and even picked out princess pajamas from the store! 

She likes to curl up and snuggle with us and read any and every chance she gets! I'm so happy that she loves to read!

And she popped out a molar! And gives the BEST kisses! And she currently can say "mama," "dada," "papa," and "bubbles."

This month has been full of new adventures! We can't wait to see what the next month has in store for us!

Gardening Boo Boo...

So there's both good and bad news...the good news is, my basil, tomatoes, and bell pepper are doing great! My lettuce even magically came back to life. And the herbs we started are all doing fabulous too! So what's the bad news? As it turns out, what I thought was oregano and spinach (according to a certain someone who forgot to relabel the bottles) it looks like what I thought was oregano is actually chives (which I thought had been thrown out), that there is only one spinach, and the things that i thought were spinach are the oregano. Aye. The green onion we started from seed is doing great! And my friend Carrie brought us over some more lettuce and bell peppers today! So we will be transplanting those to the garden tomorrow, probably along with the green onion and chives. :)

Life in General..

Things here are going a lot better. :) David had an interview last Tuesday for a second job (part-time). They seemed to really want him! On Friday he got an e-mail saying that they'd like to offer him a position! Tomorrow morning he goes in to get the official written offer, and start on the paperwork! I'm so happy/excited for him! It's in town, just a few minutes from the house, and will definitely help with the finances. 

In other random news, I've always felt super close to my Italian roots, maybe in part since I don't really know any of my others..but at any rate, I've always wanted to move them, but that's obviously nowhere even close in the cards right now, but I did buy a cookbook a little while back,  My Calabria, since that is where my family is from. I wanted to learn what their food is like and get a little closer to my roots. I also decided that while I've always wanted to learn Italian that it was high time I get off my butt and do something about it! So I have begun teaching myself Italian, via Rosetta Stone! I really like the setup and am doing really well! I'm so excited! 

Sophia is doing great! She's super active, and LOVES to be outside, 

and to read books (er have them read to her). She LOVES Disney princesses! So I've decided that once it comes time for her big girl room, I'm going to do it in princess theme! I can't wait! She's become so independent and loves to help out! Whether it's folding laundry, swiffering the floors, gardening, moving furniture or cleaning up toys! 

I'm so proud of the big girl that she's becoming!

Yesterday she was able to really put those skills to use. My SIL is having a garage sale this Saturday so we spent all day going through all of our stuff and seeing what we can get rid of, which triggered general house cleaning and allowed up to make room in the back room (junk room) to become a guestroom as well as move the stuff in my craft room into there so that my craft room can eventually become Sophia's big girl room, since we're planning to start trying for baby #2 later this summer. :) 

We're also trying to organize the house better too! Tomorrow we're picking up some items from my friend, Carrie, that she's getting rid of since she's moving, and we're also trying to build a new pantry area in our foyer closet. It is all coming together and feeling more like a home. It seems that things may finally be starting to fall all into place. :)

Plant Update:

Yay! So it's only been a few days, and already we have even more plants that have popped up! We finally were able to get everything we needed to start the side garden that we wanted outside of our bedroom! So we transferred our basil plants, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, bell pepper, habaneros, romaine lettuce and cantaloupe. The basil, tomato plants and bell pepper are doing fabulous! The habaneros look pretty much the same as they did when we transplanted them, and the romaine and cantaloupe look like they're on their way out. :( But at least the majority of it all is doing great!

We also planted some spinach seeds inside, as well as green onion. The spinach popped up and has lots of little sprouts! The green onion hasn't sprouted yet, but it's also only been a few days or so. And the oregano is so tall! I'm so excited! I think I'm going to try and give the chives another swing and see if I have better luck this time. 

Plant Update!

Yay! So my basil is doing fantastic! And just a few days ago we planted some oregano as well! Oddly, yesterday it still had not grown, and as of us coming home this afternoon it was an inch and a half tall! I'm so excited! I've always done so terribly with seeds and plants, and now I'm on a roll! Yay! Take a look!

Busy Busy Busy...

Man, these next few months are just packed. Daddy has been working extra hard and taken on several overtime shifts at work. This weekend he is working two additional shifts. Next weekend we are making the drive to Jacksonville for my brother-in-law's wedding, and the next day we're having a family get together at his parents' for St. Patrick's Day. The next weekend is the Tico Air Show, which David and my brother will be working, and Sophia and I will probably try to attend. Hopefully the weather will be nicer than last year. The following weekend is my nephew, Nathaniel's first birthday party and Easter! I've already gotten Sophia's basket made up and the Easter Bunny is going to come by our house to visit and take pictures. Then the next weekend my family and I are going to New Smyrna to check out the hot air balloon festival! Then I have a C&C and summer premere for Thirty-One, and the next week David will be instructing at another Appleseed event. Then it looks like May settles back down a little, except for Mother's Day, only to start back up in June beginning with David and I's Ten Year High School Reunion and then the Magic Kingdom with my cousins and Father's Day! :) Super busy but I can't wait!

13 Months!

Man, as the days past it just goes faster and faster. Sophia is already 13 months old! We're just around the corner from celebrating her 2nd St. Patrick's Day, and her 2nd Easter!

This past month she has just perfected upon her walking, climbs anything and everything,

and has shown an actual interest in things, like more of her toys, playing dress up, 

and she really enjoys the Tinkerbell movies. She also learned to say "dada." :)

She's eating all sorts of big people food, but her favorite seems to be pasta (just like her mama!)

This month she also celebrated her 2nd Valentine's Day! We celebrated by going and having lunch with Daddy at work, and going to the farmer's market.

She's also started to do this new thing where when she sees that someone has walked into another room and closed the door, that she's going to lay down in front of the door and try to look under it to see what they're doing. She now also actually fist knocks on doors. 

And when that doesn't work, she tries to open the door. And is getting pretty darn close to being able to!

She also really loves to hang out and watch the pup's on the porch. She loves to give them kisses through the glass sliders!

She's become quite the big little person. She wants to do everything we do, including talking on the phone. Too cute!

She's also rather funny and creative. She'll take anything and play dress up, including Daddy's underwear!

This month she also got to celebrate three of her cousin's birthdays, as well as test drive some of their awesome toys! Her favorite was definitely the play house. (Maybe next Christmas?)

But our dare devil definitely didn't shy away from the trampoline. She just climbed her tiny butt up in there and started bouncing after having watched some of the bigger kids earlier. 

And she tried her first drawing on a magnadoodle! Not too shabby.

At the end of the month, we finally got in a little down time and Daddy treated us to a trip to Orlando. We went to the Florida Mall, where Sophia got to play in the Disney store and LOVED it! So since it was still pretty early and the weather had gotten nicer, we headed out to the downtown Disney! She got to dig for dinosaur bones at the T-Rex Cafe!

And meet Cinderella!

And of course try on a pair of the iconic Minnie Mouse ears (which I'm definitely going to make a pair or two of for our trip in June.)

And got to play with Mr. Potato Head! It was a much needed family day, and the end to an amazing month.