11 Months & Family Update:

So I'm a few days delayed, but Rosalie is 11 months old! What!? That means that in less than a month, my tiny beautiful baby is going to be ONE YEAR OLD! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! It's been amazing watching her growth and development and her personality come shining through!

This month w decided to take a day trip to San Antonio. We woke up the girls bright and early and surprised them. We did the Riverwalk and the Alamo, and stopped by the Missions. It's really beautiful there. I'm obsessed with the Riverwalk. We will definitely be back.

My Groupon ended for pole class, so we got me a membership. :) I haven't felt this healthy and strong in a long time. Between eating a lot better and pole 2-3 days a week, I've been losing weight and gaining muscle. It's been amazing! I've gotten pretty good and my teacher suggested I level up. I've already got 1/2 of the signatures, but I need a second instructor to sign off and won't see her until next Tuesday, but then hopefully on to level 2!

With the big trip to Florida coming up in less than a month, I've had so much to do! In just a few short weeks, we have my SIL's baby shower, my sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party. I finally got all of the invitations made and sent for the two that I am in charge of. I also found a delicious recipe to try, to make mock Panera orange scones, and OMG, these things are delicious and addicting! Call me crazy, but I actually like them BETTER than Panera's. 

David's work had a company party this month, and this time, it was at our local minor league baseball game! They supplied us with fajitas and drinks for dinner, and rented out the pool (yes! There is a POOL at the baseball field) at the Dell Diamond. It was Sophia's second baseball game, and Rosalie's first! I finally got to meet some of David's friends that I hear about every day when he comes home, which was really nice, and got to socialize with several of the wives as well. :) Rosalie even got her first fly ball!

We finally decided to give in, and went to the Austin Aquarium that is just a few minutes from the house in a shopping plaza. Our expectations were not high since it is a rescue driven small aquarium, but we had a coupon and gave it a go. It was actually a lot nicer than I'd expected. It's hands on, so I was allowed to pick up the horseshoe crab to show Sophia and she got to touch it, which we both really enjoyed, there were lots of fish, sting rays to feed and touch (she loved that too!), a play area, a fish tunnel and a fantastic gift shop. They even had a penny squasher machine! (we do these everywhere we go). It was a lot of fun!

Rosalie is currently still in size 12m clothing, but will likely be moving to 18m in the very near future. She is such a ball of energy and her curiosity is insane. As I've recently learned, a flaw in living in a rental is that we can't install our awesome magnetic safety locks for the cabinets (I don't think so anyway) and she has decided that the kitchen is exactly where she needs to be all the time! She's still on a break from walking, because she still believes it's faster to crawl, but I have no doubt that we will be back to walking any day now. She currently still just has the two bottom teeth, but we think she is currently teething again, so who knows? Sophia I'm pretty sure had at least 4 by this time. 

We've been doing our typical trail adventures, and have created a "nature" book for goose, using a really large old school magnetic photo album that I got on super clearance at Joanns. We collect flowers, leaves, feathers and any other really neat things we find on our adventures. 

This particular adventure lead us to an area that had at one point (probably Memorial Day weekend floods) under water, but due to no rain since then, the water had all evaporated, and what was left was all of the river rocks. However, we did find a very tiny, I guess puddle of sorts that had all of the wildlife that was left behind. There were TONS of tiny fish, a water snake (yikes!) and a crawfish!? What the hell!? I'd never seen one in the wild before, and this was a VERY weird random spot for all of this. There were actually two crawfish, but this one was particularly spunky and kept trying to claw at David. It was pretty amazing to see. 

As a special surprise for the girls, we last minute decided to take the girls to Legends, a Barnum & Bailey Circus! The cost was slightly hard to swallow, but I still have very fond memories of my first Barnum & Bailey Circus as a child for a gifted field trip to the Orlando Arena. I wanted that for my girls too! Even better, they had a unicorn and a pegasus! Those are two of Sophia's favorites! Unfortunately, Sophia was in a bit of crabby mood, but Rosalie loved it!

We also decided to go check out Austin's Annual BatFest! For those that don't know, Austin is very fond of its bats. Congress Bridge downtown is famous for its bats, so where else but Congress Bridge for the festival!? Sophia had a blast! They had bounce houses, rides, rock climbing...We tried waiting around for the bats to finish their assent but Sophia started with a tantrum again, so we got to see some of them, but not the big shabang. Unfortunately, that's the THIRD time that I've tried to see this happen. I guess it's just not meant to be. :(

With all of the fun things that we got to do the weekends prior, we decided it was time to do a few free things, so we headed back to the Play For All Abilities Park in Round Rock, and brought Goose's bicycle this time to practice a little with. Rosalie really enjoying playing in the giant sandbox area, and making music. 

As I'd mentioned early about pole, I've been losing weight, and I'm so happy! I finally reached my goal weight (pre-pregnancy weight!) Since this picture was taken, I've actually lost almost two more lbs. but it is very exciting to be able to look in the mirror and actually see the difference. I look more muscular and defined, and I now have a little bit of thigh gap (something that is very RARE for me). I'm really happy and proud of myself. On the downside, I'm going to need some new pants soon as my current go to bottoms are literally falling off of me all day long. 

Rosalie LOVES to eat! She definitely is different than her sister in this way! She eats anything and everything that we put in front of her! We recently let her try an Oreo cookie and she lost her mind in excitement! 

After a day of geocaching, we went home, ate dinner, and decided to head back down to downtown for the Austin PRIDE parade! I wanted so badly to go to the whole festival, but it was pretty costly, so instead, we opted for the free parade. We got there just in time! It was incredible! I've never seen anything like it! Apple alone took more than 5 minutes for their people to walk past! The turnout was amazing, and the parade lasted almost three hours! There was even a perfect, beautiful super moon that popped up behind the parade! So much love and beauty to see! We got candy, tons of beads, a fan, chapstick, and a tiny gay flag, which Rosalie happily waved! The girls had a blast! I wish so badly that my bestie could've been there with us though.

With chasing Rosalie around constantly, unfortunately, that means not nearly enough time is spent with Sophia and her schooling, but we've been trying to fit it in there when we can, and she is getting so much better! I am very proud of her! She writing her name has gotten soooo good!

We even made our countdown chain for our trip home in a few weeks!

Oh, and Football Season started! We may be Texans now, but my heart will always bleed Maroon and Gold! We won! Woo hoo! We made some yummy Texas Trash and cheesy pigs in a blanket and Goose helped me make FSU jello jigglers!

I started making some new products to sell, including these adorable maxaloones that fit both girls.

We finally got our butts up and made our way to the famous Round Rock Donuts! This Texas donut is just magical! It was piping hot and fresh, and did I mention, MASSIVE! I also had a delicious sausage, cheese & jalapeno kolache. So yum! 

Afterwards we decided to go check out some other trails and found some beautiful swimming spots and a ton of treasures for our nature book.

Sophia got some new shoes because she's finally outgrown all the lovely pairs that we'd gotten from her best friend, Mya. 

The next day, we went down to Bull Creek to swim for a little. Unfortunately, since there's been no rain since Memorial Day weekend, the water was insanely low, so all of those beautiful spots that we swam with my family were pretty much empty and left with not clear, somewhat stagnant water. Needless to say, swimming didn't last very long, but Rosalie really enjoyed her time in the water. 

We decided to try out a place that a father I met at an impromptu playdate at the Domain mentioned to me, called Mt. Playmore. This place was fantastic, and cheap! For about $6, the whole family got in, and it's good for all day with in/out privileges, and the parents can play too! It was unfortunately a little too small for David's large stature, but was perfect for Sophia and I, so we ran around and around the mazes for an hour or more. They also had a cute little baby/toddler play area that was perfect for Rosalie. She had sooo much fun! This place kicks Chuck E. Cheese's ass anyday! 

I also participated in a sew along, using a german pattern for a hoodie hood shirt with one of my favorite fabric groups, MK Designs, and I am absolutely obsessed with the outcome! It is sooo cute! I will be making matching pants in the next week!

It's been a really good month. It's had its stresses like any other time, but I really feel very close to my family, and am just really happy. I've been loving diving into these sewing projects, and exploring with my family. 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to pin down Rosalie to get her height and weight, but she goes to the Dr. next month for her one year, so I guess we'll get her update then. Until then!