My Little Lady Love

Love This Girl

Sunday Funday

I love Sundays.  I hate that it means I must go back to work the next morning, but I love spending Sunday with my little family.  Due to our crazy, insane schedule for the time being, Dylan and I really don't get to spend much time together or as a family.  He is usually home Tues and Thursday nights too, or sometimes just one of those... and then sometimes neither and though I do appreciate those nights, it's still only a few hours once I get home from work.  Sundays mean a FULL day together to do whatever we want!!  Now that the weather is warming up, we have been having park picnics and taking walks together.  B loves to be outside and so do we.  Honestly, I am happy doing anything at all if we are all together!  Today's adventures:

Picnic at the park.  Brooklyn played on two playgrounds and chased squirrels, aka "curls", around with Dad as I followed behind taking pics of my two loves.  Then we were off to Research Park on campus so Brooklyn could see all the pups and we could take a walk around the park with her in the wagon.  She even got adventurous and walked across the rocky path over the water with us!  She loved all the dogs that were out playing and swimming.  There were lots of birds,ducks and turtles too!!  Closest thing College Station has to a zoo I guess!  ;)  Somebody (and Daddy too) was getting sleepy so we made a quick stop at the book store for some new reads (Toy Story & Thomas The Train for B and some history books for Dyl) and of course we had to stop in the pet store to say hi to the fish, hamsters, mice and birds and then back to the casa.  Our child ADORES animals!!  She has 5 stuffed animals she has to sleep with and she named herself...Puppy Doe Doe, Pup Pup, Buggy, Tur-tle and Ellie.  The bed tends to get a little crowded when she slumber parties in our bed!!  B asked to get in her bed and as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out!  Dyl got comfy on the couch and I had some ME TIME!!  I hit up the library, Target (of course) and Kroger.  Me time is VERY important!!  After dinner, we took Brooklyn for frozen yogurt and then settled in to watch Toy Story (one of today's Target purchases even though I went to treat myself!  I ended up with a spatula (seriously???) and came home with Toy Story, a collection set of Mickey Mouse Club books and a new pillow for B...go figure).  Anyhow, great Sunday Funday!!!!  :)

Much Love,

 T

This is what it's all about....

(http://www.alisoneden.com/)

Much Love,

T

My Sweet Girl is 2

I can't believe how fast my angel is growing!  The last two years have been the best years of my life.  They aren't kidding around when they say to treasure every moment because before you know it they are grown!  It fills my heart with joy to watch Brooklyn grow and learn and see her own beautiful personality shine.  I feel like the luckiest woman alive to have Brooklyn and Dylan.  I love my sweet family.  Life gets crazy sometimes but at the end of the day we have each other, now and always.  I just wanted to share some of Brooklyn's 2 year pictures taken by my wonderful friend and amazing photographer, Alison Copeland.  Please check out her website at http://www.alisoneden.com/.  If you or someone you know needs a photographer, she is your lady!  If she can handle a wild 2 year old with zero interest in having her picture taken, she can handle anything!!!  :)  Enjoy...

 



I love you all my heart.

 Much Love,
T

Will the new MRS.BLANCHARD please stand up....



stancyhigleyphotographie.com

 I'm back!!!  It has been months since I blogged, but with a new year and MUCH LESS chaos around here... I feel it is time to start this blogging thing again :)  So much has happened lately....

Dylan and I are finally married!  After 5 1/2 years, we finally tied the knot!!  We got married Friday, November 12th here in College Station at 7F Lodge.  I adore that place.  Seriously, check out their website and even if you just need a romantic night or weekend away with your lovie, you should definitely check it out!  I am waiting to get our professional pictures back and I will be sure to post some :).  It was a fabulous evening, a few hiccups here and there that I am sure I stressed about more than anyone else even noticed, but I think that is pretty typical.  Brooklyn was there with us of course and stole the show at times!  Ha...  She was a dancing machine on that dance floor.  I love my little family!

stancyhigleyphotographie.com

We went to Riviera Maya for our honeymoon and stayed at The El Dorado Royale.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I can't wait to go back someday.  Dylan and I have not had a vacation since Brooklyn was born so we were in much need of some relaxing time together!  It was amazing.  We have always talked about wanting to visit some Mayan ruins so we spent an afternoon in Tulum.  We actually got separated from our tour guide/group and got lost.  We saw signs about the ruins so we just started running to try to find our peeps and a mile later, shirts soaked with sweat...we found familiar faces.  We actually overheard a couple saying "Did we ever find The Blanchards???"  Ha... Go figure, of course we would get lost!  Tulum was breathtaking...not just because I am out of shape and running a mile literally takes my breath away, but it was simply gorgeous.  We also went to Xel-ha and snorkeled, jumped off a cliff and spent the day in the sun.  We did ALOT of laying beach & poolside just enjoying each others company.  Oh and eating...YUM.  I don't think I stopped smiling our entire trip.... well maybe the morning after we basically closed  the bar at the resort....  That was a rough morning, just so happens it was the morning we were leaving.  Hangover + Airplane... No bueno.  All in all, it was perfect and I am now a happily married lady!!  (Most days....  ;)  we may be "newlyweds" but we have been together long enough to admit that my husband can be a huge pain in the rear!)



About to go snorkeling for the first time ever!

We spent Thanksgiving day at my Mom's house this year.  It was the first year in her new house that she (well the building company folks) built in March!  AND, my Grandparents stayed in town after our wedding and spent Thanksgiving with us as well!  They live in Indiana, so we haven't spent a Thanksgiving with them in a while.  We headed to Gatesville that Friday (after some Black Friday shopping!!!) to have our Blanchard Thanksgiving.  Great times, great food, great people..... Makes me one happy gal!

Christmas was wonderful.  I was in love with seeing Brooklyn light up at all the Christmas decorations!  She loved the lights.  "More lights, more lights!!!"  She is still loving all the houses being lit up at night.  How am I going to explain that to a two year old when everyone takes their decorations down???  She was okay with Santa this year...  aka "Ho Ho".  She didn't cry in her picture with him.  However, she did not get near another "Ho Ho".  Her response to GiGi's attempt to get her to sit with Santa was, "No Ho Ho!!!"  She definitely got everything she could have wanted for Christmas!  What a lucky little girl.  She is loved by so many.  We are truly blessed.  Dylan and spoiled each other a little too of course :)  I am already looking forward to next Christmas!!!  I just love everything about this time of year. 

                                    



She was so not into it!



That is basically a quick re-cap of our Fall.  The new year is upon us and I am very hopeful for what 2011 will bring!  Brooklyn will be 2 on January 7th.  I can't believe my baby girl is already 2 years old.  She is my world.  She's so beautiful, smart, sweet, hilarious and just simply perfect.  She is a Mama's girl still, though I am just waiting for that Daddy's girl thing to kick in.  Hopefully I will be better at keeping up my blog in 2011!!

Much Love.....

T

27 thus far....

pretty good!

B made me a fabulous card for my 27th bday with the help of her Daddy. I will get it out every year from now on! I'll have to take a picture of it for here.

Ziegfest was pretty great.

My Hottie

It was the 27th time (now that worked out pretty cool) I have seen Blue October actually and I had the greatest seats ever!!! I got to be backstage!!! Actually more like side-stage. It was fabulous. And even better than that was that I got my mom, brother, Dylan's parents, my aunt, Dylan's mom's bff and a couple of my brother's friends all VIP seating for Ziegfest. During Blue, they were all right up front (minus dad-in-law) singing and loving every minute of it and I got to watch them and sing right along with them!!! It was AMAZING!

(See that person in the bright orange shirt in the very right of the pic??? Yep, yours truly.)

Sweet Seats!

The Family :)

And of course, I had a BLAST for the 5th year working this awesome event with my KK!!!

I went to IKEA for the very first time and loved it! The chaos of it was a little overwhelming for my ADD brain, but they had some pretty awesome finds! We bascially just got what we went for, candle lanterns to light the aisle for the wedding, and attempted to look around more but YaYa and I were having to chase my crazy-haired wild child all over the store! Ok, I admit, YaYa did most of that while I attempted to shop... That is what grandmas are for, right??? :)

I got to hang out with some old pals a couple weekends ago for the first Aggie game! I had a blast. I love getting together with good friends.

   We got new living room furniture and redecorated B's room!! Three greens and two light browns later, I finally got the right colors for her.... Dylan was thrilled... Oops. Now I just need to get this house decorated the way I want and then I will share pics! One thing at a time though and right now the focus is wedding......

This weekend is my bridal shower and I get to see my lovely ladies!! I am so excited! Jess is coming in from Baltimore and Kate from NOLA and then some of my fav ladies from Texas of course!!! I am one lucky lady to have such great friends! Of course just as importantly, some of my wonderful family will be there as well!! I am truly blessed!

Next post will be more interesting... pinky promise.

Much Love,

T

Thank you 26....

26 was pretty darn good to me. I honestly can say that growing older hasn't started to really bother me yet. Up to 18 I was just a baby. 18-24, well those were college years (yes I realize that is 6 years) and with those were the good and the bad times. I feel like 21-24 was a blur (there is probably a reason for that...). Like it was all smashed up into one big fat chunk of time that feels more like a year now looking back. Great times, not so great times.... but definitely some GREAT friends were made then. 24 and up has been pretty great. I can't complain when I have two amazing people to grow older with!! Thank you Dylan and Brooklyn for making my life so full and wonderful. I can't imagine life without you two.

Back to 26.....

On my 26th birthday, Dylan took Brooklyn and I to Galveston to wonder around the strand and let B put her feet in the ocean for the first time. I loved that day. We didn't do anything crazy exciting, just walked around as a family and enjoyed our 6 month old little babe and each other. We all shared a snowcone, Brooklyn's first. Brooklyn and I had a caricature done and it is to this day one of my favorite pictures of us! So cute and silly. I cherish those kind of days.

My bestie took me to a Blue concert in Houston for my 26th bday. ALWAYS an amazing time. Brooklyn started crawling right around my 26th birthday. That was so exciting to watch her becoming more independent and mobile!

At 26, I spent a lot of time away from Dylan with him working out of town. We survived it of course and I believe it made us stronger.

I had mostly great times with my mom... a few little tiffs here and there but that's to be expected when you are around each other all the time! During 26, I got to watch her fall more in love with her grandbaby every single day and I cannot express the joy that brings me. 26, unlike 25, meant my Brother was home safe and no longer in Iraq. Thank God.
During the Fall of 26, I was still staying home with Brooklyn. I still cry sometimes when I think of all of the time I had with her then. I remember when it started cooling off outside and I would walk B to the park down from our house almost everyday. We had a lot of fun together when I was a stay at home Mommy. I will always be thankful for those memories. I struggle now with the decision to continue being a working Mom or to go back to being with her...... For my 26th bday, I got my first DSLR... a year later, I am still learning to use it. I need to dedicate more time to it since photography is something I LOVE. I have at least been able to get some really great snapshots of B over the last year!

Brooklyn's first Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas!!! I could go on and on about all of these holidays. 26 gave me a ton a of great "first" memories with Brooklyn. Those will never be forgotten!

Up until December of my 26th year, my best friend lived right down the road! Then she had this brilliant idea to move to Dallas....to be continued.

I spent more time with my Dad than I had in a really long time. That was much needed, for myself and for Brooklyn. Appreciate it 26.

We had family Thanksgiving in the fall of 26 back in Gatesville and my Mom and Brother Bear even joined! That was very special to me to have my family there along with Dylan's side. We had a big family football game that I must admit, I did not contribute to. Well, I did get some pretty hilarious pictures!

B started walking right before Christmas! I still get emotional watching the videos of her first steps. Can you see why I can't complain about getting older?? Look what these years are bringing to my life :)

At 26, my love asked me to marry him. Of course I said YES!! He and Brooklyn gave me a beautiful ring on Dec 18th. Thank you baby!

At 26, it became official that I was getting to marry not only the love of my life, but getting to marry into an absolutely wonderful family. I am proud to become a "Blanchard".

Jan 7th, Brooklyn turned 1!! We had a fabulous party with lots of our friends and family. We truly have some of the greatest friends and family EVER!!

My Grandma was with us for a couple months at a time during last year. Her and I would take Brooklyn down to Herman park in Houston and to the Zoo and just running around town. I will always cherish those memories. She adores B. I hate to imagine her not being with us someday, but I will have times like those that will always be dear to my heart. I am so grateful that Brooklyn has been able to spend so much quality time with her.

At 26, we said goodbye to our big home in Houston. It was difficult to leave my Mom, but it was what was best for our family to move back to College Station. We have some wonderful, amazing memories of the year and a half we lived there. Some of the greatest moments of my life happened in that home.

26 brought some tough decisions.....I started working for the first time since I found out I was expecting Brooklyn. It has been one of the most difficult decisions I have made. I cried every morning for the first couple weeks. Some days I think it is what is best and other days I want to go back to being home with Brooklyn. I'm afraid of not having my own career & something to fall back on when my kids start school and yet I am afraid of missing out on the years before they start school. What an exhausting battle I go through in my mind!

At 26, Brooklyn met me outside when I got home from work and she was standing in the pouring rain, smiling so big because her Mommy was home!! We played in the rain right then and there. I will forever hold that memory in my heart. Thank you Brooklyn...and 26.

When I was 26, I had the privilege of asking 5 wonderful ladies and amazing friends to stand next to me on one of the most important days of my life. Thank you Jessica, Kate, Leslie, Sara and Kalin for being my bridesmaids! I love you all and cherish your friendships more than you know!! I am one lucky lady!

In April of 26, we had a Tap Reunion after Chilifest and I had SO much fun catching up with old friends! Such great memories with such great people. 27's ready to do it again!!

During 26, I made a couple road trips to Dallas to see the BFF. Once with Brooklyn... our first 4 hour solo road trip....We met up with Kate at Jessica's and Jessica's Mom stayed and joined our slumber party too! Very relaxing weekend with my little babe, two of my very best friends and a Mom!! The other time it was another BLUE concert!!! Some quality time with my be frie.

At 26, I fell in love with a Jim Hjelm wedding dress in a magazine. At 26, I tried that dress on and fell even more in love. At 27, I will get to strut my stuff in it!!

Brooklyn had some minor health issues, but things turned out just fine! THANK YOU GOD & 26!

At 26, my bestie had a brilliant idea to move to Baltimore. And, she went through with it. The end, for now. Maybe 27 will bring her back ;) At least to visit a lot!! And then of course, Kate, another best friend decided to go to law school at Tulane and live far far away too... Geez ladies, whats up with these long distance dreams of yours??? Playing... so proud of both of you!

2 Blue October shows in 1 night! With GREAT company... Dyl, Brother & Jess!!! Yep, that happened at 26! (total of 4 shows, not bad 26!)

When I was 26, Dylan graduated from Sam Houston University!! I am so proud of you Dylan Cole Blanchard! You were a great student, you are a hard worker, a fabulous hubby to be and such an incredible Daddy! Great job babe!

During 26, I watched my sweet little baby girl transform into a beautiful little toddler! So full of life, love, happiness and personality! It has been an incredible year.

During 26, Brooklyn has continued to teach me more about life than I ever knew. I never knew I could love this much. I never knew someone could be so beautiful. She reminds me to laugh and play. She reminds me to relish in the simple joys of life. She brightens even the darkest days. "She's rock & roll... and she saved me"

Dylan, thank you for 21, 22, 23, (part of)24, 25, 26 and now 27.... and the rest of our lives!

These were only some of the amazing memories from being 26.

I honestly look forward to 27, 28, 29....even 30. BRING IT! (But please try to be gentle & kind to my body...27, You are already getting sassy with all this gray hair!!!)

Much Love,

"27" T