Priceless Little Mommy Moments

The other night my little one was still chatting away in her crib at 10 PM. I had been out that night and Daddy had put her to bed. One thing I never do, is go in to my daughter's room at night before she falls asleep. I don't want to create any bad habits that might interfere with her sleep routine especially since it took SO long for her to even sleep through the night to begin with. This night felt different for some reason. I thought that maybe my little girl was restless because she needed a little Mommy tuck in. So, for the very first time in probably a year I walked into her room while she was still awake.

I'm so glad that I did because her response was priceless. The second she heard the door creak open and when a enough light from the hallway pierced the darkness of her room she knew it was me. She let out a long and super, duper sweet, "Hiiiiiii Moooommmmmeeeee, and she kept saying it over and over." She was SO happy and I melted into sloppy mommy mush.  I laid her back down, brushed her cheek with the side of my finger, swept her hair out of her eyes and asked her if she wanted to pray with me.  We thank Jesus every night for different things that she comes up with.  It's fun for both of us.  She always starts her prayer by saying, tank du desus fuh dis cwib (thank you Jesus for this crib) and she grabs the rail and shakes it a little....cutest thing ever right!  Ordinarily, she would list off the other cute little baby things she wants to thank Jesus for like her blankies, her poppy (pacifier), her buddies (she says all their names), juice in her belly, dinner, flowers and mommy and daddy.  Well, this special night every time I asked her what else she wanted to thank Jesus for she just kept saying, muy mooommeeeee and she would rub my cheeks with her two little hands and say, "I wuv muy moommeeeeeee."  It was one of those moments where the love that your little child has for you is overwhelmingly clear in a tangible way.  I treasure those moments!  I kissed her cheeks a dozen times and snuggled her back up in her blankets and then she went to sleep without another peep.  Priceless. 

A moment that made me forget all about the tantrums and strong 2 year old will that we have been dealing with lately.  A moment that glowed as brightly as the sun in my Mommy heart.  A moment that filled me with so much emotion that all I wanted to do is quietly pray and give thanks as I walked out of her room. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus for blessing me with this little girl."  Daisy, I absolutely adore you my sweet little baby buddy!

Snapshots of Life - April Instagram

I turned the big 29 this month. (lol) It's funny because I've never been one to wig out over my age but, for whatever reason this year was a weird one for me to process.  I think I had an early mid-life crisis...(I'm exaggerating of course...sort of).  How could I be almost 30? I remember being a little girl and my mom being in her late 20's like it was yesterday.  Honestly.  And turning 30 isn't even that big of a deal so much as it means that I'm only 10 years away from 40 and only 20 years away from 50....sigh.  (LOL).  I promise that I'm not a dramatic person.  I guess this year just caught me off guard. ;)  Have any of you ever had an unexpected age crisis?  Anyways, it was a great birthday.  Hubby surprised me with a present in the morning and baked me a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting just the way I like it.  He was so sweet!  Daisy was so excited to sing happy birthday to mommy and eat my cake.  She helped me blow out my candles and look at her wittle puff face.  Priceless.  This picture is one of my absolute favorites of me and my little girl.  LOVE. 

Later, I enjoyed a delicious sushi dinner with some of my girl friends on my birthday night. I'm sort of obsessed with this new place that I found that has a buy one roll get one free special!! Seriously, for a sushi lover that is like Heaven on Earth!! And their sushi is G-o-o-D lemme tell yah.

Daisy loved her first wheelbarrow ride with Daddy. 

This picture melts my heart.  My baby with her babies.  Daisy loves her baby dolls and she is such a good little momma. She hugs, kisses and feeds them. She loves counting to two right now and when I handed her two babies she got so excited and said, "awwww, mommy wook, two babies. One, Two awwwww so sweeeettt."

We go to Toys R Us a lot these days just to let Daisy explore and to pass some time on slow days or nights.  Am I the only parent that does this?  If so, please don't judge me.  It's free entertainment for weary mothers.  I'm so grateful because when she's happy I'm happy! lol Her favorite thing to do is play on the cars.  What can I say she's 2 going on 16:)  

My hubs grills for us a lot, which I love.  Sometimes we use gas and sometimes we use charcoal and this particular night he was slow cooking some chicken over coals.  I can't even emphasize how delicious my husband's slow cooked chicken is.  It's insanely yummy and flavorful  We are definitely an outdoor family.  If its warm enough you will find us eating dinner outside on our patio,  I'm so thankful for our quaint little backyard and that Daisy loves being outside all the time too.  Daddy asked Daisy for a high five here.  I'm glad I captured it:).  A sweet little life moment.

Our fence was due for a new stain after 3 years. The hubs knocked it out and it looks great and new again. The rose bushes beat him up pretty bad though so I'm glad it was his job and not mine! lol

One of the things that I am trying to do now that I'm old (wink), is take better care of my skin.  Technically, I should have been doing this years ago when it mattered but, now I wear this everyday.  I don't like that it smells like sunscreen but, the smell fades pretty fast and I've even noticed that my skin feels softer.  Now the sun isn't frying my face...as much.  Win Win.

Doesn't she look so elegant here.  My little princess.  She saw this crown in the aisle at Target and of course had to try it on.  She only wanted to wear it for all of 3 seconds but, that was just long enough to get this.  She is looking so big these days.  Slow down baby girl.

Our very first rose bloom! We have 6 rose bushes and this was our very first bloom! Oh how beautiful these knock out roses are and they bloom from spring to late fall.  I've become a bit sentimental about roses because they always make me think of my Grandma in California. She is a rose lover too and has the most beautiful variety of rose bushes around her garden!  I loved seeing her flowers bloom each year when I grew up.

My friend Elissa introduced me to this salad dressing and I am hooked!! I literally ate her entire family sized bowl of salad all by myself.  Just in case you should try it out a little goes a long way:).

 Me and Daisy drove up to Virginia Beach to visit with my good friend Elissa and her 3 adorable boys.  Her hubby was out of state for work so we kept each other company and the kiddos definitely kept us busy.  So thankful for my friendship with this gal:).

Look at all of our babies!  Far left is Everett who just turned one, my silly Daisy putting her arms around the boys, Austin who just turned 3 and Logan who just turned 5!  Love these kids!

Elissa treated us to a trip to the aquarium and we all had a blast...I think I had the most fun evidently.  Can you see that Daisy is eating the shark tooth?  Hilarious!  And the blue tongue...jolly rancher.

One of our many outdoor family dinners.  Daisy loves any kind of meat including fish but, she calls all meat steak.  Most dinner nights you will hear her shouting, "moh steak daddy!" She's quite the carnivore.

For whatever reason Daisy had a great time squishing her face into this magnifying glass.  She cracks me up.

She shares my love for gardening.  She filled this watering cup up over and over again to water the soil.

Brushing her teefers with her new princess tooth brush and toothpaste that she got for Easter:).

She was a little bit scared of the giant sharkies in the tank.  She kept mentioning Nemo and the sharks so I think she was imagining the cartoon in real life.  I could understand why that might be scary but, isn't this picture cute.

The pretty table that Joey's family set out for our Easter dinner.  Love all bright spring colors and what a yummy dinner it was!

Daisy and her Aunt Jessie hooked up with a lot of goodies this Easter.  Daisy's expression is priceless.  That is a face that is saying, "Mom, hurry up and take the picture because I gotta bust into these baskets!!" :) LOL

Daisy fished for the first time with her Daddy on Easter.  She LOVED it and I loved seeing both of their happy faces.  Boy, does this little girl adore her Daddy and want to do everything that he does. 

My Very First Week With Instagram

I got my very first iphone last week! Yeah for me:).  I had an older droid for a couple of years and it was the slowest piece of machinery on planet Earth and if you don't believe me you can ask anyone who had the unfortunate pleasure of needing to use it. lol  Phones really aren't a big deal to me but, I was kind of excited about having access to Instagram and a better working camera since I love taking pictures and my last phone would freeze whenever I opened the camera.  Did I mention that I loathed my last phone? hehe  

So, I had been patiently waiting for my contract renewal to come up for a couple of years, so that I could get a new phone because my last phone has been shattered for over a year (thanks Daisy).  Within hours of getting my iphone I was hooked on Instagram and all the cool new features.  Less than 24 hours into my dream cell phone experience I was leaning over Daisy in the backyard to take her picture while she was playing on our patio, my flip flop got caught under the wheel of our BBQ and I came tumbling down and my brand new barely broken in iphone also came tumbling down and ummm....cracked it's face to smithereens.....(k, hold on a second.  I need to wipe a tear out of my eye...).  So, there I stayed, crumpled on the back patio, staring at my phone on the ground and I swear it felt about as awful as if someone had died.  I was SO BUMMED about the stupid phone.  Oye.  I think the only reason it is such a bummer is because they cost so much and even with monthly insurance you still have to pay $200 just to replace the dang thing if it cracks.  You could say that I was having a "no good, very bad day." 

Then friends suggested I take it in to the Apple store to see if they would replace it for me as a grace kinda thing.  Evidently this was a policy that Apple had practiced for a few years and many, many people that I know were able to take their phones in to Apple when they cracked/broke etc. and get a new phone.  They had to sign a contract saying and it was a one time thing.   So, with that encouragement inside me I mustered up the courage to walk into Apple and see about getting my phone replaced.   The answer I received was a big fat NO.  Evidently the grace phone policy stopped after the iphone 4 series and I have the 4S.  I don't know whether to be happy that I have the newer model of the phone or not because at this point it sure doesn't look like a 4S and I would be more than happy to take a iphone 4 for free over getting another 4S for an additional $200.  Sigh.  It's been a week now and I'm over it.  The phone still works so that is a blessing:).

My hubby is attempting to fix it on his own first.  He found a screen replacement and tool kit online.  There are over 50 or so odd number of microscopic screws in an iphone!  So, wish him luck as he attempts that endeavor tonight.   

So, back to the point of this post...I love Instagram!  I haven't picked up my DSLR camera once since I got my iphone.  I know that sounds terrible being that I am a photographer and all but, I guess you could say that I am really enjoying the flexibility of a tiny, lightweight camera and the simple ease of editing with Instagram immediately on my phone.  I'm capturing more things than I ever would be with my bulky camera and it's fun!  So here are a few of my snapshots.  *A lovely rainbow after a crazy morning thunderstorm *Daisy sneaking a sip of my coffee * A happy cherry tree *my new living room curtains came! *Went to Pottery barn and ate up the decor while sipping a Starbucks...my kind of Heaven *my sleeping angel before I had to wake her for a birthday party *chalk fun *tire swing fun at a party *me and my girl on an evening walk *gorgeous trees shadowed in the evening sky *My little peanut entertaining herself while we waited for a counter top guy who never showed.

Do you use Instagram? My user name is caseymartinez  (pretty easy to find me:)