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Today was the best day because AUNT SHELL IS HOME!!! She took leave and came all the way from Afghanistan to be here for KB’s first birthday!

The daily FaceTimes must have worked because K definitely recognized her and gave her the sweetest hug! Michelle is Kensie’s God mom so it is so special to us that she was able to make it home! 

We weren’t the only ones excited to see her… Jack was all out of sorts this evening. He completely lost his mind and climbed up on the chair over to her but we let it go for a minute because we needed a photo. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Speaking of Jack – he was “out of sorts” earlier today too. He was acting extremely weird this morning (usually does when he did something bad) and then I discovered he went to the bathroom in the house. 🤦🏼‍♀️ The point of me telling you this is because Kensie thought me telling him it was bad was absolutely hysterical. 

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This morning K and I got some last minute party errands done and she made some important new friends. They’re important because they work at Starbucks. 

As far as K’s “big girl” skills go – she was an amazing eater this morning for breakfast and she even got her first babysitting practice in trying to help with Henley at the airport. 

Henley was crying so Kensie gave her her pacifier. 😂😍 I wish live photos worked in WordPress because this one is perfection. 

For breakfast K nommed down some eggs like they were going out of style and  let me feed her yogurt! 

I know I sound ridiculous and cliché and blah blah blah – but I cannot believe this little girl turns one tomorrow! I put this in my blog a few days ago but Incase anyone missed it – Chris and I want to write a letter for K on her birthday each year and save them for her when she’s older. I wrote her letter this afternoon as she napped and damn…let’s just say someone must have been cutting onions while I was writing. 

To clarify, I’m not sad she’s turning one. I’m so excited for every single day with this babe and it’s so much fun to watch her grow and learn. I’ve truly enjoyed every stage of ages so far (Seriously; it just keeps getting better!) it’s mile markers like these put life into perspective and make you realize how precious time is and how fast it goes by. 

The blog will have to keep going for at least a little longer. Now that we hit the year mark, I owe you guys an update on that bow count. 😜

This night a year ago, I went into labor with Kens! Actually as I write this, it was the exact time we were getting ready and heading out the door for what would be the 27 most painful (yet rewarding) hours of my life! So, how fitting that today we installed Kensie’s BIG GIRL car seat! Ahh!! HUGE thanks to my friend Kendall who is car seat safety certified for coming to help me install it correctly!!

Kensie is loving it! She’s up higher now and can see out the window and she is all about that life. 

I was in full party prep mode today while Kensie was in full “practice being a big kid” mode. 😭 She was walking all over and even squatting down to pick things up and standing back up with them all on her own. 

This afternoon Aunt Casey came to visit kens and bring her an early birthday present! K loved the tissue paper and seeing her boyfriend, Riley. 

One more day y’all. ONE. MORE. DAY!!!

Here are a few more photos from K’s One Year shoot. The photographer wanted to stop here and get these while we were walking to a different spot. So glad she did. They’re too sweet!!! (Behind the scenes spoiler: Kensie kept trying to eat that flower. 🤦🏼‍♀️)

I’m going to start this post with the end of our day, because it’s my favorite. (Sleep is great and all, but that’s not what I’m referring to). After I dream feed Kens, she always rolls off me and lays on/near me. A few times she’s crawled over to Chris and laid on him. We all know I’m feeling extra sentimental/emotional this week (judge me. I don’t even care) but the little things like this are what I am going to miss most as she keeps growing! 

Heck, I already miss cosleeping. When I try it now Kens flails around like she’s fighting a bear blindfolded and usually wakes me up with an arm or foot to the face. 

Today was a GREAT day for miss Kens! She had more wake ups than usual last night but the Motrin seemed to help some. She slept in until almost 8!! Since we were (ok, I was) so well rested, we made it out of the house before her morning nap! Not a usual occurrence for us…

This kid. Would not. Sit still. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I looked like a very careless mom with my child standing/turned around in the cart as people walked by. I promise I buckled her in and kept making her sit back down. I needed 3 arms in order to hold her down and push the cart at the same time. Our bodies do amazing things when we are pregnant. Not sure why growing an extra set of arms isn’t one of them. 🤷🏼‍♀️

We headed back home for a quick morning nap and then B came over to play with Kens! 

I was very thankful for the extra time to get some party crafts done and run some errands while Kensie hung with B and showed her all of her new skills: walking while talking on the phone being one of them. 

When I got back home K was nice and worn out and went straight down for an afternoon nap. I actually had to wake her up from it to go to the gym. 

K worked on her selfie game today with Nichole while they hung out together in baby jail. Kensie loves taking photos of herself and I love how hilarious they always turn out. 😂

Okay if you’re still reading, here’s you’re reward: more photos from her one year session!!! Ah!!!! I seriously cannot stop looking at these. I’m SO happy with how well they turned out. 

For her cake smash photo my sweet friend Jany (Jany’s Sweet Delights) made her cake for me!! I know I sound ridiculous but I didn’t want Kens on a sugar rush or to puke, so I didn’t want “real” cake. Jany was the BEST as we sent recipes and ideas back and forth and came up with this Zucchini bread cake and coconut cream frosting! (K loves zucchini so I thought it may go over well. Success!)

Well, today confirmed it. Zero to a hundred is DEFINITELY KB’s style – we have a WALKER!! It’s not a step here and there, either. It’s crossing rooms without even bribing her! 

Every time I set K down, I put her on her feet. Usually she squats down and crawls. Today I did it, and she took 10 steps across the room. Pretty sure my jaw dropped. I stood her back up to see if she’d do it again…13 more. Wahhhh?!?

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I figured as soon as I tried to get a video she would stop. I was wrong! She strutted it for the camera and I caught another video of her walking in her playroom! 

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She’s still crawling of course, and I think she knows that’s still faster, but she’s definitely intrigued by the idea of walking! 

In between practice KB was such a sweet cuddle bug today. Her nap schedule was all sorts of off and I think her teeth were bothering her, but she was a happy sort of calm! 

I randomly decided to replace one of Kensie’s feedings today with whole milk. She wasn’t exactly down with that. 

Once I moved it into the bottle Kensie would take a sip here and there and toss the bottle. Haha! 🤷🏼‍♀️ A friend recommended mixing it with breastmilk to transition her little by little. To be honest I didn’t want to have to pump every time in order to do that so I figured I’d give the cold turkey thing a shot. K is apparently not going to let that happen. 

It’s been a rough start to the night with 2 wake ups in the last 2 hours. 😔 I gave Kens some Motrin because she keeps chewing her fingers. I’m hoping it’ll hold her over for at least a few hours so she can rest. Poor babe. 

Along with the walking excitement today – we got Kensie’s one year photos back!!!! I am OBSESSED with them!!  Briana Lugo Photography amazes me once again. 

Here are a few from the beginning of the session – I’m saving the others for her big day. 😉

IT’S BIRTHDAY WEEK! Ah!! The ultimate question…to continue her blog or stop? 🤷🏼‍♀️

I guess I’ll kick this post off with the big news from the weekend: Kensie started taking steps without being coaxed! 3 separate times today, (that I saw) K let go of what she was holding on to and took 2-3 steps to get to something else. She’s starting to figure out the shortcut. 😳 

K’s weekend was off to a rough start on Saturday after her late night out Friday. She’s not one of those babies that “goes to bed later, wakes up later.” She’s a go to bed later, wake up at the same time as usual and be super grouchy kinda girl. 

This video is not her being grouchy, it’s just cute.

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I gave up on trying to get her to go back to sleep and we went to the gym. It kept her occupied enough to stay happy until nap time! 

Ah, nap time. My favorite part of Saturday. K slept for 2 WHOLE HOURS Saturday afternoon. She woke up happy as could be (finally) just in time for the babysitter!!! Our sweet friend Sarah came over to watch Kens for us so we could go to he UCF game, sans baby. 

Sunday by some stroke of magic she slept in until 8am!! (She’s usually up between 6:30-7). She only woke up at 8 because our neighbor decided that was an appropriate time to mow their lawn. I was slightly pissed, but I was in shock she even made it to 8 so I tried to be grateful and not go throw rocks under their lawn mower. 

We decided to go out for a breakfast date and Kens was extremely happy with that decision. She ate a pouch while we waited and then devoured some scrambled eggs and a few bites of pancake! 

If you read this blog regularly you know that Kensie is very hit or miss with “real” food. Sometimes she’s all about it other times she refuses it. Not only did she eat at breakfast, but she also ate 2oz of yogurt before bed! K went 6 HOURS between nursing today!! I don’t know if I’m happy or sad about that…but I’m proud of her. Lol 

Kensie was doing all sorts of funny things with her mouth today. She makes this new sucking motion with her bottom lip and she shoves her finger in her pacifier and chews on it. Tonight I was pushing K on her swing and got a good angle to see the top of her mouth. I was wrong about the top 2 coming in. The TOP FOUR ARE COMING IN. Woof. No wonder she was on the struggle bus a few days ago. 

In my mind, babies didn’t start tantrums until they were about 2. You know. “Terrible twos”, right? False. My child has figured them out already and holy hell, if she keeps it up she’ll be an only child. She’s perfected this new high pitched scream that she does when you take away/won’t let her have something she wants, and it’s everything I don’t enjoy listening to all rolled into one. 🙄 Luckily it’s only come out when she’s been really tired/grouchy but I’m hoping she doesn’t make it a thing. 

It was a great last weekend of being a “baby” 😭 and we’re so excited to see Aunt Shell this week and celebrate Kensie’s big day!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a set of more hilarious photos to post of Kensie than I do today. I’ll admit for a split second I was like “hmm maybe I shouldn’t do it. The judgement might be strong on these.” Then I looked at them again, laughed just as hard as I did while it was happening in person, and decided to post them anyway. 

We had a Corn Hole event at the gym tonight. It started right at K’s bedtime so I wasn’t too sure how late we’d make it. I think it’s safe to say Kens was having a BLAST. 

Why is she so good at that 😂😂😂 We couldn’t stop laughing. For the record, the bottles were empty. If anyone has a connection at Blue Moon, tell them they’ve got a new ad campaign model. 

Don’t worry, it gets better. 

Or maybe it doesn’t and no one will find this as hilarious as I did. Andres gave Kensie tattoos and it really had me second guessing her Halloween costume this year. 😂

It was an expo marker and it came off with a rag and water – but damn it was hilarious while it lasted! 

We also caught this little booger WALKING on video tonight! She did it a few times and seems to be getting much more confident with it! Uhhhh ohhhh!!!!! 

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Earlier today, Kens helped me do some reorganizing in her closet. Home girl was loving it!

We ran a few errands after her morning nap and K sacrificed ANOTHER binky. This time it was her elephant. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I even went back in and looked for it and asked customer service if someone turned it in. No luck. 

On this day last year, it was K’s due date! Obviously, she was late. I got an email from Baby Center today. They’re usually titled “Your Baby – Month 9” or something like that. Today’s was titled, “Your TODDLER – One Year!” 😭 Just, no. She’s still a baby!!! 6 more days…

Kensie did so much today I wanted to tell you guys all about that I wasn’t even sure which thing to start with. Then I put her to bed and she topped it all off and gave me my answer. I was singing to her and she was sucking on her pacifier and had her head on my shoulder like usual. Then she sat up, took it out, and gave me 2 kisses without me even asking. 😭😭 Top 5 moments of my life. 

It’s bittersweet how quickly time is going by but it is so much fun watching her grow and learn and develop into the little human she’s becoming! 

I ran open gym before I coached this morning so I hung out with K in her baby jail and she could not have been happier about the situation! 

Class was during her nap time so instead of napping, she played hard. So hard, that this was Kensie by the time we got home. 

We had a quick break at home and then it was back to the gym. She didn’t have much of an afternoon nap since her morning nap was so late but apparently she didn’t need it. This kid didn’t stop moving all afternoon. 

Kens found her old chair in the corner of the gym and decided to use it as a walker…sort of…a knee walker?…while she shoved it around the ENTIRE gym. 

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Once she was done with the chair, she moved to a barbell. Watch until the end…she saw Uncle Will come in and literally couldn’t contain her excitement. It was so damn cute. 

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Before we left, Kensie made her way over to the barbells and took one of the rags and started wiping them. 😂 I was half in shock. I know she is there all the time and sees it, but I guess I never really knew she paid attention to those things. Watching her piece things together and do/use them in the right context blows my mind. 

K got her daily walk in hanging out with Uncle Will before his class. She still only takes a step here and there without holding on to someone or something, but we’re all keeping an eye out because she’s going to get up and take off any day now, just like she did with crawling. Zero to hero is her style. 

If you can’t tell in those photos, K Baby more than earned her bath tonight. 



For the 3rd morning in a row, after wrestling Kensie to change her diaper (sit the eff STILL!!!!) she picked up her necklace, put it to her neck and then handed it to me. Then, she picked up a bow (that didn’t match) and put it on top of her head. 😂😭 So, next week she’ll just be getting ready all on her own?! That’s surely how it feels!

I was the WORST picture taker today but I sort of got a video of K’s new “cheese” trick. 

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Today we had a lunch and shopping date with Aunt Ashley and Baby Henley! Kens was a crazy lady at lunch and plunged her whole hand into my chili bowl. Like up to her wrist. Luckily it had been sitting out a while and it wasn’t that hot anymore.🤦🏼‍♀️ 

For Kensie’s birthday, Chris and I wanted to write K a letter each year that we would save and give to her when she turned 18. Ashley got us the best gift for it today!!! Check out this super cute book, “Your life in letters”, made for keepsake letters from Newborn-18!

The amount of writing I have for a letter for this little girl will take her from her 18th birthday until her 21st just to read it all. 😂

I am sure the long, sweet letters will turn into much shorter letters when she’s about 13. That one might be a few lines similar to “You’re quite the asshole lately and you’re lucky I love you.” 🤷🏼‍♀️😜

For now, she’s the absolute sweetest. Chris came and picked up Kens from the gym while I finished coaching and went to the grocery store to grab dinner. I came home to dinner, flowers and a blizzard! Chris said he let Kensie pick the flowers out by herself. 

Looks like I’m not giving up breastfeeding just yet. Have to go burn off these extra calories real quick. Ice cream is worth it. 😜

Well it seems Kensie has a new favorite food. Confession: I usually grab a snack to eat while K is in the bath. I don’t get to dinner until 7:30-8 so I’m STARVING when we get home from the gym. (See where K gets her drama from?) 

I bought these super healthy Ritz Cracker/Chips because…BOGO. It’s also me trying to take advantage of still being able to eat these things until I stop breastfeeding and actually have to go back to not cramming my face with chips and PB&J. 

Anyways, Kensie kept grabbing for them so I licked the salt off a corner and gave her a piece. Y’all. MIS. TAKE. She was grunting and pointing and ooing and straight BEGGING for them. I gave her a few more. We went and got her PJs on. I sat down to feed her. She rolled off my lap, crawled away, found the chips and started pointing and grunting again. 😂

Kensie has also mastered “cheese!” She’s usually pretty good at posing for photos if I tell her to smile but today when she was distracted I kept telling her “say cheese” and she’d look right at the camera and smile. 😂

This morning K partied in her diaper and ate breakfast on the counter. I was trying to eat some breakfast quick and she kept trying to climb up my leg. I set her up by me and handed her a banana to see if she’d eat it. She was too high to hand it to the dogs so it was a lot more successful than anything she eats in her high chair. 

I’ve been giving Kens Motrin before bed as her top teeth start to break through. She was SO happy all day yesterday and seemed fine so I skipped it. This morning she was still happy but a little clingier and extra snuggly. 

Once Kensie found the energy to stop clinging to me and play, it was full on rock climbing mode today. 

K took her morning nap in the car between errands and had an early and short afternoon nap at home; which meant an extremely long and exhausting afternoon for this mama. Kens was in bed asleep by 6:45…and I’m not far behind her. ✌🏼 

Kensie was one happy, kissing, smiling little copy cat today!!! 

I think I’ve also solved our “Kensie won’t eat” problem. Kensie won’t eat if you treat her like a normal baby and put her in a high chair and give her her own food. Well, excuse me. 

However, if I give her anything I am eating, and let her sit with me, she’s all about eating “real” food. 🙄 She also won’t fall for the fake “oh look I’m eating this too” and trying to get her to eat her food. Too smart for her own good. 

She has mastered putting silverware from the food into her mouth, but she’s still working on getting food on it first. 🤦🏼‍♀️

K had a blast playing with Riley, Harper and Levi today!! 

She was a trooper for my morning workout and took 2 long naps in between playing today. I finally got a good view of her upper gym and we have TWO top teeth broken through! Maybe now she can attempt to chew some food. 🤷🏼‍♀️

As you can see, I also resolved the picture issue. I  migggghhhtttt have maxed out the storage limit and had to purchase more. 😳 

I tried to get a video of Kensie giving kisses when she went on her smooch spree this afternoon. She got distracted by the camera (shocker – literally saw it and posed for a photo) but we caught one of her sweet, open mouthed, wet smooches for ya. 😉😙

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