A mishmosh of pictures that I missed posting...

Because I'm in a mishmoshy mood :-)

Here we are in our Arizona Cardinals gear. Apparently we're very big fans... I find her GLUED to the TV when football is on, it's too funny.

What happens when our team loses (which is uhh often this year)?!?!

Nommm!!!

We went to a tree lighting ceremony a couple weekends ago...

 And at the park a couple weeks ago...

Phew! I'm working on trying to get my holiday cards uploaded so I can show them off. Yep cardS. I couldn't decide so I went with 3 different designs. Why am I so indecisive? Story of my life! Anyway, happy Friday everyone!

Gabriella's 1st Hanukkah

Last Sunday we went over to DH's grandparents' house for Hanukkah. G received lots of fun presents and was the hit of the party if I do say so myself :-)

 With DH's cousins. I figured it out- they're her 1st cousins once removed. Don't they look delightfully mischievous?

Noming on her Hanukkah bear. For some reason any stuffed animal goes straight in the mouth. I'll just pretend she's giving them kisses. ;-)

Disneyland!

My favorite time to go to Disneyland is Christmastime. It's so beautifully decorated and cheery and you just can't help but love the spirit that's around. We took Gigi for her first trip to the happiest place on Earth Monday and she just loved it! She did so well - she enjoyed It's a Small World, and thought the Jungle Cruise was fun as well. She snoozed for a bit so we were able to go on some of the "older kids'" rides while she slept (awesome bringing my parents!). I love being able to go to Disneyland any time- best perk ever!

 She picked out her own stuffed Minnie too! I held up Bambi - nope. Pluto? Nah. Minnie - she lunged for her and shoved her little snout straight into her mouth! Well that's a total sign of which one she wanted :-)

I have a thing...

For online shopping. It's amazing. I don't have to deal with crowds, parking, walking (OK so I'm reallllly lazy)... And there's something so fun about getting packages on your doorstep. I loves it.

A couple years ago I became an Amazon Prime member. I was chemo-high one night and couldn't sleep so I signed up half-dazed and paid the $79 fee. And it's renewed itself every year. I get free 2 day shipping and $3.99 overnight. And it's glorious. I seriously buy everything on Amazon now.

Diapers? Yep, and I'm a subscribe and save member, so that huge box o' Pampers that normally costs $40 in the store runs me $28. And it ships free. Diaper Genie refills? Yep again, and I get 30% off for having them come to my doorstep! Did I mention that I don't pay no tax on these purchases either?

I can't not be Prime. It makes me happy. It makes me whole. Not to mention that 97.35% of the time, Amazon has the best price out there. Take the Jumperoo G loves so much. It's seriously $130 at Babies R Us. Amazon? $65. Bam! Oh you want Kendra's new book (don't judge!)? Borders will take $25 plus tax from you... but Amazon? $12.99! Bam again!

And I don't limit my love for online shopping to just Amazon. That would be foolhardy I tell ya! Baby Gap was doing a 40% off sale (with the free shipping y'all) two Mondays ago. G snagged herself a little Hanukkah dress and some much needed 6-12 month clothes (YELP she's growing SO FAST). And speaking of growing so fast, I needed to look into getting her a convertible car seat, because she's fast approaching that 22lb weight limit on her infant seat - head on over to Albee baby and you can save 25% off Britax car seats. I got the Boulevard 70 for only $232.49 (no tax, no shipping... sure beats paying the $309.99 retail!).

As a little girl I loved clipping coupons on Sundays (still do!). I hate to pay retail ever. I love saving money... though I suppose I'd really be saving money if I didn't buy anything at all, right?

So I Hosted Thanksgiving...

This post can alternatively be titled, "The Day Thanksgiving Was Almost Ruined."


I was going to write up this whole long nasty post about how my family's Thanksgiving was fouled up by some obnoxious circumstances, but I've decided to refrain from doing so and focus on the positive- because our Turkey day turned out just lovely! Due to some rather unfortunate turn of events, we had to relocate. I was so upset and disappointed that my parents had to be uprooted from their own home, not to mention that my in-laws came from out of state for this, AND my house was in shambles because we're packing everything up to move. This was Gigi's first Thanksgiving, and I wanted it to be special!

But, my awesome mama packed up tons of food, I scrambled and made a run to the store for plastic plates (yep, our dishes were packed!) and a couple nice floral centerpieces (hello, I'm so anal I can't not have a centerpiece at a dinner) and lots of booze. And a wonderfully fun time was had by all!

 Get a load of that tushie!

 

 Note the moving boxes in the background!

Here G is chowing down on oatmeal - a total upgrade in her opinion from rice cereal. She so eagerly ate this up, it was adorable! I was sad about not giving her any veggies, but I'm on board with what our dr. recommends, so it looks like she'll have a yummy Christmas dinner. :-)

5 Months!!

This really cannot be. She was just born yesterday, right?!? She's growing up so fast, how can I freeze time?!?!

Freakouts like this happen quite regularly now. She's learning so much every day, I can't help but marvel at her genius (OK I realize some of you are gagging right now. Get over it, my baby is amazing). Here's the latest on Miss Gabriella Grace.

• 18 lbs 2 oz and 26 1/4 inches long! Um seriously?!?!? 3 lbs in one month! Is there butter in her formula? :-P
• Rolling onto her tummy is easy as pie and she now prefers to sleep that way! Uh oh. I really don't want her sleeping on her tummy at night (I guess there's not much I can do about that) - for now she sleeps on her side and sometimes back at night. Naps during the day, however, she's all about the tummy. She just sleeps so much better that way ( 2 1/2 hour naps, anyone?). I check on her all the time because of course I'm a paranoid freak. 
• Speaking of naps, she loves them. To the point where I'm wondering if she naps too much. There's a morning nap, late morning nap, early afternoon nap, and late afternoon nap. She needs them. I can't deny her her sleep when she starts rubbing her eyes and yawning, but a part of me suspects that her nap schedule is what's keeping her from sleeping through the night. She's still waking around 11 and 3 for a bottle. Any solutions, friends?
• Still eating her "dinner" nightly of rice cereal. I haven't introduced any other foods yet because I honestly wanted to wait until she was closer to 6 months before even doing solids but she just seemed ready (and she wasn't sleeping and the pedi gave us the OK). She's doing really well with it, so our pedi is having us up it to 2x a day now. I'm looking forward to making her food soon, I really can't wait to break out the Beaba Babycook!
• She tries to hold her bottle when she eats now, and don't you dare try to take it from her before she's done! She's especially funny right before she starts eating when she's super hungry - she'll snatch the bottle away with purpose!
• The DAY she turned 5 months she started to be able to sit unassisted! Sure, it's only for like 10-15 seconds at a time, but she's getting it! 
• She also loves "standing" while we hold her arms, we hardly have to hold her. I can't believe how strong and independent she's getting.

Here are her 5 month "photo shoot" pictures. Seriously some of my faves I've taken to date:

I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving! xoxo

Our visit to Mr. Claus

Over the weekend we took Gabriella to meet Santa since we figured after Thanksgiving it would be a total zoo to try to get in. She absolutely LOVED him!

I

I'll have her 5 month update later today since we're seeing the pedi in a couple hours!

I've given up.

Not on life or anything crazy like that yo! I've given up on going to the nail spa for manis and pedis. It's just too time consuming and, well in spirit of saving the almighty dollar, I've decided to just do my own nails... and I like it! I think I haven't gone since August probably, but that's just fine because I've actually gotten really good at doing my own nails. And I don't freak if I chip a nail because I can always touch it up myself.

I started typing up this post because I sort of want to rave about this nail polish - Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure (right now I'm sporting a cool mauve-y grey called Commander in Chic). It's so easy to apply, dries quickly, looks flawless... I know it's starting to sound like I'm getting paid to do this, but I'm so not, nor am I getting any freebies (but if you freebie gods are listening, I'd love some!). I just wanted to report in on a good thing. It is like $7 a bottle, but when have you ever run out of a bottle of nailpolish? Dur never, cuz they last for-evah. And it's way cheaper than paying for someone else to give you a mani that lasts 3 days.

Shutterfly is Fly

How clever am I?! I've been a fan of Shutterfly for a long time - in fact, it's the source we go to for prints of our little princess. We even have a special web site for her through Shutterfly that enables our family to go on and see all of the pictures we share, and they can order their own prints. Pure genius!

Since the holidays are indeed drawing near, I've begun searching for the best place to get our holiday cards made through. Shutterfly does not disappoint! There are so many different styles to choose from, whether you like a traditional greeting card or have more modern sensibilities. I'm the most indecisive person on the planet, so I could spend hours browsing all my options! Here are just some of their awesome designs that I love:

What I super love is the many different Hanukkah card options - since we have a lot of Jewish friends and family to send to as well, I really appreciate that Shutterfly brings fun "outside the box" stylings to Hanukkah cards that you can't really find elsewhere. 

Click away here to check out the goods for yourself: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery