We Have Landed!

To give everyone an update from this post:

We are finally getting settled and figuring out our next steps. At the end of June we closed on our house in Alexandria, VA and moved down to Dublin, VA to move in with my very generous parents. All of our stuff (and I tell you we have A LOT of stuff) is currently stored in their garage with the exception of our clothes, a few office items, our bathroom supplies and all of Baby K's items. I'm so so so thankful that we had a place to land and store our stuff during this incredibly difficult time.

Tolar is going to head back to school for 2 years to study instrumentation and automation. I'll just tell you to look it up, that would be easier than me trying to explain what it is. :) We are excited about this program because there are normally 6 job offers for every graduate! Woohoo! And it is something that Tolar is excited about - we are ready for a change.

At the end of the summer/beginning of fall we will move into my aunt's house to live there for the rest of the time that we are in Dublin. She is renovating my Grandmother's house and will move in there, allowing us a terrific option to have our own space. I'm completely overwhelmed by the generosity.

Life is different, plain and simple. Target is 20 minutes away (the horror), but my parents are a few steps out of the bedroom. I'm so excited for Tolar to start classes in August and for us to get a better glimpse of what our future holds.

For now, we have a beautiful view from my parent's deck.

I'm Back!!! High Five For Friday

No, you don't have to adjust the settings on your computer or phone screen, I really am back to blogging!!!! We are getting settled in our new location (I'll fill you in on that next week!) and unpacking/arranging our stuff has become my life. I'm excited to be back to blogging again and figured I'd give you a quick glimpse into my life with a High Five For Friday post!

1.) Baby K is finally letting us read to her (meaning, she waits about 2.5 minutes before she grabs for the book). I captured this adorable moment of Daddy/daughter time.

2.) My sweet friend Suzanne invited us to her lake house over the weekend (I'm so excited to be living close to her again!) and Baby K took full advantage of the relaxation that the lake allows.

Thanks for the sweet chair, Grammaroo!

3.) Such a perfect sighting, mine and my sister's names right next to each other!!! I love this new Coke campaign.

4.) We took Baby K to the park and she had a blast swinging in the sun. Check out my instagram profile for a cute video.

5.) I'm so excited to use my Day Designer Planner to keep me organized and get Pursuit of Pink back on track!

I'm linking up this High Five For Friday post with Lauren Elizabeth.

First Birthday Thanks plus a giveaway

Baby K's first birthday was Lady Bug themed, based off of a nickname that we gave her when I first found out I was pregnant with a girl. My maiden name is Mady which is often pronounced incorrectly, so to get people to pronounce it correctly I always said that Mady sounded like Lady but with an M. I had some friends start calling me Lady Mady shortly thereafter and the nickname stuck (sidenote: I mourned the loss of Lady Mady when I got married). Once we found out that I was pregnant with Baby K, we started calling her our Little Lady Mady Bug and fell in love with anything Lady Bug for her. So her first birthday theme was decided long before we even planned her party.

While planning her party, I wanted to be certain and keep the Lady Bug theme all through out. We included a lady bug on the evite, had lots of lady bug and lady bug inspired decor at the party and my sister even found a precious little lady bug dress for her to wear. But I didn't want the theme to stop there - I also wanted her thank you cards to include the theme. So what's a Mom to do? Check out Minted and all of the fantastic thank you cards designed for kids.

Let me tell you, Minted has some amazing items for those who love paper products and photos! From wedding products, to party invitations, to Christmas cards, to birth announcements, to art prints, Minted has you covered. So that's why I didn't look anywhere else but Minted to locate the perfect thank you cards for Baby K's first birthday. 

I started by looking through all of the children's thank you cards just to see what was available and there were so many designs that I loved, it was actually kind of hard to choose. But it was love at first sight, when I located the "Love At First Bite" Children's Birthday party thank you cards. 

I like pretty clean and classic designs and it is no secret that I'm a huge fan of polka dots. So when I laid my eyes on this design, I knew I had to order the thank you cards. And let me tell you, they do not disappoint in person; the coloring looks exactly the same in person as it does on my computer screen. It always irritates me when I order something thinking it is going to be one color because of the way it looks online only to have it delivered and realize it looks completely different in person. I'm so thankful that Minted delivered to the fullest potential.

Another great reason to check out Minted and their great selection of products is for the quality. They print their products on thick card stock instead of cheap thin paper.  You don't have to worry about your pen ink bleeding through or accidentally ripping the card because the paper is so thin. Minted has great products, I've never been disappointed with anything I have ordered. I will keep going back for more anytime I need an invitation, thank you card or announcement. And you can customize the products to fit your family. I added Baby K's name to these thank you cards, aren't they just adorable???

And to help you fall in love with their products, the generous folks at Minted are giving one lucky Pursuit of Pink reader a $100 credit! That is such an amazing prize, just think of all of the amazing products that you can get with $100. Thanks Minted - that is seriously one sweet gift! All you have to do to enter is click this link to hop over to Minted's website and enter the Giveaway - so easy!!! Best of luck!!!

Pool Days

We are all moved out and finally getting a chance to relax! What a crazy week we had last week with loading up the moving truck, driving 5 hours to SW Virginia, unloading the moving truck, driving 5 hours back up to Northern Virginia, closing on our house, flying to Nashville, driving to Southern Illinois and celebrating Tolar's Mom's retirement. After all of that, the pool is calling my name.

We will be visiting Tolar's family for another week and I plan to lay out by the pool as much as possible. Baby K got her first experience in the pool earlier this week and she had a great time. Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

High Five For Friday

Happy Friday kids! This has been an insane week with a lot going on, there is too much to tell you in just five points. We celebrated Baby K's first birthday, took Baby K to the doctor three (yes three) times, moved out of our house, drove down to Dublin, VA, drove back up to Alexandria, VA, closed on our house and we are now flying to visit Tolar's family for a week and a half. Shew, I'm so tired and very much looking forward to relaxing by the pool for the next several days.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from some fun moments during the week. There are so many more great moments, but sadly not everything got documented. Tolar and I want to give a huge shout out to our friends Dane and Courtney for letting us crash at their house when we were back in Alexandria for the house closing.

1.) Poor Baby K had to take two long car trips this week; I sat in the back with her on one of the those trips since she wasn't feeling well. While she was sleeping, she reached out for me, it was the sweetest thing

2.) Even though Baby K was a bit under the weather, we still attempted to celebrate her birthday. I love this picture of Tolar praying for our baby girl at her party.

3.) My family was in town for Baby K's birthday party and to help us move. My Dad actually ended up driving our UHaul moving truck, along with my sister's dog as his passenger. And now I am working on my first one act play: The Adventures of Grandy and Madison.

4.) Completing the sale of our house was exhausting for Baby K, she fell asleep in the car and Tolar had to carry her inside. Look at her hand, so cute!

5.) Baby K got a new ride for her birthday from Grandy and Grammaroo and she loves it. She even got a cell phone, I need to teach her about no texting and driving.

I'm linking up this High Five For Friday post with Lauren Elizabeth.

1 Year Old!

Here we are, the parents of a one year old! I cannot believe my baby is technically no longer a baby anymore. This has been an incredible year and I am so in love with my sweet little red head. Even though there have been tough times that we have had to endure and I have often been sad that we are going through so much hardship during Baby K's first year of life, she continues to bring us so much joy. In fact, I truly believe that her purpose has been revealed to us - to be there to make Tolar and me forget about our problems and concentrate on her and how much we love her.

Stats: 18 pounds, 10 ounces. Her 12 month well check up is tomorrow, so I won't know her other measurements until then.

Development: She is such a fast crawler, cruising all over the place. Tolar even helped her learn how to crawl up and down the stairs. I was nervous at first, but she does really well. Of course, we don't let her crawl up the stairs unless we are right behind her (baby gates are our friend!). She pulls up to stand on almost anything and it is the cutest thing when she squats down to pick something up off of the floor. She can stand on her own for a few seconds too, in fact she can stand on her own until she realizes that she's not holding onto something. She will walk by holding our hands or if she is pushing something, but she hasn't taken any steps on her own yet.

Loves: My mom (aka Grammaroo) got her a stuffed Roo from Winnie the Pooh and she LOVES that thing. It is so cute, she will grab Roo from me and put him right up to her face and snuggle him. At night when I peek in on her using the camera monitor, I love to see that she has one arm around Roo while she sleeps. And this kid loves to eat, we have officially reached the stage where if we eat in front of her, she has to eat as well. She doesn't have to eat what we are eating, but she definitely tries to grab our food and will cry until we give her something. And her newest trick and something that she loves to do is stick her arm out like she's Vanna White. It is so stinkin' cute because she will do it a lot of the time when she is saying hello to people - almost like she's saying "here I am!" And one of my favorite things that she does is when she goes into a play "panic" mode trying to get us to chase her. The look on her face when she is trying to "escape" is seriously adorable.

Dislikes: Baby K does not like to be told no. If we tell her "no touch" when she goes to grab something she shouldn't, she will stop, sit there for a second and then start wailing. It is so cute and so sad all at once. I'm glad she does understand what no means though!

Sleeping: I'm so thankful that we still have a super great sleeper. Her bedtime is 8 p.m. and she will sleep until 7:30 a.m. We no longer set an alarm clock (unless we have to get up super early) because she will wake us up. Her morning nap is very consistent as far as time of day and length of her nap - its a nice long one! But her afternoon/early evening nap varies, especially the time of day.

Diapers: Size 3 Pampers Swaddlers and Baby Dry diapers. The Baby Dry diapers are seriously so amazing!

Eating: As I said above, this girl loves to eat. She will eat anything that we give her, I can't think of anything that she has refused. This month was her first time trying avocado and she liked it, Mama didn't enjoy the messy hands though. I think her favorite food might be grapes, or possibly egg whites. It is so funny to watch her eat though, she grabs big huge handfuls of food like she just can't get enough. I sometimes wonder why I even cut up her grapes in quarters because she still grabs 4 pieces and shoves them in her mouth.

Clothing: She is in a solid size 12 month, but will easily fit into 18 month clothing too. She has SO MANY clothes, my little fashionista. To the Grandmas: she could use some 18 month clothes, both for warm and cool weather. :) Oh and during our move, I realized just how many clothes she has already worn over her life time, I think I had 5 tubs full of clothes that are now too small for her! If Baby K gets a little sister one day, we won't need to buy new clothes because we have so many and so many options in all sizes for several seasons.

Miscellaneous: Our sweet girl got sick for the first time on Saturday. She woke up with a fever that morning and started feeling pretty bad as the day went on. Sadly, that was the day of her first birthday party. :( We decided to still hold her party since we were having it outside and also since she didn't show any other symptoms outside of her fever. But the party definitely overwhelmed her and our little girl ended up in tears right as we were singing happy birthday and presenting her with her cake. We took her to Urgent Care and found out that she has an ear infection. It is so super sad seeing my baby so pitiful. She just feels awful, but luckily she has been fever free for one whole day now! Her actual first birthday was yesterday and she was in better spirits, so I think she is starting to feel better. We tried to give her some birthday cake again and well, the picture speaks for itself.

Let's take a look at Baby K through the months:

High Five For Friday

Well Friday is here! This is our last Friday in our house; sadness is definitely setting in. While this week has been consumed with packing, we still had some fun - especially with our little red head.

1.) Tolar celebrated his first Father's Day; Baby K's gift to her Daddy was a matching pair of chucks for herself. That's my girl, gift yourself some shoes. :)

2.) Some incredible friends from church took me out to dinner to say goodbye. I was so touched by their sweet and encouraging words, it's funny I certainly don't see myself the way they do. Their way is so much better. Praise The Lord.

3.) We decided that Baby K gets to move with us when we leave Northern Virginia. At least we have a box that fits her!

4.) This sign, that is all.

5.) Baby K likes to try on her Grammaroo's glasses.

I'm linking up this High Five For Friday post with Lauren Elizabeth.