8 days of Mia (Part 4)

So, we are now 5 days away from Mia turning one and I'll say it again, I can't believe it! :) They say time flies as you get older, and as I'm approaching 30 (June 2nd :) I couldn't agree. Come month end, I will have a one year AND a 5 year old. WOW! Then I start thinking about Manuel starting Kindergarten come September and then, okay, I'll stop now, because you think I'm "being dramatic" about Mia turning one, oh trust me, it's going to be NOTHING compared to the breakdown I have when Manuel starts Kindergarten. My goodness, I can't even think about! :)

Back to Mia....everything is coming along great for her birthday! I don't think I've ever shared her invites, so here is what they look like...

Obviously that's not what Mia's particular invite says ;) (I wish I could share that with you, but I don't know how to white out the address and you just never know what type of person is reading my blog! :) But just trust me when I say, they are ADORABLE! I got them from Pear Tree Greetings via a giveaway I won from the super sweet Amy at Just Another Manic Momday! Thank you Amy! :)

Now, on to todays pictures...

 I LOVE this picture (perhaps one of my all time favs of Manny and Mia!) I just love the rough, tough guy with the tattoos, holding his sweet, tiny baby girl in pink! :)

8 days of Mia (Part 3)

Good Morning! :)

First things first...thank you all SO much for your prayers and kind words yesterday about Manny's surgery! Everything went well and pretty much the best case scenario occurred. He did NOT need a complete ACL reconstruction and in fact his ACL looked great! Dr. Cohen was able to do everything arthroscopically (sp?) and in layman's term just had to "shave" his knee cap that was cracked. He still has physical therapy ahead of him, but it all turned out SO much better then it could have. Thank you God!

Random, but I have to share...at the age of 29 (and a half! ;) I got my first ever black eye this morning! :) I was setting Mia down on the floor so I could go outside to clean off my car (we received a few inches of snow last night) and as I was leaning down, Manuel was standing up and his head collided with my right eye. I immediately started crying, that's how bad it hurt! I didn't think it was THAT noticeable until I walked in to work this morning and my Director of Operations said, "Christina, what in the world happened to you!?!?!?" UGH! I guess it's more noticeable then I thought! :) I'm icing it and hopefully it won't get any worst then it is right now! :)

Now on to my "Mia celebration" ;)

The day Mia was born was wonderful! I think I was more nervous this time around because I knew I was having a c-section and I knew what was going to happen afterwards. (Recovering from a c-section those first few days is down right painful! ESPECIALLY when you don't like taking narcotic pain medicine so you avoid it at all costs! Finally, after basically making me take it, I realized it really was helping and I needed it!) After the first few days it's not so bad, but shewwww, that first time you go to stand up, 24 hours post-op, ekkkkkkkk, its painful! But anywho, back to Mia, it was a wonderful day! :) As soon as I heard her cry, and knew she "checked out" healthy I was SO relieved. Not that there was any concern that something would be wrong, but you just never know. Once they wheeled me to recovery I got to hold her for the first time (as I waited for the feeling to come back in my toes because they won't move you from recovery to your room until you can wiggle your toes :) And let me just tell you, that sitting there waiting to be able to move your toes is like torture! :) I don't know how many times I thought to myself, "Why is this taking so long? I don't remember it taking this long with Manuel (He was an emergency c-section)!?!?!? Am I paralyzed?" etc. I really can not believe that in 6 days (January 18th) my sweet girl will be one.

And for good measure...

My first time holding her in recovery 

 The "Big Brother" and his cheesiest smile EVER! ;)

 Holding Mia for the first time

My first pic as a mother of TWO!!! :)

8 Days of Mia (Part 2 :)

**I'm not sure why this is underlined and uncentered, but I don't have time to fix it!** :)

I have to make this SUPER quick as our Internet was down all morning, and in about 20 minutes we have to leave to get to the hospital for Manny's surgery. His surgery isn't until 3pm (UGH!) but we have to be there at 1pm. The hospital is about an hour away AND it's supposed to snow tonight. Please pray the surgery goes well AND that the snow isn't much. I HATE driving in the snow, especially at night. Clearly Manny won't be able to drive once we leave the hospital ;) so it's all up to me!

Now, on to the fun stuff...Here are a couple more pictures of the morning of Mia's birth, before the c-section and a few of her first moments out of my belly. Enjoy! :)

Last pic of me before my sweet baby girl entered the world.

 She's here...

 And not really sure how she feels about it ;)

Snug as a bug in a rug!:)

8 days of Mia

Good Morning and Happy (?) Monday! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

I had planned on starting this blog "series" on Saturday and I was going to call it the "10 days of Mia" (has a much nicer ring with the "10" instead of "8", no? ;) But I seldom ever blog on the weekends (although I do catch up on my favs) so I figured I'd just start it today, so "8 days of Mia" it is. What is "it" you ask????? Or wait, you probably didn't but I'm telling you anyway We are 8 days away from my sweet baby girl turning the big 0-1, so from today until January 18th I will posting pics that I've never shared before (or at least I don't believe I have) from Mia's first few weeks of life. So here it goes...

This was January 18th, 2010 around 6:30am. We had just arrived at my moms house to drop Manuel off (she was watching him while Manny and I went to the hospital). I was a scheduled c-section so thankfully we had time to prepare everything in advance. It's so crazy to look at this picture and think that my 7 lbs 3.4 oz baby girl was snuggled in that belly. If I think about too much, I'll cry. I was singing to her last night (a song I made up months ago, where I pretty much just say, "Mia Grace, Mia Grace, oh you are my Gracey Face" in a singy songy, lullabye tone over and over again. I know, Grammy Award winning ;) but I started to cry. I hate being so dramatic, but for some reason this whole turning one thing is REALLY getting to me. I don't know why. It didn't happen when Manuel turned one. The only thing I can say is that it's so hard on me this time around because MAYBE she's our last child. Who knows? But I do know that next Tuesday, January 18th I will be spending my sweet girls 1st birthday with her. Yes, I took off work. I did the same thing for Manuel's 1st, 2nd and 3rd birthday (for his 4th birthday he had started school, so I didn't want to keep him home) and I'll do the same thing for Mia.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post when Mia is no longer snuggled in my belly, but has made her grand entrance in to the world! :)

Two reminder:
1) Don't forget to enter my CSN giveaway below! The giveaway ends on January 17th at 11:59pm.

2) More importantly...tomorrow is my hubby's knee surgery (possible ACL reconstruction, they'll know once they get in there). Please pray that everything goes well. My husband can NOT stand sitting still, he has to constantly be going, going, going. So pray that he has peace of mind and can just "be" while recovering.

This, that, the other and an award! :)

Happy Wednesday! Sheww, this week is flying by (which is a good thing considering that it's my first full week of work since mid-December so its sure been a bit challenging! :) Whenever I have a long weekend or any sort of "extended" time off with my children it's always a tad harder to go back to work. I miss them. I miss spending time with them. I've actually put a new plan in place for 2011...I am not allowed to get on the computer, in the evenings, until after 8pm. By that time Mia is asleep (or ready for her last bottle) and Manuel, Manny and I have settled in for snuggle/TV time and are just relaxing. I now feel like the time between 6ish-8pm is REAL family time instead of just family time where we are in the same room together but not necessarily interacting with one another, ya know? We've been reading, playing games, doing puzzles, etc. My family ALWAYS comes before Facebook, blogging, etc. but sometimes I would "forget" that (I hope that makes sense to some of you out there, and I didn't just make myself sound like the worst mother on the planet!!!!! :))

My husband is having knee surgery on Tuesday, January 11th. When I was about 6 months prego with Mia, Manny was at work (he does ballistic testing for military, police, etc.) doing a training drill where they were trying to break down a door using a sledge hammer (basically testing the durability of the material of the door that they might use on a base for our military men and women overseas). Manny was swinging the sledge hammer, lost his footing and dislocated his knee. They video record everything they do there, so it was all caught on tape. Apparently it's something I NEVER want to see because the screams coming out of my husband were something from a horror movie (from what I hear). Ewwww! I went to the hospital after it happened, and thankfully by that time it had already been put back in place. But back to my point (yes, I do have a point :) It's a Workers Comp case so it's been a big fight about doing the surgery (not from Manny's employer but from the Workers Comp lawyers, etc.) and the surgery has FINALLY been scheduled. I have a ton of confidence in the surgeon, as he's performed several surgeries on Baltimore Ravens players, but surgery is surgery and it's scary nonetheless. They are going in there prepared to do a total ACL reconstruction, but that may not be necessary. We shall see. So if you could, please pray for my hubby and the doctors, I would appreciate it. And maybe pray for my sanity that while he is immobile I can run the house as stress free as possible (HAHAHA! ;) Manny ALWAYS does the grocery shopping! That is NOT something I'm looking forward to! :)

Mia's DMSA scan is rescheduled for the third (and HOPEFULLY final!) time. It is February 8. You know I'll be asking for prayers as it gets closer! :)

And on a totally fun note...I received an award from the super sweet, always takes the time to comment, amazing picture taking, only blogger I "know" from my area, Jeska at Living Our Love Song. Go check out her blog! She takes great pictures and has super cute nieces and nephews (you know me, I'm a sucker for adorable children! :)




Now, I am supposed to pass it on to 10 other bloggers. I know many bloggers don't "do" the whole award thing, but I'm going to post it anyway just to recognize some of the blogs I read and love! If you haven't checked them out, you should! :) (in no particular order)....

1) Lindsay at lee la la
2) "Shmonae" at Pink Moss
3) Unofficial Mom at Unofficial Mom :)
4) Hanna at bouffee e bambini
5) Amy at Just Another Manic Mom Day
6) Rachel at finding joy
7) Heather at Family Volley
8) I'm a REAL LIFE Mom
9) Alexa at It's A Love Story
10) Jackie at The Math3y Family

i heart faces photo challenge: Best Face Photo 2010

I haven't done a photo challenges in awhile, but I wanted to participate in the i heart faces photo challenge because I really like the theme. Although I have SO many favorites from this past year, of my childrens faces, I went with this oldie but goodie :) (Not really old, but I've posted it a 1,000 few times before :)

*And because it wouldn't be a post without me apologizing for not posting a picture of both of my children :) that's against the rules! :) You can only have one photo in the entry post. IF I could post a picture of Manuel, I would have posted the picture right after he got his curls cut off! :) Shewww, I feel better now that I cleared that up! :)

2011 is here! :)

Happy New Year! :)

I hope the first 2 days (well, technically we are into day #3 but we have 2 full days behind us! :) of 2011 have been pleasant ones for all of you! :) Our last 2 days have been great! Yesterdays sermon at church was just what I needed to start my year off right! I am officially in party planning mode for both of the kids birthday. I can't believe that by the time this month is over I will have a 5 year old and a 1 year old.

Our NYE was pretty wild IF your definition of wild is hubby and kiddos asleep by 9:30pm (well the kiddos around 8ish, the hubby by 9:30pm) ;) And what did I do until midnight (yes, I stayed up! :)???? I "goo goned" 50 baby food jars that I'm using for party favors for Mia's 1st birthday :) Wild, wild, wild, I know! ;) But it actually was a perfect time to do it because let's be honest when else would I have had several hours to myself without interruption, um, NEVER! :) I woke Manny up at midnight to give him a kiss and then I went to bed. Times have totally changed from our NYE's of past years, that's for sure! :) But I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have an awesome outlook on 2011 and I just hope I can keep up my positive attitude. I know it can't always be rainbows and sunshine, but I really need to work on being a more patient, kind, loving person. So that's my main goal for 2011. Not so much a resolution, just a goal! :)

Here are a few pictures from the last few days, for good measure...

 I LOVE seeing their relationship blossom! :)

 For the most part, he really is SUCH a good sport when it comes to her and interacting with her!

 Naturally, he wouldn't look at the camera! :)

I can't get over how well she plays by herself, for not even being a year old yet.  It's very cute to watch!

 Rockin' her Bob Marley onesie her Uncle Sean got her for Christmas

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