Mia Grace's Year in Review (Part 1)

The day is coming, whether I want to admit it or not, and my sweet baby girl will be turning TWO! I can't believe that on January 18th it will be two years since Mia Grace entered our world. So cliche, but seriously...where does time go!?!??!

To read Mia's birth story, go here

Mia and I have an incredibly special bond. OF COURSE I love Manuel equally and he has my heart just as much as Mia does (I would hope that goes without saying), however...the saying, "Momma's boy" and "Daddy's girl" does not apply in our house! It is DEFINITELY "Momma's girl" and "Daddy's boy"...Manny has an amazingly close connection with Manuel, and I have an amazingly close connection with Mia. AGAIN, we both love both of our children the same! (Just need to stress that for those people who might be judging! ;))

The last year has been a HUGE year for Mia...she started and "graduated" physical therapy for low muscle tone, she learned to walk, she got her second tooth (yes, she was 11 months old when she got her first) and subsequently has gotten every single tooth in her mouth since then (except for her two year molars), she went on her first week long vacation, she experienced Sesame Place for the first time, and SO many other milestones that I have documented along the way. Miss Mia Grace is FULL of sass and personality, and much more of handful than her big brother EVER was, but I must say I LOVE this stage. Listening to her talk, learning new words, learning to express herself, etc. has truly been amazing. At the beginning of January she was a straight haired, toothless little girl who still crawled to my now crazy curls, most adorable teeth ever, walking/climbing/running almost two year old. She LOVES all things babies and could spend hours playing with all of her dolls (it's precious to watch).

Mia Grace,
  Mommy loves you more than words could ever express. I probably still baby you WAY more than I should, but I just can't help it. You are my sweet baby girl, full of so much personality and fire. You make me smile a million times a day, and I truly thank you for every moment of the last 2 years. I know we won't always be the best of friends (dare I say from 12 years old-22 year olds ;)) but know that I am ALWAYS here for you! I pray that Daddy and I raise you to be a good, strong, Christian woman who always holds her morals and values in the highest regard. I know I tell you this everyday baby girl, but you are BEAUTIFUL! Always remember that...inside and out.

Love, Mommy

And for good measure (a review of Mia's last year, the first 6 months. I'll do July-December in a part 2)...

 January: We celebrate your birthday in a Winter ONEderland :)

 February: Mia had her first official playdate at Zia Amy's with our long time friend, Shelby and her daughter, Adelyn

 March: We wore our green to celebrate St. Pattys Day (blurry pic, but adorable :))

 April: Mia's love of baby dolls began (and her curls began too! :))

 April: We celebrated Easter and Mia's 1st black eye :)

 May: We celebrated our 3 sweet angels (nephews/cousins) in Heaven, on what would have been their 3rd birthday. We sent them balloons (and Manuel wore his pajamas outside! ;)

 May: We just hung around :)

 May: The weather was warm enough to get in the pool and get splashed in the face ;)

 June: We celebrated my 30th birthday with a surprise cook out, in matching outfits with our cousins, OF COURSE! ;)

June: We started our "full sass" mode ;)

Part 2 coming soon! :)

My 500th Post

Don't forget to like my moms Facebook page here to be automatically entered in her Valentines Day basket giveaway! :)
Oh my gracious, where in the world does time go!?!?! I can't believe this is my 500th post!!! That is just crazy to me! Grant it, it's not always been the most interesting posts ;) but regardless I still can't believe I've had that much to say over the years! :) For those of you that have been reading for awhile, I say, thank you! Many of you have become very dear friends to me and I'm so grateful. Although I may never meet any of you in "real life", you all hold a very special place in my heart and thank you for reading. Here's to 500 more! ;)

And for good measure (FINALLY-Christmas Day photos! :))

 Santa came! :)

 Morning hair! :)

 It's only fair I show my "morning face" too ;)

 At my mother-in-laws

 At my Aunt's

There's a million more pics, but you the idea AND it's only 17 days after Christmas! ;)

Thank you Jesus!

A super adorable picture of Mia this morning (and yes, she's on the counter AGAIN, but that's the only place I put her where she'll stand still! :) Excuse the poor pic quality!)

But I am not writing today to show you how adorable Mia is (although that's very obvious from the above picture! ;)), I am writing today to say that I received a call from my doctor about my MRI and from all views and pictures they believe that this is all nothing more than scar tissue from my two c-sections!!! Praise God! I was really "okay" (or I tried to convince myself that I would be) with whatever results I was going to be given because I knew that God already knows how my life is to pan out and He already knew what "it" was. But I will say, I am beyond thankful and grateful that it's nothing serious! They did see a cyst on my left ovary (not the side that's been bothering me), so my primary care doctor is going to send my scans to my gyn so that he can look at them and determine if further intervention is necessary. I know cysts are totally common (in fact I had one removed shortly after Manuel's birth), so I'm not the least bit worried. I'm to assume the back pain that I'm having is just that, back pain, and completely unrelated to the scar tissue. I'm not one that will ever get on pain meds for back pain, so I'll just deal with it with some occasional Motrin and Tylenol and call it a day. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They've meant the world to me! :) Now, off to breathe a huge sigh of relief and just be thankful! :)

And HOPEFULLY I will be FINALLY get around to posting our pics from Christmas Day. Geez, I'm a slacker! :)

"I can do all things...

through Christ who gives me strength." Those were the words that I repeated to myself over and over and over again while I got my MRI on Friday. Yes, it was an "open" MRI, HOWEVER, when you are claustrophobic (at least to the extent that I am), anything, any amount, over your face is terrifying and panic inducing. As the tech was sliding me (feet first), and the closer my face got to the top of the machine, I got more and more anxious. As my face got really close to being directly under the machine I started to freak and said, "How much further am I going to go in?" He said just a tiny bit more (as he kept pushing the button and pushing it again). Then he stopped and said, "Okay, that's as far as you're going." and from about the tip of my nose down was under the machine, I started freaking out and told him I couldn't do it. He kept saying, "But the sides are open, the sides are open." I wanted to say, "Here's the thing Mister, I don't care how much of the sides are open, I am EXTREMELY claustrophobic (which they already knew) and I'm not worried about what's to the left and right side of me, I'm worried about the mass of steel hanging over my face!" Of course I did not say that ;) but just started praying! He gave me a bulb type thingy to hold and squeeze in the event that I REALLY freaked out, and he walked out of th room. I started saying, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" and I just repeated that to myself, alternating turning my head to the left and to the right, opening and shutting my eyes, PRAYING, and just waiting for it all to end. Well friends, do you know how long it was...ONE HOUR AND 40 MINUTES!!!!! When I stood up to get off the table I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I wonder how long I was laying there?" and was shocked when I looked at my cell phone and saw that it was 5:10...I had laid down on the table at 3:30!!!!!! Of course I then started worrying, "Why in the world did it take so long!?!??!?! What did they see?" Unfortunately I won't be getting results until sometime this week. Please pray that everything is okay!

On to more fun topics :)...

Yesterday was an old family friends surprise 70th birthday. She and my grandmother have been close friends for years and years! Our family is there family and vice versa. They are all about as old school Italian as you can get and we had a blast. It was a nice distraction from the MRI worries. Manuel made friends with some of the other children there (after getting over his shy stage! :)) and before we knew it he was no where in site and didn't show up again (well of course they sporadically ran through the basement ;)) until it was time to go (he was SO sad to leave!) I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
And for good measure...

 A Christmas gift that I just LOVE..my "Mother" necklace :)

 Manuel and Erik

 BEAUTIFUL day in Maryland...gotta love low 60's in January! :)

 Mia and Daddy

 LOVE this pic (minus Manuel :(

 Jumping off the swing :)

 The aftermath of the homemade baked ziti ;)

 My mom and I (and my Uncle giving his little sister (my mom) bunny ears! :))

Don't forget to like my moms Facebook page here to be automatically entered to win an awesome Valentines Day basket of assorted cookies! :)

This, that and a Christmas Eve #2 Recap?? ;)

*Post Edit...you can like my moms Facebook page here! We'll be having a contest on there soon, and trust me, even if you've never had Italian cookies, you'll want to win and try a tray out for yourself! They are DELICIOUS! :) *

First off, I would like to say thank you to everyone for your kinds words about my guest post here. It truly was an honor to share on Hanna's blogs as I absolutely adore and certainly did not feel "worthy" of such a big time blogger posting my thoughts, but I couldn't be more happy that I did. The feedback was awesome, and I just really thank you all who took the time to comment (on here or on Hanna's post). It meant the world to me! :)

Secondly, as I mentioned in that same post, my mom (and my Aunt Lucy-her sister) is following her dreams and starting an Italian cookie business. I grew up eating delicious, amazing, wonderful Italian cookies, handmade by my grandfather. It's just what we did! :) Grant, I ate Oreos and Toll House, but most of the time I was eating something Poppa had made. He would make huge batches of cookies for family dinner, baby showers, bridal showers, you name it, he did. We Italians LOVE food! ;) Poppa died in December 2003, and with him went a lot of our Italian traditions because they really hadn't been past down to anyone...his cookies, his homemade bread, it was all a thing of the past. UNTIL my mom found his recipes and so evolved, "Family Ties"...My mom has very quickly perfected my Poppa's greatest cookie recipes (and in some instances even surpassed the tastiness! :)) My mom recently started a Facebook page for her new endeavor, and soon (not today because I can't access Facebook at work so leave you the link :)), I will direct you to her Facebook page, and you can "like" it for extra entries into a contest I will be having to get a tray of your very own cookies from "Family Ties" :) If you've never tried any sort of Italian cookie before, you are missing out, and I'd LOVE for you to win. Stay tuned! :)

Now, the not-fun part of this post :( A few weeks back I mentioned a lump I found that my doctor said was a hernia, but the surgeon said wasn't a hernia. Okay, well that was 4 weeks ago, and the lump is still there. I ended up at Patient First (urgent care type center, for those of you that may be unfamiliar) on Thursday night because of pain, being caused by this mass. The dr there was pretty surprised that my doctor (nor the surgeon) had ordered any sort of diagnostic testing (ultrasound, CT scan, MRI etc.) to see what it was in detail, so she sent me for an ultrasound on Friday morning. The results of that appear to be inconclusive, so now I have to go this Friday, at 3:30pm for an MRI! :( It's all in God's hands, I understand that, but I'm just scared. But at the same time, regardless of the outcome, I just want answer! The radiologist said it could be something as simple as scar tissue from my two c-sections, but obviously it could be more! The MRI will give them cross section pictures of the mass and exactly what it's made up of. As I've mentioned a trillion times before I am SOOOOOOOOOOO claustrophobic (as in I can't even sit in the back seat of a two door car!!) so I obviously opted for an open MRI. Thank goodness that's an option because I literally would NEVER be able to get an MRI unless I was completely knocked out cold! :) I'll keep you all posted. Thank you in advance for the prayers! :)

And for good measure (random pics from Christmas Eve night at my moms house...their basement is a childs dream...pool table, slot machine, jukebox, pin ball machine, and some other big arcade game). So the kids had a blast! :)

 Just hanging around on the pool table (only grandparents let you do this sort of stuff! ;))

 Mia playing a little poker! ;)

Poppy (my mom's boyfriend of 11 years, so I hate saying boyfriend, but he's not her husband! :)) and Mia playing slots :)

 Poppy and Lily (one of his other grandchildren)

 Manuel playing shuffleboard

 Mia showing off her easel from Zia Amy (my sister), Uncle Mike, Spencer and Vivienne

Manuel showing off his skateboard (WITH HELMET, KNEE PADS AND ELBOW PADS-might I add! :)) from my mom and Poppy. She asked first if she could get them for him! :)

 Too much Christmas Eve partying! ;)

And eventually I hope to be back with our Christmas Day recap! :)

Honesty...

is such a hard thing to come by in this blogging world. Not that people outright lie (at least I hope not, although I know there are those few that do!) but people aren't always willing to be "raw" and show the true them. People are scared...it might turn away readers, it might make people think they are less than "perfect", and some people just aren't willing to risk losing a follower or two for opening up. The super sweet, wonderfully amazing, easily one of the most dear friends I've met through blogging, Hanna, over at bouffee e bambini has started an interview series on her blog called, "Brutal Truth is a Beautiful Thing" where they REALLY open up. I was talking with Hanna on Facebook about using her questions on my blog, just as a means of opening up to my readers, and she said that she would like to feature me, so guess what friends...I'm there! Go take a look here! :) Be warned...it is about as brutally honest as you can get, so be ready! And while you're there, read about Hanna. She is amazing and her family is absolutely precious!

Cheers to starting off a new year with honesty and openness! :)

Happy 2012

Hello Friends and a VERY Happy New Year to you all! :)

As I imagined, after staying up WAY past my bedtime on Friday night (to attend a friends surprise 30th birthday), the Gomez family did not make it until midnight to ring in the new year, in fact, I think we were all asleep by 9pm! :) It actually felt really strange waking up tonight and having not seen the ball drop. There is no new year in my memory where I didn't stay awake....even when I was little us kids (my sister, cousins and I) ALWAYS stayed up to see the ball drop. Oh well, there's always next year! ;) 2011 was easily the best in our family history (meaning since Manny and I were married), so I can only pray that 2012 is half as filled with blessings as 2011 was! :)

I pray peace, happiness, hope and love for all of you in 2012. I mean that with the bottom of my heart and soul. Those of you that read my blog, and take the time to comment and send your love, truly mean so much to me. There are those of you who are expecting new little ones (Jackie, I pray Baby M brings you all SO much joy and happiness), those you who are running marathons (Hanna, you are amazing!!!), those of you who are starting new chapters and closing the door on the past, those of you who want nothing more than to become mommies, those of you who have children battling for their lives, and really the list goes on and on...I pray for each of you, every single day. I pray 2012 brings you all the blessings life has to offer, even the unexpected ones!

I still have to post Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pics, but for now, some pics from our night out on Friday!

And for good measure...

 Hubby and I went out for dinner first, because the party didn't start until 9pm (that's practically our bedtime! ;)

 Leaving the restaurant, headed to the party

 Veronica and I (friends for 22 years!)

 Laur, Veronica, Kel and I (friends since high school)

 Laur, Veronica and I (it was ALWAYS the 3 of us together growing up)

 Hubby and Veronica

 Veronica, me, and Erin (expecting her first child, a boy, in February! :))

 Kel and Er

The scene we came home to! :)

I don't think I have ever had so many pictures of myself in one post! :) Sorry!!!! :)