Birmingham!

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy and I boarded a plane to Birmingham, AL for a fun girls weekend! One of my good friends, Melissa, is about to welcome her sweet baby girl into the world and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to her baby shower and celebrate with her!

I will admit, I was a little anxious about taking Lucy on a plane by myself and keeping up with her all weekend, but she did really well!

We arrived at Love Field in Dallas at 6:00 am on Saturday morning, and made our way through security. I was uuber organized before arriving to the airport and tried to have all my ducks in a row. It was a little crazy going through security, though- trying to hold her while collapsing the stroller, putting all my stuff on the x-ray conveyor belt, etc....but thanks to TSA security, we both made it through in one piece.

Lucy did GREAT on the plane both ways- slept the entire time to and from! What a huge answer to prayer!!

We arrived in Birmingham and I'm pretty sure I looked a little ridiculous, with me pushing a stroller, large bag on my shoulder as well as pulling a suitcase behind me, but it worked and we got to our rental car. :) 

Oh, and a side-note- we arrived the morning of the Alabama vs LSU game- half of our plane was full of Alabama fans, who were also getting their rental cars along with me and then pulling out their dozens of magnetic decals and sticking them all over their rental cars- no lie.                            

It was so, so wonderful to be able to see old friends and celebrate Melissa and sweet Anne Charlotte!!

Lucy did pretty well at the shower- thankfully, the hostess had a crib, high chair and lots of toys for Lucy to play with....great setup!

We spent the weekend laying low at Melissa's house after the shower, going through all of her fun baby gifts, figuring out what else needed to be purchased, running to Babies R Us, etc... I was so thankful for Melissa and her mom for helping me with taking care of Lucy! They were such a blessing!!

Lucy did really well while we were in Birmingham- only bad thing was her sleep (or lack of it!). She woke up about 4 times on Saturday night and about 3 or 4 times on Sunday night- it didn't help that it was Daylight savings time and she had her times all messed up. She ended up waking up for the day on Sunday morning at 5:30 am- I couldn't find the coffee pot, so around 7:00 am, I loaded Lucy up in the car and we went to O'Henry's Coffee House in our PJ's and got coffee. Needless to say, there were several other young families there as well- apparently Daylight savings doesn't get translated to little ones yet....

Of course, we had to go and visit Mr. Beeson at Mommy's alma mater.... 

Melissa with Anne Charlotte (inside!), Lucy and me

Lucy thought it would be fun to eat Mr. Beeson....

One of my favorite things about the fall in the South- the BEAUTIFUL trees and hills- lots and lots of color!! 

I also got to catch up with one of my roommates, Andrea, and her friend, Lauren, at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday morning! So fun to see her again!

All in all, a GREAT trip! I was so thankful to have been able to go and was glad to have taken Miss Lucy along to see where her Mom spent her college years!

7 months!

 7 months old! And so, so busy!!

Here's what our ladybug has been up to:

- crawling! She started crawling at 6 1/2 months, and pulling up on everything a couple of days after that. Needless to say, we've had to baby-proof everything super-quick. Gone are the days that I could let her alone on a blanket and expect her to stay there. 

 - Sitting up on her own! (started right at 7 months) It took her awhile to learn this trick because every time I'd try to get her to practice sitting, she'd lean forward and crawl off. Life is too exciting to sit still for this little one! I love her curiosity and how she is always wanting to be on the go! 

 - Pulling up on EVERYTHING! She prefers to be crawling or standing. Just recently has she started to like to sit. The pulling-up has led to several head-bonks a day, and I had to go and find some of those socks with the grippers on the bottom, as she is starting to take a few steps while holding on to what ever she's pulled up on. 

- Eating! She's a great eater. Another post to follow about how I'm making her food, but her current foods are carrots, green beans, butternut squash, winter squash and sweet potatoes. We've tried bananas, pears and peaches, but she really doesn't like fruit. We'll have to keep trying...I also started trying yogurt this week, but she wasn't a fan. She eats table food twice a day- I'm trying to get that to three times a day, but it's hard to fit it all in sometimes. She also loves to chew on MumMums and puffs. We're trying to incorporate drinking out of a sippy cup- sometimes she gets it. 

Other fun things this month:

- Lucy took her first plane ride to Birmingham with me! She was a CHAMP on the plane and slept the entire flight both ways! She also did great while in the airport- it was a trick, though, getting through security by myself. I think I had her stroller, her car seat, a giant bag that had her diaper bag inside as well as the Baby Bijorn....thanks to the airport security for helping me get through. But apparently, if you have a baby strapped to you in a Baby Bijorn, you look more suspicious and are subsequently subjected to having your hands swiped.....whatever. 

- Lucy was able to meet some of my good friends from college while in Birmingham! More to follow in another post about this trip- it was super fun and I was so glad we were able to go!

- We are now mostly sleeping through the night! After we got back from Birmingham, we started to cry-it-out at night for the nighttime feed. We've had a couple of nights where she'd whimper/fuss for about 2 hours. This is our second week where we're sleep training and now she'll get up maybe once a night and cry out for about 5 minutes, but then go back to sleep on her own. 

As far as sleep goes, she gets up between 6:30 and 7:00 am, and then naps about 2 hours from when she last woke up, averaging about 3 naps a day, for an hour in duration. She consistently goes to bed at 7:00pm, wakes up around 10:00pm for one last feed, and then back to sleep until the morning. 

- Lucy is such a happy baby! She's typically smiling, talking ("da-da-da") or making cute little noises. She laughs when tickled, especially those ribs! She loves it when Daddy rolls her around on the carpet and also loves when he kicks the ball with her (he holds her under her arms and swings her legs to kick the ball- she thinks this is hilarious!).

-She loves cats and dogs- she will crawl so fast to try and get to Bella, our cat. Bella doesn't really like Lucy all that much, but tolerates her. When we were in Birmingham, my friend, Melissa, has a big black lab named Knox- Lucy LOVED Knox and thought he was the best thing ever! He would nuzzle her feet and she would laugh so hard! 

7 years ago...

7 years ago today, I had the privilege and joy of becoming Mrs. Michael A. Frizzell!

What a fabulous 7 years it has been- 2 houses, 2 Master's degrees, multiple fun trips, 3 new jobs, wonderful family, great friends, awesome community, loving how we serve together, 1 cat, and of course, the best addition, our sweet Lucy.

There is absolutely  no one else I'd rather be with! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful husband- he is so patient, level-headed, a great provider, smart, great at what he does, a hard worker, a fun Daddy to Lucy, my best friend and confidant. 

For our anniversary, I had a sweet friend re-create the top of our wedding cake as a surprise to Mike! It turned out great and tasted so good! (spice cake with cream cheese icing!!).

My parents watched Lucy and we enjoyed a nice dinner at La Duni and then enjoyed our wedding cake and champagne afterwards!

These are the fun flowers Mike got me for our anniversary- reminds me so much of our honeymoon in Maui!