BBQ With a Side of Super Cute Baby!

Yesterday we had a BBQ with some of our friends who live in our apartment complex. It was great weather, not too hot and definitely not cold, great food, and it was just fun to be out and about instead of on bed rest or feeling too sick to go out. Loving not being pregnant anymore! Not only do I no longer have heartburn (BEST THING EVER!), but I don't throw up every night anymore, I'm not super nauseous, and I can function like a normal person (almost... if you consider being able to workout normal, I'm not quite there yet). But the best thing about no longer being pregnant is having Miss Aniston here  and to be able to hold her and kiss her and of course dressing her up in all her cute little clothes and flowers and headbands and bows! I did end up having to leave earlier than I would have liked because I forgot my beloved boppy to sit on and I got super sore super fast from sitting on the bench! But it was nice to be able to actually go out and do something. Let's rewind to the boppy... I L-O-V-E the boppy! So does Aniston.... Sometimes we have to fight over who gets to use it... She always wins. Seriously for all of my friends out there who are expecting (and there are a ton!) Buy a boppy! It's the most comfortable thing in the world to sit on while you're healing from pushing that precious baby out of you! It also comes in handy for the baby. Highly recommend the boppy! Anyway, of course I spent a good amount of time taking pictures of Aniston, who decided to sleep through the entire BBQ, waking up only long enough to eat, be burped for 20 minutes, then decide that she didn't want to burp, and then 10 minutes later spits up all over her stroller and clothes. Oh well, just another reason to change her into something cuter! It's tough in the summer because it's so hot that I'm paranoid about her over heating so most of the time she just wears onesies... I try to compensate by making sure she has a cute headband on, but at 2 weeks old she already likes to pull them off. Stubborn child! I'm suppose to be able to dress her however I want in the first years of life an already she is fighting me about it! No bueno! And because I cannot delete pictures of my baby, you get a ton to look at that will probably all look the same to you... Enjoy!

Spencer as the grill master

It was a little windy... Also I look exhausted because Aniston likes to be awake at night and sleep during the day so don't judge me.

Check out the spit up all over her blanket.... thank you daughter!

Poor little face... we took her gloves off her hands so that they wouldn't get too dry and she scratched herself within seconds. Thank goodness babies heal so fast!

Check out my super cool MHS shirt!!! We had a cheer fundraiser earlier in the day and I was definitely too tired to change. Go Bobcats!

On a side note... As a new mother of a two week old baby, the shooting that occurred in Colorado terrifies me. I feel a little guilty bringing a child into a world where you can't even feel safe going to the movies anymore. The movies are one of my favorite places to go! What also terrifies me is that I have actually been to and watched a movie in that exact movie theater in Aurora, Colorado when I was dating a guy who lived there back in the day. I guess because I can still remember sitting there and watching The Ringer, it made it easier for me to visualize this horrific event. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected by this one man's choice, especially his own family who now has to live with this tragic event for the rest of their lives. We all have our agency to choose what we want to do with our lives, and he obviously made a terrible decision. No movie, no person, no event can "make us" do something. We choose our attitudes and our actions and how we are going to be affected by the media we watch and read and listen to or by how somebody treats us. I personally don't feel as though the new Batman movie (which I'm still really excited to see... eventually) is the reason this young man decided to do what he did, and it makes me sad that those actors and the director (who is one of my absolute favorites and still should have won the Oscar in 2011 for best original screenplay) should feel responsible and be blamed for this. They worked hard to entertain us and it was just sad that that was the movie he chose to interrupt. I hope that I can find some way to teach my daughter that there is happiness and joy to be found in the world. And that from even such tragic events you can still find understanding and love and a way to improve life. My Dad is a very strong advocate of attitude and I hope to be able to instill in Aniston the belief that life is all about attitude. I absolutely love this quote and hope that I can learn to more fully believe and live my own life according to these words;

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll

Life is precious and you never know when it's going to end. Take advantage of everyday and love life. Being afraid of life will bring you no fulfillment and will only bring you sorrow. Be the person you want to be and don't worry about how others view you. I struggle heavily with this and hope that from this tragic event I can realize that I can be happy and love myself and my life without the approval of others. From this awful situation I choose to change my attitude and to become a better and happier person. My life is good... in fact my life in great! Everyday I choose to be depressed because I don't look like the gorgeous girl down the street or I don't fit into my old jeans two weeks after giving birth or that I am not rich, is a HUGE waste of time. Instead I will focus on how I am married to a man who thinks I am beautiful and tells me this everyday or how I have a beautiful baby girl to hold in my arms and who I love so much that it's making me cry right now or how I only have 11 pounds to go before I'm back to pre-pregnancy weight and not 50 pounds or how I am getting my masters and my husband is working on his bachelors so that we can provide a wonderful life for our family in the future. I will strive to be more positive about life and hopefully through my actions I will be able to instill in my daughter those same values. I challenge everyone to do the same. Re-evaluate your life and make sure it's all that you want it to be and more!