I'm a little late in posting Bailey's 11m pictures but couldn't resist since they are so cute! The little love bug is having a birthday next week!

Florida Vacation

Last month we took our annual beach vacation (I can't believe it has been a month already!) to Rosemary Beach, Florida. This is the third year we have gone to Rosemary...we love it there and always have a great time. This year we rented a house with some of our friends that have a baby boy a week younger than Bailey and 2.5 year old daughter. The kids had a great time playing with each other, eating sand and climbing stairs!

Rosemary isn't too far from Houston so we loaded up the car and set out for the 9.5 hour drive. One would think that an almost 10 hour drive with a 10 month old would be horrible, right? Surprisingly enough, it was not bad at all! Bailey was the best road tripper ever! She was perfectly content in staying in her car seat and watching Baby Einstein. She has never watched a video before the car ride and she was totally mesmerized by it and sat there for hours watching it over and over. We only stopped once each way to eat, get gas, take a bathroom break, and to stretch our legs...and Bailey was fine with it. Each way we planned to leave at nap time so that she would be sleeping for some of the drive. All in all, a very pleasant drive!

We had a great time going to the beach, swimming at the pool, going on bike rides, eating ice cream, playing games and just hanging out. Bailey had a great time on her first beach trip and is looking forward to next year!

Yum-O Part 2

I knew that when the time came for Bailey to begin eating solid food that I was going to make all of her food. With my love of cooking (and eating!) i couldn't imagine not making food for the little booger. I knew exactly what was going into it and that it was free of preservatives or fillers....and not to mention - one bag of carrots goes a long way compared to the jars of store bought baby food that cost a buck each!

At 6 months, i got out the food processor, ice cube trays, a pot of boiling water and went to town. It's been a labor of love but I am glad I did it and Bailey has liked all of my creations, except for broccoli! She is now eating a lot more finger foods and is a lot less interested in being fed by a spoon...i see the end of my baby food making days in the near future.

This week i have been in overdrive to get enough food made to take on vacation with us next week. On the menu - apples and pears, squash and zucchini, chicken with apple and sweet potato and flounder with carrots and cheesy tomatoes. I think she eats better than we do!

We are off to Florida! I'll have pictures of Bailey's first beach trip when we return.

Yum-O Part 1

I love to cook. I am always scouring magazines and the internet reading recipes and finding new ones to try. With subscriptions to 3 cooking magazines and several cooking blogs that i follow, you can image the stacks of recipes and cookbooks that i have. It's borderline obsessive!













I often clip one from a magazine, add it to the stack and never get to it. It is now my mission to work my way through the stack, one recipe at a time. If it's a good one, it stays, if it’s a dozy, it's out! Only the tasty survey and my stack must get smaller! I'll share some of keepers along the way.

Let Freedom Ring

Bailey had a firecracker first Fourth of July! She is fast asleep and missed all of the fireworks...maybe next year! She sure did look cute in her festive outfit, though!

Too Big...Too Fast

Time is going by way too fast. How did Bailey get to be nine months old already!?! Before we know it she will be one....I get sad just thinking about that. Each week I get an email that tells me what my baby should be doing at her age and this week the email said - your baby is 40 weeks old. WOW! I carried her for 40 weeks! It's crazy to think about that.

If I could freeze time, I would do it now. She is at the perfect age. So curious about everything, into everything, learning new things everyday and such a sweet, happy girl.

She has 6 teeth - 3 on top, 3 on bottom and 2 more poking out. She weighs 19.6 lbs and is 28.5 inches long. Loves to put everything in her mouth...loves to climb on her play chair and stand at her table and walk in circles around it....loves cell phones!, cordless phones, computers, remotes...everything you DON'T want her to have! Says dadadada and on occasion ma-ma. You can sometimes make out bye-bye and of course, she has all kinds of other baby babble that only she can understand!

I have spent a small fortune on photography in her mere 9 months of life but I just can't help it! I want to document every three months of her first year and she is just too darn cute to not take pictures of her all the time! For 9 months, I thought we would do it ourselves since we have a new fancy, dancy camera. So we headed out to a pretty park with water and ducks to snap a few (or a lot!) of shots!

Bailey wanted nothing to do with it for the first go around. She was cranky after being woken up when we got there and it was super hot outside even at 6:30 pm...notice the rosy cheeks! We took a break, ate dinner and tried again with much better success and it was a little cooler! Dada played photographer and he did a great job. Here are a few of my favorites.

Pictures

Here is a link to Bailey's 6 month pictures.

http://courteneymillerphotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/houston-portrait-sessions.html