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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 In Review

2013 was definitely the year of Jack!  It's embarrassing if you look at my Instagram feed, it's all just pics of the little man.  I've officially become the one behind the camera these days, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I just realized I never wrote a recap for 2012, but that was definitely the year of preparation and nesting.  We moved into a new home and just as we were getting settled got pregnant!  2011 was our year of stability and 2010 was the year of change

2013 Purifoy Family Recap
 
 

# of weddings: 1 - Sara & Patrick's...but missed because of Jack
# of funerals: 0

# of showers: 6
Sara's Wedding Shower:  March
Baby Showers for me and Jack:  March - April (Houston, JL Girls, Corsicana, Richey Family)
Ashley & Baby G:  April

# of Road Trips: 6
San Antonio - March
DFW Area - June  (Jack's first)
Matagorda - July
San Antonio - October 
Corsicana - November
DFW Area - December

Craziest month:  May!  We had a baby, celebrated my 30th birthday, First Mother's Day and our 4th wedding anniversary.  Jason better be saving already for this May. 

Song of the Year:  Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips
Album of the Year:  Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend

# of Conferences: 2  (1 for my day job and 1 for my passion)

# of Concerts: 1 at the Fort Bend County Fair...wow.  Sad day!

Best Concert of the Year:   NA

# of Books Read:  ???? 

Best Book: I can't even remember the last book I read!  Facebook feeds are about all I can get through these days. I read lots of baby books last spring.

Biggest Accomplishments:   Becoming parents, surviving the sleep-deprived newborn phase without killing each other, and having such a happy, silly, beautiful, funny and curious little man. 

I'm also proud of Jason and I for getting our finances in better order this year using Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.  We also joined an amazing church family and had Jack baptized in August. 

Other Notables:
-  Completing the Nursery
I turned 30
Tucker turned 10
-  Becoming a Contributor for Houston Moms Blog
-  The births of Baby G and Brody, both in June
Chopping off my hair
-  Being able to breastfeed for so long

Looking forward to...
-  Jack's first birthday (and sad for this too...it's goes too fast)
-  Getting my pre-pregnancy body back
-  Finally getting a date night with my husband
-  Showers and births for Sarah and Erin
-  Celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary in May

Happy New Year!!!  I hope you have a wonderful time ringing in 2014.  We will be doing so at home with some wine and a homemade meal...hopefully I can talk Jason into cooking!

XOXO,
The Purifoys

Monday, December 30, 2013

Jingle Jammies

 Photos from Studio Ainsley
November 2013











Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Jack visited Santa last week.  I'll let the pictures do the talking. 







Location: The Turquoise Door {Tomball, TX}

Monday, December 23, 2013

Catching Up

Hey everyone!  Merry Christmas Eve-Eve.  I'm sure you are busy getting your last minute preparations for the holidays in order or hopefully just relaxing and spending time with your family.  We are doing a little of both.  In the Christmas craziness, I don't have much of a post today, just a list of different things going on to catch you up!

Cookie Exchange

I set out to make a cute cookie this year at our annual cookie exchange with my girlfriends from the Junior League.  Every year I bring something tasty, but not so impressive looking.  This year I wanted the prize for "best dressed" and I won!

I stole the recipe from fellow Pi Phi Vanessa after she posted that these cookies were a hit at her cookie exchange.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Thanks Vanessa!  You can get the recipe here. 

 
 


HuffPost Live

You can watch the segment I was a guest on below talking about Holidays in Splitsville.  I speak around minutes 5:30 and 15:30 if you don't want to watch the entire thing...and yes, the audio is not synced.  I think I need a new computer :)  Regardless, it was a fun experience. 




Tacky Sweater Enchilada Night

We had our third annual Tacky Sweater Enchilada Night at my Dad's on Saturday.  The matching sweaters I ordered for me and Jason fell through so we were duds.  He wore last year's and I wore my I'm Tired Sweatshirt since it described exactly how I felt that day. 

My boys however, looked amazing!






Awkward holds and all!


Lululemon

I'm asking for lots of Lululemon this year from Santa in hopes that it will jump start my workouts after Christmas.  I know, so cliche...new year, new you.  I can't quite use the excuse of "I just had a baby" anymore.  Luckily for me (not my wallet) a Lululemon is opening minutes from my house!!!  Boy am I in trouble. 

In order to get my butt out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to workout, I require a cute outfit.


Last time I was in really good shape a few years ago Lulu was my reward for pounds lost (and also minutes from where I lived then).  5 dropped pounds = a new pair of Wunder Unders.  Workout 4 times this week = headband.  Hey, whatever works people!  Luckily I have lots of pounds to drop for my little reward system. 

Until then, this is my motto:



And finally...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!  I will be taking the rest of the year off from the blog, except for my annual year in review.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family.   I am so incredibly thankful to everyone who reads this little blog.  I love all of the virtual friendships I've made and look forward to getting to know you more!  See you 2014! 

{I'll be all over Instagram during my blogging break so follow me there}

Lots of love!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

A Christmas Rant

Welcome to a Purifoy Christmas

Agghh!  Christmas is almost here!  Deep breath.  I still do not feel anywhere near ready for it.  Shopping isn't finished.  No baking has been done.  Not even halfway done with wrapping.  Nothing to wear.  And my goodness do I need a manicure!  The life of a working mom.  Not trying to offend all of you stay-at-homers, but even though your work is just as hard (if not harder) you do have a few perks that would help at Christmas time (wrapping while napping)...just saying!  Go ahead and blast me with comments. 

Every year I say this, but this is THE LAST YEAR of this.  Read it and weep family members who may read this blog.  Something has to change. 

I'm so envious of my friend Lauryn who decided to stop all of the excessive gift giving with her family and just focus on the young kiddos.  That's the most fun anyway!  I love the idea of doing a gift lottery with family so you can just focus on buying one perfect gift rather than lots of "that will do" gifts.  If you decide to do this Elfster is awesome by the way.

This is supposed to be a time for family, Jesus, reflection.  Instead, any spare minute I get I'm fightntg the crowds to buy crap just to check someone else off  my list.  I'm staying up way too late at night wrapping said crap. 

What really is the point of exchanging giftcards with each other? 

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for EVERYONE in my life and would love to buy everyone just what they want and deserve each year, but I think we are all MISSING THE POINT. 

Little secret.  I have an emotional meltdown every. single. Christmas.  It's inevitable.  I think it's just all of the stress from a month of preparing for one day crashing down on me.  One year my meltdown occurred at our very first stop Christmas morning at my dad's house when my brother made a joke about us being a few minutes late.  Give that girl some eggnog.  Another year it occurred while in line at a bakery because they were out of my favorite cookies.  Eating your feelings much?

So what's going to set the crazy girl off this year?  Only time will tell, but it may very well have to do with the fact that my "fat" jeans are getting tighter and tighter. 

Friday, December 13, 2013

Five on Friday

Hello Friday!  I've so been looking forward to you.  I've actually been looking forward to this particular weekend that you are bringing for a while now.  Jason takes a final Saturday morning and then has a break for a month.  We have a one year old's birthday party to attend, are going to try again for Santa pictures, and are finally going to make church on Sunday! 

 
Hope you have an awesome weekend!

--ONE--

Jason and I made a wreath last weekend!  Our next door neighbor has a huge, 60 inch lighted wreath on his driveway gate that made our driveway gate feel inferior so after a year of feeling under dressed we took matters into our own hands.  One {very long} trip to Hobby Lobby later and we were rocking and rolling!




--TWO--

I've been pretty proud of myself for making some of Jack's baby food at home!  Don't get me wrong, the making it part is easy.  It's the finding the time part that is hard.  The best time for me is in the evening after putting Jack down (if I'm not too exhausted). 

I asked a ton of people on Facebook for advice on this...what products were needed.  I thought about purchasing a Beaba Babycooker ($120) that steams and purees the food for you.  It seemed convenient (plus I thought it was just plain cute), but am so happy with my decision not to.  It would have just been another gadget to take up space on my counter, plus I like my full-size appliances so I can whip out a large batch in one go!  I don't even own a fancy food processor...just your standard blender.  What I did buy was a basic food steamer from Target ($20) and the Infantino Food Station ($20)



As easy as making the food is, I also haven't stressed about giving Jack 100% homemade baby food.  This mama can't do it all. 

--THREE--

Did anyone watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show this week?  I don't know why, but I watch it every year.  I don't even really shop at Victoria Secret and think the models are ridiculously skinny, albeit beautiful. I think I like all of the behind the scenes stuff.  Usually the music is amazing.  This year it was pretty good.  I loved Neon Jungle, Fall Out Boy and A Great Big World.  Taylor Swift just gets on my nerves and looked awkward. 



--FOUR--

I just love getting Christmas cards in the mail!  I get down right giddy opening the mail box each afternoon.  Go here for a fun and easy way to display them!



--FIVE--

Speaking of Christmas cards, our cards hit the mail this week so I can finally post our picture!  We participated in Studio Ainsley's annual "Jingle Jammies" mini session back in November.  Love that we were the only whole family that showed up in our jams {everyone else just did the kiddos}.  I also love that Jason is such a good sport about all of my crazy ideas. 

{Spoiler alert if you haven't opened our card yet}

Images by Studio Ainsley
And some normal ones...
 
 

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Jack's First Thanksgiving

I'm a little late to the party posting this, but at least it's done before Christmas!  We spent Jack's first Thanksgiving in Jason's hometown of Corsicana.  I sometimes don't know what to do with myself when I am there because it is such a small town.  Where is the big mall to do Black Friday shopping or a Starbucks to get my favorite red cup? 

I replaced the mall with Sweet Tangerine and Starbucks with Collin Street Bakery! 

We had a great visit with both sides of Jason's family.  Jack did great the entire time (not perfect...we did have some crying fits in the car and one long night, but all things considered, he was an angel. 

I'm kicking myself for not getting a family picture on Thanksgiving...watch out Christmas!  I think I do this every year.  No Thanksgiving pics.  Picture overload at Christmas. And so the cycle continues. 







Jack: 7 Months!


 
Length: 27.5 inches
Weight: 19 lbs
Head Circumference: 17.5 inches
Based on measurements we took at home, aka very unreliable

Milestones this month:
  • Eating fruits and veggies
  • Sitting up all by yourself
  • Clapping 
  • Scooping things up in the bathtub
  • Wearing 9 and 12 month clothing!
  • Sitting in public highchairs - we haven't tried shopping carts yet, but I feel that coming soon!
  • You waved bye a couple of times when others do it to you...especially when the nanny says "Adios Pappito"
Things you like this month:
  • Tucker or "Puh" as you call him
  • Clapping
  • Bath time with Dad
  • Your stuffed animal friends especially the raccoon
  • The Exersaucer
  • Food!  So far you love oatmeal, avocado, peas, pears, sweet potatoes, mangos and bananas
  • You love to give me kisses...wet ones...with your whole mouth. You especially like to bite my nose. 
Things you don't like this month:
  • Sleeping - ha!
  • Getting dressed
  • Getting strapped in your carseat
  • Getting your fingernails cut
  • Carrots
  • Not being held
  • Laying down or being held like a baby.  You would rather sit upright and look around
Special memories this month:
  • Your first Thanksgiving
  • Leaning over and giving me a hug
  • Introducing you to new foods
  • Getting to see Ashley and your BFF Graham
  • Seeing all of your family in the Corsicana/DFW area including Cousins Cohen and Landon
  • Taking you to "the shop" to see Aunt Vicki and Mauri...of course you went straight for the diamond Rolex
Dear Jack,
 
Another month where I am telling you to slow down!  Also another month where your dad and I proclaim that this is our favorite stage.  Except for the fussy nights due to stupid teething you are a dream baby with such a huge personality.  It's like you know exactly when the camera is on and how to turn up the cuteness.  Do I see modeling in your future?  Maybe you will just be a charmer.  You are more outgoing at home and tend to be shy and introverted when we get out in public...just like how I was at your age. 
 
Some people think it's crazy that your dad and I haven't had a proper date night since having you.  We just can't think of anything better than being with you on the weekends and after work.  We will work on that though!  I haven't really left you alone much (aside from the weekly grocery store trip) since having you.  I know I need to work on this, but I just cherish my time with you so much especially since I'm away from you during the week.
 
I can't wait to celebrate your first Christmas and share you with all of our family and friends.  Boy are you going to get spoiled!
 
Love,
Momma...practice saying it Ma-Ma

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Poor Baby Jack {Top Names in 2013}

The top names for 2013 are in and guess what tops the list for boy names...

Jackson {Jack is #10}
Sophia tops the list for girls

I never wanted to have a common named baby, but here I am with the top name.  I love the name Jack, don't get me wrong.  And think my baby looks like a Jack.  I love that it's a classic name...it's cute for a baby but strong for an adult.  I just hate that he will likely be one of many Jacks in school.

All I can say is that my next kid is getting a crazy name!  I already have several picked out...

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas Pajama Party


 
I'm linking up today with Darci, Julie, Ashley, Jenny, and Natasha for a little Christmas Pajama Party!

Just as I did with the Halloween Pajama Party, I may have gone a little overboard.  I warned you that I would!  We just love our cozy holiday pj's.  I am one tired mama today working on only a few hours of sleep two nights in a row with a fussy little teether.  It got so bad last night that I took Jack to the doctor this morning to make sure it wasn't anything serious.  I'm back at work today, but tired and super cranky.  Where is my I'm So Tired Sweatshirt from Hello Apparel when you need it??? 

Luckily I snapped some cute photos of Jack in between cry fits the past few days.

Don't miss the outtakes {real life} at the bottom of the post!
 
Red "My First Christmas" PJ's from Macy's - On sale here!
 




PJ's from Macy's - On sale here!
Blanket from Pottery Barn Kids



Footed Fleece PJ's from Gap (sold out online)
Jellycat Reindeer c/o More Than You Can Imagine
Pillow from Pottery Barn Kids (om sale)!

Reindeer PJ's from Target (Carter's brand - not available online)
Crib sheet from Pottery Barn Kids (sold out online, but some stores carry)
 
 
Santa Footed PJ's from Carter's - on sale! (these have the cutest santa feet that keep Jack very entertained)
PJ + Toy = Happy Mom
 
Even the doctor loved Jack's holiday PJ's this morning.  Now this is real life folks!

Red hat from Gap
 

 
Watching Tucker is much more fun than posing
 
Merry Christmas!!!  Ho, ho, ho.
All I want for Christmas is 8 hours of sleep.  And a new Louis Vuitton...
At this point I think it's more realistic that I'll get the LV, which trust me, isn't in my future either...
Maybe if I quite spending all my money on holiday PJ's...
 
 

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