Third Annual Top 10 Song List

Wow. That is all I can say for this year in music. There were SO many good songs on the radio, I had a really hard time narrowing down what my absolute favorites were. I went back and forth and back again trying to make sure I wasn't leaving off something. As I am writing this I thought of another song I missed! Ugh, well, I may have a longer list of honorable mentions than I usually do, but without further ado, here they are. My top ten songs of 2010. I hope you will give them a listen!

10. Fallin' and Flyin' - Jeff Bridges from Crazy Heart - Jason and I saw Crazy Heart on our cruise in May and the music in this film was just great. I don't know why they can't write tunes like this for the radio. But I seriously love this line 'Funny how fallin' feels like flyin'...for a little while'. So true.

9. The Writer - Ellie Goulding - This song was on the target in Entertainment Weekly, and I had a hard time finding it online - not sure if it is on iTunes yet or not - but it was worth the search. It is such a beautiful ballad with great lyrics.

8. Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys - This song always has me grooving in my seat in the car. It is kind of a strange and freaky song about loving someone who is totally wrong for you. Haven't we all done that really?

7. The Cave - Mumford and Sons - I really liked Little Lion Man when it came out. Jason and I always would check the radio station when it came on if Isabella was in the car, to make sure it would be the censored version. =) So I got the album and I think this song is by far my favorite song on there. I love M&S's sound. How it is a little bit country (or bluegrass) and a little bit rock n roll. My favorite line? "Cause Iiiiiiiiiiii need freedom now, and Iiiiiiiiiiiii need to know how, to live my life as it's meant to be." I just feel it in my whole body.

6. The House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert - This song makes me cry every time I hear it. I am one of those super nostalgic people. Like when I go to stay in a hotel for a week on vacation, when I leave I have to give it one last look and feel a little ache in my heart to be leaving a place that I spent a week of my life. Weird right? But you can imagine how I feel about the house I grew up in. I still dream about that house when I dream of being home. We moved out when I was in middle school and yet that is still what my mind has in it as my house. I even dream about buying that house back some day. Again, weird right? But when I listen to this song, it makes me remember every detail of that house and just has me in a puddle by the end.

5. Justin Bieber - Never Let You Go - LOL, did you think I was serious? Sorry, I had to make sure you were still paying attention. I am proud to say I had to google JB to find the name of a song he sings.

The REAL #5. Something Beautiful - Needtobreathe - I bought this album at the beginning of the year and never listened to anything but this one song. My friend KC finally convinced me to listen to the whole thing, and it is a really great album. Through Smoke is especially convicting to me, but I still think this is my favorite song on there. The line that gets me when I am feeling less than worthy of God's love - "I know that I'm in reach, cause I am down on my knees, and waiting for...something beautiful".

4. Cosmic Love - Florence and the Machines - Heard this song on SYTYCD and it had me. I have listened to it, oh, maybe a million times this year. Nothing really to say about it other than it is just beautiful.

3. Help I'm Alive - Metric - Again, nothing deep to say on this one, but I LOVE it. If I listened to Cosmic Love a million times, then I listened to this one two million.

2. ONE - Yeasayer - The battle for the number one spot was a tough one. I could not get enough of this song this year. When it would surprise me on the radio, it was like Christmas. Even though I had it on my iPhone. Don't you find a song is so much better when it comes on the radio unexpectedly than when you play it deliberately? Anyway, I almost made this song number one. It's name would certainly have made it an obvious choice, but ultimately the number one spot went to.......

1. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit - I heard this song once described as munchkins on acid singing. It is an apropos description, but something about this song, I. JUST. LOVE. I love the music, the lyrics, the beat, the fact that I have no idea what the words in the opening mean, or if they are even in any language, but I LOVE it. I would highly recommend you listen to it a few million times.

Well, that is it. Disappointed? Did I leave off your favorite song of the year? Leave me a comment and tell me what yours was! Like I said, there were so many that didn't make the list that I loved, so here is my honorable mention list, in no particular order...

Chris Tomlin - Our God, Mates of State - Second Hand News, Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts, Miike Snow - Animal, Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em, Tim McGraw - Mr. Whoever You Are, Taylor Swift - Back to December

Happy New Year!!

Welcome Home

So our last portion of the Orlando training was Disney. Mike Scopa -from http://land.allears.net/blogs/mikescopa/ - recently wrote some articles about your 'hook' at Disney. Not the big things like seeing the castle or the Magic Kingdom sign when you get to Walt Disney World, but those smaller things that when you get there makes you feel like you are home at last. Well, mine is sort of literal. I just love when you get to the front desk at your resort and they say to you "Welcome Home". I just smile and say "thank you", sincerely. That is how I felt when I walked in to my room at the Boardwalk Resort and saw this on my bed. Ahhh, I am home. It had been a very busy and long week, and wasn't about to slow down, but at least I was home. =)

The first day we spent the whole day in a conference room just learning about all things Disney. Fun gifts to put in people's room and different ways to make our clients stay at Disney World just a little more magical. Right before lunch, as we were wrapping up that session, who should make a surprise visit? Well, I think you can see...


For a room of Disneyphiles, you can imagine the response. I won't say there were tears, well ok yes, there were tears.

After we finally got done with the 'school' portion of the day, we had the whole evening off to go to the Magic Kingdom!! Woohoo! Sharla and I took off and got as much done as we could. I love the way MK is decorated for the fall...


The next day we started out at Epcot in France. They had this whole breakfast set up for our little group before the park even opened. It was truly an enchanting experience. It was so quiet and peaceful and just a great experience.


Throughout that day we got to go and see so many neat things. We saw a bunch of stuff behind the scenes that I was absolutely not allowed to take pictures of, but one thing we got to see was their HR building. When you walk in, instead of seeing like pictures of the forefathers, these statues were all around the room...


So cute.

That night we finished off the evening in a room above the American Adventure for dinner. We could watch the Eat to the Beat concert out of the window and there were lots of hilarious shenanigans that took place. We were all given magic wands and then we were taken to Test Track, where we were taken to the front of the line and given a ride. Then we got to go to a dessert party for Illuminations and were given these amazing, what looked like 3-D, glasses, that made all the fireworks look like Mickey Heads. I don't even know how to really describe it, but we must have looked like maniacs because every time the fireworks went off, we all were like FREAKING OUT. People must have thought we had never seen fireworks in our life.

To end the night we were taken backstage in to a back entrance to Soarin'. I LOVE Soarin'. So to get an after hours private ride was a perfect way to end the week.

I was only gone for a week for this training, but it was so busy and intense, it felt like a month. I was so glad to get home, but it was a wonderful experience. I would never have been able to experience it without MEI and Mouse Fan Travel letting me be a part of their team, so thanks to them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally getting caught up on my blogging, so here we go!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Tyler to hang with my family. We had a photographer come and take a bunch of pictures of the family. My mom has been wanting to do this forever so we finally got it together.

Here is a picture of the entire bunch...



Another cute one - I like how Bella is giving me a hug. =)


A super cute one of Isabella and her daddy...


My sister and her husband had a bunch taken and I swear every single one was perfect.


Here is one that is similar to the one we used for our Christmas card. The Trent family!

Here is Isabella with her Nana and Grampa, who she now calls Bobo - or Bopa - depending on the day. I think I have mentioned how Bells loves ice. Her Bobo has started giving her ice with a splash of soda on it, so now the first thing she says when she sees him is "Ice?" Haha, we are working on moving over to juice instead of soda...


A sweet one with Bella and Bopa...

Universal Day

Ok, time to finish up my blogging about my trip to Orlando. Sorry it has taken so dang long!

We had one full day at Universal Studios. We got to tour all the hotels and then they took us to both parks and let us walk right on to all the best rides. It was a seriously fun day!

I was very impressed with the hotels on property at Universal. If I am being honest, their lowest price resort is actually almost as nice as Disney's Deluxe resorts. Now, that isn't to say it is cheap - nowhere near as cheap as Disney's value resorts - but it is cheaper than some of Disney's deluxe. I didn't get nearly enough pictures, but here is one of the pool at the Hard Rock. They have speakers under the water so you can still hear music when you are swimming!


In the lobby of the Hard Rock they have tons of music memorabilia, and if you don't know, I am a big Heart fan. They had this signed guitar there from them that I thought was pretty cool.


Here is a view of the Portofino resort. This is their premier property and is designed after the village of Portofino in Italy. It is a gorgeous resort and HUGE.

Here is the pool at the Portofino. Behind that stone wall is a cool water slide.

Another pic of the pool...


The Royal Pacific hotel is the lowest level hotel they have, and I didn't get any pictures, but it was still really nice. I think my favorite was the Hard Rock, but I would absolutely recommend any of these.

Buzz Report: Tom's of Maine

I have another buzz agent report for you guys! As you know, from time to time I am sent products to try out and to give my 100% honest opinion on. This time it was Tom's of Maine Wicked Fresh toothpaste. It was really a great product! They use all natural products to clean your teeth, and they are a very Earth friendly company so I love that! As far as the product itself, it worked great. I definitely felt like my mouth was super clean and fresh afterward. It is one of those that actually kind of burn while you are brushing, until you get used to it.

Another thing I like about it is that it is in a metal type tube. So when you start to roll it up from the bottom, it stays! Not like the normal plastic tubes. Now, as far as keeping your breath fresh longer and all that, I can't really say that I noticed anything to that effect, but it was at least just as good as my normal Crest toothpaste. So I would say, if you are looking for an eco-friendly product to add to your daily routine, I would absolutely recommend Tom's.

Got Butterbeer?

Here I am tasting my first ever frozen butterbeer. Seriously delicious.

So like I said the last night of the Ensemble portion of the conference we got to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We had the whole land to ourselves for 2 hours. It was AWESOME. If you are a Harry Potter at all, you should definitely go. They did such a good job with it. You walk in to Hogsmeade and they have all the shops and restaurants you would find there (with some Diagon Alley mixed in). You walk in first to see the train that has pulled in to the Hogwarts station.

Then you make your way in to Hogsmeade...

One of the first stops is Zonko's where they actually sell extendable ears. A thanks to my beautiful model Sharla!

They have casks in the street selling butterbeer

Next stop was to Olivander's to buy a wand. You have to stand in line and they let about 25 people in at a time. One person is selected to have a wand 'matched' to them. They then go through a selecting process and find the perfect wand for that individual.

The major attraction in the Wizarding World is called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This is the sign going in. It actually starts to disappear on the sign and then is slowly written again.

The castle is amazing. This picture cannot do it justice. Especially when we were there at night, you truly felt like you were heading in to Hogwarts. This is the whole MEI gang (at least all the ones at the training) together in front of the castle.

Isabella Loves Mexican Food

I just thought this was so cute. Isabella LOVES Mexican food. We went the other night to El Fenix and just gave her a plate full of rice and beans and some cut up enchilada and gave her a spoon so she could go to town. The funny thing that you don't see in this video is that she immediately just put the spoon in the salsa and ate the salsa in spoonfuls. She loves chips and salsa, but it is spicy and she doesn't understand why her mouth burns after eating a huge spoonful. So we give her water and then she just goes back for more. It is so adorable.

This is just a cute video that shows how she really likes to use a spoon now instead of her hands more and more. She doesn't like her hands to be dirty so she now always wants a spoon. Enjoy..

Ensemble Conference

I recently went to a conference in Orlando for travel professionals who belong to the Ensemble consortia. My agency does focus on Disney - although we do everything - but the conference just HAPPENED to be in Orlando, so we were pretty excited. It was a really great conference where I learned SO SO much about the travel industry. It was also a great chance to get to meet many of the agents that I work with. We work from home all around the country so even though I have talked, IMed and emailed with them all, I had never met them face to face! So it was really nice to be able to put faces with names. Here is my friend Sharla who was in my start group that I got to room with!! I'm pretty sure Smart car was a sponsor...


The first day was all business with a fancy dinner that night. However, the second night was when the real fun began (um, not that it wasn't all fun?). The second night was sponsored by Disney, since they just happened to be around the corner, and they shuttled us all over to Epcot and led us behind the gates to where they normally hold their Party for the Senses party. It is a paid, ticketed even that they have during the Food and Wine Festival, and we basically got to go to a pared down version of it to see what it was like. It was, in a word, fantastic! It was set up in this huge hall and had live music and stilt walkers and all kinds of fun stuff, as well as seriously delicious food. The picture below was taken of one of the most delightful things I have ever put in my mouth. Take a glazed donut, cook it in a pan full of melted butter, sprinkle some cinnamon on it and then flambe it in rum, and that is what you have below. Basically the world's BEST donut. Sorry it was half eaten before I could stop myself to take a picture.



After the party we all got to go to a private area where we watched Illuminations. It isn't my favorite fireworks show, but it was pretty neat to have such great seats.

The next night we went to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I am going to do a whole other blog post on that. Here is our group after eating, before heading over to Illuminations. Best travel professionals ever!!!

18 Months

How is it that I have a one and a half year old? Sometimes I look at her and can't comprehend how I have been blessed with such a beautiful little child. And I really can't believe it has been a year and a half!! Everyone tells you it goes by fast, but you just don't believe them. Especially those first couple of months. ;)

We had Isabella's 18 month doctor visit a couple of weeks ago and so I thought I should update everyone since it is such a major milestone. She is doing great basically. She is 70% in height (which is good, she was only 45% last time, having shrunk from her 93% at birth!), 45% in weight and about 80% in head size.

What is she up to? Well she is starting to say a lot more words. She says please (well at least she tries, basically any word that has an S sound in it sounds like ssss), cheese (also her new favorite food), she tries to say Amanda and Grammy now. Her absolute favorite word is NO. She is very certain about what she wants and she will say NO when she doesn't like something.

She LOVES her daddy. She would definitely rather have dad than mom these days. Everyone told me it would happen, but I have to admit it is a little sad. Jason, however, is loving it. She will just hug on him, lay her head on his shoulder, so sweet. When I go get her up in the mornings these days, the first thing she says to me is 'dada'? Like where is he?

Her new favorite thing is sock puppets. She has discovered that she can put her socks on her hands and she makes them talk in this kind of growly type voice. The last two days we went to Mother's Day Out with sock puppets on because she would not let me take them off. Haha. She has also learned to do ring around the rosie, which she wants to do over and over.

She really is just so smart. Most things I ask her to do, even if I think she will have no idea what I am saying, she does! I can ask her to go get something she left in a totally different room and she knows what I mean and will go get it. Brilliant I tell you!

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks. We really have not been very good about taking pictures! Isn't that awful? If I didn't have an iPhone we would get no pictures I swear.

Since she was a baby she always liked to sleep with her arms behind her head. This does not look terribly comfy to me, but she slept like that forever this weekend!

She looooves her Nana. When we go visit my parents she loves to go out and swing in the back yard!

My parents also went to Hawaii recently and they brought her a hula girl outfit. So stinkin' cute!!

Sold!

Well, that is what I hope to be saying about my house soon. But that is what a family in Lake Highlands is currently saying about their house! We just bought a house in Lake Highlands!! Yes, this may be sort of out of left field, but we had been thinking about moving for a long time, just not quite so soon. Here's the story...

Jason and I decided to list our house just to see what happened. We figured we would put it on the market for a couple months and see if we got any nibbles. Well, then my realtor, who is also one of my best friends, and I decided to go look at houses in the area we wanted, JUST to look. I specifically told her not to allow me to fall in love with any. Well, I found the perfect house that day and fell in love immediately. You can't help who you fall in love with!!

Jason came to look at it that weekend with us and he liked it too. It was just everything we had talked about wanting. We honestly thought we would have to sacrifice on SOMEthing, but there was not one thing about this house that we really didn't like. Well, except for this awful wood paneling, but that can be painted. =) Anyway, we prayed about it a lot and decided to make an offer, just to see what they said. They accepted our FIRST offer! No counter, nothing. Who does that? Well at this point we decide it was meant to be. So we get our house on the market sooner than expected and are now awaiting that special someone to take it off our hands!

We don't close until December, so we have another month or two until we start to panic, but we are really excited. It is in a great school district and neighborhood and I just think it will be a great house for Isabella and whoever her sibling might be to grow up in. And no I have no announcements in that department, I am speaking hypothetically about the future. =)

Anyway, just wanted to share our exciting news and also ask for you to please pray for us! The stress of trying to sell this house - meaning keeping it clean at all times with a toddler in it - has been high. So please pray that we will sell it quickly, and for a good price ;), but mostly just quickly!

Well, Summer's Officially Over!

So since it has been over a month since I wrote in my blog, I am going to try to catch up. First blog - all about Isabella. Since Destin I swear she has grown a foot. When I look at her these days I just feel like I have a little girl now. I mean I know she hasn't been a 'baby' for a while, but she just seems so grown up!

If you don't believe me you can see the picture below. We stopped by her Grandpa's office recently and he had her doing calculations!!



Ok seriously that picture cracks me up. She LOVED that calculator that spits out paper though. She loves grandpa's office because he will let her do whatever she wants! =)

On that same visit we went to Babies R Us with Nana and she rode in her first motorized little car thingy. Not sure what those are called...


Her new thing lately is for me to hold her. I don't think it is so much that she needs me to hold her, she just wants up high. She has been in to everything down low so many times, I think she is ready to get in up high drawers and cabinets. Anyway, she likes to sit on the bathroom counter and put her feet in the sink and look at herself in the mirror. While doing this one day, since I can't exactly go anywhere while she does this, I experimented with pigtails. They are SO cute I think.


What else have we been up to? Well we are selling our house! We were going to wait until after the holidays, but we figured we may as well put it on the market and see how it does. Who knows, we may be moved by the holidays or not. We aren't in a hurry, but I would like to be in a new house by Isabella's birthday. Mainly because I have a great idea for her birthday party and want to invite lots of people. Is that a good reason? =)

So trying to get the house all cleaned up and out with a toddler in the house has been a challenge, so Isabella started Mother's Day Out for three days a week this week! She loves it there, so I don't feel too guilty offloading her for 15 hours a week. I go to pick her up and she waves and keeps playing, so that makes me feel good.

Bella also has started speaking her own language, some dialect of Japanese I believe. She has also started saying a bunch of English words in her own cute way. Banana, goggles, cookie, juice, wet (although that sounds just like hot), and pretty much anything that starts with a 'B' she at least tries to say. It is so amazing to hear her start saying random things out of the blue. Half the time you don't even realize she is paying attention and then she blurts out what you just said. Jason and I were having some conversation in which Lady Gaga came up, and Bella immediately goes 'gaga'. Then we kept saying it and she kept repeating it. Haha. She has always been a Gaga fan, so it isn't surprising. =)

Destin 2010

Last week we went to my parents house in Destin for a week. To say I was nervous about going on a 12 hour drive with a 15 month old would be an understatement, so I felt like I was preparing for it weeks in advance. Bought new toys, got the DVD player all ready, stocked up on her favorite snacks, etc. The way there wasn't too bad. She got a little fussy, but for the most part she was pretty good.

The beach itself was disappointing. We go to Destin almost every year and I have never seen it look like this. There was a TON of algae in the water. We had been worrying about oil, but there was none of that to be seen! I would hardly even get in the water, but you could swim out to a sand bar not far out and it was a lot nicer. The locals said it does this every few years because of some wind pattern, but I never remember it looking so gross. Oh well. Bella liked just sitting in the surf and playing in the pool, but she was not a huge fan of the sand. Here she is with Jason...




My parents also got a golf cart this year, so that was fun for us to scoot around in, and Isabella LOVED it. She loved riding in it, but she also would beg to go outside just so she could crawl around in and play in it.


Another cute thing she does lately is shrug her shoulders when she doesn't know something. Here is a good picture of it. She just looks like a little adult to me!


One day the boys went to play golf so the girls went shopping. In the middle of the shopping area, there is a little water splash area for kids so we let Bella play there for a bit to cool off.


So my daughter loves my mother more than she loves me. When given a choice of who will hold/feed/bathe/name it her, she will choose my mom every time. Look at this picture. She just looks at her with total adoration!


All in all the trip was nice. I did get some relaxation in. Read a book, saw a couple of movies, ate some delicious seafood. The ride home was a little more tense, with a total meltdown the last hour (I just couldn't get Jason to stop crying!! ;) ), but we made it! It is always sad when vacations are over, but I was also glad to get home to our normal routine.

When we got back to Tyler, my sister and bro in law were in the pool so Isabella wanted to get in too. I just thought this picture was so cute. She loves to put on adult sunglasses (she will have nothing to do with her own) and then blow kisses like she is a movie star. So cute.

15 Months!

How the time does fly. I can't believe it has been two years since we found out we would be adding to the family! We had Isabella's 15 month doctors appointment yesterday and everything is looking good! She is 65% in height, 50% in weight and 80% in head circumference. Doc said she is a girl with big ideas haha. He also said we have to get rid of the bottle. This is very sad for me. I love our time in the morning with her just sipping milk in bed with us while we watch the Today show. It is a cuddly relaxing time, but now we are going to just go straight for breakfast when she wakes up. We started this morning, but she was not happy about it! She fussed and fussed until we had actual food on her tray. Then she was ok. We also have some work to do getting her to drink milk from a sippy cup. She likes anything else from a sippy cup, just not milk. But she loves milk from a bottle. Go figure.

At 15 months she knows a handful of words - hot, bye bye, dada and Gretta (our dog) being her faves - eats most anything (except vegetables, unfortunately), can almost run, loves the water, is getting much better about riding in the car (which is great considering the 12 hour trek we have coming up), waves at everyone and everything, and is starting to be very affectionate. She will run up to you and give you a hug or kiss and sometimes during a hug will pat you on the back. It is the cutest thing. She is going to Mother's Day Out twice a week, which has been SO nice for me so I can get the house clean and laundry done and such as that. She is just getting so much more fun. She has such a personality and a sense of humor and really knows what she wants. It will be much easier when I know what she is trying to tell me that she wants!

Anyway, next Saturday we leave for Destin. I have stockpiled toys, books, snacks and DVDs to get ready for the trip. We are just going to leave reallllly early and hope she sleeps a lot. I definitely anticipate some tantrums being thrown, so I guess we will have to be stopping at some McDonald's or other such places that have play grounds so she can burn off some steam. Say a prayer that it goes well for us and that we actually get some rest and relaxation at the beach!

4th of July Weekend

For the fourth of July this year we went to Tyler to visit the folks. We had a pool day Saturday and grilled out and even though it was cloudy we still had a great time. Isabella LOVES the water. She has no fear I swear. She doesn't want us to even hold her she just wants to go for it. I think we need to start swim lessons soon! We also learned she loves ice. We had a bunch of drinks just iced down in a cooler and if she wasn't in the pool she wanted to be getting ice out of the cooler over and over.

I think this might be the cutest picture we have ever taken of her. She is just chillin' out with her juice box haha. She looks all relaxed, but really those sunglasses had just been put on her and remained on her about 0.2 seconds after the picture was taken.

Bella's First Real Summer Day

A few weekends ago was Father's Day. The weekend was another hot one around here. Isabella's Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jared bought her a froggy pool for her birthday and we broke it out. It had a little fountain that she really loved, mostly to try to drink all the water that came out. We also got some watermelon and let her go to town on that. She had a blast! A pool and watermelon, that is a real Texas summer. =) Oh yeah, and 100 degree heat...

Buzz Review: got2b Smooth Operator

I recently got to try a new hair product called got2b Smooth Operator Smoothing Lustre Lotion for being a buzz agent, where I give nothing but my totally honest opinion! And honestly, I LOVE this product. This is the best product I have reviewed to date. For those of you living in Texas right now, you know how hot and humid it has been. The first time I put this in my hair before blow drying and styling it, it was super humid and by the end of the day my hair still looked the same as it did when I left the house. It wasn't the least bit frizzy! And my hair is naturally frizzy and the slightest amount of moisture makes it look awful. I will definitely buy this product myself when I run out of it!

As always I have coupons and samples so let me know if you would like any! You can comment here or email me at kellitrent@gmail.com. Have a good summer!

Buzz Agent Review: Dove Hair Care

I have been a very buzzy bee lately. (Hehe). I have another buzz agent review where I share nothing but my honest opinion with you on new products! I was recently sent some conditioner from Dove. It is called Dove Damage Therapy Intensive Repair. It is a daily use deep conditioner that is supposed to repair damaged hair. I definitely have some damaged hair from the years and years of coloring it, so I was anxious to try it. I honestly could tell a difference after one use! I could tell as I was blow drying it, my hair felt softer and it smells good too. I swear my hair was even easier to brush that day! This is one product I would definitely recommend. I was actually sent some samples of this one too, so if you want a sample or a coupon or both, just comment or email me and I will get one to you!

Buzz Agent Review: Cover Girl Colorblast

I have another buzz agent review for you! I recently was sent two items from Cover Girl. One was called Smoky Shadow Blast, claiming to give me the smokey look I have always wanted in an easy two step process. Another was ShineBlast lip gloss in a pretty pink color. The eye shadow was in a stick form that rolled out like a lipstick on each end. There were two colors, the grey color I was to smear all over my eye lid and the purplish one was to go in the crease. It went on easy enough and it looked pretty good on. Although I don't know it really looked any better than any other eye shadow I have. It also felt a little sticky. I wore it for the better part of a day and by the end of the day it had started to get a little gunky in the creases of my eyelid. I think if I were just wearing it for a night out it would have been fine, though. The lip gloss is fine. It is a pink shiny lipgloss. It actually tastes really good! Like strawberries or something. It looks good on, just like any lip gloss I have ever had though. I am supposed to give my totally honest opinion as a buzz agent, so that it is. It wasn't bad, but it by no means blew me away. I do have coupons if anyone is interested, post a comment below or email me and I will send some to you!

My First Year as a Mom - i.e. Whew! I Made It!

Apologies, I realize my daughter is now about 14 months old. It took me forever to finish this post!

For my first mother's day last year my mother in law got me a card. I don't remember exactly what the front said, but the punchline inside was 'Holy Crap, it's hard!' talking about motherhood. She was right and I think about that card a lot and chuckle to myself. No one can prepare you for motherhood. The last year has been wonderful, but also the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. For those moms who love every dirty diaper filled second of it, I salute you. I also don't believe you exist. =) I have to admit, there are things I don't love about motherhood. Some days I would like to stay in bed past 6:45 am, or not have toys all over my house so that it never really feels clean, or reach in to my purse and not find 10 rogue graham crackers, or maybe have a nice quiet meal at a restaurant with my husband and actually get to talk to him. And sure, those things would be really nice, but then I think of everything I would have missed in the last year. So enough with the negative, it will take me much longer to chronicle all the awesome things that have happened this year.

Isabella Jane is the most wonderful, amazing, smart, beautiful child in the whole entire world. I realize, of course, that every mother would say the same is true of their child. I don't know how to explain this paradox, except for to say that all those parents are simply wrong. =) Only kidding other moms! But seriously, she makes me smile a thousand times a day, any time she does something new - like suddenly she knows where her nose is - it makes my entire day and I can't wait to tell people, she gives the best hugs and kisses, even to our dog =). In short, I love her to pieces. As hard as being a mom is, all of these things make up for it a thousand fold and I wouldn't change a minute of it, even on my worst days. Here are a few of my favorite moments of the last year and things that I want to remember:

- The day she was born. I seriously remember it being wonderful, even going through labor I remember as nothing but exciting. Ok, yes and painful. But I think I was in some sort of manic state afterward and I just remember how wonderful it was to be in the room with my family chowing down on Whataburger.

- Late night nursing. I know that at the time I was seriously miserable being up at 2 am, then 5 am, then 8am, but thinking back on it, I remember it as a quiet, cozy time when it was just me and Bella and I would play the radio in the background.

- When she first started smiling, my in laws and Jason had taken her out to the mall and they got a great picture of her smiling so big. It was probably the first good picture of it and I always think of that picture and now I think about how small she looks in it!

- My first night out with Jason alone. It isn't ALL about Bella right? We went to eat at Bene Bene and went to see Star Trek, which was one of the best movies I saw last year, btw. I just remember being so glad to be out of the house, in real clothes and makeup.

- The day she noticed the parrot. As newborns they don't really pay attention to anything, meaning they don't really focus their eyes on things or seem to be interested. I used to lay her on this activity mat where things hung over her head and it played music and I remember one day seeing her and thinking 'oh my gosh, she is LOOKING at that parrot! And don't even get me started on the day she reached for it! Haha. Thinking about that now seems so funny because she is in everything all the time and notices EVERYthing.

- How she would not eat at first. She hated solid foods and I thought she would just never eat. Then one day she started sucking down everything we gave her and hasn't slowed down since!

- How much I missed her the first time I left her. I was DYING for the time away, looking forward to sleeping in, but at the end of it I was just itching to see her. It is the same every time I have left her since, only I think it gets more intense every time!

- How she waves at everyone and everything. She is a friendly little girl I tell you! She waves at everyone as we walk through the mall or grocery store, she waves at dogs at the park, she just likes to wave. Maybe she is practicing to be Belle in a Disney parade? =)

- Along with the waving, her first word was bye-bye. She still likes to say it all the time, but now she is also saying hot, Tilda (mom and dad's dog), Gretta (our dog), ball, bow, hello and hi. And when I say she says them, I mean she tries to and I know what she means. Ha.

- Her favorite thing to eat is fruit. She would eat nothing else if I let her.

- The sound she makes when she gets excited. She opens her mouth real big and sucks in air like she is just SO excited about whatever. She does this when you ask if she wants a graham cracker, when she sees people she loves, when she sees dogs, when she sees Mickey Mouse (mission accomplished!).

- How much she knows now at 1 year (ok 14 months). She can do patty-cake and the itsy bitsy spider, I can tell her to do almost anything and she knows what I mean, and she also knows when she is not supposed to do something and she looks right at me with this smirk and does it anyway. She also knows where her nose, toes, head and belly button are.

It truly is an amazing thing to see a child grow from something so small, to a little person who can walk and talk and has a personality and knows what they want and how to get it. Amazing can't even describe it, it is a miracle and blows my mind daily. I feel so blessed to have been given this perfect gift from God and I really do try not to take it for granted. I tell myself daily that as long as she is safe and healthy, that I can get by on less sleep, that I don't need a clean house, and that graham cracker crumbs in your purse are not the end of the world.

I will leave you with just a few of my favorite pictures from her first year (this is one reason it took me so long to finish this post - how am I supposed to choose?)

I cannot believe she was ever this small.


This has always been one of my faves...

Like father like daughter...


I thought this was the cutest thing ever when Jason had her set up in bed one morning.

She's so cool...


I think she looks like an angel in this picture...



Of course, this is one of the ones I like =)


Here is about the time when she earned the nickname Scrunchy from her Grammy and Poppy...wonder where she got that from?


The family at our Texmas party...


When Bella realizes she loooooves blueberries...

Here she is. One year old at the Arboretum. Holy cow how that went by fast!