Bittersweet...

From June 17th-July 11th we were lucky enough to be able to visit our families for THREE WEEKS!! I can't even remember the last time we were able to visit for that long and the best part was the my husband was able to join us for all of that time expect for 4 days when he had to travel back home to work. Usually it's just me and Miss K that make the trip over to visit family since I'm a stay at home Mom and it's more convenient for her and I to travel so Derek can stay behind to work...and now that we're back to reality...it seems to make our trip so bittersweet :-(

For some reason this trip was SO amazing and just so much fun! We spent the first week of our trip with my In-laws which was a big deal because that's the first time we've stayed with them for more than 2 consecutive nights. We had so much fun and it was just SOOO relaxing which is just what Derek and I needed. We got to enjoy our parents company and catch up on some movies and video games...awesome-ness! :-) But since Derek's parents had a huge trip planned for the last 2 weeks of our visit we didn't get to see them until our last weekend for a family wedding. The remainder of the time we stayed at my parents house and had a lot of fun!  Miss K just FREAKS OUT every time she see's my Dad's horse and mules. My brother also has a chocolate lab, Gauge, that is just her bestest friend forever! She follows him EVERYWHERE!!! She even learned how to say his name while we were visiting haha. It's the cutest thing ever. We call him "Gaugey" so that's the word she learned. Here they are...two peas in a pod begging for food from Daddy...

Speaking of learning things, I feel like that during our trip...she just EXPLODED socially and learned so much while we were there. She learned how to say "hi" and wave while she did it and same with "bye", "Gaugey", "nice" - she learned this because every time she would pet the dog she would hit him...so we would tell her "nice touches" and just only kept saying nice, "yes" and nod her head, "what's that?" and she'll point to something, and the list goes one but we're SUCH proud parents. She's just soaking everything in and it's just so cool to watch! Her "talking" has become more advanced, she's learning a ton of new syllables to chatter with and she'll read herself stories. It's awesome! :-)

But now that we're back home and trying to get into the swing of things, I'm finding it hard to keep up with our place because while we were there for our visit, we went to our cousin's wedding (baby free) and I got to take some of the most amazing pictures!! For those of you that know, taking pictures is one of my big hobbies and I just LOVED our cousin's wedding! Here are just a few of the moments I captured...

I've been editing them like crazy since I've been back so the house work has been slipping a little LOL! Can you blame me?! This is probably my biggest accomplishment yet. I'm still learning SO MUCH with photoshop and to be able to bust out the resulting imagine...made my week! (TOP - before, BOTTOM - after)

This was one of the flower girls that became bored during the ceremony so she sat down and started playing with the flower petals to laid out earlier hahaha.

Aside from getting back into the swing of things and editing a ton of photos...my husband and I have been heavily talking about when we wanted to have baby #2. We're somewhat in between a rock and a hard place with this decision because Derek will be finished with school a year from December and after he finishes we will be looking to move back over with our families. The dilemma...we don't want our babies more than 3 years apart but were hoping for an age difference of 2 to 2.5 years....so....do we go for baby #2 while we still live here and know we guaranteed insurance for delivery, or wait until we move there and potentially have to surpass the 3 year age difference depending on when we get insurance again? I've been told that there's state insurance/aid but I don't know ANYTHING about it and it kind of intimidates me to figure it out haha. I'm a scaredy cat, what can I say? I keep making jokes about how everyone says having their first baby is the hardest decision...I have to disagree just a little...HANDS DOWN, planning when to have a 2nd or even 3rd is WAY harder! LOL! At least for us it is ;-) Any of you have thoughts on this?? I'd LOVE to hear some thoughts or input!

I did, however, get to thinking about what I would need to do to get myself ready for baby #2. Thankfully, I didn't gain any weight during my pregnancy with Miss K, I actually lost 20lbs. I would really really really LOVE to get to my goal weight by the time I get pregnant again (it's definitely not a deal breaker if I don't get there...but I want to shoot for it) and I figure that I could get to my goal weight, safely and in the most healthy way, in about a year. I currently weight 204lbs (OMG YES, I just told you my weight LOLlol) yesterday and I have high hopes for this go around. Derek said that most perfect thing to me (which he seems to always do haha) and he says, "you don't NEED to lose this weight because I love you the way you are, but if you do get to your goal in the time frame you set, we'll be having baby #2 no matter where we're at or what we're doing, we'll make it work. It's the least we can do to reward you for all your hard work and struggles!". Oh yeah, you guessed it...I balled like a kid that was told they couldn't get the candy bar they wanted in the grocery store! LOL! He is just the BEST!

So, there's my little update. It's been a really long time since I've posted and I'm hoping to get back to blogging on a semi-regular basis!! LOL!

Hope you all are having an amazing summer!

Love tons!