My mother's day surprise

So this year for Mother's Day my sweet husband planned a little family get-away to Galveston, just the three of us. It was Ella's first "vacation," first hotel stay, first swimming adventure, you get the idea. Needless to say, we had a blast watching her experience a weekend of firsts.

Before we left I bought Ella her first swimsuit and her first real pair of shoes. (Yes I am one of those moms who lets their baby go bare-foot. I just haven't seen the need for shoes when her little feet hardly touch the floor, not to mention how fast she is growing!) But after seeing how enamored she was with these new shoes, I definitely want to find her some more - she looooved them! Guess she's a typical girl ;-)




Ella LOVED the hotel room! The king-sized bed must have seemed never-ending to this little girl. She would crawl as fast as she could from one corner to the next and giggle when we grabbed her to turn her around. She hadn't been crawling and pulling up too long before we went, so everything peeked her curiosity. Within minutes of arriving, she had investigated every inch of our room :-)



Nolan and I couldn't help but laugh as we looked around this nice hotel room and realized how we had "baby-ed" it up! The bathroom counter became the bottle making station...the pack-n-play was all set up...and naturally, her things were everywhere!


Ella rode in her "big-girl stroller" for the first time that weekend. It's pink. She loves it. Or maybe it's Mommy that loves it ;-) I love it for reasons other than it's "girliness" - it's MUCH smaller than the bulky travel system stroller making it sooo much easier to maneuver, and fit in the car! I know Nolan was thrilled to push around a hot pink stroller all weekend ;-)

She was so excited about her new ride that she promptly fell asleep.



First time at Rain Forest Cafe - Ella slept through most of it - even the crazy "rainstorm" and gorilla noises that happened several times while we were there.

She did, however, wake up just in time to pay the bill...


"Can you believe how much they charge for iced tea???"


...and see fish for the first time


and make a new monkey friend...

but wasn't too sure about him


...and decide she was a country girl after all :)


Of course we couldn't pass up some fun pics with the gorilla on the way out...


Ella also decided she wasn't too fond of grass...she had never really touched or sat on the grass before. And as far as she was concerned, wasn't in a hurry to do it again anytime soon.



She did, however, enjoy her first bath in the big girl bathtub. We couldn't exactly pack her little bathtub and I'm glad - she had a blast!


My favorite part of the weekend was seeing this little girl go swimming in her first swimsuit! I bought her a 6 month suit and had to return it for a 12 month because her little belly just didn't want to fit in there - cutest thing EVER! And I say that knowing that I am more than a little bit biased :)


She seemed to enjoy the pool but didn't get overly excited about it. I'm sure it didn't help that her absent-minded mommy forgot that there was a such thing as "swim diapers" lol. Within seconds her diaper weighed 10 pounds. That could explain why she got tired so quickly and was ready to get out!

We checked out a local burger place that everyone had raved about - The Spot. Enter Ella's first experience with lettuce! Nolan brought it back from the salad bar for her and she was entertained the entire time we ate :)


Overall, it was a great weekend with my sweet little family...one that I will always remember as our 1st "vacation" together - even if it was just an hour south on I45 :) I know that the years ahead will fly by and we will have many more fun filled weekends of family time and road trips but I will always cherish this one as our 1st. After all, in a few years Ella will be a moody teenager and the thought of spending hours in the car with her parents might not be quite as appealing. Gotta enjoy these moments while they last ;-)

Here are a few more pics of the weekend:

Trying to catch up...

So I am more than a little behind in my blogging - funny how that happens when you are constantly chasing a now mobile 7 month old who insists on yanking on wires/cords, puppies' tails, anything else she can get those cute little hands on! And because I am way too ocd for my own good, I can't stand to blog out of chronological order. So my solution, I just don't blog. BUT, as much as it pains me to do so, I had to give in this week and just started blogging randomly trying to catch up...so here it goes - a little father's day, followed by a little mother's day (I'm cringing as I type this) followed by some other random family happenings. We've been busy in the Nahidi house but I wouldn't trade a minute of our craziness. I hope everyone is having a BLESSED summer!

Mother's Day Weekend with the Moms

This year was my first official Mother's Day and I enjoyed every minute of it! We drove to my parents friday to celebrate with my mom first. Saturday was really special because we spent the day celebrating my sweet sister Megan's acceptance into nursing school with a fun party - more to come on that in a later blog.

That evening we took mom out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day with all her grand-kids.

Dinner was a blast - we always enjoy spending time together, but the highlight of the evening was when my precious niece, Lily, got to meet Taylor Swift ;-)

Why would Taylor Swift be in small-town Hubbard you ask? And why does she look so very different in person than on TV? I'm not sure. You might want to ask Lily. She's the expert, after all. She calmly explained to us that Taylor Swift has two names. Makes perfect sense to me. For those of you still confused ;-) - we were at a restaurant that had live music in the adjacent room and while we were eating this young girl was playing guitar and singing a Taylor Swift song. Without seeing who was singing, Lily squeals "Heeeey everybody let's go listen to Taylor Swift sing!!!" We hid our smiles and followed her to go listen and she was convinced she was witnessing the infamous Taylor in person! She got an autographed picture and had her pic taken with "Taylor" who apparently goes by another name too. I'm pretty sure Lily went to school that Monday telling all of her friends that she got to meet Taylor Swift. :-)

Sunday morning we headed back to Houston for an early lunch with Nolan's mom at her favorite place - Cheesecake Factory. I must say, it's one of my faves too - if you haven't tried their red velvet cheesecake, it's worth the trip! We enjoyed having lunch with them and watching them love on sweet Ella. They are wonderful grandparents!



Needless to say, we are blessed beyond measure by our amazing moms and the way that they love us and our daughter. We hope you both had a wonderful Mother's Day - I know I did.

Happy Father's Day!

I am blessed to have been surrounded by some amazing, encouraging, hard working, and godly men in my life - in fact, I married the best of 'em. This Father's Day I wanted to say thank you to these men for blessing my life, and now, my daughter's life.

To my Dad, "Pop"

You are an awesome Dad. Throughout our lives, you've shown us the meaning of hard work, the value of a dollar, and countless other valuable lessons. You taught us these things by example, making it so much more meaningful. You worked hard to provide for our family and most importantly, you remained a man of integrity, a man true to his word, a man who held fast to the Lord through the ups and downs of life. It couldn't have been easy raising three girls, but you did it - with a sense of humor. You have my respect and I love you so much. Watching you be a "Pop" to your grand-kids is an even bigger blessing. They adore you. So do I.



To my Father-in-law,

You've accepted me as your own daughter and embraced me from day one, welcoming me into your family. I am so thankful for you and for the way you lead your family. I am encouraged by your constant hunger for the Lord. It has been a blessing to watch you love our daughter. I love you.



And last, but never least...to my husband,


Nolan, you are the most amazing father.

From day one you have been a hands-on Daddy and I am so thankful, but not surprised. I always knew you would be the best Dad, it's just a part of who you are. You were the first to hold that sweet baby and I couldn't have been prouder as I saw the pride on your face when you got to introduce her to the waiting world. From the moment she came into this world, you were taking care of her, changing diapers and holding her when I couldn't even sit up.

You've been determined to protect her and I know you always will. She is one lucky little girl to have you as a Daddy. She will learn so much from you - how to love Jesus, how to love others unconditionally, to give without thinking of herself, to work hard, to be kind, patient, and gentle. She will be strong and confident, knowing that her Daddy believes in her. She will be a better person because of her Daddy. Thank you for loving her like you do. We will forever be blessed by your love.

Watching her face light up with laughter when you come home has quickly become the best part of my day. No one can make her laugh like you do when you ask her "Did you go swimmin' today??" or when you sing your silly sweet songs to her. You are our treasure. We adore you, Daddy.

Love,
your girls

And she's off!

So I'm more than a little behind in my blogging...I blame Ella. I just thought she kept me busy before, then she started crawling! Life just got much more interesting, especially for her.

She's been working on the whole crawling thing since the end of March / early April. She would get up on her hands and knees and be ready to go but couldn't seem to get her arms moving.


Then came the rocking back and forth...she was soooo close for awhile. She would scoot a little and just reach out for our hands. Then one day the light switch flipped and she just figured it out! And she hasn't been still since :) I kind of figured that much - since she was little little she always liked to be in a standing position when we would hold her, she just did not want to sit down. And then the jumping started, man she could wear your arms out! I knew the moment she started crawling my life would be that much crazier. Here are some pics of her in action:

And of course, a video - please ignore the silly parents in the background:

Now that she's mobile she likes to give me a run for my money during diaper changes. The minute that diaper comes off she flips over and likes to see how far she can get before I catch her. Sometimes this can get messy. Enough said. More to come on Ella's latest adventures.


In the meantime, can someone please tell me how to slow this down. I'm not ready for my baby to be crawling! She's getting way too big way too fast!!