a big day is approaching

someone extra special is about to celebrate a huge day....


can you possibly guess what it is??


my baby girl is turning one on monday!! i can hardly believe it. does it make me selfish that i wish i could just keep her this size forever and that she would never grow up? i just love her to pieces, she makes every aspect of our lives that much better.

(oh, and the super cute monogrammed party hat and first birthday bib?? those came from the very talented etsy seller dainty couture - i highly recommend them, great customer service and i got the items in the mail very quickly.).

my fabulous hat

greetings from sunny louisville, where the temperature this lovely friday afternoon has risen to a balmy 85 degrees - woo hoo! people are out in droves, enjoying the derby festival and getting ready for tomorrow's balloon race and the derby mini-marathon. there couldn't have been better timing for my friend anna to send me pictures of my hat that she designed for me to wear to churchill downs next week (here's my dress i'm wearing that i posted about recently). isn't it fabulous?! i can't wait to wear it, i just hope the weather is as beautiful next week as it is today!

cupcake pops

i might be biting off more than i can chew, but i really would like to make these cupcake pops (created by the uber talented bakerella) for alexandra's 1st birthday in a couple of weeks. actually, the recipe doesn't sound too hard so if i find time amidst all of the party preparations, packing and moving, i'll have to take a stab at these!

love for louisville

i arrived home today to find two treats had arrived in the mail - the latest us weekly (a guilty addiction, to be sure) and garden & gun (a delicious magazine that profiles all things good and southern). i was happy to spot on the cover a story entitled "27 reasons to love louisville." of course I had to tear open the magazine to the story and see what made the list. i was met with a plethora of **beautiful** photographs that showcased our city so well. i was happy to see that some of our favorite restaurants and locales made the list, and delighted to see a few new spots to try out. here's the full list for all future visitors to the 'ville who plan to arrive in our state for the upcoming derby festivities!


**eat**

211 clover lane
610 magnolia
blue dog bakery & cafe
corbett's: an american place
jack fry's
lilly's
pat's steak house
proof on main
toast on market

(this household would highly recommend both corbett's and jack fry's!)


**drink**

bourbon's bistro
flabby schnitzelburg
magnolia bar
nachbar
old seelbach bar


**shop**

edenside gallery
just creations
the makery
old town wine & spirits
scout
why louisville


**see**

churchill downs
muhammad ali center
slugger field
waterfront park


**sleep**

21c museum hotel
brown hotel
seelbach hilton

tasty treats

wowza..... how good does this raspberry margarita look?? makes me pine for a vacation. the recipe can be found here at hostess with the mostess, one of my favorite blogs - she is so, so creative!

derby eve's eve

seeing the arrival of the kentucky derby barbie was like a swift-kick-in-the-pants reminder that i needed to come up with an outfit for this year's festivities! we won't be attending the actual derby itself or the races the day before derby(commonly known as the oaks - the hat i am wearing in my profile picture is the one i wore to the oaks in 2007), but will be going to churchill downs on corporate day, which falls two days before derby (thursday). we were invited by our very good friends andy and amanda to join them in the state farm tent (where andy works). we are **really** looking forward to it, especially since we missed all the derby festivities last year - you know, what with me being due on derby day to give birth to our first child and all.

so....that brings me to my fashion dilemma. around lunch i received one of my daily email alerts of a great secret sale going on at rue la la (have you heard of it?? it's a fantastic private sale website for all kind of great designer brands - you can only check out the sales by invite only, so if you're interested leave me a comment with your email address and i'll send you one!). i checked out the sales, not expecting to find anything in particular, when i stumbled upon this little number:



i noticed that there were only two dresses left and i knew it was meant to be because the only two left were in my size! the fact that the dress was 60% off the retail price didn't hurt! i gleefully purchased the dress, happy by the fact that i had gotten a steal and already thinking ahead to all of the great finishing touches i already had at home to complete the look (bronze/gold strappy heels? check. big gold hoops? check. cream colored wrap to ward off the possible cold breezes?? check!)

i have an uber-talented friend that owns her own business designing hats (for those local gals, check out her hats at blink boutique!) creating me a fantastic cream or brown number and i'll be sure to post pictures when i'm done.

bring on the derby!!

barbie does the derby

well, it's about time. over the past fifty years, barbie has been busy being everything else under the sun, including astronaut barbie, doctor barbie, even nascar barbie. i guess she finally decided to let loose and have a little fun because she is finally heading to the 135th running of the kentucky derby. according to barbie's website, the kentucky derby barbie doll "wears a pretty floral summer sun dress" with accessories including a "faux pearl necklace and stylish white hat." i'd say she has the dress and necklace down pat....the hat, complete with a gigantic rose, is not so stylish - sorry barbie!

adventures of an incurable optimist

i have always adored michael j. fox - my favorite character of course is marty mcfly from the back to the future franchise! it broke my heart several years ago when i heard that he was battling parkinson's disease. while watching dancing with the stars earlier, i saw this promo for a special that will be aired on thursday, may 7th at 10pm on abc. i think this is a one hour special they are airing that is a spin off of fox's best-selling book, "always looking up: adventures of an incurable optimist." i cannot wait to see this, i'll have to remember to set up my dvr to record it since we will be busy packing for the big move!

easter sunday

what a terrible blogger i have been - really, imagine my head hanging in shame as i type this post! i'm falling back on my usual excuse, but i have been swamped. in the past few weeks, i have been working every night, plugging away at those billable hours we young lawyers love so well. one very important piece of news - we sold our house and bought a new one!! much more on that to come later, i promise.

in the meantime, i wanted to be sure to post some pictures of our easter sunday. we had an **extremely** laidback day, by which i mean we did nothing - and it was lovely! i couldn't let the day pass, however, without getting alexandra in a cute little dress (don't worry, we were inside the entire time - it was kind of chilly here in ky!) and bonnet (which she hated - seriously, this child despises having anything on her head. at least she tolerated it for more than a minute so i could take a few pictures).








i think she liked her easter basket - i was completely unsure of what to get her for easter, it's not like i could fill it with chocolate bunnies! in the end, i went pretty simple and got her a baby einstein book of colors, a bright red ball, and a little magnetic barn with several barnyard animals from leap frog. she seemed to enjoy playing with her toys after the hat came off....






we ended our day by cheering on kentucky native kenny perry in his bid for the masters. ryan and i were both surprised by the fact that not only did i watch the end of the tournament, but that i actually enjoyed it! we hoped that perry would win, but alas it was not meant to be - he seems like such a nice guy.


i hope you had a wonderful easter, as well!

love at first sight

so a few disgruntled readers (meaning family members) have expressed their displeasure that I haven't posted any recent pictures of alexandra on the blog. truth be told, as much as i would like to photograph my little girl all the time, there is little opportunity to do so during the week, what with rushing out the door in the mornings and then getting her down for an early bedtime at night. i made it a point to take a bunch of pictures this past Saturday, and my - HOW SHE HAS GROWN!!!




as you will see in these pictures, she has a healthy head of hair - unfortunately for alexandra, she was destined to have unruly hair as it is an affliction of both her mommy and daddy. she has four - count 'em FOUR - teeth. the bottom two are very noticeable in the pictures of her standing in her crib, and she has also grown in two on the top - we joke and call them her fangs because they are not in the middle of the gum but on the sides! her pediatrician says that after the bottom two middle teeth come in, it's anyone's guess as to when the others will fill in. it's funny, alexandra is actually **obsessed** with teeth! she loves it when we give her a full blown, toothy smile...her little face lights up and she places her little hand in your mouth to feel your teeth. maybe we have a little future dentist on our hands....





alexandra is eating like a champ! she is still on breastmilk - i am officially 5 weeks away from hitting the one year mark and then weaning her to regular milk. she is doing great with solid foods - she's not a big fan of things with texture and she does not like many finger foods (though she loves those gerber wagon wheel puffs), but everything else seems to be fair game. i decided early on to make her own baby food and have been so happy with my decision - it tastes better, it's more economical, it's easy, and i know what i am putting in my little girl's tummy! plus, you get to try lots of different things that you don't find in baby food aisles, like mango! so far, our successes have included yogurt (a favorite), apples, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, peaches, the aforementioned mango, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, green peas, cauliflower with cheese, flounder with cheese and chicken with apples and corn. the last two might not sound all that great, but they actually are pretty darn tasty!






my little girl is always on the move and wants to explore everything! the daycare teachers tell us that she is always crawling (sometimes over other babies!) to explore new toys. she is constantly practicing her standing skills, and can pull up to a standing position quite easily within a matter of a few seconds. about a week ago, she greeted me from a standing position in her crib one morning and that is usually how i have found her since. she is quite vocal and says a lot of different sounds like "da da" and "ma ma", but she has not yet said dada or mama intentionally towards ryan or myself (i'm secretly rooting for mama!). one of her daycare teachers swears up and down that alexandra said "baby" last friday, but ryan and i have our doubts!




she's developing such a little personality and i simply adore watching her observe the world around her and learn new things everyday. i always thought motherhood would be rewarding, but i never knew what a joy it would be until i laid eyes on her - truly love at first sight!

list of lovely things

i have been tagged by kristy and jmw with a creative blogger award, asking me to list 7 things that i love and then pass along the award to 7 bloggers that i love. because i love so many things, it was hard to narrow the list down, but here's a few:

1. obviously, the precious little girl:


the husband:


and the puppy:


okay, so that is really 3 things, but i will lump them into one word - family!

2. mojitos...yum


3. these lovely ladies (man, i **still** miss this show!)


4. lilies, both calla (my wedding bouquet):


and open lilies, like these beautiful asiatics:


5. high heels - the higher the better, i own my height:


6. the gorgeous beaches of turks and caicos (where we spent our honeymoon):


7. the smell of fresh cut grass:



just a few of my favorite things! the following bloggers should consider themselves tagged:

1. a day in the life
2. halfway house
3. in the life of 5 year olds
4. kentucky mama
5. priscilla b
6. momtog
7. polka dots and protein bars