- Happy fall, y'all! -

The baby and I spent an afternoon at my parents' house last weekend while Brian helped paint at his brother's house. The weather was soooo perfect; we played outside on a blanket and just enjoyed "fall" and all its beauty.  Since the midget wouldn't crack a smile in the family pics last week, I decided to call a redo and take a stab at it myself. ;)  Just can't get enough of this girl!

I love watching her play and discover and learn and wonder...

Oops! Just learning how to sit up by myself... Good thing Mommy had some extra hands!

Happy fall, y'all!  Stay beautiful! xoxo

- fam-a-lee: twenty fifteen -

Mucho mucho muchoooo thanks to our friend Paige [@ Paige Hampton Photography] for these fall family pics! Harper was being a little stone-faced stink, but Paige still managed to capture a few quick baby smirks and made the rest of us look good in the process! ;)  

I thank God every day for my awesome awesome family!!! <3  Love you guys!!! 

Paige always comes to the rescue for capturing our milestones and preserving our favorite memories! 

• 1-year anni pics

• Harper's newborn pics

- Go crazy, folks, go crazy! -

I'm having a legitimately significant amount of PTSD this week ... I mean ... seriously ... 

What kind of Red October is this?!?  

SO SAD. 

Horrible. 

And two words [shall I even speak them?] that rub my fur even farther backwards = the Cubs.  Come on.  Muttering profanities.  This is 2015, not 1908!!!  Consider this postseason exponentially worse. Muttering more profanities.   Heath Ledger is totally sitting on a cloud in the afterlife throwing his joker head back with an evil laugh. Sooo not cool.

But anyway.........  I'm trying to mature from my habitual ritual of constantly dwelling in negativity, so let's turn this post around! I dug up these pictures from back in August when we loyal Cardinals fans were still bringin' out the brooms: sweep, sweep, and more sweeps -- and putting "W's" all over the board like en bee dee.  This hurrr' was the St. Louis team we know and love!  Also: incessant cheers for unlimited beers!  (...And of course all-inclusive seats/food and AMAZING friends!)  Now THIS is how I like to remember my Cardinals. :)))  

Check it out:  annual L&D night at the ballpark!

[The rentsies were in another party box down the hall, so they came to visit our pad! ...After barely being able to break past the usher as noted in pic on the left!]

"Go crazy, folks, go crazy!"  Ho-kayyy, Jack Buck. We're goin' cray alright! 

REDBIRD/FREDBIRD/L&D LOVE! 

Our T-shirts this year were made in memory of an amazing L&D nurse who recently lost her hard-fought battle with breast cancer.  This Cardinal win was for you, Gina!!!

Don't forget:  L&D Night at the Ballpark 2013!

Cardinals baseball says, "Ciao for now!"

...But get ready for spring twenty-sixteen.................. 

#revengebesweet  

- She zoo'ed it up......two months ago -

Throwback:  Baby Bear's first visit to the zoo!  [5 months old!]

- A [not]Short Saga of Sickness -

^^ Yes.  That.

And I'm damn thrilled to be pale again...

...because last weekend? 

GREEN.

Ohhhhh dear Lawdy, I'm currently cartwheeling in circles and dancing in ecstatic-ness that we all three made it to this weekend alive.  If hell is worse than what we've been through for the past week.............I just.....I can't even.

Recapping in one [short] paragraph, because I'm well aware that few people enjoy dwelling on the bad and ugly AND even fewer people tolerate graphic discussions of projectile vomiting slash other expulsions of unnamed bodily fluids.  SO!  Last Friday afternoon [an amazing, great-weathered, sunshiny, feel-good day!] we packed up our family of three and headed down to my parents'. We had a full weekend planned: my cousin's performance at a local bar [he just released his new CD!], golf tournament for the men, Apple Butter festival, lunch with my grandma, a friend's 30th birthday party, a cookout/"new grill christening" BBQ at Brian's parents', etc., etc., etc....  Err'yone felt great............until Saturday morning when I woke up half the household with violent vomiting.  Maybe it was something I ate; maybe it will just be once.  NOPE.  Every 50-60 minutes like clockwork x 24 hours.  Was totally wishing someone would've dug my grave and kicked me right on in.  Misery to the max max max.  Thennnn 12 hours later, same thing for Brian... And within the next 48 hours, same thing for my brother...aunt and uncle...another aunt...grandma...and mom... WHAT!  What is this wicked disease, and how does it spread so so so fast?!  

Very very VERY luckily, my parents took Harper right under their wing and cared for her all weekend on TOP of going about their already scheduled plans AND routinely bringing Brian and I a freshly filled tray of Gatorade + ice chips + Tylenol + my breast pump [by the way: pumping while a) shivering from a fever and b) puking in a pan next to the pump and c) barely even having any water left inside my body to MAKE the milk = a new, AWFUL experience that I would never even wish on a death row inmate. Horrid!].  Anyway, so thankful that my mom and dad were there to care for our little offspring while B and I laid in bed together all weekend exchanging our icky fevers and puke breath.  Hashtag: marriage.   ...In sickness and in health...  Seriously, so glam.

...Recapping in one [short] paragraph...  *thunderous laughing* ...I'm sure you're well aware by this point in our relationship that short-windedness is not my strong suit.  Oh well.

We were thrilled for Harper to escape her parents' disease and and walk away from the weekend unscathed!  

But then...

...Wednesday morning! 4:40 in the am! Brian is in Pennsylvania on a work trip and I've been laying awake in bed all night listening to my kid cough up a lung in her crib.  But the coughing at 4:40 consists of much more extensive hacking/gagging, so I run in and pick her up from her crib and:  hello white, frothy vomit .all.over.my.person.  And now she has a fever, too...AKA can't go to daycare, nor would I want to send her there when she feels like death and just needs extra snuggles.  Holding back tears, I called my parents' house:

Dad:  Hello??? 
Bridget:  Hi.
Dad: 
Bridget: 
Dad: 
Bridget:  Harper's sick wahhhhh.  *meltdown begins, complete with toddler-like wailing*  And I don't want her to go to daycare and she's scared because she's never thrown up before and she can't breathe because her nose is stuffy and I can't call in to work today because I already called in Monday because I was puking and I don't know what to do because Brian is halfway across the country and Harper is sick and my life is falling apart and wahhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh what should I dooooooo?  *tear tear sniff sniff* 

Welp, within thirty minutes, my mom was packed up and on the road and *sigh*...Grandma to the rescue.  THANK GOD FOR GRANDPARENTS.  Harper wasn't spoiled all day or anything:  

Although, I officially win "worst mom EVER" award.
Harper wins "most-understanding/unconditionally-loving baby" award.
My mom wins "best grandma" award.  Just when my life's falling apart, she's always there to piece it back together...

So! 

Now it's Saturday again..... An entire week has passed since the beginning of that "[short] paragraph recap" up thurrr, and we're not only surviving BUT!  [Dare I say it?]  We're also thriving!  With an ever-joyful heart and a sweet smile on her face, Harper has survived: one day of dual-parent neglect, two days of around-the-clock Tylenol doses [poor poor child and her 103+ middle-of-the-night fevers!!!!! Horribleness!], three sessions of projectile vomits, four days of ruthless coughing and sneezing and snorting and gagging, five outfit changes in one day because six diapers full of non-containable watery diarrhea, and well, I don't know what the hell seven eight nine ten and beyond is.....BUT.....we're all turning the corner and seemingly on the mend.....so... 

...that right there's the end of the story. 

Funny how that one "[short] paragraph recap" turned into the whole damn post, isn't it? 

#sagaofsickness ...Never again, I vow.

We're decorating our house for fall today and having our priest over for dinner tonight [not forcing him to come over and inhale the breath of death; this date has been on the books for months and he didn't want to reschedule!], so here's to hoping that he brings this household an extra little blessing of health and happiness! Oh, and good company and conversation too. ;) 

xoxo!