Baby's first plane ride, beach trip, and visit to MeMe's

We ended my maternity leave with a bang by traveling to Naples Florida on Thursday morning, taking baby Hunter to meet his great grandma and enjoy a little Florida sun!



Thursday when we got there we settled in and MeMe immediately encouraged us strongly to go out to lunch just the two of us. Lets be honest she practically kicked us out of her house and kidnapped our baby and we are so glad she did. The turtle club restaurant is a favorite of most on Vanderbilt beach and it was a Beautiful afternoon.

That evening we noshed on wasabi peas, drank champagne and caught up on the back lanai. For dinner MeMe made us my late Papas recipe for beef stroganoff. It was the meal he made to win her over on their first date at his house. All it includes is....

Stew beef
Can of cream of mushroom soup
And package of Lipton's onion soup mix

You can of course fancy it up by adding mushrooms, or even some red wine and cream but it's good just the way it is. She served it with peas.

Back to the trip. Friday was rainy so we slept in and then spent the day shopping! Have you all ever heard of Charming charlie's??? It is accessory heaven!! Wall to wall accessories and cute clothes organized into racks by color all around the 10-30 dollar range. Why doesn't Charlotte have one of these stores??? I had a field day in here and as payback had to accompany hunter to a golf store but it was all worth it.





Friday evening we noshed on cheese, crackers, and white wine. That night hunter cooked us a fabulous dinner of steak with spinach, mushrooms, roasted potatoes, and couscous.





Saturday the sun came out again and we hit the beach. We loooove the beach and hope to have a baby who loves it as well. We had a blast snapping pics of his first time with this tootsies in the sand and feeling the ocean breeze. I think the sound of the ocean reminded him of his sound machine and hipnotized him to sleep. Were not complaining nothing wrong with a long nap on the beach.













We capped the beach off with a swim in Meme's neighborhood pool/hot tub and then headed out to dinner.



I'm afraid to type it as to jinx ourselves but we have close to an angel baby. He slept on the beach, slept while we pooled it, and slept
during our dinner out. Granted we did time these events after his bottle and playtime so that he was tired but I'm still thankful he works to our schedule and plan and doesn't seem to have an alternative plan of his own :)

Overall it was a wonderful trip, one we hope to repeat every winter. Now it's back to work for me and more changes for our new little family. Wish us luck and say a prayer for sweet baby Hunter that he adjusts to daycare well.

A day in the life at home on maternity leave

Well i knew this time would come, It's my last week of maternity leave. Everyone at once....awwwwww. I wanted to do a day in the life post for me to look back on and remember what filled our glory days. So without further a do, here is our typical day....


5/5:30am - baby Hunter wakes up for a bottle and it's right back to bed.

7am - baby Hunter wakes up but daddy Hunter grabs him out of his crib on his way out the door to work and puts him in bed with me. We fall back asleep til 9ish together.
(some days the baby wouldn't wake up at 7am and he would sleep in his crib til 8:30ish)



9am - we head downstairs. Baby swings or sits in his rock n play watching tv while I wash bottles, make coffee, make him a bottle, let jake out and if the babys content and not screaming I'll make myself breakfast.











9:30am - I feed little man his bottle while watching live with Kelly and sipping my coffee

10am - We watch the today show and play on his play mat





10:45am - Into the swing for little man for a 1.5hr nap. For the first hour or so i blog, read blogs just basically relax on the couch.





12pm - upstairs to make our bed, piddle in the babies room (picking it up from whatever madness occurred in the middle of the night) and finally shower. if the baby wakes up before I get my shower in I grab him instead and hold him until feeding time.



12:30pm - lunch bottle for the little man

1pm - everyone finally out of their pjs. I change Hunter into clothes and if I haven't showered yet at this point then into his crib he goes to play with his mobile. If I have then we will stay in his nursery together and read books, I'll show him his toys, and then lay him in his crib to stare at is mobile. He loves it!



2pm - swaddle Hunter and leave him in his crib for an afternoon nap. I head downstairs a quick lunch then back upstairs for chores. Laundry, vacuum, clean bathrooms, wash sheets, dust bedrooms... You get the drift :)



3pm - he doesn't nap as long in his crib so he's normally up by now and I'm playing with him, talking to him just trying to hold him off til his 3:30 bottle.

3:30pm - bottle time! (somewhere around here I stopped snapping pics of our day, whoops)

4pm - tummy time on a pillow on the couch or we play with rattles or I place him contently in his rock n play and do some chores like vacuuming downstairs.

5pm - Daddy's home! We sit and chat with dad, figure out dinner, I'll swaddle baby hunter and hope for a cat nap.

6/6:30pm - bottle!

7pm - we eat while baby Hunter sits in his rock n play and watches us or if dinner is still getting ready we go in the kitchen and watch daddy cook.

7:30pm - into the swaddle and rock n play in hopes for another cat nap before his bath.

8:15pm - Bath and into pjs

8:45pm - bottle then bed

11pm - dream feed and he's down til his 5am feeding where the cycle starts again :)

The days flew by as did the months!!

What we ate

Let's be real, times have changed in the Lunsford household. I no longer have time to follow hunter around the kitchen ad he cooks taking step by step instruction pictures because, well, I'm feeding and tending to an infant. However, I'm still consistently amazed by what the man whips up and puts in front of me on a nightly basis so I've been just snapping a picture before I dig in. I also want to keep documenting these meals for our families future use. So instead of a dinner per post I'll post a weeks worth of what we ate....

And like the rest of the world we are starting the new year watching what we eat so these meals are mostly healthy!


Flank steak with roasted veggies


Spaghetti with meat sauce and a pear salad. That white stuff on top of the pair salad is mayo...don't judge until you try it, its one of my favs!!


Turkey burgers, a blackbean corn salad and cole slaw!


Sacred heart soup from the sacred heart diet. Hunter made a big batch of this soup for lunches and quick dinners. We both love it and he adds a little morning star meat to make it heartier.


Chicken and sweet potato stir fry. We added snow peas.


Pork curry stir fry


And this is what happens when Hunter doesn't cook dinner, I eat ramen. Creamy chicken, it's the best!! So sad, I know.

What I wore...hey it's me Hunter V

Sooooo my mom thinks she's the only one with style in this house....well, she needs to think again because you've never seen a kid pull off a pair of osh gosh overalls as cute as I do. Needless to say, I thought some of you might like to know where I get some of my adorbs clothes aaaand if you don't care, well, I'm fairly certain you never get tired of looking at pictures of me :)


This was my Christmas outfit. Mom saw it at Janie and Jack and couldn't resist. I wear the green and red checked collared shirt with just jeans too! Oh and they arent pictured but I wore it with some sharp looking loafers!!


Oh the infamous tie shirt. Don't I look spiffy? I wore this on christmas eve but since the tie is a onesie it was still comfy. My tie onesie is from etsy my pinstripe pants and socks Janie and jack.


Mommy loves her some osh gosh. I have a feeling I'm going to own a pair of these in every size until I'm 18 :) my onesie is carters...they're the best!


These overalls are super warm and cozy. Mom got them for me from restoration hardware baby & child.


And lastly sometimes I ditch those little boy clothes and dress like a little man :) this is a Baby gap outfit jeans and all. Don't overlook my corduroy elbows. This outfit is paired perfectly with my duck boots...booyah!! Can u say stud muffin??

It's official...I want a nanny

What a fun three day weekend we had! My cousin Shannon who's a sophomore at a nearby college decided to come stay the weekend with us and see the baby for the first time. We have loved having her here!! Let me recap the weekend.

Friday after she got in, I saw she was comfortable with baby Hunter so i ran some baby free errands! The post office, dry cleaners, and grocery store all without having to drag the car seat in and out of the car 6 times. Thank you Shannon! Friday night we all went out to a little Mexican dinner and with hunter and I on one side of the booth and shannon and baby on the other we decided to the restaurant it looked like she was teen mom and us her friends supporting her. Ha!! :)

Saturday was girls day!! My friend brandy had planned a day out for 10 of us girlfriends but didn't tell us what we were doing, it was a surprise!! We ended up going to a new trampoline place in Charlotte. Wall to wall trampolines!! It was sooooo much fun and a great workout. Afterwards we all went to lunch. After lunch we tagged in to baby duty and the boys tagged out for a poker night. Shannon and I had a nice evening eating pizza, watching miss America pageant and of course taking care of baby. Shannon was happy to bath little man and do the 11am dream feed. Bless her!!







Sunday was equally great! My aunt/uncle/cousin (Shannons family) came to visit for the day from Asheville. Snacks, QT baby time, football and pure relaxation it was a great day with family!! That night Shannon hoped in bath and bottle duty again.... By this point I'm getting used to this fabulous help! :)

















And....here we are Monday. This morning I was able to clean the kitchen, make coffee, and vacuum all while Shannon fed the baby. So this is what it's like to have a baby nanny. I need one :) Shannon come back anytime. We love you! for more reasons than you just being great with baby hunter too, I promise :)

All the Hunter's

We have this picture of the first 4 Hunters Sr, Jr, III, and IV ( my hubby Hunter as a baby, isn't he cute??).



It was important to us to get the same picture with Jr, III, IV, and now our V :) we took it over christmas. I can't wait for to show Hunter V these pictures when he's old enough to understand how special this history is!