April Blog Feature - The Greens

Our April Blog Feature is Jennifer from Growing with the Greens.  I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled on to Jennifer's blog but I sure am glad that I did!  Jennifer's baby girl is almost one and I've been following her every move since she was born (does that sound creepy?  I don't mean to be creepy.  I guess I'm a little creepy...).  By now I feel like I know their family like they're my best friends.  It helps that Jennifer reminds me of...well...me.  Between her need to have everything just right to the way she loves to dress her little girl in cutie outfits and bows to how many photos she takes each day to many other similarities.  I guess I'll just let her speak for herself and you'll see.


Who are you? I'm Jennifer, wife to a wonderful husband Allen and mom to a precious baby girl, Braylen Kate. We have one spoiled shi-poo, Coco. I am OCD to a fault, a chronic list-maker, (former) kindergarten teacher, lover of all things beautiful, on a constant search for the next great pair of shoes and always up for a cup of coffee.

Why did you start blogging? I started blogging while I was pregnant with Braylen. My pregnancy was flying by and I started to realize that maybe time does go a little faster than I'd like it to, blogging became my way of documenting our life. Writing is definitely an outlet for me and blogging has turned into a great hobby.

How did you and your hubby meet? This is so funny. Allen and I actually met when I was a junior in high school. There's a huge camping place on the lake about an hour and a half from our house. My parents had this crazy idea to buy a camper when I was in high school and then they had an even crazier idea that I would go camping with them. So after much whining and complaining and 17-year-old-drama, I talked my friend into going with me, and we went "camping." Allen was there with some friends of his, camping and fishing, turns out he lived close by, I gave him my number never really expecting to talk to him again. He, on the other hand, had different plans and we talked every. single. night. What can I say? He's a charmer and the rest is well... history.

I wasn't sure what I would write about for this post. Not because I couldn't think of anything, actually it was quite the opposite. You see blogging is my way of fulfilling my need to talk all the time. Seriously, I could talk all day long, just ask my husband. After perusing the list of possible topics in my head, I decided to write about something that is at the forefront of my thoughts here lately. Our sweet baby girl, Braylen Kate will turn one in just a few short weeks.

I'm not sure how we got here. I mean I was just a huge pregnant person counting down the days until our little would make her grand appearance, daydreaming about what it would be like to hold her and play with her and hear her sweet voice. Right? It was a world wind after she was born, she had to be hospitalized at 12 days because of a respiratory infection. Which doesn't seem huge, but when you can't see your newborn except for certain "visiting times" it starts to wear on you. She got better and we came home and it seems like our life has been in fast forward since then.

All of the sudden she's smiling....

And sitting up....

And crawling...

And standing up...

And now turning one. I suppose next you're going to tell me that she's starting school. I mean I hate to be dramatic but this year has certainly flown by. Is it true that as you get older time seems to go faster? I don't like that one bit and I'd like to change that if I could.

I know that as strong-willed as she can be on some days, that this is all just a season. One day, I'll look back and think "I wish I had a baby pulling things off of shelves and refusing to take a nap." Not with regret, not at all, because if there's one thing this year has taught me its this: Treasure every moment, take more pictures than you know what to do with, hold her as long as you want to, rock her to sleep if you want to and never, ever take one second for granted.