this is the life

it is o-ffici-al (said just like that)

These photos are from Jason's graduation back on August 10. But I share them with you now to say that he passed!!!! My wonderful husband is officially a CRNA. I remember the day he interviewed and then also the day he was accepted into the program. It is so hard to believe that was all 3 years ago! Are we really getting this old?! So in true Jason and Amber fashion, the day after Jason passed his test, our morning conversation went a little something like this:

Jason: From now on I want you to call me Jason Castro, CRNA.

Amber: Okay, sure. And from now on you can call me Amber Castro, domestic goddess.

Deal.

^ classic

trying out a new seat

About a month ago, we put Joanna in her highchair for the first time. We let her sit in it while we ate dinner. Sounds a little bit cruel...sit there and watch us eat. But really we were just trying to get her interested in eating. We would make this big ordeal about us taking a bite of food and she thought it was so great. haha Since then, she is totally into watching us eat. And you can tell that she is curious enough that she wants a taste.

So later this week, little miss Joanna will get to have her first taste of "real" food. I am going to start her out with rice cereal. I plan on making homemade baby food to follow. I have been doing a lot of research online and asking friends for tips and advice. All the information I have found has been pretty awesome and I am looking forward to getting started.

a little bit of old before the new

I had all intentions of getting back to regular blogging to document our new family life back when I did this post. Once I got through that major transition of the first three months of motherhood, I was ready to go! And then after four glorious months of maternity leave, I had to go back to work...that was tough. oh boy was it tough to leave her. Luckily, my mom lives near by and has been able to watch her for me. That was a huge relief. I quickly learned that being a full time working mom left just about every minute of my day accounted for. As a result, I don't have any time for working out, blogging, cleaning, cooking or an array of other things that are probably being neglected. I feel like I rarely get to see Joanna Monday through Friday. I just get about an hour of her in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening before she goes to bed. Not enough. Not even close to what I need/want.

So here comes the good news. This next week is a really big week for my family. Jason takes his National CRNA boards on Tuesday, Joanna turns six months on Thursday and my last day at my job is Friday - I am about to have my dream job of being a stay at home mom! Major things happening in the Castro household and we can't wait.

These are some of Joanna's five month photos I took last month. I can barely believe that it will be her very first half birthday in less than a week. Where has the time gone?! In just this same amount of time that has passed, she will be a year old - stop. It's moving too fast. Now I know all those cliche "blink and they're graduating high school" sayings are true. Can someone please tell me how to freeze time for a moment? This is why my greatest hearts desire is to stay at home with my baby; I don't want to miss a moment.

itty bitty bathing suit

We have taken Joanna to my mom's pool to swim a couple times now and I think she really likes it. She has always enjoyed her bathtime in the evenings, so I figured the pool would just be like a giant bath tub for her. She has discovered splashing, which is so funny because when she gets it in her eyes, it's like 'hey, who did that!' haha

Little babes in bathing suits is also one of the cutest things. I will admit, Joanna has four bathing suits...two of which she has already grown out of. I have never been a big fan of two piece suits for little girls, however, changing a diaper with a one piece is nothing short of annoying. We'll just have to see what she ends up in next year - I am not one to say 'I will never...' I think as a parent that is a guarentee that you will end up doing whatever that might be!

lady in pink

I took these photos of Joanna a couple weeks ago when we finally had a break in the rain. This dress was the first baby item we bought once we found out we were having a girl. I would have never guessed that it would take her 5 months to grow into it! (it's size 0-3 months) I just love my little petite lady. The dress is more pink than it looks in these photos, but since I'm no professional photographer and I don't have any type of Photoshop...we will just deal with the more pink-ish/red-ish look for now. haha I always just think it's a good thing I have the perfect little model for my photos. I mean, really!

Joanna is day by day getting better at sitting up on her own. A little trick we did for these photos was have Jason slip his arm under the blanket to hold her up...genius, right? I will say though, that she is a pro at rolling around like a maniac and her army crawl is pretty hard to beat!