Happy Easter! 2013

HAPPY EASTER!
This year we decided just to remain low key with Easter only because its Gabriella's first! Shes still too young to enjoy the Easter bunny and eat candy although she did get an Easter basket. We spent our Easter (mostly) at church (all day) and ate a nice dinner. Very low key indeed.
Maybe next year should be more fun because she will be older.

Happy Easter! Baby's first Easter! 

EVENT ALERT! 

April 6th and 7th is Dance for the Planet at Booker T. HSPVA and I encourage everyone to come out to take FREE master classes or enjoy hundreds of dance performances. 

Also...

April 9th and 10th I will be performing for the first time in over a year, at the Montgomery Arts Theater at BTWHSPVA in Dallas. Yay!

Happy Easter Everyone! He is Risen!

-Kortney

"Though our feelings may come and go, God's love for us does not." ~ Unknown 

Body Progress: Month 2

I'm definitely getting somewhere! I am finally getting my tone back and my stretch marks are slowly but surely fading away. SO proud of myself! My goal is to at least have the marks faded by May... so I really only have 2 more months to get it back! I need it back by May only because Senior picnic which is when all the seniors go to the lake, and I start back modeling in early June. Whew! The Pressure!

Keep Going!
-Kortney

"Beautiful people are not always good, but good people are always beautiful." ~ Unknown 

Spring Break 2013!

My spring break 2013 was great!
Technically, I had 2 weeks of spring break instead of one. I counted 2 because Claud's spring break was the week right after mine. SO it was kinda like have 2 weeks of amazing spring fun.
My week started off with Rent-A-Senior day at my school. Traditionally, the day before spring break is senior skip day. So our school has this "new" tradition that underclassmen can "Rent a Senior" for the entire day and have them do whatever they want. But since half of my class is truant and at risk of not graduating because of attendance, the majority of us participated in rent-a-senior which is 10x funner anyways. I was rented by Sinclair, a junior in the dance cluster with me, and I was her pretty kitty for the day. She painted me a cat face, put my hair in cat ear buns, and dumped glitter all over me. Every time someone said my name I had to sing the "meow song" and if someone touched me I had to purrrr. It was fun while it lasted but I swear if I hear another meow or the meow song anymore, I'm going to hit somebody. Lol
Alexis was a whore (her renter stole my idea because that's what I did to my senior when I was a sophomore -.-), Chelsea was a Sparkle Fairy Pixie Dust..... it was hilarious, and DJ was a male fairy who threw sparkles on everyone. Rent-A-Senior day was soooo much fun. This marks the beginning of our senior activities. This means we are so much more closer to graduation.
Sunday, we made our trip to Shreveport, my hometown. This was Gabby's first time travelling.

Gabriella and her cousin McKenzie.

While we were in Shreveport, we did the usual. Just chilled out and ate good food. Also while I was down there, we went shopping. OMG did we shop! We had to spend at least $250 on just shopping alone. It was crazy. And the majority of the items were all for Gabby. Yeap, she is definitely spoiled like her mommy by her mommy. :) 

When we came back to Texas, I had an appointment to get my hair colored. I've been waiting for forever to get my hair re-colored. My new hair color is now Chestnut brown and I love it. So does everyone else. When I was getting my hair done, my mom had Gabriella and watched her at home for me. Since Claud was now back in Texas too, I wanted to see him right away and he wanted the same. After I was finished with my hair, he picked me up from the hair salon and...well yea.....we spent some time together ;) It was nice to be with him again since I haven't seen him since January. After we spent our time, it was time to see his growing baby girl. When we got back to my house, she was waiting for us downstairs with my mom holding her. I grabbed her and I brought her over to Claud and the biggest and best smile ever came across his face. He finally saw his little baby again. It was so cute because he didn't wanna let her go. 

For the rest of the week, we just did some really fun stuff. Monday we took Gabriella to the doctor and then just drove around to see some people. I loved missing school that day because it just feels so good to just be with your man and your baby. Wednesday we just sat at my house and watched TV as our little family. 

Thursday we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse which is the best damn steakhouse in the entire world!!! It was my first time going and I swear I will definitely be going back.Friday we had a crawfish boil at my house with some of his family. And Saturday.... well since the Christening had to be cancelled, we just had a gift exchange since so many people had already bought gifts. It was really nice but too much like a baby shower which kind of made me uncomfortable but I am very grateful for the gifts and clothes that Gabriella received. After the gift exchange, me Claud and Gabriella spent some time together before he had to leave this morning. We aren't gonna see him again until May 8th. 

So in a conclusion, my spring break was great. Spent alot of time with family and spent alot of money on clothes lol. I also found myself again. My new hair color brought back the real Kortney again. I feel great. 

Watching March Madness before going to Texas Roadhouse.

Happy Spring!

-Kortney

"Some days you just have to create your own sunshine." ~ Unknown 

Gabriella is 3 Months!

Gabriella is 3 months old!
She's getting to be a big girl. I'm freaking out because she is starting to pop out of her newborn sized clothes. This is also a good thing because this is a sign that she is growing well. 0-3 months sizes here she comes! This past weekend, all I did was organize her basket full of 0-3 month clothes and next weekend I'll start washing them and mixing them in with her newborn clothes that are already in her drawer, and slowly put away the clothes that I notice are getting too tight. Shes definitely getting to be a big baby. She now eats 4-5 ounces and is sleeping well. Only 3 more months until she is 6 months and that means she'll be a half year old! I'm definitely not rushing things because its so unreal to think that only a few months ago she was just born and a little tiny thing. Everyday I see her personality come out more and more. Its so exciting.

My big  baby!

As for me, I got my mojo back! Lol. I just recently went through a change to my hair color, my stretch marks are going away, my body is coming back, my dance technique is back, I'm starting to do my daily walks (every Wednesday) again...I feel back to the old me. I'll talk about it more in my spring break post. ;)

Stay luxurious! 

-Kortney!

"A change in behavior begins with a change in the heart." ~ Unknown

Christening Planning: Emergency! SOS!

I can barely enjoy the rest of my spring break. :( The pastor who was supposed to do Gabriella's christening ceremony will NOT get back in touch with me at all. So I called Mrs. Karen and she said that her father in law could do it, but he hasn't gotten back in touch with her either. Ugh the stress!!! So here we are with one week left until the actual Christening and no minister or church to do the ceremony. The invitations aren't even sent out. I still have to order them from Shutterfly.com. Ugh! This is getting stressful. But we will fix this. Things will work out eventually.  They always do.

Stressing!
-Kortney
"When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time, you become aware that God is enough." ~ Maude Royden 

Body Progress: Month 1

It's been a month since I started my postpartum toning and fitness journey. So far I do look a lot better. I do have stretch marks and my skin still looks like a wrinkly puppy's butt, but it looks way better than what it did look like. I am still using cocoa butter and scrubbing with sea salt and using my Daily Workout app.
Looking good! Maybe i'll have a pic ready for you guys next time.

Kisses!
-Kortney

"What matters most is how you see yourself." ~ Unknown 

Christening Planning: Getting the Basics Together

As I explained in the last post about planning Gabriella's christening, I am in charge of the ceremony and all things before.
Before I get started, I just want to explain what a christening is. Some people call it a baby baptism or a dedication. To me they are all the same meaning. After the birth of a child in a christian home, the parents are then responsible for raising the child according to God's rules and principles. Now of course every church, family, home, denomination, and lifestyle are different. Everyone is unique in every way and I am obviously a somewhat nontraditional person and I like to make my own traditions. But either way the goal of a christening, dedication or baptism, is to declare in front of family and friends that you will raise your child by the ways of the Lord.
Godparents are friends (sometimes family) that will help the parents along the way to help raise the child as well. It takes a village! :) Gabby has alot of Godparents. Alexis is my best friend and her godmother. As you see, she was even named after her. And her godfathers are Donovan, Claud's best friend, and Devin, my good friend. When either of them gets married, their spouse will become godparents too.
According to christening etiquette, christenings and baptisms are rarely an elaborate affair. Well screw that tradition! Lol. As for fabulous people, they are very big! Almost like a mini wedding. So planning is a must. First things first... saving the date.
You want to always choose a date that fits into your schedule. The date that we chose is Saturday, March 23. Claud is away in college and he wont be home until March 17 so that weekend will be perfect because he will be home. The time will be late afternoon around 4 because we wont be able to rent out the reception hall until 5:30.
After you get the location and time locked down and set in stone, its time to move on to the invitations. There are millions of invitations out there that can all be good themes. Since the colors are pink and silver, I am ordering the invitations from Shutterfly.com. I got a gift card from the hospital where I delivered her at for 50 free prints and a $20 off purchase, so of course I wanted to use it. As everyone knows, I am the biggest Party City fan and I always get my supplies from there so this time I decided to give it a little rest. But I am in love with party city so I will definitely be still using it for other events. Since the invitations will be custom made, I'm gonna put her pictures on there. It's gonna be so cute.
We already have her dress and we are just waiting on her custom made bow done by her fairy glam mother William T. Ford who is the designer of WTFashion. :) I also have my outfit and look ready, and the favors will come later when we get closer to the big day.

I'm so excited!
-Kortney

"The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people." ~ Pope Benedict XVI